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           Title: Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi)
      Creator(s): Henry, Matthew
     Print Basis: 1706-1721
          Rights: Public domain. May be copied and distributed freely.
   CCEL Subjects: All; Bible; Classic; Proofed
      LC Call no: BS490.H4
     LC Subjects:

                  The Bible

                  Works about the Bible
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Matthew Henry's

                         Commentary on the Whole Bible

    Unabridged


  Volume IV

Isaiah to Malachi
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P R E F A C E.

Isaiah to Malachi
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   Those books of scripture are all prophetical of which here, in
   weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, we have endeavoured a
   methodical explication and a practical improvement. I call them
   prophetical because so they are for the main, though we have some
   histories (here and there brought in for the illustration of the
   prophecies) and a book of Lamentations. Our Saviour often puts the Law
   and the Prophets for all the Old Testament. The prophets, by waiving
   the ceremonial precepts, and not insisting on them, but only on the
   weightier matters of the law, plainly intimated the abolishing of that
   part of the law of Moses by the gospel; and by their many predictions
   of Christ, and the kingdom of his grace, they intimated the
   accomplishing the perfecting of that part of the law of Moses in the
   gospel. Thus the prophets were the nexus--the connecting bond between
   the law and the gospel, and are therefore fitly placed between them.

   These books, being prophetical, are, as such, divine, and of heavenly
   origin and extraction. We have human laws, human histories, and human
   poems, as well as divine ones, but we can have no human prophecies.
   Wise and good men may make prudent conjectures concerning future events
   (moral prognostications we call them); but it is essential to true
   prophecy that it be of God. The learned Huetius [9] lays this down for
   one of his axioms, Omnis prophetica facultas à Deo est--The prophetic
   talent is entirely from God; and he proves it to be the sense both of
   Jews and heathen that it is God's prerogative to foresee things to
   come, and that whoever had such a power had it from God. And therefore
   the Jews reckon all prophecy to be given by the highest degree of
   inspiration, except that which was peculiar to Moses. When our Saviour
   asked the chief priests whether John's baptism were from heaven or of
   men, they durst not say Of men, because the people counted him a
   prophet, and, if so, then not of men. The Hebrew name for a prophet is
   nby'--a speaker, preacher, or orator, a messenger, or interpreter, that
   delivers God's messages to the children of men, as a herald to proclaim
   war or an ambassador to treat of peace. But then it must be remembered
   that he was formerly called r'h or hsh, that is, a seer (1 Sam. ix. 9);
   for prophets, with the eyes of their minds, first saw what they were to
   speak and then spoke what they had seen.

   Prophecy, taken strictly, is the foretelling of things to come; and
   there were those to whom God gave this power, not only that it might be
   a sign for the confirming of the faith of the church concerning the
   doctrine preached when the things foretold should be fulfilled, but for
   warning, instruction, and comfort, in prospect of what they themselves
   might not live to see accomplished, but which should be fulfilled in
   its season: so predictions of things to come long after might be of
   present use.

   The learned Dr. Grew [10] describes prophecy in this sense to be, "A
   declaration of the divine prescience, looking at any distance through a
   train of infinite causes, known and unknown to us, upon a sure and
   certain effect." Hence he infers, "That the being of prophecies
   supposes the non-being of contingents; for, though there are many
   things which seem to us to be contingents, yet, were they so indeed,
   there could have been no prophecy; and there can be no contingent
   seemingly so loose and independent but it is a link of some chain." And
   Huetius gives this reason why none but God can foretel things to come,
   Because every effect depends upon an infinite number of preceding
   causes, all which, in their order, must be known to him that foretels
   the effect, and therefore to God only, for he alone is omniscient. So
   Tully argues: Qui teneat causas rerum futurarum, idem necesse est omnia
   teneat quæ futura sint; quod facere nemo nisi Deus potest--He who knows
   the causes of future events must necessarily know the events
   themselves; this is the prerogative of God alone. [11] And therefore we
   find that by this the God of Israel proves himself to be God, that by
   his prophets he foretold things to come, which came to pass according
   to the prediction, Isa. xlvi. 9, 10. And by this he disproves the
   pretensions of the Pagan deities, that they could not show the things
   that were to come to pass hereafter, Isa. xli. 23. Tertullian proves
   the divine authority of the scripture from the fulfilling of
   scripture-prophecies: Idoneum, opinor, testimonium divinitatis, veritas
   divinationis--I conceive the accomplishment of prophecy to be a
   satisfactory attestation from God. [12] And, besides the foretelling of
   things to come, the discovering of things secret by revelation from God
   is a branch of prophecy, as Ahijah's discovering Jeroboam's wife in
   disguise, and Elisha's telling Gehazi what passed between him and
   Naaman. But [13] prophecy, in scripture language, is taken more largely
   for a declaration of such things to the children of men, either by word
   or writing, as God has revealed to those that speak or write it, by
   vision, dream, or inspiration, guiding their minds, their tongues, and
   pens, by his Holy Spirit, and giving them not only ability, but
   authority, to declare such things in his name, and to preface what they
   say with, Thus saith the Lord. In this sense it is said, The prophecy
   of scripture came not in old time by the will of man, as other pious
   moral discourses might, but holy men spoke and wrote as they were moved
   by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. The same Holy Spirit that moved
   upon the face of the waters to produce the world moved upon the minds
   of the prophets to produce the Bible.

   Now I think it is worthy to be observed that all nations, having had
   some sense of God and religion, have likewise had a notion of prophets
   and prophecy, have had a veneration for them, and a desire and
   expectation of acquaintance and communion with the gods they worshipped
   in that way. Witness their oracles, their augurs, and the many arts of
   divination they had in use among them in all the ages and all the
   countries of the world.

   It is commonly urged as an argument against the atheists, to prove that
   there is a God, That all nations of the world acknowledged some god or
   other, some Being above them, to be worshipped and prayed to, to be
   trusted in and praised; the most ignorant and barbarous nations could
   not avoid the knowledge of it; the most learned and polite nations
   could not avoid the belief of it. And this is a sufficient proof of the
   general and unanimous consent of mankind to this truth, though far the
   greatest part of men made to themselves gods which yet were no gods.
   Now I think it may be urged with equal force against the Deists, for
   the proof of a divine revelation, that all nations of the world had,
   and had veneration for, that which they at least took to be a divine
   revelation, and could not live without it, though in this also they
   became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
   darkened. But, if there were not a true deity and a true prophecy,
   there would never have been pretended deities and counterfeit
   prophecies.

   Lycurgus and Numa, those two great lawgivers of the Spartan and Roman
   commonwealths, brought their people to an observance of their laws by
   possessing them with a notion that they had them by divine revelation,
   and so making it a point of religion to observe them. And those that
   have been ever so little conversant with the Greek and Roman histories,
   as well as with the more ancient ones of Chaldea and Egypt cannot but
   remember what a profound deference their princes and great commanders,
   and not their unthinking commonalty only, paid to the oracles and
   prophets, and the prognostications of their soothsayers, which, in all
   cases of importance, were consulted with abundance of gravity and
   solemnity, and how often the resolutions of councils and the motions of
   mighty armies turned upon them, though they appeared ever so groundless
   and farfetched.

   There is a full account given by that learned philosopher and physician
   Caspar Peucer [14] of the many kinds of divination and prediction used
   among the Gentiles, by which they took on them to tell the fortune both
   of states and particular persons. They were all, he says, reduced by
   Plato to two heads: Divinatio Mantike, which was a kind of inspiration,
   or was though to be so, the prophet or prophetess foretelling things to
   come by an internal flatus or fury; such was the oracle of Apollo at
   Delphos, and that of Jupiter Trophonius, which, with others like them,
   were famous for many ages, during the prevalency of the kingdom of
   darkness, but (as appears by some of the Pagan writers themselves) they
   were all silenced and struck dumb, when the gospel (that truly divine
   oracle) began to be preached to the nations. The other kind of
   divination was that which he calls Oionistike, which was a
   prognostication by signs, according to rules of art, as by the flight
   of birds, the entrails of beasts, by stars or meteors, and abundance of
   ominous accidents, with which a foolish world was miserably imposed
   upon. A large account of this matter we have also in the late learned
   dissertations of Anton. Van Dale, to which I refer the reader. [15] But
   nothing of this kind made a greater noise in the Gentile world than the
   oracles of the Sibyls and their prophecies. Their name signifies a
   divine counsel: Sibyllæ, qu. Siobulæ, Sios, in the Æolic dialect, being
   put for Theos. Peucer says, "Almost every nation had its Sibyls, but
   those of Greece were most celebrated." They lived in several ages; the
   most ancient is said to be the Sibylla Delphica, who lived before the
   Trojan war, or about that time. The Sibylla Erythrea was the most
   noted; she lived about the time of Alexander the Great. But it the
   Sibylla Cumana of whom the story goes that she presented herself, and
   nine books of oracles, to Tarquinius Superbus, which she offered to
   sell him at so vast a rate that he refused to purchase them, upon which
   she burnt three, and, upon his second refusal, three more, but made him
   give the same rate for the remaining three, which were deposited with
   great care in the Capitol. But, those being afterwards burnt
   accidentally with the Capitol, a collection was made of other Sibylline
   oracles, and those are they which Virgil refers to in his fourth
   Eclogue. [16] All the oracles of the Sibyls that are extant were put
   together, and published, in Holland, not many years ago, by Seryatius
   Gallæus, in Greek and Latin, with large and learned notes, together
   with all that could be met with of the metrical oracles that go under
   the names of Jupiter, Apollo, Serapis, and others, by Joannes Opsopæus.

   The oracles of the Sibyls were appealed to by many of the fathers for
   the confirmation of the Christian religion. Justin Martyr [17] appeals
   with a great deal of assurance, persuading the Greeks to give credit to
   that ancient Sibyl, whose works were extant all the world over; and to
   their testimony, and that of Hydaspis, he appeals concerning the
   general conflagration and the torments of hell. Clemens Alexandrinus
   [18] often quotes the Sibyls' verses with great respect; so does
   Lactantius; [19] St. Austin, [20] De Civitate Dei, has the famous
   acrostic at large, said to be one of the oracles of the Sibylla
   Erythrea, the first letters of the verses making Iesous Christos Theou
   hyios Soter--Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour. Divers passages
   they produce out of those oracles which expressly foretel the coming of
   the Messiah, his being born of a virgin, his miracles, his sufferings,
   particularly his being buffeted, spit upon, crowned with thorns, having
   vinegar and gall given him to drink, &c. Whether these oracles were
   genuine and authentic or no has been much controverted among the
   learned. Baronius and the popish writers generally admit and applaud
   them, and build much upon them; so do some protestant writers; Isaac
   Vossius has written a great deal to support the reputation of them, and
   (as I find him quoted by Van Dale) will needs have it that they were
   formerly a part of the canon of scripture; and a learned prelate of our
   own nation, Bishop Montague, pleads largely, and with great assurance,
   for their authority, and is of opinion that some of them were divinely
   inspired. But many learned men look upon it to be a pious fraud, as
   they call it, concluding that those verses of the Sibyls which speak so
   very expressly of Christ and the future state were forged by some
   Christians and imposed upon the over-credulous. Huetius, [21] though of
   the Romish church, condemns both the ancient and more modern
   compositions of the Sibyls, and refers his reader, for the proof of
   their vanity, to the learned Blondel. Van Dale and Gallæus look upon
   them to be a forgery. And the truth is they speak so much more
   particularly and plainly concerning our Saviour and the future state
   than any of the prophets of the Old Testament do, that we must conclude
   St. Paul, who was the apostle of the Gentiles, guilty not only of a
   very great omission (that in all his preaching of the gospel to the
   Gentiles, and in all his epistles to the Gentile churches, he never so
   much as mentions the prophecies of the Sibyls, nor vouches their
   authority, as he does that of the Old-Testament prophets, in his
   preaching and writing to the Jews), but likewise of a very great
   mistake, in making it the particular advantage which the Jews had above
   the Gentiles that to them were committed the oracles of God (Rom. iii.
   1, 2), and that they were the children of the prophets, while he speaks
   of the Gentiles as sitting in darkness and being afar off. We cannot
   conceive that heathen women, and those actuated by dæmons, should speak
   more clearly and fully of the Messiah than those holy men did who, we
   are sure, were moved by the Holy Ghost, nor that the Gentiles should be
   entrusted with larger and earlier discoveries of the great salvation
   than that people of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come.
   But enough, if not more than enough, of the pretenders to prophecy. It
   is a good remark which the learned Gallæus makes upon the great
   veneration which the Romans had for the oracles of the Sibyls, for
   which he quotes Dionysius Halicarnassæus, Ouden oute Romaioi
   phylattousin, oute hosion ktema oute hieron, hos ta Sibylleia
   thesphata--The Romans preserve nothing with such sacred care, nor do
   they hold any thing in such high estimation, as the Sibylline oracles.
   Hi si pro vitreis suis thesauris adeò decertarunt, quid nos pro
   genuinis nostris, à Deo inspiratis?--If they had such a value for these
   counterfeits, how precious should the true treasure of the divine
   oracles be to us! Of these we come next to speak.

   Prophecy, we are sure, was of equal date with the church; for faith
   comes, not by thinking and seeing, as philosophy does, but by hearing,
   by hearing the word of God, Rom. x. 17. In the antediluvian period Adam
   received divine revelation in the promise of the Seed of the woman, and
   no doubt communicated it in the name of the Lord, to his seed, and was
   prophet, as well as priest, to his numerous family. Enoch was a
   prophet, and foretold perhaps the deluge, certainly the last judgment,
   that of the great day. Behold the Lord comes, Jude 14. When men began,
   as a church, to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. iv. 26), or to
   call themselves by his name, they were blessed with prophets, for the
   prophecy came in old time (2 Pet. i. 21); it is venerable for its
   antiquity. When God renewed his covenant of providence (and that a
   figure of the covenant of grace) with Noah and his sons, we soon after
   find Noah, as a prophet, foretelling, not only the servitude of Canaan,
   but God's enlarging Japhet by Christ, and his dwelling in the tents of
   Shem, Gen. ix. 26, 27. And when, upon the general revolt of mankind to
   idolatry (as, in the former period, upon the apostasy of Cain), God
   distinguished a church for himself by the call of Abraham, and by his
   covenant with him and his seed, he conferred upon him and the other
   patriarchs the spirit of prophecy; for, when he reproved kings for
   their sakes, he said, Touch not my anointed, who have received that
   unction from the Holy One, and do my prophets no harm, Ps. cv. 14, 15.
   And of Abraham he said expressly, He is a prophet (Gen. xx. 7); and it
   was with a prophetic eye, as a seer, that Abraham saw Christ's day
   (John viii. 56), saw it as so great a distance, and yet with so great
   an assurance triumphed in it. And Stephen seems to speak of the first
   settling of a correspondence between him and God, by which he was
   established to be a prophet, when he says, The God of glory appeared to
   him (Acts vii. 2), appeared in glory. Jacob, upon his death-bed, as a
   prophet, told his sons what should befal them in the last days (Gen.
   xlix. 1), and spoke very particularly concerning the Messiah.

   Hitherto was the infancy of the church, and with it of prophecy; it was
   the dawning of that day; and that morning-light owed its rise to the
   Sun of righteousness, though he rose not till long after, but it shone
   more and more. During the bondage of Israel in Egypt, this, as other
   glories of the church, was eclipsed; but, as the church made a
   considerable and memorable advance in the deliverance of Israel out of
   Egypt and the forming of them into a people, so did the Spirit of
   prophecy in Moses, the illustrious instrument employed in that great
   service; and it was by that Spirit that he performed that service; so
   it is said, Hos. xii. 13, By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of
   Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved through the wilderness to
   Canaan, that is, by Moses as a prophet. It appears, by what God said to
   Aaron, that there were then other prophets among them, to whom God made
   known himself and his will in dreams and visions (Num. xii. 6), but to
   Moses he spoke in a peculiar manner, mouth to mouth, even apparently,
   and not in dark speeches, Num. xii. 8. Nay, such a plentiful effusion
   was there of the Spirit of prophecy at that time (because Moses was
   such a prophet as was to be a type of Christ the great prophet) that
   some of his Spirit was put upon seventy elders of Israel at once, and
   they prophesied, Num. xi. 25. What they said was extraordinary, and not
   only under the direction of a prophetic inspiration, but under the
   constraint of a prophetic impulse, as appears by the case of Eldad and
   Meded.

   When Moses, that great prophet, was laying down his office, he promised
   Israel that the Lord God would raise them up a prophet of their
   brethren like unto him, Deut. xviii. 15, 18. In these words, says the
   learned Bishop Stillingfleet [22] though, in their full and complete
   sense, they relate to Christ, and to him they are more than once
   applied in the New Testament), there is included a promise of an order
   of prophets, which should succeed Moses in the Jewish church, and be
   the logia zonta--the living oracles among them (Acts vii. 38), by which
   they might know the mind of God; for, in the next words, he lays down
   rules for the trial of prophets, whether what they said was of God or
   no, and it is observable that that promise comes in immediately upon an
   express prohibition of the Pagan rites of divination and the consulting
   of wizards and familiar spirits: "You shall not need to do that" (said
   Moses), "for, to your much better satisfaction, you shall have prophets
   divinely inspired, by whom you may know from God himself both what to
   do and what to expect." But as Jacob's dying prophecy concerning the
   sceptre in Judah, and the lawgiver between his feet, did not begin to
   be remarkably fulfilled till David's time, most of the Judges being of
   other tribes, so Moses's promise of a succession of prophets began not
   to receive its accomplishment till Samuel's time, a little before the
   other promise began to emerge and operate; and it was an introduction
   to the other, for it was by Samuel, as a prophet, that David was
   anointed king, which was an intimation that the prophetical office of
   our Redeemer should make way, both in the world and in the heart, for
   his kingly office; and therefore when he was asked, Art thou a king?
   (John xviii. 37) he answered, not evasively, but very pertinently, I
   came to bear witness to the truth, and so to rule as a king purely by
   the power of truth.

   During the government of the Judges there was a pouring out of the
   Spirit, but more as a Spirit of skill and courage for war than as a
   Spirit of prophecy. Deborah is indeed called prophetess, because of her
   extraordinary qualifications for judging Israel; but that is the only
   mention of prophecy, that I remember, in all the book of Judges.
   Extraordinary messages were sent by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah;
   and it is expressly said that before the word of the Lord came to
   Samuel (1 Sam. iii. 1) it was precious, it was very scarce, there was
   no open vision. And it was therefore with more than ordinary solemnity
   that the word of the Lord came first to Samuel; and by degrees notice
   and assurance were given to all Israel that Samuel was established to
   be a prophet of the Lord, 1 Sam. iii. 20. In Samuel's time, and by him,
   the schools of the prophets were erected, by which prophecy was
   dignified and provision made for a succession of prophets; for it
   should seem that in those colleges, hopeful young men were bred up in
   devotion, in a constant attendance upon the instruction the prophets
   gave from God, and under a strict discipline, as candidates, or
   probationers, for prophecy, who were called the sons of the prophets;
   and their religious exercises of prayer, conference, and psalmody
   especially, are called prophesyings; and their præfect, or president,
   is called their father, 1 Sam. x. 12. Out of these God ordinarily chose
   the prophets he sent; and yet not always: Amos was no prophet nor
   prophet's son (Amos vii. 14), had not his education in the schools of
   the prophets, and yet was commissioned to go on God's errands, and
   (which is observable) though he had not academical education himself,
   yet he seems to speak of it with great respect when he reckons it among
   the favours God had bestowed upon Israel that he raised up of their
   sons for prophets and of their young men for Nazarites, Amos ii. 11.

   It is worth noting that when the glory of the priesthood was eclipsed
   by the iniquity of the house of Eli, the desolations of Shiloh, and the
   obscurity of the ark, there was then a more plentiful effusion of the
   Spirit of prophecy than had been before; a standing ministry of another
   kind was thereby erected, and a succession of it kept up. And thus
   afterwards, in the kingdom of the ten tribes, where there was no legal
   priesthood at all, yet there were prophets and prophets; sons; in
   Ahab's time we meet with a hundred of them, whom Obadiah his by fifty
   in a cave, 1 Kings xviii. 4. When the people of God, who desired to
   know his mind, were deprived of one way of instruction, God furnished
   them with another, and a less ceremonious one; for he left not himself
   without witness, nor them without a guide. And when they had no temple
   or altar that they could attend upon with any safety or satisfaction
   then had private meetings at the prophets' houses, to which the devout
   faithful worshippers of God resorted (as we find the good Shunamite
   did, 2 Kings iv. 23), and where they kept their new-moons and their
   sabbaths, comfortably, and to their edification.

   David was himself a prophet; so St. Peter calls him (Acts ii. 30); and,
   though we read not of God's speaking to him by dreams and visions, yet
   we are sure that the Spirit of the Lord spoke by him, and his word was
   in his tongue (2 Sam. xxiii. 2), and he had those about him that were
   seers, that were his seers, as Gad and Iddo, that brought him messages
   from God, and wrote the history of his times. And now the productions
   of the Spirit of prophecy were translated into the service of the
   temple, not only in the model of the house which the Lord made David
   understand in writing by his hand upon him (1 Chron. xxviii. 19), but
   in the worship performed there; for there we find Asaph, Heman, and
   Jeduthun, prophesying with harps and other musical instruments,
   according to the order of the king, not to foretel things to come, but
   to give thanks and to praise the Lord (1 Chron. xxv. 1-3); yet, in
   their psalms, they spoke much of Christ and his kingdom, and the glory
   to be revealed.

   In the succeeding reigns, both of Judah and Israel, we frequently meet
   with prophets sent on particular errands to Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Asa,
   and other kings, who, it is probable, instructed the people in the
   things of God at other times, though it is not recorded. But, prophecy
   growing into contempt with many, God revived the honour of it, and put
   a new lustre upon it, in the power given to Elijah and Elisha to work
   miracles, and the great things that God did by them for the confirming
   of the people's faith in it, and the awakening of their regard to it, 2
   Kings ii. 3; iv. 1, 38; v. 22; vi. 1. In their time, and by their
   agency, it should seem, the schools of the prophets were revived, and
   we find sons of the prophets, fellows of those sacred colleges,
   employed in carrying messages to the great men, as to Ahab (1 Kings xx.
   35), and to Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 1.

   Hitherto, the prophets of the Lord delivered their messages by word of
   mouth, only we read of one writing which came from Elijah the prophet
   to Jehoram king of Israel, 2 Chron. xxi. 12. The histories of those
   times which are left us were compiled by prophets, under a divine
   direction; and, when the Old Testament is divided into the law and the
   Prophets, the historical books are, for that reason, reckoned among the
   prophets. But, in the later times of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel,
   some of the prophets were divinely inspired to write their prophecies,
   or abstracts of them, and to leave them upon record, for the benefit of
   after-ages, that the children who should be born might praise the Lord
   for them, and, by comparing the event with the prediction, might have
   their faith confirmed. And, probably, those later prophets spoke more
   fully and plainly of the Messiah and his kingdom than their
   predecessors had done, and for that reason their prophecies were put in
   writing, not only for the encouragement of the pious Jews that looked
   for the consolation of Israel, but for the use of us Christians, upon
   whom the ends of the world have come, as David's psalms had been for
   the same reason, that the Old Testament and the New might mutually give
   light and lustre to each other. Many other faithful prophets there were
   at the same time, who spoke in God's name, who did not commit their
   prophecies to writing, but were of those whom God sent, rising up
   betimes and sending them, the contempt of whom, and of their messages,
   brought ruin without remedy upon that sottish people, that knew not the
   day of their visitation. In their captivity they had some prophets,
   some to show them how long; and though it was not by a prophet, like
   Moses, that they were brought out of Babylon, as they had been out of
   Egypt, but by Joshua the high priest first, and afterwards by Ezra the
   scribe, to show that God can do his work by ordinary means when he
   pleases, yet, soon after their return, the Spirit of prophecy was
   poured out plentifully, and continued (according to the Jews'
   computation) forty years in the second temple, but ceased in Malachi.
   Then (say the rabbin) the Holy Spirit was taken from Israel, and they
   had the benefit only of the Bathkol--the daughter of a voice, that is,
   a voice from heaven, which they look upon to be the lowest degree of
   divine revelation. Now herein they are witnesses against themselves for
   rejecting the true Messiah, for our Lord Jesus, and he only was spoken
   to by a voice from heaven at his baptism, his transfiguration, and his
   entrance on his sufferings.

   In John the Baptist prophecy revived, and therefore in him the gospel
   is said to begin, when the church had had no prophets for above 300
   years. We have not only the vox populi--the voice of the people to
   prove John a prophet, for all the people counted him so, but vox
   Dei--the voice of God too; for Christ calls him a prophet, Matt. xi. 9,
   10. He had an extraordinary commission from God to call people to
   repentance, was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, and
   was therefore called the prophet of the Highest, because he went before
   the face of the Lord, to prepare his way (Luke i. 15, 16); and though
   he did no miracle, nor gave any sign or wonder, yet this proved him a
   true prophet, that all he said of Christ was true, John x. 41. Nay, and
   this proved him more than a prophet, than any of the other prophets,
   that whereas by other prophets Christ was discovered as at a great
   distance, by him he was discovered as already come, and he was enabled
   to say, Behold the Lamb of God. But after the ascension of our Lord
   Jesus there was a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of prophecy
   than ever before; then was the promise fulfilled that God would pour
   out his Spirit upon all flesh (and not as hitherto upon the Jews only),
   and their sons and their daughters should prophesy, Acts ii. 16, &c.
   The gift of tongues was one new product of the Spirit of prophecy, and
   given for a particular reason, that, the Jewish pale being taken down,
   all nations might be brought into the church. These and other gifts of
   prophecy, being for a sign, have long since ceased and laid aside, and
   we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the
   contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more sure word of
   prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them we are
   directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast, 2 Pet. i.
   19. All God's spiritual Israel know that they are established to be the
   oracles of God (1 Sam. iii. 20), and if any add to, or take from, the
   book of that prophecy, they may read their doom in the close of it; God
   shall take blessings from them, and add curses to them, Rev. xxii. 18,
   19).

   Now concerning the prophets of the Old Testament, whose writings are
   before us, observe,

   I. That they were all holy men. We are assured by the apostle that the
   prophecy came in old time by holy men of God (and men of God they were
   commonly called, because they were devoted to him), who spoke as they
   were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were men, subject to like passions
   as we are (so Elijah, one of the greatest of them, is said to have
   been, Jam. v. 17); but they were holy men, men that in the temper of
   their minds, and the tenour of their lives, were examples of serious
   piety. Though there were many pretenders, that, without warrant, said
   Thus saith the Lord, when he sent them not, and some that prophesied in
   Christ's name, but he never knew them, and they indeed were workers of
   iniquity (Matt. vii. 22, 23), and though the cursing blaspheming lips
   of Balaam and Caiaphas, even when they actually designed mischief, were
   over-ruled to speak oracles, yet none were employed and commissioned to
   speak as prophets but those that had received the Spirit of grace and
   sanctification; for holiness becomes God's house. The Jewish doctors
   universally agree in this rule, That the Spirit of prophecy never rests
   upon any but a holy and wise man, and one whose passions are allayed,
   [23] or, as others express it, a humble man and a man of fortitude,
   that is, one that has power to keep his sensual animal part in due
   subjection to religion and right reason. And some of them [24] give
   this rule, That the Spirit of prophecy does not reside where there are
   either, on the one hand, grief and melancholy, or, on the other hand,
   laughter and lightness of behaviour, and impertinent idle talk: and it
   is commonly observed by them, both from the musical instruments used in
   the schools of the prophets in Samuel's time and from the instance of
   Elisha's calling for a minstrel (2 Kings iii. 15), that the divine
   presence does not reside with sadness, but with cheerfulness, and
   Elisha, they say, had not yet recovered himself from the sorrow he
   conceived at parting with Elijah. They have also a tradition (but I
   know no ground for it) that all the while Jacob mourned for Joseph, the
   Shechinah, or Holy Spirit, withdrew from him. Yet I believe that when
   David intimates that by his sin in the matter of Uriah he had lost the
   right Spirit, and the free Spirit, Ps. li. 10, 12 (which therefore he
   begs might be renewed in him and restored to him), it was not because
   he was under grief, but because he was under guilt. And therefore, in
   order to the return of that right and free Spirit, he prays that God
   would create in him a clean heart.

   II. That they had all a full assurance in themselves of their divine
   mission; and (though they could not always prevail to satisfy others)
   they were abundantly satisfied themselves that what they delivered as
   from God, and in his name, was indeed from him; and with the same
   assurance did the apostles speak of the word of life, as that which
   they had heard, and seen, and looked on, and which their hands had
   handled, 1 John i. 1. Nathan spoke from himself when he encouraged
   David to build the temple, but afterwards knew he spoke from God when,
   in his name, he forbade him to do it. God had various ways of making
   known to his prophets the messages they were to deliver to his people;
   it should seem, ordinarily, to have been by the ministry of angels. In
   the Apocalypse Christ is expressly said to have signified by his angel
   to his servant John, Rev. i. 1. It was sometimes done in a vision when
   the prophet was awake, sometimes in a dream when the prophet was
   asleep, and sometimes by a secret but strong impression upon the mind
   of the prophet. But Maimonides has laid down, as a maxim, That all
   prophecy makes itself known to the prophet that it is prophecy indeed;
   that is, says another of the rabbin, By the vigour and liveliness of
   the perception whereby he apprehends the thing propounded (which
   Jeremiah intimates when he says, The word of the Lord was as a fire in
   my bones, Jer. xx. 9), and therefore they always spoke with great
   assurance, knowing they should be justified, Isa. i. 7.

   III. That in their prophesying, both in receiving their message from
   God and in delivering it to the people, they always kept possession of
   their own souls. Dan. x. 8. Though sometimes their bodily strength was
   overpowered by the abundance of the revelations, and their eyes were
   dazzled with the visionary light, as in the instances of Daniel and
   John (Rev. i. 17), yet still their understanding remained with them,
   and the free exercise of their reason. This is excellently well
   expressed by a learned writer of our own: [25] "The prophetical Spirit,
   seating itself in the rational powers as well as in the imagination,
   did never alienate the mind, but inform and enlighten it; and those
   that were actuated by it always maintained a clearness and consistency
   of reason, with strength and solidity of judgment. "For" (says he
   afterwards [26] ) "God did not make use of idiots or fools to reveal
   his will by, but such whose intellects were entire and perfect; and he
   imprinted such a clear copy of his truth upon them as that it became
   their own sense, being digested fully into their understandings, so
   that they were able to deliver and represent it to others as truly as
   any can paint forth his own thoughts." God's messengers were speaking
   men, not speaking trumpets. The Fathers frequently took notice of this
   difference between the prophets of the Lord and the false
   prophets--that the pretenders to prophecy (who either were actuated by
   an evil spirit or were under the force of a heated imagination)
   underwent alienations of mind, and delivered what they had to say in
   the utmost agitation and disorder, as the Pythian prophetess, who
   delivered her infernal oracles with many antic gestures, tearing her
   hair and foaming at the mouth. And by this rule they condemned the
   Montanists, who pretended to prophecy, in the second century, that what
   they said was in a way of ecstasy, not like rational men, but like men
   in a frenzy. Chrysostom, [27] having described the furious violent
   motions of the pretenders to prophecy, adds, Ho de Prophetes ouch
   houtos--A true prophet does not do so. Sed mente sobriâ, et constanti
   animi staut, et intelligens quæ profert, omnia pronunciat--He
   understands what he utters, and utters it soberly and calmly. And
   Jerome, in his preface to his Commentaries upon Nahum, observes that it
   is called the book of the vision of Nahum. Non enim loquitur en
   ekstasei, sed est liber intelligentis omnia quæ loquitur--For he speaks
   not in an ecstasy, but as one who understands every thing he says. And
   again, [28] Non ut amens loquitur propheta, nec in morem insanientium
   foeminarum dat sine mente sonum--The prophet speaks not as an insane
   person, nor like women wrought into fury, does he utter sound without
   sense.

   IV. That they all aimed at one and the same thing, which was to bring
   people to repent of their sins and to return to God and to do their
   duty to him. This was the errand on which all God messengers were sent,
   to beat down sin, and to revive and advance serious piety. The burden
   of every son was, Turn you now every one from his evil way; amend your
   ways and your doings, and execute judgment between a man and his
   neighbour, Jer. vii. 3, 5. See Zech. vii. 8, 9; viii. 16. The scope and
   design of all their prophecies were to enforce the precepts and
   sanctions of the law of Moses, the moral law, which is of universal and
   perpetual obligation. Here is nothing of the ceremonial institutes, of
   the carnal ordinances that were imposed only till the times of
   reformation, Heb. ix. 10. Those were now waxing old and ready to vanish
   away; but they make it their business to press the great and weighty
   matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth.

   V. That they all bore witness to Jesus Christ and had an eye to him.
   God raising up the horn of salvation for us, in the house of his
   servant David, was consonant to, and in pursuance of, what he spoke by
   the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began,
   Luke i. 69, 70. They prophesied of the grace that should come to us,
   and it was the Spirit of Christ in them, one and the same Spirit, that
   testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that
   should follow, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. Christ was then made known, and yet
   comparatively hid, in the predictions of the prophets, as before in the
   types of the ceremonial law. And the learned Huetius [29] observes it
   as really admirable that so many persons, in different ages, should
   conspire with one consent, as it were, to foretel, some one particular
   and others another, concerning Christ, all which had, at length, their
   full accomplishment in him. Ab ipsis mundi incunabulis, per quatuor
   annorum millia, uno ore venturum Christum prædixerunt viri complures,
   in ejusque ortu, vitâ, virtutibus, rebus gestis, morte, ac totâ denique
   Oikonomia præmonstranda consenserunt--From the earliest period of time,
   for 4000 years, a great number of men have predicted the advent of
   Christ, and presented a harmonious statement of his birth, life,
   character, actions, and death, and of that economy which he came to
   establish.

   VI. That these prophets were generally hated and abused in their
   several generations by those that lived with them. Stephen challenges
   his judges to produce an instance to the contrary: Which of the
   prophets have not your fathers persecuted? Yea, and, as it should seem,
   for this reason, because they showed before of the coming of the Just
   One, Acts vii. 52. Some there were that trembled at the word of God in
   their mouths, but by the most they were ridiculed and despised, and (as
   ministers are now by profane people) made a jest of (Hos. ix. 7); the
   prophet was the fool in the play. Wherefore came this mad fellow unto
   thee? (2 Kings ix. 11) said one of the captains concerning one of the
   sons of the prophets! The Gentiles never treated their false prophets
   so ill as the Jews did their true prophets, but, on the contrary, had
   them always in veneration. The Jews' mocking the messengers of the
   Lord, killing the prophets, and stoning those that were sent unto them,
   was as amazing unaccountable an instance of the enmity that is in the
   carnal mind against God as any that can be produced. And this makes
   their rejection of Christ's gospel the less strange, that the Spirit of
   prophecy, which, for many ages, was so much the glory of Israel, in
   every age met with so much opposition, and there were those that always
   resisted the Holy Ghost in the prophets, and turned that glory into
   shame, Acts vii. 51. But this was it that was the measure-filling sin
   of Israel, that brought upon them both their first destruction by the
   Chaldeans and their final ruin by the Romans, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.

   VII. That though men slighted these prophets, God owned them and put
   honour upon them. As they were men of God, his immediate servants and
   his messengers, so he always showed himself the Lord God of the holy
   prophets (Rev. xxii. 6), stood by them and strengthened them, and by
   his Spirit they were full of power; and those that slighted them, when
   they had lost them, were made to know, to their confusion, that a
   prophet had been among them. What was said of one of the primitive
   fathers of the prophets was true of them all, The Lord was with them,
   and did let none of their words fall to the ground, 1 Sam. iii. 19.
   What they said by way of warning and encouragement, for the enforcing
   of their calls to repentance and reformation, was to be understood
   conditionally. When God spoke by them either, on the one hand, to build
   and to plant, or, on the other hand, to pluck up and pull down, the
   change of the people's way might produce a change of God's way (Jer.
   xviii. 7-10); such was Jonah's prophecy of Nineveh's ruin within forty
   days; or God might sometimes be better than his word in granting a
   reprieve. But what they said by way of prediction of a particular
   matter, and as a sign, did always come to pass exactly as it was
   foretold; yea, and the general predictions, sooner or later, took hold
   even of those that would fain have got clear of them (Zech. i. 6); for
   this is that which God glories in, that he confirms the word of his
   servants and performs the counsel of his messengers, Isa. xliv. 26.

   In the opening these prophecies I have endeavoured to give the genuine
   sense of them, as far as I could reach it, by consulting the best
   expositors, considering the scope and coherence, and comparing
   spiritual things with spiritual, the spiritual things of the Old
   Testament with those of the New, and especially by prayer to God for
   the guidance and direction of the Spirit of truth. But, after all, thee
   are many things here dark and hard to be understood, concerning the
   certain meaning of which though I could not gain myself, much less
   expect to give my reader, full satisfaction, Yet I have not, with the
   unlearned and unstable, wrested them to the destruction of any, 2 Pet.
   iii. 16. It is the prerogative of the Lamb of God to take this book and
   to open all its seals. I have likewise endeavoured to accommodate these
   prophecies to the use and service of those who desire to faith and
   holiness. And we shall find that whatever is given by inspiration of
   God is profitable (2 Tim. iii. 16), though not all alike profitable,
   not all alike easy or improvable; but, when the mystery of God shall be
   finished, we shall see, what we are now bound to believe, that there is
   not one idle word in all the prophecies of this book. What God has
   said, as well as what he does, we know not now, but we shall know
   hereafter.

   The pleasure I have had in studying and meditating upon those parts of
   these prophecies which are plain and practical, and especially those
   which are evangelical, has been an abundant balance to, and recompence
   for, the harder tasks we have met with in other parts that are more
   obscure. In many parts of this field the treasure must be dug for, as
   that in the mines; but in other parts the surface is covered with rich
   and precious products, with corn, and flocks, of which we may say, as
   was said of Noah, These same have comforted us greatly concerning our
   work and the toil of our hands, and have made it very pleasant and
   delightful; God grant it may be no less so to the readers!

   And now let me desire the assistance of my friends, in setting up my
   Eben-Ezer here, in a thankful acknowledgment that hitherto the Lord has
   helped me. I desire to praise God that he has spared my life to finish
   the Old Testament, and has graciously given me some tokens of his
   presence with me in carrying this work, though the more I reflect upon
   myself the more unworthy I see myself of the honour of being thus
   employed, and the more need I see of Christ and his merit and grace.
   Remember me, O my God! for good, and spare me according to the
   multitude of thy mercies. The Lord forgive what is mine, and accept
   what is his own!

   I purpose, if God continue my life and health, according to the measure
   of the grace given to me, and in a constant and entire dependence upon
   divine strength, to go through the New Testament in two volumes more. I
   intimated in my preface to the first volume that I had drawn up some
   expositions upon some parts of the New Testament; namely, The gospels
   of St. Matthew and St. John; but they are so large that, to make them
   bear some proportion to the rest, it is necessary that they be much
   contracted, so that I shall be obliged to write them all over again,
   and to make considerable alterations, and therefore I cannot expect
   they should be published but as these hitherto have been, if God
   permit, a volume every other year. I shall begin it now shortly, if the
   Lord will, and apply myself to it as closely as I can; and I earnestly
   desire the prayers of all that wish well to that undertaking that, if
   the Lord spare me to go on with it, I may be enabled to do it well, and
   so as that by it some may be led into the riches of the full assurance
   of understanding in the mystery of God, even of the Father and of
   Christ, Col. ii. 2. And, if it shall please God to remove me by death
   before it be finished, I trust I shall be able to say not only, Welcome
   his blessed will, but, Welcome that blessed world, in which, though now
   we know in part, and prophesy but in part, that knowledge which is
   perfect will come, and that which is partial will be done away (1 Cor.
   xiii. 8-10, 12), in which all our mistakes will be rectified, all our
   doubts resolved, all our deficiencies made up, all our endeavours in
   preaching, catechising, and expounding, superseded and rendered
   useless, and all our prayers swallowed up in everlasting praises,--in
   which prophecy, now so much admired, shall fail, and tongues shall
   cease, and the knowledge we have now shall vanish away, as the light of
   the morning-star does when the sun has risen,--in which we shall no
   longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face. In a believing,
   comfortable, well-grounded, expectation of that true and perfect light,
   I desire to continue, living and dying; in a humble and diligent
   preparation for it let me spend my time, and in the full enjoyment of
   it Oh that I may spend a glorious eternity!

         July 18, 1712. M. H.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [9] Demonstrat. Evang. pag. 15.

   [10] Cosmol. sacra, lib. 4, cap. 6.

   [11] Cicero de Divin. lib. 1.

   [12] (Apol. cap. 20).

   [13] Du Pin, Hist. of the Canon. lib. 1, cap. 2.

   [14] De Præcipuis Divinationum Generibus, A. 1591.

   [15] De Verâ ac Falsâ Prophetiâ, A. 1696.

   [16] Vid. Virg. Æneid. lib. 6.

   [17] Ad Græcos Cohortat. juxta finem.

   [18] Apol. 2. p. mihi. 66. l.

   [19] Quæst. et Respons. p. 436.

   [20] (Aug. de Div. Dei, lib. 18, cap. 23.)

   [21] Demonstrat. p. 748.

   [22] Orig. Sacr. B. 2, c. 4.

   [23] See Mr. Smith on Prophecy.

   [24] Gemara Schab. c. 2.

   [25] Smith on Prophecy, p. 190.

   [26] Pag. 266.

   [27] In 1 Co. 12. 1.

   [28] Prolog. in Habac.

   [29] Demonstrat. Evang. p. 737.
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     __________________________________________________________________

Isaiah
     __________________________________________________________________

   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

I S A I A H.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it,
   though, in the eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with
   it appeared very mean. A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with
   Heaven and a great interest there, and consequently a commanding
   authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for all divine revelation (2 Pet.
   i. 20, 21), because that was most commonly by dreams, voices, or
   visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the children of
   men, Num. xii. 6. Once indeed God himself spoke to all the thousands of
   Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so intolerably
   dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to them as
   he had done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not
   make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job xxxiii. 7.
   God approved the motion (they have well said, says he, Deut. v. 27,
   28), and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we
   must never expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by
   prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God, with a
   charge to deliver them to his church. Before the sacred canon of the
   Old Testament began to be written there were prophets, who were instead
   of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel among the
   prophets, Matt. xxiii. 31, 35. Enoch was a prophet; and by him that was
   first in prediction which is to be last in execution--the judgment of
   the great day. Jude 14, Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads.
   Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He is a
   prophet, Gen. xx. 7. Jacob foretold things to come, Gen. xlix. 1. Nay,
   all the patriarchs are called prophets. Ps. cv. 15, Do my prophets no
   harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most illustrious of all the
   Old-Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spoke face to face, Deut.
   xxxiv. 10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his hand the first
   foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called to be
   his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a
   plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, Num. xi. 25.
   But after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord
   appeared and acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit
   than as a spirit of prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than
   speaking. I mean in the time of the judges. We find the Spirit of the
   Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others, for the service
   of their country, with their swords, not with their pens. Messages were
   then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the
   people, Judges ii. 1. In all the book of judges there is never once
   mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then the
   word of the Lord was precious; there was no open vision, 1 Sam. iii. 1.
   They had the law of Moses, recently written; let them study that. But
   in Samuel prophecy revived, and in him a famous epocha, or period of
   the church began, a time of great light in a constant uninterrupted
   succession of prophets, till some time after the captivity, when the
   canon of the Old Testament was completed in Malachi, and then prophecy
   ceased for nearly 400 years, till the coming of the great prophet and
   his forerunner. Some prophets were divinely inspired to write the
   histories of the church. But they did not put their names to their
   writings; they only referred for proof to the authentic records of
   those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets, as Gad, Iddo,
   &c. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs for the use
   of the church. After them we often read of prophets sent on particular
   errands, and raised up for special public services, among whom the most
   famous were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel. But none of
   these put their prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them
   but some fragments in the histories of their times; there was nothing
   of their own writing (that I remember) but one epistle of Elijah's, 2
   Chron. xxi. 12. But towards the latter end of the kingdoms of Judah and
   Israel, it pleased God to direct his servants the prophets to write and
   publish some of their sermons, or abstracts of them. The dates of many
   of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest of them was in the
   days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, his
   contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the captivity, and
   not long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada in the
   courts of the temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they
   shall not murder their prophecies; these shall remain as witnesses
   against them. Hosea was the first of the writing prophets; and Joel,
   Amos, and Obadiah, published their prophecies about the same time.
   Isaiah began some time after, and not long; but his prophecy is placed
   first, because it is the largest of them all, and has most in it of him
   to whom all the prophets bore witness; and indeed so much of Christ
   that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet, and, by some of the
   ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the general title of this
   book (v. 1) and therefore shall here only observe some things,

   I. Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the
   tradition of the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say)
   brother to king Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in
   Hezekiah's time, as we find in his story, to which many think it is
   owing that his style is more curious and polite than that of some other
   of the prophets, and, in some places, exceedingly lofty and soaring.
   The Spirit of God sometimes served his own purpose by the particular
   genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking trumpets, through
   which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, by whom the Spirit spoke,
   making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame,
   and advancing them above themselves.

   II. Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful;
   it was so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin,
   direction in duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of
   the church are here referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to
   them, that by Sennacherib's invasion, which happened in his own time,
   and that of the captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; and in
   the supports and encouragements laid up for each of these times of need
   we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There are not so many
   quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all, the
   prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express
   testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his being born of a
   virgin (ch. vii.) and that of his sufferings, ch. liii. The beginning
   of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin and threatenings of
   judgment; the latter end of it is full of wood words and comfortable
   words. This method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the prophets
   and does still, first to convince and then to comfort; and those that
   would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the convictions.
   Doubtless Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages to
   the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and
   probably these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they
   are here related, but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom
   thought fit to convey to us on whom the ends of the world have come;
   and these prophecies, as well as the histories of Christ, are written
   that we might believe on the name of the Son of God, and that,
   believing, we might have life through his name; for to us is the gospel
   here preached as well as unto those that lived then, and more clearly.
   O that it may be mixed with faith!
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. I.

   The first verse of this chapter is intended for a title to the whole
   book, and it is probable that this was the first sermon that this
   prophet was appointed to publish and to affix in writing (as Calvin
   thinks the custom of the prophets was) to the door of the temple, as
   with us proclamations are fixed to public places, that all might read
   them (Hab. ii. 2), and those that would might take out authentic copies
   of them, the original being, after some time, laid up by the priests
   among the records of the temple. The sermon which is contained in this
   chapter has in it, I. A high charge exhibited, in God's name, against
   the Jewish church and nation, 1. For their ingratitude, ver. 2, 3. 2.
   For their incorrigibleness, ver. 5. 3. For the universal corruption and
   degeneracy of the people, ver. 4, 6, 21, 22. 4. For the perversion of
   justice by their rulers, ver. 23. II. A sad complaint of the judgments
   of God, which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and by
   which they were brought almost to utter ruin, ver. 7-9. III. A just
   rejection of those shows and shadows of religion which they kept up
   among them, notwithstanding this general defection and apostasy, ver.
   10-15. IV. An earnest call to repentance and reformation, setting
   before them life and death, life if they compiled with the call and
   death if they did not, ver. 16-20. V. A threatening of ruin to those
   that would not be reformed, ver. 24, 28-31. VI. A promise of a happy
   reformation at last, and a return to their primitive purity and
   prosperity, ver. 25-27. And all this is to be applied by us, not only
   to the communities we are members of, in their public interests, but to
   the state of our own souls.

The Vision of Isaiah. (b. c. 738.)

   1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah
   and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
   of Judah.

   Here is, I. The name of the prophet, Isaiah, or Jesahiahu (for so it is
   in the Hebrew), which, in the New Testament is read Esaias. His name
   signifies the salvation of the Lord--a proper name for a prophet by
   whom God gives knowledge of salvation to his people, especially for
   this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour and of the
   great salvation wrought out by him. He is said to be the son of Amoz,
   not Amos the prophet (the two names in the Hebrew differ more than in
   the English), but, as the Jews think, of Amoz the brother, or son, of
   Amaziah king of Judah, a tradition as uncertain as that rule which they
   give, that, where a prophet's father is named, he also was himself a
   prophet. The prophets' pupils and successors are indeed often called
   their sons, but we have few instances, if any, of their own sons being
   their successors.

   II. The nature of the prophecy. It is a vision, being revealed to him
   in a vision, when he was awake, and heard the words of God, and saw the
   visions of the Almighty (as Balaam speaks, Num. xxiv. 4), though
   perhaps it was not so illustrious a vision at first as that afterwards,
   ch. vi. 1. The prophets were called seers, or seeing men, and therefore
   their prophecies are fitly called visions. It was what he saw with the
   eyes of his mind, and foresaw as clearly by divine revelation, was as
   well assured of it, as fully apprised of it, and as much affected with
   it, as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Note 1. God's prophets
   saw what they spoke of, knew what they said, and require our belief of
   nothing but what they themselves believed and were sure of, John vi.
   69; 1 John i. 1. 2. They could not but speak what they saw, because
   they saw how much all about them were concerned in it, Acts iv. 20; 2
   Cor. iv. 13.

   III. The subject of the prophecy. It was what he saw concerning Judah
   and Jerusalem, the country of the two tribes, and that city which was
   their metropolis; and there is little in it relating to Ephraim, or the
   ten tribes, of whom there is so much said in the prophecy of Hosea.
   Some chapters there are in this book which relate to Babylon, Egypt,
   Tyre, and some other neighbouring nations; but it takes its title from
   that which is the main substance of it, and is therefore said to be
   concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the other nations spoken of being such
   as the people of the Jews had concern with. Isaiah brings to them in a
   special manner, 1. Instruction; for it is the privilege of Judah and
   Jerusalem that to them pertain the oracles of God. 2. Reproof and
   threatening; for if in Judah, where God is known, if in Salem, where
   his name is great, iniquity be found, they, sooner than any other,
   shall be reckoned with for it. 3. Comfort and encouragement in evil
   times; for the children of Zion shall be joyful in their king.

   IV. The date of the prophecy. Isaiah prophesied in the days of Uzziah,
   Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. By this it appears, 1. That he prophesied
   long, especially if (as the Jews say) he was at last put to death by
   Manasseh, to a cruel death, being sawn asunder, to which some suppose
   the apostle refers, Heb. xi. 37. From the year that king Uzziah died
   (ch. vi. 1) to Hezekiah's sickness and recovery was forty-seven years;
   how much before, and after, he prophesied, is not certain; some reckon
   sixty, others eighty years in all. It was an honour to him, and a
   happiness to his country, that he was continued so long in his
   usefulness; and we must suppose both that he began young and that he
   held out to old age; for the prophets were not tied, as the priests
   were, to a certain age, for the beginning or ending of their
   administration. 2. That he passed through variety of times. Jotham was
   a good king, and Hezekiah a better, and no doubt gave encouragement to
   and took advice from this prophet, were patrons to him, and he a
   privy-counsellor to them; but between them, and when Isaiah was in the
   prime of his time, the reign of Ahaz was very profane and wicked; then,
   no doubt, he was frowned upon at court, and, it is likely, forced to
   abscond. Good men and good ministers must expect bad times in this
   world, and prepare for them. Then religion was run down to such a
   degree that the doors of the house of the Lord were shut up and
   idolatrous altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem; and
   Isaiah, with all his divine eloquence and messages immediately from God
   himself, could not help it. The best men, the best ministers, cannot do
   the good they would do in the world.

The Degeneracy of Israel; The Sinfulness of Israel; The Sufferings of Israel.
(b. c. 738.)

   2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I
   have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
   me.   3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but
   Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.   4 Ah sinful
   nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
   that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked
   the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.   5 Why
   should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole
   head is sick, and the whole heart faint.   6 From the sole of the foot
   even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and
   bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound
   up, neither mollified with ointment.   7 Your country is desolate, your
   cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your
   presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.   8 And the
   daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a
   garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.   9 Except the Lord of hosts
   had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom,
   and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

   We will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we
   come to the end of this book; but truly here, in the beginning of it,
   every thing looks very bad, very black, with Judah and Jerusalem. What
   is the wilderness of the world, if the church, the vineyard, has such a
   dismal aspect as this?

   I. The prophet, though he speaks in God's name, yet, despairing to gain
   audience with the children of his people, addresses himself to the
   heavens and the earth, and bespeaks their attention (v. 2): Hear, O
   heavens! and give ear, O earth! Sooner will the inanimate creatures
   hear, who observe the law and answer the end of their creation, than
   this stupid senseless people. Let the lights of the heaven shame their
   darkness, and the fruitfulness of the earth their barrenness, and the
   strictness of each to its time their irregularity. Moses begins thus in
   Deut. xxxii. 1, to which the prophet here refers, intimating that now
   those times had come which Moses there foretold, Deut. xxxi. 29. Or
   this is an appeal to heaven and earth, to angels and then to the
   inhabitants of the upper and lower world. Let them judge between God
   and his vineyard; can either produce such an instance of ingratitude?
   Note, God will be justified when he speaks, and both heaven and earth
   shall declare his righteousness, Mic. vi. 1, 2; Ps. l. 6.

   II. He charges them with base ingratitude, a crime of the highest
   nature. Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse. Let
   heaven and earth hear and wonder at, 1. God's gracious dealings with
   such a peevish provoking people as they were: "I have nourished and
   brought them up as children; they have been well fed and well taught"
   (Deut. xxxii. 6); "I have magnified and exalted them" (so some), "not
   only made them grow, but made them great--not only maintained them, but
   preferred them--not only trained them up, but raised them high." Note,
   We owe the continuance of our lives and comforts, and all our
   advancements, to God's fatherly care of us and kindness to us. 2. Their
   ill-natured conduct towards him, who was so tender of them: "They have
   rebelled against me," or (as some read it) "they have revolted from me;
   they have been deserters, nay traitors, against my crown and dignity."
   Note, All the instances of God's favour to us, as the God both of our
   nature and of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from
   him and all our presumptuous oppositions to him--children, and yet
   rebels!

   III. He attributes this to their ignorance and inconsideration (v. 3):
   The ox knows, but Israel does not. Observe, 1. The sagacity of the ox
   and the ass, which are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest
   sort; yet the ox has such a sense of duty as to know his owner and to
   serve him, to submit to his yoke and to draw in it; the ass has such a
   sense of interest as to know has master's crib, or manger, where he is
   fed, and to abide by it; he will go to that of himself if he be turned
   loose. A fine pass man has come to when he is shamed even in knowledge
   and understanding by these silly animals, and is not only sent to
   school to them (Prov. vi. 6, 7), but set in a form below them (Jer.
   viii. 7), taught more than the beasts of the earth (Job xxxv. 11) and
   yet knowing less. 2. The sottishness and stupidity of Israel. God is
   their owner and proprietor. He made us, and his we are more than our
   cattle are ours; he has provided well for us; providence is our
   Master's crib; yet many that are called the people of God do not know
   and will not consider this, but ask, "What is the Almighty that we
   should serve him? He is not our owner; and what profit shall we have if
   we pray unto him? He has no crib for us to feed at." He had complained
   (v. 2) of the obstinacy of their wills; They have rebelled against me.
   Here he runs it up to its cause: "Therefore they have rebelled because
   they do not know, they do not consider." The understanding is darkened,
   and therefore the whole soul is alienated from the life of God, Eph.
   iv. 18. "Israel does not know, though their land is a land of light and
   knowledge; in Judah is God known, yet, because they do not live up to
   what they know, it is in effect as if they did not know. They know; but
   their knowledge does them no good, because they do not consider what
   they know; they do not apply it to their case, nor their minds to it."
   Note, (1.) Even among those that profess themselves God's people, that
   have the advantages and lie under the engagements of his people, there
   are many that are very careless in the affairs of their souls. (2.)
   Inconsideration of what we do know is as great an enemy to us in
   religion as ignorance of what we should know. (3.) Therefore men revolt
   from God, and rebel against him, because they do not know and consider
   their obligations to God in duty, gratitude, and interest.

   IV. He laments the universal pravity and corruption of their church and
   kingdom. The disease of sin was epidemic, and all orders and degrees of
   men were infected with it; Ah sinful nation! v. 4. The prophet bemoans
   those that would not bemoan themselves: Alas for them! Woe to them! He
   speaks with holy indignation at their degeneracy, and a dread of the
   consequences of it. See here,

   1. How he aggravates their sin, and shows the malignity that there was
   in it, v. 4. (1.) The wickedness was universal. They were a sinful
   nation; the generality of the people were vicious and profane. They
   were so in their national capacity. In the management of their public
   treaties abroad, and in the administration of public justice at home,
   they were corrupt. Note, It is ill with a people when sin becomes
   national. (2.) It was very great and heinous in its nature. They were
   laden with iniquity; the guilt of it, and the curse incurred by that
   guilt, lay very heavily upon them. It was a heavy charge that was
   exhibited against them, and one which they could never clear themselves
   from; their wickedness was upon them as a talent of lead, Zec. v. 7, 8.
   Their sin, as it did easily beset them and they were prone to it, was a
   weight upon them, Heb. xii. 1. (3.) They came of a bad stock, were a
   seed of evil-doers. Treachery ran in their blood; they had it by kind,
   which made the matter so much the worse, more provoking and less
   curable. They rose up in their fathers' stead, and trod in their
   fathers' steps, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, Num. xxxii.
   14. They were a race and family of rebels. (4.) Those that were
   themselves debauched did what they could to debauch others. They were
   not only corrupt children, born tainted, but children that were
   corrupters, that propagated vice, and infected others with it--not only
   sinners, but tempters--not only actuated by Satan, but agents for him.
   If those that are called children, God's children, that are looked upon
   as belonging to his family, be wicked and vile, their example is of the
   most malignant influence. (5.) Their sin was a treacherous departure
   from God. They were deserters from their allegiance: "They have
   forsaken the Lord, to whom they had joined themselves; they have gone
   away backward, are alienated or separated from God, have turned their
   back upon him, deserted their colours, and quitted their service." When
   they were urged forward, they ran backward, as a bullock unaccustomed
   to the yoke, as a backsliding heifer, Hos. iv. 16. (6.) It was an
   impudent and daring defiance of him: They have provoked the Holy One of
   Israel unto anger wilfully and designedly; they knew what would anger
   him, and that they did. Note, The backslidings of those that have
   professed religion and relation to God are in a special manner
   provoking to him.

   2. How he illustrates it by a comparison taken from a sick and diseased
   body, all overspread with leprosy, or, like Job's, with sore boils, v.
   5, 6. (1.) The distemper has seized the vitals, and so threatens to be
   mortal. Diseases in the head and heart are most dangerous; now the
   head, the whole head, is sick--the heart, the whole heart, is faint.
   They had become corrupt in their judgment: the leprosy was in their
   head. They were utterly unclean; their affection to God and religion
   was cold and gone; the things which remained were ready to die away,
   Rev. iii. 2. (2.) It has overspread the whole body, and so becomes
   exceedingly noisome; From the sole of the foot even to the head, from
   the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no
   good principles, no religion (for that is the health of the soul),
   nothing but wounds and bruises, guilt and corruption, the sad effects
   of Adam's fall, noisome to the holy God, painful to the sensible soul;
   they were so to David when he complained (Ps. xxxviii. 5), My wounds
   stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. See Ps. xxxii. 3, 4.
   No attempts were made for reformation, or, if they were, they proved
   ineffectual: The wounds have not been closed, not bound up, nor
   mollified with ointment. While sin remains unrepented of the wounds are
   unsearched, unwashed, the proud flesh in them not cut out, and while,
   consequently, it remains unpardoned, the wounds are not mollified or
   closed up, nor any thing done towards the healing of them and the
   preventing of their fatal consequences.

   V. He sadly bewails the judgments of God which they had brought upon
   themselves by their sins, and their incorrigibleness under those
   judgments. 1. Their kingdom was almost ruined, v. 7. So miserable were
   they that both their towns and their lands were wasted, and yet so
   stupid that they needed to be told this, to have it shown to them.
   "Look and see how it is; your country is desolate; the ground is not
   cultivated, for want of inhabitants, the villages being deserted, Judg.
   v. 7. And thus the fields and vineyards become like deserts, all grown
   over with thorns, Prov. xxiv. 31. Your cities are burned with fire, by
   the enemies that invade you" (fire and sword commonly go together); "as
   for the fruits of your land, which should be food for your families,
   strangers devour them; and, to your greater vexation, it is before your
   eyes, and you cannot prevent it; you starve while your enemies surfeit
   on that which should be your maintenance. The overthrow of your country
   is as the overthrow of strangers; it is used by the invaders, as one
   might expect it should be used by strangers." Jerusalem itself, which
   was as the daughter of Zion (the temple built on Zion was a mother, a
   nursing mother, to Jerusalem), or Zion itself, the holy mountain, which
   had been dear to God as a daughter, was now lost, deserted, and exposed
   as a cottage in a vineyard, which, when the vintage is over, nobody
   dwells in or takes any care of, and looks as mean and despicable as a
   lodge or hut, in a garden of cucumbers; and every person is afraid of
   coming near it, and solicitous to remove his effects out of it, as if
   it were a besieged city, v. 8. And some think, it is a calamitous state
   of the kingdom that is represented by a diseased body, v. 6. Probably
   this sermon was preached in the reign of Ahaz, when Judah was invaded
   by the kings of Syria and Israel, the Edomites and the Philistines, who
   slew many, and carried many away into captivity, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5,
   17, 18. Note, National impiety and immorality bring national
   desolation. Canaan, the glory of all lands, Mount Zion, the joy of the
   whole earth, both became a reproach and a ruin; and sin made them so,
   that great mischief-maker. 2. Yet they were not all reformed, and
   therefore God threatens to take another course with them (v. 5): "Why
   should you be stricken any more, with any expectation of doing you good
   by it, when you increase revolts as your rebukes are increased? You
   will revolt more and more, as you have done," as Ahaz particularly did,
   who, in his distress, trespassed yet more against the Lord, 2 Chron.
   xxviii. 22. Thus the physician, when he sees the patient's case
   desperate, troubles him no more with physic; and the father resolves to
   correct his child no more when, finding him hardened, he determines to
   disinherit him. Note, (1.) There are those who are made worse by the
   methods God takes to make them better; the more they are stricken the
   more they revolt; their corruptions, instead of being mortified, are
   irritated and exasperated by their afflictions, and their hearts more
   hardened. (2.) God, sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, ceases
   to correct those who have been long incorrigible, and whom therefore he
   designs to destroy. The reprobate silver shall be cast, not into the
   furnace, but to the dunghill, Jer. vi. 29, 30. See Ezek. xxiv. 13; Hos.
   iv. 14. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.

   VI. He comforts himself with the consideration of a remnant that should
   be the monuments of divine grace and mercy, notwithstanding this
   general corruption and desolation, v. 9. See here, 1. How near they
   were to an utter extirpation. They were almost like Sodom and Gomorrah
   in respect both of sin and ruin, had grown almost so bad that there
   could not have been found ten righteous men among them, and almost as
   miserable as if none had been left alive, but their country turned into
   a sulphureous lake. Divine Justice said, Make them as Admah; set them
   as Zeboim; but Mercy said, How shall I do it? Hos. xi. 8, 9. 2. What it
   was that saved them from it: The Lord of hosts left unto them a very
   small remnant, that were kept pure from the common apostasy and kept
   safe and alive from the common calamity. This is quoted by the apostle
   (Rom. ix. 27), and applied to those few of the Jewish nation who in his
   time embraced Christianity, when the body of the people rejected it,
   and in whom the promises made to the fathers were accomplished. Note,
   (1.) In the worst of times there is a remnant preserved from iniquity
   and reserved for mercy, as Noah and his family in the deluge, Lot and
   his in the destruction of Sodom. Divine grace triumphs in
   distinguishing by an act of sovereignty. (2.) This remnant is often a
   very small one in comparison with the vast number of revolting ruined
   sinners. Multitude is no mark of the true church. Christ's is a little
   flock. (3.) It is God's work to sanctify and save some, when others are
   left to perish in their impurity. It is the work of his power as the
   Lord of hosts. Except he had left us that remnant, there would have
   been none left; the corrupters (v. 4) did what they could to debauch
   all, and the devourers (v. 7) to destroy all, and they would have
   prevailed of God himself had not interposed to secure to himself a
   remnant, who are bound to give him all the glory. (4.) It is good for a
   people that have been saved from utter ruin to look back and see how
   near they were to it, just upon the brink of it, to see how much they
   owed to a few good men that stood in the gap, and that that was owing
   to a good God, who left them these good men. It is of the Lord's
   mercies that we are not consumed.

The Vanity of Mere Ritual Obedience. (b. c. 738.)

   10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law
   of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.   11 To what purpose is the
   multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the
   burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not
   in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.   12 When ye
   come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread
   my courts?   13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination
   unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I
   cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.   14 Your
   new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble
   unto me; I am weary to bear them.   15 And when ye spread forth your
   hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers,
   I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

   Here, I. God calls to them (but calls in vain) to hear his word, v. 10.
   1. The title he gives them is very strange; You rulers of Sodom, and
   people of Gomorrah. This intimates what a righteous thing it would have
   been with God to make them like Sodom and Gomorrah in respect of ruin
   (v. 9), because that had made themselves like Sodom and Gomorrah in
   respect of sin. The men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the
   Lord exceedingly (Gen. xiii. 13), and so were the men of Judah. When
   the rulers were bad, no wonder the people were so. Vice overpowered
   virtue, for it had the rulers, the men of figure, on its side; and it
   out-polled it, for it had the people, the men of number, on its side.
   The streams being thus strong, no less a power than that of the Lord of
   hosts could secure a remnant, v. 9. The rulers are boldly attacked here
   by the prophet as rulers of Sodom; for he knew not how to give
   flattering titles. The tradition of the Jews is that for this he was
   impeached long after, and put to death, as having cursed the gods and
   spoken evil of the ruler of his people. 2. His demand upon them is very
   reasonable: "Hear the word of the Lord, and give ear to the law of our
   God; attend to that which God has to say to you, and let his word be a
   law to you." The following declaration of dislike to their sacrifices
   would be a kind of new law to them, though really it was but an
   explication of the old law; but special regard is to be had to it, as
   is required to the like, Ps. l. 7, 8. "Hear this, and tremble; hear it,
   and take warning."

   II. He justly refuses to hear their prayers and accept their services,
   their sacrifices and burnt-offerings, the fat and blood of them (v.
   11), their attendance in his courts (v. 12), their oblations, their
   incense, and their solemn assemblies (v. 13), their new moons and their
   appointed feasts (v. 14), their devoutest addresses (v. 15); they are
   all rejected, because their hands were full of blood. Now observe,

   1. There are many who are strangers, nay, enemies, to the power of
   religion, and yet seem very zealous for the show and shadow and form of
   it. This sinful nation, this seed of evil-doers, these rulers of Sodom
   and people of Gomorrah, brought, not to the altars of false gods (they
   are not here charged with that), but to the altar of the God of Israel,
   sacrifices, a multitude of them, as many as the law required and rather
   more--not only peace-offerings, which they themselves had their share
   of, but burnt-offerings, which were wholly consumed to the honour of
   God; nor did they bring the torn, and lame, and sick, but fed beasts,
   and the fat of them, the best of the kind. They did not send others to
   offer their sacrifices for them, but came themselves to appear before
   God. They observed the instituted places (not in high places or groves,
   but in God's own courts), and the instituted time, the new moons, and
   sabbaths, and appointed feasts, none of which they omitted. Nay, it
   should seem, they called extraordinary assemblies, and held solemn
   meetings for religious worship, besides those that God had appointed.
   Yet this was not all: they applied to God, not only with their
   ceremonial observances, but with the exercises of devotion. They
   prayed, prayed often, made many prayers, thinking they should be heard
   for their much speaking; nay, they were fervent and importunate in
   prayer, they spread forth their hands as men in earnest. Now we should
   have thought these, and, no doubt, they thought themselves, a pious
   religious people; and yet they were far from being so, for (1.) Their
   hearts were empty of true devotion. They came to appear before God (v.
   12), to be seen before him (so the margin reads it); they rested in the
   outside of the duties; they looked no further than to be seen of men,
   and went no further than that which men see. (2.) Their hands were full
   of blood. They were guilty of murder, rapine, and oppression, under
   colour of law and justice. The people shed blood, and the rulers did
   not punish them for it; the rulers shed blood, and the people were
   aiding and abetting, as the elders of Jezreel were to Jezebel in
   shedding Naboth's blood. Malice is heart-murder in the account of God;
   he that hates his brother in his heart has, in effect, his hands full
   of blood.

   2. When sinners are under the judgments of God they will more easily be
   brought to fly to their devotions than to forsake their sins and reform
   their lives. Their country was now desolate, and their cities were
   burnt (v. 7), which awakened them to bring their sacrifices and
   offerings to God more constantly than they had done, as if they would
   bribe God Almighty to remove the punishment and give them leave to go
   on in the sin. When he slew them, then they sought him, Ps. lxxviii.
   34. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, ch. xxvi. 16. Many that
   will readily part with their sacrifices will not be persuaded to part
   with their sins.

   3. The most pompous and costly devotions of wicked people, without a
   thorough reformation of the heart and life, are so far from being
   acceptable to God that really they are an abomination to him. It is
   here shown in a great variety of expressions that to obey is better
   than sacrifice; nay, that sacrifice, without obedience, is a jest, an
   affront and provocation to God. The comparative neglect which God here
   expresses of ceremonial observance was a tacit intimation of what they
   would come to at last, when they would all be done away by the death of
   Christ. What was now made little of would in due time be made nothing
   of. "Sacrifice and offering, and prayer made in the virtue of them,
   thou wouldest not; then said I, Lo, I come." Their sacrifices are here
   represented,

   (1.) As fruitless and insignificant; To what purpose is the multitude
   of your sacrifices? v. 11. They are vain oblations, v. 13. In vain do
   they worship me, Matt. xv. 9. Their attention to God's institutions was
   all lost labour, and served not to answer any good intention; for, [1.]
   It was not looked upon as any act of duty or obedience to God: Who has
   required these things at your hands? v. 12. Not that God disowns his
   institutions, or refuses to stand by his own warrants; but in what they
   did they had not an eye to him that required it, nor indeed did he
   require it of those whose hands were full of blood and who continued
   impenitent. [2.] It did not recommend them to God's favour. He
   delighted not in the blood of their sacrifices, for he did not look
   upon himself as honoured by it. [3.] It would not obtain any relief for
   them. They pray, but God will not hear, because they regard iniquity
   (Ps. lxvi. 18); he will not deliver them, for, though they make many
   prayers, none of them come from an upright heart. All their religious
   service turned to no account to them. Nay,

   (2.) As odious and offensive. God did not only not accept them, but he
   did detest and abhor them. "They are your sacrifices, they are none of
   mine; I am full of them, even surfeited with them." He needed them not
   (Ps. l. 10), did not desire them, had had enough of them, and more than
   enough. Their coming into his courts he calls treading them, or
   trampling upon them; their very attendance on his ordinances was
   construed into a contempt of them. Their incense, though ever so
   fragrant, was an abomination to him, for it was burnt in hypocrisy and
   with an ill design. Their solemn assemblies he could not away with,
   could not see them with any patience, nor bear the affront they gave
   him. The solemn meeting is iniquity; though the thing itself was not,
   yet, as they managed it, it became so. It is a vexation (so some read
   it), a provocation, to God, to have ordinances thus prostituted, not
   only by wicked people, but to wicked purposes: "My soul hates them;
   they are a trouble to me, a burden, an incumbrance; I am perfectly sick
   of them, and weary of bearing them." God is never weary of hearing the
   prayers of the upright, but soon weary of the costly sacrifices of the
   wicked. He hides his eyes from their prayers, as that which he has an
   aversion to and is angry at. All this is to show, [1.] That sin is very
   hateful to God, so hateful that it makes even men's prayers and their
   religious services hateful to him. [2.] That dissembled piety is double
   iniquity. Hypocrisy in religion is of all things most abominable to the
   God of heaven. Jerome applies the passage to the Jews in Christ's time,
   who pretended a great zeal for the law and the temple, but made
   themselves and all their services abominable to God by filling their
   hands with the blood of Christ and his apostles, and so filling up the
   measure of their iniquities.

A Call to Repentance; Repentance and Reformation Urged. (b. c. 738.)

   16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from
   before mine eyes; cease to do evil;   17 Learn to do well; seek
   judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
   widow.   18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
   though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
   they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.   19 If ye be willing
   and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:   20 But if ye refuse
   and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the
   Lord hath spoken it.

   Though God had rejected their services as insufficient to atone for
   their sins while they persisted in them, yet he does not reject them as
   in a hopeless condition, but here calls upon them to forsake their
   sins, which hindered the acceptance of their services, and then all
   would be well. Let them not say that God picked quarrels with them; no,
   he proposes a method of reconciliation. Observe here,

   I. A call to repentance and reformation: "If you would have your
   sacrifices accepted, and your prayers answered, you must begin your
   work at the right end: Be converted to my law" (so the Chaldee begins
   this exhortation), "make conscience of second-table duties, else expect
   not to be accepted in the acts of your devotion." As justice and
   charity will never atone for atheism and profaneness, so prayers and
   sacrifices will never atone for fraud and oppression; for righteousness
   towards men is as much a branch of pure religion as religion towards
   God is a branch of universal righteousness.

   1. They must cease to do evil, must do no more wrong, shed no more
   innocent blood. This is the meaning of washing themselves and making
   themselves clean, v. 16. It is not only sorrowing for the sin they had
   committed, but breaking off the practice of it for the future, and
   mortifying all those vicious affections and dispositions which inclined
   them to it. Sin is defiling to the soul. Our business is to wash
   ourselves from it by repenting of it and turning from it to God. We
   must put away not only that evil of our doings which is before the eye
   of the world, by refraining from the gross acts of sin, but that which
   is before God's eyes, the roots and habits of sin, that are in our
   hearts; these must be crushed and mortified.

   2. They must learn to do well. This was necessary to the completing of
   their repentance. Note, It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but
   we must learn to do well. (1.) We must be doing, not cease to do evil
   and then stand idle. (2.) We must be doing good, the good which the
   Lord our God requires and which will turn to a good account. (3.) We
   must do it well, in a right manner and for a right end; and, (4.) We
   must learn to do well; we must take pains to get the knowledge of our
   duty, be inquisitive concerning it, in care about it, and accustom
   ourselves to it, that we may readily turn our hands to our work and
   become masters of this holy art of doing well. He urges them
   particularly to those instances of well-doing wherein they had been
   defective, to second-table duties: "Seek judgment; enquire what is
   right, that you may do it; be solicitous to be found in the way of your
   duty, and do not walk carelessly. Seek opportunities of doing good:
   Relieve the oppressed, those whom you yourselves have oppressed; ease
   them of their burdens, ch. lviii. 6. You, that have power in your
   hands, use it for the relief of those whom others do oppress, for that
   is your business. Avenge those that suffer wrong, in a special manner
   concerning yourselves for the fatherless and the widow, whom, because
   they are weak and helpless, proud men trample upon and abuse; do you
   appear for them at the bar, on the bench, as there is occasion. Speak
   for those that know not how to speak for themselves and that have not
   wherewithal to gratify you for your kindness." Note, We are truly
   honouring God when we are doing good in the world; and acts of justice
   and charity are more pleasing to him than all burnt-offerings and
   sacrifices.

   II. A demonstration, at the bar of right reason, of the equity of God's
   proceedings with them: "Come now, and let us reason together (v. 18);
   while your hands are full of blood I will have nothing to do with you,
   though you bring me a multitude of sacrifices; but if you wash, and
   make yourselves clean, you are welcome to draw nigh to me; come now,
   and let us talk the matter over." Note, Those, and those only, that
   break off their league with sin, shall be welcome into covenant and
   communion with God; he says, Come now, who before forbade them his
   courts. See Jam. iv. 8. Or rather thus: There were those among them who
   looked upon themselves as affronted by the slights God put upon the
   multitude of their sacrifices, as ch. lviii. 3, Wherefore have we
   fasted (say they) and thou seest not? They represented God as a hard
   Master, whom it was impossible to please. "Come," says God, "let us
   debate the matter fairly, and I doubt not but to make it out that my
   ways are equal, but yours are unequal," Ezek. xviii. 25. Note, Religion
   has reason on its side; there is all the reason in the world why we
   should do as God would have us do. The God of heaven condescends to
   reason the case with those that contradict him and find fault with his
   proceedings; for he will be justified when he speaks, Ps. li. 4. The
   case needs only to be stated (as it is here very fairly) and it will
   determine itself. God shows here upon what terms they stood (as he
   does, Ezek. xviii. 21-24; xxxiii. 18, 19) and then leaves it to them to
   judge whether these terms are not fair and reasonable.

   1. They could not in reason expect any more then, if they repented and
   reformed, they should be restored to God's favour, notwithstanding
   their former provocations. "This you may expect," says God, and it is
   very kind; who could have the face to desire it upon any other terms?
   (1.) It is very little that is required, "only that you be willing and
   obedient, that you consent to obey" (so some read it), "that you
   subject your wills to the will of God, acquiesce in that, and give up
   yourselves in all things to be ruled by him who is infinitely wise and
   good" Here is no penance imposed for their former stubbornness, nor the
   yoke made heavier or bound harder on their necks; only, "Whereas
   hitherto you have been perverse and refractory, and would not comply
   with that which was for your own good, now be tractable, be governable"
   He does not say, "If you be perfectly obedient," but, "If you be
   willingly so;" for, if there be a willing mind, it is accepted. (2.)
   That is very great which is promised hereupon. [1.] That all their sins
   should be pardoned to them, and should not be mentioned against them.
   "Though they be as red as scarlet and crimson, though you lie under the
   guilt of blood, yet, upon your repentance, even that shall be forgiven
   you, and you shall appear in the sight of God as white as snow." Note,
   The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins
   forgiven them, and so have their consciences pacified and purified.
   Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, as deep dye, a double
   dye, first in the wool of original corruption and afterwards in the
   many threads of actual transgression--though we have been often dipped,
   by our many backslidings, into sin, and though we have lain long
   soaking in it, as the cloth does in the scarlet dye, yet pardoning
   mercy will thoroughly discharge the stain, and, being by it purged as
   with hyssop, we shall be clean, Ps. li. 7. If we make ourselves clean
   by repentance and reformation (v. 16), God will make us white by a full
   remission. [2.] That they should have all the happiness and comfort
   they could desire. "Be but willing and obedient, and you shall eat the
   good of the land, the land of promise; you shall have all the blessings
   of the new covenant, of the heavenly Canaan, all the good of the land."
   Those that go on in sin, though they may dwell in a good land, cannot
   with any comfort eat the good of it; guilt embitters all; but, if sin
   be pardoned, creature-comforts become comforts indeed.

   2. They could not in reason expect any other than that, if they
   continued obstinate in their disobedience, they should be abandoned to
   ruin, and the sentence of the law should be executed upon them; what
   can be more just? (v. 20); "If you refuse and rebel, if you continue to
   rebel against the divine government and refuse the offers of the divine
   grace, you shall be devoured with the sword, with the sword of your
   enemies, which shall be commissioned to destroy you--with the sword of
   God's justice, his wrath, and vengeance, which shall be drawn against
   you; for this is that which the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and which
   he will make good, for the maintaining of his own honour." Note, Those
   that will not be governed by God's sceptre will certainly and justly be
   devoured by his sword.

   "And now life and death, good and evil, are thus set before you. Come,
   and let us reason together. What have you to object against the equity
   of this, or against complying with God's terms?"

The Degeneracy of Jerusalem; Reformation of the Church. (b. c. 738.)

   21 How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment;
   righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.   22 Thy silver is
   become dross, thy wine mixed with water:   23 Thy princes are
   rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and
   followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth
   the cause of the widow come unto them.   24 Therefore saith the Lord,
   the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine
   adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:   25 And I will turn my
   hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy
   tin:   26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy
   counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The
   city of righteousness, the faithful city.   27 Zion shall be redeemed
   with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.   28 And the
   destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together,
   and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.   29 For they shall
   be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be
   confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.   30 For ye shall be as
   an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.   31 And
   the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they
   shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

   Here, I. The woeful degeneracy of Judah and Jerusalem is sadly
   lamented. See, 1. What the royal city had been, a faithful city,
   faithful to God and the interests of his kingdom among men, faithful to
   the nation and its public interests. It was full of judgment; justice
   was duly administered upon the thrones of judgment which were set
   there, the thrones of the house of David, Ps. cxxii. 5. Men were
   generally honest in their dealings, and abhorred to do an unjust thing.
   Righteousness lodged in it, was constantly resident in their palaces
   and in all their dwellings, not called in now and then to serve a turn,
   but at home there. Note, Neither holy cities nor royal ones, neither
   places where religion is professed nor places where government is
   administered, are faithful to their trust if religion do not dwell in
   them. 2. What it had now become. That beauteous virtuous spouse was now
   debauched, and become an adulteress; righteousness no longer dwelt in
   Jerusalem (terras Astræa reliquit--Astrea left the earth); even
   murderers were unpunished and lived undisturbed there; nay, the princes
   themselves were so cruel and oppressive that they had become no better
   than murderers; an innocent man might better guard himself against a
   troop of banditti or assassins than against a bench of such judges.
   Note, It is a great aggravation of the wickedness of any family or
   people that their ancestors were famed for virtue and probity; and
   commonly those that thus degenerate prove the most wicked of all men.
   Corruptio optimi est pessima--That which was originally the best
   becomes when corrupted the worst, Luke xi. 26; Eccl. iii. 16. See Jer.
   xxii. 15-17. The degeneracy of Jerusalem is illustrated, (1.) By
   similitudes (v. 22): Thy silver has become dross. This degeneracy of
   the magistrates, whose character is the reverse of that of their
   predecessors, is a great a reproach and injury to the kingdom as the
   debasing of their coin would be and the turning of their silver into
   dross. Righteous princes and righteous cities are as silver for the
   treasury, but unrighteous ones are as dross for the dunghill. How has
   the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. Thy wine is mixed with water, and so
   has become flat and sour. Some understand both these literally: the
   wine they sold was adulterated, it was half water; the money they paid
   was counterfeit, and so they cheated all they dealt with. But it is
   rather to be taken figuratively: justice was perverted by their
   princes, and religion and the word of God were sophisticated by their
   priests, and made to serve what turn they pleased. Dross may shine like
   silver, and the wine that is mixed with water may retain the colour of
   wine, but neither is worth any thing. Thus they retained a show and
   pretence of virtue and justice, but had no true sense of either. (2.)
   By some instances (v. 23): "Thy princes, that should keep others in
   their allegiance to God and subjection to his law, are themselves
   rebellious, and set God and his law at defiance." Those that should
   restrain thieves (proud and rich oppressors, those worst of robbers,
   and those that designedly cheat their creditors, who are no better),
   are themselves companions of thieves, connive at them, do as they do,
   and with greater security and success, because they are princes, and
   have power in their hands; they share with the thieves they protect in
   their unlawful gain ( Ps. l. 18) and cast in their lot among them,
   Prov. i. 13, 14. [1.] The profit of their places is all their aim, to
   make the best hand they can of them, right or wrong. They love gifts,
   and follow after rewards; they set their hearts upon their salary, the
   fees and perquisites of their offices, and are greedy of them, and
   never think they can get enough; nay, they will do any thing, though
   ever so contrary to law and justice, for a gift in secret. Presents and
   gratuities will blind their eyes at any time, and make them pervert
   judgment. These they love and are eager in the pursuit of. [2.] The
   duty of their places is none of their care. They ought to protect those
   that are injured, and take cognizance of the appeals made to them; why
   else were they preferred? But they judge not the fatherless, take no
   care to guard the orphans, nor does the cause of the widow come unto
   them, because the poor widow has no bribe to give, with which to make
   way for her and to bring her cause on. Those will have a great deal to
   answer for who, when they should be the patrons of the oppressed, are
   their greatest oppressors.

   II. A resolution is taken up to redress these grievances (v. 24):
   Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of
   Israel--who has power to make good what he says, who has hosts at
   command for the executing of his purposes, and whose power is engaged
   for his Israel--Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries. Observe,

   1. Wicked people, especially wicked rulers that are cruel and
   oppressive, are God's enemies, his adversaries, and shall so be
   accounted and so dealt with. If the holy seed corrupt themselves, they
   are the foes of his own house.

   2. They are a burden to the God of heaven, which is implied in his
   easing himself of them. The Mighty One of Israel, that can bear any
   thing, nay, that upholds all things, complains of his being wearied
   with men's iniquities, ch. xliii. 24. Amos ii. 13.

   3. God will find out a time and a way to ease himself of this burden,
   by avenging himself on those that thus bear hard upon his patience. He
   here speaks as one triumphing in the foresight of it: Ah. I will ease
   me. He will ease the earth of the burden under which it groans (Rom.
   viii. 21, 22), will ease his own name of the reproaches with which it
   is loaded. He will be eased of his adversaries, by taking vengeance on
   his enemies; he will spue them out of his mouth, and so be eased of
   them, Rev. iii. 16. He speaks with pleasure of the day of vengeance
   being in his heart, ch. lxiii. 4. If God's professing people conform
   not to his image, as the Holy One of Israel (v. 4), they shall feel the
   weight of his hand as the Mighty One of Israel: his power, which was
   wont to be engaged for them, shall be armed against them. In two ways
   God will ease himself of this grievance:--

   (1.) By reforming his church, and restoring good judges in the room of
   those corrupt ones. Though the church has a great deal of dross in it,
   yet it shall not be thrown away, but refined (v. 25): "I will purely
   purge away thy dross. I will amend what is amiss. Vice and profaneness
   shall be suppressed and put out of countenance, oppressors displaced,
   and deprived of their power to do mischief." When things are ever so
   bad God can set them to rights, and bring about a complete reformation;
   when he begins he will make an end, will take away all the tin.
   Observe, [1.] The reformation of a people is God's own work, and, if
   ever it be done, it is he that brings it about: "I will turn my hand
   upon thee; I will do that for the reviving of religion which I did at
   first for the planting of it." He can do it easily, with the turn of
   his hand; but he does it effectually, for what opposition can stand
   before the arm of the Lord revealed? [2.] He does it by blessing them
   with good magistrates and good ministers of state (v. 26): "I will
   restore thy judges as at the first, to put the laws in execution
   against evil-doers, and thy counsellors, to transact public affairs, as
   at the beginning," either the same persons that had been turned out or
   others of the same character. [3.] He does it by restoring judgment and
   righteousness among them (v. 27), by planting in men's minds principles
   of justice and governing their lives by those principles. Men may do
   much by external restraints; but God does it effectually by the
   influences of his Spirit, as a Spirit of judgment, ch. iv. 4; xxviii.
   6. See Ps. lxxxv. 10, 11. [4.] The reformation of a people will be the
   redemption of them and their converts, for sin is the worst captivity,
   the worst slavery, and the great and eternal redemption is that by
   which Israel is redeemed from all his iniquities (Ps. cxxx. 8), and the
   blessed Redeemer is he that turns away ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. xi.
   26), and saves his people from their sins, Matt. i. 21. All the
   redeemed of the Lord shall be converts, and their conversion is their
   redemption: "Her converts, or those that return of her (so the margin),
   shall be redeemed with righteousness." God works deliverance for us by
   preparing us for it with judgment and righteousness. [5.] The reviving
   of a people's virtues is the restoring of their honour: Afterwards thou
   shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city; that is,
   First, "Thou shalt be so;" the reforming of the magistracy is a good
   step towards the reforming of the city and the country too. Secondly,
   "Thou shalt have the praise of being so;" and a greater praise there
   cannot be to any city than to be called the city of righteousness, and
   to retrieve the ancient honour which was lost when the faithful city
   became a harlot, v. 21.

   (2.) By cutting off those that hate to be reformed, that they may not
   remain either as snares or as scandals to the faithful city. [1.] it is
   an utter ruin that is here threatened. They shall be destroyed and
   consumed, and not chastened and corrected only. The extirpation of them
   will be necessary to the redemption of Zion. [2.] It is a universal
   ruin, which will involve the transgressors and the sinners together,
   that is, the openly profane that have quite cast of all religion, and
   the hypocrites that live wicked lives under the cloak of a religious
   profession--they shall both be destroyed together, for they are both
   alike an abomination to God, both those that contradict religion and
   those that contradict themselves in their pretensions to it. And those
   that forsake the Lord, to whom they had formerly joined themselves,
   shall be consumed, as the water in the conduit-pipe is soon consumed
   when it is cut off from the fountain. [3.] It is an inevitable ruin;
   there is no escaping it. First, Their idols shall not be able to help
   them, the oaks which they have desired, and the gardens which they have
   chosen; that is, the images, the dunghill-gods, which they had
   worshipped in their groves and under the green trees, which they were
   fond of and wedded to, for which they forsook the true God, and which
   they worshipped privately in their own garden even when idolatry was
   publicly discountenanced. "This was the practice of the transgressors
   and the sinners; but they shall be ashamed of it, not with a show of
   repentance, but of despair, v. 29. They shall have cause to be ashamed
   of their idols; for, after all the court they have made to them, they
   shall find no benefit by them; but the idols themselves shall go into
   captivity," ch. xlvi. 1, 2. Note, Those that make creatures their
   confidence are but preparing confusion for themselves. You were fond of
   the oaks and the gardens, but you yourselves shall be, 1. "Like an oak
   without leaves, withered and blasted, and stripped of all its
   ornaments." Justly do those wear no leaves that bear no fruit; as the
   fig-tree that Christ cursed. 2. "Like a garden without water, that is
   neither rained upon nor watered with the foot (Deut. xi. 10), that had
   no fountain (Cant. iv. 15), and consequently is parched, and all the
   fruits of it gone to decay." Thus shall those be that trust in idols,
   or in an arm of flesh, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. But those that trust in God
   never find him as a wilderness, or as waters that fail, Jer. ii. 31.
   Secondly, They shall not be able to help themselves (v. 31): "Even the
   strong man shall be as tow not only soon broken and pulled to pieces,
   but easily catching fire; and his work (so the margin reads it), that
   by which he hopes to fortify and secure himself, shall be as a spark to
   his own tow, shall set him on fire, and he and his work shall burn
   together. His counsels shall be his ruin; his own skin kindles the fire
   of God's wrath, which shall burn to the lowest hell, and none shall
   quench it." When the sinner has made himself as tow and stubble, and
   God makes himself to him as a consuming fore, what can prevent the
   utter ruin of the sinner?

   Now all this is applicable, 1. To the blessed work of reformation which
   was wrought in Hezekiah's time after the abominable corruptions of the
   reign of Ahaz. Then good men came to be preferred, and the faces of the
   wicked were filled with shame. 2. To their return out of their
   captivity in Babylon, which had thoroughly cured them of idolatry. 3.
   To the gospel-kingdom and the pouring out of the Spirit, by which the
   New-Testament church should be made a new Jerusalem, a city of
   righteousness. 4. To the second coming of Christ, when he shall
   thoroughly purge his floor, his field, shall gather the wheat into his
   barn, into his garner, and burn the chaff, the tares, with unquenchable
   fire.
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I S A I A H.

  CHAP. II.

   With this chapter begins a new sermon, which is continued in the two
   following chapters. The subject of this discourse is Judah and
   Jerusalem, ver. 1. In this chapter the prophet speaks, I. Of the glory
   of the Christians, Jerusalem, the gospel-church in the latter days, in
   the accession of many to it (ver. 2, 3), and the great peace it should
   introduce into the world (ver. 4), whence he infers the duty of the
   house of Jacob, ver. 5. II. Of the shame of the Jews, Jerusalem, as it
   then was, and as it would be after its rejection of the gospel and
   being rejected of God. 1. Their sin was their shame, ver. 6-9. 2. God
   by his judgments would humble them and put them to shame, ver. 10-17.
   3. They should themselves be ashamed of their confidence in their idols
   and in an arm of flesh, ver. 18-22. And now which of these Jerusalems
   will we be the inhabitants of--that which is full of the knowledge of
   God, which will be our everlasting honour, or that which is full of
   horses and chariots, and silver and gold, and such idols, which will in
   the end be our shame?

Increase of the Church Predicted. (b. c. 758.)

   1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
   Jerusalem.   2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the
   mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
   mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall
   flow unto it.   3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us
   go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
   and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for
   out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
   Jerusalem.   4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke
   many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
   their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
   nation, neither shall they learn war any more.   5 O house of Jacob,
   come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

   The particular title of this sermon (v. 1) is the same with the general
   title of the book (ch. i. 1), only that what is there called the vision
   is here called the word which Isaiah saw (or the matter, or thing,
   which he saw), the truth of which he had as full an assurance of in his
   own mind as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Or this word was
   brought to him in a vision; something he saw when he received this
   message from God. John turned to see the voice that spoke with him.
   Rev. i. 12.

   This sermon begins with the prophecy relating to the last days, the
   days of the Messiah, when his kingdom should be set up in the world, at
   the latter end of the Mosaic economy. In the last days of the earthly
   Jerusalem, just before the destruction of it, this heavenly Jerusalem
   should be erected, Heb. xii. 22; Gal. iv. 26. Note, Gospel times are
   the last days. For 1. They were long in coming, were a great while
   waited for by the Old-Testament saints, and came at last. 2. We are not
   to look for any dispensation of divine grace but what we have in the
   gospel, Gal. i. 8, 9. 3. We are to look for the second coming of Jesus
   Christ at the end of time, as the Old-Testament saints did for his
   first coming; this is the last time, 1 John ii. 18.

   Now the prophet here foretels,

   I. The setting up of the Christian church, and the planting of the
   Christian religion, in the world. Christianity shall then be the
   mountain of the Lord's house; where that is professed God will grant
   his presence, receive his people's homage, and grant instruction and
   blessing, as he did of old in the temple of Mount Zion. The gospel
   church, incorporated by Christ's charter, shall then be the rendezvous
   of all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now it is here promised, I. That
   Christianity shall be openly preached and professed; it shall be
   prepared (so the margin reads it) in the top of the mountains, in the
   view and hearing of all. Hence Christ's disciples are compared to a
   city on a hill, which cannot be hid, Matt. v. 14. They had many eyes
   upon them. Christ himself spoke openly to the world, John xviii. 20.
   What the apostles did was not done in a corner, Acts xxvi. 26. It was
   the lighting of a beacon, the setting up of a standard. Its being every
   where spoken against supposes that it was every where spoken of. 2.
   That is shall be firmly fixed and rooted; it shall be established on
   the top of the everlasting mountains, built upon a rock, so that the
   gates of hell shall not prevail against it, unless they could pluck up
   mountains by the roots. He that dwells safely is said to dwell on high,
   ch. xxxiii. 16. The Lord has founded the gospel Zion. 3. That it shall
   not only overcome all opposition, but overtop all competition; it shall
   be exalted above the hills. This wisdom of God in a mystery shall
   outshine all the wisdom of this world, all its philosophy and all its
   politics. The spiritual worship which it shall introduce shall put down
   the idolatries of the heathen; and all other institutions in religion
   shall appear mean and despicable in comparison with this. See Ps. lxvi.
   16. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desires to
   dwell in.

   II. The bringing of the Gentiles into it. 1. The nations shall be
   admitted into it, even the uncircumcised, who were forbidden to come
   into the courts of the temple at Jerusalem. The partition wall, which
   kept them out, kept them off, shall be taken down. 2. All nations shall
   flow into it; having liberty of access, they shall improve their
   liberty, and multitudes shall embrace the Christian faith. They shall
   flow into it, as streams of water, which denotes the abundance of
   converts that the gospel should make and their speed and cheerfulness
   in coming into the church. They shall not be forced into it, but shall
   naturally flow into it. Thy people shall be willing, all volunteers,
   Ps. cx. 3. To Christ shall the gathering of the people be, Gen. xlix.
   10. See ch. lx. 4, 5.

   III. The mutual assistance and encouragement which this confluence of
   converts shall give to one another. Their pious affections and
   resolutions shall be so intermixed that they shall come in in one full
   stream. As, when the Jews from all parts of the country went up thrice
   a year to worship at Jerusalem, they called on their friends in the
   road and excited them to go along with them, so shall many of the
   Gentiles court their relations, friends, and neighbours, to join with
   them in embracing the Christian religion (v. 3): "Come, and let us go
   up to the mountain of the Lord; though it be uphill and against the
   heart, yet it is the mountain of the Lord, who will assist the assent
   of our souls towards him." Note, Those that are entering into covenant
   and communion with God themselves should bring as many as they can
   along with them; it becomes Christians to provoke one another to good
   works, and to further the communion of saints by inviting one another
   into it: not, "Do you go up to the mountain of the Lord, and pray for
   us, and we will stay at home;" nor, "We will go, and do you do as you
   will;" but, "Come, and let us go, let us go in concert, that we may
   strengthen one another's hands and support one another's reputation:"
   not, "We will consider of it, and advise about it, and go hereafter;"
   but, Come, and let us go forthwith. See Ps. cxxii. 1. Many shall say
   this. Those that have had it said to them shall say it to others. The
   gospel church is here called, not only the mountain of the Lord, but
   the house of the God of Jacob; for in it God's covenant with Jacob and
   his praying seed is kept up and has its accomplishment; for to us now,
   as unto them, he never said, Seek you me in vain, ch. xlv. 19. Now see
   here, 1. What they promise themselves in going up to the mountain of
   the Lord; There he will teach us of his ways. Note, God's ways are to
   be learned in his church, in communion with his people, and in the use
   of instituted ordinances--the ways of duty which he requires us to walk
   in, the ways of grace in which he walks towards us. It is God that
   teaches his people, by his word and Spirit. It is worth while to take
   pains to go up to his holy mountain to be taught his ways, and those
   who are willing to take that pains shall never find it labour in vain.
   Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. 2. What they
   promise for themselves and one another: "If he will teach us his ways,
   we will walk in his paths; is he will let us know our duty, we will by
   his grace make conscience of doing it." Those who attend God's word
   with this humble resolution shall not be sent away without their
   lesson.

   IV. The means by which this shall be brought about: Out of Zion shall
   go forth the law, the New-Testament law, the law of Christ, as of old
   the law of Moses from Mount Sinai, even the word of the Lord from
   Jerusalem. The gospel is a law, a law of faith; it is the word of the
   Lord; it went forth from Zion, where the temple was built, and from
   Jerusalem. Christ himself began in Galilee, Matt. iv. 23; Luke xxiii.
   5. But, when he commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all
   nations, he appointed them to begin in Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. See
   Rom. xv. 19. Though most of them had their homes in Galilee, yet they
   must stay at Jerusalem, there to receive the promise of the Spirit,
   Acts i. 4. And in the temple on Mount Zion they preached the gospel,
   Acts v. 20. This honour was allowed to Jerusalem, even after Christ was
   crucified there, for the sake of what it had been. And it was by this
   gospel, which took rise from Jerusalem, that the gospel church was
   established on the top of the mountains. This was the rod of divine
   strength, that was sent forth out of Zion, Ps. cx. 2.

   V. The erecting of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world: He shall
   judge among the nations. He whose word goes forth out of Zion shall by
   that word not only subdue souls to himself, but rule in them, v. 4. He
   shall, in wisdom and justice, order and overrule the affairs of the
   world for the good of his church, and rebuke and restrain those that
   oppose his interest. By his Spirit working on men's consciences he
   shall judge, and rebuke shall try men and check them; his kingdom is
   spiritual, and not of this world.

   VI. The great peace which should be the effect of the success of the
   gospel in the world (v. 4): They shall beat their swords into
   ploughshares; their instruments of war shall be converted into
   implements of husbandry; as, on the contrary, when war is proclaimed,
   ploughshares are beaten into swords, Joel iii. 10. Nations shall then
   not lift up sword against nation, as they now do, neither shall they
   learn war any more, for they shall have no more occasion for it. This
   does not make all war absolutely unlawful among Christians, nor is it a
   prophecy that in the days of the Messiah there shall be no wars. The
   Jews urge this against the Christians as an argument that Jesus is not
   the Messiah, because this promise is not fulfilled. But, 1. It was in
   part fulfilled in the peaceableness of the time in which Christ was
   born, when wars had in a great measure ceased, witness the taxing, Luke
   ii. 1. 2. The design and tendency of the gospel are to make peace and
   to slay all enmities. It has in it the most powerful obligations and
   inducements to peace; so that one might reasonably have expected it
   should have this effect, and it would have had it if it had not been
   for those lusts of men from which come wars and fightings. 3. Jew and
   Gentiles were reconciled and brought together by the gospel, and there
   were no more such wars between them as there had been; for they became
   one sheepfold under one shepherd. See Eph. ii. 15. 4. The gospel of
   Christ, as far as it prevails, disposes men to be peaceable, softens
   men's spirits, and sweetens them; and the love of Christ, shed abroad
   in the heart, constrains men to love one another. 5. The primitive
   Christians were famous for brotherly love; their very adversaries took
   notice of it. 6. We have reason to hope that this promise shall yet
   have a more full accomplishment in the latter times of the Christian
   church, when the Spirit shall be poured out more plentifully from on
   high. Then there shall be on earth peace. Who shall live when God doeth
   this? But do it he will in due time, for he is not a man that he should
   lie.

   Lastly, Here is a practical inference drawn from all this (v. 5): O
   house of Jacob! come you, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. By
   the house of Jacob is meant either, 1. Israel according to the flesh.
   Let them be provoked by this to a holy emulation, Rom. xi. 14. "Seeing
   the Gentiles are thus ready and resolved for God, thus forward to go up
   to the house of the Lord, let us stir up ourselves to go too. Let it
   never be said that the sinners of the Gentiles were better friends to
   the holy mountain than the house of Jacob." Thus the zeal of some
   should provoke many. Or, 2. Spiritual Israel, all that are brought to
   the God of Jacob. Shall there be such great knowledge in gospel times
   (v. 3) and such great peace (v. 4), and shall we share in these
   privileges? Come then, and let us live accordingly. What ever others
   do, come, O come! let us walk in the light of the Lord. (1.) Let us
   walk circumspectly in the light of this knowledge. Will God teach us
   his ways? Will he show us his glory in the face of Christ? Let us then
   walk as children of the light and of the day, Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 8;
   Rom. xiii. 12. (2.) Let us walk comfortably in the light of this peace.
   Shall there be no more war? Let us then go on our way rejoicing, and
   let this joy terminate in God, and be our strength, Neh. viii. 10. Thus
   shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.

A Charge against the Israelites. (b. c. 758.)

   6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because
   they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the
   Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
   7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end
   of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there
   any end of their chariots:   8 Their land also is full of idols; they
   worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have
   made:   9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth
   himself: therefore forgive them not.

   The calling in of the Gentiles was accompanied with the rejection of
   the Jews; it was their fall, and the diminishing of them, that was the
   riches of the Gentiles; and the casting off of them was the reconciling
   of the world (Rom. xi. 12-15); and it should seem that these verses
   have reference to that, and are designed to justify God therein, and
   yet it is probable that they are primarily intended for the convincing
   and awakening of the men of that generation in which the prophet lived,
   it being usual with the prophets to speak of the things that then were,
   both in mercy and judgment, as types of the things that should be
   hereafter. Here is,

   I. Israel's doom. This is set forth in two words, the first and the
   last of this paragraph; but they are two dreadful words, and which
   speak, 1. Their case sad, very sad (v. 6): Therefore thou hast forsaken
   thy people. Miserable is the condition of that people whom God has
   forsaken, and great certainly must the provocation be if he forsake
   those that have been his own people. This was the deplorable case of
   the Jewish church after they had rejected Christ. Migremus hinc--Let us
   go hence. Your house is left unto you desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38.
   Whenever any sore calamity came upon the Jews thus far the Lord might
   be said to forsake them that he withdrew his help and succour from
   them, else they would not have fallen into the hands of their enemies.
   But God never leaves any till they first leave him. 2. Their case
   desperate, wholly desperate (v. 9): Therefore forgive them not. This
   prophetical prayer amounts to a threatening that they should not be
   forgiven, and some think it may be read: And thou wilt not forgive
   them. This refers not to particular persons (many of them repented and
   were pardoned), but to the body of that nation, against whom an
   irreversible doom was passed, that they should be wholly cut off and
   their church quite dismantled, never to be formed into such a body
   again, nor ever to have their old charter restored to them.

   II. Israel's desert of this doom, and the reasons upon which it is
   grounded. In general, it is sin that brings destruction upon them; it
   is this, and nothing but this, that provokes God to forsake his people.
   The particular sins which the prophet specifies are such as abounded
   among them at that time, which he makes mention of for the conviction
   of those to whom he then preached, rather than that which afterwards
   proved the measure-filling sin, their crucifying Christ and persecuting
   his followers; for the sins of every age contributed towards the making
   up of the dreadful account at last. And there was a partial and
   temporary rejection of them by the captivity in Babylon hastening on,
   which was a type of their final destruction by the Romans, and which
   the sins here mentioned brought upon them. Their sins were such as
   directly contradicted all God's kind and gracious designs concerning
   them.

   1. God set them apart for himself, as a peculiar people, distinguished
   from, and dignified above, all other people (Num. xxiii. 9); but they
   were replenished from the east; they naturalized foreigners, not
   proselyted, and encouraged them to settle among them, and mingled with
   them, Hos. vii. 8. Their country was peopled with Syrians and
   Chaldeans, Moabites and Ammonites, and other eastern nations, and with
   them they admitted the fashions and customs of those nations, and
   pleased themselves in the children of strangers, were fond of them,
   preferred their country before their own, and thought the more they
   conformed to them the more polite and refined they were; thus did they
   profane their crown and their covenant. Note, Those are in danger of
   being estranged from God who please themselves with those who are
   strangers to him, for we soon learn the ways of those whose company we
   love.

   2. God gave them his oracles, which they might ask counsel of, not only
   the scriptures and the seers, but the breast-plate of judgment; but
   they slighted these, and became soothsayers like the Philistines,
   introduced their arts of divination, and hearkened to those who by the
   stars, or the clouds, or the flight of birds, or the entrails of
   beasts, or other magic superstitions, pretended to discover things
   secret or foretel things to come. The Philistines were noted for
   diviners, 1 Sam. vi. 2. Note, Those who slight true divinity are justly
   given up to lying divinations; and those will certainly be forsaken of
   God who thus forsake him and their own mercies for lying vanities.

   3. God encouraged them to put their confidence in him, and assured them
   that he would be their wealth and strength; but, distrusting his power
   and promise, they made gold their hope, and furnished themselves with
   horses and chariots, and relied upon them for their safety, v. 7. God
   had expressly forbidden even their kings to multiply horses to
   themselves and greatly to multiply silver and gold, because he would
   have them to depend upon himself only; but they did not think their
   interest in God made them a match for their neighbours unless they had
   as full treasures of silver and gold, and as formidable hosts of
   chariots and horses, as they had. It is not having silver and gold,
   horses and chariots, that is a provocation to God, but, (1.) Desiring
   them insatiably, so that there is no end of the treasures, no end of
   the chariots, no bounds or limits set to the desire of them. Those
   shall never have enough in God (who alone is all-sufficient) that never
   know when they have enough of this world, which at the best is
   insufficient. (2.) Depending upon them, as if we could not be safe, and
   easy, and happy, without them, and could not but be so with them.

   4. God himself was their God, the sole object of their worship, and he
   himself instituted ordinances of worship for them; but they slighted
   both him and his institutions, v. 8. Their land was full of idols;
   every city had its god (Jer. xi. 13); and, according to the goodness of
   their lands, they made goodly images, Hos. x. 1. Those that think one
   God too little will find two too many, and yet hundreds were not
   sufficient; for those that love idols will multiply them; so sottish
   were they, and so wretchedly infatuated, that they worshipped the work
   of their own hands, as if that could be a god to them which was not
   only a creature, but their creature and that which their own fancies
   had devised and their own fingers had made. It was an aggravation of
   their idolatry that God had enriched them with silver and gold, and yet
   of that silver and gold they made idols; so it was, Jeshurun waxed fat,
   and kicked, see Hos. ii. 8.

   5. God had advanced them, and put honour upon them; but they basely
   diminished and disparaged themselves (v. 9): The mean man boweth down
   to his idol, a thing below the meanest that has any spark of reason
   left. Sin is a disparagement to the poorest and those of the lowest
   rank. It becomes the mean man to bow down to his superiors, but it ill
   becomes him to bow down to the stock of a tree, ch. xliv. 19. Nor is it
   only the illiterate and poor-spirited that do this, but even the great
   men forgets his grandeur and humbles himself to worship idols, deifies
   men no better than himself, and consecrates stones so much baser than
   himself. Idolaters are said to debase themselves even to hell, ch.
   lvii. 9. What a shame it is that great men think the service of the
   true God below them and will not stoop to it, and yet will humble
   themselves to bow down to an idol! Some make this a threatening that
   the mean men shall be brought down, and the great men humbled, by the
   judgments of God, when they come with commission.

The Doom of Idolaters. (b. c. 758.)

   10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the
   Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.   11 The lofty looks of man
   shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and
   the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.   12 For the day of the
   Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon
   every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:   13 And upon
   all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all
   the oaks of Bashan,   14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all
   the hills that are lifted up,   15 And upon every high tower, and upon
   every fenced wall,   16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon
   all pleasant pictures.   17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed
   down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone
   shall be exalted in that day.   18 And the idols he shall utterly
   abolish.   19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into
   the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his
   majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.   20 In that day
   a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they
   made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
   21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged
   rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he
   ariseth to shake terribly the earth.   22 Cease ye from man, whose
   breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

   The prophet here goes on to show what a desolation would be brought
   upon their land when God should have forsaken them. This may refer
   particularly to their destruction by the Chaldeans first, and
   afterwards by the Romans, or it may have a general respect to the
   method God takes to awaken and humble proud sinners, and to put them
   out of conceit with that which they delighted in and depended on more
   than God. We are here told that sooner or later God will find out a
   way,

   I. To startle and awaken secure sinners, who cry peace to themselves,
   and bid defiance to God and his judgments (v. 10): "Enter into the
   rock; God will attack you with such terrible judgments, and strike you
   with such terrible apprehensions of them, that you shall be forced to
   enter into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the
   Lord. You shall lose all your courage, and tremble at the shaking of a
   leaf; your heart shall fail you for fear (Luke xxi. 26), and you shall
   flee when none pursues," Prov. xxviii. 1. To the same purport, v. 19.
   They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the
   earth, the darkest the deepest places; they shall call to the rocks and
   mountains to fall on them, and rather crush them than not cover them,
   Hos. x. 8. It was so particularly at the destruction of Jerusalem by
   the Romans (Luke xxiii. 30) and of the persecuting pagan powers, Rev.
   vi. 16. And all for fear of the Lord, and of the glory of his majesty,
   looking upon him then to be a consuming fire and themselves as stubble
   before him, when he arises to shake terribly the earth, to shake the
   wicked out of it (Job xxxviii. 13), and to shake all those earthly
   props and supports with which they have buoyed themselves up, to shake
   them from under them. Note, 1. With God is terrible majesty, and the
   glory of it is such as sooner or later will oblige us all to flee
   before him. 2. Those that will not fear God and flee to him will be
   forced to fear him and flee from him to a refuge of lies. 3. It is
   folly for those that are pursued by the wrath of God to think to escape
   it, and to hide or shelter themselves from it. 4. The things of the
   earth are things that will be shaken; they are subject to concussions,
   and hastening towards a dissolution. 5. The shaking of the earth is,
   and will be, a terrible thing to those who set their affections wholly
   on things of the earth. 6. It will be in vain to think of finding
   refuge in the caves of the earth when the earth itself is shaken; there
   will be no shelter then but in God and in things above.

   II. To humble and abase proud sinners, that look big, and think highly
   of themselves, and scornfully of all about them (v. 11): The lofty
   looks of man shall be humbled. The eyes that aim high, the countenance
   in which the pride of the heart shows itself, shall be cast down in
   shame and despair. And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
   their spirits shall be broken, and they shall be crest-fallen, and
   those things which they were proud of they shall be ashamed of. It is
   repeated (v. 17), The loftiness of man shall be bowed down. Note, Pride
   will, one way or other, have a fall. Men's haughtiness will be brought
   down, either by the grace of God convincing them of the evil of their
   pride, and clothing them with humility, or by the providence of God
   depriving them of all those things they were proud of and laying them
   low. Our Saviour often laid it down for a maxim that he who exalts
   himself shall be abased; he shall either abase himself in true
   repentance or God will abase him and pour contempt upon him. Now here
   we are told,

   1. Why this shall be done: because the Lord alone will be exalted.
   Note, Proud men shall be vilified because the Lord alone will be
   magnified. It is for the honour of God's power to humble the proud; by
   this he proves himself to be God, and disproves Job's pretensions to
   rival with him, Job xl. 11-14. Behold every one that is proud, and
   abase him; then will I also confess unto thee. It is likewise for the
   honour of his justice. Proud men stand in competition with God, who is
   jealous for his own glory, and will not suffer men either to take to
   themselves or give to another that which is due to him only. They
   likewise stand in opposition to God; they resist him, and therefore he
   resists them; for he will be exalted among the heathen (Ps. xlvi. 10),
   and there is a day coming in which he alone will be exalted, when he
   shall have put down all opposing rule, principality, and power, 1 Cor.
   xv. 24.

   2. How this shall be done: by humbling judgments, that shall mortify
   men, and bring them down (v. 12): The day of the Lord of hosts, the day
   of his wrath and judgment, shall be upon every one that is proud. He
   now laughs at their insolence because he sees that his day is coming,
   this day, which will be upon them ere they are aware, Ps. xxxvii. 13.
   This day of the Lord is here said to be upon all the cedars of Lebanon,
   that are high and lifted up. Jerome observes that the cedars are said
   to praise God (Ps. cxlviii. 9) and are trees of the Lord (Ps. civ. 16),
   of his planting (Isa. xli. 19), and yet here God's wrath fastens upon
   the cedars, which denotes (says he) that some of every rank of men,
   some great men, will be saved, and some perish. It is brought in as an
   instance of the strength of God's voice that it breaks the cedars (Ps.
   xxix. 5), and here the day of the Lord is said to be upon the cedars,
   those of Lebanon, they were the straightest and statliest,--upon the
   oaks, those of Bashan, that were the strongest and sturdiest,--upon the
   natural elevations and fortresses, the highest mountains and the hills
   that are lifted up (v. 14), that overtop the valleys and seem to push
   the skies,--and upon the artificial fastnesses, every high tower and
   every fenced wall, v. 15. Understand these, (1.) As representing the
   proud people themselves, that are in their own apprehensions like the
   cedars and the oaks, firmly rooted, and not to be stirred by any storm,
   and looking on all around them as shrubs; these are the high mountains
   and the lofty hills that seem to fill the earth, that are gazed on by
   all, and think themselves immovable, but lie most obnoxious to God's
   thunderstrokes. Feriuntique summos fulmina montes--The highest hills
   are most exposed to lightning. And before the power of God's wrath
   these mountains are scattered and these hills bow and melt like wax,
   Hab. iii. 6; Ps. lxvi. 8. These vaunting men, who are as high towers in
   which the noisy bells are hung, on which the thundering murdering
   cannon are planted--these fenced walls, that fortify themselves with
   their native hardiness, and intrench themselves in their
   fastnesses--shall be brought down. (2.) As particularizing the things
   they are proud of, in which they trust, and of which they make their
   boast. The day of the Lord shall be upon those very things in which
   they put their confidence as their strength and security; he will take
   from them all their armour wherein they trusted. Did the inhabitants of
   Lebanon glory in their cedars, and those of Bashan in their oaks, such
   as no country could equal? The day of the Lord should rend those
   cedars, those oaks, and the houses built of them. Did Jerusalem glory
   in the mountains that were round about it, as its impregnable
   fortifications, or in its walls and bulwarks? These should be levelled
   and laid low in the day of the Lord. Besides those things that were for
   their strength and safety they were proud, [1.] Of their trade abroad;
   but the day of the Lord shall be upon all the ships of Tarshish; they
   shall be broken as Jehoshaphat's were, shall founder at sea or be
   ship-wrecked in harbour. Zebulun was a haven of ships, but should now
   no more rejoice in his going out. When God is bringing ruin upon a
   people he can sink all the branches of their revenue. [2.] Of their
   ornaments at home; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all pleasant
   pictures, the painting of their ships (so some understand it) or the
   curious pieces of painting they brought home in their ships from other
   countries, perhaps from Greece, which afterwards was famous for
   painters. Upon every thing that is beautiful to behold; so some read
   it. Perhaps they were the pictures of their relations, and for that
   reason pleasant, or of their gods, which to the idolaters were
   delectable things; or they admired them for the fineness of their
   colours or strokes. There is no harm in making pictures, nor in
   adorning our rooms with them, provided they transgress not either the
   second or the seventh commandment. But to place our pictures among our
   pleasant things, to be fond of them and proud of them, to spend that
   upon them which should be laid out in charity, and to set our hearts
   upon them, as it ill becomes those who have so many substantial things
   to take pleasure in, so it tends to provoke God to strip us of all such
   vain ornaments.

   III. To make idolaters ashamed of their idols, and of all the affection
   they have had for them and the respect they have paid to them (v. 18):
   The idols he shall utterly abolish. When the Lord alone shall be
   exalted (v. 17) he will not only pour contempt upon proud men, who like
   Pharaoh exalt themselves against him, but much more upon all pretended
   deities, who are rivals with him for divine honours. They shall be
   abolished, utterly abolished. Their friends shall desert them; their
   enemies shall destroy them; so that, one way or other, an utter
   riddance shall be made of them. See here, 1. The vanity of false gods;
   they cannot secure themselves, so far are they from being able to
   secure their worshippers. 2. The victory of the true God over them; for
   great is the truth and will prevail. Dagon fell before the ark, and
   Baal before the Lord God of Elijah. The gods of the heathen shall be
   famished (Zeph. ii. 11), and by degrees shall perish, Jer. x. 11. The
   rightful Sovereign will triumph over all pretenders. And, as God will
   abolish idols, so their worshippers shall abandon them, either from a
   gracious conviction of their vanity and falsehood (as Ephraim when he
   said, What have I to do any more with idols?) or from a late and sad
   experience of their inability to help them, and a woeful despair of
   relief by them, v. 20. When men are themselves frightened by the
   judgments of God into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth,
   and find that they do thus in vain shift for their own safety, they
   shall cast their idols, which they have made their gods, and hoped to
   make their friends in the time of need, to the moles and to the bats,
   any where out of sight, that, being freed from the incumbrance of them,
   they may go into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord, v. 21.
   Note, (1.) Those that will not be reasoned out of their sins sooner or
   later shall be frightened out of them. (2.) God can make men sick of
   those idols that they have been most fond of, even the idols of silver
   and the idols of gold, the most precious. Covetous men make silver and
   gold their idols, money their god; but the time may come when they may
   feel it as much their burden as ever they made it their confidence, and
   may find themselves as much exposed by it as ever they hoped they
   should be guarded by it, when it tempts their enemy, sinks their ship,
   or retards their flight. There was a time when the mariners threw the
   wares, and even the wheat into the sea (Jonah i. 5; Acts xxvii. 38),
   and the Syrians cast away their garments for haste, 2 Kings vii. 15. Or
   men may cast it away out of indignation at themselves for leaning upon
   such a broken reed. See Ezek. vii. 19. The idolaters here throw away
   their idols because they are ashamed of them and of their own folly in
   trusting to them, or because they are afraid of having them found in
   their possession when the judgments of God are abroad; as the thief
   throws away his stolen goods then he is searched for or pursued. (3.)
   The darkest holes, where the moles and the bats lodge, are the fittest
   places for idols, that have eyes and see not; and God can force men to
   cast their own idols there (ch. xxx. 22), when they are ashamed of the
   oaks which they have desired, ch. i. 29. Moab shall be ashamed of
   Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, Jer. xlviii. 13.
   (4.) It is possible that sin may be both loathed and left and yet not
   truly repented of--loathed because surfeited on, left because there is
   no opportunity of committing it, yet not repented of out of any love to
   God, but only from a slavish fear of his wrath.

   IV. To make those that have trusted in an arm of flesh ashamed of their
   confidence (v. 22): "Cease from man. The providences of God concerning
   you shall speak this aloud to you, and therefore take warning
   beforehand, that you may prevent the uneasiness and shame of
   disappointment; and consider, 1. How weak man is: His breath is in his
   nostrils, puffed out every moment, soon gone for good and all." Man is
   a dying creature, and may die quickly; our nostrils, in which our
   breath is, are of the outward parts of the body; what is there is like
   one standing at the door, ready to depart; nay the doors of the
   nostrils are always open, the breath in them may slip away ere we are
   aware, in a moment. Wherein then is man to be accounted of? Alas! no
   reckoning is to be made of him, for he is not what he seems to be, what
   he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be. Man is like vanity, nay, he
   is vanity, he is altogether vanity, he is less, he is lighter, than
   vanity, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. "2. How wise
   therefore those are that cease from man;" it is our duty, it is our
   interest, to do so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the
   greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not
   your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived
   and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds. Let not
   him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of
   God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread
   his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your help, and let your hope
   be in the Lord your God."
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. III.

   The prophet, in this chapter, goes on to foretel the desolations that
   were coming upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, both that by the
   Babylonians and that which completed their ruin by the Romans, with
   some of the grounds of God's controversy with them. God threatens, I.
   To deprive them of all the supports both of their life and of their
   government, ver. 1-3. II. To leave them to fall into confusion and
   disorder, ver. 4, 5, 12. III. To deny them the blessing of magistracy,
   ver. 6-8. IV. To strip the daughters of Zion of their ornaments, ver.
   17-24. V. To lay all waste by the sword of war, ver. 25, 26. The sins
   that provoked God to deal thus with them were, 1. Their defiance of
   God, ver. 8. 2. Their impudence, ver. 9. 3. The abuse of power to
   oppression and tyranny, ver. 12-15. 4. The pride of the daughters of
   Zion, ver. 16. In the midst of the chapter the prophet is directed how
   to address particular persons. (1.) To assure good people that it
   should be well with them, notwithstanding those general calamities,
   ver. 10. (2.) To assure wicked people that, however God might, in
   judgment, remember mercy, yet it should go ill with them, ver. 11. O
   that the nations of the earth, at this day, would hearken to rebukes
   and warnings which this chapter gives!

Judgments Denounced. (b. c. 758.)

   1 For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from
   Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of
   bread, and the whole stay of water,   2 The mighty man, and the man of
   war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,   3
   The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and
   the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.   4 And I will give
   children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.   5 And
   the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by
   his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the
   ancient, and the base against the honourable.   6 When a man shall take
   hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast
   clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:   7
   In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my
   house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
     8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue
   and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his
   glory.

   The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had given a
   necessary caution to all not to put confidence in man, or any creature;
   he had also given a general reason for that caution, taken from the
   frailty of human life and the vanity and weakness of human powers. Here
   he gives a particular reason for it--God was now about to ruin all
   their creature-confidences, so that they should meet with nothing but
   disappointments in all their expectations from them (v. 1): The stay
   and the staff shall be taken away, all their supports, of what kind
   soever, all the things they trusted to and looked for help and relief
   from. Their church and kingdom had now grown old and were going to
   decay, and they were (after the manner of aged men, Zech. viii. 4)
   leaning on a staff: now God threatens to take away their staff, and
   then they must fall of course, to take away the stays of both the city
   and the country, of Jerusalem and of Judah, which are indeed stays to
   one another, and, if one fail, the other feels from it. He that does
   this is the Lord, the Lord of hosts--Adon, the Lord that is himself the
   stay or foundation; if that stay depart, all other stays certainly
   break under us, for he is the strength of them all. He that is the
   Lord, the ruler, that has authority to do it, and the Lord of hosts,
   that has the ability to do it, he shall take away the stay and the
   staff. St. Jerome refers this to the sensible decay of the Jewish
   nation after they had crucified our Saviour, Rom. xi. 9, 10. I rather
   take it as a warning to all nations not to provoke God; for if they
   make him their enemy, he can and will thus make them miserable. Let us
   view the particulars.

   I. Was their plenty a support to them? It is so to any people; bread is
   the staff of life: but God can take away the whole stay of bread, and
   the whole stay of water; and it is just with him to do so when fulness
   of bread becomes an iniquity (Ezek. xvi. 49), and that which was given
   to be provision for the life is made provision for the lusts. He can
   take away the bread and the water by withholding the rain, Deut.
   xxviii. 23, 24. Or, if he allow them, he can take away the stay of
   bread and the stay of water by withholding his blessing, by which man
   lives, and not by bread only, and which is the staff of bread (Matt.
   iv. 4), and then the bread is not nourishing nor the water refreshing,
   Hag. i. 6. Christ is the bread of life and the water of life; if he be
   our stay, we shall find that this is a good part not to be taken away,
   John iv. 14; vi. 27.

   II. Was their army a support to them--their generals, and commanders,
   and military men? These shall be taken away, either cut off by the
   sword or so discouraged with the defeats they meet with that they shall
   throw up their commissions and resolve to act no more; or they shall be
   disabled by sickness, or dispirited, so as to be unfit for business;
   The mighty men, and the man of war, and even the inferior officer, the
   captain of fifty, shall be removed. It bodes ill with a people when
   their valiant men are lost. Let not the strong man therefore glory in
   his strength, nor any people trust too much to their mighty men; but
   let the strong people glorify God and the city of the terrible nations
   fear him, who can make them weak and despicable, ch. xxv. 3.

   III. Were their ministers of state a support to them--their learned
   men, their politicians, their clergy, their wits and virtuoso? These
   also should be taken away--the judges, who were skilled in the laws,
   and expert in administering justice,--the prophets, whom they used to
   consult in difficult cases,--the prudent, who were celebrated as men of
   sense and sagacity above all others and were assistants to the judges,
   the diviners (so the word is), those who used unlawful arts, who,
   though rotten stays, yet were stayed on, (but it may be taken, as we
   read it, in a good sense),--the ancients, elders in age, in
   office,--the honourable man, the gravity of whose aspect commands
   reverence and whose age and experience make him fit to be a counsellor.
   Trade is one great support to a nation, even manufactures and
   handicraft trades; and therefore, when the whole stay is broken, the
   cunning artificer too shall be taken away; and the last is the eloquent
   orator, the man skilful of speech, who in some cases may do good
   service, though he be none of the prudent or the ancient, by putting
   the sense of others in good language. Moses cannot speak well, but
   Aaron can. God threatens to take these away, that is, 1. To disable
   them for the service of their country, making judges fools, taking away
   the speech of the trusty and the understanding of the aged, Job xii.
   17, &c. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; and we
   cannot be sure that those who have been serviceable to us shall always
   be so. 2. To put an end to their days; for the reason why princes are
   not to be trusted in is because their breath goeth forth, Ps. cxlvi. 3,
   4. Note, The removal of useful men by death, in the midst of their
   usefulness, is a very threatening symptom to any people.

   IV. Was their government a support to them? It ought to have been so;
   it is the business of the sovereign to bear up the pillars of the land,
   Ps. lxxv. 3. But it is here threatened that this stay should fail them.
   When the mighty men and the prudent are removed children shall be their
   princes--children in age, who must be under tutors and governors, who
   will be clashing with one another and making a prey of the young king
   and his kingdom-children in understanding and disposition, childish
   men, such as are babes in knowledge, no more fit to rule than a child
   in the cradle. These shall rule over them, with all the folly,
   fickleness, and frowardness, of a child. And woe unto thee, O land!
   when thy king is such a one! Eccl. x. 16.

   V. Was the union of the subjects among themselves, their good order and
   the good understanding and correspondence that they kept with one
   another, a stay to them? Where this is the case a people may do better
   for it, though their princes be not such as they should be; but it is
   here threatened that God would send an evil spirit among them too (as
   Judg. ix. 23), which would make them, 1. Injurious and unneighbourly
   one towards another (v. 5): "The people shall be oppressed every one by
   his neighbour," and their princes, being children, will take no care to
   restrain the oppressors or relieve the oppressed, nor is it to any
   purpose to appeal to them (which is a temptation to every man to be his
   own avenger), and therefore they bite and devour one another and will
   soon be consumed one of another. Then homo homini lupus--man becomes a
   wolf to man; jusque datum sceleri--wickedness receives the stamp of
   law; nec hospes ab hospite tutus--the guest and the host are in danger
   from each other. 2. Insolent and disorderly towards their superiors. It
   is as ill an omen to a people as can be when the rising generation
   among them are generally untractable, rude, and ungovernable, when the
   child behaves himself proudly against the ancient, whereas he should
   rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man, Lev.
   xix. 32. When young people are conceited and pert, and behave
   scornfully towards their superiors, their conduct is not only a
   reproach to themselves, but of ill consequence to the public; it
   slackens the reins of government and weakens the hands that hold them.
   It is likewise ill with a people when persons of honour cannot support
   their authority, but are affronted by the base and beggarly, when
   judges are insulted and their powers set at defiance by the mob. Those
   have a great deal to answer for who do this.

   VI. It is some stay, some support, to hope that, though matters may be
   now ill-managed, yet other may be raised up, who may manage better? Yet
   this expectation also shall be frustrated, for the case shall be so
   desperate that no man of sense or substance will meddle with it.

   1. The government shall go a begging, v. 6. Here, (1.) It is taken for
   granted that there is no way of redressing all these grievances, and
   bringing things into order again, but by good magistrates, who shall be
   invested with power by common consent, and shall exert that power for
   the good of the community. And it is probable that this was, in many
   places, the true origin of government; men found it necessary to unite
   in a subjection to one who was thought fit for such a trust, in order
   to the welfare and safety of them all, being aware that they must
   either be ruled or ruined. Here therefore is the original contract: "Be
   thou our ruler, and we will be subject to thee, and let this ruin be
   under thy hand, to be repaired and restored, and then to be preserved
   and established, and the interests of it advanced, ch. lviii. 12. Take
   care to protect us by the sword of war from being injured from abroad,
   and by the sword of justice from being injurious to another, and we
   will bear faith and true allegiance to thee." (2.) The case is
   represented as very deplorable, and things as having come to a sad
   pass; for, [1.] Children being their princes, every man will think
   himself fit to prescribe who shall be a magistrate, and will be for
   preferring his own relations; whereas, if the princes were as they
   should be, it would be left entirely to them to nominate the rulers, as
   it ought to be. [2.] Men will find themselves under a necessity even of
   forcing power into the hands of those that are thought to be fit for
   it: A man shall take hold by violence of one to make him a ruler,
   perceiving him ready to resist the motion: nay, he shall urge it upon
   his brother; whereas, commonly, men are not willing that their equals
   should be their superiors, witness the envy of Joseph's brethren. [3.]
   It will be looked upon as ground sufficient for the preferring of a man
   to be a ruler that he has clothing better than his neighbours--a very
   poor qualification to recommend a man to a place of trust in the
   government. It was a sign that the country was much impoverished when
   it was a rare thing to find a man that had good clothes, or could
   afford to buy himself an alderman's gown or a judge's robes; and it was
   proof enough that the people were very unthinking when they had so much
   respect to a man in gay clothing, with a gold ring ( Jam. ii. 2, 3),
   that, for the sake thereof, they would make him their ruler. It would
   have been some sense to have said, "Thou hast wisdom, integrity,
   experience; be thou our ruler." But it was a jest to say, Thou hast
   clothing; be thou our ruler. A poor wise man, though in vile raiment,
   delivered a city, Eccl. ix. 15. We may allude to this to show how
   desperate the case of fallen man was when our Lord Jesus was pleased to
   become our brother, and, though he was not courted, offered himself to
   be our ruler and Saviour, and to take this ruin under his hand.

   2. Those who are thus pressed to come into office will swear themselves
   off, because, though they are taken to be men of some substance, yet
   they know themselves unable to bear the charges of the office and to
   answer the expectations of those that choose them (v. 7): He shall
   swear (shall lift up the hand, the ancient ceremony used in taking the
   oath) I will not be a healer; make not me a ruler. Note, Rulers must be
   healers, and good rulers will be so; they must study to unite their
   subjects, and not to widen the differences that are among them. Those
   only are fit for government that are of a meek, quiet, healing, spirit.
   They must also heal the wounds that are given to any of the interests
   of their people, by suitable applications. But why will he not be a
   ruler? Because in my house is neither bread nor clothing. (1.) If he
   said true, it was a sign that men's estates were sadly ruined when even
   those who made the best appearance really wanted necessaries--a common
   case, and a piteous one. Some who, having lived fashionably, are
   willing to put the best side outwards, are yet, if the truth were
   known, in great straits, and go with heavy hearts for want of bread and
   clothing. (2.) If he did not speak truth, it was a sign that men's
   consciences were sadly debauched, when, to avoid the expense of an
   office, they would load themselves with the guilt of perjury, and
   (which is the greatest madness in the world) would damn their souls to
   save their money, Matt. xvi. 26. (3.) However it was, it was a sign
   that the case of the nation was very bad when nobody was willing to
   accept a place in the government of it, as despairing to have either
   credit or profit by it, which are the two things aimed at in men's
   common ambition of preferment.

   3. The reason why God brought things to this sad pass, even among his
   own people (which is given either by the prophet or by him that refused
   to be a ruler); it was not for want of good will to his country, but
   because he saw the case desperate and past relief, and it would be to
   no purpose to attempt it (v. 8): Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is
   fallen; and they may thank themselves. They have brought their
   destruction upon their own heads, for their tongue and their doings are
   against the Lord; in word and action they broke the law of God and
   therein designed an affront to him; they wilfully intended to offend
   him, in contempt of his authority and defiance of his justice. Their
   tongue was against the Lord, for they contradicted his prophets; and
   their doings were no better, for they acted as they talked. It was an
   aggravation of their sin that God's eye was upon them, and that his
   glory was manifested among them; but they provoked him to his face, as
   if the more they knew of his glory the greater pride they took in
   slighting it, and turning it into shame. And this, this, is it for
   which Jerusalem is ruined. Note, The ruin both of persons and people is
   owing to their sins. If they did not provoke God, he would do them no
   hurt, Jer. xxv. 6.

Judgments Denounced.. (b. c. 758.)

   9 The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they
   declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for
   they have rewarded evil unto themselves.   10 Say ye to the righteous,
   that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their
   doings.   11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the
   reward of his hands shall be given him.   12 As for my people, children
   are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which
   lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.   13 The
   Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.   14 The
   Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the
   princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the
   poor is in your houses.   15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to
   pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.

   Here God proceeds in his controversy with his people. Observe,

   I. The ground of his controversy. It was for sin that God contended
   with them; if they vex themselves, let them look a little further and
   they will see that they must thank themselves: Woe unto their souls!
   For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Alas for their souls! (so
   it may be read, in a way of lamentation), for they have procured evil
   to themselves, v. 9. Note, The condition of sinners is woeful and very
   deplorable. Note, also, It is the soul that is damaged and endangered
   by sin. Sinners may prosper in their outward estates, and yet at the
   same time there may be a woe to their souls. Note, further, Whatever
   evils befals sinners it is of their own procuring, Jer. ii. 19. That
   which is here charged upon then is, 1. That the shame which should have
   restrained them from their sins was quite thrown off and they had grown
   impudent, v. 9. This hardens men against repentance, and ripens them
   for ruin, as much as anything: The show of their countenance doth
   witness against them that their minds are vain, and lewd, and
   malicious; their eyes declare plainly that they cannot cease from sin,
   2 Pet. ii. 14. One may look them in the face and guess at the desperate
   wickedness that there is in their hearts: They declare their sin as
   Sodom, so impetuous, so imperious, are their lusts, and so impatient of
   the least check, and so perfectly are all the remaining sparks of
   virtue extinguished in them. The Sodomites declared their sin, not only
   by the exceeding greatness of it (Gen. xiii. 13), so that it cried to
   heaven (Gen. xviii. 20), but by their shameless owning of that which
   was most shameful (Gen. xix. 5); and thus Judah and Jerusalem did: they
   were so far from hiding it that they gloried in it, in the bold
   attempts they made upon virtue, and the victory they gained over their
   own convictions. They had a whore's forehead (Jer. iii. 3) and could
   not blush, Jer. vi. 15. Note, Those that have grown impudent in sin are
   ripe for ruin. Those that are past shame (we say) are past grace, and
   then past hope. 2. That their guides, who should direct them in the
   right way, put them out of the way (v. 12): "Those who lead thee (the
   princes, priests, and prophets) mislead thee; they cause thee to err."
   Either they preached to them that which was false and corrupt, or, if
   they preached that which was true and good, they contradicted it by
   their practices, and the people would soon follow a bad example than a
   good exhortation. Thus they destroyed the ways of their paths, pulling
   down with one hand what they built up with the other. Que te
   beatificant--Those that call thee blessed cause thee to err; so some
   read it. Their priests applauded them, as if nothing were amiss among
   them, cried Peace, peace, to them, as if they were in no danger; and
   thus they caused them to go on in their errors. 3. That their judges,
   who should have patronized and protected the oppressed, were themselves
   the greatest oppressors, v. 14, 15. The elders of the people, and the
   princes, who had learning and could not but know better things, who had
   great estates and were not under the temptation of necessity to
   encroach upon those about them, and who were men of honour and should
   have scorned to do a base thing, yet they have eaten up the vineyard.
   God's vineyard, which they were appointed to be the dressers and
   keepers of, they burnt (so the word signifies); they did as ill by it
   as its worst enemies could do, Ps. lxxx. 16. Or the vineyards of the
   poor they wrested out of their possession, as Jezebel did Naboth's, or
   devoured the fruits of them, fed their lusts with that which should
   have been the necessary food of indigent families; the spoil of the
   poor was hoarded up in their houses; when God came to search for stolen
   goods there he found it, and it was a witness against them. It was to
   be had, and they might have made restitution, but would not. God
   reasons with these great men (v. 15): "What mean you, that you beat my
   people into pieces? What cause have you for it? What good does it do
   you?" Or, "What hurt have they done you? Do you think you had power
   given you for such a purpose as this?" Note, There is nothing more
   unaccountable, and yet nothing which must more certainly be accounted
   for, than the injuries and abuses that are done to God's people by
   their persecutors and oppressors. "You grind the faces of the poor; you
   put them to as much pain and terror as if they were ground in a mill,
   and as certainly reduce them to dust by one act of oppression after
   another." Or, "Their faces are bruised and crushed with the blows you
   have given them; you have not only ruined their estates, but have given
   them personal abuses." Our Lord Jesus was smitten on the face, Matt.
   xxvi. 67.

   II. The management of this controversy. 1. God himself is the
   prosecutor (v. 13): The Lord stands up to plead, or he sets himself to
   debate the matter, and he stands to judge the people, to judge for
   those that were oppressed and abused; and he will enter into judgment
   with the princes, v. 14. Note, The greatest of men cannot exempt or
   secure themselves from the scrutiny and sentence of God's judgment, nor
   demur to the jurisdiction of the court of heaven. 2. The indictment is
   proved by the notorious evidence of the fact: "Look upon the
   oppressors, and the show of their countenance witnesses against them
   (v. 9); look upon the oppressed, and you see how their faces are
   battered and abused," v. 15. 3. The controversy is already begun in the
   change of the ministry. To punish those that had abused their power to
   bad purposes God sets those over them that had not sense to use their
   power to any good purposes: Children are their oppressors, and women
   rule over them (v. 12), men that have as weak judgments and strong
   passions as women and children: this was their sin, that their rulers
   were such, and it became a judgment upon them.

   III. The distinction that shall be made between particular persons, in
   the prosecution of this controversy (v. 10, 11): Say to the righteous,
   It shall be well with thee. Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with
   him. He had said (v. 9), they have rewarded evil to themselves, in
   proof of which he here shows that God will render to every man
   according to his works. Had they been righteous, it would have been
   well with them; but, if it be ill with them, it is because they are
   wicked and will be so. Thus God stated the matter to Cain, to convince
   him that he had no reason to be angry, Gen. iv. 7. Or it may be taken
   thus: God is threatening national judgments, which will ruin the public
   interests. Now, 1. Some good people might fear that they should be
   involved in that ruin, and therefore God bids the prophets comfort them
   against those fears: "Whatever becomes of the unrighteous nation, let
   the righteous man know that he shall not be lost in the crowd of
   sinners; the Judge of all the earth will not slay the righteous with
   the wicked (Gen. xviii. 25); no, assure him, in God's name, that it
   shall be well with him. The property of the trouble shall be altered to
   him, and he shall be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. He shall
   have divine supports and comforts, which shall abound as afflictions
   abound, and so it shall be well with him." When the whole stay of bread
   is taken away, yet in the day of famine the righteous shall be
   satisfied; they shall eat the fruit of their doings--they shall have
   the testimony of their consciences for them that they kept themselves
   pure from the common iniquity, and therefore the common calamity is not
   the same thing to them that it is to others; they brought no fuel to
   the flame, and therefore are not themselves fuel for it. 2. Some wicked
   people might hope that they should escape that ruin, and therefore God
   bids the prophets shake their vain hopes: "Woe to the wicked; it shall
   be ill with him, v. 11. To him the judgments shall have sting, and
   there shall be wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery." There
   is a woe to wicked people, and, though they may think to shelter
   themselves from public judgments, yet it shall be ill with them; it
   will grow worse and worse with them if they repent not, and the worst
   of all will be at last; for the reward of their hands shall be given
   them, in the day when every man shall receive according to the things
   done in the body.

The Vanity of the Daughters of Zion. (b. c. 758.)

   16 Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
   and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and
   mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:   17
   Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the
   daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.   18
   In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling
   ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like
   the moon,   19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,   20
   The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the
   tablets, and the earrings,   21 The rings, and nose jewels,   22 The
   changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the
   crisping pins,   23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and
   the veils.   24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell
   there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of
   well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of
   sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.   25 Thy men shall fall by
   the sword, and thy mighty in the war.   26 And her gates shall lament
   and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

   The prophet's business was to show all sorts of people what they had
   contributed to the national guilt and what share they must expect in
   the national judgments that were coming. Here he reproves and warns the
   daughters of Zion, tells the ladies of their faults; and Moses, in the
   law, having denounced God's wrath against the tender and delicate woman
   (the prophets being a comment upon the law, Deut. xxviii. 56), he here
   tells them how they shall smart by the calamities that are coming upon
   them. Observe,

   I. The sin charged upon the daughters of Zion, v. 16. The prophet
   expressly vouches God's authority for what he said, lest it should be
   thought it was unbecoming in him to take notice of such things, and
   should be resented by the ladies: The Lord saith it. "Whether they will
   hear, or whether they will forbear, let them know that God takes notice
   of, and is much displeased with, the folly and vanity of proud women,
   and his law takes cognizance even of their dress." Two things that here
   stand indicted for--haughtiness and wantonness, directly contrary to
   that modesty, shamefacedness, and sobriety, with which women ought to
   adorn themselves, 1 Tim. ii. 9. They discovered the disposition of
   their mind by their gait and gesture, and the lightness of their
   carriage. They are haughty, for they walk with stretched-forth necks,
   that they may seem tall, or, as thinking nobody good enough to speak to
   them or to receive a look or a smile from them. Their eyes are wanton,
   deceiving (so the word is); with their amorous glances they draw men
   into their snares. They affect a formal starched way of going, that
   people may look at them, and admire them, and know they have been at
   the dancing-school, and have learned the minuet-step. They go mincing,
   or nicely tripping, not willing to set so much as the sole of their
   foot to the ground, for tenderness and delicacy. They make a tinkling
   with their feet, having, as some think, chains, or little bells, upon
   their shoes, that made a noise: they go as if they were fettered (so
   some read it), like a horse tramelled, that he may learn to pace. Thus
   Agag came delicately, 1 Sam. xv. 32. Such a nice affected mien is not
   only a force upon that which is natural, and ridiculous before men, men
   of sense; but as it is an evidence of a vain mind, it is offensive to
   God. And two things aggravated it here: 1. That these were the
   daughters of Zion, the holy mountain, who should have behaved with the
   gravity that becomes women professing godliness. 2. That it should
   seem, by the connexion, they were the wives and daughters of the
   princes who spoiled and oppressed the poor (v. 14, 15) that they might
   maintain the pride and luxury of their families.

   II. The punishments threatened for this sin; and they answer the sin as
   face answers to face in a glass, v. 17, 18. 1. They walked with
   stretched-forth necks, but God will smite with a scab the crown of
   their head, which shall lower their crests, and make them ashamed to
   show their heads, being obliged by it to cut off their hair. Note,
   Loathsome diseases are often sent as the just punishment of pride, and
   are sometimes the immediate effect of lewdness, the flesh and the body
   being consumed by it. 2. They cared not what they laid out in
   furnishing themselves with great variety of fine clothes; but God will
   reduce them to such poverty and distress that they shall not have
   clothes sufficient to cover their nakedness, but their uncomeliness
   shall be exposed through their rags. 3. They were extremely fond and
   proud of their ornaments; but God will strip them of those ornaments,
   when their houses shall be plundered, their treasures rifled, and they
   themselves led into captivity. The prophet here specifies many of the
   ornaments which they used as particularly as if he had been the keeper
   of their wardrobe or had attended them in their dressing-room. It is
   not at all material to enquire what sort of ornaments these
   respectively were and whether the translations rightly express the
   original words; perhaps 100 years hence the names of some of the
   ornaments that are now in use in our own land will be as little
   understood as some of those here mentioned now are. Fashions alter, and
   so do the names of them; and yet the mention of them is not in vain,
   but is designed to expose the folly of the daughters of Zion; for, (1.)
   Many of these things, we may suppose, were very odd and ridiculous,
   and, if they had not been in fashion, would have been hooted at. They
   were fitter to be toys for children to play with than ornaments for
   grown people to go to Mount Zion in. (2.) Those things that were decent
   and convenient, as the linen, the hoods, and the veils, needed not be
   provided in such abundance and variety. It is necessary to have apparel
   and proper that all should have it according to their rank; but what
   occasion was there for so many changeable suits of apparel (v. 22),
   that they might not be seen two days together in the same suit? "They
   must have (as the homily against excess of apparel speaks) one gown for
   the day, another for the night--one long, another short--one for the
   working day, another for the holy-day--one of this colour, another of
   that colour--one of cloth, another of silk or damask--one dress afore
   dinner, another after--one of the Spanish fashion, another Turkey--and
   never content with sufficient." All this, as it is an evidence of pride
   and vain curiosity, so must needs spend a great deal in gratifying a
   base lust that ought to be laid out in works of piety and charity; and
   it is well if poor tenants be not racked, or poor creditors defrauded
   to support it. (3.) The enumeration of these things intimates what care
   they were in about them, how much their hearts were upon them, what an
   exact account they kept of them, how nice and critical they were about
   them, how insatiable their desire was of them, and how much of their
   comfort was bound up in them. A maid could forget none of these
   ornaments, though they were ever so many (Jer. ii. 32), but they would
   report them as readily, and talk of them with as much pleasure, as if
   they had been things of the greatest moment. The prophet did not speak
   of these things as in themselves sinful (they might lawfully be had and
   used), but as things which they were proud of and should therefore be
   deprived of.

   III. They were very nice and curious about their clothes; but God would
   make those bodies of theirs, which were at such expense to beautify and
   make easy, a reproach and burden to them (v. 24): Instead of sweet
   smell (those tablets, or boxes, of perfume, houses of the soul or
   breath, as they are called, v. 20, margin) there shall be stink,
   garments grown filthy with being long worn, or from some loathsome
   disease or plasters for the cure of it. Instead of a rich embroidered
   girdle used to make the clothes sit tight, there shall be a rent, a
   rending of the clothes for grief, or old rotten clothes rent into rags.
   Instead of well-set hair, curiously plaited and powdered, there shall
   be baldness, the hair being plucked off or shaven, as was usual in
   times of great affliction (ch. xv. 2; Jer. xvi. 6), or in great
   servitude, Ezek. xxix. 18. Instead of a stomacher, or a scarf or sash,
   there shall be a girding of sackcloth, in token of deep humiliation;
   and burning instead of beauty. Those that had a good complexion, and
   were proud of it, when they are carried into captivity shall be tanned
   and sun-burnt; and it is observed that the best faces are soonest
   injured by the weather. From all this let us learn, 1. Not to be nice
   and curious about our apparel, not to affect that which is gay and
   costly, nor to be proud of it. 2. Not to be secure in the enjoyment of
   any of the delights of sense, because we know not how soon we may be
   stripped of them, nor what straits we may be reduced to.

   IV. They designed by these ornaments to charm the gentlemen, and win
   their affections (Prov. vii. 16, 17), but there shall be none to be
   charmed by them (v. 25): Thy men shall fall by the sword, and the
   mighty in the war, The fire shall consume them, and then the maidens
   shall not be given in marriage; as it is, Ps. lxxviii. 63. When the
   sword comes with commission the mighty commonly fall first by it,
   because they are most forward to venture. And, when Zion's guards are
   cut off, no marvel that Zion's gates lament and mourn (v. 26), the
   enemies having made themselves masters of them; and the city itself,
   being desolate, being emptied or swept, shall sit upon the ground like
   a disconsolate widow. If sin be harboured with in the walls,
   lamentation and mourning are near the gates.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. IV.

   In this chapter we have, I. A threatening of the paucity and scarceness
   of man (ver. 1), which might fitly enough have been added to the close
   of the foregoing chapter, to which it has a plain reference. II. A
   promise of the restoration of Jerusalem's peace and purity,
   righteousness and safety, in the days of the Messiah, ver. 2-6. Thus,
   in wrath, mercy is remembered, and gospel grace is a sovereign relief,
   in reference to the terrors of the law and the desolations made by sin.

Humiliation of the Daughters of Zion. (b. c. 758.)

   1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We
   will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called
   by thy name, to take away our reproach.

   It was threatened (ch. iii. 25) that the mighty men should fall by the
   sword in war, and it was threatened as a punishment to the women that
   affected gaiety and a loose sort of conversation. Now here we have the
   effect and consequence of that great slaughter of men, 1. That though
   Providence has so wisely ordered that, communibus annis--on an average
   of years, there is nearly an equal number of males and females born
   into the world, yet, through the devastations made by war, there should
   scarcely be one man in seven left alive. As there are deaths attending
   the bringing forth of children, which are peculiar to the woman, who
   was first in transgression, so, to balance that, there are deaths
   peculiar to men, those by the sword in the high places of the field,
   which perhaps devour more than child-bed does. Here it is foretold that
   such multitudes of men should be cut off that there should be seven
   women to one man. 2. That by reason of the scarcity of men, though
   marriage should be kept up for the raising of recruits and the
   preserving of the race of mankind upon earth, yet the usual method of
   it should be quite altered,--that, whereas men ordinarily make their
   court to the women, the women should now take hold of the men,
   foolishly fearing (as Lot's daughters did, when they saw the ruin of
   Sodom and perhaps thought it reached further than it did) that in a
   little time there would be none left (Gen. xix. 31),--that whereas
   women naturally hate to come in sharers with others, seven should now,
   by consent, become the wives of one man,--and that whereas by the law
   the husband was obliged to provide food and raiment for his wife (Exod.
   xxi. 10), which with many would be the most powerful argument against
   multiplying wives, these women will be bound to support themselves;
   they will eat bread of their own earning, and wear apparel of their own
   working, and the man they court shall be at no expense upon them, only
   they desire to be called his wives, to take away the reproach of a
   single life. They are willing to be wives upon any terms, though ever
   so unreasonable; and perhaps the rather because in these troublesome
   times it would be a kindness to them to have a husband for their
   protector. Paul, on the contrary, thinks the single state preferable in
   a time of distress, 1 Cor. vii. 26. It were well if this were not
   introduced here partly as a reflection upon the daughters of Zion,
   that, notwithstanding the humbling providences they were under (ch.
   iii. 18), they remained unhumbled, and, instead of repenting of their
   pride and vanity, when God was contending with them for them, all their
   care was to get husbands--that modesty, which is the greatest beauty of
   the fair sex, was forgotten, and with them the reproach of vice was
   nothing to the reproach of virginity, a sad symptom of the
   irrecoverable desolations of virtue.

The Future Glory of Zion. (b. c. 758.)

   2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious,
   and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that
   are escaped of Israel.   3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is
   left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy,
   even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:   4 When
   the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and
   shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the
   spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.   5 And the Lord will
   create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her
   assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire
   by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.   6 And there
   shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and
   for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

   By the foregoing threatenings Jerusalem is brought into a very
   deplorable condition: every thing looks melancholy. But here the sun
   breaks out from behind the cloud. Many exceedingly great and precious
   promises we have in these verses, giving assurance of comfort which may
   be discerned through the troubles, and of happy days which shall come
   after them, and these certainly point at the kingdom of the Messiah,
   and the great redemption to be wrought out by him, under the figure and
   type of the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem by the reforming reign
   of Hezekiah after Ahaz and the return out of their captivity in
   Babylon; to both these events the passage may have some reference, but
   chiefly to Christ. It is here promised, as the issue of all these
   troubles,

   I. That God will raise up a righteous branch, which shall produce
   fruits of righteousness (v. 2): In that day, that same day, at that
   very time, when Jerusalem shall be destroyed and the Jewish nation
   extirpated and dispersed, the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up;
   and then shall be the reviving of the church, when every one shall fear
   the utter ruin of it.

   1. Christ himself shall be exalted. He is the branch of the Lord, the
   man the branch; it is one of prophetical names, my servant the branch
   (Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12), the branch of righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 5;
   xxxiii. 15), a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his
   roots (ch. xi. 1), and this, as some think, is alluded to when he is
   called a Nazarene, Matt. ii. 23. Here he is called the branch of the
   Lord, because planted by his power and flourishing to his praise. The
   ancient Chaldee paraphrase here reads it, The Christ, or Messiah, of
   the Lord. He shall be the beauty, and glory, and joy. (1.) He shall
   himself be advanced to the joy set before him and the glory which he
   had with the Father before the world was. He that was a reproach of
   men, whose visage was marred more than any man's, is now, in the upper
   world, beautiful and glorious, as the sun in his strength, admired and
   adored by angels. (2.) He shall be beautiful and glorious in the esteem
   of all believers, shall gain an interest in the world, and a name among
   men above every name. To those that believe he is precious, he is an
   honour (1 Pet. ii. 7), the fairest of ten thousand (Cant. v. 10), and
   altogether glorious. Let us rejoice that he is so, and let him be so to
   us.

   2. His gospel shall be embraced. The success of the gospel is the fruit
   of the branch of the Lord; all the graces and comforts of the gospel
   spring from Christ. But it is called the fruit of the earth because it
   sprang up in this world and was calculated for the present state. And
   Christ compares himself to a grain of wheat, that falls into the ground
   and dies, and so brings forth much fruit, John xii. 24. The success of
   the gospel is represented by the earth's yielding her increase (Ps.
   lxvii. 6), and the planting of the Christian church is God's sowing it
   to himself in the earth, Hos. ii. 23. We may understand it of both the
   persons and the things that are the products of the gospel: they shall
   be excellent and comely, shall appear very agreeable and be very
   acceptable to those that have escaped of Israel, to that remnant of the
   Jews which was saved from perishing with the rest in unbelief, Rom. xi.
   5. Note, If Christ be precious to us, his gospel will be so and all its
   truths and promises--his church will be so, and all that belong to it.
   These are the good fruit of the earth, in comparison with which all
   other things are but weeds. It will be a good evidence to us that we
   are of the chosen remnant, distinguished from the rest that are called
   Israel, and marked for salvation, if we are brought to see a
   transcendent beauty in Christ, and in holiness, and in the saints, the
   excellent ones of the earth. As a type of this blessed day, Jerusalem,
   after Sennacherib's invasion and after the captivity in Babylon, should
   again flourish as a branch, and be blessed with the fruits of the
   earth. Compare ch. xxxvii. 31, 32. The remnant shall again take root
   downward and bear fruit upward. And if by the fruit of the earth here
   we understand the good things of this life, we may observe that these
   have peculiar sweetness in them to the chosen remnant, who, having a
   covenant--right to them, have the most comfortable use of them. If the
   branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious in our eyes, even the
   fruit of the earth also will be excellent and comely, because then we
   may take it as the fruit of the promise, Ps. xxxvii. 16; 1 Tim. iv. 8.

   II. That God will reserve to himself a holy seed, v. 3. When the
   generality of those that have a place and a name in Zion and in
   Jerusalem shall be cut off as withered branches, by their own unbelief,
   yet some shall be left. Some shall remain, some shall still cleave to
   the church, when its property is altered and it has become Christian;
   for God will not quite cast off his people, Rom. xi. 1. There is here
   and there one that is left. Now, 1. This is a remnant according to the
   election of grace (as the apostle speaks, Rom. xi. 5), such as are
   written among the living, marked in the counsel and fore-knowledge of
   God for life and salvation, written to life (so the word is), designed
   and determined for it unalterably; for "what I have written I have
   written." Those that are kept alive in killing dying times were written
   for life in the book of divine Providence; and shall we not suppose
   those who are rescued from a greater death to be such as were written
   in the Lamb's book of life? Rev. xiii. 8. As many as were ordained unto
   eternal life believed to the salvation of the soul, Acts xiii. 48.
   Note, All that were written among the living shall be found among the
   living, every one; for of all that were given to Christ he will lose
   none. 2. It is a remnant under the dominion of grace; for every one
   that is written among the living, and is accordingly left, shall be
   called holy, shall be holy, and shall be accepted of God accordingly.
   Those only that are holy shall be left when the Son of man shall gather
   out of his kingdom every thing that offends; and all that are chosen to
   salvation are chosen to sanctification. See 2 Thess. ii. 13; Eph. i. 4.

   III. That God will reform his church and will rectify and amend
   whatever is amiss in it, v. 4. Then the remnant shall be called holy,
   when the Lord shall have washed away their filth, washed it from among
   them by cutting off the wicked persons, washed it from within them by
   purging out the wicked thing. They shall not be called so till they are
   in some measure made so. Gospel times are times of reformation (Heb.
   ix. 10), typified by the reformation in the days of Hezekiah and that
   after captivity, to which this promise refers. Observe, 1. The places
   and persons to be reformed. Jerusalem, though the holy city, needed
   reformation; and, being the holy city, the reformation of that would
   have a good influence upon the whole kingdom. The daughters of Zion
   also must be reformed, the women in a particular manner, whom he had
   reproved, ch. iii. 16. When they were decked in their ornaments they
   thought themselves wondrously clean; but, being proud of them, the
   prophet call them their filth, for no sin is more abominable to God
   than pride. Or by the daughters of Zion may be meant the country towns
   and villages, which were related to Jerusalem as the mother-city, and
   which needed reformation. 2. The reformation itself. The filth shall be
   washed away; for wickedness is filthiness, particularly blood-shed, for
   which Jerusalem was infamous (2 Kings xxi. 16), and which defiles the
   land more than any other sin. Note, The reforming of a city is the
   cleansing of it. When vicious customs and fashions are suppressed, and
   the open practice of wickedness is restrained, the place is made clean
   and sweet which before was a dunghill; and this is not only for its
   credit and reputation among strangers, but for the comfort and health
   of the inhabitants themselves. 3. The author of the reformation: The
   Lord shall do it. Reformation-work is God's work; if any thing be done
   to purpose in it, it is his doing. But how? By the judgment of his
   providence the sinners were destroyed and consumed; but it is by the
   Spirit of his grace that they are reformed and converted. This is the
   work that is done, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the
   Lord of hosts (Zech. iv. 6), working both upon the sinners themselves
   that are to be reformed and upon magistrates, ministers, and others
   that are to be employed as instruments of reformation. The Spirit
   herein acts, (1.) As a spirit of judgment, enlightening the mind,
   convincing the conscience,--as a spirit of wisdom, guiding us to deal
   prudently, (Isa. lii. 13),--as a discerning, distinguishing, Spirit,
   separating between the precious and the vile. (2.) As a Spirit of
   burning, quickening and invigorating the afflictions, and making men
   zealously affected in a good work. The Spirit works as fire, Matt. iii.
   11. An ardent love to Christ and souls, and a flaming zeal against sin,
   will carry men on with resolution in their endeavours to turn away
   ungodliness from Jacob. See Isa. xxxii. 15, 16.

   IV. That God will protect his church, and all that belong to it (v. 5,
   6); when they are purified and reformed they shall no longer lie
   exposed, but God will take a particular care of them. Those that are
   sanctified are well fortified; for God will be to them a guide and a
   guard.

   1. Their tabernacles shall be defended, v. 5.

   (1.) This writ of protection refers to, [1.] Their dwelling places, the
   tabernacles of their rest, their own houses, where they worship God
   alone, and with their families. That blessing which is upon the
   habitation of the just shall be a protection to it, Prov. iii. 33. In
   the tabernacles of the righteous shall the voice of rejoicing and
   salvation be, Ps. cxviii. 15. Note, God takes particular cognizance and
   care of the dwelling-places of his people, of every one of them, the
   poorest cottage as well as the statliest palace. When iniquity is put
   far from the tabernacle the Almighty shall be its defence, Job xxiii.
   23, 26. [2.] Their assemblies or tabernacles of meeting for religious
   worship. No mention is made of the temple, for the promise points at a
   time when not one stone of that shall be left upon another; but all the
   congregations of Christians, though but two or three met together in
   Christ's name, shall be taken under the special protection of heaven;
   they shall be no more scattered, no more disturbed, nor shall any
   weapon formed against them prosper. Note, we ought to reckon it a great
   mercy if we have liberty to worship God in public, free from the alarms
   of the sword of war or persecution.

   (2.) This writ of protection is drawn up, [1.] In a similitude taken
   from the safety of the camp of Israel when they marched through the
   wilderness. God will give to the Christian church as real proofs,
   though not so sensible, of his care of them, as he then gave to Israel.
   The Lord will again create a cloud and smoke by day, to screen them
   from the scorching heat of the sun, and the shining of a flaming fire
   by night, to enlighten and warm the air, which in the night is cold and
   dark. See Exod. xiii. 21; Neh. ix. 19. This pillar of cloud and fire
   interposed between the Israelites and the Egyptians, Exod. xiv. 20.
   Note, Though miracles have ceased, yet God is the same to the
   New-Testament church that he was to Israel of old; the very same
   yesterday, to-day, and for ever. [2.] In a similitude taken from the
   outside cover of rams' skins and badgers' skins that was upon the
   curtains of the tabernacle, as if every dwelling place of Mount Zion
   and every assembly were as dear to God as that tabernacle was: Upon all
   the glory shall be a defense, to save it from wind and weather. Note,
   The church on earth has its glory. Gospel truths and ordinances, the
   scriptures and the ministry, are the church's glory; and upon all this
   glory there is a defence, and ever shall be, for the gates of hell
   shall not prevail against the church. If God himself be the glory in
   the midst of it, he will himself be a wall of fire around about it,
   impenetrable and impregnable. Grace in the soul is the glory of it, and
   those that have it are kept by the power of God as in a strong-hold, 1
   Pet. i. 5.

   2. Their tabernacle shall be a defence to them, v. 6. God's tabernacle
   was a pavilion to the saints (Ps. xxvii. 5); but, when that is taken
   down, they shall not want a covert: the divine power and goodness shall
   be a tabernacle to all the saints. God himself will be their
   hiding-place (Ps. xxxii. 7); they shall be at home in him, Ps. xci. 9.
   He will himself be to them as the shadow of a great rock (ch. xxxii. 2)
   and his name a strong tower, Prov. xviii. 10. He will be not only a
   shadow from the heat in the daytime, but a covert from storm and rain.
   Note, In this world we must expect change of weather and all the
   inconveniences that attend it; we shall meet with storm and rain in
   this lower region, and at other times the heat of the day no less
   burdensome; but God is a refuge to his people in all weathers.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. V.

   In this chapter the prophet, in God's name, shows the people of God
   their transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins, and the
   judgments which were likely to be brought upon them for their sins, I.
   By a parable, under the similitude of an unfruitful vineyard,
   representing the great favours God had bestowed upon them, their
   disappointing his expectations from them, and the ruin they had thereby
   deserved, ver. 1-7. II. By an enumeration of the sins that did abound
   among them, with a threatening of punishments that should answer to the
   sins. 1. Covetousness, and greediness of worldly wealth, which shall be
   punished with famine, ver. 8-10. 2. Rioting, revelling, and drunkenness
   (ver. 11, 12, 22, 23), which shall be punished with captivity and all
   the miseries that attend it, ver. 13-17. 3. Presumption in sin, and
   defying the justice of God, ver. 18, 19. 4. Confounding the
   distinctions between virtue and vice, and so undermining the principles
   of religion, ver. 20. 5. Self-conceit, ver. 21. 6. Perverting justice,
   for which, and the other instances of reigning wickedness among them, a
   great and general desolation in threatened, which should lay all waste
   (ver. 24, 25), and which should be effected by a foreign invasion (ver.
   26-30), referring perhaps to the havoc made not long after by
   Sennacherib's army.

Israel Compared to a Vineyard. (b. c. 758.)

   1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his
   vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:   2
   And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it
   with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also
   made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth
   grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.   3 And now, O inhabitants of
   Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my
   vineyard.   4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I
   have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
   forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?   5 And now go to; I will
   tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge
   thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and
   it shall be trodden down:   6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be
   pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will
   also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.   7 For the
   vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of
   Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold
   oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

   See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to
   repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and
   danger by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain
   terms and sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in
   verse, as here. "We have tried to reason with you (ch. i. 18); now let
   us put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well
   beloved." God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well
   beloved Son, whom he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet
   sings it to the honour of Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The
   Old-Testament prophets were friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God's
   beloved Son and our beloved Saviour. Whatever is said or sung of the
   church must be intended to his praise, even that which (like this)
   tends to our shame. This parable was put into a song that it might be
   the more moving and affecting, might be the more easily learned and
   exactly remembered, and the better transmitted to posterity; and it is
   an exposition of he song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), showing that what he
   then foretold was now fulfilled. Jerome says, Christ the well-beloved
   did in effect sing this mournful song when he beheld Jerusalem and wept
   over it (Luke xix. 41), and had reference to it in the parable of the
   vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33, &c.), only here the fault was in the vines,
   there in the husbandmen. Here we have,

   I. The great things which God had done for the Jewish church and
   nation. When all the rest of the world lay in common, not cultivated by
   divine revelation, that was his vineyard, they were his peculiar
   people. He acknowledged them as his own, set them apart for himself.
   The soil they were planted in was extraordinary; it was a very fruitful
   hill, the horn of the son of oil; so it is in the margin. There was
   plenty, a cornucopia; and there was dainty: they did there eat the fat
   and drink the sweet, and so were furnished with abundance of good
   things to honour God with in sacrifices and free-will offerings. The
   advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another
   day. Observe further what God did for this vineyard. 1. He fenced it,
   took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his
   own eye, lest any should hurt it, ch. xxvii. 2, 3. If they had not
   themselves thrown down their fence, no inroad could have been made upon
   them, Ps. cxxv. 2; cxxxi. 4. 2. He gathered the stones out of it, that,
   as nothing from without might damage it, so nothing within might
   obstruct its fruitfulness. He proffered his grace to take away the
   stony heart. 3. He planted it with the choicest vine, set up a pure
   religion among them, gave them a most excellent law, instituted
   ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their acquaintance with
   God, Jer. ii. 21. 4. He built a tower in the midst of it, either for
   defence against violence or for the dressers of the vineyard to lodge
   in; or rather it was for the owner of the vineyard to sit in, to take a
   view of the vines (Cant. vii. 12)--a summer-house. The temple was this
   tower, about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet
   his people, and gave them the tokens of his presence among them and
   pleasure in them. 5. He made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to
   which the sacrifices, as the fruits of the vineyard, should be brought.

   II. The disappointment of his just expectations from them: He looked
   that it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reason he had
   for that expectation. Note, God expects vineyard-fruit from those that
   enjoy vineyard-privileges, not leaves only, as Mark xi. 12. A bare
   profession, though ever so green, will not serve: there must be more
   than buds and blossoms. Good purposes and good beginnings are good
   things, but not enough; there must be fruit, a good heart and a good
   life, vineyard fruit, thoughts and affections, words and actions,
   agreeable to the Spirit, which is the fatness of the vineyard (Gal. v.
   22, 23), answerable to the ordinances, which are the dressings of the
   vineyard, acceptable to God, the Lord of the vineyard, and fruit
   according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects from us,
   grapes, the fruit of the vine, with which they honour God and man
   (Judg. ix. 13); and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but
   righteous and very reasonable. Yet see how his expectations are
   frustrated: It brought forth wild grapes; not only no fruit at all, but
   bad fruit, worse than none, grapes of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. 1. Wild
   grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature, fruit according to the
   crabstock, not according to the engrafted branch, from the root of
   bitterness, Heb. xii. 15. Where grace does not work corruption will. 2.
   Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like
   grapes, but are sour or bitter, and are so far from being pleasing to
   God that they are provoking, as theirs mentioned in ch. i. 11.
   Counterfeit graces are wild grapes.

   III. An appeal to themselves whether upon the whole matter God must not
   be justified and they condemned, v. 3, 4. And now the case is plainly
   stated: O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah! judge, I pray
   you, betwixt me and my vineyard. This implies that God was blamed about
   them. There was a controversy between them and him; but the equity was
   so plain on his side that he could venture to put the decision of the
   controversy to their own consciences. "Let any inhabitant of Jerusalem,
   any man of Judah, that has but the use of his reason and a common sense
   of equity and justice, speak his mind impartially in this matter." Here
   is a challenge to any man to show, 1. Any instance wherein God had been
   wanting to them: What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I
   have not done in it? He speaks of the external means of fruitfulness,
   and such as might be expected from the dresser of a vineyard, from whom
   it is not required that he should change the nature of the vine. What
   ought to have been done more? so it may be read. They had everything
   requisite for instruction and direction in their duty, for quickening
   them to it and putting them in mind of it. No inducements were wanting
   to persuade them to it, but all arguments were used that were proper to
   work either upon hope or fear; and they had all the opportunities they
   could desire for the performance of their duty, the new moons, and the
   sabbaths, and solemn feasts; They had the scriptures, the lively
   oracles, a standing ministry in the priests and Levites, besides what
   was extraordinary in the prophets. No nation had statutes and judgments
   so righteous. 2. Nor could any tolerable excuse be offered for their
   walking thus contrary to God. "Wherefore, what reason can be given why
   it should bring forth wild grapes, when I looked for grapes?" Note, The
   wickedness of those that profess religion, and enjoy the means of
   grace, is the most unreasonable unaccountable thing in the world, and
   the whole blame of it must lie upon the sinners themselves. "If thou
   scornest, thou alone shalt bear it, and shalt not have a word to say
   for thyself in the judgment of the great day." God will prove his own
   ways equal and the sinner's ways unequal.

   IV. Their doom read, and a righteous sentence passed upon them for
   their bad conduct towards God (v. 5, 6): "And now go to, since nothing
   can be offered in excuse of the crime or arrest of the judgement, I
   will tell you what I am now determined to do to my vineyard. I will be
   vexed and troubled with it no more; since it will be good for nothing,
   it shall be good for nothing; in short, it shall cease to be a
   vineyard, and be turned into a wilderness: the church of the Jews shall
   be unchurched; their charter shall be taken away, and they shall become
   lo-ammi--not my people." 1. "They shall no longer be distinguished as a
   peculiar people, but be laid in common: I will take away the hedge
   thereof, and then it will soon be eaten up and become as bare as other
   ground." They mingled with the nations and therefore were justly
   scattered among them. 2. "They shall no longer be protected as God's
   people, but left exposed. God will not only suffer the wall to go to
   decay, but he will break it down, will remove all their defences from
   them, and then they will become an easy prey to their enemies, who have
   long waited for an opportunity to do them a mischief, and will now
   tread them down and trample upon them." 3. "They shall no longer have
   the face of a vineyard, and the form and shape of a church and
   commonwealth, but shall be levelled and laid waste." This was fulfilled
   when Jerusalem for their sakes was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12.
   4. "No more pains shall be taken with them by magistrates or ministers,
   the dressers and keepers of their vineyard; it shall not be pruned nor
   digged, but every thing shall run wild, and nothing shall come up but
   briers and thorns, the products of sin and the curse," Gen. iii. 18.
   When errors and corruptions, vice and immorality, go without check or
   control, no testimony borne against them, no rebuke given them or
   restraint put upon them, the vineyard is unpruned, is not dressed, or
   ridded; and then it will soon be like the vineyard of the man void of
   understanding, all grown over with thorns. 5. "That which completes its
   woe is that the dews of heaven shall be withheld; he that has the key
   of the clouds will command them that they rain no rain upon it, and
   that alone is sufficient to run it into a desert." Note, God in a way
   of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have long
   received it in vain. The sum of all is that those who would not bring
   forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is
   the punishment of the sin of barrenness, as Mark xi. 14. This had its
   partial accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the
   Chaldeans, its full accomplishment in the final rejection of the Jews,
   and has its frequent accomplishment in the departure of God's Spirit
   from those persons who have long resisted him and striven against him,
   and the removal of his gospel from those places that have been long a
   reproach to it, while it has been an honour to them. It is no loss to
   God to lay his vineyard waste; for he can, when he please, turn a
   wilderness into a fruitful field; and when he does thus dismantle a
   vineyard, it is but as he did by the garden of Eden, which, when man
   had by sin forfeited his place in it, was soon levelled with common
   soil.

   V. The explanation of this parable, or a key to it (v. 7), where we are
   told, 1. What is meant by the vineyard (it is the house of Israel, the
   body of the people, incorporated in one church and commonwealth), and
   what by the vines, the pleasant plants, the plants of God's pleasure,
   which he had been pleased in and delighted in doing good to; they are
   the men of Judah; these he had dealt graciously with, and from them he
   expected suitable returns. 2. What is meant by the grapes that were
   expected and the wild grapes that were produces: He looked for judgment
   and righteousness, that the people should be honest in all their
   dealings and the magistrates should strictly administer justice. This
   might reasonably be expected among a people that had such excellent
   laws and rules of justice given them (Deut. iv. 8); but the fact was
   quite otherwise; instead of judgment there was the cruelty of the
   oppressors, and instead of righteousness the cry of the oppressed.
   Every thing was carried by clamour and noise, and not by equity and
   according to the merits of the cause. It is sad with a people when
   wickedness has usurped the place of judgment, Eccl. iii. 16. It is very
   sad with a soul when instead of the grapes of humility, meekness,
   patience, love, and contempt of the world, which God looks for, there
   are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent, malice, and contempt
   of God--instead of the grapes of praying and praising, the wild grapes
   of cursing and swearing, which are a great offence to God. Some of the
   ancients apply this to the Jews in Christ's time, among whom God looked
   for righteousness (that is, that they should receive and embrace
   Christ), but behold a cry, that cry, Crucify him, crucify him.

Worldly-Mindedness Reproved; The Punishment of the Sensual. (b. c. 758.)

   8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till
   there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the
   earth!   9 In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses
   shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.   10 Yea,
   ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer
   shall yield an ephah.   11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the
   morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night,
   till wine inflame them!   12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret,
   and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work
   of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.   13
   Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no
   knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude
   dried up with thirst.   14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and
   opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude,
   and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.   15 And
   the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be
   humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:   16 But the Lord
   of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be
   sanctified in righteousness.   17 Then shall the lambs feed after their
   manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

   The world and the flesh are the two great enemies that we are in danger
   of being overpowered by; yet we are in no danger if we do not ourselves
   yield to them. Eagerness of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, are
   the two sins against which the prophet, in God's name, here denounces
   woes. These were sins which then abounded among the men of Judah, some
   of the wild grapes they brought forth (v. 4), and for which God
   threatens to bring ruin upon them. They are sins which we have all need
   to stand upon our guard against and dread the consequences of.

   I. Here is a woe to those who set their hearts upon the wealth of the
   world, and place their happiness in that, and increase it to themselves
   by indirect and unlawful means (v. 8), who join house to house and lay
   field to field, till there be no place, no room for anybody to live by
   them. If they could succeed, they would be placed alone in the midst of
   the earth, would monopolize possessions and preferments, and engross
   all profits and employments to themselves. Not that it is a sin for
   those who have a house and a field, of they have wherewithal, to
   purchase another; but

   1. Their fault is, (1.) That they are inordinate in their desires to
   enrich themselves, and make it their whole care and business to raise
   an estate, as if they had nothing to mind, nothing to seek, nothing to
   do, in this world, but that. They never know when they have enough, but
   the more they have the more they would have; and, like the daughters of
   the horseleech, they cry, Give, give. They cannot enjoy what they have,
   nor do good with it, but are constantly contriving and studying to make
   it more. They must have variety of houses, a winter-house, and a
   summer-house, and if another man's house or field lie convenient to
   theirs, as Naboth's vineyard to Ahab's, they must have that too, or
   they cannot be easy. (2.) That they are herein careless of others, nay,
   and injurious to them. They would live so as to let nobody live but
   themselves. So that their insatiable covetings may be gratified, they
   care not what becomes of all about them, what encroachments they make
   upon their neighbours' rights, what hardships they put upon those that
   they have power over or advantage against, nor what base and wicked
   arts they use to heap up treasure to themselves. They would swell so
   big as to fill all space, and yet are still unsatisfied (Eccl. v. 10),
   as Alexander, who, when he fancied he had conquered the world, wept
   because he had not another world to conquer. Deficiente terrâ, non
   impletur avaritia--If the whole earth were monopolized, avarice would
   thirst for more. What! will you be placed alone in the midst of the
   earth? (so some read it); will you be so foolish as to desire it, when
   we have so much need of the service of others and so much comfort in
   their society? Will you be so foolish as to expect that the earth shall
   be forsaken for us (Job xviii. 4), when it is by multitudes that the
   earth is to be replenished? An propter vos solos tanta terra creata
   est?--Was the wide world created merely for you? Lyra.

   2. That which is threatened as the punishment of this sin is that
   neither the houses nor the fields they were thus greedy of should turn
   to any account, v. 9, 10. God whispered it to the prophet in his ear,
   as he speaks in a like case (ch. xxii. 14): It was revealed in my ears
   by the Lord of hosts (as God told Samuel a thing in his ear, 1 Sam. ix.
   15); he thought he heard it still sounding in his ears; but he
   proclaimed it, as he ought, upon the house-tops, Matt. x. 27. (1.) That
   the houses they were so fond of should be untenanted, should stand long
   empty, and should yield them no rent, and go out of repair: Many houses
   shall be desolate, the people that should dwell in them, being cut off
   by sword, famine, or pestilence, or carried into captivity; or trade
   being dead, and poverty coming upon the country like an armed man,
   those that had been housekeepers were forced to become lodgers, or
   shift for themselves elsewhere. Even great and fair houses, that would
   invite tenants, and (there being a scarcity of tenants) might be taken
   at low rates, shall stand empty without inhabitants. God created not
   the earth in vain; he formed it to be inhabited, ch. xlv. 18. But men's
   projects are often frustrated, and what they frame answers not the
   intention. We have a saying, That fools build houses for wise men to
   live in; but sometimes, as the event proves, they are built for no man
   to live in. God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. (2.)
   That the fields they were so fond of should be unfruitful (v. 10): Ten
   acres of vineyard shall yield only such a quantity of grapes as will
   make but one bath of wine (which was about eight gallons), and the seed
   of a homer, a bushel's sowing of ground, shall yield but an ephah,
   which was the tenth part of a homer; so that through the barrenness of
   the ground, or the unreasonableness of the weather, they should not
   have more than a tenth part of their seed again. Note, Those that set
   their hearts upon the world will justly be disappointed in their
   expectations from it.

   II. Here is a woe to those that dote upon the pleasures and delights of
   sense, v. 11, 12. Sensuality ruins men as certainly as worldliness and
   oppression. As Christ pronounces a woe against those that are rich, so
   also against those that laugh now and are full (Luke vi. 24, 25), and
   fare sumptuously, Luke xvi. 19. Observe,

   1. Who the sinners are against whom this woe is denounced. (1.) They
   are such as are given to drink; they make their drinking their
   business, have their hearts upon it, and overcharge themselves with it.
   They rise early to follow strong drink, as husbandmen and tradesmen do
   to follow their employments; as if they were afraid of losing time from
   that which is the greatest misspending of time. Whereas commonly those
   that are drunken are drunken in the night, when they have despatched
   the business of the day, these neglect business, abandon it, and give
   up themselves to the service of the flesh; for they sit at their cups
   all day, and continue till night, till wine inflame them--inflame their
   lusts (chambering and wantonness follow upon rioting and
   drunkenness)--inflame their passions; for who but such have contentions
   and wounds without cause? Prov. xxiii. 29-35. They make a perfect trade
   of drinking; nor do they seek the shelter of the night for this work of
   darkness, as men ashamed of it, but count it a pleasure to riot in the
   day-time. See 2 Pet. ii. 13. (2.) They are such as are given to mirth.
   They have their feasts, and they are so merrily disposed that they
   cannot dine or sup without music, musical instruments of all sorts,
   like David (Amos vi. 5), like Solomon (Eccl. ii. 8); the harp and the
   viol, the tabret and pipe, must accompany the wine, that every sense
   may be gratified to a nicety; they take the timbrel and harp, Job xxi.
   12. The use of music is lawful in itself; but when it is excessive,
   when we set our hearts upon it, misspend time in it, so that it crowds
   our spiritual and divine pleasures and draws away the heart from God,
   then it turns into sin for us. (3.) They are such as never give their
   mind to any thing that is serious: They regard not the work of the
   Lord; they observe not his power, wisdom, and goodness, in those
   creatures which they abuse and subject to vanity, nor the bounty of his
   providence in giving them those good things which they make the food
   and fuel of their lusts. God's judgments have already seized them, and
   they are under the tokens of his displeasure, but they regard not; they
   consider not the hand of God in all these things; his hand is lifted
   up, but they will not see, because they will not disturb themselves in
   their pleasures nor think what God is doing with them.

   2. What the judgments are which are denounced against them, and in part
   executed. It is here foretold, (1.) that they should be dislodged; the
   land should spue out these drunkards (v. 13): My people (so they call
   themselves, and were proud of it) have therefore gone into captivity,
   are as sure to go as if they were gone already, because they have no
   knowledge; how should they have knowledge when by their excessive
   drinking they make sots and fools of themselves? They set up for wits;
   but because they regard not God's controversy with them, nor take any
   care to make their peace with him, they may truly be said to have no
   knowledge; and the reason is because they will have none; they are
   inconsiderate and wilful, and are therefore destroyed for lack of
   knowledge. (2.) That they should be impoverished, and come to want that
   which they had wasted and abused to excess: Even their glory are men of
   famine, subject to it and slain by it; and their multitude are dried up
   with thirst. Both the great men and the common people are ready to
   perish for want of bread and water. This is the effect of the failure
   of the corn (v. 10), for the king himself is served of the field, Eccl.
   v. 9. And when the vintage fails the drunkards are called upon to weep,
   because the new wine is cut off from their mouth (Joel i. 5), and not
   so much because now they want it as because when they had it they
   abused it. It is just with God to make men want that for necessity
   which they have abused to excess. (3.) What multitudes should be cut
   off by famine and sword (v. 14): Therefore hell has enlarged herself.
   Tophet, the common burying-place, proves too little; so many are there
   to be buried that they shall be forced to enlarge it. The grave has
   opened her mouth without measure, never saying, It is enough, Prov.
   xxx. 15, 16. It may be understood of the place of the damned; luxury
   and sensuality fill these regions of darkness and horror; there those
   are tormented who made a god of their belly, Luke xvi. 25; Phil. iii.
   19. (4.) That they should be humbled and abased, and all their honours
   laid in the dust. This will be done effectually by death and the grave:
   Their glory shall descend, not only to the earth, but into it; it shall
   not descend after them (Ps. xlix. 17), to stand them in any stead on
   the other side death, but it shall die and be buried with them--poor
   glory, which will thus wither! Did they glory in their numbers? Their
   multitude shall go down to the pit, Ezek. xxxi. 18; xxxii. 32. Did they
   glory in the figure they made? Their pomp shall be at an end; their
   shouts with which they triumphed, and were attended. Did they glory in
   their mirth? Death will turn it into mourning; he that rejoices and
   revels, and never knows what it is to be serious, shall go thither
   where there are weeping and wailing. Thus the mean man and the mighty
   man meet together in the grave and under mortifying judgments. Let a
   man be ever so high, death will bring him low--ever so mean, death will
   bring him lower, in the prospect of which the eyes of the lofty should
   now be humbled, v. 15. It becomes those to look low that must shortly
   be laid low.

   3. What the fruit of these judgments shall be.

   (1.) God shall be glorified, v. 16. He that is the Lord of hosts, and
   the holy God, shall be exalted and sanctified in the judgment and
   righteousness of these dispensations. His justice must be owned in
   bringing those low what exalted themselves; and herein he is glorified,
   [1.] As a God is irresistible power. He will herein be exalted as the
   Lord of hosts, that is able to break the strongest, humble the
   proudest, and tame the most unruly. Power is not exalted but in
   judgment. It is the honour of God that, though he has a mighty arm, yet
   judgment and justice are always the habitation of his throne, Ps.
   lxxxix. 13, 14. [2.] As a God of unspotted purity. He that is holy,
   infinitely holy, shall be sanctified (that is, shall be owned and
   declared to be holy) in the righteous punishment of proud men. Note,
   When proud men are humbled the great God is honoured, and ought to be
   honoured by us.

   (2.) Good people shall be relieved and succoured (v. 17): Then shall
   the lambs feed after their manner; the meek ones of the earth, who
   followed the Lamb, who were persecuted, and put into fear by those
   proud oppressors, shall feed quietly, feed in the green pastures, and
   there shall be none to make them afraid. See Ezek. xxxiv. 14. When the
   enemies of the church are cut off then have the churches rest. They
   shall feed at their pleasure; so some read it. Blessed are the meek,
   for they shall inherit the earth, and delight themselves in abundant
   peace. They shall feed according to their order or capacity (so others
   read it), as they are able to hear the word, that bread of life.

   (3.) The country shall be laid waste, and become a prey to the
   neighbours: The waste places of the fats ones, the possessions of those
   rich men that lived at their ease, shall be eaten by strangers that
   were nothing akin to them. In the captivity the poor of the land were
   left for vine-dressers and husbandmen (2 Kings xxv. 12); these were the
   lambs that fed in the pastures of the fats ones, which were laid in
   common for strangers to eat. When the church of the Jews, those fat
   ones, was laid waste, their privileges were transferred to the
   Gentiles, who had been long strangers, and the lambs of Christ's flock
   were welcome to them.

Denunciations against Sin. (b. c. 758.)

   18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it
   were with a cart rope:   19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten
   his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of
   Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!   20 Woe unto them that
   call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
   for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!   21 Woe
   unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
   sight!   22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of
   strength to mingle strong drink:   23 Which justify the wicked for
   reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!   24
   Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth
   the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom
   shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of
   hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.   25 Therefore
   is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath
   stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the
   hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the
   streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
   stretched out still.   26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations
   from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and,
   behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:   27 None shall be weary
   nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the
   girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be
   broken:   28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their
   horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a
   whirlwind:   29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar
   like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and
   shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.   30 And in that
   day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if
   one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is
   darkened in the heavens thereof.

   Here are, I. Sins described which will bring judgments upon a people:
   and this perhaps is not only a charge drawn up against the men of Judah
   who lived at that time, and the particular articles of that charge,
   though it may relate primarily to them, but is rather intended for
   warning to all people, in all ages, to take heed of these sins, as
   destructive both to particular persons and to communities, and exposing
   men to God's wrath and his righteous judgments. Those are here said to
   be in a woeful condition,

   1. Who are eagerly set upon sin, and violent in their sinful pursuits
   (v. 18), who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, who take as much pains
   to sin as the cattle do that draw a team, who put themselves to the
   stretch for the gratifying of their inordinate appetites, and, to
   humour a base lust, offer violence to nature itself. They think
   themselves as sure of compassing their wicked project as if they were
   pulling it towards them with strong cart-ropes; but they will find
   themselves disappointed, for they will prove cords of vanity, which
   will break when they come to any stress. For the righteous Lord will
   cut in sunder the cords of the wicked, Ps. cxxix. 4; Job iv. 8; Prov.
   xxii. 8. They are by long custom and confirmed habits so hardened in
   sin that they cannot get clear of it. Those that sin through infirmity
   are drawn away by sin; those that sin presumptuously draw iniquity to
   them, in spite of the oppositions of Providence and the checks of
   conscience. Some by sin understand the punishment of sin: they pull
   God's judgments upon their own heads as it were, with cart-ropes.

   2. Who set the justice of God at defiance, and challenge the Almighty
   to do his worst (v. 19): They say, Let him make speed, and hasten his
   work; this is the same language with that of the scoffers of the last
   days, who say, Where is the promise of his coming? and therefore it is
   that, like them, they draw iniquity with cords of vanity, are violent
   and daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts, 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4.
   (1.) They ridicule the prophets, and banter them. It is in scorn that
   they call God the Holy One of Israel, because the prophets used with
   great veneration to call him so. (2.) They will not believe the
   revelation of God's wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and
   unrighteousness; unless they see it executed, they will not know it, as
   if the curse were brutum fulmen--a mere flash, and all the threatenings
   of the word bugbears to frighten fools and children. (3.) If God should
   appear against them, as he has threatened, yet they think themselves
   able to make their part good with him, and provoke him to jealousy, as
   if they were stronger than he, 1 Cor. x. 22. "We have heard his word,
   but it is all talk; let him hasten his work, we shall shift for
   ourselves well enough." Note, Those that wilfully persist in sin
   consider not the power of God's anger.

   3. Who confound and overthrow the distinctions between moral good and
   evil, who call evil good and moral evil (v. 20), who not only live in
   the omission of that which is good, but condemn it, argue against it,
   and, because they will not practise it themselves, run it down in
   others, and fasten invidious epithets upon it--not only do that which
   is evil, but justify it, and applaud it, and recommend it to others as
   safe and good. Note, (1.) Virtue and piety are good, for they are light
   and sweet, they are pleasant and right; but sin and wickedness are
   evil; they are darkness, all the fruit of ignorance and mistake, and
   will be bitterness in the latter end. (2.) Those do a great deal of
   wrong to God, and religion, and conscience, to their own souls, and to
   the souls of others, who misrepresent these, and put false colours upon
   them--who call drunkenness good fellowship, and covetousness good
   husbandry, and, when they persecute the people of God, think they do
   him good service--and, on the other hand, who call seriousness
   ill-nature, and sober singularity ill-breeding, who say all manner of
   evil falsely concerning the ways of godliness, and do what they can to
   form in men's minds prejudices against them, and this in defiance of
   evidence as plain and convincing as that of sense, by which we
   distinguish, beyond contradiction, between light and darkness, and
   between that which to the taste is sweet and that which is bitter.

   4. Who though they are guilty of such gross mistakes as these have a
   great opinion of their own judgments, and value themselves mightily
   upon their understanding (v. 21): They are wise in their own eyes; they
   think themselves able to disprove and baffle the reproofs and
   convictions of God's word, and to evade and elude both the searches and
   the reaches of his judgments; they think they can outwit Infinite
   Wisdom and countermine Providence itself. Or it may be taken more
   generally: God resists the proud, those particularly who are conceited
   of their own wisdom and lean to their own understanding; such must
   become fools, that they may be truly wise, or else, at their end they
   shall appear to be fools before all the world.

   5. Who glory in it as a great accomplishment that they are able to bear
   a great deal of strong liquor without being overcome by it (v. 22), who
   are mighty to drink wine, and use their strength and vigour, not in the
   service of their country, but in the service of their lusts. Let
   drunkards know from this scripture that, (1.) They ungratefully abuse
   their bodily strength, which God has given them for good purposes, and
   by degrees cannot but weaken it. (2.) It will not excuse them from the
   guilt of drunkenness that they can drink hard and yet keep their feet.
   (3.) Those who boast of their drinking down others glory in their
   shame. (4.) How light soever men make of their drunkenness, it is a sin
   which will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God.

   6. Who, as judges, pervert justice, and go counter to all rules of
   equity, v. 23. This follows upon the former; they drink and forget the
   law (Prov. xxxi. 5), and err through wine (ch. xxviii. 7), and take
   bribes, that they may have wherewithal to maintain their luxury. They
   justify the wicked for reward, and find some pretence or other to clear
   him from his guilt and shelter him from punishment; and they condemn
   the innocent, and take away their righteousness from them, that is,
   overrule their pleas, deprive them of the means of clearing up their
   innocency, and give judgment against them. In causes between man and
   man, might and money would at any time prevail against right and
   justice; and he who was ever so plainly in the wrong would with a small
   bribe carry the cause and recover the costs. In criminal causes, though
   the prisoner ever so plainly appeared to be guilty, yet for a reward
   they would acquit him; if he were innocent, yet if he did not fee them
   well, nay, if they were feed by the malicious prosecutor, or if they
   themselves had spleen against him, they would condemn him.

   II. The judgments described, which these sins would bring upon them.
   Let not those expect to live easily who live thus wickedly; for the
   righteous God will take vengeance, v. 24-30. Here we may observe,

   1. How complete this ruin will be, and how necessarily and unavoidably
   it will follow upon their sins. He had compared this people to a vine
   (v. 7), well fixed, and which, it was hoped, would be flourishing and
   fruitful; but the grace of God towards it was received in vain, and
   then the root became rottenness, being dried up from beneath, and the
   blossom would of course blow off as dust, as a light and worthless
   thing, Job xviii. 16. Sin weakens the strength, the root, of a people,
   so that they are easily rooted up; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms,
   of a people, and takes away the hopes of fruit. The sin of
   unfruitfulness is punished with the plague of unfruitfulness. Sinners
   make themselves as stubble and chaff, combustible matter, proper fuel
   to the fire of God's wrath, which then of course devours and consumes
   them, as the fire devours the stubble, and nobody can hinder it, or
   cares to hinder it. Chaff is consumed, unhelped and unpitied.

   2. How just the ruin will be: Because they have cast away the law of
   the Lord of hosts, and would not have him to reign over them; and, as
   the law of Moses was rejected and thrown off, so the word of the Holy
   One of Israel by his servants the prophets, putting them in mind of his
   law and calling them to obedience, was despised and disregarded. God
   does not reject men for every transgression of his law and word; but,
   when his word is despised and his law cast away, what can they expect
   but that God should utterly abandon them?

   3. Whence this ruin should come (v. 25): it is destruction from the
   Almighty. (1.) The justice of God appoints it; for that is the anger of
   the Lord which is kindled against his people, his necessary vindication
   of the honour of his holiness and authority. (2.) The power of God
   effects it: He has stretched forth his hand against them. That hand
   which had many a time been stretched out for them against their enemies
   is now stretched out against them at full length and in its full
   vigour; and who knows the power of his anger? Whether they are sensible
   of it or no, it is God that has smitten them, has blasted their vine
   and made it wither.

   4. The consequences and continuance of this ruin. When God comes forth
   in wrath against a people the hills tremble, fear seizes even their
   great men, who are strong and high, the earth shakes under men and is
   ready to sink; and as this feels dreadful (what does more so than an
   earthquake?) so what sight can be more frightful than the carcases of
   men torn with dogs, or thrown as dung (so the margin reads it) in the
   midst of the streets? This intimates that great multitudes should be
   slain, not only soldiers in the field of battle, but the inhabitants of
   their cities put to the sword in cold blood, and that the survivors
   should neither have hands nor hearts to bury them. This is very
   dreadful, and yet such is the merit of sin that, for all this, God's
   anger is not turned away; that fire will burn as long as there remains
   any of the stubble and chaff to be fuel for it; and his hand, which he
   stretched forth against his people to smite them, because they do not
   by prayer take hold of it, nor by reformation submit themselves to it,
   is stretched out still.

   5. The instruments that should be employed in bringing this ruin upon
   them: it should be done by the incursions of a foreign enemy, that
   should lay all waste. No particular enemy is named, and therefore we
   are to take it as a prediction of all the several judgments of this
   kind which God brought upon the Jews, Sennacherib's invasion soon
   after, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans first and at
   last by the Romans; and I think it is to be looked upon also as a
   threatening of the like desolation of those countries which harbour and
   countenance those sins mentioned in the foregoing verses; it is an
   exposition of those woes. When God designs the ruin of a provoking
   people,

   (1.) He can send a great way off for instruments to be employed in
   effecting it; he can raise forces from afar, and summon them from the
   end of the earth to attend his service, v. 26. Those who know him not
   are made use of to fulfil his counsel, when, by reason of their
   distance, they can scarcely be supposed to have any ends of their own
   to serve. If God set up his standard, he can incline men's hearts to
   enlist themselves under it, though perhaps they know not why or
   wherefore. When the Lord of hosts is pleased to make a general muster
   of the forces he has at his command, he has a great army in an instant,
   Joel ii. 2, 11. He needs not sound a trumpet, nor beat a drum, to give
   them notice or to animate them; no, he does but hiss to them, or rather
   whistle to them, and that is enough; they hear that, and that puts
   courage into them. Note, God has all the creatures at his beck.

   (2.) He can make them come into the service with incredible expedition:
   Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. Note, [1.] Those who will
   do God's work must not loiter, must not linger, nor shall they when his
   time has come. [2.] Those who defy God's judgments will be ashamed of
   their insolence when it is too late; they said scornfully (v. 19), Let
   him make speed, let him hasten his work, and they shall find, to their
   terror and confusion, that he will; in one hour has the judgment come.

   (3.) He can carry them on in the service with amazing forwardness and
   fury. This is described here in very elegant and lofty expressions, v.
   27-30. [1.] Though their marches be very long, yet none among them
   shall be weary; so desirous they be to engage that they shall forget
   their weariness, and make no complaints of it. [2.] Though the way be
   rough, and perhaps embarrassed by the usual policies of war, yet none
   among them shall stumble, but all the difficulties in their way shall
   easily be got over. [3.] Though they be forced to keep constant watch,
   yet none shall slumber nor sleep, so intent shall they be upon their
   work, in prospect of having the plunder of the city for their pains.
   [4.] They shall not desire any rest of relaxation; they shall not put
   off their clothes, nor loose the girdle of their loins, but shall
   always have their belts on and swords by their sides. [5.] They shall
   not meet with the least hindrance to retard their march or oblige them
   to halt; not a latchet of their shoes shall be broken which they must
   stay to mend, as Josh. ix. 13. [6.] Their arms and ammunition shall all
   be fixed, and in good posture; their arrows sharp, to wound deep, and
   all their bows bent, none unstrung, for they expect to be soon in
   action. [7.] Their horses and chariots of war shall all be fit for
   service; their horses so strong, so hardy, that their hoofs shall be
   like flint, far from being beaten, or made tender, by their long march;
   and the wheels of their chariots not broken, or battered, or out of
   repair, but swift like a whirlwind, turning round so strongly upon
   their axle-trees. [8.] All the soldiers shall be bold and daring (v.
   29): Their roaring, or shouting, before a battle, shall be like a lion,
   who with his roaring animates himself, and terrifies all about him.
   Those who would not hear the voice of God speaking to them by his
   prophets, but stopped their ears against their charms, shall be made to
   hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them and shall not be
   able to turn a deaf ear to it. They shall roar like the roaring of the
   sea in a storm; it roars and threatens to swallow up, as the lion roars
   and threatens to tear in pieces. [9.] There shall not be the least
   prospect of relief or succour. The enemy shall come in like a flood,
   and there shall be none to lift up a standard against him. He shall
   seize the prey, and none shall deliver it, none shall be able to
   deliver it, nay, none shall so much as dare to attempt the deliverance
   of it, but shall give it up for lost. Let the distressed look which way
   they will, every thing appears dismal; for, if God frowns upon us, how
   can any creature smile? First, Look round to the earth, to the land, to
   that land that used to be the land of light and the joy of the whole
   earth, and behold darkness and sorrow, all frightful, all mournful,
   nothing hopeful. Secondly, Look up to heaven, and there the light is
   darkened, where one would expect to have found it. If the light is
   darkened in the heavens, how great is that darkness! If God hide his
   face, no marvel the heavens hide theirs and appear gloomy, Job xxxiv.
   29. It is our wisdom, by keeping a good conscience, to keep all clear
   between us and heaven, that we may have light from above even when
   clouds and darkness are round about us.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. VI.

   Hitherto, it should seem, Isaiah had prophesied as a candidate, having
   only a virtual and tacit commission; but here we have him (if I may so
   speak) solemnly ordained and set apart to the prophetic office by a
   more express or explicit commission, as his work grew more upon his
   hands: or perhaps, having seen little success of his ministry, he began
   to think of giving it up; and therefore God saw fit to renew his
   commission here in this chapter, in such a manner as might excite and
   encourage his zeal and industry in the execution of it, though he
   seemed to labour in vain. In this chapter we have, I. A very awful
   vision which Isaiah saw of the glory of God (ver. 1-4), the terror it
   put him into (ver. 5), and the relief given him against that terror by
   an assurance of the pardon of his sins, ver. 6, 7. II. A very awful
   commission which Isaiah received to go as a prophet, in God's name
   (ver. 8), by his preaching to harden the impenitent in sin and ripen
   them for ruin (ver. 9-12) yet with a reservation of mercy for a
   remnant, (ver. 13). And it was as to an evangelical prophet that these
   things were shown him and said to him.

Isaiah's Heavenly Vision. (b. c. 758.)

   1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
   throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.   2 Above
   it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered
   his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
   fly.   3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the
   Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.   4 And the posts
   of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was
   filled with smoke.

   The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel,
   established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. iii. 20), was intended,
   1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied
   of the truth of those things which should afterwards be made known to
   him. This God opened the communications of himself to him; but such
   visions needed not to be afterwards repeated upon every revelation.
   Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham (Acts vii. 2),
   and to Moses, Exod. iii. 2. Ezekiel's prophecies and St. John's, begin
   with visions of the divine glory. 2. To work upon his affections, that
   he might be possessed with such a reverence of God as would both
   quicken him and fix him to his service. Those who are to teach others
   the knowledge of God ought to be well acquainted with him themselves.

   The vision is dated, for the greater certainty of it. It was in the
   year that king Uzziah died, who had reigned, for the most part, as
   prosperously and well as any of the kings of Judah, and reigned very
   long, above fifty years. About the time that he died, Isaiah saw this
   vision of God upon a throne; for when the breath of princes goes forth,
   and they return to their earth, this is our comfort, that the Lord
   shall reign for ever, Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4, 10. Israel's king dies, but
   Israel's God still lives. From the mortality of great and good men we
   should take occasion to look up with an eye of faith to the King
   eternal, immortal. King Uzziah died under a cloud, for he was shut up
   as a leper till the day of his death. As the lives of princes have
   their periods, so their glory is often eclipsed; but, as God is
   everliving, so his glory is everlasting. King Uzziah dies in an
   hospital, but the King of kings still sits upon his throne.

   What the prophet here saw is revealed to us, that we, mixing faith with
   that revelation, may in it, as in a glass, behold the glory of the
   Lord; let us turn aside therefore, and see this great sight with humble
   reverence.

   I. See God upon his throne, and that throne high and lifted up, not
   only above other thrones, as it transcends them, but over other
   thrones, as it rules and commands them. Isaiah saw not Jehovah--the
   essence of God (no man has seen that, or can see it), but Adonai--his
   dominion. He saw the Lord Jesus; so this vision is explained John xii.
   41, that Isaiah now saw Christ's glory and spoke of him, which is an
   incontestable proof of the divinity of our Saviour. He it is who when,
   after his resurrection, he sat down on the right hand of God, did but
   sit down where he was before, John xvii. 5. See the rest of the Eternal
   Mind: Isaiah saw the Lord sitting, Ps. xxix. 10. See the sovereignty of
   the Eternal Monarch: he sits upon a throne--a throne of glory, before
   which we must worship,--a throne of government, under which we must be
   subject,--and a throne of grace, to which we may come boldly. This
   throne is high, and lifted up above all competition and contradiction.

   II. See his temple, his church on earth, filled with the manifestations
   of his glory. His throne being erected at the door of the temple (as
   princes sat in judgment at the gates), his train, the skirts of his
   robes, filled the temple, the whole world (for it is all God's temple,
   and, as the heaven is his throne, so the earth is his footstool), or
   rather the church, which is filled enriched, and beautified with the
   tokens of God's special presence.

   III. See the bright and blessed attendants on his throne, in and by
   whom his glory is celebrated and his government served (v. 2): Above
   the throne, as it were hovering about it, or nigh to the throne, bowing
   before it, with an eye to it, the seraphim stood, the holy angels, who
   are called seraphim-burners; for he makes his ministers a flaming fire,
   Ps. civ. 4. They burn in love to God, and zeal for his glory and
   against sin, and he makes use of them as instruments of his wrath when
   he is a consuming fire to his enemies. Whether they were only two or
   four, or (as I rather think) an innumerable company of angels, that
   Isaiah saw, is uncertain; see Dan. vii. 10. Note, It is the glory of
   the angels that they are seraphim, have heat proportionable to their
   light, have abundance, not only of divine knowledge, but of holy love.
   Special notice is taken of their wings (and of no other part of their
   appearance), because of the use they made of them, which is designed
   for instruction to us. They had each of them six wings, not stretched
   upwards (as those whom Ezekiel saw, ch. i. 11), but, 1. Four were made
   use of for a covering, as the wings of a fowl, sitting, are; with the
   two upper wings, next to the head, they covered their faces, and with
   the two lowest wings they covered their feet, or lower parts. This
   bespeaks their great humility and reverence in their attendance upon
   God, for he is greatly feared in the assembly of those saints, Ps.
   lxxxix. 7. They not only cover their feet, those members of the body
   which are less honourable (1 Cor. xii. 23), but even their faces.
   Though angel's faces, doubtless, are much fairer than those of the
   children of men (Acts vi. 15), yet in the presence of God, they cover
   them, because they cannot bear the dazzling lustre of the divine glory,
   and because, being conscious of an infinite distance from the divine
   perfection, they are ashamed to show their faces before the holy God,
   who charges even his angels with folly if they should offer to vie with
   him, Job iv. 18. If angels be thus reverent in their attendance on God,
   with what godly fear should we approach his throne! Else we do not the
   will of God as the angels do it. Yet Moses, when he went into the mount
   with God, took the veil from off his face. See 2 Cor. iii. 18. 2. Two
   were made use of for flight; when they are sent on God's errands they
   fly swiftly (Dan. ix. 21), more swiftly with their own wings than if
   they flew on the wings of the wind. This teaches us to do the work of
   God with cheerfulness and expedition. Do angels come upon the wing from
   heaven to earth, to minister for our good, and shall not we soar upon
   the wing from earth to heaven, to share with them in their glory? Luke
   xx. 36.

   IV. Hear the anthem, or song of praise, which the angels sing to the
   honour of him that sits on the throne, v. 3. Observe,

   1. How this song was sung. With zeal and fervency--they cried aloud;
   and with unanimity--they cried to another, or one with another; they
   sang alternately, but in concert, and without the least jarring voice
   to interrupt the harmony.

   2. What the song was; it is the same with that which is sung by the
   four living creatures, Rev. iv. 8. Note, Praising God always was, and
   will be to eternity, the work of heaven, and the constant employment of
   blessed spirits above, Ps. lxxxiv. 4. Note further, The church above is
   the same in its praises; there is no change of times or notes there.
   Two things the seraphim here give God the praise of:--

   (1.) His infinite perfections in himself. Here is one of his most
   glorious titles praised: he is the Lord of hosts, of their hosts, of
   all hosts; and one of his most glorious attributes, his holiness,
   without which his being the Lord of hosts (or, as it is in the parallel
   place, Rev. iv. 8, the Lord God Almighty) could not be so much as it is
   the matter of our joy and praise; for power, without purity to guide
   it, would be a terror to mankind. None of all the divine attributes is
   so celebrated in scripture as this is. God's power was spoken twice
   (Ps. lxii. 11), but his holiness thrice, Holy, holy, holy. This
   bespeaks, [1.] The zeal and fervency of the angels in praising God;
   they even want words to express themselves, and therefore repeat the
   same again. [2.] The particular pleasure they take in contemplating the
   holiness of God; this is a subject they love to dwell upon, to harp
   upon, and are loth to leave. [3.] The superlative excellency of God's
   holiness, above that of the purest creatures. He is holy, thrice holy,
   infinitely holy, originally, perfectly, and eternally so. [4.] It may
   refer to the three person in the Godhead, Holy Father, Holy Son, and
   Holy Spirit (for it follows, v. 8, Who will go for us?) or perhaps to
   that which was, and is, and is to come; for that title of God's honour
   is added to this song, Rev. iv. 8. Some make the angels here to applaud
   the equity of that sentence which God was now about to pronounce upon
   the Jewish nation. Herein he was, and is, and will be, holy; his ways
   are equal.

   (2.) The manifestation of these to the children of men: The earth is
   full of his glory, the glory of his power and purity; for he is holy in
   all his works, Ps. cxlv. 17. The Jews thought the glory of God should
   be confined to their land; but it is here intimated that in the gospel
   times (which are pointed to in this chapter) the glory of God should
   fill all the earth, the glory of his holiness, which is indeed the
   glory of all his other attributes; this then filled the temple (v. 1),
   but, in the latter days, the earth shall be full of it.

   V. Observe the marks and tokens of terror with which the temple was
   filled, upon this vision of the divine glory, v. 4. 1. The house was
   shaken; not only the door, but even the posts of the door, which were
   firmly fixed, moved at the voice of him that cried, at the voice of
   God, who called to judgment (Ps. l. 4), at the voice of the angel, who
   praised him. There are voices in heaven sufficient to drown all the
   noises of the many waters in this lower world, Ps. xciii. 3, 4. This
   violent concussion of the temple was an indication of God's wrath and
   displeasure against the people for their sins; it was an earnest of the
   destruction of it and the city by the Babylonians first, and afterwards
   by the Romans; and it was designed to strike an awe upon us. Shall
   walls and posts tremble before God, and shall we not tremble? 2. The
   house was darkened; it was filled with smoke, which was as a cloud
   spread upon the face of his throne (Job xxvi. 9); we cannot take a full
   view of it, nor order our speech concerning it, by reason of darkness.
   In the temple above there will be no smoke, but everything will be seen
   clearly. There God dwells in light; here he makes darkness his
   pavilion, 2 Chron. vi. 1.

Isaiah's Heavenly Vision. (b. c. 758.)

   5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
   unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
   mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.   6 Then flew one of
   the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
   taken with the tongs from off the altar:   7 And he laid it upon my
   mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is
   taken away, and thy sin purged.   8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord,
   saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am
   I; send me.

   Our curiosity would lead us to enquire further concerning the seraphim,
   their songs and their services; but here we leave them, and must attend
   to what passed between God and his prophet. Secret things belong not to
   us, the secret things of the world of angels, but things revealed to
   and by the prophets, which concern the administration of God's kingdom
   among men. Now here we have,

   I. The consternation that the prophet was put into by the vision which
   he saw of the glory of God (v. 5): Then said I, Woe is me! I should
   have said, "Blessed art thou, who hast been thus highly favoured,
   highly honoured, and dignified, for a time, with the privilege of those
   glorious beings that always behold the face of our Father. Blessed were
   those eyes which saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and those ears
   which heard the angels' praises." And, one would think, he should have
   said, "Happy am I, for ever happy; nothing now shall trouble me,
   nothing make me blush or tremble;" but, on the contrary, he cries out,
   "Woe is me! for I am undone. Alas for me! I am a gone man; I shall
   surely die (Judges xiii. 22; vi. 22); I am silenced; I am struck dumb,
   struck dead." Thus Daniel, when he heard the words of the angel, became
   dumb, and there was no strength, no breath, left in him, Dan. x. 15,
   17. Observe,

   1. What the prophet reflected upon in himself which terrified him: "I
   am undone if God deal with me in strict justice, for I have made myself
   obnoxious to his displeasure, because I am a man of unclean lips." Some
   think he refers particularly to some rash word he had spoken, or to his
   sinful silence in not reproving sin with the boldness and freedom that
   were necessary--a sin which God's ministers have too much cause to
   charge themselves with, and to blush at the remembrance of. But it may
   be taken more generally; I am a sinner; particularly, I have offended
   in word; and who is there that hath not? Jam. iii. 2. We all have
   reason to bewail it before the Lord, (1.) That we are of unclean lips
   ourselves; our lips are not consecrated to God; he had not had the
   first-fruits of our lips (Heb. xiii. 15), and therefore they are
   counted common and unclean, uncircumcised lips, Exod. vi. 30. Nay, they
   have been polluted with sin. We have spoken the language of an unclean
   heart, that evil communication which corrupts good manners, and whereby
   many have been defiled. We are unworthy and unmeet to take God's name
   into our lips. With what a pure lip did the angels praise God! "But,"
   says the prophet, "I cannot praise him so, for I am a man of unclean
   lips." The best men in the world have reason to be ashamed of
   themselves, and the best of their services, when they come into
   comparison with the holy angels. The angels had celebrated the purity
   and holiness of God; and therefore the prophet, when he reflects upon
   sin, calls it uncleanness; for the sinfulness of sin is its contrariety
   to the holy nature of God, and upon that account especially it should
   appear both hateful and frightful to us. The impurity of our lips ought
   to be the grief of our souls, for by our words we shall be justified or
   condemned. (2.) That we dwell among those who are so too. We have
   reason to lament not only that we ourselves are polluted, but that the
   nature and race of mankind are so; the disease is hereditary and
   epidemic, which is so far from lessening our guilt that it should
   rather increase our grief, especially considering that we have not done
   what we might have done for the cleansing of the pollution of other
   people's lips; nay, we have rather learned their way and spoken their
   language, as Joseph in Egypt learned the courtier's oath, Gen. xlii.
   16. "I dwell in the midst of a people who by their impudent sinnings
   are pulling down desolating judgments upon the land, which I, who am a
   sinner too, may justly expect to be involved in."

   2. What gave occasion for these sad reflections at this time: My eyes
   have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. He saw God's sovereignty to be
   incontestable--he is the King; and his power irresistible--he is the
   Lord of hosts. These are comfortable truths to God's people, and yet
   they ought to strike an awe upon us. Note, A believing sight of God's
   glorious majesty should affect us all with reverence and godly fear. We
   have reason to be abased in the sense of that infinite distance that
   there is between us and God, and our own sinfulness and vileness before
   him, and to be afraid of his displeasure. We are undone if there be not
   a Mediator between us and this holy God, 1 Sam. vi. 20. Isaiah was thus
   humbled, to prepare him for the honour he was now to be called to as a
   prophet. Note, Those are fittest to be employed for God who are low in
   their own eyes and are made deeply sensible of their own weakness and
   unworthiness.

   II. The silencing of the prophet's fears by the good words, and
   comfortable words, with which the angel answered him, v. 6, 7. One of
   the seraphim immediately flew to him, to purify him, and so to pacify
   him. Note, God has strong consolations ready for holy mourners. Those
   that humble themselves in penitential shame and fear shall soon be
   encouraged and exalted; those that are struck down with the visions of
   God's glory shall soon be raised up again with the visits of his grace;
   he that tears will heal. Note, further, Angels are ministering spirits
   for the good of the saints, for their spiritual good. Here was one of
   the seraphim dismissed, for a time, from attending on the throne of
   God's glory, to be a messenger of his grace to a good man; and so well
   pleased was he with the office that he came flying to him. To our Lord
   Jesus himself, in his agony, there appeared an angel from heaven,
   strengthening him, Luke xxii. 43. Here is, 1. A comfortable sign given
   to the prophet of the purging away of his sin. The seraph brought a
   live coal from the altar, and touched his lips with it, not to hurt
   them, but to heal them--not to cauterize, but to cleanse them; for
   there were purifications by fire, as well as by water, and the filth of
   Jerusalem was purged by the spirit of burning, ch. iv. 4. The blessed
   Spirit works as fire, Matt. iii. 11. The seraph, being himself kindled
   with a divine fire, put life into the prophet, to make him also
   zealously affected; for the way to purge the lips from the uncleanness
   of sin is to fire the soul with the love of God. This live coal was
   taken from off the altar, either the altar of incense or that of
   burnt-offerings, for they had both of them fire burning on them
   continually. Nothing is powerful to cleanse and comfort the soul but
   what is taken from Christ's satisfaction and the intercession he ever
   lives to make in the virtue of that satisfaction. It must be a coal
   from his altar that must put life into us and be our peace; it will not
   be done with strange fire. 2. An explication of this sign: "Lo, this
   has touched thy lips, to assure thee of this, that thy iniquity is
   taken away and thy sin purged. The guilt of thy sin is removed by
   pardoning mercy, the guilt of thy tongue-sins. Thy corrupt disposition
   to sin is removed by renewing grace; and therefore nothing can hinder
   thee from being accepted with God as a worshipper, in concert with the
   holy angels, or from being employed for God as a messenger to the
   children of men." Those only who are thus purged from an evil
   conscience are prepared to serve the living God, Heb. ix. 14. The
   taking away of sin is necessary to our speaking with confidence and
   comfort either to God in prayer or from God in preaching; nor are any
   so fit to display to others the riches and power of gospel-grace as
   those who have themselves tasted the sweetness and felt the influence
   of that grace; and those shall have their sin taken away who complain
   of it as a burden and see themselves in danger of being undone by it.

   III. The renewing of the prophet's mission, v. 8. Here is a
   communication between God and Isaiah about this matter. Those that
   would assist others in their correspondence with God must not
   themselves be strangers to it; for how can we expect that God should
   speak by us if we never heard him speaking to us, or that we should be
   accepted as the mouth of others to God if we never spoke to him
   heartily for ourselves? Observe here,

   1. The counsel of God concerning Isaiah's mission. God is here brought
   in, after the manner of men, deliberating and advising with himself:
   Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? God needs not either to be
   counselled by others or to consult with himself; he knows what he will
   do, but thus he would show us that there is a counsel in his whole
   will, and teach us to consider our ways, and particularly that the
   sending forth of ministers is a work not to be done but upon mature
   deliberation. Observe, (1.) Who it is that is consulting. It is the
   Lord God in his glory, whom he saw upon the throne high and lifted up.
   It puts an honour upon the ministry that, when God would send a prophet
   to speak in his name, he appeared in all the glories of the upper
   world. Ministers are the ambassadors of the King of kings; how mean
   soever they are, he who sends them is great; it is God in three persons
   (Who will go for us? as Gen. i. 26, Let us make man), Father, Son, and
   Holy Ghost. They all concur, as in the creating, so in the redeeming
   and governing of man. Ministers are ordained in the same name into
   which all Christians are baptized. (2.) What the consultation is: Whom
   shall I send? And who will go? Some think this refers to the particular
   message of wrath against Israel, v. 9, 10. "Who will be willing to go
   on such a melancholy errand, on which they will go in the bitterness of
   their souls?" Ezek. iii. 14. But I rather take it more largely for all
   those messages which the prophet was entrusted to deliver, in God's
   name, to that people, in which that hardening work was by no means the
   primary intention, but a secondary effect of them, 2 Cor. ii. 16. Whom
   shall I send? intimating that the business was such as required a
   choice and well-accomplished messenger, Jer. xlix. 19. God now
   appeared, attended with holy angels, and yet asks, Whom shall I send?
   For he would send them a prophet from among their brethren, Heb. ii.
   17. Note, [1.] It is the unspeakable favour of God to us that he is
   pleased to send us his mind by men like ourselves, whose terror shall
   not make us afraid, and who are themselves concerned in the messages
   they bring. Those who are workers together with God are sinners and
   sufferers together with us. [2.] It is a rare thing to find one who is
   fit to go for God, and carry his messages to the children of men: Whom
   shall I send? Who is sufficient? Such a degree of courage for God and
   concern for the souls of men as is necessary to make a man faithful,
   and withal such an insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
   as is necessary to make a man skilful, are seldom to be met with. Such
   an interpreter of the mind of God is one of a thousand, Job xxxiii. 23.
   [3.] None are allowed to go for God but those who are sent by him; he
   will own none but those whom he appoints, Rom. x. 15. It is Christ's
   work to put men into the ministry, 1 Tim. i. 12.

   2. The consent of Isaiah to it: Then said I, Here am I; send me. He was
   to go on a melancholy errand; the office seemed to go a begging, and
   every body declined it, and yet Isaiah offered himself to the service.
   It is an honour to be singular in appearing for God, Judges v. 7. We
   must not say, "I would go if I thought I should have success;" but, "I
   will go, and leave the success to God. Here am I; send me." Isaiah had
   been himself in a melancholy frame (v. 5), full of doubts and fears;
   but now that he had the assurance of the pardon of his sin the clouds
   were blown over, and he was fit for service and forward to it. What he
   says denotes, (1.) His readiness: "Here am I, a volunteer, not pressed
   into the service." Behold me; so the word is. God says to us, Behold me
   (ch. lxv. 1), and, Here I am (ch. lviii. 9), even before we call; let
   us say so to him when he does call. (2.) His resolution; "Here I am,
   ready to encounter the greatest difficulties. I have set my face as a
   flint." Compare this with ch. l. 4-7. (3.) His referring himself to
   God: "Send me whither thou wilt; make what use thou pleasest of me.
   Send me, that is, Lord, give me commission and full instruction; send
   me, and then, no doubt, thou wilt stand by me." It is a great comfort
   to those whom God sends that they go for God, and may therefore speak
   in his name, as having authority, and be assured that he will bear them
   out.

Judicial Blindness Threatened. (b. c. 758.)

   9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand
   not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.   10 Make the heart of this
   people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they
   see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
   their heart, and convert, and be healed.   11 Then said I, Lord, how
   long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
   and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,   12 And
   the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in
   the midst of the land.   13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it
   shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose
   substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed
   shall be the substance thereof.

   God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange
   errand--to foretel the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for
   that ruin--to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them
   a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of
   the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they
   should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected
   of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in
   the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual
   judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the
   least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all
   judgments the most dreadful. Isaiah is here given to understand these
   four things:--

   1. That the generality of the people to whom he was sent would turn a
   deaf ear to his preaching, and wilfully shut their eyes against all the
   discoveries of the mind and will of God which he had to make to them
   (v. 9): "Go, and tell this people, this foolish wretched people, tell
   them their own, tell them how stupid and sottish they are." Isaiah must
   preach to them, and they will hear him indeed, but that is all; they
   will not heed him; they will no understand him; they will not take any
   pains, nor use that application of mind which is necessary to the
   understanding of him; they are prejudiced against that which is the
   true intent and meaning of what he says, and therefore they will not
   understand him, or pretend they do not. They see indeed (for the vision
   is made plain on tables, so that he who runs may read it); but they
   perceive not their own concern in it; it is to them as a tale that is
   told. Note, There are many who hear the sound of God's word, but do not
   feel the power of it.

   2. That, forasmuch as they would not be made better by his ministry,
   they should be made worse by it; those that were wilfully blind should
   be judicially blinded (v. 10): "They will not understand or perceive
   thee, and therefore thou shalt be instrumental to make their heart fat,
   senseless, and sensual, and so to make their ears yet more heavy, and
   to shut their eyes the closer; so that, at length, their recovery and
   repentance will become utterly impossible; they shall no more see with
   their eyes the danger they are in, the ruin they are upon the brink of,
   nor the way of escape from it; they shall no more hear with their ears
   the warnings and instructions that are given them, nor understand with
   their heart the things that belong to their peace, so as to be
   converted from the error of their ways, and thus be healed." Note, (1.)
   The conversion of sinners is the healing of them. (2.) A right
   understanding is necessary to conversion. (3.) God sometimes, in a way
   of righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind and strong
   delusions, because they would not receive the truth in the love of it,
   2 Thess. ii. 10-12. He that is filthy let him be filthy still. (4.)
   Even the word of God oftentimes proves a means of hardening sinners.
   The evangelical prophet himself makes the heart of this people fat, not
   only as he foretels it, passing this sentence upon them in God's name,
   and seals them under it, but as his preaching had a tendency to it,
   rocking some asleep in security (to whom it was a lovely song), and
   making others more outrageous, to whom it was such a reproach that they
   were not able to bear it. Some looked upon the word as a privilege, and
   their convictions were smothered by it (Jer. vii. 4); others looked
   upon it as a provocation, and their corruptions were exasperated by it.

   3. That the consequence of this would be their utter ruin, v. 11, 12.
   The prophet had nothing to object against the justice of this sentence,
   nor does he refuse to go upon such an errand, but asks, "Lord, how
   long?" (an abrupt question): "Shall it always be thus? Must I and other
   prophets always labour in vain among them, and will things never be
   better?" Or, (as should seem by the answer) "Lord, what will it come to
   at last? What will be in the end hereof?" In answer to this he is told
   that it should issue in the final destruction of the Jewish church and
   nation. "When the word of God, especially the word of the gospel, had
   been thus abused by them, they shall be unchurched, and consequently
   undone. Their cities shall be uninhabited, and their country houses
   too; the land shall be untilled, desolate with desolation (as it is in
   the margin), the people who should replenish the houses and cultivate
   the ground being all cut off by sword, famine, or pestilence, and those
   who escape with their lives being removed far away into captivity, so
   that there shall be a great and general forsaking in the midst of the
   land; that populous country shall become desert, and that glory of all
   lands shall be abandoned." Note, Spiritual judgments often bring
   temporal judgments along with them upon persons and places. This was in
   part fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when
   the land, being left desolate, enjoyed her sabbaths seventy years; but,
   the foregoing predictions being so expressly applied in the New
   Testament to the Jews in our Saviour's time, doubtless this points at
   the final destruction of that people by the Romans, in which it had a
   complete accomplishment, and the effects of it that people and that
   land remain under to this day.

   4. That yet a remnant should be reserved to be the monuments of mercy,
   v. 13. There was a remnant reserved in the last destruction of the
   Jewish nation (Rom. xi. 5, At this present time there is a remnant);
   for so it was written here: But in it shall be a tenth, a certain
   number, but a very small number in comparison with the multitude that
   shall perish in their unbelief. It is that which, under the law, was
   God's proportion; they shall be consecrated to God as the tithes were,
   and shall be for his service and honour. Concerning this tithe, this
   saved remnant, we are here told, (1.) That they shall return (ch. vi.
   13; x. 21), shall return from sin to God and duty, shall return out of
   captivity to their own land. God will turn them, and they shall be
   turned. (2.) That they shall be eaten, that is, shall be accepted of
   God as the tithe was, which was meat in God's house, Mal. iii. 10. The
   saving of this remnant shall be meat to the faith and hope of those
   that wish well to God's kingdom. (3.) That they shall be like a
   timber-tree in winter, which has life, though it has no leaves: As a
   teil-tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them even when they cast
   their leaves, so this remnant, though they may be stripped of their
   outward prosperity and share with others in common calamities, shall
   yet recover themselves, as a tree in the spring, and flourish again;
   though they fall, they shall not be utterly cast down. There is hope of
   a tree, though it be cut down, that it will sprout again, Job xiv. 7.
   (4.) That this distinguished remnant shall be the stay and support of
   the public interests. The holy seed in the soul is the substance of the
   man; a principle of grace reigning in the heart will keep life there;
   he that is born of God has his seed remaining in him, 1 John iii. 9. So
   the holy seed in the land is the substance of the land, keeps it from
   being quite dissolved, and bears up the pillars of it, Ps. lxxv. 3. See
   ch. i. 9. Some read the foregoing clause with this, thus: As the
   support at Shallecheth is in the elms and the oaks, so the holy seed is
   the substance thereof; as the trees that grow on either side of the
   causeway (the raised way, or terrace-walk, that leads from the king's
   palace to the temple, 1 Kings x. 5, at the gate of Shallecheth, 1
   Chron. xxvi. 16) support the causeway by keeping up the earth, which
   would otherwise be crumbling away, so the small residue of religious,
   serious, praying people, are the support of the state, and help to keep
   things together and save them from going to decay. Some make the holy
   seed to be Christ. The Jewish nation was therefore saved from utter
   ruin because out of it, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come,
   Rom. ix. 5. Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it (ch. lxv. 8);
   and when that blessing had come, it was soon destroyed. Now the
   consideration of this is designed for the support of the prophet in his
   work. Though far the greater part should perish in their unbelief, yet
   to some his word should be a savour of life unto life. Ministers do not
   wholly lose their labour if they be but instrumental to save one poor
   soul.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. VII.

   This chapter is an occasional sermon, in which the prophet sings both
   of mercy and judgment to those that did not perceive or understand
   either; he piped unto them, but they danced not, mourned unto them, but
   they wept not. Here is, I. The consternation that Ahaz was in upon an
   attempt of the confederate forces of Syria and Israel against
   Jerusalem, ver. 1, 2. II. The assurance which God, by the prophet, sent
   him for his encouragement, that the attempt should be defeated and
   Jerusalem should be preserved, ver. 3-9. III. The confirmation of this
   by a sign which God gave to Ahaz, when he refused to ask one, referring
   to Christ, and our redemption by him, ver. 10-16. IV. A threatening of
   the great desolation that God would bring upon Ahaz and his kingdom by
   the Assyrians, notwithstanding their escape from this present storm,
   because they went on still in their wickedness, ver. 17-25. And this is
   written both for our comfort and for our admonition.

The Distress of Ahaz; Comfort Administered to Ahaz. (b. c. 740.)

   1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of
   Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son
   of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against
   it, but could not prevail against it.   2 And it was told the house of
   David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was
   moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved
   with the wind.   3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet
   Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the
   upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;   4 And say unto him,
   Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two
   tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with
   Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.   5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the
   son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,   6 Let
   us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein
   for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:   7
   Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to
   pass.   8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus
   is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken,
   that it be not a people.   9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and
   the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely
   ye shall not be established.

   The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king
   Uzziah died, ch. vi. 1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well,
   sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was
   commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated
   in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days
   of Ahaz the son of Jotham. Many excellent useful sermons he preached
   which were not published and left upon record; for, if all that was
   memorable had been written, the world could not have contained the
   books, John xxi. 25. Perhaps in the reign of Ahaz, a wicked king, he
   had not opportunity to preach so much at court as in Jotham's time, and
   therefore then he wrote the more, for a testimony against them. Here
   is,

   I. A very formidable design laid against Jerusalem by Rezin king of
   Syria and Pekah king of Israel, two neighbouring potentates, who had of
   late made descents upon Judah severally. At the end of the reign of
   Jotham, the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin and Pekah, 2 Kings
   xv. 37. But now, in the second or third year of the reign of Ahaz,
   encouraged by their former successes, they entered into an alliance
   against Judah. Because Ahaz, though he found the sword over his head,
   began his reign with idolatry, God delivered him into the hand of the
   king of Syria and of the king of Israel (2 Chron. xxviii. 5), and a
   great slaughter they made in his kingdom, v. 6, 7. Flushed with this
   victory, they went up towards Jerusalem, the royal city, to war against
   it, to besiege it, and make themselves masters of it; but it proved in
   the issue that they could not gain their point. Note, The sin of a land
   brings foreign invasions upon it and betrays the most advantageous
   posts and passes to the enemy; and God sometimes makes one wicked
   nation a scourge to another; but judgment, ordinarily, begins at the
   house of God.

   II. The great distress that Ahaz and his court were in when they
   received advice of this design: It was told the house of David that
   Syria and Ephraim had signed a league against Judah, v. 2. This
   degenerate royal family is called the house of David, to put us in mind
   of that article of God's covenant with David (Ps. lxxxix. 30-33), If
   his children forsake my law, I will chasten their transgression with
   the rod; but my loving-kindness will I not utterly take away, which is
   remarkably fulfilled in this chapter. News being brought that the two
   armies of Syria and Israel were joined, and had taken the field, the
   court, the city, and the country, were thrown into consternation; The
   heart of Ahaz was moved with fear, and then no wonder that the heart of
   his people was so, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
   They were tossed and shaken, and put into a great disorder and
   confusion, were wavering and uncertain in their counsels, hurried
   hither and thither, and could not fix in any steady resolution. They
   yielded to the storm, and gave up all for gone, concluding it in vain
   to make any resistance. Now that which caused this fright was the sense
   of guilt and the weakness of their faith. They had made God their
   enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend, and therefore their
   fears tyrannised over them; while those whose consciences are kept void
   of offence, and whose hearts are fixed, trusting in God, need not be
   afraid of evil tidings; though the earth be removed, yet will not they
   fear; but the wicked flee at the shaking of a leaf, Lev. xxvi. 36.

   III. The orders and directions given to Isaiah to go and encourage Ahaz
   in his distress; not for his own sake (he deserved to hear nothing from
   God but words of terror, which might add affliction to his grief), but
   because he was a son of David and king of Judah. God had kindness for
   him for his father's sake, who must not be forgotten, and for his
   people's sake, who must not be abandoned, but would be encouraged if
   Ahaz were. Observe,

   1. God appointed the prophet to meet Ahaz, though he did not send to
   the prophet to speak with him, nor desire him to enquire of the Lord
   for him (v. 3): Go to meet Ahaz. Note, God is often found of those who
   seek him not, much more will he be found of those who seek him
   diligently. He speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of
   it, but do not so much as enquire after it.

   2. He ordered him to take his little son with him, because he carried a
   sermon in his name, Shear-jashub--A remnant shall return. The prophets
   sometimes recorded what they preached in the significant names of their
   children (as Hos. i. 4, 6, 9); therefore Isaiah's children are said to
   be for signs, ch. viii. 18. This son was so called for the
   encouragement of those of God's people who were carried captive,
   assuring them that they should return, at least a remnant of them,
   which was more than they could pretend to merit; yet at this time God
   was better than his word; for he took care not only that a remnant
   should return, but the whole number of those whom the confederate
   forces of Syria and Israel had taken prisoners, 2 Chron. xxviii. 15.

   3. He directed him where he should find Ahaz. He was to meet with him
   not in the temple, or the synagogue, or royal chapel, but at the end of
   the conduit of the upper pool, where he was, probably with many of his
   servants about him, contriving how to order the water-works, so as to
   secure them to the city, or deprive the enemy of the benefits of them
   (ch. xxii. 9-11; 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4), or giving some necessary
   directions for the fortifying of the city as well as they could; and
   perhaps finding every thing in a bad posture or defence, the conduit
   out of repair, as well as other things gone to decay, his fears
   increased, and he was now in greater perplexity than ever; therefore,
   Go, meet him there. Note, God sometimes sends comforts to his people
   very seasonably, and, what time they are most afraid, encourages them
   to trust in him.

   4. He put words in his mouth, else the prophet would not have known how
   to bring a message of good to such a bad man, a sinner in Zion, that
   ought to be afraid; but God intended it for the support of faithful
   Israelites.

   (1.) The prophet must rebuke their fears, and advise them by no means
   to yield to them, but keep their temper, and preserve the possession of
   their own souls (v. 4): Take heed, and be quiet. Note, In order to
   comfort there is need of caution; that we may be quiet, it is necessary
   that we take heed and watch against those things that threaten to
   disquiet us. "Fear not with this amazement, this fear, that weakens,
   and has torment; neither let thy heart be tender, so as to melt and
   fail within thee; but pluck up thy spirits, have a good heart on it,
   and be courageous; let not fear betray the succours which reason and
   religion offer for thy support." Note, Those who expect God should help
   them must help themselves, Ps. xxvii. 14.

   (2.) He must teach them to despise their enemies, not in pride, or
   security, or incogitancy (nothing more dangerous than so to despise an
   enemy), but in faith and dependence upon God. Ahaz's fear called them
   two powerful politic princes, for either of whom he was an unequal
   match, but, if united, he durst not look them in the face, nor make
   head against them. "No," says the prophet, "they are two tails of
   smoking firebrands; they are angry, they are fierce, they are furious,
   as firebrands, as fireballs; and they make one another worse by being
   in a confederacy, as sticks of fire put together burn the more
   violently. But they are only smoking firebrands: and where there is
   smoke there is some fire, but it may be not so much as was feared.
   Their threatenings will vanish into smoke. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but
   a noise (Jer. xlvi. 17), and Rezin king of Syria but a smoke; and such
   are all the enemies of God's church, smoking flax, that will soon be
   quenched. Nay, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, in a manner
   burnt out already; their force is spent; they have consumed themselves
   with the heat of their own anger; you may put your foot on them, and
   tread them out." The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were now near
   expiring. Note, The more we have an eye to God as a consuming fire the
   less reason we shall have to fear men, though they are ever so furious,
   nay, we shall be able to despise them as smoking firebrands.

   (3.) He must assure them that the present design of these high allies
   (so they thought themselves) against Jerusalem should certainly be
   defeated and come to nothing, v. 5-7. [1.] That very thing which Ahaz
   thought most formidable is made the ground of their defeat--and that
   was the depth of their designs and the height of their hopes:
   "Therefore they shall be baffled and sent back with shame, because they
   have taken evil counsel against thee, which is an offence to God. These
   firebrands are a smoke in his nose (ch. lxv. 5), and therefore must be
   extinguished." First, They are very spiteful and malicious, and,
   therefore they shall not prosper. Judah had done them no wrong; they
   had no pretence to quarrel with Ahaz; but, without any reason, they
   said, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it. Note, Those that are
   vexatious cannot expect to be prosperous, those that love to do
   mischief cannot expect to do well. Secondly, They are very secure, and
   confident of success. They will vex Judah by going up against it; yet
   that is not all: they do not doubt but to make a breach in the wall of
   Jerusalem wide enough for them to march their army in at; or they count
   upon dissecting or dividing the kingdom into two parts, one for the
   king of Israel, the other for the king of Syria, who had agreed in one
   viceroy--a king to be set in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal,
   some obscure person, it is uncertain whether a Syrian or an Israelite.
   So sure were they of gaining their point that they divided the prey
   before they had caught it. Note, Those that are most scornful are
   commonly least successful, for surely God scorns the scorners. [2.] God
   himself gives them his word that the attempt should not take effect (v.
   7): "Thus saith the Lord God, the sovereign Lord of all, who brings the
   counsel of the heathen to naught (Ps. xxxiii. 10), It shall not stand,
   neither shall it come to pass; their measures shall all be broken, and
   they shall not be able to bring to pass their enterprise." Note,
   Whatever stands against God, or thinks to stand without him, cannot
   stand long. Man purposes, but God disposes; and who is he that saith
   and it cometh to pass if the Lord commands it not or countermands it?
   Lam. iii. 37. See Prov. xix. 21.

   (4.) He must give them a prospect of the destruction of these enemies,
   at last, that were now such a terror to them. [1.] They should neither
   of them enlarge their dominions, nor push their conquests any further;
   The head city of Syria is Damascus, and the head man of Damascus is
   Rezin; this he glories in, and this let him be content with, v. 8. The
   head city of Ephraim has long been Samaria, and the head man in Samaria
   is now Pekah the son of Remaliah. These shall be made to know their
   own, their bounds are fixed, and they shall not pass them, to make
   themselves masters of the cities of Judah, much less to make Jerusalem
   their prey. Note, As God has appointed men the bounds of their
   habitation (Acts xvii. 26), so he has appointed princes the bounds of
   their dominion, within which they ought to confine themselves, and not
   encroach upon their neighbours' rights. [2.] Ephraim, which perhaps was
   the more malicious and forward enemy of the two, should shortly be
   quite rooted out, and should be so far from seizing other people's
   lands that they should not be able to hold their own. Interpreters are
   much at a loss how to compute the sixty-five years within which Ephraim
   shall cease to be a people; for the captivity of the ten tribes was but
   eleven years after this: and some make it a mistake of the transcriber,
   and think it should be read within six and five years, just eleven. But
   it is hard to allow that. Others make it to be sixty-five years from
   the time that the prophet Amos first foretold the ruin of the kingdom
   of the ten tribes; and some late interpreters make it to look as far
   forward as the last desolation of that country by Esarhaddon, which was
   about sixty-five years after this; then Ephraim was so broken that it
   was no more a people. Now it was the greatest folly in the world for
   those to be ruining their neighbours who were themselves marked for
   ruin, and so near to it. See what a prophet told them at this time,
   when they were triumphing over Judah, 2 Chron. xxviii. 10. Are there
   not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?

   (5.) He must urge them to mix faith with those assurances which he had
   given them (v. 9): "If you will not believe what is said to you, surely
   you shall not be established; your shaken and disordered state shall
   not be established, your unquiet unsettled spirit shall not; though the
   things told you are very encouraging, yet they will not be so to you,
   unless you believe them, and be willing to take God's word." Note, The
   grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the quieting and composing of
   the mind in the midst of all the tosses of this present time, 2 Chron.
   xx. 20.

The Promise of Immanuel. (b. c. 740.)

   10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,   11 Ask thee a
   sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height
   above.   12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the
   Lord.   13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small
   thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?   14
   Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin
   shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   15
   Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and
   choose the good.   16 For before the child shall know to refuse the
   evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be
   forsaken of both her kings.

   Here, I. God, by the prophet, makes a gracious offer to Ahaz, to
   confirm the foregoing predictions, and his faith in them, by such sign
   or miracle as he should choose (v. 10, 11): Ask thee a sign of the Lord
   thy God; See here the divine faithfulness and veracity. God tells us
   nothing but what he is able and ready to prove. See his wonderful
   condescension to the children of men, in that he is so willing to show
   to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, Heb. vi. 17.
   He considers our frame, and that, living in a world of sense, we are
   apt to require sensible proofs, which therefore he has favoured us with
   in sacramental signs and seals. Ahaz was a bad man, yet God is called
   the Lord his God, because he was a child of Abraham and David, and of
   the covenants made with them. See how gracious God is even to the evil
   and unthankful; Ahaz is bidden to choose his sign, as Gideon about the
   fleece (Judg. vi. 37); let him ask for a sign in the air, or earth, or
   water, for God's power is the same in all.

   II. Ahaz rudely refuses this gracious offer, and (which is not mannerly
   towards any superior) kicks at the courtesy, and puts a slight upon it
   (v. 12): I will not ask. The true reason why he would not ask for a
   sign was because, having a dependence upon the Assyrians, their forces,
   and their gods, for help, he would not thus far be beholden to the God
   of Israel, or lay himself under obligations to him. He would not ask a
   sign for the confirming of his faith because he resolved to persist in
   his unbelief, and would indulge his doubts and distrusts; yet he
   pretends a pious reason: I will not tempt the Lord; as if it would be a
   tempting of God to do that which God himself invited and directed him
   to do. Note, A secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the
   specious colours of respect to him; and those who are resolved that
   they will not trust God yet pretend that they will not tempt him.

   III. The prophet reproves him and his court, him and the house of
   David, the whole royal family, for their contempt of prophecy, and the
   little value they had for divine revelation (v. 13) "Is it a small
   thing for you to weary men by your oppression and tyranny, with which
   you make yourselves burdensome and odious to all mankind? But will you
   weary my God also with the affronts you put upon him?" As the unjust
   judge that neither feared God nor regarded man, Luke xviii. 2. You have
   wearied the Lord with your words, Mal. ii. 17. Nothing is more grievous
   to the God of heaven than to be distrusted. "Will you weary my God?
   Will you suppose him to be tired and unable to help you, or to be weary
   of doing you good? Whereas the youths may faint and be weary, you may
   have tired all your friends, the Creator of the ends of the earth
   faints not, neither is weary." ch. xl. 28-31. Or this: "In affronting
   the prophets, you think you put a slight only upon men like yourselves,
   and consider not that you affront God himself, whose messengers they
   are, and put a slight upon him, who will resent it accordingly." The
   prophet here calls God his God with a great deal of pleasure: Ahaz
   would not say, He is my God, though the prophet had invited him to say
   so (v. 11): The Lord thy God; but Isaiah will say, "He is mine." Note,
   Whatever others do, we must avouch the Lord for ours and abide by him.

   IV. The prophet, in God's name, gives them a sign: "You will not ask a
   sign, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no
   effect: The Lord himself shall give you a sign (v. 14), a double sign."

   1. "A sign in general of his good-will to Israel and to the house of
   David. You may conclude it that he has mercy in store for you, and that
   you are not forsaken of your God, how great soever your present
   distress and danger are; for of your nation, of your family, the
   Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing
   is in you, which shall be introduced," (1.) "In a glorious manner; for,
   whereas you have been often told that he should be born among you, I am
   now further to tell you that he shall be born of a virgin, which will
   signify both the divine power and the divine purity with which he shall
   be brought into the world,--that he shall be a extraordinary person,
   for he shall not be born by ordinary generation,--and that he shall be
   a holy thing, not stained with the common pollutions of the human
   nature, therefore incontestably fit to have the throne of his father
   David given him." Now this, though it was to be accomplished above 500
   years after, was a most encouraging sign to the house of David (and to
   them, under that title, this prophecy is directed, v. 13) and an
   assurance that God would not cast them off. Ephraim did indeed envy
   Judah (ch. xi. 13) and sought the ruin of that kingdom, but could not
   prevail; for the sceptre should never depart from Judah till the coming
   of Shiloh, Gen. xlix. 10. Those whom God designs for the great
   salvation may take that for a sign to them that they shall not be
   swallowed up by any trouble they meet with in the way. (2.) The Messiah
   shall be introduced on a glorious errand, wrapped up in his glorious
   name: They shall call his name Immanuel--God with us, God in our
   nature, God at peace with us, in covenant with us. This was fulfilled
   in their calling him Jesus--a Saviour (Matt. i. 21-25), for, if he had
   not been Immanuel--God with us, he could not have been Jesus--a
   Saviour. Now this was a further sign of God's favour to the house of
   David and the tribe of Judah; for he that intended to work this great
   salvation among them no doubt would work out for them all those other
   salvations which were to be the types and figures of this, and as it
   were preludes to this. "Here is a sign for you, not in the depth nor in
   the height, but in the prophecy, in the promise, in the covenant made
   with David, which you are no strangers to. The promised seed shall be
   Immanuel, God with us; let that word comfort you (ch. viii. 10), that
   God is with us, and (v. 8) that your land is Immanuel's land. Let not
   the heart of the house of David be moved thus (v. 2), nor let Judah
   fear the setting up of the son of Tabeal (v. 6), for nothing can cut
   off the entail on the Son of David that shall be Immanuel." Note, The
   strongest consolations, in time of trouble, are those which are
   borrowed from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, and our
   expectations of him and from him. Of this child it is further foretold
   (v. 15) that though he shall not be born like other children, but of a
   virgin, yet he shall be really and truly man, and shall be nursed and
   brought up like other children: Butter and honey shall he eat, as other
   children do, particularly the children of that land which flowed with
   milk and honey. Though he be conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost,
   yet he shall not therefore be fed with angels' food, but, as it becomes
   him, shall be in all things made like unto his brethren, Heb. ii. 17.
   Nor shall he, though born thus by extraordinary generation, be a man
   immediately, but, as other children, shall advance gradually through
   the several states of infancy, childhood, and youth, to that of
   manhood, and growing in wisdom and stature, shall at length wax strong
   in spirit, and come to maturity, so as to know how to refuse the evil
   and choose the good. See Luke ii. 40, 52. Note, Children are fed when
   they are little that they may be taught and instructed when they have
   grown up; they have their maintenance in order to their education.

   2. Here is another sign in particular of the speedy destruction of
   these potent princes that were now a terror to Judah, v. 16. "Before
   this child (so it should be read), this child which I have now in my
   arms" (he means not Immanuel, but Shear-jashub his own son, whom he was
   ordered to take with him for a sign, v. 3), "before this child shall
   know how to refuse the evil and choose the good" (and those who saw
   what his present stature and forwardness were would easily conjecture
   how long that would be), "before this child be three or four years
   older, the land that thou abhorrest, these confederate forces of
   Israelites and Syrians, which thou hast such an enmity to and standest
   in such dread of, shall be forsaken of both their kings, both Pekah and
   Rezin," who were in so close an alliance that they seemed as if they
   were the kings of but one kingdom. This was fully accomplished; for
   within two or three years after this, Hoshea conspired against Pekah,
   and slew him (2 Kings xv. 30), and, before that, the king of Assyria
   took Damascus, and slew Rezin, 2 Kings xvi. 9. Nay, there was a present
   event, which happened immediately, and when this child carried the
   prediction of in his name, which was a pledge and earnest of this
   future event. Shear-jashub signifies The remnant shall return, which
   doubtless points at the wonderful return of those 200,000 captives whom
   Pekah and Rezin had carried away, who were brought back, not by might
   or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. Read the story, 2
   Chron. xxviii. 8-15. The prophetical naming of this child having thus
   had its accomplishment, no doubt this, which was further added
   concerning him, should have its accomplishment likewise, that Syria and
   Israel should be deprived of both their kings. One mercy from God
   encourages us to hope for another, if it engages us to prepare for
   another.

Judgments Announced. (b. c. 740.)

   17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy
   father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim
   departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.   18 And it shall come
   to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in
   the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in
   the land of Assyria.   19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of
   them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon
   all thorns, and upon all bushes.   20 In the same day shall the Lord
   shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by
   the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall
   also consume the beard.   21 And it shall come to pass in that day,
   that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;   22 And it shall
   come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall
   eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in
   the land.   23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place
   shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings,
   it shall even be for briers and thorns.   24 With arrows and with bows
   shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and
   thorns.   25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock,
   there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it
   shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser
   cattle.

   After the comfortable promises made to Ahaz as a branch of the house of
   David, here follow terrible threatenings against him, as a degenerate
   branch of that house; for though the loving-kindness of God shall not
   be utterly taken away, for the sake of David and the covenant made with
   him, yet his iniquity shall be chastened with the rod, and his sin with
   stripes. Let those that will not mix faith with the promises of God
   expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings.

   I. The judgment threatened is very great, v. 17. It is very great, for
   it is general; it shall be brought upon the prince himself (high as he
   is, he shall not be out of the reach of it), and upon the people, the
   whole body of the nation, and upon the royal family, upon all thy
   father's house; it shall be a judgment entailed on posterity, and shall
   go along with the royal blood. It is very great, for it shall be
   unprecedented--days that have not come; so dark, so gloomy, so
   melancholy, as never were the like since the revolt of the ten tribes,
   when Ephraim departed from Judah, which was indeed a sad time to the
   house of David. Note, The longer men continue in sin the sorer
   punishments they have reason to expect. It is the Lord that will bring
   these days upon them, for our times are in his hand, and who can resist
   or escape the judgments he brings?

   II. The enemy that should be employed as the instrument of this
   judgment is the king of Assyria. Ahaz reposed great confidence in that
   prince for help against the confederate powers of Israel and Syria, and
   minded the less what God said to him by his prophet for his
   encouragement because he built much upon his interest in the king of
   Assyria, and had meanly promised to be his servant if he would send him
   some succours; he had also, made him a present of gold and silver, for
   which he drained the treasures both of church and state, 2 Kings xvi.
   7, 8. Now God threatens that that king of Assyria whom he made his stay
   instead of God should become a scourge to him. He was so speedily; for,
   when he came to him, he distressed him, but strengthened him not (2
   Chron. xxviii. 20), the reed not only broke under him, but ran into his
   hand, and pierced it, and thenceforward the kings of Assyria were, for
   a long time, grieving thorns to Judah, and gave them a great deal of
   trouble. Note, The creature that we make our hope commonly proves our
   hurt. The king of Assyria, not long after this, made himself master of
   the ten tribes, carried them captive, and laid their country waste, so
   as fully to answer the prediction here; and perhaps it may refer to
   that, as an explication of v. 8, where it is foretold that Ephraim
   shall be broken, that it shall not be a people; and it is easy to
   suppose that the prophet (at v. 17) turns his speech to the king of
   Israel, denouncing God's judgments against him for invading Judah. But
   the expositors universally understand it of Ahaz and his kingdom. Now
   observe, 1. Summons given to the invaders (v. 18): The Lord shall
   whistle for the fly and the bee. See ch. v. 26. Enemies that seem as
   contemptible as a fly or a bee, and are as easily crushed, shall yet,
   when God pleases, do his work as effectually as lions and young lions.
   Though they are as far distant from one another as the rivers of Egypt
   and the land of Assyria, yet they shall punctually meet to join in this
   work when God commands their attendance; for, when God has work to do,
   he will not be at a loss for instruments to do it with. 2. Possession
   taken by them, v. 19. It should seem as if the country were in no
   condition to make resistance. They find no difficulties in forcing
   their way, but come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, which
   the inhabitants had deserted upon the first alarm, and left them a
   cheap and easy prey to the invaders. They shall come and rest in the
   low grounds like swarms of flies and bees, and shall render themselves
   impregnable by taking shelter in the holes of the rocks, as bees often
   do, and showing themselves formidable by appearing openly upon all
   thorns and all bushes; so generally shall the land be overspread with
   them. These bees shall knit upon the thorns and bushes, and there rest
   undisturbed. 3. Great desolations made, and the country generally
   depopulated (v. 20): The Lord shall shave the hair of the head, and
   beard, and feet; he shall sweep all away, as the leper, when he was
   cleansed, shaved off all his hair, Lev. xiv. 8, 9. This is done with a
   razor which is hired, either which God has hired (as if he had none of
   his own; but what he hires, and whom he employs in any service for him,
   he will pay for. See Ezek. xxix. 18, 19), or which Ahaz has hired for
   his assistance. God will make that to be an instrument of his
   destruction which he hired into his service. Note, Many are beaten with
   that arm of flesh which they trusted to rather than to the arm of the
   Lord, and which they were at a great expense upon, when by faith and
   prayer they might have found cheap and easy succour in God. 4. The
   consequences of this general depopulation. (1.) The flocks of cattle
   shall be all destroyed, so that a man who had herds and flocks in
   abundance shall be stripped of them all by the enemy, and shall with
   much ado save for his own use a young cow and two sheep--a poor stock
   (v. 21), yet he shall think himself happy in having any left. (2.) The
   few cattle that are left shall have such a large compass of ground to
   feed in that they shall give abundance of milk, and very good milk,
   such as shall produce butter enough, v. 22. There shall also be such
   want of men that the milk of one cow and two sheep shall serve a whole
   family, which used to keep abundance of servants and consume a great
   deal, but is now reduced. (3.) The breed of cattle shall be destroyed;
   so that those who used to eat flesh ( as the Jews commonly did) shall
   be necessitated to confine themselves to butter and honey, for there
   shall be no flesh for them; and the country shall be so depopulated
   that there shall be butter and honey enough for the few that are left
   in it. (4.) Good land, that used to be let well, shall be all overrun
   with briers and thorns (v. 23); where there used to be a thousand vines
   planted, for which the tenants used to pay a thousand shekels, or
   pieces of silver, yearly rent, there shall be nothing now but briers
   and thorns, no profit either for landlord or tenant, all being laid
   waste by the army of the invaders. Note, God can soon turn a fruitful
   land into barrenness; and it is just with him to turn vines into briers
   if we, instead of bringing forth grapes to him, bring forth wild
   grapes, ch. v. 4. (5.) The implements of husbandry shall be turned into
   instruments of war, v. 24. The whole land having become briers and
   thorns, the grounds that men used to come to with sickles and
   pruning-hooks to gather in the fruits they shall now come to with
   arrows and bows, to hunt for wild beasts in the thickets, or to defend
   themselves from the robbers that lurk in the bushes, seeking for prey,
   or to kill the serpents and venomous beasts that are hid there. This
   denotes a very sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what
   melancholy change is there which sin will not make with a people? (6.)
   Where briers and thorns were wont to be of use and to do good service,
   even in the hedges, for the defence of the enclosed grounds, they shall
   be plucked up, and all laid in common. There shall be briers and thorns
   in abundance where they should not be, but none where they should be,
   v. 25. The hills that shall be digged with the mattock, for special
   use, from which the cattle used to be kept off with the fear of briers
   and thorns, shall now be thrown open, the hedges broken down for the
   boar out of the wood to waste it, Ps. lxxx. 12, 13. It shall be left at
   large for oxen to run in and less cattle. See the effect of sin and the
   curse; it has made the earth a forest of thorns and thistles, except as
   it is forced into some order by the constant care and labour of man.
   And see what folly it is to set our hearts upon possessions of lands,
   be they every so fruitful, ever so pleasant; if they lie ever so little
   neglected and uncultivated, or if they be abused by a wasteful careless
   heir or tenant, or the country be laid waste by war, they will soon
   become frightful deserts. Heaven is a paradise not subject to such
   changes.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. VIII.

   This chapter, and the four next that follow it (to chap. xiii.) are all
   one continued discourse or sermon, the scope of which is to show the
   great destruction that should now shortly be brought upon the kingdom
   of Israel, and the great disturbance that should be given to the
   kingdom of Judah by the king of Assyria, and that both were for their
   sins; but rich provision is made of comfort for those that feared God
   in those dark times, referring especially to the days of the Messiah.
   In this chapter we have, I. A prophecy of the destruction of the
   confederate kingdoms of Syria and Israel by the king of Assyria, ver.
   1-4. II. Of the desolations that should be made by that proud
   victorious prince in the land of Israel and Judah, ver. 5-8. III. Great
   encouragement given to the people of God in the midst of those
   distractions; they are assured, 1. That the enemies shall not gain
   their point against them, ver. 9, 10. 2. That if they kept up the fear
   of God, and kept down the fear of man, they should find God their
   refuge (ver. 11-14), and while others stumbled, and fell into despair,
   they should be enabled to wait on God, and should see themselves
   reserved for better times, ver. 15-18. Lastly, He gives a necessary
   caution to all, at their peril, not to consult with familiar spirits,
   for they would thereby throw themselves into despair, but to keep close
   to the word of God, ver. 19-22. And these counsels and these comforts
   will still be of use to us in time of trouble.

Judgments Announced. (b. c. 740.)

   1 Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in
   it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.   2 And I took
   unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah
   the son of Jeberechiah.   3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she
   conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name
   Maher-shalal-hash-baz.   4 For before the child shall have knowledge to
   cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
   Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.   5 The Lord
   spake also unto me again, saying,   6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth
   the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and
   Remaliah's son;   7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon
   them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of
   Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels,
   and go over all his banks:   8 And he shall pass through Judah; he
   shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the
   stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O
   Immanuel.

   In these verses we have a prophecy of the successes of the king of
   Assyria against Damascus, Samaria, and Judah, that the two former
   should be laid waste by him, and the last greatly frightened. Here we
   have,

   I. Orders given to the prophet to write this prophecy, and publish it
   to be seen and read of all men, and to leave it upon record, that when
   the thing came to pass they might know that God had sent him; for that
   was one end of prophecy, John xiv. 29. He must take a great roll, which
   would contain those five chapters fairly written in words at length;
   and he must write in it all that he had foretold concerning the king of
   Assyria's invading the country; he must write it with a man's pen, in
   the usual way and style of writing, so as that it might be legible and
   intelligible by all. See Hab. ii. 2, Write the vision, and make it
   plain. Those that speak and write of the things of God should avoid
   obscurity, and study to speak and write so as to be understood, 1 Cor.
   xiv. 19. Those that write for men should write with a man's pen, and
   not covet the pen or tongue of angels. And forasmuch as it is usual to
   put some short, but significant comprehensive title before books that
   are published, the prophet is directed to call his book
   Maher-shalal-hash-baz--Make speed to the spoil, hasten to the prey,
   intimating that the Assyrian army should come upon them with great
   speed and make great spoil. By this title the substance and meaning of
   the book would be enquired after by those that heard of it, and
   remembered by those that had read it or heard it read. It is sometimes
   a good help to memory to put much matter in few words, which serve as
   handles by which we take hold of more.

   II. The care of the prophet to get this record well attested (v. 2): I
   took unto me faithful witnesses to record; he wrote the prophecy in
   their sight and presence, and made them subscribe their names to it,
   that they might be ready, if afterwards there should be occasion, to
   make oath of it, that the prophet had so long before foretold the
   descent which the Assyrians made upon that country. He names his
   witnesses for the greater certainty, that they might be appealed to by
   any. They were two in number (for out of the mouth of two witnesses
   shall every word be established); one was Uriah the priest; he is
   mentioned in the story of Ahaz, but for none of his good deeds, for he
   humoured Ahaz with an idolatrous altar (2 Kings xvi. 10, 11); however,
   at this time, no exception lay against him, being a faithful witness.
   See what full satisfaction the prophets took care to give to all
   persons concerned of the sincerity of their intentions, that we might
   know with a full assurance the certainty of the things wherein we have
   been instructed, and that we have not followed cunningly-devised
   fables.

   III. The making of the title of his book the name of his child, that it
   might be the more taken notice of and the more effectually perpetuated,
   v. 3. His wife (because the wife of a prophet) is called the
   prophetess; she conceived and bore a son, another son, who must carry a
   sermon in his name, as the former had done (ch. vii. 3), but with this
   difference, that spoke mercy, Shear-jashub--The remnant shall return;
   but, that being slighted, this speaks judgment,
   Maher-shalal-hash-baz--In making speed to the spoil he shall hasten, or
   he has hastened, to the prey. The prophecy is doubled, even in this one
   name, for the thing was certain. I will hasten my word, Jer. i. 12.
   Every time the child was called by his name, or any part of it, it
   would serve as a memorandum of the judgments approaching. Note, It is
   good for us often to put ourselves in mind of the changes and troubles
   we are liable to in this world, and which perhaps are at the door. When
   we look with pleasure on our children it should be with the allay of
   this thought, We know not what they are yet reserved for.

   IV. The prophecy itself, which explains this mystical name.

   1. That Syria and Israel, who were now in confederacy against Judah,
   should in a very little time become an easy prey to the king of Assyria
   and his victorious army (v. 4): "Before the child, now newly born and
   named, shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and My mother" (which
   are usually some of the first things that children know and some of the
   first words that children speak), that is, "in about a year or two, the
   riches of Damascus, and the spoil of Samaria, those cities that are now
   so secure themselves and so formidable to their neighbours, shall be
   taken away before the king of Assyria, who shall plunder both city and
   country, and send the best effects of both into his own land, to enrich
   that, and as trophies of his victory." Note, Those that spoil others
   must expect to be themselves spoiled (ch. xxxiii. 1); for the Lord is
   righteous, and those that are troublesome shall be troubled.

   2. That forasmuch as there were many in Judah that were secretly in the
   interests of Syria and Israel, and were disaffected to the house of
   David, God would chastise them also by the king of Assyria, who should
   create a great deal of vexation to Judah, as was foretold, ch. vii. 17.
   Observe, (1.) What was the sin of the discontented party in Judah (v.
   6): This people, whom the prophet here speaks to, refuse the waters of
   Shiloah that go softly, despise their own country and the government of
   it, and love to run it down, because it does not make so great a
   figure, and so great a noise, in the world, as some other kings and
   kingdoms do. They refuse the comforts which God's prophets offer them
   from the word of God, speaking to them in a still small voice, and make
   nothing of them; but they rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son, who were
   the enemies of their country, and were now actually invading it; they
   cried them up as brave men, magnified their policies and strength,
   applauded their conduct, were well pleased with their successes, and
   were hearty well-wishers to their designs, and resolved to desert and
   go over to them. Such vipers does many a state foster in its bosom,
   that eat its bread, and yet adhere to its enemies, and are ready to
   quit its interests if they but seem to totter. (2.) The judgment which
   God would bring upon them for this sin. The same king of Assyria that
   should lay Ephraim and Syria waste should be a scourge and terror to
   those of their party in Judah, v. 7, 8. Because they refuse the waters
   of Shiloah, and will not accommodate themselves to the government God
   has set over them, but are uneasy under it, therefore the Lord brings
   upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the river
   Euphrates. They slighted the land of Judah, because it had no river to
   boast of comparable to that; the river at Jerusalem was a very
   inconsiderable one. "Well," says God, "if you be such admirers of
   Euphrates, you shall have enough of it; the king of Assyria, whose
   country lies upon that river, shall come with his glory, with his great
   army, which you cry up as his glory, despising your own king because he
   cannot bring such an army as that into the field; God shall bring that
   army upon you." If we value men, if we over-value them, for their
   worldly wealth and power, it is just with God to make them thereby a
   scourge to us. It is used as an argument against magnifying rich men
   that rich men oppress us, Jam. ii. 3, 5. Let us be best pleased with
   the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, for rapid streams are dangerous.
   It is threatened that the Assyrian army should break in upon them like
   a deluge, or inundation of waters, bearing down all before it, should
   come up over all his channels, and overflow all his banks. It would be
   to no purpose to oppose or withstand them. Sennacherib and his army
   should pass through Judah, and meet with so little resistance that it
   should look more like a march through the country than a descent upon
   it. He shall reach even to the neck, that is, he shall advance so far
   as to lay siege to Jerusalem, the head of the kingdom, and nothing but
   that shall be kept out of his hands; for that was the holy city. Note,
   In the greatest deluge of trouble God can and will keep the head of his
   people above water, and so preserve their comforts and spiritual lives;
   the waters that come into their souls may reach to the neck (Ps. lxix.
   1), but there shall their proud waves be stayed. And here is another
   comfortable intimation that though the stretching out of the wings of
   the Assyrian, that bird of prey, though the right and left wing of his
   army, should fill the breadth of the land of Judah, yet still it was
   Immanuel's land. It is thy land, O Immanuel! It was to be Christ's
   land; for there he was to be born, and live, and preach, and work
   miracles. He was Zion's King, and therefore had a peculiar interest in
   and concern for that land. Note, The lands that Immanuel owns for his,
   as he does all those lands that own him, though they may be deluged,
   shall not be destroyed; for, when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
   Immanuel shall secure his own, and shall lift up a standard against
   him, ch. lix. 19.

Judah's Encouragement. (b. c. 740.)

   9 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces;
   and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be
   broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
   10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word,
   and it shall not stand: for God is with us.   11 For the Lord spake
   thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk
   in the way of this people, saying,   12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to
   all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye
   their fear, nor be afraid.   13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and
   let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.   14 And he shall be
   for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence
   to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem.   15 And many among them shall stumble, and
   fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

   The prophet here returns to speak of the present distress that Ahaz and
   his court and kingdom were in upon account of the threatening
   confederacy of the ten tribes and the Syrians against them. And in
   these verses,

   I. He triumphs over the invading enemies, and, in effect, sets them at
   defiance, and bids them do their worst (v. 9, 10): "O you people, you
   of far countries, give ear to what the prophet says to you in God's
   name." 1. "We doubt not but you will now make your utmost efforts
   against Judah and Jerusalem. You associate yourselves in a strict
   alliance. You gird yourselves, and again you gird yourselves; you
   prepare for action; you address yourselves to it with resolution; you
   gird on your swords; you gird up your loins. You animate and encourage
   yourselves and one another with all the considerations you can think
   of: you take counsel together, call councils of war, and all heads are
   at work about the proper methods for making yourselves masters of the
   land of Judah. You speak the word; you come to resolutions concerning
   it, and are not always deliberating; you determine what to do, and are
   very confident of the success of it, that the matter will be
   accomplished with a word's speaking." Note, It is with a great deal of
   policy, resolution, and assurance, that the church's enemies carry on
   their designs against it; and abundance of pains they take to roll a
   stone that will certainly return upon them. 2. "This is to let you know
   that all your efforts will be ineffectual. You cannot, you shall not,
   gain your point, nor carry the day: You shall be broken in pieces.
   Though you associate yourselves, though you gird yourselves, though you
   proceed with all the policy and precaution imaginable, yet, I tell you
   again and again, all your projects shall be baffled, you shall be
   broken in pieces. Nay, not only shall your attempts be ruined, but your
   attempts shall be your ruin; you shall be broken by those designs you
   have formed against Jerusalem: Your counsels shall come to nought; for
   there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord. Your resolves will not
   be put in execution; they shall not stand. You speak the word, but who
   is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, if the Lord commandeth it not?
   What sets up itself against God, and his cause and counsel, cannot
   stand, but must inevitably fall. For God is with us" (this refers to
   the name of Immanuel--God with us); "the Messiah is to be born among
   us, and a people designed for such an honour cannot be given up to
   utter ruin. We have now the special presence of God with us in his
   temple, his oracles, his promises, and these are our defence. God is
   with us; he is on our side, to take our part and fight for us; and, if
   God be for us, who can be against us?" Thus does the daughter of Zion
   despise them.

   II. He comforts and encourages the people of God with the same comforts
   and encouragements which he himself had received. The attempt made upon
   them was very formidable; the house of David, the court and royal
   family, were at their wits' end (ch. vii. 2), and then no marvel if the
   people were in a consternation. Now,

   1. The prophet tells us how he was himself taught of God not to give
   way to such amazing fears as the people were disturbed with, nor to run
   into the same measures with them (v. 11): "The Lord spoke to me with a
   strong hand not to walk in the way of this people, not to say as they
   say nor do as they do, not to entertain the same frightful
   apprehensions of things nor to approve of their projects of making
   peace upon any terms, or calling in the help of the Assyrians." God
   instructed the prophet not to go down the stream. Note, (1.) There is a
   proneness in the best of men to be frightened at threatening clouds,
   especially when fears are epidemic. We are all too apt to walk in the
   way of the people we live among, though it be not a good way. (2.)
   Those whom God loves and owns he will instruct and enable to swim
   against the stream of common corruptions, particularly of common fears.
   He will find ways to teach his own people not to walk in the way of
   other people, but in a sober singularity. (3.) Corruption is sometimes
   so active in the hearts even of good men that they have need to be
   taught their duty with a strong hand, and it is God's prerogative to
   teach so, for he only can give an understanding and overpower the
   contradiction of unbelief and prejudice. He can teach the heart; and
   herein none teaches like him. (4.) Those that are to teach others have
   need to be themselves well instructed in their duty, and then they
   teach most powerfully when they teach experimentally. The word that
   comes from the heart is most likely to reach to the heart; and what we
   are ourselves by the grace of God instructed in we should, as we are
   able, teach others also.

   2. Now what is it that he says to God's people?

   (1.) He cautions them against a sinful fear, v. 12. It seems it was the
   way of this people at this time, and fear is catching. He whose heart
   fails him makes his brethren's heart to fail, like his heart (Deut. xx.
   8); therefore Say you not, A confederacy, to all those to whom this
   people shall say, A confederacy; that is, [1.] "Be not associated with
   them in the confederacies they are projecting and forecasting for. Do
   not join with those that, for the securing of themselves, are for
   making a league with the Assyrians, through unbelief, and distrust of
   God and their cause. Do not come into any such confederacy." Note, It
   concerns us, in time of trouble, to watch against all such fears as put
   us upon taking any indirect courses for our own security. [2.] "Be not
   afraid of the confederacies they frighten themselves and one another
   with. Do not distress yourselves with the apprehension of a confederacy
   upon every thing that stirs, nor, when any little thing is amiss, cry
   out presently, There is a plot, a plot. When they talk what dismal news
   there is, Syria is joined with Ephraim, what will become of us? must we
   fight, or must we flee, or must we yield? do not you fear their fear:
   Be not afraid of the signs of heaven, as the heathen are, Jer. x. 2. Be
   not afraid of evil tidings on earth, but let your hearts be fixed. Fear
   not that which they fear, nor be afraid as they are. Be not put into
   such a fright as causes trembling and shaking;" so the word signifies.
   Note, When the church's enemies have sinful confederacies on foot the
   church's friends should watch against the sinful fears of those
   confederacies.

   (2.) He advises them to a gracious religious fear: But sanctify the
   Lord of hosts himself, v. 13. Note, The believing fear of God is a
   special preservative against the disquieting fear of man; see 1 Pet.
   iii. 14, 15, where this is quoted, and applied to suffering Christians.
   [1.] We must look upon God as the Lord of hosts, that has all power in
   his hand and all creatures at his beck. [2.] We must sanctify him
   accordingly, give him the glory due to that name, and behave towards
   him as those that believe him to be a holy God. [3.] We must make him
   our fear, the object of our fear, and make him our dread, keep up a
   reverence of his providence and stand in awe of his sovereignty, be
   afraid of his displeasure and silently acquiesce in all his disposals.
   Were we but duly affected with the greatness and glory of God, we
   should see the pomp of our enemies eclipsed and clouded, and all their
   power restrained and under check; see Neh. iv. 14. Those that are
   afraid of the reproach of men forget the Lord their Maker, ch. li. 12,
   13. Compare Luke xii. 4, 5.

   (3.) He assures them of a holy security and serenity of mind in so
   doing (v. 14): "He shall be for a sanctuary; make him your fear, and
   you shall find him your hope, your help, your defence, and your mighty
   deliverer. He will sanctify and preserve you. He will be for a
   sanctuary," [1.] "To make you holy. He will be your sanctification;" so
   some read it. If we sanctify God by our praises, he will sanctify us by
   his grace. [2.] "To make you easy. He will be your sanctuary," to which
   you may flee for safety, and where you are privileged form all the
   arrests of fear; you shall find an inviolable refuge and security in
   him, and see yourselves our of the reach of danger. Those that truly
   fear God shall not need to fear any evil.

   III. He threatens the ruin of the ungodly and unbelieving, both in
   Judah and Israel. They have no part nor lot in the foregoing comforts;
   that God who will be a sanctuary to those who trust in him will be a
   stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to those who leave these
   waters of Shiloah, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son, (v. 6), who
   make the creature their fear and their hope, v. 14, 15. The prophet
   foresees that the greatest part of both the houses of Israel would not
   sanctify the Lord of hosts, and to them he would be for a gin and a
   snare; he would be a terror to them, as he would be a support and stay
   to those that trusted in him. Instead of profiting by the word of God,
   they should be offended at it; and the providences of God, instead of
   leading them to him, would drive them from him. What was a savour of
   life unto life to others would be a savour of death unto death to them.
   "So that many among them shall stumble and fall; they shall fall both
   into sin and into ruin; they shall fall by the sword, shall be taken
   prisoners, and go into captivity." Note, If the things of God be an
   offence to us, they will be an undoing to us. Some apply this to the
   unbelieving Jews, who rejected Christ, and to whom he became a stone of
   stumbling; for the apostle quotes this scripture with application to
   all those who persisted in their unbelief of the gospel of Christ (1
   Pet. ii. 8); to them he is a rock of offence, because, being
   disobedient to the word, they stumble at it.

The Importance of the Scriptures. (b. c. 740.)

   16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.   17 And I
   will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob,
   and I will look for him.   18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord
   hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of
   hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.   19 And when they shall say unto
   you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that
   peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the
   living to the dead?   20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak
   not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
   21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it
   shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret
   themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.   22
   And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness,
   dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The unspeakable privilege which the people of God enjoy in having
   the oracles of God consigned over to them, and being entrusted with the
   sacred writings. That they may sanctify the Lord of hosts, may make him
   their fear and find him their sanctuary, bind up the testimony, v. 16.
   Note, It is a great instance of God's care of his church and love to it
   that he has lodged in it the invaluable treasure of divine revelation.
   1. It is a testimony and a law; not only this prophecy is so, which
   must therefore be preserved safely for the comfort of God's people in
   the approaching times of trouble and distress, but the whole word of
   God is so; God has attested it, and he has enjoined it. As a testimony
   it directs our faith; as a law it directs our practice; and we ought
   both to subscribe to the truths of it and to submit to the precepts of
   it. 2. This testimony and this law are bound up and sealed, for we are
   not to add to them nor diminish from them; they are a letter from God
   to man, folded up and sealed, a proclamation under the broad seal. The
   binding up and sealing of the Old Testament signified that the full
   explication of many of the prophecies of it was reserved for the
   New-Testament times. Dan. xii. 4, Seal the book till the time of the
   end; but what was then bound up and sealed is now open and unsealed,
   and revealed unto babes, Matt. xi. 25. Yet with reference to the other
   world, and the future state, still the testimony is bound up and
   sealed, for we know but in part, and prophesy but in part. 3. They are
   lodged as a sacred deposit in the hands of the disciples of the
   children of the prophets and the covenant, Acts iii. 25. This is the
   good thing which is committed to them, and which they are charged with
   the custody of, 2 Tim. i. 13, 14. Those that had prophets for their
   tutors must still keep close to the written word.

   II. The good use which we ought to make of this privilege. This we are
   taught,

   1. By the prophet's own practice and resolutions, v. 17, 18. He
   embraced the law ad the testimony, and he had the comfort of them, in
   the midst of the many discouragements he met with. Note, Those
   ministers can best recommend the word of God to others that have
   themselves found the satisfaction of relying upon it. Observe,

   (1.) The discouragements which the prophet laboured under. He specifies
   two:--[1.] The frowns of God, not so much upon himself, but upon his
   people, whose interests lay very near his heart: "He hides his face
   from the house of Jacob, and seems at present to neglect them, and lay
   them under the tokens of his displeasure." The prophet was himself
   employed in revealing God's wrath against them, and yet grieved thus
   for it, as one that did not desire the woeful day. If the house of
   Jacob forsake the God of Jacob, let it not be thought strange that he
   hides his face from them. [2.] The contempt and reproaches of men, not
   only upon himself, but upon his disciples, among whom the law and the
   testimony were sealed: I and the children whom the Lord has given me
   are for signs and wonders; we are gazed at as monsters or outlandish
   people, pointed at as we go along the streets. Probably the prophetical
   names that were given to his children were ridiculed and bantered by
   the profane scoffers of the town. I am as a wonder unto many, Ps. lxxi.
   7. God's people are the world's wonder (Zech. iii. 8) for their
   singularity, and because they run not with them to the same excess of
   riot, 1 Pet. iv. 4. The prophet was herein a type of Christ; for this
   is quoted (Heb. ii. 13) to prove that believers are Christ's children:
   Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Parents must look
   upon their children as God's gifts, his gracious gifts; Jacob did so,
   Gen. xxxiii. 5. Ministers must look upon their converts as their
   children, and be tender of them accordingly (1 Thess. ii. 7), and as
   the children whom God has given them; for, whatever good we are
   instrumental of to others, it is owing to the grace of God. Christ
   looks upon believers as his children, whom the Father gave him (John
   xvii. 6), and both he and they are for signs and wonders, spoken
   against (Luke ii. 34), every where spoken against, Acts xxviii. 22.

   (2.) The encouragement he took in reference to these discouragements.
   [1.] He saw the hand of God in all that which was discouraging to him,
   and kept his eye upon that. Whatever trouble the house of Jacob is in,
   it comes from God's hiding his face; nay, whatever contempt was put
   upon him or his friends, it is from the Lord of hosts; he has bidden
   Shimei curse David, Job xix. 13; xxx. 11. [2.] He saw God dwelling in
   Mount Zion, manifesting himself to his people, and ready to hear their
   prayers and receive their homage. Though, for the present, he hide his
   face from the house of Jacob, yet they know where to find him and
   recover the sight of him; he dwells in Mount Zion. [3.] He therefore
   resolved to wait upon the Lord and to look for him; to attend his
   motions even while he hid his face, and to expect with a humble
   assurance his returns in a way of mercy. Those that wait upon God by
   faith and prayer may look for him with hope and joy. When we have not
   sensible comforts we must still keep up our observance of God and
   obedience to him, and then wait awhile; at evening time it shall be
   light.

   2. By the counsel and advice which he gives to his disciples, among
   whom the law and the testimony were sealed, to whom were committed the
   lively oracles.

   (1.) He supposes they would be tempted, in the day of their distress,
   to consult those that had familiar spirits, that dealt with the devil,
   asked his advice, and desired to be informed by him concerning things
   to come, that they might take their measures accordingly. Thus Saul,
   when he was in straits, made his application to the witch of Endor (1
   Sam. xxviii. 7, 15), and Ahaziah to the god of Ekron, 2 Kings i. 2.
   These conjurors had strange fantastic gestures and tones: They peeped
   and muttered; they muffled their heads, that they could neither see nor
   be seen plainly, but peeped and were peeped at. Or both the words here
   used may refer to their voice and manner of speaking; they delivered
   what they had to say with a low, hollow, broken sound, scarcely
   articulate, and sometimes in a puling or mournful tone, like a crane,
   or a swallow, or a dove, ch. xxxviii. 14. They spoke not with that
   boldness and plainness which the prophets of the Lord spoke with, but
   as those who desire to amuse people rather than to instruct them; yet
   there were those who were so wretchedly sottish as to seek to them and
   to court others to do so, even the prophet's hearers, who knew better
   things, whom therefore the prophet warns not to say, A confederacy with
   such. There were express laws against this wickedness (Lev. xix. 31;
   xx. 27), and yet it was found in Israel, is found even in Christian
   nations; but let all that have any sense of religion show it, by
   startling at the thought of it. Get thee behind me, Satan. Dread the
   use of spells and charms, and consulting those that by hidden arts
   pretend to tell fortunes, cure diseases, or discover things lost; for
   this is a heinous crime, and, in effect, denies the God that is above.

   (2.) He furnishes them with an answer to this temptation, puts words
   into their mouths. "If any go about thus to ensnare you, give them this
   reply: Should not a people seek to their God? What! for the living to
   the dead!" [1.] "Tell them it is a principle of religion that a people
   ought to seek unto their God; now Jehovah is our God, and therefore to
   him we ought to seek, and to consult with him, and not with those that
   have familiar spirits. All people will thus walk in the name of their
   God, Mic. iv. 5. Those that made the hosts of heaven their gods sought
   unto them, Jer. viii. 2. Should not a people under guilt, and in
   trouble, seek to their God for pardon and peace? Should not a people in
   doubt, in want, and in danger, seek to their God for direction, supply,
   and protection? Since the Lord is our God, and we are his people, it is
   certainly our duty to seek him." [2.] "Tell them it is an instance of
   the greatest folly in the world to seek for living men to dead idols."
   What can be more absurd than to seek to lifeless images for life and
   living comforts, or to expect that our friends that are dead should do
   that for us, when we deify them and pray to them, which our living
   friends cannot do? The dead know not any thing, nor is there with them
   any device or working, Eccl. ix. 5, 10. It is folly therefore for the
   living to make their court to them, with any expectation of relief from
   them. Necromancers consulted the dead, as the witch of Endor, and so
   proclaimed their own folly. We must live by the living, and not by the
   dead. What life or light can we look for from those that have no light
   or life themselves?

   (3.) He directs them to consult the oracles of God. If the prophets
   that were among them did not speak directly to every case, yet they had
   the written word, and to that they must have recourse. Note, Those will
   never be drawn to consult wizards that know how to make a good use of
   their Bibles. Would we know how we may seek to our God, and come to the
   knowledge of his mind? To the law and to the testimony. There you will
   see what is good, and what the Lord requires of you. Make God's
   statutes your counsellors, and you will be counselled aright. Observe,
   [1.] What use we must make of the law and the testimony: we must speak
   according to that word, that is, we must make this our standard,
   conform to it, take advice from it, make our appeals to it, and in
   every thing be overruled and determined by it, consent to those
   wholesome healing words (1 Tim. vi. 3), and speak of the things of God
   in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches. It is not enough to say
   nothing against it, but we must speak according to it. [2.] Why we must
   make this use of the law and the testimony: because we shall be
   convicted of the greatest folly imaginable if we do not. Those that
   concur not with the word of God do thereby evince that there is no
   light, no morning light (so the word is) in them; they have no right
   sense of things; they do not understand themselves, nor the difference
   between good and evil, truth and falsehood. Note, Those that reject
   divine revelation have not so much as human understanding; nor do those
   rightly admit the oracles of reason who will not admit the oracles of
   God. Some read it as a threatening: "If they speak not according to
   this word, there shall be no light to them, no good, no comfort or
   relief; but they shall be driven to darkness and despair;" as it
   follows here, v. 21, 22. What light had Saul when he consulted the
   witch? 1 Sam. xxviii. 18, 20. Or what light can those expect that turn
   away from the Father of lights?

   (4.) He reads the doom of those that seek to familiar spirits and
   regard not God's law and testimony; there shall not only be no light to
   them, no comfort or prosperity, but they may expect all horror and
   misery, v. 21, 22. [1.] The trouble they feared shall come upon them:
   They shall pass through the land, or pass to and fro in the land,
   unfixed, unsettled, and driven from place to place by the threatening
   power of an invading enemy; they shall be hardly bestead whither to go
   for the necessary supports of life, either because the country would be
   so impoverished that there would be nothing to be had, or at least
   themselves and their friends so impoverished that there would be
   nothing to be had for them; so that those who used to be fed to the
   full shall be hungry. Note, Those that go away from God go out of the
   way of all good. [2.] They shall be very uneasy to themselves, by their
   discontent and impatience under their trouble. A good man may be in
   want, but then he quiets himself, and strives to make himself easy; but
   these people when they shall be hungry shall fret themselves, and when
   they have nothing to feed on their vexation shall prey upon their own
   spirits; for fretfulness is a sin that is its own punishment. [3.] They
   shall be very provoking to all about them, nay, to all above them; when
   they find all their measures broken, and themselves at their wits' end,
   they will forget all the rules of duty and decency, and will
   treasonably curse their king and blasphemously curse their God, and
   this more than in their thought and in their bedchamber, Eccl. x. 20.
   They begin with cursing their king for managing the public affairs no
   better, as if the fault were his, when the best and wisest kings cannot
   secure success; but, when they have broken the bonds of their
   allegiance, no marvel if those of their religion do not hold them long:
   they next curse their God, curse him, and die; they quarrel with his
   providence, and reproach that, as if he had done them wrong. The
   foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against
   the Lord, Prov. xix. 3. See what need we have to keep our mouth as with
   a bridle when our heart is hot within us; for the language of
   fretfulness is commonly very offensive. [4.] They shall abandon
   themselves to despair, and, which way soever they look, shall see no
   probability of relief. They shall look upward, but heaven shall frown
   upon them and look gloomy; and how can it be otherwise when they curse
   their God? They shall look to the earth, but what comfort can that
   yield to those with whom God is at war? There is nothing there but
   trouble, and darkness, and dimness of anguish, every thing threatening,
   and not one pleasant gleam, not one hopeful prospect; but they shall be
   driven to darkness by the violence of their own fears, which represent
   every thing about them black and frightful. This explains what he had
   said v. 20, that there shall be no light to them. Those that shut their
   eyes against the light of God's word will justly be abandoned to
   darkness, and left to wander endlessly, and the sparks of their own
   kindling will do them no kindness.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. IX.

   The prophet in this chapter (according to the directions given him, ch.
   iii. 10, 11) saith to the righteous, It shall be well with thee, but
   Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him. Here are, I. Gracious
   promises to those that adhere to the law and to the testimony; while
   those that seek to familiar spirits shall be driven into darkness and
   dimness, they shall see a great light, relief in the midst of their
   distresses, typical of gospel grace. 1. In the doctrine of the Messiah,
   ver. 1-3. 2. His victories, ver. 4, 5. 3. His government and dominion
   as Immanuel, ver. 6, 7. II. Dreadful threatenings against the people of
   Israel, who had revolted from and were enemies to the house of David,
   that they should be brought to utter ruin, that their pride should
   bring them down (ver. 8-10), that their neighbours should make a prey
   of them (ver. 11, 12), that, for their impenitence and hypocrisy, all
   their ornaments and supports should be cut off (ver. 13-17), and that
   by the wrath of God against them, and their wrath one against another,
   they should be brought to utter ruin, ver. 18-21. And this is typical
   of the final destruction of all the enemies of the Son of David and his
   kingdom.

Judgment and Mercy; The Promise of Gospel Grace; The Promise of Messiah; The
Titles of Messiah. (b. c. 740.)

   1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation,
   when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land
   of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way
   of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.   2 The people
   that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the
   land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.   3 Thou
   hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before
   thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they
   divide the spoil.   4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and
   the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of
   Midian.   5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and
   garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of
   fire.   6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
   government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
   Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
   Prince of Peace.   7 Of the increase of his government and peace there
   shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
   order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
   henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform
   this.

   The first words of this chapter plainly refer to the close of the
   foregoing chapter, where every thing looked black and melancholy:
   Behold, trouble, and darkness, and dimness--very bad, yet not so bad
   but that to the upright there shall arise light in the darkness (Ps.
   cxii. 4) and at evening time it shall be light, Zech. xiv. 7.
   Nevertheless it shall not be such dimness (either not such for kind or
   not such for degree) as sometimes there has been. Note, In the worst of
   times God's people have a nevertheless to comfort themselves with,
   something to allay and balance their troubles; they are persecuted, but
   not forsaken (2 Cor. iv. 9), sorrowful yet always rejoicing, 2 Cor. vi.
   10. And it is matter of comfort to us, when things are at the darkest,
   that he who forms the light and creates the darkness (ch. xlv. 7) has
   appointed to both their bounds and set the one over against the other,
   Gen. iv. 4. He can say, "Hitherto the dimness shall go, so long it
   shall last, and no further, no longer."

   I. Three things are here promised, and they all point ultimately at the
   grace of the gospel, which the saints then were to comfort themselves
   with the hopes of in every cloudy and dark day, as we now are to
   comfort ourselves in time of trouble with the hopes of Christ's second
   coming, though that be now, as his first coming then was, a thing at a
   great distance. The mercy likewise which God has in store for his
   church in the latter days may be a support to those that are mourning
   with her for her present calamities. We have here the promise,

   1. Of a glorious light, which shall so qualify, and by degrees dispel,
   the dimness, that it shall not be as it sometimes has been: Not such as
   was in her vexation; there shall not be such dark times as were
   formerly, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and
   Naphtali (which lay remote and most exposed to the inroads of the
   neighbouring enemies), and afterwards he more grievously afflicted the
   land by the way of the sea and beyond Jordan (v. 1), referring probably
   to those days when God began to cut Israel short and to smite them in
   all their coasts, 2 Kings x. 32. Note, God tries what less judgments
   will do with a people before he brings greater; but if a light
   affliction do not do its work with us, to humble and reform us, we must
   expect to be afflicted more grievously; for when God judges he will
   overcome. Well, those were dark times with the land of Zebulun and
   Naphtali, and there was dimness of anguish in Galilee of the Gentiles,
   both in respect of ignorance (they did not speak according to the law
   and the testimony, and then there was no light in them, ch. viii. 20)
   and in respect of trouble, and the desperate posture of their outward
   affairs; we have both together, 2 Chron. xv. 3, 5. Israel has been
   without the true God and a teaching priest, and in those times there
   was no peace. But the dimness threatened (ch. viii. 22) shall not
   prevail to such a degree; for (v. 2) the people that walked in darkness
   have seen a great light. (1.) At this time when the prophet lived,
   there were many prophets in Judah and Israel, whose prophecies were a
   great light both for direction and comfort to the people of God, who
   adhered to the law and the testimony. Besides the written word, they
   had prophecy; there were those that had shown them how long (Ps. lxxiv.
   9), which was a great satisfaction to them, when in respect of their
   outward troubles they sat in darkness, and dwelt in the land of the
   shadow of death. (2.) This was to have its full accomplishment when our
   Lord Jesus began to appear as a prophet, and to preach the gospel in
   the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, and in Galilee of the Gentiles. And
   the Old-Testament prophets, as they were witnesses to him, so they were
   types of him. When he came and dwelt in the borders of Zebulun and
   Naphtali, then this prophecy is said to have been fulfilled, Matt. iv.
   13-16. Note, [1.] Those that want the gospel walk in darkness, and know
   not what they do nor whither they go; and they dwell in the land of the
   shadow of death, in thick darkness, and in the utmost danger. [2.] When
   the gospel comes to any place, to any soul, light comes, a great light,
   a shining light, which will shine more and more. It should be welcome
   to us, as light is to those that sit in darkness, and we should readily
   entertain it, both because if is of such sovereign use to us and
   because it brings its own evidence with it. Truly this light is sweet.

   2. Of a glorious increase, and a universal joy arising from it, (v. 3)
   "Thou, O God! hast multiplied the nation, the Jewish nation which thou
   hast mercy in store for; though it has been diminished by one sore
   judgment after another, yet now thou hast begun to multiply it again."
   The numbers of a nation are its strength and wealth if the numerous be
   industrious; and it is God that increases nations, Job xii. 23. Yet it
   follows, "Thou hast not increased the joy--the carnal joy and mirth,
   and those things that are commonly the matter and occasion thereof.
   But, notwithstanding that, they joy before thee; there is a great deal
   of serious spiritual joy among them, joy in the presence of God, with
   an eye to him." This is very applicable to the times of gospel light,
   spoken of v. 2. Then God multiplied the nation, the gospel Israel. "And
   to him" (so the Masorites read it) "thou hast magnified the joy, to
   every one that receives the light." The following words favour this
   reading: "They joy before thee; they come before thee in holy
   ordinances with great joy'; their mirth is not like that of Israel
   under their vines and fig-trees (thou hast not increased that joy), but
   it is in the favour of God and in the tokens of his grace." Note, The
   gospel, when it comes in its light and power, brings joy along with it,
   and those who receive it aright do therein rejoice, yea, and will
   rejoice; therefore the conversion of the nations is prophesied of by
   this (Ps. lxvii. 4), Let the nations be glad, and sin for joy. See Ps.
   xcvi. 11. (1.) It is holy joy: They joy before thee; they rejoice in
   spirit (as Christ did, Luke x. 21), and that is before God. In the eye
   of the world they are always as sorrowful, and yet, in God's sight,
   always rejoicing, 2 Cor. vi. 10. (2.) It is great joy; it is according
   to the joy in harvest, when those who sowed in tears, and have with
   long patience waited for the precious fruits of the earth, reap in joy;
   and as in war men rejoice when, after a hazardous battle, they divide
   the spoil. The gospel brings with it plenty and victory; but those that
   would have the joy of it must expect to go through a hard work, as the
   husbandman before he has the joy of harvest, and a hard conflict, as
   the soldier before he has the joy of dividing the spoil; but the joy,
   when it comes, will be an abundant recompence for the toil. See Acts
   viii. 8, 39.

   3. Of a glorious liberty and enlargement (v. 4, 5): "They shall rejoice
   before thee, and with good reason, for thou hast broken the yoke of his
   burden, and made him easy, for he shall no longer be in servitude; and
   thou hast broken the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his
   oppressor, that rod of the wicked which rested long on the lot of the
   righteous," as the Midianites' yoke was broken from off the neck of
   Israel by the agency of Gideon. If God makes former deliverances his
   patterns in working for us, we ought to make them our encouragements to
   hope in him and to seek to him, Ps. lxxxiii. 9. Do unto them as to the
   Midianites. What temporal deliverance this refers to is not clear,
   probably the preventing of Sennacherib from making himself master of
   Jerusalem, which was done, as in the day of Midian, by the immediate
   hand of God; and, whereas other battles were usually won with a great
   deal of noise and by the expense of much blood, this shall be done
   silently and without noise. Under his glory God shall kindle a burning
   (ch. x. 16); a fire not blown shall consume him, Job xx. 26. But
   doubtless it looks further, to the blessed fruits and effects of that
   great light which should visit those that sat in darkness; it would
   bring liberty along with it, deliverance to the captives, Luke iv. 18.
   (1.) The design of the gospel, and the grace of it, is to break the
   yoke of sin and Satan, to remove the burden of guilt and corruption,
   and to free us from the rod of those oppressors, that we might be
   brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Christ broke
   the yoke of the ceremonial law (Acts xv. 10; Gal. v. 1), and delivered
   us out of the hand of our enemies, that we might serve him without
   fear, Luke i. 74, 75. (2.) This is done by the Spirit working like fire
   (Matt. iii. 11), not as the battle of the warrior is fought, with
   confused noise; no, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; but it
   is done with the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning, ch. iv.
   4. It is done as in the day of Midian, by a work of God upon the hearts
   of men. Christ is our Gideon; it is his sword that doeth wonders.

   II. But who, where, is he that shall undertake and accomplish these
   great things for the church? The prophet tells us (v. 6, 7) they shall
   be done by the Messiah, Immanuel, that son of a virgin whose birth he
   had foretold (ch. vii. 14), and now speaks of, in the prophetic style,
   as a thing already done: the child is born, not only because it was as
   certain, and he was as certain of it as if it had been done already,
   but because the church before his incarnation reaped great benefit and
   advantage by his undertaking in virtue of that first promise concerning
   the seed of the woman, Gen. iii. 15. As he was the Lamb slain, so he
   was the child born, from the foundation of the world, Rev. xiii. 8. All
   the great things that God did for the Old-Testament church were done by
   him as the eternal Word, and for his sake as the Mediator. He was the
   Anointed, to whom God had respect (Ps. lxxxiv. 9), and it was for the
   Lord's sake, for the Lord Christ's sake, that God caused his face to
   shine upon his sanctuary, Dan. ix. 17. The Jewish nation, and
   particularly the house of David, were preserved many a time from
   imminent ruin only because that blessing was in them. What greater
   security therefore could be given to the church of God then that it
   should be preserved, and be the special care of the divine Providence,
   than this, that God had so great a mercy in reserve for it? The Chaldee
   paraphrast understands it of the man that shall endure for ever, even
   Christ. And it is an illustrious prophecy of him and of his kingdom,
   which doubtless those that waited for the consolation of Israel built
   much upon, often turned to, and read with pleasure.

   1. See him in his humiliation. The same that is the mighty God is a
   child born; the ancient of days becomes an infant of a span long; the
   everlasting Father is a Son given. Such was his condescension in taking
   our nature upon him; thus did he humble and empty himself, to exalt and
   fill us. He is born into our world. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt
   among us. He is given, freely given, to be all that to us which our
   case, in our fallen state, calls for. God so loved the world that he
   gave him. He is born to us, he is given to us, us men, and not to the
   angels that sinned. It is spoken with an air of triumph, and the angel
   seems to refer to these words in the notice he gives to the shepherds
   of the Messiah's having come (Luke ii. 11), Unto you is born, this day,
   a Saviour. Note, Christ's being born and given to us is the great
   foundation of our hopes, and fountain of our joys, in times of greatest
   grief and fear.

   2. See him in his exaltation. This child, this son, this Son of God,
   this Son of man, that is given to us, is in a capacity to do us a great
   deal of kindness; for he is invested with the highest honour and power,
   so that we cannot but be happy if he be our friend.

   (1.) See the dignity he is advanced to, and the name he has above every
   name. He shall be called (and therefore we are sure he is and shall be)
   Wonderful, Counsellor, &c. His people shall know him and worship him by
   these names; and, as one that fully answers them, they shall submit to
   him and depend upon him. [1.] He is wonderful, counsellor. Justly is he
   called wonderful, for he is both God and man. His love is the wonder of
   angels and glorified saints; in his birth, life, death, resurrection,
   and ascension, he was wonderful. A constant series of wonders attended
   him, and, without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness
   concerning him. He is the counsellor, for he was intimately acquainted
   with the counsels of God from eternity, and he gives counsel to the
   children of men, in which he consults our welfare. It is by him that
   God has given us counsel, Ps. xvi. 7; Rev. iii. 18. He is the wisdom of
   the Father, and is made of God to us wisdom. Some join these together:
   He is the wonderful counsellor, a wonder or miracle of a counsellor; in
   this, as in other things, he has the pre-eminence; none teaches like
   him. [2.] He is the mighty God--God, the mighty One. As he has wisdom,
   so he has strength, to go through with his undertaking: he is able to
   save to the utmost; and such is the work of the Mediator that no less a
   power than that of the mighty God could accomplish it. [3.] He is the
   everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity; he is God, one with the
   Father, who is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the author of
   everlasting life and happiness to them, and so is the Father of a
   blessed eternity to them. He is the Father of the world to come (so the
   LXX. reads it), the father of the gospel-state, which is put in
   subjection to him, not to the angels, Heb. ii. 5. He was, from
   eternity, Father of the great work of redemption: his heart was upon
   it; it was the product of his wisdom as the counsellor, of his love as
   the everlasting Father. [4.] He is the prince of peace. As a King, he
   preserves the peace, commands peace, nay, he creates peace, in his
   kingdom. He is our peace, and it is his peace that both keeps the
   hearts of his people and rules in them. He is not only a peaceable
   prince, and his reign peaceable, but he is the author and giver of all
   good, all that peace which is the present and future bliss of his
   subjects.

   (2.) See the dominion he is advanced to, and the throne he has above
   every throne (v. 6): The government shall be upon his shoulder--his
   only. He shall not only wear the badge of it upon his shoulder (the key
   of the house of David, ch. xxii. 22), but he shall bear the burden of
   it. The Father shall devolve it upon him, so that he shall have an
   incontestable right to govern; and he shall undertake it, so that no
   doubt can be made of his governing well, for he shall set his shoulder
   to it, and will never complain, as Moses did, of his being overcharged.
   I am not able to bear all this people, Num. xi. 11, 14. Glorious things
   are here spoken of Christ's government, v. 7. [1.] That it shall be an
   increasing government. It shall be multiplied; the bounds of his
   kingdom shall be more and more enlarged, and many shall be added to it
   daily. The lustre of it shall increase, and it shall shine more and
   more brightly in the world. The monarchies of the earth were each less
   illustrious than the other, so that what began in gold ended in iron
   and clay, and every monarchy dwindled by degrees; but the kingdom of
   Christ is a growing kingdom, and will come to perfection at last. [2.]
   That it shall be a peaceable government, agreeable to his character as
   the prince of peace. He shall rule by love, shall rule in men's hearts;
   so that wherever his government is there shall be peace, and as his
   government increases the peace shall increase. The more we are subject
   to Christ the more easy and safe we are. [3.] That it shall be a
   rightful government. He that is the Son of David shall reign upon the
   throne of David and over his kingdom, which he is entitled to. God
   shall give him the throne of his father David, Luke i. 32, 33. The
   gospel church, in which Jew and Gentile are incorporated, is the holy
   hill of Zion, on which Christ reigns, Ps. ii. 6. [4.] That it shall be
   administered with prudence and equity, and so as to answer the great
   end of government, which is the establishment of the kingdom: He shall
   order it, and settle it, with justice and judgment. Every thing is, and
   shall be, well managed, in the kingdom of Christ, and none of his
   subjects shall ever have cause to complain. [5.] That it shall be an
   everlasting kingdom: There shall be no end of the increase of his
   government (it shall be still growing), no end of the increase of the
   peace of it, for the happiness of the subjects of this kingdom shall
   last to eternity and perhaps shall be progressive in infinitum--for
   ever. He shall reign henceforth even for ever; not only throughout all
   generations of time, but, even when the kingdom shall be delivered up
   to God even the Father, the glory both of the Redeemer and the redeemed
   shall continue eternally. [6.] That God himself has undertaken to bring
   all this about: "The Lord of hosts, who has all power in his hand and
   all creatures at his beck, shall perform this, shall preserve the
   throne of David till this prince of peace is settled in it; his zeal
   shall do it, his jealousy for his own honour, and the truth of his
   promise, and the good of his church." Note, The heart of God is much
   upon the advancement of the kingdom of Christ among men, which is very
   comfortable to all those that wish well to it; the zeal of the Lord of
   hosts will overcome all opposition.

Threatenings against Judah; Threatenings against Israel. (b. c. 740.)

   8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.   9
   And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of
   Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,   10 The bricks
   are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are
   cut down, but we will change them into cedars.   11 Therefore the Lord
   shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies
   together;   12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they
   shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not
   turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.   13 For the people
   turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord
   of hosts.   14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and
   tail, branch and rush, in one day.   15 The ancient and honourable, he
   is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.   16
   For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led
   of them are destroyed.   17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in
   their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and
   widows: for every one is a hypocrite and an evil doer, and every mouth
   speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand
   is stretched out still.   18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it
   shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of
   the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.   19
   Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the
   people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his
   brother.   20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and
   he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they
   shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:   21 Manasseh, Ephraim;
   and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For
   all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out
   still.

   Here are terrible threatenings, which are directed primarily against
   Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, Ephraim and Samaria, the ruin of
   which is here foretold, with all the woeful confusions that were the
   prefaces to that ruin, all which came to pass within a few years after;
   but they look further, to all the enemies of the throne and kingdom of
   Christ the Son of David, and read the doom of all the nations that
   forget God, and will not have Christ to reign over them. Observe,

   I. The preface to this prediction (v. 8): The Lord sent a word into
   Jacob, sent it by his servants the prophets. He warns before he wounds.
   He sent notice what he would do, that they might meet him in the way of
   his judgments; but they would not take the hint, took no care to turn
   away his wrath, and so it lighted upon Israel; for no word of God shall
   fall to the ground. It fell upon them as a storm of rain and hail from
   on high, which they could not avoid: It has lighted upon them, that is,
   it is as sure to come as if come already, and all the people shall know
   by feeling it what they would not know by hearing of it. Those that are
   willingly ignorant of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against sin
   and sinners shall be made to know it.

   II. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, which provoked God to
   bring these judgments upon them. 1. Their insolent defiance of the
   justice of God, thinking themselves a match for him: "They say, in the
   pride and stoutness of their heart, Let God himself do his worst; we
   will hold our own, and make our part good with him. If he ruin our
   houses, we will repair them, and make them stronger and finer than they
   were before. Our landlord shall not turn us out of doors, though we pay
   him no rent, but we will keep in possession. If the houses that were
   built of bricks be demolished in the war, we will rebuild them with
   hewn stones, that shall not so easily be thrown down. If the enemy cut
   down the sycamores, we will plant cedars in the room of them. We will
   make a hand of God's judgments, gain by them, and so outbrave them."
   Note, Those are ripening apace for ruin whose hearts are unhumbled
   under humbling providences; for God will walk contrary to those who
   thus walk contrary to him and provoke him to jealousy, as if they were
   stronger than he. 2. Their incorrigibleness under all the rebukes of
   Providence hitherto (v. 13); The people turn not unto him that smiteth
   them (they are not wrought upon to reform their lives, to forsake their
   sins, and to return to their duty), neither do they seek the Lord of
   hosts; either they are atheists, and have no religion, or idolaters,
   and seek to those gods that are the creatures of their own fancy and
   the works of their own hands. Note, That which God designs, in smiting
   us, is to turn us to himself and to set us a seeking him; and, if this
   point be not gained by less judgments, greater may be expected. God
   smites that he may not kill. 3. Their general corruption of manners and
   abounding profaneness. (1.) Those that should have reformed them helped
   to debauch them (v. 16): The leaders of this people mislead them, and
   cause them to err, by conniving at their wickedness and countenancing
   wicked people, and by setting them bad examples; and then no wonder if
   those that are led of them be deceived and so destroyed. But it is ill
   with a people when their physicians are their worst disease. "Those
   that bless this people, or call them blessed (so the margin reads it),
   that flatter them, and soothe them in their wickedness, and cry Peace,
   peace, to them, cause them to err; and those that are called blessed of
   them are swallowed up ere they are aware." We have reason to be afraid
   of those that speak well of us when we do ill; see Prov. xxiv. 24;
   xxix. 5. (2.) Wickedness was universal, and all were infected with it
   (v. 17): Every one is a hypocrite and an evil doer. If there be any
   that are good, they do not, they dare not appear, for every mouth
   speaks folly and villany; every one is profane towards God (so the word
   properly signifies) and an evil doer towards man. These two commonly go
   together: those that fear not God regard not man; and then every mouth
   speaks folly, falsehood, and reproach, both against God and man; for
   out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

   III. The judgments threatened against them for this wickedness of
   theirs; let them not think to go unpunished.

   1. In general, hereby they exposed themselves to the wrath of God,
   which should both devour as fire and darken as smoke. (1.) It should
   devour as fire (v. 18): Wickedness shall burn as the fire; the
   displeasure of God, incurred by sin, shall consume the sinners, who
   have made themselves as briers and thorns before it, and as the
   thickets of the forest, combustible matter, which the wrath of the Lord
   of hosts, the mighty God, will go through and burn together. (2.) It
   should darken as smoke. The briers and thorns, when the fire consumes
   them, shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke, so that the whole
   land shall be darkened by it; they shall be in trouble, and see no way
   out (v. 19): The people shall be as the fuel of the fire. God's wrath
   fastens upon none but those that make themselves fuel for it, and then
   they mount up as the smoke of sacrifices, being made victims to divine
   justice.

   2. God would arm the neighbouring powers against them, v. 11, 12. At
   this time the kingdom of Israel was in league with that of Syria
   against Judah; but the Assyrians, who were adversaries to the Syrians,
   when they had conquered them should invade Israel, and God would stir
   them up to do it, and join the enemies of Israel together in alliance
   against them, who yet had particular ends of their own to serve and
   were not aware of God's hand in their alliance. Note, When enemies are
   set up, and joined in confederacy against a people, God's hand must be
   acknowledged in it. Note further, Those that partake with each other in
   sin, as Syria and Israel in invading Judah, must expect to share in the
   punishment of sin. Nay, the Syrians themselves, whom they were now in
   league with, should be a scourge to them (for it is no unusual thing
   for those to fall out that have been united in sin), one attacking them
   in the front and the other flanking them or falling upon their rear; so
   that they should be surrounded with enemies on all sides, who should
   devour them with open mouth, v. 12. The Philistines were not now looked
   upon as formidable enemies, and the Syrians were looked upon as firm
   friends; and yet these shall devour Israel. When men's ways displease
   the Lord he makes even their friends to be at war with them.

   3. God would take from the midst of them those they confided in and
   promised themselves help from, v. 14, 15. Because the people seek not
   God, those they seek to and depend upon shall stand them in no stead.
   The Lord will cut off head and tail, branch and rush, which is
   explained in the next verse. (1.) Their magistrates, who were
   honourable by birth and office and were the ancients of the people,
   these were the head, these were the branch which they promised
   themselves spirit and fruit from; but because these caused them to err
   they should be cut off, and their dignity and power should be no
   protection to them when the abuse of that dignity and power was the
   great provocation: and it was a judgment upon the people to have their
   princes cut off, though they were not such as they should have been.
   (2.) Their prophets, their false prophets, were the tail and the rush,
   the most despicable of all. A wicked minister is the worst of all. A
   wicked minister is the worst of men. Corruptio optimi est pessima--The
   best things become when corrupted the worst. The blind led the blind,
   and so both fell into the ditch; and the blind leaders fell first and
   fell undermost.

   4. That the desolation should be as general as the corruption had been,
   and none should escape it, v. 17. (1.) Not those that were the objects
   of complacency. None shall be spared for love: The Lord shall have no
   joy in their young men, that were in the flower of their youth; nor
   will he say, Deal gently with the young men for my sake; no, "Let them
   fall with the rest, and with them let the seed of the next generation
   perish." (2.) Not those that were the objects of compassion. None shall
   be spared for pity: He shall not have mercy on their fatherless and
   widows, though he is, in a particular manner, the patron and protector
   of such. They had corrupted their way like all the rest; and, if the
   poverty and helplessness of their state was not an argument with them
   to keep them from sin, they could not expect it should be an argument
   with God to protect them from judgments.

   5. That they should pull one another to pieces, that every one should
   help forward the common ruin, and they should be cannibals to
   themselves and one to another: No man shall spare his brother, if he
   come in the way of his ambition of covetousness, or if he have any
   colour to be revenged on him; and how can they expect God should spare
   them when they show no compassion one to another? Men's passion and
   cruelty one against another provoke God to be angry with them all and
   are an evidence that he is so. Civil wars soon bring a kingdom to
   desolation. Such there were in Israel, when, for the transgression of
   the land, many were the princes thereof, Prov. xxviii. 2.

   (1.) In these intestine broils, men snatched on the right hand, and yet
   were hungry still, and did eat the flesh of their own arms, preyed upon
   themselves for hunger or upon their nearest relations that were as
   their own flesh, v. 20. This bespeaks, [1.] Great famine and scarcity;
   when men had pulled all they could to them it was so little that they
   were still hungry, at least God did not bless it to them, so that they
   eat and have not enough, Hag. i. 6. [2.] Great rapine and plunder.
   Jusque datum sceleri--iniquity is established by law. The hedge of
   property, which is a hedge of protection to men's estates, shall be
   plucked up, and every man shall think all that his own which he can lay
   his hands on (vivitur ex rapto, non hospes ab hospite tutus--they live
   on the spoil, and the rites of hospitality are all violated); and yet,
   when men thus catch at that which is none of their own, they are not
   satisfied. Covetous desires are insatiable, and this curse is entailed
   on that which is ill got, that it will never do well.

   (2.) These intestine broils should be not only among particular persons
   and private families, but among the tribes (v. 21): Manasseh shall
   devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, though they be combined against
   Judah. Those that could unite against Judah could not unite with one
   another; but that sinful confederacy of theirs against their neighbour
   that dwelt securely by them was justly punished by this separation of
   them one from another. Or Judah, having sinned like Manasseh and
   Ephraim, shall not only suffer with them, but suffer by them. Note,
   Mutual enmity and animosity among the tribes of God's Israel is a sin
   that ripens them for ruin, and a sad symptom of ruin hastening on
   apace. If Ephraim be against Manasseh, and Manasseh against Ephraim,
   and both against Judah, they will all soon become a very easy prey to
   the common enemy.

   6. That, though they should be followed with all these judgments, yet
   God would not let fall his controversy with them. It is the heavy
   burden of this song (v. 12, 17, 21): For all this his anger is not
   turned away, but his hand is stretched out still, that is, (1.) They do
   nothing to turn away his anger; they do not repent and reform, do not
   humble themselves and pray, none stand in the gap, none answer God's
   calls nor comply with the designs of his providences, but they are
   hardened and secure. (2.) His anger therefore continues to burn against
   them and his hand is stretched out still. The reason why the judgments
   of God are prolonged is because the point is not gained, sinners are
   not brought to repentance by them. The people turn not to him that
   smites them, and therefore he continues to smite them; for when God
   judges he will overcome, and the proudest stoutest sinner shall either
   bend or break.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. X.

   The prophet, in this chapter, is dealing, I. With the proud oppressors
   of his people at home, that abused their power, to pervert justice,
   whom he would reckon with for their tyranny, ver. 1-4. II. With a
   threatening invader of his people from abroad, Sennacherib king of
   Assyria, concerning whom observe, 1. The commission given him to invade
   Judah, ver. 5, 6. 2. His pride and insolence in the execution of that
   commission, ver. 7-11, 13, 14. 3. A rebuke given to his haughtiness,
   and a threatening of his fall and ruin, when he had served the purposes
   for which God raised him up, ver. 12, 15-19. 4. A promise of grace to
   the people of God, to enable them to bear up under the affliction, and
   to get good by it, ver. 20-23. 5. Great encouragement given to them not
   to fear this threatening storm, but to hope that, though for the
   present all the country was put into a great consternation by it, yet
   it would end well, in the destruction of this formidable enemy, ver.
   24-34. And this is intended to quiet the minds of good people in
   reference to all the threatening efforts of the wrath of the church's
   enemies. If God be for us, who can be against us? None to do us any
   harm.

The Condemnation of Oppressors. (b. c. 740.)

   1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
   grievousness which they have prescribed;   2 To turn aside the needy
   from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people,
   that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
   3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation
   which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where
   will ye leave your glory?   4 Without me they shall bow down under the
   prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger
   is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

   Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both,
   that the prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those
   of Israel, these verses are to be joined with the close of the
   foregoing chapter, which is probable enough, because the burden of that
   prophecy (for all this his anger is not turned away) is repeated here
   (v. 4); if those of Judah, they then show what was the particular
   design with which God brought the Assyrian army upon them--to punish
   their magistrates for mal-administration, which they could not legally
   be called to account for. To them he speaks woes before he speaks
   comfort to God's own people. Here is,

   I. The indictment drawn up against these oppressors, v. 1, 2. They are
   charged, 1. With making wicked laws and edicts: They decree unrighteous
   decrees, contrary to natural equity and the law of God: and what
   mischief they prescribe those under them write it, enrol it, and put it
   into the formality of a law. "Woe to the superior powers that devise
   and decree these decrees! they are not too high to be under the divine
   check. And woe to the inferior officers that draw them up, and enter
   them upon record--the writers that write the grievousness, they are not
   too mean to be within the divine cognizance. Principal and accessaries
   shall fall under the same woe." Note, It is bad to do hurt, but it is
   worse to do it with design and deliberation, to do wrong to many, and
   to involve many in the guilt of doing wrong. 2. With perverting justice
   in the execution of the laws that were made. No people had statutes and
   judgments so righteous as they had, and yet corrupt judges found ways
   to turn aside the needy from judgment, to hinder them from coming at
   their right and recovering what was their due, because they were needy
   and poor, and such as they could get nothing by nor expect any bribes
   from. 3. With enriching themselves by oppressing those that lay at
   their mercy, whom they ought to have protected. They make widows'
   houses and estates their prey, and they rob the fatherless of the
   little that is left them, because they have no friend to appear for
   them. Not to relieve them if they had wanted, not to right them if they
   were wronged, would have been crime enough in men that had wealth and
   power; but to rob them because on the side of the oppressors there was
   power, and the oppressed had no comforter (Eccl. iv. 1), was such
   apiece of barbarity as one would think none could ever be guilty of
   that had either the nature of a man or the name of an Israelite.

   II. A challenge given them with all their pride and power to outface
   the judgments of God (v. 3): "What will you do? To whom will you flee?
   You can trample upon the widows and fatherless; but what will you do
   when God riseth up?" Job xxxi. 14. Great men, who tyrannise over the
   poor, think they shall never be called to account for their tyranny,
   shall never hear of it again, or fare the worse for it; but shall not
   God visit for these things? Jer. v. 29. Will there not come a
   desolation upon those that have made others desolate? Perhaps it may
   come from far, and therefore may be long in coming; but it will come at
   last (reprieves are not pardons), and coming from far, from a quarter
   whence it was least expected, it will be the greater surprise and the
   more terrible. What will then become of these unrighteous judges? Now
   they see their help in the gate (Job xxxi. 21); but to whom will they
   then flee for help? Note, 1. There is a day of visitation coming, a day
   of enquiry and discovery, a searching day, which will bring to light,
   to a true light, every man, and every man's work. 2. The day of
   visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all
   their comforts and hopes will be lost and gone, and buried in ruin, and
   themselves left desolate. 3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a
   loss, and will not know what to do in the day of visitation and
   desolation. They cannot fly and hide themselves, cannot fight it out
   and defend themselves; they have no refuge in which either to shelter
   themselves from the present evil (to whom will you flee for help?) or
   to secure to themselves better times hereafter: "Where will you leave
   your glory, to find it again when the storm is over?" The wealth they
   had got was their glory, and they had no place of safety in which to
   deposit that, but they should certainly see it flee away. If our souls
   be our glory, as they ought to be, and we make them our chief care, we
   know where to leave them, and into whose hands to commit them, even
   those of a faithful Creator. 4. It concerns us all seriously to
   consider what we shall do in the day of visitation, in a day of
   affliction, in the day of death and judgment, and to provide that we
   may do well.

   III. Sentence passed upon them, by which they are doomed, some to
   imprisonment and captivity (they shall bow down among the prisoners, or
   under them--those that were most highly elevated in sin shall be most
   heavily loaded and most deeply sunk in trouble), others to death: they
   shall fall first, and so shall fall under the rest of the slain. Those
   that had trampled upon the widows and fatherless shall themselves be
   trodden down, v. 4. "This it will come to," says God, "without me, that
   is, because you have deserted me and driven me away from you." Nothing
   but utter ruin can be expected by those that live without God in the
   world, that cast him behind their back, and so cast themselves out of
   his protection.

   And yet, for all this, his anger is not turned away, which intimates
   not only that God will proceed in his controversy with them, but that
   they shall be in a continual dread of it; they shall, to their
   unspeakable terror, see his hand still stretched out against them, and
   there shall remain nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment.

The Pride of the King of Assyria; Sennacherib's Pride Rebuked; Destruction of
the King of Assyria. (b. c. 740.)

   5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is
   mine indignation.   6 I will send him against a hypocritical nation,
   and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take
   the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire
   of the streets.   7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart
   think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a
   few.   8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?   9 Is not
   Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as
   Damascus?   10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and
   whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;   11
   Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to
   Jerusalem and her idols?   12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that
   when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on
   Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of
   Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.   13 For he saith, By the
   strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent:
   and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their
   treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:   14
   And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one
   gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there
   was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.   15
   Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall
   the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod
   should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff
   should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.   16 Therefore shall the
   Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under
   his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.   17
   And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a
   flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one
   day;   18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his
   fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a
   standard-bearer fainteth.   19 And the rest of the trees of his forest
   shall be few, that a child may write them.

   The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser king of Assyria
   was foretold in the foregoing chapter, and it had its accomplishment in
   the sixth year of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 10. It was total and final,
   head and tail were all cut off. Now the correction of the kingdom of
   Judah by Sennacherib king of Assyria is foretold in this chapter; and
   this prediction was fulfilled in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when
   that potent prince, encouraged by the successes of his predecessor
   against the ten tribes, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah
   and took them, and laid siege to Jerusalem (2 Kings xviii. 13, 17), in
   consequence of which we may well suppose Hezekiah and his kingdom were
   greatly alarmed, though there was a good work of reformation lately
   begun among them: but it ended well, in the confusion of the Assyrians
   and the great encouragement of Hezekiah and his people in their return
   to God. Now let us see here,

   I. How God, in his sovereignty, deputed the king of Assyria to be his
   servant, and made use of him as a mere tool to serve his own purposes
   with (v. 5, 6): "O Assyrian! know this, that thou art the rod of my
   anger; and I will send thee to be a scourge to the people of my wrath."
   Observe here, 1. How bad the character of the Jews was, though they
   appeared very good. They were a hypocritical nation, that made a
   profession of religion, and at this time particularly of reformation,
   but were not truly religious, not truly reformed, not so good as they
   pretended to be now that Hezekiah had brought goodness into fashion.
   When rulers are pious, and so religion is in reputation, it is common
   for nations to be hypocritical. They are a profane nation; so some read
   it. Hezekiah had in a great measure cured them of their idolatry, and
   now they ran into profaneness; nay, hypocrisy is profaneness: none
   profane the name of God so much as those who are called by that name
   and call upon it, and yet live in sin. Being a profane hypocritical
   nation, they are the people of God's wrath; they lie under his wrath,
   and are likely to be consumed by it. Note, Hypocritical nations are the
   people of God's wrath: nothing is more offensive to God than
   dissimulation in religion. See what a change sin made: those that had
   been God's chosen and hallowed people, above all people, had now become
   the people of his wrath. See Amos iii. 2. 2. How mean the character of
   the Assyrian was, though he appeared very great. He was but the rod of
   God's anger, an instrument God was pleased to make use of for the
   chastening of his people, that, being thus chastened of the Lord, they
   might not be condemned with the world. Note, The tyrants of the world
   are but the tools of Providence. Men are God's hand, his sword
   sometimes, to kill and slay (Ps. xvii. 13, 14), at other times his rod
   to correct. The staff in their hand, wherewith they smite his people,
   is his indignation; it is his wrath that puts the staff into their hand
   and enables them to deal blows at pleasure among such as thought
   themselves a match for them. Sometimes God makes an idolatrous nation,
   that serves him not at all, a scourge to a hypocritical nation, that
   serves him not in sincerity and truth. The Assyrian is called the rod
   of God's anger because he is employed by him. (1.) From him his power
   is derived: I will send him; I will give him a charge. Note, All the
   power that wicked men have, though they often use it against God, they
   always receive from him. Pilate could have no power against Christ
   unless it were given him from above, John xix. 11. (2.) By him the
   exercise of that power is directed. The Assyrian is to take the spoil
   and to take the prey, not to shed any blood. We read not of any slain,
   but he is to plunder the country, rifle the houses, drive away the
   cattle, strip the people of all their wealth and ornaments, and tread
   them down like the mire of the streets. When God's professing people
   wallow in the mire of sin it is just with God to suffer their enemies
   to tread upon them like mire. But why must the Assyrian prevail thus
   against them? Not that they might be ruined, but that they might be
   thoroughly reformed.

   II. See how the king of Assyria, in his pride, magnified himself as his
   own master, and pretended to be absolute and above all control, to act
   purely according to his own will and for his own honour. God ordained
   him for judgment, even the mighty God established him for correction
   (Hab. i. 12), to be an instrument of bringing his people to repentance,
   howbeit he means not so, nor does his heart think so, v. 7.

   1. He does not think that he is either God's servant or Israel's
   friend, either that he can do no more than God will let him or that he
   shall do no more than God will make to work for the good of his people.
   God designs to correct his people for, and so to cure them of, their
   hypocrisy, and bring them nearer to himself; but was that Sennacherib's
   design? No, it was the furthest thing from his thoughts--he means not
   so. Note, (1.) The wise God often makes even the sinful passions and
   projects of men subservient to his own great and holy purposes. (2.)
   When God makes use of men as instruments in his hand to do his work it
   is very common for him to mean one thing and them to mean another, nay,
   for them to mean quite the contrary to what he intends. What Joseph's
   brethren designed for hurt God overruled for good, Gen. l. 20. See Mic.
   iv. 11, 12. Men have their ends and God has his, but we are sure the
   counsel of the Lord shall stand. But what is it the proud Assyrian aims
   at? The heart of kings is unsearchable, but God knew what was in his
   heart.

   2. He designs nothing but to destroy and to cut off nations not a few,
   and to make himself master of them. [1.] He designs to gratify his own
   cruelty; nothing will serve but to destroy and cut off. He hopes to
   regale himself with blood and slaughter; that of particular persons
   will not suffice, he must cut off nations. It is below him to deal by
   retail; he traffics in murders by wholesale. Nations, and those not a
   few, must have but one neck, which he will have the pleasure of cutting
   off. [2.] He designs to gratify his own covetousness and ambition, to
   set up for a universal monarch, and to gather unto him all nations,
   Hab. ii. 5. An insatiable desire of wealth and dominion is that which
   carries him on in this undertaking.

   3. The prophet here brings him in vaunting, and hectoring; and by his
   general's letter to Hezekiah, written in his name, vainglory and
   arrogance seem to have entered very far into the spirit and genius of
   the man. His haughtiness and presumption are here described very
   largely, and his very language copied out, partly to represent him as
   ridiculous and partly to assure the people of God that he would be
   brought down; for that maxim generally holds true, that pride goes
   before destruction. It also intimates that God takes notice, and keeps
   an account, of all men's proud and haughty words, with which they set
   heaven and earth at defiance. Those that speak great swelling words of
   vanity shall hear of them again.

   (1.) He boasts of the great things he had done to other nations. [1.]
   He had made their kings his courtiers (v. 8): "My princes are
   altogether kings. Those that are now my princes are such as have been
   kings." Or he means that he had raised his throng to such a degree that
   his servants, and those that were in command under him, were as great,
   and lived in as much pomp, as the kings of other countries. Or those
   that were absolute princes in their own dominions held their crowns
   under him, and did him homage. This was a vainglorious boast; but how
   great is our God whom we serve, who is indeed King of kings, and whose
   subjects are made to him kings! Rev. i. 6. [2.] He had made himself
   master of their cities. He names several (v. 9) that were all alike
   reduced by him. Calno soon yielded as Carchemish did, Hamath could not
   hold out any more than Arpad, and Samaria had become his as well as
   Damascus. To support his boasts he is obliged to bring the victories of
   his predecessor into the account; for it was he that conquered Samaria,
   not Sennacherib. [3.] He had been too hard for their idols, their
   tutelar gods, had found out the kingdoms of the idols and found out
   ways to make them his own, v. 10. Their kingdoms took denomination from
   the idols they worshipped; the Moabites are called the people of
   Chemosh (Jer. xlviii. 46), because they imagined their gods were their
   patrons and protectors; and therefore Sennacherib vainly imagined that
   every conquest of a kingdom was the conquest of a god. [4.] He had
   enlarged his own dominions, and removed the bounds of the people (v.
   13), enclosing many large territories within the limits of his own
   kingdom and shifting a great way further the ancient land-marks which
   his fathers had set; he could not bear to be hemmed in so closely, but
   must have more room to thrive. By his removing the border of the people
   Mr. White understands his arbitrarily transplanting colonies from place
   to place, which was the constant practice of the Assyrians in all their
   conquests; and this is a probable interpretation. [5.] He had enriched
   himself with their wealth, and brought it into his own exchequer: I
   have robbed their treasures. In this he said truly, Great conquerors
   are often no better than great robbers. [6.] He had mastered all the
   opposition he met with: "I have put down the inhabitants as a valiant
   man. Those that sat high, and thought they say firmly, I have humbled
   and made to come down."

   (2.) He boasts of the manner in which he had done them. [1.] That he
   had done all this by his own policy and power (v. 13): "By the strength
   of my hand, for I am valiant; and by my wisdom, for I am prudent;" not
   by the permission of Providence and the blessing of God. He knows not
   that it is God that makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his
   hand, but sacrifices to his own net, Hab. i. 16. "This wealth is all
   gotten by my might and the power of my hand," Deut. viii. 17. Downright
   atheism and profaneness, as well as pride and vanity, are at the bottom
   of men's attributing their prosperity and success thus to themselves
   and their own conduct, and raising their own character upon it. [2.]
   That he had done all this with a great deal of ease, and had made but a
   sport and diversion of it, as if he had been taking birds' nests (v.
   14): my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people; and when he
   had found them there was no more difficulty in taking them than in
   rifling a nest, nor any more reluctance or regret within his own breast
   in destroying families and cities than in destroying crows'-nests;
   killing children was no more to him than killing birds. "As one gathers
   the eggs that are left in the nest by the dam, so easily have I
   gathered all the earth." Like Alexander, he thought he had conquered
   the world; and whatever prey he seized there was none that moved the
   wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped, as birds do when their nests are
   rifled. They durst not make any opposition, no, nor any complaint; such
   awe did they stand in of this mighty conqueror. They were so weak that
   they knew it was to no purpose to resist, and he was so arbitrary that
   they knew it was to no purpose to complain. Strange that ever men who
   were made to do good should take a pride and a pleasure in doing wrong,
   and doing mischief to all about them without control, and should reckon
   that their glory which is their shame! But their day will come to fall
   who thus make themselves the terror of thy mighty, and much more of the
   feeble, in the land of the living.

   (3.) He threatens what he will do to Jerusalem, which he was now about
   to lay siege to, v. 10, 11. He would master Jerusalem and her idols, as
   he had subdued other places and their idols, particularly Samaria. [1.]
   He blasphemously calls the God of Israel an idol, and sets him on a
   level with the false gods of other nations, as if none were the true
   God but Mithras, the sun, whom he worshipped. See how ignorant he was,
   and then we shall the less wonder that he was so proud. [2.] He prefers
   the graven images of other countries before those of Jerusalem and
   Samaria, when he might have known that the worshippers of the God of
   Israel were expressly forbidden to make any graven images, and if any
   did it must be by stealth, and therefore they could not be so rich and
   pompous as those of other nations. If he means the ark and the
   mercy-seat, he speaks like himself, very foolishly, and as one that
   judged by the sight of the eye, and might therefore be easily deceived
   in matters of spiritual concern. Those who make external pomp and
   splendour a mark of the true church go by the same rule. [3.] Because
   he had conquered Samaria, he concluded Jerusalem would fall of course:
   "Shall not I do so to Jerusalem? can I not as easily, and may I not as
   justly?" But it did not follow; for Jerusalem adhered to her God,
   whereas Samaria had forsaken him.

   III. See how God, in his justice, rebukes his pride and reads his doom.
   We have heard what the great king, the king of Assyria, says, and how
   big he talks. Let us now hear what the great God has to say by his
   servant the prophet, and we shall find that, wherein he deals proudly,
   God is above him.

   1. He shows the vanity of his insolent and audacious boasts (v. 15):
   Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall
   the saw magnify itself against him that draws it? So absurd are the
   boasts of this proud man. "O what a dust do I make!" said the fly upon
   the cart-wheel in the fable. "What destruction do I make among the
   trees!" says the axe. Two ways the axe may be said to boast itself
   against him that hews with it:--(1.) By way of resistance and
   opposition. Sennacherib blasphemed God, insulted him, threatened to
   serve him as he had served the gods of the nations; now this was as if
   the axe should fly in the face of him that hews with it. The tool
   striving with the workman is no less absurd than the clay striving with
   the potter; and as it is a thing not to be justified that men should
   fight against God with the wit, and wealth, and power, which he gives
   them, so it is a thing not to be suffered. But if men will be thus
   proud and daring, and bid defiances to all that is just and sacred, let
   them expect that God will reckon with them; the more insolent they are
   the surer and sorer will their ruin be. (2.) By way of rivalship and
   competition. Shall the axe take to itself the praise of the work it is
   employed in? So senseless, so absurd was it for Sennacherib to say, By
   the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, v. 13. It is
   as if the rod, when it is shaken, should boast that it guides the hand
   which shakes it; whereas, when the staff is lifted up, is it not wood
   still? so the last clause may be read. If it be an ensign of authority
   (as the nobles of the people carried staves, Num. xxi. 18), if it be an
   instrument of service, either to support a weak man or to correct a bad
   man, still it is wood, and can do nothing but as it is directed by him
   that uses it. The psalmist prays that God would make the nations to
   know that they were but men (Ps. ix. 20), the staff to know that it is
   but wood.

   2. He foretels his fall and ruin.

   (1.) That when God had done his work by him he would then do his work
   upon him, v. 12. For the comfort of the people of God in reference to
   Sennacherib's invasion, though it was a dismal time with them, let them
   know, [1.] That God designed to do good to Zion and Jerusalem by this
   providence. There is a work to be done upon them, which God intends,
   and which he will perform. Note, When God lets loose the enemies of his
   church and people, and suffers them for a time to prevail, it is in
   order to the performing of some great good work upon them; and, when
   that is done, then, and not till then, he will work deliverance for
   them. When God brings his people into trouble it is to try them (Dan.
   xi. 35), to bring sin to their remembrance and humble them for it, and
   to awaken them to a sense of their duty, to teach them to pray and to
   love and help one another; and this must be the fruit, even the taking
   away of sin, ch. xxvii. 9. When these points are, in some measure,
   gained by the affliction, it shall be removed, in mercy (Lev. xxvi. 41,
   42), otherwise not; for, as the word, so the rod shall accomplish that
   for which God sends it. [2.] That when God had wrought this work of
   grace for his people he would work a work of wrath and vengeance upon
   their invaders: I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king
   of Assyria. His big words are here said to come from his stout heart,
   and they are the fruit of it; for out of the abundance of the heart the
   mouth speaks. Notice is taken too of the glory of his high looks, for a
   proud look is the indication of a proud spirit. The enemies of the
   church are commonly very high and haughty; but, sooner or later, God
   will reckon for their haughtiness. He glories in it as an incontestable
   proof of his power and sovereignty that he looks upon proud men and
   abases them, Job xl. 11, &c.

   (2.) That, how threatening soever this attempt was upon Zion and
   Jerusalem, it should certainly be baffled, and broken, and come to
   nothing, and he should not be able to bring to pass his enterprise, v.
   16, 19. Observe,

   [1.] Who it is that undertakes his destruction, and will be the author
   of it; not Hezekiah, or his princes, or the militia of Judah and
   Jerusalem (what can they do against such a potent force?), but God
   himself will do it, as the Lord of hosts, and as the light of Israel.
   First, We are sure he can do it, for he is the Lord of hosts, of all
   the hosts of heaven and earth. All the creatures are at his command; he
   makes what use he pleases on them. He is the Lord of the hosts both of
   Judah and of Assyria, and can give the victory to which he pleases. Let
   us not fear the hosts of any enemy if we have the Lord of hosts for us.
   Secondly, We have reason to hope he will do it, for he is the light of
   Israel, and his Holy One. God is light; in him are perfect brightness,
   purity, and happiness. He is light, for he is the Holy One; his
   holiness is his glory. He is Israel's light, to direct and counsel his
   people, to favour and countenance them, and so to gladden and comfort
   them in the worst of times. He is their Holy One, for he is in covenant
   with them; his holiness is engaged and employed for them. God's
   holiness is the saints' comfort; they give thanks at the remembrance of
   it, and with a great deal of pleasure call him their Holy One, Hab. i.
   12.

   [2.] How this destruction is represented. It shall be, First, As a
   consumption of the body by a disease: The Lord shall send leanness
   among his fatnesses, or his fat ones. His numerous army, that was like
   a body covered with fatness, shall be diminished, and waste away, and
   become like a skeleton. Secondly, As a consumption of buildings, or
   trees and bushes, by fire: Under his glory, that very thing which he
   glories in, he will kindle a burning, as the burning of a fire, which
   shall lay his army in ruins as suddenly as a raging fire lays a stately
   house in ashes. Some make it an allusion to the fire kindled under the
   sacrifices; for proud sinners fall as sacrifices to divine justice.
   Observe, 1. How this fire shall be kindled, v. 17. The same God that is
   a rejoicing light to those that serve him faithfully will be a
   consuming fire to those that trifle with him or rebel against him. The
   light of Israel shall be for a fire to the Assyrians, as the same
   pillar of cloud was a light to the Israelites and a terror to the
   Egyptians in the Red Sea. What can oppose, what can extinguish, such a
   fire? 2. What desolation it shall make: it shall burn and devour its
   thorns and briers, his officers and soldiers, which are of little
   worth, and vexations to God's Israel, as thorns and briers, whose end
   is to be burned, and which are easily and quickly consumed by a
   devouring fire. "Who would set the briers and thorns against me in
   battle? They would be so far from stopping the fire that they would
   inflame it. I would go through them and burn them together (ch. xxvii.
   4); they shall be devoured in one day, all cut off in an instant." When
   they cried not only Peace and safety, but Victory and triumph, then
   sudden destruction came; it came surprisingly, and was completed in a
   little time. "Even the glory of his forest (v. 18), the choice troops
   of his army, the veterans, the troops of the household, the bravest
   regiments he had, that he was most proud of and depended most upon,
   that he valued as men do their timber-trees (the glory of their forest)
   or their fruit-trees (the glory of the Carmel), shall be put as briers
   and thorns before the fire; they shall be consumed both soul and body,
   entirely consumed, not only a limb burned, but life taken away." Note,
   God is able to destroy both soul and body, and therefore we should fear
   him more than man, who can but kill the body. Great armies before him
   are but as great woods, which he can fell or fire when he pleases.

   [3.] What would be the effect of this great slaughter. The prophet
   tells us, First, That the army would hereby be reduced to a very small
   number: The rest of the trees of his forest shall be few; very few
   shall escape the sword of the destroying angel, so few that there needs
   no artist, no muster-master or secretary of war, to take an account of
   them, for even a child may soon reckon the numbers of them, and write
   the names of them. Secondly, That those few who remained should be
   quite dispirited: They shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
   When he either falls or flees, and his colours are taken by the enemy,
   this discourages the whole army, and puts them all into confusion. Upon
   the whole matter we must say, Who is able to stand before this great
   and holy Lord God?

Encouragement to Israel. (b. c. 740.)

   20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel,
   and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay
   upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of
   Israel, in truth.   21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of
   Jacob, unto the mighty God.   22 For though thy people Israel be as the
   sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption
   decreed shall overflow with righteousness.   23 For the Lord God of
   hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all
   the land.

   The prophet had said (v. 12) that the Lord would perform his whole work
   upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, by Sennacherib's invading the land.
   Now here we are told what that work should be, a twofold work:--

   I. The conversion of some, to whom this providence should be sanctified
   and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, though for the present
   it was not joyous, but grievous; these are but a remnant (v. 22), the
   remnant of Israel (v. 20), the remnant of Jacob (v. 21), but a very few
   in comparison with the vast numbers of the people of Israel, who were
   as the sand of the sea. Note, Converting work is wrought but on a
   remnant, who are distinguished from the rest and set apart for God.
   When we see how populous Israel is, how numerous the members of the
   visible church are, as the sand of the sea, and yet consider that of
   these a remnant only shall be saved, that of the many that are called
   there are but few chosen, we shall surely strive to enter in at the
   strait gate and fear lest we seem to come short. This remnant of Israel
   are said to be such as had escaped of the house of Jacob, such as
   escaped the corruptions of the house of Jacob, and kept their integrity
   in times of common apostasy; and that was a fair escape. And therefore
   they escape the desolations of that house, and shall be preserved in
   safety in times of common calamity; and that also will be a fair and
   narrow escape. Their lives shall be given them for a prey, Jer. xlv. 5.
   The righteous scarcely are saved. Now, 1. This remnant shall come off
   from all confidence in an arm of flesh, this providence shall cure them
   of that: "They shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, shall
   never depend upon the Assyrians, as they have done, for help against
   their other enemies, finding that they are themselves their worst
   enemies." Ictus piscator sapit--sufferings teach caution. "They have
   now learned by dear-bought experience the folly of leaning upon that
   staff as a stay to them which may perhaps prove a staff to beat them."
   It is part of the covenant of a returning people (Hos. xiv. 3), Assyria
   shall not save us. Note, By our afflictions we may learn not to make
   creatures our confidence. 2. They shall come home to God, to the mighty
   God (one of the names given to the Messiah, ch. ix. 6), to the Holy One
   of Israel: "The remnant shall return (that was signified by the name of
   the prophet's son, Shear-jashub, ch. vii. 3), even the remnant of
   Jacob. They shall return, after the raising of the siege of Jerusalem,
   not only to the quiet possession of their houses and lands, but to God
   and to their duty; they shall repent, and pray, and seek his face, and
   reform their lives." The remnant that escape are a returning remnant:
   they shall return to God, and shall stay upon him. Note, Those only may
   with comfort stay upon God that return to him; then may we have a
   humble confidence in God when we make conscience of our duty to him.
   They shall stay upon the Holy One of Israel, in truth, and not in
   pretence and profession only. This promise of the conversion and
   salvation of a remnant of Israel is applied by the apostle (Rom. ix.
   27) to the remnant of the Jews which at the first preaching of the
   gospel received and entertained it, and sufficiently proves that it was
   no new thing for God to abandon to ruin a great many of the seed of
   Abraham in full force and virtue; for so it was now. The number of the
   children of Israel was as the sand of the sea (according to the
   promise, Gen. xxii. 17), and yet only a remnant shall be saved.

   II. The consumption of others: The Lord God of hosts shall make a
   consumption, v. 23. This is not meant (as that v. 18) of the
   consumption of the Assyrian army, but of the consumption of the estates
   and families of many of the Jews by the Assyrian army. This is taken
   notice of to magnify the power and goodness of God in the escape of the
   distinguished remnant, and to let us know what shall become of those
   that will not return to God; they shall be wasted away by this
   consumption, this general decay in the midst of the land. Observe, 1.
   It is a consumption of God's own making; he is the author of it. The
   Lord God of hosts, whom none can resist, shall make this consumption.
   2. It is decreed. It is not the product of a sudden resolve, but was
   before ordained. It is determined, not only that there shall be such a
   consumption, but it is cut out (so the word is); it is particularly
   appointed how far it shall extend and how long it shall continue, who
   shall be consumed by it and who not. 3. It is an overflowing
   consumption, that shall overspread the land, and, like a mighty torrent
   or inundation, bear down all before it. 4. Though it overflows, it is
   not at random, but in righteousness, which signifies both wisdom and
   equity. God will justly bring this consumption upon a provoking people,
   but he will wisely and graciously set bounds to it. Hitherto it shall
   come, and no further.

Encouragement to Israel. (b. c. 740.)

   24 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that
   dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee
   with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner
   of Egypt.   25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall
   cease, and mine anger in their destruction.   26 And the Lord of hosts
   shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at
   the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it
   up after the manner of Egypt.   27 And it shall come to pass in that
   day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his
   yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the
   anointing.   28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at
   Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:   29 They are gone over the
   passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid;
   Gibeah of Saul is fled.   30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim:
   cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.   31 Madmenah is
   removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.   32 As
   yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against
   the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.   33 Behold,
   the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the
   high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be
   humbled.   34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with
   iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

   The prophet, in his preaching, distinguishes between the precious and
   the vile; for God in his providence, even in the same providence, does
   so. He speaks terror, in Sennacherib's invasion, to the hypocrites, who
   were the people of God's wrath, v. 6. But here he speaks comfort to the
   sincere, who were the people of God's love. The judgment was sent for
   the sake of the former; the deliverance was wrought for the sake of the
   latter. Here we have,

   I. An exhortation to God's people not to be frightened at this
   threatening calamity, nor to be put into any confusion or consternation
   by it. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid (ch. xxxiii. 14): but O my
   people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, v. 24.
   Note, It is against the mind and will of God that his people, whatever
   may happen, should give way to that fear which has torment and
   amazement. Those that dwell in Zion, where God dwells and where his
   people attend him, and are employed in his service, that are under the
   protection of the bulwarks that are round about Zion (Ps. xlviii. 13),
   need not be afraid of any enemy. Let their souls dwell at ease in God.

   II. Considerations offered for the silencing of their fear.

   1. The Assyrian shall do nothing against them but what God has
   appointed and determined. They are here told before hand what he shall
   do, that it may be no surprise to them: "He shall smite thee by the
   divine permission, but it shall be only with a rod to correct thee, not
   with a sword to wound and kill; nay, he shall but lift up his staff
   against thee, threaten thee, and frighten thee, and shake the rod at
   thee, after the manner of Egypt, as the Egyptians shook their staff
   against your fathers at the Red Sea, when they said, We will pursue, we
   will overtake (Exod. xv. 9), but could not reach to do them any hurt."
   Note, We should not be frightened at those enemies that can do no more
   than frighten us.

   2. The storm shall soon blow over (v. 25): Yet a very little while--a
   little, little while (so the word is), and the indignation shall cease,
   even my anger, which is the staff in their hand (v. 5), so that when
   that ceases they are disarmed and disabled to do any further mischief.
   Note, God's anger against his people is but for a moment (Ps. xxx. 5),
   and when that ceases, and is turned away from us, we need not fear the
   fury of any man, for it is impotent passion.

   3. The enemy that threatens them shall himself be reckoned with. God's
   anger against his people shall cease in the destruction of their
   enemies; when he turns away his wrath from Israel he shall turn it
   against the Assyrian; and the rod with which he corrected his people
   shall not only be laid aside, but thrown into the fire. He lifted up
   his staff against Zion, but God shall stir up a scourge for him (v.
   26); he is a terror to God's people, but God will be a terror to him.
   The destroying angel shall be this scourge, which he can neither flee
   from nor contend with. The prophet, for the encouragement of God's
   people, quotes precedents, and puts them in mind of what God had done
   formerly against the enemies of his church, who were very strong and
   formidable, but were brought to ruin. The destruction of the Assyrian
   shall be, (1.) According to the slaughter of Midian (which was effected
   by an invisible power, but effected suddenly, and it was a total rout);
   and as, at the rock of Oreb, one of the princes of Midian, after the
   battle, was slain, so shall Sennacherib be in the temple of his god
   Nisroch, after the defeat of his forces, when he thinks the bitterness
   of death is past. Compare with this Ps. lxxxiii. 11, Make their nobles
   like Oreb and like Zeeb; and see how God's promises and his people's
   prayers agree. (2.) As his rod was upon the sea, the Red Sea, as Moses'
   rod was upon that, to divide it first for the escape of Israel and then
   to close it again for the destruction of their pursuers, so shall his
   rod now be lifted up, after the manner of Egypt, for the deliverance of
   Jerusalem and the destruction of the Assyrian. Note, It is good to
   observe a resemblance between God's latter and former appearances for
   his people, and against his and their enemies.

   4. They shall be wholly delivered from the power of the Assyrian, and
   from the fear of it, v. 27. "They shall not only be eased of the
   Assyrian army, which is now quartered upon them and which is a grievous
   yoke and burden to them, but they shall no more pay that tribute to the
   king of Assyria which before this invasion he exacted from them (2
   Kings xviii. 14), shall be no longer at his service, nor lie at his
   mercy, as they have done; nor shall he ever again put the country under
   contribution." Some think it looks further, to the deliverance of the
   Jews out of their captivity in Babylon; and further yet, to the
   redemption of believers from the tyranny of sin and Satan. The yoke
   shall not only be taken away, but it shall be destroyed. The enemy
   shall no more recover his strength, to do the mischief he has done; and
   this because of the anointing, for their sakes who were partakers of
   the anointing. (1.) For Hezekiah's sake, who was the anointed of the
   Lord, who had been an active reformer, and was dear to God. (2.) For
   David's sake. This is particularly given as the reason why God would
   defend Jerusalem from Sennacherib (ch. xxxvii. 35), For my own sake,
   and for my servant David's sake. (3.) For his people Israel's sake, the
   good people among them that had received the unction of divine grace.
   (4.) For the sake of the Messiah, the Anointed of God, whom God had an
   eye to in all the deliverances of the Old-Testament church, and hath
   still an eye to in all the favours he shows to his people. It is for
   his sake that the yoke is broken, and that we are made free indeed.

   III. A description both of the terror of the enemy and the terror with
   which many were struck by it, and the folly of both exposed, v. 28, to
   the end. Here observe,

   1. How formidable the Assyrians were and how daring and threatening
   they affected to appear. Here is a particular description of the march
   of Sennacherib, what course he steered, what swift advances he made: He
   has come to Aiath, &c. "This and the other place he has made himself
   master of, and has met with no opposition." At Michmash he has laid up
   his carriages, as if he had no further occasion for his heavy
   artillery, so easily was every place he came to reduced; or the
   store-cities of Judah, which were fortified for that purpose, had now
   become his magazines. Some remarkable pass, and an important one, he
   had taken: They have gone over the passage.

   2. How cowardly the men of Judah were, the degenerate seed of that
   lion's whelp. They were afraid; they fled upon the first alarm, and did
   not offer to make any head against the enemy. Their apostasy from God
   had dispirited them, so that one chased a thousand of them. Instead of
   a valiant shout, to animate one another, nothing was heard by
   lamentation, to discourage and weaken one another. And poor Anathoth, a
   priests' city, that should have been a pattern of courage, shrieks
   louder than any, v. 30. With respect to those that gathered themselves
   together, it was not to fight, but to flee by consent, v. 31. This is
   designed either, (1.) To show how fast the news of the enemy's progress
   flew through the kingdom: He has come to Aiath, says one; nay, says
   another, He has passed to Migron, &c. And yet, perhaps, it was not
   altogether so bad as common fame represented it. But we must watch
   against the fear, not only of evil things, but of evil tidings, which
   often make things worse than really they are, Ps. cxii. 7. Or, (2.) To
   show what imminent danger Jerusalem was in, when its enemies made so
   many bold advances towards it and its friends could not make one bold
   stand to defend it. Note, The more daring the church's enemies are, and
   the more dastardly those are that should appear for her, the more will
   God be exalted in his own strength, when, notwithstanding this, he
   works deliverance for her.

   3. How impotent his attempt upon Jerusalem shall be: he shall remain at
   Nob, whence he may see Mount Zion, and there he shall shake his hand
   against it, v. 32. He shall threaten it, and that shall be all; it
   shall be safe, and shall set him at defiance. The daughter of
   Jerusalem, to be even with him, shall shake her head at him, ch.
   xxxvii. 22.

   4. How fatal it would prove, in the issue, to himself. When he shakes
   his hand at Jerusalem, and is about to lay hands on it, then is God's
   time to appear against him; for Zion is the place of which God has
   said, This is my rest for ever; therefore those who threaten it affront
   God himself. Then the Lord shall lop the bough with terror and cut down
   the thickets of the forest, v. 33, 34. (1.) The pride of the enemy
   shall be humbled, the boughs that are lifted up on high shall be lopped
   off, the high and stately trees shall be hewn down; that is, the
   haughty shall be humbled. Those that lift up themselves in competition
   with God or opposition to him shall be abased. (2.) The power of the
   enemy shall be broken: The thickets of the forest he shall cut down.
   When the Assyrian soldiers were under their arms, and their spears
   erect, they looked like a forest, like Lebanon; but, when in one night
   they all became as dead corpses, the pikes were laid on the ground, and
   Lebanon was of a sudden cut down by a mighty one, by the destroying
   angel, who in a little time slew so many thousands of them: and, if
   this shall be the exit of that proud invader, let not God's people be
   afraid of him. Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that
   shall die?
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XI.

   It is a very good transition in prophecy (whether it be so in rhetoric
   or no), and a very common one, to pass from the prediction of the
   temporal deliverances of the church to that of the great salvation,
   which in the fulness of time should be wrought out by Jesus Christ, of
   which the other were types and figures, to which all the prophets bore
   witness; and so the ancient Jews understood them. For what else was it
   that raised so great an expectation of the Messiah at the time he came.
   Upon occasion of the prophecy of the deliverance of Jerusalem from
   Sennacherib, here comes in a prophecy concerning Messiah the Prince. I.
   His rise out of the house of David, ver. 1. II. His qualifications for
   his great undertaking, ver. 2, 3. III. The justice and equity of his
   government, ver. 3-5. IV. The peaceableness of his kingdom, ver. 6-9.
   V. The accession of the Gentiles to it (ver. 10), and with them the
   remnant of the Jews, that should be united with them in the Messiah's
   kingdom (ver. 11-16) and of all this God would now shortly give them a
   type, and some dark representation, in the excellent government of
   Hezekiah, the great peace which the nation should enjoy under him,
   after the ruin of Sennacherib's design, and the return of many of the
   ten tribes out of their dispersion to their brethren of the land of
   Judah, when they enjoyed that great tranquility.

Prophecy of the Messiah; The Government of Messiah. (b. c. 740.)

   1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
   Branch shall grow out of his roots:   2 And the spirit of the Lord
   shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
   of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
   Lord;   3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the
   Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither
   reprove after the hearing of his ears:   4 But with righteousness shall
   he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:
   and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
   breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.   5 And righteousness
   shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his
   reins.   6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
   shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the
   fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.   7 And the cow
   and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and
   the lion shall eat straw like the ox.   8 And the sucking child shall
   play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on
   the cockatrice' den.   9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
   mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
   the waters cover the sea.

   The prophet had before, in this sermon, spoken of a child that should
   be born, a son that should be given, on whose shoulders the government
   should be, intending this for the comfort of the people of God in times
   of trouble, as dying Jacob, many ages before, had intended the prospect
   of Shiloh for the comfort of his seed in their affliction in Egypt. He
   had said (ch. x. 27) that the yoke should be destroyed because of the
   anointing; now here he tells us on whom that anointing should rest. He
   foretels,

   I. That the Messiah should, in due time, arise out of the house of
   David, as that branch of the Lord which he had said (ch. iv. 2) should
   be excellent and glorious; the word is Netzer, which some think is
   referred to in Matt. ii. 23, where it is said to be spoken by the
   prophets of the Messiah that he should be called a Nazarene. Observe
   here, 1. Whence this branch should arise-from Jesse. He should be the
   son of David, with whom the covenant of royalty was made, and to whom
   it was promised with an oath that of the fruit of his loins God would
   raise of Christ, Acts ii. 30. David is often called the son of Jesse,
   and Christ is called so, because he was to be not only the Son of
   David, but David himself, Hos. iii. 5. 2. The meanness of his
   appearance. (1.) He is called a rod, and a branch; both the words here
   used signify a weak, small, tender product, a twig and a sprig (so some
   render them), such as is easily broken off. The enemies of God's church
   were just before compared to strong and stately boughs (ch. x. 33),
   which will not, without great labour, be hewn down, but Christ to a
   tender branch (ch. liii. 2); yet he shall be victorious over them. (2.)
   He is said to come out of Jesse rather than David, because Jesse lived
   and died in meanness and obscurity; his family was of small account (1
   Sam. xviii. 18), and it was in a way of contempt and reproach that
   David was sometimes called the son of Jesse, 1 Sam. xxii. 7. (3.) He
   comes forth out of the stem, or stump, of Jesse. When the royal family,
   that had been as a cedar, was cut down, and only the stump of it left,
   almost levelled with the ground and lost in the grass of the field
   (Dan. iv. 15), yet it shall sprout again (Job xiv. 7); nay, it shall
   grow out of his roots, which are quite buried in the earth, and, like
   the roots of flowers in the winter, have no stem appearing above
   ground. The house of David was reduced and brought very low at the time
   of Christ's birth, witness the obscurity and poverty of Joseph and
   Mary. The Messiah was thus to begin his estate of humiliation, for
   submitting to which he should be highly exalted, and would thus give
   early notice that his kingdom was not of this world. The Chaldee
   paraphrase reads this, There shall come forth a King from the sons of
   Jesse, and the Messiah (or Christ) shall be anointed out of his sons'
   sons.

   II. That he should be every way qualified for that great work to which
   he was designed, that this tender branch should be so watered with the
   dews of heaven as to become a strong rod for a sceptre to rule, v. 2.
   1. In general, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Holy
   Spirit, in all his gifts and graces, shall not only come, but rest and
   abide upon him; he shall have the Spirit not by measure, but without
   measure, the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him, Col. i. 19; ii. 9.
   He began his preaching with this (Luke iv. 18), The Spirit of the Lord
   is upon me. 2. In particular, the spirit of government, by which he
   should be every way fitted for that judgment which the Father has
   committed to him and given him authority to execute (John v. 22, 27),
   and not only so, but should be made the fountain and treasury of all
   grace to believers, that from his fulness they might all receive the
   Spirit of grace, as all the members of the body derive animal spirits
   from the head. (1.) He shall have the spirit of wisdom and
   understanding, of counsel and knowledge; he shall thoroughly understand
   the business he is to be employed in. No man knows the Father but the
   Son, Matt. xi. 27. What he is to make known to the children of men
   concerning God, and his mind and will, he shall be himself acquainted
   with and apprised of, John i. 18. He shall know how to administer the
   affairs of his spiritual kingdom in all the branches of it, so as
   effectually to answer the two great intentions of it, the glory of God
   and the welfare of the children of men. The terms of the covenant shall
   be settled by him, and ordinances instituted, in wisdom: treasures of
   wisdom shall be hid in him; he shall be our counsellor, and shall be
   made of God to us wisdom. (2.) The spirit of courage, or might, or
   fortitude. The undertaking was very great, abundance of difficulty must
   be broken through, and therefore it was necessary that he should be so
   endowed that he might not fail or be discouraged, ch. xlii. 4. He was
   famed for courage in his teaching the way of God in truth, and not
   caring for any man, Matt. xxii. 16. (3.) The spirit of religion, or the
   fear of the Lord; not only he shall himself have a reverent affection
   for his Father, as his servant (ch. xlii. 1), and he was heard in that
   he feared (Heb. v. 7), but he shall have a zeal for religion, and shall
   design the advancement of it in his whole undertaking. Our faith in
   Christ was never designed to supersede and jostle out, but to increase
   and support, our fear of the Lord.

   III. That he should be accurate, and critical, and very exact in the
   administration of his government and the exercise of the power
   committed to him (v. 3): The Spirit wherewith he shall be clothed shall
   make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord--of an acute
   smell or scent (so the word is), for the apprehensions of the mind are
   often expressed by the sensations of the body. Note, 1. Those are most
   truly and valuably intelligent that are so in the fear of the Lord, in
   the business of religion, for that is both the foundation and top-stone
   of wisdom. 2. By this it will appear that we have the Spirit of God, if
   we have spiritual senses exercised, and are of quick understanding in
   the fear of the lord. Those have divine illumination that know their
   duty and know how to go about it. 3. Therefore Jesus Christ had the
   spirit without measure, that he might perfectly understand his
   undertaking; and he did so, as appears not only in the admirable
   answers he gave to all that questioned with him, which proved him to be
   of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, but in the management
   of his whole undertaking. He has settled the great affair of religion
   so unexpectedly well (so as effectually to secure both God's honour and
   man's happiness) that, it must be owned, he thoroughly understood it.

   IV. That he should be just and righteous in all the acts of his
   government, and there should appear in it as much equity as wisdom. He
   shall judge as he expresses it himself, and as he himself would be
   judged of, John vii. 24. 1. Not according to outward appearance (v. 3):
   he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, with respect of persons
   (Job xxxiv. 19) and according to outward shows and appearances, not
   reprove after the hearing of his ears, by common fame and report, and
   the representations of others, as men commonly do; nor does he judge of
   men by the fair words they speak, calling him, Lord, Lord, or their
   plausible actions before the eye of the world, which they do to be seen
   of men; but he will judge by the hidden man of the heart, and the
   inward principles men are governed by, of which he is an infallible
   witness. Christ will judge the secrets of men (Rom. ii. 16), will
   determine concerning them, not according to their own pretensions and
   appearances (that were to judge after the sight of the eyes), not
   according to the opinion others have of them (that were to judge after
   the hearing of the ears), but we are sure that his judgment is
   according to truth. 2. He will judge righteous judgment (v. 5):
   Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins. He shall be righteous
   in the administration of his government, and his righteousness shall be
   his girdle; it shall constantly compass him and cleave to him, shall be
   his ornament and honour; he shall gird himself for every action, shall
   gird on his sword for war in righteousness; his righteousness shall be
   his strength, and shall make him expeditious in his undertakings, as a
   man with his loins girt. In conformity to Christ, his followers must
   have the girdle of truth (Eph. vi. 14) and it will be the stability of
   the times. Particularly, (1.) He shall in righteousness plead for the
   people that are poor and oppressed; he will be their protector (v. 4):
   With righteousness shall he judge the poor; he shall judge in favour
   and defence of those that have right on their side, though they are
   poor in the world, and because they are poor in spirit. It is the duty
   of princes to defend and deliver the poor (Ps. lxxxii. 3, 4), and the
   honour of Christ that he is the poor man's King, Ps. lxxii. 2, 4. He
   shall debate with evenness for the meek of the earth, or of the land;
   those that bear the injuries done them with meekness and patience are
   in a special manner entitled to the divine care and protection. I, as a
   deaf man, heard not, for thou wilt hear, Ps. xxxviii. 13, 14. Some read
   it, He shall reprove or correct the meek of the earth with equity. If
   his own people, the meek of the land, do amiss, he will visit their
   transgression with the rod. (2.) He shall in righteousness plead
   against his enemies that are proud and oppressors (v. 4): But he shall
   smite the earth, the man of the earth, that doth oppress (see Ps. x.
   18), the men of the world, that mind earthly things only (Ps. xvii.
   14); these he shall smite with the rod of his mouth, the word of his
   mouth, speaking terror and ruin to them; his threatenings shall take
   hold of them, and be executed upon them. With the breath of his lips,
   by the operation of his Spirit, according to his word, and working with
   and by it, he shall slay the wicked. He will do it easily, with a
   word's speaking, as he laid those flat who came to seize him, by saying
   I am he, John xviii. 6. Killing terrors shall arrest their consciences,
   killing judgments shall ruin them, their power, and all their
   interests; and in the other world everlasting tribulation will be
   recompensed to those that trouble his poor people. The apostle applies
   this to the destruction of the man of sin, whom he calls that wicked
   one (2 Thess. ii. 8) whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his
   mouth. And the Chaldee here reads it, He shall slay that wicked
   Romulus, or Rome, as Mr. Hugh Broughton understands it.

   V. That there should be great peace and tranquillity under his
   government; this is an explication of what was said in ch. ix. 6, that
   he should be the Prince of peace. Peace signifies two things:--

   1. Unity or concord, which is intimated in these figurative promises,
   that even the wolf shall dwell peaceably with the lamb; men of the most
   fierce and furious dispositions, who used to bite and devour all about
   them, shall have their temper so strangely altered by the efficacy of
   the gospel and grace of Christ that they shall live in love even with
   the weakest and such as formerly they would have made an easy prey of.
   So far shall the sheep be from hurting one another, as sometimes they
   have done (Ezek. xxxiv. 20, 21), that even the wolves shall agree with
   them. Christ, who is our peace, came to slay all enmities and to settle
   lasting friendships among his followers, particularly between Jews and
   Gentiles: when multitudes of both, being converted to the faith of
   Christ, united in one sheep-fold, then the wolf and the lamb dwelt
   together; the wolf did not so much as threaten the lamb, nor was the
   lamb afraid of the wolf. The leopard shall not only not tear the kid,
   but shall lie down with her: even their young ones shall lie down
   together, and shall be trained up in a blessed amity, in order to the
   perpetuating of it. The lion shall cease to be ravenous and shall eat
   straw like the ox, as some think all the beasts of prey did before the
   fall. The asp and the cockatrice shall cease to be venomous, so that
   parents shall let their children play with them and put their hands
   among them. A generation of vipers shall become a seed of saints, and
   the old complaint of homo homini lupus--man is a wolf to man, shall be
   at an end. Those that inhabit the holy mountain shall live as amicably
   as the creatures did that were with Noah in the ark, and it shall be a
   means of their preservation, for they shall not hurt nor destroy one
   another as they have done. Now, (1.) This is fulfilled in the wonderful
   effect of the gospel upon the minds of those that sincerely embrace it;
   it changes the nature, and makes those that trampled on the meek of the
   earth, not only meek like them, but affectionate towards them. When
   Paul, who had persecuted the saints, joined himself to them, then the
   wolf dwelt with the lamb. (2.) Some are willing to hope it shall yet
   have a further accomplishment in the latter days, when swords shall be
   beaten into ploughshares.

   2. Safety or security. Christ, the great Shepherd, shall take such care
   of the flock that those who would hurt them shall not; they shall not
   only not destroy one another, but no enemy from without shall be
   permitted to give them any molestation. The property of troubles, and
   of death itself, shall be so altered that they shall not do any real
   hurt to, much less shall they be the destruction of, any that have
   their conversation in the holy mountain, 1 Pet. iii. 13. Who, or what,
   can harm us, if we be followers of him that is good? God's people shall
   be delivered, not only from evil, but from the fear of it. Even the
   sucking child shall without any terror play upon the hole of the asp;
   blessed Paul does so when he says, Who shall separate us from the love
   of Christ? and, O death! where is thy sting?

   Lastly, Observe what shall be the effect, and what the cause, of this
   wonderful softening and sweetening of men's tempers by the grace of
   God. 1. The effect of it shall be tractableness, and a willingness to
   receive instruction: A little child shall lead those who formerly
   scorned to be controlled by the strongest man. Calvin understands it of
   their willing submission to the ministers of Christ, who are to
   instruct with meekness and not to use any coercive power, but to be as
   little children, Matt. xviii. 3. See 2 Cor. viii. 5. 2. The cause of it
   shall be the knowledge of God. The more there is of that the more there
   is of a disposition to peace. They shall thus live in love, for the
   earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, which shall
   extinguish men's heats and animosities. The better acquainted we are
   with the God of love the more shall we be changed into the same image
   and the better affected shall we be to all those that bear his image.
   The earth shall be as full of this knowledge as the channels of the sea
   are of water--so broad and extensive shall this knowledge be and so far
   shall it spread--so deep and substantial shall this knowledge be, and
   so long shall it last. There is much more of the knowledge of God to be
   got by the gospel of Christ than could be got by the law of Moses; and,
   whereas then in Judah only was God known, now all shall know him, Heb.
   viii. 11. But that is knowledge falsely so called which sows discord
   among men; the right knowledge of God settles peace.

Advancement of Messiah's Kingdom. (b. c. 740.)

   10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand
   for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his
   rest shall be glorious.   11 And it shall come to pass in that day,
   that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
   remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
   Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
   and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.   12 And he shall set
   up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
   Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four
   corners of the earth.   13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and
   the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy
   Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.   14 But they shall fly upon
   the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them
   of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and
   the children of Ammon shall obey them.   15 And the Lord shall utterly
   destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall
   he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven
   streams, and make men go over dry-shod.   16 And there shall be a
   highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from
   Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the
   land of Egypt.

   We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement and advancement of
   the kingdom of the Messiah, under the type and figure of the
   flourishing condition of the kingdom of Judah in the latter end of
   Hezekiah's reign, after the defeat of Sennacherib.

   I. This prediction was in part accomplished when the great things God
   did for Hezekiah and his people proved as an ensign, inviting the
   neighbouring nations to them to enquire of the wonders done in the
   land, on which errand the king of Babylon's ambassadors came. To them
   the Gentiles sought; and Jerusalem, the rest or habitation of the Jews,
   was then glorious, v. 10. Then many of the Israelites who belonged to
   the kingdom of the ten tribes, who upon the destruction of that kingdom
   by the king of Assyria were forced to flee for shelter into all the
   countries about and to some that lay very remote, even to the islands
   of the sea, were encouraged to return to their own country and put
   themselves under the protection and government of the king of Judah,
   the rather because it was an Assyrian army by which their country had
   been ruined and that was not routed. This is said to be a recovery of
   them the second time (v. 11), such an instance of the power and
   goodness of God, and such a reviving to them, as their first
   deliverance out of Egypt was. Then the outcasts of Israel should be
   gathered in, and brought home, and those of Judah too, who, upon the
   approach of the Assyrian army, shifted for their own safety. Then the
   old feud between Ephraim and Judah shall be forgotten, and they shall
   join against the Philistines and their other common enemies, v. 13, 14.
   Note, Those who have been sharers with each other in afflictions and
   mercies, dangers and deliverances, ought in consideration thereof to
   unite for their joint and mutual safety and protection; and it is
   likely to be well with the church when Ephraim and Judah are one
   against the Philistines. Then, whatever difficulties there may be in
   the way of the return of the dispersed, the Lord shall find out some
   way or other to remove them, as when he brought Israel out of Egypt he
   dried up the Red Sea and Jordan (v. 15) and led them to Canaan through
   the invincible embarrassments of a vast howling wilderness, v. 16. The
   like will he do this second time, or that which shall be equivalent.
   When God's time has come for the deliverance of his people mountains of
   opposition shall become plain before him. Let us not despair therefore
   when the interests of the church seem to be brought very low; God can
   soon turn gloomy days into glorious ones.

   II. It had a further reference to the days of the Messiah and the
   accession of the Gentiles to his kingdom; for to these the apostle
   applies v. 10, of which the following verses are a continuation. Rom.
   xv. 12, There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise to reign
   over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. That is a key to
   this prophecy, which speaks of Christ as the root of Jesse, or a branch
   out of his roots (v. 1), a root out of a dry ground, ch. liii. 2. He is
   the root of David (Rev. v. 5), the root and offspring of David Rev.
   xxii. 16.

   1. He shall stand, or be set up, for an ensign of the people. When he
   was crucified he was lifted up from the earth, that, as an ensign of
   beacon, he might draw the eyes and the hearts of all men unto him, John
   xii. 32. He is set up as an ensign in the preaching of the everlasting
   gospel, in which the ministers, as standard-bearers, display the banner
   of his love, to allure us to him (Cant. i. 4), the banner of his truth,
   under which we may enlist ourselves, to engage in a holy war against
   sin and Satan. Christ is the ensign to which the children of God that
   were scattered abroad are gathered together (John xi. 51), and in him
   they meet as the centre of their unity.

   2. To him shall the Gentiles seek. We read of Greeks that did so (John
   xii. 21, We would see Jesus), and upon that occasion Christ spoke of
   his being lifted up, to draw all men to him. The apostle, from the LXX.
   (or perhaps the LXX. from the apostle, in the editions after Christ)
   reads it (Rom. xv. 12), In him shall the Gentiles trust; they shall
   seek to him with a dependence on him.

   3. His rest shall be glorious. Some understand this of the death of
   Christ (the triumphs of the cross made even that glorious), others of
   his ascension, when he sat down to rest at the right hand of God. Or
   rather it is meant of the gospel church, that Mount Zion of which
   Christ has said, This is my rest, and in which he resides. This, though
   despised by the world, having upon it the beauty of holiness, is truly
   glorious, a glorious high throne, Jer. xvii. 12.

   4. Both Jews and Gentiles shall be gathered to him, v. 11. A remnant of
   both, a little remnant in comparison, which shall be recovered, as it
   were, with great difficulty and hazard. As formerly God delivered his
   people, and gathered them out of all the countries whither they were
   scattered (Ps. cvi. 47; Jer. xvi. 15, 16), so he will a second time, in
   another way, by the powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the
   word. He shall set his hand to do it; he shall exert his power, the arm
   of the Lord shall be revealed to do it. (1.) There shall be a remnant
   of the Jews gathered in: The outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of
   Judah (v. 12), many of whom, at the time of the bringing of them in to
   Christ, were Jews of the dispersion, the twelve tribes that were
   scattered abroad (James i. 1; 1 Pet. i. 1), shall flock to Christ; and
   probably more of those scattered Jews were brought into the church, in
   proportion, than of those which remained in their own land. (2.) Many
   of the nations, the Gentiles, shall be brought in by the lifting up of
   the ensign. Jacob foretold concerning Shiloh that to him should the
   gathering of the people be. Those that were strangers and foreigners
   shall be made nigh. The Jews were jealous of Christ's going to the
   dispersed among the Gentiles and of his teaching the Gentiles, John
   vii. 35.

   5. There shall be a happy accommodation between Judah and Ephraim, and
   both shall be safe from their adversaries and have dominion over them,
   v. 13, 14. The coalescence between Judah and Israel at that time was a
   type and figure of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, who had been so
   long at variance in the gospel church. The house of Judah shall walk
   with the house of Israel (Jer. iii. 18) and become one nation (Ezek.
   xxxvii. 22); so the Jews and Gentiles are made of twain one new man
   (Eph. ii. 15), and, being at peace one with another, those that are
   adversaries to them both shall be cut off; for they shall fly upon the
   shoulders of the Philistines, as an eagle strikes at her prey, shall
   spoil those on the west side of them, and then they shall extend their
   conquests eastward over the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. The
   gospel of Christ shall be successful in all parts, and some of all
   nations shall become obedient to the faith.

   6. Every thing that might hinder the progress and success of the gospel
   shall be taken out of the way. As when God brought Israel out of Egypt
   he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan before them (ch. lxiii. 11, 12), and
   as afterwards when he brought up the Jews out of Babylon he prepared
   them their way (ch. lxii. 10), so when Jews and Gentiles are to be
   brought together into the gospel church all obstructions shall be
   removed (v. 15, 16), difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be
   strangely got over, the blind shall be led by a way that they knew not.
   See ch. xlii. 15, 16; xliii. 19, 20. Converts shall be brought in
   chariots and in litters, ch. lxvi. 20. Some think it is the further
   accession of multitudes to the church that is pointed at in that
   obscure prophecy of the drying up of the river Euphrates, that the way
   of the kings of the east may be prepared (Rev. xvi. 12), which seems to
   refer to this prophecy. Note, When God's time has come for the bringing
   of nations, or particular persons, home to himself, divine grace will
   be victorious over all opposition. At the presence of the Lord the sea
   shall flee and Jordan be driven back; and those who set their faces
   heavenward will find there are not such difficulties in the way as they
   thought there were, for there is a highway thither, ch. xxxv. 8.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XII.

   The salvation promised in the foregoing chapter was compared to that of
   Israel "in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt;" so that
   chapter ends. Now as Moses and the children of Israel then sang a song
   of praise to the glory of God (Exod. xv. 1) so shall the people of God
   do in that day when the root of Jesse shall stand for an ensign of the
   people and shall be the desire and joy of all nations. In that day, I.
   Every particular believer shall sing a song of praise for his own
   interest in that salvation, ver. 1, 3). "Thou shalt say, Lord, I will
   praise thee." Thanksgiving-work shall be closet-work. II. Many in
   concert shall join in praising God for the common benefit arising from
   this salvation (ver. 4-6): "You shall say, Praise you the Lord."
   Thanksgiving-work shall be congregation-work; and the praises of God
   shall be publicly sung in the congregations of the upright.

A Song of Praise. (b. c. 740.)

   1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though
   thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou
   comfortedst me.   2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not
   be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is
   become my salvation.   3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of
   the wells of salvation.

   This is the former part of the hymn of praise which is prepared for the
   use of the church, of the Jewish church when God would work great
   deliverances for them, and of the Christian church when the kingdom of
   the Messiah should be set up in the world in despite of the opposition
   of the powers of darkness: In that day thou shalt say, O Lord! I will
   praise thee. The scattered church, being united into one body, shall,
   as one man, with one mind and one mouth, thus praise God, who is one
   and his name one. In that day, when the Lord shall do these great
   things for thee, thou shalt say, O Lord! I will praise thee. That is,

   I. "Thou shalt have cause to say so." The promise is sure, and the
   blessings contained in it are very rich, and, when they are bestowed,
   will furnish the church with abundant matter for rejoicing and
   therefore with abundant matter for thanksgiving. The Old-Testament
   prophecies of gospel times are often expressed by the joy and praise
   that shall then be excited; for the inestimable benefits we enjoy by
   Jesus Christ require the most elevated and enlarged thanksgivings.

   II. "Thou shalt have a heart to say so." All God's other gifts to his
   people shall be crowned with this. He will give them grace to ascribe
   all the glory of them to him, and to speak of them upon all occasions
   with thankfulness to his praise. Thou shalt say, that is, thou oughtest
   to say so. In that day, when many are brought home to Jesus Christ and
   flock to him as doves to their windows, instead of envying the kind
   reception they find with Christ, as the Jews grudged the favour shown
   to the Gentiles, thou shalt say, O Lord! I will praise thee. Note, we
   ought to rejoice in, and give thanks for, the grace of God to others as
   well as to ourselves.

   1. Believers are here taught to give thanks to God for the turning away
   of his displeasure from them and the return of his favour to them (v.
   1): O Lord! I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me. Note,
   Even God's frowns must not put us out of tune for praising him; though
   he be angry with us, though he slay us, yet we must put our trust in
   him and give him thanks. God has often just cause to be angry with us,
   but we have never any reason to be angry with him, nor to speak
   otherwise than well of him; even when he blames us we must praise him.
   Thou was angry with us, but thy anger is turned away. Note, (1.) God is
   sometimes angry with his own people and the fruits of his anger do
   appear, and they ought to take notice of this, that they may humble
   themselves under his mighty hand. (2.) Though God may for a time be
   angry with his people, yet his anger shall at length be turned away; it
   endures but for a moment, nor will he contend for ever. By Jesus
   Christ, the root of Jesse, God's anger against mankind was turned away;
   for he is our peace. (3.) Those whom God is reconciled to he comforts;
   even the turning away of his anger is a comfort to them; yet that is
   not all: those that are at peace with God may rejoice in hope of the
   glory of God, Rom. v. 1, 2. Nay, God sometimes brings his people into a
   wilderness that there he may speak comfortably to them, Hosea ii. 14.
   (4.) The turning away of God's anger, and the return of his comforts to
   us, ought to be the matter of our joyful thankful praises.

   2. They are taught to triumph in God and their interest in him (v. 2):
   "Behold, and wonder; God is my salvation; not only my Saviour, by whom
   I am saved, but my salvation, in whom I am safe. I depend upon him as
   my salvation, for I have found him to be so. He shall have the glory of
   all the salvations that have been wrought for me, and from him only
   will I expect the salvations I further need, and not from hills and
   mountains: and if God be my salvation, if he undertake my eternal
   salvation, I will trust in him to prepare me for it and preserve me to
   it. I will trust him with all my temporal concerns, not doubting but he
   will make all to work for my good. I will be confident, that is, I will
   be always easy in my own mind." Note, Those that have God for their
   salvation may enjoy themselves with a holy security and serenity of
   mind. Let faith in God as our salvation be effectual, (1.) To silence
   our fears. We must trust, and not be afraid, not be afraid that the God
   we trust in will fail us; no, there is no danger of that; not be afraid
   of any creature, though ever so formidable and threatening. Note, Faith
   in God is a sovereign remedy against disquieting tormenting fears. (2.)
   To support our hopes. Is the Lord Jehovah our salvation? Then he will
   be our strength and song. We have work to do and temptations to resist,
   and we may depend upon him to enable us for both, to strengthen us with
   all might by his Spirit in the inner man, for he is our strength; his
   grace is so, and that grace shall be sufficient for us. We have many
   troubles to undergo, and must expect griefs in a vale of tears; and we
   may depend upon him to comfort us in all our tribulations, for he is
   our song; he giveth songs in the night. If we make God our strength,
   and put our confidence in him, he will be our strength; if we make him
   our song, and place our comfort in him, he will be our song. Many good
   Christians have God for their strength who have him not for their song;
   they walk in darkness: but light is sown for them. And those that have
   God for their strength ought to make him their song, that is, to give
   him the glory of it (see Ps. lxviii. 35) and to take to themselves the
   comfort of it, for he will become their salvation. Observe the title
   here given to God: Jah, Jehovah. Jah is the contraction of Jehovah, and
   both signify his eternity and unchangeableness, which are a great
   comfort to those that depend upon him as their strength and their song.
   Some make Jah to signify the Son of God made man; he is Jehovah, and in
   him we may glory as our strength, and song, and salvation.

   3. They are aught to derive comfort to themselves from the love of God
   and all the tokens of that love (v. 3): "Therefore, because the Lord
   Jehovah is your strength and song and will be your salvation, you shall
   draw water with joy." Note, The assurances God has given us of his
   love, and the experiences we have had of the benefit and comfort of his
   grace, should greatly encourage our faith in him and our expectations
   from him: "Out of the wells of salvation in God, who is the fountain of
   all good to his people, you shall draw water with joy. God's favour
   shall flow forth to you, and you shall have the comfort of it and make
   use of the blessed fruits of it." Note, (1.) God's promises revealed,
   ratified, and given out to us, in his ordinances, are wells of
   salvation; wells of the Saviour (so some read it), for in them the
   Saviour and salvation are made known to us and made over to us. (2.) It
   is our duty by faith to draw water out of these wells, to take to
   ourselves the benefit and comfort that are treasured up for us in them,
   as those that acknowledge all our fresh springs to be there and all our
   fresh streams to be thence, Ps. lxxxvii. 7. (3.) Water is to be drawn
   out of the wells of salvation with a great deal of pleasure and
   satisfaction. It is the will of God that we should rejoice before him
   and rejoice in him (Deut. xxvi. 11), be joyful in his house of prayer
   (Isa. lvi. 7), and keep his feasts with gladness, Acts ii. 46.

A Song of Praise. (b. c. 740.)

   4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name,
   declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is
   exalted.   5 Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things:
   this is known in all the earth.   6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant
   of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

   This is the second part of this evangelical song, and to the same
   purport with the former; there believers stir up themselves to praise
   God, here they invite and encourage one another to do it, and are
   contriving to spread his praise and draw in others to join with them in
   it. Observe,

   I. Who are here called upon to praise God--the inhabitants of Zion and
   Jerusalem, whom God had in a particular manner protected from
   Sennacherib's violence, v. 6. Those that have received distinguishing
   favours from God ought to be most forward and zealous in praising him.
   The gospel church is Zion. Christ is Zion's King. Those that have a
   place and a name in the church should lay out themselves to diffuse the
   knowledge of Christ and to bring many to him. Thou inhabitress of Zion;
   the word is feminine. Let the weaker sex be strong in the Lord, and out
   of their mouth praise shall be perfected.

   II. How they must praise the Lord. 1. By prayer: Call upon his name. As
   giving thanks for former mercy is a decent way of begging further
   mercy, so begging further mercy is graciously accepted as a thankful
   acknowledgment of the mercies we have received. In calling upon God's
   name we give unto him some of the glory that is due to his name as our
   powerful and bountiful benefactor. 2. By preaching and writing. We must
   not only speak to God, but speak to others concerning him, not only
   call upon his name, but (as the margin reads it) proclaim his name; let
   others know something more from us than they did before concerning God,
   and those things whereby he has made himself known. Declare his doings,
   his counsels (so some read it); the work of redemption is according to
   the counsel of his will, and in that and other wonderful works that he
   has done we must take notice of his thoughts which are to us-ward, Ps.
   xl. 5. Declare these among the people, among the heathen, that they may
   be brought into communion with Israel and the God of Israel. When the
   apostles preached the gospel to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,
   then this scripture was fulfilled, that his doings should be declared
   among the people and that what he has done should be known in all the
   earth. 3. By a holy exultation and transport of joy: "Cry out and
   shout; welcome the gospel to yourselves and publish it to others with
   huzzas and loud acclamations, as those that shout for victory (Exod.
   xxxii. 18) or for the coronation of a king," Num. xxiii. 21.

   III. For what they must praise the Lord. 1. Because he has glorified
   himself. Remember it yourselves, and make mention of it to others, that
   his name is exalted, has become more illustrious and more conspicuous;
   in this every good man rejoices. 2. Because he has magnified his
   people: He has done excellent things for them, which make them look
   great and considerable. 3. Because he is, and will be, great among
   them: Great is the Holy One, for he is glorious in holiness; therefore
   great, because holy. True goodness is true greatness. He is great as
   the Holy One of Israel, and in the midst of them, praised by them (Ps.
   lxxvi. 1), manifesting himself among them, and appearing gloriously in
   their behalf. It is the honour and happiness of Israel that the God who
   is in covenant with them, and in the midst of them, is infinitely
   great.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XIII.

   Hitherto the prophecies of this book related only to Judah and Israel,
   and Jerusalem especially; but now the prophet begins to look abroad,
   and to read the doom of divers of the neighbouring states and kingdoms:
   for he that is King of saints is also King of nations, and rules in the
   affairs of the children of men as well as in those of his own children.
   But the nations to whom these prophecies do relate were all such as the
   people of God were in some way or other conversant and concerned with,
   such as had been kind or unkind to Israel, and accordingly God would
   deal with them, either in favour or in wrath; for the Lord's portion is
   his people, and to them he has an eye in all the dispensations of his
   providence concerning those about them, Deut. xxxii. 8, 9. The
   threatenings we find here against Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre,
   &c., were intended for comfort to those in Israel that feared God, but
   were terrified and oppressed by those potent neighbours, and for alarm
   to those among them that were wicked. If God would thus severely reckon
   with those for their sins that knew him not, and made no profession of
   his name, how severe would he be with those that were called by his
   name and yet lived in rebellion against him! And perhaps the directing
   of particular prophecies to the neighbouring nations might invite some
   of those nations to the reading of the Jews' Bible, and so they might
   be brought to their religion. This chapter, and that which follows,
   contain what God had to say to Babylon and Babylon's king, who were at
   present little known to Israel, but would in process of time become a
   greater enemy to them than any other had been, for which God would at
   last reckon with them. In this chapter we have, I. A general rendezvous
   of the forces that were to be employed against Babylon, ver. 1-5. II.
   The dreadfully bloody work that those forces should make in Babylon,
   ver. 6-18. III. The utter ruin and desolation of Babylon, which this
   should end in, ver. 19-22.

The Doom of Babylon. (b. c. 739.)

   1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.   2 Lift
   ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake
   the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.   3 I have
   commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for
   mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.   4 The noise of a
   multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous
   noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts
   mustereth the host of the battle.   5 They come from a far country,
   from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his
   indignation, to destroy the whole land.

   The general title of this book was, The vision of Isaiah the son of
   Amoz, ch. i. 1. Here we have that which Isaiah saw, which was
   represented to his mind as clearly and fully as if he had seen it with
   his bodily eyes; but the particular inscription of this sermon is the
   burden of Babylon. 1. It is a burden, a lesson they were to learn (so
   some understand it), but they would be loth to learn it, and it would
   be a burden to their memories, or a load which should lie heavily upon
   them and under which they should sink. Those that will not make the
   word of God their rest (ch. xxviii. 12; Jer. vi. 16) shall find it made
   a burden to them. 2. It is the burden of Babylon or Babel, which at
   this time was a dependent upon the Assyrian monarchy (the metropolis of
   which was Nineveh), but soon after revolted from it and became a
   monarchy of itself, and a very potent one, in Nebuchadnezzar. This
   prophet afterwards foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, ch.
   xxxix. 6. Here he foretels the reprisals God would make upon Babylon
   for the wrongs done to his people. In these verses a summons is given
   to those powerful and warlike nations whom God would make us of as the
   instruments of his wrath for the destruction of Babylon: he afterwards
   names them (v. 17) the Medes, who, in conjunction with the Persians,
   under the command of Darius and Cyrus, were the ruin of the Babylonian
   monarchy.

   I. The place doomed to destruction is Babylon; it is here called the
   gates of the nobles (v. 2), because of the abundance of noblemen's
   houses that were in it, stately ones and richly furnished, which would
   invite the enemy to come, in hopes of a rich booty. The gates of nobles
   were strong and well guarded, and yet they would be no fence against
   those who came with commission to execute God's judgments. Before his
   power and wrath palaces are no more than cottages. Nor is it only the
   gates of the nobles, but the whole land, that is doomed to destruction
   (v. 5); for, though the nobles were the leaders in persecuting and
   oppressing God's people, yet the whole land concurred with them in it.

   II. The persons brought together to lay Babylon waste are here called,
   1. God's sanctified ones (v. 3), designed for this service and set
   apart to it by the purpose and providence of God, disengaged from other
   projects, that they might wholly apply themselves to this, such as were
   qualified for that to which they were called, for what work God employs
   men in he does in some measure fit them for. It intimates likewise that
   in God's intention, though not in theirs, it was a holy war; they
   designed only the enlargement of their own empire, but God designed the
   release of his people and a type of the destruction of the
   New-Testament Babylon. Cyrus, the person principally concerned, was
   justly called a sanctified one, for he was God's anointed (ch. xlv. 1)
   and a figure of him that was to come. It is a pity but all soldiers,
   especially those that fight the Lord's battles, should be in the
   strictest sense sanctified ones; and it is a wonder that those dare be
   profane ones who carry their lives in their hands. 2. They are called
   God's mighty ones, because they had their might from God and were now
   to use it for him. It is said of Cyrus that in this expedition God held
   his right hand, ch. xlv. 1. God's sanctified ones are his mighty ones.
   Those whom God calls he qualifies; and those whom he makes holy he
   makes strong in spirit. 3. They are said to rejoice in his highness,
   that is, to serve his glory and the purposes of it with great alacrity.
   Though Cyrus did not know God, nor actually design his honour in what
   he did, yet God used him as his servant (ch. xlv. 4, I have surnamed
   thee as my servant, though thou hast not known me), and he rejoiced in
   those successes by which God exalted his own name. 4. They are very
   numerous, a multitude, a great people, kingdoms of nations (v. 4), not
   rude and barbarous, but modelled and regular troops, such as are
   furnished out by well-ordered kingdoms. The great God has hosts at his
   command. 5. They are far-fetched: They come from a far country, from
   the end of heaven. The vast country of Assyria lay between Babylon and
   Persia. God can make those a scourge and ruin to his enemies that lie
   most remote from them and therefore are least dreaded.

   III. The summons given them is effectual, their obedience ready, and
   they make a very formidable appearance: A banner is lifted up upon the
   high mountain, v. 2. God's standard is set up, a flag of defiance hung
   out against Babylon. It is erected on high, where all may see it;
   whoever will may come and enlist themselves under it, and they shall be
   taken immediately into God's pay. Those that beat up for volunteers
   must exalt the voice in making proclamation, to encourage soldiers to
   come in; they must shake the hand, to beckon those at a distance and to
   animate those that have enlisted themselves. And they shall not do this
   in vain; God has commanded and called those whom he designs to make use
   of (v. 3) and power goes along with his calls and commands, which
   cannot be resisted. He that makes men able to serve him can, when he
   pleases, make them willing too. It is the Lord of hosts that musters
   the host of the battle, v. 4. He raises them, brings them together,
   puts them in order, reviews them, has an exact account of them in his
   muster-roll, sees that they be all in their respective posts, and gives
   them their necessary orders. Note, All the hosts of war are under the
   command of the Lord of hosts; and that which makes them truly
   formidable is that, when they come against Babylon, the Lord comes, and
   brings them with him as the weapons of his indignation, v. 5. Note,
   Great princes and armies are but tools in God's hand, weapons that he
   is pleased to make use of in doing his work, and it is his wrath that
   arms them and gives them success.

The Doom of Babylon. (b. c. 739.)

   6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a
   destruction from the Almighty.   7 Therefore shall all hands be faint,
   and every man's heart shall melt:   8 And they shall be afraid: pangs
   and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman
   that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall
   be as flames.   9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with
   wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy
   the sinners thereof out of it.   10 For the stars of heaven and the
   constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be
   darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to
   shine.   11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked
   for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to
   cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.   12 I will
   make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden
   wedge of Ophir.   13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth
   shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and
   in the day of his fierce anger.   14 And it shall be as the chased roe,
   and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his
   own people, and flee every one into his own land.   15 Every one that
   is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto
   them shall fall by the sword.   16 Their children also shall be dashed
   to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their
   wives ravished.   17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
   which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight
   in it.   18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and
   they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not
   spare children.

   We have here a very elegant and lively description of the terrible
   confusion and desolation which should be made in Babylon by the descent
   which the Medes and Persians should make upon it. Those that were now
   secure and easy were bidden to howl and make sad lamentation; for,

   I. God was about to appear in wrath against them, and it is a fearful
   thing to fall into his hands: The day of the Lord is at hand (v. 6), a
   little day of judgment, when God will act as a just avenger of his own
   and his people's injured cause. And there are those who will have
   reason to tremble when that day is at hand. The day of the Lord cometh,
   v. 9. Men have their day now, and they think to carry the day; but God
   laughs at them, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13.
   Fury is not with God, and yet his day of reckoning with the Babylonians
   is said to be cruel with wrath and fierce anger. God will deal in
   severity with them for the severities they exercised upon God's people;
   with the froward, with the cruel, he will show himself froward, will
   show himself cruel, and give the blood-thirsty blood to drink.

   II. Their hearts shall fail them, and they shall have neither courage
   nor comfort left; they shall not be able either to resist the judgment
   coming or to bear up under it, either to oppose the enemy or to support
   themselves, v. 7, 8. Those that in the day of their peace were proud,
   and haughty, and terrible (v. 11), shall, when trouble comes, be quite
   dispirited and at their wits' end: All hands shall be faint, and unable
   to hold a weapon, and every man's heart shall melt, so that they shall
   be ready to die for fear. The pangs of their fear shall be like those
   of a woman in hard labour, and they shall be amazed one at another. In
   frightening themselves, they shall frighten one another; they shall
   wonder to see those tremble that used to be bold and daring; or they
   shall be amazed looking one at another, as men at a loss, Gen. xlii. 1.
   Their faces shall be as flames, pale as flames, through fear (so some),
   or red as flames sometimes are, blushing at their own cowardice; or
   their faces shall be as faces scorched with the flame, or as theirs
   that labour in the fire, their visage blacker than a coal, or like a
   bottle in the smoke, Ps. cxix. 83.

   III. All comfort and hope shall fail them (v. 10): The stars of heaven
   shall not give their light, but shall be clouded and overcast; the sun
   shall be darkened in his going forth, rising bright, but lost again, a
   certain sign of foul weather. They shall be as men in distress at sea,
   when neither sun nor stars appear, Acts xxvii. 20. It shall be as
   dreadful a time with them as it would be with the earth if all the
   heavenly luminaries were turned into darkness, a resemblance of the day
   of judgment, when the sun shall be turned into darkness. The heavens
   frowning thus is an indication of the displeasure of the God of heaven.
   When things look dark on earth, yet it is well enough if all be clear
   upwards; but, if we have no comfort thence, wherewith shall we be
   comforted?

   IV. God will visit them for their iniquity; and all this is intended
   for the punishment of sin, and particularly the sin of pride, v. 11.
   This puts wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery, 1. That sin
   must now have its punishment. Though Babylon be a little world, yet,
   being a wicked world, it shall not go unpunished. Sin brings desolation
   on the world of the ungodly; and when the kingdoms of the earth are
   quarrelling with one another it is the fruit of God's controversy with
   them all. 2. That pride must now have its fall: The haughtiness of the
   terrible must now be laid low, particularly of Nebuchadnezzar and his
   son Belshazzar, who had, in their pride, trampled upon, and made
   themselves very terrible to, the people of God. A man's pride will
   bring him low.

   V. There shall be so great a slaughter as will produce a scarcity of
   men (v. 12): I will make a man more precious than fine gold. You could
   not have a man to be employed in any of the affairs of state, not a man
   to be enlisted in the army, not a man to match a daughter to, for the
   building up of a family, if you would give any money for one. The
   troops of the neighbouring nations would not be hired into the service
   of the king of Babylon, because they saw every thing go against him.
   Populous countries are soon depopulated by war. And God can soon make a
   kingdom that has been courted and admired to be dreaded and shunned by
   all, as a house that is falling, or a ship that is sinking.

   VI. There shall be a universal confusion and consternation, such a
   confusion of their affairs that it shall be like the shaking of the
   heavens with dreadful thunders and the removing of the earth by no less
   dreadful earthquakes. All shall go to rack and ruin in the day of the
   wrath of the Lord of hosts, v. 13. And such a consternation shall seize
   their spirits that Babylon, which used to be like a roaring lion and a
   raging bear to all about her, shall become as a chased roe and as a
   sheep that no man takes up, v. 14. The army they shall bring into the
   field, consisting of troops of divers nations (as great armies usually
   do), shall be so dispirited by their own apprehensions and so dispersed
   by their enemies' sword that they shall turn every man to his own
   people; each man shall shift for his own safety; the men of might shall
   not find their hands (Ps. lxxvi. 5), but take to their heels.

   VII. There shall be a general scene of blood and horror, as is usual
   where the sword devours. No wonder that every one makes the best of his
   way, since the conqueror gives no quarter, but puts all to the sword,
   and not those only that are found in arms, as is usual with us even in
   the most cruel slaughters (v. 15): Every one that is found alive shall
   be run through, as soon as ever it appears that he is a Babylonian.
   Nay, because the sword devours one as well as another, every one that
   is joined to them shall fall by the sword; those of other nations that
   come in to their assistance shall be cut off with them. It is dangerous
   being in bad company, and helping those whom God is about to destroy.
   Those particularly that join themselves to Babylon must expect to share
   in her plagues, Rev. xviii. 4. And, since the most sacred laws of
   nature, and of humanity itself, are silenced by the fury of war (though
   they cannot be cancelled), the conquerors shall, in the most barbarous
   brutish manner, dash the children to pieces, and ravish the wives.
   Jusque datum sceleri--Wickedness shall have free course, v. 16. They
   had thus dealt with God's people (Lam. v. 11), and now they shall be
   paid in their own coin, Rev. xiii. 10. It was particularly foretold
   (Ps. cxxxvii. 9) that the little ones of Babylon should be dashed
   against the stones. How cruel soever and unjust those were that did it,
   God was righteous who suffered it to be done, and to be done before
   their eyes, to their greater terror and vexation. It was just also that
   the houses which they had filled with the spoil of Israel should be
   spoiled and plundered. What is got by rapine is often lost in the same
   manner.

   VIII. The enemy that God will send against them shall be inexorable,
   probably being by some provocation or other more than ordinarily
   exasperated against them; or, in whatever way it may be brought about,
   God himself will stir up the Medes to use this severity with the
   Babylonians. He will not only serve his own purposes by their
   dispositions and designs, but will put it into their hearts to make
   this attempt upon Babylon, and suffer them to prosecute it with all
   this fury. God is not the author of sin, but he would not permit it if
   he did not know how to bring glory to himself out of it. These Medes,
   in conjunction with the Persians, shall make thorough work of it; for,
   1. They shall take no bribes, v. 17. All that men have they would give
   for their lives, but the Medes shall not regard silver; it is blood
   they thirst for, not gold; no man's riches shall with them be the
   ransom of his life. 2. They shall show no pity (v. 18), not to the
   young men that are in the prime of their time--they shall shoot them
   through with their bows, and then dash them to pieces; not to the age
   of innocency--they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb, nor
   spare little children, whose cries and frights one would think should
   make even marble eyes to weep, and hearts of adamant to relent. Pause a
   little here and wonder, (1.) That men should be thus cruel and inhuman,
   and so utterly divested of all compassion; and in it see how corrupt
   and degenerate the nature of man has become. (2.) That the God of
   infinite mercy should suffer it, nay, and should make it to be the
   execution of his justice, which shows that, though he is gracious, yet
   he is the God to whom vengeance belongs. (3.) That little infants, who
   have never been guilty of any actual sin, should be thus abused, which
   shows that there is an original guilt by which life is forfeited as
   soon as it is had.

The Doom of Babylon. (b. c. 739.)

   19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
   excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.   20 It
   shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation
   to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither
   shall the shepherds make their fold there.   21 But wild beasts of the
   desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful
   creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
   22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
   houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to
   come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

   The great havoc and destruction which it was foretold should be made by
   the Medes and Persians in Babylon here end in the final destruction of
   it. 1. It is allowed that Babylon was a noble city. It was the glory of
   kingdoms and the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency; it was that head
   of gold (Dan. ii. 37, 38); it was called the lady of kingdoms (ch.
   xlvii. 5), the praise of the whole earth (Jer. li. 41), like a pleasant
   roe (so the word signifies); but it shall be as a chased roe, v. 14.
   The Chaldeans gloried in the beauty and wealth of this their
   metropolis. 2. It is foretold that it should be wholly destroyed, like
   Sodom and Gomorrah; not so miraculously, nor so suddenly, but as
   effectually, though gradually; and the destruction should come upon
   them as that upon Sodom, when they were secure, eating and drinking,
   Luke xvii. 28, 29. Babylon was taken when Belshazzar was in his revels;
   and, though Cyrus and Darius did not demolish it, yet by degrees it
   wasted away and in process of time it went all to ruin. It is foretold
   here (v. 20) that it shall never be inhabited; in Adrian's time nothing
   remained but the wall. And whereas it is prophesied concerning Nineveh,
   that great city, that when it should be deserted and left desolate yet
   flocks should lie down in the midst of it, it is here said concerning
   Babylon that the Arabians, who were shepherds, should not make their
   folds there; the country about should be so barren that there would be
   no grazing there; no, not for sheep. Nay, it shall be the receptacle of
   wild beasts, that affect solitude; the houses of Babylon, where the
   sons and daughters of pleasure used to rendezvous, shall be full of
   doleful creatures, owls and satyrs, that are themselves frightened
   thither, as to a place proper for them, and by whom all others are
   frightened thence. Historians say that this was fulfilled in the
   letter. Benjamin Bar-Jona, in his Itinerary, speaking of Babel, has
   these words: "This is that Babel which was of old thirty miles in
   breadth; it is now laid waste. There are yet to be seen the ruins of a
   palace of Nebuchadnezzar, but the sons of men dare not enter in, for
   fear of serpents and scorpions, which possess the place." Let none be
   proud of their pompous palaces, for they know not but they may become
   worse than cottages; nor let any think that their houses shall endure
   for ever (Ps. xlix. 11), when perhaps nothing may remain but the ruins
   and reproaches of them. 3. It is intimated that this destruction should
   come shortly (v. 22): Her time is near to come. This prophecy of the
   destruction of Babylon was intended for the support and comfort of the
   people of God when they were captives there and grievously oppressed;
   and the accomplishment of the prophecy was nearly 200 years after the
   time when it was delivered; yet it followed soon after the time for
   which it was calculated. When the people of Israel were groaning under
   the heavy yoke of Babylonish tyranny, sitting down in tears by the
   rivers of Babylon and upbraided with the songs of Zion, when their
   insolent oppressors were most haughty and arrogant (v. 11), then let
   them know, for their comfort, that Babylon's time, her day to fall, is
   near to come, and the days of her prosperity shall not be prolonged, as
   they have been. When God begins with her he will make an end. Thus it
   is said of the destruction of the New-Testament Babylon, whereof the
   former was a type, In one hour has her judgment come.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XIV.

   In this chapter, I. More weight is added to the burden of Babylon,
   enough to sink it like a mill-stone; I. It is Israel's cause that is to
   be pleaded in this quarrel with Babylon, ver. 1-3. 2. The king of
   Babylon, for the time being, shall be remarkably brought down and
   triumphed over, ver. 4-20. 3. The whole race of the Babylonians shall
   be cut off and extirpated, ver. 21-23. II. A confirmation of the
   prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, which was a thing at a
   distance, is here given in the prophecy of the destruction of the
   Assyrian army that invaded the land, which happened not long after,
   ver. 24-27. III. The success of Hezekiah against the Philistines is
   here foretold, and the advantages which his people would gain thereby,
   ver. 28-32.

Promises to Israel. (b. c. 739.)

   1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel,
   and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with
   them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.   2 And the people
   shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel
   shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids:
   and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they
   shall rule over their oppressors.   3 And it shall come to pass in the
   day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy
   fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

   This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and
   ruined, because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore,
   1. The injuries done to them must be reckoned for and revenged upon
   their persecutors. Mercy to Jacob will be wrath and ruin to Jacob's
   impenitent implacable adversaries, such as Babylon was. 2. The yoke of
   oppression which Babylon had long laid on their necks must be broken
   off, and they must be set at liberty; and, in order to this, the
   destruction of Babylon is as necessary as the destruction of Egypt and
   Pharaoh was to their deliverance out of that house of bondage. The same
   prediction is a promise to God's people and a threatening to their
   enemies, as the same providence has a bright side towards Israel and a
   black or dark side towards the Egyptians. Observe,

   I. The ground of these favours to Jacob and Israel--the kindness God
   had for them and the choice he had made of them (v. 1): "The Lord will
   have mercy on Jacob, the seed of Jacob now captives in Babylon; he will
   make it to appear that he has compassion on them and has mercy in store
   for them, and that he will not contend for ever with them, but will yet
   choose them, will yet again return to them; though he has seemed for a
   time to refuse and reject them, he will show that they are his chosen
   people and that the election stands sure." However it may seem to us,
   God's mercy is not gone, nor does his promise fail, Ps. lxxvii. 8.

   II. The particular favours he designed them. 1. He would bring them
   back to their native soil and air again: The Lord will set them in
   their own land, out of which they were driven. A settlement in the holy
   land, the land of promise, is a fruit of God's mercy, distinguishing
   mercy. 2. Many should be proselyted to their holy religion, and should
   return with them, induced to do so by the manifest tokens of God's
   favourable presence with them, the operations of God's grace in them,
   the operations of God's grace in them, and his providence for them:
   Strangers shall be joined with them, saying, We will go with you, for
   we have heard that God is with you, Zech. viii. 23. It adds much to the
   honour and strength of Israel when strangers are joined with them and
   there are added to the church many from without, Acts ii. 47. Let not
   the church's children be shy of strangers, but receive those whom God
   receives, and own those who cleave to the house of Jacob. 3. These
   proselytes should not only be a credit to their cause, but very helpful
   and serviceable to them in their return home: The people among whom
   they live shall take them, take care of them, take pity on them, and
   shall bring them to their place--as friends, loth to part with such
   good company--as servants, willing to do them all the good offices they
   could. God's people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour thus,
   by all the instances of an exemplary and winning conversation, to gain
   an interest in the affections of those about them, and recommend
   religion to their good opinion. This was fulfilled in the return of the
   captives from Babylon, when all that were about them, pursuant to
   Cyrus's proclamation, contributed to their removal (Ezra i. 4, 6), not
   as the Egyptians, because they were sick of them, but because they
   loved them. 4. They should have the benefit of their service when they
   had returned home, for many would of choice go with them in the meanest
   post, rather than not go with them: They shall possess them in the land
   of the Lord for servants and handmaids; and as the laws of that land
   saved it from being the purgatory of servants, providing that they
   should not be oppressed, so the advantages of that land made it the
   paradise of those servants that had been strangers to the covenants of
   promise, for there was one law to the stranger and to those that were
   born in the land. Those whose lot is cast in the land of the Lord, a
   land of light, should take care that their servants and handmaids may
   share in the benefit of it, who will then find it better to be
   possessed in the Lord's land than possessors in any other. 5. They
   should triumph over their enemies, and those that would not be
   reconciled to them should be reduced and humbled by them: They shall
   take those captives whose captives they were and shall rule over their
   oppressors, righteously, but not revengefully. The Jews perhaps bought
   Babylonian prisoners out of the hands of the Medes and Persians and
   made slaves of them. Or this might have its accomplishment in their
   victories over their enemies in the times of the Maccabees. It is
   applicable to the success of the gospel (when those were brought into
   obedience to it who had made the greatest opposition to it, as Paul)
   and to the interest believers have in Christ's victories over their
   spiritual enemies, when he led captivity captive, to the power they
   gain over their own corruptions, and to the dominion the upright shall
   have in the morning, Ps. xlix. 14. 6. They should see a happy
   termination of all their grievances (v. 3): The Lord shall give thee
   rest from thy sorrow and thy fear, and from thy hard bondage. God
   himself undertakes to work a blessed change, (1.) In their state. They
   shall have rest from their bondage; the days of their affliction,
   though many, shall have an end; and the rod of the wicked, though it
   lie long, shall not always lie on their lot. (2.) In their spirit. They
   shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, sense of their present
   burdens and dread of worse. Sometimes fear puts the soul into a ferment
   as much as sorrow does, and those must needs feel themselves very easy
   to whom God has given rest from both. Those who are freed from the
   bondage of sin have a foundation laid for true rest from sorrow and
   fear.

The Doom of the King of Babylon. (b. c. 739.)

   4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and
   say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!   5 The
   Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the
   rulers.   6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
   he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
     7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into
   singing.   8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of
   Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against
   us.   9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming:
   it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth;
   it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.   10
   All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as
   we? art thou become like unto us?   11 Thy pomp is brought down to the
   grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and
   the worms cover thee.   12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
   son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
   weaken the nations!   13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
   ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I
   will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
   north:   14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be
   like the most High.   15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the
   sides of the pit.   16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon
   thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to
   tremble, that did shake kingdoms;   17 That made the world as a
   wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house
   of his prisoners?   18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them,
   lie in glory, every one in his own house.   19 But thou art cast out of
   thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that
   are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of
   the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.   20 Thou shalt not be joined
   with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain
   thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.   21 Prepare
   slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they
   do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with
   cities.   22 For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts,
   and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew,
   saith the Lord.   23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern,
   and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction,
   saith the Lord of hosts.

   The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and
   oppressors of God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon,
   the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly
   taken notice of and triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel
   rest they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We
   must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the
   common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou
   heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, Rev. xviii. 20. The
   Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and
   perpetual one, and, in these pretensions, vied with the Almighty; it is
   therefore very justly, not only brought down, but insulted over when it
   is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was slain
   on that night that Babylon was taken (Dan. v. 30), who is here
   triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without
   special reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its
   height. Now here,

   I. The fall of the king of Babylon is rejoiced in; and a most curious
   and elegant composition is here prepared, not to adorn his hearse or
   monument, but to expose his memory and fix a lasting brand of infamy
   upon it. It gives us an account of the life and death of this mighty
   monarch, how he went down slain to the pit, though he had been the
   terror of the mighty in the land of the living, Ezek. xxxii. 27. In
   this parable we may observe,

   1. The prodigious height of wealth and power at which this monarch and
   monarchy arrived. Babylon was a golden city, v. 4 (it is a Chaldee word
   in the original, which intimates that she used to call herself so), so
   much did she abound in riches and excel all other cities, as gold does
   all other metals. She is gold-thirsty, or an exactress of gold (so some
   read it); for how do men get wealth to themselves but by squeezing it
   out of others? The New Jerusalem is the only truly golden city, Rev.
   xxi. 18, 21. The king of Babylon, having so much wealth in his
   dominions and the absolute command of it, by the help of that ruled the
   nations (v. 6), gave them law, read them their doom, and at his
   pleasure weakened the nations (v. 12), that they might not be able to
   make head against him. Such vast and victorious armies did he bring
   into the field, that, which way soever he looked, he made the earth to
   tremble, and shook kingdoms (v. 16); all his neighbours were afraid of
   him, and were forced to submit to him. No one man could do this by his
   own personal strength, but by the numbers he has at his beck. Great
   tyrants, by making some do what they will, make others suffer what they
   will. How piteous is the case of mankind, which thus seems to be in a
   combination against itself, and its own rights and liberties, which
   could not be ruined but by its own strength!

   2. The wretched abuse of all this wealth and power, which the king of
   Babylon was guilty of, in two instances:--

   (1.) Great oppression and cruelty. He is known by the name of the
   oppressor (v. 4); he has the sceptre of the rulers (v. 5), has the
   command of all the princes about him; but it is the staff of the
   wicked, a staff with which he supports himself in his wickedness and
   wickedly strikes all about him. He smote the people, not in justice,
   for their correction and reformation, but in wrath (v. 6), to gratify
   his own peevish resentments, and that with a continual stroke, pursued
   them with his forces, and gave them no respite, no breathing time, no
   cessation of arms. He ruled the nations, but he ruled them in anger,
   every thing he said and did was in a passion; so that he who had the
   government of all about him had no government of himself. He made the
   world as a wilderness, as if he had taken a pride in being the plague
   of his generation and a curse to mankind, v. 17. Great princes usually
   glory in building cities, but he gloried in destroying them; see Ps.
   ix. 6. Two particular instances, worse than all the rest, are here
   given of his tyranny:--[1.] That he was severe to his captives (v. 17):
   He opened not the house of his prisoners; he did not let them loose
   homeward (so the margin reads it); he kept them in close confinement,
   and never would suffer any to return to their own land. This refers
   especially to the people of the Jews, and it is that which fills up the
   measure of the king of Babylon's iniquity, that he had detained the
   people of God in captivity and would by no means release them; nay, and
   by profaning the vessels of God's temple at Jerusalem, did in effect
   say that they should never return to their former use, Dan. v. 3. For
   this he was quickly and justly turned out by one whose first act was to
   open the house of God's prisoners and send home the temple vessels.
   [2.] That he was oppressive to his own subjects (v. 20): Thou hast
   destroyed thy land, and slain thy people; and what did he get by that,
   when the wealth of the land and the multitude of the people are the
   strength and honour of the prince, who never rules so safely, so
   gloriously, as in the hearts and affections of the people? But tyrants
   sacrifice their interests to their lusts and passions; and God will
   reckon with them for their barbarous usage of those who are under their
   power, whom they think they may use as they please.

   (2.) Great pride and haughtiness. Notice is here taken of his pomp, the
   extravagancy of his retinue, v. 11. He affected to appear in the utmost
   magnificence. But that was not the worst: it was the temper of his
   mind, and the elevation of that, that ripened him for ruin (v. 13, 14):
   Thou has said in thy heart, like Lucifer, I will ascend into heaven.
   Here is the language of his vainglory, borrowed perhaps from that of
   the angels who fell, who not content with their first estate, the post
   assigned them, would vie with God, and become not only independent of
   him, but equal with him. Or perhaps it refers to the story of
   Nebuchadnezzar, who, when he would be more than a man, was justly
   turned into a brute, Dan. iv. 30. The king of Babylon here promises
   himself, [1.] That in pomp and power he shall surpass all his
   neighbours, and shall arrive at the very height of earthly glory and
   felicity, that he shall be as great and happy as this world can make
   him; that is the heaven of a carnal heart, and to that he hopes to
   ascend, and to be as far above those about him as the heaven is above
   the earth. Princes are the stars of God, which give some light to this
   dark world (Matt. xxiv. 29); but he will exalt his throne above them
   all. [2.] That he shall particularly insult over God's Mount Zion,
   which Belshazzar, in his last drunken frolic, seems to have had a
   particular spite against when he called for the vessels of the temple
   at Jerusalem, to profane them; see Dan. v. 2. In the same humour he
   here said, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation (it is the
   same word that is used for the holy convocations), in the sides of the
   north; so Mount Zion is said to be situated, Ps. xlviii. 2. Perhaps
   Belshazzar was projecting an expedition to Jerusalem, to triumph in the
   ruins of it, at the time when God cut him off. [3.] That he shall vie
   with the God of Israel, of whom he had indeed heard glorious things,
   that he had his residence above the heights of the clouds. "But
   thither," says he, "will I ascend, and be as great as he; I will be
   like him whom they call the Most High." It is a gracious ambition to
   covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be you holy, for I am
   holy; but it is a sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for
   he has said, He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and the devil
   drew our first parents in to eat forbidden fruit by promising them that
   they should be as gods. [4.] That he shall himself be deified after his
   death, as some of the first founders of the Assyrian monarchy were, and
   stars had even their names from them. "But," says he, "I will exalt my
   throne above them all." Such as this was his pride, which was the
   undoubted omen of his destruction.

   3. The utter ruin that should be brought upon him. It is foretold, (1.)
   That his wealth and power should be broken, and a final period put to
   his pomp and pleasure. He has been long an oppressor, but he shall
   cease to be so, v. 4. Had he ceased to be so by true repentance and
   reformation, according to the advice Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, it
   might have been a lengthening of his life and tranquillity. But those
   that will not cease to sin God will make to cease. "The golden city,
   which one would have thought might continue for ever, has ceased; there
   is an end of that Babylon. The Lord, the righteous God, has broken the
   staff of that wicked prince, broken it over his head, in token of the
   divesting him of his office. God has taken his power from him, and
   rendered him incapable of doing any more mischief: he has broken the
   sceptres; for even these are brittle things, soon broken and often
   justly." (2.) That he himself should be seized: He is persecuted (v.
   6); violent hands are laid upon him, and none hinders. It is the common
   fate of tyrants, when they fall into the power of their enemies, to be
   deserted by their flatterers, whom they took for their friends. We read
   of another enemy like this, of whom it is foretold that he shall come
   to his end and none shall help him, Dan. xi. 45. Tiberius and Nero thus
   saw themselves abandoned. (3.) That he should be slain, and go down to
   the congregation of the dead, to be free among them, as the slain that
   are no more remembered, Ps. lxxxviii. 5. He shall be weak as the dead
   are, and like unto them, v. 10. His pomp is brought down to the grave
   (v. 11), that is, it perishes with him; the pomp of his life shall not,
   as usual, end in a funeral pomp. True glory (that is, true grace) will
   go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body
   to the grave: there is an end of it. The noise of his viols is now
   heard no more. Death is a farewell to the pleasures, as well as to the
   pomps, of this world. This mighty prince, that used to lie on a bed of
   down, to tread upon rich carpets, and to have coverings and canopies
   exquisitely fine, now shall have the worms spread under him and the
   worms covering him, worms bred out of his own putrefied body, which,
   though he fancied himself a god, proved him to be made of the same
   mould with other men. When we are pampering and decking our bodies it
   is good to remember they will be worms'-meat shortly. (4.) That he
   should not have the honour of a burial, much less of a decent one and
   in the sepulchres of his ancestors. The kings of the nations lie in
   glory (v. 18), either their dead bodies themselves so embalmed as to be
   preserved from putrefaction, as of old among the Egyptians, or their
   effigies (as with us) erected over their graves. Thus, as if they would
   defy the ignominy of death, they lay in a poor faint sort of glory,
   every one in his own house, that is, his own burying-place (for the
   grave is the house appointed for all living), a sleeping house, where
   the busy and troublesome will lie quiet and the troubled and weary lie
   at rest. But this king of Babylon is cast out and has no grave (v. 19);
   his dead body is thrown, like that of a beast, into the next ditch or
   upon the next dunghill, like an abominable branch of some noxious
   poisonous plant, which nobody will touch, or as the clothes of
   malefactors put to death and by the hand of justice thrust through with
   a sword, on whose dead bodies heaps of stones are raised, or they are
   thrown into some deep quarry among the stones of the pit. Nay, the king
   of Babylon's dead body shall be as the carcases of those who are slain
   in a battle, which are trodden under feet by the horses and soldiers
   and crushed to pieces. Thus he shall not be joined with his ancestors
   in burial, v. 20. To be denied decent burial is a disgrace, which, if
   it be inflicted for righteousness' sake (as Ps. lxxix. 2), may, as
   other similar reproaches, be rejoiced in (Matt. v. 12); it is the lot
   of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 9. But if, as here, it be the just
   punishment of iniquity, it is an intimation that evil pursues
   impenitent sinners beyond death, greater evil than that, and that they
   shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt.

   4. The many triumphs that should be in his fall.

   (1.) Those whom he had been a great tyrant and terror to will be glad
   that they are rid of him, v. 7, 8. Now that he is gone the whole earth
   is at rest and is quiet, for he was the great disturber of the peace;
   now they all break forth into singing, for when the wicked perish there
   is shouting (Prov. xi. 10); the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon now
   think themselves safe; there is no danger now of their being cut down,
   to make way for his vast armies or to furnish him with timber. The
   neighbouring princes and great men, who are compared to fir-trees and
   cedars (Zech. xi. 2), may now be easy, and out of fear of being
   dispossessed of their rights, for the hammer of the whole earth is cut
   asunder and broken (Jer. l. 23), the axe that boasted itself against
   him that hewed with it, ch. x. 15.

   (2.) The congregation of the dead will bid him welcome to them,
   especially those whom he had barbarously hastened thither (v. 9, 10):
   "Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, and
   to compliment thee upon thy arrival at their dark and dreadful
   regions." The chief ones of the earth, who when they were alive were
   kept in awe by him and durst not come near him, but rose from their
   thrones, to resign them to him, shall upbraid him with it when he comes
   into the state of the dead. They shall go forth to meet him, as they
   used to do when he made his public entry into cities he had become
   master of; with such a parade shall he be introduced into those regions
   of horror, to make his disgrace and torment the more grievous to him.
   They shall scoffingly rise from their thrones and seats there, and ask
   him if he will please to sit down in them, as he used to do in their
   thrones on earth? The confusion that will then cover him they shall
   make a jest of: "Hast thou also become weak as we? Who would have
   thought it? It is what thou thyself didst not expect it would ever come
   to when thou wast in every thing too hard for us. Thou that didst rank
   thyself among the immortal gods, art thou come to take thy fate among
   us poor mortal men? Where is thy pomp now, and where thy mirth? How
   hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! son of the morning! v. 11, 12.
   The king of Babylon shone as brightly as the morning star, and fancied
   that wherever he came he brought day along with him; and has such an
   illustrious prince as this fallen, such a star become a clod of clay?
   Did ever any man fall from such a height of honour and power into such
   an abyss of shame and misery?" This has been commonly alluded to (and
   it is a mere allusion) to illustrate the fall of the angels, who were
   as morning stars (Job xxxviii. 7), but how have they fallen! How art
   thou cut down to the ground, and levelled with it, that didst weaken
   the nations! God will reckon with those that invade the rights and
   disturb the peace of mankind, for he is King of nations as well as of
   saints. Now this reception of the king of Babylon into the regions of
   the dead, which is here described, surely is something more than a
   flight of fancy, and is designed to teach these solid truths:--[1.]
   That there is an invisible world, a world of spirits, to which the
   souls of men remove at death and in which they exist and act in a state
   of separation from the body. [2.] That separate souls have acquaintance
   and converse with each other, though we have none with them: the
   parable of the rich man and Lazarus intimates this. [3.] That death and
   hell will be death and hell indeed to those that fall unsanctified from
   the height of this world's pomps and the fulness of its pleasures. Son,
   remember, Luke xvi. 25.

   (3.) Spectators will stand amazed at his fall. When he shall be brought
   down to hell, to the sides of the pit, and be lodged there, those that
   see him shall narrowly look upon him, and consider him (v. 15, 16);
   they shall scarcely believe their own eyes. "Never was death so great a
   change to any man as it is to him. Is it possible that a man, who a few
   hours ago looked so great, so pleasant, and was so splendidly adorned
   and attended, should now look so ghastly, so despicable, and lie thus
   naked and neglected? Is this the man that made the earth to tremble and
   shook kingdoms? Who could have thought he should ever come to this?"
   Ps. lxxxii. 7.

   5. Here is an inference drawn from all this (v. 20): The seed of
   evil-doers shall never be renowned. The princes of the Babylonian
   monarchy were all a seed of evil-doers, oppressors of the people of
   God, and therefore they had this infamy entailed upon them. They shall
   not be renowned for ever (so some read it); they may look big for a
   time, but all their pomp will only render their disgrace at last the
   more shameful. There is no credit in a sinful way.

   II. The utter ruin of the royal family is here foretold, together with
   the desolation of The royal city.

   1. The royal family is to be wholly extirpated. The Medes and Persians,
   that are to be employed in this destroying work, are ordered, when they
   have slain Belshazzar, to prepare slaughter for his children (v. 21)
   and not to spare them. The little ones of Babylon must be dashed
   against the stones, Ps. cxxxvii. 9. These orders sound very harshly;
   but, (1.) They must suffer for the iniquity of their fathers, which is
   often visited upon the children, to show how much God hates sin and is
   displeased at it, and to deter sinners from it, which is the end of
   punishment. Nebuchadnezzar had slain Zedekiah's sons (Jer. lii. 10),
   and, for that iniquity of his, his seed are paid in the same coin. (2.)
   They must be cut off now, that they may not rise up to possess the land
   and do as much mischief in their day as their fathers had done in
   theirs--that they may not be as vexatious to the world by building
   cities for the support of their tyranny (which was Nimrod's policy,
   Gen. x. 10, 11) as their ancestors had been by destroying cities.
   Pharaoh oppressed Israel in Egypt by setting them to build cities,
   Exod. i. 11. The providence of God consults the welfare of nations more
   than we are aware of by cutting off some who, if they had lived, would
   have done mischief. Justly may the enemies cut off the children: For I
   will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts (v. 22), and if God
   reveal it as his mind that he will have it done, as none can hinder it,
   so none need scruple to further it. Babylon perhaps was proud of the
   numbers of her royal family, but God had determined to cut off the name
   and remnant of it, so that none should be left, to have both the sons
   and grandsons of the king slain; and yet we are sure he never did, nor
   ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures.

   2. The royal city is to be demolished and deserted, v. 23. It shall be
   a possession for solitary frightful birds, particularly the bittern,
   joined with the cormorant and the owl, ch. xxiv. 11. And thus the utter
   destruction of the New-Testament Babylon is illustrated, Rev. xviii. 2.
   It has become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Babylon lay
   low, so that when it was deserted, and no care taken to drain the land,
   it soon became pools of water, standing noisome puddles, as unhealthful
   as they were unpleasant: and thus God will sweep it with the besom of
   destruction. When a people have nothing among them but dirt and filth,
   and will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they
   expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with the besom of
   destruction?

The Doom of the Assyrians; The Doom of the Philistines. (b. c. 726.)

   24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so
   shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:   25
   That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread
   him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his
   burden depart from off their shoulders.   26 This is the purpose that
   is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is
   stretched out upon all the nations.   27 For the Lord of hosts hath
   purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and
   who shall turn it back?   28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this
   burden.   29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him
   that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come
   forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.   30
   And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down
   in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy
   remnant.   31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art
   dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall
   be alone in his appointed times.   32 What shall one then answer the
   messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor
   of his people shall trust in it.

   The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was a thing at a
   great distance; the empire had not risen to any considerable height
   when its fall was here foretold: it was almost 200 years from this
   prediction of Babylon's fall to the accomplishment of it. Now the
   people to whom Isaiah prophesied might ask, "What is this to us, or
   what shall we be the better for it, and what assurance shall we have of
   it?" To both questions he answers in these verses, by a prediction of
   the ruin both of the Assyrians and of the Philistines, the present
   enemies that infested them, which they should shortly be eye-witnesses
   of and have benefit by. These would be a present comfort to them, and a
   pledge of future deliverance, for the confirming of the faith of their
   posterity. God is to his people the same to day that he was yesterday
   and will be hereafter; and he will for ever be the same that he has
   been and is. Here is,

   I. Assurance given of the destruction of the Assyrians (v. 25): I will
   break the Assyrian in my land. Sennacherib brought a very formidable
   army into the land of Judah, but there God broke it, broke all his
   regiments by the sword of a destroying angel. Note, Those who
   wrongfully invade God's land shall find that it is at their peril: and
   those who with unhallowed feet trample upon his holy mountains shall
   themselves there be trodden under foot. God undertakes to do this
   himself, his people having no might against the great company that came
   against them: "I will break the Assyrian; let me alone to do it who
   have angels, hosts of angels, at command." Now the breaking of the
   power of the Assyrian would be the breaking of the yoke from off the
   neck of God's people: His burden shall depart from off their shoulders,
   the burden of quartering that vast army and paying contribution;
   therefore the Assyrian must be broken, that Judah and Jerusalem may be
   eased. Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's
   people see what they are to expect. Now, 1. This prophecy is here
   ratified and confirmed by an oath (v. 24): The Lord of hosts hath
   sworn, that he might show the immutability of his counsel, and that his
   people may have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17, 18. What is here said
   of this particular intention is true of all God's purposes: As I have
   thought, so shall it come to pass; for he is in one mind, and who can
   turn him? Nor is he ever put upon new counsels, or obliged to take new
   measures, as men often are when things occur which they did not
   foresee. Let those who are the called according to God's purpose
   comfort themselves with this, that, as God has purposed, so shall it
   stand, and on that their stability depends. 2. The breaking of the
   Assyrian power is made a specimen of what God would do with all the
   powers of the nations that were engaged against him and his church (v.
   26): This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth (the
   whole world, so the LXX.), all the inhabitants of the earth (so the
   Chaldee), not only upon the Assyrian empire (which was then reckoned to
   be in a manner all the world, as afterwards the Roman empire was, Luke
   ii. 1, and with it many nations fell that had dependence upon it), but
   upon all those states and potentates that should at any time attack his
   land, his mountains. The fate of the Assyrian shall be theirs; they
   shall soon find that they meddle to their own hurt. Jerusalem, as it
   was to the Assyrians, will be to all people a burdensome stone; all
   that burden themselves with it shall infallibly be cut to pieces by it,
   Zech. xii. 3, 6. The same hand of power and justice that is now to be
   stretched out against the Assyrian for invading the people of God shall
   be stretched out upon all the nations that do likewise. It is still
   true, and will ever be so, Cursed is he that curses God's Israel, Num.
   xxiv. 9. God will be an enemy to his people's enemies, Exod. xxiii. 22.
   3. All the powers on earth are defied to change God's counsel (v. 27):
   "The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke, and every
   rod of the wicked laid upon the lot of the righteous; and who shall
   disannul this purpose? Who can persuade him to recall it, or find out a
   plea to evade it? His hand is stretched out to execute this purpose;
   and who has power enough to turn it back or to stay the course of his
   judgments?"

   II. Assurance is likewise given of the destruction of the Philistines
   and their power. This burden, this prophecy, that lay as a load upon
   them, to sink their state, came in the year that king Ahaz died, which
   was the first year of Hezekiah's reign, v. 28. When a good king came in
   the room of a bad one then this acceptable message was sent among them.
   When we reform, then, and not till then, we may look for good news from
   heaven. Now here we have, 1. A rebuke to the Philistines for triumphing
   in the death of king Uzziah. He had been as a serpent to them (v. 29),
   had bitten them, had smitten them, had brought them very low, 2 Chron.
   xxvi. 6. He warred against the Philistines, broke down their walls, and
   built cities among them. But when Uzziah died, or rather abdicated, it
   was told with joy in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon. It
   is inhuman thus to rejoice in our neighbour's fall. But let them not be
   secure; for though when Uzziah was dead they made reprisals upon Ahaz,
   and took many of the cities of Judah (2 Chron. xxviii. 18), yet out of
   the root of Uzziah should come a cockatrice, a more formidable enemy
   than Uzziah was, even Hezekiah, the fruit of whose government should be
   to them a fiery flying serpent, for he should fall upon them with
   incredible swiftness and fury: we find he did so. 2 Kings xviii. 8, He
   smote the Philistines even to Gaza. Note, If God remove one useful
   instrument in the midst of his usefulness, he can, and will, raise up
   others to carry on and complete the same work that they were employed
   in and left unfinished. 2. A prophecy of the destruction of the
   Philistines by famine and war. (1.) By famine, v. 30. "When the people
   of God, whom the Philistines has wasted, and distressed, and
   impoverished, shall enjoy plenty again," and the first-born of their
   poor shall feed (the poorest among them shall have food convenient),
   then, as for the Philistines, God will kill their root with famine.
   That which was their strength, and with which they thought themselves
   established as the tree is by the root, shall be starved and dried up
   by degrees, as those die that die by famine; and thus he shall slay the
   remnant: those that escape from one destruction are but reserved for
   another; and, when there are but a few left, those few shall at length
   be cut off, for God will make a full end. (2.) By war. When the needy
   of God's people shall lie down in safety, not terrified with the alarms
   of war, but delighting in the songs of peace, then every gate and every
   city of the Philistines shall be howling and crying (v. 31), and there
   shall be a total dissolution of their state; for from Judea, which lay
   north of the Philistines, there shall come a smoke (a vast army raising
   a great dust, a smoke that shall be the indication of a devouring fire
   at hand), and none of all that army shall be alone in his appointed
   times; none shall straggle or be missing when they are to engage; but
   they shall all be vigorous and unanimous in attacking the common enemy,
   when the time appointed for the doing of it comes. None of them shall
   decline the public service, as, in Deborah's time, Reuben abode among
   the sheepfolds and Asher on the sea-shore, Judg. v. 16, 17. When God
   has work to do he will wonderfully endow and dispose men for it.

   III. The good use that should be made of all these events for the
   encouragement of the people of God (v. 32): What shall one then answer
   the messengers of the nations?

   1. This implies, (1.) That the great things God does for his people
   are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours; those
   among the heathen make remarks upon them, Ps. cxxvi. 2. (2.) That
   messengers will be sent to enquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel
   had long been a people distinguished from all others and dignified with
   uncommon favours; and therefore some for good-will, others for
   ill-will, and all for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. (3.)
   That it concerns us always to be ready to give a reason of the hope
   that we have in the providence of God, as well as in his grace, in
   answer to every one that asks it, with meekness and fear, 1 Pet. iii.
   15. And we need go no further than the sacred truths of God's word for
   a reason; for God, in all he does, is fulfilling the scripture. (4.)
   The issue of God's dealings with his people shall be so clearly and
   manifestly glorious that any one, every one, shall be able to give an
   account of them to those that enquire concerning them. Now,

   2. The answer which is to be given to the messengers of the nations is,
   (1.) That God is and will be a faithful friend to his church and
   people, and will secure and advance their interests. Tell them that the
   Lord has founded Zion. This gives an account both of the work itself
   that is done and of the reason of it. What is God doing in the world,
   and what is he designing in all the revolutions of states and kingdoms,
   in the ruin of some nations and the rise of others? He is, in all this,
   founding Zion; he is aiming at the advancement of his church's
   interests; and what he aims at he will accomplish. The messengers of
   the nations, when they sent to enquire concerning Hezekiah's successes
   against the Philistines, expected to learn by what politics, counsels,
   and arts of war he carried his point; but they are told that these
   successes were not owing to any thing of that nature, but to the care
   God took of his church and the interest he had in it. The Lord has
   founded Zion, and therefore the Philistines must fall. (2.) That his
   church has and will have a dependence upon him: The poor of his people
   shall trust in it, his poor people who have lately been brought very
   low, even the poorest of them; they more than others, for they have
   nothing else to trust to, Zeph. iii. 12, 13. The poor receive the
   gospel, Matt. xi. 5. They shall trust to this, to this great truth,
   that the Lord has founded Zion; on this they shall build their hopes,
   and not on an arm of flesh. This ought to give us abundant satisfaction
   as to public affairs, that however it may go with particular persons,
   parties, and interests, the church, having God himself for its founder
   and Christ the rock for its foundation, cannot but stand firm. The poor
   of his people shall betake themselves to it (so some read it), shall
   join themselves to his church and embark in its interests; they shall
   concur with God in his designs to establish his people, and shall wind
   up all on the same plan, and make all their little concerns and
   projects bend to that. Those that take God's people for their people
   must be willing to take their lot with them and cast in their lot among
   them. Let the messengers of the nations know that the poor Israelites,
   who trust in God, having, like Zion, their foundation in the holy
   mountains (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), are like Zion, which cannot be removed, but
   abides for ever (Ps. cxxv. 1), and therefore they will not fear what
   man can do unto them.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XV.

   This chapter, and that which follows it, are the burden of Moab--a
   prophecy of some great desolation that was coming upon that country,
   which bordered upon this land of Israel, and had often been injurious
   and vexatious to it, though the Moabites were descended from Lot,
   Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though the Israelites, by the
   appointment of God, had spared them when they might both easily and
   justly have cut them off with their neighbours. In this chapter we
   have, I. Great lamentation made by the Moabites, and by the prophet
   himself for them, ver. 1-5. II. The great calamities which should
   occasion that lamentation and justify it, ver. 6-9.

The Burden of Moab. (b. c. 725.)

   1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste,
   and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste,
   and brought to silence;   2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the
   high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on
   all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.   3 In
   their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of
   their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping
   abundantly.   4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall
   be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall
   cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.   5 My heart shall cry
   out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, a heifer of three
   years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go
   it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of
   destruction.

   The country of Moab was of small extent, but very fruitful. It bordered
   upon the lot of Reuben on the other side Jordan and upon the Dead Sea.
   Naomi went to sojourn there when there was a famine in Canaan. This is
   the country which (it is here foretold) should be wasted and grievously
   harassed, not quite ruined, for we find another prophecy of its ruin
   (Jer. xlviii.), which was accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy
   here was to be fulfilled within three years (ch. xvi. 14), and
   therefore was fulfilled in the devastations made of that country by the
   army of the Assyrians, which for many years ravaged those parts,
   enriching themselves with spoil and plunder. It was done either by the
   army of Shalmaneser, about the time of the taking of Samaria, in the
   fourth year of Hezekiah (as is most probable), or by the army of
   Sennacherib, which, ten years after, invaded Judah. We cannot suppose
   that the prophet went among the Moabites to preach to them this sermon;
   but he delivered it to his own people, 1. To show them that, though
   judgment begins at the house of God, it shall not end there,--that
   there is a providence which governs the world and all the nations of
   it,--and that to the God of Israel the worshippers of false gods were
   accountable, and liable to his judgments. 2. To give them a proof of
   God's care of them and jealousy for them, and to convince them that God
   was an enemy to their enemies, for such the Moabites had often been. 3.
   That the accomplishment of this prophecy now shortly (within three
   years) might be a confirmation of the prophet's mission and of the
   truth of all his other prophecies, and might encourage the faithful to
   depend upon them.

   Now concerning Moab it is here foretold,

   I. That their chief cities should be surprised and taken in a night by
   the enemy, probably because the inhabitants, as the men of Laish,
   indulged themselves in ease and luxury, and dwelt securely (v. 1):
   Therefore there shall be great grief, because in the night Air of Moab
   is laid waste and Kir of Moab, the two principal cities of that
   kingdom. In the night that they were taken, or sacked, Moab was cut
   off. The seizing of them laid the whole country open, and made all the
   wealth of it an easy prey to the victorious army. Note, 1. Great
   changes and very dismal ones may be made in a very little time. Here
   are two cities lost in a night, though that is the time of quietness.
   Let us therefore lie down as those that know not what a night may bring
   forth. 2. As the country feeds the cities, so the cities protect the
   country, and neither can say to the other, I have no need of thee.

   II. That the Moabites, being hereby put into the utmost consternation
   imaginable, should have recourse to their idols for relief, and pour
   out their tears before them (v. 2): He (that is, Moab, especially the
   king of Moab) has gone up to Bajith (or rather to the house or temple
   of Chemosh), and Dibon, the inhabitants of Dibon, have gone up to the
   high places, where they worshipped their idols, there to make their
   complaints. Note, It becomes a people in distress to seek to their God;
   and shall not we then thus walk in the name of the Lord our God, and
   call upon him in the time of trouble, before whom we shall not shed
   such useless profitless tears as they did before their gods?

   III. That there should be the voice of universal grief all the country
   over. It is described here elegantly and very affectingly. Moab shall
   be a vale of tears--a little map of this world, v. 2. The Moabites
   shall lament the loss of Nebo and Medeba, two considerable cities,
   which, it is likely, were plundered and burnt. They shall tear their
   hair for grief to such a degree that on all their heads shall be
   baldness, and they shall cut off their beards, according to the
   customary expressions of mourning in those times and countries. When
   they go abroad they shall be so far from coveting to appear handsome
   that in the streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth (v. 3),
   and perhaps being forced to use that poor clothing, the enemy having
   stripped them, and rifled their houses, and left them no other
   clothing. When they come home, instead of applying themselves to their
   business, they shall go up to the tops of their houses which were
   flat-roofed, and there they shall weep abundantly, nay, they shall
   howl, in crying to their gods. Those that cry not to God with their
   hearts do but howl upon their beds, Hos. vii. 14; Amos viii. 3. They
   shall come down with weeping (so the margin reads it); they shall come
   down from their high places and the tops of their houses weeping as
   much as they did when they went up. Prayer to the true God is heart's
   ease (1 Sam. i. 18), but prayers to false gods are not. Divers places
   are here named that should be full of lamentation (v. 4), and it is but
   a poor relief to have so many fellow-sufferers, fellow-mourners; to a
   public spirit it is rather an aggravation socios habuisse doloris--to
   have associates in woe.

   IV. That the courage of their militia should fail them. Though they
   were bred soldiers, and were well armed, yet they shall cry out and
   shriek for fear, and every one of them shall have his life become
   grievous to him, though it is characteristic of a military life to
   delight in danger, v. 4. See how easily God can dispirit the stoutest
   of men, and deprive a nation of benefit by those whom it most depended
   upon for strength and defence. The Moabites shall generally be so
   overwhelmed with grief that life itself shall be a burden to them. God
   can easily make weary of life those that are fondest of it.

   V. That the outcry for these calamities should propagate grief to all
   the adjacent parts, v. 5. 1. The prophet himself has very sensible
   impressions made upon his spirit by the prediction of it: "My heart
   shall cry out for Moab; though they are enemies to Israel, they are our
   fellow-creatures, of the same rank with us, and therefore it should
   grieve us to see them in such distress, the rather because we know not
   how soon it may be our own turn to drink of the same cup of trembling."
   Note, It becomes God's ministers to be of a tender spirit, not to
   desire the woeful day, but to be like their master, who wept over
   Jerusalem even when he gave her up to ruin, like their God, who desires
   not the death of sinners. 2. All the neighbouring cities shall echo to
   the lamentations of Moab. The fugitives, who are making the best of
   their way to shift for their own safety, shall carry the cry to Zoar,
   the city to which their ancestor Lot fled for shelter from Sodom's
   flames and which was spared for his sake. They shall make as great a
   noise with their cry as a heifer of three years old does when she goes
   lowing for her calf, as 1 Sam. vi. 12. They shall go up the hill of
   Luhith (as David went up the ascent of Mount Olivet, many a weary step
   and all in tears, 2 Sam. xv. 30), and in the way of Horonaim (a dual
   termination), the way that leads to the two Beth-horons, the upper and
   the nether, which we read of, Josh. xvi. 3, 5. Thither the cry shall be
   carried, there it shall be raised, even at that great distance: A cry
   of destruction; that shall be the cry, like, "Fire, fire! we are all
   undone." Grief is catching, so is fear, and justly, for trouble is
   spreading and when it begins who knows where it will end?

The Burden of Moab. (b. c. 725.)

   6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered
   away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.   7 Therefore the
   abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall
   they carry away to the brook of the willows.   8 For the cry is gone
   round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and
   the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.   9 For the waters of Dimon shall
   be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that
   escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

   Here the prophet further describes the woeful and piteous lamentations
   that should be heard throughout all the country of Moab when it should
   become a prey to the Assyrian army. "By this time the cry has gone
   round about all the borders of Moab," v. 8. Every corner of the country
   has received the alarm, and is in the utmost confusion upon it. It has
   reached to Eglaim, a city at one end of the country, and to Beer-elim,
   a city as far the other way. Where sin has been general, and all flesh
   have corrupted their way, what can be expected but a general
   desolation? Two things are here spoken of as causes of this
   lamentation:--

   I. The waters of Nimrim are desolate (v. 6), that is, the country is
   plundered and impoverished, and all the wealth and substance of it
   swept away by the victorious army. Famine is usually the sad effect of
   war. Look into the fields that were well watered, the fruitful meadows
   that yielded delightful prospects and more delightful products, and
   there all is eaten up, or carried off by the enemy's foragers, and the
   remainder trodden to dirt by their horses. If an army encamp upon green
   fields, their greenness is soon gone. Look into the houses, and they
   are stripped too (v. 7): The abundance of wealth that they had gotten
   with a great deal of art and industry, and that which they had laid up
   with a great deal of care and confidence, shall they carry away to the
   brook of the willows. Either the owners shall carry it thither to hide
   it or the enemies shall carry it thither to pack it up and send it
   home, by water perhaps, to their own country. Note, 1. Those that are
   eager to get abundance of this world, and solicitous to lay up what
   they have gotten, little consider what may become of it and in how
   short a time it may be all taken from them. Great abundance, by
   tempting the robbers, exposes the owners; and those who depend upon it
   to protect them often find it does but betray them. 2. In times of
   distress great riches are often great burdens, and do but increase the
   owner's care or the enemies' strength. Cantabit vacuus coram latrone
   viator--The penniless traveller will exult, when accosted by a robber,
   in having nothing about him.

   II. The waters of Dimon are turned into blood (v. 9), that is, the
   inhabitants of the country are slain in great numbers, so that the
   waters adjoining to the cities, whether rivers or pools, are
   discoloured with human gore, inhumanly shed like water. Dimon signifies
   bloody; the place shall answer to its name. Perhaps it was that place
   in the country of Moab where the waters seemed to the Moabites as blood
   (2 Kings iii. 22, 23), which occasioned their overthrow. But now, says
   God, I will bring more upon Dimon, more blood than was shed, or thought
   to be seen, at that time. I will bring additions upon Dimon (so the
   word is), additional plagues; I have yet more judgments in reserve for
   them. For all this, God's anger is not turned away. When he judges he
   will overcome; and to the roll of curses shall be added many like
   words, Jer. xxxvi. 32. See here what is the yet more evil to be brought
   upon Dimon, upon Moab, which is now to be made a land of blood. Some
   flee, and make their escape, others sit still, and are overlooked, and
   are as a remnant of the land; but upon both God will bring lions,
   beasts of prey (which are reckoned one of God's four judgments, Ezek.
   xiv. 21), and these shall glean up those that have escaped the sword of
   the enemy. Those that continue impenitent in sin, when they are
   preserved from one judgment, are but reserved for another.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XVI.

   This chapter continues and concludes the burden of Moab. In it, I. The
   prophet gives good counsel to the Moabites, to reform what was amiss
   among them, and particularly to be kind to God's people, as the
   likeliest way to prevent the judgments before threatened, ver. 1-5. II.
   Fearing they would not take this counsel (they were so proud), he goes
   on to foretel the lamentable devastation of their country, and the
   confusion they should be brought to, and this within three years, ver.
   6-14.

Exhortations to Moab. (b. c. 725.)

   1 Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the
   wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.   2 For it shall
   be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of
   Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.   3 Take counsel, execute
   judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday;
   hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.   4 Let mine outcasts
   dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the
   spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the
   oppressors are consumed out of the land.   5 And in mercy shall the
   throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the
   tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting
   righteousness.

   God has made it to appear that he delights not in the ruin of sinners
   by telling them what they may do to prevent the ruin; so he does here
   to Moab.

   I. He advises them to be just to the house of David, and to pay the
   tribute they had formerly covenanted to pay to the kings of his line
   (v. 1): Send you the lamb to the ruler of the land. David made the
   Moabites tributaries to him, 2 Sam. viii. 2. They became his servants,
   and brought gifts. Afterwards they paid their tribute to the kings of
   Israel (2 Kings iii. 4), and paid it in lambs. Now the prophet requires
   them to pay it to Hezekiah. Let it be raised and levied from all parts
   of the country, from Selah, a frontier city of Moab on the one side, to
   the wilderness, a boundary of the kingdom on the other side: and let it
   be sent, where it should be sent, to the mount of the daughter of Zion,
   the city of David. Some take it as an advice to send a lamb for a
   sacrifice to God, the ruler of the earth (so it may be read), the Lord
   of the whole earth, ruler of all lands, the land of Moab as well as the
   land of Israel, "Send it to the temple built on Mount Zion." And some
   think it is in this sense spoken ironically, upbraiding the Moabites
   with their folly in delaying to repent and make their peace with God.
   "Now you would be glad to send a lamb to Mount Zion, to make the God of
   Israel your friend; but it is too late: the decree has gone forth, the
   consumption is determined, and the daughters of Moab shall be cast out
   as a wandering bird," v. 2. I rather take it as good advice seriously
   given, like that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar when he was reading him
   his doom, Dan. iv. 27. Break off thy sins by righteousness, if it may
   be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. And it is applicable to the great
   gospel duty of submission to Christ, as the ruler of the land, and our
   ruler: "Send him the lamb, the best you have, yourselves a living
   sacrifice. When you come to God, the great ruler, come in the name of
   the Lamb, the Lamb of God. For else it shall be" (so we may read it)
   "that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so shall the daughters
   of Moab be. If you will not pay your quit-rent, your just tribute to
   the king of Judah, you shall be turned out of your houses: The
   daughters of Moab (the country villages, or the women of your country)
   shall flutter about the fords of Arnon, attempting that way to make
   their escape to some other land, like a wandering bird thrown out of
   the nest half-fledged." Those that will not submit to Christ, nor be
   gathered under the shadow of his wings, shall be as a bird that wanders
   from her nest, that shall either be snatched up by the next bird of
   prey or shall wander endlessly in continual frights. Those that will
   not yield to the fear of God shall be made to yield to the fear of
   every thing else.

   II. He advises them to be kind to the seed of Israel (v. 3): "Take
   counsel, call a convention, and consult among yourselves what is fit to
   be done in the present critical juncture; and you will find it your
   best way to execute judgment, to reverse all the unrighteous decrees
   you have made, by which you have put hardships upon the people of God,
   and, in token of your repentance for them, study now how to oblige
   them, and this shall be accepted of God more than all burnt-offering
   and sacrifice."

   1. The prophet foresaw some storm coming upon the people of God,
   perhaps the good people of the ten tribes, or of the two and a half on
   the other side Jordan, whose country joined to that of Moab, and who,
   by the merciful providence of God, escaped the fury of the Assyrian
   army, had their lives given them for a prey, and were reserved for
   better times, but were put to the utmost extremity to shift for their
   own safety. The danger and trouble they were in were like the scorching
   heat at noon; the face of the spoiler was very fierce upon them and the
   oppressor and extortioner were ready to swallow them up after stripping
   them of what they had.

   2. He bespeaks a shelter for them in the land of Moab, when their own
   land was made too hot for them. This judgment they must execute; thus
   wisely must they do for themselves, and thus kindly must they deal with
   the people of God. If they would themselves continue in their
   habitations, let them now open their doors to the distressed dispersed
   members of God's church, and be to them like a cool shade to those that
   bear the burden and heat of the day. Let them not discover those that
   absconded among them, nor deliver them up to the pursuers that made
   search for them: "Betray not him that wandereth, nor deliver him up"
   (as the Edomites did, Obad. 13, 14), "but hide the outcasts." This was
   that good work by which Rahab's faith was justified, and proved to be
   sincere, Heb. xi. 31. "Nay, do not only hide them for a time, but, if
   there be occasion, let them be naturalized: Let my outcasts dwell with
   thee, Moab (v. 4); find a lodging for them and be thou a covert to
   them. Let them be taken under the protection of the government, though
   they are but poor, and likely to be a charge to thee." Note, (1.) It is
   often the lot even of those who are Israelites indeed to be outcasts,
   driven out of house and harbour by persecution or war, Heb. xi. 37.
   (2.) God owns them when men reject and disown them. They are outcasts,
   but they are my outcasts. The Lord knows those that are his wherever he
   finds them, even where no one else knows them. (3.) God will find a
   rest and shelter for his outcasts; for, though they are persecuted,
   they are not forsaken. He will himself be their dwelling-place if they
   have no other, and in him they shall be at home. (4.) God can, when he
   pleases, raise up friends for his people even among Moabites, when they
   can find none in all the land of Israel that can and dare shelter them.
   The earth often helps the woman, Rev. xii. 16. (5.) Those that expect
   to find favour when they are in trouble themselves must show favour to
   those that are in trouble; and what service is done to God's outcasts
   shall no doubt be recompensed one way or other.

   3. He assures them of the mercy God had in store for his people. (1.)
   That they should not long need their kindness, or be troublesome to
   them: For the extortioner is almost at an end already, and the spoiler
   ceases. God's people shall not be long outcasts; they shall have
   tribulation ten days (Rev. ii. 10), and that is all. The spoiler would
   never cease spoiling if he might have his will; but God has him in a
   chain. Hitherto he shall go, but no further. (2.) That they should, ere
   long, be in a capacity to return their kindness (v. 5): "Though the
   throne of the ten tribes be sunk and overturned, yet the throne of
   David shall be established in mercy, by the mercy they receive from God
   and the mercy they show to others; and by the same methods may your
   throne be established if you please." It would engage great men to be
   kind to the people of God if they would but observe, as they easily
   might, how often such conduct brings the blessing of God upon kingdoms
   and families. "Make Hezekiah your friend, for you will find it your
   interest to do so upon the account both of the grace of God in him and
   the presence of God with him. He shall sit upon the throne in truth,
   and then he does indeed sit in honour and sit firmly. Then he shall sit
   judging, and will then be a protector to those that have been a shelter
   to the people of God." And see in him the character of a good
   magistrate. [1.] He shall seek judgment; that is, he shall seek
   occasions of doing right to those that are wronged, and shall punish
   the injurious even before they are complained of: or he shall
   diligently search into every cause brought before him, that he may find
   where the right lies. [2.] He shall hasten righteousness, and not delay
   to do justice, nor keep those long waiting that make application to him
   for the redress of their grievances. Though he seeks judgment, and
   deliberates upon it, yet he does not, under pretence of deliberation,
   stay the progress of the streams of justice. Let the Moabites take
   example by this, and then assure themselves that their state shall be
   established.

The Pride of Moab; The Threatening against Moab; The Doom of Moab. (b. c.
725.)

   6 We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his
   haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be
   so.   7 Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for
   the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are
   stricken.   8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of
   Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants
   thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the
   wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.
     9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of
   Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for
   the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.   10
   And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in
   the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be
   shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have
   made their vintage shouting to cease.   11 Wherefore my bowels shall
   sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.   12
   And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the
   high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall
   not prevail.   13 This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning
   Moab since that time.   14 But now the Lord hath spoken, saying, Within
   three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be
   contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very
   small and feeble.

   Here we have, I. The sins with which Moab is charged, v. 6. The prophet
   seems to check himself for going about to give good counsel to the
   Moabites, concluding they would not take the advice he gave them. He
   told them their duty (whether they would hear or whether they would
   forbear), but despairs of working any good upon them; he would have
   healed them, but they would not be healed. Those that will not be
   counselled cannot be helped. Their sins were, 1. Pride. This is most
   insisted upon; for perhaps there are more precious souls ruined by
   pride than by any one lust whatsoever. The Moabites were notorious for
   this: "We have heard in both ears of the pride of Moab; it is what all
   their neighbours cry out shame upon them for. He is very proud; the
   body of the nation is so, forgetting the baseness of their origin and
   the brand of infamy fastened upon them by that law of God which forbade
   a Moabite to enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever, Deut.
   xxiii. 3. We have heard of his haughtiness and his pride. It is not the
   rash and rigid censure of one of two concerning them, but it is the
   character which all that know them will give of them. They are a proud
   people, and therefore they will not take good counsel when it is given
   them. They think themselves too wise to be advised; therefore they will
   not take example by Hezekiah to do justly and love mercy. They scorn to
   make him their pattern, for they think themselves able to teach him.
   They are proud, and therefore will not be subject to God himself nor
   regard the warnings he gives them. The wicked, in the pride of his
   countenance, will not seek after God. They are proud, and therefore
   will not entertain and protect God's outcasts; they scorn to have any
   thing to do with them." But this is not all:--2. "We have heard of his
   wrath too (for those that are very proud are commonly very passionate),
   particularly his wrath against the people of God, whom therefore he
   will rather persecute than protect. 3. It is with his lies that he
   gains the gratifications of his pride and his passion; but his lies
   shall not be so; he shall not compass his proud and angry projects as
   he hoped he should." Some read it, His haughtiness, his pride, and his
   wrath, are greater than his strength. "We know that, if we lay at his
   mercy, we should find no mercy with him, but he has not power equal to
   his malice. His pride draws down ruin upon him; for it is the preface
   to destruction, and he has not strength to ward it off."

   II. The sorrows with which Moab is threatened (v. 7): Therefore shall
   Moab howl for Moab. All the inhabitants shall bitterly lament the ruin
   of their country. They shall complain one to another: Every one shall
   howl in despair, and not one shall either see any cause or have any
   heart to encourage his friend. Observe,

   1. The causes of this sorrow. (1.) The destruction of their cities: For
   the foundations of Kir-haraseth shall you mourn. That great and strong
   city, which had held out against a mighty force (2 Kings iii. 25),
   should now be levelled with the ground, either burnt or broken down,
   and its foundations stricken, bruised and broken (so the word
   signifies); they shall howl when they see their splendid cities turned
   into ruinous heaps. (2.) The desolation of their country. Moab was
   famous for its fields and vineyards; but those shall all be laid waste
   by the invading army, v. 8, 10. See, [1.] What a fruitful pleasant
   country they had, as the garden of the Lord, Gen. xiii. 10. It was
   planted with choice and noble vines, with principal plants, which
   reached even to Jazer, a city in the tribe of Gad. The luxuriant
   branches of their vines wandered, and wound themselves along the ranges
   on which they were spread, even through the wilderness of Moab. There
   were vineyards there. Nay, they were stretched out, and went even to
   the sea, the Dead Sea: the best grapes grew in their hedge-rows. [2.]
   How merry and pleasant they had been in it. Many a time they had
   shouted for their summer fruits, and for their harvest, as the country
   people sometimes do with us when they have cut down all their corn.
   They had had joy and gladness in their fields and vineyards, singing
   and shouting at the treading of their grapes. Nothing is said of their
   praising God for their abundance, and giving him the glory of it. If
   they had made it the matter of their thanksgiving, they might still
   have had it the food and fuel of their lusts; see therefore, [3.] How
   they should be stripped of all. "The fields shall languish, all the
   fruits of them being carried away or trodden down; they cannot now
   enrich their owners as they have done, and therefore they languish. The
   soldiers, called here the lords of the heathen, shall break down all
   the plants, though they were principal plants, the choicest that could
   be got. Now the shouting for the enjoyment of the summer fruits has
   fallen, and is turned into howling for the loss of them. The joy of
   harvest has ceased; there is no more singing, no more shouting, for the
   treading out of wine. They have not what they have had to rejoice in,
   nor have they a disposition to rejoice; the ruin of their country has
   marred their mirth." Note, First, God can easily change the note of
   those that are most addicted to mirth and pleasure, can soon turn their
   laughter into mourning and their joy into heaviness. Secondly, Joy in
   God is, upon this account, far better than the joy of harvest, that it
   is what we cannot be robbed of, Ps. iv. 6, 7. Destroy the vines and the
   fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a carnal heart to cease, Hos.
   ii. 11, 12. But a gracious soul can rejoice in the Lord as the God of
   its salvation even when the fig-tree does not blossom and there is no
   fruit in the vine, Hab. iii. 17, 18. In God therefore let us always
   rejoice with a holy triumph, and in other things let us always rejoice
   with a holy trembling, rejoice as though we rejoiced not.

   2. The concurrence of the prophet with them in this sorrow: "I will
   with weeping bewail Jazer, and the vine of Sibmah, and look with a
   compassionate concern upon the desolations of such a pleasant country.
   I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon! and mingle them with thy
   tears;" nay (v. 11), it appears to be an inward grief: My bowels shall
   sound like a harp for Moab; it should make such an impression upon him
   that he should feel an inward trembling, like that of the strings of a
   harp when it is played upon. It well becomes God's prophets to acquaint
   themselves with grief; the great prophet did so. The afflictions of the
   world, as well as those of the church, should be afflictions to us. See
   ch. xv. 5.

   III. In the close of the chapter we have, 1. The insufficiency of the
   gods of Moab, the false gods, to help them, v. 12. "Moab shall be soon
   weary of the high place. He shall spend his spirits and strength in
   vain in praying to his idols; they cannot help him, and he shall be
   convinced that they cannot." It is seen that it is to no purpose to
   expect any relief from the high places on earth; it must come from
   above the hills. Men are generally so stupid that they will not
   believe, till they are made to see, the vanity of idols and of all
   creature-confidences, nor will come off from them till they are made
   weary of them. But, when he is weary of his high places, he will not
   go, as he should, to God's sanctuary, but to his sanctuary, to the
   temple of Chemosh, the principal idol of Moab (so it is generally
   understood); and he shall pray there to as little purpose, and as
   little to his own case and satisfaction, as he did in his high places;
   for, whatever honours idolaters give to their idols, they do not
   thereby make them at all the better able to help them. Whether they are
   the dii majorum gentium--gods of the higher order, or minorum--of the
   lower order, they are alike the creatures of men's fancy and the work
   of men's hands. Perhaps it may be meant of their coming to God's
   sanctuary. When they found they could have no succours from their own
   high places some of them would come to the temple of God at Jerusalem,
   to pray there, but in vain; he will justly send them back to the gods
   whom they have served, Judg. x. 14. 2. The sufficiency of the God of
   Israel, the only true God, to make good what he had spoken against
   them. (1.) The thing itself was long since determined (v. 13): This is
   the word, this is the thing, that the Lord has spoken concerning Moab,
   since the time that he began to be so proud, and insolent, and abusive
   to God's people. The country was long ago doomed to ruin; this was
   enough to give an assurance of it that it is the word which the Lord
   has spoken; and, as he will never unsay what he has spoken, so all the
   power of hell and earth cannot gainsay it, or obstruct the execution of
   it. (2.) Now it was made known when it should be done. The time was
   before fixed in the counsel of God, but now it was revealed: The Lord
   has spoken that it shall be within three years, v. 14. It is not for us
   to know, or covet to know, the times and the seasons, any further than
   God has thought fit to make them known, and so far we may and must take
   notice of them. See how God makes known his mind by degrees; the light
   of divine revelation shone more and more, and so does the light of
   divine grace in the heart. Observe, [1.] The sentence passed upon Moab:
   The glory of Moab shall be contemned, that is, it shall be
   contemptible, when all those things they have gloried in shall come to
   nothing. Such is the glory of this world, so fading and uncertain,
   admired awhile, but soon slighted. Let that therefore which will soon
   be contemptible in the eyes of others be always contemptible in our
   eyes in comparison with the far more exceeding weight of glory. It was
   the glory of Moab that their country was very populous and their forces
   were courageous; but where is her glory when all that great multitude
   is in a manner swept away, some by one judgment and some by another,
   and the little remnant that is left shall be very small and feeble, not
   able to bear up under their own griefs, much less to make head against
   their enemies' insults? Let not therefore the strong glory in their
   strength nor the many in their numbers. [2.] The time fixed for the
   execution of this sentence: Within three years, as the years of a
   hireling, that is, at the three years' end exactly, for a servant that
   is hired for a certain term keeps account to a day. Let Moab know that
   her ruin is very near, and prepare accordingly. Fair warning is given,
   and with it space to repent, which if they had improved, as Nineveh
   did, we have reason to think the judgments threatened would have been
   prevented.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XVII.

   Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah (ch. vii. 1, 2), and,
   they being so closely linked together in their counsels, this chapter,
   though it be entitled "the burden of Damascus" (which was the head city
   of Syria), reads the doom of Israel too. I. The destruction of the
   strong cities both of Syria and Israel is here foretold, ver. 1-5 and
   ver. 9-11. II. In the midst of judgment mercy is remembered to Israel,
   and a gracious promise made that a remnant should be preserved from the
   calamities and should get good by them, ver. 6-8. III. The overthrow of
   the Assyrian army before Jerusalem is pointed at, ver. 12-14. In order
   of time this chapter should be placed next after ch. ix., for the
   destruction of Damascus, here foretold, happened in the reign of Ahaz,
   2 Kings xvi. 9.

The Doom of Syria and Israel. (b. c. 712.)

   1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a
   city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.   2 The cities of Aroer are
   forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none
   shall make them afraid.   3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
   and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be
   as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.   4
   And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be
   made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.   5 And it
   shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the
   ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the
   valley of Rephaim.

   We have here the burden of Damascus; the Chaldee paraphrase reads it,
   The burden of the cup of the curse to drink to Damascus in; and, the
   ten tribes being in alliance, they must expect to pledge Damascus in
   this cup of trembling that is to go round. 1. Damascus itself, the head
   city of Syria, must be destroyed; the houses, it is likely, will be
   burnt, as least the walls, and gates, and fortifications demolished,
   and the inhabitants carried away captive, so that for the present it is
   taken away from being a city, and is reduced not only to a village, but
   to a ruinous heap, v. 1. Such desolating work as this does sin make
   with cities. 2. The country towns are abandoned by their inhabitants,
   frightened or forced away by the invaders: The cities of Aroer (a
   province of Syria so called) are forsaken (v. 2); the conquered dare
   not dwell in them, and the conquerors have no occasion for them, nor
   did they seize them for want, but wantonness; so that the places which
   should be for men to live in are for flocks to lie down in, which they
   may do, and none will disturb nor dislodge them. Stately houses are
   converted into sheep-cotes. It is strange that great conquerors should
   pride themselves in being common enemies to mankind. But, how
   unrighteous soever they are, God is righteous in causing those cities
   to spue out their inhabitants, who by their wickedness had made
   themselves vile; it is better that flocks should lie down there than
   that they should harbour such as are in open rebellion against God and
   virtue. 3. The strongholds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes,
   will be brought to ruin: The fortress shall cease from Ephraim (v. 3),
   that in Samaria, and all the rest. They had joined with Syria in
   invading Judah very unnaturally; and now those that had been partakers
   in sin should be made partakers in ruin, and justly. When the fortress
   shall cease from Ephraim, by which Israel will be weakened, the kingdom
   will cease from Damascus, by which Syria will be ruined. The Syrians
   were the ring-leaders in that confederacy against Judah, and therefore
   they are punished first and sorest; and, because they boasted of their
   alliance with Israel, now that Israel is weakened they are upbraided
   with those boasts: "The remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the
   children of Israel; those few that remain of the Syrians shall be in as
   mean and despicable a condition as the children of Israel are, and the
   glory of Israel shall be no relief or reputation to them." Sinful
   confederacies will be no strength, no stay, to the confederates, when
   God's judgments come upon them. See here what the glory of Jacob is
   when God contends with him, and what little reason Syria will have to
   be proud of resembling the glory of Jacob. (1.) It is wasted like a man
   in a consumption, v. 4. The glory of Jacob was their numbers, that they
   were as the sand of the sea for multitude; but this glory shall be made
   thin, when many are cut off, and few left. Then the fatness of their
   flesh, which was their pride and security, shall wax lean, and the body
   of the people shall become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and
   bones. Israel died of a lingering disease; the kingdom of the ten
   tribes wasted gradually; God was to them as a moth, Hos. v. 12. Such is
   all the glory of this world: it soon withers, and is made thin; but
   thee is a far more exceeding and external weight of glory designed for
   the spiritual seed of Jacob, which is not subject to any such
   decay--fatness of God's house, which will not wax lean. (2.) It is all
   gathered and carried away by the Assyrian army, as the corn is carried
   out of the field by the husbandmen, v. 5. The corn is the glory of the
   fields (Ps. lxv. 13); but, when it is reaped and gone, where is the
   glory? The people had by their sins made themselves ripe for ruin, and
   their glory was as quickly, as easily, as justly, and as irresistibly,
   cut down and taken away, as the corn is out of the field by the
   husbandman. God's judgments are compared to the thrusting in of the
   sickle when the harvest is ripe, Rev. xiv. 15. And the victorious army,
   like the careful husbandmen in the valley of Rephaim, where the corn
   was extraordinary, would not, if they could help it, leave an ear
   behind, would lose nothing that they could lay their hands on.

The Doom of Syria and Israel. (b. c. 712.)

   6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive
   tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or
   five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord God of
   Israel.   7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes
   shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.   8 And he shall not look
   to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which
   his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

   Mercy is here reserved, in a parenthesis, in the midst of judgment, for
   a remnant that should escape the common ruin of the kingdom of the ten
   tribes. Though the Assyrians took all the care they could that none
   should slip out of their net, yet the meek of the earth were hidden in
   the day of the Lord's anger, and had their lives given them for a prey
   and made comfortable to them by their retirement to the land of Judah,
   where they had the liberty of God's courts. 1. They shall be but a
   small remnant, a very few, who shall be marked for preservation (v. 6):
   Gleaning grapes shall be left in it. The body of the people were
   carried into captivity, but here and there one was left behind, perhaps
   one of two in a bed when the other was taken, Luke xvii. 34. The most
   desolating judgments in this world are short of the last judgment,
   which shall be universal and which none shall escape. In times of the
   greatest calamity some are kept safe, as in times of the greatest
   degeneracy some are kept pure. But the fewness of those that escape
   supposes the captivity of the far greatest part; those that are left
   are but like the poor remains of an olive tree when it has been
   carefully shaken by the owner; if there be two or three berries in the
   top of the uppermost bough (out of the reach of those that shook it),
   that is all. Such is the remnant according to the election of grace,
   very few in comparison with the multitudes that walk on in the broad
   way. 2. They shall be a sanctified remnant, v. 7, 8. These few that are
   preserved are such as, in the prospect of the judgment approaching, had
   repented of their sins and reformed their lives, and therefore were
   snatched thus as brands out of the burning, or such as having escaped,
   and becoming refugees in strange countries, were awakened, partly by a
   sense of the distinguishing mercy of their deliverance, and partly by
   the distresses they were still in, to return to God. (1.) They shall
   look up to their Creator, shall enquire, Where is God my Maker, who
   giveth songs in the night, in such a night of affliction as this? Job
   xxxv. 10, 11. They shall acknowledge his hand in all the events
   concerning them, merciful and afflictive, and shall submit to his hand.
   They shall give him the glory due to his name, and be suitably affected
   with his providences. They shall expect relief and succour from him and
   depend upon him to help them. Their eyes shall have respect to him, as
   the eyes of a servant to the hand of his master, Ps. cxxiii. 2.
   Observe, It is our duty at all times to have respect to God, to have
   our eyes ever towards him, both as our Maker (the author of our being
   and the God of nature) and as the Holy One of Israel, a God in covenant
   with us and the God of grace; particularly, when we are in affliction,
   our eyes must be towards the Lord, to pluck our feet out of the net
   (Ps. xxv. 15); to bring us to this is the design of his providence as
   he is our Maker and the work of his grace as he is the Holy One of
   Israel. (2.) They shall look off from their idols, the creatures of
   their own fancy, shall no longer worship them, and seek to them, and
   expect relief from them. For God will be alone regarded, or he does not
   look upon himself as at all regarded. He that looks to his Maker must
   not look to the altars, the work of his hands, but disown them and cast
   them off, must not retain the least respect for that which his fingers
   have made, but break it to pieces, though it be his own
   workmanship--the groves and the images; the word signifies images made
   in honour of the sun and by which he was worshipped, the most ancient
   and most plausible idolatry, Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi. 26. We have reason
   to account those happy afflictions which part between us and our sins,
   and by sensible convictions of the vanity of the world, that great
   idol, cool our affections to it and lower our expectations from it.

The Doom of Syria and Israel. (b. c. 712.)

   9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an
   uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel:
   and there shall be desolation.   10 Because thou hast forgotten the God
   of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy
   strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it
   with strange slips:   11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow,
   and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the
   harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

   Here the prophet returns to foretel the woeful desolations that should
   be made in the land of Israel by the army of the Assyrians. 1. That the
   cities should be deserted. Even the strong cities, which should have
   protected the country, shall not be able to protect themselves: They
   shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch of an old tree,
   which has gone to decay, is forsaken of its leaves, and appears on the
   top of the tree, bare, and dry, and dead; so shall their strong cities
   look when the inhabitants have deserted them and the victorious army of
   the enemy pillaged and defaced them, v. 9. They shall be as the cities
   (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants
   of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought them
   in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land, cities which
   they built not. As the Canaanites then fled before Israel, so Israel
   should now flee before the Assyrians. And herein the word of God was
   fulfilled, that, if they committed the same abominations, the land
   should spue them out, as it spued out the nations that were before them
   (Lev. xviii. 28), and that as, while they had God on their side, one of
   them chased a thousand, so, when they had made him their enemy, a
   thousand of them should flee at the rebuke of one; so that in the
   cities should be desolation, according to the threatenings in the law,
   Lev. xxvi. 31; Deut. xxviii. 51. 2. That the country should be laid
   waste, v. 10, 11. Observe here, (1.) The sin that had provoked God to
   bring so great a destruction upon that pleasant land. It was for the
   iniquity of those that dwelt therein. "It is because thou hast
   forgotten the God of thy salvation and all the great salvations he has
   wrought for thee, hast forgotten thy dependence upon him and
   obligations to him, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy
   strength, not only who is himself a strong rock, but who has been thy
   strength many a time, or thou wouldst have been sunk and broken long
   since." Note, The God of our salvation is the rock of our strength; and
   our forgetfulness and unmindfulness of him are at the bottom of all
   sin. Therefore have we perverted our way, because we have forgotten the
   Lord our God, and so we undo ourselves. (2.) The destruction itself,
   aggravated by the great care they took to improve their land and to
   make it yet more pleasant. [1.] Look upon it at the time of the
   seedness, and it was all like a garden and a vineyard; that pleasant
   land was replenished with pleasant plants, the choicest of its own
   growth; nay, so nice and curious were the inhabitants that, not content
   with them, they sent to all the neighbouring countries for strange
   slips, the more valuable for being strange, uncommon, far-fetched, and
   dear-bought, though perhaps they had of their own not inferior to them.
   This was an instance of their pride and vanity, and (that ruining
   error) their affection to be like the nations. Wheat, and honey, and
   oil were their staple commodities (Ezek. xxvii. 17); but, not content
   with these, they must have flowers and greens with strange names
   imported from other nations, and a great deal of care and pains must be
   taken by hot-beds to make these plants to grow; the soil must be
   forced, and they must be covered with glasses to shelter them, and
   early in the morning the gardeners must be up to make the seed to
   flourish, that it may excel those of their neighbours. The ornaments of
   nature are not to be altogether slighted, but it is a folly to be
   over-fond of them, and to bestow more time, and cost, and pains about
   them than they deserve, as many do. But here this instance seems to be
   put in general for their great industry in cultivating their ground,
   and their expectations from it accordingly; they doubt not but their
   plants will grow and flourish. But, [2.] Look upon the same ground at
   the time of harvest, and it is all like a wilderness, a dismal
   melancholy place, even to the spectators, much more to the owners; for
   the harvest shall be a heap, all in confusion, in the day of grief and
   of desperate sorrow. The harvest used to be a time of joy, of singing
   and shouting (ch. xvi. 10); but this harvest the hungry eat up (Job v.
   5), which makes it a day of grief, and the more because the plants were
   pleasant and costly (v. 10) and their expectations proportionably
   raised. The harvest had sometimes been a day of grief, if the crop was
   thin and the weather unseasonable; and yet in that case there was hope
   that the next would be better. But this shall be desperate sorrow, for
   they shall see not only this year's products carried off, but the
   property of the ground altered and their conquerors lords of it. The
   margin reads it, The harvest shall be removed (into the enemy's country
   or camp, Deut. xxviii. 33) in the day of inheritance (when thou
   thoughtest to inherit it), and there shall be deadly sorrow. This is a
   good reason why we should not lay up our treasure in those things which
   we may so quickly be despoiled of, but in that good part which shall
   never be taken away from us.

The Doom of Syria and Israel. (b. c. 712.)

   12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the
   noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing
   like the rushing of mighty waters!   13 The nations shall rush like the
   rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee
   far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the
   wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.   14 And behold at
   evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the
   portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

   These verses read the doom of those that spoil and rob the people of
   God. If the Assyrians and Israelites invade and plunder Judah, if the
   Assyrian army take God's people captive and lay their country waste,
   let them know that ruin will be their lot and portion. They are here
   brought in, 1. Triumphing over the people of God. They relied upon
   their numbers. The Assyrian army was made up out of divers nations: it
   was the multitude of many people (v. 12), by which weight they hoped to
   carry the cause. They were very noisy, like the roaring of the seas;
   they talked big, hectored, and threatened, to frighten God's people
   from resisting them, and all their allies from sending in to their aid.
   Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, in their speeches and letters, made a mighty
   noise to strike a terror upon Hezekiah and his people; the nations that
   followed them made a rushing like the rushing of many waters, and those
   mighty ones, that threaten to bear down all before them and carry away
   every thing that stands in their way. The floods have lifted up their
   voice, have lifted up their waves; such is the tumult of the people,
   and the heathen, when they rage, Ps. ii. 1; xciii. 3. 2. Triumphed over
   by the judgments of God. They thought to carry their point by dint of
   noise; but woe to them (v. 12), for he shall rebuke them, that is, God
   shall, one whom they little think of, have no regard to, stand in no
   awe of; he shall give them a check with an invisible hand, and then
   they shall flee afar off. Sennacherib, and Rabshakeh, and the remains
   of their forces, shall run away in a fright, and shall be chased by
   their own terrors, as the chaff of the mountains which stand bleak
   before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, like
   thistle-down (so the margin); they make themselves as chaff before the
   wind (Ps. xxxv. 5) and then the angel of the Lord (as it follows
   there), the same angel that slew many of them, shall chase the rest.
   God will make them like a wheel, or rolling thing, and then persecute
   them with his tempest and make them afraid with his storm, Ps. lxxxiii.
   13, 15. Note, God can dispirit the enemies of his church when they are
   most courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most
   closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly (v. 14): At
   evening-tide they are very troublesome, and threaten trouble to the
   people of God; but before the morning they are not. At sleeping time
   they are cast into a deep sleep, Ps. xxvi. 5, 6. It was in the night
   that the angel routed the Assyrian army. God can in a moment break the
   power of his church's enemies, even when it appears most formidable;
   and this is written for the encouragement of the people of God in all
   ages, when they find themselves an unequal match for their enemies; for
   this is the portion of those that spoil us, they shall themselves be
   spoiled. God will plead his church's cause, and those that meddle do it
   to their own hurt.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XVIII.

   Whatever country it is that is meant here by "the land shadowing with
   wings," here is a woe denounced against it, for God has, upon his
   people's account, a quarrel with it. I. They threaten God's people,
   ver. 1, 2. II. All the neighbours are hereupon called to take notice
   what will be the issue, ver. 3. III. Though God seem unconcerned in the
   distress of his people for a time, he will at length appear against
   their enemies and will remarkably cut them off, ver. 4-6. IV. This
   shall redound very much to the glory of God, ver. 7.

Judgments Denounced. (b. c. 712.)

   1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of
   Ethiopia:   2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of
   bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation
   scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning
   hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers
   have spoiled!   3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the
   earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when
   he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.   4 For so the Lord said unto me, I will
   take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear
   heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.   5
   For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is
   ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning
   hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.   6 They shall be left
   together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the
   earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the
   earth shall winter upon them.   7 In that time shall the present be
   brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and
   from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted
   out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the
   place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.

   Interpreters are very much at a loss where to find this land that lies
   beyond the rivers of Cush. Some take it to be Egypt, a maritime
   country, and full of rivers, and which courted Israel to depend upon
   them, but proved broken reeds; but against this it is strongly objected
   that the next chapter is distinguished from this by the title of the
   burden of Egypt. Others take it to be Ethiopia, and read it, which lies
   near, or about, the rivers of Ethiopia, not that in Africa, which lay
   south of Egypt, but that which we call Arabia, which lay east of
   Canaan, which Tirhakah was now king of. He thought to protect the Jews,
   as it were, under the shadow of his wings, by giving a powerful
   diversion to the king of Assyria, when he made a descent upon his
   country, at the time that he was attacking Jerusalem, 2 Kings xix. 9.
   But though by his ambassadors he bade defiance to the king of Assyria,
   and encouraged the Jews to depend upon him, God by the prophet slights
   him, and will not go forth with him; he may take his own course, but
   God will take another course to protect Jerusalem, while he suffers the
   attempt of Tirhakah to miscarry and his Arabian army to be ruined; for
   the Assyrian army shall become a present or sacrifice to the Lord of
   hosts, and to the place of his name, by the hand of an angel, not by
   the hand of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, v. 7. This is a very probable
   exposition of this chapter. But from a hint of Dr. Lightfoot's, in his
   Harmony of the Old Testament, I incline to understand this chapter as a
   prophecy against Assyria, and so a continuation of the prophecy in the
   last three verses of the foregoing chapter, with which therefore this
   should be joined. That was against the army of the Assyrians which
   rushed in upon Judah; this is against the land of Assyria itself, which
   lay beyond the rivers of Arabia, that is, the rivers Euphrates and
   Tigris, which bordered on Arabia Deserta. And in calling it the land
   shadowing with wings he seems to refer to what he himself had said of
   it (ch. viii. 8), that the stretching out of his wings shall fill the
   breadth of thy land, O Immanuel! The prophet might perhaps describe the
   Assyrians by such dark expressions, not naming them, for the same
   reason that St. Paul, in his prophecy, speaks of the Roman empire by a
   periphrasis: He who now letteth, 2 Thess. ii. 7. Here is,

   I. The attempt made by this land (whatever it is) upon a nation
   scattered and peeled, v. 2. Swift messengers are sent by water to
   proclaim war against them, as a nation marked by Providence, and meted
   out, to be trodden under foot. Whether this refer to the Ethiopians
   waging war with the Assyrians, or the Assyrians with Judah, it teaches
   us, 1. That a people which have been terrible from their beginning,
   have made a figure and borne a mighty sway, may yet become scattered
   and peeled, and may be spoiled even by their own rivers, that should
   enrich both the husbandman and the merchant. Nations which have been
   formidable, and have kept all in awe about them, may by a concurrence
   of accidents become despicable and an easy prey to their insulting
   neighbours. 2. Princes and states that are ambitious of enlarging their
   territories will always have some pretence or other to quarrel with
   those whose countries they have a mind to. "It is a nation that has
   been terrible, and therefore we must be revenged on it; it is now a
   nation scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down, and therefore
   it will be an easy prey for us." Perhaps it was not brought so low as
   they represented it. God's people are trampled on as a nation scattered
   and peeled; but whoever think to swallow them up may find them still as
   terrible as they have been from their beginning; they are cast down,
   but not deserted, not destroyed.

   II. The alarm sounded to the nations about, by which they are summoned
   to take notice of what God is about to do, v. 3. The Ethiopians and
   Assyrians have their counsels and designs, which they have laid deep,
   and promise themselves much from, and, in prosecution of them, send
   their ambassadors and messengers from place to place; but let us now
   enquire what the great God says to all this. 1. He lifts up an ensign
   upon the mountains, and blows a trumpet, by which he proclaims war
   against the enemies of his church, and calls in all her friends and
   well-wishers into her service, v. 3. He gives notice that he is about
   to do some great work, as Lord of hosts. 2. All the world is bidden to
   take notice of it; all the dwellers on earth must see the ensign and
   hear the trumpet, must observe the motions of the divine providence and
   attend the directions of the divine will. Let all enlist under God's
   banner, and be on his side, and hearken to the trumpet of his word,
   which gives not an uncertain sound.

   III. The assurance God gives to his prophet, by him to be given to his
   people, that, though he might seem for a time to sit by as an
   unconcerned spectator, yet he would certainly and seasonably appear for
   the comfort of his people and the confusion of his and their enemies
   (v. 4): So the Lord said unto me. Men will have their saying, but God
   also will have his; and, as we may be sure his word shall stand, so he
   often whispers it in the ears of his servants the prophets. When he
   says, I will take my rest, it is not as if he were weary of governing
   the world, of as if he either needed or desired to retire from it and
   repose himself; but it intimates that the great God has a perfect,
   undisturbed, enjoyment of himself, in the midst of all the agitations
   and changes of this world (the Lord sits even upon the floods unshaken;
   the Eternal Mind is always easy), and, though he may sometimes seem to
   his people as if he took not wonted notice of what is done in this
   lower world (they are tempted to think he is as one asleep, or as one
   astonished, Ps. xliv. 23; Jer. xiv. 9), yet even then he knows very
   well what men are doing and what he himself will do.

   1. He will take care of his people, and be a shelter to them. He will
   regard his dwelling-place; his eye and his heart are, and shall be,
   upon it for good continually. Zion is his rest for ever, where he will
   dwell; and he will look after it (so some read it); he will lift up the
   light of his countenance upon it, will consider over it what is to be
   done, and will be sure to do all for the best. He will adapt the
   comforts and refreshments he provides for his people to the exigencies
   of their case; and they will therefore be acceptable, because
   seasonable. (1.) Like a clear heat after rain (so the margin), which is
   very reviving and pleasant, and makes the herbs to flourish. (2.) Like
   a dew and a cloud in the heat of harvest, which are very welcome, the
   dew to the ground and the cloud to the labourers. Note, There is that
   in God which is a shelter and refreshment to his people in all weathers
   and arms them against the inconveniences of every change. Is the
   weather cool? There is that in his favour which will warm them. Is it
   hot? There is that in his favour which will cool them. Great men have
   their winter-house and their summer-house (Amos iii. 15); but those
   that are at home with God have both in him.

   2. He will reckon with his and their enemies, v. 5, 6. When the
   Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the taking of
   Jerusalem and the plundering of that rich city, when the bud of that
   project is perfect, before the harvest is gathered in, while the sour
   grape of their enmity to Hezekiah and his people is ripening in the
   flower and the design is just ready to be put in execution, God shall
   destroy that army as easily as the husbandman cuts off the sprigs of
   the vine with pruning hooks, or because the grape is sour and good for
   nothing, and will not be cured, takes away and cuts down the branches.
   This seems to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian army by a
   destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers were scattered
   like the branches and sprigs of a wild vine, which the husbandman has
   cut to pieces. And they shall be left to the fowls of the mountains,
   and the beasts of the earth, to prey upon, both winter and summer; for
   as God's people are protected all seasons of the year, both in cold and
   heat (v. 4), so their enemies are at all seasons exposed; birds and
   beasts of prey shall both summer and winter upon them, till they are
   quite ruined.

   IV. The tribute of praise which should be brought to God from all this
   (v. 7): In that time, when this shall be accomplished, shall the
   present be brought unto the Lord of hosts. 1. Some understand this of
   the conversion of the Ethiopians to the faith of Christ in the latter
   days, of which we have the specimen and beginning in Philip's baptizing
   the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts viii. 27, &c. Those that were a people
   scattered and peeled, meted out, and trodden down (v. 2), shall be a
   present to the Lord: and, though they seem useless and worthless, they
   shall be an acceptable present to him who judges of men by the
   sincerity of their faith and love, not by the pomp and prosperity of
   their outward condition. Therefore the gospel was ministered to the
   Gentiles that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, Rom.
   xv. 16. It is prophesied (Ps. lxviii. 31) that Ethiopia shall soon
   stretch out her hands unto God. 2. Others understand it of the spoil of
   Sennacherib's army, out of which, as usual, presents were brought to
   the Lord of hosts, Num. xxxi. 50. It was the present of a people
   scattered and peeled. (1.) It was won from the Assyrians, who were now
   themselves reduced to such a condition as they scornfully described
   Judah to be in, v. 1. Those that unjustly trample upon others shall
   themselves be justly trampled upon. (2.) It was offered by the people
   of God, who were, in disdain, called a people scattered and peeled. God
   will put honour upon his people, though men put contempt upon them.
   Lastly, Observe, The present that is brought to the Lord of hosts must
   be brought to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts; what is
   offered to God must be offered in the way that he has appointed; we
   must be sure to attend him, and expect him to meet us, where he records
   his name.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XIX.

   As Assyria was a breaking rod to Judah, with which it was smitten, so
   Egypt was a broken reed, with which it was cheated; and therefore God
   had a quarrel with them both. We have before read the doom of the
   Assyrians; now here we have the burden of Egypt, a prophecy concerning
   that nation, I. That it should be greatly weakened and brought low, and
   should be as contemptible among the nations as now it was considerable,
   rendered so by a complication of judgments which God would bring upon
   them, ver. 1-17. II. That at length God's holy religion should be
   brought into Egypt, and set up there, in part by the Jews that should
   flee thither for refuge, but more fully by the preachers of the gospel
   of Christ, through whose ministry churches should be planted in Egypt
   in the days of the Messiah (ver. 18-25), which would abundantly balance
   all the calamities here threatened.

The Doom of Egypt. (b. c. 710.)

   1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and
   shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his
   presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.   2 And
   I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight
   every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour;
   city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.   3 And the spirit of
   Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel
   thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to
   them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.   4 And the
   Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce
   king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.   5 And
   the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and
   dried up.   6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks
   of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall
   wither.   7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks,
   and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and
   be no more.   8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast
   angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the
   waters shall languish.   9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and
   they that weave networks, shall be confounded.   10 And they shall be
   broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for
   fish.   11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the
   wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh,
   I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?   12 Where are
   they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them
   know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.   13 The princes
   of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have
   also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
     14 The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and
   they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man
   staggereth in his vomit.   15 Neither shall there be any work for
   Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.   16 In that day
   shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because
   of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over
   it.   17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one
   that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the
   counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

   Though the land of Egypt had of old been a house of bondage to the
   people of God, where they had been ruled with rigour, yet among the
   unbelieving Jews there still remained much of the humour of their
   fathers, who said, Let us make us a captain and return into Egypt. Upon
   all occasions they trusted to Egypt for help (ch. xxx. 2), and thither
   they fled, in disobedience to God's express command, when things were
   brought to the last extremity in their own country, Jer. xliii. 7.
   Rabshakeh upbraided Hezekiah with this, ch. xxxvi. 6. While they kept
   up an alliance with Egypt, and it was a powerful ally, they stood not
   in awe of the judgments of God; for against them they depended upon
   Egypt to protect them. Nor did they depend upon the power of God when
   at anytime they were in distress; but Egypt was their confidence. To
   prevent all this mischief, Egypt must be mortified, and many ways God
   here tells them he will take to mortify them.

   I. The gods of Egypt shall appear to them to be what they always really
   were, utterly unable to help them, v. 1. "The Lord rides upon a cloud,
   a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt. As a judge goes in state to
   the bench to try and condemn the malefactors, or as a general takes the
   field with his troops to crush the rebels, so shall God come into Egypt
   with his judgments; and when he comes he will certainly overcome." In
   all this burden of Egypt here is no mention of any foreign enemy
   invading them; but God himself will come against them, and raise up the
   causes of their destruction from among themselves. He comes upon a
   cloud, above the reach of the opposition or resistance. He comes apace
   upon a swift cloud; for their judgment lingers not when the time has
   come. He rides upon the wings of the wind, with a majesty far excelling
   the greatest pomp and splendour of earthly princes. He makes the clouds
   his chariots, Ps. xviii. 9; civ. 3. When he comes the idols of Egypt
   shall be moved, shall be removed at his presence, and perhaps be made
   to fall as Dagon did before the ark. Isis, Osiris, and Apis, those
   celebrated idols of Egypt, being found unable to relieve their
   worshippers, shall be disowned and rejected by them. Idolatry had got
   deeper rooting in Egypt than in any land besides, even the most absurd
   idolatries; and yet now the idols shall be moved and they shall be
   ashamed of them. When the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt he executed
   judgments upon the gods of the Egyptians (Num. xxxiii. 4); no marvel
   then if, when he comes, they begin to tremble. The Egyptians shall seek
   to the idols, when they are at their wits' end, and consult the
   charmers and wizards (v. 3); but all in vain; they see their ruin
   hastening on them notwithstanding.

   II. The militia of Egypt, that had been famed for their valour, shall
   be quite dispirited and disheartened. No kingdom in the world was ever
   in a better method of keeping up a standing army than the Egyptians
   were; but now their heroes, that used to be celebrated for courage,
   shall be posted for cowards: The heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst
   of it, like wax before the fire (v. 1); the spirit of Egypt shall fail,
   v. 3. They shall have no inclination, no resolution, to stand up in
   defence of their country, their liberty, and property; but shall tamely
   and ingloriously yield all to the invader and oppressor. The Egyptians
   shall be like women (v. 16); they shall be frightened and put into
   confusion by the least alarm; even those that dwell in the heart of the
   country, in the midst of it, and therefore furthest from danger, will
   be as full of frights as those that are situate on the frontiers. Let
   not the bold and brave be proud or secure, for God can easily cut off
   the spirit of princes (Ps. lxxvi. 12) and take away their hearts, Job
   xii. 24.

   III. The Egyptians shall be embroiled in endless dissensions and
   quarrels among themselves. There shall be no occasion to bring a
   foreign force upon them to destroy them; they shall destroy one another
   (v. 2): I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. As these
   divisions and animosities are their sin, God is not the author of them,
   they come from men's lusts; but God, as a Judge, permits them for their
   punishment, and by their destroying differences corrects them for their
   sinful agreements. Instead of helping one another, and acting each in
   his place for the common good, they shall fight every one against his
   brother and neighbour, whom he ought to love as himself--city against
   city, and kingdom against kingdom. Egypt was then divided into twelve
   provinces, or dynasties; but Psammetichus, the governor of one of them,
   by setting them at variance with one another, at length made himself
   master of them all. A kingdom thus divided against itself would soon be
   brought to desolation. En quo discordiâ cives perduxit miseros!--Oh the
   wretchedness brought upon a people by their disagreements among
   themselves! It is brought to this by a perverse spirit, a spirit of
   contradiction, which the Lord would mingle, as an intoxicating draught
   made up of several ingredients, for the Egyptians, v. 14. One party
   shall be for a thing for no other reason than because the other is
   against it; that is a perverse spirit, which, if it mingle with the
   public counsels, tends directly to the ruin of the public interests.

   IV. Their politics shall be all blasted, and turned into foolishness.
   When God will destroy the nation he will destroy the counsel thereof
   (v. 3), by taking away wisdom from the statesmen (Job xii. 20), or
   setting them one against another (as Hushai and Ahithophel), or by his
   providence breaking their measures even when they seemed well laid; so
   that the princes of Zoan are fools: they make fools of one another,
   every one betrays his own folly, and divine Providence makes fools of
   them all, v. 11. Pharaoh had his wise counsellors. Egypt was famous for
   such. But their counsel has all become brutish; they have lost all
   their forecast; one would think they had become idiots, and were
   bereaved of common sense. Let no man glory then in his own wisdom, nor
   depend upon that, nor upon the wisdom of those about him; for he that
   gives understanding can when he please take it away. And from those it
   is most likely to be taken away that boast of their policy, as
   Pharaoh's counsellors here did, and, to recommend themselves to places
   of public trust, boast of their great understanding ("I am the son of
   the wise, of the God of wisdom, of wisdom itself," says one; "my father
   was an eminent privy-counsellor of note in his day for wisdom"), or of
   the antiquity and dignity of their families: "I am," says another, "the
   son of ancient kings." The nobles of Egypt boasted much of their
   antiquity, producing fabulous records of their succession for above
   10,000 years. This humour prevailed much among them about this time, as
   appears by Herodotus, their common boast being that Egypt was some
   thousands of years more ancient than any other nation. "But where are
   thy wise men? v. 12. Let them now show their wisdom by foreseeing what
   ruin is coming upon their nation, and preventing it, if they can. Let
   them with all their skill know what the Lord of hosts has purposed upon
   Egypt, and arm themselves accordingly. Nay, so far are they from doing
   this that they themselves are, in effect, contriving the ruin of Egypt,
   and hastening it on, v. 13. The princes of Noph are not only deceived
   themselves, but they have seduced Egypt, by putting their kings upon
   arbitrary proceedings" (by which both themselves and their people were
   soon undone); "the governors of Egypt, that are the stay and
   cornerstones of the tribes thereof, are themselves undermining it." It
   is sad with a people when those that undertake for their safety are
   helping forward their destruction, and the physicians of the state are
   her worst disease, when the things that belong to the public peace are
   so far hidden from the eyes of those that are entrusted with the public
   counsels that in every thing they blunder and take wrong measures; so
   here (v. 14): They have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof.
   Every step they took was a false step. They always mistook either the
   end or the means, and their counsels were all unsteady and uncertain,
   like the staggerings and stammerings of a drunken man in his vomit, who
   knows not what he says nor where he goes. See what reason we have to
   pray for our privy-counsellors and ministers of state, who are the
   great supports and blessings of the state if God give them a spirit of
   wisdom, but quite the contrary if he hide their heart from
   understanding.

   V. The rod of government shall be turned into the serpent of tyranny
   and oppression (v. 4): "The Egyptians will I give over into the hand of
   a cruel lord, not a foreigner, but one of their own, one that shall
   rule over them by an hereditary right, but shall be a fierce king and
   rule them with rigour," either the twelve tyrants that succeeded
   Sethon, or rather Psammetichus that recovered the monarchy again; for
   he speaks of one cruel lord. Now the barbarous usage which the Egyptian
   task masters gave to God's Israel long ago was remembered against them
   and they were paid in their own coin by another Pharaoh. It is sad with
   a people when the powers that should be for edification are for
   destruction, and they are ruined by those by whom they should be ruled,
   when such as this is the manner of the king, as it is described (in
   terrorem--in order to impress alarm), 1 Sam. viii. 11.

   VI. Egypt was famous for its river Nile, which was its wealth, and
   strength, and beauty, and was idolized by them. Now it is here
   threatened that the waters shall fail from the sea and the river shall
   be wasted and dried up, v. 5. Nature shall not herein favour them as
   she has done. Egypt was never watered with the rain of heaven (Zech.
   xiv. 18), and therefore the fruitfulness of their country depended
   wholly upon the overflowing of their river; if that therefore be dried
   up, their fruitful land will soon be turned into barrenness and their
   harvests cease: Every thing sown by the brooks will wither of course,
   will be driven away, and be no more, v. 7. If the paper-reeds by the
   brooks, at the very mouth of them, wither, much more the corn, which
   lies at a greater distance, but derives its moisture from them. Yet
   this is not all; the drying up of their rivers is the destruction, 1.
   Of their fortifications, for they are brooks of defence (v. 6), making
   the country difficult of access to an enemy. Deep rivers are the
   strongest lines, and most hardly forced. Pharaoh is said to be a great
   dragon lying in the midst of his rivers, and guarded by them, bidding
   defiance to all about him, Ezek. xxix. 3. But these shall be emptied
   and dried up, not by an enemy, as Sennacherib with the sole of his foot
   dried up mighty rivers (ch. xxxvii. 25), and as Cyrus, who took Babylon
   by drawing Euphrates into many streams, but by the providence of God,
   which sometimes turns water-springs into dry ground, Ps. cvii. 33. 2.
   It is the destruction of their fish, which in Egypt was much of their
   food, witness that base reflection which the children of Israel made
   (Num. xi. 5): We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely.
   The drying up of the rivers will kill the fish (Ps. cv. 29), and will
   thereby ruin those who make it their business, (1.) To catch fish,
   whether by angling or nets (v. 8); they shall lament and languish, for
   their trade is at an end. There is nothing which the children of this
   world do more heartily lament than the loss of that which they used to
   get money by. Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris--Those are
   genuine tears which are shed over lost money. (2.) To keep fish, that
   it may be ready when it is called for. There were those that made
   sluices and ponds for fish (v. 10), but they shall be broken in the
   purposes thereof; their business will fail, either for want of water to
   fill their ponds or for want of fish to replenish their waters. God can
   find ways to deprive a country even of that which is its staple
   commodity. The Egyptians may themselves remember the fish they have
   formerly eaten freely, but now cannot have for money. And that which
   aggravates the loss of these advantages by the river is that it is
   their own doing (v. 6): They shall turn the rivers far away. Their
   kings and great men, to gratify their own fancy, will drain water from
   the main river to their own houses and grounds at a distance,
   preferring their private convenience before the public good, and so by
   degrees the force of the river is sensibly weakened. Thus many do
   themselves a greater prejudice at last than they think of, [1.] Who
   pretend to be wiser than nature, and to do better for themselves than
   nature has done. [2.] Who consult their own particular interest more
   than the common good. Such may gratify themselves, but surely they can
   never satisfy themselves, who to serve a turn contribute to a public
   calamity, which they themselves, in the long run, cannot avoid sharing
   in. Herodotus tells us that Pharaoh-Necho (who reigned not long after
   this), projecting to cut a free passage by water from Nilus into the
   Red Sea, employed a vast number of men to make a ditch or channel for
   that purpose, in which attempt he impaired the river, lost 120,000 of
   his people, and yet left the work unaccomplished.

   VII. Egypt was famous for the linen manufacture; but that trade shall
   be ruined. Solomon's merchants traded with Egypt for linen-yarn, 1
   Kings x. 28. Their country produced the best flax and the best hands to
   work it; but those that work in fine flax shall be confounded (v. 9),
   either for want of flax to work on or for want of a demand for that
   which they have worked or opportunity to export it. The decay of trade
   weakens and wastes a nation and by degrees brings it to ruin. The trade
   of Egypt must needs sink, for (v. 15) there shall not be any work for
   Egypt to be employed in; and where there is nothing to be done there is
   nothing to be got. There shall be a universal stop put to business, no
   work which either head or tail, branch or rush, may do; nothing for
   high or low, weak or strong, to do; no hire, Zech. viii. 10. Note, The
   flourishing of a kingdom depends much upon the industry of the people;
   and then things are likely to do well when all hands are at work, when
   the head and top-branch do not disdain to labour, and the labour of the
   tail and rush is not disdained. But when the learned professions are
   unemployed, the principal merchants have no stocks, and the handicraft
   tradesmen nothing to do, poverty comes upon a people as one that
   travaileth and as an armed man.

   VIII. A general consternation shall seize the Egyptians; they shall be
   afraid and fear (v. 16), which will be both an evidence of a universal
   decay and a means and presage of utter ruin. Two things will put them
   into this fright:--1. What they hear from the land of Judah; that shall
   be a terror to Egypt, v. 17. When they hear of the desolations made in
   Judah by the army of Sennacherib, considering both the near
   neighbourhood and the strict alliance that was between them and Judah,
   they will conclude it must be their turn next to become a prey to that
   victorious army. When their neighbour's house was on fire they could
   not but see their own in danger; and therefore every one of the
   Egyptians that makes mention of Judah shall be afraid of himself,
   expecting the bitter cup shortly to be put into his hands. 2. What they
   see in their own land. They shall fear (v. 16) because of the shaking
   of the hand of the Lord of hosts, and (v. 17) because of the counsel of
   the Lord of hosts, which from the shaking of his hand they shall
   conclude he has determined against Egypt as well as Judah. For, if
   judgment begin at the house of God, where will it end? If this be done
   in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? See here, (1.) How
   easily God can make those a terror to themselves that have been, not
   only secure, but a terror to all about them. It is but shaking his hand
   over them, or laying it upon some of their neighbours, and the stoutest
   hearts tremble immediately. (2.) How well it becomes us to fear before
   God when he does but shake his hand over us, and to humble ourselves
   under his mighty hand when it does but threaten us, especially when we
   see his counsel determined against us; for who can change his counsel?

Promises to Egypt. (b. c. 710.)

   18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the
   language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be
   called, The city of destruction.   19 In that day shall there be an
   altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at
   the border thereof to the Lord.   20 And it shall be for a sign and for
   a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall
   cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a
   saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.   21 And the Lord
   shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that
   day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow
   unto the Lord, and perform it.   22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he
   shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he
   shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.   23 In that day shall
   there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come
   into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall
   serve with the Assyrians.   24 In that day shall Israel be the third
   with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
     25 Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my
   people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

   Out of the thick and threatening clouds of the foregoing prophecy the
   sun of comfort here breaks forth, and it is the sun of righteousness.
   Still God has mercy in store for Egypt, and he will show it, not so
   much by reviving their trade and replenishing their river again as by
   bringing the true religion among them, calling them to, and accepting
   them in, the worship of the one only living and true God; and these
   blessings of grace were much more valuable than all the blessings of
   nature wherewith Egypt was enriched. We know not of any event in which
   this prophecy can be thought to have its full accomplishment short of
   the conversion of Egypt to the faith of Christ, by the preaching (as is
   supposed) of Mark the Evangelist, and the founding of many Christian
   churches there, which flourished for many ages. Many prophecies of this
   book point to the days of the Messiah; and why not this? It is no
   unusual thing to speak of gospel graces and ordinances in the language
   of the Old-Testament institutions. And, in these prophecies, those
   words, in that day, perhaps have not always a reference to what goes
   immediately before, but have a peculiar significancy pointing at that
   day which had been so long fixed, and so often spoken of, when the
   day-spring from on high should visit this dark world. Yet it is not
   improbable (which some conjecture) that this prophecy was in part
   fulfilled when those Jews who fled from their own country to take
   shelter in Egypt, when Sennacherib invaded their land, brought their
   religion along with them, and, being awakened to great seriousness by
   the troubles they were in, made an open and zealous profession of it
   there, and were instrumental to bring many of the Egyptians to embrace
   it, which was an earnest and specimen of the more plentiful harvest of
   souls that should be gathered in to God by the preaching of the gospel
   of Christ. Josephus indeed tells us that Onias the son of Onias the
   high priest, living an outlaw at Alexandria in Egypt, obtained leave of
   Ptolemy Philometer, then king, and Cleopatra his queen, to build a
   temple to the God of Israel, like that at Jerusalem, at Bubastis in
   Egypt, and pretended a warrant for doing it from this prophecy in
   Isaiah, that there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt;
   and the service of God, Josephus affirms, continued in it about 333
   years, when it was shut up by Paulinus soon after the destruction of
   Jerusalem by the Romans; see Antiq. 13.62-79, and Jewish War 7.426-436.
   But that temple was all along looked upon by the pious Jews as so great
   an irregularity, and an affront to the temple at Jerusalem, that we
   cannot suppose this prophecy to be fulfilled in it.

   Observe how the conversion of Egypt is here described.

   I. They shall speak the language of Canaan, the holy language, the
   scripture-language; they shall not only understand it, but use it (v.
   18); they shall introduce that language among them, and converse freely
   with the people of God, and not, as they used to do, by an interpreter,
   Gen. xlii. 23. Note, Converting grace, by changing the heart, changes
   the language; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
   Five cities in Egypt shall speak this language; so many Jews shall come
   to reside in Egypt, and they shall so multiply there, that they shall
   soon replenish five cities, one of which shall be the city of Heres, or
   of the sun, Heliopolis, where the sun was worshipped, the most infamous
   of all the cities of Egypt for idolatry; even there shall be a
   wonderful reformation, they shall speak the language of Canaan. Or it
   may be taken thus, as we render it--That for every five cities that
   shall embrace religion there shall be one (a sixth part of the cities
   of Egypt) that shall reject it, and that shall be called a city of
   destruction, because it refuses the methods of salvation.

   II. They shall swear to the Lord of hosts, not only swear by him,
   giving him the honour of appealing to him, as all nations did to the
   gods they worshipped; but they shall by a solemn oath and vow devote
   themselves to his honour and bind themselves to his service. They shall
   swear to cleave to him with purpose of heart, and shall worship him,
   not occasionally, but constantly. They shall swear allegiance to him as
   their King, to Christ, to whom all judgment is committed.

   III. They shall set up the public worship of God in their land (v. 19):
   There shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt,
   an altar on which they shall do sacrifice and oblation (v. 21);
   therefore it must be understood spiritually. Christ, the great altar,
   who sanctifies every gift, shall be owned there, and the gospel
   sacrifices of prayer and praise shall be offered up; for by the law of
   Moses there was to be no altar for sacrifice but that at Jerusalem. In
   Christ Jesus all distinction of nations is taken away; and a spiritual
   altar, a gospel church, in the midst of the land of Egypt, is as
   acceptable to God as one in the midst of the land of Israel; and
   spiritual sacrifices of faith and love, and a contrite heart, please
   the Lord better than an ox or bullock.

   IV. There shall be a face of religion upon the nation, and an open
   profession made of it, discernible to all who come among them. Not only
   in the heart of the country, but even in the borders of it, there shall
   be a pillar, or pillars, inscribed, To Jehovah, to his honour, as
   before there had been such pillars set up in honour of false gods. As
   soon as a stranger entered upon the borders of Egypt he might perceive
   what god they worshipped. Those that serve God must not be ashamed to
   own him, but be forward to do any thing that may be for a sign and for
   a witness to the Lord of hosts. Even in the land of Egypt he had some
   faithful worshippers, who boasted of their relation to him and made his
   name their strong tower, or bulwark, on their borders, with which their
   coasts were fortified against all assailants.

   V. Being in distress, they shall seek to God, and he shall be found of
   them; and this shall be a sign and a witness for the Lord of hosts that
   he is a God hearing prayer to all flesh that come to him, v. 20. See
   Ps. lxv. 2. When they cry to God by reason of their oppressors, the
   cruel lords that shall rule over them (v. 4) he shall be entreated of
   them (v. 22); whereas he had told his people Israel, who had made it
   their own choice to have such a king, that they should cry to him by
   reason of their king, and he would not hear them, 1 Sam. viii. 18.

   VI. They shall have an interest in the great Redeemer. When they were
   under the oppression of cruel lords perhaps God sometimes raised them
   up mighty deliverers, as he did for Israel in the days of the judges;
   and by them, though he had smitten the land, he healed it again; and,
   upon their return to God in a way of duty, he returned to them in a way
   of mercy, and repaired the breaches of their tottering state. For
   repenting Egyptians shall find the same favour with God that repenting
   Ninevites did. But all these deliverances wrought for them, as those
   for Israel, were but figures of gospel salvation. Doubtless Jesus
   Christ is the Saviour and the great one here spoken of, whom God will
   send the glad tidings of to the Egyptians, and by whom he will deliver
   them out of the hands of their enemies, that they may serve him without
   fear, Luke i. 74, 75. Jesus Christ delivered the Gentile nations from
   the service of dumb idols, and did himself both purchase and preach
   liberty to the captives.

   VII. The knowledge of God shall prevail among them, v. 21. 1. They
   shall have the means of knowledge. For many ages in Judah only was God
   known, for there only were the lively oracles found; but now the Lord,
   and his name and will, shall be known to Egypt. Perhaps this may in
   part refer to the translation of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into
   Greek by the LXX., which was done at Alexandria in Egypt, by the
   command of Ptolemy king of Egypt; and it was the first time that the
   scriptures were translated into any other language. By the help of this
   (the Grecian monarchy having introduced their language into that
   country) the Lord was known to Egypt, and a happy omen and means it was
   of his being further known. 2. They shall have grace to improve those
   means. It is promised not only that the Lord shall be known to Egypt,
   but that the Egyptians shall know the Lord; they shall receive and
   entertain the light granted to them, and shall submit themselves to the
   power of it. The Lord is known to our nation, and yet I fear there are
   many of our nation that do not know the Lord. But the promise of the
   new covenant is that all shall know the Lord, from the least even to
   the greatest, which promise is sure to all the seed. The effect of this
   knowledge of God is that they shall vow a vow to the Lord and perform
   it. For those do not know God aright who either are not willing to come
   under binding obligations to the Lord or do not make good those
   obligations.

   VIII. They shall come into the communion of saints. Being joined to the
   Lord, they shall be added to the church, and be incorporated with all
   the saints. 1. All enmities shall be slain. Mortal feuds there had been
   between Egypt and Assyria; they often made war upon one another; but
   now there shall be a highway between Egypt and Assyria (v. 23), a happy
   correspondence settled between he two nations; they shall trade with
   one another, and every thing that passes between them shall be
   friendly. The Egyptians shall serve (shall worship the true God) with
   the Assyrians; and therefore the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and
   the Egyptians into Assyria. Note, It becomes those who have communion
   with the same God, through the same Mediator, to keep up an amicable
   correspondence with one another. The consideration of our meeting at
   the same throne of grace, and our serving with each other in the same
   business of religion, should put an end to all heats and animosities,
   and knit our hearts to each other in holy love. 2. The Gentile nations
   shall not only unite with each other in the gospel fold under Christ
   the great shepherd, but they shall all be united with the Jews. When
   Egypt and Assyria become partners in serving God Israel shall make a
   third with them (v. 24); they shall become a three-fold cord, not
   easily broken. The ceremonial law, which had long been the
   partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles, shall be taken down, and then
   they shall become one sheep-fold under one shepherd. Thus united, they
   shall be a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts
   shall bless, v. 24, 25. (1.) Israel shall be a blessing to them all,
   because of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, and they were
   the natural branches of the good olive, to whom did originally pertain
   its root and fatness, and the Gentiles were but grafted in among them,
   Rom. xi. 17. Israel lay between Egypt and Assyria, and was a blessing
   to them both by bringing them to meet in that word of the Lord which
   went forth from Jerusalem, and that church which was first set up in
   the land of Israel. Qui conveniunt in aliquo tertio inter se
   conveniunt--Those who meet in a third meet in each other. Israel is
   that third in whom Egypt and Assyria agree, and is therefore a
   blessing; for those are real and great blessings to their generation
   who are instrumental to unite those that have been at variance. (2.)
   They shall all be a blessing to the world: so the Christian church is,
   made up of Jews and Gentiles; it is the beauty, riches, and support of
   the world. (3.) They shall all be blessed of the Lord. [1.] They shall
   all be owned by him as his. Though Egypt was formerly a house of
   bondage to the people of God, and Assyria an unjust invader of them,
   all this shall now be forgiven and forgotten, and they shall be as
   welcome to God as Israel. They are all alike his people whom he takes
   under his protection. They are formed by him, for they are the work of
   his hands; not only as a people, but as his people. They are formed for
   him; for they are his inheritance, precious in his eyes, and dear to
   him, and from whom he has his rent of honour out of this lower world.
   [2.] They shall be owned together by him as jointly his, his in
   concert; they shall all share in one and the same blessing. Note, Those
   that are united in the love and blessing of God ought, for that reason,
   to be united to each other in charity.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XX.

   This chapter is a prediction of the carrying away of multitudes both of
   the Egyptians and the Ethiopians into captivity by the king of Assyria.
   Here is, I. The sign by which this was foretold, which was the
   prophet's going for some time barefoot and almost naked, like a poor
   captive, ver. 1-2. II. The explication of that sign, with application
   to Egypt and Ethiopia, ver. 3-5. III. The good use which the people of
   God should make of this, which is never to trust in an arm of flesh,
   because thus it will deceive them, ver. 6.

Threatenings against Egypt. (b. c. 713.)

   1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of
   Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;   2 At the
   same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and
   loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy
   foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.   3 And the Lord said,
   Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years
   for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;   4 So shall the
   king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians
   captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks
   uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.   5 And they shall be afraid and
   ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.   6
   And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is
   our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king
   of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

   God here, as King of nations, brings a sore calamity upon Egypt and
   Ethiopia, but, as King of saints, brings good to his people out of it.
   Observe,

   I. The date of this prophecy. It was in the year that Ashdod, a strong
   city of the Philistines (but which some think was lately recovered from
   them by Hezekiah, when he smote the Philistines even unto Gaza, 2 Kings
   xviii. 8), was besieged and taken by an army of the Assyrians. It is
   uncertain what year of Hezekiah that was, but the event was so
   remarkable that those who lived then could by that token fix the time
   to a year. He that was now king of Assyria is called Sargon, which some
   take to be the same with Sennacherib; others think he was his immediate
   predecessor, and succeeded Shalmaneser. Tartan, who was general, or
   commander-in-chief, in this expedition, was one of Sennacherib's
   officers, sent by him to bid defiance to Hezekiah, in concurrence with
   Rabshakeh, 2 Kings xviii. 17.

   II. The making of Isaiah a sign, by his unusual dress when he walked
   abroad. He had been a sign to his own people of the melancholy times
   that had come and were coming upon them, by the sackcloth which for
   some time he had worn, of which he had a gown made, which he girt about
   him. Some think he put himself into that habit of a mourner upon
   occasion of the captivity of the ten tribes. Others think sackcloth was
   what he commonly wore as a prophet, to show himself mortified to the
   world, and that he might learn to endure hardness; soft clothing better
   becomes those that attend in king's palaces (Matt. xi. 8) than those
   that go on God's errands. Elijah wore hair-cloth (2 Kings i. 8), and
   John Baptist (Matt. iii. 4) and those that pretended to be prophets
   supported their pretension by wearing rough garments (Zech. xiii. 4);
   but Isaiah has orders given him to loose his sackcloth from his loins,
   not to exchange it for better clothing, but for none at all--no upper
   garment, no mantle, cloak, or coat, but only that which was next to
   him, we may suppose his shirt, waistcoat, and drawers; and he must put
   off his shoes, and go barefoot; so that compared with the dress of
   others, and what he himself usually wore, he might be said to go naked.
   This was a great hardship upon the prophet; it was a blemish to his
   reputation, and would expose him to contempt and ridicule; the boys in
   the streets would hoot at him, and those who sought occasion against
   him would say, The prophet is indeed a fool, and the spiritual man is
   mad, Hosea ix. 7. It might likewise be a prejudice to his health; he
   was in danger of catching a cold, which might throw him into a fever,
   and cost him his life; but God bade him do it, that he might give a
   proof of his obedience to God in a most difficult command, and so shame
   the disobedience of his people to the most easy and reasonable
   precepts. When we are in the way of our duty we may trust God both with
   our credit and with our safety. The hearts of that people were
   strangely stupid, and would not be affected with what they only heard,
   but must be taught by signs, and therefore Isaiah must do this for
   their edification. If the dress was scandalous, yet the design was
   glorious, and what a prophet of the Lord needed not to be ashamed of.

   III. The exposition of this sign, v. 3, 4. It was intended to signify
   that the Egyptians and the Ethiopians should be led away captive by the
   king of Assyria, thus stripped, or in rags, and very shabby clothing,
   as Isaiah was. God calls him his servant Isaiah, because in this matter
   particularly he had approved himself God's willing, faithful, obedient
   servant; and for this very thing, which perhaps others laughed at him
   for, God gloried in him. To obey is better than sacrifice; it pleases
   God and praises him more, and shall be more praised by him. Isaiah is
   said to have walked naked and barefoot three years, whenever in that
   time he appeared as a prophet. But some refer the three years, not to
   the sign, but to the thing signified: He has walked naked and barefoot;
   there is a stop in the original; provided he did so once that was
   enough to give occasion to all about him to enquire what was the
   meaning of his doing so; or, as some think, he did it three days, a day
   for a year; and this for a three years' sign and wonder, for a sign of
   that which should be done three years afterwards or which should be
   three years in the doing. Three campaigns successively shall the
   Assyrian army make, in spoiling the Egyptians and Ethiopians, and
   carrying them away captive in this barbarous manner, not only the
   soldiers taken in the field of battle, but the inhabitants, young and
   old; and it being a very piteous sight, and such as must needs move
   compassion in those that had the least degree of tenderness left them
   to see those who had gone all their days well dressed now stripped, and
   scarcely having rags to cover their nakedness, that circumstance of
   their captivity is particularly taken notice of, and foretold, the more
   to affect those to whom this prophecy was delivered. It is particularly
   said to be to the shame of Egypt (v. 4), because the Egyptians were a
   proud people, and therefore when they did fall into disgrace it was the
   more shameful to them; and the higher they had lifted up themselves the
   lower was their fall, both in their own eyes and in the eyes of others.

   IV. The use and application of this, v. 5, 6. 1. All that had any
   dependence upon, or correspondence with, Egypt and Ethiopia, should now
   be ashamed of them, and afraid of having any thing to do with them.
   Those countries that were in danger of being overrun by the Assyrians
   expected that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, with his numerous forces,
   would put a stop to the progress of their victorious arms, and be a
   barrier to his neighbours; and with yet more assurance they gloried
   that Egypt, a kingdom so famous for policy and prowess, would do their
   business, would oblige them to raise the siege of Ashdod and retire
   with precipitation. But, instead of this, by attempting to oppose the
   king of Assyria they did but expose themselves and make their country a
   prey to him. Hereupon all about them were ashamed that ever they
   promised themselves any advantage from two such weak and cowardly
   nations, and were more afraid now than ever they were of the growing
   greatness of the king of Assyria, before whom Egypt and Ethiopia proved
   but as briers and thorns put to stop a consuming fire, which do but
   make it burn the more strongly. Note, Those who make any creature their
   expectation and glory, and so put it in the place of God, will sooner
   or later be ashamed of it, and their disappointment in it will but
   increase their fear. See Ezek. xxix. 6, 7. 2. The Jews in particular
   should be convinced of their folly in resting upon such broken reeds,
   and should despair of any relief from them (v. 6): The inhabitants of
   this isle (the land of Judah, situated upon the sea, though not
   surrounded by it), of this country (so the margin); every one shall now
   have his eyes opened, and shall say, "Behold, such is our expectation,
   so vain, so foolish, and this is that which it will come to. We have
   fled for help to the Egyptians and Ethiopians, and have hoped by them
   to be delivered from the king of Assyria; but, now that they are broken
   thus, how shall we escape, that are not able to bring such armies into
   the field as they did?" Note, (1.) Those that confide in creatures will
   be disappointed, and will be made ashamed of their confidence; for vain
   is the help of man, and in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills
   or the height and multitude of the mountains. (2.) Disappointment in
   creature confidences, instead of driving us to despair, as here (how
   shall we escape?), should drive us to God; for, if we flee to him for
   help, our expectation shall not be frustrated.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXI.

   In this chapter we have a prophecy of sad times coming, and heavy
   burdens, I. Upon Babylon, here called "the desert of the sea," that it
   should be destroyed by the Medes and Persians with a terrible
   destruction, which yet God's people should have advantage by, ver.
   1-10. II. Upon Dumah, or Idumea, ver. 11, 12. III. Upon Arabia, or
   Kedar, the desolation of which country was very near, ver. 13-17. These
   and other nations which the princes and people of Israel had so much to
   do with the prophets of Israel could not but have something to say to.
   Foreign affairs must be taken notice of as well as domestic ones, and
   news from abroad enquired after as well as news at home.

The Doom of Babylon. (b. c. 714.)

   1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass
   through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.   2 A
   grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth
   treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O
   Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.   3 Therefore are
   my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs
   of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I
   was dismayed at the seeing of it.   4 My heart panted, fearfulness
   affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto
   me.   5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise,
   ye princes, and anoint the shield.   6 For thus hath the Lord said unto
   me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.   7 And he saw a
   chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of
   camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:   8 And he cried, A
   lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime,
   and I am set in my ward whole nights:   9 And, behold, here cometh a
   chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said,
   Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he
   hath broken unto the ground.   10 O my threshing, and the corn of my
   floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
   have I declared unto you.

   We had one burden of Babylon before (ch. xiii.); here we have another
   prediction of its fall. God saw fit thus to possess his people with the
   belief of this event by line upon line, because Babylon sometimes
   pretended to be a friend to them (as ch. xxxix. 1), and God would
   hereby warn them not to trust to that friendship, and sometimes was
   really an enemy to them, and God would hereby warn them not to be
   afraid of that enmity. Babylon is marked for ruin; and all that believe
   God's prophets can, through that glass, see it tottering, see it
   tumbling, even when with an eye of sense they see it flourishing and
   sitting as a queen. Babylon is here called the desert or plain of the
   sea; for it was a flat country, and full of lakes, or loughs (as they
   call them in Ireland), like little seas, and was abundantly watered
   with the many streams of the river Euphrates. Babylon did but lately
   begin to be famous, Nineveh having outshone it while the monarchy was
   in the Assyrian hands; but in a little time it became the lady of
   kingdoms; and, before it arrived at that pitch of eminency which it was
   at in Nebuchadnezzar's time, God by this prophet plainly foretold its
   fall, again and again, that his people might not be terrified at its
   rise, nor despair of relief in due time when they were its prisoners,
   Job v. 3; Ps. xxxvii. 35, 36. Some think it is here called a desert
   because, though it was now a populous city, it should in time be made a
   desert. And therefore the destruction of Babylon is so often prophesied
   of by this evangelical prophet, because it was typical of the
   destruction of the man of sin, the great enemy of the New-Testament
   church, which is foretold in the Revelation in many expressions
   borrowed from these prophecies, which therefore must be consulted and
   collated by those who would understand the prophecy of that book. Here
   is,

   I. The powerful irruption and descent which the Medes and Persians
   should make upon Babylon (v. 1, 2): They will come from the desert,
   from a terrible land. The northern parts of Media and Persia, where
   their soldiers were mostly bred, was waste and mountainous, terrible to
   strangers that were to pass through it and producing soldiers that were
   very formidable. Elam (that is, Persia) is summoned to go up against
   Babylon, and, in conjunction with the forces of Media, to besiege it.
   When God has work of this kind to do he will find, though it be in a
   desert, in a terrible land, proper instruments to be employed in it.
   These forces come as whirlwinds from the south, so suddenly, so
   strongly, so terribly, such a mighty noise shall they make, and throw
   down every thing that stands in their way. As is usual in such a case,
   some deserters will go over to them: The treacherous dealers will deal
   treacherously. Historians tell us of Gadatas and Gobryas, two great
   officers of the king of Babylon, that went over to Cyrus, and, being
   well acquainted with all the avenues of the city, led a party directly
   to the palace, where Belshazzar was slain. Thus with the help of the
   treacherous dealers the spoilers spoiled. Some read it thus: There
   shall be a deceiver of that deceiver, Babylon, and a spoiler of that
   spoiler, or, which comes all to one, The treacherous dealer has found
   one that deals treacherously, and the spoiler one that spoils, as it is
   expounded, ch. xxxiii. 1. The Persians shall pay the Babylonians in
   their own coin; those that by fraud and violence, cheating and
   plundering, unrighteous wars and deceitful treaties, have made a prey
   of their neighbours, shall meet with their match, and by the same
   methods shall themselves be made a prey of.

   II. The different impressions made hereby upon those concerned in
   Babylon. 1. To the poor oppressed captives it would be welcome news;
   for they had been told long ago that Babylon's destroyer would be their
   deliverer, and therefore, "when they hear that Elam and Media are
   coming up to besiege Babylon, all their sighing will be made to cease;
   they shall no longer mingle their tears with Euphrates' streams, but
   resume their harps, and smile when they remember Zion, which, before,
   they wept at the thought of." For the sighing of the needy the God of
   pity will arise in due time (Ps. xii. 5); he will break the yoke from
   all their neck, will remove the rod of the wicked from off their lot,
   and so make their sighing to cease. 2. To the proud oppressors it would
   be a grievous vision (v. 2), particularly to the king of Babylon for
   the time being, and it should seem that he it is who is here brought in
   sadly lamenting his inevitable fate (v. 3, 4): Therefore are my loins
   filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, &c., which was
   literally fulfilled in Belshazzar, for that very night in which his
   city was taken, and himself slain, upon the sight of a hand writing
   mystic characters upon the wall his countenance was changed and his
   thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed and
   his knees smote one against another, Dan. v. 6. And yet that was but
   the beginning of sorrows. Daniel's deciphering the writing could not
   but increase his terror, and the alarm which immediately followed of
   the executioners at the door would be the completing of it. And those
   words, The night of my pleasure has he turned into fear to me, plainly
   refer to that aggravating circumstance of Belshazzar's fall that he was
   slain on that night when he was in the height of his mirth and jollity,
   with his cups and concubines about him and a thousand of his lords
   revelling with him; that night of his pleasure, when he promised
   himself an undisturbed unallayed enjoyment of the most exquisite
   gratifications of sense, with a particular defiance of God and religion
   in the profanation of the temple vessels, was the night that was turned
   into all this fear. Let this give an effectual check to vain mirth and
   sensual pleasures, and forbid us ever to lay the reins on the neck of
   them--that we know not what heaviness the mirth may end in, nor how
   soon laughter may be turned into mourning; but this we know that for
   all these things God shall bring us into judgment; let us therefore mix
   trembling always with our joys.

   III. A representation of the posture in which Babylon should be found
   when the enemy should surprise it--all in festival gaiety (v. 5):
   "Prepare the table with all manner of dainties. Set the guards; let
   them watch in the watch-tower while we eat and drink securely and make
   merry; and, if any alarm should be given, the princes shall arise and
   anoint the shield, and be in readiness to give the enemy a warm
   reception." Thus secure are they, and thus do they gird on the harness
   with as much joy as if they were putting it off.

   IV. A description of the alarm which should be given to Babylon upon
   its being forced by Cyrus and Darius. The Lord, in vision, showed the
   prophet the watchman set in his watch-tower, near the watch-tower, near
   the palace, as is usual in times of danger; the king ordered those
   about him to post a sentinel in the most advantageous place for
   discovery, and, according to the duty of a watchman, let him declare
   what he sees, v. 6. We read of watchmen thus set to receive
   intelligence in the story of David (2 Sam. xviii. 24), and in the story
   of Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 17. This watchman here discovered a chariot with a
   couple of horsemen attending it, in which we may suppose the
   commander-in-chief to ride. He then saw another chariot drawn by asses
   or mules, which were much in use among the Persians, and a chariot
   drawn by camels, which were likewise much in use among the Medes; so
   that (as Grotius thinks) these two chariots signify the two nations
   combined against Babylon, or rather these chariots come to bring
   tidings to the palace; compare Jer. li. 31, 32. One post shall run to
   meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of
   Babylon that his city is taken at one end while he is revelling at the
   other end and knows nothing of the matter. The watchman, seeing these
   chariots at some distance, hearkened diligently with much heed, to
   receive the first tidings. And (v. 8) he cried, A lion; this word,
   coming out of a watchman's mouth, no doubt gave them a certain sound,
   and everybody knew the meaning of it, though we do not know it now. It
   is likely that it was intended to raise attention: he that has an ear
   to hear, let him hear, as when a lion roars. Or he cried as a lion,
   very loud and in good earnest, the occasion being very urgent. And what
   has he to say? 1. He professes his constancy to the post assigned him:
   "I stand, my lord, continually upon the watch-tower, and have never
   discovered any thing material till just now; all seemed safe and
   quiet." Some make it to be a complaint of the people of God that they
   had long expected the downfall of Babylon, according to the prophecy,
   and it had not yet come; but withal a resolution to continue waiting;
   as Hab. ii. 1, I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower,
   to see what will be the issue of the present providences. 2. He gives
   notice of the discoveries he had made (v. 9): Here comes a chariot of
   men with a couple of horsemen, a vision representing the enemy's entry
   into the city with all their force or the tidings brought to the royal
   palace of it.

   V. A certain account is at length given of the overthrow of Babylon. He
   in the chariot answered and said (when he heard the watchman speak),
   Babylon has fallen, has fallen; or God answered thus to the prophet
   enquiring concerning the issue of these affairs: "It has now come to
   this, Babylon has surely and irrecoverably fallen. Babylon's business
   is done now. All the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the
   ground." Babylon was the mother of harlots (that is, of idolatry),
   which was one of the grounds of God's quarrel with her; but her idols
   should now be so far from protecting her that some of them should be
   broken down to the ground, and others of them, that were worth carrying
   way, should go into captivity, and be a burden to the beasts that
   carried them, ch. xlvi. 1, 2.

   VI. Notice is given to the people of God, who were then captives in
   Babylon, that this prophecy of the downfall of Babylon was particularly
   intended for their comfort and encouragement, and they might depend
   upon it that it should be accomplished in due season, v. 10. Observe,

   1. The title the prophet gives them in God's name: O my threshing, and
   the corn of my floor! The prophet calls them his, because they were his
   countrymen, and such as he had a particular interest in and concern
   for; but he speaks it as from God, and directs his speech to those that
   were Israelites indeed, the faithful in the land. Note, (1.) The church
   is God's floor, in which the most valuable fruits and products of this
   earth are, as it were, gathered together and laid up. (2.) True
   believers are the corn of God's floor. Hypocrites are but as the chaff
   and straw, which take up a great deal of room, but are of small value,
   with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be shortly
   and for ever separated. (3.) The corn of God's floor must expect to be
   threshed by afflictions and persecutions. God's Israel of old was
   afflicted from her youth, often under the plougher's plough (Ps. cxxix.
   3) and the thresher's flail. (4.) Even then God owns it for his
   threshing; it is his still; nay, the threshing of it is by his
   appointment, and under his restraint and direction. The threshers could
   have no power against it but what was given them from above.

   2. The assurance he gives them of the truth of what he had delivered to
   them, which therefore they might build their hopes upon: That which I
   have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel--that, and nothing
   else, that, and no fiction or fancy of my own--have I declared unto
   you. Note, In all events concerning the church, past, present, and to
   come, we must have an eye to God both as the Lord of hosts and as the
   God of Israel, who has power enough to do any thing for his church and
   grace enough to do every thing that is for her good, and to the words
   of his prophets, as words received from the Lord. As they dare not
   smother any thing which he has entrusted them to declare, so they dare
   not declare any thing as from him which he has not made known to them,
   1 Cor. xi. 23.

The Watchman Interrogated. (b. c. 714.)

   11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of
   the night? Watchman, what of the night?   12 The watchman said, The
   morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye:
   return, come.

   This prophecy concerning Dumah is very short, and withal dark and hard
   to be understood. Some think that Dumah is a part of Arabia, and that
   the inhabitants descended from Dumah the sixth son of Ishmael, as those
   of Kedar (v. 16, 17) from Ishmael's second son, Gen. xxv. 13, 14.
   Others, because Mount Seir is here mentioned, by Dumah understand
   Idumea, the country of the Edomites. Some of Israel's neighbours are
   certainly meant, and their distress is foretold, not only for warning
   to them to prepare them for it, but for warning to Israel not to depend
   upon them, or any of the nations about them, for relief in a time of
   danger, but upon God only. We must see all creature confidences failing
   us, and feel them breaking under us, that we may not lay more weight
   upon them than they will bear. But though the explication of this
   prophecy be difficult, because we have no history in which we find the
   accomplishment of it, yet the application will be easy. We have here,

   1. A question put by an Edomite to the watchman. Some one or other
   called out of Seir, somebody that was more concerned for the public
   safety and welfare than the rest, who were generally careless and
   secure. As the man of Macedonia, in a vision, desired Paul to come over
   and help them (Acts xvi. 9), so this man of Mount Seir, in a vision,
   desired the prophet to inform and instruct them. He calls not many; it
   is well there are any, that all are not alike unconcerned about the
   things that belong to the public peace. Some out of Seir ask advice of
   God's prophets, and are willing to be taught, when many of God's Israel
   heed nothing. The question is serious: What of the night? It is put to
   a proper person, the watchman, whose office it is to answer such
   enquiries. He repeats the question, as one in care, as one in earnest,
   and desirous to have an answer. Note, (1.) God's prophets and ministers
   are appointed to be watchmen, and we are to look upon them as such.
   They are as watchmen in the city in a time of peace, to see that all be
   safe, to knock at every door by personal enquiries ("Is it locked? Is
   the fire safe?"), to direct those that are at a loss, and check those
   that are disorderly, Cant. iii. 3; v. 7. They are as watchmen in the
   camp in time of war, Ezek. xxxiii. 7. They are to take notice of the
   motions of the enemy and to give notice of them, to make discoveries
   and then give warning; and in this they must deny themselves. (2.) It
   is our duty to enquire of the watchmen, especially to ask again and
   again, What of the night? for watchmen wake when other sleep. [1.] What
   time of the night? After a long sleep in sin and security, is it not
   time to rise, high time to awake out of sleep? Rom. xiii. 11. We have a
   great deal of work to do, a long journey to go; is it not time to be
   stirring? "Watchman, what o'clock is it? After a long dark night is
   there any hope of the day dawning?" [2.] What tidings of the night?
   What from the night? (so some); "what vision has the prophet had
   to-night? We are ready to receive it." Or, rather, "What occurs to
   night? What weather is it? What news?" We must expect an alarm, and
   never be secure. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;
   we must prepare to receive the alarm, and resolve to keep our ground,
   and then take the first hint of danger, and to our arms presently, to
   our spiritual weapons.

   2. The watchman's answer to this question. The watchman was neither
   asleep nor dumb; though it was a man of Mount Seir that called to him,
   he was ready to give him an answer: The morning comes. He answers, (1.)
   By way of prediction: "There comes first a morning of light, and peace,
   and opportunity; you will enjoy one day of comfort more; but afterwards
   comes a night of trouble and calamity." Note, In the course of God's
   providence it is usual that morning and night are counterchanged and
   succeed each other. Is it night? Yet the morning comes, and the
   day-spring knows his place, Ps. xxx. 5. Is it day? Yet the night comes
   also. If there be a morning of youth and health, there will come a
   night of sickness and old age; if a morning of prosperity in the
   family, in the public, yet we must look for changes. But God usually
   gives a morning of opportunity before he sends a night of calamity,
   that his own people may be prepared for the storm and others left
   inexcusable. (2.) By way of excitement: If you will enquire, enquire.
   Note, It is our wisdom to improve the present morning in preparation
   for the night that is coming after it. "Enquire, return, come. Be
   inquisitive, be penitent, be willing and obedient." The manner of
   expression is very observable, for we are put to our choice what we
   will do: "If you will enquire, enquire; if not, it is at your peril;
   you cannot say but you have a fair offer made you." We are also urged
   to be at a point: "If you will, say so, and do not stand pausing; what
   you will do do quickly, for it is no time to trifle." Those that return
   and come to God will find they have a great deal of work to do and but
   a little time to do it in, and therefore they have need to be busy.

The Doom of Arabia. (b. c. 714.)

   13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye
   travelling companies of Dedanim.   14 The inhabitants of the land of
   Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their
   bread him that fled.   15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn
   sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.   16
   For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the
   years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:   17 And
   the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of
   Kedar, shall be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it.

   Arabia was a large country, that lay eastward and southward of the land
   of Canaan. Much of it was possessed by the posterity of Abraham. The
   Dedanim, here mentioned (v. 13), descended from Dedan, Abraham's son by
   Keturah; the inhabitants of Tema and Kedar descended from Ishmael, Gen.
   xxv. 3, 13, 15. The Arabians generally lived in tents, and kept cattle,
   were a hardy people, inured to labour; probably the Jews depended upon
   them as a sort of a wall between them and the more warlike eastern
   nations; and therefore, to alarm them, they shall hear the burden of
   Arabia, and see it sinking under its own burden.

   I. A destroying army shall be brought upon them, with a sword, with a
   drawn sword, with a bow ready bent, and with all the grievousness of
   war, v. 15. It is probable that the king of Assyria, in some of the
   marches of his formidable and victorious army, took Arabia in his way,
   and, meeting with little resistance, made an easy prey of them. The
   consideration of the grievousness of war should make us thankful for
   the blessings of peace.

   II. The poor country people will hereby be forced to flee for shelter
   wherever they can find a place; so that the travelling companies of
   Dedanium, which used to keep the high roads with their caravans, shall
   be obliged to quit them and lodge in the forest in Arabia (v. 13), and
   shall not have the wonted convenience of their own tents, poor and
   weather-beaten as they are.

   III. They shall stand in need of refreshment, being ready to perish for
   want of it, in their flight from the invading army: "O you inhabitants
   of the land of Tema!" (who probably were next neighbours to the
   companies of Dedanim) "bring you water" (so the margin reads it) "to
   him that is thirsty, and prevent with your bread those that flee, for
   they are objects of your compassion; they do not wander for wandering
   sake, nor are they reduced to straits by any extravagance of their own,
   but they flee from the sword." Tema was a country where water was
   sometimes a scarce commodity (as we find, Job vi. 19), and we may
   conclude it would be in a particular manner acceptable to these poor
   distressed refugees. Let us learn hence. 1. To look for distress
   ourselves. We know not what straits we may be brought into before we
   die. Those that live in cities may be forced to lodge in forests; and
   those may know the want of necessary food who now eat bread to the
   full. Our mountain stands not so strong but that it may be moved, rises
   not so high but that it may be scaled. These Arabians would the better
   bear these calamities because in their way of living they had used
   themselves to hardships. 2. To look with compassion upon those that are
   in distress, and with all cheerfulness to relieve them, not knowing how
   soon their case may be ours: "Bring water to those that are thirsty,
   and not only give bread to those that need and ask it, but prevent
   those with it that have need; give it to them unasked." Those that do
   so shall find it remembered to their praise, as (according to our
   reading) it is here remembered to the praise of the land of Tema that
   they did bring water to the thirsty and relieved even those that were
   on the falling side.

   IV. All that which is the glory of Kedar shall vanish away and fail.
   Did they glory in their numerous herds and flocks? They shall all be
   driven away by the enemy. It seems they were famous about other nations
   for the use of the bow in battle; but their archers, instead of foiling
   the enemy, shall fall themselves; and the residue of their number, when
   they are reduced to a small number, shall be diminished (v. 17); their
   mighty able-bodied men, and men of spirit too, shall become very few;
   for they, being most forward in the defence of their country, were most
   exposed, and fell first, either by the enemies' sword or into the
   enemies' hand. Note, Neither the skill of archers (though they be ever
   so good marksmen) nor the courage of mighty men can protect a people
   from the judgments of God, when they come with commission; they rather
   expose the undertakers. That is poor glory which will thus quickly come
   to nothing.

   V. All this shall be done in a little time: "Within one year according
   to the years of a hireling (within one year precisely reckoned) this
   judgment shall come upon Kedar." If this fixing of the time be of no
   great use to us now (because we find not either when the prophecy was
   delivered or when it was accomplished), yet it might be of great use to
   the Arabians then, to awaken them to repentance, that, like the men of
   Nineveh, they might prevent the judgment when they were thus told it
   was just at the door. Or, when it begins to be fulfilled, the business
   shall be done, be begun and ended in one year's time. God, when he
   please, can do a great work in a little time.

   VI. It is all ratified by the truth of God (v. 16); "Thus hath the Lord
   said to me; you may take my word for it that it is his word;" and we
   may be sure no word of his shall fall to the ground. And again (v. 17):
   The Lord God of Israel hath spoken it, as the God of Israel, in
   pursuance of his gracious designs concerning them; and we may be sure
   the strength of Israel will not lie.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXII.

   We have now come nearer home, for this chapter is "the burden of the
   valley of vision," Jerusalem; other places had their burden for the
   sake of their being concerned in some way or other with Jerusalem, and
   were reckoned with either as spiteful enemies or deceitful friends to
   the people of God; but now let Jerusalem hear her own doom. This
   chapter concerns, I. The city of Jerusalem itself and the neighbourhood
   depending upon it. Here is, 1. A prophecy of the grievous distress they
   should shortly be brought into by Sennacherib's invasion of the country
   and laying siege to the city, ver. 1-7. 2. A reproof given them for
   their misconduct in that distress, in two things:--(1.) Not having an
   eye to God in the use of the means of their preservation, ver. 8-11.
   (2.) Not humbling themselves under his mighty hand, ver. 12-14. II. The
   court of Hezekiah, and the officers of that court. 1. The displacing of
   Shebna, a bad man, and turning him out of the treasury, ver. 15-19, 25.
   2. The preferring of Eliakim, who should do his country better service,
   to his place, ver. 20-24.

The Consternation of Jerusalem. (b. c. 718.)

   1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou
   art wholly gone up to the housetops?   2 Thou that art full of stirs, a
   tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the
   sword, nor dead in battle.   3 All thy rulers are fled together, they
   are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound
   together, which have fled from far.   4 Therefore said I, Look away
   from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the
   spoiling of the daughter of my people.   5 For it is a day of trouble,
   and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the
   valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the
   mountains.   6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and
   horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.   7 And it shall come to pass,
   that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen
   shall set themselves in array at the gate.

   The title of this prophecy is very observable. It is the burden of the
   valley of vision, of Judah and Jerusalem; so all agree. Fitly enough is
   Jerusalem called a valley, for the mountains were round about it, and
   the land of Judah abounded with fruitful valleys; and by the judgments
   of God, though they had been as a towering mountain, they should be
   brought low, sunk and depressed, and become dark and dirty, as a
   valley. But most emphatically is it called a valley of vision because
   there God was known and his name was great, there the prophets were
   made acquainted with his mind by visions, and there the people saw the
   goings of their God and King in his sanctuary. Babylon, being a
   stranger to God, though rich and great, was called the desert of the
   sea; but Jerusalem, being entrusted with his oracles, is a valley of
   vision. Blessed are their eyes, for they see, and they have seers by
   office among them. Where Bibles and ministers are there is a valley of
   vision, from which is expected fruit accordingly; but here is a burden
   of the valley of vision, and a heavy burden it is. Note, Church
   privileges, if they be not improved, will not secure men from the
   judgments of God. You only have I known of all the families of the
   earth; therefore will I punish you. The valley of vision has a
   particular burden. Thou Capernaum, Matt. xi. 23. The higher any are
   lifted up in means and mercies the heavier will their doom be if they
   abuse them.

   Now the burden of the valley of vision here is that which will not
   quite ruin it, but only frighten it; for it refers not to the
   destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, but to the attempt made
   upon it by Sennacherib, which we had the prophecy of, ch. x., and shall
   meet with the history of, ch. xxxvi.. It is here again prophesied of,
   because the desolations of many of the neighbouring countries, which
   were foretold in the foregoing chapters, were to be brought to pass by
   the Assyrian army. Now let Jerusalem know that when the cup is going
   round it will be put into her hand; and, although it will not be to her
   a fatal cup, yet it will be a cup of trembling. Here is foretold,

   I. The consternation that the city should be in upon the approach of
   Sennacherib's army. It used to be full of stirs, a city of great trade,
   people hurrying to and fro about their business, a tumultuous city,
   populous and noisy. Where there is great trade there is great tumult.
   It used to be a joyous revelling city. What with the busy part and what
   with the merry part of mankind, places of concourse are places of
   noise. "But what ails thee now, that the shops are quitted, and there
   is no more walking in the streets and exchange, but thou hast wholly
   gone up to the house-tops (v. 1), to bemoan thyself in silence and
   solitude, or to secure thyself from the enemy, or to look abroad and
   see if any succours come to thy relief, or which way the enemies'
   motions are." Let both men of business and sportsmen rejoice as though
   they rejoiced not, for something may happen quickly, which they little
   think of, that will be a damp to their mirth and a stop to their
   business, and send them to watch as a sparrow alone upon the house-top,
   Ps. cii. 7. But why is Jerusalem in such a fright? Her slain men are
   not slain with the sword (v. 2), but, 1. Slain with famine (so some);
   for Sennacherib's army having laid the country waste, and destroyed the
   fruits of the earth, provisions must needs be very scarce and dear in
   the city, which would be the death of many of the poorer sort of
   people, who would be constrained to feed on that which was unwholesome.
   2. Slain with fear. They were put into this fright though they had not
   a man killed, but so disheartened themselves that they seemed as
   effectually stabbed with fear as if they had been run through with a
   sword.

   II. The inglorious flight of the rulers of Judah, who fled from far,
   from all parts of the country, to Jerusalem (v. 3), fled together, as
   it were by consent, and were found in Jerusalem, having left their
   respective cities, which they should have taken care of, to be a prey
   to the Assyrian army, which, meeting with no opposition, when it came
   up against all the defenced cities of Judah easily took them, ch.
   xxxvi. 1. These rulers were bound from the bow (so the word is); they
   not only quitted their own cities like cowards, but, when they came to
   Jerusalem, were of no service there, but were as if their hands were
   tied from the use of the bow, by the extreme distraction and confusion
   they were in; they trembled, so that they could not draw a bow. See how
   easily God can dispirit men, and how certainly fear will dispirit them,
   when the tyranny of it is yielded to.

   III. The great grief which this should occasion to all serious sensible
   people among them, which is represented by the prophet's laying the
   thing to heart himself; he lived to see it, and was resolved to share
   with the children of his people in their sorrows, v. 4, 5. He is not
   willing to proclaim his sorrow, and therefore bids those about him to
   look away from him; he will abandon himself to grief, and indulge
   himself in it, will weep secretly, but weep bitterly, and will have
   none go about to comfort him, for his grief is obstinate and he is
   pleased with his pain. But what is the occasion of his grief? A poor
   prophet had little to lose, and had been inured to hardship, when he
   walked naked and barefoot; but it is for the spoiling of the daughter
   of his people. It is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of
   perplexity. Our enemies trouble us and tread us down, and our friends
   are perplexed and know not what course to take to do us a kindness. The
   Lord God of hosts is now contending with the valley of vision; the
   enemies with their battering rams are breaking down the walls, and we
   are in vain crying to the mountains (to keep off the enemy, or to fall
   on us and cover us) or looking for help to come to us over the
   mountains, or appealing, as God does, to the mountains, to hear our
   controversy (Mic. vi. 1) and to judge between us and our injurious
   neighbours.

   IV. The great numbers and strength of the enemy, that should invade
   their country and besiege their city, v. 6, 7. Elam (that is, the
   Persians) come with their quiver full of arrows, and with chariots of
   fighting men, and horsemen. Kir (that is, the Medes) muster up their
   arms, unsheath the sword, and uncover the shield, and get every thing
   ready for battle, every thing ready for the besieging of Jerusalem.
   Then the choice valleys about Jerusalem, that used to be clothed with
   flocks and covered over with corn, shall be full of chariots of war,
   and at the gate of the city the horsemen shall set themselves in array,
   to cut off all provisions from going in, and to force their way in.
   What a condition must the city be in that was beset on all sides with
   such an army!

Contempt of Divine Goodness; Contempt of Divine Judgments. (b. c. 718.)

   8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that
   day to the armour of the house of the forest.   9 Ye have seen also the
   breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered
   together the waters of the lower pool.   10 And ye have numbered the
   houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the
   wall.   11 Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of
   the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither
   had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.   12 And in that day
   did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to
   baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:   13 And behold joy and
   gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking
   wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.   14 And it was
   revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall
   not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.

   What is meant by the covering of Judah, which in the beginning of this
   paragraph is said to be discovered, is not agreed. The fenced cities of
   Judah were a covering to the country; but these, being taken by the
   army of the Assyrians, ceased to be a shelter, so that the whole
   country lay exposed to be plundered. The weakness of Judah, its
   nakedness, and inability to keep itself, now appeared more than ever;
   and thus the covering of Judah was discovered. Its magazines and
   stores, which had been locked up, were now laid open for the public
   use. Dr. Lightfoot gives another sense of it, that by this distress
   into which Judah should be brought God would discover their covering
   (that is, uncloak their hypocrisy), would show all that was in their
   heart, as is said of Hezekiah upon another occasion, 2 Chron. xxxii.
   31. Thus, by one means or other, the iniquity of Ephraim will be
   discovered and the sin of Samaria, Hos. vii. 1.

   They were now in a great fright, and in this fright they manifested two
   things much amiss:--

   I. A great contempt of God's goodness, and his power to help them. They
   made use of all the means they could think of for their own
   preservation; and it is not for doing this that they are blamed, but,
   in doing this, they did not acknowledge God. Observe,

   1. How careful they were to improve all advantages that might
   contribute to their safety. When Sennacherib had made himself master of
   all the defenced cities of Judah, and Jerusalem was left as a cottage
   in a vineyard, they thought it was time to look about them. A council
   was immediately called, a council of war; and it was resolved to stand
   upon their defence, and not tamely to surrender. Pursuant to this
   resolve, they took all the prudent measures they could for their own
   security. We tempt God if, in times of danger, we do not the best we
   can for ourselves. (1.) They inspected the magazines and stores, to see
   if they were well stocked with arms and ammunition: They looked to the
   armour of the house of the forest, which Solomon built in Jerusalem for
   an armoury (1 Kings x. 17), and thence they delivered out what they had
   occasion for. It is the wisdom of princes, in time of peace, to provide
   for war, that they may not have arms to seek when they should use them,
   and perhaps upon a sudden emergency. (2.) They viewed the
   fortifications, the breaches of the city of David; they walked round
   the walls, and observed where they had gone to decay for want of
   seasonable repairs, or were broken by some former attempts made upon
   them. These breaches were many; the more shame for the house of David
   that they suffered the city of David to lie neglected. They had
   probably often seen those breaches; but now they saw them to consider
   what course to take about them. This good we should get by public
   distresses, we should be awakened by them to repair our breaches, and
   amend what is amiss. (3.) They made sure of water for the city, and did
   what they could to deprive the besiegers of it: You gathered together
   the water of the lower pool, of which there was probably no great
   store, and of which therefore they were the more concerned to be good
   husbands. See what a mercy it is that, as nothing is more necessary to
   the support of human life than water, so nothing is more cheap and
   common; but it is bad indeed when that, as here, is a scarce commodity.
   (4.) They numbered the houses of Jerusalem, that every house might send
   in its quota of men for the public service, or contribute in money to
   it, which they raised by a poll, so much a head or so much a house.
   (5.) Because private property ought to give way to the public safety,
   those houses that stood in their way, when the wall was to be
   fortified, were broken down, which, in such a case of necessity, is no
   more an injury to the owner than blowing up houses in case of fire.
   (6.) They made a ditch between the outer and inner wall, for the
   greater security of the city; and they contrived to draw the water of
   the old pool to it, that they might have plenty of water themselves and
   might deprive the besiegers of it; for it seems that was the project,
   lest the Assyrian army should come and find much water (2 Chron. xxxii.
   4) and so should be the better able to prolong the siege. If it be
   lawful to destroy the forage of a country, much more to divert the
   streams of its waters, for the straitening and starving of an enemy.

   2. How regardless they were of God in all these preparations: But you
   have not looked unto the Maker thereof (that is, of Jerusalem, the city
   you are so solicitous for the defence of) and of all the advantages
   which nature has furnished it with for its defence--the mountains round
   about it (Ps. cxxv. 2), and the rivers, which were such as the
   inhabitants might turn which way soever they pleased for their
   convenience. Note, (1.) It is God that made his Jerusalem, and
   fashioned it long ago, in his counsels. The Jewish writers, upon this
   place, say, There were seven things which God made before the world
   (meaning which he had in his eye when he made the world): the garden of
   Eden, the law, the just ones, Israel, the throne of glory, Jerusalem,
   and Messiah the Prince. The gospel church has God for its Maker. (2.)
   Whatever service we do, or endeavour to do, at any time to God's
   Jerusalem, must be done with an eye to him as the Maker of it; and he
   takes it ill if it be done otherwise. It is here charged upon them that
   they did not look to God. [1.] They did not design his glory in what
   they did. They fortified Jerusalem because it was a rich city and their
   own houses were in it, not because it was the holy city and God's house
   was in it. In all our cares for the defence of the church we must look
   more at God's interest in it than at our own. [2.] They did not depend
   upon him for a blessing upon their endeavours, saw no need of it, and
   therefore sought not to him for it, but thought their own powers and
   policies sufficient for them. Of Hezekiah himself it is said that he
   trusted in God (2 Kings xviii. 5), and particularly upon this occasion
   (2 Chron. xxxii. 8); but there were those about him, it seems, who were
   great statesmen and soldiers, but had little religion in them. [3.]
   They did not give him thanks for the advantages they had, in fortifying
   their city, from the waters of the old pool, which were fashioned long
   ago, as Kishon is called an ancient river, Judg. v. 21. Whatever in
   nature is at any time serviceable to us, we must therein acknowledge
   the goodness of the God of nature, who, when he fashioned it long ago,
   fitted it to be so, and according to whose ordinance it continues to
   this day. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; and
   therefore, whatever use it is of to us, we must look at him that
   fashioned it, bless him for it, and use it for him.

   II. A great contempt of God's wrath and justice in contending with
   them, v. 12-14. Here observe,

   1. What was God's design in bringing this calamity upon them: it was to
   humble them, bring them to repentance, and make them serious. In that
   day of trouble, and treading down, and perplexity, the Lord did thereby
   call to weeping and mourning, and all the expressions of sorrow, even
   to baldness and girding with sackcloth; and all this to lament their
   sins (by which they had brought those judgments upon their land), to
   enforce their prayers (by which they might hope to avert the judgments
   that were breaking in), and to dispose themselves to a reformation of
   their lives by a holy seriousness and a tenderness of heart under the
   word of God. To this God called them by his prophet's explaining his
   providences, and by his providences awakening them to regard what his
   prophets said. Note, When God threatens us with his judgments he
   expects and requires that we humble ourselves under his mighty hand,
   that we tremble when the lion roars, and in a day of adversity
   consider.

   2. How contrary they walked to this design of God (v. 13): Behold, joy
   and gladness, mirth and feasting, all the gaiety and all the jollity
   imaginable. They were as secure and cheerful as they used to be, as if
   they had had no enemy in their borders or were in no danger of falling
   into his hands. When they had taken the necessary precautions for their
   security, then they set all deaths and dangers at defiance, and
   resolved to be merry, let come on them what would. Those that should
   have been among the mourners were among the wine-bibbers, the riotous
   eaters of flesh; and observe what they said, Let us eat and drink, for
   to-morrow we shall die. This may refer either to the particular danger
   they were now in, and the fair warning which the prophet gave them of
   it, or to the general shortness and uncertainty of human life, and the
   nearness of death at all times. This was the language of the profane
   scoffers who mocked the messengers of the Lord and misused his
   prophets. (1.) They made a jest of dying. "The prophet tells us we must
   die shortly, perhaps to-morrow, and therefore we should mourn and
   repent to-day; no, rather let us eat and drink, that we may be fattened
   for the slaughter, and may be in good heart to meet our doom; if we
   must have a short life, let it be a merry one." (2.) They ridiculed the
   doctrine of a future state on the other side death; for, if there were
   no such state, the apostle grants there would be something of reason in
   what they said, 1 Cor. xv. 32. If, when we die, there were an end of
   us, it were good to make ourselves as easy and merry as we could while
   we live; but, if for all these things God shall bring us into judgment,
   it is at our peril if we walk in the way of our heart and the sight of
   our eyes, Eccl. xi. 9. Note, A practical disbelief of another life
   after this is at the bottom of the carnal security and brutish
   sensuality which are the sin, and shame, and ruin of so great a part of
   mankind, as of the old world, who were eating and drinking till the
   flood came.

   3. How much God was displeased at it. He signified his resentment of it
   to the prophet, revealed it in his ears, to be by him proclaimed upon
   the house-top: Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till
   you die, v. 14. It shall never be expiated with sacrifice and offering,
   any more than the iniquity of the house of Eli, 1 Sam. iii. 14. It is a
   sin against the remedy, a baffling of the utmost means of conviction
   and rendering them ineffectual; and therefore it is not likely they
   should ever repent of it or have it pardoned. The Chaldee reads it, It
   shall not be forgiven you till you die the second death. Those that
   walk contrary to them; with the froward he will show himself froward.

The Downfall of Shebna; The Advancement of Eliakim. (b. c. 714.)

   15 Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer,
   even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,   16 What hast thou
   here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a
   sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that
   graveth a habitation for himself in a rock?   17 Behold, the Lord will
   carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.
   18 He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large
   country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory
   shall be the shame of thy lord's house.   19 And I will drive thee from
   thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.   20 And it
   shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the
   son of Hilkiah:   21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and
   strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into
   his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
   to the house of Judah.   22 And the key of the house of David will I
   lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he
   shall shut, and none shall open.   23 And I will fasten him as a nail
   in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's
   house.   24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's
   house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from
   the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.   25 In that
   day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the
   sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that
   was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it.

   We have here a prophecy concerning the displacing of Shebna, a great
   officer at court, and the preferring of Eliakim to the post of honour
   and trust that he was in. Such changes are common in the courts of
   princes; it is therefore strange that so much notice should be taken of
   it by the prophet here; but by the accomplishment of what was foretold
   concerning these particular persons God designed to confirm his word in
   the mouth of Isaiah concerning other and greater events; and it is
   likewise to show that, as God has burdens in store for those nations
   and kingdoms abroad that are open enemies to his church and people, so
   he has for those particular persons at home that are false friends to
   them and betray them. It is likewise a confirmation in general of the
   hand of divine Providence in all events of this kind, which to us seem
   contingent and to depend upon the wills and fancies of princes.
   Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the
   south; but God is the Judge, Ps. xxv. 6, 7. It is probable that this
   prophecy was delivered at the same time with that in the former part of
   the chapter, and began to be fulfilled before Sennacherib's invasion;
   for now Shebna was over the house, but then Eliakim was (ch. xxxvi. 3);
   and Shebna, coming down gradually, was only scribe. Here is,

   I. The prophecy of Shebna's disgrace. He is called this treasurer,
   being entrusted with the management of the revenue; and he is likewise
   said to be over the house, for such was his boundless ambition and
   covetousness that less than two places, and those two of the greatest
   importance at court, would not satisfy him. It is common for
   self-seeking men thus to grasp at more than they can manage, and so the
   business of their places is neglected, while the pomp and profit of
   them wholly engage the mind. It does not appear what were the
   particular instances of Shebna's mal-administration, for which Isaiah
   is here sent to prophesy against him; but the Jews say, "He kept up a
   traitorous correspondence with the king of Assyria, and was in treaty
   with him to deliver the city into his hands." However this was, it
   should seem that he was a foreigner (for we never read of the name of
   his father) and that he was an enemy to the true interests of Judah and
   Jerusalem: it is probable that he was first preferred by Ahaz. Hezekiah
   was himself an excellent prince; but the best masters cannot always be
   sure of good servants. We have need to pray for princes, that they may
   be wise and happy in the choice of those they trust. These were times
   of reformation, yet Shebna, a bad man, complied so far as to keep his
   places at court; and it is probable that many others did like him, for
   which reason Sennacherib is said to have been sent against a
   hypocritical nation, ch. x. 6. In this message to Shebna we have,

   1. A reproof of his pride, vanity, and security (v. 16): "What hast
   thou here, and whom hast thou here? What a mighty noise and bustle dost
   thou make! What estate has thou here, that thou was born to? Whom hast
   thou here, what relations, that thou art allied to? Art thou not of
   mean and obscure original, filius populi--a mere plebeian, that comest
   we know not whence? What is the meaning of this then, that thou hast
   built thyself a fine house, hast graved thyself a habitation?" So very
   nice and curious was it that it seemed rather to be the work of an
   engraver than of a mason or carpenter; and it seemed engraven in a
   rock, so firmly was it founded and so impregnable was it. "Nay, thou
   hast hewed thee out a sepulchre," as if he designed that his pomp
   should survive his funeral. Though Jerusalem was not the place of his
   father's sepulchres (as Nehemiah called it with a great deal of
   tenderness, Neh. ii. 3), he designed it should be the place of his own,
   and therefore set up a monument for himself in his life-time, set it up
   on high. Those that make stately monuments for their pride forget that,
   how beautiful soever they appear outwardly, within they are full of
   dead men's bones. But it is a pity that the grave-stone should forget
   the grave.

   2. A prophecy of his fall and the sullying of his glory. (1.) That he
   should not quickly be displaced and degraded (v. 19): I will drive thee
   from thy station. High places are slippery places; and those are justly
   deprived of their honour that are proud of it and puffed up with it,
   and deprived of their power that do hurt with it. God will do it, who
   shows himself to be God by looking upon proud men and abasing them, Job
   xl. 11, 12. To this v. 25 refers. "The nail that is now fastened in the
   sure place (that is, Shebna, who thinks himself immovably fixed in his
   office) shall be removed, and cut down, and fall." Those are mistaken
   who think any place in this world a sure place, or themselves as nails
   fastened in it; for there is nothing here but uncertainty. When the
   nail falls the burden that was upon it is cut off; when Shebna was
   disgraced all that had a dependence upon him fell into contempt too.
   Those that are in high places will have many hanging upon them as
   favourites whom they are proud of and trust to; but they are burdens
   upon them, and perhaps with their weight break the nail, and both fall
   together, and by deceiving ruin one another--the common fate of great
   men and their flatterers, who expect more from each other than either
   performs. (2.) That after a while he should not only be driven from his
   station, but driven from his country: The Lord will carry thee away
   with the captivity of a mighty man, v. 17, 18. Some think the Assyrians
   seized him, and took him away, because he had promised to assist them
   and did not, but appeared against them: or perhaps Hezekiah, finding
   out his treachery, banished him, and forbade him ever to return; or he
   himself, finding that he had become obnoxious to the people, withdrew
   into some other country, and there spent the rest of his days in
   meanness and obscurity. Grotius thinks he was stricken with a leprosy,
   which was a disease commonly supposed to come from the immediate hand
   of God's displeasure, particularly for the punishment of the proud, as
   in the case of Miriam and Uzziah; and by reason of this disease he was
   tossed like a ball out of Jerusalem. Those who, when they are in power,
   turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves when
   their day shall come to fall. Many who have thought themselves fastened
   like a nail may come to be tossed like a ball; for here have we no
   continuing city. Shebna thought his place too strait for him, he had no
   room to thrive; God will therefore send him into a large country, where
   he shall have room to wander, but never find the way back again; for
   there he shall die, and lay his bones there, and not in the sepulchre
   he had hewn out for himself. And there the chariots which had been the
   chariots of his glory, in which he had rattled about the streets of
   Jerusalem, and which he took into banishment with him, should but serve
   to upbraid him with his former grandeur, to the shame of his lord's
   house, of the court of Ahaz, who had advanced him.

   II. The prophecy of Eliakim's advancement, v. 20, &c. He is God's
   servant, has approved himself faithfully so in other employments, and
   therefore God will call him to this high station. Those that are
   diligent in doing the duty of a low sphere stand fairest for preferment
   in God's books. Eliakim does not undermine Shebna, nor make an interest
   against him, nor does he intrude into his office; but God calls him to
   it: and what God calls us to we may expect he will own us in. It is
   here foretold, 1. That Eliakim should be put into Shebna's place of
   lord-chamberlain of the household, lord-treasurer, and prime-minister
   of state. The prophet must tell Shebna this, v. 21. "He shall have thy
   robe, the badge of honour, and thy girdle, the badge of power; for he
   shall have thy government." To hear of it would be a great
   mortification to Shebna, much more to see it. Great men, especially if
   proud men, cannot endure their successors. God undertakes the doing of
   it, not only because he would put it into the heart of Hezekiah to do
   it, and his hand must be acknowledged guiding the hearts of princes in
   placing and displacing men (Prov. xxi. 1), but because the powers that
   are, subordinate as well as supreme, are ordained of God. It is God
   that clothes princes with their robes, and therefore we must submit
   ourselves to them for the Lord's sake and with an eye to him, 1 Pet.
   ii. 13. And, since it is he that commits the government into their
   hand, they must administer it according to his will, for his glory;
   they must judge for him by whom they judge and decree justice, Prov.
   viii. 15. And they may depend upon him to furnish them for what he
   calls them to, according to this promise: I will clothe him; and then
   it follows, I will strengthen him. Those that are called to places of
   trust and power should seek unto God for grace to enable them to do the
   duty of their places; for that ought to be their chief care. Eliakim's
   advancement is further described by the laying of the key of the house
   of David upon his shoulders, v. 22. Probably he carried a golden key
   upon his shoulder as a badge of his office, or had one embroidered upon
   his cloak or robe, to which this alludes. Being over the house, and
   having the key delivered to him, as the seals are to the lord-keeper,
   he shall open and none shall shut, shut and none shall open. He had
   access to the house of the precious things, the silver, and the gold,
   and the spices; and to the house of the armour and the treasures (ch.
   xxxix. 2), and disposed of the stores there as he thought fit for the
   public service. He put whom he pleased into the inferior offices and
   turned out whom he pleased. Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as
   Mediator by an allusion to this (Rev. iii. 7), that he has the key of
   David, wherewith he opens and no man shuts, he shuts and no man opens.
   His power in the kingdom of heaven, and in the ordering of all the
   affairs of that kingdom, is absolute, irresistible, and uncontrollable.
   2. That he should be fixed and confirmed in that office. He shall have
   it for life, and not durante bene placito--during pleasure (v. 23): I
   will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, not to be removed or cut
   down. Thus lasting shall the honour be that comes from God to all those
   who use it for him. Our Lord Jesus is as a nail in a sure place: his
   kingdom cannot be shaken, and he himself is still the same. 3. That he
   should be a great blessing in his office; and it is this that crowns
   the favours here conferred upon him. God makes his name great, for he
   shall be a blessing, Gen. xii. 2. (1.) He shall be a blessing to his
   country (v. 21): He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
   and to the house of Judah. he shall take care not only of the affairs
   of the king's household, but of all the public interests in Jerusalem
   and Judah. Note, Rulers should be fathers to those that are under their
   government, to teach them with wisdom, rule them with love, and correct
   what is amiss with tenderness, to protect them and provide for them,
   and be solicitous about them as a man is for his own children and
   family. It is happy with a people when the court, the city, and the
   country, have no separate interests, but all centre in the same, so
   that the courtiers are true patriots, and whom the court blesses the
   country has reason to bless too; and when those who are fathers to
   Jerusalem, the royal city, are no less so to the house of Judah. (2.)
   He shall be a blessing to his family (v. 23, 24): He shall be for a
   glorious throne to his father's house. The consummate wisdom and virtue
   which recommended him to this great trust made him the honour of his
   family, which probably was very considerable before, but now became
   much more so. Children should aim to be a credit to their parents and
   relations. The honour men reflect upon their families by their piety
   and usefulness is more to be valued than that which they derive from
   their families by their names and titles. Eliakim being preferred, all
   the glory of his father's house was hung upon him; they all made their
   court to him, and his brethren's sheaves bowed to his. Observe, The
   glory of this world gives a man no intrinsic worth or excellency; it is
   but hung upon him as an appurtenance, and it will soon drop from him.
   Eliakim was compared to a nail in a sure place, in pursuance of which
   comparison all the relations of his family (which, it is likely, were
   numerous, and that was the glory of it) are said to have a dependence
   upon him, as in a house the vessels that have handles to them are hung
   up upon nails and pins. It intimates likewise that he shall generously
   take care of them all, and bear the weight of that care: All the
   vessels, not only the flagons, but the cups, the vessels of small
   quantity, the meanest that belong to his family, shall be provided for
   by him. See what a burden those bring upon themselves that undertake
   great trusts; they little think how many and how much will hand upon
   them if they resolve to be faithful in the discharge of their trust.
   Our Lord Jesus, having the key of the house of David, is as a nail in a
   sure place, and all the glory of his father's house hangs upon him, is
   derived from him, and depends upon him; even the meanest that belong to
   his church are welcome to him, and he is able to bear the stress of
   them all. That soul cannot perish, nor that concern fall to the ground,
   though ever so weighty, that is by faith hung upon Christ.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXIII.

   This chapter is concerning Tyre, an ancient wealthy city, situated upon
   the sea, and for many ages one of the most celebrated cities for trade
   and merchandise in those parts of the world. The lot of the tribe of
   Asher bordered upon it. See Joshua xix. 29, where it is called "the
   strong city Tyre." We seldom find it a dangerous enemy to Israel, but
   sometimes their faithful ally, as in the reigns of David and Solomon;
   for trading cities maintain their grandeur, not by the conquest of
   their neighbours, but by commerce with them. In this chapter is
   foretold, I. The lamentable desolation of Tyre, which was performed by
   Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army, about the time that they
   destroyed Jerusalem; and a hard task they had of it, as appears Ezek.
   xxix. 18, where they are said to have "served a hard service against
   Tyre," and yet to have no wages, ver. 1-14. II. The restoration of Tyre
   after seventy years, and the return of the Tyrians out of their
   captivity to their trade again, ver. 15-18.

The Doom of Tyre. (b. c. 718.)

   1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste,
   so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it
   is revealed to them.   2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou
   whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
     3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is
   her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.   4 Be thou ashamed, O
   Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I
   travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young
   men, nor bring up virgins.   5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so
   shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.   6 Pass ye over to
   Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.   7 Is this your joyous
   city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her
   afar off to sojourn.   8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the
   crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the
   honourable of the earth?   9 The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to
   stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the
   honourable of the earth.   10 Pass through thy land as a river, O
   daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.   11 He stretched out
   his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a
   commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds
   thereof.   12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed
   virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also
   shalt thou have no rest.   13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this
   people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the
   wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces
   thereof; and he brought it to ruin.   14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish:
   for your strength is laid waste.

   Tyre being a sea-port town, this prophecy of its overthrow fitly begins
   and ends with, Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for all its business,
   wealth, and honour, depended upon its shipping; if that be ruined, they
   will be all undone. Observe,

   I. Tyre flourishing. This is taken notice of that her fall may appear
   the more dismal. 1. The merchants of Zidon, who traded at sea, had at
   first replenished her, v. 2. Zidon was the more ancient city, situated
   upon the same sea-cost, a few leagues more to the north, and Tyre was
   at first only a colony of that; but the daughter had outgrown the
   mother, and become much more considerable. It may be a mortification to
   great cities to think how they were at first replenished. 2. Egypt had
   helped very much to raise her, v. 3. Sihor was the river of Egypt: by
   that river, and the ocean into which it ran, the Egyptians traded with
   Tyre; and the harvest of that river was her revenue. The riches of the
   sea, and the gains by goods exported and imported, are as much the
   harvest to trading towns as that of hay and corn is to the country; and
   sometimes the harvest of the river proves a better revenue than the
   harvest of the land. Or it may be meant of all the products of the
   Egyptian soil, which the men of Tyre traded in, and which were the
   harvest of the river Nile, owing themselves to the overflowing of that
   river. 3. She had become the mart of the nations, the great emporium of
   that part of the world. Some of every known nation might be found
   there, especially at certain times of the year, when there was a
   general rendezvous of merchants. This is enlarged upon by another
   prophet, Ezek. xxvii. 2, 3, &c. See how the hand of the diligent, by
   the blessing of God upon it, makes rich. Tyre became rich and great by
   industry, though she had no other ploughs going than those that plough
   the waters. 4. She was a joyous city, noted for mirth and jollity, v.
   7. Those that were so disposed might find there all manner of sports
   and diversions, all the delights of the sons and daughters of men,
   balls, and plays, and operas, and every thing of that kind that a man
   had a fancy to. This made them secure and proud, and they despised the
   country people, who neither knew nor relished any joys of that nature.
   This also made them very loth to believe and consider what warnings God
   gave them by his servants; they were too merry to mind them. Her
   antiquity likewise was of ancient days, and she was proud of that, and
   that helped to make her secure; as if because she had been a city time
   out of mind, and her antiquity had been of ancient days, therefore she
   must continue a city time without end, and her continuance must be to
   the days of eternity. 5. She was a crowning city (v. 8), that crowned
   herself. Such were the power and pomp of her magistrates that they
   crowned those who had dependence on her and dealings with her. It is
   explained in the following words: Her merchants are princes, and live
   like princes for the ease and state they take; and her traffickers,
   whatever country they go to, are the honourable of the earth, who are
   respected by all. How slightly soever some now speak of tradesmen, it
   seems formerly, and among the wisest nations, there were merchants, and
   traders, and men of business, that were the honourable of the earth.

   II. Here is Tyre falling. It does not appear that she brought trouble
   upon herself by provoking her neighbours with her quarrels, but rather
   by tempting them with her wealth; but, if it was this that induced
   Nebuchadnezzar to fall upon Tyre, he was disappointed; for after it had
   stood out a siege of thirteen years, and could hold out no longer, the
   inhabitants got away by sea, with their families and goods, to other
   places where they had an interest, and left Nebuchadnezzar nothing but
   the bare city. See a history of Tyre in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of
   the World, lib. 2. cap. 7. sect. 3, 43. page. 283, which will give much
   light to this prophecy and that in Ezekiel concerning Tyre.

   1. See how the destruction of Tyre is here foretold. (1.) The haven
   shall be no convenient harbour for the reception of the ships of
   Tarshish, but all laid waste (1.), so that there shall be no house, no
   dock for the ships to ride in, no inns, or public houses for the
   seamen, no entering into the port. Perhaps it was choked with sand or
   blocked up by the enemy. Or, Tyre being destroyed and laid waste, the
   ships that used to come from Tarshish and Chittim into that port shall
   now no more enter in; for it is revealed or made known to them, they
   have received the dismal news, that Tyre is destroyed and laid waste;
   so that there is now no more business for them there. See how it is in
   this world; those that are spoiled by their enemies are commonly
   slighted by their old friends. (2.) The inhabitants are struck with
   astonishment. Tyre was an island. The inhabitants of it, who had made a
   mighty noise and bustle in the world, and revelled with loud huzzas,
   shall now be still and silent (v. 2); they shall sit down as mourners,
   so overwhelmed with grief that they shall not be able to express it.
   Their proud boasts of themselves, and defiances of their neighbours,
   shall be silenced. God can soon quiet those, and strike them dumb, that
   are the noisy busy people of the world. Be still; for God will do his
   work (Ps. xlvi. 10; Zech. ii. 13), and you cannot resist him. (3.) The
   neighbours are amazed, blush, and are in pain for them: Zidon is
   ashamed (v. 4), by whom Tyre was at first replenished; for the rolling
   waves of the sea brought to Zidon this news from Tyre; and there the
   strength of the sea, a high spring-tide, proclaimed saying, "I travail
   not, nor bring forth children now, as I have done. I do not now, as I
   used to do, bring ship-loads of young people to Tyre, to be bred up
   there in trade and business," which was the thing that had made Tyre so
   rich and populous. Or the sea, that used to be loaded with fleets of
   ships about Tyre, shall not be as desolate as a sorrowful widow that is
   bereaved of all her children, and has none about her to nourish and
   bring up. Egypt indeed was a much larger and more considerable kingdom
   than Tyre was; and yet Tyre had so large a correspondence, upon the
   account of trade, that all the nations about shall be as much in pain,
   upon the report of the ruin of that one city, as they would have been,
   and not long after were, upon the report of the ruin of all Egypt, v.
   5. Or, as some read it, When the report shall reach to the Egyptians
   they shall be sorely pained to hear it of Tyre, both because of the
   loss of their trade with that city and because it was a threatening
   step towards their own ruin; when their neighbour's house was on fire
   their own was in danger. (4.) The merchants, as many as could, should
   transmit their effects to other places, and abandon Tyre, where they
   had raised their estates, and thought they had made them sure (v. 6):
   "You that have long been inhabitants of this isle" (for it lay off in
   the sea about half a mile from the continent); "It is time to howl now,
   for you must pass over to Tarshish. The best course you can take is to
   make the best of your way to Tarshish, to the sea" (to Taressus, a city
   in Spain; so some), "or to some other of your plantations." Those that
   think their mountain stands strong, and cannot be moved, will find that
   here they have no continuing city. The mountains shall depart and the
   hills be removed. (5.) Those that could not make their escape must
   expect no other than to be carried into captivity; for it was the way
   of conquerors, in those times, to take those they conquered to be
   bondmen in their own country, and send of their own to be freemen in
   theirs (v. 7): Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn; they
   shall be hurried away on foot into captivity, and many a weary step
   they shall take towards their own misery. Those that have lived in the
   greatest pomp and splendour know not what hardships they may be reduced
   to before they die. (6.) Many of those that attempted to escape should
   be pursued and fall into the hands of the enemy. Tyre shall pass
   through her land as a river (v. 10), running down, one company after
   another, into the ocean or abyss of misery. Or, though they hasten away
   as a river, with the greatest swiftness, hoping to outrun the danger,
   yet there is no more strength; they are quickly tired, and cannot get
   forward, but fall an easy prey into the hands of the enemy. And, as
   Tyre has no more strength, so her sister Zidon has no more comfort (v.
   12): "Thou shalt no more rejoice, O oppressed virgin, daughter of
   Zidon, that art now ready to be overpowered by the victorious
   Chaldeans! Thy turn is next; therefore arise; pass over to Chittim;
   flee to Greece, to Italy, any where to shift for thy own safety; yet
   there also shalt thou have no rest; thy enemies shall disturb thee, and
   thy own fears shall disquiet thee, where thou hopedst to find some
   repose." Note, We deceive ourselves if we promise ourselves rest any
   where in this world. Those that are uneasy in one place will be so in
   another; and, when God's judgments pursue sinners, they will overtake
   them.

   2. But whence shall all this trouble come?

   (1.) God will be the author of it; it is a destruction from the
   Almighty. It will be asked (v. 8), "Who has taken this counsel against
   Tyre? Who has contrived it? Who has resolved it? Who can find in his
   heart to lay such a stately lovely city in ruins? And how is it
   possible that its ruin should be effected?" To this it will be
   answered, [1.] God has designed it, who is infinitely wise and just,
   and never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures (v.
   9). The Lord of hosts, that has all things at his disposal and gives
   not account of any of his matters, he has purposed it. It shall be done
   according to the counsel of his will; and that which he aims at herein
   is to stain the pride of all glory, to pollute it, profane it, and
   throw it to be trodden upon; and to bring into contempt and make
   despicable all the honourable ones of the earth, that they may not
   admire themselves and be admired by others as usual. God did not bring
   those calamities upon Tyre in a way of sovereignty, to show an
   arbitrary and irresistible power; but he did it to punish the Tyrians
   for their pride. Many other sins, no doubt, reigned among
   them--idolatry, sensuality, and oppression; but the sin of pride is
   fastened upon as that which was the particular ground of God's
   controversy with Tyre; for he resists the proud. All the world
   observing and being surprised at the desolation of Tyre, we have here
   an exposition of it. God tells the world what he meant by it. First, He
   designed to convince men of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly
   glory, to show them what a withering, fading, perishing thing it is
   even when it seems most substantial. It were well if men would be
   thoroughly taught this lesson, though it were at the expense of so
   great a destruction. Are men's learning and wealth, their pomp and
   power, their interest in, and influence upon, all about them, their
   glory? Are their stately houses, rich furniture, and splendid
   appearances, their glory? Look up on the ruins of Tyre, and see all
   this glory stained, and sullied, and buried in the dust. The honourable
   ones of heaven will be for ever such; but see the grandees of Tyre,
   some fled into banishment, others forced into captivity, and all
   impoverished, and you will conclude that the honourable of the earth,
   even the most honourable, know not how soon they may be brought into
   contempt. Secondly, He designed hereby to prevent their being proud of
   that glory, their being puffed up, and confident of the continuance of
   it. Let the ruin of Tyre be a warning to all places and persons to take
   heed of pride; for it proclaims to all the world that he who exalts
   himself shall be abased. [2.] God will do it, who has all power in his
   hand and can do it effectually (v. 11): He stretched out his hand over
   the sea. He has done so many a time, witness the dividing of the Red
   Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh in it. He has often shaken the kingdoms
   that were most secure; and he has now given commandment concerning this
   merchant-city, to destroy the strongholds thereof. As its beauty shall
   not intercede for it, but that shall be stained, so its strength shall
   not protect it, but that shall be broken. If any think it strange that
   a city so well fortified, and that has so many powerful allies, should
   be so totally ruined, let them know that it is the Lord of hosts that
   has given a commandment to destroy the strongholds thereof: and who can
   gainsay his orders or hinder the execution of them?

   (2.) The Chaldeans shall be the instruments of it (v. 13): Behold the
   land of the Chaldeans; how easily they and their land were destroyed by
   the Assyrians. Though their own hands founded it, set up the towers of
   Babylon, and raised up its palaces, yet the Assyrians brought it to
   ruin, whence the Tyrians might infer that as easily as the old
   Chaldeans were subdued by the Assyrians so easily shall Tyre be
   vanquished by those new Chaldeans. Babel was built by the Assyrians for
   those that dwelt in the wilderness. It may be rendered for the ships
   (the Assyrians founded it for ships and shipmen that traffic upon those
   vast rivers Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian and Indian seas), for
   men of the desert, for Babylon is called the desert of the sea, ch.
   xxi. 1. Thus Tyrus was built upon the sea for the like purpose. But the
   Assyrians (says Dr. Lightfoot) brought that to ruin, now lately, in
   Hezekiah's time, and so shall Tyre hereafter be brought to ruin by
   Nebuchadnezzar. If we looked more upon the falling and withering of
   others, we should not be so confident as we commonly are of the
   continuance of our own flourishing and standing.

The Restoration of Tyre. (b. c. 718.)

   15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten
   seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of
   seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot.   16 Take a harp, go about
   the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing
   many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.   17 And it shall come to
   pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and
   she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the
   kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.   18 And her
   merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be
   treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell
   before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

   Here is, I. The time fixed for the continuance of the desolations of
   Tyre, which were not to be perpetual desolations: Tyre shall be
   forgotten seventy years, v. 15. So long it shall lie neglected and
   buried in obscurity. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar much about the
   time that Jerusalem was, and lay as long as it did in its ruins. See
   the folly of that proud ambitious conqueror. What the richer, what the
   stronger, was he for making himself master of Tyre, when all the
   inhabitants were driven out of it and he had none of his own subjects
   to spare for the replenishing and fortifying of it? It is surprising to
   see what pleasure men could take in destroying cities and making their
   memorial perish with them, Ps. ix. 6. He trampled on the pride of Tyre,
   and therein served God's purpose; but with greater pride, for which God
   soon after humbled him.

   II. A prophecy of the restoration of Tyre to its glory again: After the
   end of seventy years, according to the years of one king, or one
   dynasty or family of kings, that of Nebuchadnezzar; when that expired,
   the desolations of Tyre came to an end. And we may presume that Cyrus
   at the same time when he released the Jews, and encouraged them to
   rebuild Jerusalem, released the Tyrians also, and encouraged them to
   rebuild Tyre. Thus the prosperity and adversity of places, as well as
   persons, are set the one over against the other, that the most glorious
   cities may not be secure nor the most ruinous despair. It is foretold,
   1. That God's providence shall gain smile upon this ruined city (v.
   17): The Lord will visit Tyre in mercy; for, though he contend, he will
   not contend for ever. It is not said, Her old acquaintance shall visit
   her, the colonies she has planted, and the trading cities she has had
   correspondence with (they have forgotten her); but, The Lord shall
   visit her by some unthought-of turn; he shall cause his indignation
   towards her to cease, and then things will run of course in their
   former channel. 2. That she shall use her best endeavours to recover
   her trade again. She shall sing as a harlot, that has been some time
   under correction for her lewdness; but, when she is set at liberty (so
   violent is the bent of corruption), she will use her old arts of
   temptation. The Tyrians having returned from their captivity, and those
   that remained recovering new spirits thereupon, they shall contrive how
   to force a trade, shall procure the best choice of goods, under-sell
   their neighbours, and be obliging to all customers; as a harlot that
   has been forgotten, when she comes to be spoken of again, recommends
   herself to company by singing and playing, takes a harp, goes about the
   city, perhaps in the night, serenading, makes sweet melody, and sings
   many songs. These are innocent and allowable diversions, if soberly,
   and moderately, and modestly used; but those that value themselves upon
   their virtue should not be over-fond of them, nor ambitious to excel in
   them, because, whatever they are now, anciently they were some of the
   baits with which harlots used to entice fools. Tyre shall now by
   degrees come to be the mart of nations again; she shall return to her
   hire, to her traffic, and shall commit fornication (that is, she shall
   have dealings in trade, for the prophet carries on the similitude of a
   harlot) with all the kingdoms of the world that she had formerly traded
   with in her prosperity. The love of worldly wealth is a spiritual
   whoredom, and therefore covetous people are called adulterers and
   adulteresses (James iv. 4), and covetousness is spiritual idolatry. 3.
   That, having recovered her trade again, she shall make a better use of
   it than she had done formerly; and this good she should get by her
   calamities (v. 18): Her merchandise, and her hire, shall be holiness to
   the Lord. The trade of Tyre, and all the gains of her trade, shall be
   devoted to God and to his honour and employed in his service. It shall
   not be treasured and hoarded up, as formerly, to be the matter of their
   pride and the support of their carnal confidence; but it shall be laid
   out in acts of piety and charity. What they can spare from the
   maintenance of themselves and their families shall be for those that
   dwell before the Lord, for the priests, the Lord's ministers, that
   attend in his temple at Jerusalem; not to maintain them in pomp and
   grandeur, but that they and theirs may eat sufficiently, may have food
   convenient for them, with as little as may be of that care which would
   divert them from their ministration, and that they may have, not rich
   and fine clothing, but durable clothing, that which is strong and
   lasting, clothing for old men (so some read it), as if the priests,
   though they were young, must wear such plain grave clothing as old men
   used to wear. Now, (1.) This supposes that religion should be set up in
   New Tyre, that they should come to the knowledge of the true God and
   into communion with the Israel of God. Perhaps their being
   fellow-captives with the Jews in Babylon (who had prophets with them
   there) disposed them to join with them in their worship there, and
   turned them from idols, as it cured the Jews of their idolatry: and
   when they were released with them, and as they had reason to believe
   for their sakes, when they were settled again in Tyre, they would send
   gifts and offerings to the temple, and presents to the priests. We find
   men of Tyre then dwelling in the land of Judah, Neh. xiii. 16. Tyre and
   Sidon were better disposed to religion in Christ's time than the cities
   of Israel; for, if Christ had gone among them, they would have
   repented, Matt. xi. 21. And we meet with Christians at Tyre (Acts xxi.
   3, 4), and, many years after, did Christianity flourish there. Some of
   the rabbin refer this prophecy of the conversion of Tyre to the days of
   the Messiah. (2.) It directs those that have estates to make use of
   them in the service of God and religion, and to reckon that best laid
   up which is so laid out. Both the merchandise of the tradesmen and the
   hire of the day-labourers shall be devoted to God. Both the merchandise
   (the employment we follow) and the hire (the gain of our employments)
   must be holiness to the Lord, alluding to the motto engraven on the
   frontlet of the high priest (Exod. xxxix. 30), and to the separation of
   the tithe under the law, Lev. xxvii. 30. See a promise like this
   referring to gospel times, Zech. xiv. 20, 21. We must first give up
   ourselves to be holiness to the Lord before what we do, or have, or
   get, can be so. When we abide with God in our particular callings, and
   do common actions after a godly sort--when we abound in works of piety
   and charity, are liberal in relieving the poor, and supporting the
   ministry, and encouraging the gospel--then our merchandise and our hire
   are holiness to the Lord, if we sincerely look at his glory in them.
   And our wealth need not be treasured and laid up on earth; for it is
   treasured and laid up in heaven, in bags that wax not old, Luke xii.
   33.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXIV.

   It is agreed that here begins a new sermon, which is continued to the
   end of chap. xxvii. And in it the prophet, according to the directions
   he had received, does, in many precious promises, "say to the
   righteous, It shall be well with them;" and, in many dreadful
   threatenings, he says, "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them"
   (ch. iii. 10, 11); and these are interwoven, that they may illustrate
   each other. This chapter is mostly threatening; and, as the judgments
   threatened are very sore and grievous ones, so the people threatened
   with those judgments are very many. It is not the burden of any
   particular city or kingdom, as those before, but the burden of the
   whole earth. The word indeed signifies only the land, because our own
   land is commonly to us as all the earth. But it is here explained by
   another word that is not so confined; it is the world (ver. 4); so that
   it must at least take in a whole neighbourhood of nations. 1. Some
   think (and very probably) that it is a prophecy of the great havoc that
   Sennacherib and his Assyrian army should now shortly make of many of
   the nations in that part of the world. 2. Others make it to point at
   the like devastations which, about 100 years afterwards, Nebuchadnezzar
   and his armies should make in the same countries, going from one
   kingdom to another, not only to conquer them, but to ruin them and lay
   them waste; for that was the method which those eastern nations took in
   their wars. The promises that are mixed with the threatenings are
   intended for the support and comfort of the people of God in those very
   calamitous times. And, since here are no particular nations names
   either by whom or on whom those desolations should be brought, I see
   not but it may refer to both these events. Nay, the scripture has many
   fulfillings, and we ought to give it its full latitude; and therefore I
   incline to think that the prophet, from those and the like instances
   which he had a particular eye to, designs here to represent in general
   the calamitous state of mankind, and the many miseries which human life
   is liable to, especially those that attend the wars of the nations.
   Surely the prophets were sent, not only to foretel particular events,
   but to form the minds of men to virtue and piety, and for that end
   their prophecies were written and preserved even for our learning, and
   therefore ought not to be looked upon as of private interpretation. Now
   since a thorough conviction of the vanity of the world, and its
   insufficiency to make us happy, will go far towards bringing us to God,
   and drawing out our affections towards another world, the prophet here
   shows what vexation of spirit we must expect to meet with in these
   things, that we may never take up our rest in them, nor promise
   ourselves satisfaction any where short of the enjoyment of God. In this
   chapter we have, I. A threatening of desolating judgments for sin (ver.
   1-12), to which is added an assurance that in the midst of them good
   people should be comforted, ver. 13-15. II. A further threatening of
   the like desolations (ver. 16-22), to which is added an assurance that
   in the midst of all God should be glorified.

General Desolation Announced. (b. c. 718.)

   1 Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and
   turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
     2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with
   the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her
   mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so
   with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of
   usury to him.   3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly
   spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.   4 The earth mourneth and
   fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people
   of the earth do languish.   5 The earth also is defiled under the
   inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed
   the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.   6 Therefore hath the
   curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate:
   therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
   7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do
   sigh.   8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice
   endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.   9 They shall not drink wine with
   a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.   10 The
   city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man
   may come in.   11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is
   darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.   12 In the city is left
   desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

   It is a very dark and melancholy scene that this prophecy presents to
   our view; turn our eyes which way we will, every thing looks dismal.
   The threatened desolations are here described in a great variety of
   expressions to the same purport, and all aggravating.

   I. The earth is stripped of all its ornaments and looks as if it were
   taken off its basis; it is made empty and waste (v. 1), as if it were
   reduced to its first chaos, Tohu and Bohu, nothing but confusion and
   emptiness again (Gen. i. 2), without form and void. It is true earth
   sometimes signifies the land, and so the same word eretz is here
   translated (v. 3): The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly
   spoiled; but I see not why it should not there, as well as v. 1, be
   translated the earth; for most commonly, if not always, where it
   signifies some one particular land it has something joined to it, or at
   least not far from it, which does so appropriate it; as the land (or
   earth) of Egypt, or Canaan, or this land, or ours, or yours, or the
   like. It might indeed refer to some particular country, and an
   ambiguous word might be used to warrant such an application; for it is
   good to apply to ourselves, and our own hands, what the scripture says
   in general of the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all things
   here below; but it should seem designed to speak what often happens to
   many countries, and will do while the world stands, and what may, we
   know not how soon, happen to our own, and what is the general character
   of all earthly things: they are empty of all solid comfort and
   satisfaction; a little thing makes them waste. We often see numerous
   families, and plentiful estates, utterly emptied and utterly spoiled,
   by one judgment or other, or perhaps only by a gradual and insensible
   decay. Sin has turned the earth upside down; the earth has become quite
   a different thing to man from what it was when God made it to be his
   habitation. Sin has also scattered abroad the inhabitants thereof. The
   rebellion at Babel was the occasion of the dispersion there. How many
   ways are there in which the inhabitants both of towns and of private
   houses are scattered abroad, so that near relations and old neighbours
   know nothing of one another! To the same purport is v. 4. The earth
   mourns, and fades away; it disappoints those that placed their
   happiness in it and raised their expectations high from it, and proves
   not what they promised themselves it would be. The whole world
   languishes and fades away, as hastening towards a dissolution. It is,
   at the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of those that
   please themselves too much with it, and lay it in their bosoms. And, as
   the earth itself grows old, so those that dwell therein are desolate;
   men carry crazy sickly bodies along with them, are often solitary, and
   confined by affliction, v. 6. When the earth languishes, and is not so
   fruitful as it used to be, then those that dwell therein, that make it
   their home, and rest, and portion, are desolate; whereas those that by
   faith dwell in God can rejoice in him even when the fir-tree does not
   blossom. If we look abroad, and see in how many places pestilences and
   burning fevers rage, and what multitudes are swept away by them in a
   little time, so that sometimes the living scarcely suffice to bury the
   dead, perhaps we shall understand what the prophet means when he says,
   The inhabitants of the earth are burned, or consumed, some by one
   disease, others by another, and there are but few men left, in
   comparison. Note, The world we live in is a world of disappointment, a
   vale of tears, and a dying world; and the children of men in it are but
   of few days, and full of trouble.

   II. It is God that brings all these calamities upon the earth. The Lord
   that made the earth, and made it fruitful and beautiful, for the
   service and comfort of man, now makes it empty and waste (v. 1), for
   its Creator is and will be its Judge; he has an incontestable right to
   pass sentence upon it and an irresistible power to execute that
   sentence. It is the Lord that has spoken this word, and he will do the
   work (v. 3); it is his curse that has devoured the earth (v. 6), the
   general curse which sin brought upon the ground for man's sake (Gen.
   iii. 17), and all the particular curses which families and countries
   bring upon themselves by their enormous wickedness. See the power of
   God's curse, how it makes all empty and lays all waste; those whom he
   curses are cursed indeed.

   III. Persons of all ranks and conditions shall share in these
   calamities (v. 2): It shall be as with the people, so with the priest,
   &c. This is true of many of the common calamities of human life; all
   are subject to the same diseases of body, sorrows of mind, afflictions
   in relations, and the like. There is one event to those of very
   different stations; time and chance happen to them all. It is in a
   special manner true of the destroying judgments which God sometimes
   brings upon sinful nations; when he pleases he can make them universal,
   so that none shall escape them or be exempt from them; whether men have
   little or much, they shall lose it all. Those of the meaner rank smart
   first by famine; but those of the higher rank go first into captivity,
   while the poor of the land are left. It shall be all alike, 1. With
   high and low: As with the people, so with the priest, or prince. The
   dignity of magistrates and ministers, and the respect and reverence due
   to both, shall not secure them. The faces of elders are not honoured,
   Lam. v. 12. The priests had been as corrupt and wicked as the people;
   and, if their character served not to restrain them from sin, how can
   they expect it should serve to secure them from judgments? In both it
   is like people, like priest, Hosea iv. 8, 9. 2. With bond and free: As
   with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her
   mistress. They have all corrupted their way, and therefore will all be
   made miserable when the earth is made waste. 3. With rich and poor.
   Those that have money before-hand, that are purchasing, and letting out
   money to interest, will fare no better than those that are so
   impoverished that they are forced to sell their estates and take up
   money at interest. There are judgments short of the great day of
   judgment in which rich and poor meet together. Let not those that are
   advanced in the world set their inferiors at too great a distance,
   because they know not how soon they may be set upon a level with them.
   The rich man's wealth is his strong city in his own conceit; but it
   does not always prove so.

   IV. It is sin that brings these calamities upon the earth. The earth is
   made empty, and fades away, because it is defiled under the inhabitants
   thereof (v. 5); it is polluted by the sins of men, and therefore it is
   made desolate by the judgments of God. Such is the filthy nature of sin
   that it defiles the earth itself under the sinful inhabitants thereof,
   and it is rendered unpleasant in the eyes of God and good men. See Lev.
   xviii. 25, 27, 28. Blood, in particular, defiles the land, Num. xxxv.
   33. The earth never spues out its inhabitants till they have first
   defiled it by their sins. Why, what have they done? 1. They have
   transgressed the laws of their creation, not answered the ends of it.
   The bonds of the law of nature have been broken by them, and they have
   cast from them the cords of their obligations to the God of nature. 2.
   They have changed the ordinances of revealed religion, those of them
   that have had the benefit of that. They have neglected the ordinances
   (so some read it), and have made no conscience of observing them. They
   have passed over the laws, in the commission of sin, and have passed by
   the ordinance, in the omission of duty. 3. Herein they have broken the
   everlasting covenant, which is a perpetual bond and will be to those
   that keep it a perpetual blessing. It is God's wonderful condescension
   that he is pleased to deal with men in a covenant-way, to do them good,
   and thereby oblige them to do him service. Even those that had no
   benefit by God's covenant with Abraham had benefit by his covenant with
   Noah and his sons, which is called an everlasting covenant, his
   covenant with day and night; but they observe not the precepts of the
   sons of Noah, they acknowledge not God's goodness in the day and night,
   nor study to make him any grateful returns, and so break the
   everlasting covenant and defeat the gracious designs and intentions of
   it.

   V. These judgments shall humble men's pride and mar their mirth. When
   the earth is made empty, 1. It is a great mortification to men's pride
   (v. 4): The haughty people of the earth do languish; for they have lost
   that which supported their pride, and for which they magnified
   themselves. As for those that have held their heads highest, God can
   make them hang the head. 2. It is a great damp to men's jollity. This
   is enlarged upon much (v. 7-9): All the merry-hearted do sigh. Such is
   the nature of carnal mirth, it is but as the crackling of thorns under
   a pot, Eccl. vii. 6. Great laughters commonly end in a sigh. Those that
   make the world their chief joy cannot rejoice ever more. When God sends
   his judgments into the earth he designs thereby to make those serious
   that were wholly addicted to their pleasures. Let your laughter be
   turned into mourning. When the earth is emptied the noise of those that
   rejoice in it ends. Carnal joy is a noisy thing; but the noise of it
   will soon be at an end, and the end of it is heaviness. Two things are
   made use of to excite and express vain mirth, and the jovial crew is
   here deprived of both:--(1.) Drinking: The new wine mourns; it has
   grown sour for want of drinking; for, how proper soever it may be for
   the heavy heart (Prov. xxxi. 6), it does not relish to them as it does
   to the merry-hearted. The vine languishes, and gives little hopes of a
   vintage, and therefore the merry-hearted do sigh; for they know no
   other gladness than that of their corn, and wine, and oil increasing
   (Ps. iv. 7), and, if you destroy their vines and their fig-trees, you
   make all their mirth to cease, Hosea ii. 11, 12. They shall not now
   drink wine with a song and with huzzas, as they used to, but rather
   drink it with a sigh; nay, Strong drink shall be bitter to those that
   drink it, because they cannot but mingle their tears with it; or,
   through sickness, they have lost the relish of it. God has many ways to
   embitter wine and strong drink to those that love them and have the
   highest gust of them: distemper of body, anguish of mind, the ruin of
   the estate or country, will make the strong drink bitter and all the
   delights of sense tasteless and insipid. (2.) Music: The mirth of
   tabrets ceases, and the joy of the harp, which used to be at their
   feasts, ch. v. 12. The captives in Babylon hang their harps on the
   willow trees. In short, All joy is darkened; there is not a pleasant
   look to be seen, nor has any one power to force a smile; all the mirth
   of the land is gone (v. 11); and, if it was that mirth which Solomon
   calls madness, there is no great loss of it.

   VI. The cities will in a particular manner feel from these desolations
   of the country (v. 10): The city of confusion is broken, is broken down
   (so we read it); it lies exposed to invading powers, not only by the
   breaking down of its walls, but by the confusion that the inhabitants
   are in. Every house is shut up, perhaps by reason of the plague, which
   has burned or consumed the inhabitants, so that there are few men left,
   v. 6. Houses infected are usually shut up that no man may come in. Or
   they are shut up because they are deserted and uninhabited. There is a
   crying for wine, that is, for the spoiling of the vintage, so that
   there is likely to be no wine. In the city, in Jerusalem itself, that
   had been so much frequented, there shall be left nothing but
   desolation; grass shall grow in the streets, and the gate is smitten
   with destruction (v. 12); all that used to pass and repass through the
   gate are smitten, and all the strength of the city is cut off. How soon
   can God make a city of order a city of confusion, and then it will soon
   be a city of desolation!

Hope in the End. (b. c. 718.)

   13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people,
   there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning
   grapes when the vintage is done.   14 They shall lift up their voice,
   they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from
   the sea.   15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name
   of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

   Here is mercy remembered in the midst of wrath. In Judah and Jerusalem,
   and the neighbouring countries, when they are overrun by the enemy,
   Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, there shall be a remnant preserved from
   the general ruin, and it shall be a devout and pious remnant. And this
   method God usually observes when his judgments are abroad; he does not
   make a full end, ch. vi. 13. Or we may take it thus: Though the
   greatest part of mankind have all their comfort ruined by the emptying
   of the earth, and the making of that desolate, yet there are some few
   who understand their interests better, who have laid up their treasure
   in heaven and not in things below, and therefore can keep up their
   comfort and joy in God even when the earth mourns and fades away.
   Observe,

   I. The small number of this remnant, v. 13. When all goes to ruin there
   shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and the gleaning grapes, here
   and there one who shall escape the common calamity (as Noah and his
   family when the old world was drowned), that shall be able to sit down
   upon a heap of the ruins of all their creature comforts, and even then
   rejoice in the Lord (Hab. iii. 16-18), who, when all faces gather
   blackness, can lift up their heads with joy, Luke xxi. 26, 28. These
   few are dispersed, and at a distance from each other, like the
   gleanings of the olive-tree; and they are concealed, hid under the
   leaves. The Lord only knows those that are his; the world does not.

   II. The great devotion of this remnant, which is the greater for their
   having so narrowly escaped this great destruction (v. 14): They shall
   lift up their voice; they shall sing. 1. They shall sing for joy in
   their deliverance. When the mirth of carnal worldlings ceases the joy
   of the saints is as lively as ever; when the merry-hearted do sigh
   because the vine languishes the upright-hearted do sing because the
   covenant of grace, the fountain of their comforts and the foundation of
   their hopes, never fails. Those that rejoice in the Lord can rejoice in
   tribulation, and by faith may be in triumphs when all about them are in
   tears. 2. They shall sing to the glory and praise of God, shall sing
   not only for the mercy but for the majesty of the Lord. Their songs are
   awful and serious, and in their spiritual joys they have a reverend
   regard to the greatness of God, and keep at a humble distance when they
   attend him with their praises. The majesty of the Lord, which is matter
   of terror to wicked people, furnishes the saints with songs of praise.
   They shall sing for the magnificence, or transcendent excellency, of
   the Lord, shown both in his judgments and in his mercies; for we must
   sing, and sing unto him, of both, Ps. ci. 1. Those who have made, or
   are making, their escape from the land (that being emptied and made
   desolate) to the sea and the isles of the sea, shall thence cry aloud;
   their dispersion shall help to spread the knowledge of God, and they
   shall make even remote shores to ring with his praises. It is much for
   the honour of God if those who fear him rejoice in him, and praise him,
   even in the most melancholy times.

   III. Their holy zeal to excite others to the same devotion (v. 15);
   they encourage their fellow-sufferers to do likewise. 1. Those who are
   in the fires, in the furnace of affliction, those fires by which the
   inhabitants of the earth are burned, v. 6. Or in the valleys, the low,
   dark, dirty places. 2. Those who are in the isles of the sea, whither
   they are banished, or are forced to flee for shelter, and hide
   themselves remote from all their friends. They went through fire and
   water (Ps. lxvi. 12); yet in both let them glorify the Lord, and glory
   him as the Lord God of Israel. Those who through grace can glory in
   tribulation ought to glorify God in tribulation, and give him thanks
   for their comforts, which abound as their afflictions do abound. We
   must in every fire, even the hottest, in every isle, even the remotest,
   keep up our good thoughts of God. When, though he slay us, yet we trust
   in him--when, though for his sake we are killed all the day long, yet
   none of these things move us--then we glorify the Lord in the fires.
   Thus the three children, and the martyrs that sang at the stake.

Encouraging Prospects; Degeneracy Predicted. (b. c. 718.)

   16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory
   to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!
   the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous
   dealers have dealt very treacherously.   17 Fear, and the pit, and the
   snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.   18 And it shall come
   to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into
   the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be
   taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the
   foundations of the earth do shake.   19 The earth is utterly broken
   down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
   20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be
   removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy
   upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.   21 And it shall come
   to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high
   ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.   22
   And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the
   pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they
   be visited.   23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
   ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in
   Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

   These verses, as those before, plainly speak,

   I. Comfort to saints. They may be driven, by the common calamities of
   the places where they live, into the uttermost parts of the earth, or
   perhaps they are forced thither for their religion; but there they are
   singing, not sighing. Thence have we heard songs, and it is a comfort
   to us to hear them, to hear that good people carry their religion along
   with them even to the most distant regions, to hear that God visits
   them there and gives encouragement to hope that he will gather them
   thence, Deut. xxx. 4. And this is their song, even glory to the
   righteous: the word is singular, and may refer to the righteous God,
   who is just in all he has brought upon us. This is glorifying the Lord
   in the fires. Or the meaning may be, "These songs redound to the glory
   or beauty of the righteous that sing them." We do the greatest honour
   imaginable to ourselves when we employ ourselves in honouring and
   glorifying God. This may have reference to the sending of the gospel to
   the uttermost parts of the earth, as far as this island of ours, in the
   days of the Messiah, the glad tidings of which are echoed back in songs
   heard thence, from churches planted there, even glory to the righteous
   God, agreeing with the angels' song, Glory be to God in the highest,
   and glory to all righteous men; for the work of redemption was ordained
   before the world for our glory.

   II. Terror to sinners. The prophet, having comforted himself and others
   with the prospect of a saved remnant, returns to lament the miseries he
   saw breaking in like a mighty torrent upon the earth: "But I said, My
   leanness! my leanness! woe unto me! The very thought of it frets me,
   and makes me lean," v. 16. He foresees,

   1. The prevalency of sin, that iniquity should abound (v. 16): The
   treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; this is itself a
   judgment, and that which provokes God to bring other judgments. (1.)
   Men are false to one another; there is no faith in man, but a universal
   dishonesty. Truth, that sacred bond of society, has departed, and there
   is nothing but treachery in men's dealings. See Jer. ix. 1, 2. (2.)
   They are all false to their God; as to him, and their covenant with
   him, the children of men are all treacherous dealers, and have dealt
   very treacherously with their God, in departing from their allegiance
   to him. This is the original, and this the aggravation, of the sin of
   the world; and, when men have been false to their God, how should they
   be true to any other?

   2. The prevalency of wrath and judgment for that sin. (2.) The
   inhabitants of the earth will be pursued from time to time, from place
   to place, by one mischief or other (v. 17, 18): Fear, and the pit, and
   the snare (fear of the pit and the snare) are upon them wherever they
   are; for the sons of men know not what evil they may suddenly be snared
   in, Eccl. ix. 12. These three words seem to be chosen for the sake of
   an elegant paranomasia, or, as we now scornfully call it, a jungle of
   words: Pachad, and Pachath, and Pach; but the meaning is plain (v. 18),
   that evil pursues sinners (Prov. xiii. 21), that the curse shall
   overtake the disobedient (Deut. xxviii. 15), that those who are secure
   because they have escaped one judgment know not how soon another may
   arrest them. What this prophet threatens all the inhabitants of the
   earth with another makes part of the judgment of Moab, Jer. xlviii. 43,
   44. But it is a common instance of the calamitous state of human life
   that when we seek to avoid one mischief we fall into a worse, and that
   the end of one trouble is often the beginning of another; so that we
   are least safe when we are most secure. (2.) The earth itself will be
   shaken to pieces. It will be literally so at last, when all the works
   therein shall be burnt up; and it is often figuratively so before that
   period. The windows from on high are open to pour down wrath, as in the
   universal deluge. Upon the wicked God shall rain snares (Ps. xi. 6);
   and, the fountains of the great deep being broken up, the foundations
   of the earth do shake of course, the frame of nature is unhinged, and
   all is in confusion. See how elegantly this is expressed (v. 19, 20):
   The earth is utterly broken down; it is clean dissolved; it is moved
   exceedingly, moved out of its place. God shakes heaven and earth, Hag.
   ii. 6. See the misery of those who lay up their treasure in the things
   of the earth and mind those things; they place their confidence in that
   which will shortly be utterly broken down and dissolved. The earth
   shall reel to and fro like a drunkard; so unsteady, so uncertain, are
   all the motions of these things. Worldly men dwell in it as in a
   palace, as in a castle, as in an impregnable tower; but it shall be
   removed like a cottage, so easily, so suddenly, and with so little loss
   to the great landlord. The pulling down of the earth will be but like
   the pulling down of a cottage, which the country is willing to be rid
   of, because it does but harbour beggars; and therefore no care is taken
   to rebuild it: It shall fall, and not rise again; but there shall be
   new heavens and a new earth, in which shall dwell nothing but
   righteousness. But what is it that shakes the earth thus and sinks it?
   It is the transgression thereof that shall be heavy upon it. Note, Sin
   is a burden to the whole creation; it is a heavy burden, a burden under
   which it groans now and will sink at last. Sin is the ruin of states,
   and kingdoms, and families; they fall under the weight of that talent
   of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8. (3.) God will have a particular controversy
   with the kings and great men of the earth (v. 21): He will punish the
   host of the high ones. Hosts of princes are no more before God than
   hosts of common men; what can a host of high ones do with their
   combined force when the Most High, the Lord of hosts, contends with
   them to abase their height, and scatter their hosts, and break all
   their confederacies? The high ones, that are on high, that are puffed
   up with their height and grandeur, that think themselves so high that
   they are out of the reach of any danger, God will visit upon them all
   their pride and cruelty, with which they have oppressed and injured
   their neighbours and subjects, and it shall now return upon their own
   heads. The kings of the earth shall now be reckoned with upon the
   earth, to show that verily there is a God that judges in the earth and
   will render to the proudest of kings according to the fruit of their
   doings. Let those that are trampled upon by the high ones of the earth
   comfort themselves with this, that though they cannot, dare not, must
   not, resist them, yet there is a God that will call them to an account,
   that will triumph over them upon their own dunghill: for the earth they
   are kings of is in the eye of God no better. This is general only. It
   is particularly foretold (v. 22) that they shall be gathered together
   as prisoners, convicted condemned prisoners, are gathered in the pit,
   or dungeon, and there they shall be shut up under close confinement.
   The kings and high ones, who took all possible liberty themselves, and
   took a pride and pleasure in shutting up others, shall now be
   themselves shut up. Let not the free man glory in his freedom, any more
   than the strong man in his strength, for he knows not what restraints
   he is reserved for. But after many days they shall be visited, either,
   [1.] They shall be visited in wrath; it is the same word, in another
   form, that is used (v. 21), the Lord shall punish them; they shall be
   reserved to the day of execution, as condemned prisoners are, and as
   fallen angels are reserved in chains of darkness to the judgment of the
   great day, Jude 6. Let this account for the delays of divine vengeance;
   sentence is not executed speedily, because execution-day has not yet
   come, and perhaps will not come till after many days; but it is certain
   that the wicked is reserved for the day of destruction, and is
   therefore preserved in the mean time, but shall be brought forth to the
   day of wrath, Job xxi. 30. Let us therefore judge nothing before the
   time. [2.] They shall be visited in mercy, and be discharged from their
   imprisonment, and shall again obtain, if not their dignity, yet their
   liberty. Nebuchadnezzar, in his conquests, made many kings and princes
   his captives, and kept them in the dungeon in Babylon, and, among the
   rest, Jehoiachin King of Judah; but after many days, when
   Nebuchadnezzar's head was laid, his son visited them, and granted (as
   should seem) some reviving to them all in their bondage; for it is made
   an instance of his particular kindness to Jehoiachin that he set his
   throne above the throne of the rest of the kings that were with him,
   Jer. lii. 32. If we apply this to the general state of mankind, it
   imports a revolution of conditions; those that were high are punished,
   those that were punished are relieved, after many days, that none in
   this world may be secure though their condition be ever so prosperous,
   nor any despair though their condition be ever so deplorable.

   3. Glory to God in all this, v. 23. When all this comes to pass, when
   the proud enemies of God's church are humbled and brought down, (1.)
   Then it shall appear, beyond contradiction, that the Lord reigns, which
   is always true, but not always alike evident. When the kings of the
   earth are punished for their tyranny and oppression, then it is
   proclaimed and proved to all the world that God is King of kings--King
   above them, by whom they are accountable--that he reigns as Lord of
   hosts, of all hosts, of their hosts,--that he reigns in Mount Zion, and
   in Jerusalem, in his church, for the honour and welfare of that,
   pursuant to the promises on which that is founded, reigns in his word
   and ordinances,--that he reigns before his ancients, before all his
   saints, especially before his ministers, the elders of his church, who
   have their eye upon all the out-goings of his power and providence,
   and, in all these events, observe his hand. God's ancients, the old
   disciples, the experienced Christians, that have often, when they have
   been perplexed, gone into the sanctuary of God in Zion and Jerusalem,
   and acquainted themselves with his manifestations of himself there,
   shall see more than others of God's dominion and sovereignty in these
   operations of his providence. (2.) Then it shall appear, beyond
   comparison, that he reigns gloriously, in such brightness and lustre
   that the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, as the smaller
   lights are eclipsed and extinguished by the greater. Great men, who
   thought themselves to have as bright a lustre and as vast a dominion as
   the sun and moon, shall be ashamed when God appears above them, much
   more when he appears against them. Then shall their faces be filled
   with shame, that they may seek God's name. The eastern nations
   worshipped the sun and moon; but, when God shall appear so gloriously
   for his people against his and their enemies, all these pretended
   deities shall be ashamed that ever they received the homage of their
   deluded worshippers. The glory of the Creator infinitely outshines the
   glory of the brightest creatures. In the great day, when the Judge of
   heaven and earth shall shine forth in his glory, the sun shall by his
   transcendent lustre be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXV.

   After the threatenings of wrath in the foregoing chapter we have here,
   I. Thankful praises for what God had done, which the prophet, in the
   name of the church, offers up to God, and teaches us to offer the like,
   ver. 1-5. II. Precious promises of what God would yet further do for
   his church, especially in the grace of the gospel, ver. 6-8. III. The
   church's triumph in God over her enemies thereupon, ver. 9-12. This
   chapter looks as pleasantly upon the church as the former looked
   dreadfully upon the world.

A Song of Praise. (b. c. 718.)

   1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name;
   for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are
   faithfulness and truth.   2 For thou hast made of a city a heap; of a
   defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall
   never be built.   3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the
   city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.   4 For thou hast been a
   strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
   from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible
   ones is as a storm against the wall.   5 Thou shalt bring down the
   noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the
   shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought
   low.

   It is said in the close of the foregoing chapter that the Lord of hosts
   shall reign gloriously; now, in compliance with this, the prophet here
   speaks of the glorious majesty of his kingdom (Ps. cxlv. 12), and gives
   him the glory of it; and, however this prophecy might have an
   accomplishment in the destruction of Babylon and the deliverance of the
   Jews out of their captivity there, it seems to look further, to the
   praises that should be offered up to God by the gospel church for
   Christ's victories over our spiritual enemies and the comforts he has
   provided for all believers. Here,

   I. The prophet determines to praise God himself; for those that would
   stir up others should in the first place stir up themselves to praise
   God (v. 1): "O Lord! thou art my God, a God in covenant with me." When
   God is punishing the kings of the earth upon the earth, and making them
   to tremble before him, a poor prophet can go to him, and, with a humble
   boldness, say, O Lord! thou art my God, and therefore I will exalt
   thee, I will praise thy name. Those that have the Lord for their God
   are bound to praise him; for therefore he took us to be his people that
   we might be unto him for a name and for a praise, Jer. xiii. 11. In
   praising God we exalt him; not that we can make him higher than he is,
   but we must make him to appear to ourselves and others than he does.
   See Exod. xv. 2.

   II. He pleases himself with the thought that others also shall be
   brought to praise God, v. 3. "Therefore, because of the desolations
   thou hast made in the earth by thy providence (Ps. xlvi. 8) and the
   just vengeance thou hast taken on thy and thy church's enemies,
   therefore shall the strong people glorify thee in concert, and the city
   (the metropolis) of the terrible nations fear thee." This may be
   understood, 1. Of those people that have been strong and terrible
   against God. Those that have been enemies to God's kingdom, and have
   fought against the interests of it with a great deal of strength and
   terror, shall either be converted, and glorify God by joining with his
   people in his service, or at least convinced, so as to own themselves
   conquered. Those that have been the terror of the mighty shall be
   forced to tremble before the judgments of God and call in vain to rocks
   and mountains to hide them. Or, 2. Of those that shall be now made
   strong and terrible for God and by him, though before they were weak
   and trampled upon. God shall so visibly appear for and with those that
   fear him and glorify him that all shall acknowledge them a strong
   people and shall stand in awe of them. There was a time when many of
   the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon
   them (Esther viii. 17), and when those that knew their God were strong
   and did exploits (Dan. xi. 32), for which they glorified God.

   III. He observes what is, and ought to be, the matter of this praise.
   We and others must exalt God and praise him; for, 1. He has done
   wonders, according to the counsel of his own will, v. 1. We exalt God
   by admiring what he has done as truly wonderful, wonderful proofs of
   his power beyond what any creature could perform, and wonderful proofs
   of his goodness beyond what such sinful creatures as we are could
   expect. These wonderful things, which are new and surprising to us, and
   altogether unthought of, are according to his counsels of old, devised
   by his wisdom and designed for his own glory and the comfort of his
   people. All the operations of providence are according to God's eternal
   counsels (and those faithfulness and truth itself), all consonant to
   his attributes, consistent with one another, and sure to be
   accomplished in their season. 2. He has in particular humbled the
   pride, and broken the power, of the mighty ones of the earth (v. 2):
   "Thou hast made of a city, of many a city, a heap of rubbish. Of many a
   defenced city, that thought itself well guarded by nature and art, and
   the multitude and courage of its militia, thou hast made a ruin." What
   created strength can hold out against Omnipotence? "Many a city so
   richly built that it might be called a palace, and so much frequented
   and visited by persons of the best rank from all parts that it might be
   called a palace of strangers, thou hast made to be no city; it is
   levelled with the ground, and not one stone left upon another, and it
   shall never be built again." This has been the case of many cities in
   divers parts of the world, and in our own nation particularly; cities
   that flourished once have gone to decay and are lost, and it is
   scarcely known (except by urns or coins digged up out of the earth)
   where they stood. How many of the cities of Israel have long since been
   heaps and ruins! God hereby teaches us that here we have no continuing
   city and must therefore seek one to come which will never be a ruin or
   go to decay. 3. He has seasonably relieved and succoured his
   necessitous and distressed people (v. 4): Thou has been a strength to
   the poor, a strength to the needy. As God weakens the strong that are
   proud and secure, so he strengthens the weak that are humble and
   serious, and stay themselves upon him. Nay, he not only makes them
   strong, but he is himself their strength; for in him they strengthen
   themselves, and it is his favour that is the strength of their hearts.
   He is a strength to the needy in his distress, when he needs strength,
   and when his distress drives him to God. And, as he strengthens them
   against their inward decays, so he shelters them from outward assaults.
   He is a refuge from the storm of rain or hail, and a shadow from the
   scorching heat of the sun in summer. God is a sufficient protection to
   his people in all weathers, hot and cold, wet and dry. The armour of
   righteousness serves both on the right hand and on the left, 2 Cor. vi.
   7. Whatever dangers or troubles God's people may be in, effectual care
   is taken that they shall sustain no real hurt or damage. When perils
   are most threatening and alarming God will then appear for the safety
   of his people: When the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm
   against the wall, which makes a great noise, but cannot overthrow the
   wall. The enemies of God's poor are terrible ones; they do all they can
   to make themselves so to them. Their rage is like a blast of wind,
   loud, and blustering, and furious; but, like the wind, it is under a
   divine check; for God holds the winds in his fist, and God will be such
   a shelter to his people that they shall be able to stand the shock,
   keep their ground, and maintain their integrity and peace. A storm
   beating on a ship tosses it, but that which beats on a wall never stirs
   it, Ps. lxxvi. 10; cxxxviii. 7. 4. That he does and will shelter those
   that trust in him from the insolence of their proud oppressors (v. 5):
   Thou shalt, or thou dost, bring down the noise of strangers; thou shalt
   abate and still it, as the heat in a dry place is abated and moderated
   by the shadow of a cloud interposing. The branch, or rather the son or
   triumph, of the terrible ones shall be brought low, and they shall be
   made to change their note and lower their voice. Observe here, (1.) The
   oppressors of God's people are called strangers; for they forget that
   those they oppress are made of the same mould, of the same blood, with
   them. They are called terrible ones; for so they affect to be, rather
   than amiable ones: they would rather be feared than loved. (2.) Their
   insolence towards the people of God is noisy and hot, and that is all;
   it is but the noise of strangers, who think to carry their point by
   hectoring and bullying all that stand in their way, and talking big.
   Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise, Jer. xlvi. 17. It is like the
   heat of the sun scorching in the middle of the day; but where is it
   when the sun has set? (3.) Their noise, and heat, and all their
   triumph, will be humbled and brought low, when their hopes are baffled
   and all their honours laid in the dust. The branches, even the top
   branches, of the terrible ones, will be broken off, and thrown to the
   dunghill. (4.) If the labourers in God's vineyard be at any time called
   to bear the burden and heat of the day, he will find some way or other
   to refresh them, as with the shadow of a cloud, that they may not be
   pressed above measure.

The Blessings of the Gospel. (b. c. 718.)

   6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a
   feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full
   of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.   7 And he will destroy
   in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the
   vail that is spread over all nations.   8 He will swallow up death in
   victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and
   the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for
   the Lord hath spoken it.

   If we suppose (as many do) that this refers to the great joy which
   there should be in Zion and Jerusalem when the army of the Assyrians
   was routed by an angel, or when the Jews were released out of their
   captivity in Babylon, or upon occasion of some other equally surprising
   deliverance, yet we cannot avoid making it to look further, to the
   grace of the gospel and the glory which is the crown and consummation
   of that grace; for it is at our resurrection through Christ that the
   saying here written shall be brought to pass; then, and not till then
   (if we may believe St. Paul), it shall have its full accomplishment:
   Death is swallowed up in victory, 1 Cor. xv. 54. This is a key to the
   rest of the promises here connected together. And so we have here a
   prophecy of the salvation and the grace brought unto us by Jesus
   Christ, into which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, 1
   Pet. i. 10.

   I. That the grace of the gospel should be a royal feast for all people;
   not like that of Ahasuerus, which was intended only to show the
   grandeur of the master of the feast (Esther i. 4); for this is intended
   to gratify the guests, and therefore, whereas all there was for show,
   all here is for substance. The preparations made in the gospel for the
   kind reception of penitents and supplicants with God are often in the
   New Testament set forth by the similitude of a feast, as Matt. xxii. 1,
   &c., which seems to be borrowed from this prophecy. 1. God himself is
   the Master of the feast, and we may be sure he prepares like himself,
   as becomes him to give, rather than as becomes us to receive. The Lord
   of hosts makes this feast. 2. The guests invited are all people,
   Gentiles as well as Jews. Go preach the gospel to every creature. There
   is enough for all, and whoever will may come, and partake freely, even
   those that are gathered out of the highways and the hedges. 3. The
   place is Mount Zion. Thence the preaching of the gospel takes rise: the
   preachers must begin at Jerusalem. The gospel church is the Jerusalem
   that is above; there this feast is made, and to it all the invited
   guests must go. 4. The provision is very rich, and every thing is of
   the best. It is a feast, which supposes abundance and variety; it is a
   continual feast to believers, it is their own fault if it be not. It is
   a feast of fat things and full of marrow; so relishing, so nourishing,
   are the comforts of the gospel to all those that feast upon them and
   digest them. The returning prodigal was entertained with the fatted
   calf; and David has that pleasure in communion with God with which his
   soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness. It is a feast of wines on
   the lees, the strongest-bodied wines, that have been kept long upon the
   lees, and then are well refined from them, so that they are clear and
   fine. There is that in the gospel which, like wine soberly used, makes
   glad the heart and raises the spirits, and is fit for those that are of
   a heavy heart, being under convictions of sin and mourning for it, that
   they may drink and forget their misery (for that is the proper use of
   wine--it is a cordial for those that need it, Prov. xxxi. 5, 6), may be
   of good cheer, knowing that their sins are forgiven, and may be
   vigorous in their spiritual work and warfare, as a strong man refreshed
   with wine.

   II. That the world should be freed from that darkness of ignorance and
   mistake in the mists of which it had been so long lost and buried (v.
   7): He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering (the
   covering of the face) with which all people are covered (hood-winked or
   blind-folded) so that they cannot see their way nor go about their
   work, and by reason of which they wander endlessly. Their faces are
   covered as those of men condemned, or dead men. There is a veil spread
   over all nations, for they all sit in darkness; and no marvel, when the
   Jews themselves, among whom God was known, had a veil upon their
   hearts, 2 Cor. iii. 15. But this veil the Lord will destroy, by the
   light of his gospel shining in the world, and the power of his Spirit
   opening men's eyes to receive it. He will raise those to spiritual life
   that have long been dead in trespasses and sins.

   III. That death should be conquered, the power of it broken, and the
   property of it altered: He will swallow up death in victory, v. 8. 1.
   Christ will himself, in his resurrection, triumph over death, will
   break its bands, its bars, asunder, and cast away all its cords. The
   grave seemed to swallow him up, but really he swallowed it up. 2. The
   happiness of the saints shall be out of the reach of death, which puts
   a period to all the enjoyments of this world, embitters them, and
   stains the beauty of them. 3. Believers may triumph over death, and
   look upon it as a conquered enemy: O death! where is thy sting? 4. When
   the dead bodies of the saints shall be raised at the great day, and
   their mortality swallowed up of life, then death will be for ever
   swallowed up of victory; and it is the last enemy.

   IV. That grief shall be banished, and there shall be perfect and
   endless joy: The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.
   Those that mourn for sin shall be comforted and have their consciences
   pacified. In the covenant of grace there shall be that provided which
   is sufficient to counterbalance all the sorrows of this present time,
   to wipe away our tears, and to refresh us. Those particularly that
   suffer for Christ shall have consolations abounding as their
   afflictions do abound. But in the joys of heaven, and nowhere short of
   them, will fully be brought to pass this saying, as that before, for
   there it is that God shall wipe away all tears, Rev. vii. 17; xxi. 4.
   And there shall be no more sorrow, because there shall be no more
   death. The hope of this should now wipe away all excessive tears, all
   the weeping that hinders sowing.

   V. That all the reproach cast upon religion and the serious professors
   of it shall be for ever rolled away: The rebuke of his people, which
   they have long lain under, the calumnies and misrepresentations by
   which they have been blackened, the insolence and cruelty with which
   their persecutors have trampled on them and trodden them down, shall be
   taken away. Their righteousness shall be brought forth as the light, in
   the view of all the world, who shall be convinced that they are not
   such as they have been invidiously characterized; and so their
   salvation from the injuries done them as such shall be wrought out.
   Sometimes in this world God does that for his people which takes away
   their reproach from among men. However, it will be done effectually at
   the great day; for the Lord has spoken it, who can, and will, make it
   good. Let us patiently bear sorrow and shame now, and improve both; for
   shortly both will be done away.

The Blessings of the Gospel. (b. c. 718.)

   9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
   for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him,
   we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.   10 For in this mountain
   shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under
   him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.   11 And he shall
   spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth
   spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride
   together with the spoils of their hands.   12 And the fortress of the
   high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the
   ground, even to the dust.

   Here is, I. The welcome which the church shall give to these blessings
   promised in the foregoing verses (v. 9): It shall be said in that day,
   with a humble holy triumph and exultation, Lo, this is our God; we have
   waited for him! Thus will the deliverance of the church out of long and
   sore troubles be celebrated; thus will it be as life from the dead.
   With such transports of joy and praise will those entertain the glad
   tidings of the Redeemer who looked for him, and for redemption in
   Jerusalem by him; and with such a triumphant song as this will
   glorified saints enter into the joy of their Lord. 1. God himself must
   have the glory of all: "Lo, this is our God, this is the Lord. This
   which is done is his doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Herein he
   has done like himself, has magnified his own wisdom, power, and
   goodness. Herein he has done for us like our God, a God in covenant
   with us, and whom we serve." Note, Our triumphs must not terminate in
   what God does for us and gives to us, but must pass through them to
   himself, who is the author and giver of them: This is our God. Have any
   of the nations of the earth such a God to trust to? No, their rock is
   not as our rock. There is none like unto the God of Jerusalem. 2. The
   longer it has been expected the more welcome it is. "This is he whom we
   have waited for, in dependence upon his word of promise, and a full
   assurance that he would come in the set time, in due time, and
   therefore we were willing to tarry his time; and now we find it is not
   in vain to wait for him, for the mercy comes at last, with an abundant
   recompence for the delay." 3. It is matter of joy unspeakable: "We will
   be glad and rejoice in his salvation. We that share in the benefits of
   it will concur in the joyful thanksgivings for it." 4. It is an
   encouragement to hope for the continuance and perfection of this
   salvation: We have waited for him, and he will save us, will carry on
   what he has begun; for as for God, our God, his work is perfect.

   II. A prospect of further blessings for the securing and perpetuating
   of these. 1. The power of God shall be engaged for them and shall
   continue to take their part: In this mountain shall the hand of the
   Lord rest, v. 10. The church and people of God shall have continued
   proofs of God's presence with them and residence among them: his hand
   shall be continually over them, to protect and guard them, and
   continually stretched out to them, for their supply. Mount Zion is his
   rest for ever; here he will dwell. 2. The power of their enemies, which
   is engaged against them, shall be broken. Moab is here put for all the
   adversaries of God's people, that are vexatious to them; they shall all
   be trodden down or threshed (for then they beat out the corn by
   treading it) and shall be thrown out as straw to the dunghill, being
   good for nothing else. God having caused his hand to rest upon this
   mountain, it shall not be a hand that hangs down, or is folded up,
   feeble and inactive; but he shall spread forth his hands, in the midst
   of his people, like one that swims, which intimates that he will employ
   and exert his power for them vigorously,--that he will be doing for
   them on all sides,--that he will easily and effectually put by the
   opposition that is given to his gracious intentions for them, and
   thereby further and push forward his good work among them,--and that on
   their behalf he will be continually active, for so the swimmer is. It
   is foretold, particularly, what he shall do for them. (1.) He shall
   bring down the pride of their enemies (and Moab was notoriously guilty
   of pride, ch. xvi. 6) by one humbling judgment after another, stripping
   them of that which they are proud of. (2.) He shall bring down the
   spoils of their hands, shall take from them that which they have got by
   spoil and rapine. He shall bring down the arms of their hands, which
   are lifted up against God's Israel; he shall quite break their power,
   and disable them to do mischief. (3.) He shall ruin all their
   fortifications, v. 12. Moab has his walls, and his high forts, with
   which he hopes to secure himself, and from which he designs to annoy
   the people of God; but God shall bring them all down, lay them low,
   bring them to the ground, to the dust; and so those who trusted to them
   will be left exposed. There is no fortress impregnable to Omnipotence,
   no fort so high but the arm of the Lord can overtop it and bring it
   down. This destruction of Moab is typical of Christ's victory over
   death (spoken of v. 8), his spoiling principalities and powers in his
   cross (Col. ii. 15), his pulling down Satan's strong-holds by the
   preaching of his gospel (2 Cor. x. 4), and his reigning till all his
   enemies be made his footstool, Ps. cx. 1.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXVI.

   This chapter is a song of holy joy and praise, in which the great
   things God had engaged, in the foregoing chapter, to do for his people
   against his enemies and their enemies are celebrated: it is prepared to
   be sung when that prophecy should be accomplished; for we must be
   forward to meet God with our thanksgivings when he is coming towards us
   with his mercies. Now the people of God are here taught, I. To triumph
   in the safety and holy security both of the church in general and of
   every particular member of it, under the divine protection, ver. 1-4.
   II. To triumph over all opposing powers, ver. 5, 6. III. To walk with
   God, and wait for him, in the worst and darkest times, ver. 7-9. IV. To
   lament the stupidity of those who regarded not the providence of God,
   either merciful or afflictive, ver. 10, 11. V. To encourage themselves,
   and one another, with hopes that God would still continue to do them
   good (ver. 12, 14), and engage themselves to continue in his service,
   ver. 13. VI. To recollect the kind providences of God towards them in
   their low and distressed condition, and their conduct under those
   providences, ver. 15-18. VII. To rejoice in hope of a glorious
   deliverance, which should be as a resurrection to them (ver. 19), and
   to retire in the expectation of it, ver. 20, 21. And this is written
   for the support and assistance of the faith and hope of God's people in
   all ages, even those upon whom the ends of the world have come.

The Blessings of the Gospel. (b. c. 718.)

   1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a
   strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.   2
   Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
   may enter in.   3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is
   stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.   4 Trust ye in the Lord
   for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

   To the prophecies of gospel grace very fitly is a song annexed, in
   which we may give God the glory and take to ourselves the comfort of
   that grace: In that day, the gospel day, which the day of the victories
   and enlargements of the Old-Testament church was typical of (to some of
   which perhaps this has a primary reference), in that day this song
   shall be sung; there shall be persons to sing it, and cause and hearts
   to sing it; it shall be sung in the land of Judah, which was a figure
   of the gospel church; for the gospel covenant is said to be made with
   the house of Judah, Heb. viii. 8. Glorious things are here said of the
   church of God.

   I. That it is strongly fortified against those that are bad (v. 1): We
   have a strong city. It is a city incorporated by the charter of the
   everlasting covenant, fitted for the reception of all that are made
   free by that charter, for their employment and entertainment; it is a
   strong city, as Jerusalem was, while it was a city compact together,
   and had God himself a wall of fire round about it, so strong that none
   would have believed that an enemy could ever enter into the gates of
   Jerusalem, Lam. iv. 12. The church is a strong city, for it has walls
   and bulwarks, or counterscarps, and those of God's own appointing; for
   he has, in his promise, appointed salvation itself to be its defence.
   Those that are designed for salvation will find that to be their
   protection, 1 Pet. i. 4.

   II. That it is richly replenished with those that are good, and they
   are instead of fortifications to it; for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
   if they are such as they should be, are its strength, Zech. xii. 5. The
   gates are here ordered to be opened, that the righteous nation, which
   keeps the truth, may enter in, v. 2. They had been banished and driven
   out by the iniquity of the former times, but now the laws that were
   made against them are repealed, and they have liberty to enter in
   again. Or, There is an act for a general naturalization of all the
   righteous, whatever nation they are of, encouraging them to come and
   settle in Jerusalem. When God has done great things for any place or
   people he expects that thus they should render according to the benefit
   done unto them; they should be kind to his people, and take them under
   their protection and into their bosom. Note, 1. It is the character of
   righteous men that they keep the truths of God, a firm belief of which
   will have a commanding influence upon the regularity of the whole
   conversation. Good principles fixed in the head will produce good
   resolutions in the heart and good practices in the life. 2. It is the
   interest of states to countenance such, and court them among them, for
   they bring a blessing with them.

   III. That all who belong to it are safe and easy, and have a holy
   security and serenity of mind in the assurance of God's favour. 1. This
   is here the matter of a promise (v. 3): Thou wilt keep him in peace,
   peace, in perfect peace, inward peace, outward peace, peace with God,
   peace of conscience, peace at all times, under all events; this peace
   shall he be put into, and kept in the possession of, whose mind is
   stayed upon God, because it trusts in him. It is the character of every
   good man that he trusts in God, puts himself under his guidance and
   government, and depends upon him that it shall be greatly to his
   advantage to do so. Those that trust in God must have their minds
   stayed upon him, must trust him at all times, under all events, must
   firmly and faithfully adhere to him, with an entire satisfaction in
   him; and such as do so God will keep in perpetual peace, and that peace
   shall keep them. When evil tidings are abroad those shall calmly expect
   the event, and not be disturbed by frightful apprehensions arising from
   them, whose hearts are fixed, trusting in the Lord, Ps. cxii. 7. 2. It
   is the matter of a precept (v. 4): "Let us make ourselves easy by
   trusting in the Lord for ever; since God has promised peace to those
   that stay themselves upon him, let us not lose the benefit of that
   promise, but repose an entire confidence in him. Trust in him for ever,
   at all times, when you have nothing else to trust to; trust in him for
   that peace, that portion, which will be for ever." Whatever we trust to
   the world for, it will be but for a moment: all we expect from it is
   confined within the limits of time. But what we trust in God for will
   last as long as we shall last. For in the Lord Jehovah-Jah, Jehovah, in
   him who was, and is, and is to come, there is a rock of ages, a firm
   and lasting foundation for faith and hope to build upon; and the house
   built on that rock will stand in a storm. Those that trust in God shall
   not only find in him, but receive from him, everlasting strength,
   strength that will carry them to everlasting life, to that blessedness
   which is for ever; and therefore let them trust in him for ever, and
   never cast away nor change their confidence.

The Goodness and Justice of God. (b. c. 718.)

   5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he
   layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it
   even to the dust.   6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of
   the poor, and the steps of the needy.   7 The way of the just is
   uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.   8
   Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the
   desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.   9
   With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit
   within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the
   earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.   10 Let
   favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in
   the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the
   majesty of the Lord.   11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will
   not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the
   people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

   Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever,
   and to continue waiting on him; for,

   I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their
   proud enemies, v. 5, 6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased:
   For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal
   proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon
   itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, ch. xxv. 12. He can do it, be it
   ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he
   resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to
   be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job xl. 12. But, on
   the contrary, those that humble themselves shall be exalted; for the
   feet of the poor shall tread upon the lofty cities, v. 6. He does not
   say, Great armies shall tread them down; but, When God will have it
   done, even the feet of the poor shall do it, Mal. iv. 3. You shall
   tread down the wicked. Come, set your feet on the necks of these kings.
   See Ps. cxlvii. 6; Rom. xvi. 20.

   II. He takes cognizance of the way of his people and has delight in it
   (v. 7): The way of the just is evenness (so it may be read): it is
   their endeavour and constant care to walk with God in an even steady
   course of obedience and holy conversation. My foot stands in an even
   place, goes in an even path, Ps. xxvi. 12. And it is their happiness
   that God makes their way plain and easy before them: Thou, most
   upright, dost level (or make even) the path of the just, by preventing
   or removing those things that would be stumbling-blocks to them, so
   that nothing shall offend them, Ps. cxix. 165. God weighs it (so we
   read it); he considers it, and will give them grace sufficient for
   them, to help them over all the difficulties they may meet with in
   their way. Thus with the upright God will show himself upright.

   III. It is our duty, and will be our comfort, to wait for God, and to
   keep up holy desires towards him in the darkest and most discouraging
   times, v. 8, 9. This has always been the practice of God's people, even
   when God has frowned upon them, 1. To keep up a constant dependence
   upon him: "In the way of thy judgments we have still waited for thee;
   when thou hast corrected us we have looked to no other hand than thine
   to relieve us," as the servant looks only to the hand of his master,
   till he have mercy upon him, Ps. cxxiii. 2. We cannot appeal from God's
   justice but to his mercy. If God's judgments continue long, if it be a
   road of judgments (so the word signifies), yet we must not be weary but
   continue waiting. 2. To send up holy desires towards him. Our troubles,
   how pressing soever, must never put us out of conceit with our
   religion, nor turn us away from God; but still the desire of our soul
   must be to his name and to the remembrance of him; and in the night,
   the darkest longest night of affliction, with our souls must we desire
   him. (1.) Our great concern must be for God's name, and our earnest
   desire must be that his name may be glorified, whatever becomes of us
   and our names. This is that which we must wait for, and pray for.
   "Father, glorify thy name, and we are satisfied." (2.) Our great
   comfort must be in the remembrance of that name, of all that whereby
   God has made himself known. The remembrance of God must be our great
   support and pleasure; and, though sometimes we be unmindful of him, yet
   still our desire must be towards the remembrance of him and we must
   take pains with our own hearts to have him always in mind. (3.) Our
   desires towards God must be inward, fervent, and sincere. With our soul
   we must desire him, with our soul we must pant after him (Ps. xlii. 1),
   and with our spirits within us, with the innermost thought and the
   closest application of mind, we must seek him. We make nothing of our
   religion, whatever our profession be, if we do not make heart-work of
   it. (4.) Even in the darkest night of affliction our desires must be
   towards God, as our sun and shield; for, however God is pleased to deal
   with us, we must never think the worse of him, nor cool in our love to
   him. (5.) If our desires be indeed towards God, we must give evidence
   that they are so by seeking him, and seeking him early, as those that
   desire to find him, and dread the thoughts of missing him. Those that
   would seek God and find him must seek betimes, and seek him earnestly.
   Though we come ever so early, we shall find him ready to receive us.

   IV. It is God's gracious design, in sending abroad his judgments,
   thereby to bring men to seek him and serve him: When thy judgments are
   upon the earth, laying all waste, then we have reason to expect that
   not only God's professing people, but even the inhabitants of the
   world, will learn righteousness, will have their mistakes rectified and
   their lives reformed, will be brought to acknowledge God's
   righteousness in punishing them, will repent of their own
   unrighteousness in offending God, and so be brought to walk in right
   paths. They will do this; that is, judgments are designed to bring them
   to this, they have a natural tendency to produce this effect, and,
   though many continue obstinate, yet some even of the inhabitants of the
   world will profit by this discipline, and will learn righteousness;
   surely they will; they are strangely stupid if they do not. Note, The
   intention of afflictions is to teach us righteousness; and blessed is
   the man whom God chastens, and thus teaches, Ps. xciv. 12. Discite
   justitiam, moniti, et non temnere divos--Let this rebuke teach you to
   cultivate righteousness, and cease from despising the gods.--Virgil.

   V. Those are wicked indeed that will not be wrought upon by the
   favourable methods God takes to subdue and reform them; and it is
   necessary that God should deal with them in a severe way by his
   judgments, which shall prevail to humble those that would not otherwise
   be humbled. Observe,

   1. How sinners walk contrary to God, and refuse to comply with the
   means used for their reformation and to answer the intentions of them,
   v. 10. (1.) Favour is shown to them. They receive many mercies from
   God; he causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them, nay, he
   prospers them, and into their hands he brings plentifully; they escape
   many of the strokes of God's judgments, which others less wicked than
   they have been cut off by; in some particular instances they seem to be
   remarkably favoured above their neighbours, and the design of all this
   is that they may be won upon to love and serve that God who thus
   favours them; and yet it is all in vain: They will not learn
   righteousness, will not be led to repentance by the goodness of God,
   and therefore it is requisite that God should send his judgments into
   the earth, to reckon with men for abused mercies. (2.) They live in a
   land of uprightness, where religion is professed and is in reputation,
   where the word of God is preached, and where they have many good
   examples set them,--in a land of evenness, where there are not so many
   stumbling-blocks as in other places,--in a land of correction, where
   vice and profaneness are discountenanced and punished; yet there they
   will deal unjustly, and go on frowardly in their evil ways. Those that
   do wickedly deal unjustly both with God and man, as well as with their
   own souls; and those that will not be reclaimed by the justice of the
   nation may expect the judgments of God upon them. Nor can those expect
   a place hereafter in the land of blessedness who now conform not to the
   laws and usages, nor improve the privileges and advantages, of the land
   of uprightness; and why do they not? It is because they will not behold
   the majesty of the Lord, will not believe, will not consider, what a
   God of terrible majesty he is whose laws and justice they persist in
   the contempt of. God's majesty appears in all the dispensations of his
   providence; but they regard it not, and therefore study not to answer
   the ends of those dispensations. Even when we receive of the mercy of
   the Lord we must still behold the majesty of the Lord and his goodness.
   (3.) God lifts up his hand to give them warning, that they may, by
   repentance and prayer, make their peace with him; but they take no
   notice of it, are not aware that God is angry with them, or coming
   forth against them: They will not see, and none so blind as those who
   will not see, who shut their eyes against the clearest conviction of
   guilt and wrath, who ascribe that to chance, or common fate, which is
   manifestly a divine rebuke, who regard not the threatening symptoms of
   their own ruin, but cry Peace to themselves, when the righteous God is
   waging war with them.

   2. How God will at length be too hard for them; for, when he judges, he
   will overcome: They will not see, but they shall see, shall be made to
   see, whether they will or no, that God is angry with them. Atheists,
   scorners, and the secure, will shortly feel what now they will not
   believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
   living God. They will not see the evil of sin, and particularly the sin
   of hating and persecuting the people of God; but they shall see, by the
   tokens of God's displeasure against them for it and the deliverances in
   which God will plead his people's cause, that what is done against them
   he takes as done against himself and will reckon for it accordingly.
   They shall see that they have done God's people a great deal of wrong,
   and therefore shall be ashamed of their enmity and envy towards them,
   and their ill usage of such as deserved better treatment. Note, Those
   that bear ill-will to God's people have reason to be ashamed of it, so
   absurd and unreasonable is it; and, sooner or later, they shall be
   ashamed of it, and the remembrance of it shall fill them with
   confusion. Some read it, They shall see and be confounded for the zeal
   of the people, by the zeal God will show for his people; when they
   shall be made to know how jealous God is for the honour and welfare of
   his people they shall be confounded to think that they might have been
   of that people and would not. Their doom therefore is that, since they
   slighted the happiness of God's friends, the fire of his enemies shall
   devour them, that is, the fire which is prepared for his enemies and
   with which they shall be devoured, the fire designed for the devil and
   his angels. Note, Those that are enemies to God's people, and envy
   them, God looks upon as his enemies, and will deal with them
   accordingly.

Goodness of God to Israel; Israel Corrected for Sin; Prospects of the Church.
(b. c. 718.)

   12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all
   our works in us.   13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had
   dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
   14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall
   not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all
   their memory to perish.   15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord,
   thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed
   it far unto all the ends of the earth.   16 Lord, in trouble have they
   visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon
   them.   17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of
   her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been
   in thy sight, O Lord.   18 We have been with child, we have been in
   pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any
   deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world
   fallen.   19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall
   they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as
   the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

   The prophet in these verses looks back upon what God had done with
   them, both in mercy and judgment, and sings unto God of both, and then
   looks forward upon what he hoped God would do for them. Observe,

   I. His reviews and reflections are mixed. When he looks back upon the
   state of the church he finds,

   1. That God had in many instances been very gracious to them and had
   done great things for them. (1.) In general (v. 12): Thou hast wrought
   all our works in us, or for us. Whatever good work is done by us, it is
   owing to a good work wrought by the grace of God in us; it is he that
   puts good thoughts and affections into our hearts if at any time they
   be there, and that works in us both to will and to do of his good
   pleasure. Acti, agimus--Being acted upon, we act. And if any kindness
   be shown us, or any of our affairs be prosperous and successful, it is
   God that works it for us. Every creature, every business, that is in
   any way serviceable to our comfort, is made by him to be so; and
   sometimes he makes that to work for us which seemed to make against us.
   (2.) In particular (v. 15): "Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord! so
   that a little one has become a thousand (in Egypt they multiplied
   exceedingly, and afterwards in Canaan, so that they filled the land);
   and in this thou art glorified," for the multitude of the people is the
   honour of the prince, and therein God was glorified as faithful to his
   covenant with Abraham, that he would make him a father of many nations.
   Note, God's nation is a growing nation, and it is the glory of God that
   it is so. The increase of the church, that holy nation, is therefore to
   be rejoiced in because it is the increase of those that make it their
   business to glorify God in this world.

   2. That yet he had laid them under his rebukes.

   (1.) The neighbouring nations had sometimes oppressed them and
   tyrannised over them (v. 13): "O Lord our God! thou who hast the sole
   right to rule us, whose subjects and servants we are, to thee we
   complain (for whither else should we go with our complaints?) that
   other lords besides thee have had dominion over us." Not only in the
   days of the Judges, but afterwards, God frequently sold them into the
   hand of their enemies, or rather, by their iniquities, they sold
   themselves, ch. lii. 3-5. When they had been careless in the service of
   God, God suffered their enemies to have dominion over them, that they
   might know the difference between his service and the service of the
   kingdoms of the countries. It may be understood as a confession of sin,
   their serving other gods, and subjecting themselves to the
   superstitious laws and customs of their neighbours, by which other
   lords (for they called their idols baals, lords) had dominion over
   them, besides God. But now they promise that it shall be so no more:
   "Henceforth by thee only will we make mention of thy name; we will
   worship thee only, and in that way only which thou hast instituted and
   appointed." The same may be our penitent reflection: Other lords,
   besides God, have had dominion over us; every lust has been our lord,
   and we have been led captive by it; and it is has been long enough, and
   too long, that we have thus wronged both God and ourselves. The same
   therefore must be our pious resolution, that henceforth we will make
   mention of God's name only and by him only, that we will keep close to
   God and to our duty and never desert it.

   (2.) They had sometimes been carried into captivity before their
   enemies (v. 15): "The nation which at first thou didst increase, and
   make to take root, thou hast now diminished, and plucked up, and
   removed to all the ends of the earth, driven out to the utmost parts of
   heaven," as is threatened, Deut. xxx. 4; xxviii. 64. But observe,
   Between the mention of the increasing of them and that of the removing
   of them it is said, Thou art glorified; for the judgments God inflicts
   upon his people for their sins are for his honour, as well as the
   mercies he bestows upon them in performance of his promise.

   (3.) The prophet remembers that when they were thus oppressed and
   carried captive they cried unto God, which was a good evidence that
   they neither had quite forsaken him nor were quite forsaken of him, and
   that there were merciful intentions in the judgments they were under
   (v. 16): Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. This was usual with
   the people of Israel, as we find frequently in the story of the Judges.
   When other lords had dominion over them they humbled themselves, and
   said, The Lord is righteous, 2 Chron. xii. 6. See here, [1.] The need
   we have of afflictions. They are necessary to stir up prayer; when it
   is said, In trouble have they visited thee, it is implied that in their
   peace and prosperity they were strangers to God, kept at a distance
   from him, and seldom came near him, as if, when the world smiled upon
   them, they had no occasion for his favours. [2.] The benefit we often
   have by afflictions. They bring us to God, quicken us to our duty, and
   show us our dependence upon him. Those that before seldom looked at God
   now visit him; they come frequently, they become friendly, and make
   their court to him. Before, prayer came drop by drop, but now they pour
   out a prayer; it comes now like water from a fountain, not like water
   from a still. They poured out a secret speech; so the margin. Praying
   is speaking to God, but it is a secret speech; for it is the language
   of the heart, otherwise it is not praying. Afflictions bring us to
   secret prayer, in which we may be more free and particular in our
   addresses to him than we can be in public. In affliction those will
   seek God early who before sought him slowly, Hos. v. 15. It will make
   men fervent and fluent in prayer. "They poured out a prayer, as the
   drink-offerings were poured out, when thy chastening was upon them."
   But it is to be feared, when the chastening is off them, they will by
   degrees return to their former carelessness, as they had often done.

   (4.) He complains that their struggles for their own liberty had been
   very painful and perilous, but that they had not been successful, v.
   17, 18. [1.] They had the throes and pangs they dreaded: "We have been
   like a woman in labour, that cries out in her pangs; we have with a
   great deal of anxiety and toil endeavoured to help ourselves, and our
   troubles have been increased by those attempts;" as when Moses came to
   deliver Israel the tale of bricks was doubled. Their prayers were
   quickened by the acuteness of their pains, and became as strong and
   vehement as the cries of a woman in sore travail. So have we been in
   thy sight, O Lord! It was a comfort and satisfaction to them, in their
   distress, that God had his eye upon them, that all their miseries were
   in his sight; he was no stranger to their pangs or their prayers. Lord,
   all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hidden from thee,
   Ps. xxxviii. 9. Whenever they came to present themselves before the
   Lord with their complaints and petitions they were in agonies like
   those of a woman in travail. [2.] They came short of the issue and
   success they desired and hoped for: "We have been with child; we have
   had great expectation of a speedy and happy deliverance, have been big
   with hopes, and, when we have been in pain, have comforted ourselves
   with this, that the joyful birth would make us forget our misery, John
   xvi. 21. But, alas! we have as it were brought forth wind; it has
   proved a false conception; our expectations have been frustrated, and
   our pains have been rather dying pains than travailing ones; we have
   had a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All our efforts have proved
   abortive: We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, for
   ourselves or for our friends and allies, but rather have made our own
   case and theirs worse; neither have the inhabitants of the world, whom
   we have been contesting with, fallen before us, either in their power
   or in their hopes; but they are still as high and arrogant as ever."
   Note, A righteous cause may be strenuously pleaded both by prayer and
   endeavour, both with God and man, and yet for a great while may be left
   under a cloud, and the point may not be gained.

   II. His prospects and hopes are very pleasant. In general, "Thou wilt
   ordain peace for us (v. 12), that is, all that good which the necessity
   of our case calls for." What peace the church has, or hopes for, it is
   of God's ordaining; and we may comfort ourselves with this, that, what
   trouble soever may for a time be appointed to the people of God, peace
   will at length be ordained for them; for the end of those men is peace.
   And, if God by his Spirit work all our works in us, he will ordain
   peace for us (for the work of righteousness shall be peace), and that
   is true and lasting peace, such as the world can neither give nor take
   away, which God ordains; for, to those that have it, it shall be
   unchangeable as the ordinances of the day and of the night. Moreover,
   from what God has done for us, we may encourage ourselves to hope that
   he will yet further do us good. "Thou hast heard the desire of the
   humble, and therefore wilt (Ps. x. 17); and, when this peace is
   ordained for us, then by thee only will we make mention of thy name (v.
   13); we will give the glory of it to thee only, and not to any other,
   and we will depend upon thy grace only to enable us to do so." We
   cannot praise God's name but by his strength. Two things in particular
   the prophet here comforts the church with the prospect of:--1. The
   amazing ruin of her enemies (v. 14): They are dead, those other lords
   that have had dominion over us; their power is irrecoverably broken;
   they are quite cut off and extinguished: and they shall not live, shall
   never be able to hold up the head any more. Being deceased, they shall
   not rise, but, like Haman, when they have begun to fall before the seed
   of the Jews they shall sink like a stone. Because they are sentenced to
   this final ruin, therefore, in pursuance of that sentence, God himself
   has visited them in wrath, as a righteous Judge, and has cut off both
   the men themselves (he has destroyed them) and the remembrance of them:
   they and their names are buried together in the dust. He has made all
   their memory to perish; they are either forgotten or made mention of
   with detestation. Note, The cause that is maintained in opposition to
   God and his kingdom among men, though it may prosper awhile, will
   certainly sink at last, and all that adhere to it will perish with it.
   The Jewish doctors, comparing this with v. 19, infer that the
   resurrection of the dead belong to the Jews only, and that those of
   other nations shall not rise. But we know better; we know that all who
   are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and that
   this speaks of the final destruction of Christ's enemies, which is the
   second death. 2. The surprising resurrection of her friends, v. 19.
   Though the church rejoices not in the birth of the man-child, of which
   she travailed in pain, but has as it were brought forth wind (v. 18),
   yet the disappointment shall be balanced in a way equivalent: Thy dead
   men shall live; those who were thought to be dead, who had received a
   sentence of death within themselves, who were cast out as if they had
   been naturally dead, shall appear again in their former vigour. A
   spirit of life from God shall enter into the slain witnesses, and they
   shall prophesy again, Rev. xi. 11. The dry bones shall live, and become
   an exceedingly great army, Ezek. xxxvii. 10. Together with my dead body
   shall they arise. If we believe the resurrection of the dead, of our
   dead bodies at the last day, as Job did, and the prophet here, that
   will facilitate our belief of the promised restoration of the church's
   lustre and strength in this world. When God's time shall have come, how
   low soever she may be brought, they shall arise, even Jerusalem, the
   city of God, but now lying like a dead body, a carcase to which the
   eagles are gathered together. God owns it still for his, so does the
   prophet; but it shall arise, shall be rebuilt, and flourish again. And
   therefore let the poor, desolate, melancholy remains of its
   inhabitants, that dwell as in dust, awake and sing; for they shall see
   Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, a quiet habitation again, ch.
   xxxiii. 20. The dew of God's favour shall be to it as the evening dew
   to the herbs that were parched with the heat of the sun all day, shall
   revive and refresh them. And as the spring-dews, that water the earth,
   and make the herbs that lay buried in it to put forth and bud, so shall
   they flourish again, and the earth shall cast out the dead, as it casts
   the herbs out of their roots. The earth, in which they seemed to be
   lost, shall contribute to their revival. When the church and her
   interests are to be restored neither the dew of heaven nor the fatness
   of the earth shall be wanting to do their part towards the restoration.
   Now this (as Ezekiel's vision, which is a comment upon it) may be fitly
   accommodated, (1.) To the spiritual resurrection of those that were
   dead in sin, by the power of Christ's gospel and grace. So Dr.
   Lightfoot applies it, Hor. Hebr. in Joh. 12.24. "The Gentiles shall
   live; with my body shall they arise; that is, they shall be called in
   after Christ's resurrection, shall rise with him, and sit with him in
   heavenly places; nay, they shall arise my body (says he); they shall
   become the mystical body of Christ, and shall arise as part of him."
   (2.) To the last resurrection, when dead saints shall live, and rise
   together with Christ's dead body; for he arose as the first-fruits, and
   believers shall arise by virtue of their union with him and their
   communion in his resurrection.

The Sure Refuge. (b. c. 718.)

   20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
   about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the
   indignation be overpast.   21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his
   place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the
   earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

   These two verses are supposed not to belong to the song which takes up
   the rest of the chapter, but to begin a new matter, and to be rather an
   introduction to the following chapter than the conclusion of this. Of
   whereas, in the foregoing song, the people of God had spoken to him,
   complaining of their grievances, here he returns an answer to their
   complaints, in which,

   I. He invites them into their chambers (v. 20): "Come, my people, come
   to me, come with me" (he calls them nowhere but where he himself will
   accompany them); "let the storm that disperses others bring you nearer
   together. Come, and enter into thy chambers; stay not abroad, lest you
   be caught in the storm, as the Egyptians in the hail," Exod. ix. 21. 1.
   "Come into chambers of distinction; come into your own apartments, and
   continue not any longer mixed with the children of Babylon. Come out
   from among them, and be you separate," 2 Cor. vi. 17; Rev. xviii. 4. If
   God has set apart those that are godly for himself, they ought to set
   themselves apart. 2. "Into chambers of defence, in which by the secresy
   or the strength of them you may be safe in the worst of times." The
   attributes of God are the secret of his tabernacle, Ps. xxvii. 5. His
   name is a strong tower, into which we may run for shelter, Prov. xviii.
   10. We must by faith find a way into these chambers, and there hide
   ourselves; that is, with a holy security and serenity of mind, we must
   put ourselves under the divine protection. Come, as Noah into the ark,
   for he shut the doors about him. When dangers are threatening it is
   good to retire, and lie hid, as Elijah did by the brook Cherith. 3.
   Into chambers of devotion. "Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door,
   Matt. vi. 6. Be private with God: Enter into thy chamber, to examine
   thyself, and commune with thy own heart, to pray, and humble thyself
   before God." This work is to be done in times of distress and danger;
   and thus we hide ourselves, that is, we recommend ourselves to God to
   hide us, and he will hide us either under heaven or in heaven. Israel
   must keep within doors when the destroying angel is slaying the
   first-born of Egypt, else the blood on the door-posts will not secure
   them. So must Rahab and her family when Jericho is being destroyed.
   Those are most safe that are least seen. Qui bene latuit, benevixit--He
   has lived well who has sought a proper degree of concealment.

   II. He assures them that the trouble would be over in a very short
   time, that they should not long be in any fright or peril: "Hide
   thyself for a moment, the smallest part of time we can conceive, like
   an atom of matter; may, if you can imagine one moment shorter than
   another, it is but for a little moment, and that with a quasi too, as
   it were for a little moment, less than you think of. When it is over it
   will seem as nothing to you; you will wonder how soon it is gone. You
   shall not need to lie long in confinement, long in concealment. The
   indignation will presently be over-past; that is, the indignation of
   the enemies against you, their persecuting power and rage, which force
   you to abscond. When the wicked rise, a man is hid. This will soon be
   over; God will cut them off, will break their power, defeat their
   purposes, and find a way for your enlargement." When Athanasius was
   banished from Alexandria by an edict of Julian, and his friends greatly
   lamented it, he bade them be of good cheer. Nubecula est quæ cito
   pertransibit--It is a little cloud, that will soon blow over. You shall
   have tribulation ten days; that is all, Rev. ii. 10. This enables God's
   suffering people to call their afflictions light, that they are but for
   a moment.

   III. He assures them that their enemies should be reckoned with for all
   the mischief they had done them by the sword, either of war or
   persecution, v. 21. The Lord will punish them for the blood they have
   shed. Here is, 1. The judgment set, and process issued out: The Lord
   comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
   their iniquity, in giving such disturbance to all about them. There is
   a great deal of iniquity among the inhabitants of the earth; but though
   they all combine in it, though hand join in hand to carry it on, yet it
   shall not go unpunished. Besides the everlasting punishment into which
   the wicked shall go hereafter, there are often remarkable punishments
   of cruelty, oppression, and persecution, in this world. When men's
   indignation is over-past, and they have done their worst, let them then
   expect God's indignation, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps.
   xxxvii. 13. God comes out of his place to punish. He shows himself in
   an extraordinary manner from heaven, the firmament of his power, from
   the sanctuary, the residence of his grace. He is raised up out of his
   holy habitation, where he seemed before to conceal himself; and now he
   will do something great, the product of his wise, just, and secret
   counsels, as a prince that goes to take the chair or take the field,
   Zech. ii. 13. Some observe that God's place is the mercy-seat; there he
   delights to be; when he punishes he comes out of his place, for he has
   no pleasure in the death of sinners. 2. The criminals convicted by the
   notorious evidence of the face: The earth shall disclose her blood; the
   innocent blood, the blood of the saints and martyrs, which has been
   shed upon the earth like water, and has soaked into it, and been
   concealed and covered by it, shall not be brought to light, and brought
   to account; for God will make inquisition for it, and will give those
   that shed it blood to drink, for they are worthy. Secret murders, and
   other secret wickednesses, shall be discovered, sooner or later. And
   the slain which the earth has long covered she shall no longer cover,
   but they shall be produced as evidence against the murderers. The voice
   of Abel's blood cries from the earth, Gen. ix. 10, 11; Job xx. 27.
   Those sins which seemed to be buried in oblivion will be called to
   mind, and called over again, when the day of reckoning comes. Let God's
   people therefore wait awhile with patience, for behold the Judge stands
   before the door.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXVII.

   In this chapter the prophet goes on to show, I. What great things God
   would do for his church and people, which should now shortly be
   accomplished in the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib and the
   destruction of the Assyrian army; but it is expressed generally, for
   the encouragement of the church in after ages, with reference to the
   power and prevalency of her enemies. 1. That proud oppressors should be
   reckoned with, ver. 1. 2. That care should be taken of the church, as
   of God's vineyard, ver. 2, 3. 3. That God would let fall his
   controversy with the people, upon their return to him, ver. 4, 5. 4.
   That he would greatly multiply and increase them, ver. 6. 5. That, as
   to their afflictions, the property of them should be altered (ver. 7),
   they should be mitigated and moderated (ver. 8), and sanctified, ver.
   9. 6. That though the church might be laid waste, and made desolate,
   for a time (ver. 10, 11), yet it should be restored, and the scattered
   members should be gathered together again, ver. 12, 13. All this is
   applicable to the grace of the gospel, and God's promises to, and
   providences concerning, the Christian church, and such as belong to it.

The Doom of Persecutors; The Privilege of Saints. (b. c. 718.)

   1 In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall
   punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked
   serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.   2 In that
   day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.   3 I the Lord do keep
   it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it
   night and day.   4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and
   thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them
   together.   5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make
   peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.   6 He shall cause them
   that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill
   the face of the world with fruit.

   The prophet is here singing of judgment and mercy,

   I. Of judgment upon the enemies of God's church (v. 1), tribulation to
   those that trouble it, 2 Thess. i. 6. When the Lord comes out of his
   place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth (ch. xxvi. 21), he will
   be sure to punish leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, every proud
   oppressing tyrant, that is the terror of the mighty, and, like the
   leviathan, is so fierce that none dares stir him up, and his heart as
   hard as a stone, and when he raises up himself the mighty are afraid,
   Job xli. 10, 24, 25. The church has many enemies, but commonly some one
   that is more formidable than the rest. So Sennacherib was in his day,
   and Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his; so Pharaoh had been
   formerly, and is called leviathan and the dragon, ch. li. 9; Ps. lxxiv.
   13, 14; Ezek. xxix. 3. The New-Testament church has had its leviathans;
   we read of a great red dragon ready to devour it, Rev. xii. 3. Those
   malignant persecuting powers are here compared to the leviathan for
   bulk, and strength, and the mighty bustle they make in the world,--to
   dragons for their rage and fury,--to serpents, piercing serpents,
   penetrating in their counsels, quick in their motions, and which, if
   they once get in their head, will soon wind in their whole
   body,--crossing like a bar (so the margin), standing in the way of all
   their neighbours and obstructing them,--to crooked serpents, subtle and
   insinuating, but perverse and mischievous. Great and mighty princes, if
   they oppose the people of God, are in God's account as dragons and
   serpents, the plagues of mankind; and the Lord will punish them in due
   time. They are too big for men to deal with and call to an account, and
   therefore the great God will take the matter into his own hands. He has
   a sore, and great, and strong sword, wherewith to do execution upon
   them when the measure of their iniquity is full and their day has come
   to fall. It is emphatically expressed in the original: The Lord with
   his sword, that cruel one, and that great one, and that strong one,
   shall punish this unwieldy, this unruly criminal; and it shall be
   capital punishment: He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea; for
   the wages of his sin is death. This shall not only be a prevention of
   his doing further mischief, as the slaying of a wild beast, but a just
   punishment for the mischief he has done, as the putting of a traitor or
   rebel to death. God has a strong sword for the doing of this, variety
   of judgments sufficient to humble the proudest and break the most
   powerful of his enemies; and he will do it when the day of execution
   comes: In that day he will punish, his day which is coming, Ps. xxxvii.
   13. This is applicable to the spiritual victories obtained by our Lord
   Jesus over the powers of darkness. He not only disarmed, spoiled, and
   cast out, the prince of this world, but with his strong sword, the
   virtue of his death and the preaching of his gospel, he does and will
   destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, that great
   leviathan, that old serpent, the dragon. He shall be bound, that he may
   not deceive the nations, and that is a punishment to him (Rev. xx. 2,
   3); and at length, for deceiving the nations, he shall be cast into the
   lake of fire, Rev. xx. 10.

   II. Of mercy to the church. In that same day, when God is punishing the
   leviathan, let the church and all her friends be easy and cheerful; let
   those that attend her sing to her for her comfort, sing her asleep with
   these assurances; let it be sung in her assemblies,

   1. That she is God's vineyard, and is under his particular care, v. 2,
   3. She is, in God's eye, a vineyard of red wine. The world is as a
   fruitless worthless wilderness; but the church is enclosed as a
   vineyard, a peculiar place, and of value, that has great care taken of
   it and great pains taken with it, and from which precious fruits are
   gathered, wherewith they honour God and man. It is a vineyard of red
   wine, yielding the best and choicest grapes, intimating the reformation
   of the church, that it now brings forth good fruit unto God, whereas
   before it brought forth fruit to itself, or brought forth wild grapes,
   ch. v. 4. Now God takes care, (1.) Of the safety of this vineyard: I
   the Lord do keep it. He speaks this as glorying in it that he is, and
   has undertaken to be, the keeper of Israel. Those that bring forth
   fruit to God are and shall be always under his protection. He speaks
   this as assuring us that they shall be so: I the Lord, that can do
   every thing, but cannot lie nor deceive, I do keep it; lest any hurt
   it, I will keep it night and day. God's vineyard in this world lies
   much exposed to injury; there are many that would hurt it, would tread
   it down and lay it waste (Ps. lxxx. 13); but God will suffer no real
   hurt or damage to be done it, but what he will bring good out of. He
   will keep it constantly, night and day, and not without need, for the
   enemies are restless in their designs and attempts against it, and,
   both night and day, seek an opportunity to do it a mischief. God will
   keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of
   peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are no less dangerous.
   God's people shall be preserved, not only from the pestilence that
   walketh in darkness, but from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day,
   Ps. xci. 6. This vineyard shall be well fenced. (2.) Of the
   fruitfulness of this vineyard: I will water it every moment, and yet it
   shall not be overwatered. The still and silent dews of God's grace and
   blessing shall continually descend upon it, that it may bring forth
   much fruit. We need the constant and continual waterings of the divine
   grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to
   nothing. God waters his vineyard by the ministry of the word by his
   servants the prophets, whose doctrine shall drop as the dew. Paul
   plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase; for without him
   the watchman wakes and the husbandman waters in vain.

   2. That, though sometimes he contends with his people, yet, upon their
   submission, he will be reconciled to them, v. 4, 5. Fury is not in him
   towards his vineyard; though he meets with many things in it that are
   offensive to him, yet he does not seek advantages against it, nor is
   extreme to mark what is amiss in it. It is true if he find in it briers
   and thorns instead of vines, and they be set in battle against him (as
   indeed that in the vineyard which is not for him is against him), he
   will tread them down and burn them; but otherwise, "If I am angry with
   my people, they know what course to take; let them humble themselves,
   and pray, and seek my face, and so take hold of my strength with a
   sincere desire to make their peace with me, and I will soon be
   reconciled to them, and all shall be well." God sees the sins of his
   people and is displeased with them; but, upon their repentance, he
   turns away his wrath. This may very well be construed as a summary of
   the doctrine of the gospel, with which the church is to be watered
   every moment. (1.) Here is a quarrel supposed between God and man; for
   here is a battle fought, and peace to be made. It is an old quarrel,
   ever since sin first entered. It is, on God's part, a righteous
   quarrel, but, on man's part, most unrighteous. (2.) Here is a gracious
   invitation given us to make up this quarrel, and to get these matters
   in variance accommodated: "Let him that is desirous to be at peace with
   God take hold of his strength, of his strong arm, which is lifted up
   against the sinner to strike him dead; and let him by supplication keep
   back the stroke. Let him wrestle with me, as Jacob did, resolving not
   to let me go without a blessing; and he shall be Israel--a prince with
   God." Pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord; let him take
   hold of that. Christ is the arm of the Lord, ch. liii. 1. Christ
   crucified is the power of God (1 Cor. i. 24); let him by a lively faith
   take hold of him, as a man that is sinking catches hold of a bough, or
   cord, or plank, that is within his reach, or as the malefactor took
   hold of the horns of the altar, believing that there is no other name
   by which he can be saved, by which he can be reconciled. (3.) Here is a
   threefold cord of arguments to persuade us to do this. [1.] Time and
   space are given us to do it in; for fury is not in God; he does not
   carry it towards us as great men carry it towards their inferiors, when
   the one is in a fault and the other in a fury. Men in a fury will not
   take time for consideration; it is, with them, but a word and a blow.
   Furious men are soon angry, and implacable when they are angry; a
   little thing provokes them, and no little thing will pacify them. But
   it is not so with God; he considers our frame, is slow to anger, does
   not stir up all his wrath, nor always chide. [2.] It is in vain to
   think of contesting with him. If we persist in our quarrel with him,
   and think to make our part good, it is but like setting briers and
   thorns before a consuming fire, which will be so far from giving check
   to the progress of it that they will but make it burn the more
   outrageously. We are not an equal match for Omnipotence. Woe unto him
   therefore that strives with his Maker! He knows not the power of his
   anger. [3.] This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to
   reconciliation: "Let him take this course to make peace with me, and he
   shall make peace; and thereby good, all good, shall come unto him." God
   is willing to be reconciled to us if we be but willing to be reconciled
   to him.

   3. That the church of God in the world shall be a growing body, and
   come at length to be a great body (v. 6): In times to come (so some
   read it), in after-times, when these calamities are overpast, or in the
   days of the gospel, the latter days, he shall cause Jacob to take root,
   deeper root than ever yet; for the gospel church shall be more firmly
   fixed than ever the Jewish church was, and shall spread further. Or, He
   shall cause those of Jacob that come back out of their captivity, or
   (as we read it) those that come of Jacob, to take root downward, and
   bear fruit upward, ch. xxxvii. 31. They shall be established in a
   prosperous state, and then they shall blossom and bud, and give hopeful
   prospects of a great increase; and so it shall prove, for they shall
   fill the face of the world with fruit. Many shall be brought into the
   church, proselytes shall be numerous, some out of all the nations about
   that shall be to the God of Israel for a name and a praise; and the
   converts shall be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness. The
   preaching of the gospel brought forth fruit in all the world (Col. i.
   6), fruit that remains, John xv. 16.

Correction and Compassion. (b. c. 718.)

   7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain
   according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?   8 In
   measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth
   his rough wind in the day of the east wind.   9 By this therefore shall
   the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away
   his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that
   are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.   10
   Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken,
   and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall
   he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.   11 When the boughs
   thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set
   them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that
   made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will
   show them no favour.   12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that
   the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream
   of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
     13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet
   shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the
   land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall
   worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

   Here is the prophet again singing of mercy and judgment, not, as
   before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to the church, but judgment
   to the church and mercy mixed with that judgment.

   I. Here is judgment threatened even to Jacob and Israel. They shall
   blossom and bud (v. 6), but, 1. They shall be smitten and slain (v. 7),
   some of them shall. If God find any thing amiss among them, he will lay
   them under the tokens of his displeasure for it. Judgment shall begin
   at the house of God, and those whom God has known of all the families
   of the earth he will punish in the first place. 2. Jerusalem, their
   defenced city, shall be desolate, v. 10, 11. "God having tried a
   variety of methods with them for their reformation, which, as to many,
   have proved ineffectual, he will for a time lay their country waste,"
   which was accomplished when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans;
   then that habitation was for a long time forsaken. If less judgments do
   not do the work, God will send greater; for when he judges he will
   overcome. Jerusalem had been a defenced city, not so much by art or
   nature as by grace and the divine protection; but, when God was
   provoked to withdraw, her defence departed from her, and then she was
   left like a wilderness. "And in the pleasant gardens of Jerusalem
   cattle shall feed, shall lie down there, and there shall be none to
   disturb them or drive them away; there they shall be levant and
   couchant, and they shall eat the tender branches of the fruit-trees,"
   which perhaps further signifies that the people should become an easy
   prey to their enemies. "When the boughs thereof are withered as they
   grow upon the tree, being blasted by winds and frosts and not pruned,
   they shall be broken off for fuel, and the women and children shall
   come and set them on fire. There shall be a total destruction, for the
   very trees shall be destroyed." And this is a figure of the deplorable
   state of the vineyard (v. 2) when it brought forth wild grapes (ch. v.
   2); and our Saviour seems to refer to this when he says of the branches
   of the vine which abide not in him that they are cast forth and
   withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they
   are burned (John xv. 6), which was in a particular manner fulfilled in
   the unbelieving Jews. The similitude is explained in the following
   words, It is a people of no understanding, brutish and sottish, and
   destitute of the knowledge of God, and that have no relish or savour of
   divine things, like a withered branch that has no sap in it; and this
   is at the bottom of all those sins for which God left them desolate,
   their idolatry first and afterwards their infidelity. Wicked people,
   however in other things they may be wits and politicians, in their
   greatest concerns are of no understanding; and their ignorance, being
   wilful, shall not only not be their excuse, but it shall be the ground
   of their condemnation; for therefore he that made them, that gave them
   their being, will not have mercy on them, nor save them from the ruin
   they bring upon themselves; and he that formed them into a people,
   formed them for himself, to show forth his praise, seeing they do not
   answer the end of their formation, but hate to be reformed, to be
   new-formed, will reject them, and show them no favour; and then they
   are undone: for, if he that made us by his power do not make us happy
   in his favour, we had better never have been made. Sinners flatter
   themselves with hopes of impunity, at least that they shall not be
   dealt with so severely as their ministers tell them, because God is
   merciful and because he is their Maker. But here we see how weak and
   insufficient those pleas will be; for, if they be of no understanding,
   he that made them, though he made them, and hates nothing that he has
   made, and though he has mercy in store for those who so far understand
   their interests as to apply to him for it, yet on them he will have no
   mercy, and will show them no favour.

   II. Here is a great deal of mercy mixed with this judgment; for there
   are good people mixed with those that are corrupt and degenerate, a
   remnant according to the election of grace, on whom God will have mercy
   and to whom he will show favour: and these promises seem to point at
   all the calamities of the church, for which God would graciously
   provide these allays.

   1. Though they shall be smitten and slain, yet not to that degree, and
   in that manner, in which their enemies shall be smitten and slain, v.
   7. God has smitten Jacob, and he is slain. Many of those that
   understand among the people shall fall by the sword and by flame many
   days, Dan. xi. 33. But it shall not be as those are smitten and slain,
   (1.) Who smote him formerly, who were the rod of God's anger and the
   staff in his hand, which he made us of for the correction of his
   people, and to whose turn it shall come to be reckoned with even for
   that: the child is spared, but the rod is burnt. (2.) Who shall
   afterwards be slain by him, when he shall get the dominion, and repay
   them in their own coin, or slain for his sake in the pleading of his
   cause. God's people and God's enemies are here represented, [1.] As
   struggling with each other; so the seed of the woman and the seed of
   the serpent have been, are, and will be. In this contest there are
   slain on both sides. God makes use of wicked men, not only to smite,
   but to slay his people; for they are his sword, Ps. xvii. 13. But, when
   the cup of trembling comes to be put into their hand, it will be much
   worse with them than ever it was with God's people in their greatest
   straits. The seed of the woman has only his heel bruised, but the
   serpent has his head crushed and broken. Note, Though God's persecuted
   people may be great losers, and great sufferers, for a while, yet those
   that oppress them will prove to be greater losers and greater sufferers
   at last, here or hereafter; for God will render double to them, Rev.
   xviii. 6. [2.] As sharing together in the calamities of this present
   time. They are both smitten, both slain, and both by the hand of God;
   for there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. But is Jacob
   smitten as his enemies are? No, by no means; to him the property is
   altered, and it becomes quite another thing. Note, However it may seem
   to us, there is really a vast difference between the afflictions and
   deaths of good people and the afflictions and deaths of wicked people.

   2. Though God will debate with them, yet it shall be in measure, and
   the affliction shall be mitigated, moderated, and proportioned to their
   strength, not to their deserts, v. 8. He will deal out afflictions to
   them as the wise physician prescribes medicines to his patients, just
   such a quantity of each ingredient, or orders how much blood shall be
   taken when a vein is opened: thus God orders the troubles of his
   people, not suffering them to be tempted above what they are able, 1
   Cor. x. 13. He measures out their afflictions by a little at a time,
   that they may not be pressed above measure; for he knows their frame,
   and corrects in judgment, and does not stir up all his wrath. When the
   affliction is shooting forth, when he is sending it out and giving it
   its commission, then he debates in measure, and not in extremity. He
   considers what we can bear when he begins to correct; and when he
   proceeds in his controversy, so that it is the day of his east-wind,
   which is not only blustering and noisy, but blasting and noxious, yet
   he stays his rough wind, checks it, and sets bounds to it, does not
   suffer it to blow so hard as was feared; when he is winnowing his corn,
   it is with a gentle gale, that shall only blow away the chaff, but not
   the good corn. God has the winds at his command, and every affliction
   under his check. Hitherto it shall go, but no further. Let us not
   despair when things are at the worst; be the winds ever so rough, ever
   so high, God can say unto them, Peace, be still.

   3. Though God will afflict them, yet he will make their afflictions to
   work for the good of their souls, and correct them as the father does
   the child, to drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their
   hearts (v. 9): By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.
   This is the design of the affliction, to this it is adapted as a proper
   means, and, by the grace of God working with it, it shall have this
   blessed effect. It shall mortify the habits of sin; by this those
   defilements of the soul shall be purged away. It shall break them off
   from the practice of sin: This is all the fruit, this is it that God
   intends, this is all the harm it will do them, to take away their sin,
   than which they could not have a greater kindness done them, though it
   be at the expense of an affliction. Therefore, because the affliction
   is mitigated and moderated, and the rough wind stayed, therefore we may
   conclude that he designs their reformation, not their destruction; and,
   because he deals thus gently with us, we should therefore study to
   answer his ends in afflicting us. The particular sin which the
   affliction was intended to cure them of was the sin of idolatry, the
   sin which did most easily beset that people and to which they were
   strangely addicted. Ephraim is joined to idols. But by the captivity in
   Babylon they were not only weaned from this sin, but set against it.
   Ephraim shall say, What have I do to any more with idols? Jacob has his
   sin taken away, his beloved sin, when he makes all the stones of the
   altar, of his idolatrous altar, the stones of which were precious and
   sacred to him, as chalk-stones that are beaten asunder; he not only has
   them in contempt, and values them no more than chalk-stones, but he
   conceives an indignation at them, and, in a holy revenge, beats them
   asunder as easily as chalk-stones are broken to pieces. The groves and
   the images shall not stand before this penitent, but they shall be
   thrown down too, never to be set up again. This was according to the
   law for the demolishing and destroying of all the monuments of idolatry
   (Deut. vii. 5); and according to this promise, since the captivity in
   Babylon, no people in the world have such a rooted aversion to idols
   and idolatry as the people of the Jews. Note, The design of affliction
   is to separate between us and sin, especially that which has been our
   own iniquity; and then it appears that the affliction has done us good
   when we keep at a distance from the occasions of sin, and use all
   needful precaution that we may not only not relapse into it, but not so
   much as be tempted to it, Ps. cxix. 67.

   4. Though Jerusalem shall be desolate and forsaken for a time, yet
   there will come a day when its scattered friends shall resort to it
   again out of all the countries whither they were dispersed (v. 12, 13);
   though the body of the nation is abandoned as a people of no
   understanding, yet those that are indeed children of Israel shall be
   gathered together again, as the sheep of the flock when the shepherds
   that scattered them are reckoned with, Ezek. xxxiv. 10-19. Now observe
   concerning these scattered Israelites, (1.) Whence they shall be
   fetched: The Lord shall beat them off as fruit from the tree, or beat
   them out as corn out of the ear. He shall find them out, and separate
   them from those among whom they dwelt, and with whom they seemed to be
   incorporated, from the channel of the river Euphrates north-east, unto
   Nile, the stream of Egypt, which lay south-west--those that were driven
   into the land of Assyria, and were captives there in the land of their
   enemies, where they were ready to perish for want of necessaries, and
   ready to despair of deliverance--and those that were outcasts in the
   land of Egypt, whither many of those that were left behind, after the
   captivity in Babylon, went, contrary to God's express command (Jer.
   xliii. 6, 7), and there lived as outcasts: God has mercy in store for
   them all, and will make it to appear that, though they are cast out,
   they are not cast off. (2.) In what manner they shall be brought back:
   "You shall be gathered one by one, not in multitudes, not in troops
   forcing your way; but silently, and as it were by stealth, dropping in,
   first one, and then another." This intimates that the remnant that
   shall be saved consists but of few, and those saved with difficulty,
   and so as by fire, scarcely saved; they shall not come for company, but
   as God shall stir up every man's spirit. (3.) By what means they shall
   be gathered together: The great trumpet shall be blown, and then they
   shall come. Cyrus's proclamation of liberty to the captives is this
   great trumpet, which awakened the Jews that were asleep in their
   thraldom to bestir themselves; it was like the sounding of the
   jubilee-trumpet, which published the year of release. This is
   applicable both to the preaching of the gospel, by which sinners are
   gathered in to the grace of God, such as were outcasts and ready to
   perish (those that were afar off are made nigh; the gospel proclaims
   the acceptable year of the Lord), and also to the archangel's trumpet
   at the last day, by which saints shall be gathered to the glory of God,
   that lay as outcasts in their graves. (4.) For what end they shall be
   gathered together: To worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
   When the captives rallied again, and returned to their own land, the
   chief thing they had their eye upon, and the first thing they applied
   themselves to, was the worship of God. The holy temple was in ruins,
   but they had the holy mount, the place of the altar, Gen. xiii. 4.
   Liberty to worship God is the most valuable and desirable liberty; and,
   after restraints and dispersions, a free access to his house should be
   more welcome to us than a free access to our own houses. Those that are
   gathered by the sounding of the gospel trumpet are brought in to
   worship God and added to the church; and the great trumpet of all will
   gather the saints together, to serve God day and night in his temple.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXVIII.

   In this chapter, I. The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for
   their pride and drunkenness, their security and sensuality, ver. 1-8.
   But, in the midst of this, here is a gracious promise of God's favour
   to the remnant of his people, ver. 5, 6. II. They are likewise reproved
   and threatened for their dulness and stupidity, and unaptness to profit
   by the instructions which the prophets gave them in God's name, ver.
   9-13. III. The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for
   their insolent contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at
   defiance; and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they
   are made to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God
   with which they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them, ver.
   14-22. IV. All this is confirmed by a comparison borrowed from the
   method which the husbandman takes with his ground and grain, according
   to which they must expect God would proceed with his people, whom he
   had lately called his threshing and the corn of his floor (ch. xxi. 10)
   ver. 23-29. This is written for our admonition, and is profitable for
   reproof and warning to us.

Ephraim Reproved and Threatened; The Punishment of Ephraim; (b. c. 725.)

   1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose
   glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat
   valleys of them that are overcome with wine!   2 Behold, the Lord hath
   a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying
   storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the
   earth with the hand.   3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,
   shall be trodden under feet:   4 And the glorious beauty, which is on
   the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty
   fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth,
   while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.   5 In that day shall the
   Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto
   the residue of his people,   6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that
   sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to
   the gate.   7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong
   drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through
   strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way
   through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.   8
   For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no
   place clean.

   Here, I. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the
   judgments that were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon
   after executed by the king of Assyria, who laid their country waste,
   and carried the people into captivity. Ephraim had his name from
   fruitfulness, their soil being very fertile and the products of it
   abundant and the best of the kind; they had a great many fat valleys
   (v. 1, 4), and Samaria, which was situated on a hill, was, as it were,
   on the head of the fat valleys. Their country was rich and pleasant,
   and as the garden of the Lord: it was the glory of Canaan, as that was
   the glory of all lands; their harvest and vintage were the glorious
   beauty on the head of their valleys, which were covered over with corn
   and vines. Now observe,

   1. What an ill use they made of their plenty. What God gave them to
   serve him with they perverted, and abused, by making it the food and
   fuel of their lusts. (1.) They were puffed up with pride by it. The
   goodness with which God crowned their years, which should have been to
   him a crown of praise, was to them a crown of pride. Those that are
   rich in the world are apt to be high-minded, 1 Tim. vi. 17. Their king,
   who wore the crown, was proud that he ruled over so rich a country;
   Samaria, their royal city, was notorious for pride. Perhaps it was
   usual at their festivals, or revels, to wear garlands made up of
   flowers and ears of corn, which they wore in honour of their fruitful
   country. Pride was a sin that generally prevailed among them, and
   therefore the prophet, in his name who resists the proud, boldly
   proclaims a woe to the crown of pride. If those who wear crowns be
   proud of them, let them not think to escape this woe. What men are
   proud of, be it ever so mean, is to them as a crown; he that is proud
   thinks himself as great as a king. But woe to those who thus exalt
   themselves, for they shall be abased; their pride is the preface to
   their destruction. (2.) They indulged themselves in sensuality. Ephraim
   was notorious for drunkenness, and excess of riot; Samaria, the head of
   the fat valleys, was full of those that were overcome with wine, were
   broken with it, so the margin. See how foolishly drunkards act, and no
   marvel when, in the very commission of the sin, they make fools and
   brutes of themselves; they yield, [1.] To be conquered by the sin; it
   overcomes them, and brings them into bondage (2 Pet. ii. 19); they are
   led captive by it, and the captivity is the more shameful and
   inglorious because it is voluntary. Some of these wretched slaves have
   themselves owned that there is not a greater drudgery in the world than
   hard drinking. They are overcome not with the wine, but with the love
   of it. [2.] To be ruined by it. They are broken by wine. Their
   constitution is broken by it, and their health ruined. They are broken
   in the callings and estates, and their souls are in danger of being
   eternally undone, and all this for the gratification of a base lust.
   Woe to these drunkards of Ephraim! Ministers must bring the general
   woes of the word home to particular places and persons. We must say,
   Woe to this or that person, if he be a drunkard. There is a particular
   woe to the drunkards of Ephraim, for they are of God's professing
   people, and it becomes them worse than any other; they know better, and
   therefore should give a better example. Some make the crown of pride to
   belong to the drunkards, and to mean the garlands with which those were
   crowned that got the victory in their wicked drinking matches and drank
   down the rest of the company. They were proud of their being mighty to
   drink wine; but woe to those who thus glory in their shame.

   2. The justice of God in taking away their plenty from them, which they
   thus abused. Their glorious beauty, the plenty they were proud of, is
   but a fading flower; it is meat that perishes. The most substantial
   fruits, if God blast them and blow upon them, are but fading flowers,
   v. 1. God can easily take away their corn in the season thereof (Hos.
   ii. 9), and recover locum vastatum--ground that has been alienated and
   has run to waste, those goods of his which they prepared for Baal. God
   has an officer ready to make a seizure for him, has one at his beck, a
   mighty and strong one, who is able to do the business, even the king of
   Assyria, who shall cast down to the earth with the hand, shall easily
   and effectually, and with the turn of a hand, destroy all that which
   they are proud of and pleased with, v. 2. He shall throw it down to the
   ground, to be broken to pieces with a strong hand, with a hand that
   they cannot oppose. Then the crown of pride, and the drunkards of
   Ephraim, shall be trodden under foot (v. 3); they shall lie exposed to
   contempt, and shall not be able to recover themselves. Drunkards, in
   their folly, are apt to talk proudly, and vaunt themselves most when
   they most shame themselves; but they thereby render themselves the more
   ridiculous. The beauty of their valleys, which they gloried in, will
   be, (1.) Like a fading flower (as before, v. 1); it will wither of
   itself, and has in itself the principles of its own corruption; it will
   perish in time by its own moth and rust. (2.) Like the hasty fruit,
   which, as soon as it is discovered, is plucked and eaten up; so the
   wealth of this world, besides that it is apt to decay of itself, is
   subject to be devoured by others as greedily as the first-ripe fruit,
   which is earnestly desired, Mic. vii. 1. Thieves break through and
   steal. The harvest which the worldling is proud of the hungry eat up
   (Job v. 5); no sooner do they see the prey but they catch at it, and
   swallow up all they can lay their hands on. It is likewise easily
   devoured, as that fruit which, being ripe before it has grown, is very
   small, and is soon eaten up; and there being little of it, and that of
   little worth, it is not reserved, but used immediately.

   II. He next turns to the kingdom of Judah, whom he calls the residue of
   his people (v. 5), for they were but two tribes to the other ten.

   1. He promises them God's favours, and that they shall be taken under
   his guidance and protection when the beauty of Ephraim shall be left
   exposed to be trodden down and eaten up, v. 5, 6. In that day, when the
   Assyrian army is laying Israel waste, and Judah might think that their
   neighbour's house being on fire their own was in danger, in that day of
   treading down and perplexity, then God will be to the residue of his
   people all they need and can desire; not only to the kingdom of Judah,
   but to those of Israel who had kept their integrity, and, as was
   probably the case with some, betook themselves to the land of Judah, to
   be sheltered by good king Hezekiah. When the Assyrian, that mighty one,
   was in Israel as a tempest of hail, noisy and battering, as a
   destroying storm bearing down all before it, especially at sea, and as
   a flood of mighty waters overflowing the country (v. 2), then in that
   day will the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, distinguish by peculiar
   favours his people who have distinguished themselves by a steady and
   singular adherence to him, and that which they most need he will
   himself be to them. This very much enhances the worth of the promises
   that God, covenanting to be to his people a God all-sufficient,
   undertakes to be himself all that to them which they can desire. (1.)
   He will put all the credit and honour upon them which are requisite,
   not only to rescue them from contempt, but to gain them esteem and
   reputation. He will be to them for a crown of glory and for a diadem of
   beauty. Those that wore the crown of pride looked upon God's people
   with disdain, and trampled upon them, for they were the song of the
   drunkards of Ephraim; but God will so appear for them by his providence
   as to make it evident that they have his favour towards them, and that
   shall be to them a crown of glory; for what greater glory can any
   people have than for God to acknowledge them as his own? And he will so
   appear in them, by his grace, as to make it evident that they have his
   image renewed on them, and that shall be to them a diadem of beauty;
   for what greater beauty can any person have than the beauty of
   holiness? Note, Those that have God for their God have him for a crown
   of glory and a diadem of beauty; for they are made to him kings and
   priests. (2.) He will give them all the wisdom and grace necessary to
   the due discharge of the duty of their place. He will himself be a
   spirit of judgment to those that sit in judgment; the privy counsellors
   shall be guided by wisdom and discretion and the judges shall govern by
   justice and equity. It is a great mercy to any people when those that
   are called to places of power and public trust are qualified for their
   places, when those that sit in judgment have a spirit of judgment, a
   spirit of government. (3.) He will give them all the courage and
   boldness requisite to carry them resolutely through the difficulties
   and oppositions they are likely to meet with. He will be for strength
   to those that turn the battle to the gate, to the gates of the enemy
   whose cities they besiege, or to their own gates, when they sally out
   upon the enemies that besiege them. The strength of the soldiery
   depends as much upon God as the wisdom of the magistracy; and where God
   gives both these he is to that people a crown of glory. This may well
   be supposed to refer to Christ, and so the Chaldee paraphrast
   understands it: In that day shall the Messiah be a crown of glory.
   Simeon calls him the glory of his people Israel; and he is made of God
   to us wisdom, righteousness, and strength.

   2. He complains of the corruptions that were found among them, and the
   many corrupt ones (v. 7): But they also, many of those of Judah, have
   erred through wine. There are drunkards of Jerusalem, as well as
   drunkards of Ephraim; and therefore the mercy of God is to be so much
   the more admired that he has not blasted the glory of Judah as he has
   done that of Ephraim. Sparing mercy lays us under peculiar obligations
   when it is thus distinguishing. Ephraim's sins are found in Judah, and
   yet not Ephraim's ruins. They have erred through wine. Their drinking
   to excess is itself a practical error; they think to raise their fancy
   by it, but they ruin their judgment, and so put a cheat upon
   themselves; they think to preserve their health by it and help
   digestion, but they spoil their constitution and hasten diseases and
   deaths. It is also the occasion of a great many errors in principle;
   their understanding is clouded and their conscience debauched by it;
   and therefore, to support themselves in it, they espouse corrupt
   notions, and form their minds in favour of their lusts. Probably some
   were drawn in to worship idols by their love of the wine and strong
   drink which there was plenty of at their idolatrous festivals; and so
   they erred through wine, as Israel, for love of the daughters of Moab,
   joined themselves to Baal-peor. Three things are here observed as
   aggravations of this sin:--(1.) That those were guilty of it whose
   business it was to warn others against it and to teach them better, and
   therefore who ought to have set a better example: The priest and the
   prophet are swallowed up of wine; their office is quite drowned and
   lost in it. The priests, as sacrificers, were obliged by a particular
   law to be temperate (Lev. x. 9), and, as rulers and magistrates, it was
   not for them to drink wine, Prov. xxxi. 4. The prophets were a kind of
   Nazarites (as appears by Amos ii. 11), and, as reprovers by office,
   were concerned to keep at the utmost distance from the sins they
   reproved in others; yet there were many of them ensnared in this sin.
   What! a priest, a prophet, a minister, and yet drunk! Tell it not in
   Gath. Such a scandal are they to their coat. (2.) That the consequences
   of it were very pernicious, not only by the ill influence of their
   example, but the prophet, when he was drunk, erred in vision; the false
   prophets plainly discovered themselves to be so when they were in
   drink. The priest stumbled in judgment and forgot the law (Prov. xxxi.
   5); he reeled and staggered as much in the operations of his mind as in
   the motions of his body. What wisdom or justice can be expected from
   those that sacrifice reason, and virtue, and conscience, and all that
   is valuable to such a base lust as the love of strong drink is? Happy
   art thou, O land! when thy princes eat and drink for strength, and not
   for drunkenness, Eccl. x. 17. (3.) That the disease was epidemic, and
   the generality of those that kept any thing of a table were infected
   with it: All tables are full of vomit, v. 8. See what an odious thing
   the sin of drunkenness is, what an affront it is to human society; it
   is rude and ill-mannered enough to sicken the beholders, for the tables
   where they eat their meat are filthily stained with the marks of this
   sin, which the sinners declare as Sodom. Their tables are full of
   vomit, so that the victor, instead of being proud of his crown, ought
   rather to be ashamed of it. It bodes ill to any people when so sottish
   a sin as drunkenness has become national.

The Degeneracy of Judah. (b. c. 725.)

   9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand
   doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the
   breasts.   10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
   line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:   11
   For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
   people.   12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause
   the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
     13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept,
   precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little,
   and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be
   broken, and snared, and taken.

   The prophet here complains of the wretched stupidity of this people,
   that they were unteachable and made no improvement of the means of
   grace which they possessed; they still continued as they were, their
   mistakes not rectified, their hearts not renewed, nor their lives
   reformed. Observe,

   I. What it was that their prophets and ministers designed and aimed at.
   It was to teach them knowledge, the knowledge of God and his will, and
   to make them understand doctrine, v. 9. This is God's way of dealing
   with men, to enlighten men's minds first with the knowledge of his
   truth, and thus to gain their affections, and bring their wills into a
   compliance with his laws; thus he enters in by the door, whereas the
   thief and the robber climb up another way.

   II. What method they took, in pursuance of this design. They left no
   means untried to do them good, but taught them as children are taught,
   little children that are beginning to learn, that are taken from the
   breast to the book (v. 9), for among the Jews it was common for mothers
   to nurse their children till they were three years old, and almost
   ready to go to school. And it is good to begin betimes with children,
   to teach them, as they are capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and
   to instruct them even when they are but newly weaned from the milk. The
   prophets taught them as children are taught; for, 1. They were constant
   and industrious in teaching them. They took great pains with them, and
   with great prudence, teaching them as they needed it and were able to
   bear it (v. 10): Precept upon precept. It must be so, or (as some read)
   it has been so. They have been taught, as children are taught to read,
   by precept upon precept, and taught to write by line upon line, a
   little here and a little there, a little of one thing and a little of
   another, that the variety of instructions might be pleasing and
   inviting,--a little at one time and a little at another, that they
   might not have their memories overcharged,--a little from one prophet
   and a little from another, that every one might be pleased with his
   friend and him whom he admired. Note, For our instruction in the things
   of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and line upon
   line, that one precept and line should be followed, and so enforced by
   another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of piety, and
   the precept of charity upon that of justice. Nay, it is necessary that
   the same precept and the same line should be often repeated and
   inculcated upon us, that we may the better understand them and the more
   easily recollect them when we have occasion for them. Teachers should
   accommodate themselves to the capacity of the learners, give them what
   they most need and can best bear, and a little at a time, Deut. vi. 6,
   7. 2. They courted and persuaded them to learn, v. 12. God, by his
   prophets, said to them, "This way that we are directing you to, and
   directing you in, is the rest, the only rest, wherewith you may cause
   the weary to rest; and this will be the refreshing of your own souls,
   and will bring rest to your country from the wars and other calamities
   with which it has been long harassed." Note, God by his word calls us
   to nothing but what is really for our advantage; for the service of God
   is the only true rest for those that are weary of the service of sin
   and there is no refreshing but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus.

   III. What little effect all this had upon the people. They were as
   unapt to learn as young children newly weaned from the milk, and it was
   as impossible to fasten any thing upon them (v. 9): nay, one would
   choose rather to teach a child of two years old than undertake to teach
   them; for they have not only (like such a child) no capacity to receive
   what is taught them, but they are prejudiced against it. As children,
   they have need of milk, and cannot bear strong meat, Heb. v. 12. 1.
   They would not hear (v. 12), no, not that which would be rest and
   refreshing to them. They had no mind to hear it. The word of God
   commanded their serious attention, but could not gain it; they were
   where it was preached, but they turned a deaf ear to it, or as it came
   in at one ear it went out at the other. 2. They would not heed. It was
   unto them precept upon precept, and line upon line (v. 13); they went
   on in a road of external performances; they kept up the old custom of
   attending upon the prophet's preaching and it was continually sounding
   in their ears, but that was all; it made no impression upon them; they
   had the letter of the precept, but no experience of the power and
   spirit of it; it was continually beating upon them, but it beat nothing
   into them. Nay, 3. It should seem, they ridiculed the prophet's
   preaching, and bantered it. The word of the Lord was unto them Tsau
   latsau, kau lakau; in the original it is in rhyme; they made a song of
   the prophet's words, and sang it when they were merry over their wine.
   David was the song of the drunkards. It is great impiety, and a high
   affront to God, thus to make a jest of sacred things, to speak of that
   vainly which should make us serious.

   IV. How severely God would reckon with them for this. 1. He would
   deprive them of the privilege of plain preaching, and speak to them
   with stammering lips and another tongue, v. 11. Those that will not
   understand what is plain and level to their capacity, but despise it as
   mean and trifling, are justly amused with that which is above them. Or
   God will send foreign armies among them, whose language they understand
   not, to lay their country waste. Those that will not hear the
   comfortable voice of God's word shall be made to hear the dreadful
   voice of his rod. Or these words may be taken as denoting God's
   gracious condescension to their capacity in his dealing with them; he
   lisped to them in their own language, as nurses do to their children,
   with stammering lips, to humor them; he changed his voice, tried first
   one way and then another; the apostle quotes it as a favour (1 Cor.
   xiv. 21), applying it to the gift of tongues, and complaining that yet
   for all this they would not hear. 2. He would bring utter ruin upon
   them. By their profane contempt of God and his word they are but
   hastening on their own ruin, and ripening themselves for it; it is that
   they may go and fall backward, may grow worse and worse, may depart
   further and further from God, and proceed from one sin to another, till
   they be quite broken, and snared, and taken, and ruined, v. 13. They
   have here a little and there a little of the word of God; they think it
   too much, and say to the seers, See not; but it proves too little to
   convert them, and will prove enough to condemn them. If it be not a
   savour of life unto life, it will be a savour of death unto death.

Judgments Announced; The Corner-stone in Zion. (b. c. 725.)

   14 Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this
   people which is in Jerusalem.   15 Because ye have said, We have made a
   covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the
   overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for
   we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
   ourselves:   16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in
   Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone,
   a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.   17
   Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet:
   and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall
   overflow the hiding place.   18 And your covenant with death shall be
   disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the
   overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down
   by it.   19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for
   morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it
   shall be a vexation only to understand the report.   20 For the bed is
   shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering
   narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.   21 For the Lord shall
   rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of
   Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass
   his act, his strange act.   22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest
   your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts
   a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

   The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God,
   here goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God,
   and set them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer
   either his ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt.
   He addressed himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, who
   were the magistrates of the city, v. 14. It is bad with a people when
   their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers
   are scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a
   character, that they should make light of God's judgments and scorn to
   take notice of the tokens of his displeasure, is very sad. Who will be
   mourners in Zion if they are scorners? Observe,

   I. How these scornful men lulled themselves asleep in carnal security,
   and even challenged God Almighty to do his worst (v. 15) You have said,
   We have made a covenant with death and the grave. They thought
   themselves as sure of their lives, even when the most destroying
   judgments were abroad, as if they had made a bargain with death, upon a
   valuable consideration, not to come till they sent for him or not to
   take them away by any violence, but by old age. If we be at peace with
   God, and have made a covenant with him, we have in effect made a
   covenant with death that it shall come in the fittest time, that
   whenever it comes, it shall be no terror to us, nor do us any real
   damage; death is ours if we be Christ's (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23): but to
   think of making death our friend, or being in league with it, while by
   sin we are making God our enemy and are at war with him, is the
   greatest absurdity that can be. It was fond conceit which these
   scorners had, "When the overflowing scourge shall pass through our
   country, and others shall fall under it, yet it shall not come to us,
   not reach us, though it extend far, not bear us down, though it is an
   overflowing scourge." It is the greatest folly imaginable for
   impenitent sinners to think that either in this world or the other they
   shall fare better than their neighbours. But what is the ground of
   their confidence? Why, truly, We have made lies our refuge. Either, 1.
   Those things which the prophets told them would be lies and falsehood
   to them and would deceive, but which they themselves looked upon as
   substantial fences. The protection of their idols, the promises with
   which their false prophets soothed them, their policy, their wealth,
   their interest in the people; these they confided in, and not in God;
   nay, these they confided in against God. Or, 2. Those things which
   should be lies and falsehood to the enemy, who was flagellum Dei--the
   scourge of God, the overflowing scourge; they would secure themselves
   by imposing upon the enemy with their stratagems of war, or their
   feigned submissions in treaties of peace. The rest of the cities of
   Judah were taken because they made an obstinate defence; but the rulers
   of Jerusalem hope to succeed better. They think themselves greater
   politicians than those of the country towns; they will compliment the
   king of Assyria with a promise to surrender their city, or to become
   tributaries to him, with a purpose at the same time to shake off his
   yoke as soon as the danger is over, not caring though they be found
   liars to him, as the expression is, Deut. xxxiii. 29. Note, Those put a
   cheat upon themselves that think to gain their point by putting cheats
   upon those they deal with. Those that pursue their designs by trick and
   fraud, by mean and paltry shifts, may perhaps compass them, but cannot
   expect comfort in them. Honesty is the best policy. But such refuges as
   these are those driven to that depart from God, and throw themselves
   out of his protection.

   II. How God, by the prophet, awakens them out of this sleep, and shows
   them the folly of their security.

   1. He tells them upon what grounds they might be secure. He does not
   disturb their false confidences, till he has first shown them a firm
   bottom on which they may repose themselves (v. 16): Behold, I lay in
   Zion for a foundation a stone. This foundation is, (1.) The promises of
   God in general--his word, upon which he has caused his people to
   hope--his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and his;
   this is a foundation, a foundation of stone, firm and lasting, for
   faith to build upon; it is a tried stone, for all the saints have
   stayed themselves upon it and it never failed them. (2.) The promise of
   Christ in particular; for to him this is expressly applied in the New
   Testament, 1 Pet. ii. 6-8. He is that stone which has become the head
   of the corner. The great promise of the Messiah and his kingdom, which
   was to begin at Jerusalem, was sufficient to make God's people easy in
   the worst of times; for they knew well that till he came the sceptre
   should not depart from Judah. Zion shall continue while this foundation
   is yet to be laid there. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, for the comfort
   of those that dare not make lies their refuge, Behold, and look upon me
   as one that has undertaken to lay in Zion a Stone," Jesus Christ is a
   foundation of God's laying. This is the Lord's doing. He is laid in
   Zion, in the church, in the holy hill. He is a tried stone, a trying
   stone (so some), a touch-stone, that shall distinguish between true and
   counterfeit. He is a precious stone, for such are the foundations of
   the New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 19), a corner-stone, in whom the sides of
   the building are united, the head-stone of the corner. And he that
   believes these promises, and rests upon them, shall not make haste,
   shall not run to and fro in a hurry, as men at their wits' end, shall
   not be shifting hither and thither for his own safety, nor be driven to
   his feet by any terrors, as the wicked man is said to be (Job xviii.
   11), but with a fixed heart shall quietly wait the event, saying,
   Welcome the will of God. He shall not make haste in his expectations,
   so as to anticipate the time set in the divine counsels, but, though it
   tarry, will wait the appointed hour, knowing that he that shall come
   will come, and will not tarry. He that believes will not make more
   haste than good speed, but be satisfied that God's time is the best
   time, and wait with patience for it. The apostle from the LXX. explains
   this, 1 Pet. ii. 6. He that believes on him shall not be confounded;
   his expectations shall not be frustrated, but far out-done.

   2. He tells them that upon the grounds which they now built on they
   could not be safe, but their confidences would certainly fail them (v.
   17): Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.
   This denotes,

   (1.) The building up of his church; having laid the foundation (v. 16),
   he will raise the structure, as builders do, by line and plummet, Zech.
   iv. 10. Righteousness shall be the line and judgment the plummet. The
   church, being grounded on Christ, shall be formed and reformed by the
   scripture, the standing rule of judgment and righteousness. Judgment
   shall return unto righteousness, Ps. xciv. 15. Or,

   (2.) The punishing of the church's enemies, against whom he will
   proceed in strict justice, according to the threatenings of the law. He
   will give them their deserts, and bring upon them the judgments they
   have challenged, but in wisdom too, and by an exact rule, that the
   tares may not be plucked up with the wheat. And when God comes thus to
   execute judgment,

   [1.] These scornful men will be made ashamed of the vain hopes with
   which they had deluded themselves. First, They designed to make lies
   their refuge; but it will indeed prove a refuge of lies, which the hail
   shall sweep away, that tempest of hail spoken of v. 2. Those that make
   lies their refuge build upon the sand, and the building will fall when
   the storm comes, and bury the builder in the ruins of it. Those that
   make any thing their hiding place but Christ shall find that the waters
   will overflow it, as every shelter but the ark was over-topped and
   overthrown by the waters of the deluge. Such is the hope of the
   hypocrite; this will come of all his confidences. Secondly, They
   boasted of a covenant with death, and an agreement with the grave; but
   it shall be disannulled, as made without his consent who has the keys
   and sovereign command of hell and death. Those do but delude themselves
   that think by any wiles to evade the judgments of God. Thirdly, They
   fancied that when the overflowing scourge should pass through the land
   it should not come near them; but the prophet tells them that then,
   when others were falling by the common calamity, they should not only
   share in it, but should be trodden down by it: "You shall be to it for
   a treading down; it shall triumph over you as much as over any other,
   and you shall become its easy prey." They are further told (v. 19), 1.
   That it shall begin with them; they shall be so far from escaping it
   that they shall be the first that shall fall by it: "From the time it
   goes forth it shall take you, as if it came on purpose to seize you."
   2. That it shall pursue them closely: "Morning by morning shall it pass
   over; as duly as the day returns you shall hear of some desolation or
   other made by it; for divine justice will follow its blow; you shall
   never be safe nor easy by day nor by night; there shall be a pestilence
   walking in darkness and a destruction wasting at noonday." 3. That
   there shall be no avoiding it: "The understanding of the report of its
   approach shall not give you any opportunity to make your escape, for
   there shall be no way of escape open; but it shall be only a vexation,
   you shall see it coming, and not see how to help yourselves." Or, "The
   very report of it at a distance will be a terror to you; what then will
   the thing itself be?" Evil tidings are a terror and vexation to
   scorners, but he whose heart is fixed, trusting in God, is not afraid
   of them; whereas, when the overflowing scourge comes, then all the
   comforts and confidences of scorners fail them, v. 20. (1.) That in
   which they thought to repose themselves reaches not to the length of
   their expectations: The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch
   himself upon it, so that he is forced to cramp and contract himself.
   (2.) That in which they thought to shelter themselves proves
   insufficient to answer the intention: The covering is narrower than
   that a man can wrap himself in it. Those that do not build upon Christ
   as their foundation, but rest in a righteousness of their own, will
   prove in the end thus to have deceived themselves; they can never be
   easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the covering is too narrow;
   like our first parents' fig-leaves, the shame of their nakedness will
   still appear.

   [2.] God will be glorified in the accomplishment of his counsels, v.
   21. When God comes to contend with these scorners, First, He will do
   his work, and bring to pass his act, he will work for his own honour
   and glory, according to his own purpose; the work shall appear to all
   that see it to be the work of God as the righteous Judge of the earth.
   Secondly, He will do it now against his people, as formerly he did it
   against their enemies, by which his justice will appear to be
   impartial; he will now rise up against Jerusalem as, in David's time,
   against the Philistines in Mount Perazim (2 Sam. v. 20), and as, in
   Joshua's time, against the Canaanites in the valley of Gibeon. If those
   that profess themselves members of God's church by their pride and
   scornfulness make themselves like Philistines and Canaanites, they must
   expect to be dealt with as such. Thirdly, This will be his strange
   work, his strange act, his foreign deed. It is work that he is backward
   to: he rather delights in showing mercy, and does not afflict
   willingly. It is work that he is not used to as to his own people; he
   protects and favours them. It is a strange work indeed if he turn to be
   their enemy and fight against them, ch. lxiii. 10. It is a work that
   all the neighbours will stand amazed at (Deut. xxix. 24), and therefore
   the ruins of Jerusalem are said to be an astonishment, Jer. xxv. 18.

   Lastly, We have the use and application of all this (v. 22): "Therefore
   be you not mockers; dare not to ridicule either the reproofs of God's
   word or the approaches of his judgments." Mocking the messengers of the
   Lord was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin. The consideration of the
   judgments of God that are coming upon hypocritical professors should
   effectually silence mockers, and make them serious: "Be you not
   mockers, lest your bands be made strong, both the bands by which you
   are bound under the dominion of sin" (for there is little hope of the
   conversion of mockers) "and the bands by which you are bound over to
   the judgments of God." God has bands of justice strong enough to hold
   those that break all the bonds of his law asunder and cast away all his
   cord from them. Let not these mockers make light of divine
   threatenings, for the prophet (who is one of those with whom the secret
   of the Lord is) assures them that the Lord God of hosts has, in his
   hearing, determined a consumption upon the whole earth; and can they
   think to escape? or shall their unbelief invalidate the threatening?

Husbandry a Divine Art. (b. c. 725.)

   23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.   24
   Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods
   of his ground?   25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he
   not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the
   principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
   26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
   27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument,
   neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches
   are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.   28 Bread corn
   is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with
   the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.   29 This also
   cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and
   excellent in working.

   This parable, which (like many of our Saviour's parables) is borrowed
   from the husbandman's calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface
   demanding attention, He that has ears to hear, let him hear, hear and
   understand, v. 23.

   I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies
   himself to the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and
   prudence, secundum artem--according to rule, and, as his judgment
   directs him, observes a method and order in his work. 1. In his
   ploughing and sowing: Does the ploughman plough all day to sow? Yes, he
   does, and he ploughs in hope and sows in hope, 1 Cor. ix. 10. Does he
   open and break the clods? Yes, he does, that the land may be fit to
   receive the seed. And when he has thus made plain the face thereof does
   he not sow his seed, seed suitable to the soil? For the husbandman
   knows what grain is fit for clayey ground and what for sandy ground,
   and, accordingly, he sows each in its place--wheat in the principal
   place (so the margin reads it), for it is the principal grain, and was
   a staple commodity of Canaan (Ezek. xxvii. 17), and barley in the
   appointed place. The wisdom and goodness of the God of nature are to be
   observed in this, that, to oblige his creatures with a grateful variety
   of productions, he has suited to them an agreeable variety of earths.
   2. In his threshing, v. 27, 28. This also he proportions to the grain
   that is to be threshed out. The fitches and the cummin, being easily
   got out of their husk or ear, are only threshed with a staff and a rod;
   but the bread-corn requires more force, and therefore that must be
   bruised with a threshing instrument, a sledge shod with iron, that was
   drawn to and fro over it, to beat out the corn; and yet he will not be
   ever threshing it, nor any longer than is necessary to loosen the corn
   from the chaff; he will not break it, or crush it, into the ground with
   the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it to pieces with his horsemen; the
   grinding of it is reserved for another operation. Observe, by the way,
   what pains are to be taken, not only for the earning, but for the
   preparing of our necessary food; and yet, after all, it is meat that
   perishes. Shall we then grudge to labour much more for the meat which
   endures to everlasting life? Bread-corn is bruised. Christ was so; it
   pleased the Lord to bruise him, that he might be the bread of life to
   us.

   II. The interpretation of the parable is not so plain. Most
   interpreters make it a further answer to those who set the judgments of
   God at defiance: "Let them know that as the husbandman will not be
   always ploughing, but will at length sow his seed, so God will not be
   always threatening, but will at length execute his threatenings and
   bring upon sinners the judgments they have deserved; but in wisdom, and
   in proportion to their strength, not that they may be ruined, but that
   they may be reformed and brought to repentance by them." But I think we
   may give this parable a greater latitude in the exposition of it. 1. In
   general, that God who gives the husbandman this wisdom is, doubtless,
   himself infinitely wise. It is God that instructs the husbandman to
   discretion, as his God, v. 26. Husbandmen have need of discretion
   wherewith to order their affairs, and ought not undertake that business
   unless they do in some measure understand it; and they should by
   observation and experience endeavour to improve themselves in the
   knowledge of it. Since the king himself is served of the field, the
   advancing of the art of husbandry is a common service to mankind more
   than the cultivating of most other arts. The skill of the husbandman is
   from God, as every good and perfect gift is. This takes off somewhat of
   the weight and terror of the sentence passed on man for sin, that when
   God, in execution of it, sent man to till the ground, he taught him how
   to do it most to his advantage, otherwise, in the greatness of his
   folly, he might have been for ever tilling the sand of the sea,
   labouring to no purpose. It is he that gives men capacity for this
   business, an inclination to it, and a delight in it; and if some were
   not by Providence cut out for it, and mad to rejoice (as Issachar, that
   tribe of husbandmen) in their tents, notwithstanding the toil and
   fatigue of this business, we should soon want the supports of life. If
   some are more discreet and judicious in managing these or any other
   affairs than others are, God must be acknowledged in it; and to him
   husbandmen must seek for direction in their business, for they, above
   other men, have an immediate dependence upon the divine Providence. As
   to the other instance of the husbandman's conduct in threshing his
   corn, it is said, This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts, v. 29.
   Even the plainest dictate of sense and reason must be acknowledged to
   come forth from the Lord of hosts. And, if it is from him that men do
   things wisely and discreetly, we must needs acknowledge him to be wise
   in counsel and excellent in working. God's working is according to his
   will; he never acts against his own mind, as men often do, and there is
   a counsel in his whole will: he is therefore excellent in working,
   because he is wonderful in counsel. 2. God's church is his husbandry, 1
   Cor. iii. 9. If Christ is the true vine, his Father is the husbandman
   (John xv. 1), and he is continually by his word and ordinances
   cultivating it. Does the ploughman plough all day, and break the clods
   of his ground, that it may receive the seed, and does not God by his
   ministers break up the fallow ground? Does not the ploughman, when the
   ground is fitted for the seed, cast in the seed in its proper soil? He
   does so, and so the great God sows his word by the hand of his
   ministers (Matt. xiii. 19), who are to divide the word of truth and
   give every one his portion. Whatever the soil of the heart is, there is
   some seed or other in the word proper for it. And, as the word of God,
   so the rod of God is thus wisely made use of. Afflictions are God's
   threshing-instruments, designed to loosen us from the world, to
   separate between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. And, as
   to these, God will make use of them as there is occasion; but he will
   proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is
   need. If the rod and the staff will answer the end, he will not make
   use of his cart-wheel and his horsemen. And where these are necessary,
   as for the bruising of the bread-corn (which will not otherwise be got
   clean from the straw), yet he will not be ever threshing it, will not
   always chide, but his anger shall endure but for a moment; nor will he
   crush under his feet the prisoners of the earth. And herein we must
   acknowledge him wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXIX.

   This woe to Ariel, which we have in this chapter, is the same with the
   "burden of the valley of vision" (ch. xxii. 1), and (it is very
   probable) points at the same event--the besieging of Jerusalem by the
   Assyrian army, which was cut off there by an angel; yet it is
   applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and its
   last desolations by the Romans. Here is, I. The event itself foretold,
   that Jerusalem should be greatly distressed, ver. 1-4, 6), but that
   their enemies, who distressed them, should be baffled and defeated,
   ver. 5, 7, 8. II. A reproof to three sorts of sinners:--1. Those that
   were stupid, and regardless of the warnings which the prophet gave
   them, ver. 9-12. 2. Those that were formal and hypocritical in their
   religious performances, ver. 13, 14. 3. Those politicians that
   atheistically and profanely despised God's providence, and set up their
   own projects in competition with it, ver. 15, 16. III. Precious
   promises of grace and mercy to a distinguished remnant whom God would
   sanctify, and in whom he would be sanctified, when their enemies and
   persecutors should be cut off, ver. 17-24.

The Punishment of Ariel. (b. c. 725.)

   1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to
   year; let them kill sacrifices.   2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and
   there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
     3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege
   against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.   4 And
   thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy
   speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one
   that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall
   whisper out of the dust.   5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers
   shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall
   be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
     6 Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with
   earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of
   devouring fire.   7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight
   against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and
   that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.   8 It shall
   even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he
   awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and,
   behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his
   soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that
   fight against mount Zion.

   That it is Jerusalem which is here called Ariel is agreed, for that was
   the city where David dwelt; that part of it which was called Zion was
   in a particular manner the city of David, in which both the temple and
   the palace were. But why it is so called is very uncertain: probably
   the name and the reason were then well known. Cities, as well as
   persons, get surnames and nicknames. Ariel signifies the lion of God,
   or the strong lion: as the lion is king among beasts, so was Jerusalem
   among the cities, giving law to all about her; it was the city of the
   great King (Ps. xlviii. 1, 2); it was the head-city of Judah, who is
   called a lion's whelp (Gen. xlix. 9) and whose ensign was a lion; and
   he that is the lion of the tribe of Judah was the glory of it.
   Jerusalem was a terror sometimes to the neighbouring nations, and,
   while she was a righteous city, was bold as a lion. Some make Ariel to
   signify the altar of burnt-offerings, which devoured the beasts offered
   in sacrifice as the lion does his prey. Woe to that altar in the city
   where David dwelt; that was destroyed with the temple by the Chaldeans.
   I rather take it as a woe to Jerusalem, Jerusalem; it is repeated here,
   as it is Matt. xxiii. 37, that it might be the more awakening. Here is,

   I. The distress of Jerusalem foretold. Though Jerusalem be a strong
   city, as a lion, though a holy city, as a lion of God, yet, if iniquity
   be found there, woe be to it. It was the city where David dwelt; it was
   he that brought that to it which was its glory, and which made it a
   type of the gospel church, and his dwelling in it was typical of
   Christ's residence in his church. This mentioned as an aggravation of
   Jerusalem's sin, that in it were set both the testimony of Israel and
   the thrones of the house of David. 1. Let Jerusalem know that her
   external performance of religious services will not serve as an
   exemption from the judgments of God (v. 1): "Add year to year; go on in
   the road of your annual feasts, let all your males appear there three
   times a year before the Lord, and none empty, according to the law and
   custom, and let them never miss any of these solemnities: let them kill
   the sacrifices, as they used to do; but, as long as their lives are
   unreformed and their hearts unhumbled, let them not think thus to
   pacify an offended God and to turn away his wrath." Note, Hypocrites
   may be found in a constant track of devout exercises, and treading
   around in them, and with these they may flatter themselves, but can
   never please God nor make their peace with him. 2. Let her know that
   God is coming forth against her in displeasure, that she shall be
   visited of the Lord of hosts (v. 6); her sins shall be enquired into
   and punished: God will reckon for them with terrible judgments, with
   the frightful alarms and rueful desolations of war, which shall be like
   thunder and earthquakes, storms and tempests, and devouring fire,
   especially upon the account of the great noise. When a foreign enemy
   was not in the borders, but in the bowels of their country, roaring and
   ravaging, and laying all waste (especially such an army as that of the
   Assyrians, whose commanders being so very insolent, as appears by the
   conduct of Rabshakeh, the common soldiers, no doubt, were much more
   rude), they might see the Lord of those hosts visiting them with
   thunder and storm. Yet, this being here said to be a great noise,
   perhaps it is intimated that they shall be worse frightened than hurt.
   Particularly, (1.) Jerusalem shall be besieged, straitly besieged. He
   does not say, I will destroy Ariel, but I will distress Ariel; and she
   is therefore brought into distress, that, being thereby awakened to
   repent and reform, she may not be brought to destruction. I will v. 3)
   encamp against thee round about. It was the enemy's army that encamped
   against it; but God says that he will do it, for they are his hand, he
   does it by them. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped
   for them round about them for their protection and deliverance; but now
   he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them. The siege laid
   against them was of his laying, and the forts raised against them were
   of his raising. Note, When men fight against us we must, in them, see
   God contending with us. (2.) She shall be in grief to see the country
   laid waste and all the fenced cities of Judah in the enemies' hand:
   There shall be heaviness and sorrow (v. 2), mourning and
   lamentation--so these two words are sometimes rendered. Those that are
   most merry and jovial are commonly, when they come to be in distress,
   most overwhelmed with heaviness and sorrow; their laughter is then
   turned into mourning. "All Jerusalem shall then be unto me as Ariel, as
   the altar, with fire upon it and slain victims about it:" so it was
   when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans; and many, no doubt, were
   slain when it was besieged by the Assyrians. "the whole city shall be
   an altar, in which sinners, falling by the judgments that are abroad,
   shall be as victims to divine justice." Or thus:--"There shall be
   heaviness and sorrow; they shall repent, and reform, and return to God,
   and then it shall be to me as Ariel. Jerusalem shall be like itself,
   shall become to me a Jerusalem again, a holy city," ch. i. 26. (3.) She
   shall be humbled, and mortified, and made submissive (v. 4): "Thou
   shalt be brought down from the height of arrogancy and insolence to
   which thou hast arrived: the proud looks and the proud language shall
   be brought down by one humbling providence after another." Those that
   despise God's judgments shall be humbled by them; for the proudest
   sinners shall either bend or break before him. They had talked big, had
   lifted up the horn on high, and had spoken with a stiff neck (Ps. lxxv.
   5); but now thou shalt speak out of the ground, out of the dust, as one
   that has a familiar spirit, whispering out of the dust. This intimates,
   [1.] That they should be faint and feeble, not able to speak up, nor to
   say all they would say; but as those who are sick, or whose spirits are
   ready to fail, their speech shall be low and interrupted. [2.] That
   they should be fearful, and in consternation, forced to speak low as
   being afraid lest their enemies should overhear them and take advantage
   against them. [3.] That they should be tame, and obliged to submit to
   the conquerors. When Hezekiah submitted to the king of Assyria, saying,
   I have offended, that which thou puttest on me I will bear (2 Kings
   xviii. 14), then his speech was low, out of the dust. God can make
   those to crouch that have been most daring, and quite dispirit them.

   II. The destruction of Jerusalem's enemies is foretold, for the comfort
   of all that were her friends and well-wishers in this distress (v. 5,
   7): "Thou shalt be brought down (v. 4), to speak out of the dust; so
   low thou shalt be reduced. But" (so it may be rendered) "the multitude
   of thy strangers and thy terrible ones, the numerous armies of the
   enemy, shall themselves be like small dust, not able to speak at all,
   or as much as whisper, but as chaff that passes away. Thou shalt be
   abased, but they shall be quite dispersed, smitten and slain after
   another manner (ch. xxvii. 7); they shall pass away, yea it shall be in
   an instant, suddenly: the enemy shall be surprised with the
   destruction, and you with the salvation." The army of the Assyrians was
   by an angel laid dead upon the spot, in an instant, suddenly. Such will
   be the destruction of the enemies of the gospel Jerusalem. In one hour
   shall their judgment come, Rev. xviii. 10. Again (v. 6), "Thou shalt be
   visited, or (as it used to be rendered) She shall be visited with
   thunder and a great noise. Thou shalt be put into a fright which thou
   shalt soon recover. But (v. 7) the multitude of the nations that fight
   against her shall be as a dream of a night-vision; they and their
   prosperity and success shall soon vanish past recall." The multitude of
   the nations that fight against Zion shall be as a hungry man who dreams
   that he eats, but still is hungry; that is, 1. Whereas they hoped to
   make a prey of Jerusalem, and to enrich themselves with the plunder of
   that opulent city, their hopes shall prove vain dreams, with which
   their fancies may please and sport themselves for a while, but they
   shall be disappointed. They fancied themselves masters of Jerusalem,
   but shall never be so. 2. They themselves, and all their pomp, and
   power, and prosperity, shall vanish like a dream when one awakes, shall
   be of as little value and as short continuance. Ps. lxxiii. 20. He
   shall fly away as a dream Job xx. 8. The army of Sennacherib vanished
   and was gone quickly, though it had filled the country as a dream fills
   a man's head, especially as a dream of meat fills the head of him that
   went to bed hungry. Many understand these verses as part of the
   threatening of wrath, when God comes to distress Jerusalem, and lay
   siege to her. (1.) The multitude of her friends, whom she relies upon
   for help shall do her no good; for, though they are terrible ones, they
   shall be like the small dust, and shall pass away. (2.) The multitude
   of her enemies shall never think they can do her mischief enough; but,
   when they have devoured her much, still they shall be but like a man
   who dreams he eats, hungry, and greedy to devour her more.

Threatenings against Judah. (b. c. 725.)

   9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken,
   but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.   10 For
   the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath
   closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he
   covered.   11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of
   a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned,
   saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is
   sealed:   12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned,
   saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.   13
   Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with
   their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their
   heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
   men:   14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work
   among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom
   of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent
   men shall be hid.   15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their
   counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say,
   Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?   16 Surely your turning of things
   upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work
   say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say
   of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

   Here, I. The prophet stands amazed at the stupidity of the greatest
   part of the Jewish nation. They had Levites, who taught the good
   knowledge of the Lord and had encouragement from Hezekiah in doing so,
   2 Chron. xxx. 22. They had prophets, who brought them messages
   immediately from God, and signified to them what were the causes and
   what would be the effects of God's displeasure against them. Now, one
   would think, surely this great nation, that has all the advantages of
   divine revelation, is a wise and understanding people, Deut. iv. 6.
   But, alas! it was quite otherwise, v. 9. The prophet addresses himself
   to the sober thinking part of them, calling upon them to be affected
   with the general carelessness of their neighbours. It may be read,
   "They delay, they put off, their repentance, but wonder you that they
   should be so sottish. They sport themselves with their own deceivings;
   they riot and revel; but do you cry out, lament their folly, cry to God
   by prayer for them. The more insensible they are of the hand of God
   gone out against them the more do you lay to heart these things." Note,
   The security of sinners in their sinful way is just matter of
   lamentation and wonder to all serious people, who should think
   themselves concerned to pray for those that do not pray for themselves.
   But what is the matter? What are we thus to wonder at? 1. We may well
   wonder that the generality of the people should be so sottish and
   brutish, and so infatuated, as if they were intoxicated: They are
   drunken, but not with wine (not with wine only, though with that they
   were often drunk), and they erred through wine, ch. xxviii. 7. They
   were drunk with the love of pleasures, with prejudices against
   religion, and with the corrupt principles they had imbibed. Like
   drunken men, they know not what they do or say, nor whither they go.
   They are not sensible of the divine rebukes they are under. They have
   beaten me, and I felt it not, says the drunkard, Prov. xxiii. 35. God
   speaks to them once, yea, twice; but, like men drunk, they perceive it
   not, they understand it not, but forget the law. They stagger in their
   counsels, are unstable and unsteady, and stumble at every thing that
   lies in their way. There is such a thing as spiritual drunkenness. 2.
   It is yet more strange that God himself should have poured out upon
   them a spirit of deep sleep, and closed their eyes (v. 10), that he who
   bids them awake and open their eyes should yet lay them to sleep and
   shut their eyes; but it is in away of righteous judgment, to punish
   them for their loving darkness rather than light, their loving sleep.
   When God by his prophets called them they said, Yet a little sleep, a
   little slumber; and therefore he gave them up to strong delusions, and
   said, Sleep on now. This is applied to the unbelieving Jews, who
   rejected the gospel of Christ, and were justly hardened in their
   infidelity, till wrath came upon them to the uttermost. Rom. xi. 8, God
   has given them the spirit of slumber. And we have reason to fear it is
   the woeful case of many who live in the midst of gospel light. 3. It is
   very sad that this should be the case with those who were their
   prophets, and rulers, and seers, that those who should have been their
   guides were themselves blindfolded; and it is easy to tell what the
   fatal consequences will be when the blind lead the blind. This was
   fulfilled when, in the latter days of the Jewish church, the chief
   priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, were the great
   opposers of Christ and his gospel, and brought themselves under a
   judicial infatuation. 4. The sad effect of this was that all the means
   of conviction, knowledge, and grace, which they enjoyed, were
   ineffectual, and did not answer the end (v. 11, 12): "The vision of all
   the prophets, true and false, has become to you as the words of a book,
   or letter, that is sealed up; you cannot discern the truth of the real
   visions and the falsehood of the pretended ones." Or, every vision
   particularly that this prophet had seen for them, and published to
   them, had become unintelligible; they had it among them, but were never
   the wiser for it, any more than a man (though a good scholar) is for a
   book delivered to him sealed up, and which he must not open the seals
   of. He sees it is a book, and that is all; he knows nothing of what is
   in it. So they knew that what Isaiah said was a vision and prophecy,
   but the meaning of it was hidden from them; it was only a sound of
   words to them, which they were not at all alarmed by, nor affected
   with; it answered not the intention, for it made no impression at all
   upon them. Neither the learned nor the unlearned were the better for
   all the messages God sent them by his servants the prophets, nor
   desired to be so. The ordinary sort of people excused themselves from
   regarding what the prophets said with their want of learning and a
   liberal education, as if they were not concerned to know and do the
   will of God because they were not bred scholars: It is nothing to me, I
   am not learned. Those of better rank pretended that the prophet had a
   peculiar way of speaking, which was obscure to them, and which, though
   they were men of letters, they had not been used to; and, Si non vis
   intelligi, debes negligi--If you wish not to be understood, you deserve
   to be neglected. Both these are groundless pretences; for God's
   prophets have been no unfaithful debtors either to the wise or to the
   unwise, Rom. i. 14. Or we may take it thus:--The book of prophecy was
   given to them sealed, so that they could not read it, as a just
   judgment upon them; because it had often been delivered to them
   unsealed, and they would not take pains to learn the language of it,
   and then made excuse for their not reading it because they were not
   learned. But observe, "The vision has become thus to you whose minds
   the god of this world has blinded; but it is not so in itself, it is
   not so to all; the same vision which to you is a savour of death unto
   death to others is and shall be a savour of life unto life." Knowledge
   is easy to him that understands.

   II. The prophet, in God's name, threatens those that were formal and
   hypocritical in their exercises of devotion, v. 13, 14. Observe here,

   1. The sin that is here charged upon them--dissembling with God in
   their religious performances, v. 13. He that knows the heart, and
   cannot be imposed upon with shows and pretences, charges it upon them,
   whether their hearts condemn them for it or no. He that is greater than
   the heart, and knows all things, knows that though they draw nigh to
   him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, yet they are not
   sincere worshippers. To worship God is to make our approaches to him,
   and to present our adorations of him; it is to draw nigh to him as
   those that have business with him, with an intention therein to honour
   him. This we are to do with our mouth and our lips, in speaking of him
   and in speaking to him; we must render to him the calves of our lips,
   Hosea xiv. 2. And, if the heart be full of his love and fear, out of
   the abundance of that the mouth will speak. But there are many whose
   religion is lip-labour only. They say that which expresses an approach
   to God and an adoration of him, but it is only from the teeth outward.
   For, (1.) They do not apply their minds to the service. When they
   pretend to be speaking to God they are thinking of a thousand
   impertinences: The have removed their hearts far from me, that they
   might not be employed in prayer, nor come within reach of the word.
   When work was to be done for God, which required the heart, that was
   sent out of the way on purpose, with the fool's eyes, into the ends of
   the earth. (2.) They do not make the word of God the rule of their
   worship, nor his will their reason: Their fear towards me is taught by
   the precept of men. They worshipped the God of Israel, not according to
   his appointment, but their own inventions, the directions of their
   false prophets or their idolatrous kings, or the usages of the nations
   that were round about them. The tradition of the elders was of more
   value and validity with them than the laws which God commanded Moses.
   Or, if they did worship God in a way conformable to his institution in
   the days of Hezekiah, a great reformer, they had more an eye to the
   precept of the king than to God's command. This our Saviour applies to
   the Jews in his time, who were formal in their devotions and wedded to
   their own inventions, and pronounces concerning them that in vain they
   did worship God, Matt. xv. 8, 9.

   2. It is a spiritual judgment with which God threatens to punish them
   for their spiritual wickedness (v. 14): I will proceed to do a
   marvellous work. They did one strange thing; they removed all sincerity
   from their hearts. Now God will go on and do another; he will remove
   all sagacity from their heads. The wisdom of their wise men shall
   perish. They played the hypocrite, and thought to put a cheat upon God,
   and now they are left to themselves to play the fool, and not only to
   put a cheat upon themselves, but to be easily cheated by all about
   them. Those that make religion no more than a pretence, to serve a
   turn, are out in their politics; and it is just with God to deprive
   those of their understanding who part with their uprightness. This was
   fulfilled in the wretched infatuation which the Jewish nation were
   manifestly under, after they had rejected the gospel of Christ; they
   removed their hearts far from God, and therefore God justly removed
   wisdom far from them, and hid from their eyes the things that belonged
   even to their temporal peace. This is a marvelous work; it is
   surprising, it is astonishing, that wise men should of a sudden lose
   their wisdom and be given up to strong delusions. Judgments on the
   mind, though least taken notice of, are to be most wondered at.

   III. He shows the folly of those that though to act separately and
   secretly from God, and were carrying on designs independent upon God
   and which they projected to conceal from his all-seeing eye. Here we
   have, 1. Their politics described (v. 15): They seek deep to hide their
   counsel from the Lord, that he may not know either what they do or what
   they design; they say, "Who sees us? No man, and therefore not God
   himself." The consultations they had about their own safety they kept
   to themselves, and never asked God's advice concerning them; nay, they
   knew they were displeasing to him, but thought they could conceal them
   from him; and, if he did not know them, he could not baffle and defeat
   them. See what foolish fruitless pains sinners take in their sinful
   ways; they seek deep, they sink deep, to hide their counsel from the
   Lord, who sits in heaven and laughs at them. Note, A practical
   disbelief of God's omniscience is at the bottom both of the carnal
   worships and of the carnal confidences of hypocrites; Ps. xciv. 7;
   Ezek. viii. 12; ix. 9. 2. The absurdity of their politics demonstrated
   (v. 16): "Surely your turning of things upside down thus, your various
   projects, turning your affairs this and that way to make them shape as
   you would have them--or rather your inverting the order of things, and
   thinking to make God's providence give attendance to your projects, and
   that God must know no more than you think fit, which is perfectly
   turning things upside down and beginning at the wrong end--shall be
   esteemed as the potter's clay. God will turn and manage you, and all
   your counsels, with as much ease and as absolute a power as the potter
   forms and fashions his clay." See how God despises, and therefore what
   little reason we have to dread, those contrivances of men that are
   carried on without God, particularly those against him. (1.) Those that
   think to hide their counsels from God do in effect deny him to be their
   Creator. It is as if the work should say of him that made it, "He made
   me not; I made myself." If God made us, he certainly knows us as the
   Psalmist shows, (Ps. cxxxix. 1, 13-16); so that those who say that he
   does not see them might as well say that he did not make them. Much of
   the wickedness of the wicked arises from this, they forget that God
   formed them, Deut. xxxii. 18. Or, (2.) Which comes to the same thing,
   they deny him to be a wise Creator: The thing framed saith of him that
   framed it, He had no understanding; for if he had understanding to make
   us so curiously, especially to make us intelligent beings and to put
   understanding into the inward part (Job xxxviii. 36), no doubt he has
   understanding to know us and all we say and do. As those that quarrel
   with God, so those that think to conceal themselves from him, do in
   effect charge him with folly; but he that formed the eye, shall he not
   see? Ps. xciv. 9.

Promises to Israel; Character of Persecutors; Promises of Jacob. (b. c. 725.)

   17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into
   a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
     18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the
   eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.   19
   The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among
   men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.   20 For the terrible one
   is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch
   for iniquity are cut off:   21 That make a man an offender for a word,
   and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the
   just for a thing of nought.   22 Therefore thus saith the Lord, who
   redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be
   ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.   23 But when he seeth
   his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall
   sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear
   the God of Israel.   24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to
   understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

   Those that thought to hide their counsels from the Lord were said to
   turn things upside down (v. 16), and they intended to do it unknown to
   God; but God here tells them that he will turn things upside down his
   way; and let us see whose word shall stand, his or theirs. They
   disbelieve Providence: "Wait awhile," says God, "and you shall be
   convinced by ocular demonstration that there is a God who governs the
   world, and that he governs it and orders all the changes that are in it
   for the good of his church." The wonderful revolution here foretold may
   refer primarily to the happy settlement of the affairs of Judah and
   Jerusalem after the defeat of Sennacherib's attempt, and the repose
   which good people then enjoyed, when they were delivered from the
   alarms of the sword both of war and persecution. But it may look
   further, to the rejection of the Jews at the first planting of the
   gospel (for their hypocrisy and infidelity were here foretold, v. 13)
   and the admission of the Gentiles into the church.

   I. In general, it is a great and surprising change that is here
   foretold, v. 17. Lebanon, that was a forest, shall be turned into a
   fruitful field; and Carmel, that was a fruitful field, shall become a
   forest. It is a counterchange. Note, Great changes, both for the better
   and for the worse, are often made in a very little while. It was a sign
   given them of the defeat of Sennacherib that the ground should be more
   than ordinarily fruitful (ch. xxxvii. 30): You shall eat this year such
   as grows of itself; food for man shall be (as food for beasts is) the
   spontaneous product of the soil. Then Lebanon became a fruitful field,
   so fruitful that that which used to be reckoned a fruitful field in
   comparison with it was looked upon but as a forest. When a great
   harvest of souls was gathered in to Christ from among the Gentiles then
   the wilderness was turned into a fruitful field; and the Jewish church,
   that had long been a fruitful field, became a desolate and deserted
   forest, ch. liv. 1.

   II. In particular,

   1. Those that were ignorant shall become intelligent, v. 18. Those that
   understood not this prophecy (but it was to them as a sealed book, v.
   11) shall, when it is accomplished, understand it, and shall
   acknowledge, not only the hand of God in the event, but the voice of
   God in the prediction of it: The deaf shall then hear the words of the
   book. The fulfilling of prophecy is the best exposition of it. The poor
   Gentiles shall then have divine revelation brought among them; and
   those that sat in darkness shall see a great light, those that were
   blind shall see out of obscurity; for the gospel was sent to them to
   open their eyes, Acts xxvi. 18. Observe, In order to the making of men
   fruitful in good affections and actions, the course God's grace takes
   with them is to open their understandings and make them hear the words
   of God's book.

   2. Those that were erroneous shall become orthodox (v. 24): Those that
   erred in spirit, that were under mistakes and misapprehensions
   concerning the words of the book and the meaning of them, shall come to
   understanding, to a right understanding of things; the Spirit of truth
   shall rectify their mistakes and lead them into all truth. This should
   encourage us to pray for those that have erred and are deceived, that
   God can, and often does, bring such to understanding. Those that
   murmured at the truths of God as hard sayings, and loved to pick
   quarrels with them, shall learn the true meaning of these doctrines,
   and then they will be better reconciled to them. Those that erred
   concerning the providence of God as to public affairs, and murmured at
   the disposals of it, when they shall see the issue of things shall
   better understand them and be aware of what God was designing in all,
   Hos. xiv. 9.

   3. Those that were melancholy shall become cheerful and pleasant (v.
   19): The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. Those who are
   poor in the world and poor in spirit, who, being in affliction,
   accommodate themselves to their affliction, are purely passive and not
   passionate, when they see God appearing for them, they shall add, or
   repeat, joy in the Lord. This intimates that even in their distress
   they kept up their joy in the Lord, but now they increased it. Note,
   Those who, when they are in trouble, can truly rejoice in God, shall
   soon have cause given them greatly to rejoice in him. When joy in the
   world is decreasing and fading joy in God is increasing and getting
   round. This shining light shall shine more and more; for that which is
   aimed at is that this joy may be full. Even the poor among men may
   rejoice in the Holy One of Israel, and their poverty needs not deprive
   them of that joy, Hab. iii. 17, 18. And the meek, the humble, the
   patient, and dispassionate, shall grow in this joy. Note, The grace of
   meekness will contribute very much to the increase of our holy joy.

   4. The enemies, that were formidable, shall become despicable.
   Sennacherib, that terrible one, and his great army, that put the
   country into such a consternation, shall be brought to nought (v. 20),
   shall be quite disabled to do any further mischief. The power of Satan,
   that terrible one indeed, shall be broken by the prevalency of Christ's
   gospel; and those that were subject to bondage through fear of him that
   had the power of death shall be delivered, Heb. ii. 14, 15.

   5. The persecutors, that were vexatious, shall be quieted, and so those
   they were troublesome to shall be quiet from the fear of them. To
   complete the repose of God's people, not only the terrible one from
   abroad shall be brought to nought, but the scorners at home too shall
   be consumed and cut off by Hezekiah's reformation. Those are a happy
   people, and likely to be so, who, when God gives them victory and
   success against their terrible enemies abroad, take care to suppress
   vice, and profaneness, and the spirit of persecution, those more
   dangerous enemies at home. Or, They shall be consumed and cut off by
   the judgments of God, shall be singled out to be made examples of. Or,
   They shall insensibly waste away, being put to confusion by the
   fulfilling of those predictions which they had made a jest of. Observe
   what had been the wickedness of these scorners, for which they should
   be cut off. They had been persecutors of God's people and prophets,
   probably of the prophet Isaiah particularly, and therefore he complains
   thus feelingly of them and of their subtle malice. Some as informers
   and persecutors, others as judges, did all they could to take away his
   life, or at least his liberty. And this is very applicable to the chief
   priests and Pharisees, who persecuted Christ and his apostles, and for
   that sin they and their nation of scorners were cut off and consumed.
   (1.) They ridiculed the prophets and the serious professors of
   religion; they despised them, and did their utmost to bring them into
   contempt; they were scorners, and sat in the seat of the scornful. (2.)
   They lay in wait for an occasion against them. By their spies they
   watch for iniquity, to see if they can lay hold of any thing that is
   said or done that may be called an iniquity. Or they themselves watch
   for an opportunity to do mischief, as Judas did to betray our Lord
   Jesus. (3.) They took advantage against them for the least slip of the
   tongue; and, if a thing were ever so little said amiss, it served them
   to ground an indictment upon. They made a man, though he were ever so
   wise and good a man, though he were a man of God, an offender for a
   word, a word mischosen or misplaced, when they could not but know that
   it was well meant, v. 21. They cavilled at every word that the prophets
   spoke to them by way of admonition, though ever so innocently spoken,
   and without any design to affront them. They put the worst construction
   upon what was said, and made it criminal by strained innuendoes. Those
   who consider how apt we all are to speak unadvisedly, and to mistake
   what we hear, will think it very unjust and unfair to make a man an
   offender for a word. (4.) They did all they could to bring those into
   trouble that dealt faithfully with them and told them of their faults.
   Those that reprove in the gates, reprovers by office, that were bound
   by the duty of their place, as prophets, as judges, and magistrates, to
   show people their transgressions, they hated these, and laid snares for
   them, as the Pharisees' emissaries, who were sent to watch our Saviour
   that they might entangle him in his talk (Matt. xxii. 15), that they
   might have something to lay to his charge which might render him odious
   to the people or obnoxious to the government. So persecuted they the
   prophets; and it is next to impossible for the most cautious to place
   their words so warily as to escape such snares. See how base wicked
   people are, who bear ill-will to those who, out of good-will to them,
   seek to save their souls from death; and see what need reprovers have
   both of courage to do their duty and of prudence to avoid the snare.
   (5.) They pervert judgment, and will never let an honest man carry an
   honest cause: They turn aside the just for a thing of nought; they
   condemn him, or give the cause against him, upon no evidence, no colour
   or pretence whatsoever. They run a man down, and misrepresent him, by
   all the little arts and tricks they can devise, as they did our
   Saviour. We must not think it strange if we see the best of men thus
   treated; the disciple is not greater than his Master. But wait awhile,
   and God will not only bring forth their righteousness, but cut off and
   consume these scorners.

   6. Jacob, who was made to blush by the reproaches, and made to tremble
   by the threatenings, of his enemies, shall now be relieved both against
   his shame and against his fear, by the rolling away of those reproaches
   and the defeating of those threatenings (v. 22): Thus the Lord saith
   who redeemed Abraham, that is, called him out of Ur of the Chaldees,
   and so rescued him from the idolatry of his fathers and plucked him as
   a brand out of the fire. He that redeemed Abraham out of his snares and
   troubles will redeem all that are by faith his genuine seed out of
   theirs. He that began his care of his church in the redemption of
   Abraham, when it and its Redeemer were in his loins, will not now cast
   off the care of it. Because the enemies of his people are so
   industrious both to blacken them and to frighten them, therefore he
   will appear for the house of Jacob, and they shall not be ashamed as
   they have been, but shall have wherewith to answer those that reproach
   them, nor shall their faces now wax pale; but they shall gather
   courage, and look their enemies in the face without change of
   countenance, as those have reason to do who have the God of Abraham on
   their side.

   7. Jacob, who thought his family would be extinct and the entail of
   religion quite cut off, shall have the satisfaction of seeing a
   numerous progeny devoted to God for a generation, v. 23. (1.) He shall
   see his children, multitudes of believers and praying people, the
   spiritual seed of faithful Abraham and wrestling Jacob. Having his
   quiver full of these arrows, he shall not be ashamed (v. 22) but shall
   speak with his enemy in the gate, Ps. cxxvii. 5. Christ shall not be
   ashamed (ch. l. 7), for he shall see his seed (ch. liii. 10); he sees
   some, and foresees more, in the midst of him, flocking to the church,
   and residing there. (2.) His children are the work of God's hands;
   being formed by him, they are formed for him, his workmanship, created
   unto good works. It is some comfort to parents to think that their
   children are God's creatures, the work of the hands of his grace. (3.)
   He and his children shall sanctify the name of God as their God, as the
   Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear and worship the God of Israel. This
   is opposed to his being ashamed and waxing pale; when he is delivered
   from his contempts and dangers he shall not magnify himself, but
   sanctify the Holy One of Jacob. If God make our condition easy, we must
   endeavour to make his name glorious. Parents and children are ornaments
   and comforts indeed to each other when they join in sanctifying the
   name of God. When parents give up their children, and children give up
   themselves, to God, to be to him for a name and a praise, then the
   forest will soon become a fruitful field.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXX.

   The prophecy of this chapter seems to relate (as that in the foregoing
   chapter) to the approaching danger of Jerusalem and desolations of
   Judah by Sennacherib's invasion. Here is, I. A just reproof to those
   who, in that distress, trusted to the Egyptians for help, and were all
   in a hurry to fetch succours from Egypt, ver. 1-7. II. A terrible
   threatening against those who slighted the good advice which God by his
   prophets gave them for the repose of their minds in that distress,
   assuring them that whatever became of others the judgment would
   certainly overtake them, ver. 8-17. III. A gracious promise to those
   who trusted in God, that they should not only see through the trouble,
   but should see happy days after it, times of joy and reformation,
   plenty of the means of grace, and therewith plenty of outward good
   things and increasing joys and triumphs (ver. 18-26), and many of these
   promises are very applicable to gospel grace. IV. A prophecy of the
   total rout and ruin of the Assyrian army, which should be an occasion
   of great joy and an introduction to those happy times, ver. 27-33.

The Foolish Confidence of Judah. (b. c. 720.)

   1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel,
   but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit,
   that they may add sin to sin:   2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and
   have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of
   Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!   3 Therefore shall the
   strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt
   your confusion.   4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors
   came to Hanes.   5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not
   profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a
   reproach.   6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of
   trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper
   and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the
   shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of
   camels, to a people that shall not profit them.   7 For the Egyptians
   shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried
   concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

   It was often the fault and folly of the people of the Jews that, when
   they were insulted by their neighbours on one side, they sought for
   succour from their neighbours on the other side, instead of looking up
   to God and putting their confidence in him. Against the Israelites they
   sought to the Syrians, 2 Chron. xvi. 2, 3. Against the Syrians they
   sought to the Assyrians, 2 Kings xvi. 7. Against the Assyrians they
   here sought to the Egyptians, and Rabshakeh upbraided them with so
   doing, 2 Kings xviii. 21. Now observe here,

   I. How this sin of theirs is described, and what there was in it that
   was provoking to God. When they saw themselves in danger and distress,
   1. They would not consult God. They would do things of their own heads,
   and not advise with God, though they had a ready and certain way of
   doing it by Urim or prophets. They were so confident of the prudence of
   their own measures that they thought it needless to consult the oracle;
   nay, they were not willing to put it to that issue: "They take counsel
   among themselves, and one from another; but they do not ask counsel,
   much less will they take counsel, of me. They cover with a covering"
   (they think to secure themselves with one shelter or other, which may
   serve to cover them from the violence of the storm), "but not of my
   Spirit" (not such as God by his Spirit, in the mouth of his prophets,
   directed them to), "and therefore it will prove too short a covering,
   and a refuge of lies." 2. They could not confide in God. They did not
   think it enough to have God on their side, nor were they at all
   solicitous to make him their friend, but they strengthened themselves
   in the strength of Pharaoh; they thought him a powerful ally, and
   doubted not but to be able to cope with the Assyrian while they had him
   for them. The shadow of Egypt (and it was but a shadow) was the
   covering in which they wrapped themselves.

   II. What was the evil of this sin. 1. It bespoke them rebellious
   children; and a woe is here denounced against them under that
   character, v. 1. They were, in profession, God's children; but, not
   trusting in him, they were justly stigmatized as rebellious; for, if we
   distrust God's providence, we do in effect withdraw ourselves from our
   allegiance. 2. They added sin to sin. It was sin that brought them into
   distress; and then, instead of repenting, they trespassed yet more
   against the Lord, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. And those that had abused God's
   mercies to them, making them the fuel of their lusts, abused their
   afflictions too, making them an excuse for their distrust of God; and
   so they make bad worse, and add sin to sin; and those that do so, as
   they make their own chain heavy, so it is just with God to make their
   plagues wonderful. Now that which aggravated their sin was, (1.) That
   they took so much pains to secure the Egyptians for their allies: They
   walk to go down to Egypt, travel up and down to find an advantageous
   road thither; but they have not asked at my mouth, never considered
   whether God would allow and approve of it or no. (2.) That they were at
   such a vast expense to do it, v. 6. They load the beasts of the south
   (horses fetched from Egypt, which lay south from Judea) with their
   riches, fancying, as it is common with people in a fright, that they
   were safer any where than where they were. Or they sent their riches
   thither as bribes to Pharaoh's courtiers, to engage them in their
   interests, or as pay for their army. God would have helped them gratis;
   but, if they will have help from the Egyptians, they must pay dearly
   for it, and they seem willing to do so. The riches that are so spent
   will turn to a bad account. They carried their effects to Egypt through
   a land (so it may be read) of trouble and anguish, that vast howling
   wilderness which lay between Canaan and Egypt, whence come the lion and
   fiery serpent, Deut. viii. 15. They would venture through that
   dangerous wilderness, to bring what they had to Egypt. Or it may be
   meant of Egypt itself, which had been to Israel a house of bondage and
   therefore a land of trouble and anguish, and which abounded in ravenous
   and venomous creatures. See what dangers men run into that forsake God,
   and what dangers they will run into in pursuance of their carnal
   confidences and their expectations from the creature.

   III. What would be the consequence of it. 1. The Egyptians would
   receive their ambassadors, would address them very respectfully, and be
   willing to treat with them (v. 4): His princes were at Zoan, at
   Pharaoh's court there, and had their audience of the king, who
   encouraged them to depend upon his friendship and the succours he would
   send them. But, 2. They would not answer their expectation: They could
   not profit them, v. 5. For God says, They shall not profit them (v. 6),
   and every creature is that to us (and no more) which he makes it to be.
   The forces they were to furnish them with could not be raised in time;
   or, when they were raised, they were not fit for service, and they
   would not venture any of their veteran troops in the expedition; or the
   march was so long that they could not come up when they had occasion
   for them; or the Egyptians would not be cordial to Israel, but would
   secretly incline to the Assyrians, upon some account or other: The
   Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose, v. 7. They shall
   hinder and hurt, instead of helping. And therefore, 3. These people,
   that were now so fond of the Egyptians, would at length be ashamed of
   them, and of all their expectations from them and confidence in them
   (v. 3): "The strength of Pharaoh, which was your pride, shall be your
   shame; all your neighbours will upbraid you, and you will upbraid
   yourselves, with your folly in trusting to it. And the shadow of Egypt,
   that land shadowing with wings (ch. xviii. 1), which was your
   confidence, shall be your confusion; it will not only disappoint you,
   and be the matter of your shame, but it will weaken all your other
   supports, and be an occasion of mischief to you." God afterwards
   threatens the ruin of Egypt for this very thing, because they had dealt
   treacherously with Israel and been a staff of a reed to them, Ezek.
   xxix. 6, 7. The princes and ambassadors of Israel, who were so forward
   to court an alliance with them, when they come among them shall see so
   much of their weakness, or rather of their baseness, that they shall
   all be ashamed of a people that could not be a help or profit to them,
   but a shame and reproach, v. 5. Those that trust in God, in his power,
   providence, and promise, are never made ashamed of their hope; but
   those that put confidence in any creature will sooner or later find it
   a reproach to them. God is true, and may be trusted, but every man a
   liar, and must be suspected. The Creator is a rock of ages, the
   creature a broken reed. We cannot expect too little from man nor too
   much from God.

   IV. The use and application of all this (v. 7): "Therefore have I cried
   concerning this matter, this project of theirs. I have published it,
   that all might take notice of it. I have pressed it as one in earnest.
   Their strength is to sit still, in a humble dependence upon God and his
   goodness and a quiet submission to his will, and not to wander about
   and put themselves to great trouble to seek help from this and the
   other creature." If we sit still in a day of distress, hoping and
   quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord, and using only lawful
   regular methods for our own preservation, this will be the strength of
   our souls both for services and sufferings, and it will engage divine
   strength for us. We weaken ourselves, and provoke God to withdraw from
   us, when we make flesh our arm, for then our hearts depart from the
   Lord. When we have tired ourselves by seeking for help from creatures
   we shall find it the best way of recruiting ourselves to repose in the
   Creator. Here I am, let him do with me as he pleases.

Doom of Incorrigible Sinners. (b. c. 720.)

   8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that
   it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:   9 That this is a
   rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law
   of the Lord:   10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets,
   Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
   prophesy deceits:   11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the
   path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.   12
   Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this
   word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:   13
   Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall,
   swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an
   instant.   14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters'
   vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there
   shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the
   hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.   15 For thus saith the
   Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be
   saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye
   would not.   16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses;
   therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore
   shall they that pursue you be swift.   17 One thousand shall flee at
   the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left
   as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.

   Here, I. The preface is very awful. The prophet must not only preach
   this, but he must write it (v. 8), write it in a table, to be hung up
   and exposed to public view; he must carefully note it, not in loose
   papers which might be lost or torn, but in a book, to be preserved for
   posterity, in perpetuam rei memoriam--for a standing testimony against
   this wicked generation; let it remain not only to the next succeeding
   ages, but for ever and ever, while the world stands; and so it shall,
   for the book of the scriptures no doubt, shall continue, and be read,
   to the end of time. Let it be written, 1. To shame the men of the
   present age, who would not hear and heed it when it was spoken. Let it
   be written, that it may not be lost; their children may profit by it,
   though they will not. 2. To justify God in the judgments he was about
   to ring upon them; people will be tempted to think he was too hard upon
   them, and over-severe, unless they know how very bad they were, how
   very provoking, and what fair means God tried with them before he
   brought it to this extremity. 3. For warning to others not to do as
   they did, lest they should fare as they fared. It is designed for
   admonition to those of the remotest place and age, even those upon whom
   the ends of the world have come, 1 Cor. x. 11. It may be of use for
   God's ministers not only to preach, but to write; for that which is
   written remains.

   II. The character given of the profane and wicked Jews is very sad. He
   must, if he will draw them in their own colours, write this concerning
   them (and we are sure he does not bear false witness against them, nor
   make them worse than they were, for the judgment of God is according to
   truth), That this is a rebellious people, v. 9. The Jews were, for
   aught we know, the only professing people God had then in the world,
   and yet many of them were a rebellious people. 1. They rebelled against
   their own convictions and covenants: "They are lying children, that
   will not stand to what they say, that promise fair, but perform
   nothing;" when he took them into covenant with himself he said of them,
   Surely they are my people, children that will not lie (ch. lxiii. 8);
   but they proved otherwise. 2. They rebelled against the divine
   authority: "They are children that will not hear the law of the Lord,
   nor heed it, but will do as they have a mind, let God himself say what
   he will to the contrary."

   III. The charge drawn up against them is very high and the sentence
   passed upon them very dreadful. Two things they here stand charged
   with, and their doom is read for both, a fearful doom:--

   1. They forbade the prophets to speak to them in God's name, and to
   deal faithfully with them.

   (1.) This their sin is described, v. 10, 11. They set themselves so
   violently against the prophets to hinder them from preaching, or at
   least from dealing plainly with them in their preaching, did so banter
   them and browbeat them, that they did in effect say to the seers, See
   not. They had the light, but they loved darkness rather. It was their
   privilege that they had seers among them, but they did what they could
   to put out their eyes--that they had prophets among them, but they did
   what they could to stop their mouths; for they tormented them in their
   wicked ways, Rev. xi. 10. Those that silence good ministers, and
   discountenance good preaching, are justly counted, and called, rebels
   against God. See what it was in the prophets' preaching with which they
   found themselves aggrieved. [1.] The prophets told them of their
   faults, and warned them of their misery and danger by reason of sin,
   and they could not bear that. They must speak to them smooth things,
   must flatter them in their sins, and say that they did well, and there
   was no harm, no peril, in the course of life they lived in. Let a thing
   be ever so right and true, if it be not smooth, they will not hear it.
   But if it be agreeable to the good opinion they have of themselves, and
   will confirm them in that, though it be ever so false and ever so great
   a cheat upon them, they will have it prophesied to them. Those deserve
   to be deceived that desire to be so. [2.] The prophets stopped them in
   their sinful pursuits, and stood in their way like the angel in
   Balaam's road, with the sword of God's wrath drawn in their hand; so
   that they could not proceed without terror. And this they took as a
   great insult. When they went on frowardly in the way of their hearts
   they said to the prophets, "Get you out of the way, turn aside out of
   the paths. What do you do in our way? Cannot you let us alone to do as
   we please?" Those have their hearts fully set in them to do evil that
   bid their faithful monitors to stand out of their way. Forbear, why
   shouldst thou be smitten? 2 Chron. xxv. 16. [3.] The prophets were
   continually telling them of the Holy One of Israel, what an enemy he is
   to sin ad how severely he will reckon with sinners; and this they could
   not endure to hear of. Both the thing itself and the expression of it
   were too serious for them; and therefore, if the prophets will speak to
   them, they will make it their bargain that they shall not call God the
   Holy One of Israel; for God's holiness is that attribute which wicked
   people most of all dread. Let us no more be troubled with that
   state-preface (as Mr. White calls it) to your impertinent harangues.
   Those have reason to fear perishing in their sins that cannot bear to
   be frightened out of them.

   (2.) Now what is the doom passed upon them for this? We have it, v. 12,
   13. Observe, [1.] Who it is that gives judgment upon them: Thus saith
   the Holy One of Israel. That title of God which they particularly
   excepted against the prophet makes use of. Faithful ministers will not
   be driven from using such expressions as are proper to awaken sinners,
   though they be displeasing. We must tell men that God is the Holy One
   of Israel, and so they shall find him, whether they will hear or
   whether they will forbear. [2.] What the ground of the judgment is:
   Because they despise this word--wither, in general, every word that the
   prophets said to them, or this word in particular, which declares God
   to be the Holy One of Israel: "they despise this, and will neither make
   it their fear, to stand in awe of it, nor make it their hope, to put
   any confidence in it; but, rather than they will be beholden to the
   Holy One of Israel, they will trust in oppression and perverseness, in
   the wealth they have got and the interest they have made by fraud and
   violence, or in the sinful methods they have taken for their own
   security, in contradiction to God and his will. On these they lean, and
   therefore it is just that they should fall." [3.] What the judgment is
   that is passed upon them: "This iniquity shall be to you as a breach
   ready to fall. This confidence of yours will be like a house built upon
   the sand, which will fall in the storm and bury the builder in the
   ruins of it. Your contempt of that word of God which you might build
   upon will make every thing else you trust like a wall that bulges out,
   which, if any weight be laid upon it, comes down, nay, which often
   sinks with its own weight." The ruin they would hereby bring upon
   themselves should be, First, A surprising ruin: The breaking shall come
   suddenly, at an instant, when they do not expect it, which will make it
   the more frightful, and when they are not prepared or provided for it,
   which will make it the more fatal. Secondly, An utter ruin, universal
   and irreparable: "Your and all your confidences shall be not only weak
   as the potter's clay (ch. xxix. 16), but broken to pieces as the
   potter's vessel. He that has the rod of iron shall break it (Ps. ii. 9)
   and he shall not spare, shall not have any regard to it, nor be in care
   to preserve or keep whole any part of it. But, when once it is broken
   so as to be unfit for use, let it be dashed, let it be crushed, all to
   pieces, so that there may not remain one sherd big enough to take up a
   little fire or water"--two things we have daily need of, and which poor
   people commonly fetch in a piece of a broken pitcher. They shall not
   only be as a bowing wall (Ps. lxii. 3), but as a broken mug or glass,
   which is good for nothing, nor can ever be made whole again.

   2. They slighted the gracious directions God gave them, not only how to
   secure themselves and make themselves safe, but how to compose
   themselves and make themselves easy; they would take their own way, v.
   15-17. Observe here,

   (1.) The method God put them into for salvation and strength. The God
   that knew them, and knew what was proper for them, and desired their
   welfare, gave them this prescription; and it is recommended to us all.
   [1.] Would we be saved from the evil of every calamity, guarded against
   the temptation of it and secured from the curse of it, which are the
   only evil things in it? It must be in returning and rest, in returning
   to God and reposing in him as our rest. Let us return from our evil
   ways, into which we have gone aside, and rest and settle in the way of
   God and duty, and that is the way to be saved. "Return from this
   project of going down to Egypt, and rest satisfied in the will of God,
   and then you may trust him with your safety. In returning (in the
   thorough reformation of your hearts and lives) and in rest (in an
   entire submission of your souls to God and a complacency in him) you
   shall be saved." [2.] Would we be strengthened to do what is required
   of us and to bear what is laid upon us? It must be in quietness and in
   confidence; we must keep our spirits calm and sedate by a continual
   dependence upon God, and his power and goodness; we must retire into
   ourselves with a holy quietness, suppressing all turbulent and
   tumultuous passions, and keeping the peace in our own minds. And we
   must rely upon God with a holy confidence that he can do what he will
   and will do what is best for his people. And this will be our strength;
   it will inspire us with such a holy fortitude as will carry us with
   ease and courage through all the difficulties we may meet with.

   (2.) The contempt they put upon this prescription; they would not take
   God's counsel, though it was so much for their own good. And justly
   will those die of their disease that will not take God for their
   physician. We are certainly enemies to ourselves if we will not be
   subjects to him. They would not so much as try the method prescribed:
   "But you said, No (v. 16), we will not compose ourselves, for we will
   flee upon horses and we will ride upon the swift; we will hurry hither
   and thither to fetch in foreign aids." They think themselves wiser than
   God, and that they know what is good for themselves better than he
   does. When Sennacherib took all the fenced cities of Judah, those
   rebellious children would not be persuaded to sit still and patiently
   to expect God's appearing for them, as he did wonderfully at last; but
   they would shift for their own safety, and thereby they exposed
   themselves to so much the more danger.

   (3.) The sentence passed upon them for this. Their sin shall be their
   punishment: "You will flee, and therefore you shall flee; you will be
   upon the full speed, and therefore so shall those be that pursue you."
   The dogs are most apt to run barking after him that rides fast. The
   conquerors protected those that sat still, but pursued those that made
   their escape; and so that very project by which they hoped to save
   themselves was justly their ruin and the most guilty suffered most. It
   is foretold, v. 17, [1.] That they should be easily cut off; they
   should be so dispirited with their own fears, increased by their
   flight, that one of the enemy should defeat a thousand of them, and
   five put an army to flight, which could never be unless their Rock had
   sold them Deut. xxxii. 30. [2.] That they should be generally cut off,
   and only here and there one should escape alone in a solitary place,
   and be left for a spectacle too, as a beacon upon the top of a
   mountain, a warning to others to avoid the like sinful courses and
   carnal confidences.

Promises. (b. c. 720.)

   18 And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you,
   and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for
   the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
     19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep
   no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry;
   when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.   20 And though the Lord
   give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall
   not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes
   shall see thy teachers:   21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind
   thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right
   hand, and when ye turn to the left.   22 Ye shall defile also the
   covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten
   images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou
   shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.   23 Then shall he give the rain of
   thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the
   increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day
   shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.   24 The oxen likewise and the
   young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath
   been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.   25 And there shall be
   upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams
   of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.   26
   Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and
   the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in
   the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth
   the stroke of their wound.

   The closing words of the foregoing paragraph (You shall be left as a
   beacon upon a mountain) some understand as a promise that a remnant of
   them should be reserved as monuments of mercy; and here the prophet
   tells them what good times should succeed these calamities. Or the
   first words in this paragraph may be read by way of antithesis,
   Notwithstanding this, yet will the Lord wait that he may be gracious.
   The prophet, having shown that those who made Egypt their confidence
   would be ashamed of it, here shows that those who sat still and made
   God alone their confidence would have the comfort of it. It is matter
   of comfort to the people of God, when the times are very bad, that all
   will be well yet, well with those that fear God, when we say to the
   wicked, It shall be ill with you.

   I. God will be gracious to them and will have mercy on them. This is
   the foundation of all good. If we find favour with God, and he have
   mercy upon us, we shall have comfort according to the time that we have
   been afflicted.

   1. The mercy in store for them is very affectingly expressed. (1.) "He
   will wait to be gracious (v. 18); he will wait till you return to him
   and seek his face, and then he will be ready to meet you with mercy. He
   will wait, that he may do it in the best and fittest time, when it will
   be most for his glory, when it will come to you with the most pleasing
   surprise. He will continually follow you with his favours, and not let
   slip any opportunity of being gracious to you." (2.) "He will stir up
   himself to deliver you, will be exalted, will be raised up out of his
   holy habitation (Zech. ii. 13), that he may appear for you in more than
   ordinary instances of power and goodness; and thus he will be exalted,
   that is, he will glorify his own name. This is what he aims at in
   having mercy on his people." (3.) He will be very gracious (v. 19), and
   this in answer to prayer, which makes his kindness doubly kind: "He
   will be gracious to thee, at the voice of thy cry, the cry of thy
   necessity, when that is most urgent--the cry of thy prayer, when that
   is most fervent. When he shall hear it, there needs no more; at the
   first word he will answer thee, and say, Here I am." Herein he is very
   gracious indeed. In particular, [1.] Those who were disturbed in the
   possession of their estates shall again enjoy them quietly. When the
   danger is over the people shall dwell in Zion, at Jerusalem, as they
   used to do; they shall dwell safely, free from the fear of evil. [2.]
   Those who were all in tears shall have cause to rejoice, and shall weep
   no more; and those who dwell in Zion, the holy city, will find enough
   there to wipe away tears from their eyes.

   2. This is grounded upon two great truths: (1.) That the Lord is a God
   of judgment; he is both wise and just in all the disposals of his
   providence, true to his word and tender of his people. If he correct
   his children, it is with judgment (Jer. x. 24), with moderation and
   discretion, considering their frame. We think we may safely refer
   ourselves to a man of judgment; and shall we not commit our way to a
   God of judgment? (2.) That therefore all those are blessed who wait for
   him, who not only wait on him with their prayers, but wait for him with
   their hopes, who will not take any indirect course to extricate
   themselves out of their straits, or anticipate their deliverance, but
   patiently expect God's appearances for them in his own way and time.
   Because God is infinitely wise, those are truly happy who refer their
   cause to him.

   II. They shall not again know the want of the means of grace, v. 20,
   21. Here, 1. It is supposed that they might be brought into straits and
   troubles after this deliverance was wrought for them. It was promised
   (v. 19), that they should weep no more and that God would be gracious
   to them; and yet here it is taken for granted that God may give them
   the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, prisoners' fare (1
   Kings xxii. 27), coarse and sorry food, such as the poor use. When one
   trouble is over we know not how soon another may succeed; and we may
   have an interest in the favour of God, and such consolations as are
   sufficient to prohibit weeping, and yet may have bread of adversity
   given us to eat and water of affliction to drink. Let us therefore not
   judge of love or hatred by what is before us. 2. It is promised that
   their eyes should see their teachers, that is, that they should have
   faithful teachers among them, and should have hearts to regard them and
   not slight them as they had done; and then they might the better be
   reconciled to the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. It
   was a common saying among the old Puritans, Brown bread and the gospel
   are good fare. A famine of bread is not so great a judgment as a famine
   of the word of God, Amos viii. 11, 12. It seems that their teachers had
   been removed into corners (probably being forced to shift for their
   safety in the reign of Ahaz), but it shall be so no more. Veritas non
   quærit angulos--Truth seeks no corners for concealment. But the
   teachers of truth may sometimes be driven into corners for shelter; and
   it goes ill with the church when it is so, when the woman with her
   crown of twelve stars is forced to flee into the wilderness (Rev. xii.
   6), when the prophets are hidden by fifty in a cave, 1 Kings xviii. 4.
   But God will find a time to call the teachers out of their corners
   again, and to replace them in their solemn assemblies, which shall see
   their own teachers, the eyes of all the synagogue being fastened on
   them, Luke iv. 20. And it will be the more pleasing because of the
   restraint they have been for some time under, as light out of darkness,
   as life from the dead. To all that love God and their own souls this
   return of faithful teachers out of their corners, especially with a
   promise that they shall not be removed into corners any more, is the
   most acceptable part of any deliverance, and has comfort enough in it
   to sweeten even the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. But
   this is not all: 3. It is promised that they shall have the benefit,
   not only of the public ministry, but of private and particular
   admonition and advice (v. 21): "Thy ears shall hear a word behind thee,
   calling after thee as a man calls after a traveller that he sees going
   out of his road." Observe, (1.) Whence this word shall come--from
   behind thee, from some one whom thou dost not see, but who sees thee.
   "Thy eyes see thy teachers; but this is a teacher out of sight, it is
   thy own conscience, which shall now by the grace of God be awakened to
   do its office." (2.) What the word shall be: "This is the way, walk you
   in it. When thou art doubting, conscience shall direct thee to the way
   of duty; when thou art dull and trifling, conscience shall quicken thee
   in that way." As God has not left himself without witness, so he has
   not left us without guides to show us our way. (3.) The seasonableness
   of this word: It shall come when you turn to the right hand or to the
   left. We are very apt to miss our way; there are turnings on both
   hands, and those so tracked and seemingly straight that they may easily
   be mistaken for the right way. There are right-hand and left-hand
   errors, extremes on each side virtue; the tempter is busy courting us
   into the by-paths. It is happy then if by the particular counsels of a
   faithful minister or friend, or the checks of conscience and the
   strivings of God's Spirit, we be set right and prevented from going
   wrong. (4.) The success of this word: "It shall not only be spoken, but
   thy ears shall hear it; whereas God has formerly spoken once, yea,
   twice, and thou hast not perceived it (Job xxxiii. 14), now thou shalt
   listen attentively to these secret whispers, and hear them with an
   obedient ear." If God gives us not only the word, but the hearing ear,
   not only the means of grace, but a heart to make a good use of those
   means, we have reason to say, He is very gracious to us, and reason to
   hope he has yet further mercy in store for us.

   III. They shall be cured of their idolatry, shall fall out with their
   idols, and never be reconciled to them again, v. 22. The deliverance
   God shall work for them shall convince them that it is their interest,
   as well as duty, to serve him only; and they shall own that, as their
   trouble was brought upon them for their idolatries, so it was removed
   upon condition that they should not return to them. This is also the
   good effect of their seeing their teachers and hearing the word behind
   them; by this it shall appear that they are the better for the means of
   grace they enjoy--they shall break off from their best-beloved sin.
   Observe, 1. How foolishly mad they had formerly been upon their idols,
   in the day of their apostasy. Idolaters are said to be mad upon their
   idols (Jer. l. 38), doatingly fond of them. They had graven images of
   silver, and molten images of gold, and, though gold needs no painting,
   they had coverings and ornaments on these; they spared no cost in doing
   honour to their idols. 2. How wisely mad (if I may so speak) they now
   were at their idols, what a holy indignation they conceived against
   them in the day of their repentance. They not only degraded their
   images, but defaced them, not only defaced them, but defiled them; they
   not only spoiled the shape of them, but in a pious fury threw away the
   gold and silver they were made of, though otherwise valuable and
   convertible to a good use. They could not find in their hearts to make
   any vessel of honour of them. The rich clothes wherewith their images
   were dressed up they cast away as a filthy cloth which rendered those
   that touched it unclean until the evening, Lev. xv. 23. Note, To all
   true penitents sin has become very odious; they loathe it, and loathe
   themselves because of it; they cast it away to the dunghill, the
   fittest place for it, nay, to the cross, for they crucify the flesh;
   their cry against it is, Crucify it, crucify it. They say unto it, Abi
   hinc in malam rem--Get thee hence. They are resolved never to harbour
   it any more. They put as far from as they can all the occasions of sin
   and temptations to it, though they are as a right eye or a right hand,
   and protest against it as Ephraim did (Hos. xiv. 8), What have I to do
   any more with idols? Probably this was fulfilled in many particular
   persons, who, by the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's army,
   were convinced of the folly of their idolatry and forsook it. It was
   fulfilled in the body of the Jewish nation at their return from their
   captivity in Babylon, for they abhorred idols ever after; and it is
   accomplished daily in the conversion of souls, by the power of divine
   grace, from spiritual idolatry to the fear and love of God. Those that
   join themselves to the Lord must abandon every sin, and say unto it,
   Get thee hence.

   IV. God will then give them plenty of all good things. When he gives
   them their teachers, and they give him their hearts, so that they begin
   to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, then all
   other things shall be added to them Matt. vi. 33. And when the people
   are brought to praise God then shall the earth yield her increase, and
   with it God, even our own God, shall bless us, Ps. lxvii. 5, 6. So it
   follows here: "When you shall have abandoned your idols, then shall God
   give the rain of your seed," v. 23. When we return to God in a way of
   duty he will meet us with his favours. 1. God will give you rain of
   your seed, rain to water the seed you sow, just at the time that it
   calls for it, as much as it needs and no more. Observe, How man's
   industry and God's blessing concur to the good things we enjoy relating
   to the life that now is: Thou shalt sow the ground, that is thy part,
   and then God will give the rain of thy seed, that is his part. It is so
   in spiritual fruit; we must take pains with our hearts and then wait on
   God for his grace. 2. The increase of the earth shall be rich and good,
   and every thing the best of the kind; it shall be fat and fat, very fat
   and very good, fat and plenteous (so we read it), good and enough of
   it. Your land shall be Canaan indeed; it was remarkably so after the
   defeat of Sennacherib, by the special blessing of God, ch. xxxvii. 30.
   God would thus repair the losses they sustained by that devastation. 3.
   Not only the tillage, but the pasture-ground should be remarkably
   fruitful: The cattle shall feed in large pastures; those that are at
   grass shall have room enough, and the oxen and asses that are kept up
   for use, to ear the ground, which must be the better fed for their
   being worked, shall eat clean provender. The corn shall not be given
   them in the chaff as usual, to make it go the further, but they shall
   have good clean corn fit for man's use, being winnowed with the fan.
   The brute-creatures shall share in the abundance; it is fit they
   should, for they groan under the burden of the curse which man's sin
   has brought upon the earth. 4. Even the tops of the mountains, that
   used to be barren, shall be so well watered with the rain of heaven
   that there shall be rivers and streams there, and running down thence
   to the valleys (v. 25), and this in the day of the great slaughter that
   should be made by the angel in the camp of the Assyrians, when the
   towers and batteries they had erected for the carrying on of the siege
   of Jerusalem, the army being slain, should fall of course. It is
   probable that this was fulfilled in the letter of it, and that about
   the same time that that army was cut off there were extraordinary rains
   in mercy to the land.

   V. The effect of all this should be extraordinary comfort and joy to
   the people of God, v. 26. Light shall increase; that is, knowledge
   shall increase (when the prophecies are accomplished they shall be
   fully understood) or rather triumph shall: the light of the joy that is
   sown for the righteous shall now come up with a great increase. The
   light of the moon shall become as bright and as strong as that of the
   sun, and that of the sun shall increase proportionably and be as the
   light of seven days; every one shall be much more cheerful and appear
   much more pleasant than usual. There shall be a high spring-tide of joy
   in Judah and Jerusalem, upon occasion of the ruin of the Assyrian army,
   when the Lord binds up the breach of his people, not only saves them
   from being further wounded, but heals the wounds that have been given
   them by this invasion and makes up all their losses. The great distress
   they were reduced to, their despair of relief, and the suddenness of
   their deliverance, would much augment their joy. This is not unfitly
   applied by many to the light which the gospel brought into the world to
   those that sat in darkness, which has far exceeded the Old-Testament
   light as that of the sun does that of the moon, and which proclaims
   healing to the broken-hearted, and the binding up of their wounds.

Judgments on Assyria. (b. c. 720.)

   27 Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his
   anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of
   indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:   28 And his breath,
   as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift
   the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in
   the jaws of the people, causing them to err.   29 Ye shall have a song,
   as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart,
   as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to
   the mighty One of Israel.   30 And the Lord shall cause his glorious
   voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with
   the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire,
   with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.   31 For through the
   voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a
   rod.   32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which
   the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in
   battles of shaking will he fight with it.   33 For Tophet is ordained
   of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and
   large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord,
   like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

   This terrible prediction of the ruin of the Assyrian army, though it is
   a threatening to them, is part of the promise to the Israel of God,
   that God would not only punish the Assyrians for the mischief they had
   done to the Israel of God, but would disable and deter them from doing
   the like again; and this prediction, which would now shortly be
   accomplished, would ratify and confirm the foregoing promises, which
   should be accomplished in the latter days. Here is,

   I. God Almighty angry, and coming forth in anger against the Assyrians.
   He is here introduced in all the power and all the terror of his wrath,
   v. 27. The name of Jehovah, which the Assyrians disdain and set at a
   distance from them, as if they were out of its reach and it could do
   them no harm, behold, it comes from far. A messenger in the name of the
   Lord comes from as far off as heaven itself. He is a messenger of
   wrath, burning with his anger. God's lips are full of indignation at
   the blasphemy of Rabshakeh, who compared the God of Israel with the
   gods of the heathen; his tongue is as a devouring fire, for he can
   speak his proud enemies to ruin; his very breath comes with as much
   force as an overflowing stream, and with it he shall slay the wicked,
   ch. xi. 4. He does not stifle or smother his resentments, as men do
   theirs when they are either causeless or impotent; but he shall cause
   his glorious voice to be heard when he proclaims war with an enemy that
   sets him at defiance, v. 30. He shall display the indignation of his
   anger, anger in the highest degree; it shall be as the flame of a
   devouring fire, which carries and consumes all before it, with
   lightning or dissipation, and with tempest and hailstones, all which
   are the formidable phenomena of nature, and therefore expressive of the
   terror of the Almighty God of nature.

   II. The execution done by this anger of the Lord. Men are often angry
   when they can only threaten and talk big; but when God causes his
   glorious voice to be heard that shall not be all: he will show the
   lighting down of his arm too, v. 30. The operations of his providence
   shall accomplish the menaces of his word. Those that would not see the
   lifting up of his arm (ch. xxvi. 11) shall feel the lighting down of
   it, and find, to their cost, that the burden thereof is heavy (v. 27),
   so heavy that they cannot bear it, nor bear up against it, but must
   unavoidably sink and be crushed under it. Who knows the power of his
   anger or imagines what an offended God can do? Five things are here
   prepared for the execution:--1. Here is an overflowing stream, that
   shall reach to the midst of the neck, shall quite overwhelm the whole
   body of the army, and Sennacherib only, the head of it, shall keep
   above water and escape this stroke, while yet he is reserved for
   another in the house of Nisroch his god. The Assyrian army had been to
   Judah as an overflowing stream, reaching even to the neck (ch. viii. 7,
   8), and now the breath of God's wrath will be so to it. 2. Here is a
   sieve of vanity, with which God would sift those nations of which the
   Assyrian army was composed, v. 28. The great God can sift nations, for
   they are all before him as the small dust of the balance; he will sift
   them, not to gather out of them any that should be preserved, but so as
   to shake them one against another, put them into great consternation,
   and shake them all away at last; for it is a sieve of vanity (which
   retains nothing) that they are shaken with, and they are found all
   chaff. 3. Here is a bridle, which God has in their jaws, to curb and
   restrain them from doing the mischief they would do, and to force and
   constrain them to serve his purposes against their own will, ch. x. 7.
   God particularly says of Sennacherib (ch. xxxvii. 29) that he will put
   a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips. It is a bridle causing
   them to err, forcing them to such methods as will certainly be
   destructive to themselves and their interest and in which they will be
   infatuated. God with a word guides his people into the right way (v.
   21), but with a bridle he turns his enemies headlong upon their own
   ruin. 4. Here is a rod and a staff, even the voice of the Lord, his
   word giving orders concerning it, with which the Assyrian shall be
   beaten down, v. 31. The Assyrian had been himself a rod in God's hand
   for the chastising of his people, and had smitten them, ch. x. 5. That
   was a transient rod; but against the Assyrian shall go forth a grounded
   staff, that shall give a steady blow, shall stick close to him and
   strike home, so as to leave an impression upon him. It is a staff with
   a foundation, founded upon the enemies' deserts and God's determinate
   counsel. It is a consumption determined (ch. x. 23), and therefore
   there is no escaping it, no getting out of the reach of it; it shall
   pass in every place where an Assyrian is found, and the Lord shall lay
   it upon him, and cause it to rest, v. 32. Such is the woeful case of
   those that persist in enmity to God: the wrath of God abides on them.
   5. Here is Tophet ordained and prepared for them, v. 33. The valley of
   the son of Hinnom, adjoining to Jerusalem, was called Tophet. In that
   valley, it is supposed, many of the Assyrian regiments lay encamped,
   and were there slain by the destroying angel; or there the bodies of
   those that were so slain were burned. Hezekiah had lately, and from
   yesterday (so the word is) ordained it; that is, say some, he had
   cleared it of the images that were set up in it, to which they there
   burnt their children, and so prepared it to be a receptacle for the
   dead bodies of their enemies, for the king of Assyria (that is, for his
   army) it is prepared, and there is fuel enough ready to burn them all;
   and they shall be consumed as suddenly and effectually as if the fire
   were kept burning by a continual stream of brimstone, for such the
   breath of the Lord, his word and his wrath, will be to it. Now as the
   prophet, in the foregoing promises, slides insensibly into the promises
   of gospel graces and comforts, so here, in the threatening of the ruin
   of Sennacherib's army, he points at the final and everlasting
   destruction of all impenitent sinners. Our Saviour calls the future
   misery of the damned Gehenna, in allusion to the valley of Hinnom,
   which gives some countenance to the applying of this to that misery, as
   also that in the Apocalypse it is so often called the lake that burns
   with fire and brimstone. This is said to be prepared of old for the
   devil and his angels, for the greatest of sinners, the proudest, and
   that think themselves not accountable to any for what they say and do;
   even for kings it is prepared. It is deep and large, sufficient to
   receive the world of the ungodly; the pile thereof is fire and much
   wood. God's wrath is the fire, and sinners make themselves fuel to it;
   and the breath of the Lord (the power of his anger) kindles it, and
   will keep it ever burning. See ch. lxvi. 24. Wherefore stand in awe and
   sin not.

   III. The great joy which this should occasion to the people of God. The
   Assyrian's fall is Jerusalem's triumph (v. 29): You shall have a song
   as in the night, a psalm of praise such as those sing who by night
   stand in the house of the Lord, and sing to his glory who gives songs
   in the night. It shall not be a song of vain mirth, but a sacred song,
   such as was sung when a holy solemnity was kept in a grave and
   religious manner. Our joy in the fall of the church's enemies must be a
   holy joy, gladness of heart, as when one goes, with a pipe (such as the
   sons of the prophets used when they prophesied, 1 Sam. x. 5), to the
   mountain of the Lord, there to celebrate the praises of the Mighty One
   of Israel. Nay, in every place where the divine vengeance shall pursue
   the Assyrians they shall not only fall unlamented, but all their
   neighbours shall attend their fall with tabrets and harps, pleased to
   see how God, in battles of shaking, such as shake them out of the
   world, fights with them (v. 32); for when the wicked perish there is
   shouting; and it is with a particular satisfaction that wise and good
   men see the ruin of those who, like the Assyrians, have insolently
   bidden defiance to God and trampled upon all mankind.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXI.

   This chapter is an abridgment of the foregoing chapter; the heads of it
   are much the same. Here is, I. A woe to those who, when the Assyrian
   army invaded them, trusted to the Egyptians, and not to God, for
   succour, ver. 1-3. II. Assurance given of the care God would take of
   Jerusalem in that time of danger and distress, ver. 4, 5. III. A call
   to repentance and reformation, ver. 6, 7. IV. A prediction of the fall
   of the Assyrian army, and the fright which the Assyrian king should
   thereby be put into, ver. 8, 9.

Confidence in Egypt Reproved. (b. c. 720.)

   1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and
   trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they
   are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither
   seek the Lord!   2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will
   not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the
   evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.   3 Now the
   Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit.
   When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall
   fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail
   together.   4 For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion
   and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds
   is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor
   abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come
   down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.   5 As birds
   flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he
   will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.

   This is the last of four chapters together that begin with woe; and
   they are all woes to the sinners that were found among the professing
   people of God, to the drunkards of Ephraim (ch. xxviii. 1), to Ariel
   (ch. xxix. 1), to the rebellious children (ch. xxx. 1), and here to
   those that go down to Egypt for help; for men's relation to the church
   will not secure them from divine woes if they live in contempt of
   divine laws. Observe,

   I. What the sin was that is here reproved, v. 1. 1. Idolizing the
   Egyptians, and making court to them, as if happy were the people that
   had the Egyptians for their friends and allies. They go down to Egypt
   for help in every exigence, as if the worshippers of false gods had a
   better interest in heaven and were more likely to have success of earth
   than the servants of the living and true God. That which invited them
   to Egypt was that the Egyptians had many chariots to accommodate them
   with, and horses and horsemen that were strong; and, if they could get
   a good body of forces thence into their service, they would think
   themselves able to deal with the king of Assyria and his numerous army.
   Their kings were forbidden to multiply horses and chariots, and were
   told of the folly of trusting to them (Ps. xx. 7); but they think
   themselves wiser than their Bible. 2. Slighting the God of Israel: They
   look not to the Holy One of Israel, as if he were not worth taking
   notice of in this distress. They advise not with him, seek not his
   favour, nor are in any care to make him their friend.

   II. The gross absurdity and folly of this sin. 1. They neglected one
   whom, if they would not hope in him, they had reason to fear. They do
   not seek the Lord, nor make their application to him, yet he also is
   wise, v. 2. They are solicitous to get the Egyptians into an alliance
   with them, because they have the reputation of a politic people; and is
   not God wise too? and would not infinite wisdom, engaged on their side,
   stand them in more stead than all the policies of Egypt? They are at
   the pains of going down to Egypt, a tedious journey, when they might
   have had better advice, and better help, by looking up to heaven, and
   would not. But, if they will not court God's wisdom to act for them,
   they shall find it act against them. He is wise, too wise for them to
   outwit, and he will bring evil upon those who thus affront him. He will
   not call back his words as men do (because they are fickle and
   foolish), but he will arise against the house of the evil-doers, this
   cabal of them that go down to Egypt; God will appear to their
   confusion, according to the word that he has spoken, and will oppose
   the help they think to bring in from the workers of iniquity. Some
   think the Egyptians made it one condition of their coming into an
   alliance with him that they should worship the gods of Egypt, and they
   consented to it, and therefore they are both called evil-doers and
   workers of iniquity. 2. They trusted to those who were unable to help
   them and would soon appear to be so, v. 3. Let them know that the
   Egyptians, whom they depend so much upon, are men and not God. As it is
   good for men to know themselves to be but men (Ps. ix. 20), so it is
   good for us to consider that those we love and trust to are but men.
   They therefore can do nothing without God, nothing against him, nothing
   in comparison with him. They are men, and therefore fickle and foolish,
   mutable and mortal, here to day and gone to morrow; they are men, and
   therefore let us not make gods of them, by making them our hope and
   confidence, and expecting that in them which is to be found in God
   only; they are not God, they cannot do that for us which God can do,
   and will, if we trust in him. Let us not then neglect him, to seek to
   them; let us not forsake the rock of ages for broken reeds, nor the
   fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. The Egyptians indeed
   have horses that are very strong; but they are flesh, and not spirit,
   and therefore, strong as they are, they may be wearied with a long
   march, and become unserviceable, or be wounded and slain in battle, and
   leave their riders to be ridden over. Every one knows this, that the
   Egyptians are not God and their horses are not spirit; but those that
   seek to them for help do not consider it, else they would not put such
   confidence in them. Sinners may be convicted of folly by the plainest
   and most self-evident truths, which they cannot deny, but will not
   believe. 3. They would certainly be ruined with the Egyptians they
   trusted in, v. 3. When the Lord does but stretch out his hand how
   easily, how effectually, will he make them ashamed of their confidence
   in Egypt, and the Egyptians ashamed of the encouragement they gave them
   to trust in them; for he that helps and he that is helped shall fall
   together, and their mutual alliance shall prove their joint ruin. The
   Egyptians were shortly to be reckoned with, as appears by the burden of
   Egypt (ch. xix.), and then those who fled to them for shelter and
   succour should fall with them; for there is no escaping the judgments
   of God. Evil pursues sinners, and it is just with God to make that
   creature a scourge to us which we make an idol of. 4. They took God's
   work out of his hands. They pretended a great deal of care to preserve
   Jerusalem, in advising to an alliance with Egypt; and, when others
   would not fall in with their measures, they pleaded self preservation,
   and went to Egypt themselves. Now the prophet here tells them that
   Jerusalem should be preserved without aid from Egypt and that those who
   tarried there should be safe when those who fled to Egypt should be
   ruined. Jerusalem was under God's protection, and therefore there was
   no occasion to put it under the protection of Egypt. But a practical
   distrust of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our sinful
   departures from him to the creature. The prophet tells them he had it
   from God's own mouth: Thus hath the Lord spoken to me. They might
   depend upon it, (1.) That God would appear against Jerusalem's enemies
   with the boldness of a lion over his prey, v. 4. When the lion comes
   out to seize his prey a multitude of shepherds come out against him;
   for it becomes neighbours to help one another when persons or goods are
   in danger. These shepherds dare not come near the lion; all they can do
   is to make a noise, and with that they think to frighten him off. But
   does he regard it? No: he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase
   himself so far as to be in the least moved by it either to quit his
   prey or to make any more haste than otherwise he would do in seizing
   it. Thus will the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, with
   such an unshaken undaunted resolution not to be moved by any
   opposition; and he will as easily and irresistibly destroy the Assyrian
   army as a lion tears a lamb in pieces. Whoever appear against God, they
   are but like a multitude of poor simple shepherds shouting at a lion,
   who scorns to take notice of them or so much as to alter his pace for
   them. Surely those that have such a protector need not go to Egypt for
   help. (2.) That God would appear for Jerusalem's friends with the
   tenderness of a bird over her young, v. 5. God was ready to gather
   Jerusalem, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings (Matt. xxiii.
   37); but those that trusted to the Egyptians would not be gathered. As
   birds flying to their nests with all possible speed, when they see them
   attacked, and fluttering about their nests with all possible concern,
   hovering over their young ones to protect them and drive away the
   assailants, with such compassion and affection will the Lord of hosts
   defend Jerusalem. As an eagle stirs up her young when they are in
   danger, takes them and bears them on her wings, so the Lord led Israel
   out of Egypt (Deut. xxxii. 11, 12); and he has now the same tender
   concern for them that he had then, so that they need not flee into
   Egypt again for shelter. Defending, he will deliver it; he will so
   defend it as to secure the continuance of its safety, not defend it for
   a while and abandon it at last, but defend it so that it shall not fall
   into the enemies' hand. I will defend this city to save it, ch. xxxvii.
   35. Passing over he will preserve it; the word for passing over is used
   in this sense only here and Exod. xii. 12, 23, 27, concerning the
   destroying angel's passing over the houses of the Israelites when he
   slew all the first-born of the Egyptians, to which story this passage
   refers. The Assyrian army was to be routed by a destroying angel, who
   should pass over Jerusalem, though that deserved to be destroyed, and
   draw his sword only against the besiegers. They shall be slain by the
   pestilence, but none of the besieged shall take the infection. Thus he
   will again pass over the houses of his people and secure them.

A Call to Repentance; Deliverance of Jerusalem. (b. c. 720.)

   6 Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply
   revolted.   7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of
   silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you
   for a sin.   8 Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a
   mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he
   shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.   9
   And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes
   shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
   and his furnace in Jerusalem.

   This explains the foregoing promise of the deliverance of Jerusalem;
   she shall be fitted for deliverance, and then it shall be wrought for
   her; for in that method God delivers.

   I. Jerusalem shall be reformed, and so she shall be delivered from her
   enemies within her walls, v. 6, 7. Here is, 1. A gracious call to
   repentance. This was the Lord's voice crying in the city, the voice of
   the rod, the voice of the sword, and the voice of the prophets
   interpreting the judgment: "Turn you, O turn you now, from your evil
   ways, unto God, return to your allegiance to him from whom the children
   of Israel have deeply revolted, from whom you, O children of Israel!
   have revolted." He reminds them of their birth and parentage, that they
   were children of Israel, and therefore under the highest obligations
   imaginable to the God of Israel, as an aggravation of their revolt from
   him and as an encouragement to them to return to him. "They have been
   backsliding children, yet children; therefore let them return, and
   their backslidings shall be healed. They have deeply revolted, with
   great address as they supposed (the revolters are profound, Hos. v. 2);
   but the issue will prove that they have revolted dangerously. The stain
   of their sins has gone deeply into their nature, not to be easily got
   out, like the blackness of the Ethiopian. They have deeply corrupted
   themselves (Hos. ix. 9); they have sunk deep into misery, and cannot
   easily recover themselves; therefore you have need to hasten your
   return to God." 2. A gracious promise of the good success of this call
   (v. 7): In that day every man shall cast away his idols, in obedience
   to Hezekiah's orders, which, till they were alarmed by the Assyrian
   invasion, many refused to do. That is a happy fright which frightens us
   from our sins. (1.) It shall be a general reformation: every man shall
   cast away his own idols, shall begin with them before he undertakes to
   demolish other people's idols, which there will be no need of when
   every man reforms himself. (2.) It shall be a thorough reformation; for
   they shall part with their idolatry, their beloved sin, with their
   idols of silver and gold, their idols that they are most fond of. Many
   make an idol of their silver and gold, and by the love of that idol are
   drawn to revolt from God; but those that turn to God cast that away out
   of their hearts and will be ready to part with it when God calls. (3.)
   It shall be a reformation upon a right principle, a principle of piety,
   not of politics. They shall cast away their idols, because they have
   been unto them for a sin, an occasion of sin; therefore they will have
   nothing to do with them, though they had been the work of their own
   hands, and upon that account they had a particular fondness for them.
   Sin is the work of our own hands, but in working it we have been
   working our own ruin, and therefore we must cast it away; and those are
   strangely wedded to it who will not be prevailed upon to cast it away
   when they see that otherwise they themselves will be castaways. Some
   make this to be only a prediction that those who trust in idols, when
   they find they stand them in no stead, will cast them away in
   indignation. But it agrees so exactly with ch. xxx. 22 that I rather
   take it as a promise of a sincere reformation.

   II. Jerusalem's besiegers shall be routed, and so she shall be
   delivered from the enemies about her walls. The former makes way for
   this. If a people return to God, they may leave it to him to plead
   their cause against their enemies. When they have cast away their
   idols, then shall the Assyrian fall, v. 8, 9. 1. The army of the
   Assyrians shall be laid dead upon the spot by the sword, not of a
   mighty man, nor of a mean man, not of any man at all, either Israelite
   or Egyptian, not forcibly by the sword of a mighty man nor
   surreptitiously by the sword of a mean man, but by the sword of an
   angel, who strikes more strongly than a mighty man and yet more
   secretly than a mean man, by the sword of the Lord, and his power and
   wrath in the hand of the angel. Thus the young men of the army shall
   melt, and be discomfited, and become tributaries to death. When God has
   work to do against the enemies of his church we expect it must be done
   by mighty men and mean men, officers and common soldiers; whereas God
   can, if he please, do it without either. He needs not armies of men who
   has legions of angels at command, Matt. xxvi. 53. 2. The king of
   Assyria shall flee for the same, shall flee from that invisible sword,
   hoping to get out of the reach of it; and he shall make the best of his
   way to his own dominions, shall pass over to some strong-hold of his
   own, for fear lest the Jews should pursue him now that his army was
   routed. Sennacherib had been very confident that he should make himself
   master of Jerusalem, and in the most insolent manner had set both God
   and Hezekiah at defiance; yet now he is made to tremble for fear of
   both. God can strike a terror into the proudest of men, and make the
   stoutest heart to tremble. See Job xviii. 11; xx. 24. His princes that
   accompany him shall be afraid of the ensign, shall be in a continual
   fright at the remembrance of the ensign in the air, which perhaps the
   destroying angel displayed before he gave the fatal bow. Or they shall
   be afraid of every ensign they see, suspecting it is a party of the
   Jews pursuing them. The banner that God displays for the encouragement
   of his people (Ps. lx. 4) will be a terror to his and their enemies.
   Thus he cuts off the spirit of princes and is terrible to the kings of
   the earth. But who will do this? It is the Lord, whose fire is in Zion
   and his furnace in Jerusalem. (1.) Whose residence is there, and who
   there keeps house, as a man does where his fire and his oven are. It is
   the city of the great King, and let not the Assyrians think to turn him
   out of the possession of his own house. (2.) Who is there a consuming
   fire to all his enemies and will make them as a fiery oven in the day
   of his wrath, Ps. xxi. 9. He is himself a wall of fire round about
   Jerusalem, so that whoever assaults her does so at his peril, Zech. ii.
   5; Rev. xi. 5. (3.) Who has his altar there, on which the holy fire is
   continually kept burning and sacrifices are daily offered to his
   honour, and with which he is well pleased; and therefore he will defend
   this city, especially having an eye to the great sacrifice which was
   there also to be offered, of which all the sacrifices were types. If we
   keep up the fire of holy love and devotion in our hearts and houses, we
   may depend upon God to be a protection to us and them.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXII.

   This chapter seems to be such a prophecy of the reign of Hezekiah as
   amounts to an abridgment of the history of it, and this with an eye to
   the kingdom of the Messiah, whose government was typified by the
   thrones of the house of David, for which reason he is so often called
   "the Son of David." Here is, I. A prophecy of that good work of
   reformation with which he should begin his reign, and the happy
   influence it should have upon the people, who had been wretchedly
   corrupted and debauched in the reign of his predecessor, ver. 1-8. II.
   A prophecy of the great disturbance that would be given to the kingdom
   in the middle of his reign by the Assyrian invasion, ver. 9-14. III. A
   promise of better times afterwards, towards the latter end of his
   reign, in respect both of piety and peace (ver. 15-20), which promise
   may be supposed to look as far forward as the days of the Messiah.

The Reign of Justice. (b. c. 726.)

   1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule
   in judgment.   2 And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind,
   and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as
   the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.   3 And the eyes of them
   that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall
   hearken.   4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and
   the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.   5 The
   vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be
   bountiful.   6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart
   will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against
   the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the
   drink of the thirsty to fail.   7 The instruments also of the churl are
   evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words,
   even when the needy speaketh right.   8 But the liberal deviseth
   liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

   We have here the description of a flourishing kingdom. "Blessed art
   thou, O land! when it is thus with thee, when kings, princes, and
   people, are in their places such as they should be." It may be taken as
   a directory both to magistrates and subjects, what both ought to do, or
   as a panegyric to Hezekiah, who ruled well and saw something of the
   happy effects of his good government, and it was designed to make the
   people sensible how happy they were under his administration and how
   careful they should be to improve the advantages of it, and withal to
   direct them to look for the kingdom of Christ, and the times of
   reformation which that kingdom should introduce. It is here promised
   and prescribed, for the comfort of the church,

   I. That magistrates should do their duty in their places, and the
   powers answer the great ends for which they were ordained of God, v. 1,
   2. 1. There shall be a king and princes that shall reign and rule; for
   it cannot go well when there is no king in Israel. The princes must
   have a king, a monarch over them as supreme, in whom they may unite;
   and the king must have princes under him as officers, by whom he may
   act, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. They both shall know their place and fill it
   up. The king shall reign, and yet, without any diminution to his just
   prerogative, the princes shall rule in a lower sphere, and all for the
   public good. 2. They shall use their power according to law, and not
   against it. They shall reign in righteousness and in judgment, with
   wisdom and equity, protecting the good and punishing the bad; and those
   kings and princes Christ owns as reigning by him who decree justice,
   Prov. viii. 15. Such a King, such a Prince, Christ himself is; he
   reigns by rule, and in righteousness will he judge the world, ch. ix.
   7; xi. 4. 3. Thus they shall be great blessings to the people (v. 2): A
   man, that man, that king that reigns in righteousness, shall be as a
   hiding-place. When princes are as they should be people are as they
   would be. (1.) They are sheltered and protected from many mischiefs.
   This good magistrate is a covert to the subject from the tempest of
   injury and violence; he defends the poor and fatherless, that they be
   not made a prey of by the mighty. Whither should oppressed innocency
   flee, when blasted by reproach or borne down by violence, but to the
   magistrate as its hiding-place? To him it appeals, and by him it is
   righted. (2.) They are refreshed and comforted with many blessings.
   This good magistrate gives such countenance to those that are poor and
   in distress, and such encouragement to every thing that is
   praiseworthy, that he is as rivers of water in a dry place, cooling and
   cherishing the earth and making it fruitful, and as the shadow of a
   great rock, under which a poor traveller may shelter himself from the
   scorching heat of the sun in a weary land. It is a great reviving to a
   good man, who makes conscience of doing his duty, in the midst of
   contempt and contradiction, at length to be backed, and favoured, and
   smiled upon in it by a good magistrate. All this, and much more, the
   man Christ Jesus is to all the willing faithful subjects of his
   kingdom. When the greatest evils befal us, not only the wind, but the
   tempest, when storms of guilt and wrath beset us and beat upon us, they
   drive us to Christ, and in him we are not only safe, but satisfied that
   we are so; in him we find rivers of water for those that hunger and
   thirst after righteousness, all the refreshment and comfort that a
   needy soul can desire, and the shadow, not of a tree, which sun or rain
   may beat through, but of a rock, of a great rock, which reaches a great
   way for the shelter of the traveller. Some observe here that as the
   covert, and the hiding-place, and the rock, do themselves receive the
   battering of the wind and storm, to save those from it that take
   shelter in them, so Christ bore the storm himself to keep it off from
   us.

   II. That subjects should do their duty in their places.

   1. They shall be willing to be taught, and to understand things aright.
   They shall lay aside their prejudices against their rulers and
   teachers, and submit to the light and power of truth, v. 3. When this
   blessed work of reformation is set on foot, and men do their parts
   towards it, God will not be wanting to do his: Then the eyes of those
   that see, of the prophets, the seers, shall not be dim; but God will
   bless them with visions, to be by them communicated to the people; and
   those that read the word written shall no longer have a veil upon their
   hearts, but shall see things clearly. Then the ears of those that hear
   the word preached shall hearken diligently and readily receive what
   they hear, and not be so dull of hearing as they have been. This shall
   be done by the grace of God, especially gospel-grace; for the hearing
   ear, and the seeing eyes, the Lord has made, has new-made, even both of
   them.

   2. There shall be a wonderful change wrought in them by that which is
   taught them, v. 4. (1.) They shall have a clear head, and be able to
   discern things that differ, and distinguish concerning them. The heart
   of those that were hasty and rash, and could not take time to digest
   and consider things, shall now be cured of their precipitation, and
   shall understand knowledge; for the Spirit of God will open their
   understanding. This blessed work Christ wrought in his disciples after
   his resurrection (Luke xxiv. 45), as a specimen of what he would do for
   all his people, in giving them an understanding, 1 John v. 20. The
   pious designs of good princes are likely to take effect when their
   subjects allow themselves liberty to consider, and to think, so freely
   as to take things right. (2.) They shall have a ready utterance: The
   tongue of the stammerers, that used to blunder whenever they spoke of
   the things of God, shall now be ready to speak plainly, as those that
   understand what they speak of, that believe, and therefore speak. There
   shall be a great increase of such clear, distinct, and methodical
   knowledge in the things of God, that those from whom one would not have
   expected it shall speak intelligently of these things, very much to the
   honour of God and the edification of others. Their hearts being full of
   this good matter, their tongues shall be as the pen of a ready writer,
   Ps. xlv. 1.

   3. The differences between good and evil, virtue and vice, shall be
   kept up, and no more confounded by those who put darkness for light and
   light for darkness (v. 5): The vile shall no more be called liberal.

   (1.) Bad men shall no more be preferred by the prince. When a king
   reigns in justice he will not put those in places of honour and power
   that are ill-natured, and of base and sordid spirits, and care not what
   injury or mischief they do so they may but compass their own ends. Such
   as vile persons (as Antiochus is called, Dan. xi. 21); when they are
   advanced they are called liberal and bountiful; they are called
   benefactors (Luke xxii. 25): but it shall not always be thus; when the
   world grows wiser men shall be preferred according to their merit, and
   honour (which was never thought seemly for a fool, Prov. xxvi. 1) shall
   no longer be thrown away upon such.

   (2.) Bad men shall be no more had in reputation among the people, nor
   vice disguised with the colours of virtue. It shall no more be said to
   Nabal, Thou art Nadib (so the words are); such a covetous muck-worm as
   Nabal was, a fool but for his money, shall not be complimented with the
   title of a gentleman or a prince; nor shall they call a churl, that
   minds none but himself, does no good with what he has, but is an
   unprofitable burden of the earth, My lord; or, rather, they shall not
   say of him, He is rich; for so the word signifies. Those only are to be
   reckoned rich that are rich in good works; not those that have
   abundance, but those that use it well. In short, it is well with a
   people when men are generally valued by their virtue, and usefulness,
   and beneficence to mankind, and not by their wealth or titles of
   honour. Whether this was fulfilled in the reign of Hezekiah, and how
   far it refers to the kingdom of Christ (in which we are sure men are
   judged of by what they are, not by what they have, nor is any man's
   character mistaken), we will not say; but it prescribes an excellent
   rule both to prince and people, to respect men according to their
   personal merit. To enforce this rule, here is a description both of the
   vile person and of the liberal; and by it we shall see such a vast
   difference between them that we must quite forget ourselves if we pay
   that respect to the vile person and the churl which is due only to the
   liberal.

   [1.] A vile person and a churl will do mischief, and the more if he be
   preferred and have power in his hand; his honours will make him worse
   and not better, v. 6, 7. See the character of these base
   ill-conditioned men. First, They are always plotting some unjust thing
   or other, designing ill either to particular persons or to the public,
   and contriving how to bring it about; and so many silly piques they
   have to gratify, and mean revenges, that there appears not in them the
   least spark of generosity. Their hearts will be still working some
   iniquity or other. Observe, There is the work of the heart, as well as
   the work of the hands. As thoughts are words to God, so designs are
   works in his account. See what pains sinners take in sin. They labour
   at it; their hearts are intent upon it, and with a great deal of art
   and application they work iniquity. They devise wicked devices with all
   the subtlety of the old serpent and a great deal of deliberation, which
   makes the sin exceedingly sinful; and the more there is of plot and
   management in a sin the more there is of Satan in it. Secondly, They
   carry on their plots by trick and dissimulation. When they are
   meditating iniquity, they practise hypocrisy, feign themselves just
   men, Luke xx. 20. The most abominable mischiefs shall be disguised with
   the most plausible pretences of devotion to God, regard to man, and
   concern for some common good. Those are the vilest of men that intend
   the worst mischiefs when they speak fair. Thirdly, They speak villainy.
   When they are in a passion you will see what they are by the base ill
   language they give to those about them, which no way becomes men of
   rank and honour; or, in giving verdict or judgment, they villainously
   put false colours upon things, to pervert justice. Fourthly, They
   affront God, who is a righteous God and loves righteousness: They utter
   error against the Lord, and therein they practise profaneness; for so
   the word which we translate hypocrisy signifies. They give an unjust
   sentence, and then profanely make use of the name of God for the
   ratification of it; as if, because the judgment is God's (Deut. i. 17),
   therefore their false and unjust judgment was his. This is uttering
   error against the Lord, under pretence of uttering truth and justice
   for him; and nothing can be more impudently done against God than to
   use his name to patronise wickedness. Fifthly, They abuse mankind,
   those particularly whom they are bound to protect and relieve. 1.
   Instead of supplying the wants of the poor, they impoverish them, they
   make empty the souls of the hungry; either taking away the food they
   have, or, which is almost equivalent, denying the supply which they
   want and which they have to give. And they cause the drink of the
   thirsty to fail; they cut off the relief they used to have, though they
   need it as much as ever. Those are vile persons indeed that rob the
   spital. 2. Instead of righting the poor, when they appeal to their
   judgment, they contrive to destroy the poor, to ruin them in their
   courts of judicature with lying words in favour of the rich, to whom
   they are plainly partial; yea, though the needy speak right, though the
   evidence be ever so full for them to make out the equity of their
   cause, it is the bribe that governs them, not the right. Sixthly, These
   churls and vile persons have always had instruments about them, that
   are ready to serve their villainous purposes: All their servants are
   wicked. There is no design so palpably unjust but there may be found
   those that would be employed as tools to put it in execution. The
   instruments of the churl are evil, and one cannot expect otherwise; but
   this is our comfort, that they can do no more mischief than God permits
   them.

   [2.] One that is truly liberal, and deserves the honour of being called
   so, makes it his business to do good to every body according as his
   sphere is, v. 8. Observe, First, The care he takes, and the
   contrivances he has, to do good. He devises liberal things. As much as
   the churl or niggard projects how to save and lay up what he has for
   himself only, so much the good charitable man projects how to use and
   lay out what he has in the best manner for the good of others. Charity
   must be directed by wisdom, and liberal things done prudently and with
   device, that the good intention of them may be answered, that it may
   not be charity misplaced. The liberal man, when he has done all the
   liberal things that are in his own power, devises liberal things for
   others to do according to their power, and puts them upon doing them.
   Secondly, the comfort he takes, and the advantage he has, in doing
   good: By liberal things he shall stand, or be established. The
   providence of God will reward him for his liberality with a settled
   prosperity and an established reputation. The grace of God will give
   him abundance of satisfaction and confirmed peace in his own bosom.
   What disquiets others shall not disturb him; his heart is fixed. This
   is the recompence of charity, Ps. cxii. 5, 6. Some read it, The prince,
   or honourable man, will take honourable courses; and by such honourable
   or ingenuous courses he shall stand or be established. It is well with
   a land when the honourable of it are indeed men of honour and scorn to
   do a base thing, when its king is thus the son of nobles.

Joyful Prospects. (b. c. 726.)

   9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless
   daughters; give ear unto my speech.   10 Many days and years shall ye
   be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the
   gathering shall not come.   11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be
   troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird
   sackcloth upon your loins.   12 They shall lament for the teats, for
   the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.   13 Upon the land of my
   people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy
   in the joyous city:   14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the
   multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for
   dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;   15 Until the
   spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful
   field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.   16 Then
   judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the
   fruitful field.   17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and
   the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.   18 And
   my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings,
   and in quiet resting places;   19 When it shall hail, coming down on
   the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.   20 Blessed are
   ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the
   ox and the ass.

   In these verses we have God rising up to judgment against the vile
   persons, to punish them for their villainy; but at length returning in
   mercy to the liberal, to reward them for their liberality.

   I. When there was so great a corruption of manners, and so much
   provocation given to the holy God, bad times might well be expected,
   and here is a warning given of such times coming. The alarm is sounded
   to the women that were at ease (v. 9) and the careless daughters, to
   feed whose pride, vanity, and luxury, their husbands and fathers were
   tempted to starve the poor. Let them hear what the prophet has to say
   to them in God's name: "Rise up, and hear with reverence and
   attention."

   1. Let them know that God was about to bring wasting desolating
   judgments upon the land in which they lived in pleasure and were
   wanton. This seems to refer primarily to the desolations made by
   Sennacherib's army when he seized all the fenced cities of Judah: but
   then those words, many days and years, must be rendered (as the margin
   reads them) days above a year, that is, something above a year shall
   this havock be in the making: so long it was from the first entrance of
   that army into the land of Judah to the overthrow of it. But it is
   applicable to the wretched disappointment which those will certainly
   meet with, first or last, that set their hearts upon the world and
   place their happiness in it: You shall be troubled, you careless women.
   It will not secure us from trouble to cast away care when we are at
   ease; nay, to those who affect to live carelessly even little troubles
   will be great vexations and press hard upon them. They were careless
   and at ease because they had money enough and mirth enough; but the
   prophet here tells them, (1.) That the country whence they had their
   tents and dainties should shortly be laid waste: "The vintage shall
   fail; and then what will you do for wine to make merry with? The
   gathering of fruit shall not come, for there shall be none to be
   gathered, and you will find the want of them, v. 10. You will want the
   teats, the good milk from the cows, the pleasant fields and their
   productions:" the useful fields that are serviceable to human life are
   the pleasant ones. "You will want the fruitful vine, and the grapes it
   used to yield you." The abuse of plenty is justly punished with
   scarcity; and those deserve to be deprived of the supports of life who
   make them the food and fuel of lust and prepare them for Baal. (2.)
   That the cities too, the cities of Judah, where they lived at ease,
   spent their rents, and made themselves merry with their dainties,
   should be laid waste (v. 13, 14): Briers and thorns, the fruits of sin
   and the curse, shall come up, not only upon the land of my people,
   which shall lie uncultivated, but upon all the houses of joy--the
   play-houses, the gaming-houses, the taverns--in the joyous cities. When
   a foreign army was ravaging the country the houses of joy, no doubt,
   became houses of mourning; then the palaces, or noblemen's houses, were
   forsaken by their owners, who perhaps fled to Egypt for refuge; the
   multitude of the city were left by their leaders to shift for
   themselves. Then the stately houses shall be for dens for ever, which
   had been as forts and towers for strength and magnificence. They shall
   be abandoned; the owners shall never return to them; every body shall
   look upon them to be like Jericho, an anathema; so that, even when
   peace returns, they shall not be rebuilt, but shall be thrown to the
   waste: A joy of wild asses and a pasture of flocks. Thus is many a
   house brought to ruin by sin. Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit--Corn grows
   on the site of Troy.

   2. In the foresight of this let them tremble and be troubled, strip
   themselves, and gird sackcloth upon their loins, v. 11. This intimates
   not only that when the calamity comes they shall thus be made to
   tremble and be forced to strip themselves, that then God's judgments
   would strip them and make them bare, but, (1.) That the best prevention
   of the trouble would be to repent and humble themselves for their sin,
   and lie in the dust before God in true remorse and godly sorrow, which
   would be the lengthening out of their tranquillity. This is meeting God
   in the way of his judgments, and saving a correction by correcting our
   own mistakes. Those only shall break that will not bend. (2.) That the
   best preparation for the trouble would be to deny themselves and live a
   life of mortification, and to sit loose to all the delights of sense.
   Those that have already by a holy contempt of this world stripped
   themselves can easily bear to be stripped when trouble and death come.

   II. While there was still a remnant that kept their integrity they had
   reason to hope for good times at length and such times the prophet here
   gives them a pleasant prospect of. Such times they saw in the latter
   end of the reign of Hezekiah; but the prophecy may well be supposed to
   look further, to the days of the Messiah, who is King of righteousness
   and King of peace, and to whom all the prophets bear witness. Now
   observe,

   1. How those blessed times shall be introduced-by the pouring out of
   the Spirit from on high (v. 15), which speaks not only of the good-will
   of God towards us, but the good work of God in us; for then, and not
   till then, there will be good times, when God by his grace gives men
   good hearts; and therefore God's giving his Holy Spirit to those that
   ask him is in effect his giving them all good things, as appears by
   comparing Luke xi. 13 with Matt. vii. 11. This is the great thing that
   God's people comfort themselves with the hopes of, that the Spirit
   shall be poured out upon them, that there shall be a more plentiful
   effusion of the Spirit of grace than formerly, according as the
   necessity of the church, in its desolate estate, calls for. This comes
   from on high, and therefore they look up to their Father in heaven for
   it. When God designs favours for his church he pours out his Spirit,
   both to prepare his people to receive his favours and to qualify and
   give success to those whom he designs to employ as instruments of his
   favour; for their endeavours to repair the desolations of the church
   are all fruitless until the Spirit be poured out upon them and then the
   work is done suddenly. The kingdom of the Messiah was brought in, and
   set up, by the pouring out of the Spirit (Acts ii.), and so it is still
   kept up, and will be to the end.

   2. What a wonderfully happy change shall then be made. That which was a
   wilderness, dry and barren, shall become a fruitful field, and that
   which we now reckon a fruitful field, in comparison with what it shall
   be then, shall be counted for a forest. Then shall the earth yield her
   increase. It is promised that in the days of the Messiah the fruit of
   the earth shall shake like Lebanon, Ps. lxxii. 16. Some apply this to
   the admission of the Gentiles into the gospel church (which made the
   wilderness a fruitful field), and the rejection and exclusion of the
   Jews, which made that a forest which had been a fruitful field. On the
   Gentiles was poured out a spirit of life, but on the Jews a spirit of
   slumber. See what is the evidence and effect of the pouring out of the
   Spirit upon any soul; it is thereby made fruitful, and has its fruit
   unto holiness. Three things go to make these times happy:--

   (1.) Judgment and righteousness, v. 16. When the Spirit is poured out
   upon a land, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and turn it
   into a fruitful field, and righteousness shall remain in the fruitful
   field and make it yet more fruitful. Ministers shall expound the law
   and magistrates execute it, and both so judiciously and faithfully that
   by both the bad shall be made good and the good made better. Among all
   sorts of people, the poor and low and unlearned, that are neglected as
   the wilderness, and the rich and great and learned, that are valued as
   the fruitful field, there shall be right thoughts of things, good
   principles commanding, and conscience made of good and evil, sin and
   duty. Or in all parts of the land, both champaign and enclosed, country
   and city, the ruder parts and those that are more cultivated and
   refined, justice shall be duly administered. The law of Christ
   introduces a judgment or rule by which we must be governed, and the
   gospel of Christ a righteousness by which we must be saved; and,
   wherever the Spirit is poured out, both these dwell and remain as an
   everlasting righteousness.

   (2.) Peace and quietness, v. 17, 18. The peace here promised is of two
   kinds:--

   [1.] Inward peace, v. 17. This follows upon the indwelling of
   righteousness, v. 16. Those in whom that work is wrought shall
   experience this blessed product of it. It is itself peace, and the
   effect of it is quietness and assurance for ever, that is, a holy
   serenity and security of mind, by which the soul enjoys itself and
   enjoys its God, and it is not in the power of this world to disturb it
   in those enjoyments. Note, Peace, and quietness, and everlasting
   assurance may be expected, and shall be found, in the way and work of
   righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion,
   and there it is to be had without fail. Those are the quiet and
   peaceable lives that are spent in all godliness and honesty, 1 Tim. ii.
   2. First, Even the work of righteousness shall be peace. In the doing
   of our duty we shall find abundance of true pleasure, a present great
   reward of obedience in obedience. Though the work of righteousness may
   be toilsome and costly, and expose us to contempt, yet it is peace,
   such peace as is sufficient to bear our charges. Secondly, The effect
   of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance, not only to the end
   of time, of our time, and in the end, but to the endless ages of
   eternity. Real holiness is real happiness now and shall be perfect
   happiness, that is, perfect holiness, for ever.

   [2.] Outward peace, v. 18. It is a great mercy when those who by the
   grace of God have quiet and peaceable spirits are by the providence of
   God made to dwell in quiet and peaceable habitations, not disturbed in
   their houses or solemn assemblies. When the terror of Sennacherib's
   invasion was over, the people, no doubt, were more sensible than ever
   of the mercy of a quiet habitation, not disturbed with the alarms of
   war. Let every family study to keep itself quiet from strifes and jars
   within, not two against three and three against two in the house, and
   then put itself under God's protection to dwell safely, and to be quiet
   from the fear of evil without. Jerusalem shall be a peaceable
   habitation; compare ch. xxxiii. 20. Even when it shall hail, and there
   shall be a violent battering storm coming down on the forest that lies
   bleak, then shall Jerusalem be a quiet resting-place, for the city
   shall be low in a low place, under the wind, not exposed (as those
   cities are that stand high) to the fury of the storm, but sheltered by
   the mountains that are round about Jerusalem, Ps. cxxv. 2. The high
   forts and towers are brought down (v. 14), but the city that lies low
   shall be a quiet resting-place. Those are most safe, and may dwell most
   at ease, that are humble, and are willing to dwell low, v. 19. Those
   that would dwell in a peaceable habitation must be willing to dwell
   low, and in a low place. Some think here is an allusion to the
   preservation of the land of Goshen from the plague of hail, which made
   great destruction in the land of Egypt.

   (3.) Plenty and abundance. There shall be such good crops gathered in
   every where, and every year, that the husbandmen shall be commended,
   and though happy, who sow beside all water (v. 20), who sow all the
   grounds that are fit for seedness, who cast their bread, or bread-corn,
   upon the water, Eccl. xi. 1. God will give the increase, but then the
   husbandman must be industrious, and mind his business, and sow beside
   all waters; and, if he do this, the corn shall come up so thick and
   rank that he shall turn in his cattle, even the ox and the ass, to eat
   the tops of it and keep it under. This is applicable, [1.] To the
   preaching of the word. Some think it points at the ministry of the
   apostles, who, as husbandmen, went forth to sow their seed (Matt. xiii.
   3); they sowed beside all waters; they preached the gospel wherever
   they came. Waters signify people, and they preached to multitudes.
   Wherever they found men's hearts softened, and moistened, and disposed
   to receive the word, they cast in the good seed. And whereas, by the
   law of Moses, the Jews were forbidden to plough with an ox and an ass
   together (Deut. xxii. 10), which intimated that Jews and Gentiles
   should not intermix, now that distinction shall be taken away, and both
   the ox and the ass, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be employed in, and
   enjoy the benefit of, the gospel husbandry. [2.] To works of charity.
   When God sends these happy times blessed are those that improve them in
   doing good with what they have, that sow beside all waters, that
   embrace all opportunities of relieving the necessitous; for in due
   season they shall reap.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIII.

   This chapter relates to the same events as the foregoing chapter, the
   distress of Judah and Jerusalem by Sennacherib's invasion and their
   deliverance out of that distress by the destruction of the Assyrian
   army. These are intermixed in the prophecy, in the way of a Pindaric.
   Observe, I. The great distress that Judah and Jerusalem should then be
   brought into, ver. 7-9. II. The particular frights which the sinners in
   Zion should then be in, ver. 13, 14. III. The prayers of good people to
   God in this distress, ver. 2. IV. The holy security which they should
   enjoy in the midst of this trouble, ver. 15, 16. V. The destruction of
   the army of the Assyrians (ver. 1-3), in which God would be greatly
   glorified, ver. 5, 10-12. VI. The enriching of the Jews with the spoil
   of the Assyrian camp, ver. 4, 23, 24. VII. The happy settlement of
   Jerusalem, and the Jewish state, upon this. Religion shall be uppermost
   (ver. 6), and their civil state shall flourish, ver. 17-22. This was
   soon fulfilled, but is written for our learning.

Assyria Threatened. (b. c. 710.)

   1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest
   treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou
   shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make
   an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
     2 O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their
   arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.   3 At
   the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself
   the nations were scattered.   4 And your spoil shall be gathered like
   the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts
   shall he run upon them.   5 The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on
   high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.   6 And
   wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength
   of salvation: the fear of the Lord is his treasure.   7 Behold, their
   valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep
   bitterly.   8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he
   hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no
   man.   9 The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and
   hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off
   their fruits.   10 Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be
   exalted; now will I lift up myself.   11 Ye shall conceive chaff, ye
   shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.   12
   And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall
   they be burned in the fire.

   Here we have,

   I. The proud and false Assyrian justly reckoned with for all his fraud
   and violence, and laid under a woe, v. 1. Observe, 1. The sin which the
   enemy had been guilty of. He had spoiled the people of God, and made a
   prey of them, and herein had broken his treaty of peace with them, and
   dealt treacherously. Truth and mercy are two such sacred things, and
   have so much of God in them, that those cannot but be under the wrath
   of God that make conscience of neither, but are perfectly lost to both,
   that care not what mischief they do, what spoil they make, what
   dissimulations they are guilty of, nor what solemn engagements they
   violate, to compass their own wicked designs. Bloody and deceitful men
   are the worst of men. 2. The aggravation of this sin. He spoiled those
   that had never done him any injury and that he had no pretence to
   quarrel with, and dealt treacherously with those that had always dealt
   faithfully with him. Note, The less provocation we have from men to do
   a wrong thing the more provocation we give to God by doing it. 3. The
   punishment he should fall under for this sin. He that spoiled the
   cities of Judah shall have his own army destroyed by an angel and his
   camp plundered by those whom he had made a prey of. The Chaldeans shall
   deal treacherously with the Assyrians and revolt from them. Two of
   Sennacherib's own sons shall deal treacherously with him and basely
   murder him at his devotions. Note, The righteous God often pays sinners
   in their own coin. He that leads into captivity shall go into
   captivity, Rev. xiii. 10; xviii. 6. 4. The time when he shall be thus
   dealt with. When he shall make an end to spoil, and to deal
   treacherously, not by repentance and reformation, which might prevent
   his ruin (Dan. iv. 27), but when he shall have done his worst, when he
   shall have gone as far as God would permit him to go, to the utmost of
   his tether, then the cup of trembling shall be put into his hand. When
   he shall have arrived at his full stature in impiety, shall have filled
   up the measure of his iniquity, then all shall be called over again.
   When he has done God will begin, for his day is coming.

   II. The praying people of God earnest at the throne of grace for mercy
   for the land now in its distress (v. 2): "O Lord! be merciful to us.
   Men are cruel; be thou gracious. We have deserved thy wrath, but we
   entreat thy favour; and, if we may find the propitious to us, we are
   happy; the trouble we are in cannot hurt us, shall not ruin us. It is
   in vain to expect relief from creatures; we have no confidence in the
   Egyptians, but we have waited for thee only, resolving to submit to
   thee, whatever the issue of the trouble be, and hoping that it shall be
   a comfortable issue." Those that by faith humbly wait for God shall
   certainly find him gracious to them. They prayed, 1. For those that
   were employed in military services for them: "Be thou their arm every
   morning. Hezekiah, and his princes, and all the men of war, need
   continual supplies of strength and courage from thee; supply their need
   therefore, and be to them a God all-sufficient. Every morning, when
   they go forth upon the business of the day, and perhaps have new work
   to do and new difficulties to encounter, let them be afresh animated
   and invigorated, and, as the day, so let the strength be." In our
   spiritual warfare our own hands are not sufficient for us, nor can we
   bring any thing to pass unless God not only strengthen our arms (Gen.
   xlix. 24), but be himself our arm; so entirely do we depend upon him as
   our arm every morning, so constantly do we depend upon his power, as
   well as his compassions, which are new every morning, Lam. iii. 23. If
   God leaves us to ourselves any morning, we are undone; we must
   therefore every morning commit ourselves to him, and go forth in his
   strength to do the work of the day in its day. 2. For the body of the
   people: "Be thou our salvation also in the time of trouble, ours who
   sit still, and do not venture into the high places of the field." They
   depend upon God not only as their Saviour, to work deliverance for
   them, but as their salvation itself; for, whatever becomes of their
   secular interests, they will reckon themselves safe and saved if they
   have him for their God. If he undertake to be their Saviour, he will be
   their salvation; for as for God his work is perfect. Some read it thus:
   "Thou who wast their arm every morning, who wast the continual strength
   and help of our fathers before us, be thou our salvation also in time
   of trouble. Help us as thou helpedst them; they looked unto thee and
   were lightened (Ps. xxxiv. 5); let us then not walk in darkness."

   III. The Assyrian army ruined and their camp made a rich but cheap and
   easy prey to Judah and Jerusalem. No sooner is the prayer made (v. 2)
   than it is answered (v. 3), nay, it is outdone. They prayed that God
   would save them from their enemies; but he did more than that; he gave
   them victory over their enemies and abundant cause to triumph; for, 1.
   The strength of the Assyrian camp was broken (v. 3) when the destroying
   angel slew so many thousands of them: At the noise of the tumult, of
   the shrieks of the dying men (who, we may suppose, did not die
   silently), the rest of the people fled, and shifted every one for his
   own safety. When God did thus lift up himself the several nations, or
   clans, of which the army was composed, were scattered. It was time to
   stir when such an unprecedented plague broke out among them. When God
   arises his enemies are scattered, Ps. lxviii. 1. 2. The spoil of the
   Assyrian camp is seized, by way of reprisal, for all the desolations of
   the defenced cities of Judah (v. 4): Your spoil shall be gathered by
   the inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the gathering of the caterpillar,
   and as the running to and fro of locusts, that is, the spoilers shall
   as easily and as quickly make themselves masters of the riches of the
   Assyrians as a host of caterpillars, or locusts, make a field, or a
   tree, bare. Thus the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just and
   Israel is enriched with the spoil of the Egyptians. Some make the
   Assyrians to be the caterpillars and locusts, which, when they are
   killed, are gathered together in heaps, as the frogs of Egypt, and are
   run upon, and trodden to dirt.

   IV. God and his Israel glorified and exalted hereby. When the spoil of
   the enemy is thus gathered, 1. God will have the praise of it (v. 5):
   The Lord is exalted. It is his honour thus to abase proud men, and hide
   them in the dust, together; thus he magnifies his own name, and his
   people give him the glory of it, as Israel when the Egyptians were
   drowned, Exod. xv. 1, 2, &c. He is exalted as one that dwells on high,
   out of the reach of their blasphemies, and that has an over-ruling
   power over them, and wherein they deal proudly delights to show himself
   above them-that does what he will, and they cannot resist him. 2. His
   people will have the blessing of it. When God lifts up himself to
   scatter the nations that are in confederacy against Jerusalem (v. 3)
   then, as a preparative for that, or as the fruit and product of it, he
   has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, not only with a sense
   of justice, but with a zeal for it and a universal care that it be duly
   administered. It shall again be called, The city of righteousness, ch.
   i. 26. In this the grace of God is exalted, as much as his providence
   was in the destruction of the Assyrian army. We may conclude God has
   mercy in store for a people when he fills them with judgment and
   righteousness, when all sorts of people, and all their actions and
   affairs, are governed by them, and they are so full of them that no
   other considerations can crowd in to sway them against these. Hezekiah
   and his people are encouraged (v. 6) with an assurance that God would
   stand by them in their distress. Here is, (1.) A gracious promise of
   God for them to stay themselves upon: Wisdom and knowledge shall be the
   stability of thy times, and strength of salvation. Here is a desirable
   end proposed, and that is the stability of our times, that things be
   not disturbed and unhinged at home, and the strength of salvation,
   deliverance from, and success against, enemies abroad. The salvation
   that God ordains for his people has strength in it; it is a horn of
   salvation. And here are the way and means for obtaining this
   end--wisdom and knowledge, not only piety, but prudence. That is it
   which, by the blessing of God, will be the stability of our times and
   the strength of salvation, that wisdom which is first pure, then
   peaceable, and which sacrifices private interests to a public good;
   such prudence as this will establish truth and peace, and fortify the
   bulwarks in defence of them. (2.) A pious maxim of state for Hezekiah
   and his people to govern themselves by: The fear of the Lord is his
   treasure. It is God's treasure in the world, from which he receives his
   tribute; or, rather, it is the prince's treasure. A good prince
   accounts it so (that wisdom is better than gold) and he shall find it
   so. Note, True religion is the true treasure of any prince or people;
   it denominates them rich. Those places that have plenty of Bibles, and
   ministers, and serious good people, are really rich; and it contributes
   to that which makes a nation rich in this world. It is therefore the
   interest of a people to support religion among them and to take heed of
   every thing that threatens to hinder it.

   V. The great distress that Jerusalem was brought into described, that
   those who believed the prophet might know beforehand what troubles were
   coming and might provide accordingly, and that when the foregoing
   promise of their deliverance should have its accomplishment the
   remembrance of the extremity of their case might help to magnify God in
   it and make them the more thankful, v. 7-9. It is here foretold, 1.
   That the enemy would be very insolent and abusive and there would be no
   dealing with him, either by treaties of peace (for he has broken the
   covenant without any hesitation, as if it were below him to be a
   servant to his word), or by the preparations of war, for he has
   despised the cities; he scorns to take notice either of their appeals
   to justice or of their petitions for mercy. He makes himself master of
   them so easily (though they are called fenced cities), and meets with
   so little resistance, that he despises them, and has no relentings when
   he puts all to the sword; for he regards no man, has no pity or
   concern, no, not for those that he is under particular obligations to.
   He neither fears God nor regards man, but is haughty and imperious to
   every one. There are those that take a pride in trampling upon all
   mankind, and have neither veneration for the honourable nor compassion
   for the miserable. 2. That therefore he would not be brought to any
   terms of reconciliation: The valiant ones of Jerusalem, being unable to
   make their parts good with him, must be contentedly run down with noise
   and insolence, which will make them cry without, because they cannot
   serve their country as they might have done against a fair adversary.
   The ambassadors sent by Hezekiah to treat of peace, finding him so
   haughty and unmanageable, shall weep bitterly for vexation at the
   disappointment they had met with in their negotiations; they shall weep
   like children, as despairing to find out any expedient to pacify him.
   3. That the country should be made quite desolate for a time by his
   army. (1.) No man durst travel the roads; so that a stop was put to
   trade and commerce, and (which was worse) no man could safely go up to
   Jerusalem, to keep the solemn feasts: The highways lie waste. While the
   fields lie waste, trodden like the highways, the highways lie waste,
   untrodden like the fields, for the traveller ceases. (2.) No man had
   any profit from the grounds, v. 9. The earth used to rejoice in its own
   productions for the service of God's Israel, but now the enemies of
   Israel eat them up, or tread them down: it mourns and languishes; the
   country looks melancholy and the country people have misery in their
   countenances, wanting necessary food for themselves and their families;
   the wonted joy of harvest is turned into lamentation, so withering and
   uncertain are all worldly joys. The desolation is universal. That part
   of the country which belonged to the ten tribes was already laid waste:
   "Lebanon famed for cedars, Sharon for roses, Bashan for cattle, Carmel
   for corn, all very fruitful, have now become like wildernesses, are
   ashamed to be called by their old names, they are so unlike what they
   were. They shake off their fruits before their time into the hand of
   the spoiler, which used to be gathered seasonably by the hand of the
   owner."

   VI. God appearing, at length, in his glory against his proud invader,
   v. 10-12. When things are brought thus to the last extremity, 1. God
   will magnify himself. He had seemed to sit by as an unconcerned
   spectator: "But now will I arise, saith the Lord; now will I appear and
   act, and therein I will be not only evidenced, but exalted." He will
   not only demonstrate that there is a God that judges in the earth, but
   that he is God over all, and higher than the highest. "Now will I lift
   up myself, will prepare for action, will act vigorously, and will be
   glorified in it." God's time to appear for his people is when their
   affairs are reduced to the lowest ebb, when their strength is gone and
   there is none shut up nor left, Deut. xxxii. 36. When all other helpers
   fail, then is God's time to help. 2. He will bring down the Assyrian:
   "You, O Assyrians! are big with hopes that you shall have all the
   wealth of Jerusalem for your own, and are in pain till it be so; but
   all your hopes shall come to nothing: You shall conceive chaff, and
   bring forth stubble, which is not only worthless and good for nothing,
   but combustible and proper fuel for the fire, which it cannot escape,
   when your own breath as fire shall devour you, that is, the breath of
   God's wrath, provoked against you by the breath of your sins--your
   malignant breath, the threatenings and slaughter you breathe out
   against the people of God, this shall devour you, and your blasphemous
   breath against God and his name." God would make their own tongues to
   fall upon them, and their own breath to blow the fire that should
   consume them; and then no wonder that the people are as the burnings of
   lime in a lime-kiln, all on fire together, and as thorns cut up, which
   are dried and withered, and therefore easily take fire and are soon
   burnt up. Such was the destruction of the Assyrian army; it was like
   the burning up of thorns, which can well be spared, or the burning of
   lime, which makes it good for something. The burning of that army
   enlightened the world with the knowledge of God's power and made his
   name shine brightly.

The Forebodings of Hypocrites; Encouragement to God's People. (b. c. 710.)

   13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near,
   acknowledge my might.   14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness
   hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the
   devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
   15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that
   despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding
   of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth
   his eyes from seeing evil;   16 He shall dwell on high: his place of
   defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his
   waters shall be sure.   17 Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty:
   they shall behold the land that is very far off.   18 Thine heart shall
   meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is
   he that counted the towers?   19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a
   people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering
   tongue, that thou canst not understand.   20 Look upon Zion, the city
   of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation,
   a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes
   thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof
   be broken.   21 But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of
   broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither
   shall gallant ship pass thereby.   22 For the Lord is our judge, the
   Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.   23 Thy
   tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they
   could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided;
   the lame take the prey.   24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am
   sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

   Here is a preface that commands attention; and it is fit that all
   should attend, both near and afar off, to what God says and does (v.
   13): Hear, you that are afar off, whether in place or time. Let distant
   regions and future ages hear what God has done. They do so; they will
   do so from the scripture, with as much assurance as those that were
   near, the neighbouring nations and those that lived at that time. But
   whoever hears what God has done, whether near or afar off, let them
   acknowledge his might, that it is irresistible, and that he can do
   every thing. Those are very stupid who hear what God has done and yet
   will not acknowledge his might. Now what is it that God has done which
   we must take notice of, and in which we must acknowledge his might?

   I. He has struck a terror upon the sinners in Zion (v. 14): Fearfulness
   has surprised the hypocrites. There are sinners in Zion, hypocrites,
   that enjoy Zion's privileges and concur in Zion's services, but their
   hearts are not right in the sight of God; they keep up secret haunts of
   sin under the cloak of a visible profession, which convicts them of
   hypocrisy. Sinners in Zion will have a great deal to answer for above
   other sinners; and their place in Zion will be so far from being their
   security that it will aggravate both their sin and their punishment.
   Now those sinners in Zion, though always subject to secret frights and
   terrors, were struck with a more than ordinary consternation from the
   convictions of their own consciences. 1. When they saw the Assyrian
   army besieging Jerusalem, and ready to set fire to it and lay it in
   ashes, and burn the wasps in the nest. Finding they could not make
   their escape to Egypt, as some had done, and distrusting the promises
   God had made by his prophets that he would deliver them, they were at
   their wits' end, and ran about like men distracted, crying, "Who among
   us shall dwell with devouring fire? Let us therefore abandon the city,
   and shift for ourselves elsewhere; one had as good live in everlasting
   burnings as live here." Who will stand up for us against this devouring
   fire? so some read it. See here how the sinners in Zion are affected
   when the judgments of God are abroad; while they were only threatened
   they slighted them and made nothing of them; but, when they come to be
   executed, they run into the other extreme, then they magnify them, and
   make the worst of them; they call them devouring fire and everlasting
   burnings, and despair of relief and succour. Those that rebel against
   the commands of the word cannot take the comforts of it in a time of
   need. Or, rather, 2. When they saw the Assyrian army destroyed; for the
   destruction of that is the fire spoken of immediately before, v. 11,
   12. When the sinners in Zion saw what dreadful execution the wrath of
   God made they were in a great fright, being conscious to themselves
   that they had provoked this God by their secretly worshipping other
   gods; and therefore they cry out, Who among us shall dwell with this
   devouring fire, before which so vast an army is as thorns? Who among us
   shall dwell with these everlasting burnings, which have made the
   Assyrians as the burnings of lime? v. 12. Thus they said, or should
   have said. Note, God's judgments upon the enemies of Zion should strike
   a terror upon the sinners in Zion, nay, David himself trembles at them,
   Ps. cxix. 120. God himself is this devouring fire, Heb. xii. 29. Who is
   able to stand before him? 1 Sam. vi. 20. His wrath will burn those
   everlastingly that have made themselves fuel for it. It is a fire that
   shall never be quenched, nor will ever go out of itself; for it is the
   wrath of an everlasting God preying upon the conscience of an immortal
   soul. Nor can the most daring sinners bear up against it, so as to bear
   either the execution of it or the fearful expectation of it. Let this
   awaken us all to flee from the wrath to come, by fleeing to Christ as
   our refuge.

   II. He has graciously provided for the security of his people that
   trust in him: Hear this, and acknowledge his power in making those that
   walk righteously, and speak uprightly, to dwell on high, v. 15, 16. We
   have here,

   1. The good man's character, which he preserves even in times of common
   iniquity, in divers instances. (1.) He walks righteously. In the whole
   course of his conversation he acts by rules of equity, and makes
   conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due, as well as to
   men theirs. His walk is righteousness itself; he would not for a world
   wilfully do an unjust thing. (2.) He speaks uprightly, uprightnesses
   (so the word is); he speaks what is true and right, and with an honest
   intention. He cannot think one thing and speak another, nor look one
   way and row another. His word is to him as sacred as his oath, and is
   not yea and nay. (3.) He is so far from coveting ill-gotten gain that
   he despises it. He thinks it a mean and sordid thing, and unbecoming a
   man of honour, to enrich himself by any hardship put upon his
   neighbour. He scorns to do a wrong thing, nay, to do a severe thing,
   though he might get by it. He does not over-value gain itself, and
   therefore easily abhors the gain that is not honestly come by. (4.) If
   he have a bribe at any time thrust into his hand, to pervert justice,
   he shakes his hands from holding it, with the utmost detestation,
   taking it as an affront to have it offered him. (5.) He stops his ears
   from hearing any thing that tends to cruelty or bloodshed, or any
   suggestions stirring him up to revenge, Job xxxi. 31. He turns a deaf
   ear to those that delight in war and entice him to cast in his lot
   among them, Prov. i. 14, 16. (6.) He shuts his eyes from seeing evil.
   He has such an abhorrence of sin that he cannot bear to see others
   commit it, and does himself watch against all the occasions of it.
   Those that would preserve the purity of their souls must keep a strict
   guard upon the senses of their bodies, must stop their ears to
   temptations, and turn away their eyes from beholding vanity.

   2. The good man's comfort, which he may preserve even in times of
   common calamity, v. 16. (1.) He shall be safe; he shall escape the
   devouring fire and the everlasting burnings; he shall have access to,
   and communion with, that God who is a devouring fire, but shall be to
   him a rejoicing light. And, as to present troubles, he shall dwell on
   high, out of the reach of them, nay, out of the hearing of the noise of
   them; he shall not be really harmed by them, nay, he shall not be
   greatly frightened at them: The floods of great waters shall not come
   nigh him; or, if they should attack him, his place of defence shall be
   the munitions of rocks, strong and impregnable, fortified by nature as
   well as art. The divine power will keep him safe, and his faith in that
   power will keep him easy. God, the rock of ages, will be his high
   tower. (2.) He shall be supplied; he shall want nothing that is
   necessary for him: Bread shall be given him, even when the siege is
   straitest and provisions are cut off; and his waters shall be sure,
   that is, he shall be sure of the continuance of them, so that he shall
   not drink his water by measure and with astonishment. Those that fear
   the Lord shall not want any thing that is good for them.

   III. He will protect Jerusalem, and deliver it out of the hands of the
   invaders. This storm that threatened them should blow over, and they
   should enjoy a prosperous state again. Many instances are here given of
   this prosperity.

   1. Hezekiah shall put off his sackcloth and all the sadness of his
   countenance, and shall appear publicly in his beauty, in his royal
   robes and with a pleasing aspect (v. 17), to the great joy of all his
   loving subjects. Those that walk uprightly shall not only have bread
   given them, and their water sure, but they shall with an eye of faith
   see the King of kings in his beauty, the beauty of holiness, and that
   beauty shall be upon them.

   2. The siege being raised, by which they were kept close within the
   walls of Jerusalem, they shall now be at liberty to go abroad upon
   business or pleasure without danger of falling into the enemies' hand:
   They shall behold the land that is very far off; they shall visit the
   utmost corners of the nation, and take a prospect of the adjacent
   countries, which will be the more pleasant after so long a confinement.
   Thus believers behold the heavenly Canaan, that land that is very far
   off, and comfort themselves with the prospect of it in evil times.

   3. The remembrance of the fright they were in shall add to the pleasure
   of their deliverance (v. 18): Thy heart shall meditate terror, meditate
   it with pleasure when it is over. Thou shalt think thou still hearest
   the alarm in thy ears, when all the cry was, "Arm, arm, arm! every man
   to his post. Where is the scribe or secretary of war? Let him appear to
   draw up the muster-roll. Where is the receiver and pay-master of the
   army? Let him see what he had in bank, to defray the charge of a
   defence. Where is he that counted the towers? Let him bring in the
   account of them, that care may be taken to put a competent number of
   men in each." Or these words may be taken as Jerusalem's triumph over
   the vanquished army of the Assyrians, and the rather because the
   apostle alludes to them in his triumphs over the learning of this
   world, when it was baffled by the gospel of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 20. The
   virgin, the daughter of Zion, despises all their military preparations.
   Where is the scribe or muster-master of the Assyrian army? Where is
   their weigher (or treasurer), and where are their engineers that
   counted the towers? They are all either dead or fled. There is an end
   of them.

   4. They shall no more be terrified with the sight of the Assyrians, who
   were a fierce people naturally, and were particularly fierce against
   the people of the Jews, and were of a strange language, that could
   understand neither their petitions nor their complaints, and therefore
   had a pretence for being deaf to them, nor could themselves be
   understood: "They are of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive,
   which will make them the more formidable, v. 19. Thy eyes shall no more
   see them thus fierce, but their countenances changed when they shall
   all become dead corpses."

   5. They shall no more be under apprehensions of the danger of
   Jerusalem-Zion, and the temple there (v. 20): "Look upon Zion, the city
   of our solemnities, the city where our solemn sacred feasts are kept,
   where we used to meet to worship God in religious assemblies." The good
   people among them, in the time of their distress, were most in pain for
   Zion upon this account, that it was the city of their solemnities, that
   the conquerors would burn their temple and they should not have that to
   keep their solemn feasts in any more. In times of public danger our
   concern should be most about our religion, and the cities of our
   solemnities should be dearer to us than either our strong cities or our
   store-cities. It is with an eye to this that God will work deliverance
   for Jerusalem, because it is the city of religious solemnities: let
   those be conscientiously kept up, as the glory of a people, and we may
   depend upon God to create a defence upon that glory. Two things are
   here promised to Jerusalem:--(1.) A well-grounded security. It shall be
   a quiet habitation for the people of God; they shall not be molested
   and disturbed, as they have been, by the alarms of the sword either of
   war or persecution, ch. xxix. 20. It shall be a quiet habitation, as it
   is the city of our solemnities. It is desirable to be quiet in our own
   houses, but much more so to be quiet in God's house and have none to
   make us afraid there. Thus it shall be with Jerusalem; and the eyes
   shall see it, which will be a great satisfaction to a good man, Ps.
   cxxviii. 5, 6. "Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem, and peace upon
   Israel; thou shalt live to see it and share in it." (2.) An unmoved
   stability. Jerusalem, the city of our solemnities, is indeed but a
   tabernacle, in comparison with the New Jerusalem. The present
   manifestations of the divine glory and grace are nothing in comparison
   with those that are reserved for the future state. But it is such a
   tabernacle as shall not be taken down. After this trouble is over
   Jerusalem shall long enjoy a confirmed peace; and her sacred
   privileges, which are the stakes and cords of her tabernacle, shall not
   be removed from her, nor any disturbance given to the course and circle
   of her religious services. God's church on earth is a tabernacle,
   which, though it may be shifted from one place to another, shall not be
   taken down while the world stands; for in every age Christ will have a
   seed to serve him. The promises of the covenant are its stakes, which
   shall never be removed, and the ordinances and institutions of the
   gospel are its cords, which shall never be broken. They are things
   which cannot be shaken, though heaven and earth be, but shall remain.

   6. God himself will be their protector and Saviour, v. 21, 22. This the
   principal ground of their confidence: "He that is himself the glorious
   Lord will display his glory for us and be a glory to us, such as shall
   eclipse the rival-glory of the enemy." God, in being a gracious Lord,
   is a glorious Lord; for his goodness is his glory. God will be the
   Saviour of Jerusalem and her glorious Lord, (1.) As a guard against
   their adversaries abroad. He will be a place of broad rivers and
   streams. Jerusalem had no considerable river running by it, as most
   great cities have, nothing but the brook Kidron, and so wanted one of
   the best natural fortifications, as well as one of the greatest
   advantages for trade and commerce, and upon this account their enemies
   despised them and doubted not but to make an easy prey of them; but the
   presence and power of God are sufficient at any time to make up to us
   the deficiencies of the creature and of its strength and beauty. We
   have all in God, all we need or can desire. Many external advantages
   Jerusalem has not which other places have, but in God there is more
   than an equivalent. But, if there be broad rivers and streams about
   Jerusalem, may not these yield an easy access to the fleet of an
   invader? No; these are rivers and streams in which shall go no galley
   with oars, no man of war or gallant ship. If God himself be the river,
   it must needs be inaccessible to the enemy; they can neither find nor
   force their way by it. (2.) As a guide to their affairs at home: "For
   the Lord is our Judge, to whom we are accountable, to whose judgment we
   refer ourselves, by whose judgment we abide, and who therefore (we
   hope) will judge for us. He is our lawgiver; his word is a law to us,
   and to him every thought within us is brought into obedience. He is our
   King, to whom we pay homage and tribute, and an inviolable allegiance,
   and therefore he will save us." For, as protection draws allegiance, so
   allegiance may expect protection, and shall have it with God. By faith
   we take Christ for our prince and Saviour, and as such depend upon him
   and devote ourselves to him. Observe with what an air of triumph, and
   with what an emphasis laid upon the glorious name of God, they comfort
   themselves with this: Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Lawgiver,
   Jehovah is our King, who, being self-existent, is self-sufficient, and
   all-sufficient to us.

   7. The enemies shall be quite infatuated, and all their powers and
   projects broken, like a ship at sea in stress of weather, that cannot
   ride out the storm, but having her tackle torn, her masts split, and
   nothing wherewith to repair them, is given up for a wreck, v. 23. The
   tacklings of the Assyrian are loosed; they are like a ship whose
   tacklings are loose, or forsaken by the ship's crew, when they give it
   over for lost, finding that they cannot strengthen the mast, but it
   will come down. They thought themselves sure of Jerusalem; but when
   they were just entering the port as it were, and though all was their
   own, they were quite becalmed, and could not spread their sail, but lay
   wind-bound till God poured the fury of his wrath upon them. The enemies
   of God's church are often disarmed and unrigged when they think they
   have almost gained their point.

   8. The wealth of their camp shall be a rich booty for the Jews: Then is
   the prey of a great spoil divided. When the greater part were slain the
   rest fled in confusion, and with such precipitation that (like the
   Syrians) they left their tents as they were, so that all the treasure
   in them fell into the hands of the besieged; and even the lame take the
   prey. Those that tarried at home did divide the spoil. It was so easy
   to come at that not only the strong man might make himself master of
   it, but even the lame man, whose hands were lame, that he could not
   fight, and his feet, that he could not pursue. As the victory shall
   cost them no peril, so the prey shall cost them no toil. And there was
   such abundance of it that when those who were forward, and came first,
   had carried off as much as they would, even the lame, who came late,
   found sufficient. Thus God brought good out of evil, and not only
   delivered Jerusalem, but enriched it, and abundantly recompensed the
   losses they had sustained. Thus comfortably and well do the frights and
   distresses of the people of God often end.

   9. Both sickness and sin shall be taken away; and then sickness is
   taken away in mercy when this is all the fruit of it, and the recovery
   from it, even the taking away of sin. (1.) The inhabitant shall not
   say, I am sick. As the lame shall take the prey, so shall the sick,
   notwithstanding their weakness, make a shift to get to the abandoned
   camp and seize something for themselves; or there shall be such a
   universal transport of joy upon this occasion that even the sick shall,
   for the present, forget their sickness and the sorrows of it, and join
   with the public in its rejoicings; the deliverance of their city shall
   be their cure. Or it intimates that, whereas infectious diseases are
   commonly the effect of long sieges, it shall not be so with Jerusalem,
   but the inhabitants of it with their victory and peace shall have
   health also, and there shall be no complaining upon the account of
   sickness within their gates. Or those that are sick shall bear their
   sickness without complaining as long as they see it goes well with
   Jerusalem. Our sense of private grievances should be drowned in our
   thanksgivings for public mercies. (2.) The people that dwell therein
   shall be forgiven their iniquity, not only the body of the nation
   forgiven their national guilt in the removing of the national judgment,
   but particular persons, that dwell therein, shall repent, and reform,
   and have their sins pardoned. And this is promised as that which is at
   the bottom of all other favours; he will do so and so for them, for he
   will be merciful to their unrighteousness, Heb. viii. 12. Sin is the
   sickness of the soul. When God pardons the sin he heals the disease;
   and, when the diseases of sin are healed by pardoning mercy, the sting
   of bodily sickness is taken out and the cause of it removed; so that
   either the inhabitant shall not be sick or at least shall not say, I am
   sick. If iniquity be taken away, we have little reason to complain of
   outward affliction. Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIV.

   In this chapter we have the fatal doom of all the nations that are
   enemies to God's church and people, though Edom only is mentioned,
   because of the old enmity of Esau to Jacob, which was typical, as much
   as that more ancient enmity of Cain to Abel, and flowed from the
   original enmity of the serpent to the seed of the woman. It is probable
   that this prophecy had its accomplishment in the great desolations made
   by the Assyrian army first, or rather by Nebuchadnezzar's army some
   time after, among those nations that were neighbours to Israel and had
   been in some way or other injurious to them. That mighty conqueror took
   a pride in shedding blood, and laying countries waste, and therein,
   quite beyond his design, he was fulfilling what God here threatened
   against his and his people's enemies. But we have reason to think it is
   intended as a denunciation of the wrath of God against all those who
   fight against the interests of his kingdom among men, that it has its
   frequent accomplishment in the havoc made by the wars of the nations
   and other desolating judgments, and will have its full accomplishment
   in the final dissolution of all things at the day of judgment and
   perdition of ungodly men. Here is, I. A demand of universal attention,
   ver. 1. II. A direful scene of blood and confusion presented, ver. 2-7.
   III. The reason given for these judgments, ver. 8. IV. The continuance
   of this desolation, the country being made like the lake of Sodom (ver.
   9, 10), and the cities abandoned to wild beasts and melancholy fowls,
   ver. 11-15. V. The solemn ratification of all this, ver. 16, 17. Let us
   hear, and fear.

Threatenings against God's Enemies. (b. c. 720.)

   1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth
   hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come
   forth of it.   2 For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations,
   and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he
   hath delivered them to the slaughter.   3 Their slain also shall be
   cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the
   mountains shall be melted with their blood.   4 And all the host of
   heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as
   a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off
   from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.   5 For my sword
   shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and
   upon the people of my curse, to judgment.   6 The sword of the Lord is
   filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of
   lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath
   a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.   7
   And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the
   bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made
   fat with fatness.   8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and
   the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

   Here we have a prophecy, as elsewhere we have a history, of the wars of
   the Lord, which we are sure are all both righteous and successful. This
   world, as it is his creature, he does good to; but as it is in the
   interest of Satan, who is called the god of this world, he fights
   against it.

   I. Here is the trumpet sounded and the war proclaimed, v. 1. All
   nations must hear and hearken, not only because what God is about to do
   is well worthy their remark (as ch. xxxiii. 13), but because they are
   all concerned in it; it is with them that God has a quarrel; it is
   against them that God is coming forth in wrath. Let them all take
   notice that the great God is angry with them; his indignation is upon
   all nations, and therefore let all nations come near to hear. The
   trumpet is blown in the city (Amos iii. 6), and the watchmen on the
   walls cry, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet, Jer. vi. 17. Let the
   earth hear, and the fulness thereof, for it is the Lord's (Ps. xxiv. 1)
   and ought to hearken to its Maker and Master. The world must hear, and
   all things that come forth of it, the children of men, that are of the
   earth earthy, come out of it, and must return to it; or the inanimate
   products of the earth are called to, as more likely to hearken than
   sinners, whose hearts are hardened against the calls of God. Hear, O
   you mountains! the Lord's controversy, Micah vi. 2. It is so just a
   controversy that all the world may be safely appealed to concerning the
   equity of it.

   II. Here is the manifesto published, setting forth,

   1. Whom he makes war against (v. 2): The indignation of the Lord is
   upon all nations; they are all in confederacy against God and religion,
   all in the interests of the devil, and therefore he is angry with them
   all, even with all the nations that forget him. He has long suffered
   all nations to walk in their own ways (Acts xiv. 16), but now he will
   no longer keep silence. As they have all had the benefit of his
   patience, so they must all expect now to feel his resentments. His fury
   is in a special manner upon all their armies, (1.) Because with them
   they have done mischief to the people of God; those are they that have
   made bloody work with them, and therefore they must be sure to have
   blood given them to drink. (2.) Because with them they hope to make
   their part good against the justice and power of God they trust to them
   as their defence, and therefore on them, in the first place, God's fury
   will come. Armies before God's fury are but as dry stubble before a
   consuming fire, though ever so numerous and courageous.

   2. Whom he makes war for, and what are the grounds and reasons of the
   war (v. 8): It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and he it is to whom
   vengeance belongs, and who is never unrighteous in taking vengeance,
   Rom. iii. 5. As there is a day of the Lord's patience, so there will be
   a day of his vengeance; for, though he bear long, he will not bear
   always. It is the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. Zion
   is the holy city, the city of our solemnities, a type and figure of the
   church of God in the world. Zion has a just quarrel with her neighbours
   for the wrongs they have done her, for all their treacherous and
   barbarous usage of her, profaning her holy things, laying waste her
   palaces, and slaying her sons. She has left it to God to plead her
   cause, and he will do so when the time, even the set time, to favour
   Zion shall have come; then he will recompense to her persecutors and
   oppressors all the mischiefs they have done her. The controversy will
   be decided, that Zion has been wronged, and therein Zion's God has been
   himself abused. Judgment will be given upon this decision, and
   execution done. Note, There is a time prefixed in the divine counsels
   for the deliverance of the church and the destruction of her enemies, a
   year of the redeemed, which will come, a year of recompences for the
   controversy of Zion; and we must patiently wait till then, and judge
   nothing before the time.

   III. Here are the operations of the war, and the methods of it,
   settled, with an infallible assurance of success. 1. The sword of the
   Lord is bathed in heaven; this is all the preparation here made for the
   war, v. 5. It may probably allude to some custom they had then of
   bathing their swords in some liquor or other, to harden them or
   brighten them; it is the same with the furbishing of it, that it may
   glitter, Ezek. xxi. 9-11. God's sword is bathed in heaven, in his
   counsel and decree, in his justice and power, and then there is not
   standing before it. 2. It shall come down. What he has determined shall
   without fail be put in execution. It shall come down from heaven, and
   the higher the place is, whence it comes, the heavier will it fall. It
   will come down upon Idumea, the people of God's curse, the people that
   lie under his curse and are by it doomed to destruction. Miserable, for
   ever miserable, are those that have by their sins made themselves the
   people of God's curse; for the sword of the Lord will infallibly attend
   the curse of the Lord and execute the sentences of it; and those whom
   he curses are cursed indeed. It shall come down to judgment, to execute
   judgment upon sinners. Note, God's sword of war is always a sword of
   justice. It is observed of him out of whose mouth goeth the sharp sword
   that in righteousness he doth judge and make war, Rev. xix. 11, 15. 3.
   The nations and their armies shall be given up to the sword (v. 2): God
   has delivered them to the slaughter, and then they cannot deliver
   themselves, nor can all the friends they have deliver them from it.
   Those only are slain whom God delivers to the slaughter, for the keys
   of death are in his hand; and, in delivering them to the slaughter, he
   has utterly destroyed them; their destruction is as sure, when God has
   doomed them to it, as if they were destroyed already, utterly
   destroyed. God has, in effect, delivered all the cruel enemies of his
   church to the slaughter by that word (Rev. xiii. 10), He that kills
   with the sword must be killed by the sword, for the Lord is righteous.
   4. Pursuant to the sentence, a terrible slaughter shall be made among
   them (v. 6): The sword of the Lord, when it comes down with commission,
   does vast execution; it is filled, satiated, surfeited, with blood, the
   blood of the slain, and made fat with their fatness. When the day of
   God's abused mercy and patience is over the sword of his justice gives
   no quarter, spares none. Men have by sin lost the honour of the human
   nature and made themselves like the beasts that perish; they are
   therefore justly denied the compassion and respect that are owing to
   the human nature and killed as beasts, and no more is made of slaying
   an army of men than of butchering a flock of lambs or goats and feeding
   on the fat of the kidneys of rams. Nay, the sword of the Lord shall not
   only dispatch the lambs and goats, the infantry of their armies, the
   poor common soldiers, but (v. 7) the unicorns too shall be made to come
   down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, though they are ever
   so proud, and strong, and fierce (the great men, and the mighty men,
   and the chief captains Rev. vi. 15), the sword of the Lord will make as
   easy a prey of as of the lambs and the goats. The greatest of men are
   nothing before the wrath of the great God. See what bloody work will be
   made: The land shall be soaked with blood, as with the rain that comes
   often upon it and in great abundance; and their dust, their dry and
   barren land, shall be made fat with the fatness of men slain in their
   full strength, as with manure. Nay even the mountains, which are hard
   and rocky, shall be melted with their blood, v. 3. These expressions
   are hyperbolical (as St. John's vision of blood to the horse-bridles,
   Rev. xiv. 20), and are made use of because they sound very dreadful to
   sense (it makes us even shiver to think of such abundance of human
   gore), and are therefore proper to express the terror of God's wrath,
   which is dreadful beyond conception and expression. See what work sin
   and wrath make even in this world, and think how much more terrible the
   wrath to come is, which will bring down the unicorns themselves to the
   bars of the pit. 5. This great slaughter will be a great sacrifice to
   the justice of God (v. 6): The Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah; there it
   is that the great Redeemer has his garments dyed with blood, ch. lxiii.
   1. Sacrifices were intended for the honour of God, to make it appear
   that he hates sin and demands satisfaction for it, and that nothing but
   blood will make atonement; and for these ends the slaughter is made,
   that in it the wrath of God may be revealed from heaven against all the
   ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, especially their ungodly
   unrighteous enmity to his people, which was the sin that the Edomites
   were notoriously guilty of. In great sacrifices abundance of beasts
   were killed, hecatombs offered, and their blood poured out before the
   altar; and so will it be in this day of the Lord's vengeance. And thus
   would the whole earth have been soaked with the blood of sinners if
   Jesus Christ, the great propitiation, had not shed his blood for us;
   but those who reject him, and will not make a covenant with God by that
   sacrifice, will themselves fall as victims to divine wrath. Damned
   sinners are everlasting sacrifices, Mark ix. 48, 49. Those that
   sacrifice not (which is the character of the ungodly, Eccl. ix. 2) must
   be sacrificed. 6. These slain shall be detestable to mankind, and shall
   be as much their loathing as ever they were their terror (v. 3): They
   shall be cast out, and none shall pay them the respect of a decent
   burial; but their stink shall come up out of their carcases, that all
   people by the odious smell, as well as by the ghastly sight, may be
   made to conceive an indignation against sin and a dread of the wrath of
   God. They lie unburied, that they may remain monuments of divine
   justice. 7. The effect and consequence of this slaughter shall be
   universal confusion and desolation, as if the whole frame of nature
   were dissolved and melted down (v. 4): All the host of heaven shall
   pine and waste away (so the word is); the sun shall be darkened, and
   the moon look black, or be turned into blood; the heavens themselves
   shall be rolled together as a scroll or parchment when we have done
   with it, and lay it by, or as when it is shrivelled up by the heat of
   the fire. The stars shall fall as the leaves in autumn; all the beauty,
   joy, and comfort, of the vanquished nation shall be lost and done away,
   magistracy and government shall be abolished, and all dominion and
   rule, but that of the sword of war, shall fall. Conquerors, in those
   times, affected to lay waste the countries they conquered; and such a
   complete desolation is here described by such figurative expressions as
   will yet have a literal and full accomplishment in the dissolution of
   all things at the end of time, of which last day of judgment the
   judgments which God does now sometimes remarkably execute on sinful
   nations are figures, earnests, and forerunners; and by these we should
   be awakened to think of that, for which reason these expressions are
   used here and Rev. vi. 12, 13. But they are used without a metaphor, 2
   Pet. iii. 10, where we are told that the heavens shall pass away with a
   great noise and the earth shall be burnt up.

Threatenings against God's Enemies. (b. c. 720.)

   9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust
   thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning
   pitch.   10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof
   shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste;
   none shall pass through it for ever and ever.   11 But the cormorant
   and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall
   dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion,
   and the stones of emptiness.   12 They shall call the nobles thereof to
   the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be
   nothing.   13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and
   brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be a habitation of
   dragons, and a court for owls.   14 The wild beasts of the desert shall
   also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry
   to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for
   herself a place of rest.   15 There shall the great owl make her nest,
   and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the
   vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.   16 Seek ye out of
   the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall
   want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath
   gathered them.   17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand
   hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from
   generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

   This prophecy looks very black, but surely it looks so further than
   upon Edom and Bozrah. 1. It describes the melancholy changes that are
   often made by the divine Providence, in countries, cities, palaces, and
   families. Places that have flourished and been much frequented
   strangely go to decay. We know not where to find the places where many
   great towns, celebrated in history, once stood. Fruitful countries, in
   process of time, are turned into barrenness, and pompous populous
   cities into ruinous heaps. Old decayed castles look frightful, and
   their ruins are almost as much dreaded as ever their garrisons were. 2.
   It describes the destroying judgments which are the effects of God's
   wrath and the just punishment of those that are enemies to his people,
   which God will inflict when the year of the redeemed has come, and the
   year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. Those that aim to ruin
   the church can never do that, but will infallibly ruin themselves. 3.
   It describes the final desolation of this wicked world, which is
   reserved unto fire at the day of judgment, 2 Pet. iii. 7. The earth
   itself, when it, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up,
   will (for aught I know) be turned into a hell to all those that set
   their affections on earthly things. However, this prophecy shows us
   what will be the lot of the generation of God's curse.

   I. The country shall become like the lake of Sodom, v. 9, 10. The
   streams thereof, that both watered the land and pleased and refreshed
   the inhabitants, shall now be turned into pitch, shall be congealed,
   shall look black, and shall move slowly, or not at all. Their floods to
   lazy streams of pitch shall turn; so Sir R. Blackmore. The dust thereof
   shall be turned into brimstone; so combustible has sin made their land
   that it shall take fire at the first spark of God's wrath struck upon
   it; and, when it has taken fire, it shall become burning pitch; the
   fire shall be universal, not a house, or town, on fire, but a whole
   country; and it shall not be in the power of any to suppress or
   extinguish it. It shall burn continually, burn perpetually, and shall
   not be quenched night nor day. The torment of those in hell, or that
   have a hell within them in their own consciences, is without
   interruption; the smoke of this fire goes up for ever. As long as there
   are provoking sinners on earth, from one generation to another, an
   increase of sinful men, to augment the fierce anger of the Lord (Num.
   xxxii. 14), there will be a righteous God in heaven to punish them for
   it. And as long as a people keep up a succession of sinners God will
   have a succession of plagues for them; nor will any that fall under the
   wrath of God be ever able to recover themselves. It will be found, how
   light soever men make of it, that it is a fearful thing to fall into
   the hands of the living God. If the land be doomed to destruction, none
   shall pass through it, but travellers will choose rather to go a great
   way about than come within the smell of it.

   II. The cities shall become like old decayed houses, which, being
   deserted by the owners, look very frightful, being commonly possessed
   by beasts of prey or birds of ill omen. See how dismally the palaces of
   the enemy look; the description is peculiarly elegant and fine. 1. God
   shall mark them for ruin and destruction. He shall stretch out upon
   Bozrah the line of confusion with the stones or plummets of emptiness,
   v. 11. This intimates the equity of the sentence passed upon it; it is
   given according to the rules of justice and the exact agreeableness of
   the execution with the sentence; the destruction is not wrought at
   random, but by line and level. The confusion and emptiness that shall
   overspread the face of the whole country shall be like that of the
   whole earth when it was Tohu and Bohu (the very words here
   used)--without form and void. Gen. i. 2. Sin will soon turn a paradise
   into a chaos, and sully the beauty of the whole creation. When there is
   confusion there will soon be emptiness; but both are appointed by the
   governor of the world, and in exact proportions. 2. Their great men
   shall be all cut off, and none of them shall dare to appear (v. 12):
   They shall call the nobles of the kingdom to take care of the arduous
   affairs which lie before them, but none shall be there to take this
   ruin under their hand, and all her princes, having the sad tidings
   brought them, shall be nothing, shall be at their wits' end, and not be
   able to stand them in stead, to shelter them from destruction.

   III. Even the houses of state, and those of strength, shall become as
   wildernesses (v. 13); not only grass shall grow, but thorns shall come
   up, in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and
   there shall be none to cut them up or tread them down. We sometimes see
   ruined buildings thus overgrown with rubbish. It intimates that the
   place shall not only be uninhabited and unfrequented where a full court
   used to be kept, but that it shall be under the curse of God; for
   thorns and thistles were the production of the curse, Gen. iii. 18.

   IV. They shall become the residence and rendezvous of fearful frightful
   beasts and birds, which usually frequent such melancholy places,
   because there they may be undisturbed, and, when they are frightened
   thither, they help to frighten men thence. This circumstance of the
   desolation, being apt to strike a horror upon the mind, is much
   enlarged upon here, v. 11. The cormorant shall possess it, or the
   pelican, which affects to be solitary (Ps. cii. 6); and the bittern,
   which makes a hideous noise, the owl, a melancholy bird, the raven, a
   bird of prey, invited by the dead carcases, shall dwell there (with all
   the ill-boding monsters of the air, Sir R. B.), all the unclean birds,
   which were not for the service of man, v. 13. It shall be a habitation
   for dragons, which are poisonous and hurtful.


   And in their lofty rooms of state,

   Where cringing sycophants did wait,

   Dragons shall hiss and hungry wolves shall howl;

   In courts before by mighty lords possess'd

   The serpent shall erect his speckled crest,

   Or fold his circling spires to rest.

   Sir R. Blackmore.

   That which was a court for princes shall now be a court for owls or
   ostriches, v. 14. The wild beasts of the desert, the dry and sandy
   country, shall meet, as it were by appointment, with the wild beasts of
   the island, the wet marshy country, and shall regale themselves with
   such a perfect desolation as they shall find there.


   Leopards, and all the rav'ning brotherhoods

   That range the plains, or lurk in woods,

   Each other shall invite to come,

   And make this wilder place their home.

   Fierce beasts of every frightful shape and size

   Shall settle here their bloody colonies.

   Sir R. Blackmore.

   The satyr shall cry to his fellow to go with him to this desert place,
   or, being there, they shall please themselves that they have found such
   an agreeable habitation. There shall the screech-owl rest, a night-bird
   and an ominous one. The great owl shall there make her nest (v. 15) and
   lay and hatch; the breed of them shall be kept up to provide heirs for
   this desolate place. The vultures which feast on carcases, shall be
   gathered there, every one with his mate. Now observe, 1. How the places
   which men have deserted, and keep at a distance from, are proper
   receptacles for other animals, which the providence of God takes care
   of, and will not neglect. 2. Whom those resemble that are morose,
   unsociable, and unconversable, and affect a melancholy retirement; they
   are like these solitary creatures that take delight in desolations. 3.
   What a dismal change sin makes; it turns a fruitful land into
   barrenness, a frequented city into a wilderness.

   V. Here is an assurance given of the full accomplishment of this
   prediction, even to the most minute circumstance of it (v. 16, 17):
   "Seek you out of the book of the Lord and read. When this destruction
   comes compare the event with the prediction, and you will find it to
   answer exactly." Note, The book of the prophets is the book of the
   Lord, and we ought to consult it and converse with it as of divine
   origin and authority. We must not only read it, but see out of it,
   search into it, turn first to one text and then to another and compare
   them together. Abundance of useful knowledge might thus be extracted,
   by a diligent search, out of the scriptures, which cannot be got by a
   superficial reading of them. When you have read the prediction out of
   the book of the Lord then observe, 1. That according to what you have
   read so you see; not one of these shall fail, either beast or fowl:
   and, it being foretold that they shall possess it from generation to
   generation, in order to that, that the species may be propagated, none
   shall want her mate; these marks of desolation shall be fruitful, and
   multiply, and replenish the land. 2. That God's mouth having commanded
   this direful muster his Spirit shall gather them, as the creatures by
   instinct were gathered to Adam to be named and to Noah to be housed.
   What God's word has appointed his Spirit will effect and bring about,
   for no word of God shall fall to the ground. The word of God's promise
   shall in like manner be accomplished by the operations of the Spirit.
   3. That there is an exact order and proportion observed in the
   accomplishment of this threatening: He has cast the lot for these birds
   and beasts, so that each one shall know his place as readily as if it
   were marked by line. See the like, Joel ii. 7, 8, They shall not break
   their ranks, neither shall one thrust another. The soothsayers among
   the heathen foretold events by the flight of birds, as if the fate of
   men depended on them. But here we find that the flight of birds is
   under the direction of the God of Israel: he has cast the lot for them.
   4. That the desolation shall be perpetual: They shall possess it for
   ever. God's Jerusalem may be laid in ruins; but Jerusalem of old
   recovered itself out of its ruins, till it gave place to the gospel
   Jerusalem, which may be brought low, but shall be rebuilt, and shall
   continue till it give place to the heavenly Jerusalem. But the enemies
   of the church shall be for ever desolate, shall be punished with an
   everlasting destruction.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXV.

   As after a prediction of God's judgments upon the world (ch. xxiv.)
   follows a promise of great mercy to be had in store for his church (ch.
   xxv.), so here after a black and dreadful scene of confusion in the
   foregoing chapter we have, in this, a bright and pleasant one, which,
   though it foretel the flourishing estate of Hezekiah's kingdom in the
   latter part of his reign, yet surely looks as far beyond that as the
   prophecy in the foregoing chapter does beyond the destruction of the
   Edomites; both were typical, and it concerns us most to look at those
   things which they were typical of, the kingdom of Christ and the
   kingdom of heaven. When the world, which lies in wickedness, shall be
   laid in ruins, and the Jewish church, which persisted in infidelity,
   shall become a desolation, then the gospel church shall be set up and
   made to flourish. I. The Gentiles shall be brought into it, ver. 1, 2,
   7. II. The well-wishers to it, who were weak and timorous, shall be
   encouraged, ver. 3, 4. III. Miracles shall be wrought both on the souls
   and on the bodies of men, ver. 5, 6. IV. The gospel church shall be
   conducted in the way of holiness, ver. 8, 9. V. It shall be brought at
   last to endless joys, ver. 10. Thus do we find more of Christ and
   heaven in this chapter than one would have expected in the Old
   Testament.

The Blessings of the Gospel. (b. c. 720.)

   1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the
   desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.   2 It shall blossom
   abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon
   shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall
   see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.   3
   Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.   4 Say to
   them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God
   will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and
   save you.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The desert land blooming. In the foregoing chapter we had a populous
   and fruitful country turned into a horrid wilderness; here we have in
   lieu of that, a wilderness turned into a good land. When the land of
   Judah was freed from the Assyrian army, those parts of the country that
   had been made as a wilderness by the ravages and outrages they
   committed began to recover themselves, and to look pleasantly again,
   and to blossom as the rose. When the Gentile nations, that had been
   long as a wilderness, bringing forth no fruit to God, received the
   gospel, joy came with it to them, Ps. lxvii. 3, 4; xcvi. 11, 12. When
   Christ was preached in Samaria there was great joy in that city (Acts
   viii. 8); those that sat in darkness saw a great and joyful light, and
   then they blossomed, that is, gave hopes of abundance of fruit; for
   that was it which the preachers of the gospel aimed at (John xv. 16),
   to go and bring forth fruit, Rom. i. 13; Col. i. 6. Though blossoms are
   not fruit, and often miscarry and come to nothing, yet they are in
   order to fruit. Converting grace makes the soul that was a wilderness
   to rejoice with joy and singing, and to blossom abundantly. This
   flourishing desert shall have all the glory of Lebanon given to it,
   which consisted in the strength and stateliness of its cedars, together
   with the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, which consisted in corn and
   cattle. Whatever is valuable in any institution is brought into the
   gospel. All the beauty of the Jewish church was admitted into the
   Christian church, and appeared in its perfection, as the apostle shows
   at large in his epistle to the Hebrews. Whatever was excellent an
   desirable in the Mosaic economy is translated into the evangelical
   institutes.

   II. The glory of God shining forth: They shall see the glory of the
   Lord. God will manifest himself more than ever in his grace and love to
   mankind (for that is his glory and excellency), and he shall give them
   eyes to see it, and hearts to be duly affected with it. This is that
   which will make the desert blossom. The more we see by faith of the
   glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God the more joyful and the
   more fruitful shall we be.

   III. The feeble and faint-hearted encouraged, v. 3, 4. God's prophets
   and ministers are in a special manner charged, by virtue of their
   office, to strengthen the weak hands, to comfort those who could not
   yet recover the fright they had been put into by the Assyrian army with
   an assurance that God would now return in mercy to them. This is the
   design of the gospel, 1. To strengthen those that are weak and to
   confirm them--the weak hands, which are unable either to work or fight,
   and can hardly be lifted up in prayer, and the feeble knees, which are
   unable either to stand or walk and unfit for the race set before us.
   The gospel furnishes us with strengthening considerations, and shows us
   where strength is laid up for us. Among true Christians there are many
   that have weak hands and feeble knees, that are yet but babes in
   Christ; but it is our duty to strengthen our brethren (Luke xxii. 32),
   not only to bear with the weak, but to do what we can to confirm them,
   Rom. xv. 1; 1 Thess. v. 14. It is our duty also to strengthen
   ourselves, to lift up the hands which hang down (Heb. xii. 12),
   improving the strength God has given us, and exerting it. 2. To animate
   those that are timorous and discouraged: Say to those that are of a
   fearful heart, because of their own weakness and the strength of their
   enemies, that are hasty (so the word is), that are for betaking
   themselves to flight upon the first alarm, and giving up the cause,
   that say, in their haste, "We are cut off and undone" (Ps. xxxi. 22),
   there is enough in the gospel to silence these fears; it says to them,
   and let them say it to themselves and one to another, Be strong, fear
   not. Fear is weakening; the more we strive against it the stronger we
   are both for doing and suffering; and, for our encouragement to strive,
   he that says to us, Be strong has laid help for us upon one that is
   mighty.

   IV. Assurance given of the approach of a Saviour: "Your God will come
   with vengeance. God will appear for you against your enemies, will
   recompense both their injuries and your losses." The Messiah will come,
   in the fulness of time, to take vengeance on the powers of darkness, to
   spoil them, and make a show of them openly, to recompense those that
   mourn in Zion with abundant comforts. He will come and save us. With
   the hopes of this the Old-Testament saints strengthened their weak
   hands. He will come again at the end of time, will come in flaming
   fire, to recompense tribulation to those who have troubled his people,
   and, to those who were troubled, rest, such a rest as will be not only
   a final period to, but a full reward of, all their troubles, 2 Thess.
   i. 6, 7. Those whose hearts tremble for the ark of God, and who are
   under a concern for his church in the world, may silence their fears
   with this, God will take the work into his own hands. Your God will
   come, who pleads your cause and owns your interest, even God himself,
   who is God alone.

The Blessings of the Gospel. (b. c. 720.)

   5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
   shall be unstopped.   6 Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the
   tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out,
   and streams in the desert.   7 And the parched ground shall become a
   pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of
   dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.   8 And
   a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of
   holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for
   those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.   9 No
   lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it
   shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:   10 And
   the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and
   everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

   "Then, when your God shall come, even Christ, to set up his kingdom in
   the world, to which all the prophets bore witness, especially towards
   the conclusion of their prophecies of the temporal deliverances of the
   church, and this evangelical prophet especially--then look for great
   things."

   I. Wonders shall be wrought in the kingdoms both of nature and grace,
   wonders of mercy wrought upon the children of men, sufficient to evince
   that it is no less than a God that comes to us. 1. Wonders shall be
   wrought on men's bodies (v. 5, 6): The eyes of the blind shall be
   opened; this was often done by our Lord Jesus when he was here upon
   earth, with a word's speaking, and one he gave sight to that was born
   blind, Matt. ix. 27; xii. 22; xx. 30; John ix. 6. By his power the ears
   of the deaf also were unstopped, with one word. Ephphatha--Be opened,
   Mark vii. 34. Many that were lame had the use of their limbs restored
   so perfectly that they could not only go, but leap, and with so much
   joy to them that they could not forbear leaping for joy, as that
   impotent man, Acts iii. 8. The dumb also were enabled to speak, and
   then no marvel that they were disposed to sing for joy, Matt. ix. 32,
   33. These miracles Christ wrought to prove that he was sent of God
   (John iii. 2), nay, working them by his own power and in his own name,
   he proved that he was God, the same who at first made man's mouth, the
   hearing ear, and the seeing eye. When he would prove to John's
   disciples his divine mission he did it by miracles of this kind, in
   which this scripture was fulfilled. 2. Wonders, greater wonders, shall
   be wrought on men's souls. By the word and Spirit of Christ those that
   were spiritually blind were enlightened (Acts xxvi. 18), those that
   were deaf to the calls of God were made to hear them readily, so Lydia,
   whose heart the Lord opened, so that she attended, Acts xvi. 14. Those
   that were impotent to every thing that is good by divine grace are
   made, not only able for it, but active in it, and run the way of God's
   commandments. Those also that were dumb, and knew not how to speak of
   God or to God, having their understandings opened to know him, shall
   thereby have their lips opened to show forth his praise. The tongue of
   the dumb shall sing for joy, the joy of God's salvation. Praise shall
   be perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.

   II. The Spirit shall be poured out from on high. There shall be waters
   and streams, rivers of living water; when our Saviour spoke of these as
   the fulfilling of the scripture, and most probably of this scripture,
   the evangelist tells us, He spoke of the Spirit (John vii. 38, 39), as
   does also this prophet (ch. xxxii. 15); so here (v. 6), in the
   wilderness, where one would least expect it, shall waters break out.
   This was fulfilled when the Holy Ghost fell upon the Gentiles that
   heard the word (Acts x. 44); then were the fountains of life opened,
   whence streams flowed, that watered the earth abundantly. These waters
   are said to break out, which denotes a pleasing surprise to the Gentile
   world, such as brought them, as it were, into a new world. The blessed
   effect of this shall be that the parched ground shall become a pool, v.
   7. Those that laboured and were heavily laden, under the burden of
   guilt, and were scorched with the sense of divine wrath, found rest,
   and refreshment, and abundant comforts in the gospel. In the thirsty
   land, where no water was, nor ordinances (Ps. lxiii. 1), there shall be
   springs of water, a gospel ministry, and by that the administration of
   all gospel ordinances in their purity and plenty, which are the river
   that makes glad the city of our God, Ps. xlvi. 4. In the habitation of
   dragons, who chose to dwell in the parched scorched ground (ch. xxxiv.
   9, 13), these waters shall flow, and dispossess them, so that, where
   each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes, great plenty of useful
   productions. Thus it was when Christian churches were planted, and
   flourished greatly, in the cities of the Gentiles, which, for many
   ages, had been habitations of dragons, or devils rather, as Babylon
   (Rev. xviii. 2); when the property of the idols' temples was altered,
   and they were converted to the service of Christianity, then the
   habitations of dragons became fruitful fields.

   III. The way of religion and godliness shall be laid open: it is here
   called the way of holiness (v. 8) the way both of holy worship and a
   holy conversation. Holiness is the rectitude of the human nature and
   will, in conformity to the divine nature and will. The way of holiness
   is that course of religious duties in which men ought to walk and press
   forward, with an eye to the glory of God and their own felicity in the
   enjoyment of him. "When our God shall come to save us he shall chalk
   out to us this way by his gospel, so as it had never been before
   described." 1. It shall be an appointed way; not a way of sufferance,
   but a highway, a way into which we are directed by a divine authority
   and in which we are protected by a divine warrant. It is the King's
   highway, the King of Kings' highway, in which, though we may be
   waylaid, we cannot be stopped. The way of holiness is the way of God's
   commandments; it is (as highways usually are) the good old way, Jer.
   vi. 16. 2. It shall be an appropriated way, the way in which God will
   bring his own chosen to himself, but the unclean shall not pass over
   it, either to defile it or to disturb those that walk in it. It is a
   way by itself, distinguished from the way of the world, for it is a way
   of separation from, and nonconformity to, this world. It shall be for
   those whom the Lord has set apart for himself (Ps. iv. 3), shall be
   reserved for them: The redeemed shall walk there, and the satisfaction
   they take in these ways of pleasantness shall be out of the reach of
   molestation from an evil world. The unclean shall not pass over it, for
   it shall be a fair way; those that walk in it are the undefiled in the
   way, who escape the pollution that is in the world. 3. It shall be a
   straight way: The wayfaring men, who choose to travel in it, though
   fools, of weak capacity in other things, shall have such plain
   directions from the word and Spirit of God in this way that they shall
   not err therein; not that they shall be infallible even in their own
   conduct, or that they shall in nothing mistake, but they shall not be
   guilty of any fatal misconduct, shall not so miss their way but that
   they shall recover it again, and get well to their journey's end. Those
   that are in the narrow way, though some may fall into one path and
   others into another, not all equally right, but all meeting at last in
   the same end, shall yet never fall into the broad way again; the Spirit
   of truth shall lead them into all truth that is necessary for them.
   Note, The way to heaven is a plain way, and easy to hit. God has chosen
   the foolish things of the world, and made them wise to salvation.
   Knowledge is easy to him that understands. 4. It shall be a safe way:
   No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast (v. 9), none to hurt or
   destroy. Those that keep close to this way keep out of the reach of
   Satan the roaring lion, that wicked one touches them not. Those that
   walk in the way of holiness may proceed with a holy security and
   serenity of mind, knowing that nothing can do them any real hurt; they
   shall be quiet from the fear of evil. It was in Hezekiah's days, some
   time after the captivity of the ten tribes, that God, being displeased
   with the colonies settled there, sent lions among them, 2 Kings xvii.
   25. But Judah keeps her integrity, and therefore no lions shall be
   there. Those that walk in the way of holiness must separate themselves
   from the unclean and the ravenous, must save themselves from an
   untoward generation; hoping that they themselves are of the redeemed,
   let them walk with the redeemed who shall walk there.

   IV. The end of this way shall be everlasting joy, v. 10. This precious
   promise of peace now will end shortly in endless joys and rest for the
   soul. Here is good news for the citizens of Zion, rest to the weary:
   The ransomed of the Lord, who therefore ought to follow him wherever he
   goes (Rev. xiv. 4), shall return and come to Zion, 1. To serve and
   worship God in the church militant: they shall deliver themselves out
   of Babylon (Zech. ii. 7), shall ask the way to Zion (Jer. l. 5), and
   shall find the way ch. lii. 12. God will open to them a door of escape
   out of their captivity, and it shall be an effectual door, though there
   be many adversaries. They shall join themselves to the gospel church,
   that Mount Zion, that city of the living God, Heb. xii. 22. They shall
   come with songs of joy and praise for their deliverance out of Babylon,
   where they wept upon every remembrance of Zion, Ps. cxxxvii. 1. Those
   that by faith are made citizens of the gospel Zion may go on their way
   rejoicing (Acts viii. 39); they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, and
   be still praising him. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and the sorrows
   and signs of their convictions are made to flee away by the power of
   divine consolations. Those that mourn are blessed, for they shall be
   comforted. 2. To see and enjoy God in the church triumphant; those that
   walk in the way of holiness, under guidance of their Redeemer, shall
   come to Zion at last, to the heavenly Zion, shall come in a body, shall
   all be presented together, faultless, at the coming of Christ's glory
   with exceeding joy (Jude 24; Rev. vii. 17); they shall come with songs.
   When God's people returned out of Babylon to Zion they came weeping
   (Jer. l. 4); but they shall come to heaven singing a new song, which no
   man can learn, Rev. xiv. 3. When they shall enter into the joy of their
   Lord it shall be what the joys of this world never could be everlasting
   joy, without mixture, interruption, or period. It shall not only fill
   their hearts, to their own perfect and perpetual satisfaction, but it
   shall be upon their heads, as an ornament of grace and a crown of
   glory, as a garland worn in token of victory. Their joy shall be
   visible, and no longer a secret thing, as it is here in this world; it
   shall be proclaimed, to the glory of God and their mutual
   encouragement. They shall then obtain the joy and gladness which they
   could never expect on this side heaven; and sorrow and sighing shall
   flee away for ever, as the shadows of the night before the rising sun.
   Thus these prophecies, which relate to the Assyrian invasion, conclude,
   for the support of the people of God under that calamity, and to direct
   their joy, in their deliverance from it, to something higher. Our
   joyful hopes and prospects of eternal life should swallow up both all
   the sorrows and all the joys of this present time.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVI.

   The prophet Isaiah is, in this and the three following chapters, an
   historian; for the scripture history, as well as the scripture
   prophecy, is given by inspiration of God, and was dictated to holy men.
   Many of the prophecies of the foregoing chapters had their
   accomplishment in Sennacherib's invading Judah and besieging Jerusalem,
   and the miraculous defeat he met with there; and therefore the story of
   this is here inserted, both for the explication and for the
   confirmation of the prophecy. The key of prophecy is to be found in
   history; and here, that we might have the readier entrance, it is, as
   it were, hung at the door. The exact fulfilling of this prophecy might
   serve to confirm the faith of God's people in the other prophecies, the
   accomplishment of which was at a greater distance. Whether this story
   was taken from the book of the Kings and added here, or whether it was
   first written by Isaiah here and hence taken into the book of Kings, is
   not material. But the story is the same almost verbatim; and it was so
   memorable an event that it was well worthy to be twice recorded, 2
   Kings xviii. and xix., and here, and an abridgment of it likewise, 2
   Chron. xxxii. We shall be but short in our observations upon this story
   here, having largely explained it there. In this chapter we have, I.
   The descent which the king of Assyria made upon Judah, and his success
   against all the defenced cities, ver. 1. II. The conference he desired
   to have with Hezekiah, and the managers on both sides, ver. 2, 3. III.
   Rabshakeh's railing blasphemous speech, with which he designed to
   frighten Hezekiah into a submission, and persuade him to surrender at
   discretion, ver. 4-10. IV. His appeal to the people, and his attempt to
   persuade them to desert Hezekiah, and so force him to surrender, ver.
   11-20. V. The report of this made to Hezekiah by his agents, ver. 21,
   22.

Sennacherib's Insolent Message. (b. c. 710.)

   1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that
   Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of
   Judah, and took them.   2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from
   Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood
   by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.
     3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the
   house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.   4
   And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the
   great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou
   trustest?   5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have
   counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou
   rebellest against me?   6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken
   reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and
   pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.   7
   But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he,
   whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said
   to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?   8 Now
   therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria,
   and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part
   to set riders upon them.   9 How then wilt thou turn away the face of
   one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on
   Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?   10 And am I now come up without
   the Lord against this land to destroy it? the Lord said unto me, Go up
   against this land, and destroy it.

   We shall here only observe some practical lessons. 1. A people may be
   in the way of their duty and yet meet with trouble and distress.
   Hezekiah was reforming, and his people were in some measure reformed;
   and yet their country is at that time invaded and a great part of it
   laid waste. Perhaps they began to grow remiss and cool in the work of
   reformation, were doing it by halves, and ready to sit down short of a
   thorough reformation; and then God visited them with this judgment, to
   put life into them and that good cause. We must not wonder if, when we
   are doing well, God sends afflictions to quicken us to do better, to do
   our best, and to press forward towards perfection. 2. That we must
   never be secure of the continuance of our peace in this world, nor
   think our mountain stands so strong that it cannot be moved. Hezekiah
   was not only a pious king, but prudent, both in his administration at
   home and in his treaties abroad. His affairs were in a good posture,
   and he seemed particularly to be upon good terms with the king of
   Assyria, for he had lately made his peace with him by a rich present (2
   Kings xviii. 14), and yet that perfidious prince pours an army into his
   country all of a sudden and lays it waste. It is good for us therefore
   always to keep up an expectation of trouble, that, when it comes, it
   may be no surprise to us, and then it will be the less a terror. 3. God
   sometimes permits the enemies of his people, even those that are most
   impious and treacherous, to prevail far against them. The king of
   Assyria took all, or most, of the defenced cities of Judah, and then
   the country would of course be an easy prey to him. Wickedness may
   prosper awhile, but cannot prosper always. 4. Proud men love to talk
   big, to boast of what they are, and have, and have done, nay and of
   what they will do, to insult over others, and set all mankind at
   defiance, though thereby they render themselves ridiculous to all wise
   men and obnoxious to the wrath of that God who resists the proud. But
   thus they think to make themselves feared, though they make themselves
   hated, and to carry their point by great swelling words of vanity, Jude
   16. 5. The enemies of God's people endeavour to conquer them by
   frightening them, especially by frightening them from their confidence
   in God. Thus Rabshakeh here, with noise and banter, runs down Hezekiah
   as utterly unable to cope with his master, or in the least to make head
   against him. It concerns us therefore, that we may keep our ground
   against the enemies of our souls, to keep up our spirits by keeping up
   our hope in God. 6. It is acknowledged, on all hands, that those who
   forsake God's service forfeit his protection. If that had been true
   which Rabshakeh alleged, that Hezekiah had thrown down God's altars, he
   might justly infer that he could not with any assurance trust in him
   for succour and relief, v. 7, We may say thus to presuming sinners, who
   say that they trust in the Lord and in his mercy. Is not this he whose
   commandments they have lived in the contempt of, whose name they have
   dishonoured, and whose ordinances they have slighted? How then can they
   expect to find favour with him? 7. It is an easy thing, and very
   common, for those that persecute the church and people of God to
   pretend a commission from him for so doing. Rabshakeh could say, Have I
   now come up without the Lord? when really he had come up against the
   Lord, ch. xxxvii. 28. Those that kill the servants of the Lord think
   they do him service and say, Let the Lord be glorified. But, sooner or
   later, they will be made to know their error to their cost, to their
   confusion.

Sennacherib's Insolent Message. (b. c. 710.)

   11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray
   thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it:
   and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people
   that are on the wall.   12 But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me
   to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to
   the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and
   drink their own piss with you?   13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried
   with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of
   the great king, the king of Assyria.   14 Thus saith the king, Let not
   Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.   15
   Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will
   surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of
   the king of Assyria.   16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the
   king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out
   to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree,
   and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;   17 Until I come
   and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
   wine, a land of bread and vineyards.   18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade
   you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the
   nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?   19
   Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of
   Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?   20 Who
   are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their
   land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my
   hand?   21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for
   the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.   22 Then came
   Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna
   the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with
   their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

   We may hence learn these lessons:--1. That, while princes and
   counsellors have public matters under debate, it is not fair to appeal
   to the people. It was a reasonable motion which Hezekiah's
   plenipotentiaries made, that this parley should be held in a language
   which the people did not understand (v. 11), because reasons of state
   are secret things and ought to be kept secret, the vulgar being
   incompetent judges of them. It is therefore an unfair practice, and not
   doing as men would be done by, to incense subjects against their rulers
   by base insinuations. 2. Proud and haughty scorners, the fairer they
   are spoken to, commonly speak the fouler. Nothing could be said more
   mildly and respectfully than that which Hezekiah's agents said to
   Rabshakeh. Besides that the thing itself was just which they desired,
   they called themselves his servants, they petitioned for it: Speak, we
   pray thee; but this made him the more spiteful and imperious. To give
   rough answers to those who give us soft answers is one way of rendering
   evil for good; and those are wicked indeed, and it is to be feared
   incurable, with whom that which usually turns away wrath does but make
   bad worse. 3. When Satan would tempt men from trusting in God, and
   cleaving to him, he does so by insinuating that in yielding to him they
   may better their condition; but it is a false suggestion, and grossly
   absurd, and therefore to be rejected with the utmost abhorrence. When
   the world and the flesh say to us, "Make an agreement with us and come
   out to us, submit to our dominion and come into our interests, and you
   shall eat every one of his own vine," they do but deceive us, promising
   liberty when they would lead us into the basest captivity and slavery.
   One might as well take Rabshakeh's word as theirs for kind usage and
   fair quarter; therefore, when they speak fair, believe them not. Let
   them say what they will, there is no land like the land of promise, the
   holy land. 4. Nothing can be more absurd in itself, nor a greater
   affront to the true and living God, than to compare him with the gods
   of the heathen; as if he could do no more for the protection of his
   worshippers than they can for the protection of theirs, and as if the
   God of Israel could as easily be mastered as the gods of Hamath and
   Arphad, whereas they are vanity and a lie. They are nothing; he is the
   great I AM: they are the creatures of men's fancy and the works of
   men's hands; he is the Creator of all things. 5. Presumptuous sinners
   are ready to think that, because they have been too hard for their
   fellow-creatures, they are therefore a match for their Creator. This
   and the other nation they have subdued, and therefore the Lord himself
   shall not deliver Jerusalem out of their hand. But, though the
   potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth, let them not
   strive with the potter. 6. It is sometimes prudent not to answer a fool
   according to his folly. Hezekiah's command was, "Answer him not; it
   will but provoke him to rail and blaspheme yet more and more; leave it
   to God to stop his mouth, for you cannot." They had reason enough on
   their side, but it would be hard to speak it to such an unreasonable
   adversary without a mixture of passion; and, if they should fall a
   railing like him, Rabshakeh would be much too hard for them at that
   weapon. 7. It becomes the people of God to lay to heart the dishonour
   done to God by the blasphemies of wicked men, though they do not think
   it prudent to reply to those blasphemies. Though they answered him not
   a word, yet they rent their clothes, in a holy zeal for the glory of
   God's name and a holy indignation at the contempt put upon it. They
   tore their garments when they heard blasphemy, as taking no pleasure in
   their own ornaments when God's honour suffered.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVII.

   In this chapter we have a further repetition of the story which we had
   before in the book of Kings concerning Sennacherib. In the foregoing
   chapter we had him conquering and threatening to conquer. In this
   chapter we have him falling, and at last fallen, in answer to prayer,
   and in fulfillment of many of the prophecies which we have met with in
   the foregoing chapters. Here we have, I. Hezekiah's pious reception of
   Rabshakeh's impious discourse, ver. 1. II. The gracious message he sent
   to Isaiah to desire his prayers, ver. 2-5. III. The encouraging answer
   which Isaiah sent to him from God, assuring him that God would plead
   his cause against the king of Assyria, ver. 6, 7. IV. An abusive letter
   which the king of Assyria sent to Hezekiah, to the same purport with
   Rabshakeh's speech, ver. 8-13. V. Hezekiah's humble prayer to God upon
   the receipt of this letter, ver. 14-20. VI. The further full answer
   which God sent him by Isaiah, promising him that his affairs should
   shortly take a happy turn, that the storm should blow over and every
   thing should appear bright and serene, ver. 21-35. VII. The immediate
   accomplishment of this prophecy in the ruin of his army (ver. 36) and
   the murder of himself, ver. 37, 38. All this was largely opened, 2
   Kings xix.

Hezekiah's Message to Isaiah. (b. c. 710.)

   1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his
   clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of
   the Lord.   2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and
   Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with
   sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.   3 And they said
   unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of
   rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and
   there is not strength to bring forth.   4 It may be the Lord thy God
   will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master
   hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which
   the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the
   remnant that is left.   5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to
   Isaiah.   6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your
   master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast
   heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed
   me.   7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a
   rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the
   sword in his own land.

   We may observe here, 1. That the best way to baffle the malicious
   designs of our enemies against us is to be driven by them to God and to
   our duty and so to fetch meat out of the eater. Rabshakeh intended to
   frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to
   the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the traveller's coat from him,
   makes him wrap it the closer about him. The more Rabshakeh reproaches
   God the more Hezekiah studies to honour him, by rending his clothes for
   the dishonour done to him and attending in his sanctuary to know his
   mind. 2. That it well becomes great men to desire the prayers of good
   men and good ministers. Hezekiah sent messengers, and honourable ones,
   those of the first rank, to Isaiah, to desire his prayers, remembering
   how much his prophecies of late had plainly looked towards the events
   of the present day, in dependence upon which, it is probable, he
   doubted not but that the issue would be comfortable, yet he would have
   it to be so in answer to prayer: This is a day of trouble, therefore
   let it be a day of prayer. 3. When we are most at a plunge we should be
   most earnest in prayer: Now that the children are brought to the birth,
   but there is not strength to bring forth, now let prayer come, and help
   at a dead lift. When pains are most strong let prayers be most lively;
   and, when we meet with the greatest difficulties, then is a time to
   stir up not ourselves only, but others also, to take hold on God.
   Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth. 4. It is
   an encouragement to pray though we have but some hopes of mercy (v. 4):
   It may be the Lord thy God will hear; who knows but he will return and
   repent? The it may be of the prospect of the haven of blessings should
   quicken us with double diligence to ply the oar of prayer. 5. When
   there is a remnant left, and but a remnant, it concerns us to lift up a
   prayer for that remnant, v. 4. The prayer that reaches heaven must be
   lifted up by a strong faith, earnest desires, and a direct intention to
   the glory of God, all which should be quickened when we come to the
   last stake. 6. Those that have made God their enemy we have no reason
   to be afraid of, for they are marked for ruin; and, though they may
   hiss, they cannot hurt. Rabshakeh has blasphemed God, and therefore let
   not Hezekiah be afraid of him, v. 6. He has made God a party to the
   cause by his invectives, and therefore judgment will certainly be given
   against him. God will certainly plead his own cause. 7. Sinners' fears
   are but prefaces to their falls. He shall hear the rumour of the
   slaughter of his army, which shall oblige him to retire to his own
   land, and there he shall be slain, v. 7. The terrors that pursue him
   shall bring him at last to the king of terrors, Job xviii. 11, 14. The
   curses that come upon sinners shall overtake them.

Prayer of Hezekiah. (b. c. 710.)

   8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against
   Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.   9 And he
   heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to
   make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to
   Hezekiah, saying,   10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah,
   saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying,
   Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.   11
   Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all
   lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?   12
   Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have
   destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden
   which were in Telassar?   13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king
   of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?   14
   And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and
   read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it
   before the Lord.   15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying,   16 O
   Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou
   art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou
   hast made heaven and earth.   17 Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear;
   open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of
   Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.   18 Of a
   truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and
   their countries,   19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they
   were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore
   they have destroyed them.   20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us
   from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou
   art the Lord, even thou only.

   We may observe here, 1. That, if God give us inward satisfaction in his
   promise, this may confirm us in our silently bearing reproaches. God
   answered Hezekiah, but it does not appear that he, after deliberation,
   sent any answer to Rabshakeh; but, God having taken the work into his
   own hands, he quietly left the matter with him. So Rabshakeh returned
   to the king his master for fresh instructions. 2. Those that delight in
   war shall have enough of it. Sennacherib, without provocation given to
   him or warning given by him, went forth to war against Judah; and now
   with as little ceremony the king of Ethiopia goes forth to war against
   him, v. 9. Those that are quarrelsome may expect to be quarrelled with;
   and God sometimes checks the rage of his enemies by giving it a
   powerful diversion. 3. It is bad to talk proudly and profanely, but it
   is worse to write so, for this argues more deliberation and design, and
   what is written spreads further, lasts longer, and does the more
   mischief. Atheism and irreligion, written, will certainly be reckoned
   for another day. 4. Great successes often harden sinners' hearts in
   their sinful ways and make them the more daring. Because the kings of
   Assyria have destroyed all lands (though, in fact, they were but a few
   that fell within their reach), therefore they doubt not but to destroy
   God's land; because the gods of the nations were unable to help they
   conclude the God of Israel is so; because the idolatrous kings of
   Hamath and Arphad became an easy prey to them therefore they doubt not
   but to destroy God's land; because the idolatrous kings of Hamath and
   Arphad became an easy prey to them therefore the religious reforming
   king of Judah must needs be so too. Thus is this proud man ripened for
   ruin by the sunshine of prosperity. 5. Liberty of access to the throne
   of grace, and liberty of speech there, are the unspeakable privilege of
   the Lord's people at all times, especially in times of distress and
   danger. Hezekiah took Sennacherib's letter, and spread it before the
   Lord, not designing to make any complaints against him but those
   grounded upon his own handwriting. Let the thing speak itself; here it
   is in black and white: Open thy eyes, O Lord! and see. God allows his
   praying people to be humbly free with him, to utter all their words, as
   Jephthah did, before him, to spread the letter, whether of a friend or
   an enemy, before him, and leave the contents, the concern of it, with
   him. 6. The great and fundamental principles of our religion, applied
   by faith and improved in prayer, will be of sovereign use to us in our
   particular exigencies and distresses, whatever they are; to them
   therefore we must have recourse, and abide by them; so Hezekiah did
   here. He encouraged himself with this, that the God of Israel is the
   Lord of hosts, of all hosts, of the hosts of Israel, to animate him, of
   the hosts of their enemies, to dispirit and restrain them,--that he is
   God alone, and there is none that can stand in competition with
   him,--that he is the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, and disposes
   of them all as he pleases; for he made heaven and earth, and therefore
   both can do any thing and does every thing. 7. When we are afraid of
   men that are great destroyers we may with humble boldness appeal to God
   as the great Saviour. They have indeed destroyed the nations, who had
   thrown themselves out of the protection of the true God by worshipping
   false gods, but the Lord, the God alone, is our God, our King, our
   lawgiver, and he will save us, who is the Saviour of those that
   believe. 8. We have enough to take hold of, in our wrestling with God
   by prayer, if we can but plead that his glory is interested in our
   case, that his name will be profaned if we are run down and glorified
   if we are relieved. Thence therefore will our most prevailing pleas be
   drawn: "Do it for thy glory's sake."

Sennacherib Threatened; Sennacherib Destroyed. (b. c. 710.)

   21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith
   the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against
   Sennacherib king of Assyria:   22 This is the word which the Lord hath
   spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised
   thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken
   her head at thee.   23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and
   against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on
   high? even against the Holy One of Israel.   24 By thy servants hast
   thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my
   chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of
   Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice
   fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and
   the forest of his Carmel.   25 I have digged, and drunk water; and with
   the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged
   places.   26 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of
   ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass,
   that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.
     27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were
   dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as
   the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted
   before it be grown up.   28 But I know thy abode, and thy going out,
   and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.   29 Because thy rage
   against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I
   put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn
   thee back by the way by which thou camest.   30 And this shall be a
   sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and
   the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year
   sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.   31
   And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take
   root downward, and bear fruit upward:   32 For out of Jerusalem shall
   go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of
   the Lord of hosts shall do this.   33 Therefore thus saith the Lord
   concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor
   shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank
   against it.   34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,
   and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.   35 For I will
   defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant
   David's sake.   36 Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in
   the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand:
   and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead
   corpses.   37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
   returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.   38 And it came to pass, as he was
   worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and
   Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the
   land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

   We may here observe, 1. That those who receive messages of terror from
   men with patience, and send messages of faith to God by prayer, may
   expect messages of grace and peace from God for their comfort, even
   when they are most cast down. Isaiah sent a long answer to Hezekiah's
   prayer in God's name, sent it in writing (for it was too long to be
   sent by word of mouth), and sent it by way of return to his prayer,
   relation being thereunto had: "Whereas thou hast prayed to me, know,
   for thy comfort, that thy prayer is heard." Isaiah might have referred
   him to the prophecies he had delivered (particularly that ch. x.) and
   bid him pick out an answer from thence; but, that he might have
   abundant consolation, a message is sent him on purpose. The
   correspondence between earth and heaven is never let fall on God's
   side. 2. Those who magnify themselves, especially who magnify
   themselves against God and his people, do really vilify themselves, and
   made themselves contemptible, in the eyes of all wise men: "The virgin,
   the daughter of Zion, has despised Sennacherib, and all his impotent
   malice and menaces; she knows that, while she preserves her integrity,
   she is sure of the divine protection, and that though the enemy may
   bark he cannot bite. All his threats are a jest; it is all but brutum
   fulmen--a mere flash," 3. Those who abuse the people of God affront God
   himself; and he takes what is said and done against them as said and
   done against himself: "Whom hast thou reproached? Even the Holy One of
   Israel, whom thou hast therefore reproached because he is a Holy One."
   And it aggravated the indignity Sennacherib did to God that he not only
   reproached him himself, but set his servants on to do the same: By thy
   servants, the abjects, thou hast reproached me. 4. Those who boast of
   themselves and their own achievements reflect upon God and his
   providence: "Thou hast said, I have digged, and drunk water; I have
   done mighty feats, and will do more; and wilt not own that I have done
   it," v. 24-26. The most active men are no more than God makes them, and
   God makes them no more than of old he designed to make them: "What I
   have formed of ancient times, in an eternal counsel, now have I brought
   to pass" (for God does all according to the counsel of his will), "that
   thou shouldst be to lay waste defenced cities; it is therefore
   intolerable arrogance to make it thy own doing." 5. All the malice, and
   all the motions and projects, of the church's enemies, are under the
   cognizance and check of the church's God. Sennacherib was active and
   quick, here, and there, and every where, but God knew his going out and
   coming in, and had always an eye upon him, v. 28. And that was not all;
   he had a hand upon him too, a strict hand, a strong hand, a hook in his
   nose and a bridle in his lips, with which, though he was very
   headstrong and unruly, he could and would turn him back by the way
   which he came, v. 29. Hitherto he shall come and no further. God had
   signed Sennacherib's commission against Judah (ch. x. 6); here he
   supersedes it. He has frightened them, but he must not hurt them, and
   therefore is discharged from going any further; nay, his commitment is
   here signed, by which he is clapped up, to answer for what he had done
   beyond his commission. 6. God is his people's bountiful benefactor, as
   well as their powerful protector, both a sun and a shield to those that
   trust in him. Jerusalem shall be defended (v. 35), the besiegers shall
   not come into it, no, nor come before it with any regular attack, but
   they shall be routed before they begin the siege, v. 33. But this is
   not all; God will return in mercy to his people, and will do them good.
   Their land shall be more than ordinarily fruitful, so that their losses
   shall be abundantly repaired; they shall not feel any of the ill
   effects either of the enemies' wasting the country or of their own
   being taken off from husbandry. But the earth, as at first, shall bring
   forth of itself, and they shall live and live plentifully upon its
   spontaneous productions. The blessing of the Lord can, when he pleases,
   make rich without the hand of the diligent. And let them not think that
   the desolations of their country would excuse them from observing the
   sabbatical year, which happened (as it should seem) the year after, and
   when they were not to plough or sow; no, though they had not now their
   usual stock beforehand for that year, yet they must religiously observe
   it, and depend upon God to provide for them. God must be trusted in the
   way of duty. 7. There is no standing before the judgments of God when
   they come with commission. (1.) The greatest numbers cannot stand
   before them: one angel shall, in one night, lay a vast army of men dead
   upon the spot, when God commissions him so to do, v. 36. Here are
   185,000 brave soldiers in an instant turned into so many dead corpses.
   Many think the 76th Psalm was penned upon occasion of this defeat,
   where from the spoiling of the stout-hearted, and sending them to sleep
   their long sleep (v. 5), it is inferred that God is more glorious and
   excellent than the mountains of prey (v. 4), and that he, even he, is
   to be feared, v. 7. Angels are employed, more than we are aware of, as
   ministers of God's justice, to punish the pride and break the power of
   wicked men. (2.) The greatest men cannot stand before them: The great
   king, the king of Assyria, looks very little when he is forced to
   return, not only with shame, because he cannot accomplish what he had
   projected with so much assurance, but with terror and fear, lest the
   angel that had destroyed his army should destroy him; yet he is made to
   look less when his own sons, who should have guarded him, sacrificed
   him to his idol, whose protection he sought, v. 37, 38. God can quickly
   stop their breath who breathe out threatenings and slaughter against
   his people, and will do it when they have filled up the measure of
   their iniquity; and the Lord is known by these judgments which he
   executes, known to be a God that resists the proud. Many prophecies
   were fulfilled in this providence, which should encourage us, as far as
   they look further, and are designed as common and general assurances of
   the safety of the church and of all that trust in God, to depend upon
   God for the accomplishment of them. He that has delivered does and will
   deliver. Lord, forgive our enemies; but, so let all thy enemies perish,
   O Lord!
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I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVIII.

   This chapter proceeds in the history of Hezekiah. Here is, I. His
   sickness, and the sentence of death he received within himself, ver. 1.
   II. His prayer in his sickness, ver. 2, 3. III. The answer of peace
   which God gave to that prayer, assuring him that he should recover,
   that he should live fifteen years yet, that Jerusalem should be
   delivered from the king of Assyria, and that, for a sign to confirm his
   faith herein, the sun should go back ten degrees, ver. 4-8. And this we
   read and opened before, 2 Kings xx. 1, &c. But, IV. Here is Hezekiah's
   thanksgiving for his recovery, which we had not before, ver. 9-20. To
   which are added the means used (ver. 21), and the end the good man
   aimed at in desiring to recover, ver. 22. This is a chapter which will
   entertain the thoughts, direct the devotions, and encourage the faith
   and hopes of those that are confined by bodily distempers; it visits
   those that are visited with sickness.

Hezekiah's Sickness. (b. c. 710.)

   1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet
   the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
   Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.   2 Then
   Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord,   3
   And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked
   before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which
   is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.   4 Then came the word of
   the Lord to Isaiah, saying,   5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the
   Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen
   thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.   6 And I
   will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria:
   and I will defend this city.   7 And this shall be a sign unto thee
   from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken;
   8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone
   down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned
   ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

   We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons:--1. That
   neither men's greatness nor their goodness will exempt them from the
   arrests of sickness and death. Hezekiah, a mighty potentate on earth
   and a mighty favourite of Heaven, is struck with a disease, which,
   without a miracle, will certainly be mortal; and this in the midst of
   his days, his comforts, and usefulness. Lord, behold, he whom thou
   lovest is sick. It should seem, this sickness seized him when he was in
   the midst of his triumphs over the ruined army of the Assyrians, to
   teach us always to rejoice with trembling. 2. It concerns us to prepare
   when we see death approaching: "Set thy house in order, and thy heart
   especially; put both thy affections and thy affairs into the best
   posture thou canst, that, when thy Lord comes, thou mayest be found of
   him in peace with God, with thy own conscience, and with all men, and
   mayest have nothing else to do but to die." Our being ready for death
   will make it come never the sooner, but much the easier: and those that
   are fit to die are most fit to live. 3. Is any afflicted with sickness?
   Let him pray, James v. 13. Prayer is a salve for every sore, personal
   or public. When Hezekiah was distressed by his enemies he prayed; now
   that he was sick he prayed. Whither should the child go, when any thing
   ails him, but to his Father? Afflictions are sent to bring us to our
   Bibles and to our knees. When Hezekiah was in health he went up to the
   house of the Lord to pray, for that was then the house of prayer. When
   he was sick in bed he turned his face towards the wall, probably
   towards the temple, which was a type of Christ, to whom we must look by
   faith in every prayer. 4. The testimony of our consciences for us that
   by the grace of God we have lived a good life, and have walked closely
   and humbly with God, will be a great support and comfort to us when we
   come to look death in the face. And though we may not depend upon it as
   our righteousness, by which to be justified before God, yet we may
   humbly plead it as an evidence of our interest in the righteousness of
   the Mediator. Hezekiah does not demand a reward from God for his good
   services, but modestly begs that God would remembers, not how he had
   reformed the kingdom, taken away the high places, cleansed the temple,
   and revived neglected ordinances, but, which was better than all
   burnt-offerings and sacrifices, how he had approved himself to God with
   a single eye and an honest heart, not only in these eminent
   performances, but in an even regular course of holy living: I have
   walked before thee in truth and sincerity, and with a perfect, that is,
   an upright, heart; for uprightness is our gospel perfection. 5. God has
   a gracious ear open to the prayers of his afflicted people. The same
   prophet that was sent to Hezekiah with warning to prepare for death is
   sent to him with a promise that he shall not only recover, but be
   restored to a confirmed state of health and live fifteen years yet. As
   Jerusalem was distressed, so Hezekiah was diseased, that God might have
   the glory of the deliverance of both, and that prayer too might have
   the honour of being instrumental in the deliverance. When we pray in
   our sickness, though God send not to us such an answer as he here sent
   to Hezekiah, yet, if by his Spirit he bids us be of good cheer, assures
   us that our sins are forgiven us, that his grace shall be sufficient
   for us, and that, whether we live or die, we shall be his, we have no
   reason to say that we pray in vain. God answers us if he strengthens us
   with strength in our souls, though not with bodily strength, Ps.
   cxxxviii. 3. 6. A good man cannot take much comfort in his own health
   and prosperity unless withal he see the welfare and prosperity of the
   church of God. Therefore God, knowing what lay near Hezekiah's heart,
   promised him not only that he should live, but that he should see the
   good of Jerusalem all the days of his life (Ps. cxxviii. 5), otherwise
   he cannot live comfortably. Jerusalem, which is now delivered, shall
   still be defended from the Assyrians, who perhaps threatened to rally
   again and renew the attack. Thus does God graciously provide to make
   Hezekiah upon all accounts easy. 7. God is willing to show to the heirs
   of promise the immutability of his counsel, that they may have an
   unshaken faith in it, and therewith a strong consolation. God had given
   Hezekiah repeated assurances of his favour; and yet, as if all were
   thought too little, that he might expect from him uncommon favours, a
   sign is given him, an uncommon sign. None that we know of having had an
   absolute promise of living a certain number of years to come, as
   Hezekiah had, God thought fit to confirm this unprecedented favour with
   a miracle. The sign was the going back of the shadow upon the sun-dial.
   The sun is a faithful measurer of time, and rejoices as a strong man to
   run a race; but he that set that clock a going can set it back when he
   pleases, and make it to return; for the Father of all lights is the
   director of them.

Hezekiah's Thanksgiving. (b. c. 710.)

   9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was
   recovered of his sickness:   10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I
   shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my
   years.   11 I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the
   land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of
   the world.   12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a
   shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me
   off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end
   of me.   13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break
   all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.   14
   Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove:
   mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake
   for me.   15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself
   hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my
   soul.   16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is
   the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
   17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to
   my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all
   my sins behind thy back.   18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death
   can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for
   thy truth.   19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do
   this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.   20
   The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the
   stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
     21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for
   a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.   22 Hezekiah also had
   said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

   We have here Hezekiah's thanksgiving-song, which he penned, by divine
   direction, after his recovery. He might have taken some of the psalms
   of his father David, and made use of them for his purpose; he might
   have found many very pertinent ones. He appointed the Levites to praise
   the Lord with the words of David, 2 Chron. xxix. 30. But the occasion
   here was extraordinary, and, his heart being full of devout affections,
   he would not confine himself to the compositions he had, though of
   divine inspiration, but would offer up his affections in his own words,
   which is most natural and genuine. He put this thanksgiving in writing,
   that he might review it himself afterwards, for the reviving of the
   good impressions made upon him by the providence, and that it might be
   recommended to others also for their use upon the like occasion. Note,
   There are writings which it is proper for us to draw up after we have
   been sick and have recovered. It is good to write a memorial of the
   affliction, and of the frame of our hearts under it,--to keep a record
   of the thoughts we had of things when we were sick, the affections that
   were then working in us,--to write a memorial of the mercies of a sick
   bed, and of our release from it, that they may never be forgotten,--to
   write a thanksgiving to God, write a sure covenant with him, and seal
   it,--to give it under our hands that we will never return again to
   folly. It is an excellent writing which Hezekiah here left, upon his
   recovery; and yet we find (2 Chron. xxxii. 25) that he rendered not
   again according to the benefit done to him. The impressions, one would
   think, should never have worn off, and yet, it seems, they did.
   Thanksgiving is good, but thanksliving is better. Now in this writing
   he preserves upon record,

   I. The deplorable condition he was in when his disease prevailed, and
   his despair of recovery, v. 10-13.

   1. He tells us what his thoughts were of himself when he was at the
   worst; and these he keeps in remembrance, (1.) As blaming himself for
   his despondency, and that he gave up himself for gone; whereas while
   there is life there is hope, and room for our prayer and God's mercy.
   Though it is good to consider sickness as a summons to the grave, so as
   thereby to be quickened in our preparations for another world, yet we
   ought not to make the worse of our case, nor to think that every sick
   man must needs be a dead man presently. He that brings low can raise
   up. Or, (2.) As reminding himself of the apprehensions he had of death
   approaching, that he might always know and consider his own frailty and
   mortality, and that, though he had a reprieve for fifteen years, it was
   but a reprieve, and the fatal stroke he had now such a dread of would
   certainly come at last. Or, (3.) As magnifying the power of God in
   restoring him when his case was desperate, and his goodness in being so
   much better to him than his own fears. Thus David sometimes, when he
   was delivered out of trouble, reflected upon the black and melancholy
   conclusions he had made upon his own case when he was in trouble, and
   what he had then said in his haste, as Ps. xxxi. 22; lxxvii. 7-9.

   2. Let us see what Hezekiah's thoughts of himself were.

   (1.) He reckoned that the number of his months was cut off in the
   midst. He was now about thirty-nine or forty years of age, and when he
   had a fair prospect of many years and happy ones, very happy, very
   many, before him. This distemper that suddenly seized him he concluded
   would be the cutting off of his days, that he should now be deprived of
   the residue of his years, which in a course of nature he might have
   lived (not which he could command as a debt due to him, but which he
   had reason to expect, considering the strength of his constitution),
   and with them he should be deprived not only of the comforts of life,
   but of all the opportunities he had of serving God and his generation.
   To the same purport (v. 12), "My age has departed and gone, and is
   removed from me as a shepherd's tent, out of which I am forcibly
   dislodged by the pulling of it down in an instant." Our present
   residence is but like that of a shepherd in his tent, a poor, mean, and
   cold lodging, where we are upon duty, and with a trust committed to our
   charge, as the shepherd has, of which we must give an account, and
   which will easily be taken down by the drawing of one pin or two. But
   observe, It is not the final period of our age, but only the removal of
   it to another world, where the tents of Kedar that are taken down,
   coarse, black, and weather-beaten, shall be set up again in the New
   Jerusalem, comely as the curtains of Solomon. He adds another
   similitude: I have cut off, like a weaver, my life. Not that he did by
   any act of his own cut off the thread of his life; but, being told that
   he must needs die, he was forced to cut off all his designs and
   projects, his purposes were broken off, even the thoughts of his heart,
   as Job's were, ch. xvii. 11. Our days are compared to the weaver's
   shuttle (Job vii. 6), passing and repassing very swiftly, every throw
   leaving a thread behind it; and, when they are finished, the thread is
   cut off, and the piece taken out of the loom, and shown to our Master,
   to be judged of whether it be well woven or no, that we may receive
   according to the things done in the body. But as the weaver, when he
   has cut off his thread, has done his work, and the toil is over, so a
   good man, when his life is cut off, his cares and fatigues are cut off
   with it, and he rests from his labours. "But did I say, I have cut off
   my life? No, my times are not in my own hand; they are in God's hand,
   and it is he that will cut me off from the thrum (so the margin reads
   it); he has appointed what shall be the length of the piece, and, when
   it comes to that length, he will cut it off."

   (2.) He reckoned that he should go to the gates of the grave--to the
   grave, the gates of which are always open; for it is still crying,
   Give, give. The grave is here put not only for the sepulchre of his
   fathers, in which his body would be deposited with a great deal of pomp
   and magnificence (for he was buried in the chief of the sepulchres of
   the kings, and all Judah did him honour at his death, 2 Chron. xxxii.
   33), which yet he himself took no care of, nor gave any order about,
   when he was sick; but for the state of the dead, that is, the sheol,
   the hades, the invisible world, to which he saw his soul going.

   (3.) He reckoned that he was deprived of all the opportunities he might
   have had of worshipping God and doing good in the world (v. 1): "I
   said," [1.] "I shall not see the Lord, as he manifests himself in his
   temple, in his oracles and ordinances, even the Lord here in the land
   of the living." He hopes to see him on the other side death, but he
   despairs of seeing him any more on this side death, as he had seen him
   in the sanctuary, Ps. lxiii. 2. He shall no more see (that is, serve)
   the Lord in the land of the living, the land of conflict between his
   kingdom and the kingdom of Satan, this seat of war. He dwells much upon
   this: I shall no more see the Lord, even the Lord; for a good man
   wishes not to live for any other end than that he may serve God and
   have communion with him. [2.] "I shall see man no more." He shall see
   his subjects no more, whom he may protect and administer justice to,
   shall see no more objects of charity, whom he may relieve, shall see
   his friends no more, who were often sharpened by his countenance, as
   iron is by iron. Death puts an end to conversation, and removes our
   acquaintance into darkness, Ps. lxxxviii. 18.

   (4.) He reckoned that the agonies of death would be very sharp and
   severe: "He will cut me off with pining sickness, which will waste me,
   and wear me off, quickly." The distemper increased so fast, without
   intermission or remission, either day or night, morning or evening,
   that he concluded it would soon come to a crisis and make an end of
   him--that God, whose servants all diseases are, would by them, as a
   lion, break all his bones with grinding pain, v. 13. He thought that
   next morning was the utmost he could expect to live in such pain and
   misery; when he had outlived the first day's illness the second day he
   repeated his fears, and concluded that this must needs be his last
   night: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. When we are
   sick we are very apt to be thus calculating our time, and, after all,
   we are still at uncertainty. It should be more our care how we shall
   get safely to another world than how long we are likely to live in this
   world.

   II. The complaints he made in this condition (v. 14): "Like a crane, or
   swallow, so did I chatter; I made a noise as those birds do when they
   are frightened." See what a change sickness makes in a little time; he
   that, but the other day, spoke with so much freedom and majesty, nor,
   through the extremity of pain or deficiency of spirits, chatters like a
   crane or a swallow. Some think he refers to his praying in his
   affliction; it was so broken and interrupted with groanings which could
   not be uttered that it was more like the chattering of a crane or a
   swallow than what it used to be. Such mean thoughts had he of his own
   prayers, which yet were acceptable to God, and successful. He mourned
   like a dove, sadly, but silently and patiently. He had found God so
   ready to answer his prayers at other times that he could not but look
   upwards, in expectation of some relief now, but in vain: his eyes
   failed, and he saw no hopeful symptom, nor felt any abatement of his
   distemper; and therefore he prays, "I am oppressed, quite overpowered
   and ready to sink; Lord, undertake for me; bail me out of the hands of
   the serjeant that has arrested me; be surety for thy servant for good,
   Ps. cxix. 122. Come between me and the gates of the grave, to which I
   am ready to be hurried." When we recover from sickness, the divine pity
   does, as it were, beg a day for us, and undertakes we shall be
   forthcoming another time and answer the debt in full. And, when we
   receive the sentence of death within ourselves, we are undone if the
   divine grace do not undertake for us to carry us through the valley of
   the shadow of death, and to preserve us blameless to the heavenly
   kingdom on the other side of it--if Christ do not undertake for us, to
   bring us off in judgment, and present us to his Father, and to do all
   that for us which we need, and cannot do for ourselves. I am oppressed,
   ease me (so some read it); for, when we are agitated by a sense of
   guilt and the fear of wrath, nothing will make us easy but Christ's
   undertaking for us.

   III. The grateful acknowledgment he makes of God's goodness to him in
   his recovery. He begins this part of the writing as one at a stand how
   to express himself (v. 15): "What shall I say? Why should I say so much
   by way of complaint when this is enough to silence all my
   complaints--He has spoken unto me; he has sent his prophet to tell me
   that I shall recover and live fifteen years yet; and he himself has
   done it: it is as sure to be done as if it were done already. What God
   has spoken he will himself do, for no word of his shall fall to the
   ground." God having spoken it, he is sure of it (v. 16): "Thou wilt
   restore me, and make me to live; not only restore me from this illness,
   but make me to live through the years assigned me." And, having this
   hope,

   1. He promises himself always to retain the impressions of his
   affliction (v. 15): "I will go softly all my years in the bitterness of
   my soul, as one in sorrow for my sinful distrusts and murmurings under
   my affliction, as one in care to make suitable returns for God's favour
   to me and to make it appear that I have got good by the providences I
   have been under. I will go softly, gravely and considerately, and with
   thought and deliberation, not as many, who, when they have recovered,
   live as carelessly and as much at large as ever." Or, "I will go
   pleasantly" (so some understand it); "when God has delivered me I will
   walk cheerfully with him in all holy conversation, as having tasted
   that he is gracious." Or, "I will go softly, even after the bitterness
   of my soul" (so it may be read); "when the trouble is over I will
   endeavour to retain the impression of it, and to have the same thoughts
   of things that I had then."

   2. He will encourage himself and others with the experiences he had had
   of the goodness of God (v. 16): "By these things which thou hast done
   for me they live, the kingdom lives" (for the life of such a king was
   the life of the kingdom); "all that hear of it shall live and be
   comforted; by the same power and goodness that have restored me all men
   have their souls held in life, and they ought to acknowledge it. In all
   these things is the life of my spirit, my spiritual life, that is
   supported and maintained by what God has done for the preservation of
   my natural life." The more we taste of the loving-kindness of God in
   every providence the more will our hearts be enlarged to love him and
   live to him, and that will be the life of our spirit. Thus our souls
   live, and they shall praise him.

   3. He magnifies the mercy of his recovery, on several accounts.

   (1.) That he was raised up from great extremity (v. 17): Behold, for
   peace I had great bitterness. When, upon the defeat of Sennacherib, he
   expected nothing but an uninterrupted peace to himself and his
   government, he was suddenly seized with sickness, which embittered all
   his comforts to him, and went to such a height that it seemed to be the
   bitterness of death itself--bitterness, bitterness, nothing but gall
   and wormwood. This was his condition when God sent him seasonable
   relief.

   (2.) That it came from the love of God, from love to his soul. Some are
   spared and reprieved in wrath, that they may be reserved for some
   greater judgment when they have filled up the measure of their
   iniquities; but temporal mercies are sweet indeed to us when we can
   taste the love of God in them. He delivered me because he delighted in
   me (Ps. xviii. 19); and the word here signifies a very affectionate
   love: Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption; so it runs in
   the original. God's love is sufficient to bring a soul from the pit of
   corruption. This is applicable to our redemption by Christ; it was in
   love to our souls, our poor perishing souls, that he delivered them
   from the bottomless pit, snatched them as brands out of everlasting
   burnings. In his love and in his pity he redeemed us. And the
   preservation of our bodies, as well as the provision made for them, is
   doubly comfortable when it is in love to our souls--when God repairs
   the house because he has a kindness for the inhabitant.

   (3.) That it was the effect of the pardon of sin: "For thou hast cast
   all my sins behind thy back, and thereby hast delivered my soul from
   the pit of corruption, in love to it." Note, [1.] When God pardons sin
   he casts it behind his back, as not designing to look upon it with an
   eye of justice and jealousy. He remembers it no more, to visit for it.
   The pardon does not make the sin not to have been, or not to have been
   sin, but not to be punished as it deserves. When we cast our sins
   behind our back, and take no care to repent of them, God sets them
   before his face, and is ready to reckon for them; but when we set them
   before our face in true repentance, as David did when his sin was ever
   before him, God casts them behind his back. [2.] When God pardons sins
   he pardons all, casts them all behind his back, though they have been
   as scarlet and crimson. [3.] The pardoning of the sin is the delivering
   of the soul from the pit of corruption. [4.] It is pleasant indeed to
   think of our recoveries from sickness when we see them flowing from the
   remission of sin; then the cause is removed, and then it is in love to
   the soul.

   (4.) That it was the lengthening out of his opportunity to glorify God
   in this world, which he made the business, and pleasure, and end of
   life. [1.] If this sickness had been his death, it would have put a
   period to that course of service for the glory of God and the good of
   the church which he was now pursuing, v. 18. Heaven indeed praises God,
   and the souls of the faithful, when at death they remove thither, do
   that work of heaven as the angels, and with the angels, there; but what
   is this world the better for that? What does that contribute to the
   support and advancement of God's kingdom among men in this state of
   struggle? The grave cannot praise God, nor the dead bodies that lie
   there. Death cannot celebrate him, cannot proclaim his perfections and
   favours, to invite others into his service. Those who go down to the
   pit, being no longer in a state of probation, nor living by faith in
   his promises, cannot give him honour by hoping for his truth. Those
   that lie rotting in the grave, as they are not capable of receiving any
   further mercy from God, so neither are they capable of offering any
   more praises to him, till they shall be raised at the last day, and
   then they shall both receive and give glory. [2.] Having recovered from
   it, he resolves not only to proceed, but to abound, in praising and
   serving God (v. 19): The living, the living, he shall praise thee. They
   may do it; they have an opportunity of praising God, and that is the
   main thing that makes life valuable and desirable to a good man.
   Hezekiah was therefore glad to live, not that he might continue to
   enjoy his royal dignity and the honour and pleasure of his late
   successes, but that he might continue to praise God. The living must
   praise God; they live in vain if they do not. Those that have been
   dying and yet are living, whose life is from the dead, are in a special
   manner obliged to praise God, as being most sensibly affected with his
   goodness. Hezekiah, for his part, having recovered from this sickness,
   will make it his business to praise God: "I do it this day; let others
   do it in like manner." Those that give good exhortations should set
   good examples, and do themselves what they expect from others. "For my
   part," says Hezekiah, "the Lord was ready to save me; he not only did
   save me, but he was ready to do it just then when I was in the greatest
   extremity; his help came in seasonably; he showed himself willing and
   forward to save me. The Lord was to save me, was at hand to do it,
   saved me a the first word; and therefore," First, "I will publish and
   proclaim his praises. I and my family, I and my friends, I and my
   people, will have a concert of praise to his glory: We will sing my
   songs to the stringed instruments, that others may attend to them, and
   be affected with them, when they are in the most devout and serious
   frame in the house of the Lord." It is for the honour of God, and the
   edification of his church, that special mercies should be acknowledged
   in public praises, especially mercies to public persons, Ps. cxvi. 18,
   19. Secondly, "I will proceed and persevere in his praises." We should
   do so all the days of our life, because every day of our life is itself
   a fresh mercy and brings many fresh mercies along with it; and, as
   renewed mercies call for renewed praises, so former eminent mercies
   call for repeated praises. It is by the mercy of God that we live, and
   therefore, as long as we live, we must continue to praise him, while we
   have breath, nay, while we have being. Thirdly, "I will propagate and
   perpetuate his praises." We should not only praise him all the days of
   our life, but the father to the children should make known his truth,
   that the ages to come may give God the glory of his truth by trusting
   to it. It is the duty of parents to possess their children with a
   confidence in the truth of God, which will go far towards keeping them
   close to the ways of God. Hezekiah, doubtless, did this himself, and
   yet Manasseh his son walked not in his steps. Parents may give their
   children many good things, good instructions, good examples, good
   books, but they cannot give them grace.

   IV. In the last two verses of this chapter we have two passages
   relating to this story which were omitted in the narrative of it here,
   but which we had 2 Kings xx., and therefore shall here only observe two
   lessons from them:--1. That God's promises are intended not to
   supersede, but to quicken and encourage, the use of means. Hezekiah is
   sure to recover, and yet he must take a lump of figs and lay it on the
   boil, v. 21. We do not trust God, but tempt him, if, when we pray to
   him for help, we do not second our prayers with our endeavours. We must
   not put physicians, or physic, in the place of God, but make use of
   them in subordination to God and to his providence; help thyself and
   God will help thee. 2. That the chief end we should aim at, in desiring
   life and health, is that we may glorify God, and do good, and improve
   ourselves in knowledge, and grace, and meetness for heaven. Hezekiah,
   when he meant, What is the sign that I shall recover? asked, What is
   the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord, there to honour
   God, to keep up acquaintance and communion with him, and to encourage
   others to serve him? v. 22. It is taken for granted that if God would
   restore him to health he would immediately go up to the temple with his
   thank-offerings. There Christ found the impotent man whom he had
   healed, John v. 14. The exercises of religion are so much the business
   and delight of a good man that to be restrained from them is the
   greatest grievance of his afflictions, and to be restored to them is
   the greatest comfort of his deliverances. Let my soul live, and it
   shall praise thee.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIX.

   The story of this chapter likewise we had before, 2 Kings xx. 12, &c.
   It is here repeated, not only as a very memorable and improvable
   passage, but because it concludes with a prophecy of the captivity in
   Babylon; and as the former part of the prophecy of this book frequently
   referred to Sennacherib's invasion and the defeat of that, to which
   therefore the history of that was very fitly subjoined, so the latter
   part of this book speaks much of the Jews' captivity in Babylon and
   their deliverance out of that, to which therefore the first prediction
   of it, with the occasion thereof, is very fitly prefixed. We have here,
   I. The pride and folly of Hezekiah, in showing his treasures to the
   king of Babylon's ambassadors that were sent to congratulate him on his
   recovery, ver. 1, 2. II. Isaiah's examination of him concerning it, in
   God's name, and his confession of it, ver. 3, 4. III. The sentence
   passed upon him for it, that all his treasures should, in process of
   time, be carried to Babylon, ver. 5-7. IV. Hezekiah's penitent and
   patient submission to this sentence, ver. 8.

Hezekiah's Vanity. (b. c. 712.)

   1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon,
   sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had
   been sick, and was recovered.   2 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and
   showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold,
   and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his
   armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in
   his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.   3
   Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him,
   What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah
   said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.   4
   Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah
   answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing
   among my treasures that I have not showed them.

   Hence we may learn these lessons:--1. That humanity and common civility
   teach us to rejoice with our friends and neighbours when they rejoice,
   and to congratulate them on their deliverances, and particularly their
   recoveries from sickness. The king of Babylon, having heard that
   Hezekiah had been sick, and had recovered, sent to compliment him upon
   the occasion. If Christians be unneighbourly, heathens will shame them.
   2. It becomes us to give honour to those whom our God puts honour upon.
   The sun was the Babylonians' god; and when they understood that it was
   with a respect to Hezekiah that the sun, to their great surprise, went
   back ten degrees, on such a day, they thought themselves obliged to do
   Hezekiah all the honour they could. Will all people thus walk in the
   name of their God, and shall not we? 3. Those that do not value good
   men for their goodness may yet be brought to pay them great respect by
   other inducements, and for the sake of their secular interests. The
   king of Babylon made his court to Hezekiah, not because he was pious,
   but because he was prosperous, as the Philistines coveted an alliance
   with Isaac because they saw the Lord was with him, Gen. xxvi. 28. The
   king of Babylon was an enemy to the king of Assyria, and therefore was
   fond of Hezekiah, because the Assyrians were so much weakened by the
   power of his God. 4. It is a hard matter to keep the spirit low in the
   midst of great advancements. Hezekiah is an instance of it: he was a
   wise and good man, but, when one miracle after another was wrought in
   his favour, he found it hard to keep his heart from being lifted up,
   nay, a little thing then drew him into the snare of pride. Blessed Paul
   himself needed a thorn in the flesh, to keep him from being lifted up
   with the abundance of revelations. 5. We have need to watch over our
   own spirits when we are showing our friends our possessions, what we
   have done and what we have got, that we be not proud of them, as if our
   might or our merit had purchased and procured us this wealth. When we
   look upon our enjoyments, and have occasion to speak of them, it must
   be with humble acknowledgments of our own unworthiness and thankful
   acknowledgments of God's goodness, with a just value for the
   achievements of others and with an expectation of losses and changes,
   not dreaming that our mountain stands so strong but that it may soon be
   moved. 6. It is a great weakness for good men to value themselves much
   upon the civil respects that are paid them (yea, though there be
   something particular and uncommon in them) by the children of this
   world, and to be fond of their acquaintance. What a poor thing was it
   for Hezekiah, whom God has so dignified, to be thus over proud of the
   respect paid him by a heathen prince as if that added any thing to him!
   We ought to return the courtesies of such with interest, but not to be
   proud of them. 7. We must expect to be called to an account for the
   workings of our pride, though they are secret, and in such instances as
   we thought there was no harm in; and therefore we ought to call
   ourselves to an account for them; and when we have had company with us
   that have paid us respect, and been pleased with their entertainment,
   and commended every thing, we ought to be jealous over ourselves with a
   godly jealousy lest our hearts have been lifted up. As far as we see
   cause to suspect that this sly and subtle sin of pride has insinuated
   itself into our breasts, and mingled itself with our conversation, let
   us be ashamed of it, and, as Hezekiah here, ingenuously confess it and
   take shame to ourselves for it.

Hezekiah's Vanity Punished. (b. c. 712.)

   5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:   6
   Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which
   thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to
   Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.   7 And of thy sons
   that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take
   away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
   8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou
   hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my
   days.

   Hence let us observe, 1. That, if God love us, he will humble us, and
   will find some way or other to pull down our spirits when they are
   lifted up above measure. A mortifying message is sent to Hezekiah, that
   he might be humbled for the pride of his heart, and be convinced of the
   folly of it; for though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, as
   he did Hezekiah here, to prove him, that he might know all that was in
   his heart, yet he will not suffer them to lie still in it. 2. It is
   just with God to take that from us which we make the matter of our
   pride, and on which we build a carnal confidence. When David was proud
   of the numbers of his people God took a course to make them fewer; and
   when Hezekiah boasts of his treasures, and looks upon them with too
   great a complacency, he is told that he acts like the foolish traveller
   who shows his money and gold to one that proves a thief and is thereby
   tempted to rob him. 3. If we could but see things that will be, we
   should be ashamed of our thoughts of things that are. If Hezekiah had
   known that the seed and successors of this king of Babylon would
   hereafter be the ruin of his family and kingdom, he would not have
   complimented his ambassadors as he did; and, when the prophet told him
   that it would be so, we may well imagine how he was vexed at himself
   for what he had done. We cannot certainly foresee what will be, but are
   told, in general, All is vanity, and therefore it is vanity for us to
   take complacency and put confidence in any thing that goes under that
   character. 4. Those that are fond of an acquaintance or alliance with
   irreligious men will first or last have enough of it, and will have
   cause to repent it. Hezekiah thought himself very happy in the
   friendship of Babylon, though it was the mother of harlots and
   idolatries; but Babylon, who now courted Jerusalem, in process of time
   conquered her and carried her captive. Leagues with sinners, and
   leagues with sin too, will end thus; it is therefore our wisdom to keep
   at a distance from them. 5. Those that truly repent of their sins will
   take it well to be reproved for them and will be willing to be told of
   their faults. Hezekiah reckoned that word of the Lord good which
   discovered sin to him, and made him sensible that he had done amiss,
   which before he was not aware of. The language of true penitents is,
   Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness; and the law is
   therefore good, because, being spiritual, in it sin appears sin, and
   exceedingly sinful. 6. True penitents will quietly submit, not only to
   the reproofs of the word, but to the rebukes of Providence for their
   sins. When Hezekiah was told of the punishment of his iniquity he said,
   Good is the word of the Lord, not only the mitigation of the sentence,
   but the sentence itself; he has nothing to object against the equity of
   it, but says Amen to the threatening. Those that see the evil of sin,
   and what it deserves, will justify God in all that is brought upon them
   for it, and own that he punishes them less than their iniquities
   deserve. 7. Though we must not be regardless of those that come after
   us, yet we must reckon ourselves well done by if there be peace and
   truth in our days, and better than we had reason to expect. If a storm
   be coming, we must reckon it a favour to get into the harbour before it
   comes, and be gathered to the grave in peace; yet we can never be
   secure of this, but must prepare for changes in our own time, that we
   may stand complete in all the will of God, and bid it welcome whatever
   it is.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XL.

   At this chapter begins the latter part of the prophecy of this book,
   which is not only divided from the former by the historical chapters
   that come between, but seems to be distinguished from it in the scope
   and style of it. In the former part the name of the prophet was
   frequently prefixed to the particular sermons, besides the general
   title (as ch. ii. 1; vii. 3; xiii. 1); but this is all one continued
   discourse, and the prophet not so much as once named. That consisted of
   many burdens, many woes; this consists of many blessings. There the
   distress which the people of God were in by the Assyrian, and their
   deliverance out of that, were chiefly prophesied of; but that is here
   spoken of as a thing past (ch. lii. 4); and the captivity in Babylon,
   and their deliverance out of that, which were much greater events, of
   more extensive and abiding concern, are here largely foretold. Before
   God sent his people into captivity he furnished them with precious
   promises for their support and comfort in their trouble; and we may
   well imagine of what great use to them the glorious, gracious, light of
   this prophecy was, in that cloudy and dark day, and how much it helped
   to dry up their tears by the rivers of Babylon. But it looks further
   yet, and to greater things; much of Christ and gospel grace we meet
   with in the foregoing part of this book, but in this latter part we
   shall find much more; and, as if it were designed for a prophetic
   summary of the New Testament, it begins with that which begins the
   gospels, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness" (ch. xl. 3), and
   concludes with that which concludes the book of the Revelation, "The
   new heavens and the new earth," (ch. lxvi. 22). Even Mr. White
   acknowledges that, as all the mercies of God to the Jewish nation bore
   some resemblance to those glorious things performed by our Saviour for
   man's redemption, so they are by the Spirit of God expressed in such
   terms as show plainly that while the prophet is speaking of the
   redemption of the Jews he had in his thoughts a more glorious
   deliverance. And we need not look for any further accomplishment of
   these prophecies yet to come; for if Jesus be he, and his kingdom be
   it, that should come, we are to look for no other, but the carrying on
   and completing of the same blessed work which was begun in the first
   preaching and planting of Christianity in the world.

   In this chapter we have, I. Orders given to preach and publish the glad
   tidings of redemption, ver. 1, 2. II. These glad tidings introduced by
   a voice in the wilderness, which gives assurance that all obstructions
   shall be removed (ver. 3-5), and that, though all creatures fail and
   fade, the word of God shall be established and accomplished, ver. 5-8.
   III. A joyful prospect given to the people of God of the happiness
   which this redemption should bring along with it, ver. 9-11. IV. The
   sovereignty and power of that God magnified who undertakes to work out
   this redemption, ver. 12-17. V. Idols therefore triumphed over and
   idolaters upbraided with their folly, ver. 18-26. VI. A reproof given
   to the people of God for their fears and despondencies, and enough
   said, in a few words, to silence these fears, ver. 27-31. And we,
   through patience and comfort of this scripture, may have hope.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.   2 Speak ye
   comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
   accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of
   the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

   We have here the commission and instructions given, not to this prophet
   only, but, with him, to all the Lord's prophets, nay, and to all
   Christ's ministers, to proclaim comfort to God's people. 1. This did
   not only warrant, but enjoin, this prophet himself to encourage the
   good people who lived in his own time, who could not but have very
   melancholy apprehensions of things when they saw Judah and Jerusalem by
   their daring impieties ripening apace for ruin, and God in his
   providence hastening ruin upon them. Let them be sure that,
   notwithstanding all this, God had mercy in store for them. 2. It was
   especially a direction to the prophets that should live in the time of
   captivity, when Jerusalem was in ruins; they must encourage the
   captives to hope for enlargement in due time. 3. Gospel ministers,
   being employed by the blessed Spirit as comforters, and as helpers of
   the joy of Christians, are here put in mind of their business. Here we
   have,

   I. Comfortable words directed to God's people in general, v. 1. The
   prophets have instructions from their God (for he is the Lord God of
   the holy prophets, Rev. xxii. 6) to comfort the people of God; and the
   charge is doubled, Comfort you, comfort you--not because the prophets
   are unwilling to do it (no, it is the most pleasant part of their
   work), but because sometimes the souls of God's people refuse to be
   comforted, and their comforters must repeat things again and again, ere
   they can fasten any thing upon them. Observe here, 1. There are a
   people in the world that are God's people. 2. It is the will of God
   that his people should be a comforted people, even in the worst of
   times. 3. It is the work and business of ministers to do what they can
   for the comfort of God's people. 4. Words of conviction, such as we had
   in the former part of this book, must be followed with words of
   comfort, such as we have here; for he that has torn will heal us.

   II. Comfortable words directed to Jerusalem in particular: "Speak to
   the heart of Jerusalem (v. 2); speak that which will revive her heart,
   and be a cordial to her and to all that belong to her and wish her
   well. Do not whisper it, but cry unto her: cry aloud, to show saints
   their comforts as well as to show sinners their transgressions; make
   her hear it:" 1. "That the days of her trouble are numbered and
   finished: Her warfare is accomplished, the set time of her servitude;
   the campaign is now at an end, and she shall retire into quarters of
   refreshment." Human life is a warfare (Job vii. 1); the Christian life
   much more. But the struggle will not last always; the warfare will be
   accomplished, and then the good soldiers shall not only enter into
   rest, but be sure of their pay. 2. "That the cause of her trouble is
   removed, and, when that is taken away, the effect will cease. Tell her
   that her iniquity is pardoned, God is reconciled to her, and she shall
   no longer be treated as one guilty before him." Nothing can be spoken
   more comfortably than this, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven
   thee. Troubles are then removed in love when sin is pardoned. 3. "That
   the end of her trouble is answered: She has received of the Lord double
   for the cure of all her sins, sufficient, and more than sufficient, to
   separate between her and her idols," the worship of which was the great
   sin for which God had a controversy with them, and from which he
   designed to reclaim them by their captivity in Babylon: and it had that
   effect upon them; it begat in them a rooted antipathy to idolatry, and
   was physic doubly strong for the purging out of that iniquity. Or it
   may be taken as the language of the divine compassion: His soul was
   grieved for the misery of Israel (Judges x. 16), and, like a tender
   father, since he spoke against them he earnestly remembered them (Jer.
   xxxi. 20), and was ready to say that he had given them too much
   correction. They, being very penitent, acknowledged that God has
   punished them less than their iniquities deserved; but he, being very
   pitiful, owned, in a manner, that he had punished them more than they
   deserved. True penitents have indeed, in Christ and his sufferings,
   received of the Lord's hand double for all their sins; for the
   satisfaction Christ made by his death was of such an infinite value
   that it was more than double to the demerits of sin; for God spared not
   his own Son.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 708.)

   3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of
   the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.   4 Every
   valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:
   and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:   5
   And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
   together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.   6 The voice said,
   Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
   goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:   7 The grass
   withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth
   upon it: surely the people is grass.   8 The grass withereth, the
   flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

   The time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, having come, the people of
   God must be prepared, by repentance and faith, for the favours designed
   them; and, in order to call them to both these, we have here the voice
   of one crying in the wilderness, which may be applied to those prophets
   who were with the captives in their wilderness-state, and who, when
   they saw the day of their deliverance dawn, called earnestly upon them
   to prepare for it, and assured them that all the difficulties which
   stood in the way of their deliverance should be got over. It is a good
   sign that mercy is preparing for us if we find God's grace preparing us
   for it, Ps. x. 17. But it must be applied to John the Baptist; for,
   though God was the speaker, he was the voice of one crying in the
   wilderness, and his business was to prepare the way of the Lord, to
   dispose men's minds for the reception and entertainment of the gospel
   of Christ. The way of the Lord is prepared,

   I. By repentance for sin; that was it which John Baptist preached to
   all Judah and Jerusalem (Matt. iii. 2, 5), and thereby made ready a
   people prepared for the Lord, Luke i. 17.

   1. The alarm is given; let all take notice of it at their peril; God is
   coming in a way of mercy, and we must prepare for him, v. 3-5. If we
   apply it to their captivity, it may be taken as a promise that,
   whatever difficulties lie in their way, when they return they shall be
   removed. This voice in the wilderness (divine power going along with
   it) sets pioneers on work to level the roads. But it may be taken as a
   call to duty, and it is the same duty that we are called to, in
   preparation for Christ's entrance into our souls. (1.) We must get into
   such a frame of spirit as will dispose us to receive Christ and his
   gospel: "Prepare you the way of the Lord; prepare yourselves for him,
   and let all that be suppressed which would be an obstruction to his
   entrance. Make room for Christ: Make straight a highway for him." If he
   prepare the end for us, we ought surely to prepare the way for him.
   Prepare for the Saviour; lift up your heads, O you gates! Ps. xxiv. 7,
   9. Prepare for the salvation, the great salvation, and other minor
   deliverances. Let us get to be fit for them, and then God will work
   them out. Let us not stand in our own light, nor put a bar in our own
   door, but find, or make, a highway for him, even in that which was
   desert ground. This is that for which he waits to be gracious. (2.) We
   must get our hearts levelled by divine grace. Those that are hindered
   from comfort in Christ by their dejections and despondencies are the
   valleys that must be exalted. Those that are hindered from comfort in
   Christ by a proud conceit of their own merit and worth are the
   mountains and hills that must be made low. Those that have entertained
   prejudices against the word and ways of God, that are untractable, and
   disposed to thwart and contradict even that which is plain and easy
   because it agrees not with their corrupt inclinations and secular
   interests, are the crooked that must be made straight and the rough
   places that must be made plain. Let but the gospel of Christ have a
   fair hearing, and it cannot fail of acceptance. This prepares the way
   of the Lord; and thus God will by his grace prepare his own way in all
   the vessels of mercy, whose hearts he opens as he did Lydia's.

   2. When this is done the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, v. 5.
   (1.) When the captives are prepared for deliverance Cyrus shall
   proclaim it, and those shall have the benefit of it, and those only,
   whose hearts the Lord shall stir up with courage and resolution to
   break through the discouragements that lay in their way, and to make
   nothing of the hills, and valleys, and all the rough places. (2.) When
   John Baptist has for some time preached repentance, mortification, and
   reformation, and so made ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke i.
   17), then the Messiah himself shall be revealed in his glory, working
   miracles, which John did not, and by his grace, which is his glory,
   binding up and healing with consolations those whom John had wounded
   with convictions. And this revelation of divine glory shall be a light
   to lighten the Gentiles. All flesh shall see it together, and not the
   Jews only; they shall see and admire it, see it and bid it welcome; as
   the return out of captivity was taken notice of by the neighbouring
   nations, Ps. cxxvi. 2. And it shall be the accomplishment of the word
   of God, not one iota or tittle of which shall fall to the ground: The
   mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and therefore the hand of the Lord
   will effect it.

   II. By confidence in the word of the Lord, and not in any creature. The
   mouth of the Lord having spoken it, the voice has this further to cry
   (he that has ears to hear let him hear it), The word of our God shall
   stand for ever, v. 8.

   1. By this accomplishment of the prophecies and promises of salvation,
   and the performance of them to the utmost in due time, it appears that
   the word of the Lord is sure and what may be safely relied on. Then we
   are prepared for deliverance when we depend entirely upon the word of
   God, build our hopes on that, with an assurance that it will not make
   us ashamed: in a dependence upon this word we must be brought to own
   that all flesh is grass, withering and fading. (1.) The power of man,
   when it does appear against the deliverance, is not to be feared; for
   it shall be as grass before the word of the Lord: it shall wither and
   be trodden down. The insulting Babylonians, who promise themselves that
   the desolations of Jerusalem shall be perpetual, are but as grass which
   the spirit of the Lord blows upon, makes nothing of, but blasts all its
   glory; for the word of the Lord, which promises their deliverance,
   shall stand for ever, and it is not in the power of their enemies to
   hinder the execution of it. (2.) The power of man, when it would appear
   for the deliverance, is not to be trusted to; for it is but as grass in
   comparison with the word of the Lord, which is the only firm foundation
   for us to build our hope upon. When God is about to work salvation for
   his people he will take them off from depending upon creatures, and
   looking for it from hills and mountains. They shall fail them, and
   their expectations from them shall be frustrated: The Spirit of the
   Lord shall blow upon them; for God will have no creature to be a rival
   with him for the hope and confidence of his people; and, as it is his
   word only that shall stand for ever, so in that word only our faith
   must stand. When we are brought to this, then, and not till then, we
   are fit for mercy.

   2. The word of our God, that glory of the Lord which is now to be
   revealed, the gospel, and that grace which is brought with it to us and
   wrought by it in us, shall stand for ever; and this is the satisfaction
   of all believers, when they find all their creature-comforts withering
   and fading like grass. Thus the apostle applies it to the word which by
   the gospel is preached unto us, and which lives and abides for ever as
   the incorruptible seed by which we are born again, 1 Pet. i. 23-25. To
   prepare the way of the Lord we must be convinced, (1.) Of the vanity of
   the creature, that all flesh is grass, weak and withering. We ourselves
   are so, and therefore cannot save ourselves; all our friends are so,
   and therefore are unable to save us. All the beauty of the creature,
   which might render it amiable, is but as the flower of grass, soon
   blasted, and therefore cannot recommend us to God and to his
   acceptance. We are dying creatures; all our comforts in this word are
   dying comforts, and therefore cannot be the felicity of our immortal
   souls. We must look further for a salvation, look further for a
   portion. (2.) Of the validity of the promise of God. We must be
   convinced that the word of the Lord can do that for us which all flesh
   cannot--that, forasmuch as it stands for ever, it will furnish us with
   a happiness that will run parallel with the duration of our souls,
   which must live for ever; for the things that are not seen, but must be
   believed, are eternal.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 708.)

   9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high
   mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice
   with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
   Behold your God!   10 Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,
   and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his
   work before him.   11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall
   gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall
   gently lead those that are with young.

   It was promised (v. 5) that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed;
   that is it with the hopes of which God's people must be comforted. Now
   here we are told,

   I. How it shall be revealed, v. 9. 1. It shall be revealed to Zion and
   Jerusalem; notice shall be given of it to the remnant that are left in
   Zion and Jerusalem, the poor of the land, who were vine-dressers and
   husbandmen; it shall be told them that their brethren shall return to
   them. This shall be told also to the captives who belonged to Zion and
   Jerusalem, and retained their affection for them. Zion is said to dwell
   with the daughter of Babylon (Zech. ii. 7); and there she receives
   notice of Cyrus's gracious proclamation; and so the margin reads it, O
   thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, &c., meaning the persons who
   were employed in publishing that proclamation; let them do it with a
   good will, let them make the country ring of it, and let them tell it
   to the sons of Zion in their own language, saying to them, Behold your
   God. 2. It shall be published by Zion and Jerusalem (so the text reads
   it); those that remain there, or that have already returned, when they
   find the deliverance proceeding towards perfection, let them proclaim
   it in the most public places, whence they may be best heard by all the
   cities of Judah; let them proclaim it as loudly as they can: let them
   lift up their voice with strength, and not be afraid of overstraining
   themselves; let them not be afraid lest the enemy should hear it and
   quarrel with them, or lest it should not prove true, or not such good
   tidings as at first it appeared; let them say to the cities of Judah,
   and all the inhabitants of the country, Behold your God. When God is
   going on with the salvation of his people, let them industriously
   spread the news among their friends, let them tell them that it is God
   that has done it; whoever were the instruments, God was the author; it
   is their God, a God in covenant with them, and he does it as theirs,
   and they will reap the benefit and comfort of it. "Behold him, take
   notice of his hand in it, and look above second causes; behold, the God
   you have long looked for has come at last (ch. xxv. 9): This is our
   God, we have waited for him." This may refer to the invitation which
   was sent forth from Jerusalem to the cities of Judah, as soon as they
   had set up an altar, immediately upon their return out of captivity, to
   come and join with them in their sacrifices, Ezra iii. 2-4. "When the
   worship of God is set up again, send notice of it to all your brethren,
   that they may share with you in the comfort of it." But this was to
   have its full accomplishment in the apostles' public and undaunted
   preaching of the gospel to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The
   voice crying in the wilderness gave notice that he was coming; but now
   notice is given that he has come. Behold the Lamb of God; take a full
   view of your Redeemer. Behold your King, behold your God.

   II. What that glory is which shall be revealed. "Your God will come,
   will show himself,"

   1. "With the power and greatness of a prince (v. 10): He will come with
   strong hand, too strong to be obstructed, though it may be opposed. His
   strong hand shall subdue his people to himself, and shall restrain and
   conquer his and their enemies. He will come who is strong enough to
   break through all the difficulties that lie in his way." Our Lord Jesus
   was full of power, a mighty Saviour. Some read, it, He will come
   against the mighty one, and overpower him, overcome him. Satan is the
   strong man armed; but our Lord Jesus is stronger than he, and he shall
   make it to appear that he is so, for, (1.) He shall reign in defiance
   of all opposition: His arm shall rule, shall overrule for him, for the
   fulfilling of his counsels, to his own glory; for he is his own end.
   (2.) He shall recompense to all according to their works, as a
   righteous Judge: His reward is with him; he brings along with him, as a
   returning prince, punishments for the rebels and preferments for his
   loyal subjects. (3.) He shall proceed and accomplish his purpose: His
   work is before him, that is, he knows perfectly well what he has to do,
   which way to go about it, and how to compass it. He himself knows what
   he will do.

   2. "With the pity and tenderness of a shepherd," v. 11. God is the
   Shepherd of Israel (Ps. lxxx. 1); Christ is the good Shepherd, John x.
   11. The same that rules with the strong hand of a prince leads and
   feeds with the kind hand of a shepherd. (1.) He takes care of all his
   flock, the little flock: He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. His
   word is food for his flock to feed on; his ordinances are fields for
   them to feed in; his ministers are under-shepherds that are appointed
   to attend them. (2.) He takes particular care of those that most need
   his care, the lambs that are weak, and cannot help themselves, and are
   unaccustomed to hardship, and those that are with young, that are
   therefore heavy, and, if any harm be done them, are in danger of
   casting their young. He particularly takes care for a succession, that
   it may not fail or be cut off. The good Shepherd has tender care for
   children that are towardly and hopeful, for young converts, that are
   setting out in the way to heaven, for weak believers, and those that
   are of a sorrowful spirit. These are the lambs of his flock, that shall
   be sure to want nothing that their case requires. [1.] He will gather
   them in the arms of his power; his strength shall be made perfect in
   their weakness, 2 Cor. xii. 9. He will gather them in when they wander,
   gather them up when they fall, gather them together when they are
   dispersed, and gather them home to himself at last; and all this with
   his own arm, out of which none shall be able to pluck them, John x. 28.
   [2.] He will carry them in the bosom of his love and cherish them
   there. When they tire or are weary, are sick and faint, when they meet
   with foul ways, he will carry them on, and take care they are not left
   behind. [3.] He will gently lead them. By his word he requires no more
   service, and by his providence he inflicts no more trouble, than he
   will fit them for; for he considers their frame.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 708.)

   12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted
   out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a
   measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a
   balance?   13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his
   counsellor hath taught him?   14 With whom took he counsel, and who
   instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him
   knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?   15 Behold, the
   nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of
   the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
   16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof
   sufficient for a burnt offering.   17 All nations before him are as
   nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

   The scope of these verses is to show what a great and glorious being
   the Lord Jehovah is, who is Israel's God and Saviour. It comes in here,
   1. To encourage his people that were captives in Babylon to hope in
   him, and to depend upon him for deliverance, though they were ever so
   weak and their oppressors ever so strong. 2. To engage them to cleave
   to him, and not to turn aside after other gods; for there are none to
   be compared with him. 3. To possess all those who receive the glad
   tidings of redemption by Christ with a holy awe and reverence of God.
   Though it was said (v. 9), Behold your God, and (v. 11) He shall feed
   his flock like a shepherd, yet these condescensions of his grace must
   not be thought of with any diminution to the transcendencies of his
   glory. Let us see how great our God is, and fear before him; for,

   I. His power is unlimited, and what no creature can compare with, much
   less contend with, v. 12. 1. He has a vast reach. View the celestial
   globe, and you are astonished at the extent of it; but the great God
   metes the heavens with a span; to him they are but a hand-breadth, so
   large-handed is he. View the terraqueous globe, and he has the command
   of that too. All the waters in the world he can measure in the hollow
   of his hand, where we can hold but a little water; and the dry land he
   easily manages, for he comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure,
   or with his three fingers; it is no more to him than a pugil, or that
   which we take up between our thumb and two fingers. 2. He has a vast
   strength, and can as easily move mountains and hills as the tradesman
   heaves his goods into the scales and out of them again; he poises them
   with his hand as exactly as if he weighed them in a pair of balances.
   This may refer to the work of creation, when the heavens were stretched
   out as exactly as that which is spanned, and the earth and waters were
   put together in just proportions, as if they had been measured, and the
   mountains made of such a weight as to serve for ballast to the globe,
   and no more. Or it may refer to the work of providence (which is a
   continued creation) and the consistency of all the creatures with each
   other.

   II. His wisdom is unsearchable, and what no creature can give either
   information or direction to, v. 13, 14. As none can do what God has
   done and does, so none can assist him in the doing of it or suggest any
   thing to him which he thought not of. When the Lord by his Spirit made
   the world (Job xxvi. 13) there was none that directed his Spirit, or
   gave him any advice, either what to do or how to do it. Nor does he
   need any counsellor to direct him in the government of the world, nor
   is there any with whom he consults, as the wisest kings do with those
   that know law and judgment, Esther i. 13. God needs not to be told what
   is done, for he knows it perfectly; nor needs he be advised concerning
   what is to be done, for he knows both the right end and the proper
   means. This is much insisted upon here, because the poor captives had
   no politicians among them to manage their concerns at court or to put
   them in a way of gaining their liberty. "No matter," says the prophet,
   "you have a God to act for you, who needs not the assistance of
   statesmen." In the great work of our redemption by Christ matters were
   concerted before the world was, when there was one to teach God in the
   path of judgment, 1 Cor. ii. 7.

   III. The nations of the world are nothing in comparison of him, v. 15,
   17. Take them all together, all the great and mighty nations of the
   earth, kings the most pompous, kingdoms the most populous, both the
   most wealthy; take the isles, the multitude of them, the isles of the
   Gentiles: Before him, when they stand in competition with him or in
   opposition to him, they are as a drop of the bucket compared with the
   vast ocean, or the small dust of the balance (which does not serve to
   turn it, and therefore is not regarded, it is so small) in comparison
   with all the dust of the earth. He takes them up, and throws them away
   from him, as a very little thing, not worth speaking of. They are all
   in his eye as nothing, as if they had no being at all; for they add
   nothing to his perfection and all-sufficiency. They are counted by him,
   and are to be counted by us in comparison of him, less than nothing,
   and vanity. When he pleases, he can as easily bring them all into
   nothing as at first he brought them out of nothing. When God has work
   to do he values not either the assistance or the resistance of any
   creature. They are all vanity; the word that is used for the chaos
   (Gen. i. 2), to which they will at last be reduced. Let this beget in
   us high thoughts of God and low thoughts of this world, and engage us
   to make God, and not man, both our fear and our hope. This magnifies
   God's love to the world, that, though it is of such small account and
   value with him, yet, for the redemption of it, he gave his
   only-begotten Son, John iii. 16.

   IV. The services of the church can make no addition to him nor do they
   bear any proportion to his infinite perfections (v. 16): Lebanon is not
   sufficient to burn; not the wood of it, to be for the fuel of the
   altar, though it be so well stocked with cedars; not the beasts of it,
   to be for sacrifices, though it be so well stocked with cattle, v. 16.
   Whatever we honour God with, it falls infinitely short of the merit of
   his perfection; for he is exalted far above all blessing and praise,
   all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

Vanity of Idols. (b. c. 708.)

   18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare
   unto him?   19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith
   spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.   20 He that is
   so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not
   rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image,
   that shall not be moved.   21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard?
   hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood
   from the foundations of the earth?   22 It is he that sitteth upon the
   circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
   that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as
   a tent to dwell in:   23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he
   maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.   24 Yea, they shall not be
   planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take
   root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall
   wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.   25 To whom
   then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.   26
   Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things,
   that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by
   the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one
   faileth.

   The prophet here reproves those, 1. Who represented God by creatures,
   and so changed his truth into a lie and his glory into shame, who made
   images and then said that they resembled God, and paid their homage to
   them accordingly. 2. Who put creatures in the place of God, who feared
   them more than God, as if they were a match for him, or loved them more
   than God, as if they were fit to be rivals with him. Twice the
   challenge is here made, To whom will you liken God? v. 18, and again v.
   25. The Holy One himself says, To whom will you liken me? This shows
   the folly and absurdity, (1.) Of corporal idolatry, making visible
   images of him who is invisible, imagining the image to be animated by
   the deity, and the deity to be presentiated by the image, which, as it
   was an instance of the corruption of the human nature, so it was an
   intolerable injury to the honour of the divine nature. (2.) Of
   spiritual idolatry, making creatures equal with God in our affections.
   Proud people make themselves equal with God; covetous people make their
   money equal with God; and whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in,
   more than God, that creature we equal with God, which is the highest
   affront imaginable to him who is God over all. Now, to show the
   absurdity of this,

   I. The prophet describes idols as despicable things and worthy of the
   greatest contempt (v. 19, 20): "Look upon the better sort of them,
   which rich people set up, and worship; they are made of some base
   metal, cast into what shape the founder pleases, and that is gilded, or
   overlaid with plates of gold, that it may pass for a golden image. It
   is a creature; for the workman made it; therefore it is not God, Hos.
   viii. 6. It depended upon his will whether it should be a god at all,
   and of what shape it should be. It is a cheat; for it is gold on the
   outside, but within it is lead or copper, in this indeed representing
   the deities, that they were not what they seemed to be, and deceived
   their admirers. How despicable then are the worst sort of them--the
   poor men's gods! He that is so impoverished that he has scarcely a
   sacrifice to offer to his god when he has made him will yet not be
   without an enshrined deity of his own; and, though he cannot procure
   one of brass or stone, he will have a wooden one rather than none, and
   for that purpose chooses a tree that will not soon rot, and of that he
   will have his graven image made. Both agree to have their image well
   fastened, that they may not be robbed of it. The better sort have
   silver chains to fix theirs with; and, though it be but a wooden image,
   care is taken that it shall not be moved." Let us pause a little and
   see, 1. How these idolaters shame themselves, and what a reproach they
   put upon their own reason, in dreaming that gods of their own making
   (Nehushtans, pieces of brass or logs of wood) should be able to do them
   any kindness. Thus vain were they in their imaginations; and how was
   their foolish heart darkened! 2. See how these idolaters shame us, who
   worship the only living and true God. They spared no cost upon their
   idols; we grudge that as waste which is spent in the service of our
   God. They took care that their idols should not be moved; we wilfully
   provoke our God to depart from us.

   II. He describes God as infinitely great, and worthy of the highest
   veneration; so that between him and idols, whatever competition there
   may be, there is no comparison. To prove the greatness of God he
   appeals,

   1. To what they had heard of him by the hearing of the ear, and the
   consent of all ages and nations concerning him (v. 21): "Have you not
   known by the very light of nature? Has it not been told you by your
   fathers and teachers, according to the constant tradition received from
   their ancestors and predecessors, even from the beginning?" (Those
   notices of God are as ancient as the world.) "Have you not understood
   it as always acknowledged from the foundation of the earth, that God is
   a great God, and a great King above all gods?" It has been a truth
   universally admitted that there is an infinite Being who is the
   fountain of all being. This is understood not only ever since the
   beginning of the world, but from and by the origin of the universe. It
   is founded upon the foundation of the earth. The invisible things of
   God are clearly seen from the creation of the world, Rom. i. 20. Thou
   mayest not only ask thy father, and he shall tell thee this, and thy
   elders (Deut. xxxii. 7); but ask those that go by the way (Job xxi.
   29), ask the first man you meet, and he will say the same. Some read
   it, Will you not know? Will you not hear it? For those that are
   ignorant of this are willingly ignorant; the light shines in their
   faces, but they shut their eyes against it. Now that which is here said
   of God is, (1.) That he has the command of all the creatures. The
   heaven and the earth themselves are under his management: He sits upon
   the circle, or globe, of the earth, v. 22. He that has the special
   residence of his glory in the upper world maintains a dominion over
   this lower world, gives law to it, and directs all the motions of it to
   his own glory. He sits undisturbed upon the earth, and so establishes
   it. He is still stretching out the heavens, his power and providence
   keep them still stretched out, and will do so till the day comes that
   they shall be rolled together like a scroll. He spreads them out as
   easily as we draw a curtain to and fro, opening these curtains in the
   morning and drawing them close again at night. And the heaven is to
   this earth as a tent to dwell in; it is a canopy drawn over our heads,
   et quod tegit omnia coelum--and it encircles all.--Ovid. See Ps. civ.
   2. (2.) That the children of men, even the greatest and mightiest, are
   as nothing before him. The numerous inhabitants of this earth are in
   his eye as grasshoppers in ours, so little and inconsiderable, of such
   small value, of such little use, and so easily crushed. Proud men's
   lifting up themselves is but like the grasshopper's leap; in an instant
   they must stoop down to the earth again. If the spies thought
   themselves grasshoppers before the sons of Anak (Num. xiii. 33), what
   are we before the great God? Grasshoppers live but awhile, and live
   carelessly, not like the ant; so do the most of men. (3.) That those
   who appear and act against him, how formidable soever they may be to
   their fellow-creatures, will certainly be humble and brought down by
   the mighty hand of God, v. 23, 24. Princes and judges, who have great
   authority, and abuse it to the support of oppression and injustice,
   make nothing of those about them; as for all their enemies they puff at
   them (Ps. x. 5; xii. 5); but, when the great God takes them to task, he
   brings them to nothing; he humbles them, and tames them, and makes them
   as vanity, little regarded, neither feared nor loved. He makes them
   utterly unable to stand before his judgments, which shall either, [1.]
   Prevent their settlement in their authority: They shall not be planted;
   they shall not be sown; and those are the two ways of propagating
   plants, either by seed or slips. Nay, if they should gain a little
   interest, and so be planted or sown, yet their stock shall not take
   root in the earth, they shall not continue long in power. Eliphaz saw
   the foolish taking root, but suddenly cursed their habitation. And then
   how soon is the fig-tree withered away! Or, [2.] He will blast them
   when they think they are settled. He does but blow upon them, and then
   they shall wither, and come to nothing, and the whirlwind shall take
   them away as stubble. For God's wrath, though it seem at first to blow
   slightly upon them, will soon become a mighty whirlwind. When God
   judges he will overcome. Those that will not bow before him cannot
   stand before him.

   2. He appeals to what their eyes saw of him (v. 26): "Lift up your eyes
   on high; be not always poring on this earth" (O curvæ in terras animæ
   et coelestium inanes!--Degenerate minds, that can bend so towards the
   earth, having nothing celestial in them!), "but sometimes look up" (Os
   homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri jussit--Heaven gave to man an
   erect countenance, and bade him gaze on the stars); "behold the
   glorious lights of heaven, consider who has created them. They neither
   made nor marshalled themselves; doubtless, therefore, there is a God
   that gave them their being, power, and motion." What we see of the
   creature should lead us to the Creator. The idolaters, when they lifted
   up their eyes and beheld the hosts of heaven, being wholly immerged in
   sense, looked no further, but worshipped them, Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi.
   26. Therefore the prophet here directs us to make use of our reason as
   well as our senses, and to consider who created them, and to pay our
   homage to him. Give him the glory of his sovereignty over them--He
   brings out their host by number, as a general draws out the squadrons
   and battalions of his army; of the knowledge he has of them--He calls
   them all by names, proper names, according as their place and influence
   are (Ps. cxlvii. 4); and of the use he makes of them; when he calls
   them out to any service, so obsequious are they that, by the greatness
   of his might, not one of them fails, but, as when the stars in their
   courses fought against Sisera, every one does that to which he is
   appointed. To make these creatures therefore rivals with God, which are
   such ready servants to him, is an injury to them as well as an affront
   to him.

Jehovah's Grandeur and Compassion. (b. c. 708.)

   27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from
   the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?   28 Hast thou
   not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the
   Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there
   is no searching of his understanding.   29 He giveth power to the
   faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.   30 Even
   the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
   fall:   31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
   they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be
   weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

   Here, I. The prophet reproves the people of God, who are now supposed
   to be captives in Babylon for their unbelief and distrust of God, and
   the dejections and despondencies of their spirit under their affliction
   (v. 27): "Why sayest thou, O Jacob! to thyself and to those about thee,
   My way is hidden from the Lord? Why dost thou make hard and melancholy
   conclusions concerning thyself and thy present case as if the latter
   were desperate?" 1. The titles he here gives them were enough to shame
   them out of their distrusts: O Jacob! O Israel! Let them remember
   whence they took these names--from one who had found God faithful to
   him and kind in all his straits; and why they bore these names--as
   God's professing people, a people in covenant with him. 2. The way of
   reproving them is by reasoning with them: "Why? Consider whether thou
   hast any ground to say so." Many of our foolish frets and foolish fears
   would vanish before a strict enquiry into the causes of them. 3. That
   which they are reproved for is an ill-natured, ill-favoured, word they
   spoke of God, as if he had cast them off. There seems to be an emphasis
   laid upon their saying it: Why sayest thou and speakest thou? It is bad
   to have evil thoughts rise in our mind, but it is worse to put an
   imprimatur--a sanction to them, and turn them into evil words. David
   reflects with regret upon what he said in his haste, when he was in
   distress. 4. The ill word they said was a word of despair concerning
   their present calamitous condition. They were ready to conclude, (1.)
   That God would not heed them: "My way is hidden from the Lord; he takes
   no notice of our straits, nor concerns himself any more in our
   concernments. There are such difficulties in our case that even divine
   wisdom and power will be nonplussed." A man whose way is hidden is one
   whom God has hedged in, Job iii. 23. (2.) That God could not help them:
   "My judgment is passed over from my God; my case is past relief, so far
   past it that God himself cannot redress the grievances of it. Our bones
   are dried." Ezek. xxxvii. 11.

   II. He reminds them of that which, if duly considered, was sufficient
   to silence all those fears and distrust. For their conviction, as
   before for the conviction of idolaters (v. 21), he appeals to what they
   had known and what they had heard. Jacob and Israel were a knowing
   people, or might have been, and their knowledge came by hearing; for
   Wisdom cried in their chief places of concourse. Now, among other
   things, they had heard that God had spoken once, twice, yea, many a
   time they had heard it, That power belongs unto God (Ps. lxii. 11),
   That is,

   1. He is himself an almighty God. He must needs be so, for he is the
   everlasting God, even Jehovah. He was from eternity; he will be to
   eternity; and therefore with him there is no deficiency, no decay. He
   has his being of himself, and therefore all his perfections must needs
   be boundless. He is without beginning of days or end of life, and
   therefore with him there is no change. He is also the Creator of the
   ends of the earth, that is, of the whole earth and all that is in it
   from end to end. He therefore is the rightful owner and ruler of all,
   and must be concluded to have an absolute power over all and an
   all-sufficiency to help his people in their greatest straits. Doubtless
   he is still as able to save his church as he was at first to make the
   world. (1.) He has wisdom to contrive the salvation, and that wisdom is
   never at a loss: There is no searching of his understanding, so as to
   countermine the counsels of it and defeat its intentions; no, nor so as
   to determine what he will do, for he has ways by himself, ways in the
   sea. None can say, "Thus far God's wisdom can go, and no further;" for,
   when we know not what to do, he knows. (2.) He has power to bring about
   the salvation, and that power is never exhausted: He faints not, nor is
   weary; he upholds the whole creation, and governs all the creatures,
   and is neither tired nor toiled; and therefore, no doubt, he has power
   to relieve his church, when it is brought ever so low, without weakness
   or weariness.

   2. He gives strength and power to his people, and helps them by
   enabling them to help themselves. He that is the strong God is the
   strength of Israel. (1.) He can help the weak, v. 29. Many a time he
   gives power to the faint, to those that are ready to faint away; and to
   those that have no might he not only gives, but increases strength, as
   there is more and more occasion for it. Many out of bodily weakness are
   wonderfully recovered, and made strong, by the providence of God: and
   many that are feeble in spirit, timorous and faint-hearted, unfit for
   services and sufferings, are yet strengthened by the grace of God with
   all might in the inward man. To those who are sensible of their
   weakness, and ready to acknowledge they have no might, God does in a
   special manner increase strength; for, when we are weak in ourselves,
   then are we strong in the Lord. (2.) He will help the willing, will
   help those who, in a humble dependence upon him, help themselves, and
   will do well for those who do their best, v. 30, 31. Those who trust to
   their own sufficiency, and are so confident of it that they neither
   exert themselves to the utmost nor seek unto God for his grace, are the
   youth and the young men, who are strong, but are apt to think
   themselves stronger than they are. And they shall faint and be weary,
   yea, they shall utterly fail in their services, in their conflicts, and
   under their burdens; they shall soon be made to see the folly of
   trusting to themselves. But those that wait on the Lord, who make
   conscience of their duty to him, and by faith rely upon him and commit
   themselves to his guidance, shall find that God will not fail them.
   [1.] They shall have grace sufficient for them: They shall renew their
   strength as their work is renewed, as there is new occasion; they shall
   be anointed, and their lamps supplied, with fresh oil. God will be
   their arm every morning, ch. xxxiii. 2. If at any time they have been
   foiled and weakened they shall recover themselves, and so renew their
   strength. Heb. They shall change their strength, as their work is
   changed--doing work, suffering work; they shall have strength to
   labour, strength to wrestle, strength to resist, strength to bear. As
   the day so shall the strength be. [2.] They shall use this grace for
   the best purposes. Being strengthened, First, They shall soar upward,
   upward towards God: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, so
   strongly, so swiftly, so high and heaven-ward. In the strength of
   divine grace, their souls shall ascend above the world, and even enter
   into the holiest. Pious and devout affections are the eagles' wings on
   which gracious souls mount up, Ps. xxv. 1. Secondly, They shall press
   forward, forward towards heaven. They shall walk, they shall run, the
   way of God's commandments, cheerfully and with alacrity (they shall not
   be weary), constantly and with perseverance (they shall not faint); and
   therefore in due season they shall reap. Let Jacob and Israel
   therefore, in their greatest distresses, continue waiting upon God, and
   not despair of timely and effectual relief and succour from him.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLI.

   This chapter, as the former, in intended both for the conviction of
   idolaters and for the consolation of all God's faithful worshippers;
   for the Spirit is sent, and ministers are employed by him, both to
   convince and to comfort. And however this might be primarily intended
   for the conviction of Babylonians, and the comfort of Israelites, or
   for the conviction of those in Israel that were addicted to idolatry,
   as multitudes were, and the comfort of those that kept their integrity,
   doubtless it was intended both for admonition and encouragement to us,
   admonition to keep ourselves from idols and encouragement to trust in
   God. Here, I. God by the prophet shows the folly of those that
   worshipped idols, especially that thought their idols able to contest
   with him and control him, ver. 1-9. II. He encourages his faithful ones
   to trust in him, with an assurance that he would take their part
   against their enemies, make them victorious over them, and bring about
   a happy change of their affairs, ver. 10-20. III. He challenges the
   idols, that were rivals with him for men's adoration, to vie with him
   either for knowledge or power, either to show things to come or to do
   good or evil, ver. 21-29. So that the chapter may be summed up in those
   words of Elijah, "If Jehovah be God, then follow him; but, if Baal be
   God, then follow him;" and in the people's acknowledgment, upon the
   issue of the trial, "Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God."

Idolatry Exposed. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their
   strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near
   together to judgment.   2 Who raised up the righteous man from the
   east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him
   rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven
   stubble to his bow.   3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the
   way that he had not gone with his feet.   4 Who hath wrought and done
   it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first,
   and with the last; I am he.   5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends
   of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.   6 They helped every
   one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good
   courage.   7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that
   smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready
   for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be
   moved.   8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
   the seed of Abraham my friend.   9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends
   of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto
   thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

   That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising
   up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof
   both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his
   people. Here is,

   I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make
   good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him,
   v. 1. It is renewed (v. 21): Produce your cause. The court is set,
   summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of
   God's jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the ends of
   the earth, to make their appearance and give their attendance. Silence
   (as usual) is proclaimed while the cause is in trying: "Keep silence
   before me, and judge nothing before the time" ; while the cause is in
   trying between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan it becomes
   all people silently to expect the issue, not to object against God's
   proceedings, but to be confident that he will carry the day. The
   defenders of idolatry are called to say what they can in defence of it:
   "Let them renew their strength, in opposition to God, and see whether
   it be equal to the strength which those renew that wait upon him (ch.
   xl. 31); let them try their utmost efforts, whether by force of arms or
   force of argument. Let them come near; they shall not complain that
   God's dread makes them afraid (Job xiii. 21), so that they cannot say
   what they have to say, in vindication and honour of their idols; no,
   let them speak freely: Let us come near together to judgment." Note. 1.
   The cause of God and his kingdom is not afraid of a fair trial; if the
   case be but fairly stated, it will be surely carried in favour of
   religion. 2. The enemies of God's church and his holy religion may
   safely be challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their
   unrighteous cause. He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and the
   daughter of Zion despises them; for great is the truth and will
   prevail.

   II. He particularly challenges the idols to do that for their
   worshippers, and against his, which he had done and would do for his
   worshippers, and against theirs. Different senses are given of v. 2,
   concerning the righteous man raised up from the east; and, since we
   cannot determine which is the true, we will make use of each as good.

   1. That which is to be proved is, (1.) That the Lord is God alone, the
   first and with the last (v. 4), that he is infinite, eternal, and
   unchangeable, that he governed the world from the beginning, and will
   to the end of time. He has reigned of old, and will reign for ever; the
   counsels of his kingdom were from eternity, and the continuance of it
   will be to eternity. (2.) That Israel is his servant (v. 8), whom he
   owns, and protects, and employs, and in whom he is and will be
   glorified. As there is a God in heaven, so there is a church on earth
   that is his particular care. Elijah prays (1 Kings xviii. 36), Let it
   be known that thou art God, and that I am thy servant. Now,

   2. To prove this he shows,

   (1.) That it was he who called Abraham, the father of this despised
   nation, out of an idolatrous country, and by many instances of his
   favour made his name great, Gen. xii. 2. He is the righteous man whom
   God raised up from the east. Of him the Chaldee paraphrast expressly
   understands it: Who brought Abraham publicly from the east? To maintain
   the honour of the people of Israel, it was very proper to show what a
   figure this great ancestor of theirs made in his day; and v. 8 seems to
   be the explication of it, where God calls Israel the seed of Abraham my
   friend; and (v. 4) he calls the generations (namely, the generations of
   Israel) from the beginning. Also, to put contempt upon idolatry, and
   particularly the Chaldean idolatry, it was proper to show how Abraham
   was called from serving other gods (Josh. xxiv. 2, 3, &c.), so that an
   early testimony was borne against that idolatry which boasted so much
   of its antiquity. Also, to encourage the captives in Babylon to hope
   that God would find a way for their return to their own land, it was
   proper to remind them how at first he brought their father Abraham out
   of the same country into this land, to give it to him for an
   inheritance, Gen. xv. 7. Now observe what is here said concerning him.
   [1.] That he was a righteous man, or righteousness, a man of
   righteousness, that believed God, and it was counted to him for
   righteousness; and so he became the father of all those who by faith in
   Christ are made the righteousness of God through him, Rom. iv. 3, 11; 2
   Cor. v. 21. He was a great example of righteousness in his day, and
   taught his household to do judgment and justice, Gen. xviii. 19. [2.]
   That God raised him up from the east, from Ur first and afterwards from
   Haran, which lay east from Canaan. God would not let him settle in
   either of those places, but did by him as the eagle by her young, when
   she stirs up her nest: he raised him out of iniquity and made him
   pious, out of obscurity and made him famous. [3.] He called him to his
   foot, to follow him with an implicit faith; for he went out, not
   knowing whither he went, but whom he followed, Heb. xi. 8. Those whom
   God effectually calls he calls to his foot, to be subject to him, to
   attend him, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes; and we must all
   either come to his foot or be made his footstool. [4.] He gave nations
   before him, the nations of Canaan, which he promised to make him master
   of, and thus far gave him an interest in that the Hittites acknowledged
   him a mighty prince among them, Gen. xxiii. 6. He made him rule over
   those kings whom he conquered for the rescue of his brother Lot, Gen.
   xiv. And when God gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble
   to his bow (that is, made them an easy prey to his catechised
   servants), he then pursued them, and passed safely, or in peace, under
   the divine protection, though it was in a way he was altogether
   unacquainted with; and so considerable was this victory that
   Melchizedec himself appeared to celebrate it. Now who did this but the
   great Jehovah? Can any of the gods of the heathen do so?

   (2.) That it is he who will, ere long, raise up Cyrus from the east. It
   is spoken of according to the language of prophecy as a thing past,
   because as sure to be done in its season as if it were already done.
   God will raise him up in righteousness (so it may be read, ch. xlv.
   13), will call him to his foot, make what use of him he pleases, and
   make him victorious over the nations that oppose his coming to the
   crown, and give him success in all his wars; and he shall be a type of
   Christ, who is righteousness itself, the Lord our righteousness, whom
   God will, in the fulness of time, raise up and make victorious over the
   powers of darkness; so that he shall spoil them and make a show of them
   openly.

   III. He exposes the folly of idolaters, who, notwithstanding the
   convincing proofs which the God of Israel had given of his being God
   alone, obstinately persisted in their idolatry, nay, were so much the
   more hardened in it (v. 5): The isles of the Gentiles saw this, not
   only what God did for Abraham himself, but what he did for his seed,
   for his sake, how he brought them out of Egypt, and made them rule over
   kings, and they feared, Exod. xv. 14-16. They were afraid, and,
   according to the summons (v. 1), they drew near, and came; they could
   not avoid taking notice of what God did for Abraham and his seed; but,
   instead of helping to reason one another out of their sottish
   idolatries, they helped to confirm one another in them, v. 6, 7. 1.
   They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon their religion, which
   they were jealous for the honour of, and were resolved, right or wrong,
   to adhere to, and therefore were alarmed to appear vigorously for the
   support of it, as the Ephesians for their Diana. When God, by his
   wonderful appearances on the behalf of his people, went about to wrest
   their idols from them, they held them so much the faster, and said one
   to another, "Be of good courage; let us unanimously agree to keep up
   the reputation of our gods. Though Dagon fall before the ark, he shall
   be set up again in his place." One tradesman encourages another to come
   into a confederacy for the keeping up of the noble craft of god-making.
   Thus men's convictions often exasperate their corruptions, and they are
   made worse both by the word and the works of God, which should make
   them better. 2. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon
   themselves. They thought themselves in danger from the growing
   greatness both of Abraham that was a convert from idolatry, and of the
   people of Israel that were separatists from it; and therefore they not
   only had recourse to their old gods for protection, but made new ones,
   Deut. xxxii. 17. So the carpenter, having done his part to the
   timberwork, encouraged the goldsmith to do his part in gilding or
   overlaying it; and, when it came into the goldsmith's hand, he that
   smooths with the hammer that polishes it, or beats it thin, quickened
   him that smote the anvil, bade him be expeditious, and told him it was
   ready for the soldering, which perhaps was the last operation about it,
   and then it is fastened with nails, and you have a god of it presently.
   Do sinners thus animate and quicken one another in the ways of sin? And
   shall not the servants of the living God both stir up one another to,
   and strengthen one another in, his service? Some read all this
   ironically, and by way of permission: Let them help every one his
   neighbour; let the carpenter encourage the goldsmith; but all in vain;
   idols shall fall for all this.

   IV. He encourages his own people to trust in him (v. 8, 9): "But thou,
   Israel, art my servant. They know me not, but thou knowest me, and
   knowest better than to join with such ignorant besotted people as
   these" (for it is intended for a warning to the people of God not to
   walk in the way of the heathen); "they put themselves under the
   protection of these impotent deities, but thou art under my protection.
   Those that make them are like unto them, and so is every one that
   trusts in them; but thou, O Israel! art the servant of a better
   Master." Observe what is suggested here for the encouragement of God's
   people when they are threatened and insulted over. 1. They are God's
   servants, and he will not see them abused, especially for what they do
   in his service: Thou art my servant (v. 8), and (v. 9) "I have said
   unto thee, Thou art my servant; and I will not go back from my word."
   2. He has chosen them to be a peculiar people to himself. They were not
   forced upon him, but of his own good-will he set them apart. 3. They
   were the seed of Abraham his friend. It was the honour of Abraham that
   he was called the friend of God (James ii. 23), whom God covenanted and
   conversed with as a friend, and the man of his counsel; and this honour
   have all the saints, John xv. 15. And for the father's sake the people
   of Israel were beloved. God was pleased to look upon them as the
   posterity of an old friend of his, and therefore to be kind to them;
   for the covenant of friendship was made with Abraham and his seed. 4.
   He had sometimes, when they had been scattered among the heathen,
   fetched them from the ends of the earth and taken them out of the hands
   of the chief ones thereof, and therefore he would not now abandon them.
   Abraham their father was fetched from a place at a great distance, and
   they in his loins; and those who had been thus far-fetched and
   dear-bought he could not easily part with. 5. He had not yet cast them
   away, though they had often provoked him, and therefore he would not
   now abandon them. What God has done for his people, and what he has
   further engaged to do, should encourage them to trust in him at all
   times.

Israel Encouraged. (b. c. 708.)

   10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy
   God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
   thee with the right hand of my righteousness.   11 Behold, all they
   that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they
   shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.   12
   Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended
   with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a
   thing of nought.   13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,
   saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.   14 Fear not, thou worm
   Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy
   redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.   15 Behold, I will make thee a new
   sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the
   mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.   16
   Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the
   whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and
   shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.   17 When the poor and needy
   seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I
   the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
   18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the
   valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
   springs of water.   19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the
   shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the
   desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:   20 That
   they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the
   hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath
   created it.

   The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the
   faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is
   intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in
   captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and
   comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to Israel
   as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be
   accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is
   a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated,
   Fear thou not; and again (v. 13), Fear not; and (v. 14), "Fear not,
   thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the enemy, doubt not the
   promise of thy God; fear not that thou shalt perish in thy affliction
   or that the promise of thy deliverance shall fail." It is against the
   mind of God that his people should be a timorous people. For the
   suppressing of fear he assures them,

   I. That they may depend upon his presence with them as their God, and a
   God all-sufficient for them in the worst of times. Observe with what
   tenderness God speaks, and how willing he is to let the heirs of
   promise know the immutability of his counsel, and how desirous to make
   them easy: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee, not only within call,
   but present with thee; be not dismayed at the power of those that are
   against thee, for I am thy God, and engaged for thee. Art thou weak? I
   will strengthen thee. Art thou destitute of friends? I will help thee
   in the time of need. Art thou ready to sink, ready to fall? I will
   uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, that right hand
   which is full of righteousness, in dispensing rewards and punishments,"
   Ps. xlviii. 10. And again (v. 13) it is promised, 1. That God will
   strengthen their hands, that is, will help them: "I will hold thy right
   hand, go hand in hand with thee" (so some): he will take us by the hand
   as our guide, to lead us in our way, will help us up when we are fallen
   or prevent our falls; when we are weak he will hold us up-wavering, he
   will fix us-trembling, he will encourage us, and so hold us by the
   right hand, Ps. lxxiii. 23. 2. That he will silence their fears: Saying
   unto thee, Fear not. He has said it again and again in his word, and
   has there provided sovereign antidotes against fear: but he will go
   further; he will by his Spirit say it to their hearts, and make them to
   hear it, and so will help them.

   II. That though their enemies be now very formidable, insolent, and
   severe, yet the day is coming when God will reckon with them and they
   shall triumph over them. There are those that are incensed against
   God's people, that strive with them (v. 11), that war against them (v.
   12), that hate them, that seek their ruin, and are continually picking
   quarrels with them. But let not God's people be incensed at them, nor
   strive with them, nor render evil for evil; but wait God's time, and
   believe, 1. That they shall be convinced of the folly, at least, if not
   of the sin of striving with God's people; and, finding it to no
   purpose, they shall be ashamed and confounded, which might bring them
   to repentance, but will rather fill them with rage. 2. That they shall
   be quite ruined and undone (v. 11): They shall be as nothing before the
   justice and power of God. When God comes to deal with his proud enemies
   he makes nothing of them. Or they shall be brought to nothing, shall be
   as if they had never been. This is repeated (v. 12): They shall be as
   nothing and as a thing of nought, or as that which is gone and has
   failed. Those that were formidable shall become despicable; those that
   fancied they could do any thing shall be able to bring nothing to pass;
   those that made a figure in the world, and a mighty noise, shall become
   mere ciphers and be buried in silence. They shall perish, not only be
   nothing, but be miserable: Thou shalt seek them, shalt enquire what has
   become of them, that they do not appear as usual, but thou shalt not
   find them as David, Ps. xxxvii. 36. I sought him, but he could not be
   found.

   III. That they themselves should become a terror to those who were now
   a terror to them, and victory should turn on their side, v. 14-16. See
   here, 1. How Jacob and Israel are reduced and brought very low. It is
   the worm Jacob, so little, so weak, and so defenceless, despised and
   trampled on by every body, forced to creep even into the earth for
   safety; and we must not wonder that Jacob has become a worm, when even
   Jacob's King calls himself a worm and no man, Ps. xxii. 6. God's people
   are sometimes as worms, in their humble thoughts of themselves and
   their enemies' haughty thoughts of them--worms, but not vipers, as
   their enemies are, not of the serpent's seed. God regards Jacob's low
   estate, and says, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not that thou shalt
   be crushed; and you men of Israel" (you few men, so some read it, you
   dead men, so others) "do not give up yourselves for gone
   notwithstanding." Note, The grace of God will silence fears even when
   there seems to be the greatest cause for them. Perplexed but not in
   despair. 2. How Jacob and Israel are advanced from this low estate, and
   made as formidable as ever they have been despicable. But by whom shall
   Jacob arise, for he is small? We are here told: I will help thee, saith
   the Lord; and it is the honour of God to help the weak. He will help
   them, for he is their Redeemer, who is wont to redeem them, who has
   undertaken to do it. Christ is the Redeemer, from him is our help
   found. He will help them, for he is the Holy One of Israel, worshipped
   among them in the beauty of holiness and engaged by promise to them.
   The Lord will help them by enabling them to help themselves and making
   Jacob to become a threshing instrument. Observe, He is but an
   instrument, a tool in God's hand, that he is pleased to make use of;
   and he is an instrument of God's making and is no more than God makes
   him. But, if God make him a threshing instrument, he will make use of
   him, and therefore will make him fit for use, new and sharp, and having
   teeth, or sharp spikes; and then, by divine direction and strength,
   thou shalt thresh the mountains, the highest, and strongest, and most
   stubborn of thy enemies: thou shalt not only be at them, but beat them
   small; they shall not be a corn threshed out, which is valuable, and is
   carefully preserved (such God's people are when they are under the
   flail, ch. xxi. 10: O my threshing! yet the corn of my floor, that
   shall not be lost); but these are made as chaff, which is good for
   nothing, and which the husbandman is glad to get rid of. He pursues the
   metaphor, v. 16. Having threshed them, thou shalt winnow them, and the
   wind shall scatter them. This perhaps had its accomplishment, in part,
   in the victories of the Jews over their enemies in the times of the
   Maccabees; but it seems in general designed to read the final doom of
   all the implacable enemies of the church of God, and to have its
   accomplishment like wise in the triumphs of the cross of Christ, the
   gospel of Christ, and all the faithful followers of Christ, over the
   powers of darkness, which, first or last, shall all be dissipated, and
   in Christ all believers shall be more than conquerors, and he that
   overcomes shall have power over the nations, Rev. ii. 26.

   IV. That, hereupon, they shall have abundance of comfort in God, and
   God shall have abundance of honour from them: Thou shalt rejoice in the
   Lord, v. 16. When we are freed from that which hindered our joy, and
   are blessed with that which is the matter of it, we ought to remember
   that God is our exceeding joy and in him all our joys must terminate.
   When we rejoice over our enemies we must rejoice in the Lord, for to
   him alone we owe our liberties and victories. "Thou shalt also glory in
   the Holy One of Israel, in thy interest in him and relation to him, and
   what he has done for thee." And, if thus we make God our praise and
   glory, we become to him for a praise and a glory.

   V. That they shall have seasonable and suitable supplies of every thing
   that is proper for them in the time of need; and, if there be occasion,
   God will again do for them as he did for Israel in their march from
   Egypt to Canaan, v. 17-19. When the captives, either in Babylon or in
   their return thence, are in distress for want of water or shelter, God
   will take care of them, and, one way or other, make their journey, even
   through a wilderness, comfortable to them. But doubtless this promise
   has more than such a private interpretation. Their return out of
   Babylon was typical of our redemption by Christ; and so the contents of
   these promises, 1. Were provided by the gospel of Christ. That glorious
   discovery of his love has given full assurance to all those who hear
   this joyful sound that God has provided inestimable comforts for them,
   sufficient for the supply of all their wants, the balancing of all
   their griefs, and the answering of all their prayers. 2. They are
   applied by the grace and Spirit of Christ to all believers, that they
   may have strong consolation in their way and a complete happiness in
   their end. Our way to heaven lies through the wilderness of this world.
   Now, (1.) It is here supposed that the people of God, in their passage
   through this world, are often in straits: The poor and needy seek
   water, and there is none; the poor in spirit hunger and thirst after
   righteousness. The soul of man, finding itself empty and necessitous,
   seeks for satisfaction somewhere, but soon despairs of finding it in
   the world, that has nothing in it to make it easy: creatures are broken
   cisterns, that can hold no water; so that their tongue fails for
   thirst, they are weary of seeking that satisfaction in the world which
   is not to be had in it. Their sorrow makes them thirsty; so does their
   toil. (2.) It is here promised that, one way or other, all their
   grievances shall be redressed and they shall be made easy. [1.] God
   himself will be nigh unto them in all that which they call upon him
   for. Let all the praying people of God take notice of this, and take
   comfort of it; he has said, "I the Lord will hear them, will answer
   them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them; I will be with them,
   as I have always been, in their distresses." While we are in the
   wilderness of this world this promise is to us what the pillar of cloud
   and fire was to Israel, an assurance of God's gracious presence. [2.]
   They shall have a constant supply of fresh water, as Israel had in the
   wilderness, even where one would least expect it (v. 18): I will open
   rivers in high places, rivers of grace, rivers of pleasure, rivers of
   living water, which he spoke of the Spirit (John vii. 38, 39), that
   Spirit which should be poured out upon the Gentiles, who had been as
   high places, dry and barren, and lifted up on their own conceit above
   the necessity of that gift. And there shall be fountains in the midst
   of the valleys, the valleys of Baca (Ps. lxxxiv. 6), that are sandy and
   wearisome; or among the Jews, who had been as fruitful valleys in
   comparison with the Gentile mountains. The preaching of the gospel to
   the world turned that wilderness into a pool of water, yielding fruit
   to the owner of it and relief to the travellers through it. [3.] They
   shall have a pleasant shade to screen them from the scorching heat of
   the sun, as Israel when they pitched at Elim, where they had not only
   wells of water, but palm-trees (Exod. xv. 27): "I will plant in the
   wilderness the cedar, v. 19. I will turn the wilderness into an orchard
   or garden, such as used to be planted with these pleasant trees, so
   that they shall pass through the wilderness with as much ease and
   delight as a man walks in his grove. These trees shall be to them what
   the pillar of cloud was to Israel in the wilderness, a shelter from the
   heat." Christ and his grace are so to believers, as the shadow of a
   great rock, ch. xxxii. 2. When God sets up his church in the Gentile
   wilderness there shall be as great a change made by it in men's
   characters as if thorns and briers were turned into cedars, and
   fir-trees, and myrtles; and by this a blessed change is described, ch.
   lv. 13. [4.] They shall see and acknowledge the hand of God, his power
   and his favour, in this, v. 20. God will do these strange and
   surprising things on purpose to awaken them to a conviction and
   consideration of his hand in all: That they may see this wonderful
   change, and knowing that it is above the ordinary course and power of
   nature may consider that therefore it comes from a superior power, and,
   comparing notes upon it, may understand together, and concur in the
   acknowledgment of it, that the hand of the Lord, that mighty hand of
   his which is stretched out for his people and stretched out to them,
   has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it, made it anew,
   made it out of nothing, made it for the comfort of his people. Note,
   God does great things for his people, that he may be taken notice of.

Idolatry Exposed. (b. c. 708.)

   21 Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons,
   saith the King of Jacob.   22 Let them bring them forth, and show us
   what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that
   we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us
   things for to come.   23 Show the things that are to come hereafter,
   that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we
   may be dismayed, and behold it together.   24 Behold, ye are of
   nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth
   you.   25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from
   the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come
   upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.   26 Who
   hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime,
   that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea,
   there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your
   words.   27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I
   will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.   28 For I
   beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no
   counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.   29
   Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten
   images are wind and confusion.

   The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to
   make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (v. 21)
   and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to
   prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration." Note,
   There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the
   reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their
   own confutation.

   I. The idols are here challenged to bring proofs of their knowledge and
   power. Let us see what they can inform us of, and what they can do.
   Understanding and active power are the accomplishments of a man.
   Whoever pretends to be a god must have these in perfection; and have
   the idols made it to appear that they have? No;

   1. "They can tell us nothing that we did not know before, so ignorant
   are they. We challenge them to inform us," (1.) "What has been
   formerly: Let them show the former things, and raise them out of the
   oblivion in which they were buried" (God inspired Moses to write such a
   history of the creation as the gods of the heathen could never have
   dictated to any of their enthusiasts); or "let the defenders of idols
   tell us what mighty achievements they can boast of as performed by
   their gods in former times. What did they ever do that was worth taking
   notice of? Let them specify any thing, and it shall be considered, its
   due weight shall be given it, and it shall be compared with the latter
   end of it; and if, in the issue, it prove to be as great as it
   pretended to be, they shall have the credit of it." (2.) "We challenge
   them to tell us what shall happen, to declare to us things to come (v.
   22), and again (v. 23), show the things that are to come hereafter.
   Give this evidence of your omniscience, that nothing can be hidden from
   you, and of your sovereignty and dominion. Make it to appear that you
   have the doing of all, by letting us know beforehand what you design to
   do. Do this kindness to the world; let them know what is to come, that
   they may provide accordingly. Do this, and we will own that you are
   gods above us, and gods to us, and worthy of our adoration." No
   creature can foretel things to come, otherwise than by divine
   information, with any certainty.

   2. "They can do nothing that we cannot do ourselves, so impotent are
   they." He challenges them to do either good or evil, good to their
   friends or evil to their enemies: "Let them do, if they can, any thing
   extraordinary, that people will admire and be affected with. Let them
   either bless or curse, with power. Let us see them either inflict such
   plagues such as God brought on Egypt or bestow such blessings as God
   bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be
   amazed when we see it, and frightened into a veneration of them, as
   many have been into a veneration of the true God." That which is
   charged upon these idols, and let them disprove it if they can, is that
   they are of nothing, v. 24. Their claims have no foundation at all, nor
   is there any ground or reason in the least for men's paying them the
   respect they do; there is nothing in them worthy our regard. "They are
   less than nothing, worse than nothing;" so some read it. "The work they
   do is of nought, and so is the ado that is made about them. There is no
   pretence or colour for it; it is all a jest; it is all a sham put upon
   the world; and therefore he that chooses you, and so give you your
   deity, and" (as some read it) "that delights in you, is an
   abomination;" so some take it. A servant is at liberty to choose his
   master, but a man is not at liberty to choose his God. He that chooses
   any other than the true God chooses an abomination; his choosing it
   makes it so.

   II. God here produces proofs that he is the true God, and that there is
   none besides him. Let him produce his strong reasons.

   1. He has an irresistible power. This he will shortly make to appear in
   the raising up of Cyrus and making him a type of Christ (v. 25): He
   will raise him up from the north and from the rising of the sun. Cyrus
   by his father was a Mede, by his mother a Persian; and his army
   consisted of Medes, whose country lay north, and Persians, whose
   country lay east, from Babylon. God will raise him up to great power,
   and he shall come against Babylon with ends of his own to serve. But,
   (1.) He shall proclaim God's name; so it may be read. He shall publish
   the honour of the God of Israel; so he did remarkably when, in his
   proclamation for the release of the Jews out of their captivity, he
   acknowledged that the Lord God of Israel was the Lord God of heaven,
   and the God: and he might be said to call on his name when he
   encouraged the building of his temple, and very probably did himself
   call upon him and pray to him, Ezra i. 2, 3. (2.) All opposition shall
   fall before him: He shall come upon the princes of Babylon, and all
   others that stood in his way, as mortar, and trample upon them as the
   potter treads clay, to serve his own purposes with it. Christ, as man,
   was raised up from the north, for Nazareth lay in the northern parts of
   Canaan; as the angel of the covenant, he ascends from the east. He
   maintained the honour of heaven (he shall call upon my name), and broke
   the powers of hell, came upon the prince of darkness as mortar and trod
   him down.

   2. He has an infallible foresight. He would not only do this, but he
   did now, by his prophet, foretel it. Now the false gods not only could
   not do it, but they could not foresee it. (1.) He challenges them to
   produce any of their pretended deities, or their diviners, that had
   given notice of this, or could (v. 26): "Who has declared from the
   beginning any thing of this kind, or has told it before-time? Tell us
   if there be any that you know of, for we know not any; if there be any,
   we will say, He is righteous, he is true, his cause is just, his claims
   are proved, and he is in the right in demanding to be worshipped." This
   agrees with v. 22, 23. (2.) He challenges to himself the sole honour of
   doing it and foretelling it (v. 27): I am the first (so it may be read)
   that will say to Zion, Behold, behold them, that will let the people of
   Israel know their deliverers are at hand (for there were those who
   understood by books, God's books, the approach of the time, Dan. ix.
   2), and I am he that will give to Jerusalem one that brings good
   tidings, these good tidings of their enlargement. This is applicable to
   the work of redemption, in which the Lord showed himself much more than
   in the release of the Jews out of Babylon: he it was that contrived our
   salvation, and he brought it about, and he has given to us the glad
   tidings of reconciliation.

   III. Judgment is here given upon this trial. 1. None of all the idols
   had foretold, or could foresee, this work of wonder. Other nations
   besides the Jews were released out of captivity in Babylon by Cyrus, or
   at least were greatly concerned in the revolution of the monarchy and
   there transferring of it to the Persians; and yet none of them had any
   intelligence given them of it beforehand, by any of their gods or
   prophets: "There is none that shows (v. 26), none that declares, none
   that gives the least intimation of it; there is none of the nations
   that hears your words, that can pretend to have heard from their gods
   such words as you, O Israelites! have heard from your God, by your
   prophets," Ps. cxlvii. 20. None of all the gods of the nations have
   shown their worshippers the way of salvation, which God will show by
   the Messiah. The good tidings which the Lord will send in the gospel is
   a mystery hidden from ages and generations, Rom. xvi. 25, 26. 2. None
   of those who pleaded for them could produce any instance of their
   knowledge or power that had in it any colour of proof that they were
   gods. All their advocates were struck dumb with this challenge (v. 28):
   "I beheld, and there was no man that could give evidence for them, even
   among those that were their most zealous admirers; and there was no
   counsellor, none that could offer any thing for the support of their
   cause. Even among the idols themselves there was none fit to give
   counsel in the most trivial matters, and yet there were those that
   asked counsel of them in the most important and difficult affairs. When
   I asked them what they had to say for themselves they stood mute; the
   case was so plain against them that there was none who could answer a
   word." Judgment must therefore be given against the defendant upon
   Nihil dicit--He is mute. He has nothing to say for himself. He was
   speechless, Matt. xxii. 12. 3. Sentence is therefore given according to
   the charge exhibited against them (v. 24): "Behold, they are all vanity
   (v. 29); they are a lie and a cheat; they are not in themselves what
   they pretend to be, nor will their worshippers find that in them which
   they promise themselves. Their works are nothing, of no force, of no
   worth; their enemies need fear no hurt from them; their worshippers can
   hope for no good from them. Their molten images, and indeed all their
   images, are wind and confusion, vanity and vexation; those that worship
   them will be deceived in them, and will reflect upon their own folly
   with the greatest bitterness. Therefore, dearly beloved, flee from
   idolatry," 1 Cor. x. 14.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLII.

   The prophet seems here to launch out yet further into the prophecy of
   the Messiah and his kingdom under the type of Cyrus; and, having the
   great work of man's salvation by him yet more in view, he almost
   forgets the occasion that led him into it and drops the return out of
   Babylon; for indeed the prospect of this would be a greater comfort and
   support to the believing pious Jews, in their captivity, than the hope
   of that. And (as Mr. Gataker well observes) in this and similar
   prophecies of Christ, that are couched in types, as of David and
   Solomon, some passages agree to the type and not to the truth, other to
   the truth and not to the type, and many to the type in one sense and
   the truth in another. Here is, I. A prophecy of the Messiah's coming
   with meekness, and yet with power, to do the Redeemer's work, ver. 1-4.
   II. His commission opened, which he received from the Father, ver. 5-9.
   III. The joy and rejoicing with which the glad tidings of this should
   be received, ver. 10-12. IV. The wonderful success of the gospel, for
   the overthrow of the devil's kingdom, ver. 13-17. V. The rejection and
   ruin of the Jews for their unbelief, ver. 18-25.

The Messiah's Approach. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul
   delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth
   judgment to the Gentiles.   2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause
   his voice to be heard in the street.   3 A bruised reed shall he not
   break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth
   judgment unto truth.   4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he
   have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

   We are sure that these verses are to be understood of Christ, for the
   evangelist tells us expressly that in him this prophecy was fulfilled,
   Matt. xii. 17-21. Behold with an eye of faith, behold and observe,
   behold and admire, my servant, whom I uphold. Let the Old-Testament
   saints behold and remember him. Now what must we behold and consider
   concerning him?

   I. The Father's concern for him and relation to him, the confidence he
   put and the complacency he took in him. This put an honour upon him,
   and made him remarkable, above any other circumstance, v. 1. 1. God
   owns him as one employed for him: He is my servant. Though he was a
   Son, yet, as a Mediator, he took upon him the form of a servant,
   learned obedience to the will of God and practised it, and laid out
   himself to advance the interests of God's kingdom, and so he was God's
   servant. 2. As one chosen by him: He is my elect. He did not thrust
   himself into the service, but was called of God, and pitched upon as
   the fittest person for it. Infinite Wisdom made the choice and then
   avowed it. 3. As one he put a confidence in: He is my servant on whom I
   lean; so some read it. The Father put a confidence in him that he would
   go through with his undertaking, and, in that confidence, brought many
   sons to glory. It was a great trust which the Father reposed in the
   Son, but he knew him to be par negotio--equal to it, both able and
   faithful. 4. As one he took care of: He is my servant whom I uphold; so
   we read it. The Father bore him up, and bore him out, in his upholding
   him; he stood by him and strengthened him. 5. As one whom he took an
   entire complacency in: My elect, in whom my soul delights. His delight
   was in him from eternity, when he was by him as one brought up with
   him, Prov. viii. 30. He had a particular satisfaction in his
   undertaking: he declared himself well pleased in him (Matt. iii. 17;
   xvii. 5), and therefore loved him, because he laid down his life for
   the sheep. Let our souls delight in Christ, rely on him, and rejoice in
   him; and thus let us be united to him, and then, for his sake, the
   Father will be well pleased with us.

   II. The qualification of him for his office: I have put my Spirit upon
   him, to enable him to go through his undertaking, ch. lxi. 1. The
   Spirit did not only come, but rest, upon him (ch. xi. 2), not by
   measure, as on others of God's servants, but without measure. Those
   whom God employs as his servants; as he will uphold them and be well
   pleased with them, so he will put his Spirit upon them.

   III. The work to which he is appointed; it is to bring forth judgment
   to the Gentiles, that is, in infinite wisdom, holiness, and equity, to
   set up a religion in the world under the bonds of which the Gentiles
   should come and the blessings of which they should enjoy. The judgments
   of the Lord, which had been hidden from the Gentiles (Ps. cxlvii. 20),
   he came to bring forth to the Gentiles, for he was to be a light to
   lighten them.

   IV. The mildness and tenderness with which he should pursue this
   undertaking, v. 2, 3. He shall carry it on, 1. In silence, and without
   noise: He shall not strive nor cry. It shall not be proclaimed, Lo,
   here, is Christ or Lo, he is there; as when great princes ride in
   progress or make a public entry. He shall have no trumpet sounded
   before him, nor any noisy retinue to follow him. The opposition he
   meets with he shall not strive against, but patiently endure the
   contradiction of sinners against himself. His kingdom is spiritual, and
   therefore its weapons are not carnal, nor is its appearance pompous; it
   comes not with observation. 2. Gently, and without rigour. Those that
   are wicked he will be patient with; when he has begun to crush them, so
   that they are as bruised reeds, he will give them space to repent and
   not immediately break them; though they are very offensive, as smoking
   flax (ch. lxv. 5), yet he will bear with them, as he did with
   Jerusalem. Those that are weak he will be tender of; those that have
   but a little life, a little heat, that are weak as a reed, oppressed
   with doubts and fears, as a bruised reed, that are as smoking flax, as
   the wick of a candle newly lighted, which is ready to go out again, he
   will not despise them, will not plead against them with his great
   power, nor lay upon them more work or more suffering than they can
   bear, which would break and quench them, but will graciously consider
   their frame. More is implied than is expressed. He will not break the
   bruised reed, but will strengthen it, that it may become a cedar in the
   courts of our God. He will not quench the smoking flax, but blow it up
   into a flame. Note, Jesus Christ is very tender toward those that have
   true grace, though they are but weak in it, and accepts the willingness
   of the spirit, pardoning and passing by the weakness of the flesh.

   V. The courage and constancy with which he should persevere in this
   undertaking, so as to carry his point at last (v. 4): He shall not fail
   nor be discouraged. Though he meets with hard service and much
   opposition, and foresees how ungrateful the world will be, yet he goes
   on with his part of the work, till he is able to say, Is is finished;
   and he enables his apostles and ministers to go on with theirs too, and
   not to fail nor be discouraged, till they also have finished their
   testimony. And thus he accomplishes what he undertook. 1. He brings
   forth judgment unto truth. By a long course of miracles, and his
   resurrection at last, he shall fully evince the truth of his doctrine
   and the divine origin and authority of that holy religion which he came
   to establish. 2. He sets judgment in the earth. He erects his
   government in the world, a church for himself among men, reforms the
   world, and by the power of his gospel and grace fixes such principles
   in the minds of men as tend to make them wise and just. 3. The isles of
   the Gentiles wait for his law, wait for his gospel, that is, bid it
   welcome as if it had been a thing they had long waited for. They shall
   become his disciples, shall sit at his feet, and be ready to receive
   the law from his mouth. What wilt thou have us to do?

The Messiah's Approach. (b. c. 708.)

   5 Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched
   them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of
   it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them
   that walk therein:   6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness,
   and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a
   covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;   7 To open the
   blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that
   sit in darkness out of the prison house.   8 I am the Lord: that is my
   name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
   graven images.   9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new
   things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.   10
   Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the
   earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles,
   and the inhabitants thereof.   11 Let the wilderness and the cities
   thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let
   the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the
   mountains.   12 Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his
   praise in the islands.

   Here is I. The covenant God made with and the commission he gave to the
   Messiah, v. 5-7, which are an exposition of v. 1, Behold my servant,
   whom I uphold.

   1. The royal titles by which the great God here makes himself known,
   and distinguishes himself from all pretenders, speak very much his
   glory (v. 5): Thus saith God the Lord. And who are thou, Lord? Why, he
   is the fountain of all being and therefore the fountain of all power.
   He is the fountain of being, 1. In the upper world; for he created the
   heavens and stretched them out (ch. xl. 22), and keeps the vast expanse
   still upon the stretch. 2. In the lower world: for he spread forth the
   earth, and made it a capacious habitation, and that which comes out of
   it is produced by his power. 3. In the world of mankind: He gives
   breath to the people upon it, not only air to breathe in, but the
   breath of life itself and organs to breathe with; nay, he gives spirit,
   the powers and faculties of a rational soul, to those that walk
   therein. Now this is prefixed to God's covenant with the Messiah, and
   the commission given him, not only to show that he has authority to
   make such a covenant and give such a commission, and had power
   sufficient to bear him out, but that the design of the work of
   redemption was to maintain the honour of the Creator, and to restore
   man to the allegiance he owes to God as his Maker.

   2. The assurances which he gives to the Messiah of his presence with
   him in all he did pursuant to his undertaking speak much encouragement
   to him, v. 6. (1.) God owns that the Messiah did not take the honour of
   being Mediator to himself, but was called of God, that he was no
   intruder, no usurper, but was fairly brought to it (Heb. v. 4): I have
   called thee in righteousness. God not only did him no wrong in calling
   him to this hard service, he having voluntarily offered himself to it,
   but did himself right in providing for his own honour and performing
   the word which he had spoken. (2.) He promises to stand by him and
   strengthen him in it, to hold his hand, not only to his work, but in
   it, to hold his hand, that it might not shake, that it might not fail,
   and so to keep him. When an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen
   him in his agonies, and the Father himself was with him, then this
   promise was fulfilled. Note, Those whom God calls he will own and help,
   and will hold their hands.

   3. The great intentions of this commission speak abundance of comfort
   to the children of men. He was given for a covenant of the people, for
   a mediator, or guarantee, of the covenant of grace, which is all summed
   up in him. God, in giving us Christ, has with him freely given us all
   the blessings of the new covenant. Two glorious blessings Christ, in
   his gospel, brings with him to the Gentile world--light and liberty.
   (1.) He is given for a light to the Gentiles, not only to reveal to
   them what they were concerned to know, and which otherwise they could
   not have known, but to open the blind eyes, that they might know it. By
   his Spirit in the word he presents the object; by his Spirit in the
   heart he prepared the organ. When the gospel came light came, a great
   light, to those that sat in darkness, Matt. iv. 16; John iii. 19. And
   St. Paul was sent to the Gentiles to open their eyes, Acts xxvi. 18.
   Christ is the light of the world. (2.) He is sent to proclaim liberty
   to the captives, as Cyrus did, to bring out the prisoners; not only to
   open the prison-doors, and give them leave to go out, which was all
   that Cyrus could do, but to bring them out, to induce and enable them
   to make use of their liberty, which none did but those whose spirits
   God stirred up. This Christ does by his grace.

   II. The ratification and confirmation of this grant. That we may be
   assured of the validity of it consider, 1. The authority of him that
   makes the promise (v. 8): I am the Lord, Jehovah, that is my name, and
   that was the name by which he made himself known when he began to
   perform the promise made to the patriarchs; whereas, before, he
   manifested himself by the name of God Almighty, Exod. vi. 3. If he is
   the Lord that gives being and birth to all things, he will give being
   and birth to this promise. If his name be Jehovah, which speaks him God
   alone, we may be sure his name is jealous, and he will not give his
   glory to another, whoever it is that stands in competition with him,
   especially not to graven images. He will send the Messiah to open men's
   eyes, that so he may turn them from the service of dumb idols to serve
   the living God, because, though he has long winked at the times of
   ignorance, he will now maintain his prerogative, and will not give his
   glory to graven images. He will perform his word because he will not
   lose the honour of being true to it, nor be ever charged with falsehood
   by the worshippers of false gods. He will deliver his people from under
   the power of idolaters because it looks as if he had given his praise
   to graven images when he gives up his own worshippers to be worshippers
   of images. 2. The accomplishment of the promises he had formerly made
   concerning his church, which are proofs of the truth of his word and
   the kindness he bears to his people (v. 9): "Behold, the former things
   have come to pass; hitherto the Lord has helped his church, has
   supported her under former burdens, relieved her in former straits; and
   this in performance of the promises made to the fathers. There has not
   failed one word, 1 Kings viii. 56. And now new things do I declare. Now
   I will make new promises, which shall as certainly be fulfilled in
   their season as old ones were; now I will bestow new favours, such as
   have not been conferred formerly. Old-Testament blessings you have had
   abundantly; now I declare New-Testament blessings, not a fruitful
   country and dominion over your neighbours, but spiritual blessings in
   heavenly things. Before they spring forth in the preaching of the
   gospel I tell you of them, under the type and figure of the former
   things." Note, The receipt of former mercies may encourage us to hope
   for further mercies; for God is constant in his care for his people,
   and his compassions are still new.

   III. The song of joy and praise which should be sung hereupon to the
   glory of God (v. 10): Sing unto the Lord a new song, a New-Testament
   song. The giving of Christ for a light to the Gentiles (v. 6) was a new
   thing, and very surprising. The apostle speaks of it as a mystery
   which, in other ages, was not made known, as it is now revealed, that
   the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, Eph. iii. 5, 6. Now, this being
   the new thing which God declares, the newness of the song which is to
   be sung on this occasion is this, that whereas, before, the songs of
   the Lord were very much confined to the temple at Jerusalem (David's
   psalms were in the language of the Jews only, and sung by them in their
   own country only; for, when they were in a strange land, they hung
   their harps on the willow-trees and could not sing the Lord's song, as
   we find, Ps. cxxxvii. 2-4), now the songs of holy joy and praise shall
   be sung all the world over. The Gentile nations shall share equally
   with the Jews in New-Testament blessings, and therefore shall join in
   New-Testament praises and acts of worship. There shall be churches set
   up in Gentile nations and they shall sing a new song. The conversion of
   the Gentiles is often foretold under this notion, as appears, Rom. xv.
   9-11. It is here promised that the praises of God's grace shall be sung
   with joy and thankfulness, 1. By those that live in the end of the
   earth, in countries that lie most remote from Jerusalem. From the
   uttermost parts of the earth have we heard songs, ch. xxiv. 16. This
   was fulfilled when Christianity was planted in our land. 2. By mariners
   and merchants, and those that go down to the sea, that do business in
   great waters, and suck the riches of the sea, and so make themselves
   masters of the fulness thereof and all that is therein, with which they
   shall praise God, and justly, for it is his, Ps. xxiv. 1; xcv. 5. The
   Jews traded little at sea; if therefore God's praises be sung by those
   that go down to the sea, it must be by Gentiles. Sea-faring men are
   called upon to praise God, Ps. cvii. 23. 3. By the islands and the
   inhabitants thereof, v. 10, and again, v. 12. Let them declare his
   praise in the islands, the isles of the Gentiles, probably referring to
   the islands of Greece. 4. By the wilderness and the cities thereof, and
   the villages of Kedar. These lay east from Jerusalem, as the islands
   lay west, so that the gospel songs should be sung from the rising of
   the sun to the going down of the same. The whole Gentile world had been
   like an island, cut off from communication with God's church, and like
   a wilderness, uncultivated and bringing forth no fruit to God; but now
   the islands and the wilderness shall praise God. 5. By the inhabitants
   of the rock, and those that dwell on the tops of the mountains, not
   only the Gentiles, but the poorest and meanest and most despicable,
   those that dwell in cottages, as well as those that inhabit cities and
   villages. The rude and most barbarous, as the mountaineers commonly
   are, shall be civilized by the gospel. Or by the inhabitants of the
   rock may be meant the inhabitants of that part of Arabia which is
   called Petræa--the rocky. Perhaps the neighbouring countries shared in
   the joy of the Israelites when they returned out of Babylon and some of
   them came and joined with them in their praises; but we find not that
   it was to any such degree as might fully answer this illustrious
   prophecy, and must conclude that it reaches further, and was fulfilled
   in that which many other prophecies of the joy of the nations are said
   in the New-Testament to be fulfilled in, the conversion of the Gentiles
   to the faith of Christ. When they are brought into the church they are
   brought to give glory to the Lord; then they are to him for a name and
   a praise, and they make it their business to praise him. He is
   glorified in them and by them.

Judgment and Mercy. (b. c. 708.)

   13 The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy
   like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against
   his enemies.   14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still,
   and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will
   destroy and devour at once.   15 I will make waste mountains and hills,
   and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I
   will dry up the pools.   16 And I will bring the blind by a way that
   they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I
   will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.
   These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.   17 They shall
   be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven
   images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

   It comes all to one whether we make these verses (as some do) the song
   itself that is to be sung by the Gentile world or a prophecy of what
   God will do to make way for the singing of that song, that evangelical
   new song.

   I. He will appear in his power and glory more than ever. So he did in
   the preaching of his gospel, in the divine power and energy which went
   along with it, and in the wonderful success it had in the pulling down
   of Satan's stronghold, v. 13, 14. He had long held his peace, and been
   still, and refrained himself, while he winked at the times of the
   ignorance of the Gentile world (Acts xvii. 30), and suffered all
   nations to walk in their own ways (Acts xiv. 16); but now he shall go
   forth as a mighty man, as a man of war, to attack the devil's kingdom
   and give it a fatal blow. The going forth of the gospel is thus
   represented, Rev. vi. 2. Christ, in it, went forth conquering and to
   conquer. The ministry of the apostles is called their warfare; and they
   were the soldiers of Jesus Christ. He shall stir up jealousy, shall
   appear more jealous than ever for the glory of his own name and against
   idolatry. 1. He shall cry, in the preaching of his word, cry like a
   travailing woman; for the ministers of Christ preached as men in
   earnest, and that travailed in birth again till they saw Christ formed
   in the souls of the people, Gal. iv. 19. He shall cry, yea, roar, in
   the gospel woes, which are more terrible than the roaring of a lion,
   and which must be preached along with gospel blessings to awaken a
   sleeping world. 2. He shall conquer by the power of his Spirit: He
   shall prevail against his enemies, shall prevail to make them friends,
   Col. i. 21. Those that contradict and blaspheme his gospel, he shall
   prevail to put them to silence and shame. He will destroy and devour at
   once all the oppositions of the powers of darkness. Satan shall fall as
   lightning from heaven, and he that had the power of death shall be
   destroyed. As a type and figure of this, to make way for the redemption
   of the Jews out of Babylon, God will humble the pride, and break the
   power, of their oppressors, and will at once destroy and devour the
   Babylonian monarchy. In accomplishing this destruction of Babylon by
   the Persian army under the command of Cyrus, he will make waste
   mountains and hills, level the country, and dry up all their herbs. The
   army, as usual, shall either carry off the forage or destroy it, and by
   laying bridges of boats over rivers shall turn them into islands, and
   so drain the fens and low grounds, to make way for the march of their
   army, that the pools shall be dried up. Thus, when the gospel shall be
   preached, it shall have a free course, and that which hinders the
   progress of it shall be taken out of the way.

   II. He will manifest his favour and grace towards those whose spirits
   he had stirred up to follow him, as Ezra i. 5. Those who ask the way to
   Zion he will show the way, and lead in it, v. 16. Those who by nature
   were blind, and those who, being under convictions of sin and wrath are
   quite at a loss and know not what to do with themselves, God will lead
   by a way that they knew not, will show them the way to life and
   happiness by Jesus Christ, who is the way, and will conduct and carry
   them on in that way, which before they were strangers to. Thus, in the
   conversion of Paul, he was struck blind first, and then God revealed
   his Son in him, and made the scales to fall from his eyes. They are
   weak in knowledge, and the truths of God at first seem unintelligible;
   but God will make darkness light before them, and knowledge shall be
   easy to them. They are weak in duty, the commands of God seem
   impracticable, and insuperable difficulties are in the way of their
   obedience; but God will make crooked things straight; their way shall
   be plain, and the yoke easy. Those whom God brings into the right way
   he will guide in it. As a type of this, he will lead the Jews, when
   they return out of captivity, in a ready road to their own land again,
   and nothing shall occur to perplex or embarrass them in their journey.
   These are great things, and kind things, very great and very kind; but
   lest any should say, "They are too great, too kind, to be expected from
   God by such an undeserving people as that of the Jews, such an
   undeserving world as that of the Gentiles," he adds, These things will
   I do unto them, take my word for it I will, and I will not forsake
   them; he that begins to show this great mercy will go on to do them
   good.

   III. He will particularly put those to confusion who adhere to idols
   notwithstanding the attempts made by the preaching of the gospel to
   turn them from idols (v. 17): They shall be turned back, and greatly
   ashamed, that trust in graven images. The Babylonians shall when they
   see how the Jews, who despise their images, are owned and delivered by
   the God they worship without images, and the Gentiles when they see how
   idolatry falls before the preaching of the gospel, is scattered like
   darkness before the light of the sun, and melts like snow before its
   heat. They shall be ashamed that ever they said to these molten images,
   You are our gods; for how can those help their worshippers who cannot
   help themselves, nor save themselves from falling into contempt? In
   times of reformation, when many turn from iniquity, and sin, being
   generally deserted, becomes unfashionable, it may be hoped that those
   who will not otherwise be reclaimed will be wrought upon by that
   consideration to be ashamed of it.

The Blindness of the Jews. (b. c. 708.)

   18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.   19 Who is
   blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is
   blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant?   20
   Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he
   heareth not.   21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake;
   he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.   22 But this is a
   people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and
   they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none
   delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.   23 Who among you
   will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
     24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the
   Lord, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his
   ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.   25 Therefore he hath
   poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and
   it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned
   him, yet he laid it not to heart.

   The prophet, having spoken by way of comfort and encouragement to the
   believing Jews who waited for the consolation of Israel, here turns to
   those among them who were unbelieving, for their conviction and
   humiliation. Among those who were in captivity in Babylon there were
   some who were as the evil figs in Jeremiah's vision, who were sent
   thither for their hurt, to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
   earth, for a reproach and a proverb, Jer. xxiv. 9. In them there was a
   type of the Jews who rejected Christ and were rejected by him, and then
   fell more than ever under the curse, when those who believed were
   inheriting the blessing; for they were broken, and ruined, and remain
   dispersed unto this day. Observe,

   I. The call that is given to this people (v. 18): "Hear, you deaf, and
   attend to the joyful sound, and look you blind, that you may see the
   joyful light." There is no absurdity in this command, nor is it
   unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God to call us to do that good
   which yet of ourselves we are not sufficient for; for those have
   natural powers which they may employ so as to do better than they do,
   and may have supernatural grace if it be not their own fault, who yet
   labour under a moral impotency to that which is good. This call to the
   deaf to hear and the blind to see is like the command given to the man
   that had the withered hand to stretch it forth; though he could not do
   this, because it was withered, yet, if he had not attempted to do it,
   he would not have been healed, and his being healed thereupon was
   owing, not to his act, but to the divine power.

   II. The character that is given of them (v. 19, 20): Who is blind, but
   my servant, or deaf as my messenger? The people of the Jews were in
   profession God's servants, and their priests and elders his messengers
   (Mal. ii. 7); but they were deaf and blind. The verse before may be
   understood as spoken to the Gentile idolaters, whom he calls deaf and
   blind, because they worshipped gods that were so. "But," says he, "no
   wonder you are deaf and blind when my own people are as bad as you, and
   many of them as much set upon idolatry."

   1. He complains of their sottishness--they are blind; and of their
   stubbornness--they are deaf. They were even worse than the Gentiles
   themselves. Corruptio optimi est pessima--What is best becomes, when
   corrupted, the worst. "Who is so wilfully, so scandalously, blind and
   deaf as my servant and my messenger, as Jacob who is my servant (ch.
   xli. 8), and as their prophets and teachers who are my messengers? Who
   is blind as he that in profession and pretension is perfect, that
   should come nearer to perfection than other people, their priests and
   prophets? The one prophesies falsely, and the other bears rule by their
   means; and who so blind as those that will not see when they have the
   light shining in their faces?" Note, (1.) It is a common thing, but a
   very sad thing, for those that in profession are God's servants and
   messengers to be themselves blind and deaf in spiritual things,
   ignorant, erroneous, and very careless. (2.) Blindness and deafness in
   spiritual things are worse in those that profess themselves to be God's
   servants and messengers than in others. It is in them the greater sin
   and shame, the greater dishonour to God, and to themselves a greater
   damnation.

   2. The prophet goes on (v. 20) to describe the blindness and obstinacy
   of the Jewish nation, just as our Saviour describes it in his time
   (Matt. xiii. 14, 15): Seeing many things, but thou observest not.
   Multitudes are ruined for want of observing that which they cannot but
   see; they perish, not through ignorance, but mere carelessness. The
   Jews in our Saviour's time saw many proofs of his divine mission, but
   they did not observe them; they seemed to open their ears to him, but
   they did not hear, that is, they did not heed, did not understand, or
   believe, or obey, and then it was all one as if they had not heard.

   III. The care God will take of the honour of his own name,
   notwithstanding their blindness and deafness, especially of his word,
   which he has magnified above all his name. Shall the unbelief and
   obstinacy of men make the promise of God of no effect? God forbid, Rom.
   iii. 3, 4. No, though they are blind and deaf, God will be no loser in
   his glory (v. 21): The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness'
   sake; not well pleased with their sin, but well pleased in the
   manifestation of his own righteousness, in rejecting them for rejecting
   the great salvation. He speaks as one well pleased, ch. i. 24: Ah! I
   will ease me of my adversaries; and Ezek. v. 13, I will be comforted.
   The scripture was fulfilled in the casting off of the Jews as well as
   in the calling in of the Gentiles, and therein the Lord will be well
   pleased. He will magnify the law (divine revelation in all the parts of
   it) and will make it honourable. The law is truly honourable, and the
   things of it are great things; and, if men will not magnify it by their
   obedience to it, God will magnify it himself by punishing them for
   their disobedience. He will magnify the law by accomplishing what is
   written in it, will magnify its authority, its efficacy, its equity. He
   will do it at last, when all men shall be judged by the law of liberty,
   James ii. 12. He is doing it every day. What is it that God is doing in
   the world, but magnifying the law and making it honourable?

   IV. The calamities God will bring upon the Jewish nation for their
   wilful blindness and deafness, v. 22. They are robbed and spoiled.
   Those that were impenitent and unreformed in Babylon were sentenced to
   perpetual captivity. It was for their sins that they were spoiled of
   all their possessions, not only in their own land, but in the land of
   their enemies. They were some of them snared in holes, and others
   hidden in prison-houses. They cannot help themselves, for they are
   snared. Their friends cannot help them, for they are hidden; and their
   enemies have forgotten them in their prisons. They, and all they have,
   are for a prey and for a spoil; and there is none that delivers either
   by force or ransom, nor any that dares say to the proud oppressors,
   Restore. There they lie, and there they are likely to lie. This had its
   full accomplishment in the final destruction of the Jewish nation by
   the Romans, which God brought upon them for rejecting the gospel of
   Christ.

   V. The counsel given them in order to their relief; for, though their
   case be sad, it is not desperate.

   1. The generality of them are deaf; they will not hearken to the voice
   of God's word. He will therefore try his rod, and see who among them
   will give ear to that, v. 23. We must not despair concerning those who
   have been long reasoned with in vain; some of them may, at length, give
   ear and hearken. If one method not take effect, another may, and
   sinners shall be left inexcusable. Observe, (1.) We may all of us, if
   we will, hear the voice of God, and we are called and invited to hear
   it. (2.) It is worth while to enquire who they are that perceive God
   speaking to them and are willing to hear him. (3.) Of the many that
   hear the voice of God there are very few that hearken to it or heed it,
   that hear it with attention and application. (4.) In hearing the word
   we must have an eye to the time to come. We must hear for hereafter,
   for what may occur between us and the grave; we must especially hear
   for eternity. We must hear the word with another world in our eye.

   2. The counsel is, (1.) To acknowledge the hand of God in their
   afflictions, and, whoever were the instruments, to have an eye to him
   as the principal agent (v. 24): "Who gave Jacob and Israel, that people
   that used to have such an interest in heaven and such a dominion on
   earth, who gave them for a spoil to the robbers, as they are now to the
   Babylonians and to the Romans? Did not the Lord? You know he did;
   consider it then, and hear his voice in these judgments." (2.) To
   acknowledge that they had provoked God thus to abandon them, and had
   brought all these calamities upon themselves. [1.] These punishments
   were first inflicted on them for their disobedience to the laws of God:
   It is he against whom we have sinned; the prophet puts himself into the
   number of the sinners, As Dan. ix. 7, 8. "We have sinned; we have all
   brought fuel to the fire; and there are those among us that have
   wilfully refused to walk in his ways." Jacob and Israel would never
   have been given up to the robbers if they had not by their iniquities
   sold themselves. Therefore it is, because they have violated the
   commands of the law, that God has brought upon them the curses of the
   law; he has not dropped, but poured upon him the fury of his anger and
   the strength of battle, all the desolations of war, which have set him
   on fire round about; for God surrounds the wicked with his favours. See
   the power of God's anger; there is no resisting it, no escaping it. See
   the mischief that sin makes; it provokes God to anger against a people,
   and so kindles a universal conflagration, sets all on fire. [2.] These
   judgments were continued upon them for their senselessness and
   incorrigibleness under the rod of God. The fire of God's wrath kindled
   upon him, and he knew it not, was not aware of it, took no notice of
   the judgments, at least not of the hand of God in them. Nay, it burned
   him, and, though he could not then but know it and feel it, yet he laid
   it not to heart, was not awakened by the fiery rebukes he was under nor
   at all affected with them. Those who are not humbled by less judgments
   must expect greater; for when God judges he will overcome.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLIII.

   The contents of this chapter are much the same with those of the
   foregoing chapter, looking at the release of the Jews out of their
   captivity, but looking through that, and beyond that, to the great work
   of man's redemption by Jesus Christ, and the grace of the gospel, which
   through him believers partake of. Here are, I. Precious promises made
   to God's people in their affliction, of his presence with them, for
   their support under it, and their deliverance out of it, ver. 1-7. II.
   A challenge to idols to vie with the omniscience and omnipotence of
   God, ver. 8-13. III. Encouragement given to the people of God to hope
   for their deliverance out of Babylon, from the consideration of what
   God did for their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt, ver.
   14-21. IV. A method taken to prepare the people for their deliverance,
   by putting them in mind of their sins, by which they had provoked God
   to send them into captivity and continue them there, that they might
   repent and seek to God for pardoning mercy, ver. 22-28.

Encouragement to God's People. (b. c. 708.)

   1 But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that
   formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have
   called thee by thy name; thou art mine.   2 When thou passest through
   the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not
   overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be
   burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.   3 For I am the Lord
   thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy
   ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.   4 Since thou wast precious in my
   sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will
   I give men for thee, and people for thy life.   5 Fear not: for I am
   with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from
   the west;   6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep
   not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the
   earth;   7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created
   him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

   This chapter has a plain connexion with the close of the foregoing
   chapter, but a very surprising one. It was there said that Jacob and
   Israel would not walk in God's ways, and that when he corrected them
   for their disobedience they were stubborn and laid it not to heart; and
   now one would think it should have followed that God would utterly
   abandon and destroy them; but no, the next words are, But now, fear
   not, O Jacob! O Israel! I have redeemed thee, and thou art mine. Though
   many among them were untractable and incorrigible, yet God would
   continue his love and care for his people, and the body of that nation
   should still be reserved for mercy. God's goodness takes occasion from
   man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious. Where sin
   abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. v. 20), and mercy rejoices
   against judgment, as having prevailed and carried the day, Jam. ii. 13.
   Now the sun, breaking out thus of a sudden from behind a thick and dark
   cloud, shines the brighter, and with a pleasing surprise. The
   expressions of God's favour and good-will to his people here are very
   high, and speak abundance of comfort to all the spiritual seed of
   upright Jacob and praying Israel; for to us is this gospel preached as
   well as unto those that were captives in Babylon, Heb. iv. 2. Here we
   have,

   I. The grounds of God's care and concern for his people and the
   interests of his church and kingdom among men. Jacob and Israel, though
   in a sinful miserable condition, shall be looked after; for, 1. They
   are God's workmanship, created by him unto good works, Eph. ii. 10. He
   has created them and formed them, not only given them a being, but this
   being, formed them into a people, constituted their government, and
   incorporated them by the charter of his covenant. The new creature,
   wherever it is, is of God's forming, and he will not forsake the work
   of his own hands. 2. They are the people of his purchase: he has
   redeemed them. Out of the land of Egypt he first redeemed them, and out
   of many another bondage, in his love, and in his pity (ch. lxiii. 9);
   much more will he take care of those who are redeemed with the blood of
   his Son. 3. They are his peculiar people, whom he has distinguished
   from others, and set apart for himself: he has called them by name, as
   those he has a particular intimacy with and concern for, and they are
   his, are appropriated to him and he has a special interest in them. 4.
   He is their God in covenant (v. 3): I am the Lord thy God, worshipped
   by thee and engaged by promise to thee, the Holy One of Israel, the God
   of Israel; for the true God is a holy one, and holiness becomes his
   house. And upon all these accounts he might justly say, Fear not (v.
   1), and again v. 5, Fear not. Those that have God for them need not
   fear who or what can be against them.

   II. The former instances of this care. 1. God has purchased them
   dearly: I gave Egypt for thy ransom; for Egypt was quite laid waste by
   one plague after another, all their first-born were slain and all their
   men of war drowned; and all this to force a way for Israel's
   deliverance from them. Egypt shall be sacrificed rather than Israel
   shall continue in slavery, when the time has come for their release.
   The Ethiopians had invaded them in Asa's time; but they shall be
   destroyed rather than Israel shall be disturbed. And if this was
   reckoned so great a thing, to give Egypt for their ransom, what reason
   have we to admire God's love to us in giving his own Son to be a ransom
   for us! 1 John iv. 10. What are Ethiopia and Seba, all their lives and
   all their treasures, compared with the blood of Christ? 2. He had
   prized them accordingly, and they were very dear to him (v. 4): Since
   thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honourable. Note,
   True believers are precious in God's sight; they are his jewels, his
   peculiar treasure (Exod. xix. 5); he loves them, his delight is in
   them, above any people. His church is his vineyard. And this makes
   God's people truly honourable, and their name great; for men are really
   what they are in God's eye. When the forces of Sennacherib, that they
   might be diverted from falling upon Israel, were directed by Providence
   to fall upon Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, then God gave those countries
   for Israel, and showed how precious his people were in his sight. So
   some understand it.

   III. The further instances God would yet give them of his care and
   kindness. 1. He would be present with them in their greatest
   difficulties and dangers (v. 2): "When thou passest through the waters
   and the rivers, through the fire and the flame, I will be with thee,
   and that shall be thy security; when dangers are very imminent and
   threatening, thou shalt be delivered out of them." Did they, in their
   journey, pass through deep water? They should not perish in them: "The
   rivers shall not overflow thee." Should they by their persecutors be
   cast into a fiery furnace, for their constant adherence to their God,
   yet then the flame should not kindle upon them, which was fulfilled in
   the letter in the wonderful preservation of the three children, Dan.
   iii. Though they went through fire and water, which would be to them as
   the valley of the shadow of death, yet, while they had God with them,
   they need fear no evil, they should be borne up, and brought out into a
   wealthy place, Ps. lxvi. 12. 2. He would still, when there was
   occasion, make all the interests of the children of men give way to the
   interests of his own children: "I will give men for thee, great men,
   mighty men, and men of war, and people (men by wholesale) for thy life.
   Nations shall be sacrificed to thy welfare." All shall be cut off
   rather than God's Israel shall, so precious are they in his sight. The
   affairs of the world shall all be ordered and directed so as to be most
   for the good of the church, 2 Chron. xvi. 9. 3. Those of them that were
   scattered and dispersed in other nations should all be gathered in and
   share in the blessings of the public, v. 5-7. Some of the seed of
   Israel were dispersed into all countries, east, west, north, and south,
   or into all the parts of the country of Babylon; but those whose
   spirits God stirred up to go to Jerusalem should be fetched in from all
   parts; divine grace should reach those that lay most remote, and at the
   greatest distance from each other; and, when the time should come,
   nothing should prevent their coming together to return in a body, in
   answer to that prayer (Ps. cvi. 47), Gather us from among the heathen,
   and in performance of that promise (Deut. xxx. 4), If any of thine be
   driven to the utmost parts of heaven, thence will the Lord thy God
   gather thee, which we find pleaded on behalf of the children of the
   captivity, Neh. i. 9. But who are the seed of Israel that shall be thus
   carefully gathered in? He tells us (v. 7) they are such as God has
   marked for mercy; for, (1.) They are called by his name; they make
   profession of religion, and are distinguished from the rest of the
   world by their covenant-relation to God and denomination from him. (2.)
   They are created for his glory; the spirit of Israelites is created in
   them, and they are formed according to the will of God, and these shall
   be gathered in. Note, Those only are fit to be called by the name of
   God that are created by his grace for his glory; and those whom God has
   created and called shall be gathered in now to Christ as their head and
   hereafter to heaven as their home. He shall gather in his elect from
   the four winds. This promise points at the gathering in of the
   dispersed of the Gentiles, and the strangers scattered, by the gospel
   of Christ, who died to gather together in one the children of God that
   were scattered abroad; for the promise was to all that were afar off,
   even as many as the Lord our God shall call and create. God is with the
   church, and therefore let her not fear; none that belong to her shall
   be lost.

A Challenge to Idolaters. (b. c. 708.)

   8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have
   ears.   9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people
   be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former
   things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be
   justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.   10 Ye are my
   witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye
   may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there
   was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.   11 I, even I, am
   the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.   12 I have declared, and
   have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you:
   therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.   13 Yea,
   before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of
   my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

   God here challenges the worshippers of idols to produce such proofs of
   the divinity of their false gods as even this very instance (to go no
   further) of the redemption of the Jews out of Babylon furnished the
   people of Israel with, to prove that their God is the true and living
   God, and he only.

   I. The patrons of idolatry are here called to appear, and say what they
   have to say in defence of their idols, v. 8, 9. Their gods have eyes
   and see not, ears and hear not, and those that make them and trust in
   them are like unto them; so David had said (Ps. cxv. 8), to which the
   prophet seems here to refer when he calls idolaters blind people that
   have eyes, and deaf people that have ears. They have the shape,
   capacities, and faculties, of men; but they are, in effect, destitute
   of reason and common sense, or they would never worship gods of their
   own making. "Let all the nations therefore be gathered together, let
   them help one another, and with a combined force plead the cause of
   their dunghill gods; and, if they have nothing to say in their own
   justification, let them hear what the God of Israel has to say for
   their conviction and confutation."

   II. God's witnesses are subpoenaed, or summoned to appear, and give in
   evidence for him (v. 10): "You, O Israelites! all you that are called
   by my name, you are all my witnesses, and so is my servant whom I have
   chosen." It was Christ himself that was so described (ch. xlii. 1), My
   servant and my elect. Observe,

   1. All the prophets that testified to Christ, and Christ himself, the
   great prophet, are here appealed to as God's witnesses. (1.) God's
   people are witnesses for him, and can attest, upon their own knowledge
   and experience, concerning the power of his grace, the sweetness of his
   comforts, the tenderness of his providence, and the truth of his
   promise. They will be forward to witness for him that he is gracious
   and that no word of his has fallen to the ground. (2.) His prophets are
   in a particular manner witnesses for him, with whom his secret is, and
   who know more of him than others do. But the Messiah especially is
   given to be a witness for him to the people; having lain in his bosom
   from eternity, he has declared him. Now,

   2. Let us see what the point is which these witnesses are called to
   prove (v. 12): You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.
   Note, Those who do themselves acknowledge that the Lord is God should
   be ready to testify what they know of him to others, that they also may
   be brought to the acknowledgement of it. I believed, therefore have I
   spoken. Particularly, "Since you cannot but know, and believe, and
   understand, you must be ready to bear record, (1.) That I am he, the
   only true God, that I am a being self-existent and self-sufficient; I
   am he whom you are to fear, and worship, and trust in. Nay (v. 13),
   before the day was (before the first day of time, before the creation
   of the light, and, consequently, from eternity) I am he." The idols
   were but of yesterday, new gods that came newly up (Deut. xxxii. 17);
   but the God of Israel was from everlasting. (2.) That there was no God
   formed before me, nor shall be after me. The idols were gods formed
   (dii facti--made gods, or rather fictitii--fictitious); by nature they
   were no gods, Gal. iv. 8. But God has a being from eternity, yea, and a
   religion in this world before there were either idols or idolaters
   (truth is more ancient than error); and he will have a being to
   eternity, and will be worshipped and glorified when idols are famished
   and abolished and idolatry shall be no more. True religion will keep
   its ground, and survive all opposition and competition. Great is the
   truth, and will prevail. (3.) That I, even I, am the Lord, the great
   Jehovah, who is, and was, and is to come; and besides me there is no
   Saviour, v. 11. See what it is that the great God glories in, not so
   much that he is the only ruler as that he is the only Saviour; for he
   delights to do good: he is the Saviour of all men, 1 Tim. iv. 10.

   3. Let us see what the proofs are which are produced for the
   confirmation of this point. It appears,

   (1.) That the Lord is God, by two proofs: [1.] He has an infinite and
   infallible knowledge, as is evident from the predictions of his word
   (v. 12): "I have declared and I have shown that which has without fail
   come to pass; nay, I never declared nor showed any thing but it has
   been accomplished. I showed when there was no strange god among you,
   that is, when you pretended not to consult any oracles but mine, nor to
   have any prophets but mine." It is said, when they came out of Egypt,
   that the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with
   him. [2.] He has an infinite and irresistible power, as is evident from
   the performances of his providence. He pleads not only, I have shown,
   but, I have saved, not only foretold what none else could foresee, but
   done what none else could do; for (v. 13), "None can deliver out of my
   hand those whom I will punish; not only no man can, but none of all the
   gods of the heathen can protect." It is therefore a fearful thing to
   fall into the hands of the living God, because there is no getting out
   of them again. "I will work what I have designed, both in mercy and
   judgment, and who shall either oppose or retard it?"

   (2.) That the gods of the heathen, who are rivals with him, are not
   only inferior to him, but no gods at all, which is proved (v. 9) by a
   challenge: Who among them can declare this that I now declare? Who can
   foretel things to come? Nay, which of them can show us former things?
   ch. xli. 22. They cannot so much as inspire an historian, much less a
   prophet. They are challenged to join issue upon this: Let them bring
   forth their witnesses, to prove their omniscience and omnipotence. And,
   [1.] If they do prove them, they shall be justified, the idols in
   demanding homage and the idolaters in paying it. [2.] If they do not
   prove them, let them say, It is truth; let them own the true God, and
   receive the truth concerning him, that he is God alone. The cause of
   God is not afraid to stand a fair trial; but it may reasonably be
   expected that those who cannot justify themselves in their irreligion
   should submit to the power of the truth and true religion.

Promises to God's People. (b. c. 708.)

   14 Thus saith the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your
   sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles,
   and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.   15 I am the Lord, your
   Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.   16 Thus saith the Lord,
   which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;   17
   Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power;
   they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct,
   they are quenched as tow.   18 Remember ye not the former things,
   neither consider the things of old.   19 Behold, I will do a new thing;
   now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way
   in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.   20 The beast of the
   field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters
   in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my
   people, my chosen.   21 This people have I formed for myself; they
   shall show forth my praise.

   To so low an ebb were the faith and hope of God's people in Babylon
   brought that there needed line upon line to assure them that they
   should be released out of their captivity; and therefore, that they
   might have strong consolation, the assurances of it are often repeated,
   and here very expressly and encouragingly.

   I. God here takes to himself such titles of his honour as were very
   encouraging to them. He is the Lord their Redeemer, not only he will
   redeem them, but will take it upon him as his office and make it his
   business to do so. If he be their God, he will be all that to them
   which they need, and therefore, when they are in bondage, he will be
   their Redeemer. He is the Holy One of Israel (v. 14), and again (v.
   15), their Holy One, and therefore will make good every word he has
   spoken to them. He is the Creator of Israel, that made them a people
   out of nothing (for that is creation), nay, worse than nothing; and he
   is their King, that owns them as his people and presides among them.

   II. He assures them he will find out a way to break the power of their
   oppressors that held them captives and filled up the measure of their
   own iniquity by their resolution never to let them go, ch. xiv. 17. God
   will take care to send a victorious prince and army to Babylon, that
   shall bring down all their nobles, and lay their honour in the dust,
   and all their people too, even the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships
   (for seamen are apt to be noisy), or whose cry is to the ships, as
   their refuge when the city is taken, that they may escape by the
   benefit of their great river. Note, The destruction of Babylon must
   make way for the enlargement of God's people. And in the prediction of
   the fall of the New-Testament Babylon we meet with the cries and
   lamentations of the sailors, Rev. xviii. 17, 18. And observe, It is for
   Israel's sake that Babylon is ruined, to make way for their
   deliverance.

   III. He reminds them of the great things he did for their fathers when
   he brought them out of the land of Egypt; for so it may be read (v. 16,
   17): "Thus saith the Lord, who did make a way in the sea, the Red Sea,
   and did bring forth Pharaoh's chariot and horse, that they might lie
   down together in the bottom of the sea, and never rise, but be extinct.
   He that did this can, if he please, make a way for you in the sea when
   you return out of Babylon, and will do so rather than leave you there."
   Note, For the encouragement of our faith and hope, it is good for us
   often to remember what God has done formerly for his people against his
   and their enemies. Think particularly what he did at the Red Sea, how
   he made it, 1. A road to his people, a straight way, a near way, nay, a
   refuge to them, into which they fled and were safe the waters being a
   wall unto them. 2. A grave to his enemies. The chariot and horse were
   drawn out by him who is Lord of all hosts, on purpose that they might
   fall together; howbeit, they meant not so, Mic. iv. 11, 12.

   IV. He promises to do yet greater things for them than he had done in
   the days of old; so that they should not have reason to ask, in a way
   of complaint, as Gideon did, Where are all the wonders that our fathers
   told us of? for they should see them repeated, nay, they should see
   them outdone (v. 18): "Remember not the former things, from them to
   take occasion, as some do, to undervalue the present things, as if the
   former days were better than these; no, you may, if you will,
   comparatively forget them, and yet know enough by the events of your
   own day to convince you that the Lord is God alone; for, behold, the
   Lord will do a new thing, no way inferior, both for the wonder and the
   worth of the mercy, to the things of old." The best exposition of this
   is, Jer. xvi. 14, 15; xxiii. 7, 8. It shall no more be said, The Lord
   liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
   that is an old thing, the remembrance of which will be in a manner lost
   in the new thing, in the new proof that the Lord liveth, for he brought
   up the children of Israel out of the land of the north. Though former
   mercies must not be forgotten, fresh mercies must in a special manner
   be improved. Now it springs forth, as it were a surprise upon you; you
   are like those that dream. Shall you now know it? And will you not own
   God's hand in it?

   V. He promises not only to deliver them out of Babylon, but to conduct
   them safely and comfortably to their own land (v. 19, 20): I will make
   a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; for, it seems, the
   way from Babylon to Canaan, as well as from Egypt, lay through a desert
   land, which, while the returning captives passed through, God would
   provide for them, that their camp should be both well victualled and
   under a good conduct. The same power that made a way in the sea (v. 16)
   can make a way in the wilderness, and will force its passage through
   the greatest difficulties. And he that made dry land in the waters can
   produce waters in the dryest land, in such abundance as not only to
   give drink to his people, his chosen, but to the beasts of the field,
   also the dragons and the ostriches, who are therefore said to honour
   God for it; it is such a sensible refreshment, and yields them so much
   satisfaction, that, if they were capable of doing it, they would praise
   God for it, and shame man, who is made capable of praising his
   benefactor and does not. Now, 1. This looks back to what God did for
   Israel when he led them through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan,
   and fetched water out of a rock to follow them; what God did for them
   formerly he would do again, for he is still the same. And, though we do
   not find that the miracle was repeated in their return out of Babylon,
   yet the mercy was, in the common course of Providence, for which it
   became them to be no less thankful to God. 2. It looks forward, not
   only to all the instances of God's care of the Jewish church in the
   latter ages of it, between their return from Babylon and the coming of
   Christ, but to the grace of the gospel, especially as it is manifested
   to the Gentile world, by which a way is opened in the wilderness and
   rivers in the desert; the world, which lay like a desert, in ignorance
   and unfruitfulness, was blessed with divine direction and divine
   comforts, and, in order to both, with a plentiful effusion of the
   Spirit. The sinners of the Gentiles, who had been as the beasts of the
   field, running wild, fierce as the dragons, stupid as the owls or
   ostriches, shall be brought to honour God for the extent of his grace
   to his chosen among them.

   VI. He traces up all these promised blessings to their great original,
   the purposes and designs of his own glory (v. 21): This people have I
   formed for myself, and therefore I do all this for them, that they may
   show forth my praise. Note, 1. The church is of God's forming, and so
   are all the living members of it. The new heaven, the new earth, the
   new man, are the work of God's hand, and are no more, no better, than
   he makes them; they are fashioned according to his will. 2. He forms it
   for himself. He that is the first cause is the highest end both of the
   first and of the new creation. The Lord has made all things for
   himself, his Israel especially, to be to him for a people, and for a
   name, and for a praise; and no otherwise can they be for him, or
   serviceable to him, than as his grace is glorified in them, Jer. xiii.
   11; Eph. i. 6, 12, 14. 3. It is therefore our duty to show forth his
   praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up
   ourselves to his service. As he formed us, so he feeds us, and keeps
   us, and leads us, and all for himself; for every instance therefore of
   his goodness we must praise him, else we answer not the end of the
   beings and blessings we have.

Reproof to God's People. (b. c. 708.)

   22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary
   of me, O Israel.   23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy
   burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I
   have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with
   incense.   24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither
   hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made
   me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
     25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
   sake, and will not remember thy sins.   26 Put me in remembrance: let
   us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.   27
   Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed
   against me.   28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the
   sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

   This charge (and a high charge it is which is here exhibited against
   Jacob and Israel, God's professing people) comes in here, 1. To clear
   God's justice in bringing them into captivity, and to vindicate that.
   Were they not in covenant with him? Had they not his sanctuary among
   them? Why then did the Lord deal thus with his land? Deut. xxix. 24.
   Here is a good reason given: they had neglected God and had cast him
   off, and therefore he justly rejected them and gave them to the curse
   (v. 28); and they must be brought to own this before they are prepared
   for deliverance; and they did so, Dan. ix. 5; Neh. ix. 33. 2. To
   advance God's mercy in their deliverance and to make that appear more
   glorious. Many things are before observed to magnify the power of God
   in it; but this magnifies his goodness, that he should do such great
   and kind things for a people that had been so very provoking to him and
   were now suffering the just punishment of their iniquity. The pardoning
   of their sin was as great an instance of God's power (for so Moses
   reckons it, Num. xiv. 17, &c.) as the breaking of the yoke of their
   captivity. Now observe here,

   I. What the sins are which they are here charged with.

   1. Omissions of the good which God had commanded; and this part of the
   charge is here much insisted upon. Observe how it comes in with a but;
   compare v. 21, where God tells them what favours he had bestowed upon
   them and what his just expectations were from them. He had formed them
   for himself, intending they should show forth his praise. But they had
   not done so; they had frustrated God's expectations from them, and made
   very ill returns to him for his favours. For, (1.) They had cast off
   prayer: Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob! Jacob was a man famous
   for prayer (Hosea xii. 4); his seed bore his name, but did not tread in
   his steps, and therefore are justly upbraided with it. God takes it ill
   when children degenerate from the virtue and devotion of their pious
   ancestors. To boast of the name of Jacob, and yet live without prayer,
   is to mock God and deceive ourselves. If Jacob does not call upon God,
   who will? (2.) They had grown weary of their religion: "Thou art
   Israel, the seed not only of a praying but of a prevailing father, that
   was a prince with God; and yet, not valuing his experiences any more
   than his example, thou hast been weary of me." They had been in
   relation to God, employed in his service and in communion with him; but
   they began to snuff at it, and to say, Behold, what a weariness is it!
   Note, Those who neglect to call upon God do in effect tell him they are
   weary of him and have a mind to change their Master. (3.) They grudged
   the expense of their devotion, and were niggardly and penurious in it.
   They were for a cheap religion; and in those acts of devotion that were
   costly they desired to be excused. They had not brought, no, not their
   small cattle, the lambs and kids, which God required for
   burnt-offerings (v. 23), much less did they bring their greater cattle,
   pretending they could not spare them, they must have them for the
   maintenance of their families. So little sense had they of the
   greatness of God and their obligations to him that they could not find
   in their hearts to part with a lamb out of their flock for his honour,
   though he called for it and would graciously have accepted it. Sweet
   cane, or calamus, was used for the holy oil, incense, and perfume; but
   they were not willing to be at the charge of that, v. 24. What they had
   must serve, though it was old and good for nothing; they would not buy
   fresh. Perhaps it was usual for devout pious persons to bring free-will
   incense as well as other free-will offerings; but they were not so
   generous, nor did they fill the altar of God, nor moisten it
   abundantly, as they should have done, with the fat of their sacrifices;
   what sacrifices they did bring were of the lean and refuse of their
   cattle, that had no fat in them to regale the altar with. (4.) What
   sacrifices they did offer they did not honour God with them, and so
   they were, in effect, as no sacrifices (v. 23): Neither hast thou
   honoured me with thy sacrifices. Some of them offered their sacrifices
   to false gods; others, who offered them to the true God, were either
   careless in the manner of offering them or hypocritical in their
   intentions, so that they might be truly said not to honour God with
   them, but rather to dishonour him. (5.) That which aggravated their
   neglect of sacrificing was that, as God had appointed it, it was no
   burdensome thing; it was not a service that they had any reason at all
   to complain of: "I have not caused thee to serve with an offering; I
   have not made it a task and drudgery to you, whatever you, through the
   corruption of your natures, have made it yourselves. I have not wearied
   thee with incense." None of God's commandments are grievous, no, not
   those concerning sacrifice and incense. They were not more costly than
   might be afforded by those that lived in such a plentiful country, nor
   did their attendance on them require any more time than they could well
   spare. But that which especially forbade them to call it a wearisome
   service was that they were required to be cheerful and pleasant, and to
   rejoice before God in all their approaches to him, Deut. xii. 12. They
   had many feasts and good days, but only one day in all the year in
   which they were to afflict their souls. The ordinances of the
   ceremonial law, though, in comparison with Christ's easy yoke, they are
   spoken of as heavy (Acts xv. 10), yet, in comparison with the service
   that idolaters did to their false gods, they were light, and not to be
   called services nor found fault with as wearisome. God did not require
   them to sacrifice their children, as Moloch did.

   2. Commissions of the evil which God had forbidden; and omissions
   commonly make way for commissions: Thou hast made me to serve with thy
   sins. When we make God's gifts the food and fuel for our lusts, and his
   providence the patron of our wicked projects, especially when we
   encourage ourselves to continue in sin because grace has abounded, then
   we make God to serve with our sins. Or it may denote what a grief and
   burden sin is to God; it not only wearies men and makes the creation
   groan, but it wearies my God also (ch. vii. 13) and makes the Creator
   complain that he is grieved (Ps. xcv. 10), that he is broken (Ezek. vi.
   9), that he is pressed with sinners as a cart is pressed that is full
   of sheaves (Amos ii. 13), and to cry out, Ah! I will ease me of my
   adversaries, ch. i. 24. The antithesis is observable: God had not made
   them to serve with their sacrifices, but they had made him to serve
   with their sins. The master had not tired the servants with his
   commands, but they had tired him with their disobedience. Those are
   wicked servants indeed that behave so ill to so good a Master. God is
   tender of our comfort, but we are careless of his honour. Let this
   engage us to keep close to our duty, that it is easy and reasonable,
   and no disparagement to us, nor too hard for us.

   II. What were the aggravations of their sin, v. 27. 1. That they were
   children of disobedience; for their first father (that is, their
   forefathers) had sinned; and they had not only sinned in their loins,
   but sinned like them. Ezra confesses this: Since the days of our
   fathers have we been in a great trespass, ch. ix. 7. But their
   forefathers are called their first father to put us in mind of the
   apostasy and rebellion of our first father Adam, to which corrupt
   fountain we must trace up the streams of all our transgressions. 2.
   That they were scholars of disobedience too: for their teachers had
   transgressed against God, were guilty of gross scandalous sins, and the
   people, no doubt, would learn to do as they did. It is ill with a
   people when their leaders cause them to err, and their teachers, who
   should reform them, corrupt them.

   III. What were the tokens of God's displeasure against them for their
   sins, v. 23. He brought ruin both upon church and state. 1. The honour
   of their church was laid in the dust and trampled on: I have profaned
   the princes of the sanctuary, that is, the priests and Levites who
   presided with great dignity and power in the temple-service; they
   profaned themselves, and made themselves vile, by their enormities, and
   then God profaned them and made them vile, by their calamities and the
   contempt they fell into, Mal. ii. 9. 2. The honour of their state was
   ruined likewise: "I have given Jacob to the curse, that is, to be
   cursed, and hated, and abused by all their neighbours, and Israel to
   reproach, to be insulted, ridiculed, and triumphed over by their
   enemies." They reproached them perhaps for that in them that was good;
   they mocked at their sabbaths (Lam. i. 7); but God gave them up to
   reproach, to correct them for what was amiss. Note, The dishonour which
   men at any time do us should humble us for the dishonour we have done
   to God; and we must bear it patiently because we suffer it justly, and
   must acknowledge that to us belongs confusion.

   IV. What were the riches of God's mercy towards them notwithstanding
   (v. 25): I even I, am he who notwithstanding all this blotteth out thy
   transgressions.

   1. This gracious declaration of God's readiness to pardon sin comes in
   very strangely. The charge ran very high: Thou hast wearied me with thy
   iniquities, v. 24. Now one would think it would follow: "I, even I, am
   he that will destroy thee, and burden myself no longer with care about
   thee." No, I, even I, am he that will forgive thee; as if the great God
   would teach us that forgiving injuries is the best way to make
   ourselves easy and to keep ourselves from being wearied with them. This
   comes in here to encourage them to repent, because there is forgiveness
   with God, and to show the freeness of divine mercy; where sin has been
   exceedingly sinful grace appears exceedingly gracious. Apply this, (1.)
   To the forgiving of the sins of Israel as a people, in their national
   capacity. When God stopped the course of threatening judgments, and
   saved them from utter ruin, even then when he had them under severe
   rebukes, then he might be said to blot out their transgressions. Though
   he corrected them, he was reconciled to them again, and did not cut
   them off from being a people. This he did many a time, till they
   rejected Christ and his gospel, which was a sin against the remedy, and
   then he would forgive them no more as a nation, but utterly destroyed
   them. (2.) To the forgiving of the sins of every particular believing
   penitent--transgressions and sins, infirmities though ever so numerous,
   backslidings though ever so heinous. Observe here, [1.] How the pardon
   is expressed; he will blot them out, as a cloud is blotted out by the
   beams of the sun (ch. xliv. 22), as a debt is blotted out not to appear
   against the debtor (the book is crossed as if the debt were paid,
   because it is pardoned upon the payment which the surety has made), or
   as a sentence is blotted out when it is reversed, as the curse was
   blotted out with the waters of jealousy, which made it of no effect to
   the innocent, Num. v. 23. He will not remember the sin, which intimates
   not only that he will remit the punishment of what is past, but that it
   shall be no diminution to his love for the future. When God forgives he
   forgets. [2.] What is the ground and reason of the pardon. It is not
   for the sake of any thing in us, but for his own sake, for his
   mercies'-sake, his promise-sake, and especially for his Son's sake, and
   that he may himself be glorified in it. [3.] How God glories in it: I,
   even I, am he. He glories in it as his prerogative. None can forgive
   sin but God only, and he will do it; it is his settled resolution. He
   will do it willingly and with delight; it is his pleasure; it is his
   honour; so he is pleased to reckon it.

   2. Those words (v. 26), Put me in remembrance, may be understood either
   (1.) As a rebuke to a proud Pharisee, that stands upon his own
   justification before God, and expects to find favour for his merits and
   not to be beholden to free grace: "If you have any thing to say in your
   own justification, any thing to offer for the sake of which you should
   be pardoned, and not for my sake, put me in remembrance of it. I will
   give you leave to plead your own cause with me; declare what your
   merits are, that you may be justified by them:" but those who are thus
   challenged will be speechless. Or, (2.) As a publican. Is God thus
   ready to pardon sin, and, when he pardons it, will he remember it no
   more? Let us then put him in remembrance, mention before him those sins
   which he has forgiven; for they must be ever before us, to humble us,
   though they are pardoned, Ps. li. 3. Put him in remembrance of the
   promises he has made to penitents, and the satisfaction his Son has
   made for them. Plead these with him in wrestling for pardon, and
   declare these things, in order that thou mayest be justified freely by
   his grace. This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to peace. Only
   acknowledge thy transgression.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLIV.

   God, by the prophet, goes on in this chapter, as before, I. To
   encourage his people with the assurance of great blessings he had in
   store for them at their return out of captivity, and those typical of
   much greater which the gospel church, his spiritual Israel, should
   partake of in the days of the Messiah; and hereby he proves himself to
   be God alone against all pretenders, ver. 1-8. II. To expose the
   sottishness and amazing folly of idol-makers and idol-worshippers, ver.
   9-20. III. To ratify and confirm the assurances he had given to his
   people of those great blessings, and to raise their joyful and
   believing expectations of them, ver. 21-28.

Prosperity Foretold; The Supremacy of God. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:   2
   Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb,
   which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun,
   whom I have chosen.   3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,
   and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed,
   and my blessing upon thine offspring:   4 And they shall spring up as
   among the grass, as willows by the water courses.   5 One shall say, I
   am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and
   another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname
   himself by the name of Israel.   6 Thus saith the Lord the King of
   Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am
   the last; and beside me there is no God.   7 And who, as I, shall call,
   and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the
   ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let
   them show unto them.   8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I
   told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my
   witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not
   any.

   Two great truths are abundantly made out in these verses:--

   I. That the people of God are a happy people, especially upon account
   of the covenant that is between them and God. The people of Israel were
   so as a figure of the gospel Israel. Three things complete their
   happiness:--

   1. The covenant-relations wherein they stand to God, v. 1, 2. Israel is
   here called Jeshurun--the upright one; for those only, like Nathanael,
   are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile, and those only shall have
   the everlasting benefit of these promises. Jacob and Israel had been
   represented, in the close of the foregoing chapter, as very provoking
   and obnoxious to God's wrath, and already given to the curse and to
   reproaches; but, as if God's bowels yearned towards him and his
   repentings were kindled together, mercy steps in with a
   non-obstante--notwithstanding, to all these quarrels: "Yet now, hear, O
   Jacob my servant! thou and I will be friends again for all this." God
   had said (ch. xliii. 25), I am he that blotteth out thy transgression,
   which is the only thing that creates this distance; and when that is
   taken away the streams of mercy run again in their former channel. The
   pardon of sin is the inlet of all the other blessings of the covenant.
   So and so I will do for them, says God (Heb. viii. 12), for I will be
   merciful to their unrighteousness. Therefore hear, O Jacob! hear these
   comfortable words; therefore fear not, O Jacob! fear not thy troubles,
   for by the pardon of sin the property of them too is altered. Now the
   relations wherein they stand to him are very encouraging. (1.) They are
   his servants; and those that serve him he will own and stand by and see
   that they be not wronged. (2.) They are his chosen, and he will abide
   by his choice; he knows those that are his, and those whom he has
   chosen he takes under special protection. (3.) They are his creatures.
   He made them, and brought them into being; he formed them, and cast
   them into shape; he began betimes with them, for he formed them from
   the womb; and therefore he will help them over their difficulties and
   help them in their services.

   2. The covenant-blessings which he has secured to them and theirs, v.
   3, 4. (1.) Those that are sensible of their spiritual wants, and the
   insufficiency of the creature to supply them, shall have abundant
   satisfaction in God: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, that
   thirsts after righteousness; he shall be filled. Water shall be poured
   out to those who truly desire spiritual blessings above all the
   delights of sense. (2.) Those that are barren as the dry ground shall
   be watered with the grace of God, with floods of that grace, and God
   will himself give the increase. If the ground be ever so dry, God has
   floods of grace to water it with. (3.) The water God will pour out is
   his Spirit (John vii. 39), which God will pour out without measure upon
   the seed, that is, Christ (Gal. iii. 16), and by measure upon all the
   seed of the faithful, upon all the praying wrestling seed of Jacob,
   Luke xi. 13. This is the great New-Testament promise, that God, having
   sent his servant Christ, and upheld him, will send his Spirit to uphold
   us. (4.) This gift of the Holy Ghost is the great blessing God had
   reserved the plentiful effusion of for the latter days: I will pour my
   Spirit, that is, my blessing; for where God gives his Spirit he will
   give all other blessings. (5.) This is reserved for the seed and
   offspring of the church; for so the covenant of grace runs: I will be a
   God to thee and to thy seed. To all who are thus made to partake of the
   privileges of adoption God will give the spirit of adoption. (6.)
   Hereby there shall be a great increase of the church. Thus it shall be
   spread to distant places. Thus it shall be propagated and perpetuated
   to after-times: They shall spring up and grow as fast as willows by the
   watercourses, and in every thing that is virtuous and praiseworthy
   shall be eminent and excel all about them, as the willows overtop the
   grass among which they grow, v. 4. Note, It is a great happiness to the
   church, and a great pleasure to good men, to see the rising generation
   hopeful and promising. And it will be so if God pour his Spirit upon
   them, that blessing, that blessing of blessings.

   3. The consent they cheerfully give to their part of the covenant, v.
   5. When the Jews returned out of captivity they renewed their covenant
   with God (Jer. l. 5), particularly that they would have no more to do
   with idols, Hos. xiv. 2, 3, 8. Backsliders must thus repent and do
   their first works. Many of those that were without did at that time
   join themselves to them, invited by that glorious appearance of God for
   them, Zech. viii. 23; Esth. viii. 17. And they say, We are the Lord's
   and call themselves by the name of Jacob; for there was one law, one
   covenant, for the stranger and for those that were born in the land.
   And doubtless it looks further yet, to the conversion of the Gentiles,
   and the multitudes of them who, upon the effusion of the Spirit, after
   Christ's ascension, should be joined to the Lord and added to the
   church. These converts are one and another, very many, of different
   ranks and nations, and all welcome to God, Col. iii. 11. When one does
   it another shall by his example be invited to do it, and then another;
   thus the zeal of one may provoke many. (1.) They shall resign
   themselves to God: not one in the name of the rest, but every one for
   himself shall say, "I am the Lord's; he has an incontestable right to
   rule me, and I submit to him, to all his commands, to all his disposal.
   I am, and will be, his only, his wholly, his for ever, will be for his
   interests, will be for his praise; living and dying I will be his."
   (2.) They shall incorporate themselves with the people of God, call
   themselves by the name of Jacob, forgetting their own people and their
   fathers' house, and desirous to wear the character and livery of God's
   family. They shall love all God's people, shall associate with them,
   give them the right hand of fellowship, espouse their cause, seek the
   good of the church in general and of all the particular members of it,
   and be willing to take their lot with them in all conditions. (3.) They
   shall do this very solemnly. Some of them shall subscribe with their
   hand unto the Lord, as, for the confirming of a bargain, a man sets his
   hand to it, and delivers it as his act and deed. The more express we
   are in our covenanting with God the better, Exod. xxiv. 7; Jos. xxiv.
   26, 27; Neh. ix. 38. Fast bind, fast find.

   II. That, as the Israel of God are a happy people, so the God of Israel
   is a great God, and he is God alone. This also, as the former, speaks
   abundant satisfaction to all that trust in him, v. 6-8. Observe here,
   to God's glory and our comfort, 1. That the God we trust in is a God of
   incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power. He is the Lord,
   Jehovah, self-existent and self-sufficient; and he is the Lord of
   hosts, of all the hosts of heaven and earth, of angels and men. 2. That
   he stands in relation to, and has a particular concern for, his church.
   He is the King of Israel and his Redeemer; therefore his Redeemer
   because his King; and those that take God for their King shall have him
   for their Redeemer. When God would assert himself God alone he
   proclaims himself Israel's God, that his people may be encouraged both
   to adhere to him and to triumph in him. 3. That he is eternal--the
   first and the last. He is God from everlasting, before the worlds were,
   and will be so to everlasting, when the world shall be no more. If
   there were not a God to create, nothing would ever have been; and, if
   there were not a God to uphold, all would soon come to nothing again.
   He is all in all, is the first cause, from whom are all things, and the
   last end, to and for whom are all things (Rom. xi. 36), the Alpha and
   the Omega, Rev. i. 11. 4. That he is God alone (v. 6): Besides me there
   is no God. Is there a God besides me? v. 8. We will appeal to the
   greatest scholars. Did they ever in all their reading meet with any
   other? To those that have had the largest acquaintance with the world.
   Did they ever meet with any other? There are gods many (1 Cor. viii. 5,
   6), called gods, and counterfeit gods: but is there any besides our God
   that is infinite and eternal, any besides him that is the creator of
   the world and the protector and benefactor of the whole creation, any
   besides him that can do that for their worshippers which he can and
   will do for his? "You are my witnesses. I have been a nonsuch to you.
   You have tried other gods; have you found any of them all-sufficient to
   you, or any of them like me? Yea, there is no god," no rock (so the
   word is), none besides Jehovah that can be a rock for a foundation to
   build on, a rock for shelter to flee to. God is the rock, and their
   rock is not as ours, Deut. xxxii. 4, 31. I know not any; as if he had
   said, "I never met with any that offered to stand in competition with
   me, or that durst bring their pretensions to a fair trial; if I did
   know of any that could befriend you better than I can, I would
   recommend you to them; but I know not any." There is no God besides
   Jehovah. He is infinite, and therefore there can be no other; he is
   all-sufficient, and therefore there needs no other. This is designed
   for the confirming of the hopes of God's people in the promise of their
   deliverance out of Babylon, and, in order to that, for the curing of
   them of their idolatry; when the affliction had done its work it should
   be removed. They are reminded of the first and great article of their
   creed, that the Lord their God is one Lord, Deut. vi. 4. And therefore,
   (1.) They needed not to hope in any other god. Those on whom the sun
   shines need neither moon nor stars, nor the light of their own fire.
   (2.) They needed not to fear any other god. Their own God was more able
   to do them good than all the false and counterfeit gods of their
   enemies were to do them hurt. 5. That none besides could foretel these
   things to come, which God now by his prophet gave notice of to the
   world, above 200 years before they came to pass (v. 7): "Who, as I,
   shall call, shall call Cyrus to Babylon? Is there any but God that can
   call effectually, and has every creature, every heart, at his beck? Who
   shall declare it, how it shall be, and by whom, as I do?" Nay, God goes
   further; he not only sees it in order, as having the foreknowledge of
   it, but sets it in order, as having the sole management and direction
   of it. Can any other pretend to this? He has always set things in order
   according to the counsel of his own will, ever since he appointed the
   ancient people, the people of Israel, who could give a truer and fuller
   account of the antiquities of their own nation than any other kingdom
   in the world could give of theirs. Ever since he appointed that people
   to be his peculiar people his providence was particularly conversant
   about them, and he told them beforehand the events that should occur
   respecting them--their bondage in Egypt, their deliverance from it, and
   their settlement in Canaan. All was set in order in the divine
   predictions as well as in the divine purposes. Could any other have
   done so? Would any other have been so far concerned for them? He
   challenges the pretenders to show the things that shall come hereafter:
   "Let them, if they can, tell us the name of the man that shall destroy
   Babylon ad deliver Israel? Nay, if they cannot pretend to tell us the
   things that shall come hereafter, let them tell us the things that are
   coming, that are nigh at hand and at the door. Let them tell us what
   shall come to pass to-morrow; but they cannot do that; fear them not
   therefore, nor be afraid of them. What harm can they do you? What
   hindrance can they give to your deliverance, when I have told thee it
   shall be accomplished in its season, and I have solemnly declared it?"
   Note, Those who have the word of God's promise to depend upon need not
   be afraid of any adverse powers or policies whatsoever.

The Folly of Idolatry. (b. c. 708.)

   9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their
   delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses;
   they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.   10 Who hath formed
   a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?   11
   Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of
   men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they
   shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.   12 The smith with the
   tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and
   worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his
   strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.   13 The
   carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he
   fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and
   maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man;
   that it may remain in the house.   14 He heweth him down cedars, and
   taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself
   among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth
   nourish it.   15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take
   thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea,
   he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and
   falleth down thereto.   16 He burneth part thereof in the fire; with
   part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea,
   he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
   17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he
   falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and
   saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.   18 They have not known nor
   understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and
   their hearts, that they cannot understand.   19 And none considereth in
   his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have
   burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the
   coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the
   residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a
   tree?   20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside,
   that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my
   right hand?

   Often before, God, by the prophet, had mentioned the folly and strange
   sottishness of idolaters; but here he enlarges upon that head, and very
   fully and particularly exposes them to contempt and ridicule. This
   discourse is intended, 1. To arm the people of Israel against the
   strong temptation they would be in to worship idols when they were
   captives in Babylon, in compliance with the custom of the country (they
   being far from the city of their own solemnities) and to humour those
   who were now their lords and masters. 2. To cure them of their
   inclination to idolatry, which was the sin that did most easily beset
   them and to reform them from which they were sent into Babylon. As the
   rod of God is of use to enforce the word, so the word of God is of use
   to explain the rod, that the voice of both together may be heard and
   answered. 3. To furnish them with something to say to their Chaldean
   task-masters. When they insulted over them, when they asked, Where is
   your God? they might hence ask them, What are your gods? 4. To take off
   their fear of the gods of their enemies, and to encourage their hope in
   their own God that he would certainly appear against those who set up
   such scandalous competitors as these with him for the throne.

   Now here, for the conviction of idolaters, we have,

   I. A challenge given to them to clear themselves, if they can, from the
   imputation of the most shameful folly and senselessness imaginable, v.
   9-11. They set their wits on work to contrive, and their hands on work
   to frame, graven images, and they call them their delectable things;
   extremely fond they are of them, and mighty things they expect from
   them. Note, Through the corruption of men's nature, those things that
   should be detestable to them are desirable and delectable; but those
   are far gone in a distemper to whom that which is the food and fuel of
   it is most agreeable. Now, 1. We tell them that those that do so are
   all vanity; they deceive themselves and one another, and put a great
   cheat upon those for whom they make these images. 2. We tell them that
   their delectable things shall not profit them, nor make them any return
   for the pleasure they take in them; they can neither supply them with
   good nor protect them from evil. The graven images are profitable for
   nothing at all, nor will they ever get any thing by the devoirs they
   pay to them. 3. We appeal to themselves whether it be not a silly
   sottish thing to expect any good from gods of their own making: They
   are their own witnesses, witnesses against themselves, if they would
   but give their own consciences leave to deal faithfully with them, that
   they are blind and ignorant in doing thus. They see not nor know, and
   let them own it, that they may be ashamed. If men would but be true to
   their own convictions, ordinarily we might be sure of their conversion,
   particularly idolaters; for who has formed a god? Who but a mad-man, or
   one out of his wits, would think of forming a god, of making that
   which, if he make it a god, he must suppose to be his maker? 4. We
   challenge them to plead their own cause with any confidence or
   assurance. If any one has the front to say that he has formed a god,
   when all his fellows come together to declare what each of them has
   done towards the making of this god, they will all be ashamed of the
   cheat they have put upon themselves, and laugh in their sleeves at
   those whom they have imposed upon; for the workmen that formed this god
   are of men, weak and impotent, and therefore cannot possibly make a
   being that shall be omnipotent, nor can they without blushing pretend
   to do so. Let them all be gathered together, as Demetrius and the
   craftsmen were, to support their sinking trade; let them stand up to
   plead their own cause, and make the best they can of it, with hand
   joined in hand; yet they shall fear to undertake it when it comes to
   the setting to, as conscious to themselves of the weakness and badness
   of their cause, and they shall be ashamed of it, not only when they
   appear singly, but when by appearing together they hope to keep one
   another in countenance. Note, Idolatry and impiety are things which men
   may justly both tremble and blush to appear in the defence of.

   II. A particular narrative of the whole proceeding in making a god; and
   there needs no more to expose it than to describe it and tell the story
   of it.

   1. The persons employed about it are handicraft tradesmen, the meanest
   of them, the very same that you would employ in making the common
   utensils of your husbandry, a cart or a plough. You must have a smith,
   a blacksmith, who with the tongs works in the coals; and it is hard
   work, for he works with the strength of his arms, till he is hungry and
   his strength fails, so eager is he, and so hasty are those who set him
   at the work to get it despatched. He cannot allow himself time to eat
   or drink, for he drinks no water, and therefore is faint, v. 12.
   Perhaps it was a piece of superstition among them for the workman not
   to eat or drink while he was making a god. The plates with which the
   smith was to cover the image, or whatever iron-work was to be done
   about it, he fashioned with hammers, and made it all very exact,
   according to the model given him. Then comes the carpenter, and he
   takes as much care and pains about the timber-work, v. 13. He brings
   his box of tools, for he has occasion for them all: He stretches out
   his rule upon the piece of wood, marks it with a line, where it must be
   sawed or cut of; he fits it, or polishes it, with planes, the greater
   first and then the less; he marks out with the compasses what must be
   the size and shape of it; and it is just what he pleases.

   2. The form in which it is made is that of a man, a poor, weak, dying
   creature; but it is the noblest form and figure that he is acquainted
   with, and, being his own, he has a peculiar fondness for it and is
   willing to put all the reputation he can upon it. He makes it according
   to the beauty of a man, in comely proportion, with those limbs and
   lineaments that are the beauty of a man, but are altogether unfit to
   represent the beauty of the Lord. God put a great honour upon man when,
   in respect of the powers and faculties of his souls, he made him after
   the image of God; but man does a great dishonour to God when he makes
   him, in respect of bodily parts and members, after the image of man.
   Nor will it at all atone for the affront so far to compliment his god
   as to take the fairest of the children of men for his original whence
   to take his copy, and to give him all the beauty of a man that he can
   think of; for all the beauty of the body of a man, when pretended to be
   put upon him who is an infinite Spirit, is a deformity and diminution
   to him. And, when the goodly piece is finished, it must remain in the
   house, in the temple or shrine prepared for it, or perhaps in the
   dwelling house if it be one of the lares or penates--the household
   gods.

   3. The matter of which it is mostly made is sorry stuff to make a god
   of; it is the stock of a tree.

   (1.) The tree itself was fetched out of the forest, where it grew among
   other trees, of no more virtue or value than its neighbours. It was a
   cedar, it may be, or a cypress, or an oak, v. 14. Perhaps he had an eye
   upon it some time before for this use, and strengthened it for himself,
   used some art or other to make it stronger and better-grown than other
   trees were. Or, as some read it, which hath strengthened or lifted up
   itself among the trees of the forest, the tallest and strongest he can
   pick out. Or, it may be, it pleases his fancy better to take an ash,
   which is of a quicker growth, and which was of his own planting for
   this use, and which has been nourished with rain from heaven. See what
   a fallacy he puts upon himself, in making that his refuge which was of
   his own planting, and which he not only gave the form to, but prepared
   the matter for; and what an affront he puts upon the God of heaven in
   setting up that a rival with him which was nourished by his rain, that
   rain which falls upon the just and unjust.

   (2.) The boughs of this tree were good for nothing but for fuel; to
   that use were they put, and so were the chips that were cut off from it
   in the working of it; they are for a man to burn, v. 15, 16. To show
   that that tree has no innate virtue in it for its own protection, it is
   as capable of being burnt as any other tree; and, to show that he who
   chose it had no more antecedent value for it than for any other tree,
   he makes no difficulty of throwing part of it into the fire as common
   rubbish, asking no question for conscience' sake. [1.] It serves him
   for his parlour-fire: He will take thereof and warm himself (v. 15),
   and he finds the comfort of it, and is so far from having any regret in
   his mind for it that he saith, Aha! I am warm; I have seen the fire;
   and certainly that part of the tree which served him for fuel, the use
   for which God and nature designed it, does him a much greater kindness
   and yields him more satisfaction than ever that will which he makes a
   god of. [2.] It serves him for his kitchen-fire: He eats flesh with it,
   that is, he dresses the flesh with it which he is to eat; he roasteth
   roast, and is satisfied that he has not done amiss to put it to this
   use. Nay, [3.] It serves him to heat the oven with, in which we use
   that fuel which is of least value: He kindles it and bakes bread with
   the heat of it, and none charges him with doing wrong.

   (3.) Yet, after all, the stock or body of the tree shall serve to make
   a god of, when it might as well have served to make a bench, as one of
   themselves, even a poet of their own, upbraids them, Horat. Sat. 1.8:


   Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,

   Quum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,

   Maluit esse deum; deus inde ego--


   In days of yore our godship stood

   A very worthless log of wood,

   The joiner, doubting or to shape us

   Into a stool or a Priapus,

   At length resolved, for reasons wise,

   Into a god to bid me rise.

   Francis.

   And another of them threatens the idol to whom he had committed the
   custody of his woods that, if he did not preserve them to be fuel for
   his fire, he should himself be made use of for that purpose:


   Furaces moneo manus repellas,

   Et silvam domini focis reserves,

   Si defecerit hæc, et ipse lignum es.


   Drive the plunderers away, and preserve the wood for thy master's
   hearth, or thou thyself shalt be converted into fuel.--Martial.

   When the besotted idolater has thus served the meanest purposes with
   part of his tree, and the rest has had time to season (he makes that a
   god in his imagination while that is in the doing, and worships it): He
   makes it a graven image, and falls down thereto (v. 15), that is (v.
   17), The residue thereof he makes a god, even his graven image,
   according to his fancy and intention; he falls down to it, and worships
   it, gives divine honours to it, prostrates himself before it in the
   most humble reverent posture, as a servant, as a suppliant; he prays to
   it, as having a dependence upon it, and great expectations from it; he
   saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god. There where he pays his homage
   and allegiance he justly looks for protection and deliverance. What a
   strange infatuation is this, to expect help from gods that cannot help
   themselves! But it is this praying to them that makes them gods, not
   what the smith or the carpenter did to them. What we place our
   confidence in for deliverance that we make a god of.


   Qui fingit sacros, auro vel marmore, vultus

   Non facit ille deos; qui rogat, ille facit.


   He who supplicates the figure, whether it be of gold or of

   marble, makes it a god, and not he who merely

   constructs it.--Martial.

   III. Here is judgment given upon this whole matter, v. 18-20. In short,
   it is the effect and evidence of the greatest stupidity and sottishness
   that one could ever imagine rational beings to be guilty of, and shows
   that man has become worse than the beasts that perish; for they act
   according to the dictates of sense, but man acts not according to the
   dictates of reason (v. 18): They have not known nor understood common
   sense; men that act rationally in other things in this act most
   absurdly. Though they have some knowledge and understanding, yet they
   are strangers to, nay, they are rebels against the great law of
   consideration (v. 12): None considers in his heart, nor has so much
   application of mind as to reason thus with himself, which one would
   think he might easily do, though there were none to reason with him: "I
   have burnt part of this tree in the fire, for baking and roasting; and
   now shall I make the residue thereof an abomination?" (that is, an
   idol, for that is an abomination to God and all wise and good men);
   "shall I ungratefully choose to do, or presumptuously dare to do, what
   the Lord hates? shall I be such a fool as to fall down to the stock of
   a tree--a senseless, lifeless, helpless thing? shall I so far disparage
   myself, and make myself like that I bow down to?" A growing tree may be
   a beautiful stately thing, but the stock of a tree has lost its glory,
   and he has lost his that gives glory to it. Upon the whole, the sad
   character given of these idolaters is, 1. That they put a cheat upon
   themselves (v. 20): They feed on ashes; they feed themselves with hopes
   of advantage by worshipping these idols, but they will be disappointed
   as much as a man that would expect nourishment by feeding on ashes.
   Feeding on ashes is an evidence of a depraved appetite and a
   distempered body; and it is a sign that the soul is overpowered by very
   bad habits when men, in their worship, go no further than the sight of
   their eyes will carry them. They are wretchedly deluded, and it is
   their own fault: A deceived heart of their own, more than the deceiving
   tongue of others, has turned them aside from the faith and worship of
   the living God to dumb idols. They are drawn away of their own lusts
   and enticed. The apostasy of sinners from God is owing entirely to
   themselves and to the evil heart of unbelief that is in their own
   bosom. A revolting and rebellious heart is a deceived heart. 2. That
   they wilfully persist in their self-delusion and will not be
   undeceived. There is none of them that can be persuaded so far to
   suspect himself as to say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? and so
   to think of delivering his soul. Note, (1.) Idolaters have a lie in
   their right hand; for an idol is a lie, is not what it pretends,
   performs not what it promises, and it is a teacher of lies, Hab. ii.
   18. (2.) It highly concerns those that are secure in an evil way
   seriously to consider whether there be not a lie in their right hand.
   Is not that a lie which with complacency we hold fast as our chief
   good? Are our hearts set upon the wealth of the world and the pleasures
   of sense? They will certainly prove a lie in our right hand. And is not
   that a lie which with confidence we hold fast by, as the ground on
   which we build our hopes for heaven? If we trust to our external
   professions and performances, as if those would save us, we deceive
   ourselves with a lie in our right hand, with a house built on the sand.
   (3.) Self-suspicion is the first step towards self-deliverance. We
   cannot be faithful to ourselves unless we are jealous of ourselves. He
   that would deliver his soul must begin with putting this question to
   his own conscience. Is there not a lie in my right hand? (4.) Those
   that are given up to believe in a lie are under the power of strong
   delusions, which it is hard to get clear of, 2 Thess. ii. 11.

Encouragement to the People of God. (b. c. 708.)

   21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have
   formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten
   of me.   22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
   and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
   23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts
   of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and
   every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified
   himself in Israel.   24 Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that
   formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that
   stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by
   myself;   25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh
   diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their
   knowledge foolish;   26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and
   performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou
   shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and
   I will raise up the decayed places thereof:   27 That saith to the
   deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:   28 That saith of Cyrus,
   He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to
   Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall
   be laid.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The duty which Jacob and Israel, now in captivity, were called to,
   that they might be qualified and prepared for the deliverance designed
   them. Our first care must be to get good by our afflictions, and then
   we may hope to get out of them. The duty is expressed in two words:
   Remember and return, as in the counsel to Ephesus, Rev. ii. 4, 5. 1.
   "Remember these, O Jacob! Remember what thou hast been told of the
   folly of idolatry, and let the convictions thou art now under be ready
   to thee whenever thou art tempted to that sin. Remember that thou art
   my servant, and therefore must not serve other masters." 2. Return unto
   me, v. 22. It is the great concern of those who have backslidden from
   God to hasten their return to him; and this is that which he calls them
   to when they are in affliction, and when he is returning to them in a
   way of mercy.

   II. The favours which Jacob and Israel, now in captivity, were assured
   of; and what is here promised to them upon their remembering and
   returning to God is in a spiritual sense promised to all that in like
   manner return to God. It is a very comfortable word, for more is
   implied in it than is expressed (v. 21): "O Israel! thou shalt not be
   forgotten of me, though for the present thou seemest to be so." When we
   begin to remember God he will begin to remember us; nay, it is he that
   remembers us first. Now observe here,

   1. The grounds upon which God's favourable intentions to his people
   were built and on which they might build their expectations from him.
   He will deliver them out of captivity; for, (1.) They are his servants,
   and therefore he has a just quarrel with those that detain them. Let my
   people go, that they may serve me. The servants of the King of kings
   are under special protection. (2.) He formed them into a people, formed
   them from the womb, v. 24. From the first beginning of their increase
   into a nation they were under his particular care and government, more
   than any other people; their national constitution was of his framing,
   and his covenant with them was the charter by which they were
   incorporated. They are his, and he will save them. (3.) He has redeemed
   them formerly, has many a time redeemed them out of great distress, and
   he is still the same, in the same relation to them, has the same
   concern for them. "Therefore return unto me, for I have redeemed thee,
   v. 22. Whither wilt thou go, but to me?" Having redeemed them, as well
   as formed them, he has acquired a further title to them and propriety
   in them, which is a good reason why they should dutifully return to him
   and why he will graciously return to them. The Lord has redeemed Jacob;
   he is about to do it (v. 23); he has determined to do it; for he is the
   Lord their Redeemer, v. 24. Note, The work of redemption which God has
   by his Son wrought for us encourages us to hope for all promised
   blessings from him. He that has redeemed us at so vast an expense will
   not lose his purchase. (4.) He has glorified himself in them (v. 23),
   and therefore will do so still, John xii. 28. It is matter of comfort
   to us to see God's glory interested in the deliverances of the church;
   for therefore he will certainly redeem Jacob, because thus he will
   glorify himself. And this assures us that he will perfect the
   redemption of his saints by Jesus Christ, because there is a day set
   when he will be glorified and admired in them all. (5.) He has pardoned
   their sins, which were the cause of their calamity and the only
   obstruction to their deliverance, v. 22. Therefore he will break the
   yoke of captivity from off their necks, because he has blotted out, as
   a thick cloud, their transgressions. Note, [1.] Our transgressions and
   our sins are as a cloud, a thick cloud; they interpose between heaven
   and earth, and for a time suspend and intercept the correspondence
   between the upper and lower world (sin separates between us and God,
   ch. lix. 2); they threaten a storm, a deluge of wrath, as thick clouds
   do, which God will rain upon sinners. Ps. xi. 6. [2.] When God pardons
   sin he blots out this cloud, this thick cloud, so that the intercourse
   with heaven is laid open again. God looks down upon the soul with
   favour; the soul looks up to him with pleasure. The cloud is scattered
   by the influence of the Sun of righteousness. It is only through Christ
   that sin is pardoned. When sin is pardoned, like a cloud that is
   scattered, it appears no more, it is quite gone. The iniquity of Jacob
   shall be sought for, and not found, Jer. l. 20. And the comforts that
   flow into the soul when sin is pardoned are like the clear shining
   after clouds and rain.

   2. The universal joy which the deliverance of God's people should bring
   along with it (v. 23): Sing, O you heavens! This intimates, (1.) That
   the whole creation shall have cause for joy and rejoicing in the
   redemption of God's people; to that it is owing that it subsists (that
   it is rescued from the curse which the sin of man brought upon the
   ground) and that it is again put into a capacity of answering the ends
   of its being, and is assured that though now it groans, being burdened,
   it shall at last be delivered from the bondage of corruption. The
   greatest establishment of the world is the kingdom of God in it, Ps.
   xcvi. 11-13; xcviii. 7-9. (2.) That the angels shall rejoice in it, and
   the inhabitants of the upper world. The heavens shall sing, for the
   Lord has done it. And there is joy in heaven when God and man are
   reconciled (Luke xv. 7), joy when Babylon falls, Rev. xviii. 20. (3.)
   That those who lay at the greatest distance, even the inhabitants of
   the Gentile world, should join in these praises, as sharing in these
   joys. The lower parts of the earth, the forest and the trees there,
   shall bring in the tribute of thanksgiving for the redemption of
   Israel.

   3. The encouragement we have to hope that though great difficulties,
   and such as have been thought insuperable, lie in the way of the
   church's deliverance, yet, when the time for it shall come, they shall
   all be got over with ease; for thus saith Israel's Redeemer, I am the
   Lord that maketh all things, did make them at first and am still making
   them; for providence is a continued creation. All being, power, life,
   emotion, and perfection, are from God. He stretches forth the heavens
   alone, has no help nor needs any; and the earth too he spreads abroad
   by himself, and by his own power. Man was not by him when he did it
   (Job xxxviii. 4), nor did any creature advise or assist; only his own
   eternal wisdom and Word was by him then as one brought up with him,
   Prov. viii. 30. His stretching out the heavens by himself denotes the
   boundless extent of his power. The strongest man, if he has to stretch
   a thing out, must get somebody or other to lend a hand; but God
   stretched out the vast expanse and keeps it still upon the stretch,
   himself, by his own power. Let not Israel be discouraged then; nothing
   is too hard for him to do that made the world, Ps. cxxiv. 8. And,
   having made all things, he can make what use he pleases of all, and has
   it in his power to serve his own purposes by them.

   4. The confusion which this would put upon the oracles of Babylon, by
   the confutation it would give them, v. 25. God, by delivering his
   people out of Babylon, would frustrate the tokens of the liars, of all
   the lying prophets, that said the Babylonian monarchy had many ages yet
   to live, and pretended to ground their predictions upon some token,
   some sign or other, which, according to the rules of their arts,
   foreboded its prosperity. How mad will these conjurors grow with
   vexation when they see that their skill fails them, and that the
   contrary happens to that which they so coveted and were so confident
   of. Nor would it only baffle their pretended prophets, but their
   celebrated politicians too: He turns the wise men backward. Finding
   they cannot go on with their projects, they are forced to quit them;
   and so he makes the judges fools, and makes their knowledge foolish.
   Those that are made acquainted with Christ see all the knowledge they
   had before to be foolishness in comparison with the knowledge of him.
   And those that are adversaries to him will find all their counsels,
   like Ahitophel's, turned into foolishness, and themselves taken in
   their own craftiness, 1 Cor. iii. 19.

   5. The confirmation which this would give to the oracles of God, which
   the Jews had distrusted and their enemies despised: God confirms the
   word of his servant (v. 26); he confirms it by accomplishing it in its
   season; and performs the counsel of the messengers whom he hath many a
   time sent to his people, to tell them what great blessings he had in
   store for them. Note, The exact fulfilling of the prophecies of
   scripture is a confirmation of the truth of the whole book and an
   incontestable evidence of its divine origin and authority.

   6. The particular favours God designed for his people, that were now in
   captivity, v. 26-28. These were foretold long before they went into
   captivity, that they might see reason to expect a correction, but no
   reason to fear a final destruction. (1.) It is here supposed that
   Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, should for a time lie in ruins,
   dispeopled and uninhabited; but it is promised that they shall be
   rebuilt and repeopled. When Isaiah lived, Jerusalem and the cities of
   Judah were full of inhabitants; but they will be emptied, burnt, and
   destroyed. It was then hard to believe that concerning such strong and
   populous cities. But the justice of God will do that; and, when that is
   done, it will be hard to believe that ever they will recover themselves
   again, and yet the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do that to. God has
   said to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; for, while the world
   stands, God will have a church in it, and therefore he will raise up
   those who shall say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; for, if it be
   not built, it cannot be inhabited, Ps. lxix. 35, 36. When God's time
   shall have come for the building up of his church, let him alone to
   find both houses for his people (for they shall not lie exposed) and
   people for his houses, for they shall not stand empty. The cities of
   Judah too shall again be built. The Assyrian army under Sennacherib
   only took them, and then, upon the defeat of that army, they returned
   undamaged to the right owners; but the Chaldean army demolished them,
   and by carrying away the inhabitants left them to go to decay of
   themselves; for, if less judgments prevail not to humble and reform
   men, God will send greater. Yet these desolations shall not be
   perpetual. God will raise up the wastes and decayed places thereof; for
   he will not contend for ever. The city of strangers, when it is ruined,
   shall never be built (ch. xxv. 2), but the city of God's own children
   is but discontinued for a time. (2.) It is here supposed that the
   temple too should be destroyed, and lie for a time rased to the
   foundations; but it is promised that the foundation of it shall again
   be laid, and no doubt built upon. As the desolation of the sanctuary
   was to all the pious Jews the most mournful part of the destruction, so
   the restoration and re-establishment of it would be the most joyful
   part of the deliverance. What joy can they have in the rebuilding of
   Jerusalem if the temple there be not rebuilt? for it is that which
   makes it a holy city and truly beautiful. This therefore was the chief
   thing that the Jews had at heart and had in view in their return;
   therefore they would go back to Jerusalem, to build the house of the
   Lord God of Israel there, Ezra i. 3. (3.) It is here supposed that very
   great difficulties would lie in the way of this deliverance, which it
   would be impossible for them to wade through; but it is promised that
   by a divine power they shall all be removed (v. 27): God saith to the
   deep, Be dry; so he did when he brought Israel out of Egypt, and so he
   will again when he brings them out of Babylon, if there be occasion.
   Who art thou, O great mountain? Dost thou stand in the way? Before
   Zerubbabel, the commander-in-chief of the returning captives, thou
   shalt become a plain, Zech. iv. 7. So, Who art thou, O great deep? Dost
   thou retard their passage and think to block it up? Thou shalt be dry,
   and thy rivers that supply thee shall be dried up. When Cyrus took
   Babylon by draining the river Euphrates into many channels, and so
   making it passable for his army, this was fulfilled. Note, Whatever
   obstructions lie in the way of Israel's redemption, God can remove them
   with a word's speaking. (4.) It is here supposed that none of the Jews
   themselves would be able by might and power to force their way out of
   Babylon but it is promised that God will raise up a stranger from afar
   off, that shall fairly open the way for them, and now at length he
   names the very man, many scores of years before he was born or thought
   of (v. 28): That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd. Israel is his
   people, and the sheep of his pasture. These sheep are now in the midst
   of wolves, in the hands of the thief and robber; they are impounded for
   trespass. Now Cyrus shall be his shepherd, employed by him to release
   these sheep, and to take care of their return to their own green
   pasture again. "In this he shall perform all my pleasure, shall bring
   about what is purposed by me and will be highly pleasing to me." Note,
   [1.] The most contingent things are certain to the divine prescience.
   He knew who was the person, and what was his name, that should be the
   deliverer of his people, and, when he pleased, he could let his church
   know it, that, when they heard of such a name beginning to be talked of
   in the world, they might lift up their heads with joy, knowing that
   their redemption drew nigh. [2.] It is the greatest honour of the
   greatest men to be employed for God as instruments of his favour to his
   people. It was more the praise of Cyrus to be God's shepherd than to be
   emperor of Persia. [3.] God makes what use he pleases of men, of mighty
   men, of those that act with the greatest freedom; and, when they think
   to do as they please, he can overrule them, and make them do as he
   pleases. Nay, in those very things wherein they are serving themselves,
   and look no further than that, God is serving his own purposes by them
   and making them to perform all his pleasure. Rich princes shall do what
   poor prophets have foretold.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLV.

   Cyrus was nominated, in the foregoing chapter, to be God's shepherd;
   more is said to him and more of him in this chapter, not only because
   he was to be instrumental in the release of the Jews out of their
   captivity, but because he was to be therein a type of the great
   Redeemer, and that release was to be typical of the great redemption
   from sin and death; for that was the salvation of which all the
   prophets witnessed. We have here, I. The great things which God would
   do for Cyrus, that he might be put into a capacity to release God's
   people, ver. 1-4. II. The proof God would hereby give of his eternal
   power and godhead, and his universal, incontestable, sovereignty, ver.
   5-7. III. A prayer for the hastening of this deliverance, ver. 8. IV. A
   check to the unbelieving Jews, who quarrelled with God for the
   lengthening out of their captivity, ver. 9, 10. V. Encouragement given
   to the believing Jews, who trusted in God and continued instant in
   prayer, assuring them that God would in due time accomplish this work
   by the hand of Cyrus, ver. 11-15. VI. A challenge given to the
   worshippers of idols and their doom read, and satisfaction given to the
   worshippers of the true God and their comfort secured, with an eye to
   the Mediator, who is made of God to us both righteousness and
   sanctification, ver. 16-25. And here, as in many other parts of this
   prophecy, there is much of Christ and of gospel grace.

Prophecies Concerning Cyrus. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I
   have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins
   of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall
   not be shut;   2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places
   straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder
   the bars of iron:   3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness,
   and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the
   Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.   4 For Jacob
   my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by
   thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

   Cyrus was a Mede, descended (as some say) from Astyages king of Media.
   The pagan writers are not agreed in their accounts of his origin. Some
   tell us that in his infancy he was an outcast, left exposed, and was
   saved from perishing by a herdsman's wife. However, it is agreed that,
   being a man of an active genius, he soon made himself very
   considerable, especially when Croesus king of Lydia made a descent upon
   his country, which he not only repulsed, but revenged, prosecuting the
   advantages he had gained against Croesus with such vigour that in a
   little time he took Sardis and made himself master of the rich kingdom
   of Lydia and the many provinces that then belonged to it. This made him
   very great (for Croesus was rich to a proverb) and enabled him to
   pursue his victories in many countries; but it was nearly ten years
   afterwards that, in conjunction with his uncle Darius and with the
   forces of Persia, he made this famous attack upon Babylon, which is
   here foretold, and which we have the history of Dan. 5. Babylon had now
   grown exorbitantly rich and strong. It was forty-five miles in compass
   (some say more): the walls were thirty-two feet thick and 100 cubits
   high. Some say, They were so thick that six chariots might drive
   abreast upon them; others say, They were fifty cubits thick and 200
   high. Cyrus seems to have had a great ambition to make himself master
   of this place, and to have projected it long; and at last he performed
   it. Now here, 210 years before it came to pass, we are told,

   I. What great things God would do for him, that he might put it into
   his power to release his people. In order to this he shall be a mighty
   conqueror and a wealthy monarch and nations shall become tributaries to
   him and help him both with men and money. Now that which God here
   promised to do for Cyrus he could have done for Zerubbabel, or some of
   the Jews themselves; but the wealth and power of this world God has
   seldom seen fit to entrust his own people with much of, so many are the
   snares and temptations that attend them; but if here has been occasion,
   for the god of the church, to make use of them, God has been pleased
   rather to put them into the hands of others, to be employed for them,
   than to venture them in their own hands. Cyrus is here called God's
   anointed, because he was both designed and qualified for this great
   service by the counsel of God, and was to be herein a type of the
   Messiah. God engages to hold his right hand, not only to strengthen and
   sustain him, but to direct his motions and intentions, as Elisha put
   his hands upon the king's hands when he was to shoot his arrow against
   Syria, 2 Kings xiii. 16. Being under such direction,

   1. He shall extend his conquests very far and shall make nothing of the
   opposition that will be given him. Babylon is too strong a place for a
   young hero to begin with; and therefore, that he may be able to deal
   with that, great additions shall be made to his strength by other
   conquests. (1.) Populous kingdoms shall yield to him. God will subdue
   nations before him; when he is in the full career of his successes he
   shall make nothing of a nation's being born to him at once: yet it is
   not he that subdues them; it is God that subdues them for him; the
   battle is his, and therefore his is the victory. (2.) Potent kings
   shall fall before him: I will loose the loins of kings, either the
   girdle of their loins (divesting them of their power and dignity) or
   the strength of their loins, and then it was literally fulfilled in
   Belshazzar, for, when he was terrified by the handwriting on the wall,
   the joints of his loins were loosed, Dan. v. 6. (3.) Great cities shall
   surrender themselves into his hands, without giving him or themselves
   any trouble. God will incline the keepers of the city to open before
   him the two-leaved gates, not treacherously nor timorously, but from a
   full conviction that it is to no purpose to contend with him; and
   therefore the gates shall not be shut to keep him out as an enemy, but
   thrown open to admit him as a friend. (4.) The longest and most
   dangerous marches shall be made easy and ready to him: I will go before
   thee, to clear the way, and to conduct thee in it, and then the crooked
   places, shall be made straight; or, as some read it, the hilly places
   shall be levelled and made even. Those will find a ready road that have
   God going before them. (5.) No opposition shall stand before him. He
   that gives him his commission will break in pieces the gates of brass
   that are shut against him, and cut asunder the bars of iron wherewith
   they are fastened. This was fulfilled in the letter, if that be true
   which Herodotus reports, that the city of Babylon had 100 gates all of
   brass, with posts and hooks of the same metal.

   2. He shall replenish his coffers very much (v. 3): I will give thee
   the treasures of darkness, treasures of gold and silver, that have been
   long kept close under lock and key and had not seen the light of many
   years, or had been buried under ground by the inhabitants, in their
   fright, upon the taking of the city. The riches of many nations had
   been brought to Babylon, and Cyrus seized all together. The hidden
   riches of secret places, which belonged either to the crown or to
   private persons, shall all be a prey to Cyrus. Thus God, designing him
   to do a piece of service to his church, paid him richly for it
   beforehand; and Cyrus very honestly owned God's goodness to him, and,
   in consideration of that, released the captives. Ezra i. 2, God has
   given me all the kingdoms of the earth and thereby has obliged me to
   build him a house at Jerusalem.

   II. We are here told what God designed in doing all this for Cyrus.
   What Cyrus aimed at in undertaking his wars we may easily guess; but
   what God aimed at in giving him such wonderful success in his wars we
   are here told.

   1. It was that the God of Israel might be glorified: "That thou mayest
   know by all this that I the Lord am the God of Israel; for I have
   called thee by thy name long before thou wast born." When Cyrus should
   have this prophecy of Isaiah shown to him, and should there find his
   own name and his own achievements particularly described so long
   before, he should thereby be brought to acknowledge that the God of
   Israel was the Lord, Jehovah, the only living and true God, and that he
   continued to own his Israel though now in captivity. It is well when
   thus men's prosperity brings them to the knowledge of God, for too
   often it makes them forget him.

   2. It was that the Israel of God might be released, v. 4. Cyrus knew
   not God as the God of Israel. Having been trained up in the worship of
   idols, the true God was to him an unknown God. But, though he knew not
   God, God not only knew him when he came into being, but foreknew him,
   and bespoke him for his shepherd. He called him by his name, Cyrus,
   nay, which was yet great honour, he surnamed him and called him his
   anointed. And why did God do all this for Cyrus? Not for his own sake,
   be it known to him; whether he was a man of virtue or no is questioned.
   Xenophon indeed, when he would describe the heroic virtues of an
   excellent prince, made use of Cyrus's name, and many of the particulars
   of his story, in his Cyropædia; but other historians represent him as
   haughty, cruel, and bloodthirsty. The reason why God preferred him was
   for Jacob his servant's sake. Note, (1.) In all the revolutions of
   states and kingdoms, the sudden falls of the great and strong, and the
   surprising advancements of the weak and obscure, God is designing the
   good of his church. (2.) It is therefore the wisdom of those to whom
   God has given wealth and power to use them for his glory, by showing
   kindness to his people. Cyrus is preferred that Israel may be released.
   He shall have a kingdom, only that God's people may have their liberty;
   for their kingdom is not of this world, it is yet to come. In all this
   Cyrus was a type of Christ, who was made victorious over principalities
   and powers, and entrusted with unsearchable riches, for the use and
   benefit of God's servants, his elect. When he ascended on high he led
   captivity captive, took those captives that had taken others captives,
   and opened the prison to those that were bound.

The Divine Dominion. (b. c. 708.)

   5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I
   girded thee, though thou hast not known me:   6 That they may know from
   the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me.
   I am the Lord, and there is none else.   7 I form the light, and create
   darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these
   things.   8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour
   down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth
   salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have
   created it.   9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the
   potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to
   him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no
   hands?   10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest
   thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

   God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as that which he
   designed to prove and manifest to the world in all the great things he
   did for Cyrus and by him. Observe,

   I. How this doctrine is here laid down concerning the sovereignty of
   the great Jehovah, in two things:-- 1. That he is God alone, and there
   is no God besides him. This is here inculcated as a fundamental truth,
   which, if it were firmly believed, would abolish idolatry out of the
   world. With what an awful, commanding, air of majesty and authority,
   bidding defiance, as it were, to all pretenders, does the great God
   here proclaim it to the world: I am the Lord, I the Lord, Jehovah, and
   there is none else, there is no God besides me, no other self-existent,
   self-sufficient, being, none infinite and eternal. And again (v. 6),
   There is none besides me; all that are set up in competition with me
   are counterfeits; they are all vanity and a lie, for I am the Lord, and
   there is none else. This is here said to Cyrus, not only to cure him of
   the sin of his ancestors, which was the worshipping of idols, but to
   prevent his falling into the sin of some of his predecessors in victory
   and universal monarchy, which was the setting up of themselves for gods
   and being idolized, to which some attribute much of the origin of
   idolatry. Let Cyrus, when he becomes thus rich and great, remember that
   still he is but a man, and there is no God but one. 2. That he is Lord
   of all, and there is nothing done without him (v. 7): I form the light,
   which is grateful and pleasing, and I create darkness, which is
   grievous and unpleasing. I make peace (put here for all good) and I
   create evil, not the evil of sin (God is not the author of that), but
   the evil of punishment. I the Lord order, and direct, and do all these
   things. Observe, (1.) The very different events that befal the children
   of men. Light and darkness are opposite to each other, and yet, in the
   course of providence, they are sometimes intermixed, like the morning
   and evening twilights, neither day nor night, Zech. xiv. 6. There is a
   mixture of joys and sorrows in the same cup, allays to each other.
   Sometimes they are counterchanged, as noonday light and midnight
   darkness. In the revolution of every day each takes its turn, and there
   are short transitions from the one to the other, witness Job's case.
   (2.) The self-same cause of both, and that is he that is the first
   Cause of all: I the Lord, the fountain of all being, am the fountain of
   all power. He who formed the natural light (Gen. i. 3) still forms the
   providential light. He who at first made peace among the jarring seeds
   and principles of nature makes peace in the affairs of men. He who
   allowed the natural darkness, which was a mere privation, creates the
   providential darkness; for concerning troubles and afflictions he gives
   positive orders. Note, The wise God has the ordering and disposing of
   all our comforts, and all our crosses, in this world.

   II. How this doctrine is here proved and published. 1. It is proved by
   that which God did for Cyrus: "There is no God besides me, for (v. 5) I
   girded thee, though thou hast not known me. It was not thy own idol,
   which thou didst know and worship, that girded thee for this
   expedition, that gave thee authority and ability for it. No, it was I
   that girded thee, I whom thou didst not know, nor seek to." By this it
   appears that the God of Israel is the only true God, that he manages
   and makes what use he pleases even of those that are strangers to him
   and pay their homage to other gods. 2. It is published to all the world
   by the word of God, by his providence, and by the testimony of the
   suffering Jews in Babylon, that all may know from the east and from the
   west, sunrise and sun-set, that the Lord is God and there is none else.
   The wonderful deliverance of the Israel of God proclaimed to all the
   world that there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, that rides on
   the heavens for their help.

   III. How this doctrine is here improved and applied.

   1. For the comfort of those that earnestly longed, and yet quietly
   waited, for the redemption of Israel (v. 8): Drop down, you heavens,
   from above. Some take this as the saints' prayer for the deliverance. I
   rather take it as God's precept concerning it; for he is said to
   command deliverances, Ps. xliv. 4. Now the precept is directed to
   heaven and earth, and all the hosts of both, as royal precepts commonly
   run--To all officers, civil and military. All the creatures shall be
   made in their places to contribute to the carrying on of this great
   work, when God will have it done. If men will not be aiding and
   assisting, God will produce it without them, as he does the dews of
   heaven and the grass of the earth, which tarry not for man, nor wait
   for the sons of men, Mic. v. 7. Observe, (1.) The method of this great
   deliverance that is to be wrought for Israel. Righteousness must first
   be wrought in them; they must be brought to repent of their sins, to
   renounce their idolatries, to return to God, and reform their lives,
   and then the salvation shall be wrought for them, and not till then. We
   must not expect salvation without righteousness, for they spring up
   together and together the Lord hath created them; what he has joined
   together, let not us therefore put asunder. See Ps. lxxxv. 9-11. Christ
   died to save us from our sins, not in our sins, and is made redemption
   to us by being made to us righteousness and sanctification. (2.) The
   means of this great deliverance. Rather than it shall fail, when the
   set time for it shall come, the heavens shall drop down righteousness,
   and the earth shall open to bring forth salvation, and both concur to
   the reformation, and so to the restoration, of God's Israel. It is from
   heaven, from above the skies, that righteousness drops down, for every
   grace and good gift is from above; nay, since the more plentiful
   effusion of the Spirit it is now poured down, and, if our hearts be
   open to receive it, the product will be the fruits of righteousness and
   the great salvation.

   2. For reproof to those of the church's enemies that opposed this
   salvation, or those of her friends that despaired of it (v. 9): Woe
   unto him that strives with his Maker! God is the Maker of all things,
   and therefore our Maker, which is a reason why we should always submit
   to him and never contend with him. (1.) Let not the proud oppressors,
   in the elevation of their spirits, oppose God's designs concerning the
   deliverance of his people, nor think to detain them any longer when the
   time shall come for their release. Woe to the insulting Babylonians
   that set God at defiance, as Pharaoh did, and will not let his people
   go! (2.) Let not the poor oppressed, in the dejection of their spirits,
   murmur and quarrel with God for the prolonging of their captivity, as
   if he dealt unjustly or unkindly with them, or think to force their way
   out before God's time shall come. Note, Those will find themselves in a
   woeful condition that strive with their Maker; for none ever hardened
   his heart against God and prospered. Sinful man is indeed a quarrelsome
   creature; but let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth.
   Men are but earthen pots, nay, they are broken potsherds, and are made
   so very much by their mutual contentions. They are dashed in pieces one
   against another; and, if they are disposed to strive, let them strive
   with one another, let them meddle with their match; but let them not
   dare to contend with him that is infinitely above them, which is as
   senseless and absurd as, [1.] For the clay to find fault with the
   potter: Shall the clay say to him that forms it, "What makest thou? Why
   dost thou make me of this shape and not that?" Nay, it is as if the
   clay should be in such a heat and passion with the potter as to tell
   him that he has no hands, or that he works as awkwardly as if he had
   none. "Shall the clay pretend to be wiser than the potter and therefore
   to advise him, or mightier than the potter and therefore to control
   him?" He that gave us being, that gave us this being, may design
   concerning us, and dispose of us, as he pleases; and it is impudent
   presumption for us to prescribe to him. Shall we impeach God's wisdom,
   or question his power, who are ourselves so curiously, so wonderfully,
   made? Shall we say, He has no hands, whose hands made us and in whose
   hands we are? The doctrine of God's sovereignty has enough in it to
   silence all our discontents and objections against the methods of his
   providence and grace, Rom. ix. 20, 21. [2.] It is as unnatural as for
   the child to find fault with the parents, to say to the father, What
   begettest thou? or to the mother, "What hast thou brought forth? Why
   was I not begotten and born an angel, exempt from the infirmities of
   human nature and the calamities of human life?" Must not those who are
   children of men expect to share in the common lot and to fare as others
   fare? If God is our Father, where is the honour we owe to him by
   submitting to his will?

The Power of God; Encouragement to the People of God. (b. c. 708.)

   11 Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me
   of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my
   hands command ye me.   12 I have made the earth, and created man upon
   it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their
   host have I commanded.   13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and
   I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go
   my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts.   14
   Thus saith the Lord, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia
   and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they
   shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come
   over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication
   unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there
   is no God.   15 Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of
   Israel, the Saviour.   16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded,
   all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of
   idols.   17 But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
   salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
   18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that
   formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not
   in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none
   else.   19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I
   said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak
   righteousness, I declare things that are right.

   The people of God in captivity, who reconciled themselves to the will
   of God in their affliction and were content to wait his time for their
   deliverance, are here assured that they should not wait in vain.

   I. They are invited to enquire concerning the issue of their troubles,
   v. 11. The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, though he does not allow
   them to strive with him, yet encourages them, 1. To consult his word:
   "Ask of me things to come; have recourse to the prophets and their
   prophecies, and see what they say concerning these things. Ask the
   watchmen, What of the night? Ask them, How long?" Things to come, as
   far as they are revealed, belong to us and to our children, and we must
   not be strangers to them. 2. To seek unto him by prayer: "Concerning my
   sons and concerning the work of my hands, which as becomes them submit
   to the will of their Father, the will of their potter, command you me,
   not by way of prescription, but by way of petition. Be earnest in your
   requests, and confident in your expectations, as far as both are guided
   by and grounded upon the promise." We may not strive with our Maker by
   passionate complaints, but we may wrestle with him by faithful and
   fervent prayer. My sons, and the work of my hands, commend to me (so
   some read it), bring them to me and leave them with me. See the power
   of prayer, and its prevalency with God: Thou shalt cry, and he shall
   say, Here I am; what would you that I should do unto you? Some read it
   with an interrogation, as carrying on the reproof (v. 9, 10): Do you
   question me concerning things to come? and am I bound to give you an
   account? And concerning my children, even concerning the work of my
   hands, will you command me, or prescribe to me? Dare you do so? Shall
   any teach God knowledge, or give law to him? Those that complain of God
   do in effect assume an authority over him.

   II. They are encouraged to depend upon the power of God when they are
   brought very low and are utterly incapable of helping themselves, v.
   12. Their help stands in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and
   earth, which he mentions here, not only for his own glory, but for
   their comfort. The heavens and earth shall contribute, if he please, to
   the deliverance of the church (v. 8), for he created both, and
   therefore has both at command. 1. He made the earth, and created man
   upon it, for it was intended to be a habitation for man, Ps. cxv. 16.
   He has therefore not only authority, but wisdom and power sufficient to
   govern man here on this earth and to make what use he pleases of him.
   2. His hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts he
   commanded into being at first, and therefore still governs all their
   motions and influences. It is good news to God's Israel that their God
   is the creator and governor of the world.

   III. They are particularly told what God would do for them, that they
   might know what to depend upon; and this shall lead them to expect a
   more glorious Redeemer and redemption, of whom, and of which, Cyrus and
   their deliverance by him were types and figures.

   1. Liberty shall be proclaimed to them, v. 13. Cyrus is the man that
   shall proclaim it; and, in order hereunto, God will put power into his
   hands: I have raised him up in righteousness, that is, in pursuance and
   performance of my promises and to plead my people's just but injured
   cause. He will give him success in all his enterprises, particularly
   that against Babylon: I will direct all his ways; and then it follows
   that he will prosper him, for those must needs speed well that are
   under a divine direction. God will make plain the way of those whom he
   designs to employ for him. Two things Cyrus must do for God:--(1.)
   Jerusalem is God's city, but it is now in ruins, and he must rebuild
   it, that is, he must give orders for the rebuilding of it, and give
   wherewithal to do it. (2.) Israel is God's people, but they are now
   captives, and he must release them freely and generously, not demanding
   any ransom, nor compounding with them for price or reward. And Christ
   is anointed to do that for poor captive souls which Cyrus was to do for
   the captive Jews, to proclaim the opening of the prison to those that
   were bound (ch. lxi. 1), enlargement from a worse bondage than that in
   Babylon.

   2. Provision shall be made for them. They went out poor, and unable to
   bear the expenses of their return and re-establishment; and therefore
   it is promised that the labour of Egypt and other nations should come
   over to them and be theirs, v. 14. Cyrus, having conquered those
   countries, out of their spoils provided for the returning Jews; and he
   ordered his subjects to furnish them with necessaries (Ezra i. 4), so
   that they did not go out empty from Babylon any more than from Egypt.
   Those that are redeemed by Christ shall be not only provided for, but
   enriched. Those whose spirits God stirs up to go to the heavenly Zion
   may depend upon him to bear their charges. The world is theirs as far
   as is good for them.

   3. Proselytes shall be brought over to them: Men of stature shall come
   after thee in chains; they shall fall down to thee, saying, Surely God
   is in thee. This was in part fulfilled when many of the people of the
   land became Jews (Esther viii. 17), and said, We will go with you,
   humbly begging leave to do so, for we have heard that God is with you,
   Zech. viii. 23. The restoration would be a means of the conviction of
   many and the conversion of some. Perhaps many of the Chaldeans who were
   now themselves conquered by Cyrus, when they saw the Jews going back in
   triumph, came and begged pardon for the affronts and abuses they had
   given them, owned that God was among them and that he was God alone,
   and therefore desired to join themselves to them. But this promise was
   to have its full accomplishment in the gospel church,--when the
   Gentiles shall become obedient by word and deed to the faith of Christ
   (Rom. xv. 18), as willing captives to the church (Ps. cx. 3), glad to
   wear her chains,--when an infidel, beholding the public worship of
   Christians, shall own himself convinced that God is with them of a
   truth (1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25) and shall assay to join himself to
   them,--and when those that had been of the synagogue of Satan shall
   come and worship before the church's feet, and be made to know that God
   has loved her (Rev. iii. 9), and the kings of the earth and the nations
   shall bring their glory into the gospel Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 24. Note,
   It is good to be with those, though it be in chains, that have God with
   them.

   IV. They are taught to trust God further than they can see him. The
   prophet puts this word into their mouths, and goes before them in
   saying it (v. 15): Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself. 1. God
   hid himself when he brought them into the trouble, hid himself and was
   wroth, ch. lvii. 17. Note, Though God be his people's God and Saviour,
   yet sometimes, when they provoke him, he hides himself from them in
   displeasure, suspends his favours, and lays them under his frowns: but
   let them wait upon the Lord that hides his face, ch. viii. 17. 2. He
   hid himself when he was bringing them out of the trouble. Note, When
   God is acting as Israel's God and Saviour commonly his way is in the
   sea, Ps. lxxvii. 19. The salvation of the church is carried on in a
   mysterious way, by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts working on men's
   spirits (Zech. iv. 6), by weak and unlikely instruments, small and
   accidental occurrences, and not wrought till the last extremity; but
   this is our comfort, though God hide himself, we are sure he is the God
   of Israel, the Saviour. See Job xxxv. 14.

   V. They are instructed to triumph over idolaters and all the
   worshippers of other gods (v. 16): Those who are makers of idols, not
   only who frame them, but who make gods of them by praying to them,
   shall be ashamed and confounded, when they shall be convinced of their
   mistakes and shall be forced to acknowledged that the God of Israel is
   the only true God, and when they shall be disappointed in their
   expectations from their idols, under whose protection they had put
   themselves. They shall go to confusion when they shall find that they
   can neither excuse the sin nor escape the punishment of it, Ps. xcvii.
   7. It is not here and there one more timorous than the rest that shall
   thus shrink, and give up the cause, but all of them; nay, though they
   appear in a body, though hand join in hand, and they do all they can to
   keep one another in countenance, yet they shall go to confusion
   together. Bind them in bundles, to burn them.

   VI. They are assured that those who trust in God shall never be made
   ashamed of their confidence in him, v. 17. Now that God was about to
   deliver them out of Babylon he directed them by his prophet, 1. To look
   up to him as the author of their salvation: Israel shall be saved in
   the Lord. Not only their salvation shall be wrought out by his power,
   but it shall be treasured up for them in his grace and promise, and so
   secured to them. They shall be saved in him; for his name shall be
   their strong tower, into which they shall run, and in which they shall
   be safe. 2. To look beyond this temporal deliverance to that which is
   spiritual and has reference to another world, to think of that
   salvation by the Messiah which is an everlasting salvation, the
   salvation of the soul, a rescue from everlasting misery and a
   restoration to everlasting bliss. "Give diligence to make that sure,
   for it may be made sure, so sure that you shall not be ashamed nor
   confounded world with out end. You shall not only be delivered from the
   everlasting shame and contempt which will be the portion of idolaters
   (Dan. xii. 2), but you shall have everlasting honour and glory." [1.]
   There is a world without end; and it will be well or ill with us
   according as it will be with us in that world. [2.] Those who are saved
   with the everlasting salvation shall never be ashamed of what they did
   or suffered in the hopes of it; for it will so far outdo their
   expectations as to be a more abundant reimbursement. The returning
   captives owned that to them did belong confusion of face (Dan. ix. 7,
   8); yet God tells them that they shall not be confounded, but shall
   have assurance for ever. Those who are confounded as penitents for
   their own sin shall not be confounded as believers in God's promise and
   power.

   VII. They are engaged for ever to cleave to God, and never to desert
   him, never to distrust him. What had been often inculcated before is
   here again repeated, for the encouragement of his people to continue
   faithful to him, and to hope that he would be so to them: I am the
   Lord, and there is none else. That the Lord we serve and trust in is
   God alone appears by the two great lights, that of nature and that of
   revelation.

   1. It appears by the light of nature; for he made the world, and
   therefore may justly demand its homage (v. 18): "Thus saith the Lord,
   that created the heavens and formed the earth, I am the Lord, the
   sovereign Lord of all, and there is none else." The gods of the heathen
   did not do this, nay, they did not pretend to do it. He here mentions
   the creation of the heavens, but enlarges more upon that of the earth,
   because that is the part of the creation which we have the nearest view
   of and are most conversant with. It is here observed, (1.) That he
   formed it. It is not a rude and indigested chaos, but cast into the
   most proper shape and size by Infinite Wisdom. (2.) That he fixed it.
   When he had made it he established it, founded it on the seas, (Ps.
   xxiv. 2), hung it on nothing (Job xxvi. 7) as at first he made it of
   nothing, and yet made it substantial an hung it fast, ponderibus
   librata suis--poised by its own weight. (3.) That he fitted it for use,
   and for the service of man, to whom he designed to give it. He created
   it not in vain, merely to be a proof of his power; but he formed it to
   be inhabited by the children of men, and for that end he drew the
   waters off from it, with which it was at first covered, and made the
   dry land appear, Ps. civ. 6, 7. Be it observed here, to the honour of
   God's wisdom, that he made nothing in vain, but intended every thing
   for some end and fitted it to answer the intention. If any man prove to
   have been made in vain, it is his own fault. It should also be
   observed, to the honour of God's goodness and his favour to man, that
   he reckoned that not made in vain which serves for his use and benefit,
   to be a habitation and maintenance for him.

   2. It appears by the light of revelation. As the works of God
   abundantly prove that he is God alone, so does his word, and the
   discovery he has made of himself and of his mind and will by it. His
   oracles far exceed those of the Pagan deities, as well as his
   operations, v. 19. The preference is here placed in three things:--All
   that God has said is plain, satisfactory, and just. (1.) In the manner
   of the delivery of it it is plain and open: I have not spoken in
   secret, in a dark place of the earth. The Pagan deities delivered their
   oracles out of dens and caverns, with a low and hollow voice, and in
   ambiguous expressions; those that had familiar spirits whispered and
   muttered (ch. viii. 19); but God delivered his law from the top of
   Mount Sinai before all the thousands of Israel, in distinct, audible,
   and intelligible sounds. Wisdom cries in the chief places of concourse,
   Prov. i. 20, 21; viii. 1-3. The vision is written, and made plain, so
   that he who runs may read it; if he be obscure to any, they may thank
   themselves. Christ pleaded in his own defence what God says here, In
   secret have I said nothing, John xviii. 20. (2.) In the use and benefit
   of it it was highly satisfactory: I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
   who consulted these oracles and governed themselves by them, Seek you
   me in vain, as the false gods did to their worshippers, who sought for
   the living to the dead, ch. viii. 19. This includes all the gracious
   answers that God gave both to those who consulted him (his word is to
   them a faithful guide) and to those that prayed to him. The seed of
   Jacob are a praying people; it is the generation of those that seek
   him, Ps. xxiv. 6. And, as he has in his word invited them to seek him,
   so he never denied their believing prayers nor disappointed their
   believing expectations. He said not to them, to any of them, Seek you
   me in vain; for, if he did not think fit to give them the particular
   thing they prayed for, yet he gave them such a sufficiency of grace and
   such comfort and satisfaction of soul as were equivalent. What we say
   of winter is true of prayer, It never rots in the skies. God not only
   gives a gracious answer to those that diligently seek him, but will be
   their bountiful rewarder. (3.) In the matter of it it was incontestably
   just, and there was no iniquity in it: I the Lord speak righteousness,
   I declare things that are right, and consonant to the eternal rules and
   reasons of good and evil. The heathen deities dictated those things to
   their worshippers which were the reproach of human nature and tended to
   the extirpation of virtue; but God speaks righteousness, dictates that
   which is right in itself and tends to make men righteous; and therefore
   he is God, and there is none else.

The Folly of Idolatry; Salvation in Christ. (b. c. 708.)

   20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are
   escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of
   their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.   21 Tell ye,
   and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath
   declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have
   not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a
   Saviour; there is none beside me.   22 Look unto me, and be ye saved,
   all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.   23 I
   have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in
   righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow,
   every tongue shall swear.   24 Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have
   I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that
   are incensed against him shall be ashamed.   25 In the Lord shall all
   the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

   What here is said is intended, as before,

   I. For the conviction of idolators, to show them their folly in
   worshipping gods that cannot help them, and neglecting a God that can.
   Let all that have escaped of the nations, not only the people of the
   Jews, but those of other nations that were by Cyrus released out of
   captivity in Babylon, let them come, and hear what is to be said
   against the worshipping of idols, that they may be cured of it as well
   as the Jews, that Babylon, which had of old been the womb of idolatry,
   might now become the grave of it. Let the refugees assemble themselves
   and come together; God has something to say to them for their own good,
   and it is this, that idolatry is a foolish sottish thing, upon two
   accounts:--

   1. It is setting up a refuge of lies for themselves: They set up the
   wood of their graven image; for that is the substratum. Though they
   overlay it with gold, deck it with ornaments, and make a god of it, yet
   still it is but wood. They pray to a god that cannot save; for he
   cannot hear, he cannot help, he can do nothing. How do those disparage
   themselves who give honour to that as a god which cannot, as a god,
   give good to them! How do those deceive themselves who pray for relief
   to that which is in no capacity at all to relieve them! Certainly those
   have no knowledge, or are brutish in their knowledge, who take so much
   pains, and do so much penance, in seeking the favour of a god that has
   no power.

   2. It is setting up a rival with God, the only living and true God (v.
   21): "Summon them all; tell them that the great cause shall again be
   tried, though once adjudged, between God and Baal. Bring them near, and
   let them take counsel together what to say in defence of themselves and
   their idols. It shall, as before, be put upon this issue: let them show
   when any of their gods did with any certainty foretel future events, as
   the God of Israel has done, and it shall be acknowledged that they have
   some colour for their pretensions. But None of them ever did; their
   prophets were lying prophets; but I the Lord have told it from that
   time, long before it came to pass; therefore you must own there is no
   other God besides me." (1.) None besides is fit to rule. He is a just
   God, and rules in justice, and will execute justice for those that are
   oppressed. (2.) None besides is able to help. As he is a just God, so
   he is the Saviour, who can save without the assistance of any, but
   without whom none can save. Those therefore have no sense of truth and
   falsehood, good and evil, no, nor of their own interest, that set up
   any in competition with him.

   II. For the comfort and encouragement of all God's faithful
   worshippers, whoever they are, v. 22. Those that worship idols pray to
   gods that cannot save; but the God of Israel says it to all the ends of
   the earth, to his people, though they are scattered into the utmost
   corners of the world and seem to be lost and forgotten in their
   dispersion, "Let them but look to me by faith and prayer, look above
   instruments and second causes, look off from all pretenders, and look
   up to me, and they shall be saved." It seems to refer further to the
   conversion of the Gentiles that live in the ends of the earth, the most
   distant nations, when the standard of the gospel is set up. To it shall
   the Gentiles seek. When Christ is lifted up from the earth, as the
   brazen serpent upon the pole, he shall draw the eyes of all men to him.
   They shall all be invited to look unto him, as the stung Israelites did
   to the brazen serpent; and so strong is the eye of faith that by divine
   grace it will reach the Saviour and fetch in salvation by him even from
   the ends of the earth; for he is God, and there is none else. Two
   things are here promised, for the abundant satisfaction of all that by
   faith look to the Saviour:--

   1. That the glory of the God they serve shall be greatly advanced; and
   this will be good news to all the Lord's people, that, how much soever
   they and their names are depressed, God will be exalted, v. 23. This is
   confirmed by an oath, that we might have strong consolation: I have
   sworn by myself (and God can swear by no greater, Heb. vi. 13); the
   word has gone out of my mouth, and shall neither be recalled nor return
   empty; it has gone forth in righteousness, for it is the most
   reasonable equitable thing in the world that he who made all should be
   Lord of all, that, since all beings are derived from him, they should
   all be devoted to him. He has said it, and it shall be made good, I
   will be exalted, Ps. xlvi. 10. He has assured us, (1.) That he will be
   universally submitted to, that the kingdoms of the world shall become
   his kingdom. They shall do him homage--Unto me every knee shall bow;
   and they shall bind themselves by an oath of allegiance to him--Unto me
   every tongue shall swear. This is applied to the dominion of our Lord
   Jesus, Rom. xiv. 10, 11. We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of
   Christ and give account to him, for it is written, As I live, saith the
   Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God;
   and it seems to be referred to, Ps. ii. 9, 10. If the heart be brought
   into obedience to Christ, and made willing in the day of his power, the
   knee will bow to him in humble adorations and addresses, and in
   cheerful obedience to his commands, submission to his disposals, and
   compliance with his will in both; and the tongue will swear to him,
   will lay a bond upon the soul to engage it for ever to him; for he that
   bears an honest mind never startles at assurances. (2.) That he will be
   universally sought unto, and application shall be made to him from all
   parts of the world: Unto him shall men of distant countries come, to
   implore his favour. Unto thee shall all flesh come with their request,
   Ps. lxv. 2. And, when Christ was lifted up from the earth, he drew all
   men to him. (3.) That it will be to no purpose to make opposition to
   him. All that are incensed against him, that rage at his bonds and
   cords--the nations that are angry because he has taken to himself his
   great power and has reigned, that have been incensed at the strictness
   of his laws, the success of his gospel, and the spiritual nature of his
   kingdom--they shall be ashamed; some shall be brought to a penitential
   shame for it, others to a remediless ruin. One way or other, sooner or
   later, all that are uneasy at Christ's government and victories will be
   made ashamed of their folly and obstinacy. Blessed be God for the
   assurance here given us that, whatever becomes of us and our interests,
   the Lord will reign for ever!

   2. That the welfare of the souls they are concerned for shall be
   effectually secured: Surely shall one say, and another shall learn by
   his example to say the same, so that all the seed of Israel, according
   to the Spirit, shall say, and stand to it, (1.) That God has a
   sufficiency for them and that in Christ there is enough to supply all
   their needs: In the Lord is all righteousness and strength (so the
   margin reads it); he is himself righteous and strong. He can do every
   thing, and yet will do nothing but what is unquestionably just and
   equitable. He has also wherewithal to supply the needs of those that
   seek to him and depend upon him, upon the equity of his providence and
   the treasures of his grace; nay, we may say, not only "He has it," but,
   "In him we have it," because he has said that he will be to us a God.
   In the Lord the captive Jews had righteousness (that is, grace both to
   sanctify their afflictions to them and to qualify them for deliverance)
   and strength for their support and escape. In the Lord Jesus we have
   righteousness to recommend us to the good-will of God towards us, and
   strength to begin and carry on the good work of God in us. He is the
   fountain of both, and on him we must depend for both, must go forth in
   his strength, and make mention of his righteousness, Ps. lxxi. 16. (2.)
   That they shall have an abundant bliss and satisfaction in this. [1.]
   The people of the Jews shall in the Lord be justified before men and
   openly glory in their God. The oppressors reproached them, loaded them
   with calumny, and boasted even of a right to oppress them, as abandoned
   by their God; but, when God shall work out their deliverance, that
   shall be their justification from these hard censures, and therefore
   they shall glory in it. [2.] All true Christians, that depend upon
   Christ for strength and righteousness, in him shall be justified and
   shall glory in that. Observe, First, All believers are the seed of
   Israel, an upright praying seed. Secondly, The great privilege they
   enjoy by Jesus Christ is that in him, and for his sake, they are
   justified before God, Christ being made of God to them righteousness.
   All that are justified will own it is in Christ that they are
   justified, nor could they be justified by any other; and those who are
   justified shall be glorified. And therefore, Thirdly, The great duty
   believers owe to Christ is to glory in him, and to make their boast of
   him. Therefore he is made all in all to us, that whose glories may
   glory in the Lord; and let us comply with this intention.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLVI.

   God, by the prophet here, designing shortly to deliver them out of
   their captivity, prepared them for that deliverance by possessing them
   with a detestation of idols and with a believing confidence in God,
   even their own God. I. Let them not be afraid of the idols of Babylon,
   as if they could in any way obstruct their deliverance, for they should
   be defaced (ver. 1, 2); but let them trust in that God who had often
   delivered them to do it still, to do it now, ver. 3, 4. II. Let them
   not think to make idols of their own, images of the God of Israel, by
   them to worship him, as the Babylonians worship their gods, ver. 5-7.
   Let them not be so sottish (ver. 8), but have an eye to God in his
   word, not in an image; let them depend upon that, and upon the promises
   and predictions of it, and God's power to accomplish them all, ver.
   9-11. And let them know that the unbelief of man shall not make the
   word of God of no effect, ver. 12, 13.

The Folly of Idolatry. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and
   upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to
   the weary beast.   2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not
   deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.   3 Hearken
   unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
   which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:
     4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I
   carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will
   deliver you.

   We are here told,

   I. That the false gods will certainly fail their worshippers when they
   have most need of them, v. 1, 2. Bel and Nebo were two celebrated idols
   of Babylon. Some make Bel to be a contraction of Baal; others rather
   think not, but that it was Belus, one of their first kings, who after
   his death was deified. As Bel was a deified prince, so (some think)
   Nebo was a deified prophet, for so Nebo signifies; so that Bel and Nebo
   were their Jupiter and their Mercury or Apollo. Barnabas and Paul
   passed at Lystra for Jupiter and Mercury. The names of these idols were
   taken into the names of their princes, Bel into Belshazzar's, Nebo into
   Nebuchadnezzar's and Nebuzaradan's, &c. These gods they had long
   worshipped, and in their revels praised them for their successes (as
   appears, Dan. v. 4); and they insulted over Israel as if Bel and Nebo
   were too hard for Jehovah and could detain them in captivity in
   defiance of their God. Now, that this might be no discouragement to the
   poor captives, God here tells them what shall become of these idols,
   which they threaten them with. When Cyrus takes Babylon, down go the
   idols. It was usual then with conquerors to destroy the gods of the
   places and people they conquered, and to put the gods of their own
   nation in the room of them, ch. xxxvii. 19. Cyrus will do so; and then
   Bel and Nebo, that were set up on high, and looked great, bold, and
   erect, shall stoop and bow down at the feet of the soldiers that
   plunder their temples. And because there is a great deal of gold and
   silver upon them, which was intended to adorn them, but serves to
   expose them, they carry them away with the rest of the spoil. The
   carriers' horses, or mules, are laden with them and their other idols,
   to be sent among other lumber (for so it seems they accounted them
   rather than treasure) into Persia. So far are they from being able to
   support their worshippers that they are themselves a heavy load in the
   wagons, and a burden to the weary beast. The idols cannot help one
   another (v. 2): They stoop, they bow down together. They are all alike,
   tottering things, and their day has come to fall. Their worshippers
   cannot help them: They could not deliver the burden out of the enemy's
   hand, but themselves (both the idols and the idolaters) have gone into
   captivity. Let not therefore God's people be afraid of either. When
   God's ark was taken prisoner by the Philistines it proved a burden, not
   to the beasts, but to the conquerors, who were forced to return it;
   but, when Bel and Nebo have gone into captivity, their worshippers may
   even give their good word with them: they will never recover
   themselves.

   II. That the true God will never fail his worshippers: "You hear what
   has become of Bel and Nebo, now hearken to me, O house of Jacob! v. 3,
   4. Am I such a god as these? No; though you are brought low, and the
   house of Israel is but a remnant, your God has been, is, and ever will
   be, your powerful and faithful protector."

   1. Let God's Israel do him the justice to own that he has hitherto been
   kind to them, careful of them, tender over them, and has all along done
   well for them. Let them own, (1.) That he bore them at first: I have
   made. Out of what womb came they, but that of his mercy, and grace, and
   promise? He formed them into a people and gave them their constitution.
   Every good man is what God makes him. (2.) That he bore them up all
   along: You have been borne by me from the belly, and carried from the
   womb. God began betimes to do them good, as soon as ever they were
   formed into a nation, nay, when as yet they were very few, and
   strangers. God took them under a special protection, and suffered no
   man to do them wrong, Ps. cv. 12-14. In the infancy of their state,
   when they were not only foolish and helpless, as children, but forward
   and peevish, God carried them in the arms of his power and love, bore
   them as upon eagles' wings, Exod. xix. 4; Deut. xxxii. 11. Moses had
   not patience to carry them as the nursing father does the sucking child
   (Num. xi. 12), but God bore them, and bore their manners, Acts xiii.
   18. And as God began early to do them good (when Israel was a child,
   then I loved him), so he had constantly continued to do them good: he
   had carried them from the womb to this day. And we may all witness for
   God that he has been thus gracious to us. We have been borne by him
   from the belly, from the womb, else we should have died from the womb
   and given up the ghost when we came out of the belly. We have been the
   constant care of his kind providence, carried in the arms of his power
   and in the bosom of his love and pity. The new man is so; all that in
   us which is born of God is borne up by him, else it would soon fail.
   Our spiritual life is sustained by his grace as necessarily and
   constantly as our natural life by his providence. The saints have
   acknowledged that God has carried them from the womb, and have
   encouraged themselves with the consideration of it in their greatest
   straits, Ps. xxii. 9, 10; lxxi. 5, 6, 17.

   2. He will then do them the kindness to promise that he will never
   leave them. He that was their first will be their last; he that was the
   author will be the finisher of their well-being (v. 4): "You have been
   borne by me from the belly, nursed when you were children; and even to
   your old age I am he, when, by reason of your decays and infirmities,
   you will need help as much as in your infancy." Israel were now growing
   old, so was their covenant by which they were incorporated, Heb. viii.
   13. Gray hairs were here and there upon them, Hos. vii. 9. And they had
   hastened their old age, and the calamities of it, by their
   irregularities. But God will not cast them off now, will not fail them
   when their strength fails; he is still their God, will still carry them
   in the same everlasting arms that were laid under them in Moses's time,
   Deut. xxxiii. 27. He has made them and owns his interest in them, and
   therefore he will bear them, will bear with their infirmities, and bear
   them up under their afflictions: "Even I will carry and will deliver
   them; I will now bear them upon eagles' wings out of Babylon, as in
   their infancy I bore them out of Egypt." This promise to aged Israel is
   applicable to every aged Israelite. God has graciously engaged to
   support and comfort his faithful servants, even in their old age: "Even
   to your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when you are
   compassed with infirmities, and perhaps your relations begin to grow
   weary of you, yet I am he--he that I am, he that I have been--the very
   same by whom you have been borne from the belly and carried from the
   womb. You change, but I am the same. I am he that I have promised to
   be, he that you have found me, and he that you would have me to be. I
   will carry you, I will bear, will bear you up and bear you out, and
   will carry you on in your way and carry you home at last."

The Folly of Idolatry; The Divine Prerogative Asserted. (b. c. 708.)

   5 To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we
   may be like?   6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in
   the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall
   down, yea, they worship.   7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they
   carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place
   shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not
   answer, nor save him out of his trouble.   8 Remember this, and show
   yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.   9
   Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none
   else; I am God, and there is none like me,   10 Declaring the end from
   the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
   saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:   11
   Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my
   counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it
   to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.   12 Hearken unto me,
   ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:   13 I bring near my
   righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not
   tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

   The deliverance of Israel by the destruction of Babylon (the general
   subject of all these chapters) is here insisted upon, and again
   promised, for the conviction both of idolaters who set up as rivals
   with God, and of oppressors who were enemies to the people of God.

   I. For the conviction of those who made and worshipped idols,
   especially those of Israel who did so, who would have images of their
   God, as the Babylonians had of theirs,

   1. He challenges them either to frame an image that should be thought a
   resemblance of him or to set up any being that should stand in
   competition with him (v. 5): To whom will you liken me? It is absurd to
   think of representing an infinite and eternal Spirit by the figure of
   any creature whatsoever. It is to change his truth into a lie and to
   turn his glory into shame. None ever saw any similitude of him, nor can
   see his face and live. To whom then can we liken God? ch. xl. 18, 25.
   It is likewise absurd to think of making any creature equal with the
   Creator, who is infinitely above the noblest creatures, yea, or to make
   any comparison between the creature and the Creator, since between
   infinite and finite there is no proportion.

   2. He exposes the folly of those who made idols and then prayed to
   them, v. 6, 7. (1.) They were at great charge upon their idols and
   spared no cost to fit them for their purpose: They lavish gold out of
   the bag; no little will serve, and they do not care how much goes,
   though they pinch their families and weaken their estates by it. How
   does the profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who
   call themselves God's servants but are for a religion that will cost
   them nothing! Some lavish gold out of the bag to make an idol of it in
   the house, while others hoard up gold in the bag to make an idol of it
   in the heart; for covetousness is idolatry, as dangerous, though not as
   scandalous, as the other. They weigh silver in the balance, either to
   be the matter of their idol (for even those that were most sottish had
   so much sense as to think that God should be served with the best they
   had, the best they could possibly afford; those that represented him by
   a calf made it a golden one) or to pay the workmen's wages. The service
   of sin often proves very expensive. (2.) They were in great care about
   their idols and took no little pains about them (v. 7): They bear him
   upon their own shoulders, and do not hire porters to do it; they carry
   him, and set him in his place, more like a dead corpse than a living
   God. They set him on a pedestal, and he stands. They take a great deal
   of pains to fasten him, and from his place he shall not remove, that
   they may know where to find him, though at the same time they know he
   can neither move a hand nor stir a step to do them any kindness. (3.)
   After all, they paid great respect to their idols, though they were but
   the works of their own hands and the creatures of their own fancies.
   When the goldsmith has made it that which they please to call a god
   they fall down, yea, they worship it. If they magnified themselves too
   much in pretending to make a god, as if they would atone for that, they
   vilified themselves as much in prostrating themselves to a god that
   they knew the original of. And, if they were deceived by the custom of
   their country in making such gods as these, they did no less deceive
   themselves when they cried unto them, though they knew they could not
   answer them, could not understand what they said to them, nor so much
   as reply Yea, or No, much less could they save them out of their
   trouble. Now shall any that have some knowledge of, and interest in,
   the true and living God, thus make fools of themselves?

   3. He puts it to themselves, and their own reason, let that judge in
   the case (v. 8): "Remember this, that has been often told you, what
   senseless helpless things idols are, and show yourselves men--men and
   not brutes, men and not babes. Act with reason; act with resolution;
   act for your own interest. Do a wise thing; do a brave thing; and scorn
   to disparage your own judgment as you do when you worship idols." Note,
   Sinners would become saints if they would but show themselves men, if
   they would but support the dignity of their nature and use aright its
   powers and capacities. "Many things you have been reminded of; bring
   them again to mind, recall them into you memories, and revolve them
   there. O! you transgressors, consider your ways; remember whence you
   have fallen, and repent, and so recover yourselves."

   4. He again produces incontestable proofs that he is God, that he and
   none besides is so (v. 9): I am God, and there is none like me. This is
   that which we have need to be reminded of again and again; for proof of
   it he refers, (1.) To the sacred history: "Remember the former things
   of old, what the God of Israel did for his people in their beginnings,
   whether he did not that for them which no one else could, and which the
   false gods did not, nor could do, for their worshippers. Remember those
   things, and you will own that I am God and there is none else." This is
   a good reason why we should give glory to him as a nonsuch, and why we
   should not give that glory to any other which is due to him alone,
   Exod. xv. 11. (2.) To the sacred prophecy. He is God alone, for it is
   he only that declares the end from the beginning, v. 10. From the
   beginning of time he declared the end of time, and end of all things.
   Enoch prophesied, Behold, the Lord comes. From the beginning of a
   nation he declares what the end of it will be. He told Israel what
   should befal them in the latter days, what their end should be, and
   wished they were so wise as to consider it, Deut. xxxii. 20, 29. From
   the beginning of an event he declares what the end of it will be. Known
   unto God are all his works, and, when he pleases, he makes them known.
   Further than prophecy guides us it is impossible for us to find out the
   work that God makes from the beginning to the end, Eccl. iii. 11. He
   declares from ancient times the things that are not yet done. Many
   scripture prophecies which were delivered long ago are not yet
   accomplished; but the accomplishment of some in the mean time is an
   earnest of the accomplishment of the rest in due time. By this it
   appears that he is God, and none else; it is he, and none besides, that
   can say, and make his words good, "My counsel shall stand, and all the
   powers of hell and earth cannot control or disannul it nor all their
   policies correct or countermine it." As God's operations are all
   according to his counsels, so his counsels shall all be fulfilled in
   his operations, and none of his measures shall be broken, none of his
   designs shall miscarry. This yields abundant satisfaction to those who
   have bound up all their comforts in God's counsels, that his counsel
   shall undoubtedly stand; and, if we are brought to this, that whatever
   pleases God pleases us, nothing can contribute more to make us easy
   than to be assured of this, that God will do all his pleasure, Ps.
   cxxxv. 6. The accomplishment of this particular prophecy, which relates
   to the elevation of Cyrus and his agency in the deliverance of God's
   people out of their captivity, is mentioned for the confirmation of
   this truth, that the Lord is God and there is none else; and this is a
   thing which shall shortly come to pass, v. 11. God by his counsel calls
   a ravenous bird from the east, a bird of prey, Cyrus, who (they say)
   had a nose like the beak of a hawk or eagle, to which some think this
   alludes, or (as others say) to the eagle which was his standard, as it
   was afterwards that of the Romans, to which there is supposed to be a
   reference, Matt. xxiv. 28. Cyrus came from the east at God's call: for
   God is Lord of hosts and of those that have hosts at command. And, if
   God give him a call, he will give him success. He is the man that shall
   execute God's counsel, though he comes from a far country and knows
   nothing of the matter. Note, Even those that know not, and mind not,
   God's revealed will, are made use of to fulfil the counsels of his
   secret will, which shall all be punctually accomplished in their season
   by what hand he pleases. That which is here added, to ratify this
   particular prediction, may abundantly show to the heirs of promise the
   immutability of his counsel: "I have spoken of it by my servants the
   prophets, and what I have spoken is just the same with what I have
   purposed." For, though God has many things in his purposes which are
   not in his prophecies, he has nothing in his prophecies but what are in
   his purposes. And he will do it, for he will never change his mind; he
   will bring it to pass, for it is not in the power of any creature to
   control him. Observe with what majesty he says it, as one having
   authority: I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. Dictum,
   factum--no sooner said than done. I have purposed it, and he does not
   say, "I will take care it shall be done," but, "I will do it." Heaven
   and earth shall pass away sooner than one tittle of the word of God.

   II. For the conviction of those that daringly opposed the counsels of
   God assurance is here given not only that they shall be accomplished,
   but that they shall be accomplished very shortly, v. 12, 13.

   1. This is addressed to the stout-hearted, that is, either, (1.) The
   proud and obstinate Babylonians, that are far from righteousness, far
   from doing justice or showing mercy to those they have power over, that
   say they will never let the oppressed go free, but will still detain
   them in spite of their petitions or God's predictions, that are far
   from any thing of clemency or compassion to the miserable. Or, (2.) The
   unhumbled Jews, that have been long under the hammer, long in the
   furnace, but are not broken are not melted, that, like the unbelieving
   murmuring Israelites in the wilderness, think themselves far from God's
   righteousness (that is, from the performance of his promise, and his
   appearing to judge for them), and by their distrusts set themselves at
   a yet further distance from it, and keep good things from themselves,
   as their fathers, who could not enter into the land of promise because
   of unbelief. This is applicable to the Jewish nation when they rejected
   the gospel of Christ; though they followed after the law of
   righteousness, they attained not to righteousness, because they sought
   it not by faith, Rom. ix. 31, 32. They perished far from righteousness;
   and it was because they were stout-hearted, Rom. x. 3.

   2. Now to them God says that, whatever they think, the one in
   presumption, the other in despair, (1.) Salvation shall be certainly
   wrought for God's people. If men will not do them justice, God will,
   and his righteousness shall effect that for them which men's
   righteousness would not reach to. He will place salvation in Zion, that
   is, he will make Jerusalem a place of safety and defence to all those
   who will plant themselves there; thence shall salvation go forth for
   Israel his glory. God glories in his Israel; and he will be glorified
   in the salvation he designs to work out for them; it shall redound
   greatly to his honour. This salvation shall be in Zion; for thence the
   gospel shall take rise (ch. ii. 3), thither the Redeemer comes (ch.
   lix. 20, Rom. xi. 26), and it is Zion's King that has salvation, Zech.
   ix. 9. (2.) It shall be very shortly wrought. This is especially
   insisted on with those who thought it at a distance: "I bring near my
   righteousness, nearer than you think of; perhaps it is nearest of all
   when your straits are greatest and your enemies most injurious; it
   shall not be far off when there is occasion for it, Ps. lxxxv. 9.
   Behold, the Judge stands before the door. My salvation shall not tarry
   any longer than till it is ripe and you are ready for it; and
   therefore, though it tarry, wait for it; wait patiently, for he that
   shall come will come, and will not tarry."
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I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLVII.

   Infinite Wisdom could have ordered things so that Israel might have
   been released and yet Babylon unhurt; but if they will harden their
   hearts, and will not let the people go, they must thank themselves that
   their ruin is made to pave the way to Israel's release. That ruin is
   here, in this chapter, largely foretold, not to gratify a spirit of
   revenge in the people of God, who had been used barbarously by them,
   but to encourage their faith and hope concerning their own deliverance,
   and to be a type of the downfall of that great enemy of the
   New-Testament church which, in the Revelation, goes under the name of
   "Babylon." In this chapter we have, I. The greatness of the ruin
   threatened, that Babylon should be brought down to the dust, and made
   completely miserable, should fall from the height of prosperity into
   the depth of adversity, ver. 1-5. II. The sins that provoked God to
   bring this ruin upon them. 1. Their cruelty to the people of God, ver.
   6. 2. Their pride and carnal security, ver. 7-9. 3. Their confidence in
   themselves and contempt of God, ver. 10. 4. Their use of magic arts and
   their dependence upon enchantments and sorceries, which should be so
   far from standing them in any stead that they should but hasten their
   ruin, ver. 11-15.

Babylon Threatened. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on
   the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou
   shalt no more be called tender and delicate.   2 Take the millstones,
   and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the
   thigh, pass over the rivers.   3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea,
   thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet
   thee as a man.   4 As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name,
   the Holy One of Israel.   5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into
   darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be
   called, The lady of kingdoms.   6 I was wroth with my people, I have
   polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst
   show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy
   yoke.

   In these verses God by the prophet sends a messenger even to Babylon,
   like that of Jonah to Nineveh: "The time is at hand when Babylon shall
   be destroyed." Fair warning is thus given her, that she may by
   repentance prevent the ruin and there may be a lengthening of her
   tranquility. We may observe here,

   I. God's controversy with Babylon. We will begin with that, for there
   all the calamity begins; she has made God her enemy, and then who can
   befriend her: Let her know that the righteous Judge, to whom vengeance
   belongs, has said (v. 3), I will take vengeance. She has provoked God,
   and shall be reckoned with for it when the measure of her iniquities is
   full. Woe to those on whom God comes to take vengeance; for who knows
   the power of his anger and what a fearful thing it is to fall into his
   hands? Were it a man like ourselves who would be revenged on us, we
   might hope to be a match for him, either to make our escape from him or
   to make our part good with him. But he says, "I will not meet thee as a
   man, not with the compassions of a man, but I will be to the as a lion,
   and a young lion" (Hos. v. 14); or, rather, not with the strength of a
   man, which is easily resisted, but with the power of a God, which
   cannot be resisted. Not with the justice of a man, which may be bribed,
   or biassed, or mollified by a foolish pity, but with the justice of a
   God, which is strict and severe, and can never be evaded. As in
   pardoning the penitent, so in punishing the impenitent, he is God and
   not man, Hos. xi. 9.

   II. The particular ground of this controversy. We are sure that there
   is cause for it, and it is a just cause; it is the vengeance of his
   temple (Jer. l. 28); it is for violence done to Zion, Jer. li. 35. God
   will plead his people's cause against them. It is acknowledged (v. 6)
   that God had, in wrath, delivered his people into the hands of the
   Babylonians, had made use of them for the correction of his children,
   and had by their means polluted his inheritance, had left his peculiar
   people exposed to suffer in common with the rest of the nations, had
   suffered the heathen, who should have been kept at a distance, to come
   into his sanctuary and defile his temple, Ps. lxxix. 1. Herein God was
   righteous; but the Babylonians carried the matter too far, and, when
   they had them in their hands (triumphing to see a people that had been
   so much in reputation for wisdom, holiness, and honour, brought thus
   low), with a base and servile spirit they trampled upon them, and
   showed them no mercy, no, not the common instances of humanity which
   the miserable are entitled to purely by their misery. They used them
   barbarously, and with an air of contempt, nay, and of complacency in
   their calamities. They were brought under the yoke; but, as if that
   were not enough, they laid the yoke on very heavily, adding affliction
   to the afflicted. Nay, they laid it on the ancient--the elders in
   years, who were past their labour, and must sink under a yoke which
   those in their youthful strength would easily bear--the elders in
   office, those that had been judges and magistrates, and persons of the
   first rank. They took a pride in putting these to the meanest hardest
   drudgery. Jeremiah laments this, that the faces of elders were not
   honoured, Lam. v. 12. Nothing brings a surer or a sorer ruin upon any
   people than cruelty, especially to God's Israel.

   III. The terror of this controversy. She has reason to tremble when she
   is told who it is that has this quarrel with her (v. 4): "As for our
   Redeemer, our Goël, that undertakes to plead our cause as the avenger
   of our blood, he has two names which speak not only comfort to us, but
   terror to our adversaries." 1. "He is the Lord of hosts, that has all
   the creatures at his command, and therefore has all power both in
   heaven and in earth." Woe to those against whom the Lord fights, for
   the whole creation is at war with them. 2. "He is the Holy One of
   Israel, a God in covenant with us, who has his residence among us, and
   will faithfully perform all the promises he has made to us." God's
   power and holiness are engaged against Babylon and for Zion. This may
   fitly be applied to Christ, our great Redeemer. He is both Lord of
   hosts and the Holy One of Israel.

   IV. The consequences of it to Babylon. She is called a virgin, because
   so she thought herself, though she was the mother of harlots. She was
   beautiful as a virgin, and courted by all about her; she had been
   called tender and delicate (v. 1), and the lady of kingdoms (v. 5); but
   now the case is altered. 1. Her honour is gone, and she must bid
   farewell to all her dignity. She that had sat at the upper end of the
   world, sat in state and sat at ease, must now come down and sit in the
   dust, as very mean and a deep mourner, must sit on the ground, for she
   shall be so emptied and impoverished that she shall not have a seat
   left her to sit upon. 2. Her power is gone, and she must bid farewell
   to all her dominion. She shall rule no more as she has done, nor give
   law as she has done to her neighbours: There is no throne, none for
   thee, O daughter of the Chaldeans! Note, Those that abuse their honour
   or power provoke God to deprive them of it, and to make them come down
   and sit in the dust. 3. Her ease and pleasure are gone: "She shall no
   more be called tender and delicate as she has been, for she shall not
   only be deprived of all those things with which she pampered herself,
   but shall be put to hard service and made to feel both want and pain,
   which will be more than doubly grievous to her who formerly would not
   venture to set so much as the sole of her foot to the ground for
   tenderness and for delicacy," Deut. xxviii. 56. It is our wisdom not to
   use ourselves to be tender and delicate, because we know not how hardly
   others may use us before we die not what straits we may be reduced to.
   4. Her liberty is gone, and she is brought into a state of servitude
   and as sore a bondage as she in her prosperity had brought others to.
   Even the great men of Babylon must now receive the same law from the
   conquerors that they used to give to the conquered: "Take the
   mill-stones and grind meal (v. 2), set to work, to hard labour" (like
   beating hemp in Bridewell), "which will make thee sweat so that thou
   must throw off all thy head-dresses, and uncover thy locks." When they
   were driven from one place to another, at the capricious humours of
   their masters, they must be forced to wade up to the middle through the
   waters, to make bare the leg and uncover the thigh, that they might
   pass over the rivers, which would be a great mortification to those
   that used to ride in state. But let them not complain, for just thus
   they had formerly used their captives; and with what measure they then
   meted it is now measured to them again. Let those that have power use
   it with temper and moderation, considering that the spoke which is
   uppermost will be under. 5. All her glory, and all her glorying, are
   gone. Instead of glory, she has ignominy (v. 3): Thy nakedness shall be
   uncovered and thy shame shall be seen, according to the base and
   barbarous usage they commonly gave their captives, to whom, for
   covetousness of their clothes, they did not leave rags sufficient to
   cover their nakedness, so void were they of the modesty as well as of
   the pity due to the human nature. Instead of glorying she sits
   silently, and gets into darkness (v. 5), ashamed to show her face, for
   she has quite lost her credit and shall no more be called the lady of
   kingdoms. Note, God can make those sit silently that used to make the
   greatest noise in the world, and send those into darkness that used to
   make the greatest figure. Let him that glories, therefore, glory in a
   God that changes not, and not in any worldly wealth, pleasure, or
   honour, which are subject to change.

Babylon Threatened. (b. c. 708.)

   7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not
   lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of
   it.   8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that
   dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else
   beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of
   children:   9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in
   one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee
   in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the
   great abundance of thine enchantments.   10 For thou hast trusted in
   thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy
   knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I
   am, and none else beside me.   11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee;
   thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon
   thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come
   upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.   12 Stand now with
   thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein
   thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to
   profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.   13 Thou art wearied in the
   multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the
   monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that
   shall come upon thee.   14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire
   shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of
   the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before
   it.   15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured,
   even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his
   quarter; none shall save thee.

   Babylon, now doomed to ruin, is here justly upbraided with her pride,
   luxury, and security, in the day of her prosperity, and the confidence
   she had in her own wisdom and forecast, and particularly in the
   prognostications and counsels of the astrologers. These things are
   mentioned both to justify God in bringing these judgments upon her and
   to mortify her, and put her to so much the greater shame, under these
   judgments; for, when God comes forth to take vengeance, glory belongs
   to him, but confusion to the sinner.

   I. The Babylonians are here upbraided with their pride and haughtiness,
   and the great conceit they had of themselves, because of their wealth
   and power, and the vast extent of their dominion; it was the language
   both of the government and of the body of the people: Thou sayest in
   thy heart (and God, who searches all hearts, can tell men what they say
   there, though they never speak it out) I am, and none else besides me,
   v. 8, 10. The repetition of this part of the charge intimates that they
   said it often, and that it was very offensive to God. It is the very
   word that God has often said concerning himself, I am, and none else
   besides me, denoting his self-existence, his infinite and incomparable
   perfections, and his sole supremacy. All this Babylon pretends to; and
   no wonder if she that assumed a power to make what gods and goddesses
   she pleased for the people to worship made herself one among the rest.
   It is presumption to say of any creature, "It is, and there is not its
   like, there is none besides it" (for creatures stand very nearly upon a
   level with one another); but it is insufferable arrogance for any to
   say so of themselves, and an evidence of their self-ignorance.

   II. They are upbraided with their luxury and love of ease (v. 8): "Thou
   that art given to pleasures, art a slave to them, art in them as in thy
   element, and, that thou mayest enjoy them without disturbance or
   interruption, dwellest carelessly and layest nothing to heart." Great
   wealth and plenty are great temptations to sensuality, and, where there
   is fulness of bread, there is commonly abundance of idleness. But if
   those that are given to pleasures, and dwell carelessly, would but hear
   this, that for all these things God will bring them into judgment, it
   would be a damp to their mirth, an allay to their pleasure, and would
   find them something to be in care about.

   III. They are upbraided with their carnal security and their vain
   confidence of the perpetuity of their pomps and pleasures. This is much
   insisted on here. Observe,

   1. The cause of their security. They thought themselves safe and out of
   danger, not because they were ignorant of the uncertainty of all
   earthly enjoyments and the inevitable fate that attends states and
   kingdoms as well as particular persons, but because they did not lay
   this to heart, did not apply it to themselves, nor give it a due
   consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in ease and pleasure, and
   dreamt of nothing else but that to-morrow should be as this day, and
   much more abundant. They did not remember the latter end of it--the
   latter end of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower, and will
   wither--the latter end of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness,
   that the day will come when their injustice and oppression must be
   reckoned for and punished. She did not remember her latter end (so some
   read it); she forgot that her day would come to fall and what would be
   in the end hereof. It was the ruin of Jerusalem (Lam. i. 9) that she
   remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully; and
   it was Babylon's ruin too. The children of men are easy, and think
   themselves safe, in their sinful ways, only because they never think of
   death, and judgment, and their future state.

   2. The ground of their security. They trusted in their wickedness and
   in their wisdom, v. 10. (1.) Their power and wealth, which they had
   gotten by fraud and oppression, were their confidence: Thou hast
   trusted in thy wickedness, As Doeg. Ps. lii. 7. Many have so debauched
   their own consciences, and have got to such a pitch of daring
   wickedness, that they stick at nothing; and this they trust to carry
   them through those difficulties which embarrass men who make conscience
   of what they say and do. They doubt not but they shall be too hard for
   all their enemies, because they dare lie, and kill, and forswear
   themselves, and do any thing for their interest. Thus they trust in
   their wickedness to secure them, which is the only thing that will ruin
   them. (2.) Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, were
   their confidence. They thought they could outwit all mankind, and
   therefore might set all their enemies at defiance. But their wisdom and
   knowledge perverted them, and turned them out of the way, made them
   forget themselves, and the preparation necessary to be made for
   hereafter.

   3. The expressions of their security. Three things this proud and
   haughty monarchy said, in her security:-- (1.) "I shall be a lady for
   ever," v. 7. She looked upon the patent of her honour to be not merely
   during the pleasure of the sovereign Lord, the fountain of honour, or
   during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual to the present
   generation and their heirs and successors for ever. She was not only
   proud that she was a lady, but confident that she should be a lady for
   ever. Thus the New-Testament Babylon says, I sit as a queen, and shall
   see no sorrow, Rev. xviii. 7. Those ladies mistake themselves, and
   consider not their latter end, who think they shall be ladies for ever;
   for death will shortly lay their honour with them in the dust. Saints
   will be saints for ever, but lords and ladies will not be so for ever.
   (2.) "I shall not sit as a widow, in solitude and sorrow, shall never
   lose the power and wealth I am thus wedded to; the monarchy shall never
   want a monarch to espouse and protect it, and be a husband to the
   state; nor shall I know the loss of children," v. 8. She was as
   confident of the continuance of the numbers of her people as of the
   dignity of her prince, and had no fear of being either deposed or
   depopulated. Those that are in the height of prosperity are apt to
   fancy themselves out of the reach of adverse fate. (3.) "No one sees me
   when I do amiss, and therefore there will be none to call me to an
   account," v. 10. It is common for sinners to promise themselves
   impunity, because they promise themselves secrecy, in their wicked
   ways. They trust to their wicked arts and designs to stand them in
   stead, because they think they have carried them on so plausibly that
   none can discern the wickedness and deceit of them.

   4. The punishment of their security. It shall be their ruin; and it
   will be, (1.) A complete ruin, the ruin of all their comforts and
   confidences: "These two things shall come upon thee (the very two
   things that thou didst set at defiance), loss of children and
   widowhood, v. 9. Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so
   that thou shalt be no more a government, no more a nation." Note, God
   often brings upon secure sinners those very mischiefs which they least
   feared and thought themselves in least danger of. "They shall come upon
   thee in their perfection, with all their aggravating circumstances and
   without any thing to allay or mitigate them." Afflictions to God's
   children are not afflictions in perfection. Widowhood is not to them a
   calamity in perfection, for they have this to comfort themselves with,
   that their Maker is their husband; loss of children is not, for he is
   better to them than ten sons. But on his enemies they come in
   perfection. Widowhood and loss of children are either of them great
   griefs, but both together great indeed. Naomi thinks she may well be
   called Marah when she is left both of her sons and of her husband (Ruth
   i. 5); and yet on her these evils did not come in perfection, for she
   had two daughters-in-law left, that were comforts to her. But on
   Babylon they come in perfection; she has no comfort remaining. (2.) It
   will be a sudden and surprising ruin. The evil shall come in one day,
   nay, in a moment, which will make it much the more terrible, especially
   to those that were so very secure. "Evil shall come upon thee (v. 11)
   and thou shalt have neither time nor way to provide against it, or to
   prepare for it; for thou shalt not know whence it rises, and therefore
   shalt not know where to stand upon thy guard." Thou shalt not know the
   morning thereof; so the Hebrew phrase is. We know just when and where
   the day will break and the sun rise, but we know not what the day, when
   it comes, will bring forth, nor when or where trouble will arise;
   perhaps the storm may come from that point of the compass which we
   little thought of. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and knowledge (v.
   10), but with all her knowledge she cannot foresee, nor with all her
   wisdom prevent, the ruin threatened: "Desolation shall come upon thee
   suddenly, as a thief in the night, which thou shalt not know, that is,
   which thou little thoughtest of." Fair warning was indeed given them,
   by Isaiah and other prophets of the Lord, of this desolation; but they
   slighted that notice, and would give no credit to it, and therefore
   justly is it so ordered that they should have no other notice of it,
   but that partly through their own security, and partly through the
   swiftness and subtlety of the enemy, when it came it should be a
   perfect surprise to them. Those that slight the warnings of the written
   word, let them not expect any other premonitions. (3.) It will be an
   irresistible ruin, and such as they will have no fence against:
   "Mischief shall come upon thee so suddenly that thou shalt have no time
   to turn thee in, so strongly that thou shalt not be able to make head
   against it and to put it off and save thyself." There is no opposing
   the judgments of God when they come with commission. Babylon herself,
   with all her wealth, and power, and multitude, is not able to put off
   the mischief that comes.

   IV. They are upbraided with their divinations, their magical and
   astrological arts and sciences, which the Chaldeans, above any other
   nation, were notorious for, and from them other nations borrowed all
   their learning of that kind.

   1. This is here spoken of as one of their provoking sins, which would
   bring the judgments of God upon them, v. 9. "These evils shall come
   upon thee to punish thee for the multitude of thy sorceries, and the
   great abundance of thy enchantments." Witchcraft is a sin in its own
   nature exceedingly heinous; it is giving that honour to the devil which
   is due to God only, making God's enemy our guide and the father of lies
   our oracle. In Babylon it was a national sin, and had the protection
   and countenance of the government; conjurors, for aught that appears,
   were their privy counsellors and prime ministers of state. And shall
   not God visit for these things? Observe what a multitude, what a great
   abundance, of sorceries and enchantments there were among them. Such a
   bewitching sin this was that when it was once admitted it spread like
   wildfire, and they never knew any end of it; the deceived and the
   deceivers both increased strangely.

   2. It is here spoken of as one of their vain confidences, which they
   relied much upon, but should be deceived in, for it would not serve so
   much as to give them notice of the judgments coming, much less to guard
   against them. (1.) They are here upbraided with the mighty pains they
   had taken about their sorceries and enchantments: Thou hast laboured in
   them from thy youth, v. 12. They trained up their young men in these
   studies, and those that applied themselves to them were indefatigable
   in their labours about them--reading books, making observations, trying
   experiments. Well, let them stand up now with their enchantments, and
   try their skill in the critical moment. Let them make a stand, if they
   can, in opposition to the invading enemy; let them stand to offer their
   service to their country; but to what purpose? "Thou art wearied in the
   multitude of thy counsels of this kind (v. 13); thou hast advised with
   them all, but hast received no satisfaction from them; the different
   schemes they have erected, and the different judgments they have given,
   have but increased thy perplexity and tired thee out." In the multitude
   of such counsellors there is no safety. (2.) They are upbraided with
   the variety they had of such kinds of people among them, v. 13. They
   had their astrologers, or viewers of the heavens, that did not consider
   them, as David, to behold the wisdom and power of God in them; but,
   under pretence of foretelling future events by them, they viewed the
   heavens and forgot him that made them and set their dominion on the
   earth (Job xxxviii. 33), and has himself dominion over them, for he
   rides on the heavens. They had their star-gazers, who by the motions of
   the stars, their conjunctions and oppositions, read the doom of states
   and kingdoms. They had their monthly prognosticators, their
   almanac-makers, that told what weather it should be or what news they
   should have each month. The great stock they had of these was what they
   valued themselves much upon; but they were all cheats, and their art
   was a sham. I confess I see not how the judicial astrology which some
   now pretend to, by the rules of which they undertake to prophecy
   concerning things to come, can be distinguished from that of the
   Chaldeans, nor therefore how it can escape the censure and contempt
   which this text lays that under; yet I fear there are some who study
   their almanacs, and regard them and their prognostications, more than
   their Bibles and the prophecies there. (3.) They are upbraided with the
   utter inability and insufficiency of all these pretenders to do them
   any kindness in the day of their distress. Let them see whether with
   the help of their enchantments they can prevail against their enemies,
   or profit themselves, inspirit their own forces or dispirit those that
   come against them, v. 12. Let them see what service those can do them
   who make a trade of divination: "Let them stand up, and either by their
   power save thee from these evils that are coming upon thee or by their
   foresight make such a discovery of them beforehand that thou mayest by
   needful precautions save thyself;" as Elisha, by notifying to the king
   of Israel the motions of the Syrian army, enabled him to save himself,
   not once nor twice, 2 Kings vi. 10. This baffling of the diviners was
   literally fulfilled when, the night that Babylon was taken and
   Belshazzar slain, all his astrologers, soothsayers, and wise men, were
   quite nonplussed with the handwriting on the wall that pronounced the
   fatal sentence, Dan. v. 8. (4.) They are upbraided with the fall of the
   wise men themselves in the common ruin, v. 14. Those are unlikely to
   stand their friends in any stead who cannot secure themselves; they are
   as stubble at the best, worthless and useless, and they shall be as
   stubble before a consuming fire. The Persians, to make room for their
   own wise men, will cut off those of Babylon; that fire shall burn them,
   and they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
   Those can expect no other than to be devoured by their sins make
   themselves fuel to a devouring fire. When God kindles a fire among them
   it shall not be a coal to warm at, and a fire to sit before, but a coal
   to burn them. Or, rather, it denotes that they shall be utterly
   consumed by the judgments of God, burnt quite to ashes, and there shall
   not remain one live coal to do any body any service; for when God
   judges he will overcome. (5.) They are upbraided with their merchants,
   and those they dealt with (v. 15), such as they dealt with from their
   youth, either, [1.] In a way of consultation. These astrologers, that
   dealt in the black art, they always loved to be dealing with, and they
   were in effect their merchants; fortune-telling was one of the best
   trades in Babylon, and those that followed that trade probably lived as
   splendidly and got as much money as the richest merchants; yet, when
   some of them were devoured, others fled their country, every one to his
   quarter, and there was none to save Babylon. Miserable comforters are
   they all. Or, [2.] In a way of commerce. As their astrologers, with
   whom they had laboured, failed them, so did their merchants; they took
   care to secure their own effects, and then valued not what became of
   Babylon. They wandered every one to his own quarter; each man shifted
   for his own safety, but none would offer to lend a helping hand, no,
   not to a city by which they had got so much money. Every one was for
   himself, but few for his friends. The New-Testament Babylon is lamented
   by the merchants that were made rich by her, but they very prudently
   stand afar off to lament her (Rev. xviii. 15), not willing to attempt
   any thing for her succour. Happy are those who by faith and prayer deal
   with one that will be a very present help in time of trouble!
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLVIII.

   God, having in the foregoing chapter reckoned with the Babylonians, and
   shown them their sins and the desolation that was coming upon them for
   their sins, to show that he hates sin wherever he finds it and will not
   connive at it in his own people, comes, in this chapter, to show the
   house of Jacob their sins, but, withal, the mercy God had in store for
   them notwithstanding; and he therefore sets their sins in order before
   them, that by their repentance and reformation they might be prepared
   for that mercy. I. He charges them with hypocrisy in that which is good
   and obstinacy in that which is evil, especially in their idolatry,
   notwithstanding the many convincing proofs God had given them that he
   is God alone, ver. 1-8. II. He assures them that their deliverance
   would be wrought purely for the sake of God's own name and not for any
   merit of theirs, ver. 9-11. III. He encourages them to depend purely
   upon God's power and promise for this deliverance, ver. 12-15. IV. He
   shows them that, as it was by their own sin that they brought
   themselves into captivity, so it would be only by the grace of God that
   they would obtain the necessary preparatives for their enlargement,
   ver. 16-19. V. He proclaims their release, yet with a proviso that the
   wicked shall have no benefit by it, ver. 20-22.

God's Expostulation with His People. (b. c. 708.)

   1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of
   Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by
   the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in
   truth, nor in righteousness.   2 For they call themselves of the holy
   city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is
   his name.   3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and
   they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them
   suddenly, and they came to pass.   4 Because I knew that thou art
   obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;   5 I
   have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to
   pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done
   them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
   6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have
   showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou
   didst not know them.   7 They are created now, and not from the
   beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou
   shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.   8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea,
   thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened:
   for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called
   a transgressor from the womb.

   We may observe here,

   I. The hypocritical profession which many of the Jews made of religion
   and relation to God. To those who made such a profession the prophet is
   here ordered to address himself, for their conviction and humiliation,
   that they might own God's justice in what he had brought upon them. Now
   observe here,

   1. How high their profession of religion soared, what a fair show they
   made in the flesh and how far they went towards heaven, what a good
   livery they wore and what a good face they put upon a very bad heart.
   (1.) They were the house of Jacob; they had a place and a name in the
   visible church. Jacob have I loved. Jacob is God's chosen; and they are
   not only retainers to his family, but descendants from him. (2.) They
   were called by the name of Israel, an honourable name; they were of
   that people to whom pertained both the giving of the law and the
   promises. Israel signifies a prince with God; and they prided
   themselves in being of that princely race. (3.) They came forth out of
   the waters of Judah, and thence were called Jews; they were of the
   royal tribe, the tribe of which Shiloh was to come, the tribe that
   adhered to God when the rest revolted. (4.) They swore by the name of
   the Lord, and thereby owned him to be the true God, and their God, and
   gave glory to him as the righteous Judge of all. They swore to the name
   of the Lord (so it may be read); they took an oath of allegiance to him
   as their King and joined themselves to him in covenant. (5.) They made
   mention of the God of Israel in their prayers and praises; they often
   spoke of him, observed his memorials, and pretended to be very mindful
   of him. (6.) They called themselves of the holy city, and, when they
   were captives in Babylon, purely from a principle of honour, and
   jealousy for their native country, they valued themselves upon their
   interest in it. Many, who are themselves unholy, are proud of their
   relation to the church, the holy city. (7.) They stayed themselves upon
   the God of Israel, and boasted of his promises and his covenant with
   them; they leaned on the Lord, Mic. iii. 11. And, if they were asked
   concerning their God, they could say, "The Lord of hosts is his name,
   the Lord of all;" happy are we therefore, and very great, who have
   relation to him!

   2. How low their profession of religion sunk, notwithstanding all this.
   It was all in vain; for it was all a jest; it was not in truth and
   righteousness. Their hearts were not true nor right in these
   professions. Note, All our religious professions avail nothing further
   than they are made in truth and righteousness. If we be not sincere in
   them, we do but take the name of the Lord our God in vain.

   II. The means God used, and the method he took, to keep them close to
   himself, and to prevent their turning aside to idolatry. The many
   excellent laws he gave them, with their sanctions, and the hedges about
   them, it seems, would not serve to restrain them from that sin which
   did most easily beset them, and therefore to those God added remarkable
   prophecies, and remarkable providences in pursuance of those
   prophecies, which were all designed to convince them that their God was
   the only true God and that it was therefore both their duty and
   interest to adhere to him. 1. He both dignified and favoured them with
   remarkable prophecies (v. 3): I have declared the former things from
   the beginning. Nothing material happened to their nation from its
   original which was not prophesied of before--their bondage in Egypt,
   their deliverance thence, the situation of their tribes in Canaan, &c.
   All these things went forth out of God's mouth and he showed them.
   Herein they were honoured above any nation, and even their curiosity
   was gratified. Their prophecies were such as they could rely upon, and
   such as concerned themselves and their own nation; and they were all
   verified by the accomplishment of them. I did them suddenly, when they
   were least expected by themselves or others, and therefore could not be
   foreseen by any but a divine prescience. I did them and they came to
   pass; for what God does he does effectually. The very calamities they
   were now groaning under in Babylon God did from the beginning declare
   to them by Moses, as the certain consequences of their apostasy from
   God, Lev. xxvi. 31, &c.; Deut. xxviii. 36, &c.; xxix. 28. He also
   declared to them their return to God, and to their own land again,
   Deut. xxx. 4, &c.; Lev. xxvi. 44, 45. Thus he showed them how he would
   deal with them long before it came to pass. Let them compare their
   present state together with the deliverance they had now in prospect
   with what was written in the law, and they would find the scripture
   exactly fulfilled. 2. He both dignified and favoured them with
   remarkable providence (v. 6): I have shown thee new things from this
   time. Besides the general view given from the beginning of God's
   proceedings with them, he showed them new things by the prophets of
   their own day, and created them. They were hidden things, which they
   could not otherwise know, as the prophecy concerning Cyrus and the
   exact time of their release out of Babylon. These things God created
   now, v. 7. Their restoration was in effect their creation, and they had
   a promise of it not from the beginning, but of late; for to prevent
   their apostasy from God, or to recover them, prophecy was kept up among
   them. Yet it was told them when they could not come to the knowledge of
   it in any other way than by divine revelation. "Consider," says God,
   "how much soever it is talked of now among you and expected, it was
   told you by the prophets, when it was the furthest thing from your
   thoughts, when you had not heard it, when you had not known it, nor had
   any reason to expect it, and when your ear was not opened concerning it
   (v. 7, 8), when the thing seemed utterly impossible, and you would
   scarcely have given any one the hearing who should have told you of
   it." God had shown them hidden things which were out of the reach of
   their knowledge, and done for them great things, out of the reach of
   their power: "Now," says he (v. 6), "thou hast heard; see all this.
   Thou hast heard the prophecy; see the accomplishment of it, and observe
   whether the word and works of God do not exactly agree; and will you
   not declare it, that as you have heard so you have seen? Will you not
   own that the Lord is the true God, the only true God, that he has the
   knowledge and power which no creature has and which none of the gods of
   the nations can pretend to? Will you not own that your God has been a
   good God to you? Declare this to his honour, and your own shame, who
   have dealt so deceitfully with him and preferred others before him."

   III. The reasons why God would take this method with them.

   1. Because he would anticipate their boastings of themselves and their
   idols. (1.) God by his prophets told them beforehand of their
   deliverance, lest they should attribute the accomplishment of it to
   their idols. Thus he saw it necessary to secure the glory of it to
   himself, which otherwise would have been given by some of them to their
   graven images: "I spoke of it," says God, "lest thou shouldst say, My
   idol has done it or has commanded it to be done," v. 5. There were
   those that would be apt to say so, and so would be confirmed in their
   idolatry by that which was intended to cure them of it. But they would
   now be for ever precluded from saying this; for, if the idols had done
   it, the prophets of the idols would have foretold it; but, the prophets
   of the Lord having foretold it, it was no doubt the power of the Lord
   that effected it. (2.) God foretold it by his prophets, lest they
   should assume the foresight of it to themselves. Those that were not so
   profane as to have ascribed the thing itself to an idol were yet so
   proud as to have pretended that by their own sagacity they foresaw it,
   if God had not been beforehand with them and spoken first: Lest thou
   shouldst say, Behold, I knew them, v. 7. Thus vain men, who would be
   thought wise, commonly undervalue a thing which is really great and
   surprising with this suggestion, that it was no more than they expected
   and they knew it would come to this. To anticipate this, and that this
   boasting might for ever be excluded, God told them of it before the
   day, when as yet they dreamed not of it. God has said and done enough
   to prevent men's boastings of themselves, and that no flesh may glory
   in his presence, and, if it have not the intended effect, it will
   aggravate the sin and ruin of the proud; and, sooner, or later, every
   mouth shall be stopped, and all flesh shall become silent before God.

   2. Because he would leave them inexcusable in their obstinacy.
   Therefore he took this pains with them, because he knew they were
   obstinate, v. 4. He knew they were so obstinate and perverse that, if
   he had not supported the doctrine of providence by prophecy, they would
   have had the impudence to deny it, and would have said that their idol
   had done that which God did. He knew very well, (1.) How wilful they
   would be, and how fully bent they would be upon that which is evil: I
   knew that thou wast hard; so the word is. There were prophecies as well
   as precepts which God gave them because of the hardness of their
   hearts: "Thy neck is an iron sinew, unapt to yield and submit to the
   yoke of God' commandments, unapt to turn and look back upon his
   dealings with thee or look up to his displeasure against thee; not
   flexible to the will of God, nor pliable to his intentions, nor
   manageable by his word or providence. Thy brow is brass; thou art
   impudent and canst not blush, insolent and wilt not fear or give back,
   but wilt thrust on in the way of thy heart." God uses means to bring
   sinners to comply with him, though he knows they are obstinate. (2.)
   How deceitful they would be and how insincere in that which is good, v.
   8. God sent his prophets to them, but they did not hear, they would not
   know, and it was no more than was expected, considering what they had
   been. Thou wast called, and not miscalled, a transgressor from the
   womb. Ever since they were first formed into a people they were prone
   to idolatry; they brought with them out of Egypt a strange addictedness
   to that sin; and they were murmurers as soon as ever they began their
   march to Canaan. They were justly upbraided with it then, Deut. ix. 7,
   24. Therefore I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously. God
   foresaw their apostasy, and gave this reason for it, that he had always
   found them false and fickle, Deut. xxxi. 16, 27, 29. This is applicable
   to particular persons. We are all born children of disobedience; we
   were called transgressors from the womb, and therefore it is easy to
   foresee that we shall deal treacherously, very treacherously. Where
   original sin is actual sin will follow of course. God knows it, and yet
   deals not with us according to our deserts.

Encouragement to God's People. (b. c. 708.)

   9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I
   refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.   10 Behold, I have refined
   thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of
   affliction.   11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do
   it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory
   unto another.   12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am
   he; I am the first, I also am the last.   13 Mine hand also hath laid
   the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the
   heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.   14 All ye,
   assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these
   things? The Lord hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon,
   and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.   15 I, even I, have spoken;
   yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way
   prosperous.

   The deliverance of God's people out of their captivity in Babylon was a
   thing upon many accounts so improbable that there was need of line upon
   line for the encouragement of the faith and hope of God's people
   concerning it. Two things were discouraging to them--their own
   unworthiness that God should do it for them and the many difficulties
   in the thing itself; now, in these verses, both these discouragements
   are removed, for here is,

   I. A reason why God would do it for them, though they were unworthy;
   not for their sake, be it known to them, but for his name's sake, for
   his own sake, v. 9-11. 1. It is true they had been very provoking, and
   God had been justly angry with them. Their captivity was the punishment
   of their iniquity; and if, when he had them in Babylon, he had left
   them to pine away and perish there, and made the desolations of their
   country perpetual, he would only have dealt with them according to
   their sins, and it was what such a sinful people might expect from an
   angry God. "But," says God, "I will defer my anger" (or, rather, stifle
   and suppress it); "I will make it appear that I am slow to wrath, and
   will refrain from thee, not pour upon thee what I justly might, that I
   should cut thee off from being a people." And why will God thus stay
   his hand? For my name's sake; because this people was called by his
   name, and made profession of his name, and, if they were cut off, the
   enemies would blaspheme his name. It is for my praise; because it would
   redound to the honour of his mercy to spare and reprieve them, and, if
   he continued them to be to him a people, they might be to him for a
   name and a praise. 1. It is true they were very corrupt and
   ill-disposed, but God would himself refine them, and make them fit for
   the mercy he intended for them: "I have refined thee, that thou
   mightest be made a vessel of honour." Though he does not find them meet
   for his favour, he will make them so. And this accounts for his
   bringing them into the trouble, and continuing them in it so long as he
   did. It was not to cut them off, but to do them good. It was to refine
   them, but not as silver, or with silver, not so thoroughly as men
   refine their silver, which they continue in the furnace till all the
   dross is separated from it; if God should take that course with them,
   they would be always in the furnace, for they are all dross, and, as
   such, might justly be put away (Ps. cxix. 119) as reprobate silver,
   Jer. vi. 30. He therefore takes them as they are, refined in part only,
   and not thoroughly. "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,
   that is, I have made thee a choice one by the good which the affliction
   has done thee, and then designed thee for great things." Many have been
   brought home to God as chosen vessels and a good work of grace has been
   begun in them in the furnace of affliction. Affliction is no bar to
   God's choice, but subservient to his purpose. 3. It is true they could
   not pretend to merit at God's hand so great a favour as their
   deliverance out of Babylon, which would put such an honour upon them
   and bring them so much joy; therefore, says God, For my own sake, even
   for my own sake, will I do it, v. 11. See how the emphasis is laid upon
   that; for it is a reason that cannot fail, and therefore the resolution
   grounded upon it cannot fall to the ground. God will do it, not because
   he owes them such a favour, but to save the honour of his own name,
   that that may not be polluted by the insolent triumphs of the heathen,
   who, in triumphing over Israel, thought they triumphed over the God of
   Israel and imagined their gods too hard for him. This was plainly the
   language of Belshazzar's revels, when he profaned the holy vessels of
   God's temple at the same time that he praised his idols (Dan. v. 2, 4),
   and of the Babylonians' demand (Ps. cxxxvii. 3), Sing us one of the
   songs of Zion. God will therefore deliver his people, because he will
   not suffer his glory to be thus given to another. Moses pleaded this
   often with God: Lord, what will the Egyptians say? Note, God is jealous
   for the honour of his own name, and will not suffer the wrath of man to
   proceed any further than he will make it turn to his praise. And it is
   matter of comfort to God's people that, whatever becomes of them, God
   will secure his own honour; and, as far as is necessary to that, God
   will work deliverance for them.

   II. Here is a proof that God could do it for them, though they were
   unable to help themselves and the thing seemed altogether
   impracticable. Let Jacob and Israel hearken to this, and believe it,
   and take the comfort of it. They are God's called, called according to
   his purpose, called by him out of Egypt (Hos. xi. 1) and now out of
   Babylon, a people whom with a distinguishing favour he calls by name,
   and to whom he calls. They are his called, for they are called to him,
   called by his name, and called his; and therefore he will look after
   them, and they may be assured that, as he will deliver them for his own
   sake, so he will deliver them by his own strength. They need not fear
   them, for, 1. He is God alone, and the eternal God (v. 12): "I am he
   who can do what I will and will do what is best, he whom none can
   compare with, much less contend with. I am the first; I also am the
   last." Who can be too quick for him that is the first, or anticipate
   him? Who can be too hard for him that is the last, and will keep the
   field against all opposers, and will reign till they are all made his
   footstool? What room then is left to doubt of their deliverance when he
   undertakes it whose designs cannot but be well laid, for he is the
   first, and well executed, for he is the last. As for this God, his work
   is perfect. 2. He is the God that made the world, and he that did that
   can do any thing, v. 13. Look we down? We see the earth firm under us,
   and feel it so; it was his hand that laid the foundation of it. Look we
   up? We see the heavens spread out as a canopy over our heads, and it
   was his hand that spread them, that spanned them, that stretched them
   out, and did it by an exact measure, as the workman sometimes metes out
   his work by spans. This intimates that God has a vast reach and can
   compass designs of the greatest extent. If the palm of his right hand
   (so the margin reads it) has gone so far as to stretch out the heavens,
   what will he do with his outstretched arm? Yet this is not all: he has
   not only made the heavens and the earth, and therefore he in whom our
   hope and help is omnipotent (Ps. cxxiv. 8), but he has the command of
   all the hosts of both; when he calls them into his service, to go on
   his errands, they stand up together, they come at the call, they answer
   to their names: "Here we are; what wilt thou have us to do?" They stand
   up, not only in reverence to their Creator, but in a readiness to
   execute his orders: They stand up together, unanimously concurring, and
   helping one another in the service of their Maker. If God therefore
   will deliver his people, he cannot be at a loss for instruments to be
   employed in effecting their deliverance. 3. He has already foretold it,
   and, having infinite knowledge, so that he foresaw it, no doubt he has
   almighty power to effect it: "All you of the house of Jacob, assemble
   yourselves, and hear this for your comfort, Which among them, among the
   gods of the heathen, or their wise men, has declared these things, or
   could declare them?" v. 14. They had no foresight of them at all, but
   those who consulted them were very confident that Babylon should be a
   lady for ever and Israel perpetual slave; and their oracles did not
   give them the least hint to the contrary, to undeceive them; whereas
   God by his prophets had given notice to the Jews, long before, of their
   captivity and the destruction of Jerusalem, as he had now likewise
   given them notice of their release (v. 15): I, even I, have spoken; and
   he would not have spoken it if he could not have made it good: none
   could out-see him, and therefore we may be sure that none could outdo
   him. 4. The person is pitched upon who is to be employed in this
   service, and the measures are concerted in the divine counsels, which
   are unalterable. Cyrus is the man who must do it; and it tends much to
   strengthen our assurance that a thing shall be done when we are
   particularly informed how and by whom. It is not left at uncertainty
   who shall do it, but the matter is fixed. (1.) It is one whom God is
   well pleased in, upon this account, because he is designed for this
   service: The Lord has loved him (v. 14); he has done him this favour,
   this honour, to make him an instrument in the redemption of his people
   and therein a type of the great Redeemer, God's beloved Son, in whom he
   was well pleased. Those God does a great kindness to, and has a great
   kindness for, whom he makes serviceable to his church. (2.) It is one
   to whom God will give authority and commission: I have called him, have
   given him a sufficient warrant, and therefore will bear him out. (3.)
   It is one whom God will by a series of providences lead to this
   service: "I have brought him from a far country, brought him to engage
   against Babylon, brought him step by step, quite beyond his own
   intentions." Whom God calls he will bring, will cause them to come (so
   the word is), to come at the call. (4.) It is one whom God will own and
   give success to. Cyrus will do God's pleasure on Babylon, that which it
   is his pleasure should be done and which he will be pleased with the
   doing of, though Cyrus has ends of his own to serve and has no regard
   either to the will of God or to his favour in the doing of it. His arm
   (Cyrus's army, and in it God's arm) shall come, and be upon the
   Chaldeans, to bring them down (v. 14); for, if God call him and bring
   him, he will certainly make his way prosperous, v. 15. Then we may hope
   to prosper in our way when we follow a divine call and guidance.

Encouragement to God's People. (b. c. 708.)

   16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from
   the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord
   God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.   17 Thus saith the Lord, thy
   Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth
   thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
   18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace
   been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:   19
   Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels
   like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor
   destroyed from before me.   20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the
   Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even
   to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant
   Jacob.   21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts:
   he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the
   rock also, and the waters gushed out.   22 There is no peace, saith the
   Lord, unto the wicked.

   Here, as before, Jacob and Israel are summoned to hearken to the
   prophet speaking in God's name, or rather to God speaking in and by the
   prophet, and that as a type of the great prophet by whom God has in
   these last days spoken unto us, and that is sufficient: Come near
   therefore, and hear this. Note, Those that would hear and understand
   what God says must come near, and approach to him; let them come as
   near as they can. Let those that have hearkened to the tempter now come
   near, and hear this, that they may be confirmed in their resolutions to
   serve God. Those that draw nigh to God may depend upon this, that his
   secret shall be with them. Here,

   I. God refers them to what he hath both said to them and done for them
   formerly, which if they would reflect upon, they might thence fetch
   great encouragement to trust in God at this time. 1. He had always
   spoken plainly to them from the beginning, by Moses and all the
   prophets: I have not spoken in secret, but publicly, from the top of
   Mount Sinai, and in the chief places of concourse, the solemn
   assemblies of their tribes; he did not deliver his oracles obscurely
   and ambiguously, but so that they might be understood, Hab. ii. 2. 2.
   He had always acted wonderfully for them: "From the time that they were
   first formed into a people there I am, there have I been resident among
   them and presiding in their affairs (he sent them prophets, raised them
   up judges, and frequently appeared for them), and therefore there I
   will be still." He that has been with his people hitherto will be to
   the end.

   II. The prophet himself, as a type of the great prophet, asserts his
   own commission to deliver this message: Now the Lord God (the same that
   spoke from the beginning and did not speak in secret) has by his Spirit
   sent me, v. 16. The Spirit of God is here spoken of as a person
   distinct from the Father and the Son, and having a divine authority to
   send prophets. Note, Whom God sends the Spirit sends. Those whom God
   commissions for any service the Spirit in some measure qualifies for
   it; and those may speak boldly, and must be heard obediently, whom God
   and his Spirit send. As that which the prophet says to the same purport
   with this (ch. lxi. 1) is applied to Christ (Luke iv. 21), so may this
   be; the Lord God sent him, and he had the Spirit without measure.

   III. God by the prophet sends them a gracious message for their support
   and comfort under their affliction. The preface to this message is both
   awful and encouraging (v. 17): Thus saith Jehovah, the eternal God, thy
   Redeemer, that has often been so, that has engaged to be so, and will
   be faithful to the engagement, for he is the Holy One, that cannot
   deceive, the Holy One of Israel, that will not deceive them. The same
   words that introduce the law, and give authority to that, introduce the
   promise, and give validity to that: "I am the Lord thy God, whom thou
   mayest depend upon as in relation to thee and in covenant with thee."

   1. Here is the good work which God undertakes to fulfil in them. He
   that is their Redeemer, in order to that, will be, (1.) Their
   instructor: "I am thy God that teaches thee to profit, that is, teaches
   thee such things as are profitable for thee, things that belong to thy
   peace." By this God shows himself to be a God in covenant with us, by
   his teaching us (Heb. viii. 10, 11); and none teaches like him, for he
   gives an understanding. Whom God redeems he teaches; whom he designs to
   deliver out of their afflictions he first teaches to profit by their
   afflictions, makes them partakers of his holiness, for that is the
   profit for which he chastens us, Heb. xii. 10. (2.) Their guide: He
   leads them to the way and in the way by which they should go. He not
   only enlightens their eyes, but directs their steps. By his grace he
   leads them in the way of duty, by his providence he leads them in the
   way of deliverance. Happy are those that are under such a guidance!

   2. Here is the good-will which God declares he had for them by his good
   wishes concerning them, v. 18, 19. He had indeed brought them into
   captivity, but it was owing to themselves, nor did he afflict them
   willingly. (1.) As when he gave them his law he earnestly wished they
   might be obedient (O that there were such a heart in them! Deut. v. 29.
   O that they were wise! Deut. xxxii. 29), so, when he had punished them
   for the breach of his law, he wished they had been obedient: O that
   thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! v. 18. O that my people had
   hearkened unto me! Ps. lxxxi. 13. This confirms what God had said and
   sworn, that he has no pleasure in the death of sinners. (2.) He assures
   them that, if they had been obedient, that would not only have
   prevented their captivity, but would have advanced and perpetuated
   their prosperity. He had abundance of good things ready to bestow upon
   them if their sins had not turned them away, ch. lix. 1, 2. [1.] They
   should have been carried on in a constant uninterrupted stream of
   prosperity: "Thy peace should have been as a river; thou shouldst have
   enjoyed a series of mercies, one continually following another, as the
   waters of a river, which always last." Labitur, et labetur in omne
   volubilis ævum--It flows, and will for ever flow; not like the waters
   of a land-flood, which are soon gone. [2.] Their virtue and honour, and
   the justice of their cause, should in all cases have borne down
   opposition by their own strength, as the waves of the sea. Such should
   their righteousness have been that nothing should have stood before it;
   whereas, now they had been disobedient, the current of their prosperity
   was interrupted, and their righteousness overpowered. [3.] The rising
   generation should have been very numerous and very prosperous; whereas
   they were now very few, as appears by the small number of the returning
   captives (Ezra ii. 64), not so many as of one tribe when they came out
   of Egypt. They should have been numberless as the sand, according to
   the promise (Gen. xxii. 17), which they had forfeited the benefit of:
   "The offspring of thy bowels would have been innumerable, like the
   gravel of the sea, if thy righteousness had been irresistible and
   unconquerable as the waves of the sea." [4.] The honour of Israel
   should still have been unstained, untouched: His name should not have
   been cut off, as now it is in the land of Israel, which is either
   desolate or inhabited by strangers; nor should it have been destroyed
   from before God. We cannot reckon the name either of a family or of a
   kingdom destroyed till it is destroyed from before God, till it ceases
   to be a name in his holy place. Now God tells them thus what he would
   have done for them if they had persevered in their obedience, First,
   That they might be the more humbled for their sins, by which they had
   forfeited such rich mercies. Note, This should engage us (I might say,
   enrage us) against sin, that it has not only deprived us of the good
   things we have enjoyed, but prevented the good things God had in store
   for us. It will make the misery of the disobedient the more intolerable
   to think how happy they might have been. Secondly, That his mercy might
   appear the more illustrious in working deliverance for them, though
   they had forfeited it and rendered themselves unworthy of it. Nothing
   but a prerogative of mercy would have saved them.

   3. Here is assurance given of the great work which God designed to work
   for them, even their salvation out of their captivity, when he had
   accomplished his work in them.

   (1.) Here is a commission granted them to leave Babylon. God
   proclaimed, long before Cyrus did, that whoever would might return to
   his own land (v. 20): "You have a full discharge sent you: Go you forth
   out of Babylon; the prison-doors are thrown open, and the trumpet
   sounds, proclaiming a release." Perhaps with this word, as a means, the
   Spirit of the Lord stirred up the spirits of those that did take the
   benefit of Cyrus's proclamation (Ezra i. 5): Flee you from the
   Chaldeans, not with an ignominious stolen flight, as Jacob fled from
   Laban, but with a holy disdain, as scorning to stay any longer among
   them; flee you, not silently and sorrowfully, but with a voice, with a
   voice of singing, as they fled of old out of Egypt, Exod. xv. 1.

   (2.) Here is the news of this sent to all parts: "Let it be declared;
   let it be told; let it be uttered; make it to be heard by the most
   remote, by the most remiss; send the tidings of it by word of mouth;
   send it by writing, from city to city, from kingdom to kingdom, even to
   the utmost regions, to the ends of the earth." This was a figure of the
   publishing of the gospel to all the world; but that brings glad tidings
   which all the world is concerned in, this only that which it is fit all
   should take notice of, that they may be invited by it to forsake their
   idols and come into the service of the God of Israel. Let them all know
   then, [1.] That those whom God owns for his are such as he has dearly
   bought and paid for: The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob; he has
   done it formerly, when he brought them out of Egypt, and now he is
   about to do it again. Jacob was God's servant, and therefore he
   redeemed him; for what had other masters to do with God's servants?
   Israel is God's son, therefore Pharaoh must let him go. God redeemed
   Jacob, and therefore it was fit that he should be his servant (Ps.
   cxvi. 16); the bonds God had loosed tied them the faster to him. He
   that redeemed us has an unquestionable right to us. [2.] That those
   whom God designs to bring home to himself he will take care of, that
   they want not for the necessary expenses of their journey. When he
   brought them out of Egypt, and led them through the deserts, they
   thirsted not (v. 21), for in all their removals the water out of the
   rock followed them; thence he caused the waters to flow, and, since
   rock-water is the clearest and finest, God clave the rock, and the
   waters gushed out; for he can fetch in necessary supplies for his
   people in a way that they think the least likely. This refers to what
   he did for them when he brought them out of Egypt; when all this was
   literally true. But it should now be in effect done again, in their
   return out of Babylon, so well provided for should they and theirs be
   in their return. God does his work as effectually by marvellous
   providences as by miracles, though perhaps they are not so much taken
   notice of. This is applicable to those treasures of grace laid up for
   us in Jesus Christ, from which all good flows to us as the water did to
   Israel out of the rock, for that rock is Christ.

   (3.) Here is a caveat put in against the wicked who go on still in
   their trespasses. Let not them think to have any benefit among God's
   people. Though in show and profession they herd themselves among them,
   let them not expect to come in sharers; no (v. 22), though God's
   thoughts concerning the body of that people were thoughts of peace, yet
   to those among them that were wicked and hated to be reformed there is
   no peace, no peace with God or their own consciences, no real good,
   whatever is pretended to. What have those to do with peace who are
   enemies to God? Their false prophets cried Peace to those to whom it
   did not belong; but God tells them that there shall be no peace, nor
   any think like it, to the wicked. The quarrel sinners have commenced
   with God, if not taken up in time by repentance, will be an everlasting
   quarrel.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. XLIX.

   Glorious things had been spoken in the previous chapters concerning the
   deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon; but lest any should think, when
   it was accomplished, that it looked much greater and brighter in the
   prophecy than in the performance, and that the return of about 40,000
   Jews in a poor condition out of Babylon to Jerusalem was not an event
   sufficiently answering to the height and grandeur of the expressions
   used in the prophecy, he here comes to show that the prophecy had a
   further intention, and was to have its full accomplishment in a
   redemption that should as far outdo these expressions as the other
   seemed to come short of them, even the redemption of the world by Jesus
   Christ, of whom not only Cyrus, who was God's servant in foretelling
   it, was a type. In this chapter we have, I. The designation of Christ,
   under the type of Isaiah, to his office as Mediator, ver. 1-3. II. The
   assurance given him of the success of his undertaking among the
   Gentiles, ver. 4-8. III. The redemption that should be wrought by him,
   and the progress of that redemption, ver. 9-12. IV. The encouragement
   given hence to the afflicted church, ver. 13-17. V. The addition of
   many to it, and the setting up of a church among the Gentiles, ver.
   18-23. VI. A ratification of the prophecy of the Jews' release out of
   Babylon, which was to be the figure and type of all these blessings,,
   ver. 24-26. If this chapter be rightly understood, we shall see
   ourselves to be more concerned in the prophecies relating to the Jews'
   deliverance out of Babylon than we thought we were.

Encouragement to the Gentiles. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord
   hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made
   mention of my name.   2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword;
   in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft;
   in his quiver hath he hid me;   3 And said unto me, Thou art my
   servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.   4 Then I said, I have
   laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet
   surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.   5 And
   now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to
   bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be
   glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.   6
   And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to
   raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I
   will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my
   salvation unto the end of the earth.

   Here, I. An auditory is summoned together and attention demanded. The
   sermon in the foregoing chapter was directed to the house of Jacob and
   the people of Israel, v. 1, 12. But this is directed to the isles (that
   is, the Gentiles, for they are called the isles of the Gentiles, Gen.
   x. 5) and to the people from far, that were strangers to the
   commonwealth of Israel, and afar off. Let these listen (v. 1) as to a
   thing at a distance, which yet they are to hear with desire and
   attention. Note, 1. The tidings of a Redeemer are sent to the Gentiles,
   and to those that lie most remote; and they are concerned to listen to
   them. 2. The Gentiles listened to the gospel when the Jews were deaf to
   it.

   II. The great author and publisher of the redemption produces his
   authority from heaven for the work he had undertaken. 1. God had
   appointed him and set him apart for it: The Lord has called me from the
   womb to this office and made mention of my name, nominated me to be the
   Saviour. By an angel he called him Jesus--a Saviour, who should save
   his people from their sins, Matt. i. 21. Nay, from the womb of the
   divine counsels, before all worlds, he was called to this service, and
   help was laid upon him; and he came at the call, for he said, Lo, I
   come, with an eye to what was written of him in the volume of the book.
   This was said of some of the prophets, as types of him, Jer. i. 5. Paul
   was separated to the apostleship from his mother's womb, Gal. i. 15. 2.
   God had fitted and qualified him for the service to which he designed
   him. He made his mouth like a sharp sword, and made him like a polished
   shaft, or a bright arrow, furnished him with every thing necessary to
   fight God's battles against the powers of darkness, to conquer Satan,
   and bring back God's revolted subjects to their allegiance, by his
   word: that is the two-edged sword (Heb. iv. 12) which comes out of his
   mouth, Rev. xix. 15. The convictions of the word are the arrows that
   shall be sharp in the hearts of sinners, Ps. xlv. 5. 3. God had
   preferred him to the service for which he had reserved him: He has
   hidden me in the shadow of his hand and in his quiver, which denotes,
   (1.) Concealment. The gospel of Christ, and the calling in of the
   Gentiles by it, were long hidden from ages and generations, hidden in
   God (Eph. iii. 5, Rom. xvi. 25), hidden in the shadow of the ceremonial
   law and the Old-Testament types. (2.) Protection. The house of David
   was the particular care of the divine Providence, because that blessing
   was in it. Christ in his infancy was sheltered from the rage of Herod.
   4. God had owned him, had said unto him, "Thou art my servant, whom I
   have employed and will prosper; thou art Israel, in effect, the prince
   with God, that hast wrestled and prevailed; and in thee I will be
   glorified." The people of God are Israel, and they are all gathered
   together, summed up, as it were, in Christ, the great representative of
   all Israel, as the high priest who had the names of all the tribes on
   his breastplate; and in him God is and will be glorified; so he said by
   a voice from heaven, John xii. 27, 28. Some read the words in two
   clauses: Thou art my servant (so Christ is, ch. xlii. 1); it is Israel
   in whom I will be glorified by thee; it is the spiritual Israel, the
   elect, in the salvation of whom by Jesus Christ God will be glorified,
   and his free grace for ever admired.

   III. He is assured of the good success of his undertaking; for whom God
   calls he will prosper. And as to this,

   1. He objects the discouragement he had met with at his first setting
   out (v. 4): "Then I said, with a sad heart, I have laboured in vain;
   those that were ignorant, and careless, and strangers to God, are so
   still: I have called, and they have refused; I have stretched out my
   hands to a gainsaying people." This was Isaiah's complaint, but it was
   no more than he was told to expect, ch. vi. 9. The same was a
   temptation to Jeremiah to resolve he would labour no more, Jer. xx. 9.
   It is the complaint of many a faithful minister, that has not loitered,
   but laboured, not spared, but spent, his strength, and himself with it,
   and yet, as to many, it is all in vain and for nought; they will not be
   prevailed with to repent and believe. But here it seems to point at the
   obstinacy of the Jews, among whom Christ went in person preaching the
   gospel of the kingdom, laboured and spent his strength, and yet the
   rulers and the body of the nation rejected him and his doctrine; so
   very few were brought in, when one would think none should have stood
   out, that he might well say, "I have laboured in vain, preached so many
   sermons, wrought so many miracles, in vain." Let not the ministers
   think it strange that they are slighted when the Master himself was.

   2. He comforts himself under this discouragement with this
   consideration, that it was the cause of God in which he was engaged and
   the call of God that engaged him in it: Yet surely my judgment is with
   the Lord, who is the Judge of all, and my work with my God, whose
   servant I am. His comfort is, and it may be the comfort of all faithful
   ministers, when they see little success of their labours, (1.) That,
   however it be, it is a righteous cause that they are pleading. They are
   with God, and for God; they are on his side, and workers together with
   him. They like not their judgment, the rule they go by, nor their work,
   the business they are employed in, ever the worse for this. The
   unbelief of men gives them no cause to suspect the truth of their
   doctrine, Rom. iii. 3. (2.) That their management of this cause, and
   their prosecution of this work, were known to God, and they could
   appeal to him concerning their sincerity, and that it was not through
   any neglect of theirs that they laboured in vain. "He knows the way
   that I take; my judgment is with the Lord, to determine whether I have
   not delivered my soul and left the blood of those that perish on their
   own heads." (3.) Though the labour be in vain as to those that are
   laboured with, yet not as to the labourer himself, if he be faithful:
   his judgment is with the Lord, who will justify him and bear him out,
   though men condemn him and run him down; and his work (the reward of
   his work) is with his God, who will take care he shall be no loser, no,
   not by his lost labour. (4.) Though the judgment be not yet brought
   forth unto victory, nor the work to perfection, yet both are with the
   Lord, to carry them on and give them success, according to his purpose,
   in his own way and time.

   3. He receives from God a further answer to this objection, v. 5, 6. He
   knew very well that God had set him on work, had formed him from the
   womb to be his servant, had not only called him so early to it (v. 1),
   but begun so early to fit him for it and dispose him to it. Those whom
   God designs to employ as his servants he is fashioning and preparing to
   be so long before, when perhaps neither themselves nor others are aware
   of it. It is he that forms the spirit of man within him. Christ was to
   be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, that had treacherously
   departed from him. The seed of Jacob therefore, according to the flesh,
   must first be dealt with, and means used to bring them back. Christ,
   and the word of salvation by him, are sent to them first; nay, Christ
   comes in person to them only, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
   But what if Jacob will not be brought back to God and Israel will not
   be gathered? So it proved; but this is a satisfaction in that case,
   (1.) Christ will be glorious in the eyes of the Lord; and those are
   truly glorious that are so in God's eyes. Though few of the Jewish
   nation were converted by Christ's preaching and miracles, and many of
   them loaded him with ignominy and disgrace, yet God put honour upon
   him, and made him glorious, at his baptism, and in his transfiguration,
   spoke to him from heaven, sent angels to minister to him, made even his
   shameful death glorious by the many prodigies that attended it, much
   more his resurrection. In his sufferings God was his strength, so that
   though he met with all the discouragement imaginable, by the contempts
   of a people whom he had done so much to oblige, yet he did not fail nor
   was discouraged. An angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, Luke
   xxii. 43. Faithful ministers, though they see not the fruit of their
   labours, shall yet be accepted of God, and in that they shall be truly
   glorious, for his favour is our honour; and they shall be assisted to
   proceed and persevere in their labours notwithstanding. This weakens
   their hands, but their God will be their strength. (2.) The gospel
   shall be glorious in the eyes of the world; though it be not so in the
   eyes of the Jews, yet it shall be entertained by the nations, v. 6. The
   Messiah seemed as if he had been primarily designed to bring Jacob
   back, v. 5. But he is here told that it is comparatively but a small
   matter; a higher orb of honour than that, and a larger sphere of
   usefulness, are designed him: "It is a light thing that thou shouldst
   be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob to the dignity and
   dominion they expect by the Messiah, and to restore the preserved of
   Israel, and make them a flourishing church and state as formerly" (nay,
   considering what a little handful of people they are, it would be but a
   small matter, in comparison, for the Messiah to be the Saviour of them
   only); "and therefore I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles
   (many great and mighty nations by the gospel of Christ shall be brought
   to the knowledge and worship of the true God), that thou mayest be my
   salvation, the author of that salvation which I have designed for lost
   man, and this to the end of the earth, to nations at the greatest
   distance." Hence Simeon learned to call Christ a light to lighten the
   Gentiles (Luke ii. 32), and St. Paul's exposition of this text is what
   we ought to abide by, and it serves for a key to the context, Acts
   xiii. 47. Therefore, says he, we turn to the Gentiles, to preach the
   gospel to them, because so has the Lord commanded us, saying, I have
   set thee to be a light to the Gentiles. In this the Redeemer was truly
   glorious, though Israel was not gathered; the setting up of his kingdom
   in the Gentile world was more his honour than if he had raised up all
   the tribes of Jacob. This promise is in part fulfilled already, and
   will have a further accomplishment, if that time be yet to come which
   the apostle speaks of, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be
   brought in. Observe, God calls it his salvation, which some think
   intimates how well pleased he was with it, how he gloried in it, and
   (if I may so say) how much his heart was upon it. They further observe
   that Christ is given for a light to all those to whom he is given for
   salvation. It is in darkness that men perish. Christ enlightens men's
   eyes, and so makes them holy and happy.

Encouragement to the Gentiles. (b. c. 706.)

   7 Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him
   whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of
   rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because
   of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall
   choose thee.   8 Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I
   heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will
   preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish
   the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;   9 That thou
   mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness,
   Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall
   be in all high places.   10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither
   shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall
   lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.   11 And I
   will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
   12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and
   from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah (v. 7): The Lord, the
   Redeemer of Israel, and Israel's Holy One, who had always taken care of
   the Jewish church and wrought out for them those deliverances that were
   typical of the great salvation, speaks here to him, who was the
   undertaker of that salvation. And, 1. He takes notice of his
   humiliation, the instances of which were uncommon, nay, unparalleled.
   He was one whom man despised. He is despised and rejected of men, ch.
   liii. 3. To be despised by so mean a creature (man, who is himself a
   worm) bespeaks the lowest and most contemptible condition imaginable.
   Man, whom he came to save and to put honour upon, yet despised him and
   put contempt upon him; so wretchedly ungrateful were his persecutors.
   The ignominy he underwent was not the least of his sufferings. They not
   only made him despicable, but odious. He was one whom the nation
   abhorred; they treated him as the worst of men, and cried out, Crucify
   him, crucify him. The nation did it, the Gentiles as well as Jews, and
   the Jews herein worse than Gentiles; for his cross was to the one a
   stumbling-block and to the other foolishness. He was a servant of
   rulers; he was trampled upon, abused, scourged, and crucified as a
   slave. Pilate boasted of his power over him, John xix. 10. This he
   submitted to for our salvation. 2. He promises him his exaltation.
   Honour was done him even in the depth of his humiliation. Herod the
   king stood in awe of him, saying, It is John the Baptist; noblemen,
   rulers, centurions came and kneeled to him. But this was more fully
   accomplished when kings received his gospel, and submitted to his yoke,
   and joined in the worship of him, and called themselves the vassals of
   Christ. Not that Christ values the rich more than the poor (they stand
   upon a level with him), but it is for the honour of his kingdom among
   men when the great ones of the earth appear for him and do homage to
   him. This shall be the accomplishment of God's promise, and he will
   give him the heathen for his inheritance, and therefore it shall be
   done, because of the Lord who is faithful and true to his promise; and
   this shall be an evidence that Christ had a commission for what he did,
   and that God had chosen him, and would own the choice he had made.

   II. The blessings he has in store for all those to whom he is made
   salvation.

   1. God will own and stand by him in his undertaking (v. 8): In an
   acceptable time have I heard thee, that is, I will hear thee. Christ,
   in the days of his flesh, offered up strong cries, and was heard, Heb.
   v. 7. He knew that the Father heard him always (John xi. 42), heard him
   for himself (for, though the cup might not pass from him, yet he was
   enabled to drink it), heard him for all that are his, and therefore he
   interceded for them as one having authority. Father, I will, John xvii.
   24. All our happiness results from the Son's interest in the Father and
   the prevalency of his intercession, that he always heard him; and this
   makes the gospel time an acceptable time, welcome to us, because we are
   accepted of God, both reconciled and recommended to him, that God hears
   the Redeemer for us, Heb. vii. 25. Nor will he hear him only, but help
   him to go through with his undertaking. The Father was always with him
   at his right hand, and did not leave him when his disciples did.
   Violent attacks were made upon our Lord Jesus by the powers of
   darkness, when it was their hour, to drive him off from his
   undertakings, but God promises to preserve him and enable him to
   persevere in it; on that one stone were seven eyes, Zech. iii. 9. God
   would preserve him, would preserve his interest, his kingdom among men,
   though fought against on all sides. Christ is preserved while
   Christianity is.

   2. God will authorize him to apply to his church the benefits of the
   redemption he is to work out. God's preserving and helping him was to
   make the day of his gospel a day of salvation. And so the apostle
   understands it: Behold, now is the day of salvation, now the word of
   reconciliation by Christ is preached, 2 Cor. vi. 2.

   (1.) He shall be guarantee of the treaty of peace between God and man:
   I will give thee for a covenant of the people. This we had before (ch.
   xlii. 6), and it is here repeated as faithful, and well worthy of all
   acceptation and observation. He is given for a covenant, that is, for a
   pledge of all the blessings of the covenant. It was in him that God was
   reconciling the world to himself; and he that spared not his own Son
   will deny us nothing. He is given for a covenant, not only as he is the
   Mediator of the covenant, the blessed days-man who has laid his hand
   upon us both, but as he is all in all in the covenant. All the duty of
   the covenant is summed up in our being his; and all the privilege and
   happiness of the covenant are summed up in his being ours.

   (2.) He shall repair the decays of the church and build it upon a rock.
   He shall establish the earth, or rather the land, the land of Judea, a
   type of the church. He shall cause the desolate heritages to be
   inherited; so the cities of Judah were after the return out of
   captivity, and so the church, which in the last and degenerate ages of
   the Jewish nation had been as a country laid waste, but was again
   replenished by the fruits of the preaching of the gospel.

   (3.) He shall free the souls of men from the bondage of guilt and
   corruption and bring them into the glorious liberty of God's children.
   He shall say to the prisoners that were bound over to the justice of
   God, and bound under the power of Satan, Go forth, v. 9. Pardoning
   mercy is a release from the curse of the law, and renewing grace is a
   release from the dominion of sin. Both are from Christ, and are
   branches of the great salvation. It is he that says, Go forth; it is
   the Son that makes us free, and then we are free indeed. He saith to
   those that are in darkness, Show yourselves; "not only see, but be
   seen, to the glory of God and your own comfort." When he discharged the
   lepers from their confinement, he said, Go show yourselves to the
   priest. When we see the light, let our light shine.

   (4.) He shall provide for the comfortable passage of those whom he sets
   at liberty to the place of their rest and happy settlement, v. 9-11.
   These verses refer to the provision made for the Jews' return out of
   their captivity, who were taken under the particular care of the divine
   Providence, as favourites of Heaven, and now so in a special manner;
   but they are applicable to that guidance of divine grace which all
   God's spiritual Israel are under, from their release out of bondage to
   their settlement in the heavenly Canaan. [1.] They shall have their
   charges borne and shall be fed at free cost with food convenient: They
   shall feed in the ways, as sheep; for now, as formerly, God leads
   Joseph like a flock. When God pleases even highway ground shall be good
   ground for the sheep of his pasture to feed in. Their pastures shall be
   not only in the valleys, but in all high places, which are commonly dry
   and barren. Wherever God brings his people he will take care they shall
   want nothing that is good for them, Ps. xxxiv. 10. And so well shall
   they be provided for that they shall not hunger nor thirst, for what
   they need they shall have seasonably, before their need of it comes to
   an extremity. [2.] They shall be sheltered and protected from every
   thing that would incommode them: Neither shall the heat nor sun smite
   them, or God causes his flock to rest at noon, Cant. i. 7. No evil
   thing shall befal those that put themselves under a divine protection;
   they shall be enabled to bear the burden and heat of the day. [3.] They
   shall be under God's gracious guidance: He that has mercy on them, in
   bringing them out of their captivity, shall lead them, as he did their
   fathers in the wilderness, by a pillar of cloud and fire. Even by
   springs of water, which will be ready to them in their march, shall he
   guide them. God will furnish them with suitable and seasonable
   comforts, not like the pools of rainwater in the valley of Baca, but
   like the water out of the rock which followed Israel. Those who are
   under a divine guidance, and follow that closely, while they do so,
   may, upon good grounds, hope for divine comforts and cordials. The
   world leads its followers by broken cisterns, or brooks that fail in
   summer; but God leads those that are his by springs of water. And those
   whom God guides shall find a ready road and all obstacles removed (v.
   11): I will make all my mountains a way. He that in times past made the
   sea a way, now with as much ease will make the mountains a way, though
   they seemed impassable. The highway, or causeway, shall be raised, to
   make it both the plainer and the fairer. Note, The ways in which God
   leads his people he himself will be the overseer of, and will take care
   that they be well mended and kept in repair, as of old the ways that
   led to the cities of refuge. The levelling of the roads from Babylon,
   as it was foretold (ch. xl. 2, 3), was applied to gospel work, and so
   may this be. Though there be difficulties in the way to heaven, which
   we cannot by our own strength get over, yet the grace of God shall be
   sufficient to help us over them and to make even the mountains a way,
   ch. xxxv. 8.

   (5.) He shall bring them all together from all parts, that they may
   return in a body, that they may encourage one another and be the more
   taken notice of. They were dispersed into several parts of the country
   of Babylon, as their enemies pleased, to prevent any combination among
   themselves. But, when God's time shall come to bring them home
   together, one spirit shall animate them all, all that lie at the
   greatest distance from each other, and those also that had taken
   shelter in other countries shall meet them in the land of Judah, v. 12.
   Here shall a party come from far, some from the north, some from the
   west, some from the land of Sinim, which probably is some province of
   Babylon not elsewhere named in scripture, but some make it to be a
   country belonging to one of the chief cities of Egypt, called Sin, of
   which we read, Ezek. xxx. 15, 16. Now this promise was to have a
   further accomplishment in the great confluence of converts to the
   gospel church, and its full accomplishment when God's chosen shall come
   from the east and from the west to sit down with the patriarchs in the
   kingdom of God, Matt. viii. 11.

Encouragement to Zion. (b. c. 706.)

   13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
   singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will
   have mercy upon his afflicted.   14 But Zion said, The Lord hath
   forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.   15 Can a woman forget her
   sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
   womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.   16 Behold, I
   have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually
   before me.   17 Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they
   that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

   The scope of these verses is to show that the return of the people of
   God out of their captivity, and the eternal redemption to be wrought
   out by Christ (of which that was a type), would be great occasions of
   joy to the church and great proofs of the tender care God has of the
   church.

   I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and
   thanksgiving, v. 13. Let the whole creation join with us in songs of
   joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption, and all
   they can contribute to this sacred melody is little enough in return
   for such inestimable favours, Ps. xcvi. 11. Let there be joy in heaven,
   and let the angels of God celebrate the praises of the great Redeemer;
   let the earth and the mountains, particularly the great ones of the
   earth, be joyful, and break forth into singing, for the earnest
   expectation of the creature that waits for the glorious liberty of the
   children of God (Rom. viii. 19, 21) shall now be abundantly answered.
   God's people are the blessings and ornaments of the world, and
   therefore let there be universal joy, for God has comforted his people
   that were in sorrow and he will have mercy upon the afflicted because
   of his compassion, upon his afflicted because of his covenant.

   II. Nothing can furnish us with more convincing arguments to prove the
   most tender and affectionate concern God has for his church, and her
   interests and comforts.

   1. The troubles of the church have given some occasion to question
   God's care and concern for it, v. 14. Zion, in distress, said, The Lord
   has forsaken me, and looks after me no more; my Lord has forgotten me,
   and will look after me no more. See how deplorable the case of God's
   people may be sometimes, such that they may seem to be forsaken and
   forgotten of their God; and at such a time their temptations may be
   alarmingly violent. Infidels, in their presumption, say God has
   forsaken the earth (Ezek. viii. 12), and has forgotten their sins, Ps.
   x. 11. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, "God has
   forsaken his church and forgotten the sorrows of his people." But we
   have no more reason to question his promise and grace than we have to
   question his providence and justice. He is as sure a rewarder as he is
   a revenger. Away therefore with these distrusts and jealousies, which
   are the bane of friendship.

   2. The triumphs of the church, after her troubles, will in due time put
   the matter out of question.

   (1.) What God will do for Zion we are told, v. 17. [1.] Her friends,
   who had deserted her, shall be gathered to her, and shall contribute
   their utmost to her assistance and comfort: Thy children shall make
   haste. Converts to the faith of Christ are the children of the church;
   they shall join themselves to her with great readiness and
   cheerfulness, and flock into the communion of saints, as doves to their
   windows. "Thy builders shall make haste" (so some read it), "who shall
   build up thy houses, thy walls, especially thy temple; they shall do it
   with expedition." Church work is usually slow work; but, when God's
   time shall come, it shall be done suddenly. [2.] Her enemies, who had
   threatened and assaulted her, shall be forced to withdraw from her: Thy
   destroyers, and those who made thee waste, who had made themselves
   masters of the country and ravaged it, shall go forth of thee. By
   Christ the prince of this world, the great destroyer, is cast out, is
   dispossessed, has his power broken and his attempts quite baffled.

   (2.) Now by this it will appear that Zion's suggestions were altogether
   groundless, that God has not forsaken her, nor forgotten her, nor ever
   will. Be assured, [1.] That God has a tender affection for his church
   and people, v. 15. In answer to Zion's fears, God speaks as one
   concerned for his own glory (he takes himself to be reflected upon if
   Zion say, The Lord has forsaken me, and he will clear himself), as one
   concerned also for his people's comfort; he would not have them droop,
   and be discouraged, and give way to any uneasy thoughts. "You think
   that I have forgotten you. Can a woman forget her sucking child?"
   First, It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to
   be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have
   compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a
   proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot but be
   concerned for her own child; for it is her own, a piece of herself, and
   very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be
   tender of her sucking child; her own breasts will soon put her in mind
   of it if she should forget it. But, Secondly, It is possible that she
   may forget. A woman may perhaps be so unhappy as not to be able to
   remember her sucking child (she may be sick, and dying, and going to
   the land of forgetfulness), or she may be so unnatural as not to have
   compassion on the son of her womb, as those who, to conceal their
   shame, are the death of their children as soon as they are their life,
   Lam. iv. 10; Deut. xxviii. 57. But, says God, I will not forget thee.
   Note, God's compassions to his people infinitely exceed those of the
   tenderest parents towards their children. What are the affections of
   nature to those of the God of nature! [2.] That he has a constant care
   of his church and people (v. 16): I have engraven thee upon the palms
   of my hands. This does not allude to the foolish art of palmistry,
   which imagines every man's fate to be engraved in the palms of his
   hands and to be legible in the lines there, but to the custom of those
   who tie a string upon their hands or fingers to put them in mind of
   things which they are afraid they shall forget, or to the wearing of
   signet or locket-rings in remembrance of some dear friend. His setting
   them thus as a seal upon his arm denotes his setting them as a seal
   upon his heart, and his being ever mindful of them and their interests,
   Cant. viii. 6. If we bind God's law as a sign upon our hand (Deut. vi.
   8, 11, 18), he will engrave our interests as a sign on his hand, and
   will look upon that and remember the covenant. He adds, "Thy walls
   shall be continually before me; thy ruined walls, though no pleasing
   spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion." Do Zions' friends
   favour her dust? Ps. cii. 14. So does her God. Or, "The plan and model
   of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before me, and they shall
   certainly be built according to it." Or, "Thy walls (that is, thy
   safety) are my continual care; so are the watchmen on thy walls." Some
   apply his engraving his church on the palms of his hands to the wounds
   in Christ's hands when he was crucified; he will look on the marks of
   them, and remember those for whom he suffered and died.

Encouragement to Zion. (b. c. 706.)

   18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather
   themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou
   shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind
   them on thee, as a bride doeth.   19 For thy waste and thy desolate
   places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow
   by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be
   far away.   20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost
   the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for
   me: give place to me that I may dwell.   21 Then shalt thou say in
   thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my
   children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who
   hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they
   been?   22 Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to
   the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall
   bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon
   their shoulders.   23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their
   queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face
   toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know
   that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

   Two things are here promised, which were to be in part accomplished in
   the reviving of the Jewish church after its return out of captivity,
   but more fully in the planting of the Christian church by the preaching
   of the gospel of Christ; and we may take the comfort of these promises.

   I. That the church shall be replenished with great numbers added to it.
   It was promised (v. 17) that her children should make haste; that
   promise is here enlarged upon, and is made very encouraging. It is
   promised,

   1. That multitudes shall flock to the church from all parts. Look
   round, and see how they gather themselves to thee (v. 18), by a local
   accession to the Jewish church. They come to Jerusalem from all the
   adjacent countries, for that was then the centre of their unity; but,
   under the gospel, it is by a spiritual accession to the mystical body
   of Christ in faith and love. Those that come to Jesus as the Mediator
   of the new covenant do thereby come to the Mount Zion, the church of
   the first-born, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Lift up thy eyes, and behold how the
   fields are white unto the harvest, John iv. 35. Note, It is matter of
   joy to the church to see a multitude of converts to Christ.

   2. That such as are added to the church shall not be a burden and
   blemish to her, but her strength and ornament. This part of the promise
   is confirmed with an oath: As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely
   clothe thyself with them all. The addition of such numbers to the
   church shall complete her clothing; and, when all that were chosen are
   effectually called, then the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall have made
   herself ready, shall be quite dressed, Rev. xix. 7. They shall make her
   to appear comely and considerable; and she shall therefore bind them on
   with as much care and complacency as a bride does her ornaments. When
   those that are added to the church are serious, and holy, and exemplary
   in their conversation, they are an ornament to it.

   3. That thus the country which was waste and desolate, and without
   inhabitant (ch. v. 9; vi. 11), shall be again peopled, nay, it shall be
   over-peopled (v. 19): "Thy waste and thy desolate places, that have
   long lain so, and the land of thy destruction, that land of thine which
   was destroyed with thee and which nobody cared for dwelling in, shall
   now be so full of people that there shall be no room for the
   inhabitants." Here is blessing poured out till there be not room enough
   to receive it, Mal. iii. 10. Not that they shall be crowded by their
   enemies, or straitened for room, as Abraham and Lot were, because of
   the Canaanite in the land. "No, those that swallow thee up, and took
   possession of thy land when thy possession of it was discontinued,
   shall be far away. Thy people shall be numerous, and there shall be no
   stranger, no enemy, among them." Thus the kingdom of God among men,
   which had been impoverished and almost depopulated, partly by the
   corruptions of the Jewish church and partly by the abominations of the
   Gentile world, was again peopled and enriched by the setting up of the
   Christian church, and by its graces and glories.

   4. That the new converts shall strangely increase and multiply.
   Jerusalem, after she has lost abundance of her children by the sword,
   famine, and captivity, shall have a new family growing up instead of
   them, children which she shall have after she has lost the other (v.
   20), as Seth, who was appointed another seed instead of Abel, and Job's
   children, which God blessed him with instead of those that were killed
   in the ruins of the house. God will repair his church's losses and
   secure to himself a seed to serve him in it. It is promised to the
   Jews, after their return, that Jerusalem shall be full of boys and
   girls playing in the streets, Zech. viii. 5. The church, after it has
   lost the Jews, who will be cut off by their own infidelity, shall have
   abundance of children still, more than she had when the Jews belonged
   to her. See Gal. iv. 27. They shall be so numerous that, (1.) The
   Children shall complain for want of room; they shall say (and it is a
   good hearing), "Our numbers increase so fast that the place is too
   strait for us;" as the sons of the prophets complained, 2 Kings vi. 1.
   But, strait as the place is, still more shall desire to be admitted,
   and the church shall gladly admit them, and the inconvenient straitness
   of the place shall be no hindrance to either; for it will be found,
   whatever we think, that even when the poor and the maimed, the halt and
   the blind, are brought in, yet still there is room, room enough for
   those that are in and room for more, Luke xiv. 21, 22. (2.) The mother
   shall stand amazed at the increase of her family, v. 21. She shall say,
   Who has begotten me these? and, Who has brought up these? They come to
   her with all the duty, affection, and submission of children; and yet
   she never bore any pain for them, nor took any pains with them, but has
   them ready reared to her hand. This gives her a pleasing surprise, and
   she cannot but be astonished at it, considering what her condition had
   been very lately and very long. The Jewish nation had left her
   children; they were cut off. She had been desolate, without ark, and
   altar, and temple-service, those tokens of God's espousals to them;
   nay, she had been a captive, and continually removing to and fro, in an
   unsettled condition, and not likely to bring up children either for God
   or herself. She was left alone in obscurity (this is Zion whom no man
   seeks after), left in all the solitude and sorrow of a widowed state.
   How then came she to be thus replenished? See here, [1.] That the
   church is not perpetually visible, but there are times when it is
   desolate, and left alone, and made few in number. [2.] That yet on the
   other hand its desolations shall not be perpetual, nor will it be found
   too hard for God to repair them, and out of stones to raise up children
   unto Abraham. [3.] That sometimes this is done in a very surprising
   way, as when a nation is born at once, ch. lxvi. 8.

   5. That this shall be done with the help of the Gentiles, v. 22. The
   Jews were cast off, among whom it was expected that the church should
   be built up; but God will sow it to himself in the earth, and will
   thence reap a plentiful crop, Hos. ii. 23. Observe, (1.) How the
   Gentiles shall be called in. God will lift up his hand to them, to
   invite or beckon them, having all the day stretched it out in vain to
   the Jews, ch. lxv. 2. Or it denotes the exerting of an almighty power,
   that of his Spirit and grace, to compel them to come in, to make them
   willing. And he will set up his standard to them, the preaching of the
   everlasting gospel, to which they shall gather, and under which they
   shall enlist themselves. (2.) How they shall come: They shall bring thy
   sons in their arms. They shall assist the sons of Zion, which are found
   among them, in their return to their own country, and shall forward
   them with as much tenderness as ever any parent carried a child that
   was weak and helpless. God can raise up friends for returning
   Israelites even among Gentiles. The earth helped the woman, Rev. xii.
   16. Or, "When they come themselves, they shall bring their children,
   and make them thy children;" compare ch. lx. 4. "Dost thou ask, Who has
   begotten and brought up these? Know that they were begotten and brought
   up among the Gentiles, but they are now brought into thy family." Let
   all that are concerned about young converts, and young beginners in
   religion, learn hence to deal very tenderly and carefully with them, as
   Christ does with the lambs which he gathers with his arms and carries
   in his bosom.

   II. That the church shall have a great and prevailing interest in the
   nations, v. 22, 23. 1. Some of the princes of the nations shall become
   patrons and protectors to the church: Kings shall be thy nursing
   fathers, to carry thy sons in their arms (as Moses, Num. xi. 12); and,
   because women are the most proper nurses, their queens shall be thy
   nursing mothers. This promise was in part fulfilled to the Jews, after
   their return out of captivity. Several of the kings of Persia were very
   tender of their interests, countenanced and encouraged them, as Cyrus,
   Darius, and Artaxerxes; Esther the queen was a nursing mother to the
   Jews that remained in their captivity, putting her life in her hand to
   snatch the child out of the flames. The Christian church, after a long
   captivity, was happy in some such kings and queens as Constantine and
   his mother Helena, and afterwards Theodosius, and others, who nursed
   the church with all possible care and tenderness. Whenever the sceptre
   of government is put into the hands of religious princes, then this
   promise is fulfilled. The church in this world is in an infant state,
   and it is in the power of princes and magistrates to do it a great deal
   of service; it is happy when they do so, when their power is a praise
   to those that do well. 2. Others of them, who stand it out against the
   church's interests, will be forced to yield and to repent of their
   opposition: They shall bow down to thee and lick the dust. The promise
   to the church of Philadelphia seems to be borrowed from this (Rev. iii.
   9): I will make those of the synagogue of Satan to come and worship
   before thy feet. Or it may be meant of the willing subjection which
   kings and kingdoms shall pay to Christ the church's King, as he
   manifests himself in the church (Ps. lxxii. 11): All kings shall fall
   down before him. And by all this it shall be made to appear, (1.) That
   God is the Lord, the sovereign Lord of all, against whom there is no
   standing out nor rising up. (2.) That those who wait for him, in a
   dependence upon his promise and a resignation to his will, shall not be
   made ashamed of their hope; for the vision of peace is for an appointed
   time, and at the end it shall speak and shall not lie.

Encouragement to Zion. (b. c. 706.)

   24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive
   delivered?   25 But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the
   mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be
   delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I
   will save thy children.   26 And I will feed them that oppress thee
   with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood,
   as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy
   Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

   Here is, I. An objection started against the promise of the Jews'
   release out of their captivity in Babylon, suggesting that it was a
   thing not to be expected; for (v. 24) they were a prey in the hand of
   the mighty, of such as were then the greatest potentates on earth, and
   therefore it was not likely they should be rescued by force. Yet that
   was not all: they were lawful captives; by the law of God, having
   offended, they were justly delivered into captivity; and by the law of
   nations, being taken in war, they were justly detained in captivity
   till they should be ransomed or exchanged. Now this is spoken either,
   1. By the enemies, as justifying themselves in their refusal to let
   them go. They plead both might and right. Proud men think all their own
   that they can lay their hands on and their title good if they have but
   the longest sword. Or, 2. By their friends, either in a way of
   distrust, despairing of the deliverance ("for who is able to deal with
   those that detain us, either by force of arms or a treaty of peace?"),
   or in a way of thankfulness, admiring the deliverance. "Who would have
   thought that ever the prey should be taken from the mighty? Yet it is
   done." This is applicable to our redemption by Christ. As to Satan, we
   were a prey in the hand of the mighty, and yet delivered even from him
   that had the power of death, by him that had the power of life. As to
   the justice of God, we were lawful captives, and yet delivered by a
   price of inestimable value.

   II. This objection answered by an express promise, and a further
   promise; for God's promises being all yea, and amen, they may well
   serve to corroborate one another. 1. Here is an express promise with a
   non-obstante--notwithstanding to the strength of the enemy (v. 25):
   "Even the captives of the mighty, though they are mighty, shall be
   taken away, and it is to no purpose for them to oppose it; and the prey
   of the terrible, though they are terrible, shall be delivered; and, as
   they cannot with all their strength outforce, so they cannot with all
   their impudence outface, the deliverance, and the counsels of God
   concerning it." The Lord saith thus, who, having all power and all
   hearts in his hands is able to make his words good. 2. Here is a
   further promise, showing how, and in what way, God will bring about the
   deliverance. He will bring judgments upon the oppressors, and so will
   work salvation for the oppressed: "I will contend with him that
   contends with thee, will plead thy cause against those that justify
   themselves in oppressing thee; whoever it be, though but a single
   person, that contends with thee, he shall know that it is at his peril,
   and thus I will save thy children." The captives shall be delivered by
   leading captivity captive, that is, sending those into captivity that
   had held God's people captive, Rev. xiii. 10. Nay, they shall have
   blood for blood (v. 26): "I will feed those that oppress thee with
   their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood. The
   proud Babylonians shall become not only an easy, but an acceptable,
   prey to one another. God will send a dividing spirit among them, and
   their ruin, which was begun by a foreign invasion, shall be completed
   by their intestine divisions. They shall bite and devour one another,
   till they are consumed one of another. They shall greedily and with
   delight prey upon those that are their own flesh and blood." God can
   make the oppressors of his church to be their own tormentors and their
   own destroyers. The New-Testament Babylon, having made herself drunk
   with the blood of the saints, shall have blood given her to drink, for
   she is worthy. See how cruel men sometimes are to themselves and to one
   another: indeed those who are so to others are so to themselves, for
   God's justice and men's revenge will mete to them what they have
   measured to others. They not only thirst after blood, but drink it so
   greedily that they are drunken with it, and with as much pleasure as if
   it were sweet wine. If God had not more mercy on sinners than they
   would have one upon another were their passions let loose, the world
   would be soon an Aceldama, nay, a desolation.

   III. See what will be the effect of Babylon's ruin: All flesh shall
   know that I the Lord am thy Saviour. God will make it to appear, to the
   conviction of all the world, that, though Israel seem lost and cast
   off, they have a Redeemer, and, though they are made a prey to the
   mighty, Jacob has a mighty One, who is able to deal with all his
   enemies. God intends, by the deliverances of his church, both to notify
   and to magnify his own name.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. L.

   In this chapter, I. Those to whom God sends are justly charged with
   bringing all the troubles they were in upon themselves, by their own
   wilfulness and obstinacy, it being made to appear that God was able and
   ready to help them if they had been fit for deliverance, ver. 1-3. II.
   He by whom God sends produces his commission (ver. 4), alleges his own
   readiness to submit to all the services and sufferings he was called to
   in the execution of it (ver. 5, 6), and assures himself that God, who
   sent him, would stand by him and bear him out against all opposition,
   ver. 7-9. III. The message that is sent is life and death, good and
   evil, the blessing and the curse, comfort to desponding saints and
   terror to presuming sinners, ver. 10, 11. Now all this seems to have a
   double reference, 1. To the unbelieving Jews in Babylon, who quarrelled
   with God for his dealings with them, and to the prophet Isaiah, who,
   though dead long before the captivity, yet, prophesying so plainly and
   fully of it, saw fit to produce his credentials, to justify what he had
   said. 2. To the unbelieving Jews in our Saviour's time, whose own fault
   it was that they were rejected, Christ having preached much to them,
   and suffered much from them, and being herein borne up by a divine
   power. The "contents" of this chapter, in our Bibles, give this sense
   of it, very concisely, thus:--"Christ shows that the dereliction of the
   Jews is not to be imputed to him, by his ability to save, by his
   obedience in that work, and by his confidence in divine assistance."
   The prophet concludes with an exhortation to trust in God and not in
   ourselves.

Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement,
   whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have
   sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for
   your transgressions is your mother put away.   2 Wherefore, when I
   came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my
   hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to
   deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a
   wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth
   for thirst.   3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make
   sackcloth their covering.

   Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be
   dealt severely with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault
   upon him, as if he had been hard with them. But, in answer to their
   murmurings, we have here,

   I. A challenge given them to prove, or produce any evidence, that the
   quarrel began on God's side, v. 1. They could not say that he had done
   them any wrong or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a husband to
   them; and husbands were then allowed a power to put away their wives
   upon any little disgust: if their wives found not favour in their eyes,
   they made nothing of giving them a bill of divorce, Deut. xxiv. 1;
   Matt. xix. 7. But they could not say that God had dealt so with them.
   It is true they were now separated from him, and had abode many days
   without ephod, altar, or sacrifice; but whose fault was that? They
   could not say that God had given their mother a bill of divorce; let
   them produce it if they can, for a bill of divorce was given into the
   hand of her that was divorced. 2. He had been a father to them; and
   fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their
   creditors, in satisfaction for the debts they were not otherwise able
   to pay. Now it is true the Jews were sold to the Babylonians then, and
   afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of his
   debts? No, he was not indebted to any of those to whom they were sold,
   or, if he had sold them, he did not increase his wealth by their price,
   Ps. xliv. 12. When God chastens his children, it is neither for his
   pleasure (Heb. xii. 10) nor for his profit. All that are saved are
   saved by a prerogative of grace, but those that perish are cut off by
   an act of divine holiness and justice, not of absolute sovereignty.

   II. A charge exhibited against them, showing them that they were
   themselves the authors of their own ruin: "Behold, for your iniquities,
   for the pleasure of them and the gratification of your own base lusts,
   you have sold yourselves, for your iniquities you are sold; not as
   children are sold by their parents, to pay their debts, but as
   malefactors are sold by the judges, to punish them for their crimes.
   You sold yourselves to work wickedness, and therefore God justly sold
   you into the hands of your enemies, 2 Chron. xii. 5, 8. It is for your
   transgressions that your mother is put away, for her whoredoms and
   adulteries," which were always allowed to be a just cause of divorce.
   The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke
   the marriage covenant, and were at last rejected for crucifying the
   Lord of glory; these were the iniquities for which they were sold and
   put away.

   III. The confirmation of this challenge and this charge. 1. It is plain
   that it was owing to themselves that they were cast off; for God came
   and offered them his favour, offered them his helping hand, either to
   prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted
   him and all the tenders of his grace. "Do you lay it upon me?" (says
   God); "tell me, then, wherefore, when I came, was there no man to meet
   me, when I called, was there none to answer me?" v. 2. God came to them
   by his servants the prophets, demanding the fruits of his vineyard
   (Matt. xxi. 34); he sent them his messengers, rising up betimes and
   sending them (Jer. xxxv. 15); he called to them to leave their sins,
   and so prevent their own ruin: but was there no man, or next to none,
   that had any regard to the warnings which the prophets gave them, none
   that answered the calls of God, or complied with the messages he sent
   them; and this was it for which they were sold and put away. Because
   they mocked the messengers of the Lord, therefore, God brought upon
   them the king of the Chaldeans, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16, 17. Last of all he
   sent unto them his Son. He came to his own, but his own received him
   not; he called them to himself, but there were none that answered; he
   would have gathered Jerusalem's children together, but they would not;
   they knew not, because they would not know, the things that belonged to
   their peace, nor the day of their visitation, and for that
   transgression it was that they were put away and their house was left
   desolate, Matt. xxi. 41; xxiii. 37, 38; Luke xix. 41, 42. When God
   calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left
   to be miserable. 2. It is plain that it was not owing to a want of
   power in God, for he is almighty, and could have recovered them from so
   great a death; nor was it owing to a want of power in Christ, for he is
   able to save to the uttermost. The unbelieving Jews in Babylon thought
   they were not delivered because their God was not able to deliver them;
   and those in Christ's time were ready to ask, in scorn, Can this man
   save us? For himself he cannot save. "But" (says God) "is my hand
   shortened at all, or is it weakened?" Can any limits be set to
   Omnipotence? Cannot he redeem who is the great Redeemer? Has he no
   power to deliver whose all power is? To put to silence, and for ever to
   put to shame, their doubts concerning his power, he here gives
   unquestionable proofs of it. (1.) He can, when he pleases, dry up the
   seas, and make the rivers a wilderness. He did so for Israel when he
   redeemed them out of Egypt, and he can do so again for their redemption
   out of Babylon. It is done at his rebuke, as easily as with a word's
   speaking. He can so dry up the rivers as to leave the fish to die for
   want of water, and to putrefy. When God turned the waters of Egypt into
   blood he slew the fish, Ps. cv. 29. The expression our Saviour
   sometimes used concerning the power of faith, that it will remove
   mountains and plant sycamores in the sea, is not unlike this; if their
   faith could do that, no doubt their faith would save them, and
   therefore they were inexcusable if they perished in unbelief. (2.) He
   can, when he pleases, eclipse the lights of heaven, clothe them with
   blackness, and make sackcloth their covering (v. 3) by thick and dark
   clouds interposing, which he balances, Job xxxvi. 32; xxxvii. 16.

Work and Sufferings of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should
   know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth
   morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.   5
   The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither
   turned away back.   6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to
   them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and
   spitting.   7 For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be
   confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that
   I shall not be ashamed.   8 He is near that justifieth me; who will
   contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him
   come near to me.   9 Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that
   shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth
   shall eat them up.

   Our Lord Jesus, having proved himself able to save, here shows himself
   as willing as he is able. We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say
   something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself
   to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships
   he met with, not doubting but that God would stand by him and
   strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of
   Christ, who is here prophesied of and promised to be the Saviour.

   I. As an acceptable preacher. Isaiah, a a prophet, was qualified for
   the work to which he was called, so were the rest of God's prophets,
   and others whom he employed as his messengers; but Christ was anointed
   with the Spirit above his fellows. To make the man of God perfect, he
   has, 1. The tongue of the learned, to know how to give instruction, how
   to speak a word in season to him that is weary, v. 4. God, who made
   man's mouth, gave Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the
   terror and conviction of Pharaoh, Exod. iv. 11, 12. He gave to Christ
   the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of
   those that are weary and heavily laden under the burden of sin, Matt.
   xi. 28. Grace was poured into his lips, and they are said to drop
   sweet-smelling myrrh. See what is the best learning of a minister, to
   know how to comfort troubled consciences, and to speak pertinently,
   properly, and plainly, to the various cases of poor souls. An ability
   to do this is God's gift, and it is one of the best gifts, which we
   should covet earnestly. Let us repose ourselves in the many comfortable
   words which Christ has spoken to the weary. 2. The ear of the learned,
   to receive instruction. Prophets have as much need of this as of the
   tongue of the learned; for they must deliver what they are taught and
   no other, must hear the word from God's mouth diligently and
   attentively, that they may speak it exactly, Ezek. iii. 17. Christ
   himself received that he might give. None must undertake to be teachers
   who have not first been learners. Christ's apostles were first
   disciples, scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii.
   52. Nor is it enough to hear, but we must hear as the learned, hear and
   understand, hear and remember, hear as those that would learn by what
   we hear. Those that would hear as the learned must be awake, and
   wakeful; for we are naturally drowsy and sleepy, and unapt to hear at
   all, or we hear by the halves, hear and do not heed. Our ears need to
   be wakened; we need to have something said to rouse us, to awaken us
   out of our spiritual slumbers, that we may hear as for our lives. We
   need to be awakened morning by morning, as duly as the day returns, to
   be awakened to do the work of the day in its day. Our case calls for
   continual fresh supplies of divine grace, to free us from the dulness
   we contract daily. The morning, when our spirits are most lively, is a
   proper time for communion with God; then we are in the best frame both
   to speak to him (my voice shalt thou hear in the morning) and to hear
   from him. The people came early in the morning to hear Christ in the
   temple (Luke xxi. 38), for, it seems, his were morning lectures. And it
   is God that wakens us morning by morning. If we do any thing to purpose
   in his service, it is he who, as our Master, calls us up; and we should
   doze perpetually if he did not waken us morning by morning.

   II. As a patient sufferer, v. 5, 6. One would think that he who was
   commissioned and qualified to speak comfort to the weary should meet
   with no difficulty in his work, but universal acceptance. It is however
   quite otherwise; he has both hard work to do and hard usage to undergo;
   and here he tells us with what undaunted constancy he went through with
   it. We have no reason to question but that the prophet Isaiah went on
   resolutely in the work to which God had called him, though we read not
   of his undergoing any such hardships as are here supposed; but we are
   sure that the prediction was abundantly verified in Jesus Christ: and
   here we have, 1. His patient obedience in his doing work. "The Lord God
   has not only wakened my ear to hear what he says, but has opened my ear
   to receive it, and comply with it" (Ps. xl. 6, 7, My ear hast thou
   opened; then said I, Lo, I come); for when he adds, I was not
   rebellious, neither turned away back, more is implied than
   expressed--that he was willing, that though he foresaw a great deal of
   difficulty and discouragement, though he was to take pains and give
   constant attendance as a servant, though he was to empty himself of
   that which was very great and humble himself to that which was very
   mean, yet he did not fly off, did not fail, nor was discouraged. He
   continued very free and forward to his work even when he came to the
   hardest part of it. Note, As a good understanding in the truths of God,
   so a good will to the work and service of God, is from the grace of
   God. 2. His obedient patience in his suffering work. I call it obedient
   patience because he was patient with an eye to his Father's will, thus
   pleading with himself, This commandment have I received of my Father,
   and thus submitting to God, Not as I will, but as thou wilt. In this
   submission he resigned himself, (1.) To be scourged: I gave my back to
   the smiters; and that not only by submitting to the indignity when he
   was smitten, but by permitting it (or admitting it rather) among the
   other instances of pain and shame which he would voluntarily undergo
   for us. (2.) To be buffeted: I gave my cheeks to those that not only
   smote them, but plucked off the hair of the beard, which was a greater
   degree both of pain and of ignominy. (3.) To be spit upon: I hid not my
   face from shame and spitting. He could have hidden his face from it,
   could have avoided it, but he would not, because he was made a reproach
   of men, and thus he would answer to the type of Job, that man of
   sorrows, of whom it is said that they smote him on the cheek
   reproachfully (Job xvi. 10), which was an expression not only of
   contempt, but of abhorrence and indignation. All this Christ underwent
   for us, and voluntarily, to convince us of his willingness to save us.

   III. As a courageous champion, v. 7-9. The Redeemer is as famous for
   his boldness as for his humility and patience, and, though he yields,
   yet he is more than a conqueror. Observe, 1. The dependence he has upon
   God. What was the prophet Isaiah's support was the support of Christ
   himself (v. 7): The Lord God will help me; and again, v. 9. Those whom
   God employs he will assist, and will take care they want not any help
   that they or their work call for. God, having laid help upon his Son
   for us, gave help to him, and his hand was all along with the man of
   his right hand. Nor will he only assist him in his work, but accept of
   him (v. 8): He is near that justifieth. Isaiah, no doubt, was falsely
   accused and loaded with reproach and calumny, as other prophets were;
   but he despised the reproach, knowing that God would roll it away and
   bring forth his righteousness as the light, perhaps in this world (Ps.
   xxxvii. 6), at furthest in the great day, when there will be a
   resurrection of names as well as bodies, and the righteous shall shine
   forth as the morning sun. And so it was verified in Christ; by his
   resurrection he was proved to be not the man that he was represented,
   not a blasphemer, not a deceiver, not an enemy to Cæsar. The judge that
   condemned him owned he found no fault in him; the centurion, or
   sheriff, that had charge of his execution, declared him a righteous
   man: so near was he that justified him. But it was true of him in a
   further and more peculiar sense: the Father justified him when he
   accepted the satisfaction he made for the sin of man, and constituted
   him the Lord our righteousness, who was made sin for us. He was
   justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16. He was near who did it; for
   his resurrection, by which he was justified, soon followed his
   condemnation and crucifixion. He was straightway glorified, John xiii.
   32. 2. The confidence he thereupon has of success in his undertaking:
   "If God will help me, if he will justify me, will stand by me and bear
   me out, I shall not be confounded, as those are that come short of the
   end they aimed at and the satisfaction they promised themselves: I know
   that I shall not be ashamed." Though his enemies did all they could to
   put him to shame, yet he kept his ground, he kept his countenance, and
   was not ashamed of the work he had undertaken. Note, Work for God is
   work that we should not be ashamed of; and hope in God is hope that we
   shall not be ashamed of. Those that trust in God for help shall not be
   disappointed; they know whom they have trusted, and therefore know they
   shall not be ashamed. 3. The defiance which in this confidence he bids
   to all opposers and opposition: "God will help me, and therefore have I
   set my face like a flint." The prophet did so; he was bold in reproving
   sin, in warning sinners (Ezek. iii. 8, 9), and in asserting the truth
   of his predictions. Christ did so; he went on in his work, as Mediator,
   with unshaken constancy and undaunted resolution; he did not fail nor
   was discouraged; and here he challenges all his opposers, (1.) To enter
   the lists with him: Who will contend with me, either in law or by the
   sword? Let us stand together as combatants, or as the plaintiff and
   defendant. Who is my adversary? Who is the master of my cause? so the
   word is, "Who will pretend to enter an action against me? Let him
   appear, and come near to me, for I will not abscond." Many offered to
   dispute with Christ, but he put them to silence. The prophet speaks
   this in the name of all faithful ministers; those who keep close to the
   pure word of God, in delivering their message, need not fear
   contradiction; the scriptures will bear them out, whoever contends with
   them. Great is the truth and will prevail. Christ speaks this in the
   name of all believers, speaks it as their champion. Who dares be an
   enemy to those whom he is a friend to, or contend with those for whom
   he is an advocate? Thus St. Paul applies it (Rom. viii. 33): Who shall
   lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? (2.) He challenges them to
   prove any crime upon him (v. 9): Who is he that shall condemn me? The
   prophet perhaps was condemned to die; Christ we are sure was; and yet
   both could say, Who is he that shall condemn? For there is no
   condemnation to those whom God justifies. There were those that did
   condemn them, but what became of them? They all shall wax old as a
   garment. The righteous cause of Christ and his prophets shall outlive
   all opposition. The moth shall eat them up silently and insensibly; a
   little thing will serve to destroy them. But the roaring lion himself
   shall not prevail against God's witnesses. All believers are enabled to
   make this challenge, Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ that
   died.

The Disconsolate Encouraged. (b. c. 706.)

   10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of
   his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust
   in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.   11 Behold, all ye
   that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in
   the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This
   shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

   The prophet, having the tongue of the learned given him, that he might
   give to every one his portion, here makes use of it, rightly dividing
   the word of truth. It is the summary of the gospel. He that believes
   shall be saved (he that trusts in the name of the Lord shall be
   comforted, though for a while he walk in darkness and have no light),
   but he that believes not shall be damned; though for a while he walk in
   the light of his own fire, yet he shall lie down in sorrow.

   I. Comfort is here spoken to disconsolate saints, and they are
   encouraged to trust in God's grace, v. 10. Here observe, 1. What is
   always the character of a child of God. He is one that fears the Lord
   with a filial fear, that stands in awe of his majesty and is afraid of
   incurring his displeasure. This is a grace that usually appears most in
   good people when they walk in darkness, when other graces appear not.
   They then tremble at his word (ch. lxvi. 2) and are afraid of his
   judgments, Ps. cxix. 120. He is one that obeys the voice of God's
   servant, is willing to be ruled by the Lord Jesus, as God's servant in
   the great work of man's redemption, one that yields a sincere obedience
   to the law of Christ and cheerfully comes up to the terms of his
   covenant. Those that truly fear God will obey the voice of Christ. 2.
   What is sometimes the case of a child of God. It is supposed that
   though he has in his heart the fear of God, and faith in Christ, yet
   for a time he walks in darkness and has no light, is disquieted and has
   little or no comfort. Who is there that does so? This intimates that it
   is a case which sometimes happens among the professors of religion, yet
   not very often; but, whenever it happens, God takes notice of it. It is
   no new thing for the children and heirs of light sometimes to walk in
   darkness, and for a time not to have any glimpse or gleam of light.
   This is not meant so much of the comforts of this life (those that fear
   God, when they have ever so great an abundance of them, do not walk in
   them as their light) as of their spiritual comforts, which relate to
   their souls. They walk in darkness when their evidences for heaven are
   clouded, their joy in God is interrupted, the testimony of the Spirit
   is suspended, and the light of God's countenance is eclipsed. Pensive
   Christians are apt to be melancholy, and those who fear always are apt
   to fear too much. 3. What is likely to be an effectual cure in this sad
   case. He that is thus in the dark, (1.) Let him trust in the name of
   the Lord, in the goodness of his nature, and that which he has made
   known of himself, his wisdom, power, and goodness. The name of the Lord
   is a strong tower, let his run into that. Let him depend upon it that
   if he walk before God, which a man may do though he walk in the dark,
   he shall find God all-sufficient to him. (2.) Let him stay himself upon
   his God, his in covenant; let him keep hold of his covenant-relation to
   God, and call God his God, as Christ on the cross, My God, My God. Let
   him stay himself upon the promises of the covenant, and build his hopes
   on them. When a child of God is ready to sink he will find enough in
   God to stay himself upon. Let him trust in Christ, for God's name is in
   him (Exod. xxiii. 21), trust in that name of his, The Lord our
   righteousness, and stay himself upon God as his God, in and through a
   Mediator.

   II. Conviction is here spoken to presuming sinners, and they are warned
   not to trust in themselves, v. 11. Observe, 1. The description given of
   them. They kindle a fire, and walk in the light of that fire. They
   depend upon their own righteousness, offer all their sacrifices, and
   burn all their incense, with that fire (as Nadab and Abihu) and not
   with the fire from heaven. In their hope of acceptance with God they
   have no regard to the righteousness of Christ. They refresh and please
   themselves with a conceit of their own merit and sufficiency, and warm
   themselves with that. It is both light and heat to them. They compass
   themselves about with sparks of their own kindling. As they trust in
   their own righteousness, and not in the righteousness of Christ, so
   they place their happiness in their worldly possessions and enjoyments,
   and not in the favour of God. Creature-comforts are as sparks,
   short-lived and soon gone; yet the children of this world, while they
   last, warm themselves by them, and walk with pride and pleasure in the
   light of them. 2. The doom passed upon them. They are ironically told
   to walk in the light of their own fire. "Make your best of it, while it
   lasts. But what will be in the end thereof, what will it come to at
   last? This shall you have of my hand (says Christ, for to him the
   judgment is committed), you shall lie down in sorrow, shall go to bed
   in the dark." See Job xviii. 5, 6. His candle shall be put out with
   him. Those that make the world their comfort, and their own
   righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with a fatal
   disappointment, which will be bitterness in the end. A godly man's way
   may be melancholy, but his end shall be peace and everlasting light. A
   wicked man's way may be pleasant, but his end and endless abode will be
   utter darkness.
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I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LI.

   This chapter is designed for the comfort and encouragement of those
   that fear God and keep his commandments, even when they walk in
   darkness and have no light. Whether it was intended primarily for the
   support of the captives in Babylon is not certain, probably it was; but
   comforts thus generally expressed ought not to be so confined. Whenever
   the church of God is in distress her friends and well-wishers may
   comfort themselves and one another with these words, I. That God, who
   raised his church at first out of nothing, will take care that it shall
   not perish, ver. 1-3. II. That the righteousness and salvation he
   designs for his church are sure and near, very near and very sure, ver.
   4-6. III. That the persecutors of the church are weak and dying
   creatures, ver. 7, 8. IV. That the same power which did wonders for the
   church formerly is now engaged and employed for her protection and
   deliverance, ver. 9-11. V. That God himself, the Maker of the world,
   had undertaken both to deliver his people out of their distress and to
   comfort them under it, and sent his prophet to assure them of it, ver.
   12-16. VI. That, deplorable as the condition of the church now was
   (ver. 17-20), to the same woeful circumstances her persecutors and
   oppressors should shortly be reduced, and worse, ver. 21-23. The first
   three paragraphs of this chapter begin with, "Hearken unto me," and
   they are God's people that are all along called to hearken; for even
   when comforts are spoken to them sometimes they "hearken not, through
   anguish of spirit" (Exod. vi. 9); therefore they are again and again
   called to hearken, ver. 1, 4, 7. The two other paragraphs of this
   chapter begin with "Awake, awake;" in the former (ver. 9) God's people
   call upon him to awake and help them; in the latter, ver. 17. God calls
   upon them to awake and help themselves.

Encouragement to the Disconsolate. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the
   Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
   whence ye are digged.   2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah
   that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased
   him.   3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste
   places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like
   the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
   thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

   Observe, 1. How the people of God are here described, to whom the word
   of this consolation is sent and who are called upon to hearken to it,
   v. 1. They are such as follow after righteousness, such as are very
   desirous and solicitous both to be justified and to be sanctified, are
   pressing hard after this, to have the favour of God restored to them
   and the image of God renewed on them. These are those that seek the
   Lord, for it is only in the say of righteousness that we can seek him
   with any hope of finding him. 2. How they are here directed to look
   back to their original, and the smallness of their beginning: "Look
   unto the rock whence you were hewn" (the idolatrous family in Ur of the
   Chaldees, out of which Abraham was taken, the generation of slaves
   which the heads and fathers of their tribes were in Egypt); "look unto
   the hole of the pit out of which you were digged, as clay, when God
   formed you into a people." Note, It is good for those that are
   privileged by a new birth to consider what they were by their first
   birth, how they were conceived in iniquity and shapen in sin. That
   which is born of the flesh is flesh. How hard was that rock out of
   which we were hewn, unapt to receive impressions, and how miserable the
   hole of that pit out of which we were digged! The consideration of this
   should fill us with low thoughts of ourselves and high thoughts of
   divine grace. Those that are now advanced would do well to remember how
   low they began (v. 2): "Look unto Abraham your father, the father of
   all the faithful, of all that follow after the righteousness of faith
   as he did (Rom. iv. 11), and unto Sarah that bore you, and whose
   daughters you all are as long as you do well. Think how Abraham was
   called alone, and yet was blessed and multiplied; and let that
   encourage you to depend upon the promise of God even when a sentence of
   death seems to be upon all the means that lead to the performance of
   it. Particularly let it encourage the captives in Babylon, though they
   are reduced to a small number, and few of them left, to hope that yet
   they shall increase so as to replenish their own land again." When
   Jacob is very small, yet he is not so small as Abraham was, who yet
   became father of many nations. "Look unto Abraham, and see what he got
   by trusting in the promise of God, and take example by him to follow
   God with an implicit faith." 3. How they are here assured that their
   present seedness of tears should at length end in a harvest of joys, v.
   3. The church of God on earth, even the gospel Zion, has sometimes had
   her deserts and waste places, many parts of the church, through either
   corruption or persecution, made like a wilderness, unfruitful to God or
   uncomfortable to the inhabitants; but God will find out a time and way
   to comfort Zion, not only by speaking comfortably to her, but by acting
   graciously for her. God has comforts in store even for the waste places
   of his church, for those parts of it that seem not regarded or valued.
   (1.) He will make them fruitful, and so give them cause to rejoice; her
   wildernesses shall put on a new face, and look pleasant as Eden, and
   abound in all good fruits, as the garden of the Lord. Note, It is the
   greatest comfort of the church to be made serviceable to the glory of
   God, and to be as his garden in which he delights. (2.) He will make
   them cheerful, and so give them hearts to rejoice. With the fruits of
   righteousness, joy and gladness shall be found therein; for the more
   holiness men have, and the more good they do, the more gladness they
   have. And where there is gladness, to their satisfaction, it is fit
   that there should be thanksgiving, to God's honour; for whatever is the
   matter of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving; and
   the returns of God's favour ought to be celebrated with the voice of
   melody, which will be the more melodious when God gives songs in the
   night, songs in the desert.

Encouragement to the Disconsolate. (b. c. 706.)

   4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a
   law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a
   light of the people.   5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone
   forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon
   me, and on mine arm shall they trust.   6 Lift up your eyes to the
   heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish
   away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they
   that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be
   for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.   7 Hearken unto
   me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law;
   fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their
   revilings.   8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the
   worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever,
   and my salvation from generation to generation.

   Both these proclamations, as I may call them, end alike with an
   assurance of the perpetuity of God's righteousness and his salvation;
   and therefore we put them together, both being designed for the comfort
   of God's people. Observe,

   I. Who they are to whom this comfort belongs: "My people, and my
   nation, that I have set apart for myself, that own me and are owned by
   me." Those are God's people and his nation who are subject to him as
   their King and their God, pay allegiance to him, and put themselves
   under his protection accordingly. They are a people who know
   righteousness, who not only have the means of knowledge, and to whom
   righteousness is made known, but who improve those means, and are able
   to form a right judgment of truth and falsehood, good and evil. And, as
   they have good heads, so they have good hearts, for they have the law
   of God in them, written and ruling there. Those God owns for his people
   in whose hearts his law is. Even those who know righteousness, and have
   the law of God in their hearts, may yet be in great distress and
   sorrow, and loaded with reproach and contempt; but their God will
   comfort them with the righteousness they know and the law they have in
   their hearts.

   II. What the comfort is that belongs to God's people. 1. That the
   gospel of Christ shall be preached and published to the world: A law
   shall proceed from me, an evangelical law, the law of Christ, the law
   of faith, ch. ii. 3. This law is his judgment; for it is that law of
   liberty by which the world shall be governed and judged. This shall not
   only go forth, but shall continue and rest, it shall take firm footing
   and deep root in the world. It shall rest, not only for the benefit of
   the Jews, who had the first notice of it, but for a light of the people
   of other nations. It is this law, this judgment, that we are required
   to hearken and give ear to, at our peril; for how shall we escape if we
   neglect it and turn a deaf ear to it? When a law proceeds from God, he
   that has ears to hear, let him hear. 2. That this law and judgment
   shall bring with them righteousness and salvation, shall open a ready
   way to the children of men, that they may be justified and saved, v. 5.
   These are called God's righteousness and his salvation, because of his
   contriving and bringing them about. The former is a righteousness which
   he will accept for us and accept us for, and a righteousness which he
   will work in us and graciously accept of. The latter is the salvation
   of the Lord, for it arises from him and terminates in him. Observe,
   There is no salvation without righteousness; and, wherever there is the
   righteousness of God, there shall be his salvation. All those, and
   those only, that are justified and sanctified shall be glorified. 3.
   That this righteousness and salvation shall very shortly appear: My
   righteousness is near. It is near in time; behold, all things are now
   ready. It is near in place, not far to seek, but the word is nigh us,
   and Christ in the word, righteousness in the word, Rom. x. 8. My
   salvation has gone forth. The decree has gone forth concerning it; it
   shall as certainly be introduced as if it had gone forth already, and
   the time for it is at hand. 4. That this evangelical righteousness and
   salvation shall not be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall be
   extended to the Gentiles; My arms shall judge the people. Those that
   will not yield to the judgments of God's mouth shall be crushed by the
   judgments of his hand. Some shall thus be judged by the gospel, for for
   judgment Christ came into this world; but others, and those of the
   isles, shall wait upon him, and bid his gospel, and the commands as
   well as the comforts of it, welcome. It was a comfort to God's people,
   to his nation, that multitudes should be added to them, and the
   increase of their number should be the increase of their strength and
   beauty. It is added, And on my arm shall they trust, that arm of the
   Lord which is revealed in Christ, ch. liii. 1. Observe, God's arm shall
   judge the people that are impenitent, and yet on his arm shall others
   trust and be saved by it; for it is to us as we make it, a savour of
   life or of death. 5. That this righteousness and salvation shall be for
   ever, and shall never be abolished, v. 8. It is an everlasting
   righteousness that the Messiah brings in (Dan. ix. 24), an eternal
   redemption that he is the author of, Heb. v. 9. As it shall spread
   through all the nations of the earth, so it shall last through all the
   ages of the world. We must never expect any other way of salvation, any
   other covenant of peace or rule of righteousness, than what we have in
   the gospel, and what we have there shall continue to the end, Mt.
   xxviii. 20. It is for ever; for the consequences of it shall be to
   eternity, and by this law of liberty men's everlasting state will be
   determined. This perpetuity of the gospel and the blessed things it
   brings in is illustrated by the fading and perishing of this world and
   all things in it. Look up to the visible heavens above, which have
   continued hitherto, and seem likely to continue, but they shall vanish
   like smoke that soon spends itself and disappears; they shall be rolled
   like a scroll, and their lights shall fall like leaves in autumn. Look
   down to the earth beneath; that abides too for a short ever (Eccl. i.
   4), but it shall wax old like a garment that will be the worse for
   wearing; and those that dwell therein, all the inhabitants of the
   earth, even those that seem to have the best settlement in it, shall
   die in like manner: the soul shall, as to this world, vanish like
   smoke, and the body be thrown by like a garment waxen old. They shall
   be easily crushed (Job iv. 19), and no loss of them. But when heaven
   and earth pass away, when all flesh and the glory of it wither as
   grass, the word of the Lord endures for ever, and not one iota or
   tittle of that shall fall to the ground. Those whose happiness is bound
   up in Christ's righteousness and salvation will have the comfort of it
   when time and days shall be no more.

   III. What use they are to make of this comfort. If God's righteousness
   and salvation are near to them, then let them not fear the reproach of
   men, of mortal miserable men, nor be afraid of their revilings or
   spiteful taunts, theirs who bid you sing them the songs of Zion, or who
   ask you, in scorn, Where is now your God? Let not those who embrace the
   gospel righteousness be afraid of those who will call them Beelzebub,
   and will say all manner of evil against them falsely. Let them not be
   afraid of them; let them not be disturbed by these opprobrious
   speeches, nor made uneasy by them, as if they would be the ruin of
   their reputation and honour and they must for ever lie under the load
   of them. Let them not be afraid of their executing their menaces, nor
   be deterred thereby from their duty, nor frightened into any sinful
   compliances, nor driven to take any indirect courses for their own
   safety. Those can bear but little for Christ that cannot bear a hard
   word for him. Let us not fear the reproach of men; for, 1. They will be
   quickly silenced (v. 8): The moth shall eat them up like a garment, ch.
   l. 9. The worm shall eat them like wool, or woollen cloth. If we have
   the approbation of a living God, we may despise the censure of dying
   men; the matter is not great what those say of us who must shortly be
   food for worms. Or it intimates the judgments of God with which they
   shall be visited, with which they shall be consumed, for their malice
   against the people of God; they shall be slowly and silently, but
   effectually destroyed, when God shall come to reckon with them for all
   their hard speeches, Jude 14, 15. 2. The cause we suffer for cannot be
   run down. The falsehood of their reproaches will be detected, but truth
   shall triumph, and the righteousness of religion's injured cause shall
   be for ever plain. Clouds darken the sun, but give no obstruction to
   his progress.

Prayer in Behalf of Israel; Encouragement to the People of God. (b. c. 706.)

   9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the
   ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
   Rahab, and wounded the dragon?   10 Art thou not it which hath dried
   the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the
   sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?   11 Therefore the redeemed of
   the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting
   joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and
   sorrow and mourning shall flee away.   12 I, even I, am he that
   comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man
   that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
   13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the
   heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared
   continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he
   were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?   14 The
   captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not
   die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.   15 But I am the Lord
   thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is
   his name.   16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered
   thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay
   the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

   In these verses we have,

   I. A prayer that God would, in his providence, appear and act for the
   deliverance of his people and the mortification of his and their
   enemies. Awake, awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord! v. 9. The
   arm of the Lord is Christ, or it is put for God himself, as Ps. xliv.
   23. Awake! why sleepest thou? He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor
   sleeps; but, when we pray that he would awake, we mean that he would
   make it to appear that he watches over his people and is always awake
   to do them good. The arm of the Lord is said to awake when the power of
   God exerts itself with more than ordinary vigour on his people's
   behalf. When a hand or arm is benumbed we say, It is asleep; when it is
   stretched forth for action, It awakes. God needs not to be reminded nor
   excited by us, but he gives us leave thus to be humbly earnest with him
   for such appearances of his power as will be for his own praise. "Put
   on strength," that is, "put forth strength: appear in thy strength, as
   we appear in the clothes we put on," Ps. xxi. 13. The church sees her
   case bad, her enemies many and mighty, her friends few and feeble; and
   therefore she depends purely upon the strength of God's arm for her
   relief. "Awake, as in the ancient days," that is, "do for us now as
   thou didst for our fathers formerly, repeat the wonders they told us
   of," Judg. vi. 13.

   II. The pleas to enforce this prayer. 1. They plead precedents, the
   experiences of their ancestors, and the great things God had done for
   them. "Let the arm of the Lord be made bare on our behalf; for it has
   done great things formerly in defence of the same cause, and we are
   sure it is neither shortened nor weakened. It did wonders against the
   Egyptians, who enslaved and oppressed God's son, his first-born; it cut
   Rahab to pieces with one direful plague after another, and wounded
   Pharaoh, the dragon, the Leviathan (as he is called, Ps. lxxiv. 13,
   14); it gave him his death's wound. It did wonders for Israel. It dried
   up the sea, even the waters of the great deep, as far as was requisite
   to open a way through the sea for the ransomed to pass over," v. 10.
   God is never at a loss for a way to accomplish his purposes concerning
   his people, but will either find one or make one. Past experiences, as
   they are great supports to faith and hope, so they are good pleas in
   prayer. Thou hast; wilt thou not? Ps. lxxxv. 1-6. 2. They plead
   promises (v. 11): And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, that is
   (as it may be supplied), thou hast said, They shall, referring to ch.
   xxxv. 10, where we find this promise, that the redeemed of the Lord,
   when they are released out of their captivity in Babylon, shall come
   with singing unto Zion. Sinners, when they are brought out of the
   slavery of sin into the glorious liberty of God's children, may come
   singing, as a bird got loose out of the cage. The souls of believers,
   when they are delivered out of the prison of the body, come to the
   heavenly Zion with singing. Then this promise will have its full
   accomplishment, and we may plead it in the mean time. He that designs
   such joy for us at last will he not work such deliverances for us in
   the mean time as our case requires? When the saints come to heaven they
   enter into the joy of their Lord; it crowns their heads with immortal
   honour; it fills their hearts with complete satisfaction. They shall
   obtain that joy and gladness which they could never obtain in this vale
   of tears. In this world of changes it is a short step from joy to
   sorrow, but in that world sorrow and mourning shall flee away, never to
   return or come in view again.

   III. The answer immediately given to this prayer (v. 12): I, even, I,
   am he that comforteth you. They prayed for the operations of his power;
   he answers them with the consolations of his grace, which may well be
   accepted as an equivalent. If God do not wound the dragon, and dry the
   sea, as formerly, yet, if he comfort us in soul under our afflictions,
   we have no reason to complain. If God do not answer immediately with
   the saving strength of his right hand, we must be thankful if he answer
   us, as an angel himself was answered (Zech. i. 13), with good words and
   comfortable words. See how God resolves to comfort his people: I, even
   I, will do it. He had ordered his ministers to do it (ch. xl. 1); but,
   because they cannot reach the heart, he takes the work into his own
   hands: I, even I, will do it. See how he glories in it; he takes it
   among the titles of his honour to be the God that comforts those that
   are cast down; he delights in being so. Those whom God comforts are
   comforted indeed; nay, his undertaking to comfort them is comfort
   enough to them.

   1. He comforts those that were in fear; and fear has torment, which
   calls for comfort. The fear of man has a snare in it which we have need
   of comfort to preserve us from. He comforts the timorous by chiding
   them, and that is no improper way of comforting either others or
   ourselves: Why art thou cast down, and why disquieted? v. 12, 13. God,
   who comforts his people, would not have them disquiet themselves with
   amazing perplexing fears of the reproach of men (v. 7), or of their
   growing threatening power and greatness, or of any mischief they may
   intend against us or our people. Observe,

   (1.) The absurdity of those fears. It is a disparagement to us to give
   way to them: Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid? In the
   original, the pronoun is feminine, Who art thou, O woman! unworthy the
   name of a man? Such a weak and womanish thing it is to give way to
   perplexing fears. [1.] It is absurd to be in such dread of a dying man.
   What! afraid of a man that shall die, shall certainly and shortly die,
   of the son of man who shall be made as grass, shall wither and be
   trodden down or eaten up? The greatest men, and the most formidable,
   that are the terror of the mighty in the land of the living, are but
   men (Ps. ix. 20) and shall die like men (Ps. lxxxi. 7), are but grass
   sprung out of the earth, cleaving to it, and retiring again into it.
   Note, We ought to look upon every man as a man that shall die. Those we
   admire, and love, and trust to, are men that shall die; let us not
   therefore delight too much in them nor depend too much upon them. Those
   we fear we must look upon as frail and mortal, and consider what a
   foolish thing it is for the servants of the living God to be afraid of
   dying men, that are here to-day and gone tomorrow. [2.] It is absurd to
   fear continually every day (v. 13), to put ourselves upon a constant
   rack, so as never to be easy, nor to have any enjoyment of ourselves.
   Now and then a danger may be imminent and threatening, and it may be
   prudent to fear it; but to be always in a toss, jealous of dangers at
   every step, and to tremble at the shaking of every leaf, is to make
   ourselves all our lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. ii. 15), and to
   bring upon ourselves that sore judgment which is threatened, Deut.
   xxviii. 66, 67. Thou shalt fear, day and night. [3.] It is absurd to
   fear beyond what there is cause: "Thou art afraid of the fury of the
   oppressor. It is true, there is an oppressor, and he is furious, and he
   designs, it may be, when he has an opportunity, to do thee a mischief,
   and it will be thy wisdom therefore to stand upon thy guard; but thou
   art afraid of him, as if he were ready to destroy, as if he were just
   now going to cut thy throat, and as if there were no possibility of
   preventing it." A timorous spirit is thus apt to make the worst of
   every thing, and to apprehend the danger greater and nearer than really
   it is. Sometimes God is pleased at once to show us the folly of so
   doing: "Where is the fury of the oppressor? It is gone in an instant,
   and the danger is over ere thou art aware." His heart is turned, or his
   hands are tied. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise, and the king of
   Babylon no more. What has become of all the furious oppressors of God's
   Israel, that hectored them, and threatened them, and were a terror to
   them? they passed away, and, lo, they were not; and so shall these.

   (2.) The impiety of those fears: "Thou art afraid of a man that shall
   die, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who is also the Maker of all
   the world, who has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations
   of the earth, and therefore has all the hosts and all the powers of
   both at his command and disposal." Note, Our inordinate fear of man is
   a tacit forgetfulness of God. When we disquiet ourselves with the fear
   of man we forget that there is a God above him, and that the greatest
   of men have no power but what is given them from above; we forget the
   providence of God, by which he orders and overrules all events
   according to the counsel of his own will; we forget the promises he has
   made to protect his people, and the experiences we have had of his care
   concerning us, and his seasonable interposition for our relief many a
   time, when we thought the oppressor ready to destroy; we forget our
   Jehovah-jirehs, monuments of mercy in the mount of the Lord. Did we
   remember to make God our fear and our dread, we should not be so much
   afraid as we are of the frowns of men, ch. viii. 12, 13. Happy is the
   man that fears God always, Prov. xxviii. 14; Luke xii. 4, 5.

   2. He comforts those that were in bonds, v. 14, 15. See here, (1.) What
   they do for themselves: The captives exile hastens that he may be
   loosed and may return to his own country, from which he is banished;
   his care is that he may not die in the pit (not die a prisoner, through
   the inconveniences of his confinement), and that his bread should not
   fail, either the bread he should have to keep him alive in prison or
   that which should bear his charges home; his stock is low, and
   therefore he hastens to be loosed. Now some understand this as his
   fault. He is distrustfully impatient of delays, cannot wait God's time,
   but thinks he is undone and must die in the pit if he be not released
   immediately. Others take it to be his praise, that when the doors are
   thrown open he does not linger, but applies himself with all diligence
   to procure his discharge. And then it follows, But I am the Lord thy
   God, which intimates, (2.) What God will do for them, even that which
   they cannot do for themselves. God has all power in his hand to help
   the captive exiles; for he has divided the sea, when the roaring of its
   waves was more frightful than any of the impotent menaces of proud
   oppressors. He has stilled or quieted the sea, so some think it should
   be read, Ps. lxv. 7; lxxxix. 9. This is not only a proof of what God
   can do, but a resemblance of what he has done, and will do, for his
   people; he will find out a way to still the threatening storm, and
   bring them safely into the harbour. The Lord of hosts is his name, his
   name for ever, the name by which his people have long known him. And,
   as he is able to help them, so he is willing and engaged to do it; for
   he is thy God, O captive-exile! thine in covenant. This is a check to
   the desponding captives. Let them not conclude that they must either be
   loosed immediately or die in the pit; for he that is the Lord of hosts
   can relieve them when they are brought ever so low. It is also an
   encouragement to the diligent captives, who, when liberty is
   proclaimed, are willing to lose no time; let them know that the Lord is
   their God, and, while they thus strive to help themselves, they may be
   sure he will help them.

   3. He comforts all his people who depended upon what the prophets said
   to them in the name of the Lord, and built their hopes upon it. When
   the deliverances which the prophets spoke of either did not come so
   soon as they looked for them or did not come up to the height of their
   expectation they began to be cast down in their own eyes; but, as to
   this, they are encouraged (v. 16) by what God says to his prophet, not
   to this only, but to all his prophets, nor to this, or them,
   principally, but to Christ, the great prophet. It is a great
   satisfaction to those to whom the message is sent to hear the God of
   truth and power say to his messenger, as he does here, I have put my
   words in thy mouth, that by them I may plant the heavens. God undertook
   to comfort his people (v. 12); but still he does it by his prophets, by
   his gospel; and, that he may do it by these, he here tells us, (1.)
   That his word in them is very true. He owns what they have said to be
   what he had directed and enjoined them to say: "I have put my words in
   thy mouth, and therefore he that receives thee and them receives me."
   This is a great stay to our faith, that Christ's doctrine was not his,
   but his that sent him, and that the words of the prophets and apostles
   were God's own words, which he put into their mouths. God's Spirit not
   only revealed to them the things themselves they spoke of, but dictated
   to them the words they should speak (2 Pet. i. 21; 1 Cor. ii. 13); so
   that these are the true sayings of God, of a God that cannot lie. (2.)
   That it is very safe: I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand (as
   before, ch. xlix. 2), which speaks the special protection not only of
   the prophets, but of their prophecies, not only of Christ, but of
   Christianity, of the gospel of Christ; it is not only the faithful word
   of God which the prophets deliver to us, but it shall be carefully
   preserved till it have its accomplishment for the use of the church,
   notwithstanding the restless endeavours of the powers of darkness to
   extinguish this light. They shall prophesy again (Rev. x. 11), though
   not in their persons, yet in their writings, which God has always
   covered in the shadow of his hand, preserved by a special providence,
   else they would have been lost ere this. (3.) That this word, when it
   comes to be accomplished, will be very great and will not fall short of
   the pomp and grandeur of the prophecy: "I have put my words in thy
   mouth, not that by the performance of them I may plant a nation, or
   found a city, but that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations
   of the earth, may do that for my people which will be a new creation."
   This must look as far forward as to the great work done by the gospel
   of Christ and the setting up of his holy religion in the world. As God
   by Christ made the world at first (Heb. i. 2), and by him formed the
   Old-Testament church (Zech. vi. 12), so by him, and the words put into
   his mouth, he will set up, [1.] A new world, will again plant the
   heavens and found the earth. Sin having put the whole creation into
   disorder, Christ's taking away the sin of the world put all into order
   again. Old things have passed away, all things have become new; things
   in heaven and things on earth are reconciled, and so put into a new
   posture, Col. i. 20. Through him, according to the promise, we look for
   new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet. iii. 13), and to this the prophets
   bear witness. [2.] He will set up a new church, a New-Testament church:
   He will say unto Zion, Thou art my people. The gospel church is called
   Zion (Heb. xii. 22) and Jerusalem (Gal. iv. 26); and, when the Gentiles
   are brought into it, it shall be said unto them, You are my people.
   When God works great deliverances for his church, and especially when
   he shall complete the salvation of it in the great day, he will thereby
   own that poor despised handful to be his people, whom he has chosen and
   loved.

Jerusalem's Affliction. (b. c. 706.)

   17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of
   the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of
   trembling, and wrung them out.   18 There is none to guide her among
   all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that
   taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.   19
   These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee?
   desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom
   shall I comfort thee?   20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head
   of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury
   of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God.   21 Therefore hear now this, thou
   afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:   22 Thus saith thy Lord the
   Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have
   taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup
   of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:   23 But I will put it
   into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul,
   Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the
   ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

   God, having awoke for the comfort of his people, here calls upon them
   to awake, as afterwards, ch. lii. 1. It is a call to awake not so much
   out of the sleep of sin (though that also is necessary in order to
   their being ready for deliverance) as out of the stupor of despair.
   When the inhabitants of Jerusalem were in captivity they, as well as
   those who remained upon the spot, were so overwhelmed with the sense of
   their troubles that they had no heart or spirit to mind any thing that
   tended to their comfort or relief; they were as the disciples in the
   garden, sleeping for sorrow (Luke xxii. 45), and therefore, when the
   deliverance came, they are said to have been like those that dream, Ps.
   cxxxvi. 1. Nay, it is a call to awake, not only from sleep, but from
   death, like that to the dry bones to live, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. "Awake, and
   look about thee, that thou mayest see the day of thy deliverance dawn,
   and mayest be ready to bid it welcome. Recover thy senses; sink not
   under thy load, but stand up, and bestir thyself for thy own help."
   This may be applied to the Jerusalem that was in the apostle's time,
   which is said to have been in bondage with her children (Gal. iv. 25),
   and to have been under the power of a spirit of slumber (Rom. xi. 8);
   they are called to awake, and mind the things that belonged to their
   everlasting peace, and then the cup of trembling should be taken out of
   their hands, peace should be spoken to them, and they should triumph
   over Satan, who had blinded their eyes and lulled them asleep. Now,

   I. It is owned that Jerusalem had long been in a very deplorable
   condition, and sunk into the depths of misery.

   1. She had lain under the tokens of God's displeasure. He had put into
   her hand the cup of his fury, that is, her share of his displeasure.
   The dispensations of his providence concerning her had been such that
   she had reason to think he was angry with her. She had provoked him to
   anger most bitterly, and was made to taste the bitter fruits of it. The
   cup of God's fury is, and will be, a cup of trembling to all those that
   have it put into their hands: damned sinners will find it so to
   eternity. It is said (Ps. lxxv. 8) that the dregs of the cup, the
   loathsome sediments in the bottom of it, all the wicked of the earth
   shall wring them out, and drink them; but here Jerusalem, having made
   herself as the wicked of the earth, is compelled to wring them out and
   drink them; for wherever there has been a cup of fornication, as there
   had been in Jerusalem's hand when she was idolatrous, sooner or later
   there will be a cup of fury, a cup of trembling. Therefore stand in awe
   and sin not.

   2. Those that should have helped her in her distress failed her, and
   were either unable or unwilling to help her, as might have been
   expected, v. 18. She is intoxicated with the cup of God's fury, and,
   being so, staggers, and is very unsteady in her counsels and attempts.
   She knows not what she says or does, much less knows she what to say or
   do; and, in this unhappy condition, of all the sons that she has
   brought forth and brought up, that she was borne and educated (and
   there were many famous ones, for of Zion it was said that this and that
   man were born there, Ps. lxxxvii. 5), there is none to guide her, none
   to take her by the hand to keep her either from falling or from shaming
   herself, to lend either a hand to help her out of her trouble or a
   tongue to comfort her under it. Think it not strange if wise and good
   men are disappointed in their children, and have not that succour from
   them which they expected, but those that were arrows in their hand
   prove arrows in their heart, when Jerusalem herself has none of all her
   sons, prince, priest, nor prophet, that has such a sense either of duty
   or gratitude as to help her when she has most need of help. Thus they
   complain, Ps. lxxiv. 9. There is none to tell us how long. Now that
   which aggravated this disappointment was, (1.) That her trouble was
   very great, and yet there was none to pity or help her: These two
   things have come unto thee (v. 19), to complete thy desolation and
   destruction, even the famine and the sword, two sore judgments, and
   very terrible. Or the two things were the desolation and destruction by
   which the city was wasted and the famine and sword by which the
   citizens perished. Or the two things were the trouble itself (made up
   of desolation, destruction, famine, and sword) and her being helpless,
   forlorn, and comfortless, under it. "Two sad things indeed, to be in
   this woeful case, and to have none to pity thee, to sympathize with
   thee in thy griefs, or to help to bear the burden of thy cares, to have
   none to comfort thee, by suggesting that to thee which might help to
   alleviate thy grief or doing that for thee which might help to redress
   thy grievances." Or these two things that had come upon Jerusalem are
   the same with the two things that were afterwards to come upon Babylon
   (ch. xlvii. 9), loss of children and widowhood--piteous case, and yet,
   "when thou hast brought it upon thyself by thy own sin and folly, who
   shall be sorry for thee?--a case that calls for comfort, and yet, when
   thou art froward under thy trouble, frettest, and makest thyself
   uneasy, by whom shall I comfort thee?" Those that will not be
   counselled cannot be helped. (2.) That those who should have been her
   comforters were their own tormentors (v. 20): They have fainted, as
   quite dispirited and driven to despair; they have no patience in which
   to keep possession of their own souls and the enjoyment of themselves,
   nor any confidence in God's promise, by which to keep possession of the
   comfort of that. They throw themselves upon the ground, in vexation at
   their troubles, and there they lie at the head of all the streets,
   complaining to all that pass by (Lam. i. 12), pining away for want of
   necessary food; there they lie like a wild bull in a net, fretting and
   raging, struggling and pulling, to help themselves, but entangling
   themselves so much the more, and making their condition the worse by
   their own passions and discontents. Those that are of a meek and quiet
   spirit are, under affliction, like a dove in a net, mourning indeed,
   but silent and patient. Those that are of a froward peevish spirit are
   like a wild bull in a net, uneasy to themselves, vexatious to their
   friends, and provoking to their God: They are full of the fury of the
   Lord, the rebuke of our God. God is angry with them, and contends with
   them, and they are full of that only, and take no notice of his wise
   and gracious designs in afflicting them, never enquire wherefore he
   contends with them, and therefore nothing appears in them but anger at
   God and quarrelling with him. They are displeased at God for the
   dispensations of his providence concerning them, and so they do but
   make bad worse. This had long been Jerusalem's woeful case, and God
   took cognizance of it. But,

   II. It is promised that Jerusalem's troubles shall at length come to an
   end, and be transferred to her persecutors (v. 21): Nevertheless hear
   this, thou afflicted. It is often the lot of God's church to be
   afflicted, and God has always something to say to her then which she
   will do well to hearken to. "Thou art drunken, not as formerly with
   wine, not with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's whoredoms and
   idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know then, for thy
   comfort," 1. "That the Lord Jehovah is thy Lord and thy God, for all
   this." It is expressed emphatically (v. 22): "Thus saith thy Lord, the
   Lord, and thy God--the Lord, who is able to help thee, and has
   wherewithal to relieve thee,--thy Lord, who has an incontestable right
   to thee, and will not alienate it,--thy God, in covenant with thee, and
   who has undertaken to make thee happy." Whatever the distresses of
   God's people may be, he will not disown his relation to them, nor have
   they lost their interest in him and in his promise. 2. "That he is the
   God who pleads the cause of his people, as their patron and protector,
   who takes what is done against them a done against himself." The cause
   of God's people, and of that holy religion which they profess, is a
   righteous cause, otherwise the righteous God would not appear for it;
   yet it may for a time be run down, and seem as if it were lost. But God
   will plead it, either by convincing the consciences or confounding the
   mischievous projects of those that fight against it. He will plead it
   by clearing up the equity and excellency of it to the world and by
   giving success to those that act in defence of it. It is his own cause;
   he has espoused it, and therefore will plead it with jealousy. 3. That
   they should shortly take leave of their troubles and bid a final
   farewell to them: "I will take out of thy hand the cup of trembling,
   that bitter cup; it shall pass from thee." Throwing away the cup of
   trembling will not do, nor saying, "We will not, we cannot, drink it;"
   but, if we patiently submit, he that put it into out hands will himself
   take it out of our hands. Nay, it is promised, "Thou shalt no more
   drink it again. God has let fall his controversy with thee, and will
   not revive the judgment." 4. That their persecutors and oppressors
   should be made to drink of the same bitter cup of which they had drunk
   so deeply, v. 23. See here, (1.) How insolently they had abused and
   trampled upon the people of God: They have said to thy soul, to thee,
   to thy life, Bow down, that we may go over. Nay, they have said it to
   thy conscience, taking a pride and pleasure in forcing thee to worship
   idols. Herein the New-Testament Babylon treads in the steps of that old
   oppressor, tyrannizing over men's consciences, giving law to them,
   putting them upon the rack, and compelling them to sinful compliances.
   Those that set up an infallible head and judge, requiring an implicit
   faith in his dictates and obedience to his commands, do in effect say
   to men's souls, Bow down, that we may go over, and they say it with
   delight. (2.) How meanly the people of God (having by their sin lost
   much of their courage and sense of honour) truckled to them: Thou hast
   laid thy body as the ground. Observe, The oppressors required souls to
   be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship just as
   they would have them. But all they could gain by their threats and
   violence was that people laid their bodies on the ground; they brought
   them to an external and hypocritical conformity, but conscience cannot
   be forced, nor is it mentioned to their praise that they yielded thus
   far. But observe, (3.) How justly God will reckon with those who have
   carried it so imperiously towards his people: The cup of trembling
   shall be put into their hand. Babylon's case shall be as bad as ever
   Jerusalem's was. Daniel's persecutors shall be thrown into Daniel's
   den; let them see how they like it. And the Lord is known by these
   judgments which he executes.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LII.

   The greater part of this chapter is on the same subject with the
   chapter before, concerning the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon,
   which yet is applicable to the great salvation Christ has wrought out
   for us; but the last three verses are on the same subject with the
   following chapter, concerning the person of the Redeemer, his
   humiliation and exaltation. Observe, I. The encouragement that is given
   to the Jews in captivity to hope that God would deliver them in his own
   way and time, ver. 1-6. II. The great joy and rejoicing that shall be
   both with ministers and people upon that occasion, ver. 7-10. III. The
   call given to those that remained in captivity to shift for their own
   enlargement when liberty was proclaimed, ver. 11, 12. IV. A short idea
   given here of the Messiah, which is enlarged upon in the next chapter,
   ver. 13-15.

Encouragement to Jerusalem. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful
   garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no
   more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.   2 Shake
   thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself
   from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.   3 For thus
   saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be
   redeemed without money.   4 For thus saith the Lord God, My people went
   down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed
   them without cause.   5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the
   Lord, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them
   make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is
   blasphemed.   6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they
   shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

   Here, I. God's people are stirred up to appear vigorous for their own
   deliverance, v. 1, 2. They had desired that God would awake and put on
   his strength, ch. li. 9. Here he calls upon them to awake and put on
   their strength, to bestir themselves; let them awake from their
   despondency, and pluck up their spirits, encourage themselves and one
   another with the hope that all will be well yet, and no longer succumb
   and sink under their burden. Let them awake from their distrust, look
   above them, look about them, look into the promises, look into the
   providences of God that were working for them, and let them raise their
   expectations of great things from God. Let them awake from their
   dullness, sluggishness, and incogitancy, and raise up their endeavours,
   not to take any irregular courses for their own relief, contrary to the
   law of nations concerning captives, but to use all likely means to
   recommend themselves to the favour of the conqueror and make an
   interest with him. God here gives them an assurance, 1. That they
   should be reformed by their captivity: There shall no more come into
   thee the uncircumcised and the unclean (v. 1); their idolatrous customs
   should be no more introduced, or at least not harboured; for when by
   the marriage of strange wives, in Ezra's time and Nehemiah's, the
   unclean crept in, they were soon by the vigilance and zeal of the
   magistrates expelled again, and care was taken that Jerusalem should be
   a holy city. Thus the gospel Jerusalem is purified by the blood of
   Christ and the grace of God, and made indeed a holy city. 2. That they
   should be relieved and rescued out of their captivity, that the bands
   of their necks should be loosed, that they should not now be any longer
   oppressed, nay, that they should not be any more invaded, as they had
   been: There shall no more come against thee (so it may be read) the
   uncircumcised and the clean. The heathen shall not again enter into
   God's sanctuary and profane his temple, Ps. lxxix. 1. This must be
   understood with a condition. If they keep close to God, and keep in
   with him, God will keep off, will keep out of the enemy; but, if they
   again corrupt themselves, Antiochus will profane their temple and the
   Romans will destroy it. However, for some time they shall have peace.
   And to this happy change, now approaching, they are here called to
   accommodate themselves. (1.) Let them prepare for joy: "Put on thy
   beautiful garments, no longer to appear in mourning weeds and the habit
   of thy widowhood. Put on a new face, a smiling countenance, now that a
   new and pleasant scene begins to open." The beautiful garments were
   laid up then, when the harps were hung on the willow trees; but, now
   there is occasion for both, let both be resumed together. "Put on thy
   strength, and, in order to that, put on thy beautiful garments, in
   token of triumph and rejoicing." Note, The joy of the Lord will be our
   strength (Neh. viii. 10), and our beautiful garments will serve for
   armour of proof against the darts of temptation and trouble. And
   observe, Jerusalem must put on her beautiful garments when she becomes
   a holy city, for the beauty of holiness is the most amiable beauty, and
   the more holy we are the more cause we have to rejoice. (2.) Let them
   prepare for liberty: "Shake thyself from the dust in which thou hast
   lain, and into which thy proud oppressors have trodden thee (ch. li.
   23), or into which thou hast in thy extreme sorrow rolled thyself."
   Arise, and set up; so it may be read. "O Jerusalem! prepare to get
   clear of all the marks of servitude thou hast been under and to shift
   thy quarters: Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck; be inspired
   with generous principles and resolutions to assert thy own liberty."
   The gospel proclaims liberty to those who were bound with fears and
   makes it their duty to take hold of their liberty. Let those who have
   been weary and heavily laden under the burden of sin, finding relief in
   Christ, shake themselves from the dust of their doubts and fears and
   loose themselves from those bands; for, if the Son make them free, they
   shall be free indeed.

   II. God stirs up himself to appear jealous for the deliverance of his
   people. He here pleads their cause with himself, and even stirs up
   himself to come and save them, for his reasons of mercy are fetched
   from himself. Several things he here considers.

   1. That the Chaldeans who oppressed them never acknowledged God in the
   power they gained over his people, any more than Sennacherib did, who,
   when God made use of him as an instrument for the correction and
   reformation of his people, meant not so, ch. x. 6, 7. "You have sold
   yourselves for nought; you got nothing by it, nor did I," v. 3. (God
   considers that when they by sin had sold themselves he himself, who had
   the prior, nay, the sole, title to them, did not increase his wealth by
   their price, Ps. xliv. 12. They did not so much as pay their debts to
   him with it; the Babylonians gave him no thanks for them, but rather
   reproached and blasphemed his name upon that account.) "And therefore
   they, having so long had you for nothing, shall at last restore you for
   nothing: You shall be redeemed without price," as was promised, ch.
   xlv. 13. Those that give nothing must expect to get nothing; however,
   God is a debtor to no man.

   2. That they had been often before in similar distress, had often
   smarted for a time under the tyranny of their task-masters, and
   therefore it was a pity that they should now be left always in the hand
   of these oppressors (v. 4): "My people went down into Egypt, in an
   amicable way to settle there; but they enslaved them, and ruled them
   with rigour." And then they were delivered, notwithstanding the pride,
   and power, and policies of Pharaoh. And why may we not think God will
   deliver his people now? At other times the Assyrian oppressed the
   people of God without cause, as when the ten tribes were carried away
   captive by the king of Assyria; soon afterwards Sennacherib, another
   Assyrian, with a destroying army oppressed and made himself master of
   all the defenced cities of Judah. The Babylonians might not unfitly be
   called Assyrians, their monarchy being a branch of the Assyrians; and
   they now oppressed them without cause. Though God was righteous in
   delivering them into their hands, they were unrighteous in using them
   as they did, and could not pretend a dominion over them as their
   subjects, as Pharaoh might when they were settled in Goshen, part of
   his kingdom. When we suffer by the hands of wicked and unreasonable men
   it is some comfort to be able to say that as to them it is without
   cause, that we have not given them any provocation, Ps. vii. 3-5, &c.

   3. That God's glory suffered by the injuries that were done to his
   people (v. 5): What have I here, what do I get by it, that my people
   are taken away for nought? God is not worshipped as he used to be in
   Jerusalem, his altar there is gone and his temple in ruins; but if, in
   lieu of that, he were more and better worshipped in Babylon, either by
   the captives or by the natives, it were another matter--God might be
   looked upon as in some respects a gainer in his honour by it; but,
   alas! it is not so. (1.) The captives are so dispirited that they
   cannot praise him; instead of this they are continually howling, which
   grieves him and moves his pity; Those that rule over them make them to
   howl, as the Egyptians of old made them to sigh, Exod. ii. 23. So the
   Babylonians now, using them more hardly, extorted from them louder
   complaints and made them to howl. This gives us no pleasing idea of the
   temper the captives were now in; their complaints were not so rational
   and pious as they should have been, but brutish rather; they howled,
   Hos. vii. 14. However God heard them, and came down to deliver them, as
   he did out of Egypt, Exod. iii. 7, 8. (2.) The natives are so insolent
   that they will not praise him, but, instead of that, they are
   continually blaspheming, which affronts him and moves his anger. They
   boasted that they were too hard for God because they were too hard for
   his people, and set him at defiance, as unable to deliver them, and
   thus his name continually every day was blasphemed among them. When
   they praised their own idols they lifted up themselves against the Lord
   of heaven, Dan. v. 23. "Now," says God, "this is not to be suffered. I
   will go down to deliver them; for what honour, what rent, what tribute
   of praise have I from the world, when my people, who should be to me
   for a name and praise, are to me for a reproach? For their oppressors
   will neither praise God themselves nor let them do it." The apostle
   quotes this with application to the wicked lives of the Jews, by which
   God was dishonoured among the Gentiles then, as much as now he was by
   their sufferings, Rom. ii. 23, 24.

   4. That his glory would be greatly manifested by their deliverance (v.
   6): "Therefore, because my name is thus blasphemed, I will arise, and
   my people shall know my name, my name Jehovah." By this name he had
   made himself known in delivering them out of Egypt, Exod. vi. 3. God
   will do something to vindicate his own honour, something for his great
   name; and his people, who have almost lost the knowledge of it, shall
   know it to their comfort and shall find it their strong tower. They
   shall know that God's providence governs the world, and all the affairs
   of it, it is he who speaks deliverance for them by the word of his
   power, that it is he only, who at first spoke and it was done. They
   shall know that God's word, which Israel is blessed with above other
   nations, shall without fail have its accomplishment in due season, that
   it is he who speaks by the prophet; it is he, and they do not speak of
   themselves; for not one iota or tittle of what they say shall fall to
   the ground.

The Approach of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
   good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of
   good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God
   reigneth!   8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice
   together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord
   shall bring again Zion.   9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye
   waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he
   hath redeemed Jerusalem.   10 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in
   the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see
   the salvation of our God.   11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from
   thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye
   clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.   12 For ye shall not go out
   with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the
   God of Israel will be your rereward.

   The removal of the Jews from Babylon to their own land again is here
   spoken of both as a mercy and as a duty; and the application of v. 7 to
   the preaching of the gospel (by the apostle, Rom. x. 15) plainly
   intimates that that deliverance was a type and figure of the redemption
   of mankind by Jesus Christ, to which what is here said of their
   redemption out of Babylon ought to be accommodated.

   I. It is here spoken of as a great blessing, which ought to be welcomed
   with abundance of joy and thankfulness. 1. Those that bring the tidings
   of their release shall be very acceptable (v. 7): "How beautiful upon
   the mountains, the mountains round about Jerusalem, over which these
   messengers are seen coming at a distance, how beautiful are their feet,
   when it is known what tidings they bring!" It is not meant so much of
   the common posts, or the messengers sent express by the government to
   disperse the proclamation, but rather of some of the Jews themselves,
   who, being at the fountain-head of intelligence, had early notice of
   it, and immediately went themselves, or sent their own messengers, to
   all parts, to disperse the news, and even to Jerusalem itself, to tell
   the few who remained there that their brethren would be with them
   shortly; for it is published not merely as matter of news, but as a
   proof that Zion's God reigns, for in that language it is published:
   they say unto Zion, Thy God reigns. Those who bring the tidings of
   peace and salvation, that Cyrus has given orders for the release of the
   Jews, tidings which were so long expected by those that waited for the
   consolation of Israel, those good tidings (so the original reads it,
   without the tautology of our translation, good tidings of good), put
   this construction upon it, O Zion! thy God reigns. Note, When bad news
   is abroad this is good news, and when good news is abroad this is the
   best news, that Zion's God reigns, that God is Zion's God, in covenant
   with her, and as such he reigns, Ps. cxlvi. 10; Zech. ix. 9. The Lord
   has founded Zion, ch. xiv. 32. All events have their rise in the
   disposals of the kingdom of his providence and their tendency to the
   advancement of the kingdom of his grace. This must be applied to the
   preaching of the gospel, which is a proclamation of peace and
   salvation; it is gospel indeed, good news, glad tidings, tidings of
   victory over our spiritual enemies and liberty from our spiritual
   bondage. The good news is that the Lord Jesus reigns and all power is
   given to him. Christ himself brought these tidings first (Luke iv. 18,
   Heb. ii. 3), and of him the text speaks: How beautiful are his feet!
   his feet that were nailed to the cross, how beautiful upon Mount
   Calvary! his feet when he came leaping upon the mountains (Cant. ii.
   8), how beautiful were they to those who knew his voice and knew it to
   be the voice of their beloved! His ministers proclaim these good
   tidings; they ought to keep their feet clean from the pollutions of the
   world, and then they ought to be beautiful in the eyes of those to whom
   they are sent, who sit at their feet, or rather at Christ's in them, to
   hear his word. They must be esteemed in love for their work's sake (1
   Thess. v. 13), for their message sake, which is well worthy of all
   acceptation. 2. Those to whom the tidings are brought shall be put
   thereby into a transport of joy. (1.) Zion's watchmen shall then
   rejoice because they are surprisingly illuminated, v. 8. The watchmen
   on Jerusalem's walls shall lead the chorus in this triumph. Who they
   were we are told, ch. lxii. 6. They were such as God set on the walls
   of Jerusalem, to make mention of his name, and to continue instant in
   prayer to him, till he again made Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
   These watchmen stand upon their watch-tower, waiting for an answer to
   their prayers (Hab. ii. 1); and therefore when the good news comes they
   have it first, and the longer they have continued and the more
   importunate they have been in praying for it the more will they be
   elevated when it comes: They shall lift up the voice, with the voice
   together shall they sing in concert, to invite others to join with them
   in their praises. And that which above all things will transport them
   with pleasure is that they shall see eye to eye, that is, face to face.
   Whereas God had been a God hiding himself, and they could scarcely
   discern any thing of his favour through the dark cloud of their
   afflictions, now that the cloud is scattered they shall plainly see it.
   They shall see Zion's king eye to eye; so it was fulfilled when the
   Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and there were those that saw
   his glory (John i. 14) and looked upon it, 1 John i. 1. They shall see
   an exact agreement and correspondence between the prophecy and the
   event, the promise and the performance; they shall see how they look
   one upon another eye to eye, and be satisfied that the same God spoke
   the one and did the other. When the Lord shall bring again Zion out of
   her captivity the prophets shall thence receive and give fuller
   discoveries than ever of God's good-will to his people. Applying this
   also, as the foregoing verse, to gospel times, it is a promise of the
   pouring out of the Spirit upon gospel ministers, as a spirit of wisdom
   and revelation, to lead them into all truth, so that they shall see eye
   to eye, shall see God's grace more clearly than the Old-Testament
   saints could see it: and they shall herein be unanimous; in these great
   things concerning the common salvation they shall concur in their
   sentiments as well as their songs. Nay, St. Paul seems to allude to
   this when he makes it the privilege of our future state that we shall
   see face to face. (2.) Zion's waste places shall then rejoice because
   they shall be surprisingly comforted (v. 9): Break forth into joy, sing
   together, you waste places of Jerusalem; that is, all parts of
   Jerusalem, for it was all in ruins, and even those parts that seemed to
   lie most desolate shall share in the joy; and they, having little
   expected it, shall break forth into joy, as men that dream, Ps. cxxvi.
   1, 2. Let them sing together. Note, Those that share in mercies ought
   to join in praises. Here is matter for joy and praise. [1.] God's
   people will have the comfort of this salvation; and what is the matter
   of our rejoicing ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving. He has
   redeemed Jerusalem (the inhabitants of Jerusalem that were sold into
   the hands of their enemies) and thereby he has comforted his people
   that were in sorrow. The redemption of Jerusalem is the joy of all
   God's people, whose character it is that they look for that redemption,
   Luke ii. 38. [2.] God will have the glory of it, v. 10. He has made
   bare his holy arm (manifested and displayed his power) in the eyes of
   all the nations. God's arm is a holy arm, stretched out in purity and
   justice, in defence of holiness and in pursuance of his promise. [3.]
   All the world will have the benefit of it. In the great salvation
   wrought out by our Lord Jesus the arm of the Lord was revealed and all
   the ends of the earth were made to see the great salvation, not as
   spectators of it only, as they saw the deliverance of the Jews out of
   Babylon, but as sharers in it; some of all nations, the most remote,
   shall partake of the benefits of the redemption. This is applied to our
   salvation by Christ. Luke iii. 6, All flesh shall see the salvation of
   God, that great salvation.

   II. It is here spoken of as a great business, which ought to be managed
   with abundance of care and circumcision. When the liberty is
   proclaimed, 1. Let the people of God hasten out of Babylon with all
   convenient speed; though they are ever so well settled there, let them
   not think of taking root in Babylon, but Depart, depart (v. 11), go out
   from the midst of her; not only those that are in the borders, but
   those that are in the midst, in the heart of the country, let them be
   gone. Babylon is no place for Israelites. As soon as they have leave to
   let go, let them lose no time. With this word God stirred up the
   spirits of those that were moved to go up, Ezra i. 5. And it is a call
   to all those who are yet in the bondage of sin and Satan to make use of
   the liberty which Christ has proclaimed to them. And, if the Son make
   them free, they shall be free indeed. 2. Let them take heed of carrying
   away with them any of the pollutions of Babylon: Touch no unclean
   thing. Now that God makes bare his holy arm for you, be you holy as he
   is, and keep yourselves from every wicked thing. When they came out of
   Egypt they brought with them the idolatrous customs of Egypt (Ezek.
   xxiii. 3), which were their ruin; let them take heed of doing so now
   that they come out of Babylon. Note, When we are receiving any special
   mercy from God we ought more carefully than ever to watch against all
   impurity. But especially let those be clean who bear the vessels of the
   Lord, that is, the priests, who had the charge of the vessels of the
   sanctuary (when they were restored by a particular grant) to carry them
   to Jerusalem, Ezra i. 7; viii. 24, &c. Let them not only avoid touching
   any unclean thing, but be very careful to cleanse themselves according
   to the purification of the sanctuary. Christians are made to our God
   spiritual priests, Rev. i. 6. They are to bear the vessels of the Lord,
   are entrusted to keep the ordinances of God pure and entire; it is a
   good thing that is committed to them, and they ought to be clean, to
   wash their hands in innocency and so to compass God's altars and carry
   his vessels, and keep themselves pure. 3. Let them depend upon the
   presence of God with them and his protection in their removal (v. 12):
   You shall not go out with haste. They were to go with a diligent haste,
   not to lose time nor linger as Lot in Sodom, but they were not to go
   with a diffident distrustful haste, as if they were afraid of being
   pursued (as when they came out of Egypt) or of having the orders for
   their release recalled and countermanded: no, they shall find that, as
   for God, his work is perfect, and therefore they need not make more
   haste than good speed. Cyrus shall give them an honourable discharge,
   and they shall have an honourable return, and not steal away; for the
   Lord will go before them as their general and commander-in-chief, and
   the God of Israel will be their rearward, or he that will gather up
   those that are left behind. God will both lead their van and bring up
   their rear; he will secure them from enemies that either meet them or
   follow them, for with his favour will he compass them. The pillar of
   cloud and fire, when they came out of Egypt, sometimes went behind
   them, to secure their rear (Exod. xiv. 19), and God's presence with
   them would now be that to them which that pillar was a visible token
   of. Those that are in the way of their duty are under God's special
   protection; and he that believes this will not make haste.

The Humiliation of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and
   extolled, and be very high.   14 As many were astonished at thee; his
   visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons
   of men:   15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut
   their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they
   see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

   Here, as in other places, for the confirming of the faith of God's
   people and the encouraging of their hope in the promises of temporal
   deliverances, the prophet passes from them to speak of the great
   salvation which should in the fulness of time be wrought out by the
   Messiah. As the prophecy of Christ's incarnation was intended for the
   ratification of the promise of their deliverance from the Assyrian
   army, so this of Christ's death and resurrection is to confirm the
   promise of their return out of Babylon; for both these salvations were
   typical of the great redemption and the prophecies of them had a
   reference to that. This prophecy, which begins here and is continued to
   the end of the next chapter, points as plainly as can be at Jesus
   Christ; the ancient Jews understood it of the Messiah, though the
   modern Jews take a great deal of pains to pervert it, and some of ours
   (no friends therein to the Christian religion) will have it understood
   of Jeremiah; but Philip, who hence preached Christ to the eunuch, has
   put it past dispute that of him speaks the prophet this, of him and of
   no other man, Acts viii. 34, 35. Here,

   I. God owns Christ to be both commissioned and qualified for his
   undertaking. 1. He is appointed to it. "He is my servant, whom I employ
   and therefore will uphold." In his undertaking he does his Father's
   will, seeks his Father's honour, and serves the interests of his
   Father's kingdom. 2. He is qualified for it. He shall deal prudently,
   for the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, ch. xi.
   2. The word is used concerning David when he behaved himself wisely, 1
   Sam. xviii. 14. Christ is wisdom itself, and, in the contriving and
   carrying on the work of our redemption, there appeared much of the
   wisdom of God in a mystery, 1 Cor. ii. 7. Christ, when he was here upon
   earth, dealt very prudently, to the admiration of all.

   II. He gives a short prospect both of his humiliation and his
   exaltation. See here, 1. How he humbled himself: Many were astonished
   at him, as they were at David when by reason of his sorrows and
   troubles he became a wonder unto many, Ps. lxxi. 7. Many wondered to
   see what base usage he met with, how inveterate people were against
   him, how inhuman, and what indignities were done him: His visage was
   marred more than any man's when he was buffeted, smitten on the cheek,
   and crowned with thorns, and hid not his face from shame and spitting.
   His face was foul with weeping, for he was a man of sorrows; he that
   really was fairer than the children of men had his face spoiled with
   the abuses that were done him. Never was man used so barbarously; his
   form, when he took upon him the form of a servant, was more mean and
   abject than that of any of the sons of men. Those that saw him said,
   "Surely never man looked so miserably, a worm and no man," Ps. xxii. 6.
   The nation abhorred him (ch. xlix. 7), treated him as the off-scouring
   of all things. Never was sorrow like unto his sorrow. 2. How highly God
   exalted him, and exalted him because he humbled himself. Three words
   are used for this (v. 13): He shalt be exalted and extolled and be very
   high. God shall exalt him, men shall extol him, and with both he shall
   be very high, higher than the highest, higher than the heavens. He
   shall prosper in his work, and succeed in it, and that shall raise him
   very high. (1.) Many nations shall be the better for him, for he shall
   sprinkle them, and not the Jews only; the blood of sprinkling shall be
   applied to their consciences, to purify them. He suffered, and died,
   and so sprinkled many nations; for in his death there was a fountain
   opened, Zech. xiii. 1. He shall sprinkle many nations by his heavenly
   doctrine, which shall drop as the rain and distil as the dew. Moses's
   did so only on one nation (Deut. xxxii. 2), but Christ's on many
   nations. He shall do it by baptism, which is the washing of the body
   with pure water, Heb. x. 22. So that this promise had its
   accomplishment when Christ sent his apostles to disciple all nations,
   by baptizing or sprinkling them. (2.) The great ones of the nation
   shall show him respect: Kings shall shut their mouths at him, that is,
   they shall not open their mouths against him, as they have done, to
   contradict and blaspheme his sacred oracles; nay, they shall acquiesce
   in, and be well pleased with, the methods he takes of setting up his
   kingdom in the world; they shall with great humility and reverence
   receive his oracles and laws, as those who, when they heard Job's
   wisdom, after his speech spoke not again, Job xxix. 9, 22. Kings shall
   see and arise, ch. xlix. 7. (3.) The mystery which was kept secret from
   the beginning of the world shall by him be made known to all nations
   for the obedience of faith, as the apostle speaks, Rom. xvi. 25, 26.
   That which had not been told them shall they see; the gospel brings to
   light things new and unheard of, which will awaken the attention and
   engage the reverence of kings and kingdoms. This is applied to the
   preaching of the gospel in the Gentile world, Rom. xv. 21. These words
   are there quoted according to the Septuagint translation: To whom he
   was not spoken of they shall see, and those that have not heard shall
   understand. As the things revealed had long been kept secret, so the
   persons to whom they were revealed had long been kept in the dark; but
   now they shall see and consider the glory of God shining in the face of
   Christ, which before they had not been told of--they had not heard.
   That shall be discovered to them by the gospel of Christ which could
   never be told them by all the learning of their philosophers, or the
   art of their diviners, or any of their pagan oracles. Much had been
   said in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah; much had been told
   them, and they had heard it. But, as the queen of Sheba found
   concerning Solomon, what they shall see in him, when he comes, shall
   far exceed what had been told them. Christ disappointed the
   expectations of those who looked for a Messiah according to their
   fancies, as the carnal Jews, but outdid theirs who looked for such a
   Messiah as was promised. According to their faith, nay, and beyond it,
   it was to them.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LIII.

   The two great things which the Spirit of Christ in the Old-Testament
   prophets testified beforehand were the sufferings of Christ and the
   glory that should follow, 1 Pet. i. 11. And that which Christ himself,
   when he expounded Moses and all the prophets, showed to be the drift
   and scope of them all was that Christ ought to suffer and then to enter
   into his glory, Luke xxiv. 26, 27. But nowhere in all the Old-Testament
   are these two so plainly and fully prophesied of as here in this
   chapter, out of which divers passages are quoted with application to
   Christ in the New-Testament. This chapter is so replenished with the
   unsearchable riches of Christ that it may be called rather the gospel
   of the evangelist Isaiah than the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah. We
   may observe here, I. The reproach of Christ's sufferings--the meanness
   of his appearance, the greatness of his grief, and the prejudices which
   many conceived in consequences against his doctrine, ver. 1-3. II. The
   rolling away of this reproach, and the stamping of immortal honour upon
   his sufferings, notwithstanding the disgrace and ignominy of them, by
   four considerations:--1. That therein he did his Father's will, ver. 4,
   6, 10. 2. That thereby he made atonement for the sin of man (ver. 4-6,
   8, 11, 12), for it was not for any sin of his own that he suffered,
   ver. 9. 3. That he bore his sufferings with an invincible and
   exemplary, ver. 7. 4. That he should prosper in his undertaking, and
   his sufferings should end in his immortal honour, ver. 10-12. By mixing
   faith with the prophecy of this chapter we may improve our acquaintance
   with Jesus Christ and him crucified, with Jesus Christ and him
   glorified, dying for our sins and rising again for our justification.

The Humiliation of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord
   revealed?   2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as
   a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we
   shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.   3 He is
   despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
   grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and
   we esteemed him not.

   The prophet, in the close of the former chapter, had foreseen and
   foretold the kind reception which the gospel of Christ should find
   among the Gentiles, that nations and their kings should bid it welcome,
   that those who had not seen him should believe in him; and though they
   had not any prophecies among them of gospel grace, which might raise
   their expectations, and dispose them to entertain it, yet upon the
   first notice of it they should give it its due weight and
   consideration. Now here he foretels, with wonder, the unbelief of the
   Jews, notwithstanding the previous notices they had of the coming of
   the Messiah in the Old Testament and the opportunity they had of being
   personally acquainted with him. Observe here,

   I. The contempt they put upon the gospel of Christ, v. 1. The unbelief
   of the Jews in our Saviour's time is expressly said to be the
   fulfilling of this word, John xii. 38. And it is applied likewise to
   the little success which the apostles' preaching met with among Jews
   and Gentiles, Rom. x. 16. Note, 1. Of the many that hear the report of
   the gospel there are few, very few, that believe it. It is reported
   openly and publicly, not whispered in a corner, or confined to the
   schools, but proclaimed to all; and it is so faithful a saying, and so
   well worthy of all acceptation, that one would think it should be
   universally received and believed. But it is quite otherwise; few
   believed the prophets who spoke before of Christ; when he came himself
   none of the rulers nor of the Pharisees followed him, and but here and
   there one of the common people; and, when the apostles carried this
   report all the world over, some in every place believed, but
   comparatively very few. To this day, of the many that profess to
   believe this report, there are few that cordially embrace it and submit
   to the power of it. 2. Therefore people believe not the report of the
   gospel, because the arm of the Lord is not revealed to them; they do
   not discern, nor will be brought to acknowledge, that divine power
   which goes along with the word. The arm of the Lord is made bare (as
   was said, ch. lii. 10) in the miracles that were wrought to confirm
   Christ's doctrine, in the wonderful success of it, and its energy upon
   the conscience; though it is a still voice, it is a strong one; but
   they do not perceive this, nor do they experience in themselves that
   working of the Spirit which makes the word effectual. They believe not
   the gospel because, by rebelling against the light they had, they had
   forfeited the grace of God, which therefore he justly denied them and
   withheld from them, and for want of that they believed not. 3. This is
   a thing we ought to be much affected with; it is to be wondered at, and
   greatly lamented, and ministers may go to God and complain of it to
   him, as the prophet here. What a pity is it that such rich grace should
   be received in vain, that precious souls should perish at the pool's
   side, because they will not step in and be healed!

   II. The contempt they put upon the person of Christ because of the
   meanness of his appearance, v. 2, 3. This seems to come in as a reason
   why they rejected his doctrine, because they were prejudiced against
   his person. When he was on earth many that heard him preach, and could
   not but approve of what they heard, would not give it any regard or
   entertainment, because it came from one that made so small a figure and
   had no external advantages to recommend him. Observe here,

   1. The low condition he submitted to, and how he abased and emptied
   himself. The entry he made into the world, and the character he wore in
   it, were no way agreeable to the ideas which the Jews had formed of the
   Messiah and their expectations concerning him, but quite the reverse.
   (1.) It was expected that his extraction would be very great and noble.
   He was to be the Son of David, of a family that had a name like to the
   names of the great men that were in the earth, 2 Sam. vii. 9. But he
   sprang out of this royal and illustrious family when it was reduced and
   sunk, and Joseph, that son of David, who was his supposed father, was
   but a poor carpenter, perhaps a ship-carpenter, for most of his
   relations were fishermen. This is here meant by his being a root out of
   a dry ground, his being born of a mean and despicable family, in the
   north, in Galilee, of a family out of which, like a dry and desert
   ground, nothing green, nothing great, was expected, in a country of
   such small repute that it was thought no good thing could come out of
   it. His mother, being a virgin, was as dry ground, yet from her he
   sprang who is not only fruit, but root. The seed on the stony ground
   had no root; but, though Christ grew out of a dry ground, he is both
   the root and the offspring of David, the root of the good olive. (2.)
   It was expected that he should make a public entry, and come in pomp
   and with observation; but, instead of that, he grew up before God, not
   before men. God had his eye upon him, but men regarded him not: He grew
   up as a tender plant, silently and insensibly, and without any noise,
   as the corn, that tender plant, grows up, we know not how, Mark iv. 27.
   Christ rose as a tender plant, which, one would have thought, might
   easily be crushed, or might be nipped in one frosty night. The gospel
   of Christ, in its beginning, was as a grain of mustard-seed, so
   inconsiderable did it seem, Matt. xiii. 31, 32. (3.) It was expected
   that he should have some uncommon beauty in his face and person, which
   should charm the eye, attract the heart, and raise the expectations of
   all that saw him. But there was nothing of this kind in him; not that
   he was in the least deformed or misshapen, but he had no form nor
   comeliness, nothing extraordinary, which one might have thought to meet
   with in the countenance of an incarnate deity. Those who saw him could
   not see that there was any beauty in him that they should desire him,
   nothing in him more than in another beloved, Cant. v. 9. Moses, when he
   was born, was exceedingly fair, to such a degree that it was looked
   upon as a happy presage, Acts vii. 20; Heb. xi. 23. David, when he was
   anointed, was of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to, 1 Sam.
   xvi. 12. But our Lord Jesus had nothing of that to recommend him. Or it
   may refer not so much to his person as to the manner of his appearing
   in the world, which had nothing in it of sensible glory. His gospel is
   preached, not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but with all
   plainness, agreeable to the subject. (4.) It was expected that he
   should live a pleasant life, and have a full enjoyment of all the
   delights of the sons and daughters of men, which would have invited all
   sorts to him; but, on the contrary, he was a man of sorrows and
   acquainted with grief. It was not only his last scene that was
   tragical, but his whole life was so, not only mean, but miserable,


   --------but one continued chain

   Of labour, sorrow, and consuming pain.

   Sir R. Blackmore.

   Thus, being made sin for us, he underwent the sentence sin had
   subjected us to, that we should eat in sorrow all the days of our life
   (Gen. iii. 17), and thereby relaxed much of the rigour and extremity of
   the sentence as to us. His condition was, upon many accounts,
   sorrowful. He was unsettled, had not where to lay his head, lived upon
   alms, was opposed and menaced, and endured the contradiction of sinners
   against himself. His spirit was tender, and he admitted the impressions
   of sorrow. We never read that he laughed, but often that he wept.
   Lentulus, in his epistle to the Roman senate concerning Jesus, says,
   "he was never seen to laugh;" and so worn and macerated was he with
   continual grief that when he was but a little above thirty years of age
   he was taken to be nearly fifty, John viii. 57. Grief was his intimate
   acquaintance; for he acquainted himself with the grievances of others,
   and sympathized with them, and he never set his own at a distance; for
   in his transfiguration he talked of his own decease, and in his triumph
   he wept over Jerusalem. Let us look unto him and mourn.

   2. The low opinion that men had of him, upon this account. Being
   generally apt to judge of persons and things by the sight of the eye,
   and according to outward appearance, they saw no beauty in him that
   they should desire him. There was a great deal of true beauty in him,
   the beauty of holiness and the beauty of goodness, enough to render him
   the desire of all nations; but the far greater part of those among whom
   he lived, and conversed, saw none of this beauty, for it was
   spiritually discerned. Carnal hearts see no excellency in the Lord
   Jesus, nothing that should induce them to desire an acquaintance with
   him or interest in him. Nay, he is not only not desired, but he is
   despised and rejected, abandoned and abhorred, a reproach of men, an
   abject, one that men were shy of keeping company with and had not any
   esteem for, a worm and no man. He was despised as a mean man, rejected
   as a bad man. He was the stone which the builders refused; they would
   not have him to reign over them. Men, who should have had so much
   reason as to understand things better, so much tenderness as not to
   trample upon a man in misery--men whom he came to seek and save
   rejected him: "We hid as it were our faces from him, looked another
   way, and his sufferings were as nothing to us; though never sorrow was
   like unto his sorrow. Nay, we not only behaved as having no concern for
   him, but as loathing him, and having him in detestation." It may be
   read, He hid as it were his face from us, concealed the glory of his
   majesty, and drew a veil over it, and therefore he was despised and we
   esteemed him not, because we could not see through that veil. Christ
   having undertaken to make satisfaction to the justice of God for the
   injury man had done him in his honour by sin (and God cannot be injured
   except in his honour), he did it not only by divesting himself of the
   glories due to an incarnate deity, but by submitting himself to the
   disgraces due to the worst of men and malefactors; and thus by
   vilifying himself he glorified his Father: but this is a good reason
   why we should esteem him highly, and study to do him honour; let him be
   received by us whom men rejected.

The Humiliation of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did
   esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.   5 But he was
   wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
   chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
   healed.   6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
   one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
   all.   7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
   mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
   her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.   8 He was taken
   from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?
   for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression
   of my people was he stricken.   9 And he made his grave with the
   wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no
   violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

   In these verses we have,

   I. A further account of the sufferings of Christ. Much was said before,
   but more is said here, of the very low condition to which he abased and
   humbled himself, to which he became obedient even to the death of the
   cross. 1. He had griefs and sorrows; being acquainted with them, he
   kept up the acquaintance, and did not grow shy, no, not of such
   melancholy acquaintance. Were griefs and sorrows allotted him? He bore
   them, and blamed not his lot; he carried them, and did neither shrink
   from them, nor sink under them. The load was heavy and the way long,
   and yet he did not tire, but persevered to the end, till he said, It is
   finished. 2. He had blows and bruises; he was stricken, smitten, and
   afflicted. His sorrows bruised him; he felt pain and smart from them;
   they touched him in the most tender part, especially when God was
   dishonoured, and when he forsook him upon the cross. All along he was
   smitten with the tongue, when he was cavilled at and contradicted, put
   under the worst of characters, and had all manner of evil said against
   him. At last he was smitten with the hand, with blow after blow. 3. He
   had wounds and stripes. He was scourged, not under the merciful
   restriction of the Jewish law, which allowed not above forty stripes to
   be given to the worst of malefactors, but according to the usage of the
   Romans. And his scourging, doubtless, was the more severe because
   Pilate intended it as an equivalent for his crucifixion, and yet it
   proved a preface to it. He was wounded in his hands, and feet, and
   side. Though it was so ordered that not a bone of him should be broken,
   yet he had scarcely in any part a whole skin (how fond soever we are to
   sleep in one, even when we are called out to suffer for him), but from
   the crown of his head, which was crowned with thorns, to the soles of
   his feet, which were nailed to the cross, nothing appeared but wounds
   and bruises. 4. He was wronged and abused (v. 7): He was oppressed,
   injuriously treated and hardly dealt with. That was laid to his charge
   which he was perfectly innocent of, that laid upon him which he did not
   deserve, and in both he was oppressed and injured. He was afflicted
   both in mind and body; being oppressed, he laid it to heart, and,
   though, he was patient, was not stupid under it, but mingled his tears
   with those of the oppressed, that have no comforter, because on the
   side of the oppressors there is power, Eccl. iv. 1. Oppression is a
   sore affliction; it has made many a wise man mad (Eccl. vii. 7); but
   our Lord Jesus, though, when he was oppressed, he was afflicted, kept
   possession of his own soul. 5. He was judged and imprisoned, as is
   implied in his being taken from prison and judgment, v. 8. God having
   made him sin for us, he was proceeded against as a malefactor; he was
   apprehended and taken into custody, and made a prisoner; he was judge,
   accused, tried, and condemned, according to the usual forms of law: God
   filed a process against him, judged him in pursuance of that process,
   and confined him in the prison of the grave, at the door of which a
   stone was rolled and sealed. 6. He was cut off by an untimely death
   from the land of the living, though he lived a most useful life, did so
   many good works, and they were all such that one would be apt to think
   it was for some of them that they stoned him. He was stricken to death,
   to the grave which he made with the wicked (for he was crucified
   between two thieves, as if he had been the worst of the three) and yet
   with the rich, for he was buried in a sepulchre that belonged to
   Joseph, an honourable counsellor. Though he died with the wicked, and
   according to the common course of dealing with criminals should have
   been buried with them in the place where he was crucified, yet God here
   foretold, and Providence so ordered it, that he should make his grave
   with the innocent, with the rich, as a mark of distinction put between
   him and those that really deserved to die, even in his sufferings.

   II. A full account of the meaning of his sufferings. It was a very
   great mystery that so excellent a person should suffer such hard
   things; and it is natural to ask with amazement, "How came it about?
   What evil had he done?" His enemies indeed looked upon him as suffering
   justly for his crimes; and, though they could lay nothing to his
   charge, they esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, v.
   4. Because they hated him, and persecuted him, they thought that God
   did, that he was his enemy and fought against him; and therefore they
   were the more enraged against him, saying, God has forsaken him;
   persecute and take him, Ps. lxxi. 11. Those that are justly smitten are
   smitten of God, for by him princes decree justice; and so they looked
   upon him to be smitten, justly put to death as a blasphemer, a
   deceiver, and an enemy to Cæsar. Those that saw him hanging on the
   cross enquired not into the merits of his cause, but took it for
   granted that he was guilty of every thing laid to his charge and that
   therefore vengeance suffered him not to live. Thus Job's friends
   esteemed him smitten of God, because there was something uncommon in
   his sufferings. It is true he was smitten of God, v. 10 (or, as some
   read it, he was God's smitten and afflicted, the Son of God, though
   smitten and afflicted), but not in the sense in which they meant it;
   for, though he suffered all these things,

   1. He never did any thing in the least to deserve this hard usage.
   Whereas he was charged with perverting the nation, and sowing sedition,
   it was utterly false; he had done no violence, but went about doing
   good. And, whereas he was called that deceiver, he never deserved that
   character; for there was no deceit in his mouth (v. 9), to which the
   apostle refers, 1 Pet. ii. 22. He did no sin, neither was guile found
   in his mouth. He never offended either in word or deed, nor could any
   of his enemies take up that challenge of his, Which of you convinceth
   me of sin? The judge that condemned owned he found no fault in him, and
   the centurion that executed him professed that certainly he was a
   righteous man.

   2. He conducted himself under his sufferings so as to make it appear
   that he did not suffer as an evil-doer; for, though he was oppressed
   and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth (v. 7), no, not so much as
   to plead his own innocency, but freely offered himself to suffer and
   die for us, and objected nothing against it. This takes away the
   scandal of the cross, that he voluntarily submitted to it, for great
   and holy ends. By his wisdom he could have evaded the sentence, and by
   his power have resisted the execution; but thus it was written, and
   thus it behoved him to suffer. This commandment he received from his
   Father, and therefore he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, without
   any difficulty or reluctance (he is the Lamb of God); and as a sheep is
   dumb before the shearers, nay, before the butchers, so he opened not
   his mouth, which denotes not only his exemplary patience under
   affliction (Ps. xxxix. 9), and his meekness under reproach (Ps.
   xxxviii. 13), but his cheerful compliance with his Father's will. Not
   my will, but thine be done. Lo, I come. By this will we are sanctified,
   his making his own soul, his own life, an offering for our sin.

   3. It was for our good, and in our stead, that Jesus Christ suffered.
   This is asserted here plainly and fully, and in a very great variety of
   emphatical expressions.

   (1.) It is certain that we are all guilty before God. We have all
   sinned, and have come short of the glory of God (v. 6): All we like
   sheep have gone astray, one as well as another. The whole race of
   mankind lies under the stain of original corruption, and every
   particular person stands charged with many actual transgressions. We
   have all gone astray from God our rightful owner, alienated ourselves
   from him, from the ends he designed us to move towards and the way he
   appointed us to move in. We have gone astray like sheep, which are apt
   to wander, and are unapt, when they have gone astray, to find the way
   home again. That is our true character; we are bent to backslide from
   God, but altogether unable of ourselves to return to him. This is
   mentioned not only as our infelicity (that we go astray from the green
   pastures and expose ourselves to the beasts of prey), but as our
   iniquity. We affront God in going astray from him, for we turn aside
   every one to his own way, and thereby set up ourselves, and our own
   will, in competition with God and his will, which is the malignity of
   sin. Instead of walking obediently in God's way, we have turned
   wilfully and stubbornly to our own way, the way of our own heart, the
   way that our own corrupt appetites and passions lead us to. We have set
   up for ourselves, to be our own masters, our own carvers, to do what we
   will and have what we will. Some think it intimates our own evil way,
   in distinction from the evil way of others. Sinners have their own
   iniquity, their beloved sin, which does most easily beset them, their
   own evil way, that they are particularly fond of and bless themselves
   in.

   (2.) Our sins are our sorrows and our griefs (v. 4), or, as it may be
   read, our sicknesses and our wounds: the LXX. reads it, our sins; and
   so the apostle, 1 Pet. ii. 24. Our original corruptions are the
   sickness and disease of the soul, an habitual indisposition; our actual
   transgressions are the wounds of the soul, which put conscience to
   pain, if it be not seared and senseless. Or our sins are called our
   griefs and sorrows because all our griefs and sorrows are owing to our
   sins and our sins deserve all our griefs and sorrows, even those that
   are most extreme and everlasting.

   (3.) Our Lord Jesus was appointed and did undertake to make
   satisfaction for our sins and so to save us from the penal consequences
   of them. [1.] He was appointed to do it, by the will of his Father; for
   the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God chose him to be
   the Saviour of poor sinners and would have him to save them in this
   way, by bearing their sins and the punishment of them; not the
   idem--the same that we should have suffered, but the tantundem--that
   which was more than equivalent for the maintaining of the honour of the
   holiness and justice of God in the government of the world. Observe
   here, First, In what way we are saved from the ruin to which by sin we
   had become liable--by laying our sins on Christ, as the sins of the
   offerer were laid upon the sacrifice and those of all Israel upon the
   head of the scape-goat. Our sins were made to meet upon him (so the
   margin reads it); the sins of all that he was to save, from every place
   and every age, met upon him, and he was met with for them. They were
   made to fall upon him (so some read it) as those rushed upon him that
   came with swords and staves to take him. The laying of our sins upon
   Christ implies the taking of them off from us; we shall not fall under
   the curse of the law if we submit to the grace of the gospel. They were
   laid upon Christ when he was made sin (that is, a sin-offering) for us,
   and redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us;
   thus he put himself into a capacity to make those easy that come to him
   heavily laden under the burden of sin. See Ps. xl. 6-12. Secondly, By
   whom this was appointed. It was the Lord that laid our iniquities on
   Christ; he contrived this way of reconciliation and salvation, and he
   accepted of the vicarious satisfaction Christ was to make. Christ was
   delivered to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
   None but God had power to lay our sins upon Christ, both because the
   sin was committed against him and to him the satisfaction was to be
   made, and because Christ, on whom the iniquity was to be laid, was his
   own Son, the Son of his love, and his holy child Jesus, who himself
   knew no sin. Thirdly, For whom this atonement was to be made. It was
   the iniquity of us all that was laid on Christ; for in Christ there is
   a sufficiency of merit for the salvation of all, and a serious offer
   made of that salvation to all, which excludes none that do not exclude
   themselves. It intimates that this is the one only way of salvation.
   All that are justified are justified by having their sins laid on Jesus
   Christ, and, though they were ever so many, he is able to bear the
   weight of them all. [2.] He undertook to do it. God laid upon him our
   iniquity; but did he consent to it? Yes, he did; for some think that
   the true reading of the next words (v. 7) is, It was exacted, and he
   answered; divine justice demanded satisfaction for our sins, and he
   engaged to make the satisfaction. He became our surety, not as
   originally bound with us, but as bail to the action: "Upon me be the
   curse, my Father." And therefore, when he was seized, he stipulated
   with those into whose hands he surrendered himself that that should be
   his disciples' discharge: If you seek me, let these go their way, John
   xviii. 8. By his own voluntary undertaking he made himself responsible
   for our debt, and it is well for us that he was responsible. Thus he
   restored that which he took not away.

   (4.) Having undertaken our debt, he underwent the penalty. Solomon
   says: He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. Christ,
   being surety for us, did smart for it. [1.] He bore our griefs and
   carried our sorrows, v. 4. He not only submitted to the common
   infirmities of human nature, and the common calamities of human life,
   which sin had introduced, but he underwent the extremities of grief,
   when he said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. He made the sorrows of
   this present time heavy to himself, that he might make them light and
   easy for us. Sin is the wormwood and the fall in the affliction and the
   misery. Christ bore our sins, and so bore our griefs, bore them off us,
   that we should never be pressed above measure. This is quoted (Matt.
   viii. 17) with application to the compassion Christ had for the sick
   that came to him to be cured and the power he put forth to cure them.
   [2.] He did this by suffering for our sins (v. 5): He was wounded for
   our transgressions, to make atonement for them and to purchase for us
   the pardon of them. Our sins were the thorns in his head, the nails in
   his hands and feet, the spear in his side. Wounds and bruises were the
   consequences of sin, what we deserved and what we had brought upon
   ourselves, ch. i. 6. That these wounds and bruises, though they are
   painful, may not be mortal, Christ was wounded for our transgressions,
   was tormented or pained (the word is used for the pains of a woman in
   travail) for our revolts and rebellions. He was bruised, or crushed,
   for our iniquities; they were the procuring cause of his death. To the
   same purport is v. 8, for the transgression of my people was he
   smitten, the stroke was upon him that should have been upon us; and so
   some read it, He was cut off for the iniquity of my people, unto whom
   the stroke belonged, or was due. He was delivered to death for our
   offences, Rom. iv. 25. Hence it is said to be according to the
   scriptures, according to this scripture, that Christ died for our sins,
   1 Cor. xv. 3. Some read this, by the transgressions of my people; that
   is, by the wicked hands of the Jews, who were, in profession, God's
   people, he was stricken, was crucified and slain, Acts ii. 23. But,
   doubtless, we are to take it in the former sense, which is abundantly
   confirmed by the angel's prediction of the Messiah's undertaking,
   solemnly delivered to Daniel, that he shall finish transgression, make
   an end of sin, and make reconciliation for iniquity, Dan. ix. 24.

   (5.) The consequence of this to us is our peace and healing, v. 5. [1.]
   Hereby we have peace: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; he,
   by submitting to these chastisements, slew the enmity, and settled an
   amity, between God and man; he made peace by the blood of his cross.
   Whereas by sin we had become odious to God's holiness and obnoxious to
   his justice, through Christ God is reconciled to us, and not only
   forgives our sins and saves us from ruin, but takes us into friendship
   and fellowship with himself, and thereby peace (that is, all good)
   comes unto us, Col. i. 20. He is our peace, Eph. ii. 14. Christ was in
   pain that we might be at ease; he gave satisfaction to the justice of
   God that we might have satisfaction in our own minds, might be of good
   cheer, knowing that through him our sins are forgiven us. [2.] Hereby
   we have healing; for by his stripes we are healed. Sin is not only a
   crime, for which we were condemned to die and which Christ purchased
   for us the pardon of, but it is a disease, which tends directly to the
   death of our souls and which Christ provided for the cure of. By his
   stripes (that is, the sufferings he underwent) he purchased for us the
   Spirit and grace of God to mortify our corruptions, which are the
   distempers of our souls, and to put our souls in a good state of
   health, that they may be fit to serve God and prepared to enjoy him.
   And by the doctrine of Christ's cross, and the powerful arguments it
   furnishes us with against sin, the dominion of sin is broken in us and
   we are fortified against that which feeds the disease.

   (6.) The consequence of this to Christ was his resurrection and
   advancement to perpetual honour. This makes the offence of the cross
   perfectly to cease; he yielded himself to die as a sacrifice, as a
   lamb, and, to make it evident that the sacrifice he offered of himself
   was accepted, we are told here, v. 8, [1.] That he was discharged: He
   was taken from prison and from judgment; whereas he was imprisoned in
   the grave under a judicial process, lay there under an arrest for our
   debt, and judgment seemed to be given against him, he was by an express
   order from heaven taken out of the prison of the grave, an angel was
   sent on purpose to roll away the stone and set him at liberty, by which
   the judgment given against him was reversed and taken off; this
   redounds not only to his honour, but to our comfort; for, being
   delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification.
   That discharge of the bail amounted to a release of the debt. [2.] That
   he was preferred: Who shall declare his generation? his age, or
   continuance (so the word signifies), the time of his life? He rose to
   die no more; death had no more dominion over him. He that was dead is
   alive, and lives for evermore; and who can describe that immortality to
   which he rose, or number the years and ages of it? And he is advanced
   to this eternal life because for the transgression of his people he
   became obedient to death. We may take it as denoting the time of his
   usefulness, as David is said to serve his generation, and so to answer
   the end of living. Who can declare how great a blessing Christ by his
   death and resurrection will be to the world? Some by his generation
   understand his spiritual seed: Who can count the vast numbers of
   converts that shall by the gospel be begotten to him, like the dew of
   the morning?


   When thus exalted he shall live to see

   A numberless believing progeny

   Of his adopted sons; the godlike race

   Exceed the stars that heav'n's high arches grace.

   Sir R. Blackmore.

   Of this generation of his let us pray, as Moses did for Israel, The
   Lord God of our fathers make them a thousand times so many more as they
   are, and bless them as he has promised them, Deut. i. 11.

The Exaltation of the Messiah; The Triumph of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:
   when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
   seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
   prosper in his hand.   11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and
   shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
   many; for he shall bear their iniquities.   12 Therefore will I divide
   him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
   strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was
   numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made
   intercession for the transgressors.

   In the foregoing verses the prophet had testified very particularly of
   the sufferings of Christ, yet mixing some hints of the happy issue of
   them; here he again mentions his sufferings, but largely foretels the
   glory that should follow. We may observe, in these verses,

   I. The services and sufferings of Christ's state of humiliation. Come,
   and see how he loved us, see what he did for us.

   1. He submitted to the frowns of Heaven (v. 10): Yet it pleased the
   Lord to bruise him, to put him to pain, or torment, or grief. The
   scripture nowhere says that Christ is his sufferings underwent the
   wrath of God; but it says here, (1.) That the Lord bruised him, not
   only permitted men to bruise him, but awakened his own sword against
   him, Zech. xiii. 7. They esteemed him smitten of God for some very
   great sin of his own (v. 4); now it was true that he was smitten of
   God, but it was for our sin; the Lord bruised him, for he did not spare
   him, but delivered him up for us all, Rom. viii. 32. He it was that put
   the bitter cup into his hand, and obliged him to drink it (John xviii.
   11), having laid upon him our iniquity. He it was that made him sin and
   a curse for us, and turned to ashes all his burnt-offering, in token of
   the acceptance of it, Ps. xx. 3. (2.) That he bruised him so as to put
   him to grief. Christ accommodated himself to this dispensation, and
   received the impressions of grief from his Father's delivering him up;
   and he was troubled to such a degree that it put him into an agony, and
   he began to be amazed and very heavy. (3.) It pleased the Lord to do
   this. He determined to do it; it was the result of an eternal counsel;
   and he delighted in it, as it was an effectual method for the salvation
   of man and the securing and advancing of the honour of God.

   2. He substituted himself in the room of sinners, as a sacrifice. He
   made his soul an offering for sin; he himself explains this (Matt. xx.
   28), that he came to give his life a ransom for many. When men brought
   bulls and goats as sacrifices for sin they made them offerings, for
   they had an interest in them, God having put them under the feet of
   man. But Christ made himself an offering; it was his own act and deed.
   We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself, and said,
   Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, in a higher sense than David
   said, or could say it. "Father, I commit my soul to thee, I deposit it
   in thy hands, as the life of a sacrifice and the price of pardons."
   Thus he shall bear the iniquities of the many that he designed to
   justify (v. 11), shall take away the sin of the world by taking it upon
   himself, John i. 29. This mentioned again (v. 12): He bore the sin of
   many, who, if they had borne it themselves, would have been sunk by it
   to the lowest hell. See how this dwelt upon; for, whenever we think of
   the sufferings of Christ, we must see him in them bearing our sin.

   3. He subjected himself to that which to us is the wages of sin (v.
   12): He has poured out his soul unto death, poured it out as water, so
   little account did he make of it, when the laying of it down was the
   appointed means of our redemption and salvation. He loved not his life
   unto the death, and his followers, the martyrs, did likewise, Rev. xii.
   11. Or, rather, he poured it out as a drink-offering, to make his
   sacrifice complete, poured it out as wine, that his blood might be
   drink indeed, as his flesh is meat indeed to all believers. There was
   not only a colliquation of his body in his sufferings (Ps. xxii. 14, I
   am poured out like water), but a surrender of his spirit; he poured out
   that, even unto death, though he is the Lord of life.

   4. He suffered himself to be ranked with sinners, and yet offered
   himself to be an intercessor for sinners, v. 12. (1.) It was a great
   aggravation of his sufferings that he was numbered with transgressors,
   that he was not only condemned as a malefactor, but executed in company
   with two notorious malefactors, and he in the midst, as if he had been
   the worst of the three, in which circumstance of his suffering, the
   evangelist tells us, this prophecy was fulfilled, Mark xv. 27, 28. Nay,
   the vilest malefactor of all, Barabbas, who was a traitor, a thief, and
   a murderer, was put in election with him for the favour of the people,
   and carried it; for they would not have Jesus released, but Barabbas.
   In his whole life he was numbered among the transgressors; for he was
   called and accounted a sabbath-breaker, a drunkard, and a friend to
   publicans and sinners. (2.) It was a great commendation of his
   sufferings, and redounded very much to his honour, that in his
   sufferings he made intercession for the transgressors, for those that
   reviled and crucified him; for he prayed, Father, forgive them, thereby
   showing, not only that he forgave them, but that he was now doing that
   upon which their forgiveness, and the forgiveness of all other
   transgressors, were to be founded. That prayer was the language of his
   blood, crying, not for vengeance, but for mercy, and therein it speaks
   better things than that of Abel, even for those who with wicked hands
   shed it.

   II. The grace and glories of his state of exaltation; and the graces he
   confers on us are not the least of the glories conferred on him. These
   are secured to him by the covenant of redemption, which these verses
   give us some idea of. He promises to make his soul an offering for sin,
   consents that the Father shall deliver him up, and undertakes to bear
   the sin of many, in consideration of which the Father promises to
   glorify him, not only with the glory he had, as God, before the world
   was (John xvii. 5), but with the glories of the Mediator.

   1. He shall have the glory of an everlasting Father. Under this title
   he was brought into the world (ch. ix. 6), and he shall not fail to
   answer the title when he goes out of the world. This was the promise
   made to Abraham (who herein was a type of Christ), that he should be
   the father of many nations and so be the heir of the world, Rom. iv.
   13, 17. As he was the root of the Jewish church, and the covenant was
   made with him and his seed, so is Christ of the universal church and
   with him and his spiritual seed is the covenant of grace made, which is
   grounded upon and grafted in the covenant of redemption, which here we
   have some of the glorious promises of. It is promised,

   (1.) That the Redeemer shall have a seed to serve him and to bear up
   his name, Ps. xxii. 30. True believers are the seed of Christ; the
   Father gave them to him to be so, John xvii. 6. He died to purchase and
   purify them to himself, fell to the ground as a corn of wheat, that he
   might bring forth much fruit, John xii. 24. The word, that
   incorruptible see, of which they are born again, is his word; the
   Spirit, the great author of their regeneration, is his Spirit; and it
   is his image that is impressed upon them.

   (2.) That he shall live to see his seed. Christ's children have a
   living Father, and because he lives they shall live also, for he is
   their life. Though he died, he rose again, and left not his children
   orphans, but took effectual care to secure to them the spirit, the
   blessing, and the inheritance of sons. He shall see a great increase of
   them; the word is plural, He shall see his seeds, multitudes of them,
   so many that they cannot be numbered.

   (3.) That he shall himself continue to take care of the affairs of this
   numerous family: He shall prolong his days. Many, when they see their
   seed, their seed's seed, wish to depart in peace; but Christ will not
   commit the care of his family to any other, no, he shall himself live
   long, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no
   end, for he ever lives. Some refer it to believers: He shall see a seed
   that shall prolong its days, agreeing with Ps. lxxxix. 29, 36, His seed
   shall endure for ever. While the world stands Christ will have a church
   in it, which he himself will be the life of.

   (4.) That his great undertaking shall be successful and shall answer
   expectation: The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. God's
   purposes shall take effect, and not one iota or tittle of them shall
   fail. Note, [1.] The work of man's redemption is in the hands of the
   Lord Jesus, and it is in good hands. It is well for us that it is in
   his, for our own hands are not sufficient for us, but he is able to
   save to the uttermost. It is in his hands who upholds all things. [2.]
   It is the good pleasure of the Lord, which denotes not only his counsel
   concerning it, but his complacency in it; and therefore God loved him,
   and was well pleased in him, because he undertook to lay down his life
   for the sheep. [3.] It has prospered hitherto, and shall prosper,
   whatever obstructions or difficulties have been, or may be, in the way
   of it. Whatever is undertaken according to God's pleasure shall
   prosper, ch. xlvi. 10. Cyrus, a type of Christ, shall perform all God's
   pleasure (ch. xliv. 28), and therefore, no doubt, Christ shall. Christ
   was so perfectly well qualified for his undertaking, and prosecuted it
   with so much vigour, and it was from first to last so well devised,
   that it could not fail to prosper, to the honour of his Father and the
   salvation of all his seed.

   (5.) That he shall himself have abundant satisfaction in it (v. 11): He
   shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. He shall
   see it beforehand (so it may be understood); he shall with the prospect
   of his sufferings have a prospect of the fruit, and he shall be
   satisfied with the bargain. He shall see it when it is accomplished in
   the conversion and salvation of poor sinners. Note, [1.] Our Lord Jesus
   was in travail of soul for our redemption and salvation, in great pain,
   but with longing desire to be delivered, and all the pains and throes
   he underwent were in order to it and hastened it on. [2.] Christ does
   and will see the blessed fruit of the travail of his soul in the
   founding and building up of his church and the eternal salvation of all
   that were given him. He will not come short of his end in any part of
   his work, but will himself see that he has not laboured in vain. [3.]
   The salvation of souls is a great satisfaction to the Lord Jesus. He
   will reckon all his pains well bestowed, and himself abundantly
   recompensed, if the many sons be by him brought through grace to glory.
   Let him have this, and he has enough. God will be glorified, penitent
   believers will be justified, and then Christ will be satisfied. Thus,
   in conformity to Christ, it should be a satisfaction to us if we can do
   any thing to serve the interests of God's kingdom in the world. Let it
   always be our meat and drink, as it was Christ's, to do God's will.

   2. He shall have the glory of bringing in an everlasting righteousness;
   for so it was foretold concerning him, Dan. ix. 24. And here, to the
   same purport, By his knowledge (the knowledge of him, and faith in him)
   shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear the sins of
   many, and so lay a foundation for our justification from sin. Note,
   (1.) The great privilege that flows to us from the death of Christ is
   justification from sin, our being acquitted from that guilt which alone
   can ruin us, and accepted into God's favour, which alone can make us
   happy. (2.) Christ, who purchased our justification for us, applies it
   to us, by his intercession made for us, his gospel preached to us, and
   his Spirit witnessing in us. The Son of man had power even on earth to
   forgive sin. (3.) There are many whom Christ justifies, not all
   (multitudes perish in their sins), yet many, even as many as he gave
   his life a ransom for, as many as the Lord our God shall call. He shall
   justify not here and there one that is eminent and remarkable, but
   those of the many, the despised multitude. (4.) It is by faith that we
   are justified, by our consent to Christ and the covenant of grace; in
   this way we are saved, because thus God is most glorified, free grace
   most advanced, self most abased, and our happiness most effectually
   secured. (5.) Faith is the knowledge of Christ, and without knowledge
   there can be no true faith. Christ's way of gaining the will and
   affections is by enlightening the understanding and bringing that
   unfeignedly to assent to divine truths. (6.) That knowledge of Christ,
   and that faith in him, by which we are justified, have reference to him
   both as a servant to God and as a surety for us. [1.] As one that is
   employed for God to pursue his designs and secure and advance the
   interests of his glory. "He is my righteous servant, and as such
   justifies men." God has authorized and appointed him to do it; it is
   according to God's will and for his honour that he does it. He is
   himself righteous, and of his righteousness have all we received. He
   that is himself righteous (for he could not have made atonement for our
   sin if he had had any sin of his own to answer for) is made of God to
   us righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. [2.] As one that has
   undertaken for us. We must know him, and believe in him, as one that
   bore our iniquities--saved us from sinking under the load by taking it
   upon himself.

   3. He shall have the glory of obtaining an incontestable victory and
   universal dominion, v. 12. Because he has done all these good services,
   therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and, according to
   the will of the Father, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, as a
   great general, when he has driven the enemy out of the field, takes the
   plunder of it for himself and his army, which is both an unquestionable
   evidence of the victory and a recompense for all the toils and perils
   of the battle. Note, (1.) God the Father has engaged to reward the
   services and sufferings of Christ with great glory: "I will set him
   among the great, highly exalt him, and give him a name above every
   name." Great riches are also assigned to him: He shall divide the
   spoil, shall have abundance of graces and comforts to bestow upon all
   his faithful soldiers. (2.) Christ comes at his glory by conquest. He
   has set upon the strong man armed, dispossessed him, and divided the
   spoil. He has vanquished principalities and powers, sin and Satan,
   death and hell, the world and the flesh; these are the strong that he
   has disarmed and taken the spoil of. (3.) Much of the glory with which
   Christ is recompensed, and the spoil which he has divided, consists in
   the vast multitudes of willing, faithful, loyal subjects, that shall be
   brought in to him; for so some read it: I will give many to him, and he
   shall obtain many for a spoil. God will give him the heathen for his
   inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession,
   Ps. ii. 8. His dominion shall be from sea to sea. Many shall be wrought
   upon by the grace of God to give up themselves to him to be ruled, and
   taught, and saved by him, and hereby he shall reckon himself honoured,
   and enriched, and abundantly recompensed for all he did and all he
   suffered. (4.) What God designed for the Redeemer he shall certainly
   gain the possession of: "I will divide it to him," and immediately it
   follows, He shall divide it, notwithstanding the opposition that is
   given to him; for, as Christ finished the work that was given him to
   do, so God completed the recompence that was promised him for it; for
   he is both able and faithful. (5.) The spoil which God divided to
   Christ he divides (it is the same word), he distributes, among his
   followers; for, when he led captivity captive, he received gifts for
   men, that he might give gifts to men; for as he has told us (Acts xx.
   35) he did himself reckon it more blessed and honourable to give than
   to receive. Christ conquered for us, and through him we are more than
   conquerors. He has divided the spoils, the fruits of his conquest, to
   all that are his: let us therefore cast in our lot among them.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LIV.

   The death of Christ is the life of the church and of all that truly
   belong to it; and therefore very fitly, after the prophet had foretold
   the sufferings of Christ, he foretels the flourishing of the church,
   which is a part of his glory, and that exaltation of him which was the
   reward of his humiliation: it was promised him that he should see his
   seed, and this chapter is an explication of that promise. It may easily
   be granted that it has a primary reference to the welfare and
   prosperity of the Jewish church after their return out of Babylon,
   which (as other things that happened to them) was typical of the
   glorious liberty of the children of God, which through Christ we are
   brought into; yet it cannot be denied but that it has a further and
   principal reference to the gospel church, into which the Gentiles were
   to be admitted. And the first words being understood by the apostle
   Paul of the New-Testament Jerusalem (Gal. iv. 26) may serve as a key to
   the whole chapter and that which follows. It is here promised
   concerning the Christian church, I. That, though the beginnings of it
   were small, it should be greatly enlarged by the accession of many to
   it among the Gentiles, who had been wholly destitute of church
   privileges, ver. 1-5. II. That though sometimes God might seem to
   withdraw from her, and suspend the tokens of his favour, he would
   return in mercy and would not return to contend with them any more,
   ver. 6-10. III. That, though for a while she was in sorrow and under
   oppression, she should at length be advanced to greater honour and
   splendour than ever, ver. 11, 12. IV. That knowledge, righteousness,
   and peace, should flourish and prevail, ver. 13, 14. V. That all
   attempts against the church should be baffled, and she should be
   secured from the malice of her enemies, ver. 14-17.

The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing,
   and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the
   children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith
   the Lord.   2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth
   the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
   strengthen thy stakes;   3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand
   and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the
   desolate cities to be inhabited.   4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be
   ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to
   shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not
   remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.   5 For thy Maker is
   thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy
   One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

   If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of
   captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they
   were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of
   a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is
   promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled
   again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the
   suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected
   upon new foundations,--that those estates which had for many years been
   wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the
   right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach of
   their captivity, and the small number to which they were then reduced,
   shall be forgotten. And it is to be observed that, by virtue of the
   ancient promise made to Abraham of the increase of his seed, when they
   were restored to God's favour they multiplied greatly. Those that first
   came out of Babylon were but 42,000 (Ezra ii. 64), about a fifteenth
   part of their number when they came out of Egypt; many came dropping to
   them afterwards, but we may suppose that to be the greatest number that
   ever came in a body; and yet above 500 years after, a little before
   their destruction by the Romans, a calculation was made by the number
   of the paschal lambs, and the lowest computation by that rule (allowing
   only ten to a lamb, whereas they might be twenty) made the nation to be
   nearly three millions. Josephus says, seven and twenty hundred thousand
   and odd, Jewish War 6.425. But we must apply it to the church of God in
   general; I mean the kingdom of God among men, God's city in the world,
   the children of God incorporated. Now observe,

   I. The low and languishing state of religion in the world for a long
   time before Christianity was brought in. It was like one barren, that
   did not bear, or travail with child, was like one desolate, that had
   lost husband and children; the church lay in a little compass, and
   brought forth little fruit. The Jews were indeed by profession married
   to God, but few proselytes were added to them, the rising generations
   were unpromising, and serious godliness manifestly lost ground among
   them. The Gentiles had less religion among them than the Jews; their
   proselytes were in a dispersion; and the children of God, like the
   children of a broken, reduced family, were scattered abroad (John xi.
   52), did not appear nor make any figure.

   II. Its recovery from this low condition by the preaching of the gospel
   and the planting of the Christian church.

   1. Multitudes were converted from idols to the living God. Those were
   the church's children that were born again, were partakers of a new and
   divine nature, by the word. More were the children of the desolate than
   of the married wife; there were more good people found in the Gentile
   church (when that was set up) that had long been afar off, and without
   God in the world, than ever were found in the Jewish church. God's
   sealed ones out of the tribes of Israel are numbered (Rev. vii. 4), and
   they were but a remnant compared with the thousands of Israel; but
   those of other nations were so many, and crowded in so thickly, and lay
   so much scattered in all parts, that no man could number them, v. 9.
   Sometimes more of the power of religion is found in those places and
   families that have made little show of it, and have enjoyed but little
   of the means of grace, than in others that have distinguished
   themselves by a flourishing profession; and then more are the children
   of the desolate, more the fruits of their righteousness, than those of
   the married wife; so the last shall be first. Now this is spoken of as
   matter of great rejoicing to the church, which is called upon to break
   forth into singing upon this account. The increase of the church is the
   joy of all its friends and strengthens their hands. The longer the
   church has lain desolate the greater will the transports of joy be when
   it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain more. Even in
   heaven, among the angels of God, there is an uncommon joy for a sinner
   that repents, much more for a nation that does so. If the barren
   fig-tree at length bring forth fruit, it is well; it shall rejoice, and
   others with it.

   2. The bounds of the church were extended much further than ever
   before, v. 2, 3. (1.) It is here supposed that the present state of the
   church is a tabernacle state; it dwells in tents, like the heirs of
   promise of old (Heb. xi. 9); its dwelling is mean and movable, and of
   no strength against a storm. The city, the continuing city, is reserved
   for hereafter. A tent is soon taken down and shifted, so the
   candlestick of church privileges is soon removed out of its place (Rev.
   ii. 5), and, when God pleases, it is as soon fixed elsewhere. (2.)
   Though it be a tabernacle state, it is sometimes very remarkably a
   growing state; and, if this family increase, no matter though it be in
   a tent. Thus it was in the first preaching of the gospel; it was the
   business of the apostles to disciple all nations, to stretch forth the
   curtains of the church's habitation, to preach the gospel where Christ
   had not yet been named (Rom. xv. 20), to leaven with the gospel those
   towns and countries that had hitherto been strangers to it, and so to
   lengthen the cords of this tabernacle, that more might be enclosed,
   which would make it necessary to strengthen the stakes proportionably,
   that they might bear the weight of the enlarged curtains. The more
   numerous the church grows the more cautious she must be to fortify
   herself against errors and corruptions, and to support her seven
   pillars, Prov. ix. 1. (3.) It was a proof of divine power going along
   with the gospel that in all places it grew and prevailed mightily, Acts
   xix. 20. It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters--on the right
   hand and on the left, that is, on all hands. The gospel spread itself
   into all parts of the world; there were eastern and western churches.
   The church's seed inherited the Gentiles, and the cities that had been
   desolate (that is, destitute of the knowledge and worship of the true
   God) came to be inhabited, that is, to have religion set up in them and
   the name of Christ professed.

   3. This was the comfort and honour of the church (v. 4): "Fear not, for
   thou shalt not be ashamed, as formerly, of the straitness of thy
   borders, and the fewness of thy children, which thy enemies upbraided
   thee with, but shalt forget the reproach of thy youth, because there
   shall be no more ground for that reproach." It was the reproach of the
   Christian religion, in its youth, that none of the rulers or princes of
   this world embraced it and that it was entertained and professed by a
   despicable handful of men; but, after awhile, nations were discipled,
   the empire became Christian, and then this reproach of its youth was
   forgotten.

   4. This was owing to the relation in which God stood to his church, as
   her husband (v. 5): Thy maker is thy husband. Believers are said to be
   married to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God (Rom. vii.
   4); so the church is married to him, that she may bear and bring up a
   holy seed to God, that shall be accounted to him for a generation.
   Jesus Christ is the church's Maker, by whom she is formed into a
   people--her Redeemer, by whom she is brought out of captivity, the
   bondage of sin, the worst of slaveries. This is he that espoused her to
   himself; and, (1.) He is the Lord of hosts, who has an irresistible
   power, an absolute sovereignty, and a universal dominion! Kings who are
   lords of some hosts, find there are others who are lords of other
   hosts, as many and mighty as theirs; but God is the Lord of all hosts.
   (2.) He is the Holy One of Israel, the same that presided in the
   affairs of the Old-Testament church and was the Mediator of the
   covenant made with it. The promises made to the New-Testament Israel
   are as rich and sure as those made to the Old-Testament Israel; for he
   that is our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. (3.) He is and shall be
   called the Lord of the whole earth, as God, and as Mediator, for he is
   the heir of all things; but then he shall be called so, when the ends
   of the earth shall be made to see his salvation, when all the earth
   shall call him their God and have an interest in him. Long he had been
   called, in a peculiar manner, the God of Israel; but now, the partition
   wall between Jew and Gentile being taken down, he shall be called the
   God of the whole earth even where he has been, as at Athens itself, an
   unknown God.

The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   6 For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in
   spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.   7
   For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I
   gather thee.   8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a
   moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
   the Lord thy Redeemer.   9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me:
   for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the
   earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
   thee.   10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed;
   but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
   of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

   The seasonable succour and relief which God sent to his captives in
   Babylon, when they had a discharge from their bondage there, are here
   foretold, as a type and figure of all those consolations of God which
   are treasured up for the church in general and all believers in
   particular, in the covenant of grace.

   I. Look back to former troubles, and in comparison with them God's
   favours to his people appear very comfortable, v. 6-8. Observe, 1. How
   sorrowful the church's condition had been. She had been as a woman
   forsaken, whose husband was dead, or had fallen out with her, though
   she was a wife of youth, upon which account she is grieved in spirit,
   takes it very ill, frets, and grows melancholy upon it; or she had been
   as one refused and rejected, and therefore full of discontent. Note,
   Even those that are espoused to God may yet seem to be refused and
   forsaken, and may be grieved in spirit under the apprehensions of being
   so. Those that shall never be forsaken and left in despair may yet for
   a time be perplexed and in distress. The similitude is explained (v. 7,
   8): For a small moment have I forsaken thee. In a little wrath I hid my
   face from thee. When God continues his people long in trouble he seems
   to forsake them; so their enemies construe it (Ps. lxxi. 11); so they
   themselves misinterpret it, ch. xlix. 14. When they are comfortless
   under their troubles, because their prayers and expectations are not
   answered, God hides his face from them, as if he regarded them not nor
   designed them any kindness. God owns that he had done this; for he
   keeps an account of the afflictions of his people, and, though he never
   turned his face against them (as against the wicked, Ps. xxxiv. 16), he
   remembers how often he turned his back upon them. This arose indeed
   from his displeasure. It was in wrath that he forsook them and hid his
   face from them (ch. lvii. 17); yet it was but in a little wrath: not
   that God's wrath ever is a little thing, or to be made light of (Who
   knows the power of his anger?), but little in comparison with what they
   had deserved, and what others justly suffer, on whom the full vials of
   his wrath are poured out. He did not stir up all his wrath. But God's
   people, though they be sensible of ever so small a degree of God's
   displeasure, cannot but be grieved in spirit because of it. As for the
   continuance of it, it was but for a moment, a small moment; for God
   does not keep his anger against his people for ever; no, it is soon
   over. As he is slow to anger, so he is swift to show mercy. The
   afflictions of God's people, as they are light, so they are but for a
   moment, a cloud that presently blows over. 2. How sweet the returns of
   mercy would be to them when God should come and comfort them according
   to the time that he had afflicted them. God called them into covenant
   with himself when they were forsaken and grieved; he called them out of
   their afflictions when they were most pressing, v. 6. God's anger
   endures for a moment, but he will gather his people when they think
   themselves neglected, will gather them out of their dispersions, that
   they may return in a body to their own land,--will gather them into his
   arms, to protect them, embrace them, and bear them up,--and will gather
   them at last to himself, will gather the wheat into the barn. He will
   have mercy on them. This supposes the turning away of his anger and the
   admitting of them again into his favour. God's gathering his people
   takes rise from his mercy, not any merit of others; and it is with
   great mercies (v. 7), with everlasting kindness, v. 8. The wrath is
   little, but the mercies are great; the wrath is for a moment, but the
   kindness everlasting. See how one is set over against the other, that
   we may neither despond under our afflictions nor despair of relief.

   II. Look forward to future dangers, and in defiance of them God's
   favours to his people appear very constant, and his kindness
   everlasting; for it is formed into a covenant, here called a covenant
   of peace, because it is founded in reconciliation and is inclusive of
   all good. Now,

   1. This is as firm as the covenant of providence. It is as the waters
   of Noah, that is, as that promise which was made concerning the deluge
   that there should never be the like again to disturb the course of
   summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, v. 9. God then contended with
   the world in great wrath, and for a full year, and yet at length
   returned in mercy, everlasting mercy; for he gave his word, which was
   as inviolable as his oath, that Noah's flood should never return, that
   he would never drown the world again; see Gen. viii. 21, 22; ix. 11.
   And God has ever since kept his word, though the world has been very
   provoking; and he will keep it to the end; for the world that now is is
   reserved unto fire. And thus inviolable is the covenant of grace: I
   have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, as I have been, and
   rebuke thee, as I have done. He will not be so angry with them as to
   cast them off and break his covenant with them (Ps. lxxxix. 34), nor
   rebuke them as he has rebuked the heathen, to destroy them, and put out
   their name for ever and ever, Ps. ix. 5.

   2. It is more firm than the strongest parts of the visible creation (v.
   10): The mountains shall depart, which are called everlasting
   mountains, and the hills be removed, though they are called perpetual
   hills, Hab. iii. 6. Sooner shall they remove than God's covenant with
   his people be broken. Mountains have sometimes been shaken by
   earthquakes, and removed; but the promises of God were never broken by
   the shock of any event. The day will come when all the mountains shall
   depart and all the hills be removed, not only the tops of them covered,
   as they were by the waters of Noah, but the roots of them torn up; for
   the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burned up; but
   then the covenant of peace between God and believers shall continue in
   the everlasting bliss of all those who are the children of that
   covenant. Mountains and hills signify great men, men of bulk and
   figure. Do these mountains seem to support the skies (as Atlas) and
   bear them up? They shall depart and be removed. Creature-confidences
   shall fail us. In vain is salvation hoped for from those hills and
   mountains. But the firmament is firm, and answers to its name, when
   those who seem to prop it are gone. When our friends fail us our God
   does not, nor does his kindness depart? Do these mountains threaten,
   and seem to top the skies, and bid defiance to them, as Pelion and
   Ossa? Do the kings of the earth, and the rulers, set themselves against
   the Lord? They shall depart and be removed. Great mountains, that stand
   in the way of the salvation of the church, shall be made plain (Zech.
   iv. 7); but God's kindness shall never depart from his people, for whom
   he loves he loves to the end; nor shall the covenant of his peace ever
   be removed, for he is the Lord that has mercy on his people. Therefore
   the covenant is immovable and inviolable, because it is built not on
   our merit, which is a mutable uncertain thing, but on God's mercy,
   which is from everlasting to everlasting.

The Prosperity of the Church; The Prosperity of Zion. (b. c. 706.)

   11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I
   will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with
   sapphires.   12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of
   carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.   13 And all thy
   children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of
   thy children.   14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou
   shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror;
   for it shall not come near thee.   15 Behold, they shall surely gather
   together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee
   shall fall for thy sake.   16 Behold, I have created the smith that
   bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument
   for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.   17 No weapon
   that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall
   rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
   of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith
   the Lord.

   Very precious promises are here made to the church in her low
   condition, that God would not only continue his love to his people
   under their troubles as before, but that he would restore them to their
   former prosperity, nay, that he would raise them to greater prosperity
   than any they had yet enjoyed. In the foregoing chapter we had the
   humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and
   exaltation of the church; for, if we suffer with him, we shall reign
   with him. Observe,

   I. The distressed state the church is here reduced to by the providence
   of God (v. 11): "O thou afflicted, poor, and indigent society, that art
   tossed with tempests, like a ship driven from her anchors by a storm
   and hurried into the ocean, where she is ready to be swallowed up by
   the waves, and in this condition not comforted by any compassionate
   friend that will sympathize with thee, or suggest to thee any
   encouraging considerations (Eccl. iv. 1), not comforted by any allay to
   thy trouble, or prospect of deliverance out of it." This was the
   condition of the Jews in Babylon, and afterwards, for a time, under
   Antiochus. It is often the condition of Christian churches and of
   particular believers; without are fightings, within are fears; they are
   like the disciples in a storm, ready to perish; and where is their
   faith?

   II. The glorious state the church is here advanced to by the promise of
   God. God takes notice of the afflicted distressed state of his church,
   and comforts her, when she is most disconsolate and has no other
   comforter. Let the people of God, when they are afflicted and tossed,
   think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking
   notice of their griefs and fears, what afflictions they are under, what
   distresses they are in, and what comforts their case calls for. When
   they bemoan themselves, God bemoans them, and speaks to them with pity:
   O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted; for in all
   their afflictions he is afflicted. But this is not all; he engages to
   raise her up out of her affliction, and encourages her with the
   assurance of the great things he would do for her, both for her
   prosperity and for the securing of that prosperity to her.

   1. Whereas now she lay in disgrace, God promises that which would be
   her beauty and honour, which would make her easy to herself and amiable
   in the eyes of others.

   (1.) This is here promised by a similitude taken from a city, and it is
   an apt similitude, for the church is the city of the living God, the
   heavenly Jerusalem. Whereas now Jerusalem lay in ruins, a heap of
   rubbish, it shall be not only rebuilt, but beautified, and appear more
   splendid than ever; the stones shall be laid not only firm, but fine,
   laid with fair colours; they shall be glistering stones, 1 Chron. xxix.
   2. The foundations shall be laid or garnished with sapphires, the most
   precious of the precious stones here mentioned; for Christ (the
   church's foundation), and the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
   are precious above any thing else. The windows of this house, city, or
   temple, shall be made of agates, the gates of carbuncles, and all the
   borders (the walls that enclose the courts, or the boundaries by which
   her limits are marked, the mere-stones) shall be of pleasant stones, v.
   12. Never was this literally true; but it intimates, [1.] That, God
   having graciously undertaken to build his church, we may expect that to
   be done for it, that to be wrought in it, which is very great and
   uncommon. [2.] That the glory of the New-Testament church shall far
   exceed that of the Jewish church, not in external pomp and splendour,
   but in those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are infinitely more
   valuable, that wisdom which is more precious than rubies (Prov. iii.
   15), than the precious onyx and the sapphire, and which the topaz of
   Ethiopia cannot equal, Job xxviii. 16, 19. [3.] That the wealth of this
   world, and those things of it that are accounted most precious, shall
   be despised by all the true living members of the church, as having no
   value, no glory, in comparison with that which far excels. That which
   the children of this world lay up among their treasures, and too often
   in their hearts, the children of God make pavements of, and put under
   their feet, the fittest place of it.

   (2.) It is here promised in the particular instances of those things
   that shall be the beauty and honour of the church, which are knowledge,
   holiness, and love, the very image of God, in which man was created,
   renewed, and restored. And these are the sapphires and carbuncles, the
   precious and pleasant stones, with which the gospel temple shall be
   enriched and beautified, and these wrought by the power and efficacy of
   those doctrines which the apostle compares to gold or silver, and
   precious stones, that are to be built upon the foundation, 1 Cor. iii.
   12. Then the church is all glorious, [1.] When it is full of the
   knowledge of God, and that is promised here (v. 13): All thy children
   shall be taught of the Lord. The church's children, being born of God,
   shall be taught of God; being his children by adoption, he will take
   care of their education. It was promised (v. 1) that the church's
   children should be many; but lest we should think that being many, as
   sometimes it happens in numerous families, they will be neglected, and
   not have instruction given them so carefully as if they were but few,
   God here takes that work into his own hand: They shall all be taught of
   the Lord; and none teaches like him. First, It is a promise of the
   means of instruction and those means authorized by a divine
   institution: They shall all be taught of God, that is, they shall be
   taught by those whom God shall appoint and whose labours shall be under
   his direction and blessing. He will ordain the methods of instruction,
   and by his word and ordinances will diffuse a much greater light than
   the Old-Testament church had. Care shall be taken for the teaching of
   the church's children, that knowledge may be transmitted from
   generation to generation, and that all may be enriched with it, from
   the least even to the greatest. Secondly, It is a promise of the Spirit
   of illumination. Our Saviour quotes it with application to gospel
   grace, and makes it to have its accomplishment in all those that were
   brought to believe in him (John vi. 45): It is written in the prophets,
   They shall be all taught of God, whence he infers that those, and those
   only, come to him by faith that have heard and learned of the Father,
   that are taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, Eph. iv. 21. There
   shall be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit of grace upon Christians,
   to teach them all things, John xiv. 26. [2.] When the members of it
   live in love and unity among themselves: Great shall be the peace of
   thy children. Peace may be taken here for all good. As where no
   knowledge of God is no good can be expected, so those that are taught
   of God to know him are in a fair way to prosper for both worlds. Great
   peace have those that know and love God's law, Ps. cxix. 165. But it is
   often put for love and unity; and so we may take it. All that are
   taught of God are taught to love one another (1 Thess. iv. 9) and that
   will keep peace among the church's children and prevent their falling
   out by the way. [3.] When holiness reigns; for that above any thing is
   the beauty of the church (v. 14): In righteousness shall thou be
   established. The reformation of manners, the restoration of purity, the
   due administration of public justice, and the prevailing of honesty and
   fair dealing among men, are the strength and stability of any church or
   state. The kingdom of God, set up by the gospel of Christ, is not meat
   and drink, but this righteousness and peace, holiness and love.

   2. Whereas now she lay in danger, God promises that which would be her
   protection and security.

   (1.) God engages here that though, in the day of her distress, without
   were fightings and within were fears, now she shall be safe from both.
   [1.] There shall be no fears within (v. 14): "Thou shalt be far from
   oppression. Those that have oppressed thee shall be removed, those that
   would oppress thee shall be restrained, and therefore thou shalt not
   fear, but mayest look upon it as a thing at a great distance, that thou
   art now in no danger of. Thou shalt be far from terror, not only from
   evil, but from the fear of evil, for it shall not come near thee so as
   to do thee any hurt or to put thee in any fright." Note, Those are far
   from terror that are far from oppression; for it is as great a terror
   as can fall on a people to have the rod of government turned into the
   serpent of oppression, because against this there is no fence, nor is
   there any flight from it. [2.] There shall be no fightings without.
   Though attempts should be made upon them to insult them, to invade
   their country, or besiege their towns, they should all be in vain, and
   none of them succeed, v. 15. It is granted, "They shall surely gather
   together against thee; thou must expect it." The confederate force of
   hell and earth will be renewing their assaults. As long as there is a
   devil in hell, and a persecutor out of it, God's people must expect
   frequent alarms; but, First, God will not own them, will not give them
   either commission or countenance; they gather together, hand joins in
   hand, but it is not by me. God gave them no such order as he did to
   Sennacherib, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, ch. x. 6. And
   therefore, Secondly, Their attempt will end in their own ruin:
   "Whosoever shall gather together against thee, be they ever so many and
   ever so mighty, they shall not only be baffled, but they shall fall for
   thy sake, or they shall fall before thee, which shall be the just
   punishment of their enmity to thee." God will make them to fall for the
   sake of the love he bears to his church and the care he has of it, in
   answer to the prayers made by his people, and in pursuance of the
   promises made to them. "They shall fall, that thou mayest stand," Ps.
   xxvii. 2.

   (2.) That we may with the greatest assurance depend upon God for the
   safety of his church, we have here, [1.] The power of God over the
   church's enemies asserted, v. 16. The truth is they have no power but
   what is given them from above, and he that gave them their power can
   limit and restrain them. Hitherto they shall go, and no further. First,
   They cannot carry on their design without arms and weapons of war; and
   the smith that makes those weapons is God's creature, and he gave him
   his skill to work in iron and brass (Exod. xxxi. 3, 4) and particularly
   to make proper instruments for warlike purposes. It is melancholy to
   think, as if men did not die fast enough of themselves, how ingenious
   and industrious they are to make instruments of death and to find out
   ways and means to kill one another. The smith blows the coals in the
   fire, to make his iron malleable, to soften it first, that it may be
   hardened into steel, and so he may bring forth an instrument proper for
   the work of those that seek to destroy. It is the iron age that is the
   age of war. But God has created the smith, and therefore can tie his
   hands, so that the project of the enemy shall miscarry (as many a
   project has done) for want of arms and ammunition. Or the smith that
   forges the weapons is perhaps put here for the council of war that
   forms the design, blows the coals of contention, and brings forth the
   plan of the war; these can do no more than God will let them. Secondly,
   They cannot carry it on without men, they must have soldiers, and it is
   God that created the waster to destroy. Military men value themselves
   upon their great offices and splendid titles, and even the common
   soldiers call themselves gentlemen; but God calls them wasters made to
   destroy, for wasting and destruction are their business. They think
   their own ingenuity, labour, and experience, made them soldiers; but it
   was God that created them, and gave them strength and spirit for that
   hazardous employment; and therefore he not only can restrain them, but
   will serve his own purposes and designs by them. [2.] The promise of
   God concerning the church's safety solemnly laid down, as the heritage
   of the servants of the Lord (v. 17), as that which they may depend upon
   and be confident of, that God will protect them from their adversaries
   both in camps and courts. First, From their field-adversaries, that
   think to destroy them by force and violence, and dint of sword: "No
   weapon that is formed against thee (though ever so artfully formed by
   the smith that blows the coals, v. 16, though ever so skilfully managed
   by the waster that seeks to destroy) shall prosper; it shall not prove
   strong enough to do any harm to the people of God; it shall miss its
   mark, shall fall out of the hand or perhaps recoil in the face of him
   that uses it against thee." It is the happiness of the church that no
   weapons formed against it shall prosper long, and therefore the folly
   of its enemies will at length be made manifest to all, for they are but
   preparing instruments of ruin for themselves. Secondly, From their
   law-adversaries, that think to run them down under colour of right and
   justice. When the weapons of war do not prosper there are tongues that
   rise in judgment. Both are included in the gates of hell, that seek to
   destroy the church; for they had their courts of justice, as well as
   their magazines and military stores, in their gates. The tongues that
   rise in judgment against the church are as such as either demand a
   dominion over it, as if God's children were their lawful captives,
   pretending an authority to oppress their consciences, or they are such
   as misrepresent them, and falsely accuse them, and by slanders and
   calumnies endeavour to make them odious to the people and obnoxious to
   the government. This the enemies of the Jews did, to incense the kings
   of Persia against them, Ezra iv. 12; Esth. iii. 8. "But these insulting
   threatening tongues thou shalt condemn; thou shalt have wherewith to
   answer their insolent demands, and to put to silence their malicious
   reflections. Thou shalt do it by well-doing (1 Pet. ii. 15), by doing
   that which will make thee manifest in the consciences even of thy
   adversaries, that thou art not what thou art represented to be. Thou
   shalt condemn them, that is, God shall condemn them for thee. He shall
   bring forth thy righteousness as the light, Ps. xxxvii. 6. Thou shalt
   condemn them as Noah condemned the old world that reproached him, by
   building the ark, and so saving his house, in contempt of their
   contempts." The day is coming when God will reckon with the wicked men
   for all their hard speeches which they have spoken against him, Jude
   15.

   The last words refer not only to this promise, but to all that go
   before: This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. God's
   servants are his sons, for he has provided an inheritance for them,
   rich, sure, and indefeasible. God's promises are their heritage for
   ever (Ps. cxix. 111); and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
   God will clear up the righteousness of their cause before men. It is
   with him, for he knows it; it is with him, for he will plead it. Or
   their reward for their righteousness, and for all that which they have
   suffered unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in the earth,
   and with whom verily there is a reward for the righteous. Or their
   righteousness itself, all that in them which is good and right, is of
   God, who works it in them; it is of Christ who is made righteousness to
   them. In those for whom God designs a heritage hereafter he will work
   righteousness now.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LV.

   As we had much of Christ in the 53rd chapter, and much of the church of
   Christ in the 54th chapter, so in this chapter we have much of the
   covenant of grace made with us in Christ. The "sure mercies of David,"
   which are promised here (ver. 3), are applied by the apostle to the
   benefits which flow to us from the resurrection of Christ (Acts xiii.
   34), which may serve as a key to this chapter; not but that it was
   intended for the comfort of the people of God that lived then,
   especially of the captives in Babylon, and others of the dispersed of
   Israel; but unto us was this gospel preached as well as unto them, and
   much more clearly and fully in the New Testament. Here is, I. A free
   and gracious invitation to all to come and take the benefit of gospel
   grace, ver. 1. II. Pressing arguments to enforce this invitation, ver.
   2-4. III. A promise of the success of this invitation among the
   Gentiles, ver. 5. IV. An exhortation to repentance and reformation,
   with great encouragement given to hope for pardon thereupon, ver. 6-9.
   V. The ratification of all this, with the certain efficacy of the word
   of God, ver. 10, 11. And a particular instance of the accomplishment of
   it in the return of the Jews out of their captivity, which was intended
   for a sign of the accomplishment of all these other promises.

Evangelical Invitations. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath
   no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without
   money and without price.   2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which
   is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken
   diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul
   delight itself in fatness.   3 Incline your ear, and come unto me:
   hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant
   with you, even the sure mercies of David.   4 Behold, I have given him
   for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.   5
   Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
   that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and
   for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

   Here, I. We are all invited to come and take the benefit of that
   provision which the grace of God has made for poor souls in the new
   covenant, of that which is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
   (ch. liv. 17), and not only their heritage hereafter, but their cup
   now, v. 1. Observe,

   1. Who are invited: Ho, every one. Not the Jews only, to whom first the
   word of salvation was sent, but the Gentiles, the poor and the maimed,
   the halt and the blind, are called to this marriage supper, whoever can
   be picked up out of the highways and the hedges. It intimates that in
   Christ there is enough for all and enough for each, that ministers are
   to make a general offer of life and salvation to all, that in gospel
   times the invitation should be more largely made than it had been and
   should be sent to the Gentiles, and that the gospel covenant excludes
   none that do not exclude themselves. The invitation is published with
   an Oyez-Ho, take notice of it. He that has ears to hear let him hear.

   2. What is the qualification required in those that shall be
   welcome--they must thirst. All shall be welcome to gospel grace upon
   those terms only that gospel grace be welcome to them. Those that are
   satisfied with the world and its enjoyments for a portion, and seek not
   for a happiness in the favour of God,--those that depend upon the merit
   of their own works for a righteousness, and see no need they have of
   Christ and his righteousness,--these do not thirst; they have no sense
   of their need, are in no pain or uneasiness about their souls, and
   therefore will not condescend so far as to be beholden to Christ. But
   those that thirst are invited to the waters, as those that labour, and
   are heavy-laden, are invited to Christ for rest. Note, Where God gives
   grace he first gives a thirsting after it; and, where he has given a
   thirsting after it, he will give it, Ps. lxxxi. 10.

   3. Whither they are invited: Come you to the waters. Come to the
   water-side, to the ports, and quays, and wharfs, on the navigable
   rivers, into which goods are imported; thither come and buy, for that
   is the market-place of foreign commodities; and to us they would have
   been for ever foreign if Christ had not brought in an everlasting
   righteousness. Come to Christ; for he is the fountain opened; he is the
   rock smitten. Come to holy ordinances, to those streams that make glad
   the city of our God; come to them, and though they may seem to you
   plain and common things, like waters, yet to those who believe in
   Christ the things signified will be as wine and mile, abundantly
   refreshing. Come to the healing waters; come to the living waters.
   Whoever will, let him come, and partake of the waters of life, Rev.
   xxii. 17. Our Saviour referred to it, John vii. 37. If any man thirst,
   let him come to me and drink.

   4. What they are invited to do. (1.) Come, and buy. Never did any
   tradesman court customers that he hoped to get by as Christ courts us
   to that which we only are to be gainers by. "Come and buy, and we can
   assure you you shall have a good bargain, which you will never repent
   of nor lose by. Come and buy; make it your own by an application of the
   grace of the gospel to yourselves; make it your own upon Christ's
   terms, nay, your own upon any terms, nor deliberating whether you shall
   agree to them." (2.) "Come, and eat; make it still more your own, as
   that which we eat is more our own than that which we only buy." We must
   buy the truth, not that we may lay it by to be looked at, but that we
   may feed and feast upon it, and that the spiritual life may be
   nourished and strengthened by it. We must buy necessary provisions for
   our souls, be willing to part with any thing, though ever so dear to
   us, so that we may but have Christ and his graces and comforts. We must
   part with sin, because it is an opposition to Christ, part with all
   opinion of our own righteousness, as standing in competition with
   Christ, and part with life itself, and its most necessary supports,
   rather than quit our interest in Christ. And, when we have bought what
   we need, let us not deny ourselves the comfortable use of it, but enjoy
   it, and eat the labour of our hands: Buy, and eat.

   5. What is the provision they are invited to: "Come, and buy wine and
   milk, which will not only quench the thirst" (fair water would do
   that), "but nourish the body, and revive the spirits." The world comes
   short of our expectations. We promise ourselves, at least, water in it,
   but we are disappointed of that, as the troops of Tema, Job vi. 19. But
   Christ outdoes our expectations. We come to the waters, and would be
   glad of them, but we find there wine and milk, which were the staple
   commodities of the tribe of Judah, and which the Shiloh of that tribe
   is furnished with to entertain the gathering of the people to him, Gen.
   xlix. 10, 12. His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with
   milk. We must come to Christ, to have milk for babes, to nourish and
   cherish those that are but lately born again; and with him strong men
   shall find that which will be a cordial to them: they shall have wine
   to make glad their hearts. We must part with our puddle-water, nay,
   with our poison, that we may procure this wine and milk.

   6. The free communication of this provision: Buy it without money, and
   without price. A strange way of buying, not only without ready money
   (that is common enough), but without any money, or the promise of any;
   yet it seems not so strange to those who have observed Christ's counsel
   to Laodicea, that was wretchedly poor, to come and buy, Rev. iii. 17,
   18. Our buying without money intimates, (1.) That the gifts offered us
   are invaluable and such as no price can be set upon. Wisdom is that
   which cannot be gotten for gold. (2.) That he who offers them has no
   need of us, nor of any returns we can make him. He makes us these
   proposals, not because he has occasion to sell, but because he has a
   disposition to give. (3.) That the things offered are already bought
   and paid for. Christ purchased them at the full value, with price, not
   with money, but with his own blood, 1 Pet. i. 19. (4.) That we shall be
   welcome to the benefits of the promise, though we are utterly unworthy
   of them, and cannot make a tender of any thing that looks like a
   valuable consideration. We ourselves are not of any value, nor is any
   thing we have or can do, and we must own it, that, if Christ and heaven
   be ours, we may see ourselves for ever indebted to free grace.

   II. We are earnestly pressed and persuaded (and O that we would be
   prevailed with!) to accept this invitation, and make this good bargain
   for ourselves.

   1. That which we are persuaded to is to hearken to God and to his
   proposals: "Hearken diligently unto me, v. 2. Not only give me the
   hearing, but approve of what I say, and apply it to yourselves (v. 3):
   Incline your ear, as you do to that which you find yourselves concerned
   in and pleased with; bow the ear, and let the proud heart stoop to the
   humbling methods of the gospel; bend the ear this way, that you may
   hear with attention and remark; hear, and come unto me; not only come
   and treat with me, but comply with me, come up to my terms;" accept
   God's offers as very advantageous; answer his demands as very fit and
   reasonable.

   2. The arguments used to persuade us to this are taken,

   (1.) From the unspeakable wrong we do to ourselves if we neglect and
   refuse this invitation: "Wherefore do you spend money for that which is
   not bread, which will not yield you, no, not beggar's food, dry bread,
   when with me you may have wine and milk without money? Wherefore do you
   spend your labour and toil for that which will not be so much as dry
   bread to you, for it satisfies not?" See here, [1.] The vanity of the
   things of this world. They are not bread, not proper food for a soul;
   they afford no suitable nourishment or refreshment. Bread is the staff
   of the natural life, but it affords no support at all to the spiritual
   life. All the wealth and pleasure in the world will not make one meal's
   meat for a soul. Eternal truth and eternal good are the only food for a
   rational and immortal soul, the life of which consists in
   reconciliation and conformity to God, and in union and communion with
   him, which the things of the world will not at all befriend. They
   satisfy not; they yield not any solid comfort and content to the soul,
   nor enable it to say, "Now I have what I would have." Nay, they do not
   satisfy even the appetites of the body. The more men have the more they
   would have, Eccl. i. 8. Haman was unsatisfied in the midst of his
   abundance. They flatter, but they do not fill; they please for a while,
   like the dream of a hungry man, who awakes and his soul is empty. They
   soon surfeit, but they never satisfy; they cloy a man, but do not
   content him, or make him truly easy. It is all vanity and vexation.
   [2.] The folly of the children of this world. They spend their money
   and labour for these uncertain unsatisfying things. Rich people live by
   their money, poor people by their labour; but both mistake their truest
   interest, while the one is trading, the other toiling, for the world,
   both promising themselves satisfaction and happiness in it, but both
   miserably disappointed. God vouchsafes compassionately to reason with
   them: "Wherefore do you thus act against your own interest? Why do you
   suffer yourselves to be thus imposed upon?" Let us reason with
   ourselves, and let the result of these reasonings be a holy resolution
   not to labour for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures to
   everlasting life, John vi. 27. Let all the disappointments we meet with
   in the world help to drive us to Christ, and lead us to seek for
   satisfaction in him only. This is the way to make sure which will be
   made sure.

   (2.) From the unspeakable kindness we do to ourselves if we accept this
   invitation and comply with it. [1.] hereby we secure to ourselves
   present pleasure and satisfaction: "If you hearken to Christ, you eat
   that which is good, which is both wholesome and pleasant, good in
   itself and good for you." God's good word and promise, a good
   conscience, and the comforts of God's good Spirit, are a continual
   feast to those that hearken diligently and obediently to Christ. Their
   souls shall delight themselves in fatness, that is, in the riches and
   most grateful delights. Here the invitation is not, "Come, and buy,"
   lest that should discourage, but, "Come, and eat; come and entertain
   yourselves with that which will be abundantly pleasing; eat, O
   friends!" It is sad to think that men should need to be courted thus to
   their own bliss. [2.] Hereby we secure to ourselves lasting happiness:
   "Hear, and your soul shall live; you shall not only be saved from
   perishing eternally, but you shall be eternally blessed:" for less than
   that cannot be the life of an immortal soul. The words of Christ are
   spirit and life, life to spirits (John vi. 33, 63), the words of this
   life, Acts v. 20. On what easy terms is happiness offered to us! It is
   but "Hear, and you shall live." [3.] The great God graciously secures
   all this to us: "Come to me, and I will make an everlasting covenant
   with you, will put myself into covenant-relations and under
   covenant-engagements to you, and thereby settle upon you the sure
   mercies of David." Note, First, If we come to God to serve him, he will
   covenant with us to do us good and make us happy; such are his
   condescension to us and concern for us. Secondly, God's covenant with
   us is an everlasting covenant--its contrivance from everlasting, its
   continuance to everlasting. Thirdly, The benefits of this covenant are
   mercies suited to our case, who, being miserable, are the proper
   objects of mercy. They come from God's mercy, and are ordered every way
   in kindness to us. Fourthly, They are the mercies of David, such
   mercies as God promised to David (Ps. lxxxix. 28, 29, &c.), which are
   called the mercies of David his servant, and are appealed to by
   Solomon, 2 Chron. vi. 42. It shall be a covenant as sure as that with
   David, Jer. xxxiii. 25, 26. The covenant of royalty was a figure of the
   covenant of grace, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Or, rather, by David here we are to
   understand the Messiah. Covenant-mercies are all his mercies; they are
   purchased by him; they are promised in him; they are treasured up in
   his hand, and out of his hand they are dispensed to us. He is the
   Mediator and trustee of the covenant; to him this is applied, Acts
   xiii. 34. They are the ta hosia (the word used there, and by the
   Septuagint here)--the holy things of David, for they are confirmed by
   the holiness of God (Ps. lxxxix. 35) and are intended to advance
   holiness among men. Fifthly, They are sure mercies. The covenant, being
   well-ordered in all things, is sure. It is sure in the general proposal
   of it; God is real and sincere, serious and in earnest, in the offer of
   these mercies. It is sure in the particular application of it to
   believers; God's gifts and callings are without repentance. They are
   the mercies of David, and therefore sure, for in Christ the promises
   are all yea and amen.

   III. Jesus Christ is promised for the making good of all the other
   promises which we are here invited to accept of, v. 4. He is that David
   whose sure mercies all the blessings and benefits of the covenant are.
   "And God has given him in his purpose and promise, has constituted and
   appointed him, and in the fulness of time will as surely send him as if
   he had already come, to be all that to us which is necessary to our
   having the benefit of these preparations." He has given him freely; for
   what more free than a gift? There was nothing in us to merit such a
   favour, but Christ is the gift of God. We want one, 1. To attest the
   truth of the promises which we are invited to take the benefit of; and
   Christ is given for a witness that God is willing to receive us into
   his favour upon gospel terms, to confirm the promises made unto the
   fathers, that we may venture our souls upon those promises with entire
   satisfaction. Christ is a faithful witness, we may take his word--a
   competent witness, for he lay in the bosom of the Father from eternity,
   and was perfectly apprised of the whole matter. Christ, as a prophet,
   testifies the will of God to the world; and to believe is to receive
   his testimony. 2. To assist us in closing with the invitation, and
   coming up to the terms of it. We know not how to find the way to the
   waters where we are to be supplied, but Christ is given to be a leader.
   We know not what to do that we may be qualified or it, and become
   sharers in it, but he is given for a commander, to show us what to do
   and enable us to do it. Much difficulty and opposition lie in our way
   to Christ; we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, but, to animate
   us for the conflict, we have a good captain, like Joshua, a leader and
   commander to tread our enemies under our feet and to put us in
   possession of the land of promise. Christ is a commander by his precept
   and a leader by his example; our business is to obey him and follow
   him.

   IV. The Master of the feast being fixed, it is next to be furnished
   with guests, for the provision shall not be lost, nor made in vain, v.
   5. 1. The Gentiles shall be called to this feast, shall be invited out
   of the highways and the hedges: "Thou shalt call a nation that thou
   knowest not, that is, that was not formerly called and owned as thy
   nation, that thou didst not send prophets to as to Israel, the people
   whom God knew above all the families of the earth." The Gentiles shall
   now be favoured as they never were before; their knowing God is said to
   be rather their being known of God, Gal. iv. 9. 2. They shall come at
   the call: Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee; those that
   had long been afar off from Christ shall be made nigh; those that had
   been running from him shall run to him, with the greatest speed and
   alacrity imaginable. There shall be a concourse of believing Gentiles
   to Christ, who, being lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to
   him. Now see the reason, (1.) Why the Gentiles will thus flock to
   Christ; it is because of the Lord his God, because he is the Son of
   God, and is declared to be so with power, because they now see his God
   is one with whom they have to do, and there is no coming to him as
   their God but by making an interest in his Son. Those that are brought
   to be acquainted with God, and understand how the concern lies between
   them and him, cannot but run to Jesus Christ, who is the only Mediator
   between God and Man, and there is no coming to God but by him. (2.) Why
   God will bring them to him; it is because he is the Holy One of Israel,
   true to his promises, and he has promised to glorify him by giving him
   the heathen for his inheritance. When Greeks began to enquire after
   Christ he said, The hour has come that the Son of man should be
   glorified, John xii. 22, 23. And his being glorified in his
   resurrection and ascension was the great argument by which multitudes
   were wrought upon to run to him.

Evangelical Invitations. (b. c. 706.)

   6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is
   near:   7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
   thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon
   him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.   8 For my thoughts
   are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
   9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
   than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.   10 For as the
   rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
   but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may
   give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:   11 So shall my word
   be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,
   but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
   the thing whereto I sent it.   12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be
   led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth
   before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap
   their hands.   13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and
   instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to
   the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

   We have here a further account of that covenant of grace which is made
   with us in Jesus Christ, both what is required and what is promised in
   the covenant, and of those considerations that are sufficient
   abundantly to confirm our believing compliance with and reliance on
   that covenant. This gracious discovery of God's good-will to the
   children of men is not to be confined either to the Jew or to the
   Gentile, to the Old Testament or to the New, much less to the captives
   in Babylon. No, both the precepts and the promises are here given to
   all, to every one that thirsts after happiness, v. 1. And who does not?
   Hear this, and live.

   I. Here is a gracious offer made of pardon, and peace, and all
   happiness, to poor sinners, upon gospel terms, v. 6, 7.

   1. Let them pray, and their prayers shall be heard and answered (v. 6):
   "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek him whom you have left by
   revolting from your allegiance to him and whom you have lost by
   provoking him to withdraw his favour from you. Call upon him now while
   he is near, and within call." Observe here,

   (1.) The duties required. [1.] "Seek the Lord. Seek to him, and enquire
   of him, as your oracle. Ask the law at his mouth. What wilt thou have
   me to do? Seek for him, and enquire after him, as your portion and
   happiness; seek to be reconciled to him and acquainted with him, and to
   be happy in his favour. Be sorry that you have lost him; be solicitous
   to find him; take the appointed method of finding him, making use of
   Christ as your way, the Spirit as your guide, and the word as your
   rule." [2.] "Call upon him. Pray to him, to be reconciled, and, being
   reconciled, pray to him for every thing else you have need of."

   (2.) The motives made use of to press these duties upon us: While he
   may be found--while he is near. [1.] It is implied that now God is near
   and will be found, so that it shall not be in vain to seek him and to
   call upon him. Now his patience is waiting on us, his word is calling
   to us, and his Spirit striving with us. Let us now improve our
   advantages and opportunities; for now is the accepted time. But, [2.]
   There is a day coming when he will be afar off, and will not be found,
   when the day of his patience is over, and his Spirit will strive no
   more. There may come such a time in this life, when the heart is
   incurably hardened; it is certain that at death and judgment the door
   will be shut, Luke xvi. 26; xiii. 25, 26. Mercy is now offered, but
   then judgment without mercy will take place.

   2. Let them repent and reform, and their sins shall be pardoned, v. 7.
   Here is a call to the unconverted, to the wicked and the
   unrighteous--to the wicked, who live in known gross sins, to the
   unrighteous, who live in the neglect of plain duties: to them is the
   word of this salvation sent, and all possible assurance given that
   penitent sinners shall find God a pardoning God. Observe here,

   (1.) What it is to repent. There are two things involved in
   repentance:--[1.] It is to turn from sin; it is to forsake it. It is to
   leave it, and to leave it with loathing and abhorrence, never to return
   to it again. The wicked must forsake his way, his evil way, as we would
   forsake a false way that will never bring us to the happiness we aim
   at, and a dangerous way, that leads to destruction. Let him not take
   one step more in that way. Nay, there must be not only a change of the
   way, but a change of the mind; the unrighteous must forsake his
   thoughts. Repentance, if it be true, strikes at the root, and washes
   the heart from wickedness. We must alter our judgments concerning
   persons and things, dislodge the corrupt imaginations and quit the vain
   pretences under which an unsanctified heart shelters itself. Note, It
   is not enough to break off from evil practices, but we must enter a
   caveat against evil thoughts. Yet this is not all: [2.] To repent is to
   return to the Lord; to return to him as our God, our sovereign Lord,
   against whom we have rebelled, and to whom we are concerned to
   reconcile ourselves; it is to return to the Lord as the fountain of
   life and living waters, which we had forsaken for broken cisterns.

   (2.) What encouragement we have thus to repent. If we do so, [1.] God
   will have mercy. He will not deal with us as our sins have deserved,
   but will have compassion on us. Misery is the object of mercy. Now both
   the consequences of sin, by which we have become truly miserable (Ezek.
   xvi. 5, 6), and the nature of repentance, by which we are made sensible
   of our misery and are brought to bemoan ourselves (Jer. xxxi. 18), both
   these make us objects of pity, and with God there are tender mercies.
   [2.] He will abundantly pardon. He will multiply to pardon (so the word
   is), as we have multiplied to offend. Though our sins have been very
   great and very many, and though we have often backslidden and are still
   prone to offend, yet God will repeat his pardon, and welcome even
   backsliding children that return to him in sincerity.

   II. Here are encouragements given us to accept this offer and to
   venture our souls upon it. For, look which way we will, we find enough
   to confirm us in our belief of its validity and value.

   1. If we look up to heaven, we find God's counsels there high and
   transcendent, his thoughts and ways infinitely above ours, v. 8, 9. The
   wicked are urged to forsake their evil ways and thoughts (v. 7) and to
   return to God, that is, to bring their ways and thoughts to concur and
   comply with his; "for" (says he) "my thoughts and ways are not as
   yours. Yours are conversant only about things beneath; they are of the
   earth earthy: but mine are above, as the heaven is high above the
   earth; and, if you would approve yourselves true penitents, yours must
   be so too, and your affections must be set on things above." Or,
   rather, it is to be understood as an encouragement to us to depend upon
   God's promise to pardon sin, upon repentance. Sinners may be ready to
   fear that God will not be reconciled to them, because they could not
   find in their hearts to be reconciled to one who should have so basely
   and so frequently offended them. "But" (says God) "my thoughts in this
   matter are not as yours, but as far above them as the heaven is above
   the earth." They are so in other things. Men's sentiments concerning
   sin, and Christ, and holiness, concerning this world and the other, are
   vastly different from God's; but in nothing more than in the matter of
   reconciliation. We think God apt to take offence and backward to
   forgive--that, if he forgives once, he will not forgive a second time.
   Peter thought it a great deal to forgive seven times (Matt. xviii. 21),
   and a hundred pence go far with us; but God meets returning sinners
   with pardoning mercy; he forgives freely, and as he gives: it is
   without upbraiding. We forgive and cannot forget; but, when God
   forgives sin, he remembers it no more. Thus God invites sinners to
   return to him, by possessing them with good thoughts of him, as Jer.
   xxxi. 20.

   2. If we look down to this earth, we find God's word there powerful and
   effectual, and answering all its great intentions, v. 10, 11. Observe
   here, (1.) The efficacy of God's word in the kingdom of nature. He
   saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; he appoints when it shall
   come, to what degree, and how long it shall lie there; he saith so to
   the small rain and the great rain of his strength, Job xxxvii. 6. And
   according to his order they come down from heaven, and do whatsoever he
   commands them upon the face of the world, whether it be for correction,
   or for his land, or for mercy, v. 12, 13. It returns not re
   infectâ--without having accomplished its end, but waters the earth,
   which he is therefore said to do from his chambers, Ps. civ. 13. And
   the watering of the earth is in order to its fruitfulness. Thus he
   makes it to bring forth and bud, for the products of the earth depend
   upon the dews of heaven; and thus it gives not only bread to the eater,
   present maintenance to the owner and his family, but seed likewise to
   the sower, that he may have food for another year. The husbandman must
   be a sower as well as an eater, else he will soon see the end of what
   he has. (2.) The efficacy of his word in the kingdom of providence and
   grace, which is as certain as the former: "So shall my word be, as
   powerful in the mouth of prophets as it is in the hand of providence;
   it shall not return unto me void, as unable to effect what it was sent
   for, or meeting with an insuperable opposition; no, it shall accomplish
   that which I please" (for it is the declaration of his will, according
   to the counsel of which he works all things) "and it shall prosper in
   the thing for which I sent it." This assures us, [1.] That the promises
   of God shall all have their full accomplishment in due time, and not
   one iota or tittle of them shall fail, 1 Kings viii. 56. These promises
   of mercy and grace shall have as real an effect upon the souls of
   believers, for their sanctification and comfort, as ever the rain had
   upon the earth, to make it fruitful. [2.] That according to the
   different errands on which the word is sent it will have its different
   effects. If it be not a savour of life unto life, it will be a savour
   of death unto death; if it do not convince the conscience and soften
   the heart, it will sear the conscience and harden the heart; if it do
   not ripen for heaven, it will ripen for hell. See ch. vi. 9. One way or
   other, it will take effect. [3.] That Christ's coming into the world,
   as the dew from heaven (Hos. xiv. 5), will not be in vain. For, if
   Israel be not gathered, he will be glorious in the conversion of the
   Gentiles; to them therefore the tenders of grace must be made when the
   Jews refuse them, that the wedding may be furnished with guests and the
   gospel not return void.

   3. If we take a special view of the church, we shall find what great
   things God has done, and will do, for it (v. 12, 13): You shall go out
   with joy, and be led forth with peace. This refers, (1.) To the
   deliverance and return of the Jews out of Babylon. They shall go out of
   their captivity, and be led forth towards their own land again. God
   will go before them as surely, though not as sensibly, as before their
   fathers in the pillar of cloud and fire. They shall go out, not with
   trembling, but with triumph, not with any regret to part with Babylon,
   or any fear of being fetched back, but with joy and peace. Their
   journey home over the mountains shall be pleasant, and they shall have
   the good-will and good wishes of all the countries they pass through.
   The hills and their inhabitants shall, as in a transport of joy, break
   forth into singing; and, if the people should altogether hold their
   peace, even the trees of the field would attend them with their
   applauses and acclamations. And, when they come to their own land, it
   shall be ready to bid them welcome; for, whereas they expected to find
   it all overgrown with briers and thorns, it shall be set with fir-trees
   and myrtle-trees: for, though it lay desolate, yet it enjoyed its
   sabbaths (Lev. xxvi. 34), which, when they were over, like the land
   after the sabbatical year, it was the better for. And this shall
   redound much to the honour of God and be to him for a name. But, (2.)
   Without doubt it looks further. This shall be for an everlasting sign,
   that it, [1.] The redemption of the Jews out of Babylon shall be a
   ratification of those promises that relate to gospel times. The
   accomplishment of the predictions relating to that great deliverance
   would be a pledge and earnest of the performance of all the other
   promises; for thereby it shall appear that he is faithful who has
   promised. [2.] It shall be a representation of the blessings promised
   and a type and figure of them. First, Gospel grace will set those at
   liberty that were in bondage to sin and Satan. They shall go out and be
   led forth. Christ shall make them free, and then they shall be free
   indeed. Secondly, It will fill those with joy that were melancholy. Ps.
   xiv. 7, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. The earth and
   the inferior part of the creation shall share in the joy of this
   salvation, Ps. xciv. 11, 12. Thirdly, It will make a great change in
   men's characters. Those that were as thorns and briers, good for
   nothing but the fire, nay, hurtful and vexatious, shall become graceful
   and useful as the fir-tree and the myrtle-tree. Thorns and briers came
   in with sin and were the fruits of the curse, Gen. iii. 18. The raising
   of pleasant trees in the room of them signifies the removal of the
   curse of the law and the introduction of gospel blessings. The church's
   enemies were as thorns and briers; but, instead of them, God will raise
   up friends to be her protection and ornament. Or it may denote the
   world's growing better; instead of a generation of thorns and briers,
   there shall come up a generation of fir-trees and myrtles; the children
   shall be wiser and better than the parents. And, fourthly, in all this
   God shall be glorified. It shall be to him for a name, by which he will
   be made known and praised, and by it the people of God shall be
   encouraged. It shall be for an everlasting sign of God's favour to
   them, assuring them that, though it may for a time be clouded, it shall
   never be cut off. The covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant; for
   the present blessings of it are signs of everlasting ones.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LVI.

   After the exceedingly great and precious promises of gospel grace,
   typified by temporal deliverances, which we had in the foregoing
   chapter, we have here, I. A solemn charge given to us all to make
   conscience of our duty, as we hope to have the benefit of those
   promises, ver. 1, 2. II. Great encouragement given to strangers that
   were willing to come under the bonds of the covenant, assuring them of
   the blessings of the covenant, ver. 3-8. III. A high charge drawn up
   against the watchmen of Israel, that were careless and unfaithful in
   the discharge of their duty (ver. 9-12), which seems to be the
   beginning of a new sermon, by way of reproof and threatening, which is
   continued in the following chapters. And the word of God was intended
   for conviction, as well as for comfort and instruction in
   righteousness.

Evangelical Promises; Exhortations to Duty. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
   salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.   2
   Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold
   on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand
   from doing any evil.

   The scope of these verses is to show that when God is coming towards us
   in a way of mercy we must go forth to meet him in a way of duty.

   I. God here tells us what are his intentions of mercy to us (v. 1): My
   salvation is near to come--the great salvation wrought out by Jesus
   Christ (for that was the salvation of which the prophets enquired and
   searched diligently, 1 Pet. i. 10), typified by the salvation of the
   Jews from Sennacherib or out of Babylon. Observe, 1. The gospel
   salvation is the salvation of the Lord. It was contrived and brought
   about by him; he glories in it as his. 2. In that salvation God's
   righteousness is revealed, which is so much the beauty of the gospel
   that St. Paul makes this the ground of his glorying in it. (Rom. i.
   17), because therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
   faith. The law revealed that righteousness of God by which all sinners
   stand condemned, but the gospel reveals that by which all believers
   stand acquitted. 3. The Old-Testament saints saw this salvation coming,
   and drawing near to them, long before it came; and they had notice by
   the prophets of its approach. As Daniel understood by Jeremiah's books
   the approach of the redemption out of Babylon, at the end of seventy
   years, so others understood by Daniel's books the approach of our
   redemption by Christ at the end of seventy weeks of years.

   II. He tells us what are his expectations of duty from us, in
   consideration thereof. Say not, "We see the salvation near, and
   therefore we may live as we list, for there is no danger now of missing
   it or coming short of it;" that is turning the grace of God into
   wantonness. But, on the contrary, when the salvation is near double
   your guard against sin. Note, The fuller assurances God gives us of the
   performance of his promises the stronger obligations he lays us under
   to obedience. The salvation here spoken of has now come; yet, there
   being still a further salvation in view, the apostle presses duty upon
   us Christians with the same argument. Rom. iii. 11, Now is our
   salvation nearer than when we believed. That which is here required to
   qualify and prepare us for the approaching salvation is,

   1. That we be honest and just in all our dealings: Keep you judgment
   and do justice. Walk by rule, and make conscience of what you say and
   do, that you do no wrong to any. Render to all their dues exactly, and,
   in exacting what is due to you, keep up a court of equity in your own
   bosom, to moderate the rigours of the law. Be ruled by that golden
   rule, "Do as you would be done by." Magistrates must administer justice
   wisely and faithfully. This is required to evidence the sincerity of
   our faith and repentance, and to open the way of mercy. Repent for the
   kingdom of heaven is at hand. God is true to us; let us be so to one
   another.

   2. That we religiously observe the sabbath day, v. 2. We are not just
   if we rob God of his time. Sabbath-sanctification is here put for all
   the duties of the first table, the fruits of our love to God, as
   justice and judgment are put for all those of the second table, the
   fruits of our love to our neighbour. Observe, (1.) The duty required,
   which is to keep the sabbath, to keep it as a talent we are to trade
   with, as a treasure we are entrusted with. "Keep it holy; keep it safe;
   keep it with care and caution; keep it from polluting it. Allow neither
   yourselves nor others either to violate the holy rest or omit the holy
   work of that day." If this be intended primarily for the Jews in
   Babylon, it was fit that they should be particularly put in mind of
   this, because when, by reason of their distance from the temple, they
   could not observe the other institutions of their law, yet they might
   distinguish themselves from the heathen by putting a difference between
   God's day and other days. But it being required more generally of man,
   and the son of man, it intimates that sabbath-sanctification should be
   a duty in gospel times, when the bounds of the church should be
   enlarged and other rites and ceremonies abolished. Observe, Those that
   would keep the sabbath from polluting it must put on resolution, must
   not only do this, but lay hold on it, for sabbath time is precious, but
   is very apt to slip away if we take not great care; and therefore we
   must lay hold on it and keep our hold, must do it and persevere in it.
   (2.) The encouragement we have to do this duty: Blessed is he that
   doeth it. The way to have the blessing of God upon our employments all
   the week is to make conscience, and make a business, of
   sabbath-sanctification; and in doing so we shall be the better
   qualified to do judgment and justice. The more godliness the more
   honesty, 1 Tim. ii. 2.

   3. That we have nothing to do with sin: Blessed is the man that keeps
   his hand from doing evil, any wrong to his neighbour, in body, goods,
   or good name--or, more generally, any thing that is displeasing to God
   and hurtful to his own soul. Note, The best evidence of our having kept
   the sabbath well will be a care to keep a good conscience all the week.
   By this it will appear that we have been in the mount with God if our
   faces shine in a holy conversation before men.

Encouragement to the Sincere; Encouragement to the Gentiles. (b. c. 706.)

   3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the
   Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his
   people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.   4 For
   thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose
   the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;   5 Even unto
   them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name
   better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting
   name, that shall not be cut off.   6 Also the sons of the stranger,
   that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of
   the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from
   polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;   7 Even them will I
   bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer:
   their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine
   altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
     8 The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will
   I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.

   The prophet is here, in God's name, encouraging those that were hearty
   in joining themselves to God and yet laboured under great
   discouragements. 1. Some were discouraged because they were not of the
   seed of Abraham. They had joined themselves to the Lord, and bound
   their souls with a bond to be his for ever (this is the root and life
   of religion, to break off from the world and the flesh, and devote
   ourselves entirely to the service and honour of God); but they
   questioned whether God would accept them, because they were of the sons
   of the stranger, v. 3. They were Gentiles, strangers to the
   commonwealth of Israel and aliens from the covenants of promise, and
   therefore feared they had no part nor lot in the matter. They said,
   "The Lord has utterly separated me from his people, and will not own me
   as one of them, nor admit me to their privileges." It was often said
   that there should be one law for the stranger and for him that was born
   in the land (Exod. xii. 49), and yet they came to this melancholy
   conclusion. Note, Unbelief often suggests things to the discouragement
   of good people which are directly contrary to what God himself has
   said, things which he has expressly guarded against. Let not the sons
   of the stranger therefore say thus, for they have no reason to say it.
   Note, Ministers must have answers ready for the disquieting fears and
   jealousies of weak Christians, which, how unreasonable soever, they
   must take notice of. 2. Others were discouraged because they were not
   fathers in Israel. The eunuch said, Behold, I am a dry tree. So he
   looked upon himself, and it was his grief; so others looked upon him,
   and it was his reproach. He was thought to be of no use because he had
   no children, nor was ever likely to have any. This was then the more
   grievous because eunuchs were not admitted to be priests (Lev. xxi.
   20), nor to enter into the congregation (Deut. xxiii. 1), and because
   the promise of a numerous posterity was the particular blessing of
   Israel and the more valuable because from among them the Messiah was to
   come. Yet God would not have the eunuchs to make the worst of their
   case, nor to think that they should be excluded from the gospel church,
   and from being spiritual priests, because they were shut out from the
   congregation of Israel and the Levitical priesthood; no, as the taking
   down of the partition wall, contained in ordinances, admitted the
   Gentiles, so it let in likewise those that had been kept out by
   ceremonial pollutions. Yet, by the reply here given to this suggestion,
   it should seem the chief thing which the eunuch laments in his case is
   his being written childless.

   Now suitable encouragements are given to each of these.

   I. To those who have no children of their own, who, though they had the
   honour to be the children of the church and the covenant themselves,
   yet had none to whom they might transmit that honour, none to receive
   the sign of circumcision and the privileges secured by that sign. Now
   observe,

   1. What a good character they have, though they lie under this ignominy
   and affliction; and those only are entitled to the following comforts
   who in some measure answer to these characters. (1.) They keep God's
   sabbaths as he has appointed them to be kept. In the primitive times,
   if a Christian were asked, "Hast thou kept holy the Lord's day?" He
   would readily answer, "I am a Christian, and dare not do otherwise."
   (2.) In their whole conversation they choose those things that please
   God. They do that which is good; they do it with a sincere design to
   please God in it; they do it of choice, and with delight. If sometimes,
   through infirmity, they come short in doing that which pleases God, yet
   they choose it, they endeavour after it, and aim at it. Note, Whatever
   is God's pleasure should without dispute be our choice. (3.) They take
   hold of his covenant, and that is a thing that pleases God as much as
   any thing. The covenant of grace is proposed and proffered to us in the
   gospel; to take hold of it is to consent to it, to accept the offer and
   come up to the terms, deliberately and sincerely to take God to be to
   us a God and to give up ourselves to him to be to him a people. Taking
   hold of the covenant denotes an entire and resolute consent to it,
   taking hold as those that are afraid of coming short, catching at it as
   a good bargain, and as those that are resolved never to let it go, for
   it is our life: and we take hold of it as a criminal took hold of the
   horns of the altar to which he fled for refuge.

   2. What a great deal of comfort they may have if they answer to this
   character, though they are not built up into families (v. 5): Unto them
   will I give a better place and name. It is supposed that there is a
   place and a name, which we have from sons and daughters, that is
   valuable and desirable. It is a pleasing notion we have that we live in
   our children when we are dead. But there is a better place, and a
   better name, which those have that are in covenant with God, and it is
   sufficient to counterbalance the want of the former. A place and a name
   denote rest and reputation; a place to live comfortably in themselves,
   and a name to live creditably with among their neighbours; they shall
   be happy, and may be easy both at home and abroad. Though they have not
   children to be the music of their house, or arrows in their quiver, to
   keep them in countenance when they speak with their enemies in the
   gate, yet they shall have a place and a name more than equivalent. For,
   (1.) God will give it to them, will give it to them by promise; he will
   himself be both their habitation and their glory, their place and their
   name. (2.) He will give it to them in his house, and within his walls;
   there they shall have a place, shall be planted so as to take root (Ps.
   xcii. 13), shall dwell all the days of their life, Ps. xxvii. 4. They
   shall be at home in communion with God, as Anna, that departed not from
   the temple night nor day. There they shall have a name. A name for the
   good things with God and good people is a name better than that of sons
   and daughters. Our relation to God, our interest in Christ, our title
   to the blessings of the covenant, and our hopes of eternal life, are
   things that give us in God's house a blessed place and a blessed name.
   (3.) It shall be an everlasting name, that shall never be extinct,
   shall never be cut off; like the place and name of angels, who
   therefore marry not, because they die not. Spiritual blessings are
   unspeakably better than those of sons and daughters; for children are a
   certain care and may prove the greatest grief and shame of a man's
   life, but the blessings we partake of in God's house are a sure and
   constant joy and honour, comforts which cannot be embittered.

   II. To those that are themselves the children of strangers.

   1. It is here promised that they shall now be welcome to the church, v.
   6, 7. When God's Israel come out of Babylon, let them bring as many of
   their neighbours along with them as they can persuade to come, and God
   will find room enough for them all in his house. And here, (as before)
   we may observe,

   (1.) Upon what terms they shall be welcome. Let them know that God's
   Israel, when they come out of Babylon, will not be plagued, as they
   were when they came out of Egypt, with a mixed multitude, that went
   with them, but were not cordially for them; no, the sons of the
   strangers shall have a place and a name in God's house provided, [1.]
   That they forsake other gods, all rivals and pretenders whatsoever, and
   join themselves to the Lord, so as to become one spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 17.
   [2.] That they join themselves to him as subjects to their prince and
   soldiers to their general, by an oath of fidelity and obedience, to
   serve him, not occasionally, as one would serve a turn, but to be
   constantly his servants, entirely subject to his command, and devoted
   to his interest. [3.] That they join themselves to him as friends to
   his honour and the interests of his kingdom in the world, to love the
   name of the Lord, to be well pleased with all the discoveries he has
   made of himself and all the memorials they make of him. Observe,
   Serving him and loving him go together; for those that love him truly
   will serve him faithfully, and that obedience is most acceptable to
   him, as well as most pleasant to us, which flows from a principle of
   love, for then his commandments are not grievous, 1 John v. 3. [4.]
   That they keep the sabbath from polluting it; for the stranger that is
   within thy gates is particularly required to do that. [5.] That they
   take hold of the covenant, that is, that they come under the bonds of
   it, and put in for the benefits of it.

   (2.) To what privileges they shall be welcome, v. 7. Three things are
   here promised them, in their coming to God:--[1.] Assistance: "I will
   bring them to my holy mountain, not only bid them welcome when they
   come, but incline them to come, will show them the way, and lead them
   in it." David himself prays that God by his light and truth would bring
   them to his holy hill, Ps. xliii. 3. And the sons of the stranger shall
   be under the same guidance. The church is God's holy hill, on which he
   hath set his King, and, in bringing them to Zion Hill, he brings them
   to be subjects to Zion's King, as well as worshippers in Zion's holy
   temple. [2.] Acceptance: "Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
   shall be accepted on my altar, and be never the less acceptable for
   being theirs, though they are sons of the stranger." The prayers and
   praises (those spiritual sacrifices) of devout Gentiles shall be as
   pleasing to God as those of the pious Jews, and no difference shall be
   made between them; for, though they are Gentiles by birth, yet through
   grace they shall be looked upon as the believing seed of faithful
   Abraham and the praying seed of wrestling Jacob, for in Christ Jesus
   there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision. [3.]
   Comfort. They shall not only be accepted, but they themselves shall
   have the pleasure of it: I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.
   They shall have grace, not only to serve God, but to serve him
   cheerfully and with gladness, and that shall make the service the more
   acceptable to him; for, when we sing in the ways of the Lord, then
   great is the glory of our God. They shall go away and eat their bread
   with joy, because God now accepts their works, Eccl. ix. 7. Nay, though
   they came mourning to the house of prayer, they shall go away
   rejoicing, for they shall there find such ease, by casting their cares
   and burdens upon God, and referring themselves to him, that, like
   Hannah, they shall go away and their countenance shall be no more sad.
   Many a sorrowful spirit has been made joyful in the house of prayer.

   2. It is here promised that multitudes of the Gentiles shall come to
   the church, not only that the few who come dropping in shall be made
   welcome, but that great numbers shall come in, and the door be thrown
   open to them: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all
   people. The temple was then God's house, and to that Christ applies
   these words (Matt. xxi. 13), but with an eye to it as a type of the
   gospel church, Heb. ix. 8, 9. For Christ calls it his house, Heb. iii.
   6. Now concerning this house it is promised, (1.) That it shall not be
   a house of sacrifice, but a house of prayer. The religious meetings of
   God's people shall be meetings for prayer, in which they shall join
   together, as a token of their united faith and mutual love. (2.) That
   it shall be a house of prayer, not for the people of the Jews only, but
   for all people. This was fulfilled when Peter was made, not only to
   perceive it himself, but to tell it to the world, that in every nation
   he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him, Acts x.
   35. It had been declared again and again that the stranger that comes
   nigh shall be put to death, but Gentiles shall now be looked upon no
   longer as strangers and foreigners, Eph. ii. 19. And it appears by
   Solomon's prayer, at the dedication of the temple, both that it was
   primarily intended for a house of prayer and that strangers should be
   welcome to it, 1 Kings viii. 30, 41, 43. And it is intimated here (v.
   8) that when the Gentiles are called in they shall be incorporated into
   one body with the Jews, that (as Christ says, John x. 16) there may be
   one fold and one Shepherd; for, [1.] God will gather the outcasts of
   Israel. Many of the Jews that had by their unbelief cast themselves out
   shall by faith be brought in again, a remnant according to the election
   of grace, Rom. xi. 5. Christ came to the lost sheep of the house of
   Israel (Matt. xv. 24), to gather their outcasts (Ps. cxlvii. 2), to
   restore their preserved (ch. xlix. 6), and to be their glory, Luke ii.
   32. [2.] He will gather others also to him, besides his own outcasts
   that are gathered to him. Or, though some of the Gentiles have come
   over now and then into the church, that shall not serve (as some may
   think) to answer the extent of these promises; no, there are still more
   and more to be brought in: "I will gather others to him besides these;
   these are but the first-fruits in comparison with the harvest that
   shall be gathered for Christ in the nations of the earth, when the
   fulness of the Gentiles shall come in." Note, The church is a growing
   body: when some are gathered to it we may still hope there shall be
   more, till the mystical body be completed. Other sheep I have.

A Charge against the Prophets. (b. c. 706.)

   9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the
   forest.   10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are
   all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to
   slumber.   11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough,
   and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their
   own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.   12 Come ye, say
   they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink;
   and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

   From words of comfort the prophet here, by a very sudden change of his
   style, passes to words of reproof and conviction, and goes on in that
   strain, for the most part, in the three following chapters; and
   therefore some here begin a new sermon. He had assured the people that
   in due time God would deliver them out of captivity, which was designed
   for the comfort of those that should live when God would do this. Now
   here he shows what their sins and provocations were, for which God
   would send them into captivity, and this was designed for the
   conviction of those that lived in his own time, nearly a hundred years
   before the captivity, who were now filling up the measure of the
   nation's sin, and to justify God in what he brought upon them. God will
   lay them waste by the fierceness of their enemies, for the falseness of
   their friends.

   I. Desolating judgments are here summoned, v. 9. The sheep of God's
   pasture are now to be made the sheep of his slaughter, to fall as
   victims to his justice, and therefore the beasts of the field and the
   forest are called to come and devour. They are beasts of prey, and do
   it from their own ravenous disposition; but God permits them to do it,
   nay, he employs them as his servants in doing it, the ministers of his
   justice, though they mean not so, neither does their heart think so. If
   this refers primarily to the descent made upon them by the Babylonians,
   and their devouring them, yet it may look further, to the destruction
   of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans, after these outcasts
   of them (mentioned v. 8) were gathered in to the Christian church. The
   Roman armies came upon them as beasts of the forest to devour them, and
   they quite took away their place and nation. Note, When God has bloody
   work to do he has beasts of prey within call, to be employed in doing
   it.

   II. The reason of these judgments is here given. The shepherds, who
   should have been the watchmen of the flock, to discover the approaches
   of the beasts of prey, to keep them off, and protect the sheep, were
   treacherous and careless, minded not their business, nor made any
   conscience of the trust reposed in them, and so the sheep became an
   easy prey to the wild beasts. Now this may refer to the false prophets
   that lived in Isaiah's, Jeremiah's, and Ezekiel's time (who flattered
   the people in their wicked ways, and told them they should have peace
   though they went on) and to the priests that bore rule by their means.
   Or it may refer to the wicked princes, the sons of Josiah, that did
   evil in the sight of the Lord, and other wicked magistrates under them,
   who betrayed their trust, were vicious and profane, and, instead of
   making up the breach at which the judgments of God were breaking in
   upon them, made it wider, and augmented the fierce anger of the Lord
   instead of doing any thing to turn it away. They should have kept
   judgment and justice (v. 1), but they abandoned both, Jer. v. 1. Or it
   may refer to those who were the nation's watchmen in our Saviour's
   time, the chief priests and the scribes, who should have discerned the
   signs of the times and have given notice to the people of the approach
   of the Messiah, but who, instead of that, opposed him, and did all they
   could to keep people from coming to the knowledge of him and to
   prejudice them against him. It is a very sad character that is here
   given of these watchmen. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy guides are
   such. 1. They had no sense or knowledge of their business. They were
   wretchedly ignorant of their work, and very unfit to teach, being so
   ill-taught themselves: His watchmen are blind, and therefore utterly
   unfit to be watchmen. If the seers see not, who shall see for us? If
   the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness! Christ
   describes the Pharisees to be blind leaders of the blind, Matt. xv. 14.
   The beasts of the field come to devour, and the watchmen are blind, and
   are not aware of them. They are all ignorant (v. 10), shepherds that
   cannot understand (v. 11), that know not what is to be done about the
   sheep, nor can feed them with understanding, Jer. iii. 15. 2. What
   little knowledge they had they made no use of it; no one was the better
   for it. As they were blind watchmen, that could not discern the danger,
   so they were dumb dogs, that would not give warning of it. And why are
   the dogs set to guard the sheep if they cannot bark to waken the
   shepherd and frighten the wolf? Such were these; those that had the
   charge of souls never reproved men for their faults, nor told them what
   would be in the end thereof, never gave them notice of the judgments of
   God that were breaking in upon them. They barked at God's prophets, and
   bit them too, and worried the sheep, but made no opposition to the wolf
   or thief. 3. They were very lazy, and would take no pains. They loved
   their ease, and hated business, were always sleeping, lying down and
   loving to slumber. They were not overcome and overpowered by sleep, as
   the disciples, through grief and fatigue, but they lay down on purpose
   to invite sleep, and said, Soul, take thy ease. Yet a little sleep. It
   is bad with a people when their shepherds slumber (Nah. iii. 18), and
   it is well for God's people that their shepherd, the keeper of Israel,
   neither slumbers nor sleeps. 4. They were very covetous and eager after
   the world--greedy dogs that can never have enough. If they had ever so
   much, they would think it too little. They so love silver as never to
   be satisfied with silver, Eccl. v. 10. All their enquiry is what they
   shall get, not what they shall do. Let them have the wages, and they
   care not whether the work be done or no; they feed not the flock, but
   fleece it. They are every one looking to his own way, minding his own
   private interests, and have no regard at all to the public welfare. It
   was St. Paul's complaint of the watchmen in his time (Phil. ii. 21),
   All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. Every one
   is for propagating his own opinion, advancing his own party, raising
   his own family, and having every thing to his own mind, while the
   common concerns of the public are wretchedly neglected and postponed.
   They look every one to his gain from his quarter, from his end or part
   of the work. They are for fain from every quarter (Rem rem quocunque
   modo rem--Money, money, by fair means or by foul we must have money),
   but especially from their own quarter, where they will be sure to take
   care that they lose nothing, nor miss any thing that is to be got. If
   any one put not into their mouths they not only will do him no service,
   but they prepare war against him, Mic. iii. 5. 5. They were perfect
   epicures, given to their pleasures, never so much in their element as
   in their drunken revels (v. 12): Come (say they), I will fetch wine
   (they have that at command; their cellars are better furnished than
   their closets) and we will fill ourselves, or be drunk, with strong
   drink. They were often drunk, not overseen (as we say) or overtaken in
   drink, but designedly. The watchmen did thus invite and encourage one
   another to drink to excess, or they courted the people to sit and drink
   with them, and so confirmed those in their wicked ways, and hardened
   their hearts, whom they should have reproved. How could they think it
   any harm to be drunk when the watchmen themselves joined with them and
   led them to it! 6. They were very secure and confident of the
   continuance of their prosperity and ease; they said, "To-morrow shall
   be as this day and much more abundant; we shall have as much to spend
   upon our lusts to-morrow as we have to-day." They had no thought at all
   of their own frailty and mortality, though they were shortening their
   days and hastening their deaths by their excesses. They had no dread of
   the judgments of God, though they were daily provoking him and making
   themselves liable to his wrath and curse. They never considered the
   uncertainty of all the delights and enjoyments of sense, how they
   perish in the using and pass away with the lusts of them. They resolved
   to continue in this wicked course, whatever their consciences said to
   the contrary, to be as merry to-morrow as they are to-day. But boast
   not thyself of to-morrow when perhaps this night thy soul shall be
   required of thee.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LVII.

   The prophet, in this chapter, makes his observations, I. Upon the
   deaths of good men, comforting those that were taken away in their
   integrity and reproving those that did not make a due improvement of
   such providences, ver. 1, 2. II. Upon the gross idolatries and
   spiritual whoredoms which the Jews were guilty of, and the destroying
   judgments they were thereby bringing upon themselves, ver. 3-12. III.
   Upon the gracious returns of God to his people to put an end to their
   captivity and re-establish their prosperity, ver. 13-21.

Death of the Righteous. (b. c. 706.)

   1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful
   men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away
   from the evil to come.   2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest
   in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

   The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had condemned the
   watchmen for their ignorance and sottishness; here he shows the general
   stupidity and senselessness of the people likewise. No wonder they were
   inconsiderate when their watchmen were so, who should have awakened
   them to consideration. We may observe here,

   I. The providence of God removing good men apace out of this world. The
   righteous, as to this world, perish; they are gone and their place
   knows them no more. Piety exempts none from the arrests of death, nay,
   in persecuting times, the most righteous are most exposed to the
   violences of bloody men. The first that died died a martyr.
   Righteousness delivers from the sting of death, but not from the stroke
   of it. They are said to perish because they are utterly removed from
   us, and to express the great loss which this world sustains by the
   removal of them, not that their death is their undoing, but it often
   proves an undoing to the places where they lived and were useful. Nay,
   even merciful men are taken away, those good men that are distinguished
   from the righteous, for whom some would even dare to die, Rom. v. 7.
   Those are often removed that could be worst spared; the fruitful trees
   are cut down by death and the barren left still to cumber the ground.
   Merciful men are often taken away by the hands of men's malice. Many
   good works they have done, and for some of them they are stoned. Before
   the captivity in Babylon perhaps there was a more than ordinary
   mortality of good men, so that there were scarcely any left, Jer. v. 1.
   The godly ceased, and the faithful failed, Ps. xii. 1.

   II. The careless world slighting these providences, and disregarding
   them: No man lays it to heart, none considers it. There are very few
   that lament it as a public loss, very few that take notice of it as a
   public warning. The death of good men is a thing to be laid to heart
   and considered more than common deaths. Serious enquiries ought to be
   made, wherefore God contends with us, what good lessons are to be
   learned by such providences, what we may do to help to make up the
   breach and to fill up the room of those that are removed. God is justly
   displeased when such events are not laid to heart, when the voice of
   the rod is not heard nor the intentions of it answered, much more when
   it is rejoiced in, as the slaying of the witnesses is, Rev. xi. 10.
   Some of God's choicest blessings to mankind, being thus easily parted
   with, are really undervalued; and it is an evidence of very great
   incogitancy. Little children, when they are little, least lament the
   death of their parents, because they know not what a loss it is to
   them.

   III. The happiness of the righteous in their removal.

   1. They are taken away from the evil to come, then when it is just
   coming, (1.) In compassion to them, that they may not see the evil (2
   Kings xxii. 20), nor share in it, nor be in temptation by it. When the
   deluge is coming they are called into the ark, and have a hiding-place
   and rest in heaven when there was none for them under heaven. (2.) In
   wrath to the world, to punish them for all the injuries they have done
   to the righteous and merciful ones; those are taken away that stood in
   the gap to turn away the judgments of God, and then what can be
   expected but a deluge of them? It is a sign that God intends war when
   he calls home his ambassadors.

   2. They go to be easy out of the reach of that evil. The righteous man,
   who while he lived walked in his uprightness, when he dies enters into
   peace and rests in his bed. Note, (1.) Death is gain, and rest, and
   bliss, to those only who walked in their uprightness, and who, when
   they die, can appeal to God concerning it, as Hezekiah (2 Kings xx. 3).
   Now, Lord, remember it. (2.) Those that practised uprightness, and
   persevered in it to the end, shall find it well with them when they
   die. Their souls then enter into peace, into the world of peace, where
   peace is in perfection and where there is no trouble. Enter thou into
   the joy of the Lord. Their bodies rest in their beds. Note, The grave
   is a bed of rest to all the Lord's people; there they rest from all
   their labours, Rev. xiv. 13. And the more weary they were the more
   welcome will that rest be to them, Job iii. 17. This bed is made in the
   darkness, but that makes it the more quiet; it is a bed out of which
   they shall rise refreshed in the morning of the resurrection.

A Charge against the People. (b. c. 706.)

   3 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
   adulterer and the whore.   4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
   against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not
   children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,   5 Enflaming
   yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in
   the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?   6 Among the smooth stones
   of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast
   thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should
   I receive comfort in these?   7 Upon a lofty and high mountain hast
   thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.   8
   Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance:
   for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up;
   thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou
   lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.   9 And thou wentest to the
   king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy
   messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.   10 Thou
   art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is
   no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast
   not grieved.   11 And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that
   thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart?
   have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?   12 I
   will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not
   profit thee.

   We have here a high charge, but a just one no doubt, drawn up against
   that wicked generation out of which God's righteous ones were removed,
   because the world was not worthy of them. Observe,

   I. The general character here given of them, or the name and title by
   which they stand indicted, v. 3. They are told to draw near and hear
   the charge, are set to the bar, and arraigned there as sons of the
   sorceress, or of a witch, the seed of an adulterer and a whore, that
   is, they were such themselves, they were strongly inclined to be such,
   and their ancestors were such before them. Sin is sorcery and adultery,
   for it is departing from God and dealing with the devil. They were
   children of disobedience. "Come," says the prophet, "draw near hither,
   and I will read you your doom; to the righteous death will bring peace
   and rest, but not to you; you are children of transgression and a seed
   of falsehood (v. 4), that have it by kind, and have it woven into your
   very nature, to backslide from God and to deal treacherously with him,"
   ch. xlviii. 8.

   II. The particular crimes laid to their charge.

   1. Scoffing at God and his word. They were a generation of scorners (v.
   4): "Against whom do you sport yourselves? You think it is only against
   the poor prophets whom you trample upon as contemptible men, but really
   it is against God himself, who sends them, and whose message they
   deliver." Mocking the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem's
   measure-filling sin, for what was done to them God took as done to
   himself. When they were reproved for their sins, and threatened with
   the judgments of God, they ridiculed the word of God with the rudest
   and most indecent gestures and expressions of disdain. They sported
   themselves, and made themselves merry, with that which should have made
   them serious, and under which they should have humbled themselves. They
   made wry mouths at the prophets, and drew out the tongue, contrary to
   all the laws of good breeding; nor did they treat God's prophets with
   the common civility with which they would have treated a gentleman's
   servant that had been sent to them on an errand. Note, Those who mock
   at God, and bid defiance to his judgments, had best consider who it is
   towards whom they conduct themselves so insolently.

   2. Idolatry. This was that sin which the people of the Jews were most
   notoriously guilty of before the captivity; but that affliction cured
   them of it. In Isaiah's time it abounded, witness the abominable
   idolatries of Ahaz (which some think are particularly referred to here)
   and of Manasseh. (1.) They were dotingly fond of their idols, were
   inflamed with them, as those that burn in unlawful unnatural lusts,
   Rom. i. 27. They were mad upon their idols, Jer. l. 38. They inflamed
   themselves with them by their violent passions in the worship of them,
   as those of Baal's prophets that leaped upon the altar, and cut
   themselves, 1 Kings xviii. 26, 28. Note, Vile corruptions, the more
   they are gratified the more they are inflamed. They worshipped their
   idols under every green tree, in the open air, and in the shade; yet
   that did not cool the heat of their impetuous lusts, but rather the
   charming beauty of the green trees made them the more fond of their
   idols which they worshipped there. Thus that in nature which is
   pleasing, instead of drawing them to the God of nature, drew them from
   him. The flame of their zeal in the worship of false gods may shame us
   for our coldness and indifference in the worship of the true God. They
   strove to inflame themselves, but we distract and deaden ourselves.
   (2.) They were barbarous and unnaturally cruel in the worship of their
   idols. They slew their children, and offered them in sacrifice to their
   idols, not only in the valley of the son of Hinnom, the headquarters of
   that monstrous idolatry, but in other valleys, in imitation of that,
   and under the cliffs of the rock, in dark and solitary places, the
   fittest for such works of darkness. (3.) They were abundant and
   insatiable in their idolatries. They never thought they could have
   idols enough, nor could spend enough upon them and do enough in their
   service. The Syrians had once a notion of the God of Israel that he was
   a God of the hills, but not a God of the valleys (1 Kings xx. 28); but
   these idolaters, to make sure work, had both. [1.] They had gods of the
   valleys, which they worshipped in the low places by the water side (v.
   6): Among the smooth stones of the valley, or brook, is thy portion. If
   they saw a smooth carved stone, though set up but for a way-mark or a
   mere-stone, they were ready to worship it, as the papists do crosses.
   Or in stony valleys they set up their gods, which they called their
   portion, and took for their lot, as God's people take him for their lot
   and portion. But these gods of stone would really be no better a
   portion for them, no better a lot, than the smooth stones of the stream
   near which they were set up, for sometimes they worshipped their
   rivers. "They, they, are the lot which thou trustest to and art pleased
   with, but thou shalt be put off with it for thy lot, and miserable will
   thy case be." See the folly of sinners, who take the smooth stones of
   the stream for their portion, when they might have the precious stones
   of God's Jerusalem, and the high priest's ephod, to portion themselves
   with. Having taken these idols for their lot and portion, they stick at
   no charge in doing honour to them: "To them hast thou poured a
   drink-offering, and offered a meat-offering, as if they had given thee
   thy meat and drink." They loved their idols better than their children,
   for their own tables must be robbed to replenish the altars of their
   idols. Have we taken the true God for our portion? Is he, even he, our
   lot? Let us then serve him with our meat and drink, not, as they did,
   by depriving ourselves of the use of them, but by eating and drinking
   to his glory. Here, in a parenthesis, comes in an expression of God's
   just resentment of this wickedness of theirs: Should I receive comfort
   in these--in such a people as this? Can those expect that God will take
   any pleasure in them, or accept their devotions at his altar, who thus
   serve Baal with the gifts of his providence? God takes comfort in his
   people, while they are faithful to him; but what comfort can he take in
   them when those that should be his witnesses against the idolatries of
   the world do themselves fall in with them? Should I have compassion on
   these? (so some), or should I repent me concerning these? so others.
   "How can they expect that I should spare them, and either adjourn or
   abate their punishment, when they are so very provoking? Shall I not
   visit for these things?" Jer. v. 7, 9. [2.] They had gods of the hills
   too (v. 7): "Upon a lofty and high mountain (as if thou wouldst vie
   with the high and lofty One himself, v. 15) hast thou set thy bed, thy
   idol, thy idol's temple and altar, the bed of thy uncleanness, where
   thou committest spiritual whoredom, with all the wantonness of an
   idolatrous fancy, and in direct violation of the covenant of thy God.
   Thither wentest thou up readily enough, though it was up-hill, to offer
   sacrifice." Some think this bespeaks the impudence they arrived at in
   their idolatries; at first they had some sense of shame, when they
   worshipped their idols in the valleys, in obscure places; but they soon
   conquered that, and came to do it upon the lofty high mountains. They
   were not ashamed, neither could they blush. [3.] As if these were not
   enough, they had household-gods too, their lares and penates. Behind
   the doors and the posts (v. 8), where the law of God should be written
   for a memorandum to them of their duty, they set up the remembrance of
   their idols, not so much to keep up their own remembrance of them (they
   were so fond of them that they could not forget them), but to show to
   others how mindful they were of them, and to put their children in mind
   of them, and possess them betimes with a veneration for these dunghill
   deities. [4.] As they were insatiable in their idolatries, so they were
   inseparable from them. They were hardened in their wickedness; they
   worshipped their idols openly and in public view, as being neither
   ashamed of the sin nor afraid of the punishment; they went as publicly,
   and in as great crowds, to the idol-temples, as ever they had gone to
   God's house. This was like an impudent harlot, discovering themselves
   to another than God, making profession of another than the true
   religion. They took a pride in making proselytes to their idolatries,
   and not only went up themselves to their high places, but enlarged
   their bed, that is, their idol-temples, and (as the margin reads the
   following words) thou hewedst it for thyself larger than theirs, than
   theirs from whom thou copiedst it, and tookest the platform of it, as
   Ahaz of his altar from that which he saw at Damascus, 2 Kings xvi. 10.
   And being thus involved over head and ears, as it were, in their
   idolatries, there is no parting them from them. Ephraim is now joined
   to idols both in love and league. First, In league: "Thou hast made a
   covenant with them, with the idols, with the idol-worshippers, to live
   and die together." This was a complete renunciation of their covenant
   with God and an avowed resolution to persist in their apostasy from
   him. Secondly, In love: "Thou lovedst their bed, that is, the temple of
   an idol, wherever thou sawest it." Justly therefore were they given up
   to their own hearts' lusts.

   3. Another sin charged upon them is their trusting in and seeking to
   foreign aids and succours, and contracting a communion with the Gentile
   powers (v. 9): Thou wentest to the king, which some understand of the
   idol they worshipped, particularly Moloch, which signifies a king.
   "Thou didst every thing to ingratiate thyself with those idols, didst
   offer incense and sweet ointments at their altars." Or it may be meant
   of the king of Assyria, whom Ahaz made his court to, or of the king of
   Babylon, whose ambassadors Hezekiah caressed, or of other kings of the
   nations whose idolatrous usages they admired and were desirous to learn
   and imitate, and for that end went and sent to cultivate an
   acquaintance and correspondence with them, that they might be like them
   and strengthen themselves by an alliance with them. See here, (1.) What
   an expense they were at in forming and procuring this grand alliance.
   They went with ointments and perfumes, either bestowed upon themselves,
   to beautify their own faces and so make themselves considerable and
   worthy the friendship of the greatest king, or to be presented to those
   whose favour they were ambitious of, because a man's gift makes room
   for him and brings him before great men. "When the first present of
   rich perfumes was thought too little, thou didst increase them;" and
   thus many seek the ruler's favour, forgetting that, after all, every
   man's judgment proceeds from the Lord. So fond were they of those
   heathen princes that they not only went themselves, in all their airs,
   to those that were near them, but sent messengers to those that were
   afar off, ch. xviii. 2. (2.) How much they hereby disparaged themselves
   and laid the honour of their crown and nation in the dust: Thou didst
   debase thyself even unto hell. They did so by their idolatries. It is a
   dishonour to the children of men, who are endued with the powers of
   reason, to worship that as their god which is the creature of their own
   fancy and the work of their own hands, to bow down to the stock of a
   tree. It is much more a dishonour to the children of God, who are
   blessed with the privilege of divine revelation, to forsake such a God
   as they know theirs to be for a thing of nought, their own mercies for
   lying vanities. They likewise debased themselves by truckling to their
   heathen neighbours, and depending upon them, when they had a God to go
   to who is all-sufficient and in covenant with them. How did those shame
   themselves to the highest degree, and sink themselves to the lowest,
   that forsook the fountain of life for broken cisterns and the rock of
   ages for broken reeds! Note, Sinners disparage and debase themselves;
   the service of sin is an ignominious slavery; and those who thus debase
   themselves to hell will justly have their portion there.

   III. The aggravations of their sin. 1. They had been tired with
   disappointments in their wicked courses, and yet they would not be
   convinced of the folly of them (v. 10): "Thou art wearied in the
   greatness of thy way; thou hast undertaken a mighty task, to find out
   true satisfaction and happiness in that which is vanity and a lie."
   Those that set up idols, instead of God, for the object of their
   worship, and princes, instead of God, for the object of their hope and
   confidence, and think thus to better themselves and make themselves
   easy, go a great way about, and will never come to their journey's end:
   Thou art wearied in the multitude, or multiplicity, of thy ways (so
   some read it): those that forsake the only right way wander endlessly
   in a thousand by-paths, and lose themselves in the many inventions
   which they have sought out. They weary themselves with fresh chases and
   fierce ones, but never gain their point, like the Sodomites, that
   wearied themselves to find the door (Gen. xix. 11) and could not find
   it at last. The pleasures of sin will soon surfeit, but never satisfy;
   a man may quickly tire himself in the pursuit of them, but can never
   repose himself in the enjoyment of them. They found this by experience.
   The idols they had often worshipped never did them any kindness; the
   kings they courted distressed them, and helped them not; and yet they
   were so wretchedly besotted that they could not say, "There is no hope;
   it is in vain any longer to expect that satisfaction in
   creature-confidences, and in the worship of idols, which we have so
   often looked for, and never met with." Note, Despair of happiness in
   the creature, and of satisfaction in the service of sin, is the first
   step towards a well-grounded hope of happiness in God and a well-fixed
   resolution to keep to his service; and those are inexcusable who have
   had sensible convictions of the vanity of the creature, and yet will
   not be brought to say, "There is no hope to be happy short of the
   Creator." 2. Though they were convinced that the way they were in was a
   sinful way, yet, because they had found some present sensual pleasure
   and worldly profit by it, they could not persuade themselves to be
   sorry for it: "Thou hast found the life of thy hand" (or the living of
   it); thou boastest how fortune smiles upon thee, and therefore thou art
   not grieved, any more than Ephraim when he said (Hos. xii. 8), "I have
   become rich; I have found out substance." Note, Prosperity in sin is a
   great bar to conversion from sin. Those that live at ease in their
   sinful projects, are tempted to think God favours them, and therefore
   they have nothing to repent of. Some read it ironically, or by way of
   question: "Thou hast found the life of thy hand, hast found true
   satisfaction and happiness, no doubt thou hast; hast thou not? And
   therefore thou art so far from being grieved that thou blessest thyself
   in thy own evil way; but review thy gains once more, and come to a
   balance of profit and loss, and then say, What fruit hast thou of those
   things whereof thou art ashamed and for which God shall bring thee into
   judgment?" Rom. vi. 21. 3. They had dealt very unworthily with God by
   their sin; for, (1.) It should seem they pretended that the reason why
   they left God was because he was too terrible a majesty for them to
   deal with; they must have gods that they could be more free and
   familiar with. "But," says God, "of whom hast thou been afraid or
   feared, that thou hast lied, that thou hast dealt falsely and
   treacherously with me, and dissembled in thy covenants with me and
   prayers to me? What did I ever do to frighten thee from me? What
   occasion have I given thee to think hardly of me, that thou hast gone
   to seek a kinder master?" (2.) However, it is certain that they had no
   true reverence of God nor any serious regard to him. So that question
   is commonly understood, "Of whom hast thou been afraid, or feared? Of
   none; for thou hast not feared me whom thou shouldst fear; for thou
   hast lied to me." Those that dissemble with God make it to appear they
   stand in no awe of him. "Thou hast not remembered me, neither what I
   have said nor what I have done, neither the promises nor the
   threatenings, nor the performances of either; thou hast not laid them
   to thy heart, as thou wouldst have done if thou hadst feared me." Note,
   Those who lay not the word of God and his providences to their hearts
   do thereby show that they have not the fear of God before their eyes.
   And multitudes are ruined by fearlessness, forgetfulness, and mere
   carelessness; they do not aright nor to good purpose fear any thing,
   remember any thing, nor lay any thing to heart. Nay, (3.) They were
   hardened in their sin by the patience and forbearance of God. "Have not
   I held my peace of old, and for a long time? These things thou hast
   done and I kept silence. And therefore, as it follows here, thou
   fearest me not;" as if because God had spared long he would never
   punish, Eccl. viii. 11. Because he kept silence the sinner thought him
   altogether such a one as himself, and stood in no awe of him.

   IV. Here is God's resolution to call them to an account, though he had
   long borne with them (v. 12): "I will declare (like that, Ps. l. 21,
   But I will reprove thee), I will declare thy righteousness, which thou
   makest thy boast of, and let the world see, and thyself too, to thy
   confusion, that it is all a sham, all a cheat, it is not what it
   pretends to be. When thy righteousness comes to be examined it will be
   found that it was unrighteousness, and that there was no sincerity in
   all thy pretensions. I will declare thy works, what they have been and
   what the gain thou pretendest to have gotten by them, and it will
   appear that at long-run they shall not profit thee, nor turn to any
   account." Note, Sinful works, as they are works of darkness, and there
   is no reason nor righteousness in them, so they are unfruitful works
   and there is nothing got by them; and, however they look now, it will
   be made to appear so another day. Sin profits not, nay, it ruins and
   destroys.

Vanity of Idols; Divine Greatness and Condescension. (b. c. 706.)

   13 When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall
   carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his
   trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
     14 And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up
   the stumbling block out of the way of my people.   15 For thus saith
   the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I
   dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite
   and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
   the heart of the contrite ones.   16 For I will not contend for ever,
   neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me,
   and the souls which I have made.

   Here, I. God shows how insufficient idols and creatures were to relieve
   and succour those that worshipped them and confided in them (v. 13):
   "When thou criest in thy distress and anguish, lamentest thy misery and
   callest for help, let thy companies deliver thee, thy idol-gods which
   thou hast heaped to thyself companies of, the troops of the confederate
   forces which thou hast relied so much upon, let them deliver thee if
   they can; expect no other relief than what they can give." Thus God
   said to Israel, when in their trouble they called upon him (Judg. x.
   14), Go, and cry to the gods which you have chosen, let them deliver
   you. But in vain is salvation hoped for from them: The wind shall carry
   them all away, the wind of God's wrath, that breath of his mouth which
   shall slay the wicked; they have made themselves as chaff, and
   therefore the wind will of course hurry them away. Vanity they are, and
   vanity shall take them away, to vanity they shall be reduced, and
   vanity shall be their recompence. Both the idols and their worshippers
   shall come to nothing.

   II. He shows that there was a sufficiency, an all-sufficiency, in him
   for the comfort and deliverance of all those that put their confidence
   in him and made their application to him. Their safety and satisfaction
   appear the more comfortable because their hopes are crowned with
   fruition, when those that seek to other helpers have their hopes
   frustrated: "He that puts his trust in me, and in me only, he shall be
   happy, both for soul and body, for this world and the other."

   1. Observe, in general, (1.) Those that trust in God's providence take
   the best course to secure their secular interests. They shall possess
   the land, as much of it as is good for them, and what they have they
   shall have it from a good hand and hold it by a good title. Ps. xxxvii.
   3, They shall dwell in the land, and verily they shall be fed. (2.)
   Those that trust in God's grace take the best course to secure their
   sacred interests. They shall inherit my holy mountain. They shall enjoy
   the privileges of the church on earth, and be brought at length to the
   joys of heaven; and no wind shall carry them away.

   2. More particularly,

   (1.) The captives, that trust in God, shall be released (v. 14): They
   shall say (that is, the messengers of his providence, in that great
   event shall say), Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way. When God's
   time shall have come for their deliverance the way of bringing it about
   shall be made plain and easy, obstacles shall be removed, difficulties
   that seemed insuperable shall be speedily got over, and all things
   shall concur both to accelerate and facilitate their return. See ch.
   xl. 3, 4. This refers to the provision which the gospel, and the grace
   of it, have made for our ready passage through this world to a better.
   The way of religion is now cast up; it is a highway; ministers'
   business is to direct people in it, and to help them over the
   discouragements they meet with, that nothing may offend them.

   (2.) The contrite, that trust in God, shall be revived, v. 15. Those
   that trusted to idols and creatures for help went with their ointments
   and perfumes (v. 9); but here God shows that those who may expect help
   from him are such as are destitute of, and set themselves at a distance
   from, the gaieties of the world and the delights of sense. God's glory
   appears here very bright, [1.] In his greatness and majesty: He is the
   high and lofty One that inhabits eternity. Let this inspire us with
   very high and honourable thoughts of the God with whom we have to do,
   First, That his being and perfections are exalted infinitely above
   every creature, not only above what they have themselves, but above
   what they can conceive concerning him, far above all their blessing and
   praise, Neh. ix. 5. He is the high and lofty One, and there is no
   creature like him, nor any to be compared with him. The language
   likewise intimates his sovereign dominion over all and the
   incontestable right he has to give both law and judgment to all. He is
   higher than the highest (Eccl. v. 8), than the highest heavens, Ps.
   cxiii. 4. Secondly, That with him there is neither beginning of days
   nor end of life, nor change of time; he is both immortal and immutable.
   He only has immortality, 1 Tim. vi. 16. He has it of himself, and he
   has it constantly; he inhabits it, and cannot be dispossessed of it. We
   must shortly remove into eternity, but God always inhabits it. Thirdly,
   That there is an infinite rectitude in his nature, and an exact
   conformity with himself and a steady design of his own glory in all
   that he does; and this appears in every thing by which he has made
   himself known, for his name is holy, and all that desire to be
   acquainted with him must know him as a holy God. Fourthly, That the
   peculiar residence and manifestation of his glory are in the mansions
   of light and bliss above: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and will
   have all the world to know it." Whoever have any business with God must
   direct to him as their Father in heaven, for there he dwells. These
   great things are here said of God to inspire us with a holy reverence
   of him, to encourage our confidence in him, and to magnify his
   compassion and condescension to us, that though he is thus high yet he
   has respect unto the lowly; he that rides on the heavens by his name
   JAH stoops to concern himself for poor widows and fatherless, Ps.
   lxviii. 4, 5. [2.] In his grace and mercy. He has a tender pity for the
   humble and contrite, for those that are so in respect of their state.
   If they be his people, he will not overlook them though they are poor
   and low in the world, and despised and trampled upon by men; but he
   here refers to the temper of their mind; he will have a tender regard
   to those who, being in affliction, accommodate themselves to their
   affliction, and bring their mind to their condition, be it ever so low
   and ever so sad and sorely broken--those that are truly penitent for
   sin, who mourn in secret for it, and have a dread of the wrath of God,
   which they have made themselves obnoxious to, and are submissive under
   all his rebukes. Now, First, With these God will dwell. He will visit
   them graciously, will converse familiarly with them by his word and
   Spirit, as a man does with those of his own family; he will be always
   nigh to them and present with them. He that dwells in the highest
   heavens dwells in the lowest hearts and inhabits sincerity as surely as
   he inhabits eternity. In these he delights. Secondly, He will revive
   their heart and spirit, will speak that to them, and work that in them
   by the word and Spirit of his grace, which will be reviving to them, as
   a cordial to one that is ready to faint. He will give them reviving
   joys and hopes sufficient to counterbalance all the griefs and fears
   that break their spirits. He dwells with them, and his presence is
   reviving.

   (3.) Those with whom he contends, if they trust in him, shall be
   relieved, and received into favour, v. 16. He will revive the heart of
   the contrite ones, for he will not contend for ever. Nothing makes a
   soul contrite so much as God's contending, and therefore nothing
   revives it so much as his ceasing his controversy. Here is, [1.] A
   gracious promise. It is not promised that he will never be angry with
   his people, for their sins are displeasing to him, or that he will
   never contend with them, for they must expect the rod; but he will not
   contend for ever, nor be always wroth. As he is not soon angry, so he
   is not long angry. He will not always chide. Though he contend with
   them by convictions of sin, he will not contend for ever; but, instead
   of the spirit of bondage, they shall receive the Spirit of adoption. He
   has torn, but he will heal. Though he contend with them by the rebukes
   of providence, yet the correction shall not last always, shall not last
   long, shall last no longer than there is need (1 Pet. i. 6), no longer
   than they can bear, no longer than till it has done its work. Though
   their whole life be calamitous, yet their end will be peace, and so
   will their eternity be. [2.] A very compassionate consideration, upon
   which this promise is grounded: "If I should contend for ever, the
   spirit would fail before me, ever the souls which I have made." Note,
   First, God is the Father of spirits, Heb. xii. 9. Those with whom he
   will not always contend are the souls that he has made, that he gave
   being to by creation and a new being to by regeneration. Secondly,
   Though the Lord is for the body, yet he concerns himself chiefly for
   the souls of his people, that the spirit do not fail, and its graces
   and comforts. Thirdly, When troubles last long, the spirit even of good
   men is apt to fail. They are tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God,
   to think it in vain to serve him; they are ready to put comfort away
   from them, and to despair of relief, and then the spirit fails.
   Fourthly, It is in consideration of this that God will not contend for
   ever; for he will not forsake the work of his own hands nor defeat the
   purchase of his Son's blood. The reason is taken not from our merit,
   but from our weakness and infirmity; for he remembers that we are flesh
   (Ps. lxxviii. 39) and that flesh is weak.

The Divine Forbearance and Mercy. (b. c. 706.)

   17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I
   hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his
   heart.   18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him
   also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.   19 I create
   the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him
   that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.   20 But the wicked
   are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up
   mire and dirt.   21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

   The body of the people of Israel, in this account of God's dealings
   with them, is spoken of as a particular person (v. 17, 18), but divided
   into two sorts, differently dealt with--some who were sons of peace, to
   whom peace is spoken (v. 19), and others who were not, who have nothing
   to do with peace, v. 20, 21. Observe here,

   I. The just rebukes which that people were brought under for their sin:
   For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, and smote him.
   Covetousness was a sin that abounded very much among that people. Jer.
   vi. 13, From the least to the greatest of them, every one is given to
   covetousness. Those that did not worship images were yet carried away
   by this spiritual idolatry: for such is covetousness; it is making
   money the god, Col. iii. 5. No marvel that the people were covetous
   when their watchmen themselves were notoriously so, ch. lvi. 11, Yet,
   covetous as they were, in the service of their idols they were
   prodigal, v. 6. And it is hard to say whether their profuseness in that
   or their covetousness in every thing else was more provoking. But for
   this iniquity, among others, God was angry with them, and brought one
   judgment after another upon them, and their destruction at last by the
   Chaldeans. 1. God was wroth. He resented it, took it very ill that a
   people who were devoted to himself, and portioned in himself, should be
   so entirely given up to the world and choose that for their portion.
   Note, Covetousness is an iniquity that is very displeasing to the God
   of heaven. It is a heart-sin, but he sees it, and therefore hates it,
   and looks upon it with jealousy, because it sets up a rival with him in
   the soul. It is a sin which men bless themselves in (Ps. xlix. 18) and
   in which their neighbours bless them (Ps. x. 3); but God abhors it. 2.
   He motes him, reproved him for it by his prophets, corrected him by his
   providence, punished him in those very things he so doted upon and was
   covetous of. Note, Sinners shall be made to feel from the anger of God.
   Those whom he is wroth with he smites; and covetousness particularly
   lays men under the tokens of God's displeasure. Those that set their
   hearts upon the wealth of this world are disappointed of it or it is
   embittered to them; it is either clogged with a cross or turned into a
   curse. 3. God hid himself from him when he was under these rebukes, and
   continued wroth with him. When we are under the rod, if God manifest
   himself to us, we may bear it the better; but if he both smite us and
   hide himself from us, send us no prophets, speak to us no comfortable
   word, show us no token for good, if he tear and go away (Hos. v. 14),
   we are very miserable.

   II. Their obstinacy and incorrigibleness under these rebukes: He went
   on frowardly in the way of his heart, in his evil way. He was not
   sensible of the displeasure of God that he was under. He felt the smart
   of the rod, but had no regard at all to the hand; the more he was
   crossed in his worldly pursuits the more eager he was in them. He
   either would not see his error or if he saw it would not amend it.
   Covetousness was the way of his heart; it was what he was inclined to
   and intent upon, and he would not be reclaimed, but in his distress he
   trespassed yet more, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. See the strength of the
   corruption of men's hearts, and the sinfulness of sin, which will take
   its course in despite of God himself and all the flames of his wrath.
   See also how insufficient afflictions of themselves are to reform men,
   unless God's grace work with them.

   III. God's wonderful return in mercy to them, notwithstanding the
   obstinacy of the generality of them.

   1. The greater part of them went on frowardly, but there were some
   among them that were mourners for the obstinacy of the rest; and with
   an eye to them, or rather for his own name's sake, God determines not
   to contend for ever with them. With the froward God may justly show
   himself froward (Ps. xviii. 26), and walk contrary to those that walk
   contrary to him, Lev. xxvi. 24. When this sinner here went on frowardly
   in the way of his heart, one would think it should have followed, "I
   have seen his ways and will destroy him, will abandon him, will never
   have any thing more to do with him." But such are the riches of divine
   mercy and grace, and so do they rejoice against judgment, that it
   follows, I have seen his ways and will heal him. See how God's goodness
   takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more
   illustrious; and where sin has abounded grace much more abounds. God's
   reasons of mercy are fetched from within himself, for in us there
   appears nothing but what is provoking: "I have seen his ways, and yet I
   will heal him for my own name's sake." God knew how bad the people
   were, and yet would not cast them off. But observe the method. God will
   first give him grace, and then, and not till then, give him peace: "I
   have seen his way, that he will never turn to me of himself, and
   therefore I will turn him." Those whom God has mercy in store for he
   has grace in readiness for, to prepare and qualify them for that mercy
   which they were running from as fast as they could. (1.) God will heal
   him of his corrupt and vicious disposition, will cure him of his
   covetousness, though it be ever so deeply rooted in him and his heart
   have been long exercised to covetous practices. There is no spiritual
   disease so inveterate, but almighty grace can conquer it. (2.) God will
   lead him also; not only amend what was amiss in him, that he may cease
   to do evil, but direct him into the way of duty, that he may learn to
   do well. He goes on frowardly, as Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
   and slaughter, but God will lead him into a better mind, a better path.
   And them, (3.) He will restore those comforts to him which he had
   forfeited and lost, and for the return of which he had thus prepared
   him. There was a wonderful reformation wrought upon captives in
   Babylon, and then a wonderful redemption wrought for them, which
   brought comfort to them, to their mourners, to those among them that
   mourned for their own sins, the sins of their people, and the
   desolations of the sanctuary. To those mourners the mercy would be most
   comfortable, and to them God had an eye in working it out. Blessed are
   those that mourn, for to them comfort belongs, and they shall have it.

   2. Now, as when that people went into captivity some of them were good
   figs, very good, others of them bad figs, very bad, and accordingly
   their captivity was to them for their good or for their hurt (Jer.
   xxiv. 8, 9), so, when they came out of captivity, still some of them
   were good, others bad, and the deliverance was to them accordingly.

   (1.) To those among them that were good their return out of captivity
   was peace, such peace as was a type and earnest of the peace which
   should be preached by Jesus Christ (v. 19): I create the fruit of the
   lips, peace. [1.] God designed to give them matter for praise and
   thanksgiving, for that is the fruit of the lips (Heb. xiii. 15), the
   calves of the lips, Hos. xiv. 2. I create this. Creation is out of
   nothing, and this is surely out of worse than nothing, when God creates
   matter of praise for those that went on frowardly in the way of their
   heart. [2.] In order to this, peace shall be published: Peace, peace
   (perfect peace, all kinds of peace) to him that is afar off from the
   general rendezvous, or from the head-quarters, as well as to him that
   is near. Peace with God; though he has contended with them, he will be
   reconciled and will let fall his controversy. Peace of conscience, a
   holy security and serenity of mind, after the many reproaches of
   conscience and agitations of spirit they had been under their
   captivity. Thus God creates the fruit of the lips, fresh matter for
   thanksgiving; for, when he speaks peace to us, we must speak praises to
   him. This peace is itself of God's creating. He, and he only, can work
   it; it is the fruit of the lips, of his lips--he commands it, of the
   minister's lips--he speaks it by them, ch. xl. 1. It is the fruit of
   preaching lips and praying lips; it is the fruit of Christ's lips,
   whose lips drop as a honeycomb; for to him this is applied, Eph. ii.
   17: He came and preached peace to you who were afar off, you Gentiles
   as well as to the Jews, who were nigh-to after-ages, who were afar off
   in time, as well as to those of the present age.

   (2.) To those among them that were wicked, though they might return
   with the rest, their return was no peace, v. 20. The wicked, wherever
   he is, in Babylon or in Jerusalem, carries about with him the principle
   of his own uneasiness, and is like the troubled sea. God healed those
   to whom he spoke peace (v. 19): I will heal them; all shall be well
   again and set to rights; but the wicked would not be healed by the
   grace of God and therefore shall not be healed by his comforts. They
   are always like the sea in a storm, for they carry about with them,
   [1.] Unmortified corruptions. They are not cured and conquered, and
   their ungoverned lusts and passions make them like the troubled sea
   when it cannot rest, vexatious to all about them and therefore uneasy
   to themselves, noisy and dangerous. When the intemperate heats of the
   spirit break out in scurrilous and abusive language, then the troubled
   sea casts forth mire and dirt. [2.] Unpacified consciences. They are
   under a frightful apprehension of guilt and wrath, that they cannot
   enjoy themselves; when they seem settled they are in disquietude, when
   they seem merry they are in heaviness; like Cain, who always dwelt in
   the land of shaking. The terrors of conscience disturb all their
   enjoyments, and cast forth such mire and dirt as make them a burden to
   themselves. Though this does not appear (it may be) at present, yet it
   is a certain truth, what this prophet had said before (ch. xlviii. 22),
   and here repeats (v. 21), There is no peace to the wicked, no
   reconciliation to God (nor can they be upon good terms with him, while
   they go on still in their trespasses), no quietness or satisfaction in
   their own mind, no real good, no peace in death, because no hope. My
   God hath said it, and all the world cannot unsay it, That there is no
   peace to those that allow themselves in any sin. What have they to do
   with peace?
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LVIII.

   The prophet, in this chapter, has his commission and charge renewed to
   reprove the sinners in Zion, particularly the hypocrites, to show them
   their transgressions, ver. 1. It is intended for admonition and warning
   to all hypocrites, and is not to be confined to those of any one age.
   Some refer it primarily to those at that time when Isaiah prophesied;
   see chap. xxxiii. 14; xxix. 13. Others to the captives in Babylon, the
   wicked among them, to whom the prophet had declared there was no peace
   ch. lvii. 21. Against the terror of that word they thought to shelter
   themselves with their external performances, particularly their
   fastings, which they kept up in Babylon, and for some time after their
   return to their own land, Zech. vii. 3, &c. The prophet therefore here
   shows them that their devotions would not entitle them to peace while
   their conversations were not at all of a piece with them. Others think
   it is principally intended against the hypocrisy of the Jews,
   especially the Pharisees before and in our Saviour's time: they boasted
   of their fastings, but Christ (as the prophet here) showed them their
   transgressions (Matt. xxiii.), much the same with those they are here
   charged with. Observe, I. The plausible profession of religion which
   they made, ver. 2. II. The boasts they made of that profession, and the
   blame they laid upon God for taking no more notice of it, ver. 3. III.
   The sins they are charged with, which spoiled the acceptableness of
   their fasts, ver. 4, 5. IV. Instructions given them how to keep fasts
   aright, ver. 6, 7. V. Precious promises made to those who do so keep
   fasts, ver. 8-12. VI. The like precious promises made to those that
   sanctify sabbaths aright, ver. 13, 14.

A Charge against the People. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my
   people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.   2 Yet
   they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did
   righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of
   me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

   When our Lord Jesus promised to send the Comforter he added, When he
   shall come he shall convince (John xvi. 7, 8); for conviction must
   prepare for comfort, and must also separate between the precious and
   the vile, and mark out those to whom comfort does not belong. God had
   appointed this prophet to comfort his people (ch. xl. 1); here he
   appoints him to convince them, and show them their sins.

   I. He must tell them how very bad they really were, v. 1. 1. He must
   deal faithfully and plainly with them. "Though they are called the
   people of God and the house of Jacob, though they wear an honourable
   title and character, by which they are interested in many glorious
   privileges, yet do not flatter them, but show them their transgressions
   and their sins, be particular in telling them their faults, what sins
   are committed among them, which they do not know of, nay, what sins are
   committed by them which they do not acknowledge to be sins; though in
   some things they are reformed, let them know that in other things they
   are still as bad as ever. Show them their transgressions and their
   sins, that is, all their transgressions in their sins, their sins and
   all the aggravations of them," Lev. xvi. 21. Note, (1.) God sees sin in
   his people, in the house of Jacob, and is displeased with it. (2.) They
   are often unapt and unwilling to see their own sins, and need to have
   them shown them, and to be told, Thus and thus thou hast done. 2. He
   must be vehement and in good earnest herein, must cry aloud, and not
   spare, not spare them (not touch them with his reproofs as if he were
   afraid of hurting them, but search the wound to the bottom, lay it bare
   to the bone), not spare himself or his own pains, but cry as loud as he
   can; though he spend his strength and waste his spirits, though he get
   their ill-will by it and get himself into an ill name, yet he must not
   spare. He must lift up his voice like a trumpet, to make those hear of
   their faults that were apt to be deaf when admonition was addressed to
   them. He must give his reproofs in the most powerful and pressing
   manner possible, as one who desired to be heeded. The trumpet does not
   give an uncertain sound, but, though loud and shrill, is intelligible;
   so must his alarms be, giving them warning of the fatal consequences of
   sin, Ezek. xxxiii. 3.

   II. He must acknowledge how very good they seemed to be,
   notwithstanding (v. 2): Yet they seek me daily. When the prophet went
   about to show them their transgressions they pleaded that they could
   see no transgressions which they were guilty of; for they were diligent
   and constant in attending on God's worship--and what more would he have
   of them? Now,

   1. He owns the matter of fact to be true. As far as hypocrites do that
   which is good, they shall not be denied the praise of it; let them make
   their best of it. It is owned that they have a form of godliness. (1.)
   They go to church, and observe their hours of prayer: They seek me
   daily; they are very constant in their devotions and never omit them
   nor suffer any thing to put them by. (2.) They love to hear good
   preaching; They delight to know my ways, as Herod, who heard John
   gladly, and the stony ground, that received the seed of the word with
   joy; it is to them as a lovely song, Ezek. xxxiii. 32. (3.) They seem
   to take great pleasure in the exercises of religion and to be in their
   element when they are at their devotions: They delight in approaching
   to God, not for his sake to whom they approach, but for the sake of
   some pleasing circumstance, the company, or the festival. (4.) They are
   inquisitive concerning their duty and seem desirous only to know it,
   making no question but that then they should do it: They ask of me the
   ordinances of justice, the rules of piety in the worship of God, the
   rules of equity in their dealings with men, both which are ordinances
   of justice. (5.) They appear to the eye of the world as if they made
   conscience of doing their duty: They are as a nation that did
   righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God; others took
   them for such, and they themselves pretended to be such. Nothing lay
   open to view that was a contradiction to their profession, but they
   seemed to be such as they should be. Note, Men may go a great way
   towards heaven and yet come short; nay, may go to hell with a good
   reputation. But,

   2. He intimates that this was so far from being a cover or excuse for
   their sin that really it was an aggravation of it: "Show them their
   sins which they go on in notwithstanding their knowledge of good and
   evil, sin and duty, and the convictions of their consciences concerning
   them."

A Charge against the People. (b. c. 706.)

   3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore
   have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in
   the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.   4
   Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
   wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to
   be heard on high.   5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a
   man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and
   to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast,
   and an acceptable day to the Lord?   6 Is not this the fast that I have
   chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
   and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?   7 Is
   it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor
   that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou
   cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

   Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived
   against God for not accepting the services which they themselves had a
   mighty opinion of (v. 3): Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou
   seest not? Thus they went in the way of Cain, who was angry at God, and
   resented it as a gross affront that his offering was not accepted.
   Having gone about to put a cheat upon God by their external services,
   here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased
   with their services, as if he had not done fairly or justly by them.
   Observe, 1. How they boast of themselves, and magnify their own
   performances: "We have fasted, and afflicted our souls; we have not
   only sought God daily (v. 2), but have kept some certain times of more
   solemn devotion." Some think this refers to the yearly fast (which was
   called the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional
   fasts. Note, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their
   professions of humiliation, as the Pharisee (Luke xviii. 12), I fast
   twice in the week. 2. What they expected from their performances. They
   thought God should take great notice of them, and own himself a debtor
   to them for their services. Note, It is a common thing for hypocrites,
   while they perform the external services of religion, to promise
   themselves that acceptance with God which he has promised only to the
   sincere; as if they must be accepted of course, or for a compliment. 3.
   How heinously they take it that God had not put some particular marks
   of his favour upon them, that he had not immediately delivered them out
   of their troubles and advanced them to honour and prosperity. They
   charge God with injustice and partiality, and seem resolved to throw up
   their religion, and justify themselves in doing so with this, that they
   had found no profit in praying to God, Job xxi. 14, 15; Mal. iii. 14.
   Note, Reigning hypocrisy often breaks out in daring impiety and an open
   contempt and reproach of God and religion for that which the hypocrisy
   itself must bear all the blame of. Sinners reflect upon religion as a
   hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got
   by, when really it is owing to themselves that it seems so to them,
   because they are not sincere in it.

   II. The true reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor
   answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was because they
   did not fast aright--to God, even to him, Zech. vii. 5. They fasted
   indeed, but they persisted in their sins, and did not, as the
   Ninevites, turn every one from his evil way; but in the day of their
   fast, notwithstanding the professed humiliations and covenants of that
   day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to do whatsoever seemed
   right in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet,
   licet--making their inclinations their law; though they seemed to
   afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much as ever.
   1. They were as covetous and unmerciful as ever: "You exact all your
   labours from your servants, and will neither release them according to
   the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude." This was their fault
   before the captivity, Jer. xxxiv. 8, 9. It was no less their fault
   after their captivity, notwithstanding all their solemn fasts, Neh. v.
   5. "You exact all your dues, your debts" (so some read it); "you are as
   rigorous and severe in extorting what you demand from those that are
   poor as ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast
   that the release was proclaimed." 2. They were contentious and spiteful
   (v. 4): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a
   fast to deprecate God's judgments, they pretended to search for those
   sins which provoked God to threaten them with his judgments, and under
   that pretence perhaps particular persons were falsely accused, as
   Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, 1 Kings xxi. 12. Or the contending
   parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their
   reflections one upon another, one side crying out, "It is owing to
   you," and the other, "It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not
   wrought." Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work
   of a fast-day, they condemned one another. They fasted for strife, with
   emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day
   and humour the matter best. Nor was it only tongue-quarrels that were
   fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You
   smite with the fist of wickedness. The cruel task-masters beat their
   servants, and the creditors their insolvent debtors, whom they
   delivered to the tormentors; they abused poor innocents with wicked
   hands. Now while they thus continued in sin, in those very sins which
   were directly contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God
   would not allow them the use of such solemnities: "You shall not fast
   at all if you fast as you do this day, causing your voice to be heard
   on high, in the heat of your clamours one against another, or in your
   devotions, which you perform so as to make them to be taken notice of
   for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain
   oblations," ch. i. 13. Note, Those are justly forbidden the honour of a
   profession of religion that will not submit to the power of it. (2.) He
   would not accept of them in the use of them: "You shall not fast, that
   is, it shall not be looked upon as a fast, nor shall the voice of your
   prayers on those days be heard on high in heaven." Note, Those that
   fast and pray, and yet go on in their wicked ways, do but mock God and
   deceive themselves.

   III. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious
   fast.

   1. In general, a fast is intended, (1.) For the honouring and pleasing
   of God. It must be such a performance as he has chosen (v. 5); it must
   be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must study
   to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else it is not a
   fast, else there is nothing done to any purpose. (2.) For the humbling
   and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it do
   not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real
   mortification of sin, it is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement
   was that on that day they should afflict their souls, Lev. xvi. 29.
   That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul,
   as far as it is yet unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real
   pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself.

   2. It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-day, what it is that
   will be acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and
   tending to its mortification.

   (1.) We are here told negatively what is not the fast that God has
   chosen, and which does not amount to the afflicting of the soul. [1.]
   It is not enough to look demure, to put on a grave and melancholy
   aspect, to bow down the head like a bulrush that is withered and
   broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sad countenance, and
   disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Matt.
   vi. 16. Hanging down the head did indeed well enough become the
   publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who
   therefore, in token of that, would not so much as lift up his eyes to
   heaven (Luke xviii. 13); but when it was only mimicked, as here, it was
   justly ridiculed: it is but hanging down the head like a bulrush, which
   nobody regards or takes any notice of. As the hypocrite's humiliations
   are but like the hanging down of a bulrush, so his elevations in his
   hopes are but like the flourishing of a bulrush (Job viii. 11, 12),
   which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb.
   [2.] It is not enough to do penance, to mortify the body a little,
   while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a man to
   spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed give him some
   uneasiness for the present, but will soon be forgotten when he returns
   to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amos vi. 4. Wilt thou call
   this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thou
   call this an acceptable day to the Lord? No, it is so far from being so
   that the hypocrisy of it is an abomination to him. Note, The shows of
   religion, though they show ever so fair in the eye of the world, will
   not be accepted of God without the substance of it.

   (2.) We are here told positively what is the fast that God has chosen,
   what that is which will recommend a fast-day to the divine acceptance,
   and what is indeed afflicting the soul, that is, crushing and subduing
   the corrupt nature. It is not afflicting the soul for a day (as some
   read it, v. 5) that will serve; no, it must be the business of our
   whole lives. It is here required, [1.] That we be just to those with
   whom we have dealt hardly. The fast that God has chosen consists in
   reforming our lives and undoing what we have done amiss (v. 6): To
   loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which we have wickedly tied,
   and by which others are bound out from their right or bound down under
   severe usage. Those which perhaps were at first bands of justice, tying
   men to pay a due debt, become, when the debt is exacted with rigour
   from those whom Providence has reduced and emptied, bands of
   wickedness, and they must be loosed, or they will bring us into bonds
   of guilt much more terrible. It is to undo the heavy burden laid on the
   back of the poor servant, under which he is ready to sink. It is to let
   the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter
   to him. "Let the prisoner for debt that has nothing to pay be
   discharged, let the vexatious action be quashed, let the servant that
   is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and
   thus break every yoke; not only let go those that are wrongfully kept
   under the yoke, but break the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not
   serve again another time nor any by made again to serve under it." [2.]
   That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, v. 7. The
   particulars in the former verse may be taken as acts of charity, that
   we not only release those whom we have unjustly oppressed--that is
   justice, but that we contribute to the rescue and ransom of those that
   are oppressed by others, to the release of captives and the payment of
   the debts of the poor; but those in this verse are plainly acts of
   charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. First, To provide
   food for those that want it. This is put first, as the most necessary,
   and which the poor can but a little while live without. It is to break
   thy bread to the hungry. Observe, "It must be thy bread, that which is
   honestly got (not that which thou hast robbed others of), the bread
   which thou thyself hast occasion for, the bread of thy allowance." We
   must deny ourselves, that we may have to give to him that needeth. "Thy
   bread which thou hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the
   fast-day, if that, or the value of it, be not given to the poor, it is
   the miser's fast, which he makes a hand of; it is fasting for the
   world, not for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the
   hungry, not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but to
   break bread on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put
   them off with scraps." Secondly, To provide lodging for those that want
   it: It is to take care of the poor that are cast out, that are forced
   from their dwelling, turned out of house and harbour, are cast out as
   rebels (so some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom
   therefore it is highly penal to protect. "If they suffer unjustly, make
   no difficulty of sheltering them; do not only find out quarters for
   them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, but, which is a greater act
   of kindness, bring them to thy own house, make them thy own guests. Be
   not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though thou mayest not, as
   some have done, thereby entertain angels, thou mayest entertain Christ
   himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was
   a stranger and you took me in." Thirdly, To provide clothing for those
   that want it: "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to
   shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to
   appear decently among his neighbours; give him clothes to come to
   church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy
   own flesh." Some understand it more strictly of a man's own kindred and
   relations: "If those of thy own house and family fall into decay, thou
   art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them." 1 Tim. v.
   8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human
   nature are to be looked upon as our own flesh, for have we not all one
   Father? And for this reason we must not hide ourselves from them, not
   contrive to be out of the way when a poor petitioner enquires for us,
   not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion
   presents itself; let us remember that they are flesh of our flesh and
   therefore we ought to sympathize with them, and in doing good to them
   we really do good to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for
   thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a good bond, for the
   time to come.

A Charge against the People; Encouragement to Israelites Indeed. (b. c. 706.)

   8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health
   shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before
   thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.   9 Then shalt thou
   call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here
   I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting
   forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;   10 And if thou draw out thy
   soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy
   light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:   11 And
   the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought,
   and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and
   like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.   12 And they that shall
   be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the
   foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer
   of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

   Here are precious promises for those to feast freely and cheerfully
   upon by faith who keep the fast that God has chosen; let them know that
   God will make it up to them. Here is,

   I. A further account of the duty to be done in order to our interest in
   these promises (v. 9, 10); and here, as before, it is required that we
   both do justly and love mercy, that we cease to do evil and learn to do
   well. 1. We must abstain from all acts of violence and fraud. "Those
   must be taken away from the midst of thee, from the midst of thy
   person, out of thy heart" (so some); "thou must not only refrain from
   the practice of injury, but mortify in thee all inclination and
   disposition towards it." Or from the midst of thy people. Those in
   authority must not only not be oppressive themselves, but must do all
   they can to prevent and restrain oppression in all within their
   jurisdiction. They must not only break the yoke (v. 6), but take away
   the yoke, that those who have been oppressed may never be re-enslaved
   (as they were Jer. xxxiv. 10, 11); they must likewise forbear
   threatening (Eph. vi. 9) and take away the putting forth of the finger,
   which seems to have been then, as sometimes with us, a sign of
   displeasure and the indication of a purpose to correct. Let not the
   finger be put forth to point at those that are poor and in misery, and
   so to expose them to contempt; such expressions of contumely as are
   provoking, and the products of ill-nature, ought to be banished from
   all societies. And let them not speak vanity, flattery or fraud, to one
   another, but let all conversation be governed by sincerity. Perhaps
   that dissimulation which is the bane of friendship is meant by the
   putting forth of the finger (as Prov. vi. 13 by teaching with the
   finger), or it is putting forth the finger with the ring on it, which
   was the badge of authority, and which therefore they produced when they
   spoke iniquity, that is, gave unrighteous sentences. 2. We must abound
   in all acts of charity and beneficence. We must not only give alms
   according as the necessities of the poor require, but, (1.) We must
   give freely and cheerfully, and from a principle of charity. We must
   draw out our soul to the hungry (v. 10), not only draw out the money
   and reach forth the hand, but do this from the heart, heartily, and
   without grudging, from a principle of compassion and with a tender
   affection to such as we see to be in misery. Let the heart go along
   with the gift; for God loves a cheerful giver, and so does a poor man
   too. When our Lord Jesus healed and fed the multitude it was as having
   compassion on them. (2.) We must give plentifully and largely, so as
   not to tantalize, but to satisfy, the afflicted soul: "Do not only feed
   the hungry, but gratify the desire of the afflicted, and, if it lies in
   your power, make them easy." What are we born for, and what have we our
   abilities of body, mind, and estate for, but to do all the good we can
   in this world with them? And the poor we have always with us.

   II. Here is a full account of the blessings and benefits which attend
   the performance of this duty. If a person, a family, a people, be thus
   disposed to every thing that is good, let them know for their comfort
   that they shall find God their bountiful rewarder and what they lay out
   in works of charity shall be abundantly made up to them. 1. God will
   surprise them with the return of mercy after great affliction, which
   shall be as welcome as the light of the morning after a long and dark
   night (v. 8): "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and (v.
   10) thy light shall rise in obscurity. Though thou hast been long
   buried alive thou shalt recover thy eminency; though long overwhelmed
   with grief, thou shalt again look pleasant as the dawning day." Those
   that are cheerful in doing good God will make cheerful in enjoying
   good; and this also is a special gift of God, Eccl. ii. 24. Those that
   have shown mercy shall find mercy. Job, who in his prosperity had done
   a great deal of good, had friends raised up for him by the Lord when he
   was reduced, who helped him with their substance, so that his light
   rose in obscurity. "Not only thy light, which is sweet, but thy health
   too, or the healing of the wounds thou hast long complained of, shall
   spring forth speedily; all thy grievances shall be redressed, and thou
   shalt renew thy youth and recover thy vigour." Those that have helped
   others out of trouble will obtain help of God when it is their turn. 2.
   God will put honour upon them. Good works shall be recompensed with a
   good name; this is included in that light which rises out of obscurity.
   Though a man's extraction be mean, his family obscure, and he has no
   external advantages to gain him honour, yet, if he do good in his
   place, that will procure him respect and veneration, and his darkness
   shall by this means become as the noon-day, that is, he shall become
   very eminent and shine brightly in his generation. See here what is the
   surest way for a man to make himself illustrious; let him study to do
   good. He that would be the greatest of all, and best-loved, let him by
   humility and industry make himself a servant of all. "Thy righteousness
   shall answer for thee (as Jacob says, Gen. xxx. 33), that is, it shall
   silence reproaches, nay, it shall bespeak thee more praises than thy
   humility can be pleased with." He that has given to the poor, his
   righteousness (that is, the honour of it) endures for ever, Ps. cxii.
   9. 3. They shall always be safe under the divine protection: "Thy
   righteousness shall go before thee as thy vanguard, to secure thee from
   enemies that charge thee in the front, and the glory of the Lord shall
   be thy rearward, the gathering host, to bring up those of thee that are
   weary and are left behind, and to secure thee from the enemies, that,
   like Amalek, fall upon thy rear." Observe, How good people are safe on
   all sides. Let them look which way they will, behind them or before
   them; let them look backward or forward; they see themselves safe, and
   find themselves easy and quiet from the fear of evil. And observe what
   it is that is their defence; it is their righteousness, and the glory
   of the Lord, that is, as some suppose, Christ; for it is by him that we
   are justified, and God is glorified. He it is that goes before us, and
   is the captain of our salvation, as he is the Lord our righteousness;
   he it is that is our rearward, on whom alone we can depend for safety
   when our sins pursue us and are ready to take hold on us. Or, "God
   himself in his providence and grace shall both go before thee as thy
   guide to conduct thee, and attend thee as thy rearward to protect thee,
   and this shall be the reward of thy righteousness and so shall be for
   the glory of the Lord as the rewarder of it." 4. God will be always
   nigh unto them, to hear their prayers, v. 9. As, on the one hand, he
   that shuts his ears to the cry of the poor shall himself cry and God
   will not hear him; so, on the other hand, he that is liberal to the
   poor, his prayers shall come up with his alms for a memorial before
   God, as Cornelius's did (Acts x. 4): "Then shalt thou call, on thy
   fast-days, which ought to be days of prayer, and the Lord shall answer,
   shall give thee the things thou callest to him for; thou shalt cry when
   thou art in any distress or sudden fright, and he shall say, Here I
   am." This is a very condescending expression of God's readiness to hear
   prayer. When God calls to us by his word it becomes us to say, Here we
   are; what saith our Lord unto his servants? But that God should say to
   us, Behold me, here I am, is strange. When we cry to him, as if he were
   at a distance, he will let us know that he is near, even at our right
   hand, nearer than we thought he was. It is I, be not afraid. When
   danger is near our protector is nearer, a very present help. "Here I
   am, ready to give you what you want, and do for you what you desire;
   what have you to say to me?" God is attentive to the prayers of the
   upright, Ps. cxxx. 2. No sooner do they call to him than he answers,
   Ready, ready. Wherever they are praying, God says, "Here I am hearing;
   I am in the midst of you." He is nigh unto them in all things, Deut.
   iv. 7. 6. God will direct them in all difficult and doubtful cases (v.
   11): The Lord shall guide thee continually. While we are here, in the
   wilderness of this world, we have need of continual direction from
   heaven; for, if at any time we be left to ourselves, we shall certainly
   miss our way; and therefore it is to those who are good in God's sight
   that he gives the wisdom which in all cases is profitable to direct,
   and he will be to them instead of eyes, Eccl. ii. 26. His providence
   will make their way plain to them, both what is their duty and what
   will be most for their comfort. 6. God will give them abundance of
   satisfaction in their own minds. As the world is a wilderness in
   respect of wanderings, so that they need to be guided continually, so
   also is it in respect of wants, which makes it necessary that they
   should have continual supplies, as Israel in the wilderness had not
   only the pillar of cloud to guide them continually, but manna and water
   out of the rock to satisfy their souls in drought, in a dry and thirsty
   land where no water is, Ps. lxiii. 1. To a good man God gives not only
   wisdom and knowledge, but joy; he is satisfied in himself with the
   testimony of his conscience and the assurances of God's favour. "These
   will satisfy thy soul, will put gladness into thy heart, even in the
   drought of affliction; these will make fat thy bones, and fill them
   with marrow, will give thee that pleasure which will be a support to
   thee as the bones to the body, that joy of the Lord which will be thy
   strength. He shall give thy bones rest" (so some read it), "rest from
   the pain and sickness which they have laboured under and been chastened
   with;" so it agrees with that promise made to the merciful. The Lord
   will make all his bed in his sickness, Ps. xli. 3. "Thou shalt be like
   a watered garden, so flourishing and fruitful in graces and comforts,
   and like a spring of water, like a garden that has a spring of water in
   it, whose waters fail not either in droughts or in frosts." The
   principle of holy love in those that are good shall be a well of living
   water, John iv. 14. As a spring of water, though it is continually
   sending forth its streams, is yet always full, so the charitable man
   abounds in good as he abounds in doing good and is never the poorer for
   his liberality. He that waters shall himself be watered. 7. They and
   their families shall be public blessings. It is a good reward to those
   that are fruitful and useful to be rendered more so, and especially to
   have those who descend from them to be so too. This is here promised
   (v. 12): "Those that now are of thee, thy princes, and nobles, and
   great men, shall have such authority and influence as they never had;"
   or, "Those that hereafter shall be of thee, thy posterity, shall be
   serviceable to their generation, as thou art to thine." It completes
   the satisfaction of a good man, as to this world, to think that those
   that come after him shall be doing good when he is gone. 1. They shall
   re-edify cities that have been long in ruins, shall build the old waste
   places, which had lain so long desolate that the rebuilding of them was
   quite despaired of. This was fulfilled when the captives, after their
   return, repaired the cities of Judah, and dwelt in them, and many of
   those in Israel too, which had lain waste ever since the carrying away
   of the ten tribes. 2. They shall carry on and finish that good work
   which was begun long before, and shall be helped over the obstructions
   which had retarded the progress of it: They shall raise up to the top
   that building the foundation of which was laid long since and has been
   for many generations in the rearing. This was fulfilled when the
   building of the temple was revived after it had stood still for many
   years, Ezra v. 2. Or, "They shall raise up foundations which shall
   continue for many generations yet to come;" they shall do that good
   which shall be of lasting consequence. 3. They shall have the blessing
   and praise of all about them: "Thou shalt be called (and it shall be to
   thy honour) the repairer of the breach, the breach made by the enemy in
   the wall of a besieged city, which whoso has the courage and dexterity
   to make up, or make good, gains great applause." Happy are those who
   make up the breach at which virtue is running out and judgments are
   breaking in. "Thou shalt be the restorer of paths, safe and quiet
   paths, not only to travel in, but to dwell in, so safe and quiet that
   people shall make no difficulty of building their houses by the
   road-side." The sum is that, if they keep such fasts as God has chosen,
   he will settle them again in their former peace and prosperity, and
   there shall be none to make them afraid. See Zech. vii. 5, 9; viii.
   3-5. It teaches us that those who do justly and love mercy shall have
   the comfort thereof in this world.

The Sanctification of the Sabbath. (b. c. 706.)

   13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure
   on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
   honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding
   thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:   14 Then shalt thou
   delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the
   high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy
   father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

   Great stress was always laid upon the due observance of the sabbath
   day, and it was particularly required from the Jews when they were
   captives in Babylon, because by keeping that day, in honour of the
   Creator, they distinguished themselves from the worshippers of the gods
   that have not made the heavens and the earth. See ch. lvi. 1, 2, where
   keeping the sabbath is joined, as here, with keeping judgment and doing
   justice. Some, indeed, understand this of the day of atonement, which
   they think is the fast spoken of in the former part of the chapter, and
   which is called a sabbath of rest, Lev. xxiii. 32. But, as the fasts
   before spoken of seem to be those that were occasional, so this sabbath
   is doubtless the weekly sabbath, that great sign between God and his
   professing people--his appointing it a sign of his favour to them and
   their observing it a sign of their obedience to him. Now observe here,

   I. How the sabbath is to be sanctified (v. 13); and, there remaining
   still a sabbatism for the people of God, this law of the sabbath is
   still binding to us on our Lord's day.

   1. Nothing must be done that puts contempt upon the sabbath day, or
   looks like having mean thoughts of it, when God has so highly dignified
   it. We must turn away our foot from the sabbath, from trampling upon
   it, as profane atheistical people do, from travelling on that day (so
   some); we must turn away our foot from doing our pleasure on that holy
   day, that is, from living at large, and taking a liberty to do what we
   please on sabbath days, without the control and restraint of
   conscience, or from indulging ourselves in the pleasures of sense, in
   which the modern Jews wickedly place the sanctification of the sabbath,
   though it is as great a profanation of it as any thing. On sabbath days
   we must not walk in our own ways (that is, not follow our callings),
   not find our own pleasure (that is, not follow our sports and
   recreations); nay, we must not speak our own words, words that concern
   either our callings or our pleasures; we must not allow ourselves a
   liberty of speech on that day as on other days, for we must then mind
   God's ways, make religion the business of the day; we must choose the
   things that please him; and speak his words, speak of divine things as
   we sit in the house and walk by the way. In all we say and do we must
   put a difference between this day and other days.

   2. Every thing must be done that puts an honour on the day and is
   expressive of our high thoughts of it. We must call it a delight, not a
   task and a burden; we must delight ourselves in it, in the restraints
   it lays upon us and the services it obliges us to. We must be in our
   element when we are worshipping God, and in communion with him. How
   amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! We must not only count it
   a delight, but call it so, must openly profess the complacency we take
   in the day and the duties of it. We must call it so to God, in
   thanksgiving for it and earnest desire of his grace to enable us to do
   the work of the day in its day, because we delight in it. We must call
   it so to others, to invite them to come and share in the pleasure of
   it; and we must call it so to ourselves, that we may not entertain the
   least thought of wishing the sabbath gone that we may sell corn. We
   must call it the Lord's holy day, and honourable. We must call it holy,
   separated from common use and devoted to God and to his service, must
   call it the holy of the Lord, the day which he has sanctified to
   himself. Even in Old-Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord's
   day, and therefore it is fitly called so still, and for a further
   reason, because it is the Lord Christ's day, Rev. i. 10. It is holy
   because it is the Lord's day, and upon both accounts it is honourable.
   It is a beauty of holiness that is upon it; it is ancient, and its
   antiquity is its honour; and we must make it appear that we look upon
   it as honourable by honouring God on that day. We put honour upon the
   day when we give honour to him that instituted it, and to whose honour
   it is dedicated.

   II. What the reward is of the sabbath--sanctification, v. 14. If we
   thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy,

   1. We shall have the comfort of it; the work will be its own wages. If
   we call the sabbath a delight, then shall we delight ourselves in the
   Lord; he will more and more manifest himself to us as the delightful
   subject of our thoughts and meditations and the delightful object of
   our best affections. Note, The more pleasure we take in serving God the
   more pleasure we shall find in it. If we go about duty with
   cheerfulness, we shall go from it with satisfaction and shall have
   reason to say, "It is good to be here, good to draw near to God."

   2. We shall have the honour of it: I will cause thee to ride upon the
   high places of the earth, which denotes not only a great security (as
   that, ch. xxxii. 16, He shall dwell on high), but great dignity and
   advancement. "Thou shalt ride in state, shalt appear conspicuous, and
   the eyes of all thy neighbours shall be upon thee." It was said of
   Israel, when God led them triumphantly out of Egypt, that he made them
   to ride on the high places of the earth, Deut. xxxii. 12, 13. Those
   that honour God and his sabbath he will thus honour. If God by his
   grace enable us to live above the world, and so to manage it as not
   only not to be hindered by it, but to be furthered and carried on by it
   in our journey towards heaven, then he makes us to ride on the high
   places of the earth.

   3. We shall have the profit of it: I will feed thee with the heritage
   of Jacob thy father, that is, with all the blessings of the covenant
   and all the precious products of Canaan (which was a type of heaven),
   for these were the heritage of Jacob. Observe, The heritage of
   believers is what they shall not only be portioned with hereafter, but
   fed with now, fed with the hopes of it, and not flattered, fed with the
   earnests and foretastes of it; and those that are so fed have reason to
   say that they are well fed. In order that we may depend upon it, it is
   added, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken it; you may take God's word
   for it, for he cannot lie nor deceive; what his mouth has spoken his
   hand will give, his hand will do, and not one iota or tittle of his
   good promise shall fall to the ground." Blessed, therefore, thrice
   blessed, is he that doeth this, and lays hold on it, that keeps the
   sabbath from polluting it.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LIX.

   In this chapter we have sin appearing exceedingly sinful, and grace
   appearing exceedingly gracious; and, as what is here said of the
   sinner's sin (ver. 7, 8) is applied to the general corruption of
   mankind (Rom. iii. 15), so what is here said of a Redeemer (ver. 20) is
   applied to Christ, Rom. xi. 26. I. It is here charged upon this people
   that they had themselves stopped the current of God's favours to them,
   and the particular sins are specified which kept good things from them,
   ver. 1-8. II. It is here charged upon them that they had themselves
   procured the judgments of God upon them, and they are told both what
   the judgments were which they had brought upon their own heads (ver.
   9-11) and what the sins were which provoked God to send those
   judgments, ver. 12-15. III. It is here promised that, notwithstanding
   this, God would work deliverance for them, purely for his own name's
   sake (ver. 16-19), and would reserve mercy in store for them and entail
   it upon them, ver. 20, 21.

The Prevalence and Effects of Sin. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
   neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:   2 But your iniquities
   have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
   face from you, that he will not hear.   3 For your hands are defiled
   with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies,
   your tongue hath muttered perverseness.   4 None calleth for justice,
   nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they
   conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.   5 They hatch cockatrice'
   eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth,
   and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.   6 Their webs
   shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with
   their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence
   is in their hands.   7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to
   shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting
   and destruction are in their paths.   8 The way of peace they know not;
   and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked
   paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

   The prophet here rectifies the mistake of those who had been
   quarrelling with God because they had not the deliverances wrought for
   them which they had been often fasting and praying for, ch. lviii. 3.
   Now here he shows,

   I. That it was not owing to God. They had no reason to lay the fault
   upon him that they were not saved out of the hands of their enemies;
   for, 1. He was still as able to help as ever: His hand is not
   shortened, his power is not at all lessened, straitened, or abridged.
   Whether we consider the extent of his power or the efficacy of it, God
   can reach as far as ever and with as strong a hand as ever. Note, The
   church's salvation comes from the hand of God, and that has not waxed
   weak nor is it at all shortened. Has the Lord's hand waxed short? (says
   God to Moses, Num. xi. 23). No, it has not; he will not have it thought
   so. Neither length of time nor strength of enemies, no, nor weakness of
   instruments, can shorten or straiten the power of God, with which it is
   all one to save by many or by few. 2. He was still as ready and willing
   to help as ever in answer to prayer: His ear is not heavy, that it
   cannot hear. Though he has many prayers to hear and answer, and though
   he has been long hearing prayer, yet he is still as ready to hear
   prayer as ever. The prayer of the upright is as much his delight as
   ever it was, and the promises which are pleaded and put in suit in
   prayer are still yea and amen, inviolably sure. More is implied than is
   expressed; not only his ear is not heavy, but he is quick of hearing.
   Even before they call he answers, ch. lxv. 24. If your prayers be not
   answered, and the salvation we wait for be not wrought for us, it is
   not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but because we are weary of
   praying, not because his ear is heavy when we speak to him, but because
   our ears are heavy when he speaks to us.

   II. That it was owing to themselves; they stood in their own light and
   put a bar in their own door. God was coming towards them in ways of
   mercy and they hindered him. Your iniquities have kept good things from
   you, Jer. v. 25.

   1. See what mischief sin does. (1.) It hinders God's mercies from
   coming down upon us; it is a partition wall that separates between us
   and God. Notwithstanding the infinite distance that is between God and
   man by nature, there was a correspondence settled between them, till
   sin set them at variance, justly provoked God against man and unjustly
   alienated man from God; thus it separates between them and God. "He is
   your God, yours in profession, and therefore there is so much the more
   malignity and mischievousness in sin, which separates between you and
   him." Sin hides his face from us (which denotes great displeasure,
   Deut. xxxi. 17); it provokes him in anger to withdraw his gracious
   presence, to suspend the tokens of his favour and the instances of his
   help; he hides his face, as refusing to be seen or spoken with. See
   here sin in its colours, sin exceedingly sinful, withdrawing the
   creature from his allegiance to his Creator; and see sin in its
   consequences, sin exceedingly hurtful, separating us from God, and so
   separating us not only from all good, but to all evil (Deut. xxix. 21),
   which is the very quintessence of the curse. (2.) It hinders our
   prayers from coming up unto God; it provokes him to hide his face, that
   he will not hear, as he has said, ch. i. 15. If we regard iniquity in
   our heart, if we indulge it and allow ourselves in it, God will not
   hear our prayers, Ps. lxvi. 18. We cannot expect that he should
   countenance us while we go on to affront him.

   2. Now, to justify God in hiding his face from them, and proceeding in
   his controversy with them, the prophet shows very largely, in the
   following verses, how many and great their iniquities were, according
   to the charge given him (ch. lviii. 1), to show God's people their
   transgressions; and it is a black bill of indictment that is here drawn
   up against them, consisting of many particulars, any one of which was
   enough to separate between them and a just and a holy God. Let us
   endeavour to reduce these articles of impeachment to proper heads.

   (1.) We must begin with their thoughts, for there all sin begins, and
   thence it takes its rise: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, v.
   7. Their imaginations are so, only evil continually. Their projects and
   designs are so; they are continually contriving some mischief or other,
   and how to compass the gratification of some base lust (v. 4): They
   conceive mischief in their fancy, purpose, counsel, and resolution
   (thus the embryo receives its shape and life), and then they bring
   forth iniquity, put it in execution when it is ripened for it. Though
   it is in pain perhaps that the iniquity is brought forth, through the
   oppositions of Providences and the checks of their own consciences,
   yet, when they have compassed their wicked purpose, they look upon it
   with as much pride and pleasure as if it were a man-child born into the
   world; thus, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, Jam. i.
   15. This is called (v. 5) hatching the cockatrice' egg and weaving the
   spider's web. See how the thoughts and contrivances of wicked men are
   employed, and about what they set their wits on work. [1.] At the best
   it is about that which is foolish and frivolous. Their thoughts are
   vain, like weaving the spider's web, which the poor silly animal takes
   a great deal of pains about, and, when all is done, it is a weak
   insignificant thing, a reproach to the place where it is, and which the
   besom sweeps away in an instant: such are the thoughts which worldly
   men entertain themselves with, building castles in the air, and
   pleasing themselves with imaginary satisfaction, like the spider, which
   takes hold with her hands very finely (Prov. xxx. 28), but cannot keep
   her hold. [2.] Too often it is about that which is malicious and
   spiteful. They hatch the eggs of the cockatrice or adder, which are
   poisonous and produce venomous creatures; such are the thoughts of the
   wicked who delight in doing mischief. He that eats of their eggs (that
   is, he is in danger of having some mischief or other done him), and
   that which is crushed in order to be eaten of, or which begins to be
   hatched and you promise yourself some useful fowl from it, breaks out
   into a viper, which you meddle with at your peril. Happy are those that
   have least to do with such men. Even the spider's web which they wove
   was woven with a spiteful design to catch flies in and make a prey of
   them; for, rather than not be doing mischief, they will play at small
   game.

   (2.) Out of this abundance of wickedness in the heart their mouth
   speaks, and yet it does not always speak out the wickedness that is
   within, but, for the more effectually compassing the mischievous
   design, it is dissembled and covered with much fair speech (v. 3): Your
   lips have spoken lies; and again (v. 4), They speak lies, pretending
   kindness where they intend the greatest mischief; or by slanders and
   false accusations they blasted the credit and reputation of those they
   had a spite to and so did them a real mischief unseen, and perhaps by
   suborning witnesses against them took from them their estates and
   lives; for a false tongue is sharp arrows, and coals of juniper, and
   every thing that is mischievous. Your tongue has muttered perverseness.
   When they could not, for shame, speak their malice against their
   neighbours aloud, or durst not, for fear of being disproved and put to
   confusion, they muttered it secretly. Backbiters are called whisperers.

   (3.) Their actions were all of a piece with their thoughts and words.
   They were guilty of shedding innocent blood, a crime of the most
   heinous nature: Your hands are defiled with blood (v. 3); for blood is
   defiling; it leaves an indelible stain of guilt upon the conscience,
   which nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it from. Now was this
   a case of surprise, or one that occurred when there was something of a
   force put upon them; but (v. 7) their feet ran to this evil, naturally
   and eagerly, and, hurried on by the impetus of their malice and
   revenge, they made haste to shed innocent blood, as if they were afraid
   of losing an opportunity to do a barbarous thing, Prov. i. 16; Jer.
   xxii. 17. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. Wherever they go
   they carry mischief along with them, and the tendency of their way is
   to lay waste and destroy, nor do they care what havoc they make. Nor do
   they only thirst after blood, but with other iniquities are their
   fingers defiled (v. 3); they wrong people in their estates and make
   every thing their own that they can lay their hands on. They trust in
   vanity (v. 4); they depend upon their arts of cozenage to enrich
   themselves with, which will prove vanity to them, and their deceiving
   others will but deceive themselves. Their works, which they take so
   much pains about and have their hearts so much upon, are all works of
   iniquity; their whole business is one continued course of oppressions
   and vexations, and the act of violence is in their hands, according to
   the arts of violence that are in their heads and the thoughts of
   violence in their hearts.

   (4.) No methods are taken to redress these grievances, and reform these
   abuses (v. 4): None calls for justice, none complains of the violation
   of the sacred laws of justice, nor seeks to right those that suffer
   wrong or to get the laws put in execution against vice and profaneness,
   and those lewd practices which are the shame, and threaten to be the
   bane, of the nation. Note, When justice is not done there is blame to
   be laid not only upon the magistrates that should administer justice,
   but upon the people that should call for it. Private persons ought to
   contribute to the public good by discovering secret wickedness, and
   giving those an opportunity to punish it that have the power of doing
   so in their hands; but it is ill with a state when princes rule ill and
   the people love to have it so. Truth is opposed, and there is not any
   that pleads for it, not any that has the conscience and courage to
   appear in defence of an honest cause, and confront a prosperous fraud
   and wrong. The way of peace is as little regarded as the way of truth;
   they know it not, that is, they never study the things that make for
   peace, no care is taken to prevent or punish the breaches of the peace
   and to accommodate matters in difference among neighbours; they are
   utter strangers to every thing that looks quiet and peaceable, and
   affect that which is blustering and turbulent. There is no judgment in
   their goings; they have not any sense of justice in their dealings; it
   is a thing they make no account of at all, but can easily break through
   all its fences if they stand in the way of their malicious covetous
   designs.

   (5.) In all this they act foolishly, very foolishly, and as much
   against their interest as against reason and equity. Those that
   practise iniquity trust in vanity, which will certainly deceive them,
   v. 4. Their webs, which they weave with so much art and industry, shall
   not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves, either for
   shelter or for ornament, with their works, v. 6. They may do hurt to
   others with their projects, but can never do any real service or
   kindness to themselves by them. There is nothing to be got by sin, and
   so it will appear when profit and loss come to be compared. Those paths
   of iniquity are crooked paths (v. 8), which will perplex them, but will
   never bring them to their journey's end; whoever go therein, though
   they say that they shall have peace notwithstanding they go on, deceive
   themselves; for they shall not know peace, as appears by the following
   verses.

The Prevalence and Effects of Sin. (b. c. 706.)

   9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us:
   we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in
   darkness.   10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if
   we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in
   desolate places as dead men.   11 We roar all like bears, and mourn
   sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for
   salvation, but it is far off from us.   12 For our transgressions are
   multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our
   transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
   13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from
   our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from
   the heart words of falsehood.   14 And judgment is turned away
   backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the
   street, and equity cannot enter.   15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that
   departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it
   displeased him that there was no judgment.

   The scope of this paragraph is the same with that of the last, to show
   that sin is the great mischief-maker; as it is that which keeps good
   things from us, so it is that which brings evil things upon us. But as
   there it is spoken by the prophet, in God's name, to the people, for
   their conviction and humiliation, and that God might be justified when
   he speaks and clear when he judges, so here it seems to be spoken by
   the people to God, as an acknowledgment of that which was there told
   them and an expression of their humble submission and subscription to
   the justice and equity of God's proceedings against them. Their
   uncircumcised hearts here seem to be humbled in some measure, and they
   are brought to confess (the confession is at least extorted from them),
   that God had justly walked contrary to them, because they had walked
   contrary to him.

   I. They acknowledge that God had contended with them and had walked
   contrary to them. Their case was very deplorable, v. 9-11. 1. They were
   in distress, trampled upon and oppressed by their enemies, unjustly
   dealt with, and ruled with rigour; and God did not appear for them, to
   plead their just and injured cause: "Judgment is far from us, neither
   does justice overtake us, v. 9. Though, as to our persecutors, we are
   sure that we have right on our side; and they are the wrong-doers, yet
   we are not relieved, we are not righted. We have not done justice to
   one another, and therefore God suffers our enemies to deal thus
   unjustly with us, and we are as far as ever from being restored to our
   right and recovering our property again. Oppression is near us, and
   judgment is far from us. Our enemies are far from giving our case its
   due consideration, but still hurry us on with the violence of their
   oppressions, and justice does not overtake us, to rescue us out of
   their hands." 2. Herein their expectations were sadly disappointed,
   which made their case the more sad: "We wait for light as those that
   wait for the morning, but behold obscurity; we cannot discern the least
   dawning of the day of our deliverance. We look for judgment, but there
   is none (v. 11); neither God nor man appears for our succour; we look
   for salvation, because God (we think) has promised it, and we have
   prayed for it with fasting; we look for it as for brightness, but it is
   far off from us, as far off as ever for aught we can perceive, and
   still we walk in darkness; and the higher our expectations have been
   raised the sorer is the disappointment." 3. They were quite at a loss
   what to do to help themselves and were at their wits' end (v. 10): "We
   grope for the wall like the blind; we see no way open for our relief,
   nor know which way to expect it, or what to do in order to it." If we
   shut our eyes against the light of divine truth, it is just with God to
   hide from our eyes the things that belong to our peace; and, if we use
   not our eyes as we should, it is just with him to let us be as if we
   had no eyes. Those that will not see their duty shall not see their
   interest. Those whom God has given up to a judicial blindness are
   strangely infatuated; they stumble at noon-day as in the night; they
   see not either those dangers, or those advantages, which all about them
   see. Quos Deus vult perdere, eos dementat--God infatuates those whom he
   means to destroy. Those that love darkness rather than light shall have
   their doom accordingly. 4. They sunk into despair and were quite
   overwhelmed with grief, the marks of which appeared in every man's
   countenance; they grew melancholy upon it, shunned conversation, and
   affected solitude: We are in desolate places as dead men. The state of
   the Jews in Babylon is represented by dead and dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii.
   12) and the explanation of the comparison there (v. 11) explains this
   text: Our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. In this despair
   the sorrow and anguish of some were loud and noisy: We roar like bears;
   the sorrow of others was silent, and preyed more upon their spirits:
   "We mourn sore like doves, like doves of the valleys; we mourn both for
   our iniquities (Ezek. vii. 16) and for our calamities." Thus they owned
   that the hand of the Lord had gone out against them.

   II. They acknowledge that they had provoked God thus to contend with
   them, that he had done right, for they had done wickedly, v. 12-15. 1.
   They owned that they had sinned, and that to this day they were in a
   great trespass, as Ezra speaks (Ezra x. 10): "Our transgressions are
   with us; the guilt of them is upon us, the power of them prevails among
   us, we are not yet reformed, nor have we parted with our sins, though
   they have done so much mischief. Nay, our transgressions are
   multiplied; they are more numerous and more heinous than they have been
   formerly. Look which way we will, we cannot look off them; all places,
   all orders and degrees of men, are infected. The sense of our
   transgression is with us, as David said, My sin is ever before me; it
   is too plain to be denied or concealed, too bad to be excused or
   palliated. God is a witness to them: They are multiplied before thee,
   in thy sight, under thy eye. We are witnesses against ourselves: As for
   our iniquities, we know them, though we may have foolishly endeavoured
   to cover them. Nay, they themselves are witnesses: Our sins stare us in
   the face and testify against us, so many have they been and so deeply
   aggravated." 2. They owned the great evil and malignity of sin, of
   their sin; it is transgressing and lying against the Lord, v. 13. The
   sins of those that profess themselves God's people, and bear his name,
   are upon this account worse than the sins of others, that in
   transgressing they lie against the Lord, they falsely accuse him, they
   misrepresent and belie him, as if he had dealt hardly and unfairly with
   them; or they perfidiously break covenant with him and falsify their
   most sacred and solemn engagements to him, which is lying against him:
   it is departing away from our God, to whom we are bound as our God and
   to whom we ought to cleave with purpose of heart; from him we have
   departed, as the rebellious subject from his allegiance to his rightful
   prince, and the adulterous wife from the guide of her youth and the
   covenant of her God. 3. They owned that there was a general decay of
   moral honesty; and it is not strange that those who were false to their
   God were unfaithful to one another. They spoke oppression, declared
   openly for that, though it was a revolt from their God and a revolt
   from the truth, by the sacred bonds of which we should always be tied
   and held fast. They conceived and uttered words of falsehood. Many ill
   thing is conceived in the mind, yet is prudently stifled there, and not
   suffered to go any further; but these sinners were so impudent, so
   daring, that whatever wickedness they conceived, they gave it an
   imprimatur--a sanction, and made no difficulty of publishing it. To
   think an ill thing is bad, but to say it is much worse. Many a word of
   falsehood is uttered in haste, for want of consideration; but these
   were conceived and uttered, were uttered--deliberately and of malice
   prepense. They were words of falsehood, and yet they are said to be
   uttered from the heart, because, though they differed from the real
   sentiments of the heart and therefore were words of falsehood, yet they
   agreed with the malice and wickedness of the heart, and were the
   natural language of that; it was a double heart, Ps. xii. 2. Those who
   by the grace of God kept themselves free from these enormous crimes yet
   put themselves into the confession of sin, because members of that
   nation which was generally thus corrupted. 4. They owned that that was
   not done which might have been done to reform the land and to amend
   what was amiss, v. 14. "Judgment, that should go forward, and bear down
   the opposition that is made to it, that should run in its course like a
   river, like a mighty stream, is turned away backward, a contrary
   course. The administration of justice has become but a cover to the
   greatest injustice. Judgment, that should check the proceedings of
   fraud and violence, is driven back, and so they go on triumphantly.
   Justice stands afar off, even from our courts of judicature, which are
   so crowded with the patrons of oppression that equity cannot enter,
   cannot have admission into the court, cannot be heard, or at least will
   not be heeded. Equity enters not into the unrighteous decrees which
   they decree, ch. x. 1. Truth is fallen in the street, and there she may
   lie to be trampled upon by every foot of pride, and she has never a
   friend that will lend a hand to help her up; yea, truth fails in common
   conversation, and in dealings between man and man, so that one knows
   not whom to believe nor whom to trust." 5. They owned that there was a
   prevailing enmity in men's minds to those that were good: He that does
   evil goes unpunished, but he that departs from evil makes himself a
   prey to those beasts of prey that were before described. It is crime
   enough with them for a man not to do as they do, and they treat him as
   an enemy who will not partake with them in their wickedness. He that
   departs from evil is accounted mad; so the margin reads. Sober
   singularity is branded as folly, and he is thought next door to a
   madman who swims against the stream that runs so strongly. 6. They
   owned that all this could not but be very displeasing to the God of
   heaven. The evil was done in his sight. They knew very well, though
   they were not willing to acknowledge it, that the Lord saw it; though
   it was done secretly, and gilded over with specious pretences, yet it
   could not be concealed from his all-seeing eye. All the wickedness that
   is in the world is naked and open before the eyes of God; and, as he is
   of quicker eyes than not to see iniquity, so he is of purer eyes than
   to behold it with the least approbation or allowance. He saw it, and it
   displeased him, though it was among his own professing people that he
   saw it. It was evil in his eyes; he saw the sinfulness of all this sin,
   and that which was most offensive to him was that there was no
   judgment, no reformation; had he seen any signs of repentance, though
   the sin displeased him, he would soon have been reconciled to the
   sinners upon their returning from their evil way. Then the sin of a
   nation becomes national, and brings public judgments, when it is not
   restrained by public justice.

The Kind Interposition of God; Evangelical Promises. (b. c. 706.)

   16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
   intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his
   righteousness, it sustained him.   17 For he put on righteousness as a
   breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the
   garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
     18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his
   adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay
   recompence.   19 So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west,
   and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in
   like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against
   him.   20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn
   from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.   21 As for me, this is my
   covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my
   words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth,
   nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's
   seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

   How sin abounded we have read, to our great amazement, in the former
   part of the chapter; how grace does much more abound we read in these
   verses. And, as sin took occasion from the commandment to become more
   exceedingly sinful, so grace took occasion from the transgression of
   the commandment to appear more exceedingly gracious. Observe,

   I. Why God wrought salvation for this provoking people, notwithstanding
   their provocations. It was purely for his own name's sake; because
   there was nothing in them either to bring it about, or to induce him to
   bring it about for them, no merit to deserve it, no might to effect it,
   he would do it himself, would be exalted in his own strength, for his
   own glory.

   1. He took notice of their weakness and wickedness: He saw that there
   was no man that would do any thing for the support of the bleeding
   cause of religion and virtue among them, not a man that would execute
   judgment (Jer. v. 1), that would bestir himself in a work of
   reformation; those that complained of the badness of the times had not
   zeal and courage enough to appear and act against it; there was a
   universal corruption of manners, and nothing done to stem the tide;
   most were wicked, and those that were not so were yet weak, and durst
   not attempt any thing in opposition to the wickedness of the wicked.
   There was no intercessor, either none to intercede with God, to stand
   in the gap by prayer to turn away his wrath (it would have pleased him
   to be thus met, and he wondered that he was not), or, rather, none to
   interpose for the support of justice and truth, which were trampled
   upon and run down (v. 14), no advocate to speak a good word for those
   who were made a prey of because they kept their integrity, v. 15. They
   complained that God did not appear for them (ch. lviii. 3); but God
   with much more reason complains that they did nothing for themselves,
   intimating how ready he would have been to do them good if he had found
   among them the least motion towards a reformation.

   2. He engaged his own strength and righteousness for them. They shall
   be saved, notwithstanding all this; and, (1.) Because they have no
   strength of their own, nor any active men that will set to it in good
   earnest to redress the grievances either of their iniquities or of
   their calamities, therefore his own arm shall bring salvation to him,
   to his people, or to him whom he would raise up to be the deliverer,
   Christ, the power of God and arm of the Lord, that man of his right
   hand whom he made strong for himself. The work of reformation (that is
   the first and principal article of the salvation) shall be wrought by
   the immediate influences of the divine grace on men's consciences.
   Since magistrates and societies for reformation fail of doing their
   part, one will not do justice nor the other call for it, God will let
   them know that he can do it without them when his time shall come thus
   to prepare his people for mercy, and then the work of deliverance shall
   be wrought by the immediate operations of the divine Providence on
   men's affections and affairs. When God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
   and brought his people out of Babylon, not by might, nor by power, but
   by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, then his own arm, which is never
   shortened, brought salvation. (2.) Because they have no righteousness
   of their own to merit these favours, and to which God might have an eye
   in working for them, therefore his own righteousness sustained him and
   bore him out in it. Divine justice, which by their sins they had armed
   against them, through grace appears for them. Though they can expect no
   favour as due to them, yet he will be just to himself, to his own
   purpose and promise, and covenant with his people: he will, in
   righteousness, punish the enemies of his people; see Deut. ix. 5. Not
   for thy righteousness, but for the wickedness of these nations they are
   driven out. In our redemption by Christ, since we had no righteousness
   of our own to produce, on which God might proceed in favour to us, he
   brought in a righteousness by the merit and mediation of his own Son
   (it is called the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. iii.
   9), and this righteousness sustained him, and bore him out in all his
   favours to us, notwithstanding our provocations. He put on
   righteousness as a breast-plate, securing his own honour, as a
   breast-plate does the vitals, in all his proceedings, by the justice
   and equity of them; and then he put a helmet of salvation upon his
   head; so sure is he to effect the salvation he intends that he takes
   salvation itself for his helmet, which therefore must needs be
   impenetrable, and in which he appears very illustrious, formidable in
   the eyes of his enemies and amiable in the eyes of his friends. When
   righteousness is his coat of arms, salvation is his crest. In allusion
   to this, among the pieces of a Christian's armour we find the
   breast-plate of righteousness, and for a helmet the hope of salvation
   (Eph. vi. 14-17; 1 Thess. v. 8), and it is called the armour of God,
   because he wore it first and so fitted it for us. (3.) Because they
   have no spirit or zeal to do any thing for themselves, God will put on
   the garments of vengeance for clothing, and clothe himself with zeal as
   a cloak; he will make his justice upon the enemies of his church and
   people, and his jealousy for his own glory and the honour of religion
   and virtue among men, to appear evident and conspicuous in the eye of
   the world; and in these he will show himself great, as a man shows
   himself in his rich attire or in the distinguishing habit of his
   office. If men be not zealous against sin, God will, and will take
   vengeance on it for all the injury it has done to his honour and his
   people's welfare; and this was the business of Christ in the world, to
   take away sin and be revenged on it.

   II. What the salvation is that shall be wrought out by the
   righteousness and strength of God himself.

   1. There shall be a present temporal salvation wrought out for the Jews
   in Babylon, or elsewhere in distress and captivity. This is promised
   (v. 18, 19) as a type of something further. When God's time shall come
   he will do his own work, though those fail that should forward it. It
   is here promised, (1.) That God will reckon with his enemies and will
   render to them according to their deeds, to the enemies of his people
   abroad, that have oppressed them, to the enemies of justice and truth
   at home, that have oppressed them, for they also are God's enemies;
   and, when the day of vengeance shall have come, he will deal with both
   as they have deserved, according to retribution (so the word is), the
   law of retributions (Rev. xiii. 10), or according to former
   retributions; as he has rendered to his enemies formerly, accordingly
   he will now repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies;
   his fury shall not exceed the rules of justice, as men's fury commonly
   does. Even to the islands, that lie most remote, if they have appeared
   against him, he will repay recompence; for his hand shall find out all
   his enemies (Ps. xxi. 8), and his arrows reach them. Though God's
   people have behaved so ill that they do not deserve to be delivered,
   yet his enemies behave so much worse that they do deserve to be
   destroyed. (2.) That, whatever attempts the enemies of God's people may
   afterwards make upon them to disturb their peace, they shall be baffled
   and brought to nought: When the enemy shall come in like a flood, like
   a high spring-tide, or a land-flood, which threaten to bear down all
   before them without control, then the Spirit of the Lord by some secret
   undiscerned power shall lift up a standard against him, and so (as the
   margin reads it) put him to flight. He that has delivered will still
   deliver. When God's people are weak and helpless, and have no standard
   to lift up against the invading power, God will give a banner to those
   that fear him (Ps. lx. 4), will by his Spirit lift up a standard, which
   will draw multitudes together to appear on the church's behalf. Some
   read it, He shall come (the name of the Lord, and his glory, before
   foreseen of the Messiah promised) like a straight river, the Spirit of
   the Lord lifting him up for an ensign. Christ by the preaching of his
   gospel shall cover the earth with the knowledge of God as with the
   waters of a flood, the Spirit of the Lord setting up Christ as a
   standard to the Gentiles, ch. xi. 10. (3.) That all this should redound
   to the glory of God and the advancement of religion in the world (v.
   19): So shall they fear the name of the Lord and his glory in all
   nations that lie eastward or westward. The deliverance of the Jews out
   of captivity, and the destruction brought on their oppressors, would
   awaken multitudes to enquire concerning the God of Israel, and induce
   them to serve and worship him and enlist themselves under the standard
   which the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up. God's appearances for his
   church shall occasion the accession of many to it. This had its full
   accomplishment in gospel times, when many came from the east and west,
   to fill up the places of the children of the kingdom that were cast
   out, when there were set up eastern and western churches, Matt. viii.
   11.

   2. There shall be a more glorious salvation wrought out by the Messiah
   in the fulness of time, which salvation all the prophets, upon all
   occasions, had in view. We have here the two great promises relating to
   that salvation:--

   (1.) That the Son of God shall come to us to be our Redeemer (v. 20):
   Thy Redeemer shall come; it is applied to Christ, Rom. ix. 26. There
   shall come the deliverer. The coming of Christ as the Redeemer is the
   summary of all the promises both of the Old and New Testament, and this
   was the redemption in Jerusalem which the believing Jews looked for,
   Luke ii. 38. Christ is our Goël, our next kinsman, that redeems both
   the person and the estate of the poor debtor. Observe, [1.] The place
   where this Redeemer shall appear: He shall come to Zion, for there, on
   that holy hill, the Lord would set him up as his King, Ps. ii. 6. In
   Zion the chief corner-stone was to be laid, 1 Pet. ii. 6. He came to
   his temple there, Mal. iii. 1. There salvation was to be placed (ch.
   xlvi. 13), for thence the law was to go forth, ch. ii. 3. Zion was a
   type of the gospel church, for which the Redeemer acts in all his
   appearances: The Redeemer shall come for the sake of Zion; so the LXX.
   reads it. [2.] The persons that shall have the comfort of the
   Redeemer's coming, that shall then lift up their heads, knowing that
   their redemption draws nigh. He shall come to those that turn from the
   ungodliness in Jacob, to those that are in Jacob, to the praying seed
   of Jacob, in answer to their prayers; yet not to all that are in Jacob,
   that are within the pale of the visible church, but to those only that
   turn from transgression, that repent, and reform, and forsake those
   sins which Christ came to redeem them from. The sinners in Zion will
   fare never the better for the Redeemer's coming to Zion if they go on
   still in their trespasses.

   (2.) That the Spirit of God shall come to us to be our sanctifier, v.
   21. In the Redeemer there was a new covenant made with us a covenant of
   promises; and this is the great and comprehensive promise of that
   covenant, that God will give and continue his word and Spirit to his
   church and people throughout all generations. God's giving the Spirit
   to those that ask him includes the giving of them all good things, Luke
   xi. 13; Matt. vii. 11. This covenant is here said to be made with them,
   that is, with those that turn from transgression; for those that cease
   to do evil shall be taught to do well. But the promise is made to a
   single person--My Spirit that is upon thee, being directed either, [1.]
   To Christ as the head of the church, who received that he might give.
   The Spirit promised to the church was first upon him, and from his head
   that precious ointment descended to the skirts of his garments; and the
   word of the gospel was first put into his mouth; for it began to be
   spoken by the Lord. And all believers are his seed, in whom he prolongs
   his days, ch. liii. 10. Or, [2.] To the church; and so it is a promise
   of the continuance and perpetuity of the church in the world to the end
   of time, parallel to those promises that the throne and seed of Christ
   shall endure for ever, Ps. lxxxix. 29, 36; xxii. 30. Observe, First,
   How the church shall be kept up, in a succession, as the world of
   mankind is kept up, by the seed and the seed's seed. As one generation
   passes away another generation shall come. Instead of the fathers shall
   be the children. Secondly, How long it shall be kept up--henceforth and
   for ever, always, even unto the end of the world; for, the world being
   left to stand for the sake of the church, we may be sure that as long
   as it does stand Christ will have a church in it, though no always
   visible. Thirdly, By what means it shall be kept up; by the constant
   residence of the word and Spirit in it. 1. The Spirit that was upon
   Christ shall always continue in the hearts of the faithful; there shall
   be some in every age on whom he shall work, and in whom he shall dwell,
   and thus the Comforter shall abide with the church for ever, John xiv.
   16. 2. The word of Christ shall always continue in the mouths of the
   faithful; there shall be some in every age who, believing with the
   heart unto righteousness, shall with the tongue make confession unto
   salvation. The word shall never depart out of the mouth of the church;
   for there shall still be a seed to speak Christ's holy language and
   profess his holy religion. Observe, The Spirit and the word go
   together, and by them the church is kept up. For the word in the mouths
   of our ministers, nay, the word in our own mouths, will not profit us,
   unless the Spirit work with the word, and give us an understanding. But
   the Spirit does his work by the word and in concurrence with it; and
   whatever is pretended to be a dictate of the Spirit must be tried by
   the scriptures. On these foundations the church is built, stands
   firmly, and shall stand for ever, Christ himself being the chief
   corner-stone.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LX.

   This whole chapter is all to the same purport, all in the same strain;
   it is a part of God's covenant with his church, which is spoken of in
   the last verse of the foregoing chapter, and the blessings here
   promised are the fruits of the word and Spirit there promised. The long
   continuance of the church, even unto the utmost ages of time, was there
   promised, and here the large extent of the church, even unto the utmost
   regions of the earth; and both these tend to the honour of the
   Redeemer. It is here promised, I. That the church shall be enlightened
   and shone upon, ver. 1, 2. II. That it shall be enlarged and great
   additions made to it, to join in the service of God, ver. 3-8. III.
   That the new converts shall be greatly serviceable to the church and to
   the interests of it, ver. 9-13. IV. That the church shall be in great
   honour and reputation among men, ver. 14-16. V. That it shall enjoy a
   profound peace and tranquility, ver. 17, 18. VI. That, the members of
   it being all righteous, the glory and joy of it shall be everlasting,
   ver. 19-22. Now this has some reference to the peaceable and prosperous
   condition which the Jews were sometimes in after their return out of
   captivity into their own land; but it certainly looks further, and was
   to have its full accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah, the
   enlargement of that kingdom by the bringing in of the Gentiles into it,
   and the spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ Jesus with
   which it should be enriched, and all these earnests of eternal joy and
   glory.

The Extension of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
   risen upon thee.   2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
   and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
   his glory shall be seen upon thee.   3 And the Gentiles shall come to
   thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.   4 Lift up thine
   eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they
   come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be
   nursed at thy side.   5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and
   thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the
   sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come
   unto thee.   6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
   dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they
   shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of
   the Lord.   7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto
   thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up
   with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my
   glory.   8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their
   windows?

   It is here promised that the gospel temple shall be very lightsome and
   very large.

   I. It shall be very lightsome: Thy light has come. When the Jews
   returned out of captivity they had light and gladness, and joy and
   honour; they then were made to know the Lord and to rejoice in his
   great goodness; and upon both accounts their light came. When the
   Redeemer came to Zion he brought light with him, he himself came to be
   a light. Now observe, 1. What this light is, and whence it springs: The
   Lord shall arise upon thee (v. 2), the glory of the Lord (v. 1) shall
   be seen upon thee. God is the father and fountain of lights, and it is
   in his light that we shall see light. As far as we have the knowledge
   of God in us, and the favour of God towards us, our light has come.
   When God appears to us, and we have the comfort of his favour, then the
   glory of the Lord rises upon us as the morning light; when he appears
   for us, and we have the credit of his favour, when he shows us some
   token for good and proclaims his favour to us, then his glory is seen
   upon us, as it was upon Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire. When
   Christ arose as the sun of righteousness, and in him the day-spring
   from on high visited us, then the glory of the Lord was seen upon us,
   the glory as of the first-begotten of the Father. 2. What a foil there
   shall be to this light: Darkness shall cover the earth; but, though it
   be gross darkness, darkness that might be felt, like that of Egypt,
   that shall overspread the people, yet the church, like Goshen, shall
   have light at the same time. When the case of the nations that have not
   the gospel shall be very melancholy, those dark corners of the earth
   being full of the habitations of cruelty to poor souls, the state of
   the church shall be very pleasant. 3. What is the duty which the rising
   of this light calls for: "Arise, shine; not only receive this light,
   and" (as the margin reads it) "be enlightened by it, but reflect this
   light; arise and shine with rays borrowed from it." The children of
   light ought to shine as lights in the world. If God's glory be seen
   upon us to our honour, we ought not only with our lips, but in our
   lives, to return the praise of it to his honour, Matt. v. 16; Phil. ii.
   15.

   II. It shall be very large. When the Jews were settled again in their
   own land, after their captivity, many of the people of the land joined
   themselves to them; but it does not appear that there ever was any such
   numerous accession to them as would answer the fulness of this
   prophecy; and therefore we must conclude that this looks further, to
   the bringing of the Gentiles into the gospel church, not their flocking
   to one particular place, though under that type it is here described.
   There is no place now that is the centre of the church's unity; but the
   promise respects their flocking to Christ, and coming by faith, and
   hope, and holy love, into that society which is incorporated by the
   charter of his gospel, and of the unity of which he only is the
   centre--that family which is named from him, Eph. iii. 15. The gospel
   church is expressly called Zion and Jerusalem, and under that notion
   all believers are said to come to it (Heb. xii. 22. You have come unto
   Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem),
   which serves for a key to this prophecy, Eph. ii. 19. Observe,

   1. What shall invite such multitudes to the church: "They shall come to
   thy light and to the brightness of thy rising, v. 3. They shall be
   allured to join themselves to thee," (1.) "By the light that shines
   upon thee," the light of the glorious gospel, which the churches hold
   forth, in consequence of which they are called golden candlesticks.
   This light which discovers so much of God and his good will to man, by
   which life and immortality are brought to light, this shall invite all
   the serious well-affected part of mankind to come and join themselves
   to the church, that they may have the benefit of this light to inform
   them concerning truth and duty. (2.) "By the light with which thou
   shinest." The purity and love of the primitive Christians, their
   heavenly-mindedness, contempt of the world, and patient sufferings,
   were the brightness of the church's rising, which drew many into it.
   The beauty of holiness was the powerful attractive by which Christ had
   a willing people brought to him in the day of his power, Ps. cx. 3.

   2. What multitudes shall come to the church. Great numbers shall come,
   Gentiles (or nations) of those that are saved, as it is expressed with
   allusion to this, Rev. xxi. 24. Nations shall be discipled (Matt.
   xxviii. 19), and even kings, men of figure, power, and influence, shall
   be added to the church. They come from all parts (v. 4): Lift up thy
   eyes round about, and see them coming, devout men out of every nation
   under heaven, Acts ii. 5. See how white the fields are already to the
   harvest, John iv. 35. See them coming in a body, as one man, and with
   one consent: They gather themselves together, that they may strengthen
   one another's hands, and encourage one another. Come, and let us go,
   ch. ii. 3. "They come from the remotest parts: They come to thee from
   far, having heard the report of thee, as the queen of Sheba, or seen
   thy star in the east, as the wise men, and they will not be discouraged
   by the length of the journey from coming to thee. There shall come some
   of both sexes. Sons and daughters shall come in the most dutiful
   manner, as thy sons and thy daughters, resolved to be of thy family, to
   submit to the laws of thy family and put themselves under the tuition
   of it. They shall come to be nursed at thy side, to have their
   education with thee from their cradle." The church's children must be
   nursed at her side, not sent out to be nursed among strangers; there,
   where alone the unadulterated milk of the word is to be had, must the
   church's new-born babes be nursed, that they may grow thereby, 1 Pet.
   ii. 1, 2. Those that would enjoy the dignities and privileges of
   Christ's family must submit to the discipline of it.

   3. What they shall bring with them and what advantage shall accrue to
   the church by their accession to it. Those that are brought into the
   church by the grace of God will be sure to bring all they are worth in
   with them, which with themselves they will devote to the honour and
   service of God and do good with in their places. (1.) The merchants
   shall write holiness to the Lord upon their merchandise and their hire,
   as ch. xxiii. 18. "The abundance of the sea, either the wealth that is
   fetched out of the sea (the fish, the pearls) or that which is imported
   by sea, shall all be converted to thee and to thy use." The wealth of
   the rich merchants shall be laid out in works of piety and charity.
   (2.) The mighty men of the nations shall employ their might in the
   service of the church: "The forces, or troops, of the Gentiles shall
   come unto thee, to guard thy coasts, strengthen thy interests, and, if
   occasion be, to fight thy battles." The forces of the Gentiles had
   often been against the church, but now they shall be for it; for as
   God, when he pleases, can, and, when we please him, will, make even our
   enemies to be at peace with us (Prov. xvi. 7), so, when Christ
   overcomes the strong man armed, he divides his spoils, and makes that
   to serve his interests which had been used against them, Luke xi. 22.
   (3.) The wealth imported by land-carriage, as well as that by sea,
   shall be made use of in the service of God and the church (v. 6): The
   camels and dromedaries that bring gold and incense (gold to make the
   golden altar of and incense and sweet perfumes to burn upon it), those
   of Midian and Sheba, shall bring the richest commodities of their
   country, not to trade with, but to honour God with, and not in small
   quantities, but camel-loads of them. This was in part fulfilled when
   the wise men of the east (perhaps some of the countries here
   mentioned), drawn by the brightness of the star, came to Christ, and
   presented to him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, Matt. ii.
   11. (4.) Great numbers of sacrifices shall be brought to God's altar,
   acceptable sacrifices, and, though brought by Gentiles, they shall find
   acceptance, v. 7. Kedar was famous for flocks, and probably the fattest
   rams were those of Nebaioth; these shall come up with acceptance on
   God's altar. God must be served and honoured with what we have,
   according as he has blessed us, and with the best we have. This was
   fulfilled when by the decree of Darius the governors beyond the rivers
   (perhaps of some of these countries) were ordered to furnish the temple
   at Jerusalem with bullocks, rams, and lambs, for the burnt-offering of
   the God of heaven, Ezra vi. 9. It had a further accomplishment, and we
   trust will have, in the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles to
   the church, which is called the sacrificing or offering up of the
   Gentiles unto God, Rom. xv. 16. The flocks and rams are precious souls;
   for they are said to minister to the church, and to come up as living
   sacrifices, presenting themselves to God by a reasonable service on his
   altar, Rom. xii. 1.

   4. How God shall be honoured by the increase of the church and the
   accession of such numbers to it. (1.) They shall intend the honour of
   God's name in it. When they bring their gold and incense it shall not
   be to show the riches of their country, nor to gain applause to
   themselves for piety and devotion, but to show forth the praises of the
   Lord, v. 6. Our greatest services and gifts to the church are not
   acceptable further than we have an eye to the glory of God in them. And
   this must be our business in our attendance on public ordinances, to
   give unto the Lord the glory due to his name; for therefore, as these
   here, we are called out of darkness into light, that we should show
   forth the praises of him that called us, 1 Pet. ii. 9. (2.) God will
   advance the honour of his own name by it; so he has said (v. 7): I will
   glorify the house of my glory. The church is the house of God's glory,
   where he manifests his glory to his people and receives that homage by
   which they do honour to him. And it is for the glory of this house, and
   of him that keeps house there, both that the Gentiles shall bring their
   offerings to it and that they shall be accepted therein.

   5. How the church shall herself be affected with this increase of her
   numbers, v. 5. (1.) She shall be in a transport of joy upon this
   account: "Thou shalt see and flow together" (or flow to and fro), "as
   in a pleasing agitation about it, surprised at it, but extremely glad
   of it." (2.) There shall be a mixture of fear with this joy: "Thy heart
   shall fear, doubting whether it be lawful to go in to the uncircumcised
   and eat with them." Peter was so impressed with this fear that he
   needed a vision and voice from heaven to help him over it, Acts x. 28.
   But, (3.) "When this fear is conquered thy heart shall be enlarged in
   holy love, so enlarged that thou shalt have room in it for all the
   Gentile converts; thou shalt not have such a narrow soul as thou hast
   had nor affections so confined within the Jewish pale." When God
   intends the beauty and prosperity of his church he gives this largeness
   of heart and an extensive charity. (4.) These converts flocking to the
   church shall be greatly admired (v. 8): Who are these that fly as a
   cloud? Observe, [1.] How the conversion of souls is here described. It
   is flying to Christ and to his church, for thither we are directed; it
   is flying like a cloud, though in great multitudes, so as to overspread
   the heavens, yet with great unanimity, all as one cloud. They shall
   come with speed, as a cloud flying on the wings of the wind, and come
   openly, and in the view of all, their very enemies beholding them (Rev.
   xi. 12), and yet not able to hinder them. They shall fly as doves to
   their windows, in great flights, many together; they fly on the wings
   of the harmless dove, which flies low, denoting their innocency and
   humility. They fly to Christ, to the church, to the word and
   ordinances, as doves, by instinct, to their own windows, to their own
   home; thither they fly for refuge and shelter when they are pursued by
   the birds of prey, and thither they fly for rest when they have been
   wandering and are weary, as Noah's dove to the ark. [2.] How the
   conversion of souls is here admired. It is spoken of with wonder and
   pleasure: Who are these? We have reason to wonder that so many flock to
   Christ: when we see them all together we shall wonder whence they all
   came. And we have reason to admire with pleasure and affection those
   that do flock to him: Who are these? How excellent, how amiable are
   they! What a pleasant sight is it to see poor souls hastening to
   Christ, with a full resolution to abide with him!

The Enlargement of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first,
   to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto
   the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he
   hath glorified thee.   10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy
   walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I
   smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.   11 Therefore
   thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor
   night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and
   that their kings may be brought.   12 For the nation and kingdom that
   will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly
   wasted.   13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree,
   the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my
   sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.   14 The sons
   also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all
   they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy
   feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the
   Holy One of Israel.

   The promises made to the church in the foregoing verses are here
   repeated, ratified, and enlarged upon, designed still for the comfort
   and encouragement of the Jews after their return out of captivity, but
   certainly looking further, to the enlargement and advancement of the
   gospel church and the abundance of spiritual blessings with which it
   shall be enriched.

   I. God will be very gracious and propitious to them. We must begin with
   that promise, because thence all the rest take rise. The sanctuary that
   was desolate begins to be repaired when God causes his face to shine
   upon it, Dan. ix. 17. All the favour that the people of God find with
   men is owing to the light of God's countenance and his favour to them
   (v. 10): "All shall now make court to thee, for in my wrath I smote
   thee, while thou wast in captivity" (and the sufferings of the church,
   especially by its corruptions, decays, and divisions, against which
   these promises will be its relief, are sad tokens of God's
   displeasure), "But now in my favour have I had mercy on thee, and
   therefore have all this mercy in store for thee."

   II. Many shall be brought into the church, even from far countries (v.
   9): Surely the isles shall wait for me, shall welcome the gospel, and
   shall attend God with their praises for it and their ready subjection
   to it. The ships of Tarshish, transport-ships, shall lie ready to carry
   members from far distant regions to the church, or (which is
   equivalent) to carry the ministers of the church to remote parts, to
   preach the gospel and to bring in souls to join themselves to the Lord.
   Observe, 1. Who are brought--thy sons, that is, such as are designed to
   be so, those children of God that are scattered abroad, John xi. 52. 2.
   What they shall bring with them. They live at such a distance that they
   cannot bring their flocks and their rams; but, like those who lived
   remote from Jerusalem (who, when they came up to worship at the feast,
   because they could not bring their tithes in kind, turned them into
   money), they shall bring their silver and gold with them. Note, When we
   give up ourselves to God we must with ourselves give up all we have to
   him. If we honour him with our spirits, we shall honour him with our
   substance. 3. To whom they shall devote and dedicate themselves and all
   they are worth--to the name of the Lord thy God, to God as the Lord of
   all and the church's God and King, even to the Holy One of Israel (whom
   Israel worships as a Holy One, in the beauty of holiness), because he
   has glorified thee. Note, The honour God puts upon his church and
   people should not only engage us to honour them, but invite us to join
   ourselves to them. We will go with you, for God is with you, Zech.
   viii. 23.

   III. Those that come into the church shall be welcome; for so spacious
   is the holy city that though, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded,
   yet still there is room. "Therefore thy gates shall be open continually
   (v. 11), not only because thou hast no reason to fear thy enemies, but
   because thou hast reason to expect thy friends." It is usual with us to
   leave our doors open, or leave some one ready to open them, all night,
   if we look for a child or a guest to come in late. Note, Christ is
   always ready to entertain those that come to him, is never out of the
   way, nor can they ever come unseasonably; the gate of mercy is always
   open, night and day, or shall soon be opened to those that knock.
   Ministers, the door-keepers, must be always ready to admit those that
   offer themselves to the Lord. God not only keeps a good house in his
   church, but he keeps open house, that at any time, by the preaching of
   the word, in season and out of season, the forces of the Gentiles, and
   the kings or commanders of those forces, may be brought into the
   church. Lift up your heads, O you gates! and let such welcome guests as
   these come in.

   IV. All that are about the church shall be made in some way or other
   serviceable to it. Though dominion is far from being founded in men's
   grace, it is founded in God's; and he that made the inferior creatures
   useful to man will make the nations of men useful to the church. The
   earth helped the woman. All things are for your sakes. So here (v. 10),
   "Even the sons of strangers, that have neither knowledge of thee nor
   kindness for thee, that have always been aliens to the commonwealth of
   Israel, even they shall build up thy wall, and their kings shall in
   that and other things ministers unto thee and not think it any
   disparagement to them to do so." This was fulfilled when the king of
   Persia, and the governors of the provinces by his order, were aiding
   and assisting Nehemiah in building the wall about Jerusalem. Rather
   than Jerusalem's walls shall lie still in ruins, the sons of the
   stranger shall be raised up to build them. Even those that do not
   belong to the church may be a protection to it. And the greatest of men
   should not think it below them to minister to the church, but rejoice
   that they are in a capacity, and have a heart, to do it any service.
   Nay, it is the duty of all to do what they can in their places to
   advance the interests of God's kingdom among men; it is at their peril
   if they do not; for (v. 12), The nation and kingdom that will not serve
   thee shall perish; not that they must perish by the sword or by human
   anathemas, or as if this gave any countenance to the using of external
   force for the propagating of the gospel, or as if men might be
   compelled by penalties and punishments to come into the church; by no
   means. But those who will not by faith submit to Jesus Christ, the King
   of the church, and serve him, shall perish eternally, Ps. ii. 12. Those
   that will not be subject to Christ's golden sceptre, to the government
   of his word and Spirit, that will not be brought under, or kept in, by
   the discipline of his family, shall be broken in pieces by his iron
   rod. Bring them forth and slay them before me, Luke xix. 27. Nations of
   such shall be utterly and eternally wasted, when Christ shall come to
   take vengeance on those that obey not his gospel, 2 Thess. i. 8.

   V. There shall be abundance of beauty added to the ordinances of divine
   worship (v. 13): The glory of Lebanon, the strong and stately cedars
   that grow there, shall come unto thee, as of old to Solomon, when he
   built the temple (2 Chron. ii. 16), and with them shall be brought
   other timber, proper for the carved work thereof, which the enemy had
   broken down, Ps. lxxiv. 5, 6. The temple, the place of God's sanctuary,
   shall be not only rebuilt, but beautified. It is the place of his feet,
   where he rests and resides, Ezek. xliii. 7. The ark is called his
   footstool, because it was under the mercy-seat, Ps. cxxxii. 7. This he
   will make glorious in the eyes of his people and of all their
   neighbours. The glory of the latter house, to which this refers, though
   in many instances inferior, was yet really greater than the glory of
   the former, because Christ came to that temple, Mal. iii. 1. It was
   likewise adorned with goodly stones and gifts (Luke xxi. 5), to which
   this promise may have some reference; yet so slightly did Christ speak
   of them there that we must suppose it to have its full accomplishment
   in the beauties of holiness, and the graces and comforts of the Spirit,
   with which gospel ordinances are adorned and enriched.

   VI. The church shall appear truly great and honourable, v. 14. The
   people of the Jews, after their return out of captivity, by degrees
   became more considerable, and made a better figure than one would have
   expected, after they had been so much reduced, and than any of the
   other nations recovered that had been in like manner humbled by the
   Chaldeans. It is probable that many of those who had oppressed them in
   Babylon, when they were themselves driven out by the Persians, made
   their court to the Jews for shelter and supply and were willing to
   scrape acquaintance with them. This prophecy is further fulfilled when
   those that have been enemies to the church are wrought upon by the
   grace of God to see their error, and come, and join themselves to it:
   "The sons of those that afflicted thee, if not they themselves, yet
   their children, shall crouch to thee, shall beg pardon for their folly
   and beg an interest in thy favour and admission into thy family," 1
   Sam. ii. 36. A promise like this is made to the church of Philadelphia,
   Rev. iii. 9. And it is intended to be, 1. A mortification to the proud
   oppressors of the church, that have afflicted her, and despised her,
   and taken a pleasure in doing so; they shall be brought down; their
   spirits shall be broken, and their condition shall be so mean and
   miserable that they shall be glad to be obliged to those whom they have
   most studied to disoblige. Note, Sooner or later God will pour contempt
   upon those that put contempt upon his people. 2. An exaltation to the
   poor oppressed ones of the church; and this is the honour that shall be
   done to them, they shall have an opportunity of doing good to those who
   have done evil to them and saving those alive who have afflicted and
   despised them. It is a pleasure to a good man, and he accounts it an
   honour, to show mercy to those with whom he has found no mercy. Yet
   this is not all. "They shall not only become suppliants to thee for
   their own interest, but they shall give honour to thee: They shall call
   thee, The city of the Lord; they shall at length be convinced that thou
   art a favourite of heaven, and the particular care of the divine
   providence." That city is truly great and honourable, it is strong, it
   is rich, it is safe, it is beautiful, it is the most desirable place
   that can be to live in, which is the city of the Lord, which he owns,
   in which he dwells, in which religion is uppermost. Such a one is Zion;
   it is the place which God has chosen to put his name there; it is the
   Zion of the Holy One of Israel; therefore, we may be sure, it is a holy
   city, else the Holy One of Israel would never be called the patron of
   it.

The Glory of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   15 Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went
   through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many
   generations.   16 Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and
   shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the Lord am
   thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.   17 For brass I
   will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass,
   and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine
   exactors righteousness.   18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy
   land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call
   thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.   19 The sun shall be no
   more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light
   unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
   thy God thy glory.   20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall
   thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting
   light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.   21 Thy people
   also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the
   branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
   22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong
   nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.

   The happy and glorious state of the church is here further foretold,
   referring principally and ultimately to the Christian church and the
   spiritual peace of that, but under the type of that little gleam of
   outward peace which the Jews sometimes enjoyed after their return out
   of captivity. This is here spoken of,

   I. As compared with what it had been. This made her peace and honour
   the more pleasant, that her condition had been much otherwise.

   1. She had been despised, but now she should be honoured, v. 15, 16.
   Jerusalem had been forsaken and hated, abandoned by her friends,
   abhorred by her enemies; no man went through that desolate city, but
   declined it as a rueful spectacle; it was an astonishment and a
   hissing. But now it shall be made an eternal excellency, being reformed
   from idolatry and having recovered the tokens of God's favour, and it
   shall be the joy of good people for many generations. Yet considering
   how short Jerusalem's excellency was, and how short it came of the vast
   compass of this promise, we must look for the full accomplishment of it
   in the perpetual excellencies of the gospel church, far exceeding those
   of the Old-Testament church, and the glorious privileges and advantages
   of the Christian religion, which are indeed the joy of many
   generations. Two things are here spoken of as her excellency and joy,
   in opposition to her having been forsaken and hated:--(1.) She shall
   find herself countenanced by her neighbours. The nations, and their
   kings, that are brought to embrace Christianity, shall lay themselves
   out for the good of the church, and maintain its interests with the
   tenderness and affection that the nurse shows to the child at her
   breasts (v. 16): "Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, not suck
   their blood (that is not the spirit of the gospel); thou shalt suck the
   breast of kings, who shall be to thee as nursing fathers." (2.) She
   shall find herself countenanced by her God: "Thou shalt know that I the
   Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, shalt know it by experience; for
   such a salvation, such a redemption, shall be wrought out for thee as
   plainly discovers itself to be the work of the Lord, the work of a
   mighty one, for it is a great salvation, of the Mighty One of Jacob,
   for it secures the welfare of all those that are Israelites indeed."
   They before knew the Lord to be their God; now they know him to be
   their Saviour, their Redeemer. Their Holy One now appears their Mighty
   One.

   2. She had been impoverished, but now she shall be enriched, and every
   thing shall be changed for the better with her, v. 17. When those who
   were raised out of the dust are set among princes, instead of brass
   money in their purses they have gold, and instead of iron vessels in
   their houses they have silver ones, and other improvements agreeable:
   so much shall the spiritual glory of the New-Testament church exceed
   the external pomp and splendour of the Jewish economy, which had no
   glory in comparison with that which quite excels it, 2 Cor. iii. 10.
   When we had baptism in the room of circumcision, the Lord's supper in
   the room of the passover, and a gospel ministry in the room of a
   Levitical priesthood, we had gold instead of brass. Sin turned gold
   into brass when Rehoboam made brazen shields instead of the golden ones
   he had pawned; but God's favour, when that returns, will turn brass
   again into gold.

   3. She had been oppressed by her own princes, which was sadly
   complained of, not only as her sin, but as her misery (ch. lix. 14);
   but now all the grievances of that kind shall be redressed (v. 17): "I
   will make thy officers peace; men of peace shall be made officers, and
   shall be indeed justices, not patrons of injustice, and justices of
   peace, not instruments of trouble and vexation. They shall be peace,
   that is, they shall sincerely seek thy welfare and by their means thou
   shalt enjoy good." They shall be peace, for they shall be
   righteousness; and then the peace is as a river, when the righteousness
   is as the waves of the sea. Even exactors, whose business it is to
   demand the public tribute, though they be exact, must not be exacting,
   but must be just to the subject as well as to the prince, and,
   according to the instructions John Baptist gave to the publicans must
   exact no more than is appointed them, Luke iii. 13.

   4. She had been insulted by her neighbours, invaded, spoiled, and
   plundered; but now it shall be so no more (v. 18): "Violence shall no
   more be heard in thy land; neither the threats and triumphs of those
   that do violence nor the outcries and complaints of those that suffer
   violence shall again be heard, but every man shall peaceably enjoy his
   own. There shall be no wasting nor destruction, either of persons of
   possessions, any where within thy borders; but thy walls shall be
   called salvation (they shall be safe, and means of safety to thee) and
   thy gates shall be praise, praise to thee (every one shall commend thee
   for the good condition they are kept in), and praise to thy God, who
   strengthens the bars of thy gates," Ps. cxlvii. 13. When God's
   salvation is upon the walls it is fit that his praises should be in the
   gates, the places of concourse.

   II. As completed in what it shall be. It should seem that in the close
   of this chapter we are directed to look further yet, as far forward as
   to the glory and happiness of heaven, under the type and figure of the
   flourishing state of the church on earth, which yet was never such as
   to come any thing near to what is here foretold; and several of the
   images and expressions here made use of we find in the description of
   the new Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 23; xxii. 5. As the prophets sometimes
   insensibly pass from the blessings of the Jewish church to the
   spiritual blessings of the Christian church, which are eternal, so
   sometimes they rise from the church militant to the church triumphant,
   where, and where only, all the promised peace, and joy, and honour will
   be in perfection. 1. God shall be all in all in the happiness here
   promised; so he is always to true believers (v. 19): The sun and the
   moon shall be no more thy light. God's people, when they enjoy his
   favour, and walk in the light of his countenance, make little account
   of sun and moon, and the other lights of this world, but could walk
   comfortably in the light of the Lord though they should withdraw their
   shining. In heaven there shall be no occasion for sun or moon, for it
   is the inheritance of the saints in light, such light as will swallow
   up the light of the sun as easily as the sun does that of a candle.
   "Idolaters worshipped the sun and moon (which some have thought the
   most ancient and plausible idolatry); but these shall be no more thy
   light, shall no more be idolized, but the Lord shall be to thee a
   constant light, both day and night, in the night of adversity as well
   as in the day of prosperity." Those that make God their only light
   shall have him their all-sufficient light, their sun and shield. Thy
   God shall be thy glory. Note, God is the glory of those whose God he is
   and will be so to eternity. It is their glory that they have him for
   their God, and they glory in it; it is to them instead of beauty. God's
   people are, upon this account, an honourable people, that they have an
   interest in God as their sin covenant. 2. The happiness here promised
   shall know no change, period, or allay (v. 20): "Thy sun shall no more
   go down, but it shall be eternal day, eternal sunshine, with thee; that
   shall not be thy sun which is sometimes eclipsed, often clouded, and,
   though it shine ever so bright, ever so warm, will certainly set and
   leave thee in the dark, in the cold, in a few hours; but he shall be a
   sun, a fountain of light to thee, who is himself the Father of all
   lights, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning,"
   James i. 17. We read of the sun's standing still once, and not hasting
   to go down for the space of a day, and it was a glorious day, never was
   the like; but what was that to the day that shall never have a night?
   Or, if it had, it should be a light night; for neither shall thy moon
   withdraw itself; it shall never wane, shall never change, but be always
   at the full. The comforts and joys that are in heaven, the glories
   provided for the soul, as the light of the sun, and those prepared for
   the glorified body too, as the light of the moon, shall never know the
   least cessation or interruption; how should they when the Lord shall
   himself be thy everlasting light--a light which never wastes nor can
   ever be extinguished? And the days of thy mourning shall be ended, so
   as never to return; for all tears shall be wiped away, and the
   fountains of them, sin and affliction, dried up, so that sorrow and
   sighing shall flee away for ever. 3. Those that are entitled to this
   happiness, being duly prepared and qualified for it, shall never be put
   out of the possession of it (v. 21): Thy people, that shall inhabit
   this New Jerusalem, shall all be righteous, all justified by the
   righteousness of the Messiah, all sanctified by his Spirit; all that
   people, that Jerusalem, must be righteous, must have that holiness
   without which no man shall see the Lord. They are all righteous, for we
   know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There
   are no people on earth that are all righteous; there is a mixture of
   some bad in the best societies on this side heaven; but there are no
   mixtures there. They shall be all righteous, that is, they shall be
   entirely righteous; as there shall be none corrupt among them, so there
   shall be no corruption in them; the spirits of just men shall there be
   made perfect. And they shall be all the righteous together who shall
   replenish the New Jerusalem; it is called the congregation of the
   righteous, Ps. i. 5. And, because they are all righteous, therefore
   they shall inherit the land for ever, for nothing but sin can turn them
   out of it. The perfection of the saints' holiness secures the
   perpetuity of their happiness. 4. The glory of the church shall redound
   to the honour of the church's God: "They shall appear to be the branch
   of my planting, the work of my hands, and I will own them as such." It
   was by the grace of God that they were designed to this happiness; they
   are the branch of his planting, or of his plantations; he broke them
   off from the wild olive and grafted them into the good olive,
   transplanted them out of the field, when they were as tender branches,
   into his nursery, that, being now planted in his garden on earth, they
   might shortly be removed to his paradise in heaven. It was by his grace
   likewise that they were prepared and fitted for this happiness; they
   are the work of his hands (Eph. ii. 10), are wrought to the self-same
   thing, 2 Cor. v. 5. It is a work of time, and, when it shall be
   finished, will appear a work of wonder; and God will be glorified, who
   began it, and carried it on; for the Lord Jesus will then be admired in
   all those that believe. God will glorify himself in glorifying his
   chosen. 5. They will appear the more glorious, and God will be the more
   glorified in them, if we compare what they are with what they were, the
   happiness they have arrived at with the smallness of their beginnings
   (v. 22): "A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong
   nation." The captives that returned out of Babylon strangely
   multiplied, and became a strong nation. The Christian church was a
   little one, a very small one at first--the number of their names was
   once but 120; yet it became a thousand. The stone cut out of the
   mountain without hands swelled so as to fill the earth. The triumphant
   church, and every glorified saint, will be a thousand out of a little
   one, a strong nation out of a small one. The grace and peace of the
   saints were at first like a grain of mustard-seed, but they increase
   and multiply, and make a little one to become a thousand, the weak to
   be as David. When they come to heaven, and look back upon the smallness
   of their beginning, they will wonder how they got thither. And so
   wonderful is all this promise that it needed the ratification with
   which it is closed: I the Lord will hasten it in his time--all that is
   here said relating to the Jewish and Christian church, to the militant
   and triumphant church, and to every particular believer. (1.) It may
   seem too difficult to be brought about, and therefore may be despaired
   of; but the God of almighty power has undertaken it: "I the Lord will
   do it, who can do it, and who have determined to do it." It will be
   done by him whose power is irresistible and his purposes unalterable.
   (2.) It may seem to be delayed and put off so long that we are out of
   hopes of it; but, as the Lord will do it, so he will hasten it, will do
   it with all convenient speed; though much time may pass before it is
   done, no time shall be lost; he will hasten it in its time, in the
   proper time, in the season wherein it will be beautiful; he will do it
   in the time appointed by his wisdom, though not in the time prescribed
   by our folly. And this is really hastening it; for, though it seem to
   tarry, it does not tarry if it come in God's time, for we are sure that
   that is the best time, which he that believes will patiently wait for.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXI.

   In this chapter, I. We are sure to find the grace of Christ, published
   by himself to a lost world in the everlasting gospel, under the type
   and figure of Isaiah's province, which was to foretel the deliverance
   of the Jews out of Babylon, ver. 1-3. II. We think we find the glories
   of the church of Christ, its spiritual glories, described under the
   type and figure of the Jews' prosperity after their return out of their
   captivity. 1. It is promised that they decays of the church shall be
   repaired, ver. 4. 2. That those from without shall be made serviceable
   to the church, ver. 5. 3. That the church shall be a royal priesthood,
   maintained by the riches of the Gentiles, ver. 6. 4. That she shall
   have honour and joy in lieu of all her shame and sorrow, ver. 7. 5.
   That her affairs shall prosper, ver. 8. 6. That prosperity shall enjoy
   these blessings, ver. 9. 7. That righteousness and salvation shall be
   the eternal matter of the church's rejoicing and thanksgiving, ver. 10,
   11. If the Jewish church was ever thus blessed, much more shall the
   Christian church be so, and all that belong to it.

The Office of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed
   me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
   brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
   the prison to them that are bound;   2 To proclaim the acceptable year
   of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that
   mourn;   3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
   beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
   for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of
   righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

   He that is the best expositor of scripture has no doubt given us the
   best exposition of these verses, even our Lord Jesus himself, who read
   this in the synagogue at Nazareth (perhaps it was the lesson for the
   day) and applied it entirely to himself, saying, This day is this
   scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luke iv. 17, 18, 21); and the
   gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, in the opening of this
   text, were admired by all that heard them. As Isaiah was authorized and
   directed to proclaim liberty to the Jews in Babylon, so was Christ,
   God's messenger, to publish a more joyful jubilee to a lost world. And
   here we are told,

   I. How he was fitted and qualified for this work: The Spirit of the
   Lord God is upon me, v. 1. The prophets had the Spirit of God moving
   them at times, both instructing them what to say and exciting them to
   say it. Christ had the Spirit always resting on him without measure;
   but to the same intent that the prophets had, as a Spirit of counsel
   and a Spirit of courage, ch. xi. 1-3. When he entered upon the
   execution of his prophetical office the Spirit, as a dove, descended
   upon him, Matt. iii. 16. This Spirit which was upon him he communicated
   to those whom he sent to proclaim the same glad tidings, saying to
   them, when he gave them their commission, Receive you the Holy Ghost,
   thereby ratifying it.

   II. How he was appointed and ordained to it: The Spirit of God is upon
   me, because the Lord God has anointed me. What service God called him
   to he furnished him for; therefore he gave him his Spirit, because he
   had by a sacred and solemn unction set him apart to this great office,
   as kings and priests were of old destined to their offices by
   anointing. Hence the Redeemer was called the Messiah, the Christ,
   because he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He
   has sent me; our Lord Jesus did not go unsent; he had a commission from
   him that is the fountain of power; the Father sent him and gave him
   commandment. This is a great satisfaction to us, that, whatever Christ
   said, he had a warrant from heaven for; his doctrine was not his, but
   his that sent him.

   III. What the work was to which he was appointed and ordained.

   1. He was to be a preacher, was to execute the office of a prophet. So
   well pleased was he with the good-will God showed towards men through
   him that he would himself be the preacher of it, that an honour might
   thereby be put upon the ministry of the gospel and the faith of the
   saints might be confirmed and encouraged. He must preach good tidings
   (so gospel signified) to the meek, to the penitent, and humble, and
   poor in spirit; to them the tidings of a Redeemer will be indeed good
   tidings, pure gospel, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation.
   The poor are commonly best disposed to receive the gospel (Jam. ii. 5),
   and it is likely to profit us when it is received with meekness, as it
   ought to be; to such Christ preached good tidings when he said, Blessed
   are the meek.

   2. He was to be a healer. He was sent to bind up the broken-hearted, as
   pained limbs are rolled to give them ease, as broken bones and bleeding
   wounds are bound up, that they may knit and close again. Those whose
   hearts are broken for sin, who are truly humbled under the sense of
   guilt and dread of wrath, are furnished in the gospel of Christ with
   that which will make them easy and silence their fears. Those only who
   have experienced the pains of a penitential contrition may expect the
   pleasure of divine cordials and consolations.

   3. He was to be a deliverer. He was sent as a prophet to preach, as a
   priest to heal, and as a king to issue out proclamations and those of
   two kinds:--(1.) Proclamations of peace to his friends: He shall
   proclaim liberty to the captives (as Cyrus did to the Jews in
   captivity) and the opening of the prison to those that were bound.
   Whereas, by the guilt of sin, we are bound over to the justice of God,
   are his lawful captives, sold for sin till payment be made of that
   great debt, Christ lets us know that he has made satisfaction to divine
   justice for that debt, that his satisfaction is accepted, and if we
   will plead that, and depend upon it, and make over ourselves and all we
   have to him, in a grateful sense of the kindness he has done us, we may
   by faith sue out our pardon and take the comfort of it; there is, and
   shall be, no condemnation to us. And whereas, by the dominion of sin in
   us, we are bound under the power of Satan, sold under sin, Christ lets
   us know that he has conquered Satan, has destroyed him that had the
   power of death and his works, and provided for us grace sufficient to
   enable us to shake off the yoke of sin and to loose ourselves from
   those bands of our neck. The Son is ready by his Spirit to make us
   free; and then we shall be free indeed, not only discharged from the
   miseries of captivity, but advanced to all the immunities and dignities
   of citizens. This is the gospel proclamation, and it is like the
   blowing of the jubilee-trumpet, which proclaimed the great year of
   release (Lev. xxv. 9, 40), in allusion to which it is here called the
   acceptable year of the Lord, the time of our acceptance with God, which
   is the origin of our liberties; or it is called the year of the Lord
   because it publishes his free grace, to his own glory, and an
   acceptable year because it brings glad tidings to us, and what cannot
   but be very acceptable to those who know the capacities and necessities
   of their own souls. (2.) Proclamations of war against his enemies.
   Christ proclaims the day of vengeance of our God, the vengeance he
   takes, [1.] On sin and Satan, death and hell, and all the powers of
   darkness, that were to be destroyed in order to our deliverances; these
   Christ triumphed over in his cross, having spoiled and weakened them,
   shamed them, and made a show of them openly, therein taking vengeance
   on them for all the injury they had done both to God and man, Col. ii.
   15. [2.] On those of the children of men that stand it out against
   those fair offers. They shall not only be left, as they deserve, in
   their captivity, but be dealt with as enemies; we have the gospel
   summed up, Mark xvi. 16, where that part of it, He that believes shall
   be saved, proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord to those that will
   accept of it; but the other part, He that believes not shall be damned,
   proclaims the day of vengeance of our God, that vengeance which he will
   take on those that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. i. 8.

   4. He was to be a comforter, and so he is as preacher, healer, and
   deliverer; he is sent to comfort all who mourn, and who, mourning, seek
   to him, and not to the world, for comfort. Christ not only provides
   comfort for them, and proclaims it, but he applies it to them; he does
   by his Spirit comfort them. There is enough in him to comfort all who
   mourn, whatever their sore or sorrow is; but this comfort is sure to
   those who mourn in Zion, who sorrow after a godly sort, according to
   God, for his residence is in Zion,--who mourn because of Zion's
   calamities and desolations, and mingle their tears by a holy sympathy
   with those of all God's suffering people, though they themselves are
   not in trouble; such tears God has a bottle for (Ps. lvi. 8), such
   mourners he has comfort in store for. As blessings out of Zion are
   spiritual blessings, so mourners in Zion are holy mourners, such as
   carry their sorrows to the throne of grace (for in Zion was the
   mercy-seat) and pour them out as Hannah did before the Lord. To such as
   these Christ has appointed by his gospel, and will give by his Spirit
   (v. 3), those consolations which will not only support them under their
   sorrows, but turn them into songs of praise. He will give them, (1.)
   Beauty for ashes. Whereas they lay in ashes, as was usual in times of
   great mourning, they shall not only be raised out of their dust, but
   made to look pleasant. Note, The holy cheerfulness of Christians is
   their beauty and a great ornament to their profession. Here is an
   elegant paronomasia in the original: He will give them pheer--beauty,
   for epher--ashes; he will turn their sorrow into joy as quickly and as
   easily as you can transpose a letter; for he speaks, and it is done.
   (2.) The oil of joy, which make the face to shine, instead of mourning,
   which disfigures the countenance and makes it unlovely. this oil of joy
   the saints have from that oil of gladness with which Christ himself was
   anointed above his fellows, Heb. i. 9. (3.) The garments of praise,
   such beautiful garments as were worn on thanksgiving-days, instead of
   the spirit of heaviness, dimness, or contraction--open joys for secret
   mournings. The spirit of heaviness they keep to themselves (Zion's
   mourners weep in secret); but the joy they are recompensed with they
   are clothed with as with a garment in the eye of others. Observe, Where
   God gives the oil of joy he gives the garment of praise. Those comforts
   which come from God dispose the heart to, and enlarge the heart in,
   thanksgivings to God. Whatever we have the joy of God must have the
   praise and glory of.

   5. He was to be a planter; for the church is God's husbandry. Therefore
   he will do all this for his people, will cure their wounds, release
   them out of bondage, and comfort them in their sorrows, that they may
   be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that they
   may be such and be acknowledged to be such, that they may be ornaments
   to God's vineyard and may be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness,
   as the branches of God's planting, ch. lx. 21. All that Christ does for
   us is to make us God's people, and some way serviceable to him as
   living trees, planted in the house of the Lord, and flourishing in the
   courts of our God; and all this that he may be glorified--that we may
   be brought to glorify him by a sincere devotion and an exemplary
   conversation (for herein is our Father glorified, that we bring forth
   much fruit), that others also may take occasion from God's favour
   shining on his people, and his grace shining in them, to praise him,
   and that he may be for ever glorified in his saints.

The Office of the Messiah; The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former
   desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of
   many generations.   5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
   and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your
   vinedressers.   6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men
   shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the
   Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.   7 For your
   shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in
   their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double:
   everlasting joy shall be unto them.   8 For I the Lord love judgment, I
   hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth,
   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.   9 And their seed
   shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the
   people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the
   seed which the Lord hath blessed.

   Promises are here made to the Jews now returned out of captivity, and
   settled again in their own land, which are to be extended to the gospel
   church, and all believers, who through grace are delivered out of
   spiritual thraldom; for they are capable of being spiritually applied.

   I. It is promised that their houses shall be rebuilt (v. 4), that their
   cities shall be raised out of the ruins in which they had long lain,
   and be fitted up for their use again: They shall build the old wastes;
   the old wastes shall be built, the waste cities shall be repaired, the
   former desolations, even the desolations of many generations, which it
   was feared would never be repaired, shall be raised up. The setting up
   of Christianity in the world repaired the decays of natural religion
   and raised up those desolations both of piety and honesty which had
   been for many generations the reproach of mankind. An unsanctified soul
   is like a city that is broken down and has no walls, like a house in
   ruins; but by the power of Christ's gospel and grace it is repaired, it
   is put in order again, and fitted to be a habitation of God through the
   Spirit. And they shall do this, those that are released out of
   captivity; for we are brought out of the house of bondage that we may
   serve God, both in building up ourselves to his glory and in helping to
   build up his church on earth.

   II. Those that were so lately servants themselves, working for their
   oppressors and lying at their mercy, shall now have servants to do
   their work for them and be at their command, not of their brethren
   (they are all the Lord's freemen), but of the strangers, and the sons
   of the alien, who shall keep their sheep, till their ground, and dress
   their gardens, the ancient employments of Abel, Cain, and Adam:
   Strangers shall feed your flocks, v. 5. When, by the grace of God, we
   attain to a holy indifference as to all the affairs of this world,
   buying as though we possessed not--when, though our hands are employed
   about them, our hearts are not entangled with them, but reserved entire
   for God and his service--then the sons of the alien are our ploughmen
   and vine-dressers.

   III. They shall not only be released out of their captivity, but highly
   preferred and honourably employed (v. 6): "While the strangers are
   keeping your flocks, you shall be keeping the charge of the sanctuary;
   instead of being slaves to your task-masters, you shall be named the
   priests of the Lord, a high and holy calling." Priests were princes'
   peers, and in Hebrew were called by the same name. You shall be the
   ministers of our God, as the Levites were. Note, Those whom God sets at
   liberty he sets to work; he delivers them out of the hands of their
   enemies that they may serve him, Luke i. 74, 75; Ps. cxvi. 16. But his
   service is perfect freedom, nay, it is the greatest honour. When God
   brought Israel out of Egypt he took them to be to him a kingdom of
   priests, Exod. xix. 6. And the gospel church is a royal priesthood, 1
   Pet. ii. 9. All believers are made to our God kings and priests; and
   they ought to conduct themselves as such in their devotions and in
   their whole conversation, with holiness to the Lord written upon their
   foreheads, that men may call them the priests of the Lord.

   IV. The wealth and honour of the Gentile converts shall redound to the
   benefit and credit of the church, v. 6. The Gentiles shall be brought
   into the church. Those that were strangers shall become fellow-citizens
   with the saints; and with themselves they shall bring all they have, to
   be devoted to the glory of God and used in his service; and the
   priests, the Lord's ministers, shall have the advantage of it. It will
   be a great strengthening and quickening, as well as a comfort and
   encouragement, to all good Christians, to see the Gentiles serving the
   interests of God's kingdom. 1. They shall eat the riches of the
   Gentiles, not which they have themselves seized by violence, but which
   are fairly and honourably presented to them, as gifts brought to the
   altar, which the priests and their families lived comfortably upon. It
   is not said, "You shall hoard the riches of the Gentiles, and treasure
   them," but, "You shall eat them;" for there is nothing better in riches
   than to use them and to do good with them. 2. They shall boast
   themselves in their glory. Whatever was the honour of the Gentiles
   converts before their conversion--their nobility, estates, learning,
   virtue, or places of trust and power--it shall all turn to the
   reputation of the church to which they have joined themselves; and
   whatever is their glory after their conversion--their holy zeal and
   strictness of conversation, their usefulness, their patient suffering,
   and all the displays of that blessed change which divine grace has made
   in them--shall be very much for the glory of God and therefore all good
   men shall glory in it.

   V. They shall have abundance of comfort and satisfaction in their own
   bosoms, v. 7. The Jews no doubt were thus privileged after their
   return; they were in a new world, and now knew how to value their
   liberty and property, the pleasures of which were continually fresh and
   blooming. Much more do all those rejoice whom Christ has brought into
   the glorious liberty of God's children, especially when the privileges
   of their adoption shall be completed in the resurrection of the body.
   1. They shall rejoice in their portion; they shall not only have their
   own again, but (which is a further gift of God) they shall have the
   comfort of it, and a heart to rejoice in it, Eccl. iii. 13. Though the
   houses of the returned Jews, as well as their temple, be much inferior
   to what they were before the captivity, yet they shall be well pleased
   with them and thankful for them. It is a portion in their land, their
   own land, the holy land, Immanuel's land, and therefore they shall
   rejoice in it, having so lately known what it was to be strangers in a
   strange land. Those that have God and heaven for their portion have
   reason to say that they have a worthy portion and to rejoice in it. 2.
   Everlasting joy shall be unto them, that is, a joyful state of their
   people, which shall last long, much longer than the captivity had
   lasted. Yet that joy of the Jewish nation was so much allayed, so often
   interrupted, and so soon brought to an end, that we must look for the
   accomplishment of this promise in the spiritual joy which believers
   have in God and the eternal joy they hope for in heaven. 3. This shall
   be a double recompence to them, and more than double, for all the
   reproach and vexation they have lain under in the land of their
   captivity: "For your shame you shall have double honour, and in your
   land you shall possess double wealth, to what you lost; the blessing of
   God upon it, and the comfort you shall have in it, shall make an
   abundant reparation for all the damages you have received. You shall be
   owned not only as God's sons, but as his first-born (Exod. iv. 22), and
   therefore entitled to a double portion." As the miseries of their
   captivity were so great that in them they are said to have received
   double for all their sins (ch. xl. 2), so the joys of their return
   shall be so great that in them they shall receive double for all their
   shame. The former is applicable to the fulness of Christ's
   satisfaction, in which God received double for all our sins; the latter
   to the fulness of heaven's joys, in which we shall receive more than
   double for all our services and sufferings. Job's case illustrates
   this: when God turned again his captivity, he gave him twice as much as
   he had before.

   VI. God will be their faithful guide and a God in covenant with them
   (v. 8): I will direct their work in truth. God by his providence will
   order their affairs for the best, according to the word of his truth.
   He will guide them in the ways of true prosperity, by the rules of true
   policy. He will by his grace direct the works of good people in the
   right way, the true way that leads to happiness; he will direct them to
   be done in sincerity and then they are pleasing to him. God desires
   truth in the inward parts; and, if we do our works in truth, he will
   make an everlasting covenant with us; for to those that walk before him
   and are upright he will certainly be a God all-sufficient. Now, as a
   reason both of this and of the foregoing promise, that God will
   recompense to them double for their shame, those words come in, in the
   former part of the verse, I the Lord love judgment. He loves that
   judgment should be done among men, both between magistrates and
   subjects and between neighbour and neighbour, and therefore he hates
   all injustice; and, when wrongs are done to his people by their
   oppressors and persecutors, he is displeased with them, not only
   because they are done to his people, but because they are wrongs, and
   against the eternal rules of equity. If men do not do justice, he loves
   to do judgment himself in giving redress to those that suffer wrong and
   punishing those that do wrong. God pleads his people's injured cause,
   not only because he is jealous for them, but because he is jealous for
   justice. To illustrate this, it is added that he hates robbery for
   burnt-offering. He hates injustice even in his own people, who honour
   him with what they have in their burnt-offerings, much more does he
   hate it when it is against his own people; if he hates robbery when it
   is for burnt-offerings to himself, much more when it is for
   burnt-offerings to idols, and when not only his people are robbed of
   their estates, but he is robbed of his offerings. It is a truth much to
   the honour of God that ritual services will never atone for the
   violation of moral precepts, nor will it justify any man's robbery to
   say, "It was for burnt-offerings," or Corban--It is a gift. Behold, to
   obey is better than sacrifice, to do justly and love mercy better than
   thousands of rams; nay, that robbery is most of all hateful to God
   which is covered with this pretence, for it makes the righteous God to
   be the patron of unrighteousness. Some make this a reason of the
   rejection of the Jews upon the bringing in of the Gentiles (v. 6),
   because they were so corrupt in their morals, and, while they tithed
   mint and cummin, made nothing of judgment and mercy (Matt. xxiii. 23),
   whereas God loves judgment and insists upon that, and he hates both
   robbery for burnt offerings and burnt-offerings for robbery too, as
   that of the Pharisees, who made long prayers that they might the more
   plausibly devour widows' houses. Others read these words thus: I hate
   rapine by iniquity, that is, the spoil which the enemies of God's
   people had unjustly made of them; God hated this, and therefore would
   reckon with them for it.

   VII. God will entail a blessing upon their posterity after them (v. 9):
   Their seed (the children of those persons themselves that are now the
   blessed of the Lord, or their successors in profession, the church's
   seed) shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation, Ps. xxii. 30. 1.
   They shall signalize themselves and make their neighbours to take
   notice of them: They shall be known among the Gentiles, shall
   distinguish themselves by the gravity, seriousness, humility, and
   cheerfulness of their conversation, especially by that brotherly love
   by which all men shall know them to be Christ's disciples. And, they
   thus distinguishing themselves, God shall dignify them, by making them
   the blessings of their age and instruments of his glory, and by giving
   them remarkable tokens of his favour, which shall make them eminent and
   gain them respect from all about them. Let the children of godly
   parents love in such a manner that they may be known to be such, that
   all who observe them may see in them the fruits of a good education,
   and an answer to the prayers that were put up for them; and then they
   may expect that God will make them known, by the fulfilling of that
   promise to them, that the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
   2. God shall have the glory of this, for every one shall attribute it
   to the blessing of God; all that see them shall see so much of the
   grace of God in them, and his favour towards them, that they shall
   acknowledge them to be the seed which the Lord has blessed and doth
   bless, for it includes both. See what it is to be blessed of God.
   Whatever good appears in any it must be taken notice of as the fruit of
   God's blessing and he must be glorified in it.

The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my
   God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath
   covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh
   himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her
   jewels.   11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden
   causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God
   will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the
   nations.

   Some make this the song of joy and praise to be sung by the prophet in
   the name of Jerusalem, congratulating her on the happy change of her
   circumstances in the accomplishment of the foregoing promises; others
   make it to be spoken by Christ in the name of the New-Testament church
   triumphing in gospel grace. We may take in both, the former as a type
   of the latter. We are here taught to rejoice with holy joy, to God's
   honour, 1. In the beginning of this good work, the clothing of the
   church with righteousness and salvation, v. 10. Upon this account I
   will greatly rejoice in the Lord. Those that rejoice in God have cause
   to rejoice greatly, and we need not fear running into an extreme in the
   greatness of our joy when we make God the gladness of our joy. The
   first gospel song begins like this, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and
   my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, Luke i. 46, 47. There is
   just matter for this joy, and all the reason in the world why it should
   terminate in God; for salvation and righteousness are wrought out and
   brought in, and the church is clothed with them. The salvation God
   wrought for the Jews, and that righteousness of his in which he
   appeared for them, and that reformation which appeared among them, made
   them look as glorious in the eyes of all wise men as if they had been
   clothed in robes of state or nuptial garments. Christ has clothed his
   church with an eternal salvation (and that is truly great) by clothing
   it with the righteousness both of justification and sanctification. The
   clean linen is the righteousness of saints, Rev. xix. 8. Observe how
   these two are put together; those, and those only, shall be clothed
   with the garments of salvation hereafter that are covered with the robe
   of righteousness now: and those garments are rich and splendid
   clothing, like the priestly garments (for so the word signifies) with
   which the bridegroom decks himself. The brightness of the sun itself is
   compared to them. Ps. xix. 5, He is as a bridegroom coming out of his
   chamber, completely dressed. Such is the beauty of God's grace in those
   that are clothed with the robe of righteousness, that by the
   righteousness of Christ are recommended to God's favour and by the
   sanctification of the Spirit have God's image renewed upon them; they
   are decked as a bride to be espoused to God, and taken into covenant
   with him; they are decked as a priest to be employed for God, and taken
   into communion with him. 2. In the progress and continuance of this
   good work, v. 11. It is not like a day of triumph, which is glorious
   for the present, but is soon over. No; the righteousness and salvation
   with which the church is clothed are durable clothing; so they are said
   to be, ch. xxiii. 18. The church, when she is pleasing herself with the
   righteousness and salvation that Jesus Christ has clothed her with,
   rejoices to think that these inestimable blessings shall both spring
   for future ages and spread to distant regions. (1.) They shall spring
   forth for ages to come, as the fruits of the earth which are produced
   very year, from generation to generation. As the earth, even that which
   lies common, brings forth her bud, the tender grass at the return of
   the year, and as the garden enclosed causes the things that are sown in
   it to spring forth in their season, so duly, so constantly, so
   powerfully, and with such advantage to mankind will the Lord God cause
   righteousness and praise to spring forth, by virtue of the covenant of
   grace, as, in the former case, by virtue of the covenant of providence.
   See what the promised blessings are--righteousness and praise (for
   those that are clothed with righteousness show forth the praises of him
   that clothed them); these shall spring forth under the influence of the
   dew of divine grace. Though it may sometimes be winter with the church,
   when those blessings seem to wither and do not appear, yet the root of
   them is fixed, a spring-time will come, when through the reviving beams
   of the approaching Sun of righteousness they shall flourish again. (2.)
   They shall spread far, and spring forth before all the nations; the
   great salvation shall be published and proclaimed to all the world and
   the ends of the earth shall see it.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXII.

   The business of prophets was both to preach and pray. In this chapter,
   I. The prophet determines to apply closely and constantly to this
   business, ver. 1. II. God appoints him and others of his prophets to
   continue to do so, for the encouragement of his people during the
   delays of their deliverance, ver. 6, 7. III. The promises are here
   repeated and ratified of the great things God would do for his church,
   for the Jews after their return out of captivity and for the Christian
   church when it shall be set up in the world. 1. The church shall be
   made honourable in the eyes of the world, ver. 2. 2. It shall appear to
   be very dear to God, precious and honourable in his sight, ver. 3-5. 3.
   It shall enjoy great plenty, ver. 8, 9. 4. It shall be released out of
   captivity and grow up again into a considerable nation, particularly
   owned and favoured by heaven, ver. 10-12.

The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I
   will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
   and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.   2 And the Gentiles
   shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be
   called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.   3 Thou
   shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal
   diadem in the hand of thy God.   4 Thou shalt no more be termed
   Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou
   shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord
   delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.   5 For as a young
   man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the
   bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
   thee.

   The prophet here tells us,

   I. What he will do for the church. A prophet, as he is a seer, so he is
   a spokesman. This prophet resolves to perform that office faithfully,
   v. 1. He will not hold his peace; he will not rest; he will mind his
   business, will take pains, and never desire to take his ease; and
   herein he was a type of Christ, who was indefatigable in executing the
   office of a prophet and made it his meat and drink till he had finished
   his work. Observe here, 1. What the prophet's resolution is: He will
   not hold his peace. He will continue instant in preaching, will not
   only faithfully deliver, but frequently repeat, the messages he has
   received from the Lord. If people receive not the precepts and promises
   at first, he will inculcate them and give them line upon line. And he
   will continue instant in prayer; he will never hold his peace at the
   throne of grace till he has prevailed with God for the mercies
   promised; he will give himself to prayer and to the ministry of the
   word, as Christ's ministers must (Acts vi. 4), who must labour
   frequently in both and never be weary of this well-doing. The business
   of ministers is to speak from God to his people and to God for his
   people; and in neither of these must they be silent. 2. What is the
   principle of this resolution--for Zion's sake, and for Jerusalem's, not
   for the sake of any private interest of his own, but for the church's
   sake, because he has an affection and concern for Zion, and it lies
   near his heart. Whatever becomes of his own house and family, he
   desires to see the good of Jerusalem and resolves to seek it all the
   days of his life, Ps. cxxii. 8, 9; cxviii. 5. It is God's Zion and his
   Jerusalem, and it is therefore dear to him, because it is so to God and
   because God's glory is interested in its prosperity. 3. How long he
   resolves to continue this importunity--till the promise of the church's
   righteousness and salvation, given in the foregoing chapter, be
   accomplished. Isaiah will not himself live to see the release of the
   captives out of Babylon, much less the bringing in of the gospel, in
   which grace reigns through righteousness unto life and salvation; yet
   he will not hold his peace till these be accomplished, even the utmost
   of them, because his prophecies will continue speaking of these things,
   and there shall in every age be a remnant that shall continue to pray
   for them, as successors to him, till the promises be performed, and so
   the prayers answered that were grounded upon them. Then the church's
   righteousness and salvation will go forth as brightness, and as a lamp
   that burns, so plainly that it will carry its own evidence along with
   it. It will bring honour and comfort to the church, which will hereupon
   both look pleasant and appear illustrious; and it will bring
   instruction and direction to the world, a light not only to the eyes
   but to the feet, and to the paths of those who before sat in darkness
   and in the shadow of death.

   II. What God will do for the church. The prophet can but pray and
   preach, but God will confirm the word and answer the prayers. 1. The
   church shall be greatly admired. When that righteousness which is her
   salvation, her praise, and her glory, shall be brought forth, the
   Gentiles shall see it. The tidings of it shall be carried to the
   Gentiles, and a tender of it made to them; they may so see this
   righteousness as to share in it if it be not their own fault. "Even
   kings shall see and be in love with the glory of thy righteousness" (v.
   2), shall overlook the glory of their own courts and kingdoms, and look
   at, and look after, the spiritual glory of the church as that which
   excels. 2. She shall be truly admirable. Great names make men
   considerable in the world, and great respect is paid them thereupon;
   now it is agreed that honor est in honorante--honour derives its value
   from the dignity of him who confers it. God is the fountain of honour
   and from him the church's honour comes: "Thou shalt be called by a new
   name, a pleasant name, such as thou wast never called by before, no,
   not in the day of thy greatest prosperity, and the reverse of that
   which thou wast called by in the day of thy affliction; thou shalt have
   a new character, be advanced to a new dignity, and those about thee
   shall have new thoughts of thee." This seems to be alluded to in that
   promise (Rev. ii. 17) of the white stone and in the stone a new name,
   and that (Rev. iii. 12) of the name of the city of my God and my new
   name. It is a name which the mouth of the Lord shall name, who, we are
   sure, miscalls nothing, and who will oblige others to call her by the
   name he has given her; for his judgment is according to truth and all
   shall concur with it sooner or later. Two names God shall give
   her:--(1.) He shall call her his crown (v. 3): Thou shalt be a crown of
   glory in the hand of the Lord, not on his head (as adding any real
   honour or power to him, as crowns do to those that are crowned with
   them), but in his hand. He is pleased to account them, and show them
   forth, as a glory and beauty to him. When he took them to be his people
   it was that they might be unto him for a name, and for a praise, and
   for a glory (Jer. xiii. 11): "Thou shalt be a crown of glory and a
   royal diadem, through the hand, the good hand, of thy God upon thee; he
   shall make thee so, for he shall be to thee a crown of glory, ch.
   xxviii. 5. Thou shalt be so in his hand, that is, under his protection;
   he that shall put glory upon thee shall create a defence upon all that
   glory, so that the flowers of thy crown shall never wither nor shall
   its jewels be lost." (2.) He shall call her his spouse, v. 4, 5. This
   is a yet greater honour, especially considering what a forlorn
   condition she had been in. [1.] Her case had been very melancholy. She
   was called forsaken and her land desolate during the captivity, like a
   woman reproachfully divorced or left a disconsolate widow. Such as the
   state of religion in the world before the preaching of the gospel--it
   was in a manner forsaken and desolate, a thing that no man looked after
   nor had any real concern for. [2.] It should now be very pleasant, for
   God would return in mercy to her. Instead of those two names of
   reproach, she shall be called by two honourable names. First, She shall
   be called Hephzi-bah, which signifies, My delight is in her; it was the
   name of Hezekiah's queen, Manasseh's mother (2 Kings xxi. 1), a proper
   name for a wife, who ought to be her husband's delight, Prov. v. 19.
   And here it is the church's Maker that is her husband: The Lord
   delights in thee. God by his grace has wrought that in his church which
   makes her his delight, she being refined, and reformed, and brought
   home to him; and then by his providence he does that for her which
   makes it appear that she is his delight and that he delights to do her
   good. Secondly, She shall be called Beulah, which signifies married,
   whereas she had been desolate, a condition opposed to that of the
   married wife, ch. liv. 1. "Thy land shall be married, that is, it shall
   become fruitful again, and be replenished." Though she has long been
   barren, she shall again be peopled, shall again be made to keep house
   and to be a joyful mother of children, Ps. cxiii. 9. She shall be
   married, for, 1. Her sons shall heartily espouse the land of their
   nativity and its interests, which they had for a long time neglected,
   as despairing ever to have any comfortable enjoyment of it: Thy sons
   shall marry thee, that is, they shall live with thee and take delight
   in thee. When they were in Babylon, they seemed to have espoused that
   land, for they were appointed to settle, and to seek the peace of it,
   Jer. xxix. 5-7. But now they shall again marry their own land, as a
   young man marries a virgin that he takes great delight in, is extremely
   fond of, and is likely to have many children by. It bodes well to a
   land when its own natives and inhabitants are pleased with it, prefer
   it before other lands, when its princes marry their country and resolve
   to take their lot with it. 2. Her God (which is much better) shall
   betroth her to himself in righteousness, Hosea ii. 19, 20. He will take
   pleasure in his church: As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, is
   pleased with his relation to her and her affection to him, so shall thy
   God rejoice over thee: he shall rest in his love to thee (Zeph. iii.
   17); he shall take pleasure in thee (Ps. cxlvii. 11), and shall delight
   to do thee good with his whole heart and his whole soul, Jer. xxxii.
   41. This is very applicable to the love Christ has for his church and
   the complacency he takes in it, which appears so brightly in Solomon's
   Song, and which will be complete in heaven.

The Prosperity of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
   hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep
   not silence,   7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he
   make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.   8 The Lord hath sworn by his
   right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give
   thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger
   shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:   9 But
   they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they
   that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my
   holiness.

   Two things are here promised to Jerusalem:--

   I. Plenty of the means of grace--abundance of good preaching and good
   praying (v. 6, 7), and this shows the method God takes when he designs
   mercy for a people; he first brings them to their duty and pours out a
   spirit of prayer upon them, and then brings salvation to them.
   Provision is made,

   1. That ministers may do their duty as watchmen. It is here spoken of
   as a token for good, as a step towards further mercy and an earnest of
   it, that, in order to what he designed for them, he would set watchmen
   on their walls who should never hold their peace. Note, (1.) Ministers
   are watchmen on the church's walls, for it is as a city besieged, whose
   concern it is to have sentinels on the walls, to take notice and give
   notice of the motions of the enemy. It is necessary that, as watchmen,
   they be wakeful, and faithful, and willing to endure hardness. (2.)
   They are concerned to stand upon their guard day and night; they must
   never be off their watch as long as those for whose souls they watch
   are not out of danger. (3.) They must never hold their peace; they must
   take all opportunities to give warning to sinners, in season, out of
   season, and must never betray the cause of Christ by a treacherous or
   cowardly silence. They must never hold their peace at the throne of
   grace; they must pray, and not faint, as Moses lifted up his hands and
   kept them steady, till Israel had obtained the victory over Amalek,
   Exod. xvii. 10, 12.

   2. That people may do their duty. As those that make mention of the
   Lord, let not them keep silence neither, let not them think it enough
   that their watchmen pray for them, but let them pray for themselves;
   all will be little enough to meet the approaching mercy with due
   solemnity. Note, (1.) It is the character of God's professing people
   that they make mention of the Lord, and continue to do so even in bad
   times, when the land is termed forsaken and desolate. They are the
   Lord's remembrancers (so the margin reads it); they remember the Lord
   themselves and put one another in mind of him. (2.) God's professing
   people must be a praying people, must be public-spirited in prayer,
   must wrestle with God in prayer, and continue to do so: "Keep not
   silence; never grow remiss in the duty nor weary of it." Give him no
   rest--alluding to an importunate beggar, to the widow that with her
   continual coming wearied the judge into a compliance. God said to
   Moses, Let me alone (Exod. xxxii. 10), and Jacob to Christ, I will not
   let thee go except thou bless me, Gen. xxxii. 26. (3.) God is so far
   from being displeased with our pressing importunity, as men commonly
   are, that he invites and encourages it; he bids us to cry after him; he
   is not like those disciples who discouraged a petitioner, Matt. xv. 23.
   He bids us make pressing applications at the throne of grace, and give
   him no rest, Luke xi. 5, 8. He suffers himself not only to be reasoned
   with, but to be wrestled with. (4.) The public welfare or prosperity of
   God's Jerusalem is that which we should be most importunate for at the
   throne of grace; we should pray for the good of the church. [1.] That
   it may be safe, that he would establish it, that the interests of the
   church may be firm, may be settled for the present and secured to
   posterity. [2.] That it may be great, may be a praise in the earth,
   that it may be praised, and God may be praised for it. When gospel
   truths are cleared and vindicated, when gospel ordinances are duly
   administered in their purity and power, when the church becomes eminent
   for holiness and love, then Jerusalem is a praise in the earth, then it
   is in reputation. (5.) We must persevere in our prayers for mercy to
   the church till the mercy come; we must do as the prophet's servant
   did, go yet seven times, till the promising cloud appear, 1 Kings
   xviii. 44. (6.) It is a good sign that God is coming towards a people
   in ways of mercy when he pours out a spirit of prayer upon them and
   stirs them up to be fervent and constant in their intercessions.

   II. Plenty of all other good things, v. 8. This follows upon the
   former; when the people praise God, when all the people praise him,
   then shall the earth yield her increase (Ps. lxvii. 5, 6), and outward
   prosperity, crowning its piety, shall help to make Jerusalem a praise
   in the earth. Observe,

   1. The great distress they had been in, and the losses they had
   sustained. Their corn had been meat for their enemies, which they hoped
   would be meat for themselves and their families. Here was a double
   grievance, that they themselves wanted that which was necessary to the
   support of life and were in danger of perishing for want of it, and
   that their enemies were strengthened by it, had their camp victualled
   with it, and so were the better able to do them a mischief. God is said
   to give their corn to their enemies, because he not only permitted it,
   but ordered it, to be the just punishment both of their abuse of plenty
   and of their symbolizing with strangers, ch. i. 7. The wine which they
   had laboured for, and which in their affliction they needed for the
   relief of those among them that were of a heavy heart, strangers drank
   it, to gratify their lusts with; this sore judgment was threatened for
   their sins, Lev. xxvi. 16; Deut. xxviii. 33. See how uncertain our
   creature-comforts are, and how much it is our wisdom to labour for that
   meat which we can never be robbed of.

   2. The great fulness and satisfaction they should now be restored to
   (v. 9): Those that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord.
   See here, (1.) God's mercy in giving plenty, and peace to enjoy
   it,--that the earth yields her increase, that there are hands to be
   employed in gathering it in, and that they are not taken off by plague
   and sickness, or otherwise employed in war,--that strangers and enemies
   do not come and gather it for themselves, or take it from us when we
   have gathered it,--that we eat the labour of our hands and the bread is
   not eaten out of our mouths,--and especially that we have opportunity
   and a heart to honour God with it, and that his courts are open to us
   and we are not restrained from attending on him in them. (2.) Our duty
   in the enjoyment of this mercy. We must gather what God gives, with
   care and industry; we must eat it freely and cheerfully, not bury the
   gifts of God's bounty, but make use of them. We must, when we have
   eaten and are full, bless the Lord, and give him thanks for his bounty
   to us; and we must serve him with our abundance, use it in works of
   piety and charity, eat it and drink it in the courts of his holiness,
   where the altar, the priest, and the poor must all have their share.
   The greatest comfort that a good man has in his meat and drink is that
   it furnishes him with a meat-offering and a drink-offering for the Lord
   his God (Joel ii. 14); the greatest comfort that he has in an estate is
   that it gives him an opportunity of honouring God and doing good. This
   wine is to be drunk in the courts of God's holiness, and therefore
   moderately and with sobriety, as before the Lord.

   3. The solemn ratification of this promise: The Lord has sworn by his
   right hand, and by the arm of his strength, that he will do this for
   his people. God confirms it by an oath, that his people, who trust in
   him and his word, may have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17, 18. And,
   since he can swear by no greater, he swears by himself, sometimes by
   his being (As I live, Ezek. xxxiii. 11), sometimes by his holiness (Ps.
   lxxxix. 35), here by his power, his right hand (which was lifted up in
   swearing, Deut. xxxii. 40), and his arm of power; for it is a great
   satisfaction to those who build their hopes on God's promise to be sure
   that what he has promised he is able to perform, Rom. iv. 21. To assure
   us of this he has sworn by his strength, pawning the reputation of his
   omnipotence upon it; if he do not do it, let it be said, It was because
   he could not, which the Egyptians shall never say (Num. xiv. 16) nor
   any other. It is the comfort of God's people that his power is engaged
   for them, his right hand, where the Mediator sits.

The Advent of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people;
   cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard
   for the people.   11 Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of
   the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation
   cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.   12
   And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord:
   and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

   This, as many like passages before, refers to the deliverance of the
   Jews out of Babylon, and, under the type and figure of that, to the
   great redemption wrought out by Jesus Christ, and the proclaiming of
   gospel grace and liberty through him. 1. Way shall be made for this
   salvation; all difficulties shall be removed, and whatever might
   obstruct it shall be taken out of the way, v. 10. The gates of Babylon
   shall be thrown open, that they may with freedom go through them; the
   way from Babylon to the land of Israel shall be prepared; causeways
   shall be made and cast up through wet and miry places, and the stones
   gathered out from places rough and rocky; in the convenient places
   appointed for their rendezvous standards shall be set up for their
   direction and encouragement, that they may embody for their greater
   safety. Thus John Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord,
   Matt. iii. 3. And, before Christ by his graces and comforts comes to
   any for salvation, preparation is made for him by repentance, which is
   called the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph. vi. 15. Here the
   way is levelled by it, there the feet are shod with it, which comes all
   to one, for both are in order to a journey. 2. Notice shall be given of
   this salvation, v. 11, 12. It shall be proclaimed to the captives that
   they are set at liberty and may go if they please; it shall be
   proclaimed to their neighbours, to all about them, to the end of the
   world, that God has pleaded Zion's just, injured, and despised cause.
   Let is be said to Zion, for her comfort, Behold, thy salvation comes
   (that is, thy Saviour, who brings salvation); he will bring such a
   work, such a reward, in this salvation, as shall be admired by all, a
   reward of comfort and peace with him; but a work of humiliation and
   reformation before him, to prepare his people for that recompence of
   their sufferings; and then, with reference to each, it follows, they
   shall be called, The holy people, and the redeemed of the Lord. The
   work before him, which shall be wrought in them and upon them, shall
   denominate them a holy people, cured of their inclination to idolatry
   and consecrated to God only; and the reward with him, the deliverance
   wrought for them, shall denominate them the redeemed of the Lord, so
   redeemed as none but God could redeem them, and redeemed to be his,
   their bonds loosed, that they might be his servants. Jerusalem shall
   then be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken. She had been forsaken
   for many years; there were neither traders nor worshippers that
   enquired the way to Jerusalem as formerly, when it was frequented by
   both. But now God will again make her considerable. She shall be sought
   out, visited, resorted to, and court made to her, as much as ever. When
   Jerusalem is called a holy city, then it is called sought out; for
   holiness puts an honour and beauty upon any place or person, which
   draws respect, and makes them to be admired, beloved, and enquired
   after. But this being proclaimed to the end of the world must have a
   reference to the gospel of Christ, which was to be preached to every
   creature; and it intimates, (1.) The glory of Christ. It is published
   immediately to the church, but is thence echoed to every nation:
   Behold, thy salvation cometh. Christ is not only the Saviour, but the
   salvation itself; for the happiness of believers is not only from him,
   but in him, ch. xii. 2. His salvation consists both in the work and in
   the reward which he brings with him; for those that are his shall
   neither be idle nor lose their labour. (2.) The beauty of the church.
   Christians shall be called saints (1 Cor. i. 2), the holy people, for
   they are chosen and called to salvation through sanctification. They
   shall be called the redeemed of the Lord; to him they owe their
   liberty, and therefore to him they owe their service, and they shall
   not be ashamed to own both. None are to be called the redeemed of the
   Lord but those that are the holy people; the people of God's purchase
   are a holy nation. And they shall be called, Sought out. God shall seek
   them out, and find them, wherever they are dispersed, eclipsed, or lost
   in a crowd; men shall seek them out, that they may join themselves to
   them, and not forsake them. It is good to associate with the holy
   people, that we may learn their ways, and with the redeemed of the
   Lord, that we may share in the blessings of the redemption.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXIII.

   In this chapter we have, I. God coming towards his people in ways of
   mercy and deliverance, and this is to be joined to the close of the
   foregoing chapter, where it was said to Zion, "Behold, thy salvation
   comes;" for here it is shown how it comes, ver. 1-6. II. God's people
   meeting him with their devotions, and addressing themselves to him with
   suitable affections; and this part of the chapter is carried on to the
   close of the next. In this we have, 1. A thankful acknowledgment of the
   great favours God had bestowed upon them, ver. 7. 2. The magnifying of
   these favours, from the consideration of God's relation to them (ver.
   8), his compassionate concern for them (ver. 9), their unworthiness
   (ver. 10), and the occasion which it gave both him and them to call to
   mind former mercies, ver. 11-14. 3. A very humble and earnest prayer to
   God to appear for them in their present distress, pleading God's mercy
   (ver. 15), their relation to him (ver. 16), their desire towards him
   (ver. 17), and the insolence of their enemies, ver. 18, 19. So that,
   upon the whole, we learn to embrace God's promises with an active
   faith, and then to improve them, and make use of them, both in prayers
   and praises.

The Triumphs of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?
   this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of
   his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.   2
   Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that
   treadeth in the wine-fat?   3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and
   of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine
   anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled
   upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.   4 For the day of
   vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.   5
   And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was
   none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and
   my fury, it upheld me.   6 And I will tread down the people in mine
   anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their
   strength to the earth.

   It is a glorious victory that is here enquired into first and then
   accounted for. 1. It is a victory obtained by the providence of God
   over the enemies of Israel; over the Babylonians (say some), whom Cyrus
   conquered and God by him, and they will have the prophet to make the
   first discovery of him in his triumphant return when he is in the
   country of Edom: but this can by no means be admitted, because the
   country of Babylon is always spoken of as the land of the north,
   whereas Edom lay south from Jerusalem, so that the conqueror would not
   return through that country; the victory therefore is obtained over the
   Edomites themselves, who had triumphed in the destruction of Jerusalem
   by the Chaldeans (Ps. cxxxvii. 7) and cut off those who, making their
   way as far as they could from the enemy, escaped to the Edomites (Obad.
   12, 13), and were therefore reckoned with when Babylon was; for no
   doubt that prophecy was accomplished, though we do not meet in history
   with the accomplishment of it (Jer. xlix. 13), Bozrah shall become a
   desolation. Yet this victory over Edom is put as an instance or
   specimen of the like victories obtained over other nations that had
   been enemies to Israel. This over the Edomites is named for the sake of
   the old enmity of Esau against Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 41) and perhaps with
   an allusion to David's glorious triumphs over the Edomites, by which it
   should seem, more than by any other of his victories, he got himself a
   name, Ps. lx., title, 2 Sam. viii. 13, 14. But this is not all: 2. It
   is a victory obtained by the grace of God in Christ over our spiritual
   enemies. We find the garments dipped in blood adorning him whose name
   is called The Word of God, Rev. xix. 13. And who that is we know very
   well; for it is through him that we are more than conquerors over those
   principalities and powers which on the cross he spoiled and triumphed
   over.

   In this representation of the victory we have,

   I. An admiring question put to the conqueror, v. 1, 2. It is put by the
   church, or by the prophet in the name of the church. He sees a mighty
   hero returning in triumph from a bloody engagement, and makes bold to
   ask him two questions:--1. Who he is. He observes him to come from the
   country of Edom, to come in such apparel as was glorious to a soldier,
   not embroidered or laced, but besmeared with blood and dirt. He
   observes that he does not come as one either frightened or fatigued,
   but that he travels in the greatness of his strength, altogether
   unbroken.


   Triumphant and victorious he appears,

   And honour in his looks and habit wears.

   How strong he treads! how stately doth he go!

   Pompous and solemn is his pace,

   And full of majesty, as is his face;

   Who is this mighty hero--who?--

   Mr. Norris.

   The question, Who is this? perhaps means the same with that which
   Joshua put to the same person when he appeared to him with his sword
   drawn (Josh. v. 13): Art thou for us or for our adversaries? Or,
   rather, the same with that which Israel put in a way of adoration
   (Exod. xv. 11): Who is a God like unto thee? 2. The other question it,
   "Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel? What hard service hast thou
   been engaged in, that thou carriest with thee these marks of toil and
   danger?" Is it possible that one who has such majesty and terror in his
   countenance should be employed in the mean and servile work of treading
   the wine-press? Surely it is not. That which is really the glory of the
   Redeemer seems, primâ facie--at first, a disparagement to him, as it
   would be to a mighty prince to do the work of the wine-dressers and
   husbandmen; for he took upon him the form of a servant, and carried
   with him the marks of servitude.

   II. An admirable answer returned by him.

   1. He tells who he is: I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
   He is the Saviour. God was Israel's Saviour out of the hand of their
   oppressors; the Lord Jesus is ours; his name, Jesus, signifies a
   Saviour, for he saves his people from their sins. In the salvation
   wrought he will have us to take notice, (1.) Of the truth of his
   promise, which is therein performed: He speaks in righteousness, and
   will therefore make good every word that he has spoken with which he
   will have us to compare what he does, that, setting the word and the
   work the one over against the other, what he does may ratify what he
   has said and what he has said may justify what he does. (2.) Of the
   efficacy of his power, which is therein exerted: He is mighty to save,
   able to bring about the promised redemption, whatever difficulties and
   oppositions may lie in the way of it.


   'Tis I who to my promise faithful stand,

   I, who the powers of death, hell, and the grave,

   Have foil'd with this all-conquering hand,

   I, who most ready am, and mighty too, to save.

   Mr. Norris.

   2. He tells how he came to appear in this hue (v. 3): I have trodden
   the wine-press alone. Being compared to one that treads in the
   wine-fat, such is his condescension, in the midst of his triumphs, that
   he does not scorn the comparison, but admits it and carries it on. He
   does indeed tread the wine-press, but it is the great wine-press of the
   wrath of God (Rev. xiv. 19), in which we sinners deserved to be cast;
   but Christ was pleased to cast our enemies into it, and to destroy him
   that had the power of death, that he might deliver us. And of this the
   bloody work which God sometimes made among the enemies of the Jews, and
   which is here foretold, was a type and figure. Observe the account the
   conqueror gives of his victory.

   (1.) He gains the victory purely by his own strength: I have trodden
   the wine-press alone, v. 3. When God delivered his people and destroyed
   their enemies, if he made use of instruments, he did not need them. But
   among his people, for whom the salvation was to be wrought, no
   assistance offered itself; they were weak and helpless, and had no
   ability to do any thing for their own relief; they were desponding and
   listless, and had no heart to do any thing; they were not disposed to
   give the least stroke or struggle for liberty, neither the captives
   themselves nor any of their friends for them (v. 5): "I looked, and
   there was none to help, as one would have expected, nothing of a bold
   active spirit appeared among them; nay, there was not only none to
   lead, but, which was more strange, there was none to uphold, none that
   would come in as a second, that had the courage to join with Cyrus
   against their oppressors; therefore my arm brought about the salvation;
   not by created might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts,
   my own arm." Note, God can help when all other helpers fail; nay, that
   is his time to help, and therefore for that very reason he will put
   forth his own power so much the more gloriously. But this is most fully
   applicable to Christ's victories over our spiritual enemies, which he
   obtained by a single combat. He trod the wine-press of his Father's
   wrath alone, and triumphed over principalities and powers in himself,
   Col. ii. 15. Of the people there was none with him; for, when he
   entered the lists with the powers of darkness, all his disciples
   forsook him and fled. There was non to help, none that could, none that
   durst; and he might well wonder that among the children of men, whose
   concern it was, there was not only none to uphold, but that there were
   so many to oppose and hinder it if they could.

   (2.) He undertakes the war purely out of his own zeal. It is in his
   anger, it is in his fury, that he treads down his enemies (v. 3), and
   that fury upholds him and carries him on in this enterprise, v. 5. God
   wrought salvation for the oppressed Jews purely because he was very
   angry with the oppressing Babylonians, angry at their idolatries and
   sorceries, their pride and cruelty, and the injuries they did to his
   people, and, as they increased their abominations and grew more
   insolent and outrageous, his anger increased to fury. Our Lord Jesus
   wrought out our redemption in a holy zeal for the honour of his Father
   and the happiness of mankind, and a holy indignation at the daring
   attempts Satan had made upon both; this zeal and indignation upheld him
   throughout his whole undertaking. Two branches there were of this zeal
   that animated him:--[1.] He had a zeal against his and his people's
   enemies: The day of vengeance is in my heart (v. 4), the day fixed in
   the eternal counsels for taking vengeance on them; this was written in
   his heart, so that he could not forget it, could not let it slip; his
   heart was full of it, and it lay as a charge, as a weight, upon him,
   which made him push on this holy war with so much vigour. Note, There
   is a day fixed for divine vengeance, which may be long deferred, but
   will come at last; and we may be content to wait for it, for the
   Redeemer himself does so, though his heart is upon it. [2.] He had a
   zeal for his people, and for all that he designed to make sharers in
   the intended salvation: "The year of my redeemed has come, the year
   appointed for their redemption." There was a year fixed for the
   deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and God kept time to a day (Exod.
   xii. 41); so there was for their release out of Babylon (Dan. ix. 2);
   so there was for Christ's coming to destroy the works of the devil; so
   there is for all the deliverances of the church, and the deliverer has
   an eye to it. Observe, First, With what pleasure he speaks of his
   people; they are his redeemed; they are his own, dear to him. Though
   their redemption is not yet wrought out, yet he calls them his
   redeemed, because it shall as surely be done as if it were done
   already. Secondly, With what pleasure he speaks of his people's
   redemption; how glad he is that the time has come, though he is likely
   to meet with a sharp encounter. "Now that the year of my redeemed has
   come, Lo, I come; delay shall be no longer. Now will I arise, saith the
   Lord. Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh." Note, The promised
   salvation must be patiently waited for till the time appointed comes;
   yet we must attend the promises with our prayers. Does Christ say,
   Surely I come quickly; let our hearts reply, Even so come; let the year
   of the redeemed come.

   (3.) He will obtain a complete victory over them all. [1.] Much is
   already done; for he now appears red in his apparel; such abundance of
   blood is shed that the conqueror's garments are all stained with it.
   This was predicted, long before, by dying Jacob, concerning Shiloh
   (that is, Christ), that he should wash his garments in wine and his
   clothes in the blood of grapes, which perhaps this alludes to, Gen.
   xlix. 11.


   With ornamental drops bedeck'd I stood,

   And wrote my vict'ry with my en'my's blood.

   Mr. Norris.

   In the destruction of the antichristian powers we meet with abundance
   of blood shed (Rev. xiv. 20, xix. 13), which yet, according to the
   dialect of prophecy, may be understood spiritually, and doubtless so
   may this here. [2.] More shall yet be done (v. 6): I will tread down
   the people that yet stand it out against me, in my anger; for the
   victorious Redeemer, when the year of the redeemed shall have come,
   will go on conquering and to conquer, Rev. vi. 2. When he begins he
   will also make an end. Observe how he will complete his victories over
   the enemies of his church. First, He will infatuate them; he will make
   them drunk, so that there shall be neither sense nor steadiness in
   their counsels; they shall drink of the cup of his fury, and that shall
   intoxicate them: or he will make them drunk with their own blood, Rev.
   xvii. 6. Let those that make themselves drunk with the cup of riot (and
   then they are in their fury) repent and reform, lest God make them
   drunk with the cup of trembling, the cup of his fury. Secondly, He will
   enfeeble them; he will bring down their strength, and so bring them
   down to the earth; for what strength can hold out against Omnipotence?

Acknowledgments of Divine Goodness. (b. c. 706.)

   7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of
   the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the
   great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on
   them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his
   lovingkindnesses.   8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children
   that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.   9 In all their affliction
   he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love
   and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them
   all the days of old.   10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit:
   therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
     11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying,
   Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of
   his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?   12 That
   led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the
   water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?   13 That led
   them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should
   not stumble?   14 As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of
   the Lord caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make
   thyself a glorious name.

   The prophet is here, in the name of the church, taking a review, and
   making a thankful recognition, of God's dealings with his church all
   along, ever since he founded it, before he comes, in the latter end of
   this chapter and in the next, as a watchman upon the walls, earnestly
   to pray to God for his compassion towards her in her present deplorable
   state; and it was usual for God's people, in their prayers, thus to
   look back.

   I. Here is a general acknowledgment of God's goodness to them all
   along, v. 7. It was said, in general, of God's prophets and people (ch.
   lxii. 6) that they made mention of the Lord; now here we are told what
   it is in God that they do especially delight to make mention of, and
   that is his goodness, which the prophet here so makes mention of as if
   he thought he could never say enough of it. He mentions the kindness of
   God (which never appeared so evident, so eminent, as in his love to
   mankind in sending his Son to save us, Tit. iii. 4), his
   loving-kindness, kindness that shows itself in every thing that is
   endearing; nay, so plenteous are the springs, and so various the
   streams, of divine mercy, that he speaks of it in the plural
   number--his loving-kindnesses; for, if we would count the fruits of his
   loving-kindness, they are more in number than the sand. With his
   loving-kindnesses he mentions his praises, that is, the thankful
   acknowledgments which the saints make of his loving-kindness, and the
   angels too. It must be mentioned, to God's honour, what a tribute of
   praise is paid to him by all his creatures in consideration of his
   loving-kindness. See how copiously he speaks, 1. Of the goodness that
   is from God, the gifts of his loving-kindness--all that the Lord has
   bestowed on us in particular, relating to life and godliness, in our
   personal and family capacity. Let every man speak for himself, speak as
   he has found, and he must own that he has had a great deal bestowed
   upon him by the divine bounty. But we must also mention the favours
   bestowed upon his church, his great goodness towards the house of
   Israel, which he has bestowed on them. Note, We must bless God for the
   mercies enjoyed by others as well as for those enjoyed by ourselves,
   and reckon that bestowed on ourselves which is bestowed on the house of
   Israel. 2. Of the goodness that is in God. God does good because he is
   good; what he bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is
   according to his mercies (not according to our merits) and according to
   the multitude of his loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus
   we should magnify God's goodness, and speak honourably of it, not only
   when we plead it (as David, Ps. li. 1), but when we praise it.

   II. Here is particular notice taken of the steps of God's mercy to
   Israel ever since it was formed into a nation.

   1. The expectations God had concerning them that they would conduct
   themselves well, v. 8. When he brought them out of Egypt and took them
   into covenant with himself he said, "Surely they are my people, I take
   them as such, and am willing to hope they will approve themselves so,
   children that will not lie," that will not dissemble with God in their
   covenantings with him, nor treacherously depart from him by breaking
   their covenant and starting aside like a broken bow. They said, more
   than once, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will be
   obedient; and thereupon he took them to be his peculiar people, saying,
   Surely they will not lie. God deals fairly and faithfully with them,
   and therefore expects they should deal so with him. They are children
   of the covenant (Acts iii. 25), children of those that clave unto the
   Lord, and therefore it may be hoped that they will tread in the steps
   of their fathers' constancy. Note, God's people are children that will
   not lie; for those that will are not his children but the devil's.

   2. The favour he showed them with an eye to these expectations: So he
   was their Saviour out of the bondage of Egypt and all the calamities of
   their wilderness-state, and many a time since he had been their
   Saviour. See particularly (v. 9) what he did for them as their Saviour.
   (1.) The principle that moved him to work salvation for them; it was in
   his love and in his pity, out of mere compassion to them and a tender
   affection for them, not because he either needed them or could be
   benefited by them. This is strangely expressed here: In all their
   affliction he was afflicted; not that the Eternal Mind is capable of
   grieving or God's infinite blessedness of suffering the least damage or
   diminution (God cannot be afflicted); but thus he is pleased to show
   forth the love and concern he has for his people in their affliction;
   thus far he sympathizes with them, that he takes what injury is done to
   them as done to himself and will reckon for it accordingly. Their cries
   move him (Exod. iii. 7), and he appears for them as vigorously as if he
   were pained in their pain. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? This is
   matter of great comfort to God's people in their affliction that God is
   so far from afflicting willingly (Lam. iii. 33) that, if they humble
   themselves under his hand, he is afflicted in their affliction, as the
   tender parents are in the severe operations which the case of a sick
   child calls for. There is another reading of these words in the
   original: In all their affliction there was no affliction; though they
   were in great affliction, yet the property of it was so altered by the
   grace of God sanctifying it to them for their good, the rigour of it
   was so mitigated and it was so allayed and balanced with mercies, they
   were so wonderfully supported and comforted under it, and it proved so
   short, and ended so well, that it was in effect no affliction. The
   troubles of the saints are not that to them which they are to others;
   they are not afflictions, but medicines; saints are enabled to call
   them light, and but for a moment, and, with an eye to heaven as all in
   all, to make nothing of them. (2.) The person employed in their
   salvation--the angel of his face, or presence. Some understand it of a
   created angel. The highest angel in heaven, even the angel of his
   presence, that attends next the throne of his glory, is not thought too
   great, too good, to be sent on this errand. Thus the little ones'
   angels are said to be those that always behold the face of our Father,
   Matt. xviii. 10. But this is rather to be understood of Jesus Christ,
   the eternal Word, that angel of whom God spoke to Moses (Exod. xxiii.
   20, 21), whose voice Israel was to obey. He is called Jehovah, Exod.
   xiii. 21; xiv. 21, 24. He is the angel of the covenant, God's messenger
   to the world, Mal. iii. 1. He is the angel of God's face, for he is the
   express image of his person; and the glory of God shines in the face of
   Christ. He that was to work out the eternal salvation, as an earnest of
   that, wrought out the temporal salvations that were typical of it. (3.)
   The progress and perseverance of this favour. He not only redeemed them
   out of their bondage, but he bore them and carried them all the days of
   old; they were weak, but he supported them by his power, sustained them
   by his bounty; when they were burdened, and ready to sink, he bore them
   up; in the wars they made upon the nations he stood by them and bore
   them out; though they were peevish, he bore with them and suffered
   their manners, Acts xiii. 18. He carried them as the nursing father
   does the child, though they would have tired any arms but his; he
   carried them as the eagle her young upon her wings, Deut. xxxii. 11.
   And it was a long time that he was troubled with them (if we may so
   speak): it was all the days of old; his care of them was not at an end
   even when they had grown up and were settled in Canaan. All this was in
   his love and pity, ex mero motu--of his mere good-will; he loved them
   because he would love them, as he says, Deut. vii. 7, 8.

   3. Their disingenuous conduct towards him, and the trouble they thereby
   brought upon themselves (v. 10): But they rebelled. Things looked very
   hopeful and promising; one would have thought that they should have
   continued dutiful children to God, and then there was no doubt but he
   would have continued a gracious Father to them; but here is a sad
   change on both sides, and on them be the breach. (1.) They revolted
   from their allegiance to God and took up arms against him: They
   rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit with their unbelief and murmuring,
   besides the iniquity of the golden calf; and this had been their way
   and manner ever since. Though he was ready to say of them, They will
   not lie, though he had done so much for them, borne them and carried
   them, yet they thus ill requited him, like foolish people and unwise,
   Deut. xxxii. 6. This grieved him, Ps. cxv. 10. The ungrateful
   rebellions of God's children against him are a vexation to his Holy
   Spirit. (2.) Thereupon he justly withdrew his protection, and not only
   so, but made war upon them, as a prince justly does upon the rebels. He
   who had been so much their friend was turned to be their enemy and
   fought against them, by one judgment after another, both in the
   wilderness and after their settlement in Canaan. See the malignity and
   mischievousness of sin; it makes God an enemy even to those for whom he
   has done the part of a good friend, and makes him angry who was all
   love and pity. See the folly of sinners; they wilfully lose him for a
   friend who is the most desirable friend, and make him their enemy who
   is the most formidable enemy. This refers especially to those
   calamities that were of late brought upon them by their captivity in
   Babylon for their idolatries and other sins. That which is both the
   original and the great aggravation of their troubles was that God was
   turned to be their enemy.

   4. A particular reflection made, on this occasion, upon what God did
   for them when he first formed them into a people: Then he remembered
   the days of old, v. 11.

   (1.) This may be understood either of the people or of God. [1.] We may
   understand it of the people. Israel then (spoken of as a single person)
   remembered the days of old, looked into their Bibles, read the story of
   God's bringing their fathers out of Egypt, considered it more closely
   than ever they did before, and reasoned upon it, as Gideon did (Judg.
   vi. 13), Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? "Where
   is he that brought them up out of Egypt? Is he not as able to bring us
   up out of Babylon? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the Lord
   God of our fathers?" This they consider as an inducement and an
   encouragement to them to repent and return to him; their fathers were a
   provoking people and yet found him a pardoning God; and why may not
   they find him so if they return to him? They also use it as a plea with
   God in prayer for the turning again of their captivity, like that ch.
   li. 9, 10. Note, When the present days are dark and cloudy it is good
   to remember the days of old, to recollect our own and others'
   experiences of the divine power and goodness and make use of them, to
   look back upon the years of the right hand of the Most High (Ps.
   lxxvii. 5, 10), and remember that he is God, and changes not. [2.] We
   may understand it of God; he put himself in mind of the days of old, of
   his covenant with Abraham (Lev. xxvi. 42); he said, Where is he that
   brought Israel up out of the sea? stirring up himself to come and save
   them with this consideration, "Why should not I appear for them now as
   I did for their fathers, who were as undeserving, as ill-deserving, as
   they are?" See how far off divine mercy will go, how far back it will
   look, to find out a reason for doing good to his people, when no
   present considerations appear but what make against them. Nay, it makes
   that a reason for relieving them which might have been used as a reason
   for abandoning them. He might have said, "I have delivered them
   formerly, but they have again brought trouble upon themselves (Prov.
   xix. 19); there I will deliver them no more," Judg. x. 13. But no;
   mercy rejoices against judgment, and turns the argument the other way:
   "I have formerly delivered them and therefore will now."

   (2.) Which way soever we take it, whether the people plead it with God
   or God with himself, let us view the particulars, and they agree very
   much with the confession and prayer which the children of the captivity
   made upon a solemn fast-day (Neh. ix. 5, &c.), which may serve as a
   comment on these verses which call to mind Moses and his people, that
   is, what God did by Moses for his people, especially in bringing them
   through the Red Sea, for that is it that is here most insisted on; for
   it was a work which he much gloried in and which his people therefore
   may in a particular manner encourage themselves with the remembrance
   of. [1.] God led them by the right hand of Moses (v. 12) and the
   wonder-working rod in his hand. Ps. lxxvii. 20, Thou leddest thy people
   like a flock by the hand of Moses. It was not Moses that led them, any
   more than it was Moses that fed them (John vi. 32), but God by Moses;
   for it was he that qualified Moses for, called him to, assisted and
   prospered him in that great undertaking. Moses is here called the
   shepherd of his flock; God was the owner of the flock and the chief
   shepherd of Israel (Ps. lxxx. 1); but Moses was a shepherd under him,
   and he was inured to labour and patience, and so fitted for this
   pastoral care, by his being trained up to keep the flock of his father
   Jethro. Herein he was a type of Christ the good shepherd, that lays
   down his life for the sheep, which was more than Moses did for Israel,
   though he did a great deal for them. [2.] He put his holy Spirit within
   him; the Spirit of God was among them, and not only his providence, but
   his grace, did work for them. Neh. ix. 20, Thou gavest thy good Spirit
   to instruct them. The spirit of wisdom and courage, as well as the
   Spirit of prophecy, was put into Moses, to qualify him for that service
   among them to which he was called; and some of his spirit was put upon
   the seventy elders, Num. xi. 17. This was a great blessing to Israel,
   that they had among them not only inspired writings, but inspired men.
   [3.] He carried them safely through the Red Sea, and thereby saved them
   out of the hands of Pharaoh. First, He divided the water before them
   (v. 12), so that it gave them not only passage, but protection, not
   only opened them a lane, but erected them a wall on either side.
   Secondly, He led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, or
   in the plain (v. 13); they and their wives and children, with all their
   baggage, went as easily and readily through the bottom of the sea
   (though we may suppose it muddy or stony, or both) as a horse goes
   along upon even ground; so that they did not stumble, though it was an
   untrodden path, which neither they nor any one else ever went before.
   If God make us a way, he will make it plain and level; the road he
   opens to his people he will lead them in. Thirdly, To complete the
   mercy, he brought them up out of the sea, v. 11. Though the ascent, it
   is likely, was very steep, dirty, slippery, and unconquerable (at least
   by the women and children, and the men, considering how they were
   loaded, Exod. xii. 34, and how fatigued), yet God by his power brought
   them up from the depths of the earth; and it was a kind of resurrection
   to them; it was as life from the dead. [4.] He brought them safely to a
   place of rest: As a beast goes down into the valley, carefully and
   gradually, so the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. Many a time in
   their march through the wilderness they had resting-places provided for
   them by the direction of the Spirit of the Lord in Moses, v. 11. And at
   length they were made to rest finally in Canaan, and the Spirit of the
   Lord gave them that rest according to the promise. It is by the Spirit
   of the Lord that God's Israel are caused to return to God and repose in
   him as their rest. [5.] All this he did for them by his own power, for
   his own praise. First, It was by his own power, as the God of nature,
   that has all the powers of nature at his command; he did it with his
   glorious arm, the arm of his gallantry, or bravery; so the word
   signifies. It was not Moses's rod, but God's glorious arm, that did it.
   Secondly, It was for his own praise, to make himself an everlasting
   name (v. 12), a glorious name (v. 14), that he might be glorified,
   everlastingly glorified, upon this account. This is that which God is
   doing in the world with his glorious arm, he is making to himself a
   glorious name, and it shall last to endless ages, when the most
   celebrated names of the great ones of the earth shall be written in the
   dust.

Earnest Pleadings. (b. c. 706.)

   15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy
   holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the
   sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they
   restrained?   16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be
   ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our
   father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.   17 O Lord, why
   hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy
   fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
   18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our
   adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.   19 We are thine: thou
   never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

   The foregoing praises were intended as an introduction to this prayer,
   which is continued to the end of the next chapter, and it is an
   affectionate, importunate, pleading prayer. It is calculated for the
   time of the captivity. As they had promises, so they had prayers,
   prepared for them against that time of need, that they might take with
   them words in turning to the Lord, and say unto him what he himself
   taught them to say, in which they might the better hope to prevail, the
   words being of God's own inditing. Some good interpreters think this
   prayer looks further, and that it expresses the complaints of the Jews
   under their last and final rejection from God and destruction by the
   Romans; for there is one passage in it (ch. lxiv. 4) which is applied
   to the grace of the gospel by the apostle (1 Cor. ii. 9), that grace
   for the rejecting of which they were rejected. In these verses we may
   observe,

   I. The petitions they put up to God. 1. That he would take cognizance
   of their case and of the desires of their souls towards him: Look down
   from heaven, and behold, v. 15. They knew very well that God sees all,
   but they prayed that he would regard them, would condescend to favour
   them, would look upon them with an eye of compassion and concern, as he
   looked upon the affliction of his people in Egypt when he was about to
   appear for their deliverance. In begging that he would only look down
   upon them and behold them they did in effect appeal to his justice
   against their enemies, and pray for judgment against them (as
   Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 11, 12, Behold, how they reward us. Wilt thou
   not judge them?), implicitly confiding in his mercy and wisdom as to
   the way in which he will relieve them (Ps. xxv. 18, Look upon my
   affliction and my pain): Look down from the habitation of thy holiness
   and of thy glory. God's holiness is his glory. Heaven is his
   habitation, the throne of his glory, where he most manifests his glory,
   and whence he is said to look down upon the earth, Ps. xxxiii. 14. His
   holiness is in a special manner celebrated there by the blessed angels
   (ch. vi. 3; Rev. iv. 8); there his holy ones attend him, and are
   continually about him; so that it is the habitation of his holiness. It
   is an encouragement to all his praying people, who desire to be holy as
   he is holy, that he dwells in a holy place. 2. That he would take a
   course for their relief (v. 17): "Return; change thy way towards us,
   and proceed not in thy controversy with us; return in mercy, and let us
   have not only a gracious look towards us, but thy gracious presence
   with us." God's people dread nothing more than his departures from them
   and desire nothing more than his returns to them.

   II. The complaints they made to God. Two things they complained of:--1.
   That they were given up to themselves, and God's grace did not recover
   them, v. 17. It is a strange expostulation, "Why hast thou made us to
   err from thy ways, that is, many among us, the generality of us; and
   this complaint we have all of us some cause to make that thou hast
   hardened our heart from thy fear." Some make it to be the language of
   those among them that were impious and profane; when the prophets
   reproved them for the error of their ways, their hardness of heart, and
   contempt of God's word and commandments, they with a daring impudence
   charged their sin upon God, made him the author of it, and asked why
   doth he then find fault? Note, Those are wicked indeed that lay the
   blame of their wickedness upon God. But I rather take it to be the
   language of those among them that lamented the unbelief and impenitence
   of their people, not accusing God of being the author of their
   wickedness, but complaining of it to him. They owned that they had
   erred from God's ways, that their hearts had been hardened from his
   fear, that they had not received the impressions which the fear of God
   ought to make upon them and this was the cause of all their errors from
   his ways; or from his fear may mean from the true worship of God, and
   that is a hard heart indeed which is alienated from the service of a
   God so incontestably great and good. Now this they complain of, as
   their great misery and burden, that God had for their sins left them to
   this, had permitted them to err from his ways and had justly withheld
   his grace, so that their hearts were hardened from his fear. When they
   ask, Why hast thou done this? it is not as charging him with wrong, but
   lamenting it as a sore judgment. God had caused them to err and
   hardened their hearts, not only by withdrawing his Spirit from them,
   because they had grieved, and vexed, and quenched him (v. 10), but by a
   judicial sentence upon them (Go, make the heart of this people fat, ch.
   vi. 9, 10) and by his providences concerning them, which had proved sad
   occasions for their departure from him. David complains of his
   banishment, because in it he was in effect bidden to go and serve other
   gods, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. Their troubles had alienated many of them from
   God, and prejudiced them against his service; and, because the rod of
   the wicked had lain long on their lot, they were ready to put forth
   their hand unto iniquity (Ps. cxxv. 3), and this was the thing they
   complained most of; their afflictions were their temptations, and to
   many of them invincible ones. Note, Convinced consciences complain most
   of spiritual judgments and dread that most in an affliction which draws
   them from God and duty. 2. That they were given up to their enemies,
   and God's providence did not rescue and relieve them (v. 18): Our
   adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. As it was a grief to them
   that in their captivity the generality of them had lost their affection
   to God's worship, and had their hearts hardened from it by their
   affliction, so it was a further grief that they were deprived of their
   opportunities of worshipping God in solemn assemblies. They complained
   not so much of the adversaries treading down their houses and cities as
   of their treading down God's sanctuary, because thereby God was
   immediately affronted, and they were robbed of the comforts they valued
   most and took most pleasure in.

   III. The pleas they urged with God for mercy and deliverance. 1. They
   pleaded the tender compassion God used to show to his people and his
   ability and readiness to appear for them, v. 15. The most prevailing
   arguments in prayer are those that are taken from God himself; such
   these are. Where is thy zeal and thy strength? God has a zeal for his
   own glory, and for the comfort of his people; his name is Jealous; and
   he is a jealous God; and he has strength proportionable to secure his
   own glory and the interest of his people, in despite of all opposition.
   Now where are these? Have they not formerly appeared? Why do they not
   appear now? It cannot be that divine zeal, which is infinitely wise and
   just, should be cooled, that divine strength, which is infinite, should
   be weakened. Nay, his people had experienced not only his zeal and his
   strength, but the sounding of his bowels, or rather the yearning of
   them, such a degree of compassion to them as in men causes a commotion
   and agitation within them, as Hos. xi. 8, My heart is turned within me,
   my repentings are kindled together; and Jer. xxxi. 20, My bowels are
   troubled (or sound) for him. "Thus God used to be affected towards his
   people, and to express a multitude of mercies towards them; but where
   are they now? Are they restrained? Ps. lxxvii. 9. Has God, who so often
   remembered to be gracious, now forgotten to be so? Has he in anger shut
   up his tender mercies? It can never be." Note, We may ground good
   expectations of further mercy upon our experiences of former mercy. 2.
   They pleaded God's relation to them as their Father (v. 16): "Thy
   tender mercies are not restrained, for they are the tender mercies of a
   father, who, though he may be for a time displeased with his child,
   will yet, through the force of natural affection, soon be reconciled.
   Doubtless thou art our Father, and therefore thy bowels will yearn
   towards us." Such good thoughts of God as these we should always keep
   up in our hearts. However it be, yet God is good; for he is our Father.
   They own themselves fatherless if he be not their Father, and so cast
   themselves upon him with whom the fatherless findeth mercy, Hos. xiv.
   3. It was the honour of their nation that they had Abraham to their
   father (Matt. iii. 9), who was the friend of God, and Israel, who was a
   prince with God; but what the better were they for that unless they had
   God himself for their Father? "Abraham and Israel cannot help us; they
   have not the power that God has; they are dead long since, and are
   ignorant of us, and acknowledge us not; they know not what our case is,
   nor what our wants are, and therefore know not which way to do us a
   kindness. If Abraham and Israel were alive with us, they would
   intercede for us and advise us; but they have gone to the other world,
   and we know not that they have any communication at all with this
   world, and therefore they are not capable of doing us any kindness any
   further than that we have the honour of being called their children."
   When the father is dead his sons come to honour and he knows it not,
   Job xiv. 21. "But thou, O Lord! art our Father still (the fathers of
   our flesh may call themselves ever-loving; but they are not
   ever-living; it is God only that is the immortal Father, that always
   knows us, and is never at a distance from us), and therefore our
   Redeemer from everlasting is thy name, the name by which we will know
   and own thee. It is the name by which from of old thou hast been known;
   thy people have always looked upon thee as the God to whom they might
   appeal to redress their grievances and plead their cause. Nay"
   (according to the sense some give of this place), "though Abraham and
   Israel not only cannot, but would not, help us, thou wilt. They have
   not the pity thou hast. We are so degenerate and corrupt that Abraham
   and Israel would not own us for their children, yet we fly to thee as
   our Father. Abraham cast out his son Ishmael; Jacob disinherited his
   son Reuben and cursed Simeon and Levi; but our heavenly Father, in
   pardoning sin, is God, and not man," Hos. xi. 9. 3. They pleaded God's
   interest in them, that he was their Lord, their owner and proprietor:
   "We are thy servants; what service we can do thou art entitled to, and
   therefore we ought not to serve strange kings and strange gods: Return
   for thy servants' sake." As a father finds himself obliged by natural
   affection to relieve and protect his child, so a master thinks himself
   obliged in honour to rescue and protect his servant: "We are thine by
   the strongest engagements, as well as the highest endearments. Thou
   hast borne rule over us; therefore, Lord, assert thy own interest,
   maintain thy own right; for we are called by thy name, and therefore
   whither shall we go but to thee, to be righted and protected? We are
   thine, save us (Ps. cxix. 94), thy own, acknowledge us. We are the
   tribes of thy inheritance, not only thy servants, but thy tenants; we
   are thine, not only to do work for thee, but to pay rent to thee. The
   tribes of Israel are God's inheritance, whence issue the little praise
   and worship that he receives from this lower world; and wilt thou
   suffer thy own servants and tenants to be thus abused?" 4. They pleaded
   that they had had but a short enjoyment of the land of promise and the
   privileges of the sanctuary (v. 18): The people of thy holiness have
   possessed it but a little while. From Abraham to David were but
   fourteen generations, and from David to the captivity but fourteen more
   (Matt. i. 17), and that was but a little while in comparison with what
   might have been expected from the promise of the land of Canaan for an
   everlasting possession (Gen. xvii. 8) and from the power that was put
   forth to bring them into that land and settle them in it. "Though we
   are the people of thy holiness, distinguished from other people and
   consecrated to thee, yet we are soon dislodged." But this they might
   thank themselves for; they were, in profession, the people of God's
   holiness, but it was their wickedness that turned them out of the
   possession of that land. 5. They pleaded that those who had and kept
   possession of their land were such as were strangers to God, such as he
   had no service or honour from: "Thou never didst bear rule over them,
   nor did they ever yield thee any obedience; they were not called by thy
   name, but professed relation to other gods and were the worshippers of
   them. Will God suffer those that do not stand in any relation to him to
   trample upon those that do?" Some give another reading of this: "We
   have become as those over whom thou didst never bear rule and who were
   never called by thy name; we are rejected and abandoned, despised and
   trampled upon, as if we never had been in thy service nor had thy name
   called upon us." Thus the shield of Saul was vilely cast away, as
   though he had not been anointed with oil. But the covenant that seems
   to be forgotten shall be remembered again.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXIV.

   This chapter goes on with that pathetic pleading prayer which the
   church offered up to God in the latter part of the foregoing chapter.
   They had argued from their covenant-relation to God and his interest
   and concern in them; now here, I. They pray that God would appear in
   some remarkable and surprising manner for them against his and their
   enemies, ver. 1, 2. II. They plead what God had formerly done, and was
   always ready to do, for his people, ver. 3-5. III. They confess
   themselves to be sinful and unworthy of God's favour, and that they had
   deserved the judgments they were now under, ver. 6, 7. IV. They refer
   themselves to the mercy of God as a Father, and submit themselves to
   his sovereignty, ver. 8. V. They represent the very deplorable
   condition they were in, and earnestly pray for the pardon of sin and
   the turning away of God's anger, ver. 9-12. And this was not only
   intended for the use of the captive Jews, but may serve for direction
   to the church in other times of distress, what to ask of God and how to
   plead with him. Are God's people at any time in affliction, in great
   affliction? Let them pray, let them thus pray.

Prayer for the Divine Presence; Blessings Prepared for the Saints. (b. c.
706.)

   1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down,
   that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,   2 As when the
   melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy
   name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy
   presence!   3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
   thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.   4 For
   since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by
   the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath
   prepared for him that waiteth for him.   5 Thou meetest him that
   rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy
   ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is
   continuance, and we shall be saved.

   Here, I. The petition is that God would appear wonderfully for them
   now, v. 1, 2. Their case was represented in the close of the foregoing
   chapter as very sad and very hard, and in this case it was time to cry,
   "Help, Lord; O that God would manifest his zeal and his strength!" They
   had prayed (ch. lxiii. 15) that God would look down from heaven; here
   they pray that he would come down to deliver them, as he had said,
   Exod. iii. 8. 1. They desire that God would in his providence manifest
   himself both to them and for them. When God works some extraordinary
   deliverance for his people he is said to shine forth, to show himself
   strong; so, here, they pray that he would rend the heavens and come
   down, as when he delivered David he is said to bow the heavens, and
   come down (Ps. xviii. 9), to display his power, and justice, and
   goodness, in an extraordinary manner, so that all may take notice of
   them and acknowledge them. This God's people desire and pray for, that
   they themselves having the satisfaction of seeing him though his way be
   in the sea, others may be made to see him when his way is in the
   clouds. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the
   Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Come, Lord Jesus,
   come quickly. 2. They desire that he would vanquish all opposition and
   that it might be made to give way before him: That the mountains might
   flow down at thy presence, that the fire of thy wrath may burn so
   fiercely against thy enemies as even to dissolve the rockiest mountains
   and melt them down before it, as metal in the furnace, which is made
   liquid and cast into what shape the operator pleases; so the melting
   fire burns, v. 2. Let things be put into a ferment, in order to a
   glorious revolution in favour of the church: As the fire causes the
   waters to boil. There is an allusion here, some think, to the
   volcanoes, or burning mountains, which sometimes send forth such
   sulphureous streams as make the adjacent rivers and seas to boil,
   which, perhaps, are left as sensible intimations of the power of God's
   wrath and warning--pieces of the final conflagration. 3. They desire
   that this may tend very much to the glory and honour of God, may make
   his name known, not only to his friends (they knew it before, and
   trusted in his power), but to his adversaries likewise, that they may
   know it and tremble at his presence, and may say, with the men of
   Bethshemesh, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Who knows
   the power of his anger? Note, Sooner or later God will make his name
   known to his adversaries and force those to tremble at his presence
   that would not come and worship in his presence. God's name, if it be
   not a stronghold for us, into which we may run and be safe, will be a
   strong-hold against us, out of the reach of which we cannot run and be
   safe. The day will come when nations shall be made to tremble at the
   presence of God, though they be ever so numerous and strong.

   II. The plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people
   formerly; and thou hast, therefore thou wilt, is good arguing at the
   throne of grace, Ps. x. 17.

   1. They plead what he had done for his people Israel in particular when
   he brought them out of Egypt, v. 3. He then did terrible things in the
   plagues of Egypt, which they looked not for; they despaired of
   deliverance, so far were they from any thought of being delivered with
   such a high hand and outstretched arm. Then he came down upon Mount
   Sinai in such terror as made that and the adjacent mountains to flow
   down at his presence, to skip like rams (Ps. cxiv. 4), to tremble, so
   that they were scattered and the perpetual hills were made to bow, Hab.
   iii. 6. In the many great salvations God wrought for that people he did
   terrible things which they looked not for, made great men, that seemed
   as stately and strong as mountains, to fall before him, and great
   opposition to give way. See Judg. v. 4, 5; Ps. lxviii. 7, 8. Some refer
   this to the defeat of Sennacherib's powerful army, which was as
   surprising an instance of the divine power as the melting down of rocks
   and mountains would be.

   2. They plead what God had been used to do, and had declared his
   gracious purpose to do, for his people in general. The provision he has
   made for the safety and happiness of his people, even of all those that
   seek him, and serve him, and trust in him, is very rich and very ready,
   so that they need not fear being either disappointed of it, for it is
   sure, or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient.

   (1.) It is very rich, v. 4. Men have not heard nor seen what God has
   prepared for those that wait for him. Observe the character of God's
   people; they are such as wait for him in the way of duty, wait for the
   salvation he has promised and designed for them. Observe where the
   happiness of this people is bound up; it is what God has prepared for
   them, what he has designed for them in his counsel and is in his
   providence and grace preparing for them and preparing them for, what he
   has done or will do, so it may be read. Some of the Jewish doctors have
   understood this of the blessings reserved for the days of the Messiah,
   and to them the apostle applies these words; and others extend them to
   the glories of the world to come. It is all that goodness which God has
   laid up for those that fear him, and wrought for those that trust in
   him, Ps. xxxi. 19. Of this it is here said that since the beginning of
   the world, in the most prying and inquisitive ages of it, men have not,
   either by hearing or seeing, the two learning senses, come to the full
   knowledge of it. None have seen, nor heard, nor can understand, but God
   himself, what the provision is that is made for the present and future
   felicity of holy souls. For, [1.] Much of it was concealed in former
   ages; they knew it not, because the unsearchable riches of Christ were
   hidden in God, were hidden from the wise and prudent; but in latter
   ages they were revealed by the gospel; so the apostle applies this (1
   Cor. ii. 9), for it follows (v. 10), But God has revealed them unto us
   by his Spirit; compare Rom. xvi. 25, 26, with Eph. iii. 9. That which
   men had not heard since the beginning of the world they should hear
   before the end of it, and at the end of it should see, when the veil
   shall be rent to introduce the glory that is yet to be revealed. God
   himself knew what he had in store for believers, but none knew besides
   him. [2.] It cannot be fully comprehended by the human understanding,
   no, not when it is revealed; it is spiritual, and refined from those
   ideas which our minds are most apt to receive in this world of sense;
   it is very great, and will far outdo the utmost of our expectations.
   Even the present peace of believers, much more their future bliss, is
   such as surpasses all conception and expression, Phil. iv. 7. None can
   comprehend it but God himself, whose understanding is infinite. Some
   give another reading of these words, referring the transcendency, not
   so much to the work itself as to the author of it: Neither has the eye
   seen a god besides thee, who doth so (or has done or can do so) for him
   that waits for him. We must infer from God's works of wonderous grace,
   as well as from his works of wondrous power, from the kind things, as
   well as from the great things, he does, that there is no god like him,
   nor any among the sons of the mighty to be compared with him.

   (2.) It is very ready (v. 5): "Thou meetest him that rejoices and works
   righteousness, meetest him with that good which thou hast prepared for
   him (v. 4), and dost not forget those that remember thee in thy ways."
   See here what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious
   soul. [1.] What God expects from us, in order to our having communion
   with him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in every
   thing, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good and which
   the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must
   be cheerful in doing our duty, we must rejoice and work righteousness,
   must delight ourselves in God and in his law, must be cheerful in his
   service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful
   worshipper. We must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must
   conform ourselves to all the methods of his providence concerning us
   and be suitably affected with them, must remember him in his ways, in
   all the ways wherein he walks, whether he walks towards us or walks
   contrary to us. We must mind him and make mention of him with
   thanksgiving when his ways are ways of mercy (in a day of prosperity be
   joyful), with patience and submission when he contends with us. In the
   way of thy judgments we have waited for thee; for in a day of adversity
   we must consider. [2.] We are here told what we may expect from God if
   we thus attend him in the way of duty: Thou meetest him. This intimates
   the friendship, fellowship, and familiarity to which God admits his
   people; he meets them, to converse with them, to manifest himself to
   them, and to receive their addresses, Exod. xx. 24; xxix. 43. It
   likewise intimates his freeness and forwardness in doing them good; he
   will anticipate them with the blessings of his goodness, will rejoice
   to do good to those that rejoice in working righteousness, and wait to
   be gracious to those that wait for him. He meets his penitent people
   with a pardon, as the father of the prodigal met his returning son,
   Luke xv. 20. He meets his praying people with an answer of peace, while
   they are yet speaking, ch. lxv. 24.

   3. They plead the unchangeableness of God's favour and the stability of
   his promise, notwithstanding the sins of his people and his displeasure
   against them for their sins: "Behold, thou hast many a time been wroth
   with us because we have sinned, and we have been under the tokens of
   thy wrath; but in those, those ways of thine, the ways of mercy in
   which we have remembered thee, in those is continuance," or "in those
   thou art ever" (his mercy endures for ever), "and therefore we shall at
   last be saved, though thou art wroth, and we have sinned." This agrees
   with the tenour of God's covenant, that, if we forsake the law, he will
   visit our transgression with a rod, but his loving kindness he will not
   utterly take away, his covenant he will not break (Ps. lxxxix. 30,
   &c.), and by this his people have been many a time saved from ruin when
   they were just upon the brink of it; see Ps. lxxviii. 38. And by this
   continuance of the covenant we hope to be saved, for its being an
   everlasting covenant is all our salvation. Though God has been angry
   with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has endured but for a
   moment and has been soon over; but in his favour is life, because in it
   is continuance; in the ways of his favour he proceeds and perseveres,
   and on that we depend for our salvation, see ch. liv. 7, 8. It is well
   for us that our hopes of salvation are built not upon any merit or
   sufficiency of our own (for in that there is no certainty, even Adam in
   innocency did not abide), but upon God's mercies and promises, for in
   those, we are sure, is continuance.

Humble Confession. (b. c. 706.)

   6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are
   as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
   the wind, have taken us away.   7 And there is none that calleth upon
   thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast
   hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
     8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our
   potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.   9 Be not wroth very
   sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we
   beseech thee, we are all thy people.   10 Thy holy cities are a
   wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.   11 Our holy
   and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up
   with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.   12 Wilt thou
   refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and
   afflict us very sore?

   As we have the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so here we have the
   Lamentations of Isaiah; the subject of both is the same--the
   destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the sin of Israel that
   brought that destruction--only with this difference, Isaiah sees it at
   a distance and laments it by the Spirit of prophecy, Jeremiah saw it
   accomplished. In these verses,

   I. The people of God in their affliction confess and bewail their sins,
   thereby justifying God in their afflictions, owning themselves unworthy
   of his mercy, and thereby both improving their troubles and preparing
   for deliverance. Now that they were under divine rebukes for sin they
   had nothing to trust to but the mere mercy of God and the continuance
   of that; for among themselves there is none to help, none to uphold,
   none to stand in the gap and make intercession, for they are all
   polluted with sin and therefore unworthy to intercede, all careless and
   remiss in duty and therefore unable and unfit to intercede.

   1. There was a general corruption of manners among them (v. 6): We are
   all as an unclean thing, or as an unclean person, as one overspread
   with a leprosy, who was to be shut out of the camp. The body of the
   people were like one under a ceremonial pollution, who was not admitted
   into the courts of the tabernacle, or like one labouring under some
   loathsome disease, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot
   nothing but wounds and bruises, ch. i. 6. We have all by sin become not
   only obnoxious to God's justice, but odious to his holiness; for sin is
   that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and cannot endure to look
   upon. Even all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. (1.) "The best
   of our persons are so; we are all so corrupt and polluted that even
   those among us who pass for righteous men, in comparison with what our
   fathers were who rejoiced and wrought righteousness (v. 5), are but as
   filthy rags, fit to be case to the dunghill. The best of them is as a
   brier." (2.) "The best of our performances are so. There is not only a
   general corruption of manners, but a general defection in the exercises
   of devotion too; those which pass for the sacrifices of righteousness,
   when they come to be enquired into, are the torn, and the lame, and the
   sick, and therefore are provoking to God, as nauseous as filthy rags."
   Our performances, though they be ever so plausible, if we depend upon
   them as our righteousness and think to merit by them at God's hand, are
   as filthy rags--rags, and will not cover us--filthy rags, and will but
   defile us. True penitents cast away their idols as filthy rags (ch.
   xxx. 22), odious in their sight; here they acknowledge even their
   righteousness to be so in God's sight if he should deal with them in
   strict justice. Our best duties are so defective, and so far short of
   the rule, that they are as rags, and so full of sin and corruption
   cleaving to them that they are as filthy rags. When we would do good
   evil is present with us; and the iniquity of our holy things would be
   our ruin if we were under the law.

   2. There was a general coldness of devotion among them, v. 7. The
   measure was filled by the abounding iniquity of the people, and nothing
   was done to empty it. (1.) Prayer was in a manner neglected: "There is
   none that calls on thy name, none that seeks to thee for grace to
   reform us and take away sin, or for mercy to relieve us and take away
   the judgments which our sins have brought upon us." Therefore people
   are so bad, because they do not pray; compare Ps. xiv. 3, 4, They have
   altogether become filthy, for they call not upon the Lord. It bodes ill
   to a people when prayer is restrained among them. (2.) It was very
   negligently performed. If there was here and there one that called on
   God's name, it was with a great deal of indifferency: There is none
   that stirs up himself to take hold of God. Note, [1.] To pray is to
   take hold of God, by faith to take hold of the promises and the
   declarations God has made of his good-will to us and to plead them with
   him,--to take hold of him as of one who is about to depart from us,
   earnestly begging of him not to leave us, or of one that has departed,
   soliciting his return,--to take hold of him as he that wrestles takes
   hold of him he wrestles with; for the seed of Jacob wrestle with him
   and so prevail. But when we take hold of God it is as the boatman with
   his hook takes hold on the shore, as if he would pull the shore to him,
   but really it is to pull himself to the shore; so we pray, not to bring
   God to our mind, but to bring ourselves to him. [2.] Those that would
   take hold of God in prayer so as to prevail with him must stir up
   themselves to do it; all that is within us must be employed in the duty
   (and all little enough), our thoughts fixed and our affections flaming.
   In order hereunto all that is within us must be engaged and summoned
   into the service; we must stir up the gift that is in us by an actual
   consideration of the importance of the work that is before us and a
   close application of mind to it; but how can we expect that God should
   come to us in ways of mercy when there are none that do this, when
   those that profess to be intercessors are mere triflers?

   II. They acknowledge their afflictions to be the fruit and product of
   their own sins and God's wrath. 1. They brought their troubles upon
   themselves by their own folly: "We are all as an unclean thing, and
   therefore we do all fade away as a leaf (v. 6), we not only wither and
   lose our beauty, but we fall and drop off" (so the word signifies) "as
   leaves in autumn; our profession of religion withers, and we grow dry
   and sapless; our prosperity withers and comes to nothing; we fall to
   the ground, as despicable and contemptible; and then our iniquities
   like the wind have taken us away and hurried us into captivity, as the
   winds in autumn blow off, and then blow away, the faded withered
   leaves," Ps. i. 3, 4. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by
   the malignant and violent wind of their own iniquity; it withers them
   and then ruins them. 2. God brought their troubles upon them by his
   wrath (v. 7): Thou hast hidden thy face from us; hast been displeased
   with us and refused to afford us any succour. When they made themselves
   as an unclean thing no wonder that God turned his face away from them,
   as loathing them. Yet this was not all: Thou hast consumed us because
   of our iniquities. This is the same complaint with that (Ps. xc. 7, 8),
   We are consumed by thy anger; thou hast melted us, so the word is. God
   had put them in the furnace, not to consume them as dross, but to melt
   them as gold, that they might be refined and new-cast.

   III. They claim relation to God as their God, and humbly plead it with
   him, and in consideration of it cheerfully refer themselves to him (v.
   8): "But now, O Lord! thou art our Father: though we have conducted
   ourselves very undutifully and ungratefully towards thee, yet still we
   have owned thee as our Father; and, though thou hast corrected us, yet
   thou hast not cast us off. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and
   despised and trampled upon as we are by our enemies, yet still thou art
   our Father; to thee therefore we return in our repentance, as the
   prodigal arose and came to his father; to thee we address ourselves by
   prayer; from whom should we expect relief and succour but from our
   Father? It is the wrath of a Father that we are under, who will be
   reconciled and not keep his anger for ever." God is their Father, 1. By
   creation; he gave them their being, formed them into a people, shaped
   them as he pleased: "We are the clay and thou our potter, therefore we
   will not quarrel with thee, however thou art pleased to deal with us,
   Jer. xviii. 6. Nay, therefore we will hope that thou wilt deal well
   with us, that thou who madest us wilt new-make us, new-form us, though
   we have unmade and deformed ourselves: We are all as an unclean thing,
   but we are all the work of thy hands, therefore do away our
   uncleanness, that we may be fit for thy use, the use we were made for.
   We are the work of thy hands, therefore forsake us not," Ps. cxxxviii.
   8. 2. By covenant; this is pleaded (v. 9): "Behold, see, we beseech
   thee, we are all thy people, all the people thou hast in the world,
   that make open profession of thy name. We are called thy people, our
   neighbours look upon us as such, and therefore what we suffer reflects
   upon thee, and the relief that our case requires is expected from thee.
   We are thy people; and should not a people seek unto their God? ch.
   viii. 19. We are thine; save us," Ps. cxix. 94. Note, When we are under
   providential rebukes from God it is good to keep fast hold of our
   covenant-relation to him.

   IV. They are importunate with God for the turning away of his anger and
   the pardoning of their sins (v. 9): "Be not wroth very sore, O Lord!
   though we have deserved that thou shouldst, neither remember iniquity
   for ever against us." They do not expressly pray for the removal of the
   judgment they were under; as to that, they refer themselves to God.
   But, 1. They pray that God would be reconciled to them, and then they
   can be easy whether the affliction be continued or removed: "Be not
   wroth to extremity, but let thy anger be mitigated by the clemency and
   compassion of a father." They do not say, Lord, rebuke us not, for that
   may be necessary, but Not in thy anger, not in thy hot displeasure. It
   is but in a little wrath that God hides his face. 2. They pray that
   they may not be dealt with according to the desert of their sin:
   Neither remember iniquity for ever. Such is the evil of sin that it
   deserves to be remembered for ever; and this is that which they
   deprecate, that consequence of sin, which is for ever. Those make it to
   appear that they are truly humbled under the hand of God who are more
   afraid of the terror of God's wrath, and the fatal consequences of
   their own sin, than of any judgment whatsoever, looking upon these as
   the sting of death.

   V. They lodge in the court of heaven a very melancholy representation,
   or memorial, of the lamentable condition they were in and the ruins
   they were groaning under. 1. Their own houses were in ruins, v. 10. The
   cities of Judah were destroyed by the Chaldeans and the inhabitants of
   them were carried away, so that there was none to repair them or take
   any notice of them, which would in a few years make them look like
   perfect deserts: Thy holy cities are a wilderness. The cities of Judah
   are called holy cities, for the people were unto God a kingdom of
   priests. The cities had synagogues in them, in which God was served;
   and therefore they lamented the ruins of them, and insisted upon this
   in pleading with God for them, not so much that they were stately
   cities, rich or ancient ones, but that they were holy cities, cities in
   which God's name was known, professed, and called upon. "These cities
   are a wilderness; the beauty of them is sullied; they are neither
   inhabited nor visited, as formerly. They have burnt up all the
   synagogues of God in the land," Ps. lxxiv. 8. Nor was it only the
   smaller cities that were thus left as a wilderness unfrequented, but
   even "Zion is a wilderness; the city of David itself lies in ruins;
   Jerusalem, that was beautiful for situation and the joy of the whole
   earth, is now deformed, and has become the scorn and scandal of the
   whole earth; that noble city is a desolation, a heap of rubbish." See
   what devastations sin brings upon a people; and an external profession
   of sanctity will be no fence against them; holy cities, if they become
   wicked cities, will be soonest of all turned into a wilderness, Amos
   iii. 2. 2. God's house was in ruins, v. 11. This they lament most of
   all, that the temple was burnt with fire; but, as soon as it was built,
   they were told what their sin would bring it to. 2 Chron. vii. 21, This
   house, which is high, shall be an astonishment. Observe how
   pathetically they bewail the ruins of the temple. (1.) It was their
   holy and beautiful house; it was a most sumptuous building, but the
   holiness of it was in their eye the greatest beauty of it, and
   consequently the profanation of it was the saddest part of its
   desolation and that which grieved them most, that the sacred services
   which used to be performed there were discontinued. (2.) It was the
   place where their fathers praised God with their sacrifices and songs;
   what a pity is it that that should lie in ashes which had been for so
   many ages the glory of their nation! It aggravated their present disuse
   of the songs of Zion that their fathers had so often praised God with
   them. They interest God in the cause when they plead that it was the
   house where he had been praised, and put him in mind too of his
   covenant with their fathers by taking notice of their fathers' praising
   him. (3.) With it all their pleasant things were laid waste, all their
   desires and delights, all those things which were employed by them in
   the service of God, which they had a great delight in; not only the
   furniture of the temple, the altars and table, but especially the
   sabbaths and new moons, and all their religious feasts, which they used
   to keep with gladness, their ministers and solemn assemblies, these
   were all a desolation. Note, God's people reckon their sacred things
   their most delectable things; rob them of holy ordinances and the means
   of grace, and you lay waste all their pleasant things. What have they
   more? Observe here how God and his people have their interest twisted
   and interchanged; when they speak of the cities for their own
   habitation they call them thy holy cities, for to God they were
   dedicated; when they speak of the temple wherein God dwelt they call it
   our beautiful house and its furniture our pleasant things, for they had
   heartily espoused it and all the interests of it. If thus we interest
   God in all our concerns by devoting them to his service, and interest
   ourselves in all his concerns by laying them near our hearts, we may
   with satisfaction leave both with him, for he will perfect both.

   VI. They conclude with an affectionate expostulation, humbly arguing
   with God concerning their present desolations (v. 12): "Wilt thou
   refrain thyself for these things? Or, Canst thou contain thyself at
   these things? Canst thou see thy temple ruined and not resent it, not
   revenge it? Has the jealous God forgotten to be jealous? Ps. lxxiv. 22,
   Arise, O God! plead thy own cause. Lord, thou art insulted, thou art
   blasphemed; and wilt thou hold thy peace and take no notice of it?
   Shall the highest affronts that can be done to Heaven pass unrebuked?"
   When we are abused we hold our peace, because vengeance does not belong
   to us, and because we have a God to refer our cause to. When God is
   injured in his honour it may justly be expected that he should speak in
   the vindication of it; his people prescribe not to him what he shall
   say, but their prayer is (as here) Ps. lxxxiii. 1, Keep not thou
   silence, O God! and Ps. cix. 1, "Hold not thy peace, O God of my
   praise! Speak for the conviction of thy enemies, speak for the comfort
   and relief of thy people; for wilt thou afflict us very grievously, or
   afflict us for ever?" It is a sore affliction to good people to see
   God's sanctuary laid waste and nothing done towards the raising of it
   out of its ruins. But God has said that he will not contend for ever,
   and therefore his people may depend upon it that their afflictions
   shall be neither to extremity nor to eternity, but light and for a
   moment.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXV.

   We are now drawing towards the conclusion of this evangelical prophecy,
   the last two chapters of which direct us to look as far forward as the
   new heavens and the new earth, the new world which the gospel
   dispensation should bring in, and the separation that should by it be
   made between the precious and the vile. "For judgment" (says Christ)
   "have I come into this world." And why should it seem absurd that the
   prophet here should speak of that to which all the prophets bore
   witness? 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. The rejection of the Jews, and the calling
   in of the Gentiles, are often mentioned in the New Testament as that
   which was foreseen and foretold by the prophets, Acts x. 43; xiii. 40;
   Rom. xvi. 26. In this chapter we have, I. The anticipating of the
   Gentiles with the gospel call, ver. 1. II. The rejection of the Jews
   for their obstinacy and unbelief, ver. 2-7. III. The saving of a
   remnant of them by bringing them into the gospel church, ver. 8-10. IV.
   The judgments of God that should pursue the rejected Jews, ver. 11-16.
   V. The blessings reserved for the Christian church, which should be its
   joy and glory, ver. 17-25. But these things are here prophesied of
   under the type and figure of the difference God would make between some
   and others of the Jews after their return out of captivity, between
   those that feared God and those that did not, with reproofs of the sins
   then found among them and promises of the blessings then in reserve for
   them.

The Conversion of the Gentiles; The Wickedness of the Jews; The Rejection of
the Jews. (b. c. 706.)

   1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that
   sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not
   called by my name.   2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a
   rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after
   their own thoughts;   3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually
   to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon
   altars of brick;   4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the
   monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is
   in their vessels;   5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me;
   for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that
   burneth all the day.   6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not
   keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
   7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith
   the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed
   me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into
   their bosom.

   The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the
   true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed
   at and were fulfilled in, namely, the calling in of the Gentiles and
   the rejection of the Jews, by the preaching of the gospel, Rom. x. 20,
   21. And he observes that herein Esaias is very bold, not only in
   foretelling a thing so improbable ever to be brought about, but in
   foretelling it to the Jews, who would take it as a gross affront to
   their nation, and therein Moses's words would be made good (Deut.
   xxxii. 21), I will provoke you to jealousy by those that are no people.

   I. It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should
   be made nigh, v. 1. Paul reads it thus: I was found of those that
   sought me not; I was made manifest to those that asked not for me.
   Observe what a wonderful and blessed change was made with them and how
   they were surprised into it. 1. Those who had long been without God in
   the world shall now be set a seeking him; those who had not said, Where
   is God my maker? shall now begin to enquire after him. Neither they nor
   their fathers had called upon his name, but either lived without prayer
   or prayed to stocks and stones, the work of men's hands. But now they
   shall be baptized and call on the name of the Lord, Acts ii. 21. With
   what pleasure does the great God here speak of his being sought unto,
   and how does he glory in it, especially by those who in time past had
   not asked for him! For there is joy in heaven over great sinners who
   repent. 2. God shall anticipate their prayers with his blessings: I am
   found of those that sought me not. This happy acquaintance and
   correspondence between God and the Gentile world began on his side;
   they came to know God because they were known of him (Gal. iv. 9), to
   seek God and find him because they were first sought and found of him.
   Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek him (Prov.
   viii. 17), yet in the first conversion he is found of those that seek
   him not; for therefore we love him because he first loved us. The
   design of the bounty of common providence to them was that they might
   seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, Acts
   xvii. 27. But they sought him not; still he was to them an unknown God,
   and yet God was found of them. 3. God gave the advantages of a divine
   revelation to those who had never made a profession of religion: I
   said, Behold me, behold me (gave them a sight of me and invited them to
   take the comfort and benefit of it) to those who were not called by my
   name, as the Jews for many ages had been. When the apostles went about
   from place to place, preaching the gospel, this was the substance of
   what they preached: "Behold God, behold him, turn towards him, fix the
   eyes of your minds upon him, acquaint yourselves with him, admire him,
   adore him; look off from your idols that you have made, and look upon
   the living God who made you." Christ in them said, Behold me, behold me
   with an eye of faith; look unto me, and be you saved. And this was said
   to those that had long been lo-ammi, and lo-ruhamah (Hos. i. 8, 9), not
   a people, and that had not obtained mercy, Rom. ix. 25, 26.

   II. It is here foretold that the Jews, who had long been a people near
   to God, should be cast off and set at a distance v. 2. The apostle
   applies this to the Jews in his time, as a seed of evil-doers. Rom. x.
   21, But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my
   hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Here observe,

   1. How the Jews were courted to the divine grace. God himself, by his
   prophets, by his Son, by his apostles, stretched forth his hands to
   them, as Wisdom did, Prov. i. 24. God spread out his hands to them, as
   one reasoning and expostulating with them, not only beckoned to them
   with the finger, but spread out his hands, as being ready to embrace
   and entertain them, reaching forth the tokens of his favour to them,
   and importuning them to accept them. When Christ was crucified his
   hands were spread out and stretched forth, as if he were preparing to
   receive returning sinners into his bosom; and this all the day, all the
   gospel-day. He waited to be gracious, and was not weary of waiting;
   even those that came in at the eleventh hour of the day were not
   rejected.

   2. How they contemned the invitation; it was given to a rebellious and
   gainsaying people; they were invited to the wedding-supper, and would
   not come, but rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Now here
   we have,

   (1.) The bad character of this people. The world shall see that it was
   not for nothing that they were rejected of God; no, it was for their
   whoredoms that they were put away.

   [1.] Their character in general was such as one would not expect of
   those who had been so much the favourites of Heaven. First, They were
   very wilful. Right or wrong they would do as they had a mind. "They
   generally walk on in a way that is not good, not the right way, not a
   safe way, for they walk after their own thought, their own devices and
   desires." If our guide be our own thoughts, our way is not likely to be
   good; for every imagination of the thought of our hearts is only evil.
   God had told them his thoughts, what his mind and will were, but they
   would walk after their own thoughts, would do what they thought best.
   Secondly, They were very provoking. This was God's complaint of them
   all along--they grieved him, they vexed his Holy Spirit, as if they
   would contrive how to make him their enemy: They provoke me to anger
   continually to my face. They cared not what affront they gave to God,
   though it were in his sight and presence, in a downright contempt of
   his authority and defiance of his justice; and this continually; it had
   been their way and manner ever since they were a people, witness the
   day of temptation in the wilderness.

   [2.] The prophet speaks more particularly of their iniquities and the
   iniquities of their fathers, as the ground of God's casting them off,
   v. 7. Now he gives instances of both.

   First, The most provoking iniquity of their fathers was idolatry; this,
   the prophet tells them, was provoking God to his face; and it is an
   iniquity which, as appears by the second commandment, God often visits
   upon the children. This was the sin that brought them into captivity,
   and, though the captivity pretty well cured them of it, yet, when the
   final ruin of that nation came, that was again brought into the account
   against them; for in the day when God visits he will visit that, Exod.
   xxxii. 34. Perhaps there were many, long after the captivity, who,
   though they did not worship other gods, were yet guilty of the
   disorders here mentioned; for they married strange wives. 1. They
   forsook God's temple, and sacrificed in gardens or groves, that they
   might have the satisfaction of doing it in their own way, for they
   liked not God's institutions. 2. They forsook God's altar, and burnt
   incense upon bricks, altars of their own contriving (they burnt incense
   according to their own inventions, which were of no more value, in
   comparison with God's institution, than an altar of bricks in
   comparison with the golden altar which God appointed them to burn
   incense on), or upon tiles (so some read it), such as they covered
   their flat-roofed houses with, and on them sometimes they burnt incense
   to their idols, as appears, 2 Kings xxiii. 12, where we read of altars
   on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, and Jer. xix. 13, of their
   burning incense to the host of heaven upon the roofs of their houses.
   3. "They used necromancy, or consulting with the dead, and, in order to
   that, they remained among the graves, and lodged in the monuments," to
   seek for the living to the dead (ch. viii. 19), as the witch of Endor.
   Or they used to consult the evil spirits that haunted the sepulchres.
   4. They violated the laws of God about their meat, and broke through
   the distinction between clean and unclean before it was taken away by
   the gospel. They ate swine's flesh. Some indeed chose rather to die
   than to eat swine's flesh, as Eleazar and the seven brethren in the
   story of the Maccabees; but it is probable that many ate of it,
   especially when it came to be a condition of life. In our Saviour's
   time we read of a vast herd of swine among them, which gives us cause
   to suspect that there were many then who made so little conscience of
   the law as to eat swine's flesh, for which they were justly punished in
   the destruction of the swine. And the broth, or pieces, of other
   forbidden meats, called here abominable things, was in their vessels,
   and was made use of for food. The forbidden meat is called an
   abomination, and those that meddle with it are said to make themselves
   abominable, Lev. xi. 42, 43. Those that durst not eat the meat yet made
   bold with the broth, because they would come as near as might be to
   that which was forbidden, to show how they coveted the forbidden fruit.
   Perhaps this is here put figuratively for all forbidden pleasures and
   profits which are obtained by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord
   hates; they loved to be dallying with it, to be tasting of its broth.
   But those who thus take a pride in venturing upon the borders of sin,
   and the brink of it, are in danger of falling into the depths of it.
   But,

   Secondly, The most provoking iniquity of the Jews in our Saviour's time
   was their pride and hypocrisy, that sin of the scribes and Pharisees
   against which Christ denounced so many woes, v. 5. They say, "Stand by
   thyself, keep off" (get thee to thine, so the original is); "keep to
   thy own companions, but come not near to me, lest thou pollute me;
   touch me not; I will not allow thee any familiarity with me, for I am
   holier than thou, and therefore thou art not good enough to converse
   with me; I am not as other men are, nor even as this publican." This
   they were ready to say to every one they met with, so that, in saying,
   I am holier than thou, they thought themselves holier than any, not
   only very good, as good as they should be, as good as they needed to
   be, but better than any of their neighbours. These are a smoke in my
   nose (says God), such a smoke as comes not from a quick fire, which
   soon becomes glowing and pleasant, but from a fire of wet wood, which
   burns all the day, and is nothing but smoke. Note, Nothing in men is
   more odious and offensive to God than a proud conceit of themselves and
   contempt of others; for commonly those are most unholy of all that
   think themselves holier than any.

   (2.) The controversy God had with them for this. The proof against them
   is plain: Behold, it is written before me, v. 6. It is written, to be
   remembered against them in time to come; for they may not perhaps be
   immediately reckoned with. The sins of sinners, and particularly the
   vainglorious boasts and scorns of hypocrites, are laid up in store with
   God, Deut. xxxii. 34. And what is written shall be read and proceeded
   upon: "I will not keep silence always, though I may keep silence long."
   They shall not think him altogether such a one as themselves, as
   sometimes they have done; but he will recompense, even recompense into
   their bosom. Those basely abuse religion, that honourable and sacred
   thing, who make their profession of it the matter of their pride, and
   the jealous God will reckon with them for it; the profession they boast
   of shall but serve to aggravate their condemnation. [1.] The iniquity
   of their fathers shall come against them; not but that their own sin
   deserved whatever judgments God brought upon them, and much heavier;
   and this they owned, Ezra ix. 13. But God would not have wrought so
   great a desolation upon them if he had not therein had an eye to the
   sins of their fathers. Therefore in the last destruction of Jerusalem
   God is said to bring upon them the blood of the Old-Testament martyrs,
   even that of Abel, Matt. xxiii. 35. God will reckon with them, not only
   for their fathers' idols, but for their high places, their burning
   incense upon the mountains and the hills, though perhaps it was to the
   true God only. This was blaspheming or reproaching God; it was a
   reflection upon the choice he had made of the place where he would
   record his name, and the promise he had made that there he would meet
   them and bless them. [2.] Their own with that shall bring ruin upon
   them: Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, the
   one aggravating the other, constitute the former work, which, though it
   may seem to be overlooked and forgotten, shall be measured into their
   bosom. God will render into the bosom, not only of his open enemies
   (Ps. lxxix. 12), but of his false and treacherous friends, the reproach
   wherewith they have reproached him.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 706.)

   8 Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one
   saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my
   servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.   9 And I will bring
   forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my
   mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell
   there.   10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of
   Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have
   sought me.

   This is expounded by St. Paul, Rom. xi. 1-5, where, when, upon occasion
   of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked, Hath God then cast away his
   people? he answers, No; for at this time there is a remnant according
   to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that
   distinguished remnant. When that hypocritical nation is to be destroyed
   God will separate and secure to himself some from among them; some of
   the Jews shall be brought to embrace the Christian faith, shall be
   added to the church, and so be saved. And our Saviour has told us that
   for the sake of these elect the days of the destruction of the Jews
   should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise
   would have proceeded to such a degree that no flesh should be saved,
   Matt. xxiv. 22. Now,

   I. This is illustrated here by a comparison, v. 8. When a vine is so
   blasted and withered that there seems to be no sap nor life in it, and
   therefore the dresser of the vineyard is inclined to pluck it up or cut
   it down, yet, if ever so little of the juice of the grape, fit to make
   new wine, be found, though but in one cluster, a stander-by interposes,
   and says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; there is life in the
   root, and hope that yet it may become good for something. Good men are
   blessings to the places where they live; and sometimes God spares whole
   cities and nations for the sake of a few such in them. How ambitious
   should we be of this honor, not only to be distinguished from others,
   but serviceable to others!

   II. Here is a description of those that shall make up this saved saving
   remnant. 1. They are such as serve God. It is for my servants' sake (v.
   8), and they are my servants that shall dwell there, v. 9. God's
   faithful servants, however they are looked upon, are the best friends
   their country has; and those who serve him do therein serve their
   generation. 2. They are such as seek God, make it the end of their
   lives to glorify God and the business of their lives to call upon him.
   It is for my people that have sought me. Those that seek God shall find
   him, and shall find him their bountiful rewarder.

   III. Here is an account of the mercy God has in store for them. The
   remnant that shall return out of captivity shall have a happy
   settlement again in their own land, and that by an hereditary right, as
   a seed out of Jacob, in whom the family is kept up and the entail
   preserved, and from whom, as from the seed sown, shall spring a
   numerous increase; and these typify the remnant of Jacob that shall be
   incorporated into the gospel church by faith. 1. They shall have a good
   portion for themselves. They shall inherit my mountains, the holy
   mountains on which Jerusalem and the temple were built, or the
   mountains of Canaan, the land of promise, typifying the covenant of
   grace, which all God's servants, his elect, both inhabit and inherit;
   they make it their refuge, their rest and residence, so they dwell in
   it, are at home in it; and they have taken it to be their heritage for
   ever, and it shall be to them an inheritance incorruptible. God's
   chosen, the spiritual seed of praying Jacob, shall be the inheritors of
   his mountains of bliss and joy, and shall be carried safely to them
   through the vale of tears. 2. They shall have a green pasture for their
   flocks, v. 10. Sharon and the valley of Achor shall again be as well
   replenished as ever they were with cattle. Sharon lay westward, near
   Joppa; Achor lay eastward, near Jordan. It is therefore intimated that
   they shall recover the possession of the whole land, that they shall
   have wherewith to stock it all, and that they shall peaceably enjoy it
   and there shall be none to disturb them nor make them afraid.
   Gospel-ordinances are the fields and valleys where the sheep of Christ
   shall go in and out and find pasture (John x. 9), and where they are
   made to lie down (Ps. xxiii. 2), as Israel's herds in the valley of
   Achor, Hos. ii. 15.

Predictions of Punishment. (b. c. 706.)

   11 But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain,
   that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink
   offering unto that number.   12 Therefore will I number you to the
   sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I
   called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil
   before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.   13
   Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but
   ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be
   thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
   14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry
   for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.   15 And ye
   shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord God
   shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:   16 That he
   who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of
   truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of
   truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are
   hid from mine eyes.

   Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews that
   believed and of those that still persisted in unbelief, are set the one
   over--against the other, as life and death, good and evil, the blessing
   and the curse.

   I. Here is the fearful doom of those that persisted in their idolatry
   after the deliverance out of Babylon, and in infidelity after the
   preaching of the gospel of Christ. Observe,

   1. What the doom is that is here threatened: "I will number you to the
   sword as sheep for the slaughter, and there shall be no escaping, no
   standing out; you shall all bow down to it," v. 12. God's judgments
   come, (1.) Regularly, and are executed according to the commission.
   Those fall by the sword that are numbered or counted out to it, and
   none besides. Though the sword seems to devour promiscuously one as
   well as another, yet it is made to know its number and shall not
   exceed. (2.) Irresistibly. The strongest and most stout-hearted sinners
   shall be forced to bow before them; for none ever hardened their hearts
   against God and prospered.

   2. What the sins are that number them to the sword. (1.) Idolatry was
   the ancient sin (v. 11): "You are those who, instead of seeking me and
   serving me as my people, forsake the Lord, disown him, and cast him off
   to embrace other gods, who forget my holy mountain (the privileges it
   confers and the obligations it lays you under) to burn incense upon the
   mountains of your idols (v. 7), and have deserted the one only living
   and true God." They prepared a table for that troop of deities which
   the heathen worship and poured out drink-offerings to that numberless
   number of them; for those that thought one God too little never thought
   scores and hundreds sufficient, but were still adding to the number of
   them, till they had as many gods as cities and their altars were as
   thick as heaps in the furrows of the field, Hos. xii. 11. Some take Gad
   and Meni, which we translate a troop and a number, to be the proper
   names of two of their idols, answering to Jupiter and Mercury. Whatever
   they were, their worshippers spared no cost to do them honour; they
   prepared a table for them, and filled out mixed wine for
   drink-offerings to them; they would pinch their families rather than
   stint their devotions, which should shame the worshippers of the true
   God out of their niggardliness. (2.) Infidelity was the sin of the
   later Jews (v. 12): When I called, you did not answer, which refers to
   the same that v. 2 did (I have stretched out my hands to a rebellious
   people), and that is applied to those who rejected the gospel. Our Lord
   Jesus himself called (he stood and cried, John vii. 37), but they did
   not hear, they would not answer; they were not convinced by his
   reasonings nor moved by his expostulations; both the fair warnings he
   gave them of death and ruin and the fair offers he made them of life
   and happiness were slighted and made no impression upon them. Yet this
   was not all: You did evil before my eyes, not by surprise, or through
   inadvertency, but with deliberation: You did choose that wherein I
   delighted not; he means that which he utterly detested and abhorred. It
   is not strange that those who will not be persuaded to choose that
   which is good persist in their choice and pursuit of that which is
   evil. See the malignity of sin; it is evil in God's eyes, highly
   offensive to him, and yet it is committed before his eyes, in his sight
   and presence, and in contempt of him; it is likewise a contradiction to
   the will of God; it is doing that, of choice, which we know will
   displease him.

   II. The aggravation of this doom, from the consideration of the happy
   state of those that were brought to repentance and faith.

   1. The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woeful condition of
   those that rebel against him, are here set the one over--against the
   other, that they may serve as a foil to each other, v. 13-16. (1.)
   God's servants may well think themselves happy, and for ever indebted
   to that free grace which made them so, when they see how miserable some
   of their neighbours are for want of that grace, who are hardened, and
   likely to perish for ever in unbelief, and what a narrow escape they
   had of being among them. See ch. lxvi. 24. (2.) It will add to the
   grief of those that perish to see the happiness of God's servants (whom
   they had hated, and vilified, and looked upon with the utmost disdain),
   and especially to think that they might have shared in their bliss if
   it had not been their own fault. It made the torment of the rich man in
   hell the more grievous that he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his
   bosom, Luke xvi. 23. See Luke xiii. 28. Sometimes the providence of God
   makes such a difference as this between good and bad in this world, and
   the prosperity of the righteous becomes a grievous eye-sore and
   vexation of heart to the wicked (Ps. cxii. 10), and it will certainly
   be so in the great day. We fools counted his life madness and his end
   without honour; but now how is he numbered with the saints and his lot
   is among the chosen. Now,

   2. The difference of their states lies in two things:--

   (1.) In point of comfort and satisfaction. [1.] God's servants shall
   eat and drink; they shall have the bread of life to feed, to feast
   upon, continually, shall be abundantly replenished with the goodness of
   his house, and shall want nothing that is good for them. Heaven's
   happiness will be to them an everlasting feast; they shall be filled
   with that which now they hunger and thirst after. But those who set
   their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in that, shall
   be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving; for it is not
   bread; it surfeits, but it satisfies not. In communion with God, and
   dependence upon him, there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits
   there is nothing but disappointment. [2.] God's servants shall rejoice
   and sing for joy of heart. They have constant cause for joy, and there
   is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but they have an
   allay sufficient for it; and, as far as faith is in act and exercise,
   they have a heart to rejoice, and their joy is their strength. They
   shall rejoice in their hope, because it shall not make them ashamed.
   Heaven will be a world of everlasting joy to all that are now sowing in
   tears. But, on the other hand, those that forsake the Lord shut
   themselves out from all true joy, for they shall be ashamed of their
   vain confidence in themselves, and their own righteousness, and the
   hopes they had built thereon. When the expectations of bliss wherewith
   they had flattered themselves are frustrated, O what confusion will
   fill their faces! Then shall they cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for
   vexation of spirit, perhaps in this world, when their laughter shall be
   turned into mourning and their joy into heaviness, and certainly in
   that world where the torment will be endless, easeless, and
   remediless--nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, to
   eternity. Let these two be compared, Now he is comforted and thou art
   tormented, and which of the two will we choose to take our lot with?

   (2.) In point of honour and reputation, v. 15, 16. The memory of the
   just is, and shall be, blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.
   [1.] The name of the idolaters and unbelievers shall be left for a
   curse, shall be loaded with ignominy and made for ever infamous. It
   shall be used in giving bad characters--Thou art as cruel as a Jew; and
   in imprecation--God make thee as miserable as a Jew. It shall be for a
   curse to God's chosen, that is, for a warning to them; they shall be
   afraid of falling under the curse upon the Jewish nation, of perishing
   after the same example of unbelief. The curse of those whom God rejects
   should make his chosen stand in awe. The Lord God shall slay thee; he
   shall quite extirpate the Jews and cut them off from being a people;
   they shall no longer live as a nation, nor ever be incorporated again.
   [2.] The name of God's chosen shall become a blessing: He shall call
   his servants by another name. The children of the covenant shall no
   longer be called Jews, but Christians; and to them, under that name,
   all the promises and privileges of the new covenant shall be secured.
   This other name shall be an honourable name; it shall not be confined
   to one nation, but with it men shall bless themselves in the earth, all
   the world over. God shall have servants out of all nations who shall
   all be dignified with this new name. They shall bless themselves in the
   God of truth. First, They shall give honour to God both in their
   prayers and in their solemn oaths, in their addresses for his favour as
   their felicity and their appeals to his justice as their Judge. This is
   a part of the homage we owe to God; we must bless ourselves in him,
   that is, we must reckon that we have enough to make us happy, that we
   need no more, and can desire no more, if we have him for our God. It is
   of great consequence what we bless ourselves in, what we most please
   ourselves with and value ourselves by our interest in. Worldly people
   bless themselves in the abundance they have of this world's goods (Ps.
   xlix. 18; Luke xii. 19); but God's servants bless themselves in him, as
   a God all-sufficient for them. He is their crown of glory and diadem of
   beauty, their strength and portion. By him also they shall swear, and
   not by any creature or any false god. To his judgment they shall refer
   their cause, from whom every man's judgment doth proceed. Secondly,
   They shall give honour to him as the God of truth, the God of the Amen
   (so the word is); some understand it of Christ who is himself the Amen,
   the faithful witness (Rev. iii. 14), and in whom all the promises are
   yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20. In him we must bless ourselves, and by him
   we must swear unto the Lord and covenant with him. He that is blessed
   in the earth (so some read it) shall be blessed in the true God, for
   Christ is the true God and eternal life, 1 John v. 20. And it was
   promised of old that in him all the families of the earth should be
   blessed, Gen. xii. 3. Some read it, He shall bless himself in the God
   of the faithful people, in God as the God of all believers, desiring no
   more than to share in the blessings wherewith they are blessed, to be
   dealt with as he deals with them. Thirdly, They shall give him honour
   as the author of this blessed change which they have the experience of;
   they shall think themselves happy in having him for their God who has
   made them to forget their former troubles, the remembrance of them
   being swallowed up in their present comforts: Because they are hidden
   from God's eyes, that is, they are quite taken away; for, if there were
   any remainder of their troubles, God would be sure to have his eye upon
   it, in compassion to them and concern for them. They shall no longer
   feel them; for God will no longer see them. He is pleased to speak as
   if he would make himself easy by making them easy; and therefore they
   shall with a great deal of satisfaction bless themselves in him.

Predictions of Happiness. (b. c. 706.)

   17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former
   shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.   18 But be ye glad and
   rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create
   Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.   19 And I will rejoice in
   Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no
   more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.   20 There shall be no more
   thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days:
   for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being a
   hundred years old shall be accursed.   21 And they shall build houses,
   and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of
   them.   22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not
   plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my
   people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.   23
   They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they
   are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.
     24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer;
   and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.   25 The wolf and the
   lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the
   bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor
   destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

   If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their
   return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and
   brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full
   accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length
   triumphant. The Jerusalem that is from above is free and is the mother
   of us all. In the graces and comforts which believers have in and from
   Christ we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. It is in the
   gospel that old things have passed away and all things have become new,
   and by it that those who are in Christ are new creatures, 2 Cor. v. 17.
   It was a mighty and happy change that was described v. 16, that the
   former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much higher: even the
   former world shall be forgotten and shall no more come into mind. Those
   that were converted to the Christian faith were so transported with the
   comforts of it that all the comforts they were before acquainted with
   became as nothing to them; not only their foregoing griefs, but their
   foregoing joys, were lost and swallowed up in this. The glorified
   saints will therefore have forgotten this world, because they will be
   entirely taken up with the other: For, behold, I create new heavens and
   a new earth. See how inexhaustible the divine power is; the same God
   that created one heaven and earth can create another. See how entire
   the happiness of the saints is; it shall be all of a piece; with the
   new heavens God will create them (if they have occasion for it to make
   them happy) a new earth too. The world is yours if you be Christ's, 1
   Cor. iii. 22. When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new
   heaven, the creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new
   earth. The future glory of the saints will be so entirely different
   from what they ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens
   and a new earth, 2 Pet. iii. 13. Behold, I make all things new, Rev.
   xxi. 5.

   I. There shall be new joys. For, 1. All the church's friends, and all
   that belong to her, shall rejoice (v. 18): You shall be glad and
   rejoice for ever in that which I create. The new things which God
   creates in and by his gospel are and shall be matter of everlasting joy
   to all believers. My servants shall rejoice (v. 13), at last they
   shall, though now they mourn. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 2.
   The church shall be the matter of their joy, so pleasant, so
   prosperous, shall her condition be: I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and
   her people a joy. The church shall not only rejoice but be rejoiced in.
   Those that have sorrowed with the church shall rejoice with her. 3. The
   prosperity of the church shall be a rejoicing to God himself, who has
   pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (v. 19): I will rejoice in
   Jerusalem's joy, and will joy in my people; for in all their affliction
   he was afflicted. God will not only rejoice in the church's well-doing,
   but will himself rejoice to do her good and rest in his love to her,
   Zeph. iii. 17. What God rejoices in it becomes us to rejoice in. 4.
   There shall be no allay of this joy, nor any alteration of this happy
   condition of the church: The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in
   her. If this relate to any state of the church in this life, it means
   no more than that the former occasions of grief shall not return, but
   God's people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. But in
   heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in respect both of the
   perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy; there all tears
   shall be wiped away.

   II. There shall be new life, v. 20. Untimely deaths by the sword or
   sickness shall be no more known as they have been, and by this means
   there shall be no more the voice of crying, v. 19. When there shall be
   no more death there shall be no more sorrow, Rev. xxi. 4. As death has
   reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness, Rom. v. 14, 21.
   1. Believers through Christ shall be satisfied with life, though it be
   ever so short on earth. If an infant end its days quickly, yet it shall
   not be reckoned to die untimely; for the shorter its life is the longer
   will its rest be. Though death reign over those that have not sinned
   after the similitude of Adam's transgression, yet they, dying in the
   arms of Christ, the second Adam, and belonging to his kingdom, are not
   to be called infants of days, but even the child shall be reckoned to
   die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at full age, shall
   rise to eternal life. Some understand it of children who in their
   childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by death nipped in
   the blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred years old. And, as
   for old men, it is promised that they shall fill their days with the
   fruits of righteousness, which they shall still bring forth in old age,
   to show that the Lord is upright, and then it is a good old age. An old
   man who is wise, and good, and useful, may truly be said to have filled
   his days. Old men who have their hearts upon the world have never
   filled their days, never have enough of this world, but would still
   continue longer in it. But that man dies old, and satur dierum--full of
   days, who, with Simeon, having seen God's salvation, desires now to
   depart in peace. 2. Unbelievers shall be unsatisfied and unhappy in
   life, though it be ever so long. The sinner, though he live to a
   hundred years old, shall be accursed. His living so long shall be no
   token to him of the divine favour and blessing, nor shall it be any
   shelter to him from the divine wrath and curse. The sentence he lies
   under will certainly be executed, and his long life is but a long
   reprieve; nay, it is itself a curse to him, for the longer he lives the
   more wrath he treasures up against the day of wrath and the more sins
   he will have to answer for. So that the matter is not great whether our
   lives on earth be long or short, but whether we live the lives of
   saints or the lives of sinners.

   III. There shall be a new enjoyment of the comforts of life. Whereas
   before it was very uncertain and precarious, their enemies inhabited
   the houses which they built and ate the fruit of the trees which they
   planted, now it shall be otherwise; they shall build houses and inhabit
   them, shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, v. 21, 22. Their
   intimates that the labour of their hands shall be blessed and be made
   to prosper; they shall gain what they aimed at, and what they have
   gained shall be preserved and secured to them; they shall enjoy it
   comfortably, and nothing shall embitter it to them, and they shall live
   to enjoy it long. Strangers shall not break in upon them, to expel
   them, and plant themselves in their room, as sometimes they have done:
   My elect shall wear out, or long enjoy, the work of their hands; it is
   honestly got, and it will wear well; it is the work of their hands,
   which they themselves have laboured for, and it is most comfortable to
   enjoy that, and not to eat the bread of idleness, or bread of deceit.
   If we have a heart to enjoy it, that is the gift of God's grace (Eccl.
   iii. 13); and, if we live to enjoy it long, it is the gift of God's
   providence, for that is here promised: As the days of a tree are the
   days of my people; as the days of an oak (ch. vi. 13), whose substance
   is in it, though it cast its leaves; though it be stripped every
   winter, it recovers itself again, and lasts many ages; as the days of
   the tree of life; so the LXX. Christ is to them the tree of life, and
   in him believers enjoy all those spiritual comforts which are typified
   by the abundance of temporal blessings here promised; and it shall not
   be in the power of their enemies to deprive them of these blessings or
   disturb them in the enjoyment of them.

   IV. There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit
   and enjoy these blessings (v. 23): They shall not labour in vain, for
   they shall not only enjoy the work of their hands themselves, but they
   shall leave it with satisfaction to those that shall come after them,
   and not with such a melancholy prospect as Solomon did, Eccl. ii. 18,
   19. They shall not beget and bring forth children for trouble; for they
   are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and there is a
   blessing entailed upon them by descent from their ancestors which their
   offspring with them shall partake of, and shall be, as well as they,
   the seed of the blessed of the Lord. They shall not bring forth for
   trouble; for, 1. God will make their children that rise up comforts to
   them; they shall have the joy of seeing them walk in the truth. 2. He
   will make the times that come after comfortable to their children. As
   they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they shall not be
   brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be said, Blessed is
   the womb that bore not. In the gospel church Christ's name shall be
   borne up by a succession. A seed shall serve him (Ps. xxii. 30), the
   seed of the blessed of the Lord.

   V. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God (v.
   24): Even before they call, I will answer. God will anticipate their
   prayers with the blessings of his goodness. David did but say, I will
   confess, and God forgave, Ps. xxxii. 5. The father of the prodigal met
   him in his return. While they are yet speaking, before they have
   finished their prayer, I will give them the thing they pray for, or the
   assurances and earnests of it. These are high expressions of God's
   readiness to hear prayer; and this appears much more in the grace of
   the gospel than it did under the law; we owe the comfort of it to the
   mediation of Christ as our advocate with the Father and are obliged in
   gratitude to give a ready ear to God's calls.

   VI. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their
   neighbours (v. 25): The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, as they
   did in Noah's ark. God's people, though they are as sheep in the midst
   of wolves, shall be safe and unhurt; for God will not so much break the
   power and tie the hands of their enemies as formerly, but he will turn
   their hearts, will alter their dispositions by his grace. When Paul,
   who had been a persecutor of the disciples (and who, being of the tribe
   of Benjamin, ravened as a wolf, Gen. xlix. 27) joined himself to them
   and became one of them, then the wolf and the lamb fed together. So
   also when the enmity between Jews and Gentiles was slain, all
   hostilities ceased, and they fed together as one sheepfold under Christ
   the great Shepherd, John x. 16. The enemies of the church ceased to do
   the mischief they had done, and its members ceased to be so quarrelsome
   with and injurious to one another as they had been, so that there was
   none either from without or from within to hurt or destroy, none to
   disturb it, much less to ruin it, in all the holy mountain; as was
   promised, ch. xi. 9. For, 1. Men shall be changed: The lion shall no
   more be a beast of prey, as perhaps he never would have been if sin had
   not entered, but shall eat straw like the bullock, shall know his
   owner, and his master's crib, as the ox does. When those that lived by
   spoil and rapine, and coveted to enrich themselves, right or wrong, are
   brought by the grace of God to accommodate themselves to their
   condition, to live by honest labour, and to be content with such things
   as they have--when those that stole steal no more, but work with their
   hands the thing that is good--then this is fulfilled, that the lion
   shall eat straw like the bullock. 2. Satan shall be chained, the dragon
   bound; for dust shall be the serpent's meat again. That great enemy,
   when he has been let loose, has glutted and regaled himself with the
   precious blood of saints, who by his instigation have been persecuted,
   and with the precious souls of sinners, who by his instigation have
   become persecutors and have ruined themselves for ever; but now he
   shall be confined to dust, according to the sentence, On thy belly
   shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, Gen. iii. 14. All the enemies
   of God's church, that are subtle and venomous as serpents, shall be
   conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust, Christ shall reign
   as Zion's King till all the enemies of his kingdom be made his
   footstool, and theirs too. In the holy mountain above, and there only,
   shall this promise have its full accomplishment, that there shall be
   none to hurt nor destroy.
     __________________________________________________________________

I S A I A H.

  CHAP. LXVI.

   The scope of this chapter is much the same as that of the foregoing
   chapter and many expressions of it are the same; it therefore looks the
   same way, to the different state of the good and bad among the Jews at
   their return out of captivity, but that typifying the rejection of the
   Jews in the days of the Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and
   the setting up of the gospel-kingdom in the world. The first verse of
   this chapter is applied by Stephen to the dismantling of the temple by
   the planting of the Christian church (Acts vii. 49, 50), which may
   serve as a key to the whole chapter. We have here, I. The contempt God
   puts upon ceremonial services in comparison with moral duties, and an
   intimation therein of his purpose shortly to put an end to the temple,
   and sacrifice and reject those that adhered to them, ver. 1-4. II. The
   salvation God will in due time work for his people out of the hands of
   their oppressors (ver. 5), speaking terror to the persecutors (ver. 6)
   and comfort to the persecuted, a speedy and complete deliverance (ver.
   7-9), a joyful settlement (ver. 10, 11), the accession of the Gentiles
   to them, and abundance of satisfaction therein, ver. 12-14. III. The
   terrible vengeance which God will bring upon the enemies of his church
   and people, ver. 15-18. IV. The happy establishment of the church upon
   large and sure foundations, its constant attendance on God and triumph
   over its enemies, ver. 19-24. And we may well expect that this
   evangelical prophet, here, in the close of his prophecy, should (as he
   does) look as far forward as to the latter days, to the last day, to
   the days of eternity.

The Vanity of Mere Ritual Obedience. (b. c. 706.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
   footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the
   place of my rest?   2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all
   those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look,
   even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my
   word.   3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that
   sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an
   oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as
   if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their
   soul delighteth in their abominations.   4 I also will choose their
   delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called,
   none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil
   before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

   Here, I. The temple is slighted in comparison with a gracious soul, v.
   1, 2. The Jews in the prophet's time, and afterwards in Christ's time,
   gloried much in the temple and promised themselves great things from
   it; to humble them therefore, and to shake their vain confidence, both
   the prophets and Christ foretold the ruin of the temple, that God would
   leave it and then it would soon be desolate. After it was destroyed by
   the Chaldeans it soon recovered itself and the ceremonial services were
   revived with it; but by the Romans it was made a perpetual desolation,
   and the ceremonial law was abolished with it. That the world might be
   prepared for this, they were often told, as here, of what little
   account the temple was with God. 1. That he did not need it. Heaven is
   the throne of his glory and government; there he sits, infinitely
   exalted in the highest dignity and dominion, above all blessing and
   praise. The earth is his footstool, on which he stands, over-ruling all
   the affairs of it according to his will. If God has so bright a throne,
   so large a footstool, where then is the house they can build unto God,
   that can be the residence of his glory, or where is the place of his
   rest? What satisfaction can the Eternal Mind take in a house made with
   men's hands? What occasion has he, as we have, for a house to repose
   himself in, who faints not neither is weary, who neither slumbers nor
   sleeps? Or, if he had occasion, he would not tell us (Ps. l. 12), for
   all these things hath his hand made, heaven and all its courts, earth
   and all its borders, and all the hosts of both. All these things have
   been, have had their beginning, by the power of God, who was happy from
   eternity before they were, and therefore could not be benefited by
   them. All these things are (so some read it); they still continue,
   upheld by the same power that made them; so that our goodness extends
   not to him. If he required a house for himself to dwell in, he would
   have made one himself when he made the world; and, if he had made one,
   it would have continued to this day, as other creatures do, according
   to his ordinance; so that he had no need of a temple made with hands.
   2. That he would not heed it as he would a humble, penitent, gracious
   heart. He has a heaven and earth of his own making, and a temple of
   man's making; but he overlooks them all, that he may look with favour
   to him that is poor in spirit, humble and serious, self-abasing and
   self-denying, whose heart is truly contrite for sin, penitent for it,
   and in pain to get it pardoned, and who trembles at God's word, not as
   Felix did, with a transient qualm that was over when the sermon was
   done, but with an habitual awe of God's majesty and purity and an
   habitual dread of his justice and wrath. Such a heart is a living
   temple for God; he dwells there, and it is the place of his rest; it is
   like heaven and earth, his throne and his footstool.

   II. Sacrifices are slighted when they come from ungracious hands. The
   sacrifice of the wicked is not only unacceptable, but it is an
   abomination to the Lord (Prov. xv. 8); this is largely shown here, v.
   3, 4. Observe, 1. How detestable their sacrifices were to God. The
   carnal Jews, after their return out of captivity, though they relapsed
   not to idolatry, grew very careless and loose in the service of God;
   they brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacrifice (Mal.
   i. 8, 13), and this made their services abominable to God; they had no
   regard to their sacrifices, and therefore how could they think God
   would have any regard to them? The unbelieving Jews, after the gospel
   was preached and in it notice given of the offering up of the great
   sacrifice, which put an end to all the ceremonial services, continued
   to offer sacrifices, as if the law of Moses had been still in force and
   could make the comers thereunto perfect: this was an abomination. He
   that kills an ox for his own table is welcome to do it; but he that now
   kills it, that thus kills it, for God's altar, is as if he slew a man;
   it is as great an offence to God as murder itself; he that does it does
   in effect set aside Christ's sacrifice, treads under foot the blood of
   the covenant, and makes himself accessory to the guilt of the body and
   blood of the Lord, setting up what Christ died to abolish. He that
   sacrifices a lamb, if it be a corrupt thing, and not the male in his
   flock, the best he has, if he think to put God off with any thing, he
   affronts him, instead of pleasing him; it is as if he cut off a dog's
   neck, a creature in the eye of the law so vile that, whereas an ass
   might be redeemed, the price of a dog was never to be brought into the
   treasury, Deut. xxiii. 18. He that offers an oblation, a meat offering
   or drink-offering, is as if he thought to make atonement with swine's
   blood, a creature that must not be eaten nor touched, the broth of it
   was abominable (ch. lxv. 4), much more the blood of it. He that burns
   incense to God, and so puts contempt upon the incense of Christ's
   intercession, is as if he blessed an idol; it was as great an affront
   to God as if they had paid their devotions to a false god. Hypocrisy
   and profaneness are as provoking as idolatry. 2. What their wickedness
   was which made their sacrifices thus detestable. It was because they
   had chosen their own ways, the ways of their own wicked hearts, and not
   only their hands did but their souls delighted in their abominations.
   They were vicious and immoral in their conversations, chose the way of
   sin rather than the way of God's commandments, and took pleasure in
   that which was provoking to God; this made their sacrifices so
   offensive to God, ch. i. 11-15. Those that pretend to honour God by a
   profession of religion, and yet live wicked lives, put an affront upon
   him, as if he were the patron of sin. And that which was an aggravation
   of their wickedness was that they persisted in it, notwithstanding the
   frequent calls given them to repent and reform; they turned a deaf ear
   to all the warnings of divine justice and all the offers of divine
   grace: When I called, none did answer, as before, ch. lxv. 12. And the
   same follows here that did there: They did evil before my eyes. Being
   deaf to what he said, they cared not what he saw, but chose that in
   which they knew he delighted not. How could those expect to please him
   in their devotions who took no care to please him in their
   conversations, but, on the contrary, designed to provoke him? 3. The
   doom passed upon them for this. Theychose their own ways, therefore,
   says God, I also will choose their delusions. They have made their
   choice (as Mr. Gataker paraphrases it), and now I will make mine; they
   have taken what course they pleased with me, and I will take what
   course I please with them. I will choose their illusions, or mockeries
   (so some); as they have mocked God and dishonoured him by their
   wickedness, so God will give them up to their enemies, to be trampled
   upon and insulted by them. Or they shall be deceived by those vain
   confidences with which they have deceived themselves. God will make
   their sin their punishment; they shall be beaten with their own rod and
   hurried into ruin by their own delusions. God will bring their fears
   upon them, that is, will bring upon them that which shall be a great
   terror to them, or that which they themselves have been afraid of and
   thought to escape by sinful shifts. Unbelieving hearts, and unpurified
   unpacified consciences, need no more to make them miserable than to
   have their own fears brought upon them.

Encouragement to the Persecuted; The Enlargement of the Church. (b. c. 706.)

   5 Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren
   that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the
   Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be
   ashamed.   6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a
   voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies.   7 Before
   she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was
   delivered of a man child.   8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath
   seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or
   shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she
   brought forth her children.   9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not
   cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and
   shut the womb? saith thy God.   10 Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be
   glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye
   that mourn for her:   11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the
   breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted
   with the abundance of her glory.   12 For thus saith the Lord, Behold,
   I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles
   like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her
   sides, and be dandled upon her knees.   13 As one whom his mother
   comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in
   Jerusalem.   14 And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and
   your bones shall flourish like a herb: and the hand of the Lord shall
   be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.

   The prophet, having denounced God's judgments against a hypocritical
   nation, that made a jest of God's word and would not answer him when he
   called to them, here turns his speech to those that trembled at his
   word, to comfort and encourage them; they shall not be involved in the
   judgments that are coming upon their unbelieving nation. Ministers must
   distinguish thus, that, when they speak terror to the wicked, they may
   not make the hearts of the righteous sad. Bone Christiane, hoc nihil ad
   te--Good Christian, this is nothing to thee. The prophet, having
   assured those that tremble at God's word of a gracious look from him
   (v. 2), here brings them a gracious message from him. The word of God
   has comforts in store for those that by true humiliation for sin are
   prepared to receive them. There were those (v. 4) who, when God spoke,
   would not hear; but, if some will not, others will. If the heart
   tremble at the word, the ear will be open to it. Now what is here said
   to them?

   I. Let them know that God will plead their just but injured cause
   against their persecutors (v. 5): Your brethren that hated you said,
   Let the Lord be glorified. But he shall appear to your joy. This
   perhaps might have reference to the case of some of the Jews at their
   return out of captivity; but nothing like it appears in the history,
   and therefore it is rather to be referred to the first preachers and
   professors of the gospel among the Jews, to whose case it is very
   applicable. Observe, 1. How the faithful servants of God were
   persecuted: Their brethren hated them. The apostles were Jews by birth,
   and yet even in the cities of the Gentiles the Jews they met with there
   were their most bitter and implacable enemies and stirred up the
   Gentiles against them. The spouse complains (Cant. i. 6) that her
   mother's children were angry with her. Pilate upbraided our Lord Jesus
   with this, Thy own nation have delivered thee unto me, John xviii. 35.
   Their brethren, who should have loved them and encouraged them for
   their work's sake hated them, and cast them out of their synagogues,
   excommunicated them as if they had been the greatest blemishes, when
   they were really the greatest blessings, of their church and nation.
   This was a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against
   the seed of the woman. Those that hated Christ hated his disciples,
   because they supported his kingdom and interest (John xv. 18), and they
   cast them out for his name's sake, because they were called by his
   name, and called upon his name, and laid out themselves to advance his
   name. Note, It is no new thing for church censures to be misapplied,
   and for her artillery, which was intended for her defence, to be turned
   against her best friends, by the treachery of her governors. And those
   that did this said, Let the Lord be glorified; they pretended
   conscience and a zeal for the honour of God and the church in it, and
   did it with all the formalities of devotion. Our Saviour explains this,
   and seems to have reference to it, John xvi. 2. They shall put you out
   of their synagogues, and whosoever kills you will think that he does
   God service. In nomine Domini incipit omne malum--In the name of the
   Lord commences evil of every kind. Or we may understand it as spoken in
   defiance of God: "You say God will be glorified in your deliverance;
   let him be glorified then; let him make speed and hasten his work (ch.
   v. 19); let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." Some take it
   to be the language of the profane Jews in captivity, bantering their
   brethren that hoped for deliverance, and ridiculing the expectations
   they often comforted themselves with, that God would shortly be
   glorified in it. They thus did what they could to shame the counsel of
   the poor, Ps. xiv. 6. 2. How they were encouraged under these
   persecutions: "Let your faith and patience hold out yet a little while;
   your enemies hate you and oppress you, your brethren hate you and cast
   you out, but your Father in heaven loves you, and will appear for you
   when no one else will or dare. His providence shall order things so as
   shall be for comfort to you; he shall appear for your joy and for the
   confusion of those that abuse you and trample on you; they shall be
   ashamed of their enmity to you." This was fulfilled when, upon the
   signals given of Jerusalem's approaching ruin, the Jews' hearts failed
   them for fear; but the disciples of Christ, whom they had hated and
   persecuted, lifted up their heads with joy, knowing that their
   redemption drew nigh, Luke xxi. 26, 28. Though God seem to hide
   himself, he will in due time show himself.

   II. Let them know that God's appearances for them will be such as will
   make a great noise in the world (v. 6): There shall be a voice of noise
   from the city, from the temple. Some make it the joyful and triumphant
   voice of the church's friends, others the frightful lamenting voice of
   her enemies, surprised in the city, and fleeing in vain to the temple
   for shelter. These voices do but echo to the voice of the Lord, who is
   now rendering a recompence to his enemies; and those that will not hear
   him speaking this terror shall hear them returning the alarms of it in
   doleful shrieks. We may well think what a confused noise there was in
   the city and temple when Jerusalem, after a long siege, was at last
   taken by the Romans. Some think this prophecy was fulfilled in the
   prodigies that went before that destruction of Jerusalem, related by
   Josephus in his History of the Wars of the Jews (4.388 and 6.311), that
   the temple-doors flew open suddenly of their own accord, and the
   priests heard a noise of motion or shifting in the most holy place, and
   presently a voice, saying, Let us depart hence. And, some time after,
   one Jesus Bar-Annas went up and down the city, at the feast of
   tabernacles, continually crying, A voice from the east, a voice from
   the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and
   the temple, a voice against all this people.

   III. Let them know that God will set up a church for himself in the
   world, which shall be abundantly replenished in a little time (v. 7):
   Before she travailed she brought forth. This is to be applied in the
   type to the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon,
   which was brought about very easily and silently, without any pain or
   struggle, such as was when they were brought out of Egypt; that was
   done by might and power (Deut. iv. 34), but this by the Spirit of the
   Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. 6. The man-child of the deliverance is
   rejoiced in, and yet the mother was never in labour for it; before her
   pain came she was delivered. This is altogether surprising, uncommon,
   and without precedent, unless in the story which the Egyptian midwives
   told of the Hebrew women (Exod. i. 19), that they were lively and were
   delivered ere the midwives came in unto them. But shall the earth be
   made to bring forth her fruits in one day? No, it is the work of some
   weeks in the spring to renew the face of the earth and cover it with
   its products. Some read this to the same purport with the next clause,
   Shall a land be brought forth in one day, or shall a nation be born at
   once? Is it to be imagined that a woman at one birth should bring
   children sufficient to people a country and that they should in an
   instant grow up to maturity? No; something like this was done in the
   creation; but God has since rested from all such works, and leaves
   second causes to produce their effects gradually. Nihil facit per
   saltum--He does nothing abruptly. Yet, in this case, as soon as Zion
   travailed she brought forth. Cyrus's proclamation was no sooner issued
   out than the captives were formed into a body and were ready to make
   the best of their way to their own land. And the reason is given (v.
   9), because it is the Lord's doing; he undertakes it whose work is
   perfect. If he bring to the birth in preparing his people for
   deliverance, he will cause to bring forth in the accomplishment of the
   deliverance. When every thing is ripe and ready for their release, and
   the number of their months is accomplished, so that the children are
   brought to the birth, shall not I then give strength to bring forth,
   but leave mother and babe to perish together in the most miserable
   case? How will this agree with the divine pity? Shall I begin a work
   and not go through with it? How will that agree with the divine power
   and perfection? Am I he that causes to bring forth (so the following
   clause may be read) and shall I restrain her? Does God cause mankind,
   and all the species of living creatures, to propagate, and replenish
   the earth, and will he restrain Zion? Will he not make her fruitful in
   a blessed offspring to replenish the church? Or, Am I he that begat,
   and should I restrain from bringing forth? Did God beget the
   deliverance in his purpose and promise, and will he not bring it forth
   in the accomplishment and performance of it? But this was a figure of
   the setting up of the Christian church in the world, and the
   replenishing of that family with children which was to be named from
   Jesus Christ. When the Spirit was poured out, and the gospel went forth
   from Zion, multitudes were converted in a little time and with little
   pains compared with the vast product. The apostles, even before they
   travailed, brought forth, and the children born to Christ were so
   numerous, and so suddenly and easily produced, that they were rather
   like the dew from the morning's womb than like the son from the
   mother's womb, Ps. cx. 3. The success of the gospel was astonishing;
   that light, like the morning, strangely diffused itself till it took
   hold even of the ends of the earth. Cities and nations were born at
   once to Christ. The same day that the Spirit was poured out there were
   3000 souls added to the church. And, when this glorious work was once
   begun, it was carried on wonderfully, beyond what could be imagined, so
   mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. He that brought to the
   birth in conviction of sin caused to bring forth in a thorough
   conversion to God.

   IV. Let them know that their present sorrows shall shortly be turned
   into abundant joys, v. 10, 11. Observe, 1. How the church's friends are
   described; they are such as love her, and mourn with her and for her.
   Note, All that love God love Jerusalem; they love the church of God,
   and lay its interest very near their heart. They admire the beauty of
   the church, take pleasure in communion with it, and heartily espouse
   its cause. And those that have a sincere affection for the church have
   a cordial sympathy with her in all the cares and sorrows of her
   militant state. They mourn for her; all her grievances are their
   griefs; if Jerusalem be in distress, their harps are hung on the
   willow-trees. 2. How they are encouraged: Rejoice with her, and again
   and again I say, Rejoice. This intimates that Jerusalem shall have
   cause to rejoice; the days of her mourning shall be at an end, and she
   shall be comforted according to the time that she has been afflicted.
   It is the will of God that all her friends should join with her in her
   joys, for they shall share with her in those blessings that will be the
   matter of her joy. If we suffer with Christ and sorrow with his church,
   we shall reign with him and rejoice with her. We are here called, (1.)
   To bear our part in the church's praises: "Come, rejoice with her,
   rejoice for joy with her, rejoice greatly, rejoice and know why you
   rejoice, rejoice on the days appointed for public thanksgiving. You
   that mourned for her in her sorrows cannot but from the same principle
   rejoice with her in her joys." (2.) To take our part in the church's
   comforts. We must suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her
   consolation. The word of God, the covenant of grace (especially the
   promises of that covenant), the ordinances of God, and all the
   opportunities of attending on him and conversing with him, are the
   breasts, which the church calls and counts the breasts of her
   consolations, where her comforts are laid up, and whence by faith and
   prayer they are drawn. With her therefore we must suck from these
   breasts, by an application of the promises of God to ourselves and a
   diligent attendance on his ordinances; and with the consolations which
   are drawn hence we must be satisfied, and not be dissatisfied though we
   have ever so little of earthly comforts. It is the glory of the church
   that she has the Lord for her God, that to her pertain the adoption and
   the service of God; and with the abundance of this glory we must be
   delighted. We must take more pleasure in our relation to God and
   communion with him than in all the delights of the sons and daughters
   of men. Whatever is the glory of the church must be our glory and joy,
   particularly her purity, unity, and increase.

   V. Let them know that he who gives them this call to rejoice will give
   them cause to do so and hearts to do so, v. 12-14.

   1. He will give them cause to do so. For, (1.) They shall enjoy a long
   uninterrupted course of prosperity: I will extend, or am extending,
   peace to her (that is, all good to her) like a river that runs in a
   constant stream, still increasing till it be swallowed up in the ocean.
   The gospel brings with it, wherever it is received in its power, such
   peace as this, which shall go on like a river, supplying souls with all
   good and making them fruitful, as a river does the lands it passes
   through, such a river of peace as the springs of the world's comforts
   cannot send forth and the dams of the world's troubles cannot stop nor
   drive back nor its sand rack up, such a river of peace as will carry us
   to the ocean of boundless and endless bliss. (2.) There shall be large
   and advantageous additions made to them: The glory of the Gentiles
   shall come to them like a flowing stream. Gentiles converts shall come
   pouring into the church, and swell the river of her peace and
   prosperity; for they shall bring their glory with them; their wealth
   and honour, their power and interest, shall all be devoted to the
   service of God and employed for the good of the church: "Then shall you
   suck from the breasts of her consolations. When you see such crowding
   for a share in those comforts you shall be the more solicitous and the
   more vigorous to secure your share, not for fear of having the less for
   others coming in to partake of Christ" (there is no danger of that; he
   has enough for all and enough for each), "but their zeal shall provoke
   you to a holy jealousy." It is well when it does so, Rom. xi. 14; 2
   Cor. ix. 2. (3.) God shall be glorified in all, and that ought to be
   more the matter of our joy than any thing else (v. 14): The hand of the
   Lord shall be known towards his servants, the protecting supporting
   hand of his almighty power, the supplying enriching hand of his
   inexhaustible goodness; the benefit which his servants have by both
   these shall be known to his glory as well as theirs. And, to make this
   the more illustrious, he will at the same time make known his
   indignation towards his enemies. God's mercy and justice shall both be
   manifested and for ever magnified.

   2. God will not only give them cause to rejoice, but will speak comfort
   to them, will speak it to their hearts; and it is he only that can do
   that, and make it fasten there. See what he will do for the comfort of
   all the sons of Zion. (1.) Their country shall be their tender nurse:
   You shall be carried on her sides, under her arms, as little children
   are, and shall be dangled upon her knees, as darlings are, especially
   when they are weary and out of humour, and must be got to sleep. Those
   that are joined to the church must be treated thus affectionately. The
   great Shepherd gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in his
   bosom, and so must the under-shepherds, that they may not be
   discouraged. Proselytes should be favourites. (2.) God will himself be
   their powerful comforter: As one whom his mother comforts, when he is
   sick or sore, or upon any account in sorrow, so will I comfort you; not
   only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with
   the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother, that bemoans
   her afflicted child when it has fallen and hurt itself, that she may
   quiet it and make it easy, or endeavours to pacify it after she has
   chidden it and fallen out with it (Jer. xxxi. 20): Since I spoke
   against him, my bowels are troubled for him; he is a dear son, he is a
   pleasant child. Thus the mother comforts. Thus you shall be comforted
   in Jerusalem, in the favours bestowed on the church, which you shall
   partake of, and in the thanksgivings offered by the church, which you
   shall concur with. (3.) They shall feel the blessed effects of this
   comfort in their own souls (v. 13): When you see this, what a happy
   state the church is restored to, not only your tongues and your
   countenances, but your hearts shall rejoice. This was fulfilled in the
   wonderful satisfaction which Christ's disciples had in the success of
   their ministry. Christ, with an eye to that, tells them (John xvi. 22),
   Your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you. Then your
   bones, that were dried and withered (the marrow of them quite
   exhausted), shall recover a youthful strength and vigour and shall
   flourish like a herb. Divine comforts reach the inward man; they are
   marrow and moistening to the bones, Prov. iii. 8. The bones are the
   strength of the body; those shall be made to flourish with these
   comforts. The joy of the Lord will be your strength, Neh. viii. 10.

Divine Judgment; Judgment and Mercy; The Enlargement of the Church. (b.
c. 706.)

   15 For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots
   like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with
   flames of fire.   16 For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead
   with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.   17 They that
   sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one
   tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the
   mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.   18 For I know
   their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all
   nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.   19 And I
   will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them
   unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to
   Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame,
   neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the
   Gentiles.   20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering
   unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in
   litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain
   Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering
   in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.   21 And I will also take
   of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord.   22 For as the
   new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before
   me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.   23 And
   it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
   sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith
   the Lord.   24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of
   the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not
   die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an
   abhorring unto all flesh.

   These verses, like the pillar of cloud and fire, have a dark side
   towards the enemies of God's kingdom and all that are rebels against
   his crown, and a bright side towards his faithful loyal subjects.
   Probably they refer to the Jews in captivity in Babylon, of whom some
   are said to have been sent thither for their hurt, and with them God
   here threatens to proceed in his controversy; they hated to be
   reformed, and therefore should be ruined by the calamity (Jer. xxiv.
   9); others were sent thither for their good, and they should have the
   trouble sanctified to them, should in due time get well through it and
   see many a good day after it. Many of the expressions here used are
   accommodated to that glorious dispensation; but doubtless the prophecy
   looks further, to the judgment for which Christ did come once, and will
   come again, into this world, and to the distinction which his word in
   both makes between the precious and the vile.

   I. Christ will appear to the confusion and terror of all those that
   stand it out against him. Sometimes he will appear in temporal
   judgments. The Jews that persisted in infidelity were cut off by fire
   and by his sword. The ruin was very extensive; the Lord then pleaded
   with all flesh; and, it being his sword with which they are cut off,
   they are called his slain, sacrificed to his justice, and they shall be
   many. In the great day the wrath of God will be his fire and sword,
   with which he will cut off and consume all the impenitent; and his
   word, when it takes hold of sinners' consciences, burns like fire, and
   is sharper than any two-edged sword. Idolaters will especially be
   contended with in the day of wrath, v. 17. Perhaps some of those who
   returned out of Babylon retained such instances of idolatry and
   superstition as are here mentioned, had their idols in their gardens
   (not daring to set them up publicly in the high places) and there
   purified themselves (as the worshippers of the true God used to do)
   when they went about their idolatrous rites, one after another, or, as
   we read it, behind one tree in the midst, behind Ahad or Ehad, some
   idol that they worshipped by that name and in honour of which they ate
   swine's flesh (which was expressly forbidden by the law of God), and
   other abominations, as the mouse, or some other like animal. But the
   prophecy may refer to all those judgments which the wrath of God,
   according to the word of God, will bring upon provoking sinners, that
   live in contempt of God and are devoted to the world and the flesh:
   They shall be consumed together. From the happiness of heaven we find
   expressly excluded all idolaters, and whosoever worketh abomination,
   Rev. xxi. 27; xxii. 15. In the day of vengeance secret wickedness will
   be brought to light and brought to the account; for (v. 18), I know
   their works and their thoughts. God knows both what men do and from
   what principle and with what design they do it; and therefore is fit to
   judge the world, because he can judge the secrets of men, Rom. ii. 16.

   II. He will appear to the comfort and joy of all that are faithful to
   him in the setting up of his kingdom in this world, the kingdom of
   grace, the earnest and first-fruits of the kingdom of glory. The time
   shall come that he will gather all nations and tongues to himself, that
   they may come and see his glory as it shines in the face of Jesus
   Christ, v. 18. This was fulfilled when all nations were to be discipled
   and the gift of tongues was bestowed in order thereunto. The church had
   hitherto been confined to one nation and in one tongue only God was
   worshipped; but in the days of the Messiah the partition-wall should be
   taken down, and those that had been strangers to God should be brought
   acquainted with him and should see his glory in the gospel, as the Jews
   had seen it in the sanctuary. As to this, it is here promised,

   1. That some of the Jewish nation should, by the grace of God, be
   distinguished form the rest, and marked for salvation: I will not only
   set up a gathering ensign among them, to which the Gentiles shall seek
   (as is promised, ch. xi. 12), but there shall be those among them on
   whom I will set a differencing sign; for so the word signifies. Though
   they are a corrupt degenerate nation, yet God will set apart a remnant
   of them, that shall be devoted to him and employed for him, and a mark
   shall be set upon them, with such certainty will God own them, Ezek.
   ix. 4. The servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads, Rev.
   vii. 3. The Lord knows those that are his. Christ's sheep are marked.

   2. That those who are themselves distinguished thus by the grace of God
   shall be commissioned to invite others to come and take the benefit of
   that grace. Those that escape the power of those prejudices by which
   the generality of that nation is kept in unbelief shall be sent to the
   nations to carry the gospel among them, and preach it to every
   creature. Note, Those who themselves have escaped the wrath to come
   should do all they can to snatch others also as brands out of the
   burning. God chooses to send those on his errands that can deliver
   their message feelingly and experimentally, and warn people of their
   danger by sin as those who have themselves narrowly escaped the danger.
   (1.) They shall be sent to the nations, several of which are here
   named, Tarshish, and Pul, and Lud, &c. It is uncertain, nor are
   interpreters agreed, what countries are here intended. Tarshish
   signifies in general the sea, yet some take it for Tarsus in Cilicia.
   Pul is mentioned sometimes as the name of one of the kings of Assyria;
   perhaps some part of that country might likewise bear that name. Lud is
   supposed to be Lydia, a warlike nation, famed for archers: the Lydians
   are said to handle and bend the bow, Jer. xlvi. 9. Tubal, some think,
   is Italy or Spain; and Javan most agree to be Greece, the Iones; and
   the isles of the Gentiles, that were peopled by the posterity of Japhet
   (Gen. x. 5), probably are here meant by the isles afar off, that have
   not heard my name, neither have seen my glory. In Judah only was God
   known, and there only his name was great for many ages. Other countries
   sat in darkness, heard no the joyful sound, saw not the joyful light.
   This deplorable state of theirs seems to be spoken of here with
   compassion; for it is a pity that any of the children of men should be
   at such a distance from their Maker as not to hear his name and see his
   glory. In consideration of this, (2.) Those that are sent to the
   nations shall go upon God's errand, to declare his glory among the
   Gentiles. The Jews that shall be dispersed among the nations shall
   declare the glory of God's providence concerning their nation all
   along, by which many shall be invited to join with them, as also by the
   appearances of God's glory among them in his ordinances. Some out of
   all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that
   is a Jew, entreating him to take notice of them, to admit them into his
   company, and to stay a little while for them, till they are ready, "for
   we will go with you, having heard that God is with you," Zech. viii.
   23. Thus the glory of God was in part declared among the Gentiles; but
   more clearly and fully by the apostles and early preachers of the
   gospel, who were sent into all the world, even to the isles afar off,
   to publish the glorious gospel of the blessed God. They went forth and
   preached every where, the Lord working with them, Mark xvi. 20.

   3. That many converts shall hereby be made, v. 20.

   (1.) They shall bring all your brethren (for proselytes ought to be
   owned and embraced as brethren) for an offering unto the Lord. God's
   glory shall not be in vain declared to them, but they shall be both
   invited and directed to join themselves to the Lord. Those that are
   sent to them shall succeed so well in their negotiation that thereupon
   there shall be as great flocking to Jerusalem as used to be at the time
   of a solemn feast, when all the males from all parts of the country
   were to attend there, and not to appear empty. Observe, [1.] The
   conveniences that they shall be furnished with for their coming. Some
   shall come upon horses, because they came from far and the journey was
   too long to travel on foot, as the Jews usually did to their feasts.
   Persons of quality shall come in chariots, and the aged, and sickly,
   and little children, shall be brought in litters or covered wagons, and
   the young men on mules and swift beasts. This intimates their zeal and
   forwardness to come. They shall spare no trouble nor charge to get to
   Jerusalem. Those that cannot ride on horseback shall come in litters;
   and in such haste shall they be, and so impatient of delay, that those
   that can shall ride upon mules and swift beasts. These expressions are
   figurative, and these various means of conveyance are heaped up to
   intimate (says the learned Mr. Gataker) the abundant provision of all
   those gracious helps requisite for the bringing of God's elect home to
   Christ. All shall be welcome, and nothing shall be wanting for their
   assistance and encouragement. [2.] The character under which they shall
   be brought. They shall come, not as formerly they used to come to
   Jerusalem, to be offerers, but to be themselves an offering unto the
   Lord, which must be understood spiritually, of their being presented to
   God as living sacrifices, Rom. xii. 1. The apostle explains this, and
   perhaps refers to it, Rom. xv. 16, where he speaks of his ministering
   the gospel to the Gentiles, that the offering up, or sacrificing, of
   the Gentiles might be acceptable. They shall offer themselves, and
   those who are the instruments of their conversion shall offer them, as
   the spoils which they have taken for Christ and which are devoted to
   his service and honour. They shall be brought as the children of Israel
   bring an offering in a clean vessel, with great care that they be holy,
   purified from sin, and sanctified to God. It is said of the converted
   Gentiles (Acts xv. 9) that their hearts were purified by faith.
   Whatever was brought to God was brought in a clean vessel, a vessel
   appropriated to religious uses. God will be served and honoured in the
   way that he has appointed, in the ordinances of his own institution,
   which are the proper vehicles for these spiritual offerings. When the
   soul is offered up to God the body must be a clean vessel for it,
   possessed in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of
   uncleanness (1 Thess. iv. 4, 5); and converts to Christ are not only
   purged from an evil conscience, but have their bodies also washed with
   pure water, Heb. x. 22. Now,

   (2.) This may refer, [1.] To the Jews, devout men, and proselytes out
   of every nation under heaven, that flocked together to Jerusalem,
   expecting the kingdom of the Messiah to appear, Acts ii. 5, 6, 10. They
   came from all parts to the holy mountain of Jerusalem, as an offering
   to the Lord, and there many of them were brought to the faith of Christ
   by the gift of tongues poured out on the apostles. Methinks there is
   some correspondence between that history and this prophecy. The eunuch
   some time after came to worship at Jerusalem in his chariot and took
   home with him the knowledge of Christ and his holy religion. [2.] To
   the Gentiles, some of all nations, that should be converted to Christ,
   and so added to his church, which, though a spiritual accession, is
   often in prophecy represented by a local motion. The apostle says of
   all true Christians that they have come to Mount Zion, and the heavenly
   Jerusalem (Heb. xii. 22), which explains this passage, and shows that
   the meaning of all this parade is only that they shall be brought into
   the church by the grace of God, and in the use of the means of that
   grace, as carefully, safely, and comfortably, as if they were carried
   in chariots and litters. Thus God shall persuade Japhet and he shall
   dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen. ix. 27.

   4. That a gospel ministry shall be set up in the church, it being thus
   enlarged by the addition of such a multitude of members to it (v. 21):
   I will take of them (of the proselytes, of the Gentile converts) for
   priests and for Levites, to minister in holy things and to preside in
   their religious assemblies, which is very necessary for doctrine,
   worship, and discipline. Hitherto the priests and Levites were all
   taken from among the Jews and were all of one tribe; but in gospel
   times God will take of the converted Gentiles to minister to him in
   holy things, to teach the people, to bless them in the name of the
   Lord, to be the stewards of the mysteries of God as the priests and
   Levites were under the law, to be pastors and teachers (or bishops), to
   give themselves to the word and prayer, and deacons to serve tables,
   and, as the Levites, to take care of the outward business of the house
   of God, Phil. i. 1; Acts vi. 2-4. The apostles were all Jews, and so
   were the seventy disciples; the great apostle of the Gentiles was
   himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews; but, when churches were planted among
   the Gentiles, they had ministers settled who were of themselves, elders
   in every church (Acts xiv. 23, Tit. i. 5), which made the ministry to
   spread the more easily, and to be the more familiar, and, if not the
   more venerable, yet the more acceptable; gospel grace, it might be
   hoped, would cure people of those corruptions which kept a prophet from
   having honour in his own country. God says, I will take, not all of
   them, though they are all in a spiritual sense made to our God kings
   and priests, but of them, some of them. It is God's work originally to
   choose ministers by qualifying them for and inclining them to the
   service, as well as to make ministers by giving them their commission.
   I will take them, that is, I will admit them, though Gentiles, and will
   accept of them and their ministrations. This is a great honour and
   advantage to the Gentile church, as it was to the Jewish church that
   God raised up of their sons for prophets and their young men for
   Nazarites, Amos ii. 11.

   5. That the church and ministry, being thus settled, shall continue and
   be kept up in a succession from one generation to another, v. 22. The
   change that will be made by the setting up of the kingdom of the
   Messiah is here described to be, (1.) A very great and universal
   change; it shall be a new world, the new heavens and the new earth
   promised before, ch. lxv. 17. Old things have passed away, behold all
   things have become new (2 Cor. v. 17), the old covenant of peculiarity
   is set aside, and a new covenant, a covenant of grace, established,
   Heb. viii. 13. We are now to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in
   the oldness of the letter, Rom. vii. 6. New commandments are given
   relating both to heaven and earth, and new promises relating to both,
   and both together make a New Testament; so that they are new heavens
   and a new earth that God will create, and these a preparative for the
   new heavens and new earth designed at the end of time, 2 Pet. iii. 13.
   (2.) A change of God's own making; he will create the new heavens and
   the new earth. The change was made by him that had authority to make
   new ordinances, as well as power to make new worlds. (3.) It will be an
   abiding lasting change, a change never to be changed, a new world that
   will be always new, and never wax old, as that does which is ready to
   vanish away: It shall remain before me unalterable; for the gospel
   dispensation is to continue to the end of time and not to be succeeded
   by any other. The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom that cannot be moved;
   the laws and privileges of it are things that cannot be shaken, but
   shall for ever remain, Heb. xii. 27, 28. It shall therefore remain,
   because it is before God; it is under his eye, and care, and special
   protection. (4.) It will be maintained in a seed that shall serve
   Christ: Your seed, and in them your name, shall remain--a seed of
   ministers, a seed of Christians; as one generation of both passes away,
   another generation shall come; and thus the name of Christ, with that
   of Christians, shall continue on earth while the earth remains, and his
   throne as the days of heaven. The gates of hell, though they fight
   against the church, shall not prevail, nor wear out the saints of the
   Most High.

   6. That the public worship of God in religious assemblies shall be
   carefully and constantly attended upon by all that are thus brought as
   an offering to the Lord, v. 23. This is described in expressions suited
   to the Old-Testament dispensation, to show that though the ceremonial
   law should be abolished, and the temple service should come to an end,
   yet God should be still as regularly, constantly, and acceptably
   worshipped as ever. Heretofore only Jews went up to appear before God,
   and they were bound to attend only three times a year, and the males
   only; but now all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, women as well as
   men, shall come and worship before God, in his presence, though not in
   his temple at Jerusalem, but in religious assemblies dispersed all the
   world over, which shall be to them as the tabernacle of meeting was to
   the Jews. God will in them record his name, and, though but two or
   three come together, he will be among them, will meet them, and bless
   them. And they shall have the benefit of these holy convocations
   frequently, every new moon and every sabbath, not, as formerly, at the
   three annual feasts only. There is no necessity of one certain place,
   as the temple was of old. Christ is our temple, in whom by faith all
   believers meet, and now that the church is so far extended it is
   impossible that all should meet at one place; but it is fit that there
   should be a certain time appointed, that the service may be done
   certainly and frequently, and a token thereby given of the spiritual
   communion which all Christian assemblies have with each other by faith,
   hope, and holy love. The new moons and the sabbaths are mentioned
   because, under the law, though the yearly feasts were to be celebrated
   at Jerusalem, yet the new moons and the sabbaths were religiously
   observed all the country over, in the schools of the prophets first and
   afterwards in the synagogues (2 Kings iv. 23, Amos viii. 5, Acts xv.
   21), according to the model of which Christian assemblies seem to be
   formed. Where the Lord's day is weekly sanctified, and the Lord's
   supper monthly celebrated, and both are duly attended on, there this
   promise is fulfilled, there the Christian new moons and sabbaths are
   observed. See, here, (1.) That God is to be worshipped in solemn
   assemblies, and that it is the duty of all, as they have opportunity,
   to wait upon God in those assemblies: All flesh must come; though
   flesh, weak, corrupt, and sinful, let them come that the flesh may be
   mortified. (2.) In worshipping God we present ourselves before him, and
   are in a special manner in his presence. (3.) For doing this there
   ought to be stated times, and are so; and we must see that it is our
   interest as well as our duty constantly and conscientiously to observe
   these times.

   7. That their thankful sense of God's distinguishing favour to them
   should be very much increased by the consideration of the fearful doom
   and destruction of those that persist and perish in their infidelity
   and impiety, v. 24. Those that have been worshipping the Lord of hosts,
   and rejoicing before him in the goodness of his house, shall, in order
   to affect themselves the more with their own happiness, take a view of
   the misery of the wicked. Observe, (1.) Who they are whose misery is
   here described. They are men that have transgressed against God, not
   only broken his laws, but broken covenant with him, and thought
   themselves able to contend with him. It may be meant especially of the
   unbelieving Jews that rejected the gospel of Christ. (2.) What their
   misery is. It is here represented by the frightful spectacle of a field
   of battle, covered with the carcases of the slain, that lie rotting
   above ground, full of worms crawling about them and feeding on them;
   and, if you go to burn them, they are so scattered, and it is such a
   noisome piece of work to get them together, that it would be endless,
   and the fire would never be quenched; so that they are an abhorring to
   all flesh, nobody cares to come near them. Now this is sometimes
   accomplished in temporal judgments, and perhaps never nearer the letter
   than in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the
   Romans, in which destruction it is computed that above two millions,
   first and last, were cut off by the sword, besides what perished by
   famine and pestilence. It may refer likewise to the spiritual judgments
   that came upon the unbelieving Jews, which St. Paul looks upon, and
   shows us, Rom. xi. 8, &c. They became dead in sins, twice dead. The
   church of the Jews was a carcase of a church; all its members were
   putrid carcases; their worm died not, their own consciences made them
   continually uneasy, and the fire of their rage against the gospel was
   not quenched, which was their punishment as well as their sin; and they
   became, more than ever any nation under the sun, an abhorring to all
   flesh. But our Saviour applies it to the everlasting misery and torment
   of impenitent sinners in the future state, where their worm dies not,
   and their fire is not quenched (Mark ix. 44); for the soul, whose
   conscience is its constant tormentor, is immortal, and God, whose wrath
   is its constant terror, is eternal. (3.) What notice shall be taken of
   it. Those that worship God shall go forth and look upon them, to affect
   their own hearts with the love of their Redeemer, when they see what
   misery they are redeemed from. As it will aggravate the miseries of the
   damned to see others in the kingdom of heaven and themselves thrust out
   (Luke xiii. 28), so it will illustrate the joys and glories of the
   blessed to see what becomes of those that died in their transgression,
   and it will elevate their praises to think that they were themselves as
   brands plucked out of that burning. To the honour of that free grace
   which thus distinguished them let the redeemed of the Lord with all
   humility, and not without a holy trembling, sing their triumphant
   songs.
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Jeremiah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

J E R E M I A H.
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   The Prophecies of the Old Testament, as the Epistles of the New, are
   placed rather according to their bulk than their seniority--the longest
   first, not the oldest. There were several prophets, and writing ones,
   that were contemporaries with Isaiah, as Micah, or a little before him,
   as Hosea, and Joel, and Amos, or soon after him, as Habakkuk and Nahum
   are supposed to have been; and yet the prophecy of Jeremiah, who began
   many years after Isaiah finished, is placed next to his, because there
   is so much in it. Where we meet with most of God's word, there let the
   preference be given; and yet those of less gifts are not to be despised
   nor excluded. Nothing now occurs to be observed further concerning
   prophecy in general; but concerning this prophet Jeremiah we may
   observe, I. That he was betimes a prophet; he began young, and
   therefore could say, from his own experience, that it is good for a man
   to bear the yoke in his youth, the yoke both of service and of
   affliction, Lam. iii. 27. Jerome observes that Isaiah, who had more
   years over his head, had his tongue touched with a coal of fire, to
   purge away his iniquity (ch. vi. 7), but that when God touched
   Jeremiah's mouth, who was yet but young, nothing was said of the
   purging of his iniquity (ch. i. 9), because, by reason of his tender
   years, he had not so much sin to answer for. II. That he continued long
   a prophet, some reckon fifty years, others above forty. He began in the
   thirteenth year of Josiah, when things went well under that good king,
   but he continued through all the wicked reigns that followed; for when
   we set out for the service of God, though the wind may then be fair and
   favourable, we know not how soon it may turn and be tempestuous. III.
   That he was a reproving prophet, was sent in God's name to tell Jacob
   of their sins and to warn them of the judgments of God that were coming
   upon them; and the critics observe that therefore his style or manner
   of speaking is more plain and rough, and less polite, than that of
   Isaiah and some others of the prophets. Those that are sent to discover
   sin ought to lay aside the enticing words of man's wisdom.
   Plain-dealing is best when we are dealing with sinners to bring them to
   repentance. IV. That he was a weeping prophet; so he is commonly
   called, not only because he penned the Lamentations, but because he was
   all along a mournful spectator of the sins of his people and of the
   desolating judgments that were coming upon them. And for this reason,
   perhaps, those who imagined our Saviour to be one of the prophets
   thought him of any of them to be most like to Jeremiah (Matt. xvi. 14),
   because he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. V. That he
   was a suffering prophet. He was persecuted by his own people more than
   any of them, as we shall find in the story of this book; for he lived
   and preached just before the Jews' destruction by the Chaldeans, when
   their character seems to have been the same as it was just before their
   destruction by the Romans, when they killed the Lord Jesus, and
   persecuted his disciples, pleased not God, and were contrary to all
   men, for wrath had come upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thess. ii. 15,
   16. The last account we have of him in his history is that the
   remaining Jews forced him to go down with them into Egypt; whereas the
   current tradition is, among Jews and Christians, that he suffered
   martyrdom. Hottinger, out of Elmakin, an Arabic historian, relates
   that, continuing to prophesy in Egypt against the Egyptians and other
   nations, he was stoned to death; and that long after, when Alexander
   entered Egypt, he took up the bones of Jeremiah where they were buried
   in obscurity, and carried them to Alexandria, and buried them there.
   The prophecies of this book which we have in the first nineteen
   chapters seem to be the heads of the sermons he preached in a way of
   general reproof for sin and denunciation of judgment; afterwards they
   are more particular and occasional, and mixed with the history of his
   day, but not placed in due order of time. With the threatenings are
   intermixed many gracious promises of mercy to the penitent, of the
   deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity, and some that have a
   plain reference to the kingdom of the Messiah. Among the Apocryphal
   writings an epistle is extant said to be written by Jeremiah to the
   captives in Babylon, warning them against the worship of idols, by
   exposing the vanity of idols and the folly of idolaters. It is in
   Baruch, ch. vi. But it is supposed not to be authentic; nor has it, I
   think, any thing like the life and spirit of Jeremiah's writings. It is
   also related concerning Jeremiah (2 Mac. ii. 4) that, when Jerusalem
   was destroyed by the Chaldeans, he, by direction from God, took the ark
   and the altar of incense, and, carrying them to Mount Nebo lodged them
   in a hollow cave there and stopped the door; but some that followed
   him, and thought that they had marked the place, could not find it. He
   blamed them for seeking it, telling them that the place should be
   unknown till the time that God should gather his people together again.
   But I know not what credit is to be given to that story, though it is
   there said to be found in the records. We cannot but be concerned, in
   the reading of Jeremiah's prophecies, to find that they were so little
   regarded by the men of that generation; but let us make use of that as
   a reason why we should regard them the more; for they are written for
   our learning too, and for warning to us and to our land.
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J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. The general inscription or title of this
   book, with the time of the continuance of Jeremiah's public ministry,
   ver. 1-3. II. The call of Jeremiah to the prophetic office, his modest
   objection against it answered, and an ample commission given him for
   the execution of it, ver. 4-10. III. The visions of an almond-rod and a
   seething-pot, signifying the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem by
   the Chaldeans, ver. 11-16. IV. Encouragement given to the prophet to go
   on undauntedly in his work, in an assurance of God's presence with him,
   ver. 17-19. Thus is he set to work by one that will be sure to bear him
   out.

The Inscription. (b. c. 629.)

   1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in
   Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:   2 To whom the word of the Lord came
   in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth
   year of his reign.   3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of
   Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the
   son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem
   captive in the fifth month.

   We have here as much as it was thought fit we should know of the
   genealogy of this prophet and the chronology of this prophecy. 1. We
   are told what family the prophet was of. He was the son of Hilkiah, not
   that Hilkiah, it is supposed, who was high priest in Josiah's time (for
   then he would have been called so, and not, as here, one of the priests
   that were in Anathoth), but another of the same name. Jeremiah
   signifies one raised up by the Lord. It is said of Christ that he is a
   prophet whom the Lord our God raised up unto us, Deut. xviii. 15, 18.
   He was of the priests, and, as a priest, was authorized and appointed
   to teach the people; but to that authority and appointment God added
   the extraordinary commission of a prophet. Ezekiel also was a priest.
   Thus God would support the honour of the priesthood at a time when, by
   their sins and God's judgments upon them, it was sadly eclipsed. He was
   of the priests in Anathoth, a city of priests, which lay about three
   miles from Jerusalem. Abiathar had his country house there, 1 Kings ii.
   26. 2. We have the general date of his prophecies, the knowledge of
   which is requisite to the understanding of them. (1.) He began to
   prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, v. 2. Josiah, in the
   twelfth year of his reign, began a work of reformation, applied himself
   with all sincerity to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places,
   and the groves, and the images, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. And very seasonably
   then was this young prophet raised up to assist and encourage the young
   king in that good work. Then the word of the Lord came to him, not only
   a charge and commission to him to prophesy, but a revelation of the
   things themselves which he was to deliver. As it is an encouragement to
   ministers to be countenanced and protected by such pious magistrates as
   Josiah was, so it is a great help to magistrates, in any good work of
   reformation, to be advised and animated, and to have a great deal of
   their work done for them, by such faithful zealous ministers as
   Jeremiah was. Now, one would have expected when these two joined
   forces, such a prince, and such a prophet (as in a like case, Ezra v.
   1, 2), and both young, such a complete reformation would be brought
   about and settled as would prevent the ruin of the church and state;
   but it proved quite otherwise. In the eighteenth year of Josiah we find
   there were a great many of the relics of idolatry that were not purged
   out; for what can the best princes and prophets do to prevent the ruin
   of a people that hate to be reformed? And therefore, though it was a
   time of reformation, Jeremiah continued to foretel the destroying
   judgments that were coming upon them; for there is no symptom more
   threatening to any people than fruitless attempts of reformation.
   Josiah and Jeremiah would have healed them, but they would not be
   healed. (2.) He continued to prophesy through the reigns of Jehoiakim
   and Zedekiah, each of whom reigned eleven years. He prophesied to the
   carrying away of Jerusalem captive (v. 3), that great event which he
   had so often prophesied of. He continued to prophesy after that, ch.
   xl. 1. But the computation here is made to end with that because it was
   the accomplishment of many of his predictions; and from the thirteenth
   of Josiah to the captivity was just forty years. Dr. Lightfoot observes
   that as Moses was so long with the people, a teacher in the wilderness,
   till they entered into their own land, Jeremiah was so long in their
   own land a teacher, before they went into the wilderness of the
   heathen: and he thinks that therefore a special mark is set upon the
   last forty years of the iniquity of Judah, which Ezekiel bore forty
   days, a day for a year, because during all that time they had Jeremiah
   prophesying among them, which was a great aggravation of their
   impenitency. God, in this prophet, suffered their manners, their ill
   manners, forty years, and at length swore in his wrath that they should
   not continue in his rest.

Jeremiah's Call to the Prophetic Office. (b. c. 629.)

   4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   5 Before I formed
   thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
   womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
     6 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a
   child.   7 But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou
   shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee
   thou shalt speak.   8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee
   to deliver thee, saith the Lord.   9 Then the Lord put forth his hand,
   and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my
   words in thy mouth.   10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations
   and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy,
   and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

   Here is, I. Jeremiah's early designation to the work and office of a
   prophet, which God gives him notice of as a reason for his early
   application to that business (v. 4, 5): The word of the Lord came to
   him, with a satisfying assurance to himself that it was the word of the
   Lord and not a delusion; and God told him, 1. That he had ordained him
   a prophet to the nations, or against the nations, the nation of the
   Jews in the first place, who are now reckoned among the nations because
   they had learned their works and mingled with them in their idolatries,
   for otherwise they would not have been numbered with them, Num. xxiii.
   9. Yet he was given to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the
   neighbouring nations, to whom he was to send yokes (ch. xxvii. 2, 3)
   and whom he must make to drink of the cup of the Lord's anger, ch. xxv.
   17. He is still in his writings a prophet to the nations (to our nation
   among the rest), to tell them what the national judgments are which may
   be expected for national sins. It would be well for the nations would
   they take Jeremiah for their prophet and attend to the warnings he
   gives them. 2. That before he was born, even in his eternal counsel, he
   had designed him to be so. Let him know that he who gave him his
   commission is the same that gave him his being, that formed him in the
   belly and brought him forth out of the womb, that therefore he was his
   rightful owner and might employ him and make use of him as he pleased,
   and that this commission was given him in pursuance of the purpose God
   had purposed in himself concerning him, before he was born: "I knew
   thee, and I sanctified thee," that is, "I determined that thou shouldst
   be a prophet and set thee apart for the office." Thus St. Paul says of
   himself that God had separated him from his mother's womb to be a
   Christian and an apostle, Gal. i. 15. Observe, (1.) The great Creator
   knows what use to make of every man before he makes him. He has made
   all for himself, and of the same lumps of clay designs a vessel of
   honour or dishonour, as he pleases, Rom. ix. 21. (2.) What God has
   designed men for he will call them to; for his purposes cannot be
   frustrated. Known unto God are all his own works beforehand, and his
   knowledge is infallible and his purpose unchangeable. (3.) There is a
   particular purpose and providence of God conversant about his prophets
   and ministers; they are by special counsel designed for their work, and
   what they are designed for they are fitted for: I that knew thee,
   sanctified thee. God destines them to it, and forms them for it, when
   he first forms the spirit of man within him. Propheta nascitur, non
   fit--Original endowment, not education, makes a prophet.

   II. His modestly declining this honourable employment, v. 6. Though God
   had predestinated him to it, yet it was news to him, and a mighty
   surprise, to hear that he should be a prophet to the nations. We know
   not what God intends us for, but he knows. One would have thought he
   would catch at it as a piece of preferment, for so it was; but he
   objects against it, as a work for which he is unqualified: "Ah, Lord
   God! behold, I cannot speak to great men and multitudes, as prophets
   must; I cannot speak finely nor fluently, cannot word things well, as a
   message from God should be worded; I cannot speak with any authority,
   nor can expect to be heeded, for I am a child and my youth will be
   despised." Note, It becomes us, when we have any service to do for God,
   to be afraid lest we mismanage it, and lest it suffer through our
   weakness and unfitness for it; it becomes us likewise to have low
   thoughts of ourselves and to be diffident of our own sufficiency. Those
   that are young should consider that they are so, should be afraid, as
   Elihu was, and not venture beyond their length.

   III. The assurance God graciously gave him that he would stand by him
   and carry him on in his work.

   1. Let him not object that he is a child; he shall be a prophet for all
   that (v. 7): "Say no any more, I am a child. It is true thou art; but,"
   (1.) "Thou hast God's precept, and let not thy being young hinder thee
   from obeying it. Go to all to whom I shall send thee and speak
   whatsoever I command thee." Note, Though a sense of our own weakness
   and insufficiency should make us go humbly about our work, yet it
   should not make us draw back from it when God calls us to it. God was
   angry with Moses even for his modest excuses, Exod. iv. 14. (2.) "Thou
   hast God's presence, and let not thy being young discourage thee from
   depending upon it. Though thou art a child, thou shalt be enabled to go
   to all to whom I shall send thee, though they are ever so great and
   ever so many. And whatsoever I command thee thou shalt have judgment,
   memory, and language, wherewith to speak it as it should be spoken."
   Samuel delivered a message from God to Eli, when he was a little child.
   Note, God can, when he pleases, make children prophets, and ordain
   strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.

   2. Let him not object that he shall meet with many enemies and much
   opposition; God will be his protector (v. 8): "Be not afraid of their
   races; though they look big, and so think to outface thee and put thee
   out of countenance, yet be not afraid to speak to them; no, not to
   speak that to them which is most unpleasing. Thou speakest in the name
   of the King of kings, and by authority from him, and with that thou
   mayest face them down. Though they look angry, be not afraid of their
   displeasure nor disturbed with apprehensions of the consequences of
   it." Those that have messages to deliver from God must not be afraid of
   the face of man, Ezek. iii. 9. "And thou hast cause both to be bold and
   easy; for I am with thee, not only to assist thee in thy work, but to
   deliver thee out of the hands of the persecutors; and, if God be for
   thee, who can be against thee?" If God do not deliver his ministers
   from trouble, it is to the same effect if he support them under their
   trouble. Mr. Gataker well observes here, That earthly princes are not
   wont to go along with their ambassadors; but God goes along with those
   whom he sends, and is, by his powerful protection, at all times and in
   all places present with them; and with this they ought to animate
   themselves, Acts xviii. 10.

   3. Let him not object that he cannot speak as becomes him--God will
   enable him to speak.

   (1.) To speak intelligently, and as one that had acquaintance with God,
   v. 9. He having now a vision of the divine glory, the Lord put forth
   his hand, and by a sensible sign conferred upon him so much of the gift
   of the tongue as was necessary for him: He touched his mouth, and with
   that touch opened his lips, that his mouth should show forth God's
   praise, with that touch sweetly conveyed his words into his mouth, to
   be ready to him upon all occasions, so that he could never want words
   who was thus furnished by him that made man's mouth. God not only put
   knowledge into his head, but words into his mouth; for there are words
   which the Holy Ghost teaches, 1 Cor. ii. 13. It is fit God's message
   should be delivered in his own words, that it may be delivered
   accurately. Ezek. iii. 4, Speak with my words. And those that
   faithfully do so shall not want instructions as the case requires; God
   will give them a mouth and wisdom in that same hour, Matt. x. 19.

   (2.) To speak powerfully, and as one that had authority from God, v.
   10. It is a strange commission that is here given him: See, I have this
   day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms. This sounds very
   great, and yet Jeremiah is a poor despicable priest still; he is not
   set over the kingdoms as a prince to rule them by the sword, but as a
   prophet by the power of the word of God. Those that would hence prove
   the pope's supremacy over kings, and his authority to depose them and
   dispose of their kingdoms at his pleasure, must prove that he has the
   same extraordinary spirit of prophecy that Jeremiah had, else how can
   be have the power that Jeremiah had by virtue of that spirit? And yet
   the power that Jeremiah had (who, notwithstanding his power, lived in
   meanness and contempt, and under oppression) would not content these
   proud men. Jeremiah was set over the nations, the Jewish nation in the
   first place, and other nations, some great ones besides, against whom
   he prophesied; he was set over them, not to demand tribute from them
   nor to enrich himself with their spoils, but to root out, and pull
   down, and destroy, and yet withal to build and plant. [1.] He must
   attempt to reform the nations, to root out, and pull down, and destroy
   idolatry and other wickednesses among them, to extirpate those vicious
   habits and customs which had long taken root, to throw down the kingdom
   of sin, that religion and virtue might be planted and built among them.
   And, to the introducing and establishing of that which is good, it is
   necessary that that which is evil be removed. [2.] He must tell them
   that it would be well or ill with them according as they were, or were
   not, reformed. He must set before them life and death, good and evil,
   according to God's declaration of the method he takes with kingdoms and
   nations, ch. xviii. 9-10. He must assure those who persisted in their
   wickedness that they should be rooted out and destroyed, and those who
   repented that they should be built and planted. He was authorized to
   read the doom of nations, and God would ratify it and fulfil it (Isa.
   xliv. 26), would do it according to his word, and therefore is said to
   do it by his word. It is thus expressed partly to show how sure the
   word of prophecy is--it will as certainly be accomplished as if it were
   done already, and partly to put an honour upon the prophetic office and
   make it look truly great, that others may not despise the prophets nor
   they disparage themselves. And yet more honourable does the gospel
   ministry look, in that declarative power Christ gave his apostles to
   remit and retain sin (John xx. 23), to bind and loose, Matt. xviii. 18.

Charge Given to Jeremiah. (b. c. 629.)

   11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what
   seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.   12 Then said
   the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to
   perform it.   13 And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time,
   saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face
   thereof is toward the north.   14 Then the Lord said unto me, Out of
   the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the
   land.   15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the
   north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every
   one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against
   all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
     16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their
   wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other
   gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.   17 Thou therefore
   gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command
   thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
     18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an
   iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings
   of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and
   against the people of the land.   19 And they shall fight against thee;
   but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the
   Lord, to deliver thee.

   Here, I. God gives Jeremiah, in vision, a view of the principal errand
   he was to go upon, which was to foretel the destruction of Judah and
   Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, for their sins, especially their idolatry.
   This was at first represented to him in away proper to make an
   impression upon him, that he might have it upon his heart in all his
   dealings with this people.

   1. He intimates to him that the people were ripening apace for ruin and
   that ruin was hastening apace towards them. God, having answered his
   objection, that he was a child, goes on to initiate him in the
   prophetical learning and language; and, having promised to enable him
   to speak intelligibly to the people, he here teaches him to understand
   what God says to him; for prophets must have eyes in their heads as
   well as tongues, must be seers as well as speakers. He therefore asks
   him, "Jeremiah, what seest thou? Look about thee, and observe now." And
   he was soon aware of what was presented to him: "I see a rod, denoting
   affliction and chastisement, a correcting rod hanging over us; and it
   is a rod of an almond-tree, which is one of the forwardest trees in the
   spring, is in the bud and blossom quickly, when other trees are
   scarcely broken out;" it flourishes, says Pliny, in the month of
   January, and by March has ripe fruits; hence it is called in the
   Hebrew, Shakedh, the hasty tree. Whether this rod that Jeremiah saw had
   already budded, as some think, or whether it was stripped and dry, as
   others think, and yet Jeremiah knew it to be of an almond-tree, as
   Aaron's rod was, is uncertain; but God explained it in the next words
   (v. 12): Thou hast well seen. God commended him that he was so
   observant, and so quick of apprehension, as to be aware, though it was
   the first vision he ever saw, that it was a rod of an almond-tree, that
   his mind was so composed as to be able to distinguish. Prophets have
   need of good eyes; and those that see well shall be commended, and not
   those only that speak well. "Thou hast seen a hasty tree, which
   signifies that I will hasten my word to perform it." Jeremiah shall
   prophesy that which he himself shall live to see accomplished. We have
   the explication of this, Ezek. vii. 10, 11, "The rod hath blossomed,
   pride hath budded, violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. The
   measure of Jerusalem's iniquity fills very fast; and, as if their
   destruction slumbered too long, they waken it, they hasten it, and I
   will hasten to perform what I have spoken against them."

   2. He intimates to him whence the intended ruin should arise. Jeremiah
   is a second time asked: What seest thou? and he sees a seething-pot
   upon the fire (v. 13), representing Jerusalem and Judah in great
   commotion, like boiling water, by reason of the descent which the
   Chaldean army made upon them; made like a fiery oven (Ps. xxi. 9), all
   in a heat, wasting away as boiling water does and sensibly evaporating
   and growing less and less, ready to boil over, to be thrown out of
   their own city and land, as out of the pan into the fire, from bad to
   worse. Some think that those scoffers referred to this who said (Ezek.
   xi. 3), This city is the cauldron, and we are the flesh. Now the mouth
   or face of the furnace or hearth, over which this pot boiled, was
   towards the north, for thence the fire and the fuel were to come that
   must make the pot boil thus. So the vision is explained (v. 14): Out of
   the north an evil shall break forth, or shall be opened. It had been
   long designed by the justice of God, and long deserved by the sin of
   the people, and yet hitherto the divine patience had restrained it, and
   held it in, as it were; the enemies had intended it, and God had
   checked them; but now all restraints shall be taken off, and the evil
   shall break forth; the direful scene shall open, and the enemy shall
   come in like a flood. It shall be a universal calamity; it shall come
   upon all the inhabitants of the land, from the highest to the lowest,
   for they have all corrupted their way. Look for this storm to arise out
   of the north, whence fair weather usually comes, Job xxxvii. 22. When
   there was friendship between Hezekiah and the king of Babylon they
   promised themselves many advantages out of the north; but it proved
   quite otherwise: out of the north their trouble arose. Thence sometimes
   the fiercest tempests come whence we expected fair weather. This is
   further explained v. 15, where we may observe, (1.) The raising of the
   army that shall invade Judah and lay it waste: I will call all the
   families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord. All the northern
   crowns shall unite under Nebuchadnezzar, and join with him in this
   expedition. They lie dispersed, but God, who has all men's hearts in
   his hand, will bring them together; they lie at a distance from Judah,
   but God, who directs all men's steps, will call them, and they shall
   come, though they be ever so far off. God's summons shall be obeyed;
   those whom he calls shall come. When he has work to do of any kind he
   will find instruments to do it, though he send to the utmost parts of
   the earth for them. And, that the armies brought into the field may be
   sufficiently numerous and strong, he will call not only the kingdoms of
   the north, but all the families of those kingdoms, into the service;
   not one able-bodied man shall be left behind. (2.) The advance of this
   army. The commanders of the troops of the several nations shall take
   their post in carrying on the siege of Jerusalem and the other cities
   of Judah. They shall set every one his throne, or seat. When a city is
   besieged we say, The enemy sits down before it. They shall encamp some
   at the entering of the gates, others against the walls round about, to
   cut off both the going out of the mouths and the coming in of the meat,
   and so to starve them.

   3. He tells him plainly what was the procuring cause of all these
   judgments; it was the sin of Jerusalem and of the cities of Judah (v.
   16): I will pass sentence upon them (so it may be read) or give
   judgment against them (this sentence, this judgment) because of all
   their wickedness; it is this that plucks up the flood-gates and lets in
   this inundation of calamities. They have forsaken God and revolted from
   their allegiance to him, and have burnt incense to other gods, new
   gods, strange gods, and all false gods, pretenders, usurpers, the
   creatures of their own fancy, and they have worshipped the works of
   their own hands. Jeremiah was young, had looked but little abroad into
   the world, and perhaps did not know, nor could have believed, what
   abominable idolatries the children of his people were guilty of; but
   God tells him, that he might know what to level his reproofs against
   and what to ground his threatenings upon, and that he might himself be
   satisfied in the equity of the sentence which in God's name he was to
   pass upon them.

   II. God excites and encourages Jeremiah to apply himself with all
   diligence and seriousness to his business. A great trust is committed
   to him. He is sent in God's name as a herald at arms, to proclaim war
   against his rebellious subjects; for God is pleased to give warning of
   his judgments beforehand, that sinners may be awakened to meet him by
   repentance, and so turn away his wrath, and that, if they do not, they
   may be left inexcusable. With this trust Jeremiah has a charge given
   him (v. 17): "Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins; free thyself from all
   those things that would unfit thee for or hinder thee in this service;
   buckle to it with readiness and resolution, and be not entangled with
   doubts about it." He must be quick: Arise, and lose no time. He must be
   busy: Arise, and speak unto them in season, out of season. He must be
   bold: Be not dismayed at their faces, as before, v. 8. In a word, he
   must be faithful; it is required of ambassadors that they be so.

   1. In two things he must be faithful:-- (1.) He must speak all that he
   is charged with: Speak all that I command thee. He must forget nothing
   as minute, or foreign, or not worth mentioning; every word of God is
   weighty. He must conceal nothing for fear of offending; he must alter
   nothing under pretence of making it more fashionable or more palatable,
   but, without addition or diminution, declare the whole counsel of God.
   (2.) He must speak to all that he is charged against; he must not
   whisper it in a corner to a few particular friends that will take it
   well, but he must appear against the kings of Judah, if they be wicked
   kings, and bear his testimony against the sins even of the princes
   thereof; for the greatest of men are not exempt from the judgments
   either of God's hand or of his mouth. Nay, he must not spare the
   priests thereof; though he himself was a priest, and was concerned to
   maintain the dignity of his order, yet he must not therefore flatter
   them in their sins. He must appear against the people of the land,
   though they were his own people, as far as they were against the Lord.

   2. Two reasons are here given why he should do thus:--(1.) Because he
   had reason to fear the wrath of God if he should be false: "Be not
   dismayed at their faces, so as to desert thy office, or shrink from the
   duty of it, lest I confound and dismay thee before them, lest I give
   thee up to thy faintheartedness." Those that consult their own credit,
   ease, and safety, more than their work and duty, are justly left of God
   to themselves, and to bring upon themselves the shame of their own
   cowardliness. Nay, lest I reckon with thee for thy faintheartedness,
   and break thee to pieces; so some read it. Therefore this prophet says
   (ch. xvii. 17), Lord, be not thou a terror to me. Note, The fear of God
   is the best antidote against the fear of man. Let us always be afraid
   of offending God, who after he has killed has power to cast into hell,
   and then we shall be in little danger of fearing the faces of men that
   can but kill the body, Luke xii. 4, 5. See Neh. iv. 14. It is better to
   have all the men in the world our enemies than God our enemy. (2.)
   Because he had no reason to fear the wrath of men if he were faithful;
   for the God whom he served would protect him, and bear him out, so that
   they should neither sink his spirits nor drive him off from his work,
   should neither stop his mouth nor take away his life, till he had
   finished his testimony, v. 18. This young stripling of a prophet is
   made by the power of God as an impregnable city, fortified with iron
   pillars and surrounded with walls of brass; he sallies out upon the
   enemy in reproofs and threatenings, and keeps them in awe. They set
   upon him on every side; the kings and princes batter him with their
   power, the priests thunder against him with their church-censures, and
   the people of the land shoot their arrows at him, even slanderous and
   bitter words; but he shall keep his ground and make his part good with
   them; he shall still be a curb upon them (v. 19): They shall fight
   against thee, but they shall not prevail to destroy thee, for I am with
   thee to deliver thee out of their hands; nor shall they prevail to
   defeat the word that God sends them by Jeremiah, nor to deliver
   themselves; it shall take hold of them, for God is against them to
   destroy them. Note, Those who are sure that they have God with them (as
   he is if they be with him) need not, ought not, to be afraid, whoever
   is against them.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. II.

   It is probable that this chapter was Jeremiah's first sermon after his
   ordination; and a most lively pathetic sermon it is as any we have is
   all the books of the prophets. Let him not say, "I cannot speak, for I
   am a child;" for, God having touched his mouth and put his words into
   it, none can speak better. The scope of the chapter is to show God's
   people their transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins; it is
   all by way of reproof and conviction, that they might be brought to
   repent of their sins and so prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.
   The charge drawn up against them is very high, the aggravations are
   black, the arguments used for their conviction very close and pressing,
   and the expostulations very pungent and affecting. The sin which they
   are most particularly charged with here is idolatry, forsaking the true
   God, their own God, for other false gods. Now they are told, I. That
   this was ungrateful to God, who had been so kind to them, ver. 1-8. II.
   That it was without precedent, that a nation should change their god,
   ver. 9-13. III. That hereby they had disparaged and ruined themselves,
   ver. 14-19. IV. That they had broken their covenants and degenerated
   from their good beginnings, ver. 20, 21. V. That their wickedness was
   too plain to be concealed and too bad to be excused, ver. 22, 23, 35.
   VI. That they persisted witfully and obstinately in it, and were
   irreclaimable and indefatigable in their idolatries, ver. 24, 25, 33,
   36. VII. That they shamed themselves by their idolatry and should
   shortly be made ashamed of it when they should find their idols unable
   to help them, ver. 26-29, 37. VIII. That they had not been convinced
   and reformed by the rebukes of Providence that had been under, ver. 30.
   IX. That they had put a great contempt upon God, ver. 31, 32. X. That
   with their idolatries they had mixed the most unnatural murders,
   shedding the blood of the poor innocents, ver. 34. Those hearts were
   hard indeed that were untouched and unhumbled when their sins were thus
   set in order before them. O that by meditating on this chapter we might
   be brought to repent of our spiritual idolatries, giving that place in
   our souls to the world and the flesh which should have been reserved
   for God only!

Jeremiah's First Message; The Divine Goodness to Israel. (b. c. 629.)

   1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,   2 Go and cry in
   the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee,
   the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou
   wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.   3
   Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first-fruits of his
   increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them,
   saith the Lord.   4 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and
   all the families of the house of Israel:   5 Thus saith the Lord, What
   iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me,
   and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?   6 Neither said
   they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
   that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of
   pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a
   land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?   7 And I
   brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the
   goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made
   mine heritage an abomination.   8 The priests said not, Where is the
   Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also
   transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and
   walked after things that do not profit.

   Here is, I. A command given to Jeremiah to go and carry a message from
   God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He was charged in general (ch. i.
   17) to go and speak to them; here he is particularly charged to go and
   speak this to them. Note, It is good for ministers by faith and prayer
   to take out a fresh commission when they address themselves solemnly to
   any part of their work. Let a minister carefully compare what he has to
   deliver with the word of God, and see that it agrees with it, that he
   may be able to say, not only, The Lord sent me, but, He sent me to
   speak this. He must go from Anathoth, where he lived in a pleasant
   retirement, spending his time (it is likely) among a few friends and in
   the study of the law, and must make his appearance at Jerusalem, that
   noisy tumultuous city, and cry in their ears, as a man in earnest and
   that would be heard: "Cry aloud, that all may hear, and none may plead
   ignorance. Go close to them, and cry in the ears of those that have
   stopped their ears."

   II. The message he was commanded to deliver. He must upbraid them with
   their horrid ingratitude in forsaking a God who had been of old so kind
   to them, that this might either make them ashamed and bring them to
   repentance, or might justify God in turning his hand against them.

   1. God here puts them in mind of the favours he had of old bestowed
   upon them, when they were first formed into a people (v. 2): "I
   remember for thy sake, and I would have thee to remember it, and
   improve the remembrance of it for thy good; I cannot forget the
   kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals."

   (1.) This may be understood of the kindness they had for God; it was
   not such indeed as they had any reason to boast of, or to plead with
   God for favour to be shown them (for many of them were very unkind and
   provoking, and, when they did return and enquire early after God, they
   did but flatter him), yet God is pleased to mention it, and plead it
   with them; for, though it was but little love that they showed him, he
   took it kindly. When they believed the Lord and his servant Moses, when
   they sang God's praise at the Red Sea, when at the foot of Mount Sinai
   they promised, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will
   be obedient, then was the kindness of their youth and the love of their
   espousals. When they seemed so forward for God he said, Surely they are
   my people, and will be faithful to me, children that will not lie.
   Note, Those that begin well and promise fair, but do not perform and
   persevere, will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising
   beginnings. God remembers the kindness of our youth and the love of our
   espousals, the zeal we then seemed to have for him and the affection
   wherewith we made our covenants with him, the buds and blossoms that
   never came to perfection; and it is good for us to remember them, that
   we may remember whence we have fallen, and return to our first love,
   Rev. ii. 4, 5; Gal. iv. 15. In two things appeared the kindness of
   their youth:--[1.] That they followed the direction of the pillar of
   cloud and fire in the wilderness; and though sometimes they spoke of
   returning into Egypt, or pushing forward into Canaan, yet they did
   neither, but for forty years together went after God in the wilderness,
   and trusted him to provide for them, though it was a land that was not
   sown. This God took kindly, and took notice of it to their praise long
   after, that, though much was amiss among them, yet they never forsook
   the guidance they were under. Thus, though Christ often chid his
   disciples, yet he commended them, at parting, for continuing with him,
   Luke xxii. 28. It must be the strong affection of the youth, and the
   espousals, that will carry us on to follow God in a wilderness, with an
   implicit faith and an entire resignation; and it is a pity that those
   who have so followed him should ever leave him. [2.] That they
   entertained divine institutions, set up the tabernacle among them, and
   attended the service of it. Israel was then holiness to the Lord; they
   joined themselves to him in covenant as a peculiar people. Thus they
   began in the spirit, and God puts them in mind of it, that they might
   be ashamed of ending in the flesh.

   (2.) Or it may be understood of God's kindness to them; of that he
   afterwards speaks largely. When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
   Hos. xi. 1. He then espoused that people to himself with all the
   affection with which a young man marries a virgin (Isaiah lxii. 5), for
   the time was a time of love, Ezek. xvi. 8. [1.] God appropriated them
   to himself. Though they were a sinful people, yet, by virtue of the
   covenant made with them and the church set up among them, they were
   holiness to the Lord, dedicated to his honour and taken under his
   special tuition; they were the first fruits of his increase, the first
   constituted church he had in the world; they were the first-fruits, but
   the full harvest was to be gathered from among the Gentiles. The
   first-fruits of the increase were God's part of it, were offered to
   him, and he was honoured with them; so were the people of the Jews;
   what little tribute, rent, and homage, God had from the world, he had
   it chiefly from them; and it was their honour to be thus set apart for
   God. This honour have all the saints; they are the first-fruits of his
   creatures, Jam. i. 18. [2.] Having espoused them, he espoused their
   cause, and became an enemy to their enemies, Exod. xxiii. 22. Being the
   first-fruits of his increase, all that devoured him (so it should be
   read) did offend; they trespassed, they contracted guilt, and evil
   befel them, as those were reckoned offenders that devoured the
   first-fruits, or any thing else that was holy to the Lord, that
   embezzled them, or converted them to their own use, Lev. v. 15. Whoever
   offered any injury to the people of God did so at their peril; their
   God was ready to avenge their quarrel, and said to the proudest of
   kings, Touch not my anointed, Ps. cv. 14, 15; Exod. xvii. 14. He had in
   a special manner a controversy with those that attempted to debauch
   them and draw them off from being holiness to the Lord; witness his
   quarrel with the Midianites about the matter of Peor, Num. xxv. 17, 18.
   [3.] He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and great terror
   (Deut. iv. 34), and yet with a kind hand and great tenderness led them
   through a vast howling wilderness (v. 6), a land of deserts and pits,
   or of graves, terram sepulchralem--a sepulchral land, where there was
   ground, not to feed them, but to bury them, where there was no good to
   be expected, for it was a land of drought, but all manner of evil to be
   feared, for it was the shadow of death. In that darksome valley they
   walked forty years; but God was with them; his rod, in Moses's hand,
   and his staff, comforted them, and even there God prepared a table for
   them (Ps. xxiii. 4, 5), gave them bread out of the clouds and drink out
   of the rocks. It was a land abandoned by all mankind, as yielding
   neither road nor rest. It was no thoroughfare, for no man passed
   through it--no settlement, for no man dwelt there. For God will teach
   his people to tread untrodden paths, to dwell alone, and to be
   singular. The difficulties of the journey are thus insisted on, to
   magnify the power and goodness of God in bringing them, through all,
   safely to their journey's end at last. All God's spiritual Israel must
   own their obligations to him for a safe conduct through the wilderness
   of this world, no less dangerous to the soul than that was to the body.
   [4.] At length he settled them in Canaan (v. 7): I brought you into a
   plentiful country, which would be the more acceptable after they had
   been for so many years in a land of drought. They did eat the fruit
   thereof and the goodness thereof, and were allowed so to do. I brought
   you into a land of Carmel (so the word is); Carmel was a place of
   extraordinary fruitfulness, and Canaan was as one great fruitful field,
   Deut. viii. 7. [5.] God gave them the means of knowledge and grace, and
   communion with him; this is implied, v. 8. They had priests that
   handled the law, read it, and expounded it to them; that was part of
   their business, Deut. xxxiii. 8. They had pastors, to guide them and
   take care of their affairs, magistrates and judges; they had prophets
   to consult God for them and to make known his mind to them.

   2. He upbraids them with their horrid ingratitude, and the ill returns
   they had made him for these favours; let them all come and answer to
   this charge (v. 4); it is exhibited in the name of God against all the
   families of the house of Israel, for they can none of them plead, Not
   guilty. (1.) He challenges them to produce any instance of his being
   unjust and unkind to them. Though he had conferred favours upon them in
   some things, yet, if in other things he had dealt hardly with them,
   they would not have been altogether without excuse. He therefore puts
   it fairly to them to show cause for their deserting him (v. 5): "What
   iniquity have your fathers found in me, or you either? Have you, upon
   trial, found God a hard master? Have his commands put any hardship upon
   you or obliged you to any thing unfit, unfair, or unbecoming you? Have
   his promises put any cheats upon you, or raised your expectations of
   things which you were afterwards disappointed of? You that have
   renounced your covenant with God, can you say that it was a hard
   bargain and that which you could not live upon? You that have forsaken
   the ordinances of God, can you say that it was because they were a
   wearisome service, or work that there was nothing to be got by? No; the
   disappointments you have met with were owing to yourselves, not to God.
   The yoke of his commandments is easy, and in the keeping of them there
   is great reward." Note, Those that forsake God cannot say that he has
   ever given them any provocation to do so: for this we may safely appeal
   to the consciences of sinners; the slothful servant that offered such a
   plea as this had it overruled out of his own mouth, Luke xix. 22.
   Though he afflicts us, we cannot say that there is iniquity in him; he
   does us no wrong. The ways of the Lord are undoubtedly equal; all the
   iniquity is in our ways. (2.) He charges them with being very unjust
   and unkind to him notwithstanding. [1.] They had quitted his service:
   "They have gone from me, nay, they have gone far from me." They studied
   how to estrange themselves from God and their duty, and got as far as
   they could out of the reach of his commandments and their own
   convictions. Those that have deserted religion commonly set themselves
   at a greater distance from it, and in a greater opposition to it, than
   those that never knew it. [2.] They had quitted it for the service of
   idols, which was so much the greater reproach to God and his service;
   they went from him, not to better themselves, but to cheat themselves:
   They have walked after vanity, that is, idolatry; for an idol is a vain
   thing; it is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. viii. 4; Deut. xxxii. 21;
   Jer. xiv. 22. Idolatrous worships are vanities, Acts xiv. 15. Idolaters
   are vain, for those that make idols are like unto them (Ps. cxv. 8), as
   much stocks and stones as the images they worship, and good for as
   little. [3.] They had with idolatry introduced all manner of
   wickedness. When they entered into the good land which God gave them
   they defiled it (v. 7), by defiling themselves and disfitting
   themselves for the service of God. It was God's land; they were but
   tenants to him, sojourners in it, Lev. xxv. 23. It was his heritage,
   for it was a holy land, Immanuel's land; but they made it an
   abomination, even to God himself, who was wroth, and greatly abhorred
   Israel. [4.] Having forsaken God, though they soon found that they had
   changed for the worse, yet they had no thoughts of returning to him
   again, nor took any steps towards it. Neither the people nor the
   priests made any enquiry after him, took any thought about their duty
   to him, nor expressed any desire to recover his favour. First, The
   people said not, Where is the Lord? v. 6. Though they were trained up
   in an observance of him as their God, and had been often told that he
   brought them out of the land of Egypt, to be a people peculiar to
   himself, yet they never asked after him nor desired the knowledge of
   his ways. Secondly, The priests said not, Where is the Lord? v. 8.
   Those whose office it was to attend immediately upon him were in no
   concern to acquaint themselves with him, or approve themselves to him.
   Those who should have instructed the people in the knowledge of God
   took no care to get the knowledge of him themselves. The scribes, who
   handled the law, did not know God nor his will, could not expound the
   scriptures at all, or not aright. The pastors, who should have kept the
   flock from transgressing, were themselves ringleaders in transgression:
   They have transgressed against me. The pretenders to prophecy
   prophesied by Baal, in his name, to his honour, being backed and
   supported by the wicked kings to confront the Lord's prophets. Baal's
   prophets joined with Baal's priests, and walked after the things which
   do not profit, that is, after the idols which can be no way helpful to
   their worshippers. See how the best characters are usurped, and the
   best offices liable to corruption; and wonder not at the sin and ruin
   of a people when the blind are leaders of the blind.

Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 629.)

   9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your
   children's children will I plead.   10 For pass over the isles of
   Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see
   if there be such a thing.   11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which
   are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which
   doth not profit.   12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be
   horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.   13 For my
   people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of
   living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
   hold no water.

   The prophet, having shown their base ingratitude in forsaking God, here
   shows their unparalleled fickleness and folly (v. 9): I will yet plead
   with you. Note, Before God punishes sinners he pleads with them, to
   bring them to repentance. Note, further, When much has been said of the
   evil of sin, still there is more to be said; when one article of the
   charge is made good, there is another to be urged; when we have said a
   great deal, still we have yet to speak on God's behalf, Job xxxvi. 2.
   Those that deal with sinners, for their conviction, must urge a variety
   of arguments and follow their blow. God had before pleaded with their
   fathers, and asked why they walked after vanity and became vain, v. 5.
   Now he pleads with those who persisted in that vain conversation
   received by tradition from their fathers, and with their children's
   children, that is, with all that in every age tread in their steps. Let
   those that forsake God know that he is willing to argue the case fairly
   with them, that he may be justified when he speaks. He pleads that with
   us which we should plead with ourselves.

   I. He shows that they acted contrary to the usage of all nations. Their
   neighbours were more firm and faithful to their false gods than they
   were to the true God. They were ambitious of being like the nations,
   and yet in this they were unlike them. He challenges them to produce an
   instance of any nation that had changed their gods (v. 10, 11) or were
   apt to change them. Let them survey either the old records or the
   present state of the isles of Chittim, Greece, and the European
   islands, the countries that were more polite and learned, and of Kedar,
   that lay south-east (as the other north-west from them), which were
   more rude and barbarous; and they should not find an instance of a
   nation that had changed their gods, though they had never done them any
   kindness, nor could do, for they were no gods. Such a veneration had
   they for their gods, so good an opinion of them, and such a respect for
   the choice their fathers had made, that though they were gods of wood
   and stone they would not change them for gods of silver and gold, no,
   not for the living and true God. Shall we praise them for this? We
   praise them not. But it may well be urged, to the reproach of Israel,
   that they, who were the only people that had no cause to change their
   God, were yet the only people that had changed him. Note, Men are with
   difficulty brought off from that religion which they have been brought
   up in, though ever so absurd and grossly false. The zeal and constancy
   of idolaters should shame Christians out of their coldness and
   inconstancy.

   II. He shows that they acted contrary to the dictates of common sense,
   in that they not only changed (it may sometimes be our duty and wisdom
   to do so), but that they changed for the worse, and made a bad bargain
   for themselves. 1. They parted from a God who was their glory, who made
   them truly glorious and every way put honour upon them, one whom they
   might with a humble confidence glory in as theirs, who is himself a
   glorious God and the glory of those whose God he is; he was
   particularly the glory of his people Israel, for his glory had often
   appeared on their tabernacle. 2. They closed with gods that could do
   them no good, gods that do not profit their worshippers. Idolaters
   change God's glory into shame (Rom. i. 23) and so they do their own; in
   dishonouring him, they disgrace and disparage themselves, and are
   enemies to their own interest. Note, Whatever those turn to who forsake
   God, it will never do them any good; it will flatter them and please
   them, but it cannot profit them. Heaven itself is here called upon to
   stand amazed at the sin and folly of these apostates from God (v. 12,
   13): Be astonished, O you heavens! at this. The earth is so universally
   corrupt that it will take no notice of it; but let the heavens and
   heavenly bodies be astonished at it. Let the sun blush to see such
   ingratitude and be afraid to shine upon such ungrateful wretches. Those
   that forsook God worshipped the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and
   stars; but these, instead of being pleased with the adorations that
   were paid to them, were astonished and horribly afraid; and would
   rather have been very desolate, utterly exhausted (as the word is) and
   deprived of their light, than that it should have given occasion to any
   to worship them. Some refer it to the angels of heaven; if they rejoice
   at the return of souls to God, we may suppose that they are astonished
   and horribly afraid at the revolt of souls from him. The meaning is
   that the conduct of this people towards God was, (1.) Such as we may
   well be astonished and wonder at, that ever men, who pretend to reason,
   should do a thing so very absurd. (2.) Such as we ought to have a holy
   indignation at as impious, and a high affront to our Maker, whose
   honour every good man is jealous for. (3.) Such as we may tremble to
   think of the consequences of. What will be in the end hereof? Be
   horribly afraid to think of the wrath and curse which will be the
   portion of those who thus throw themselves out of God's grace and
   favour. Now what is it that is to be thought of with all this horror?
   It is this: "My people, whom I have taught and should have ruled, have
   committed two great evils, ingratitude and folly; they have acted
   contrary both to their duty and to their interest." [1.] They have
   affronted their God, by turning their back upon him, as if he were not
   worthy their notice: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living
   waters, in whom they have an abundant and constant supply of all the
   comfort and relief they stand in need of, and have it freely." God is
   their fountain of life, Ps. xxxvi. 9. There is in him an
   all-sufficiency of grace and strength; all our springs are in him and
   our streams from him; to forsake him is, in effect, to deny this. He
   has been to us a bountiful benefactor, a fountain of living waters,
   over-flowing, ever-flowing, in the gifts of his favour; to forsake him
   is to refuse to acknowledge his kindness and to withhold that tribute
   of love and praise which his kindness calls for. [2.] They have cheated
   themselves, they forsook their own mercies, but it was for lying
   vanities. They took a great deal of pains to hew themselves out
   cisterns, to dig pits or pools in the earth or rock which they would
   carry water to, or which should receive the rain; but they proved
   broken cisterns, false at the bottom, so that they could hold no water.
   When they came to quench their thirst there they found nothing but mud
   and mire, and the filthy sediments of a standing lake. Such idols were
   to their worshippers, and such a change did those experience who turned
   from God to them. If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or
   pleasure, or honour,--if we place our happiness in it, and promise
   ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God
   only,--if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we
   shall find it a cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out
   and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water, and that
   dead and flat, and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous. Nay, it is a
   broken cistern, that cracks and cleaves in hot weather, so that the
   water is lost when we have most need of it, Job vi. 15. Let us
   therefore with purpose of heart cleave to the Lord only, for whither
   else shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.

Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 629.)

   14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he spoiled?
   15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land
   waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.   16 Also the children
   of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head.   17 Hast thou
   not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy
   God, when he led thee by the way?   18 And now what hast thou to do in
   the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do
   in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?   19 Thine own
   wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee:
   know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou
   hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith
   the Lord God of hosts.

   The prophet, further to evince the folly of their forsaking God, shows
   them what mischiefs they had already brought upon themselves by so
   doing; it had already cost them dear, for to this were owing all the
   calamities their country was now groaning under, which were but an
   earnest of more and greater if they repented not. See how they smarted
   for their folly.

   I. Their neighbours, who were their professed enemies, prevailed
   against them, and this was owing to their sin. 1. They were enslaved
   and lost their liberty (v. 14): Is Israel a servant? No; Israel is my
   son, my first-born, Exod. iv. 22. They are children; they are heirs.
   Nay, their extraction is noble; they are the seed of Abraham, God's
   friend, and of Jacob his chosen. Is he a home-born slave? No; he is not
   the son of the bond-woman, but of the free. They were designed for
   dominion, not for servitude. Every thing in their constitution carried
   about it the marks of freedom and honour. Why then is he spoiled of his
   liberty? Why is he used as a servant, as a home-born slave? Why does he
   make himself a slave to his lusts, to his idols, to that which does not
   profit? v. 11. What a thing is this, that such a birthright should be
   sold for a mess of pottage, such a crown profaned and laid in the dust!
   Why is he made a slave to the oppressor? God provided that a Hebrew
   servant should be free the seventh year, and that their slaves should
   be of the heathen, not of their brethren, Lev. xxv. 44, 46. But,
   notwithstanding this, the princes made slaves of their subjects, and
   masters made slaves of their servants (ch. xxxiv. 11), and so made
   their country mean and miserable, which God had made happy and
   honourable. The neighbouring princes and powers broke in upon them, and
   made some of them slaves even in their own country, and perhaps sold
   others for slaves into foreign countries. And how came they thus to
   lose their liberties? For their iniquities they sold themselves, Isa.
   l. 1. We may apply this spiritually. Is the soul of man a servant? Is
   it a home-born slave? No, it is not. Why then is it spoiled? It is
   because it has sold its own liberty and enslaved itself to divers lusts
   and passions, which is a lamentation, and should be for a lamentation.
   2. They were impoverished and had lost their wealth. God brought them
   into a plentiful country (v. 7), but all their neighbours made a prey
   of it (v. 15): Young lions roar aloud over him and yell; they are a
   continual terror to him. Sometimes one potent enemy, and sometimes
   another, and sometimes many in confederacy, fall upon him, and triumph
   over him. They carry off the fruits of his land, and make that waste,
   and burn his cities, when first they have plundered them, so that they
   remain without inhabitant, either because there are no houses to dwell
   in or because those that should dwell in them are carried into
   captivity. 3. They were abused, and insulted over, and beaten by every
   body (v. 16): "Even the children of Noph and Tahapanes, despicable
   people, not famed for military courage nor strength, have broken the
   crown of thy head, or fed upon it. In all their struggles with thee
   they have been too hard for thee, and thou hast always come off with a
   broken head. The principal part of thy country, that which lay next
   Jerusalem, has been and is a prey to them." How calamitous the
   condition of Judah had been of late in the reign of Manasseh we find, 2
   Chron. xxxiii. 11, and perhaps it had not now much recovered itself. 4.
   All this was owing to their sin (v. 17): Hast thou not procured this
   unto thyself? By their sinful confederacies with the nations, and
   especially their conformity to them in their idolatrous customs and
   usages, they had made themselves very mean and contemptible, as all
   those do that have made a profession of religion and afterwards throw
   it off. Nothing now appeared of that which, by their constitution, made
   them both honourable and formidable, and therefore nobody either
   respected them or feared them. But this was not all; they had provoked
   God to give them up into the hands of their enemies, and to make them a
   scourge to them and give them success against them; and "thus thou hast
   procured it to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,
   revolted from thy allegiance to him and so thrown thyself out of his
   protection; for protection and allegiance go together." Whatever
   trouble we are in at any time we may thank ourselves for it; for we
   bring it upon our own head by our forsaking God: "Thou hast forsaken
   thy God at the time that he was leading thee by the way" (so it should
   be read); "Then when he was leading thee on to a happy peace and
   settlement, and thou wast within a step of it, then thou forsookest
   him, and so didst put a bar in thy own door."

   II. Their neighbours, that were their pretended friends, deceived them,
   distressed them, and helped them not, and this also was owing to their
   sin. 1. They did in vain seek to Egypt and Assyria for help (v. 18):
   "What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? When thou art under
   apprehensions of danger thou art running to Egypt for help, Isa. xxx.
   1, 2; xxxi. 1. Thou art for drinking the waters of Sihor," that is,
   Nilus. "Thou reliest upon their multitude, and refreshest thy self with
   the fair promises they make thee. At other times thou art in the way of
   Assyria, sending or going with all speed to fetch recruits thence, and
   thinkest to satisfy thyself with the waters of the river Euphrates;
   what hast thou to do there? What wilt thou get by applying to them?
   They shall help in vain, shall be broken reeds to thee, and what thou
   thoughtest would be to thee as a river will be but a broken cistern."
   2. This also was because of their sin. The judgment shall unavoidably
   come upon them which their sin has deserved; and then to what purpose
   is it to call in help against it? v. 19. "Thy own wickedness shall
   correct thee, and then it is impossible for them to save thee; know and
   see therefore, upon the whole matter, that it is an evil thing that
   thou hast forsaken God, for it is that which makes thy enemies enemies
   indeed, and thy friends friends in vain." Observe here, (1.) The nature
   of sin; it is forsaking the Lord as our God; it is the soul's
   alienation from him and aversion to him. Cleaving to sin is leaving
   God. (2.) The cause of sin; it is because his fear is not in us. It is
   for want of a good principle in us, particularly for want of the fear
   of God; this is at the bottom of our apostasy from him; men forsake
   their duty to God because they stand in no awe of him nor have any
   dread of his displeasure. (3.) The malignity of sin; it is an evil
   thing and a bitter. Sin is an evil thing, only evil, an evil that has
   no good in it, an evil that is the root and cause of all other evil; it
   is evil indeed, for it is not only the greatest contrariety to the
   divine nature, but the greatest corruption of the human nature. It is
   bitter; a state of sin is the gall of bitterness, and every sinful way
   will be bitterness in the latter end; the wages of it is death, and
   death is bitter. (4.) The fatal consequences of sin; as it is in itself
   evil and bitter, so it has a direct tendency to make us miserable: "Thy
   own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove
   thee, not only destroy and ruin thee hereafter, but correct and reprove
   thee now; they will certainly bring trouble upon thee; and punishment
   will so inevitably follow the sin that the sin shall itself be said to
   punish thee. Nay, the punishment, in its kind and circumstances, shall
   so directly answer to the sin, that thou mayest read the sin in the
   punishment; and the justice of the punishment shall be so plain that
   thou shalt not have a word to say for thyself; thy own wickedness shall
   convince thee and stop thy mouth for ever and thou shalt be forced to
   own that the Lord is righteous." (5.) The use and application of all
   this: "Know therefore, and see it, and repent of thy sin, that so the
   iniquity which is thy correction may not be thy ruin."

Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 629.)

   20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and
   thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under
   every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.   21 Yet I had
   planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou
   turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?   22 For
   though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine
   iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.   23 How canst thou
   say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in
   the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary
   traversing her ways;   24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that
   snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her
   away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month
   they shall find her.   25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy
   throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have
   loved strangers, and after them will I go.   26 As the thief is ashamed
   when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings,
   their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,   27 Saying to a
   stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth:
   for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the
   time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.   28 But where
   are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save
   thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy
   cities are thy gods, O Judah.

   In these verses the prophet goes on with his charge against this
   backsliding people. Observe here,

   I. The sin itself that he charges them with--idolatry, that great
   provocation which they were so notoriously guilty of. 1. They
   frequented the places of idol-worship (v. 20): "Upon every high hill
   and under every green tree, in the high places and the groves, such as
   the heathen had a foolish fondness and veneration for, thou wanderest,
   first to one and then to another, like one unsettled, and still uneasy
   and unsatisfied; but in all playing the harlot," worshipping false
   gods, which is spiritual whoredom, and was commonly accompanied with
   corporal whoredom too. Note, Those that leave God wander endlessly, and
   a vagrant lust is insatiable. 2. They made images for themselves, and
   gave divine honour to them (v. 26, 27); not only the common people, but
   even the kings and princes, who should have restrained the people from
   doing ill, and the priests and prophets, who should have taught them to
   do well, were themselves so wretchedly sottish and stupid, and under
   the power of such a strong delusion, as to say to a stock, "Thou art my
   father (that is, Thou art my god, the author of my being, to whom I owe
   duty and on whom I have a dependence)," and to a stone, to an idol made
   of stone, "Thou hast begotten me, or brought me forth; therefore
   protect me, provide for me, and bring me up." What greater affront
   could men put upon God, who is our Father that has made us? It was a
   downright disowning of their obligations to him. What greater affront
   could men put upon themselves and their own reason than to acknowledge
   that which is in itself absurd and impossible, and, by making stocks
   and stones their parents, to make themselves no better than stocks and
   stones? When these were first made the objects of worship they were
   supposed to be animated by some celestial power or spirit; but by
   degrees the thought of this was lost, and so vain did idolaters become
   in their imagination, even the princes and priests themselves, that the
   very idol, though made of wood and stone, was supposed to be their
   father, and adored accordingly. 3. They multiplied these dunghill
   deities endlessly (v. 28): According to the number of thy cities are
   thy gods, O Judah! When they had forsaken that God who is one, and
   all-sufficient for all, (1.) They were not satisfied with any gods they
   had, but still desired more, that idolatry being in this respect of the
   same nature with covetousness, which is spiritual idolatry (for the
   more men have the more they would have), which is a plain evidence that
   what men make an idol of they find to be insufficient and unsatisfying,
   and that it cannot make the comers thereunto perfect. (2.) They could
   not agree in the same god. Having left the centre of unity, they fell
   into endless discord; one city fancied one deity and another another,
   and each was anxious to have one of its own to be near them and to take
   special care of them. Thus did they in vain seek that in many gods
   which is to be found in one God only.

   II. The proof of this. No witnesses need be called; it is proved by the
   notorious evidence of the facts. 1. They went about to deny it, and
   were ready to plead, Not guilty. They pretended that they would acquit
   themselves from this guilt, they washed themselves with nitre, and took
   much soap, offered many things in excuse and extenuation of it, v. 22.
   They pretended that they did not worship these as gods, but as demons,
   and mediators between the immortal God and mortal men, or that it was
   not divine honour that they gave them, but civil respect; thus they
   sought to evade the convictions of God's word and to screen themselves
   from the dread of his wrath. Nay, some of them had the impudence to
   deny the thing itself; they said, I am not polluted, I have not gone
   after Baalim, v. 23. Because it was done secretly, and industriously
   concealed (Ezek. viii. 12), they thought it could never be proved upon
   them, and they had impudence enough to deny it. In this, as in other
   things, their way was like that of the adulterous woman, that says, I
   have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20. 2. Notwithstanding all their
   evasions, they are convicted of it and found guilty: "How canst thou
   deny the fact, and say, I have not gone after Baalim? How canst thou
   deny the fault, and say, I am not polluted?" The prophet speaks with
   wonder at their impudence: "How canst thou put on a face to say so,
   when it is certain?" (1.) "God's omniscience is a witness against thee:
   Thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God; it is laid up and
   hidden, to be produced against thee in the day of judgment, sealed up
   among his treasures," Deut. xxxii. 34; Job xxi. 19; Hos. xiii. 12. "It
   is imprinted deeply and stained before me;" so some read it. "Though
   thou endeavour to wash it out, as murderers to get the stain of the
   blood of the person slain out of their clothes, yet it will never be
   got out." God's eye is upon it, and we are sure that his judgment is
   according to truth. (2.) "Thy own conscience is a witness against thee.
   See thy way in the valley" (they had worshipped idols, not only on the
   high hills, but in the valleys, Isa. lvii. 5, 6), in the valley
   over-against Beth-peor (so some), where they worshipped Baal-peor
   (Deut. xxxiv. 6, Num. xxv. 3), as if the prophet looked as far back as
   the iniquity of Peor; but, if it mean any particular valley, surely it
   is the valley of the son of Hinnom, for that was the place where they
   sacrificed their children to Moloch and which therefore witnessed
   against them more than any other: "look into that valley, and thou
   canst not but know what thou hast done."

   III. The aggravations of this sin with which they are charged, which
   made it exceedingly sinful.

   1. God had done great things for them, and yet they revolted from him
   and rebelled against him (v. 20): Of old time I have broken thy yoke
   and burst thy bonds; this refers to the bringing of them out of the
   land of Egypt and the house of bondage, which they would not remember
   (v. 6), but God did; for, when he told them that they should have no
   other gods before him, he prefixed this as a reason: I am the Lord thy
   God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt! These bonds of theirs
   which God had loosed should have bound them for ever to him; but they
   had ungratefully broken the bonds of duty to that God who had broken
   the bonds of their slavery.

   2. They had promised fair, but had not made good their promise: "Thou
   saidst, I will not transgress; then, when the mercy of thy deliverance
   was fresh, thou wast so sensible of it that thou wast willing to lay
   thyself under the most sacred ties to continue faithful to thy God and
   never to forsake him." Then they said, Nay, but we will serve the Lord,
   Josh. xxiv. 21. How often have we said that we would not transgress, we
   would not offend any more, and yet we have started aside, like a
   deceitful bow, and repeated and multiplied our transgressions!

   3. They had wretchedly degenerated from what they were when God first
   formed them into a people (v. 21). I had planted thee a noble vine. The
   constitution of their government both in church and state was
   excellent, their laws were righteous, and all the ordinances
   instructive and very significant; and a generation of good men there
   was among them when they first settled in Canaan. Israel served the
   Lord, and kept close to him all the days of Joshua, and the elders that
   out-lived Joshua, Josh. xxiv. 31. They were then wholly a right seed,
   likely to replenish the vineyard they were planted in with choice
   vines. But it proved otherwise; they very next generation knew not the
   Lord, nor the works which he had done (Judg. ii. 10), and so they were
   worse and worse till they became the degenerate plants of a strange
   vine. They were now the reverse of what they were at first. Their
   constitution was quite broken, and there was nothing in them of that
   good which one might have expected from a people so happily formed,
   nothing of the purity and piety of their ancestors. Their vine is as
   the vine of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. This may fitly be applied to the
   nature of man; it was planted by its great author a noble vine, a right
   seed (God made man upright); but it is so universally corrupt that it
   has become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, that bears gall and
   wormwood, and it is so to God, it is highly distasteful and offensive
   to him.

   4. They were violent and eager in the pursuit of their idolatries,
   doted on their idols, and were fond of new ones, and they would not be
   restrained from them either by the word of God or by his providence, so
   strong was the impetus with which they were carried out after this sin.
   They are here compared to a swift dromedary traversing her ways, a
   female of that species of creatures hunting about for a male (v. 23),
   and, to the same purport, a wild ass used to the wilderness (v. 24),
   not tamed by labour, and therefore very wanton, snuffing up the wind at
   her pleasure when she comes near the he-ass, and on such an occasion
   who can turn her away? Who can hinder her from that which she lusts
   after? Those that seek her then will not weary themselves for her, for
   they know it is to no purpose; but will have a little patience till she
   is big with young, till that month comes which is the last of the
   months that she fulfils (Job xxxix. 2), when she is heavy and unwieldy,
   and then they shall find her, and she cannot out-run them. Note, (1.)
   Eager lust is a brutish thing, and those that will not be turned away
   from the gratifying and indulging of it by reason, and conscience, and
   honour, are to be reckoned as brute-beasts and no better, such as were
   born, and still are, like the wild ass's colt; let them not be looked
   upon as rational creatures. (2.) Idolatry is strangely intoxicating,
   and those that are addicted to it will with great difficulty be cured
   of it. That lust is as headstrong as any. (3.) There are some so
   violently set upon the prosecution of their lusts that it is to no
   purpose to attempt to give check to them: those that do so weary
   themselves in vain. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. (4.) The
   time will come when the most fierce will be tamed and the most wanton
   will be manageable; when distress and anguish come upon them, then
   their ears will be open to discipline, that is the month in which you
   may find them, Ps. cxli. 5, 6.

   5. They were obstinate in their sin, and, as they could not be
   restrained, so they would not be reformed, v. 25. Here is, (1.) Fair
   warning given them of the ruin that this wicked course of life would
   certainly bring them to at last, with a caution therefore not to
   persist in it, but to break off from it. He would certainly bring them
   into a miserable captivity, when their feet should be unshod, and they
   should be forced to travel barefoot, and when they would be denied fair
   water by their oppressors, so that their throat should be dried with
   thirst; this will be in the end hereof. Those that affect strange gods,
   and strange ways of worship, will justly be made prisoners to a strange
   king in a strange land. "Take up in time therefore; thy running after
   thy idols will run the shoes off thy feet, and thy panting after them
   will bring thy throat to thirst; withhold therefore thy foot from these
   violent pursuits, and thy throat from these violent desires." One would
   think that it should effectually check us in the career of sin to
   consider what it will bring us to at last. (2.) Their rejecting this
   fair warning. They said to those that would have persuaded them to
   repent and reform, "There is no hope; no, never expect to work upon us,
   or prevail with us to cast away our idols, for we have loved strangers,
   and after them we will go; we are resolved we will, and therefore
   trouble not yourselves nor us any more with your admonitions; it is to
   no purpose. There is no hope that we should ever break the corrupt
   habit and disposition we have got, and therefore we may as well yield
   to it as go about to get the mastery of it." Note, Their case is very
   miserable who have brought themselves to such a pass that their
   corruptions triumph over their convictions; they know they should
   reform, but own they cannot, and therefore resolve they will not. But,
   as we must not despair of the mercy of God, but believe that sufficient
   for the pardon of our sins, though ever so heinous, if we repent and
   sue for that mercy, so neither must we despair of the grace of God, but
   believe that able to subdue our corruptions, though ever so strong, if
   we pray for and improve that grace. A man must never say There is no
   hope, as long as he is on this side hell.

   6. They had shamed themselves by their sin, in putting confidence in
   that which would certainly deceive them in the day of their distress,
   and putting him away that would have helped them, v. 26-28. As the
   thief is ashamed when, notwithstanding all his arts and tricks to
   conceal his theft, he is found, and brought to punishment, so are the
   house of Israel ashamed, not with a penitent shame for the sin they had
   been guilty of, but with a penal shame for the disappointment they met
   with in that sin. They will be ashamed when they find, (1.) That they
   are forced to cry to the God whom they had put contempt upon. In their
   prosperity they had turned the back to God and not the face; they had
   slighted him, acted as if they had forgotten him, or did what they
   could to forget him, would not look towards him, but looked another
   way; they went from him as fast and as far as they could; but in the
   time of their trouble they will find no satisfaction but in applying to
   him; then they will say, Arise, and save us. Their fathers had many a
   time taken this shame to themselves (Judg. iii. 9, iv. 3, x. 10), yet
   they would not be persuaded to cleave to God, that they might come to
   him in their trouble with the more confidence. (2.) That they have no
   relief from the gods they have made their court to. They will be
   ashamed when they perceive that the gods they have made cannot serve
   them, and that the God who made them will not serve them. To bring them
   to this shame, if so be they might hereby be brought to repentance,
   they are here sent to the gods whom they served, Judg. x. 14. They
   cried to God, Arise, and save us. God says of the idols, "Let them
   arise, and save thee, for thou hast no reason to expect that I should
   Let them arise, if they can, from the places where they are fixed; let
   them try whether they can save thee: but thou wilt be ashamed when thou
   findest that they can do thee no good, for, though thou hadst a god for
   every city, yet thy cities are burnt without inhabitant," v. 15. Thus
   it is the folly of sinners to please themselves with that which will
   certainly be their grief, and pride themselves in that which will
   certainly be their shame.

Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 629.)

   29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against
   me, saith the Lord.   30 In vain have I smitten your children; they
   received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets,
   like a destroying lion.   31 O generation, see ye the word of the Lord.
   Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say
   my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?   32 Can a
   maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have
   forgotten me days without number.   33 Why trimmest thou thy way to
   seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
   34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor
   innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
   35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn
   from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have
   not sinned.   36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou
   also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.   37
   Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for
   the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in
   them.

   The prophet here goes on in the same strain, aiming to bring a sinful
   people to repentance, that their destruction might be prevented.

   I. He avers the truth of the charge. It was evident beyond
   contradiction; it was the greatest absurdity imaginable in them to
   think of denying it (v. 29): "Wherefore will you plead with me, and put
   me upon the proof of it, or wherefore will you go about to plead any
   thing in excuse of the crime or to obtain a mitigation of the sentence?
   Your plea will certainly be overruled, and judgment given against you:
   you know you have all transgressed, one as well as another; why then to
   you quarrel with me for contending with you?"

   II. He heightens it from the consideration both of their
   incorrigibleness and of their ingratitude. 1. They had not been wrought
   upon by the judgments of God which they had been under (v. 30): In vain
   have I smitten your children, that is, the children or people of Judah.
   They had been under divine rebukes of many kinds. God therein designed
   to bring them to repentance; but it was in vain. They did not answer
   God's end in afflicting them; their consciences were not awakened, nor
   their hearts softened and humbled, nor were they driven to seek unto
   God; they received no instruction by the correction, were not made the
   better by it; and it is a great loss thus to lose an affliction. They
   did not receive, they did not submit to, or comply with, the
   correction, but their hearts fretted against the Lord, and so they were
   smitten in vain. Even the children, the young people, among them (so it
   may be taken), were smitten in vain; they were so soon prejudiced
   against repentance that they were as untractable as the old ones that
   had been long accustomed to do evil. 2. They had not been wrought upon
   by the word of God which he had sent them in the mouth of his servants
   the prophets; nay, they had killed the messengers for the sake of the
   message: "Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying
   lion; you have put them to death for their faithfulness with as much
   rage and fury, and with as much greediness and pleasure, as a lion
   devours his prey." Their prophets, who were their greatest blessings,
   were treated by them as if they had been the plagues of their
   generation, and this was their measure-filling sin, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.
   They killed their own prophets, 1 Thess. ii. 15. 3. They had not been
   wrought upon by the favours God had bestowed upon them (v. 31): "O
   generation!" (he does not call them, as he might, O faithless and
   perverse generation! O generation of vipers! but speaks gently, O you
   men of this generation!) "see the word of the Lord, do not only hear
   it, but consider it diligently, apply your minds closely to it." As we
   are bidden to hear the rod (Micah vi. 9), for that has its voice, so we
   are bidden to see the word, for that has its visions, its views. It
   intimates that what is here said is plain and undeniable; you may see
   it to be very evident; it is written as with a sun-beam, so that he
   that runs may read it: Have I been a wilderness to Israel, a land of
   darkness. Note, None of those who have had any dealings with God ever
   had reason to complain of him as a wilderness or a land of darkness. He
   has blessed us with the fruits of the earth, and therefore we cannot
   say that he has been a wilderness to us, a dry and barren land, that
   (as Mr. Gataker expresses it) he has held us to hard meat, as cattle
   fed upon the common. No; his sheep have been led into green pastures.
   He has also blessed us with the lights of heaven, and has not withheld
   them, so that we cannot say, He has been to us a land of darkness. He
   has caused his sun to shine, as well as his rain to fall, upon the evil
   and unthankful. Or the meaning is, in general, that the service of God
   has not been to any either an unpleasant or an unprofitable service.
   God sometimes has led his people through a wilderness and a land of
   darkness, but he himself was then to them all that which they needed;
   he so fed them with manna, and led them by a pillar of fire, that it
   was to them a fruitful field and a land of light. The world is, to
   those who make it their home and their portion, a wilderness and a land
   of darkness, vanity and vexation of spirit; but those that dwell in God
   have the lines fallen to them in pleasant places. 4. Instead of being
   wrought upon by these, they had grown intolerably insolent and
   imperious. They say, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee. Now
   that they had become a potent kingdom, or thought themselves such, they
   set up for themselves, and shook off their dependence upon God. This is
   the language of presumptuous sinners, and it is not only very impious
   and profane, but very unreasonable and foolish. (1.) It is absurd for
   us who are subjects to say, We are lords (that is, rulers) and we will
   come no more to God to receive commands form him; for, as he is King of
   old, so he is King for ever, and we can never pretend to be from under
   his authority. (2.) It is absurd for us who are beggars to say, We are
   lords, that is, We are rich, and we will come no more to God, to
   receive favours from him, as if we could live without him and need not
   be beholden to him. God justly takes it ill when those to whom he has
   been a bountiful benefactor care not either for hearing from him or
   speaking to him.

   III. He lays the blame of all their wickedness upon their forgetting
   God (v. 32): They have forgotten me; they have industriously banished
   the thoughts of God out of their minds, jostled those thoughts out with
   thoughts of their idols, and avoided all those things that would put
   them in mind of God. 1. Though they were his own people, in covenant
   with him and professing relation to him, and had the tokens of his
   presence in the midst of them and of his favour to them, yet they
   forgot him. 2. They had long neglected him, days without number, time
   out of mind, as we say. They had not for a great while entertained any
   serious thoughts of him; so that they seem quite to have forgotten him,
   and resolved never to remember him again. How many days of our lives
   have passed without suitable remembrance of God! Who can number those
   empty days? 3. They had not had such a regard and affection to him as
   young ladies generally have to their fine clothes: Can a maid forget
   her ornaments or a bride her attire? No; their hearts are upon them;
   they value them so much, and themselves upon them, that they are ever
   and anon thinking and speaking of them. When they are to appear in
   public they do not forget any of their ornaments, but put every one in
   its place, as they are described, Isa. iii. 18, &c. And yet my people
   have forgotten me. It is sad that any should be more in love with their
   fine clothes than with their God, and should rather leave their
   religion behind them, or part with that, than leave any of their
   ornaments behind them, or part with them. Is not God our ornament? Is
   he not a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to his people? Did we
   look upon him to be so, and upon our religion as an ornament of grace
   to our head and chains about our neck (Prov. i. 9), we should be as
   mindful of them as ever any maid was of her ornaments, or a bride of
   her attire, we should be as careful to preserve them and as fond to
   appear in them.

   IV. He shows them what a bad influence their sins had had upon others.
   The sins of God's professing people harden and encourage those about
   them in their evil ways, especially when they appear forward and
   ringleaders in sin (v. 33): Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love?
   There is an allusion here to the practice of lewd women who strive to
   recommend themselves by their ogling looks and gay dress, as Jezebel,
   who painted her face and tired her head. Thus had they courted their
   neighbours into sinful confederacies with them and communion in their
   idolatries, and had taught the wicked ones their ways, their ways of
   mixing God's institutions with their idolatrous customs and usages,
   which was a great profanation of that which was sacred and made the
   ways of their idolatry worse than that of others. Those have a great
   deal to answer for who, by their fellowship with the unfruitful works
   of darkness, make wicked ones more wicked than otherwise they would be.

   V. He charges them with the guilt of murder added to the guilt of their
   idolatry (v. 34): Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls,
   the life-blood of the poor innocents, which cried to heaven, and for
   which God was now making inquisition. The reference is to the children
   that were offered in sacrifice to Moloch; or it may be taken more
   generally for all the innocent blood which Manasseh shed, and with
   which he had filled Jerusalem (2 Kings xxi. 16), the righteous blood,
   especially the blood of the prophets and others that witnessed against
   their impieties. This blood was found not by secret search, not by
   diggings (so the word is), but upon all these; it was above ground.
   This intimates that the guilt of this kind which they had contracted
   was certain and evident, not doubtful or which would bear a dispute;
   and that it was avowed and barefaced, and which they had not so much
   sense either of shame or fear as to endeavour to conceal, which was a
   great aggravation of it.

   VI. He overrules their plea of, Not guilty. Though this matter be so
   plain, yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall
   turn from me; and again, Thou sayest, I have not sinned (v. 35);
   therefore I will plead with thee, and will convince thee of thy
   mistake. Because they deny the charge, and stand upon their own
   justification, therefore God will join issue with them and plead with
   them, both by his word and by his rod. Those shall be made to know how
   much they deceive themselves, 1. Who say that they have not offended
   God, that they are innocent, though they have been guilty of the
   grossest enormities. 2. Who expect that God will be reconciled to them
   though they do not repent and reform. They own that they had been under
   the tokens of God's anger, but they think that it was causeless, and
   that they by pleading innocency had proved it to be so, and therefore
   they conclude that God will immediately let fall his action and his
   anger shall be turned from them. This is very provoking, and God will
   plead with them, and convince them that his anger is just, for they
   have sinned, and he will never cease his controversy till they, instead
   of justifying themselves thus, humble, and judge, and condemn
   themselves.

   VII. He upbraids them with the shameful disappointments they met with,
   in making creatures their confidence, while they made God their enemy,
   v. 36, 37. It was a piece of spiritual idolatry they were often guilty
   of that they trusted in an arm of flesh and their hearts therein
   departed from the Lord. Now here he shows them the folly of it. 1. They
   were restless, and unsatisfied in the choice of their confidences: "Why
   gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Doubtless it is because
   thou meetest not with that in those thou didst confide in which thou
   promisedst thyself." Those that make God their hope, and walk in a
   continual dependence upon him, need not gad about to change their way;
   for their souls may return to him, and repose in him, as their rest:
   but those that trust in creatures will be perpetually uneasy, like
   Noah's dove, that found no rest for the sole of her foot. Every thing
   they trust to fails them, and then they think to change for the better,
   but they will be still disappointed. They first trusted to Assyria,
   and, when that proved a broken reed, they depended upon Egypt, and that
   proved no better. Creatures being vanity, they will be vexation of
   spirit to all those that put their confidence in them; they gad about,
   seeking rest and finding none. 2. They were quite disappointed in the
   confidences they made choice of; so the prophet tells them they should
   be: Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, which thou now trustest in, as
   formerly thou wast of Assyria, who distressed them and helped them not,
   2 Chron. xxviii. 20. The Jews were a peculiar people in their
   profession of religion, and for that reason none of the neighbouring
   nations cared for them, nor could heartily love them; and yet the Jews
   were still courting them, and confiding in them, and were well enough
   served when deceived by them. See what will come of it (v. 37): Thou
   shalt go forth from him, thy ambassadors or envoys shall return from
   Egypt re infectâ--disappointed, and therefore with their hands upon
   their heads, lamenting the desperate condition of their people. Or,
   Thou shalt go forth hence, that is, into captivity in a strange land,
   with thy hands upon thy head, holding it because it aches (ubi dolor
   ibi digitus--where the pain is the finger will be applied), or as
   people ashamed, for Tamar, in the height of her confusion, laid her
   hand on her head, 2 Sam. xiii. 19. "And Egypt, that thou reliest on,
   shall not be able to prevent it nor to rescue thee out of captivity."
   Those that will not lay their hand on their heart in godly sorrow,
   which works life, shall be made to lay their hand on their head in the
   sorrow of the world, which works death. And no wonder that Egypt cannot
   help them, when God will not, If the Lord do not help thee, whence
   should I? The Egyptians are broken reeds, for the Lord has rejected thy
   confidences; he will not make use of them for thy relief, will neither
   so far honour them, nor so far give countenance to thy confidence in
   them, as to appoint them to be the instruments of any good to thee, and
   therefore thou shalt not prosper in them; they shall not stand thee in
   any stead nor give thee any satisfaction. As there is no counsel or
   wisdom that can prevail against the Lord, so there is none that can
   prevail without him. Some read it, The Lord has rejected thee for thy
   confidences; because thou hast dealt so unfaithfully with him as to
   trust in his creatures, nay, in his enemies when thou shouldst have
   trusted in him only, he has abandoned thee to that destruction from
   which thou thoughtest thus to shelter thyself; and then thou canst not
   prosper, for none ever either hardened himself against God or estranged
   himself from God and prospered.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. III.

   The foregoing chapter was wholly taken up with reproofs and
   threatenings against the people of God, for their apostasies from him;
   but in this chapter gracious invitations and encouragements are given
   them to return and repent, notwithstanding the multitude and greatness
   of their provocations, which are here specified, to magnify the mercy
   of God, and to show that as sin abounded grace did much more abound.
   Here, I. It is further shown how bad they had been and how well they
   deserved to be quite abandoned, and yet how ready God was to receive
   them into his favour upon their repentance, ver. 1-5. II. The
   impenitence of Judah, and their persisting in sin, are aggravated from
   the judgments of God upon Israel, which they should have taken warning
   by, ver. 6-11. III. Great encouragements are given to these backsliders
   to return and repent, and promises made of great mercy which God had in
   store for them, and which he would prepare them for by bringing them
   home to himself, ver. 12-19. IV. The charge renewed against them for
   their apostasy from God, and the invitation repeated to return and
   repent, to which are here added the words that are put in their mouth,
   which they should make use of in their return to God, ver. 20-25.

The Wickedness of Israel. (b. c. 620.)

   1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become
   another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be
   greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet
   return again to me, saith the Lord.   2 Lift up thine eyes unto the
   high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways
   hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast
   polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.   3
   Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no
   latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be
   ashamed.   4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou
   art the guide of my youth?   5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will
   he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as
   thou couldest.

   These verses some make to belong to the sermon in the foregoing
   chapter, and they open a door of hope to those who receive the
   conviction of the reproofs we had there; God wounds that he may heal.
   Now observe here,

   I. How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from him.
   The charge runs very high here. 1. They had multiplied their idols and
   their idolatries. To have admitted one strange God among them would
   have been bad enough, but they were insatiable in their lustings after
   false worships: Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, v. 1. She
   had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was set up
   in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quickly. Where was
   a high place in the country but they had had an idol in it? v. 2. Note,
   In repentance it is good to make sorrowful reflections upon the
   particular acts of sin we have been guilty of, and the several places
   and companies where it has been committed, that we may give glory to
   God and take shame to ourselves by a particular confession of it. 2.
   They had sought opportunity for their idolatries, and had sent about to
   enquire for new gods: In the high--ways hast thou sat for them, as
   Tamar when she put on the disguise of a harlot (Gen. xxxviii. 14), and
   as the foolish woman, that sits to call passengers, who go right on
   their way, Prov. ix. 14, 15. As the Arabian in the wilderness--the
   Arabian huckster (so some), that courts customers, or waits for the
   merchants to get a good bargain and forestal the market--or the Arabian
   thief (so others), that watches for his prey; so had they waited either
   to court new gods to come among them (the newer the better, and the
   more fond they were of them) or to court others to join with them in
   their idolatries. They were not only sinners, but Satans, not only
   traitors themselves, but tempters to others. 3. They had grown very
   impudent in sin. They not only polluted themselves, but their land,
   with their whoredoms and with their wickedness (v. 2); for it was
   universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin. And yet (v. 3),
   "Thou hadst a whore's forehead, a brazen face of thy own. Thou
   refusedst to be ashamed; thou didst enough to shame thee for ever, and
   yet wouldst not take shame to thyself." Blushing is the colour of
   virtue, or at least a relic of it; but those that are past shame (we
   say) are past hope. Those that have an adulterer's heart, if they
   indulge that, will come at length to have a whore's forehead, void of
   all shame and modesty. 4. They abounded in all manner of sin. They
   polluted the land not only with their whoredoms (that is, their
   idolatries), but with their wickedness, or malice (v. 2), sins against
   the second table: for how can we think that those will be true to their
   neighbour that are false to their God? "Nay (v. 5), thou hast spoken
   and done evil things as thou couldst, and wouldst have spoken and done
   worse if thou hadst known how; thy will was to do it, but thou lackedst
   opportunity." Note, Those are wicked indeed that sin to the utmost of
   their power, that never refuse to comply with a temptation because they
   should not, but because they cannot.

   II. How gently God had corrected them for their sins. Instead of
   raining fire and brimstone upon them, because, like Sodom, they had
   avowed their sin and had gone after strange gods as Sodom after strange
   flesh, he only withheld the showers from them, and that only one part
   of the year: There has been no latter rain, which might serve as an
   intimation to them of their continual dependence upon God; when they
   had the former rain, that was no security to them for the latter, but
   they must still look up to God. But it had not this effect.

   III. How justly God might have abandoned them utterly, and refused ever
   to receive them again, though they should return; this would have been
   but according to the known rule of divorces, v. 1. They say (it is an
   adjudged case, nay, it is a case in which the law is very express, and
   it is what every body knows and speaks of, Deut. xxiv. 4), that if a
   woman be once put away for whoredom, and be joined to another man, her
   first husband shall never, upon any pretence whatsoever, take her again
   to be his wife; such playing fast and loose with the marriage-bond
   would be a horrid profanation of that ordinance and would greatly
   pollute that land. Observe, What the law says in this case--They say,
   that is, every one will say, and subscribe to the equity of the law in
   it; for every man finds something in himself that forbids him to
   entertain one that is another man's. And in like manner they had reason
   to expect that God would refuse ever to take them to be his people
   again, who had not only been joined to one strange god, but had played
   the harlot with many lovers. If we had to do with a man like ourselves,
   after such provocations as we have been guilty of, he would be
   implacable, and we might have despaired of his being reconciled to us.

   IV. How graciously he not only invites them, but directs them, to
   return to him.

   1. He encourages them to hope that they shall find favour with him,
   upon their repentance: "Thou thou hast been bad, yet return again to
   me," v. 1. This implies a promise that he will receive them: "Return,
   and thou shalt be welcome." God has not tied himself by the laws which
   he made for us, nor has he the peevish resentment that men have; he
   will be more kind to Israel, for the sake of his covenant with them,
   than ever any injured husband was to an adulterous wife; for in
   receiving penitents, as much as in any thing, he is God and not man.

   2. He therefore kindly expects that they will repent and return to him,
   and he directs them what to say to him (v. 4): "Wilt thou not from this
   time cry unto me? Wilt not thou, who hast been in such relation to me,
   and on whom I have laid such obligations, wilt not thou cry to me?
   Though thou hast gone a whoring from me, yet, when thou findest the
   folly of it, surely thou wilt think of returning to me, now at least,
   now at last, in this thy day. Wilt thou not at this time, nay, wilt
   thou not from this time and forward, cry unto me? Whatever thou hast
   said or done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? From
   this time of conviction and correction, now that thou hast been made to
   see thy sins (v. 2) and to smart for them (v. 3), wilt thou not now
   forsake them and return to me, saying, I will go and return to my first
   husband, for then it was better with me than now?" Hos. ii. 7. Or "from
   this time that thou hast had so kind an invitation to return, and
   assurance that thou shalt be well received: will not this grace of God
   overcome thee? Now that pardon is proclaimed wilt thou not come in and
   take the benefit of it? Surely thou wilt."

   (1.) He expects that they will claim relation to God, as theirs: Wilt
   thou not cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? [1.]
   They will surely come towards him as a father, to beg his pardon for
   their undutiful behaviour to him (Father, I have sinned) and will hope
   to find in him the tender compassions of a father towards a returning
   prodigal. They will come to him as a father, to whom they will make
   their complaints, and in whom they will put their confidence for relief
   and succour. They will now own him as their father, and themselves
   fatherless without him; and therefore, hoping to find mercy with him
   (as those penitents, Hos. xiv. 3), [2.] They will come to him as the
   guide of their youth, that is, as their husband, for so that relation
   is described, Mal. ii. 14. "Though thou hast gone after many lovers,
   surely thou wilt at length remember the love of thy espousals, and
   return to the husband of thy youth." Or it may be taken more generally:
   "As my Father, thou art the guide of my youth." Youth needs a guide. In
   our return to God we must thankfully remember that he was the guide of
   our youth in the way of comfort; and we must faithfully covenant that
   he shall be our guide henceforward in the way of duty, and that we will
   follow his guidance, and give up ourselves entirely to it, that in all
   doubtful cases we will be determined by our religion.

   (2.) He expects that they will appeal to the mercy of God and crave the
   benefit of that mercy (v. 5), that they will reason thus with
   themselves for their encouragement to return to him: "Will he reserve
   his anger for ever? Surely he will not, for he has proclaimed his name
   gracious and merciful." Repenting sinners may encourage themselves with
   this, that, though God chide, he will not always chide, though he be
   angry, he will not keep his anger to the end, but, though he cause
   grief, he will have compassion, and may thus plead for reconciliation.
   Some understand this as describing their hypocrisy, and the impudence
   of it: "Though thou hast a whore's forehead (v. 3) and art still doing
   evil as thou canst (v. 5), yet art thou not ever and anon crying to me,
   My Father?" Even when they were most addicted to idols they pretended a
   regard to God and his service and kept up the forms of godliness and
   devotion. It is a shameful thing for men thus to call God father, and
   yet to do the works of the devil (as the Jews, John viii. 44), to call
   him the guide of their youth, and yet give up themselves to walk after
   the flesh, and to flatter themselves with the expectation that his
   anger shall have an end, while they are continually treasuring up to
   themselves wrath against the day of wrath.

Idolatries of Israel; The Treachery of Judah. (b. c. 620.)

   6 The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou
   seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every
   high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the
   harlot.   7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou
   unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
     8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel
   committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce;
   yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the
   harlot also.   9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her
   whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones
   and with stocks.   10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah
   hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the
   Lord.   11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath
   justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

   The date of this sermon must be observed, in order to the right
   understanding of it; it was in the days of Josiah, who set on foot a
   blessed work of reformation, in which he was hearty, but the people
   were not sincere in their compliance with it; to reprove them for that,
   and warn them of the consequences of their hypocrisy, is the scope of
   that which God here said to the prophet, and which he delivered to
   them. The case of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah is here
   compared, the ten tribes that revolted from the throne of David and the
   temple of Jerusalem and the two tribes that adhered to both. The
   distinct history of those two kingdoms we have in the two books of the
   Kings, and here we have an abstract of both, as far as relates to this
   matter.

   I. Here is a short account of Israel, the ten tribes. Perhaps the
   prophet had been just reading the history of that kingdom when God came
   to him, and said, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel has done? v.
   6. For he could not see it otherwise than in history, they having been
   carried into captivity long before he was born. But what we read in the
   histories of scripture should instruct us and affect us, as if we
   ourselves had been eye-witnesses of it. She is called backsliding
   Israel because that kingdom was first founded in an apostasy from the
   divine institutions, both in church and state. Now he had seen
   concerning them, 1. That they were wretchedly addicted to idolatry.
   They had played the harlot upon every high mountain and under every
   green tree (v. 6), that is, they had worshipped other gods in their
   high places and groves; and no marvel, when from the first they had
   worshipped God by the images of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel.
   The way of idolatry is down-hill: those that are in love with images,
   and will have them, soon become in love with other gods, and will have
   them too; for how should those stick at the breach of the first
   commandment who make no conscience of the second? 2. That God by his
   prophets had invited and encouraged them to repent and reform (v. 7):
   "After she had done all these things, for which she might justly have
   been abandoned, yet I said unto her, Turn thou unto me and I will
   receive thee." Though they had forsaken both the house of David and the
   house of Aaron, who both had their authority jure divino--from God,
   without dispute, yet God sent his prophets among them, to call them to
   return to him, to the worship of him only, not insisting so much as one
   would have expected upon their return to the house of David, but
   pressing their return to the house of Aaron. We read not that Elijah,
   that great reformer, ever mentioned their return to the house of David,
   while he was anxious for their return to the faithful service of the
   true God according as they had it among them. It is serious piety that
   God stands upon more than even his own rituals. 3. That,
   notwithstanding this, they had persisted in their idolatries: But she
   returned not, and God saw it; he took notice of it, and was much
   displeased with it, v. 7, 8. Note, God keeps account, whether we do or
   no, how often he has called to us to turn to him and we have refused.
   4. That he had therefore cast them off, and given them up into the
   hands of their enemies (v. 8): When I saw (so it may be read) that for
   all the actions wherein she had committed adultery I must dismiss her,
   I gave her a bill of divorce. God divorced them when he threw them out
   of his protection and left them an easy prey to any that would lay
   hands on them, when he scattered all their synagogues and the schools
   of the prophets and excluded them from laying any further claim to the
   covenant made with their fathers. Note, Those will justly be divorced
   from God that join themselves to such as are rivals with him. For proof
   of this go and see what God did to Israel.

   II. Let us now see what was the case of Judah, the kingdom of the two
   tribes. She is called treacherous sister Judah, a sister because
   descended from the same common stock, Abraham and Jacob; but, as Israel
   had the character of a backslider, So Judah is called treacherous,
   because, though she professed to keep close to God when Israel had
   backslidden (she adhered to the kings and priests that were of God's
   own appointing, and did not withdraw from her allegiance, so that it
   was expected she should deal faithfully), yet she proved treacherous,
   and false, and unfaithful to her professions and promises. Note, The
   treachery of those who pretend to cleave to God will be reckoned for,
   as well as the apostasy of those who openly revolt from him. Judah saw
   what Israel did, and what came of it, and should have taken warning.
   Israel's captivity was intended for Judah's admonition; but it had not
   the designed effect. Judah feared not, but thought herself safe because
   she had Levites to be her priests and sons of David to be her kings.
   Note, It is an evidence of great stupidity and security when we are not
   awakened to a holy fear by the judgments of God upon others. It is here
   charged on Judah, 1. That when they had a wicked king that debauched
   them they heartily concurred with him in his debaucheries. Judah was
   forward enough to play the harlot, to worship any idol that was
   introduced among them and to join in any idolatrous usage; so that
   through the lightness (or, as some read it, the vileness and baseness)
   of her whoredom, or (as the margin reads it) by the fame and report of
   her whoredom, her notorious whoredom, for which she had become
   infamous, she defiled the land, and made it an abomination to God; for
   she committed adultery with stones and stocks, with the basest idols,
   those made of wood and stone. In the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, when
   they were disposed to idolatry, the people were so too, and all the
   country was corrupted with it, and none feared the ruin which Israel by
   this means had brought upon themselves. 2. That when they had a good
   king, that reformed them, they did not heartily concur with him in the
   reformation. This was the present case. God tried whether they would be
   good in a good reign, but the evil disposition was still the same: They
   returned not to me with their whole heart, but feignedly, v. 10. Josiah
   went further in destroying idolatry than the best of his predecessors
   had done, and for his own part he turned to the Lord with all his heart
   and with all his soul; so it is said of him, 2 Kings xxiii. 25. The
   people were forced to an external compliance with him, and joined with
   him in keeping a very solemn passover and in renewing their covenants
   with God (2 Chron. xxxiv. 32, xxxv. 17); but they were not sincere in
   it, nor were their hearts right with God. For this reason God at that
   very time said, I will remove Judah out of my sight, as I removed
   Israel (2 Kings xxiii. 27), because Judah was not removed from their
   sin by the sight of Israel's removal from their land. Hypocritical and
   ineffectual reformations bode ill to a people. We deceive ourselves if
   we think to deceive God by a feigned return to him. I know no religion
   without sincerity.

   III. The case of these sister kingdoms is compared, and judgment given
   upon the comparison, that of the two Judah was the worse (v. 11):
   Israel has justified herself more than Judah, that is, she is not so
   bad as Judah is. This comparative justification will stand Israel in
   little stead; what will it avail us to say, We are not so bad as
   others, when yet we are not really good ourselves? But it will serve as
   an aggravation of the sin of Judah, which was in two respects worse
   than that of Israel:--1. More was expected from Judah than from Israel;
   so that Judah dealt treacherously, they vilified a more sacred
   profession, and falsified a more solemn promise, than Israel did. 2.
   Judah might have taken warning by the ruin of Israel for their
   idolatry, and would not. God's judgments upon others, if they be not
   means of our reformation, will help to aggravate our destruction. The
   prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxiii. 11) makes the same comparison between
   Jerusalem and Samaria that this prophet here makes between Judah and
   Israel, nay, and (Ezek. xvi. 48) between Jerusalem and Sodom, and
   Jerusalem is made the worst of the three.

Encouragements to Repentance. (b. c. 620.)

   12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou
   backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to
   fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep
   anger for ever.   13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast
   transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to
   the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice,
   saith the Lord.   14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for
   I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a
   family, and I will bring you to Zion:   15 And I will give you pastors
   according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and
   understanding.   16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied
   and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall
   say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come
   to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it;
   neither shall that be done any more.   17 At that time they shall call
   Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered
   unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk
   any more after the imagination of their evil heart.   18 In those days
   the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall
   come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have
   given for an inheritance unto your fathers.   19 But I said, How shall
   I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly
   heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My
   father; and shalt not turn away from me.

   Here is a great deal of gospel in these verses, both that which was
   always gospel, God's readiness to pardon sin and to receive and
   entertain returning repenting sinners, and those blessings which were
   in a special manner reserved for gospel times, the forming and founding
   of the gospel church by bringing into it the children of God that were
   scattered abroad, the superseding of the ceremonial law, and the
   uniting of Jews and Gentiles, typified by the uniting of Israel and
   Judah in their return out of captivity. The prophet is directed to
   proclaim these words towards the north, for they are a call to
   backsliding Israel, the ten tribes that were carried captive into
   Assyria, which lay north from Jerusalem. That way he must look, to show
   that God had not forgotten them, though their brethren had, and to
   upbraid the men of Judah with their obstinacy in refusing to answer the
   calls given them. One might as well call to those who lay many hundred
   miles off in the land of the north; they would as soon hear as these
   unbelieving and disobedient people; backsliding Israel will sooner
   accept of mercy, and have the benefit of it, than treacherous Judah.
   And perhaps the proclaiming of these words towards the north looks as
   far forward as the preaching of repentance and remission of sins unto
   all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. A call to Israel in
   the land of the north is a call to others in that land, even as many as
   belong to the election of grace. When it was suspected that Christ
   would go to the dispersed Jews among the Gentiles, it was concluded
   that he would teach the Gentiles, John vii. 35. So here.

   I. Here is an invitation given to backsliding Israel, and in them to
   the backsliding Gentiles, to return unto God, the God from whom they
   had revolted (v. 12): Return, thou backsliding Israel. And again (v.
   14): "Turn, O backsliding children! repent of your backslidings, return
   to your allegiance, come back to that good way which you have missed
   and out of which you have turned aside." Pursuant to this invitation,
   1. They are encouraged to return. "Repent, and be converted, and your
   sins shall be blotted out, Acts iii. 19. You have incurred God's
   displeasure, but return to me, and I will not cause my anger to fall
   upon you." God's anger is ready to fall upon sinners, as a lion falls
   on his prey, and there is none to deliver, as a mountain of lead
   falling on them, to sink them past recovery into the lowest hell. But
   if they repent it shall be turned away, Isa. xii. 1. I will not keep my
   anger for ever, but will be reconciled, for I am merciful. We that are
   sinful were for ever undone if God were not merciful; but the goodness
   of his nature encourages us to hope that, if we by repentance undo what
   we have done against him, he will by a pardon unsay what he has said
   against us. 2. They are directed how to return (v. 13): "Only
   acknowledge thy iniquity, own thyself in a fault and thereby take shame
   to thyself and give glory to God." I will not keep my anger for ever
   (that is a previous promise); you shall be delivered form that anger of
   God which is everlasting, from the wrath to come; but upon what terms?
   Very easy and reasonable ones. Only acknowledge thy sins. If we confess
   our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them. This will aggravate
   the condemnation of sinners, that the terms of pardon and peace were
   brought so low, and yet they would not come up to them. If the prophet
   had told thee to do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it? How
   much more when he says, Only acknowledge thy iniquity? 2 Kings v. 13.
   In confessing sin, (1.) We must own the corruption of our nature:
   Acknowledge thy iniquity, the perverseness and irregularity of thy
   nature. (2.) We must own our actual sins: "That thou hast transgressed
   against the Lord thy God, hast affronted him and offended him." (3.) We
   must own the multitude of our transgressions: "That thou hast scattered
   thy ways to the strangers, run hither and thither in pursuit of thy
   idols, under every green tree. Wherever thou hast rambled thou hast
   left behind thee the marks of thy folly." (4.) We must aggravate our
   sin from the disobedience that there is in it to the divine law. The
   sinfulness of sin is the worst thing in it: "You have not obeyed my
   voice; acknowledge that, and let that humble you more than any thing
   else."

   II. Here are precious promises made to these backsliding children, if
   they do return, which were in part fulfilled in the return of the Jews
   out of their captivity, many that belonged to the ten tribes having
   perhaps joined themselves to those of the two tribes, in the prospect
   of their deliverance, and returning with them; but the prophecy is to
   have its full accomplishment in the gospel church, and the gathering
   together of the children of God that were scattered abroad to that:
   "Return, for, though you are backsliders, yet you are children; nay,
   though a treacherous wife, yet a wife, for I am married to you (v. 14)
   and will not disown the relation." Thus God remembers his covenant with
   their fathers, that marriage covenant, and in consideration of that he
   remembers their land, Lev. xxvi. 42.

   1. He promises to gather them together from all places whither they are
   dispersed and scattered abroad, John xi. 52, I will take you, one of a
   city, and two of a family, or clan; and I will bring you to Zion, v.
   14. All those that by repentance return to their duty shall return to
   their former comfort. Observe, (1.) God will graciously receive those
   that return to him, nay, it is he that by his distinguishing grace
   takes them out from among the rest that persist in their backslidings;
   if he had left them, they would have been undone. (2.) Of the many that
   have backslidden from God there are but few, very few in comparison,
   that return to him, like the gleanings of the vintage--one of a city
   and two of a country; Christ's flock is a little flock, and few there
   are that find the strait gate. (3.) Of those few, though dispersed, yet
   not one shall be lost. Though there be but one in a city, God will find
   out that one; he shall not be overlooked in a crowd, but shall be
   brought safely to Zion, safely to heaven. The scattered Jews shall be
   brought to Jerusalem, and those of the ten tribes shall be as welcome
   there as those of the two. God's chosen, scattered all the world over,
   shall be brought to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, the heavenly
   Jerusalem, that holy hill on which Christ reigns.

   2. He promises to set those over them that shall be every way blessings
   to them (v. 15): I will give you pastors after my heart, alluding to
   the character given of David when God pitched upon him to be king. 1
   Sam. xiii. 14, The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart.
   Observe, (1.) When a church is gathered it must be governed. "I will
   bring them to Zion, not to live as they list, but to be under
   discipline, not as wild beasts, that range at pleasure, but as sheep
   that are under the direction of a shepherd." I will give them pastors,
   that is, both magistrates and ministers; both are God's ordinance for
   the support of his kingdom. (2.) It is well with a people when their
   pastors are after God's own heart, such as they should be, such as we
   would have them be, who shall make his will their rule in all their
   administrations, and such as endeavour in some measure to conform to
   his example, who rule for him, and, as they are capable, rule like him.
   (3.) Those are pastors after God's own heart who make it their business
   to feed the flock, not to feed themselves and fleece the flocks, but to
   do all they can for the good of those that are under their charge, who
   feed them with wisdom and understanding (that is, wisely and
   understandingly), as David fed them, in the integrity of his heart and
   by the skilfulness of his hand, Ps. lxxviii. 72. Those who are not only
   pastors, but teachers, must feed them with the word of God, which is
   wisdom and understanding, which is able to make us wise to salvation.

   3. He promises that there shall be no more occasion for the ark of the
   covenant, which had been so much the glory of the tabernacle first and
   afterwards of the temple, and was the token of God's presence with
   them; that shall be set aside, and there shall be no more enquiry
   after, nor enquiring of, it (v. 16): When you shall be multiplied and
   increased in the land, when the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up,
   which by the accession of the Gentiles will bring in to the church a
   vast increase (and the days of the Messiah the Jewish masters
   themselves acknowledge to be here intended), then they shall say no
   more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord, they shall have it no more
   among them to value, or value themselves upon, because they shall have
   a pure spiritual way of worship set up, in which there shall be no
   occasion for any of those external ordinances; with the ark of the
   covenant the whole ceremonial law shall be set aside, and all the
   institutions of it, for Christ, the truth of all those types, exhibited
   to us in the word and sacraments of the New Testament, will be to us
   instead of all. It is very likely (whatever the Jews suggest to the
   contrary) that the ark of the covenant was in the second temple, being
   restored by Cyrus with the other vessels of the house of the Lord, Ezra
   i. 7. But in the gospel temple Christ is the ark; he is the
   propitiatory, or mercy-seat; and it is the spiritual presence of God in
   his ordinances that we are now to expect. Many expressions are here
   used concerning the setting aside of the ark, that it shall not come to
   mind, that they shall not remember it, that they shall not visit it,
   that none of these things shall be any more done; for the true
   worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, John iv.
   24. But this variety of expressions is used to show that the ceremonies
   of the law of Moses should be totally and finally abolished, never to
   be used any more, but that it would be with difficulty that those who
   had been so long wedded to them should be weaned from them; and that
   they would not quite let them go till their holy city and holy house
   should both be levelled with the ground.

   4. He promises that the gospel church, here called Jerusalem, shall
   become eminent and conspicuous, v. 17. Two things shall make it
   famous:--(1.) God's special residence and dominion in it. It shall be
   called, The throne of the Lord--the throne of his glory, for that
   shines forth in the church--the throne of his government, for that also
   is erected there; there he rules his willing people by his word and
   Spirit, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. As the
   gospel got ground this throne of the Lord was set up even where Satan's
   seat had been. It is especially the throne of his grace; for those that
   by faith come to this Jerusalem come to God the judge of all, and to
   Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, Heb. xii. 22-24. (2.) The
   accession of the Gentiles to it. All the nations shall be discipled,
   and so gathered to the church, and shall become subjects to that throne
   of the Lord which is there set up, and devoted to the honour of that
   name of the Lord which is there both manifested and called upon.

   5. He promises that there shall be a wonderful reformation wrought in
   those that are gathered to the church: They shall not walk any more
   after the imagination of their evil hearts. They shall not live as they
   list, but live by rules, not do according to their own corrupt
   appetites, but according to the will of God. See what leads in sin--the
   imagination of our own evil hearts; and what sin is--it is walking
   after that imagination, being governed by fancy and humour; and what
   converting grace does--it takes us off from walking after our own
   inventions and brings us to be governed by religion and right reason.

   6. That Judah and Israel shall be happily united in one body, v. 18.
   They were so in their return out of captivity and their settlement
   again in Canaan: The house of Judah shall walk with the house of
   Israel, as being perfectly agreed, and become one stick in the hand of
   the Lord, as Ezekiel also foretold, ch. xxxvii. 16, 17. Both Assyria
   and Chaldea fell into the hands of Cyrus, and his proclamation extended
   to all the Jews in all his dominions. And therefore we have reason to
   think that many of the house of Israel came with those of Judah out of
   the land of the north; though at first there returned but 42,000 (whom
   we have an account of, Ezra ii.) yet Josephus says (Antiq. 11.68) that
   some few years after, under Darius, Zerubbabel went and fetched up
   above 4,000,000 of souls, to the land that was given for an inheritance
   to their fathers. And we never read of such animosities and enmities
   between Israel and Judah as had been formerly. This happy coalescence
   between Israel and Judah in Canaan was a type of the uniting of Jews
   and Gentiles in the gospel church, when, all enmities being slain, they
   should become one sheepfold under one shepherd.

   III. Here is some difficulty started, that lies in the way of all this
   mercy; but an expedient is found to get over it.

   1. God asks, How shall I do this for thee? Not as if God showed favour
   with reluctancy, as he punishes with a How shall I give thee up? Hos.
   xi. 8, 9. No, though he is slow to anger, he is swift to show mercy.
   But it intimates that we are utterly unworthy of his favours, that we
   have no reason to expect them, that there is nothing in us to deserve
   them, that we can lay no claim to them, and that he contrives how to do
   it in such a way as may save the honour of his justice and holiness in
   the government of the world. Means must be devised that his banished be
   not for ever expelled from him, 2 Sam. xiv. 14. How shall I do it? (1.)
   Even backsliders, if they return and repent, shall be put among the
   children; and who could ever have expected that? Behold what manner of
   love is this! 1 John iii. 1. How should we who are so mean and weak, so
   worthless and unworthy, and so provoking, ever be put among the
   children. (2.) To those whom God puts among the children he will give
   the pleasant land, the land of Canaan, that glory of all lands, that
   goodly heritage of the hosts of nations, which nations and their hosts
   wish for and prefer to their own country, or which the hosts of the
   nations have now got possession of. It was a type of heaven, where
   there are pleasures for evermore. Now who could expect a place in that
   pleasant land that has so often despised it (Ps. cvi. 24) and is so
   unworthy of it and unfit for it? Is this the manner of men?

   2. He does himself return answer to this question: But I said, Thou
   shalt call me, My Father. God does himself answer all the objections
   that are taken from our unworthiness, or they would never be got over.
   (1.) That he may put returning penitents among the children, he will
   give them the Spirit of adoption, teaching them to cry, Abba, Father,
   Gal. iv. 6. "Thou shalt call me, My Father; thou shalt return to me,
   and resign thyself to me as a father, and that shall recommend thee to
   my favour," (2.) That he may give them the pleasant land, he will put
   his fear in their hearts, that they may never turn from him, but may
   persevere to the end.

Israel Returning to God; Israel Encouraged in Their Return. (b. c. 620.)

   20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have
   ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.   21
   A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of
   the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they
   have forgotten the Lord their God.   22 Return, ye backsliding
   children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee;
   for thou art the Lord our God.   23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped
   for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the
   Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.   24 For shame hath devoured
   the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds,
   their sons and their daughters.   25 We lie down in our shame, and our
   confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we
   and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed
   the voice of the Lord our God.

   Here is, I. The charge God exhibits against Israel for their
   treacherous departures from him, v. 20. As an adulterous wife elopes
   from her husband, so have they gone a whoring from God. They were
   joined to God by a marriage-covenant, but they broke that covenant,
   they dealt treacherously with God, who had always dealt kindly and
   faithfully with them. Treacherous dealing with men like ourselves is
   bad enough, but to deal treacherously with God is to deal treasonably.

   II. Their conviction and confession of the truth of this charge, v. 21.
   When God reproved them for their apostasy, there were some among them,
   even such as God would take and bring to Zion, whose voice was heard
   upon the high places weeping and praying, humbling themselves before
   the God of their fathers, lamenting their calamities, and their sins,
   the procuring cause of them; for this is that which they lament, for
   this they bemoan themselves, that they have perverted their way and
   forgotten the Lord their God. Note, 1. Sin is the perverting of our
   way, it is turning aside to crooked ways and perverting that which is
   right. 2. Forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. If
   men would remember God, his eye upon them and their obligation to him,
   they would not transgress as they do. 3. By sin we embarrass ourselves,
   and bring ourselves into trouble, for that also is the perverting of
   our way, Lam. iii. 9. 4. Prayers and tears well become those whose
   consciences tell them that they have perverted their way and forgotten
   their God. When the foolishness of man perverts his way his heart is
   apt to fret against the Lord (Prov. xix. 3), whereas it should be
   melted and poured out before him.

   III. The invitation God gives them to return to him (v. 22): Return,
   you backsliding children. He calls them children in tenderness and
   compassion to them, foolish and froward as children, yet his sons, whom
   though he corrects he will not disinherit; for, though they are
   refractory children (so some render it), yet they are children. God
   bears with such children, and so much parents. When they are convinced
   of sin (v. 21), and humbled for that, then they are prepared and then
   they are invited to return, as Christ invites those to him that are
   weary and heavy-laden. The promise to those that return is, "I will
   heal your backslidings; I will comfort you under the grief you are in
   for your backslidings, deliver you out of the troubles you have brought
   yourselves into by your backslidings, and cure you of your
   refractoriness and tendency to backslide." God will heal our
   backslidings by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his
   renewing grace.

   IV. The ready consent they give to this invitation, and their cheerful
   compliance with it: Behold, we come unto thee. This is an echo to God's
   call; as a voice returned from broken walls, so this from broken
   hearts. God says, Return; they answer, Behold, we come. It is an
   immediate speedy answer, without delay, not, "We will come hereafter,"
   but, "We do come now; we need not take time to consider of it;" not,
   "We come towards thee," but, "We come to thee, we will make a thorough
   turn of it." Observe how unanimous they are: We come, one and all. 1.
   They come devoting themselves to God as theirs: "Thou art the Lord our
   God; we take thee to be ours, we give up ourselves to thee to be thine;
   whither shall we go but to thee? It is our sin and folly that we have
   gone from thee." It is very comfortable, in our returns to God after
   our backslidings, to look up to him as ours in covenant. 2. They come
   disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour but from God only:
   "In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude
   of the mountains; we now see our folly in relying upon
   creature-confidences, and will never so deceive ourselves any more."
   They worshipped their idols upon hills and mountains (v. 6), and they
   had a multitude of idols upon their mountains, which they had sought
   unto and put a confidence in; but now they will have no more to do with
   them. In vain do we look for any thing that is good from them, while
   from God we may look for every thing that is good, even salvation
   itself. Therefore, 3. They come depending upon God only as their God:
   In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. He is the Lord, and he
   only can save; he can save when all other succours and saviours fail;
   and he is our God, and will in his own way and time work salvation for
   us. It is very applicable to the great salvation from sin, which Jesus
   Christ wrought out for us; that is the salvation of the Lord, his great
   salvation. 4. They come justifying God in their troubles and judging
   themselves for their sins, v. 24, 25. (1.) They impute all the
   calamities they had been under to their idols, which had not only done
   them no good, but had done them abundance of mischief, all the mischief
   that had been done them: Shame (the idol, that shameful thing) has
   devoured the labour of our fathers. Note, [1.] True penitents have
   learned to call sin shame; even the beloved sin which has been as an
   idol to them, which they have been most pleased with and proud of, even
   that they shall call a scandalous thing, shall put contempt upon it and
   be ashamed of it. [2.] True penitents have learned to call sin death
   and ruin, and to charge upon it all the mischiefs they suffer: "It has
   devoured all those good things which our fathers laboured for and left
   to us; we have found from our youth that our idolatry has been the
   destruction of our prosperity." Children often throw away upon their
   lusts that which their fathers took a great deal of pains for; and it
   is well if at length they are brought (as these here) to see the folly
   of it, and to call those vices their shame which have wasted their
   estates and devoured the labour of their fathers. Of the labour of
   their fathers, which their idols had devoured, they mention
   particularly their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
   daughters. First, their idolatries had provoked God to bring these
   desolating judgments upon them, which had ruined their country and
   families, and made their estates a prey and their children captives to
   the conquering enemy. They had procured these things to themselves. Or,
   rather, Secondly, These had been sacrificed to their idols, had been
   separated unto that shame (Hos. ix. 10), and they had devoured them
   without mercy; they did eat the fat of their sacrifices (Deut. xxxii.
   38), even their human sacrifices. (2.) They take to themselves the
   shame of their sin and folly (v. 25): "We lie down in our shame, being
   unable to bear up under it; our confusion covers us, that is, both our
   penal and our penitential shame. Sin has laid us under such rebukes of
   God's providence, and such reproaches of our own consciences, as
   surround us and fill us with shame. For we have sinned, and shame came
   in with sin and still attends upon it. We are sinners by descent; guilt
   and corruption are entailed upon us: We and our fathers have sinned. We
   were sinners betimes; we began early in a course of sin: We have sinned
   from our youth; we have continued in sin, have sinned even unto this
   day, though often called to repent and forsake our sins. That which is
   the malignity of sin, the worst thing in it, is the affront we have put
   upon God by it: We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God,
   forbidding us to sin and commanding us, when we have sinned, to
   repent." Now all this seems to be the language of the penitents of the
   house of Israel (v. 20), of the ten tribes, either of those that were
   in captivity or those of them that remained in their own land. And the
   prophet takes notice of their repentance to provoke the men of Judah to
   a holy emulation. David used it as an argument with the elders of Judah
   that it would be a shame for those that were his bone and his flesh to
   be the last in bringing the king back, when the men of Israel appeared
   forward in it, 2 Sam. xix. 11, 12. So the prophet excites Judah to
   repent because Israel did: and well it were if the zeal of others less
   likely would provoke us to strive to get before them and go beyond them
   in that which is good.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. IV.

   It should seem that the first two verses of this chapter might better
   have been joined to the close of the foregoing chapter, for they are
   directed to Israel, the ten tribes, by way of reply to their compliance
   with God's call, directing and encouraging them to hold their
   resolution, ver. 1, 2. The rest of the chapter concerns Judah and
   Jerusalem. I. They are called to repent and reform, ver. 3, 4. II. They
   are warned of the advance of Nebuchadnezzar and his forces against
   them, and are told that it is for their sins, from which they are again
   exhorted to wash themselves, ver. 5-18. III. To affect them the more
   with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, the prophet does
   himself bitterly lament it, and sympathize with his people in the
   calamities it brought upon them, and the plunge it brought them to,
   representing it as a reduction of the world to its first chaos, ver.
   19-31.

Exhortation to Repentance. (b. c. 620.)

   1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if
   thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou
   not remove.   2 And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in
   judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves
   in him, and in him shall they glory.

   When God called to backsliding Israel to return (ch. iii. 22) they
   immediately answered, Lord, we return; now God here takes notice of
   their answer, and, by way of reply to it,

   I. He directs them how to pursue their good resolutions: "Dost thou
   say, I will return?" 1. "Then thou must return unto me; make a thorough
   work of it. Do not only turn from thy idolatries, but return to the
   instituted worship of the God of Israel." Or, "Thou must return
   speedily and not delay (as Isa. xxi. 12, If you will enquire, enquire
   you); if you will return unto me, return you: do not talk of it, but do
   it." 2. "Thou must utterly abandon all sin, and not retain any of the
   relics of idolatry: Put away thy abominations out of my sight," that
   is, out of all places (for every place is under the eye of God),
   especially out of the temple, the house which he had in a particular
   manner his eye upon, to see that it was kept clean. It intimates that
   their idolatries were not only obvious, but offensive, to the eye of
   God. They were abominations which he could not endure the sight of;
   therefore they must be put away out of his sight, because they were a
   provocation to the pure eyes of God's glory. Sin must be put away out
   of the heart, else it is not put away out of God's sight, for the heart
   and all that is in it lie open before his eye. 3. They must not return
   to sin again; so some understand that, Thou shalt not remove, reading
   it, Thou shalt not, or must not, wander. "If thou wilt put away thy
   abominations, and wilt not wander after them again, as thou hast done,
   all shall be well." 4. They must give unto God the glory due unto his
   name (v. 2): "Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth. His existence shall be
   with thee the most sacred fact, than which nothing can be more sure,
   and his judgment the supreme court to which thou shalt appeal, than
   which nothing can be more awful." Swearing is an act of religious
   worship, in which we are to give honour to God three ways:--(1.) We
   must swear by the true God only, and not by creatures, or any false
   gods,--by the God that liveth, not by the gods that are deaf and dumb
   and dead,--by him only, and not by the Lord and by Malcham, as Zech. i.
   5. (2.) We must swear that only which is true, in truth and in
   righteousness, not daring to assert that which is false, or which we do
   not know to be true, nor to assert that as certain which is doubtful,
   nor to promise that which we mean not to perform, nor to violate the
   promise we have made. To say that which is untrue, or to do that which
   is unrighteous, is bad, but to back either with an oath is much worse.
   (3.) We must do it solemnly, swear in judgment, that is, when
   judicially called to it, and not in common conversation. Rash swearing
   is as great a profanation of God's name as solemn swearing is an honour
   to it. See Deut. x. 20; Matt. v. 34, 37.

   II. He encourages them to keep in this good mind and adhere to their
   resolutions. If the scattered Israelites will thus return to God, 1.
   They shall be blessed themselves; for to that sense the first words may
   be read: "If thou wilt return to me, then thou shalt return, that is,
   thou shalt be brought back out of thy captivity into thy own land
   again, as was of old promised," Deut. iv. 29; xxx. 2. Or, "Then thou
   shalt rest in me, shalt return to me as thy rest, even while thou art
   in the land of thy captivity." 2. They shall be blessings to others;
   for their returning to God again will be a means of others turning to
   him who never new him. If thou wilt own the living Lord, thou wilt
   thereby influence the nations among whom thou art to bless themselves
   in him, to place their happiness in his favour and to think themselves
   happy in being brought to the fear of him. See Isa. lxv. 16. They shall
   bless themselves in the God of truth, and not in false gods, shall do
   themselves the honour, and give themselves the satisfaction, to join
   themselves to him; and then in him shall they glory; they shall make
   him their glory, and shall please, nay, shall pride, themselves in the
   blessed change they have made. Those that part with their sins to
   return to God, however they scrupled at the bargain at first, when they
   go away, then they boast.

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 620.)

   3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up
   your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.   4 Circumcise yourselves
   to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah
   and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and
   burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

   The prophet here turns his speech, in God's name, to the men of the
   place where he lived. We have heard what words he proclaimed towards
   the north (ch. iii. 12), for the comfort of those that were now in
   captivity and were humbled under the hand of God; let us now see what
   he says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, who were now in prosperity,
   for their conviction and awakening. In these two verses he exhorts them
   to repentance and reformation, as the only way left them to prevent the
   desolating judgments that were ready to break in upon them. Observe,

   I. The duties required of them, which they are concerned to do.

   1. They must do by their hearts as they do by their ground that they
   expect any good of; they must plough it up (v. 3): "Break up your
   fallow-ground. Plough to yourselves a ploughing (or plough up your
   plough land), that you sow not among thorns, that you may not labour in
   vain, for your own safety and welfare, as those do that sow good seed
   among thorns and as you have been doing a great while. Put yourselves
   into a frame fit to receive mercy from God, and put away all that which
   keeps it from you, and then you may expect to receive mercy and to
   prosper in your endeavours to help yourselves." Note, (1.) An
   unconvinced unhumbled heart is like fallow-ground, ground untilled,
   unoccupied. It is ground capable of improvement; it is our ground, let
   out to us, and we must be accountable for it; but it is fallow; it is
   unfenced and lies common; it is unfruitful and of no advantage to the
   owner, and (which is principally intended) it is overgrown with thorns
   and weeds, which are the natural product of the corrupt heart; and, if
   it be not renewed with grace, rain and sunshine are lost upon it, Heb.
   vi. 7, 8. (2.) We are concerned to get this fallow-ground ploughed up.
   We must search into our own hearts, let the word of God divide (as the
   plough does) between the joints and the marrow, Heb. iv. 12. We must
   rend our hearts, Joel ii. 13. We must pluck up by the roots those
   corruptions which, as thorns, choke both our endeavours and our
   expectations, Hos. x. 12.

   2. They must do that to their souls which was done to their bodies when
   they were taken into covenant with God (v. 4): "Circumcise yourselves
   to the Lord, and take away the foreskin of your heart. Mortify the
   flesh and the lusts of it. Pare off that superfluity of naughtiness
   which hinders your receiving with meekness the engrafted word, Jam. i.
   21. Boast not of, and rest not in, the circumcision of the body, for
   that is but a sign, and will not serve without the thing signified. It
   is a dedicating sign. Do that in sincerity which was done in profession
   by your circumcision; devote and consecrate yourselves unto the Lord,
   to be to him a peculiar people. Circumcision is an obligation to keep
   the law; lay yourselves afresh under that obligation. It is a seal of
   the righteousness of faith; lay hold then of that righteousness, and so
   circumcise yourselves to the Lord."

   II. The danger they are threatened with, which they are concerned to
   avoid. Repent and reform, lest my fury come forth like fire, which it
   is now ready to do, as that fire which came forth from the Lord and
   consumed the sacrifices, and which was always kept burning upon the
   altar and none might quench it; such is God's wrath against impenitent
   sinners, because of the evil of their doings. Note, 1. That which is to
   be dreaded by us more than any thing else is the wrath of God; for that
   is the spring and bitterness of all present miseries and will be the
   quintessence and perfection of everlasting misery. 2. It is the evil of
   our doings that kindles the fire of God's wrath against us. 3. The
   consideration of the imminent danger we are in of falling and perishing
   under this wrath should awaken us with all possible care to sanctify
   ourselves to God's glory and to see to it that we be sanctified by his
   grace.

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 620.)

   5 Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the
   trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble
   yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.   6 Set up the
   standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the
   north, and a great destruction.   7 The lion is come up from his
   thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone
   forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be
   laid waste, without an inhabitant.   8 For this gird you with
   sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not
   turned back from us.   9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith
   the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the
   princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall
   wonder.   10 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly
   deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace;
   whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.   11 At that time shall it be
   said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in
   the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to
   cleanse,   12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me:
   now also will I give sentence against them.   13 Behold, he shall come
   up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are
   swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.   14 O Jerusalem,
   wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long
   shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?   15 For a voice declareth
   from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.   16 Make ye
   mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that
   watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the
   cities of Judah.   17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round
   about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the Lord.
   18 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is
   thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine
   heart.

   God's usual method is to warn before he wounds. In these verses,
   accordingly, God gives notice to the Jews of the general desolation
   that would shortly be brought upon them by a foreign invasion. This
   must be declared and published in all the cities of Judah and streets
   of Jerusalem, that all might hear and fear, and by this loud alarm be
   either brought to repentance or left inexcusable. The prediction of
   this calamity is here given very largely, and in lively expressions,
   which one would think should have awakened and affected the most
   stupid. Observe,

   I. The war proclaimed, and general notice given of the advance of the
   enemy. It is published now, some years before, by the prophet; but,
   since this will be slighted, it shall be published after another manner
   when the judgment is actually breaking in, v. 5, 6. The trumpet must be
   blown, the standard must be set up, a summons must be issued out to the
   people to gather together and to draw towards Zion, either to guard it
   or expecting to be guarded by it. There must be a general rendezvous.
   The militia must be raised and all the forces mustered. Those that are
   able men, and fit for service, must go into the defenced cities, to
   garrison them; those that are weak, and would lessen their provisions,
   but not increase their strength, must retire, and not stay.

   II. An express arrived with intelligence of the approach of the king of
   Babylon and his army. It is an evil that God will bring from the north
   (as he had said, ch. i. 15), even a great destruction, beyond all that
   had yet come upon the nation of the Jews. The enemy is here compared,
   1. To a lion that comes up from his thicket, when he is hungry, to seek
   his prey, v. 7. The helpless beasts are so terrified with his roaring
   (as some report) that they cannot flee from him, and so become an easy
   prey to him. Nebuchadnezzar is this roaring tearing lion, the destroyer
   of the nations, that has laid many countries waste, and now is on his
   way in full speed towards the land of Judah. The destroyer of the
   Gentiles shall be the destroyer of the Jews too, when they have by
   their idolatry made themselves like the Gentiles. "He has gone forth
   from his place, from Babylon, or the place of the rendezvous of his
   army, on purpose against this land; that is the prey he has now his eye
   upon, not to plunder it only, but to make it desolate, and herein he
   shall succeed to such a degree that the cities shall be laid waste,
   without inhabitants, shall be overgrown with grass as a field;" so some
   read it. 2. To a drying blasting wind (v. 11), a parching scorching
   wind, which spoils the fruits of the earth and withers them, not a wind
   which brings rain, but such as comes out of the north, which drives
   away rain (Prov. xxv. 23), but brings something worse instead of it;
   such shall this evil out of the north be to this people, a black
   freezing wind, which they can neither fence against nor flee from, but,
   wherever they go, it shall surround and pursue them; and they cannot
   see it before it comes, but, when it comes, they shall feel it. It is a
   wind of the high places in the wilderness, or plain, that beats upon
   the tops of the hills or that carries all before it in the plain, where
   there is no shelter, but the ground is all champaign. It shall come in
   its full force towards the daughters of my people, that have been
   brought up so tenderly and delicately that they could not endure to
   have the wind blow upon them. Now this fierce wind shall come against
   them, not to fan, nor cleanse them, not such a gentle wind as is used
   in winnowing corn, but a full wind (v. 12), a strong and violent wind,
   blowing full upon them. This shall come to me, or rather for me; it
   shall come with commission from God and shall accomplish that for which
   he sends it; for this, as other stormy winds, fulfills his word. 3. To
   clouds and whirlwinds for swiftness, v. 13. The Chaldean army shall
   come up as clouds driven with the wind, so thick shall they stand, so
   fast shall they march, and it shall be to no purpose to offer to stop
   them or make head against them, any more than to arrest a cloud or give
   check to a whirlwind. The horses are swifter than eagles when they fly
   upon their prey; it is in vain to think either of opposing them or of
   outrunning them. 4. To watchers and the keepers of a field, v. 15-17.
   The voice declares from Dan, a city which lay furthest north of all the
   cities of Canaan, and therefore received the first tidings of this evil
   from the north and hastened it to Mount Ephraim, that part of the land
   of Israel which lay next to Judea; they received the news of the
   affliction and transmitted it to Jerusalem. Ill news flies apace; and
   an impenitent people, that hates to be reformed, can expect no other
   that ill news. Now, what is the news? "Tell the nations, those mixed
   nations that now inhabit the cities of the ten tribes, mention it to
   them, that they may provide for their own safety; but publish it
   against Jerusalem, that is the place aimed at, the game shot at, let
   them know that watchers have come from a far country, that is,
   soldiers, that will watch all opportunities to do mischief." Private
   soldiers we call private sentinels, or watchmen. "They are coming in
   full career, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah; they
   design to invest them, to make themselves masters of them, and to
   attack them with loud shouts, as sure of victory. As keepers of a field
   surround it, to keep all out from it, so shall they surround the cities
   of Judah, to keep all in them, till they be constrained to surrender at
   discretion; they are against her round about, compassing her in on
   every side." See Luke xix. 43. As formerly the good angels, those
   watchers, and holy ones, were like keepers of a field to Jerusalem,
   watching about it, that nothing might go in to its prejudice, so now
   their enemies were as watchers and keepers of a field, surrounding it
   that nothing might go in to its relief and succour.

   III. The lamentable cause of this judgment. How is it that Judah and
   Jerusalem come to be thus abandoned to ruin? See how it came to this.
   1. They sinned against God; it was all owing to themselves: She has
   been rebellious against me, saith the Lord, v. 17. Their enemies
   surrounded them as keepers of a field, because they had taken up arms
   against their rightful Lord and sovereign, and were to be seized as
   rebels. The Chaldeans were breaking in upon them, and it was sin that
   opened the gap at which they entered: Thy way and thy doings have
   procured these things unto thee (v. 18), thy evil way and thy doings
   that have not been good. It was not a false step or two that did them
   this mischief, but their way and course of living were bad. Note, Sin
   is the procuring cause of all our troubles. Those that go on in sin
   while they are endeavouring to ward off mischiefs with one hand are at
   the same time pulling them upon their own heads with the other. 2. God
   was angry with them for their sin. It is the fierce anger of the Lord
   that makes the army of the Chaldeans thus fierce, thus furious; that is
   kindled against us, and is not turned back from us, v. 8. Note, In
   men's anger against us, and the violence of that, we must see and own
   God's anger and the power of that. If that were turned back from us,
   our enemies could not come forward against us. 3. In his just and holy
   anger he condemned them to this dreadful punishment: Now also will I
   give sentence against them, v. 12. The execution was done, not in a
   heat, but in pursuance of a sentence solemnly passed, according to
   equity, and upon mature deliberation. Some read it, Now will I do
   execution upon them, according to the doom formerly passed; and we are
   sure that the judgment of God is according to the truth, and the
   execution of that judgment.

   IV. The lamentable effects of this judgment, upon the first alarm given
   of it. 1. The people that should fight shall quite despair and shall
   not have a heart to make the least stand against the enemy (v. 8): "For
   this gird yourself with sackcloth, lament and howl," that is, "you will
   do so. When the cry is made through the kingdom, Arm, arm! all will be
   seized with a consternation, and all put into confusion. Instead of
   girding on the sword, they will gird on the sackcloth; instead of
   animating one another to a vigorous resistance, they will lament and
   howl, and so dishearten one another. While the enemy is yet at a
   distance they will give up all for gone, and cry, Woe unto us! for we
   are spoiled, v. 13. We are all undone, the spoilers will certainly
   carry the day, and it is in vain to make head against them." Judah and
   Jerusalem had been famed for valiant men; but see what is the effect of
   sin: by depriving men of their confidence towards God, it deprives them
   of their courage towards men. 2. Their great men, who should contrive
   for the public safety, shall be at their wits' end (v. 9): At that day
   the heart of the king shall perish, both his wisdom and his courage.
   Despairing of success, he shall have no spirit to do any thing, and, if
   he had, he will not know what to do. His princes and privy-counselors,
   who should animate and advise him, shall be as much at a loss and as
   much in despair as he. See how easily, how effectually, God can bring
   ruin upon a people that are doomed to it, merely by dispiriting them,
   taking away the heart of the chief of them (Job xii. 20, 24), cutting
   off the spirit of princes, Ps. lxxvi. 12. The business of the priests
   was to encourage the people in the time of war; they were to say to the
   people, Fear not, and let not your hearts faint, Deut. xx. 2, 3. They
   were to blow the trumpets, for an assurance to them that in the day of
   battle they should be remembered before the Lord their God, Num. x. 9.
   But now the priests themselves shall be astonished, and shall have no
   heart themselves to do their office, and therefore shall not be likely
   to put spirit into the people. The prophets too, the false prophets,
   who had cried peace to them, shall be put into the greatest amazement
   imaginable, seeing their own guilty blood ready to be shed by that
   sword which they had often told the people there was no danger of.
   Note, God's judgments come with the greatest terror upon those that
   have been most secure. Our Saviour foretels that at the last
   destruction of Jerusalem men's hearts should fail them for fear, Luke
   xxi. 26. And it is common for those who have cheated and flattered
   people into a carnal security not only to fail them, but to discourage
   them, when the trouble comes.

   V. The prophet's complaint of the people's being deceived, v. 10. It is
   expressed strangely, as we read it: Ah! Lord God, surely thou hast
   greatly deceived this people, saying, You shall have peace. We are sure
   that God deceives none. Let no man say, when he is tempted or deluded,
   that God has tempted or deluded him. But, 1. The people deceived
   themselves with the promises that God had made in general of his favour
   to that nation, and the many peculiar privileges with which they were
   dignified, building upon them, though they took no care to perform the
   conditions on which the accomplishment of those promises and the
   continuance of those privileges did depend; and they had no regard to
   the threatenings which in the law were set over-against those promises.
   Thus they cheated themselves and then wickedly complained that God had
   cheated them. 2. The false prophets deceived them with promises of
   peace, which they made them in God's name. ch. xxiii. 17; xxvii. 9. If
   God had sent them, he had indeed greatly deceived the people, but he
   had not. It was the people's fault that they gave them credit; and here
   also they deceived themselves. 3. God had permitted the false prophets
   to deceive, and the people to be deceived by them, giving both up to
   strong delusions, to punish them for not receiving the truth in the
   love of it. Herein the Lord was righteous; but the prophet complains of
   it as the sorest judgment of all, for by this means they had been
   hardened in their sins. 4. It may be read with an interrogation, "Hast
   thou indeed thus deceived this people? It is plain that they are
   greatly deceived, for they expect peace, whereas the sword reaches unto
   the soul; that is, it is a killing sword, abundance of lives are lost,
   and more likely to be." Now, was it God that deceived them? No, he had
   often given them warning of judgments in general and of this in
   particular; but their own prophets deceive them, and cry peace to those
   to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace. It is a pitiable thing,
   and that which every good man greatly laments, to see people flattered
   into their own ruin, and promising themselves peace when war is at the
   door; and this we should complain of to God, who alone can prevent such
   a fatal delusion.

   VI. The prophet's endeavour to undeceive them. When the prophets they
   loved and caressed dealt falsely with them, he whom they hated and
   persecuted dealt faithfully. 1. He shows them their wound. They were
   loth to see it, very loth to have it searched into; but, if they will
   allow themselves the liberty of a free thought, they might discover
   their punishment in their sin (v. 18): "This is thy wickedness because
   it is bitter. Now thou seest that it is a bitter thing to depart from
   God, and will certainly be bitterness in the latter end, ch. ii. 19. It
   produces bitter effects, and grief that reaches unto the heart, touches
   to the quick, and in the most tender part; the sword reaches to the
   soul," v. 10. God can make trouble reach the heart even of those that
   would lay nothing to heart. "And by this thou mayest see what is thy
   wickedness, that it is a bitter thing, a root of bitterness, that bears
   gall and wormwood, and that it has reached to the heart; it is the
   corruption of the soul, of the imagination of the thought of the
   heart." If the heart were not polluted with sin, it would not be
   disturbed and disquieted as it is with trouble. 2. He shows them the
   cure, v. 14. "Since thy wickedness reaches to the heart, there the
   application must be made. O Jerusalem! wash thy heart from wickedness,
   that thou mayest be saved." By Jerusalem he means each one of the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem; for every man has a heart of his own to take
   care of, and it is personal reformation that must help the public.
   Every one must return from his own evil way, and, in order to that,
   cleanse his own evil heart. "And let the heart of the city too be
   purified, not the suburbs only, the outskirts of it." The vitals of a
   state must be amended by the reformation of those that have the
   commanding influence upon it. Note, (1.) Reformation is absolutely
   necessary to salvation. There is no other way of preventing judgments,
   or turning them away when we are threatened with them, but taking away
   the sin by which we have procured them to ourselves. (2.) No
   reformation is saving but that which reaches the heart. There is
   heart-wickedness that is defiling to the soul, from which we must wash
   ourselves. By repentance and faith we must wash our hearts from the
   guilt we have contracted by spiritual wickedness, by those sins which
   begin and end in the heart and go no further; and by mortification and
   watchfulness we must suppress and prevent this heart-wickedness for the
   future. The tree must be made good, else the fruit will not. Jerusalem
   was all overspread with the leprosy of sin. Now as the physicians agree
   with respect to the body when afflicted with leprosy that external
   applications will do no good, unless physic be taken inwardly to carry
   off the humours that lurk there and to change the mass of the blood, so
   it is with the soul, so it is with the state: there will be no
   effectual reformation of the manners without a reformation of the mind;
   the mistakes there must be rectified, the corruptions there must be
   mortified, and the evil dispositions there changed. "Though thou art
   Jerusalem, called a holy city, that will not save thee, unless thou
   wash thy heart from wickedness." In the latter part of the verse he
   reasons with them: How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
   He complains here [1.] Of the delays of their reformation: "How long
   shall that filthy heart of thine continue unwashed? When shall it once
   be?" Note, The God of heaven thinks the time long that his room is
   usurped, and his interest opposed, in our souls, ch. xiii. 27. [2.] Of
   the root of their corruption, the vain thoughts that lodged within them
   and defiled their hearts, from which they must wash their hearts.
   Thoughts of iniquity or mischief, these are the evil thoughts that are
   the spawn of the evil heart, from which all other wickedness is
   produced, Matt. xv. 19. These are our own, the conceptions of our own
   lusts (Jam. i. 15), and they are the most dangerous when they lodge
   within us, when they are admitted and entertained as guests, and are
   suffered to continue. Some read it thoughts of affliction, such
   thoughts as will bring nothing but affliction and misery. Some by the
   vain thoughts here understand all those frivolous pleas and excuses
   with which they turned off the reproofs and calls of the word and
   rendered them ineffectual, and bolstered themselves up in their
   wickedness. Wash thy heart from wickedness, and think not to say, We
   are not polluted (ch. ii. 23), or, "We are Jerusalem; we have Abraham
   to our father," Matt. iii. 8, 9.

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 620.)

   19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh
   a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my
   soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.   20 Destruction upon
   destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my
   tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.   21 How long shall I see
   the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?   22 For my people is
   foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they
   have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they
   have no knowledge.   23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without
   form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.   24 I beheld
   the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
     25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the
   heavens were fled.   26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a
   wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence
   of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.   27 For thus hath the Lord said,
   The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.   28
   For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because
   I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will
   I turn back from it.   29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of
   the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon
   the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
   30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest
   thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,
   though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make
   thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
   31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish
   as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the
   daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands,
   saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

   The prophet is here in an agony, and cries out like one upon the rack
   of pain with some acute distemper, or as a woman in travail. The
   expressions are very pathetic and moving, enough to melt a heart of
   stone into compassion: My bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very
   heart; and yet well, and in health himself, and nothing ails him. Note,
   A good man, in such a bad world as this is, cannot but be a man of
   sorrows. My heart makes a noise in me, through the tumult of my
   spirits, and I cannot hold my peace. Note, The grievance and the grief
   sometimes may be such that the most prudent patient man cannot forbear
   complaining.

   Now, what is the matter? What is it that puts the good man into such
   agitation? It is not for himself, or any affliction in his family that
   he grieves thus; but it is purely upon the public account, it is his
   people's case that he lays to heart thus.

   I. They are very sinful and will not be reformed, v. 22. These are the
   words of God himself, for so the prophet chose to give this character
   of the people, rather than in his own words, or as from himself: My
   people are foolish. God calls them his people, though they are foolish.
   They have cast him off, but he has not cast them off, Rom. xi. 1. "They
   are my people, whom I have been in covenant with, and still have mercy
   in store for. They are foolish, for they have not known me." Note,
   Those are foolish indeed that have not known God, especially that call
   themselves his people, and have the advantages of coming into
   acquaintance with him, and yet have not known him. They are sottish
   children, stupid and senseless, and have no understanding. They cannot
   distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil; they cannot
   discern the mind of God either in his word or in his providence; they
   do not understand what their true interest is, nor on which side it
   lies. They are wise to do evil, to plot mischief against the quiet in
   the land, wise to contrive the gratification of their lusts, and then
   to conceal and palliate them. But to do good they have no knowledge, no
   contrivance, no application of mind; they know not how to make a good
   use either of the ordinances or of the providences of God, nor how to
   bring about any design for the good of their country. Contrary to this
   should be our character. Rom. xvi. 19, I would have you wise unto that
   which is good, and simple concerning evil.

   II. They are miserable, and cannot be relieved.

   1. He cries out, Because thou hast heard, O my soul! the sound of the
   trumpet, and seen the standard, both giving the alarm of war, v. 19,
   21. He does not say, Thou hast heard, O my ear! but, O my soul! because
   the event was yet future, and it is by the spirit of prophecy that he
   see it and receives the impression of it. His soul heard it from the
   words of God, and therefore he was as well assured of it, and as much
   affected with it, as if he had heard it with his bodily ears. He
   expresses this deep concern, (1.) To show that, though he foretold this
   calamity, yet he was far from desiring the woeful day; for a woeful day
   it would be to him. It becomes us to tremble at the thought of the
   misery that sinners are running themselves into, though we have good
   hopes, through grace, that we ourselves are delivered from the wrath to
   come. (2.) To awaken them to a holy fear, and so to a care to prevent
   so great a judgment by a true and timely repentance. Note, Those that
   would affect other with the word of God should evidence that they are
   themselves affected with it. Now,

   2. Let us see what there is in the destruction here foreseen and
   foretold that is so very affecting.

   (1.) It is a swift and sudden destruction; it comes upon Judah and
   Jerusalem ere they are aware, and pours in so fast upon them that they
   have not the east breathing time. They have no time to recollect their
   thoughts, much less to recruit or recover their strength: Destruction
   upon destruction is cried (v. 20), breach upon breach, one sad
   calamity, like Job's messengers, treading upon the heels of another.
   The death of Josiah breaks the ice, and plucks up the flood-gates;
   within three months after that his son and successor Jehoahaz is
   deposed by the king of Egypt; within two or three years after
   Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and took it, and thenceforward he was
   continually making descents upon the land of Judah with his armies
   during the reigns of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, till about
   nineteen years after he completed their ruin in the destruction of
   Jerusalem: but suddenly were their tents spoiled and their curtains in
   a moment. Though the cities held out for some time, the country was
   laid waste at the very first. The shepherds and all that lived in tents
   were plundered immediately; they and their effects fell into the
   enemies' hands; therefore we find the Rechabites, who dwelt in tents,
   upon the first coming of the army of the Chaldees into the land
   retiring to Jerusalem, Jer. xxxv. 11. The inhabitants of the villages
   soon ceased: Suddenly were the tents spoiled. The plain men that dwelt
   in tents were first made a prey of.

   (2.) This dreadful war continued a great while, not in the borders, but
   in the bowels of the country; for the people were very obstinate, and
   would not submit to the king of Babylon, but took all opportunities to
   rebel against him, which did but lengthen out the calamity; they might
   as well have yielded at first as at last. This is complained of (v.
   21): How long shall I see the standard? Shall the sword devour for
   ever? Good men are none of those that delight in war, for they know not
   how to fish in troubled waters; they are for peace (Ps. cxx. 7), and
   will heartily say Amen to that prayer, "Give peace in our time, O
   Lord!" O thou sword of the Lord! when wilt thou be quiet?

   (3.) The desolations made by it in the land were general and universal:
   The whole land is spoiled, or plundered (v. 20); so it was at first,
   and at length it became a perfect chaos. It was such a desolation as
   amounted in a manner to a dissolution; not only the superstructure, but
   even the foundations, were all out of course. The prophet in vision saw
   the extent and extremity of this destruction, and he here gives a most
   lively description of it, which one would think might have made those
   uneasy in their sins who dwelt in a land doomed to such a ruin, which
   might yet have been prevented by their repentance. [1.] The earth is
   without form, and void (v. 23), as it was Gen. i. 2. It is Tohu and
   Bohu, the words there used, as far as the land of Judea goes. It is
   confusion and emptiness, stripped of all its beauty, void of all its
   wealth, and, compared with what it was, every thing out of place and
   out of shape. To a worse chaos than this will the earth be reduced at
   the end of time, when it, and all the works that are therein, shall be
   burnt up. [2.] The heavens too are without light, as the earth is
   without fruits. This alludes to the darkness that was upon the face of
   the deep (Gen. i. 2), and represents God's displeasure against them, as
   the eclipse of the sun did at our Saviour's death. It was not only the
   earth that failed them, but heaven also frowned upon them; and with
   their trouble they had darkness, for they could not see through their
   troubles. The smoke of their houses and cities which the enemy burnt,
   and the dust which their army raised in its march, even darkened the
   sun, so that the heavens had no light. Or it may be taken figuratively:
   The earth (that is, the common people) was impoverished and in
   confusion; and the heavens (that is, the princes and rulers) had no
   light, no wisdom in themselves, nor were any comfort to the people, nor
   a guide to them. Comp. Matt. xxiv. 29. [3.] The mountains trembled, and
   the hills moved lightly, v. 24. So formidable were the appearances of
   God against his people, as in the days of old they had been for them,
   that the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs,
   Ps. cxiv. 4. The everlasting mountains seemed to be scattered, Hab.
   iii. 6. The mountains on which they had worshipped their idols, the
   mountains over which they had looked for succours, all trembled, as if
   they had been conscious of the people's guilt. The mountains, those
   among them that seemed to the highest and strongest, and of the firmest
   resolution, trembled at the approach of the Chaldean army. The hills
   moved lightly, as being eased of the burden of a sinful nation, Isa. i.
   24. [4.] Not the earth only, but the air, was dispeopled, and left
   uninhabited (v. 25): I beheld the cities, the countries that used to be
   populous, and, lo, there was no man to be seen; all the inhabitants
   were either killed, or fled, or taken captives, such a ruining
   depopulating thing is sin: nay, even the birds of the heavens, that
   used to fly about and sing among the branches, had now fled away, and
   were no more to be seen or heard. The land of Judah had now become like
   the lake of Sodom, over which (they say) no bird flies; see Deut. xxix.
   23. The enemies shall make such havoc of the country that they shall
   not so much as leave a bird alive in it. [5.] Both the ground and the
   houses shall be laid waste (v. 26): Lo, the fruitful place was a
   wilderness, being deserted by the inhabitants that should cultivate it,
   and then soon overgrown with thorns and briers, or being trodden down
   by the destroying army of the enemy. The cities also and their gates
   and walls are broken down and levelled with the ground. Those that look
   no further than second causes impute it to the policy and fury of the
   invaders; but the prophet, who looks to the first cause, says that it
   is at the presence of the Lord, at his face (that is, the anger of his
   countenance), even by his fierce anger, that this was done. Even angry
   men cannot do us any real hurt, unless God be angry with us. If our
   ways please him, all is well. [6.] The meaning of all this is that the
   nation shall be entirely ruined, and every part of it shall share in
   the destruction; neither town nor country shall escape. First, Not the
   country, for the whole land shall be desolate, corn land and pasture
   land, both common and enclosed, it shall be laid waste (v. 27); the
   conquerors will have occasion for it all. Secondly, Not the men, for
   (v. 29) the whole city shall flee, all the inhabitants of the town
   shall quit their habitations by consent, for fear of the horsemen and
   bowmen. Rather than lie exposed to their fury, they shall go into the
   thickets, where they are in danger of being torn by briers, nay, to be
   torn in pieces by wild beasts; and they shall climb up upon the rocks,
   where their lodging will be hard and cold, and the precipice dangerous.
   Let us not be over-fond of our houses and cities; for the time may come
   when rocks and thickets may be preferable, and chosen rather. This
   shall be the common case, for every city shall be forsaken, and not a
   man shall be left that dares dwell therein. Both government and trade
   shall be at an end, and all civil societies and incorporations
   dissolved. It is a very dismal idea which this gives of the approaching
   desolation; but in the midst of all these threatenings comes in one
   comfortable word (v. 27): Yet will not I make a full end--not a total
   consumption, for God will reserve a remnant to himself, that shall be
   hidden in the day of the Lord's anger--not a final consumption, for
   Jerusalem shall again be built and the land inhabited. This comes in
   here, in the midst of the threatenings, for the comfort of those that
   trembled at God's word; and it intimates to us the changeableness of
   God's providence; as it breaks down, so it raises up again; every end
   of our comforts is not a full end, however we may be ready to think it
   so. It also intimates the unchangeableness of God's covenant, which
   stands so firmly, that, though he may correct his people severely, yet
   he will not cast them off, ch. xxx. 11.

   (4.) Their case was helpless and without remedy. [1.] God would not
   help them; so he tells them plainly, v. 28. And, if the Lord do not
   help them, who can? This is that which makes their case deplorable.
   "For this the earth mourns and the heavens above are black (there are
   no prospects but what are very dismal), because I have spoken it; I
   have given the word which shall not be called back; I have purposed it
   (it is a consumption decreed, determined) and I will not repent, not
   change this way, but proceed in it, and will not turn back from it."
   They would not repent and turn back from the way of their sins (ch. ii.
   25), and therefore God will not repent and turn back from the way of
   his judgments. [2.] They could not help themselves, v. 30, 31. When the
   thing appeared at a distance they flattered themselves with hopes that,
   though God should not appear for them as he had done for Hezekiah
   against the Assyrian army, yet they should find some means or other to
   secure themselves and give check to the forces of the enemy. But the
   prophet tells them that, when it comes to the setting to, they will be
   quite at a loss: "When thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? What course
   wilt thou take? Sit down now, and consider this in time." He assures
   them that, whatever were now their contrivances and confidences, First,
   They will then be despised by their allies whom they depended upon for
   assistance. He had often compared the sin of Jerusalem to whoredom, not
   only her idolatry, but her trust in creatures, in the neighbouring
   powers. Now here he compares her to a harlot abandoned by all the lewd
   ones that used to make court to her. She is supposed to do all she can
   to keep up her interest in their affections. She does what she can to
   make herself appear considerable among the nations, and a valuable
   ally. She compliments them by her ambassadors to the highest degree, to
   engage them to stand by her now in her distress. She clothes herself
   with crimson, as if she were rich, and decks herself with ornaments of
   gold, as if her treasuries were still as full as ever they had been.
   She rents her face with painting, puts the best colours she can upon
   her present distresses and does her utmost to palliate and extenuate
   her losses, sets a good face upon them. But this painting, though it
   beautifies the face for the present, really rends it; the frequent use
   of paint spoils the skin, cracks it, and makes it rough; so the case
   which by false colours has been made to appear better than really it
   was, when truth comes to light, will look so much the worse. "And,
   after all, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; all thy neighbours are
   sensible how low thou art brought; the Chaldeans will strip thee of thy
   crimson and ornaments, and then thy confederates will not only slight
   thee and refuse to give thee any succour, but they will join with those
   that seek thy life, that they may come in for a share in the prey of so
   rich a country." Here seems to be an allusion to the story of Jezebel,
   who thought, by making herself look fair and fine, to outface her doom,
   but in vain, 2 Kings ix. 30, 33. See what creatures prove when we
   confide in them, how treacherous they are; instead of saving the life,
   they seek the life; they often change, so that they will sooner do us
   an ill turn than any service. And see to how little purpose it is for
   those that have by sin deformed themselves in God's eyes to think by
   any arts they can use to beautify themselves in the eye of the world.
   Secondly, They will then be themselves in despair; they will find their
   troubles to be like the pains of a woman in travail, which she cannot
   escape: I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, her groans
   echoing to the triumphal shouts of the Chaldean army, which he heard,
   v. 15. It is like the voice of a woman in travail, whose pain is
   exquisite, and the fruit of sin and the curse too (Gen. iii. 16), and
   exhorts lamentable outcries, especially of a woman in travail of her
   first child, who, having never known before what that pain is, is the
   more terrified by it. Troubles are most grievous to those that have not
   been used to them. Zion, in this distress, since her neighbours refuse
   to pity her, bewails herself, fetching deep sighs (so the word
   signifies), and she spreads her hands, either wringing them for grief
   or reaching them forth for succour. All the cry is, Woe is me now! (now
   that the decree has gone forth against her and is past recall), for my
   soul is wearied because of murderers. The Chaldean soldiers put all to
   the sword that gave them any opposition, so that the land was full of
   murders. Zion was weary of hearing tragical stories from all parts of
   the country, and cried out, Woe is me! It was well if their sufferings
   put them in mind of their sins, the murders committed upon them of the
   murders committed by them; for God was now making inquisition for the
   innocent blood shed in Jerusalem, which the Lord would not pardon, 2
   Kings xxiv. 4. Note, As sin will find out the sinner, so sorrow will,
   sooner or later, find out the secure.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. V.

   Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this
   chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are
   threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to
   bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be
   justified in the judgments threatened. I. The sins they are charged
   with are very great:--Injustice (ver. 1), hypocrisy in religion (ver.
   2), incorrigibleness (ver. 3), the corruption and debauchery of both
   poor and rich (ver. 4, 5), idolatry and adultery (ver. 7, 8),
   treacherous departures from God (ver. 11), and impudent defiance of him
   (ver. 12, 13), and, that which is at the bottom of all this, want of
   the fear of God, notwithstanding the frequent calls given them to fear
   him, ver. 20-24. In the close of the chapter they are charged with
   violence and oppression (ver. 26-28), and a combination of those to
   debauch the nation who should have been active to reform it, ver. 30,
   31. II. The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible. In
   general, they shall be reckoned with, ver. 9, 29. A foreign enemy shall
   be brought in upon them (ver. 15-17), shall set guards upon them (ver.
   6), shall destroy their fortification (ver. 10), shall carry them away
   into captivity (ver. 19), and keep all good things from them, ver. 25.
   Herein the words of God's prophets shall be fulfilled, ver. 14. But,
   III. Here is an intimation twice given that God would in the midst of
   wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them, ver. 10, 18. This
   was the scope and purport of Jeremiah's preaching in the latter end of
   Josiah's reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; but the success of it
   did not answer expectation.

The Universal Corruption to the Age. (b. c. 608.)

   1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and
   know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if
   there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I
   will pardon it.   2 And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they
   swear falsely.   3 O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast
   stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but
   they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces
   harder than a rock; they have refused to return.   4 Therefore I said,
   Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of
   the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.   5 I will get me unto the
   great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the
   Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken
   the yoke, and burst the bonds.   6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest
   shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard
   shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be
   torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their
   backslidings are increased.   7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy
   children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I
   had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled
   themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.   8 They were as fed
   horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.
   9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my
   soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

   Here is, I. A challenge to produce any one right honest man, or at
   least any considerable number of such, in Jerusalem, v. 1. Jerusalem
   had become like the old world, in which all flesh had corrupted their
   way. There were some perhaps who flattered themselves with hopes that
   there were yet many good men in Jerusalem, who would stand in the gap
   to turn away the wrath of God; and there might be others who boasted of
   its being the holy city and thought that this would save it. But God
   bids them search the town, and intimates that they should scarcely find
   a man in it who executed judgment and made conscience of what he said
   and did: "Look in the streets, where they make their appearance and
   converse together, and in the broad places, where they keep their
   markets; see if you can find a man, a magistrate (so some), that
   executes judgment, and administers justice impartially, that will put
   the laws in execution against vice and profaneness." When the faithful
   thus cease and fail it is time to cry Woe is me! (Mic. vii. 1, 2), high
   time to cry, Help Lord, Ps. xii. 1. "If there be here and there a man
   that is truly conscientious, and does at least speak the truth, yet you
   shall not find him in the streets and broad places; he dares not appear
   publicly, lest he should be abused and run down. Truth has fallen in
   the street (Isa. lix. 14), and is forced to seek for corners." So
   pleasing would it be to God to find any such that for their sake he
   would pardon the city; if there were but ten righteous men in Sodom, if
   but one of a thousand, of ten thousand, in Jerusalem, it should be
   spared. See how ready God is to forgive, how swift to show mercy. But
   it might be said, "What do you make of those in Jerusalem that continue
   to make profession of religion and relation to God? Are not they men
   for whose sakes Jerusalem may be spared?" No, for they are not sincere
   in their profession (v. 2): They say, The Lord liveth, and will swear
   by his name only, but they swear falsely, that is, 1. They are not
   sincere in the profession they make of respect to God, but are false to
   him; they honour him with their lips, but their hearts are far from
   him. 2. Though they appeal to God only, they make no conscience of
   calling him to witness to a lie. Though they do not swear by idols,
   they forswear themselves, which is no less an affront to God, as the
   God of truth, than the other is as the only true God.

   II. A complaint which the prophet makes to God of the obstinacy and
   wilfulness of these people. God had appealed to their eyes (v. 1); but
   here the prophet appeals to his eyes (v. 3): "Are not thy eyes upon the
   truth? Dost thou not see every man's true character? And is not this
   the truth of their character, that they have made their faces harder
   than a rock?" Or, "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part; but
   where is it to be found among the men of this generation? For though
   they say, The Lord liveth, yet they never regard him; thou hast
   stricken them with one affliction after another, but they have not
   grieved for the affliction, they have been as stocks and stones under
   it, much less have they grieved for the sin by which they have brought
   it upon themselves. Thou hast gone further yet, hast consumed them,
   hast corrected them yet more severely; but they have refused to receive
   correction, to accommodate themselves to thy design in correcting them
   and to answer to it. They would not receive instruction by the
   correction. They have set themselves to outface the divine sentence and
   to outbrave the execution of it, for they have made their faces harder
   than a rock; they cannot change countenance, neither blush for shame
   nor look pale for fear, cannot be beaten back from the pursuit of their
   lusts, whatever check is given them; for, though often called to it,
   they have refused to return, and would go forward, right or wrong, as
   the horse into the battle."

   III. The trial made both of rich and poor, and the bad character given
   of both.

   1. The poor were ignorant, and therefore they were wicked. He found
   many that refused to return, for whom he was willing to make the best
   excuse their case would bear, and it was this (v. 4): "Surely, these
   are poor, they are foolish. They never had the advantage of a good
   education, nor have they wherewithal to help themselves now with the
   means of instruction. They are forced to work hard for their living,
   and have no time nor capacity for reading or hearing, so that they know
   not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God; they
   understand neither the way in which God by his precepts will have them
   to walk towards him nor the way in which he by his providence is
   walking towards them." Note, (1.) Prevailing ignorance is the
   lamentable cause of abounding impiety and iniquity. What can one expect
   but works of darkness from brutish sottish people that know nothing of
   God and religion, but choose to sit in darkness? (2.) This is commonly
   a reigning sin among poor people. There are the devil's poor as well as
   God's, who, notwithstanding their poverty, might know the way of the
   Lord, so as to walk in it and do their duty, without being
   book-learned; but they are willingly ignorant, and therefore their
   ignorance will not be their excuse.

   2. The rich were insolent and haughty, and therefore they were wicked
   (v. 5): "I will get me to the great men, and see if I can find them
   more pliable to the word and providence of God. I will speak to them,
   preach at court, in hopes to make some impression upon men of polite
   literature. But all in vain; for, though they know the way of the Lord
   and the judgment of their God, yet they are too stiff to stoop to his
   government: These have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.
   They know their Master's will, but are resolved to have their own will,
   to walk in the way of their heart and in the sight of their eyes. They
   think themselves too goodly to be controlled, too big to be corrected,
   even by the sovereign Lord of all himself. They are for breaking even
   his bands asunder, Ps. ii. 3. The poor are weak, the rich are wilful,
   and so neither do their duty."

   IV. Some particular sins specified, which they were notoriously guilty
   of, and which cried most loudly to heaven for vengeance. Their
   transgressions indeed were many, of many kinds and often repeated, and
   their backslidings were increased; they added to the number of them and
   grew more and more impudent in them, v. 6. But two sins especially were
   justly to be looked upon as unpardonable crimes:--1. Their spiritual
   whoredom, giving that honour to idols which is due to God only. "Thy
   children have forsaken me, to whom they were born and dedicated and
   under whom they have been brought up, and they have sworn by those that
   are no gods, have made their appeal to them as if they had been
   omniscient and their proper judges." This is here put for all acts of
   religious worship due to God only, but with which they had honoured
   their idols. They have sworn to them (so it may be read), have joined
   themselves to them and covenanted with them. Those that forsake God
   make a bad change for those that are no gods. 2. Their corporal
   whoredom. Because they had forsaken God and served idols, he gave them
   up to vile affections; and those that dishonoured him were left to
   dishonour themselves and their own families. They committed adultery
   most scandalously, without sense of shame or fear of punishment, for
   they assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses and did not
   blush to be seen by one another in the most scandalous places. So
   impudent and violent was their lust, so impatient of check, and so
   eager to be gratified, that they became perfect beasts (v. 8); like
   high-fed horses, they neighed every one after his neighbour's wife, v.
   8. Unbridled lusts make men like natural brute beasts, such monstrous
   odious things are they. And that which aggravated their sin was that it
   was the abuse of God's favours to them: When they were fed to the full,
   then their lusts grew thus furious. Fulness of bread was fuel to the
   fire of Sodom's lusts. Sine Cerere et Bacchio friget Venu--Luxurious
   living feeds the flames of lust. Fasting would help to tame the unruly
   evil that is so full of deadly poison, and bring the body into
   subjection.

   V. A threatening of God's wrath against them for their wickedness and
   the universal debauchery of their land.

   1. The particular judgment that is threatened, v. 6. A foreign enemy
   shall break in upon them, get dominion over them, and shall lay waste:
   their country shall be as if it were overrun and perfectly mastered by
   wild beasts. This enemy shall be, (1.) Like a lion of the forest; so
   strong, so furious, so irresistible; and he shall slay them. (2.) Like
   a wolf of the evening, which comes out at night, when he is hungry, to
   seek his prey, and is very fierce and ravenous; and the noise both of
   the lions' roaring and of the wolves' howling is very hideous. (3.)
   Like a leopard, which is very swift and very cruel, and withal careful
   not to miss his prey. The army of the enemy shall watch over their
   cities so strictly as to put the inhabitants to this sad dilemma--if
   they stay in, they are starved; if they stir out, they are stabbed;
   Every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces, which
   intimates that in many places the enemy gave no quarter. And all this
   bloody work is owing to the multitude of their transgressions. It is
   sin that makes the great slaughter.

   2. An appeal to themselves concerning the equity of it (v. 9); "Shall I
   not visit for these things? Can you yourselves think that the God whose
   name is Jealous will let such idolatries go unpunished, or that a God
   of infinite purity will connive at such abominable uncleanness?" These
   are things that must be reckoned for, else the honour of God's
   government cannot be maintained, nor his laws saved from contempt; but
   sinners will be tempted to think him altogether such a one as
   themselves, contrary to that conviction of their own consciences
   concerning the judgment of God which is necessary to be supported, That
   those who do such things are worthy of death, Rom. i. 32. Observe, when
   God punishes sin, he is said to visit for it, or enquire into it; for
   he weighs the cause before he passes sentence. Sinners have reason to
   expect punishment upon the account of God's holiness, to which sin is
   highly offensive, as well as upon the account of his justice, to which
   it renders us obnoxious; this is intimated in that, Shall not my soul
   be avenged on such a nation as this? It is not only the word of God,
   but his soul, that takes vengeance. And he has national judgments
   wherewith to take vengeance for national sins. Such nations as this was
   cannot long go unpunished. How shall I pardon thee for this? v. 7. Not
   but that those who have been guilty of these sins have found mercy with
   God, as to their eternal state (Manasseh himself did, though so much
   accessory to the iniquity of these times); but nations, as such, being
   rewardable and punishable only in this life, it would not be for the
   glory of God to let a nation so very wicked as this pass without some
   manifest tokens of his displeasure.

Divine Judgments Threatened; Divine Judgments Vindicated. (b. c. 608.)

   10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take
   away her battlements; for they are not the Lord's.   11 For the house
   of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against
   me, saith the Lord.   12 They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not
   he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor
   famine:   13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in
   them: thus shall it be done unto them.   14 Wherefore thus saith the
   Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my
   words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour
   them.   15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of
   Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation,
   a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what
   they say.   16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all
   mighty men.   17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread,
   which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy
   flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees:
   they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with
   the sword.   18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not
   make a full end with you.   19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall
   say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? then
   shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange
   gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not
   yours.

   We may observe in these verses, as before,

   I. The sin of this people, upon which the commission signed against
   them is grounded. God disowns them and dooms them to destruction, v.
   10. But is there not a cause? Yes; for, 1. They have deserted the law
   of God (v. 11): The house of Israel and the house of Judah, though at
   variance with one another, yet both agreed to deal very treacherously
   against God. They forsook the worship of him, and therein violated
   their covenants with him; they revolted from him, and played the
   hypocrite with him. 2. They have defied the judgments of God and given
   the lie to his threatenings in the mouth of his prophets, v. 12, 13.
   They were often told that evil would certainly come upon them; they
   must expect some desolating judgment, sword or famine; but they were
   secure and said, We shall have peace, though we go on. For, (1.) They
   did not fear what God is. They belied him, and confronted the dictates
   even of natural light concerning him; for they said, "It is not he,
   that is, he is not such a one as we have been made to believe he is; he
   does not see, or not regard, or will not require it; and therefore no
   evil shall come upon us." Multitudes are ruined by being made to
   believe that God will not be so strict with them as his word says he
   will; nay, by this artifice Satan undid us all: You shall not surely
   die. So here: Neither shall we see sword nor famine. Vain hopes of
   impunity are the deceitful support of all impiety. (2.) They did not
   fear what God said. The prophets gave them fair warning, but they
   turned it off with a jest: "They do but talk so, because it is their
   trade; they are words of course, and words are but wind. It is not the
   word of the Lord that is in them; it is only the language of their
   melancholy fancy or their ill-will to their country, because they are
   not preferred." Note, Impenitent sinners are not willing to own any
   thing to be the word of God that makes against them, that tends either
   to part them from, or disquiet them in, their sins. They threaten the
   prophets: "They shall become wind, shall pass away unregarded, and thus
   shall it be done unto them; what they threaten against us we will
   inflict upon them. Do they frighten us with famine? Let them be fed
   with the bread of affliction." So Micaiah was, 1 Kings xxii. 27. "Do
   they tell us of the sword? Let them perish by the sword," ch. ii. 30.
   Thus their mocking and misusing God's messengers filled the measure of
   their iniquity.

   II. The punishment of this people for their sin. 1. The threatenings
   they laughed at shall be executed (v. 14): Because you speak this word
   of contempt concerning the prophets, and the word in their mouths,
   therefore God will put honour upon them and their words, for not one
   iota or tittle of them shall fall to the ground, 1 Sam. iii. 19. Here
   God turns to the prophet Jeremiah, who had been thus bantered, and
   perhaps had been a little uneasy at it: Behold, I will make my words in
   thy mouth fire. God owns them for his words, though men denied them,
   and will as surely make them to take effect as the fire consumes
   combustible material that is in its way. The word shall be fire and the
   people wood. Sinners by sin make themselves fuel to that wrath of God
   which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
   unrighteousness of men in the scripture. The word of God will certainly
   be too hard for those that contend with it. Those shall break who will
   not bow before it. 2. The enemy they thought themselves in no danger of
   shall be brought upon them. God gives them their commission (v. 10):
   "Go you up upon her walls, mount them, trample upon them, tread them
   down. Walls of stone, before the divine commission, shall be but mud
   walls. Having made yourselves masters of the walls, you may destroy at
   pleasure. You may take away her battlements, and leave the fenced
   fortified cities to lie open; for her battlements are not the Lord's he
   does not own them and therefore will not protect and fortify them."
   They were not erected in his fear, nor with a dependence upon him; the
   people have trusted to them more than to God, and therefore they are
   not his. When the city is filled with sin God will not patronise the
   fortifications of it, and then they are paper walls. What can defend us
   when he who is our defence, and the defender of all our defences, has
   departed from us? Num. xiv. 9. What is not of God cannot stand, not
   stand long, nor stand us in any stead. What dreadful work these
   invaders should make is here described (v. 15): Lo, I will bring a
   nation upon you, O house of Israel! Note, God has all nations at his
   command, does what he pleases with them and makes what use he pleases
   of them. And sometimes he is pleased to make the nations of the earth,
   the heathen nations, a scourge to the house of Israel, when that has
   become a hypocritical nation. This nation of the Chaldeans is here said
   to be a remote nation; it is brought upon them from afar, and therefore
   will make the greater spoil and the longer stay, that the soldiers may
   pay themselves well for so long a march. "It is a nation that thou hast
   had no commerce with, by reason of their distance, and therefore canst
   not expect to find favour with." God can bring trouble upon us from
   places and causes very remote. It is a mighty nation, that there is no
   making head against, an ancient nation, that value themselves upon
   their antiquity and will therefore be the more haughty and imperious.
   It is a nation whose language thou knowest not; they spoke the Syriac
   tongue, which the Jews at that time were not acquainted with, as
   appears, 2 Kings xviii. 26. The difference of language would make it
   the more difficult to treat with them of peace. Compare this with the
   threatening, Deut. xxviii. 49, which it seems to have a reference to,
   for the law and the prophets exactly agree. They are well armed: Their
   quiver is as an open sepulchre; their arrows shall fly so thick, hit so
   sure, and wound so deep, that they shall be reckoned to breathe nothing
   but death and slaughter: they are able-bodied, all effective, mighty
   men, v. 16. And, when they have made themselves masters of the country,
   they shall devour all before them, and reckon all their own that they
   can lay their hands on, v. 17. (1.) They shall strip the country, shall
   not only sustain, but surfeit, their soldiers with the rich products of
   this fruitful land. "They shall not store up (then it might possibly by
   retrieved), but eat up thy harvest in the field and thy bread in the
   house, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat." Note, What we have
   we have for our families, and it is a comfort to see our sons and
   daughters eating that which we have taken care and pains for. But it is
   a grievous vexation to see it devoured by strangers and enemies, to see
   their camps victualled with our stores, while those that are dear to us
   are perishing for want of it: this also is according to the curse of
   the law, Deut. xxviii. 33. "They shall eat up thy flocks and herds, out
   of which thou hast taken sacrifices for thy idols; they shall not leave
   thee the fruit of thy vines and fig-trees." (2.) They shall starve the
   towns: "They shall impoverish thy fenced cities" (and what fence is
   there against poverty, when it comes like an armed man?), "those cities
   wherein thou trustedst to be a protection to the country." Note, It is
   just with God to impoverish that which we make our confidence. They
   shall impoverish them with the sword, cutting off all provisions from
   coming to them and intercepting trade and commerce, which will
   impoverish even fenced cities.

   III. An intimation of the tender compassion God has yet for them. The
   enemy is commissioned to destroy and lay waste, but must not make a
   full end, v. 10. Though they make a great slaughter, yet some must be
   left to live; though they make a great spoil, yet something must be
   left to live upon, for God has said it (v. 18) with a non obstante--a
   nevertheless to the present desolation: "Even in those days, dismal as
   they are, I will not make a full end with you;" and, if God will not,
   the enemy shall not. God has mercy in store for his people, and
   therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Hitherto it
   shall come, and no further.

   IV. The justification of God in these proceedings against them. As he
   will appear to be gracious in not making a full end with them, so he
   will appear to be righteous in coming so near it, and will have it
   acknowledged that he has done them no wrong, v. 19. Observe, 1. A
   reason demanded, insolently demanded, by the people for these
   judgments. They will say "Wherefore doth the Lord our God do all this
   unto us? What provocation have we given him, or what quarrel has he
   with us?" As if against such a sinful nation there did not appear cause
   enough of action. Note, Unhumbled hearts are ready to charge God with
   injustice in their afflictions, and pretend they have to seek for the
   cause of them when it is written in the forehead of them. But, 2. Here
   is a reason immediately assigned. The prophet is instructed what answer
   to give them; for God will be justified when he speaks, though he
   speaks with ever so much terror. He must tell them that God does this
   against them for what they have done against him, and that they may, if
   they please, read their sin in their punishment. Do not they know very
   well that they have forsaken God, and therefore can they think it
   strange if he has forsaken them? Have they forgotten how often they
   served gods in their own land, that good land, in the abundance of the
   fruits of which they ought to have served God with gladness of heart?
   and therefore is it not just with God to make them serve strangers in a
   strange land, where they can call nothing their own, as he has
   threatened to do? Deut. xxviii. 47, 48. Those that are fond of
   strangers, to strangers let them go.

Expostulation with Israel. (b. c. 608.)

   20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
     21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which
   have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:   22 Fear ye not
   me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have
   placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it
   cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can
   they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?   23
   But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are
   revolted and gone.   24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now
   fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the
   latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the
   harvest.

   The prophet, having reproved them for sin and threatened the judgments
   of God against them, is here sent to them again upon another errand,
   which he must publish in Judah; the purport of it is to persuade them
   to fear God, which would be an effectual principle of their
   reformation, as the want of that fear had been at the bottom of their
   apostasy.

   I. He complains of the shameful stupidity of this people, and their
   bent to backslide from God, speaking as if he knew not what course to
   take with them. For,

   1. Their understandings were darkened and unapt to admit the rays of
   the divine light: They are a foolish people and without understanding;
   they apprehend not the mind of God, though ever so plainly declared to
   them by the written word, by his prophets, and by his providence (v.
   21): They have eyes, but they see not, ears, but they hear not, like
   the idols which they made and worshipped, Ps. cxv. 5, 6, 8. One would
   have thought that they took notice of things, but really they did not;
   they had intellectual faculties and capacities, but they did not employ
   and improve them as they ought. Herein they disappointed the
   expectations of all their neighbours, who, observing what excellent
   means of knowledge they had, concluded, Surely they are a wise and an
   understanding people (Deut. iv. 6), and yet really they are a foolish
   people and without understanding. Note, We cannot judge of men by the
   advantages and opportunities they enjoy: there are those that sit in
   darkness in a land of light, that live in sin even in a holy land, that
   are bad in the best places. 2. Their wills were stubborn and unapt to
   submit to the rules of the divine law (v. 23): This people has a
   revolting and a rebellious heart; and no wonder when they were foolish
   and without understanding, Ps. lxxxii. 5. Nay, it is the corrupt bias
   of the will that bribes and besots the understanding: none so blind as
   those that will not see. The character of this people is the true
   character of all people by nature, till the grace of God has wrought a
   change. We are foolish, slow of understanding, and apt to mistake and
   forget; yet that is not the worst. We have a revolting and a rebellious
   heart, a carnal mind, that is enmity against God, and is not in
   subjection to his law, not only revolting from him by a rooted aversion
   to that which is good, but rebellious against him by a strong
   inclination to that which is evil. Observe, The revolting heart is a
   rebellious one: those that withdraw from their allegiance to God do not
   stop there, but by siding in with sin and Satan take up arms against
   him. They have revolted and gone. The revolting heart will produce a
   revolting life. They are gone, and they will go (so it may be read);
   now nothing will be restrained from them, Gen. xi. 6.

   II. He ascribed this to the want of the fear of God. When he observes
   them to be without understanding he asks, "Fear you not me, saith the
   Lord, and will you not tremble at my presence? v. 22. If you would but
   keep up an awe of God, you would be more observant of what he says to
   you: and, did you but understand your own interest better, you would be
   more under the commanding rule of God's fear." When he observes that
   they have revolted and gone he adds this, as the root and cause of
   their apostasy (v. 24), Neither say they in their hearts, Let us now
   fear the Lord our God. Therefore so many bad thoughts come into their
   mind, and hurry them to that which is evil, because they will not admit
   and entertain good thoughts, and particularly not this good thought,
   Let us now fear the Lord our God. It is true it is God's work to put
   his fear into our hearts; but it is our work to stir up ourselves to
   fear him, and to fasten upon those considerations which are proper to
   affect us with a holy awe of him; and it is because we do not do this
   that our hearts are so destitute of his fear as they are, and so apt to
   revolt and rebel.

   III. He suggests some of those things which are proper to possess us
   with a holy fear of God.

   1. We must fear the Lord and his greatness, v. 22. Upon this account he
   demands our fear: Shall we not tremble at his presence, and not be
   afraid of affronting him, or trifling with him, who in the kingdom of
   nature and providence gives such incontestable proofs of his almighty
   power and sovereign dominion? Here is one instance given of very many
   that might be given: he keeps the sea within compass. Though the tides
   flow with a mighty strength twice every day, and if they should flow on
   awhile would drown the world, though in a storm the billows rise high
   and dash to the shore with incredible force and fury, yet they are
   under check, they return, they retire, and no harm is done. This is the
   Lord's doing, and, if it were not common, it would be marvellous in our
   eyes. He has placed the sand for the bound of the sea, not only for a
   meer-stone, to mark out how far it may come and where it must stop, but
   as a mound, or fence, to put a stop to it. A wall of sand shall be as
   effectual as a wall of brass to check the flowing waves, when God is
   pleased to make it so; nay, that is chosen rather, to teach us that a
   soft answer, like the soft sand, turns away wrath, and quiets a foaming
   rage, when grievous words, like hard rocks, do but exasperate, and make
   the waters cast forth so much the more mire and dirt. This bound is
   placed by a perpetual decree, by an ordinance of antiquity (so some
   read it), and then it sends us as far back as to the creation of the
   world, when God divided between the sea and dry land, and fixed marches
   between them, Gen. i. 9, 10 (which is elegantly described, Ps. civ. 6,
   &c., and Job xxxviii. 8, &c.), or to the period of Noah's flood, when
   God promised that he would never drown the world again, Gen. ix. 11. An
   ordinance of perpetuity--so our translation takes it. It is a perpetual
   decree; it has had its effect all along to this day and shall still
   continue till day and night come to an end. This perpetual decree the
   waters of the sea cannot pass over nor break through. Though the waves
   thereof toss themselves, as the troubled sea does when it cannot rest,
   yet can they not prevail; though they roar and rage as if they were
   vexed at the check given them, yet can they not pass over. Now this is
   a good reason why we should fear God; for, (1.) By this we see that he
   is a God of almighty power and universal sovereignty, and therefore to
   be feared and had in reverence. (2.) This shows us how easily he could
   drown the world again and how much we continually lie at his mercy, and
   therefore we should be afraid of making him our enemy. (3.) Even the
   unruly waves of the sea observe his decree and retreat at his check,
   and shall not we then? Why are our hearts revolting and rebellious,
   when the sea neither revolts nor rebels?

   2. We must fear the Lord and his goodness, Hos. iii. 5. The instances
   of this, as of the former, are fetched from God's common providence, v.
   24. We must fear the Lord our God, that is, we must worship him, and
   give him glory, and be always in care to keep ourselves in his love,
   because he is continually doing us good: he gives us both the former
   and the latter rain, the former a little after seed-time, the latter a
   little before harvest, and both in their season; and by this means he
   reserves to us the appointed weeks of harvest. Harvest is reckoned by
   weeks, because in a few weeks enough is gathered to serve for
   sustenance the year round. The weeks of the harvest are appointed us by
   the promise of God, that seed-time and harvest shall not fail. And in
   performance of that promise they are reserved to us by the divine
   providence, otherwise we should come short of them. In harvest mercies
   therefore God is to be acknowledged, his power, and goodness, and
   faithfulness, for they all come from him. And it is good reason why we
   should fear him, that we may keep ourselves in his love, because we
   have such a necessary dependence upon him. The fruitful seasons were
   witnesses for God, even to the heathen world, sufficient to leave them
   inexcusable in their contempt of him (Acts xiv. 17); and yet the Jews,
   who had the written word to explain their testimony by, were not
   wrought upon to fear the Lord, though it appears how much it is our
   interest to do so.

Expostulation with Israel. (b. c. 608.)

   25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have
   withholden good things from you.   26 For among my people are found
   wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap,
   they catch men.   27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses
   full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.   28
   They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the
   wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they
   prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.   29 Shall I not
   visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on
   such a nation as this?   30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed
   in the land;   31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear
   rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye
   do in the end thereof?

   Here, I. The prophet shows them what mischief their sins had done them:
   They have turned away these things (v. 25), the former and the latter
   rain, which they used to have in due season (v. 24), but which had of
   late been withheld (ch. iii. 3), by reason of which the appointed weeks
   of harvest had sometimes disappointed them. "It is your sin that has
   withholden good from you, when God was ready to bestow it upon you."
   Note, It is sin that stops the current of God's favour to us, and
   deprives us of the blessings we used to receive. It is that which makes
   the heavens as brass and the earth as iron.

   II. He shows them how great their sins were, how heinous and provoking.
   When they had forsaken the worship of the true God, even moral honesty
   was lost among them: Among my people are found wicked men (v. 26), some
   of the worst of men, and so much the worse they were for being found
   among God's people. 1. They were spiteful and malicious. Such are
   properly wicked men, men that delight in doing mischief. They were
   found (that is, caught) in the very act of their wickedness. As hunters
   or fowlers lay snares for their game, so did they lie in wait to catch
   men, and made a sport of it, and took as much pleasure in it as if they
   had been entrapping beasts or birds. They contrives ways of doing
   mischief to good people (whom they hated for their goodness),
   especially to those that faithfully reproved them (Isa. xxix. 21), or
   to those that stood in the way of their preferment or whom they
   supposed to have affronted them or done them a diskindness, or to those
   whose estates they coveted; so Jezebel ensnared Naboth for his
   vineyard. Nay, they did mischief for mischief's sake. 2. They were
   false and treacherous (v. 27): "As a cage, or coop, is full of birds,
   and of food for them to fatten them for the table, so are their houses
   full of deceit, of wealth obtained by fraudulent practices or of arts
   and methods of defrauding. All the business of their families is done
   with deceit; whoever deals with them, they will cheat him if they can,
   which is easily done by those who make no conscience of what they say
   and do. Herein they overpass the deed of the wicked, v. 28. Those that
   act by deceit, with a colour of law and justice, do more mischief
   perhaps than those wicked men (v. 26) that carry all before them by
   open force and violence; or they are worse than the heathen themselves,
   yea, the worst of them. And (would you think it?) they prosper in these
   wicked courses and therefore their hearts are hardened in them. They
   are greedy of the world, because they find it flows in upon them, and
   they stick not at any wickedness in pursuit of it, because they find
   that it is so far from hindering their prosperity that it furthers it:
   They have become great in the world; they have waxen rich, and thrive
   upon it. They have wherewithal to make provision for the flesh to
   fulfill all the lusts of it, to which they are very indulgent, so that
   they have waxen fat with living at ease and bathing themselves in all
   the delights of sense. They are sleek and smooth: The shine; they look
   fair and gay; every body admires them. And they pass by matters of evil
   (so some read the following words); they escape the evils which one
   would expect their sins should bring upon them; they are not in trouble
   as other men, much less as we might expect bad men," Ps. lxxiii. 5, &c.
   3. When they had grown great, and had got power in their hands, they
   did not do that good with it which they ought to have done: They judge
   not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, and the right of the needy.
   The fatherless are often needy, always need assistance and advice, and
   advantage is taken of their helpless condition to do them an injury.
   Who should succour them then but the great and rich? What have men
   wealth for but to do good with it? But these would take no cognizance
   of any such distressed cases: they had not so much sense of justice, or
   compassion for the injured; or, if they did concern themselves in the
   cause, it was not to do right, but to protect those that did wrong. And
   yet they prosper still; God layeth not folly to them. Certainly then
   the things of this world are not the best things, for often-times the
   worst men have the most of them; yet we are not to think that, because
   they prosper, God allows of their practices. No; though sentence
   against their evil works be not executed speedily, it will be executed.
   4. There was a general corruption of all orders and degrees of men
   among them (v. 30, 31); A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in
   the land. The degeneracy of such a people, so privileged and advanced,
   was a wonderful thing, and to be viewed with amazement. How could they
   ever break through so many obligations? It was a horrible thing, a
   thing to be detested and the consequences of it dreaded. To frighten
   ourselves from sin, let us call it a horrible thing. What was the
   matter? In short, this: (1.) The leaders misled the people: The
   prophets prophesy falsely, counterfeit a commission from heaven when
   they are factors for hell. Religion is never more dangerously attacked
   than under colour and pretence of divine revelation. But why did not
   the priests, who had power in their hands for that purpose, restrain
   these false prophets? Alas! instead of doing that they made use of them
   as the tools of their ambition and tyranny: The priests bear rule by
   their means; they supported themselves in their grandeur and wealth,
   their laziness and luxury, their impositions and oppressions, by the
   help of the false prophets and their interest in the people. Thus they
   were in a combination against every thing that was good, and
   strengthened one another's hands in evil. (2.) The people were well
   enough pleased to be so misled: "They are my people," says God, "and
   should have stood up for me, and borne their testimony against the
   wickedness of their priests and prophets; but they love to have it so."
   If the priests and prophets will let them alone in their sins, they
   will give them no disturbance in theirs. They love to be ridden with a
   loose rein, and like those rulers very well that will not restrain
   their lusts and those teachers that will not reprove them.

   III. He shows them how fatal the consequences of this would certainly
   be. Let them consider,

   1. What the reckoning would be for their wickedness (v. 29): Shall not
   I visit for these things? as before, v. 9. Sometimes mercy rejoices
   against judgment: How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Here, judgment is
   reasoning against mercy: Shall I not visit? We are sure that Infinite
   Wisdom knows how to accommodate the matter between them. The manner of
   expression is very emphatic, and denotes, (1.) The certainty and
   necessity of God's judgments: Shall not my soul be avenged? Yes,
   without doubt, vengeance will come, it must come, if the sinner repent
   not. (2.) The justice and equity of God's judgments; he appeals to the
   sinner's own conscience, Do not those deserve to be punished that have
   been guilty of such abominations? Shall he not be avenged on such a
   nation, such a wicked provoking nation as this?

   2. What the direct tendency of their wickedness was: What will you do
   in the end thereof? That is, (1.) "What a pitch of wickedness will you
   come to at last! What will you do? What will you not do that is base
   and wicked. What will this grow to? You will certainly grow worse and
   worse, till you have filled up the measure of your iniquity." (2.)
   "What a pit of destruction will you come to at last! When things are
   brought to such a pass as this, nothing can be expected from you but a
   deluge of sin, so nothing can be expected from God but a deluge of
   wrath; and what will you do when that shall come?" Note, Those that
   walk in bad ways would do well to consider the tendency of them both to
   greater sin and utter ruin. An end will come; the end of a wicked life
   will come, when it will be all called over again, and without doubt
   will be bitterness in the latter end.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. VI.

   In this chapter, as before, we have, I. A prophecy of the invading of
   the land of Judah and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army
   (ver. 1-6), with the spoils they should make of the country (ver. 9)
   and the terror which all should be seized with on that occasion, ver.
   22-26. II. An account of those sins of Judah and Jerusalem which
   provoked God to bring this desolating judgment upon them. Their
   oppression (ver. 7), their contempt of the word of God (ver. 10-12),
   their worldliness (ver. 13), the treachery of their prophets (ver. 14),
   their impudence in sin (ver. 15), their obstinacy against reproofs
   (ver. 18, 19), which made their sacrifices unacceptable to him (ver.
   20), and for which he gave them up to ruin (ver. 21), but tried them
   first (ver. 27) and then rejected them as irreclaimable, ver. 28-30.
   III. Good counsel given them in the midst of all this, but in vain,
   ver. 8, 16, 17.

Judgments Threatened against Israel; The Doom of Israel. (b. c. 608.)

   1 O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst
   of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire
   in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great
   destruction.   2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and
   delicate woman.   3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto
   her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall
   feed every one in his place.   4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and
   let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the
   shadows of the evening are stretched out.   5 Arise, and let us go by
   night, and let us destroy her palaces.   6 For thus hath the Lord of
   hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this
   is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of
   her.   7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her
   wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually
   is grief and wounds.   8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul
   depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

   Here is I. Judgment threatened against Judah and Jerusalem. The city
   and the country were at this time secure and under no apprehension of
   danger; they saw no cloud gathering, but every thing looked safe and
   serene: but the prophet tells them that they shall shortly be invaded
   by a foreign power, an army shall be brought against them from the
   north, which shall lay all waste, and shall cause not only a general
   consternation, but a general desolation. It is here foretold,

   1. That the alarm of this should be loud and terrible. This is
   represented, v. 1. The children of Benjamin, in which tribe part of
   Jerusalem lay, are here called to shift for their own safety in the
   country; for the city (to which it was first thought advisable for them
   to flee, ch. iv. 5, 6) would soon be made too hot for them, and they
   would find it the wisest course to flee out of the midst of it. It is
   common, in public frights, for the people to think any place safer than
   that in which they are; and therefore those in the city are for
   shifting into the country, in hopes there to escape out of danger, and
   those in the country are for shifting into the city, in hopes there to
   make head against the danger; but it is all in vain when evil pursues
   sinners with commission. They are told to send the alarm into the
   country, and to do what they can for their own safety: Blow the trumpet
   in Tekoa, a city which lay twelve miles north from Jerusalem. Let them
   be stirred up to stand upon their guard: Set up a sign of fire (that
   is, kindle the beacons) in Beth-haccerem, the house of the vineyard,
   which lay on a hill between Jerusalem and Tekoa. Prepare to make a
   vigorous resistance, for the evil appears out of the north. This may be
   taken ironically: "Betake yourselves to the best methods you can think
   of for your own preservation, but all shall be in vain; for, when you
   have done your best, it will be a great destruction, for it is in vain
   to contend with God's judgments."

   2. That the attempt upon them should be bold and formidable and such as
   they should be a very unequal match for. (1.) See what the daughter of
   Zion is, on whom the assault is made. She is compared to a comely and
   delicate woman (v. 2), bred up in every thing that is nice and soft,
   that will not set so much as the sole of her foot to the ground for
   tenderness and delicacy (Deut. xxviii. 56), nor suffer the wind to blow
   upon her; and, not being accustomed to hardship, she will be the less
   able either to resist the enemy (for those that make war must endure
   hardness) or to bear the destruction with that patience which is
   necessary to make it tolerable. The more we indulge ourselves in the
   pleasures of this life the more we disfit ourselves for the troubles of
   this life. (2.) See what the daughter of Babylon is, by whom the
   assault is made. The generals and their armies are compared to
   shepherds and their flocks (v. 3), in such numbers and in such order
   did they come, the soldiers following their leaders as the sheep their
   shepherds. The daughter of Zion dwelt at home (so some read it),
   expecting to be courted with love, but was invaded with fury. This
   comparing of the enemies to shepherds inclines me to embrace another
   reading, which some give of v. 2, The daughter of Zion is like a comely
   pasture-ground and a delicate land, which invite the shepherds to bring
   their flocks thither to graze; and as the shepherds easily make
   themselves masters of an open field, which (as was then usual in some
   parts) lies common, owned by none, pitch their tents in it, and their
   flocks quickly eat it bare, so shall the Chaldean army easily break in
   upon the land of Judah, force for themselves a free quarter where they
   please, and in a little time devour all. For the further illustration
   of this he shows, [1.] How God shall commission them to make this
   destruction even of the holy land and the holy city, which were his own
   possession. It is he that says (v. 4), Prepare you war against her; for
   he is the Lord of hosts, that has all hosts at his command, and he has
   said (v. 6), Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, in
   order to the attacking of it. The Chaldeans have great power against
   Judah and Jerusalem, and yet they have no power but what is given them
   from above. God has marked out Jerusalem for destruction. He has said,
   "This is the city to be visited, visited in wrath, visited by the
   divine justice, and this is the time of her visitation." The day is
   coming when those that are careless and secure in sinful ways will
   certainly be visited. [2.] How they shall animate themselves and one
   another to execute that commission. God's counsels being against
   Jerusalem, which cannot be altered or disannulled, the councils of war
   which the enemies held are made to agree with his counsels. God having
   said, Prepare war against her, their determinations are made
   subservient to his; and, notwithstanding the distance of place and the
   many difficulties that lay in the way, it is soon resolved, nemine
   contradicente--unanimously. Arise, and let us go. Note, It is good to
   see how the counsel and decree of God are pursued and executed in the
   devices and designs of men, even theirs that know him not, Isa. x. 6,
   7. In this campaign, First, They resolve to be very expeditious. They
   have no sooner resolved upon it than they address themselves to it; it
   shall never be said that they left any thing to be done towards it
   to-morrow which they could do to-day: Arise, let us go up at noon,
   though it be in the heat of the day; nay, (v. 5), Arise, let us go up
   at night, though it be in the dark. Nothing shall hinder them; they are
   resolved to lose no time. They are described as men in care to make
   despatch (v. 4): "Woe unto us, for the day goes away, and we are not
   going on with our work; the shadows of the evening are stretched out,
   and we sit still, and let slip the opportunity." O that we were thus
   eager in our spiritual work and warfare, thus afraid of losing time, or
   any opportunity, in taking the kingdom of heaven by violence! It is
   folly to trifle when we have an eternal salvation to work out, and the
   enemies of that salvation to fight against. Secondly, They confidently
   expect to be very successful: "Let us go up, and let us destroy her
   palaces and make ourselves masters of the wealth that is in them." It
   was not that they might fulfill God's counsels, but that they might
   fill their own treasures, that they were thus eager; yet God thereby
   served his own purposes.

   II. The cause of this judgment assigned. It is all for their
   wickedness; they have brought it upon themselves; they must bear it,
   for they must bear the blame of it. They are thus oppressed because
   they have been oppressors; they have dealt hardly with one another,
   each in his turn, as they have had power and advantage, and now the
   enemy shall come and deal hardly with them all. This sin of oppression,
   and violence, and wrong-doing, is here charged upon them, 1. As a
   national sin (v. 6): Therefore this city is to be visited, it is time
   to make inquisition, for she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
   All orders and degrees of men, from the prince on the throne to the
   meanest master of a shop, were oppressive to those that were under
   them. Look which way you might, there were causes for complaints of
   this kind. 2. As a sin that had become in a manner natural to them (v.
   7): She casts out wickedness, in all the instances of malice and
   mischievousness, as a fountain casts out her waters, so plentifully and
   constantly, the streams bitter and poisonous, like the fountain. The
   waters out of the fountain will not be restrained, but will find or
   force their way, nor will they be checked by laws or conscience in
   their violent proceedings. This is fitly applied to the corrupt heart
   of man in his natural state; it casts out wickedness, one evil
   imagination or other, as a fountain casts out her waters, naturally and
   easily; it is always flowing, and yet always full. 3. As that which had
   become a constant practice with them; Violence and spoil are heard in
   her. The cry of it had come up before God as that of Sodom: Before me
   continually are grief and wounds--the complaint of those that find
   themselves aggrieved, being unjustly wounded in their bodies or
   spirits, in their estates or reputation. Note, He that is the common
   Parent of mankind regards and resents, and sooner or later will
   revenge, the mischiefs and wrongs that men do to one another.

   III. The counsel given them how to prevent this judgment. Fair warning
   is given now upon the whole matter: "Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem!
   v. 8. Receive the instruction given thee both by the law of God and by
   the prophets; be wise at length for thyself." They knew very well what
   they had been instructed to do; nothing remained but to do it, for till
   then they could not be said to be instructed. The reason for this
   counsel is taken from the inevitable ruin they ran upon if they refused
   to comply with the instructions given them: Lest my soul depart, or be
   disjoined, from thee. This intimates what a tender affection and
   concern God had had for them; his very soul had been joined to them,
   and nothing but sin could disjoin it. Note, 1. The God of mercy is loth
   to depart even from a provoking people, and is earnest with them by
   true repentance and reformation to prevent things coming to that
   extremity. 2. Their case is very miserable from whom God's soul is
   disjoined; it intimates the loss not only of their outward blessings,
   but of those comforts and favours which are the more immediate and
   peculiar tokens of his love and presence. Compare this with that
   dreadful word (Heb. x. 38), If any man draw back, my soul shall have no
   pleasure in him. 3. Those whom God forsakes are certainly undone; when
   God's soul departs from Jerusalem she soon becomes desolate and
   uninhabited, Matt. xxiii. 38.

The Universal Corruption of the Age. (b. c. 608.)

   9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant
   of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the
   baskets.   10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may
   hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken:
   behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no
   delight in it.   11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am
   weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and
   upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the
   wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.   12 And
   their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives
   together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the
   land, saith the Lord.   13 For from the least of them even unto the
   greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the
   prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.   14 They have
   healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
   Peace, peace; when there is no peace.   15 Were they ashamed when they
   had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither
   could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at
   the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.
   16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the
   old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find
   rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.   17 Also
   I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.
   But they said, We will not hearken.

   The heads of this paragraph are the very same with those of the last;
   for precept must be upon precept and line upon line.

   I. The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem is here threatened. We had before
   the haste which the Chaldea army made to the war (v. 4, 5); now here we
   have the havoc made by the war. How lamentable are the desolations here
   described! The enemy shall so long quarter among them, and be so
   insatiable in their thirst after blood and treasure, that they shall
   seize all they can meet with, and what escapes them at one time shall
   fall into their hands another (v. 9): They shall thoroughly glean the
   remnant of Israel as a vine; as the grape-gatherer, who is resolved to
   leave none behind, still turns back his hand into the baskets, to put
   more in, till he has gathered all, so that they be picked up by the
   enemy, though dispersed, though hid, and none of them shall escape
   their eye and hand. Perhaps the people, being given to covetousness (v.
   13), had not observed that law of God which forbade them to glean all
   their grapes (Lev. xix. 10), and now they themselves shall be in like
   manner thoroughly gleaned and shall either fall by the sword or go into
   captivity. This is explained v. 11, 12, where God's fury and his hand
   are said to be poured out and stretched out, in the fury and by the
   hand of the Chaldeans; for even wicked men are often made use of as
   God's hand (Ps. xvii. 14), and in their anger we may see God angry. Now
   see on whom the fury is poured out in full vials--upon the children
   abroad, or in the streets, where they are playing (Zech. viii. 5) or
   whither they run out innocently to look about them: the sword of the
   merciless Chaldeans shall not spare them, ch. ix. 21. The children
   perish in the calamity which the fathers' sins have procured. The
   execution shall likewise reach the assembly of young men, their merry
   meetings, their clubs which they keep up to strengthen one another's
   hands in wickedness; they shall be cut off together. Nor shall those
   only fall into the enemies' hands who meet for lewdness (ch. v. 7), but
   even the husband with the wife shall be taken, these two in bed
   together, and neither left, but both taken prisoners. And, as they have
   no compassion for the weak but fair sex, so they have none for the
   decrepit but venerable age: The old with the full of days, whose deaths
   can contribute no more to their safety than their lives to their
   service, who are not in a capacity to do them either good or harm,
   shall be either cut off or carried off. Their houses shall then be
   turned to others (v. 12); the conquerors shall dwell in their
   habitations, use their goods, and live upon their stores; their fields
   and vines shall fall together into their hands, as was threatened,
   Deut. xxviii. 30, &c. For God stretches out his hand upon the
   inhabitants of the land, and none can go out of the reach of it. Now as
   to this denunciation of God's wrath, 1. The prophet justifies himself
   in preaching thus terribly, for herein he dealt faithfully (v. 11): "I
   am full of the fury of the Lord, full of the thoughts and apprehensions
   of it, and am carried out with a powerful impulse, by the spirit of
   prophecy, to speak of it thus vehemently." He took no delight in
   threatening, nor was it any pleasure to him with such sermons as these
   to make those about him uneasy; but he could not contain himself; he
   was weary with holding in; he suppressed it as long as he could, as
   long as he durst, but he was so full of power by the Spirit of the Lord
   of hosts that he must speak, whether they will hear or whether they
   will forbear. Note, When ministers preach the terrors of the Lord
   according to the scripture we have no reason to be displeased at them;
   for they are but messengers, and must deliver their message, pleasing
   or unpleasing. 2. He condemns the false prophets who preached
   plausibly, for therein they flattered people and dealt unfaithfully (v.
   13, 14): The priest and the prophet, who should be their watchmen and
   monitors, have dealt falsely, have not been true to their trust not
   told the people their faults and the danger they were in; they should
   have been their physicians, but they murdered their patients by letting
   them have their will, by giving them every thing that had a mind to,
   and flattering them into an opinion that they were in no danger (v.
   14): They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
   or according to the cure of some slight hurt, skinning over the wound
   and never searching it to the bottom, applying lenitives only, when
   there was need of corrosives, soothing people in their sins, and giving
   them opiates to make them easy for the present, while the disease was
   preying upon the vitals. They said, "Peace peace--all shall be well."
   (if there were some thinking people among them, who were awake, and
   apprehensive of danger, they soon stopped their mouths with their
   priestly and prophetical authority, boldly averring that neither church
   nor state was in any danger), when there is no peace, because they went
   on in their idolatries and daring impieties. Note, Those are to be
   reckoned our false friends (that is, our worst and most dangerous
   enemies) who flatter us in a sinful way.

   II. The sin of Judah and Jerusalem, which provoked God to bring this
   ruin upon them and justified him in it, is here declared. 1. They would
   by no means bear to be told of their faults, nor of the danger they
   were in. God bids the prophet give them warning of the judgment coming
   (v. 9), "but," says he, "to whom shall I speak and give warning? I
   cannot find out any that will so much as give me a patient hearing. I
   may give warning long enough, but these is nobody that will take
   warning. I cannot speak that they may hear, cannot speak to any
   purpose, or with any hope of success; for their ear is uncircumcised,
   it is carnal and fleshly, indisposed to receive the voice of God, so
   that they cannot hearken. They have, as it were, a thick skin grown
   over the organs of hearing, so that divine things might to as much
   purpose be spoken to a stone as to them. Nay, they are not only deaf to
   it, but prejudiced against it; therefore they cannot hear, because they
   are resolved that they will not: The word of the Lord is unto them a
   reproach; both the reproofs and the threatenings of the word are so;"
   they reckoned themselves wronged and affronted by both, and resented
   the prophet's plain-dealing with them as they would the most causeless
   slander and calumny. This was kicking against the pricks (Acts ix. 5),
   as the lawyers against the word of Christ, Luke xi. 45, Thus saying,
   thou repoachest us also. Note, Those reproofs that are counted
   reproaches, and hated as such, will certainly be turned into the
   heaviest woes. When it is here said, They have no delight in the word,
   more is implied than is expressed; "they have an antipathy to it; their
   hearts rise at it; it exasperates them, and enrages their corruptions,
   and they are ready to fly in the face and pull out the eyes of their
   reprovers." And how can those expect that the word of the Lord should
   speak any comfort to them who have no delight in it, but would rather
   be any where than within hearing of it? 2. They were inordinately set
   upon the world, and wholly carried away by the love of it (v. 13):
   "From the least of them even to the greatest, old and young, rich and
   poor, high and low, those of all ranks, professions, and employments,
   every one is given to covetousness, greedy of filthy lucre, all for
   what they can get, per fas per nefas--right or wrong;" and this made
   them oppressive and violent (v. 6, 7), for of those evils, as well as
   others, the love of money is the bitter root. Nay, and this hardened
   their hearts against the word of God and his prophets. It was the
   covetous Pharisees that derided Christ, Luke xvi. 14. 3. They had
   become impudent in sin and were past shame. After such a high charge of
   flagrant crimes proved upon them, it was very proper to ask (v. 15),
   Were they ashamed when they had committed all these abominations, which
   are such a reproach to their reason and religion? Did they blush at the
   conviction, and acknowledge that confusion of face belonged to them? If
   so, there is some hope of them yet. But, alas! there did not appear so
   much as this colour of virtue among them; their hearts were so hardened
   that they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush, they had
   so brazened their faces. They even gloried in their wickedness, and
   openly confronted the convictions which should have humbled them and
   brought them to repentance. They resolved to face it out against God
   himself and not to own their guilt. Some refer this to the priests and
   prophets, who had healed the people slightly and told them that they
   should have peace, and yet were not ashamed of their treachery and
   falsehood, no, not when the event disproved them and gave them the lie.
   Those that are shameless are graceless and their case is hopeless. But
   those that will not submit to a penitential shame, nor take that to
   themselves as their due, shall not escape an utter ruin; for so it
   follows: Therefore they shall fall among those that fall; they shall
   have their portion with those that are quite undone; and, when God
   visits the nation in wrath, they shall be sure to be cast down and be
   made to tremble, because they would not blush. Note, Those that sin and
   cannot blush for it are in an evil case now, and it will be worse with
   them shortly. At first they hardened themselves and would not blush,
   afterwards they were so hardened that they could not. Quod unum
   habebant in malis bonum perdunt, peccandi verecundiam--they have lost
   the only good property which once blended itself with many bad ones,
   that is, shame for having done amiss.--Senec. De Vit. Beat.

   III. They are put in mind of the good counsel which had been often
   given them, but in vain. They had a great deal said to them to little
   purpose,

   1. By way of advice concerning their duty, v. 16. God had been used to
   say to them, Stand in the ways and see. That is, (1.) He would have
   them to consider, not to proceed rashly, but to do as travellers in the
   road, who are in care to find the right way which will bring them to
   their journey's end, and therefore pause and enquire for it. If they
   have any reason to think that they have missed their way, they are not
   easy till they have obtained satisfaction. O that men would be thus
   wise for their souls, and would ponder the path of their feet, as those
   that believe lawful and unlawful are of no less consequence to us than
   the right way and the wrong are to a traveller! (2.) He would have them
   to consult antiquity, the observations and experiences of those that
   went before them: "Ask for the old paths, enquire of the former age
   (Job viii. 8), ask thy father, thy elders (Deut. xxxii. 7), and thou
   wilt find that the way of godliness and righteousness has always been
   the way which God has owned and blessed and in which men have
   prospered. Ask for the old paths, the paths prescribed by the law of
   God, the written word, that true standard of antiquity. Ask for the
   paths that the patriarchs travelled in before you, Abraham, and Isaac,
   and Jacob; and, as you hope to inherit the promises made to them, tread
   in their steps. Ask for the old paths, Where is the good way?" We must
   not be guided merely by antiquity, as if the plea of prescription and
   long usage were alone sufficient to justify our path. No; there is an
   old way which wicked men have trodden, Job xxii. 15. But, when we ask
   for the old paths, it is only in order to find out the good way, the
   highway of the upright. Note, The way of religion and godliness is a
   good old way, the way that all the saints in all ages have walked in.
   (3.) He would have them to resolve to act according to the result of
   these enquiries: "When you have found out which is the good way, walk
   therein, practise accordingly, keep closely to that way, proceed, and
   persevere in it." Some make this counsel to be given them with
   reference to the struggles that were between the true and false
   prophets, between those that said they should have peace and those that
   told them trouble was at the door; they pretended they knew not which
   to believe: "Stand in the way," says God, "and see, and enquire, which
   of these two agrees with the written word and the usual methods of
   God's providence, which of these directs you to the good way, and do
   accordingly." (4.) He assures them that, if they do thus, it will
   secure the welfare and satisfaction of their own souls: "Walk in the
   good old way and you will find your walking in that way will be easy
   and pleasant; you will enjoy both your God and yourselves, and the way
   will lead you to true rest. Though it cost you some pains to walk in
   that way, you will find an abundant recompence at your journey's end."
   (5.) He laments that this good counsel, which was so rational in itself
   and so proper for them, could not find acceptance: "But they said, We
   will not walk therein, not only we will not be at the pains to enquire
   which is the good way, the good old way; but when it is told us, and we
   have nothing to say to the contrary but that it is the right way, yet
   we will not deny ourselves and our humours so far as to walk in it."
   Thus multitudes are ruined for ever by downright wilfulness.

   2. By way of admonition concerning their danger. Because they would not
   be ruled by fair reasoning, God takes another method with them; by less
   judgments he threatens greater, and sends his prophets to give them
   this explication of them, and to frighten them with an apprehension of
   the danger they were in (v. 17); Also I set watchmen over you. God's
   ministers are watchmen, and it is a great mercy to have them set over
   us in the Lord. Now observe here, (1.) The fair warning given by these
   watchmen. This was the burden of their song; they cried again and
   again, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. God, in his providence,
   sounds the trumpet (Zech. ix. 14); the watchmen hear it themselves and
   are affected with it (Jer. iv. 19), and they are to call upon others to
   hearken to it too, to hear the Lord's controversy, to observe the voice
   of Providence, to improve it, and answer the intentions of it. (2.)
   This fair warning slighted: "But they said, We will not hearken; we
   will not hear, we will not heed, we will not believe; the prophets may
   as well save themselves and us the trouble." The reason why sinners
   perish is because they do not hearken to the sound of the trumpet; and
   the reason why they do not is because they will not; and they have no
   reason to give why they will not but because they will not, that is,
   they are herein most unreasonable. One may more easily deal with ten
   men's reasons than one man's will.

Equity of Divine Judgments; Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 608.)

   18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among
   them.   19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people,
   even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto
   my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.   20 To what purpose cometh
   there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?
   your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto
   me.   21 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay
   stumbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons
   together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall
   perish.   22 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the
   north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the
   earth.   23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and
   have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon
   horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.
   24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath
   taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.   25 Go not forth
   into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and
   fear is on every side.   26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with
   sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an
   only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come
   upon us.   27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my
   people, that thou mayest know and try their way.   28 They are all
   grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron;
   they are all corrupters.   29 The bellows are burned, the lead is
   consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are
   not plucked away.   30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because
   the Lord hath rejected them.

   Here, I. God appeals to all the neighbours, nay, to the whole world,
   concerning the equity of his proceedings against Judah and Jerusalem
   (v. 18, 19): "Hear, you nations, and know particularly, O congregation
   of the mighty, the great men of the nations, that take cognizance of
   the affairs of states about you and make remarks upon them. Observe now
   what is doing among those of Judah and Jerusalem; you hear of the
   desolations brought upon them, the earth rings of it, trembles under
   it; you all wonder that I should bring evil upon this people, that are
   in covenant with me, that profess relation to me, that have worshipped
   me, and been highly favoured by me; you are ready to ask, Wherefore has
   the Lord done thus to this land? Deut. xxix. 24. Know then," 1. "That
   it is the natural product of their devices. The evil brought upon them
   is the fruit of their thought. They thought to strengthen themselves by
   their alliance with foreigners, and by that very thing they weakened
   and diminished themselves, they betrayed and exposed themselves." 2.
   "That it is the just punishment of their disobedience and rebellion.
   God does but execute upon them the curse of the law for their violation
   of its commands. It is because they have not hearkened to my words nor
   to my law, nor regarded a word I have said to them, but rejected it
   all. They would never have been ruined thus by the judgments of God's
   hand if they had not refused to be ruled by the judgments of his mouth:
   therefore you cannot say that they have any wrong done them."

   II. God rejects their plea, by which they insisted upon their external
   services as sufficient to atone for all their sins. Alas! it is a
   frivolous plea (v. 20): "To what purpose come there to me incense and
   sweet cane, to be burnt for a perfume on the golden altar, though it
   was the best of the kind, and far-fetched? What care I for your
   burnt-offerings and your sacrifices?" They not only cannot profit God
   (no sacrifice does, Ps. l. 9), but they do not please him, for none
   does this but the sacrifice of the upright; that of the wicked is an
   abomination to him. Sacrifice and incense were appointed to excite
   their repentance, and to direct them to a Mediator, and assist their
   faith in him. Where this good use was made of them they were
   acceptable, God had respect to them and to those that offered them. But
   when they were offered with an opinion that thereby they made God their
   debtor, and purchased a license to go on in sin, they were so far from
   being pleasing to God that they were a provocation to him.

   III. He foretels the desolation that was now coming upon them. 1. God
   designs their ruin because they hate to be reformed (v. 21): I will lay
   stumbling-blocks before this people, occasions of falling not into sin,
   but into trouble. Those whom God has marked for destruction he
   perplexes and embarrasses in their counsels, and obstructs and retards
   all the methods they take for their own safety. The parties of the
   enemy, which they met with wherever they went, were stumbling-blocks to
   them; in ever corner they stumbled upon them and were dashed to pieces
   by them: The fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them;
   neither the fathers with their wisdom, nor the sons with their strength
   and courage, shall escape them, or get over them. The sons that sinned
   with their fathers fall with them. Even the neighbour and his friend
   shall perish and not be able to help either themselves or one another.
   2. He will make use of the Chaldeans as instruments of it; for whatever
   work God has to do he will find out proper instruments for the doing of
   it. This is a people fetched from the north, from the sides of the
   earth. Babylon itself lay a great way off northward; and some of the
   countries that were subject to the king of Babylon, out of which his
   army was levied, lay much further. These must be employed in this
   service, v. 22, 23. For, (1.) It is a people very numerous, a great
   nation, which will make their invasion the more formidable. (2.) It is
   a warlike people. They lay hold on bow and spear, and at this time know
   how to use them, for they are used to them. They ride upon horses, and
   therefore they march the more swiftly, and in battle press the harder.
   No nation had yet brought into the field a better cavalry that the
   Chaldeans. (3.) It is a barbarous people. They are cruel and have no
   mercy, being greedy of prey and flushed with victory. They take a pride
   in frightening all about them; their voice roars like the sea. And,
   (4.) They have a particular design upon Judah and Jerusalem, in hopes
   greatly to enrich themselves with the spoil of that famous country.
   They are set in array against thee, O daughter of Zion! The sins of
   God's professing people make them an easy prey to those that are God's
   enemies as well as theirs.

   IV. He describes the very great consternation which Judah and Jerusalem
   should be in upon the approach of this formidable enemy, v. 24-26. 1.
   They own themselves in a fright, upon the first intelligence brought
   them of the approach of the enemy: "When we have but heard the fame
   thereof our hands wax feeble, and we have no heart to make any
   resistance; anguish has taken hold of us, and we are immediately in an
   extremity of pain, like that of a woman in travail." Note, Sense of
   guilt quite dispirits men, upon the approach of any threatening
   trouble. What can those hope to do for themselves who have made God
   their enemy? 2. They confine themselves by consent to their houses, not
   daring to show their heads abroad; for, though they could not but
   expect that the sword of the enemy would at last find them out there,
   yet they would rather die tamely and meanly there than run any venture,
   either by fight or flight, to help themselves. Thus they say one to
   another, "Go not forth into the field, no not to fetch in your
   provision thence, nor walk by the way; dare not to go to church or
   market, it is at your peril if you do, for the sword of the enemy, and
   the fear of it, are on every side; the highways are unoccupied, as in
   Jael's time," Judg. v. 6. Let this remind us, when we travel the roads
   in safety and there is none to make us afraid, to bless God for our
   share in the public tranquillity. 3. The prophet calls upon them sadly
   to lament the desolations that were coming upon them. He was himself
   the lamenting prophet, and called upon his people to join with him in
   his lamentations: "O daughter of my people, hear thy God calling thee
   to weeping and mourning, and answer his call: do not only put on
   sackcloth for a day, but gird it on for thy constant wear; do not only
   put ashes on thy head, but wallow thyself in ashes; put thyself into
   close mourning, and use all the tokens of bitter lamentation, not
   forced and for show only, but with the greatest sincerity, as parents
   mourn for an only son, and think themselves comfortless because they
   are childless. Thus do thou lament for the spoiler that suddenly comes
   upon us. Though he has not come yet, he is coming, the decree has gone
   forth: let us therefore meet the execution of it with a suitable
   sadness." As saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they
   see them only in the promise, so sinners must mourn for fear of God's
   judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings.

   V. He constitutes the prophet a judge over this people that now stand
   upon their trial: as ch. i. 10, I have set thee over the nations; so
   here, I have set thee for a tower, or as a sentinel, or a watchman,
   upon a tower, among my people, as an inspector of their actions, that
   thou mayest know, and try their way, v. 27. Not that God needed any to
   inform him concerning them; on the contrary, the prophet knew little of
   them in comparison but by the spirit of prophecy. But thus God appeals
   to the prophet himself, and his own observation concerning their
   character, that he might be fully satisfied in the equity of God's
   proceedings against them and with the more assurance give them warning
   of the judgments coming. God set him for a tower, conspicuous to all
   and attacked by many, but made him a fortress, a strong tower, gave him
   courage to stem the tide and bear the shock of their displeasure. Those
   that will be faithful reprovers have need to be firm as fortresses. Now
   in trying their way he will find two things:--1. That they are
   wretchedly debauched (v. 28): They are all grievous revolters,
   revolters of revolters (so the word is), the worst of revolters, as a
   servant of servants is the meanest servant. They have a revolting
   heart, have deeply revolted, and revolt more and more. They seemed to
   start fair, but they revolt and start back. They walk with slanders;
   they make nothing of belying and backbiting one another, nay, they make
   a perfect trade of it; it is their constant course, and they govern
   themselves by the slanders they hear, hating those that they hear
   ill-spoken of, though ever so unjustly. They are brass and iron, base
   metals, and there is nothing in them that is valuable. They were as
   silver and gold, but they have degenerated. Nay, as they are all
   revolters, so they are all corrupters, not only debauched themselves,
   but industrious to debauch others, to corrupt them as they themselves
   are corrupt; nay, to make them seven times more the children of hell
   than themselves. It is often so; sinners soon become tempters. 2. That
   they would never be reclaimed and reformed; it was in vain to think of
   reforming them, for various methods had been tried with them, and all
   to no purpose, v. 29, 30. He compares them to ore that was supposed to
   have some good metal in it, and was therefore put into the furnace by
   the refiner, who used all his art, and took abundance of pains, about
   it, but it proved all dross, nothing of any value could be extracted
   out of it. God by his prophets and by his providences had used the most
   proper means to refine this people and to purify them from their
   wickedness; but it was all in vain. By the continual preaching of the
   word, and in a series of afflictions, they had been kept in a constant
   fire, but all to no purpose. The bellows have been still kept so near
   the fire, to blow it, that they are burnt with the heat of it, or they
   are quite worn out with long use and thrown into the fire as good for
   nothing. The prophets have preached their throats sore with crying
   aloud against the sins of Israel, and yet they are not convinced and
   humbled. The lead, which was then used in refining silver, as
   quicksilver is now, is consumed of the fire, and has not done its work.
   The founder melts in vain; his labour is lost, for the wicked are not
   plucked away, no care is taken to separate between the precious and the
   vile, to purge out the old leaven, to cast out of communion those who,
   being corrupt themselves, are in danger of infecting others. Or, Their
   wickednesses are not removed (so some read it); they are still as bad
   as ever, and nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins.
   They will not be brought off from their idolatries and immoralities by
   all they have heard, and all they have felt, of the wrath of God
   against them; and therefore that doom is passed upon them (v. 30):
   Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless; they
   glitter as if they had some silver in them, but there is nothing of
   real virtue or goodness to be found among them; and for this reason the
   Lord has rejected them. He will no more own them as his people, nor
   look for any good from them; he will take them away like dross (Ps.
   cxix. 119), and prepare a consuming fire for those that would not be
   purified by a refining fire. By this it appears, (1.) That God has no
   pleasure in the death and ruin of sinners, for he tries all ways and
   methods with them to prevent their destruction and qualify them for
   salvation. Both his ordinances and his providences have a tendency this
   way, to part between them and their sins; and yet with many it is all
   lost labour. We have piped unto you, and you have not danced; we have
   mourned unto you, and you have not wept. Therefore, (2.) God will be
   justified in the death of sinners and all the blame will lie upon
   themselves. He did not reject them till he had used all proper means to
   reform them; did not cast them off so long as there was any hope of
   them, nor abandon them as dross till it appeared that they were
   reprobate silver.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. VII.

   The prophet having in God's name reproved the people for their sins,
   and given them warning of the judgments of God that were coming upon
   them, in this chapter prosecutes the same intention for their
   humiliation and awakening. I. He shows them the invalidity of the plea
   they so much relied on, that they had the temple of God among them and
   constantly attended the service of it, and endeavours to take them off
   from their confidence in their external privileges and performances,
   ver. 1-11. II. He reminds them of the desolations of Shiloh, and
   foretels that such should be the desolations of Jerusalem, ver. 12-16.
   III. He represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for
   which he was thus incensed against them, ver. 17-20. IV. He sets before
   the people that fundamental maxim of religion that "to obey is better
   than sacrifice" (1 Sam. xv. 22), and that God would not accept the
   sacrifices of those that obstinately persisted in disobedience, ver.
   21-28. V. He threatens to lay the land utterly waste for their idolatry
   and impiety, and to multiply their slain as they had multiplied their
   sin, ver. 29-34.

A Call of Repentance. (b. c. 606.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   2 Stand in
   the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say,
   Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these
   gates to worship the Lord.   3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell
   in this place.   4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of
   the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
   5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly
   execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;   6 If ye oppress not
   the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent
   blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:   7
   Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave
   to your fathers, for ever and ever.   8 Behold, ye trust in lying
   words, that cannot profit.   9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit
   adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after
   other gods whom ye know not;   10 And come and stand before me in this
   house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all
   these abominations?   11 Is this house, which is called by my name,
   become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it,
   saith the Lord.   12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh,
   where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
   wickedness of my people Israel.   13 And now, because ye have done all
   these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and
   speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;   14
   Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name,
   wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your
   fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.   15 And I will cast you out of my
   sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of
   Ephraim.

   These verses begin another sermon, which is continued in this and the
   two following chapters, much to the same effect with those before, to
   reason them to repentance. Observe,

   I. The orders given to the prophet to preach this sermon; for he had
   not only a general commission, but particular directions and
   instructions for every message he delivered. This was a word that came
   to him from the Lord, v. 1. We are not told when this sermon was to be
   preached; but are told, 1. Where it must be preached--in the gate of
   the Lord's house, through which they entered into the outer court, or
   the court of the people. It would affront the priests, and expose the
   prophet to their rage, to have such a message as this delivered within
   their precincts; but the prophet must not fear the face of man, he
   cannot be faithful to his God if he do. 2. To whom it must be
   preached--to the men of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship
   the Lord; probably it was at one of three feasts, when all the males
   from all parts of the country were to appear before the Lord in the
   courts of his house, and not to appear empty: then he had many together
   to preach to, and that was the most seasonable time to admonish them
   not to trust to their privileges. Note, (1.) Even those that profess
   religion have need to be preached to as well as those that are without.
   (2.) It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many together.
   Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, and, as Jeremiah
   here, in the opening of the gates, the temple-gates. (3.) When we are
   going to worship God we have need to be admonished to worship him in
   the spirit, and to have no confidence in the flesh, Phil. iii. 3.

   II. The contents and scope of the sermon itself. It is delivered in the
   name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who commands the world,
   but covenants with his people. As creatures we are bound to regard the
   Lord of hosts, as Christians the God of Israel; what he said to them he
   says to us, and it is much the same with that which John Baptist said
   to those whom he baptized (Matt. iii. 8, 9), Bring forth fruits meet
   for repentance; and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham
   to our father. The prophet here tells them,

   1. What were the true words of God, which they might trust to. In
   short, they might depend upon it that if they would repent and reform
   their lives, and return to God in a way of duty, he would restore and
   confirm their peace, would redress their grievances, and return to them
   in a way of mercy (v. 3): Amend your ways and your doings. This implies
   that there had been much amiss in their ways and doings, many faults
   and errors. But it is a great instance of the favour of God to them
   that he gives them liberty to amend, shows them where and how they must
   amend, and promises to accept them upon their amendment: "I will cause
   you to dwell quietly and peaceably in this place, and a stop shall be
   put to that which threatens your expulsion." Reformation is the only
   way, and a sure way to ruin. He explains himself (v. 5-7), and tells
   them particularly,

   (1.) What the amendment was which he expected from them. They must
   thoroughly amend; in making good, they must make good their ways and
   doings; they must reform with resolution, and it must be a universal,
   constant, preserving reformation--not partial, but entire--not
   hypocritical, but sincere--not wavering, but constant. They must make
   the tree good, and so make the fruit good, must amend their hearts and
   thoughts, and so amend their ways and doings. In particular, [1.] They
   must be honest and just in all their dealings. Those that had power in
   their hands must thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his
   neighbour, without partiality, and according as the merits of the cause
   appeared. They must not either in judgment or in contract oppress the
   stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor countenance or protect
   those that did oppress, nor refuse to do them justice when they sought
   for it. They must not shed innocent blood, and with it defile this
   place and the land wherein they dwelt. [2.] They must keep closely to
   the worship of the true God only: "Neither walk after other gods; do
   not hanker after them, nor hearken to those that would draw you into
   communion with idolaters; for it is, and will be, to your own hurt. Be
   not only so just to your God, but so wise for yourselves, as not to
   throw away your adorations upon those who are not able to help you, and
   thereby provoke him who is able to destroy you." Well, this is all that
   God insists upon.

   (2.) He tells them what the establishment is which, upon this
   amendment, they may expect from him (v. 7): "Set about such a work of
   reformation as this with all speed, go through with it, and abide by
   it; and I will cause you to dwell in this place, this temple; it shall
   continue your place of resort and refuge, the place of your comfortable
   meeting with God and one another; and you shall dwell in the land that
   I gave to your fathers for ever and ever, and it shall never be turned
   out either from God's house or from your own." It is promised that they
   shall still enjoy their civil and sacred privileges, that they shall
   have a comfortable enjoyment of them: I will cause you to dwell here;
   and those dwell at ease to whom God gives a settlement. They shall
   enjoy it by covenant, by virtue of the grant made of it to their
   fathers, not by providence, but by promise. They shall continue in the
   enjoyment of it without eviction or molestation; they shall not be
   disturbed, much less dispossessed, for ever and ever; nothing but sin
   could throw them out. An everlasting inheritance in the heavenly Canaan
   is hereby secured to all that live in godliness and honesty. And the
   vulgar Latin reads a further privilege here, v. 3, 7. Habitabo
   vobiscum--I will dwell with you in this place; and we should find
   Canaan itself but an uncomfortable place to dwell in if God did not
   dwell with us there.

   2. What were the lying words of their own hearts, which they must not
   trust to. He cautions them against this self-deceit (v. 4): "Trust not
   in lying words. You are told in what way, and upon what terms, you may
   be easy safe, and happy; now do not flatter yourselves with an opinion
   that you may be so on any other terms, or in any other way." Yet he
   charges them with this self-deceit arising from vanity (v. 8): "Behold,
   it is plain that you do trust in lying words, notwithstanding what is
   said to you; you trust in words that cannot profit; you rely upon a
   plea that will stand you in no stead." Those that slight the words of
   truth, which would profit them, take shelter in words of falsehood,
   which cannot profit them. Now these lying words were, "The temple of
   the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.
   These buildings, the courts, the holy place, and the holy of holies,
   are the temple of the Lord, built by his appointment, to his glory;
   here he resides, here he is worshipped, here we meet three times a year
   to pay our homage to him as our King in his palace." This they thought
   was security enough to them to keep God and his favours from leaving
   them, God and his judgments from breaking in upon them. When the
   prophets told them how sinful they were, and how miserable they were
   likely to be, still they appealed to the temple: "How can we be either
   so or so, as long as we have that holy happy place among us?" The
   prophet repeats it because they repeated it upon all occasions. It was
   the cant of the times; it was in their mouths upon all occasions. If
   they heard an awakening sermon, if any startling piece of news was
   brought to them, they lulled themselves asleep again with this, "We
   cannot but do well, for we have the temple of the Lord among us." Note,
   The privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and
   confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it.
   It is common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves
   most of their being near to the church. They are haughty because of the
   holy mountain (Zeph. iii. 11), as if God's mercy were so tied to them
   that they might defy his justice. Now to convince them what a frivolous
   plea this was, and what little stead it would stand them in,

   (1.) He shows them the gross absurdity of it in itself. If they knew
   any thing either of the temple of the Lord or of the Lord of the
   temple, they must think that to plead that, either in excuse of their
   sin against God or in arrest of God's judgment against them, was the
   most ridiculous unreasonable thing that could be. [1.] God is a holy
   God; but this plea made him the patron of sin, of the worst of sins,
   which even the light of nature condemns, v. 9, 10. "What," says he,
   "will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, be guilty of the vilest
   immoralities, and which the common interest, as well as the common
   sense, of mankind witness against? Will you swear falsely, a crime
   which all nations (who with the belief of a God have had a veneration
   for an oath) have always had a horror of? Will you burn incense to
   Baal, a dunghill-deity, that sets up as a rival with the great Jehovah,
   and, not content with that, will you walk after other gods too, whom
   you know not, and by all these crimes put a daring affront upon God,
   both as the Lord of hosts and as the God of Israel? Will you exchange a
   God of whose power and goodness you have had such a long experience for
   gods of whose ability and willingness to help you you know nothing?
   And, when you have thus done the worst you can against God, will you
   brazen your faces so far as to come and stand before him in this house
   which is called by his name and in which his name is called upon--stand
   before him as servants waiting his commands, as supplicants expecting
   his favour? Will you act in open rebellion against him, and yet herd
   among his subjects, among the best of them? By this, it should seem,
   you think that either he does not discover or does not dislike your
   wicked practices, to imagine either of which is to put the highest
   indignity possible upon him. It is as if you should say, We are
   delivered to do all these abominations." If they had not the front to
   say this, totidem verbis--in so many words, yet their actions spoke it
   aloud. They could not but own that God, even their own God, had many a
   time delivered them, and been a present help to them, when otherwise
   they must have perished. He, in delivering them, designed to reduce
   them to himself, and by his goodness to lead them to repentance; but
   they resolved to persist in their abominations notwithstanding. As soon
   as they were delivered (as of old in the days of the Judges) they did
   evil again in the sight of the Lord, which was in effect to say, in
   direct contradiction to the true intent and meaning of the providences
   which had affected them, that God had delivered them in order to put
   them again into a capacity of rebelling against him, by sacrificing the
   more profusely to their idols. Note, Those who continue in sin because
   grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, do in effect make Christ
   the minister of sin. Some take it thus: "You present yourselves before
   God with your sacrifices and sin-offerings, and then say, We are
   delivered, we are discharged from our guilt, now it shall do us no
   hurt; when all this is but to blind the world, and stop the mouth of
   conscience, that you may, the more easily to yourselves and the more
   plausibly before others, do all these abominations." [2.] His temple
   was a holy place; but this plea made it a protection to the most unholy
   persons: "Has this house, which is called by my name and is a standing
   sign of God's kingdom of sin and Satan--has this become a den of
   robbers in your eyes? Do you think it was built to be not only a
   rendezvous of, but a refuge and shelter to, the vilest of malefactors?"
   No; though the horns of the altar were a sanctuary to him that slew a
   man unawares, yet they were not so to a wilful murderer, nor to one
   that did aught presumptuously, Exod. xxi. 14; 1 Kings ii. 29. Those
   that think to excuse themselves in unchristian practices with the
   Christian name, and sin the more boldly and securely because there is a
   sin-offering provided, do, in effect, make God's house of prayer a den
   of thieves, as the priests in Christ's time, Matt. xxi. 13. But could
   they thus impose upon God? No: Behold, I have seen it, saith the Lord,
   have seen the real iniquity through the counterfeit and dissembled
   piety. Note, Though men may deceive one another with the appearances of
   devotion, yet they cannot deceive God.

   (2.) He shows them the insufficiency of this plea adjudged long since
   in the case of Shiloh. [1.] It is certain that Shiloh was ruined,
   though it had God's sanctuary in it, when by its wickedness it profaned
   that sanctuary (v. 12): Go you now to my place which was in Shiloh. It
   is probable that the ruins of that once flourishing city were yet
   remaining; they might, at least, read the history of it, which ought to
   affect them as if they saw the place. There God set his name at the
   first, there the tabernacle was set up when Israel first took
   possession of Canaan (John xviii. 1), and thither the tribes went up;
   but those that attended the service of the tabernacle there corrupted
   both themselves and others, and from them arose the wickedness of his
   people Israel; that fountain was poisoned, and sent forth malignant
   streams; and what came of it? No; God forsook it (Ps. lxxviii. 60),
   sent his ark into captivity, cut off the house of Eli that presided
   there; and it is very probable that the city was quite destroyed, for
   we never read any more of it but as a monument of divine vengeance upon
   holy places when they harbour wicked people. Note, God's judgments upon
   others, who have really revolted from God while they have kept up a
   profession of nearness to him, should be a warning to us not to trust
   in lying words. It is good to consult precedents, and make use of them.
   Remember Lot's wife; remember Shiloh and the seven churches of Asia;
   and know that the ark and candlestick are moveable things, Rev. ii. 5;
   Matt. xxi. 43. [2.] It is as certain that Shiloh's fate will be
   Jerusalem's doom if a speedy and sincere repentance prevent it not.
   First, Jerusalem was now as sinful as ever Shiloh was; that is proved
   by the unerring testimony of God himself against them (v. 13): "You
   have done all these works, you cannot deny it:" and they continued
   obstinate in their sin; that is proved by the testimony of God's return
   and repent, rising up early and speaking, as one in care, as one in
   earnest, as one who would lose no time in dealing with them, nay, who
   would take the fittest opportunity for speaking to them early in the
   morning, when, if ever, they were sober, and had their thoughts free
   and clear; but it was all in vain. God spoke, but they heard not, they
   heeded not, they never minded; he called them, but they answered not;
   they would not come at his call. Note, What God has spoken to us
   greatly aggravates what we have done against him. Secondly, Jerusalem
   shall shortly be as miserable as ever Shiloh was: Therefore I will do
   unto this house as I did to Shiloh, ruin it, and lay it waste, v. 14.
   Those that tread in the steps of the wickedness of those that went
   before them must expect to fall by the like judgments, for all these
   things happened to them for ensamples. The temple at Jerusalem, though
   ever so strongly built, if wickedness was found in it, would be as
   unable to keep its ground and as easily conquered as even the
   tabernacle in Shiloh was, when God's day of vengeance had come. "This
   house" (says God) "is called by my name, and therefore you may think
   that I should protect it; it is the house in which you trust, and you
   think that it will protect you; this land is the place, this city the
   place, which I gave to you and your fathers, and therefore you are
   secure of the continuance of it, and think that nothing can turn you
   out of it; but the men of Shiloh thus flattered themselves and did but
   deceive themselves." He quotes another precedent (v. 15), the ruin of
   the kingdom of the ten tribes, who were the seed of Abraham, and had
   the covenant of circumcision, and possessed the land which God gave to
   them and their fathers, and yet the idolatries threw them out and
   extirpated them: "And can you think but that the same evil courses will
   be as fatal to you?" Doubtless they will be so; for God is uniform and
   of a piece with himself in his judicial proceedings. It is a rule of
   justice, ut parium par sit ratio--that in similar cases the same
   judgment should proceed. "You have corrupted yourselves as your
   brethren the seed of Ephraim did, and have become their brethren in
   iniquity, and therefore I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast
   them." The interpretation here given of the judgment makes it a
   terrible one indeed; the casting of them out of their land signified
   God's casting them out of his sight, as if he would never look upon
   them, never look after them, more. Whenever we are cast, it is well
   enough, if we be kept in the love of God; but, if we are thrown out of
   his favour, our case is miserable though we dwell in our own land. This
   threatening, that God would make this house like Shiloh, we shall meet
   with again, and find Jeremiah indicted for it, ch. xxvi. 6.

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 606.)

   16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor
   prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear
   thee.   17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in
   the streets of Jerusalem?   18 The children gather wood, and the
   fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes
   to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other
   gods, that they may provoke me to anger.   19 Do they provoke me to
   anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion
   of their own faces?   20 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold,
   mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man,
   and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of
   the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

   God had shown them, in the foregoing verses, that the temple and the
   service of it, of which they boasted and in which they trusted, should
   not avail to prevent the judgment threatened. But there was another
   thing which might stand them in some stead, and which yet they had no
   value for, and that was the prophet's intercession for them; his
   prayers would do them more good than their own pleas: now here that
   support is taken from them; and their case is said indeed who have lost
   their interest in the prayers of God's ministers and people.

   I. God here forbids the prophet to pray for them (v. 16): "The decree
   has gone forth, their ruin is resolved on, therefore pray not thou for
   this people, that is, pray not for the preventing of this judgment
   threatened; they have sinned unto death, and therefore pray not for
   their life, but for the life of their souls," 1 John v. 16. See here,
   1. That God's prophets are praying men; Jeremiah foretold the
   destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and yet prayed for their
   preservation, not knowing that the decree was absolute; and it is the
   will of God that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Even when we
   threaten sinners with damnation we must pray for their salvation, that
   they may turn and live. Jeremiah was hated, and persecuted, and
   reproached, by the children of his people, and yet he prayed for them;
   for it becomes us to render good for evil. 2. That God's praying
   prophets have a great interest in heaven, how little soever they have
   on earth. When God has determined to destroy this people, he bespeaks
   the prophet not to pray for them, because he would not have his prayers
   to lie (as prophets' prayers seldom did) unanswered. God said to Moses,
   Let me alone, Exod. xxii. 10. 3. It is an ill omen to a people when God
   restrains the spirits of his ministers and people from praying for
   them, and gives them to see their case so desperate that they have no
   heart to speak a good word for them. 4. Those that will not regard good
   ministers' preaching cannot expect any benefit by their praying. If you
   will not hear us when we speak from God to you, God will not hear us
   when we speak to him for you.

   II. He gives him a reason for this prohibition. Praying breath is too
   precious a thing to be lost and thrown away upon a people hardened in
   sin and marked for ruin.

   1. They are resolved to persist in their rebellion against God, and
   will not be turned back by the prophet's preaching. For this he appeals
   to the prophet himself, and his own inspection and observation (v. 17):
   Seest thou not what they do openly and publicly, without either shame
   or fear, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? This
   intimates both that the sin was evident and could not be denied and
   that the sinners were impudent and would not be reclaimed; they
   committed their wickedness even in the prophet's presence and under his
   eye; he saw what they did, and yet they did it, which was an affront to
   his office, and to him whose officer he was, and bade defiance to both.
   Now observe,

   (1.) What the sin is with which they are here charged--it is idolatry,
   v. 18. Their idolatrous respects are paid to the queen of heaven, the
   moon, either in an image or in the original, or both. They worshipped
   it probably under the name of Ashtaroth, or some other of their
   goddesses, being in love with the brightness in which they saw the moon
   walk, and thinking themselves indebted to her for her benign influences
   or fearing her malignant ones, Job xxxi. 26. The worshipping of the
   moon was much in use among the heathen nations, ch. xliv. 17, 19. Some
   read it the frame or workmanship of heaven. The whole celestial globe
   with all its ornaments and powers was the object of their adoration.
   They worshipped the host of heaven, Acts vii. 42. The homage they
   should have paid to their Prince they paid to the statues that
   beautified the frontispiece of his palace; they worshipped the
   creatures instead of him that made them, the servants instead of him
   that commands them, and the gifts instead of him that gave them. With
   the queen of heaven they worshipped other gods, images of things not
   only in heaven above, but in earth beneath, and in the waters under the
   earth; for those that forsake the true God wander endlessly after false
   ones. To these deities of their own making they offer cakes for
   meat-offerings, and pour out drink-offerings, as if they had their meat
   and drink from them and were obliged to make to them their
   acknowledgments: and see how busy they are, and how every hand is
   employed in the service of these idols, according as they used to be
   employed in their domestic services. The children were sent to gather
   wood; the fathers kindled the fire to heat the oven, being of the
   poorer sort that could not afford to keep servants to do it, yet they
   would rather do it themselves than it should be undone; the women
   kneaded the dough with their own hands, for perhaps, though they had
   servants to do it, they took a pride in showing their zeal for their
   idols by doing it themselves. Let us be instructed, even by this bad
   example, in the service of our God. [1.] Let us honour him with our
   substance, as those that have our subsistence from him, and eat and
   drink to the glory of him from whom we have our meat and drink. [2.]
   Let us not decline the hardest services, nor disdain to stoop to the
   meanest, by which God may be honoured; for none shall kindle a fire on
   God's altar for nought. Let us think it an honour to be employed in any
   work for God. [3.] Let us bring up our children in the acts of
   devotion; let them, as they are capable, be employed in doing something
   towards the keeping up of religious exercises.

   (2.) What is the direct tendency of this sin: "It is that they may
   provoke me to anger; they cannot design any thing else in it. But (v.
   19) do they provoke me to anger? Is it because I am hard to be pleased,
   or easily provoked? Or am I to bear the blame of the resentment? No; it
   is their own doing; they may thank themselves, and they alone shall
   bear it." Is it against God that they provoke him to wrath? Is he the
   worse for it? Does it do him any real damage? No; is it not against
   themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? It is malice against
   God, but it is impotent malice; it cannot hurt him: nay, it is foolish
   malice; it will hurt themselves. They show their spite against God, but
   they do the spite to themselves. Canst thou think any other than that a
   people, thus desperately set upon their own ruin, should be abandoned?

   2. God is resolved to proceed in his judgments against them, and will
   not be turned back by the prophet's prayers (v. 20): Thus saith the
   Lord God, and what he saith he will not unsay, nor can all the world
   gainsay it; hear it therefore, and tremble. "Behold, my anger and my
   fury shall be poured out upon this place, as the flood of waters was
   upon the old world or the shower of fire and brimstone upon Sodom;
   since they will anger me, let them see what will come of it." They
   shall soon find, (1.) That there is no escaping this deluge of fire,
   either by flying from it or fencing against it; it shall be poured out
   on this place, though it be a holy place, the Lord's house. It shall
   reach both man and beast, like the plagues of Egypt, and, like some of
   them, shall destroy the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground,
   which they had designed and prepared for Baal, and of which they had
   made cakes to the queen of heaven. (2.) There is no extinguishing it:
   It shall burn and shall not be quenched; prayers and tears shall then
   avail nothing. When his wrath is kindled but a little, much more when
   it is kindled to such a degree, there shall be no quenching it. God's
   wrath is that fire unquenchable which eternity itself will not see the
   period of. Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire.

Obedience Better than Sacrifice. (b. c. 606.)

   21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt
   offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.   22 For I spake not
   unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them
   out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
   23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will
   be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways
   that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.   24 But they
   hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and
   in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
   forward.   25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the
   land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants
   the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:   26 Yet they
   hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck:
   they did worse than their fathers.   27 Therefore thou shalt speak all
   these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt
   also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.   28 But thou shalt
   say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord
   their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off
   from their mouth.

   God, having shown the people that the temple would not protect them
   while they polluted it with their wickedness, here shows them that
   their sacrifices would not atone for them, nor be accepted, while they
   went on in disobedience. See with what contempt he here speaks of their
   ceremonial service (v. 21). "Put your burnt-offerings to your
   sacrifices; go on in them as long as you please; add one sort of
   sacrifice to another; turn your burnt-offerings (which were to be
   wholly burnt to the honour of God) into peace-offerings" (which the
   offerer himself had a considerable share of), "that you may eat flesh,
   for that is all the good you are likely to have from your sacrifices, a
   good meal's meat or two; but expect not any other benefit by them while
   you live at this loose rate. Keep your sacrifices to yourselves" (so
   some understand it); "let them be served up at your own table, for they
   are no way acceptable at God's altars." For the opening of this,

   I. He shows them that obedience was the only thing he required of them,
   v. 22, 23. He appeals to the original contract, by which they were
   first formed into a people, when they were brought out of Egypt. God
   made them a kingdom of priests to himself, not that he might be regaled
   with their sacrifices, as the devils, whom the heathen worshipped,
   which are represented as eating with pleasure the fat of their
   sacrifices and drinking the wine of their drink-offerings, Deut. xxxii.
   38. No: Will God eat the flesh of bulls? Ps. l. 13. I spoke not to your
   fathers concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices, not of them at first.
   The precepts of the moral law were given before the ceremonial
   institutions; and those came afterwards, as trials of their obedience
   and assistances to their repentance and faith. The Levitical law begins
   thus: If any man of you will bring an offering, he must do so and so
   (Lev. i. 2, ii. 1), as if it were intended rather to regulate sacrifice
   than to require it. But that which God commanded, which he bound them
   to by his supreme authority and which he insisted upon as the condition
   of the covenant, was, Obey my voice; see Exod. xv. 26, where this was
   the statute and the ordinance by which God proved them: Hearken
   diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The condition of their
   being God's peculiar people was this (Exod. xix. 5), If you will obey
   my voice indeed. "Make conscience of the duties of natural religion,
   observe positive institutions from a principle of obedience, and then I
   will be your God and you shall be my people," which is the greatest
   honour, happiness, and satisfaction, that any of the children of men
   are capable of. "Let your conversation be regular, and in every thing
   study to comply with the will and word of God; walk within the bounds
   that I have set you, and in all the ways that I have commanded you, and
   then you may assure yourselves that it shall be well with you." The
   demand here is very reasonable, that we should be directed by Infinite
   Wisdom to that which is fit, that he that made us should command us,
   and that he should give us law who gives us our being and all the
   supports of it; and the promise is very encouraging: Let God's will be
   your rule and his favour shall be your felicity.

   II. He shows them that disobedience was the only thing for which he had
   a quarrel with them. He would not reprove them for their sacrifices,
   for the omission of them; they had been continually before him (Ps. l.
   8); with them they hoped to bribe God, and purchase a license to go on
   in sin. That therefore which God had all along laid to their charge was
   breaking his commandments in the course of their conversation, while
   they observed them, in some instances, in the course of their devotion,
   v. 24, 25, &c. 1. They set up their own will in competition with the
   will of God: They hearkened not to God and to his law; they never
   heeded that; it was to them as if it had never been given or were of no
   force; they inclined not their ear to attend to it, much less their
   hearts to comply with it. But they would have their own way, would do
   as they chose, and not as they were bidden. Their own counsels were
   their guide, and not the dictates of divine wisdom; that shall be
   lawful and good with them which they think so, though the word of God
   says quite contrary. The imagination of their evil heart, the appetites
   and passions of it, shall be a law to them, and they will walk in the
   way of it, and in the sight of their eyes. 2. If they began well, yet
   they did not proceed, but soon flew off. They went backward, when they
   talked of making a captain, and returning to Egypt again, and would not
   go forward under God's conduct. They promised fair: All that the Lord
   shall say unto us we will do; and, if they would but have kept in that
   good mind, all would have been well; but, instead of going on in the
   way of duty, they drew back into the way of sin, and were worse than
   ever. 3. When God sent to them by word of mouth to put them in mind of
   the written word, which was the business of the prophets, it was all
   one; still they were disobedient. God had servants of his among them in
   every age, since they came out of Egypt unto this day, some or other to
   tell them of their faults and put them in mind of their duty, whom he
   rose up early to send (as before, v. 13), as men rise up early to call
   servants to their work; but they were as deaf to the prophets as they
   were to the law (v. 26): Yet they hearkened not, nor inclined their
   ear. This had been their way and manner all along; they were of the
   same stubborn refractory disposition with those that went before them;
   it had all along been the genius of the nation, and an evil genius it
   was, that continually haunted them till it ruined them at last. 4.
   Their practice and character were still the same. They are worse, and
   not better, than their fathers. (1.) Jeremiah can himself witness
   against them that they were disobedient, or he shall soon find it so
   (v. 27): "Thou shalt speak all these words to them, shalt particularly
   charge them with disobedience and obstinacy. But even that will not
   work upon them: They will not hearken to thee, nor heed thee. Thou
   shalt go, and call to them with all the plainness and earnestness
   imaginable, but they will not answer thee; they will either give thee
   no answer at all or not an obedient answer; they will not come at thy
   call." (2.) He must therefore own that they deserved the character of a
   disobedient people, that were ripe for destruction, and must go to them
   and tell them so to their faces (v. 28): "Say unto them, This is a
   nation that obeys not the voice of the Lord their God. They are
   notorious for their obstinacy; they sacrifice to the Lord as their God,
   but they will not be ruled by him as their God; they will not receive
   either the instruction of his word or the correction of his rod; they
   will not be reclaimed or reformed by either. Truth has perished among
   them; they cannot receive it; they will not submit to it nor be
   governed by it. They will not speak truth; there is no believing a word
   they say, for it is cut off from their mouth, and lying comes in the
   room of it. They are false both to God and man."

The Desolation of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a
   lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the
   generation of his wrath.   30 For the children of Judah have done evil
   in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the
   house which is called by my name, to pollute it.   31 And they have
   built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of
   Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I
   commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.   32 Therefore,
   behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called
   Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of
   slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.   33
   And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the
   heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
     34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the
   streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness,
   the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land
   shall be desolate.

   Here is, I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had
   been a joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a
   lamentation on high places (v. 29), the high places where they had
   served their idols; there must they now bemoan their misery. In token
   both of sorrow and slavery, Jerusalem must now cut off her hair and
   cast it away; the word is peculiar to the hair of the Nazarites, which
   was the badge and token of their dedication to God, and it is called
   their crown. Jerusalem had been a city which was a Nazarite to God, but
   now must cut off her hair, must be profaned, degraded, and separated
   from God, as she had been separated to him. It is time for those that
   have lost their holiness to lay aside their joy.

   II. Just cause given for this great lamentation.

   1. The sin of Jerusalem appears here very heinous, nowhere worse, or
   more exceedingly sinful (v. 30): "The children of Judah" (God's
   profession people, that came forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa.
   xlviii. 1) "have done evil in my sight, under my eye, in my presence;
   they have affronted me to my face, which very much aggravates the
   affront:" or, "They have done that which they know to be evil in my
   sight, and in the highest degree offensive to me." Idolatry was the sin
   which was above all other sins evil in God's sight. Now here are two
   things charged upon them in their idolatry, which were very provoking:
   (1.) That they were very impudent in it towards God and set him at
   defiance: They have set their abominations (their abominable idols and
   the altars erected to them) in the house that is called by my name, in
   the very courts of the temple, to pollute it (Manasseh did so, 2 Kings
   xxi. 7, xxiii. 12), as if they thought God would connive at it, or
   cared not though he was ever so much displeased with it, or as if they
   would reconcile heaven and hell, God and Baal. The heart is the place
   which God has chosen to put his name there; if sin have the innermost
   and uppermost place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord, and
   therefore he resents nothing more than setting up idols in the heart,
   Ezek. xiv. 4. (2.) That they were very barbarous in it towards their
   own children, v. 31. They have particularly built the high places of
   Tophet, where the image of Moloch was set up, in the valley of the son
   of Hinnom, adjoining to Jerusalem; and there they burnt their sons and
   their daughters in the fire, burnt them alive, killed them, and killed
   them in the most cruel manner imaginable, to honour or appease those
   idols that were devils and not gods. This was surely the greatest
   instance that ever was of the power of Satan in the children of
   disobedience, and of the degeneracy and corruption of the human nature.
   One would willingly hope that there were not many instances of such a
   barbarous idolatry; but it is amazing that there should be any, that
   men could be so perfectly void of natural affection as to do a thing so
   inhuman as to burn little innocent children, and their own too, that
   they should be so perfectly void of natural religion as to think it
   lawful to do this, nay, to think it acceptable. Surely it was in a way
   of righteous judgment, because they had changed the glory of God into
   the similitude of a beast, that God gave them up to such vile
   affections that changed them into worse than beasts. God says of this
   that it was what he commanded them not, neither came it into his heart,
   which is not meant of his not commanding them thus to worship Moloch
   (this he had expressly forbidden them), but he had never commanded that
   his worshippers should be at such an expense, nor put such a force upon
   their natural affection, in honouring him; it never came into his heart
   to have children offered to him, yet they had forsaken his service for
   the service of such gods as, by commanding this, showed themselves to
   be indeed enemies to mankind.

   2. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. That speaks
   misery enough in general (v. 29), The Lord hath rejected and forsaken
   the generation of his wrath. Sin makes those the generation of God's
   wrath that had been the generation of his love. And God will reject and
   quite forsake those who have thus made themselves vessels of wrath
   fitted to destruction. He will disown them for his. "Verily, I say unto
   you, I know you not." And he will give them up to the terrors of their
   own guilt, and leave them in those hands. (1.) Death shall triumph over
   them, v. 32, 33. Sin reigns unto death; for that is the wages of it,
   the end of those things. Tophet, the valley adjoining to Jerusalem,
   shall be called the valley of slaughter, for there multitudes shall be
   slain, when, in their sallies out of the city and their attempts to
   escape, they fall into the hands of the besiegers. Or it shall be
   called the valley of slaughtered ones, because thither the corpses of
   those that are slain shall be brought to be buried, all other burying
   places being full; and there they shall bury until there be no more
   place to make a grave. This intimates the multitude of those that shall
   die by the sword, pestilence, and famine. Death shall ride on
   prosperously, with dreadful pomp and power, conquering and to conquer.
   The slain of the Lord shall be many. This valley of Tophet was a place
   where the citizens of Jerusalem walked to take the air; but it shall
   now be spoiled for that use, for it shall be so full of graves that
   there shall be no walking there, because of the danger of contracting a
   ceremonial pollution by the touch of a grave. There it was that they
   sacrificed some of their children, and dedicated others to Moloch, and
   there they should fall as victims to divine justice. Tophet had
   formerly been the burying place, or burning place, of the dead bodies
   of the besiegers, when the Assyrian army was routed by an angel; and
   for this it was ordained of old, Isa. xxx. 33. But they having
   forgotten this mercy, and made it the place of their sin, God will now
   turn it into a burying place for the besieged. In allusion to this
   valley, hell is in the New Testament called Gehenna--the valley of
   Hinnom, for there were buried both the invading Assyrians and the
   revolting Jews; so hell is a receptacle after death both for infidels
   and hypocrites, the open enemies of God's church and its treacherous
   friends; it is the congregation of the dead; it is prepared for the
   generation of God's wrath. But so great shall that slaughter be that
   even the spacious valley of Tophet shall not be able to contain the
   slain; and at length there shall not be enough left alive to bury the
   dead, so that the carcases of the people shall be meat for the birds
   and beasts of prey, that shall feed upon them like carrion, and none
   shall have the concern or courage to frighten them away, as Rizpah did
   from the dead bodies of Saul's sons, 2 Sam. xxviii. 26, Thy carcase
   shall be meat to the fowls and beasts, and no man shall drive them
   away. Thus do the law and the prophets agree, and the execution with
   both. The decent burying of the dead is a piece of humanity, in
   remembrance of what the dead body has been--the tabernacle of a
   reasonable soul. Nay, it is a piece of divinity, in expectation of what
   the dead body shall be at the resurrection. The want of it has
   sometimes been an instance of the rage of men against God's witnesses,
   Rev. xi. 9. Here it is threatened as an instance of the wrath of God
   against his enemies, and is an intimation that evil pursues sinners
   even after death. (2.) Joy shall depart from them (v. 34): Then will I
   cause to cease the voice of mirth. God had called by his prophets, and
   by less judgments, to weeping and mourning; but they walked contrary to
   him, and would hear of nothing but joy and gladness, Isa. xxii. 12, 13.
   And what came of it? Now God called to lamentation (v. 29), and he made
   his call effectual, leaving them neither cause nor heart for joy and
   gladness. Those that will not weep shall weep; those that will not by
   the grace of God be cured of their vain mirth shall by the justice of
   God be deprived of all mirth; for when God judges he will overcome. It
   is threatened here that there shall be nothing to rejoice in. There
   shall be none of the joy of weddings; no mirth, for there shall be no
   marriages. The comforts of life shall be abandoned, and all care to
   keep up mankind upon earth cast off; there shall be none of the voice
   of the bridegroom and the bride, no music, no nuptial songs. Nor shall
   there be any more of the joy of the harvest, for the land shall be
   desolate, uncultivated and unimproved. Both the cities of Judah and the
   streets of Jerusalem shall look thus melancholy; and when they thus
   look about them, and see no cause to rejoice, no marvel if they retire
   into themselves and find no heart to rejoice. Note, God can soon mar
   the mirth of the most jovial, and make it to cease, which is a reason
   why we should always rejoice with trembling, be merry and wise.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. VIII.

   The prophet proceeds, in this chapter, both to magnify and to justify
   the destruction that God was bringing upon this people, to show how
   grievous it would be and yet how righteous. I. He represents the
   judgments coming as so very terrible that death should appear so as
   most to be dreaded and yet should be desired, ver. 1-3. II. He
   aggravates the wretched stupidity and wilfulness of this people as that
   which brought this ruin upon them, ver. 4-12. III. He describes the
   great confusion and consternation that the whole land should be in upon
   the alarm of it, ver. 13-17. IV. The prophet is himself deeply affected
   with it and lays it very much to heart, ver. 18-22.

Indignities Threatened to the Dead. (b. c. 606.)

   1 At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the
   kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the
   priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:   2 And they shall
   spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven,
   whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they
   have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped:
   they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon
   the face of the earth.   3 And death shall be chosen rather than life
   by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which
   remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of
   hosts.

   These verses might fitly have been joined to the close of the foregoing
   chapter, as giving a further description of the dreadful desolation
   which the army of the Chaldeans should make in the land. It shall
   strangely alter the property of death itself, and for the worse too.

   I. Death shall not now be, as it always used to be--the repose of the
   dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that
   there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but now
   the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes, shall be disturbed,
   and their bones scattered at the grave's mouth, Ps. cxli. 7. It was
   threatened in the close of the former chapter that the slain should be
   unburied; that might be through neglect, and was not so strange; but
   here we find the graves of those that were buried industriously and
   maliciously opened by the victorious enemy, who either for
   covetousness, hoping to find treasure in the graves, or for spite to
   the nation and in a rage against it, brought out the bones of the kings
   of Judah and the princes. The dignity of their sepulchres could not
   secure them, nay, did the more expose them to be rifled; but it was
   base and barbarous thus to trample upon royal dust. We will hope that
   the bones of good Josiah were not disturbed, because he piously
   protected the bones of the man of God when he burnt the bones of the
   idolatrous priests, 2 Kings xxiii. 18. The bones of the priests and
   prophets too were digged up and thrown about. Some think the false
   prophets and the idol-priests, God putting this mark of ignominy upon
   them: but, if they were God's prophets and his priests, it is what the
   Psalmist complains of as the fruit of the outrage of the enemies, Ps.
   lxxix. 1, 2. Nay, those of the spiteful Chaldeans that could not reach
   to violate the sepulchres of princes and priests would rather play at
   small game than sit out, and therefore pulled the bones of the ordinary
   inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. The barbarous nations
   were sometimes guilty of these absurd and inhuman triumphs over those
   they had conquered, and God permitted it here, for a mark of his
   displeasure against the generation of his wrath, and for terror to
   those that survived. The bones, being dug out of the graves, were
   spread abroad upon the face of the earth in contempt, and to make the
   reproach the more spreading and lasting. They spread them to be dried
   that they might carry them about in triumph, or might make fuel of
   them, or make some superstitious use of them. They shall be spread
   before the sun (for they shall not be ashamed openly to avow the fact
   at noon day) and before the moon and stars, even all the host of
   heaven, whom they have made idols of, v. 2. From the mention of the
   sun, moon, and stars, which should be the unconcerned spectators of
   this tragedy, the prophet takes occasion to show how they had idolized
   them, and paid those respects to them which they should have paid to
   God only, that it might be observed how little they got by worshipping
   the creature, for the creatures they worshipped when they were in
   distress saw it, but regarded it not, nor gave them any relief, but
   were rather pleased to see those abused in being vilified by whom they
   had been abused in being deified. See how their respects to their idols
   are enumerated, to show how we ought to behave towards our God. 1. They
   loved them. As amiable being and bountiful benefactors they esteemed
   them and delighted in them, and therefore did all that follows. 2. They
   served them, did all they could in honour of them, and thought nothing
   too much; they conformed to all the laws of their superstition, without
   disputing. 3. They walked after them, strove to imitate and resemble
   them, according to the characters and accounts of them they had
   received, which gave rise and countenance to much of the abominable
   wickedness of the heathen. 4. They sought them, consulted them as
   oracles, appealed to them as judges, implored their favour, and prayed
   to them as their benefactors. 5. They worshipped them, gave them divine
   honour, as having a sovereign dominion over them. Before these light of
   heaven, which they had courted, shall their dead bodies be cast, and
   left to putrefy, and to be as dung upon the face of the earth; and the
   sun's shining upon them will but make them the more noisome and
   offensive. Whatever we make a god of but the true God only, it will
   stand us in no stead on the other side death and the grave, nor for the
   body, much less for the soul.

   II. Death shall now be what it never used to be--the choice of the
   living, not because there appears in it any thing delightsome; on the
   contrary, death never appeared in more horrid frightful shapes than
   now, when they cannot promise themselves either a comfortable death or
   a human burial; and yet every thing in this world shall become so
   irksome, and all the prospects so black and dismal, that death shall be
   chosen rather than life (v. 3), not in a believing hope of happiness in
   the other life, but in an utter despair of any ease in this life. The
   nation is now reduced to a family, so small is the residue of those
   that remain in it; and it is an evil family, still as bad as ever,
   their hearts unhumbled and their lusts unmortified. These remain alive
   (and that is all) in the many places whither they were driven by the
   judgments of God, some prisoners in the country of their enemies,
   others beggars in their neighbour's country, and others fugitives and
   vagabonds there and in their own country. And, though those that died
   died very miserably, yet those that survived and were thus driven out
   should live yet more miserably, so that they should choose death rather
   than life, and wish a thousand times that they had fallen with those
   that fell by the sword. Let this cure us of the inordinate love of
   life, that the case may be such that it may become a burden and terror,
   and we may be strongly tempted to choose strangling and death rather.

Full of Impenitent Sinners; Hardened Wickedness of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Shall they
   fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?   5 Why then
   is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?
   they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.   6 I hearkened and
   heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his
   wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course,
   as the horse rusheth into the battle.   7 Yea, the stork in the heaven
   knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the
   swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the
   judgment of the Lord.   8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of
   the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the
   scribes is in vain.   9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and
   taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is
   in them?   10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their
   fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least
   even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even
   unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.   11 For they have healed
   the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace;
   when there is no peace.   12 Were they ashamed when they had committed
   abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they
   blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of
   their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.

   The prophet here is instructed to set before this people the folly of
   their impenitence, which was it that brought this ruin upon them. They
   are here represented as the most stupid senseless people in the world,
   that would not be made wise by all the methods that Infinite Wisdom
   took to bring them to themselves and their right mind, and so to
   prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.

   I. They would not attend to the dictates of reason. They would not act
   in the affairs of their souls with the same common prudence with which
   they acted in other things. Sinners would become saints if they would
   but show themselves men, and religion would soon rule them if right
   reason might. Observe it here. Come, and let us reason together, saith
   the Lord (v. 4, 5): Shall men fall and not arise? If men happen to fall
   to the ground, to fall into the dirt, will they not get up again as
   fast as they can? They are not such fools as to lie still when they are
   down. Shall a man turn aside out of the right way? Yes, the most
   careful traveller may miss his way; but then, as soon as he is aware of
   it, will he not return? Yes, certainly he will, with all speed, and
   will thank him that showed him his mistake. Thus men do in other
   things. Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a
   perpetual backsliding? Why do not they, when they have fallen into sin,
   hasten to get up again by repentance? Why do not they, when they see
   they have missed their way, correct their error and reform? No man in
   his wits will go on in a way that he knows will never bring him to his
   journey's end; why then has this people slidden back by a perpetual
   backsliding? See the nature of sin--it is a backsliding it is going
   back from the right way, not only into a by-path, but into a contrary
   path, back from the way that leads to life to that which leads to utter
   destruction. And this backsliding, if almighty grace do not interpose
   to prevent it, will be a perpetual backsliding. The sinner not only
   wanders endlessly, but proceeds end-ways towards ruin. The same
   subtlety of the tempter that brings men to sin holds them fast in it,
   and they contribute to their own captivity: They hold fast deceit. Sin
   is a great cheat, and they hold it fast; they love it dearly, and
   resolve to stick to it, and baffle all the methods God takes to
   separate between them and their sins. The excuses they make for their
   sins are deceits, and so are all their hopes of impunity; yet they hold
   fast these, and will not be undeceived, and therefore they refuse to
   return. Note, There is some deceit or other which those hold fast that
   go on wilfully in sinful ways, some lie in their right hand, by which
   they keep hold of their sins.

   II. They would not attend to the dictates of conscience, which is our
   reason reflecting upon ourselves and our own actions, v. 6. Observe, 1.
   What expectations there were from them, that they would bethink
   themselves: I hearkened and heard. The prophet listened to see what
   effect his preaching had upon them; God himself listened, as one that
   desires not the death of sinners, that would have been glad to hear any
   thing that promised repentance, that would certainly have heard it if
   there had been any thing said of that tendency, and would soon have
   answered it with comfort, as he did David when he said, I will confess,
   Ps. xxxii. 5. God looks upon men when they have done amiss (Job xxxiii.
   27), to see what they will do next; he hearkens and hears. 2. How these
   expectations were disappointed: They spoke not aright, as I thought
   they would have done. They did not only not do right, but not so much
   as speak right; God could not get a good word from them, nothing on
   which to ground any favour to them or hopes concerning them. There was
   none of them that spoke aright, none that repented him of his
   wickedness. those that have sinned then, and then only, speak aright
   when they speak of repenting; and it is sad when those that have made
   so much work for repentance do not say a word of repenting. Not only
   did God not find any repenting of the national wickedness, which might
   have helped to empty the measure of public guilt, but none repented of
   that particular wickedness which he knew himself guilty of. (1.) They
   did not so much as take the first step towards repentance; they did not
   so much as say, What have I done? There was no motion towards it, not
   the least sign or token of it. Note, True repentance beings in a
   serious and impartial inquiry into ourselves, what have we done,
   arising from a conviction that we have done amiss. (2.) They were so
   far from repenting of their sins that they went on resolutely in their
   sins: Every one turned to his course, his wicked course, that course of
   sin which he had chosen and accustomed himself to, as the horse rushes
   into the battle, eager upon action, and scorning to be curbed. How the
   horse rushes into the battle is elegantly described, Job xxxix. 21, &c.
   He mocks at fear and is not affrighted. Thus the daring sinner laughs
   at the threatenings of the word as bugbears, and runs violently upon
   the instruments of death and slaughter, and nothing will be restrained
   from him.

   III. They would not attend to the dictates of providence, nor
   understand the voice of God in them, v. 7. It is an instance of their
   sottishness that, though they are God's people, and therefore should
   readily understand his mind upon every intimation of it, yet they know
   not the judgment of the Lord; they apprehend not the meaning either of
   a mercy or an affliction, not how to accommodate themselves to either,
   nor to answer God's intention in either. They know not how to improve
   the seasons of grave that God affords them when he sends them his
   prophets, nor how to make use of the rebukes they are under when his
   voice cries in the city. They discern not the signs of the times (Matt.
   xvi. 3), nor are aware how God is dealing with them. They know not that
   way of duty which God had prescribed them, though it be written both in
   their hearts and in their books. 2. It is an aggravation of their
   sottishness that there is so much sagacity in the inferior creatures.
   The stork in the heaven knows her appointed times of coming and
   continuing; so do other season-birds, the turtle, the crane, and the
   swallow. These by a natural instinct change their quarters, as the
   temper of the air alters; they come when the spring comes, and go, we
   know not whither, when the winter approaches, probably into warmer
   climates, as some birds come with winter and go when that is over.

   IV. They would not attend to the dictates of the written word. They
   say, We are wise; but how can they say so? v. 8. With what face can
   they pretend to any thing of wisdom, when they do not understand
   themselves so well as the brute-creatures? Why, truly, they think they
   are wise because the law of the Lord is with them, the book of the law
   and the interpreters of it; and their neighbours, for the same reason,
   conclude they are wise, Deut. iv. 6. But their pretensions are
   groundless for all this: Lo, certainly in vain made he it; surely never
   any people had Bibles to so little purpose as they have. They might as
   well have been without the law, unless they had made a better use of
   it. God has indeed made it able to make men wise to salvation, but as
   to them it is made so in vain, for they are never the wiser for it: The
   pen of the scribes, of those that first wrote the law and of those that
   now write expositions of it, is in vain. Both the favour of their God
   and the labour of their scribes are lost upon them; they receive the
   grace of God therein in vain. Note, There are many that enjoy abundance
   of the means of grace, that have great plenty of Bibles and ministers,
   but they have them in vain; they do not answer the end of their having
   them. But it might be said, They have some wise men among them, to whom
   the law and the pen of the scribes are not in vain. To this it is
   answered (v. 9): The wise men are ashamed, that is, they have reasons
   to be so, that they have not made a better use of their wisdom, and
   lived more up to it. They are confounded and taken; all their wisdom
   has not served to keep them from those courses that tend to their ruin.
   They are taken in the same snares that others of their neighbours, who
   have not pretended to so much wisdom, are taken in, and filled with the
   same confusion. Those that have more knowledge than others, and yet do
   no better than others for their own souls, have reason to be ashamed.
   They talk of their wisdom, but, Lo, they have rejected the word of the
   Lord; they would not be governed by it, would not follow its direction,
   would not do what they knew; and then what wisdom is in them? None to
   any purpose; none that will be found to their praise at the great day,
   how much soever it is found to their pride now. The pretenders to
   wisdom, who said, "We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us,"
   were the priests and the false prophets; with them the prophet here
   deals plainly. 1. He threatens the judgments of God against them. Their
   families and estates shall be ruined (v. 10): Their wives shall be
   given to others, when they are taken captives, and their fields shall
   be taken from them by their victorious enemy and shall be given to
   those that shall inherit them, not only strip them for once, but take
   possession of them as their own and acquire a property in them as their
   own and acquire a property in them, which they shall transmit to their
   posterity. And (v. 12), notwithstanding all their pretensions to wisdom
   and sanctity, they shall fall among those that fall; for, if the blind
   lead the blind, both shall fall together into the ditch. In the time of
   their visitation, when the wickedness of the land comes to be enquired
   into, it will be found that they have contributed to it more than any,
   and therefore they shall be sure to be cast down and cast out. 2. He
   gives a reason for these judgments (v. 10-12), even the same account of
   their badness which we meet with before (ch. vi. 13-15), where it was
   opened at large. (1.) They were greedy of the wealth of this world,
   which is bad enough in any, but worst in prophets and priests, who
   should be best acquainted with another world and therefore should be
   most dead to this. But these, from the least to the greatest, were
   given to covetousness. The priests teach for hire and the prophets
   divine for money, Mic. iii. 11. (2.) They made no conscience of
   speaking truth, no, not when they spoke as priests and prophets: Every
   one deals falsely, looks one way and rows another. There is no such
   thing as sincerity among them. (3.) They flattered people in their
   sins, and so flattered them into destruction. They pretended to be the
   physicians of the state, but knew not how to apply proper remedies to
   its growing maladies; they healed them slightly, killed the patient
   with palliative cures, silencing their fears and complaints with,
   "Peace, peace, all is well, and there is no danger," when the God of
   heaven was proceeding in his controversy with them, so that there could
   be no peace to them. (4.) When it was made to appear how basely they
   prevaricated they were not at all ashamed of it, but rather gloried in
   it, (v. 12): They could not blush, so perfectly lost were they to all
   sense of virtue and honour. When they were convicted of the grossest
   forgeries they would justify what they had done, and laugh at those
   whom they had imposed upon. Such as these were ripe for ruin.

Destruction Threatened for Sin; Despair of Sinners in Trouble; The Prophet's
Lamentation. (b. c. 606.)

   13 I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes
   on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the
   things that I have given them shall pass away from them.   14 Why do we
   sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced
   cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to
   silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned
   against the Lord.   15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a
   time of health, and behold trouble!   16 The snorting of his horses was
   heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of
   his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all
   that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.   17 For,
   behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be
   charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.   18 When I would
   comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.   19 Behold the
   voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that
   dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in
   her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and
   with strange vanities?   20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
   and we are not saved.   21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am
   I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.   22 Is there
   no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the
   health of the daughter of my people recovered?

   In these verses we have,

   I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people. He has borne
   long with them, but they are still more and more provoking, and
   therefore now their ruin is resolved on: I will surely consume them (v.
   13), consuming I will consume them, not only surely, but utterly,
   consume them, will follow them with one judgment after another, till
   they are quite consumed; it is a consumption determined, Isa. x. 23. 1.
   They shall be quite stripped of all their comforts (v. 13): There shall
   be no grapes on the vine. Some understand this as intimating their sin;
   God came looking for grapes from this vineyard, seeking fruit upon this
   fig-tree, but he found none (as Isa. v. 2, Luke xiii. 6); nay, they had
   not so much as leaves, Matt. xxi. 19. But it is rather to be understood
   of God's judgments upon them, and may be meant literally--The enemy
   shall seize the fruits of the earth, shall pluck the grapes and figs
   for themselves and beat down the very leaves with them; or, rather,
   figuratively--They shall be deprived of all their comforts and shall
   have nothing left them wherewith to make glad their hearts. It is
   expounded in the last clause: The things that I have given them shall
   pass away from them. Note, God's gifts are upon condition, and
   revocable upon non-performance of the condition. Mercies abused are
   forfeited, and it is just with God to take the forfeiture. 2. They
   shall be set upon by all manner of grievances, and surrounded with
   calamities (v. 17): I will send serpents among you, the Chaldean army,
   fiery serpents, flying serpents, cockatrices; these shall bite them
   with their venomous teeth, give them wounds that shall be mortal; and
   they shall not be charmed, as some serpents used to be, with music.
   These are serpents of another nature, that are not so wrought upon, or
   they are as the deaf adder, that stops her ear, and will not hear the
   voice of the charmer. The enemies are so intent upon making slaughter
   that it will be to no purpose to accost them gently, or offer any thing
   to pacify them, or mollify them, or to bring them to a better temper.
   No peace with God, therefore none with them.

   II. The people sinking into despair under the pressure of those
   calamities. Those that were void of fear (when the trouble was at a
   distance) and set it at defiance, are void of hope now that it breaks
   in upon them, and have no heart either to make head against it or to
   bear up under it, v. 14. They cannot think themselves safe in the open
   villages: Why do we sit still here? Let us assemble, and go into a body
   into the defenced cities. Though they could expect no other than to be
   surely cut off there at last, yet not so soon as in the country, and
   therefore, "Let us go, and be silent there; let us attempt nothing, nor
   so much as make a complaint; for to what purpose?" It is not a
   submissive, but a sullen silence, that they here condemn themselves to.
   Those that are most jovial in their prosperity commonly despond most,
   and are most melancholy, in trouble. Now observe what it is that sinks
   them.

   1. They are sensible that God is angry with them: "The Lord our God has
   put us to silence, has struck us with astonishment, and given us water
   of gall to drink, which is both bitter and stupifying, or intoxicating.
   Ps. lx. 3, Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. We had
   better sit still than rise up and fall; better say nothing than say
   nothing to the purpose. To what purpose is it to contend with our fate
   when God himself has become our enemy and fights against us? Because we
   have sinned against the Lord, therefore we are brought to the plunge."
   This may be taken as the language, (1.) Of their indignation. They seem
   to quarrel with God as if he had dealt hardly with them in putting them
   to silence, not permitting them to speak for themselves, and then
   telling them that it was because they had sinned against him. Thus
   men's foolishness perverts their way, and then their hearts fret
   against the Lord. Or rather, (2.) Of their convictions. At length they
   begin to see the hand of God lifted up against them, and stretched out
   in the calamities under which they are now groaning, and to own that
   they have provoked him to contend with them. Note, Sooner or later God
   will bring the most obstinate to acknowledge both his providence and
   his justice in all the troubles they are brought into, to see and say
   both that it is his hand and that he is righteous.

   2. They are sensible that the enemy is likely to be too hard for them,
   v. 16. They are soon apprehensive that it is to no purpose to make head
   against such a mighty force; they and their people are quite
   dispirited; and, when the courage of a nation is gone, their numbers
   will stand them in little stead. The snorting of the horses was heard
   from Dan, that is, the report of the formidable strength of their
   cavalry was soon carried all the nation over and every body trembled at
   the sound of the neighing of his steeds; for they have devoured the
   land and all that is in the city; both town and country are laid waste
   before them, not only the wealth, but the inhabitants, of both, those
   that dwell therein. Note, When God appears against us, every thing else
   that is against us appears very formidable; whereas, if he be for us,
   every thing appears very despicable, Rom. viii. 3.

   3. They are disappointed in their expectations of deliverance out of
   their troubles, as they had been surprised when their troubles came
   upon them; and this double disappointment very much aggravated their
   calamity. (1.) The trouble came when they little expected it (v. 15):
   We looked for peace, the continuance of our peace, but no good came, no
   good news from abroad; we looked for a time of health and prosperity to
   our nation, but, behold, trouble, the alarms of war; for, as it follows
   (v. 16), the noise of the enemies' horses was heard from Dan. Their
   false prophets had cried Peace, peace, to them, which made it the more
   terrible when the scene of war opened on a sudden. This complaint will
   occur again, ch. xiv. 19. (2.) The deliverance did not come when they
   had long expected it (v. 20): The harvest is past, the summer is ended;
   that is, there is a great deal of time gone. Harvest and summer are
   parts of the year, and when they are gone the year draws towards a
   conclusion; so the meaning is, "One year passes after another, one
   campaign after another, and yet our affairs are in as bad a posture as
   ever they were; no relief comes, nor is any thing done towards it: We
   are not saved." Nay, there is a great deal of opportunity lost, the
   season of action is over and slipped, the summer and harvest are gone,
   and a cold and melancholy winter succeeds. Note, The salvation of God's
   church and people often goes on very slowly, and God keeps his people
   long in the expectation of it, for wise and holy ends. Nay, they stand
   in their own light, and put a bar in their own door, and are not saved
   because they are not ready for salvation.

   4. They are deceived in those things which were their confidence and
   which they thought would have secured their peace to them (v. 19): The
   daughter of my people cries, cries aloud, because of those that dwell
   in a far country, because of the foreign enemy that invades them, that
   comes from a far country to take possession of ours; this occasions the
   cry; and what is the cry? It is this: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not
   her king in her? These were the two things that they had all along
   buoyed up themselves with and depended upon, (1.) That they had among
   them the temple of God, and the tokens of his special presence with
   them. The common cant was, "Is not the Lord in Zion? What danger then
   need we fear?" And they held by this when the trouble was breaking in
   upon them. "Surely we shall do well enough, for have we not God among
   us?" But, when it grew to an extremity, it was an aggravation of their
   misery that they had thus flattered themselves. (2.) That they had the
   throne of the house of David. As they had a temple, so they had a
   monarchy, jure divino--by divine right: Is not Zion's king in her? And
   will not Zion's God protect Zion's king and his kingdom? Surely he
   will; but why does he not? "What" (say they) "has Zion neither a God
   nor a king to stand by her and help her, that she is thus run down and
   likely to be ruined?" This outcry of theirs reflects upon God, as if
   his power and promise were broken or weakened; and therefore he returns
   an answer to it immediately: Why have they provoked me to anger with
   their graven images? They quarrel with God as if he had dealt unkindly
   by them in forsaking them, whereas they by their idolatry had driven
   him from them; they have withdrawn from their allegiance to him, and so
   have thrown themselves out of this protection. They fret themselves,
   and curse their king and their God (Isa. viii. 21), when it is their
   own sin that separates between them and God (Isa. lix. 2); they feared
   not the Lord, and then what can a king do for them? Hos. x. 3.

   III. We have here the prophet himself bewailing the calamity and ruin
   of his people; for there were more of the lamentations of Jeremiah than
   those we find in the book that bears that title. Observe here, 1. How
   great his griefs were. He was an eyewitness of the desolations of his
   country, and saw those things which by the spirit of prophecy he had
   foreseen. In the foresight, much more in the sight, of them, he cries
   out, "My heart is faint in me, I sink, I die away at the consideration
   of it, v. 18. When I would comfort myself against my sorrow, I do but
   labour in vain; nay, every attempt to alleviate the grief does but
   aggravate it." It is our wisdom and duty, under mournful events, to do
   what we can to comfort ourselves against our sorrow, by suggesting to
   ourselves such considerations as are proper to allay the grief and
   balance the grievance. But sometimes the sorrow is such that the more
   it is repressed the more strongly it recoils. This may sometimes be the
   case of very good men, as of the prophet here, whose soul refused to be
   comforted and fainted at the cordial, Ps. lxxvii. 2, 3. He tells us (v.
   21) what was the matter: "It is for the hurt of the daughter of my
   people that I am thus hurt; it is for their sin, and the miseries they
   have brought upon themselves by it; it is for this that I am black,
   that I look black, that I go in black as mourners do, and that
   astonishment has taken hold on me, so that I know not what to do nor
   which way to turn." Note, The miseries of our country ought to be very
   much the grief of our souls. A gracious spirit will be a public spirit,
   a tender spirit, a mourning spirit. It becomes us to lament the
   miseries of our fellow-creatures, much more to lay to heart the
   calamities of our country, and especially of the church of God, to
   grieve for the affliction of Joseph. Jeremiah had prophesied the
   destruction of Jerusalem, and, though the truth of his prophecy was
   questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of his
   prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the
   truth of it by the accomplishment of it, preferring the welfare of his
   country before his own reputation. If Jerusalem had repented and been
   spared, he would have been far from fretting as Jonah did. Jeremiah had
   many enemies in Judah and Jerusalem, that hated, and reproached, and
   persecuted him; and in the judgments brought upon them God reckoned
   with them for it and pleaded his prophet's cause; yet he was far from
   rejoicing in it, so truly did he forgive his enemies and desire that
   God would forgive them. 2. How small his hopes were (v. 22): "Is there
   no balm in Gilead--no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is
   there no physician there--no skilful faithful hand to apply the
   medicine?" He looks upon the case to be deplorable and past relief.
   There is no balm in Gilead that can cure the disease of sin, no
   physician there that can restore the health of a nation quite overrun
   by such a foreign army as that of the Chaldeans. The desolations made
   are irreparable, and the disease has presently come to such a height
   that there is no checking it. Or this verse may be understood as laying
   all the blame of the incurableness of their disease upon themselves;
   and so the question must be answered affirmatively: Is there no balm in
   Gilead--no physician there? Yes, certainly there is; God is able to
   help and heal them, there is a sufficiency in him to redress all their
   grievances. Gilead was a place in their own land, not far off. They had
   among themselves God's law and his prophets, with the help of which
   they might have been brought to repentance, and their ruin might have
   been prevented. They had princes and priests, whose business it was to
   reform the nation and redress their grievances. What could have been
   done more than had been done for their recovery? Why then was not their
   health restored? Certainly it was not owing to God, but to themselves;
   it was not for want of balm and a physician, but because they would not
   admit the application nor submit to the methods of cure. The physician
   and physic were both ready, but the patient was wilful and irregular,
   would not be tied to rules, but must be humoured. Note, If sinners die
   of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of
   Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there, both
   sufficient, all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but
   would not.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. IX.

   In this chapter the prophet goes on faithfully to reprove sin and to
   threaten God's judgments for it, and yet bitterly to lament both, as
   one that neither rejoiced at iniquity nor was glad at calamities. I. He
   here expresses his great grief for the miseries of Judah and Jerusalem,
   and his detestation of their sins, which brought those miseries upon
   them, ver. 1-11. II. He justifies God in the greatness of the
   destruction brought upon them, ver. 9-16. III. He calls upon others to
   bewail the woeful case of Judah and Jerusalem, ver. 17-22. IV. He shows
   them the folly and vanity of trusting in their own strength or wisdom,
   or the privileges of their circumcision, or any thing but God only,
   ver. 23-26.

The Prophet's Lamentation; Wickedness of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that
   I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
     2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men;
   that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all
   adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.   3 And they bend their
   tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth
   upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not
   me, saith the Lord.   4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and
   trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant,
   and every neighbour will walk with slanders.   5 And they will deceive
   every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught
   their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
   6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they
   refuse to know me, saith the Lord.   7 Therefore thus saith the Lord of
   hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for
   the daughter of my people?   8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it
   speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his
   mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.   9 Shall I not visit them for
   these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a
   nation as this?   10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and
   wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation,
   because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither
   can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and
   the beast are fled; they are gone.   11 And I will make Jerusalem
   heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah
   desolate, without an inhabitant.

   The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming
   upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that
   destruction was brought upon them, here, as elsewhere, speaks of both
   very feelingly: what he said of both came from the heart, and therefore
   one would have thought it would reach to the heart.

   I. He abandons himself to sorrow in consideration of the calamitous
   condition of his people, which he sadly laments, a one that preferred
   Jerusalem before his chief joy and her grievances before his chief
   sorrows.

   1. He laments the slaughter of the persons, the blood shed and the
   lives lost (v. 1): "O that my head were waters, quite melted and
   dissolved with grief, that so my eyes might be fountains of tears,
   weeping abundantly, continually, and without intermission, still
   sending forth fresh floods of tears as there still occur fresh
   occasions for them!" The same word in Hebrew signifies both the eye and
   a fountain, as if in this land of sorrows our eyes were designed rather
   for weeping than seeing. Jeremiah wept much, and yet wished he could
   weep more, that he might affect a stupid people and rouse them to a due
   sense of the hand of God gone out against them. Note, It becomes us,
   while we are here in this vale of tears, to conform to the temper of
   the climate and to sow in tears. Blessed are those that mourn, for they
   shall be comforted hereafter; but let them expect that while they are
   here the clouds will still return after the rain. While we find our
   hearts such fountains of sin, it is fit that our eyes should be
   fountains of tears. But Jeremiah's grief here is upon the public
   account: he would weep day and night, not so much for the death of his
   own near relations, but for the slain of the daughter of his people,
   the multitudes of his countrymen that fell by the sword of war. Note,
   When we hear of the numbers of the slain in great battles and sieges we
   ought to be much affected with the intelligence, and not to make a
   light matter of it; yea, though they be not of the daughter of our
   people, for, whatever people they are of, they are of the same human
   nature with us, and there are so many precious lives lost, as dear to
   them as ours to us, and so many precious souls gone into eternity.

   2. He laments the desolations of the country. This he brings in (v.
   10), for impassioned mourners are not often very methodical in their
   discourses: "Not only for the towns and cities, but for the mountains,
   will I take up a weeping and wailing" (not barren mountains, but the
   fruitful hills with which Judea abounded), and for the habitations of
   the wilderness, or rather the pastures of the plain, that used to be
   clothed with flocks or covered over with corn, and a goodly sight it
   was; but now they are burnt up by the Chaldean army (which, according
   to the custom of war, destroyed to the custom of war, destroyed the
   forage and carried off all the cattle), so that no one dares to pass
   through them, for fear of meeting with some parties of the enemy, no
   one cares to pass through them, every thing looks so melancholy and
   frightful, no one has any business to pass through them, for they hear
   not the voice of the cattle there as usual, the bleating of the sheep
   and the lowing of the oxen, that grateful music to the owners; nay,
   both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts have fled. either
   frightened away by the rude noises and terrible fires which the enemies
   make, or forced away because there is no subsistence for them. Note,
   God has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the
   wickedness of those that dwell therein; and the havoc war makes in a
   country cannot but be for a lamentation to all tender spirits, for it
   is a tragedy which destroys the stage it is acted on.

   II. He abandons himself to solitude, in consideration of the scandalous
   character and conduct of his people. Though he dwells in Judah where
   God is known, in Salem where his tabernacle is, yet he is ready to cry
   out, Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech! Ps. cxx. 5. While all his
   neighbours are fleeing to the defenced cities, and Jerusalem
   especially, in dread of the enemies' rage (ch. iv. 5, 6) he is
   contriving to retire into some desert, in detestation of his people's
   sin (v. 2): "O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of
   wayfaring men, such a lonely cottage to dwell in as they have in the
   deserts of Arabia, which are uninhabited, for travellers to repose
   themselves in, that I might leave my people and go from them!" Not only
   because of the ill usage they gave him (he would rather venture himself
   among the wild beasts of the desert than among such treacherous
   barbarous people), but principally because his righteous soul was vexed
   from day to day, as Lot's was in Sodom, with the wickedness of their
   conversation, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. This does not imply any intention or
   resolution that he had thus to retire. God had cut him out work among
   them, which he must not quit for his own ease. We must not go out of
   the world, bad as it is, before our time. If he could not reform them,
   he could bear a testimony against them; if he could not do good to
   many, yet he might to some. but it intimates the temptation he was in
   to leave them, involves a threatening that they should be deprived of
   his ministry, and especially expresses the holy indignation he had
   against their abominable wickedness, which continued notwithstanding
   all the pains he had taken with them to reclaim them. It made him even
   weary of his life to see them dishonouring God as they did and
   destroying themselves. Time was when the place which God had chosen to
   put his name there was the desire and delight of good men. David, in a
   wilderness, longed to be again in the courts of God's house; but now
   Jeremiah, in the courts of God's house (for there he was when he said
   this), wishes himself in a wilderness. Those have made themselves very
   miserable that have made God's people and ministers weary of them and
   willing to get from them. Now, to justify his willingness to leave
   them, he shows,

   1. What he himself had observed among them.

   (1.) He would not think of leaving them because they were poor and in
   distress, but because they were wicked. [1.] They were filthy: They are
   all adulterers, that is, the generality of them are, ch. v. 8. They all
   either practised this sin or connived at those that did. Lewdness and
   uncleanness constituted that crying sin of Sodom at which righteous Lot
   was vexed in soul, and it is a sin that renders men loathsome in the
   eyes of God and all good men; it makes men an abomination. [2.] They
   were false. This is the sin that is most enlarged upon here. Those that
   had been unfaithful to their God were so to one another, and it was a
   part of their punishment as well as their sin, for even those that love
   to cheat, yet hate to be cheated. First, Go into their solemn meetings
   for the exercises of religion, for the administration of justice, or
   for commerce--to church, to court, or to the exchange--and they are an
   assembly of treacherous men; they are so by consent, they strengthen
   one another's hands in doing any thing that is perfidious. There they
   will cheat deliberately and industriously, with design, with a
   malicious design, for (v. 3) they bend their tongues, like their bow,
   for lies, with a great deal of craft; their tongues are fitted for
   lying, as a bow that is bent is for shooting, and are as constantly
   used for that purpose. Their tongue turns as naturally to a lie as the
   bow to the strong. But they are not valiant for the truth upon the
   earth. Their tongues are like a bow strung, with which they might do
   good service if they would use the art and resolution which they are so
   much masters of in the cause of truth; but they will not do so. They
   appear not in defence of the truths of God, which were delivered to
   them by the prophets; but even those that could not deny them to be
   truths were content to see them run down. In the administration of
   justice they have not courage to stand by an honest cause that has
   truth on its side, if greatness and power be on the other side. Those
   that will be faithful to the truth must be valiant for it, and not be
   daunted by the opposition given to it, nor fear the face of man. They
   are not valiant for the truth in the land, the land which has truth for
   the glory of it. Truth has fallen in the land, and they dare not lend a
   hand to help it up, Isa. lix. 14, 15. We must answer, another day, not
   only for our enmity in opposing truth, but for our cowardice in
   defending it. Secondly, Go into their families, and you will find they
   will cheat their own brethren (every brother will utterly supplant);
   they will trip up one another's heels if they can, for they lie at the
   catch to seek all advantages against those they hope to make a hand of.
   Jacob had his name from supplanting; it is the word here used; they
   followed him in his name, but not in his true character, without guile.
   So very false are they that you cannot trust in a brother, but must
   stand as much upon your guard as if you were dealing with a stranger,
   with a Canaanite that has balances of deceit in his hand. Things have
   come to an ill pass indeed when a man cannot put confidence in his own
   brother. Thirdly, Go into company and observe both their commerce and
   their conversation, and you will find there is nothing of sincerity or
   common honesty among them. Nec hospes ab hospite tutus--The host and
   the guest are in danger from each other. The best advice a wise man can
   give you is to take heed every one of his neighbour, nay, of his friend
   (so some read it), of him whom he has befriended and who pretends
   friendship to him. No man thinks himself bound to be either grateful or
   sincere. Take them in their conversation and every neighbour will walk
   with slander; they care not what ill they say one of another, though
   ever so false; that way that the slander goes they will go; they will
   walk with it. They will walk about from house to house too, carrying
   slanders along with them, all the ill-natured stories they can pick up
   or invent to make mischief. Take them in their trading and bargaining,
   and they will deceive every one his neighbour, will say any thing,
   though they know it to be false, for their own advantage. Nay, they
   will lie for lying sake, to keep their tongues in use to it, for they
   will not speak the truth, but will tell a deliberate lie and laugh at
   it when they have done.

   (2.) That which aggravates the sin on this false and lying generation
   is, [1.] That they are ingenious to sin: They have taught their tongue
   to speak lies, implying that through the reluctances of natural
   conscience they found it difficult to bring themselves to it. Their
   tongue would have spoken truth, but they taught it to speak lies, and
   by degrees have made themselves masters of the art of lying, and have
   got such a habit of it that use has made it a second nature to them.
   They learnt it when they were young (for the wicked are estranged from
   the womb, speaking lies, Ps. lviii. 3), and now they have grown
   dexterous at it. [2.] That they are industrious to sin: They weary
   themselves to commit iniquity; they put a force upon their consciences
   to bring themselves to it; they tire out their convictions by offering
   them continual violence, and they take a great deal of pains, till they
   have even spent themselves in bringing about their malicious designs.
   They are wearied with their sinful pursuits and yet not weary of them.
   The service of sin is a perfect drudgery; men run themselves out of
   breath in it, and put themselves to a great deal of toil to damn their
   own souls. [3.] That they grow worse and worse (v. 3): They proceed
   from evil to evil, from one sin to another, from one degree of sin to
   another. They began with less sins. Nemo repente fit turpissimus--No
   one reaches the height of vice at once. They began with equivocating
   and bantering, but at last came to downright lying. And they are now
   proceeding to greater sins yet, for they know not me, saith the Lord;
   and where men have no knowledge of God, or no consideration of what
   they have known of him, what good can be expected from them? Men's
   ignorance of God is the cause of all their ill conduct one towards
   another.

   2. The prophet shows what God had informed him of their wickedness, and
   what he had determined against them.

   (1.) God had marked their sin. He could tell the prophet (and he speaks
   of it with compassion) what sort of people they were that he had to
   deal with. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, Rev. ii. 13. So
   here (v. 6): "Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit, all about thee
   are addicted to it; therefore stand upon thy guard." If all men are
   liars, it concerns us to beware of men,. and to be wise as serpents.
   They are deceitful men; therefore there is little hope of thy doing any
   good among them; for, make things ever so plain, they have some trick
   or other wherewith to shuffle off their convictions. This charge is
   enlarged upon, v. 8. Their tongue was a bow bent (v. 3), plotting and
   preparing mischief; here it is an arrow shot out, putting in execution
   what they had projected. It is as a slaying arrow (so some readings of
   the original have it); their tongue has been to many an instrument of
   death. They speak peaceably to their neighbours, against whom they are
   at the same time lying in wait; as Joab kissed Abner when he was about
   to kill him, and Cain, that he might not be suspected of any ill
   design, talked with his brother, freely and familiarly. Note, Fair
   words, when they are not attended with good intentions, are despicable,
   but, when they are intended as a cloak and cover for wicked intentions
   they are abominable. While they did all this injury to one another they
   put a great contempt upon God: "Not only they know not me, but (v. 6)
   through deceit, through the delusions of the false prophets, they
   refuse to know me; they are so cheated into a good opinion of their own
   ways, the ways of their own heart, that they desire not the knowledge
   of my ways." Or, "They are so wedded to this sinful course which they
   are in, and so bewitched with that, and its gains, that they will by no
   means admit the knowledge of God, because that would be a check upon
   them in their sins." This is the ruin of sinners: they might be taught
   the good knowledge of the Lord and they will not learn it; and where no
   knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? Hos. iv. 1.

   (2.) He had marked them for ruin, v. 7, 9, 11. Those that will not know
   God as their lawgiver shall be made to know him as their judge. God
   determines here to bring his judgments upon them, for the refining of
   some and the ruining of the rest. [1.] Some shall be refined (v. 7):
   "Because they are thus corrupt, behold I will melt them and try them,
   will bring them into trouble and see what that will do towards bringing
   them to repentance, whether the furnace of affliction will purify them
   from their dross, and whether, when they are melted, they will be
   new-cast in a better mould." He will make trial of less afflictions
   before he brings upon them utter destruction; for he desires not the
   death of sinners. They shall not be rejected as reprobate silver till
   the founder has melted in vain, ch. vi. 29, 30. For how shall I do for
   the daughter of my people? He speaks as one consulting with himself
   what to do with them that might be for the best, and as one that could
   not find in his heart to cast them off and give them up to ruin till he
   had first tried all means likely to bring them to repentance. Or, "How
   else shall I do for them? They have grown so very corrupt that there is
   no other way with them but to put them into the furnace; what other
   course can I take with them? Isa. v. 4, 5. It is the daughter of my
   people, and I must do something to vindicate my own honour, which will
   be reflected upon if I connive at their wickedness. I must do something
   to reduce and reform them." A parent corrects his own children because
   they are his own. Note, When God afflicts his people, it is with a
   gracious design to mollify and reform them; it is but when need is and
   when he knows it is the best method he can use. [2.] The rest shall be
   ruined (v. 9): Shall I not visit for these things? Fraud and falsehood
   are sins which God hates and which he will reckon for. "Shall not my
   soul be avenged on such a nation as this, that is so universally
   corrupt, and, by its impudence in sin, even dares and defies divine
   vengeance? The sentence is passed, the decree has gone forth (v. 11): I
   will make Jerusalem heaps of rubbish, and lay it in such ruins that it
   shall be fit for nothing but to be a den of dragons; and the cities of
   Judah shall be a desolation." God makes them so, for he gives the enemy
   warrant and power to do it: but why is the holy city made a heap? The
   answer is ready, Because it has become an unholy one?

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 606.)

   12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom
   the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the
   land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth
   through?   13 And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law
   which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked
   therein;   14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart,
   and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:   15 Therefore thus
   saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them,
   even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
     16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor
   their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I
   have consumed them.   17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and
   call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning
   women, that they may come:   18 And let them make haste, and take up a
   wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids
   gush out with waters.   19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion,
   How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken
   the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.   20 Yet hear the
   word of the Lord, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his
   mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour
   lamentation.   21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered
   into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young
   men from the streets.   22 Speak, Thus saith the Lord, Even the
   carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the
   handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

   Two things the prophet designs, in these verses, with reference to the
   approaching destruction of Judah and Jerusalem:--1. To convince people
   of the justice of God in it, that they had by sin brought it upon
   themselves and that therefore they had no reason to quarrel with God,
   who did them no wrong at all, but a great deal of reason to fall out
   with their sins, which did them all this mischief. 2. To affect people
   with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, and the miserable
   effects of it, that by a terrible prospect of it they might be awakened
   to repentance and reformation, which was the only way to prevent it,
   or, at least, mitigate their own share in it. This being designed,

   I. He calls for the thinking men, by them to show people the equity of
   God's proceedings, though they seemed harsh and severe (v. 12): "Who,
   where, is the wise man, or the prophet, to whom the mouth of the Lord
   hath spoken? You boast of your wisdom, and of the prophets you have
   among you; produce me any one that has but the free use of human reason
   or any acquaintance with divine revelation, and he will soon understand
   this himself, and it will be so clear to him that he will be ready to
   declare it to others, that there is a just ground of God's controversy
   with this people." Do these wise men enquire, For what does the land
   perish? What is the matter, that such a change is made with this land?
   It used to be a land that God cared for, and he had his eyes upon it
   for good (Deut. xi. 12), but it is now a land that he has forsaken and
   that his face is against. It used to flourish as the garden of the Lord
   and to be replenished with inhabitants; but now it is burnt up like a
   wilderness, that none passeth through it, much less cares to settle in
   it. It was supposed, long ago, that it would be asked, when it came to
   this, Wherefore has the Lord done thus unto this land? What means the
   heat of this great anger? (Deut. xxix. 24), to which question God here
   gives a full answer, before which all flesh must be silent. He produces
   out of the record,

   1. The indictment preferred and proved against them, upon which they
   had been found guilty, v. 13, 14. It is charged upon them, and it
   cannot be denied, (1.) That they have revolted from their allegiance to
   their rightful Sovereign. Therefore God has forsaken their land, and
   justly, because they have forsaken his law, which he had so plainly, so
   fully, so frequently set before them, and had not observed his orders,
   not obeyed his voice, nor walked in the ways that he had appointed.
   Here their wickedness began, in the omission of their duty to their God
   and a contempt of his authority. But it did not end here. It is further
   charged upon them, (2.) That they have entered themselves into the
   service of pretenders and usurpers, have not only withdrawn themselves
   from their obedience to their prince, but have taken up arms against
   him. For, [1.] They have acted according to the dictates of their own
   lusts, have set up their own will, the wills of the flesh, and the
   carnal mind, in competition with, and contradiction to the will of God:
   They have walked after the imagination of their own hearts; they would
   do as they pleased, whatever God and conscience said to the contrary.
   [2.] They have worshipped the creatures of their own fancy, the work of
   their own hands, according to the tradition received from their
   fathers: They have walked after Baalim: the word is plural; they had
   many Baals, Baal-peor and Baal-berith, the Baal of this place and the
   Baal of the other place; for they had lords many, which their fathers
   taught them to worship, but which the God of their fathers had again
   and again forbidden. This was it for which the land perished. The King
   of kings never makes war thus upon his own subjects but when they
   treacherously depart from him and rebel against him, and it has become
   necessary by this means to chastise their rebellion and reduce them to
   their allegiance; and they themselves shall at length acknowledge that
   he is just in all that is brought upon them.

   2. The judgment given upon this indictment, the sentence upon the
   convicted rebels, which must now be executed, for it was righteous and
   nothing could be moved in arrest of it: The Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel, hath said it (v. 15, 16), and who can reverse it? (1.) That all
   their comforts at home shall be poisoned and embittered to them: I will
   feed this people with wormwood (or rather with wolf's-bane, for it
   signifies a herb that is not wholesome, as wormwood is though it be
   bitter, but some herb that is both nauseous and noxious), and I will
   give them water of gall (or juice of hemlock or some other herb that is
   poisonous) to drink. Every thing about them, till it comes to their
   very meat and drink, shall be a terror and torment to them. God will
   curse their blessings, Mal. ii. 2. (2.) That their dispersion abroad
   shall be their destruction (v. 16): I will scatter them among the
   heathen. They were corrupted and debauched by their intimacy with the
   heathen, with whom they mingled and learned their works; and now they
   shall lose themselves, where they lost their virtue, among the heathen.
   They set up gods which neither they nor their fathers had known,
   strange gods, new gods (Deut. xxxii. 17); and now God will put them
   among neighbours whom neither they nor their fathers have known, whom
   they can claim no acquaintance with, and therefore can expect no favour
   from. And yet, though they are scattered so as that they will not know
   where to find one another. God will know where to find them all out
   (Ps. xxi. 8) with that evil which still pursues impenitent sinners: I
   will send a sword after them, some killing judgment or other, till I
   have consumed them; for when God judges he will overcome, when he
   pursues he will overtake. And now we see for what the land perishes;
   all this desolation is the desert of their deeds and the performance of
   God's words.

   II. He calls for the mourning women, and engages them, with the arts
   they practise to affect people and move their passions, to lament these
   sad calamities that had come or were coming upon them, that the nation
   might be alarmed to prepare for them: The Lord of hosts himself says,
   Call for the mourning women, that they may come, v. 17. the scope of
   this is to show how very woeful and lamentable the condition of this
   people was likely to be. 1. Here is work for the counterfeit mourners:
   Send for cunning women, that know how to compose mournful ditties, or
   at least to sing them in mournful tunes and accents, and therefore are
   made use of at funerals to supply the want of true mourners. Let these
   take up a wailing for us, v. 18. The deaths and funerals were so many
   that people wept for them till they had no power to weep, as those, 1
   Sam. xxx. 4. Let those therefore do it now whose trade it is. Or,
   rather, it intimates the extreme sottishness and stupidity of the
   people, that laid not to heart the judgments they were under, nor, even
   when there was so much blood shed, could find in their hearts to shed a
   tear. They cry not when God binds them, Job xxxvi. 13. God sent his
   mourning prophets to them, to call them to weeping and mourning, but
   his word in their mouths did not work upon their faith; rather
   therefore than they shall go laughing to their ruin, let the mourning
   women come, and try to work upon their fancy, that their eyes may at
   length run down with tears, and their eyelids gush out with waters.
   First or last, sinners must be weepers. 2. Here is work for the real
   mourners. (1.) There is that which is a lamentation. The present scene
   is very tragical (v. 19): A voice of wailing is heard out of Zion. Some
   make this to be the song of the mourning women: it is rather an echo to
   it, returned by those whose affections were moved by their wailings. In
   Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people
   kept closely to God. But sin has altered the note; it is now the voice
   of lamentation. It should seem to be the voice of those who fled from
   all parts of the country to the castle of Zion for protection. Instead
   of rejoicing that they had got safely thither, they lamented that they
   were forced to seek for shelter there: "How are we spoiled! How are we
   stripped of all our possessions! We are greatly confounded, ashamed of
   ourselves and our poverty;" for that is it that they complain of, that
   is it that they blush at the thoughts of, rather than of their sin: We
   are confounded because we have forsaken the land (forced so to do by
   the enemy), not because we have forsaken the Lord, being drawn aside of
   our own lust and enticed--because our dwellings have cast us out, not
   because our God has cast us off. Thus unhumbled hearts lament their
   calamity, but not their iniquity, the procuring cause of it. (2.) There
   is more still to come which shall be for a lamentation. Things are bad,
   but they are likely to be worse. Those whose land has spued them out
   (as it did their predecessors the Canaanites, and justly, because they
   trod in their steps, Lev. xviii. 28) complain that they are driven into
   the city, but, after a while, those of the city, and they with them,
   shall be forced thence too: Yet hear the word of the Lord; he has
   something more to say to you (v. 20); let the women hear it, whose
   tender spirits are apt to receive the impressions of grief and fear,
   for the men will not heed it, will not give it a patient hearing. The
   prophets will be glad to preach to a congregation of women that tremble
   at God's word. Let your ear receive the word of God's mouth, and bid it
   welcome, though it be a word of terror. Let the women teach their
   daughters wailing; this intimates that the trouble shall last long,
   grief shall be entailed upon the generation to come. Young people are
   apt to love mirth, and expect mirth, and are disposed to be gay and
   airy; but let the elder women teach the younger to be serious, tell
   them what a vale of tears they must expect to find this world, and
   train them up among the mourners in Zion, Tit. ii. 4, 5. Let every one
   teach her neighbour lamentation; this intimates that the trouble shall
   spread far, shall go from house to house. People shall not need to
   sympathize with their friends; they shall all have cause enough to
   mourn for themselves. Note, Those that are themselves affected with the
   terrors of the Lord should endeavour to affect others with them. The
   judgment here threatened is made to look terrible. [1.] Multitudes
   shall be slain, v. 21. Death shall ride in triumph, and there shall be
   no escaping his arrests when he comes with commission, neither within
   doors nor without. Not within doors, for let the doors be shut ever so
   fast, let them be ever so firmly locked and bolted, death comes up into
   our windows, like a thief in the night; it steals upon us ere we are
   aware. Nor does it thus boldly attack the cottages only, but it has
   entered into our palaces, the palaces of our princes and great men,
   though ever so stately, ever so strongly built and guarded. Note, No
   palaces can keep out death. Nor are those more safe that are abroad;
   death cuts off even the children from without and the young men from
   the streets. The children who might have been spared by the enemy in
   pity, because they had never been hurtful to them, and the young men
   who might have been spared in policy, because capable of being
   serviceable to them, shall fall together by the sword. It is usual now,
   even in the severest military executions, to put none to the sword but
   those that are found in arms; but then even the boys and girls playing
   in the streets were sacrificed to the fury of the conqueror. [2.] Those
   that are slain shall be left unburied (v. 22): Speak, Thus saith the
   Lord (for the confirmation and aggravation of what was before said),
   Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung, neglected, and left to be
   offensive to the smell, as dung is. Common humanity obliges the
   survivors to bury the dead, even for their own sake; but here such
   numbers shall be slain, and those so dispersed all the country over,
   that it shall be an endless thing to bury them all, nor shall there be
   hands enough to do it, nor shall the conquerors permit it, and those
   that should do it shall be overwhelmed with grief, so that they shall
   have no heart to do it. The dead bodies even of the fairest and
   strongest, when they have lain awhile, become dung, such vile bodies
   have we. And here such multitudes shall fall that their bodies shall
   lie as thick as heaps of dung in the furrows of the field, and no more
   notice shall be taken of them than of the handfuls which the harvestman
   drops for the gleaners, for none shall gather them, but they shall
   remain in sight, monuments of divine vengeance, that the eye of the
   impenitent survivors may affect their heart. Slay them not, bury them
   not, lest my people forget, Ps. lix. 11.

Punishment Predicted. (b. c. 606.)

   23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
   neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man
   glory in his riches:   24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that
   he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise
   lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
   things I delight, saith the Lord.   25 Behold, the days come, saith the
   Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the
   uncircumcised;   26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of
   Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in
   the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the
   house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

   The prophet had been endeavouring to possess this people with a holy
   fear of God and his judgments, to convince them both of sin and wrath;
   but still they had recourse to some sorry subterfuge or other, under
   which to shelter themselves from the conviction and with which to
   excuse themselves in the obstinacy and carelessness. He therefore sets
   himself here to drive them from these refuges of lies and to show them
   the insufficiency of them.

   I. When they were told how inevitable the judgment would be they
   pleaded the defence of their politics and powers, which, with the help
   of their wealth and treasure, they thought made their city impregnable.
   In answer to this he shows them the folly of trusting to and boasting
   of all these stays, while they have not a God in covenant to stay
   themselves upon, v. 23, 24. Here he shows, 1. What we may not depend
   upon in a day of distress: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, as
   if with the help of that he could outwit or countermine the enemy, or
   in the greatest extremity find out some evasion or other; for a man's
   wisdom may fail him when he needs it most, and he may fail him when he
   needs it most, and he may be taken in his own craftiness. Ahithophel
   was befooled, and counsellors are often led away spoiled. But, if a
   man's policies fail him, yet surely he may gain his point by might and
   dint of courage. No: Let not the strong man glory in his strength, for
   the battle is not always to the strong. David the stripling proves too
   hard for Goliath the giant. All human force is nothing without God,
   worse than nothing against him. But may not the rich man's wealth be
   his strong city? (money answers all things) No: Let not the rich man
   glory in his riches, for they may prove so far from sheltering him that
   they may expose him and make him the fairer mark. Let not the people
   boast of the wise men, and mighty men, and rich men that they have
   among them, as if they could make their part good against the Chaldeans
   because they have wise men to advise concerning the war, mighty men to
   fight their battles, and rich men to bear the charges of the war. Let
   not particular persons think to escape the common calamity by their
   wisdom, might, or money; for all these will prove but vain things for
   safety. 2. He shows what we may depend upon in a day of distress. (1.)
   Our only comfort in trouble will be that we have done our duty. Those
   that refused to know God (v. 6) will boast in vain of their wisdom and
   wealth; but those that know God, intelligently, that understand aright
   that he is the Lord, that have not only right apprehensions concerning
   his nature, and attributes, and relations to man, but receive and
   retain the impressions of them, may glory in this it will be their
   rejoicing in the day of evil. (2.) Our only confidence in trouble will
   be that, having through grace in some measure done our duty, we shall
   find God a God all-sufficient to us. We may glory in this, that,
   wherever we are, we have an acquaintance with an interest in a God that
   exercises lovingkindness, and judgment, and righteousness in the earth,
   that is not only just to all his creatures and will do no wrong to any
   of them, but kind to all his children and will protect them and provide
   for them. For in these things I delight. God delights to show kindness
   and to execute judgment himself, and is pleased with those who herein
   are followers of him as dear children. Those that have such knowledge
   of the glory of God as to be changed into the same image, and to
   partake of his holiness, find it to be their perfection and glory; and
   the God they thus faithfully conform to they may cheerfully confide in,
   in their greatest straits. But the prophet intimates that the
   generality of this people took no care about this. Their wisdom, and
   might, and riches, were their joy and hope, which would end in grief
   and despair. But those few among them that had the knowledge of God
   might please themselves with it, and boast themselves of it; it would
   stand them in better stead than thousands of gold and silver.

   II. When they were told how provoking their sins were to God they
   vainly pleaded the covenant of their circumcision. They were
   undoubtedly the people of God; as they had the temple of the Lord in
   their city, so they had the mark of his children in their flesh. "It is
   true that Chaldean army has laid such and such nations waste, because
   they were uncircumcised, and therefore not under the protection of the
   divine providence, as we are." To this the prophet answers, That the
   days of visitation were now at hand, in which God would punish all
   wicked people, without making any distinction between the circumcised
   and uncircumcised, v. 25, 26. They had by sin profaned the crown of
   their peculiarity, and lived in common with the uncircumcised nations,
   and so had forfeited the benefit of that peculiarity and must expect to
   fare never the better for it. God will punish the circumcised with the
   uncircumcised. As the ignorance of the uncircumcised shall not excuse
   their wickedness, so neither shall the privileges of the circumcised
   excuse theirs, but they shall be punished together. Note, The Judge of
   all the earth is impartial, and none shall fare the better at his bar
   for any external advantages, but he will render to every man,
   circumcised or uncircumcised, according to his works. The condemnation
   of impenitent sinners that are baptized will be as sure as, nay, and
   more severe than, that of impenitent sinners that are unbaptized. It
   would affect one to find here Judah industriously put between Egypt and
   Edom, as standing upon a level with them and under the same doom, v.
   26. These nations were forbidden a share in the Jews' privileges (Deut.
   xxiii. 3); but the Jews are here told that they shall share in their
   punishments. Those in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness,
   are supposed to be the Kedarenes and those of the kingdoms of Hazor, as
   appears by comparing ch. xlix. 28-32. Some think they are so called
   because they dwelt as it were in a corner of the world, others because
   they had the hair of their head polled into corners. However that was,
   they were of those nations that were uncircumcised in flesh, and the
   Jews are ranked with them and are as near to ruin for their sins as
   they; for all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart: they
   have the sign, but not the thing signified, ch. iv. 4. They are
   heathens in their hearts, strangers to God, and enemies in their minds
   by wicked works. Their hearts are disposed to idols, as the hearts of
   the uncircumcised Gentiles are. Note, The seals of the covenant, though
   they dignify us, and lay us under obligations, will not save us, unless
   the temper of our minds and the tenour of our lives agree with the
   covenant. That only is circumcision, and that baptism, which is of the
   heart, Rom. ii. 28, 29.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. X.

   We may conjecture that the prophecy of this chapter was delivered after
   the first captivity, in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, when many
   were carried away to Babylon; for it has a double reference:--I. To
   those that were carried away into the land of the Chaldeans, a country
   notorious above any other for idolatry and superstition; and they are
   here cautioned against the infection of the place, not to learn the way
   of the heathen (ver. 1, 2), for their astrology and idolatry are both
   foolish things (ver. 3-5), and the worshippers of idols brutish, ver.
   8, 9. So it will appear in the day of their visitation, ver. 14, 15.
   They are likewise exhorted to adhere firmly to the God of Israel, for
   there is none like him, ver. 6, 7. He is the true God, lives for ever,
   and has the government of the world (ver. 10-13), and his people are
   happy in him, ver. 16. II. To those that yet remained in their own
   land. They are cautioned against security, and told to expect distress
   (ver. 17, 18) and that by a foreign enemy, which God would bring upon
   them for their sin, ver. 20-22. This calamity the prophet laments (ver.
   19) and prays for the mitigation of it, ver. 23-25.

Solemn Charge to Israel; The Folly of Idolatry. (b. c. 606.)

   1 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
     2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not
   dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
     3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out
   of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.   4
   They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and
   with hammers, that it move not.   5 They are upright as the palm tree,
   but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not
   afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to
   do good.   6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou
   art great, and thy name is great in might.   7 Who would not fear thee,
   O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among
   all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is
   none like unto thee.   8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish:
   the stock is a doctrine of vanities.   9 Silver spread into plates is
   brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman,
   and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing:
   they are all the work of cunning men.   10 But the Lord is the true
   God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the
   earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his
   indignation.   11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not
   made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth,
   and from under these heavens.   12 He hath made the earth by his power,
   he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the
   heavens by his discretion.   13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a
   multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to
   ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and
   bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.   14 Every man is brutish
   in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for
   his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.   15
   They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their
   visitation they shall perish.   16 The portion of Jacob is not like
   them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his
   inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.

   The prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied of the captivity in Babylon,
   added warnings against idolatry and largely exposed the sottishness of
   idolaters, not only because the temptations in Babylon would be in
   danger of drawing the Jews there to idolatry, but because the
   afflictions in Babylon were designed to cure them of their idolatry.
   Thus the prophet Jeremiah here arms people against the idolatrous
   usages and customs of the heathen, not only for the use of those that
   had gone to Babylon, but of those also that staid behind, that being
   convinced and reclaimed, by the word of God, the rod might be
   prevented; and it is written for our learning. Observe here,

   I. A solemn charge given to the people of God not to conform themselves
   to the ways and customs of the heathen. Let the house of Israel hear
   and receive this word from the God of Israel: "Learn not the way of the
   heathen, do not approve of it, no, nor think indifferently concerning
   it, much less imitate it or accustom yourselves to it. Let not any of
   their customs steal in among you (as they are apt to do insensibly) nor
   mingle themselves with your religion." Note, It ill becomes those that
   are taught of God to learn the way of the heathen, and to think of
   worshipping the true God with such rites and ceremonies as they used in
   the worship of their false gods. See Deut. xii. 29-31. It was the way
   of the heathen to worship the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars;
   to them they gave divine honours, and from them they expected divine
   favours, and therefore, according as the signs of heaven were, whether
   they were auspicious or ominous, they thought themselves countenanced
   or discountenanced by their deities, which made them observe those
   signs, the eclipses of the sun and moon, the conjunctions and
   oppositions of the planets, and all the unusual phenomena of the
   celestial globe, with a great deal of anxiety and trembling. Business
   was stopped if any thing occurred that was thought to bode ill; if it
   did but thunder on their left hand, they were almost as if they had
   been thunderstruck. Now God would not have his people to be dismayed at
   the signs of heaven, to reverence the stars as deities, nor to frighten
   themselves with any prognostications grounded upon them. Let them fear
   the God of heaven, and keep up a reverence of his providence, and then
   they need not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the stars in
   their courses fight not against any that are at peace with God. The
   heathen are dismayed at these signs, for they know no better; but let
   not the house of Israel, that are taught of God, be so.

   II. Divers good reasons given to enforce this charge.

   1. The way of the heathen is very ridiculous and absurd, and is
   condemned even by the dictates of right reason, v. 3. The statutes and
   ordinances of the heathen are vanity itself; they cannot stand the test
   of a rational disquisition. This is again and again insisted upon here,
   as it was by Isaiah. The Chaldeans valued themselves upon their wisdom,
   in which they thought that they excelled all their neighbours; but the
   prophet here shows that they, and all others that worshipped idols and
   expected help and relief from them, were brutish and sottish, and had
   not common sense. (1.) Consider what the idol is that is worshipped. It
   was a tree cut out of the forest originally. It was fitted up by the
   hands of the workman, squared, and sawed, and worked into shape; see
   Isa. xliv. 12, &c. But, after all, it was but the stock of a tree,
   fitter to make a gate-post of than any thing else. But, to hide the
   wood, they deck it with silver and gold, they gild or lacquer it, or
   they deck it with gold and silver lace, or cloth of tissue. They fasten
   it to its place, which they themselves have assigned it, with nails and
   hammers, that it fall not, nor be thrown down, nor stolen away, v. 4.
   The image is made straight enough, and it cannot be denied but that the
   workman did his part, for it is upright as the palm-tree (v. 5); it
   looks stately, and stands up as if it were going to speak to you, but
   it cannot speak; it is a poor dumb creature; nor can it take one step
   towards your relief. If there be any occasion for it to shift its
   place, it must be carried in procession, for it cannot go. Very fitly
   does the admonition come in here, "Be not afraid of them, any more than
   of the signs of heaven; be not afraid of incurring their displeasure,
   for they can do no evil; be not afraid of forfeiting their favour, for
   neither is it in them to do good. If you think to mend the matter by
   mending the materials of which the idol is made, you deceive
   yourselves. Idols of gold and silver are an unworthy to be worshipped
   as wooden gods. The stock is a doctrine of vanities, v. 8. It teaches
   lies, teaches lies concerning God. It is an instruction of vanities; it
   is wood." It is probable that the idols of gold and silver had wood
   underneath for the substratum, and then silver spread into plates is
   brought from Tarshish, imported from beyond sea, and gold from Uphaz,
   or Phaz, which is sometimes rendered the fine or pure gold, Ps. xxi. 3.
   A great deal of art is used, and pains taken, about it. They are not
   such ordinary mechanics that are employed about these as about the
   wooden gods, v. 3. These are cunning men; it is the work of the
   workman; the graver must do his part when it has passed through the
   hands of the founder. Those were but decked here and there with silver
   and gold; these are silver and gold all over. And, that these gods
   might be reverenced as kings, blue and purple are their clothing, the
   colour of royal robes (v. 9), which amuses ignorant worshippers, but
   makes the matter no better. For what is the idol when it is made and
   when they have made the best they can of it? He tells us (v. 14): They
   are falsehood; they are not what they pretend to be, but a great cheat
   put upon the world. They are worshipped as the gods that give us breath
   and life and sense, whereas they are lifeless senseless things
   themselves, and there is no breath in them; there is no spirit in them
   (so the word is); they are not animated, or inhabited, as they are
   supposed to be, by any divine spirit or numen--divinity. They are so
   far from being gods that they have not so much as the spirit of a beast
   that goes downward. They are vanity, and the work of errors, v. 15.
   Enquire into the use of them and you will find they are vanity; they
   are good for nothing; no help is to be expected from them nor any
   confidence put in them. They are a deceitful work, works of illusions,
   or mere mockeries; so some read the following clause. They delude those
   that put their trust in them, make fools of them, or, rather, they make
   fools of themselves. Enquire into the use of them and you will find
   they are the work of errors, grounded upon the grossest mistakes that
   ever men who pretended to reason were guilty of. They are the creatures
   of a deluded fancy; and the errors by which they were produced they
   propagate among their worshippers. (2.) Infer hence what the idolaters
   are that worship these idols. (v. 8): They are altogether brutish and
   foolish. Those that make them are like unto them, senseless and stupid,
   and there is no spirit in them--no use of reason, else they would never
   stoop to them, v. 14. Every man that makes or worships idols has become
   brutish in his knowledge, that is, brutish for want of knowledge, or
   brutish in that very thing which one would think they should be fully
   acquainted with; compare Jude 10, What they know naturally, what they
   cannot but know by the light of nature, in those things as brute beasts
   they corrupt themselves. Though in the works of creation they cannot
   but see the eternal power and godhead of the Creator, yet they have
   become vain in their imaginations, not liking to retain God in their
   knowledge. See Rom. i. 21, 28. Nay, whereas they thought it a piece of
   wisdom thus to multiply gods, it really was the greatest folly they
   could be guilty of. The world by wisdom knew not God, 1 Cor. i. 21;
   Rom. i. 22. Every founder is himself confounded by the graven image;
   when he has made it by a mistake he is more and more confirmed in his
   mistake by it; he is bewildered, bewitched, and cannot disentangle
   himself from the snare; or it is what he will one time or other be
   ashamed of.

   2. The God of Israel is the one only living and true God, and those
   that have him for their God need not make their application to any
   other; nay, to set up any other in competition with him is the greatest
   affront and injury that can be done him. Let the house of Israel cleave
   to the God of Israel and serve and worship him only, for,

   (1.) He is a non-such. Whatever men may set in competition with him,
   there is none to be compared with him. The prophet turns from speaking
   with the utmost disdain of the idols of the heathen (as well he might)
   to speak with the most profound and awful reverence of the God of
   Israel (v. 6, 7): "Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord!
   none of all the heroes which the heathen have deified and make such ado
   about," the dead men of whom they made dead images, and whom they
   worshipped. "Some were deified and adored for their wisdom; but, among
   all the wise men of the nations, the greatest philosophers or
   statesmen, as Apollo or Hermes, there is none like thee. Others were
   deified and adored for their dominion; but, in all their royalty" (so
   it may be read), "among all their kings, as Saturn and Jupiter, there
   is none like unto thee." What is the glory of a man that invented a
   useful art or founded a flourishing kingdom (and these were grounds
   sufficient among the heathen to entitle a man to an apotheosis)
   compared with the glory of him that is the Creator of the world and
   that forms the spirit of man within him? What is the glory of the
   greatest prince or potentate, compared with the glory of him whose
   kingdom rules over all? He acknowledges (v. 6), O Lord! thou art great,
   infinite and immense, and thy name is great in might; thou hast all
   power, and art known to have it. Men's name is often beyond their
   might; they are thought to be greater than they are; but God's name is
   great, and no greater than he really is. And therefore who would not
   fear thee, O King of nations? Who would not choose to worship such a
   God as this, that can do every thing, rather than such dead idols as
   the heathen worship, that can do nothing? Who would not be afraid of
   offending or forsaking a God whose name is so great in might? Which of
   all the nations, if they understood their interests aright, would not
   fear him who is the King of nations? Note, There is an admirable
   decency and congruity in the worshipping of God only. It is fit that he
   who is God alone should alone be served, that he who is Lord of all
   should be served by all, that he who is great should be greatly feared
   and greatly praised.

   (2.) His verity is as evident as the idol's vanity, v. 10. They are the
   work of men's hands, and therefore nothing is more plain than that it
   is a jest to worship them, if that may be called a jest which is so
   great an indignity to him that made us: But the Lord is the true God,
   the God of truth; he is God in truth. God Jehovah is truth; he is not a
   counterfeit and pretender, as they are, but is really what he has
   revealed himself to be; he is one we may depend upon, in whom and by
   whom we cannot be deceived. [1.] Look upon him as he is in himself, and
   he is the living God. He is life itself, has life in himself, and is
   the fountain of life to all the creatures. The gods of the heathen are
   dead things, worthless and useless, but ours is a living God, and hath
   immortality. [2.] Look upon him with relation to his creatures, he is a
   King, and absolute monarch, over them all, is their owner and ruler,
   has an incontestable right both to command them and dispose of them. As
   a king, he protects the creatures, provides for their welfare, and
   preserves peace among them. He is an everlasting king. The counsels of
   his kingdom were from everlasting and the continuance of it will be to
   everlasting. He is a King of eternity. The idols whom they call their
   kings are but of yesterday, and will soon be abolished; and the kings
   of the earth, that set them up to be worshipped, will themselves be in
   the dust shortly; but the Lord shall reign for ever, thy God, O Zion!
   unto all generations.

   (3.) None knows the power of his anger. Let us stand in awe, and not
   dare to provoke him by giving that glory to another which is due to him
   alone; for at his wrath the earth shall tremble, even the strongest and
   stoutest of the kings of the earth; nay, the earth, firmly as it is
   fixed, when he pleases is made to quake and the rocks to tremble, Ps.
   civ. 32; Hab. iii. 6, 10. Though the nations should join together to
   contend with him, and unite their force, yet they would be found
   utterly unable not only to resist, but even to abide his indignation.
   Not only can they not make head against it, for it would overcome them,
   but they cannot bear up under it, for it would overload them, Ps.
   lxxvi. 7, 8; Nah. i. 6.

   (4.) He is the God of nature, the fountain of all being; and all the
   powers of nature are at his command and disposal, v. 12, 13. The God we
   worship is he that made the heavens and the earth, and has a sovereign
   dominion over both; so that his invisible things are manifested and
   proved in the things that are seen. [1.] If we look back, we find that
   the whole world owed its origin to him as its first cause. It was a
   common saying even among the Greeks--He that sets up to be another god
   ought first to make another world. While the heathen worship gods that
   they made, we worship the God that made us and all things. First, The
   earth is a body of vast bulk, has valuable treasures in its bowels and
   more valuable fruit on its surface. It and them he has made by his
   power; and it is by no less than an infinite power that it hangs upon
   nothing, as it does (Job xxvi. 7)-- ponderibus librata suis--poised by
   its own weight. Secondly, The world, the habitable part of the earth,
   is admirably fitted for the use and service of man, and he hath
   established it so by his wisdom, so that it continues serviceable in
   constant changes and yet a continual stability from one generation to
   another. Therefore both the earth and the world are his, Ps. xxiv. 1.
   Thirdly, The heavens are wonderfully stretched out to an incredible
   extent, and it is by his discretion that they are so, and that the
   motions of the heavenly bodies are directed for the benefit of this
   lower world. These declare his glory (Ps. xix. 1), and oblige us to
   declare it, and not give that glory to the heavens which is due to him
   that made them. [2.] If we look up, we see his providence to be a
   continued creation (v. 13): When he uttereth his voice (gives the word
   of command) there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, which are
   poured out on the earth, whether for judgment or mercy, as he intends
   them. When he utters his voice in the thunder, immediately there follow
   thunder-showers, in which there are a multitude of waters; and those
   come with a noise, as the margin reads it; and we read of the noise of
   abundance of rain, 1 Kings xviii. 41. Nay, there are wonders done daily
   in the kingdom of nature without noise: He causes the vapours to ascend
   from the ends of the earth, from all parts of the earth, even the most
   remote, and chiefly those that lie next the sea. All the earth pays the
   tribute of vapours, because all the earth receives the blessing of
   rain. And thus the moisture in the universe, like the money in a
   kingdom and the blood in the body, is continually circulating for the
   good of the whole. Those vapours produce wonders, for of them are
   formed lightnings for the rain, and the winds which God from time to
   time brings forth out of his treasures, as there is occasion for them,
   directing them all in such measure and for such use as he thinks fit,
   as payments are made out of the treasury. All the meteors are so ready
   to serve God's purposes that he seems to have treasures of them, that
   cannot be exhausted and may at any time be drawn from, Ps. cxxxv. 7.
   God glories in the treasures he has of these, Job xxxviii. 22, 23. This
   God can do; but which of the idols of the heathen can do the like?
   Note, There is no sort of weather but what furnishes us with a proof
   and instance of the wisdom and power of the great Creator.

   (5.) This God is Israel's God in covenant, and the felicity of every
   Israelite indeed. Therefore let the house of Israel cleave to him, and
   not forsake him to embrace idols; for, if they do, they certainly
   change for the worse, for (v. 16) the portion of Jacob is not like
   them; their rock is not as our rock (Deut. xxxii. 31), nor ours like
   their mole-hills. Note, [1.] Those that have the Lord for their God
   have a full and complete happiness in him. The God of Jacob is the
   portion of Jacob; he is his all, and in him he has enough and needs no
   more in this world nor the other. In him we have a worthy portion, Ps.
   xvi. 5. [2.] If we have entire satisfaction and complacency in God as
   our portion, he will have a gracious delight in us as his people, whom
   he owns as the rod of his inheritance, his possession and treasure,
   with whom he dwells and by whom he is served and honoured. [3.] It is
   the unspeakable comfort of all the Lord's people that he who is their
   God is the former of all things, and therefore is able to do all that
   for them, and give all that to them, which they stand in need of. Their
   help stands in his name who made heaven and earth. And he is the Lord
   of hosts, of all the hosts in heaven and earth, has them all at his
   command, and will command them into the service of his people when
   there is occasion. This is the name by which they know him, which they
   first give him the glory of and then take to themselves the comfort of.
   [4.] Herein God's people are happy above all other people, happy
   indeed, bona si sua norint--did they but know their blessedness. The
   gods which the heathen pride, and please, and so portion themselves in,
   are vanity and a lie; but the portion of Jacob is not like them.

   3. The prophet, having thus compared the gods of the heathen with the
   God of Israel (between whom there is no comparison), reads the doom,
   the certain doom, of all those pretenders, and directs the Jews, in
   God's name, to read it to the worshippers of idols, though they were
   their lords and masters (v. 11): Thus shall you say unto them (and the
   God you serve will bear you out in saying it), The gods which have not
   made the heavens and the earth (and therefore are no gods, but usurpers
   of the honour due to him only who did make heaven and earth) shall
   perish, perish of course, because they are vanity--perish by his
   righteous sentence, because they are rivals with him. As gods they
   shall perish from off the earth (even all those things on earth beneath
   which they make gods of) and from under these heavens, even all those
   things in the firmament of heaven, under the highest heavens, which are
   deified, according to the distribution in the second commandment. These
   words in the original are not in the Hebrew, like all the rest, but in
   the Chaldee dialect, that the Jews in captivity might have this ready
   to say to the Chaldeans in their own language when they tempted them to
   idolatry: "Do you press us to worship your gods? We will never do that;
   for," (1.) "They are counterfeit deities; they are no gods, for they
   have not made the heavens and the earth, and therefore are not entitled
   to our homage, nor are we indebted to them either for the products of
   the earth or the influences of heaven, as we are to the God of Israel."
   The primitive Christians would say, when they were urged to worship
   such a god, Let him make a world and he shall be my god. While we have
   him to worship who made heaven and earth, it is very absurd to worship
   any other. (2.) "They are condemned deities. They shall perish; the
   time shall come when they shall be no more respected as they are now,
   but shall be buried in oblivion, and they and their worshippers shall
   sink together. The earth shall no longer bear them; the heavens shall
   no longer cover them; but both shall abandon them." It is repeated (v.
   15), In the time of their visitation they shall perish. When God comes
   to reckon with idolaters he will make them weary of their idols, and
   glad to be rid of them. They shall cast them to the moles and to the
   bats, Isa. ii. 20. Whatever runs against God and religion will be run
   down at last.

Lamentation of Judah; Sovereignty of Divine Providence; Prophetic
Imprecations. (b. c. 606.)

   17 Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
   18 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of
   the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it
   so.   19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly
   this is a grief, and I must bear it.   20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and
   all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are
   not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my
   curtains.   21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought
   the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall
   be scattered.   22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great
   commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah
   desolate, and a den of dragons.   23 O Lord, I know that the way of man
   is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
   24 O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou
   bring me to nothing.   25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know
   thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they
   have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made
   his habitation desolate.

   In these verses,

   I. The prophet threatens, in God's name, the approaching ruin of Judah
   and Jerusalem, v. 17, 18. The Jews that continued in their own land,
   after some were carried into captivity, were very secure; they thought
   themselves inhabitants of a fortress; their country was their strong
   hold, and, in their own conceit, impregnable; but they are here told to
   think of leaving it: they must prepare to go after their brethren, and
   pack up their effects in expectation of it: "Gather up thy wares out of
   the land; contract your affairs, and bring them into as small a compass
   as you can. Arise, depart, this is not your rest," Mic. ii. 10. Let not
   what you have lie scattered, for the Chaldeans will be upon you again,
   to be the executioners of the sentence God has passed upon you (v. 18):
   "Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once;
   they have hitherto dropped out, by a few at a time, but one captivity
   more shall make a thorough riddance, and they shall be slung out as a
   stone out of a sling, so easily, so thoroughly shall they be cast out;
   nothing of them shall remain. They shall be thrown out with violence,
   and driven to a place at a great distance off, in a little time." See
   this comparison used to signify an utter destruction, 1 Sam. xxv. 29.
   Yet once more God will shake their land, and shake the wicked out of
   it, Heb. xii. 26. He adds, And I will distress them, that they may find
   it so. He will not only throw them out hence (that he may do and yet
   they may be easy elsewhere); but, whithersoever they go, trouble shall
   follow them; they shall be continually perplexed and straitened, and at
   a loss within themselves: and who or what can make those easy whom God
   will distress, whom he will distress that they may find it so, that
   they may feel that which they would not believe? They were often told
   of the weight of God's wrath and their utter inability to make head
   against it, or bear up under it. They were told that their sin would be
   their ruin, and they would not regard nor credit what was told them;
   but now they shall find it so; and therefore God will pursue them with
   his judgments, that they may find it so, and be forced to acknowledge
   it. Note, sooner or later sinners will find it just as the word of God
   has represented things to them, and no better, and that the
   threatenings were not bugbears.

   II. He brings in the people sadly lamenting their calamities (v. 19):
   Woe is me for my hurt! Some make this the prophet's own lamentation,
   not for himself, but for the calamities and desolations of his country.
   He mourned for those that would not be persuaded to mourn for
   themselves; and, since there were none that had so much sense as to
   join with them, he weeps in secret, and cries out, Woe is me! In
   mournful times it becomes us to be of a mournful spirit. But it may be
   taken as the language of the people, considered as a body, and
   therefore speaking as a single person. The prophet puts into their
   mouths the words they should say; whether they would say them or no,
   they should have cause to say them. Some among them would thus bemoan
   themselves, and all of them, at last, would be forced to do it. 1. They
   lament that the affliction is very great, and it is very hard to them
   to bear it, the more hard because they had not been used to trouble and
   now did not expect it: "Woe is me for my hurt, not for what I fear, but
   for what I feel;" for they are not, as some are, worse frightened than
   hurt. Nor is it a slight hurt, but a wound, a wound that is grievous,
   very painful, and very threatening. 2. That there is no remedy but
   patience. They cannot help themselves, but must sit still, and abide
   it: But I said, when I was about to complain of my wound, To what
   purpose is it to complain? This is a grief, and I must bear it as well
   as I can. This is the language rather of a sullen than of a gracious
   submission, of a patience per force, not a patience by principle. When
   I am in affliction I should say, "This is an evil, and I will bear it,
   because it is the will of God that I should, because his wisdom has
   appointed this for me and his grace will make it work for good to me."
   This is receiving evil at the hand of God, Job ii. 10. But to say,
   "This is an evil, and I must bear it, because I cannot help it," is but
   a brutal patience, and argues a want of those good thoughts of God
   which we should always have, even under our afflictions, saying, not
   only, God can and will do what he pleases, but, Let him do what he
   pleases. 3. That the country was quite ruined and wasted (v. 20): My
   tabernacle is spoiled. Jerusalem, though a strong city, now proves as
   weak and moveable as a tabernacle or tent, when it is taken down, and
   all its cords, that should keep it together, are broken. Or by the
   tabernacle here may be meant the temple, the sanctuary, which at first
   was but a tabernacle, and is now called so, as then it was sometimes
   called a temple. Their church is ruined, and all the supports of it
   fail. It was a general destruction of church and state, city and
   country, and there were none to repair these desolations. "My children
   have gone forth of me; some have fled, others are slain, others carried
   into captivity, so that as to me, they are not; I am likely to be an
   outcast, and to perish for want of shelter; for there is none to
   stretch forth my tent any more, none of my children that used to do it
   for me, none to set up my curtains, none to do me any service."
   Jerusalem has none to guide her of all her sons, Isa. li. 18. 4. That
   the rulers took no care, nor any proper measures, for the redress of
   their grievances and the re-establishing of heir ruined state (v. 21):
   The pastors have become brutish. When the tents, the shepherds' tents,
   were spoiled (v. 20), it concerned the shepherds to look after them;
   but they were foolish shepherds. Their kings and princes had no regard
   at all for the public welfare, seemed to have no sense of the
   desolations of the land, but were quite besotted and infatuated. The
   priests, the pastors of God's tabernacle, did a great deal towards the
   ruin of religion, but nothing towards the repair of it. They are
   brutish indeed, for they have not sought the Lord; they have neither
   made their peace with him nor their prayer to him; they had no eye to
   him and his providence, in their management of affairs; they neither
   acknowledged the judgment, nor expected the deliverance, to come from
   his hand. Note, Those are brutish people that do not seek the Lord,
   that live without prayer, and live without God in the world. Every man
   is either a saint or a brute. But it is sad indeed with a people when
   their pastors, that should feed them with knowledge and understanding,
   are themselves thus brutish. And what comes of it? Therefore they shall
   not prosper; none of their attempts for the public safety shall
   succeed. Note, Those cannot expect to prosper who do not by faith and
   prayer take God along with them in all their ways. And, when the
   pastors are brutish, what else can be expected but that all their
   flocks should be scattered? For, if the blind lead the blind, both will
   fall into the ditch. The ruin of a people is often owing to the
   brutishness of their pastors. 5. That the report of the enemy's
   approach was very dreadful (v. 22): The noise of the bruit has come, of
   the report which at first was but whispered and bruited abroad, as
   wanting confirmation. It now proves too true: A great commotion arises
   out of the north country, which threatens to make all the cities of
   Judah desolate and a den of dragons; for they must all expect to be
   sacrificed to the avarice and fury of the Chaldean army. And what else
   can that place expect but to be made a den of dragons which has by sin
   made itself a den of thieves?

   III. He turns to God, and addresses himself to him, finding it to
   little purpose to speak to the people. It is some comfort to poor
   ministers that, if men will not hear them, God will; and to him they
   have liberty of access at all times. Let them close their preaching
   with prayer, as the prophet, and then they shall have no reason to say
   that they have laboured in vain.

   1. The prophet here acknowledges the sovereignty and dominion of the
   divine Providence, that by it, and not by their own will and wisdom,
   the affairs both of nations and particular persons are directed and
   determined, v. 23. This is an article of our faith which it is very
   proper for us to make confession of at the throne of grace when we are
   complaining of an affliction or suing for a mercy: "O Lord, I know, and
   believe, that the way of man is not in himself; Nebuchadnezzar did not
   come of himself against our land, but by the direction of a divine
   Providence." We cannot of ourselves do any thing for our own relief,
   unless God work with us and command deliverance for us; for it is not
   in man that walketh to direct his steps, though he seem in his walking
   to be perfectly at liberty and to choose his own way. Those that had
   promised themselves a long enjoyment of their estates and possessions
   were made to know, by sad experience, when they were thrown out by the
   Chaldeans, that the way of man is not in himself; he designs which men
   lay deep, and think well-formed, are dashed to pieces in a moment. We
   must all apply this to ourselves, and mix faith with it, that we are
   not at our own disposal, but under a divine direction; the event is
   often overruled so as to be quite contrary to our intention and
   expectation. We are not masters of our own way, nor can we think that
   every thing should be according to our mind; we must therefore refer
   ourselves to God and acquiesce in his will. Some think that the prophet
   here mentions this with a design to make this comfortable use of it,
   that, the way of the Chaldean army being not in themselves, they can do
   no more than God permits them; he can set bounds to these proud waves,
   and say, Hitherto they shall come, and no further. And a quieting
   consideration it is that the most formidable enemies have no power
   against us but what is given them from above.

   2. He deprecates the divine wrath, that it might not fall upon God's
   Israel, v. 24. He speaks not for himself only, but on the behalf of his
   people: O Lord, correct me, but with judgment (in measure and with
   moderation, and in wisdom, no more than is necessary for driving out of
   the foolishness that is bound up in our hearts), not in thy anger (how
   severe soever the correction be, let it come from thy love, and be
   designed for our good and made to work for good), not to bring us to
   nothing, but to bring us home to thyself. Let it not be according to
   the desert of our sins, but according to the design of thy grace. Note,
   (1.) We cannot pray in faith that we may never be corrected, while we
   are conscious to ourselves that we need correction and deserve it, and
   know that as many as God loves he chastens. (2.) The great thing we
   should dread in affliction is the wrath of God. Say not, Lord, do not
   correct me, but, Lord, do not correct me in anger; for that will infuse
   wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery that will bring us to
   nothing. We may bear the smart of his rod, but we cannot bear the
   weight of his wrath.

   3. He imprecates the divine wrath against the oppressors and
   persecutors of Israel (v. 25): Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that
   know thee not. This prayer does not come from a spirit of malice or
   revenge, nor is it intended to prescribe to God whom he should execute
   his judgments upon, or in what order; but, (1.) It is an appeal to his
   justice. As if he had said, "Lord, we are a provoking people; but are
   there not other nations that are more so? And shall we only be
   punished? We are thy children, and may expect a fatherly correction;
   but they are thy enemies, and against them we have reason to think thy
   indignation should be, not against us." This is God's usual method. The
   cup put into the hands of God's people is full of mixtures, mixtures of
   mercy; but the dregs of the cup are reserved for the wicked of the
   earth, let them wring them out, Ps. lxxv. 8. (2.) It is a prediction of
   God's judgments upon all the impenitent enemies of his church and
   kingdom. If judgment begin thus at the house of God, what shall be the
   end of those that obey not his gospel? 1 Pet. iv. 17. See how the
   heathen are described, on whom God's fury shall be poured out. [1.]
   They are strangers to God, and are content to be so. They know him not,
   nor desire to know him. They are families that live without prayer,
   that have nothing of religion among them; they call not on God's name.
   Those that restrain prayer prove that they know not God; for those that
   know him will seek to him and entreat his favour. [2.] They are
   persecutors of the people of God and are resolved to be so. They have
   eaten up Jacob with as much greediness as those that are hungry eat
   their necessary food; nay, with more, they have devoured him, and
   consumed him, and made his habitation desolate, that is, the land in
   which he lives, or the temple of God, which is his habitation among
   them. Note, What the heathen, in their rage and malice, do against the
   people of God, though therein he makes use of them as the instruments
   of his correction, yet he will, for that, make them the objects of his
   indignation. This prayer is taken from Ps. lxxix. 6, 7.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XI.

   In this chapter, I. God by the prophet puts the people in mind of the
   covenant he had made with their fathers, and how much he had insisted
   upon it, as the condition of the covenant, that they should be obedient
   to him, ver. 1-7. II. He charges it upon them that they, in succession
   to their fathers, and in confederacy among themselves, had obstinately
   refused to obey him, ver. 8-10. III. He threatens to punish them with
   utter ruin for their disobedience, especially for their idolatry (ver.
   11, 13), and tells them that their idols should not save them (ver.
   12), that their prophets should not pray for them (ver. 14); he also
   justifies his proceedings herein, they having brought all this mischief
   upon themselves by their own folly and wilfulness, ver. 15-17. IV. Here
   is an account of a conspiracy formed against Jeremiah by his
   fellow-citizens, the men of Anathoth; God's discovery of it to him
   (ver. 18, 19), his prayer against them (ver. 20), and a prediction of
   God's judgments upon them for it, ver. 21-23.

Charges against Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   2 Hear ye the
   words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem;   3 And say thou unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of
   this covenant,   4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I
   brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace,
   saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command
   you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:   5 That I may
   perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a
   land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I,
   and said, So be it, O Lord.   6 Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim
   all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of
   Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.   7
   For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought
   them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and
   protesting, saying, Obey my voice.   8 Yet they obeyed not, nor
   inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their
   evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this
   covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.   9 And
   the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah,
   and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.   10 They are turned back to
   the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words;
   and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and
   the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their
   fathers.

   The prophet here, as prosecutor in God's name, draws up an indictment
   against the Jews for wilful disobedience to the commands of their
   rightful Sovereign. For the more solemn management of this charge,

   I. He produces the commission he had to draw up the charge against
   them. He did not take pleasure in accusing the children of his people,
   but God commanded him to speak it to the men of Judah, v. 1, 2. In the
   original it is plural: Speak you this. For what he said to Jeremiah was
   the same that he gave in charge to all his servants the prophets. They
   none of them said any other than what Moses, in the law, had said; to
   that therefore they must refer themselves, and direct the people: "Hear
   the words of this covenant; turn to your Bibles, be judged by them."
   Jeremiah must now proclaim this in the cities of Judah and the streets
   of Jerusalem, that all may hear, for all are concerned. All the words
   of reproof and conviction which the prophets spoke were grounded upon
   the words of the covenant, and agreed with that; and therefore "hear
   these words, and understand by them upon what terms you stood with God
   at first; and then, by comparing yourselves with the covenant, you will
   soon be aware upon what terms you now stand with him."

   II. He opens the charter upon which their state was founded and by
   which they held their privileges. They had forgotten the tenour of it,
   and lived as if they thought that the grant was absolute and that they
   might do what they pleased and yet have what God had promised, or as if
   they thought that the keeping up of the ceremonial observances was all
   that God required of them. He therefore shows them, with all possible
   plainness, that the thing God insisted upon was obedience, which was
   better than sacrifice. He said, Obey my voice, v. 4 and again v. 7.
   "Own God for your Master; give up yourselves to him as his subjects and
   servants; attend to all the declarations of his mind and will, and make
   conscience of complying with them. Do my commandments, not only in some
   things, but according to all which I command you; make conscience of
   moral duties especially, and rest not in those that are merely ritual;
   hear the words of the covenant, and do them." 1. This was the original
   contract between God and them, when he first formed them into a people.
   It was what he commanded their fathers when he first brought them forth
   out of the land of Egypt, v. 4 and v. 7. He never intended to take them
   under his guidance and protection upon any other terms. This was what
   he required from them in gratitude for the great things he did for them
   when he brought them from the iron furnace. He redeemed them out of the
   service of the Egyptians, which was perfect slavery, that he might take
   them into his own service, which is perfect freedom, Luke i. 74, 75. 2.
   This was not only laid before them then, but it was with the greatest
   importunity imaginable pressed upon them, v. 7. God not only commanded
   it, but earnestly protested it to their fathers, when he brought them
   into covenant with himself. Moses inculcated it again and again, by
   precept upon precept and line upon line. 3. This was made the condition
   of the relation between them and God, which was so much their honour
   and privilege: "So shall you be my people and I will be your God; I
   will own you for mine, and you may call upon me as yours;" this
   intimates that, if they refused to obey, they could no longer claim the
   benefit of the relation. 4. It was upon these terms that the land of
   Canaan was given them for a possession: Obey my voice, that I may
   perform the oath sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing
   with milk and honey, v. 5. God was ready to fulfil the promise, but
   then they must fulfil the condition; if not, the promise is void, and
   it is just with God to turn them out of possession. Being brought in
   upon their good behaviour, they had no wrong done them if they were
   turned out upon their ill behaviour. Obedience was the rent reserved by
   the lease, with a power to re-enter for non-payment. 5. This obedience
   was not only made a condition of the blessing, but was required under
   the penalty of a curse. This is mentioned first here (v. 3), that they
   might, if possible, be awakened by the terrors of the Lord: Cursed be
   the man, though it were but a single person, that obeys not the words
   of this covenant, much more when it is the body of the nation that
   rebels. There are curses of the covenant as well as blessings: and
   Moses set before them not only life and good, but death and evil (Deut.
   xxx. 15), so that they had fair warning given them of the fatal
   consequences of disobedience. 6. Lest this covenant should be
   forgotten, and, because out of mind, should be thought out of date, God
   had from time to time called to them to remember it, and by his
   servants the prophets had made a continual claim of this rent, so that
   they could not plead, in excuse of their non-payment, that it had never
   been demanded; from the day when he brought them out of Egypt to this
   day (and that was nearly 1000 years) he had been, in one way or other,
   at sundry times and in divers manners, protesting to them the necessity
   of obedience. God keeps an account how long we have enjoyed the means
   of grace and how powerful those means have been, how often we have been
   not only spoken to, but protested to, concerning our duty. 7. This
   covenant was consented to (v. 5): Then answered I, and said, So be it,
   O Lord! These are the words of the prophet, expressing either, (1.) His
   own consent to the covenant for himself, and his desire to have the
   benefit of it. God promised Canaan to the obedient: "Lord," says he, "I
   take thee at thy word, I will be obedient; let me have my inheritance
   in the land of promise, of which Canaan is a type." Or, (2.) His good
   will, and good wish, that his people might have the benefit of it.
   "Amen; Lord, let them still be kept in possession of this good land,
   and not turned out of it; make good the promise to them." Or, (3.) His
   people's consent to the covenant: "Then answered I, in the name of the
   people, So be it." Taking it in this sense, it refers to the declared
   consent which the people gave to the covenant, not only to the precepts
   of it when they said, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do
   and will be obedient, but to the penalties when they said Amen to all
   the curses upon Mount Ebal. The more solemnly we have engaged ourselves
   to God the more reason we have to hope that the engagement will be
   perpetual; and yet here it did not prove so.

   III. He charges them with breach of covenant, such a breach as amounted
   to a forfeiture of their charter, v. 8. God had said again and again,
   by his law and by his prophets, "Obey my voice, do as you are bidden,
   and all shall be well;" yet they obeyed not; and, because they were
   resolved not to submit their souls to God's commandments, they would
   not so much as incline their ears to them, but got as far as they could
   out of call: They walked every one in the imagination of their evil
   heart, followed their own inventions; every man did as his fancy and
   humour led him, right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, both in their
   devotions and in their conversations; see ch. vii. 24. What then could
   they expect, but to fall under the curse of the covenant, since they
   would not comply with the commands and conditions of it? Therefore I
   will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, that is, all the
   threatenings contained in it, because they did not what they were
   commanded. Note, The words of the covenant shall not fall to the
   ground. If we do not by our obedience qualify ourselves for the
   blessings of it, we shall by our disobedience bring ourselves under the
   curses of it. That which aggravated their defection from God, and
   rebellion against him, was that it was general, and as it were by
   consent, v. 9, 10. Jeremiah himself saw that many lived in open
   disobedience to God, but the Lord told him that the matter was worse
   than he thought of: A conspiracy is found among them, by him whose eye
   is upon the hidden works of darkness. There is a combination against
   God and religion, a dangerous design formed to overthrow God's
   government and bring in the pretenders, the counterfeit deities. This
   intimates that they were wilful and deliberate in wickedness (they
   rebelled against God, not through incogitancy, but presumptuously, and
   with a high hand),--that they were subtle and ingenious in wickedness,
   and carried on their plot against religion with a great deal of art and
   contrivance,--that they were linked together in the design, and, as is
   usual among conspirators, engaged to stand by one another in it and to
   live and die together; they were resolved to go through with it. A
   cursed conspiracy! O that there were not the like in our day! Observe,
   1. What the conspiracy was. They designed to overthrow divine
   revelation, and set that aside, and persuade people not to hear, not to
   heed, the words of God. They did all they could to derogate from the
   authority of the scriptures and to lessen the value of them; they
   designed to draw people after other gods to serve them, to consult them
   as their oracles and make court to them as their benefactors. Human
   reason shall be their god, a light within their god, an infallible
   judge their god, saints and angels their gods, the god of this or the
   other nation shall be theirs; thus, under several disguises, they are
   in the same confederacy against the Lord and against his anointed. 2.
   Who were in conspiracy. One would have expected find some foreigners
   ring-leaders in it; but no, (1.) The inhabitants of Jerusalem are in
   conspiracy with the men of Judah; city and country agree in this,
   however they may differ in other things. (2.) Those of this generation
   seem to be in conspiracy with those of the foregoing generation, to
   carry on the war from age to age against religion: They are turned back
   to the iniquities of their forefathers, and have risen up in their
   stead, a seed of evil-doers, and increase of sinful men, Num. xxxii.
   14. In Josiah's time there had been a reformation, but after this death
   the people returned to the idolatries which then they had renounced.
   (3.) Judah and Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes and that of the
   two, that were often at daggers--drawing one with another, were yet in
   a conspiracy to break the covenant God had made with their fathers,
   even with the heads of all the twelve tribes. The house of Israel began
   the revolt, but the house of Judah soon came into the conspiracy. Now
   what else could be expected but that god should take severe methods,
   both for the chastising of the conspirators and the crushing of this
   conspiracy; for none ever hardened his heart thus against God and
   prospered? He that rolls this stone will find it return upon him.

Deplorable Condition of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   11 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them,
   which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto
   me, I will not hearken unto them.   12 Then shall the cities of Judah
   and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they
   offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their
   trouble.   13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods,
   O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have
   ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense
   unto Baal.   14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift
   up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that
   they cry unto me for their trouble.   15 What hath my beloved to do in
   mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy
   flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.
   16 The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly
   fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it,
   and the branches of it are broken.   17 For the Lord of hosts, that
   planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the
   house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against
   themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

   This paragraph, which contains so much of God's wrath, might very well
   be expected to follow upon that which goes next before, which contained
   so much of his people's sin. When God found so much evil among them we
   cannot think it strange if it follows, Therefore I will bring evil upon
   them (v. 11), the evil of punishment for the evil of sin; and there is
   no remedy, no relief: the decree has gone forth and the sentence will
   be executed.

   I. They cannot help themselves, but will be found too weak to contest
   with God's judgments: it is evil which they shall not be able to
   escape, or to go forth out of, by any evasion whatsoever. Note, Those
   that will not submit to God's government shall not be able to escape
   his wrath. There is no fleeing from his justice, no avoiding his
   cognizance. Evil pursues sinners and entangles them in snares out of
   which they cannot extricate themselves.

   II. Their God will not help them; his providence shall no way favour
   them: Though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken to them. In
   their affliction they will seek the God whom before they slighted, and
   cry to him whom before they would not vouchsafe to speak to. But how
   can they expect to speed? For he has plainly told us that he that turns
   away his ears from hearing the law, as they did, for they inclined not
   their ear (v. 8), even his prayer shall be an abomination to him, as
   the word of the Lord was now to them a reproach.

   III. Their idols shall not help them, v. 12. They shall go, and cry to
   the gods to whom they now offer incense, and put them in mind of the
   costly services wherewith they had honoured them, expecting they should
   now have relief from them, but in vain. They shall be sent to the gods
   whom they served (Judg. x. 14; Deut. xxxii. 37, 38), and what the
   better? They shall not save them at all, shall do nothing towards their
   salvation, nor give them any prospect of it; they shall not afford them
   the least comfort, nor relief, nor mitigation of their trouble. It is
   God only that is a friend at need, a present powerful help in time of
   trouble. The idols cannot help themselves; how then should they help
   their worshippers? Those that make idols of the world and the flesh
   will in vain have recourse to them in a day of distress. If the idols
   could have done any real kindness to their worshippers, they would have
   done it for this people, who had renounced the true God to embrace
   them, had multiplied them according to the number of their cities (v.
   13), nay, in Jerusalem, according to the number of their streets.
   Suspecting both their sufficiency and their readiness to help them,
   they must have many, lest a few would not serve; they must have them
   dispersed in every corner, lest they should be out of the way when they
   had occasion for them. In Jerusalem, the city which God had chosen to
   put his name there, publicly in the streets of Jerusalem, in every
   street, they had altars to that shameful thing, that shame, even to
   Baal, which they ought to have been ashamed of, with which they did
   reproach the Lord and bring confusion upon themselves. But now in their
   distress their many gods, and many altars, should stand them in stead.
   Note, Those that will not be ashamed of their commission of sin as a
   wicked thing will be ashamed of their expectations from sin as a
   fruitless thing.

   IV. Jeremiah's prayers shall not help them, v. 14. What God had said to
   him before (ch. vii. 16) he here says again, Pray not thou for this
   people. This is not designed for a command to the prophet, so much as
   for a threatening to the people, that they should have no benefit by
   the prayers of their friends for them. God would give no encouragement
   to the prophets to pray for them, would not stir up the spirit of
   prayer, but cast a damp upon it, would put it into their hearts to
   pray, not for the body of the people, but for the remnant among them,
   to pray for their eternal salvation, not for their deliverance from the
   temporal judgments that were coming upon them; and what other prayers
   were put up for them should not be heard. Those are in a sad case
   indeed that are cut off from the benefit of prayer. "I will not hear
   them when they cry, and therefore to not thou pray for them." Note,
   Those that have so far thrown themselves out of God's favour that he
   will not hear their prayers cannot expect benefit by the prayers of
   others for them.

   V. The profession they make of religion shall stand them in no stead,
   v. 15. They were originally God's beloved, his spouse, he was married
   to them by the covenant of peculiarity; even the unbelieving Jews are
   said to be beloved for the fathers' sake, Rom. xi. 28. As such they had
   a place in God's house; they were admitted to worship in the courts of
   his temple; they partook of God's altar; they ate of the flesh of their
   peace-offerings here called the holy flesh, which God had the honour of
   and they had the comfort of. This they gloried in, and trusted to. What
   harm could come to those who were God's beloved, who were under the
   protection of his house? Even when they did evil yet they rejoiced and
   gloried in this, made a mighty noise of this. And when their evil was
   (so the margin reads it), when trouble came upon them, they rejoiced in
   this, and made this their confidence; but their confidence would
   deceive them, for God has rejected it, they themselves having forfeited
   the privileges they so much boasted of. They have wrought lewdness with
   many, have been guilty of spiritual whoredom, have worshipped many
   idols; and therefore, 1. God's temple will yield them no protection; it
   is fit that the adulteress, especially when she has so often repeated
   her whoredoms and has grown so impudent in them and irreclaimable,
   should be put away, and turned out of doors: "What has my beloved to do
   in my house? She is a scandal to it, and therefore it shall no longer
   be a shelter to her." 2. God's altar will yield them no satisfaction,
   nor can they expect any comfort from that: "The holy flesh has passed
   from thee, that is, an end will soon be put to thy sacrifices, when the
   temple shall be laid in ruins; and where then will the holy flesh be,
   that thou art so proud of?" A holy heart will be a comfort to us when
   the holy flesh has passed from us; an inward principle of grace will
   make up the want of the outward means of grace. But woe unto us if the
   departure of the holy flesh be accompanied with the departure of the
   Holy Spirit.

   VI. God's former favours to them shall stand them in no stead, v. 16,
   17. Their remembrance of them shall be no comfort to them under their
   troubles, and God's remembrance of them shall be no argument for their
   relief. 1. It is true God had done great things for them; that people
   had been favourites above any people under the sun; they had been the
   darlings of heaven. God had called Israel's name a green olive-tree,
   and had made them so, for he miscalls nothing; he had planted them (v.
   17), had formed them into a people, with all the advantages they could
   have to make them a fruitful and flourishing people, so good was their
   law and so good was their land. One would think no other than that a
   people so planted, so watered, so cultivated, should be, as the
   olive-tree is, ever green, in respect both of piety and prosperity, Ps.
   lii. 8. God called them fair and of goodly fruit, both good for food
   and pleasant to the eye, both amiable and serviceable to God and man,
   for which the greenness and fatness of the olive both are honoured,
   Judg. ix. 9. 2. It is as true that they have done evil things against
   God. He had planted them a green olive, a good olive, but they had
   degenerated into a wild olive, Rom. xi. 17. Both the house of Israel
   and the house of Judah had done evil, had provoked God to anger in
   burning incense unto Baal, setting up other mediators between them and
   the supreme God besides the promised Messiah; nay, setting up other
   gods in competition with the true and living God, for they had gods
   many, as well as lords many. 3. When they have conducted themselves so
   ill they can expect no other than that, notwithstanding what good he
   has done to them and designed for them, he should now bring upon them
   the evil he has pronounced against them. He that planted this green
   olive-tree, and expected fruit from it, finding it barren and grown
   wild, has kindled fire upon it, to burn it as it stands; for, being
   without fruit, it is twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 12), it
   is cut down and cast into the fire, the fittest place for trees that
   cumber the ground, Matt. iii. 10. The branches of it, the high and
   lofty boughs (so the word signifies), are broken are broken down, both
   princes and priests cut off. And thus it proves that the evil done
   against God, to provoke him to anger, is really done against
   themselves; they wrong their own souls; God is out of their reach, but
   they ruin themselves. See ch. vii. 19. Note, Every sin against God is a
   sin against ourselves, and so it will be found sooner or later.

Conspiracy against Jeremiah; Destruction of the Men of Anathoth. (b. c. 606.)

   18 And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou
   showedst me their doings.   19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is
   brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices
   against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and
   let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no
   more remembered.   20 But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously,
   that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them:
   for unto thee have I revealed my cause.   21 Therefore thus saith the
   Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not
   in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand:   22 Therefore
   thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men
   shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by
   famine:   23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring
   evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

   The prophet Jeremiah has much in his writings concerning himself, much
   more than Isaiah had, the times he lived in being very troublesome.
   Here we have (as it should seem) the beginning of his sorrows, which
   arose from the people of his own city, Anathoth, a priest's city, and
   yet a malignant one. Observe here,

   I. Their plot against him, v. 19. They devised devices against him,
   laid their heads together to contrive how they might be in the most
   plausible and effectual manner the death of him. Malice is ingenious in
   its devices, as well as industrious in its prosecutions. They said
   concerning Jeremiah, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof--a
   proverbial expression, meaning, "Let us utterly destroy him root and
   branch. Let us destroy both the father and the family" (as, when Naboth
   was put to death for treason, his sons were put to death with him), or
   rather "both the prophet and the prophecy; let us kill the one and
   defeat the other. Let us cut him off from the land of the living, as a
   false prophet, and load him with ignominy and disgrace, that his name
   may be no more remembered with respect. Let us sink his reputation, and
   so spoil the credit of his predictions." This was their plot; and 1. It
   was a cruel one; but so cruel have the persecutors of God's prophets
   been. They hunt for no less than the precious life, and very precious
   the lives are that they hunt for. But, (2.) It was a baffled one. They
   thought to put an end to his days, but he survived most of his enemies;
   they thought to blast his memory, but it lives to this day, and will be
   blessed while time lasts.

   II. The information which God gave him of this conspiracy against him.
   He knew nothing of it himself, so artfully had they concealed it; he
   came to Anathoth, meaning no harm to them and therefore fearing no harm
   from them, like a lamb or an ox, that thinks he is driven as usual to
   the field, when he is brought to the slaughter; so little did poor
   Jeremiah dream of the design his citizens that hated him had upon him.
   None of his friends could, and none of his enemies would, give him any
   notice of his danger, that he might shift for his own safety, as Paul's
   sister's son gave him intelligence of the Jews that were lying in wait
   for him. There is but a step between Jeremiah and death; but then the
   Lord gave him knowledge of it, by dream or vision, or impression upon
   his spirit, that he might save himself, as the king of Israel did upon
   the notice Elisha gave him, 2 Kings vi. 10. Thus he came to know it.
   God showed him their doings; and such were their devices that the
   discovering of them was the defeating of them. If God had not let him
   know his own danger, it would have been improved by unreasonable men
   against the reputation of his predictions, that he who foretold the
   ruin of his country could not foresee his own peril and avoid it. See
   what care God takes of his prophets: He suffers no man to do them
   wrong; all the rage of their enemies cannot prevail to take them off
   till they have finished their testimony. God knows all the secret
   designs of his and his people's enemies, and can, when he pleases, make
   them know. A bird of the air shall carry the voice.

   III. His appeal to God hereupon, v. 20. His eye is to God as the Lord
   of hosts, that judges righteously. It is a matter of comfort to us,
   when men deal unjustly with us, that we have a God to go to who does
   and will plead the cause of injured innocency and appear against the
   injurious. God's justice, which is a terror to the wicked, is a comfort
   to the godly. His eye is towards him as the God that tries the reins
   and the heart, that perfectly sees what is in man, what are his
   thoughts and intents. He knew the integrity that was in Jeremiah's
   heart, and that he was not the man they represented him to be. He knew
   the wickedness that was in their hearts, though ever so cunningly
   concealed and disguised. Now, 1. Jeremiah prays judgment against them:
   "Let me see thy vengeance on them, that is, do justice between me and
   them in such a way as thou pleasest." Some think there was something of
   human frailty in this prayer; at least Christ has taught us another
   lesson, both by precept and by pattern, which is to pray for our
   persecutors. Others think it comes from a pure zeal for the glory of
   God and a pious and prophetic indignation against men that were by
   profession priests, the Lord's ministers, and yet were so desperately
   wicked as to fly out against one that did them no harm, merely for the
   service he did to God. This petition was a prediction that he should
   see God's vengeance on them. 2. He refers his cause entirely to the
   judgment of God: "Unto thee have I revealed my cause; to thee I have
   committed it, not desiring nor expecting to interest any other in it."
   Note, It is our comfort, when we are wronged, that we have a God to
   commit our cause to, and our duty to commit it to him, with a
   resolution to acquiesce in his definitive sentence, to subscribe, and
   not prescribe, to him.

   IV. Judgment given against his persecutors, the men of Anathoth. It was
   to no purpose for him to appeal to the courts at Jerusalem, he could
   not have justice done him there: the priests there would stand by the
   priests at Anathoth, and rather second them than discountenance them;
   but God will therefore take cognizance of the cause himself, and we are
   sure that his judgment is according to truth. Here is, 1. Their crime
   recited, on which the sentence is grounded, v. 21. They sought the
   prophet's life, for they forbad him to prophesy upon pain of death;
   they were resolved either to silence him or to slay him. The
   provocation he gave them was his prophesying in the name of the Lord
   without license from those that were the governors of the city which he
   was a member of, and not prophesying such smooth things as they always
   bespoke. Their forbidding him to prophesy was in effect seeking his
   life, for it was seeking to defeat the end and business of his life and
   to rob him of the comfort of it. It is as bad to God's faithful
   ministers to have their mouth stopped as to have their breath stopped.
   But especially when it was resolved that if he did prophesy, as
   certainly he would notwithstanding their inhibition, he should die by
   their hand; they would be accusers, judges, executioners, and all. It
   used to be said that a prophet could not perish but at Jerusalem, for
   there the great council sat; but so bitter were the men of Anathoth
   against Jeremiah that they would undertake to be the death of him
   themselves. A prophet then shall find not only no honour, but no
   favour, in his own country. 2. The sentence passed upon them for this
   crime, v. 22, 23. God says, I will punish them; let me alone to deal
   with them. I will visit this upon them; so the word is. God will
   enquire into it and reckon for it. Two of God's four sore judgments
   shall serve to ruin their town:--The sword shall devour their young
   men, though they were young priests, not men of war (their character
   shall not be their protection), and famine shall destroy the children,
   sons and daughters, that tarry at home, which is a more grievous death
   than that by the sword, Lam. iv. 9. The destruction shall be final (v.
   23): There shall be no remnant of them left, none to be the seed of
   another generation. They sought Jeremiah's life, and therefore they
   shall die; they would destroy him root and branch, that his name might
   be no more remembered, and therefore there shall be no remnant of them;
   and herein the Lord is righteous. Thus evil is brought upon them, even
   the year of their visitation, and that is evil enough, a recompence
   according to their deserts. Then shall Jeremiah see his desire upon his
   enemies. Note, Their condition is sad who have the prayers of good
   ministers and good people against them.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XII.

   In this chapter we have, I. The prophet's humble complaint to God of
   the success that wicked people had in their wicked practices (ver. 1,
   2) and his appeal to God concerning his own integrity (ver. 3), with a
   prayer that God would, for the sake of the public, bring the wickedness
   of the wicked to an end, ver. 3, 4. II. God's rebuke to the prophet for
   his uneasiness at his present troubles, bidding him prepare for
   greater, ver. 5, 6. III. A sad lamentation of the present deplorable
   state of the Israel of God, ver. 7-13. IV. An intimation of mercy to
   God's people, in a denunciation of wrath against their neighbours that
   helped forward their affliction, that they should be plucked out; but
   with a promise that if they would at last join themselves with the
   people of God they should come in sharers with them in their
   privileges, ver. 14-17.

The Prophet's Appeal to God. (b. c. 606.)

   1 Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk
   with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked
   prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?   2
   Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they
   bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their
   reins.   3 But thou, O Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried
   mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and
   prepare them for the day of slaughter.   4 How long shall the land
   mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them
   that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because
   they said, He shall not see our last end.   5 If thou hast run with the
   footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with
   horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they
   wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?   6 For
   even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt
   treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee:
   believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

   The prophet doubts not but it would be of use to others to know what
   had passed between God and his soul, what temptations he had been
   assaulted with and how he had got over them; and therefore he here
   tells us,

   I. What liberty he humbly took, and was graciously allowed him, to
   reason with God concerning his judgments, v. 1. He is about to plead
   with God, not to quarrel with him, or find fault with his proceedings,
   but to enquire into the meaning of them, that he might more and more
   see reason to be satisfied in them, and might have wherewith to answer
   both his own and others' objections against them. The works of the
   Lord, and the reasons of them, are sought out even of those that have
   pleasure therein. Ps. cxi. 2. We may not strive with our Maker, but we
   may reason with him. The prophet lays down a truth of unquestionable
   certainty, which he resolves to abide by in managing this argument:
   Righteous art thou, O Lord! when I plead with thee. Thus he arms
   himself against the temptation wherewith he was assaulted, to envy the
   prosperity of the wicked, before he entered into a parley with it.
   Note, When we are most in the dark concerning the meaning of God's
   dispensations we must still resolve to keep up right thoughts of God,
   and must be confident of this, that he never did, nor ever will do, the
   least wrong to any of his creatures; even when his judgments are
   unsearchable as a great deep, and altogether unaccountable, yet his
   righteousness is as conspicuous and immovable as the great mountains,
   Ps. xxxvi. 6. Though sometimes clouds and darkness are round about him,
   yet justice and judgment are always the habitation of his throne, Ps.
   xcvii. 2. When we find it hard to understand particular providences we
   must have recourse to general truths as our first principles, and abide
   by them; however dark the providence may be, the Lord is righteous; see
   Ps. lxxiii. 1. And we must acknowledge it to him, as the prophet here,
   even when we plead with him, as those that have no thoughts of
   contending but of learning, being fully assured that he will be
   justified when he speaks. Note, However we may see cause for our own
   information to plead with God, yet it becomes us to own that, whatever
   he says or does, he is in the right.

   II. What it was in the dispensations of divine Providence that he
   stumbled at and that he thought would bear a debate. It was that which
   has been a temptation to many wise and good men, and such a one as they
   have with difficulty got over. They see the designs and projects of
   wicked people successful: The way of the wicked prospers; they compass
   their malicious designs and gain their point. They see their affairs
   and concerns in a good posture: They are happy, happy as the world can
   make them, though they deal treacherously, very treacherously, both
   with God and man. Hypocrites are chiefly meant (as appears, v. 2), who
   dissemble in their good professions, and depart from their good
   beginnings and good promises, and in both they deal treacherously, very
   treacherously. It has been said that men cannot expect to prosper who
   are unjust and dishonest in their dealings; but these deal
   treacherously, and yet they are happy. The prophet shows (v. 2) both
   their prosperity and their abuse of their prosperity. 1. God had been
   very indulgent to them and they were got beforehand in the world: "They
   are planted in a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and
   thou hast planted them! nay, thou didst cast out the heathen to plant
   them," Ps. xliv. 2, lxxx. 8. Many a tree is planted that yet never
   grows nor comes to any thing; but they have taken root; their
   prosperity seems to be confirmed and settled. They take root in the
   earth, for there they fix themselves, and thence they draw the sap of
   all their satisfaction. Many trees however take root which yet never
   come on; but these grow, yea they bring forth fruit; their families are
   built up, they live high, and spend at a great rate; and all this was
   owing to the benignity of the divine Providence, which smiled upon
   them, Ps. lxxiii. 7. 2. Thus God had favoured them, though they had
   dealt treacherously with him: Thou art near in their mouth and far from
   their reins. This was no uncharitable censure, for he spoke by the
   Spirit of prophecy, without which it is not safe to charge men with
   hypocrisy whose appearances are plausible. Observe, (1.) Thought they
   cared not for thinking of God, nor had any sincere affection to him,
   yet they could easily persuade themselves to speak of him frequently
   and with an air of seriousness. Piety from the teeth outward is no
   difficult thing. Many speak the language of Israel that are not
   Israelites indeed. (2.) Though they had on all occasions the name of
   God ready in their mouth, and accustomed themselves to those forms of
   speech that savoured of piety, yet they could not persuade themselves
   to keep up the fear of God in their hearts. The form of godliness
   should engage us to keep up the power of it; but with them it did not
   do so.

   III. What comfort he had in appealing to God concerning his own
   integrity (v. 3): But thou, O Lord! knowest me. Probably the wicked men
   he complains of were forward to reproach and censure him (ch. xviii.
   18), in reference to which this was his comfort, that God was a witness
   of his integrity. God knew he was not such a one as they were (who had
   God near in their mouths, but far from their reins), nor such a one as
   they took him to be, and represented him, a deceiver and a false
   prophet; those that thus abused him did not know him, 1 Cor. ii. 8.
   "But thou, O Lord! knowest me, though they think me not worth their
   notice." 1. Observe what the matter is concerning which he appeals to
   God: Thou knowest my heart towards thee. Note, We are as our hearts
   are, and our hearts are good or bad according as they are, or are not,
   towards God; and this is that therefore concerning which we should
   examine ourselves, that we may approve ourselves to God. 2. The
   cognizance to which he appeals: "Thou knowest me better than I know
   myself, not by hearsay or report, for thou hast seen me, not with a
   transient glance, but thou hast tried my heart." God's knowledge of us
   is as clear and exact and certain as if he had made the most strict
   scrutiny. Note, The God with whom we have to do perfectly knows how our
   hearts are towards him. He knows both the guile of the hypocrite and
   the sincerity of the upright.

   IV. He prays that God would turn his hand against these wicked people,
   and not suffer them to prosper always, though they had prospered long:
   "Let some judgment come to pull them out of this fat pasture as sheep
   for the slaughter, that it may appear their long prosperity was but
   like the feeding of lambs in a large place, to prepare them for the day
   of slaughter," Hos. iv. 16. God suffered them to prosper that by their
   pride and luxury they might fill up the measure of their iniquity and
   so be ripened for destruction; and therefore he thinks it a piece of
   necessary justice that they should fall into mischief themselves,
   because they had done so much mischief to others, that they should be
   pulled out of their land, because they had brought ruin upon the land,
   and the longer they continued in it the more hurt they did, as the
   plagues of their generation (v. 4): "How long shall the land mourn. (as
   it does under the judgments of God inflicted upon it) for the
   wickedness of those that dwell therein? Lord, shall those prosper
   themselves that ruin all about them?" 1. See here what the judgment was
   which the land was now groaning under: The herbs of every field wither
   (the grass is burnt up and all the products of the earth fail), and
   then it follows of course, the beasts are consumed, and the birds, 1
   Kings xviii. 5. This was the effect of a long drought, or want of rain,
   which happened, as it should seem, at the latter end of Josiah's reign
   and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; it is mentioned ch. iii. 3, viii. 13,
   ix. 10, 12, and more fully afterwards, ch. xiv. If they would have been
   brought to repentance by this less judgment, the greater would have
   been prevented. Now why was it that this fruitful land was turned into
   barrenness, but for the wickedness of those that dwelt therein? Ps.
   xvii. 34. Therefore the prophet prays that these wicked people might
   die for their own sin, and that the whole nation might not suffer for
   it. 2. See here what was the language of their wickedness: They said,
   He shall not see our last end, either, (1.) God himself shall not.
   Atheism is the root of hypocrisy. God is far from their reins, though
   near in their mouth, because they say, How doth God know? Ps. lxxiii.
   11; Job xxii. 13. He knows not what way we take nor what it will end
   in. Or, (2.) Jeremiah shall not see our last end; whatever he pretends,
   when he asks us what shall be in the end hereof he cannot himself
   foresee it. They look upon him as a false prophet. Or, "whatever it is,
   he shall not live to see it, for we will be the death of him," ch. xi.
   21. Note, [1.] Men's setting their latter end at a great distance, or
   looking upon it as uncertain, is at the bottom of all their wickedness,
   Lam. i. 9. [2.] The whole creation groans under the burden of the sin
   of man, Rom. viii. 22. It is for this that the earth mourns (so it may
   be read); cursed is the ground for thy sake.

   V. He acquaints us with the answer God gave to those complaints of his,
   v. 5, 6. We often find the prophets admonished, whose business it was
   to admonish others, as Isa. viii. 11. Ministers have lessons to learn
   as well as lessons to teach, and must themselves hear God's voice and
   preach to themselves. Jeremiah complained much of the wickedness of the
   men of Anathoth, and that, notwithstanding that, they prospered. Now,
   this seems to be an answer to that complaint. 1. It is allowed that he
   had cause to complain (v. 6): "Thy brethren, the priests of Anathoth,
   who are of the house of thy father, who ought to have protected thee
   and pretended to do so, even they have dealt treacherously with thee,
   have been false to thee, and, under colour of friendship, have
   designedly done thee all the mischief they could; they have called a
   multitude after thee, raised the mob upon thee, to whom they have
   endeavoured, by all arts possible, to render thee despicable or odious,
   while at the same time they pretended that they had no design to
   persecute thee nor to deprive thee of thy liberty. They are indeed such
   as thou canst not believe, though they speak fair words to thee. They
   seem to be thy friends, but are really thy enemies." Note, God's
   faithful servants must not think it at all strange if their foes be
   those of their own house (Matt. x. 36), and if those they expect
   kindness from prove such as they can put no confidence in, Mic. vii. 5.
   2. Yet he is told that he carried the matter too far. (1.) He laid the
   unkindness of his countrymen too much to heart. They wearied him,
   because it was in a land of peace wherein he trusted, v. 5. It was very
   grievous to him to be thus hated and abused by his own kindred. He was
   disturbed in his mind by it; his spirit was sunk and overwhelmed with
   it, so that he was in great agitation and distress about it. Nay, he
   was discouraged in his work by it, began to be weary of prophesying,
   and to think of giving it up. (2.) He did not consider that this was
   but the beginning of his sorrow, and that he had sorer trials yet
   before him; and, whereas he should endeavour by a patient bearing of
   this trouble to prepare himself for greater, by his uneasiness under
   this he did but unfit himself for what further lay before him: If thou
   hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, and run thee
   quite out of breath,then how wilt thou contend with horses? If the
   injuries done him by the men of Anathoth made such an impression upon
   him, what would he do when the princes and chief priests at Jerusalem
   should set upon him with their power, as they did afterwards? ch. xx.
   2; xxxii. 2. If he was so soon tired in a land of peace, where there
   was little noise or peril, what would he do in the swellings of Jordan,
   when that overflows all its banks and frightens even lions out of their
   thickets? ch. xlix. 19. Note, [1.] While we are in this world we must
   expect troubles, and difficulties. Our life is a race, a warfare; we
   are in danger of being run down. [2.] God's usual method being to begin
   with smaller trials, it is our wisdom to expect greater than any we
   have yet met with. We may be called out to contend with horsemen, and
   the sons of Anak may perhaps be reserved for the last encounter. [3.]
   It highly concerns us to prepare for such trials and to consider what
   we should do in them. How shall we preserve our integrity and peace
   when we come to the swellings of Jordan? [4.] In order to our
   preparation for further and greater trials, we are concerned to approve
   ourselves well in present smaller trials, to keep up our spirits, keep
   hold of the promise, keep in our way, with our eye upon the prize, so
   run that we may obtain it. Some good interpreters understand this as
   spoken to the people, who were very secure and fearless of the
   threatened judgments. If they have been so humbled and impoverished by
   smaller calamities, so wasted by the Assyrians,--if the Ammonites and
   Moabites, who were their brethren, and with whom they were in league,
   proved false to them (as undoubtedly they would),--then how would they
   be able to deal with such a powerful adversary as the Chaldeans would
   be? How would they bear up their head against that invasion which
   should come like the swelling of Jordan?

The State of Judah and Israel. (b. c. 606.)

   7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given
   the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.   8 Mine
   heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me:
   therefore have I hated it.   9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled
   bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the
   beasts of the field, come to devour.   10 Many pastors have destroyed
   my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my
   pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.   11 They have made it
   desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is
   made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.   12 The spoilers are
   come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the
   Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of
   the land: no flesh shall have peace.   13 They have sown wheat, but
   shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not
   profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the
   fierce anger of the Lord.

   The people of the Jews are here marked for ruin.

   I. God is here brought in falling out with them and leaving them
   desolate; and they could never have been undone if they had not
   provoked God to desert them. It is a terrible word that God here says
   (v. 7): I have forsaken my house--the temple, which had been his
   palace; they had polluted it, and so forced him out of it: I have left
   my heritage, and will look after it no more. His people that he has
   taken such delight in, and care of, are now thrown out of his
   protection. They had been the dearly beloved of his soul, precious in
   his sight and honorable above any people, which is mentioned to
   aggravate their sin in returning him hatred for his love and their
   misery in throwing themselves out of the favour of one that had such a
   kindness for them, and to justify God in his dealings with them. He
   sought not occasion against them, but, if they would have conducted
   themselves with any tolerable propriety, he would have made the best of
   them, for they were the beloved of his soul; but they had conducted
   themselves so that they had provoked him to give them into the hand of
   their enemies, to leave them unguarded, an easy prey to those that bore
   them ill-will. But what was the quarrel God had with a people that had
   been so long dear to him? Why, truly, they had degenerated. 1. They had
   become like beasts of prey, which nobody loves, but every body avoids
   and gets as far off from as he can (v. 8): My heritage is unto me as a
   lion in the forest. Their sins cry to heaven for vengeance as loud as a
   lion roars. Nay, they cry out against God in the threatenings and
   slaughter which they breathe against his prophets that speak to them in
   his name; and what is said and done against them God takes as said and
   done against himself. They blaspheme his name, oppose his authority,
   and bid defiance to his justice, and so cry out against him as a lion
   in the forest. Those that were the sheep of God's pasture had become
   barbarous and ravenous, and as ungovernable as lions in the forest;
   therefore he hated them; for what delight could the God of love take in
   a people that had now become as roaring lions and raging beasts, fit to
   be taken and shot at, as a vexation and torment to all about them? 2.
   They had become like birds of prey, and therefore also unworthy a place
   in God's house, where neither beasts nor birds of prey were admitted to
   be offered in sacrifice (v. 9): My heritage is unto me as a bird with
   talons (so some read it, and so the margin); they are continually
   pulling and pecking at one another; they have by their unnatural
   contentions made their country a cock-pit. Or as a speckled bird, dyed,
   or sprinkled, or bedewed with the blood of her prey. The shedding of
   innocent blood was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin, and hastened their
   ruin, not only as it provoked their neighbours likewise; for those that
   have their hand against every man shall have every man's hand against
   them (Gen. xvi. 12), and so it follows here: The birds round about are
   against her. Some make her a speckled, pied, or motley bird, upon the
   account of their mixing the superstitious customs and usages of the
   heathen with divine institutions in the worship of God; they were fond
   of a party-coloured religion, and thought it made them fine, when
   really it made them odious. God's turtle-dove is no speckled bird.

   II. The enemies are here brought in falling upon them and laying them
   desolate. And some think it is upon this account that they are compared
   to a speckled bird, because fowls usually make a noise about a bird of
   an odd unusual colour. God's people are, among the children of this
   world, as men wondered at, as a speckled bird; but this people had by
   their own folly made themselves so; and the beasts and birds are called
   and commissioned to prey upon them. Let all the birds round be against
   her, for God has forsaken her, and with them let all the beasts of the
   field come to devour. Those that have made a prey of others shall
   themselves be preyed upon. It did not lessen the sin of the nations,
   but very much increased the misery of Judah and Jerusalem, that the
   desolation brought upon them was by order from heaven. The birds and
   beasts are perhaps called to feast upon the bodies of the slain, as in
   St. John's vision, Rev. xix. 17, 18. The utter desolation of the land
   by the Chaldean army is here spoken of as a thing done, so sure, so
   near, was it. God speaks of it as a thing which he had appointed to be
   done, and yet which he had no pleasure in, any more than in the death
   of other sinners.

   1. See with what a tender affection he speaks of this land,
   notwithstanding the sinfulness of it, in remembrance of his covenant,
   and the tribute of honour and glory he had formerly had from it: It is
   my vineyard, my portion, my pleasant portion, v. 10. Note, God has a
   kindness and concern for his church, though there be much amiss in it;
   and his correcting it will every way consist with his complacency in
   it.

   2. See with what a tender compassion he speaks of the desolations of
   this land: Many pastors (the Chaldean generals that made themselves
   masters of the country and ate it up with their armies as easily as the
   Arabian shepherds with their flocks eat up the fruits of a piece of
   ground that lies common) have destroyed my vineyard, without any
   consideration had either of the value of it or of my interest in it;
   they have with the greatest insolence and indignation trodden it under
   foot, and that which was a pleasant land they have made a desolate
   wilderness. The destruction was universal: The whole land is made
   desolate, v. 11. It is made so by the sword of war: The spoilers, the
   Chaldean soldiers, have come through the plain upon all high places;
   they have made themselves masters of all the natural fastnesses and
   artificial fortresses, v. 12. The sword devours from one end of the
   land to the other; all places lie exposed, and the numerous army of the
   invaders disperse themselves into every corner of that fruitful
   country, so that no flesh shall have peace, none shall be exempt from
   the calamity nor be able to enjoy any tranquillity. When all flesh have
   corrupted their way, no flesh shall have peace; those only have peace
   that walk after the Spirit.

   3. See whence all this misery comes. (1.) It comes from the displeasure
   of God. It is the sword of the Lord that devours, v. 12. While God's
   people keep close to him the sword of their protectors and deliverers
   is the sword of the Lord, witness that of Gideon; but when they have
   forsaken him, so that he has become their enemy and fights against
   them, then the sword of their invaders and destroyers becomes the sword
   of the Lord; witness this of the Chaldeans. It is because of the fierce
   anger of the Lord (v. 13); it was this that kindled this fire among
   them and made their enemies so furious. And who may stand before him
   when he is angry? (2.) It is their sin that has made God their enemy,
   particularly their incorrigibleness under former rebukes (v. 11): The
   land mourns unto me; the country that lies desolate does, as it were,
   pour out its complaint before God and humble itself under his hand; but
   the inhabitants are so senseless and stupid that none of them lays it
   to heart; they do not mourn to God, but are unaffected with his
   displeasure, while the very ground they go upon shames them. Note, When
   God's hand is lifted up, and men will not see, it shall be laid on, and
   they shall be made to feel, Isa. xxvi. 11.

   4. See how unable they should be to guard against it (v. 13): "They
   have sown wheat, that is, they have taken a great deal of pains for
   their own security and promised themselves great matters from their
   endeavors, but it is all in vain; they shall reap thorns, that is, that
   which shall prove very grievous and vexatious to them. Instead of
   helping themselves, they shall but make themselves more uneasy. They
   have put themselves to pain, both with their labour and with their
   expectations, but it shall not profit; they shall not prevail to
   extricate themselves out of the difficulties into which they have
   plunged themselves. They shall be ashamed of your revenues, ashamed
   that they have depended so much upon their preparations for war and
   particularly upon their ability to bear the charges of it." Money
   constitutes the sinews of war; they thought they had enough of that,
   but shall be ashamed of it; for their silver and gold shall not profit
   them in the day of the Lord's anger.

Predictions of Mercy. (b. c. 606.)

   14 Thus saith the Lord against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the
   inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I
   will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah
   from among them.   15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have
   plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will
   bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
     16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways
   of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth; as they taught my
   people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my
   people.   17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and
   destroy that nation, saith the Lord.

   The prophets sometimes, in God's name, delivered messages both of
   judgment and mercy to the nations that bordered on the land of Israel:
   but here is a message to all those in general who had in their turns
   been one way or other injurious to God's people, had either oppressed
   them or triumphed in their being oppressed. Observe,

   I. What the quarrel was that God had with them. They were his evil
   neighbours (v. 14), evil neighbours to his church, and what they did
   against it he took as done against himself, and therefore called them
   his evil neighbours, that should have been neighbourly to Israel, but
   were quite otherwise. Note, It is often the lot of good people to live
   among bad neighbours, that are unkind and provoking to them; and it is
   bad indeed when they are all so. These evil neighbours were the
   Moabites, Ammonites, Syrians, Edomites, Egyptians, that had been evil
   neighbours to Israel in helping to debauch them and draw them from God
   (therefore God calls them his evil neighbours), and now they helped to
   make them desolate, and joined with the Chaldeans against them. It is
   just with God to make those the instruments of trouble to us whom we
   have made instruments of sin. That which God lays to their charge is:
   They have meddled with the inheritance which I have caused my people
   Israel to inherit; they unjustly seized that which was none of their
   own: nay, they sacrilegiously turned that to their own use which was
   given to God's peculiar people. He that said, Touch not my anointed,
   said also, "Touch not their inheritance; it is at your peril if you
   do." Not only the persons but the estates of God's people are under his
   protection.

   II. What course he would take with them. 1. He would break the power
   they had got over his people, and force them to make restitution: I
   will pluck out the house of Judah from among them. This would be a
   great favour to God's people, who had either been taken captive by
   them, or, when they fled to them for shelter, had been detained and
   made prisoners; but it would be a great mortification to their enemies,
   who would be like a lion disappointed of his prey. The house of Judah
   either cannot or will not make any bold struggles towards their own
   liberty; but God will with a gracious violence pluck them out, will by
   his Spirit compel them to come out and by his power compel their
   task-masters to let them go, as he plucked Israel out of Egypt. 2. He
   would bring upon them the same calamities that they had been
   instrumental to bring upon his people: I will pluck them out of their
   land. Judgment began at the house of God, but it did not end there.
   Nebuchadnezzar, when he had wasted the land of Israel, turned his hand
   against their evil neighbours and was a scourge to them.

   III. What mercy God had in store for such of them as would join
   themselves to him and become his people, v. 15, 16. They had drawn in
   God's backsliding people to join with them in the service of idols. If
   now they would be drawn by a returning people to join with them in the
   service of the true and living God, they should not only have their
   enmity to the people of God forgiven them, but the distance which they
   had been kept at before should be removed, and they should be received
   to stand upon the same level with the Israel of God. This had its
   accomplishment in part when, after the return out of captivity, many of
   the people of the lands that had been evil neighbours to Israel became
   Jews; and it was to have its accomplishment in the conversion of the
   Gentiles to the faith of Christ. Let not Israel, though injured by
   them, be implacable towards them, for God is not: After that I have
   plucked them out, in justice for their sins and in jealousy for the
   honour of Israel, I will return, will change my way, and have
   compassion on them. Though, being heathen, they can lay no claim to the
   mercies of the covenant, yet they shall have benefit by the compassions
   of the Creator, who will notwithstanding look upon them as the work of
   his hands. Note, God's controversies with his creatures, though they
   cannot be disputed, may be accommodated. Those who (as these) have been
   not only strangers, but enemies in their minds by wicked works, may be
   reconciled, Col. i. 21. Observe here,

   1. What were the terms on which God would show favour to them. It is
   always provided that they will diligently learn the ways of my people,
   that is, in general, the ways that they walk in when they conduct
   themselves as my people (not the crooked ways into which they have
   turned aside), the ways which my people are directed to take. Note,
   (1.) There are good ways that are peculiarly the ways of God's people,
   which however they may differ in the choice of their paths, they are
   all agreed to walk in. The ways of holiness and heavenly-mindedness, of
   love and peaceableness, the ways of prayer and sabbath-sanctification,
   and diligent attendance on instituted ordinances--these, and the like,
   are the ways of God's people. (2.) Those that would have their lot with
   God's people, and their last end like theirs, must learn their ways and
   walk in them, must observe the rule they walk by and conform to that
   rule they walk by and conform to that rule and go forth by those
   footsteps. By an intimate conversation with God's people they must
   learn to do as they do. (3.) It is impossible to learn the ways of
   God's people as they should be learnt, without a great deal of care and
   pains. We must diligently observe these ways and diligently obliges
   ourselves to walk in them, must look diligently (Heb. xii. 15), and
   work diligently, Luke xiii. 24. In particular, they must learn to give
   honour to God's name by making all their solemn appeals to him. They
   must learn to say, The Lord liveth (to own him, to adore him, and to
   abide by his judgment), as they taught my people to swear by Baal. It
   was bad enough that they did themselves swear by Baal, worse that they
   taught God's own people, who had been better taught; and yet, if they
   will at length reform, they shall be accepted. Observe, [1.] We must
   not despair of the conversion of the worst; no, not of those who have
   been instrumental to pervert and debauch others; even they may be
   brought to repentance, and, if they be, shall find mercy. [2.] Those
   whom we have been industrious to draw to that which is evil, when God
   opens their eyes and ours, we should be as industrious to follow in
   that which is good. It will be a holy revenge upon ourselves to become
   pupils to those in the way of duty to whom we have been tutors in the
   was of sin. [3.] The conversion of the deceived may prove a happy
   occasion of the conversion even of the deceivers. Thus those who fall
   together into the ditch are sometimes plucked together out of it.

   2. What should be the tokens and fruits of this favour when they return
   to God and God to them. (1.) They shall be restored to and
   re-established in their own land (v. 15): I will bring them again every
   man to his heritage. The same hand that plucked them up shall plant
   them again. (2.) They shall become entitled to the spiritual privileges
   of God's Israel: "If they will be towardly, and learn the ways of my
   people, will conform to the rules and confine themselves to the
   restraints of my family, then shall they be built in the midst of my
   people. They shall not only be brought among them, to have a name and a
   place in the house of the Lord, where there was a court for the
   Gentiles, but they shall be built among them; they shall unite with
   them; the former enmities shall be slain; they shall be both edified
   and settled among them." See Isa. lvi. 5-7. Note, Those that diligently
   learn the ways of God's people shall enjoy the privileges and comforts
   of his people.

   IV. What should become of those that were still wedded to their own
   evil ways, yea, though many of those about them turned to the Lord (v.
   17): If there will not obey, if any of them continue to stand it out, I
   will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, that family, that
   particular person, saith the Lord. Those that will not be ruled by the
   grace of God shall be ruined by the justice of God. And, if disobedient
   nations shall be destroyed, much more disobedient churches from whom
   better things are expected.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XIII.

   Still the prophet is attempting to awaken this secure and stubborn
   people to repentance, by the consideration of the judgments of God that
   were coming upon them. He is to tell them, I. By the sign of a girdle
   spoiled that their pride should be stained, ver. 1-11. II. By the sign
   of bottles filled with wine that their counsels should be blasted, ver.
   12-14. III. In consideration hereof he is to call them to repent and
   humble themselves, ver. 15-21. IV. He is to convince them that it is
   for their obstinacy and incorrigibleness that the judgments of God are
   so prolonged and brought to extremity, ver. 22-27.

The Marred Girdle. (b. c. 606.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put
   it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.   2 So I got a girdle
   according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins.   3 And the
   word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying,   4 Take the
   girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to
   Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.   5 So I went, and
   hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.   6 And it came to pass
   after many days, that the Lord said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates,
   and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
     7 Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the
   place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was
   profitable for nothing.   8 Then the word of the Lord came unto me,
   saying,   9 Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride
   of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.   10 This evil people,
   which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their
   heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them,
   shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.   11 For as
   the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave
   unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith
   the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and
   for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

   Here is, I. A sign, the marring of a girdle, which the prophet had worn
   for some time, by hiding it in a hole of a rock near the river
   Euphrates. It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs, that a
   stupid unthinking people might be brought to consider, and believe, and
   be affected with what was thus set before them. 1. He was to wear a
   linen girdle for some time, v. 1, 2. Some think he wore it under his
   clothes, because it was linen, and it is said to cleave to his loins,
   v. 11. It should rather seem to be worn upon his clothes, for it was
   worn for a name and a praise, and probably was a fine sash, such as
   officers wear and such as are commonly worn at this day in the eastern
   nations. He must not put it in water, but wear it as it was, that it
   might be the stronger, and less likely to rot: linen wastes almost as
   much with washing as with wearing. Being not wet, it was the more stiff
   and less apt to bend, yet he must make a shift to wear it. Probably it
   was very fine linen which will wear long without washing. The prophet,
   like John Baptist, was none of those that wore soft clothing, and
   therefore it would be the more strange to see him with a linen girdle
   on, who probably used to wear a leathern one. 2. After he had worn this
   linen girdle for some time, he must go, and hide it in a hole of a rock
   (v. 4) by the water's side, where, when the water was high, it would be
   wet, and when it fell would grow dry again, and by that means would
   soon rot, sooner than if it were always wet or always dry. 3. After
   many days, he must look for it, and he should find it quite spoiled,
   gone all to rags and good for nothing, v. 7. It has been of old a
   question among interpreters whether this was really done, so as to be
   seen and observed by the people, or only in a dream or vision, so as to
   go no further than the prophet's own mind. It seems hard to imagine
   that the prophet should be sent on two such long journeys as to the
   river Euphrates, each of which would take him up some week's time, when
   he could so ill be spared at home. For this reason most incline to
   think the journey, at least, was only in vision, like that of Ezekiel,
   from the captivity in Chaldea to Jerusalem (Ezek. viii. 3) and thence
   back to Chaldea (ch. xi. 24); and the explanation of this sign is given
   only to the prophet himself (v. 8), not to the people, the sign not
   being public. But there being, it is probable, at that time, great
   conveniences of travelling between Jerusalem and Babylon, and some part
   of Euphrates being not so far off but that it was made the utmost
   border of the land of promise (Josh. i. 4), I see no inconvenience in
   supposing the prophet to have made two journeys thither; for it is
   expressly said, He did as the Lord commanded him; and thus gave a
   signal proof of his obsequiousness to his God, to shame the
   stubbornness of a disobedient people: the toil of his journey would be
   very proper to signify both the pains they took to corrupt themselves
   with their idolatries and the sad fatigue of their captivity; and
   Euphrates being the river of Babylon, which was to be the place of
   their bondage, was a material circumstance in this sign.

   II. The thing signified by this sign. The prophet was willing to be at
   any cost and pains to affect this people with the word of the Lord.
   Ministers must spend, and be spent, for the good of souls. We have the
   explanation of this sign, v. 9-11.

   1. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle in two
   respects:--(1.) He had taken them into covenant and communion with
   himself: As the girdle cleaves very closely to the loins of a man and
   surrounds him, so have I caused to cleave to me the houses of Israel
   and Judah. They were a people near to God (Ps. cxlviii. 14); they were
   his own, a peculiar people to him, a kingdom of priests that had access
   to him above other nations. He caused them to cleave to him by the law
   he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours which in
   his providence he showed them. He required their stated attendance in
   the courts of his house, and the frequent ratification of their
   covenant with him by sacrifices. Thus they were made so as to cleave to
   him that one would think they could never have been parted. (2.) He had
   herein designed his own honour. When he took them to be to him for a
   people, it was that they might be to him for a name, and for a praise,
   and for a glory, as a girdle is an ornament to a man, and particularly
   the curious girdle of the ephod was to the high-priest for glory and
   for beauty. Note, Those whom God takes to be to him for a people he
   intends to be to him for a praise. [1.] It is their duty to honour him,
   by observing his institutions and aiming therein at his glory, and thus
   adorning their profession. [2.] It is their happiness that he reckons
   himself honoured in them and by them. He is pleased with them, and
   glories in his relation to them, while they behave themselves as become
   his people. He was pleased to take it among the titles of his honour to
   be the God of Israel, even a God to Israel, 1 Chron. xvii. 24. In vain
   do we pretend to be to God for a people if we be not to him for a
   praise.

   2. They had by their idolatries and other iniquities loosed themselves
   from him, thrown themselves at a distance, robbed him of the honour
   they owed him, buried themselves in the earth, and foreign earth too,
   mingled among the nations, and were so spoiled and corrupted that they
   were good for nothing: they could no more be to God, as they were
   designed, for a name and a praise, for they would not hear either their
   duty to do it or their privilege to value it: They refused to hear the
   words of God, by which they might have been kept still cleaving closely
   to him. They walked in the imagination of their heart, wherever their
   fancy led them; and denied themselves no gratification they had a mind
   to, particularly in their worship. They would not cleave to God, but
   walked after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them; they doted
   upon the gods of the heathen nations that lay towards Euphrates, so
   that they were quite spoiled for the service of their own God, and were
   as this girdle, this rotten girdle, a disgrace to their profession and
   not an ornament. A thousand pities it was that such a girdle should be
   so spoiled, that such a people should so wretchedly degenerate.

   3. God would by his judgments separate them from him, send them into
   captivity, deface all their beauty and ruin their excellency, so that
   they should be like a fine girdle gone to rags, a worthless, useless,
   despicable people. God will after this manner mar the pride of Judah,
   and the great pride of Jerusalem. He would strip them of all that which
   was the matter of their pride, of which they boasted and in which they
   trusted; it should not only be sullied and stained, but quite
   destroyed, like this linen girdle. Observe, He speaks of the pride of
   Judah (the country people were proud of their holy land, their good
   land), but of the great pride of Jerusalem; there the temple was, and
   the royal palace, and therefore those citizens were more proud than the
   inhabitants of other cities. God takes notice of the degrees of men's
   pride, the pride of some and the great pride of others; and he will mar
   it, he will stain it. Pride will have a fall, for God resists the
   proud. He will either mar the pride that is in us (that is, mortify it
   by his grace, make us ashamed of it, and, like Hezekiah, humble us for
   the pride of our hearts, the great pride, and cure us of it, great as
   it is; and this marring of the pride will be making of the soul; happy
   for us if the humbling providences our hearts be humbled) or else he
   will mar the thing we are proud of. Parts, gifts, learning, power,
   external privileges, if we are proud of these, it is just with God to
   blast them; even the temple, when it became Jerusalem's pride, was
   marred and laid in ashes. It is the honour of God to took upon every
   one that is proud and abase him.

The Bottles Filled with Wine; Punishment Predicted; A Call to Repentance. (b.
c. 606.)

   12 Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the Lord
   God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall
   say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be
   filled with wine?   13 Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the
   kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets,
   and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.   14 And I will
   dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,
   saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy
   them.   15 Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath
   spoken.   16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness,
   and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye
   look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross
   darkness.   17 But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret
   places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with
   tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive.   18 Say unto
   the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your
   principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.   19 The
   cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah
   shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried
   away captive.   20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from
   the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
     21 What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught
   them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take
   thee, as a woman in travail?

   Here is, I. A judgment threatened against this people that would quite
   intoxicate them. This doom is pronounced against them in a figure, to
   make it the more taken notice of and the more affecting (v. 12): Thus
   saith the Lord God of Israel, every bottle shall be filled with wine;
   that is, those that by their sins have made themselves vessels of wrath
   fitted to destruction shall be filled with the wrath of God as a bottle
   is with wine; and, as every vessel of mercy prepared for glory shall be
   filled with mercy and glory, so they shall be full of the fury of the
   Lord (Isa. li. 20); and they shall be brittle as bottles; and, like old
   bottles into which new wine is put, they shall burst and be broken to
   pieces, Matt. ix. 17. Or, They shall have their heads as full of wine
   as bottle are; for so it is explained, v. 13, They shall be filled with
   drunkenness; compare Isa. li. 17. It is probable that this was a common
   proverb among them, applied in various ways; but they, not being aware
   of the prophet's meaning in it, ridiculed him for it: "Do we not
   certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? What
   strange thing is there in that? Tell us something that we did not know
   before." Perhaps they were thus touchy with the prophet because they
   apprehended this to be a reflection upon them for their drunkenness,
   and probably it was in part so intended. They loved flagons of wine,
   Hos. iii. 1. Their watchmen were all for wine, Isa. lvi. 12. They loved
   their false prophets that prophesied to them of wine (Mic. ii. 11),
   that bade them be merry, for that they should never want their bottle
   to make them so. "Well," says the prophet, "you shall have your bottles
   full of wine, but not such wine as you desire." They suspected that he
   had some mystical meaning in it which prophesied no good concerning
   them, but evil; and he owns that so he had. What he meant was this,

   1. That they should be a giddy as men in drink. A drunken man is fitly
   compared to a bottle or cask full of wine; for, when the wine is in,
   the wit, and wisdom, and virtue, and all that is good for any thing,
   are out. Now God threatens (v. 13) that shall they shall all be filled
   with drunkenness; they shall be full of confusion in their counsels,
   shall falter in all their talk and stagger in all their motions; they
   shall not know what they say or do, much less what they should say or
   do. They shall be sick of all their enjoyments and throw them up as
   drunken men do, Job xx. 15. They shall fall into a slumber, and be
   utterly unable to help themselves, and, like men that have drunk away
   their reason, shall lie at the mercy and expose themselves to the
   contempt of all about them. And this shall be the condition not of some
   among them (if any had been sober, they might have helped the rest),
   but even the kings that sit upon the throne of David, that should have
   been like their father David, who was wise as an angel of God, shall be
   thus intoxicated. Their priests and prophets too, their false prophets,
   that pretended to guide them, were as indulgent of their lusts, and
   therefore were justly as much deprived of their senses, as any other.
   Nay, all the inhabitants, both of the land and of Jerusalem were as far
   gone as they. Whom God will destroy he infatuates.

   2. That, being giddy, they should run upon one another. The cup of the
   wine of the Lord's fury shall throw them not only into a lethargy, so
   that they shall not be able to help themselves or one another, but into
   a perfect frenzy, so that they shall do mischief to themselves and one
   another (v. 14): I will dash a man against his brother. Not only their
   drunken follies, but their drunken frays, shall help to ruin them.
   Drunken men are often quarrelsome, and upon that account they have woe
   and sorrow (Prov. xxiii. 29, 30); so their sin is their punishment; it
   was so here. God sent an evil spirit into families and neighbourhoods
   (as Judg. ix. 23), which made them jealous of, and spiteful towards,
   one another; so that the fathers and sons went together by the ears,
   and were ready to pull one another to pieces, which made them all an
   easy prey to the common enemy. This decree against them having gone
   forth, God says, I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but
   destroy them; for they will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but
   destroy one another; see Hab. ii. 15, 16.

   II. Here is good counsel given, which, if taken, would prevent this
   desolation. It is, in short, to humble themselves under the mighty hand
   of God. If they will hearken and give ear, this is that which God has
   to say to them, Be not proud, v. 15. This was one of the sins for which
   God had a controversy with them (v. 9); let them mortify and forsake
   this sin, and God will let fall his controversy. "Be not proud.; when
   God speaks to you by his prophets do not think yourselves too good to
   be taught; be not scornful, be not wilful, let not your hearts rise
   against the word, nor slight the messengers that bring it to you. When
   God is coming forth against you in his providence (and by them he
   speaks) be not secure when he threatens, be not impatient when he
   strikes, for pride is at the bottom of both." It is the great God that
   has spoken, whose authority is incontestable, whose power is
   irresistible; therefore bow to what he says, and be not proud, as you
   have been. They must not be proud, for,

   1. They must advance God, and study how to do him honour: "Give glory
   to the Lord your God, and not to your idols, not to other gods. Give
   him glory by confessing your sins, owning yourselves guilty before him,
   and accepting the punishment of your iniquity, v. 16. Give him glory by
   a sincere repentance and reformation." Then and not till then, we begin
   to live as we should, and to some good purpose, when we begin to give
   glory to the Lord our God, to make his honour our chief end and to seek
   it accordingly. "Do this quickly, while your space to repent is
   continued to you; before he cause darkness, before you will see no way
   of escaping." Note, Darkness will be the portion of those that will not
   repent to give glory to God. When those that by the fourth vial were
   scorched with heat repented not, to give glory to God, the next vial
   filled them with darkness, Rev. xvi. 9, 10. The aggravation of the
   darkness here threatened is, (1.) That their attempts to escape shall
   hasten their ruin: Their feet shall stumble when they are making all
   the haste they can over the dark mountains, and they shall fall, and be
   unable to get up again. Note, Those that think to out-run the judgments
   of God will find their road impassable; let them make the best of their
   way, they can make nothing of it, the judgments that pursue them will
   overtake them; their way is dark and slippery, Ps. xxxv. 6. And
   therefore, before it comes to that extremity, it is our wisdom to give
   glory to him, and so make our peace with him, to fly to his mercy, and
   then there will be no occasion to fly from his justice. (2.) That their
   hopes of a better state of things will be disappointed: While you look
   for light, for comfort and relief, he will turn it into the shadow of
   death, which is very dismal and terrible, and make it gross darkness,
   like that of Egypt, when Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, which
   was darkness that might be felt. The expectation of impenitent sinners
   perishes when they die and think to have it satisfied.

   2. They must abase themselves, and take shame to themselves; the
   prerogative of the king and queen will not exempt them from this (v.
   18): "Say to the king and queen, that, great as they are, they must
   humble themselves by true repentance, and so give both glory to God and
   a good example to their subjects." Note, Those that are exalted above
   others in the world must humble themselves before God, who is higher
   than the highest, and to whom kings and queens are accountable. They
   must humble themselves, and sit down--sit down, and consider what is
   coming--sit down in the dust, and lament themselves. Let them humble
   themselves, for God will otherwise take an effectual course to humble
   them: "Your principalities shall come down, the honour and power on
   which you value yourselves and in which you confide, even the crown of
   your glory, your goodly or glorious crown: when you are led away
   captives, where will your principality and all the badges of it be
   then?" Blessed be God there is a crown of glory, which those shall
   inherit who do humble themselves, that shall never come down.

   III. This counsel is enforced by some arguments if they continue proud
   and unhumbled.

   1. It will be the prophet's unspeakable grief (v. 17): "If you will not
   hear it, will not submit to the word, but continue refractory, not only
   my eye, but my soul shall weep in secret places." Note, The obstinacy
   of people, in refusing to hear the word of God, will be heart-breaking
   to the poor ministers, who know something of the terrors of the Lord
   and the worth of souls, and are so far from desiring that they tremble
   at the thoughts of the death of sinners. His grief for it was
   undissembled (his soul wept) and void of affectation, for he chose to
   weep in secret places, where no eye saw him but his who is all eye. He
   would mingle his tears not only with his public preaching, but with his
   private devotions. Nay, thoughts of their case would make him
   melancholy, and he would become a perfect recluse. It would grieve him,
   (1.) To see their sins unrepented of: "My soul shall weep for your
   pride, your haughtiness, and stubbornness, and vain confidence." Note,
   The sins of others should be matter of sorrow to us. We must mourn for
   that which we cannot mend, and mourn the more for it because we cannot
   mend it. (2.) To see their calamity past redress and remedy: "My eyes
   shall weep sorely, not so much because my relations, friends, and
   neighbours are in distress, but because the Lord's flock, his people
   and the sheep of his pasture, are carried away captive." That should
   always grieve us most by which God's honour suffers and the interest of
   his kingdom is weakened.

   2. It will be their own inevitable ruin, v. 19-21. (1.) The land shall
   be laid waste: The cities of the south shall be shut up. The cities of
   Judah lay in the southern part of the land of Canaan; these shall be
   straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in or
   out, or they shall be deserted by the inhabitants, that there shall be
   none to go in and out. Some understand it of the cities of Egypt, which
   was south from Judah; the places there whence they expected succours
   shall fail them, and they shall find no access to them. (2.) The
   inhabitants shall be hurried away into a foreign country, there to live
   in slavery: Judah shall be carried away captive. Some were already
   carried off, which they hoped might serve to answer the prediction, and
   that the residue should still be left; but no: It shall be carried away
   all of it. God will make a full end with them: It shall be wholly
   carried away. So it was in the last captivity under Zedekiah, because
   they repented not. (3.) The enemy was now at hand that should do this
   (v. 20): "Lift up your eyes. I see upon their march, and you may if you
   will behold, those that come from the north, from the land of the
   Chaldeans; see how fast they advance, how fierce they appear." Upon
   this he addresses himself to the king, or rather (because the pronouns
   are feminine) to the city or state. [1.] "What will you do now with the
   people who are committed to your charge, and whom you ought to protect?
   Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? Whither
   canst thou take them now for shelter? How can they escape these
   ravening wolves?" Magistrates must look upon themselves as shepherds,
   and those that are under their charge as their flock, which they are
   entrusted with the care of and must give an account of; they must take
   delight in them as their beautiful flock, and consider what to do for
   their safety in times of public danger. Masters of families, who
   neglect their children and suffer them to perish for want of a good
   education, and ministers who neglect their people, should think they
   hear God putting this question to them: Where is the flock that was
   given thee to feed, that beauteous flock? It is starved; it is left
   exposed to the beasts of prey. What account wilt thou give of them when
   the chief shepherd shall appear? [2.] "What have you to object against
   the equity of God's proceedings? What will thou say when he shall visit
   upon thee the former days? v. 21. Thou canst say nothing, but that God
   is just in all that is brought upon thee." Those that flatter
   themselves with hopes of impunity, what will they say? What confusion
   will cover their faces when they shall find themselves deceived and
   that God punishes them! [3.] "What thoughts will you now have of your
   own folly, in giving the Chaldeans such power over you, by seeking to
   them for assistance, and joining in league with them? Thus thou hast
   taught them against thyself to be captains and to become the head."
   Hezekiah began when he showed his treasures to the ambassadors of the
   king of Babylon, tempting him thereby to come and plunder him. Those
   who, having a God to trust to, court foreign alliances and confide in
   them, do but make rods for themselves and teach their neighbours how to
   become their masters. [4.] "How will you bear the trouble that is at
   the door? Shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail? Sorrows
   which thou canst not escape nor put off, extremity of sorrows; and in
   these respects more grievous than those of a woman in travail that they
   were not expected before, and that there is no manchild to be born, the
   joy of which shall make them afterwards to be forgotten."

Punishment Predicted; Causes of Jerusalem's Ruin. (b. c. 606.)

   22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me?
   For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy
   heels made bare.   23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard
   his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
   24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by
   the wind of the wilderness.   25 This is thy lot, the portion of thy
   measures from me, saith the Lord; because thou hast forgotten me, and
   trusted in falsehood.   26 Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon
   thy face, that thy shame may appear.   27 I have seen thine adulteries,
   and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations
   on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not
   be made clean? when shall it once be?

   Here is, I. Ruin threatened as before, that the Jews shall go into
   captivity, and fall under all the miseries of beggary and bondage,
   shall be stripped of their clothes, their skirts discovered for want of
   upper garments to cover them, and their heels made bare for want of
   shoes, v. 22. Thus they used to deal with prisoners taken in war, when
   they drove them into captivity, naked and barefoot, Isa. xx. 4. Being
   thus carried off into a strange country, they shall be scattered there,
   as the stubble that is blown away by the wind of the wilderness, and
   nobody is concerned to bring it together again, v. 24. If the stubble
   escape the fire, it shall be carried away by the wind. If one judgment
   do not do the work, another shall, with those that by sin have made
   themselves as stubble. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments
   and exposed to shame, as harlots that are carted, v. 26. They made
   their pride appear, but God will make their shame appear; so that those
   who have doted on them shall be ashamed of them.

   II. An enquiry made by the people into the cause of this ruin, v. 22.
   Thou wilt say in thy heart (and God knows how to give a proper answer
   to what men say in their hearts, though they do not speak it out;
   Jesus, knowing their thoughts, replied to them, Matt. ix. 4), Wherefore
   came these things upon me? The question is supposed to come into the
   heart, 1. Of a sinner quarrelling with God and refusing to receive
   correction. They could not see that they had done any thing which might
   justly provoke God to be thus angry with them. They durst not speak it
   out; but in their hearts they thus charged God with unrighteousness, if
   he had laid upon them more than was meet. They seek for the cause of
   their calamities, when, if they had not been willfully blind, they
   might easily have seen it. Or, 2. Of a sinner returning to God. If
   there come but a penitent thought into the heart at any time (saying,
   What have I done? ch. viii. 6, wherefore am I in affliction? why doth
   God contend with me?) God takes notice of it, and is ready by his
   Spirit to impress the conviction, that, sin being discovered, it may be
   repented of.

   III. An answer to this enquiry. God will be justified when he speaks
   and will oblige us to justify him, and therefore will set the sin of
   sinners in order before them. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things
   upon us? Let them know it is all owing to themselves.

   1. It is for the greatness of their iniquities, v. 22. God does not
   take advantage against them for small faults; no, the sins for which he
   now punishes them are of the first rate, very heinous in their own
   nature and highly aggravated--for the multitude of thy iniquity (so it
   may be read), sins of every kind and often repeated and relapsed into.
   Some think we are more in danger from the multitude of our smaller sins
   than from the heinousness of our greater sins; of both we may say, Who
   can understand his errors?

   2. It is for their obstinacy in sin, their being so long accustomed to
   it that there was little hope left of their being reclaimed from it (v.
   23): Can the Ethiopian change his skin, that is by nature black, or the
   leopard his spots, that are even woven into the skin? Dirt contracted
   may be washed off, but we cannot alter the natural colour of a hair
   (Matt. v. 36), much less of the skin; and so impossible is it, morally
   impossible, to reclaim and reform these people. (1.) They had been long
   accustomed to do evil. They were taught to do evil; they had been
   educated and brought up in sin; they had served an apprenticeship to
   it, and had all their days made a trade of it. It was so much their
   constant practice that it had become a second nature to them. (2.)
   Their prophets therefore despaired of ever bring them to do good. This
   was what they aimed at; they persuaded them to cease to do evil and
   learn to do well, but could not prevail. They had so long been used to
   do evil that it was next to impossible for them to repent, and amend,
   and begin to do good. Note, Custom in sin is a very great hindrance to
   conversion from sin. The disease that is inveterate is generally
   thought incurable. Those that have been long accustomed to sin have
   shaken off the restraint of fear and shame; their consciences are
   seared; the habits of sin are confirmed; it pleads prescription; and it
   is just with God to give those up to their own hearts' lusts that have
   long refused to give themselves up to his grace. Sin is the blackness
   of the soul, the deformity of it; it is its spot, the discolouring of
   it; it is natural to us, we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get
   clear of it by any power of our own. But there is an almighty grace
   that is able to change the Ethiopian's skin, and that grace shall not
   be wanting to those who in a sense of their need of it seek it
   earnestly and improve it faithfully.

   3. It is for their treacherous departures from the God of truth and
   dependence on lying vanities (v. 25): "This is thy lot, to be scattered
   and driven away; this is the portion of thy measures from me, the
   punishment assigned thee as by line and measure; this shall be thy
   share of the miseries of this world; expect it, and think not to escape
   it: it is because thou hast forgotten me, the favours I have bestowed
   upon thee and the obligations thou art under to me; thou hast no sense,
   no remembrance, of these." Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all
   sin, as the remembrance of our Creator betimes is the happy and hopeful
   beginning of a holy life. "Having forgotten me, thou hast trusted in
   falsehood, in idols, in an arm of flesh in Egypt and Assyria, in the
   self-flatteries of a deceitful heart." Whatever those trust to that
   forsake God, they will find it a broken reed, a broken cistern.

   4. It is for their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, that sin which
   is of all sins most provoking to the jealous God. They are exposed to a
   shameful calamity (v. 26) because they have been guilty of a shameful
   iniquity and yet are shameless in it (v. 27): "I have seen thy
   adulteries (thy inordinate fancy for strange gods, which thou hast been
   impatient for the gratification of, and hast even neighed after it),
   even the lewdness of thy whoredoms, thy impudence and insatiableness in
   them, thy eager worshipping of idols on the hills in the fields, upon
   the high places. This is that for which a woe is denounced against
   thee, O Jerusalem! nay, and many woes."

   IV. Here is an affectionate expostulation with them, in the close, upon
   the whole matter. Though it was adjudged next to impossible for them to
   be brought to do good (v. 23), yet while there is life there is hope,
   and therefore still he reasons with them to bring them to repentance,
   v. 27. 1. He reasons with them concerning the thing itself: Wilt thou
   not be made clean? Note, It is the great concern of those who are
   polluted by sin to be made clean by repentance, and faith, and a
   universal reformation. The reason why sinners are not made clean is
   because they will not be made clean; and herein they act most
   unreasonably: "Wilt thou not be made clean? Surely thou will at length
   be persuaded to wash thee, and make thee clean, and so be wise for
   thyself." 2. Concerning the time of it: When shall it once be? Note, It
   is an instance of the wonderful grace of God that he desires the
   repentance and conversion of sinners, and thinks the time long till
   they are brought to relent; but it is an instance of the wonderful
   folly of sinners that they put that off from time to time which is of
   such absolute necessity that, if it be not done some time, they are
   certainly undone for ever. They do not say that they will never be
   cleansed, but not yet; they will defer it to a more convenient season,
   but cannot tell us when it shall once be.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XIV.

   This chapter was penned upon occasion of a great drought, for want of
   rain. This judgment began in the latter end of Josiah's reign, but, as
   it should seem, continued in the beginning of Jehoiakim's: for less
   judgments are sent to give warning of greater coming, if not prevented
   by repentance. This calamity was mentioned several times before, but
   here, in this chapter, more fully. Here is, I. A melancholy description
   of it, ver. 1-6. II. A prayer to God to put an end to this calamity and
   to return in mercy to their land, ver. 7-9. III. A severe threatening
   that God would proceed in his controversy, because they proceeded in
   their iniquity, ver. 10-12. IV. The prophet's excusing the people, by
   laying the blame on their false prophets; and the doom passed both on
   the deceivers and the deceived, ver. 13-16. V. Directions given to the
   prophet, instead of interceding for them, to lament them; but his
   continuing notwithstanding to intercede for them, ver. 17-22.

Lamentation Caused by a Great Drought; Prayer for Mercy; Pleading with God.
(b. c. 606.)

   1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.   2
   Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the
   ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.   3 And their nobles have
   sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found
   no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and
   confounded, and covered their heads.   4 Because the ground is chapt,
   for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they
   covered their heads.   5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and
   forsook it, because there was no grass.   6 And the wild asses did
   stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their
   eyes did fail, because there was no grass.   7 O Lord, though our
   iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our
   backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.   8 O the hope of
   Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be
   as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to
   tarry for a night?   9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a
   mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us,
   and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

   The first verse is the title of the whole chapter: it does indeed all
   concern the dearth, but much of it consists of the prophet's prayers
   concerning it; yet these are not unfitly said to be, The word of the
   Lord which came to him concerning it, for every acceptable prayer is
   that which God puts into our hearts; nothing is our word that comes to
   him but what is first his word that comes from him. In these verses we
   have,

   I. The language of nature lamenting the calamity. When the heavens were
   as brass, and distilled no dews, the earth was as iron, and produced no
   fruits; and then the grief and confusion were universal. 1. The people
   of the land were all in tears. Destroy their vines and their fig-trees
   and you cause all their mirth to cease, Hos. ii. 11, 12. All their joy
   fails with the joy of harvest, with that of their corn and wine. Judah
   mourns (v. 2), not for the sin, but for the trouble--for the
   withholding of the rain, not for the withdrawing of God's favour. The
   gates thereof, all that go in and out at their gates, languish, look
   pale, and grow feeble, for want of the necessary supports of life and
   for fear of the further fatal consequences of this judgment. The gates,
   through which supplies of corn formerly used to be brought into their
   cities, now look melancholy, when, instead of that, the inhabitants are
   departing through them to seek for bread in other countries. Even those
   that sit in the gates languish; they are black unto the ground, they go
   in black as mourners and sit on the ground, as the poor beggars at the
   gates are black in the face for want of food, blacker than a coal, Lam.
   iv. 8. Famine is represented by a black horse, Rev. vi. 5. They fall to
   the ground through weakness, not being able to go along the streets.
   The cry of Jerusalem has gone up; that is, of the citizens (for the
   city is served by the field), or of people from all parts of the
   country met at Jerusalem to pray for rain; so some. But I fear it was
   rather the cry of their trouble, and the cry of their prayer. 2. The
   great men of the land felt from this judgment (v. 3): The nobles sent
   their little ones to the water, perhaps their own children, having been
   forced to part with their servants because they had not wherewithal to
   keep them, and being willing to train up their children, when they were
   little, to labour, especially in a case of necessity, as this was. We
   find Ahab and Obadiah, the king and the lord chamberlain of his
   household, in their own persons, seeking for water in such a time of
   distress as this was, 1 Kings xviii. 5, 6. Or, rather, their meaner
   ones, their servants and inferior officers; these they sent to seek for
   water, which there is no living without; but there was none to be
   found: They returned with their vessels empty; the springs were dried
   up when there was no rain to feed them; and then they (their masters
   that sent them) were ashamed and confounded at the disappointment. They
   would not be ashamed of their sins, nor confounded at the sense of
   them, but were unhumbled under the reproofs of the word, thinking their
   wealth and dignity set them above repentance; but God took a course to
   make them ashamed of that which they were so proud of, when they found
   that even on this side hell their nobility would not purchase them a
   drop of water to cool their tongue. Let our reading the account of this
   calamity make us thankful for the mercy of water, that we may not by
   the feeling of the calamity be taught to value it. What is most needful
   is most plentiful. 3. The husbandmen felt most sensibly and immediately
   from it (v. 4): The ploughmen were ashamed, for the ground was so
   parched and hard that it would not admit the plough even when it was so
   chapt and cleft that it seemed as if it did not need the plough. They
   were ashamed to be idle, for there was nothing to be done, and
   therefore nothing to be expected. The sluggard, that will not plough by
   reason of cold, is not ashamed of his own folly; but the diligent
   husbandman, that cannot plough by reason of heat, is ashamed of his own
   affliction. See what an immediate dependence husbandmen have upon the
   divine Providence, which therefore they should always have an eye to,
   for they cannot plough nor sow in hope unless God water their furrows,
   Ps. lxv. 10. 4. The case even of the wild beasts was very pitiable, v.
   5, 6. Man's sin brings those judgments upon the earth which make even
   the inferior creatures groan: and the prophet takes notice of this as a
   plea with God for mercy. Judah and Jerusalem have sinned, but the hinds
   and the wild asses, what have they done? The hinds are pleasant
   creatures, lovely and loving, and particularly tender of their young;
   and yet such is the extremity of the case that, contrary to the
   instinct of their nature, they leave their young, even when they are
   newly calved and most need them, to seek for grass elsewhere; and, if
   they can find none, they abandon them, because not able to suckle them.
   It grieved not the hind so much that she had no grass herself as that
   she had none for her young, which will shame those who spend that upon
   their lusts which they should preserve for their families. The hind,
   when she has brought forth her young, is said to have cast forth her
   sorrows (Job xxxix. 3), and yet she continues her cares; but, as it
   follows there, she soon sees the good effect of them, for her young
   ones in a little while grow up, and trouble her no more, v. 4. But here
   the great trouble of all is that she has nothing for them. Nay, one
   would be sorry even for the wild asses (though they are creatures that
   none have any great affection for); for, though the barren land is made
   their dwelling at the best (Job xxxix. 5, 6), yet even that is now made
   too hot for them, so hot that they cannot breathe in it, but they get
   to the highest places they can reach, where the air is coolest, and
   snuff up the wind like dragons, like those creatures which, being very
   hot, are continually panting for breath. Their eyes fail, and so does
   their strength, because there is no grass to support them. The tame
   ass, that serves her owner, is welcome to his crib (Isa. i. 3) and has
   her keeping for her labour, when the wild ass, that scorns the crying
   of the driver, is forced to live upon air, and is well enough served
   for not serving. He that will not labour, let him not eat.

   II. Here is the language of grace, lamenting the iniquity, and
   complaining to God of the calamity. The people are not forward to pray,
   but the prophet here prays for them, and so excites them to pray for
   themselves, and puts words into their mouths, which they may make use
   of, in hopes to speed, v. 7-9. In this prayer, 1. Sin is humbly
   confessed. When we come to pray for the preventing or removing of any
   judgment we must always acknowledge that our iniquities testify against
   us. Our sins are witnesses against us, and true penitents see them to
   be such. They testify, for they are plain and evident; we cannot deny
   the charge. They testify against us, for our conviction, which tends to
   our present shame and confusion, and our future condemnation. They
   disprove and overthrow all our pleas for ourselves; and so not only
   accuse us, but answer against us. If we boast of our own excellencies,
   and trust to our own righteousness, our iniquities testify against us,
   and prove us perverse. If we quarrel with God as dealing unjustly or
   unkindly with us in afflicting us, our iniquities testify against us
   that we do him wrong; "for our backslidings are many and our revolts
   are great, whereby we have sinned against thee--too numerous to be
   concealed, for they are many, too heinous to be excused, for they are
   against thee." 2. Mercy is earnestly begged: "Though our iniquities
   testify against us, and against the granting of the favour which the
   necessity of our case calls for, yet do thou it." They do not say
   particularly what they would have done; but, as becomes penitents and
   beggars, they refer the matter to God: "Do with us as thou thinkest
   fit," Judg. x. 15. Not, Do thou it in this way or at this time, but "Do
   thou it for thy name's sake; do that which will be most for the glory
   of thy name." Note, Our best pleas in prayer are those that are fetched
   from the glory of God's own name. "Lord, do it, that thy mercy may be
   magnified, thy promise fulfilled, and thy interest in the world kept
   up; we have nothing to plead in ourselves, but every thing in thee."
   There is another petition in this prayer, and it is a very modest one
   (v. 9): "Leave us not, withdraw not thy favour and presence." Note, We
   should dread and deprecate God's departure from us more than the
   removal of any or all our creature-comforts. 3. Their relation to God,
   their interest in him, and their expectations from him grounded
   thereupon, are most pathetically pleaded with him, v. 8, 9. (1.) They
   look upon him as one they have reason to think should deliver them when
   they are in distress, yea, though their iniquities testify against
   them; for in him mercy has often rejoiced against judgment. The
   prophet, like Moses of old, is willing to make the best he can of the
   case of his people, and therefore, though he must own that they have
   sinned many a great sin (Exod. xxxii. 31), yet he pleads, Thou art the
   hope of Israel. God has encouraged his people to hope in him; in
   calling himself so often the God of Israel, the rock of Israel, and the
   Holy One of Israel, he has made himself the hope of Israel. He has
   given Israel his word to hope in, and caused them to hope in it; and
   there are those yet in Israel that make God alone their hope, and
   expect he will be their Saviour in time of trouble, and they look not
   for salvation in any other; "Thou hast many a time been such, in the
   time of their extremity." Note, Since God is his people's
   all-sufficient Saviour, they ought to hope in him in their greatest
   straits; and, since he is their only Saviour, they ought to hope in him
   alone. They plead likewise, "Thou art in the midst of us; we have the
   special tokens of thy presence with us, thy temple, thy ark, thy
   oracles, and we are called by the name, the Israel of God; and
   therefore we have reason to hope thou wilt not leave us; we are thine,
   save us. Thy name is called upon us, and therefore what evils we are
   under reflect dishonour upon thee, as if thou wert not able to relieve
   thy own." The prophet had often told the people that their profession
   of religion would not protect them from the judgments of God; yet here
   he pleads it with God, as Moses, Exod. xxxii. 11. Even this may go far
   as to temporal punishments with a God of mercy. Valeat quantum valere
   potest--Let the plea avail as far as is proper. (2.) It therefore
   grieves them to think that he does not appear for their deliverance;
   and, though they do not charge it upon him as unrighteous, they humbly
   plead it with him why he should be gracious, for the glory of his own
   name. For otherwise he will seem, [1.] Unconcerned for his own people:
   What will the Egyptians say? they will say, "Israel's hope and Saviour
   does not mind them; he has become as a stranger in the land, that does
   not at all interest himself in its interests; his temple, which he
   called his rest for ever, is no more so, but he is in it as a wayfaring
   man, that turns aside to tarry but for a night in an inn, which he
   never enquires into the affairs of, nor is in any care about." Though
   God never is, yet he sometimes seems to be, as if he cared not what
   became of his church: Christ slept when his disciples were in storm.
   [2.] Incapable of giving them any relief. The enemies once said,
   Because the Lord was not able to bring his people to Canaan, he let
   them perish in the wilderness (Num. xiv. 16); so now they will say,
   "Either his wisdom or his power fails him; either he is as a man
   astonished (who, though he has the reason of a man, yet, being
   astonished, is quite at a loss and at his wits' end) or as a mighty man
   who is overpowered by such as are more mighty, and therefore cannot
   save; though mighty, yet a man, and therefore having his power
   limited." Either of these would be a most insufferable reproach to the
   divine perfections; and therefore, why has the God that we are sure is
   in the midst of us become as a stranger? Why does the almighty God seem
   as if he were no more than a mighty man, who, when he is astonished,
   though he would, yet cannot save? It becomes us in prayer to show
   ourselves concerned more for God's glory than for our own comfort.
   Lord, what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

Divine Threatenings. (b. c. 606.)

   10 Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to
   wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not
   accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
     11 Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their
   good.   12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they
   offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I
   will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the
   pestilence.   13 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say
   unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine;
   but I will give you assured peace in this place.   14 Then the Lord
   said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not,
   neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy
   unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the
   deceit of their heart.   15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning
   the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they
   say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine
   shall those prophets be consumed.   16 And the people to whom they
   prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the
   famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them,
   their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their
   wickedness upon them.

   The dispute between God and his prophet, in this chapter, seems to be
   like that between the owner and the dresser of the vineyard concerning
   the barren fig-tree, Luke xiii. 7. The justice of the owner condemns it
   to be cut down; the clemency of the dresser intercedes for a reprieve.
   Jeremiah had been earnest with God, in prayer, to return in mercy to
   this people. Now here,

   I. God overrules the plea which he had offered in their favour, and
   shows him that it would not hold. In answer to it thus he says
   concerning this people, v. 10. He does not say, concerning my people,
   for he disowns them, because they had broken covenant with him. It is
   true they were called by his name, and had the tokens of his presence
   among them; but they had sinned, and provoked God to withdraw. This the
   prophet had owned, and had hoped to obtain mercy for them,
   notwithstanding this, through intercession and sacrifice; therefore God
   here tells him, 1. That they were not duly qualified for a pardon. The
   prophet had owned that their backslidings were many; and, though they
   were so, yet there was hope for them if they returned. But this people
   show no disposition at all to return; they have wandered, and they have
   loved to wander; their backslidings have been their choice and their
   pleasure, which should have been their shame and pain, and therefore
   they will be their ruin. They cannot expect God should take up his rest
   with them when they take such delight in going astray from him after
   their idols. It is not through necessity or inadvertency that they
   wander, but they love to wander. Sinners are wanderers from God; their
   wanderings forfeit God's favour, but it is their loving to wander that
   quite cuts them off from it. They were told what their wanderings would
   come to that one sin would hurry them on to another, and all to ruin;
   and yet they have not taken warning and refrained their feet. So far
   were they from returning to their God that neither his prophets nor his
   judgments could prevail upon them to give themselves the least check in
   a sinful pursuit. This is that for which God is now reckoning with
   them. When he denies them rain from heaven he is remembering their
   iniquity and visiting their sin; that is it for which their fruitful
   land is thus turned into barrenness. 2. That they had no reason to
   expect that the God they had rejected should accept them; no, not
   though they betook themselves to fasting and prayer and put themselves
   to the expense of burnt-offerings and sacrifice: The Lord doth not
   accept them, v. 10. He takes no pleasure in them (so the word is); for
   what pleasure can the holy God take in those that take pleasure in his
   rivals, in any service, in any society, rather than his? "When they
   fast (v. 12), which is a proper expression of repentance and
   reformation,--when they offer a burnt offering and an oblation, which
   was designed to be an expression of faith in a Mediator,--though their
   prayers be thus enforced, and offered up in those vehicles that used to
   be acceptable, yet, because they do not proceed from humble, penitent,
   and renewed hearts, but still they love to wander, therefore I will not
   hear their cry, be it ever so loud; nor will I accept them, neither
   their persons nor their performances." It had been long since declared,
   The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; and those
   only are accepted that do well, Gen. iv. 7. 3. That they had forfeited
   all benefit by the prophet's prayers for them because they had not
   regarded his preaching to them. This is the meaning of that repeated
   prohibition given to the prophet (v. 11): Pray not thou for this people
   for their good, as before, ch. vii. 15; xi. 14. This did not forbid him
   thus to express his good-will to them (Moses continued to intercede for
   Israel after God had said, Let me alone, Exod. xxxii. 10), but it
   forbade them to expect any good effect from it as long as they turned
   away their ear from hearing the law. Thus was the doom of the
   impenitent ratified, as that of Saul's rejection was by that word to
   Samuel, When wilt thou cease to mourn for Saul? It therefore follows
   (v. 12), I will consume them, not only by this famine, but by the
   further sore judgments of sword and pestilence; for God has many arrows
   in his quiver, and those that will not be convinced and reclaimed by
   one shall be consumed by another.

   II. The prophet offers another plea in excuse for the people's
   obstinacy, and it is but an excuse, but he was willing to say whatever
   their case would bear; it is this, That the prophets, who pretended a
   commission from heaven, imposed upon them, and flattered them with
   assurances of peace though they went on in their sinful way, v. 13. He
   speaks of it with lamentation: "Ah! Lord God, the poor people seem
   willing to take notice of what comes in thy name, and there are those
   who in thy name tell them that they shall not see the sword nor famine;
   and they say it as from thee, with all the gravity and confidence of
   prophets: I will continue you in this place, and will give you assured
   peace here, peace of truth. I tell them the contrary; but I am one
   against many, and every one is apt to credit that which makes for them;
   therefore, Lord, pity and spare them, for their leaders cause them to
   err." This excuse would have been of some weight if they had not had
   warning given them, before, of false prophets, and rules by which to
   distinguish them; so that if they were deceived it was entirely their
   own fault. But this teaches us, as far as we can with truth, to make
   the best of bad, and judge as charitably of others as their case will
   bear.

   III. God not only overrules this plea, but condemns both the blind
   leaders and the blind followers to fall together into the ditch. 1. God
   disowns the flatteries (v. 14): They prophesy lies in my name. They had
   no commission from God to prophesy at all: I neither sent them, nor
   commanded them, nor spoke unto them. They never were employed to go on
   any errand at all from God; he never made himself known to them, much
   less by them to the people; never any word of the Lord came to them, no
   call, no warrant, no instruction, much less did he send them on this
   errand, to rock them asleep in security. No; men may flatter
   themselves, and Satan may flatter them, but God never does. It is a
   false vision, and a thing of nought. Note, What is false and groundless
   is vain and worthless. The vision that is not true, be it ever so
   pleasing, is good for nothing; it is the deceit of their heart, a
   spider's web spun out of their own bowels, and in it they think to
   shelter themselves, but it will be swept away in a moment and prove a
   great cheat. Those that oppose their own thoughts of God's word (God
   indeed says so, but they think otherwise) walk in the deceit of their
   heart, and it will be their ruin. 2. He passes sentence upon the
   flatterers, v. 15. As for the prophets, who put this abuse upon the
   people by telling them they shall have peace, and this affront upon God
   by telling them so in God's name, let them know that they shall have no
   peace themselves. They shall fall first by those very judgments which
   they have flattered others with the hopes of an exemption from. They
   undertook to warrant people that sword and famine should not be in the
   land; but it shall soon appear how little their warrants are good for,
   when they themselves shall be cut off by sword and famine. How should
   they secure others or foretel peace to them when they cannot secure
   themselves, nor have such a foresight of their own calamities as to get
   out of the way of them? Note, The sorest punishment await those who
   promise sinners impunity in their sinful ways. 3. He lays the flattered
   under the same doom: The people to whom they prophesy lies, and who
   willingly suffer themselves to be thus imposed upon, shall die by sword
   and famine, v. 16. Note, The unbelief of the deceived, with all the
   falsehood of the deceivers, shall not make the divine threatenings of
   no effect; sword and famine will come, whatever they say to the
   contrary; and those will be least safe that are most secure. Impenitent
   sinners will not escape the damnation of hell by saying that they can
   never believe there is such a thing, but will feel what they will not
   fear. It is threatened that this people shall not only fall by sword
   and famine, but that they shall be as it were hanged up in chains, as
   monuments of that divine justice which they set at defiance; their
   bodies shall be cast out, even in the streets of Jerusalem, which of
   all places, one would think, should be kept clear from such nuisances:
   there they shall lie unburied; their nearest relations, who should do
   them that last office of love, being so poor that they cannot afford
   it, or so weakened with hunger that they are not able to attend it, or
   so overwhelmed with grief that they have no heart to it, or so
   destitute of natural affection that they will not pay them so much
   respect. Thus will God pour their wickedness upon them, that is, the
   punishment of their wickedness; the full vials of God's wrath shall be
   poured upon them, to which they have made themselves obnoxious. Note,
   When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble they must in it see their own
   wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the
   false prophets and of the people; the blind lead the blind, and both
   fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters
   one to another.

The Prophet's Intercession. (b. c. 606.)

   17 Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down
   with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin
   daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very
   grievous blow.   18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain
   with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are
   sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a
   land that they know not.   19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath
   thy soul loathed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no
   healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the
   time of healing, and behold trouble!   20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our
   wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against
   thee.   21 Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the
   throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.   22 Are
   there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or
   can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God?
   therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

   The present deplorable state of Judah and Jerusalem is here made the
   matter of the prophet's lamentation (v. 17, 18) and the occasion of his
   prayer and intercession for them (v. 19), and I am willing to hope that
   the latter, as well as the former, was by divine direction, and that
   these words (v. 17), Thus shalt thou say unto them (or concerning them,
   or in their hearing), refer to the intercession, as well as to the
   lamentation, and then it amounts to a revocation of the directions
   given to the prophet not to pray for them, v. 11. However, it is plain,
   by the prayers we find in these verses, that the prophet did not
   understand it as a prohibition, but only as a discouragement, like that
   1 John v. 16, I do not say he shall pray for that. Here,

   I. The prophet stands weeping over the ruins of his country; God
   directs him to do so, that, showing himself affected, he might, if
   possible, affect them with the foresight of the calamities that were
   coming upon them. Jeremiah must say it not only to himself, but to them
   too: Let my eyes run down with tears, v. 17. Thus he must signify to
   them that he certainly foresaw the sword coming, and another sort of
   famine, more grievous even than this which they were now groaning
   under; this was in the country for want of rain, that would be in the
   city through the straitness of the siege. The prophet speaks as if he
   already saw the miseries attending the descent which the Chaldeans made
   upon them: The virgin daughter of my people, that is as dear to me as a
   daughter to her father, is broken with a great breach, with a very
   grievous blow, much greater and more grievous than any she has yet
   sustained; for (v. 18) in the field multitudes lie dead that were slain
   by the sword, and in the city multitudes lie dying for want of food.
   Doleful spectacles! "The prophets and the priests, the false prophets
   that flattered them with their lies and the wicked priests that
   persecuted the true prophets, are now expelled their country, and go
   about either as prisoners and captives, whithersoever their conquerors
   lead them, or as fugitives and vagabonds, wherever they can find
   shelter and relief, in a land that they know not." Some understand this
   of the true prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, that were carried to Babylon
   with the rest. The prophet's eyes must run down with tears day and
   night, in prospect of this, that the people might be convinced, not
   only that this woeful day would infallibly come, and would be a very
   woeful day indeed, but that he was far from desiring it, and would as
   gladly have brought them messages of peace as their false prophets, if
   he might have had warrant from heaven to do it. Note, Because God,
   though he inflicts death on sinners, yet delights not in it, it becomes
   his ministers, though in his name they pronounce the death of sinners,
   yet sadly to lament it.

   II. He stands up to make intercession for them; for who knows but God
   will yet return and repent? While there is life there is hope, and room
   for prayer. And, though there were many among them who neither prayed
   themselves nor valued the prophet's prayers, yet there were some who
   were better affected, would join with him in his devotions, and set the
   seal of their Amen to them.

   1. He humbly expostulates with God concerning the present
   deplorableness of their case, v. 19. It was very sad, for, (1.) Their
   expectations from their God failed them; they thought he had avouched
   Judah to be his, but now, it seems, he has utterly rejected it, and
   cast it off, will not own any relation to it nor concern for it. They
   thought Zion was the beloved of his soul, was his rest for ever; but
   now his soul even loathes Zion, loathes even the services there
   performed, for the sake of the sins there committed. (2.) Then no
   marvel that all their other expectations failed them: They were
   smitten, and their wounds were multiplied, but there was no healing for
   them; they looked for peace, because after a storm there usually comes
   a calm and fair weather, after a long fit of wet; but there was no
   good, things went still worse and worse. They looked for a healing
   time, but could not gain so much as a breathing time. "Behold, trouble
   at the door, by which we hoped peace would enter. And is it so then?
   Hast thou indeed rejected Judah? Justly thou mightest. Hath thy soul
   loathed Zion? We deserve it should. But wilt thou not at length in
   wrath remember mercy?"

   2. He makes a penitent confession of sin, speaking that language which
   they all should have spoken, though but few did (v. 20): "We
   acknowledge our wickedness, the abounding wickedness of our land and
   the iniquity of our fathers, which we have imitated, and therefore
   justly smart for. We know, we acknowledge, that we have sinned against
   thee, and therefore thou art just in all that is brought upon us; but,
   because we confess our sins, we hope to find thee faithful and just in
   forgiving our sins."

   3. He deprecates God's displeasure, and by faith appeals to his honour
   and promise, v. 21. His petition is, "Do not abhor us; though thou
   afflict us, do not abhor us; though thy hand by turned against us, let
   not thy heart be so, nor let thy mind be alienated from us." They own
   God might justly abhor them, they had rendered themselves odious in his
   eyes; yet, when they pray, Do not abhor us, they mean, "Receive us into
   favour again. Let not thy soul loathe Zion, v. 19. Let not our incense
   be an abomination." They appeal, (1.) To the honour of God, the honour
   of his scriptures, by which he has made himself known--his word, which
   he has magnified above all his name: "Do not abhor us, for thy name's
   sake, that the name of thine by which we are called and which we call
   upon." The honour of his sanctuary is pleaded: "Lord, do not abhor us,
   for that will disgrace the throne of thy glory" (the temple, which is
   called a glorious high throne from the beginning, ch. xvii. 12); let
   not that which has been the joy of the whole earth be made a hissing
   and an astonishment. We deserve to have disgrace put upon us, but let
   it not be so as to reflect upon thyself; let not the desolations of the
   temple give occasion to the heathen to reproach him that used to be
   worshipped there, as if he could not, or would not, protect it, or as
   if the gods of the Chaldeans had been too hard for him. Note, Good men
   lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer
   their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and
   those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched thence and great
   supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne
   of his glory on earth; nor will he eclipse the glory of his throne by
   one providence without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly
   than before, by another. God will be no loser in his honour at the
   long-run. (2.) To the promise of God; of this they are humbly bold to
   put him in mind: Remember thy covenant with us, and break not that
   covenant. Not that they had any distrust of his fidelity, or that they
   thought he needed to be put in mind of his promise to them, but what he
   had said he would plead with himself they take the liberty to plead
   with him. Then will I remember my covenant, Lev. xxvi. 42.

   4. He professes a dependence upon God for the mercy of rain, which they
   were now in want of, v. 22. If they have forfeited their interest in
   him as their God in covenant, yet they will not let go their hold on
   him as the God of nature. (1.) They will never make application to the
   idols of the heathen, for that would be foolish and fruitless: Are
   there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? No;
   in a time of great drought in Israel, Baal, though all Israel presented
   their prayers to him in the days of Ahab, could not relieve them; it
   was that God only who answered by fire that could answer by water too.
   (2.) They will not terminate their regards in second causes, nor expect
   supply from nature only: Can the heavens give showers? No, not without
   orders from the God of heaven; for it is he that has the key of the
   clouds, that opens the bottles of heaven and waters the earth from his
   chambers. But, (3.) All their expectation therefore is from him and
   their confidence in him: "Art not thou he, O Lord our God! from whom we
   may expect succour and to whom we must apply? Art thou not he that
   causest rain and givest showers? For thou hast made all these things;
   thou gavest them being, and therefore thou givest them law and hast
   them all at thy command; thou madest that moisture in nature which is
   in a constant circulation to serve the intentions of Providence, and
   thou directest it, and makest what use thou pleasest of it; therefore
   we will wait upon thee, and upon thee only; we will ask of the Lord
   rain, Zech. x. 1. We will trust in him to give it to us in due time,
   and be willing to tarry his time; it is fit that we should, and it will
   not be in vain to do so." Note, The sovereignty of God should engage,
   and his all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on him and our
   expectations from him at all times.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XV.

   When we left the prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, so
   pathetically poring out his prayers before God, we had reason to hope
   that in this chapter we should find God reconciled to the land and the
   prophet brought into a quiet composed frame; but, to our great
   surprise, we find it much otherwise as to both. I. Notwithstanding the
   prophet's prayers, God here ratifies the sentence given against the
   people, and abandons them to ruin turning a deaf ear to all the
   intercessions made for them, ver. 1-9. II. The prophet himself,
   notwithstanding the satisfaction he had in communion with God, still
   finds himself uneasy and out of temper. 1. He complains to God of his
   continual struggle with his persecutors, ver. 10. 2. God assures him
   that he shall be taken under special protection, though there was a
   general desolation coming upon the land, ver. 11-14. 3. He appeals to
   God concerning his sincerity in the discharge of his prophetic office
   and thinks it hard that he should not have more of the comfort of it,
   ver. 15-18. 4. Fresh security is given him that, upon condition he
   continue faithful, God will continue his care of him and his favour to
   him, ver. 19-21. And thus, at length, we hope he regained the
   possession of his own soul.

Sentence against Judah Confirmed; Destruction of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

   1 Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
   yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight,
   and let them go forth.   2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto
   thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith
   the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the
   sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and
   such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.   3 And I will appoint
   over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs
   to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to
   devour and destroy.   4 And I will cause them to be removed into all
   kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of
   Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.   5 For who shall have pity
   upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside
   to ask how thou doest?   6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou
   art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee,
   and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.   7 And I will fan them
   with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I
   will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.   8
   Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have
   brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at
   noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon
   the city.   9 She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up
   the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been
   ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the
   sword before their enemies, saith the Lord.

   We scarcely find any where more pathetic expressions of divine wrath
   against a provoking people than we have here in these verses. The
   prophet had prayed earnestly for them, and found some among them to
   join with him; and yet not so much as a reprieve was gained, nor the
   least mitigation of the judgment; but this answer is given to the
   prophet's prayers, that the decree had gone forth, was irreversible,
   and would shortly be executed. Observe here,

   I. What the sin was upon which this severe sentence was grounded. 1. It
   is in remembrance of a former iniquity; it is because of Manasseh, for
   that which he did in Jerusalem, v. 4. What that was we are told, and
   that it was for it that Jerusalem was destroyed, 2 Kings xxiv. 3, 4. It
   was for his idolatry, and the innocent blood which he shed, which the
   Lord would not pardon. He is called the son of Hezekiah because his
   relation to so good a father was a great aggravation of his sin, so far
   was it from being an excuse of it. The greatest part of a generation
   was worn off since Manasseh's time, yet his sin is brought into the
   account; as in Jerusalem's last ruin God brought upon it all the
   righteous blood shed on the earth, to show how heavy the guilt of blood
   will light and lie somewhere, sooner or later, and that reprieves are
   not pardons. 2. It is in consideration of their present impenitence.
   See how their sin is described (v. 6): "Thou hast forsaken me, my
   service and thy duty to me; thou hast gone backward into the ways of
   contradiction, art become the reverse of what thou shouldst have been
   and of what God by his law would have led thee forward to." See how the
   impenitence is described (v. 7): They return not from their ways, the
   ways of their own hearts, into the ways of God's commandments again.
   There is mercy for those who have turned aside if they will return; but
   what favour can those expect that persist in their apostasy?

   II. What the sentence is. It is such as denotes no less than an utter
   ruin.

   1. God himself abandons and abhors them: My mind cannot be towards
   them. How can it be thought that the holy God should have any remaining
   complacency in those that have such a rooted antipathy to him? It is
   not in a passion, but with a just and holy indignation, that he says,
   "Cast them out of my sight, as that which is in the highest degree
   odious and offensive, and let them go forth, for I will be troubled
   with them no more."

   2. He will not admit any intercession to be made for them (v. 1):
   "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, by prayer or sacrifice to
   reconcile me to them, yet I could not be prevailed with to admit them
   into favour." Moses and Samuel were two as great favourites of Heaven
   as ever were the blessings of this earth, and were particularly famed
   for the success of their mediation between God and his offending
   people; many a time they would have been destroyed if Moses had not
   stood before him in the breach; and to Samuel's prayers they owed their
   lives (1 Sam. xii. 19); yet even their intercessions should not
   prevail, no, not though they were now in a state of perfection, much
   less Jeremiah's who was now a man subject to like passions as others.
   The putting of this as a case, Though they should stand before me,
   supposes that they do not, and is an intimation that saints in heaven
   are not intercessors for saints on earth. It is the prerogative of the
   Eternal Word to be the only Mediator in the other world, whatever
   Moses, and Samuel, and others were in this.

   3. He condemns them all to one destroying judgment or other. When God
   casts them out of his presence, whither shall they go forth? v. 2.
   Certainly nowhere to be safe or easy, but to be met by one judgment
   while they are pursued by another, till they find themselves surrounded
   with mischiefs on all hands, so that they cannot escape; Such as are
   for death to death. By death here is meant the pestilence (Rev. vi. 8),
   for it is death without visible means. Such as are for death to death,
   or for the sword to the sword; every man shall perish in that way that
   God has appointed: the law that appoints the malefactor's death
   determines what death he shall die. Or, He that is by his own choice
   for this judgment, let him take it, or for that, let him take it, but
   by the one or the other they shall all fall and none shall escape. It
   is a choice like that which David was put to, and was thereby put into
   a great strait, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. Captivity is mentioned last, some
   think, because the sorest judgment of all, it being both a complication
   and continuance of miseries. That of the sword is again repeated (v.
   3), and is made the first of another four frightful set of destroyers,
   which God will appoint over them, as officers over the soldiers, to do
   what they please with them. As those that escape the sword shall be cut
   off by pestilence, famine, or captivity, so those that fall by the
   sword shall be cut off by divine vengeance, which pursues sinners on
   the other side death; there shall be dogs to tear in the field to
   devour. And, if there be any that think to outrun justice, they shall
   be made the most public monuments of it: They shall be removed into all
   kingdoms of the earth (v. 4), like Cain, who, that he might be made a
   spectacle of horror to all, became a fugitive and a vagabond in the
   earth.

   4. They shall fall without being relieved. Who can do any thing to help
   them? for (1.) God, even their own God (so he had been) appears against
   them: I will stretch out my hand against thee, which denotes a
   deliberate determined stroke, which will reach far and wound deeply. I
   am weary with repenting (v. 6); it is a strange expression; they had
   behaved so provokingly, especially by their treacherous professions of
   repentance, that they had put even infinite patience itself to the
   stretch. God had often turned away his wrath when it was ready to break
   forth against them; but now he will grant no more reprieves. Miserable
   is the case of those who have sinned so long against God's mercy that
   at length they have sinned it away. (2.) Their own country expels them,
   and is ready to spue them out, as it had done the Canaanites that were
   before them; for so it was threatened (Lev. xviii. 28): I will fan them
   with a fan in the gates of the land, in their own gates, through which
   they shall be scattered, or into the gates of the earth, into the
   cities of all the nations about them, v. 7. (3.) Their own children,
   that should assist them when they speak with the enemy in the gate,
   shall be cut off from them: I will bereave them of children, so that
   they shall have little hopes that the next generation will retrieve
   their affairs, for I will destroy my people; and, when the inhabitants
   are slain, the land will soon be desolate. This melancholy article is
   enlarged upon, v. 8, 9, where we have, [1.] The destroyer brought upon
   them. When God has bloody work to do he will find out bloody
   instruments to do it with. Nebuchadnezzar is here called a spoiler at
   noon-day, not a thief in the night, that is afraid of being discovered,
   but one that without fear shall break through and destroy all the
   fences of rights and properties, and this in the face of the sun and in
   defiance of its light: I have brought against the mother a young man, a
   spoiler (so some read it); for Nebuchadnezzar, when he first invaded
   Judah, was but a young man, in the first year of his reign. We read it,
   I have brought upon them, even against the mother of the young men, a
   spoiler, that is, against Jerusalem, a mother city, that had a very
   numerous family of young men: or that invasion was in a particular
   manner terrible to those mothers who had many sons fit for war, who
   must now hazard their lives in the high places of the field, and, being
   an unequal match for the enemy, would be likely to fall there, to the
   inexpressible grief of their poor mothers, who had nursed them up with
   a great deal of tenderness. The same God that brought the spoiler upon
   them caused him to fall upon it, that is, upon the spoil delivered to
   him, suddenly and by surprise; and then terrors came upon the city. the
   original is very abrupt--the city and terrors. O the city! what a
   consternation will it then be in! O the terrors that shall then seize
   it! Then the city and terrors shall be brought together, that seemed at
   a distance from each other. I will cause to fall suddenly upon her
   (upon Jerusalem) a watcher and terrors; so Mr. Gataker reads it, for
   the word is used for a watcher (Dan. iv. 13, 23), and the Chaldean
   soldiers were called watchers, ch. iv. 16. [2.] The destruction made by
   this destroyer. A dreadful slaughter is here described. First, The
   wives are deprived of their husbands: Their widows are increased above
   the sand of the seas, so numerous have they now grown. It was promised
   that the men of Israel (for those only were numbered) should be as the
   sand of the sea for multitude; but now they shall be all cut off, and
   their widows shall be so. But observe, God says, They are increased to
   me. Though the husbands were cut off by the sword of his justice, their
   poor widows were gathered in the arms of his mercy, who has taken it
   among the titles of his honour to be the God of the widows. Widows are
   said to be taken into the number, the number of those whom God has a
   particular compassion and concern for. Secondly, The parents are
   deprived of their children: She that has borne seven sons, whom she
   expected to be the support and joy of her age, now languishes, when she
   has seen them all cut off by the sword in one day, who had been many
   years her burden and care. She that had many children has waxed feeble,
   1 Sam. ii. 5. See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us
   therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not. When the children
   are slain the mother gives up the ghost, for her life was bound up in
   theirs: Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; she is bereaved of
   all her comforts just when she thought herself in the midst of the
   enjoyment of them. She is now ashamed and confounded to think how proud
   she was of her sons, how fond of them, and how much she promised
   herself from them. Some understand, by this languishing mother,
   Jerusalem lamenting the death of her inhabitants as passionately as
   ever poor mother bewailed her children. Many are cut off already, and
   the residue of them, who have yet escaped, and, as was hoped, were
   reserved to be the seed of another generation, even these will I
   deliver to the sword before their enemies (as the condemned malefactor
   is delivered to the sheriff to be executed), saith the Lord, the Judge
   of heaven and earth, who, we are sure, herein judges according to
   truth, though the judgment seem severe.

   5. They shall fall without being pitied (v. 5): "For who shall have
   pity on thee, O Jerusalem? When thy God has cast thee out of his sight,
   and his compassions fail and are shut up from thee, neither thy enemies
   nor thy friends shall have any compassion for thee. They shall have no
   sympathy with thee; they shall not bemoan thee nor be sorry for thee;
   they shall have no concern for thee, shall not go a step out of their
   way to ask how thou dost." For, (1.) Their friends, who were expected
   to do these friendly offices, were all involved with them in the
   calamities, and had enough to do to bemoan themselves. (2.) It was
   plain to all their neighbours that they had brought all this misery
   upon themselves by their obstinacy in sin, and that they might easily
   have prevented it by repentance and reformation, which they were often
   in vain called to; and therefore who can pity them? O Israel! thou hast
   destroyed thyself. Those will perish for ever unpitied that might have
   been saved upon such easy terms and would not. (3.) God will thus
   complete their misery. He will set their acquaintance, as he did Job's
   at a distance from them; and his hand, his righteous hand, is to be
   acknowledged in all the unkindnesses of our friends, as well as in all
   the injuries done us by our foes.

The Prophet's Complaint; The Prophet Assured of His Safety. (b. c. 606.)

   10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a
   man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor
   men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.   11
   The Lord said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will
   cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the
   time of affliction.   12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the
   steel?   13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil
   without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.   14
   And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou
   knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon
   you.

   Jeremiah has now returned from his public work and retired into his
   closet; what passed between him and his God there we have an account of
   in these and the following verses, which he published afterwards, to
   affect the people with the weight and importance of his messages to
   them. Here is,

   I. The complaint which the prophet makes to God of the many
   discouragements he met with in his work, v. 10.

   1. He met with a great deal of contradiction and opposition. He was a
   man of strife and contention to the whole land (so it might be read,
   rather than to the whole earth, for his business lay only in that
   land); both city and country quarrelled with him, and set themselves
   against him, and said and did all they could to thwart him. He was a
   peaceable man, gave no provocation to any, nor was apt to resent the
   provocations given him, and yet a man of strife, not a man striving,
   but a man striven with; he was for peace, but, when he spoke, they were
   for war. And, whatever they pretended, that which was the real cause of
   their quarrels with him was his faithfulness to God and to their souls.
   He showed them their sins that were working their ruin, and put them
   into a way to prevent that ruin, which was the greatest kindness he
   could do them; and yet this was it for which they were incensed against
   him and looked upon him as their enemy. Even the prince of peace
   himself was thus a man of strife, a sign spoken against, continually
   enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself. And the gospel
   of peace brings division, even to fire and sword, Matt. x. 34, 35; Luke
   xii. 49, 51. Now this made Jeremiah very uneasy, even to a degree of
   impatience. He cried out, Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne
   me, as if it were his mother's fault that she bore him, and he had
   better never have been born than be born to such an uncomfortable life;
   nay, he is angry that she had borne him a man of strife, as if he had
   been fatally determined to this by the stars that were in the ascendant
   at his birth. If he had any meaning of this kind, doubtless it was very
   much his infirmity; we rather hope it was intended for no more than a
   pathetic lamentation of his own case. Note, (1.) Even those who are
   most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made
   men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one
   side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live
   peaceably. (2.) It is very uncomfortable to those who are of a
   peaceable disposition to live among those who are continually picking
   quarrels with them. (3.) Yet, if we cannot live so peaceably as we
   desire with our neighbours, we must not be so disturbed at it as
   thereby to lose the repose of our own minds and put ourselves upon the
   fret.

   2. He met with a great deal of contempt, contumely, and reproach. They
   every one of them cursed him; they branded him as a turbulent factious
   man, as an incendiary and a sower of discord and sedition. They ought
   to have blessed him, and to have blessed God for him; but they had
   arrived at such a pitch of enmity against God and his word that for his
   sake they cursed his messenger, spoke ill of him, wished ill to him,
   did all they could to make him odious. They all did so; he had scarcely
   one friend in Judah or Jerusalem that would give him a good word. Note,
   It is often the lot of the best of men to have the worst of characters
   ascribed to them. So persecuted they the prophets. But one would be apt
   to suspect that surely Jeremiah had given them some provocation, else
   he could not have lost himself thus: no, not the least: I have neither
   lent money nor borrowed money, have been neither creditor nor debtor;
   for so general is the signification of the words here. (1.) It is
   implied here that those who deal much in the business of this world are
   often involved thereby in strife and contention; meum et tuum--mine and
   thine are the great make-bates; lenders and borrowers sue and are sued,
   and great dealers often get a great deal of ill-will. (2.) it was an
   instance of Jeremiah's great prudence, and it is written for our
   learning, that, being called to be a prophet, he entangled not himself
   in the affairs of this life, but kept clear from them, that he might
   apply the more closely to the business of his profession and might not
   give the least shadow of suspicion that he aimed at secular advantages
   in it nor any occasion to his neighbours to contend with him. He put
   out no money, for he was no usurer, nor indeed had he any money to
   lend: he took up no money, for he was no purchaser, no merchant, no
   spendthrift. He was perfectly dead to this world and the things of it:
   a very little served to keep him, and we find (ch. xvi. 2) that he had
   neither wife nor children to keep. And yet, (3.) Though he behaved thus
   discreetly, and so as one would think should have gained him universal
   esteem, yet he lay under a general odium, through the iniquity of the
   times. Blessed be God, bad as things are with us, they are not so bad
   but that there are those with whom virtue has its praise; yet let not
   those who behave most prudently think it strange if they have not the
   respect and esteem they deserve. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world
   hate you.

   II. The answer which God gave to this complaint. Though there was in it
   a mixture of passion and infirmity, yet God graciously took cognizance
   of it, because it was for his sake that the prophet suffered reproach.
   In this answer, 1. God assures him that he should weather the storm and
   be made easy at last, v. 11. Though his neighbours quarrelled with him
   for what he did in the discharge of his office, yet God accepted him
   and promised to stand by him. It is in the original expressed in the
   form of an oath: "If I take not care of thee, let me never be counted
   faithful; verily it shall go well with thy remnant, with the remainder
   of thy life" (for so the word signifies); "the residue of thy days
   shall be more comfortable to thee than those hitherto have been." Thy
   end shall be good; so the Chaldee reads it. Note, It is a great and
   sufficient support to the people of God that, how troublesome soever
   their way may be, it shall be well with them in their latter end, Ps.
   xxxvii. 37. They have still a remnant, a residue, something behind and
   left in reserve, which will be sufficient to counterbalance all their
   grievances, and the hope of it may serve to make them easy. It should
   seem that Jeremiah, besides the vexation that his people gave him, was
   uneasy at the apprehension he had of sharing largely in the public
   judgments which he foresaw coming; and, though he mentioned not this,
   God replied to his thought of it, as to Moses, Exod. iv. 19. Jeremiah
   thought, "If my friends are thus abusive to me, what will my enemies
   be?" And God had thought fit to awaken in him an expectation of this
   kind, ch. xii. 5. But here he quiets his mind with this promise:
   "Verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of
   evil, when all about thee shall be laid waste." Note, God has all men's
   hearts in his hand, and can turn those to favour his servants whom they
   were most afraid of. And the prophets of the Lord have often met with
   fairer and better treatment among open enemies than among those that
   call themselves his people. When we see trouble coming, and it looks
   very threatening, let us not despair, but hope in God, because it may
   prove better than we expect. This promise was accomplished when
   Nebuchadnezzar, having taken the city, charged the captain of the guard
   to be kind to Jeremiah, and let him have every thing he had a mind to,
   ch. xxxix. 11, 12. The following words, Shall iron break the northern
   iron, and the steel, or brass? (v. 12), being compared with the promise
   of God made to Jeremiah (ch. i. 18), that he would make him an iron
   pillar and brazen walls, seem intended for his comfort. They were
   continually clashing with him, and were rough and hard as iron; but
   Jeremiah, being armed with power and courage from on high, is as
   northern iron, which is naturally stronger, and as steel, which is
   hardened by art; and therefore they shall not prevail against him;
   compare this with Ezek. ii. 6; iii. 8, 9. He might the better bear
   their quarrelling with him when he was sure of the victory. 2. God
   assures him that his enemies and persecutors should be lost in the
   storm, should be ruined at last, and that therein the word of God in
   his mouth should be accomplished and he proved a true prophet, v. 13,
   14. God here turns his speech from the prophet to the people. To them
   also v. 12 may be applied: Shall iron break the northern iron, and the
   steel? Shall their courage and strength, and the most hardly and
   vigorous of their efforts, be able to contest either with the counsel
   of God or with the army of the Chaldeans, which are as inflexible, as
   invincible, as the northern iron and steel. Let them therefore hear
   their doom: Thy substance and thy treasure will I give to the spoil,
   and that without price; the spoilers shall have it gratis; it shall be
   to them a cheap and easy prey. Observe, The prophet was poor; he
   neither lent nor borrowed; he had nothing to lose, neither substance
   nor treasure, and therefore the enemy will treat him well, Cantabit
   vacuus coram latrone viator--The traveller that has no property about
   him will congratulate himself when accosted by a robber. But the people
   that had great estates in money and land would be slain for what they
   had, or the enemy, finding they had much, would use them hardly, to
   make them confess more. And it is their own iniquity that herein
   corrects them: It is for all thy sins, even in all thy borders. All
   parts of the country, even those which lay most remote, had contributed
   to the national guilt, and all shall now be brought to account. Let not
   one tribe lay the blame upon another, but each take shame to itself: It
   is for all thy sins in all thy borders. Thus shall they stay at home
   till they see their estates ruined, and then they shall be carried into
   captivity, to spend the sad remains of a miserable life in slavery: "I
   will make thee to pass with thy enemies, who shall lead thee in triumph
   into a land that thou knowest not, and therefore canst expect to find
   no comfort in it." All this is the fruit of God's wrath: "It is a fire
   kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you, and, if not
   extinguished in time, will burn eternally."

The Prophet's Humble Appeal to God; God's Answer to Jeremiah's Address. (b.
c. 606.)

   15 O Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of
   my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for
   thy sake I have suffered rebuke.   16 Thy words were found, and I did
   eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:
   for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.   17 I sat not in the
   assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand:
   for thou hast filled me with indignation.   18 Why is my pain
   perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt
   thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?   19
   Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee
   again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the
   precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto
   thee; but return not thou unto them.   20 And I will make thee unto
   this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee,
   but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save
   thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.   21 And I will deliver thee
   out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand
   of the terrible.

   Here, as before, we have,

   I. The prophet's humble address to God, containing a representation
   both of his integrity and of the hardships he underwent
   notwithstanding. It is a matter of comfort to us that, whatever ails
   us, we have a God to go to, before whom we may spread our case and to
   whose omniscience we may appeal, as the prophet here, "O Lord! thou
   knowest; thou knowest my sincerity, which men are resolved they will
   not acknowledge; thou knowest my distress, which men disdain to take
   notice of." Observe here,

   1. What it is that the prophet prays for, v. 15. (1.) That God would
   consider his case and be mindful of him: "O Lord! remember me; think
   upon me for good." (2.) That God would communicate strength and comfort
   to him: "Visit me; not only remember me, but let me know that thou
   rememberest me, that thou art nigh unto me." (3.) That he would appear
   for him against those that did him wrong: Revenge me of my persecutors,
   or rather, Vindicate me from my persecutors; give judgment against
   them, and let that judgment be executed so far as is necessary for my
   vindication and to compel them to acknowledge that they have done me
   wrong. Further than this a good man will not desire that God should
   avenge him. Let something be done to convince the world that (whatever
   blasphemers say to the contrary) Jeremiah is a righteous man and the
   God whom he serves is a righteous God. (4.) That he would yet spare him
   and continue him in the land of the living: "Take me not away by a
   sudden stroke, but in thy long-suffering lengthen out my days." The
   best men will own themselves so obnoxious to God's wrath that they are
   indebted to his patience for the continuance of their lives. Or, "While
   thou exercisest long-suffering towards my persecutors, let not them
   prevail to take me away." Though in a passion he complained of his
   birth (v. 10), yet he desires here that his death might not be
   hastened; for life is sweet to nature, and the life of a useful man is
   so to grace. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world.

   2. What it is that he pleads with God for mercy and relief against his
   enemies, persecutors, and slanderers.

   (1.) That God's honour was interested in this case: Know, and make it
   known, that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. Those that lay
   themselves open to reproach by their own fault and folly have great
   reason to bear it patiently, but no reason to expect that God should
   appear for them. But if it is for doing well that we suffer ill, and
   for righteousness' sake that we have all manner of evil said against
   us, we may hope that God will vindicate our honour with his own. To the
   same purport (v. 16), I am called by thy name, O Lord of hosts! It was
   for that reason that his enemies hated him, and therefore for that
   reason he promised himself that God would own him and stand by him.

   (2.) That the word of God, which he was employed to preach to others,
   he had experienced the power and pleasure of in his own soul, and
   therefore had the graces of the Spirit to qualify him for the divine
   favour, as well as his gifts. We find some rejected of God who yet
   could say, Lord, we have prophesied in thy name. But Jeremiah could say
   more (v. 16): "Thy words were found, found by me" (he searched the
   scripture, diligently studied the law, and found that in it which was
   reviving to him: if we seek we shall find), "found for me" (the words
   which he was to deliver to others were laid ready to his hand, were
   brought to him by inspiration), "and I did not only taste them, but eat
   them, received them entirely, conversed with them intimately; they were
   welcome to me, as food to one that is hungry; I entertained them,
   digested them, turned them in succum et sanguinem--into blood and
   spirits, and was myself delivered into the mould of those truths which
   I was to deliver to others." The prophet was told to eat the roll,
   Ezek. ii. 8; Rev. x. 9. I did eat it--that is, as it follows, it was to
   me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, nothing could be more agreeable.
   Understand it, [1.] Of the message itself which he was to deliver.
   Though he was to foretel the ruin of his country, which was dear to
   him, and in the ruin of which he could not but have a deep share, yet
   all natural affections were swallowed up in zeal for God's glory, and
   even these messages of wrath, being divine messages, were a
   satisfaction to him. He also rejoiced, at first, in hope that the
   people would take warning and prevent the judgment. Or, [2.] Of the
   commission he received to deliver this message. Though the work he was
   called to was not attended with any secular advantages, but, on the
   contrary, exposed him to contempt and persecution, yet, because it put
   him in a way to serve God and do good, he took pleasure in it, was glad
   to be so employed, and it was his meat and drink to do the will of him
   that sent him, John iv. 34. Or, [3.] Of the promise God gave him that
   he would assist and own him in his work (ch. i. 8); he was satisfied in
   that, and depended upon it, and therefore hoped it should not fail him.

   (3.) That he had applied himself to the duty of his office with all
   possible gravity, seriousness, and self-denial, though he had had of
   late but little satisfaction in it, v. 17. [1.] It was his comfort that
   he had given up himself wholly to the business of his office and had
   done nothing either to divert himself from it or disfit himself for it.
   He kept no unsuitable company, denied himself the use even of lawful
   recreations, abstained from every thing that looked like levity, lest
   thereby he should make himself mean and less regarded. He sat alone,
   spent a great deal of time in his closet, because of the hand of the
   Lord that was strong upon him to carry him on his work, Ezek. iii. 14.
   "For thou hast filled me with indignation, with such messages of wrath
   against this people as have made me always pensive." Note, It will be a
   comfort to God's ministers, when men despise them, if they have the
   testimony of their consciences for them that they have not by any vain
   foolish behaviour made themselves despicable, that they have been dead
   not only to the wealth of the world, as this prophet was (v. 10), but
   to the pleasures of it too, as here. But, [2.] It is his complaint that
   he had had but little pleasure in his work. It was at first the
   rejoicing of his heart, but of late it had made him melancholy, so that
   he had no heart to sit in the meeting of those that make merry. He
   cared not for company, for indeed no company cared for him. He sat
   alone, fretting at the people's obstinacy and the little success of his
   labours among them. This filled him with a holy indignation. Note, It
   is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of
   the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of
   their natural temper, which they humour and indulge, instead of
   mortifying it.

   (4.) He throws himself upon God's pity and promise in a very passionate
   expostulation (v. 18): "Why is my pain perpetual, and nothing done to
   ease it? Why are the wounds which my enemies are continually giving
   both to my peace and to my reputation incurable, and nothing done to
   retrieve either my comfort or my credit? I once little thought that I
   should be thus neglected; will the God that has promised me his
   presence be to me as a liar, the God on whom I depend to be me as
   waters that fail?" We are willing to make the best we can of it, and to
   take it as an appeal, [1.] To the mercy of God: "I know he will not let
   the pain of his servant be perpetual, but he will ease it, will not let
   his wound be incurable, but he will heal it; and therefore I will not
   despair." [2.] To his faithfulness: "Wilt thou be to me as a liar? No;
   I know thou wilt not. God is not a man that he should lie. The fountain
   of life will never be to his people as waters that fail."

   II. God's gracious answer to this address, v. 19-21. Though the prophet
   betrayed much human frailty in his address, yet God vouchsafed to
   answer him with good words and comfortable words; for he knows our
   frame. Observe,

   1. What God here requires of him as the condition of the further
   favours he designed him. Jeremiah had done and suffered much for God,
   yet God is no debtor to him, but he is still upon his good behaviour.
   God will own him. But, (1.) He must recover his temper, and be
   reconciled to his work, and friends with it again, and not quarrel with
   it any more as he had done. He must return, must shake off these
   distrustful discontented thoughts and passions, and not give way to
   them, must regain the peaceable possession and enjoyment of himself,
   and resolve to be easy. Note, When we have stepped aside into any
   disagreeable frame or way our care must be to return and compose
   ourselves into a right temper of mind again; and then we may expect God
   will help us, if thus we endeavour to help ourselves. (2.) He must
   resolve to be faithful in his work, for he could not expect the divine
   protection any longer than he did approve himself so. Though there was
   no cause at all to charge Jeremiah with unfaithfulness, and God knew
   his heart to be sincere, yet God saw fit to give him this caution.
   Those that do their duty must not take it ill to be told their duty. In
   two things he must be faithful:--[1.] He must distinguish between some
   and others of those he preached to: Thou must take forth the precious
   from the vile. The righteous are the precious be they ever so mean and
   poor; the wicked are the vile be they ever so rich and great. In our
   congregations these are mixed, wheat and chaff in the same floor; we
   cannot distinguish them by name, but we must by character, and must
   give to each a portion, speaking comfort to precious saints and terror
   to vile sinners, neither making the heart of the righteous sad nor
   strengthening the hands of the wicked (Ezek. xiii. 22), but rightly
   dividing the word of truth. Ministers must take those whom they see to
   be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone as Jeremiah did, but
   keep up conversation with those they may do good to and get good by.
   [2.] He must closely adhere to his instructions, and not in the least
   vary from them: Let them return to thee, but return not thou to them,
   that is, he must do the utmost he can, in his preaching, to bring
   people up to the mind of God; he must tell them they must, at their
   peril, comply with that. Those that had flown off from him, that did
   not like the terms upon which God's favour was offered to them, "Let
   them return to thee, and, upon second thoughts, come up to the terms
   and strike the bargain; but do not thou return to them, do not
   compliment them, nor comply with them, nor think to make the matter
   easier to them than the word of God has made it." Men's hearts and
   lives must come up to God's law and comply with that, for God's law
   will never come down to them nor comply with them.

   2. What God here promises to him upon the performance of these
   conditions. If he approve himself well, (1.) God will tranquilize his
   mind and pacify the present tumult of his spirits: If thou return, I
   will bring thee again, will restore thy soul, as Ps. xxiii. 3. The best
   and strongest saints, if at any time they have gone aside out of the
   right way, and are determined to return, need the grace of God to bring
   them again. (2.) God will employ him in his service as a prophet, whose
   work, even in those bad times, had comfort and honour enough in it to
   be its own wages: "Thou shalt stand before me, to receive instructions
   from me, as a servant from his master; and thou shalt be as my mouth to
   deliver my messages to the people, as an ambassador is the mouth of the
   prince that sends him." Note, Faithful ministers are God's mouth to us;
   they are so to look upon themselves, and to speak God's mind and as
   becomes the oracles of God; and we are so to look upon them, and to
   hear God speaking to us by them. Observe, If thou keep close to thy
   instructions, thou shalt be as my mouth, not otherwise; so far, and no
   further, God will stand by ministers, as they go by the written word.
   "Thou shalt be as my mouth, that is, what thou sayest shall be made
   good, as if I myself had said it." See Isa. xliv. 26; 1 Sam. iii. 19.
   (3.) He shall have strength and courage to face the many difficulties
   he meets with in his work, and his spirit shall not fail again as now
   it does (v. 20): "I will make thee unto this people as a fenced brazen
   wall, which the storm batters and beats violently upon, but cannot
   shake. Return not thou to them by any sinful compliances, and then
   trust thy God to arm thee by his grace with holy resolutions. Be not
   cowardly, and God will make thee daring." He had complained that he was
   made a man of strife. "Expect to be so (says God); they will fight
   against thee, they will still continue their opposition, but they shall
   not prevail against thee to drive thee off from thy work nor to cut
   thee off from the land of the living." (4.) He shall have God for his
   protector and mighty deliverer: I am with thee to save thee. Those that
   have God with them have a Saviour with them who has wisdom and strength
   enough to deal with the most formidable enemy; and those that are with
   God, and faithful to him, he will deliver (v. 21) either from trouble
   or through it. They may perhaps fall into the hand of the wicked, and
   they may appear terrible to them, but God will rescue them out of their
   hands. They shall not be able to kill them till they have finished
   their testimony; they shall not prevent their happiness. God will so
   deliver them as to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. iv.
   18), and that is deliverance enough. There are many things that appear
   very frightful that yet do not prove at all hurtful to a good man.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XVI.

   In this chapter, I. The greatness of the calamity that was coming upon
   the Jewish nation is illustrated by prohibitions given to the prophet
   neither to set up a house of his own (ver. 1-4) nor to go into the
   house of mourning (ver. 5-7) nor into the house of feasting, ver. 8, 9.
   II. God is justified in these severe proceedings against them by an
   account of their great wickedness, ver. 10-13. III. An intimation is
   given of mercy in reserve, ver. 14, 15. IV. Some hopes are given that
   the punishment of the sin should prove the reformation of the sinners,
   and that they should return to God at length in a way of duty, and so
   be qualified for his returns to them in a way of favour, ver. 16-21.

Prohibitions Given to Jeremiah. (b. c. 605.)

   1 The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying,   2 Thou shalt not
   take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this
   place.   3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning
   the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers
   that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this
   land;   4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be
   lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon
   the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by
   famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and
   for the beasts of the earth.   5 For thus saith the Lord, Enter not
   into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I
   have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even
   lovingkindness and mercies.   6 Both the great and the small shall die
   in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for
   them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:   7
   Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them
   for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to
   drink for their father or for their mother.   8 Thou shalt not also go
   into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.   9
   For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will
   cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the
   voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom,
   and the voice of the bride.

   The prophet is here for a sign to the people. They would not regard
   what he said; let it be tried whether they will regard what he does. In
   general, he must conduct himself so, in every thing, as became one that
   expected to see his country in ruins very shortly. This he foretold,
   but few regarded the prediction; therefore he is to show that he is
   himself fully satisfied in the truth of it. Others go on in their usual
   course, but he, in the prospect of these sad times, is forbidden and
   therefore forbears marriage, mourning for the dead, and mirth. Note,
   Those that would convince others of and affect them with the word of
   God must make it appear, even in the most self-denying instances, that
   they do believe it themselves and are affected with it. If we would
   rouse others out of their security, and persuade them to sit loose to
   the world, we must ourselves be mortified to present things and show
   that we expect the dissolution of them.

   I. Jeremiah must not marry, nor think of having a family and being a
   housekeeper (v. 2): Thou shalt not take thee a wife, nor think of
   having sons and daughters in this place, not in the land of Judah, not
   in Jerusalem, not in Anathoth. The Jews, more than any people, valued
   themselves on their early marriages and their numerous offspring. But
   Jeremiah must live a bachelor, not so much in honour of virginity as in
   diminution of it. By this it appears that it was advisable and
   seasonable only in calamitous times, and times of present distress, 1
   Cor. vii. 26. That it is so is a part of the calamity. There may be a
   time when it will be said, Blessed is the womb that bears not, Luke
   xxiii. 29. When we see such times at hand it is wisdom for all,
   especially for prophets, to keep themselves as much as may be from
   being entangled with the affairs of this life and encumbered with that
   which, the dearer it is to them, the more it will be the matter of
   their care, and fear, and grief, at such a time. The reason here given
   is because the fathers and mothers, the sons and the daughters, shall
   die of grievous deaths, v. 3, 4. As for those that have wives and
   children, 1. They will have such a clog upon them that they cannot flee
   from those deaths. A single man may make his escape and shift for his
   own safety, when he that has a wife and children can neither find means
   to convey with them nor find in his heart to go and leave them behind
   him. 2. They will be in continual terror for fear of those deaths; and
   the more they have to lose by them the greater will the terror and
   consternation be when death appears every where in its triumphant pomp
   and power. 3. The death of every child, and the aggravating
   circumstances of it, will be a new death to the parent. Better have no
   children than have them brought forth and bred up for the murderer
   (Hos. ix. 13, 14), than see them live and die in misery. Death is
   grievous, but some deaths are more grievous than others, both to those
   that die and to their relations that survive them; hence we read of so
   great a death, 2 Cor. i. 10. Two things are used a little to palliate
   and alleviate the terror of death as to this world, and to sugar the
   bitter pill--bewailing the dead and burying them; but, to make those
   deaths grievous indeed, these are denied: They shall not be lamented,
   but shall be carried off, as if all the world were weary of them; nay,
   they shall not be buried, but left exposed, as if they were designed to
   be monuments of justice. They shall be a dung upon the face of the
   earth, not only despicable, but detestable, as if they were good for
   nothing but to manure the ground; being consumed, some by the sword and
   some by famine, their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven
   and the beasts of the earth. Will not any one say, "Better be without
   children than live to see them come to this?" What reason have we to
   say,All is vanity and vexation of spirit, when those creatures that we
   expect to be our greatest comforts may prove not only our heaviest
   cares, but our sorest crosses!

   II. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mourning upon occasion of the
   death of any of his neighbours or relations (v. 5): Enter thou not into
   the house of mourning. It was usual to condole with those whose
   relations were dead, to bemoan them, to cut themselves, and make
   themselves bald, which, it seems, was commonly practised as an
   expression of mourning, though forbidden by the law, Deut. xiv. 1. Nay,
   sometimes, in a passion of grief, they did tear themselves for them (v.
   6, 7), partly in honour of the deceased, thus signifying that they
   thought there was a great loss of them, and partly in compassion to the
   surviving relations, to whom the burden will be made the lighter by
   their having sharers with them in their grief. They used to mourn with
   them, and so to comfort them for the dead, as Job's friends with him
   and the Jews with Martha and Mary; and it was a friendly office to give
   them a cup of consolation to drink, to provide cordials for them and
   press them earnestly to drink of them for the support of their spirits,
   give wine to those that are of heavy heart for their father or mother,
   that it may be some comfort to them to find that, though they have lost
   their parents, yet they have some friends left that have a concern for
   them. Thus the usage stood, and it was a laudable usage. It is a good
   work to others, as well as of good use to ourselves, to go to the house
   of mourning. It seems, the prophet Jeremiah had been wont to abound in
   good offices of this kind, and it well became his character both as a
   pious man and as a prophet; and one would think it should have made him
   better beloved among his people than it should seem he was. But now God
   bids him not lament the death of his friends as usual, for 1. His
   sorrow for the destruction of his country in general must swallow up
   his sorrow for particular deaths. His tears must now be turned into
   another channel; and there is occasion enough for them all. 2. He had
   little reason to lament those who died now just before the judgments
   entered which he saw at the door, but rather to think those happy who
   were seasonable taken away from the evil to come. 3. This was to be a
   type of what was coming, when there should be such universal confusion
   that all neighbourly friendly offices should be neglected. Men shall be
   in deaths so often, and even dying daily, that they shall have no time,
   no room, no heart, for the ceremonies that used to attend death. The
   sorrows shall be so ponderous as not to admit relief, and every one so
   full of grief for his own troubles that he shall have no thought of his
   neighbours. All shall be mourners then, and no comforters; every one
   will find it enough to bear his own burden; for (v. 5), "I have taken
   away my peace from this people, put a full period to their prosperity,
   deprived them of health, wealth, and quiet, and friends, and every
   thing wherewith they might comfort themselves and one another."
   Whatever peace we enjoy, it is God's peace; it is his gift, and, if he
   give quietness, who then can make trouble? But, if we make not a good
   use of his peace, he can and will take it away; and where are we then?
   Job xxxiv. 29. "I will take away my peace, even my loving-kindness and
   mercies;" these shall be shut up and restrained, which are the fresh
   springs from which all their fresh streams flow, and then farewell all
   good. Note, Those have cut themselves off from all true peace that have
   thrown themselves out of the favour of God. All is gone when God takes
   away from us his lovingkindness and his mercies. Then it follows (v.
   6), Both the great and the small shall die, even in this land, the land
   of Canaan, that used to be called the land of the living. God's favour
   is our life; take away that, and we die, we perish, we all perish.

   III. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mirth, any more than to the
   house of mourning, v. 8. It had been his custom, and it was innocent
   enough, when any of his friends made entertainments at their houses and
   invited him to them, to go and sit with them, not merely to drink, but
   to eat and to drink, soberly and cheerfully. But now he must not take
   that liberty, 1. Because it was unseasonable, and inconsistent with the
   providences of God in reference to that land and nation. God called
   aloud to weeping, and mourning, and fasting; he was coming forth
   against them in his judgments; and it was time for them to humble
   themselves; and it well became the prophet who gave them the warning to
   give them an example of taking the warning, and complying with it, and
   so to make it appear that he did himself believe it. Ministers ought to
   be examples of self-denial and mortification, and to show themselves
   affected with those terrors of the Lord with which they desire to
   affect others. And it becomes all the sons of Zion to sympathize with
   her in her afflictions, and not to be merry when she is perplexed, Amos
   vi. 6. 2. Because he must thus show the people what sad times were
   coming upon them. His friends wondered that he would not meet them, as
   he used to do, in the house of feasting. But he lets them know it was
   to intimate to them that all their feasting would be at an end shortly
   (v. 9): "I will cause to cease the voice of mirth. You shall have
   nothing to feast on, nothing to rejoice in, but be surrounded with
   calamities that shall mar your mirth and cast a damp upon it." God can
   find ways to tame the most jovial. "This shall be done in this place,
   in Jerusalem, that used to be the joyous city and thought her joys were
   all secure to her. It shall be done in your eyes, in your sight, to be
   a vexation to you, who now look so haughty and so merry. It shall be
   done in your days; you yourselves shall live to see it." The voice of
   praise they had made to cease by their iniquities and idolatries, and
   therefore justly God made to cease among them the voice of mirth and
   gladness. The voice of God's prophets was not heard, was not heeded,
   among them, and therefore no longer shall the voice of the bridegroom
   and of the bride, of the songs that used to grace the nuptials, be
   heard among them. See ch. vii. 34.

Causes of Divine Judgments. (b. c. 605.)

   10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all
   these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord
   pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or
   what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?   11
   Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,
   saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them,
   and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my
   law;   12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye
   walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may
   not hearken unto me:   13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land
   into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there
   shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you
   favour.

   Here is, 1. An enquiry made into the reasons why God would bring those
   judgments upon them (v. 10): When thou shalt show this people all these
   words, the words of this curse, they will say unto thee, Wherefore has
   the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? One would hope that
   there were some among them that asked this question with a humble
   penitent heart, desiring to know what was the sin for which God
   contended with them, that they might cast it away and prevent the
   judgment: "Show us the Jonah that raises the storm and we will throw it
   overboard." But it seems here to be the language of those who
   quarrelled at the word of God, and challenged him to show what they had
   done which might deserve so severe a punishment: "What is our iniquity?
   Or what is our sin? What crime have we even been guilty of,
   proportionable to such a sentence?" Instead of humbling and condemning
   themselves, they stand upon their own justification and insinuate that
   God did them wrong in pronouncing this evil against them, that he laid
   upon them more than was right, and that they had reason to enter into
   judgment with God, Job xxxiv. 23. Note, It is amazing to see how hardly
   sinners are brought to justify God and judge themselves when they are
   in trouble, and to own the iniquity and the sin that have procured them
   the trouble. 2. A plain and full answer given to this enquiry. Do they
   ask the prophet why, and for what reason, God is thus angry with them?
   He shall not stop their mouths by telling them that they may be sure
   there is a sufficient reason, the righteous God is never angry without
   cause, without good cause; but he must tell them particularly what is
   the cause, that they may be convinced and humbled, or at least that God
   may be justified. Let them know then, (1.) That God visited upon them
   the iniquities of their fathers (v. 11): Your fathers have forsaken me,
   and have not kept my law. They shook off divine institutions and grew
   weary of them (they thought them too plain, too mean), and then they
   walked after other gods, whose worship was more gay and pompous; and,
   being fond of variety and novelty, they served them and worshipped
   them; and this was the sin which God had said, in the second
   commandment, he would visit upon their children, who kept up these
   idolatrous usages, because they received them by tradition from their
   fathers, 1 Pet. i. 18. (2.) That God reckoned with them for their own
   iniquities (v. 12): "You have made your fathers' sin your own, and have
   become obnoxious to the punishment which in their days was deferred,
   for you have done worse than your fathers." If they had made a good use
   of their fathers' reprieve, and had been led by the patience of God to
   repentance, they would have fared the better for it and the judgment
   would have been prevented, the reprieve turned into a national pardon;
   but, making an ill use of it, and being hardened by it in their sins,
   they fared the worse for it, and, the reprieve having expired, an
   addition was made to the sentence and it was executed with the more
   severity. They were more impudent and obstinate in sin than their
   fathers, walked every one after the imagination of his own heart, made
   that their guide and rule and were resolved to follow that, on purpose
   that they might not hearken to God and his prophets. They designedly
   suffered their own lusts and passions to be noisy, that they might
   drown the voice of their consciences. No wonder then that God has taken
   up this resolution concerning them (v. 13): "I will cast you out of
   this land, this land of light, this valley of vision. Since you will
   not hearken to me, you shall not hear me; you shall be hurried away,
   not into a neighbouring country which you have formerly had some
   acquaintance and correspondence with, but into a far country, a land
   that you know not, neither you nor your fathers, in which you have no
   interest, nor can expect to meet with any comfortable society, to be an
   allay to your misery." Justly were those banished into a strange land
   who doted upon strange gods, which neither they nor their fathers knew,
   Deut. xxxii. 17. Two things would make their case there very miserable,
   and both of them relate to the soul, the better part; the greatest
   calamities of their captivity were those which affected that and
   debarred that from its bliss. [1.] "It is the happiness of the soul to
   be employed in the service of God; but there shall you serve other gods
   day and night; that is, you shall be in continual temptation to serve
   them and perhaps compelled to do it by your cruel task-masters; and,
   when you are forced to worship idols, you will be as sick of such
   worship as ever you were fond of it when it was forbidden you by your
   godly kings." See how God often makes men's sin their punishment, and
   fills the backslider in heart with his own ways. "You shall have no
   public worship at all but the worship of idols, and then you will think
   with regret how you slighted the worship of the true God." [2.] "It is
   the happiness of the soul to have some tokens of the lovingkindness of
   God, but you shall go to a strange land, where I will not show you
   favour." If they had had God's favour, that would have made even the
   land of their captivity a pleasant land; but, if they lie under his
   wrath, the yoke of their oppression will be intolerable to them.

Judgment and Mercy; Restoration of the Jews; Deliverance from Babylon. (b.
c. 605.)

   14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no
   more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
   out of the land of Egypt;   15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up
   the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
   lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into
   their land that I gave unto their fathers.   16 Behold, I will send for
   many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will
   I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
   and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.   17 For mine
   eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is
   their iniquity hid from mine eyes.   18 And first I will recompense
   their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land,
   they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable
   and abominable things.   19 O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and
   my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee
   from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have
   inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.   20
   Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?   21
   Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause
   them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name
   is The Lord.

   There is a mixture of mercy and judgment in these verses, and it is
   hard to know to which to apply some of the passages here--they are so
   interwoven, and some seem to look as far forward as the times of the
   gospel.

   I. God will certainly execute judgment upon them for their idolatries.
   Let them expect it, for the decree has gone forth. 1. God sees all
   their sins, though they commit them ever so secretly and palliate them
   ever so artfully (v. 17): My eyes are upon all their ways. They have
   not their eye upon God, have no regard to him, stand in no awe of him;
   but he has his eye upon them; neither they nor their sins are hidden
   from his face, from his eyes. Note, None of the sins of sinners either
   can be concealed from God or shall be overlooked by him, Prov. v. 21;
   Job xxxiv. 21; Ps. xc. 8. 2. God is highly displeased, particularly at
   their idolatries, v. 18. As his omniscience convicts them, so his
   justice condemns them: I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
   double, not double to what it deserves, but double to what they expect
   and to what I have done formerly. Or I will recompense it abundantly;
   they shall now pay for their long reprieve and the divine patience they
   have abused. The sin for which God has a controversy with them is their
   having defiled God's land with their idolatries, and not only alienated
   that which he was entitled to as his inheritance, but polluted that
   which he dwelt in with delight as his inheritance, and made it
   offensive to him with the carcases of their detestable things, the gods
   themselves which they worshipped, the images of which, though they were
   of gold and silver, were as loathsome to God as the putrid carcases of
   men or beasts are to us. Idols are carcases of detestable things. God
   hates them, and so should we. Or he might refer to the sacrifices which
   they offered to these idols, with which the land was filled; for they
   had high places in all the coasts and corners of it. This was the sin
   which, above any other, incensed God against them. 3. He will find out
   and raise up instruments of his wrath, that shall cast them out of
   their land, according to the sentence passed upon them (v. 16): I will
   send for many fishers and many hunters--the Chaldean army, that shall
   have many ways of ensnaring and destroying them, by fraud as fishers,
   by force as hunters. They shall find them out wherever they are, and
   shall chase and closely pursue them, to their ruin. They shall discover
   them wherever they are hid, in hills or mountains, or holes of the
   rocks, and shall drive them out. God has various ways of prosecuting a
   people with his judgments that avoid the convictions of his word. He
   has men at command fit for his purpose; he has them within call, and
   can send for them when he pleases. 4. Their bondage in Babylon shall be
   sorer and much more grievous than that in Egypt, their task-masters
   more cruel, and their lives made more bitter. This is implied in the
   promise (v. 14, 15), that their deliverance out of Babylon shall be
   more illustrious in itself, and more welcome to them, than that out of
   Egypt. Their slavery in Egypt came upon them gradually and almost
   insensibly; that in Babylon came upon them at once and with all the
   aggravating circumstances of terror. In Egypt they had a Goshen of
   their own, but none such in Babylon. In Egypt they were used as
   servants that were useful, in Babylon as captives that had been
   hateful. 5. They shall be warned, and God shall be glorified, by these
   judgments brought upon them. These judgments have a voice, and speak
   aloud, (1.) Instruction to them. When God chastens them he teaches
   them. By this rod God expostulates with them (v. 20): "Shall a man make
   gods to himself? Will any man be so perfectly void of all reason and
   consideration as to think that a god of his own making can stand him in
   any stead? Will you ever again be such fools as you have been, to make
   to yourselves gods which are no gods, when you have a God whom you may
   call your own, who made you, and is himself the true and living God?"
   (2.) Honour to God; for he will be known by the judgments which he
   executes. He will first recompense their iniquity (v. 18), and then he
   will this once (v. 21)--this once for all, not by many interruptions of
   their peace, but this one desolation and destruction of it. "For this
   once, and no more, I will cause them to know my hand, the length and
   weight of my punishing hand, how far it can reach and how deeply it can
   wound. And they shall know that my name is Jehovah, a God with whom
   there is no contending, who gives being to threatenings and puts life
   into them as well as promises."

   II. Yet he has mercy in store for them, intimations of which come in
   here for the encouragement of the prophet himself and of those few
   among them that tremble at God's word. It was said, with an air of
   severity (v. 13), that God would banish them into a strange land; but,
   that thereby they might not be driven to despair, there follow
   immediately words of comfort.

   1. The days will come, the joyful days, when the same hand that
   dispersed them shall gather them again, v. 14, 15. They are cast out,
   but they are not cast off, they are not cast away. They shall be
   brought up from the land of the north, the land of their captivity,
   where they are held with a strong hand, and from all the lands whither
   they are driven, and where they seemed to be lost and buried in the
   crowd; nay, I will bring them again into their own land, and settle
   them there. As he foregoing threatenings agreed with what was written
   in this law, so does this promise. Yet will I not cast them away, Lev.
   xxvi. 44. Thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, Deut. xxx. 4. And
   the following words (v. 16) may be understood as a promise; God will
   send for fishers and hunters, the Medes and Persians, that shall find
   them out in the countries where they are scattered, and send them back
   to their own land; or Zerubbabel, and others of their own nation, who
   should fish them out and hunt after them, to persuade them to return;
   or whatever instruments the Spirit of God made use of to stir up their
   spirits to go up, which at first they were backward to do. They began
   to nestle in Babylon; but, as an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters
   over her young, so God did by them, Zech. ii. 7.

   2. Their deliverance out of Babylon should, upon some accounts, be more
   illustrious and memorable than their deliverance out of Egypt was. Both
   were the Lord's doing and marvellous in their eyes; both were proofs
   that the Lord liveth and were to be kept in everlasting remembrance, to
   his honour, as the living God; but the fresh mercy shall be so
   surprising, so welcome, that it shall even abolish the memory of the
   former. Not but that new mercies should put us in mind of old ones, and
   give us occasion to renew our thanksgivings for them; yet because we
   are tempted to think that the former days were better than these, and
   to ask, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? as if
   God's arm had waxed short, and to cry up the age of miracles above the
   later ages, when mercies are wrought in a way of common providence,
   therefore we are allowed here comparatively to forget the bringing of
   Israel out of Egypt as a deliverance outdone by that out of Babylon.
   That was done by might and power, this by the Spirit of the Lord of
   hosts, Zech. iv. 6. In this there was more of pardoning mercy (the most
   glorious branch of divine mercy) than in that; for their captivity in
   Babylon had more in it of the punishment of sin than their bondage in
   Egypt; and therefore that which comforts Zion in her deliverance out of
   Babylon is this, that her iniquity is pardoned, Isa. xl. 2. Note, God
   glorifies himself, and we must glorify him, in those mercies that have
   no miracles in them, as well as in those that have. And, though the
   favours of God to our fathers must not be forgotten, yet those to
   ourselves in our own day we must especially give thanks for.

   3. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be accompanied with a
   blessed reformation, and they shall return effectually cured of their
   inclination to idolatry, which will complete their deliverance and make
   it a mercy indeed. They had defiled their own land with their
   detestable things, v. 18. But, when they have smarted for so doing,
   they shall come and humble themselves before God, v. 19-21. (1.) They
   shall be brought to acknowledge that their God only is God indeed, for
   he is a God in need--"My strength to support and comfort me, my
   fortress to protect and shelter me, and my refuge to whom I may flee in
   the day of affliction." Note, Need drives many to God who had set
   themselves at a distance from him. Those that slighted him in the day
   of their prosperity will be glad to flee to him in the day of their
   affliction. (2.) They shall be quickened to return to him by the
   conversion of the Gentiles: The Gentiles shall come to thee from the
   ends of the earth; and therefore shall not we come? Or, "The Jews, who
   had by their idolatries made themselves as Gentiles (so I rather
   understand it), shall come to thee by repentance and reformation, shall
   return to their duty and allegiance, even from the ends of the earth,
   from all the countries whither they were driven." The prophet comforts
   himself with the hope of this, and in a transport of joy returns to God
   the notice he had given him of it: "O Lord! my strength and my
   fortress, I am now easy, since thou hast given me a prospect of
   multitudes that shall come to thee from the ends of the earth, both of
   Jewish converts and of Gentile proselytes." Note, Those that are
   brought to God themselves cannot but rejoice greatly to see others
   coming to him, coming back to him. (3.) They shall acknowledge the
   folly of their ancestors, which it becomes them to do, when they were
   smarting for the sins of their ancestors: "Surely our fathers have
   inherited, not the satisfaction they promised themselves and their
   children, but lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. We
   are now sensible that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous
   worship; it did not prove what it promised, and therefore what have we
   to do any more with it?" Note, It were well if the disappointment which
   some have met with in the service of sin, and the pernicious
   consequences of it to them, might prevail to deter others from treading
   in their steps. (4.) They shall reason themselves out of their
   idolatry; and that reformation is likely to be sincere and durable
   which results from a rational conviction of the gross absurdity there
   is in sin. They shall argue thus with themselves (and it is well
   argued), Should a man be such a fool, so perfectly void of the reason
   of a man, as to make gods to himself, the creatures of his own fancy,
   the work of his own hands, when they are really no gods? v. 20. Can a
   man be so besotted, so perfectly lost to human understanding, as to
   expect any divine blessing or favour from that which pretends to no
   divinity but what it first received from him? (5.) They shall herein
   give honour to God, and make it to appear that they know both his hand
   in his providence and his name in his word, and that they are brought
   to know his name by what they are made to know of his hand, v. 21. This
   once, now at length, they shall be made to know that which they would
   not be brought to know by all the pains the prophets took with them.
   Note, So stupid are we that nothing less than the mighty hand of divine
   grace, known experimentally, can make us know rightly the name of God
   as it is revealed to us.

   4. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of
   this great salvation to be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather
   together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. And
   this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out of Egypt as
   even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be forgotten. To
   this some apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of
   the gospel, who were fishers of men, to enclose souls with the gospel
   net, to find them out in every mountain and hill, and secure them for
   Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God, some from the ends of the earth,
   and turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XVII.

   In this chapter, I. God convicts the Jews of the sin of idolatry by the
   notorious evidence of the fact, and condemns them to captivity for it,
   ver. 1-4. II. He shows them the folly of all their carnal confidences,
   which should stand them in no stead when God's time came to contend
   with them, and that this was one of the sins upon which his controversy
   with them was grounded, ver. 5-11. III. The prophet makes his appeal
   and address to God upon occasion of the malice of his enemies against
   him, committing himself to the divine protection, and begging of God to
   appear for him, ver. 12-18. IV. God, by the prophet, warns the people
   to keep holy the sabbath day, assuring them that, if they did, it
   should be the lengthening out of their tranquility, but that, if not,
   God would by some desolating judgment assert the honour of his
   sabbaths, ver. 19-27.

The Guilt of Judah. (b. c. 605.)

   1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of
   a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the
   horns of your altars;   2 Whilst their children remember their altars
   and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.   3 O my
   mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures
   to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
     4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that
   I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land
   which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which
   shall burn for ever.

   The people had asked (ch. xvi. 10), What is our iniquity, and what is
   our sin? as if they could not be charged with any thing worth speaking
   of, for which God should enter into judgment with them; their challenge
   was answered there, but here we have a further reply to it, in which,

   I. The indictment is fully proved upon the prisoners, both the fact and
   the fault; their sin is too plain to be denied and too bad to be
   excused, and they have nothing to plead either in extenuation of the
   crime or in arrest and mitigation of the judgment. 1. They cannot
   plead, Not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God's
   omniscience and their own conscience; nay, and they are obvious to the
   eye and observation of the world, v. 1, 2. They are written before God
   in the most legible and indelible characters, and sealed among his
   treasures, never to be forgotten, Deut. xxxii. 34. They are written
   there with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond; what is so
   written will not be worn out by time, but is, as Job speaks, graven in
   the rock for ever. Note, The sin of sinners is never forgotten till it
   is forgiven. It is ever before God, till by repentance it comes to be
   ever before us. It is graven upon the table of their heart; their own
   consciences witness against them, and are instead of a thousand
   witnesses. What is graven on the heart, though it may be covered and
   closed up for a time, yet, being graven, it cannot be erased, but will
   be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. Nay, we need
   not appeal to the tables of the heart, perhaps they will not own the
   convictions of their consciences. We need go no further, for proof of
   the charge, than the horns of their altars, on which the blood of their
   idolatrous sacrifices was sprinkled, and perhaps the names of the idols
   to whose honour they were erected were inscribed. Their neighbours will
   witness against them, and all the creatures they have abused by using
   them in the service of their lusts. To complete the evidence, their own
   children shall be witnesses against them; they will tell truth when
   their fathers dissemble and prevaricate; they remember the altars and
   the groves to which their parents took them when they were little, v.
   2. It appears that they were full of them, and acquainted with them
   betimes, they talked of them so frequently, so familiarly, and with so
   much delight. 2. They cannot plead that they repent, or are brought to
   a better mind. No, as the guilt of their sin is undeniable, so their
   inclination to sin is invincible and incurable. In this sense many
   understand v. 1, 2. Their sin is deeply engraven as with a pen of iron
   in the tables of their hearts. They have a rooted affection to it; it
   is woven into their very nature; their sin is dear to them, as that is
   dear to us of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts. The bias of
   their minds is still as strong as ever towards their idols, and they
   are not wrought upon either by the word or rod of God to forget them
   and abate their affection to them. It is written upon the horns of
   their altars, for they have given up their names to their idols and
   resolve to abide by what they have done; they have bound themselves, as
   with cords, to the horns of their altars. And v. 2 may be read fully to
   this sense: As they remember their children, so remember they their
   altars and their groves; they are as fond of them and take as much
   pleasure in them as men do in their own children, and are as loth to
   part with them; they will live and die with their idols, and can no
   more forget them than a woman can forget her sucking child.

   II. The indictment being thus fully proved, the judgment is affirmed
   and the sentence ratified, v. 3, 4. Forasmuch as they are thus wedded
   to their sins, and will not part with them, 1. They shall be made to
   part with their treasures, and those shall be given into the hands of
   strangers. Jerusalem is God's mountain in the field; it was built on a
   hill in the midst of a plain. All the treasures of that wealthy city
   will God give to the spoil. Or, My mountains with the fields, thy
   wealth and all thy treasures will I expose to spoil; both the products
   of the country and the stores of the city shall be seized by the
   Chaldeans. Justly are men stripped of that which they have served their
   idols with and have made the food and the fuel of their lusts. My
   mountain (so the whole land was, Ps. lxxviii. 54, Deut. xi. 11) you
   have turned into your high places for sin, have worshipped your idols
   upon the high hills (v. 2), and now they shall be give for a spoil in
   all your borders. What we make for a sin God will make for a spoil; for
   what comfort can we expect in that wherewith God is dishonoured? 2.
   They shall be made to part with their inheritance, and shall be carried
   captives into a strange land (v. 4): Thou, even thyself (or thou
   thyself and those that are in thee, all the inhabitants), shall
   discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee. God owns that it was
   their heritage, and that he gave it to them; they had an unquestionable
   title to it, which was an aggravation of their folly in throwing
   themselves out of the possession of it. It is through thyself (so some
   read it), through thy own default, that thou art disseised. Thou shalt
   discontinue, or intermit, the occupation of thy land. The law appointed
   them to let their land rest (it is the word here used) one year in
   seven, Exod. xxiii. 11. They did not observe that law, and now God
   would compel them to let it rest (the land shall enjoy her sabbaths,
   Lev. xxvi. 34); and yet it shall be not rest to them; they shall serve
   their enemies in a land they know not. Observe, (1.) Sin works a
   discontinuance of our comforts and deprives us of the enjoyment of that
   which God has given us. Yet, (2.) A discontinuance of the possession is
   not a defeasance of the right, but it is intimated that upon their
   repentance they shall recover possession again. For the present, you
   have kindled a fire in my anger, which burns so fiercely that it seems
   as if it would burn for ever; and so it will unless you repent, for it
   is the anger of an everlasting God fastening upon the immortal souls,
   and who knows the power of that anger?

True and False Confidence; Deceitfulness of the Heart; Unlawful Gains. (b.
c. 605.)

   5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and
   maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.   6 For
   he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good
   cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a
   salt land and not inhabited.   7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in
   the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.   8 For he shall be as a tree
   planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river,
   and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and
   shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from
   yielding fruit.   9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and
   desperately wicked: who can know it?   10 I the Lord search the heart,
   I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and
   according to the fruit of his doings.   11 As the partridge sitteth on
   eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by
   right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall
   be a fool.

   It is excellent doctrine that is preached in these verses, and of
   general concern and use to us all, and it does not appear to have any
   particular reference to the present state of Judah and Jerusalem. The
   prophet's sermons were not all prophetical, but some of them practical;
   yet this discourse, which probably we have here only the heads of,
   would be of singular use to them by way of caution not to misplace
   their confidence in the day of their distress. Let us all learn what we
   are taught here,

   I. Concerning the disappointment and vexation those will certainly meet
   with who depend upon creatures for success and relief when they are in
   trouble (v. 5, 6): Cursed be the man that trusts in man. God pronounces
   him cursed for the affront he thereby puts upon him. Or, Cursed (that
   is, miserable) is the man that does so, for he leans upon a broken
   reed, which will not only fail him, but will run into his hand and
   pierce it. Observe, 1. The sin here condemned; it is trusting in man,
   putting that confidence in the wisdom and power, the kindness and
   faithfulness, of men, which should be placed in those attributes of God
   only, making our applications to men and raising our expectations from
   them as principal agents, whereas they are but instruments in the hand
   of Providence. It is making flesh the arm we stay upon, the arm we work
   with and with which we hope to work our point, the arm under which we
   shelter ourselves and on which we depend for protection. God is his
   people's arm, Isa. xxxii. 2. We must not think to make any creature to
   be that to us which God has undertaken to be. Man is called flesh, to
   show the folly of those that make him their confidence; he is flesh,
   weak and feeble as flesh without bones or sinews, that has no strength
   at all in it; he is inactive as flesh without spirit, which is a dead
   thing; he is mortal and dying as flesh, which soon putrefies and
   corrupts, and is continually wasting. Nay, he is false and sinful, and
   has lost his integrity; so his being flesh signifies, Gen. vi. 3. The
   great malignity there is in this sin; it is the departure of the evil
   heart of unbelief from the living God. Those that trust in man perhaps
   draw nigh to God with their mouth and honour him with their lips, they
   call him their hope and say that they trust in him, but really their
   heart departs from him; they distrust him, despise him, and decline a
   correspondence with him. Cleaving to the cistern is leaving the
   fountain, and is resented accordingly. 3. The fatal consequences of
   this sin. He that puts a confidence in man puts a cheat upon himself;
   for (v. 6) he shall be like the heath in the desert, a sorry shrub, the
   product of barren ground, sapless, useless, and worthless; his comforts
   shall all fail him and his hopes be blasted; he shall wither, be
   dejected in himself and trampled on by all about him. When good comes
   he shall not see it, he shall not share in it; when the times mend they
   shall not mend with him, but he shall inhabit the parched places in the
   wilderness; his expectation shall be continually frustrated; when
   others have a harvest he shall have none. Those that trust to their own
   righteousness and strength, and think they can do well enough without
   the merit and grace of Christ, thus make flesh their arm, and their
   souls cannot prosper in graces or comforts; they can neither produce
   the fruits of acceptable services to God nor reap the fruits of saving
   blessings from him; they dwell in a dry land.

   II. Concerning the abundant satisfaction which those have, and will
   have, who make God their confidence, who live by faith in his
   providence and promise, who refer themselves to him and his guidance at
   all times and repose themselves in him and his love in the most unquiet
   times, v. 7, 8. Observe, 1. The duty required of us--to trust in the
   Lord, to do our duty to him and then depend upon him to bear us out in
   doing it--when creatures and second causes either deceive or threaten
   us, either are false to us or fierce against us, to commit ourselves to
   God as all-sufficient both to fill up the place of those who fail us
   and to protect us from those who set upon us. It is to make the Lord
   our hope, his favour the good we hope for and his power the strength we
   hope in. 2. The comfort that attends the doing of this duty. He that
   does so shall be as a tree planted by the waters, a choice tree, about
   which great care has been taken to set it in the best soil, so far from
   being like the heath in the wilderness; he shall be like a tree that
   spreads out its roots, and thereby is firmly fixed, spreads them out by
   the rivers, whence it draws abundance of sap, which denotes both the
   establishment and the comfort which those have who make God their hope;
   they are easy, they are pleasant, and enjoy a continual security and
   serenity of mind. A tree thus planted, thus watered, shall not see when
   heat comes, shall not sustain any damage from the most scorching heats
   of summer; it is so well moistened from its roots that it shall be
   sufficiently guarded against drought. Those that make God their hope,
   (1.) They shall flourish in credit and comfort, like a tree that is
   always green, whose leaf does not wither; they shall be cheerful to
   themselves and beautiful in the eyes of others. Those who thus give
   honour to God by giving him credit God will put honour upon, and make
   them the ornament and delight of the places where they live, as green
   trees are. (2.) They shall be fixed in an inward peace and
   satisfaction: They shall not be careful in a year of drought, when
   there is want of rain; for, as the tree has seed in itself, so it has
   its moisture. Those who make God their hope have enough in him to make
   up the want of all creature-comforts. We need not be solicitous about
   the breaking of a cistern as long as we have the fountain. (3.) They
   shall be fruitful in holiness, and in all good works. Those who trust
   in God, and by faith derive strength and grace from him, shall not
   cease from yielding fruit; they shall still be enabled to do that which
   will redound to the glory of God, the benefit of others, and their own
   account.

   III. Concerning the sinfulness of man's heart, and the divine
   inspection it is always under, v. 9, 10. It is folly to trust in man,
   for he is not only frail, but false and deceitful. We are apt to think
   that we trust in God, and are entitled to the blessings here promised
   to those who do so. But this is a thing about which our own hearts
   deceive us as much as any thing. We think that we trust in God when
   really we do not, as appears by this, that our hopes and fears rise or
   fall according as second causes smile or frown.

   1. It is true in general. (1.) There is that wickedness in our hearts
   which we ourselves are not aware of and do not suspect to be there;
   nay, it is a common mistake among the children of men to think
   themselves, their own hearts at least, a great deal better than they
   really are. The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen
   state, is deceitful above all things. It is subtle and false; it is apt
   to supplant (so the word properly signifies); it is that from which
   Jacob had his name, a supplanter. It calls evil good and good evil,
   puts false colours upon things, and cries peace to those to whom peace
   does not belong. When men say in their hearts (that is, suffer their
   hearts to whisper to them) that there is no God, or he does not see, or
   he will not require, or they shall have peace though they go on; in
   these, and a thousand similar suggestions the heart is deceitful. It
   cheats men into their own ruin; and this will be the aggravation of it,
   that they are self-deceivers, self-destroyers. Herein the heart is
   desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad
   indeed, and in a manner deplorable and past relief, if the conscience
   which should rectify the errors of the other faculties is itself a
   mother of falsehood and a ring-leader in the delusion. What will become
   of a man if that in him which should be the candle of the Lord give a
   false light, if God's deputy in the soul, that is entrusted to support
   his interests, betrays them? Such is the deceitfulness of the heart
   that we may truly say, Who can know it? Who can describe how bad the
   heart is? We cannot know our own hearts, not what they will do in an
   hour of temptation (Hezekiah did not, Peter did not), not what corrupt
   dispositions there are in them, nor in how many things they have turned
   aside; who can understand his errors? Much less can we know the hearts
   of others, or have any dependence upon them. But, (2.) Whatever
   wickedness there is in the heart God sees it, and knows it, is
   perfectly acquainted with it and apprised of it: I the Lord search the
   heart. This is true of all that is in the heart, all the thoughts of
   it, the quickest, and those that are most carelessly overlooked by
   ourselves--all the intents of it, the closest, and those that are most
   artfully disguised, and industriously concealed from others. Men may be
   imposed upon, but God cannot. He not only searches the heart with a
   piercing eye, but he tries the reins, to pass a judgment upon what he
   discovers, to give every thing its true character and due weight. He
   tries it, as the gold is tried whether it be standard or no, as the
   prisoner is tried whether he be guilty or no. And this judgment which
   he makes of the heart is in order to his passing judgment upon the man;
   it is to give to every man according to his ways (according to the
   desert and the tendency of them, life to those that walked in the ways
   of life, and death to those that persisted in the paths of the
   destroyer) and according to the fruit of his doings, the effect and
   influence his doings have had upon others, or according to what is
   settled by the word of God to be the fruit of men's doings, blessings
   to the obedient and curses to the disobedient. Note, Therefore God is
   Judge himself, and he alone, because he, and none besides, knows the
   hearts of the children of men.

   2. It is true especially of all the deceitfulness and wickedness of the
   heart, all its corrupt devices, desires, and designs. God observes and
   discerns them; and (which is more than any man can do) he judges of the
   overt act by the heart. Note, God knows more evil of us than we do of
   ourselves, which is a good reason why we should not flatter ourselves,
   but always stand in awe of the judgment of God.

   IV. Concerning the curse that attends wealth unjustly gotten. Fraud and
   violence had been reigning crying sins in Judah and Jerusalem; now the
   prophet would have those who had been guilty of these sins, and were
   now stripped of all they had, to read their sin in their punishment (v.
   11): He that gets riches and not by right, though he may make them his
   hope, shall never have joy of them. Observe, It is possible that those
   who use unlawful means to get wealth may succeed therein and prosper
   for a time; and it is a temptation to many to defraud and oppress their
   neighbours when there is money to be got by it. He who has got
   treasures by vanity and a lying tongue may hug himself in his success,
   and say, I am rich; nay, and I am innocent too (Hos. xii. 8), but he
   shall leave them in the midst of his days; they shall be taken from
   him, or he from them; God shall cut him off with some surprising stroke
   then when he says, Soul, take thy ease, thou hast goods laid up for
   many years, Luke xii. 19, 20. He shall leave them to he knows not whom,
   and shall not be able to take any of his riches away with him. It
   intimates what a great vexation it is to a worldly man at death that he
   must leave his riches behind him; and justly may it be a terror to
   those who got them unjustly, for, though the wealth will not follow
   them to another world, the guilt will, and the torment of an
   everlasting, Son, remember, Luke xvi. 25. Thus, at his end, he shall be
   a fool, a Nabal, whose wealth did him no good, which he had so sordidly
   hoarded, when his heart became dead as a stone. He was a fool all
   along; sometimes perhaps his own conscience told him so, but at his end
   he will appear to be so. Those are fools indeed who are fools in their
   latter end; and such multitudes will prove who were applauded as wise
   men, that did well for themselves, Ps. xlix. 13, 18. Those that get
   grace will be wise in the latter end, will have the comfort of it in
   death and the benefit of it to eternity (Prov. xix. 20); but those that
   place their happiness in the wealth of the world, and, right or wrong,
   will be rich, will rue the folly of it when it is too late to rectify
   the fatal mistake. This is like the partridge that sits on eggs and
   hatches them not, but they are broken (as Job xxxix. 15), or stolen (as
   Isa. x. 14), or they become addle: some sort of fowl there was, well
   known among the Jews, whose case this commonly was. The rich man takes
   a great deal of pains to get an estate together, and sits brooding upon
   it, but never has any comfort nor satisfaction in it; his projects to
   enrich himself by sinful courses miscarry and come to nothing. Let us
   therefore be wise in time--what we get to get it honestly, and what we
   have to use it charitably, that we may lay up in store a good
   foundation and be wise for eternity.

God's Justice Acknowledged; The Prophet's Appeal of God. (b. c. 605.)

   12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our
   sanctuary.   13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall
   be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth,
   because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
   14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be
   saved: for thou art my praise.   15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is
   the word of the Lord? let it come now.   16 As for me, I have not
   hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the
   woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right
   before thee.   17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day
   of evil.   18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me
   be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring
   upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

   Here, as often before, we have the prophet retired for private
   meditation, and alone with God. Those ministers that would have comfort
   in their work must be much so. In his converse here with God and his
   own heart he takes the liberty which devout souls sometimes use in
   their soliloquies, to pass from one thing to another, without tying
   themselves too strictly to the laws of method and coherence.

   I. He acknowledges the great favour of God to his people in setting up
   a revealed religion among them, and dignifying them with divine
   institutions (v. 12): A glorious high throne from the beginning is the
   place of our sanctuary. The temple at Jerusalem, where God manifested
   his special presence, where the lively oracles were lodged, where the
   people paid their homage to their Sovereign, and whither they fled for
   refuge in distress, was the place of their sanctuary. That was a
   glorious high throne. It was a throne of holiness, which made it truly
   glorious; it was God's throne, which made it truly high. Jerusalem is
   called the city of the great King, not only Israel's King, but the King
   of the whole earth, so that it might justly be deemed the metropolis,
   or royal city, of the world. It was from the beginning, so, from the
   first projecting of it by David and building of it by Solomon, 2 Chron.
   ii. 9. It was the honour of Israel that God set up such a glorious
   throne among them. As the glorious and high throne (that is, heaven) is
   the place of our sanctuary; so some read it. Note, All good men have a
   high value and veneration for the ordinances of God, and reckon the
   place of the sanctuary a glorious high throne. Jeremiah here mentions
   this either as a plea with God for mercy to their land, in honour of
   the throne of his glory (ch. xiv. 21), or as an aggravation of the sin
   of his people in forsaking God though his throne was among them, and so
   profaning his crown and the place of his sanctuary.

   II. He acknowledges the righteousness of God in abandoning those to
   ruin that forsook him and revolted from their allegiance to him, v. 13.
   He speaks it to God, as subscribing both to the certainty and to the
   equity of it: O Lord! the hope of those in Israel that adhere to thee,
   all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. They must of necessity be so,
   for they forsake thee for lying vanities, which will deceive them and
   make them ashamed. They will be ashamed, for they shame themselves.
   They will justly be put to shame, for they have forsaken him who alone
   can keep them in countenance when troubles come. Let them be ashamed
   (so some read it); and so it is a pious imprecation of the wrath of God
   upon them, or a petition for his grace, to make them penitently
   ashamed. "Those that depart from me, from the word of God which I have
   preached, do in effect depart from God;" as those that return to God
   are said to return to the prophet, ch. xv. 19. Those that depart from
   thee (so some read it) shall be written in the earth. They shall soon
   be blotted out, as that is which is written in the dust. They shall be
   trampled upon and exposed to contempt. They belong to the earth, and
   shall be numbered among earthly people, who lay up their treasure on
   earth and whose names are not written in heaven. And they deserve to be
   thus written with the fools in Israel, that their folly may be made
   manifest unto all, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of
   living waters (that is, spring waters), and that for broken cisterns.
   Note, God is to all that are his a fountain of living waters. There is
   a fulness of comfort in him, an over-flowing ever-flowing fulness, like
   that of a fountain; it is always fresh, and clear, and clean, like
   spring water, while the pleasures of sin are puddle-waters. They are
   free to it; it is not a fountain sealed. They deserve therefore to be
   condemned, as Adam, to red earth, to which by the corruption of their
   nature they are allied, because they have forsaken the garden of the
   Lord, which is so well-watered. Those that depart from God are written
   in the earth.

   III. He prays to God for healing saving mercy for himself. "If the case
   of those that depart from God be so miserable, let me always draw nigh
   to him (Ps. lxxiii. 27, 28), and, in order to do that, Lord, heal me,
   and save me, v. 14. Heal my backslidings, my bent to backslide, and
   save me from being carried away by the strength of the stream to
   forsake thee." He was wounded in spirit with grief upon many accounts.
   "Lord, heal me with thy comforts, and make me easy." He was continually
   exposed to the malice of unreasonable men. "Lord, save me from them,
   and let me not fall into their wicked hands. Heal me, that is, sanctify
   me by thy grace; save me, that is, bring me to thy glory." All that
   shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now; unless the disease of sin
   be purged out the soul cannot live. To enforce this petition he pleads,
   1. The firm belief he had of God's power: Heal thou me, and then I
   shall be healed; the cure will certainly be wrought if thou undertake
   it; it will be a thorough cure and not a palliative one. Those that
   come to God to be healed ought to be abundantly satisfied in the
   all-sufficiency of their physician. Save me, and then I shall certainly
   be saved, be my dangers and enemies ever so threatening. If God hold us
   up, we shall live; if he protect us, we shall be safe. 2. The sincere
   regard he had to God's glory: "For thou art my praise, and for that
   reason I desire to be healed and saved, that I may live and praise
   thee, Ps. cxix. 175. Thou art he whom I praise, and the praise due to
   thee I never gave to another. Thou art he whom I glory in, and boast
   of, for on thee do I depend. Thou art he that furnishes me with
   continual matter for praise, and I have given thee the praise of the
   favours already bestowed upon me. Thou shalt be my praise" (so some
   read it); "heal me, and save me, and thou shalt have the glory of it.
   My praise shall be continually of thee," Ps. lxxi. 6; lxxix. 13.

   IV. He complains of the infidelity and daring impiety of the people to
   whom he preached. It greatly troubled him, and he shows before God this
   trouble, as the servant that had slights put upon him by the guests he
   was sent to invite came and showed his Lord these things. He had
   faithfully delivered God's message to them; and what answer has he to
   return to him that sent him? Behold, they say unto me, Where is the
   word of the Lord? Let it come now, v. 15, Isa. v. 19. They bantered the
   prophet, and made a jest of that which he delivered with the greatest
   seriousness. 1. They denied the truth of what he said: "If that be the
   word of the Lord which thou speakest to us, where is it? Why is it not
   fulfilled?" Thus the patience of God was impudently abused as a ground
   to question his veracity. 2. They defied the terror of what he said.
   "Let God Almighty do his worst; let all he has said come to pass; we
   shall do well enough; the lion is not so fierce as he is painted," Amos
   v. 18. "Lord, to what purpose is it to speak to men that will neither
   believe nor fear?"

   V. He appeals to God concerning his faithful discharge of the duty to
   which he was called, v. 16. The people did all they could to make him
   weary of his work, to exasperate him and make him uneasy, and to tempt
   him to prevaricate and alter his message for fear of displeasing them;
   but, "Lord," says he, "thou knowest I have not yielded to them." 1. He
   continued constant to his work. His office, instead of being his credit
   and protection, exposed him to reproach, contempt, and injury. "Yet,"
   says he, "I have not hastened from being a pastor after thee; I have
   not left my work, nor sued for a discharge or a quietus." Prophets were
   pastors to the people, to feed them with the good word of God; but they
   were to be pastors after God, and all ministers must be so, according
   to his heart (ch. iii. 15), to follow him and the directions and
   instructions he gives. Such a pastor Jeremiah was; and, though he met
   with as much difficulty and discouragement as ever any man did, yet he
   did not fly off as Jonah did, nor desire to be excused from going any
   more on God's errands. Note, Those that are employed for God, though
   their success answer nor their expectations, must not therefore throw
   up their commission. but continue to follow God, though the storm be in
   their faces. 2. He kept up his affection to the people. Though they
   were very abusive to him, he was compassionate to them: I have not
   desired the woeful day. The day of the accomplishment of his prophecies
   would be a woeful day indeed to Jerusalem, and therefore he deprecated
   it, and wished it might never come, though, as to himself, it would be
   the avenging of him upon his persecutors and the proving of him a true
   prophet (which they had questioned, v. 15), and upon those accounts he
   might be tempted to desire it. Note, God does not, and therefore
   ministers must not, desire the death of sinners, but rather that they
   may turn and live. Though we warn of the woeful day, we must not wish
   for it, but rather weep because of it, as Jeremiah did. 3. He kept
   closely to his instructions. Though he might have curried favour with
   the people, or at least have avoided their displeasure, if he had not
   been so sharp in his reproofs and severe in his threatenings, yet he
   would deliver his message faithfully; and that he had done so was a
   comfort to him. "Lord, thou knowest that that which came out of my lips
   was right before thee; it exactly agreed with what I received from
   thee, and therefore thou art reflected upon in their quarrelling with
   me." Note, If what we say and do be right before God, we may easily
   despise the reproaches and censures of men. It is a small thing to be
   judged of their judgment.

   VI. He humbly begs of God that he would own him, and protect him, and
   carry him on cheerfully in that work to which God had so plainly called
   him and to which he had so sincerely devoted himself. Two things he
   here desires:--1. That he might have comfort in serving the God that
   sent him (v. 17): Be not thou a terror to me. Surely more is implied
   than is expressed. "Be thou a comfort to me, and let thy favour rejoice
   my heart and encourage me, when my enemies do all they can to terrify
   me and either to drive me from my work or to make me drive on heavily
   in it." Note, The best have that in them which might justly make God a
   terror to them, as he was for some time to Job (ch. vi. 4), to Asaph
   (Ps. lxxvii. 3), to Heman, Ps. lxxxviii. 15. And this is that which
   good men, knowing the terrors of the Lord, dread and deprecate more
   than any thing; nay, whatever frightful accidents may befal them, or
   how formidable soever their enemies may appear to them, they can do
   well enough so long as God is not a terror to them. He pleads, "Thou
   art my hope; and then nothing else is my fear, no, not in the day of
   evil, when it is most threatening, most pressing. My dependence is upon
   thee; and therefore be not a terror to me." Note, Those that by faith
   make God their confidence shall have him for their comfort in the worst
   of times, if it be not their own fault: if we make him our trust, we
   shall not find him our terror. 2. That he might have courage in dealing
   with the people to whom he was sent, v. 18. Those persecuted him who
   should have entertained and encouraged him. "Lord," says he, "let them
   be confounded (let them be overpowered by the convictions of the word
   and made ashamed of their obstinacy, or else let the judgments
   threatened be at length executed upon them), but let not me confounded,
   let not me be terrified by their menaces, so as to betray my trust."
   Note, God's ministers have work to do which they need not be either
   ashamed or afraid to go on in, but they do need to be helped by the
   divine grace to go on in it without shame or fear. Jeremiah had not
   desired the woeful day upon his country in general; but as to his
   persecutors, in a just and holy indignation at their malice, he prays,
   Bring upon them the day of evil, in hope that the bringing of it upon
   them might prevent the bringing of it upon the country; if they were
   taken away, the people would be better; "therefore destroy them with a
   double destruction; let them be utterly destroyed, root and branch, and
   let the prospect of that destruction be their present confusion." This
   the prophet prays, not at all that he might be avenged, nor so much
   that he might be eased, but that the Lord may be known by the judgments
   which he executes.

Sabbath-Sanctification. (b. c. 600.)

   19 Thus said the Lord unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children
   of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which
   they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;   20 And say unto them,
   Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all
   the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:   21 Thus
   saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the
   sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;   22 Neither
   carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do
   ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your
   fathers.   23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made
   their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
   24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith
   the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the
   sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;   25
   Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes
   sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses,
   they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.   26 And they shall
   come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and
   from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains,
   and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat
   offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the
   house of the Lord.   27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow
   the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the
   gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the
   gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it
   shall not be quenched.

   These verses are a sermon concerning sabbath-sanctification. It is a
   word which the prophet received from the Lord, and was ordered to
   deliver in the most solemn and public manner to the people; for they
   were sent not only to reprove sin, and to press obedience, in general,
   but they must descend to particulars. This message concerning the
   sabbath was probably sent in the days of Josiah, for the furtherance of
   that work of reformation which he set on foot; for the promises here
   (v. 25, 26) are such as I think we scarcely find when things come
   nearer to the extremity. This message must be proclaimed in all the
   places of concourse, and therefore inthe gates, not only because
   through them people were continually passing and repassing, but because
   in them they kept their courts and laid up their stores. It must be
   proclaimed (as the king or queen is usually proclaimed) at the
   court-gate first, the gate by which the kings of Judah come in and go
   out, v. 19. Let them be told their duty first, particularly this duty;
   for, if sabbaths be not sanctified as they should be, the rulers of
   Judah are to be contended with (so they were, Neh. xiii. 17), for they
   are certainly wanting in their duty. He must also preach it in all the
   gates of Jerusalem. It is a matter of great and general concern;
   therefore let all take notice of it. Let the kings of Judah hear the
   word of the Lord (for, high as they are, he is above them), and all the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, for, mean as they are, he takes notice of
   them, and of what they say and do on sabbath days. Observe,

   I. How the sabbath is to be sanctified, and what is the law concerning
   it, v. 21, 22. 1. They must rest from their worldly employment on the
   sabbath day, must do no servile work. They must bear no burden into the
   city nor out of it, into their houses nor out of them; husbandmen's
   burdens of corn must not be carried in, nor manure carried out; nor
   must tradesmen's burdens of wares or merchandises be imported or
   exported. There must not a loaded horse, or cart, or wagon, be seen on
   the sabbath day either in the streets or in the roads; the porters must
   not ply on that day, nor must the servants be suffered to fetch in
   provisions or fuel. It is a day of rest, and must not be made a day of
   labour, unless in case of necessity. 2. They must apply themselves to
   that which is the proper work and business of the day: "Hallow you the
   sabbath, that is, consecrate it to the honour of God and spend it in
   his service and worship." It is in order to this that worldly business
   must be laid aside, that we may be entire for, and intent upon, that
   work, which requires and deserves the whole man. 3. They must herein be
   very circumspect: "Take heed to yourselves, watch against every thing
   that borders upon the profanation of the sabbath." Where God is jealous
   we must be cautious. "Take heed to yourselves, for it is at your peril
   if you rob God of that part of your time which he has reserved to
   himself." Take heed to your souls (so the word is); in order to the
   right sanctifying of sabbaths, we must look well to the frame of our
   spirits and have a watchful eye upon all the motions of the inward man.
   Let not the soul be burdened with the cares of this world on sabbath
   days, but let that be employed, even all that is within us, in the work
   of the day. And, 4. He refers them to the law, the statute in this case
   made and provided: "This is no new imposition upon you, but is what I
   commanded your fathers; it is an ancient law; it was an article of the
   original contract; nay, it was a command to the patriarchs."

   II. How the sabbath had been profaned (v. 23): "Your fathers were
   required to keep holy the sabbath day, but they obeyed not; they
   hardened their necks against this as well as other commands that were
   given them." This is mentioned to show that there needed a reformation
   in this matter, and that God had a just controversy with them for the
   long transgression of this law which they had been guilty of. They
   hardened their necks against this command, that they might not hear and
   receive instruction concerning other commands. Where sabbaths are
   neglected all religion sensibly goes to decay.

   III. What blessings God had in store for them if they would make
   conscience of sabbath-sanctification. Though their fathers had been
   guilty of the profanation of the sabbath they should not only not smart
   for it, but their city and nation should recover its ancient glory, if
   they would keep sabbaths better, v. 24-26. Let them take care to hallow
   the sabbath and do no work therein; and then, 1. The court shall
   flourish. Kings in succession, or the many branches of the royal family
   at the same time, all as great as kings, with the other princes that
   sit upon the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David
   (Ps. cxxii. 5), shall ride in great pomp through the gates of
   Jerusalem, some in chariots and some on horses, attended with a
   numerous retinue of the men of Judah. Note, The honour of the
   government is the joy of the kingdom; and the support of religion would
   contribute greatly to both. 2. The city shall flourish. Let there be a
   face of religion kept up in Jerusalem, by sabbath-sanctification, that
   it may answer to its title, the holy city, and then it shall remain for
   ever, shall for ever be inhabited (so the word may be rendered); it
   shall not be destroyed and dispeopled, as it is threatened to be.
   Whatever supports religion tends to establish the civil interests of a
   land. 3. The country shall flourish: The cities of Judah and the land
   of Benjamin shall be replenished with vast numbers of inhabitants, and
   those abounding in plenty and living in peace, which will appear by the
   multitude and value of their offerings, which they shall present to
   God. By this the flourishing of a country may be judged of, What does
   it do for the honour of God? Those that starve their religion either
   are poor or are in a fair way to be so. 4. The church shall flourish:
   Meat-offerings, and incense, and sacrifices of praise, shall be brought
   to the house of the Lord, for the maintenance of the service of that
   house and the servants that attend it. God's institutions shall be
   conscientiously observed; no sacrifice nor incense shall be offered to
   idols, nor alienated from God, but every thing shall go in the right
   channel. They shall have both occasion and hearts to bring sacrifices
   of praise to God. This is made an instance of their prosperity. Then a
   people truly flourish when religion flourishes among them. And this is
   the effect of sabbath-sanctification; when that branch of religion is
   kept up other instances of it are kept up likewise; but, when that is
   lost, devotion is lost either in superstition or in profaneness. It is
   a true observation, which some have made, that the streams of all
   religion run either deep or shallow according as the banks of the
   sabbath are kept up or neglected.

   IV. What judgments they must expect would come upon them if they
   persisted in the profanation of the sabbath (v. 27): "If you will not
   hearken to me in this matter, to keep the gates shut on sabbath days,
   so that there may be no unnecessary entering in, or going out, on that
   day--if you will break through the enclosure of the divine law, and lay
   that day in common with other days--know that God will kindle a fire in
   the gates of your city," intimating that it shall be kindled by an
   enemy besieging the city and assaulting the gates, who shall take this
   course to force an entrance. Justly shall those gates be fired that are
   not used as they ought to be to shut out sin and to keep people in to
   an attendance on their duty. This fire shall devour even the palaces of
   Jerusalem, where the princes and nobles dwelt, who did not use their
   power and interest as they ought to have done to keep up the honour of
   God's sabbaths; but it shall not be quenched until it has laid the
   whole city in ruins. This was fulfilled by the army of the Chaldeans,
   ch. lii. 13. The profanation of the sabbath is a sin for which God has
   often contended with a people by fire.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XVIII.

   In this chapter we have, I. A general declaration of God's ways in
   dealing with nations and kingdoms, that he can easily do what he will
   with them, as easily as the potter can with the clay (ver. 1-6), but
   that he certainly will do what is just and fair with them. If he
   threaten their ruin, yet upon their repentance he will return in mercy
   to them, and, when he is coming towards them in mercy, nothing but
   their sin will stop the progress of his favours, ver. 7-10. II. A
   particular demonstration of the folly of the men of Judah and Jerusalem
   in departing from their God to idols, and so bringing ruin upon
   themselves notwithstanding the fair warnings given them and God's kind
   intentions towards them, ver. 11-17. III. The prophet's complaint to
   God of the base ingratitude and unreasonable malice of his enemies,
   persecutors, and slanderers, and his prayers against them, ver. 18-23.

The Sovereign Prerogative of God; Divine Goodness and Equity. (b. c. 600.)

   1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   2 Arise, and
   go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my
   words.   3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he
   wrought a work on the wheels.   4 And the vessel that he made of clay
   was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another
   vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.   5 Then the word of
   the Lord came to me, saying,   6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with
   you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the
   potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.   7 At what
   instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
   pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;   8 If that nation,
   against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of
   the evil that I thought to do unto them.   9 And at what instant I
   shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and
   to plant it;   10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice,
   then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

   The prophet is here sent to the potter's house (he knew where to find
   it), not to preach a sermon as before to the gates of Jerusalem, but to
   prepare a sermon, or rather to receive it ready prepared. Those needed
   not to study their sermons that had them, as he had this, by immediate
   inspiration. "Go to the potter's house, and observe how he manages his
   work, and there I will cause thee, by silent whispers, to hear my
   words. There thou shalt receive a message, to be delivered to the
   people." Note, Those that would know God's mind must observe his
   appointments, and attend where they may hear his words. The prophet was
   never disobedient to the heavenly vision, and therefore went to the
   potter's house (v. 3) and took notice how he wrought his work upon the
   wheels, just as he pleased, with a great deal of ease, and in a little
   time. And (v. 4) when a lump of clay that he designed to form into one
   shape either proved too stiff, or had a stone in it, or some way or
   other came to be marred in his hand, he presently turned it into
   another shape; if it will not serve for a vessel of honour, it will
   serve for a vessel of dishonour, just as seems good to the potter. It
   is probable that Jeremiah knew well enough how the potter wrought his
   work, and how easily he threw it into what form he pleased; but he must
   go and observe it now, that, having the idea of it fresh in his mind,
   he might the more readily and distinctly apprehend that truth which God
   designed thereby to represent to him, and might the more intelligently
   explain it to the people. God used similitudes by his servants the
   prophets (Hos. xii. 10), and it was requisite that they should
   themselves understand the similitudes they used. Ministers will make a
   good use of their converse with the business and affairs of this life
   if they learn thereby to speak more plainly and familiarly to people
   about the things of God, and to expound scripture comparisons. For they
   ought to make all their knowledge some way or other serviceable to
   their profession.

   Now let us see what the message is which Jeremiah receives, and is
   entrusted with the delivery of, at the potter's house. While he looks
   carefully upon the potter's work, God darts into his mind these two
   great truths, which he must preach to the house of Israel:--

   I. That God has both an incontestable authority and an irresistible
   ability to form and fashion kingdoms and nations as he pleases, so as
   to serve his own purposes: "Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith
   the Lord? v. 6. Have not I as absolute a power over you in respect both
   of might and of right?" Nay, God has a clearer title to a dominion over
   us than the potter has over the clay; for the potter only gives it its
   form, whereas we have both matter and form from God. As the clay is in
   the potter's hand to be moulded and shaped as he pleases, so are you in
   my hand. This intimates, 1. That God has an incontestable sovereignty
   over us, is not debtor to us, may dispose of us as he thinks fit, and
   is not accountable to us, and that it would be as absurd for us to
   dispute this as for the clay to quarrel with the potter. 2. That it is
   a very easy thing with God to make what use he pleases of us and what
   changes he pleases with us, and that we cannot resist him. One turn of
   the hand, one turn of the wheel, quite alters the shape of the clay,
   makes it a vessel, unmakes it, new-makes it. Thus are our times in
   God's hand, and not in our own, and it is in vain for us to strive with
   him. It is spoken here of nations; the most politic, the most potent,
   are what God is pleased to make them, and no other. See this explained
   by Job (ch. xii. 23), He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them; he
   enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them again. See Ps. cvii. 33,
   &c., and compare Job xxxiv. 29. All nations before God are as the drop
   of the bucket, soon wiped away, or the small dust of the balance, soon
   blown away (Isa. xl. 15), and therefore, no doubt, as easily managed as
   the clay by the potter. 3. That God will not be a loser by any in his
   glory, at long run, but, if he be not glorified by them, he will be
   glorified upon them. If the potter's vessel be marred for one use, it
   shall serve for another; those that will not be monuments of mercy
   shall be monuments of justice. The Lord has made all things for
   himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil, Prov. xvi. 4. God
   formed us out of the clay (Job xxxiii. 6), nay, and we are still as
   clay in his hands (Isa. lxiv. 8); and has not he the same power over us
   that the potter has over the clay? (Rom. ix. 21), and are not we bound
   to submit, as the clay to the potter's wisdom and will? Isa. xxix. 15,
   16; xlv. 9.

   II. That, in the exercise of this authority and ability, he always goes
   by fixed rules of equity and goodness. He dispenses favours indeed in a
   way of sovereignty, but never punishes by arbitrary power. High is his
   right hand, yet he rules not with a high hand, but, as it follows
   there, Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne, Ps.
   lxxxix. 13, 14. God asserts his despotic power, and tells us what he
   might do, but at the same time assures us that he will act as a
   righteous and merciful Judge. 1. When God is coming against us in ways
   of judgment we may be sure that it is for our sins, which shall appear
   by this, that national repentance will stop the progress of the
   judgments (v. 7, 8): If God speak concerning a nation to pluck up its
   fences that secure it, and so lay it open, its fruit-trees that adorn
   and enrich it, and so leave it desolate--to pull down its
   fortifications, that the enemy may have liberty to enter in, its
   habitations, that the inhabitants may be under a necessity of going
   out, and so destroy it as either a vineyard or a city is destroyed--in
   this case, if that nation take the alarm, repent of their sins and
   reform their lives, turn every one from his evil way and return to God,
   God will graciously accept them, will not proceed in his controversy,
   will return in mercy to them, and, though he cannot change his mind, he
   will change his way, so that it may be said, He repents him of the evil
   he said he would do to them. Thus often in the time of the Judges, when
   the oppressed people were penitent people, still God raised them up
   saviours; and, when they turned to God, their affairs immediately took
   a new turn. It was Nineveh's case, and we wish it had oftener been
   Jerusalem's; see 2 Chron. vii. 14. It is an undoubted truth that a
   sincere conversion from the evil of sin will be an effectual prevention
   of the evil of punishment; and God can as easily raise up a penitent
   people from their ruins as the potter can make anew the vessel of clay
   when it was marred in his hand. 2. When God is coming towards us in
   ways of mercy, if any stop be given to the progress of that mercy, it
   is nothing but sin that gives it (v. 9, 10): If God speak concerning a
   nation to build and to plant it, to advance and establish all the true
   interests of it, it is his husbandly and his building (1 Cor. iii. 9),
   and, if he speak in favour of it, it is done, it is increased, it is
   enriched, it is enlarged, its trade flourishes, its government is
   settled in good hands, and all its affairs prosper and its enterprises
   succeed. But if this nation, which God is thus loading with benefits,
   do evil in his sight and obey not his voice,--if it lose its virtue,
   and become debauched and profane,--if religion grow into contempt, and
   vice to get to be fashionable, and so be kept in countenance and
   reputation, and there be a general decay of serious godliness among
   them,--then God will turn his hand against them, will pluck up what he
   was planting, and pull down what he was building (ch. xlv. 4); the good
   work that was in the doing shall stand still and be let fall, and what
   favours were further designed shall be withheld; and this is called his
   repenting of the good wherewith he said he would benefit them, as he
   changed his purpose concerning Eli's house (1 Sam. ii. 30) and hurried
   Israel back into the wilderness when he had brought them within sight
   of Canaan. Note, Sin is the great mischief-maker between God and a
   people; it forfeits the benefit of his promises and spoils the success
   of their prayers. It defeats his kind intentions concerning them (Hos.
   vii. 1) and baffles their pleasing expectations from him. It ruins
   their comforts, prolongs their grievances, brings them into straits,
   and retards their deliverances, Isa. lix. 1, 2.

People of God Accused and Threatened; Folly of Idolatry. (b. c. 600.)

   11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame
   evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every
   one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.   12
   And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own
   devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
   13 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who
   hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible
   thing.   14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the
   rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from
   another place be forsaken?   15 Because my people hath forgotten me,
   they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to
   stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a
   way not cast up;   16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual
   hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag
   his head.   17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the
   enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their
   calamity.

   These verses seem to be the application of the general truths laid down
   in the foregoing part of the chapter to the nation of the Jews and
   their present state.

   I. God was now speaking concerning them to pluck up, and to pull down,
   and to destroy; for it is that part of the rule of judgment that their
   case agrees with (v. 11): "Go, and tell them" (saith God), "Behold I
   frame evil against you and devise against you. Providence in all its
   operations is plainly working towards your ruin. Look upon your conduct
   towards God, and you cannot but see that you deserve it; look upon his
   dealings with you, and you cannot but see that he designs it." He
   frames evil, as the potter frames the vessel, so as to answer the end.

   II. He invites them by repentance and reformation to meet him in the
   way of his judgments and so to prevent his further proceedings against
   them: "Return you now every one from his evil ways, that so (according
   to the rule before laid down) God may turn from the evil he had
   purported to do unto you, and that providence which seemed to be framed
   like a vessel on the wheel against you shall immediately be thrown into
   a new shape, and the issue shall be in favour of you." Note, The
   warnings of God's word, and the threatenings of his providence, should
   be improved by us as strong inducements to us to reform our lives, in
   which it is not enough to turn from our evil ways, but we must make our
   ways and our doings good, conformable to the rule, to the law.

   III. He foresees their obstinacy, and their perverse refusal to comply
   with this invitation, though it tended so much to their own benefit (v.
   12): They said, "There is no hope. If we must not be delivered unless
   we return from our evil ways, we may even despair of ever being
   delivered, for we are resolved that we will walk after our own devices.
   It is to no purpose for the prophets to say any more to us, to use any
   more arguments, or to press the matter any further; we will have our
   way, whatever it cost us; we will do every one the imagination of his
   own evil heart, and will not be under the restraint of the divine law."
   Note, That which ruins sinners is affecting to live as they list. They
   call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to
   his lusts is the worst of slaveries. See how strangely some men's
   hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that they will not so
   much as promise amendment; nay, they set the judgments of God at
   defiance: "We will go on with our own devices, and let God go on with
   his; and we will venture the issue."

   IV. He upbraids them with the monstrous folly of their obstinacy, and
   their hating to be reformed. Surely never were people guilty of such an
   absurdity, never any that pretended to reason acted so unreasonably (v.
   13): Ask you among the heathen, even those that had not the benefit of
   divine revelation, no oracles, no prophets, as Judah and Jerusalem had,
   yet, even among them, who hath heard such a thing? The Ninevites, when
   thus warned, turned from their evil ways. Some of the worst of men,
   when they are told of their faults, especially when they begin to smart
   for them, will at least promise reformation and say that they will
   endeavour to mend. But the virgin of Israel bids defiance to
   repentance, is resolved to go on frowardly, whatever conscience and
   Providence say to the contrary, and thus has done a horrible thing. She
   should have preserved herself pure and chaste for God, who had espoused
   her to himself; but she has alienated herself from him, and refuses to
   return to him. Note, It is a horrible thing, enough to make one tremble
   to think of it, that those who have made their condition sad by sinning
   should make it desperate by refusing to reform. Wilful impenitence is
   the grossest self-murder; and that is a horrible thing, which we should
   abhor the thought of.

   V. He shows their folly in two things:--

   1. In the nature of the sin itself that they were guilty of. They
   forsook God for idols, which was the most horrible thing that could be,
   for they put a most dangerous cheat upon themselves (v. 14, 15): Will a
   thirsty traveller leave the snow, which, being melted, runs down from
   the mountains of Lebanon, and, passing over the rock of the field,
   flows in clear, clean, crystal streams? Will he leave these, pass these
   by, and think to better himself with some dirty puddle-water? Or shall
   the cold flowing waters that come from any other place be forsaken in
   the heat of summer? No; when men are parched with heat and drought, and
   meet with cooling refreshing streams, they will make use of them, and
   not turn their backs upon them. The margin reads it, "Will a man that
   is travelling the road leave my fields, which are plain and level, for
   a rock, which is rough and hard, or for the snow of Lebanon, which,
   lying in great drifts, makes the road impassable? Or shall the running
   waters be forsaken for the strange cold waters? No; in these things men
   know when they are well off, and will keep so; they will not leave a
   certainty for an uncertainty. But my people have forgotten me (v. 15),
   have quitted a fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. They have
   burnt incense to idols, that are as vain as vanity itself, that are not
   what they pretend to be nor can perform what is expected from them."
   They had not the common wit of travellers, but even their leaders
   caused them to err, and they were content to be misled. (1.) They left
   the ancient paths, which were appointed by the divine law, which had
   been walked in by all the saints, which were therefore the right way to
   their journey's end, a safe way, and, being well-tracked, were both
   easy to hit and easy to walk in. But, when they were advised to keep to
   the good old way, they positively said that they would not, ch. vi. 16.
   (2.) They chose by-paths; they walked in a way not cast up, not in the
   highway, the King's highway, in which they might travel safely, and
   which would certainly lead them to their right end, but in a dirty way,
   a rough way, a way in which they could not but stumble; such was the
   way of idolatry (such is the way of all iniquity--it is a false way, it
   is a way full of stumbling-blocks) and yet this way they chose to walk
   in and lead others in.

   2. In the mischievous consequences of it. Though the thing itself were
   bad, they might have had some excuse for it if they could have promised
   themselves any good out of it. But the direct tendency of it was to
   make their land desolate, and, consequently, themselves miserable (for
   so the inhabitants must needs be if their country be laid waste), and
   both themselves and their land a perpetual hissing. Those deserve to be
   hissed that have fair warning given them and will not take it. Every
   one that passes by their land shall make his remarks upon it, and shall
   be astonished, and way his head, some wondering, others commiserating,
   others triumphing in the desolations of a country that had been the
   glory of all lands. They shall wag their heads in derision, upbraiding
   them with their folly in forsaking God and their duty, and so pulling
   this misery upon their own heads. Note, Those that revolt from God will
   justly be made the scorn of all about them, and, having reproached the
   Lord, will themselves be a reproach. Their land being made desolate, in
   pursuance of their destruction, it is threatened (v. 17), I will
   scatter them as with an east wind, which is fierce and violent; by it
   they shall be hurried to and fro before the enemy, and find no way open
   to escape. They shall not only flee before the enemy (that they might
   do and yet make an orderly retreat), but they shall be scattered, some
   one way and some another. That which completes their misery is, I will
   show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. Our
   calamities may be easily borne if God look towards us, and smile upon
   us, when we are under them, if he countenance us and show us favour;
   but if he turn the back upon us, if he show himself displeased, if he
   be deaf to our prayers and refuse us his help, if he forsake us, leave
   us to ourselves, and stand at a distance from us, we are quite undone.
   If he hide his face, who then can behold him? Job xxxiv. 29. Herein God
   would deal with them as they had dealt with him (ch. ii. 27), They have
   turned their back unto me, and not their face. It is a righteous thing
   with God to show himself strange to those in the day of their trouble
   who have shown themselves rude and undutiful to him in their
   prosperity. This will have its full accomplishment in that day when God
   will say to those who, though they have been professors of piety, were
   yet workers of iniquity, Depart from me, I know you not, nay, I never
   knew you.

Conduct of Persecutors; Prophetic Imprecations. (b. c. 600.)

   18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah;
   for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the
   wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with
   the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.   19 Give
   heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with
   me.   20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit
   for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them,
   and to turn away thy wrath from them.   21 Therefore deliver up their
   children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the
   sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be
   widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain
   by the sword in battle.   22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when
   thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit
   to take me, and hid snares for my feet.   23 Yet, Lord, thou knowest
   all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity,
   neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown
   before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

   The prophet here, as sometimes before, brings in his own affairs, but
   very much for instruction to us.

   I. See here what are the common methods of the persecutors. We may see
   this in Jeremiah's enemies, v. 18.

   1. They laid their heads together to consult what they should do
   against him, both to be revenged on him for what he had said and to
   stop his mouth for the future: They said, Come and let us devise
   devices against Jeremiah. The enemies of God's people and ministers
   have been often very crafty themselves, and confederate with one
   another, to do them mischief. What they cannot act to the prejudice of
   religion separately they will try to do in concert. The wicked plots
   against the just. Caiaphas, and the chief priests and elders, did so
   against our blessed Saviour himself. The opposition which the gates of
   hell give to the kingdom of heaven is carried on with a great deal of
   cursed policy. God had said (v. 11), I devise a device against you; and
   now, as if they resolved to be quits with him and to outwit Infinite
   Wisdom itself, they resolve to devise devices against God's prophet,
   not only against his person, but against the word he delivered to them,
   which they thought by their subtle management to defeat. O the
   prodigious madness of those that hope to disannul God's counsel!

   2. Herein they pretended a mighty zeal for the church, which, they
   suggested, was in danger if Jeremiah was tolerated to preach as he did:
   "Come," say they, "let us silence and crush him, for the law shall not
   perish from the priest; the law of truth is in their mouths (Mal. ii.
   6) and there we will seek it; the administration of ordinances
   according to the law is in their hands, and neither the one nor the
   other shall be wrested from them. Counsel shall not perish from the
   wise; the administration of public affairs shall always be lodged with
   the privy-counsellors and ministers of state, to whom it belongs; nor
   shall the word perish from the prophets" --they mean those of their own
   choosing, who prophesied to them smooth things, and flattered them with
   visions of peace. Two things they insinuated:--(1.) That Jeremiah could
   not be himself a true prophet, but was a pretender and a usurper,
   because he neither was commissioned by the priests, nor concurred with
   the other prophets, whose authority therefore will be despised if he be
   suffered to go on. "If Jeremiah be regarded as an oracle, farewell the
   reputation of our priests, our wise men, and prophets; but that must be
   supported, which is reason enough why he must be suppressed." (2.) That
   the matter of his prophecies could not be from God, because it
   reflected sometimes upon the prophets and priests; he had charged them
   with being the ringleaders of all the mischief (ch. v. 31) and
   deceiving the people (ch. xiv. 14); he had foretold that their heart
   should perish, and be astonished (ch. iv. 9), that the wise men should
   be dismayed (ch. viii. 9, 10), that the priests and prophets should be
   intoxicated, ch. xiii. 13. Now this galled them more than any thing
   else. Presuming upon the promise of God's presence with their priests
   and prophets, they could not believe that he would ever leave them. The
   guides of the church must needs be infallible, and therefore he who
   foretold their being infatuated must be condemned as a false prophet.
   Thus, under colour of zeal for the church, have its best friends been
   run down.

   3. They agreed to do all they could to blast his reputation: "Come, let
   us smite him with the tongue, put him into an ill name, fasten a bad
   character upon him, represent him to some as despicable and fit to be
   prosecuted, to all as odious and not fit to be tolerated." This was
   their device, fortiter calumniari, aliquid adhærebit--to throw the
   vilest calumnies at him, in hopes that some would adhere to him. to
   dress him up in bearskins, otherwise they could not bait him. Those who
   projected this, it is likely, were men of figure, whose tongue was no
   small slander, whose representations, though ever so false, would be
   credited both by princes and people, to make him obnoxious to the
   justice of the one and the fury of the other. The scourge of such
   tongues will give not only smart lashes, but deep wounds; it is a great
   mercy therefore to be hidden from it, Job v. 21.

   4. To set others an example, they resolved that they would not
   themselves regard any thing he said, though it appeared ever so weighty
   and ever so well confirmed as a message from God: Let us not give heed
   to any of his words; for, right or wrong, they will look upon them to
   be his words, and not the words of God. What good can be done with
   those who hear the word of God with a resolution not to heed it or
   believe it? Nay,

   5. That they may effectually silence him, they resolve to be the death
   of him (v. 23): All their counsel against me is to slay me. They hunt
   for the precious life; and a precious life indeed it was that they
   hunted for. Long was this Jerusalem's wretched character, Thou that
   killedst many of the prophets, and wouldst have killed them all.

   II. See here what is the common relief of the persecuted. This we may
   see in the course that Jeremiah took when he met with this hard usage.
   He immediately applied to his God by prayer, and so gave himself ease.

   1. He referred himself and his cause to God's cognizance, v. 19. They
   would not regard a word he said, would not admit his complaints, nor
   take any notice of his grievances; but, Lord (says he), do thou give
   heed to me. It is matter of comfort to faithful ministers that, if men
   will not give heed to their praying. He appeals to God as an impartial
   Judge, that will hear both sides, as every judge ought to do. "Do not
   only give heed to me, but hearken to the voice of those that contend
   with me; hear what they have to say against me and for themselves, and
   then make it to appear that thou sittest in the throne, judging right.
   Hear the voice of my contenders, how noisy and clamorous they are, how
   false and malicious all they say is, and let them be judged out of
   their own mouth; cause their own tongues to fall upon them."

   2. He complains of their base ingratitude to him (v. 20): "Shall evil
   be recompensed for good, and shall it go unpunished? Wilt not thou
   recompense me good for that evil?" 2 Sam. xvi. 12. To render good for
   good is human, evil for evil is brutish, good for evil is Christian,
   but evil for good is devilish; it is so very absurd and wicked a thing
   that we cannot think but God will avenge it. See how great the evil was
   that they did against him: They have dug a pit for my soul; they aimed
   to take away his life (no less would satisfy them), and that not in a
   generous way, by an open assault, against which he might have an
   opportunity of defending himself, but in a base, cowardly, clandestine
   way: they dug pits for him, which there was no fence against, Ps. cxix.
   85. But see how great the good was which he had done for them: Remember
   that I stood before thee to speak good for them; he had been an
   intercessor with God for them, had used his interest in heaven on their
   behalf, which was the greatest kindness they could expect from one of
   his character. He is a prophet and he shall pray for thee, Gen. xx. 7.
   Moses often did this for Israel, and yet they quarrelled with him, and
   sometimes spoke of stoning him. He did them this kindness when they
   were in imminent danger of destruction and most needed it. They had
   themselves provoked God's wrath against them, and it was ready to break
   in upon them, but he stood in the gap (as Moses, Ps. cvi. 23) and
   turned away that wrath. Now, (1.) This was very base in them. Call a
   man ungrateful and you can call him no worse. But it was not strange
   that those who had forgotten their God did not know their best friends.
   (2.) It was very grievous to him, as the like was to David. Ps. xxxv.
   13; cix. 4, For my love they are my adversaries. Thus disingenuously do
   sinners deal with the great intercessor, crucifying him afresh, and
   speaking against him on earth, while his blood is speaking for them in
   heaven. See John x. 32. But, (3.) It was a comfort to the prophet that,
   when they were so spiteful against him, he had the testimony of his
   conscience for him that he had done his duty to them; and the same will
   be our rejoicing in such a day of evil. The blood-thirsty hate the
   upright, but the just seek his soul, Prov. xxix. 10.

   3. He imprecates the judgments of God upon them, not from a revengeful
   disposition, but in a prophetical indignation against their horrid
   wickedness, v. 21-23. He prays, (1.) That their families might be
   starved for want of bread: "Deliver up the children to the famine, to
   the famine in the country for want of rain, and that in the city
   through the straitness of the siege. Thus let this iniquity of the
   fathers be visited upon the children." (2.) That they might be cut off
   by the sword of war, which, whatever it was in the enemy's hand, would
   be, in God's hand, a sword of justice: "Pour them out (so the word is)
   by the hands of the sword; let their blood be shed as profusely as
   water, that their wives may be left childless and widows, their
   husbands being taken away by death" (some think that the prophet refers
   to pestilence); let their young men, that are the strength of this
   generation and the hope of the next, be slain by the sword in battle.
   (3.) That the terrors and desolations of war might seize them suddenly
   and by surprise, that thus their punishment might answer to their sin
   (v. 22): "Let a cry be heard from their houses, loud shrieks, when thou
   shalt bring a troop of the Chaldeans suddenly upon them, to seize them
   and all they have, to make them prisoners and their estates a prey;"
   for thus they would have done by Jeremiah; they aimed to ruin him at
   once ere he was aware: "They have dug a pit for me, as for a wild
   beast, and have hid snares for me, as for some ravenous noxious fowl."
   Note, Those that think to ensnare others will justly be themselves
   ensnared in an evil time. (4.) That they might be dealt with according
   to the desert of this sin, which was without excuse: "Forgive not their
   iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; that is, let them
   not escape the just punishment of it; let them lie under all the
   miseries of those whose sins are unpardoned." (5.) That God's wrath
   against them might be their ruin: Let them be overthrown before thee.
   This intimates that justice was in pursuit of them, that they
   endeavoured to make their escape from it, but in vain; "they shall be
   made to stumble in their flight, and being overthrown they will
   certainly be overtaken." And then, Lord, in the time of thy anger, do
   to them (he does not say what he would have done to them, but) do to
   them as thou thinkest fit, as thou usest to do with those whom thou art
   angry with--deal thus with them. Now this is not written for our
   imitation. Jeremiah was a prophet, and by the impulse of the spirit of
   prophecy, in the foresight of the ruin certainly coming upon his
   persecutors, might pray such prayers as we may not; and, if we think by
   this example to justify ourselves in such imprecations, we know not
   what manner of spirit we are of; our Master has taught us, by his
   precept and pattern, to bless those that curse us and pray for those
   that despitefully use us. Yet it is written for our instruction, and is
   of use to teach us, [1.] That those who have forfeited the benefit of
   the prayers of God's prophets for them may justly expect to have their
   prayers against them. [2.] That persecution is a sin that fills the
   measure of a people's iniquity very fast, and will bring as sure and
   sore a destruction upon them as any thing. [3.] Those who will not be
   won upon by the kindness of God and his prophets will certainly at
   length feel the just resentments of both.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XIX.

   The same melancholy theme is the subject of this chapter that was of
   those foregoing--the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem for their
   sins. This Jeremiah had often foretold; here he has particularly full
   orders to foretel it again. I. He must set their sins in order before
   them, as he had often done, especially their idolatry, ver. 4, 5. II.
   He must describe the particular judgments which were now coming apace
   upon them for these sins, ver. 6-9. III. He must do this in the valley
   of Tophet, with great solemnity, and for some particular reasons, ver.
   2, 3. IV. He must summon a company of the elders together to be
   witnesses of this, ver. 1. V. He must confirm this, and endeavour to
   affect his hearers with it, by a sign, which was the breaking of an
   earthen bottle, signifying that they should be dashed to pieces like a
   potter's vessel, ver. 10-13. VI. When he had done this in the valley of
   Tophet he ratified it in the court of the temple, ver. 14, 15. Thus
   were all likely means tried to awaken this stupid senseless people to
   repentance, that their ruin might be prevented; but all in vain.

The Desolation of Jerusalem. (b. c. 600.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take
   of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;   2
   And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the
   entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell
   thee,   3 And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and
   inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever
   heareth, his ears shall tingle.   4 Because they have forsaken me, and
   have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other
   gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of
   Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;   5 They
   have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire
   for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it,
   neither came it into my mind:   6 Therefore, behold, the days come,
   saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The
   valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.   7 And I
   will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I
   will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the
   hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to
   be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
   8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that
   passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues
   thereof.   9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and
   the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of
   his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and
   they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

   The corruption of man having made it necessary that precept should be
   upon precept, and line upon line (so unapt are we to receive, and so
   very apt to let slip, the things of God), the grace of God has provided
   that there shall be, accordingly, precept upon precept, and line upon
   line, that those who are irreclaimable may be inexcusable. For this
   reason the prophet is here sent with a message to the same purport with
   what he had often delivered, but with some circumstances that might
   make it the more taken notice of, a thing which ministers should study,
   for a little circumstance may sometimes be a great advantage, and those
   that would win souls must be wise.

   I. He must take of the elders and chief men, both in church and state,
   to be his auditors and witnesses to what he said--the ancients of the
   people and the ancients of the priests, the most eminent men both in
   the magistracy and in the ministry, that they might be faithful
   witnesses to record, as those Isa. viii. 2. It is strange that these
   great men should be at the beck of a poor prophet, and obey his summons
   to attend him out of the city, they know not whither and they knew not
   why. But, though the generality of the elders were disaffected to him,
   yet it is likely that there were some few among them who looked upon
   him as a prophet of the Lord, and would pay this respect to the
   heavenly vision. Note, Persons of rank and figure have an opportunity
   of honouring God, by a diligent attendance on the ministry of the word
   and other divine institutions; and they ought to think it an honour,
   and no disparagement to themselves, yea, though the circumstances be
   mean and despicable. It is certain that the greatest of men is less
   than the least of the ordinances of God.

   II. He must go to the valley of the son of Hinnom, and deliver this
   message there; for the word of the Lord is not bound to any one place;
   as good a sermon may be preached in the valley of Tophet as in the gate
   of the temple. Christ preached on a mountain and out of a ship. This
   valley lay partly on the south side of Jerusalem, but the prophet's way
   to it was by the entry on the east gate--the sun gate (v. 2), so some
   render it, and suppose it to look not towards the sun-rising, but the
   noon sun--the potter's gate, so some. This sermon must be preached in
   that place, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, 1. Because there they
   had been guilty of the vilest of their idolatries, the sacrificing of
   their children to Moloch, a horrid piece of impiety, which the sight of
   the place might serve to remind them of and upbraid them with. 2.
   Because there they should feel the sorest of their calamities; there
   the greatest slaughter should be made among them; and, it being the
   common sink of the city, let them look upon it and see what a miserable
   spectacle this magnificent city would be when it should be all like the
   valley of Tophet. God bids him go thither, and proclaim there the words
   that I shall tell thee, when thou comest thither; whereby it appears
   (as Mr. Gataker well observed) that God's messages were frequently not
   revealed to the prophets before the very instant of time wherein they
   were to deliver them.

   III. He must give general notice of a general ruin now shortly coming
   upon Judah and Jerusalem, v. 3. He must, as those that make
   proclamation, begin with an Oyes: Hear you the word of the Lord, though
   it be a terrible word, for you may thank yourselves if it be so. Both
   rulers and ruled must attend to it, at their peril; the kings of Judah,
   the king and his sons, the king and his princes and privy-counsellors,
   must hear the word of the King of kings, for, high as they are, he is
   above them. The inhabitants of Jerusalem also must hear what God has to
   say to them. Both princes and people have contributed to the national
   guilt and must concur in the national repentance, or they will both
   share in the national ruin. Let them all know that the Lord of hosts,
   who is therefore able to do what he threatens, though he is the God of
   Israel, nay, because he is so, will therefore punish them in the first
   place for their iniquities (Amos iii. 2): He will bring evil upon this
   place (upon Judah and Jerusalem) so surprising, and so dreadful, that
   whosoever hears it, his ears shall tingle; whosoever hears the
   prediction of it, hears the report and representation of it, it shall
   make such an impression of terror upon him that he shall still think he
   hears it sounding in his ears and shall not be able to get it out of
   his mind. The ruin of Eli's house is thus described (1 Sam. iii. 11),
   and of Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxi. 12.

   IV. He must plainly tell them what their sins were for which God had
   this controversy with them, v. 4, 5. They are charged with apostasy
   from God (They have forsaken me) and abuse of the privileges of the
   visible church, and which they had been dignified--They have estranged
   this place. Jerusalem (the holy city), the temple (the holy house),
   which was designed for the honour of God and the support of his kingdom
   among men, they had alienated from those purposes, and (as some render
   the word) they had strangely abused. They had so polluted both with
   their wickedness that God had disowned both, and abandoned them to
   ruin. He charges them with an affection for and the adoration of false
   gods, such as neither they nor their fathers have known, such as never
   had recommended themselves to their belief and esteem by any acts of
   power or goodness done for them or their ancestors, as that God had
   abundantly done whom they forsook; yet they took them at a venture for
   their gods; nay, being fond of change and novelty, they liked them the
   better for their being upstarts, and new fashions in religion were as
   grateful to their fancies as in other things. They also stand charged
   with murder, wilful murder, from malice prepense: They have filled this
   place with the blood of innocents. It was Manasseh's sin (2 Kings xxiv.
   4), which the Lord would not pardon. Nay, as if idolatry and murder,
   committed separately, were not bad enough and affront enough to God and
   man, they have put them together, have consolidated them into one
   complicated crime, that of burning their children in the fire to Baal
   (v. 5), which was the most insolent defiance to all the laws both of
   natural and revealed religion that ever mankind was guilty of; and by
   it they openly declared that they loved their new gods better than ever
   they loved the true God, though they were such cruel task-masters that
   they required human sacrifices (inhuman I should call them), which the
   Lord Jehovah, whose all lives and souls are, never demanded from his
   worshippers; he never spoke of such a thing, nor came it into his mind.
   See ch. vii. 31.

   V. He must endeavour to affect them with the greatness of the
   desolation that was coming upon them. He must tell them (as he had done
   before, ch. vii. 32) that this valley of the son of Hinnom shall
   acquire a new name, the valley of slaughter (v. 6), for (v. 7)
   multitudes shall fall there by the sword, when either they sally out
   upon the besiegers and are repulsed or attempt to make their escape and
   are seized: They shall fall before their enemies, who not only
   endeavour to make themselves masters of their houses and estates, but
   have such an implacable enmity to them that they seek their lives; they
   thirst after their blood, and, when they are dead, will not allow a
   cartel for the burying of the slain, but their carcases shall be meat
   for the fowls of the heaven and beasts of the earth. What a dismal
   place will the valley of Tophet be then! And as for those that remain
   within the city, and will not capitulate with the besiegers, they shall
   perish for want of food, when first they have eaten the flesh of their
   sons and daughters, and dearest friends, through the straitness
   wherewith their enemies shall straiten them, v. 9. This was threatened
   in the law as an instance of the extremity to which the judgments of
   God should reduce them (Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53) and was
   accomplished, Lam. iv. 10. And, lastly, the whole city shall be
   desolate, the houses laid in ashes, the inhabitants slain or taken
   prisoners; there shall be no resort to it, nor any thing in it but what
   looks rueful and horrid; so that every one that passes by shall be
   astonished (v. 8), as he had said before, ch. xviii. 16. That place
   which holiness had made the joy of the whole earth sin had made the
   reproach and shame of the whole earth.

   VI. He must assure them that all their attempts to prevent and avoid
   this ruin, so long as they continued impenitent and unreformed, would
   be fruitless and vain (v. 7): I will make void the counsel of Judah and
   Jerusalem (of the princes and senators of Judah and Jerusalem) in this
   place, in the royal palace, which lay on the south side of the city,
   not far from the place where the prophet now stood. Note, There is no
   fleeing from God's justice but by fleeing to his mercy. Those that will
   not make good God's counsel, by humbling themselves under his mighty
   hand, shall find that God will make void their counsel and blast their
   projects, which they think ever so well concerted for their own
   preservation. There is no counsel or strength against the Lord.

The Desolation of Jerusalem. (b. c. 600.)

   10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go
   with thee,   11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
   Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a
   potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury
   them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.   12 Thus will I do
   unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and
   even make this city as Tophet:   13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and
   the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of
   Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned
   incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink
   offerings unto other gods.   14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither
   the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the
   Lord's house; and said to all the people,   15 Thus saith the Lord of
   hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon
   all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because
   they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

   The message of wrath delivered in the foregoing verses is here
   enforced, that it might gain credit, two ways:--

   I. By a visible sign. The prophet was to take along with him an earthen
   bottle (v. 1), and, when he had delivered his message, he was to break
   the bottle to pieces (v. 10), and the same that were auditors of the
   sermon must be spectators of the sign. He had compared this people, in
   the chapter before, to the potter's clay, which is easily marred in the
   making. But some might say, "It is past that with us; we have been made
   and hardened long since." "And what though you be," says he, "the
   potter's vessel is as soon broken in the hand of any man as the vessel
   while it is soft clay is marred in the potter's hand, and its case is,
   in this respect, much worse, that the vessel while it is soft clay,
   though it be marred, may be moulded again, but, after it is hardened,
   when it is broken it can never be pieced again." Perhaps what they see
   will affect them more than what they only hear talk of; that is the
   intention of sacramental signs, and teaching by symbols was anciently
   used. In the explication of this sign he must inculcate what he had
   before said, with a further reference to the place where this was done,
   in the valley of Tophet. 1. As the bottle was easily, irresistibly, and
   irrecoverably broken by the Chaldean army, v. 11. They depended much
   upon the firmness of their constitution, and the fixedness of their
   courage, which they thought hardened them like a vessel of brass; but
   the prophet shows that all that did but harden them like a vessel of
   earth, which, though hard, is brittle and sooner broken than that which
   is not so hard. Though they were made vessels of honour, still they
   were vessels of earth, and so they shall be made to know if they
   dishonour God and themselves, and serve not the purposes for which they
   were made. It is God himself, who made them, that resolves to unmake
   them: I will break this people and this city, dash them in pieces like
   a potter's vessel; the doom of the heathen (Ps. ii. 9, Rev. ii. 27),
   but now Jerusalem's doom, Isa. xxx. 14. A potter's vessel, when once
   broken, cannot be made whole again, cannot be cured, so the word is.
   The ruin of Jerusalem shall be an utter ruin; no hand can repair it but
   his that broke it; and if they return to him, though he has torn, he
   will heal. 2. This was done in Tophet, to signify two things:--(1.)
   That Tophet should be the receptacle of the slain: They shall bury in
   Tophet till there be no place to bury any more there; they shall jostle
   for room to lay their dead, and a very little room will then serve
   those who, while they lived, laid house to house and field to field.
   Those that would be placed alone in the midst of the earth while they
   were above ground, and obliged all about them to keep their distance,
   must lie with the multitude when they are underground, for there are
   innumerable before them. (2.) That Tophet should be a resemblance of
   the whole city (v. 12): I will make this city as Tophet. As they had
   filled the valley of Tophet with the slain which they sacrificed to
   their idols, so God will fill the whole city with the slain that shall
   fall as sacrifices to the justice of God. We read (2 Kings xxiii. 10)
   of Josiah's defiling Tophet, because it had been abused to idolatry,
   which he did (as should seem, v. 14) by filling it with the bones of
   men; and, whatever it was before, thenceforward it was looked upon as a
   detestable place. Dead carcases, and other filth of the city, were
   carried thither, and a fire was continually kept there for the burning
   of it. This was the posture of that valley when Jeremiah was sent
   thither to prophesy; and so execrable a place was it looked upon to be
   that, in the language of our Saviour's time, hell was called, in
   allusion to it, Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom. "Now" (says God) "since
   that blessed reformation, when Tophet was defiled, did not proceed as
   it ought to have done, nor prove a thorough reformation, but though the
   idols in Tophet were abolished and made odious those in Jerusalem
   remained, therefore will I do with the city as Josiah did by Tophet,
   fill it with the bodies of men, and make it a heap of rubbish." Even
   the houses of Jerusalem, and those of the kings of Judah, the royal
   palaces not excepted, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet (v. 13),
   and for the same reason, because of the idolatries that have been
   committed there; since they will not defile them by a reformation, God
   will defile them by a destruction, because upon the roofs of their
   houses they have burnt incense unto the host of heaven. The flat roofs
   of their houses were sometimes used by devout people as convenient
   places for prayer (Acts x. 9), and by idolaters they were used as high
   places, on which they sacrificed to strange gods, especially to the
   host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, that there they might be so
   much nearer to them and have a clearer and fuller view of them. We read
   of those that worshipped the host of heaven upon the house-tops (Zeph.
   i. 5), and of altars on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, 2 Kings
   xxiii. 12. This sin upon the house-tops brought a curse into the house,
   which consumed it, and made it a dunghill like Tophet.

   II. By a solemn recognition and ratification of what he had said in the
   court of the Lord's house, v. 14, 15. The prophet returned from Tophet
   to the temple, which stood upon the hill over that valley, and there
   confirmed, and probably repeated, what he had said in the valley of
   Tophet, for the benefit of those who had not heard it; what he had said
   he would stand to. Here, as often before, he both assures them of
   judgments coming upon them and assigns the cause of them, which was
   their sin. Both these are here put together in a little compass, with a
   reference to all that had gone before. 1. The accomplishment of the
   prophecies is here the judgment threatened. The people flattered
   themselves with a conceit that God would be better than his word, that
   the threatening was but to frighten them and keep them in awe a little;
   but the prophet tells them that they deceive themselves if they think
   so: For thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is able to make his words
   good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the
   smaller cities that belong to Jerusalem the metropolis, all the evil
   that I have pronounced against it. Note, Whatever men may think to the
   contrary, the executions of Providence will fully answer the
   predictions of the word, and God will appear as terrible against sin
   and sinners as the scripture makes him; nor shall the unbelief of men
   make either his promises or his threatenings of no effect or of less
   effect than they were thought to be of. 2. The contempt of the
   prophecies is here the sin charged upon them, as the procuring cause of
   this judgment. It is because they have hardened their necks, and would
   not bow and bend them to the yoke of God's commands, would not hear my
   words, that is, would not heed them and yield obedience to them. Note,
   The obstinacy of sinners in their sinful ways is altogether their own
   fault; if their necks are hardened, it is their own act and deed, they
   have hardened them; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because
   they have stopped their own ears. We have need therefore to pray that
   God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart and contempt
   of his word and commandments.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XX.

   Such plain dealing as Jeremiah used in the foregoing chapter, one might
   easily foresee, if it did not convince and humble men, would provoke
   and exasperate them; and so it did; for here we find, I. Jeremiah
   persecuted by Pashur for preaching that sermon, ver. 1, 2. II. Pashur
   threatened for so doing, and the word which Jeremiah had preached
   confirmed, ver. 3-6. III. Jeremiah complaining to God concerning it,
   and the other instances of hard measure that he had since he began to
   be a prophet, and the grievous temptations he had struggled with (ver.
   7-10), encouraging himself in God, lodging his appeal with him, not
   doubting but that he shall yet praise him, by which it appears that he
   had much grace (ver. 11-13) and yet peevishly cursing the day of his
   birth (ver. 14-18), by which it appears that he had sad remainders of
   corruption in him too, and was a man subject to like passions as we
   are.

The Sin and Doom of Pashur. (b. c. 600.)

   1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor
   in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
     2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks
   that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the
   Lord.   3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth
   Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath
   not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.   4 For thus saith the
   Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy
   friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine
   eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the
   king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and
   shall slay them with the sword.   5 Moreover I will deliver all the
   strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the
   precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah
   will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and
   take them, and carry them to Babylon.   6 And thou, Pashur, and all
   that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come
   to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou,
   and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

   Here is, I. Pashur's unjust displeasure against Jeremiah, and the
   fruits of that displeasure, v. 1, 2. This Pashur was a priest, and
   therefore, one would think, should have protected Jeremiah, who was of
   his own order, a priest too, and the more because he was a prophet of
   the Lord, whose interests the priests, his ministers, ought to consult.
   But this priest was a persecutor of him whom he should have patronized.
   He was the son of Immer; that is, he was of the sixteenth course of the
   priests, of which Immer, when these courses were first settled by
   David, was father (1 Chron. xxiv. 14), as Zechariah was of the order of
   Abiah, Luke i. 5. Thus this Pashur is distinguished from another of the
   same name mentioned ch. xxi. 1, who was of the fifth course. This
   Pashur was chief governor in the temple; perhaps he was only so pro
   tempore--for a short period, the course he was head of being now in
   waiting, or he was suffragan to the high priest, or perhaps captain of
   the temple or of the guards about it. Acts iv. 1. This was Jeremiah's
   great enemy. The greatest malignity to God's prophets was found among
   those that professed sanctity and concern for God and the church. We
   cannot suppose that Pashur was one of those ancients of the priests
   that went with Jeremiah to the valley of Tophet to hear him prophesy,
   unless it were with a malicious design to take advantage against him;
   but, when he came into the courts of the Lord's house, it is probable
   that he was himself a witness of what he said, and so it may be read
   (v. 1), He heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. As we read it, the
   information was brought to him by others, whose examinations he took:
   He heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things, and could not bear it,
   especially that he should dare to preach in the courts of the Lord's
   house, where he was chief governor, without his leave. When power in
   the church is abused, it is the most dangerous power that can be
   employed against it. Being incensed at Jeremiah, 1. He smote him,
   struck him with his hand or staff of authority. Perhaps it was a blow
   intended only to disgrace him, like that which the high priest ordered
   to be given to Paul (Acts xxiii. 2), he struck him on the mouth, and
   bade him hold his prating. Or perhaps he gave him many blows intended
   to hurt him; he beat him severely, as a malefactor. It is charged upon
   the husbandmen (Matt. xxi. 35) that they beat the servants. The method
   of proceeding here was illegal; the high priest, and the rest of the
   priests, ought to have been consulted, Jeremiah's credentials examined,
   and the matter enquired into, whether he had an authority to say what
   he said. But these rules of justice are set aside and despised, as mere
   formalities; right or wrong, Jeremiah must be run down. The enemies of
   piety would never suffer themselves to be bound by the laws of equity.
   2. He put him in the stocks. Some make it only a place of confinement;
   he imprisoned him. It rather seems to be an instrument of closer
   restraint, and intended to put him both to pain and shame. Some think
   it was a pillory for his neck and arms; others (as we) a pair of stocks
   for his legs: whatever engine it was, he continued in it all night, and
   in a public place too, in the high gate of Benjamin, which was in, or
   by, the house of the Lord, probably a gate through which they passed
   between the city and the temple. Pashur intended thus to chastise him,
   that he might deter him from prophesying; and thus to expose him to
   contempt and render him odious, that he might not be regarded if he did
   prophesy. Thus have the best men met with the worst treatment from this
   ungracious ungrateful world; and the greatest blessings of their age
   have been counted as the off-scouring of all things. Would it not raise
   a pious indignation to see such a man as Pashur upon the bench and such
   a man as Jeremiah in the stocks? It is well that there is another life
   after this, when persons and things will appear with another face.

   II. God's just displeasure against Pashur, and the tokens of it. On the
   morrow Pashur gave Jeremiah his discharge, brought him out of the
   stocks (v. 3); it is probable that he continued him there, in
   little-ease, as long as was usual to continue any in that punishment.
   And now Jeremiah has a message from God to him. We do not find that,
   when Pashur put Jeremiah in the stocks, the latter gave him any check
   for which he did; he appears to have quietly and silently submitted to
   the abuse; when he suffered, he threatened not. But, when he brought
   him out of the stocks, then God put a word into the prophet's mouth,
   which would awaken his conscience, if he had any. For, when the prophet
   of the Lord was bound, the word of the Lord was not. What can we think
   Pashur aimed at in smiting and abusing Jeremiah? Whatever it is, we
   shall see by what God says to him that he is disappointed.

   1. Did he aim to establish himself, and make himself easy, by silencing
   one that told him of his faults and would be likely to lessen his
   reputation with the people? He shall not gain this point; for, (1.)
   Though the prophet should be silent, his own conscience shall fly in
   his face and make him always uneasy. To confirm this he shall have a
   name given him, Magor-missabib--Terror round about, or Fear on every
   side. God himself shall give him this name, whose calling him so will
   make him so. It seems to be a proverbial expression, bespeaking a man
   not only in distress but in despair, not only in danger on every side
   (that a man may be and yet by faith may be in no terror, as David, Ps.
   iii. 6, xxvii. 3), but in fear on every side, and that a man may be
   when there appears no danger. The wicked flee when no man pursues, are
   in great gear where no fear is. This shall be Pashur's case (v. 4):
   "Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself; that is, thou shalt be
   subject to continual frights, and thy own fancy and imagination shall
   create thee a constant uneasiness." Note, God can make the most daring
   sinner a terror to himself, and will find out a way to frighten those
   that frighten his people from doing their duty. And those that will not
   hear of their faults from God's prophets, that are reprovers in the
   gate, shall be made to hear of them from conscience, which is a
   reprover in their own bosoms that will not be daunted nor silenced. And
   miserable is the man that is thus made a terror to himself. Yet this is
   not all; some are very much a terror to themselves, but they conceal it
   and seem to others to be pleasant; but, "I will make thee a terror to
   all thy friends; thou shalt, upon all occasions, express thyself with
   so much horror and amazement that all thy friends shall be afraid of
   conversing with thee and shall choose to stand aloof from thy torment."
   Persons in deep melancholy and distraction are a terror to themselves
   and all about them, which is a good reason why we should be very
   thankful, so long as God continues to us the use of our reason and the
   peace of our consciences. (2.) His friends, whom he put a confidence in
   and perhaps studied to oblige in what he did against Jeremiah, shall
   all fail him. God does not presently strike him dead for what he did
   against Jeremiah, but lets him live miserably, like Cain in the land of
   shaking, in such a continual consternation that wherever he goes he
   shall be a monument of divine justice; and, when it is asked, "What
   makes this man in such a continual terror?" it shall be answered, "It
   is God's hand upon him for putting Jeremiah in the stocks." His
   friends, who should encourage him, shall all be cut off; they shall
   fall by the sword of the enemy, and his eyes shall behold it, which
   dreadful sight shall increase his terror. (3.) He shall find, in the
   issue, that his terror is not causeless, but that divine vengeance is
   waiting for him (v. 6); he and his family shall go into captivity, even
   to Babylon; he shall neither die before the evil comes, as Josiah, nor
   live to survive it, as some did, but he shall die a captive, and shall
   in effect be buried in his chains, he and all his friends. Thus far is
   the doom of Pashur. Let persecutors read it, and tremble; tremble to
   repentance before they be made to tremble to their ruin.

   2. Did he aim to keep the people easy, to prevent the destruction that
   Jeremiah prophesied of, and by sinking his reputation to make his words
   fall to the ground? It is probable that he did; for it appears by v. 6
   that he did himself set up for a prophet, and told the people that they
   should have peace. He prophesied lies to them; and because Jeremiah's
   prophecy contradicted his, and tended to awaken those whom he
   endeavoured to rock asleep in their sins, therefore he set himself
   against him. But could he gain his point? No; Jeremiah stands to what
   he has said against Judah and Jerusalem, and God by his mouth repeats
   it. Men get nothing by silencing those who reprove and warn them, for
   the word will have its course; so it had here. (1.) The country shall
   be ruined (v. 4): I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of
   Babylon. It had long been God's own land, but he will now transfer his
   title to it to Nebuchadnezzar, he shall be master of the country and
   dispose of the inhabitants some to the sword and some to captivity, as
   he pleases, but none shall escape him. (2.) The city shall be ruined
   too, v. 5. The king of Babylon shall spoil that, and carry all that is
   valuable in it to Babylon. [1.] He shall seize their magazines and
   military stores (here called the strength of this city) and turn them
   against them. These they trusted to as their strength; but what stead
   could they stand them in when they had thrown themselves out of God's
   protection, and when he who was indeed their strength had departed from
   them? [2.] He shall carry off all their stock in trade, their wares and
   merchandises, here called their labours, because it was what they
   laboured about and got by their labour. [3.] He shall plunder their
   fine houses, and take away their rich furniture, here called their
   precious things, because they valued them and set their hearts so much
   upon them. Happy are those who have secured to themselves precious
   things in God's precious promises, which are out of the reach of
   soldiers. [4.] He shall rifle the exchequer, and take away the jewels
   of the crown and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. This was that
   instance of the calamity which was first of all threatened to Hezekiah
   long ago as his punishment for showing his treasures to the king of
   Babylon's ambassadors, Isa. xxxix. 6. The treasury, they thought, was
   their defence; but that betrayed them, and became an easy prey to the
   enemy.

The Prophet's Impatient Appeal. (b. c. 600.)

   7 O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger
   than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh
   me.   8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil;
   because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a
   derision, daily.   9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor
   speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning
   fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could
   not stay.   10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side.
   Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for
   my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall
   prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.   11 But the
   Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors
   shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly
   ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall
   never be forgotten.   12 But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the
   righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance
   on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.   13 Sing unto the Lord,
   praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the
   hand of evildoers.

   Pashur's doom was to be a terror to himself; Jeremiah, even now, in
   this hour of temptation, is far from being so; and yet it cannot be
   denied but that he is here, through the infirmity of the flesh,
   strangely agitated within himself. Good men are but men at the best.
   God is not extreme to mark what they say and do amiss, and therefore we
   must not be so, but make the best of it. In these verses it appears
   that, upon occasion of the great indignation and injury that Pashur did
   to Jeremiah, there was a struggle in his breast between his graces and
   his corruptions. His discourse with himself and with his God, upon this
   occasion, was somewhat perplexed; let us try to methodize it.

   I. Here is a sad representation of the wrong that was done him and the
   affronts that were put upon him; and this representation, no doubt, was
   according to truth, and deserves no blame, but was very justly and very
   fitly made to him that sent him, and no doubt would bear him out. He
   complains,

   1. That he was ridiculed and laughed at; they made a jest of every
   thing he said and did; and this cannot but be a great grievance to an
   ingenuous mind (v. 7, 8): I am in derision; I am mocked. They played
   upon him, and made themselves and one another merry with him, as if he
   had been a fool, good for nothing but to make sport. Thus he was
   continually: I was in derision daily. Thus he was universally: Every
   one mocks me; the greatest so far forget their own gravity, and the
   meanest so far forget mine. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, was
   reviled both by priests and people; and the revilings of each had their
   peculiar aggravation. And what was it that thus exposed him to contempt
   and scorn? It was nothing but his faithful and zealous discharge of the
   duty of his office, v. 8. They could find nothing for which to deride
   him but his preaching; it was the word of the Lord that was made a
   reproach. That for which they should have honoured and respected
   him--that he was entrusted to deliver the word of the Lord to them was
   the very thing for which they reproached and reviled him. He never
   preached a sermon, but, though he kept as closely as possible to his
   instructions, they found something or other in it for which to banter
   and abuse him. Note, It is sad to think that, though divine revelation
   be one of the greatest blessings and honours that ever was bestowed
   upon the world, yet it has been turned very much to the reproach of the
   most zealous preachers and believers of it. Two things they derided him
   for:-- (1.) The manner of his preaching: Since he spoke, he cried out.
   He had always been a lively affectionate preacher, and since he began
   to speak in God's name he always spoke as a man in earnest; he cried
   aloud and did not spare, spared neither himself nor those to whom he
   preached; and this was enough for those to laugh at who hated to be
   serious. It is common for those that are unaffected with and
   disaffected to, the things of God themselves, to ridicule those that
   are much affected with them. Lively preachers are the scorn of careless
   unbelieving hearers. (2.) The matter of his preaching: He cried
   violence and spoil. He reproved them for the violence and spoil which
   they were guilty of towards one another; and he prophesied of the
   violence and spoil which should be brought upon them as the punishment
   of that sin; for the former they ridiculed him as over-precise, for the
   latter as over-credulous; in both he was provoking to them, and
   therefore they resolved to run him down. This was bad enough, yet he
   complains further.

   2. That he was plotted against and his ruin contrived; he was not only
   ridiculed as a weak man, but reproached and misrepresented as a bad man
   and dangerous to the government. This he laments as his grievance, v.
   10. Being laughed at, though it touches a man in point of honour, is
   yet a thing that may be easily laughed at again; for, as it has been
   well observed, it is no shame to be laughed at, but to deserve to be
   so. But there were those that acted a more spiteful part, and with more
   subtlety. (1.) They spoke ill of him behind his back, when he had no
   opportunity of clearing himself, and were industrious to spread false
   reports concerning him: I heard, at second hand, the defaming of many,
   fear on every side (of many Magor-missabibs, so some read it), of many
   such men as Pashur was, and who may therefore expect his doom. Or this
   was the matter of their defamation; they represented Jeremiah as a man
   that instilled fears and jealousies on every side into the minds of the
   people, and so made them uneasy under the government, and disposed them
   to a rebellion. Or he perceived them to be so malicious against him
   that he could not but be afraid on every side; wherever he was he had
   reason to fear informers; so that they made him almost a
   Magor-missabib. These words are found in the original, verbatim, the
   same, Ps. xxxi. 13, I have heard the slander or defaming of many, fear
   on every side. Jeremiah, in his complaint, chooses to make use of the
   same words that David had made use of before him, that it might be a
   comfort to him to think that other good men had suffered similar abuses
   before him, and to teach us to make use of David's psalms with
   application to ourselves, as there is occasion. Whatever we have to
   say, we may thence take with us words. See how Jeremiah's enemies
   contrived the matter: Report, say they, and we will report it. They
   resolve to cast an odium upon him, and this is the method they take:
   "Let some very bad thing be said of him, which may render him obnoxious
   to the government, and, though it be ever so false, we will second it,
   and spread it, and add to it." (For the reproaches of good men lose
   nothing by the carriage.) "Do you that frame a story plausibly, or you
   that can pretend to some acquaintance with him, report it once, and we
   will all report it from you, in all companies, that we come into. Do
   you say it, and we will swear it; do you set it a going, and we will
   follow it." And thus both are equally guilty, those that raise and
   those that propagate the false report. The receiver is as bad as the
   thief. (2.) They flattered him to his face, that they might get
   something from him on which to ground an accusation, as the spies that
   came to Christ feigning themselves to be just men, Luke xx. 20; xi. 53,
   54. His familiars, that he conversed freely with and put a confidence
   in, watched for his halting, observed what he said, which they could by
   any strained innuendo put a bad construction upon, and carried it to
   his enemies. His case was very sad when those betrayed him whom he took
   to be his friends. They said among themselves, "If we accost him
   kindly, and insinuate ourselves into his acquaintance, per-adventure he
   will be enticed to own that he is in confederacy with the enemy and a
   pensioner to the king of Babylon, or we shall wheedle him to speak some
   treasonable words; and then we shall prevail against him, and take our
   revenge upon him for telling us of our faults and threatening us with
   the judgments of God." Note, Neither the innocence of the dove, no, nor
   the prudence of the serpent to help it, can secure men from unjust
   censure and false accusation.

   II. Here is an account of the temptation he was in under this
   affliction; his feet were almost gone, as the psalmist's, Ps. lxxiii.
   2. And this is that which is most to be dreaded in affliction, being
   driven by it to sin, Neh. vi. 13. 1. He was tempted to quarrel with God
   for making him a prophet. This he begins with (v. 7): O Lord! thou hast
   deceived me, and I was deceived. This as we read it, sounds very
   harshly. God's servants have been always ready to own that he is a
   faithful Master and never cheated them; and therefore this is the
   language of Jeremiah's folly and corruption. If, when God called him to
   be a prophet and told him he would set him over the kingdoms (ch. i.
   10) and make him a defenced city, he flattered himself with an
   expectation of having universal respect paid to him as a messenger from
   heaven, and living safe and easy, and afterwards it proved otherwise,
   he must not say that God had deceived him, but that he had deceived
   himself; for he knew how the prophets before him had been persecuted,
   and had no reason to expect better treatment. Nay, God had expressly
   told him that all the princes, priests, and people of the land would
   fight against him (ch. i. 18, 19), which he had forgotten, else he
   would not have laid the blame on God thus. Christ thus told his
   disciples what opposition they should meet with, that they might not be
   offended, John xvi. 1, 2. But the words may very well be read thus:
   Thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; it is the same word that
   was used, Gen. ix. 27, margin, God shall persuade Japhet. And Prov.
   xxv. 15, By much forbearance is a prince persuaded. And Hos. ii. 14, I
   will allure her. And this agrees best with what follows: "Thou wast
   stronger than I, didst over-persuade me with argument; nay, didst
   overpower me, by the influence of thy Spirit upon me, and thou hast
   prevailed." Jeremiah was very backward to undertake the prophetic
   office; he pleaded that he was under age and unfit for the service; but
   God over-ruled his pleas, and told him that he must go, ch. i. 6, 7.
   "Now, Lord," says he, "since thou hast put this office upon me, why
   dost thou not stand by me in it? Had I thrust myself upon it, I might
   justly have been in derision; but why am I so when thou didst thrust me
   into it?" It was Jeremiah's infirmity to complain thus of God as
   putting a hardship upon him in calling him to be a prophet, which he
   would not have done had he considered the lasting honour thereby done
   him, sufficient to counterbalance the present contempt he was under.
   Note, As long as we see ourselves in the way of God and duty it is
   weakness and folly, when we meet with difficulties and discouragements
   in it, to wish we had never set out in it. 2. He was tempted to quit
   his work and give it over, partly because he himself met with so much
   hardship in it and partly because those to whom he was sent, instead of
   being edified and made better, were exasperated and made worse (v. 9):
   "Then I said, Since by prophesying in the name of the Lord I gain
   nothing to him or myself but dishonour and disgrace, I will not make
   mention of him as my author for any thing I say, nor speak any more in
   his name; since my enemies do all they can to silence me, I will even
   silence myself, and speak no more, for I may as well speak to the
   stones as to them." Note, It is a strong temptation to poor ministers
   to resolve that they will preach no more when they see their preaching
   slighted and wholly ineffectual. But let people dread putting their
   ministers into this temptation. Let not their labour be in vain with
   us, lest we provoke them to say that they will take no more pains with
   us, and provoke God to say, They shall take no more. Yet let not
   ministers hearken to this temptation, but go on in their duty,
   notwithstanding their discouragements, for this is the more
   thankworthy; and, though Israel be not gathered, yet they shall be
   glorious.

   III. Here is an account of his faithful adherence to his work and
   cheerful dependence on his God notwithstanding.

   1. He found the grace of God mighty in him to keep him to this
   business, notwithstanding the temptation he was in to throw it up: "I
   said, in my haste, I will speak no more in his name; what I have in my
   heart to deliver I will stifle and suppress. But I soon found it was in
   my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, which glowed inwardly,
   and must have vent; it was impossible to smother it; I was like a man
   in a burning fever, uneasy and in a continual agitation; while I kept
   silence from good my heart was hot within me, it was pain and grief to
   me, and I must speak, that I might be refreshed;" Ps. xxix. 2, 3; Job
   xxxii. 20. While I kept silence, my bones waxed old, Ps. xxxii. 3. See
   the power of the spirit of prophecy in those that were actuated by it;
   and thus will a holy zeal for God even eat men up, and make them forget
   themselves. I believed, therefore have I spoken. Jeremiah was soon
   weary with forbearing to preach, and could not contain himself; nothing
   puts faithful ministers to pain so much as being silenced, nor to
   terror so much as silencing themselves. Their convictions will soon
   triumph over temptations of that kind; for woe is unto me if I preach
   not the gospel, whatever it cost me, 1 Cor. ix. 16. And it is really a
   mercy to have the word of God thus mighty in us to overpower our
   corruptions.

   2. He was assured of God's presence with him, which would be sufficient
   to baffle all the attempts of his enemies against him (v. 11): "They
   say, We shall prevail against him; the day will undoubtedly be our own.
   But I am sure that they shall not prevail, they shall not prosper. I
   can safely set them all at defiance, for the Lord is with me, is on my
   side, to take my part against them (Rom. viii. 31), to protect me from
   all their malicious designs upon me. He is with me to support me and
   bear me up under the burden which now presses me down. He is with me to
   make the word I preach answer the end he designs, though not the end I
   desire. He is with me as a mighty terrible one, to strike a terror upon
   them, and so to overcome them." Note, Even that in God which is
   terrible is really comfortable to his servants that trust in him, for
   it shall be turned against those that seek to terrify his people. God's
   being a mighty God bespeaks him a terrible God to all those that take
   up arms against him or any one that, like Jeremiah, was commissioned by
   him. How terrible will the wrath of God be to those that think to daunt
   all about them and will themselves be daunted by nothing! The most
   formidable enemies that act against us appear despicable when we see
   the Lord for us as a mighty terrible one, Neh. iv. 14. Jeremiah speaks
   now with a good assurance: "If the Lord be with me, my persecutors
   shall stumble, so that, when they pursue me, they shall not overtake me
   (Ps. xxvii. 2), and then they shall be greatly ashamed of their
   impotent malice and fruitless attempts. Nay, their everlasting
   confusion and infamy shall never be forgotten; they shall not forget it
   themselves, but it shall be to them a constant and lasting vexation,
   whenever they think of it; others shall not forget it, but it shall
   leave upon them an indelible reproach."

   3. He appeals to God against them as a righteous Judge, and prays
   judgment upon his cause, v. 12. He looks upon God as the God that tries
   the righteous, takes cognizance of them, and of every cause that they
   are interested in. He does not judge in favour of them with partiality,
   but tries them, and finding that they have right on their side, and
   that their persecutors wrong them and are injurious to them, he gives
   sentence for them. He that tries the righteous tries the unrighteous
   too, and he is very well qualified to do both; for he sees the reins
   and the heart, he certainly knows men's thoughts and affections, their
   aims and intentions, and therefore can pass an unerring judgment on
   their words and actions. Now this is the God, (1.) To whom the prophet
   here refers himself, and in whose court he lodges his appeal: Unto thee
   have I opened my cause. Not but that God perfectly knew his cause, and
   all the merits of it, without his opening; but the cause we commit to
   God we must spread before him. He knows it, but he will know it from
   us, and allows us to be particular in the opening of it, not to affect
   him, but to affect ourselves. Note, It will be an ease to our spirits,
   when we are oppressed and burdened, to open our cause to God and pour
   out our complaints before him. (2.) By whom he expects to be righted;
   "Let me see thy vengeance on them, such vengeance as thou thinkest fit
   to take for their conviction and my vindication, the vengeance thou
   usest to take on persecutors." Note, Whatever injuries are done us, we
   must not study to avenge ourselves, but must leave it to that God to do
   it to whom vengeance belongs, and who hath said, I will repay.

   4. He greatly rejoices and praises God, in a full confidence that God
   would appear for his deliverance, v. 13. So full is he of the comfort
   of God's presence with him, the divine protection he is under, and the
   divine promise he has to depend upon, that in a transport of joy he
   stirs up himself and others to give God the glory of it: Sing unto the
   Lord, praise you the Lord. Here appears a great change with him since
   he began this discourse; the clouds are blown over, his complaints all
   silenced and turned into thanksgivings. He has now an entire confidence
   in that God whom (v. 7) he was distrusting; he stirs up himself to
   praise that name which (v. 9) he was resolving no more to make mention
   of. It was the lively exercise of faith that made this happy change,
   that turned his sighs into songs and his tremblings into triumphs. It
   is proper to express our hope in God by our praising him, and our
   praising God by our singing to him. That which is the matter of the
   praise is, He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the
   evil-doers; he means especially himself, his own poor soul. "He hath
   delivered me formerly when I was in distress, and now of late out of
   the hand of Pashur, and he will continue to deliver me, 2 Cor. i. 10.
   He will deliver my soul from the sin that I am in danger of falling
   into when I am thus persecuted. He hath delivered me from the hand of
   evil-doers, so that they have not gained their point, nor had their
   will." Note, Those that are faithful in well-doing need not fear those
   that are spiteful in evil-doing, for they have a God to trust to who
   has well-doers under the hand of his protection and evil-doers under
   the hand of his restraint.

The Prophet's Impatient Appeal. (b. c. 600.)

   14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my
   mother bare me be blessed.   15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings
   to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very
   glad.   16 And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew,
   and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the
   shouting at noontide;   17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or
   that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always
   great with me.   18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see
   labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

   What is the meaning of this? Does there proceed out of the same mouth
   blessing and cursing? Could he that said so cheerfully (v. 13), Sing
   unto the Lord, praise you the Lord, say so passionately (v. 14), Cursed
   be the day wherein I was born? How shall we reconcile these? What we
   have in these verses the prophet records, I suppose, to his own shame,
   as he had recorded that in the foregoing verses to God's glory. It
   seems to be a relation of the ferment he had been in while he was in
   the stocks, out of which by faith and hope he had recovered himself,
   rather than a new temptation which he afterwards fell into, and it
   should come in like that of David (Ps. xxxi. 22), I said in my haste, I
   am cut off; this is also implied, Ps. lxxvii. 7. When grace has got the
   victory it is good to remember the struggles of corruption, that we may
   be ashamed of ourselves and our own folly, may admire the goodness of
   God in not taking us at our word, and may be warned by it to double our
   guard upon our spirits another time. See here how strong the temptation
   was which the prophet, by divine assistance, got the victory over, and
   how far he yielded to it, that we may not despair if we through the
   weakness of the flesh be at any time thus tempted. Let us see here,

   I. What the prophet's language was in this temptation. 1. He fastened a
   brand of infamy upon his birth-day, as Job did in a heat (ch. iii. 1):
   "Cursed be the day wherein I was born. It was an ill day to me (v. 14),
   because it was the beginning of sorrows, and an inlet to all this
   misery." It is a wish that he had never been born. Judas in hell has
   reason to wish so (Matt. xxvi. 24), but no man on earth has reason to
   wish so, because he knows not but he may yet become a vessel of mercy,
   much less has any good man reason to wish so. Whereas some keep their
   birth-day, at the return of the year with gladness, he will look upon
   his birth-day as a melancholy day, and will solemnize it with sorrow,
   and will have it looked upon as an ominous day. 2. He wished ill to the
   messenger that brought his father the news of his birth, v. 15. It made
   his father very glad to hear that he had a child born (perhaps it was
   his first-born), especially that it was a man-child, for then, being of
   the family of the priests, he might live to have the honour of serving
   God's altar; and yet he is ready to curse the man that brought him the
   tidings, when perhaps the father to whom they were brought gave him a
   gratuity for it. Here Mr. Gataker well observes, "That parents are
   often much rejoiced at the birth of their children when, if they did
   but foresee what misery they are born to, they would rather lament over
   them than rejoice in them." He is very free and very fierce in the
   curses he pronounces upon the messenger of his birth (v. 16): "Let him
   be at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which the Lord utterly
   overthrew, and repented not, did not in the least mitigate of alleviate
   their misery. Let him hear the cry of the invading besieging enemy in
   the morning, as soon as he is stirring; then let him take the alarm,
   and by noon let him hear their shouting for victory. And thus let him
   live in constant terror." 3. He is angry that the fate of the Hebrews'
   children in Egypt was not his, that he was not slain from the womb,
   that his first breath was not his last, and that he was not strangled
   as soon as he came into the world, v. 17. He wishes the messenger of
   his birth had been better employed and had been his murderer; nay, that
   his mother of whom he was born had been, to her great misery, always
   with child of him, and so the womb in which he was conceived would have
   served, without more ado, as a grave for him to be buried in. Job
   intimates a near alliance and resemblance between the womb and the
   grave, Job i. 21. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall
   I return thither. 4. He thinks his present calamities sufficient to
   justify these passionate wishes (v. 18): "Wherefore came I forth out of
   the womb, where I lay hid, was not seen, was not hated, where I lay
   safely and knew no evil, to see all this labour and sorrow, nay to have
   my days consumed with shame, to be continually vexed and abused, to
   have my life not only spent in trouble, but wasted and worn away by
   trouble?"

   II. What use we may make of this. It is not recorded for our imitation,
   and yet we may learn good lessons from it. 1. See the vanity of human
   life and the vexation of spirit that attends it. If there were not
   another life after this, we should be tempted many a time to wish that
   we have never known this; for our few days here are full of trouble. 2.
   See the folly and absurdity of sinful passion, how unreasonably it
   talks when it is suffered to ramble. What nonsense is it to curse a
   day--to curse a messenger for the sake of his message! What a brutish
   barbarous thing for a child to wish his own mother had never been
   delivered of him! See Isa. xlv. 10. We can easily see the folly of it
   in others, and should take warning thence to suppress all such
   intemperate heats and passions in ourselves, to stifle them at first
   and not to suffer these evil spirits to speak. When the heart is hot,
   let the tongue be bridled, Ps. xxxix. 1, 2. 3. See the weakness even of
   good men, who are but men at the best. See how much those who think
   they stand are concerned to take heed lest they fall, and to pray
   daily, Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation!
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXI.

   It is plain that the prophecies of this book are not placed here in the
   same order in which they were preached; for there are chapters after
   this which concern Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah, who all reigned
   before Zedekiah, in whose reign the prophecy of this chapter bears
   date. Here is, I. The message which Zedekiah sent to the prophet, to
   desire him to enquire of the Lord for them, ver. 1, 2. II. The answer
   which Jeremiah, in God's name, sent to that message, in which, 1. He
   foretels the certain and inevitable ruin of the city, and the
   fruitlessness of their attempts for its preservation, ver. 3-7. 2. He
   advises the people to make the best of bad, by going over to the king
   of Babylon, ver. 8-10. 3. He advises the king and his family to repent
   and reform (ver. 11, 12), and not to trust to the strength of their
   city and grow secure, ver. 13, 14.

Zedekiah's Message to Jeremiah. (b. c. 590.)

   1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah
   sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of
   Maaseiah the priest, saying,   2 Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for
   us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be
   that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works,
   that he may go up from us.   3 Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall
   ye say to Zedekiah:   4 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I
   will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye
   fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which
   besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst
   of this city.   5 And I myself will fight against you with an
   outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury,
   and in great wrath.   6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city,
   both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.   7 And
   afterward, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and
   his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from
   the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and
   into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them
   with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity,
   nor have mercy.

   Here is, I. A very humble decent message which king Zedekiah, when he
   was in distress, sent to Jeremiah the prophet. It is indeed charged
   upon this Zedekiah that he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the
   prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord (2 Chron. xxxvi. 12); he
   did not always humble himself as he did sometimes; he never humbled
   himself till necessity forced him to it; he humbled himself so far as
   to desire the prophet's assistance, but not so far as to take his
   advice, or to be ruled by him. Observe,

   1. The distress which king Zedekiah was now in: Nebuchadrezzar made war
   upon him, not only invaded the land, but besieged the city, and had now
   actually invested it. Note, Those that put the evil day far from them
   will be the more terrified when it comes upon them; and those who
   before slighted God's ministers may then perhaps be glad to court an
   acquaintance with them.

   2. The messengers he sent--Pashur and Zephaniah, one belonging to the
   fifth course of the priests, the other to the twenty-fourth, 1 Chron.
   xxiv. 9, 18. It was well that he sent, and that he sent persons of
   rank; but it would have been better if he had desired a personal
   conference with the prophet, which no doubt he might easily have had if
   he would so far have humbled himself. Perhaps these priests were no
   better than the rest, and yet, when they were commanded by the king,
   they must carry a respectful message to the prophet, which was both a
   mortification to them and an honour to Jeremiah. He had rashly said
   (ch. xx. 18), My days are consumed with shame; and yet here we find
   that he lived to see better days than those were when he made that
   complaint; now he appears in reputation. Note, It is folly to say, when
   things are bad with us, "They will always be so." It is possible that
   those who are despised may come to be respected; and it is promised
   that those who honour God he will honour, and that those who have
   afflicted his people shall bow to them, Isa. lx. 14.

   3. The message itself: Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us, v. 2.
   Now that the Chaldean army had got into their borders, into their
   bowels, they were at length convinced that Jeremiah was a true prophet,
   though loth to own it and brought too late to it. Under this conviction
   they desire him to stand their friend with God, believing him to have
   that interest in heaven which none of their other prophets had, who had
   flattered them with hopes of peace. They now employ Jeremiah, (1.) To
   consult the mind of God for them: "Enquire of the Lord for us; ask him
   what course we shall take in our present strait, for the measures we
   have hitherto taken are all broken." Note, Those that will not take the
   direction of God's grace how to get clear of their sins would yet be
   glad of the directions of his providence how to get clear of their
   troubles. (2.) To seek the favour of God for them (so some read it):
   "Entreat the Lord for us; be an intercessor for us with God." Note,
   Those that slight the prayers of God's people and ministers when they
   are in prosperity may perhaps be glad of an interest in them when they
   come to be in distress. Give us of your oil. The benefit they promise
   themselves is, It may be the Lord will deal with us now according to
   the wondrous works he wrought for our fathers, that the enemy may raise
   the siege and go up from us. Observe, [1.] All their care is to get rid
   of their trouble, not to make their peace with God and be reconciled to
   him--"That our enemy may go up from us," not, "That our God may return
   to us." Thus Pharaoh (Exod. x. 17): Entreat the Lord that he may take
   away this death. [2.] All their hope is that God had done wondrous
   works formerly in the deliverance of Jerusalem when Sennacherib
   besieged it, at the prayer of Isaiah (so we are told, 2 Chron. xxxii.
   20, 21), and who can tell but he may destroy these besiegers (as he did
   those) at the prayer of Jeremiah? But they did not consider how
   different the character of Zedekiah and his people was from that of
   Hezekiah and his people: those were days of general reformation and
   piety, these of general corruption and apostasy. Jerusalem is now the
   reverse of what it was then. Note, It is folly to think that God should
   do for us while we hold fast our iniquity as he did for those that held
   fast their integrity.

   II. A very startling cutting reply which God, by the prophet, sent to
   that message. If Jeremiah had been to have answered the message of
   himself we have reason to think that he would have returned a
   comfortable answer, in hope that their sending such a message was an
   indication of some good purposes in them, which he would be glad to
   make the best of, for he did not desire the woeful day. But God knows
   their hearts better than Jeremiah does, and sends them an answer which
   has scarcely one word of comfort in it. He sends it to them in the name
   of the Lord God of Israel (v. 3), to intimate to them that though God
   allowed himself to be called the God of Israel, and had done great
   things for Israel formerly, and had still great things in store for
   Israel, pursuant to his covenants with them, yet this should stand the
   present generation in no stead, who were Israelites in name only, and
   not in deed, any more than God's dealings with them should cut off his
   relation to Israel as their God. It is here foretold,

   1. That God will render all their endeavours for their own security
   fruitless and ineffectual (v. 4): "I will be so far from teaching your
   hands to war, and putting an edge upon your swords, that I will turn
   back the weapons of war that are in your hand, when you sally out upon
   the besiegers to beat them off, so that they shall not give the stroke
   you design; nay, they shall recoil into your own faces, and be turned
   upon yourselves." Nothing can make for those who have God against them.

   2. That the besiegers shall in a little time make themselves masters of
   Jerusalem, and of all its wealth and strength: I will assemble those in
   the midst of this city who are now surrounding it. Note, If that place
   which should have been a centre of devotion be made a centre of
   wickedness, it is not strange if God make it a rendezvous of
   destroyers.

   3. That God himself will be their enemy; and then I know not who can
   befriend them, no, not Jeremiah himself (v. 5): "I will be so far from
   protecting you, as I have done formerly in a like case, that I myself
   will fight against you." Note, Those who rebel against God may justly
   expect that he will make war upon them, and that, (1.) With the power
   of a God who is irresistibly victorious: I will fight against you with
   an outstretched hand, which will reach far, and with a strong arm,
   which will strike home and wound deeply. (2.) With the displeasure of a
   God who is indisputably righteous. It is not a correction in love, but
   an execution in anger, in fury, and in great wrath; it is upon a
   sentence sworn in wrath, against which there will lie no exception, and
   it will soon be found what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands
   of the living God.

   4. That those who, for their own safety, decline sallying out upon the
   besiegers, and so avoid their sword, shall yet not escape the sword of
   God's justice (v. 6): I will smite those that abide in the city (so it
   may be read), both man and beast, both the beasts that are for food and
   those that are for service in war, foot and horse; they shall, die of a
   great pestilence, which shall rage within the walls, while the enemies
   are encamped about them. Though Jerusalem's gates and walls may for a
   time keep out the Chaldeans, they cannot keep out God's judgments. His
   arrows of pestilence can reach those that think themselves safe from
   other arrows.

   5. That the king himself, and people that escape the sword, famine, and
   pestilence, shall fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who shall cut
   them off in cold blood (v. 7): They shall not spare them, nor have pity
   on them. Let not those expect to find mercy with men who have forfeited
   God's compassions, and shut themselves out from his mercy. Thus had the
   decree gone forth; and then to what purpose was it for Jeremiah to
   enquire of the Lord for them?

Answer to Zedekiah's Message; Advice to the King and the People. (b. c. 590.)

   8 And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I
   set before you the way of life, and the way of death.   9 He that
   abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by
   the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans
   that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a
   prey.   10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not
   for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king
   of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.   11 And touching the house
   of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the Lord;   12 O house
   of David, thus saith the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, and
   deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my
   fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the
   evil of your doings.   13 Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of
   the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; which say, Who shall
   come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?   14 But
   I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the
   Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall
   devour all things round about it.

   By the civil message which the king sent to Jeremiah it appeared that
   both he and the people began to have a respect for him, which it would
   have been Jeremiah's policy to make some advantage of for himself; but
   the reply which God obliges him to make is enough to crush the little
   respect they begin to have for him, and to exasperate them against him
   more than ever. Not only the predictions in the foregoing verses, but
   the prescriptions in these, were provoking; for here,

   I. He advises the people to surrender and desert to the Chaldeans, as
   the only means left them to save their lives, v. 8-10. This counsel was
   very displeasing to those who were flattered by their false prophets
   into a desperate resolution to hold out to the last extremity, trusting
   to the strength of their walls and the courage of their soldiery to
   keep out the enemy, or to their foreign aids to raise the siege. The
   prophet assures them, "The city shall be given into the hand of the
   king of Babylon, and he shall not only plunder it, but burn it with
   fire, for God himself hath set his face against this city for evil and
   not for good, to lay it waste and not to protect it, for evil which
   shall have no good mixed with it, no mitigation or merciful allay; and
   therefore, if you would make the best of bad, you must beg quarter of
   the Chaldeans, and surrender prisoners of war." In vain did Rabshakeh
   persuade the Jews to do this while they had God for them (Isa. xxxvi.
   16), but it was the best course they could take now that God was
   against them. Both the law and the prophets had often set before them
   life and death in another sense--life if they obey the voice of God,
   death if they persist in disobedience, Deut. xxx. 19. But they had
   slighted that life which would have made them truly happy, to upbraid
   them with which the prophet here uses the same expression (v. 8):
   Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death, which
   denotes not, as that, a fair proposal, but a melancholy dilemma,
   advising them of two evils to choose the less; and that less evil, a
   shameful and wretched captivity, is all the life now left for them to
   propose to themselves. He that abides in the city, and trusts to that
   to secure him, shall certainly die either by the sword without the
   walls or famine or pestilence within. But he that can so far bring down
   his spirit, and quit his vain hopes, as to go out, and fall to the
   Chaldeans, his life shall be given him for a prey; he shall save his
   life, but with much difficulty and hazard, as a prey is taken from the
   mighty. It is an expression like that, He shall be saved, yet so as by
   fire. He shall escape but very narrowly, or he shall have such
   surprising joy and satisfaction in escaping with his life from such a
   universal destruction as shall equal theirs that divide the spoil. They
   thought to make a prey of the camp of the Chaldeans, as their ancestors
   did that of the Assyrians (Isa. xxxiii. 23), but they will be sadly
   disappointed; if by yielding at discretion they can but save their
   lives, that is all the prey they must promise themselves. Now one would
   think this advice from a prophet, in God's name, should have gained
   some credit with them and been universally followed; but, for aught
   that appears, there were few or none that took it; so wretchedly were
   their hearts hardened, to their destruction.

   II. He advises the king and princes to reform, and make conscience of
   the duty of their place. Because it was the king that sent the message
   to him, in the reply there shall be a particular word for the house of
   the king, not to compliment or court them (that was no part of the
   prophet's business, no, not when they did him the honour to send to
   him), but to give them wholesome counsel (v. 11, 12): "Execute judgment
   in the morning; do it carefully and diligently. Those magistrates that
   would fill up their place with duty had need rise betimes. Do it
   quickly, and do not delay to do justice upon appeals made to you, and
   tire out poor petitioners as you have done. Do not lie in your beds in
   a morning to sleep away the debauch of the night before, nor spend the
   morning in pampering the body (as those princes, Eccl. x. 16), but
   spend it in the despatch of business. You would be delivered out of the
   hand of those that distress you, and expect that therein God should do
   you justice; see then that you do justice to those that apply to you,
   and deliver them out of the hand of their oppressors, lest my fury go
   out like fire against you in a particular manner, and you fare worst
   who think to escape best, because of the evil of your doings." Now, 1.
   This intimates that it was their neglect to do their duty that brought
   all this desolation upon the people. It was the evil of their doings
   that kindled the fire of God's wrath. Thus plainly does he deal even
   with the house of the king; for those that would have the benefit of a
   prophet's prayers must thankfully take a prophet's reproofs. 2. This
   directs them to take the right method for a national reformation. The
   princes must begin, and set a good example, and then the people will be
   invited to reform. They must use their power for the punishment of
   wrong, and then the people will be obliged to reform. He reminds them
   that they are the house of David, and therefore should tread in his
   steps, who executed judgment and justice to his people. 3. This gives
   them some encouragement to hope that there may yet be a lengthening of
   their tranquillity, Dan. iv. 27. If any thing will recover their state
   from the brink of ruin, this will.

   III. He shows them the vanity of all their hopes so long as they
   continued unreformed, v. 13, 14. Jerusalem is an inhabitant of the
   valley, guarded with mountains on all sides, which were their natural
   fortifications, making it difficult for an army to approach them. It is
   a rock of the plain, which made it difficult for an enemy to undermine
   them. These advantages of their situation they trusted to more than to
   the power and promise of God; and, thinking their city by these means
   to be impregnable, they set the judgments of God at defiance, saying,
   "Who shall come down against us? None of our neighbours dare make a
   descent upon us, or, if they do, who shall enter into our habitations?"
   They had some colour for this confidence; for it appears to have been
   the sense of all their neighbours that no enemy could force his way
   into Jerusalem, Lam. iv. 12. But those are least safe that are most
   secure. God soon shows the vanity of that challenge, Who shall come
   down against us? when he says (v. 13), Behold, I am against thee. They
   had indeed by the wickedness driven God out of their city when he would
   have tarried with them as a friend; but they could not by their
   bulwarks keep them out of their city when he came against them as an
   enemy. If God be for us, who can be against us? But, if he be against
   us, who can be for us, to stand us in any stead? Nay, he comes against
   them not as an enemy that may lawfully and with some hope of success be
   resisted, but as a judge that cannot be resisted; for he says (v. 14),
   I will punish you, by due course of law, according to the fruit of your
   doings, that is, according to the merit of them and the direct tendency
   of them. That shall be brought upon you which is the natural product of
   sin. Nay, he will not only come with the anger of an enemy and the
   justice of a judge, but with the force of a consuming fire, which has
   no compassion, as a judge sometimes has, nor spares any thing
   combustible that comes in its way. Jerusalem has become a forest, in
   which God will kindle a fire that shall consume all before it; for our
   God is himself a consuming fire; and who is able to stand in his sight
   when once he is angry?
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J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXII.

   Upon occasion of the message sent in the foregoing chapter to the house
   of the king, we have here recorded some sermons which Jeremiah preached
   at court, in some preceding reigns, that it might appear they had had
   fair warning long before that fatal sentence was pronounced upon them,
   and were put in a way to prevent it. Here is, I. A message sent to the
   royal family, as it should seem in the reign of Jehoiakim, relating
   partly to Jehoahaz, who was carried away captive into Egypt, and partly
   to Jehoiakim, who succeeded him and was now upon the throne. The king
   and princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and are assured that, if
   they did so, the royal family should flourish, but otherwise it should
   be ruined, ver. 1-9. Jehoahaz, called here Shallum, is lamented, ver.
   10-12. Jehoiakim is reproved and threatened, ver. 13-19. II. Another
   message sent them in the reign of Jehoiachin (alias, Jeconiah) the son
   of Jehoiakim. He is charged with an obstinate refusal to hear, and is
   threatened with destruction, and it is foretold that in him Solomon's
   house should fail, ver. 20-30.

Jeremiah Preaches before Jehoiakim. (b. c. 590.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and
   speak there this word,   2 And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king
   of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy
   servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:   3 Thus saith
   the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the
   spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no
   violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed
   innocent blood in this place.   4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then
   shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the
   throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his
   servants, and his people.   5 But if ye will not hear these words, I
   swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a
   desolation.   6 For thus saith the Lord unto the king's house of Judah;
   Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will
   make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.   7 And I
   will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and
   they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.   8
   And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man
   to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great
   city?   9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the
   covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served
   them.

   Here we have,

   I. Orders given to Jeremiah to go and preach before the king. In the
   foregoing chapter we are told that Zedekiah sent messengers to the
   prophet, but here the prophet is bidden to go, in his own proper
   person, to the house of the king, and demand his attention to the word
   of the King of kings (v. 2): Hear the word of the Lord, O king of
   Judah! Subjects must own that where the word of the king is there is
   power over them, but kings must own that where the word of the Lord is
   there is power over them. The king of Judah is here spoken to as
   sitting upon the throne of David, who was a man after God's own heart,
   as holding his dignity and power by the covenant made with David; let
   him therefore conform to his example, that he may have the benefit of
   the promises made to him. With the king his servants are spoken to,
   because a good government depends upon a good ministry as well as a
   good king.

   II. Instructions given him what to preach.

   1. He must tell them what was their duty, what was the good which the
   Lord their God required of them, v. 3. They must take care, (1.) That
   they do all the good they can with the power they have. They must do
   justice in defence of those that were injured, and must deliver the
   spoiled out of the hand of their oppressors. This was the duty of their
   place, Ps. lxxxii. 3. Herein they must be ministers of God for good.
   (2.) That they do no hurt with it, no wrong, no violence. That is the
   greatest wrong and violence which is done under colour of law and
   justice, and by those whose business it is to punish and protect from
   wrong and violence. They must do no wrong to the stranger, fatherless,
   and widow; for these God does in a particular matter patronise and take
   under his tuition, Exod. xxii. 21, 22.

   2. He must assure them that the faithful discharge of their duty would
   advance and secure their prosperity, v. 4. There shall then be a
   succession of kings, an uninterrupted succession, upon the throne of
   David and of his line, these enjoying a perfect tranquillity, and
   living in great state and dignity, riding in chariots and on horses, as
   before, ch. xvii. 25. Note, the most effectual way to preserve the
   dignity of the government is to do the duty of it.

   3. He must likewise assure them that the iniquity of their family, if
   they persisted in it, would be the ruin of their family, though it was
   a royal family (v. 5): If you will not hear, will not obey, this house
   shall become a desolation, the palace of the kings of Judah shall fare
   no better than other habitations in Jerusalem. Sin has often been the
   ruin of royal palaces, though ever so stately, ever so strong. This
   sentence is ratified by an oath: I swear by myself (and God can swear
   by no greater, Heb. vi. 13) that this house shall be laid in ruins.
   Note, Sin will be the ruin of the houses of princes as well as of mean
   men.

   4. He must show how fatal their wickedness would be to their kingdom as
   well as to themselves, to Jerusalem especially, the royal city, v. 6-9.
   (1.) It is confessed that Judah and Jerusalem had been valuable in
   God's eyes and considerable in their own: thou art Gilead unto me and
   the head of Lebanon. Their lot was cast in a place that was rich and
   pleasant as Gilead; Zion was a stronghold, as stately as Lebanon: this
   they trusted to as their security. But, (2.) This shall not protect
   them; the country that is now fruitful as Gilead shall be made a
   wilderness. The cities that are now strong as Lebanon shall be cities
   not inhabited; and, when the country is laid waste, the cities must be
   dispeopled. See how easily God's judgments can ruin a nation, and how
   certainly sin will do it. When this desolating work is to be done, [1.]
   There shall be those that shall do it effectually (v. 7): "I will
   prepare destroyers against thee; I will sanctify them" (so the word
   is); "I will appoint them to this service and use them in it." Note,
   When destruction is designed destroyers are prepared, and perhaps are
   in the preparing, and things are working towards the designed
   destruction, and are getting ready for it, long before. And who can
   contend with destroyers of God's preparing? They shall destroy cities
   as easily as men fell trees in a forest: They shall cut down thy choice
   cedars; and yet, when they are down, shall value them no more than
   thorns and briers; they shall cast them into the fire, for their
   choicest cedars have become rotten ones and good for nothing else. [2.]
   There shall be those who shall be ready to justify God in the doing of
   it (v. 8, 9); persons of many nations, when they pass by the ruins of
   this city in their travels, will ask, "Wherefore hath the Lord done
   thus unto this city? How came so strong a city to be overpowered? so
   rich a city to be impoverished? so populous a city to be depopulated?
   so holy a city to be profaned? and a city that had been so dear to God
   to be abandoned by him?" The reason is so obvious that it shall be
   ready in every man's mouth. Ask those that go by the way, Job xxi. 29.
   Ask the next man you meet, and he will tell you it was because they
   changed their gods, which other nations never used to do. They forsook
   the covenant of Jehovah their own God, revolted from their allegiance
   to him and from the duty which their covenant with him bound them to,
   and they worshipped other gods and served them, in contempt of him; and
   therefore he gave them up to this destruction. Note, God never casts
   any off until they first cast him off. "Go," says God to the prophet,
   "and preach this to the royal family."

The Doom of Shallum and Jehoiakim. (b. c. 590.)

   10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him
   that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native
   country.   11 For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of
   Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which
   went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
   12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and
   shall see this land no more.   13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house
   by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his
   neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
   14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and
   cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with
   vermilion.   15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in
   cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice,
   and then it was well with him?   16 He judged the cause of the poor and
   needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the
   Lord.   17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy
   covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and
   for violence, to do it.   18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning
   Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for
   him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for
   him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!   19 He shall be buried with
   the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of
   Jerusalem.

   Kings, though they are gods to us, are men to God, and shall die like
   men; so it appears in these verses, where we have a sentence of death
   passed upon two kings who reigned successively in Jerusalem, two
   brothers, and both the ungracious sons of a very pious father.

   I. Here is the doom of Shallum, who doubtless is the same with
   Jehoahaz, for he is that son of Josiah king of Judah who reigned in the
   stead of Josiah his father (v. 11), which Jehoahaz did by the act of
   the people, who made him king though he was not the eldest son, 2 Kings
   xxiii. 30; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1. Among the sons of Josiah (1 Chron. iii.
   15) there is one Shallum mentioned, and not Jehoahaz. Perhaps the
   people preferred him before his elder brother because they thought him
   a more active daring young man, and fitter to rule; but God soon showed
   them the folly of their injustice, and that it could not prosper, for
   within three months the king of Egypt came upon him, deposed him, and
   carried him away prisoner into Egypt, as God had threatened, Deut.
   xxviii. 68. It does not appear that any of the people were taken into
   captivity with him. We have the story 2 Kings xxiii. 34; 2 Chron.
   xxxvi. 4. Now here, 1. The people are directed to lament him rather
   than his father Josiah: "Weep not for the dead, weep not any more for
   Josiah." Jeremiah had been himself a true mourner for him, and had
   stirred up the people to mourn for him (2 Chron. xxxv. 25): yet now he
   will have them go out of mourning for him, though it was but three
   months after his death, and to turn their tears into another channel.
   They must weep sorely for Jehoahaz, who had gone into Egypt; not that
   there was any great loss of him to the public, as there was of his
   father, but that his case was much more deplorable. Josiah went to the
   grave in peace and honour, was prevented from seeing the evil to come
   in this world and removed to see the good to come in the other world;
   and therefore, Weep not for him, but for his unhappy son, who is likely
   to live and die in disgrace and misery, a wretched captive. Note, Dying
   saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied.
   And so dismal perhaps the prospect of the times may be that tears even
   for a Josiah, even for a Jesus, must be restrained, that they may be
   reserved for ourselves and for our children, Luke xxiii. 28. 2. The
   reason given is because he shall never return out of captivity, as he
   and his people expected, but shall die there. They were loth to believe
   this, therefore it is repeated here again and again, He shall return no
   more, v. 10. He shall never have the pleasure of seeing his native
   country, but shall have the continual grief of hearing of the
   desolations of it. He has gone forth out of this place, and shall never
   return, v. 11. He shall die in the place whither they have led him
   captive, v. 12. This came of his forsaking the good example of his
   father, and usurping the right of his elder brother. In Ezekiel's
   lamentation for the princes of Israel this Jehoahaz is represented as a
   young lion, that soon learned to catch the prey, but was taken, and
   brought in chains to Egypt, and was long expected to return, but in
   vain. See Ezek. xix. 3-5.

   II. Here is the doom of Jehoiakim, who succeeded him. Whether he had
   any better right to the crown than Shallum we know not; for, though he
   was older than his predecessor, there seems to be another son of
   Josiah, older than he, called Johanan, 1 Chron. iii. 15. But this we
   know he ruled no better, and fared no better at last. Here we have,

   1. His sins faithfully reproved. It is not fit for a private person to
   say to a king, Thou art wicked; but a prophet, who has a message from
   God, betrays his trust if he does not deliver it, be it ever so
   unpleasing, even to kings themselves. Jehoiakim is not here charged
   with idolatry, and probably he had not yet put Urijah the prophet to
   death (as we find afterwards he did, ch. xxvi. 22, 23), for then he
   would have been told of it here; but the crimes for which he is here
   reproved are, (1.) Pride and affection of pomp and splendour; as if all
   the business of a king were to look great, and to do good were to be
   the least of his care. He must build himself a stately palace, a wide
   house, and large chambers, v. 14. He must have windows cut out after
   the newest fashion, perhaps like sash-windows with us. The rooms must
   be ceiled with cedar, the richest sort of wood. His house must be as
   well-roofed and wainscoted as the temple itself, or else it will not
   please him, 1 Kings vi. 15, 16. Nay, it must exceed that, for it must
   be painted with minium, or vermilion, which dyes red, or, as some read
   it, with indigo, which dyes blue. No doubt it is lawful for princes and
   great men to build, and beautify, and furnish their houses so as is
   agreeable to their dignity; but he that knows what is in man knew that
   Jehoiakim did this in the pride of his heart, which makes that to be
   sinful, exceedingly sinful, which is in itself lawful. Those therefore
   that are enlarging their houses, and making them more sumptuous, have
   need to look well to the frame of their own spirits in the doing of it,
   and carefully to watch against all the workings of vain-glory. But that
   which was particularly amiss in Jehoiakim's case was that he did this
   when he could not but perceive, both by the word of God and by his
   providence, that divine judgments were breaking in upon him. He reigned
   his first three years by the permission and allowance of the king of
   Egypt, and all the rest by the permission and allowance of the king of
   Babylon; and yet he that was no better than a viceroy will covet to vie
   with the greatest monarchs in building and furniture. Observe how
   peremptory he is in this resolution: "I will build myself a wide house;
   I am resolved I will, whoever advises me to the contrary." Note, It is
   the common folly of those that are sinking in their estates to covet to
   make a fair show. Many have unhumbled hearts under humbling
   providences, and look most haughty when God is bringing them down. This
   is striving with our Maker. (2.) Carnal security and confidence in his
   wealth, depending upon the continuance of his prosperity, as if his
   mountain now stood so strong that it could never be moved. He thought
   he must reign without any disturbance or interruption because he had
   enclosed himself in cedar (v. 15), as if that were too fine to be
   assaulted and too strong to be broken through, and as if God himself
   could not, for pity, give up such a stately house as that to be burned.
   Thus when Christ spoke of the destruction of the temple his disciples
   came to him, to show him what a magnificent structure it was, Matt.
   xxiii. 38; xxiv. 1. Note, Those wretchedly deceive themselves who think
   their present prosperity is a lasting security, and dream of reigning
   because they are enclosed in cedar. It is but in his own conceit that
   the rich man's wealth is his strong city. (3.) Some think he is here
   charged with sacrilege, and robbing the house of God to beautify and
   adorn his own house. He cuts him out my windows (so it is in the
   margin), which some understand as if he had taken windows out of the
   temple to put into his own palace and then painted them (as it follows)
   with vermilion, that it might not be discovered, but might look of a
   piece with his own buildings. Note, Those cheat themselves, and ruin
   themselves at last, who think to enrich themselves by robbing God and
   his house; and, however they may disguise it, God discovers it. (4.) He
   is here charged with extortion and oppression, violence and injustice.
   He built his house by unrighteousness, with money unjustly got and
   materials which were not honestly come by, and perhaps upon ground
   obtained as Ahab obtained Naboth's vineyard. And, because he went
   beyond what he could afford, he defrauded his workmen of their wages,
   which is one of the sins that cries in the ears of the Lord of hosts,
   Jam. v. 4. God takes notice of the wrong done by the greatest of men to
   their poor servants and labourers, and will repay those, in justice,
   that will not in justice pay those whom they employ, but use their
   neighbour's service without wages. Observe, The greatest of men must
   look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them
   accordingly, and love them as themselves. Jehoiakim was oppressive, not
   only in his buildings, but in the administration of his government. He
   did not do justice, made no conscience of shedding innocent blood, when
   it was to serve the purposes of his ambition, avarice, and revenge. He
   was all for oppression and violence, not to threaten it only, but to do
   it; and, when he was set upon any act of injustice, nothing should stop
   him, but he would go through with it. And that which was at the bottom
   of all was covetousness, that love of money which is the root of all
   evil. Thy eyes and thy heart are not but for covetousness; they were
   for that, and nothing else. Observe, In covetousness the heart walks
   after the eyes: it is therefore called the lust of the eye, 1 John ii.
   16; Job xxxi. 7. It is setting the eyes upon that which is not, Prov.
   xxiii. 5. The eyes and the heart are then for covetousness when the
   aims and affections are wholly set upon the wealth of this world; and,
   where they are so, the temptation is strong to murder, oppression, and
   all manner of violence and villany. (5.) That which aggravated all his
   sins was that he was the son of a good father, who had left him a good
   example, if he would but have followed it (v. 15, 16): Did not thy
   father eat and drink? When Jehoiakim enlarged and enlightened his house
   it is probable that he spoke scornfully of his father for contenting
   himself with such a mean and inconvenient dwelling, below the grandeur
   of a sovereign prince, and ridiculed him as one that had a dull fancy,
   a low spirit, and could not find in his heart to lay out his money, nor
   cared for what was fashionable; that should not serve him which served
   his father: but God, by the prophet, tells him that his father, though
   he had not the spirit of building, was a man of an excellent spirit, a
   better man than he, and did better for himself and his family. Those
   children that despise their parents' old fashions commonly come short
   of their real excellences. Jeremiah tells him, [1.] That he was
   directed to do his duty by his father's practice: He did judgment and
   justice; he never did wrong to any of his subjects, never oppressed
   them, nor put any hardship upon them, but was careful to preserve all
   their just rights and properties. Nay, he not only did not abuse his
   power for the support of wrong, but he used it for the maintaining of
   right. He judged the cause of the poor and needy, was ready to hear the
   cause of the meanest of his subjects and do them justice. Note, The
   care of magistrates must be, not to support their grandeur and take
   their ease, but to do good, not only not to oppress the poor
   themselves, but to defend those that are oppressed. [2.] That he was
   encouraged to do his duty by his father's prosperity. First, God
   accepted him: "Was not this to know me, saith the Lord? Did he not
   hereby make it to appear that he rightly knew his God, and worshipped
   him, and consequently was known and owned of him?" Note, The right
   knowledge of God consists in doing our duty, particularly that which is
   the duty of our place and station in the world. Secondly, He himself
   had the comfort of it: Did he not eat and drink soberly and cheerfully,
   so as to fit himself for his business, for strength and not for
   drunkenness? Eccl. x. 17. He did eat, and drink, and do judgment; he
   did not (as perhaps Jehoiakim and his princes did) drink, and forget
   the law, and pervert the judgment of the afflicted, Prov. xxxi. 5. He
   did eat and drink; that is, God blessed him with great plenty, and he
   had the comfortable enjoyment of it himself and gave handsome
   entertainments to his friends, was very hospitable and very charitable.
   It was Jehoiakim's pride that he had built a fine house, but Josiah's
   true praise that he kept a good house. Many times those have least in
   them of true generosity that have the greatest affection for pomp and
   grandeur; for, to support the extravagant expense of that, hospitality,
   bounty to the poor, yea, and justice itself, will be pinched. It is
   better to live with Josiah in an old-fashioned house, and do good, than
   live with Jehoiakim in a stately house, and leave debts unpaid. Josiah
   did justice and judgment, and then it was well with him, v. 15, and it
   is repeated again, v. 16. He lived very comfortably; his own subjects,
   and all his neighbours, respected him; and whatever he put his hand to
   prospered. Note, While we do well we may expect it will be well with
   us. This Jehoiakim knew, that his father found the way of duty to be
   the way of comfort, and yet he would not tread in his steps. Note, It
   should engage us to keep up religion in our day that our godly parents
   kept it up in theirs and recommended it to us from their own experience
   of the benefit of it. They told us that they had found the promises
   which godliness has of the life that now is made good to them, and that
   religion and piety are friendly to outward prosperity. So that we are
   inexcusable if we turn aside from that good way.

   2. Here we have Jehoiakim's doom faithfully read, v. 18, 19. We may
   suppose that it was in the utmost peril of his own life that Jeremiah
   here foretold the shameful death of Jehoiakim; but thus saith the Lord
   concerning him, and therefore thus saith he. (1.) He shall die
   unlamented; he shall make himself so odious by his oppression and
   cruelty that all about him shall be glad to part with him, and none
   shall do him the honour of dropping one tear for him, whereas his
   father, who did judgment and justice, was universally lamented; and it
   is promised to Zedekiah that he should be lamented at his death, for he
   conducted himself better than Jehoiakim had done, ch. xxxiv. 5. His
   relations shall not lament him, no, not with the common expressions of
   grief used at the funeral of the meanest, where they cried, Ah, my
   brother! or, Ah, sister! His subjects shall not lament him, nor cry
   out, as they used to do at the graves of their princes, Ah, lord! or Ah
   his glory! It is sad for any to live so that, when they die, none will
   be sorry to part with them. Nay, (2.) He shall lie unburied. This is
   worse than the former. Even those that have no tears to grace the
   funerals of the dead with would willingly have them buried out of their
   sight; but Jehoiakim shall be buried with the burial of an ass, that
   is, he shall have no burial at all, but his dead body shall be cast
   into a ditch or upon a dunghill; it shall be drawn, or dragged,
   ignominiously, and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. It is
   said, in the story of Jehoiakim (2 Chron. xxxvi. 6), that
   Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon, and
   (Ezek. xix. 9) that he was brought in chains to the king of Babylon.
   But it is probable that he died a prisoner, before he was carried away
   to Babylon as was intended; perhaps he died for grief, or, in the pride
   of his heart, hastened his own end, and, for that reason, was denied a
   decent burial, as self-murderers usually are with us. Josephus says
   that Nebuchadnezzar slew him at Jerusalem, and left his body thus
   exposed, somewhere at a great distance from the gates of Jerusalem. And
   it is said (2 Kings xxiv. 6) he slept with his fathers. When he built
   himself a stately house, no doubt he designed himself a stately
   sepulchre; but see how he was disappointed. Note, Those that are lifted
   up with great pride are commonly reserved for some great disgrace in
   life or death.

The Desolation of Judah; The Doom of Jeconiah. (b. c. 590.)

   20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry
   from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.   21 I spake unto
   thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath
   been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.   22
   The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into
   captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy
   wickedness.   23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the
   cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain
   as of a woman in travail!   24 As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah
   the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand,
   yet would I pluck thee thence;   25 And I will give thee into the hand
   of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou
   fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into
   the hand of the Chaldeans.   26 And I will cast thee out, and thy
   mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born;
   and there shall ye die.   27 But to the land whereunto they desire to
   return, thither shall they not return.   28 Is this man Coniah a
   despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore
   are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they
   know not?   29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.   30
   Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not
   prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon
   the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

   This prophecy seems to have been calculated for the ungracious
   inglorious reign of Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, who
   succeeded him in the government, reigned but three months, and was then
   carried captive to Babylon, where he lived many years, ch. lii. 31. We
   have, in these verses, a prophecy,

   I. Of the desolations of the kingdom, which were now hastening on
   apace, v. 20-23. Jerusalem and Judah are here spoken to, or the Jewish
   state as a single person, and we have it here under a threefold
   character:--1. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety (v. 21): "I
   spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, spoke by my servants the prophets,
   reproofs, admonitions, counsels, but thou saidst, I will not hear, I
   will not heed, thou obeyedst not my voice, and wast resolved that thou
   wouldst not, and hadst the front to tell me so." It is common for those
   that live at ease to live in contempt of the word of God. Jeshurun
   waxed fat, and kicked. This is so much the worse that they had it by
   kind: This has been thy manner from thy youth. They were called
   transgressors from the womb, Isa. xlviii. 8. 2. Very timorous upon the
   alarms of trouble (v. 20): "When thou seest all thy lovers destroyed,
   when thou findest thy idols unable to help thee and thy foreign
   alliances failing thee, thou wilt then go up to Lebanon, and cry, as
   one undone and giving up all for lost, cry with a bitter cry; thou wilt
   cry, Help, help, or we are lost; thou wilt lift up thy voice in fearful
   shrieks upon Lebanon and Bashan, two high hills, in hope to be heard
   thence by the advantage of the rising ground. Thou wilt cry from the
   passages, from the roads, where thou wilt ever and anon be in
   distress." Thou wilt cry from Abarim (so some read it, as a proper
   name), a famous mountain in the border of Moab. "Thou wilt cry, as
   those that are in great consternation use to do, to all about thee; but
   in vain, for (v. 22) the wind shall eat up all thy pastors, or rulers,
   that should protect and lead thee, and provide for thy safety; they
   shall be blasted, and withered, and brought to nothing, as buds and
   blossoms are by a bleak or freezing wind; they shall be devoured
   suddenly, insensibly, and irresistibly, as fruits by the wind. Thy
   lovers, that thou dependest upon and hast an affection for, shall go
   into captivity, and shall be so far from saving thee that they shall
   not be able to save themselves." 3. Very tame under the heavy and
   lasting pressures of trouble: "When there appears no relief from any of
   thy confederates, and thy own priests are at a loss, then shalt thou be
   ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness," v. 22. Note, Many will
   never be ashamed of their sins till they are brought by them to the
   last extremity; and it is well if we get this good by our straits to be
   brought by them to confusion for our sins. The Jewish state is here
   called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because that famous forest was within
   their border (v. 23), and all their country was wealthy, and
   well-guarded as with Lebanon's natural fastnesses; but so proud and
   haughty were they that they are said to make their nest in the cedars,
   where they thought themselves out of the reach of all danger, and
   whence they looked with contempt upon all about them. "But, how
   gracious wilt thou be when pangs come upon thee! Then thou wilt humble
   thyself before God and promise amendment. When thou art overthrown in
   stony places thou wilt be glad to hear those words which in thy
   prosperity thou wouldst not hear, Ps. cxli. 6. Then thou wilt endeavour
   to make thyself acceptable with that God whom, before, thou madest
   light of." Note, Many have their pangs of piety who, when the pangs are
   over, show that they have no true piety. Some give another sense of it:
   "What will all thy pomp, and state, and wealth avail thee? What will
   become of it all, or what comfort shalt thou have of it, when thou
   shalt be in these distresses? No more than a woman in travail, full of
   pains and fears, can take comfort in her ornaments while she is in that
   condition." So Mr. Gataker. Note, Those that are proud of their worldly
   advantages would do well to consider how they will look when pangs come
   upon them, and how they will then have lost all their beauty.

   II. Here is a prophecy of the disgrace of the king; his name was
   Jeconiah, but he is here once and again called Coniah, in contempt. The
   prophet shortens or nicks his name, and gives him, as we say, a
   nickname, perhaps to denote that he should be despoiled of his dignity,
   that his reign should be shortened, and the number of his months cut
   off in the midst. Two instances of dishonour are here put upon him:--

   1. He shall be carried away into captivity and shall spend and end his
   days in bondage. He was born to a crown, but it should quickly fall
   from his head, and he should exchange it for fetters. Observe the steps
   of this judgment. (1.) God will abandon him, v. 24. The God of truth
   says it, and confirms it with an oath: "Though he were the signet upon
   my right hand (his predecessors have been so, and he might have been so
   if he had conducted himself well, but he being degenerated) I will
   pluck him thence." The godly kings of Judah had been as signets on
   God's right hand, near and dear to him; he had gloried in them, and
   made use of them as instruments of his government, as the prince does
   of his signet-ring, or sign manual; but Coniah has made himself utterly
   unworthy of the honour, and therefore the privilege of his birth shall
   be no security to him; notwithstanding that, he shall be thrown off.
   Answerable to this threatening against Jeconiah is God's promise to
   Zerubbabel, when he made him his people's guide in their return out of
   captivity (Hag. ii. 23): I will take thee, O Zerubbabel! my servant,
   and make thee as a signet. Those that think themselves as signets on
   God's right hand must not be secure, but fear lest they be plucked
   thence. (2.) The king of Babylon shall seize him. Those know not what
   enemies and mischiefs they lie exposed to who have thrown themselves
   out of God's protection, v. 25. The Chaldeans are here said to be such
   as had a spite to Coniah; they sought his life; no less than that, they
   thought, would satisfy their rage; they were such as he had a dread of
   (they are those whose face thou fearest) which would make it the more
   terrible to him to fall into their hands, especially when it was God
   himself that gave him into their hands. And, if God deliver him to
   them, who can deliver him from them? (3.) He and his family shall be
   carried to Babylon, where they shall wear out many tedious years of
   their lives in a miserable captivity--he and his mother (v. 26), he and
   his seed (v. 28), that is, he and all the royal family (for he had no
   children of his own when he went into captivity), or he and the
   children in his loins; they shall all be cast out to another country,
   to a strange country, a country where they were not born, nor such a
   country as that where they were born, a land which they know not, in
   which they have no acquaintance with whom to converse or from whom to
   expect any kindness. Thither they shall be carried, from a land where
   they were entitled to dominion, into a land where they shall be
   compelled to servitude. But have they no hopes of seeing their own
   country again? No: To the land whereunto they desire to return, thither
   shall they not return, v. 27. They conducted themselves ill in it when
   they were in it, and therefore they shall never see it more. Jehoahaz
   was carried to Egypt, the land of the south, Jeconiah to Babylon, the
   land of the north, both far remote, the quite contrary way, and must
   never expect to meet again, nor either of them to breathe their native
   air again. Those that had abused the dominion they had over others were
   justly brought thus under the dominion of others. Those that had
   indulged and gratified their sinful desires, by their oppression,
   luxury, and cruelty, were justly denied the gratification of their
   innocent desire to see their own native country again. We may observe
   something very emphatic in that part of this threatening (v. 26), In
   the country where you were not born, there shall you die. As there is a
   time to be born and a time to die, so there is a place to be born in
   and a place to die in. We know where we were born, but where we shall
   die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let it be our care
   that we die in Christ, and then it will be well with us, wherever we
   die, though it should be in a far country. (4.) This shall render him
   very mean and despicable in the eyes of all his neighbours. They shall
   be ready to say (v. 28), "This is Coniah a despised broken idol? Yes,
   certainly he is, and much debased from what he was." [1.] Time was when
   he was dignified, nay, when he was almost deified. The people who had
   seen his father lately deposed were ready to adore him when they saw
   him upon the throne, but now he is a despised broken idol, which, when
   it was whole, was worshipped, but, when it is rotten and broken, is
   thrown by and despised, and nobody regards it, or remembers what it has
   been. Note, What is idolized will, first or last, be despised and
   broken; what is unjustly honoured will be justly contemned, and rivals
   with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we idolize we shall be
   disappointed in and then shall despise. [2.] Time was when he was
   delighted in; but now he is a vessel in which is not pleasure, or to
   which there is no desire, either because grown out of fashion or
   because cracked or dirtied, and so rendered unserviceable. Those whom
   God has no pleasure in will, some time or other, be so mortified that
   men will have no pleasure in them.

   2. He shall leave no posterity to inherit his honour. The prediction of
   this is ushered in with a solemn preface (v. 29): O earth, earth,
   earth! hear the word of the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world
   take notice of these judgments of God upon a nation and a family that
   had been near and dear to him, and thence infer that God is impartial
   in the administration of justice. Or it is an appeal to the earth
   itself on which we tread, since those that dwell on earth are so deaf
   and careless, like that (Isa. i. 2), Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O
   earth! God's word, however slighted, will be heard; the earth itself
   will be made to hear it, and yield to it, when it, and all the works
   that are therein, shall be burnt up. Or it is a call to men that mind
   earthly things, that are swallowed up in those things and are
   inordinate in the pursuit of them; such have need to be called upon
   again and again, and a third time, to hear the word of the Lord. Or it
   is a call to men considered as mortal, of the earth, and hastening to
   the earth again. We all are so; earth we are, dust we are, and, in
   consideration of that, are concerned to hear and regard the word of the
   Lord, that, though we are earth, we may be found among those whose
   names are written in heaven. Now that which is here to be taken notice
   of is that Jeconiah is written childless (v. 30), that is, as it
   follows, No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of
   David. In him the line of David was extinct as a royal line. Some think
   that he had children born in Babylon because mention is made of his
   seed being cast out there (v. 28) and that they died before him. We
   read in the genealogy (1 Chron. iii. 17) of seven sons of Jeconiah
   Assir (that is, Jeconiah the captive) of whom Salathiel is the first.
   Some think that they were only his adopted sons, and that when it is
   said (Matt. i. 12), Jeconiah begat Salathiel, no more is meant than
   that he bequeathed to him what claims and pretensions he had to the
   government, the rather because Salathiel is called the son of Neri of
   the house of Nathan, Luke iii. 27, 31. Whether he had children
   begotten, or only adopted, thus far he was childless that none of his
   seed ruled as kings in Judah. He was the Augustulus of that empire, in
   whom it determined. Whoever are childless, it is God that writes them
   so; and those who take no care to do good in their days cannot expect
   to prosper in their days.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXIII.

   In this chapter the prophet, in God's name, is dealing his reproofs and
   threatenings, I. Among the careless princes, or pastors of the people
   (ver. 1, 2), yet promising to take care of the flock, which they had
   been wanting in their duty to, ver. 3-8. II. Among the wicked prophets
   and priests, whose bad character is here given at large in divers
   instances, especially their imposing upon the people with their
   pretended inspirations, at which the prophet is astonished, and for
   which they must expect to be punished, ver. 9-32. III. Among the
   profane people, who ridiculed God's prophets and bantered them, ver.
   33-40. When all have thus corrupted their way they must all expect to
   be told faithfully of it.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 590.)

   1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my
   pasture! saith the Lord.   2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of
   Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my
   flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will
   visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.   3 And I will
   gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have
   driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall
   be fruitful and increase.   4 And I will set up shepherds over them
   which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
   neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.   5 Behold, the days
   come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch,
   and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
   justice in the earth.   6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel
   shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called,
   THE Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.   7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith
   the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought
   up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;   8 But, The Lord
   liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel
   out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven
   them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

   I. Here is a word of terror to the negligent shepherds. The day is at
   hand when God will reckon with them concerning the trust and charge
   committed to them: Woe be to the pastors (to the rulers, both in church
   and state) who should be to those they are set over as pastors to lead
   them, feed them, protect them, and take care of them. They are not
   owners of the sheep. God here calls them the sheep of my pasture, whom
   I am interested in, and have provided good pasture for. Woe be to those
   therefore who are commanded to feed God's people, and pretend to do it,
   but who, instead of that, scatter the flock, and drive them away by
   their violence and oppression, and have not visited them, nor taken any
   care for their welfare, nor concerned themselves at all to do them
   good. In not visiting them, and doing their duty to them, they did in
   effect scatter them and drive them away. The beasts of prey scattered
   them, and the shepherds are in the fault, who should have kept them
   together. Woe be to them when God will visit upon them the evil of
   their doings and deal with them as they deserve. They would not visit
   the flock in a way of duty, and therefore God will visit them in a way
   of vengeance.

   II. Here is a word of comfort to the neglected sheep. Though the
   under-shepherds take no care of them, no pains with them, but betray
   them, the chief Shepherd will look after them. When my father and my
   mother forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up. Though the interests of
   God's church in the world are neglected by those who should take care
   of them, and postponed to their own private secular interests, yet they
   shall not therefore sink. God will perform his promise, though those he
   employs do not perform their duty.

   1. The dispersed Jews shall at length return to their own land, and be
   happily settled there under a good government, v. 3, 4. Though there be
   but a remnant of God's flock left, a little remnant, that has narrowly
   escaped destruction, he will gather that remnant, will find them out
   wherever they are and find out ways and means to bring them back out of
   all countries whither he had driven them. It was the justice of God,
   for the sin of their shepherds, that dispersed them; but the mercy of
   God shall gather in the sheep, when the shepherds that betrayed them
   are cut off. They shall be brought to their former habitations, as
   sheep to their folds, and there they shall be fruitful, and increase in
   numbers. And, though their former shepherds took no care of them, it
   does not therefore follow that they shall have no more. If some have
   abused a sacred office, that is no good reason why it should be
   abolished. "They destroyed the sheep, but I will set shepherds over
   them who shall make it their business to feed them." Formerly they were
   continually exposed and disturbed with some alarm or other; but now
   they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed; they shall be in no danger
   from without, in no fright from within. Formerly some or other of them
   were ever and anon picked up by the beasts of prey; but now none of
   them shall be lacking, none of them missing. Though the times may have
   been long bad with the church, it does not follow that they will be
   ever so. Such pastors as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, though they lived not
   in the pomp that Jehoiakim and Jeconiah did, nor made such a figure,
   were as great blessings to the people as the others were plagues to
   them. The church's peace is not bound up in the pomp of her rulers.

   2. Messiah the Prince, that great and good Shepherd of the sheep, shall
   in the latter days be raised up to bless his church, and to be the
   glory of his people Israel, v. 5, 6. The house of David seemed to be
   quite sunk and ruined by that threatening against Jeconiah (ch. xxii.
   30), that none of his seed should ever sit upon the throne of David.
   But here is a promise which effectually secures the honour of the
   covenant made with David notwithstanding; for by it the house will be
   raised out of its ruins to a greater lustre than ever, and shine
   brighter far than it did in Solomon himself. We have not so many
   prophecies of Christ in this book as we had in that of the prophet
   Isaiah; but here we have one, and a very illustrious one; of him
   doubtless the prophet here speaks, of him, and of no other man. The
   first words intimate that it would be long ere this promise should have
   its accomplishment: The days come, but they are not yet. I shall see
   him, but not now. But all the rest intimate that the accomplishment of
   it will be glorious. (1.) Christ is here spoken of as a branch from
   David, the man the branch (Zech. iii. 8), his appearance mean, his
   beginnings small, like those of a bud or sprout, and his rise seemingly
   out of the earth, but growing to be green, to be great, to be loaded
   with fruits. A branch from David's family, when it seemed to be a root
   in a dry ground, buried, and not likely to revive. Christ is the root
   and offspring of David, Rev. xxii. 16. In him doth the horn of David
   bud, Ps. cxxxii. 17, 18. He is a branch of God's raising up; he
   sanctified him, and sent him into the world, gave him his commission
   and qualifications. He is a righteous branch, for he is righteous
   himself, and through him many, even all that are his, are made
   righteous. As an advocate, he is Jesus Christ the righteous. (2.) He is
   here spoken of as his church's King. This branch shall be raised as
   high as the throne of his father David, and there he shall reign and
   prosper, not as the kings that now were of the house of David, who went
   backward in all their affairs. No; he shall set up a kingdom in the
   world that shall be victorious over all opposition. In the chariot of
   the everlasting gospel he shall go forth, he shall go on conquering and
   to conquer. If God raise him up, he will prosper him, for he will own
   the work of his own hands; what is the good pleasure of the Lord shall
   prosper in the hands of those to whom it is committed. He shall
   prosper; for he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, all
   the world over, Ps. xcvi. 13. The present kings of the house of David
   were unjust and oppressive, and therefore it is no wonder that they did
   not prosper. But Christ shall, by his gospel, break the usurped power
   of Satan, institute a perfect rule of holy living, and, as far as it
   prevails, make all the world righteous. The effect of this shall be a
   holy security and serenity of mind in all his faithful loyal subjects.
   In his days, under his dominion, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall
   dwell safely; that is, all the spiritual seed of believing Abraham and
   praying Jacob shall be protected from the curse of heaven and the
   malice of hell, shall be privileged from the arrests of God's law and
   delivered from the attempts of Satan's power, shall be saved from sin,
   the guilt and dominion of it, and then shall dwell safely, and be quiet
   from the fear of all evil. See Luke i. 74, 75. Those that shall be
   saved hereafter from the wrath to come may dwell safely now; for, if
   God be for us, who can be against us? In the days of Christ's
   government in the soul, when he is uppermost there, the soul dwells at
   ease. (3.) He is here spoken of as The Lord our righteousness. Observe,
   [1.] Who and what he is. As God, he is Jehovah, the incommunicable name
   of God, denoting his eternity and self-existence. As Mediator, he is
   our righteousness. By making satisfaction to the justice of God for the
   sin of man, he has brought in an everlasting righteousness, and so made
   it over to us in the covenant of grace that, upon our believing consent
   to that covenant, it becomes ours. His being Jehovah our righteousness
   implies that he is so our righteousness as no creature could be. He is
   a sovereign, all-sufficient, eternal righteousness. All our
   righteousness has its being from him, and by him it subsists, and we
   are made the righteousness of God in him. [2.] The profession and
   declaration of this: This is the name whereby he shall be called, not
   only he shall be so, but he shall be known to be so. God shall call him
   by this name, for he shall appoint him to be our righteousness. By this
   name Israel shall call him, every true believer shall call him, and
   call upon him. That is our righteousness by which, as an allowed plea,
   we are justified before God, acquitted from guilt, and accepted into
   favour; and nothing else have we to plead but this, "Christ has died,
   yea, rather has risen again;" and we have taken him for our Lord.

   3. This great salvation, which will come to the Jews in the latter days
   of their state, after their return out of Babylon, shall be so
   illustrious as far to outshine the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt
   (v. 7, 8): They shall no more say, The Lord liveth that brought up
   Israel out of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth that brought them up out of
   the north. This we had before, ch. xvi. 14, 15. But here it seems to
   point more plainly than it did there to the days of the Messiah, and to
   compare not so much the two deliverances themselves (giving the
   preference to the latter) as the two states to which the church by
   degrees grew after those deliverances. Observe the proportion: Just 480
   years after they had come out of Egypt Solomon's temple was built (1
   Kings vi. 1); and at that time that nation, which was so wonderfully
   brought up out of Egypt, had gradually arrived to its height, to its
   zenith. Just 490 years (70 weeks) after they came out of Babylon
   Messiah the Prince set up the gospel temple, which was the greatest
   glory of that nation that was so wonderfully brought out of Babylon;
   see Dan. ix. 24, 25. Now the spiritual glory of the second part of that
   nation, especially as transferred to the gospel church, is much more
   admirable and illustrious than all the temporal glory of the first part
   of it in the days of Solomon; for that was no glory compared with the
   glory which excelleth.

Guilt of False Prophets. (b. c. 600.)

   9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones
   shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome,
   because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness.   10 For
   the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land
   mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their
   course is evil, and their force is not right.   11 For both prophet and
   priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness,
   saith the Lord.   12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery
   ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I
   will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the
   Lord.   13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they
   prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.   14 I have
   seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit
   adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of
   evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of
   them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.   15
   Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold,
   I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall:
   for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all
   the land.   16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words
   of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak
   a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.   17
   They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall
   have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the
   imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.   18 For who
   hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his
   word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?   19 Behold, a whirlwind
   of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall
   fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.   20 The anger of the Lord
   shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed
   the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it
   perfectly.   21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have
   not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.   22 But if they had stood in
   my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should
   have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their
   doings.   23 Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar
   off?   24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
   him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
   25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name,
   saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.   26 How long shall this be in
   the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of
   the deceit of their own heart;   27 Which think to cause my people to
   forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his
   neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.   28 The
   prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my
   word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?
   saith the Lord.   29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and
   like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?   30 Therefore, behold,
   I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every
   one from his neighbour.   31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith
   the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.   32 Behold, I am
   against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell
   them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness;
   yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not
   profit this people at all, saith the Lord.

   Here is a long lesson for the false prophets. As none were more bitter
   and spiteful against God's true prophets than they, so there were none
   on whom the true prophets were more severe, and justly. The prophet had
   complained to God of those false prophets (ch. xiv. 13), and had often
   foretold that they should be involved in the common ruin; but here they
   have woes of their own.

   I. He expresses the deep concern that he was under upon this account,
   and what a trouble it was to him to see men who pretended to a divine
   commission and inspiration ruining themselves, and the people among
   whom they dwelt, by their falsehood and treachery (v. 9): My heart
   within me is broken; I am like a drunken man. His head was in confusion
   with wonder and astonishment; his heart was under oppression with grief
   and vexation. Jeremiah was a man that laid things much to heart, and
   what was any way threatening to his country made a deep impression upon
   his spirits. He is here in trouble, 1. Because of the prophets and
   their sin, the false doctrine they preached, the wicked lives they
   lived; especially it filled him with horror to hear them making use of
   God's name and pretending to have their instruction from him. Never was
   the Lord so abused, and the words of his holiness, as by these men.
   Note, The dishonour done to God's name, and the profanation of his holy
   word, are the greatest grief imaginable to a gracious soul. 2. "Because
   of the Lord, and his judgments, which by this means are brought in upon
   us like a deluge." He trembled to think of the ruin and desolation
   which were coming from the face of the Lord (so the word is) and from
   the face of the word of his holiness, which will be inflicted by the
   power of God's wrath, according to the threatenings of his word,
   confirmed by his holiness. Note, Even those that have God for them
   cannot but tremble to think of the misery of those that have God
   against them.

   II. He laments the abounding abominable wickedness of the land and the
   present tokens of God's displeasure they were under for it (v. 10): The
   land is full of adulterers; it is full both of spiritual and corporal
   whoredom. They go a whoring from God, and, having cast off the fear of
   him, no marvel that they abandon themselves to all manner of lewdness;
   and, having dishonoured themselves and their own bodies, they dishonour
   God and his name by rash and false swearing, because of which the land
   mourns. Both perjury and common swearing are sins for which a land must
   mourn in true repentance or it will be made to mourn under the
   judgments of God. Their land mourned now under the judgment of famine;
   the pleasant places, or rather the pastures, or (as some read it) the
   habitations of the wilderness, are dried up for want of rain, and yet
   we see no signs of repentance. They answer not the end of the
   correction. The tenour and tendency of men's conversations are sinful,
   their course continues evil, as bad as ever, and they will not be
   diverted from it. They have a great deal of resolution, but it is
   turned the wrong way; they are zealously affected, but not in a good
   thing: Their force is not right; their heart is fully set in them to do
   evil, and they are not valiant for the truth, have not courage enough
   to break off their evil courses, though they see God thus contending
   with them.

   III. He charges it all upon the prophets and priests, especially the
   prophets. They are both profane (v. 11); the priests profane the
   ordinances of God they pretend to administer; the prophets profane the
   word of God they pretend to deliver; their converse and all their
   conversation are profane, and then it is not strange that the people
   are so debauched. They both play the hypocrite (so some read it); under
   sacred pretensions they carry on the vilest designs; yea, not only in
   their own houses, and the bad houses they frequent, but in my house
   have I found their wickedness; in the temple, where the priests
   ministered, where the prophets prophesied, there were they guilty both
   of idolatry and immorality. See a woeful instance in Hophni and
   Phinehas, 1 Sam. ii. 22. God searches his house, and what wickedness is
   there he will find it out; and the nearer it is to him the more
   offensive it is. Two things are charged upon them:--1. That they taught
   people to sin by their examples. He compares them with the prophets of
   Samaria, the head city of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which had been
   long since laid waste. It was the folly of the prophets of Samaria that
   they prophesied in Baal, in Baal's name; so Ahab's prophets did, and so
   they caused my people Israel to err, to forsake the service of the true
   God and to worship Baal, v. 13. Now the prophets of Jerusalem did not
   do so; they prophesied in the name of the true God, and valued
   themselves upon that, that they were not like the prophets of Samaria,
   who prophesied in Baal; but what the better, when they debauched the
   nation as much by their immoralities as the other had done by their
   idolatries? It is a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem that
   they make use of the name of the holy God, and yet wallow in all manner
   of impurity; they make nothing of committing adultery. They make use of
   the name of the God of truth, and yet walk in lies; they not only
   prophesy lies, but in their common conversation one cannot believe a
   word they say. It is all either jest and banter or fraud and design.
   Thus they encourage sinners to go on in their wicked ways; for every
   one will say, "Surely we may do as the prophets do; who can expect that
   we should be better than our teachers?" By this means it is that none
   returns from his wickedness; but they all say that they shall have
   peace, though they go on, for their prophets tell them so. By this
   means Judah and Jerusalem have become as Sodom and Gomorrah, that were
   wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and God looked upon
   them accordingly as fit for nothing but to be destroyed, as they were,
   with fire and brimstone. 2. That they encouraged people in sin by their
   false prophecies. They made themselves believe that there was no harm,
   no danger in sin, and practiced accordingly; and then no marvel that
   they made others believe so too (v. 16): They speak a vision of their
   own heart; it is the product of their own invention, and agrees with
   their own inclination, but it is not out of the mouth of the Lord; he
   never dictated it to them, nor did it agree either with the law of
   Moses or with what God has spoken by other prophets. They tell sinners
   that it shall be well with them though they persist in their sins, v.
   17. See here who those are that they encourage--those that despise God,
   that slight his authority, and have low and mean thoughts of his
   institutions, and those that walk after the imagination of their own
   heart, that are worshippers of idols and slaves to their own lusts;
   those that are devoted to their pleasures put contempt upon their God.
   Yet see how these prophets caressed and flattered them: they should
   have been still saying, There is no peace to those that go on in their
   evil ways--Those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed--Woe, and a
   thousand woes, to them; but they still said, You shall have peace; no
   evil shall come upon you. And, which was worst of all, they told them,
   God has said so, so making him to patronize sin, and to contradict
   himself. Note, Those that are resolved to go on in their evil ways will
   justly be given up to believe the strong delusions of those who tell
   them that they shall have peace though they go on.

   IV. God disowns all that these false prophets said to sooth people up
   in their sins (v. 21): I have not sent these prophets; they never had
   any mission from God. They were not only not sent by him on this
   errand, but they were never sent by him on any errand; he never had
   employed them in any service or business for him; and, as to this
   matter, whereas they pretended to have instructions from him to assure
   this people of peace, he declares that he never gave them any such
   instructions. Yet they were very forward--they ran; they were very
   bold--they prophesied without any of that difficulty with which the
   true prophets sometimes struggled. They said to sinners, You shall have
   peace. But (v. 18): "Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord? Who of
   you has, that are so confident of this? You deliver this message with a
   great deal of assurance; but have you consulted God about it? No; you
   never considered whether it be agreeable to the discoveries God has
   made of himself, whether it will consist with the honour of his
   holiness and justice, to let sinners go unpunished. You have not
   perceived and heard his word, nor marked that; you have not compared
   this with the scripture; if you had taken notice of that, and of the
   constant tenour of it, you would never have delivered such a message."
   The prophets themselves must try the spirits by the touchstone of the
   law and of the testimony, as well as those to whom they prophesy; but
   which of those did so that prophesied of peace? That they did not stand
   in God's counsel nor hear his word is proved afterwards, v. 22. If they
   had stood in my counsel, as they pretend, 1. They would have made the
   scriptures their standard: They would have caused my people to hear my
   words, and would have conscientiously kept closely to them. But, not
   speaking according to that rule, it is a plain evidence that there is
   no light in them. 2. They would have made the conversion of souls their
   business, and would have aimed at that in all their preaching. They
   would have done all they could to turn people from their evil way in
   general and from all the particular evil of their doings. They would
   have encouraged and assisted the reformation of manners, would have
   made this their scope in all their preaching, to part between men and
   their sins; but it appeared that this was a thing they never aimed at,
   but, on the contrary, to encourage sinners in their sins. 3. They would
   have had some seals of their ministry. This sense our translation gives
   it: If they had stood in my counsel, and the words they had preached
   had been my words, then they should have turned them from their evil
   way; a divine power should have gone along with the word for the
   conviction of sinners. God will bless his own institutions. Yet this is
   no certain rule; Jeremiah himself, though God sent him, prevailed with
   but few to turn from their evil way.

   V. God threatens to punish these prophets for their wickedness. They
   promised the people peace; and to show them the folly of that God tells
   them that they should have no peace themselves. They were very unfit to
   warrant the people, and pass their word to them that no evil shall come
   upon them, when all evil is coming upon themselves and they are not
   aware of it, v. 12. Because the prophets and priests are profane,
   therefore their ways shall be unto them as slippery ways in the
   darkness. Those that undertake to lead others, because they mislead
   them, and know they do so, shall themselves have no comfort in their
   way. 1. They pretend to show others the way, but they shall themselves
   be in the dark, or in a mist; their light or sight shall fail, so that
   they shall not be able to look before them, shall have no forecast for
   themselves. 2. They pretend to give assurances to others, but they
   themselves shall find no firm footing: Their ways shall be to them as
   slippery ways, in which they shall not go with any steadiness, safety,
   or satisfaction. 3. They pretend to make the people easy with their
   flatteries, but they shall themselves be uneasy: They shall be driven,
   forced forward as captives, or making their escape as those that are
   pursued, and they shall fall in the way by which they hoped to escape,
   and so fall into the enemies' hands. 4. They pretend to prevent the
   evil that threatens others, but God will bring evil upon them, even the
   year of their visitation, the time fixed for calling them to an
   account; such a time is fixed concerning all that do not judge
   themselves, and it will be an evil time. The year of visitation is the
   year of recompenses. It is further threatened (v. 15), I will feed them
   with wormwood, or poison, with that which is not only nauseous, but
   noxious, and make them drink waters of gall, or (as some read it) juice
   of hemlock; see ch. ix. 15. Justly is the cup of trembling put into
   their hand first, for from the prophets of Jerusalem, who should have
   been patterns of piety and every thing that is praiseworthy, even from
   them has profaneness gone forth into all the lands. Nothing more
   effectually debauches a nation than the debauchery of ministers.

   VI. The people are here warned not to give any credit to these false
   prophets; for, though they flattered them with hopes of impunity, the
   judgments of God would certainly break out against them, unless they
   repented (v. 16): "Take notice of what God says, and hearken not to the
   words of these prophets; for you will find, in the issue, that God's
   word shall stand, and not theirs. God's word will make you serious, but
   they make you vain, feed you with vain hopes, which will fail you at
   last. They tell you, No evil shall come upon you; but hear what God
   says (v. 19), Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury.
   They tell you, All shall be calm and serene; but God tells you, There
   is a storm coming, a whirlwind of the Lord, of his sending, and
   therefore there is no standing before it. It is a whirlwind raised by
   divine wrath; it has gone forth in fury, a wind that is brought forth
   out of the treasuries of divine vengeance; and therefore it is a
   grievous whirlwind, and shall light heavily, with rain and hail, upon
   the head of the wicked, which they cannot avoid nor find any shelter
   from." It shall fall upon the wicked prophets themselves who deceived
   the people, and the wicked people who suffered themselves to be
   deceived. A horrible tempest shall be the portion of their cup, Ps. xi.
   6. This sentence is bound on as irreversible (v. 20): The anger of the
   Lord shall not return, for the decree has gone forth. God will not
   alter his mind, nor suffer his anger to be turned away, till he have
   executed the sentence and performed the thoughts of his heart. God's
   whirlwind, when it comes down from heaven, returns not thither, but
   accomplishes that for which he sent it, Isa. lv. 11. This they will not
   consider now; but in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly,
   consider it with understanding (so the word is) or with consideration.
   Note, Those that will not fear the threatenings shall feel the
   execution of them, and will then perfectly understand what they will
   not now admit the evidence of, what a fearful thing it is to fall into
   the hands of a just and jealous God. Those that will not consider in
   time will be made to consider when it is too late. Son, remember.

   VII. Several things are here offered to the consideration of these
   false prophets for their conviction, that, if possible, they might be
   brought to recant their error and acknowledge the cheat they had put
   upon God's people.

   1. Let them consider that though they may impose upon men God is too
   wise to be imposed upon. Men cannot see through their fallacies, but
   God can and does. Here,

   (1.) God asserts his own omnipresence and omniscience in general, v.
   23, 24. When they told the people that no evil should befall them
   though they went on in their evil ways they went upon atheistical
   principles, that the Lord doth not see their sin, that he cannot judge
   through the dark cloud, that he will not require it; and therefore they
   must be taught the first principles of their religion, and confronted
   with the most incontestable self-evident truths. [1.] That though God's
   throne is prepared in the heavens, and this earth seems to be at a
   distance from him, yet he is a God here in this lower world, which
   seems to be afar off, as well as in the upper world, which seems to be
   at hand, v. 23. The eye of God is the same on earth that it is in
   heaven. Here it runs to and fro as well as there (2 Chron. xvi. 9); and
   what is in the minds of men, whose spirits are veiled in flesh, is as
   clearly seen by him as what is in the mind of angels, those unveiled
   spirits above that surround his throne. The power of God is the same on
   earth among its inhabitants that it is in heaven among its armies. With
   us nearness and distance make a great difference both in our
   observations and in our operations, but it is not so with God; to him
   darkness and light, at hand and afar off, are both alike. [2.] That,
   how ingenious and industrious soever men are to disguise themselves and
   their own characters and counsels, they cannot possibly be concealed
   from God's all-seeing eye (v. 24): "Can any hide himself in the secret
   places of the earth, that I shall not see him? Can any hide his
   projects and intentions in the secret places of the heart, that I shall
   not see them?" No arts of concealment can hide men from the eye of God,
   nor deceive his judgment of them. [3.] That he is every where present;
   he does not only rule heaven and earth, and uphold both by his
   universal providence, but he fills heaven and earth by his essential
   presence, Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8, &c. No place can either include him or
   exclude him.

   (2.) He applies this to these prophets, who had a notable art of
   disguising themselves (v. 25, 26): I have heard what the prophets said
   that prophesy lies in my name. They thought that he was so wholly taken
   up with the other world that he had no leisure to take cognizance of
   what passed in this. But God will make them know that he knows all
   their impostures, all the shams they have put upon the world, under
   colour of divine revelation. What they intended to humour the people
   with they pretended to have had from God in a dream, when there was no
   such thing. This they could not discover. If a man tell me that he
   dreamed so and so, I cannot contradict him; he knows I cannot. But God
   discovered the fraud. Perhaps the false prophets whispered what they
   had to say in the ears of such as were their confidants, saying, So and
   so I have dreamed; but God overheard them. The heart-searching eye of
   God traced them in all the methods they took to deceive the people, and
   he cries out, How long? Shall I always bear with them? Is it in the
   hearts of those prophets (so some read it) to be ever prophesying lies
   and prophesying the deceits of their own hearts? Will they never see
   what an affront they put upon God, what an abuse they put upon the
   people, and what judgments they are preparing for themselves?

   2. Let them consider that their palming upon people counterfeit
   revelations, and fathering their own fancies upon divine inspiration,
   was the ready way to bring all religion into contempt and make men turn
   atheists and infidels; and this was the thing they really intended,
   though they frequently made mention of the name of God, and prefaced
   all they said with, Thus saith the Lord. Yet, says God, They think to
   cause my people to forget my name by their dreams. They designed to
   draw people off from the worship of God, from all regard to God's laws
   and ordinances and the true prophets, as their fathers forgot God's
   name for Baal. Note, The great thing Satan aims at is to make people
   forget God, and all that whereby he has made himself known; and he has
   many subtle methods to bring them to this. Sometimes he does it by
   setting up false gods (bring men in love with Baal, and they soon
   forget the name of God), sometimes by misrepresenting the true God, as
   if he were altogether such a one as ourselves. Pretenses to new
   revelation may prove as dangerous to religion as the denying of all
   revelation; and false prophets in God's name may perhaps do more
   mischief to the power of godliness than false prophets in Baal's name,
   as being less guarded against.

   3. Let them consider what a vast difference there was between their
   prophecies and those that were delivered by the true prophets of the
   Lord (v. 28): The prophet that has a dream, which was the way of
   inspiration that the false prophets most pretended to, if he has a
   dream, let him tell it as a dream; so Mr. Gataker reads it. "Let him
   lay no more stress upon it than men do upon their dreams, nor expect
   any more regard to be had to it. Let them not say that it is from God,
   nor call their foolish dreams divine oracles. But let the true prophet,
   that has my word, speak my word faithfully, speak it as a truth" (so
   some read it): "let him keep closely to his instructions, and you will
   soon perceive a vast difference between the dreams that the false
   prophets tell and the divine dictates which the true prophets deliver.
   He that pretends to have a message from God, whether by dream or voice,
   let him declare it, and it will easily appear which is of God and which
   is not. Those that have spiritual senses exercised will be able to
   distinguish; for what is the chaff to the wheat? The promises of peace
   which these prophets make to you are no more to be compared to God's
   promises than chaff to wheat." Men's fancies are light, and vain, and
   worthless, as the chaff which the wind drives away. But the word of God
   has substance in it; it is of value, is food for the soul, the bread of
   life. Wheat was the staple commodity of Canaan, that valley of vision,
   Deut. viii. 8; Ezek. xxvii. 17. There is as much difference between the
   vain fancies of men and the pure word of God as between the chaff and
   the wheat. It follows (v. 29), Is not my word like a fire, saith the
   Lord? Is their word so? Has it the power and efficacy that the word of
   God has? No; nothing like it; there is no more comparison than between
   painted fire and real fire. Theirs is like an ignis fatuus--a deceiving
   meteor, leading men into by-paths and dangerous precipices. Note, The
   word of God is like fire. The law was a fiery law (Deut. xxxiii. 2),
   and of the gospel Christ says, I have come to send fire on the earth,
   Luke xii. 49. Fire has different effects, according as the matter is on
   which it works; it hardens clay, but softens wax; it consumes the
   dross, but purifies the gold. So the word of God is to some a savour of
   life unto life, to others of death unto death. God appeals here to the
   consciences of those to whom the word was sent: "Is not my word like
   fire? Has it not been so to you? Zech. i. 6. Speak as you have found."
   It is compared likewise to a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. The
   unhumbled heart of man is like a rock; if it will not be melted by the
   word of God as the fire, it will be broken to pieces by it as the
   hammer. Whatever opposition is given to the word, it will be borne down
   and broken to pieces.

   4. Let them consider that while they went on in this course God was
   against them. Three times they are told this, v. 30, 31, 32. Behold, I
   am against the prophets. They pretended to be for God, and made use of
   his name, but were really against him; he looks upon them as they were
   really, and is against them. How can they be long safe, or at all easy,
   that have a God of almighty power against them? While these prophets
   were promising peace to the people God was proclaiming war against
   them. They stand indicted here, (1.) For robbery: They steal my word
   every one from his neighbour. Some understand it of that word of God
   which the good prophets preached; they stole their sermons, their
   expressions, and mingled them with their own, as hucksters mingle bad
   wares with some that are good, to make them vendible. Those that were
   strangers to the spirit of the true prophets mimicked their language,
   picked up some good sayings of theirs, and delivered them to the people
   as if they had been their own, but with an ill grace; they were not of
   a piece with the rest of their discourses. The legs of the lame are not
   equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools, Prov. xxvi. 7. Others
   understand it of the word of God as it was received and entertained by
   some of the people; they stole it out of their hearts, as the wicked
   one in the parable is said to steal the good seed of the word, Matt.
   xiii. 19. By their insinuations they diminished the authority, and so
   weakened the efficacy, of the word of God upon the minds of those that
   seemed to be under convictions by it. (2.) They stand indicted for
   counterfeiting the broad seal. Therefore God is against them (v. 31),
   because they use their tongues at their pleasure in their discourses to
   the people; they say what they themselves think fit, and then father it
   upon God, pretend they had it from him, and say, He saith it. Some read
   it, They smooth their tongues; they are very complaisant to the people,
   and say nothing but what is pleasing and plausible; they never reprove
   them nor threaten them, but their words are smoother than butter. Thus
   they ingratiate themselves with them, and get money by them; and they
   have the impudence and impiety to make God the patron of their lies;
   they say, "He saith so." What greater indignity can be done to the God
   of truth than to lay the brats of the father of lies at his door? (3.)
   They stand indicted as common cheats (v. 32): I am against them, for
   they prophesy false dreams, pretending that to be a divine inspiration
   which is but an invention of their own. This is a horrid fraud; nor
   will it excuse them to say, Caveat emptor--Let the buyer take care of
   himself, and Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur--If people will be
   deceived, let them. No; it is the people's fault that they err, that
   they take things upon trust, and do not try the spirits; but it is much
   more the prophets' fault that they cause God's people to err by their
   lies and by their lightness, by the flatteries of their preaching
   soothing them up in their sins, and by the looseness and lewdness of
   their conversation encouraging them to persist in them. [1.] God
   disowns their having any commission from him: I sent them not, nor
   commanded them; they are not God's messengers, nor is what they say his
   message. [2.] He therefore justly denies his blessing with them:
   Therefore they shall not profit this people at all. All the profit they
   aim at is to make them easy; but they shall not so much as do that, for
   God's providences will at the same time be making them uneasy. They do
   not profit this people (so some read it); and more is implied than is
   expressed; they not only do them no good, but do them a great deal of
   hurt. Note, Those that corrupt the word of God, while they pretend to
   preach it, are so far from edifying the church that they do it the
   greatest mischief imaginable.

Profaneness of the People; Reproofs and Threatenings. (b. c. 600.)

   33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee,
   saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them,
   What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord.   34 And as for
   the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden
   of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.   35 Thus shall
   ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What
   hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken?   36 And the
   burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall
   be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of
   the Lord of hosts our God.   37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet,
   What hath the Lord answered thee? and, What hath the Lord spoken?   38
   But since ye say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus saith the
   Lord; Because ye say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent
   unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord;   39
   Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will
   forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast
   you out of my presence:   40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach
   upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

   The profaneness of the people, with that of the priests and prophets,
   is here reproved in a particular instance, which may seem of small
   moment in comparison of their greater crimes; but profaneness in common
   discourse, and the debauching of the language of a nation, being a
   notorious evidence of the prevalency of wickedness in it, we are not to
   think it strange that this matter was so largely and warmly insisted
   upon here. Observe,

   I. The sin here charged upon them is bantering God's prophets and
   dialect they used, and jesting with sacred things. They asked, What is
   the burden of the Lord? v. 33 and v. 34. They say, The burden of the
   Lord, v. 38. This was the word that gave great offence to God, that,
   whenever they spoke of the word of the Lord, they called it, in scorn
   and derision, the burden of the Lord. Now, 1. This was a word that the
   prophets much used, and used it seriously, to show what a weight the
   word of God was upon their spirits, of what importance it was, and how
   pressingly it should come upon those that heard it. The words of the
   false prophets had nothing ponderous in them, but God's words had;
   those were as chaff, these as wheat. Now the profane scoffers took this
   word, and made a jest and a byword of it; they made people merry with
   it, that so, when the prophets used it, they might not make people
   serious with it. Note, It has been the artifice of Satan, in all ages,
   to obstruct the efficacy of sacred things by turning them into matter
   of sport and ridicule; the mocking of God's messengers was the baffling
   of his messages. 2. Perhaps this word was caught at and reproached by
   the scoffers as an improper word, newly-coined by the prophets, and not
   used in that sense by any classic author. It was only in this and the
   last age that the word of the Lord was called the burden of the Lord,
   and it could not be found in their lexicons to have that signification.
   But if men take a liberty, as we see they do, to form new phrases which
   they think more expressive and significant in other parts of learning,
   why not in divinity? But especially we must observe it as a rule that
   the Spirit of God is not tied to our rules of speaking. 3. Some think
   that because when the word of the Lord is called a burden it signifies
   some word of reproof and threatening, which would lay a load upon the
   hearers (yet I know not whether that observation will always hold),
   therefore in using this word the burden of the Lord in a canting way
   they reflected upon God as always bearing hard upon them, always
   teasing them, always frightening them, and so making the word of God a
   perpetual uneasiness to them. They make the word of God a burden to
   themselves, and then quarrel with the ministers for making it a burden
   to them. Thus the scoffers of the latter days, while they slight heaven
   and salvation, reproach faithful ministers for preaching hell and
   damnation. Upon the whole we may observe that, how light soever men may
   make of it, the great God takes notice of, and is much displeased with,
   those who burlesque sacred things, and who, that they may make a jest
   of scripture truths and laws, put jests upon scripture language. In
   such wit as this I am sure there is no wisdom, and so it will appear at
   last. Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Those that
   were here guilty of this sin were some of the false prophets, who
   perhaps came to steal the word of God from the true prophets, some of
   the priests, who perhaps came to seek occasions against them on which
   to ground an information, and some of the people, who had learned of
   the profane priests and prophets to play with the things of God. The
   people would not have affronted the prophet and his God thus if the
   priests and the prophets, those ringleaders of mischief, had not shown
   them the way.

   II. When they are reproved for this profane way of speaking they are
   directed how to express themselves more decently. We do not find that
   the prophets are directed to make no more use of this word; we find it
   used long after this (Zech. ix. 1; Mal. i. 1; Nah. i. 1; Hab. i. 1);
   and we do not find it once used in this sense by Jeremiah either before
   or after. It is true indeed that in many cases it is advisable to make
   no use of such words and things as some have made a bad use of, and it
   may be prudent to avoid such phrases as, though innocent enough, are in
   danger of being perverted and made stumbling-blocks. But here God will
   have the prophet keep to his rule (ch. xv. 19), Let them return unto
   thee, but return not thou unto them. Do not thou leave off using this
   word, but let them leave off abusing it. You shall not mention the
   burden of the Lord any more in this profane careless manner (v. 36),
   for it is perverting the words of the living God and making a bad use
   of them, which is an impious dangerous thing; for, consider, he is the
   Lord of hosts our God. Note, If we will but look upon God as we ought
   to do in his greatness and goodness, and be but duly sensible of our
   relation and obligation to him, it may be hoped that we shall not dare
   to affront him by making a jest of his words. It is an impudent thing
   to abuse him that is the living God, the Lord of hosts, and our God.
   How then must they express themselves? He tells them (v. 37): Thus
   shalt thou say to the prophet, when thou art enquiring of him, What
   hath the Lord answered thee? And what hath the Lord spoken? And they
   must say thus when they enquire of their neighbours, v. 35. Note, We
   must always speak of the things of God reverently and seriously, and as
   becomes the oracles of God. It is a commendable practice to enquire
   after the mind of God, to enquire of our brethren what they have heard,
   to enquire of our prophets what they have to say from God; but then, to
   show that we enquire for a right end, we must do it after a right
   manner. Ministers may learn here, when they reprove people for what
   they say and do amiss, to teach them how to say and do better.

   III. Because they would not leave off this bad way of speaking, though
   they were admonished of it, God threatens them here with utter ruin.
   They would still say, The burden of the Lord, though God had sent to
   them to forbid them, v. 38. What little regard have those to the divine
   authority that will not be persuaded by it to leave an idle word! But
   see what will come of it. 1. Those shall be severely reckoned with that
   thus pervert the words of God, that put a wrong construction on them
   and make a bad use of them; and it shall be made to appear that it is a
   great provocation to God to mock his messengers: I will even punish
   that man and his house; whether he be prophet or priest, or one of the
   common people, it shall be visited upon him, v. 34. Perverting God's
   word, and ridiculing the preachers of it, are sins that bring ruining
   judgments upon families and entail a curse upon a house. Another
   threatening we have v. 36. Every man's word shall be his own burden;
   that is, the guilt of this sin shall be so heavy upon him as to sink
   him into the pit of destruction. God shall make their own tongue to
   fall upon them, Ps. lxiv. 8. God will give them enough of their jest,
   so that the burden of the Lord they shall have no heart to mention any
   more; it will be too heavy to make a jest of. They are as the madman
   that casts firebrands, arrows, and death, while they pretend to be in
   sport. 2. The words of God, though thus perverted, shall be
   accomplished. Do they ask, What is the burden of the Lord? Let the
   prophet ask them, What burden do you mean? Is it this: I will even
   forsake you? v. 33. This is the burden that shall be laid and bound
   upon them (v. 39, 40): "Behold I, even I, will utterly forget you, and
   I will forsake you. I will leave you, and have no thoughts of returning
   to you." Those are miserable indeed that are forsaken and forgotten of
   God; and men's bantering God's judgments will not baffle them.
   Jerusalem was the city God had taken to himself as a holy city, and
   then given to them and their fathers; but that shall now be forsaken
   and forgotten. God had taken them to be a people near to him; but they
   shall now be cast out of his presence. They had been great and
   honourable among the nations; but now God will bring upon them an
   everlasting reproach and a perpetual shame. Both their sin and their
   punishment shall be their lasting disgrace. It is here upon record, to
   their infamy, and will remain so to the world's end. Note, God's word
   will be magnified and made honourable when those that mock at it shall
   be vilified and made contemptible. Those that despise me shall be
   lightly esteemed.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXIV.

   In the close of the foregoing chapter we had a general prediction of
   the utter ruin of Jerusalem, that it should be forsaken and forgotten,
   which, whatever effect it had upon others, we have reason to think made
   the prophet himself very melancholy. Now, in this chapter, God
   encourages him, by showing him that, though the desolation seemed to be
   universal, yet all were not equally involved in it, but God knew how to
   distinguish, how to separate, between the precious and the vile. Some
   had gone into captivity already with Jeconiah; over them Jeremiah
   lamented, but God tells him that it should turn to their good. Others
   yet remained hardened in their sins, against whom Jeremiah had a just
   indignation; but those, God tells him, should go into captivity, and it
   should prove to their hurt. To inform the prophet of this, and affect
   him with it, here is, I. A vision of two baskets of figs, one very good
   and the other very bad, ver. 1-3. II. The explication of this vision,
   applying the good figs to those that were already sent into captivity
   for their good (ver. 4-7), the bad figs to those that should hereafter
   be sent into captivity for their hurt, ver. 8-10.

Vision of the Good and Bad Figs; Promises and Threatenings. (b. c. 599.)

   1 The Lord shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before
   the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had
   carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and
   the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem,
   and had brought them to Babylon.   2 One basket had very good figs,
   even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very
   naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.   3 Then said
   the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good
   figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they
   are so evil.   4 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   5
   Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I
   acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have
   sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
   6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them
   again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and
   I will plant them, and not pluck them up.   7 And I will give them a
   heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and
   I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole
   heart.   8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so
   evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of
   Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in
   this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:   9 And I will
   deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their
   hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all
   places whither I shall drive them.   10 And I will send the sword, the
   famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off
   the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

   This short chapter helps us to put a very comfortable construction upon
   a great many long ones, by showing us that the same providence which to
   some is a savour of death unto death may by the grace and blessing of
   God be made to others a savour of life unto life; and that, though
   God's people share with others in the same calamity, yet it is not the
   same to them that it is to others, but is designed for their good and
   shall issue in their good; to them it is a correcting rod in the hand
   of a tender Father, while to others it is an avenging sword in the hand
   of a righteous Judge. Observe,

   I. The date of this sermon. It was after, a little after, Jeconiah's
   captivity, v. 1. Jeconiah was himself a despised broken vessel, but
   with him were carried away some very valuable persons, Ezekiel for one
   (Ezek. i. 12); many of the princes of Judah then went into captivity,
   Daniel and his fellows were carried off a little before; of the people
   only the carpenters and the smiths were forced away, either because the
   Chaldeans needed some ingenious men of those trades (they had a great
   plenty of astrologers and stargazers, but a great scarcity of smiths
   and carpenters) or because the Jews would severely feel the loss of
   them, and would, for want of them, be unable to fortify their cities
   and furnish themselves with weapons of war. Now, it should seem, there
   were many good people carried away in that captivity, which the pious
   prophet laid much to heart, while there were those that triumphed in
   it, and insulted over those to whose lot it fell to go into captivity.
   Note, We must not conclude concerning the first and greatest sufferers
   that they were the worst and greatest sinners; for perhaps it may
   appear quite otherwise, as it did here.

   II. The vision by which this distinction of the captives was
   represented to the prophet's mind. He saw two baskets of figs, set
   before the temple, there ready to be offered as first-fruits to the
   honour of God. Perhaps the priests, being remiss in their duty, were
   not ready to receive them and dispose of them according to the law, and
   therefore Jeremiah sees them standing before the temple. But that which
   was the significancy of the vision was that the figs in one basket were
   extraordinarily good, those in the other basket extremely bad. The
   children of men are all as the fruits of the fig-tree, capable of being
   made serviceable to God and man (Judg. ix. 11); but some are as good
   figs, than which nothing is more pleasant, others as damaged rotten
   figs, than which nothing is more nauseous. What creature viler than a
   wicked man, and what more valuable than a godly man! The good figs were
   like those that are first ripe, which are most acceptable (Mic. vii. 1)
   and most prized when newly come into season. The bad figs are such as
   could not be eaten, they were so evil; they could not answer the end of
   their creation, were neither pleasant nor good for food; and what then
   were they good for? If God has no honour from men, nor their generation
   any service, they are even like the bad figs, that cannot be eaten,
   that will not answer any good purpose. If the salt have lost its
   savour, it is thenceforth fit for nothing but the dunghill. Of the
   persons that are presented to the Lord at the door of his tabernacle,
   some are sincere, and they are very good; others dissemble with God,
   and they are very bad. Sinners are the worst of men, hypocrites the
   worst of sinners. Corruptio optimi est pessima--That which is best
   becomes, when corrupted, the worst.

   III. The exposition and application of this vision. God intended by it
   to raise the dejected spirit of those that had gone into captivity, by
   assuring them of a happy return, and to humble and awaken the proud and
   secure spirits of those who continued yet in Jerusalem, by assuring
   them of a miserable captivity.

   1. Here is the moral of the good figs, that were very good, the first
   ripe. These represented the pious captives, that seemed first ripe for
   ruin, for they went first into captivity, but should prove first ripe
   for mercy, and their captivity should help to ripen them; these are
   pleasing to God, as good figs are to us, and shall be carefully
   preserved for use. Now observe here,

   (1.) Those that were already carried into captivity were the good figs
   that God would own. This shows, [1.] That we cannot determine of God's
   love or hatred by all that is before us. When God's judgments are
   abroad those are not always the worst that are first seized by them.
   [2.] That early suffering sometimes proves for the best to us. The
   sooner the child is corrected the better effect the correction is
   likely to have. Those that went first into captivity were as the son
   whom the father loves, and chastens betimes, chastens while there is
   hope; and it did well. But those that staid behind were like a child
   long left to himself, who, when afterwards corrected, is stubborn, and
   made worse by it, Lam. iii. 27.

   (2.) God owns their captivity to be his doing. Whoever were the
   instruments of it, he ordered and directed it (v. 5): I have sent them
   out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. It is God that puts
   his gold into the furnace, to be tried; his hand is, in a special
   manner, to be eyed in the afflictions of good people. The judge orders
   the malefactor into the hand of an executioner, but the father corrects
   the child with his own hand.

   (3.) Even this disgraceful uncomfortable captivity God intended for
   their benefit; and we are sure that his intentions are never
   frustrated: I have sent them into the land of the Chaldeans for their
   good. It seemed to be every way for their hurt, not only as it was the
   ruin of their estates, honours, and liberties, separated them from
   their relations and friends, and put them under the power of their
   enemies and oppressors, but as it sunk their spirits, discouraged their
   faith, deprived them of the benefit of God's oracles and ordinances,
   and exposed them to temptations; and yet it was designed for their
   good, and proved so, in the issue, as to many of them. Out of the eater
   came forth meat. By their afflictions they were convinced of sin,
   humbled under the hand of God, weaned from the world, made serious,
   taught to pray, and turned from their iniquity; particularly they were
   cured of their inclination to idolatry; and thus it was good for them
   that they were afflicted, Ps. cxix. 67, 71.

   (4.) God promises them that he will own them in their captivity. Though
   they seem abandoned, they shall be acknowledged; the scornful relations
   they left behind will scarcely own them, or their kindred to them, but
   God says, I will acknowledge them. Note, The Lord knows those that are
   his, and will own them in all conditions; nakedness and sword shall not
   separate them from his love.

   (5.) God assures them of his protection in their trouble, and a
   glorious deliverance out of it in due time, v. 6. Being sent into
   captivity for their good, they shall not be lost there; but it shall be
   with them as it is with gold which the refiner puts into the furnace.
   [1.] He has his eye upon it while it is there, and it is a careful eye,
   to see that it sustain no damage: "I will set my eyes upon them for
   good, to order every thing for the best, that all the circumstances of
   the affliction may concur to the answering of the great intention of
   it." [2.] He will be sure to take it out of the furnace again as soon
   as the work designed upon it is done: I will bring them again to this
   land. They were sent abroad for improvement awhile, under a severe
   discipline; but they shall be fetched back, when they have gone through
   their trial there, to their Father's house. [3.] He will fashion his
   gold when he has refined it, will make it a vessel of honour fit for
   his use; so, when God has brought them back from their trial, he will
   build them and make them a habitation for himself, will plant them and
   make them a vineyard for himself. Their captivity was to square the
   rough stones and make them fit for his building, to prune up the young
   trees and make them fit for his planting.

   (6.) He engages to prepare them for these temporal mercies which he
   designed for them by bestowing spiritual mercies upon them, v.7. It is
   this that will make their captivity be for their good; this shall be
   both the improvement of their affliction and their qualification for
   deliverance. When our troubles are sanctified to us, then we may be
   sure that they will end well. Now that which is promised is, [1.] That
   they should be better acquainted with God; they should learn more of
   God by his providences in Babylon than they had learned by all his
   oracles and ordinances in Jerusalem, thanks to divine grace, for, if
   that had not wrought mightily upon them in Babylon, they would for ever
   have forgotten God. It is here promised, I will give them, not so much
   a head to know me, but a heart to know me, for the right knowledge of
   God consists not in notion and speculation, but in the convictions of
   the practical judgment directing and governing the will and affections.
   A good understanding have all those that do his commandments, Ps. cxi.
   10. Where God gives a sincere desire and inclination to know him he
   will give that knowledge. It is God himself that gives a heart to know
   him, else we should perish for ever in our ignorance. [2.] That they
   should be entirely converted to God, to his will as their rule, his
   service as their business, and his glory as their end: They shall
   return to me with their whole heart. God himself undertakes for them
   that they shall; and, if he turn us, we shall be turned. This follows
   upon the former; for those that have a heart to know God aright will
   not only turn to him, but turn with their whole heart; for those that
   are either obstinate in their rebellion, or hypocritical in their
   religion, may truly be said to be ignorant of God. [3.] That thus they
   should be again taken into covenant with God, as much to their comfort
   as ever: They shall be my people, and I will be their God. God will own
   them, as formerly, for his people, in the discoveries of himself to
   them, in his acceptance of their services, and in his gracious
   appearances on their behalf; and they shall have liberty to own him for
   their God in their prayers to him and their expectations from him.
   Note, Those that have backslidden from God, if they do in sincerity
   return to him, are admitted as freely as any to all the privileges and
   comforts of the everlasting covenant, which is herein well-ordered,
   that every transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of
   covenant, and that afflictions are not only consistent with, but
   flowing from, covenant-love.

   2. Here is the moral of the bad figs. Zedekiah and his princes and
   partizans yet remain in the land, proud and secure enough, Ezek. xi. 3.
   Many had fled into Egypt for shelter, and they thought they had shifted
   well for themselves and their own safety, and boasted that though
   therein they had gone contrary to the command of God yet they had acted
   prudently for themselves. Now as to both these, that looked so
   scornfully upon those that had gone into captivity, it is here
   threatened, (1.) That, whereas those who were already carried away were
   settled in one country, where they had the comfort of one another's
   society, though in captivity, these should be dispersed and removed
   into all the kingdoms of the earth, where they should have no joy one
   of another. (2.) That, whereas those were carried captives for their
   good, these should be removed into all countries for their hurt. Their
   afflictions should be so far from humbling them that they should harden
   them, not bring them nearer to God, but set them at a greater distance
   from him. (3.) That, whereas those should have the honour of being
   owned of God in their troubles, these should have the shame of being
   abandoned by all mankind: In all places whither I shall drive them they
   shall be a reproach and a proverb. "Such a one is as false and proud as
   a Jew"--"Such a one is as poor and miserable as a Jew." All their
   neighbours shall make a jest of them, and of the calamities brought
   upon them. (4.) That, whereas those should return to their own land,
   never to see it more, and it shall be of no avail to them to plead that
   it was the land God gave to their fathers, for they had it from God,
   and he gave it to them upon condition of their obedience. (5.) That,
   whereas those were reserved for better times, these were reserved for
   worse; wherever they are removed the sword, and famine, and pestilence,
   shall be sent after them, shall soon overtake them, and, coming with
   commission so to do, shall overcome them. God has variety of judgments
   wherewith to prosecute those that fly from justice; and those that have
   escaped one may expect another, till they are brought to repent and
   reform.

   Doubtless this prophecy had its accomplishment in the men of that
   generation yet, because we read not of any such remarkable difference
   between those of Jeconiah's captivity and those of Zedekiah's, it is
   probable that this has a typical reference to the last destruction of
   the Jews by the Romans, in which those of them that believed were taken
   care of, but those that continued obstinate in unbelief were driven
   into all countries for a taunt and a curse, and so they remain to this
   day.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXV.

   The prophecy of this chapter bears date some time before those
   prophecies in the chapters next foregoing, for they are not placed in
   the exact order of time in which they were delivered. This is dated in
   the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, that remarkable year when the sword
   of the Lord began to be drawn and furbished. Here is, I. A review of
   the prophecies that had been delivered to Judah and Jerusalem for many
   years past, by Jeremiah himself and other prophets, with the little
   regard given to them and the little success of them, ver. 1-7. II. A
   very express threatening of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, by
   the king of Babylon, for their contempt of God, and their continuance
   in sin (ver. 8-11), to which is annexed a promise of their deliverance
   out of their captivity in Babylon, after 70 years, ver. 12-14. III. A
   prediction of the devastation of divers other nations about, by
   Nebuchadrezzar, represented by a "cup of fury" put into their hands
   (ver. 15-28), by a sword sent among them (ver. 29-33), and a desolation
   made among the shepherds and their flocks and pastures (ver. 34-38); so
   that we have here judgment beginning at the house of God, but not
   ending there.

God's Remonstrances with the People. (b. c. 607.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in
   the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was
   the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;   2 The which
   Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,   3 From the thirteenth year of
   Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the
   three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I
   have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not
   hearkened.   4 And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the
   prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor
   inclined your ear to hear.   5 They said, Turn ye again now every one
   from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the
   land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and
   ever:   6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship
   them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I
   will do you no hurt.   7 Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the
   Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to
   your own hurt.

   We have here a message from God concerning all the people of Judah (v.
   1), which Jeremiah delivered, in his name, unto all the people of
   Judah, v. 2. Note, That which is of universal concern ought to be of
   universal cognizance. It is fit that the word which concerns all the
   people, as the word of God does, the word of the gospel particularly,
   should be divulged to all in general, and, as far as may be, addressed
   to each in particular. Jeremiah had been sent to the house of the king
   (ch. xxii. 1), and he took courage to deliver his message to them,
   probably when they had all come up to Jerusalem to worship at one of
   the solemn feasts; then he had them together, and it was to be hoped
   then, if ever, they would be well disposed to hear counsel and receive
   instruction.

   This prophecy is dated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim and the first of
   Nebuchadrezzar. It was in the latter end of Jehoiakim's third year that
   Nebuchadrezzar began to reign by himself alone (having reigned some
   time before in conjunction with his father), as appears, Dan. i. 1. But
   Jehoiakim's fourth year was begun before Nebuchadrezzar's first was
   completed. Now that that active, daring, martial prince began to set up
   for the world's master, God, by his prophet, gives notice that he is
   his servant, and intimates what work he intends to employ him in, that
   his growing greatness, which was so formidable to the nations, might
   not be construed as any reflection upon the power and providence of God
   in the government of the world. Nebuchadrezzar should not bid so fair
   for universal monarchy (I should have said universal tyranny) but that
   God had purposes of his own to serve by him, in the execution of which
   the world shall see the meaning of God's permitting and ordering a
   thing that seemed such a reflection on his sovereignty and goodness.

   Now in this message we may observe the great pains that had been taken
   with the people to bring them to repentance, which they are here put in
   mind of, as an aggravation of their sin and a justification of God in
   his proceedings against them.

   I. Jeremiah, for his part, had been a constant preacher among them
   twenty-three years; he began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, who
   reigned thirty-one years, so that he prophesied about eighteen or
   nineteen years in his reign, then in the reign of Jehoahaz, and now
   four years of Jehoiakim's reign. Note, God keeps an account, whether we
   do or no, how long we have enjoyed the means of grace; and the longer
   we have enjoyed them the heavier will our account be if we have not
   improved them. These three years (these three and twenty years) have I
   come seeking fruit on this fig-tree. All this while, 1. God had been
   constant in sending messages to them, as there was occasion for them:
   "From that time to this very day the word of the Lord has come into me,
   for your use." Though they had the substance of the warning sent them
   already in the books of Moses, yet, because those were not duly
   regarded and applied, God sent to enforce them and make them more
   particular, that they might be without excuse. Thus God's Spirit was
   striving with them, as with the old world, Gen. vi. 3. 2. Jeremiah had
   been faithful and industrious in delivering those messages. He could
   appeal to themselves, as well as to God and his own conscience,
   concerning this: I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking. He
   had declared to them the whole counsel of God; he had taken a great
   deal of care and pains to discharge his thrust in such a manner as
   might be most likely to win and work upon them. What men are solicitous
   about and intent upon they rise up early to prosecute. It intimates
   that his head was so full of thoughts about it, and his heart so intent
   upon doing good, that it broke his sleep, and made him get up betimes
   to project which way he might take that would be most likely to do them
   good. He rose early, both because he would lose no time and because he
   would lay hold on and improve the best time to work upon them, when, if
   ever, they were sober and sedate. Christ came early in the morning to
   preach in the temple, and the people as early to hear him, Luke xxi.
   38. Morning lectures have their advantages. My voice shalt thou hear in
   the morning.

   II. Besides him, God had sent them other prophets, on the same errand,
   v. 4. Of the writing prophets Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, were a little
   before him, and Zephaniah contemporary with him. But, besides those,
   there were many other of God's servants the prophets who preached
   awakening sermons, which were never published. And here God himself is
   said to rise early and send them, intimating how much his heart also
   was upon it, that this people should turn and live, and not go on and
   die, Ezek. xxxiii. 11.

   III. All the messages sent them were to the purpose, and much to the
   same purport, v. 5, 6. 1. They all told them of their faults, their
   evil way, and the evil of their doings. Those were not of God's sending
   who flattered them as if there were nothing amiss among them. 2. They
   all reproved them particularly for their idolatry, as a sin that was in
   a special manner provoking to God, their going after other gods, to
   serve them and to worship them, gods that were the work of their own
   hands. 3. They all called on them to repent of their sins and to reform
   their lives. This was the burden of every song, Turn you now every one
   from his evil way. Note, Personal and particular reformation must be
   insisted on as necessary to a national deliverance: every one must turn
   from his own evil way. The street will not be clean unless every one
   sweep before his own door. 4. They all assured them that, if they did
   so, it would certainly be the lengthening out of their tranquillity.
   The mercies they enjoyed should be continued to them: "You shall dwell
   in the land, dwell at ease, dwell in peace, in this good land, which
   the Lord has given you and your fathers. Nothing but sin will turn you
   out of it, and that shall not if you turn from it." The judgments they
   feared should be prevented: Provoke me not, and I will do you no hurt.
   Note, We should never receive from God the evil punishment if we did
   not provoke him by the evil of sin. God deals fairly with us, never
   corrects his children without cause, nor causes grief to us unless we
   give offence to him.

   IV. Yet all was to no purpose. They were not wrought upon to take the
   right and only method to turn away the wrath of God. Jeremiah was a
   very lively affectionate preacher, yet they hearkened not to him, v. 3.
   The other prophets dealt faithfully with them, but neither did they
   hearken to them, nor incline their ear, v. 4. That very particular sin
   which they were told, of all others, was most offensive to God, and
   made them obnoxious to his justice, they wilfully persisted in: You
   provoke me with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Note, What is
   a provocation to God will prove, in the end, hurt to ourselves, and we
   must bear the blame of it. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself.

Desolation Predicted. (b. c. 607.)

   8 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my
   words,   9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,
   saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and
   will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof,
   and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy
   them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual
   desolations.   10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth,
   and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice
   of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
     11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment;
   and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.   12
   And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I
   will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for
   their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it
   perpetual desolations.   13 And I will bring upon that land all my
   words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in
   this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.   14
   For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also:
   and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to
   the works of their own hands.

   Here is the sentence grounded upon the foregoing charge: "Because you
   have not heard my words, I must take another course with you," v. 8.
   Note, When men will not regard the judgments of God's mouth they may
   expect to feel the judgments of his hands, to hear the rod, since they
   would not hear the word; for the sinner must either be parted from his
   sin or perish in it. Wrath comes without remedy against those only that
   sin without repentance. It is not so much men's turning aside that
   ruins them as their not returning.

   I. The ruin of the land of Judah by the king of Babylon's armies is
   here decreed, v. 9. God sent to them his servants the prophets, and
   they were not heeded, and therefore God will send for his servant the
   king of Babylon, whom they cannot mock, and despise, and persecute, as
   they did his servants the prophets. Note, The messengers of God's wrath
   will be sent against those that would not receive the messengers of his
   mercy. One way or other God will be heeded, and will make men know that
   he is the Lord. Nebuchadrezzar, though a stranger to the true God, the
   God of Israel, nay, an enemy to him and afterwards a rival with him,
   was yet, in the descent he made upon his country. God's servant,
   accomplished his purpose, was employed by him, and was an instrument in
   his hand for the correction of his people. He was really serving God's
   designs when he thought he was serving his own ends. Justly therefore
   does God here call himself The Lord of hosts (v. 8), for here is an
   instance of his sovereign dominion, not only over the inhabitants, but
   over the armies of this earth, of which he makes what use he pleases.
   He has them all at his command. The most potent and absolute monarchs
   are his servants. Nebuchadrezzar, who is an instrument of his wrath, is
   as truly his servant as Cyrus, who is an instrument of his mercy. The
   land of Judah being to be made desolate, God here musters his army that
   is to make it so, gathers it together, takes all the families of the
   north, if there be occasion for them, leads them on as their
   commander-in-chief, brings them against this land, gives them success,
   not only against Judah and Jerusalem, but against all the nations round
   about, that there might be no dependence upon them as allies or
   assistants against that threatening force. The utter destruction of
   this and all the neighbouring lands is here described, v. 9-11. It
   shall be total: The whole land shall be a desolation, not only
   desolate, but a desolation itself; both city and country shall be laid
   waste, and all the wealth of both be made a prey of. It shall be
   lasting, even perpetual desolations; they shall continue so long in
   ruins, and after long waiting there shall appear so little prospect of
   relief, that every one shall call it perpetual. This desolation shall
   be the ruin of their credit among their neighbours; it shall bury their
   honour in the dust, shall make them an astonishment and a hissing;
   every one will be amazed at them, and hiss them off the stage of action
   with just disgrace for deserting a God who would have been their
   protection for impostors who would certainly be their destruction. It
   will likewise be the ruin of all their comfort among themselves; it
   shall be a final period of all their joy: I will take from them the
   voice of mirth, hang their harps on the willow-trees, and put them out
   of tune for songs. I will take from them the voice of mirth; they shall
   neither have cause for it nor hearts for it. They would not hear the
   voice of God's word and therefore the voice of mirth shall no more be
   heard among them. They shall be deprived of food: The sound of the
   mill-stones shall not be heard; for, when the enemy has seized their
   stores, the sound of the grinding must needs be low, Eccl. xii. 4. An
   end shall be put to all business; there shall not be seen the light of
   a candle, for there shall be no work to be done worth candle-light.
   And, lastly, they shall be deprived of their liberty: Those nations
   shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The fixing of time
   during which the captivity should last would be of great use, not only
   for the confirmation of the prophecy, when the event (which in this
   particular could by no human sagacity be foreseen) should exactly
   answer the prediction, but for the comfort of the people of God in
   their calamity and the encouragement of faith and prayer. Daniel, who
   was himself a prophet, had an eye to it, Dan. ix. 2. Nay, God himself
   had an eye to it (2 Chron. xxxvi. 22); for therefore he stirred up the
   spirit of Cyrus, that the word spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
   accomplished. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of
   the world, which appears by this, that, when he has thought fit, some
   of them have been made known to his servants the prophets and by them
   to his church.

   II. The ruin of Babylon, at last, is here likewise foretold, as it had
   been, long before, by Isaiah, v. 12-14. The destroyers must themselves
   be destroyed, and the rod thrown into the fire, when the correcting
   work is done with it. This shall be done when seventy years are
   accomplished; for the destruction of Babylon must make way for the
   deliverance of the captives. It is a great doubt when these seventy
   years commence; some date them from the captivity in the fourth year of
   Jehoiakim and first of Nebuchadrezzar, others from the captivity of
   Jehoiachin eight years after. I rather incline to the former, because
   then these nations began to serve the king of Babylon, and because
   usually God has taken the earliest time from which to reckon the
   accomplishment of a promise of mercy, as will appear in computing the
   400 years' servitude in Egypt. And, if so, eighteen or nineteen years
   of the seventy had run out before Jerusalem and the temple were quite
   destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. However that be, when the
   time, the set time, to favour Zion, has come, the king of Babylon must
   be visited, and all the instances of his tyranny reckoned for; then
   that nation shall be punished for their iniquity, as the other nations
   have been punished for theirs. That land must then be a perpetual
   desolation, such as they had made other lands; for the Judge of all the
   earth will both do right and avenge wrong, as King of nations and King
   of saints. Let proud conquerors and oppressors be moderate in the use
   of their power and success, for it will come at last to their own turn
   to suffer; their day will come to fall. In this destruction of Babylon,
   which was to be brought about by the Medes and Persians, reference
   shall be had, 1. To what God had said: I will bring upon that land all
   my words; for all the wealth and honour of Babylon shall be sacrificed
   to the truth of the divine predictions, and all its power broken,
   rather than one iota or tittle of God's word shall fall to the ground.
   The same Jeremiah that prophesied the destruction of other nations by
   the Chaldeans foretold also the destruction of the Chaldeans
   themselves; and this must be brought upon them, v. 13. It is with
   reference to this very event that God says, I will confirm the word of
   my servant, and perform the counsel of my messengers, Isa. xliv. 26. 2.
   Two what they had done (v. 14): I will recompense them according to
   their deeds, by which they transgressed the law of God, even then when
   they were made to serve his purposes. They had made many nations to
   serve them, and trampled upon them with the greatest insolence
   imaginable; but not that the measure of their iniquity is full many
   nations and great kings, that are in alliance with and come in to the
   assistance of Cyrus king of Persia, shall serve themselves of them
   also, shall make themselves masters of their country, enrich themselves
   with their spoils, and make them the footstool by which to mount the
   throne of universal monarchy. They shall make use of them for servants
   and soldiers. He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity.

The Cup of Wrath; General Desolation. (b. c. 607.)

   15 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of
   this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee,
   to drink it.   16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad,
   because of the sword that I will send among them.   17 Then took I the
   cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom
   the Lord had sent me:   18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah,
   and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a
   desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
     19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all
   his people;   20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the
   land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and
   Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,   21 Edom,
   and Moab, and the children of Ammon,   22 And all the kings of Tyrus,
   and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond
   the sea,   23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost
   corners,   24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the
   mingled people that dwell in the desert,   25 And all the kings of
   Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,   26
   And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all
   the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and
   the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.   27 Therefore thou shalt
   say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink
   ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of
   the sword which I will send among you.   28 And it shall be, if they
   refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto
   them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.   29 For,
   lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and
   should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will
   call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord
   of hosts.

   Under the similitude of a cup going round, which all the company must
   drink of, is here represented the universal desolation that was now
   coming upon that part of the world which Nebuchadrezzar, who just now
   began to reign and act, was to be the instrument of, and which should
   at length recoil upon his own country. The cup in the vision is to be a
   sword in the accomplishment of it: so it is explained, v. 16. It is the
   sword that I will send among them, the sword of war, that should be
   irresistibly strong and implacably cruel.

   I. As to the circumstances of this judgment, observe,

   1. Whence this destroying sword should come--from the hand of God. It
   is the sword of the Lord (ch. xlvii. 6), bathed in heaven, Isa. xxxiv.
   5. Wicked men are made use of as his sword, Ps. xvii. 13. It is the
   wine-cup of his fury. It is the just anger of God that sends this
   judgment. The nations have provoked him by their sins, and they must
   fall under the tokens of his wrath. These are compared to some
   intoxicating liquor, which they shall be forced to drink of, as,
   formerly, condemned malefactors were sometimes executed by being
   compelled to drink poison. The wicked are said to drink the wrath of
   the Almighty, Job xxi. 20; Rev. xiv. 10. Their share of troubles in his
   world is represented by the dregs of a cup of red wine full of mixture,
   Ps. lxxv. 8. See Ps. xi. 6. The wrath of God in this world is but as a
   cup, in comparison of the full streams of it in the other world.

   2. By whose hand it should be sent to them--by the hand of Jeremiah as
   the judge set over the nations (ch. i. 10), to pass his sentence upon
   them, and by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar as the executioner. What a much
   greater figure then does the poor prophet make than what the potent
   prince makes, if we look upon their relation to God, though in the eye
   of the world it was the reverse of it! Jeremiah must take the cup at
   God's hand, and compel the nations to drink it. He foretels no hurt to
   them but what God appoints him to foretel; and what is foretold by a
   divine authority will certainly be fulfilled by a divine power.

   3. On whom it should be sent--on all the nations within the verge of
   Israel's acquaintance and the lines of their communication. Jeremiah
   took the cup, and made all the nations to drink of it, that is, he
   prophesied concerning each of the nations here mentioned that they
   should share in this great desolation that was coming. Jerusalem and
   the cities of Judah are put first (v. 18); for judgment begins at the
   house of God (1 Pet. iv. 17), at the sanctuary, Ezek. ix. 6. Whether
   Nebuchadrezzar had his eye principally upon Jerusalem and Judah in this
   expedition or no does not appear; probably he had; for it was as
   considerable as any of the nations here mentioned. However God had his
   eye principally to them. And this part of the prophecy was already
   begun to be accomplished; this is denoted by that melancholy
   parenthesis (as it is this day), for in the fourth year of Jehoiakim
   things had come into a very bad posture, and all the foundations were
   out of course. Pharaoh king of Egypt comes next, because the Jews
   trusted to that broken reed (v. 19); the remains of them fled to Egypt,
   and there Jeremiah particularly foretold the destruction of that
   country, ch. xliii. 10, 11. All the other nations that bordered upon
   Canaan must pledge Jerusalem in this bitter cup, this cup of trembling.
   The mingled people, the Arabians (so some), some rovers of divers
   nations that lived by rapine (so others); the kings of the land of Uz,
   joined to the country of the Edomites. The Philistines had been
   vexatious to Israel, but now their cities and their lords become a prey
   to this mighty conqueror. Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, are
   places well known to border upon Israel; the Isles beyond, or beside,
   the sea, are supposed to be those parts of Phoenicia and Syria that lay
   upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Dedan and the other countries
   mentioned (v. 23, 24) seem to have lain upon the confines of Idumea and
   Arabia the desert. Those of Elam are the Persians, with whom the Medes
   are joined, now looked upon as inconsiderable and yet afterwards able
   to make reprisals upon Babylon for themselves and all their neighbours.
   The kings of the north, that lay nearer to Babylon, and others that lay
   at some distance, will be sure to be seized on and made a prey of by
   the victorious sword of Nebuchadrezzar. Nay, he shall push on his
   victories with such incredible fury and success that all the kingdoms
   of the world that were then and there known should become sacrifices to
   his ambition. Thus Alexander is said to have conquered the world, and
   the Roman empire is called the world, Luke ii. 1. Or it may be taken as
   reading the doom of all the kingdoms of the earth; one time or other,
   they shall feel the dreadful effects of war. The world has been, and
   will be, a great cockpit, while men's lusts war as they do in their
   members, Jam. iv. 1. But, that the conquerors may see their fate with
   the conquered, it concludes, The king of Sheshach shall drink after
   them, that is, the king of Babylon himself, who has given his
   neighbours all this trouble and vexation, shall at length have it
   return upon his own head. That by Sheshach is meant Babylon is plain
   from ch. li. 41; but whether it was another name of the same city or
   the name of another city of the same kingdom is uncertain. Babylon's
   ruin was foretold, v. 12, 13. Upon this prophecy of its being the
   author of the ruin of so many nations it is very fitly repeated here
   again.

   4. What should be the effect of it. The desolations which the sword
   should make in all these kingdoms are represented by the consequences
   of excessive drinking (v. 16): They shall drink, and be moved, and be
   mad. They shall be drunken, and spue, and fall and rise no more, v. 27.
   Now this may serve, (1.) To make us loathe the sin of drunkenness, that
   the consequences of it are made use of to set forth a most woeful and
   miserable condition. Drunkenness deprives men, for the present, of the
   use of their reason, makes them mad. It takes from them likewise that
   which, next to reason, is the most valuable blessing, and that is
   health; it makes them sick, and endangers the bones and the life. Men
   in drink often fall and rise no more; it is a sin that is its own
   punishment. How wretchedly are those intoxicated and besotted that
   suffer themselves at any time to be intoxicated, especially to be by
   the frequent commission of the sin besotted with wine or strong drink!
   (2.) To make us dread the judgments of war. When God sends the sword
   upon a nation, with warrant to make it desolate, it soon becomes like a
   drunken man, filled with confusion at the alarms of war, put into a
   hurry; its counsellors mad, and at their wits' end, staggering in all
   the measures they take, all the motions they make, sick at heart with
   continual vexation, vomiting up the riches they have greedily swallowed
   down (Job xx. 15), falling down before the enemy, and as unable to get
   up again, or do any thing to help themselves, as a man dead drunk is,
   Hab. ii. 16.

   5. The undoubted certainty of it, with the reason given for it, v. 28,
   29. They will refuse to take the cup at thy hand; not only they will be
   loth that the judgment should come, but they will be loth to believe
   that ever it will come; they will not give credit to the prediction of
   so despicable a man as Jeremiah. But he must tell them that it is the
   word of the Lord of hosts, he hath said it; and it is in vain for them
   to struggle with Omnipotence: You shall certainly drink. And he must
   give them this reason, It is a time of visitation, it is a reckoning
   day, and Jerusalem has been called to an account already: I begin to
   bring evil on the city that is called by my name; its relation to me
   will not exempt it from punishment, and should you be utterly
   unpunished? No; If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done
   in the dry? If those who have some good in them smart so severely for
   the evil that is found in them, can those expect to escape who have
   worse evils, and no good, found among them? If Jerusalem be punished
   for learning idolatry of the nations, shall not the nations be
   punished, of whom they learned it? No doubt they shall: I will call for
   a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, for they have helped to
   debauch the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

   II. Upon this whole matter we may observe, 1. That there is a God that
   judges in the earth, to whom all the nations of the earth are
   accountable, and by whose judgment they must abide. 2. That God can
   easily bring to ruin the greatest nations, the most numerous and
   powerful, and such as have been most secure. 3. That those who have
   been vexatious and mischievous to the people of God will be reckoned
   with for it at last. Many of these nations had in their turns given
   disturbance to Israel, but now comes destruction on them. The year of
   the redeemer will come, even the year of recompenses for the
   controversy of Zion. 4. That the burden of the word of the Lord will at
   last become the burden of his judgments. Isaiah had prophesied long
   since against most of these nations (ch. xiii., &c.) and now at length
   all his prophecies will have their complete fulfilling. 5. That those
   who are ambitious of power and dominion commonly become the troublers
   of the earth and the plagues of their generation. Nebuchadrezzar was so
   proud of his might that he had no sense of right. These are the men
   that turn the world upside down, and yet expect to be admired and
   adored. Alexander thought himself a great prince when others thought
   him no better than a great pirate. 6. That the greatest pomp and power
   in this world are of very uncertain continuance. Before
   Nebuchadrezzar's greater force kings themselves must yield and become
   captives.

General Desolation; Jeremiah's Faithful Preaching. (b. c. 607.)

   30 Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto
   them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his
   holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall
   give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the
   inhabitants of the earth.   31 A noise shall come even to the ends of
   the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will
   plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword,
   saith the Lord.   32 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall
   go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised
   up from the coasts of the earth.   33 And the slain of the Lord shall
   be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the
   earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they
   shall be dung upon the ground.   34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and
   wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days
   of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye
   shall fall like a pleasant vessel.   35 And the shepherds shall have no
   way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.   36 A voice of
   the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock,
   shall be heard: for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture.   37 And the
   peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the
   Lord.   38 He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is
   desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his
   fierce anger.

   We have, in these verses, a further description of those terrible
   desolations which the king of Babylon with his armies should make in
   all the countries and nations round about Jerusalem. In Jerusalem God
   had erected his temple; there were his oracles and ordinances, which
   the neighbouring nations should have attended to and might have
   received benefit by; thither they should have applied for the knowledge
   of God and their duty, and then they might have had reason to bless God
   for their neighbourhood to Jerusalem; but they, instead of that, taking
   all opportunities either to debauch or to disturb that holy city, when
   God came to reckon with Jerusalem because it learned so much of the way
   of the nations, he reckoned with the nations because they learned so
   little of the way of Jerusalem.

   They will soon be aware of Nebuchadrezzar's making war upon them; but
   the prophet is here directed to tell them that it is God himself that
   makes war upon them, a God with whom there is no contending. 1. The war
   is here proclaimed (v. 30): The Lord shall roar from on high; not from
   Mount Zion and Jerusalem (as Joel iii. 16, Amos i. 2), but from heaven,
   from his holy habitation there; for now Jerusalem is one of the places
   against which he roars. He shall mightily roar upon his habitation on
   earth from that above. He has been long silent, and seemed not to take
   notice of the wickedness of the nations; the times of this ignorance
   God winked at; but now he shall give a shout, as the assailants in
   battle do, against all the inhabitants of the earth, to whom it shall
   be a shout of terror, and yet a shout of joy in heaven, as theirs that
   tread the grapes; for, when God is reckoning with the proud enemies of
   his kingdom among men, there is a great voice of much people heard in
   heaven, saying, Hallelujah, Rev. xix. 1. He roars as a lion (Amos iii.
   4, 8), as a lion that has forsaken his covert (v. 38), and is going
   abroad to seek his prey, upon which he roars, that he may the more
   easily seize it. 2. The manifesto is here published, showing the causes
   and reasons why God proclaims this war (v. 31): The Lord has a
   controversy with the nations; he has just cause to contend with them,
   and he will take this way of pleading with them. His quarrel with them
   is, in one word, for their wickedness, their contempt of him, and his
   authority over them and kindness to them. He will give those that are
   wicked to the sword. They have provoked God to anger, and thence comes
   all this destruction; it is because of the fierce anger of the Lord (v.
   37 and again v. 38), the fierceness of the oppressor, or (as it might
   better be read) the fierceness of the oppressing sword (for the word is
   feminine) is because of his fierce anger; and we are sure that he is
   never angry without cause; but who knows the power of his anger? 3. The
   alarm is here given and taken: A noise will come even to the ends of
   the earth, so loud shall it roar, so far shall it reach, v. 31. The
   alarm is not given by sound of trumpet, or beat of drum, but by a
   whirlwind, a great whirlwind, storm, or tempest, which shall be raised
   up from the coasts, the remote coasts of the earth, v. 32. The Chaldean
   army shall be like a hurricane raised in the north, but thence carried
   on with incredible fierceness and swiftness, bearing down all before
   it. It is like the whirlwind out of which God answered Job, which was
   exceedingly terrible, Job xxxvii. 1; xxxviii. 1. And, when the wrath of
   God thus roars like a lion from heaven, no marvel if it be echoed with
   shrieks from earth; for who can choose but tremble when God thus speaks
   in displeasure? See Hosea xi. 10. Now the shepherds shall howl and cry,
   the kings, and princes, and the great ones of the earth, the principal
   of the flock. They used to be the most courageous and secure, but now
   their hearts shall fail them; they shall wallow themselves in the
   ashes, v. 34. Seeing themselves utterly unable to make head against the
   enemy, and seeing their country, which they have the charge of and a
   concern for, inevitably ruined, they shall abandon themselves to
   sorrow. There shall be a voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a
   howling of the principal of the flock shall be heard, v. 36. Those are
   great calamities indeed that strike such a terror upon the great men,
   and put them into this consternation. The Lord hath spoiled their
   pasture, in which they fed their flock, and out of which they fed
   themselves; the spoiling of that makes them cry-out thus. Perhaps,
   carrying on the metaphor of a lion roaring, it alludes to the great
   fright that shepherds are in when they hear a roaring lion coming
   towards their flocks, and find they have no way to flee (v. 35) for
   their own safety, neither can the principal of their flock escape. The
   enemy will be so numerous, so furious, so sedulous, and the extent of
   their armies so vast, that it will be impossible to avoid falling into
   their hands. Note, As we cannot out-face, so we cannot out-run, the
   judgments of God. This is that for which the shepherds howl and cry. 4.
   The progress of this war is here described (v. 32): Behold, evil shall
   go forth from nation to nation; as the cup goes round, every nation
   shall have its share and take warning by the calamities of another to
   repent and reform. Nay, as if this ere to be a little representation of
   the last and general judgment, it shall reach from one end of the earth
   even unto the other end of the earth, v. 33. The day of vengeance is in
   his heart, and now his hand shall find out all his enemies, wherever
   they are, Ps. xxi. 8. Note, When our neighbour's house is on fire it is
   time to be concerned for our own. When one nation is a seat of war
   every neighbouring nation should hear, and fear, and make its peace
   with God. 5. The dismal consequences of this war are here foretold: The
   days of slaughter and dispersions are accomplished, that is, they are
   fully come (v. 34), the time fixed in the divine counsel for the
   slaughter of some and the dispersion of the rest, which will make the
   nations completely desolate. Multitudes shall fall by the sword of the
   merciless Chaldeans, so that the slain of the Lord shall be every where
   found: they are slain by commission from him, and are sacrificed to his
   justice. The slain for sin are the slain of the Lord. To complete the
   misery of their slaughter, they shall not be lamented in particular, so
   general shall the matter of lamentation be. Nay, they shall not be
   gathered up, nor buried, for they shall have no friends left to bury
   them, and the enemies shall not have so much humanity in them as to do
   it; and then they shall be as dung upon the earth, so vile and noisome:
   and it is well if, as dung manures the earth and makes it fruitful, so
   these horrid spectacles, which lie as monuments of divine justice,
   might be a means to awaken the inhabitants of the earth to learn
   righteousness. The effect of this war will be the desolation of the
   whole land that is the seat of it (v. 38), one land after another. But
   here are two expressions more that seem to make the case in a
   particular manner piteous. (1.) You shall fall like a pleasant vessel,
   v. 34. The most desirable persons among them, who most valued
   themselves and were most valued, who were looked upon as vessels of
   honour, shall fall by the sword. You shall fall as a Venice glass or a
   China dish, which is soon broken all to pieces. Even the tender and
   delicate shall share in the common calamity; the sword devours one as
   well as another. (2.) Even the peaceable habitations are cut down.
   Those that used to be quiet, and not molested, the habitations in which
   you have long dwelt in peace, shall now be no longer such, but cut down
   by the war. Or, Those who used to be quiet, and not molesting any of
   their neighbours, those who lived in peace, easily, and gave no
   provocation to any, even those shall not escape. This is one of the
   direful effects of war, that even those who were most harmless and
   inoffensive suffer hard things. Blessed be God, there is a peaceable
   habitation above for all the sons of peace, which is out of the reach
   of fire and sword.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXVI.

   As in the history of the Acts of the Apostles that of their preaching
   and that of their suffering are interwoven, so it is in the account we
   have of the prophet Jeremiah; witness this chapter, where we are told,
   I. How faithfully he preached, ver. 1-6. II. How spitefully he was
   persecuted for so doing by the priests and the prophets, ver. 7-11.
   III. How bravely he stood to his doctrine, in the face of his
   persecutors, ver. 12-15. IV. How wonderfully he was protected and
   delivered by the prudence of the princes and elders, ver. 16-19. Though
   Urijah, another prophet, was about the same time put to death by
   Jehoiakim (ver. 20-23), yet Jeremiah met with those that sheltered him,
   ver. 24.

Jeremiah's Solemn Address. (b. c. 608.)

   1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of
   Judah came this word from the Lord, saying,   2 Thus saith the Lord;
   Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak unto all the cities
   of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord's house, all the words that
   I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:   3 If so be
   they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may
   repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the
   evil of their doings.   4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set
   before you,   5 To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets,
   whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye
   have not hearkened;   6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and
   will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

   We have here the sermon that Jeremiah preached, which gave such offence
   that he was in danger of losing his life for it. It is here left upon
   record, as it were, by way of appeal to the judgment of impartial men
   in all ages, whether Jeremiah was worthy to die for delivering such a
   message as this from God, and whether his persecutors were not very
   wicked and unreasonable men.

   I. God directed him where to preach this sermon, and when, and to what
   auditory, v. 2. Let not any censure Jeremiah as indiscreet in the
   choice of place and time, nor say that he might have delivered his
   message more privately, in a corner, among his friends that he could
   confide in, and that he deserved to smart for not acting more
   cautiously; for God gave him orders to preach in the court of the
   Lord's house, which was within the peculiar jurisdiction of his sworn
   enemies the priests, and who would therefore take themselves to be in a
   particular manner affronted. He must preach this, as it should seem, at
   the time of one of the most solemn festivals, when persons had come
   from all the cities of Judah to worship in the Lord's house. These
   worshippers, we may suppose, had a great veneration for their priests,
   would credit the character they gave of men, and be exasperated against
   those whom they defamed, and would, consequently, side with them and
   strengthen their hands against Jeremiah. But none of these things must
   move him or daunt him; in the face of all this danger he must preach
   this sermon, which, if it were not convincing, would be very provoking.
   And because the prophet might be in some temptation to palliate the
   matter, and make it better to his hearers than God had made it to him,
   to exchange an offensive expression for one more plausible, therefore
   God charges him particularly not to diminish a word, but to speak all
   the things, nay, all the words, that he had commanded him. Note, God's
   ambassadors must keep closely to their instructions, and not in the
   least vary from them, either to please men or to save themselves from
   harm. They must neither add nor diminish, Deut. iv. 2.

   II. God directed him what to preach, and it is that which could not
   give offence to any but such as were resolved to go on still in their
   trespasses. 1. He must assure them that if they would repent of their
   sins, and turn from them, though they were in imminent danger of ruin
   and desolating judgments were just at the door, yet a stop should be
   put to them, and God would proceed no further in his controversy with
   them, v. 3. This was the main thing God intended in sending him to
   them, to try if they would return from their sins, that so God might
   turn from his anger and turn away the judgments that threatened them,
   which he was not only willing, but very desirous to do, as soon as he
   could do it without prejudice to the honour of his justice and
   holiness. See how God waits to be gracious, waits till we are duly
   qualified, till we are fit for him to be gracious to, and in the mean
   time tries a variety of methods to bring us to be so. 2. He must, on
   the other hand, assure them that if they continued obstinate to all the
   calls God gave them, and would persist in their disobedience, it would
   certainly end in the ruin of their city and temple, v. 4-6. (1.) That
   which God required of them was that they should be observant of what he
   had said to them, both by the written word and by his ministers, that
   they should walk in all his law which he set before them, the law of
   Moses and the ordinances and commandments of it, and that they should
   hearken to the words of his servants the prophets, who pressed nothing
   upon them but what was agreeable to the law of Moses, which was set
   before them as a touchstone to try the spirits by; and by this they
   were distinguished from the false prophets, who drew them from the law,
   instead of drawing them to it. The law was what God himself set before
   them. The prophets were his own servants, and were immediately sent by
   him to them, and sent with a great deal of care and concern, rising
   early to send them, lest they should come too late, when their
   prejudices had got possession and become invincible. They had hitherto
   been deaf both to the law and to the prophets: You have not hearkened.
   All he expects now is that at length they should heed what he said, and
   make his word their rule--a reasonable demand. (2.) That which is
   threatened in case of refusal is that this city, and the temple in it,
   shall fare as their predecessors did, Shiloh and the tabernacle there,
   for a like refusal to walk in God's law and hearken to his prophets,
   then when the present dispensation of prophecy just began in Samuel.
   Now could a sentence be expressed more unexceptionably? Is it not a
   rule of justice ut parium par sit ratio--that those whose cases are the
   same be dealt with alike? If Jerusalem be like Shiloh in respect of
   sin, why should it not be like Shiloh in respect of punishment? Can any
   other be expected? This was not the first time he had given them
   warning to this effect; see ch. vii. 12-14. When the temple, which was
   the glory of Jerusalem, was destroyed, the city was thereby made a
   curse; for the temple was that which made it a blessing. If the salt
   lose that savour, it is thenceforth good for nothing. It shall be a
   curse, that is, it shall be the pattern of a curse; if a man would
   curse any city, he would say, God make it like Jerusalem! Note, Those
   that will not be subject to the commands of God make themselves subject
   to the curse of God.

Jeremiah Prosecuted for His Preaching; Jeremiah's Defence. (b. c. 608.)

   7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah
   speaking these words in the house of the Lord.   8 Now it came to pass,
   when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had
   commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the
   prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.
   9 Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house
   shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an
   inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the
   house of the Lord.   10 When the princes of Judah heard these things,
   then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord, and
   sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house.   11 Then
   spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the
   people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied
   against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.   12 Then spake
   Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord
   sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the
   words that ye have heard.   13 Therefore now amend your ways and your
   doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will
   repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.   14 As for
   me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto
   you.   15 But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall
   surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and
   upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto
   you to speak all these words in your ears.

   One would have hoped that such a sermon as that in the foregoing
   verses, so plain and practical, so rational and pathetic, and delivered
   in God's name, would work upon even this people, especially meeting
   them now at their devotions, and would prevail with them to repent and
   reform; but, instead of awakening their convictions, it did but
   exasperate their corruptions, as appears by this account of the effect
   of it.

   I. Jeremiah is charged with it as a crime that he had preached such a
   sermon, and is apprehended for it as a criminal. The priests, and false
   prophets, and people, heard him speak these words, v. 7. They had
   patience, it seems, to hear him out, did not disturb him when he was
   preaching, nor give him any interruption till he had made an end of
   speaking all that the Lord commanded him to speak, v. 8. So far they
   dealt more fairly with him than some of the persecutors of God's
   ministers have done; they let him say all he had to say, and yet
   perhaps with a bad design, in hopes to have something worse yet to lay
   to his charge; but, having no worse, this shall suffice to ground an
   indictment upon: He hath said, This house shall be like Shiloh, v. 9.
   See how unfair they are in representing his words. He had said, in
   God's name, If you will not hearken to me, then will I make this house
   like Shiloh; but they leave out God's hand in the desolation (I will
   make it so) and their own hand in it in not hearkening to the voice of
   God, and charge it upon him that he blasphemed this holy place, the
   crime charged both on our Lord Jesus and on Stephen: He said, This
   house shall be like Shiloh. Well might he complain, as David does (Ps.
   lvi. 5), Every day they wrest my words; and we must not think it
   strange if we, and what we say and do, be thus misrepresented. When the
   accusation was so weakly grounded, no marvel that the sentence passed
   upon it was unjust: Thou shalt surely die. What he had said agreed with
   what God had said when he took possession of the temple (1 Kings ix.
   6-8), If you shall at all turn from following after me, then this house
   shall be abandoned; and yet he is condemned to die for saying it. It is
   not out of any concern for the honour of the temple that they appear
   thus warm, but because they are resolved not to part with their sins,
   in which they flatter themselves with a conceit that the temple of the
   Lord will protect them; therefore, right or wrong, Thou shalt surely
   die. This outcry of the priests and prophets raised the mob, and all
   the people were gathered together against Jeremiah in a popular tumult,
   ready to pull him to pieces, were gathered about him (so some read it);
   they flocked together, some crying one thing and some another. The
   people that were at first present were hot against him (v. 8), but
   their clamours drew more together, only to see what the matter was.

   II. He is arraigned and indicted for it before the highest court of
   judicature they had. Here, 1. The princes of Judah were his judges, v.
   10. Those that filled the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house
   of David, the elders of Israel, they, hearing of this tumult in the
   temple, came up from the king's house, where they usually sat near the
   court, to the house of the Lord, to enquire into this matter, and to
   see that nothing was done disorderly. They sat down in the entry of the
   new gate of the Lord's house, and held a court, as it were, by a
   special commission of Oyer and Terminer. 2. The priests and prophets
   were his prosecutors and accusers, and were violently set against him.
   They appealed to the princes, and to all the people, to the court and
   the jury, whether this man were not worthy to die, v. 11. The corrupt
   priests and counterfeit prophets have always been the most bitter
   enemies of the prophets of the Lord; they had ends of their own to
   serve, which they thought such preaching as this would be an
   obstruction to. When Jeremiah prophesied in the house of the king
   concerning the fall of the royal family (ch. xxii. 1, &c.), the court,
   though very corrupt, bore it patiently, and we do not find that they
   persecuted him for it; but when he comes into the house of the Lord,
   and touches the copyhold of the priests, and contradicts the lies and
   flatteries of the false prophets, then he is adjudged worthy to die.
   For the prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their
   means, ch. v. 31. Observe, When Jeremiah is indicted before the princes
   the stress of his accusation is laid upon what he said concerning the
   city, because they thought the princes would be most concerned about
   that. But concerning the words spoken they appeal to the people, "You
   have heard what he hath said; let it be given in evidence."

   III. Jeremiah makes his defence before the princes and the people. He
   does not go about to deny the words, nor to diminish aught from them;
   what he has said he will stand to, though it cost him his life; he owns
   that he had prophesied against this house and this city, but, 1. He
   asserts that he did this by good authority, not maliciously nor
   seditiously, not out of any ill-will to his country nor any
   disaffection to the government in church or state, but, The Lord sent
   me to prophesy thus: so he begins his apology (v. 12), and so he
   concludes it, for this is that which he resolves to abide by as
   sufficient to bear him out (v. 15): Of a truth the Lord hath sent me
   unto you, to speak all these words. As long as ministers keep closely
   to the instructions they have from heaven they need not fear the
   opposition they may meet with from hell or earth. He pleads that he is
   but a messenger, and, if he faithfully deliver his message, he must
   bear no blame; but he is a messenger from the Lord, to whom they were
   accountable as well as he, and therefore might demand regard. If he
   speak but what God appointed him to speak, he is under the divine
   protection, and whatever affront they offer to the ambassador will be
   resented by the Prince that sent him. 2. He shows them that he did it
   with a good design, and that it was their fault if they did not make a
   good use of it. It was said, not by way of fatal sentence, but of fair
   warning; if they would take the warning, they might prevent the
   execution of the sentence, v. 13. Shall I take it ill of a man that
   tells me of my danger, while I have an opportunity of avoiding it, and
   not rather return him thanks for it, as the greatest kindness he could
   do me? "I have indeed (says Jeremiah) prophesied against this city;
   but, if you will now amend your ways and your doings, the threatened
   ruin shall be prevented, which was the thing I aimed at in giving you
   the warning." Those are very unjust who complain of ministers for
   preaching hell and damnation, when it is only to keep them from that
   place of torment and to bring them to heaven and salvation. 3. He
   therefore warns them of their danger if they proceed against him (v.
   14): "As for me, the matter is not great what become of me; behold, I
   am in your hand; you know I am; I neither have any power, nor can make
   any interest, to oppose you, nor is it so much my concern to save my
   own life: do with me as seems meet unto you; if I be led to the
   slaughter, it shall be as a lamb." Note, It becomes God's ministers,
   that are warm in preaching, to be calm in suffering and to behave
   submissively to the powers that are over them, though they be
   persecuting powers. But, for themselves, he tells them that it is at
   their peril if they put him to death: You shall surely bring innocent
   blood upon yourselves, v. 15. They might think that killing the prophet
   would help to defeat the prophecy, but they would prove wretchedly
   deceived; it would but add to their guilt and aggravate their ruin.
   Their own consciences could not but tell them that, if Jeremiah was (as
   certainly he was) sent of God to bring them this message, it was at
   their utmost peril if they treated him for it as a malefactor. Those
   that persecute God's ministers hurt not them so much as themselves.

Jeremiah's Acquittal; Jeremiah's Deliverance. (b. c. 608.)

   16 Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the
   prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in
   the name of the Lord our God.   17 Then rose up certain of the elders
   of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying,   18
   Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah,
   and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of
   hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become
   heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
   19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death?
   did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented
   him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we
   procure great evil against our souls.   20 And there was also a man
   that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of
   Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land
   according to all the words of Jeremiah:   21 And when Jehoiakim the
   king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words,
   the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was
   afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;   22 And Jehoiakim the king sent
   men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men
   with him into Egypt.   23 And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt,
   and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword,
   and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.   24
   Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah,
   that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to
   death.

   Here is, I. The acquitting of Jeremiah from the charge exhibited
   against him. He had indeed spoken the words as they were laid in the
   indictment, but they are not looked upon to be seditious or
   treasonable, ill-intended or of any bad tendency, and therefore the
   court and country agree to find him not guilty. The priests and
   prophets, notwithstanding his rational plea for himself, continued to
   demand judgment against him; but the princes, and all the people, are
   clear in it that this man is not worthy to die (v. 16); for (say they)
   he hath spoken to us, not of himself, but in the name of the Lord our
   God. And are they willing to own that he did indeed speak to them in
   the name of the Lord and that that Lord is their God? Why then did they
   not amend their ways and doings, and take the method he prescribed to
   prevent the ruin of their country? If they say, His prophecy is from
   heaven, it may justly be asked, Why did you not then believe him? Matt.
   xxi. 25. Note, It is a pity that those who are so far convinced of the
   divine original of gospel preaching as to protect it from the malice of
   others do not submit to the power and influence of it themselves.

   II. A precedent quoted to justify them in acquitting Jeremiah. Some of
   the elders of the land, either the princes before mentioned or the more
   intelligent men of the people, stood up, and put the assembly in mind
   of a former case, as is usual with us in giving judgment; for the
   wisdom of our predecessors is a direction to us. The case referred to
   is that of Micah. We have extant the book of his prophecy among the
   minor prophets. 1. Was it thought strange that Jeremiah prophesied
   against this city and the temple? Micah did so before him, even in the
   reign of Hezekiah, that reign of reformation, v. 18. Micah said it as
   publicly as Jeremiah had now spoken to the same purport, Zion shall be
   ploughed like a field, the building shall be all destroyed, so that
   nothing shall hinder but it may be ploughed; Jerusalem shall become
   heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house on which the temple is
   built shall be as the high places of the forest, overrun with briers
   and thorns. That prophet not only spoke this, but wrote it, and left it
   on record; we find it, Mic. iii. 12. By this it appears that a man may
   be, as Micah was, a true prophet of the Lord, and yet may prophesy the
   destruction of Zion and Jerusalem. When we threaten secure sinners with
   the taking away of the Spirit of God and the kingdom of God from them,
   and declining churches with the removal of the candlestick, we say no
   more than what has been said many a time, and what we have warrant from
   the word of God to say. 2. Was it thought fit by the princes to justify
   Jeremiah in what he had done? It was what Hezekiah did before them in a
   like case. Did Hezekiah, and the people of Judah (that is, the
   representatives of the people, the commons in parliament), did they
   complain of Micah the prophet? Did they impeach him, or make an act to
   silence him and put him to death? No; on the contrary, they took the
   warning he gave them. Hezekiah, that renowned prince, of blessed
   memory, set a good example before his successors, for he feared the
   Lord (v. 19), as Noah, who, being warned of God of things not seen as
   yet, was moved with fear. Micah's preaching drove him to his knees; he
   besought the Lord to turn away the judgment threatened and to be
   reconciled to them, and he found it was not in vain to do so, for the
   Lord repented him of the evil and returned in mercy to them; he sent an
   angel, who routed the army of the Assyrians, that threatened to plough
   Zion like a field. Hezekiah got good by the preaching, and then you may
   be sure he would do no harm to the preacher. These elders conclude that
   it would be of dangerous consequence to the state if they should
   gratify the importunity of the priests and prophets in putting Jeremiah
   to death: Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. Note, It
   is good to deter ourselves from sin with the consideration of the
   mischief we shall certainly do to ourselves by it and the irreparable
   damage it will be to our own souls.

   III. Here is an instance of another prophet that was put to death by
   Jehoiakim for prophesying as Jeremiah had done, v. 20, &c. Some make
   this to be urged by the prosecutors, as a case that favoured the
   prosecution, a modern case, in which speaking such words as Jeremiah
   had spoken was adjudged treason. Others think that the elders, who were
   advocates for Jeremiah, alleged this to show that thus they might
   procure great evil against their souls, for it would be adding sin to
   sin. Jehoiakim, the present king, had slain one prophet already; let
   them not fill up the measure by slaying another. Hezekiah, who
   protected Micah, prospered; but did Jehoiakim prosper who slew Urijah?
   No; they all saw the contrary. As good examples, and the good
   consequences of them, should encourage us in that which is good, so the
   examples of bad men, and the bad consequences of them, should deter us
   from that which is evil. But some good interpreters take this narrative
   from the historian that penned the book, Jeremiah himself, or Baruch,
   who, to make Jeremiah's deliverance by means of the princes the more
   wonderful, takes notice of this that happened about the same time; for
   both were in the reign of Jehoiakim, and this in the beginning of his
   reign, v. 1. Observe, 1. Urijah's prophecy. It was against this city,
   and this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah. The prophets of
   the Lord agreed in their testimony, and one would have thought that out
   of the mouth of so many witnesses the word would be regarded. 2. The
   prosecution of him for it, v. 21. Jehoiakim and his courtiers were
   exasperated against him, and sought to put him to death; in this wicked
   design the king himself was principally concerned. 3. His absconding
   thereupon: When he heard that the king had become his enemy, and sought
   his life, he was afraid, and fled, and went in to Egypt. This was
   certainly his fault, and an effect of the weakness of his faith, and it
   sped accordingly. He distrusted God, and his power to protect him and
   bear him out; he was too much under the power of that fear of man which
   brings a snare. It looked as if he durst not stand to what he had said
   or was ashamed of his Master. It was especially unbecoming him to flee
   into Egypt, and so in effect to abandon the land of Israel and to throw
   himself quite out of the way of being useful. Note, There are many that
   have much grace, but they have little courage, that are very honest,
   but withal very timorous. 4. His execution notwithstanding. Jehoiakim's
   malice, one would think, might have contented itself with his
   banishment, and it might suffice to have driven him out of the country;
   but those are bloodthirsty that hate the upright, Prov. xxix. 10. It
   was the life, that precious life, that he hunted after, and nothing
   else would satisfy him. So implacable is his revenge that he sends a
   party of soldiers into Egypt, some hundreds of miles, and they bring
   him back by force of arms. It would not sufficiently gratify him to
   have him slain in Egypt, but he must feed his eyes with the bloody
   spectacle. They brought him to Jehoiakim, and he slew him with the
   sword, for aught I know with his own hands. Yet neither did this
   satisfy his insatiable malice, but he loads the dead body of the good
   man with infamy, would not allow it the decent respects usually and
   justly paid to the remains of men of distinction, but cast it into the
   graves of the common people, as if he had not been a prophet of the
   Lord; thus was the shield of Saul vilely cast away, as though he had
   not been anointed with oil. Thus Jehoiakim hoped both to ruin his
   reputation with the people, that no heed might be given to his
   predictions, and to deter others from prophesying in like manner; but
   in vain; Jeremiah says the same. There is no contending with the word
   of God. Herod thought he had gained his point when he had cut off John
   Baptist's head, but found himself deceived when, soon after, he heard
   of Jesus Christ, and said, in a fright, This is John the Baptist.

   IV. Here is Jeremiah's deliverance. Though Urijah was lately put to
   death, and persecutors, when they have tasted the blood of saints, are
   apt to thirst after more (as Herod, Acts xii. 2, 3), yet God
   wonderfully preserved Jeremiah, though he did not flee, as Urijah did,
   but stood his ground. Ordinary ministers may use ordinary means,
   provided they be lawful ones, for their own preservation; but those
   that had an extraordinary protection. God raised up a friend for
   Jeremiah, whose hand was with him; he took him by the hand in a
   friendly way, encouraged him, assisted him, appeared for him. It was
   Ahikam the son of Shaphan, one that was a minister of state in Josiah's
   time; we read of him, 2 Kings xxii. 12. Some think Gedaliah was the son
   of this Ahikam. He had a great interest, it should seem, among the
   princes, and he used it in favour of Jeremiah, to prevent the further
   designs of the priests and prophets against him, who would have had him
   turned over into the hand of the people, not those people (v. 16) that
   had adjudged him innocent, but the rude and insolent mob, whom they
   could persuade by their cursed insinuations not only to cry, Crucify
   him, crucify him, but to stone him to death in a popular tumult; for
   perhaps Jehoiakim had been so reproached by his own conscience for
   slaying Urijah that they despaired of making him the tool of their
   malice. Note, God can, when he pleases, raise up great men to patronize
   good men; and it is an encouragement to us to trust him in the way of
   duty that he has all men's hearts in his hands.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXVII.

   Jeremiah the prophet, since he cannot persuade people to submit to
   God's precept, and so to prevent the destruction of their country by
   the king of Babylon, is here persuading them to submit to God's
   providence, by yielding tamely to the king of Babylon, and becoming
   tributaries to him, which was the wisest course they could now take,
   and would be a mitigation of the calamity, and prevent the laying of
   their country waste by fire and sword; the sacrificing of their
   liberties would be the saving of their lives. I. He gives this counsel,
   in God's name, to the kings of the neighbouring nations, that they
   might make the best of bad, assuring them that there was no remedy, but
   they must serve the king of Babylon; and yet in time there should be
   relief, for his dominion should last but 70 years, ver. 1-11. II. He
   gives this counsel to Zedekiah king of Judah particularly (ver. 12-15)
   and to the priests and people, assuring them that the king of Babylon
   should still proceed against them till things were brought to the last
   extremity, and a patient submission would be the only way to mitigate
   the calamity and make it easy, ver. 16-22. Thus the prophet, if they
   would but have hearkened to him, would have directed them in the paths
   of true policy as well as of true piety.

Nebuchadnezzar's Victories Predicted. (b. c. 597.)

   1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of
   Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   2 Thus
   saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy
   neck,   3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab,
   and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the
   king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem
   unto Zedekiah king of Judah;   4 And command them to say unto their
   masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye
   say unto your masters;   5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast
   that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm,
   and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.   6 And now have I
   given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of
   Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also
   to serve him.   7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his
   son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations
   and great kings shall serve themselves of him.   8 And it shall come to
   pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same
   Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck
   under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith
   the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence,
   until I have consumed them by his hand.   9 Therefore hearken not ye to
   your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your
   enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye
   shall not serve the king of Babylon:   10 For they prophesy a lie unto
   you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out,
   and ye should perish.   11 But the nations that bring their neck under
   the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain
   still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and
   dwell therein.

   Some difficulty occurs in the date of this prophecy. This word is said
   to come to Jeremiah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (v. 1),
   and yet the messengers, to whom he is to deliver the badges of
   servitude, are said (v. 3) to come to Zedekiah king of Judah, who
   reigned not till eleven years after the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign.
   Some make it an error of the copy, and think that it should be read (v.
   1), In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, for which some negligent
   scribe, having his eye on the title of the foregoing chapter, wrote
   Jehoiakim. And, if one would admit a mistake any where, it should be
   here, for Zedekiah is mentioned again (v. 12), and the next prophecy is
   dated the same year, and said to be in the beginning of the reign of
   Zedekiah, ch. xxviii. 1. Dr. Lightfoot solves it thus: In the beginning
   of Jehoiakim's reign Jeremiah is to make these bonds and yokes, and to
   put them upon his own neck, in token of Judah's subjection to the king
   of Babylon, which began at that time; but he is to send them to the
   neighbouring kings afterwards in the reign of Zedekiah, of whose
   succession to Jehoiakim, and the ambassadors sent to him, mention is
   made by way of prediction.

   I. Jeremiah is to prepare a sign of the general reduction of all these
   countries into subjection to the king of Babylon (v. 2): Make thee
   bonds and yokes, yokes with bonds to fasten them, that the beast may
   not slip his neck out of the yoke. Into these the prophet must put his
   own neck to make them taken notice of as a prophetic representation;
   for every one would enquire, What is the meaning of Jeremiah's yokes?
   We find him with one on, ch. xxviii. 10. Hereby he intimated that he
   advised them to nothing but what he was resolved to do himself; for he
   was not one of those that bind heavy burdens on others, which they
   themselves will not touch with one of their fingers. Ministers must
   thus lay themselves under the weight and obligation of what they preach
   to others.

   II. He is to send this, with a sermon annexed to it, to all the
   neighbouring princes; those are mentioned (v. 3) that lay next to the
   land of Canaan. It should seem, there was a treaty of alliance on foot
   between the king of Judah and all those other kings. Jerusalem was the
   place appointed for the treaty. Thither they all sent their
   plenipotentiaries; and it was agreed that they should bind themselves
   in a league offensive and defensive, to stand by one another, in
   opposition to the growing threatening greatness of the king of Babylon,
   and to reduce his exorbitant power. They had great confidence in their
   strength thus united, and were ready to call themselves the high
   allies; but, when the envoys were returning to their respective masters
   with the ratification of this treaty, Jeremiah gives each of them a
   yoke to carry to his master, to signify to him that he must either by
   consent or by compulsion become a servant to the king of Babylon, let
   him choose which he will. In the sermon upon this sign, 1. God asserts
   his own indisputable right to dispose of kingdoms as he pleases, v. 5.
   He is the Creator of all things; he made the earth at first,
   established it, and it abides: it is still the same, though one
   generation passes away and another comes. He still by a continued
   creation produces man and beast upon the ground, and it is by his great
   power and outstretched arm. His arm has infinite strength, though it be
   stretched out. Upon this account he may give and convey a property and
   dominion to whomsoever he pleases. As he hath graciously given the
   earth to the children of men in general (Ps. cxv. 16), so he give to
   each his share of it, be it more or less. Note, Whatever any have of
   the good things of this world, it is what God sees fit to give them; we
   ourselves should therefore be content, though we have ever so little,
   and not envy any their share, though they have ever so much. 2. He
   publishes a grant of all these countries to Nebuchadnezzar. Know all
   men by these presents. Sciant præsentes et futuri--Let those of the
   present and those of the future age know. "This is to certify to all
   whom it may concern that I have given all these lands, with all the
   wealth of them, into the hands of the king of Babylon; even the beasts
   of the field, whether tame or wild, have I given to him, parks and
   pastures; they are all his own." Nebuchadnezzar was a proud wicked man,
   an idolater; and yet God, in his providence, gives him this large
   dominion, these vast possessions. Note, The things of this world are
   not the best things, for God often gives the largest share of them to
   bad men, that are rivals with him and rebels against him. He was a
   wicked man, and yet what he had he had by divine grant. Note, Dominion
   is not founded in grace. Those that have not any colourable title to
   eternal happiness may yet have a justifiable title to their temporal
   good things. Nebuchadnezzar is a very bad man, and yet God calls him
   his servant, because he employed him as an instrument of his providence
   for the chastising of the nations, and particularly his own people; and
   for his service therein he thus liberally repaid him. Those whom God
   makes use of shall not lose by him; much more will he be found the
   bountiful rewarder of all those that designedly and sincerely serve
   him. 3. He assures them that they should all be unavoidably brought
   under the dominion of the king of Babylon for a time (v. 7): All
   nations, all these nations and many others, shall serve him, and his
   son, and his son's son. His son was Evil-merodach, and his son's son
   Belshazzar, in whom his kingdom ceased: then the time of reckoning with
   his land came, when the tables were turned, and many nations and great
   kings, incorporated into the empire of the Medes and Persians, served
   themselves of him, as before, ch. xxv. 14. Thus Adonibezek was trampled
   upon himself, as he had trampled on other kings. 4. He threatens those
   with military execution that stood out and would not submit to the king
   of Babylon (v. 8): That nation that will not put their neck under his
   yoke I will punish with sword and famine, with one judgment after
   another, till it is consumed by his hand. Nebuchadnezzar was very
   unjust and barbarous in invading the rights and liberties of his
   neighbours thus, and forcing them into a subjection to him; yet God had
   just and holy ends in permitting him to do so, to punish these nations
   for their idolatry and gross immoralities. Those that would not serve
   the God that made them were justly made to serve their enemies that
   sought to ruin them. 5. He shows them the vanity of all the hopes they
   fed themselves with, that they should preserve their liberties, v. 9,
   10. These nations had their prophets too, that pretended to foretell
   future events by the stars, or by dreams, or enchantments; and they, to
   please their patrons, and because they would themselves have it so,
   flattered them with assurances that they should not serve the king of
   Babylon. Thus they designed to animate them to a vigorous resistance;
   and, though they had no ground for it, they hoped hereby to do them
   service. But he tells them that it would prove to their destruction;
   for by resisting they would provoke the conqueror to deal severely with
   them, to remove them, and drive them out into a miserable captivity, in
   which they should all be lost and buried in oblivion. Particular
   prophecies against these nations that bordered on Israel severally, the
   ruin of which is here foretold in the general, we shall meet with, ch.
   xlviii. and xlix., and Ezek. xxv., which had the same accomplishment
   with this here. Note, When God judges he will overcome. 6. He puts them
   in a fair way to prevent their destruction by a quiet and easy
   submission, v. 11. The nations that will be content to serve the king
   of Babylon, and pay him tribute for seventy years (ten
   apprenticeships), those will I let remain still in their own land.
   Those that will bend shall not break. Perhaps the dominion of the king
   of Babylon may bear no harder upon them than that of their own kings
   had done. It is often more a point of honour than true wisdom to prefer
   liberty before life. It is not mentioned to the disgrace of Issachar
   that because he saw rest was good, and the land pleasant, that he might
   peaceably enjoy it, he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant
   to tribute (Gen. xlix. 14, 15), as these are here advised to do: Serve
   the king of Babylon and you shall till the land and dwell therein. Some
   would condemn this as the evidence of a mean spirit, but the prophet
   recommends it as that of a meek spirit, which yields to necessity, and
   by a quiet submission to the hardest turns of Providence makes the best
   of bad: it is better to do so than by struggling to make it worse.


   ------Levius fit patientia

   Quicquid corrigere est nefas.

   Hor.


   ------When we needs must bear,

   Enduring patience makes the burden light.

   Creech.

   Many might have prevented destroying providences by humbling themselves
   under humbling providences. It is better to take up a lighter cross in
   our way than to pull a heavier on our own head.

Jeremiah's Counsel to Zedekiah; Submission to Nebuchadnezzar Urged. (b. c.
597.)

   12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words,
   saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and
   serve him and his people, and live.   13 Why will ye die, thou and thy
   people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord
   hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
     14 Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak
   unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they
   prophesy a lie unto you.   15 For I have not sent them, saith the Lord,
   yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and
   that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.   16
   Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith
   the Lord; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto
   you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house shall now shortly
   be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.   17
   Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore
   should this city be laid waste?   18 But if they be prophets, and if
   the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to
   the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the
   Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not
   to Babylon.   19 For thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the
   pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and
   concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,   20
   Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away
   captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to
   Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;   21 Yea, thus
   saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that
   remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah
   and of Jerusalem;   22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there
   shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the Lord; then
   will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

   What was said to all the nations is here with a particular tenderness
   applied to the nation of the Jews, for whom Jeremiah was sensibly
   concerned. The case at present stood thus: Judah and Jerusalem had
   often contested with the king of Babylon, and still were worsted; many
   both of their valuable persons and their valuable goods were carried to
   Babylon already, and some of the vessels of the Lord's house
   particularly. Now how this struggle would issue was the question. They
   had those among them at Jerusalem who pretended to be prophets, who
   bade them hold out and they should, in a little time, be too hard for
   the king of Babylon and recover all that they had lost. Now Jeremiah is
   sent to bid them yield and knock under, for that, instead of recovering
   what they had lost, they should otherwise lose all that remained; and
   to press them to this is the scope of these verses.

   I. Jeremiah humbly addresses the king of Judah, to persuade him to
   surrender to the king of Babylon. His act would be the people's and
   would determine them, and therefore he speaks to him as to them all (v.
   12): Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and live.
   Is it their wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant,
   that they may secure the lives of their bodies? And is it not much more
   our wisdom to submit to the sweet and easy yoke of our rightful Lord
   and Master Jesus Christ, that we may secure the lives of our souls?
   Bring down your spirits to repentance and faith, and that is the way to
   bring up your spirits to heaven and glory. And with much more cogency
   and compassion may we expostulate with perishing souls than Jeremiah
   here expostulates with a perishing people: "Why will you die by the
   sword and the famine--miserable deaths, which you inevitably run
   yourselves upon, under pretence of avoiding miserable lives?" What God
   had spoken, in general, of all those that would not submit to the king
   of Babylon, he would have them to apply to themselves and be afraid of.
   It were well if sinners would, in like manner, be afraid of the
   destruction threatened against all those that will not have Christ to
   reign over them, and reason thus with themselves, "Why should we die
   the second death, which is a thousand times worse than that by sword
   and famine, when we might submit and live?"

   II. He addresses himself likewise to the priests and the people (v.
   16), to persuade them to serve the king of Babylon, that they might
   live, and might prevent the desolation of the city (v. 17): "Wherefore
   should it be laid waste, as certainly it will be if you stand it out?"
   The priests had been Jeremiah's enemies, and had sought his life to
   destroy it, yet he approves himself their friend, and seeks their
   lives, to preserve and secure them, which is an example to us to render
   good for evil. When the blood-thirsty hate the upright, yet the just
   seek his soul, and the welfare of it, Prov. xxix. 10. The matter was
   far gone here; they were upon the brink of ruin, which they would not
   have been brought to if they would have taken Jeremiah's counsel; yet
   he continues his friendly admonitions to them, to save the last stake
   and manage that wisely, and now at length in this their day to
   understand the things that belong to their peace, when they had but one
   day to turn them in.

   III. In both these addresses he warns them against giving credit to the
   false prophets that rocked them asleep in their security, because they
   saw that they loved to slumber: "Hearken not to the words of the
   prophets (v. 14), your prophets, v. 16. They are not God's prophets; he
   never sent them; they do not serve him, nor seek to please him; they
   are yours, for they say what you would have them say, and aim at
   nothing but to please you." Two things their prophets flattered them
   into the belief of:--1. That the power which the king of Babylon had
   gained over them should now shortly be broken. They said (v. 14), "You
   shall not serve the king of Babylon; you need not submit voluntarily,
   for you shall not be compelled to submit." This they prophesied in the
   name of the Lord (v. 15), as if God had sent them to the people on this
   errand, in kindness to them, that they might not disparage themselves
   by an inglorious surrender. But it was a lie. They said that God sent
   them; but that was false; he disowns it: I have not sent them, saith
   the Lord. They said that they should never be brought into subjection
   to the king of Babylon; but that was false too, the event proved it so.
   They said that to hold out to the last would be the way to secure
   themselves and their city; but that was false, for it would certainly
   end in their being driven out and perishing. So that it was all a lie,
   from first to last; and the prophets that deceived the people with
   these lies did, in the issue, but deceive themselves; the blind leaders
   and the blind followers fell together into the ditch: That you might
   perish, you, and the prophets that prophesy unto you, who will be so
   far from warranting your security that they cannot secure themselves.
   Note, Those that encourage sinners to go on in their sinful ways will
   in the end perish with them. 2. They prophesied that the vessels of the
   temple, which the king of Babylon had already carried away, should now
   shortly be brought back (v. 16); this they fed the priests with the
   hopes of, knowing how acceptable it would be to them, who loved the
   gold of the temple better than the temple that sanctified the gold.
   These vessels were taken away when Jeconiah was carried captive into
   Babylon, v. 20. We have the story, and it is a melancholy one, 2 Kings
   xxiv. 13, 15; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10. All the goodly vessels (that is, all
   the vessels of gold that were in the house of the Lord), with all the
   treasures, were taken as prey, and brought to Babylon. This was
   grievous to them above any thing; for the temple was their pride and
   confidence, and the stripping of that was too plain an indication of
   that which the true prophet told them, that their God had departed from
   them. Their false prophets therefore had no other way to make them easy
   than by telling them that the king of Babylon should be forced to
   restore them in a little while. Now here, (1.) Jeremiah bids them think
   of preserving the vessels that remained by their prayers, rather than
   of bringing back those that were gone by their prophecies (v. 18): If
   they be prophets, as they pretend, and if the word of the Lord be with
   them--if they have any intercourse with heaven and any interest there,
   let them improve it for the stopping of the progress of the judgment;
   let them step into the gap, and stand with their censer between the
   living and the dead, between that which is carried away and that which
   remains, that the plague may be stayed; let them make intercession with
   the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left go not after the
   rest. [1.] Instead of prophesying, let them pray. Note, Prophets must
   be praying men; by being much in prayer they must make it to appear
   that they keep up a correspondence with heaven. We cannot think that
   those do, as prophets, ever hear thence, who do not frequently by
   prayer send thither. By praying for the safety and prosperity of the
   sanctuary they must make it to appear that, as becomes prophets, they
   are of a public spirit; and by the success of their prayers it will
   appear that God favours them. [2.] Instead of being concerned for the
   retrieving of what they had lost, they must bestir themselves for the
   securing of what was left, and take it as a great favour if they can
   gain that point. When God's judgments are abroad we must not seek great
   things, but be thankful for a little. (2.) He assures them that even
   this point should not be gained, but the brazen vessels should go after
   the golden ones, v. 19, 22. Nebuchadnezzar had found so good a booty
   once that he would be sure to come again and take all he could find,
   not only in the house of the Lord, but in the king's house. They shall
   all be carried to Babylon in triumph, and there shall they be. But he
   concludes with a gracious promise that the time should come when they
   should all be returned: Until the day that I visit them in mercy,
   according to appointment, and then I will bring those vessels up again,
   and restore them to this place, to their place. Surely they were under
   the protection of a special Providence, else they would have been
   melted down and put to some other use; but there was to be a second
   temple, for which they were to be reserved. We read particularly of the
   return of them, Ezra i. 8. Note, Though the return of the church's
   prosperity do not come in our time, we must not therefore despair of
   it, for it will come in God's time. Though those who said, The vessels
   of the Lord's house shall shortly be brought again, prophesied a lie
   (v. 16), yet he that said, They shall at length be brought again,
   prophesied the truth. We are apt to set our clock before God's dial,
   and then to quarrel because they do not agree; but the Lord is a God of
   judgment, and it is fit that we should wait for him.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXVIII.

   In the foregoing chapter Jeremiah had charged those prophets with lies
   who foretold the speedy breaking of the yoke of the king of Babylon and
   the speedy return of the vessels of the sanctuary; how here we have his
   contest with a particular prophet upon those heads. I. Hananiah, a
   pretender to prophecy, in contradiction to Jeremiah, foretold the
   sinking of Nebuchadnezzar's power and the return both of the persons
   and of the vessels that were carried away (ver. 1-4), and, as a sign of
   this, he broke the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah, ver. 10, 11. II.
   Jeremiah wished his words might prove true, but appealed to the event
   whether they were so or no, not doubting but that would disprove them,
   ver. 5-9. III. The doom both of the deceived and the deceiver is here
   read. The people that were deceived should have their yoke of wood
   turned into a yoke of iron (ver. 12-14), and the prophet that was the
   deceiver should be shortly cut off by death, and he was so,
   accordingly, within two months, ver. 15-17.

Hananiah's False Prophecy. (b. c. 597.)

   1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of
   Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month,
   that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake
   unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of
   all the people, saying,   2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.   3
   Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the
   vessels of the Lord's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took
   away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:   4 And I will bring
   again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with
   all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for
   I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.   5 Then the prophet
   Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests,
   and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the
   Lord,   6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so: the
   Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the
   vessels of the Lord's house, and all that is carried away captive, from
   Babylon into this place.   7 Nevertheless hear thou now this word that
   I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;   8 The
   prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied
   both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of
   evil, and of pestilence.   9 The prophet which prophesieth of peace,
   when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet
   be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.

   This struggle between a true prophet and a false one is said here to
   have happened in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, and yet in the
   fourth year, for the first four years of his reign might well be called
   the beginning, or former part, of it, because during those years he
   reigned under the dominion of the king of Babylon and as a tributary to
   him; whereas the rest of his reign, which might well be called the
   latter part of it, in distinction from that former part, he reigned in
   rebellion against the king of Babylon. In this fourth year of his reign
   he went in person to Babylon (as we find, ch. li. 59), and it is
   probable that this gave the people some hope that his negotiation in
   person would put a good end to the war, in which hope the false
   prophets encouraged them, this Hananiah particularly, who was of
   Gibeon, a priests' city, and therefore probably himself a priest, as
   well as Jeremiah. Now here we have,

   I. The prediction which Hananiah delivered publicly, solemnly, in the
   house of the Lord, and in the name of the Lord, in an august assembly,
   in the presence of the priests and of all the people, who probably were
   expecting to have some message from heaven. In delivering this
   prophecy, he faced Jeremiah, he spoke it to him (v. 1), designing to
   confront and contradict him, as much as to say, "Jeremiah, thou liest."
   Now this prediction is that the king of Babylon's power, at least his
   power over Judah and Jerusalem, should be speedily broken, that within
   two full years the vessels of the temple should be brought back, and
   Jeremiah, and all the captives that were carried away with him, should
   return; whereas Jeremiah had foretold that the yoke of the king of
   Babylon should be bound on yet faster, and that the vessels and
   captives should not return for 70 years, v. 2-4. Now, upon the reading
   of this sham prophecy, and comparing it with the messages that God sent
   by the true prophets, we may observe what a vast difference there is
   between them. Here is nothing of the spirit and life, the majesty of
   style and sublimity of expression, that appear in the discourses of
   God's prophets, nothing of that divine flame and flatus. But that which
   is especially wanting here is an air of piety; he speaks with a great
   deal of confidence of the return of their prosperity, but here is not a
   word of good counsel given them to repent, and reform, and return to
   God, to pray, and seek his face, that they may be prepared for the
   favours God had in reserve for them. He promises them temporal mercies,
   in God's name, but makes no mention of those spiritual mercies which
   God always promised should go along with them, as ch. xxiv. 7, I will
   give them a heart to know me. By all this it appears that, whatever he
   pretended, he had only the spirit of the world, not the Spirit of God
   (1 Cor. ii. 12), that he aimed to please, not to profit.

   II. Jeremiah's reply to this pretended prophecy. 1. He heartily wishes
   it might prove true. Such an affection has he for his country, and so
   truly desirous is he of the welfare of it, that he would be content to
   lie under the imputation of a false prophet, so that their ruin might
   be prevented. He said, Amen; the Lord do so; the Lord perform thy
   words, v. 5, 6. This was not the first time that Jeremiah had prayed
   for his people, though he had prophesied against them, and deprecated
   the judgments which yet he certainly knew would come; as Christ prayed,
   Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, when yet he knew
   it must not pass from him. Though, as a faithful prophet, he foresaw
   and foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, yet, as a faithful
   Israelite, he prayed earnestly for the preservation of it, in obedience
   to that command, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Though the will of
   God's purpose is the rule of prophecy and patience, the will of his
   precept is the rule of prayer and practice. God himself, though he has
   determined, does not desire, the death of sinners, but would have all
   men to be saved. Jeremiah often interceded for his people, ch. xviii.
   20. The false prophets thought to ingratiate themselves with the people
   by promising them peace; now the prophet shows that he bore them as
   great a good-will as their prophets did, whom they were so fond of;
   and, though he had no warrant from God to promise them peace, yet he
   earnestly desired it and prayed for it. How strangely were those
   besotted who caressed those who did them the greatest wrong imaginable
   by flattering them and persecuted him who did them the greatest service
   imaginable by interceding for them! See ch. xxvii. 18. 2. He appeals to
   the event, to prove it false, v. 7-9. The false prophets reflected upon
   Jeremiah, as Ahab upon Micaiah, because he never prophesied good
   concerning them, but evil. Now he pleads that this had been the purport
   of the prophecies that other prophets had delivered, so that it ought
   not to be looked upon as a strange thing, or as rendering his mission
   doubtful; for prophets of old prophesied against many countries and
   great kingdoms, so bold were they in delivering the messages which God
   sent by them, and so far from fearing men, or seeking to please them,
   as Hananiah did. They made no difficulty, any more than Jeremiah did,
   of threatening war, famine, and pestilence, and what they said was
   regarded as coming from God; why then should Jeremiah be run down as a
   pestilent fellow, and a sower of sedition, when he preached no
   otherwise than God's prophets had always done before him? Other
   prophets had foretold destruction did not come, which yet did not
   disprove their divine mission, as in the case of Jonah; for God is
   gracious, and ready to turn away his wrath from those that turn away
   from their sins. But the prophet that prophesied of peace and
   prosperity, especially as Hananiah did, absolutely and unconditionally,
   without adding that necessary proviso, that they do not by wilful sin
   put a bar in their own door and stop the current of God's favours, will
   be proved a true prophet only by the accomplishment of his prediction;
   if it come to pass, then it shall be known that the Lord has sent him,
   but, if not, he will appear to be a cheat and an impostor.

Hananiah Condemned. (b. c. 597.)

   10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet
   Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.   11 And Hananiah spake in the presence
   of all the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Even so will I break
   the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations
   within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his
   way.   12 Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the prophet,
   after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck
   of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,   13 Go and tell Hananiah, saying,
   Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt
   make for them yokes of iron.   14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
   God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these
   nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they
   shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
   15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now,
   Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to
   trust in a lie.   16 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast
   thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because
   thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord.   17 So Hananiah the
   prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

   We have here an instance,

   I. Of the insolence of the false prophet. To complete the affront he
   designed Jeremiah, he took the yoke from off his neck which he carried
   as a memorial of what he had prophesied concerning the enslaving of the
   nations to Nebuchadnezzar, and he broke it, that he might give a sign
   of the accomplishment of this prophecy, as Jeremiah had given of his,
   and might seem to have conquered him, and to have defeated the
   intention of his prophecy. See how the lying spirit, in the mouth of
   this false prophet, mimics the language of the Spirit of truth: Thus
   saith the Lord, So will I break the yoke of the king of Babylon, not
   only from the neck of this nation, but from the neck of all nations,
   within two full years. Whether by the force of a heated imagination
   Hananiah had persuaded himself to believe this, or whether he knew it
   to be false, and only persuaded them to believe it, does not appear;
   but it is plain that he speaks with abundance of assurance. It is no
   new thing for lies to be fathered upon the God of truth.

   II. Of the patience of the true prophet. Jeremiah quietly went his way,
   and when he was reviled he reviled not again, and would not contend
   with one that was in the height of his fury and in the midst of the
   priests and people that were violently set against him. The reason why
   he went his way was not because he had nothing to answer, but because
   he was willing to stay till God was pleased to furnish him with a
   direct and immediate answer, which as yet he had not received. He
   expected that God would send a special message to Hananiah, and he
   would say nothing till he had received that. I, as a deaf man, heard
   not, for thou wilt hear, and thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. It may
   sometimes be our wisdom rather to retreat than to contend. Currenti
   cede furori--Give place unto wrath.

   III. Of the justice of God in giving judgment between Jeremiah and his
   adversary. Jeremiah went his way, as a man in whose mouth there was no
   rebuke, but God soon put a word into his mouth; for he will appear for
   those who silently commit their cause to him. 1. The word of God, in
   the mouth of Jeremiah, is ratified and confirmed. Let not Jeremiah
   himself distrust the truth of what he had delivered in God's name
   because it met with such a daring opposition and contradiction. If what
   we have spoken be the truth of God, we must not unsay it because men
   gainsay it; for great is the truth and will prevail. It will stand,
   therefore let us stand to it, and not fear that men's unbelief or
   blasphemy will make it of no effect. Hananiah has broken the yokes of
   wood, but Jeremiah must make for them yokes of iron, which cannot be
   broken (v. 13), for (says God) "I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck
   of all these nations, which shall lie heavier, and bind harder, upon
   them (v. 14), that they may serve the king of Babylon, and not be able
   to shake off the yoke however they may struggle, for they shall serve
   him whether they will or no;" and who is he that can contend with God's
   counsel? What was said before is repeated again: I have given him the
   beasts of the field also, as if there were something significant in
   that. Men had by their wickedness made themselves like the beasts that
   perish, and therefore deserved to be ruled by an arbitrary power, as
   beasts are ruled, and such a power Nebuchadnezzar ruled with; for whom
   he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive. 2. Hananiah is
   sentenced to die for contradicting it, and Jeremiah, when he has
   received commission from God, boldly tells him so to his face, though
   before he received that commission he went away and said nothing. (1.)
   The crimes of which Hananiah stands convicted are cheating the people
   and affronting God: Thou makest this people to trust in a lie,
   encouraging them to hope that they shall have peace, which will make
   their destruction the more terrible to them when it comes; yet this was
   not the worst: Thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord; thou hast
   taught them to despise all the good counsel given them in God's name by
   the true prophets, and hast rendered it ineffectual. Those have a great
   deal to answer for who, by telling sinners that they shall have peace
   though they go on, harden their hearts in a contempt of the reproofs
   and admonitions of the word, and the means and methods God takes to
   bring them to repentance. (2.) The judgment given against him is, "I
   will cast thee off from the face of the earth, as unworthy to live upon
   it; thou shalt be buried in it. This year thou shalt die, and die as a
   rebel against the Lord, to whom death will come with a sting and a
   curse." This sentence was executed, v. 17. Hananiah died the same year,
   within two months; for his prophecy is dated the fifth month (v. 1) and
   his death the seventh. Good men may perhaps be suddenly taken off by
   death in the midst of their days, and in mercy to them, as Josiah was;
   but this being foretold as the punishment of his sin, and coming to
   pass accordingly, it may safely be construed as a testimony from Heaven
   against him and a confirmation of Jeremiah's mission. And, if the
   people's hearts had not been wretchedly hardened by the deceitfulness
   of sin, it would have prevented their being further hardened by the
   deceitfulness of their prophets.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXIX.

   The contest between Jeremiah and the false prophets was carried on
   before by preaching, here by writing; there we had sermon against
   sermon, here we have letter against letter, for some of the false
   prophets are now carried away into captivity in Babylon, while Jeremiah
   remains in his own country. Now here is, I. A letter which Jeremiah
   wrote to the captives in Babylon, against their prophets that they had
   there (ver. 1-3), in which letter, 1. He endeavours to reconcile them
   to their captivity, to be easy under it and to make the best of it,
   ver. 4-7. 2. He cautions them not to give any credit to their false
   prophets, who fed them with hopes of a speedy release, ver. 8, 9. 3. He
   assures them that God would restore them in mercy to their own land
   again, at the end of 70 years, ver. 10-14. 4. He foretels the
   destruction of those who yet continued, and that they should be
   persecuted with one judgment after another, and sent at last into
   captivity, ver. 15-19. 5. He prophesies the destruction of two of their
   false prophets that they had in Babylon, that both soothed them up in
   their sins and set them bad examples (ver. 20-23), and this is the
   purport of Jeremiah's letter. II. Here is a letter which Shemaiah, a
   false prophet in Babylon, wrote to the priests at Jerusalem, to stir
   them up to persecute Jeremiah (ver. 24-29), and a denunciation of God's
   wrath against him for writing such a letter, ver. 30-32. Such struggles
   as these have there always been between the seed of the woman and the
   seed of the serpent.

Advice to the Captives in Babylon. (b. c. 596.)

   1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent
   from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away
   captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the
   people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to
   Babylon;   2 (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the
   eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and
   the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)   3 By the hand of Elasah
   the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah
   king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon)
   saying,   4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all
   that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away
   from Jerusalem unto Babylon;   5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them;
   and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;   6 Take ye wives, and
   beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your
   daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye
   may be increased there, and not diminished.   7 And seek the peace of
   the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and
   pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have
   peace.

   We are here told,

   I. That Jeremiah wrote to the captives in Babylon, in the name of the
   Lord. Jeconiah had surrendered himself a prisoner, with the queen his
   mother, the chamberlains of his household, called here the eunuchs, and
   many of the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, who were at that time the
   most active men; the carpenters and smiths likewise, being demanded,
   were yielded up, that those who remained might not have any proper
   hands to fortify their city or furnish themselves with weapons of war.
   By this tame submission it was hoped that Nebuchadnezzar would be
   pacified. Satis est prostrasse leoni--It suffices the lion to have laid
   his antagonist prostrate; but the imperious conqueror grows upon their
   concessions, like Benhadad upon Ahab's, 1 Kings xx. 5, 6. And, not
   content with this, when these had departed from Jerusalem he comes
   again, and fetches away many more of the elders, the priests, the
   prophets, and the people (v. 1), such as he thought fit, or such as his
   soldiers could lay hands on, and carries them to Babylon. The case of
   these captives was very melancholy, the rather because they, being thus
   distinguished from the rest of their brethren who continued in their
   own land, looked as if they were greater sinners than all men who dwelt
   at Jerusalem. Jeremiah therefore writes a letter to them, to comfort
   them, assuring them that they had no reason either to despair of
   succour themselves or to envy their brethren that were left behind.
   Note, 1. The word of God written is as truly given by inspiration of
   God as his word spoken was; and this was the proper way of spreading
   the knowledge of God's will among his children scattered abroad. 2. We
   may serve God and do good by writing to our friends at a distance pious
   letters of seasonable comforts and wholesome counsels. Those whom we
   cannot speak to we may write to; that which is written remains. This
   letter of Jeremiah's was sent to the captives in Babylon by the hands
   of the ambassadors whom king Zedekiah sent to Nebuchadnezzar, probably
   to pay him his tribute and renew his submission to him, or to treat of
   peace with him, in which treaty the captives might perhaps hope that
   they should be included, v. 3. By such messengers Jeremiah chose to
   send this message, to put an honour upon it, because it was a message
   from God, or perhaps because there was no settled way of sending
   letters to Babylon, but as such an occasion as this offered, and then
   it made the condition of the captives there the more melancholy, that
   they could rarely hear from their friends and relations they had left
   behind, which is some reviving and satisfaction to those that are
   separated from one another.

   II. We are here told what he wrote. A copy of the letter at large
   follows here to v. 24. In these verses,

   1. He assures them that he wrote in the name of the Lord of hosts, the
   God of Israel, who indited the letter; Jeremiah was but the scribe or
   amanuensis. It would be comfortable to them, in their captivity, to
   hear that God is the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, and is therefore able
   to help and deliver them; and that he is the God of Israel still, a God
   in covenant with his people, though he contend with them, and their
   enemies for the present are too hard for them. This would likewise be
   an admonition to them to stand upon their guard against all temptations
   to the idolatry of Babylon, because the God of Israel, the God whom
   they served, is Lord of hosts. God's sending to them in this letter
   might be an encouragement to them in their captivity, as it was an
   evidence that he had not cast them off, had not abandoned them and
   disinherited them, though he was displeased with them and corrected
   them; for, if the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he would not have
   written to them.

   2. God by him owns the hand he had in their captivity: I have caused
   you to be carried away, v. 4 and again, v. 7. All the force of the king
   of Babylon could not have done it if God had not ordered it; nor could
   he have any power against them but what was given him from above. If
   God caused them to be carried captives, they might be sure that he
   neither did them any wrong nor meant them any hurt. Note, It will help
   very much to reconcile us to our troubles, and to make us patient under
   them, to consider that they are what God has appointed us to. I opened
   not my mouth, because thou didst it.

   3. He bids them think of nothing but settling there; and therefore let
   them resolve to make the best of it (v. 5, 6): Build yourselves houses
   and dwell in them, &c. By all this it is intimated to them, (1.) That
   they must not feed themselves with hopes of a speedy return out of
   their captivity, for that would keep them still unsettled and
   consequently uneasy; they would apply themselves to no business, take
   no comfort, but be always tiring themselves and provoking their
   conquerors with the expectations of relief; and their disappointment at
   last would sink them into despair and make their condition much more
   miserable than otherwise it would be. Let them therefore reckon upon a
   continuance there, and accommodate themselves to it as well as they
   can. Let them build, and plant, and marry, and dispose of their
   children there as if they were at home in their own land. Let them take
   a pleasure in seeing their families built up and multiplied; for,
   though they must expect themselves to die in captivity, yet their
   children may live to see better days. If they live in the fear of God,
   what should hinder them but they may live comfortably in Babylon? They
   cannot but weep sometimes when they remember Zion. But let not weeping
   hinder sowing; let them not sorrow as those that have no hope, no joy;
   for they have both. Note, In all conditions of life it is our wisdom
   and duty to make the best of that which is, and not to throw away the
   comfort of what we may have because we have not all we would have. We
   have a natural affection for our native country; it strangely draws our
   minds; but it is with a nescio qua dulcedine--we can give no good
   account of the sweet attraction; and therefore, if providence remove us
   to some other country, we must resolve to live easy there, to bring our
   mind to our condition when our condition is not in every thing to our
   mind. If the earth be the Lord's, then, wherever a child of God goes,
   he does not go off his Father's ground. Patria est ubicunque bene
   est--That place is our country in which we are well off. If things be
   not as they have been, instead of fretting at that, we must live in
   hopes that they will be better than they are. Non si male nunc, et olim
   sic erit--Though we suffer now we shall not always. (2.) That they must
   not disquiet themselves with fears of intolerable hardships in their
   captivity. They might be ready to suggest (as persons in trouble are
   always apt to make the worst of things) that it would be in vain to
   build houses, for their lords and masters would not suffer them to
   dwell in them when they had built them, nor to eat the fruit of the
   vineyards they planted. "Never fear," says God; "if you live peaceably
   with them, you shall find them civil to you." Meek and quiet people,
   that work and mind their own business, have often found much better
   treatment, even with strangers and enemies, than they expected; and God
   has made his people to be pitied of those that carry them captives (Ps.
   cvi. 46), and a pity it is but that those who have built houses should
   dwell in them. Nay,

   4. He directs them to seek the good of the country where they were
   captives (v. 7), to pray for it, to endeavour to promote it. This
   forbids them to attempt any thing against the public peace while they
   were subjects to the king of Babylon. Though he was a heathen, an
   idolater, an oppressor, and an enemy to God and his church, yet, while
   he gave them protection, they must pay him allegiance, and live quiet
   and peaceable lives under him, in all godliness and honesty, not
   plotting to shake off his yoke, but patiently leaving it to God in due
   time to work deliverance for them. Nay, they must pray to God for the
   peace of the places where they were, that they might oblige them to
   continue their kindness to them and disprove the character that had
   been given their nation, that they were hurtful to kings and provinces,
   and moved sedition, Ezra iv. 15. Both the wisdom of the serpent and the
   innocency of the dove required them to be true to the government they
   lived under: For in the peace thereof you shall have peace; should the
   country be embroiled in war, they would have the greatest share in the
   calamitous effects of it. Thus the primitive Christians, according to
   the temper of their holy religion, prayed for the powers that were,
   though they were persecuting powers. And, if they were to pray for and
   seek the peace of the land of their captivity, much more reason have we
   to pray for the welfare of the land of our nativity, where we are a
   free people under a good government, that in the peace thereof we and
   ours may have peace. Every passenger is concerned in the safety of the
   ship.

Advice to the Captives in Babylon. (b. c. 596.)

   8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your
   prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you,
   neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.   9 For
   they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith
   the Lord.   10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be
   accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word
   toward you, in causing you to return to this place.   11 For I know the
   thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace,
   and not of evil, to give you an expected end.   12 Then shall ye call
   upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
     13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me
   with all your heart.   14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord:
   and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the
   nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the
   Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to
   be carried away captive.

   To make the people quiet and easy in their captivity,

   I. God takes them off from building upon the false foundation which
   their pretended prophets laid, v. 8, 9. They told them that their
   captivity should be short, and therefore that they must not think of
   taking root in Babylon, but be upon the wing to go back: "Now herein
   they deceive you," says God; "they prophesy a lie to you, though they
   prophesy in my name. But let them not deceive you, suffer not
   yourselves to be deluded by them." As long as we have the word of truth
   to try the spirits by it is our own fault if we be deceived; for by it
   we may be undeceived. Hearken not to your dreams, which you cause to be
   dreamed. He means either the dreams or fancies which the people pleased
   themselves with, and with which they filled their own heads (by
   thinking and speaking of nothing else but a speedy enlargement when
   they were awake they caused themselves to dream of it when they were
   asleep, and then took that for a good omen, and with it strengthened
   themselves in their vain expectations), or the dreams which the
   prophets dreamed and grounded their prophecies upon. God tells the
   people, They are your dreams, because they pleased them, were the
   dreams that they desired and wished for. They caused them to be
   dreamed; for they hearkened to them, and encouraged the prophets to put
   such deceits upon them, desiring them to prophesy nothing but smooth
   things, Isa. xxx. 10. They were dreams of their own bespeaking. False
   prophets would not flatter people in their sins, but that they love to
   be flattered, and speak smoothly to their prophets that their prophets
   may speak smoothly to them.

   II. He gives them a good foundation to build their hopes upon. We would
   not persuade people to pull down the house they have built upon the
   sand, but that there is a rock ready for them to rebuild upon. God here
   promises them that, though they should not return quickly, they should
   return at length, after seventy years be accomplished. By this it
   appears that the seventy years of the captivity are not to be reckoned
   from the last captivity, but the first. Note, Though the deliverance of
   the church do not come in our time, it is sufficient that it will come
   in God's time, and we are sure that that is the best time. The promise
   is that God will visit them in mercy; though he had long seemed to be
   strange to them, he will come among them, and appear for them, and put
   honour upon them, as great men do upon their inferiors by coming to
   visit them. He will put an end to their captivity, and turn away all
   the calamities of it. Though they are dispersed, some in one country
   and some in another, he will gather them from all the places whither
   they are driven, will set up a standard for them all to resort to, and
   incorporate them again in one body. And though they are at a great
   distance they shall be brought again to their own land, to the place
   whence they were carried captive, v. 14. Now, 1. This shall be the
   performance of God's promise to them (v. 10): I will perform my good
   word towards you. Let not the failing of those predictions which are
   delivered as from God lessen the reputation of those that really are
   from him. That which is indeed God's word is a good word, and therefore
   it will be made good, and not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to
   the ground. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? This will make their
   return out of captivity very comfortable, that it will be the
   performance of God's good word to them, the product of a gracious
   promise. 2. This shall be in pursuance of God's purposes concerning
   them (v. 11): I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Known unto
   God are all his works, for known unto him are all his thoughts (Acts
   xv. 18) and his works agree exactly with his thoughts; he does all
   according to the counsel of his will. We often do not know our own
   thoughts, nor know our own mind, but God is never at any uncertainty
   within himself. We are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs
   concerning us are all against us; but he knows the contrary concerning
   his own people, that they are thoughts of good and not of evil; even
   that which seems evil is designed for good. His thoughts are all
   working towards the expected end, which he will give in due time. The
   end they expect will come, though perhaps not when they expect it. Let
   them have patience till the fruit is ripe, and then they shall have it.
   He will give them an end, and expectation, so it is in the original.
   (1.) He will give them to see the end (the comfortable termination) of
   their trouble; though it last long, it shall not last always. The time
   to favour Zion, yea, the set time, will come. When things are at the
   worst they will begin to mend; and he will give them to see the
   glorious perfection of their deliverance; for, as for God, his work is
   perfect. He that in the beginning finished the heavens and the earth,
   and all the hosts of both, will finish all the blessings of both to his
   people. When he begins in ways of mercy he will make an end. God does
   nothing by halves. (2.) He will give them to see the expectation, that
   end which they desire and hope for, and have been long waiting for. He
   will give them, not the expectations of their fears, nor the
   expectations of their fancies, but the expectations of their faith, the
   end which he has promised and which will turn for the best to them. 3.
   This shall be in answer to their prayers and supplications to God, v.
   12-14. (1.) God will stir them up to pray: Then shall you call upon me,
   and you shall go, and pray unto me. Note, When God is about to give his
   people the expected good he pours out a spirit of prayer, and it is a
   good sign that he is coming towards them in mercy. Then, when you see
   the expected end approaching, then you shall call upon me. Note,
   Promises are given, not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage
   prayer: and when deliverance is coming we must by prayer go forth to
   meet it. When Daniel understood that the 70 years were near expiring,
   then he set his face with more fervency than ever to seek the Lord,
   Dan. ix. 2, 3. (2.) He will then stir up himself to come and save them
   (Ps. lxxx. 2): I will hearken unto you, and I will be found of you. God
   has said it, and we may depend upon it, Seek and you shall find. We
   have a general rule laid down (v. 13): You shall find me when you shall
   search for me with all your heart. In seeking God we must search for
   him, accomplish a diligent search, search for directions in seeking him
   and encouragements to our faith and hope. We must continue seeking, and
   take pains in seeking, as those that search; and this we must do with
   our heart (that is, in sincerity and uprightness), and with our whole
   heart (that is, with vigour and fervency, putting forth all that is
   within us in prayer), and those who thus seek God shall find him, and
   shall find him their bountiful rewarder, Heb. xi. 6. He never said to
   such, Seek you me in vain.

The Doom of the False Prophets. (b. c. 596.)

   15 Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in
   Babylon;   16 Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth
   upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this
   city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into
   captivity;   17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon
   them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like
   vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.   18 And I will
   persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the
   pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of
   the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a
   reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:   19
   Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I
   sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending
   them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord.   20 Hear ye therefore the
   word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from
   Jerusalem to Babylon:   21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of
   Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will
   deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he
   shall slay them before your eyes;   22 And of them shall be taken up a
   curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The
   Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon
   roasted in the fire;   23 Because they have committed villany in
   Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and
   have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them;
   even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.

   Jeremiah, having given great encouragement to those among the captives
   whom he knew to be serious and well-affected, assuring them that God
   had very kind and favourable intentions concerning them, here turns to
   those among them who slighted the counsels and comforts that Jeremiah
   ministered to them and depended upon what the false prophets flattered
   them with. When this letter came from Jeremiah they would be ready to
   say, "Why should he make himself so busy, and take upon him to advise
   us? The Lord has raised us up prophets in Babylon, v. 15. We are
   satisfied with those prophets, and can depend upon them, and have no
   occasion to hear from any prophets in Jerusalem." See the impudent
   wickedness of this people; as the prophets, when they prophesied lies,
   said that they had them from God, so the people, when they invited
   those prophets thus to flatter them, fathered it upon God, and said
   that it was the Lord that raised them up those prophets. Whereas we may
   be sure that those who harden people in their sins, and deceive them
   with false and groundless hopes of God's mercy, are no prophets of
   God's raising up. These prophets of their own told them that no more
   should be carried captive, but that those who were in captivity should
   shortly return. Now, in answer to this, 1. The prophet here foretells
   the utter destruction of those who remained still at Jerusalem,
   notwithstanding what those false prophets said to the contrary: "As for
   the king and people that dwell in the city, who, you think, will be
   ready to bid you welcome when you return, you are deceived; they shall
   be followed with one judgment after another, sword, famine, and
   pestilence, which shall cut off multitudes; and the poor and miserable
   remains shall be removed into all kingdoms of the earth," v. 16, 18.
   And thus God will make them, or rather deal with them accordingly, as
   the salt that has lost its savour, which, being good for nothing, is
   cast to the dunghill, and so are rotten figs. This refers to the vision
   and the prophecy upon it which we had ch. xxiv. And the reason given
   for these proceedings against them is the same that has often been
   given and will justify God in the eternal ruin of impenitent sinners
   (v. 19): Because they have not hearkened to my words. I called, but
   they refused. 2. He foretells the judgment of God upon the false
   prophets in Babylon, who deceived the people of God there. He calls
   upon all the children of the captivity, who boasted of them as prophets
   of God's raising up (v. 20): "Stand still, and hear the doom of the
   prophets you are so fond of." The two prophets are named here, Ahab and
   Zedekiah, v. 21. Observe, (1.) The crimes charged upon them--impiety
   and immorality: They prophesied lies in God's name (v. 21), and again
   (v. 23), They have spoken lying words in my name. Lying was bad, lying
   to the people of God to delude them into a false hope was worse, but
   fathering their lies upon the God of truth was worst of all. And no
   marvel if those that had the face to do that could allow themselves in
   the gratification of those vile affections to which God, in a way of
   righteous judgment, gave them up. They have done villainy in Israel,
   for they have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives. Adultery
   is villainy in Israel, and in such as pretend to be prophets, who by
   such wickednesses manifestly disprove their own pretensions. God never
   sent such profligate wretches on his errands. He is the Lord God of the
   holy prophets, not of such impure ones. Here it appears why they
   flattered others in their sins--because they could not reprove them
   without condemning themselves. These lewd practices of theirs they knew
   how to conceal from the eye of the world, that they might preserve
   their credit; but I know it and am a witness, saith the Lord. The most
   secret sins are known to God; he can see the villainy that is covered
   with the thickest cloak of hypocrisy, and there is a day coming when he
   will bring to light all these hidden works of darkness and every man
   will appear in his own colours. (2.) The judgments threatened against
   them: The king of Babylon shall slay them before your eyes; nay, he
   shall put them to a miserable death, roast them in the fire, v. 22. We
   may suppose that it was not for their impiety and immorality that
   Nebuchadnezzar punished them thus severely, but for sedition, and some
   attempts of their turbulent spirits upon the public peace, and stirring
   up the people to revolt and rebel. So much of their wickedness shall
   then be detected, and in such a wretched manner they shall end their
   days, that their names shall be a curse among the captives in Babylon,
   v. 22. When men would imprecate the greatest evil upon one they hated
   they would think they could not load them with a heavier curse, in
   fewer words, than to say, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like
   Ahab. Thus were they made ashamed of the prophets they had been proud
   of, and convinced at last of their folly in hearkening to them. God's
   faithful prophets were sometimes charged with being the troublers of
   the land, and as such were tortured and slain; but their names were a
   blessing when they were gone and their memory sweet, not as these false
   prophets. As malefactors are attended with infamy and disgrace, so
   martyrs with glory and honour.

The Malice of Shemaiah; The Doom of Shemaiah. (b. c. 596.)

   24 Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,   25
   Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because
   thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at
   Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all
   the priests, saying,   26 The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead
   of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the
   Lord, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that
   thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.   27 Now therefore
   why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a
   prophet to you?   28 For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying,
   This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant
   gardens, and eat the fruit of them.   29 And Zephaniah the priest read
   this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.   30 Then came the
   word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,   31 Send to all them of the
   captivity, saying, Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the
   Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent
   him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:   32 Therefore thus saith
   the Lord; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed:
   he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he
   behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord; because
   he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.

   We have perused the contents of Jeremiah's letter to the captives in
   Babylon, who had reason, with a great deal of thanks to God and him, to
   acknowledge the receipt of it, and lay it up among their treasures. But
   we cannot wonder if the false prophets they had among them were enraged
   at it; for it gave them their true character. Now here we are told
   concerning one of them,

   I. How he manifested his malice against Jeremiah. This busy fellow is
   called Shemaiah the Nehelamite, the dreamer (so the margin reads it),
   because all his prophecies he pretended to have received from God in a
   dream. He had got a copy of Jeremiah's letter to the captives, or had
   heard it read, or information was given to him concerning it, and it
   nettled him exceedingly; and he will take pen in hand, and answer it,
   yea, that he will. But how? He does not write to Jeremiah in
   justification of his own mission, nor offer any rational arguments for
   the support of his prophecies concerning the speedy return of the
   captives; but he writes to the priests, those faithful patrons of the
   false prophets, and instigates them to persecute Jeremiah. He writes in
   his own name, not so much as pretending to have the people's consent to
   it; but, as if he must be dictator to all mankind, he sends a circular
   letter (as it should seem) among the priests at Jerusalem and the rest
   of the people, probably by the same messengers that brought the letter
   from Jeremiah. But it is chiefly directed to Zephaniah, who was either
   the immediate son of Maaseiah, or of the 24th course of the priests, of
   which Maaseiah was the father and head. He was not the high priest, but
   sagan or suffragan to the high priest, or in some other considerable
   post of command in the temple, as Pashur, ch. xx. 1. Perhaps he was
   chairman of that committee of priests that was appointed in a
   particular manner to take cognizance of those that pretended to be
   prophets, of which there were very many at this time, and to give
   judgment concerning them. Now, 1. He puts him and the other priests in
   mind of the duty of their place (v. 26): The Lord hath made thee priest
   instead of Jehoiada the priest. Some think that he refers to the famous
   Jehoiada, that great reformer in the days of Joash; and (says Mr.
   Gataker) he would insinuate that this Zephaniah is for spirit and zeal
   such another as he, and raised up, as he was, for the glory of God and
   the good of the church; and therefore it was expected from him that he
   should proceed against Jeremiah. Thus (says he) there is no act so
   injurious or impious, but that wicked wretches and false prophets will
   not only attempt it, but colour it also with some specious pretence of
   piety and zeal for God's glory, Isa. lxvi. 5; John xvi. 2. Or, rather,
   it was some other Jehoiada, his immediate predecessor in this office,
   who perhaps was carried to Babylon among the priests, v. 1. Zephaniah
   is advanced, sooner than he expected, to this place of trust and power,
   and Shemaiah would have him think that Providence had preferred him
   that he might persecute God's prophets, that he had come to this
   government for such a time as this, and that he was unjust and
   ungrateful if he did not thus improve his power, or, rather, abuse it.
   Their hearts are wretchedly hardened who can justify the doing of
   mischief by their having a power to do it. These priests' business was
   to examine every man that is mad and makes himself a prophet. God's
   faithful prophets are here represented as prophets of their own making,
   usurpers of the office, and lay-intruders, as men that were mad,
   actuated by some demon, and not divinely inspired, or as distracted men
   and men in a frenzy. Thus the characters of the false prophets are
   thrown upon the true ones; and, if this had been indeed their
   character, they would have deserved to be bound as madmen and punished
   as pretenders, and therefore he concludes that Jeremiah must be so
   treated. He does not bid them examine whether Jeremiah could produce
   any proofs of his mission and could make it to appear that he was not
   mad. No; that is taken for granted, and, when once he has had a bad
   name given him, he must be run down of course. 2. He informs them of
   the letter which Jeremiah had written to the captives (v. 28): He sent
   unto us in Babylon, with the authority of a prophet, saying, This
   captivity is long, and therefore resolve to make the best of it. And
   what harm was there in this, that it should be objected to him as a
   crime? The false prophets had formerly said that the captivity would
   never come, ch. xiv. 13. Jeremiah had said that it would come, and the
   event had already proved him in the right, which obliged them to give
   credit to him who now said that it would be long, rather than to those
   who said that it would be short, but had once before been found liars.
   3. He demands judgment against him, taking it for granted that he is
   mad, and makes himself a prophet. He expects that they will order him
   to be put in prison and in the stocks (v. 26), that they will thus
   punish him, and by putting him to disgrace possess the people with
   prejudices against him, ruin his reputation, and so prevent the giving
   of any credit to his prophecies at Jerusalem, hoping that, if they
   could gain that point, the captives in Babylon would not be influenced
   by him. Nay, he takes upon him to chide Zephaniah for his neglect (v.
   27): Why hast thou not rebuked and restrained Jeremiah of Anathoth? See
   how insolent and imperious these false prophets had grown, that, though
   they were in captivity, they would give law to the priests who were not
   only at liberty, but in power. It is common for those that pretend to
   more knowledge than their neighbours to be thus assuming. Now here is a
   remarkable instance of the hardness of the hearts of sinners, and it is
   enough to make us all fear lest our hearts be at any time hardened. For
   here we find, (1.) That these sinners would not be convinced by the
   clearest evidence. God had confirmed his word in the mouth of Jeremiah;
   it had taken hold of them (Zech. i. 6); and yet, because he does not
   prophesy to them the smooth things they desired, they are resolved to
   look upon him as not duly called to the office of a prophet. None so
   blind as those that will not see. (2.) That they would not be reclaimed
   and reformed by the most severe chastisement. They were now sent into a
   miserable thraldom for mocking the messengers of the Lord and misusing
   his prophets. This was the sin for which God now contended with them;
   and yet in their distress they trespass yet more against the Lord, 2
   Chron. xxviii. 22. This very sin they are notoriously guilty of in
   their captivity, which shows that afflictions will not of themselves
   cure men of their sins, unless the grace of God work with them, but
   will rather exasperate the corruptions they are intended to mortify; so
   true is that of Solomon (Prov. xxvii. 22), Though thou shouldst bray a
   fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

   II. How Jeremiah came to the knowledge of this (v. 29): Zephaniah read
   this letter in the ears of Jeremiah. He did not design to do as
   Shemaiah would have him, but, as it should seem, had a respect for
   Jeremiah (for we find him employed in messages to him as a prophet, ch.
   xxi. 1, xxxvii. 3), and therefore protected him. He that continued in
   his dignity and power stood more in awe of God and his judgments than
   he that was now a captive. Nay, he made Jeremiah acquainted with the
   contents of the letter, that he might see what enemies he had even
   among the captives. Note, It is kindness to our friends to let them
   know their foes.

   III. What was the sentence passed upon Shemaiah for writing this
   letter. God sent him an answer, for to him Jeremiah committed his
   cause: it was ordered to be sent not to him, but to those of the
   captivity, who encouraged and countenanced him as if he had been a
   prophet of God's raising up, v. 31, 32. Let them know, 1. That Shemaiah
   had made fools of them. He promised them peace in God's name, but God
   did not send him; he forged a commission, and counterfeited the broad
   seal of Heaven to it, and made the people to trust in a lie, and by
   preaching false comfort to them deprived them of true comfort. Nay, he
   had not only made fools of them, but, which was worse, he had made
   traitors of them; he had taught rebellion against the Lord, as Hananiah
   had done, ch. xxviii. 16. And, if vengeance shall be taken on those
   that rebel, much more on those that teach rebellion by their doctrine
   and example. 2. That at his end he shall also be a fool (as the
   expression is, ch. xvii. 11); his name and family shall be extinct and
   shall be buried in oblivion; he shall leave no issue behind him to bear
   up his name; his pedigree shall end in him: He shall not have a man to
   dwell among this people; and neither he nor any that come from him
   shall behold the good that I will do for my people. Note, Those are
   unworthy to share in God's favours to his church that are not willing
   to stay his time for them. Shemaiah was angry at Jeremiah's advice to
   the captives to see to the building up of their families in Babylon,
   that they might be increased and not diminished, and therefore justly
   is he written childless there. Those that slight the blessings of God's
   word deserve to lose the benefit of them. See Amos vii. 16, 17.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXX.

   The sermon which we have in this and the following chapter is of a very
   different complexion from all those before. The prophet does indeed, by
   direction from God, change his voice. Most of what he had said hitherto
   was by way of reproof and threatening; but these two chapters are
   wholly taken up with precious promises of a return out of captivity,
   and that typical of the glorious things reserved for the church in the
   days of the Messiah. The prophet is told not only to preach this, but
   to write it, because it is intended for the comfort of the generation
   to come, ver. 1-3. It is here promised, I. That they should hereafter
   have a joyful restoration. 1. Though they were now in a great deal of
   pain and terror, ver. 4-7. 2. Though their oppressors were very strong,
   ver. 8-10. 3. Though a full end was made of other nations, and they
   were not restored, ver. 11. 4. Though all means of their deliverance
   seemed to fail and be cut off, ver. 12-14. 5. Though God himself had
   sent them into captivity, and justly, for their sins, ver. 15, 16. 6.
   Though all about them looked upon their case as desperate, ver. 17. II.
   That after their joyful restoration they should have a happy
   settlement, that their city should be rebuilt (ver. 18), their numbers
   increased (ver. 19, 20), their government established (ver. 21), God's
   covenant with them renewed (ver. 22), and their enemies destroyed and
   cut off, ver. 23, 24.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 594.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   2 Thus
   speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that
   I have spoken unto thee in a book.   3 For, lo, the days come, saith
   the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and
   Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that
   I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.   4 And these are
   the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
   5 For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,
   and not of peace.   6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail
   with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins,
   as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?   7
   Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the
   time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.   8 For it
   shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will
   break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and
   strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:   9 But they shall
   serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up
   unto them.

   Here, I. Jeremiah is directed to write what God had spoken to him,
   which perhaps refers to all the foregoing prophecies. He must write
   them and publish them, in hopes that those who had not profited by what
   he said upon once hearing it might take more notice of it when in
   reading it they had leisure for a more considerate review. Or, rather,
   it refers to the promises of their enlargement, which had been often
   mixed with his other discourses. He must collect them and put them
   together, and God will now add unto them many like words. He must write
   them for the generations to come, who should see them accomplished, and
   thereby have their faith in the prophecy confirmed. He must write them
   not in a letter, as that in the chapter before to the captives, but in
   a book, to be carefully preserved in the archives, or among the public
   rolls or registers of the state. Daniel understood by these books when
   the captivity was about coming to an end, Dan. ix. 2. He must write
   them in a book, not in loose papers: "For the days come, and are yet at
   a great distance, when I will bring again the captivity of Israel and
   Judah, great numbers of the ten tribes, with those of the two," v. 3.
   And this prophecy must be written, that it may be read then also, that
   so it may appear how exactly the accomplishment answers the prediction,
   which is one end of the writing of prophecies. It is intimated that
   they shall be beloved for their fathers' sake (Rom. xi. 28); for
   therefore God will bring them again to Canaan, because it was the land
   that he gave to their fathers, which therefore they shall possess.

   II. He is directed what to write. The very words are such as the Holy
   Ghost teaches, v. 4. These are the words which God ordered to be
   written; and those promises which are written by his order are as truly
   his word as the ten commandments which were written with his finger. 1.
   He must write a description of the fright and consternation which the
   people were now in, and were likely to be still in upon every attack
   that the Chaldeans made upon them, which will much magnify both the
   wonder and the welcomeness of their deliverance (v. 5): We have heard a
   voice of trembling--the shrieks of terror echoing to the alarms of
   danger. The false prophets told them that they should have peace, but
   there is fear and not peace, so the margin reads it. No marvel that
   when without are fightings within are fears. The men, even the men of
   war, shall be quite overwhelmed with the calamities of their nation,
   shall sink under them, and yield to them, and shall look like women in
   labour, whose pains come upon them in great extremity and they know
   that they cannot escape them, v. 6. You never heard of a man travailing
   with child, and yet here you find not here and there a timorous man,
   but every man with his hands on his loins, in the utmost anguish and
   agony, as women in travail, when they see their cities burnt and their
   countries laid waste. But this pain is compared to that of a woman in
   travail, not to that of a death-bed, because it shall end in joy at
   last, and the pain, like that of a travailing woman, shall be
   forgotten. All faces shall be turned into paleness. The word signifies
   not only such paleness as arises from a sudden fright, but that which
   is the effect of a bad habit of body, the jaundice, or the green
   sickness. The prophet laments the calamity upon the foresight of it (v.
   7): Alas! for that day is great, a day of judgment, which is called the
   great day, the great and terrible day of the Lord (Joel ii. 31, Jude
   6), great, so that there has been none like it. The last destruction of
   Jerusalem is thus spoken of by our Saviour as unparalleled, Matt. xxiv.
   21. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, a sad time, when God's
   professing people shall be in distress above other people. The whole
   time of the captivity was a time of Jacob's trouble; and such times
   ought to be greatly lamented by all that are concerned for the welfare
   of Jacob and the honour of the God of Jacob. 2. He must write the
   assurances which God had given that a happy end should at length be put
   to these calamities. (1.) Jacob's troubles shall cease: He shall be
   saved out of them. Though the afflictions of the church may last long,
   they shall not last always. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and shall be
   wrought for his church. (2.) Jacob's troublers shall be disabled from
   doing him any further mischief, and shall be reckoned with for the
   mischief they have done him, v. 8. The Lord of hosts, who has all power
   in his hand, undertakes to do it: "I will break his yoke from off thy
   neck, which has long lain so heavy, and has so sorely galled thee. I
   will burst thy bonds and restore thee to liberty and ease, and thou
   shalt no more be at the beck and command of strangers, shalt no more
   serve them, nor shall they any more serve themselves of thee; they
   shall no more enrich themselves either by thy possessions or by thy
   labours." And, (3.) That which crowns and completes the mercy is that
   they shall be restored to the free exercise of their religion again, v.
   9. They shall be delivered from serving their enemies, not that they
   may live at large and do what they please, but that they may serve the
   Lord their God and David their king, that they may come again into
   order, under the established government both in church and state.
   Therefore they were brought into trouble and made to serve their
   enemies because they had not served the Lord their God as they ought to
   have done, with joyfulness and gladness of heart, Deut. xxviii. 47.
   But, when the time shall come that they should be saved out of their
   trouble, God will prepare and qualify them for it by giving them a
   heart to serve him, and will make it doubly comfortable by giving them
   opportunity to serve him. Therefore we are delivered out of the hands
   of our enemies, that we may serve God, Luke i. 74, 75. And then
   deliverances out of temporal calamities are mercies indeed to us when
   by them we find ourselves engaged to and enlarged in the service of
   God. They shall serve their own God, and neither be inclined, as they
   had been of old in the day of their apostasy, nor compelled, as they
   had been of late in the day of their captivity, to serve other gods.
   They shall serve David their king, such governors as God should from
   time to time set over them, of the line of David (as Zerubbabel), or at
   least sitting on the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of
   David, as Nehemiah. But certainly this has a further meaning. The
   Chaldee paraphrase reads it, They shall obey (or hearken to) the
   Messiah (or Christ), the Son of David, their king. To him the Jewish
   interpreters apply it. That dispensation which commenced at their
   return out of captivity brought them to the Messiah. He is called David
   their King because he was the Son of David (Matt. xxii. 42) and he
   answered to the name, Matt. xx. 31, 32. David was an illustrious type
   of him both in his humiliation and in his exaltation. The covenant of
   royalty made with David had principal reference to him, and in him the
   promises of that covenant had their full accomplishment. God gave him
   the throne of his father David; he raised him up unto them, set him
   upon the holy hill of Zion. God is often in the New Testament said to
   have raised up Jesus, raised him up as a King, Acts iii. 26; xiii. 23,
   33. Observe, [1.] Those that serve the Lord as their God must also
   serve David their King, must give up themselves to Jesus Christ, to be
   ruled by him. For all men must honour the Son as they honour the
   Father, and come into the service and worship of God by him as
   Mediator. [2.] Those that are delivered out of spiritual bondage must
   make it appear that they are so by giving up themselves to the service
   of Christ. Those to whom he gives rest must take his yoke upon them.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 594.)

   10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither
   be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy
   seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and
   shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.   11
   For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full
   end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a
   full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not
   leave thee altogether unpunished.   12 For thus saith the Lord, Thy
   bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.   13 There is none to
   plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing
   medicines.   14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not;
   for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the
   chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity;
   because thy sins were increased.   15 Why criest thou for thine
   affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine
   iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things
   unto thee.   16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured;
   and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
   and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee
   will I give for a prey.   17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I
   will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee
   an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

   In these verses, as in those foregoing, the deplorable case of the Jews
   in captivity is set forth, but many precious promises are given them
   that in due time they should be relieved and a glorious salvation
   wrought for them.

   I. God himself appeared against them: he scattered them (v. 11); he did
   all these things unto them, v. 15. All their calamities came from his
   hands; whoever were the instruments, he was the principal agent. And
   this made their case very sad that God, even their own God, spoke
   concerning them, to pull down and to destroy. Now, 1. This was intended
   by him as a fatherly chastisement, and no other (v. 11): "I will
   correct thee in measure, or according to judgment, with discretion, no
   more than thou deservest, nay, no more than thou canst well bear." What
   God does against his people is in a way of correction, and that
   correction is always moderated and always proceeds from love: "I will
   not leave thee altogether unpunished, as thou art ready to think I
   should, because of thy relation to me." Note, A profession of religion,
   though ever so plausible, will be far from securing to us impunity in
   sin. God is no respecter of persons, but will show his hatred of sin
   wherever he finds it, and that he hates it most in those that are
   nearest to him. God here corrects his people for the multitude of their
   iniquity, and because their sins were increased, v. 14, 15. Are our
   sorrows multiplied at any time and do they increase? We must
   acknowledge that it is because our sins have been multiplied and they
   have increased. Iniquities grow in us, and therefore troubles grow upon
   us. But, 2. What God intended as a fatherly chastisement they and
   others interpreted as an act of hostility; they looked upon him as
   having wounded them with the wound of an enemy and with the
   chastisement of a cruel one (v. 14), as if he had designed their ruin,
   and neither mitigated the correction nor had any mercy in reserve for
   them. It did indeed seem as if God had dealt thus severely with them,
   as if he had turned to be their enemy and had fought against them, Isa.
   lxiii. 10. Job complains that God had become cruel to him and
   multiplied his wounds. When troubles are great and long we have need
   carefully to watch over our own hearts, that we entertain not such hard
   thoughts as these of God and his providence. His are the chastisements
   of a merciful one, not of a cruel one, whatever they may appear.

   II. Their friends forsook them, and were shy of them. None of those who
   had courted them in their prosperity would take notice of them now in
   their distress, v. 13. It is commonly thus when families go to decay;
   those hang off from them that had been their hangers-on. In two cases
   we are glad of the assistance of our friends and need their
   service:--1. If we be impeached, accused, or reproached, we expect that
   our friends should appear in vindication of us, should speak a good
   word for us when we cannot put on a face to speak for ourselves; but
   here there is none to plead thy cause, none to stand up in thy defence,
   none to intercede for thee with thy oppressors; therefore God will
   plead their cause, for he might well wonder there was none to uphold a
   people that had been so much the favourites of Heaven, Isa. lxiii. 5.
   2. If we be sick, or sore, or wounded, we expect our friends should
   attend us, advise us, sympathize with us, and, if occasion be, lend a
   hand for the applying of healing medicines; but here there is none to
   do that, none to bind up thy wounds, and by counsels and comforts to
   make proper applications to thy case; nay (v. 14), All thy lovers have
   forgotten thee; out of sight out of mind; instead of seeking thee, they
   forsake thee. Such as this has often been the case of religion and
   serious godliness in the world; those that from their education,
   profession, and hopeful beginnings, one might have expected to be its
   friends and lovers, its patrons and protectors, desert it, forget it,
   and have nothing to say in its defence, nor will do any thing towards
   the healing of its wounds. Observe, Thy lovers have forgotten thee, for
   I have wounded thee. When God is against a people who will be for them?
   Who can be for them so as to do them any kindness? See Job xxx. 11.
   Now, upon this account, their case seemed desperate and past relief (v.
   12): Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound grievous, and (v. 15) thy
   sorrow is incurable. The condition of the Jews in captivity was such as
   no human power could redress the grievances of; there they were like a
   valley full of dead and dry bones, which nothing less than Omnipotence
   can put life into. Who could imagine that a people so diminished, so
   impoverished, should ever be restored to their own land and
   re-established there? So many were the aggravations of their calamity
   that their sorrow would not admit of any alleviation, but they seemed
   to be hardened in it, and their souls refused to be comforted, till
   divine consolations proved strong ones, too strong to be borne down
   even by the floods of grief that overwhelmed them. Thy sorrow is
   incurable because thy sins, instead of being repented of and forsaken,
   were increased. Note, Incurable griefs are owing to incurable lusts.
   Now in this deplorable condition they are looked upon with disdain (v.
   17): They called thee an outcast, abandoned by all, abandoned to ruin;
   they said, This is Zion, whom no man seeks after. When they looked on
   the place where the city and temple had been built they called that an
   outcast; now all was in ruins, there was no resort to it, no residence
   in it, none asked the way to Zion, as formerly; no man seeks after it.
   When they looked on the people that formerly dwelt in Zion, but were
   now in captivity (and we read of Zion dwelling with the daughter of
   Babylon, Zech. ii. 7), they called them outcasts; these are those who
   belong to Zion, and are wont to talk much of it and weep at the
   remembrance of it, but no man seeks after them, or enquires concerning
   them. Note, It is often the lot of Zion to be deserted and despised by
   those about her.

   III. For all this God will work deliverance and salvation for them in
   due time. Though no other hand, nay, because no other hand, can cure
   their wound, his will, and shall. 1. Though he seemed to stand at a
   distance from them, yet he assures them of his presence with them, his
   powerful and gracious presence: I will save thee, v. 10. I am with
   thee, to save thee, v. 11. When they are in their troubles he is with
   them, to save them from sinking under them; when the time has come for
   their deliverance he is with them, to be ready upon the first
   opportunity, to save them out of their trouble. 2. Though they were at
   a distance, remote from their own land, afar off in the land of their
   captivity, yet there shall salvation find them out, thence shall it
   fetch them, them and their seed, for they also shall be known among the
   Gentiles, and distinguished from them, that they may return, v. 10. 3.
   Though they were now full of fears, and continually alarmed, yet the
   time shall come when they shall be in rest and quiet, safe and easy,
   and none shall make them afraid, v. 10. 4. Though the nations into
   which they were dispersed should be brought to ruin, yet they should be
   preserved from that ruin (v. 11): Though I make a full end of the
   nations whither I have scattered thee, and there might be danger of thy
   being lost among them, yet I will not make a full end of thee. It was
   promised that in the peace of these nations they should have peace (ch.
   xxix. 7), and yet in the destruction of these nations they should
   escape destruction. God's church may sometimes be brought very low, but
   he will not make a full end of it, ch. v. 10, 18. 5. Though God correct
   them, and justly, for their sins, their manifold transgressions and
   mighty sins, yet he will return in mercy to them, and even their sin
   shall not prevent their deliverance when God's time shall come. 6.
   Though their adversaries were mighty, God will bring them down, and
   break their power (v. 16): All that devour thee shall be devoured, and
   thus Zion's cause will be pleaded and will be made to appear to all the
   world a righteous cause. Thus Zion's deliverance will be brought about
   by the destruction of her oppressors; and thus her enemies will be
   recompensed for all the injury they have done her; for there is a God
   that judges in the earth, a God to whom vengeance belongs. "They shall
   every one of them, without exception, go into captivity, and the day
   will come when those that now spoil thee shall be a spoil." Those that
   lead into captivity shall go into captivity, Rev. xiii. 10. This might
   serve to oblige the present conquerors to use their captives well,
   because the wheel would turn round, and the day would come when they
   also should be captives, and let them do now as they would then be done
   by. 7. Though the wound seem incurable, God will make a cure of it (v.
   17): I will restore health unto thee. Be the disease ever so dangerous,
   the patient is safe if God undertakes the cure.

   IV. Upon the whole matter, they are cautioned against inordinate fear
   and grief, for in these precious promises there is enough to silence
   both. 1. They must not tremble as those that have no hope in the
   apprehension of future further trouble that might threaten them (v.
   10): Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob! neither be dismayed. Note,
   Those that are God's servants must not give way to disquieting fears,
   whatever difficulties and dangers may be before them. 2. They must not
   sorrow as those that have no hope for the troubles which at present
   they lie under, v. 15. "Why criest thou for thy affliction? It is true
   thy carnal confidences fail thee, creatures are physicians of no value,
   but I will heal thy wound, and therefore, Why criest thou? Why dost
   thou fret and complain thus? It is for thy sin (v. 14, 15), and
   therefore, instead of repining, thou shouldest be repenting. Wherefore
   should a man complain for the punishment of his sins? The issue will be
   good at last, and therefore rejoice in hope."

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 594.)

   18 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of
   Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places; and the city
   shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after
   the manner thereof.   19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and
   the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they
   shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be
   small.   20 Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their
   congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that
   oppress them.   21 And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their
   governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to
   draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged
   his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.   22 And ye shall be my
   people, and I will be your God.   23 Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord
   goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain
   upon the head of the wicked.   24 The fierce anger of the Lord shall
   not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the
   intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

   We have here further intimations of the favour God had in reserve for
   them after the days of their calamity were over. It is promised,

   I. That the city and temple should be rebuilt, v. 18. Jacob's tents,
   and his dwelling places, felt the effects of the captivity, for they
   lay in ruins when the inhabitants were carried away captives; but, when
   they have returned, the habitations shall be repaired, and raised up
   out of their ruins, and therein God will have mercy upon their dwelling
   places, that had been monuments of his justice. Then the city of
   Jerusalem shall be built upon her own heap, her own hill, though now it
   be no better than a ruinous heap. The situation was unexceptionable,
   and therefore it shall be rebuilt upon the same spot of ground. He that
   can make of a city a heap (Isa. xxv. 2) can when he pleases make of a
   heap a city again. The palace (the temple, God's palace) shall remain
   after the manner thereof; it shall be built after the old model; and
   the service of God shall be constantly kept up there and attended as
   formerly.

   II. That the sacred feasts should again be solemnized (v. 19): Out of
   the city, and the temple, and all the dwelling-places of Jacob, shall
   proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those that make merry. They shall
   go with expressions of joy to the temple service, and with the like
   shall return from it. Observe, The voice of thanksgiving is the same
   with the voice of those that make merry; for whatever is the matter of
   our joy should be the matter of our praise. Is any merry? Let him sing
   psalms. What makes us cheerful should make us thankful. Serve the Lord
   with gladness.

   III. That the people should be multiplied, and increased, and made
   considerable: They shall not be few, they shall not be small, but shall
   become numerous and illustrious, and make a figure among the nations;
   for I will multiply them and I will glorify them. It is for the honour
   of the church to have many added to it that shall be saved. This would
   make them be of some weight among their neighbours. Let a people be
   ever so much diminished and despised, God can multiply and glorify
   them. They shall be restored to their former honour: Their children
   shall be as aforetime, playing in the streets (Zech. viii. 5); they
   shall inherit their parents' estates and honours as formerly; and their
   congregation shall, both in civil and sacred things, be established
   before me. There shall be a constant succession of faithful magistrates
   in the congregation of the elders, to establish that, and of faithful
   worshippers in the congregation of the saints. As one generation passes
   away another shall be raised up, and so the congregation shall be
   established before God.

   IV. That they shall be blessed with a good government (v. 21): Their
   nobles and judges shall be of themselves, of their own nation, and they
   shall no longer be ruled by strangers and enemies; their governor shall
   proceed from the midst of them, shall be one that has been a sharer
   with them in the afflictions of their captive state; and this has
   reference to Christ our governor, David our King (v. 9); he is of
   ourselves, in all things made like unto his brethren. And I will cause
   him to draw near; this may be understood either, 1. Of the people,
   Jacob and Israel: "I will cause them to draw near to me in the temple
   service, as formerly, to come in to covenant with me, as my people (v.
   22), to approach to me in communion; for who hath engaged his heart,
   made a covenant with it, and brought it into bonds, to approach unto
   me?" How few are there that do so! None can do it but by the special
   grace of God causing them to draw near. Note, Whenever we approach to
   God in any holy ordinance we must engage our hearts to do it; the heart
   must be prepared for the duty, employed in it, and kept closely to it.
   The heart is the main thing that God looks at and requires; but it is
   deceitful, and will start aside of a great deal of care and pains be
   not taken to engage it, to bind this sacrifice with cords. Or, 2. It
   may be understood of the governor; for it is a single person that is
   spoken of: Their governor shall be duly called to his office, shall
   draw near to God to consult him upon all occasions. God will cause him
   to approach to him, for, otherwise, who would engage to take care of so
   weak a people, and let this ruin come under their hand? But when God
   has work to do, though attended with many discouragements, he will
   raise up instruments to do it. But it looks further, to Christ, to him
   as Mediator. Note, (1.) The proper work and office of Christ, as
   Mediator, is to draw near and approach unto God, not for himself only,
   but for us, and in our name and stead, as the high priest of our
   profession. The priests are said to draw nigh to God, Lev. x. 3; xxi.
   17. Moses drew near, Exod. xx. 21. (2.) God the Father did cause Jesus
   Christ thus to draw near and approach to him as Mediator. He commanded
   and appointed him to do it; he sanctified and sealed him, anointed him
   for this purpose, accepted him, and declared himself well pleased in
   him. (3.) Jesus Christ, being caused by the Father to approach unto him
   as Mediator, did engage his heart to do it, that is, he bound and
   obliged himself to it, undertook for his heart (so some read it), for
   his soul, that, in the fullness of time, it should be made an offering
   for sin. His own voluntary undertaking, in compliance with his Father's
   will and in compassion to fallen man, engaged him, and then his own
   honour kept him to it. It also intimates that he was hearty and
   resolute, free and cheerful, in it, and made nothing of the
   difficulties that lay in his way, Isa. lxiii. 3-5. (4.) Jesus Christ
   was, in all this, truly wonderful. We may well ask, with admiration,
   Who is this that thus engages his heart to such an undertaking?

   V. That they shall be taken again into covenant with God, according to
   the covenant made with their fathers (v. 22): You shall be my people;
   and it is God's good work in us that makes us to him a people, a people
   for his name, Acts xv. 14. I will be your God. It is his good-will to
   us that is the summary of that part of the covenant.

   VI. That their enemies shall be reckoned with and brought down (v. 20):
   I will punish all those that oppress them, so that it shall appear to
   all a dangerous thing to touch God's anointed, Ps. cv. 15. The last two
   verses come under this head: The whirlwind of the Lord shall fall with
   pain upon the head of the wicked. These two verses we had before (ch.
   xxiii. 19, 20); there they were a denunciation of God's wrath against
   the wicked hypocrites in Israel; here against the wicked oppressors of
   Israel. The expressions, exactly agreeing, speak the same with that
   (Isa. li. 22, 23), I will take the cup of trembling out of thy hand and
   put it into the hand of those that afflict thee. The wrath of God
   against the wicked is here represented to be. 1. Very terrible, like a
   whirlwind, surprising and irresistible. 2. Very grievous. It shall fall
   with pain upon their heads; they shall be as much hurt as frightened.
   3. It shall pursue them. Whirlwinds are usually short, but this shall
   be a continuing whirlwind. 4. It shall accomplish that for which it is
   sent: The anger of the Lord shall not return till he have done it. The
   purposes of his wrath, as well as the purposes of his love, will all be
   fulfilled; he will perform the intents of his heart. 5. Those that will
   not lay this to heart now will then be unable to put off the thoughts
   of it: In the latter days you shall consider it, when it will be too
   late to prevent it.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXI.

   This chapter goes on with the good words and comfortable words which we
   had in the chapter before, for the encouragement of the captives,
   assuring them that God would in due time restore them or their children
   to their own land, and make them a great and happy nation again,
   especially by sending them the Messiah, in whose kingdom and grace many
   of these promises were to have their full accomplishment. I. They shall
   be restored to peace and honour, and joy and great plenty, ver. 1-14.
   II. Their sorrow for the loss of their children shall be at an end,
   ver. 15-17. III. They shall repent of their sins, and God will
   graciously accept them in their repentance, ver. 18-20. IV. They shall
   be multiplied and increased, both their children and their cattle, and
   not be cut off and diminished as they had been, ver. 21-30. V. God will
   renew his covenant with them, and enrich it with spiritual blessings,
   ver. 31-34. VI. These blessings shall be secured to theirs after them,
   even to the spiritual seed of Israel for ever, ver. 35-37. VII. As an
   earnest of this the city of Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, ver. 38-40.
   These exceedingly great and precious promises were firm foundations of
   hope and full fountains of joy to the poor captives; and we also may
   apply them to ourselves and mix faith with them.

Promises to Israel; Joyful Return from Captivity. (b. c. 594.)

   1 At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the
   families of Israel, and they shall be my people.   2 Thus saith the
   Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the
   wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.   3 The Lord
   hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
   everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.   4
   Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel:
   thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the
   dances of them that make merry.   5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the
   mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as
   common things.   6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the
   mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the
   Lord our God.   7 For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for
   Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye,
   and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.   8 Behold, I
   will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts
   of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with
   child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company
   shall return thither.   9 They shall come with weeping, and with
   supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers
   of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a
   father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

   God here assures his people,

   I. That he will again take them into a covenant relation to himself,
   from which they seemed to be cut off. At the same time, when God's
   anger breaks out against the wicked (ch. xxx. 24), his own people shall
   be owned by him as the children of his love: I will be the God (that
   is, I will show myself to be the God) of all the families of Israel (v.
   1),--not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes,--not of the
   house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their
   families; not only their state in general, but their particular
   families, and the interests of them, shall have the benefit of a
   special relation to God. Note, The families of good people, in their
   family capacity, may apply to God and stay themselves upon him as their
   God. If we and our houses serve the Lord, we and our houses shall be
   protected and blessed by him, Prov. iii. 33.

   II. That he will do for them, in bringing them out of Babylon, as he
   had done for their fathers when he delivered them out of Egypt, and as
   he had purposed to do when he first took them to be his people. 1. He
   puts them in mind of what he did for their fathers when he brought them
   out of Egypt, v. 2. They were then, as these were, a people left of the
   sword, that sword of Pharaoh with which he cut off all the male
   children as soon as they were born (a bloody sword indeed they had
   narrowly escaped) and that sword with which he threatened to cut them
   off when he pursued them to the Red Sea. They were then in the
   wilderness, where they seemed to be lost and forgotten, as these were
   now in a strange land, and yet they found grace in God's sight, were
   owned and highly honoured by him, and blessed with wonderful instances
   of his peculiar favour, and he was at this time going to cause them to
   rest in Canaan. Note, When we are brought very low, and insuperable
   difficulties appear in the way of our deliverance, it is good to
   remember that it has been so with the church formerly, and yet that it
   has been raised up from its low estate and has got to Canaan through
   all the hardships of a wilderness; and God is still the same. 2. They
   put him in mind of what God had done for their fathers, intimating that
   they now saw not such signs, and were ready to ask, as Gideon did,
   Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? It is true, The
   Lord hath appeared of old unto me (v. 3), in Egypt, in the wilderness,
   hath appeared with me and for me, hath been seen in his glory as my
   God. The years of ancient times were glorious years; but now it is
   otherwise; what good will it do us that he appeared of old to us when
   now he is a God that hides himself from us? Isa. xlv. 15. Note, It is
   hard to take comfort from former smiles under present frowns. 3. To
   this he answers with an assurance of the constancy of his love: Yea, I
   have loved thee, not only with an ancient love, but with an everlasting
   love, a love that shall never fail, however the comforts of it may for
   a time be suspended. It is an everlasting love; therefore have I
   extended or drawn out lovingkindness unto thee also, as well as to thy
   ancestors, or, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee to myself as thy
   God, from all the idols to which thou hadst turned aside. Note, It is
   the happiness of those who are through grace interested in the love of
   God that it is an everlasting love (from everlasting in the counsels of
   it, to everlasting in the continuance and consequences of it), and that
   nothing can separate them from that love. Those whom God loves with
   this love he will draw into covenant and communion with himself, by the
   influences of his Spirit upon their souls; he will draw them with
   lovingkindness, with the cords of a man and bands of love, than which
   no attractive can be more powerful.

   III. That he will again form them into a people, and give them a very
   joyful settlement in their own land, v. 4, 5. Is the church of God his
   house, his temple? Is it now in ruins? It is so; but, Again I will
   build thee, and thou shalt be built. Are they parts of this building
   dispersed? They shall be collected and put together again, each in its
   place. If God undertake to build them, they shall be built, whatever
   opposition may be given to it? Is Israel a beautiful virgin? Is she now
   stripped of her ornaments and reduced to a melancholy state? She is so;
   but thou shalt again be adorned and made fine, adorned with thy
   tabrets, or timbrels, the ornaments of thy chamber, and made merry.
   They shall resume their harps which had been hung upon the
   willow-trees, shall tune them, and shall themselves be in tune to make
   use of them. They shall be adorned with their tabrets, for now their
   mirth and music shall be seasonable; it shall be a proper time for it,
   God in his providence shall call them to it, and then it shall be an
   ornament to them; whereas tabrets, at a time of common calamity, when
   God called to mourning, were a shame to them. Or it may refer to their
   use of tabrets in the solemnizing of their religious feasts and their
   going forth in dances then, as the daughters of Shiloh, Judg. xxi. 19,
   21. Our mirth is then indeed an ornament to us when we serve God and
   honour him with it. Is the joy of the city maintained by the products
   of the country? It is so; and therefore it is promised (v. 5), Thou
   shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria, which had been the
   head city of the kingdom of Israel, in opposition to that of Judah; but
   they shall now be united (Ezek. xxxvii. 22), and there shall be such
   perfect peace and security that men shall apply themselves wholly to
   the improvement of their ground: The planters shall plant, not fearing
   the soldiers' coming to eat the fruits of what they had planted, or to
   pluck it up; but they themselves shall eat them freely, as common
   things, not forbidden fruits, not forbidden by the law of God (as they
   were till the fifth year, Lev. xix. 23-25), not forbidden by the
   owners, because there shall be such plenty as to yield enough for all,
   enough for each.

   IV. That they shall have liberty and opportunity to worship God in the
   ordinances of his own appointment, and shall have both invitations and
   inclinations to do so (v. 6): There shall be a day, and a glorious day
   it will be, when the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim, that are set to stand
   sentinel there, to give notice of the approach of the enemy, finding
   that all is very quiet and that there is no appearance of danger, shall
   desire for a time to be discharged from their post, that they may go up
   to Zion, to praise God for the public peace. Or the watchmen that tend
   the vineyards (spoken of v. 5) shall stir up themselves, and one
   another, and all their neighbours, to go and keep the solemn feasts at
   Jerusalem. Now this implies that the service of God shall be again set
   up in Zion, that there shall be a general resort to it, with much
   affection and mutual excitement, as in David's time, Ps. cxxii. 1. But
   that which is most observable here is that the watchmen of Ephraim are
   forward to promote the worship of God at Jerusalem, whereas formerly
   the watchman of Ephraim was hatred against the house of his God (Hos.
   ix. 8), and, in stead of inviting people to Zion, laid snares for those
   that set their faces thitherward, Hos. v. 1. Note, God can make those
   who have been enemies to religion and the true worship of God to become
   encouragers of them and leaders in them. This promise was to have its
   full accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, when the gospel should
   be preached to all these countries, and a general invitation thereby
   given into the church of Christ, of which Zion was a type.

   V. That God shall have the glory and the church both the honour and
   comfort of this blessed change (v. 7): Sing with gladness for Jacob,
   that is, let all her friends and well-wishers rejoice with her, Deut.
   xxxii. 43. Rejoice, you Gentiles with his people, Rom. xv. 10. The
   restoration of Jacob will be taken notice of by all the neighbours, it
   will be matter of joy to them all, and they shall all join with Jacob
   in his joys, and thereby pay him respect and put a reputation upon him.
   Even the chief of the nations, that make the greatest figure, shall
   think it an honour to them to congratulate the restoration of Jacob,
   and shall do themselves the honour to send their ambassadors on that
   errand. Publish you, praise you. In publishing these tidings, praise
   the God of Israel, praise the Israel of God, speak honourably of both.
   The publishers of the gospel must publish it with praise, and therefore
   it is often spoken of in the Psalms as mingled with praises, Ps. lxvii.
   2, 3; cxvi. 2, 3. What we either bring to others or take to ourselves
   the comfort of we must be sure to give God the praise of. Praise you,
   and say, O Lord! save thy people; that is, perfect their salvation, go
   on to save the remnant of Israel, that are yet in bondage; as Ps.
   cxxvi. 3, 4. Note, When we are praising God for what he has done we
   must call upon him for the future favours which his church is in need
   and expectation of; and in praying to him we really praise him and give
   him glory; he takes it so.

   VI. That, in order to a happy settlement in their own land, they shall
   have a joyful return out of the land of their captivity and a very
   comfortable passage homeward (v. 8, 9), and this beginning of mercy
   shall be to them a pledge of all the other blessings here promised. 1.
   Though they are scattered to places far remote, yet they shall be
   brought together from the north country, and from the coasts of the
   earth; wherever they are, God will find them out. 2. Though many of
   them are very unfit for travel, yet that shall be no hindrance to them:
   The blind and the lame shall come; such a good-will shall they have to
   their journey, and such a good heart upon it, that they shall not make
   their blindness and lameness an excuse for staying where they are.
   There companions will be ready to help them, will be eyes to the blind
   and legs to the lame, as good Christians ought to be to one another in
   their travels heavenward, Job xxix. 15. But, above all, their God will
   help them; and let none plead that he is blind who has God for his
   guide, or lame who has God for his strength. The women with child are
   heavy, and it is not fit that they should undertake such a journey,
   much less those that travail with child; and yet, when it is to return
   to Zion, neither the one nor the other shall make any difficulty of it.
   Note, When God calls we must not plead any inability to come; for he
   that calls us will help us, will strengthen us. 3. Though they seem to
   be diminished, and to have become few in numbers, yet, when they come
   all together, they shall be a great company; and so will God's
   spiritual Israel be when there shall be a general rendezvous of them,
   though now they are but a little flock. 4. Though their return will be
   matter of joy to them, yet prayers and tears will be both their stores
   and their artillery (v. 9): They shall come with weeping and with
   supplications, weeping for sin, supplication for pardon; for the
   goodness of God shall lead them to repentance; and they shall weep with
   more bitterness and more tenderness for sin, when they are delivered
   out of their captivity, than ever they did when they were groaning
   under it. Weeping and praying do well together; tears put life into
   prayers, and express the liveliness of the, and prayers help to wipe
   away tears. With favours will I lead them (so the margin reads it); in
   their journey they shall be compassed with God's favours, the fruits of
   his favour. 5. Though they have a perilous journey, yet they shall be
   safe under a divine convoy. Is the country they pass through dry and
   thirsty? I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, not the
   waters of a land-flood, which fail in summer. Is it a wilderness where
   there is no road, no track? I will cause them to walk in a straight
   way, which they shall not miss. Is it a rough and rocky country? Yet
   they shall not stumble. Note, Whithersoever God gives his people a
   clear call he will either find them or make them a ready way; and while
   we are following Providence we may be sure that Providence will not be
   wanting to us. And, lastly, here is a reason given why God will take
   all this care of his people: For I am a Father to Israel, a Father that
   begat him, and therefore will maintain him, that have the care and
   compassion of a father for him (Ps. ciii. 13); and Ephraim is my
   first-born; even Ephraim, who, having gone astray from God, was no more
   worthy to be called a son, shall yet be owned as a first-born,
   particularly dear, and heir of a double portion of blessings. The same
   reason that was given for their release out of Egypt is given for their
   release out of Babylon; they are free-born and therefore must not be
   enslaved, are born to God and therefore must not be the servants of
   men. Exod. iv. 22, 23, Israel is my son, even my first-born; let my son
   go that he may serve me. If we take God for our Father, and join
   ourselves to the church of the first-born, we may be assured that we
   shall want nothing that is good for us.

Restoration of Israel; Promises to Israel. (b. c. 594.)

   10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles
   afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep
   him, as a shepherd doth his flock.   11 For the Lord hath redeemed
   Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
     12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and
   shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for
   wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and
   their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any
   more at all.   13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both
   young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy,
   and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.   14
   And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people
   shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.   15 Thus saith
   the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping;
   Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her
   children, because they were not.   16 Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy
   voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be
   rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of
   the enemy.   17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that
   thy children shall come again to their own border.

   This paragraph is much to the same purport with the last, publishing to
   the world, as well as to the church, the purposes of God's love
   concerning his people. This is a word of the Lord which the nations
   must hear, for it is a prophecy of a work of the Lord which the nations
   cannot but take notice of. Let them hear the prophecy, that they may
   the better understand and improve the performance; and let those that
   hear it themselves declare it to others, declare it in the isles afar
   off. It will be a piece of news that will spread all the world over. It
   will look very great in history; let us see how it looks in prophecy.

   It is foretold, 1. That those who are dispersed shall be brought
   together again from their dispersions: He that scattereth Israel will
   gather him; for he knows whither he scattered them and therefore where
   to find them, v. 10. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit--The hand
   that inflicted the wound shall heal it. And when he has gathered him
   into one body, one fold, he will keep him, as a shepherd does his
   flock, from being scattered again. 2. That those who are sold and
   alienated shall be redeemed and brought back, v. 11. Though the enemy
   that had got possession of him was stronger than he, yet the Lord, who
   is stronger than all. has redeemed and ransomed him, not by price, but
   by power, as of old out of the Egyptians' hands. 3. That with their
   liberty they shall have plenty and joy, and God shall be honoured and
   served with it, v. 12, 13. When they shall have returned to their own
   land they shall come and sing in the high place of Zion; on the top of
   that holy mountain they shall sing to the praise and glory of God. We
   read that they did so when the foundation of the temple was laid there;
   they sang together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, Ezra iii.
   11. They shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord; that is, they
   shall flock in great numbers and with great forwardness and
   cheerfulness, as streams of water, to the goodness of the Lord, to the
   temple where he causes his goodness to pass before his people. They
   shall come together in solemn assemblies, to praise him for his
   goodness, and to pray for the fruits of it and the continuance of it;
   they shall come to bless him for his goodness, in giving them wheat,
   and wine, and oil, and the young of the flock and of the herd, which,
   now that they have obtained their freedom, they have an uncontested
   property in and the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of, and which
   therefore they honour God with the first-fruits of and out of which
   they bring offerings to his altar. Note, It is comfortable to observe
   the goodness of the Lord in the gifts of common providence, and even in
   them to taste covenant-love. Having plenty (plenty out of want and
   scarcity) they shall greatly rejoice, their soul shall be as a watered
   garden, flourishing and fruitful (Isa. lviii. 11), pleasant and
   fragrant, and abounding in all good things. Note, Our souls are never
   valuable as gardens but when they are watered with the dews of God's
   Spirit and grace. It is a precious promise which follows, and which
   will not have its full accomplishment any where on this side the height
   of the heavenly Zion, that they shall not sorrow any more at all; for
   it is only in that new Jerusalem that all tears shall be wiped away,
   Rev. xxi. 4. However, so far it was fulfilled to the returned captives
   that they had not any more those causes for sorrow which they had
   formerly had; and therefore (v. 13) young men and old shall rejoice
   together; so grave shall the young men be in their joys as to keep
   company with the old men, and so transported shall the old men be as to
   associate with the young. Salva res est, saltat senex--The state
   prospers, and the aged dance. God will turn their mourning into joy,
   their fasts into solemn feasts, Zech. viii. 19. It was in the return
   out of Babylon that those who sowed in tears were made to reap in joy,
   Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. Those are comforted indeed whom God comforts, and may
   forget their troubles when he makes them to rejoice from their sorrow,
   not only rejoice after it, but rejoice from it their joy shall borrow
   lustre from their sorrow, which shall serve as a foil to it; and the
   more they think of their troubles the more they rejoice in their
   deliverance. 4. That both the ministers and those they minister to
   shall have abundant satisfaction in what God gives them (v. 14): I will
   satiate the soul of the priests with fatness; there shall be such a
   plenty of sacrifices brought to the altar that those who live upon the
   altar shall live very comfortably, they and their families shall be
   satiated with fatness, they shall have enough, and that of the best;
   and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, and shall think
   there is enough in that to make them happy; and so there is. God's
   people have an abundant satisfaction in God's goodness, though they
   have but little of this world. Let them be satisfied of God's
   lovingkindness, and they will be satisfied with it and desire no more
   to make them happy. All this is applicable to the spiritual blessings
   which the redeemed of the Lord enjoy by Jesus Christ, infinitely more
   valuable than corn, and wine, and oil, and the satisfaction of soul
   which they have in the enjoyment of them. 5. That those particularly
   who had been in sorrow for the loss of their children who were carried
   into captivity should have that sorrow turned into joy upon their
   return, v. 15-17. Here we have, (1.) The sad lamentation which the
   mothers made for the loss of their children (v. 15): In Ramah was there
   a voice heard, at the time when the general captivity was, nothing but
   lamentation, and bitter weeping, more there than in other places,
   because there Nebuzaradan had the general rendezvous of his captives,
   as appears, ch. xl. 1, where we find him sending Jeremiah back from
   Ramah. Rachel is here said to weep for her children. The sepulchre of
   Rachel was between Ramah and Bethlehem. Benjamin, one of the two
   tribes, and Ephraim, head of the ten tribes, were both descendants from
   Rachel. She had but two sons, the elder of whom was one for whom his
   father grieved and refused to be comforted (Gen. xxxvii. 35); the other
   she herself called Benoni--the son of my sorrow. Now the inhabitants of
   Ramah did in like manner grieve for their sons and their daughters that
   were carried away (as 1 Sam. xxx. 6), and such a voice of lamentation
   was there as, to speak poetically, might even have raised Rachel out of
   her grave to mourn with them. The tender parents even refused to be
   comforted for their children, because they were not, were not with
   them, but were in the hands of their enemies; they were never likely to
   see them any more. This is applied by the evangelists to the great
   mourning that was at Bethlehem for the murder of the infants there by
   Herod (Matt. ii. 17-18), and this scripture is said to be then
   fulfilled. They wept for them, and would not be comforted, supposing
   the case would not admit any ground of comfort, because they were not.
   Note, Sorrow for the loss of children cannot but be great sorrow,
   especially if we so far mistake as to think they are not. (2.)
   Seasonable comfort administered to them in reference hereunto, v. 16,
   17. They are advised to moderate that sorrow, and to set bounds to it:
   Refrain thy voice from weeping and thy eyes from tears. We are not
   forbidden to mourn in such a case; allowances are made for natural
   affection. But we must not suffer our sorrow to run into an extreme, to
   hinder our joy in God, or take us off from our duty to him. Though we
   mourn, we must not murmur, nor must we resolve, as Jacob did, to go to
   the grave mourning. In order to repress inordinate grief, we must
   consider that there is hope in our end, hope that there will be an end
   (the trouble will not last always), that it will be a happy and--the
   end will be peace. Note, It ought to support us under our troubles that
   we have reason to hope they will end well. The righteous has hope in
   his death; that will be the blessed period of his grief and the blessed
   passage to his joys. "There is hope for thy posterity" (so some read
   it); "though thou mayest not live to see these glorious days thyself,
   there is hope that thy posterity shall. Though one generation falls in
   the wilderness, the next shall enter Canaan. Two things thou mayest
   comfort thyself with the hope of:"--[1.] "The reward of thy work:--Thy
   suffering work shall be rewarded. The comforts of the deliverance shall
   be sufficient to balance all the grievances of thy captivity." God
   makes his people glad according to the days wherein he has afflicted
   them, and so there is a proportion between the joys and the sorrows, as
   between the reward and the work. The glory to be revealed, which the
   saints hope for in the end, will abundantly countervail the sufferings
   of this present time, Rom. viii. 18. [2.] "The restoration of thy
   children: They shall come again from the land of the enemy (v. 16);
   they shall come again to their own border," v. 17. There is hope that
   children at a distance may be brought home. Jacob had a comfortable
   meeting with Joseph after he had despaired of ever seeing him. There is
   hope concerning children removed by death that they shall return to
   their own border, to the happy lot assigned them in the resurrection, a
   lot in the heavenly Canaan, that border of his sanctuary. We shall see
   reason to repress our grief for the death of our children that are
   taken into covenant with God when we consider the hopes we have of
   their resurrection to eternal life. They are not lost, but gone before.

Ephraim's Repentance and Privilege; Encouragements to the Captives. (b. c.
594.)

   18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast
   chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the
   yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my
   God.   19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I
   was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even
   confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.   20 Is
   Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against
   him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are
   troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
   21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward
   the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of
   Israel, turn again to these thy cities.   22 How long wilt thou go
   about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new
   thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.   23 Thus saith the
   Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in
   the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again
   their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and
   mountain of holiness.   24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and
   in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth
   with flocks.   25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have
   replenished every sorrowful soul.   26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld;
   and my sleep was sweet unto me.

   We have here,

   I. Ephraim's repentance, and return to God. Not only Judah, but Ephraim
   the ten tribes, shall be restored, and therefore shall thus be prepared
   and qualified for it, Hos. xiv. 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I do to
   any more with idols? Ephraim the people, is here spoken of as a single
   person to denote their unanimity; they shall be as one man in their
   repentance and shall glorify God in it with one mind and one mouth, one
   and all. It is likewise thus expressed that it might be the better
   accommodated to particular penitents, for whose direction and
   encouragement this passage is intended. Ephraim is here brought in
   weeping for sin, perhaps because Ephraim, the person from whom that
   tribe had its denomination, was a man of a tender spirit, mourned for
   his children many days (1 Chron. vii. 21, 22), and sorrow for sin is
   compared to that for an only son. This penitent is here brought in, 1.
   Bemoaning himself and the miseries of his present case. True penitents
   do thus bemoan themselves. 2. Accusing himself, laying a load upon
   himself as a sinner, a great sinner. He charges upon himself, in the
   first place, that sin which his conscience told him that he was more
   especially guilty of at this time, and that was impatience under
   correction: "Thou has chastised me; I have been under the rod, and I
   needed it, I deserved it; I was justly chastised, chastised as a
   bullock, who would never have felt the goad if he had not first
   rebelled against the yoke." True penitents look upon their afflictions
   as fatherly chastisements: "Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised;
   that is, it was well that I was chastised, otherwise I should have been
   undone; it did me good, or at least was intended to do me good; and yet
   I have been impatient under it." Or it may intimate his want of feeling
   under the affliction: "Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, that
   was all; I was not awakened by it and quickened by it; I looked no
   further than the chastisement. I have been under the chastisement as a
   bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, unruly and unmanageable, kicking
   against the pricks, like a wild bull in a net," Isa. li. 20. This is
   the sin he finds himself guilty of now; but (v. 19) he reflects upon
   his former sins and looks as far back as the days of his youth. The
   discovery of one sin should put us upon searching out more; now he
   remembers the reproach of his youth. Ephraim, as a people, reflect upon
   the misconduct of their ancestors when they were first formed in a
   people. It is applicable to particular persons. Note, The sin of our
   youth was the reproach of our youth, and we ought often to remember it
   against ourselves and to bear it in a penitential sorrow and shame. 3.
   He is here brought in angry at himself, having a holy indignation at
   himself for his sin and folly: He smote upon his thigh, as the publican
   upon his breast. He was even amazed at himself, and at his own
   stupidity and frowardness: He was ashamed, yea even confounded, could
   not with any confidence look up to God, nor with any comfort reflect
   upon himself. 4. He is here recommending himself to the mercy and grace
   of God. He finds he is bent to backslide from God, and cannot by any
   power of his own keep himself close with God, much less, when he has
   revolted, bring himself back to God, and therefore he prays, Turn thou
   me and I shall be turned, which implies that unless God do turn him by
   his grace he shall never be turned, but wander endlessly, that
   therefore he is very desirous of converting grace, has a dependence
   upon it, and doubts not but that that grace will be sufficient for him,
   to help him over all the difficulties that were in the way of his
   return to God. See ch. xvii. 14, Heal me and I shall be healed. God
   works with power, can make the unwilling willing; if he undertake the
   conversion of a soul, it will be converted. 5. He is here pleasing
   himself with the experience he had of the blessed effect of divine
   grace: Surely after that I was turned I repented. Note, All the pious
   workings of our heart towards God are the fruit and consequence of the
   powerful working of his grace in us. And observe, He was turned, he was
   instructed, his will was bowed to the will of God, by the right in
   forming of his judgment concerning the truths of God. Note, The way God
   takes of converting souls to himself is by opening the eyes of their
   understandings, and all good follows thereupon: After that I was
   instructed I yielded, I smote upon my thigh. When sinners come to a
   right knowledge they will come to a right way. Ephraim was chastised,
   and that did not produce the desired effect, it went no further: I was
   chastised, and that was all. But, when the instructions of God's Spirit
   accompanied the corrections of his providence, then the work was done,
   then he smote upon his thigh, was so humbled for sin as to have no more
   to do with it.

   II. God's compassion on Ephraim and the kind reception he finds with
   God, v. 20. 1. God owns him for a child and a prodigal: Is Ephraim my
   dear son? Is he a pleasant child? Thus when Ephraim bemoans himself God
   bemoans him, as one whom his mother comforts, though she had chidden
   him, Isa. lxvi. 13. Is this Ephraim my dear son? Is this that pleasant
   child? Is it he that is thus sad in spirit and that complains so
   bitterly? So it is like that of Saul (1 Sam. xxvi. 17), Is this thy
   voice, my son David? Or, as it is sometimes supplied, Is not Ephraim my
   dear son? Is he not a pleasant child? Yes, now he is, now he repents
   and returns. Note, Those that have been undutiful backsliding children,
   if they sincerely return and repent, however they have been under the
   chastisement of the rod, shall be accepted of God as dear and pleasant
   children. Ephraim had afflicted himself, but God thus heals him--had
   abased himself, but God thus honours him; as the returning prodigal who
   thought himself no more worthy to be called a son, yet, by his father,
   had the best robe put on him and a ring on his hand. 2. He relents
   towards him, and speaks of him with a great deal of tender compassion:
   Since I spoke against him, by the threatenings of the word and the
   rebukes of providence, I do earnestly remember him still, my thoughts
   towards him are thoughts of peace. Note, When God afflicts his people,
   yet he does not forget them; when he casts them out of their land, yet
   he does not cast them out of sight, nor out of mind. Even then when God
   is speaking against us, yet he is acting for us, and designing our good
   in all; and this is our comfort in our affliction, thatthe Lord thinks
   upon us, though we have forgotten him. I remember him still, and
   therefore my bowels are troubled for him, as Joseph's yearned towards
   his brethren, even when he spoke roughly to them. When Israel's
   afflictions extorted a penitent confession and submission it is said
   that his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel (Judg. x. 16), for
   he always afflicts with the greatest tenderness. It was God's
   compassion that mitigated Ephraim's punishment: My heart is turned
   within me (Hos. xi. 8, 9); and now the same compassion accepted
   Ephraim's repentance. Ephraim had pleaded (v. 18), Thou art the Lord my
   God, therefore to thee will I return, therefore on thy mercy and grace
   I will depend; and God shows that it was a valid plea and prevailing,
   for he makes it appear both that he is God and not man and that he is
   his God. 3. He resolves to do him good: I will surely have mercy upon
   him, saith the Lord, Note, God has mercy in store, rich mercy, sure
   mercy, suitable mercy, for all that insincerity seek him and submit to
   him; and the more we are afflicted for sin the better prepared we are
   for the comforts of that mercy.

   III. Gracious excitements and encouragements given to the people of God
   in Babylon to prepare for their return to their own land. Let them not
   tremble and lose their spirits; let them not trifle and lose their
   time; but with a firm resolution and a close application address
   themselves to their journey, v. 21, 22. 1. They must think of nothing
   but of coming back to their own country, out of which they had been
   driven: "Turn again, O virgin of Israel! a virgin to be again espoused
   to thy God; turn again to these thy cities; though they are laid waste
   and in ruins, they are thy cities, which thy God gave thee, and
   therefore turn again to them." They must be content in Babylon no
   longer than till they had liberty to return to Zion. 2. They must
   return the same way that they went, that the remembrance of the sorrows
   which attended them, or which their fathers had told them of, in such
   and such places upon the road, the sight of which would, by a local
   memory, put them in mind of them, might make them the more thankful for
   their deliverance. Those that have departed from God into the bondage
   of sin must return by the way in which they went astray, to the duties
   they neglected, must do their first works. 3. They must engage
   themselves and all that is within them in this affair: Set thy heart
   towards the highway; bring thy mind to it; consider thy duty, the
   interest, and go about it with a good-will. Note, The way from Babylon
   to Zion, from the bondage of sin to the glorious liberty of God's
   children, is a highway; it is right, it is plain, it is safe, it is
   well-tracked (Isa. xxxv. 8); yet none are likely to walk in it, unless
   they set their hearts towards it. 4. They must furnish themselves with
   all needful accommodations for the journey: Set thee up way-marks, and
   make thee high heaps or pillars; send before to have such set up in all
   places where there is any danger of missing the road. Let those that go
   first, and are best acquainted with the way, set up such directions for
   those that follow. 5. They must compose themselves for their journey:
   How long will thou go about, O backsliding daughter? Let not their
   minds fluctuate, or be uncertain about it, but resolve upon it; let
   them not distract themselves with care and fear; let them not seek
   about to creatures for assistance, not hurry hither and thither in
   courting them, which had often been an instance of their backsliding
   from God; but let them cast themselves upon God, and then let their
   minds be fixed. 6. They are encouraged to do this by an assurance God
   gives them that he would create a new thing (strange and surprising) in
   the earth (in that land), a woman shall compass a man. The church of
   God, that is weak and feeble as a woman, altogether unapt for military
   employments and of a timorous spirit (Isa. liv. 6), shall surround,
   besiege, and prevail against a mighty man. The church is compared to a
   woman, Rev. xii. 1. And, whereas we find armies compassing the camp of
   the saints (Rev. xx. 9), now the camp of the saints shall compass them.
   Many good interpreters understand this new thing created in that land
   to be the incarnation of Christ, which God an eye to in bringing them
   back to that land, and which had sometimes been given them for a sign,
   Isa. vii. 14; ix. 6. A woman, the virgin Mary, enclosed in her womb the
   Mighty One; for so Geber, the word here used, signifies; and God is
   called Gibbor, the Mighty God (ch. xxxii. 18), as also is Christ in
   Isa. ix. 6, where his incarnation is spoken of, as it is supposed to be
   here. He is El-Gibbor, the mighty God. Let this assure them that God
   would not cast off this people, for that blessing was to be among them,
   Isa. lxv. 8.

   IV. A comfortable prospect given them of a happy settlement in their
   own land again. 1. They shall have an interest in the esteem and
   good-will of all their neighbours, who will give them a good word and
   put up a good prayer for them (v. 23): As yet or rather yet again
   (though Judah and Jerusalem have long been an astonishment and a
   hissing), this speech shall be used, as it was formerly, concerning the
   land of Judah and the cities thereof, The Lord bless you, O habitation
   of justice and mountain of holiness! This intimates that they shall
   return much reformed and every way better; and this reformation shall
   be so conspicuous that all about them shall take notice of it. The
   cities, that used to be nests of pirates, shall be habitations of
   justice; the mountain of Israel (so the whole land is called, Ps.
   lxxviii. 54), and especially Mount Zion, shall be a mountain of
   holiness. Observe, Justice towards men, and holiness towards God, must
   go together. Godliness and honesty are what God has joined, and let no
   man think to put them asunder, not to make one to atone for the want of
   the other. It is well with a people when they come out of trouble thus
   refined, and it is a sure presage of further happiness. And we may with
   great comfort pray for the blessing of God upon those houses that are
   habitations of justice, those cities and countries that are mountains
   of holiness. There the Lord will undoubtedly command the blessing. 2.
   There shall be great plenty of all good things among them (v. 24, 25):
   There shall dwell in Judah itself, even in it, though it has now long
   lain waste, both husbandmen and shepherds, the two ancient and
   honourable employments of Cain and Abel, Gen. iv. 2. It is comfortable
   dwelling in a habitation of justice and a mountain of holiness. "And
   the husbandmen and shepherds shall eat of the fruit of their labours;
   for I have satiated the weary and sorrowful soul;" that is, those that
   came weary from their journey, and have been long sorrowful in their
   captivity, shall now enjoy great plenty. This is applicable to the
   spiritual blessings God has in store for all true penitents, for all
   that are just and holy; they shall be abundantly satisfied with divine
   graces and comforts. In the love and favour of God the weary soul shall
   find rest and the sorrowful soul joy.

   V. The prophet tells us what pleasure the discovery of this brought to
   his mind, v. 26. The foresights God had given him sometimes of the
   calamities of Judah and Jerusalem were exceedingly painful to him (as
   ch. iv. 19), but these views were pleasant ones, though at a distance.
   "Upon this I awaked, overcome with joy, which burst the fetters of
   sleep; and I reflected upon my dream, and it was such as had made my
   sleep sweet to me; I was refreshed, as men are with quiet sleep." Those
   may sleep sweetly that lie down and rise up in the favour of God and in
   communion with him. Nor is any prospect in this world more pleasing to
   good men, and good ministers, than that of the flourishing state of the
   church of God. What can we see with more satisfaction than the good of
   Jerusalem, all the days of our life, and peace upon Israel?

God's Covenant Renewed. (b. c. 594.)

   27 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of
   Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed
   of beast.   28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched
   over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to
   destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to
   plant, saith the Lord.   29 In those days they shall say no more, The
   fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on
   edge.   30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that
   eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.   31 Behold, the
   days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the
   house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:   32 Not according to the
   covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
   the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they
   brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord:   33 But
   this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel;
   After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward
   parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they
   shall be my people.   34 And they shall teach no more every man his
   neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they
   shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,
   saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
   their sin no more.

   The prophet, having found his sleep sweet, made so by the revelations
   of divine grace, sets himself to sleep again, in hopes of further
   discoveries, and is not disappointed; for it is here further promised,

   I. That the people of God shall become both numerous and prosperous.
   Israel and Judah shall be replenished both with men and cattle, as if
   they were sown with the seed of both, v. 27. They shall increase and
   multiply like a field sown with corn; and this is the product of God's
   blessing (v. 23), for whom God blessed, to them he said, Be fruitful.
   This should be a type of the wonderful increase of the gospel-church.
   God will build them, and plant them, v. 28. He will watch over them to
   do them good; no opportunity shall be lost that may further their
   prosperity. Every thing for a long time had turned so much against
   them, and all occurrences did so transpire to ruin them, that it seemed
   as if God had watched over them to pluck up and to throw down; but now
   every thing that falls out shall happily fall in to strengthen and
   advance their interests. God will be as ready to comfort those that
   repent of their sins, and are humbled for them, as he is to punish
   those that continue in love with their sins, and are hardened in them.

   II. That they shall be reckoned with no further for the sins of their
   fathers (v. 29, 30): They shall say no more (they shall have no more
   occasion to say) that God visits the iniquity of the parents upon the
   children, which God had done in the captivity, for the sins of their
   ancestors came into the account against them, particularly those of
   Manasseh: this they had complained of as a hardship. Other scriptures
   justify God in this method of proceeding, and our Saviour tells the
   wicked Jews in his days that they should smart for their fathers' sins,
   because they persisted in them, Matt. xxiii. 35, 36. But it is here
   promised that this severe dispensation with them should now be brought
   to an end, that God would proceed no further in his controversy with
   them for their fathers' sins, but remember for them his covenant with
   their fathers and do them good according to that covenant: They shall
   no more complain, as they have done, that the fathers have eaten sour
   grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge (which speaks something
   of an absurdity, and is an invidious reflection upon God's
   proceedings), but every one shall die for his own iniquity still;
   though God will cease to punish them in their national capacity, yet he
   will still reckon with particular persons that provoke him. Note,
   Public salvations will give no impunity, no security, to private
   sinners: still every man that eats the sour grapes shall have his teeth
   set on edge. Note, Those that eat forbidden fruit, how tempting soever
   it looks, will find it a sour grape, and it will set their teeth on
   edge; sooner or later they will feel from it and reflect upon it with
   bitterness. There is as direct a tendency in sin to make a man uneasy
   as there is in sour grapes to set the teeth on edge.

   III. That God will renew his covenant with them, so that all these
   blessings they shall have, not by providence only, but by promise, and
   thereby they shall be both sweetened and secured. But this covenant
   refers to gospel times, the latter days that shall come; for of gospel
   grace the apostle understands it (Heb. viii. 8, 9, &c.), where this
   whole passage is quoted as a summary of the covenant of grace made with
   believers in Jesus Christ. Observe, 1. Who the persons are with whom
   this covenant is made--with the house of Israel and Judah, with the
   gospel church, the Israel of God on which peace shall be (Gal. vi. 16),
   with the spiritual seed of believing Abraham and praying Jacob. Judah
   and Israel had been two separate kingdoms, but were united after their
   return, in the joint favours God bestowed upon them; so Jews and
   Gentiles were in the gospel church and covenant. 2. What is the nature
   of this covenant in general: it is a new covenant and not according to
   the covenant made with them when they came out of Egypt; not as if that
   made with them at Mount Sinai were a covenant of nature and innocency,
   such as was made with Adam in the day he was created; no, that was, for
   substance, a covenant of grace, but it was a dark dispensation of that
   covenant in comparison with this in gospel times. Sinners were saved by
   that covenant upon their repentance, and faith in a Messiah to come,
   whose blood, confirming that covenant, was typified by that of the
   legal sacrifices, Exod. xxiv. 7, 8. Yet this may upon many accounts be
   called new, in comparison with that; the ordinances and promises are
   more spiritual and heavenly, and the discoveries much more clear. That
   covenant God made with them when he took them by the hand, as they had
   been blind, or lame, or weak, to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
   which covenant they broke. Observe, It was God that made this covenant,
   but it was the people that broke it; for our salvation is of God, but
   our sin and ruin are of ourselves. It was an aggravation of their
   breach of it that God was a husband to them, that he had espoused them
   to himself; it was a marriage-covenant that was between him and them,
   which they broke by idolatry, that spiritual adultery. It is a great
   aggravation of our treacherous departures from God that he has been a
   husband to us, a loving, tender, careful husband, faithful to us, and
   yet we false to him. 3. What are the particular articles of his
   covenant. They all contain spiritual blessings; not, "I will give them
   the land of Canaan and a numerous issue," but, "I will give them
   pardon, and peace, and grace, good heads and good hearts." He promises,
   (1.) That he will incline them to their duty; I will put my law in
   their inward part and write it in their heart; not, I will give them a
   new law (as Mr. Gataker well observes), for Christ came not to destroy
   the law, but to fulfil it; but the law shall be written in their hearts
   by the finger of the Spirit as formerly it was written in the tables of
   stone. God writes his law in the hearts of all believers, makes it
   ready and familiar to them, at hand when they have occasion to use it,
   as that which is written in the heart, Prov. iii. 3. He makes them in
   care to observe it, for that which we are solicitous about is said to
   lie near our hearts. He works in them a disposition to obedience, a
   conformity of thought and affection to the rules of the divine law, as
   that of the copy to the original. This is here promised, and ought to
   be prayed for, that our duty may be done conscientiously and with
   delight. (2.) That he will take them into relation to himself: I will
   be their God, a God all-sufficient to them, and they shall be my
   people, a loyal obedient people to me. God's being to us a God is the
   summary of all happiness; heaven itself is no more, Heb. xi. 16; Rev.
   xxi. 3. Our being to him a people may be taken either as the condition
   on our part (those and those only shall have God to be to them a God
   that are truly willing to engage themselves to be to him a people) or
   as a further branch of the promise that God will by his grace make us
   his people, a willing people, in the day of his power; and, whoever are
   his people, it is his grace that makes them so. (3.) That there shall
   be an abundance of the knowledge of God among all sorts of people, and
   this will have an influence upon all good: for those that rightly know
   God's name will seek him, and serve him, and put their trust in him (v.
   34): All shall know me; all shall be welcome to the knowledge of God
   and shall have the means of that knowledge; his ways shall be known
   upon earth, whereas, for many ages, in Judah only was God known. Many
   more shall know God than did in the Old Testament times, which among
   the Gentiles were times of ignorance, the true God being to them an
   unknown God. The things of God shall in gospel times be made more plain
   and intelligible, and level to the capacities of the meanest, than they
   were while Moses had a veil upon his face. There shall be such a
   general knowledge of God that there shall not be so much need as had
   formerly been of teaching. Some take it as a hyperbolical expression
   (and the dulness of the Jews needed such expressions to awaken them),
   designed only to show that the knowledge of God in gospel times should
   vastly exceed that knowledge of him which they had under the law. Or
   perhaps it intimates that in gospel times there shall be such great
   plenty of public preaching, statedly and constantly, by men authorized
   and appointed to preach the word in season and out of season, much
   beyond what was under the law, that there shall be less need than there
   was then of fraternal teaching, by a neighbour and a brother. The
   priests preached but now and then, and in the temple, and to a few in
   comparison; but now all shall or may know God by frequenting the
   assemblies of Christians, wherein, through all parts of the church, the
   good knowledge of God shall be taught. Some give this sense of it (Mr.
   Gataker mentions it), That many shall have such clearness of
   understanding in the things of God that they may seem rather to have
   been taught by some immediate irradiation than by any means of
   instruction. In short, the things of God shall by the gospel of Christ
   be brought to a clearer light than ever (2 Tim. i. 10), and the people
   of God shall by the grace of Christ be brought to a clearer sight of
   those things than ever, Eph. i. 17, 18. (4.) That, in order to all
   these blessings, sin shall be pardoned. This is made the reason of all
   the rest: For I will forgive their iniquity, will not impute that to
   them, nor deal with them according to the desert of that, will forgive
   and forget: I will remember their sin no more. It is sin that keeps
   good things from us, that stops the current of God's favours; let sin
   betaken away by pardoning mercy, and the obstruction is removed, and
   divine grace runs down like a river, like a mighty stream.

Evangelical Promises; The Rebuilding of Jerusalem. (b. c. 594.)

   35 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and
   the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which
   divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his
   name:   36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord,
   then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me
   for ever.   37 Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured,
   and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast
   off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
     38 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be
   built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the
   corner.   39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it
   upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.   40 And the
   whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields
   unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the
   east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor
   thrown down any more for ever.

   Glorious things have been spoken in the foregoing verses concerning the
   gospel church, which that epocha of the Jewish church that was to
   commence at the return from captivity would at length terminate in, and
   which all those promises were to have their full accomplishment in. But
   may we depend upon these promises? Yes, we have here a ratification of
   them, and the utmost assurance imaginable given of the perpetuity of
   the blessings contained in them. The great thing here secured to us is
   that while the world stands God will have a church in it, which, though
   sometimes it may be brought very low, shall yet be raised again, and
   its interests re-established; it is built upon a rock, and the gates of
   hell shall not prevail against it. Now here are two things offered for
   the confirmation of our faith in this matter--the building of the world
   and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

   I. The building of the world, and the firmness and lastingness of that
   building, are evidences of the power and faithfulness of that God who
   has undertaken the establishment of his church. He that built all
   things at first is God (Heb. iii. 4), and the same is he that makes all
   things now. The constancy of the glories of the kingdom of nature may
   encourage us to depend upon the divine promise for the continuance of
   the glories of the kingdom of grace, for this is as the waters of Noah,
   Isa. liv. 9. Let us observe here,

   1. The glories of the kingdom of nature, and infer thence how happy
   those are that have this God, the God of nature, to be their God for
   ever and ever. Take notice, (1.) Of the steady and regular motion of
   the heavenly bodies, which God is the first mover and supreme director
   of: He gives the sun for a light by day (v. 35), not only made it at
   first to be so, but still gives it to be so; for the light and heat,
   and all the influences of the sun, continually depend upon its great
   Creator. He gives the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by
   night; their motions are called ordinances both because they are
   regular and by rule and because they are determined and under rule. See
   Job xxxviii. 31-33. (2.) Take notice of the government of the sea, and
   the check that is given to its proud billows: The Lord of hosts divides
   the sea, or (as some read it) settles the sea, when the waves thereof
   roar (divide et impera--divide and rule); when it is most tossed God
   keeps it within compass (Jer. v. 22), and soon quiets it and makes it
   calm again. The power of God is to be magnified by us, not only in
   maintaining the regular motions of the heavens, but in controlling the
   irregular motions of the seas. (3.) Take notice of the vastness of the
   heavens and the unmeasurable extent of the firmament; he must needs be
   a great God who manages such a great world as this is; the heavens
   above cannot be measured (v. 37), and yet God fills them. (4.) Take
   notice of the mysteriousness even of that part of the creation in which
   our lot is cast and which we are most conversant with. The foundations
   of the earth cannot be searched out beneath, for the Creator hangs the
   earth upon nothing (Job xxvi. 7), and we know not how the foundations
   thereof are fastened, Job xxxviii. 6. (5.) Take notice of the immovable
   stedfastness of all these (v. 36): These ordinances cannot depart from
   before God; he has all the hosts of heaven and earth continually under
   his eye and all the motions of both; he has established them, and they
   abide, abide according to his ordinance, for all are his servants, Ps.
   cxix. 90, 91. The heavens are often clouded, and the sun and moon often
   eclipsed, the earth may quake and the sea be tossed, but they all keep
   their place, are moved, but not removed. Herein we must acknowledge the
   power, goodness, and faithfulness of the Creator.

   2. The securities of the kingdom of grace inferred hence: we may be
   confident of this very thing that the seed of Israel shall not cease
   from being a nation, for the spiritual Israel, the gospel church, shall
   be a holy nation, a peculiar people, 1 Pet. ii. 9. When Israel
   according to the flesh is no longer a nation the children of the
   promise are counted for the seed (Rom. ix. 8) and God will not cast off
   all the seed of Israel, no, not for all that they have done, though
   they have done very wickedly, v. 37. He justly might cast them off, but
   he will not. Though he cast them out from their land, and cast them
   down for a time, yet he will not cast them off. Some of them he casts
   off, but not all; to this the apostle seems to refer (Rom. xi. 1), Hath
   God cast away his people? God forbid that we should think so! For (v.
   5) at this time there is a remnant, enough to save the credit of the
   promise that God will not cast off all the seed of Israel, though many
   among them throw away themselves by unbelief. Now we may be assisted in
   the belief of this by considering, (1.) That the God that has
   undertaken the preservation of the church is a God of almighty power,
   who upholds all things by his almighty word. Our help stands in his
   name who made heaven and earth, and therefore can do any thing. (2.)
   That God would not take all this care of the world but that he designs
   to have some glory to himself out of it; and how shall he have it but
   by securing to himself a church in it, a people that shall be to him
   for a name and a praise? (3.) That if the order of the creation
   therefore continues firm because it was well-fixed at first, and is not
   altered because it needs no alteration, the method of grace shall for
   the same reason continue invariable, as it was a first well settled.
   (4.) That he who has promised to preserve a church for himself has
   approved himself faithful to the word which he has spoken concerning
   the stability of the world. He that is true to his covenant with Noah
   and his sons, because he established it for an everlasting covenant
   (Gen. ix. 9, 16), will not, we may be sure, be false to his covenant
   with Abraham and his seed, his spiritual seed, for that also is an
   everlasting covenant. Even that which they have done amiss, though they
   have done much, shall not prevail to defeat the gracious intentions of
   the covenant. See Ps. lxxxix. 30, &c.

   II. The rebuilding of Jerusalem which was now in ruins, and the
   enlargement and establishment of that, shall be an earnest of these
   great things that God will do for the gospel church, the heavenly
   Jerusalem, v. 38-40. The days will come, though they may be long in
   coming, when, 1. Jerusalem shall be entirely built again, as large as
   ever it was; the dimensions are here exactly described by the places
   through which the circumference passed, and no doubt the wall which
   Nehemiah built, and which, the more punctually to fulfil the prophecy,
   began about the tower of Hananeel, here mentioned (Neh. iii. 1),
   enclosed as much ground as is here intended, though we cannot certainly
   determine the places here called the gate of the corner, the hill
   Gareb, &c. 2. When built it shall be consecrated to God and to his
   service. It shall be built to the Lord (v. 38), and even the suburbs
   and fields adjacent shall be holy unto the Lord. It shall not be
   polluted with idols as formerly, but God shall be praised and honoured
   there; the whole city shall be as it were one temple, one holy place,
   as the new Jerusalem is, which therefore has no temple, because it is
   all temple. 3. Being thus built by virtue of the promise of God, it
   shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down, any more for ever; that is,
   it shall continue very long, the time of the new city from the return
   to its last destruction being fully as long as that of the old from
   David to the captivity. But this promise was to have its full
   accomplishment in the gospel church, which, as it is the spiritual
   Israel, and therefore God will not cast it off, so it is the holy city,
   and therefore all the powers of men shall not pluck it up, nor throw it
   down. It may lie waste for a time, as Jerusalem did, but shall recover
   itself, shall weather the storm and gain its point, and the gates of
   hell shall not prevail against it.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXII.

   In this chapter we have, I. Jeremiah imprisoned for foretelling the
   destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of king Zedekiah, ver. 1-5.
   II. We have him buying land, by divine appointment, as an assurance
   that in due time a happy end should be put to the present troubles,
   ver. 6-15. III. We have his prayer, which he offered up to God upon
   that occasion, ver. 16-25. IV. We have a message which God thereupon
   entrusted him to deliver to the people. 1. He must foretel the utter
   destruction of Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, ver. 26-35. But, 2.
   At the same time he must assure them that, though the destruction was
   total, it should not be final, but that at length their posterity
   should recover the peaceable possession of their own land, ver. 36-44.
   The predictions of this chapter, both threatenings and promises, are
   much the same with what we have already met with again and again, but
   here are some circumstances that are very particular and remarkable.

Judgments Predicted; Jeremiah Imprisoned. (b. c. 589.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of
   Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of
   Nebuchadrezzar.   2 For then the king of Babylon's army besieged
   Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the
   prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.   3 For Zedekiah king
   of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and
   say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand
   of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;   4 And Zedekiah king of
   Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall
   surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall
   speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;   5
   And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I
   visit him, saith the Lord: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall
   not prosper.   6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me,
   saying,   7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come
   unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right
   of redemption is thine to buy it.   8 So Hanameel mine uncle's son came
   to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and
   said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is
   in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and
   the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was
   the word of the Lord.   9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's
   son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen
   shekels of silver.   10 And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it,
   and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.   11 So
   I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed
   according to the law and custom, and that which was open:   12 And I
   gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the
   son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the
   presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase,
   before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.   13 And I
   charged Baruch before them, saying,   14 Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
   the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase,
   both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in
   an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.   15 For thus
   saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and
   vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

   It appears by the date of this chapter that we are now coming very nigh
   to that fatal year which completed the desolations of Judah and
   Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. God's judgments came gradually upon them,
   but, they not meeting him by repentance in the way of his judgments, he
   proceeded in his controversy till all was laid waste, which was in the
   eleventh year of Zedekiah; now what is here recorded happened in the
   tenth. The king of Babylon's army had now invested Jerusalem and was
   carrying on the siege with vigour, not doubting but in a little time to
   make themselves masters of it, while the besieged had taken up a
   desperate resolution not to surrender, but to hold out to the last
   extremity. Now,

   I. Jeremiah prophesies that both the city and the court shall fall into
   the hands of the king of Babylon. He tells them expressly that the
   besiegers shall take the city as a prize, for God, whose city it was in
   a peculiar manner, will give it into their hands and put it out of his
   protection (v. 3),--that, though Zedekiah attempt to make his escape,
   he shall be overtaken, and shall be delivered a prisoner into the hands
   of Nebuchadnezzar, shall be brought into his presence, to his great
   confusion and terror, he having made himself so obnoxious by breaking
   his faith with him, he shall hear the king of Babylon pronounce his
   doom, and see with what fury and indignation he will look upon him (His
   eyes shall behold his eyes, v. 4),--that Zedekiah shall be carried to
   Babylon, and continue a miserable captive there, until God visit him,
   that is, till God put an end to his life by a natural death, as
   Nebuchadnezzar had long before put an end to his days by putting out
   his eyes. Note, Those that live in misery may be truly said to be
   visited in mercy when God by death takes them home to himself. And,
   lastly, he foretels that all their attempts to force the besiegers from
   their trenches shall be ineffectual: Though you fight with the
   Chaldeans, you shall not prosper; how should they, when God did not
   fight for them? v. 5. See ch. xxxiv. 2, 3.

   II. For prophesying thus he is imprisoned, not in the common gaol, but
   in the more creditable prison that was within the verge of the palace,
   in the king of Judah's house, and there not closely confined, but in
   custodia libera--in the court of the prison, where he might have good
   company, good air, and good intelligence brought him, and would be
   sheltered from the abuses of the mob; but, however, it was a prison,
   and Zedekiah shut him up in it for prophesying as he did, v. 2, 3. So
   far was he from humbling himself before Jeremiah, as he ought to have
   done (2 Chron. xxxvi. 12), that he hardened himself against him. Though
   he had formerly so far owned him to be a prophet as to desire him to
   enquire of the Lord for them (ch. xxi. 2), yet now he chides him for
   prophesying (v. 3), and shuts him up in prison, perhaps not with design
   to punish him any further, but only to restrain him from prophesying
   any further, which was crime enough. Silencing God's prophets, though
   it is not so bad as mocking and killing them, is yet a great affront to
   the God of heaven. See how wretchedly the hearts of sinners are
   hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Persecution was one of the sins
   for which God was now contending with them, and yet Zedekiah persists
   in it even now that he was in the depth of distress. No providences, no
   afflictions, will of themselves part between men and their sins, unless
   the grace of God work with them. Nay, some are made worse by those very
   judgments that should make them better.

   III. Being in prison, he purchases from a near relation of his a piece
   of ground that lay in Anathoth, v. 6, 7, &c.

   1. One would not have expected, (1.) That a prophet should concern
   himself so far in the business of this world; but why not? Though
   ministers must not entangle themselves, yet they may concern themselves
   in the affairs of this life. (2.) That one who had neither wife nor
   children should buy land. We find (ch. xvi. 2) that he had no family of
   his own; yet he may purchase for his own use while he lives, and leave
   it to the children of his relations when he dies. (3.) One would little
   have thought that a prisoner should be a purchaser; how should he get
   money beforehand to buy land with? It is probably that he lived
   frugally, and saved something out of what belonged to him as a priest,
   which is no blemish at all to his character; but we have no reason to
   think that the people were kind, or that his being beforehand was owing
   to their generosity. Nay, (4.) It was most strange of all that he
   should buy a piece of land when he himself knew that the whole land was
   now to be laid waste and fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, and then
   what good would this do him? But it was the will of God that he should
   buy it, and he submitted, though the money seemed to be thrown away.
   His kinsman came to offer it to him; it was not of his own seeking; he
   coveted not to lay house to house and field to field, but Providence
   brought it to him, and it was probably a good bargain; besides, the
   right of redemption belonged to him (v. 8), and if he refused he would
   not do the kinsman's part. It is true he might lawfully refuse, but,
   being a prophet, in a thing of this nature he must do that which would
   be for the honour of his profession. It became him to fulfil all
   righteousness. It was land that lay within the suburbs of a priests'
   city, and, if he should refuse it, there was danger lest, in these
   times of disorder, it might be sold to one of another tribe, which was
   contrary to the law, to prevent which it was convenient for him to buy
   it. It would likewise be a kindness to his kinsman, who probably was at
   this time in great want of money. Jeremiah had but a little, but what
   he had he was willing to lay out in such a manner as might tend most to
   the honour of God and the good of his friends and country, which he
   preferred before his own private interests.

   2. Two things may be observed concerning this purchase:--

   (1.) How fairly the bargain was made. When Jeremiah knew by Hanameel's
   coming to him, as God had foretold he would, that it was the word of
   the Lord, that it was his mind that he should make this purchase, he
   made no more difficulty of it, but bought the field. And, [1.] He was
   very honest and exact in paying the money. He weighted him the money,
   did not press him to take it upon his report, though he was his near
   kinsman, but weighed it to him, current money. It was seventeen shekels
   of silver, amounting to about forty shillings of our money. The land
   was probably but a little field and of small yearly value, when the
   purchase was so low; besides, the right of inheritance was in Jeremiah,
   so that he had only to buy out his kinsman's life, the reversion being
   his already. Some think this was only the earnest of a greater sum; but
   we shall not wonder at the smallness of the price if we consider what
   scarcity there was of money at this time and how little lands were
   counted upon. [2.] He was very prudent and discreet in preserving the
   writings. They were subscribed before witnesses. One copy was sealed
   up, the other was open. One was the original, the other the
   counterpart; or perhaps that which was sealed up was for his own
   private use, the other that was open was to be laid up in the public
   register of conveyances, for any person concerned to consult. Due care
   and caution in things of this nature might prevent a great deal of
   injustice and contention. The deeds of purchase were lodged in the
   hands of Baruch, before witnesses, and he was ordered to lay them up in
   an earthen vessel (an emblem of the nature of all the securities this
   world can pretend to give us, brittle things and soon broken), that
   they might continue many days, for the use of Jeremiah's heirs, after
   the return out of captivity; for they might then have the benefit of
   this purchase. Purchasing reversions may be a kindness to those that
   come after us, and a good man thus lays up an inheritance for his
   children's children.

   (2.) What was the design of having this bargain made. It was to signify
   that though Jerusalem was now besieged, and the whole country was
   likely to be laid waste, yet the time should come when houses, and
   fields, and vineyards should be again possessed in this land, v. 15. As
   God appointed Jeremiah to confirm his predictions of the approaching
   destruction of Jerusalem by his own practice in living unmarried, so he
   now appointed him to confirm his predictions of the future restoration
   of Jerusalem by his own practice in purchasing this field. Note, It
   concerns ministers to make it to appear in their whole conversation
   that they do themselves believe that which they preach to others; and
   that they may do so, and impress it the more deeply upon their hearers,
   they must many a time deny themselves, as Jeremiah did in both these
   instances. God having promised that this land should again come into
   the possession of his people, Jeremiah will, on behalf of his heirs,
   put in for a share. Note, It is good to manage even our worldly affairs
   in faith, and to do common business with an eye to the providence and
   promise of God. Lucius Florus relates it as a great instance of the
   bravery of the Roman citizens that in the time of the second Punic war,
   when Hannibal besieged Rome and was very near making himself master of
   it, a field on which part of his army lay, being offered to sale at
   that time, was immediately purchased, in a firm belief that the Roman
   valour would raise the siege, lib. ii. cap. 6. And have not we much
   more reason to venture our all upon the word of God, and to embark in
   Zion's interests, which will undoubtedly be the prevailing interests at
   last? Non si male nunc et olim sic erit--Though now we suffer, we shall
   not suffer always.

Jeremiah's Prayer. (b. c. 589.)

   16 Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch
   the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord, saying,   17 Ah Lord God!
   behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and
   stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:   18 Thou
   shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of
   the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the
   Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name,   19 Great in counsel, and
   mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons
   of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the
   fruit of his doings:   20 Which hast set signs and wonders in the land
   of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and
   hast made thee a name, as at this day;   21 And hast brought forth thy
   people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders,
   and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great
   terror;   22 And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to
   their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;   23
   And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice,
   neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou
   commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to
   come upon them:   24 Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to
   take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that
   fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the
   pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold,
   thou seest it.   25 And thou hast said unto me, O Lord God, Buy thee
   the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the
   hand of the Chaldeans.

   We have here Jeremiah's prayer to God upon occasion of the discoveries
   God had made to him of his purposes concerning this nation, to pull it
   down, and in process of time to build it up again, which puzzled the
   prophet himself, who, though he delivered his messages faithfully, yet,
   in reflecting upon them, was greatly at a loss within himself how to
   reconcile them; in that perplexity he poured out his soul before God in
   prayer, and so gave himself ease. That which disturbed him was not the
   bad bargain he seemed to have made for himself in purchasing a field
   that he was likely to have no good of, but the case of his people, for
   whom he was still a kind and faithful intercessor, and he was willing
   to hope that, if God had so much mercy in store for them hereafter as
   he had promised, he would not proceed with so much severity against
   them now as he had threatened. Before Jeremiah went to prayer he
   delivered the deeds that concerned his new purchase to Baruch, which
   may intimate to us that when we are going to worship God we should get
   our minds as clear as may be from the cares and incumbrances of this
   world. Jeremiah was in prison, in distress, in the dark about the
   meaning of God's providences, and then he prays. Note, Prayer is a
   salve for every sore. Whatever is a burden to us, we may by prayer cast
   it upon the Lord and then be easy.

   In this prayer, or meditation,

   I. Jeremiah adores God and his infinite perfections, and gives him the
   glory due to his name as the Creator, upholder, and benefactor, of the
   whole creation, thereby owning his irresistible power, that he can do
   what he will, and his incontestable sovereignty, that he may do what he
   will, v. 17-19. Note, When at any time we are perplexed about the
   particular methods and dispensations of Providence it is good for us to
   have recourse to our first principles, and to satisfy ourselves with
   the general doctrines of God's wisdom, power, and goodness. Let us
   consider, as Jeremiah does here, 1. That God is the fountain of all
   being, power, life, motion, and perfection: He made the heaven and the
   earth with his outstretched arm; and therefore who can control him? Who
   dares contend with him? 2. That with him nothing is impossible, no
   difficulty insuperable: Nothing is too hard for thee. When human skill
   and power are quite nonplussed, with God are strength and wisdom
   sufficient to master all the opposition. 3. That he is a God of
   boundless bottomless mercy; mercy is his darling attribute; it is his
   goodness that is his glory: "Thou not only art kind, but thou showest
   lovingkindness, not to a few, to here and there one, but to thousands,
   thousands of persons, thousands of generations." 4. That he is a God of
   impartial and inflexible justice. His reprieves are not pardons, but if
   in mercy he spares the parents, that they may be led to repentance, yet
   such a hatred has he to sin, and such a displeasure against sinners,
   that he recompenses their iniquity into the bosom of their children,
   and yet does them no wrong; so hateful is the unrighteousness of man,
   and so jealous of its own honour is the righteousness of God. 5. That
   he is a God of universal dominion and command: He is the great God, for
   he is the mighty God, and might among men makes them great. He is the
   Lord of hosts, of all hosts, that is his name, and he answers to his
   name, for all the hosts of heaven and earth, of men and angels, are at
   his beck. 6. That he contrives every thing for the best, and effects
   every thing as he contrived it: He is great in counsel, so vast are the
   reaches and so deep are the designs of his wisdom; and he is mighty in
   doing, according to the counsel of his will. Now such a God as this is
   not to be quarrelled with. His service is to be constantly adhered to
   and all his disposals cheerfully acquiesced in.

   II. He acknowledges the universal cognizance God takes of all the
   actions of the children of men and the unerring judgment he passes upon
   them (v. 19): Thy eyes are open upon all the sons of men, wherever they
   are, beholding the evil and the good, and upon all their ways, both the
   course they take and every step they take, not as an unconcerned
   spectator, but as an observing judge, to give every one according to
   his ways and according to his deserts, which are the fruit of his
   doings; for men shall find God as they are found of him.

   III. He recounts the great things God had done for his people Israel
   formerly. 1. He brought them out of Egypt, that house of bondage, with
   signs and wonders, which remain, if not in the marks of them, yet in
   the memorials of them, even unto this day; for it would never be
   forgotten, not only in Israel, who were reminded of it every year by
   the ordinance of the passover, but among other men: all the
   neighbouring nations spoke of it, as that which redounded exceedingly
   to the glory of the God of Israel, and made him a name as at this day.
   This is repeated (v. 21), that God brought them forth, not only with
   comforts and joys to them, but with glory to himself, with signs and
   wonders (witness the ten plagues), with a strong hand, too strong for
   the Egyptians themselves, and with a stretched-out arm, that reached
   Pharaoh, proud as he was, and with great terror to them and all about
   them. This seems to refer to Deut. iv. 34. 2. He brought them into
   Canaan, that good land, that land flowing with milk and honey. He swore
   to their fathers to give it them, and, because he would perform his
   oath, he did give it to the children (v. 22) and they came in and
   possessed it. Jeremiah mentions this both as an aggravation of their
   sin and disobedience and also as a plea with God to work deliverance
   for them. Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon the great
   things that God did for his church formerly, especially in the first
   erecting of it, that work of wonder.

   IV. He bewails the rebellions they had been guilty of against God, and
   the judgments God had brought upon them for these rebellions. It is a
   sad account he here gives of the ungrateful conduct of that people
   towards God. He had done every thing that he had promised to do (they
   had acknowledged it, 1 Kings viii. 56), but they had done nothing of
   all that he commanded them to do (v. 23); they made no conscience of
   any of his laws; they walked not in them, paid no respect to any of his
   calls by his prophets, for they obeyed not his voice. And therefore he
   owns that God was righteous in causing all this evil to come upon them.
   The city is besieged, is attacked by the sword without, is weakened and
   wasted by the famine and pestilence within, so that it is ready to fall
   into the hands of the Chaldeans that fight against it (v. 24); it is
   given into their hands, v. 25. Now, 1. He compares the present state of
   Jerusalem with the divine predictions, and finds that what God has
   spoken has come to pass. God had given them fair warning of it before;
   and, if they had regarded this, the ruin would have been prevented;
   but, if they will not do what God has commanded, they can expect no
   other than that he should do what he had threatened. 2. He commits the
   present state of Jerusalem to the divine consideration and compassion
   (v. 24): Behold the mounts, or ramparts, or the engines which they make
   use of to batter the city and beat down the wall of it. And again,
   "Behold thou seest it, and takest cognizance of it. Is this the city
   that thou has chosen to put thy name there? And shall it be thus
   abandoned?" He neither complains of God for what he had done nor
   prescribes to God what he should do, but desires he would behold their
   case, and is pleased to think that he does behold it. Whatever trouble
   we are in, upon a personal or public account, we may comfort ourselves
   with this, that God sees it and sees how to remedy it.

   V. He seems desirous to be let further into the meaning of the order
   God had now given him to purchase his kinsman's field (v. 25): "Though
   the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and no man is likely
   to enjoy what he has, yet thou hast said unto me, Buy thou the field."
   As soon as he understood that it was the mind of God he did it, and
   made no objections, was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; but,
   when he had done it, he desired better to understand why God had
   ordered him to do it, because the thing looked strange and
   unaccountable. Note, Though we are bound to follow God with an implicit
   obedience, yet we should endeavour that it may be more and more an
   intelligent obedience. We must never dispute God's statutes and
   judgments, but we may and must enquire, What mean these statutes and
   judgments? Deut. vi. 20.

Judgments Predicted; Restoration of the Jews; Encouraging Promises. (b. c.
589.)

   26 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,   27 Behold, I
   am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
     28 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will give this city into
   the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of
   Babylon, and he shall take it:   29 And the Chaldeans, that fight
   against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it
   with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal,
   and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
     30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only
   done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have
   only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.
     31 For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and
   of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I
   should remove it from before my face,   32 Because of all the evil of
   the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have
   done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their
   priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants
   of Jerusalem.   33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the
   face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they
   have not hearkened to receive instruction.   34 But they set their
   abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
   35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of
   the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass
   through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came
   it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah
   to sin.   36 And now therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,
   concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the
   hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the
   pestilence;   37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries,
   whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great
   wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause
   them to dwell safely:   38 And they shall be my people, and I will be
   their God:   39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they
   may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after
   them:   40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I
   will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear
   in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.   41 Yea, I will
   rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land
   assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.   42 For thus
   saith the Lord; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this
   people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised
   them.   43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It
   is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the
   Chaldeans.   44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe
   evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin,
   and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in
   the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in
   the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return,
   saith the Lord.

   We have here God's answer to Jeremiah's prayer, designed to quiet his
   mind and make him easy; and it is a full discovery of the purposes of
   God's wrath against the present generation and the purposes of his
   grace concerning the future generations. Jeremiah knew not how to sing
   both of mercy and judgment, but God here teaches to sing unto him of
   both. When we know not how to reconcile one word of God with another we
   may yet be sure that both are true, both are pure, both shall be made
   good, and not one iota or tittle of either shall fall to the ground.
   When Jeremiah was ordered to buy the field in Anathoth he was willing
   to hope that God was about to revoke the sentence of his wrath and to
   order the Chaldeans to raise the siege. "No," says God, "the execution
   of the sentence shall go on; Jerusalem shall be laid in ruins." Note,
   Assurances of future mercy must not be interpreted as securities from
   present troubles. But, lest Jeremiah should think that his being
   ordered to buy this field intimated that all the mercy God had in store
   for his people, after their return, was only that they should have the
   possession of their own land again, he further informs him that that
   was but a type and figure of those spiritual blessings which should
   then be abundantly bestowed upon them, unspeakably more valuable than
   fields and vineyards; so that in this word of the Lord, which came to
   Jeremiah, we have first as dreadful threatenings and then as precious
   promises as perhaps any we have in the Old Testament; life and death,
   good and evil, are here set before us; let us consider and choose
   wisely.

   I. The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem is here pronounced. The decree has
   gone forth, and shall not be recalled. 1. God here asserts his own
   sovereignty and power (v. 27): Behold, I am Jehovah, a self-existent
   self-sufficient being; I am that I am; I am the God of all flesh, that
   is, of all mankind, here called flesh because weak and unable to
   contend with God (Ps. lvi. 4), and because wicked and corrupt and unapt
   to comply with God. God is the Creator of all, and makes what use he
   pleases of all. He that is the God of Israel is the God of all flesh
   and of the spirits of all flesh, and, if Israel were cast off, could
   raise up a people to his name out of some other nation. If he be the
   God of all flesh, he may well ask, Is any thing too hard for me? What
   cannot he do from whom all the powers of men are derived, on whom they
   depend, and by whom all their actions are directed and governed?
   Whatever he designs to do, whether in wrath or in mercy, nothing can
   hinder him nor defeat his designs. 2. He abides by that he had often
   said of the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon (v. 28): I
   will give this city into his hand, now that he is grasping at it, and
   he shall take it and make a prey of it, v. 29. The Chaldeans shall come
   and set fire to it, shall burn it and all the houses in it, God's house
   not excepted, nor the king's neither. 3. He assigns the reason for
   these severe proceedings against the city that had been so much in his
   favour. It is sin, it is that and nothing else, that ruins it. (1.)
   They were impudent and daring in sin. They offered incense to Baal, not
   in corners, as men ashamed or afraid of being discovered, but upon the
   tops of their houses (v. 29), in defiance of God's justice. (2.) They
   designed an affront to God herein. They did it to provoke me to anger,
   v. 29. They have only provoked me to anger with the works of their
   hands, v. 30. They could not promise themselves any pleasure, profit,
   or honour out of it, but did it on purpose to offend God. And again (v.
   32), All the evil which they have done was to provoke me to anger. They
   knew he was a jealous God in the matters of his worship, and there they
   resolved to try his jealousy and dare him to his face. "Jerusalem has
   been to me a provocation of my anger and fury," v. 31. Their conduct in
   every thing was provoking. (3.) They began betimes, and had continued
   all along provoking to God: "They have done evil before me from their
   youth, ever since they were first formed into a people (v. 30), witness
   their murmurings and rebellions in the wilderness." And as for
   Jerusalem, though it was the holy city, it has been a provocation to
   the holy God from the day that they built it, even to this day, v. 31.
   O what reason have we to lament the little honour God has from this
   world, and the great dishonour that is done him, when even in Judah,
   where he is known and his name is great, and in Salem where his
   tabernacle is, there was always that found that was a provocation to
   him! (4.) All orders and degrees of men contributed to the common
   guilt, and therefore were justly involved in the common ruin. Not only
   the children of Israel, that had revolted from the temple, but the
   children of Judah too, that still adhered to it--not only the common
   people, the men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, but those that
   should have reproved and restrained sin in others were themselves
   ringleaders in it, their kings and princes, their priests and prophets.
   (5.) God had again and again called them to repentance, but they turned
   a deaf ear to his calls, and rudely turned their back on him that
   called them, though he was their master, to whom they were bound in
   duty, and their benefactor, to whom they were bound in gratitude and
   interest, v. 33. "I taught them better manners, with as much care as
   ever any tender parent taught a child, rising up early, in teaching
   them, studying to adapt the teaching to their capacities, taking them
   betimes, when they might have been most pliable, but all in vain; they
   turned not the face to me, would not so much as look upon me, nay, they
   turned the back upon me," an expression of the highest contempt. As he
   called them, like froward children, so they went from him, Hos. xi. 2.
   They have not hearkened to receive instruction; they regarded not a
   word that was said to them, though it was designed for their own good.
   (6.) There was in their idolatries an impious contempt of God; for (v.
   34) they set their abominations (their idols, which they knew to be in
   the highest degree abominable to God) in the house which is called by
   my name, to defile it. They had their idols not only in their high
   places and groves, but even in God's temple. (7.) They were guilty of
   the most unnatural cruelty to their own children; for they sacrificed
   them to Moloch, v. 35. Thus because they liked not to retain God in
   their knowledge, but changed his glory into shame, they were justly
   given up to vile affections and stripped of natural ones, and their
   glory was turned into shame. And, (8.) What was the consequence of all
   this? [1.] They caused Judah to sin, v. 35. The whole country was
   infected with the contagious idolatries and iniquities of Jerusalem.
   [2.] They brought ruin upon themselves. It was as if they had done it
   on purpose that God should remove them from before his face (v. 31);
   they would throw themselves out of his favour.

   II. The restoration of Judah and Jerusalem is here promised, v. 36, &c.
   God will in judgment remember mercy, and there will a time come, a set
   time, to favour Zion. Observe, 1. The despair to which this people were
   now at length brought. When the judgment was threatened at a distance
   they had no fear; when it attacked them they had no hope. They said
   concerning the city (v. 36), It shall be delivered into the hand of the
   king of Babylon, not by any cowardice or ill conduct of ours, but by
   the sword, famine, and pestilence. Concerning the country they said,
   with vexation (v. 43), It is desolate, without man or beast; there is
   no relief, there is no remedy. It is given into the hand of the
   Chaldeans. Note, Deep security commonly ends in deep despair; whereas
   those that keep up a holy fear at all times have a good hope to support
   them in the worst of times. 2. The hope that God gives them of mercy
   which he had in store for them hereafter. Though their carcases must
   fall in captivity, yet their children after them shall again see this
   good land and the goodness of God in it. (1.) They shall be brought up
   from their captivity and shall come and settle again in this land, v.
   37. They had been under God's anger and fury, and great wrath; but now
   they shall partake of his grace, and love, and great favour. He had
   dispersed them, and driven them into all countries. Those that fled
   dispersed themselves; those that fell into the enemies; hands were
   dispersed by them, in policy, to prevent combinations among them. God's
   hand was in both. But now God will find them out, and gather them out
   of all the countries whither they were driven, as he promised in the
   law (Deut. xxx. 3, 4) and the saints had prayed, Ps. cvi. 47; Neh. i.
   9. He had banished them, but he will bring them again to this place,
   which they could not but have an affection for. For many years past,
   while they were in their own land, they were continually exposed, and
   terrified with the alarms of war; but now I will cause them to dwell
   safely. Being reformed, and having returned to God, neither their own
   consciences within nor their enemies without shall be a terror to them.
   He promises (v. 41): I will plant them in this land assuredly; not only
   I will certainly do it, but they shall here enjoy a holy a security and
   repose, and they shall take root here, shall be planted in stability,
   and not again be unfixed and shaken. (2.) God will renew his covenant
   with them, a covenant of grace, the blessings of which are spiritual,
   and such as will work good things in them, to qualify them for the
   great things God intended to do for them. It is called an everlasting
   covenant (v. 40), not only because God will be for ever faithful to it,
   but because the consequences of it will be everlasting. For, doubtless,
   here the promises look further than to Israel according to the flesh,
   and are sure to all believers, to every Israelite indeed. Good
   Christians may apply them to themselves and plead them with God, may
   claim the benefit of them and take the comfort of them. [1.] God will
   own them for his, and make over himself to them to be theirs (v. 38):
   They shall be my people. He will make them his by working in them all
   the characters and dispositions of his people, and then he will
   protect, and guide, and govern them as his people. "And, to make them
   truly, completely, and eternally happy, I will be their God." They
   shall serve and worship God as theirs and cleave to him only, and he
   will approve himself theirs. All he is, all he has, shall be engaged
   and employed for their good. [2.] God will give them a heart to fear
   him, v. 39. That which he requires of those whom he takes into covenant
   with him as his people is that they fear him, that they reverence his
   majesty, dread his wrath, stand in awe of his authority, pay homage to
   him, and give him the glory due unto his name. Now what God requires of
   them he here promises to work in them, pursuant to his choice of them
   as his people. Note, As it is God's prerogative to fashion men's
   hearts, so it is his promise to his people to fashion theirs aright;
   and a heart to fear God is indeed a good heart, and well fashioned. It
   is repeated (v. 40): I will put my fear in their hearts, that is, work
   in them gracious principles and dispositions, that shall influence and
   govern their whole conversation. Teachers may put good things into our
   heads, but it is God only that can put them into our hearts, that can
   work in us both to will and to do. [3.] He will give them one heart and
   one way. In order to their walking in one way, he will give them one
   heart: as the heart is, so will the way be, and both shall be one; that
   is First, They shall be each of them one with themselves. One heart is
   the same with a new heart, Ezek. xi. 19. The heart is then one when it
   is fully determined for God and entirely devoted to God. When the eye
   is single and God's glory alone aimed at, when our hearts are fixed,
   trusting in God, and we are uniform and universal in our obedience to
   him, then the heart is one and way one; and, unless the heart be thus
   steady, the goings will not be stedfast. From this promise we may take
   direction and encouragement to pray, with David (Ps. lxxxvi. 11), Unite
   my heart to fear thy name; for God says, I will give them one heart,
   that they may fear me. Secondly, They shall be all of them one with
   each other. All good Christians shall be incorporated into one body;
   Jews and Gentiles shall become one sheep-fold; and they shall all, as
   far as they are sanctified, have a disposition to love one another, the
   gospel they profess having in it the strongest inducements to mutual
   love, and the Spirit that dwells in them being the Spirit of love.
   Though they may have different apprehensions about minor things, they
   shall be all one in the great things of God, being renewed after the
   same image. Though they may have many paths, they have but one way,
   that of serious godliness. [4.] He will effectually provide for their
   perseverance in grace and the perpetuating of the covenant between
   himself and them. They would have been happy when there were first
   planted in Canaan, like Adam in paradise, if they had not departed from
   God. And therefore, now that they are restored to their happiness, they
   shall be confirmed in it by the preventing of their departures from
   God, and this will complete their bliss. First, God will never leave
   nor forsake them: I will not turn away from them to do them good.
   Earthly princes are fickle, and their greatest favourites have fallen
   under their frowns; but God's mercy endures for ever. Whom he loves he
   loves to the end. God may seem to turn from this people (Isa. liv. 8),
   but even then he does not turn from doing and designing them good.
   Secondly, They shall never leave nor forsake him; that is the thing we
   are in danger of. We have no reason to distrust God's fidelity and
   constancy, but our own; and therefore it is here promised that God will
   give them a heart to fear him for ever, all days, to be in his fear
   every day and all the day long (Prov. xxiii. 17), and to continue so to
   the end of their days. He will put such a principle into their hearts
   that they shall not depart from him. Even those who have given up their
   names to God, if they be left to themselves, will depart from him; but
   the fear of God ruling in the heart, will prevent their departure.
   That, and nothing else, will do it. If we continue close and faithful
   to God, it is owing purely to his almighty grace and not to any
   strength or resolution of our own. [5.] He will entail a blessing upon
   their seed, will give them grace to fear him, for the good of them and
   of their children after them. As their departures from God had been to
   the prejudice of their children, so their adherence to God should be to
   the advantage of their children. We cannot better consult the good of
   posterity than by setting up, and keeping up, the fear and worship of
   God in our families. [6.] He will take a pleasure in their prosperity
   and will do every thing to advance it (v. 41): I will rejoice over them
   to do them good. God will certainly do them good because he rejoices
   over them. They are dear to him; he makes his boast of them, and
   therefore will not only do them good, but will delight in doing them
   good. When he punishes them it is with reluctance. How shall I give
   thee up, Ephraim? But, when he restores them, it is with satisfaction;
   he rejoices in doing them good. We ought therefore to serve him with
   pleasure and to rejoice in all opportunities of serving him. He is
   himself a cheerful giver, and therefore loves a cheerful servant. I
   will plant them (says God) with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
   He will be intent upon it, and take delight in it; he will make it the
   business of his providence to settle them again in Canaan, and the
   various dispensations of providence shall concur to it. All things
   shall appear at last so to have been working for the good of the church
   that it will be said, The governor of the world is entirely taken up
   with the care of his church. [7.] These promises shall as surely be
   performed as the foregoing threatenings were; and the accomplishment of
   those, notwithstanding the security of the people, might confirm their
   expectation of the performance of these, notwithstanding their present
   despair (v. 42): As I have brought all this great evil upon them,
   pursuant to the threatenings, and for the glory of divine justice, so I
   will bring upon them all this good, pursuant to the promise, and for
   the glory of divine mercy. He that is faithful to his threatenings will
   much more be so to his promises; and he will comfort his people
   according to the time that he has afflicted them. The churches shall
   have rest after the days of adversity. [8.] As an earnest of all this,
   houses and lands shall again fetch a good price in Judah and Jerusalem,
   and, though now they are a drug, there shall again be a sufficient
   number of purchasers (v. 43, 44): Fields shall be bought in this land,
   and people will covet to have lands here rather than any where else.
   Lands, wherever they lie, will go off, not only in the places about
   Jerusalem, but in the cities of Judah and of Israel, too, whether they
   lie on mountains, or in valleys, or in the south, in all parts of the
   country, men shall buy fields, and subscribe evidences. Trade shall
   revive, for they shall have money enough to buy land with. Husbandry
   shall revive, for those that have money shall covet to lay it out upon
   lands. Laws shall again have their due course, for they shall subscribe
   evidences and seal them. This is mentioned to reconcile Jeremiah to his
   new purchase. Though he had bought a piece of ground and could not go
   to see it, yet he must believe that this was the pledge of many a
   purchase, and those but faint resemblances of the purchased possessions
   in the heavenly Canaan, reserved for all those who have God's fear in
   their hearts and do not depart from him.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIII.

   The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of the foregoing
   chapter--to confirm the promise of the restoration of the Jews,
   notwithstanding the present desolations of their country and
   dispersions of their people. And these promises have, both in type and
   tendency, a reference as far forward as to the gospel church, to which
   this second edition of the Jewish church was at length to resign its
   dignities and privileges. It is here promised, I. That the city shall
   be rebuilt and re-established "in statu quo--in its former state," ver.
   1-6. II. That the captives, having their sins pardoned, shall be
   restored, ver. 7, 8. III. That this shall redound very much to the
   glory of God, ver. 9. IV. That the country shall have both joy and
   plenty, ver. 10-14. V. That way shall be made for the coming of the
   Messiah, ver. 15, 16. VI. That the house of David, the house of Levi,
   and the house of Israel, shall flourish again, and be established, and
   all three in the kingdom of Christ; a gospel ministry and the gospel
   church shall continue while the world stands, ver. 17-26.

Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 589.)

   1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time,
   while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying,   2 Thus
   saith the Lord the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to establish
   it; the Lord is his name;   3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and
   shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.   4 For thus
   saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city,
   and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down
   by the mounts, and by the sword;   5 They come to fight with the
   Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I
   have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I
   have hid my face from this city.   6 Behold, I will bring it health and
   cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of
   peace and truth.   7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the
   captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
   8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have
   sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they
   have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.   9 And it
   shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a honour before all the
   nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto
   them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all
   the prosperity that I procure unto it.

   Observe here, I. The date of this comfortable prophecy which God
   entrusted Jeremiah with. It is not exact in the time, only that it was
   after that in the foregoing chapter, when things were still growing
   worse and worse; it was the second time. God speaketh once, yea, twice,
   for the encouragement of his people. We are not only so disobedient
   that we have need of precept upon precept to bring us to our duty, but
   so distrustful that we have need of promise upon promise to bring us to
   our comfort. This word, as the former, came to Jeremiah when he was in
   prison. Note, No confinement can deprive God's people of his presence;
   no locks nor bars can shut out his gracious visits; nay, oftentimes as
   their afflictions abound their consolations much more abound, and they
   have the most reviving communications of his favour when the world
   frowns upon them. Paul's sweetest epistles were those that bore date
   out of a prison.

   II. The prophecy itself. A great deal of comfort is wrapped up in it
   for the relief of the captives, to keep them from sinking into despair.
   Observe,

   1. Who it is that secures this comfort to them (v. 2): It is the Lord,
   the maker thereof, the Lord that framed it, He is the maker and former
   of heaven and earth, and therefore has all power in his hands; so it
   refers to Jeremiah's prayer, ch. xxxii. 17. He is the maker and former
   of Jerusalem, of Zion, built them at first, and therefore can rebuild
   them--built them for his own praise, and therefore will. He formed it,
   to establish it, and therefore it shall be established till those
   things be introduced which cannot be shaken, but shall remain for ever.
   He is the maker and former of this promise; he has laid the scheme for
   Jerusalem's restoration, and he that has formed it will establish it,
   he that has made the promise will make it good; for Jehovah is his
   name, a God giving being to his promises by the performance of them,
   and when he does this he is known by that name (Exod. vi. 3), a
   perfecting God. When the heavens and the earth were finished, then, and
   not till then, the creator is called Jehovah, Gen. ii. 4.

   2. How this comfort must be obtained and fetched in--by prayer (v. 3):
   Call upon me, and I will answer them. The prophet, having received some
   intimations of this kind, must be humbly earnest with God for further
   discoveries of his kind intentions. He had prayed (ch. xxxii. 16), but
   he must pray again. Note, Those that expect to receive comforts from
   God must continue instant in prayer. We must call upon him, and then he
   will answer us. Christ himself must ask, and it shall be given him, Ps.
   ii. 8. I will show thee great and mighty things (give thee a clear and
   full prospect of them), hidden things, which, though in part discovered
   already, yet thou knowest not, thou canst not understand or give credit
   to. Or this may refer not only to the prediction of these things which
   Jeremiah, if he desire it, shall be favoured with, but to the
   performance of the things themselves which the people of God,
   encouraged by this prediction, must pray for. Note, Promises are given,
   not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer. See Ezek. xxxvi.
   37.

   3. How deplorable the condition of Jerusalem was which made it
   necessary that such comforts as these should be provided for it, and
   notwithstanding which its restoration should be brought about in due
   time (v. 4, 5): The houses of this city, not excepting those of the
   kings of Judah, are thrown down by the mounts, or engines of battery,
   and by the sword, or axes, or hammers. It is the same word that is used
   Ezek. xxvi. 9, With his axes he shall break down thy towers. The
   strongest stateliest houses, and those that were best furnished, were
   levelled with the ground. The fifth verse comes in in a parenthesis,
   giving a further instance of the present calamitous state of Jerusalem.
   Those that came to fight with the Chaldeans, to beat them off from the
   siege, did more hurt than good, provoked the enemy to be more fierce
   and furious in their assaults, so that the houses in Jerusalem were
   filled with the dead bodies of men, who died of the wounds they
   received in sallying out upon the besiegers. God says that they were
   such as he had slain in his anger, for the enemies' sword was his sword
   and their anger his anger. But, it seems, the men that were slain were
   generally such as had distinguished themselves by their wickedness, for
   they were the very men for whose wickedness God did now hide himself
   from this city, so that he was just in all he brought upon them.

   4. What the blessings are which God has in store for Judah and
   Jerusalem, such as will redress all their grievances.

   (1.) Is their state diseased? Is it wounded? God will provide
   effectually for the healing of it, though the disease was thought
   mortal and incurable, ch. vii. 22. "The whole head is sick, and the
   whole heart faint (Isa. i. 5); but (v. 6) I will bring it health and
   cure; I will prevent the death, remove the sickness, and set all to
   rights again," ch. xxx. 17. Note, Be the case ever so desperate, if God
   undertake the cure, he will effect it. The sin of Jerusalem was the
   sickness of it (Isa. i. 6); its reformation therefore will be its
   recovery. And the following words tell us how that is wrought: "I will
   reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth; I will give it to
   them in due time, and give them an encouraging prospect of it in the
   mean time." Peace stands here for all good; peace and truth are peace
   according to the promise and in pursuance of that: or peace and truth
   are peace and the true religion, peace and the true worship of God, in
   opposition to the many falsehoods and deceits by which they had been
   led away from God. We may apply it more generally, and observe, [1.]
   That peace and truth are the great subject-matter of divine revelation.
   These promises here lead us to the gospel of Christ, and in that God
   has revealed to us peace and truth, the method of true peace--truth to
   direct us, peace to make us easy. Grace and truth, and abundance of
   both, come by Jesus Christ. Peace and truth are the life of the soul,
   and Christ came that we might have that life, and might have it more
   abundantly. Christ rules by the power of truth (John xviii. 37) and by
   it he gives abundance of peace, Ps. lxxii. 7; lxxxv. 10. [2.] That the
   divine revelation of peace and truth brings health and cure to all
   those that by faith receive it: it heals the soul of the diseases it
   has contracted, as it is a means of sanctification, John xvii. 17. He
   sent his word and healed them, Ps. cvii. 20. And it puts the soul into
   good order, and keeps it in a good frame and fit for the employments
   and enjoyments of the spiritual and divine life.

   (2.) Are they scattered and enslaved, and is their nation laid in
   ruins? "I will cause their captivity to return (v. 7), both that of
   Israel and that of Judah" (for though those who returned under
   Zerubbabel were chiefly of Judah, and Benjamin, and Levi, yet
   afterwards many of all the other tribes returned), "and I will rebuild
   them, as I built them at first." When they by repentance do their first
   works God will by their restoration do his first works.

   (3.) Is sin the procuring cause of all their troubles? That shall be
   pardoned and subdued, and so the root of the judgments shall be killed,
   v. 8. [1.] By sin they have become filthy, and odious to God's
   holiness, but God will cleanse them, and purify them from their
   iniquity. As those that were ceremonially unclean, and were therefore
   shut out from the tabernacle, when they were sprinkled with the water
   of purification had liberty of access to it again, so had they to their
   own land, and the privileges of it, when God had cleansed them from
   their iniquities. In allusion to that sprinkling, David prays, Purge me
   with hyssop. [2.] By sin they have become guilty, and obnoxious to his
   justice; but he will pardon all their iniquities, will remove the
   punishment to which for sin they were bound over. All who by
   sanctifying grace are cleansed from the filth of sin, by pardoning
   mercy are freed from the guilt of it.

   (4.) Have both their sins and their sufferings turned to the dishonour
   of God? Their reformation and restoration shall redound as much to his
   praise, v. 9. Jerusalem thus rebuilt, Judah thus repeopled, shall be to
   me a name of joy, as pleasing to God as ever they have been provoking,
   and a praise and an honour before all the nations. They, being thus
   restored, shall glorify God by their obedience to him, and he shall
   glorify himself by his favours to them. This renewed nation shall be as
   much a reputation to religion as formerly it has been a reproach to it.
   The nations shall hear of all the good that God has wrought in them by
   his grace and of all the good he has wrought for them by his
   providence. The wonders of their return out of Babylon shall make as
   great a noise in the world as ever the wonders of their deliverance out
   of Egypt did. And they shall fear and tremble for all this goodness.
   [1.] The people of God themselves shall fear and tremble; they shall be
   much surprised at it, shall be afraid of offending so good a God and of
   forfeiting his favour. Hos. iii. 5, They shall fear the Lord and his
   goodness. [2.] The neighbouring nations shall fear because of the
   prosperity of Jerusalem, shall look upon the growing greatness of the
   Jewish nation as really formidable, and shall be afraid of making them
   their enemies. When the church is fair as the moon, and clear as the
   sun, she is terrible as an army with banners.

Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 589.)

   10 Thus saith the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which
   ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the
   cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate,
   without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,   11 The voice
   of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the
   voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord
   of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of
   them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the
   Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the
   first, saith the Lord.   12 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Again in this
   place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the
   cities thereof, shall be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks
   to lie down.   13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the
   vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and
   in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the
   flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the
   Lord.   14 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform
   that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to
   the house of Judah.   15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause
   the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute
   judgment and righteousness in the land.   16 In those days shall Judah
   be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name
   wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.

   Here is a further prediction of the happy state of Judah and Jerusalem
   after their glorious return out of captivity, issuing gloriously at
   length in the kingdom of the Messiah.

   I. It is promised that the people who were long in sorrow shall again
   be filled with joy. Every one concluded now that the country would lie
   for ever desolate, that no beasts would be found in the land of Judah,
   no inhabitant in the streets of Jerusalem, and consequently there would
   be nothing but universal and perpetual melancholy (v. 10); but, though
   weeping may endure for a time, joy will return. It was threatened (ch.
   vii. 34 and xvi. 9) that the voice of joy and gladness should cease
   there; but here it is promised that they shall revive again, that the
   voice of joy and gladness shall be heard there, because the captivity
   shall be returned; for then was their mouth filled with laughter, Ps.
   cxxvi. 1, 2. 1. There shall be common joy there, the voice of the
   bridegroom and the voice of the bride; marriages shall again be
   celebrated, as formerly, with songs, which in Babylon they had laid
   aside, for their harps were hung on the willow-trees. 2. There shall be
   religious joy there; temple-songs shall be revived, the Lord's songs,
   which they could not sing in a strange land. There shall be heard in
   their private houses, and in the cities of Judah, as well as in the
   temple, the voice of those that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts.
   Note, Nothing is more the praise and honour of a people than to have
   God the glory of it, the glory both of the power and of the goodness by
   which it is effected; they shall praise him both as the Lord of hosts
   and as the God who is good and whose mercy endures for ever. This,
   though a song of old, yet, being sung upon this fresh occasion, will be
   a new song. We find this literally fulfilled at their return out of
   Babylon, Ezra iii. 11. They sang together in praising the Lord, because
   he is good, for his mercy endures for ever. The public worship of God
   shall be diligently and constantly attended upon: They shall bring the
   sacrifice of praise to the house of the Lord. All the sacrifices were
   intended for the praise of God, but this seems to be meant of the
   spiritual sacrifices of humble adorations and joyful thanksgivings, the
   calves of our lips (Hos. xiv. 2), which shall please the Lord better
   than an ox of bullock. The Jews say that in the days of the Messiah all
   sacrifices shall cease but the sacrifice of praise, and to those days
   this promise has a further reference.

   II. It is promised that the country, which had lain long depopulated,
   shall be replenished and stocked again. It was now desolate, without
   man and without beast; but, after their return, the pastures shall
   again be clothed with flocks, Ps. lxv. 13. In all the cities of Judah
   and Benjamin there shall be a habitation of shepherds, v. 12, 13. This
   intimates, 1. The wealth of the country, after their return. It shall
   not be a habitation of beggars, who have nothing, but of shepherds and
   husbandmen, men of substance, with good stocks upon the ground they
   have returned to. 2. The peace of the country. It shall not be a
   habitation of soldiers, not shall there be tents and barracks set up to
   lodge them, but there shall be shepherds; tents; for they shall hear no
   more the alarms of war, nor shall there be any to make even the
   shepherds afraid. See Ps. cxliv. 13, 14. 3. The industry of the
   country, and their return to their original plainness and simplicity,
   from which, in the corrupt ages, they had sadly degenerated. The seed
   of Jacob, in their beginning, gloried in this, that they were shepherds
   (Gen. xlvii. 3), and so they shall now be again, giving themselves
   wholly to that innocent employment, causing their flocks to lie down
   (v. 12) and to pass under the hands of him that telleth them (v. 13);
   for, though their flocks are numerous, they are not numberless, nor
   shall they omit to number them, that they may know if any be missing
   and may seek after it. Note, It is the prudence of those who have ever
   so much of the world to keep an account of what they have. Some think
   that they pass under the hand of him that telleth them that they may be
   tithed, Lev. xxvii. 32. Then we may take the comfort of what we have
   when God has had his dues out of it. Now because it seemed incredible
   that a people, reduced as now they were, should ever recover such a
   degree of peace and plenty as this, here is subjoined a general
   ratification of these promises (v. 14): I will perform that good thing
   which I have promised. Though the promise may sometimes work slowly
   towards an accomplishment, it works surely. The days will come, though
   they are long in coming.

   III. To crown all these blessings which God has in store for them, here
   is a promise of the Messiah, and of that everlasting righteousness
   which he should bring in (v. 15, 16), and probably this is that good
   thing, that great good thing, which in the latter days, days that were
   yet to come, God would perform, as he had promised to Judah and Israel,
   and to which their return out of captivity and their settlement again
   in their own land was preparatory. From the captivity to Christ is one
   of the famous periods, Matt. i. 17. This promise of the Messiah we had
   before (ch. xxiii. 5, 6), and there it came in as a confirmation of the
   promise of the shepherds whom God would set over them, which would make
   one think that the promise here concerning the shepherds and their
   flocks, which introduces it, is to be understood figuratively. Christ
   is here prophesied of, 1. As a rightful King. He is a branch of
   righteousness, not a usurper, for he grows up unto David, descends from
   his loins, with whom the covenant of royalty was made, and is that seed
   with whom that covenant should be established, so that his title is
   unexceptionable. 2. As a righteous king, righteous in enacting laws,
   waging wars, and giving judgment, righteous in vindicating those that
   suffer wrong and punishing those that do wrong: He shall execute
   judgment and righteousness in the land. This may point at Zerubbabel,
   in the type, who governed with equity, not as Jehoiakim had done (ch.
   xxii. 17); but it has a further reference to him to whom all judgment
   is committed and who shall judge the world in righteousness. 3. As a
   king that shall protect his subjects from all injury. By him Judah
   shall be saved from wrath and the curse, and, being so saved, Jerusalem
   shall dwell safely, quiet from the fear of evil, and enjoying a holy
   security and serenity of mind, in a dependence upon the conduct of this
   prince of peace, this prince of their peace. 4. As a king that shall be
   praised by his subjects: "This is the name whereby they shall call him"
   (so the Chaldee reads it, the Syriac, and vulgar Latin); "this name of
   his they shall celebrate and triumph in, and by this name they shall
   call upon him." It may be read, more agreeably to the original, This is
   he who shall call her, The Lord our righteousness. As Moses's altar is
   called Jehovah-nissi (Exod. xvii. 15), and Jerusalem Jehovah-shammah
   (Ezek. xlviii. 35), intimating that they glory in Jehovah as present
   with them and their banner, so here the city is called The Lord our
   righteousness, because they glory in Jehovah as their righteousness.
   That which was before said to be the name of Christ (says Mr. Gataker)
   is here made the name of Jerusalem, the city of the Messiah, the church
   of Christ. He it is that imparts righteousness to her, for he is made
   of God to us righteousness, and she, by bearing that name, professes to
   have her whole righteousness, not from herself, but from him. In the
   Lord have I righteousness and strength, Isa. xlv. 24. And we are made
   the righteousness of God in him. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall
   have this name of the Messiah so much in their mouths that they shall
   themselves be called by it.

Security of God's Covenants; The Covenant of Priesthood. (b. c. 589.)

   17 For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to sit upon
   the throne of the house of Israel;   18 Neither shall the priests the
   Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle
   meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.   19 And the word of
   the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying,   20 Thus saith the Lord; If ye
   can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and
   that there should not be day and night in their season;   21 Then may
   also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not
   have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests,
   my ministers.   22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither
   the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my
   servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.   23 Moreover the word
   of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,   24 Considerest thou not what
   this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath
   chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people,
   that they should be no more a nation before them.   25 Thus saith the
   Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not
   appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;   26 Then will I cast
   away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take
   any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and
   Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on
   them.

   Three of God's covenants, that of royalty with David and his seed, that
   of the priesthood with Aaron and his seed, and that of Peculiarity with
   Abraham and his seed, seemed to be all broken and lost while the
   captivity lasted; but it is here promised that, notwithstanding that
   interruption and discontinuance for a time, they shall all three take
   place again, and the true intents and meaning of them all shall be
   abundantly answered in the New Testament blessings, typified by those
   conferred on the Jews after their return out of captivity.

   I. The covenant of royalty shall be secured and the promises of it
   shall have their full accomplishment in the kingdom of Christ, the Son
   of David, v. 17. The throne of Israel was overturned in the captivity;
   the crown had fallen from their head; there was not a man to sit on the
   throne of Israel; Jeconiah was written childless. After their return
   the house of David made a figure again; but it in the Messiah that this
   promise is performed that David shall never want a man to sit on the
   throne of Israel, and that David shall have always a son to reign upon
   his throne. For as long as the man Christ Jesus sits on the right hand
   of the throne of God, rules the world, and rules it for the good of the
   church, to which he is a quickening head, and glorified head over all
   things, as long as he is King upon the holy hill of Zion, David does
   not want a successor, nor is the covenant with him broken. When the
   first-begotten was brought into the world it was declared concerning
   him, The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David and he
   shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, Luke i. 32, 33. For the
   confirmation of this it is promised, 1. That the covenant with David
   shall be as firm as the ordinances of heaven, to the stability of which
   that of God's promise is compared, ch. xxxi. 35, 36. There is a
   covenant of nature, by which the common course of providence is settled
   and on which it is founded, here called a covenant of the day and the
   night (v. 20, 25), because this is one of the articles of it, That
   there shall be day and night in their season, according to the
   distinction put between them in the creation, when God divided between
   the light and the darkness, and established their mutual succession,
   and a government to each, that the sun should rule by day and the moon
   and stars by night (Gen. i. 4, 5, 16), which establishment was renewed
   after the flood (Gen. viii. 22), and has continued ever since, Ps. xix.
   2. The morning and the evening have both of them their regular
   outgoings (Ps. lxv. 8); the day-spring knows its place, knows its time,
   and keeps both, so do the shadows of the evening; and, while the world
   stands, this course shall not be altered, this covenant shall not be
   broken. The ordinances of heaven and earth (of this communication
   between heaven and earth, the dominion of these ordinances of heaven
   upon the earth), which God has appointed (v. 25; compare Job xxxviii.
   33), shall never be disappointed. Thus firm shall the covenant of
   redemption be with the Redeemer--God's servant, but David our King, v.
   21. This intimates that Christ shall have a church on earth to the
   world's end; he shall see a seed in which he shall prolong his days
   till time and day shall be no more. Christ's kingdom is an everlasting
   kingdom; and when the end cometh, and not till then, it shall be
   delivered up to God, even the Father. But it intimates that the
   condition of it in this world shall be intermixed and counterchanged,
   prosperity and adversity succeeding each other, as light and darkness,
   day and night. But this is plainly taught us, that, as sure as we may
   be that, though the sun will set tonight, it will rise again tomorrow
   morning, whether we live to see it or no, so sure we may be that,
   though the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world may for a time be
   clouded and eclipsed by corruptions and persecutions, yet it will shine
   forth again, and recover its lustre, in the time appointed. 2. That the
   seed of David shall be as numerous as the host of heaven, that is, the
   spiritual seed of the Messiah, that shall be born to him by the
   efficacy of his gospel and his Spirit working with it. From the womb of
   the morning he shall have the dew of their youth, to be his willing
   people, Ps. cx. 3. Christ's seed are not, as David's were, his
   successors, but his subjects; yet the day is coming when they also
   shall reign with him (v. 22): As the host of heaven cannot be numbered,
   so will I multiply the seed of David, so that there shall be no danger
   of the kingdom's being extinct, or extirpated, for want of heirs. The
   children are numerous; and, if children, then heirs.

   II. The covenant of priesthood shall be secured, and the promises of
   that also shall have their full accomplishment. This seemed likewise to
   be forgotten during the captivity, when there was no altar, no temple
   service, for the priests to attend upon; but this also shall revive. It
   did so; immediately upon their coming back to Jerusalem there were
   priests and Levites ready to offer burnt-offerings and to do sacrifice
   continually (Ezra iii. 2, 3), as is here promised, v. 18. But that
   priesthood soon grew corrupt; the covenant of Levi was profaned (as
   appears Mal. ii. 8), and in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
   it came to a final period. We must therefore look elsewhere for the
   performance of this word, that the covenant with the Levites, the
   priests, God's ministers, shall be as firm, and last as long, as the
   covenant with the day and the night. And we find it abundantly
   performed, 1. In the priesthood of Christ, which supersedes that of
   Aaron, and is the substance of that shadow. While that great high
   priest of our profession is always appearing in the presence of God for
   us, presenting the virtue of his blood by which he made atonement in
   the incense of his intercession, it may truly be said that the Levites
   do not want a man before God to offer continually, Heb. vii. 3, 17. He
   is a priest for ever. The covenant of the priesthood is called a
   covenant of peace (Num. xxv. 12), of life and peace, Mal. ii. 5. Now we
   are sure that this covenant is not broken, nor in the least weakened,
   while Jesus Christ is himself our life and our peace. This covenant of
   priesthood is here again and again joined with that of royalty, for
   Christ is a priest upon his throne, as Melchizedek. 2. In a settled
   gospel ministry. While there are faithful ministers to preside in
   religious assemblies, and to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of
   prayer and praise, the priests, the Levites, do not want successors,
   and such as have obtained a more excellent ministry. The apostle makes
   those that preach the gospel to come in the room of those that served
   at the altar, 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. 3. In all true believers, who are a
   holy priesthood, a royal priesthood (1 Peter ii. 5, 9), who are made to
   our God kings and priests (Rev. i. 6); they offer up spiritual
   sacrifices, acceptable to God, and themselves, in the first place,
   living sacrifices. Of these Levites this promise must be understood (v.
   22), that they shall be as numerous as the sand of the sea, the same
   that is promised concerning Israel in general (Gen. xxii. 17); for all
   God's spiritual Israel are spiritual priests, Rev. v. 9, 10; vii. 9,
   15.

   III. The covenant of peculiarity likewise shall be secured and the
   promises of that covenant shall have their full accomplishment in the
   gospel Israel. Observe, 1. How this covenant was looked upon as broken
   during the captivity, v. 24. God asks the prophet, "Hast though not
   heard, and dost thou not consider, what this people have spoken?"
   either the enemies of Israel, who triumphed in the extirpation of a
   people that had made such a noise in the world, or the unbelieving
   Israelites themselves, "this people among whom thou dwellest;" they
   have broken covenant with God, and then quarrel with him as if he had
   not dealt faithfully with them. The two families which the Lord hath
   chosen, Israel and Judah, whereas they were but one when he chose them,
   he hath even cast them off. "Thus have they despised my people, that
   is, despised the privilege of being my people as if it were a privilege
   of no value at all." The neighbouring nations despised them as now no
   more a nation, but the ruins of a nation, and looked upon all their
   honour as laid in the dust; but, 2. See how firm the covenant stands
   notwithstanding, as firm as that with day and night; sooner will God
   suffer day and night to cease then he will cast away the seed of Jacob.
   This cannot refer to the seed of Jacob according to the flesh, for they
   are cast away, but to the Christian church, in which all these promises
   were to be lodged, as appears by the apostle's discourse, Rom. xi. 1,
   &c. Christ is that seed of David that is to be perpetual dictator to
   the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and, as this people shall never
   want such a king, so this king shall never want such a people.
   Christianity shall continue in the dominion of Christ, and the
   subjection of Christians to him, till day and night come to an end.
   And, as a pledge of this, that promise is again repeated, I will cause
   their captivity to return; and, having brought them back, I will have
   mercy on them. To whom this promise refers appears Gal. vi. 16, where
   all that walk according to the gospel rule are made to be the Israel of
   God, on whom peace and mercy shall be.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIV.

   In this chapter we have two messages which God sent by Jeremiah. I. One
   to foretel the fate of Zedekiah king of Judah, that he should fall into
   the hands of the king of Babylon, that he should live a captive, but
   should at last die in peace in his captivity, ver. 1-7. II. Another to
   read the doom both of prince and people for their treacherous dealings
   with God, in bringing back into bondage their servants whom they had
   released according to the law, and so playing fast and loose with God.
   They had walked at all adventures with God (ver. 8-11), and therefore
   God would walk at all adventures with them, in bringing the Chaldean
   army upon them again when they began to hope that they had got clear of
   them, ver. 12-22.

Captivity of Zedekiah Foretold; The Babylonish Captivity Predicted. (b. c.
589.)

   1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar
   king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of
   his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against
   all the cities thereof, saying,   2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of
   Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus
   saith the Lord; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king
   of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:   3 And thou shalt not
   escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into
   his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon,
   and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to
   Babylon.   4 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah;
   Thus saith the Lord of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:   5 But
   thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the
   former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for
   thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced
   the word, saith the Lord.   6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these
   words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,   7 When the king of
   Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of
   Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these
   defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.

   This prophecy concerning Zedekiah was delivered to Jeremiah, and by him
   to the parties concerned, before he was shut up in the prison, for we
   find this prediction here made the ground of his commitment, as appears
   by the recital of some passages out of it, ch. xxxii. 4. Observe,

   I. The time when this message was sent to Zedekiah; it was when the
   king of Babylon, with all his forces, some out of all the kingdoms of
   the earth that were within his jurisdiction, fought against Jerusalem
   and the cities thereof (v. 1), designing to destroy them, having often
   plundered them. The cities that now remained, and yet held out, are
   named (v. 7), Lachish and Azekah. This intimates that things were now
   brought to the last extremity, and yet Zedekiah obstinately stood it
   out, his heart being hardened to his destruction.

   II. The message itself that was sent to him. 1. Here is a threatening
   of wrath. He is told that again which he had been often told before,
   that the city shall be taken by the Chaldeans and burnt with fire (v.
   2), that he shall himself fall into the enemy's hands, shall be made a
   prisoner, shall be brought before that furious prince Nebuchadnezzar,
   and be carried away captive into Babylon (v. 3); yet Ezekiel prophesied
   that he should not see Babylon; nor did he, for his eyes were put out,
   Ezek. xii. 13. This Zedekiah brought upon himself from God by his other
   sins and from Nebuchadnezzar by breaking his faith with him. 2. Here is
   a mixture of mercy. He shall die a captive, but he shall not die by the
   sword he shall die a natural death (v. 4); he shall end his days with
   some comfort, shall die in peace, v. 5. He never had been one of the
   worst of the kings, but we are willing to hope that what evil he had
   done in the sight of the Lord he repented of in his captivity, as
   Manasseh had done, and it was forgiven to him; and, God being
   reconciled to him, he might truly be said to die in peace, Note, A man
   may die in a prison and yet die in peace. Nay, he shall end his days
   with some reputation, more than one would expect, all things
   considered. He shall be buried with the burnings of his fathers, that
   is, with the respect usually shown to their kings, especially those
   that had done good in Israel. It seems, in his captivity he had
   conducted himself so well towards his own people that they were willing
   to do him this honour, and towards Nebuchadnezzar that he suffered it
   to be done. If Zedekiah had continued in his prosperity, perhaps he
   would have grown worse and would have departed at last without being
   desired; but his afflictions wrought such a change in him that his
   death was looked upon as a great loss. It is better to live and die
   penitent in a prison than to live and die impenitent in a palace. They
   will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! an honour which his brother
   Jehoiakim had not, ch. xxii. 18. The Jews say that they lamented thus
   over him, Alas! Zedekiah is dead, who drank the dregs of all the ages
   that went before him, that is, who suffered for the sins of his
   ancestors, the measure of iniquity being filled up in his days. They
   shall thus lament him, saith the Lord, for I have pronounced the word;
   and what God hath spoken shall without fail be made good.

   III. Jeremiah's faithfulness in delivering this message. Though he knew
   it would be ungrateful to the king, and might prove, as indeed it did,
   dangerous to himself (for he was imprisoned for it), yet he spoke all
   these words to Zedekiah, v. 6. It is a mercy to great men to have those
   about them that will deal faithfully with them, and tell them the evil
   consequences of their evil courses, that they may reform and live.

Transient Reformation; The Servants Re-enslaved. (b. c. 589.)

   8 This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that
   the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at
   Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;   9 That every man should let
   his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being a Hebrew or a
   Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of
   a Jew his brother.   10 Now when all the princes, and all the people,
   which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let
   his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none
   should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let
   them go.   11 But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and
   the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them
   into subjection for servants and for handmaids.   12 Therefore the word
   of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,   13 Thus saith the
   Lord, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day
   that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
   bondmen, saying,   14 At the end of seven years let ye go every man his
   brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath
   served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your
   fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.   15 And ye
   were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty
   every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the
   house which is called by my name:   16 But ye turned and polluted my
   name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid,
   whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought
   them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
   17 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in
   proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his
   neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the
   sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be
   removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.   18 And I will give the
   men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the
   words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the
   calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,   19 The princes
   of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests,
   and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the
   calf;   20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and
   into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall
   be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the
   earth.   21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into
   the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their
   life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone
   up from you.   22 Behold, I will command, saith the Lord, and cause
   them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take
   it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a
   desolation without an inhabitant.

   We have here another prophecy upon a particular occasion, the history
   of which we must take notice of, as necessary to give light to the
   prophecy.

   I. When Jerusalem was closely besieged by the Chaldean army the princes
   and people agreed upon a reformation in one instance, and that was
   concerning their servants.

   1. The law of God was very express, that those of their own nation
   should not be held in servitude above seven years, but, after they had
   served one apprenticeship, they should be discharged and have their
   liberty; yea, though they had sold themselves into servitude for the
   payment of their debts, or though they were sold by the judges for the
   punishment of their crimes. This difference was put between their
   brethren and strangers, that those of other nations taken in war, or
   bought with money, might be held in perpetual slavery, they and theirs;
   but their brethren must serve but for seven years at the longest. This
   God calls the covenant that he had made with them when he brought them
   out of the land of Egypt, v. 13, 14. This was the first of the judicial
   laws which God gave them (Exod. xxi. 2), and there was good reason for
   this law. (1.) God had put honour upon that nation, and he would have
   them thus to preserve the honour of it themselves and to put a
   difference between it and other nations. (2.) God had brought them out
   of slavery in Egypt, and he would have them thus to express their
   grateful sense of that favour, by letting those go to whom their houses
   were houses of bondage, as Egypt had been to their forefathers. That
   deliverance is therefore mentioned here (v. 13) as the ground of that
   law. Note, God's compassions towards us should engage our compassions
   towards our brethren; we must release as we are released, forgive as we
   are forgiven, and relieve as we are relieved. And this is called a
   covenant; for our performance of the duty required is the condition of
   the continuance of the favours God has bestowed.

   2. This law they and their fathers had broken. Their worldly profit
   swayed more with them than God's command or covenant. When their
   servants had lived seven years with them they understood their
   business, and how to apply themselves to it, better than they did when
   they first came to them, and therefore they would then by no means part
   with them, though God himself by his law had made them free: Your
   fathers hearkened not to me in this matter (v. 14), so that from the
   days of their fathers they had been in this trespass; and they thought
   they might do it because their fathers did it, and their servants had
   by disuse lost the benefit of the provision God made for them; whereas
   against an express law, especially against an express law of God, no
   custom, usage, nor prescription, is to be admitted in plea. For this
   sin of theirs, and their fathers, God now brought them into servitude,
   and justly.

   3. When they were besieged, and closely shut in, by the army of the
   Chaldeans, they, being told of their fault in this matter, immediately
   reformed, and let go all their servants that were entitled to their
   freedom by the law of God, as Pharaoh, who, when the plague was upon
   him, consented to let the people go, and bound themselves in a covenant
   to do so. (1.) The prophets faithfully admonished them concerning their
   sin. From them they heard that they should let their Hebrew servants go
   free, v. 10. They might have read it themselves in the book of the law,
   but did not, or did not heed it, therefore the prophets told them what
   the law was. See what need there is of the preaching of the word;
   people must hear the word preached because they will not make the use
   they ought to make of the word written. (2.) All orders and degrees of
   men concurred in this reformation. The king, and the princes, and all
   the people, agreed to let go their servants, whatever loss or damage
   they might sustain by so doing. When the king and princes led in this
   good work the people could not for shame but follow. The example and
   influence of great men would go very far towards extirpating the most
   inveterate corruptions. (3.) They bound themselves by a solemn oath and
   covenant that they would do this, whereby they engaged themselves to
   God and one another. Note, What God has bound us to by his precept, it
   is good for us to bind ourselves to by our promise. This covenant was
   very solemn: it was made in a sacred place, made before me, in the
   house which is called by my name (v. 15), in the special presence of
   God, the tokens of which, in the temple, ought to strike an awe upon
   them and make them very sincere in their appeals to him. It was
   ratified by a significant sign; they cut a calf in two, and passed
   between the parts thereof (v. 18, 19) with this dreadful imprecation,
   "Let us be in like manner cut asunder if we do not perform what we now
   promise." This calf was probably offered up in sacrifice to God, who
   was thereby made a party to the covenant. When God covenanted with
   Abraham, for the ratification of it, a smoking furnace and a burning
   lamp passed between the pieces of the sacrifice, in allusion to this
   federal rite, Gen. xv. 17. Note, In order that we may effectually
   oblige ourselves to our duty, it is good to alarm ourselves with the
   apprehensions of the terror of the wrath and curse to which we expose
   ourselves if we live in the contempt of it, that wrath which will cut
   sinners asunder (Matt. xxiv. 51), and sensible signs may be of use to
   make the impressions of it deep and durable, as here. (4.) They
   conformed themselves herein to the command of God and their covenant
   with him; they did let their servants go, though at this time, when the
   city was besieged, they could very ill spare them. Thus they did right
   in God's sight, v. 15. Though it was their trouble that drove them to
   it, yet he was well pleased with it; and if they had persevered in this
   act of mercy to the poor, to their poor servants, it might have been a
   lengthening of their tranquillity, Dan. iv. 27.

   II. When there was some hope that the siege was raised and the danger
   over they repented of their repentance, undid the good they had done,
   and forced the servants they had released into their respective
   services again. 1. The king of Babylon's army had now gone up from
   them, v. 21. Pharaoh was bringing an army of Egyptians to oppose the
   progress of the king of Babylon's victories, upon the tidings of which
   the Chaldeans raised the siege for a time, as we find, ch. xxxvii. 5.
   They departed from Jerusalem. See how ready God was to put a stop to
   his judgments, upon the first instance of reformation, so slow is he to
   anger and so swift to show mercy. As soon as ever they let their
   servants go free God let them go free. 2. When they began to think
   themselves safe from the besiegers they made their servants come back
   into subjection to them, v. 11, and again v. 16. This was a great abuse
   to their servants, to whom servitude would be more irksome, after they
   had had some taste of the pleasures of liberty. It was a great shame to
   themselves that they could not keep in a good mind when they were in
   it. But it was especially an affront to God; in doing this they
   polluted his name, v. 16. It was a contempt of the command he had given
   them, as if that were of no force at all, but they might either keep it
   or break it as they thought fit. It was a contempt of the covenant they
   had made with him, and of that wrath which they had imprecated upon
   themselves in case they should break that covenant. It was jesting with
   God almighty, as if he could be imposed upon by fallacious promises,
   which, when they had gained their point, they would look upon
   themselves no longer obliged by. it was lying to God with their mouths
   and flattering him with their tongues. It was likewise a contempt of
   the judgments of God and setting them at defiance; as if, when once the
   course of them was stopped a little and interrupted, they would never
   proceed again and the judgment would never be revived; whereas
   reprieves are so far from being pardons that if they be abused thus,
   and sinners take encouragement from them to return to sin, they are but
   preparatives for heavier strokes of divine vengeance.

   III. For this treacherous dealing with God they are here severely
   threatened. Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Those that think to put
   a cheat upon God by a dissembled repentance, a fallacious covenant, and
   a partial temporary reformation, will prove in the end to have put the
   greatest cheat upon their own souls; for the Lord, whose name is
   Jealous, is a jealous God. It is here threatened, with an observable
   air of displeasure against them, 1. That, since they had not given
   liberty to their servants to go where they pleased, God would give all
   his judgments liberty to take their course against them without control
   (v. 17): You have not proclaimed liberty to your servants. Though they
   had done it (v. 10), yet they might truly be said not to have done it,
   because they did not stand to it, but undid it again; and factum non
   dicitur quod non perseverat--that is not said to be done which does not
   last. The righteousness that is forsaken and turned away from shall be
   forgotten, and not mentioned any more than if it had never been, Ezek.
   xviii. 24. "Therefore I will proclaim a liberty for you; I will
   discharge you from my service, and put you out of my protection, which
   those forfeit that withdraw from their allegiance. You shall have
   liberty to choose which of these judgments you will be cut off by,
   sword, famine, or pestilence;" such a liberty as was offered to David,
   which put him into a great strait, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. Note, Those that
   will not be in subjection to the law of God put themselves into
   subjection to the wrath and curse of God. But this shows what liberty
   to sin really--it is but a liberty to the sorest judgments. 2. That,
   since they had brought their servants back into confinement in their
   houses, God would make them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
   earth, where they should live in servitude, and, being strangers, could
   not expect the privileges of free-born subjects. 3. That, since they
   had broken the covenant which they ratified by a solemn imprecation,
   God would bring on them the evil which they imprecated upon themselves
   in case they should break it. Out of their own mouth will he judge
   them, and so shall their doom be; the penalty of their bond shall be
   recovered, because they have not performed the condition; for so some
   read v. 18, "I will make the men which have transgressed my covenant as
   the calf which they cut in twain; I will divide them asunder as they
   divided it asunder." 4. That, since they would not let go their
   servants out of the hands, God would deliver them into the hands of
   those that hated them, even the princes and nobles both of Judah and
   Jerusalem (of the country and of the city), the eunuchs (chamberlains,
   or great officers of the court), the priests, and all the people, v.
   19. They had all dealt treacherously with God, and therefore shall all
   be involved in the common ruin without exception. They shall all be
   given unto the hand of their enemies, that seek, not their wealth only,
   or their service, but their life, and they shall have what they seek;
   but neither shall that content them: when they have their lives they
   shall leave their dead bodies unburied, a loathsome spectacle to all
   mankind and an easy prey to the fowls and beasts, a lasting mark of
   ignominy being hereby fastened on them, v. 20. 5. That, since they had
   emboldened themselves in returning to their sin, contrary to their
   covenant, by the retreat of the Chaldean army from them, God would
   therefore bring it upon them again: "They have now gone up from you,
   and your fright is over for the present, but I will command them to
   face about as they were; they shall return to this city, and take it
   and burn it," v. 22. Note, (1.) As confidence in God is a hopeful
   presage of approaching deliverance, so security in sin is a sad omen of
   approaching destruction. (2.) When judgments are removed from a people
   before they have done their work, leave them, but leave them unhumbled
   and unreformed, it is cum animo revertendi--with a design to return;
   they do but retreat to come on again with so much the greater force;
   for when God judges he will overcome. (3.) It is just with God to
   disappoint those expectations of mercy which his providence had given
   cause for when we disappoint those expectations of duty which our
   professions, pretensions, and fair promises, had given cause for. If we
   repent of the good we had purposed, God will repent of the good he had
   purposed. With the froward thou will show thyself froward.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXV.

   A variety of methods is tried, and every stone turned, to awaken the
   Jews to a sense of their sin and to bring them to repentance and
   reformation. The scope and tendency of many of the prophet's sermons
   was to frighten them out of their disobedience, by setting before them
   what would be the end thereof if they persisted in it. The scope of
   this sermon, in this chapter, is to shame them out of their
   disobedience if they had any sense of honour left in them for a
   discourse of this nature to fasten upon. I. He sets before them the
   obedience of the family of the Rechabites to the commands which were
   left them by Jonadab their ancestor, and how they persevered in that
   obedience and would not be tempted from it, ver. 1-11. II. With this he
   aggravates the disobedience of the Jews to God and their contempt of
   his precepts, ver. 12-15. III. He foretels the judgments of God upon
   the Jews for their impious disobedience to God, ver. 16, 17. IV. He
   assures the Rechabites of the blessing of God upon them for their pious
   obedience to their father, ver. 18, 19.

The Case of the Rechabites. (b. c. 607.)

   1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of
   Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,   2 Go unto the
   house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the
   house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to
   drink.   3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of
   Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of
   the Rechabites;   4 And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into
   the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God,
   which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of
   Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:   5 And I set
   before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and
   cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.   6 But they said, We will
   drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us,
   saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:   7
   Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor
   have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live
   many days in the land where ye be strangers.   8 Thus have we obeyed
   the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath
   charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor
   our daughters;   9 Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have
   we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:   10 But we have dwelt in tents, and
   have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father
   commanded us.   11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of
   Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to
   Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the
   army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.

   This chapter is of an earlier date than many of those before; for what
   is contained in it was said and done in the days of Jehoiakim (v. 1);
   but then it must be in the latter part of his reign, for it was after
   the king of Babylon with his army came up into the land (v. 11), which
   seems to refer to the invasion mentioned 2 Kings xxiv. 2, which was
   upon occasion of Jehoiakim's rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar. After
   the judgments of God had broken in upon this rebellious people he
   continued to deal with them by his prophets to turn them from sin, that
   his wrath might turn away from the. For this purpose Jeremiah sets
   before them the example of the Rechabites, a family that kept distinct
   by themselves and were no more numbered with the families of Israel
   than they with the nations. They were originally Kenites, as appears 1
   Chron. ii. 55, These are the Kenites that came out of Hemath, the
   father of the house of Rechab. The Kenites, at least those of them that
   gained a settlement in the land of Israel, were of the posterity of
   Hobab, Moses's father-in-law, Judg. i. 16. We find them separated from
   the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 6. See Judg. iv. 17. One family of these
   Kenites had their denomination from Rechab. His son, or a lineal
   descendant from him, was Jonadab, a man famous in his time for wisdom
   and piety. He flourished in the days of Jehu, king of Israel, nearly
   300 years before this; for there we find him courted by that rising
   prince, when he affected to appear zealous for God (2 Kings x. 15, 16),
   which he thought nothing more likely to confirm people in the opinion
   of than to have so good a man as Jonadab ride in the chariot with him.
   Now here we are told,

   I. What the rules of living were which Jonadab, probably by his last
   will and testament, in writing, and duly executed, charged his
   children, and his posterity after him throughout all generations,
   religiously to observe; and we have reason to think that they were such
   as he himself had all his days observed.

   1. They were comprised in two remarkable precepts:--(1.) He forbade
   them to drink wine, according to the law of the Nazarites. Wine is
   indeed given to make glad the heart of man and we are allowed the sober
   and moderate use of it; but we are so apt to abuse it and get hurt by
   it, and a good man, who has his heart made continually glad with the
   light of God's countenance, has so little need of it for that purpose
   (Ps. iv. 6, 7), that it is a commendable piece of self-denial either
   not to use it at all or very sparingly and medicinally, as Timothy used
   it, 1 Tim. v. 23. (2.) He appointed them to dwell in tents, and not to
   build houses, nor purchase lands, nor rent or occupy either, v. 7. This
   was an instance of strictness and mortification beyond what the
   Nazarenes were obliged to. Tents were mean dwellings, so that this
   would teach them to be humble; they were cold dwellings, so that this
   would teach them to be hardy and not to indulge the body; they were
   movable dwellings, so that this would teach them not to think of
   settling or taking root any where in this world. They must dwell in
   tents all their days. They must from the beginning thus accustom
   themselves to endure hardness, and then it would be no difficulty to
   them, no, not under the decays of old age. Now,

   2. Why did Jonadab prescribe these rules of living to his posterity? It
   was not merely to show his authority, and to exercise a dominion over
   them, by imposing upon them what he thought fit; but it was to show his
   wisdom, and the real concern he had for their welfare, by recommending
   to them what he knew would be beneficial to them, yet not tying them by
   any oath or vow, or under any penalty, to observe these rules, but only
   advising them to conform to this discipline as far as they found it for
   edification, yet to be dispensed with in any case of necessity, as
   here, v. 11. He prescribed these rules to them, (1.) That they might
   preserve the ancient character of their family, which, however looked
   upon by some with contempt, he thought its real reputation. His
   ancestors had addicted themselves to a pastoral life (Exod. ii. 16),
   and he would have his posterity keep to it, and not degenerate from it,
   as Israel had done, who originally were shepherds and dwelt in tents,
   Gen. xlvi. 34. Note, We ought not to be ashamed of the honest
   employments of our ancestors, though they were but mean. (2.) That they
   might comport with their lot and bring their mind to their condition.
   Moses had put them in hopes that they should be naturalized (Num. x.
   32); but, it seems they were not; they were still strangers in the land
   (v. 7), had no inheritance in it, and therefore must live by their
   employments, which was a good reason why they should accustom
   themselves to hard fare and hard lodging; for strangers, such as they
   were, must not expect to live as the landed men, so plentifully and
   delicately. Note, It is our wisdom and duty to accommodate ourselves to
   our place and rank, and not aim to live above it. What has been the lot
   of our fathers why may we not be content that it should be our lot, and
   live according to it? Mind not high things. (3.) That they might not be
   envied and disturbed by their neighbours among whom they lived. If they
   that were strangers should live great, raise estates, and fare
   sumptuously, the natives would grudge them their abundance, and have a
   jealous eye upon them, as the Philistines had upon Isaac (Gen. xxvi.
   14), and would seek occasions to quarrel with them and do them a
   mischief; therefore he thought it would be their prudence to keep low,
   for that would be the way to continue long-to live meanly, that they
   might live many days in the land where they were strangers. Note,
   Humility and contentment in obscurity are often the best policy and
   men's surest protection. (4.) That they might be armed against
   temptations to luxury and sensuality, the prevailing sin of the age and
   place they lived in. Jonadab saw a general corruption of manners; the
   drunkards of Ephraim abounded, and he was afraid lest his children
   should be debauched and ruined by them; and therefore he obliged them
   to live by themselves, retired in the country; and, that they might not
   run into any unlawful pleasures, to deny themselves the use even of
   lawful delights. They must be very sober, and temperate, and
   abstemious, which would contribute to the health both of mind and body,
   and to their living many days, and easy ones, and such as they might
   reflect upon with comfort in the land where they were strangers. Note,
   The consideration of this, that we are strangers and pilgrims, should
   oblige us to abstain from all fleshly lusts, to live above the things
   of sense, and look upon them with a generous and gracious contempt.
   (5.) That they might be prepared for times of trouble and calamity.
   Jonadab might, without a spirit of prophecy, foresee the destruction of
   a people so wretchedly degenerated, and he would have his family
   provide, that, if they could not in the peace thereof, yet even in the
   midst of the troubles thereof, they might have peace. Let them
   therefore have little to lose, and then losing times would be the less
   dreadful to them: let them sit loose to what they had, and then they
   might with less pain be stripped of it. Note, Those are in the best
   frame to meet sufferings who are mortified to the world and live a life
   of self-denial. (6.) That in general they might learn to live by rule
   and under discipline. It is good for us all to do so, and to teach our
   children to do so. Those that have lived long, as Jonadab probably had
   done when he left this charge to his posterity, can speak by experience
   of the vanity of the world and the dangerous snares that are in the
   abundance of its wealth and pleasures, and therefore ought to be
   regarded when they warn those that come after them to stand upon their
   guard.

   II. How strictly his posterity observed these rules, v. 8-10. They had
   in their respective generations all of them obeyed the voice of Jonadab
   their father, had done according to all that he commanded them. They
   drank no wine, though they dwelt in a country where was plenty of it;
   their wives and children drank no wine, for those that are temperate
   themselves should take care that all under their charge should be so
   too. They built no houses, tilled no ground, but lived upon the
   products of their cattle. This they did partly in obedience to their
   ancestor, and out of a veneration they had for his name and authority,
   and partly from the experience they themselves had of the benefit of
   living such a mortified life. See the force of tradition, and the
   influence that antiquity, example, and great names, have upon men, and
   how that which seems very difficult will by long usage and custom
   become easy and in a manner natural. Now, 1. As to one of the
   particulars he had given them in charge, we are here told how in a case
   of necessity they dispensed with the violation of it (v. 11): When the
   king of Babylon came into the land with his army, though they had
   hitherto dwelt in tents, they now quitted their tents, and came and
   dwelt in Jerusalem, and in such houses as they could furnish themselves
   with there. Note, The rules of a strict discipline must not be made too
   strict, but so as to admit of a dispensation when the necessity of a
   case calls for it, which therefore, in making vows of that nature, it
   is wisdom to provide expressly for, that the way may be made the more
   clear, and we may not afterwards be forced to say, It was an error,
   Eccles. v. 6. Commands of that nature are to be understood with such
   limitations. These Rechabites would have tempted God, and not trusted
   him, if they had not used proper means for their own safety in a time
   of common calamity, notwithstanding the law and custom of their family.
   2. As to the other particular, we are here told how, notwithstanding
   the greatest urgency, they religiously adhered to it. Jeremiah took
   them into the temple (v. 2), into a prophet's chamber, there, rather
   than into the chamber of the princes, that joined to it, because he had
   a message from God, which would look more like itself when it was
   delivered in the chambers of a man of God. There he not only asked the
   Rechabites whether they would drink any wine, but he set pots full of
   wine before them, and cups to drink out of, made the temptation as
   strong as possible, and said, "Drink you wine, you shall have it on
   free cost. You have broken one of the rules of your order, in coming to
   live at Jerusalem; why may you not break this too, and when you are in
   the city do as they there do?" But they peremptorily refused. They all
   agreed in the refusal. "No, we will drink no wine; for with us it is
   against the law." The prophet knew very well they would deny it, and,
   when they did, urged it no further, for he saw they were stedfastly
   resolved. Note, Those temptations are of no force with men of confirmed
   sobriety which yet daily overcome such as, notwithstanding their
   convictions, are of no resolution in the paths of virtue.

Case of the Rechabites Applied. (b. c. 607.)

   12 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,   13 Thus
   saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of
   Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction
   to hearken to my words? saith the Lord.   14 The words of Jonadab the
   son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are
   performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's
   commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and
   speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.   15 I have sent also unto you
   all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying,
   Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and
   go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land
   which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined
   your ear, nor hearkened unto me.   16 Because the sons of Jonadab the
   son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he
   commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me:   17
   Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold,
   I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all
   the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken
   unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but
   they have not answered.   18 And Jeremiah said unto the house of the
   Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye
   have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his
   precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:   19
   Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the
   son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

   The trial of the Rechabites' constancy was intended but for a sign; now
   here we have the application of it.

   I. The Rechabites' observance of their father's charge to them is made
   use of as an aggravation of the disobedience of the Jews to God. Let
   them see it and be ashamed. The prophet asks them, in God's name, "Will
   you not at length receive instruction? v. 13. Will nothing affect you?
   Will nothing fasten upon you? Will nothing prevail to discover sin and
   duty to you? You see how obedient the Rechabites are to their father's
   commandment (v. 14); but you have not inclined your ear to me" (v. 15),
   though one might much more reasonably expect that the people of God
   should have obeyed him than that the sons of Jonadab should have obeyed
   him; and the aggravation is very high, for, 1. The Rechabites were
   obedient to one who was but a man like themselves, who had but the
   wisdom and power of a man, and was only the father of their flesh; but
   the Jews were disobedient to an infinite and eternal God, who had an
   absolute authority over them, as the Father of their spirits. 2.
   Jonadab was long since dead, and was ignorant of them, and could
   neither take cognizance of their disobedience to his orders nor give
   correction for it; but God lives for ever, to see how his laws are
   observed, and is in a readiness to revenge all disobedience. 3. The
   Rechabites were never put in mind of their obligations to their father;
   but God often sent his prophets to his people, to put them in mind of
   their duty to him, and yet they would not do it. This is insisted on
   here as a great aggravation of their disobedience: "I have myself
   spoken to you, rising early and speaking by the written word and the
   dictates and admonitions of conscience (v. 14); nay, I have sent unto
   you all my servants the prophets, men like yourselves, whose terrors
   shall not make you afraid, rising up early and sending them (v. 15),
   and yet all in vain." 4. Jonadab never did that for his seed which God
   had done for his people. He left them a charge, but left them no estate
   to bear the charge; but God had given his people a good land, and
   promised them that, if they would be obedient, they should still dwell
   in it, so that they were bound both in gratitude and interest to be
   obedient, and yet they would not hear, they would not hearken. 5. God
   did not tie up his people to so much hardship, and to such instances of
   mortification, as Jonadab obliged his seed to; and yet Jonadab's orders
   were obeyed and God's were not.

   II. Judgments are threatened, as often before, against Judah and
   Jerusalem, for their disobedience thus aggravated. The Rechabites shall
   rise up in judgment against them, and shall condemn them; for they very
   punctually performed the commandment of their father, and continued and
   persevered in their obedience to it (v. 16); but this people, this
   rebellious and gainsaying people, have not hearkened unto me; and
   therefore (v. 17), because they have not obeyed the precepts of the
   word, God will perform the threatenings of it: "I will bring upon them,
   by the Chaldean army, all the evil pronounced against them both in the
   law and in the prophets, for I have spoken to them, I have called to
   them--spoken in a still small voice to those that were near and called
   aloud to those that were at a distance, tried all ways and means to
   convince and reduce them--spoken by my word, called by my providence,
   both to the same purport, and yet all to no purpose; they have not
   heard nor answered."

   III. Mercy is here promised to the family of the Rechabites for their
   steady and unanimous adherence to the laws of their house. Though it
   was only for the shaming of Israel that their constancy was tried, yet,
   being unshaken, it was found unto praise, and honour, and glory; and
   God takes occasion from it to tell them that he had favours in reserve
   for them (v. 18, 19) and that they should have the comfort of them. 1.
   That the family shall continue as long as any of the families of
   Israel, among whom they were strangers and sojourners. it shall never
   want a man to inherit what they had, though they had no inheritance to
   leave. Note, Sometimes those that have the smallest estates have the
   most numerous progeny; but he that sends mouths will be sure to send
   meat. 2. That religion shall continue in the family: "He shall not want
   a man to stand before me, to serve me." Though they are neither priests
   nor levites, nor appear to have had any post in the temple service, yet
   in a constant course of regular devotion, they stand before God, to
   minister to him. Note, (1.) The greatest blessing that can be entailed
   upon a family is to have the worship of God kept up in it from
   generation to generation. (2.) Temperance, self-denial, and
   mortification to the world, do very much befriend the exercises of
   piety, and help to transmit the observance of them to posterity. The
   more dead we are to the delights of sense the better we are disposed
   for the service of God; but nothing is more fatal to the entail of
   religion in a family than pride and luxury.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVI.

   Here is another expedient tried to work upon this heedless and untoward
   people, but it is tried in vain. A roll of a book is provided,
   containing an abstract or abridgment of all the sermons that Jeremiah
   had preached to them, that they might be put in mind of what they had
   heard and might the better understand it, when they had it all before
   them at one view. Now here we have, I. The writing of this roll by
   Baruch, as Jeremiah dictated it, ver. 1-4. II. The reading of the roll
   by Baruch to all the people publicly on a fast-day (ver. 5-10),
   afterwards by Baruch to the princes privately (ver. 11-19), and lastly
   by Jehudi to the king, ver. 20, 21. III. The burning of the roll by the
   king, with orders to prosecute Jeremiah and Baruch, ver. 22-26. IV. The
   writing of another roll, with large additions, particularly of
   Jehoiakim's doom for burning the former, ver. 27-32.

The Roll Written by Baruch. (b. c. 607.)

   1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah
   king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
     2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I
   have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against
   all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of
   Josiah, even unto this day.   3 It may be that the house of Judah will
   hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return
   every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and
   their sin.   4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and
   Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord,
   which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.   5 And Jeremiah
   commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of
   the Lord:   6 Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast
   written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people
   in the Lord's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them
   in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.   7 It may be
   they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return
   every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that
   the Lord hath pronounced against this people.   8 And Baruch the son of
   Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him,
   reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.

   In the beginning of Ezekiel's prophecy we meet with a roll written in
   vision, for discovery of the things therein contained to the prophet
   himself, who was to receive and digest them, Ezek. ii. 9, 10; iii. 1.
   Here, in the latter end of Jeremiah's prophecy, we meet with a roll
   written in fact, for discovery of the things contained therein to the
   people, who were to hear and give heed to them; for the written word
   and other good books are of great use both to ministers and people. We
   have here,

   I. The command which God gave to Jeremiah to write a summary of his
   sermons, of all the reproofs and all the warnings he had given in God's
   name to his people, ever since he first began to be a preacher, in the
   thirteenth year of Josiah, to this day, which was in the fourth year of
   Jehoiakim, v. 2, 3. What had been only spoken must now be written, that
   it might be reviewed, and that it might spread the further and last the
   longer. What had been spoken at large, with frequent repetitions of the
   same things, perhaps in the same words (which has its advantage one
   way), must now be contracted and put into less compass, that the
   several parts of it might be better compared together, which has its
   advantage another way. What they had heard once must be recapitulated,
   and rehearsed to them again, that what was forgotten might be called to
   mind again and what made no impression upon them at the first hearing
   might take hold of them when they heard it the second time. And what
   was perhaps already written, and published in single sermons, must be
   collected into one volume, that none might be lost. Note, The writing
   of the scripture is by divine appointment. And observe the reason here
   given for the writing of this roll (v. 3): It may be the house of Judah
   will hear. Not that the divine prescience was at any uncertainty
   concerning the event: with that there is no peradventure; God knew
   certainly that they would deal very treacherously, Isa. xlviii. 8. But
   the divine wisdom directed to this as a proper means for attaining the
   desired end: and, if it failed, they would be the more inexcusable.
   And, though God foresaw that they would not hear, he did not tell the
   prophet so, but prescribed this method to him as a probably one to be
   used, in the hopes that they would hear, that is, heed and regard what
   they heard, take notice of it and mix faith with it: for otherwise our
   hearing the word, though an angel from heaven were to read or preach it
   to us, would stand us in no stead. Now observe here, 1. What it is
   hoped they will thus hear: All that evil which I purpose to do unto
   them. Note, The serious consideration of the certain fatal consequences
   of sin will be of great use to us to bring us to God. 2. What it is
   hoped will be produced thereby: They will hear, that they may return
   every man from his evil way. Note, The conversion of sinners from their
   evil courses is that which ministers should aim at in preaching; and
   people hear the word in vain if that point be not gained with them. To
   what purpose do we hear of the evil God will bring upon us for sin if
   we continue, notwithstanding, to do evil against him? 3. Of what vast
   advantage their consideration and conversion will be to them: That I
   may forgive their iniquity. This plainly implies the honour of God's
   justice, with which it is not consistent that he should forgive the sin
   unless the sinner repent of it and turn from it; but it plainly
   expresses the honour of his mercy, that he is very ready to forgive sin
   and only waits till the sinner be qualified to receive forgiveness, and
   therefore uses various means to bring us to repentance, that he may
   forgive.

   II. The instructions which Jeremiah gave to Baruch his scribe, pursuant
   to the command he had received from God, and the writing of the roll
   accordingly, v. 4. God bade Jeremiah write, but, it should seem, he had
   not the pen of a ready writer, he could not write fast, or fair, so as
   Baruch could, and therefore he made use of him as his amanuensis. St.
   Paul wrote but few of his epistles with his own hand, Gal. vi. 11; Rom.
   xvi. 22. God dispenses his gifts variously; some have a good faculty at
   speaking, others at writing, and neither can say to the other, We have
   no need of you, 1 Cor. xii. 21. The Spirit of God dictated to Jeremiah,
   and he to Baruch, who had been employed by Jeremiah as trustee for him
   in his purchase of the field (ch. xxxii. 12) and now was advanced to be
   his scribe and substitute in his prophetical office; and, if we may
   credit the apocryphal book that bears his name, he was afterwards
   himself a prophet to the captives in Babylon. Those that begin low are
   likely to rise high, and it is good for those that are designed for
   prophets to have their education under prophets and to be serviceable
   to them. Baruch wrote what Jeremiah dictated in a roll of a book on
   pieces of parchment, or vellum, which were joined together, the top of
   one to the bottom of the other, so making one long scroll, which was
   rolled perhaps upon a staff.

   III. The orders which Jeremiah gave to Baruch to read what he had
   written to the people. Jeremiah, it seems was shut up, and could not go
   to the house of the Lord himself, v. 5. Though he was not a close
   prisoner, for then there would have been no occasion to send officers
   to seize him (v. 26), yet he was forbidden by the king to appear in the
   temple, was shut out thence where he might be serving God and doing
   good, which was as bad to him as if he had been shut up in a dungeon.
   Jehoiakim was ripening apace for ruin when he thus silenced God's
   faithful messengers. But, when Jeremiah could not go to the temple
   himself, he sent one that was deputed by him to read to the people what
   he would himself have said. Thus St. Paul wrote epistles to the
   churches which he could not visit in person. Nay, it was what he
   himself had often said to them. Note, The writing and repeating of the
   sermons that have been preached may contribute very much towards the
   answering of the great ends of preaching. What we have heard and known
   it is good for us to hear again, that we may know it better. To preach
   and write the same thing is safe and profitable, and many times very
   necessary (Phil. iii. 1), and we must be glad to hear a good word from
   God, though we have it, as here, at second hand. Both ministers and
   people must do what they can when they cannot do what they would.
   Observe, When God ordered the reading of the roll he said, It may be
   they will hear and return from their evil ways, v. 3. When Jeremiah
   orders it, he says, It may be they will pray (they will present their
   supplications before the Lord) and will return from their evil way.
   Note, Prayer to God for grace to turn us is necessary in order to our
   turning; and those that are convinced by the word of God of the
   necessity of returning to him will present their supplications to him
   for that grace. And the consideration of this, that great is the anger
   which God has pronounced against us for sin, should quicken both our
   prayers and our endeavours. Now, according to these orders, Baruch did
   read out of the book the words of the Lord, whenever there was a holy
   convocation, v. 8.

Baruch Reads the Roll to the Princes. (b. c. 607.)

   9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah
   king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before
   the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that
   came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.   10 Then read Baruch in
   the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber
   of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the
   entry of the new gate of the Lord's house, in the ears of all the
   people.   11 When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had
   heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,   12 Then he went down
   into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, lo, all the
   princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of
   Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of
   Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.   13
   Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when
   Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.   14 Therefore all the
   princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son
   of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou
   hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of
   Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.   15 And they
   said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it
   in their ears.   16 Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the
   words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We
   will surely tell the king of all these words.   17 And they asked
   Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at
   his mouth?   18 Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these
   words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
   19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah;
   and let no man know where ye be.

   It should seem that Baruch had been frequently reading out of the book,
   to all companies that would give him the hearing, before the most
   solemn reading of it altogether which is here spoken of; for the
   directions were given about it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, whereas
   this was done in the fifth year, v. 9. But some think that the writing
   of the book fairly over took up so much time that it was another year
   ere it was perfected; and yet perhaps it might not be past a month or
   two; he might begin in the latter end of the fourth year and finish it
   in the beginning of the fifth, for thee ninth month refers to the
   computation of the year in general, not to the year of that reign. Now
   observe here, 1. The government appointed a public fast to be
   religiously observed (v. 9), on account either of the distress they
   were brought into by the army of the Chaldeans or of the want of rain
   (ch. xiv. 1): They proclaimed a fast to the people; whether the king
   and princes or the priests, ordered this fast, is not certain; but it
   was plain that God by his providence called them aloud to it. Note,
   Great shows of piety and devotion may be found even among those who,
   though they keep up these forms of godliness, are strangers and enemies
   to the power of it. But what will such hypocritical services avail?
   Fasting, without reforming and turning away from sin, will never turn
   away the judgments of God, Jon. iii. 10. Notwithstanding this fast, God
   proceeded in his controversy with this people. 2. Baruch repeated
   Jeremiah's sermons publicly in the house of the Lord, on the fast-day.
   He stood in a chamber that belonged to Gemariah, and out of a window,
   or balcony, read to the people that were in the court, v. 10. Note,
   When we are speaking to God we must be willing to hear from him; and
   therefore, on days of fasting and prayer, it is requisite that the word
   be read and preached. Hearken unto me, that God may hearken unto you.
   Judg. ix. 7. For our help in suing out mercy and grace, it is proper
   that we should be told of sin and duty. 3. An account was brought of
   this to the princes that attended the court and were now together in
   the secretary's office, here called the scribe's chamber, v. 12. It
   should seem, though the princes had called the people to meet in the
   house of God, to fact, and pray, and hear the word, they did not think
   fit to attend there themselves, which was a sign that it was not from a
   principle of true devotion, but merely for fashion sake, that they
   proclaimed this fast. We are willing to hope that it was not with a bad
   design, to bring Jeremiah into trouble for his preaching, but with a
   good design, to bring the princes into trouble for their sins, that
   Michaiah informed the princes of what Baruch had read; for his father
   Gemariah so far countenanced Baruch as to lend him his chamber to read
   out of. Michaiah finds the princes sitting in the scribe's chamber, and
   tells them they had better have been where he had been, hearing a good
   sermon in the temple, which he gives them the heads of. Note, When we
   have heard some good word that has affected and edified us we should be
   ready to communicate it to others that did not hear it, for their
   edification. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 4.
   Baruch is sent for, and is ordered to sit down among them and read it
   all over again to them (v. 14, 15), which he readily did, not
   complaining that he was weary with his public work and therefore
   desiring to be excused, nor upbraiding the princes with their being
   absent from the temple, where they might have heard it when he read it
   there. Note, God's ministers must become all things to all men, if by
   any means they may gain some, must comply with them in circumstances,
   that they may secure the substance. St. Paul preached privately to
   those of reputation, Gal. ii. 2. 5. The princes were for the present
   much affected with the word that was read to them, v. 16. Observe, They
   heard all the words they did not interrupt him, but very patiently
   attended to the reading of the whole book; for otherwise how could they
   form a competent judgment of it? And, when they had heard all, they
   were afraid, were all afraid, one as well as another; like Felix, who
   trembled at Paul's reasonings. The reproofs were just, the threatenings
   terrible, and the predictions now in a fair way to be fulfilled; so
   that, laying all together, they were in a great consternation. We are
   not told what impressions this reading of the roll made upon the people
   (v. 10), but the princes were put into a fright by it, and (as some
   read it) looked one upon another, not knowing what to say. They were
   all convinced that it was worthy to be regarded, but none of them had
   courage to second it, only they agreed to tell the king of all these
   words; and, if he think fit to give credit to them, they will,
   otherwise not, no, though it were to prevent the ruin of the nation.
   And yet at the same time they knew the king's mind so far that they
   advised Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves (v. 19) and to shift as
   they could for their own safety, expecting no other than that the king,
   instead of being convinced, would be exasperated. Note, It is common
   for sinners, under convictions, to endeavour to shake them off, by
   shifting off the prosecution of them to other persons, as these princes
   here, or to another more convenient season, as Felix. 6. They asked
   Baruch a trifling question, How he wrote all these words (v. 17), as if
   they suspected there was something extraordinary in it; but Baruch
   gives them a plain answer, that there was nothing but what was common
   in the manner of the writing--Jeremiah dictated and he wrote, v. 18.
   But thus it is common for those who would avoid the convictions of the
   word of God to start needless questions about the way and manner of the
   inspiration of it.

Jeremiah's Roll Consumed. (b. c. 607.)

   20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the
   roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in
   the ears of the king.   21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll:
   and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it
   in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood
   beside the king.   22 Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth
   month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.   23 And
   it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut
   it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth,
   until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
   24 Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king,
   nor any of his servants that heard all these words.   25 Nevertheless
   Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king
   that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.   26 But
   the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son
   of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe
   and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them.   27 Then the word of
   the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and
   the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,   28
   Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that
   were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
     29 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the
   Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written
   therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy
   this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?   30
   Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have
   none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast
   out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.   31 And I
   will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I
   will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon
   the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but
   they hearkened not.   32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it
   to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the
   mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of
   Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them
   many like words.

   We have traced the roll to the people, and to the princes, and here we
   are to follow it to the king; and we find,

   I. That, upon notice given him concerning it, he sent for it, and
   ordered it to be read to him, v. 20, 21. He did not desire that Baruch
   would come and read it himself, who could read it more intelligently
   and with more authority and affection than any one else; nor did he
   order one of his princes to do it (though it would have been no
   disparagement to the greatest of them), much less would he vouchsafe to
   read it himself; but Jehudi, one of his pages now in waiting, who was
   sent to fetch it, is bidden to read it, who perhaps scarcely knew how
   to make sense of it. But those who thus despise the word of God will
   soon make it to appear, as this king did, that they hate it too, and
   have not only low, but ill thoughts of it.

   II. That he had not patience to hear it read through as the princes
   had, but, when he had heard three or four leaves read, in a rage he cut
   it with his penknife, and threw it piece by piece into the fire, that
   he might be sure to see it all consumed, v. 22, 23. This was a piece of
   as daring impiety as a man could lightly be guilty of, and a most
   impudent affront to the God of heaven, whose message this was. 1. Thus
   he showed his impatience of reproof; being resolved to persist in sin,
   he would by no means bear to be told of his faults. 2. Thus he showed
   his indignation at Baruch and Jeremiah; he would have cut them in
   pieces, and burnt them, if he had had them in his reach, when he was in
   this passion. 3. Thus he expressed an abstinent resolution never to
   comply with the designs and intentions of the warnings given him; he
   will do what he will, whatever God by his prophets says to the
   contrary. 4. Thus he foolishly hoped to defeat the threatenings
   denounced against him, as if God knew not how to execute the sentence
   when the roll was gone in which it was written. 5. Thus he thought he
   had effectually provided that the things contained in this roll should
   spread no further, which was the care of the chief priests concerning
   the gospel, Acts iv. 17. They had told him how this roll had been read
   to the people and to the princes. "But," says he, "I will take a course
   that shall prevent its being read any more." See what an enmity there
   is against God in the carnal mind, and wonder at the patience of God,
   that he bears with such indignities done to him.

   III. That neither the king himself nor any of his princes were at all
   affected with the word: They were not afraid (v. 24), no, not those
   princes that trembled at the word when they heard it the first time, v.
   16. So soon, so easily, do good impressions wear off. They showed some
   concern till they saw how light the king made of it, and then they
   shook off all that concern. They rent not their garments, as Josiah,
   this Jehoiakim's own father, did when he had the book of the law read
   to him, though it was not so particular as the contents of this roll
   were, nor so immediately adapted to the present posture of affairs.

   IV. That there were three of the princes who had so much sense and
   grace left as to interpose for the preventing of the burning of the
   roll, but in vain, v. 25. If they had from the first shown themselves,
   as they ought to have done, affected with the word, perhaps they might
   have brought the king to a better mind and have persuaded him to bear
   it patiently; but frequently those that will not do the good they
   should put it out of their own power to do the good they would.

   V. That Jehoiakim, when he had thus in effect burnt God's warrant by
   which he was arrested, as it were in a way of revenge, now that he
   thought he had got the better, signed a warrant for the apprehending of
   Jeremiah and Baruch, God's ministers (v. 26): But the Lord hid them.
   The princes bade them abscond (v. 19), but it was neither the princes'
   care for them nor theirs for themselves that secured them; it was under
   the divine protection that they were safe. Note, God will find out a
   shelter for his people, though their persecutors be ever so industrious
   to get them into their power, till their hour be come; nay, and then he
   will himself be their hiding place.

   VI. That Jeremiah had orders and instructions to write in another roll
   the same words that were written in the roll which Jehoiakim had burnt,
   v. 27, 28. Note, Though the attempts of hell against the word of God
   are very daring, yet not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the
   ground, nor shall the unbelief of man make the word of God of no
   effect. Enemies may prevail to burn many a Bible, but they cannot
   abolish the word of God, can neither extirpate it nor defeat the
   accomplishment of it. Though the tables of the law were broken, they
   were renewed again; and so out of the ashes of the roll that was burnt
   arose another Phoenix. The word of the Lord endures for ever.

   VII. That the king of Judah, though a king, was severely reckoned with
   by the King of kings for this indignity done to the written word. God
   noticed what it was in the roll that Jehoiakim took so much offense at.
   Jehoiakim was angry because it was written therein, saying, Surely the
   king of Babylon shall come and destroy this land, v. 29. And did not
   the king of Babylon come two years before this, and go far towards the
   destroying of this land? He did so (2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7) in his third
   year, Dan. i. 1. So that God and his prophets had therefore become his
   enemies because they told him the truth, told him of the desolation
   that was coming, but at the same time putting him into a fair way to
   prevent it. But, if this be the thing he takes so much amiss, let him
   know, 1. That the wrath of God shall come upon him and his family, in
   the first place, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He shall be cut off,
   and in a few weeks his son shall be dethroned, and exchange his royal
   robes for prison-garments, so that he shall have none to sit upon the
   throne of David; the glory of that illustrious house shall be eclipsed,
   and die in him; his dead body shall lie unburied, or, which comes all
   to one, he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, that is, thrown
   into the next ditch; it shall lie exposed to all weathers, heat and
   frost, which will occasion its putrefying and becoming loathsome the
   sooner. "Not that his body" (says Mr. Gataker) "could be sensible of
   such usage, or himself, being deceased, of aught that should befal his
   body; but that the king's body in such a condition should be a hideous
   spectacle, and a horrid monument of God's heavy wrath and indignation
   against him, unto all that should behold it." Even his seed and his
   servants shall fare the worse for their relation to him (v. 31), for
   they shall be punished, not for his iniquity, but so much the sooner
   for their own. 2. That all the evil pronounced against Judah and
   Jerusalem in that roll shall be brought upon them. Though the copy be
   burnt, the original remains in the divine counsel, which shall again be
   copied out after another manner in bloody characters. Note, There is no
   escaping God's judgments by struggling with them. Who ever hardened his
   heart against God, and prospered?

   VIII. That, when the roll was written anew, there were added to the
   former many like words (v. 32), many more threatenings of wrath and
   vengeance; for, since they will yet walk contrary to God, he will heat
   the furnace seven times hotter. Note, As God is in one mind, and none
   can turn him, so he has still more arrows in his quiver; and those who
   contend with God's woes do but prepare for themselves heavier of the
   same kind.
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J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVII.

   This chapter brings us very near the destruction of Jerusalem by the
   Chaldeans, for the story of it lies in the latter end of Zedekiah's
   reign; we have in it, I. A general idea of the bad character of that
   reign, ver. 1, 2. II. The message which Zedekiah, notwithstanding, sent
   to Jeremiah to desire his prayers, ver. 3. III. The flattering hopes
   which the people had conceived, that the Chaldeans would quit the siege
   of Jerusalem, ver. 5. IV. The assurance God gave them by Jeremiah (who
   was now at liberty, ver. 4) that the Chaldean army should renew the
   siege and take the city, ver. 6-10. V. The imprisonment of Jeremiah,
   under pretence that he was a deserter, ver. 11-15. VI. The kindness
   which Zedekiah showed him when he was a prisoner, ver. 16-21.

Zedekiah's Wicked Reign; Sign of Jerusalem. (b. c. 589.)

   1 And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son
   of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land
   of Judah.   2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the
   land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which he spake by the
   prophet Jeremiah.   3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of
   Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet
   Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us.   4 Now
   Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put
   him into prison.   5 Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt:
   and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them,
   they departed from Jerusalem.   6 Then came the word of the Lord unto
   the prophet Jeremiah, saying,   7 Thus saith the Lord, the God of
   Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me
   to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help
   you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.   8 And the Chaldeans
   shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it
   with fire.   9 Thus saith the Lord; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The
   Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.   10
   For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight
   against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should
   they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

   Here is, 1. Jeremiah's preaching slighted, v. 1, 2. Zedekiah succeeded
   Coniah, or Jeconiah, and, though he saw in his predecessor the fatal
   consequences of contemning the word of God, yet he did not take
   warning, nor give any more regard to it than others had done before
   him. Neither he, nor his courtiers, nor the people of the land,
   hearkened unto the words of the Lord, though they already began to be
   fulfilled. Note, Those have hearts wretchedly hard indeed that see
   God's judgments on others, and feel them on themselves, and yet will
   not be humbled and brought to heed what he says. These had proof
   sufficient that it was the Lord who spoke by Jeremiah the prophet, and
   yet they would not hearken to him. 2. Jeremiah's prayers desired.
   Zedekiah sent messengers to him, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God
   for us. He did so before (ch. xxi. 1, 2), and one of the messengers,
   Zephaniah, is the same there and here. Zedekiah is to be commended for
   his, and it shows that he had some good in him, some sense of his need
   of God's favour and of his own unworthiness to ask it for himself, and
   some value for good people and good ministers, who had an interest in
   Heaven. Note, When we are in distress we ought to desire the prayers of
   our ministers and Christian friends, for thereby we put an honour upon
   prayer, and an esteem upon our brethren. Kings themselves should look
   upon their praying people as the strength of the nation, Zech. xii. 5,
   10. And yet this does but help to condemn Zedekiah out of his own
   mouth. If indeed he looked upon Jeremiah as a prophet, whose prayers
   might avail much both for him and his people, why did he not then
   believe him, and hearken to the words of the Lord which he spoke by
   him? He desired his good prayers, but would not take his good counsel,
   nor be ruled by him, though he spoke in God's name, and it appears by
   this that Zedekiah knew he did. Note, It is common for those to desire
   to be prayed for who will not be advised; but herein they put a cheat
   upon themselves, for how can we expect that God should hear others
   speaking to him for us if we will not hear them speaking to us from him
   and for him? Many who despise prayer when they are in prosperity will
   be glad of it when they are in adversity. Now give us of your oil. When
   Zedekiah sent to the prophet to pray for him, he had better have sent
   for the prophet to pray with him; but he thought that below him: and
   how can those expect the comforts of religion who will not stoop to the
   services of it? 3. Jerusalem flattered by the retreat of the Chaldean
   army from it. Jeremiah was now at liberty (v. 4); he went in and out
   among the people, might freely speak to them and be spoken to by them.
   Jerusalem also, for the present, was at liberty, v. 5 Zedekiah, though
   a tributary to the king of Babylon, had entered into a private league
   with Pharaoh king of Egypt (Ezek. xvii. 15), pursuant to which, when
   the king of Babylon came to chastise him for his treachery, the king of
   Egypt, though he came no more in person after that great defeat which
   Nebuchadnezzar gave him in the reign of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv. 7),
   yet sent some forces to relieve Jerusalem when it was besieged, upon
   notice of the approach of which the Chaldeans raised the siege,
   probably not for fear of them but in policy, to fight them at a
   distance, before any of the Jewish forces could join them. From this
   they encouraged themselves to hope that Jerusalem was delivered for
   good and all out of the hands of its enemies and that the storm was
   quite blown over. Note, Sinners are commonly hardened in their security
   by the intermissions of judgments and the slow proceedings of them; and
   those who will not be awakened by the word of God may justly be lulled
   asleep by the providence of God. 4. Jerusalem threatened with the
   return of the Chaldean army and with ruin by it. Zedekiah sent to
   Jeremiah to desire him to pray for them, that the Chaldean army might
   not return; but Jeremiah sends him word back that the decree had gone
   forth, and that it was but a folly for them to expect peace, for God
   had begun a controversy with them, which he would make an end of: Thus
   saith the Lord, Deceive not yourselves, v. 9. Note, Satan himself,
   though he is the great deceiver, could not deceive us if we did not
   deceive ourselves; and thus sinners are their own destroyers by being
   their own deceivers, of which this is an aggravation that they are so
   frequently warned of it and cautioned not to deceive themselves, and
   they have the word of God, the great design of which is to undeceive
   them. Jeremiah uses no dark metaphors, but tells them plainly, (1.)
   That the Egyptians shall retreat, and either give back or be forced
   back, into their own land (Ezek. xvii. 17), which was said of old (Isa.
   xxx. 7), and is here said again, v. 7. The Egyptians shall help in
   vain; they shall not dare to face the Chaldean army, but shall retire
   with precipitation. Note, If God help us not, no creature can. As no
   power can prevail against God, so none can avail without God nor
   countervail his departures from us. (2.) That the Chaldeans shall
   return, and shall renew the siege and prosecute it with more vigour
   than ever: They shall not depart for good and all (v. 9); they shall
   come again (v. 8); they shall fight against the city. Note, God has the
   sovereign command of all the hosts of men, even of those that know him
   not, that own him not, and they are all made to serve his purposes. He
   directs their marches, their counter-marches, their retreats, their
   returns, as it pleases him; and furious armies, like stormy winds, in
   all their motions are fulfilling his word. (3.) That Jerusalem shall
   certainly be delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans: They shall take
   it, and burn it with fire, v. 8. The sentence passed upon it shall be
   executed, and they shall be the executioners. "O but" (say they) "the
   Chaldeans have withdrawn; they have quitted the enterprise as
   impracticable." "And though they have," says the prophet, "nay, though
   you had smitten their army, so that many were slain and all the rest
   wounded, yet those wounded men should rise up and burn this city," v.
   10. This is designed to denote that the doom passed upon Jerusalem is
   irrevocable, and its destruction inevitable; it must be laid in ruins,
   and these Chaldeans are the men that must destroy it, and it is now in
   vain to think of evading the stroke or contending with it. Note,
   Whatever instruments God has determined to make use of in any service
   for him, whether or mercy or judgment, they shall accomplish that for
   which they are designed, whatever incapacity or disability they may lie
   under or be reduced to. Those by whom God has resolved to save or to
   destroy, saviours they shall be and destroyers they shall be, yea,
   though there were all wounded; for as when God has work to do he will
   not want instruments to do it with, though they may seem far to seek,
   so when he has chosen his instruments they shall do the work, though
   they may seem very unlikely to accomplish it.

Jeremiah Attempts to Quit Jerusalem; Jeremiah Imprisoned; Jeremiah Favoured
by the King. (b. c. 589.)

   11 And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken
   up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,   12 Then Jeremiah went
   forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate
   himself thence in the midst of the people.   13 And when he was in the
   gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was
   Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah
   the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.   14 Then said
   Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he
   hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the
   princes.   15 Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote
   him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for
   they had made that the prison.   16 When Jeremiah was entered into the
   dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many
   days;   17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king
   asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the
   Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be
   delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.   18 Moreover Jeremiah
   said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against
   thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?
   19 Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The
   king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?   20
   Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my
   supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me
   not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
   21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah
   into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a
   piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the
   city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

   We have here a further account concerning Jeremiah, who relates more
   passages concerning himself than any other of the prophets; for the
   histories of the lives and sufferings of God's ministers have been very
   serviceable to the church, as well as their preaching and writing.

   I. We are here told that Jeremiah, when he had an opportunity for it,
   attempted to retire out of Jerusalem into the country (v. 11, 12): When
   the Chaldeans had broken up from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army,
   upon the notice of their advancing towards them, Jeremiah determined to
   go into the country, and (as the margin reads it) to slip away from
   Jerusalem in the midst of the people, who, in that interval of the
   siege, went out into the country to look after their affairs there. He
   endeavoured to steal away in the crowd; for, though he was a man of
   great eminence, he could well reconcile himself to obscurity, though he
   was one of a thousand, he was content to be lost in the multitude and
   buried alive in a corner, in a cottage. Whether he designed for
   Anathoth or no does not appear; his concerns might call him thither,
   but his neighbours there were such as (unless they had mended since ch.
   xi. 21) might discourage him from coming among them; or he might intend
   to hide himself somewhere where he was not known, and fulfil his own
   wish (ch. ix. 2), Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place!
   Jeremiah found he could do no good in Jerusalem; he laboured in vain
   among them, and therefore determined to leave them. Note, there are
   times when it is the wisdom of good men to retire into privacy, to
   enter into the chamber and shut the doors about them, Isa. xxvi. 20.

   II. That in this attempt he was seized as a deserter and committed to
   prison (v. 13-15): He was in the gate of Benjamin, so far he had gained
   his point, when a captain of the ward, who probably had the charge of
   that gate, discovered him and took him into custody. He was the
   grandson of Hananiah, who, the Jews say, was Hananiah the false
   prophet, who contested with Jeremiah (ch. xxviii. 10), and they add
   that this young captain had a spite to Jeremiah upon that account. He
   could not arrest him without some pretence, and that which he charges
   upon his is, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans--an unlikely story, for
   the Chaldeans had now gone off, Jeremiah could not reach them; or, if
   he could, who would go over to a baffled army? Jeremiah therefore with
   good reason, and with both the confidence and the mildness of an
   innocent man, denies the charge: "It is false; I fall not away to the
   Chaldeans; I am going upon my own lawful occasions." Note, it is no new
   thing for the church's best friends to be represented as in the
   interest of her worst enemies. Thus have the blackest characters been
   put upon the fairest purest minds, and, in such a malicious world as
   this is, innocency, nay, excellency itself, is no fence against the
   basest calumny. When at any time we are thus falsely accused we may do
   as Jeremiah did, boldly deny the charge and then commit our cause to
   him that judges righteously. Jeremiah's protestation of his integrity,
   though he is a prophet, a man of God, a man of honour and sincerity,
   though he is a priest, and is ready to say it in verbo sacerdotis--on
   the word of a priest, is not regarded; but he is brought before the
   privy-council, who without examining him and the proofs against him,
   but upon the base malicious insinuation of the captain, fell into a
   passion with him: they were wroth; and what justice could be expected
   from men who, being in anger, would hear no reason? They beat him,
   without any regard had to his coat and character, and then put him in
   prison, in the worst prison they had, that in the house of Jonathan the
   scribe; either it had been his house, and he had quitted it for the
   inconveniences of it, but it was thought good enough for a prison, or
   it was now his house, and perhaps he was a rigid severe man, that made
   it a house of cruel bondage to his prisoners. Into this prison Jeremiah
   was thrust, into the dungeon, which was dark and cold, damp and dirty,
   the most uncomfortable unhealthy place in it; in the cells, or cabins,
   there he must lodge, among which there is no choice, for they are all
   alike miserable lodging-places. There Jeremiah remained many days, and
   for aught that appears, nobody came near him or enquired after him. See
   what a world this is. The wicked princes, who are in rebellion against
   God, lie at ease, lie in state in their palaces, while godly Jeremiah,
   who is in the service of God, lies in pain, in a loathsome dungeon. It
   is well that there is a world to come.

   III. That Zedekiah at length sent for him, and showed him some favour;
   but probably not till the Chaldean army had returned and had laid fresh
   siege to the city. When their vain hopes, with which they fed
   themselves (an in confidence of which they had re-enslaved their
   servants, ch. xxxiv. 11), had all vanished, then they were in a greater
   confusion and consternation then ever. "O then" (says Zedekiah) "send
   in all haste for the prophet; let me have some talk with him." When the
   Chaldeans had withdrawn, he only sent to the prophet to pray for him;
   but now that they had again invested the city, he sent for him to
   consult him. Thus gracious will men be when pangs come upon them. 1.
   The king sent for him to give him private audience as an ambassador
   from God. He asked him secretly in his house, being ashamed to be seen
   in his company, "Is there any word from the Lord? (v. 17)--any word of
   comfort? Canst thou give us any hopes that the Chaldeans shall again
   retire?" Note, Those that will not hearken to God's admonitions when
   they are in prosperity would be glad of his consolations when they are
   in adversity and expect that his ministers should then speak words of
   peace to them; but how can they expect it? What have they to do with
   peace? Jeremiah's life and comfort are in Zedekiah's hand, and he has
   now a petition to present to him for his favour, and yet, having this
   opportunity, he tells him plainly that there is a word from the Lord,
   but no word of comfort for him or his people: Thou shalt be delivered
   into the hand of the king of Babylon. If Jeremiah had consulted with
   flesh and blood, he would have given him a plausible answer, and,
   though he would not have told him a lie, yet he might have chosen
   whether he would tell him the worst at this time; what occasion was
   there for it, when he had so often told it him before? But Jeremiah was
   one that had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful, and would not,
   to obtain mercy of man, be unfaithful either to God or to his prince;
   he therefore tells him the truth, the whole truth. And, since there was
   no remedy, it would be a kindness to the king to know his doom, that,
   being no surprise to him, it might be the less a terror, and he might
   provide to make the best of bad. Jeremiah takes this occasion to
   upbraid him and his people with the credit they gave to the false
   prophets, who told them that the king of Babylon should not come at
   all, or, when he had withdrawn, should not come again against them, v.
   19. "Where are now your prophets, who told you that you should have
   peace?" Note, Those who deceive themselves with groundless hopes of
   mercy will justly be upbraided with their folly when the event has
   undeceived them. 2. He improved this opportunity for the presenting of
   a private petition, as a poor prisoner, v. 18, 20. It was not in
   Jeremiah's power to reverse the sentence God had passed upon Zedekiah,
   but it was in Zedekiah's power to reverse the sentence which the
   princes had given against him; and therefore, since he thought him fit
   to be used as a prophet, he would not think him fit to be abused as the
   worst of malefactors. He humbly expostulates with the king: "What have
   I offended against thee, or thy servants, or this people, what law have
   I broken, what injury have I done to the common welfare, that you have
   put me in prison?" And many a one that has been very hardly dealt with
   has been able to make the same appeal and to make it good. He likewise
   earnestly begs, and very pathetically (v. 20), Cause me to return to
   yonder noisome gaol, to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die
   there. This was the language of innocent nature, sensible of its own
   grievances and solicitous for its own preservation. Though he was not
   at all unwilling to die God's martyr, yet, having so fair an
   opportunity to get relief, he would not let it slip, lest he should die
   his own murderer. When Jeremiah delivered God's message he spoke as one
   having authority, with the greatest boldness; but, when he presented
   his own request, he spoke as one under authority, with the greatest
   submissiveness: Near me, I pray thee, O my Lord the king! let my
   supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee. Here is not a word
   of complaint of the princes that unjustly committed him, no offer to
   bring an action of false imprisonment against them, but all in a way of
   modest supplication to the king, to teach us that even when we act with
   the courage that becomes the faithful servants of God, yet we must
   conduct ourselves with the humility and modesty that become dutiful
   subjects to the government God hath set over us. A lion in God's cause
   must be a lamb in his own. And we find that God gave Jeremiah favour in
   the eyes of the king. (1.) He gave him his request, took care that he
   should not die in the dungeon, but ordered that he should have the
   liberty of the court of the prison, where he might have a pleasant walk
   and breathe a free air. (2.) He gave him more than his request, took
   care that he should not die for want, as many did that had their
   liberty, by reason of the straitness of the siege; he ordered him his
   daily bread out of the public stock (for the prison was within the
   verge of the court), till all the bread was spent. Zedekiah ought to
   have released him, to have made him a privy-counsellor, as Joseph was
   taken from prison to be the second man in the kingdom. But he had not
   courage to do that; it was well he did as he did, and it is an instance
   of the care God takes of his suffering servants that are faithful to
   him. He can make even their confinement turn to their advantage and the
   court of the of their prison to become as green pastures to them, and
   raise up such friends to provide for them that in the days of famine
   they shall be satisfied. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh.
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J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXVIII.

   In this chapter, just as in the former, we have Jeremiah greatly
   debased under the frowns of the princes, and yet greatly honoured by
   the favour of the king. They used him as a criminal; he used him as a
   privy-counsellor. Here, I. Jeremiah for his faithfulness is put into
   the dungeon by the princes, ver. 1-6. II. At the intercession of
   Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, by special order from the king, he is taken
   up out of the dungeon and confined only to the court of the prison,
   ver. 7-13. III. He has a private conference with the king upon the
   present conjuncture of affairs, ver. 14-22. IV. Care is taken to keep
   that conference private, ver. 24-28.

Jeremiah Put into the Dungeon; Ebed-melech's Care of Jeremiah. (b. c. 589.)

   1 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur,
   and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard
   the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,   2
   Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the
   sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to
   the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and
   shall live.   3 Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given
   into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.   4
   Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man
   be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that
   remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such
   words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people,
   but the hurt.   5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your
   hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.   6
   Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the
   son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let
   down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but
   mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.   7 Now when Ebed-melech the
   Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that
   they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate
   of Benjamin;   8 Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and
   spake to the king, saying,   9 My lord the king, these men have done
   evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have
   cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place
   where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.   10 Then the king
   commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men
   with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before
   he die.   11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the
   house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts
   and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to
   Jeremiah.   12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put
   now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under
   the cords. And Jeremiah did so.   13 So they drew up Jeremiah with
   cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the
   court of the prison.

   Here, 1. Jeremiah persists in his plain preaching; what he had many a
   time said, he still says (v. 3): This city shall be given into the hand
   of the king of Babylon; though it hold out long, it will taken at last.
   Nor would he have so often repeated this unwelcome message but that he
   could put them in a certain way, though not to save the city, yet to
   save themselves; so that every man might have his own life given him
   for a prey if he would be advised, v. 2. Let him not stay in the city,
   in hopes to defend that, for it will be to no purpose, but let him go
   forth to the Chaldeans, and throw himself upon their mercy, before
   things come to extremity, and then he shall live; they will not put him
   to the sword, but give him quarter (satis est prostrasse leoni--it
   suffices the lion to lay his antagonist prostrate) and he shall escape
   the famine and pestilence, which will be the death of multitudes within
   the city. Note, Those do better for themselves who patiently submit to
   the rebukes of Providence than those who contend with them. And, if we
   cannot have our liberty, we must reckon it a mercy to have our lives,
   and not foolishly throw them away upon a point of honour; they may be
   reserved for better times. 2. The princes persist in their malice
   against Jeremiah. He was faithful to his country and to his trust as a
   prophet, though he had suffered many a time for his faithfulness; and,
   though at this time he ate the king's bread, yet that did not stop his
   mouth. But his persecutors were still bitter against him, and
   complained that he abused the liberty he had of walking in the court of
   the prison; for, though he could not go to the temple to preach, yet he
   vented the same things in private conversation to those that came to
   visit him, and therefore (v. 4) they represented him to the king as a
   dangerous man, disaffected to his country and to the government he
   lived under: He seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt--an
   unjust insinuation, for no man had laid out himself more for the good
   of Jerusalem than he had done. They represent his preaching as having a
   bad tendency. The design of it was plainly to bring men to repent and
   turn to God, which would have been as much as any thing a strengthening
   to the hands both the soldiery and of the burghers, and yet they
   represented it as weakening their hands and discouraging them; and, if
   it did this, it was their own fault. Note, It is common for wicked
   people to look upon God's faithful ministers as their enemies, only
   because they show them what enemies they are to themselves while they
   continue impenitent. 3. Jeremiah hereupon, by the king's permission, is
   put into a dungeon, with a view to his destruction there. Zedekiah,
   though he felt a conviction that Jeremiah was a prophet, sent of God,
   had not courage to own it, but yielded to the violence of his
   persecutors (v. 5): He is in your hand; and a worse sentence he could
   not have passed upon him. We found in Jehoiakim's reign that the
   princes were better affected to the prophet than the king was (ch.
   xxxvi. 25); but now they were more violent against him, a sign that
   they were ripening apace for ruin. Had it been in a cause that
   concerned his own honour or profit, he would have let them know that
   the king is he who can do what he pleases, whether they will or no; but
   in the cause of God and his prophet, which he was very cool in, he
   basely sneaks, and truckles to them: The king is not he that can do any
   thing against you. Note, Those will have a great deal to answer for
   who, though they have a secret kindness for good people, dare not own
   it in a time of need, nor will do what they might do to prevent
   mischief designed them. The princes, having this general warrant from
   the king, immediately put poor Jeremiah into the dungeon of Malchiah,
   that was in the court of the prison (v. 6), a deep dungeon, for they
   let him down into it with cords, and a dirty one, for there was no
   water in it, but mire; and he sunk in the mire, up to the neck, says
   Josephus. Those that put him here doubtless designed that he should die
   here, die for hunger, die for cold, and so die miserably, die
   obscurely, fearing, if they should put him to death openly, the people
   might be affected with what he would say and be incensed against them.
   Many of God's faithful witnesses have thus been privately made away,
   and starved to death, in prisons, whose blood will be brought to
   account in the day of discovery. We are not here told what Jeremiah did
   in this distress, but he tells us himself (Lam. iii. 55, 57), I called
   upon thy name, O Lord! out of the low dungeon, and thou drewest near,
   saying, Fear not. 4. Application is made to the king by an honest
   courtier, Ebed-melech, one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber, in
   behalf of the poor sufferer. Though the princes carried on the matter
   as privately as they could, yet it came to the ear of this good man,
   who probably sought opportunities to do good. It may be he came to the
   knowledge of it by hearing Jeremiah's moans out of the dungeon, for it
   was in the king's house, v. 7. Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian, a stranger
   to the commonwealth of Israel, and yet had in him more humanity, and
   more divinity too, than native Israelites had. Christ found more faith
   among Gentiles than among Jews. Ebed-melech lived in a wicked court and
   in a very corrupt degenerate age, and yet had a great sense both of
   equity and piety. God has his remnant in all places, among all sorts.
   There were saints even in Cæsar's household. The king was now sitting
   in the gate of Benjamin, to try causes and receive appeals and
   petitions, or perhaps holding a council of war there. Thither
   Ebed-melech went immediately to him, for the case would not admit
   delay; the prophet might have perished if he had trifled or put it off
   till he had an opportunity of speaking to the king in private. Not time
   must be lost when life is in danger, especially so valuable a life. He
   boldly asserts the Jeremiah had a great deal of wrong done him, and is
   not afraid to tell the king so, though they were princes that did it,
   though they were now present in court, and though they had the king's
   warrant for what they did. Whither should oppressed innocency flee for
   protection but to the throne, especially when great men are its
   oppressors? Ebed-melech appears truly brave in this matter. He does not
   mince the matter; though he had a place at court, which he would be in
   danger of losing for his plain dealing, yet he tells the king
   faithfully, let him take it as he will, These men have done ill in all
   that they have done to Jeremiah. They had dealt unjustly with him, for
   he had not deserved any punishment at all; and they had dealt
   barbarously with him, so as they used not to deal with the vilest
   malefactors. And they needed not to have put him to this miserable
   death; for, if they had let him alone where he was, he was likely to
   die for hunger in the place where he was, in the court of the prison to
   which he was confined, for there was not more bread in the city: the
   stores out of which he was to have his allowance (ch. xxxvii. 21) were
   in a manner spent. See how God can raise up friends for his people in
   distress where they little thought of them, and animate men for his
   service even beyond expectation. 5. Orders are immediately given for
   his release, and Ebed-melech takes care to see them executed. The king,
   who but now durst do nothing against the princes, had his heart
   wonderfully changed on a sudden, and will now have Jeremiah released in
   defiance of the princes, for therefore he orders no less than thirty
   men, and those of the lifeguard, to be employed in fetching him out of
   the dungeon, lest the princes should raise a party to oppose it, v. 10.
   Let this encourage us to appear boldly for God--we may succeed better
   that we could have thought, for the hearts of kings are in the hand of
   God. Ebed-melech gained his point, and soon brought Jeremiah the good
   news; and it is observable how particularly the manner of his drawing
   him out of the dungeon is related (for God is not unrighteous to forget
   any work or labour of love which is shown to his people or ministers,
   no, nor any circumstance of it, Heb. vi. 10); special notice is taken
   of his great tenderness in providing old soft rags for Jeremiah to put
   under his arm-holes, to keep the cords wherewith he was to be drawn up
   from hurting him, his arm-holes being probably galled by the cords
   wherewith he was let down. Nor did he throw the rags down to him, lest
   they should be lost in the mire, but carefully let them down, v. 11,
   12. Note, Those that are in distress should not only be relieved, but
   relieved with compassion and marks of respect, all which shall be
   placed to account and abound to a good account in the day of
   recompence. See what a good use even old rotten rags may be put to,
   which therefore should not be made waste of, any more than broken meat:
   even in the king's house, and under the treasury too, these were
   carefully preserved for the use of the poor or sick. Jeremiah is
   brought up out of the dungeon, and is now where he was, in the court of
   the prison, v. 13. Perhaps Ebed-melech could have made interest with
   the king to get him his discharge thence also, now that he had the
   king's ear; but he though him safer and better provided for there than
   he would be any where else. God can, when he pleases, make a prison to
   become a refuge and hiding-place to his people in distress and danger.

Zedekiah's Conference with Jeremiah. (b. c. 589.)

   14 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him
   into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king
   said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.   15
   Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou
   not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not
   hearken unto me?   16 So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto
   Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will
   not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these
   men that seek thy life.   17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus
   saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt
   assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul
   shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt
   live, and thine house:   18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king
   of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of
   the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not
   escape out of their hand.   19 And Zedekiah the king said unto
   Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans,
   lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.   20 But
   Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the
   voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto
   thee, and thy soul shall live.   21 But if thou refuse to go forth,
   this is the word that the Lord hath shewed me:   22 And, behold, all
   the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought
   forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy
   friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are
   sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.   23 So they shall
   bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou
   shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of
   the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with
   fire.   24 Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these
   words, and thou shalt not die.   25 But if the princes hear that I have
   talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare
   unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and
   we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee:   26
   Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the
   king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die
   there.   27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and
   he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded.
   So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.
   28 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that
   Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

   In the foregoing chapter we had the king in close conference with
   Jeremiah, and here again, though (v. 5) he had given him up into the
   hands of his enemies; such a struggle there was in the breast of this
   unhappy prince between his convictions and his corruptions. Observe,

   I. The honour that Zedekiah did to the prophet. When he was newly
   fetched out of the dungeon he sent for him to advise with him
   privately. He met him in the third entry, or (as the margin reads it)
   the principal entry, that is in, or leads towards, or adjoins to, the
   house of the Lord, v. 14. In appointing this place of interview with
   the prophet perhaps he intended to show a respect and reverence for the
   house of God, which was proper enough now that he was desiring to hear
   the word of God. Zedekiah would ask Jeremiah a thing; it should rather
   be rendered, a word. "I am here asking thee for a word of prediction,
   of counsel, of comfort, a word from the Lord, ch. xxxvii. 17. Whatever
   word thou has for me hide it not from me; let me know the worst." He
   had been told plainly what things would come to in the foregoing
   chapter, but, like Balaam, he asks again, in hopes to get a more
   pleasing answer, as if God, who is in one mind, were altogether such a
   one as himself, who was in many minds.

   II. The bargain that Jeremiah made with him before he would give him
   his advice, v. 15. He would stipulate, 1. For his own safety. Zedekiah
   would have him deal faithfully with him: "And if I do," says Jeremiah,
   "wilt thou not put me to death? I am afraid thou wilt" (so some take
   it); "what else can I expect when thou art led blindfold by the
   princes?" Not that Jeremiah was backward to seal the doctrine he
   preached with his blood, when he was called to do so; but, in doing our
   duty, we ought to use all lawful means for our own preservation; even
   the apostles of Christ did so. 2. He would answer for the success of
   his advice, being no less concerned for Zedekiah's welfare than for his
   own. He is willing to give him wholesome advice, and does not upbraid
   him with his unkindness in suffering him to be put into the dungeon,
   nor bid him go and consult with his princes, whose judgments he had
   such a value for. Ministers must with meekness instruct even those that
   oppose themselves, and render good for evil. He is desirous that he
   should hear counsel and receive instruction: "Wilt thou not hearken
   unto me? Surely thou wilt; I am in hopes to find thee pliable at last,
   and now in this thy day willing to know the things that belong to thy
   peace." Note, Then, and then only, there is hope of sinners, when they
   are willing to hearken to good counsel. Some read it as spoken
   despairingly: "If I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken unto me; I
   have reason to fear thou wilt not, and then I might as well keep my
   counsel to myself." Note, Ministers have little heart to speak to those
   who have long and often turned a deaf ear to them. Now, as to this
   latter concern of Jeremiah's, Zedekiah makes him no answer, will not
   promise to hearken to his advice: though he desires to know what is the
   mind of God, yet he will reserve himself a liberty, when he does know
   it, to do as he thinks fit; as if it were the prerogative of a prince
   not to have his ruin prevented by good counsel. But, as to the
   prophet's safety, he promises him, upon the word of a king, and
   confirms his promise with an oath, that, whatever he should say to him,
   no advantage should be taken against him for it: I will neither put
   thee to death nor deliver thee into the hands of those that will, v.
   16. This, he thought, was a mighty favour, and yet Nebuchadnezzar and
   Belshazzar, when Daniel read their doom, not only protected him, but
   preferred and rewarded him, Dan. ii. 48; v. 29. Zedekiah's oath on this
   occasion is solemn, and very observable: "As the Lord liveth, who made
   us this soul, who gave me my life and thee thine, I dare not take away
   thy life unjustly, knowing that then I should forfeit my own to him
   that is the Lord of life." Note, God is the Father of spirits; souls
   are his workmanship, and they are more fearfully and wonderfully made
   than bodies are. The soul both of the greatest prince and of the
   poorest prisoner is of God's making. He fashioneth their hearts alike
   easily. In all our appeals to God, and in all our dealings both with
   ourselves and others, we ought to consider this, that the living God
   made us these souls.

   III. The good advice that Jeremiah gave him, with good reasons why he
   should take it, not from any prudence or politics of his own, but in
   the name of the Lord, the God of hosts and God of Israel. Not as a
   statesman, but as a prophet, he advises him by all means to surrender
   himself and his city to the king of Babylon's princes: "Go forth to
   them, and make the best terms thou canst with them," v. 17. This was
   the advice he had given to the people (v. 2, and before, ch. xxi. 9),
   to submit to divine judgments, and not think of contending with them.
   Note, In dealing with God, that which is good counsel to the meanest is
   so to the greatest, for there is no respect of persons with him. To
   persuade him to take this counsel, he sets before him good and evil,
   life and death. 1. If he will tamely yield, he shall save his children
   from the sword and Jerusalem from the flames. The white flag is yet
   hung out; if he will but acknowledge God's justice, he shall experience
   his mercy: The city shall not be burnt, and thou shalt live and thy
   house. But, 2. If he will obstinately stand it out, it will be the ruin
   both of his house and Jerusalem (v. 18); for when God judges he will
   overcome. This is the case of sinners with God; let them humbly submit
   to his grace and government and they shall live; let them take hold on
   his strength, that they may make peace, and they shall make peace; but,
   if they harden their hearts against his proposals, it will certainly be
   to their destruction: they must either bend or break.

   IV. The objection which Zedekiah made against the prophet's advice, v.
   19. Jeremiah spoke to him by prophecy, in the name of God, and
   therefore if he had had a due regard to the divine authority, wisdom,
   and goodness, as soon as he understood what the mind of God was he
   would immediately have acquiesced in it and resolved to observe it,
   without disputing; but, as if it had been the dictate only of
   Jeremiah's prudence, he advances against it some prudential
   considerations of his own: but human wisdom is folly when it
   contradicts the divine counsel. All he suggests is, "I am afraid, not
   of the Chaldeans; their princes are men of honour, but of the Jews,
   that have already gone over to the Chaldeans; when they see me follow
   them, and who had so much opposed their going, they will laugh at me,
   and say, Hast thou also become weak as water?" Isa. xiv. 10. Now, 1. It
   was not at all likely that he should be thus exposed and ridiculed,
   that the Chaldeans should so far gratify the Jews, or trample upon him,
   as to deliver him into their hands; nor that the Jews, who were
   themselves captives, should be in such a gay humour as to make a jest
   of the misery of their prince. Note, We often frighten ourselves from
   our duty by foolish, causeless, groundless, fears, that are merely the
   creatures of our own fancy and imagination. 2. If he should be taunted
   at a little by the Jews, could he not despise it and make light of it?
   What harm would it do him? Note, Those have very weak and fretful
   spirits indeed that cannot bear to be laughed at for that which is both
   their duty and their interest. 3. Though it had been really the
   greatest personal mischief that he could imagine it to be, yet he ought
   to have ventured it, in obedience to God, and for the preservation of
   his family and city. He thought it would be looked upon as a piece of
   cowardice to surrender; whereas it would be really an instance of true
   courage cheerfully to bear a less evil, the mocking of the Jews, for
   the avoiding of a greater, the ruin of his family and kingdom.

   V. The pressing importunity with which Jeremiah followed the advice he
   had given the king. He assures him that, if he would comply with the
   will of God herein, the thing he feared should not come upon him (v.
   20): They shall not deliver thee up, but treat thee as becomes thy
   character. He begs of him, after all the foolish games he had played,
   to manage wisely the last stake, and now at length to do well for
   himself: Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, because it is his
   voice, so it shall be well unto thee. But he tells him what would be
   the consequence if he would not obey. 1. He himself would fall into the
   hands of the Chaldeans, as implacable enemies, whom he might now make
   his friends by throwing himself into their hands. If he must fall, he
   should contrive how to fall easily: "Thou shalt not escape, as thou
   hopest to do," v. 23. 2. He would himself be chargeable with the
   destruction of Jerusalem, which he pretended a concern for the
   preservation of: "Thou shalt cause this city to be burnt with fire, for
   by a little submission and self-denial thou mightest have prevented
   it." Thus subjects often suffer for the pride and wilfulness of their
   rulers, who should be their protectors, but prove their destroyers. 3.
   Whereas he causelessly feared an unjust reproach for surrendering, he
   should certainly fall under a just reproach for standing it out, and
   that from women too, v. 22. The court ladies who were left when
   Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were carried away will now at length fall into
   the hands of the enemy, and they shall say, "The men of thy peace, whom
   thou didst consult with and confide in, and who promised thee peace if
   thou wouldst be ruled by them, have set thee on, have encouraged thee
   to be bold and brace and hold out to the last extremity; and see what
   comes of it? They, by prevailing upon thee, have prevailed against
   thee, and thou findest those thy real enemies that would be thought thy
   only friends. Now thy feet are sunk in the mire, thou art embarrassed,
   and hast noway to help thyself; thy feet cannot get forward, but are
   turned away back." Thus will Zedekiah be bantered by the women, when
   all his wives and children shall be made a prey to the conquerors, v.
   23. Note, What we seek to avoid by sin will be justly brought upon us
   by the righteousness of God. And those that decline the way of duty for
   fear of reproach will certainly meet with much greater reproach in the
   way of disobedience. The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him,
   Prov. x. 24.

   VI. The care which Zedekiah took to keep this conference private (v.
   24): Let no man know of these words. he does not at all incline to take
   God's counsel, nor so much as promise to consider of it; for so
   obstinate has he been to the calls of God, and so wilful in the ways of
   sin, that though he has good counsel given him he seems to be given up
   to walk in his own counsels. He has nothing to object against
   Jeremiah's advice, and yet he will not follow it. Many hear God's
   words, but will not do them. 1. Jeremiah is charged to let no man know
   of what had passed between the king and him. Zedekiah is concerned to
   keep it private, not so much for Jeremiah's safety (for he knew the
   princes could do him no hurt without his permission), but for his own
   reputation. Note, Many have really a better affection to good men and
   good things than they are willing to own. God's prophets are manifest
   in their consciences (2 Cor. v. 11), but they care not for manifesting
   that to the world; they would rather do them a kindness than have it
   known that they do: such, it is to be feared, love the praise of men
   more than the praise of God. 2. He is instructed what to say to the
   princes if they should examine him about it. He must tell them that he
   was petitioning the king not to remand him back to the house of
   Jonathan the scribe (v. 25, 26), and he did tell them so (v. 27), and
   no doubt it was true: he would not let slip so fair an opportunity of
   engaging the king's favour; so that this was no lie or equivocation,
   but a part of the truth, which it was lawful for him to put them off
   with when he was under no obligation at all to tell them the whole
   truth. Note, Though we must be harmless as doves, so as never to tell a
   wilful lie, yet we must be wise as serpents, so as not needlessly to
   expose ourselves to danger by telling all we know.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XXXIX.

   As the prophet Isaiah, after he had largely foretold the deliverance of
   Jerusalem out of the hands of the king of Assyria, gave a particular
   narrative of the story, that it might appear how exactly the event
   answered to the prediction, so the prophet Jeremiah, after he had
   largely foretold the delivering of Jerusalem into the hands of the king
   of Babylon, gives a particular account of that sad event for the same
   reason. That melancholy story we have in this chapter, which serves to
   disprove the false flattering prophets and to confirm the word of God's
   messengers. We are here told, I. That Jerusalem, after eighteen months'
   siege, was taken by the Chaldean army, ver. 1-3. II. That king
   Zedekiah, attempting to make his escape, was seized and made a
   miserable captive to the king of Babylon, ver. 4-7. III. That Jerusalem
   was burnt to the ground, and the people were carried captive, except
   the poor, ver. 8-10. IV. That the Chaldeans were very kind to Jeremiah,
   and took particular care of him, ver. 11-14. V. That Ebed-melech too,
   for his kindness, had a protection from God himself in this day of
   desolation, ver. 15-18.

Jerusalem Taken. (b. c. 588.)

   1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and
   they besieged it.   2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the
   fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.   3
   And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the
   middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris,
   Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the
   king of Babylon.   4 And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king
   of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went
   forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the
   gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.   5
   But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in
   the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up
   to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath,
   where he gave judgment upon him.   6 Then the king of Babylon slew the
   sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon
   slew all the nobles of Judah.   7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes,
   and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.   8 And the
   Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with
   fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.   9 Then Nebuzar-adan the
   captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of
   the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that
   fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.   10 But
   Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people,
   which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and
   fields at the same time.

   We were told, in the close of the foregoing chapter, that Jeremiah
   abode patiently in the court of the prison, until the day that
   Jerusalem was taken. He gave the princes no further disturbance by his
   prophesying, nor they him by their persecutions; for he had no more to
   say than what he had said, and, the siege being carried on briskly, God
   found them other work to do. See here what it came to.

   I. The city is at length taken by storm; for how could it hold out when
   God himself fought against it? Nebuchadnezzar's army sat down before it
   in the ninth year of Zedekiah, in the tenth month (v. 1), in the depth
   of winter. Nebuchadnezzar himself soon after retired to take his
   pleasure, and left his generals to carry on the siege: they intermitted
   it awhile, but soon renewed it with redoubled force and vigour. At
   length, in the eleventh year, in the fourth month, about midsummer,
   they entered the city, the soldiers being so weakened by famine, and
   all their provisions being now spent, that they were not able to make
   any resistance, v. 2. Jerusalem was so strong a place that nobody would
   have believed the enemy could ever enter its gates, Lam. iv. 12. But
   sin had provoked God to withdraw his protection, and then, like Samson
   when his hair was cut, it was weak as other cities.

   II. The princes of the king of Babylon take possession of the middle
   gate, v. 3. Some think that this was the same with that which is called
   the second gate (Zeph. i. 10), which is supposed to be in the middle
   wall that divided between one part of the city and the other. Here they
   cautiously made a half, and durst not go forward into so large a city,
   among men that perhaps would sell their lives as dearly as they could,
   until they had given directions for the searching of all places, that
   they might not be surprised by any ambush. They sat in the middle gate,
   thence to take a view of the city and give orders. The princes are here
   named, rough and uncouth names they are, to intimate what a sad change
   sin had made; there, where Eliakim and Hilkiah, who bore the name of
   the God of Israel, used to sit, now sit Nergal-sharezer, and
   Samgar-nebo, &c., who bore the names of the heathen gods. Rab-saris and
   Rab-mag are supposed to be not the names of distinct persons, but the
   titles of those whose names go before. Sarsechim was Rab-saris, that
   is, captain of the guard; and Nergal-sharezer, to distinguish him from
   the other of the same name that is put first, is called
   Ram-mag--camp-master, either muster-master or quarter-master: these and
   the other great generals sat in the gate. And now was fulfilled what
   Jeremiah prophesied long since (ch. i. 15), that the families of the
   kingdoms of the north should set every one his throne at the entering
   of the gates of Jerusalem. Justly do the princes of the heathen set up
   themselves there, where the gods of the heathen had been so often set
   up.

   III. Zedekiah, having in disguise perhaps seen the princes of the king
   of Babylon take possession of one of the gates of the city, thought it
   high time to shift for his own safety, and, loaded with guilt and fear,
   he went out of the city, under no other protection but that of the
   night (v. 4), which soon failed him, for he was discovered, pursued,
   and overtaken. Though he made the best of his way, he could make
   nothing of it, could not get forward, but in the plains of Jericho fell
   into the hands of the pursuers, v. 5. Thence he was brought prisoner to
   Riblah, where the king of Babylon passed sentence upon him as a rebel,
   not sentence of death, but, one many almost say, a worse thing. For, 1.
   He slew his sons before his eyes, and they must all be little, some of
   them infants, for Zedekiah himself was now but thirty-two years of age.
   The death of these sweet babes must needs be so many deaths to himself,
   especially when he considered that his own obstinacy was the cause of
   it, for he was particularly told of this thing: They shall bring forth
   thy wives and children to the Chaldeans, ch. xxxviii. 23. 2. He slew
   all the nobles of Judah (v. 6), probably not those princes of Jerusalem
   who had advised him to this desperate course (it would be a
   satisfaction to him to see them cut off), but the great men of the
   country, who were innocent of the matter. 3. He ordered Zedekiah to
   have his eyes put out (v. 7), so condemning him to darkness for life
   who had shut his eyes against the clear light of God's word, and was of
   those princes who will not understand, but walk on in darkness, Ps.
   lxxxii. 5. 4. He bound him with two brazen chains or fetters (so the
   margin reads it), to carry him away to Babylon, there to spend the rest
   of his days in misery. All this sad story we had before, 2 Kings xxv.
   4, &c.

   IV. Some time afterwards the city was burnt, temple and palace and all,
   and the wall of it broken down, v. 8. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! this
   comes of killing the prophets, and stoning those that were sent to
   thee. O Zedekiah, Zedekiah! this thou mightest have prevented if thou
   wouldst but have taken God's counsel, and yielded in time."

   V. The people that were left were all carried away captives to Babylon,
   v. 9. Now they must bid a final farewell to the land of their nativity,
   that pleasant land, and to all their possessions and enjoyments in it,
   must be driven some hundreds of miles, like beasts, before the
   conquerors, that were now their cruel masters, must lie at their mercy
   in a strange land, and be servants to those who would be sure to rule
   them with rigour. The word tyrant is originally a Chaldee word, and is
   often used for lords by the Chaldee paraphrast, as if the Chaldeans,
   when they were lords, tyrannized more than any other: we have reason to
   think that the poor Jews had reason to say so. Some few were left
   behind, but they were the poor of the people, that had nothing to lose,
   and therefore never made any resistance. And they not only had their
   liberty, and were left to tarry at home, but the captain of the guard
   gave them vineyards and fields at the same time, such as they were
   never masters of before, v. 10. Observe here, 1. The wonderful changes
   of Providence. Some are abased, others advanced, 1 Sam. ii. 5. The
   hungry are filled with good things, and the rich sent empty away. The
   ruin of some proves the rise of others. Let us therefore in our
   abundance rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and in our distresses weep
   as though we wept not. 2. The just retributions of Providence. The rich
   had been proud oppressors, and now they were justly punished for their
   injustice; the poor had been patient sufferers, and now they were
   graciously rewarded for their patience and amends made them for all
   their losses; for verily there is a God that judges in the earth, even
   in this world, much more in the other.

Jerusalem Released. (b. c. 588.)

   11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah
   to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying,   12 Take him, and
   look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall
   say unto thee.   13 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard sent, and
   Nebushasban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king
   of Babylon's princes;   14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the
   court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam
   the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among
   the people.   15 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, while he
   was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,   16 Go and speak to
   Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
   God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil,
   and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before
   thee.   17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and
   thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art
   afraid.   18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by
   the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou
   hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.

   Here we must sing of mercy, as in the former part of the chapter we
   sang of judgment, and must sing unto God of both. We may observe here,

   I. A gracious providence concerning Jeremiah. When Jerusalem was laid
   in ruins, and all men's hearts failed them for fear, then might he lift
   up his head with comfort, knowing that his redemption drew nigh, as
   Christ's followers when the second destruction of Jerusalem was
   hastening on, Luke xxi. 28. Nebuchadnezzar had given particular orders
   that care should be taken of him, and that he should be in all respects
   well used, v. 11, 12. Hebuzar-adan and the rest of the king of
   Babylon's princes observed these orders, discharged him out of prison,
   and did every thing to make him easy, v. 13, 14. Now we may look upon
   this, 1. As a very generous act of Nebuchadnezzar, who, though he was a
   haughty potentate, yet took cognizance of this poor prophet. Doubtless
   he had received information concerning him from the deserters, that he
   had foretold the king of Babylon's successes against Judah and other
   countries, that he had pressed his prince and people to submit to him,
   and that he had suffered very hard things for so doing; and in
   consideration of all this (though perhaps he might have heard also that
   he had foretold the destruction of Babylon at length) he gave him these
   extraordinary marks of his favour. Note, It is the character of a great
   soul to take notice of the services and sufferings of the meanest. It
   was honourably done of the king to give this charge even before the
   city was taken, and of the captains to observe it even in the heat of
   action, and it is recorded for imitation. 2. As a reproach to Zedekiah
   and the princes of Israel. They put him in prison, and the king of
   Babylon and his princes took him out. God's people and ministers have
   often found fairer and kinder usage among strangers and infidels than
   among those that call themselves of the holy city. Paul found more
   favour and justice with king Agrippa than with Ananias the high priest.
   3. As the performance of God's promise to Jeremiah, in recompence for
   his services. I will cause the enemy to treat thee well in the day of
   evil, ch. xv. 11. Jeremiah had been faithful to his trust as a prophet,
   and now God approves himself faithful to him and the promise he had
   made him. Now he is comforted according to the time wherein he had been
   afflicted, and sees thousands fall on each hand and himself safe. The
   false prophets fell by those judgments which they said should never
   come (ch. xiv. 15), which made their misery the more terrible to them.
   The true prophet escaped those judgments which he said would come, and
   that made his escape the more comfortable to him. The same that were
   the instruments of punishing the persecutors were the instruments of
   relieving the persecuted; and Jeremiah thought never the worse of his
   deliverance for its coming by the hand of the king of Babylon, but saw
   the more of the hand of God in it. A fuller account of this matter we
   shall meet with in the next chapter.

   II. A gracious message to Ebed-melech, to assure him of a recompence
   for his kindness to Jeremiah. This message was sent to him by Jeremiah
   himself, who, when he returned him thanks for his kindness to him, thus
   turned him over to God to be his paymaster. He relieved a prophet in
   the name of a prophet, and thus he had a prophet's reward. This message
   was delivered to him immediately after he had done that kindness to
   Jeremiah, but it is mentioned here after the taking of the city, to
   show that, as God was kind to Jeremiah at that time, so he was to
   Ebed-melech for his sake; and it was a token of special favour to both,
   and they ought so to account it, that they were not involved in any of
   the common calamities. Jeremiah is directed to tell him, 1. That God
   would certainly bring upon Jerusalem the ruin that had been long and
   often threatened; and, for his further satisfaction in having been kind
   to Jeremiah, he should see him abundantly proved a true prophet, v. 16.
   2. That God took notice of the fear he had of the judgments coming.
   Though he was bravely bold in the service of God, yet he was afraid of
   the rod of God. The enemies were men of whom he was afraid, Note, God
   knows how to adapt and accommodate his comforts to the fears and griefs
   of his people, for he knows their souls in adversity. 3. That he shall
   be delivered from having a share in the common calamity: I will deliver
   thee; I will surely deliver thee. He had been instrumental to deliver
   God's prophet out of the dungeon, and now God promises to deliver him;
   for he will be behind-hand with none for any service they do, directly
   or indirectly, for his name: "Thou has saved Jeremiah's life, that was
   precious to thee, and therefore thy life shall be given thee for a
   prey." 4. The reason given for this distinguishing favour which God had
   in store for him is because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the
   Lord. God, in recompensing men's services, has an eye to the principle
   they go upon in those services, and rewards according to those
   principles; and there is no principle of obedience that will be more
   acceptable to God, nor have a greater influence upon us, than a
   believing confidence in God. Ebed-melech trusted in God that he would
   own him, and stand by him, and then he was not afraid of the face of
   man. And those who trust God, as this good man did, in the way of duty,
   will find that their hope shall not make them ashamed in times of the
   greatest danger.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XL.

   We have attended Jerusalem's funeral pile, and have taken our leave of
   the captives that were carried to Babylon, not expecting to hear any
   more of them in this book: perhaps we may in Ezekiel; and we must in
   this and the four following chapters observe the story of those few
   Jews that were left to remain in the land after their brethren were
   carried away, and it is a very melancholy story; for, though at first
   there were some hopeful prospects of their well-doing, they soon
   appeared as obstinate in sin as ever, unhumbled and unreformed, till,
   all the rest of the judgments threatened in Deut. xxviii. being brought
   upon them, that which in the last verse of that dreadful chapter
   completes the threatenings was accomplished, "The Lord shall bring thee
   into Egypt again." In this chapter we have, I. A more particular
   account of Jeremiah's discharge and his settlement with Gedaliah, ver.
   1-6. II. The great resort of the Jews that remained scattered in the
   neighbouring countries to Gedaliah, who was made their governor under
   the king of Babylon; and the good posture they were in for a while
   under him, ver. 7-12. III. A treacherous design formed against
   Gedaliah, by Ishmael, which we shall find executed in the next chapter,
   ver. 13-16.

The Preservation of Jeremiah; Jeremiah's Adherence to Gedaliah. (b. c. 588.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after that Nebuzar-adan
   the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken
   him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of
   Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.   2
   And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The Lord
   thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place.   3 Now the Lord
   hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have
   sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this
   thing is come upon you.   4 And now, behold, I loose thee this day from
   the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to
   come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if
   it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold,
   all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for
   thee to go, thither go.   5 Now while he was not yet gone back, he
   said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan,
   whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah,
   and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth
   convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him
   victuals and a reward, and let him go.   6 Then went Jeremiah unto
   Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the
   people that were left in the land.

   The title of this part of the book, which begins the chapter, seems
   misapplied (The word which came to Jeremiah), for here is nothing of
   prophecy in this chapter, but it is to be referred to ch. xlii. 7,
   where we have a message that God sent by Jeremiah to the captains and
   the people that remained. The story between is only to introduce that
   prophecy and show the occasion of it, that it may be the better
   understood, and Jeremiah, being himself concerned in the story, was the
   better able to give an account of it.

   In these verses we have Jeremiah's adhering, by the advice of
   Nebuzar-adan, to Gedaliah. It should seem that Jeremiah was very
   honourably fetched out of the court of the prison by the king of
   Babylon's princes (ch. xxxix. 13, 14), but afterwards, being found
   among the people in the city, when orders were given to the inferior
   officers to bind all they found that were of any fashion, in order to
   their being carried captives to Babylon, he, through ignorance and
   mistake, was bound among the rest and hurried away. Poor man! he seems
   to have been born to hardship and abuse--man of sorrows indeed! But
   when the captives were brought manacled to Ramah, not far off, where a
   council of war, or court-martial, was held for giving orders concerning
   them, Jeremiah was soon distinguished from the rest, and, by special
   order of the court, was discharged. 1. The captain of the guard
   solemnly owns him to be a true prophet (v. 2, 3): "The Lord thy God,
   whose messenger thou has been and in whose name thou hast spoken, has
   by thee pronounced this evil upon this place; they had fair warning
   given them of it, but they would not take the warning, and now the Lord
   hath brought it, and, as by thy mouth he said it, so by my hand he hath
   done what he said." He seems thus to justify what he had done, and to
   glory in it, that he had been God's instrument to fulfil that which
   Jeremiah had been his messenger to foretell; and upon that account it
   was indeed the most glorious action he had ever done. He tells all the
   people that were now in chains before him It is because you have sinned
   against the Lord that this thing has come upon you. The princes of
   Israel would never be brought to acknowledge this, though it was as
   evident as if it had been written with a sun-beam; but this heathen
   prince plainly sees it, that a people that had been so favoured as they
   had been by the divine goodness would never have been abandoned thus
   had they not been very provoking. The people of Israel had been often
   told this from the pulpit by their prophets, and they would not regard
   it; now they are told it from the bench by the conqueror, whom they
   dare not contradict and who will make them regard it. Note, Sooner or
   later men shall be made sensible that their sin is the cause of all
   their miseries. 2. He gives him free leave to dispose of himself as he
   thought fit. He loosed him from his chains a second time (v. 4),
   invited him to come along with him to Babylon, not as a captive, but as
   a friend, as a companion; and I will set my eye upon thee (so the word
   is), not only, "I will look well to thee," but "I will show thee
   respect, will countenance thee, and will see that thou be safe and well
   provided for." If he was not disposed to go to Babylon, he might dwell
   where he pleased in his own country, for it was all now at the disposal
   of the conquerors. He may go to Anathoth if he please, and enjoy the
   field he has purchased there. A great change with this good man! He
   that but lately was tossed from one prison to another may now walk at
   liberty from one possession to another. 3. He advised him to go to
   Gedaliah and settle with him. This Gedaliah, made governor of the land
   under the king of Babylon, was an honest Jew, who (it is probably)
   betimes went over with his friends to the Chaldeans, and approved
   himself so well that he had this great trust put into his hands, v. 5.
   While Jeremiah had not yet gone back, but stood considering what he
   should do, Nebuzar-adan, perceiving him neither inclined to go to
   Babylon nor determined whither to go, turned the scale for him, and
   bade him by all means go to Gedaliah. Sudden thoughts sometimes prove
   wise ones. But when he gave this counsel he did not design to bind him
   by it, nor will he take ill if he do not follow it: Go wheresoever it
   seemeth convenient unto thee. It is friendly in such cases to give
   advice, but unfriendly to prescribe and to be angry if our advice be
   not take. Let Jeremiah steer what course he pleases, Nebuzar-adan will
   agree to it, and believe he does for the best. Nor does he only give
   him his liberty, and an approbation of the measures he shall take, but
   provides for his support: He gave him victuals and a present, either in
   clothes or money, and so let him go. See how considerate the captain of
   the guard was in his kindness to Jeremiah. He set him at liberty, but
   it was in a country that was laid waste, and in which, as the posture
   of it now was, he might have perished, though it was his own country,
   if he had not been thus kindly furnished with necessaries. Jeremiah not
   only accepted his kindness, but took his advice, and went to Gedaliah,
   to Mizpah, and dwelt with him, v. 6. Whether we may herein commend his
   prudence I know not; the event does not commend it, for it did not
   prove at all to his comfort. However, we may commend his pious
   affection to the land of Israel, that unless he were forced out of it,
   as Ezekiel, and Daniel, and other good men were, he would not forsake
   it, but chose rather to dwell with the poor in the holy land than with
   princes in an unholy one.

Gedaliah's Address to the People. (b. c. 588.)

   7 Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields,
   even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made
   Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed unto
   him men, and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, of them
   that were not carried away captive to Babylon;   8 Then they came to
   Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and
   Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the
   sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite,
   they and their men.   9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of
   Shaphan sware unto them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the
   Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it
   shall be well with you.   10 As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah
   to serve the Chaldeans, which will come unto us: but ye, gather ye
   wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and
   dwell in your cities that ye have taken.   11 Likewise when all the
   Jews that were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and that
   were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a
   remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of
   Ahikam the son of Shaphan;   12 Even all the Jews returned out of all
   places whither they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to
   Gedaliah, unto Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits very much.
   13 Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the
   forces that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,   14 And
   said unto him, Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of the
   Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee? But
   Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.   15 Then Johanan the son
   of Kareah spake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I
   pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man
   shall know it: wherefore should he slay thee, that all the Jews which
   are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah
   perish?   16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son
   of Kareah, Thou shalt not do this thing: for thou speakest falsely of
   Ishmael.

   We have in these verses,

   I. A bright sky opening upon the remnant of the Jews that were left in
   their own land, and a comfortable prospect given them of some peace and
   quietness after the many years of trouble and terror with which they
   had been afflicted. Jeremiah indeed had never in his prophecies spoken
   of any such good days reserved for the Jews immediately after the
   captivity; but Providence seemed to raise and encourage such an
   expectation, and it would be to that miserable people as life from the
   dead. Observe the particulars.

   1. Gedaliah, one of themselves, is made governor in the land, by the
   king of Babylon, v. 7. To show that he designed to make and keep them
   easy he did not give this commission to one of the princes of Babylon,
   but to one of their brethren, who, they might be sure, would seek their
   peace. He was the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, one of the
   princes. We read of his father (ch. xxvi. 24) that he took Jeremiah's
   part against the people. He seems to have been a man of great wisdom
   and a mild temper, and under whose government the few that were left
   might have been very happy. The king of Babylon had a good opinion of
   him and reposed a confidence in him, for to him he committed all that
   were left behind.

   2. There is great resort to him from all parts, and all those that were
   now the Jews of the dispersion came and put themselves under his
   government and protection. (1.) The great men that had escaped the
   Chaldeans by force came and quietly submitted to Gedaliah, for their
   own safety and common preservation. Several are here named, v. 8. They
   came with their men, their servants, their soldiers, and so
   strengthened one another; and the king of Babylon had such a good
   opinion of Gedaliah his delegate that he was not at all jealous of the
   increase of their numbers, but rather pleased with it. (2.) The poor
   men that had escaped by flight into the neighbouring countries of Moab,
   Ammon, and Edom, were induced by the love they bore to their own land
   to return to it again as soon as they heard that Gedaliah was in
   authority there, v. 11, 12. Canaan itself would be an unsafe unpleasant
   country if there were no government nor governors there, and those that
   loved it dearly would not come back to it till they heard there were.
   It would be a great reviving to those that were dispersed to come
   together again, to those that were dispersed into foreign countries to
   come together in their own country, to those that were under strange
   kings to be under a governor of their own nation. See here in wrath God
   remembered mercy, and yet admitted some of them upon a further trial of
   their obedience.

   3. The model of this new government is drawn up and settled by an
   original contract, which Gedaliah confirmed with an oath, a solemn oath
   (v. 9): He swore to them and to their men, it is probably according to
   the warrant and instructions he had received from the king of Babylon,
   who empowered him to give them these assurances. (1.) They must own the
   property of their lands to be in the Chaldeans. "Come" (says Gedaliah),
   "fear not to serve the Chaldeans. Fear not the sin of it." Though the
   divine law had forbidden them to make leagues with the heathen, yet the
   divine sentence had obliged them to yield to the king of Babylon. "Fear
   not the reproach of it, and the disparagement it will be to your
   nation; it is what God has brought you to, has bound you to, and it is
   no disgrace to any to comply with him. Fear not the consequences of it,
   as if it would certainly make you and yours miserable; no, you will
   find the king of Babylon not so hard a landlord as you apprehend him to
   be; if you will but live peaceably, peaceably you shall live; disturb
   not the government, and it will not disturb you. Serve the king of
   Babylon and it shall be well with you." If they should make any
   difficulty of doing personal homage, or should be apprehensive of
   danger when the Chaldeans should come among them, Gedaliah, probably by
   instruction from the king of Babylon, undertakes upon all occasions to
   act for them, and make their application acceptable to the king (v.
   10): "As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the
   Chaldeans, to do homage to them in the name of the whole body if there
   be occasion, to receive orders, and to pay them their tribute when the
   come to us." All that passes between them and the Chaldeans shall pass
   through his hand; and, if the Chaldeans put such a confidence in him,
   surely his own countrymen may venture to do it. Gedaliah is willing
   thus to give them the assurance of an oath that he will do his part in
   protecting them, but, being apt to err (as many good men are) on the
   charitable side, he did not require an oath from them that they would
   be faithful to him, else the following mischief might have been
   prevented. However, protection draws allegiance though it be not sworn,
   and by joining in with Gedaliah they did, in effect, consent to the
   terms of government, that they should serve the king of Babylon. But,
   (2.) Though they own the property of their lands to be in the
   Chaldeans, yet, upon that condition, they shall have the free enjoyment
   of them and all the profits of them (v. 10): "Gather you wine and
   summer fruits, and take them for your own use; put them in your
   vessels, to be laid up for winter-store, as those do that live in a
   land of peace and hope to eat the labour of your hand, nay, the labour
   of other people's hands, for you reap what they sowed." Or perhaps they
   were the spontaneous products of that fertile soil, for which none had
   laboured. And accordingly we find (v. 12) that they gathered wine and
   summer fruits very much, such as were at present upon the ground, for
   their corn-harvest was over some time before Jerusalem was taken. While
   Gedaliah was in care for the public safety he left them to enjoy the
   advantages of the public plenty, and, for aught that appears, demanded
   no tribute from them; for he sought not his own profit, but the profit
   of many.

   II. Here is a dark cloud gathering over this infant state, and
   threatening a dreadful storm. How soon is this hopeful prospect
   blasted! For when God begins in judgment he will make an end. It is
   here intimated to us, 1. That Baalis the king of the Ammonites had a
   particular spite at Gedaliah, and was contriving to take him off,
   either out of malice to the nation of the Jews, whose welfare he hated
   the thought of, or a personal pique against Gedaliah, v. 14. Some make
   Baalis to signify the queen-mother of the king of the Ammonites, or
   queen-dowager, as if she were the first mover of the bloody and
   treacherous design. One would have thought this little remnant might be
   safe when the great king of Babylon protected it; and yet it is ruined
   by the artifices of this petty prince or princess. happy are those that
   have the King of kings of their side, who can take the wise in their
   own craftiness; for the greatest earthly king cannot with all his power
   secure us against fraud and treachery. 2. That he employed Ishmael, the
   son of Nethaniah, as the instrument of his malice, instigated him to
   murder Gedaliah, and, that he might have a fair opportunity to do it,
   directed him to go and enrol himself among his subjects and promise him
   fealty. Nothing could be more barbarous than the design itself, nor
   more base than the method of compassing it. How wretchedly is human
   nature corrupted and degenerated (even in those that pretend to the
   best blood) when it is capable of admitting the thought of such
   abominable wickedness! Ishmael was of the seed royal, and would
   therefore be easily tempted to envy and hate one that set up for a
   governor in Judah, who was not, as he was, of David's line, though he
   had ever so much of David's spirit. 3. That Johanan, a brisk and active
   man, having got scent of this plot, informed Gedaliah of it, yet taking
   it for granted he could not but know of it before, the proofs of the
   matter being so very plain: Dost thou certainly know? surely thou dost,
   v. 14. He gave him private intelligence of it (v. 15), hoping he would
   then take the more notice of it. He proffered his service to prevent
   it, by taking off Ishmael, whose very name was ominous to all the seed
   of Isaac: I will slay him. Wherefore should he slay thee? Herein he
   showed more courage and zeal than sense of justice; for, if it be
   lawful to kill for prevention, who then can be safe, since malice
   always suspects the worst? 4. That Gedaliah, being a man of sincerity
   himself, would by no means give credit to the information given him of
   Ishmael's treachery. He said, Thou speakest falsely of Ishmael. Herein
   he discovered more good humour than discretion, more of the innocency
   of the dove than the wisdom of the serpent. Princes become uneasy to
   themselves and all about them when they are jealous. Queen Elizabeth
   said that she would believe no more evil of her people than a mother
   would believe of her own children; yet many have been ruined by being
   over-confident of the fidelity of those about them.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLI.

   It is a very tragical story that is related in this chapter, and shows
   that evil pursues sinners. The black cloud that was gathering in the
   foregoing chapter here bursts in a dreadful storm. Those few Jews that
   escaped the captivity were proud to think that they were still in their
   own land, when their brethren had gone they knew not whither, were fond
   of the wine and summer-fruits they had gathered, and were very secure
   under Gedaliah's protectorship, when, on a sudden, even these remains
   prove ruins too. I. Gedaliah is barbarously slain by Ishmael, ver. 1,
   2. II. All the Jews that were with him were slain likewise (ver. 3) and
   a pit filled with their dead bodies, ver. 9. III. Some devout men, to
   the number of fourscore, that were going towards Jerusalem, were drawn
   in by Ishmael, and murdered likewise, ver. 4-7. Only ten of them
   escaped, ver. 8. IV. Those that escaped the sword were taken prisoners
   by Ishmael, and carried off towards the country of the Ammonites, ver.
   10. V. By the conduct and courage of Johanan, though the death of the
   slain is not revenged, yet the prisoners are recovered, and he now
   becomes their commander-in-chief, ver. 11-16. VI. His project is to
   carry them into the land of Egypt (ver. 17, 18), which we shall hear
   more of in the next chapter.

The Murder of Gedaliah. (b. c. 588.)

   1 Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of
   Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of
   the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam
   to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.   2 Then
   arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him,
   and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword,
   and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
     3 Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with
   Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the
   men of war.   4 And it came to pass the second day after he had slain
   Gedaliah, and no man knew it,   5 That there came certain from Shechem,
   from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards
   shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with
   offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the
   Lord.   6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to
   meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met
   them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.   7 And it
   was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son
   of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he,
   and the men that were with him.   8 But ten men were found among them
   that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the
   field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he
   forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.   9 Now the pit
   wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had
   slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made for fear
   of Baasha king of Israel: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it
   with them that were slain.   10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all
   the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king's
   daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan
   the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam:
   and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and
   departed to go over to the Ammonites.

   It is hard to say which is more astonishing, God's permitting or men's
   perpetrating such villanies as here we find committed. Such base,
   barbarous, bloody work is here done by men who by their birth should
   have been men of honour, by their religion just men, and this done upon
   those of their own nature, their own nation, their own religion, and
   now their brethren in affliction, when they were all brought under the
   power of the victorious Chaldeans, and smarting under the judgments of
   God, upon no provocation, nor with any prospect of advantage--all done,
   not only in cold blood, but with art and management. We have scarcely
   such an instance of perfidious cruelty in all the scripture; so that
   with John, when he saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, we
   may well wonder with great admiration. But God permitted it for the
   completing of the ruin of an unhumbled people, and the filling up of
   the measure of their judgments, who had filled up the measure of their
   iniquities. Let it inspire us with an indignation at the wickedness of
   men and an awe of God's righteousness.

   I. Ishmael and his party treacherously killed Gedaliah himself in the
   first place. Though the king of Babylon had made him a great man, had
   given him a commission to be governor of the land which he had
   conquered, though God had made him a good man and a great blessing to
   his country, and his agency for its welfare was as life from the dead,
   yet neither could secure him. Ishmael was of the seed royal (v. 1) and
   therefore jealous of Gedaliah's growing greatness, and enraged that he
   should merit and accept a commission under the king of Babylon. He had
   ten men with him that were princes of the king too, guided by the same
   peevish resentments that he was; these had been with Gedaliah before,
   to put themselves under his protection (ch. xl. 8), and now came again
   to make him a visit; and they did eat bread together in Mizpah. He
   entertained them generously, and entertained no jealousy of them,
   notwithstanding the information given him by Johanan. They pretended
   friendship to him, and gave him no warning to stand on his guard; he
   was in sincerity friendly to them, and did all he could to oblige them.
   But those that did eat bread with him lifted up the heel against him.
   They did not pick a quarrel with him, but watched an opportunity, when
   they had him alone, and assassinated him, v. 2.

   II. They likewise put all to the sword that they found in arms there,
   both Jews and Chaldeans, all that were employed under Gedaliah or were
   in any capacity to revenge his death, v. 3. As if enough of the blood
   of Israelites had not been shed by the Chaldeans, their own princes
   here mingle it with the blood of the Chaldeans. The vine-dressers and
   the husbandmen were busy in the fields, and knew nothing of this bloody
   massacre; so artfully was it carried on and concealed.

   III. Some good honest men, that were going all in tears to lament the
   desolations of Jerusalem, were drawn in by Ishmael, and murdered with
   the rest. Observe, 1. Whence they came (v. 5)-- from Shechem, Samaria,
   and Shiloh, places that had been famous, but were now reduced; they
   belonged to the ten tribes, but there were some in those countries that
   retained an affection for the worship of the God of Israel. 2. Whither
   they were going--to the house of the Lord, the temple at Jerusalem,
   which, no doubt, they had heard of the destruction of, and were going
   to pay their respects to its ashes, to see its ruins, that their eye
   might affect their heart with sorrow for them. They favour the dust
   thereof, Ps. cii. 14. They took offerings and incense in their hand,
   that if they should find any altar there, though it were but an altar
   of earth, and any priest ready to officiate, they might not be without
   something to offer; if not, yet they showed their good-will, as
   Abraham, when he came to the place of the altar, though the altar was
   gone. The people of God used to go rejoicing to the house of the Lord,
   but these went in the habit of mourners, with their clothes rent and
   their heads shaven; for the providence of God loudly called to weeping
   and mourning, because it was not with the faithful worshippers of God
   as in months past. 3. How they were decoyed into a fatal snare by
   Ishmael's malice. Hearing of their approach, he resolved to be the
   death of them too, so bloodthirsty was he. He seemed as if he hated
   every one that had the name of an Israelite or the face of an honest
   man. These pilgrims towards Jerusalem he had a spite to, for the sake
   of their errand. Ishmael went out to meet them with crocodiles' tears,
   pretending to bewail the desolations of Jerusalem as much as they; and,
   to try how they stood affected to Gedaliah and his government, he
   courted them into the town and found them to have a respect for him,
   which confirmed him in his resolution to murder them. He said, Come to
   Gedaliah, pretending he would have them come and live with him, when
   really he intended that they should come and die with him, v. 6. They
   had heard such a character of Gedaliah that they were willing enough to
   be acquainted with him; but Ishmael, when he had them in the midst of
   the town, fell upon them and slew them (v. 7), and no doubt took the
   offerings they had and converted them to his own use; for he that would
   not stick at such a murder would not stick at sacrilege. Notice is
   taken of his disposing of the dead bodies of these and the rest that he
   had slain; he tumbled them all into a great pit (v. 7), the same pit
   that Asa king of Judah had digged long before, either in the city or
   adjoining to it, when he built or fortified Mizpah (1 Kings xv. 22), to
   be a frontier-garrison against Baasha king of Israel and for fear of
   him, v. 9. Note, Those that dig pits with a good intention know not
   what bad use they may be put to, one time or other. He slew so many
   that he could not afford them each a grave, or would not do them so
   much honour, but threw them all promiscuously into one pit. Among these
   last that were doomed to the slaughter there were ten that obtained a
   pardon, by working, not on the compassion, but the covetousness, of
   those that had them at their mercy, v. 8. They said to Ishmael, when he
   was about to suck their blood, like an insatiable horseleech, after
   that of the companions, Slay us not, for we have treasurers in the
   field, country treasures, large stocks upon the ground, abundance of
   such commodities as the country affords, wheat and barley, and oil and
   honey, intimating that they would discover it to him and put him in
   possession of it all, if he would spare them. Skin for skin, and all
   that a man has, will he give for his life. This bait prevailed. Ishmael
   saved them, not for the love of mercy, but for the love of money. Here
   were riches kept for the owners thereof, not to their hurt (Eccl. v.
   13) and to cause them to lose their lives (Job xxxi. 39), but to their
   good and the preserving of their lives. Solomon observes that sometimes
   the ransom of a man's life is his riches. But those who think thus to
   bribe death, when it comes with commission, and plead with it, saying,
   Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, will find death
   inexorable and themselves wretchedly deceived.

   IV. He carried off the people prisoners. The king's daughters (whom the
   Chaldeans cared not for troubling themselves with when they had the
   king's sons) and the poor of the land, the vine-dressers and
   husband-men, that were committed to Gedaliah's charge, were all led
   away prisoners towards the country of the Ammonites (v. 10), Ishmael
   probably intending to make a present of them, as the trophies of his
   barbarous victory, to the king of that country, that set him on. This
   melancholy story is a warning to us never to be secure in this world.
   Worse may be yet to come when we think the worst is over; and that end
   of one trouble, which we fancy to be the end of all trouble, may prove
   to be the beginning of another, of a greater. These prisoners thought,
   Surely the bitterness of death, and of captivity, is past; and yet some
   died by the sword and others went into captivity. When we think
   ourselves safe, and begin to be easy, destruction may come that way
   that we little expect it. There is many a ship wrecked in the harbour.
   We can never be sure of peace on this side heaven.

Johanan Pursues Ishmael; Ishmael's Retreat. (b. c. 588.)

   11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the
   forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son
   of Nethaniah had done,   12 Then they took all the men, and went to
   fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great
   waters that are in Gibeon.   13 Now it came to pass, that when all the
   people which were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all
   the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad.
   14 So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah
   cast about and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah.   15
   But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men,
   and went to the Ammonites.   16 Then took Johanan the son of Kareah,
   and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant
   of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,
   from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even
   mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs,
   whom he had brought again from Gibeon:   17 And they departed, and
   dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to
   enter into Egypt,   18 Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid
   of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the
   son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

   It would have been well if Johanan, when he gave information to
   Gedaliah of Ishmael's treasonable design, though he could not obtain
   leave to kill Ishmael and to prevent it that way, yet had staid with
   Gedaliah; for he, and his captains, and their forces, might have been a
   life-guard to Gedaliah and a terror to Ishmael, and so have prevented
   the mischief without the effusion of blood: but, it seems they were out
   upon some expedition, perhaps no good one, and so were out of the way
   when they should have been upon the best service. Those that affect to
   ramble are many times out of their place when they are most needed.
   However, at length they hear of all the evil that Ishmael had done (v.
   11), and are resolved to try an after-game, which we have an account of
   in these verses. 1. We heartily wish Johanan could have taken revenge
   upon the murderers, but he prevailed only to rescue the captives. Those
   that had shed so much blood, it was a pity but their blood should have
   been shed; and it is strange that vengeance suffered them to live; yet
   it did. Johanan gathered what forces he could and went to fight with
   Ishmael (v. 12), upon notice of the murders he had committed (for
   though he concealed it for a time, v. 4, yet murder will out) and which
   way he was gone; he pursued him, and overtook him by the great pool of
   Gibeon, which we read of, 2 Sam. ii. 13. And, upon his appearing with
   such a force, Ishmael's heart failed him, his guilty conscience flew in
   his face, and he durst not stand his ground against an enemy that was
   something like a match for him. The most cruel are often the most
   cowardly. The poor captives were glad when they saw Johanan and the
   captains that were with him, looking upon them as their deliverers (v.
   13), and they immediately found a way to wheel about and come over to
   them (v. 14), Ishmael not offering to detain them when he saw Johanan.
   Note, Those that would be helped must help themselves. These captives
   staid not till their conquerors were beaten, but took the first
   opportunity to make their escape, as soon as they saw their friends
   appear and their enemies thereby disheartened. Ishmael quitted his pray
   to save his life, and escaped with eight men, v. 15. It seems, two of
   his ten men, that were his banditti or assassins (spoken of v. 1),
   either deserted him or were killed in the engagement; but he made the
   best of his way to the Ammonites, as a perfect renegado, that had quite
   abandoned all relation to the commonwealth of Israel, though he was of
   the seed royal, and we hear no more of him. 2. We heartily wish that
   Johanan, when he had rescued the captives, would have sat down quietly
   with them, and governed them peaceably, as Gedaliah did; but, instead
   of that, he is for leading them into the land of Egypt, as Ishmael
   would have led them into the land of the Ammonites; so that though he
   got the command over them in a better way than Ishmael did, and
   honestly enough, yet he did not use it much better. Gedaliah, who was
   of a meek and quiet spirit, was a great blessing to them; but Johanan,
   who was of a fierce and restless spirit, was set over them for their
   hurt, and to complete their ruin, even after they were, as they
   thought, redeemed. Thus did God still walk contrary to them. (1.) The
   resolution of Johanan and the captains was very rash; nothing would
   serve them but they would go to enter into Egypt (v. 17), and, in order
   to that, they encamped for a time in the habitation of Chimham, by
   Bethlehem, David's city. Probably it was some land which David gave to
   Chimham, the son of Barzillai, which, though it returned to David's
   family at the year of the Jubilee, yet still bore the name of Chimham.
   Here Johanan made his headquarters, steering his course towards Egypt,
   either from a personal affection to that country or an ancient national
   confidence in the Egyptians for help in distress. Some of the mighty
   men of war, it seems had escaped; those he took with him, and the women
   and children, whom he had recovered from Ishmael, who were thus emptied
   from vessel to vessel, because they were yet unchanged. (2.) The reason
   for this resolution was very frivolous. They pretended that they were
   afraid of the Chaldeans, that they would come and do I know not what
   with them, because Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, v. 18. I cannot think
   they really had any apprehensions of danger upon this account; for,
   though it is true that the Chaldeans had cause enough to resent the
   murder of their viceroy, yet they were not so unreasonable, or unjust,
   as to revenge it upon those who appeared so vigorously against the
   murderers. But they only make use of this as a sham to cover that
   corrupt inclination of their unbelieving ancestors, which was so strong
   in them, to return into Egypt. Those will justly lose their comfort in
   real fears that excuse themselves in sin with pretended fears.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLII.

   Johanan and the captains being strongly bent upon going into Egypt,
   either their affections or politics advising them to take that course,
   they had a great desire that God should direct them to do so too like
   Balaam, who, when he was determined to go and curse Israel, asked God
   leave. Here is, I. The fair bargain that was made between Jeremiah and
   them about consulting God in this matter, ver. 1-6. II. The message at
   large which God sent them, in answer to their enquiry, in which, 1.
   They are commanded and encouraged to continue in the land of Judah, and
   assured that if they did so it should be well with them, ver. 7-12. 2.
   They are forbidden to go to Egypt, and are plainly told that if they
   did it would be their ruin, ver. 13-18. 3. They are charged with
   dissimulation in their asking what God's will was in this matter and
   disobedience when they were told what it was; and sentence is
   accordingly passed upon them, ver. 19-22.

Jeremiah Agrees to Consult God. (b. c. 588.)

   1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah,
   and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least
   even unto the greatest, came near,   2 And said unto Jeremiah the
   prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before
   thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant;
   (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)   3
   That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the
   thing that we may do.   4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I
   have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to
   your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord
   shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back
   from you.   5 Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and
   faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things
   for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us.   6 Whether it be
   good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our
   God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey
   the voice of the Lord our God.

   We have reason to wonder how Jeremiah the prophet escaped the sword of
   Ishmael; it seems he did escape, and it was not the first time that the
   Lord hid him. It is strange also that in these violent turns he was not
   consulted before now, and his advice asked and taken. But it should
   seem as if they knew not that a prophet was among them. Though this
   people were as brands plucked out of the fire, yet have they not
   returned to the Lord. This people has a revolting and a rebellious
   heart; and contempt of God and his providence, God and his prophets, is
   still the sin that most easily besets them. But now at length, to serve
   a turn, Jeremiah is sought out, and all the captains, Johanan himself
   not excepted, with all the people from the least to the greatest, make
   him a visit; they came near (v. 1), which intimates that hitherto they
   had kept at a distance from the prophet and had been shy of him. Now
   here,

   I. They desire him by prayer to ask direction from God what they should
   do in the present critical juncture, v. 2, 3. They express themselves
   wonderfully well. 1. With great respect to the prophet. Though he was
   poor and low, and under their command, yet they apply to him with
   humility and submissiveness, as petitioners for his assistance, which
   yet they intimate their own unworthiness of: Let, we beseech thee, our
   supplication be accepted before thee. They compliment him thus in hopes
   to persuade him to say as they would have him say. 2. With a great
   opinion of his interest in heaven: "Pray for us, who know not how to
   pray for ourselves. Pray to the Lord thy God, for we are unworthy to
   call him ours, nor have we reason to expect any favour from him." 3.
   With a great sense of their need of divine direction. They speak of
   themselves as objects of compassion: "We are but a remnant, but a few
   of many; how easily will such a remnant be swallowed up, and yet it is
   a pity that it should. Thy eyes see what distress we are in, what a
   plunge we are at; if thou canst do any thing, help us." 4. With desire
   of divine direction: "Let the Lord thy God take this ruin into his
   thoughts and under his hand, and show us the way wherein we may walk
   and may expect to have his presence with us, and the thing that we may
   do, the course we may take for our own safety." Note, In every
   difficult doubtful case our eye must be up to God for direction. They
   then might expect to be directed by a spirit of prophecy, which has now
   ceased; but we may still in faith pray to be guided by a spirit of
   wisdom in our hearts and the hints of Providence.

   II. Jeremiah faithfully promises them to pray for direction for them,
   and, whatever message God should send to them by him, he would deliver
   it to them just as he received it without adding, altering, or
   diminishing, v. 4. Ministers may hence learn, 1. Conscientiously to
   pray for those who desire their prayers: I will pray for you according
   to your words. Though they had slighted him, yet, like Samuel when he
   was slighted, he will not sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for
   them, 1 Sam. xii. 23. 2. Conscientiously to advise those who desire
   their advice as near as they can to the mind of God, not keeping back
   any thing that is profitable for them, whether it be pleasing or no,
   but to declare to them the whole counsel of God, that they may approve
   themselves true to their trust.

   III. They fairly promise that they will be governed by the will of God,
   as soon as they know what it is (v. 5, 6), and they had the impudence
   to appeal to God concerning their sincerity herein, though at the same
   time they dissembled: "The Lord be a true and faithful witness between
   us; do thou in the fear of God tell us truly what his mind is and then
   we will in the fear of God comply with it, and for this the Lord the
   Judge be Judge between us." Note, Those that expect to have the benefit
   of good ministers' prayers must conscientiously hearken to their
   preaching and be governed by it, as far as it agrees with the mind of
   God. Nothing could be better than this was: Whether it be good, or
   whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, that it
   may be well with us. 1. They now call God their God, for Jeremiah had
   encouraged them to call him so (v. 4): I will pray to the Lord your
   God. He is ours, and therefore we will obey his voice. Our relation to
   God strongly obliges us to obedience. 2. They promise to obey his voice
   because they sent the prophet to him to consult him. Note, We do not
   truly desire to know the mind of God if we do not fully resolve to
   comply with it when we do know it. 3. It is an implicit universal
   obedience that they here promise. They will do what God appoints them
   to do, whether it be good or whether it be evil: "Though it may seem
   evil to us, yet we will believe that if God command it it is certainly
   good, and we must not dispute it, but do it. Whatever God commands,
   whether it be easy or difficult, agreeable to our inclinations or
   contrary to them, whether it be cheap or costly, fashionable or
   unfashionable, whether we get or lose by it in our worldly interests,
   if it be our duty, we will do it." 4. It is upon a very good
   consideration that they promise this, a reasonable and powerful one,
   that it may be well with us, which intimates a conviction that they
   could not expect it should be well with them upon any other terms.

Jeremiah's Address to the People. (b. c. 588.)

   7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the Lord came
   unto Jeremiah.   8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all
   the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from
   the least even to the greatest,   9 And said unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your
   supplication before him;   10 If ye will still abide in this land, then
   will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not
   pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.
   11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not
   afraid of him, saith the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to
   deliver you from his hand.   12 And I will shew mercies unto you, that
   he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
   13 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the
   voice of the Lord your God,   14 Saying, No; but we will go into the
   land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the
   trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:   15 And
   now therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Judah; Thus
   saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces
   to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;   16 Then it shall come
   to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in
   the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow
   close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.   17 So shall
   it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn
   there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the
   pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that
   I will bring upon them.   18 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God
   of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you,
   when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an
   astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place
   no more.   19 The Lord hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah;
   Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this
   day.   20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the
   Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according
   unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we
   will do it.   21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye
   have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for the
   which he hath sent me unto you.   22 Now therefore know certainly that
   ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the
   place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

   We have here the answer which Jeremiah was sent to deliver to those who
   employed him to ask counsel of God.

   I. It did not come immediately, not till ten days after, v. 7. They
   were thus long held in suspense, perhaps, to punish them for their
   hypocrisy or to show that Jeremiah did not speak of himself, nor what
   he would, for he could not speak when he would, but must wait for
   instructions. However, it teaches us to continue waiting upon God for
   direction in our way. The vision is for an appointed time, and at the
   end it shall speak.

   II. When it did come he delivered it publicly, both to the captains and
   to all the people, from the meanest to those in the highest station; he
   delivered it fully and faithfully as he received it, as he had promised
   that he would keep nothing back from them. If Jeremiah had been to
   direct them by his own prudence, perhaps he could not have told what to
   advise them to, the case was so difficult; but what he has to advise is
   what the Lord the God of Israel saith, to whom they had sent him, and
   therefore they were bound in honour and duty to observe it. And this he
   tells them,

   1. That it is the will of God that they should stay where they are, and
   his promise that, if they do so, it shall undoubtedly be well with them
   he would have them still to abide in this land, v. 10. Their brethren
   were forced out of it into captivity, and this was their affliction;
   let those therefore count it a mercy that they may stay in it and a
   duty to stay in it. Let those whose lot is in Canaan never quit it
   while they can keep it. It would have been enough to oblige them if God
   had only said, "I charge you upon your allegiance to abide still in the
   land;" but he rather persuades them to it as a friend than commands it
   as a prince. (1.) He expresses a very tender concern for them in their
   present calamitous condition: It repenteth me of the evil that I have
   done unto you. Though they had shown small sign of their repenting of
   their sins, yet God, as one grieved for the misery of Israel (Judg. x.
   16), begins to repent of the judgments he had brought upon them for
   their sins. Not that he changed his mind, but he was very ready to
   change his way and to return in mercy to them. God's time to repent
   himself concerning his servants is when he sees that, as here, their
   strength is gone, and there is none shut up or left, Deut. xxxii. 36.
   (2.) He answers the argument they had against abiding in this land.
   They feared the king of Babylon (ch. xli. 18), lest he should come and
   avenge the death of Gedaliah upon them, though they were no way
   accessory to it, nay, had witnessed against it. The surmise was foreign
   and unreasonable; but, if there had been any ground for it, enough is
   here said to remove it (v. 11): "Be not afraid of the king of Babylon,
   though he is a man of great might and little mercy, and a very
   arbitrary prince, whose will is a law, and therefore you are afraid he
   will upon this pretence, though without colour of reason, take
   advantage against you; be not afraid of him, for that fear will bring a
   snare: fear not him, for I am with you; and, if God be for you to save
   you, who can be against you to hurt you?" Thus has God provided to
   obviate and silence even the causeless fears of his people, which
   discourage them in the way of their duty; there is enough in the
   promises to encourage them. (3.) He assures them that if they will
   still abide in this land they shall not only be safe from the king of
   Babylon, but be made happy by the King of kings: "I will build you and
   plant you; you shall take root again, and be the new foundation of
   another state, a phoenix-kingdom, rising out of the ashes of the last."
   It is added (v. 12), I will show mercies unto you. Note, In all our
   comforts we may read God's mercies. God will show them mercy in this,
   that not only the king of Babylon shall not destroy them, but he shall
   have mercy upon them and help to settle them. Note, Whatever kindness
   men do us we must attribute it to God's kindness. He makes those whom
   he pities to be pitied even by those who carried them captives, Ps.
   xvi. 46. "The king of Babylon, having now the disposal of the country,
   shall cause you to return it to your own land, shall settle you again
   in your own habitations and put you in possession of the lands that
   formerly belonged to you." Note, God has made that our duty which is
   really our privilege, and our obedience will be its own recompence.
   "Abide in this land, and it shall be your own land again and you shall
   continue in it. Do not quit it now that you stand so fair for the
   enjoyment of it again. Be no so unwise as to forsake your own mercies
   for lying vanities."

   2. That as they tender the favour of God and their own happiness they
   must by no means think of going into Egypt, not thither of all places,
   not to that land out of which God had delivered their fathers and which
   he had so often warned them not to make alliance with nor to put
   confidence in. Observe here, (1.) The sin they are supposed to be
   guilty of (and to him that knew their hearts it was more than a
   supposition): "You begin to say, We will not dwell in this land (v.
   13); we will never think that we can be safe in it, no, not though God
   himself undertake our protection. We will not continue in it, no, not
   in obedience to the voice of the Lord our God. He may say what he
   please, but we will do what we please. We will go into the land of
   Egypt, and there will we dwell, whether God give us leave and go along
   with us or no," v. 14. It is supposed that their hearts were upon it:
   "If you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and are obstinately
   resolved that you will go and sojourn there, though God oppose you in
   it both by his word and by his providence, then take what follows." Now
   the reason they go upon in this resolution is that "in Egypt we shall
   see no war, nor have hunger of bread,; as we have had for a long time
   in this land," v. 14. Note, It is folly to quit our place, especially
   to quit the holy land, because we meet with trouble in it; but greater
   folly to think by changing our place to escape the judgments of God,
   and that evil which pursues sinners in every way of disobedience, and
   which there is no escaping but by returning to our allegiance. (2.) The
   sentence passed upon them for this sin, if they will persist in it. It
   is pronounced in God's name (v. 15): "Hear the word of the Lord, you
   remnant of Judah, who think that because you are a remnant you must be
   spared of course (v. 2) and indulged in your own humour." [1.] Did the
   sword and famine frighten them? Those very judgments shall pursue them
   into Egypt, shall overtake them, and overcome them there (v. 16, 17):
   "You think, because war and famine have long been raging in this land,
   that they are entailed upon it; whereas, if you trust in God, he can
   make even this land a land of peace to you; you think they are confined
   to it, and, if you can get clear of this land, you shall get out of the
   reach of them, but God will send them after you wherever you go." Note,
   the evils we think to escape by sin we certainly and inevitably run
   ourselves upon. The men that go to Egypt in contradiction to God's
   will, to escape the sword and famine, shall die in Egypt by sword and
   famine. We may apply it to the common calamities of human life; those
   that are impatient of them, and think to avoid them by changing their
   place, will find that they are deceived and that they do not at all
   better themselves. The grievances common to men will meet them wherever
   they go. All our removes in this world are but from one wilderness to
   another; still we are where we were. [2.] Did the desolations of
   Jerusalem frighten them? Were they willing to get as far as they could
   from them? They shall meet with the second part of them too in Egypt
   (v. 18): As my anger and fury have been poured out here upon Jerusalem,
   so they shall be poured out upon you in Egypt. Note, Those that have by
   sin made God their enemy will find him a consuming fire wherever they
   go. And then you shall be an execration and an astonishment. The
   Hebrews were of old an abomination to the Egyptians (Gen. xliii. 32),
   and now they shall be made more so than ever. When God's professing
   people mingle with infidels, and make their court to them, they lose
   their dignity and make themselves a reproach.

   3. That God knew their hypocrisy in their enquiries of him, and that
   when they asked what he would have them to do they were resolved to
   take their own way; and therefore the sentence which was before
   pronounced conditionally is made absolute. Having set before them good
   and evil, the blessing and the curse, in the close he makes application
   of what he had said. And here, (1.) He solemnly protests that he had
   faithfully delivered his message, v. 19. The conclusion of the whole
   matter is, "Go not down into Egypt; you disobey the command of God if
   you do, and what I have said to you will be a witness against you; for
   know certainly that, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear,
   I have plainly admonished you; you cannot now plead ignorance of the
   mind of God." (2.) He charges them with base dissimulation in the
   application they made to him for divine direction (v. 20): "You
   dissembled in your hearts; you professed one thing and intended
   another, promising what you never meant to perform." You have used
   deceit against your soul (so the margin reads it); for those that think
   to put a cheat upon God will prove in the end to have put a damning
   cheat upon themselves. (3.) He is already aware that they are
   determined to go contrary to the command of God; probably they
   discovered it in their countenance and secret mutterings already,
   before he had finished his discourse. However, he spoke from him who
   knew their hearts: "You have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God;
   you have not a disposition to obey it." Thus Moses, in the close of his
   farewell sermon, had told them (Deut. xxxi. 27, 29), I know thy
   rebellion and thy stiff neck, and that you will corrupt yourselves.
   Admire the patience of God, that he is pleased to speak to those who,
   he knows, will not regard him, and deal with those who, he knows, will
   deal very treacherously, Isa. xlviii. 8. (4.) He therefore reads them
   their doom, ratifying what he had said before: Know certainly that you
   shall die by the sword, v. 22. God's threatenings may be vilified, but
   cannot be nullified, by the unbelief of man. Famine and pestilence
   shall pursue these sinners; for there is no place privileged from
   divine arrests, nor can any malefactors go out of God's jurisdiction.
   You shall die in the place whither you desire to go. Note, We know not
   what is good for ourselves; and that often proves afflictive, and
   sometimes fatal, which we are most fond of and have our hearts most set
   upon.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLIII.

   Jeremiah had faithfully delivered his message from God in the foregoing
   chapter, and the case was made so very plain by it that one would have
   thought there needed no more words about it; but we find it quite
   otherwise. Here is, I. The people's contempt of this message; they
   denied it to be the word of God (ver. 1-3) and then made no difficulty
   of going directly contrary to it. Into Egypt they went, and took
   Jeremiah himself along with them, ver. 4-7. II. God's pursuit of them
   with another message, foretelling the king of Babylon's pursuit of them
   into Egypt, ver. 8-13.

The People's Insolent Reply. (b. c. 588.)

   1 And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking
   unto all the people all the words of the Lord their God, for which the
   Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words,   2 Then
   spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and
   all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the
   Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn
   there:   3 But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for
   to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to
   death, and carry us away captives into Babylon.   4 So Johanan the son
   of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people,
   obeyed not the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah.   5
   But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took
   all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither
   they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah;   6 Even men, and
   women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that
   Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of
   Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son
   of Neriah.   7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not
   the voice of the Lord: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.

   What God said to the builders of Babel may be truly said of this people
   that Jeremiah is now dealing with: Now nothing will be restrained from
   them which they have imagined to do, Gen. xi. 6. They have a fancy for
   Egypt, and to Egypt they will go, whatever God himself says to the
   contrary. Jeremiah made them hear all he had to say, though he saw them
   uneasy at it; it was what the Lord their God had sent him to speak to
   them, and they shall have it all. And now let us see what they have to
   say to it.

   I. They deny it to be a message from God: Johanan, and all the proud
   men, said to Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely, v. 2. See here, 1. What
   was the cause of their disobedience--it was pride; only by that comes
   contention both with God and man. They were proud men that gave the lie
   to the prophet. They could not bear the contradiction of their
   sentiments and the control of their designs, no, not by the divine
   wisdom, by the divine will itself. Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that
   I should obey him? Exod. v. 2. The proud unhumbled heart of man is one
   of the most daring enemies God has on this side hell. 2. What was the
   colour for their disobedience. They would not acknowledge it to be the
   word of God: The Lord hath not sent thee on this errand to us. Either
   they were not convinced that what was said came from God or (which I
   rather think) though they were convinced of it they would not own it.
   The light shone strongly in their face, but they either shut their eyes
   against it or would not confess that they saw it. Note, The reason why
   men deny the scriptures to be the word of God is because they are
   resolved not to conform to scripture-rules, and so an obstinate
   infidelity is made the sorry subterfuge of a wilful disobedience. If
   God had spoken to them by an angel, or as he did from Mount Sinai, they
   would have said that it was a delusion. Had they not consulted Jeremiah
   as a prophet? Had he not waited to receive instructions from God what
   to say to them? Had not what he said all the usual marks of prophecy
   upon it? Was not the prophet himself embarked in the same bottom with
   them? What interests could he have separate from theirs? Had he not
   always approved himself an Israelite indeed? And had not God proved him
   a prophet indeed? Had any of his words ever fallen to the ground? Why,
   truly, they had some good thoughts of Jeremiah, but they suggest (v.
   3), Baruch sets thee on against us. A likely thing, that Baruch should
   be in a plot to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldeans; and what
   would he get by that? If Jeremiah and he had been so well affected to
   the Chaldeans as they would represent them, they would have gone away
   at first with Nebuzaradan, when he courted them, to Babylon, and not
   have staid to take their lot with this despised ungrateful remnant. But
   the best services are no fences against malice and slander. Or, if
   Baruch had been so ill disposed, could they think Jeremiah would be so
   influenced by him as to make God's name an authority to patronise so
   villainous a purpose? Note, Those that are resolved to contradict the
   great ends of the ministry are industrious to bring a bad name upon it.
   When men will persist in sin they represent those that would turn them
   from it as designing men for themselves, nay, as ill-designing men
   against their neighbours. It is well for persons who are thus
   misrepresented that their witness is in heaven and their record on
   high.

   II. They determine to go to Egypt notwithstanding. They resolve not to
   dwell in the land of Judah, as God had ordered them (v. 4), but to go
   themselves with one consent and to take all that they had under their
   power along with them to Egypt. Those that came from all the nations
   whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah, out of a
   sincere affection to that land, they would not leave to their liberty,
   but forced them to go with them into Egypt (v. 5), men, women, and
   children (v. 6), a long journey into a strange country, an idolatrous
   country, a country that had never been kind of faithful to Israel; yet
   thither they would go, though they deserted their own land and threw
   themselves out of God's protection. It is the folly of men that they
   know not when they are well off, and often ruin themselves by
   endeavouring to better themselves; and it is the pride of great men to
   force those they have under their power to follow them, though ever so
   much against their duty and interest. These proud men compelled even
   Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch his scribe to go along with them to
   Egypt; they carried them away as prisoners, partly to punish them (and
   a greater punishment they could not inflict upon them than to force
   them against their consciences; theirs is the worst of tyranny who say
   to men's souls, even to good men's souls, Bow down, that we may go
   over), partly to put some reputation upon themselves and their own way.
   Though the prophets were under a force, they would make the world
   believe that they were voluntary in going along with them; and who
   could have blamed them for acting contrary to the word of the Lord if
   the prophets themselves had acted so? They came to Tahpanhes, a famous
   city of Egypt (so called from a queen of that name, 1 Kings xi. 19),
   the same with Hanes (Isa. xxx. 4); it was now the metropolis, for
   Pharaoh's house was there, v. 9. No place could serve these proud men
   to settle in but the royal city and near the court, so little mindful
   were they of Joseph's wisdom, who would have his brethren settle in
   Goshen. If they had had the spirit of Israelites, they would have
   chosen rather to dwell in the wilderness of Judah than in the most
   pompous populous cities of Egypt.

Jeremiah's Prophecies in Egypt. (b. c. 588.)

   8 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
   9 Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the
   brick-kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in
   the sight of the men of Judah;   10 And say unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take
   Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne
   upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal
   pavilion over them.   11 And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of
   Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for
   captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.
   12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he
   shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array
   himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment;
   and he shall go forth from thence in peace.   13 He shall break also
   the images of Beth-shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the
   houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.

   We have here, as also in the next chapter, Jeremiah prophesying in
   Egypt. Jeremiah was now in Tahpanhes, for there his lords and masters
   were; he was there among idolatrous Egyptians and treacherous
   Israelites; but there, 1. He received the word of the Lord; it came to
   him. God can find his people, with the visits of his grace, wherever
   they are; and, when his ministers are bound, yet the word of the Lord
   is not bound. The spirit of prophecy was not confined to the land of
   Israel. When Jeremiah went into Egypt, not out of choice, but by
   constraint, God withdrew not his wonted favour from him. 2. What he
   received of the Lord he delivered to the people. Wherever we are we
   must endeavour to do good, for that is our business in this world. Now
   we find two messages which Jeremiah was appointed and entrusted to
   deliver when he was in Egypt. We may suppose that he rendered what
   services he could to his countrymen in Egypt, at least as far as they
   would be acceptable, in performing the ordinary duties of a prophet,
   praying for them and instructing and comforting them; but only two
   messages of his, which he had received immediately from God, are
   recorded, one in this chapter, relating to Egypt itself and foretelling
   its destruction, the other in the next chapter, relating to the Jews in
   Egypt. God had told them before that if they went into Egypt the sword
   they feared should follow them; here he tells them further that the
   sword of Nebuchadnezzar, which they were in a particular manner afraid
   of, should follow them.

   I. This is foretold by a sign. Jeremiah must take great stones, such as
   are used for foundations, and lay them in the clay of the furnace, or
   brick-kiln, which is in the open way, or beside the way that leads to
   Pharaoh's house (v. 9), some remarkable place in view of the royal
   palace. Egypt was famous for brick-kilns, witness the slavery of the
   Israelites there, whom they forced to make bricks (Exod. v. 7), which
   perhaps was now remembered against them. The foundation of Egypt's
   desolation was laid in those brick-kilns, in that clay. This he must
   do, not in the sight of the Egyptians (they knew not Jeremiah's
   character), but in the sight of the men of Judah to whom he was sent,
   that, since he could not prevent their going into Egypt, he might bring
   them to repent of their going.

   II. It is foretold in express words, as express as can be, 1. That the
   king, the present king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the very same that
   had been employed in the destruction of Jerusalem, should come in
   person against the land of Egypt, should make himself master even of
   this royal city, by the same token that he should set his throne in
   that very place where these stones were laid, v. 10. This minute
   circumstance is particularly foretold, that, when it was accomplished,
   they might be put in mind of the prophecy and confirmed in their belief
   of the extent and certainly of the divine prescience, to which the
   smallest and most contingent events are evident. God calls
   Nebuchadnezzar his servant, because herein he executed God's will,
   accomplished his purposes, and was instrumental to carry on his
   designs. Note, The world's princes are God's servants and he makes what
   use he pleases of them, and even those that know him not, nor aim at
   his honour, are the tools which his providence makes use of. 2. That he
   should destroy many of the Egyptians, and have them all at his mercy
   (v. 11): He shall smite the land of Egypt; and, though it has been
   always a warlike nation, yet none shall be able to make head against
   him, but whom he will he shall slay, and by what sort of death he will,
   whether pestilence (for that is here meant by death, as ch. xv. 2) by
   shutting them up in places infected, or by the sword of war or justice,
   in cold blood or hot. And whom he will he shall save alive and carry
   into captivity. The Jews, by going into Egypt, brought the Chaldeans
   thither, and so did but ill repay those that entertained them. Those
   who promised to protect Israel from the king of Babylon exposed
   themselves to him. 3. That he shall destroy the idols of Egypt, both
   the temples and the images of their gods (v. 12): He shall burn, the
   houses of the gods of Egypt, but it shall be with a fire of God's
   kindling; the fire of God's wrath fastens upon them, and then he burns
   some of them and carries others captive, Isa. xlvi. 1. Beth-shemesh, or
   the house of the sun, was so called from a temple there built to the
   sun, where at certain times there was a general meeting of the
   worshippers of the sun. The statues or standing images there he shall
   break in pieces (v. 13) and carry away the rich materials of them. It
   intimates that he should lay all waste when even the temple and the
   images should not escape the fury of the victorious army. The king of
   Babylon was himself a great idolater and a patron of idolatry; he had
   his temples and images in honour of the sun as well as the Egyptians;
   and yet he is employed to destroy the idols of Egypt. Thus God
   sometimes makes one wicked man, or wicked nation, a scourge and plague
   to another. 4. That he shall make himself master of the land of Egypt,
   and none shall be able to plead its cause or avenge its quarrel (v.
   12): He shall array himself with the rich spoils of the land of Egypt,
   both beautify and fortify himself with them. He shall array himself
   with them as ornaments and as armour; and this, though it shall be a
   rich and heavy booty, being expert in war, and expeditious, he shall
   slip on with as much ease and in as little time, in comparison, as a
   shepherd slips on his garment, when he goes to turn out his sheep in a
   morning. And being loaded with the wealth of many other nations, the
   fruits of his conquests, he shall make no more of the spoils of the
   land of Egypt than of a shepherd's coat. And when he has taken what he
   pleases (as Benhadad threatened to do, 1 Kings xx. 6) he shall go forth
   in peace, without any molestation given him, or any precipitation for
   fear of it, so effectually reduced shall the land of Egypt be. This
   destruction of Egypt by the king of Babylon is foretold, Ezek. xxix. 19
   and xxx. 10. Babylon lay at a great distance from Egypt, and yet thence
   the destruction of Egypt comes; for God can make those judgments strike
   home which are far-fetched.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLIV.

   In this chapter we have, I. An awakening sermon which Jeremiah preaches
   to the Jews in Egypt, to reprove them for their idolatry,
   notwithstanding the warnings given them both by the word and the rod of
   God and to threaten the judgments of God against them for it, ver.
   1-14. II. The impudent and impious contempt which the people put upon
   this admonition, and their declared resolution to persist in their
   idolatries notwithstanding, in despite of God and Jeremiah, ver. 15-19.
   III. The sentence passed upon them for their obstinacy, that they
   should all be cut off and perish in Egypt except a very small number;
   and, as a sign or earnest of it, the king of Egypt should shortly fall
   into the hands of the king of Babylon and be unable any longer to
   protect them, ver. 20-30.

Sermon to the Jews in Egypt; Jeremiah's Remonstrance. (b. c. 587.)

   1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in
   the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at
   Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,   2 Thus saith the Lord of
   hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought
   upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day
   they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,   3 Because of
   their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in
   that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew
   not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.   4 Howbeit I sent unto you
   all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying,
   Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.   5 But they hearkened
   not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no
   incense unto other gods.   6 Wherefore my fury and mine anger was
   poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets
   of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.   7
   Therefore now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel;
   Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from
   you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none
   to remain;   8 In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your
   hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye
   be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might
   be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?   9 Have
   ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the
   kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own
   wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed
   in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?   10 They are
   not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in
   my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your
   fathers.   11 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off
   all Judah.   12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set
   their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they
   shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even
   be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the
   least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they
   shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a
   reproach.   13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt,
   as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the
   pestilence:   14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone
   into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that
   they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a
   desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as
   shall escape.

   The Jews in Egypt were now dispersed into various parts of the country,
   into Migdol, and Noph, and other places, and Jeremiah was sent on an
   errand from God to them, which he delivered either when he had the most
   of them together in Pathros (v. 15) or going about from place to place
   preaching to this purport. He delivered this message in the name of the
   Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and in it,

   I. God puts them in mind of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem,
   which, though the captives by the rivers of Babylon were daily mindful
   of (Ps. cxxxvii. 1), the fugitives in the cities of Egypt seem to have
   forgotten and needed to be put in mind of, though, one would have
   thought, they had not been so long out of sight as to become out of
   mind (v. 2): You have seen what a deplorable condition Judah and
   Jerusalem are brought into; now will you consider whence those
   desolations came? From the wrath of God; it was his fury and his anger
   that kindled the fire which made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah
   waste and desolate (v. 6); whoever were the instruments of the
   destruction, they were but instruments: it was a destruction from the
   Almighty.

   II. He puts them in mind of the sins that brought those desolations
   upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was for their wickedness. It was this that
   provoked God to anger, and especially their idolatry, their serving
   other gods (v. 3) and giving that honour to counterfeit deities, the
   creatures of their own fancy and the work of their own hands, which
   should have been given to the true God only. They forsook the God who
   was known among them, and whose name was great, for gods that they knew
   not, upstart deities, whose original was obscure and not worth taking
   notice of: "Neither they nor you, nor your fathers, could give any
   rational account why the God of Israel was exchanged for such
   impostors." They knew not that they were gods; nay, they could not but
   know that they were no gods.

   III. He puts them in mind of the frequent and fair warnings he had
   given them by his word not to serve other gods, the contempt of which
   warnings was a great aggravation of their idolatry, v. 4. The prophets
   were sent with a great deal of care to call to them, saying, Oh! do not
   this abominable thing that I hate. It becomes us to speak of sin with
   the utmost dread and detestation as an abominable thing; it is
   certainly so, for it is that which God hates, and we are sure that his
   judgment is according to truth. Call it grievous, call it odious, that
   we may by all means possible put ourselves and others out of love with
   it. It becomes us to give warning of the danger of sin, and the fatal
   consequences of it, with all seriousness and earnestness: "Oh! do not
   do it. If you love God, do not, for it is provoking to him; if you love
   your own souls do not, for it is destructive to them." Let conscience
   do this for us in an hour of temptation, when we are ready to yield. O
   take heed! do not this abominable thing which the Lord hates; for, if
   God hates it, thou shouldst hate it. But did they regard what God said
   to them? No: "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear (v. 5); they
   still persisted in their idolatries; and you see what came of it,
   therefore God's anger was poured out upon them, as at this day. Now
   this was intended for warning to you, who have not only heard the
   judgments of God's mouth, as they did, but have likewise seen the
   judgments of his hand, by which you should be startled and awakened,
   for they were inflicted in terrorem, that others might hear and fear
   and do no more as they did, lest they should fare as they fared."

   IV. He reproves them for, and upbraids them with, their continued
   idolatries, now that they had come into Egypt (v. 8): You burn incense
   to other gods in the land of Egypt. Therefore God forbade them to go
   into Egypt, because he knew it would be a snare to them. Those whom God
   sent into the land of the Chaldeans, though that was an idolatrous
   country, were there, by the power of God's grace, weaned from idolatry;
   but those who went against God's mind into the land of the Egyptians
   were there, by the power of their own corruptions, more wedded than
   ever to their idolatries; for, when we thrust ourselves without cause
   or call into places of temptation, it is just with God to leave us to
   ourselves. In doing this, 1. They did a great deal of injury to
   themselves and their families: "You commit this great evil against your
   souls (v. 7), you wrong them, you deceive them with that which is
   false, you destroy them, for it will be fatal to them." Note, In
   sinning against God we sin against our own souls. "It is the ready way
   to cut yourselves off from all comfort and hope (v. 8), to cut off your
   name and honour; so that you will, both by your sin and by your misery,
   become a curse and a reproach among all nations. It will become a
   proverb, As wretched as a Jew. It is the ready way to cut off from you
   all your relations, all that you should have joy of and have your
   families built up in, man and woman, child and suckling, so that Judah
   shall be a land lost for want of heirs." 2. They filled up the measure
   of the iniquity of their fathers, and, as if that had been too little
   for them, added to it (v. 9): "Have you forgotten the wickedness of
   those who are gone before you, that you are not humbled for it as you
   ought to be, and afraid of the consequences of it?" Have you forgotten
   the punishments of your fathers? so some read it. "Do you not know how
   dear their idolatry cost them? And yet dare you continue in that vain
   conversation received by tradition from you fathers, though you
   received the curse with it?" He reminds them of the sins and
   punishments of the kings of Judah, who, great as they were, escaped not
   the judgments of God for their idolatry; yea, and they should have
   taken warning by the wickedness of their wives, who had seduced them to
   idolatry. In the original it is, And of his wives, which, Dr. Lightfoot
   thinks, tacitly reflects upon Solomon's wives, particularly his
   Egyptian wives, to whom the idolatry of the kings of Judah owed its
   original. "Have you forgotten this, and what came of it, that you dare
   venture upon the same wicked courses?" See Neh. xiii. 18, 26. "Nay, to
   come to your own times, Have you forgotten your own wickedness and the
   wickedness of your wives, when you lived in prosperity in Jerusalem,
   and what ruin it brought upon you? But, alas! to what purpose do I
   speak to them?" (says God to the prophet, v. 10) "they are not humbled
   unto this day, by all the humbling providences that they have been
   under. They have not feared, nor walked in my law." Note, Those that
   walk not in the law of God do thereby show that they are destitute of
   the fear of God.

   V. He threatens their utter ruin for their persisting in their idolatry
   now that they were in Egypt. Judgment is given against them, as before
   (ch. xlii. 22), that they shall perish in Egypt; the decree has gone
   forth, and shall not be called back. They set their faces to go into
   the land of Egypt (v. 12), were resolute in their purpose against God,
   and now God is resolute in his purpose against them: I will set my face
   to cut off all Judah, v. 11. Those that think not only to affront, but
   to confront, God Almighty, will find themselves outfaced; for the face
   of the Lord is against those that do evil, Ps. xxxiv. 16. It is here
   threatened concerning these idolatrous Jews in Egypt, 1. That they
   shall all be consumed, without exception; no degree nor order among
   them shall escape: They shall fall, from the least to the greatest (v.
   12), high and low, rich and poor. 2. That they shall be consumed by the
   very same judgments which God made use of for the punishment of
   Jerusalem, the sword, famine, and pestilence, v. 12, 13. They shall not
   be wasted by natural deaths, as Israel in the wilderness, but by these
   sore judgments, which, by flying into Egypt, they thought to get out of
   the reach of. 3. That none (except a very few that will narrowly
   escape) shall ever return to the land of Judah again, v. 14. They
   thought, being nearer, that they stood fairer for a return to their own
   land than those that were carried to Babylon; yet those shall return,
   and these shall not; for the way in which God has promised us any
   comfort is much surer than that in which we have projected it for
   ourselves. Observe, Those that are fretful and discontented will be
   uneasy and fond of change wherever they are. The Israelites, when they
   were in the land of Judah, desired to go into Egypt (ch. xlii. 22), but
   when they were in Egypt they desired to return to the land of Judah
   again; they lifted up their soul to it (so it is in the margin), which
   denotes an earnest desire. But, because they would not dwell there when
   God commanded it, they shall not dwell they were they desire it. If we
   walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us. How can those expect
   to be well off who would not know when they were so, though God himself
   told them?

The People's Insolent Reply. (b. c. 587.)

   15 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto
   other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even
   all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered
   Jeremiah, saying,   16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in
   the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.   17 But we will
   certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn
   incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto
   her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes,
   in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had
   we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.   18 But since
   we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out
   drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been
   consumed by the sword and by the famine.   19 And when we burned
   incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto
   her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings
   unto her, without our men?

   We have here the people's obstinate refusal to submit to the power of
   the word of God in the mouth of Jeremiah. We have scarcely such an
   instance of downright daring contradiction to God himself as this, or
   such an avowed rebellion of the carnal mind. Observe,

   I. The persons who thus set God and his judgments at defiance; it was
   not some one that was thus obstinate, but the generality of the Jews;
   and they were such as knew either themselves or their wives to be
   guilty of the idolatry Jeremiah had reproved, v. 15. We find, 1. That
   the women had been more guilty of idolatry and superstition than the
   men, not because the men stuck closer to the true God and the true
   religion than the women, but, I fear, because they were generally
   atheists, and were for no God and no religion at all, and therefore
   could easily allow their wives to be of a false religion, and to
   worship false gods. 2. That it was consciousness of guilt that made
   them impatient of reproof: They knew that their wives had burnt incense
   to other gods, and that they had countenanced them in it, and the women
   that stood by knew that they had joined with them in their idolatrous
   usages; so that what Jeremiah said touched them in a sore place, which
   made them kick against the pricks, as children of Belial, that will not
   bear the yoke.

   II. The reply which these persons made to Jeremiah, and in him to God
   himself; it is in effect the same with theirs who had the impudence to
   say to the Almighty, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of thy
   ways.

   1. They declare their resolution not to do as God commanded them, but
   what they themselves had a mind to do; that is, they would go on to
   worship the moon, here called the queen of heaven; yet some understand
   it of the sun, which was much worshipped in Egypt (ch. xliii. 13) and
   had been so at Jerusalem (2 Kings xxiii. 11), and they say that the
   Hebrew word for the sun being feminine it may not unfitly be called the
   queen of heaven. And others understand it of all the host of heaven, or
   the frame of heaven, the whole machine, ch. vii. 18. These daring
   sinners do not now go about to make excuses for their refusal to obey,
   nor suggest that Jeremiah spoke from himself and not from God (as
   before, ch. xliii. 2), but they own that he spoke to them in the name
   of the Lord, and yet tell him flatly, in so many words, "We will not
   hearken unto thee; we will do that which is forbidden and run the
   hazard of that which is threatened." Note, Those that live in
   disobedience to God commonly grow worse and worse, and the heart is
   more and more hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Here is the genuine
   language of the rebellious heart: We will certainly do whatsoever thing
   goes forth out of our own mouth, let God and his prophets say what they
   please to the contrary. What they said many think who yet have not
   arrived at such a degree of impudence as to speak it out. It is that
   which the young man would be at in the days of his youth; he would walk
   in the way of his heart and the sight of his eyes, and would have and
   do every thing he has a mind to, Eccl. xi. 9.

   2. They give some sort of reasons for their resolution; for the most
   absurd and unreasonably wicked men will have something to say for
   themselves, till the day comes when every mouth shall be stopped.

   (1.) They plead many of those things which the advocates for Rome make
   the marks of a true church, and not only justify but magnify themselves
   with; and these Jews have as much right to them as the Romanists have.
   [1.] They plead antiquity: We are resolved to burn incense to the queen
   of heaven, for our fathers did so; it is a practice that pleads
   prescription; and why should we pretend to be wiser than our fathers?
   [2.] They plead authority. Those that had power practised it themselves
   and prescribed it to others: Our kings and our princes did it, whom God
   set over us, and who were of the seed of David. [3.] They plead unity.
   It was not here and there one that did it, but we, we all with one
   consent, we that are a great multitude (v. 15), we did it. [4.] They
   plead universality. It was not done here and there, but in the cities
   of Judah. [5.] They plead visibility. It was not done in a corner, in
   dark and shady groves only, but in the streets, openly and publicly.
   [6.] They plead that it was the practice of the mother-church, the holy
   see; it was not now learned first in Egypt, but it had been done in
   Jerusalem. [7.] They plead prosperity: They had we plenty of bread, and
   of all good things; we were well and saw no evil. All the former pleas,
   I fear, were too true in fact; God's witnesses against their idolatry
   were few and hid; Elijah though that he was left alone: and this last
   might perhaps be true as to some particular persons, but, as to their
   nation, they were still under rebukes for their rebellions, and there
   was no peace to those that went out or came in, 2 Chron. xv. 5. But,
   supposing all to be true, yet this does not at all excuse them from
   idolatry; it is the law of God that we must be ruled and judged by, not
   the practice of men.

   (2.) They suggest that the judgments they had of late been under were
   brought upon them for leaving off to burn incense to the queen of
   heaven, v. 18. So perversely did they misconstrue providence, though
   God, by his prophets, had so often explained it to them, and the thing
   itself spoke the direct contrary. Since we forsook our idolatries we
   have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword, the true
   reason of which was because they still retained their idols in their
   heart and an affection to their old sins; but they would have it
   thought that it was because they had forsaken the acts of sin. Thus the
   afflictions which should have been for their welfare, to separate
   between them and their sins, being misinterpreted did but confirm them
   in their sins. Thus, in the first ages of Christianity, when God
   chastised the nations by any public calamities for opposing the
   Christians and persecuting them, they put a contrary sense upon the
   calamities, as if they were sent to punish them for conniving at the
   Christians and tolerating them, and cried, Christianos ad leones--Throw
   the Christians to the lions. Yet, if it had been true, as they said
   here, that since they returned to the service of the true God, the God
   of Israel, they had been in want and trouble, was that a reason why
   they should revolt from him again? That was as much as to say that they
   served not him, but their own bellies. Those who know God, and put
   their trust in him, will serve him, though he starve them, though he
   slay them, though they never see a good day with him in this world,
   being well assured that they shall not lose by him in the end.

   (3.) They plead that, though the women were most forward and active in
   their idolatries, yet they did it with the consent and approbation of
   their husbands; the women were busy to make cakes for meat-offerings to
   the queen of heaven and to prepare and pour out the drink-offerings, v.
   19. We found, before, that this was their work, ch. vii. 18. "But did
   we do it without our husbands, privately and unknown to them, so as to
   give them occasion to be jealous of us? No; the fathers kindled the
   fire while the women kneaded the dough; the men that were our heads,
   whom we were bound to learn of and to be obedient to, taught us to do
   it by their example." Note, It is sad when those who are in the nearest
   relation to each other, who should quicken each other to that which is
   good and so help one another to heaven, harden each other in sin and so
   ripen one another for hell. Some understand this as spoken by the
   husbands (v. 15), who plead that they did not do it without their men,
   that is, without their elders and rulers, their great men, and men in
   authority; but, because the making of the cakes and the pouring out of
   the drink-offerings are expressly spoken of as the women's work (ch.
   vii. 18), it seems rather to be understood as their plea: but it was a
   frivolous plea. What would it avail them to be able to say that it was
   according to their husbands' mind, when they knew that it was contrary
   to their God's mind?

Jeremiah's Continued Remonstrance. (b. c. 587.)

   20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the
   women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying,
   21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the
   streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your
   princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them,
   and came it not into his mind?   22 So that the Lord could no longer
   bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the
   abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a
   desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as
   at this day.   23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have
   sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor
   walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies;
   therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.   24 Moreover
   Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word
   of the Lord, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:   25 Thus saith
   the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have
   both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We
   will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the
   queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will
   surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.   26
   Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in the
   land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the Lord,
   that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in
   all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord God liveth.   27 Behold, I will
   watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah
   that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the
   famine, until there be an end of them.   28 Yet a small number that
   escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of
   Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of
   Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or
   theirs.   29 And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I
   will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall
   surely stand against you for evil:   30 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I
   will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies,
   and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king
   of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy,
   and that sought his life.

   Daring sinners may speak many a bold word and many a big word, but,
   after all, God will have the last word; for he will be justified when
   he speaks, and all flesh, even the proudest, shall be silent before
   him. Prophets may be run down, but God cannot; nay, here the prophet
   would not.

   I. Jeremiah has something to say to them from himself, which he could
   say without a spirit of prophecy, and that was to rectify their mistake
   (a wilful mistake it was) concerning the calamities they had been under
   and the true intent and meaning of them. They said that these miseries
   came upon them because they had now left off burning incense to the
   queen of heaven. "No," says he, "it was because you had formerly done
   it, not because you had now left it off." When they gave him that
   answer, he immediately replied (v. 20) that the incense which they and
   their fathers had burnt to other gods did indeed go unpunished a great
   while, for God was long-suffering towards them, and during the day of
   his patience it was perhaps, as they said, well with them, and they saw
   no evil; but at length they grew so provoking that the Lord could no
   longer bear (v. 22), but began a controversy with them, whereupon some
   of them did a little reform; their sins left them, for so it might be
   said, rather than that they left their sins. But their old guilt being
   still upon the score, and their corrupt inclinations still the same,
   God remembered against them the idolatries of their fathers, their
   kings, and their princes, in the streets of Jerusalem, which they,
   instead of being ashamed of, gloried in as a justification of them in
   their idolatries; they all came into his mind (v. 21), all the
   abominations which they had committed (v. 22) and all their
   disobedience to the voice of the Lord (v. 23), all were brought to
   account; and therefore, to punish them for these, is their land a
   desolation and a curse, as at this day (v. 22); therefore, not for
   their late reformation, but for their old transgressions, has all this
   evil happened to them, as at this day, v. 23. Note, The right
   understanding of the cause of our troubles, one would think, should go
   far towards the cure of our sins. Whatever evil comes upon us, it is
   because we have sinned against the Lord, and should therefore stand in
   awe and sin not.

   II. Jeremiah has something to say to them, to the women particularly,
   from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, They have given their
   answer; now let them hear God's reply, v. 24. Judah, that dwells in the
   land of Egypt, has God speaking to them, even there; that is their
   privilege. Let them observe what he says; that is their duty, v. 26.
   Now God, in his reply, tells them plainly,

   1. That, since they were fully determined to persist in their idolatry,
   he was fully determined to proceed in his controversy with them; if
   they would go on to provoke him, he would go on to punish them, and see
   which would get the better at last. God repeats what they had said (v.
   25): "You and your wives are agreed in this obstinacy; you have spoken
   with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands; you have said it, and
   you stand to it, have said it and go on to do accordingly, We will
   surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the
   queen of heaven," as if, though it were a sin, yet their having vowed
   to do it were sufficient to justify them in the doing of it; whereas no
   man can by his vow make that lawful to himself, much less duty, which
   God has already made sin. "Well" (says God), "you will accomplish, you
   will perform, your wicked vows: now hear what is my vow, what I have
   sworn by my great name;" and, if the Lord hath sworn, he will not
   repent, since they have sworn and will not repent. With the froward he
   will show himself froward, Ps. xviii. 26. (1.) He had sworn that what
   little remains of religion there were among them should be lost, v. 26.
   Though they joined with the Egyptians in their idolatries, yet they
   continued upon many occasions to make mention of the name of Jehovah,
   particularly in their solemn oaths; they said, Jehovah liveth, he is
   the living God, so they owned him to be, though they worshipped dead
   idols; they swear, The Lord liveth (ch. v. 2), but I fear they retained
   this form of swearing more in honour of their nation than of their God.
   But God declares that his name shall no more be thus named by any man
   of Judah in all the land of Egypt; that is, there shall be no Jews
   remaining to use this dialect of their country, or, if there be, they
   shall have forgotten it and shall learn to swear, as the Egyptians do,
   by the life of Pharaoh, not of Jehovah. Note, Those are very miserable
   whom God has so far left to themselves that they have quite forgotten
   their religion and lost all the remains of their good education. Or
   this may intimate that God would take it as an affront to him and would
   resent it accordingly, if they did make mention of his name and profess
   any relation to him. (2.) He hath sworn that what little remnant of
   people there was there should all be consumed (v. 27): I will watch
   over them for evil; no opportunity shall be let slip to bring some
   judgment upon them, until there be an end of them and they be rooted
   out. Note, To those whom God finds impenitent sinners he will be found
   an implacable Judge. And, when it comes to this, they shall know (v.
   28) whose word shall stand, mind or theirs. They said that they should
   recover themselves when they returned to worship the queen of heaven;
   God said they should ruin themselves; and now the event will show which
   was in the right. The contest between God and sinners is whose word
   shall stand, whose will shall be done, and who shall get the better.
   Sinners say that they shall have peace though they go on; God says they
   shall have no peace. But when God judges he will overcome; God's word
   shall stand, and not the sinner's.

   2. He tells them that a very few of them should escape the sword, and
   in process of time return into the land of Judah, a small number (v.
   28), next to none, in comparison with the great numbers that should
   return out of the land of the Chaldeans. This seems designed to upbraid
   those who boasted of their numbers that concurred in sin; there were
   none to speak of that did not join in idolatry: "Well," says God, "and
   there shall be as few that shall escape the sword and famine."

   3. He gives them a sign that all these threatenings shall be
   accomplished in their season, that they shall be consumed here in Egypt
   and shall quite perish: Pharaoh-hophra, the present king of Egypt,
   shall be delivered into the hand of his enemies that seek his life--of
   his own rebellious subjects (so some) under Amasis, who usurped his
   throne--of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon (so others), who invaded his
   kingdom; the former is related by Herodotus, the latter by Josephus. It
   is likely that this Pharaoh had tempted the Jews to idolatry by
   promises of his favour; however, they depended upon him for his
   protection, and it would be more than a presage of their ruin, it would
   be a step towards it, if he were gone. They expected more from him than
   from Zedekiah king of Judah; he was a more potent and politic prince.
   "But," says God, "I will give him into the hand of his enemies, as I
   gave Zedekiah." Note, Those creature-comforts and confidences that we
   promise ourselves most from may fail us as soon as those that we
   promise ourselves least from, for they are all what God makes them, not
   what we fancy them.

   The sacred history records not the accomplishment of this prophecy, but
   its silence is sufficient; we hear no more of these Jews in Egypt, and
   therefore conclude them, according to this prediction, lost there; for
   no word of God shall fall to the ground.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLV.

   The prophecy we have in this chapter concerns Baruch only, yet is
   intended for the support and encouragement of all the Lord's people
   that serve him faithfully and keep closely to him in difficult trying
   times. It is placed here after the story of the destruction of
   Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, but was delivered long
   before, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, as was the prophecy in the
   next chapter, and probably those that follow. We here find, I. How
   Baruch was terrified when he was brought into trouble for writing and
   reading Jeremiah's roll, ver. 1-3. II. How his fears were checked with
   a reproof for his great expectations and silenced with a promise of
   special preservation, ver. 4, 5. Though Baruch was only Jeremiah's
   scribe, yet this notice is taken of his frights, and this provision
   made for his comfort; for God despises not any of his servants, but
   graciously concerns himself for the meanest and weakest, for Baruch the
   scribe as well as for Jeremiah the prophet.

Jeremiah's Address to Baruch. (b. c. 607.)

   1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of
   Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of
   Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of
   Judah, saying,   2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O
   Baruch;   3 Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added
   grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.   4
   Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus; Behold, that which I
   have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will
   pluck up, even this whole land.   5 And seekest thou great things for
   thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh,
   saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all
   places whither thou goest.

   How Baruch was employed in writing Jeremiah's prophecies, and reading
   them, we had an account ch. xxxvi., and how he was threatened for it by
   the king, warrants being out for him and he forced to abscond, and how
   narrowly he escaped under a divine protection, to which story this
   chapter should have been subjoined, but that, having reference to a
   private person, it is here thrown into the latter end of the book, as
   St. Paul's epistle to Philemon is put after his other epistles.
   Observe,

   I. The consternation that poor Baruch was in when he was sought for by
   the king's messengers and obliged to hide his head, and the notice
   which God took of it. He cried out, Woe is me now! v. 3. He was a young
   man setting out in the world; he was well affected to the things of
   God, and was willing to serve God and his prophet; but, when it came to
   suffering, he was desirous to be excused. Being an ingenious man, and a
   scholar, he stood fair for preferment, and now to be driven into a
   corner, and in danger of a prison, or worse, was a great disappointment
   to him. When he read the roll publicly he hoped to gain reputation by
   it, that it would make him to be taken notice of and employed; but when
   he found that, instead of that, it exposed him to contempt, and brought
   him into disgrace, he cried out, "I am undone; I shall fall into the
   pursuers' hands, and be imprisoned, and put to death, or banished: The
   Lord has added grief to my sorrow, has loaded me with one trouble after
   another. After the grief of writing and reading the prophecies of my
   country's ruin, I have the sorrow of being treated as a criminal; for
   so doing; and, though another might make nothing of this, yet for my
   part I cannot bear it; it is a burden too heavy for me. I fainted in my
   sighing (or I am faint with my sighing; it just kills me) and I find no
   rest, no satisfaction in my own mind. I cannot compose myself as I
   should and would to bear it, not have I any prospect of relief or
   comfort." Baruch was a good man, but, we must say, this was his
   infirmity. Note, 1. Young beginners in religion, like fresh-water
   soldiers, are apt to be discouraged with the little difficulties which
   they commonly meet with at first in the service of God. They do but run
   with the footmen, and it wearies them; they faint upon the very dawning
   of the day of adversity, and it is an evidence that their strength is
   small (Prov. xxiv. 10), that their faith is weak, and that they are yet
   but babes, who cry for every hurt and every fright. 2. Some of the best
   and dearest of God's saints and servants, when they have seen storms
   rising, have been in frights, and apt to make the worst of things, and
   to disquiet themselves with melancholy apprehensions more than there
   was cause for. 3. God takes notice of the frets and discontents of his
   people and is displeased with them. Baruch should have rejoiced that he
   was counted worthy to suffer in such a good cause and with such good
   company, but, instead of that, he is vexed at it, and blames his lot,
   nay, and reflects upon his God, as if he had dealt hardly with him;
   what he said was spoken in a heat and passion, but God was offended, as
   he was with Moses, who paid dearly for it, when, his spirit being
   provoked, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. Thou didst say so and so,
   and it was not well said. God keeps account what we say, even when we
   speak in haste.

   II. The reproof that God gave him for talking at this rate. Jeremiah
   was troubled to see him in such an agitation, and knew not well what to
   say to him. He was loth to chide him, and yet thought he deserved it,
   was willing to comfort him, and yet knew not which way to go about it;
   but God tells him what he shall say to him, v. 4. Jeremiah could not be
   certain what was at the bottom of these complaints and fear, but God
   sees it. They came from his corruptions. That the hurt might therefore
   not be healed slightly, he searches the wound, and shows him that he
   had raised his expectations too high in this world and had promised
   himself too much from it, and that made the distress and trouble he was
   in so very grievous to him and so hard to be borne. Note, The frowns of
   the world would not disquiet us as they do if we did not foolishly
   flatter ourselves with the hopes of its smiles and court and covet them
   too much. It is our over-fondness for the good things of this present
   time that makes us impatient under its evil things. Now God shows him
   that it was his fault and folly, at this time of day especially, either
   to desire or to look for an abundance of the wealth and honour of this
   world. For, 1. The ship was sinking. Ruin was coming upon the Jewish
   nation, an utter and universal ruin: "That which I have built, to be a
   house for myself, I am breaking down, and that which I have planted, to
   be a vineyard for myself, I am plucking up, even this whole land, the
   Jewish church and state; and dost thou now seek great things for
   thyself? Dost thou expect to be rich and honourable and to make a
   figure now? No." 2. "It is absurd for thee to be now painting thy own
   cabin. Canst thou expect to be high when all are brought low, to be
   full when all about thee are empty?" To seek ourselves more than the
   public welfare, especially to seek great things to ourselves when the
   public is in danger, is very unbecoming Israelites. We may apply it to
   this world, and our state in it; God in his providence is breaking down
   and pulling up; every thing is uncertain and perishing; we cannot
   expect any continuing city here. What folly is it then to seek great
   things for ourselves here, where every thing is little and nothing
   certain!

   III. The encouragement that God gave him to hope that though he should
   not be great, yet he should be safe: "I will bring evil upon all flesh,
   all nations of men, all orders and degrees of men, but thy life will I
   give to thee for a prey" (thy soul, so the word is) "in all places
   whither thou goest. Thou must expect to be hurried from place to place,
   and, wherever thou goest, to be in danger, but thou shalt escape,
   though often very narrowly, shalt have thy life, but it shall be as a
   prey, which is got with much difficulty and danger; thou shalt be saved
   as by fire." Note, The preservation and continuance of life are very
   great mercies, and we are bound to account them such, as they are the
   prolonging of our opportunity to glorify God in this world and to get
   ready for a better; and at some times, especially when the arrows of
   death fly thickly about us, life is a signal favour, and what we ought
   to be very thankful for, and while we have it must not complain though
   we be disappointed of the great things we expected. Is not the life
   more than meat?
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLVI.

   How judgment began at the house of God we have found in the foregoing
   prophecy and history; but now we shall find that it did not end there.
   In this and the following chapters we have predictions of the
   desolations of the neighbouring nations, and those brought upon them
   too mostly by the king of Babylon, till at length Babylon itself comes
   to be reckoned with. The prophecy against Egypt is here put first and
   takes up this whole chapter, in which we have, I. A prophecy of the
   defeat of Pharaoh-necho's army by the Chaldean forces at Carchemish,
   which was accomplished soon after, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,
   ver. 1-12. II. A prophecy of the descent which Nebuchadnezzar should
   make upon the land of Egypt, and his success in it, which was
   accomplished some years after the destruction of Jerusalem, ver. 13-26.
   III. A word of comfort to the Israel of God in the midst of those
   calamities, ver. 27, 28.

The Judgment of Egypt. (b. c. 608.)

   1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the
   Gentiles;   2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of
   Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim
   the son of Josiah king of Judah.   3 Order ye the buckler and shield,
   and draw near to battle.   4 Harness the horses; and get up, ye
   horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and
   put on the brigandines.   5 Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and
   turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled
   apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the Lord.   6
   Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall
   stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.   7 Who is
   this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
   8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the
   rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will
   destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.   9 Come up, ye horses;
   and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the
   Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians,
   that handle and bend the bow.   10 For this is the day of the Lord God
   of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his
   adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and
   made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice
   in the north country by the river Euphrates.   11 Go up into Gilead,
   and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use
   many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.

   The first verse is the title of that part of this book, which relates
   to the neighbouring nations, and follows here. It is the word of the
   Lord which came to Jeremiah against the Gentiles; for God is King and
   Judge of nations, knows and will call to an account those who know him
   not nor take any notice of him. Both Isaiah and Ezekiel prophesied
   against these nations that Jeremiah here has a separate saying to, and
   with reference to the same events. In the Old Testament we have the
   word of the Lord against the Gentiles; in the New Testament we have the
   word of the Lord for the Gentiles, that those who were afar off are
   made nigh.

   He begins with Egypt, because they were of old Israel's oppressors and
   of late their deceivers, when they put confidence in them. In these
   verses he foretells the overthrow of the army of Pharaoh-necho, by
   Nebuchadnezzar, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was so complete
   a victory to the king of Babylon that thereby he recovered from the
   river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king
   of Egypt, and so weakened him that he came not again any more out of
   his land (as we find, 2 Kings xxiv. 7), and so made him pay dearly for
   his expedition against the king of Assyria four years before, in which
   he slew Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. This is the event that is here
   foretold in lofty expressions of triumph over Egypt thus foiled, which
   Jeremiah would speak of with a particular pleasure, because the death
   of Josiah, which he had lamented, was now avenged on Pharaoh-necho. Now
   here,

   I. The Egyptians are upbraided with the mighty preparations they made
   for this expedition, in which the prophet calls to them to do their
   utmost, for so they would: "Come then, order the buckler, let the
   weapons of war be got ready," v. 3. Egypt was famous for horses--let
   them be harnessed and the cavalry well mounted: Get up, you horsemen,
   and stand forth, &c., v. 4. See what preparations the children of men
   make, with abundance of care and trouble and at a vast expense, to kill
   one another, as if they did not die fast enough of themselves. He
   compares their marching out upon this expedition to the rising of their
   river Nile (v. 7, 8): Egypt now rises up like a flood, scorning to keep
   within its own banks and threatening to overflow all the neighbouring
   lands. It is a very formidable army that the Egyptians bring into the
   field upon this occasion. The prophet summons them (v. 9): Come up, you
   horses; rage, you chariots. He challenges them to bring all their
   confederate troops together, the Ethiopians, that descended from the
   same stock with the Egyptians (Gen. x. 6), and were their neighbours
   and allies, the Libyans and Lydians, both seated in Africa, to the west
   of Egypt, and from them the Egyptians fetched their auxiliary forces.
   Let them strengthen themselves with all the art and interest they have,
   yet it shall be all in vain; they shall be shamefully defeated
   notwithstanding, for God will fight against them, and against him there
   is no wisdom nor counsel, Prov. xxi. 30, 31. It concerns those that go
   forth to war not only to order the buckler, and harness the horses, but
   to repent of their sins, and pray to God for his presence with them,
   and that they may have it to keep themselves from every wicked thing.

   II. They are upbraided with the great expectations they had from this
   expedition, which were quite contrary to what God intended in bringing
   them together. They knew their own thoughts, and God knew them, and sat
   in heaven and laughed at them; but they knew not the thoughts of the
   Lord, for he gathers them as sheaves into the floor, Mic. iv. 11, 12.
   Egypt saith (v. 8): I will go up; I will cover the earth, and none
   shall hinder me; I will destroy the city, whatever city it is that
   stands in my way. Like Pharaoh of old, I will pursue, I will overtake.
   The Egyptians say that they shall have a day of it, but God saith that
   it shall be his day: The is the day of the Lord God of hosts (v. 10),
   the day in which he will be exalted in the overthrow of the Egyptians.
   They meant one thing, but God meant another; they designed it for the
   advancement of their dignity and the enlargement of their dominion, but
   God designed it for the great abasement and weakening of their kingdom.
   It is a day of vengeance for Josiah's death; it is a day of sacrifice
   to divine justice, to which multitudes of the sinners of Egypt shall
   fall as victims. Note, When men think to magnify themselves by pushing
   on unrighteous enterprises, let them expect that God will glorify
   himself by blasting them and cutting them off.

   III. They are upbraided with their cowardice and inglorious flight when
   they come to an engagement (v. 5, 6): "Wherefore have I seen them,
   notwithstanding all these mighty and vast preparations and all these
   expressions of bravery and resolution, when the Chaldean army faces
   them, dismayed, turned back, quite disheartened, and no spirit left in
   them." 1. They make a shameful retreat. Even their mighty ones, who,
   one would think, should have stood their ground, flee a flight, flee by
   consent, make the best of their way, flee in confusion and with the
   utmost precipitation; they have neither time nor heart to look back,
   but fear is round about them, for they apprehend it so. And yet, 2.
   They cannot make their escape. They have the shame of flying, and yet
   not the satisfaction of saving themselves by flight; they might as well
   have stood their ground and died upon the spot; for even the swift
   shall not flee away. The lightness of their heels shall fail them when
   it comes to the trial, as well as the stoutness of their hearts; the
   mighty shall not escape, nay, they are beaten down and broken to
   pieces. They shall stumble in their flight, and fall towards the north,
   towards their enemy's country; for such confusion were they in when
   they took to their feet that instead of making homeward, as men usually
   do in that case, they made forward. Note, The race is not to the swift
   nor the battle to the strong. Valiant men are not always victorious.

   IV. They are upbraided with their utter inability ever to recover this
   blow, which should be fatal to their nation, v. 11, 12. The damsel, the
   daughter of Egypt, that lived in great pomp and state, is sorely
   wounded by this defeat. Let her now seek for balm in Gilead and
   physicians there; let her use all the medicines her wise men can
   prescribe for the healing of this hurt, and the repairing of the loss
   sustained by this defeat; but all in vain; no cure shall be to them;
   they shall never be able to bring such a powerful army as this into the
   field again. "The nations that rang of thy glory and strength have now
   heard of thy shame, how shamefully thou wast routed and how thou are
   weakened by it." It needs not be spread by the triumphs of the
   conquerors, the shrieks and outcries of the conquered will proclaim it:
   Thy cry hath filled the country about. For, when they fled several
   ways, one mighty man stumbled upon another and dashed against another,
   such confusion were they in, so that both together became a prey to the
   pursuers, an easy prey. A thousand such dreadful accidents there should
   be, which should fill the country with the cry of those that were
   overcome. Let not the mighty man therefore glory in his might, for the
   time may come when it will stand him in no stead.

The Judgment of Egypt. (b. c. 608.)

   12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the
   land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are
   fallen both together.   13 The word that the Lord spake to Jeremiah the
   prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the
   land of Egypt.   14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and
   publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee;
   for the sword shall devour round about thee.   15 Why are thy valiant
   men swept away? they stood not, because the Lord did drive them.   16
   He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise,
   and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity,
   from the oppressing sword.   17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of
   Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.   18 As I
   live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, Surely as Tabor
   is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
   19 O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into
   captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
     20 Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it
   cometh out of the north.   21 Also her hired men are in the midst of
   her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled
   away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity
   was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.   22 The voice
   thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and
   come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.   23 They shall cut down
   her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they
   are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.   24 The daughter
   of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of
   the people of the north.   25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
   saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and
   Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them
   that trust in him:   26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those
   that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of
   Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be
   inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.   27 But fear not
   thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I
   will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their
   captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none
   shall make him afraid.   28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith
   the Lord: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the
   nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of
   thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly
   unpunished.

   In these verses we have,

   I. Confusion and terror spoken to Egypt. The accomplishment of the
   prediction in the former part of the chapter disabled the Egyptians
   from making any attempts upon other nations; for what could they do
   when their army was routed? But still they remained strong at home, and
   none of their neighbours durst make any attempts upon them. Though the
   kings of Egypt came no more out of their land (2 Kings xxiv. 7), yet
   they kept safe and easy in their land; and what would they desire more
   than peaceably to enjoy their own? One would think all men should be
   content to do this, and not covet to invade their neighbours. But the
   measure of Egypt's iniquity is full, and now they shall not long enjoy
   their own; those that encroached on others shall not be themselves
   encroached on. The scope of the prophecy here is to show how the king
   of Babylon should shortly come and smite the land of Egypt, and bring
   the war into their own bosoms which they had formerly carried into his
   borders, v. 13. This was fulfilled by the same hand with the former,
   even Nebuchadnezzar's, but many years after, twenty at least, and
   probably the prediction of it was long after the former prediction, and
   perhaps much about the same time with that other prediction of the same
   event which we had ch. xliii. 10.

   1. Here is the alarm of war sounded in Egypt, to their great amazement
   (v. 14), notice given to the country that the enemy is approaching, the
   sword is devouring round about in the neighbouring countries, and
   therefore it is time for the Egyptians to put themselves in a posture
   of defence, to prepare for war, that they may give the enemy a warm
   reception. This must be proclaimed in all parts of Egypt, particularly
   in Migdol, Noph, and Tahpanhes, because in these places especially the
   Jewish refugees, or fugitives rather, had planted themselves, in
   contempt of God's command (ch. xliv. 1), and let them hear what a sorry
   shelter Egypt is likely to be to them.

   2. The retreat hereupon of the forces of other nations which the
   Egyptians had in their pay is here foretold. Some considerable number
   of those troops, it is probable, were posted upon the frontiers to
   guard them, where they were beaten off by the invaders and put to
   flights. Then were the valiant men swept away (v. 15) as with a
   sweeping rain (it is the word that is used Prov. xxviii. 3); they can
   none of them stand their ground, because the Lord drives them from
   their respective posts; he drives them by his terrors; he drives them
   by enabling the Chaldeans to drive them. It is not possible that those
   should fix whom the wrath of God chases. He it was (v. 16) that made
   many to fall, yea, when their day shall come to fall, the enemy needs
   not throw them down, they shall fall one upon another, every man shall
   be a stumbling-block to his fellow, to his follower; nay, if God
   please, they shall be made to fall upon one another, they shall be made
   to fall upon one another, every man's sword shall be against his
   fellow. Her hired men, the troops Egypt has in he service, are indeed
   in the midst of her like fatted bullocks, lusty men, able bodied and
   high spirited, who were likely for action and promised to make their
   part good against the enemy; but they are turned back; their hearts
   failed them, and, instead of fighting, they have fled away together.
   How could they withstand their fate when the day of their calamity had
   come, the day in which God will visit them in wrath? Some think they
   are compared to fatted bullocks for their luxury; they had wantoned in
   pleasures, so that they were very unfit for hardships, and therefore
   turned back and could not stand. In this consternation, (1.) They all
   made homeward towards their own country (v. 16): They said, "Arise, and
   let us go again to our own people, where we may be safe from the
   oppressing sword of the Chaldeans, that bears down all before it." In
   times of exigence little confidence is to be put in mercenary troops,
   that fight purely for pay, and have no interest in theirs whom they
   fight for. (2.) They exclaimed vehemently against Pharaoh, to whose
   cowardice or bad management, it is probably, their defeat was owing.
   When he posted them there upon the borders of his country it is
   probably that he told them he would within such a time come himself
   with a gallant army of his own subjects to support them; but he failed
   them, and, when the enemy advanced, they found they had none to back
   them, so that they were perfectly abandoned to the fury of the
   invaders. No marvel then that they quitted their post and deserted the
   service, crying out, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise (v. 17); he
   can hector, and talk big of the mighty things he would do, but that is
   all; he brings nothing to pass. All his promises to those in alliance
   with him, or that are employed for him, vanish into smoke. He brings
   not the succours he engaged to bring, or not till it is too late: He
   has passed the time appointed; he did not keep his word, nor keep his
   day, and therefore they bid him farewell, they will never serve under
   him any more. Note, Those that make most noise in any business are
   frequently but a noise. Great talkers are little doers.

   3. The formidable power of the Chaldean army is here described as
   bearing down all before it. The King of kings, whose name is the Lord
   of hosts, and before whom the mightiest kings on earth, though gods to
   us, are but as grasshoppers, he hath said it, he hath sworn it, As I
   live, saith this king, as Tabor overtops the mountains and Carmel
   overlooks the sea, so shall the king of Babylon overpower all the force
   of Egypt, such a command shall he have, such a sway shall he bear, v.
   18. He and his army shall come against Egypt with axes, as hewers of
   wood (v. 22), and the Egyptians shall be no more able to resist them
   than the tree is to resist the man that comes with an axe to cut it
   down; so that Egypt shall be felled as a forest is by the hewers of
   wood, which (if there by many of them, and those well provided with
   instruments for the purpose) will be done in a little time. Egypt is
   very populous, full of towns and cities, like a forest, the trees of
   which cannot be searched or numbered, and very rich, full of hidden
   treasures, many of which will escape the searching eye of the Chaldean
   soldiers; but they shall make a great spoil in the country, for they
   are more than the locusts, that come in vast swarms and overrun a
   country, devouring every green thing (Joel i. 6, 7), so shall the
   Chaldeans do, for they are innumerable. Note, The Lord of hosts hath
   numberless hosts at his command.

   4. The desolation of Egypt hereby is foretold, and the waste that
   should be made of that rich country. Egypt is now like a very fair
   heifer, or calf (v. 20), fat and shining, and not accustomed to the
   yoke of subjection, wanton as a heifer that is well fed, and very
   sportful. Some think here is an allusion to Apis, the bull or calf
   which the Egyptians worshipped, from whom the children of Israel
   learned to worship the golden calf. Egypt is as fair as a goddess, and
   adores herself, but destruction comes; cutting up comes (so some read
   it); it comes out of the north; thence the Chaldean soldiers shall
   come, as so many butchers or sacrificers, to kill and cut up this fair
   heifer. (1.) The Egyptians shall be brought down, shall be tamed, and
   their tune changed: The daughters of Egypt shall be confounded (v. 24),
   shall be filled with astonishment. Their voice shall go like a serpent,
   that is, it shall be very low and submissive; they shall not low like a
   fair heifer, that makes a great noise, but hiss out of their holes like
   serpents. They shall not dare to make loud complaints of the cruelty of
   the conquerors, but vent their griefs in silent murmurs. They shall not
   now, as they used to do, answer roughly, but, with the poor, use
   entreaties and beg for their lives. (2.) They shall be carried away
   prisoners into their enemy's land (v. 19): "O thou daughter! dwelling
   securely and delicately in Egypt, that fruitful pleasant country, do
   not think this will last always, but furnish thyself to go into
   captivity; instead of rich clothes, which will but tempt the enemy to
   strip thee, get plain and warm clothes; instead of fine shoes, provide
   strong ones; and inure thyself to hardship, that thou mayest bear it
   the better." Note, It concerns us, among all our preparations, to
   prepare for trouble. We provide for the entertainment of our friends,
   let us not neglect to provide for the entertainment of our enemies, nor
   among all our furniture omit furniture for captivity. The Egyptians
   must prepare to flee; for their cities shall be evacuated. Noph
   particularly shall be desolate, without an inhabitant, so general shall
   the slaughter and the captivity be. There are some penalties which, we
   say, the king and the multitude are exempted from, but here even these
   are obnoxious: The multitude of No shall be punished: it is called
   populous No, Nah. iii. 8. Though hand join in hand, yet they shall not
   escape; nor can any think to go off in the crowd. Be they ever so many,
   they shall find God will be too many for them. Their kings and all
   their petty princes shall fall; and their gods too (ch. xliii. 12, 13),
   their idols and their great men. Those which they call their tutelar
   deities shall be no protection to them. Pharaoh shall be brought down,
   and all those that trust in him (v. 25), particularly the Jews that
   came to sojourn in his country, trusting in him rather than in God. All
   these shall be delivered into the hands of the northern nations (v.
   24), into the hand not only of Nebuchadnezzar that mighty potentate,
   but into the hands of his servants, according to the curse on Ham's
   posterity, of which the Egyptians were, that they should be the
   servants of servants. These seek their lives, and into their hands they
   shall be delivered.

   5. An intimation is given that in process of time Egypt shall recover
   itself again (v. 26): Afterwards it shall be inhabited, shall be
   peopled again, whereas by this destruction it was almost dispeopled.
   Ezekiel foretels that this should be at the end of forty years, Ezek.
   xxix. 13. See what changes the nations of the earth are subject to, how
   they are emptied and increased again; and let not nations that prosper
   be secure, nor those that for the present are in thraldom despair.

   II. Comfort and peace are here spoken to the Israel of God, v. 27, 28.
   Some understand it of those whom the king of Egypt had carried into
   captivity with Jehoahaz, but we read not of any that were carried away
   captives with him; it may therefore rather refer to the captives in
   Babylon, whom God had mercy in store for, or, more generally, to all
   the people of God, designed for their encouragement in the most
   difficult times, when the judgments of God are abroad among the
   nations. We had these words of comfort before, ch. xxx. 10, 11. 1. Let
   the wicked of the earth tremble, they have cause for it; but fear not
   thou, O my servant Jacob! and be not dismayed, O Israel! and again,
   Fear thou not, O Jacob! God would not have his people to be a timorous
   people. 2. The wicked of the earth shall be put away like dross, not be
   looked after any more; but God's people, in order to their being saved,
   shall be found out and gathered though they be far off, shall be
   redeemed though they be held fast in captivity, and shall return. 3.
   The wicked is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest; they flee when
   none pursues. But Jacob, being at home in God, shall be at rest and at
   ease, and none shall make him afraid; for what time he is afraid he has
   a God to trust to. 4. The wicked God beholds afar off; but, wherever
   thou art, O Jacob! I am with thee, a very present help. 5. A full end
   shall be made of the nations that oppressed God's Israel, as Egypt and
   Babylon; but mercy shall be kept in store for the Israel of God: they
   shall be corrected, but not cast off; the correction shall be in
   measure, in respect of degree and continuance. Nations have their
   periods; the Jewish nation itself has come to an end as a nation; but
   the gospel church, God's spiritual Israel, still continues, and will to
   the end of time; in that this promise is to have its full
   accomplishment, that, though God correct it, he will never make a full
   end of it.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLVII.

   This chapter reads the Philistines their doom, as the former read the
   Egyptians theirs and by the same hand, that of Nebuchadnezzar. It is
   short, but terrible; and Tyre and Zidon, though they lay at some
   distance from them, come in sharers with them in the destruction here
   threatened. I. It is foretold that the forces of the northern crowns
   should come upon them, to their great terror, ver. 1-5. II. That the
   war should continue long, and their endeavours to put an end to it
   should be in vain, ver. 6-7.

The Judgment of the Philistines. (b. c. 588.)

   1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the
   Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.   2 Thus saith the Lord;
   Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing
   flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city,
   and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the
   inhabitants of the land shall howl.   3 At the noise of the stamping of
   the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at
   the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their
   children for feebleness of hands;   4 Because of the day that cometh to
   spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every
   helper that remaineth: for the Lord will spoil the Philistines, the
   remnant of the country of Caphtor.   5 Baldness is come upon Gaza;
   Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt
   thou cut thyself?   6 O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere
   thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
   7 How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against
   Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.

   As the Egyptians had often proved false friends, so the Philistines had
   always been sworn enemies, to the Israel of God, and the more dangerous
   and vexatious for their being such near neighbours to them. They were
   considerably humbled in David's time, but, it seems they had got head
   again and were a considerable people till Nebuchadnezzar cut them off
   with their neighbours, which is the event here foretold. The date of
   this prophecy is observable; it was before Pharaoh smote Gaza. When
   this blow was given to Gaza by the king of Egypt is not certain,
   whether in his expedition against Carchemish or in his return thence,
   after he had slain Josiah, or when he afterwards came with design to
   relieve Jerusalem; but this is mentioned here to show that this word of
   the Lord came to Jeremiah against the Philistines when they were in
   their full strength and lustre, themselves and their cities in good
   condition, in no peril from any adversary or evil occurrent. When no
   disturbance of their repose was foreseen by any human probabilities,
   yet then Jeremiah foretold their ruin, which Pharaoh's smiting Gaza
   soon after would be but an earnest of, and, as it were, the beginning
   of sorrows to that country. It is here foretold, 1. That a foreign
   enemy and a very formidable one shall be brought upon them: Waters rise
   up out of the north, v. 2. Waters sometimes signify multitudes of
   people and nations (Rev. xvii. 15), sometimes great and threatening
   calamities (Ps. lxix. 1); here they signify both. They rise out of the
   north, whence fair weather and the wind that drives away rain are said
   to come; but now a terrible storm comes out of that cold climate. The
   Chaldean army shall overflow the land like a deluge. Probably this
   happened before the destruction of Jerusalem, for it should seem that
   in Gedaliah's time, which was just after, the army of the Chaldeans was
   quite withdrawn out of those parts. The country of the Philistines was
   but of small extent, so that it would soon be overwhelmed by so vast an
   army. 2. That they shall all be in a consternation upon it. The men
   shall have no heart to fight, but shall sit down and cry like children:
   All the inhabitants of the land shall howl, so that nothing but
   lamentation shall be heard in all places. The occasion of the fright is
   elegantly described, v. 3. Before it comes to killing and slaying, the
   very stamping of the horses and rattling of the chariots, when the
   enemy makes his approach, shall strike a terror upon the people, to
   such a degree that parents in their fright shall seem void of natural
   affection, for they shall not look back to their children, to provide
   for their safety, or so much as to see what becomes of them. Their
   hands shall be so feeble that they shall despair of carrying them off
   with them, and therefore they shall not care for seeing them, but leave
   them to take their lot; or they shall be in such a consternation that
   they shall quite forget even those pieces of themselves. Let none be
   over-fond of their children, nor dote upon them, since such distress
   may come that they may either wish they had none or forget that they
   have, and have no heart to look upon them. 3. That the country of the
   Philistines shall be spoiled and laid waste, and the other countries
   adjoining to them and in alliance with them. It is a day to spoil the
   Philistines, for the Lord will spoil them, v. 4. Note, Those whom God
   will spoil must needs be spoiled; for, if God be against them, who can
   be for them? Tyre and Zidon were strong and wealthy cities, and they
   used to help the Philistines in a strait, but now they shall themselves
   be involved in the common ruin, and God will cut off from them every
   helper that remains. Note, Those that trust to help from creatures will
   find it cut off when they most need it and will thereby be put into the
   utmost confusion. Who the remnant of the country of Caphtor were is
   uncertain, but we find that the Caphtorim were near akin to the
   Philistines (Gen. x. 14), and probably when their own country was
   destroyed such as remained came and settled with their kinsmen the
   Philistines, and were now spoiled with them. Some particular places are
   here named, Gaza, and Ashkelon, v. 5. Baldness has come upon them; the
   invaders have stripped them of all their ornaments, or they have made
   themselves bald in token of extreme grief, and they are cut off, with
   the other cities that were in the plain or valley about them. The
   products of their fruitful valley shall be spoiled, and made a prey of,
   by the conquerors. 4. That these calamities should continue long. The
   prophet, in the foresight of this, with his usual tenderness, asks them
   first (v. 5), How long will you cut yourselves, as men in extreme
   sorrow and anguish do? O how tedious will the calamity be! not only
   cutting, but long cutting. But he turns from the effect to the cause:
   They cut themselves, for the sword of the Lord cuts them. And
   therefore, (1.) He bespeaks that to be still (v. 6): O thou sword of
   the Lord! how long will it be ere thou be quiet? He begs it would put
   up itself into the scabbard, would devour no more flesh, drink no more
   blood. This expresses the prophet's earnest desire to see an end of the
   war, looking with compassion, as became a man, even upon the
   Philistines themselves, when their country was made desolate by the
   sword. Note, War is the sword of the Lord; with it he punishes the
   crimes of his enemies and pleads the cause of his own people. When war
   is once begun it often lasts long; the sword, once drawn, does not
   quickly find the way into the scabbard again; nay, some when they draw
   the sword throw away the scabbard, for they delight in war. So
   deplorable are the desolations of war that the blessings of peace
   cannot but be very desirable. O that swords might be beaten into
   ploughshares! (2.) Yet he gives a satisfactory account of the
   continuance of the war and stops the mouth of his own complaint (v. 7):
   How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against
   such and such places, particularly specified in its commission? There
   hath he appointed it. Note, [1.] The sword of war hath its charge from
   the Lord of hosts. Every bullet has its charge; you call them blind
   bullets, but they are directed by an all-seeing God. The war itself has
   its charge; he saith to it, Go, and it goes--Come, and it comes--Do
   this, and it does it; for he is commander-in-chief. [2.] When the sword
   is drawn we cannot expect it should be sheathed till it has fulfilled
   its charge. As the word of God, so his rod and his sword, shall
   accomplish that for which he sends them.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLVIII.

   Moab is next set to the bar before Jeremiah the prophet, whom God has
   constituted judge over nations and kingdoms, from his mouth to receive
   its doom. Isaiah's predictions concerning Moab had had their
   accomplishment (we had the predictions Isa. xv. and xvi. and the like
   Amos ii. 1), and they were fulfilled when the Assyrians, under
   Salmanassar, invaded and distressed Moab. But this is a prophecy of the
   desolations of Moab by the Chaldeans, which were accomplished under
   Nebuzaradan, about five years after he had destroyed Jerusalem. Here
   is, I. The destruction foretold, that it should be great and general,
   should extend itself to all parts of the country (ver. 1-6, 8, and
   again ver. 21-25, 34), that spoilers should come upon them and force
   some to flee (ver. 9), should carry many into captivity (ver. 12, 46),
   that the enemy should come shortly (ver. 16), come swiftly and surprise
   them (ver. 40, 41), that he should make thorough work (ver. 10) and lay
   the country quite waste, though it was very strong (ver. 14, 15), that
   there should be no escaping (ver. 42, 45), that this should force them
   to quit their idols (ver. 13, 35) and put an end to all their joy (ver.
   33, 34), that their neighbours shall lament them (ver. 17-19) and the
   prophet himself does (ver. 31, 36, &c.). II. The causes of this
   destruction assigned; it was sin that brought this ruin upon them,
   their pride, and security, and carnal confidence (ver. 7, 11, 14, 29),
   and their contempt of and enmity to God and his people, ver. 26, 27,
   30. III. A promise of the restoration of Moab, ver. 48).

The Judgment of Moab. (b. c. 605.)

   1 Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe
   unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken:
   Misgab is confounded and dismayed.   2 There shall be no more praise of
   Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us
   cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen;
   the sword shall pursue thee.   3 A voice of crying shall be from
   Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.   4 Moab is destroyed; her
   little ones have caused a cry to be heard.   5 For in the going up of
   Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim
   the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.   6 Flee, save your lives,
   and be like the heath in the wilderness.   7 For because thou hast
   trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken:
   and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his
   princes together.   8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and
   no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall
   be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken.   9 Give wings unto Moab, that
   it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate,
   without any to dwell therein.   10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of
   the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from
   blood.   11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled
   on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither
   hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and
   his scent is not changed.   12 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith
   the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to
   wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.   13 And
   Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of
   Beth-el their confidence.

   We may observe in these verses,

   I. The author of Moab's destruction; it is the Lord of hosts, that has
   armies, all armies, at his command, and the God of Israel (v. 1), who
   will herein plead the cause of his Israel against a people that have
   always been vexatious to them, and will punish them now for the
   injuries done to Israel of old, though Israel was forbidden to meddle
   with them (Deut. ii. 9), therefore the destruction of Moab is called
   the work of the Lord (v. 10), for it is he that pleads for Israel; and
   his work will exactly agree with his word, v. 8.

   II. The instruments of it: Spoilers shall come (v. 8), shall come with
   a sword, a sword that shall pursue them, v. 2. "I will send unto him
   wanderers, such as come from afar, as if they were vagrants, or had
   missed their way, but they shall cause him to wander; they seem as
   wanderers themselves, but they shall make the Moabites to be really
   wanderers, some to flee and others to be carried into captivity." These
   destroyers stir up themselves to do execution; they have devised evil
   against Heshbon, one of the principal cities of Moab, and they aim at
   no less than the ruin of the kingdom: Come, and let us cut it off from
   being a nation (v. 2); nothing less will serve the turn of the
   invaders; they come, not to plunder it, but to ruin it. The prophet, in
   God's name, engages them to make thorough work of it (v. 10): Cursed be
   he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully, this bloody work, this
   destroying work; though it goes against the grain with men of
   compassion, yet it is the work of the Lord, and must not be done by the
   halves. The Chaldeans have it in charge, by a secret instinct (says Mr.
   Gataker), to destroy the Moabites, and therefore they must not spare,
   must not, out of foolish pity, keep back their sword from blood; they
   would thereby bring a sword, and a curse with it, upon themselves, as
   Saul did by sparing the Amalekites and Ahab by letting Benhadad go. Thy
   life shall go for his life. To this work is applied that general rule
   given to all that are employed in any service for God, Cursed by he
   that does the work of the Lord deceitfully or negligently, that
   pretends to do it, but does it not to purpose, makes a show of serving
   God's glory, but is really serving his own ends and carries on the work
   of the Lord no further than will suit his own purposes, or that is
   slothful in business for God and takes neither care nor pains to do it
   as it should be done, Mal. i. 14. Let not such deceive themselves, for
   God will not thus be mocked.

   III. The woeful instances and effects of this destruction. The cities
   shall be laid in ruins; they shall be spoiled (v. 1) and cut down (v.
   2); they shall be desolate (v. 9), without any to dwell therein; there
   shall be no houses to dwell in, or no people to dwell in them, or no
   safety and ease to those that would dwell in them. Every city shall be
   spoiled and no city shall escape. The strongest city shall not be able
   to secure itself against the enemies' power, nor shall the finest city
   be able to recommend itself to the enemies' pity and favour. The
   country also shall be wasted, the valley shall perish, and the plain be
   destroyed, v. 8. The corn and the flocks, which used to cover the
   plains and make the valleys rejoice, shall all be destroyed, eaten up,
   trodden down, or carried off. The most sacred persons shall not escape:
   The priests and princes shall go together into captivity. Nay, Chemosh,
   the god they worship, who, they hope, will protect them, shall share
   with them in the ruin; his temples shall be laid in ashes and his image
   carried away with the rest of the spoil. Now the consequence of all
   this will be, 1. Great shame and confusion: Kirjathaim is confounded,
   and Misgah is so. They shall be ashamed of the mighty boasts they have
   sometimes made of their cities: There shall be no more vaunting in Moab
   concerning Heshbon (so it might be read, v. 2); they shall no more
   boast of the strength of that city when the evil which is designed
   against it is brought upon it. Nor shall they any more boast of their
   gods (v. 13); they shall be ashamed of Chemosh (ashamed of all the
   prayers they have made to and all the confidence they put in that
   dunghill deity), as Israel was ashamed of Beth-el, of the golden calf
   they had at Beth-el, which they confided in as their protector, but
   were deceived in, for it was not able to save them from the Assyrians;
   nor shall Chemosh be able to save the Moabites from the Chaldeans.
   Note, Those that will not be convinced and made ashamed of the folly of
   their idolatry by the word of God shall be convinced and made ashamed
   of it by the judgments of God, when they shall find by woeful
   experience the utter inability of the gods they have served to do them
   any service. 2. There will be great sorrow; there is a voice of crying
   heard (v. 3) and the cry is nothing but spoiling and great destruction.
   Alas! alas! Moab is destroyed, v. 4. The great ones having quitted the
   cities to shift for their own safety, even the little ones have caused
   a cry to be heard, the meaner sort of people, or the little children,
   the innocent harmless ones, whose cries at such a time are the most
   piteous. Go up to the hills, go down to the valleys, and you meet with
   continual weeping (weeping with weeping); all are in tears; you meet
   none with dry eyes. Even the enemies have heard the cry, from whom it
   would have been policy to conceal it, for they will be animated and
   encouraged by it; but it is so great that it cannot be hid, 3. There
   will be great hurry; they will cry to one another, "Away, away! flee;
   save your lives (v. 6); shift for your own safety with all imaginable
   speed, though you escape as bare and naked as the heath, or grig, or
   dry shrub, in the wilderness; think not of carrying away any thing you
   have, for it may cost you your life to attempt it, Matt. xxiv. 16-18.
   Take shelter, though it be in a barren wilderness, that you may have
   your lives for a prey. The danger will come suddenly and swiftly; and
   therefore give wings unto Moab (v. 9); that would be the greatest
   kindness you could do them; that is what they will call for, O that we
   had wings like a dove! for unless they have wings, and can fly, there
   will be no escaping."

   IV. The sins for which God will now reckon with Moab, and which justify
   God in these severe proceedings against them. 1. It is because they
   have been secure, and have trusted in their wealth and strength, in
   their works and in their treasures, v. 7. They had taken a great deal
   of pains to fortify their cities and make large works about them, and
   to fill their exchequer and private coffers, so that they thought
   themselves in as good a posture for war as any people could be and that
   none durst invade them, and therefore set danger at defiance. They
   trusted in the abundance of their riches and strengthened themselves in
   their wickedness, Ps. lii. 7. Now, for this reason, that they may have
   a sensible conviction of the vanity and folly of their carnal
   confidences, God will send an enemy that will master their works and
   rifle their treasures. Note, We forfeit the comfort of that creature
   which we repose that confidence in which should be reposed in God only.
   The reed will break that is leaned upon. 2. It is because they have not
   made a right improvement of the days of the peace and prosperity, v.
   11. (1.) They had been long undisturbed: Moab has been at ease from his
   youth. It was an ancient kingdom before Israel was, and had enjoyed
   great tranquillity, though a small country and surrounded with potent
   neighbours. God's Israel were afflicted from their youth (Ps. cxxix. 1,
   2), but Moab at ease from his youth. He has not been emptied from
   vessel to vessel, has not known any troublesome weakening changes, but
   is as wine kept on the lees, and not racked or drawn off, by which it
   retains its strength and body. He has not been unsettled, nor any way
   made uneasy; he has not gone into captivity, as Israel have often done,
   and yet Moab is a wicked idolatrous nation, and one of the confederates
   against God's hidden ones, Ps. lxxxiii. 3, 6. Note, There are many that
   persist in unrepented iniquity and yet enjoy uninterrupted prosperity.
   (2.) They had been as long corrupt and unreformed: He has settled on
   his lees; he has been secure and sensual in his prosperity, has rested
   in it, and fetched all the strength and life of the soul from it, as
   the wine from the lees. His taste remained in him, and his scent is not
   changed; he is still the same, as bad as ever he was. Note, While bad
   people are as happy as they used to be in the world it is no marvel if
   they are bad as they used to be. They have no changes of their peace
   and prosperity, therefore fear not God, their hearts and lives are
   unchanged, Ps. lv. 19.

The Judgment of Moab. (b. c. 605.)

   14 How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?   15 Moab is
   spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are
   gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of
   hosts.   16 The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction
   hasteth fast.   17 All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye
   that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the
   beautiful rod!   18 Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down
   from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come
   upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.   19 O inhabitant of
   Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that
   escapeth, and say, What is done?   20 Moab is confounded; for it is
   broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
   21 And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon
   Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,   22 And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and
   upon Beth-diblathaim,   23 And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul,
   and upon Beth-meon,   24 And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon
   all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.   25 The horn of Moab
   is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.   26 Make ye him
   drunken: for he magnified himself against the Lord: Moab also shall
   wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.   27 For was not
   Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou
   spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.   28 O ye that dwell in Moab,
   leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that
   maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth.   29 We have heard
   the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his
   arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.   30 I know
   his wrath, saith the Lord; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not
   so effect it.   31 Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out
   for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.   32 O
   vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy
   plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the
   spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.   33 And
   joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land
   of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none
   shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.   34
   From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have
   they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as a heifer of
   three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.   35
   Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the Lord, him that
   offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.
     36 Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine
   heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the
   riches that he hath gotten are perished.   37 For every head shall be
   bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings,
   and upon the loins sackcloth.   38 There shall be lamentation generally
   upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have
   broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord.   39
   They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned
   the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all
   them about him.   40 For thus saith the Lord; Behold, he shall fly as
   an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.   41 Kerioth is taken,
   and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab
   at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.   42 And
   Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified
   himself against the Lord.   43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall
   be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord.   44 He that fleeth
   from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of
   the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even
   upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.   45 They that
   fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire
   shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon,
   and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the
   tumultuous ones.   46 Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh
   perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.
     47 Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days,
   saith the Lord. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

   The destruction is here further prophesied of very largely and with a
   great copiousness and variety of expression, and very pathetically and
   in moving language, designed not only to awaken them by a national
   repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a personal
   repentance and reformation to prepare for it, but to affect us with the
   calamitous state of human life, which is liable to such lamentable
   occurrences, and with the power of God's anger and the terror of his
   judgments, when he comes forth to contend with a provoking people. In
   reading this long roll of threatenings, and meditating on the terror of
   them, it will be of more use to us to keep this in our eye, and to get
   our hearts thereby possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath,
   than to enquire critically into all the lively figures and metaphors
   here used.

   I. It is a surprising destruction, and very sudden, that is here
   threatened. They were very secure, thought themselves strong for war
   and able to deal with the most powerful enemy (v. 14), and yet the
   calamity is near, and he is not able to keep it off, nor so much as to
   keep the enemy long in parley, for the affliction hastens fast (v. 16)
   and will soon come to a crisis. The enemy shall fly as an eagle, so
   swiftly, so strongly shall he come (v. 40), as an eagle flies upon his
   prey, and he shall spread his wings, the wings of his army, over Moab;
   he shall surround it, that none may escape. The strong-holds of Moab
   are taken by surprise (v. 41), so that all their strength stood them in
   no stead; and this made the hearts even of their mighty men to fail,
   for they had not time to recollect the considerations that might have
   animated them. It requires a more than ordinary degree of courage not
   to be afraid of sudden fear.

   II. It is an utter destruction, and such as lays Moab all in ruins:
   Moab is spoiled (v. 15), quite spoiled, is confounded and broken down
   (v. 20); their cities are laid in ashes, or seized by the enemy so that
   they are forced to quit them, v. 15. Divers cities are here named, upon
   which judgment has come, and the list concludes with an et cetera--and
   such like. What occasion was there for him to mention more particulars
   when it comes upon all the cities of Moab in general, far and near? v.
   21-24. Note, When iniquity is universal we have reason to expect that
   calamity should be so too. The kingdom is deprived of its dignity and
   authority: The horn of Moab is cut off, the horn of its strength and
   power, both offensive and defensive; his arm is broken, that he can
   neither give a blow nor prevent a blow, v. 25. Is the youth of the
   kingdom the strength and beauty of it? His chosen young men have gone
   down to the slaughter, v. 15. They went down to the battle promising
   themselves that they should return victorious; but God told them that
   they went down to the slaughter; so sure are those to fall against whom
   God fights. In a word, Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, v.
   42. Those that are enemies to God's people will soon be made no people.

   III. It is a lamentable destruction; it will be just matter of mourning
   and will turn joy into heaviness. 1. The prophet that foretels it does
   himself lament it, and mourns at the very foresight of it, from a
   principle of compassion to his fellow-creatures and concern for human
   nature. The prophet will himself howl for Moab; his very heart shall
   mourn for them (v. 31); he will weep for the vine of Sibmah (v. 32);
   his heart shall sound like pipes for Moab, v. 36. Though the
   destruction of Moab would prove him a true prophet, yet he could not
   think of it without trouble. The ruin of sinners is no pleasure to God,
   and therefore should be a pain to us; even those that give warning of
   it should lay it to heart. These passages, and many others in this
   chapter, are much the same with what Isaiah had used in his prophecies
   against Moab (Isa. xv. 16); for, though there was a long distance of
   time between that prophecy and this, yet they were both dictated by one
   and the same Spirit, and it becomes God's prophets to speak the
   language of those that went before them. It is no plagiarism sometimes
   to make use of old expressions, provided it be with new affections and
   applications. 2. The Moabites themselves shall lament it; it will be
   the greatest mortification and grief imaginable to them. Those that sat
   in glory, in the midst of wealth, and mirth, and all manner of
   pleasure, shall sit in thirst, in a dry and thirsty land, where no
   water, no comfort is, v. 18. It is time for them to sit in thirst, and
   inure themselves to hardship, when the spoiler has come, who will strip
   them of all, and empty them. The Moabites in the remote corners of the
   country, that are furthest from the danger, will be inquisitive to know
   how the matter goes, what news from the army, will ask every one that
   escapes, What is done? v. 19. And when they are told that all is gone,
   that the invader is the conqueror, they will howl and cry, in
   bitterness and anguish of spirit (v. 20); they will abandon themselves
   to solitude, to lament the desolations of their country; they will
   leave the cities that used to be full of mirth, and dwell in the rock
   where they may have their full of melancholy; they shall no more be
   singing birds, but mourning birds, like the dove (v. 28); the doves of
   the valley, Ezek. vii. 16. Let those that give themselves up to mirth
   know that God can soon change their note. Their sorrow shall be so very
   extreme that they shall make themselves bald and cut themselves (v.
   37), which were expressions of a desperate grief, such as tempted men
   to be even their own destroyers. Job indeed rent his mantle and shaved
   his head, but he did not cut himself. When the flood of passion rises
   ever so high wisdom and grace must set bounds to it, set banks to it,
   to restrain it from such barbarities. The sorrow shall be universal (v.
   38): There shall be a general lamentation upon all the house-tops of
   Moab, where they worshipped their idols, to whom they shall in vain
   bemoan themselves, and in all the streets, where they conversed with
   one another, for they shall be free in communicating their grief and
   fears and in propagating them; for they see all lost: "I have broken
   Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, which shall not be regarded
   and cannot be pieced again." That which Moab used to rejoice in was
   their pleasant fruits and the abundance of their rich wines. The
   delights of sense were all the matter of their joy. Take away these,
   destroy their gardens and vineyards, and you make all their mirth to
   cease, Hos. ii. 11, 12. There is great weeping when their plants are
   transplanted, have gone over the sea (v. 32), are carried into other
   countries, to be planted there. The spoiler has fallen upon thy
   summer-fruits and upon thy vintage, and it is this that makes the cry
   of Heshbon to reach even to Elealeh, v. 34. Take joy and gladness from
   the plentiful field, and you take it from the land of Moab, v. 33. If
   the wine fail from the wine-presses, that used to be trodden with
   acclamations of joy, all their gladness is cut off. Take away that
   shouting, and there shall be no shouting. Note, Those who make the
   delights of sense their chief joy, their exceeding joy, since these are
   things they may easily be deprived of in a little time subject
   themselves to the tyranny of the greatest grief; whereas those who
   rejoice in God may do that even when the fig-tree does not blossom and
   there is no fruit in the vine. These Moabites lost not only their wine,
   but their water too: Even the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate (v.
   34), and therefore their grief grew extravagantly loud and noisy, and
   their lamentations were heard in all placed like the lowing of a heifer
   of three years old. The expressions here are borrowed from Isa. xv. 5,
   6. 3. All their neighbours are called to mourn with them, and to
   condole with them on their ruin (v. 17): All you that are about him
   bemoan him, Let him have that allay to his grief, let him see himself
   pities by the adjoining countries. Nay, let those at a distance, who do
   but know his name and have heard of his reputation, take notice of his
   fall, and say, How is the strong staff broken, whose strength was the
   terror of its enemies, and the beautiful rod, whose beauty was the
   pride of its friends! Let the nations take notice of this and receive
   instruction. Let none be puffed up with or put confidence in their
   strength or beauty, for neither will be a security against the
   judgments of God.

   IV. It is a shameful destruction and such as shall expose them to
   contempt: Moab is made drunk (v. 26), and he that is made drunk is made
   vile; he shall wallow in his vomit, and become an odious spectacle, and
   shalljustly be in derision. Let the Moabites be intoxicated with the
   cup of God's wrath till they stagger and fall, and be brought to their
   wits' end, and make themselves ridiculous by the wildness not only of
   their passions but of their counsels. And again (v. 39): Moab shall be
   a derision and a dismaying to all about him; they shall laugh at the
   fall of the pomp and power he was so proud of. Note, Those that are
   haughty are preparing reproach and ignominy for themselves.

   V. It is the destruction of that which is dear to them, not only of
   their summer fruits and their vintage, but of their wealth (v. 36): The
   riches that he has gotten have perished, though he thought he had laid
   them up very safely, and promised himself a long enjoyment of them, yet
   they are gone. Note, The money that is hoarded in the chest is as
   liable to perishing as the summer-fruits that lie exposed in the open
   field. Riches are shedding things, and, like dust as they are, slip
   through our fingers even when we are in most care to hold them fast and
   gripe them hard. Yet this is not the worst; even those whose religion
   was false and foolish were fond of it above any thing, and, such as it
   was, would not part with it; and therefore, though it was really a
   promise, yet to them it was a threatening (v. 35), that God will cause
   to cease him that offers in the high places, for the high places shall
   be destroyed, and the fields of offerings shall be laid waste, and the
   priests themselves, who burnt incense to their gods, shall be slain or
   carried into captivity, v. 7. Note, It is only the true religion, and
   the worship and service of the true God, that will stand us in stead in
   a day of trouble.

   VI. It is a just and righteous destruction, and that which they have
   deserved and brought upon themselves by sin.

   1. The sin which they had been most notoriously guilty of, and for
   which God now reckoned with them, was pride. It is mentioned six times,
   v. 29. We have all heard of the pride of Moab; his neighbours took
   notice of it; it has testified to his face, as Israel's did; he is
   exceedingly proud, and grows worse and worse. Observe his loftiness,
   his arrogancy, his pride, his haughtiness; the multiplying of words to
   the same purport intimates in how many instances he discovered his
   pride, and how offensive it was both to God and man. It was charged
   upon them Isa. xvi. 6, but here it is expressed more largely that
   there. Since then they had been under humbling providences, and yet
   were unhumbled; nay, they grew more arrogant and haughty, which plainly
   marked them for that utter destruction of which pride is the
   forerunner. Two instances are here given of the pride of Moab:-- (1.)
   He had conducted himself insolently towards God. He must be brought
   down with shame (v. 26), for he has magnified himself against the Lord;
   and again (v. 42), he shall be destroyed from being a people, for this
   very reason. The Moabites preferred Chemosh before Jehovah, and thought
   themselves a match for the God of Israel, whom they set at defiance.
   (2.) He had conducted himself scornfully towards Israel, particularly
   in their late troubles; therefore Moab shall fall into the same
   troubles; into the same hands, and be a derision, for Israel was a
   derision to him, v. 26, 27. The generality of the Moabites, when they
   heard of the calamities and desolations of their neighbours the Jews,
   instead of lamenting them, rejoiced in them, they skipped for joy.
   Many, in such a case, entertain in their minds a secret pleasure at the
   fall of those they had a dislike to, who yet have so much discretion as
   to conceal it; it is so invidious a thing. But the Moabites
   industriously proclaimed their joy, and avowed the enmity they had to
   Israel, triumphing over every Israelite they met with in distress and
   laughing at him, which was as inhuman as it was impious and an impudent
   affront both to man, whose nature they were of, and to God, whose name
   they were called by. Note, Those that deride others in distress will
   justly and certainly, sooner or later, come into distress themselves,
   and be had in derision. Those that are glad at calamities, especially
   the calamities of God's church, shall not long go unpunished.

   2. Besides this they had been guilty of malice against God's people,
   and treachery in their dealings with them, v. 30. They made a jest of
   the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and pretended, when they
   laughed at them, that it was but in sport and to make themselves merry;
   but, says God, "I know his wrath; I know it comes from the old enmity
   he has to the seed of Abraham and the worshippers of the true God. I
   know he thinks these calamities of the Jewish nation will end in their
   utter extirpation. He now tells the Chaldeans what bad people the Jews
   are, and irritates them against them; but it shall not be so as he
   expects; his lies shall not so effect it. The nation, whose fall they
   triumph in, shall recover itself." Some read it, I know his rage. Is it
   not so? Is he not very furious against the people of God? And his lies
   I know also. Do they not do so? Do they not belie them? Note, All the
   fury and all the falsehood of the church's enemies are perfectly known
   to God, whatever the pretenses are with which they think to cover them,
   Isa. xxxvii. 28.

   VII. It is a complicated destruction, and by one instance after another
   will at length be completed; for those that make their escape from one
   judgment shall perish by another: Fear, and the pit, and the snare,
   shall be upon them, v. 43. There shall be fear to drive them into the
   pit, and a snare to hold them fast in it when they are in it; so that
   they shall neither escape from the destruction nor escape out of it.
   What was said of sinners in general (Isa. xxiv. 17, 18), that those who
   flee from the fear shall fall into the pit and those who come up out of
   the pit shall be taken in the snare, is here particularly foretold
   concerning the sinners of Moab (v. 44); for it is the year of their
   visitation, when God comes to reckon with them, and will be known by
   the judgments which he executes, for he is the King whose name is the
   Lord of hosts (v. 15); he is not only the King who has authority to
   give judgment, but he is the Lord of hosts, who is able to do what he
   has determined. The figurative expressions used v. 44 are explained in
   one instance (v. 45): Those that fled out of the villages for fear of
   the enemy's forces put themselves under the shadow of Heshbon, stood
   there, and supposed they stood safely, as now armies sometimes retire
   under the cannon of a fortified city, and it is their protection; but
   here they should be disappointed, for, when they flee out of the pit,
   they fall into the snare; Heshbon, which they thought would shelter
   them, devours them as Moses had foretold long since (Num. xxi. 28): A
   fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the city of Sihon, and
   devours those that come from all the corners of Moab, and fastens upon
   the crown of the head of the tumultuous noisy ones, or of the
   revellers, or children of noise, not meant of the rude clamorous
   multitude, but of the great men, who bluster, and hector, and make a
   noise; the judgments of God shall light on them. Shall we hear the
   conclusion of this whole matter? We have it (v. 46): "Woe be to thee, O
   Moab! thou art undone; the people that worship Chemosh perish, and are
   gone; farewell, Moab. Thy sons and daughters, the hopes of the next
   generation, have gone into captivity after the Jews, whose calamities
   they rejoiced in."

   VIII. Yet it is not a perpetual destruction. The chapter concludes with
   a short promise of their return out of captivity in the latter days.
   God, who brings them into captivity, will bring again their captivity,
   v. 47. Thus tenderly does God deal with Moabites, much more with his
   own people! Even with Moabites he will not contend for ever, nor be
   always wrath. When Israel returned, Moab did; and perhaps the prophecy
   was intended chiefly for the encouragement of God's people to hope for
   that salvation which even Moabites shall share in. Yet it looks
   further, to gospel times; the Jews themselves refer it to the days of
   the Messiah; then the captivity of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin
   and Satan, shall be brought back by divine grace, which shall make them
   free, free indeed. This prophecy concerning Moab is long, but here it
   ends; it ends comfortably: Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. XLIX.

   The cup of trembling still goes round, and the nations must all drink
   of it, according to the instructions given to Jeremiah, ch. xxv. 15.
   This chapter puts it into the hands, I. Of the Ammonites, ver. 1-6. II.
   Of the Edomites, ver. 7-22. III. Of the Syrians, ver. 23-27. IV. Of the
   Kedarenes, and the kingdoms of Hazor, ver. 28-33. V. Of the Elamites,
   ver. 34-39. When Israel was scarcely saved where shall all these
   appear?

The Judgment of Ammonites. (b. c. 595.)

   1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord; Hath Israel no sons?
   hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people
   dwell in his cities?   2 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the
   Lord, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the
   Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be
   burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his
   heirs, saith the Lord.   3 Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye
   daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and
   fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his
   priests and his princes together.   4 Wherefore gloriest thou in the
   valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in
   her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?   5 Behold, I will bring
   a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all those that be
   about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none
   shall gather up him that wandereth.   6 And afterward I will bring
   again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the Lord.

   The Ammonites were next, both in kindred and neighbourhood, to the
   Moabites, and therefore are next set to the bar. Their country joined
   to that of the two tribes and a half, on the other side Jordan, and was
   but a bad neighbour; however, being a neighbour, they shall have a
   share in these circular predictions. 1. An action is here brought, in
   God's name, against the Ammonites, for an illegal encroachment upon the
   rightful possessions of the tribe of Gad, that lay next them, v. 1. A
   writ of enquiry is brought to discover what title they had to those
   territories, which, upon the carrying away of the Gileadites, by the
   king of Assyria (2 Kings xv. 29, 1 Chron. v. 26), were left almost
   dispeopled, at least unguarded, and an easy prey to the next invader.
   "What! Does it escheat ob defectum sanguinis--for what of an heir? Hath
   Israel no sons? Hath he no heir? Are there no Gadites left, to whom the
   right of inheritance belongs? Or, if there were not, are there no
   Israelites, none left of Judah, that are nearer akin to them than you
   are?" Why then does their king, as if he were entitled to the forfeited
   estates, or Milcom, their idol, as if he had the right to dispose of it
   to his worshippers, inherit Gad, and his people dwell in the cities
   which fell by lot to that tribe of God's people. Nay, there were sons
   and heirs of their own body, en ventre de sa mere--in their mother's
   womb, and the Ammonites, to prevent their claim, most barbarously
   murdered them (Amos i. 13): They ripped up the women with child of
   Gilead, that they might enlarge their border, that, having seized it,
   none might rise up hereafter to recover it from them. Thus they
   magnified themselves against their border and boasted it was their own,
   Zeph. ii. 8. Note, Though among men might often prevails against right,
   yet that might shall be controlled by the Almighty, who sits in the
   throne, judging right; and those will find themselves mistaken who
   think every thing their own which they can lay their hands on, or which
   none yet appears to lay claim to. As there is justice owing to owners,
   so also to their heirs, when they are dead, whom it is a great sin to
   defraud, though they either know not their right or know not how to
   come at it. This shall be reckoned for particularly, when injuries of
   this kind are done to God's people. 2. Judgment is here given against
   them for this violence. (1.) Terrors shall come upon them: God will
   cause an alarm of war to be heard, even in Rabbah, their capital city
   and a very strong one, v. 1. The Lord God of hosts, who has all armies
   at his command, will bring a fear upon them from all that be about
   them, v. 5. Note, God has many ways to terrify those who have been a
   terror to his people. (2.) Their cities shall be laid in ruins: Rabbah,
   the mother-city, shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters, the other
   cities that have a dependence upon her, and receive law from her as
   daughters, shall be burnt with fire; so that the inhabitants shall be
   forced to quit them, and they shall cry, and gird themselves with
   sackcloth, as having lost all they had, and not knowing whither to
   betake themselves. (3.) Their country, which they were so proud of,
   shall be wasted (v. 4): Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, and
   trustest in thy treasures, O backsliding daughter? They are charged
   with backsliding or turning away from God and from his worship, for
   they were the posterity of righteous Lot. It is true, they had never
   been so in covenant with God as Israel was; yet all idolaters may be
   called backsliders, for the worship of the true God was prior to that
   of false gods. They were untoward and refractory (so some read it);
   and, when they had forsaken their God, they gloried in their valleys,
   particularly one that was called the flowing valley, because it flowed
   with all good things. These they had violently taken away from Israel,
   and gloried in it when they had done so. They gloried in the strength
   of their valleys, so surrounded with mountains that they were
   inaccessible, gloried in the products of them, gloried in the treasures
   they got together out of them, saying, Who shall come unto me? While
   they bathed themselves in the pleasures of their country, they
   flattered themselves with a conceit that they should never be disturbed
   in the enjoyment of them: To-morrow shall be as this day; therefore
   they set God and his judgments at defiance; they are proud, voluptuous,
   and secure; but wherefore dost thou do so: Note, Those who backslide
   and turn away from God have little reason either to take complacency or
   to put confidence in any worldly enjoyments whatsoever, Hos. ix. 1.
   (4.) Their people, from the least to the greatest, shall be forced out
   of the country. Some shall flee to seek for shelter, others shall be
   carried into captivity, so that their land shall be quite evacuated:
   Their king and his princes, nay, and Milcom, their god, and his
   priests, shall go into captivity (v. 3), and every man shall be driven
   out right forth, shall take the next way, and make the best of it in
   his flight (v. 5), forgetting the valleys, the flowing valleys, which
   now fail them. And, to complete their misery, none shall gather up him
   that wanders, none shall open their doors to them, as Jael to Sisera,
   to entertain them; and those that flee shall be so much in care to
   secure themselves that they shall not take notice of others, no, not of
   those that are nearest to them, that wander, and are at a loss which
   way to go, as ch. xlvii. 3. (5.) Then the country of the Ammonites
   shall fall into the hands of the remaining Israelites (v. 2): Then
   shall Israel be heir to those that were his heirs, shall possess
   himself of their land who had possessed themselves of his, by way of
   reprisal. Note, The equity of divine Providence is to be acknowledged
   when the losses of the injured are recompensed out of the unjust gains
   of the injurious. Though the enemies of God's Israel may make a prey of
   them for a while, the tables will shortly be turned. 3. Yet there is a
   prospect given them of mercy hereafter (v. 6), as before to Moab. The
   day will come when the captivity of the children of Ammon will be
   brought again; for so it is in human affairs: the wheel goes round.

The Judgment of Edom. (b. c. 595.)

   7 Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Is wisdom no more in
   Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
     8 Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will
   bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.
   9 If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning
   grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
   10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and
   he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his
   brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.   11 Leave thy fatherless
   children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
   12 For thus saith the Lord; Behold, they whose judgment was not to
   drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall
   altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt
   surely drink of it.   13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord,
   that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a
   curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.   14 I
   have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent unto the
   heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up
   to the battle.   15 For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen,
   and despised among men.   16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and
   the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the
   rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make
   thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence,
   saith the Lord.   17 Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that
   goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues
   thereof.   18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
   neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there,
   neither shall a son of man dwell in it.   19 Behold, he shall come up
   like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the
   strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a
   chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who
   will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand
   before me?   20 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath
   taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the
   inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them
   out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.   21
   The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise
   thereof was heard in the Red sea.   22 Behold, he shall come up and fly
   as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall
   the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her
   pangs.

   The Edomites come next to receive their doom from God, by the mouth of
   Jeremiah: they also were old enemies to the Israel of God; but their
   day will come to be reckoned with, and it is now at hand, and is
   foretold, not only for warning to them, but for comfort to the Israel
   of God, whose afflictions were very much aggravated by their triumphs
   over them and joy in their calamity, Ps. cxxxvii. 7. Many of the
   expressions used in this prophecy concerning Edom are borrowed from the
   prophecy of Obadiah, which is concerning Edom; for, all the prophets
   being inspired by one and the same Spirit, there must needs be a
   wonderful harmony and agreement in their predictions. Now here it is
   foretold,

   I. That the country of Edom should be all wasted and made desolate,
   that the calamity of Esau should be brought upon him, the calamity he
   has deserved, and God has long designed him, for his old sins, v. 8.
   The time is at hand when God will visit him, and call him to an
   account, and then they shall flee from the sword, turn back from the
   battle, and dwell deep in some close caverns, where they shall hide
   themselves. All they have shall be carried off by the conqueror;
   whereas grape-gatherers will leave some gleanings, and even thieves
   know when they have enough and will destroy no further, those that
   destroy them shall never be satiated, (v. 9, 10); they shall make Esau
   quite bare, shall strip the Edomites of all they have, shall find out
   ways and means to come at their most hidden treasure, shall discover
   even the secret places where they thought to secure their wealth, and
   rifle them, so that they shall none of them save their wealth, no, nor
   save themselves nor their children, that might be concealed in a little
   room: He shall not be able to hide himself, and his seed too is
   spoiled. His brethren the Moabites, and his neighbours the Philistines,
   whom he might have expected succours from, or at least shelter with,
   are spoiled as well as he and disabled to do him any service. And he is
   not, or there is not he, there is none to him, none left him, that may
   say what follows (v. 11), Leave thy fatherless children, I will
   preserve them alive. When they are flying, or dying, there shall be
   none left, no relation, no friend, no, not so much as any parish
   officers to take care of their wives and children that they leave
   behind. Edom is not, he is cut off and gone; nor is there any to say,
   Leave me thy orphans. If the master of a family be cut off, or forced
   away, it is some comfort if he have a friend to leave his family with,
   whom he can confide in; but they shall have none such, for they shall
   all be involved in the same calamity. The Chaldee makes these to be the
   words of God to his people, distinguishing them from the Edomites in
   this calamity; and they read it, "But you, O house of Israel! you shall
   not leave your orphans; I will secure them, and let your widows rest on
   my word. Whatever becomes of the widows and fatherless of the Edomites,
   I will take care of yours." Note, it is an unspeakable comfort to the
   people of God, when they are dying, that they may leave their surviving
   relations with God, may, in faith, commit them to him and encourage
   them to trust in him; and, though they cannot promise themselves great
   things in the world for them, yet they may hope that he will preserve
   them alive, always, provided that they trust in him. Let the Edomites,
   for their part, count upon no other than to be made a desolation and a
   reproach; for the decree has gone forth; God hath sworn it by himself
   (v. 13), that their cities shall be wasted, nay, they shall be
   perpetual wastes, they shall be made mean and despicable; they had made
   a mighty figure, but God will make them small among the heathen; and
   those that despised God's people shall themselves be despised among men
   (v. 15, Obad. 2), nay, they shall be made monstrous, and even a prodigy
   (v. 17): Edom shall be such a desolation that every one who goes by
   shall be astonished; nay, worse yet, they shall be made a terror; Edom
   shall be made like Sodom and Gomorrah, none shall care for coming near
   the ruins of it, no man shall abide there (v. 18), such a frightful
   place shall it be made.

   II. That the instruments of this destruction should be very resolute
   and formidable. They have their commission from God; he summons them
   into this service (v. 14): I have heard a rumour, or report, from the
   Lord, heard it by the prophecy of Obadiah, heard it by a whisper to
   myself, that an ambassador, or herald, or messenger, is sent to the
   Gentiles, who are to lay Edom waste, saying, Gather you together,
   muster all the forces you can, and come against her; for (v. 20) this
   is the counsel that he hath taken against Edom. The matter is settled,
   the decree has gone forth, and there is no resisting it. God has
   determined that Edom shall be laid waste, and then he that is to be
   employed in wasting it shall come swiftly and strongly. Nebuchadnezzar
   is he or whom it is here foretold, 1. That he shall come up like a
   lion, with fierceness and fury, like a lion enraged by the swelling of
   Jordan overflowing his banks, which forces him out of his covert by the
   water-side into the higher grounds, v. 19. He shall come roaring, come
   to devour all that come in his way. He shall come against the
   habitation of the strong, the forts and castles; and I will cause him
   to come suddenly into the land (so the next words might well be read),
   so as to find them unprovided with necessaries for a defence; for I
   will look out a chosen man to appoint over her, to do this execution, a
   man fit for the purpose, one chosen out of the people; for when God has
   work to do he will find out the fittest instruments to be employed in
   doing it: "Who is like me for choosing the instruments, and spiriting
   them for the work? And who will appoint me the time? Who will challenge
   me, and fix a time and place to meet me? Who will join issue with me in
   battle? And, when I send a lion into the flock, who is that shepherd
   that can, or dare, stand before me, or against me, to oppose that lion,
   and think to rescue any of the flock?" Note, When God has work to do of
   any kind he will soon find those that are able to engage in it, and all
   the world cannot find those that are able to engage against it. Nay, if
   God will have Edom destroyed, and their peopled dislodged, there needs
   not a lion, a fierce lion to do it: Even the least of the flock shall
   draw them out (v. 20); the meanest servant in Nebuchadnezzar's retinue,
   the weakest of all that follow his camp, shall draw them out for the
   slaughter, shall force them to flee, or to surrender, and make their
   habitations desolate with them. God can bring to pass the greatest
   works by instruments least likely. When the Chaldean army comes against
   the Edomites all hands shall be employed and the poorest soldier in it
   shall have a pluck at them. 2. Nebuchadnezzar shall come, not only like
   a lion, the king of beasts, but like an eagle, the king of birds (v.
   22): He shall fly as the eagle upon his prey, so swiftly, so strongly,
   shall clap his wings upon Bozrah, to secure it for himself (as before,
   ch. xlviii. 40), and immediately the hearts of the mighty men shall
   fail them, for they shall see he is an enemy that it is in vain to
   struggle with.

   III. That the Edomites' confidences should all fail them in the day of
   their distress. 1. They trusted to their wisdom, but that shall stand
   them in no stead. This is the first thing fastened upon in this
   prophecy against Edom, v. 7. That nation used to be famous for wisdom,
   and their statesmen were thought to excel in politics; and yet now they
   shall take such wrong measures in all their counsels, and be so baffled
   in all their designs, that people shall ask, with wonder, What is the
   matter with the Edomites? Is wisdom no more in Teman? Have the wise men
   of the east country (1 Kings iv. 30) become fools? Are those at their
   wits' end that were thought to have the monopoly of prudence? Has
   counsel perished from the understanding men? It is so, when God is
   designing the ruin of a people; for whom he will destroy he infatuates.
   See Job xii. 20. Has their wisdom vanished? Is it tired? (so some); is
   it worn out? (so others); has it become useless? so others. Yes, it
   will do them no service when God comes forth to contend with them. 2.
   They trusted to their strength, but neither shall that avail them, v.
   16. They had been a terror to all their neighbours; every body feared
   them and truckled to them, and this made them proud and conceited of
   themselves and their own strength, and very secure; because no
   neighbouring nation durst meddle with them, they thought no nation in
   the world durst. Their country was much of it mountainous, having many
   passes which they thought themselves able to make good against any
   invader; but this terribleness of theirs deceived them, and so did
   their imaginary inaccessibleness; they did not prove so strong as they
   were formidable, nor so safe as they were secure. High as they are, God
   will bring them down; for, as there is no wisdom, so there is no might
   against the Lord, See these expressions, Obad. 3, 4, 8.

   IV. That their destruction should be inevitable and very remarkable. 1.
   God hath determined it (v. 12); he hath said it; nay (v. 13), he hath
   sworn it, that the Edomites shall not go unpunished, but that they
   shall drink the cup of trembling, which is put into the hands of all
   their neighbours; even those whose judgment, or doom, was not to drink
   of the cup, who had not so well deserved it as they had done, nations
   that had not been such enemies to Israel as they had been, or Israel
   itself, that was God's peculiar people, and among whom there were many,
   very many, who kept his ordinances, upon which account they might have
   expected an exemption; and yet they had been made to drink of the
   bitter cup; and shall the Edomites think to pass it? No; they shall
   surely drink of it. Note, When God punishes the less guilty it is folly
   for the more guilty to promise themselves impunity; and when judgment
   begins at God's house it will reach the strangers. 2. All the world
   shall take notice of it (v. 21): The earth is moved, and all the
   nations are put into a concern, at the noise of their fall; the news of
   it shall make them tremble. The noise of the outcry is heard to the Red
   Sea, which flowed upon the coasts of Edom. So loud shall be the shouts
   of the conquerors and the shrieks of the conquered, and such a mighty
   noise shall the news of this destruction of Idumea make in the nations,
   that is shall be heard among the ships that lie in the Red Sea to take
   in lading (1 Kings ix. 26), and then they shall carry the news of it to
   the remotest shore. Note, The fall of those who have affected to make a
   noise with their pomp and power will make so much the greater noise.

The Judgment of Damascus. (b. c. 595.)

   23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have
   heard evil tidings: they are faint hearted; there is sorrow on the sea;
   it cannot be quiet.   24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself
   to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken
   her, as a woman in travail.   25 How is the city of praise not left,
   the city of my joy!   26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her
   streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the
   Lord of hosts.   27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
   and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

   The kingdom of Syria lay north of Canaan, as that of Edom lay south,
   and thither we must now remove and take a view of the approaching fate
   of that kingdom, which had been often vexatious to the Israel of God.
   Damascus was the metropolis of that kingdom, and the ruin of the whole
   is supposed in the ruin of that: yet Hamath and Arpad, two other
   considerable cities, are names (v. 23), and the palaces of Ben-hadad,
   which he built, are particularly marked for ruin, v. 27; see also Amos
   i. 4. Some think Ben-hadad (the son of Hadad, either their idol, or one
   of their ancient kings, whence the rest descended) was a common name of
   the kings of Syria, as Pharaoh of the kings of Egypt. Now observe
   concerning the judgment of Damascus, 1. It begins with a terrible
   fright and faint-heartedness. They hear evil tidings, that the king of
   Babylon, with all his force, is coming against them, and they are
   confounded; they know not what measures to take for their own safety,
   their souls are melted, they are faint-hearted, they have no spirit
   left them, they are like the troubled sea, that cannot be quiet (Isa.
   lvii. 20), or like men in a storm at sea (Ps. xvii. 26); or the sorrow
   that begins in the city shall go to the sea-coast, v. 23. See how
   easily God can dispirit those nations that have been most celebrated
   for valour. Damascus now waxes feeble (v. 24), a city that thought she
   could look the most formidable enemy in the face now turns herself to
   flee, and owns it is to no more purpose to think of contending with her
   fate than for a woman in labour to contend with her pains, which she
   cannot escape, but must yield to. It was a city of praise (v. 25), not
   praise to God, but to herself, a city much commended and admired by all
   strangers that visited it. It was a city of joy, where there was an
   affluence and confluence of all the delights of the sons of men, and
   abundance of mirth in the enjoyment of them. We read it (though there
   is no necessity for this) the city of my joy, which the prophet himself
   had sometimes visited with pleasure. Or it may be the speech of the
   king lamenting the ruin of the city of his joy. But now it is all
   overwhelmed with fear and grief. Note, Those deceive themselves who
   place their happiness in carnal joys; for God in his providence can
   soon cast a damp upon them and put an end to them. He can soon make a
   city of praise to be a reproach and a city of joy to be a terror to
   itself. 2. It ends with a terrible fall and fire. (1.) The inhabitants
   are slain (v. 26): The young men, who should fight the enemy and defend
   the city, shall fall by the sword in her streets; and all the men of
   war, mighty men, expert in war, and engaged in the service of their
   country, shall be cut off. (2.) The city is laid in ashes (v. 27): The
   fire is kindled by the besiegers in the wall, but it shall devour all
   before it, the palaces of Ben-hadad particularly, where so much
   mischief had formerly been hatched against God's Israel, for which it
   is now thus visited.

The Judgment of Kedar. (b. c. 595.)

   28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the Lord; Arise
   ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east.   29 Their tents and
   their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their
   curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry
   unto them, Fear is on every side.   30 Flee, get you far off, dwell
   deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar
   king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a
   purpose against you.   31 Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation,
   that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates
   nor bars, which dwell alone.   32 And their camels shall be a booty,
   and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all
   winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their
   calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord.   33 And Hazor shall
   be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no
   man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

   These verses foretell the desolation that Nebuchadnezzar and his forces
   should make among the people of Kedar (who descended from Kedar the son
   of Ishmael, and inhabited a part of Arabia the Stony), and of the
   kingdoms, the petty principalities, of Hazor, that joined to them, who
   perhaps were originally Canaanites, of the kingdom of Hazor, in the
   north of Canaan, which had Jabin for its king, but, being driven
   thence, settled in the deserts of Arabia and associated themselves with
   the Kedarenes. Concerning this people we may here observe,

   I. What was their present state and posture? They dwelt in tents and
   had no walls, but curtains (v. 20), no fortified cities; they had
   neither gates nor bars, v. 31. They were shepherds, and had no
   treasures, but stock upon land, no money, but flocks and camels. They
   had no soldiers among them, for they were in no fear of invaders, no
   merchants, for they dwelt alone, v. 31. Those of other nations neither
   came among them nor traded with them; but they lived within themselves,
   content with the products and pleasures of their own country. This was
   their manner of living, very different from that of the nations that
   were round about them. And, 1. They were very rich; though they had not
   trade, no treasures, yet they are here said to be a wealthy nation (v.
   31), because they had a sufficiency to answer all the occasions of
   human life and they were content with it. Note, Those are truly rich
   who have enough to supply their necessities, and know when they have
   enough. We need not go to the treasures of kings and provinces, or to
   the cash of merchants, to look for wealthy people; they may be found
   among shepherds that dwell in tents. 2. They were very easy: They dwelt
   without care. Their wealth was such as nobody envied them, or, if any
   did, they might come peaceably and enjoy the like; and therefore they
   feared nobody. Note, Those that live innocently and honestly may live
   very securely, though they have neither gates nor bars.

   II. The design of the king of Babylon against them and the descent he
   make upon them: He has taken counsel against you and has conceived a
   purpose against you, v. 30. That proud man resolves it shall never be
   said that he, who had conquered so many strong cities, will leave those
   unconquered that dwell in tents. It was strange that that eagle should
   stoop to catch these flies, that so great a prince should play at such
   small game; but all is fish that comes to the ambitious covetous man's
   net. Note, It will not always secure men from suffering wrong to be
   able to say that they have done no wrong; not to have given offence
   will not be a defence against such men as Nebuchadnezzar. Yet, how
   unrighteous soever he was in doing it, God was righteous in directing
   it. These people had lived inoffensively among their neighbours, as
   many do, who yet, like them, are guilty before God; and it was to
   punish them for their offences against him that God said (v. 28):
   Arise, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. They will do it
   to gratify their own covetousness and ambition, but God orders it for
   the correcting of an unthankful people, and for warning to a careless
   world to expect trouble when they seem to be most safe. God says to the
   Chaldeans (v. 31): "Arise, get up to the wealthy nation that dwells
   without care; go and give them an alarm, that none may imagine their
   mountain stands so strong that it cannot be moved."

   III. The great amazement that this put them into, and the great
   desolation hereby made among them: They shall cry unto them; those on
   the borders shall send the alarm into all parts of the country, which
   shall be put into the utmost confusion by it; they shall cry, "Fear is
   on every side--We are surrounded by the enemy." the very terror of
   which shall drive them all to their feet and they shall none of them
   have any heart to make resistance. The enemy shall proclaim fear upon
   them, or against them, on every side. They need not strike a stroke;
   they shall shout them out of their tents, v. 29. Upon the first alarm,
   they shall flee, get far off, and dwell deep (v. 30), as the Edomites,
   v. 8. And it will be found that this fear on every side is not
   groundless, for their calamity shall be brought from all sides thereof,
   v. 31. No marvel there are fears on every side when there are foes on
   every side. The issue will be, 1. What they have will be a prey to the
   Chaldeans; they shall take to themselves their curtains and vessels;
   though they are but plain and coarse, and they have better of their
   own, yet they shall take them for spite, and spoil for spoiling sake.
   They shall carry away their tents and their flocks, v. 29. Their camels
   shall be a booty to those that came for nothing else, v. 31. 2. It is
   not said that any of them shall be slain, for they attempt not to make
   any resistance and their tents and flocks are accepted as a ransom for
   their lives; but they shall be dislodged and dispersed; though now they
   dwell in the utmost corners, out of the way, and therefore they think
   out of the reach, of danger (by this character those people were
   distinguished, ch. ix. 26, 25, 23), yet they shall be scattered thence
   into all winds, into all parts of the world. Note, Privacy and
   obscurity are not always a protection and security. Many that affect to
   be strangers to the world may yet by unthought-of providences be forced
   into it; and those that live most retired may have the same lot with
   those that thrust themselves forth and lie most exposed. 3. Their
   country shall lie uninhabited; for, lying remote and out of all high
   roads, and having neither cities nor lands inviting to strangers, none
   shall care to succeed them, so that Hazor shall be a desolation for
   ever, v. 33. If busy men be displaced, many strive to get into their
   placed, because they lived great; but here are easy quiet men
   displaced, and no man cared to abide where they did, because they lived
   meanly.

The Judgment of Elam. (b. c. 595.)

   34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam
   in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,   35
   Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the
   chief of their might.   36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds
   from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all
   those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam
   shall not come.   37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their
   enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil
   upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the
   sword after them, till I have consumed them:   38 And I will set my
   throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes,
   saith the Lord.   39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that
   I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord.

   This prophecy is dated in the beginning of Zedekiah's reign; it is
   probable that the other prophecies against the Gentiles, going before,
   were at the same time. The Elamites were the Persians, descended from
   Elam the son of Shem (Gen. x. 22); yet some think it was only that part
   of Persia which lay nearest to the Jews which was called Elymais, and
   adjoined to Media-Elam, which, say they, had acted against God's
   Israel, bore the quiver in an expedition against them (Isa. xxii. 6),
   and therefore must be reckoned with among the rest. It is here
   foretold, in general, that God will bring evil upon them, even his
   fierce anger, and that is evil enough, it has all evil in it, v. 37. In
   particular, 1. Their forces shall be disabled, and rendered incapable
   of doing them any service. The Elamites were famous archers, but,
   Behold, I will break the bow of Elam (v. 35), will ruin their
   artillery, and then the chief of their might is gone. God often orders
   it so that that which we most trust to first fails us, and that which
   was the chief of our might proves the least of our help. 2. Their
   people shall be dispersed. There shall come enemies against them from
   all parts of the world, and they shall all carry some of them away
   captive into their respective countries; while others shall flee, some
   one way and some another, to shift for themselves, so that there shall
   be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come, v. 36. The
   four winds shall be brought upon them; the storm shall come sometimes
   from one point and sometimes from another, to toss and hurry them
   several ways. We know not from what point the wind of trouble may blow;
   but, if God encompass us with his favour, we are safe, and may be easy,
   which way soever the storm comes. Fear shall drive them into other
   countries; they shall be dismayed before their enemies; but, as if that
   were not enough, I will send the sword after them, v. 37. Note, God can
   make his judgments follow those that think by flight to escape them and
   to get out of the reach of them. Evil pursues sinners. 3. Their princes
   shall be destroyed and the government quite changed (v. 38): I will set
   my throne in Elam. The throne of Nebuchadnezzar shall be set there, or
   the throne of Cyrus, who began his conquests with Elymais. Or it may be
   meant of the throne on which God sits for judgment; he will make them
   know that he reigns, that he judges in the earth, that kings and
   princes are accountable to him, and that high as they are he is above
   them. The king of Elam was famous of old, Gen. xiv. 1. Chedorlaomer was
   king of Elam, and a mighty man he was in his day; the nations about him
   served him; his successors, we may suppose, made a great figure; but
   the king of Elam is no more to God than another man. When God sets his
   throne in Elam he will destroy thence the king and the princes that
   are, and set up whom he pleases. 4. Yet the destruction of Elam shall
   not be perpetual (v. 39): In the latter days I will bring again the
   captivity of Elam. When Cyrus had destroyed Babylon, brought the empire
   into the hands of the Persians, the Elamites no doubt returned in
   triumph out of all the countries whither they were scattered, and
   settled again in their own country. But this promise was to have its
   full and principal accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, when we
   find Elamites particularly among those who, when the Holy Ghost was
   given, heard spoken in their own tongues the wonderful works of God
   (Acts ii. 9, 11), and that is the most desirable return of the
   captivity. If the Son make you free, then you shall be free indeed.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. L.

   In this chapter, and that which follows, we have the judgment of
   Babylon, which is put last of Jeremiah's prophecies against the
   Gentiles because it was last accomplished; and when the cup of God's
   fury went round ( ch.25:17) the king of Sheshach, Babylon, drank last.
   Babylon was employed as the rod in God's hand for the chastising of all
   the other nations, and now at length that rod shall be thrown into the
   fire. The destruction of Babylon by Cyrus was foretold, long before it
   came to its height, by Isaiah, and now again, when it has come to its
   height, by Jeremiah; for, though at this time he saw that kingdom
   flourishing "like a green bay-tree," yet at the same time he foresaw it
   withered and cut down. And as Isaiah's prophecies of the destruction of
   Babylon and the deliverance of Israel out of it seem designed to typify
   the evangelical triumphs of all believers over the powers of darkness,
   and the great salvation wrought out by our Lord Jesus Christ, so
   Jeremiah's prophecies of the same events seem designed to point at the
   apocalyptic triumphs of the gospel church in the latter days over the
   New-Testament Babylon, many passages in the Revelation being borrowed
   hence. The kingdom of Babylon being much larger and stronger than any
   of the kingdoms here prophesied against, its fall was the more
   considerable in itself; and, it having been more oppressive to the
   people of God than any of the other, the prophet is very copious upon
   this subject, for the comfort of the captives; and what was foretold in
   general often before (ch. xxv. 12 and xxvii. 7) is here more
   particularly described, and with a great deal of prophetic heat as well
   as light. The terrible judgments God had in store for Babylon, and the
   glorious blessings he had in store for his people that were captives
   there, are intermixed and counterchanged in the prophecy of this
   chapter; for Babylon was destroyed to make way for the turning again of
   the captivity of God's people. Here is, I. The ruin of Babylon, ver.
   1-3, 9-16, 21-32, and 35-46. II. The redemption of God's people, ver.
   4-8, 17-20, and 33, 34. And these being set the one against the other,
   it is easy to say which one would choose to take one's lot with, the
   persecuting Babylonians, who, though now in pomp, are reserved for so
   great a ruin, or the persecuted Israelites, who, though now in
   thraldom, are reserved for so great a glory.

The Judgment of Babylon. (b. c. 595.)

   1 The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of
   the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.   2 Declare ye among the
   nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not:
   say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces;
   her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.   3 For out
   of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her
   land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they
   shall depart, both man and beast.   4 In those days, and in that time,
   saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the
   children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek
   the Lord their God.   5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces
   thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a
   perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.   6 My people hath been
   lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have
   turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to
   hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.   7 All that found them
   have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because
   they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the
   Lord, the hope of their fathers.   8 Remove out of the midst of
   Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the
   he goats before the flocks.

   I. Here is a word spoken against Babylon by him whose works all agree
   with his word and none of whose words fall to the ground. The king of
   Babylon had been very kind of Jeremiah, and yet he must foretel the
   ruin of that kingdom; for God's prophets must not be governed by favour
   or affection. Whoever are our friends, if, notwithstanding, they are
   God's enemies, we dare not speak peace to them. 1. The destruction of
   Babylon is here spoken of as a thing done, v. 2. let it be published to
   the nations as a piece of news, true news, and great news, and news
   they are all concerned in; let them hang out the flag, as is usual on
   days of triumph, to give notice of it; let all the world take notice of
   it: Babylon is taken. Let God have the honour of it, let his people
   have the comfort of it, and therefore do not conceal it. Take care that
   it be known, that the Lord may be known by those judgments which he
   executes, Ps. ix. 16. 2. It is spoken of as a thing done thoroughly.
   For, (1.) The very idols of Babylon, which the people would protect
   with all possible care, and from which they expected protection, shall
   be destroyed. Bel and Merodach were their two principal deities; they
   shall be confounded, and the images of them broken to pieces. (2.) The
   country shall be laid waste (v. 3) out of the north, from Media, which
   lay north of Babylon, and from Assyria, through which Cyrus made his
   descent upon Babylon; thence the nation shall come that shall make her
   land desolate. Their land was north of the countries that they
   destroyed, who were therefore threatened with evil from the north (Omne
   malum ab aquilone--Every evil comes from the north); but God will find
   out nations yet further north to come upon them. The pomp and power of
   old Rome were brought down by northern nations, the Goths and Vandals.

   II. Here is a word spoken for the people of God, and for their comfort,
   both the children of Israel and of Judah; for many there were of the
   ten tribes that associated with those of the two tribes in their return
   out of Babylon. Now here,

   1. It is promised that they shall return to their God first and then to
   their own land; and the promise of their conversion and reformation is
   that which makes way for all the other promises, v. 4, 5. (1.) They
   shall lament after the Lord (as the whole house of Israel did in
   Samuel's time, 1 Sam. vii. 2); they shall go weeping. These tears flow
   not from the sorrow of the world as those when they went into
   captivity, but from godly sorrow; they are tears of repentance for sin,
   tears of joy for the goodness of God, in the dawning of the day of
   their deliverance, which, for aught that appears, does more towards the
   bringing of them to mourn for sin than all the calamities of their
   captivity; that prevails to lead them to repentance when the other did
   not prevail to drive them to it. Note, It is a good sign that God is
   coming towards a people in ways of mercy when they begin to be tenderly
   affected under his hand. (2.) They shall enquire after the Lord; they
   shall not sink under their sorrows, but bestir themselves to find out
   comfort where it is to be had: They shall go weeping to seek the Lord
   their God. Those that seek the Lord must seek him sorrowing, as
   Christ's parents sought him, Luke ii. 48. And those that sorrow must
   seek the Lord, and then their sorrow shall soon be turned into joy, for
   he will be found of those that so seek him. They shall seek the Lord as
   their God, and shall now have no more to do with idols. When they shall
   hear that the idols of Babylon are confounded and broken it will be
   seasonable for them to enquire after their own God and to return to him
   who lives for ever. Therefore men are deceived in false gods, that they
   may depend on the true God only. (3.) They shall think of returning to
   their own country again; they shall think of it not only as a mercy,
   but as a duty, because there only is the holy hill of Zion, on which
   once stood the house of the Lord their God (v. 5): They shall ask the
   way to Zion with their faces thitherward. Zion was the city of their
   solemnities; they often thought of it in the depth of their captivity
   (Ps. cxxxvii. 1); but, now that the ruin of Babylon gave them some
   hopes of a release, they talk of nothing else but of going back to
   Zion. Their hearts were upon it before, and now they set their faces
   thitherward. They long to be there; they set out for Zion, and resolve
   not to take up short of it. The journey is long and they know not the
   road, but they will ask the way, for they will press forward till they
   come to Zion; and, as they are determined not to turn back, so they are
   in care not to miss the way. This represents the return of poor souls
   to God. Heaven is the Zion they aim at as their end; on this they have
   set their hearts; towards this they have set their faces, and therefore
   they ask the way thither. They do not ask the way to heaven and set
   their faces towards the world; nor set their faces towards heaven and
   go on at a venture without asking the way. But in all true converts
   there are both a sincere desire to attain the end and a constant care
   to keep in the way; and a blessed sight it is to see people thus asking
   the way to heaven with their faces thitherward. (4.) They shall renew
   their covenant to walk with God more closely for the future: Come, and
   let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. They had
   broken covenant with God, had in effect separated themselves from him,
   but now they resolve to join themselves to him again, by engaging
   themselves afresh to be his. Thus, when backsliders return, they must
   do their first works, must renew the covenant they first made; and it
   must be a perpetual covenant, that must never be broken; and, in order
   to that, must never be forgotten; for a due remembrance of it will be
   the means of a due observance of it.

   2. Their present case is lamented as very sad, and as having been long
   so: "My people" (for he owns them as his now that they are returning to
   him) "have been lost sheep (v. 6); they have gone from mountain to
   hill, have been hurried from place to place, and could find no pasture;
   they have forgotten their resting-place in their own country and cannot
   find their way to it." And that which aggravated their misery was, (1.)
   That they were led astray by their own shepherds, their own princes and
   priests; they turned them from their duty, and so provoked God to turn
   them out of their own land. It is bad with a people when their leaders
   cause them to err, when those that should direct them, and when those
   that should secure and advance their interests are the betrayers of
   them. (2.) That in their wanderings they lay exposed to the beasts of
   prey, who thought they were entitled to them, as waifs and strays that
   had no owner (v. 7); it is with them as with wandering sheep, all that
   found them have devoured them and made a prey of them; and when they
   did them the greatest injuries they laughed at them, telling them it
   was what their own prophets had many a time told them they deserved;
   that was far from justifying those who did them wrong, yet they
   bantered them with this excuse, We offend not, because they have sinned
   against the Lord; but they could not pretend that they had sinned
   against them. And see what notion they had of the Lord they had sinned
   against, not as the only true and living God, but only as the
   habitation of justice and the hope of their fathers; they had put a
   contempt upon the temple and upon the tradition of their ancestors, and
   therefore deserved to suffer these hard things. And yet it was indeed
   an aggravation of their sin, and justified God, though it did not
   justify their adversaries in what was done to them, that they had
   forsaken the habitation of justice and him that was the hope of their
   fathers.

   3. They are called upon to hasten away, as soon as ever the door of
   liberty was opened to them (v. 8): "Remove, not only out of the
   borders, but out of the midst of Babylon; though you be ever so well
   seated there, think not to settle there, but hasten to Zion, and be as
   the he-goats before the flocks; strive which shall be foremost, which
   shall lead in so good a work:" a he-goat is comely in going (Prov. xxx.
   31) because he goes first. It is a graceful thing to be forward in a
   good work and to set others a good example.

The Judgment of Babylon. (b. c. 595.)

   9 For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an
   assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set
   themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their
   arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
   10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied,
   saith the Lord.   11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye
   destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at
   grass, and bellow as bulls;   12 Your mother shall be sore confounded;
   she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the
   nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.   13 Because
   of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be
   wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished,
   and hiss at all her plagues.   14 Put yourselves in array against
   Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no
   arrows: for she hath sinned against the Lord.   15 Shout against her
   round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her
   walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take
   vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.   16 Cut off the
   sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of
   harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to
   his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.   17 Israel
   is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of
   Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon
   hath broken his bones.   18 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
   God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
   as I have punished the king of Assyria.   19 And I will bring Israel
   again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and
   his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.   20 In
   those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
   shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah,
   and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

   God is here by his prophet, as afterwards in his providence, proceeding
   in his controversy with Babylon. Observe,

   I. The commission and charge given to the instruments that were to be
   employed in destroying Babylon. The army that is to do it is called an
   assembly of great nations (v. 9), the Medes and Persians, and all their
   allies and auxiliaries; it is called an assembly, because regularly
   formed by the divine will and counsel to do this execution. God will
   raise them up to do it, will incline them to and fit them for this
   service, and then he will cause them to come up, for all their motions
   are under his conduct and direction: he shall give the word of command,
   shall order them to put themselves in array against Babylon (v. 14),
   and then they shall put themselves in array (v. 9), for what God
   appoints to be done shall be done; and thence she shall be quickly
   taken; from their first sitting down before it they shall be still
   gaining ground against it till it be taken. God shall bid them shoot at
   her and spare no arrows (v. 14), and then their arrows shall be as of a
   mighty expert man, that has both skill and strength, a good eye and a
   good hand (v. 9); none shall return in vain. When God gives commission
   he will give success. Nay, they are bidden not only to shoot at her (v.
   14), but to shout against her (v. 15) with a triumphant shout, as those
   that are already sure of victory. Those whom God directs to shoot may
   do so with shouting, for they are sure not to miss the mark.

   II. The desolation and destruction itself that shall be brought upon
   Babylon. This is here set forth in a great variety of expressions. 1.
   The wealth of Babylon shall be a rich and easy prey to the conquerors
   (v. 10): Chaldea shall be a spoil to all her destroyers, who shall
   enrich themselves by plundering her, and, which is strange, all that
   spoil her shall be satisfied; they shall have so much that even they
   themselves shall say that they have enough. 2. The country of Babylon
   shall be depopulated and lie uninhabited: It shall be wholly desolate
   (v. 13) to such a degree that every one who goes by shall triumph in
   her fall, and, instead of condoling with them, shall hiss at all her
   plagues, v. 13. 3. Their ancestors shall be ashamed of their cowardice,
   in fleeing from the first onset (v. 12), or, Your mother, Babylon
   itself, the mother-city, shall be confounded, when she sees herself
   deserted by those that should have been her guards. Thus the former
   ages of Christians may justly be confounded and ashamed to see how
   unlike them the latter ages are, and how wretchedly they have
   degenerated; and no sin brings a surer and sorer ruin upon persons, or
   people, than apostasy. 4. The great admirers of Babylon shall see it
   rendered very despicable: the last of kingdoms, the very tail of the
   nations, shall it be, a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, v. 11. The
   country that was populous shall be dispeopled, that was enriched with a
   fertile soil shall become barren. 5. The great city, the head of it,
   shall be quite ruined. Her foundations have fallen, and therefore her
   walls are thrown down; for how can the walls stand when divine
   vengeance is at the door and shakes the very foundations? It is the
   vengeance of the Lord, which nothing can contend with either in law or
   battle. 6. There shall not be left in Babylon so much as the poor of
   the land, for vine-dressers and husbandmen, as there was in Israel (v.
   16): The sower shall be cut off from Babylon, and he that handles the
   sickle; the country shall be so emptied of people that there shall be
   none to till the ground and gather in the fruits of it. Harvest shall
   come, and there shall be no reapers; seed-time shall come, but there
   shall be no sower; God will do his part, but there shall be no men to
   do theirs. 7. All their auxiliary forces, which they have hired into
   their service, shall desert them, as mercenary men often do upon the
   approach of danger (v. 16): For fear of the oppressing sword they shall
   turn every one to his people. This was threatened before concerning
   Egypt, ch. xlvi. 16.

   III. The procuring provoking cause of this destruction. It comes from
   God's displeasure; it is because of the wrath of the Lord that Babylon
   shall be wholly desolate (v. 13), and his wrath is righteous, for (v.
   14) she hath sinned against the Lord, therefore spare no arrows. Note,
   It is sin that makes men a mark for the arrows of God's judgments. An
   abundance of idolatry and immorality was to be found in Babylon, yet
   those are not mentioned as the reason of God's displeasure against
   them, but the injuries they had done to the people of God, from a
   principle of enmity to them as his people. They have been the
   destroyers of God's heritage (v. 11); herein indeed God made use of
   them for the necessary correction of his people, and yet it is laid to
   their charge as a heinous crime, because they designed nothing but
   their utter destruction. 1. What they did against Jerusalem they did
   with pleasure (v. 11): You were glad, you rejoice. God does not afflict
   his people willingly, and therefore takes it very ill if the
   instruments he employs afflict them willingly. When Titus Vespasian
   destroyed Jerusalem he wept over it, but these Chaldeans triumphed over
   it. 2. The spoils of Jerusalem they made use of to feed their own
   luxury: "You have grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as
   bulls; your having conquered Jerusalem has made you very wanton and
   proud, easy to yourselves and formidable to all about you, and
   therefore you must be a spoil." Those that have thus swallowed down
   riches must vomit them up again. Therefore they have given their hand
   (v. 15); they have surrendered themselves to the conqueror, have tamely
   yielded so that now you may take vengeance on her, now you may make
   reprisals and do unto her as she hath done. 3. They aimed at nothing
   less than the utter ruin of God's Israel: Israel is a scattered sheep,
   as before (v. 6), that is not only barked at and worried by dogs, but
   even lions, the most potent adversaries, have roared upon him and
   driven him away, v. 17. One king of Assyria carried the ten tribes
   quite away and devoured them; another invaded Judah, and plundered and
   impoverished it, tore the fleece and flesh of this poor sheep; and now
   at last this Nebuchadnezzar, that is the terror and plague of all his
   neighbours, has taken advantage of the low condition to which he is
   reduced, and he has fallen upon him and broken his bones, has quite
   ruined him, and therefore the king of Babylon must be punished as the
   king of Assyria was, v. 18. Note, Those who pursue and prosecute the
   sins of their predecessors must expect to be pursued and prosecuted by
   their plagues; if they do as they did, let them fare as they fared.

   IV. The mercy promised to the Israel of God, which shall not only
   accompany, but accrue from, the destruction of Babylon. 1. God will
   return their captivity; they shall be released out of their bondage,
   and brought again to their own habitation as sheep that were scattered
   to their own fold v. 19. They still retained a title to the land of
   Canaan; it is their habitation still. The discontinuance of their
   possession was not the destruction of their right. But now they shall
   recover the enjoyment of it again. 2. He will restore their prosperity;
   they shall not only live, but live comfortably, in their own land
   again; they shall feed upon Carmel and Bashan, the richest and most
   fruitful parts of the country. These sheep shall be gathered from the
   deserts to which they were dispersed, and put again into good pasture,
   which their soul shall be satisfied with though they shall come hungry
   to it, having been so long stinted, and straitened, and kept short, yet
   they shall find enough to satiate them and shall have hearts to be
   satiated with it. They enquired the way to Zion (v. 5), where God was
   to be served and worshipped. This was what they chiefly aimed at in
   their return; but God will not only bring them thither, but bring them
   also to Carmel and Bashan, where they shall abundantly feed themselves.
   Note, Those that return to God and their duty shall find true
   satisfaction of soul in so doing; and those that seek first the kingdom
   of God and the righteousness thereof, that aim to make their habitation
   in Zion, the holy hill, shall have other things added to them, even all
   the comforts of Ephraim and Gilead, the fruitful hills. 3. God will
   pardon their iniquity; this is the root of all the rest (v. 20): In
   those days the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
   be none. Not only the punishments of their iniquity shall be taken off,
   but the offence which it gave to God shall be forgotten, and he will be
   reconciled to them. Their sin shall be before him as if it had never
   been; it shall be blotted out as a cloud, crossed out as a debt, shall
   be cast behind his back; nay, it shall be cast into the depth of the
   sea, shall be no longer sealed up among God's treasures, nor in any
   danger of appearing again or rising up against them. This denotes how
   fully God forgives sin; he remembers it no more. Note, Deliverances out
   of trouble are then comforts indeed when they are the fruits of the
   forgiveness of sin, Isa. xxxviii. 17. Judah and Israel were so fully
   forgiven when they were brought back out of Babylon that they are said
   to have received of the Lord's hand double for all their sins, Isa. xl.
   1. This may include also a thorough reformation of their hearts and
   lives, as well as a full remission of their sins. If any seek for idols
   or any idolatrous customs among them, after their return, there shall
   be none, they shall not find them; their dross shall be purely purged
   away, and by that it shall appear that their guilt is so; for I will
   pardon those whom I reserve; I will be propitious to them (so the word
   is) and that must be through him who is the great propitiation. Note,
   Those whose sins God pardons he reserves for something very great; for
   whom he justifies them he glorifies.

The Judgment of Babylon. (b. c. 595.)

   21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against
   the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith
   the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.   22 A
   sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.   23 How is
   the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon
   become a desolation among the nations!   24 I have laid a snare for
   thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou
   art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord.
     25 The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the
   weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of
   hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.   26 Come against her from the
   utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy
   her utterly: let nothing of her be left.   27 Slay all her bullocks;
   let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is
   come, the time of their visitation.   28 The voice of them that flee
   and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance
   of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple.   29 Call together
   the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it
   round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her
   work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath
   been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.   30
   Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of
   war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord.   31 Behold, I am
   against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts: for thy
   day is come, the time that I will visit thee.   32 And the most proud
   shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle
   a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.

   Here, 1. The forces are mustered and commissioned to destroy Babylon,
   and every thing is got ready for a descent upon that potent kingdom: Go
   up against that land by Merathaim, the country of the Mardi, that lay
   part in Assyria and part in Armenia; and go among the inhabitants of
   Pekod, another country (mentioned Ezek. xxiii. 23) which Cyrus took in
   his way to Babylon. The forces of Cyrus are called to go up against
   Babylon (v. 21), to come against her from the utmost border. Let all
   come together, for there will be both work and pay enough for them all,
   v. 26. Distance of place must not be their hindrance from engaging in
   this work. The archers particularly must be called together against
   Babylon, v. 29. Thus the Lord hath opened his armoury (v. 25), his
   treasury (so the word is), and hath brought forth the weapons of his
   indignation, as great princes fetch out of their magazines and stores
   all necessary provisions for their armies when they undertake any great
   expedition. Media and Persia are now God's armoury; thence he fetches
   the weapons of his wrath, Cyrus and his great officers and armies, whom
   he will make use of for the destruction of Babylon. Note, Great men are
   but instruments which the great God makes use of to serve his own
   purposes. He has variety of instruments, has them at command, has
   armouries ready to be opened according as the occasion is. This is the
   work of the Lord God of hosts. Note, When God has work to do he will
   make it appear that he is God of hosts, and will not want instruments
   to do it with. 2. Instructions are given them what to do. In general,
   Do according to all that I have commanded thee, v. 21. It was said of
   Cyrus (Isa. xliv. 28), He shall perform all my pleasure, in his
   expedition against Babylon. They must waste and utterly destroy after
   them; when they have destroyed once they must go over them again, or
   destroy their posterity that should come after them. They must open her
   store-houses (v. 26), rifle her treasures, and turn her artillery
   against herself. They must cast her up as heaps; let all the wealth and
   pomp of Babylon be shovelled up in a heap of ruins and rubbish. Tread
   her down as heaps (so the margin reads it) and destroy her utterly. See
   how little account the great God makes of those things which men so
   much value and value themselves so much upon. Their princes and great
   men, who are fat and bulky, shall fall by the sword, not as men of war
   in the field of battle, which we call a bed of honour, but as beasts by
   the butcher's hand (v. 27): Slay all her bullocks, all her mighty men;
   let them go down sottishly and insensibly, as an ox to the slaughter.
   Woe unto them! their case is the more sad for the little sense they
   have of it. Their day has come to fall, the time when they must be
   reckoned with, and they are not aware of it. 3. Assurances are given
   them of success. Let them do what God commands, and they shall
   accomplish what he threatens. A great destruction shall be made, v. 21.
   Babylon shall become a desolation (v. 23); her young men and all her
   men of war shall be cut off in that day which should have been her
   defence, v. 30. God is against her (v. 31); he has laid a snare for her
   (v. 24); he has formed this enterprise against her, that she should be
   surprised as a bird taken in a snare. Cyrus shall no doubt prevail, for
   he fights under God. God will kindle a fire in the cities of Babylon
   (v. 32); and who can stand before him when he is angry, or quench the
   fire that he has kindled? 4. Reasons are given for these severe
   dealings with Babylon. Those that are employed in this war may, if they
   please, know the grounds of it, and be satisfied in the justice of it,
   which it is fit all should be that are called to such work. (1.)
   Babylon has been very troublesome, vexatious, and injurious, to all its
   neighbours; it has been the hammer of the whole earth (v. 23), beating,
   beating down, and beating to pieces, all the nations far and near. It
   has done so long enough; it is time now that it be cut asunder and
   broken. Note, He that is the god of nations will sooner or later assert
   the injured rights of nations against those that unjustly and violently
   invade them. The God of the whole earth will break the hammer of the
   whole earth. (2.) Babylon has bidden defiance to God himself: Thou has
   striven against the Lord (v. 24), hast joined issue with him (so the
   word signifies) as in law or battle, hast openly opposed him, set up
   rivals with him, raised rebellion against him; therefore thou art now
   found, and caught, as in a snare. Note, Those that strive against the
   Lord will soon find themselves over-matched. (3.) Babylon ruined
   Jerusalem, the holy city, and the holy house there, and must now be
   called to an account for that. This is the manifesto published in Zion,
   in the day of Babylon's visitation; it is the vengeance of the Lord our
   God, the vengeance of his temple, v. 28. The burning of the temple, and
   the carrying away of its vessels, were articles in the charge against
   Babylon on which greater stress was laid than upon its being the hammer
   of the whole earth; for Zion was the joy and glory of the whole earth.
   Note, Whatever wrong is done to God's church (his temple in the world)
   it will certainly be reckoned for; and no vengeance will be sorer nor
   heavier than the vengeance of the temple. (4.) Babylon has been very
   haughty and insolent, and therefore must have a fall; for it is the
   glory of God to look upon those that are proud and to abase them, Job
   xl. 11. I am against thee, O thou most proud! v. 31 and again v. 31.
   Thou pride (so the word is), as proud as pride itself. Note, the pride
   of men's hearts sets God against them and ripens them apace for ruin;
   for God resists the proud and will bring them down. The most proud
   shall stumble and fall; they shall fall not so much by others'
   thrusting them down as by their own stumbling; for they hold their
   heads so high that they never look under their feet, to choose their
   way and avoid stumbling-blocks, but walk at all adventures. Babylon's
   pride must unavoidably be her ruin; for she has been proud against the
   Lord, against the Holy One of Israel (v. 29), has insulted him in
   insulting over his people; she has made him her enemy, and therefore,
   when she has fallen, none shall raise her up, v. 31. Who can help those
   up whom God will throw down?

The Judgment of Babylon. (b. c. 595.)

   33 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the
   children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them
   captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.   34 Their
   Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he shall thoroughly
   plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the
   inhabitants of Babylon.   35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the
   Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and
   upon her wise men.   36 A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote:
   a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.   37 A
   sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the
   mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as
   women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.   38 A
   drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the
   land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.   39
   Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the
   islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it
   shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from
   generation to generation.   40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and
   the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord; so shall no man abide
   there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.   41 Behold, a
   people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings
   shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.   42 They shall hold
   the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their
   voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every
   one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of
   Babylon.   43 The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and
   his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a
   woman in travail.   44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the
   swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make
   them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may
   appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time?
   and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?   45 Therefore hear
   ye the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his
   purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
   Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make
   their habitation desolate with them.   46 At the noise of the taking of
   Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

   We have in these verses,

   I. Israel's sufferings, and their deliverance out of those sufferings.
   God takes notice of the bondage of his people in Babylon, as he did of
   their bondage in Egypt; he has surely seen it, and has heard their cry.
   Israel and Judah were oppressed together, v. 33. Those that remained of
   the captives of the ten tribes, upon the uniting of the kingdoms of
   Assyria and Chaldea, seem to have come and mingled with those of the
   two tribes, and to have mingled tears with them, so that they were
   oppressed together. They were humble suppliants for their liberty, and
   that was all; they could not attempt any thing towards it, for all that
   took them captives held them fast, and were much too hard for them. But
   this is their comfort in distress, that, though they are weak, their
   Redeemer is strong (v. 34), their Avenger (so the word signifies), he
   that has a right to them, and will claim his right and make good his
   claim. He is stronger than their enemies that hold them fast; he can
   overpower all the force that is against them, and put strength into his
   own people though they are very weak. The Lord of hosts is his name,
   and he will answer to his name, and make it to appear that he is what
   his people call him, and will be that to them for which they depend
   upon him. Note, It is the unspeakable comfort of the people of God
   that, though they have hosts against them, they have the Lord of hosts
   for them and he shall thoroughly plead their cause, pleading he shall
   plead it, plead it with jealousy, plead it effectually, plead it and
   carry it, that he may give rest to the land, and to his people's land,
   rest from all their enemies round about. This is applicable to all
   believers, who complain of the dominion of sin and corruption, and of
   their own weakness and manifold infirmities. Let them know that their
   Redeemer is strong; he is able to keep what they commit to him, and he
   will plead their cause. Sin shall not have dominion over them; he will
   make them free, and they shall be free indeed; he will give them rest,
   that rest which remains for the people of God.

   II. Babylon's sin, and their punishment for that sin.

   1. The sins they are here charged with are idolatry and persecution.
   (1.) They oppressed the people of God; they held them fast, and would
   not let them go. They opened not the house of his prisoners, Isa. xiv.
   17. This was God's quarrel with them, as of old with Pharaoh; it cost
   him dear, and yet they would not take warning. The inhabitants of
   Babylon must be disquieted (v. 34) because they have disquieted God's
   people, whose honour and comfort he is jealous for, and therefore will
   recompense tribulation to those that trouble them, as well as rest to
   those that are troubled, 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. (2.) They wronged God
   himself, and robbed him, giving that glory to others which is due to
   him alone; for (v. 38) it is the land of graven images. All parts of
   the country abounded with idols, and they were mad upon them, were in
   love with them and doted on them, cared not what cost and pains they
   were at in the worship of them, were unwearied in paying their respects
   to them; and in all this they were wretchedly infatuated and acted like
   men out of their wits; they were carried on in their idolatry without
   reason or discretion, like men in a perfect fury. The word here used
   for idols properly signifies terrors--Enim, the name given to giants
   that were formidable, because they made the images of their gods to
   look frightful, to strike a terror upon fools and children. Their idols
   were scarecrows, yet they doted on them. Babylon was the mother of
   harlots (Rev. xvii. 5), the source of idolatry. Note, It is the maddest
   thing in the world to make a god of any creature; and those who are
   proud against the Lord, the true God, are justly given up to strong
   delusions, to be mad upon idols that cannot profit. But this madness is
   wickedness, for which sinners will be certainly and severely reckoned
   with.

   2. The judgments of God upon them for these sins are such as will quite
   lay them waste and ruin them.

   (1.) All that should be their defence and support shall be cut off by
   the sword. The Chaldeans had long been God's sword, wherewith he had
   done execution upon the sinful nations round about: but now, they being
   as bad as any of them, or worse, a sword is brought upon them, even
   upon the inhabitants of Babylon (v. 35), a sword of war; and, as it is
   in God's hand, sent and directed by him, it is a sword of justice. It
   shall be, [1.] Upon their princes; they shall fall by it, and their
   dignity, wealth, and power, shall not secure them. [2.] Upon their wise
   men, their philosophers, their statesmen, and privy-counsellors; their
   learning and policy shall neither secure them nor stand the public in
   any stead. [3.] Upon their soothsayers and astrologers, here called the
   liars (v. 36), for they cheated with their prognostications of peace
   and prosperity; the sword upon them shall make them dote, so that they
   shall talk like fools, and be as men that have lost all their wits.
   Note, God has a sword that can reach the soul and affect the mind, and
   bring men under spiritual plagues. [4.] Upon their mighty men. A sword
   shall be upon their spirits; if they are not slain, yet they shall be
   dismayed, and shall be no longer mighty men; for what stead will their
   hands stand them in when their hearts fail them? [5.] Upon their
   militia (v. 37): The sword shall be upon their horses and chariots; the
   invaders shall make themselves masters of all their warlike stores,
   shall seize their horses and chariots for themselves, or destroy them.
   The troops of other nations that were in their service shall be quite
   disheartened: The mingled people shall become as weak and timorous as
   women. [6.] Upon their exchequer: The sword shall be upon her
   treasures, which are the sinews of war, and they shall be robbed, and
   made use of by the enemy against them. See what universal destruction
   the sword makes when it comes with commission.

   (2.) The country shall be made desolate (v. 38): The waters shall be
   dried up, the water that secures the city. Cyrus drew the river
   Euphrates into so many channels as made it passable for his army, so
   that they got with ease to the walls of Babylon, which, if was thought,
   that river had rendered inaccessible. "The water likewise that made the
   country fruitful shall be dried up, so that it shall be turned into
   barrenness, and shall be no more inhabited by the children of men, but
   by the wild beasts of the desert," v. 39. This was foretold concerning
   Babylon, Isa. xiii. 19-21. It shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah, v.
   40. The same was foretold concerning Edom, ch. xlix. 18. As the
   Chaldeans had laid Edom waste, so they shall themselves be laid waste.

   (3.) The king and kingdom shall be put into the utmost confusion and
   consternation by the enemies' invading them, v. 41-43. All the
   expressions here used to denote the formidable power of the invaders,
   the terrors wherewith they should array themselves, and the great
   fright which both court and country should be put into thereby, we met
   with before (ch. vi. 22-24) concerning the Chaldeans' invading the land
   of Judah. The battle which is there said to be against thee, O daughter
   of Zion! is here said to be against thee, O daughter of Babylon! to
   intimate that they should be paid in their own coin. God can find out
   such as shall be for terror and destruction to those that are for
   terror and destruction to others; and those who have dealt cruelly, and
   have shown no mercy, may expect to be cruelly dealt with, and to find
   no mercy. Only there is one difference between these passages; there it
   is said, We have heard the fame thereof and our hands wax feeble; here
   it is said, The king of Babylon has heard the report and his hands
   waxed feeble, which intimates that that proud and daring prince shall,
   in the day of his distress, be as weak and dispirited as the meanest
   Israelites were in the day of their distress.

   (4.) That they shall be as much hurt as frightened, for the invader
   shall come up like a lion to tear and destroy (v. 44) and shall make
   them and their habitation desolate (v. 45), and the desolation shall be
   so astonishing that all the nations about shall be terrified by it, v.
   46. These three verses we had before (ch. xlix. 19-21) in the prophecy
   of the destruction of Edom, which was accomplished by the Chaldeans,
   and they are here repeated, mutatis mutandis--with a few necessary
   alterations, in the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, which was
   to be accomplished upon the Chaldeans, to show that though the
   distributions of Providence may appear unequal for a time its
   retributions will be equal at last; when thou shalt make an end to
   spoil thou shalt be spoiled, Isa. xxxiii. 1; Rev. xiii. 10.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. LI.

   The prophet, in this chapter, goes on with the prediction of Babylon's
   fall, to which other prophets also bore witness. He is very copious and
   lively in describing the foresight God had given him of it, for the
   encouragement of the pious captives, whose deliverance depended upon it
   and was to be the result of it. Here is, I. The record of Babylon's
   doom, with the particulars of it, intermixed with the grounds of God's
   controversy with her, many aggravations of her fall, and great
   encouragements given thence to the Israel of God, that suffered such
   hard things by her, ver. 1-58. II. The representation and ratification
   of this by the throwing of a copy of this prophecy into the river
   Euphrates, ver. 59-64.

The Judgment of Babylon. (b. c. 595.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and
   against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a
   destroying wind;   2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan
   her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be
   against her round about.   3 Against him that bendeth let the archer
   bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his
   brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her
   host.   4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and
   they that are thrust through in her streets.   5 For Israel hath not
   been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their
   land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.   6 Flee out
   of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off
   in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will
   render unto her a recompence.   7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the
   Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken
   of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.   8 Babylon is suddenly
   fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be
   she may be healed.   9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not
   healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for
   her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
     10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us
   declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.   11 Make bright the
   arrows; gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the
   kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it;
   because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
   12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch
   strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath
   both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of
   Babylon.   13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
   treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.   14
   The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill
   thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout
   against thee.   15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath
   established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven
   by his understanding.   16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a
   multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to
   ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and
   bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.   17 Every man is brutish
   by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for
   his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.   18
   They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation
   they shall perish.   19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he
   is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance:
   the Lord of hosts is his name.   20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons
   of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee
   will I destroy kingdoms;   21 And with thee will I break in pieces the
   horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot
   and his rider;   22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and
   woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with
   thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;   23 I will
   also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with
   thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and
   with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.   24 And I will
   render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their
   evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.   25
   Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which
   destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee,
   and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
     26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone
   for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.
   27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the
   nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the
   kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against
   her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.   28
   Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the
   captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his
   dominion.   29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose
   of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of
   Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.   30 The mighty men of
   Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds:
   their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her
   dwelling-places; her bars are broken.   31 One post shall run to meet
   another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon
   that his city is taken at one end,   32 And that the passages are
   stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war
   are affrighted.   33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
   Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time
   to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall
   come.   34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath
   crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up
   like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast
   me out.   35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,
   shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of
   Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.   36 Therefore thus saith the Lord;
   Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will
   dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.   37 And Babylon shall become
   heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing,
   without an inhabitant.   38 They shall roar together like lions: they
   shall yell as lions' whelps.   39 In their heat I will make their
   feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep
   a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.   40 I will bring them
   down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.   41 How is
   Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how
   is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!   42 The sea is
   come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves
   thereof.   43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a
   wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man
   pass thereby.   44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring
   forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations
   shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon
   shall fall.   45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver
   ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.   46 And lest
   your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the
   land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year
   shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
   47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the
   graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and
   all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.   48 Then the heaven and
   the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the
   spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the Lord.   49 As
   Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall
   fall the slain of all the earth.   50 Ye that have escaped the sword,
   go away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem
   come into your mind.   51 We are confounded, because we have heard
   reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the
   sanctuaries of the Lord's house.   52 Wherefore, behold, the days come,
   saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and
   through all her land the wounded shall groan.   53 Though Babylon
   should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of
   her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.
     54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from
   the land of the Chaldeans:   55 Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon,
   and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like
   great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:   56 Because the
   spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are
   taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of
   recompences shall surely requite.   57 And I will make drunk her
   princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty
   men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the
   King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.   58 Thus saith the Lord of
   hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high
   gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain,
   and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

   The particulars of this copious prophecy are dispersed and interwoven,
   and the same things left and returned to so often that it could not
   well be divided into parts, but we must endeavor to collect them under
   their proper heads. Let us then observe here,

   I. An acknowledgment of the great pomp and power that Babylon had been
   in and the use that God in his providence had made of it (v. 7):
   Babylon hath been a golden cup, a rich and glorious empire, a golden
   city (Isa. xiv. 4), a head of gold (Dan. ii. 38), filled with all good
   things, as a cup with wine. Nay, she had been a golden cup in the
   Lord's hand; he had in a particular manner filled and favoured her with
   blessings; he had made the earth drunk with this cup; some were
   intoxicated with her pleasures and debauched by her, others intoxicated
   with her terrors and destroyed by her. In both senses the New-Testament
   Babylon is said to have made the kings of the earth drunk, Rev. xvii.
   2; xviii. 3. Babylon had also been God's battle-axe; it was so at this
   time, when Jeremiah prophesied, and was likely to be yet more so, v.
   20. The forces of Babylon were God's weapons of war, tools in his hand,
   with which he broke in pieces, and knocked down, nations and
   kingdoms,--horses and chariots, which are so much the strength of
   kingdoms (v. 21),--man and woman, young and old, with which kingdoms
   are replenished (v. 22),--the shepherd and his flock, the husbandman
   and his oxen, with which kingdoms are maintained and supplied, v. 23.
   Such havoc as this the Chaldeans had made when God employed them as
   instruments of his wrath for the chastising of the nations; and yet now
   Babylon itself must fall. Note, Those that have carried all before them
   a great while will yet at length meet with their match, and their day
   also will come to fall; the rod will itself be thrown into the fire at
   last. Nor can any think it will exempt them from God's judgments that
   they have been instrumental in executing his judgments on others.

   II. A just complaint made of Babylon, and a charge drawn up against her
   by the Israel of God. 1. She is complained of for her incorrigible
   wickedness (v. 9): We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed.
   The people of God that were captives among the Babylonians endeavoured,
   according to the instructions given them (Jer. x. 11), to convince them
   of the folly of their idolatry, but they could not do it; still they
   doted as much as ever upon their graven images, and therefore the
   Israelites resolved to quit them and go to their own country. Yet some
   understand this as spoken by the forces they had hired for their
   assistance, declaring that they had done their best to save her from
   ruin, but that it was all to no purpose, and therefore they might as
   well go home to their respective countries; "for her judgment reaches
   unto heaven, and it is in vain to withstand it or think to avert it."
   2. She is complained of for her inveterate malice against Israel. Other
   nations had been hardly used by the Chaldeans, but Israel only
   complains to God of it, and with confidence appeals to him (v. 34, 35):
   "The king of Babylon has devoured me, and crushed me, and never thought
   he could do enough ruin to me; he has emptied me of all that was
   valuable, has swallowed me up as a dragon, or whale, swallows up the
   little fish by shoals; he has filled his belly, filled his treasures,
   with my delicates, with all my pleasant things, and has cast me out,
   cast me away as a vessel in which there is no pleasure; and now let
   them be accountable for all this." Zion and Jerusalem shall say, "Let
   the violence done to me and my children, that are my own flesh, and
   pieces of myself, and all the blood of my people, which they have shed
   like water, be upon them; let the guilt of it lie upon them, and let it
   be required at their hands." Note, Ruin is not far off from those that
   lie under the guilt of wrong done to God's people.

   III. Judgment given upon this appeal by the righteous Judge of heaven
   and earth, on behalf of Israel against Babylon. He sits in the throne
   judging right, is ready to receive complaints, and answers (v. 36): "I
   will plead thy cause. Leave it with me; I will in due time plead it
   effectually and take vengeance for thee, and every drop of Jerusalem's
   blood shall be accounted for with interest." Israel and Judah seemed to
   have been neglected and forgotten, but God had an eye to them, v. 5. It
   is true their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
   They were a provoking people and their sins were a great offence to
   God, as a holy God, and as their God, their Holy One; and therefore he
   justly delivered them up into the hands of their enemies, and might
   justly have abandoned them and left them to perish in their hands; but
   God deals better with them than they deserve, and, notwithstanding
   their iniquities and his severities, Israel is not forsaken, is not
   cast off, though he be cast out, but is owned and looked after by his
   God, by the Lord of hosts. God is his God still, and will act for him
   as the Lord of hosts, a God of power. Note, Though God's people may
   have broken his laws and fallen under his rebukes, yet it does not
   therefore follow that they are thrown out of covenant; but God's care
   of them and love to them will flourish again, Ps. lxxxix. 30-33. The
   Chaldeans thought they should never be called to an account for what
   they had done against God's Israel; but there is a time fixed for
   vengeance, v. 6. We cannot expect it should come sooner than the time
   fixed, but then it will come; he will render unto Babylon a recompence,
   for the avenging of Israel is the vengeance of the Lord, who espouses
   their cause; it is the vengeance of his temple, v. 11, as before, ch.
   l. 28. The Lord God of recompences, the God to whom vengeance belongs,
   will surely requite (v. 56), will pay them home; he will render unto
   Babylon all the evil they have done in Zion (v. 24); he will return it
   in the sight of his people. They shall have the satisfaction to see
   their cause pleaded with jealousy. They shall not only live to see
   those judgments brought upon Babylon, but they shall plainly see them
   to be the punishment of the wrong they have done to Zion; any man may
   see it, and say, Verily there is a God that judges in the earth; for
   just as Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, has not only
   slain those that were found in arms, but all without distinction, even
   all the land (almost all were put to the sword), so at Babylon shall
   fall the slain not only of the city, but of all the country, v. 49.
   Cyrus shall measure to the Chaldeans the same that they measured to the
   Jews, so that every observer may discern that God is recompensing them
   for what they did against his people; but Zion's children shall in a
   particular manner triumph in it (v. 10): The Lord has brought forth our
   righteousness; he has appeared in our behalf against those that dealt
   unjustly with us, and has given us redress; he has also made it to
   appear that he is reconciled to us and that we are yet in his eyes a
   righteous nation. Let it therefore be spoken of to his praise: Come and
   let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God, that others may be
   invited to join with us in praising him.

   IV. A declaration of the greatness and sovereignty of that God who
   espouses Zion's cause and undertakes to reckon with this proud and
   potent enemy, v. 14. It is the Lord of hosts that has said it, that has
   sworn it, has sworn it by himself (for he could swear by no greater),
   that he will fill Babylon with vast and incredible numbers of the
   enemy's forces, will fill it with men as with caterpillars, that shall
   overpower it will multitudes, and need only to lift up a shout against
   it, for that shall be so terrible as to dispirit all the inhabitants
   and make them an easy prey to this numerous army. But who, and where,
   is he that can break so powerful a kingdom as Babylon? The prophet
   gives an account of him from the description he had formerly given of
   him, and of his sovereignty and victory over all pretenders (Jer. x.
   12-16), which was there intended for the conviction of the Babylonian
   idolaters and the confirmation of God's Israel in the faith and worship
   of the God of Israel; and it is here repeated to show that God will
   convince those by his judgments who would not be convinced by his word
   that he is God over all. Let not any doubt but that he who has
   determined to destroy Babylon is able to make his words good, for, 1.
   He is the God that made the world (v. 15), and therefore nothing is too
   hard for him to do; it is in his name that our help stands, and on him
   our hope is built. 2. He has the command of all the creatures that he
   has made (v. 16); his providence is a continued creation. He has wind
   and rain at his disposal. If he speak the word, there is a multitude of
   waters in the heavens (and it is a wonder how they hang there), fed by
   vapours out of the earth, and it is a wonder how they ascend thence.
   Lightnings and rain seem contraries, as fire and water, and yet they
   are produced together; and the wind, which seems arbitrary in its
   motions, and we know not whence it comes, is yet, we are sure, brought
   out of his treasuries. 3. The idols that oppose the accomplishment of
   his word are a mere sham and their worshippers brutish people, v. 17,
   18. The idols are falsehood, they are vanity, they are the work of
   errors; when they come to be visited (to be examined and enquired into)
   they perish, that is, their reputation sinks and they appear to be
   nothing; and those that make them are like unto them. But between the
   God of Israel and these gods of the heathen there is no comparison (v.
   19): The portion of Jacob is not like them; the God who speaks this and
   will do it is the former of all things and the Lord of all hosts, and
   therefore can do what he will; and there is a near relation between him
   and his people, for he is their portion and they are his; they put a
   confidence in him as their portion and he is pleased to take a
   complacency in them and a particular care of them as the lot of his
   inheritance; and therefore he will do what is best for them. The
   repetition of these things here, which were said before, intimates both
   the certainty and the importance of them, and obliges us to take
   special notice of them; God hath spoken once; yea, twice have we heard
   this, that power belongs to God, power to destroy the most formidable
   enemies of his church; and if God thus speak once, yea, twice, we are
   inexcusable if we do not perceive it and attend to it.

   V. A description of the instruments that are to be employed in this
   service. God has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes (v.
   11), Darius and Cyrus, who come against Babylon by a divine instinct;
   for God's device is against Babylon to destroy it. They do it, but God
   devised it, he designed it; they are but accomplishing his purpose, and
   acting as he directed. Note, God's counsel shall stand, and according
   to it all hearts shall move. Those whom God employs against Babylon are
   compared (v. 1) to a destroying wind, which either by its coldness
   blasts the fruits of the earth or by its fierceness blows down all
   before it. This wind is brought out of God's treasuries (v. 16), and it
   is here said to be raised up against those that dwell in the midst of
   the Chaldeans, those of other nations that inhabit among them and are
   incorporated with them. The Chaldeans rise up against God by falling
   down before idols, and against them God will raise up destroyers, for
   he will be too hard for those that contend with him. These enemies are
   compared to fanners (v. 2), who shall drive them away as chaff is
   driven away by the fan. The Chaldeans had been fanners to winnow God's
   people (ch. xv. 7) and to empty them, and now they shall themselves be
   in like manner despoiled and dispersed.

   VI. An ample commission given them to destroy and lay all waste. Let
   them bend their bow against the archers of the Chaldeans (v. 3) and not
   spare her young men, but utterly destroy them, for the Lord has both
   devised and done what he spoke against Babylon, v. 12. This may animate
   the instruments he employs, but assuring them of success. The methods
   they take are such as God has devised and therefore they shall surely
   prosper; what he has spoken shall be done, for he himself will do it;
   and therefore let all necessary preparations be made. This they are
   called to, v. 27, 28. Let a standard be set up, under which to enlist
   soldiers for this expedition; let a trumpet be blown to call men
   together to it and animate them in it; let the nations, out of which
   Cyrus's army is to be raised, prepare their recruits; let the kingdoms
   of Ararat, and Minni, and Ashkenaz, of Armenia, both the higher and the
   lower, and of Ascania, about Phrygia and Bithynia, send in their quota
   of men for his service; let general officers be appointed and the
   cavalry advance; let the horses come up in great numbers, as the
   caterpillars, and come, like them, leaping and pawing in the valley;
   let them lay the country waste, as caterpillars do (Joel i. 4),
   especially rough caterpillars; let the kings and captains prepare
   nations against Babylon, for the service is great and there is occasion
   for many hands to be employed it.

   VII. The weakness of the Chaldeans, and their inability to make head
   against this threatening destroying force. When God employed them
   against other nations they had spirit and strength to act offensively,
   and went on with admirable resolution, conquering and to conquer; but
   now that it comes to their turn to be reckoned with all their might and
   courage are gone, their hearts fail them, and none of all their men of
   might and mettle have found their hands to act so much as defensively.
   They are called upon here to prepare for action, but it is ironically
   and in an upbraiding way (v. 11): Make bright the arrows, which have
   grown rusty through disuse; gather the shields, which in a long time of
   peace and security have been scattered and thrown out of the way (v.
   12); set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, upon the towers on
   those walls, to summon all that owed suit and service to that
   mother-city, now to come in to her assistance; let them make the watch
   as strong as they can, and appoint the sentinels to their respective
   posts, and prepare ambushes for the reception of the enemy. This
   intimates that they would be found very secure and remiss, and would
   need to be thus quickened (and they were so to such a degree that they
   were in the midst of their revels when the city was taken), but that
   all their preparations should come to no purpose. Whoever will may call
   them to it, but they shall have no heart to come at the call, v. 29.
   The whole land shall tremble, and sorrow (a universal consternation)
   shall seize upon them; for they shall see both the irresistible arm and
   the irreversible counsel and decree of God against them. They shall see
   that God is making Babylon a desolation, and therein is performing what
   he has purposed; and then the mighty men of Babylon have forborne to
   fight, v. 30. God having taken away their strength and spirit, so that
   they have remained in their holds, not daring so much as to peep forth,
   the might both of their hearts and of their hands fails; they become as
   timorous as women, so that the enemy has, without any resistance, burnt
   her dwelling-places and broken her bars. It is to the same purport with
   v. 56-58. When the spoiler comes upon Babylon her mighty men, who
   should make head against him, are immediately taken, their weapons of
   war fail them, every one of their bows is broken and stands them in no
   stead. Their politics fail them; they call councils of war, but their
   princes and captains, who sit in council to concert measures for the
   common safety, are made drunk; they are as men intoxicated through
   stupidity or despair; they can form no right notions of things; they
   stagger and are unsteady in their counsels and resolves, and dash one
   against another, and, like drunken men, fall out among themselves. At
   length they sleep a perpetual sleep, and never awake from their wine,
   the wine of God's wrath, for it is to them an opiate that lays them
   into a fatal lethargy. The walls of their city fail them, v. 58. When
   the enemy had found ways to ford Euphrates, which was thought
   impassable, yet surely, think they, the walls are impregnable, they are
   the broad walls of Babylon or (as the margin reads it), the walls of
   broad Babylon. The compass of the city, within the walls, was 385
   furlongs, some say 480, that is, about sixty miles; the walls were 200
   cubits high, and fifty cubits broad, so that two chariots might easily
   pass by one another upon them. Some say that there was a threefold wall
   about the inner city and the like about the outer, and that the stones
   of the wall, being laid in pitch instead of mortar (Gen. xi. 3), were
   scarcely separable; and yet these shall be utterly broken, and the high
   gates and towers shall be burnt, and the people that are employed in
   the defence of the city shall labour in vain in the fire; they shall
   quite tire themselves, but shall do no good.

   VIII. The destruction that shall be made of Babylon by these invaders.
   1. It is a certain destruction; the doom has passed and it cannot be
   reversed; a divine power is engaged against it, which cannot be
   resisted (v. 8): Babylon is fallen and destroyed, is as sure to fall,
   to fall into destruction, as if it were fallen and destroyed already;
   though when Jeremiah prophesied this, and many a year after, it was in
   the height of its power and greatness. God declares, God appears
   against Babylon (v. 25): Behold, I am against thee; and those cannot
   stand long whom God is against. He will stretch out his hand upon it, a
   hand which no creature can bear the weight of nor withstand the force
   of. It is his purpose, which shall be performed, that Babylon must be a
   desolation, v. 29. 2. It is a righteous destruction. Babylon has made
   herself meet for it, and therefore cannot fail to meet with it. For (v.
   25) Babylon has been a destroying mountain, very lofty and bulky as a
   mountain, and destroying all the earth, as the stones that are tumbled
   from high mountains spoil the grounds about them; but now it shall
   itself be rolled down from its rocks, which were as the foundations on
   which it stood. It shall be levelled, its pomp and power broken. It is
   now a burning mountain, like Ætna and the other volcanoes, that throw
   out fire, to the terror of all about them. But it shall be a burnt
   mountain; it shall at length have consumed itself, and shall remain a
   heap of ashes. So will this world be at the end of time. Again (v. 33),
   "Babylon is like a threshing-floor, in which the people of God have
   been long threshed, as sheaves in the floor; but now the time has come
   that she shall herself be threshed and her sheaves in her; her princes
   and great men, and all her inhabitants, shall be beaten in their own
   land, as in the threshing-floor. The threshing-floor is prepared.
   Babylon is by sin made meet to be a seat of war, and her people, like
   corn in harvest, are ripe for destruction," Rev. xiv. 15; Mic. iv. 12.
   3. It is an unavoidable destruction. Babylon seems to be well-fenced
   and fortified against it: She dwells upon many waters (v. 13); the
   situation of her country is such that it seems inaccessible, it is so
   surrounded, and the march of an enemy into it so embarrassed, by
   rivers. In allusion to this, the New-Testament Babylon is said to sit
   upon many waters, that is, to rule over many nations, as the other
   Babylon did, Rev. xvii. 15. Babylon is abundant in treasures; and yet
   "thy end has come, and neither they waters nor thy wealth shall secure
   thee." This end that comes shall be the measure of thy covetousness; it
   shall be the stint of thy gettings, it shall set bounds to thy ambition
   and avarice, which otherwise would have ben boundless. God, by the
   destruction of Babylon, said to its proud waves, Hitherto shall you
   come, and no further. Note, if men will not set a measure to their
   covetousness by wisdom and grace, God will set a measure to it by his
   judgments. Babylon, thinking herself very safe and very great, was very
   proud; but she will be deceived (v. 53): Though Babylon should mount
   her walls and palaces up to heaven, and though (because what is high is
   apt to totter) she should take care to fortify the height of her
   strength, yet all will not do; God will send spoilers against her, that
   shall break through her strength and bring down her height. 4. It is a
   gradual destruction, which, if they had pleased, they might have
   foreseen and had warning of; for (v. 46) "A rumor will come one year
   that Cyrus is making vast preparations for war, and after that, in
   another year, shall come a rumour that his design is upon Babylon, and
   he is steering his course that way;" so that when he was a great way
   off they might have sent and desired conditions of peace; but they were
   too proud, too secure, to do that, and their hearts were hardened to
   their destruction. 5. Yet, when it comes, it is a surprising
   destruction: Babylon has suddenly fallen (v. 8); the destruction came
   upon them when they did not think of it and was perfected in a little
   time, as that of the New-Testament Babylon--in one hour, Rev. xviii.
   17. The king of Babylon, who should have been observing the approaches
   of the enemy, was himself at such a distance from the place where the
   attack was made that it was a great while ere he had notice that the
   city was taken; so that those who were posted near the place sent one
   messenger, one courier, after another, with advice of it, v. 31. The
   foot-posts shall meet at the court from several quarters with this
   intelligence to the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
   and there is nothing to obstruct the progress of the conquerors, but
   they will be at the other end quickly. They are to tell him that the
   enemy has seized the passes (v. 32), the forts or blockades upon the
   river, and that, having got over the river, he has set fire to the
   reeds on the river side, to alarm and terrify the city, so that all the
   men of war are affrighted and have thrown down their arms and
   surrendered at discretion. The messengers come, like Job's, one upon
   the heels of another, with these tidings, which are immediately
   confirmed with a witness by the enemies' being in the palace and
   slaying the king himself, Dan. v. 30. That profane feast which they
   were celebrating at the very time when the city was taken, which was
   both an evidence of their strange security and a great advantage to the
   enemy, seems here to be referred to (v. 38, 39): They shall roar
   together like lions, as men in their revels do, when the wine has got
   into their heads. They call it singing; but in scripture-language, and
   in the language of sober men, it is called yelling like lions' whelps.
   It is probable that they were drinking confusion to Cyrus and his army
   with loud huzzas. Well, says God, in their heat, when they are inflamed
   (Isa. v. 11) and their heads are hot with hard drinking, I will make
   their feasts, I will give them their portion. They have passed their
   cup round; now the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto
   them (Hab. ii. 15, 16), a cup of fury, which shall make them drunk that
   they may rejoice (or rather that they may revel it) and sleep a
   perpetual sleep; let them be as merry as they can with that bitter cup,
   but it shall lay them to sleep never to wake more (as v. 57); for on
   that night, in the midst of the jollity, was Belshazzar slain. 6. It is
   to be a universal destruction. God will make thorough work of it; for,
   as he will perform what he has purposed, so he will perfect what he has
   begun. The slain shall fall in great abundance throughout the land of
   the Chaldeans; multitudes shall be thrust through in her streets, v. 4.
   They are brought down like lambs to the slaughter (v. 40), in such
   great numbers, so easily, and the enemies make no more of killing them
   than the butcher does of killing lambs. The strength of the enemy, and
   their invading them, are here compared to an irruption and inundation
   of waters (v. 42): The sea has come up upon Babylon, which, when it has
   once broken through its bounds, there is no fence against, so that she
   is covered with the multitude of its waves, overpowered by a numerous
   army; her cities then become a desolation, an uninhabited uncultivated
   desert, v. 43. 7. It is a destruction that shall reach the gods of
   Babylon, the idols and images, and fall with a particular weight upon
   them. "In token that the whole land shall be confounded and all her
   slain shall fall and that throughout all the country the wounded shall
   groan, I will do judgment upon her graven images," v. 47 and again v.
   52. All must needs perish if their gods perish, from whom they expect
   protection. Though the invaders are themselves idolaters, yet they
   shall destroy the images and temples of the gods of Babylon, as an
   earnest of the abolishing of all counterfeit deities. Bel was the
   principal idol that the Babylonians worshipped, and therefore that is
   by name here marked for destruction (v. 44): I will punish Bel, that
   great devourer, that image to which such abundance of sacrifices are
   offered and such rich spoils dedicated, and to whose temple there is
   such a vast resort. He shall disgorge what he has so greedily regaled
   himself with. God will bring forth out of his temple all the wealth
   laid up there, Job xx. 15. His altars shall be forsaken, none shall
   regard him any more, and so that idol which was thought to be a wall to
   Babylon shall fall and fail them. 8. It shall be a final destruction.
   You may take balm for her pain, but in vain; she that would not be
   healed by the word of God shall not be healed by his providence, v. 8,
   9. Babylon shall become heaps (v. 37), and, to complete its infamy, no
   use shall be made even of the ruins of Babylon, so execrable shall they
   be, and attended with such ill omens (v. 26): They shall not take of
   thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations. People shall
   not care for having any thing to do with Babylon, or whatever belonged
   to it. Or it denotes that there shall be nothing left in Babylon on
   which to ground any hopes or attempts of raising it into a kingdom
   again; for, as it follows here, it shall be desolate for ever. St.
   Jerome says that in his time, though the ruins of Babylon's walls were
   to be seen, yet the ground enclosed by them was a forest of wild
   beasts.

   IX. Here is a call to God's people to go out of Babylon. It is their
   wisdom, when the ruin is approaching, to quit the city and retire into
   the country (v. 6): "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and get into
   some remote corner, that you may save your lives, and may not be cut
   off in her iniquity." When God's judgments are abroad it is good to get
   as far as we can from those against whom they are levelled, as Israel
   from the tents of Korah. This agrees with the advice Christ gave his
   disciples, with reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. Let those
   who shall be in Judea flee to the mountains, Matt. xxiv. 16. It is
   their wisdom to get out of the midst of Babylon, lest they be involved,
   if not in her ruins, yet in her fears (v. 45, 46): Lest your heart
   faint, and you fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land.
   Though God had told them that Cyrus should be their deliverer, and
   Babylon's destruction their deliverance, yet they had been told also
   that in the peace there of they should have peace, and therefore the
   alarms given to Babylon would put them into a fright, and perhaps they
   might not have faith and consideration enough to suppress those fears,
   for which reason they are here advised to get out of the hearing of the
   alarms. Note, Those who have not grace enough to keep their temper in
   temptation should have wisdom enough to keep out of the way of
   temptation. But this is not all; it is not only their wisdom to quit
   the city when the ruin is approaching, but it is their duty to quit the
   country too when the ruin is accomplished, and they are set at liberty
   by the pulling down of the prison over their heads. This they are told,
   v. 50, 51: "You Israelites, who have escaped the sword of the Chaldeans
   your oppressors, and of the Persians their destroyers, now that the
   year of release has come, go away, stand not still; hasten to your own
   country again, however you may be comfortably seated in Babylon, for
   this is not your rest, but Canaan is." 1. He puts them in mind of the
   inducements they had to return: "Remember the Lord afar off, his
   presence with you now, though you are here afar off from your native
   soil; his presence with your fathers formerly in the temple, though you
   are now afar off from the ruins of it." Note, Wherever we are, in the
   greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we may and must remember
   the Lord our God; and in the time of the greatest fears and hopes it is
   seasonable to remember the Lord. "And let Jerusalem come into your
   mind. Though it be now in ruins, yet favour its dust (Ps. cii. 14);
   though few of you ever saw it, yet believe the report you have had
   concerning it from those that wept when they remembered Zion; and think
   of Jerusalem until you come up to a resolution to make the best of your
   way thither." Note, When the city of our solemnities is out of sight,
   yet it must not be out of mind; and it will be of great use to us, in
   our journey through this world, to let the heavenly Jerusalem come
   often into our mind. 2. He takes notice of the discouragement which the
   returning captives labour under (v. 51); being reminded of Jerusalem,
   they cry out, "We are confounded; we cannot bear the thought of it;
   shame covers our faces at the mention of it, for we have heard of the
   reproach of the sanctuary, that is profaned and ruined by strangers;
   how can we think of it with any pleasure?" To this he answers (v. 52)
   that the God of Israel will now triumph over the gods of Babylon, and
   so that reproach will be for ever rolled away. Note, The believing
   prospect of Jerusalem's recovery will keep us from being ashamed of
   Jerusalem's ruins.

   X. Here is the diversified feeling excited by Babylon's fall, and it is
   the same that we have with respect to the New-Testament Babylon, Rev.
   xviii. 9, 19. 1. Some shall lament the destruction of Babylon. There is
   the sound of a cry, a great outcry coming from Babylon (v. 54),
   lamenting this great destruction, the voice of mourning, because the
   Lord has destroyed the voice of the multitude, that great voice of
   mirth which used to be heard in Babylon, v. 55. We are told what they
   shall say in their lamentations (v. 41): "How is Sheshach taken, and
   how are we mistaken concerning her! How is that city surprised and
   become an astonishment among the nations that was the praise, and
   glory, and admiration of the whole earth!" See how that may fall into a
   general contempt which has been universally cried up. 2. Yet some shall
   rejoice in Babylon's fall, not as it is the misery of their
   fellow-creatures, but as it is the manifestation of the righteous
   judgment of God and as it opens the way for the release of God's
   captives; upon these accounts the heaven and the earth, and all that is
   in both, shall sing for Babylon (v. 48); the church in heaven and the
   church on earth shall give to God the glory of his righteousness, and
   take notice of it with thankfulness to his praise. Babylon's ruin is
   Zion's praise.

The Prophecy Sent to the People. (b. c. 595.)

   59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of
   Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of
   Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah
   was a quiet prince.   60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that
   should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against
   Babylon.   61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to
   Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;   62 Then shalt
   thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off,
   that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall
   be desolate for ever.   63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end
   of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it
   into the midst of Euphrates:   64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall
   Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon
   her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

   We have been long attending the judgment of Babylon in this and the
   foregoing chapter; now here we have the conclusion of that whole
   matter. 1. A copy is taken of this prophecy, it should seem by Jeremiah
   himself, for Baruch his scribe is not mentioned here (v. 60): Jeremiah
   wrote in a book all these words that are here written against Babylon.
   He received this notice that he might give it to all whom it might
   concern. It is of great advantage both to the propagating and to the
   perpetuating of the word of God to have it written, and to have copies
   taken of the law, prophets, and epistles. 2. It is sent to Babylon, to
   the captives there, by the hand of Seraiah, who went there attendant on
   or ambassador for king Zedekiah, in the fourth year of his reign, v.
   59. He went with Zedekiah, or (as the margin reads it) on the behalf of
   Zedekiah, into Babylon. The character given of him is observable, that
   this Seraiah was a quiet prince, a prince of rest. He was in honour and
   power, but not, as most of the princes then were, hot and heady, making
   parties, and heading factions, and driving things furiously. He was of
   a calm temper, studied the things that made for peace, endeavoured to
   preserve a good understanding between the king his master and the king
   of Babylon, and to keep his master from rebelling. He was no persecutor
   of God's prophets, but a moderate man. Zedekiah was happy in the choice
   of such a man to be his envoy to the king of Babylon, and Jeremiah
   might safely entrust such a man with his errand too. Note, it is the
   real honour of great men to be quiet men, and it is the wisdom of
   princes to put such into places of trust. 3. Seraiah is desired to read
   it to his countrymen that had already gone into captivity: "When thou
   shalt come to Babylon, and shalt see what a magnificent place it is,
   how large a city, how strong, how rich, and how well fortified, and
   shalt therefore be tempted to think, Surely, it will stand forever" (as
   the disciples, when they observed the buildings of the temple,
   concluded that nothing would throw them down but the end of the world,
   Matt. xxiv. 3), "then thou shalt read all these words to thyself and
   thy particular friends, for their encouragement in their captivity: let
   them with an eye of faith see to the end of these threatening powers,
   and comfort themselves and one another herewith." 4. He is directed to
   make a solemn protestation of the divine authority and unquestionable
   certainty of that which he had read (v. 62): Then thou shalt look up to
   God, and say, O Lord! it is thou that hast spoken against this place,
   to cut it off. This is like the angel's protestation concerning the
   destruction of the New-Testament Babylon. These are the true sayings of
   God, Rev. xix. 9. These words are true and faithful, Rev. xxi. 5.
   Though Seraiah sees Babylon flourishing, having read this prophecy he
   must foresee Babylon falling, and by virtue of it must curse its
   habitation, though it be taking root (Job v. 3): "O Lord! thou hast
   spoken against this place, and I believe what thou hast spoken, that,
   as thou knowest every thing, so thou canst do every thing. Thou hast
   passed sentence upon Babylon, and it shall be executed. Thou hast
   spoken against this place, to cut it off, and therefore we will neither
   envy its pomp nor fear its power." When we see what this world is, how
   glittering its shows are and how flattering its proposals, let us read
   in the book of the Lord that its fashion passes away, and it shall
   shortly be cut off and be desolate for ever, and we shall learn to look
   upon it with a holy contempt. Observe here, When we have been reading
   the word of God it becomes us to direct to him whose word it is a
   humble believing acknowledgment of the truth, equity, and goodness, of
   what we have read. 5. He must then tie a stone to the book and throw it
   into the midst of the river Euphrates, as a confirming sign of the
   things contained in it, saying, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and not rise;
   for they shall be weary, they shall perfectly succumb, as men tired
   with a burden, under the load of the evil that I will bring upon them,
   which they shall never shake off, nor get from under," v. 53, 64. In
   the sign it was the stone that sunk the book, which otherwise would
   have swum. But in the thing signified it was rather the book that sunk
   the stone; it was the divine sentence passed upon Babylon in this
   prophecy that sunk that city, which seemed as firm as a stone. The fall
   of the New-Testament Babylon was represented by something like this,
   but much more magnificent, Rev. xviii. 21. A mighty angel cast a great
   millstone into the sea, saying, Thus shall Babylon fall. Those that
   sink under the weight of God's wrath and curse sink irrecoverably. The
   last words of the chapter seal up the vision and prophecy of this book:
   Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. Not that this prophecy against
   Babylon was the last of his prophecies; for it was dated in the fourth
   year of Zedekiah (v. 59), long before he finished his testimony; but
   this is recorded last of his prophecies because it was to be last
   accomplished of all his prophecies against the Gentiles, ch. xlvi. 1.
   And the chapter which remains is purely historical, and, as some think,
   was added by some other hand.
     __________________________________________________________________

J E R E M I A H.

  CHAP. LII.

   History is the best expositor of prophecy; and therefore, for the
   better understanding of the prophecies of this book which relate to the
   destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, we are here
   furnished with an account of that sad event. It is much he same with
   the history we had 2 Kings xxiv. and xxv., and many of the particulars
   we had before in that book, but the matter is here repeated and put
   together, to give light to the book of the Lamentations, which follows
   next, and to serve as a key to it. That article in the close concerning
   the advancement of Jehoiachin in his captivity, which happened after
   Jeremiah's time, gives colour to the conjecture of those who suppose
   that this chapter was not written by Jeremiah himself, but by some man
   divinely inspired among those in captivity, for a constant memorandum
   to those who in Babylon preferred Jerusalem above their chief joy. In
   this chapter we have, I. The bad reign of Zedekiah, very bad in regard
   both of sin and of punishment, ver. 1-3. II. The besieging and taking
   of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, ver. 4-7. III. The severe usage which
   Zedekiah and the princes met with, ver. 8-11. IV. The destruction of
   the temple and the city, ver. 12-14. V. The captivity of the people
   (ver. 15, 16) and the numbers of those that were carried away into
   captivity, ver. 28-30. VI. The carrying off of the plunder of the
   temple, ver. 17-23. VII. The slaughter of the priests, and some other
   great men, in cold blood, ver. 24-27. VIII. The better days which king
   Jehoiachin lived to see in the latter end of his time, after the death
   of Nebuchadnezzar, ver. 31-34.

Jerusalem Taken by Nebuchadnezzar. (b. c. 588.)

   1 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he
   reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal
   the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.   2 And he did that which was evil
   in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.   3
   For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and
   Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah
   rebelled against the king of Babylon.   4 And it came to pass in the
   ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the
   month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army,
   against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it
   round about.   5 So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of
   king Zedekiah.   6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the
   month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for
   the people of the land.   7 Then the city was broken up, and all the
   men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of
   the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now
   the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way
   of the plain.   8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king,
   and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was
   scattered from him.   9 Then they took the king, and carried him up
   unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave
   judgment upon him.   10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of
   Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in
   Riblah.   11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of
   Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in
   prison till the day of his death.

   This narrative begins no higher than the beginning of the reign of
   Zedekiah, though there were two captivities before, one in the fourth
   year of Jehoiakim, the other in the first of Jeconiah; but probably it
   was drawn up by some of those that were carried away with Zedekiah, as
   a reproach to themselves for imagining that they should not go into
   captivity after their brethren, with which hopes they had long
   flattered themselves. We have here, 1. God's just displeasure against
   Judah and Jerusalem for their sin, v. 3. His anger was against them to
   such a degree that he determined to cast them out from his presence,
   his favourable gracious presence, as a father, when he is extremely
   angry with an undutiful son, bids him get out of his presence, he
   expelled them from that good land that had such tokens of his presence
   in providential bounty and that holy city and temple that had such
   tokens of his presence in covenant-grace and love. Note, Those that are
   banished from God's ordinances have reason to complain that they are in
   some degree cast out of his presence; yet none are cast out from God's
   gracious presence but those that by sin have first thrown themselves
   out of it. This fruit of sin we should therefore deprecate above any
   thing, as David (Ps. li. 11), Cast me not away from thy presence. 2.
   Zedekiah's bad conduct and management, to which God left him, in
   displeasure against the people, and for which God punished him, in
   displeasure against him. Zedekiah had arrived at years of discretion
   when he came to the throne; he was twenty-one years old (v. 1); he was
   none of the worst of the kings (we never read of his idolatries), yet
   his character is that he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, for he did
   not do the good he should have done. But that evil deed of his which
   did in a special manner hasten this destruction was his rebelling
   against the king of Babylon, which was both his sin and his folly, and
   brought ruin upon his people, not only meritoriously, but efficiently.
   God was greatly displeased with him for his perfidious dealing with the
   king of Babylon (as we find, Ezek. xvii. 15, &c.); and, because he was
   angry at Judah and Jerusalem, he put him into the hand of his own
   counsels, to do that foolish thing which proved fatal to him and his
   kingdom. 3. The possession which the Chaldeans at length gained of
   Jerusalem, after eighteen months' siege. They sat down before it, and
   blocked it up, in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, in the tenth
   month (v. 4), and made themselves masters of it in the eleventh year in
   the fourth month, v. 6. In remembrance of these two steps towards their
   ruin, while they were in captivity, they kept a fast in the fourth
   month, and a fast in the tenth (Zech. viii. 19): that in the fifth
   month was in remembrance of the burning of the temple, and that in the
   seventh of the murder of Gedaliah. We may easily imagine, or rather
   cannot imagine, what a sad time it was with Jerusalem, during this year
   and half that it was besieged, when all provisions were cut off from
   coming to them and they were ever and anon alarmed by the attacks of
   the enemy, and, being obstinately resolved to hold out to the last
   extremity, nothing remained but a certain fearful looking for of
   judgment. That which disabled them to hold out, and yet could not
   prevail with them to capitulate, was the famine in the city (v. 6);
   there was no bread for the people of the land, so that the soldiers
   could not make good their posts, but were rendered wholly
   unserviceable; and then no wonder that the city was broken up, v. 7.
   Walls, in such a case, will not hold out long without men, any more
   than men without walls; nor will both together stand people in any
   stead without God and his protection. 4. The inglorious retreat of the
   king and his mighty men. They got out of the city by night (v. 7) and
   made the best of their way, I know not whither, nor perhaps they
   themselves; but the king was overtaken by the pursuers in the plains of
   Jericho, his guards were dispersed, and all his army was scattered from
   him, v. 8. His fright was not causeless, for there is no escaping the
   judgments of God; they will come upon the sinner, and will overtake
   him, let him flee where he will (Deut. xxviii. 15), and these judgments
   particularly that are here executed were there threatened, v. 52, 53,
   &c. 5. The sad doom passed upon Zedekiah by the king of Babylon, and
   immediately put in execution. He treated him as a rebel, gave judgment
   upon him, v. 9. One cannot think of it without the utmost vexation and
   regret that a king, a king of Judah, a king of the house of David,
   should be arraigned as a criminal at the bar of this heathen king. But
   he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet; therefore God thus
   humbled him. Pursuant to the sentence passed upon him by the haughty
   conqueror, his sons were slain before his eyes, and all the princes of
   Judah (v. 10); then his eyes were put out, and he was bound in chains,
   carried in triumph to Babylon; perhaps they made sport with him, as
   they did with Samson when his eyes were put out; however, he was
   condemned to perpetual imprisonment, wearing out the remainder of his
   life (I cannot say his days, for he saw day no more) in darkness and
   misery. He was kept in prison till the day of his death, but had some
   honour done him at his funeral, ch. xxxiv. 5. Jeremiah had often told
   him what it would come to, but he would not take warning when he might
   have prevented it.

The Babylonish Captivity. (b. c. 588.)

   12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the
   nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan,
   captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,
     13 And burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all
   the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he
   with fire:   14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the
   captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round
   about.   15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away
   captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the
   people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell
   to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.   16 But
   Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the
   land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.   17 Also the pillars of
   brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen
   sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans brake, and carried
   all the brass of them to Babylon.   18 The caldrons also, and the
   shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the
   vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.   19 And
   the basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the
   candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in
   gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the
   guard away.   20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that
   were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the
   Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.   21 And
   concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits;
   and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof
   was four fingers: it was hollow.   22 And a chapiter of brass was upon
   it; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits, with network and
   pomegranates upon the chapiters round about, all of brass. The second
   pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these.   23 And there
   were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates
   upon the network were a hundred round about.

   We have here an account of the woeful havoc that was made by the
   Chaldean army, a month after the city was taken, under the command of
   Nebuzaradan, who was captain of the guard, or general of the army, in
   this action. In the margin he is called the chief of the slaughter-men,
   or executioners; for soldiers are but slaughter-men, and God employs
   them as executioners of his sentence against a sinful people.
   Nebuzaradan was chief of those soldiers, but, in the execution he did,
   we have reason to fear he had no eye to God, but he served the king of
   Babylon and his own designs, now that he came into Jerusalem, into the
   very bowels of it, as captain of the slaughter-men there. And, 1. He
   laid the temple in ashes, having first plundered it of every thing that
   was valuable: He burnt the house of the Lord, that holy and beautiful
   house, where their fathers praised him, Isa. lxiv. 11. 2. He burnt the
   royal palace, probably that which Solomon built after he had built the
   temple, which was, ever since, the king's house. 3. He burnt all the
   houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great men, or those
   particularly; if any escaped, it was only some sorry cottages for the
   poor of the land. 4. He broke down all the walls of Jerusalem, to be
   revenged upon them for standing in the way of his army so long. Thus,
   of a defenced city, it was made a ruin, Isa. xxv. 2. 5. He carried away
   many into captivity (v. 15); he took away certain of the poor of the
   people, that is, of the people in the city, for the poor of the land
   (the poor of the country) he left for vine-dressers and husbandmen. He
   also carried off the residue of the people that remained in the city,
   that had escaped the sword and famine, and the deserters, such as he
   thought fit, or rather such as God thought fit; for he had already
   determined some for the pestilence, some for the sword, some for
   famine, and some for captivity, ch. xv. 2. But, 6. Nothing is more
   particularly and largely related here than the carrying away of the
   appurtenances of the temple. All that were of great value were carried
   away before, the vessels of silver and gold, yet some of that sort
   remained, which were now carried away, v. 19. But most of the
   temple-prey that was now seized was of brass, which, being of less
   value, was carried off last. When the gold was gone, the brass soon
   went after it, because the people repented not, according to Jeremiah's
   prediction, ch. xxvii. 19, &c. When the walls of the city were
   demolished, the pillars of the temple were pulled down too, and both in
   token that God, who was the strength and stay both of their civil and
   their ecclesiastical government, had departed from them. No walls can
   protect those, nor pillars sustain those, from whom God withdraws.
   These pillars of the temple were not for support (for there was nothing
   built upon them), but for ornament and significancy. They were called
   Jachin--He will establish; and Boaz--In him is strength; so that the
   breaking of these signified that God would no longer establish his
   house nor be the strength of it. These pillars are here very
   particularly described (v. 21-23, from 1 Kings vii. 15), that the
   extraordinary beauty and stateliness of them may affect us the more
   with the demolishing of them. All the vessels that belonged to the
   brazen altar were carried away; for the iniquity of Jerusalem, like
   that of Eli's house, was not to be purged by sacrifice or offering, 1
   Sam. iii. 14. It is said (v. 20), The brass of all these vessels was
   without weight; so it was in the making of them (1 Kings vii. 47), the
   weight of the brass was not then found out (2 Chron. iv. 18), and so it
   was in the destroying of them. Those that made great spoil of them did
   not stand to weigh them, as purchasers do, for, whatever they weighted,
   it was all their own.

The Babylonish Captivity. (b. c. 588.)

   24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and
   Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:   25 He
   took also out of the city an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of
   war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were
   found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered
   the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land,
   that were found in the midst of the city.   26 So Nebuzaradan the
   captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon
   to Riblah.   27 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to
   death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away
   captive out of his own land.   28 This is the people whom
   Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand
   Jews and three and twenty:   29 In the eighteenth year of
   Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred
   thirty and two persons:   30 In the three and twentieth year of
   Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away
   captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the
   persons were four thousand and six hundred.

   We have here a very melancholy account, 1. Of the slaughter of some
   great men, in cold blood, at Riblah, seventy-two in number (according
   to the number of the elders of Israel, Num. xi. 24, 25), so they are
   computed, 2 Kings xxv. 18, 19. We read there of five out of the temple,
   two out of the city, five out of the court, and sixty out of the
   country. The account here agrees with that, except in one article;
   there it is said that there were five, here there were seven, of those
   that were near the king, which Dr. Lightfoot reconciles thus, that he
   took away seven of those that were near the king, but two of them were
   Jeremiah himself and Ebed-melech, who were both discharged, as we have
   read before, so that there were only five of them put to death, and so
   the number was reduced to seventy-two, some of all ranks, for they had
   all corrupted their way; and it is probable that such were made
   examples of as had been most forward to excite and promote the
   rebellion against the king of Babylon. Seraiah the chief priest is put
   first, whose sacred character could not exempt him from this stroke;
   how should it, when he himself had profaned it by sin? Seraiah the
   prince was a quiet prince (ch. li. 59), but perhaps Seraiah the priest
   was not so, but unquiet and turbulent, by which he had made himself
   obnoxious to the king of Babylon. The leaders of this people had caused
   them to err, and now they are in a particular manner made monuments of
   divine justice. 2. Of the captivity of the rest. Come and see how Judah
   was carried away captive out of his own land (v. 27), and how it spued
   them out as it spued out the Canaanites that went before them, which
   God had told them it would certainly do if they trod in their steps and
   copied out their abominations, Lev. xviii. 28. Now here is an account,
   (1.) Of two captivities which we had an account of before, one in the
   seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar (the same with that which is said to be
   in his eighth year, 2 Kings xxiv. 12), another in his eighteenth year,
   the same with that which is said (v. 12) to be in his nineteenth year.
   But the sums here are very small, in comparison with what we find
   expressed concerning the former (2 Kings xxiv. 14, 16), when there were
   18,000 carried captive, whereas here they are said to be 3023; they are
   also small in comparison with what we may reasonably suppose concerning
   the latter; for, when all the residue of the people were carried away
   (v. 15), one would think there should be more than 832 souls; therefore
   Dr. Lightfoot conjectures that, these accounts being joined to the
   story of the putting to death of the great men at Riblah, all that are
   here said to be carried away were put to death as rebels. (2.) Of a
   third captivity, not mentioned before, which was in the twenty-third
   year of Nebuchadnezzar, four years after the destruction of Jerusalem
   (v. 30): Then Nebuzaradan came, and carried away 745 Jews; it is
   probable that this was done in revenge of the murder of Gedaliah, which
   was another rebellion against the king of Babylon, and that those who
   were now taken were aiders and abetters of Ishmael in that murder, and
   were not only carried away, but put to death for it; yet this is
   uncertain. If this be the sum total of the captives (all the persons
   were 4600, v. 30), we may see how strangely they were reduced from what
   they had been, and may wonder as much how they came to be so numerous
   again as afterwards we find them; for it should seem that, as at first
   in Egypt, so again in Babylon, the Lord made them fruitful in the land
   of their affliction, and the more they were oppressed the more they
   multiplied. And the truth is, this people were often miracles both of
   judgment and mercy.

Jehoiachin Favoured by Evil-merodach. (b. c. 588.)

   31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity
   of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and
   twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the
   first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah,
   and brought him forth out of prison,   32 And spake kindly unto him,
   and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in
   Babylon,   33 And changed his prison garments: and he did continually
   eat bread before him all the days of his life.   34 And for his diet,
   there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day
   a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

   This passage of story concerning the reviving which king Jehoiachin had
   in his bondage we had likewise before (2 Kings xxv. 27-30), only there
   it is said to be done on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month,
   here on the twenty-fifth; but in a thing of this nature two days make a
   very slight difference in the account. It is probable that the orders
   were given for his release on the twenty-fifth day, but that he was not
   presented to the king till the twenty-seventh. We may observe in this
   story, 1. That new lords make new laws. Nebuchadnezzar had long kept
   this unhappy prince in prison; and his son, though well-affected to the
   prisoner, could not procure him any favour, not one smile, from his
   father, any more than Jonathan could for David from his father; but,
   when the old peevish man was dead, his son countenanced Jehoiachin and
   made him a favourite. It is common for children to undo what their
   fathers have done; it were well if it were always as much for the
   better as this was. 2. That the world we live in is a changing world.
   Jehoiachin, in his beginning, fell from a throne into a prison, but
   here he is advanced again to a throne of state (v. 32), though not to a
   throne of power. As, before, the robes were changed into
   prison-garments, so now they were converted into robes again. Such
   chequer-work is this world; prosperity and adversity are set the one
   over-against the other, that we may learn to rejoice as though we
   rejoiced not and weep as though we wept not. 3. That, though the night
   of affliction be very long, yet we must not despair but that the day
   may dawn at last. Jehoiachin was thirty-seven years a prisoner, in
   confinement, in contempt, ever since he was eighteen years old, in
   which time we may suppose him so inured to captivity that he had
   forgotten the sweets of liberty; or, rather, that after so long an
   imprisonment it would be doubly welcome to him. Let those whose
   afflictions have been lengthened out encourage themselves with this
   instance; the vision will at the end speak comfortably, and therefore
   wait for it. Dum spiro spero--While there is life there is hope. Non si
   male nunc, et olim sic erit--Though now we suffer, we shall not always
   suffer. 4. That god can make his people to find favour in the eyes of
   those that are their oppressors, and unaccountably turn their hearts to
   pity them, according to that word ( Ps. cvi. 46), He made them to be
   pitied of all those that carried them captives. He can bring those that
   have spoken roughly to speak kindly, and those to feed his people that
   have fed upon them. Those therefore that are under oppression will find
   that it is not in vain to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of
   the Lord. Therefore our times are in God's hand, because the hearts of
   all we deal with are so. 5. And now, upon the whole matter, comparing
   the prophecy and the history of this book together, we may learn, in
   general, (1.) That it is no new thing for churches and persons highly
   dignified to degenerate, and become very corrupt. (2.) That iniquity
   tends to the ruin of those that harbour it; and, if it be not repented
   of and forsaken, will certainly end in their ruin: (3.) That external
   professions and privileges will not only not amount to an excuse for
   sin and an exemption from ruin, but will be a very great aggravation of
   both. (4.) That no word of God shall fall to the ground, but the event
   will fully answer the prediction; and the unbelief of man shall not
   make God's threatenings, any more than his promises, of no effect. The
   justice and truth of God are here written in bloody characters, for the
   conviction or the confusion of all those that make a jest of his
   threatenings. Let them not be deceived, God is not mocked.
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Lamentations
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE

L A M E N T A T I O N S   O F   J E R E M I A H.
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   Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the
   world, is certainly true, that sorrow is better than laughter, and it
   is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,
   we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy
   chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to
   edify ourselves by them; and, that we may do this, we must compose
   ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping
   prophet. Let us consider, I. The title of this book; in the Hebrew it
   has one, but is called (as the books of Moses are) from the first word
   Ecah--How; but the Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and
   we from them, Kinoth--Lamentations. As we have sacred odes or songs of
   joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation; such variety of
   methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move our
   affections, and so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of the
   impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal. We have not only
   piped unto you, but have mourned likewise, Matt. xi. 17. II. The penman
   of this book; it was Jeremiah the prophet, who is here Jeremiah the
   poet, and vates signifies both; therefore this book is fitly adjoined
   to the book of his prophecy, and is as an appendix to it. We had there
   at large the predictions of the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem, and
   then the history of them, to show how punctually the predictions were
   accomplished, for the confirming of our faith: now here we have the
   expressions of his sorrow upon occasion of them, to show that he was
   very sincere in the protestations he had often made that he did not
   desire the woeful day, but that, on the contrary, the prospect of it
   filled him with bitterness. When he saw these calamities at a distance,
   he wished that his head were waters and his eyes fountains of tears;
   and, when they came, he made it to appear that he did not dissemble in
   that wish, and that he was far from being disaffected to his country,
   which was the crime his enemies charged him with. Though his country
   had been very unkind to him, and though the ruin of it was both a proof
   that he was a true prophet and a punishment of them for prosecuting him
   as a false prophet, which might have tempted him to rejoice in it, yet
   he sadly lamented it, and herein showed a better temper than that which
   Jonah was of with respect to Nineveh. III. The occasion of these
   Lamentations was the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldean
   army and the dissolution of the Jewish state both civil and
   ecclesiastical thereby. Some of the rabbies will have these to be the
   Lamentations which Jeremiah penned upon occasion of the death of
   Josiah, which are mentioned 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. But, though it is true
   that that opened the door to all the following calamities, yet these
   Lamentations seem to be penned in the sight, not in the foresight, of
   those calamities--when they had already come, not when they were at a
   distance; and there is nothing of Josiah in them, and his praise, as
   was no question, in the lamentations for him. No, it is Jerusalem's
   funeral that this is an elegy upon. Others of them will have these
   Lamentations to be contained in the roll which Baruch wrote from
   Jeremiah's mouth, and which Jehoiakim burnt, and they suggest that at
   first there were in it only the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters, but that
   the 3rd and 5th were the many like words that were afterwards added;
   but this is a groundless fancy; that roll is expressly said to be a
   repetition and summary of the prophet's sermons, Jer. xxxvi. 2. IV. The
   composition of it; it is not only poetical, but alphabetical, all
   except the 5th chapter, as some of David's psalms are; each verse
   begins with a several letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, the
   first aleph, the second beth, &c., but the 3rd chapter is a triple
   alphabet, the first three beginning with aleph, the next three with
   beth, &c., which was a help to memory (it being designed that these
   mournful ditties should be got by heart) and was an elegance in writing
   then valued and therefore not now to be despised. They observe that in
   the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters, the letter pe is put before ain, which
   in all the Hebrew alphabets follows it, for a reason of which Dr.
   Lightfoot offers this conjecture, That the letter ajin, which is the
   numeral letter for LXX., was thus, by being displaced, made remarkable,
   to put them in mind of the seventy years at the end of which God would
   turn again their captivity. V. The use of it: of great use, no doubt,
   it was to the pious Jews in their sufferings, furnishing them with
   spiritual language to express their natural grief by, helping to
   preserve the lively remembrance of Zion among them, and their children
   that never saw it, when they were in Babylon, directing their tears
   into the right channel (for they are here taught to mourn for sin and
   mourn to God), and withal encouraging their hopes that God would yet
   return and have mercy upon them; and it is of use to us, to affect us
   with godly sorrow for the calamities of the church of God, as becomes
   those that are living members of it and are resolved to take our lot
   with it.
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L A M E N T A T I O N S.

  CHAP. I.

   We have here the first alphabet of this lamentation, twenty-two
   stanzas, in which the miseries of Jerusalem are bitterly bewailed and
   her present deplorable condition is aggravated by comparing it with her
   former prosperous state; all along, sin is acknowledged and complained
   of as the procuring cause of all these miseries; and God is appealed to
   for justice against their enemies and applied to for compassion towards
   them. The chapter is all of a piece, and the several remonstrances are
   interwoven; but here is, I. A complaint made to God of their
   calamities, and his compassionate consideration desired, ver. 1-11. II.
   The same complaint made to their friends, and their compassionate
   consideration desired, ver. 12-17. III. An appeal to God and his
   righteousness concerning it (ver. 18-22), in which he is justified in
   their affliction and is humbly solicited to justify himself in their
   deliverance.

The Miseries of Jerusalem; Grief for the Loss of Ordinances. (b. c. 588.)

   1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she
   become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess
   among the provinces, how is she become tributary!   2 She weepeth sore
   in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she
   hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with
   her, they are become her enemies.   3 Judah is gone into captivity
   because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth
   among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook
   her between the straits.   4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none
   come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests
   sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.   5 Her
   adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath
   afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are
   gone into captivity before the enemy.   6 And from the daughter of Zion
   all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find
   no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.   7
   Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
   all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her
   people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the
   adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.   8 Jerusalem hath
   grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her
   despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth,
   and turneth backward.   9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she
   remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she
   had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath
   magnified himself.   10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all
   her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into
   her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into
   thy congregation.   11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have
   given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord,
   and consider; for I am become vile.

   Those that have any disposition to weep with those that weep, one would
   think, should scarcely be able to refrain from tears at the reading of
   these verses, so very pathetic are the lamentations here.

   I. The miseries of Jerusalem are here complained of as very pressing
   and by many circumstances very much aggravated. Let us take a view of
   these miseries.

   1. As to their civil state. (1.) A city that was populous is now
   depopulated, v. 1. It is spoken of by way of wonder--Who would have
   thought that ever it should come to this! Or by way of enquiry--What is
   it that has brought it to this? Or by way of lamentation--Alas! alas!
   (as Rev. xviii. 10, 16, 19) how doth the city sit solitary that was
   full of people! She was full of her own people that replenished her,
   and full of the people of other nations that resorted to her, with whom
   she had both profitable commerce and pleasant converse; but now her own
   people are carried into captivity, and strangers make no court to her:
   she sits solitary. The chief places of the city are not now, as they
   used to be, place of concourse, where wisdom cried (Prov. i. 20, 21);
   and justly are they left unfrequented, because wisdom's cry there was
   not heard. Note, Those that are ever so much increased God can soon
   diminish. How has she become as a widow! Her king that was, or should
   have been, as a husband to her, is cut off, and gone; her God has
   departed from her, and has given her a bill of divorce; she is emptied
   of her children, is solitary and sorrowful as a widow. Let no family,
   no state, not Jerusalem, no, nor Babylon herself, be secure, and say, I
   sit as a queen, and shall never sit as a widow, Isa. xlvii. 8; Rev.
   xviii. 7. (2.) A city that had dominion is now in subjection. She had
   been great among the nations, greatly loved by some and greatly feared
   by others, and greatly observed and obeyed by both; some made her
   presents, and others paid her taxes; so that she was really princess
   among the provinces, and every sheaf bowed to hers; even the princes of
   the people entreated her favour. But now the tables are turned; she has
   not only lost her friends and sits solitary, but has lost her freedom
   too and sits tributary; she paid tribute to Egypt first and then to
   Babylon. Note, Sin brings a people not only into solitude, but into
   slavery. (3.) A city that used to be full of mirth has now become
   melancholy and upon all accounts full of grief. Jerusalem had been a
   joyous city, whither the tribes went up on purpose to rejoice before
   the Lord; she was the joy of the whole earth, but now she weeps sorely,
   her laughter is turned into mourning, her solemn feasts are all gone;
   she weeps in the night, as true mourners do who weep in secret, in
   silence and solitude; in the night, when others compose themselves to
   rest, her thoughts are most intent upon her troubles, and grief then
   plays the tyrant. What the prophet's head was for her, when she
   regarded it not, now her head is--as waters, and her eyes fountains of
   tears, so that she weeps day and night (Jer. ix. 1); her tears are
   continually on her cheeks. Though nothing dries away sooner than a
   tear, yet fresh griefs extort fresh tears, so that her cheeks are never
   free from them. Note, There is nothing more commonly seen under the sun
   than the tears of the oppressed, with whom the clouds return after the
   rain, Eccl. iv. 1. (4.) Those that were separated from the heathen now
   dwell among the heathen; those that were a peculiar people are now a
   mingled people (v. 3): Judah has gone into captivity, out of her own
   land into the land of her enemies, and there she abides, and is likely
   to abide, among those that are aliens to God and the covenants of
   promise, with whom she finds no rest, no satisfaction of mind, nor any
   settlement of abode, but is continually hurried from place to place at
   the will of the victorious imperious tyrants. And again (v. 5): "Her
   children have gone into captivity before the enemy; those that were to
   have been the seed of the next generation are carried off; so that the
   land that is now desolate is likely to be still desolate and lost for
   want of heirs." Those that dwell among their own people, and that are a
   free people, and in their own land, would be more thankful for the
   mercies they thereby enjoy if they would but consider the miseries of
   those that are forced into strange countries. (5.) Those that used in
   their wars to conquer are now conquered and triumphed over: All her
   persecutors overlook her between the straits (v. 3); they gained all
   possible advantages against her, sot hat her people unavoidably fell
   into the hand of the enemy, for there was no way to escape (v. 7); they
   were hemmed in on every side, and, which way soever they attempted to
   flee, they found themselves embarrassed. When they made the best of
   their way they could make nothing of it, but were overtaken and
   overcome; so that every where her adversaries are the chief and her
   enemies prosper (v. 5); which way soever their sword turns they get the
   better. Such straits do men bring themselves into by sin. If we allow
   that which is our greatest adversary and enemy to have dominion over
   us, and to be chief in us, justly will our other enemies be suffered to
   have dominion over us. (6.) Those that had been not only a
   distinguished but a dignified people, on whom God had put honour, and
   to whom all their neighbours had paid respect, are now brought into
   contempt (v. 8): All that honoured her before despise her; those that
   courted an alliance with her now value it not; those that caressed her
   when she was in pomp and prosperity slight her now that she is in
   distress, because they have seen her nakedness. By the prevalency of
   the enemies against her they perceive her weakness, and that she is not
   so strong a people as they thought she had been; and by the prevalency
   of God's judgments against her they perceive her wickedness, which now
   comes to light and is every where talked of. Now it appears how they
   have vilified themselves by their sins: The enemies magnify themselves
   against them (v. 9); they trample upon them, and insult over them, and
   in their eyes they have become vile, the tail of the nations, though
   once they were the head. Note, Sin is the reproach of any people. (7.)
   Those that lived in a fruitful land were ready to perish, and many of
   them did perish, for want of necessary food (v. 11): All her people
   sigh in despondency and despair; they are ready to faint away; their
   spirits fail, and therefore they sigh, for they seek bread and seek it
   in vain. They were brought at last to that extremity that there was no
   bread for the people of the land (Jer. lii. 6), and in their captivity
   they had much ado to get break, ch. v. 6. They have given their
   pleasant things, their jewels and pictures, and all the furniture of
   their closets and cabinets, which they used to please themselves with
   looking upon, they have sold these to buy bread for themselves and
   their families, have parted with them for meat to relieve the soul, or
   (as the margin is) to make the soul come again, when they were ready to
   faint away. They desired no other cordial than meat. All that a man has
   will he give for life, and for bread, which is the staff of life. Let
   those that abound in pleasant things not be proud of them, nor fond of
   them; for the time may come when they may be glad to let them go for
   necessary things. And let those that have competent food to relieve
   their soul be content with it, and thankful for it, though they have
   not pleasant things.

   2. We have here an account of their miseries in their ecclesiastical
   state, the ruin of their sacred interest, which was much more to be
   lamented than that of their secular concerns. (1.) Their religious
   feasts were no more observed, no more frequented (v. 4): The ways of
   Zion do mourn; they look melancholy, overgrown with grass and weeds. It
   used to be a pleasant diversion to see people continually passing and
   repassing in the highway that led to the temple, but now you may stand
   there long enough, and see nobody stir; for none come to the solemn
   feasts; a full end is put to them by the destruction of that which was
   the city of our solemnities, Isa. xxxiii. 20. The solemn feasts had
   been neglected and profaned (Isa. i. 11, 12), and therefore justly is
   an end now put to them. But, when thus the ways of Zion are made to
   mourn, all the sons of Zion cannot but mourn with them. It is very
   grievous to good men to see religious assemblies broken up and
   scattered, and those restrained from them that would gladly attend
   them. And, as the ways of Zion mourned, so the gates of Zion, in which
   the faithful worshippers used to meet, are desolate; for there is none
   to meet in them. Time was when the Lord loved the gates of Zion more
   than all the dwellings of Jacob, but now he has forsaken them, and is
   provoked to withdraw from them, and therefore it cannot but fare with
   them as it did with the temple when Christ quitted it. Behold, your
   house is left unto you desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. (2.) Their religious
   persons were quite disabled from performing their wonted services, were
   quite dispirited: Her priests sigh for the desolations of the temple;
   their songs are turned into sighs; they sigh, for they have nothing to
   do, and therefore there is nothing to be had; they sigh, as the people
   (v. 11), for want of bread, because the offerings of the Lord, which
   were their livelihood, failed. It is time to sigh when the priests, the
   Lord's ministers, sigh. Her virgins also, that used, with their music
   and dancing, to grace the solemnities of their feasts, are afflicted
   and in heaviness. Notice is taken of their service in the day of Zion's
   prosperity (Ps. lxviii. 25, Among them were the damsels playing with
   timbrels), and therefore notice is taken of the failing of it now. Her
   virgins are afflicted, and therefore she is in bitterness; that is, all
   the inhabitants of Zion are so, whose character it is that they are
   sorrowful for the solemn assembly, and that to them the reproach of it
   is a burden, Zeph. iii. 18. (3.) Their religious places were profaned
   (v. 10): The heathen entered into her sanctuary, into the temple
   itself, into which no Israelite was permitted to enter, though ever so
   reverently and devoutly, but the priests only. The stranger that comes
   nigh, even to worship there, shall be put to death. Thither the heathen
   now crowds rudely in, not to worship, but to plunder. God had commanded
   that the heathen should not so much as enter into the congregation, nor
   be incorporated with the people of the Jews (Deut. xxiii. 3); yet now
   they enter into the sanctuary without control. Note, Nothing is more
   grievous to those who have a true concern for the glory of God, nor is
   more lamented, than the violation of God's laws, and the contempt they
   see put upon sacred things. What the enemy did wickedly in the
   sanctuary was complained of, Ps. lxxiv. 3, 4. (4.) Their religious
   utensils, and all the rich things with which the temple was adorned and
   beautified, and which were made use of in the worship of God, were made
   a prey to the enemy (v. 10): The adversary has spread out his hand upon
   all her pleasant things, has grasped them all, seized them all, for
   himself. What these pleasant things are we may learn from Isa. lxiv.
   11, where, to the complaint of the burning of the temple, it is added,
   All our pleasant things are laid waste; the ark and the altar, and all
   the other tokens of God's presence with them, these were their pleasant
   things above any other things, and these were now broken to pieces and
   carried away. Thus from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has
   departed, v. 6. The beauty of holiness was the beauty of the daughter
   of Zion; when the temple, that holy and beautiful house, was destroyed,
   her beauty was gone; that was the breaking of the staff of beauty, the
   taking away of the pledges and seals of the covenant, Zech. xi. 10.
   (5.) Their religious days were made a jest of (v. 7): The adversaries
   saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. They laughed at them for
   observing one day in seven as a day of rest from worldly business.
   Juvenal, a heathen poet, ridicules the Jews in his time for losing a
   seventh part of their time:--


   --------cui septima quæque fuit lux

   Ignava et vitæ partem non attigit ullam----

   They keep their sabbaths to their cost,

   For thus one day in sev'n is lost;

   whereas sabbaths, if they be sanctified as they ought to be, will turn
   to a better account than all the days of the week besides. And whereas
   the Jews professed that they did it in obedience to their God, and to
   his honour, their adversaries asked them, "What do you get by it now?
   What profit have you in keeping the ordinances of your God, who now
   deserts you in your distress?" Note, it is a very great trouble to all
   that love God to hear his ordinances mocked at, and particularly his
   sabbaths. Zion calls them her sabbaths, for the sabbath was made for
   men; they are his institutions, but they are her privileges; and the
   contempt put upon sabbaths all the sons of Zion take to themselves and
   lay to heart accordingly; nor will they look upon sabbaths, or any
   other divine ordinances, as less honourable, nor value them less, for
   their being mocked at. (6.) That which greatly aggravated all these
   grievances was that her state at present was just the reverse of what
   it had been formerly, v. 7. Now, in the days of affliction and misery,
   when every thing was black and dismal, she remembers all her pleasant
   things that she had in the days of old, and now knows how to value them
   better than formerly, when she had the full enjoyment of them. God
   often makes us know the worth of mercies by the want of them; and
   adversity is borne with the greatest difficulty by those that have
   fallen into it from the height of prosperity. This cut David to the
   heart, when he was banished from God's ordinances, that he could
   remember when he went with the multitude to the house of God, Ps. xlii.
   4.

   II. The sins of Jerusalem are here complained of as the procuring
   provoking cause of all these calamities. Whoever are the instruments,
   God is the author of all these troubles; it is the Lord that has
   afflicted her (v. 5) and he has done it as a righteous Judge, for she
   has sinned. 1. Her sins are for number numberless. Are her troubles
   many? Her sins are many more. it is for the multitude of her
   transgressions that the Lord has afflicted her. See Jer. xxx. 14. When
   the transgressions of a people are multiplied we cannot say, as Job
   does in his own case, that wounds are multiplied without cause, Job ix.
   17. 2. They are for nature exceedingly heinous (v. 8): Jerusalem has
   grievously sinned, has sinned sin (so the word is), sinned wilfully,
   deliberately, has sinned that sin which of all others is the abominable
   things that the Lord hates, the sin of idolatry. The sins of Jerusalem,
   that makes such a profession and enjoys such privileges, are of all
   others the most grievous sins. She has sinned grievously (v. 8), and
   therefore (v. 9) she came down wonderfully. Note, Grievous sins bring
   wondrous ruin; there are some workers of iniquity to whom there is a
   strange punishment, Job xxxi. 3. They are such sins as may plainly be
   read in the punishment. (1.) They have been very oppressive and
   therefore are justly oppressed (v. 3): Judah has gone into captivity,
   and it is because of affliction and great servitude, because the rich
   among them afflicted the poor and made them serve with rigour, and
   particularly (as the Chaldee paraphrases it) because they had oppressed
   their Hebrew servants, which is charged upon them, Jer. xxxiv. 11.
   Oppression was one of their crying sins (Jer. vi. 6, 7) and it is a sin
   that cries aloud. (2.) They have made themselves vile, and therefore
   are justly vilified. They all despise her (v. 8), for her filthiness is
   in her skirts; it appears upon her garments that she has rolled them in
   the mire of sin. None could stain our glory if we did not stain it
   ourselves. (3.) They have been very secure and therefore are justly
   surprised with this ruin (v. 9): She remembers not her last end; she
   did not take the warning that was given her to consider her latter end,
   to consider what would be the end of such wicked courses as she took,
   and therefore she came down wonderfully, in an astonishing manner, that
   she might be made to feel what she would not fear; therefore God shall
   make their plagues wonderful.

   III. Jerusalem's friends are here complained of as false and
   faint-hearted, and very unkind: They have all dealt treacherously with
   her (v. 2), so that, in effect, they have become her enemies. Her
   deceivers have created her as much vexation as her destroyers. The
   staff that breaks under us may do us as great a mischief as the staff
   that beats us, Ezek. xxix. 6, 7. Her princes, that should have
   protected her, have not courage enough to make head against the enemy
   for their own preservation; they are like harts, that, upon the first
   alarm, betake themselves to flight and make no resistance; nay, they
   are like harts that are famished for want of pasture, and therefore are
   gone without strength before the pursuer, and, having no strength for
   flight, are soon run down and made a prey of. Her neighbours are
   unneighbourly, for, 1. There is none to help her (v. 7); either they
   could not or they would not; nay, 2. She has not comforter, none to
   sympathize with her, or suggest any thing to alleviate her griefs, v.
   7, 9. Like Job's friends, they saw it was to no purpose, her grief was
   so great; and miserable comforters were they all in such a case.

   IV. Jerusalem's God is here complained to concerning all these things,
   and all is referred to his compassionate consideration (v. 9): "O Lord!
   behold my affliction, and take cognizance of it;" and (v. 11), "See, O
   Lord! and consider, take order about it." Note, The only way to make
   ourselves easy under our burdens is to cast them upon God first, and
   leave it to him to do with us as seemeth him good.

God Acknowledged in Affliction; Jerusalem's Complaint. (b. c. 588.)

   12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there
   be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
   Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.   13 From above
   hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he
   hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me
   desolate and faint all the day.   14 The yoke of my transgressions is
   bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath
   made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands,
   from whom I am not able to rise up.   15 The Lord hath trodden under
   foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly
   against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the
   daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.   16 For these things I weep;
   mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that
   should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate,
   because the enemy prevailed.   17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and
   there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob,
   that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a
   menstruous woman among them.   18 The Lord is righteous; for I have
   rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and
   behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
     19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine
   elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to
   relieve their souls.   20 Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my
   bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have
   grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as
   death.   21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me:
   all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast
   done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall
   be like unto me.   22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do
   unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my
   sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

   The complaints here are, for substance, the same with those in the
   foregoing part of the chapter; but in these verses the prophet, in the
   name of the lamenting church, does more particularly acknowledge the
   hand of god in these calamities, and the righteousness of his hand.

   I. The church in distress here magnifies her affliction, and yet no
   more than there was cause for; her groaning was not heavier than her
   strokes. She appeals to all spectators: See if there be any sorrow like
   unto my sorrow, v. 12. This might perhaps be truly said of Jerusalem's
   griefs; but we are apt to apply it too sensibly to ourselves when we
   are in trouble and more than there is cause for. Because we feel most
   from our own burden, and cannot be persuaded to reconcile ourselves to
   it, we are ready to cry out, Surely never was sorrow like unto our
   sorrow; whereas, if our troubles were to be thrown into a common stock
   with those of others, and then an equal dividend made, share and share
   alike, rather than stand to that we should each of us say, "Pray, give
   me my own again."

   II. She here looks beyond the instruments to the author of her
   troubles, and owns them all to be directed, determined, and disposed of
   by him: "It is the Lord that has afflicted me, and he has afflicted me
   because he is angry with me; the greatness of his displeasure may be
   measured by the greatness of my distress; it is in the day of his
   fierce anger," v. 12. Afflictions cannot but be very much our griefs
   when we see them arising from God's wrath; so the church does here. 1.
   She is as one in a fever, and the fever is of God's sending: "He has
   sent fire into my bones (v. 13), a preternatural heat, which prevails
   against them, so that they are burnt like a hearth (Ps. cii. 3), pained
   and wasted, and dried away." 2. She is as one in a net, which the more
   he struggles to get out of the more he is entangled in, and this net is
   of God's spreading. "The enemies could not have succeeded in their
   stratagems had not God spread a net for my feet." 3. She is as one in a
   wilderness, whose way is embarrassed, solitary, and tiresome: "He has
   turned me back, that I cannot go on, has made me desolate, that I have
   nothing to support me with, but am faint all the day." 4. She is as one
   in a yoke, not yoked for service, but for penance, tied neck and heels
   together (v. 14): The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.
   Observe, We never are entangled in any yoke but what is framed out of
   our own transgressions. The sinner is holden with the cords of his own
   sins, Prov. v. 22. The yoke of Christ's commands is an easy yoke (Matt.
   xi. 30), but that of our own transgressions is a heavy one. God is said
   to bind this yoke when he charges guilt upon us, and brings us into
   those inward and outward troubles which our sins have deserved; when
   conscience, as his deputy, binds us over to his judgment, then the yoke
   is bound and wreathed by the hand of his justice, and nothing but the
   hand of his pardoning mercy will unbind it. 5. She is as one in the
   dirt, and he it is that has trodden under foot all her mighty men, that
   has disabled them to stand, and overthrown them by one judgment after
   another, and so left them to be trampled upon by their proud
   conquerors, v. 15. Nay, she is as one in a wine-press, not only trodden
   down, but trodden to pieces, crushed as grapes in the wine-press of
   God's wrath, and her blood pressed out as wine, and it is God that has
   thus trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah. 6. She is in the hand
   of her enemies, and it is the Lord that has delivered her into their
   hands (v. 14): He has made my strength to fall, so that I am not able
   to make head against them; nay, not only not able to rise up against
   them, but not able to rise up from them, and then he has delivered me
   into their hands; nay (v. 15), he has called an assembly against me, to
   crush my young men, and such an assembly as it is in vain to think of
   opposing; and again (v. 17), The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
   that his adversaries should be round about him. He that has many a time
   commanded deliverances for Jacob (Ps. xliv. 4) now commands an invasion
   against Jacob, because Jacob has disobeyed the commands of his law.

   III. She justly demands a share in the pity and compassion of those
   that were the spectators of her misery (v. 12): "Is it nothing to you,
   all you that pass by? Can you look upon me without concern? What! are
   your hearts as adamants and your eyes as marbles, that you cannot
   bestow upon me one compassionate thought, or look, or tear? Are not you
   also in the body? Is it nothing to you that your neighbor's house is on
   fire?" There are those to whom Zion's sorrows and ruins are nothing;
   they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. How pathetically
   does she beg their compassion! (v. 18): "Hear, I pray you, all people,
   and behold my sorrow: hear my complaints, and see what cause I have for
   them." This is a request like that of Job (ch. xix. 21), Have pity upon
   me, have pity upon me, O you my friends! It helps to make a burden sit
   lighter if our friends sympathize with us, and mingle their tears with
   ours, for this is an evidence that, though we are in affliction, we are
   not in contempt, which is commonly as much dreaded in an affliction as
   any thing.

   IV. She justifies her own grief, though it was very extreme, for these
   calamities (v. 16): "For these things I weep, I weep in the night (v.
   2), when none sees; my eye, my eye, runs down with water." Note, This
   world is a vale of tears to the people of God. Zion's sons are often
   Zion's mourners. Zion spreads forth her hands (v. 17), which is here an
   expression rather of despair than of desire; she flings out her hands
   as giving up all for gone. Let us see how she accounts for this
   passionate grief. 1. Her God has withdrawn from her; and Micah, that
   had but gods of gold, when they were stolen from him cried out, What
   have I more? And what is it that you say unto me? What aileth thee? The
   church here grieves excessively; for, says she, the comforter that
   should relieve my soul is far from me. God is the comforter; he used to
   be so to her; he only can administer effectual comforts; it is his word
   that speaks them; it is his Spirit that speaks them to us. His are
   strong consolations, able to relieve the soul, to bring it back when it
   is gone, and we cannot of ourselves fetch it again; but now he has
   departed in displeasure, he is far from me, and beholds me afar off.
   Note, It is no marvel that the souls of the saints faint away, when
   God, who is the only Comforter that can relieve them, keeps at a
   distance. 2. Her children are removed from her, and are in no capacity
   to help her: it is for them that she weeps, as Rachel for hers, because
   they were not, and therefore she refuses to be comforted. Her children
   were desolate, because the enemy prevailed against them; there is none
   of all her sons to take her by the hand (Isa. li. 18); they cannot help
   themselves, and how should they help her? Both the damsels and the
   youths, that were her joy and hope, have gone into captivity, v. 18. It
   is said of the Chaldeans that they had no compassion upon young men nor
   maidens, not on the fair sex, not on the blooming age, 2 Chron. xxxvi.
   17. 3. Her friends failed her; some would not and others could not give
   her any relief. She spread forth her hands, as begging relief, but
   there is none to comfort her (v. 17), none that can do it, none that
   cares to do it; she called for her lovers, and, to engage them to help
   her, called them her lovers, but they deceived her (v. 19), they proved
   like the brooks in summer to the thirsty traveller, Job vi. 15. Note,
   Those creatures that we set our hearts upon and raise our expectations
   from we are commonly deceived and disappointed in. Her idols were her
   lovers. Egypt and Assyria were her confidants. But they deceived her.
   Those that made court to her in her prosperity were shy of her, and
   strange to her, in her adversity. Happy are those that have made God
   their friend and keep themselves in his love, for he will not deceive
   them! 4. Those whose office it was to guide her were disabled from
   doing her any service. The priests and the elders, that should have
   appeared at the head of affairs, died for hunger (v. 19); they gave up
   the ghost, or were ready to expire, while they sought their meat; they
   went a begging for bread to keep them alive. The famine is sore indeed
   in the land when there is no bread to the wise, when priests and elders
   are starved. The priests and elders should have been her comforters;
   but how should they comfort others when they themselves were
   comfortless? "They have heard that I sigh, which should have summoned
   them to my assistance; but there is none to comfort me. Lover and
   friend hast thou put far from me." 5. Her enemies were too hard for
   her, and they insulted over her; they have prevailed, v. 16. Abroad the
   sword bereaves and slays all that comes in its way, and at home all
   provisions are cut off by the besiegers, so that there is as death,
   that is, famine, which is as bad as the pestilence, or worse--the sword
   without and terror within, Deut. xxxii. 25. And as the enemies, that
   were the instruments of the calamity, were very barbarous, so were
   those that were the standers by, the Edomites and Ammonites, that bore
   ill will to Israel: They have heard of my trouble, and are glad that
   thou hast done it (v. 21); they rejoice in the trouble itself; they
   rejoice that it is God's doing; it pleases them to find that God and
   his Israel have fallen out, and they act accordingly with a great deal
   of strangeness towards them. Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among
   them, that they are afraid of touching and are shy of, v. 17. Upon all
   these accounts it cannot be wondered at, nor can she be blamed, that
   her sighs are many, in grieving for what is, and that her heart is
   faint (v. 22) in fear of what is yet further likely to be.

   V. She justifies God in all that is brought upon her, acknowledging
   that her sins had deserved these severe chastenings. The yoke that lies
   so heavily, and binds so hard, is the yoke of her transgressions, v.
   14. The fetters we are held in are of our own making, and it is with
   our own rod that we are beaten. When the church had spoken here as if
   she thought the Lord severe she does well to correct herself, at least
   to explain herself, but acknowledging (v. 18), The Lord is righteous.
   He does us no wrong in dealing thus with us, nor can we charge him with
   any injustice in it; how unrighteous soever men are, we are sure that
   the Lord is righteous, and manifests his justice, though they
   contradict all the laws of theirs. Note, Whatever our troubles are,
   which God is pleased to inflict upon us, we must own that therein he is
   righteous; we understand neither him nor ourselves if we do not own it,
   2 Chron. xii. 6. She owns the equity of God's actions, but owning the
   iniquity of her own: I have rebelled against his commandments (v. 18);
   and again (v. 20), I have grievously rebelled. We cannot speak ill
   enough of sin, and we must always speak worst of our own sin, must call
   it rebellion, grievous rebellion; and very grievous sins is to all true
   penitents. It is this that lies more heavily upon her than the
   afflictions she was under: "My bowels are troubled; they work within me
   as the troubled sea; my heart is turned within me, is restless, is
   turned upside down; for I have grievously rebelled." Note, Sorrow for
   our sin must be great sorrow and must affect the soul.

   VI. She appeals both to the mercy and to the justice of God in her
   present case. 1. She appeals to the mercy of God concerning her own
   sorrows, which had made her the proper object of his compassion (v.
   20): "Behold, O Lord! for I am in distress; take cognizance of my case,
   and take such order for my relief as thou pleasest." Note, It is matter
   of comfort to us that the troubles which oppress our spirits are open
   before God's eye. 2. She appeals to the justice of God concerning the
   injuries that her enemies did her (v. 21, 22): "Thou wilt bring the day
   that thou hast called, the day that is fixed in the counsels of God and
   published in the prophecies, when my enemies, that now prosecute me,
   shall be made like unto me, when the cup of trembling, now put into my
   hands, shall be put into theirs." It may be read as a prayer, "Let the
   day appointed come," and so it goes on, "Let their wickedness come
   before thee, let it come to be remembered, let it come to be reckoned
   for; take vengeance on them for all the wrongs they have done to me
   (Ps. cix. 14, 15); hasten the time when thou wilt do to them for their
   transgressions as thou hast done to me for mine." This prayer amounts
   to a protestation against all thoughts of a coalition with them, and to
   a prediction of their ruin, subscribing to that which God had in his
   word spoken of it. Note, Our prayers may and must agree with God's
   word; and what day God has here called we are to call for, and no
   other. And though we are bound in charity to forgive our enemies, and
   to pray for them, yet we may in faith pray for the accomplishment of
   that which God has spoken against his and his church's enemies, that
   will not repent to give him glory.
     __________________________________________________________________

L A M E N T A T I O N S.

  CHAP. II.

   The second alphabetical elegy is set to the same mournful tune with the
   former, and the substance of it is much the same; it begins with Ecah,
   as that did, "How sad is our case! Alas for us!" I. Here is the anger
   of Zion's God taken notice of as the cause of her calamities, ver. 1-9.
   II. Here is the sorrow of Zion's children taken notice of as the effect
   of her calamities, ver. 10-19. III. The complaint is made to God, and
   the matter referred to his compassionate consideration, ver. 20-22. The
   hand that wounded must make whole.

Cause, Extent, and Greatness of Zion's Calamities. (b. c. 588.)

   1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his
   anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,
   and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!   2 The Lord
   hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he
   hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of
   Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the
   kingdom and the princes thereof.   3 He hath cut off in his fierce
   anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from
   before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire,
   which devoureth round about.   4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he
   stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were
   pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he
   poured out his fury like fire.   5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath
   swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath
   destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah
   mourning and lamentation.   6 And he hath violently taken away his
   tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of
   the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be
   forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger
   the king and the priest.   7 The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath
   abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the
   walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord,
   as in the day of a solemn feast.   8 The Lord hath purposed to destroy
   the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath
   not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart
   and the wall to lament; they languished together.   9 Her gates are
   sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king
   and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her
   prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

   It is a very sad representation which is here made of the state of
   God's church, of Jacob and Israel, of Zion and Jerusalem; but the
   emphasis in these verses seems to be laid all along upon the hand of
   God in the calamities which they were groaning under. The grief is not
   so much that such and such things are done as that God has done them,
   that he appears angry with them; it is he that chastens them, and
   chastens them in wrath and in his hot displeasure; he has become their
   enemy, and fights against them; and this, this is the wormwood and the
   gall in the affliction and the misery.

   I. Time was when God's delight was in his church, and he appeared to
   her, and appeared for her, as a friend. But now his displeasure is
   against her; he is angry with her, and appears and acts against her as
   an enemy. This is frequently repeated here, and sadly lamented. What he
   has done he has done in his anger; this makes the present day a
   melancholy day indeed with us, that it is the day of his anger (v. 1),
   and again (v. 2) it is in his wrath, and (v. 3) it is in his fierce
   anger, that he has thrown down and cut off, and (v. 6) in the
   indignation of his anger. Note, To those who know how to value God's
   favour nothing appears more dreadful than his anger; corrections in
   love are easily borne, but rebukes in love wound deeply. It is God's
   wrath that burns against Jacob like a flaming fire (v. 3), and it is a
   consuming fire; it devours round about, devours all her honours, all
   her comforts. This is the fury that is poured out like fire (v. 4),
   like the fire and brimstone which were rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah;
   but it was their sin that kindled this fire. God is such a tender
   Father to his children that we may be sure he is never angry with them
   but when they provoke him, and give him cause to be angry; nor is he
   ever angry more than there is cause for. God's covenant with them was
   that if they would obey his voice he would be an enemy to their enemies
   (Exod. xxiii. 22), and he had been so as long as they kept close to
   him; but now he is an enemy to them; at least he is as an enemy, v. 5.
   He has bent his bow like an enemy, v. 4. He stood with his right hand
   stretched out against them, and a sword drawn in it as an adversary.
   God is not really an enemy to his people, no, not when he is angry with
   them and corrects them in anger. We may be sorely displeased against
   our dearest friends and relations, whom yet we are far from having an
   enmity to. But sometimes he is as an enemy to them, when all his
   providences concerning them seem in outward appearance to have a
   tendency to their ruin, when every thing made against them and nothing
   for them. But, blessed be God, Christ is our peace, our peacemaker, who
   has slain the enmity, and in him we may agree with our adversary, which
   it is our wisdom to do, since it is in vain to contend with him, and he
   offers us advantageous conditions of peace.

   II. Time was when God's church appeared very bright, and illustrious,
   and considerable among the nations; but now the Lord has covered the
   daughter of Zion with a cloud (v. 1), a dark cloud, which is very
   terrible to himself, and through which she cannot see his face; a thick
   cloud (so that word signifies), a black cloud, which eclipses all her
   glory and conceals her excellency; not such a cloud as that under which
   God conducted them through the wilderness, or that in which God took
   possession of the temple and filled it with his glory: no, that side of
   the cloud is now turned towards them which was turned towards the
   Egyptians in the Red Sea. The beauty of Israel is now cast down from
   heaven to the earth; their princes (2 Sam. i. 19), their religious
   worship, their beauty of holiness, all that which recommended them to
   the affection and esteem of their neighbours and rendered them amiable,
   which had lifted them up to heaven, was now withered and gone, because
   God had covered it with a cloud. He has cut off all the horn of Israel
   (v. 3), all her beauty and majesty (Ps. cxxxii. 17), all her plenty and
   fulness, and all her power and authority. They had, in their pride,
   lifted up their horn against God, and therefore justly will God cut off
   their horn. He disabled them to resist and oppose their enemies; he
   turned back their right hand, so that they were not able to follow the
   blow which they gave nor to ward off the blow which was given them.
   What can their right hand do against the enemy when God draws it back,
   and withers it, as he did Jeroboam's? Thus was the beauty of Israel
   cast down, when a people famed for courage were not able to stand their
   ground nor make good their post.

   III. Time was when Jerusalem and the cities of Judah were strong and
   well fortified, were trusted to by the inhabitants and let alone by the
   enemy as impregnable. But now the lord has in anger swallowed them up;
   they are quite gone; the forts and barriers are taken away, and the
   invaders meet with no opposition: the stately structures, which were
   their strength and beauty, are pulled down and laid waste. 1. The Lord
   has in anger swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob (v. 2), both the
   cities and the country houses; they are burnt, or otherwise destroyed,
   so totally ruined that they seem to have been swallowed up, and no
   remains left of them. He has swallowed up, and has not pitied. One
   would have thought it a pity that such sumptuous houses, so well built,
   so well furnished, should be quite destroyed, ad that some pity should
   have been had for the poor inhabitants that were thus dislodged and
   driven to wander; but God's wonted compassion seemed to fail: He has
   swallowed up Israel, as a lion swallows up his prey, v. 5. 2. He has
   swallowed up not only her common habitations, but her palaces, all her
   palaces, the habitations of their princes and great men (v. 5), though
   those were most stately, and strong, and rich, and well guarded. God's
   judgments, when they come with commission, level palaces with cottages,
   and as easily swallow them up. If palaces be polluted with sin, as
   theirs were, let them expect to be visited with a curse, which shall
   consume them, with the timber thereof and the stones thereof, Zech. v.
   4. 3. He had destroyed not only their dwelling-places, but their
   strong-holds, their castles, citadels, and places of defence. These he
   has thrown down in his wrath, and brought them to the ground; for shall
   they stand in the way of his judgments, and give check to the progress
   of them? No; let them drop like leaves in autumn; let them be raised to
   the foundations, and made to touch the ground, v. 2. And again (v. 5),
   He has destroyed his strong-holds; for what strength could they have
   against God? And thus he increased in the daughter of Judah mourning
   and lamentation, for they could not but be in a dreadful consternation
   when they saw all their defence departed from them. This is again
   insisted on, v. 7-9. In order to the swallowing up of her palaces, he
   has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces, which
   were their security, and, when they are broken down, the palaces
   themselves are soon broken into. The walls of palaces cannot protect
   them, unless God himself be a wall of fire round about them. This God
   did in his anger, and yet he has done it deliberately. It is the result
   of a previous purpose, and is done by a wise and steady providence; for
   the Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; he
   brought the Chaldean army in on purpose to do this execution. Note,
   Whatever desolations God makes in his church, they are all according to
   his counsels; he performs the thing that is appointed for us, even that
   which makes most against us. But, when it is done, he has stretched out
   a line, a measuring line, to do it exactly and by measure: hitherto the
   destruction shall go, and no further; no more shall be cut off than
   what is marked to be so. Or it is meant of the line of confusion (Isa.
   xxxiv. 11), a levelling line; for he will go on with his work; he has
   not withdrawn his hand from destroying, that right hand which he
   stretched out against his people as an adversary, v. 4. As far as the
   purpose went the performance shall go, and his hand shall accomplish
   his counsel to the utmost, and not be withdrawn. Therefore he made the
   rampart and the wall, which the people had rejoiced in and upon which
   perhaps they had made merry, to lament, and they languished together;
   the walls and the ramparts, or bulwarks, upon them, fell together, and
   were left to condole with one another on their fall. Her gates are gone
   in an instant, so that one would think they were sunk into the ground
   with their own weight, and he has destroyed and broken her bars, those
   bars of Jerusalem's gates which formerly he had strengthened, Ps.
   cxlvii. 13. Gates and bars will stand us in no stead when God has
   withdrawn his protection.

   IV. Time was when their government flourished, their princes made a
   figure, their kingdom was great among the nations, and the balance of
   power was on their side; but now it is quite otherwise: He has polluted
   the kingdom and the princes thereof, v. 2. They had first polluted
   themselves with their idolatries, and then God dealt with them as with
   polluted things; he threw them to the dunghill, the fittest place for
   them. He has given up their glory, which was looked upon as sacred
   (that is a character we give to majesty), to be trampled upon and
   profaned; and no marvel that the king and the priest, whose characters
   were always deemed venerable and inviolable, are despised by every
   body, when God has, in the indignation of his anger, despised the king
   and the priest, v. 6. He has abandoned them; he looks upon them as no
   longer worthy of the honours conveyed to them by the covenants of
   royalty and priesthood, but as having forfeited both; and then Zedekiah
   the king was used despitefully, and Seraiah the chief priest put to
   death as a malefactor. The crown has fallen from their heads, for her
   king and her princes are among the Gentiles, prisoners among them,
   insulted over by them (v. 9), and treated not only as common persons,
   but as the basest, without any regard to their character. Note, It is
   just with God to debase those by his judgments who have by sin debased
   themselves.

   V. Time was when the ordinances of God were administered among them in
   their power and purity, and they had those tokens of God's presence
   with them; but now those were taken from them, that part of the beauty
   of Israel was gone which was indeed their greatest beauty. 1. The ark
   was God's footstool, under the mercy-seat, between the cherubim; this
   was of all others the most sacred symbol of God's presence (it is
   called his footstool, 1 Chron. xxviii. 2; Ps. xcix. 5; cxxxii. 7);
   there the Shechinah rested, and with an eye to this Israel was often
   protected and saved; but now he remembered not his footstool. The ark
   itself was suffered, as it should seem, to fall into the hands of the
   Chaldeans. God, being angry, threw that away; for it shall be no longer
   his footstool; the earth shall be so, as it had been before the ark
   was, Isa. lxvi. 1. Of what little value are the tokens of his presence
   when his presence is gone! Nor was this the first time that God gave
   his ark into captivity, Ps. lxxviii. 61. God and his kingdom can stand
   without that footstool. 2. Those that ministered in holy things had
   been pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion (v.
   4); they had been purer than snow, whiter than milk (ch. iv. 7); none
   more pleasant in the eyes of all good people than those that did the
   service of the tabernacle. But now these are slain, and their blood is
   mingled with their sacrifices. Thus is the priest despised as well as
   the king. Note, When those that were pleasant to the eye in Zion's
   tabernacle are slain God must be acknowledged in it; he has done it,
   and the burning which the Lord has kindled must be bewailed by the
   whole house of Israel, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, Lev. x. 6. 3.
   The temple was God's tabernacle (as the tabernacle, while that was in
   being, was called his temple, Ps. xxvii. 4) and this he has violently
   taken away (v. 6); he has plucked up the stakes of it and cut the
   cords; it shall be no more a tabernacle, much less his; he has taken it
   away, as the keeper of a garden takes away his shovel or shade, when he
   has done with it and has no more occasion for it; he takes it down as
   easily, as speedily, and with a little regret and reluctance as if it
   were but a cottage in a vineyard or a lodge in a garden of cucumbers
   (Isa. i. 8), but a booth which the keeper makes, Job xxvii. 18. When
   men profane God's tabernacle it is just with him to take it from them.
   God has justly refused to smell their solemn assemblies (Amos v. 21);
   they had provoked him to withdraw from them, and then no marvel that he
   has destroyed his places of the assembly; what should they do with the
   places when the services had become an abomination? He has now abhorred
   his sanctuary (v. 7); it has been defiled with sin, that only thing
   which he hates, and for the sake of that he abhors even his sanctuary,
   which he had delighted in and called his rest for ever, Ps. cxxxii. 14.
   Thus he had done to Shiloh. Now the enemies have made as great a noise
   of revelling and blaspheming in the house of the Lord as ever had been
   made with the temple-songs and music in the day of a solemn feast, Ps.
   lxxiv. 4. Some, by the places of the assembly (v. 6), understand not
   only the temple, but the synagogues, and the schools of the prophets,
   which the enemy had burnt up, Ps. lxxiv. 8. 4. The solemn feasts and
   the sabbaths had been carefully remembered, and the people constantly
   put in mind of them; but now the Lord has caused those to be forgotten,
   not only in the country, among those that lived at a distance, but even
   in Zion itself; for there were none left to remember them, nor were
   there the places left where they used to be observed. Now that Zion was
   in ruins no difference was made between sabbath time and other times;
   every day was a day of mourning, so that all the solemn feasts were
   forgotten. Note, It is just with God to deprive those of the benefit
   and comfort of sabbaths and solemn feasts who have not duly valued
   them, nor conscientiously observed them, but have profaned them, which
   was one of the sins that the Jews were often charged with. Those that
   have seen the days of the Son of man, and slighted them, may desire to
   see one of those days and not be permitted, Luke xvii. 22. 5. The altar
   that had sanctified their gifts is now cast off, for God will no more
   accept their gifts, nor be honoured by their sacrifices, v. 7. The
   altar was the table of the Lord, but God will no longer keep house
   among them; he will neither feast them nor feast with them. 6. They had
   been blest with prophets and teachers of the law; but now the law is no
   more (v. 9); it is no more read by the people, no more expounded by the
   scribes; the tables of the law are gone with the ark; the book of the
   law is taken from them, and the people are forbidden to have it. What
   should those do with Bibles who had made no better improvement of them
   when they had them? Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord; God
   answers them no more by prophets and dreams, which was the melancholy
   case of Saul, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. They had persecuted God's prophets,
   and despised the visions they had from the Lord, and therefore it is
   just with God to say that they shall have no more prophets, no more
   visions. Let them go to the prophets that had flattered and deceived
   them with visions of their own hearts, for they shall have none from
   God to comfort them, or tell them how long. Those that misuse God's
   prophets justly lose them.

Complicated Sorrows. (b. c. 588.)

   10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep
   silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded
   themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their
   heads to the ground.   11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are
   troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the
   daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in
   the streets of the city.   12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn
   and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city,
   when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.   13 What
   thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to
   thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may
   comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like
   the sea: who can heal thee?   14 Thy prophets have seen vain and
   foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity,
   to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and
   causes of banishment.   15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee;
   they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is
   this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the
   whole earth?   16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against
   thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her
   up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we
   have seen it.   17 The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he
   hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he
   hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy
   to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
   18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let
   tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let
   not the apple of thine eye cease.   19 Arise, cry out in the night: in
   the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the
   face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy
   young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.   20
   Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the
   women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest
   and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?   21 The young
   and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young
   men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine
   anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.   22 Thou hast called as in a
   solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's
   anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought
   up hath mine enemy consumed.

   Justly are these called Lamentations, and they are very pathetic ones,
   the expressions of grief in perfection, mourning and woe, and nothing
   else, like the contents of Ezekiel's roll, Ezek. ii. 10.

   I. Copies of lamentations are here presented and they are painted to
   the life. 1. The judges and magistrates, who used to appear in robes of
   state, have laid them aside, or rather are stripped of them, and put on
   the habit of mourners (v. 10); the elders now sit no longer in the
   judgment-seats, the thrones of the house of David, but they sit upon
   the ground, having no seat to repose themselves in, or in token of
   great grief, as Job's friends sat with him upon the ground, Job ii. 13.
   They open not their mouth in the gate, as usual, to give their opinion,
   but they keep silence, overwhelmed with grief, and not knowing what to
   say. They have cast dust upon their heads, and girded themselves with
   sackcloth, as deep mourners used to do; they had lost their power and
   wealth, and that made the grieve thus. Ploratur lachrymis amissa
   pecunia veris--Genuine are the tears which we shed over lost property.
   2. The young ladies, who used to dress themselves so richly, and walk
   with stretched-forth necks (Isa. iii. 16), now are humbled; The virgins
   of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground; those are made to
   know sorrow who seemed to bid defiance to it and were always disposed
   to be merry. 3. The prophet himself is a pattern to the mourners, v.
   11. His eyes do fail with tears; he has wept till he can weep no more,
   has almost wept his eyes out, wept himself blind. Nor are the inward
   impressions of grief short of the outward expressions. His bowels are
   troubled, as they were when he saw these calamities coming (Jer. iv.
   19, 20), which, one would think, might have excused him now; but even
   he, to whom they were no surprise, felt them an insupportable grief, to
   such a degree that his liver is poured out on the earth; he felt
   himself a perfect colliquation; all his entrails were melted and
   dissolved, as Ps. xxii. 14. Jeremiah himself had better treatment than
   his neighbours, better than he had had before from his own countrymen,
   nay, their destruction was his deliverance, their captivity his
   enlargement; the same that made them prisoners made him a favourite;
   and yet his private interests are swallowed up in a concern for the
   public, and he bewails the destruction of the daughter of his people as
   sensibly as if he himself had been the greatest sufferer in that common
   calamity. Note, The judgments of God upon the land and nation are to be
   lamented by us, though we, for our parts, may escape pretty well.

   II. Calls to lamentation are here given: The heart of the people cried
   unto the Lord, v. 18. Some fear it was a cry, not of true repentance,
   but of bitter complaint; their heart was as full of grief as it could
   hold, and they gave vent to it in doleful shrieks and outcries, in
   which they made use of God's name; yet we will charitably suppose that
   many of them did in sincerity cry unto God for mercy in their distress;
   and the prophet bids them go on to do so: "O wall of the daughter of
   Zion! either you that stand upon the wall, you watchmen on the walls
   (Isa. lxii. 6), when you see the enemies encamped about the walls and
   making their approaches towards them, or because of the wall (that is
   the subject of the lamentation), because of the breaking down of the
   wall (which was not done till about a month after the city was taken),
   because of this further calamity, let the daughter of Zion lament
   still." This was a thing which Nehemiah lamented long after, Neh. i. 3,
   4. "Let tears run down like a river day and night, weep without
   intermission, give thyself no rest from weeping, let not the apple of
   thy eye cease." This intimates, 1. That the calamities would be
   continuing, and the causes of grief would frequently recur, and fresh
   occasion would be given them every day and every night to bemoan
   themselves. 2. That they would be apt, by degrees, to grow insensible
   and stupid under the hand of God, and would need to be still called
   upon to afflict their souls yet more and more, till their proud and
   hard hearts were thoroughly humbled and softened.

   III. Causes for lamentation are here assigned, and the calamities that
   are to be bewailed are very particularly and pathetically described.

   1. Multitudes perish by famine, a very sore judgment, and piteous is
   the case of those that fall under it. God had corrected them by
   scarcity of provisions through want of rain some time before (Jer. xiv.
   1), and they were not brought to repentance by that lower degree of
   this judgment, and therefore now by the straitness of the siege God
   brought it upon them in extremity; for, (1.) The children died for
   hunger in their mothers' arms: The children and sucklings, whose
   innocent and helpless state entitles them to relief as soon as any,
   swoon in the streets (v. 11) as the wounded (v. 12), there being no
   food to be had for them; those that are starved die as surely as those
   that are stabbed. They lie a great while crying to their poor mothers
   for corn to feed them and wine to refresh them, for they are such as
   had been bred up to the use of wine and wanted it now; but there is
   none for them, so that at length their soul is poured into their
   mothers' bosom, and there they breathe their last. This is mentioned
   again (v. 19): They faint for hunger in the top of every street. Yet
   this is not the worst, (2.) There were some little children that were
   slain by their mothers' hands and eaten, v. 20. Such was the scarcity
   of provision that the women ate the fruit of their own bodies, even
   their children when they were but of a span long, according to the
   threatening, Deut. xxviii. 53. The like was done in the siege of
   Samaria, 2 Kings vi. 29. Such extremities, nay, such barbarities, were
   they brought to by the famine. Let us, in our abundance, thank God that
   we have food convenient, not only for ourselves, but for our children.

   2. Multitudes fall by the sword, which devours one as well as another,
   especially when it is in the hand of such cruel enemies as the
   Chaldeans were. (1.) They spared no character, no, not the most
   distinguished; even the priest and the prophet, who of all men, one
   would think, might expect protection from heaven and veneration on
   earth, are slain, not abroad in the field of battle, where they are out
   of their place, as Hophni and Phinehas, but in the sanctuary of the
   Lord, the place of their business and which they hoped would be a
   refuge to them. (2.) They spared no age, no, not those who, by reason
   of their tender or their decrepit age, were exempted from taking up the
   sword; for even they perished by the sword. "The young, who have not
   yet come to bear arms, and the old, who have had their discharge, lie
   on the ground, slain in the streets, till some kind hand is found that
   will bury them." (3.) They spared no sex: My virgins and my young men
   have fallen by the sword. In the most barbarous military executions
   that ever we read of the virgins were spared, and made part of the
   spoil (Num. xxxi. 18, Judges v. 30), but here the virgins were put to
   the sword, as well as the young men. (4.) This was the Lord's doing; he
   suffered the sword of the Chaldeans to devour thus without distinction:
   Thou has slain them in the day of thy anger, for it is God that kills
   and makes alive, and saves alive, as he pleases. But that which follows
   is very harsh: Thou has killed, and not pitied; for his soul is grieved
   for the misery of Israel. The enemies that used them thus cruelly were
   such as he had both mustered and summoned (v. 22): "Thou hast called
   in, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about, that is, the Chaldeans,
   who are such a terror to me;" enemies crowded into Jerusalem now as
   thickly as ever worshippers used to do on a solemn festival, so that
   they were quite overpowered with numbers, and none escaped nor
   remained; Jerusalem was made a perfect slaughter-house. Mothers are cut
   to the heart to see those whom they have taken such care of, and pains
   with, and whom they have been so tender of, thus inhumanly used,
   suddenly cut off, though not soon reared: Those that I have swaddled,
   and brought up, has my enemy consumed, as if they were brought forth
   for the murderer, like lambs for the butcher, Hosea ix. 13. Zion, who
   was a mother to them all, lamented to see those who were brought up in
   her courts, and under the tuition of her oracles, thus made a prey.

   3. Their false prophets cheated them, v. 14. This was a thing which
   Jeremiah had lamented long before, and had observed with a great
   concern (Jer. xiv. 13): Ah! Lord God, the prophets say unto them, You
   shall not see the sword; and here he inserts it among his lamentations:
   Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; they pretended
   to discover for thee, and then to discover to thee, the mind and will
   of God, to see the visions of the Almighty and then to speak his words;
   but they were all vain and foolish things; their visions were all their
   own fancies, and, if they thought they had any, it was only the product
   of a crazed head or a heated imagination, as appeared by what they
   delivered, which was all idle and impertinent: nay, it is most likely
   that they themselves knew that the visions they pretended were
   counterfeit, and all a sham, and made use of only to colour that which
   they designedly imposed upon the people with, that they might make an
   interest in them for themselves. They are thy prophets, not God's
   prophets; he never sent them, nor were they pastors after his heart,
   but the people set them up, told them what they should say, so that
   they were prophets after their hearts. (1.) Prophets should tell people
   of their faults, should show them their sins, that they may bring them
   to repentance, and so prevent their ruin; but these prophets knew that
   would lose them the people's affections and contributions, and knew
   they could not reprove their hearers without reproaching themselves at
   the same time, and therefore they have not discovered thy iniquity;
   they saw it not themselves, or, if they did, saw so little evil in it,
   or danger from it, that they would not tell them of it, though that
   might have been a means, by taking away their iniquity, to turn away
   their captivity. (2.) Prophets should warn people of the judgments of
   God coming upon them, but these saw for them false burdens; the
   messages they pretended to deliver to them from God they knew to be
   false, and falsely ascribed to God; so that, by soothing them up in
   carnal security, they caused that banishment which, by plain dealing,
   they might have prevented.

   4. Their neighbours laughed at them (v. 15): All that pass by thee clap
   their hands at thee. Jerusalem had made a great figure, got a great
   name, and borne a great sway, among the nations; it was the envy and
   terror of all about; and, when the city was thus reduced; they all (as
   men are apt to do in such a case) triumphed in its fall; they hissed,
   and wagged the head, pleasing themselves to see how much it had fallen
   from its former pretensions. Is this the city (said they) that men
   called the perfection of beauty? Ps. l. 2. How is it now the perfection
   of deformity! Where is all its beauty now? Is this the city which was
   called the joy of the whole earth (Ps. xlviii. 2), which rejoiced in
   the gifts of God's bounty and grace more than any other place, and
   which all the earth rejoiced in? Where is all its joy now and all its
   glorying? It is a great sin thus to make a jest of others' miseries,
   and adds very much affliction to the afflicted.

   5. Their enemies triumphed over them, v. 16. Those that wished ill to
   Jerusalem and her peace now vent their spite and malice, which before
   they concealed; they now open their mouths, nay, they widen them; they
   hiss and gnash their teeth in scorn and indignation; they triumph in
   their own success against her, and the rich prey they have got in
   making themselves masters of Jerusalem: "We have swallowed her up; it
   is our doing, and it is our gain; it is all our own now. Jerusalem
   shall never be either courted or feared as she has been. Certainly this
   is the day that we have long looked for; we have found it; we have seen
   it; aha! so would we have it." Note, The enemies of the church are apt
   to take its shocks for its ruins, and to triumph in them accordingly;
   but they will find themselves deceived; for the gates of hell shall not
   prevail against the church.

   6. Their God, in all this, appeared against them (v. 17): The Lord has
   done that which he had devised. The destroyers of Jerusalem could have
   no power against her unless it were given them from above. They are but
   the sword in God's hand; it is he that has thrown down, and has not
   pitied. "In this controversy of his with us we have not had the usual
   instances of his compassion towards us." He has caused thy enemy to
   rejoice over thee (see Job xxx. 11); he has set up the horn of thy
   adversaries, has given them power and matter for pride. This is indeed
   the highest aggravation of the trouble, that God has become their
   enemy, and yet it is the strongest argument for patience under it; we
   are bound to submit to what God does, for, (1.) It is the performance
   of his purpose: The Lord has done that which he had devised; it is done
   with counsel and deliberation, not rashly, or upon a sudden resolve; it
   is the evil that he has framed (Jer. xviii. 11), and we may be sure it
   is framed so as exactly to answer the intention. What God devises
   against his people is designed for them, and so it will be found in the
   issue. (2.) It is the accomplishment of his predictions; it is the
   fulfilling of the scripture; he has now put in execution his word that
   he had commanded in the days of old. When he gave them his law by Moses
   he told them what judgments he would certainly inflict upon them if
   they transgressed that law; and now that they have been guilty of the
   transgression of this law he had executed the sentence of it, according
   to Lev. xxvi. 16, &c., Deut. xxviii. 15. Note, In all the providences
   of God concerning his church it is good to take notice of the
   fulfilling of his word; for there is an exact agreement between the
   judgments of God's hand and the judgments of his mouth, and when they
   are compared they will mutually explain and illustrate each other.

   IV. Comforts for the cure of these lamentations are here sought for and
   prescribed.

   1. They are sought for and enquired after, v. 13. The prophet seeks to
   find out some suitable acceptable words to say to her in this case:
   Wherewith shall I comfort thee, O virgin! daughter of Zion? Note, We
   should endeavour to comfort those whose calamities we lament, and, when
   our passions have made the worst of them, our wisdom should correct
   them and labour to make the best of them; we should study to make our
   sympathies with our afflicted friends turn to their consolation. Now
   the two most common topics of comfort, in case of affliction, are here
   tried, but are laid by because they would not hold. We commonly
   endeavour to comfort our friends by telling them, (1.) That their case
   is not singular, nor without precedent; there are many whose trouble is
   greater, and lies heavier upon them, than theirs does; but Jerusalem's
   case will not admit this argument: "What thing shall I liken to thee,
   or what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee? What city, what
   country, is there, whose case is parallel to thine? What witness shall
   I produce to prove an example that will reach thy present calamitous
   state? Alas! there is none, no sorrow like thine, because there is none
   whose honour was like thine." (2.) We tell them that their case is not
   desperate, but that it may easily be remedied; but neither will that be
   admitted here, upon a view of human probabilities; for thy breach is
   great, like the sea, like the breach which the sea sometimes makes upon
   the land, which cannot be repaired, but still grows wider and wider.
   Thou art wounded, and who shall heal thee? No wisdom nor power of man
   can repair the desolations of such a broken shattered state. It is to
   no purpose therefore to administer any of these common cordials;
   therefore,

   2. The method of cure prescribed is to address themselves to God, and
   by a penitent prayer to commit their case to him, and to be instant and
   constant in such prayers (v. 19): "Arise out of thy dust, out of thy
   despondency, cry out in the night, watch unto prayer; when others are
   asleep, be thou upon thy knees, importunate with God for mercy; in the
   beginning of the watches, of each of the four watches, of the night
   (let thy eyes prevent them, Ps. cxix. 148), then pour out thy heart
   like water before the Lord, be free and full in prayer, be sincere and
   serious in prayer, open thy mind, spread thy case before the Lord; lift
   up thy hands towards him in holy desire and expectation; beg for the
   life of thy young children. These poor lambs, what have they done? 2
   Sam. xxiv. 17. Take with you words, take with you these words (v. 20),
   Behold, O Lord! and consider to whom thou hast done this, with whom
   thou hast dealt thus. Are they not thy own, the seed of Abraham thy
   friend and of Jacob thy chosen? Lord, take their case into thy
   compassionate consideration!" Note, Prayer is a salve for every sore,
   even the sorest, a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. And
   our business in prayer is not to prescribe, but to subscribe to the
   wisdom and will of God; to refer our case to him, and then to leave it
   with him. Lord, behold and consider, and thy will be done.
     __________________________________________________________________

L A M E N T A T I O N S.

  CHAP. III.

   The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the two foregoing
   chapters, but the composition is somewhat different; that was in long
   verse, this is in short, another kind of metre; that was in single
   alphabets, this is in a treble one. Here is, I. A sad complaint of
   God's displeasure and the fruits of it, ver. 1-20. II. Words of comfort
   to God's people when they are in trouble and distress, ver. 21-36. III.
   Duty prescribed in this afflicted state, ver. 37-41. IV. The complaint
   renewed, ver. 42-54. V. Encouragement taken to hope in God, and
   continue waiting for his salvation, with an appeal to his justice
   against the persecutors of the church, ver. 55-66. Some make all this
   to be spoken by the prophet himself when he was imprisoned and
   persecuted; but it seems rather to be spoken in the person of the
   church now in captivity and in a manner desolate, and in the
   desolations of which the prophet did in a particular manner interest
   himself. But the complaints here are somewhat more general than those
   in the foregoing chapter, being accommodated to the case as well of
   particular persons as of the public, and intended for the use of the
   closet rather than of the solemn assembly. Some think Jeremiah makes
   these complaints, not only as an intercessor for Israel, but as a type
   of Christ, who was thought by some to be Jeremiah the weeping prophet,
   because he was much in tears (Matt. xvi. 14) and to him many of the
   passages here may be applied.

The Prophet's Personal Affliction. (b. c. 588.)

   1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.   2
   He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.   3
   Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the
   day.   4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my
   bones.   5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and
   travail.   6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of
   old.   7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made
   my chain heavy.   8 Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my
   prayer.   9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my
   paths crooked.   10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a
   lion in secret places.   11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me
   in pieces: he hath made me desolate.   12 He hath bent his bow, and set
   me as a mark for the arrow.   13 He hath caused the arrows of his
   quiver to enter into my reins.   14 I was a derision to all my people;
   and their song all the day.   15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he
   hath made me drunken with wormwood.   16 He hath also broken my teeth
   with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.   17 And thou hast
   removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.   18 And I
   said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:   19
   Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
   20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

   The title of the 102nd Psalm might very fitly be prefixed to this
   chapter--The prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours
   out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and
   fluently that the complaint is here poured out. Let us observe the
   particulars of it. The prophet complains, 1. That God is angry. This
   gives both birth and bitterness to the affliction (v. 1): I am the man,
   the remarkable man, that has seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly,
   by the rod of his wrath. Note, God is sometimes angry with his own
   people; yet it is to be complained of, not as a sword to cut off, by
   only as a rod to correct; it is to them the rod of his wrath, a
   chastening which, though grievous for the present, will in the issue be
   advantageous. By this rod we must expect to see affliction, and, if we
   be made to see more than ordinary affliction by that rod, we must not
   quarrel, for we are sure that the anger is just and affliction mild and
   mixed with mercy. 2. That he is at a loss and altogether in the dark.
   Darkness is put for great trouble and perplexity, the want both of
   comfort and of direction; this was the case of the complainant (v. 2):
   "He has led me by his providence, and an unaccountable chain of events,
   into darkness and not into light, the darkness I feared and not into
   the light I hoped for." And (v. 6), He has set me in dark places, dark
   as the grave, like those that are dead of old, that are quite
   forgotten, nobody knows who or what they were. Note, The Israel of God,
   though children of light, sometimes walk in darkness. 3. That God
   appears against him as an enemy, as a professed enemy. God had been for
   him, but no "Surely against me is he turned (v. 3), as far as I can
   discern; for his hand is turned against me all the day. I am chastened
   every morning," Ps. lxxiii. 14. And, when God's hand is continually
   turned against us, we are tempted to think that his heart is turned
   against us too. God had said once (Hos. v. 14), I will be as a lion to
   the house of Judah, and now he has made his word good (v. 10): "He was
   unto me as a bear lying in wait, surprising me with his judgments, and
   as a lion in secret places; so that which way soever I went I was in
   continual fear of being set upon and could never think myself safe." Do
   men shoot at those thy are enemies to? He has bent his bow, the bow
   that was ordained against the church's prosecutors, that is bent
   against her sons, v. 12. He has set me as a mark for his arrow, which
   he aims at, and will be sure to hit, and then the arrows of his quiver
   enter into my reins, give me a mortal wound, an inward wound, v. 13.
   Note, God has many arrows in his quiver, and they fly swiftly and
   pierce deeply. 4. That he is as one sorely afflicted both in body and
   mind. The Jewish state may now be fitly compared to a man wrinkled with
   age, for which there is no remedy (v. 4): "My flesh and my skin has he
   made old; they are wasted and withered, and I look like one that is
   ready to drop into the grave; nay, he has broken my bones, and so
   disabled me to help myself, v. 15. He has filled me with bitterness, a
   bitter sense of his calamities." God has access to the spirit, and can
   so embitter that as thereby to embitter all the enjoyments; as, when
   the stomach is foul, whatever is eaten sours in it: "He has made me
   drunk with wormwood, so intoxicated me with the sense of my afflictions
   that I know not what to say or do. He has mingled gravel with my bread,
   so that my teeth are broken with it (v. 16) and what I eat is neither
   pleasant nor nourishing. He has covered me with ashes, as mourners used
   to be, or (as some read it) he has fed me with ashes. I have eaten
   ashes like bread," Ps. cii. 9. 5. That he is not able to discern any
   way of escape or deliverance (v. 5): "He has built against me, as forts
   and batteries are built against a besieged city. Where there was a way
   open it is now quite made up: He has compassed me on ever side with
   gall and travel; I vex, and fret, and tire myself, to find a way of
   escape, but can find none, v. 7. He has hedged me about, that I cannot
   get out." When Jerusalem was besieged it was said to be compassed in on
   every side, Luke xix. 43. "I am chained; and as some notorious
   malefactors are double-fettered, and loaded with irons, so he has made
   my chain heavy. He has also (v. 9) enclosed my ways with hewn stone,
   not only hedged up my way with thorns (Hos. ii. 6), but stopped it up
   with a stone wall, which cannot be broken through, so that my paths are
   made crooked; I traverse to and fro, to the right hand, to the left, to
   try to get forward, but am still turned back." It is just with God to
   make those who walk in the crooked paths of sin, crossing God's laws,
   walk in the crooked paths of affliction, crossing their designs and
   breaking their measures. So (v. 11), "He has turned aside my ways; he
   has blasted all my counsels, ruined my projects, so that I am
   necessitated to yield to my own ruin. He has pulled me in pieces; he
   has torn and is gone away (Hos. v. 14), and has made me desolate, has
   deprived me of all society and all comfort in my own soul." 6. That God
   turns a deaf ear to his prayers (v. 8): "When I cry and shout, as one
   in earnest, as one that would make him hear, yet he shuts out my prayer
   and will not suffer it to have access to him." God's ear is wont to be
   open to the prayers of his people, and his door of mercy to those that
   knock at it; but now both are shut, even to one that cries and shouts.
   Thus sometimes God seems to be angry even against the prayers of his
   people (Ps. lxxx. 4), and their case is deplorable indeed when they are
   denied not only the benefit of an answer, but the comfort of
   acceptance. 7. That his neighbours make a laughing matter of his
   troubles (v. 14): I was a derision to all my people, to all the wicked
   among them, who made themselves an one another merry with the public
   judgments, and particularly the prophet Jeremiah's griefs. I am their
   song, their neginath, or hand-instrument of music, their tabret (Job
   xvii. 6), that they play upon, as Nero on his harp when Rome was on
   fire. 8. That he was ready to despair of relief and deliverance: "Thou
   hast not only taken peace from me, but hast removed my soul far off
   from peace (v. 17), so that it is not only not within reach, but not
   within view. I forget prosperity; it is so long since I had it, and so
   unlikely that I should ever recover it, that I have lost the idea of
   it. I have been so inured to sorrow and servitude that I know not what
   joy and liberty mean. I have even given up all for gone, concluding, My
   strength and my hope have perished from the Lord (v. 18); I can no
   longer stay myself upon God as my support, for I do not find that he
   gives me encouragement to do so; nor can I look for his appearing in my
   behalf, so as to put an end to my troubles, for the case seems
   remediless, and even my God inexorable." Without doubt it was his
   infirmity to say this (Ps. lxxvii. 10), for with God there is
   everlasting strength, and he is his people's never-failing hope,
   whatever they may think. 9. That grief returned upon every remembrance
   of his troubles, and his reflections were as melancholy as his
   prospects, v. 19, 20. Did he endeavour as Job did (Job ix. 27), to
   forget his complaint? Alas! it was to no purpose; he remembers, upon
   all occasions, the affliction and the misery, the wormwood and the
   gall. Thus emphatically does he speak of his affliction, for thus did
   he think of it, thus heavily did it lie when he reviewed it! It was an
   affliction that was misery itself. My affliction and my transgression
   (so some read it), my trouble and my sin that brought it upon me; this
   was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery. It is
   sin that makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. My soul has them
   still in remembrance. The captives in Babylon had all the miseries of
   the siege in their mind continually and the flames and ruins of
   Jerusalem still before their eyes, and wept when they remembered Zion;
   nay, they could never forget Jerusalem, Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 5. My soul,
   having them in remembrance, is humbled in me, not only oppressed with a
   sense of the trouble, but in bitterness for sin. Note, It becomes us to
   have humble hearts under humbling providences, and to renew our
   penitent humiliations for sin upon every remembrance of our afflictions
   and miseries. Thus we may get good by former corrections and prevent
   further.

Words of Comfort to Israel; The Benefit of Afflictions; Comfort to the
Afflicted. (b. c. 588.)

   21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.   22 It is of the
   Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
   not.   23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.   24
   The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
   25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that
   seeketh him.   26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly
   wait for the salvation of the Lord.   27 It is good for a man that he
   bear the yoke in his youth.   28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence,
   because he hath borne it upon him.   29 He putteth his mouth in the
   dust; if so be there may be hope.   30 He giveth his cheek to him that
   smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.   31 For the Lord will
   not cast off for ever:   32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have
   compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.   33 For he doth
   not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.   34 To crush
   under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,   35 To turn aside the
   right of a man before the face of the most High,   36 To subvert a man
   in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

   Here the clouds begin to disperse and the sky to clear up; the
   complaint was very melancholy in the former part of the chapter, and
   yet here the tune is altered and the mourners in Zion begin to look a
   little pleasant. But for hope, the heart would break. To save the heart
   from being quite broken, here is something called to mind, which gives
   ground for hope (v. 21), which refers to what comes after, not to what
   goes before. I make to return to my heart (so the margin words it);
   what we have had in our hearts, and have laid to our hearts, is
   sometimes as if it were quite lost and forgotten, till God by his grace
   make it return to our hearts, that it may be ready to us when we have
   occasion to use it. "I recall it to mind; therefore have I hope, and am
   kept from downright despair." Let us see what these things are which he
   calls to mind.

   I. That, bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they
   are not worse. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of
   the lord's mercies that we are not consumed, v. 22. When we are in
   distress we should, for the encouragement of our faith and hope,
   observe what makes for us as well as what makes against us. Things are
   bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that
   they may be better. Observe here, 1. The streams of mercy acknowledged:
   We are not consumed. Note, The church of God is like Moses's bush,
   burning, yet not consumed; whatever hardships it has met with, or may
   meet with, it shall have a being in the world to the end of time. It is
   persecuted of men, but not forsaken of God, and therefore, though it is
   cast down, it is not destroyed (2 Cor. iv. 9), corrected, yet not
   consumed, refined in the furnace as silver, but not consumed as dross.
   2. These streams followed up to the fountain: It is of the Lord's
   mercies. here are mercies in the plural number, denoting the abundance
   and variety of those mercies. God is an inexhaustible fountain of
   mercy, the Father of mercies. Note, We all owe it to the sparing mercy
   of God that we are not consumed. Others have been consumed round about
   us, and we ourselves have been in the consuming, and yet we are not
   consumed; we are out of the grave; we are out of hell. Had we been
   dealt with according to our sins, we should have been consumed long
   ago; but we have been dealt with according to God's mercies, and we are
   bound to acknowledge it to his praise.

   II. That even in the depth of their affliction they still have
   experience of the tenderness of the divine pity and the truth of the
   divine promise. They had several times complained that God had not
   pitied (ch. ii. 17, 21), but here they correct themselves, and own, 1.
   That God's compassions fail not; they do not really fail, no, not even
   when in anger he seems to have shut up his tender mercies. These rivers
   of mercy run fully and constantly, but never run dry. No; they are new
   every morning; every morning we have fresh instances of God's
   compassion towards us; he visits us with them every morning (Job vii.
   18); every morning does he bring his judgment to light, Zeph. iii. 5.
   When our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not. 2. That great is
   his faithfulness. Though the covenant seemed to be broken, they owned
   that it still continued in full force; and, though Jerusalem be in
   ruins, the truth of the Lord endures for ever. Note, Whatever hard
   things we suffer, we must never entertain any hard thoughts of God, but
   must still be ready to own that he is both kind and faithful.

   III. That God is, and ever will be, the all-sufficient happiness of his
   people, and they have chosen him and depend upon him to be such (v.
   24): The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; that is, 1. "When I have
   lost all I have in the world, liberty, and livelihood, and almost life
   itself, yet I have not lost my interest in God." Portions on earth are
   perishing things, but God is portion for ever. 2. "While I have an
   interest in God, therein I have enough; I have that which is sufficient
   to counterbalance all my troubles and make up all my losses." Whatever
   we are robbed of our portion is safe. 3. "This is that which I depend
   upon and rest satisfied with: Therefore will I hope in him. I will stay
   myself upon him, and encourage myself in him, when all other supports
   and encouragements fail me." Note, It is our duty to make God the
   portion of our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to
   take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations.

   IV. That those who deal with God will find it is not in vain to trust
   in him; for, 1. He is good to those who do so, v. 25. He is good to
   all; his tender mercies are over all his works; all his creatures taste
   of his goodness. But he is in a particular manner good to those that
   wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. Note, While trouble is
   prolonged, and deliverance is deferred, we must patiently wait for God
   and his gracious returns to us. While we wait for him by faith, we must
   seek him by prayer: our souls must seek him, else we do not seek so as
   to find. Our seeking will help to keep up our waiting. And to those who
   thus wait and seek God will be gracious; he will show them his
   marvellous lovingkindness. 2. Those that do so will find it good for
   them (v. 26): It is good (it is our duty, and will be our unspeakable
   comfort and satisfaction) to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation
   of the Lord, to hope that it will come, thought the difficulties that
   lie in the way of it seem insupportable, to wait till it does come,
   though it be long delayed, and while we wait to be quiet and silent,
   not quarrelling with God nor making ourselves uneasy, but acquiescing
   in the divine disposals. Father, thy will be done. If we call this to
   mind, we may have hope that all will end well at last.

   V. That afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them
   aright, will work very much for our good. It is not only good to hope
   and wait for the salvation, but it is good to be under the trouble in
   the mean time (v. 27): It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in
   his youth. Many of the young men were carried into captivity. To make
   them easy in it, he tells them that it was good for them to bear the
   yoke of that captivity, and they would find it so if they would but
   accommodate themselves to their condition, and labour to answer God's
   ends in laying that heavy yoke upon them. It is very applicable to the
   yoke of God's commands. It is good for young people to take that yoke
   upon them in their youth; we cannot begin too soon to be religious. It
   will make our duty the more acceptable to God, and easy to ourselves,
   if we engage in it when we are young. But here it seems to be meant of
   the yoke of affliction. Many have found it good to bear this in youth;
   it has made those humble and serious, and has weaned them from the
   world, who otherwise would have been proud and unruly, and as a bullock
   unaccustomed to the yoke. But when do we bear the yoke so that it is
   really good for us to bear it in our youth? He answers in the following
   verses, 1. When we are sedate and quiet under our afflictions, when we
   sit alone and keep silence, do not run to and fro into all companies
   with our complaints, aggravating our calamities, and quarrelling with
   the disposals of Providence concerning us, but retire into privacy,
   that we may in a day of adversity consider, sit alone, that we may
   converse with God and commune with our own hearts, silencing all
   discontented distrustful thoughts, and laying our hand upon our mouth,
   as Aaron, who, under a very severe trial, held his peace. We must keep
   silence under the yoke as those that have borne it upon us, not
   wilfully pulled it upon our own necks, but patiently submitted to it
   when God laid it upon us. When those who are afflicted in their youth
   accommodate themselves to their afflictions, fit their necks to the
   yoke and study to answer God's end in afflicting them, then they will
   find it good for them to bear it, for it yields the peaceable fruit of
   righteousness to those who are thus exercised thereby. 2. When we are
   humble and patient under our affliction. He gets good by the yoke who
   puts his mouth in the dust, not only lays his hand upon his mouth, in
   token of submission to the will of God in the affliction, but puts it
   in the dust, in token of sorrow, and shame, and self-loathing, at the
   remembrance of sin, and as one perfectly reduced and reclaimed, and
   brought as those that are vanquished to lick the dust, Ps. lxxii. 9.
   And we must thus humble ourselves, if so be there may be hope, or (as
   it is in the original) peradventure there is hope. If there be any way
   to acquire and secure a good hope under our afflictions, it is this
   way, and yet we must be very modest in our expectations of it, must
   look for it with an it may be, as those who own ourselves utterly
   unworthy of it. Note, Those who are truly humbled for sin will be glad
   to obtain a good hope, through grace, upon any terms, though they put
   their mouth in the dust for it; and those who would have hope must do
   so, and ascribe it to free grace if they have any encouragements, which
   may keep their hearts from sinking into the dust when they put their
   mouth there. 3. When we are meek and mild towards those who are the
   instruments of our trouble, and are of a forgiving spirit, v. 30. He
   gets good by the yoke who gives his cheek to him that smites him, and
   rather turns the other cheek (Matt. v. 39) than returns the second
   blow. Our Lord Jesus has left us an example of this, for he gave his
   back to the smiter, Isa. l. 6. He who can bear contempt and reproach,
   and not render railing for railing, and bitterness for bitterness, who,
   when he is filled full with reproach, keeps it to himself, and does not
   retort it and empty it again upon those who filled him with it, but
   pours it out before the Lord (as those did, Ps. cxxiii. 4, whose souls
   were exceedingly filled with the contempt of the proud), he shall find
   that it is good to bear the yoke, that it shall turn to his spiritual
   advantage. The sum is, If tribulation work patience, that patience will
   work experience, and that experience a hope that makes not ashamed.

   VI. That God will graciously return to his people with seasonable
   comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them, v. 31, 32.
   Therefore the sufferer is thus penitent, thus patient, because he
   believes that God is gracious and merciful, which is the great
   inducement both to evangelical repentance and to Christian patience. We
   may bear ourselves up with this, 1. That, when we are cast down, yet we
   are not cast off; the father's correcting his son is not a
   disinheriting of him. 2. That though we may seem to be cast off for a
   time, while sensible comforts are suspended and desired salvations
   deferred, yet we are not really cast off, because not cast off for
   ever; the controversy with us shall not be perpetual. 3. That, whatever
   sorrow we are in, it is what God has allotted us, and his hand is in
   it. It is he that causes grief, and therefore we may be assured it is
   ordered wisely and graciously; and it is but for a season, and when
   need is, that we are in heaviness, 1 Pet. i. 6. 4. That God has
   compassions and comforts in store even for those whom he has himself
   grieved. We must be far from thinking that, though God cause grief, the
   world will relieve and help us. No; the very same that caused the grief
   must bring in the favour, or we are undone. Una eademque manus vulnus
   opemque tulit--The same hand inflicted the wound and healed it. He has
   torn, and he will heal us, Hos. vi. 1. 5. That, when God returns to
   deal graciously with us, it will not be according to our merits, but
   according to his mercies, according to the multitude, the abundance, of
   his mercies. So unworthy we are that nothing but an abundant mercy will
   relieve us; and from that what may we not expect? And God's causing our
   grief ought to be no discouragement at all to those expectations.

   VII. That, when God does cause grief, it is for wise and holy ends, and
   he takes not delight in our calamities, v. 33. He does indeed afflict,
   and grieve the children of men; all their grievances and afflictions
   are from him. But he does not do it willingly, not from the heart; so
   the word is. 1. He never afflicts us but when we give him cause to do
   it. He does not dispense his frowns as he does his favours, ex mero
   motu--from his mere good pleasure. If he show us kindness, it is
   because so it seems good unto him; but, if he write bitter things
   against us, it is because we both deserve them and need them. 2. He
   does not afflict with pleasure. He delights not in the death of
   sinners, or the disquiet of saints, but punishes with a kind of
   reluctance. He comes out of his place to punish, for his place is the
   mercy-seat. He delights not in the misery of any of his creatures, but,
   as it respects his own people, he is so far from it that in all their
   afflictions he is afflicted and his soul is grieved for the misery of
   Israel. 3. He retains his kindness for his people even when he afflicts
   them. If he does not willingly grieve the children of men, much less
   his own children. However it be, yet God is good to them (Ps. lxxiii.
   1), and they may by faith see love in his heart even when they see
   frowns in his face and a rod in his hand.

   VIII. That though he makes use of men as his hand, or rather
   instruments in his hand, for the correcting of his people, yet he is
   far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the
   wrong they do them, v. 34-36. Though God serves his own purposes by the
   violence of wicked and unreasonable men, yet it does no therefore
   follow that he countenances that violence, as his oppressed people are
   sometimes tempted to think. Hab. i. 13, Wherefore lookest thou upon
   those that deal treacherously? Two ways the people of God are injured
   and oppressed by their enemies, and the prophet here assures us that
   God does not approve of either of them:--1. If men injure them by force
   of arms, God does not approve of that. He does not himself crush under
   his feet the prisoners of the earth, but he regards the cry of the
   prisoners; nor does he approve of men's doing it; nay, he is much
   displeased with it. It is barbarous to trample on those that are down,
   and to crush those that are bound and cannot help themselves. 2. If men
   injure them under colour of law, and in the pretended administration of
   justice,--if they turn aside the right of a man, so that he cannot
   discover what his rights are or cannot come at them, they are out of
   his reach,--if they subvert a man in his cause, and bring in a wrong
   verdict, or give a false judgment, let them know, (1.) That God sees
   them. It is before the face of the Most High (v. 35); it is in his
   sight, under his eye, and is very displeasing to him. They cannot but
   know it is so, and therefore it is in defiance of him that they do it.
   He is the Most High, whose authority over them they contemn by abusing
   their authority over their subjects, not considering that he that is
   higher than the highest regardeth, Eccl. v. 8. (2.) That God does not
   approve of them. More is implied than is expressed. The perverting of
   justice, and the subverting of the just, are a great affront to God;
   and, though he may make use of them for the correction of his people,
   yet he will sooner or later severely reckon with those that do thus.
   Note, However God may for a time suffer evil-doers to prosper, and
   serve his own purposes by them, yet he does not therefore approve of
   their evil doings. Far be it from God that he should do iniquity, or
   countenance those that do it.

The Duties of the Afflicted. (b. c. 588.)

   37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord
   commandeth it not?   38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth
   not evil and good?   39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for
   the punishment of his sins?   40 Let us search and try our ways, and
   turn again to the Lord.   41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands
   unto God in the heavens.

   That we may be entitled to the comforts administered to the afflicted
   in the foregoing verses, and may taste the sweetness of them, we have
   here the duties of an afflicted state prescribed to us, in the
   performance of which we may expect those comforts.

   I. We must see and acknowledge the hand of God in all the calamities
   that befal us at any time, whether personal or public, v. 37, 38. This
   is here laid down as a great truth, which will help to quiet our
   spirits under our afflictions and to sanctify them to us. 1. That,
   whatever men's actions are, it is God that overrules them: Who is he
   that saith, and it cometh to pass (that designs a thing and bring his
   designs to effect), if the Lord commandeth it not? Men can do nothing
   but according to the counsel of God, nor have any power or success but
   what is given them from above. A man's heart devises his way; he
   projects and purposes; he says that he will do so and so (Jam. iv. 13);
   but the Lord directs his steps far otherwise than he designed them, and
   what he contrived and expected does not come to pass, unless it be what
   God's hand and his counsel had determined before to be done, Prov. xvi.
   9; Jer. x. 23. The Chaldeans said that they would destroy Jerusalem,
   and it came to pass, not because they said it, but because God
   commanded it and commissioned them to do it. Note, Men are but tools
   which the great God makes use of, and manages as he pleases, in the
   government of this lower world; and they cannot accomplish any of their
   designs without him. 2. That, whatever men's lot is, it is God that
   orders it: Out of the mouth of the Most High do not evil and good
   proceed? Yes, certainly they do; and it is more emphatically expressed
   in the original: Do not this evil, and this good, proceed out of the
   mouth of the Most High? Is it not what he has ordained and appointed
   for us? Yes, certainly it is; and for the reconciling of us to our own
   afflictions, whatever they be, this general truth must thus be
   particularly applied. This comfort I receive from the hand of God, and
   shall I not receive that evil also? so Job argues, ch. ii. 10. Are we
   healthful or sickly, rich or poor? Do we succeed in our designs, or are
   we crossed in them? It is all what God orders; every man's judgment
   proceeds from him. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; he forms
   the light and creates the darkness, as he did at first. Note, All the
   events of divine Providence are the products of a divine counsel;
   whatever is done God has the directing of it, and the works of his
   hands agree with the words of his mouth; he speaks, and it is done, so
   easily, so effectually are all his purposes fulfilled.

   II. We must not quarrel with God for any affliction that he lays upon
   us at any time (v. 39): Wherefore does a living man complain? The
   prophet here seems to check himself for the complaint he had made in
   the former part of the chapter, wherein he seemed to reflect upon God
   as unkind and severe. "Do I well to be angry? Why do I fret thus?"
   Those who in their haste have chidden with God must, in the reflection,
   chide themselves for it. From the doctrine of God's sovereign and
   universal providence, which he had asserted in the verses before, he
   draws this inference, Wherefore does a living man complain? What God
   does we must not open our mouths against, Ps. xxxix. 9. Those that
   blame their lot reproach him that allotted it to them. The sufferers in
   the captivity must submit to the will of God in all their sufferings.
   Note, Though we may pour out our complaints before God, we must never
   exhibit any complaints against God. What! Shall a living man complain,
   a man for the punishment of his sins? The reasons here urged are very
   cogent. 1. We are men; let us herein show ourselves men. Shall a man
   complain? And again, a man! We are men, and not brutes, reasonable
   creatures, who should act with reason, who should look upward and look
   forward, and both ways may fetch considerations enough to silence our
   complaints. We are men, and not children that cry for every thing that
   hurts them. We are men, and not gods, subjects, not lords; we are not
   our own masters, not our own carvers; we are bound and must obey, must
   submit. We are men, and not angels, and therefore cannot expect to be
   free from troubles as they are; we are not inhabitants of that world
   where there is no sorrow, but this where there is nothing but sorrow.
   We are men, and not devils, are not in that deplorable, helpless,
   hopeless, state that they are in, but have something to comfort
   ourselves with which they have not. 2. We are living men. Through the
   good hand of our God upon us we are alive yet, though dying daily; and
   shall a living man complain? No; he has more reason to be thankful for
   life than to complain of any of the burdens and calamities of life. Our
   lives are frail and forfeited, and yet we are alive; now the living,
   the living, they should praise, and not complain (Isa. xxxviii. 19);
   while there is life there is hope, and therefore, instead of
   complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the
   hope that they will be better. 3. We are sinful men, and that which we
   complain of is the just punishment of our sins; nay, it is far less
   than our iniquities have deserved. We have little reason to complain of
   our trouble, for it is our own doing; we may thank ourselves. Our own
   wickedness corrects us, Prov. xix. 3. We have no reason to quarrel with
   God, for he is righteous in it; he is the governor of the world, and it
   is necessary that he should maintain the honour of his government by
   chastising the disobedient. Are we suffering for our sins? Then let us
   not complain; for we have other work to do; instead of repining, we
   must be repenting; and, as an evidence that God is reconciled to us, we
   must be endeavouring to reconcile ourselves to his holy will. Are we
   punished for our sins? It is our wisdom then to submit, and to kiss the
   rod; for, if we still walk contrary to God, he will punish us yet seven
   times more; for when he judges he will overcome. But, if we accommodate
   ourselves to him, though we be chastened of the Lord we shall not be
   condemned with the world.

   III. We must set ourselves to answer God's intention in afflicting us,
   which is to bring sin to our remembrance, and to bring us home to
   himself, v. 40. These are the two things which our afflictions should
   put us upon. 1. A serious consideration of ourselves and a reflection
   upon our past lives. Let us search and try our ways, search what they
   have been, and then try whether they have been right and good or no;
   search as for a malefactor in disguise, that flees and hides himself,
   and then try whether guilty or not guilty. Let conscience be employed
   both to search and to try, and let it have leave to deal faithfully, to
   accomplish a diligent search and to make an impartial trial. Let us try
   our ways, that by them we may try ourselves, for we are to judge of our
   state not by our faint wishes, but by our steps, not by one particular
   step, but by our ways, the ends we aim at, the rules we go by, and the
   agreeableness of the temper of our minds and the tenour of our lives to
   those ends and those rules. When we are in affliction it is seasonable
   to consider our ways (Hag. i. 5), that what is amiss may be repented of
   and amended for the future, and so we may answer the intention of the
   affliction. We are apt, in times of public calamity, to reflect upon
   other people's ways, and lay blame upon them; whereas our business is
   to search and try our own ways. We have work enough to do at home; we
   must each of us say, "What have I done? What have I contributed to the
   public flames?" that we may each of us mend one, and then we should all
   be mended. 2. A sincere conversion to God: "Let us turn again to the
   Lord, to him who is turned against us and whom we have turned from; to
   him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and
   ruler. We have been with him, and it has never been well with us since
   we forsook him; let us therefore now turn again to him." This must
   accompany the former and be the fruit of it; therefore we must search
   and try our ways, that we may turn from the evil of them to God. This
   was the method David took. Ps. cxix. 59, I thought on my ways, and
   turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

   IV. We must offer up ourselves to God, and our best affections and
   services, in the flames of devotion, v. 41. When we are in affliction,
   1. We must look up to God as a God in the heavens, infinitely above us,
   and who has an incontestable dominion over us; for the heavens do rule,
   and are therefore not to be quarrelled with, but submitted to. 2. We
   must pray to him, with a believing expectation to receive mercy from
   him; for that is implied in our lifting up our hands to him (a gesture
   commonly used in prayer and sometimes put for it, as Ps. cxli. 2, Let
   the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice); it signifies
   our requesting mercy from him and our readiness to receive that mercy.
   (3.) Our hearts must go along with our prayers. We must lift up our
   hearts with our hands, as we must pour out our souls with our words. It
   is the heart that God looks at in that and every other service; for
   what will a sacrifice without a heart avail? If inward impressions be
   not in some measure answerable to outward expressions, we do but mock
   God and deceive ourselves. Praying is lifting up the soul to God (Ps.
   xxv. 1) as to our Father in heaven; and the soul that hopes to be with
   God in heaven for ever will thus, by frequent acts of devotion, be
   still learning the way thither and pressing forward in that way.

Complaining to God. (b. c. 588.)

   42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.   43
   Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou
   hast not pitied.   44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our
   prayer should not pass through.   45 Thou hast made us as the
   offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.   46 All our enemies
   have opened their mouths against us.   47 Fear and a snare is come upon
   us, desolation and destruction.   48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers
   of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.   49 Mine
   eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,   50
   Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.   51 Mine eye
   affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.   52 Mine
   enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.   53 They have cut
   off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.   54 Waters
   flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

   It is easier to chide ourselves for complaining than to chide ourselves
   out of it. The prophet had owned that a living man should not complain,
   as if he checked himself for his complaints in the former part of the
   chapter; and yet here the clouds return after the rain and the wound
   bleeds afresh; for great pains must be taken with a troubled spirit to
   bring it into temper.

   I. They confess the righteousness of God in afflicting them (v. 42): We
   have transgressed and have rebelled. Note, It becomes us, when we are
   in trouble, to justify God, by owning our sins, and laying the load
   upon ourselves for them. Call sin a transgression, call it a rebellion,
   and you do not miscall it. This is the result of their searching and
   trying their ways; the more they enquired into them the worse they
   found them. Yet,

   II. They complain of the afflictions they are under, not without some
   reflections upon God, which we are not to imitate, but, under the
   sharpest trials, must always think and speak highly and kindly of him.

   1. They complain of his frowns and the tokens of his displeasure
   against them. Their sins were repented of, and yet (v. 42), Thou hast
   not pardoned. They had not the assurance and comfort of the pardon; the
   judgments brought upon them for their sins were not removed, and
   therefore they thought they could not say the sin was pardoned, which
   was a mistake, but a common mistake with the people of God when their
   souls are cast down and disquieted within them. Their case was really
   pitiable, yet they complain, Thou hast not pitied, v. 43. Their enemies
   persecuted and slew them, but that was not the worst of it; they were
   but the instruments in God's hand: "Thou hast persecuted us, and thou
   hast slain us, though we expected thou wouldst protect and deliver us."
   They complain that there was a wall of partition between them and God,
   and, (1.) This hindered God's favours from coming down upon them. The
   reflected beams of God's kindness to them used to be the beauty of
   Israel; but now "thou hast covered us with anger, so that our glory is
   concealed and gone; now God is angry with us, and we do not appear that
   illustrious people that we have formerly been thought to be." Or, "Thou
   hast covered us up as men that are buried are covered up and
   forgotten." (2.) It hindered their prayers from coming up unto God (v.
   44): "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud," not like that bright
   cloud in which he took possession of the temple, which enabled the
   worshippers to draw near to him, but like that in which he came down
   upon Mount Sinai, which obliged the people to stand at a distance.
   "This cloud is so thick that our prayers seem as if they were lost in
   it; they cannot pass through; we cannot obtain an audience." Note, The
   prolonging of troubles is sometimes a temptation, even to praying
   people, to question whether God be what they have always believed him
   to be, a prayer-hearing God.

   2. They complain of the contempt of their neighbours and the reproach
   and ignominy they were under (v. 45): "Thou hast made us as the
   off-scouring, or scrapings, of the first floor, which are thrown to the
   dunghill." This St. Paul refers to in his account of the sufferings of
   the apostles. 1 Cor. iv. 13, We are made as the filth of the world and
   are the off-scouring of all things. "We are the refuse, or dross, in
   the midst of the people, trodden upon by every body, and looked upon as
   the vilest of the nations, and good for nothing but to be cast out as
   salt which has lost its savour. Our enemies have opened their mouths
   against us (v. 46), have gaped upon us as roaring lions, to swallow us
   up, or made mouths at us, or have taken liberty to say what they please
   of us." These complaints we had before, ch. ii. 15, 16. Note, It is
   common for base and ill-natured men to run upon, and run down, those
   that have fallen into the depths of distress from the height of honour.
   But this they brought upon themselves by sin. If they had not made
   themselves vile, their enemies could not have made them so: but
   therefore men call them reprobate silver, because the Lord has rejected
   them for rejecting him.

   3. They complain of the lamentable destruction that their enemies made
   of them (v. 47): Fear and a snare have come upon us; the enemies have
   not only terrified us with those alarms, but prevailed against us by
   their stratagems, and surprised us with the ambushes they laid for us;
   and then follows nothing but desolation and destruction, the
   destruction of the daughter of my people (v. 48), of all the daughters
   of my city, v. 51. The enemies, having taken some of them like a bird
   in a snare, chased others as a harmless bird is chased by a bird of
   prey (v. 52): My enemies chased me sorely like a bird which is beaten
   from bush to bush, as Saul hunted David like a partridge. Thus restless
   was the enmity of their persecutors, and yet causeless. They have done
   it without cause, without any provocation given them. Though God was
   righteous, they were unrighteous. David often complains of those that
   hated him without cause; and such are the enemies of Christ and his
   church, John xv. 25. Their enemies chased them till they had quite
   prevailed over them (v. 53): They have cut off my life in the dungeon.
   They have shut up their captives in close and dark prisons, where they
   are as it were cut off from the land of the living (as v. 6), or the
   state and kingdom are sunk and ruined, the life and being of them are
   gone, and they are as it were thrown into the dungeon or grave and a
   stone cast upon them, such as used to be rolled to the door of the
   sepulchres. They look upon the Jewish nation as dead and buried, and
   imagine that there is not possibility of its resurrection. Thus Ezekiel
   saw it, in vision, a valley full of dead and dry bones. Their
   destruction is compared not only to the burying of a dead man, but to
   the sinking of a living man into the water, who cannot long be a living
   man there, v. 54. Waters of affliction flowed over my head. The deluge
   prevailed and quite overwhelmed them. The Chaldean forces broke in upon
   them as the breaking forth of waters, which rose so high as to flow
   over their heads; they could not wade, they could not swim, and
   therefore must unavoidably sink. Note, The distresses of God's people
   sometimes prevail to such a degree that they cannot find any footing
   for their faith, nor keep their head above water, with any comfortable
   expectation.

   4. They complain of their own excessive grief and fear upon this
   account. (1.) The afflicted church is drowned in tears, and the prophet
   for her (v. 48, 49): My eye runs down with rivers of water, so abundant
   was their weeping; it trickles down and ceases not, so constant was
   their weeping, without any intermission, there being no relaxation of
   their miseries. The distemper was in continual extremity, and they had
   no better day. It is added (v. 51), "My eye affects my heart. My seeing
   eye affects my heart. The more I look upon the desolation of the city
   and country the more I am grieved. Which way soever I cast my eye, I
   see that which renews my sorrow, even because of all the daughters of
   my city," all the neighbouring towns, which were as daughters to
   Jerusalem the mother-city. Or, My weeping eye affects my heart; the
   venting of the grief, instead of easing it, did but increase and
   exasperate it. Or, My eye melts my soul; I have quite wept away my
   spirits; not only my eye is consumed with grief, but my soul and my
   life are spent with it, Ps. xxxi. 9, 10. Great and long grief exhausts
   the spirits, and brings not only many a gray head, but many a green
   head too, to the grave. I weep, ways the prophet, more than all the
   daughters of my city (so the margin reads it); he outdid even those of
   the tender sex in the expressions of grief. And it is no diminution to
   any to be much in tears for the sins of sinners and the sufferings of
   saints; our Lord Jesus was so; for, when he came near, he beheld this
   same city and wept over it, which the daughters of Jerusalem did not.
   (2.) She is overwhelmed with fears, not only grieves for what is, but
   fears worse, and gives up all for gone (v. 54): "Then I said, I am cut
   off, ruined, and see no hope of recovery; I am as one dead." Note,
   Those that are cast down are commonly tempted to think themselves cast
   off, Ps. xxxi. 22; Jon. ii. 4.

   5. In the midst of these sad complaints here is one word of comfort, by
   which it appears that their case was not altogether so bad as they made
   it, v. 50. We continue thus weeping till the Lord look down and behold
   from heaven. This intimates, (1.) That they were satisfied that God's
   gracious regard to them in their miseries would be an effectual redress
   of all their grievances. "If God, who now covers himself with a cloud,
   as if he took no notice of our troubles (Job xxii. 13), would but shine
   forth, all would be well; if he look upon us, we shall be saved," Ps.
   lxxx. 19; Dan. ix. 17. Bad as the case is, one favourable look from
   heaven will set all to rights. (2.) That they had hopes that he would
   at length look graciously upon them and relieve them; nay, they take it
   for granted that he will: "Though he contend long, he will not contend
   for ever, thou we deserve that he should." (3.) That while they
   continued weeping they continued waiting, and neither did nor would
   expect relief and succour from any hand but his; nothing shall comfort
   them but his gracious returns, nor shall any thing wipe tears from
   their eyes till he look down. Their eyes, which now run down with
   water, shall still wait upon the Lord their God until he have mercy
   upon them, Ps. cxxiii. 2.

God's Goodness Acknowledged; An Appeal to God. (b. c. 588.)

   55 I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.   56 Thou
   hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
   57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst,
   Fear not.   58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou
   hast redeemed my life.   59 O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou
   my cause.   60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their
   imaginations against me.   61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord,
   and all their imaginations against me;   62 The lips of those that rose
   up against me, and their device against me all the day.   63 Behold
   their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.   64 Render
   unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
   65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.   66 Persecute and
   destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

   We may observe throughout this chapter a struggle in the prophet's
   breast between sense and faith, fear and hope; he complains and then
   comforts himself, yet drops his comforts and returns again to his
   complaints, as Ps. xlii. But, as there, so here, faith gets the last
   word and comes off a conqueror; for in these verses he concludes with
   some comfort. And here are two things with which he comforts himself:--

   I. His experience of God's goodness even in his affliction. This may
   refer to the prophet's personal experience, with which he encourages
   himself in reference to the public troubles. He that has seasonably
   succoured particular saints will not fail the church in general. Or it
   may include the remnant of good people that were among the Jews, who
   had found that it was not in vain to wait upon God. In three things the
   prophet and his pious friends had found God good to them:--1. He had
   heard their prayers; though they had been ready to fear that the cloud
   of wrath was such as their prayers could not pass through (v. 44), yet
   upon second thoughts, or at least upon further trial, they find it
   otherwise, and that God had not said unto them, Seek you me in vain.
   When they were in the low dungeon, as free among the dead, they called
   upon God's name (v. 55); their weeping did not hinder praying. Note,
   Though we are cast into ever so low a dungeon, we may thence find a way
   of access to God in the highest heavens. Out of the depths have I cried
   unto thee (Ps. cxxx. 1), as Jonah out of the whale's belly. And could
   God hear them out of the low dungeon, and would he? Yes, he did: Thou
   hast heard my voice; and some read the following words as carrying on
   the same thankful acknowledgment: Thou didst not hide thy ear at my
   breathing, at my cry; and the original will bear that reading. We read
   it as a petition for further audience: Hide not thy ear. God's having
   heard our voice when we cried to him, even out of the low dungeon, is
   an encouragement for us to hope that he will not at any time hide his
   ear. Observe how he calls prayer his breathing; for in prayer we
   breathe towards God, we breathe after him. Though we be but weak in
   prayer, cannot cry aloud, but only breathe in groanings that cannot be
   uttered, yet we shall not be neglected if we be sincere. Prayer is the
   breath of the new man, sucking in the air of mercy in petitions and
   returning it in praises; it is both the evidence and the maintenance of
   the spiritual life. Some read it, at my gasping. "When I lay gasping
   for life, and ready to expire, and thought i was breathing my last,
   then thou tookest cognizance of my distressed case." 2. He had silenced
   their fears and quieted their spirits (v. 57): "Thou drewest near in
   the day that I called upon thee; thou didst graciously assure me of thy
   presence with me, and give me to see thee nigh unto me, whereas I had
   thought thee to be at a distance from me." Note, When we draw nigh to
   God in a way of duty we may by faith see him drawing nigh to us in a
   way of mercy. But this was not all: Thou saidst, Fear not. This was the
   language of God's prophets preaching to them not to fear (Isa. xli. 10,
   13, 14), of his providence preventing those things which they were
   afraid of, and of his grace quieting their minds, and making them easy,
   by the witness of his Spirit with their spirits that they were his
   people still, though in distress, and therefore ought not to fear. 3.
   He had already begun to appear for them (v. 58): "O Lord! thou hast
   pleaded the causes of my soul" (that is, as it follows), "thou hast
   redeemed my life, hast rescued that out of the hands of those who would
   have taken it away, hast saved that when it was ready to be swallowed
   up, hast given me that for a prey." And this is an encouragement to
   them to hope that he would yet further appear for them: "Thou hast
   delivered my soul from death, and therefore wilt deliver my feet from
   falling; thou hast pleaded the causes of my life, and therefore wilt
   plead my other causes."

   II. He comforts himself with an appeal to God's justice, and (in order
   to the sentence of that) to his omniscience.

   1. He appeals to God's knowledge of the matter of fact, how very
   spiteful and malicious his enemies were (v. 59): "O Lord! thou hast
   seen my wrong, that I have done no wrong at all, but suffer a great
   deal." He that knows all things knew, (1.) The malice they had against
   him: "Thou hast seen all their vengeance, how they desire to do me a
   mischief, as if it were by way of reprisal for some great injury I had
   done them." Note, We should consider, to our terror and caution, that
   God knows all the revengeful thoughts we have in our minds against
   others, and therefore we should not allow of those thoughts nor harbour
   them, and that he knows all the revengeful thoughts others have
   causelessly in their minds against us, and therefore we should not be
   afraid of them, but leave it to him to protect us from them. (2.) The
   designs and projects they had laid to do him a mischief: Thou hast seen
   all their imaginations against me (v. 60), and again, "Thou hast heard
   all their imaginations against me (v. 61), both the desire and the
   device they have to ruin me; whether it show itself in word or deed, it
   is known to thee; nay, though the products of it are not to be seen nor
   heard, yet their device against me all the day is perceived and
   understood by him to whom all things are naked and open." Note, The
   most secret contrivances of the church's enemies are perfectly known to
   the church's God, from whom they can hide nothing. (3.) The contempt
   and calumny wherewith they loaded him, all that they spoke slightly of
   him, and all that they spoke reproachfully: "Thou hast heard their
   reproach (v. 61), all the bad characters they give me, laying to my
   charge things that I know not, all the methods they use to make me
   odious and contemptible, even the lips of those that rose up against me
   (v. 62), the contumelious language they use whenever they speak of me,
   and that at their sitting down and rising up, when they lie down at
   night and get up in the morning, when they sit down to their meat and
   with their company, and when they rise from both, still I am their
   music; they make themselves and one another merry with my miseries, as
   the Philistines made sport with Samson." Jerusalem was the tabret they
   played upon. Perhaps they had some tune or play, some opera or
   interlude, that was called the destruction of Jerusalem, which, though
   in the nature of a tragedy, was very entertaining to those who wished
   ill to the holy city. Note, God will one day call sinners to account
   for all the hard speeches which they have spoken against him and his
   people, Jude 15.

   2. He appeals to God's judgment upon this fact: "Lord, thou hast seen
   my wrong; there is no need of any evidence to prove it, nor any
   prosecutor to enforce and aggravate it; thou seest it in its true
   colours; and now I leave it with thee. Judge thou my cause, v. 59. Let
   them be dealt with," (1.) "As they deserve (v. 64): Render to them a
   recompence according to the work of their hands. Let them be dealt with
   as they have dealt with us; let thy hand be against them as their hand
   has been against us. They have created us a great deal of vexation;
   now, Lord, give them sorrow of heart (v. 65), perplexity of heart" (so
   some read it); "let them be surrounded with threatening mischiefs on
   all sides, and not be able to see their way out. Give them despondence
   of heart" (so others read it); "let them be driven to despair, and give
   themselves up for gone." God can entangle the head that thinks itself
   clearest, and sink the heart that thinks itself stoutest. (2.) "Let
   them be dealt with according to the threatenings: Thy curse unto them;
   that is, let thy curse come upon them, all the evils that are
   pronounced in thy word against the enemies of thy people, v. 65. They
   have loaded us with curses; as they loved cursing, so let it come unto
   them, thy curse which will make them truly miserable. Theirs is
   causeless, and therefore fruitless, it shall not come; but thine is
   just, and shall take effect. Those whom thou cursest are cursed indeed.
   Let the curse be executed, v. 66. Persecute and destroy them in anger,
   as they persecute and destroy us in their anger. Destroy them from
   under the heavens of the Lord; let them have no benefit of the light
   and influence of the heavens. Destroy them in such a manner that all
   who see it may say, It is a destruction from the Almighty, who sits in
   the heavens and laughs at them (Ps. ii. 4), and may own that the
   heavens do rule," Dan. iv. 26. What is said of the idols is here said
   of their worshippers (who in this also shall be like unto them), They
   shall perish from under these heavens, Jer. x. 11. They shall be not
   only excluded from the happiness of the invisible heavens, but cut off
   from the comfort even of these visible ones, which are the heavens of
   the Lord (Ps. cxv. 16) and which those therefore are unworthy to be
   taken under the protection of who rebel against him.
     __________________________________________________________________

L A M E N T A T I O N S.

  CHAP. IV.

   This chapter is another single alphabet of Lamentations for the
   destruction of Jerusalem, like those in the first two chapters. I. The
   prophet here laments the injuries and indignities done to those to whom
   respect used to be shown, ver. 1, 2. II. He laments the direful effects
   of the famine to which they were reduced by the siege, ver. 3-10. III.
   He laments the taking and sacking of Jerusalem and its amazing
   desolations, ver. 11, 12. IV. He acknowledges that the sins of their
   leaders were the cause of all these calamities, ver. 13-16. V. He gives
   up all as doomed to utter ruin, for their enemies were every way too
   hard for them, ver. 17-20. VI. He foretels the destruction of the
   Edomites who triumphed in Jerusalem's fall, ver. 21. VII. He foretels
   the return of the captivity of Zion at last, ver. 22.

Desolate Condition of Jerusalem; Effects of Famine in Jerusalem; Destruction
of Jerusalem. (b. c. 588.)

   1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the
   stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.   2
   The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they
   esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!   3
   Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their
   young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the
   ostriches in the wilderness.   4 The tongue of the sucking child
   cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask
   bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.   5 They that did feed
   delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in
   scarlet embrace dunghills.   6 For the punishment of the iniquity of
   the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of
   Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
     7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk,
   they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of
   sapphire:   8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known
   in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it
   is become like a stick.   9 They that be slain with the sword are
   better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away,
   stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.   10 The hands of
   the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat
   in the destruction of the daughter of my people.   11 The Lord hath
   accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath
   kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
   12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would
   not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered
   into the gates of Jerusalem.

   The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and
   doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The
   city that was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so rich and
   splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has
   become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost its value, is not
   what it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an alteration is here!

   I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its
   protection. It is given up into the hands of the enemy. And some
   understand the gold spoken of (v. 1) to be the gold of the temple, the
   fine gold with which it was overlaid (1 Kings vi. 22); when the temple
   was burned the gold of it was smoked and sullied, as if it had been of
   little value. It was thrown among the rubbish; it was changed,
   converted to common uses and made nothing of. The stones of the
   sanctuary, which were curiously wrought, were thrown down by the
   Chaldeans, when they demolished it, or were brought down by the force
   of the fire, and were poured out, and thrown about in the top of every
   street; they lay mingled without distinction among the common ruins.
   When the God of the sanctuary was by sin provoked to withdraw no wonder
   that the stones of the sanctuary were thus profaned.

   II. The princes and priests, who were in a special manner the sons of
   Zion, were trampled upon and abused, v. 2. Both the house of God and
   the house of David were in Zion. The sons of both those houses were
   upon this account precious, that they were heirs to the privileges of
   those two covenants of priesthood and royalty. They were comparable to
   fine gold. Israel was more rich in them than in treasures of gold and
   silver. But now they are esteemed as earthen pitchers; they are broken
   as earthen pitchers, thrown by as vessels in which there is no
   pleasure. They have grown poor, and are brought into captivity, and
   thereby are rendered mean and despicable, and every one treads upon
   them and insults over them. Note, The contempt put upon God's people
   ought to be matter of lamentation to us.

   III. Little children were starved for want of bread and water, v. 3, 4.
   The nursing-mothers, having no meat for themselves, had no milk for the
   babes at their breast, so that, though in disposition they were really
   compassionate, yet in fact they seemed to be cruel, like the ostriches
   in the wilderness, that leave their eggs in the dust (Job xxxix. 14,
   15); having no food for their children, they were forced to neglect
   them and do what they could to forget them, because it was a pain to
   them to think of them when they had nothing for them; in this they were
   worse than the seals, or sea-monsters, or whales (as some render it),
   for they drew out the breast, and gave suck to their young, which the
   daughter of my people will not do. Children cannot shift for themselves
   as grown people can; and therefore it was the more painful to see the
   tongue of the sucking-child cleave to the roof of his mouth for thirst,
   because there was not a drop of water to moisten it; and to hear the
   young children, that could but just speak, ask bread of their parents,
   who had none to give them, no, nor any friend that could supply them.
   As doleful as our thoughts are of this case, so thankful should our
   thoughts be of the great plenty we enjoy, and the food convenient we
   have for ourselves and for our children, and for those of our own
   house.

   IV. Persons of good rank were reduced to extreme poverty, v. 5. Those
   who were well-born and well bred, and had been accustomed to the best,
   both for food and clothing, who had fed delicately, had every thing
   that was curious and nice (they call it eating well, whereas those only
   eat well who eat to the glory of God), and fared sumptuously every day;
   they had not only been advanced to the scarlet, but from their
   beginning were brought up in scarlet, and were never acquainted with
   any thing mean or ordinary. They were brought up upon scarlet (so the
   word is); their foot-cloths, and the carpets they walked on, were
   scarlet, yet these, being stripped of all by the war, are desolate in
   the streets, have not a house to put their head in, nor a bed to lie
   on, nor clothes to cover them, nor fire to warm them. They embrace
   dunghills; on them they were glad to lie to get a little rest, and
   perhaps raked in the dunghills for something to eat, as the prodigal
   son who would fain have filled his belly with the husks. Note, Those
   who live in the greatest pomp and plenty know not what straits they may
   be reduced to before they die; as sometimes the needy are raised out of
   the dunghill. Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread,
   1 Sam. ii. 5. It is therefore the wisdom of those who have abundance
   not to use themselves too nicely, for then hardships, when they come,
   will be doubly hard, Deut. xxviii. 56.

   V. Persons who were eminent for dignity, nay, perhaps for sanctity,
   shared with others in the common calamity, v. 7, 8. Her Nazarites are
   extremely charged. Some understand it only of her honourable ones, the
   young gentlemen, who were very clean, and neat, and well-dressed,
   washed and perfumed; but I see not why we may not understand it of
   those devout people among them who separated themselves to the Lord by
   the Nazarites' vow, Num. vi. 2. That there were such among them in the
   most degenerate times appears from Amos ii. 11, I raised up of your
   young men for Nazarites. These Nazarites, though they were not to cut
   their hair, yet by reason of their temperate diet, their frequent
   washings, and especially the pleasure they had in devoting themselves
   to God and conversing with him, which made their faces to shine as
   Moses's, were purer than snow and whiter than milk; drinking no wine
   nor strong drink, they had a more healthful complexion and cheerful
   countenance than those who regaled themselves daily with the blood of
   the grape, as Daniel and his fellows with pulse and water. Or it may
   denote the great respect and veneration which all good people had for
   them; though perhaps to the eye they had no form nor comeliness, yet,
   being separated to the Lord, they were valued as if they had been more
   ruddy than rubies and their polishing had been of sapphire. But now
   their visage is marred (as is said of Christ, Isa. lii. 14); it is
   blacker than a coal; they look miserably, partly through hunger and
   partly through grief and perplexity. They are not known in the streets;
   those who respected them now take no notice of them, and those who had
   been intimately acquainted with them now scarcely knew them, their
   countenance was so altered by the miseries that attended the long
   siege. Their skin cleaves to their bones, their flesh being quite
   consumed and wasted away; it is withered; it has become like a stick,
   as dry and hard as a piece of wood. Note, It is a thing to be much
   lamented that even those who are separated to God are yet, when
   desolating judgments are abroad, often involved with others in the
   common calamity.

   VI. Jerusalem came down slowly, and died a lingering death; for the
   famine contributed more to her destruction than any other judgment
   whatsoever. Upon this account the destruction of Jerusalem was greater
   than that of Sodom (v. 6), for that was overthrown in a moment; one
   shower of fire and brimstone dispatched it; no hand staid on her; she
   did not endure any long siege, as Jerusalem has done; she fell
   immediately into the hands of the Lord, who strikes home at a blow, and
   did not fall into the hands of man, who, being weak, is long in doing
   execution, Judg. viii. 21. Jerusalem is kept many months upon the rack,
   in pain and misery, and dies by inches, dies so as to feel herself die.
   And, when the iniquity of Jerusalem is more aggravated than that of
   Sodom, no wonder that the punishment of it is so. Sodom never had the
   means of grace the Jerusalem had, the oracles of God and his prophets,
   and therefore the condemnation of Jerusalem will be more intolerable
   than that of Sodom, Matt. xi. 23, 24. The extremity of the famine is
   here set forth by two frightful instances of it:--1. The tedious deaths
   that it was the cause of (v. 9); many were slain with hunger, were
   famished to death, their stores being spent, and the public stores so
   nearly spent that they could not have any relief out of them. They were
   stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field; those who were
   starved were as sure to die as if they had been stabbed and stricken
   through; only their case was much more miserable. Those who are slain
   with the sword are soon put out of their pain; in a moment they go down
   to the grave, Job xxi. 13. They have not the terror of seeing death
   make its advances towards them, and scarcely feel it when the blow is
   given; it is but one sharp struggle, and the work is done. And, if we
   be ready for another world, we need not be afraid of a short passage to
   it; the quicker the better. But those who die by famine pine away;
   hunger preys upon their spirits and wastes them gradually; nay, and it
   frets their spirits, and fills them with vexation, and is as great a
   torture to the mind as to the body. There are bands in their death, Ps.
   lxxiii. 4. 2. The barbarous murders that it was the occasion of (v.
   10): The hands of the pitiful women have first slain and then sodden
   their own children. This was lamented before (ch. ii. 20); and it was a
   thing to be greatly lamented that any should be so wicked as to do it
   and that they should be brought to such extremities as to be tempted to
   it. But this horrid effect of long sieges had been threatened in
   general (Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53), and particularly against
   Jerusalem in the siege of the Chaldeans, Jer. xix. 9; Ezek. v. 10. The
   case was sad enough that they had not wherewithal to feed their
   children and make meat for them (v. 4), but much worse that they could
   find in their hearts to feed upon their children and make meat of them.
   I know not whether to make it an instance of the power of necessity or
   of the power of iniquity; but, as the Gentile idolaters were justly
   given up to vile affections (Rom. i. 26), so these Jewish idolaters,
   and the women particularly, who had made cakes to the queen of heaven
   and taught their children to do so too, were stripped of natural
   affection and that to their own children. Being thus left to dishonour
   their own nature was a righteous judgment upon them for the dishonour
   they had done to God.

   VII. Jerusalem comes down utterly and wonderfully. 1. The destruction
   of Jerusalem is a complete destruction (v. 11): The Lord has
   accomplished his fury; he has made thorough work of it, has executed
   all that he purposed in wrath against Jerusalem, and has remitted no
   part of the sentence. He has poured out the full vials of his fierce
   anger, poured them out to the bottom, even the dregs of them. He has
   kindled a fire in Zion, which has not only consumed the houses, and
   levelled them with the ground, but, beyond what other fires do, has
   devoured the foundations thereof, as if they were to be no more built
   upon. 2. It is an amazing destruction, v. 12. It was a surprise to the
   kings of the earth, who are acquainted with, and inquisitive about, the
   state of their neighbours; nay, it was so to all the inhabitants of the
   world who knew Jerusalem, or had ever heard or read of it; they could
   not have believed that the adversary and enemy would ever enter into
   the gates of Jerusalem; for, (1.) They knew that Jerusalem was strongly
   fortified, not only by walls and bulwarks, but by the numbers and
   strength of its inhabitants; the strong hold of Zion was thought to be
   impregnable. (2.) They knew that it was the city of the great King,
   where the Lord of the whole earth had in a more peculiar manner his
   residence; it was the holy city, and therefore they thought that it was
   so much under the divine protection that it would be in vain for any of
   its enemies to make an attack upon it. (3.) They knew that many an
   attempt made upon it had been baffled, witness that of Sennacherib.
   They were therefore amazed when they heard of the Chaldeans making
   themselves masters of it, and concluded that it was certainly by an
   immediate hand of God that Jerusalem was given up to them; it was by a
   commission from him that the enemy broke through and entered the gates
   of Jerusalem.

Cause of Jerusalem's Sorrows. (b. c. 588.)

   13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,
   that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,   14 They
   have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted
   themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.   15
   They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch
   not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen,
   They shall no more sojourn there.   16 The anger of the Lord hath
   divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the
   persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.   17 As for us,
   our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have
   watched for a nation that could not save us.   18 They hunt our steps,
   that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are
   fulfilled; for our end is come.   19 Our persecutors are swifter than
   the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid
   wait for us in the wilderness.   20 The breath of our nostrils, the
   anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under
   his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

   We have here,

   I. The sins they were charged with, for which God brought this
   destruction upon them, and which served to justify God in it (v. 13,
   14): It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her
   priests. Not that the people were innocent; no, they loved to have it
   so (Jer. v. 31), and it was to please them that the prophets and
   priests did as they did; but the fault is chiefly laid upon them, who
   should have taught them better, should have reproved and admonished
   them, and told them what would be in the end hereof; of the hands of
   those watchmen who did not give them warning will their blood be
   required. Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the
   measure faster, than the sins of their priests and prophets. The
   particular sin charged upon them is persecution; the false prophets and
   corrupt priests joined their power and interest to shed the blood of
   the just in the midst of her, the blood of God's prophets and of those
   that adhered to them. They not only shed the blood of their innocent
   children, whom they sacrificed to Moloch, but the blood of the
   righteous men that were among them, whom they sacrificed to that more
   cruel idol of enmity to the truth and true religion. This was that sin
   which the Lord would not pardon (2 Kings xxiv. 4) and which brought the
   last destruction upon Jerusalem (Jam. v. 6): You have condemned and
   killed the just. And the priests and prophets were the ringleaders in
   persecution, as in Christ's time the chief priests and scribes were the
   men that incensed the people against him, who otherwise would have
   persisted in their hosannas. Now these are those that wandered as blind
   men in the streets, v. 14. They strayed from the paths of justice, were
   blind to every thing that is good, but to do evil they were
   quick-sighted. God says of corrupt judges, They know not, neither do
   they understand; they walk in darkness (Ps. lxxxii. 5); and Christ says
   of the corrupt teachers, They are blind leaders of the blind, Matt. xv.
   14. They have so polluted themselves with innocent blood, the blood of
   the saints, that men could not touch their garments; they made
   themselves odious to all about them, so that good men were as shy of
   touching them as of touching a dead body, which contracted a ceremonial
   pollution, or of touching the bloody clothes of one slain, which tender
   spirits care not to do. There is nothing that will make prophets and
   priests to be abhorred so much as a spirit of persecution.

   II. The testimony of their neighbours produced in evidence against
   them, both to convict them of sin and to show the equity of God's
   proceedings against them. Some that have grown very impudent in sin
   boast that they care not what people say of them; but God, by the
   prophet, would have the Jews to take notice of what people said of them
   and what was the opinion of the standers by concerning them (v. 15,
   16), what they said, nay, what they cried unto them, especially to the
   corrupt priests and prophets, among the heathen. 1. They upbraided them
   with their pretended purity, while they lived in all manner of real
   iniquity. They cried to them, "Depart you; it is unclean. You were so
   precise that you would not touch a Gentile, by cried, Depart, depart;
   stand by thyself; I am holier than thou," Isa. lxv. 5. Thus the
   prosecutors of Christ would not go into the judgment-hall, lest they
   should be defiled. "But can you now keep the Gentiles from touching
   you, when God has delivered you into their hands? When you flee away
   and wander you will bid them stand off and not touch you, because they
   are unclean. But in vain; these serpents will not be charmed or
   enchanted thus; no, they will not respect the persons of the priests,
   nor favour the elders; the most venerable persons will to them be
   despicable." 2. They upbraided them with their sins, and the anger of
   God against them for their sins, and the direful effects of that anger.
   They cried to them, Depart you; it is unclean. They all cried out shame
   on them, and could easily foresee that God would not long suffer so
   provoking a people to continue in so good a land. They knew their
   statutes and judgments were righteous, and expected they should be a
   wise and understanding people, Deut. iv. 6. But, when they saw them
   quite otherwise, they cried, Depart, depart; they soon read their doom,
   that the land would spue them out, as it had done their predecessors,
   and, when they saw the dispersed of Jacob fleeing and wandering, they
   told them of it. They said, Now the anger of the Lord has divided them,
   has dispersed them into all countries, because they respected not the
   persons of the priests, the pious priests that were among them, such as
   Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, Jeremiah, and others; neither did they
   favour the elders, but despised them and their authority when they went
   about to check them for their vicious courses. The very heathen foresaw
   that this would ruin them. 3. They triumphed in their ruin as
   irrecoverable. They said, when they saw them expelled out of their own
   land, "Now they shall no more sojourn there; they have bidden it a
   final farewell, never more to return to it, for God will no more regard
   them, and how then can they help themselves?" Herein they were
   mistaken. God had not cast them off, for all this. Yet thus much is
   intimated, that all about them observed them to be so very provoking to
   their God that there was not reason to expect any other than that they
   should be quite abandoned.

   III. The despair which they themselves were almost brought to under
   their calamities. Having heard what they said concerning them among the
   heathen, let us now hear what they say concerning themselves (v. 17):
   "As for us, we look upon our case to be in a manner helpless. Our end
   is near (v. 18), the end both of our church and of our state; we are
   just at the brink of the ruin of both; nay, our end has come; we are
   utterly undone; a fatal final period is put to all our comforts; the
   days of our prosperity are fulfilled; they are numbered and finished."
   Thus their fears concurred with the hopes of their enemies that the
   Lord would no more regard them. For, 1. The refuges they fled to
   disappointed them. They looked for help from this and the other
   powerful ally, but to no purpose; it proved vain help. The succours
   they expected did not come in, or at least they had not the success
   they expected, and their eyes failed with looking for that which never
   came (v. 17); they watched in watching; they watched long, and with a
   great deal of earnestness and impatience, for a nation that promised
   them assistance, but failed them, and frustrated their expectation.
   They could not save them; they were too weak to contend with the
   Chaldean army and therefore retired. Help from creatures is vain help
   (Ps. lx. 11), and we may look for it till our eyes fail, till our
   hearts fail, and come short of it at last. 2. The persecutors they fled
   from overtook them and overcame them (v. 18): They hunt our steps, that
   we cannot go in our streets. When the Chaldeans besieged the city they
   raised their batteries so high above the walls that they could command
   the town, and shoot at people as they went along the streets. They
   hunted them with their arrows from place to place. When the city was
   broken up, and all the men of war fled, their persecutors were swifter
   than the eagles of heaven when they fly upon their prey, v. 19. There
   was no escaping them; they pursued them upon the mountains, and, when
   they thought they had got clear of them, they fell into the hands of
   those that laid wait for them in the wilderness, to cut off their
   retreat, and to pick up stragglers. Nay, the king himself, though he
   may be supposed to have had all the advantages the exigence of the case
   would admit to favour his flight, yet could not escape, for divine
   vengeance pursued him with them, and then (v. 20), The breath of our
   nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits. Some apply
   it to Josiah, who was killed in battle by the king of Egypt; but it is
   rather to be understood of Zedekiah, who was the last king of the house
   of David, and who was pursued by the Chaldeans and seized in the plains
   of Jericho, Jer. xxxix. 5. He was the anointed of the Lord, heir of
   that family which God had appointed to the government. He was very much
   confided in by the Jewish state: They said, Under his shadow we shall
   live among the heathen. They promised themselves that the remnant which
   were left after Jeconiah's captivity should, under the protection of
   his government, yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
   They thought, though they were so reduced that they could not think of
   reigning over the heathen, as they had done, yet they might make a
   shift to live among them and not be insulted and pulled to pieces by
   them. Thus apt are sinking interests not only to catch at every twig,
   but to think it will recover them. Jerusalem died of a consumption, a
   flattering distemper. Even when she was ready to expire she formed some
   hopeful symptoms to herself, and on them grounded a hope that she
   should recover; but what came of it? The shadow under which they
   thought they should live proved like that of Jonah's gourd, which
   withered in a night. He that was the anointed of the Lord was taken in
   their pits, as if he had been but a beast of prey; so little account
   did they make of a person deemed sacred and not to be violated. Note,
   When we make any creature the breath of our nostrils, and promise
   ourselves that we shall live by it, it is just with God to stop that
   breath, and deprive us of the life we expected by it; for God will have
   the honour of being himself along our life and the length of our days.

Comfort for Zion. (b. c. 588.)

   21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land
   of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be
   drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.   22 The punishment of thine
   iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry
   thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of
   Edom; he will discover thy sins.

   David's psalms of lamentation commonly conclude with some word of
   comfort, which is as life from the dead and light shining out of
   darkness; so does this lamentation here in this chapter. The people of
   God are now in great distress, their aspects all doleful, their
   prospects all frightful, and their ill-natured neighbours the Edomites
   insult over them and do all they can to exasperate their destroyers
   against them. Such was their violence against their brother Jacob
   (Obad. 10), such their spleen at Jerusalem, of which they cried, Rase
   it, rase it, Ps. cxxxvii. 7. Now it is here foretold, for the
   encouragement of God's people,

   I. That an end shall be put to Zion's troubles (v. 22): The punishment
   of they iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion! not the fulness
   of that punishment which it deserves, but of that which God has
   designed and determined to inflict, and which was necessary to answer
   the end, the glorifying of God's justice and the taking away of their
   sin. The captivity, which is the punishment of thy iniquity, is
   accomplished (Isa. xl. 2), and he will no longer keep thee in
   captivity; so it may be read, as well as, he will no more carry thee
   into captivity; he will turn again thy captivity and work a glorious
   release for thee. Note, The troubles of God's people shall be continued
   no longer than till they have done their work for which they were sent.

   II. That an end shall be put to Edom's triumphs. It is spoken
   ironically (v. 21): "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom! go on to
   insult over Zion in distress, till thou hast filled up the measure of
   thy iniquity. Do so; rejoice in thy own present exemption from the
   common fate of thy neighbours." This is like Solomon's upbraiding the
   young man with his ungoverned mirth (Eccl. xi. 9): "Rejoice, O young
   man! in thy youth; rejoice, if thou canst, when God comes to reckon
   with thee, and that he will do ere long. The cup of trembling, which it
   is now Jerusalem's turn to drink deeply of, shall pass through unto
   thee; it shall go round till it comes to be thy lot to pledge it."
   Note, This is a good reason why we should not insult over any who are
   in misery, because we ourselves also are in the body, and we know not
   how soon their case may be ours. But those who please themselves in the
   calamities of God's church must expect to have their doom, as aiders
   and abettors, with those that are instrumental in those calamities. The
   destruction of the Edomites was foretold by this prophet (Jer. xlix. 7.
   &c.), and the people of God must encourage themselves against their
   present rudeness and insolence with the prospect of it. 1. It will be a
   shameful destruction: "The cup that shall pass unto thee shall
   intoxicate thee" (and that is shame enough to any man); "thou shalt be
   drunken, quite infatuated, and at thy wits' end, shalt stagger in all
   thy counsels and stumble in all thy enterprises, and then, as Noah when
   he was drunk, thou shalt make thyself naked and expose thyself to
   contempt." Note, Those who ridicule God's people will justly be left to
   themselves to do that, some time or other, by which they will be made
   ridiculous. 2. It will be a righteous destruction. God will herein
   visit thy iniquity and discover thy sins; he will punish them, and, to
   justify himself therein, he will discover them, and make it to appear
   that he has just cause thus to proceed against them. Nay, the
   punishment of the sin shall so exactly answer the sin that it shall
   itself plainly discover it. Sometimes God does so visit the iniquity
   that he that runs may read the sin in the punishment. But, sooner or
   later, sin will be visited and discovered, and all the hidden works of
   darkness brought to light.
     __________________________________________________________________

L A M E N T A T I O N S.

  CHAP. V.

   This chapter, though it has the same number of verses with the 1st,
   2nd, and 4th, is not alphabetical, as they were, but the scope of it is
   the same with that of all the foregoing elegies. We have in it, I. A
   representation of the present calamitous state of God's people in their
   captivity, ver. 1-16. II. A protestation of their concern for God's
   sanctuary, as that which lay nearer their heart than any secular
   interest of their own, ver. 17, 18. III. A humble supplication to God
   and expostulation with him, for the returns of mercy (ver. 19-22); for
   those that lament and do not pray sin in their lamentations. Some
   ancient versions call this chapter, "The Prayer of Jeremiah."

An Appeal to God; Complicated Sorrows. (b. c. 588.)

   1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our
   reproach.   2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to
   aliens.   3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
   4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.   5
   Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.   6 We
   have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be
   satisfied with bread.   7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we
   have borne their iniquities.   8 Servants have ruled over us: there is
   none that doth deliver us out of their hand.   9 We gat our bread with
   the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.   10 Our
   skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.   11 They
   ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.   12
   Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not
   honoured.   13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell
   under the wood.   14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young
   men from their music.   15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is
   turned into mourning.   16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto
   us, that we have sinned!

   Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his
   complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people of
   God do so here; being overwhelmed with grief, they give vent to their
   sorrows at the footstool of the throne of grace, and so give themselves
   ease. They complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt: "Remember
   what has come upon us, v. 1. What was of old threatened against us, and
   was long in the coming, has now at length come upon us, and we are
   ready to sink under it. Remember what is past, consider and behold what
   is present, and let not all the trouble we are in seem little to thee,
   and not worth taking notice of," Neh. ix. 32. Note, As it is a great
   comfort to us, so it ought to be a sufficient one, in our troubles,
   that God sees, and considers, and remembers, all that has come upon us;
   and in our prayers we need only to recommend our case to his gracious
   and compassionate consideration. The one word in which all their
   grievances are summer up is reproach: Consider, and behold our
   reproach. The troubles they were in compared with their former dignity
   and plenty, were a greater reproach to them than they would have been
   to any other people, especially considering their relation to God and
   dependence upon him, and his former appearances for them; and therefore
   this they complain of very sensibly, because, as it was a reproach, it
   reflected upon the name and honour of that God who had owned them for
   his people. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

   I. They acknowledge the reproach of sin which they bear, the reproach
   of their youth (which Ephraim bemoans himself for, Jer. xxxi. 19), of
   the early days of their nation. This comes in in the midst of their
   complaints (v. 7), but may well be put in the front of them: Our
   fathers have sinned and are not; they are dead and gone, but we have
   borne their iniquities. This is not here a peevish complaint, nor an
   imputation of unrighteousness to God, like that which we have, Jer.
   xxxi. 29, Ezek. xviii. 2. The fathers did eat sour grapes, and the
   children's teeth are set on edge, and therefore the ways of the Lord
   are not equal. But it is a penitent confession of the sins of their
   ancestors, which they themselves also had persisted in, for which they
   now justly suffered; the judgments God brought upon them were so very
   great that it appeared that God had in them an eye to the sins of their
   ancestors (because they had not been remarkably punished in this world)
   as well as to their own sins; and thus God was justified both in his
   connivance at their ancestors (he laid up their iniquity for their
   children) and in his severity with them, on whom he visited that
   iniquity, Matt. xxiii. 35, 36. Thus they do here, 1. Submit themselves
   to the divine justice: "Lord, thou art just in all that is brought upon
   us, for we are a seed of evil doers, children of wrath, and heirs of
   the curse; we are sinful, and we have it by kind." Note, The sins which
   God looks back upon in punishing we must look back upon in repenting,
   and must take notice of all that which will help to justify God in
   correcting us. 2. They refer themselves to the divine pity: "Lord, our
   fathers have sinned, and we justly smart for their sins; but they are
   not; they were taken away from the evil to come; they lived not to see
   and share in these miseries that have come upon us, and we are left to
   bear their iniquities. Now, though herein God is righteous, yet it must
   be owned that our case is pitiable, and worthy of compassion." Note, If
   we be penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our
   fathers, we may expect that he who punishes will pity, and will soon
   return in mercy to us.

   II. They represent the reproach of trouble which they bear, in divers
   particulars, which tend much to their disgrace.

   1. They are disseised of that good land which God gave them, and their
   enemies have got possession of it, v. 2. Canaan was their inheritance;
   it was theirs by promise. God gave it to them and their seed, and they
   held it by grant from his crown, (Ps. cxxxvi. 21, 22); but now, "It is
   turned to strangers; those possess it who have no right to it, who are
   strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and aliens from the covenants
   of promise; they dwell in the houses that we built, and this is our
   reproach." It is the happiness of all God's spiritual Israel that the
   heavenly Canaan is an inheritance that they cannot be disseised of,
   that shall never be turned to strangers.

   2. Their state and nation are brought into a condition like that of
   widows and orphans (v. 3): "We are fatherless (that is, helpless); we
   have none to protect us, to provide for us, to take any care of us. Our
   king, who is the father of the country, is cut off; nay, God our Father
   seems to have forsaken us and cast us off; our mothers, our cities,
   that were as fruitful mothers in Israel, are now as widows, are as
   wives whose husbands are dead, destitute of comfort, and exposed to
   wrong and injury, and this is our reproach; for we who made a figure
   are now looked on with contempt."

   3. They are put hard to it to provide necessaries for themselves and
   their families, whereas once they lived in abundance and had plenty of
   every thing. Water used to be free and easily come by, but now (v. 4),
   We have drunk our water for money, and the saying is no longer true,
   Usus communis aquarum--Water is free to all. So hardly did their
   oppressors use them that they could not have a draught of fair water
   but they must purchase it either with money or with work. Formerly they
   had fuel too for the fetching; but now, "Our wood is sold to us, and we
   pay dearly for every faggot." Now were they punished for employing
   their children to gather wood for fire with which to bake cakes for the
   queen of heaven, Jer. vii. 18. They were perfectly proscribed by their
   oppressors, were forbidden the use both of fire and water, according to
   the ancient form, Interdico tibi aqua et igni--I forbid thee the use of
   water and fire. But what must they do for bread? Truly that was as hard
   to come at as any thing, for (1.) Some of them sold their liberty for
   it (v. 6): "We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the
   Assyrians, have made the best bargain we could with them, to serve
   them, that we might be satisfied with bread. We were glad to submit to
   the meanest employment, upon the hardest terms, to get a sorry
   livelihood; we have yielded ourselves to be their vassals, have parted
   with all to them, as the Egyptians did to Pharaoh in the years of
   famine, that we might have something for ourselves and families to
   subsist on." The neighbouring nations used to trade with Judah for
   wheat (Ezek. xxvii. 17), for it was a fruitful land; but now it eats up
   the inhabitants, and they are glad to make court to the Egyptians and
   Assyrians. (2.) Others of them ventured their lives for it (v. 9): We
   got our bread with the peril of our lives; when, being straitened by
   the siege and all provisions cut off, they either sallied or stole out
   of the city, to fetch in some supply, they were in danger of falling
   into the hands of the besiegers and being put to the sword, the sword
   of the wilderness it is called, or of the plain (for so the word
   signifies), the besiegers lying dispersed every where in the plains
   that were about the city. Let us take occasion hence to bless God for
   the plenty that we enjoy, that we get our bread so easily, scarcely
   with the sweat of our face, much less with the peril of our lives; and
   for the peace we enjoy, that we can go out, and enjoy not only the
   necessary productions, but the pleasures of the country, without any
   fear of the sword of the wilderness.

   4. Those are brought into slavery who were a free people, and not only
   their own masters, but masters of all about them, and this is as much
   as any thing their reproach (v. 5): Our necks are under the grievous
   and intolerable yoke of persecution (the iron yoke which Jeremiah
   foretold should be laid upon them, Jer. xxviii. 14); we are used like
   beasts in the yoke, that wholly serve their owners, and are at the
   command of their drivers. That which aggravated the servitude was, (1.)
   That their labours were incessant, like those of Israel in Egypt, who
   were daily tasked, nay, overtasked: We labour and have no rest, neither
   leave nor leisure to rest. The oxen in the yoke are unyoked at night
   and have rest; so they have, by a particular provision of the law, on
   the sabbath day; but the poor captives in Babylon, who were compelled
   to work for their living, laboured and had no rest, no night's rest, no
   sabbath-rest; they were quite tired out with continual toil. (2.) That
   their masters were insufferable (v. 8): Servants have ruled over us;
   and nothing is more vexatious than a servant when he reigns, Prov. xxx.
   22. They were not only the great men of the Chaldeans that commanded
   them, but even the meanest of their servants abused them at pleasure,
   and insulted over them; and they must be at their beck too. The curse
   of Canaan had now become the doom of Judah: A servant of servants shall
   he be. They would not be ruled by their God, and by his servants the
   prophets, whose rule was gentle and gracious, and therefore justly are
   they ruled with rigour by their enemies and their servants. (3.) That
   they saw no probable way for the redress of their grievances: "There is
   none that doth deliver us out of their hand; not only none to rescue us
   out of our captivity, but none to check and restrain the insolence of
   the servants that abuse us and trample upon us," which one would think
   their masters should have done, because it was a usurpation of their
   authority; but, it should seem, they connived at it and encouraged it,
   and, as if they were not worthy of the correction of gentlemen, they
   are turned over to the footmen to be spurned by them. Well might they
   pray, Lord, consider and behold our reproach.

   5. Those who used to be feasted are now famished (v. 10): Our skin was
   black like an oven, dried and parched too, because of the terrible
   famine, the storms of famine (so the word is); for, though famine comes
   gradually upon a people, yet it comes violently, and bears down all
   before it, and there is no resisting it; and this also is their
   disgrace; hence we read of the reproach of famine, which in captivity
   their received among the heathen, Ezek. xxxvi. 30.

   6. All sorts of people, even those whose persons and characters were
   most inviolable, were abused and dishonoured. (1.) The women were
   ravished, even the women in Zion, that holy mountain, v. 11. The
   committing of such abominable wickednesses there is very justly and
   sadly complained of. (2.) The great men were not only put to death, but
   put to ignominious deaths. Princes were hanged, as if they had been
   slaves, by the hands of the Chaldeans (v. 12), who took a pride in
   doing this barbarous execution with their own hands. Some think that
   the dead bodies of the princes, after they were slain with the sword,
   were hung up, as the bodies of Saul's sons, in disgrace to them, and as
   it were to expiate the nation's guilt. (3.) No respect was shown to
   magistrates and those in authority: The faces of elders, elders in age,
   elders in office, were not honoured. This will be particularly
   remembered against the Chaldeans another day. Isa. xlvii. 6, Upon the
   ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. (4.) The tenderness of
   youth was no more considered than the gravity of old age (v. 13): They
   took the young men to grind at the hand-mills, nay, perhaps at the
   horse-mills. The young men have carried the grist (so some), have
   carried the mill, or mill-stones, so others. They loaded them as if
   they had been beasts of burden, and so broke their backs while they
   were young, and made the rest of their lives the more miserable. Nay,
   they made the little children carry their wood home for fuel, and laid
   such burdens upon them that they fell down under them, so very inhuman
   were these cruel taskmasters!

   7. An end was put to all their gladness, and their joy was quite
   extinguished (v. 14): The young men, who used to be disposed to mirth,
   have ceased from their music, have hung their harps upon the
   willow-trees. It does indeed well become old men to cease from their
   music; it is time to lay it by with a gracious contempt when all the
   daughters of music are brought low; but it speaks some great calamity
   upon a people when their young men are made to cease from it. It was so
   with the body of the people (v. 15): The joy of their heart ceased;
   they never knew what joy was since the enemy came in upon them like a
   flood, for ever since deep called unto deep, and one wave flowed in
   upon the neck of another, so that they were quite overwhelmed: Our
   dance is turned into mourning, instead of leaping for joy, as formerly,
   we sink and lie down in sorrow. This may refer especially to the joy of
   their solemn feasts, and the dancing used in them (Judg. xxi. 21),
   which was not only modest, but sacred, dancing; this was turned into
   mourning, which was doubled on their festival days, in remembrance of
   their former pleasant things.

   8. An end was put to all their glory. (1.) The public administration of
   justice was their glory, but that was gone: The elders have ceased from
   the gate (v. 14); the course of justice, which used to run down like a
   river, is now stopped; the courts of justice, which used to be kept
   with so much solemnity, are put down; for the judges are slain, or
   carried captive. (2.) The royal dignity was their glory, but that also
   was gone: The crown has fallen from our head, not only the king himself
   fallen into disgrace, but the crown; he has no successor; the regalia
   are all lost. Note, Earthly crowns are fading falling things; but,
   blessed be God, there is a crown of glory that fades not away, that
   never falls, a kingdom that cannot be moved. Upon this complaint, but
   with reference to all the foregoing complaints, they make that penitent
   acknowledgment, "Woe unto us that we have sinned! Alas for us! Our case
   is very deplorable, and it is all owing to ourselves; we are undone,
   and, which aggravates the matter, we are undone by our own hands. God
   is righteous, for we have sinned." Note, All our woes are owing to our
   own sin and folly. If the crown of our head be fallen (for so the words
   run), if we lose our excellency and become mean, we may thank
   ourselves, we have by our own iniquity profaned our crown and laid our
   honour in the dust.

Unchangeableness of God; Prayer for Mercy and Grace. (b. c. 588.)

   17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.   18
   Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon
   it.   19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation
   to generation.   20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake
   us so long time?   21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be
   turned; renew our days as of old.   22 But thou hast utterly rejected
   us; thou art very wroth against us.

   Here, I. The people of God express the deep concern they had for the
   ruins of the temple, more than for any other of their calamities; the
   interests of God's house lay nearer their hearts than those of their
   own (v. 17, 18): For this our heart is faint, and sinks under the load
   of its own heaviness; for these things our eyes are dim, and our sight
   is gone, as is usual in a deliquium, or fainting fit. "It is because of
   the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the holy mountain, and the
   temple built upon that mountain. For other desolations our hearts
   grieve and our eyes weep; but for this our hearts faint and our eyes
   are dim." Note, Nothing lies so heavily upon the spirits of good people
   as that which threatens the ruin of religion or weakens its interests;
   and it is a comfort if we can appeal to God that that afflicts us more
   than any temporal affliction to ourselves. "The people have polluted
   the mountain of Zion with their sins, and therefore God has justly made
   it desolate, to such a degree that the foxes walk upon it as freely and
   commonly as they do in the woods." It is sad indeed when the mountain
   of Zion has become a portion for foxes (Ps. lxiii. 10); but sin had
   first made it so, Ezek. xiii. 4.

   II. They comfort themselves with the doctrine of God's eternity, and
   the perpetuity of his government (v. 19): But thou, O Lord! remainest
   for ever. This they are taught to do by that psalm which is entitled, A
   prayer of the afflicted, Ps. cii. 27, 28. When all our
   creature-comforts are removed from us, and our hearts fail us, we may
   then encourage ourselves with the belief, 1. Of God's eternity: Thou
   remainest for ever. What shakes the world gives no disturbance to him
   who made it; whatever revolutions there are on earth there is no change
   in the Eternal Mind; God is still the same, and remains for ever
   infinitely wise and holy, just and good; with him there is no
   variableness nor shadow of turning. 2. Of the never-failing continuance
   of his dominion: Thy throne is from generation to generation; the
   throne of glory, the throne of grace, and the throne of government, are
   all unchangeable, immovable; and this is matter of comfort to us when
   the crown has fallen from our head. When the thrones of princes, that
   should be our protectors, are brought to the dust, and buried in it,
   God's throne continues still; he still rules the world, and rules it
   for the good of the church. The Lord reigns, reigns for ever, even thy
   God, O Zion!

   III. They humbly expostulate with God concerning the low condition they
   were now in, and the frowns of heaven they were now under (v. 20):
   "Wherefore dost thou forsake us so long time, as if we were quite
   deprived of the tokens of thy presence? Wherefore dost thou defer our
   deliverance, as if thou hadst utterly abandoned us? Thou art the same,
   and, though the throne of thy sanctuary is demolished, thy throne in
   heaven is unshaken. But wilt thou not be the same to us?" Not as if
   they thought God had forgotten and forsaken them, much less feared his
   forgetting and forsaking them for ever; but thus they express the value
   they had for his favour and presence, which they thought it long that
   they were deprived of the evidence and comfort of. The last verse may
   be read as such an expostulation, and so the margin reads it: "For wilt
   thou utterly reject us? Wilt thou be perpetually wroth with us, not
   only not smile upon us and remember us in mercy, but frown upon us and
   lay us under the tokens of thy wrath, not only not draw nigh to us, but
   cast us out of thy presence and forbid us to draw nigh unto thee? How
   ill this be reconciled with thy goodness and faithfulness, and the
   stability of thy covenant?" We read it, "But thou hast rejected us;
   thou hast given us cause to fear that thou hast. Lord, how long shall
   we be in this temptation?" Note, Thou we may not quarrel with God, yet
   we may plead with him; and, though we may not conclude that he has cast
   off, yet we may (with the prophet, Jer. xii. 1) humbly reason with him
   concerning his judgments, especially the continuance of the desolations
   of his sanctuary.

   IV. They earnestly pray to God for mercy and grace: "Lord, do not
   reject us for ever, but turn thou us unto thee; renew our days," v. 21.
   Though these words are not put last, yet the Rabbin, because they would
   not have the book to conclude with those melancholy words (v. 22),
   repeat this prayer again, that the sun may not set under a cloud, and
   so make these the last words both in writing and reading this chapter.
   They here pray, 1. For converting grace to prepare and qualify them for
   mercy: Turn us to thee, O Lord! They had complained that God had
   forsaken and forgotten them, and then their prayer is not, Turn thou to
   us, but, Turn us to thee, which implies an acknowledgment that the
   cause of the distance was in themselves. God never leaves any till they
   first leave him, nor stands afar off from any longer than while they
   stand afar off from him; if therefore he turn them to him in a way of
   duty, no doubt but he will quickly return to them in a way of mercy.
   This agrees with that repeated prayer (Ps. lxxx. 3, 7, 19), Turn us
   again, and then cause thy face to shine. Turn us from our idols to
   thyself, by a sincere repentance and reformation, and then we shall be
   turned. This implies a further acknowledgment of their own weakness and
   inability to turn themselves. There is in our nature a proneness to
   backslide from God, but no disposition to return to him till his grace
   works in us both to will and to do. So necessary is that grace that we
   may truly say, Turn us or we shall not be turned, but shall wander
   endlessly; and so powerful and effectual is that grace that we may as
   truly say, Turn us, and we shall be turned; for it is a day of power,
   almighty power, in which God's people are made a willing people, Ps.
   cx. 3. 2. For restoring mercy: Turn us to thee, and then renew our days
   as of old, put us into the same happy state that our ancestors were in
   long ago and that they continued long in; let it be with us as it was
   at the first, and at the beginning, Isa. i. 26. Note, If God by his
   grace renew our hearts, he will be his favour renew our days, so that
   we shall renew our youth as the eagle, Ps. ciii. 5. Those that repent,
   and do their first works, shall rejoice, and recover their first
   comforts. God's mercies to his people have been ever of old (Ps. xxv.
   6); and therefore they may hope, even then when he seems to have
   forsaken and forgotten them, that the mercy which was from everlasting
   will be to everlasting.
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Ezekiel
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

E Z E K I E L.
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   When we entered upon the writings of the prophets, which speak of the
   things that should be hereafter, we seemed to have the same call that
   St. John had (Rev. iv. 1), Come up hither; but, when we enter upon the
   prophecy of this book, it is as if the voice said, Come up higher; as
   we go forward in time (for Ezekiel prophesied in the captivity, as
   Jeremiah prophesied just before it), so we soar upward in discoveries
   yet more sublime of the divine glory. These waters of the sanctuary
   still grow deeper; so far are they from being fordable that in some
   places they are scarcely fathomable; yet, deep as they are, out of them
   flow streams which make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the
   tabernacles of the Most High. As to this prophecy now before us, we may
   enquire, I. Concerning the penman of it--it was Ezekiel; his name
   signifies, The strength of God, or one girt or strengthened of God. He
   girded up the loins of his mind to the service, and God put strength
   into him. Whom God calls to any service he will himself enable for it;
   if he give commission, he will give power to execute it. Ezekiel's name
   was answered when God said (and no doubt did as he said), I have made
   thy face strong against their faces. The learned Selden, in his book De
   Diis Syris, says that it was the opinion of some of the ancients that
   the prophet Ezekiel was the same with that Nazaratus Assyrius whom
   Pythagoras (as himself relates) had for his tutor for some time, and
   whose lectures he attended. It is agreed that they lived much about the
   same time; and we have reason to think that many of the Greek
   philosophers were acquainted with the sacred writings and borrowed some
   of the best of their notions from them. If we may give credit to the
   tradition of the Jews, he was put to death by the captives in Babylon,
   for his faithfulness and boldness in reproving them; it is stated that
   they dragged him upon the stones till his brains were dashed out. An
   Arabic historian says that he was put to death and was buried in the
   sepulchre of Shem the son of Noah. So Hottinger relates, Thesaur.
   Philol. lib. 2 cap. 1. II. Concerning the date of it--the place whence
   it is dated and the time when. The scene is laid in Babylon, when it
   was a house of bondage to the Israel of God; there the prophecies of
   this book were preached, there they were written, when the prophet
   himself, and the people to whom he prophesied, were captives there.
   Ezekiel and Daniel are the only writing prophets of the Old Testament
   who lived and prophesied any where but in the land of Israel, except we
   add Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh to prophesy. Ezekiel prophesied in
   the beginning of the captivity, Daniel in the latter end of it. It was
   an indication of God's good-will to them, and his gracious designs
   concerning them in their affliction, that he raised up prophets among
   them, both to convince them when, in the beginning of their troubles,
   they were secure and unhumbled, which was Ezekiel's business, and to
   comfort them when, in the latter end of their troubles, they were
   dejected and discouraged. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he
   would not have used such apt and proper means to cure them. III.
   Concerning the matter and scope of it. 1. There is much in it that is
   very mysterious, dark, and hard to be understood, especially in the
   beginning and the latter end of it, which therefore the Jewish rabbin
   forbade the reading of to their young men, till they came to be thirty
   years of age, lest by the difficulties they met with there they should
   be prejudiced against the scriptures; but if we read these difficult
   parts of scripture with humility and reverence, and search them
   diligently, though we may not be able to untie all the knots we meet
   with, any more than we can solve all the phenomena in the book of
   nature, yet we may from them, as from the book of nature, gather a
   great deal for the confirming of our faith and the encouraging of our
   hope in the God we worship. 2. Though the visions here be intricate,
   such as an elephant may swim in, yet the sermons are mostly plain, such
   as a lamb may wade in; and the chief design of them is to show God's
   people their transgressions, that in their captivity they might be
   repenting and not repining. It should seem the prophet was constantly
   attended (for we read of their sitting before him as God's people sat
   to hear his words, ch. xxxiii. 31), and that he was occasionally
   consulted, for we read of the elders of Israel who came to enquire of
   the Lord by him, ch. xiv. 1, 3. And as it was of great use to the
   oppressed captives themselves to have a prophet with them, so it was a
   testimony to their holy religion against their oppressors who ridiculed
   it and them. 3. Though the reproofs and the threatenings here are very
   sharp and bold, yet towards the close of the book very comfortable
   assurances are given of great mercy God had in store for them; and
   there, at length, we shall meet with something that has reference to
   gospel times, and which was to have its accomplishment in the kingdom
   of the Messiah, of whom indeed this prophet speaks less than almost any
   of the prophets. But by opening the terrors of the Lord he prepares
   Christ's way. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and so it becomes our
   school-master to bring us to Christ. The visions which were the
   prophet's credentials we have ch. i.-iii., the reproofs and
   threatenings ch. iv.-xxiv. betwixt which and the comforts which we have
   in the latter part of the book we have messages sent to the nations
   that bordered upon the land of Israel, whose destruction is foretold
   (ch. xxv.-xxxv.), to make way for the restoration of God's Israel and
   the re-establishment of their city and temple, which are foretold ch.
   xxxvi. to the end. Those who would apply the comforts to themselves
   must apply the convictions to themselves.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. The common circumstances of the prophecy
   now to be delivered, the time when it was delivered (ver. 1), the place
   where (ver. 2), and the person by whom, ver. 3. II. The uncommon
   introduction to it by a vision of the glory of God, 1. In his
   attendance and retinue in the upper world, where his throne is
   surrounded with angels, here called "living creatures," ver. 4-14. 2.
   In his providences concerning the lower world, represented by the
   wheels and their motions, ver. 15-25. 3. In the face of Jesus Christ
   sitting upon the throne, ver. 26-28. And the more we are acquainted,
   and the more intimately we converse, with the glory of God in these
   three branches of it, the more commanding influence will divine
   revelation have upon us and the more ready shall we be to submit to it,
   which is the thing aimed at in prefacing the prophecies of this book
   with these visions. When such a God of glory speaks, it concerns us to
   hear with attention and reverence; it is at our peril if we do not.

Ezekiel's First Vision by the River Chebar. (b. c. 595.)

   1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in
   the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of
   Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.   2 In
   the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king
   Jehoiachin's captivity,   3 The word of the Lord came expressly unto
   Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by
   the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.

   The circumstances of the vision which Ezekiel saw, and in which he
   received his commission and instructions, are here very particularly
   set down, that the narrative may appear to be authentic and not
   romantic. It may be of use to keep an account when and where God has
   been pleased to manifest himself to our souls in a peculiar manner,
   that the return of the day, and our return to the place of the altar
   (Gen. xiii. 4), may revive the pleasing grateful remembrance of God's
   favour to us. "Remember, O my soul! and never forget what
   communications of divine love thou didst receive at such a time, at
   such a place; tell others what God did for thee."

   I. The time when Ezekiel had this vision is here recorded. It was in
   the thirtieth year, v. 1. Some make it the thirtieth year of the
   prophet's age; being a priest, he was at that age to enter upon the
   full execution of the priestly office, but being debarred from that by
   the iniquity and calamity of the times, now that they had neither
   temple nor altar, God at that age called him to the dignity of a
   prophet. Others make it to be the thirtieth year from the beginning of
   the reign of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, from which the
   Chaldeans began a new computation of time, as they had done from
   Nabonassar 123 years before. Nabopolassar reigned nineteen years, and
   this was the eleventh of his son, which makes the thirty. And it was
   proper enough for Ezekiel, when he was in Babylon, to use the
   computation they there used, as we in foreign countries date by the new
   style; and he afterwards uses the melancholy computation of his own
   country, observing (v. 2) that it was the fifth year of Jehoiachin's
   captivity. But the Chaldee paraphrase fixes upon another era, and says
   that this was the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the priest found the
   book of the law in the house of the sanctuary, at midnight, after the
   setting of the moon, in the days of Josiah the king. And it is true
   that this was just thirty years from that time; and that was an event
   so remarkable (as it put the Jewish state upon a new trial) that it was
   proper enough to date form it; and perhaps therefore the prophet speaks
   indefinitely of thirty years, as having an eye both to that event and
   to the Chaldean computation, which were coincident. It was in the
   fourth month, answering to our June, and in the fifth day of the month,
   that Ezekiel had this vision, v. 2. It is probably that it was on the
   sabbath day, because we read (ch. iii. 16) that at the end of seven
   days, which we may well suppose to be the next sabbath, the word of the
   Lord came to him again. Thus John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,
   when he saw the visions of the Almighty, Rev. i. 10. God would hereby
   put an honour upon his sabbaths, when the enemies mocked at them, Lam.
   i. 7. And he would thus encourage his people to keep up their
   attendance on the ministry of his prophets every sabbath day, by the
   extraordinary manifestations of himself on some sabbath days.

   II. The melancholy circumstances he was in when God honoured him, and
   thereby favoured his people, with this vision. He was in the land of
   the Chaldeans, among the captives, by the river of Chebar, and it was
   in the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity. Observe,

   1. The people of God were now, some of them, captives in the land of
   the Chaldeans. The body of the Jewish nation yet remained in their own
   land, but these were the first-fruits of the captivity, and they were
   some of the best; for in Jeremiah's vision these were the good figs,
   whom God had sent into the land of the Chaldeans for their good (Jer.
   xxiv. 5); and, that it might be for their good, God raised up a prophet
   among them, to teach them out of the law, then when he chastened them,
   Ps. xciv. 12. Note, It is a great mercy to have the word of God brought
   to us, and a great duty to attend to it diligently, when we are in
   affliction. The word of instruction and the rod of correction may be of
   great service to us, in concert and concurrence with each other, the
   word to explain the rod and the rod to enforce the word: both together
   give wisdom. It is happy for a man, when he is sick and in pain, to
   have a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, if he
   have but his ear open to discipline, Job xxiii. 23. One of the quarrels
   God had with the Jews, when he sent them into captivity, was for
   mocking his messengers and misusing his prophets; and yet, when they
   were suffering for this sin, he favoured them with this forfeited
   mercy. It were ill with us if God did not sometimes graciously thrust
   upon us those means of grace and salvation which we have foolishly
   thrust from us. In their captivity they were destitute of ordinary
   helps for their souls, and therefore God raised them up these
   extraordinary ones; for God's children, if they be hindered in their
   education one way, shall have it made up another way. But observe, It
   was in the fifth year of the captivity that Ezekiel was raised up
   amongst them, and not before. So long God left them without any
   prophet, till they began to lament after the Lord and to complain that
   they saw not their signs and there was none to tell them how long (Ps.
   lxxiv. 9), and then they would know how to value a prophet, and God's
   discoveries of himself to them by him would be the more acceptable and
   comfortable. The Jews that remained in their own land had Jeremiah with
   them, those that had gone into captivity had Ezekiel with them; for
   wherever the children of God are scattered abroad he will find out
   tutors for them.

   2. The prophet was himself among the captives, those of them that were
   posted by the river Chebar; for it was by the rivers of Babylon that
   they sat down, and on the willow-trees by the river's side that they
   hanged their harps, Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 2. The planters in America keep
   along by the sides of the rivers, and perhaps those captives were
   employed by their masters in improving some parts of the country by the
   rivers' sides that were uncultivated, the natives being generally
   employed in war; or they employed them in manufactures, and therefore
   chose to fix them by the sides of rivers, that the good they made might
   the more easily be conveyed by water-carriage. Interpreters agree not
   what river this of Chebar was, but among the captives by that river
   Ezekiel was, and himself a captive. Observe here, (1.) The best men,
   and those that are dearest to God, often share, not only in the common
   calamities of this life, but in the public and national judgments that
   are inflicted for sin; those feel the smart who contributed nothing to
   the guilt, by which it appears that the difference between good and bad
   arises not from the events that befal them, but from the temper and
   disposition of their spirits under them. And since not only righteous
   men, but prophets, share with the worst in present punishments, we may
   infer thence, with the greatest assurance, that there are rewards
   reserved for them in the future state. (2.) Words of conviction,
   counsel, and comfort, come best to those who are in affliction from
   their fellow sufferers. The captives will be best instructed by one who
   is a captive among them and experimentally knows their sorrows. (3.)
   The spirit of prophecy was not confined to the land of Israel, but some
   of the brightest of divine revelations were revealed in the land of the
   Chaldeans, which was a happy presage of the carrying of the church,
   with that divine revelation upon which it is built, into the Gentile
   world; and, as now, so afterwards, when the gospel kingdom was to be
   set up, the dispersion of the Jews contributed to the spreading of the
   knowledge of God. (4.) Wherever we are we may keep up our communion
   with God. Undique ad coelos tantundem est viæ--From the remotest
   corners of the earth we may find a way open heavenward. (5.) When God's
   ministers are bound the word of the Lord is not bound, 2 Tim. ii. 9.
   When St. Paul was a prisoner the gospel had a free course. When St.
   John was banished into the Isle of Patmos Christ visited him there.
   Nay, God's suffering servants have generally been treated as
   favourites, and their consolations have much more abounded when
   affliction has abounded, 2 Cor. i. 5.

   III. The discovery which God was pleased to make of himself to the
   prophet when he was in these circumstances, to be by him communicated
   to his people. He here tells us what he saw, what he heard, and what he
   felt. 1. He saw visions of God, v. 1. No man can see God and live; but
   many have seen visions of God, such displays of the divine glory as
   have both instructed and affected them; and commonly, when God first
   revealed himself to any prophet, he did it by an extraordinary vision,
   as to Isaiah (ch. vi.), to Jeremiah (ch. i.), to Abraham (Acts vii. 2),
   to settle a correspondence and a satisfactory way of intercourse, so
   that there needed not afterwards a vision upon ever revelation. Ezekiel
   was employed in turning the hearts of the people to the Lord their God,
   and therefore he must himself see the visions of God. Note, It concerns
   those to be well acquainted with God themselves, and much affected with
   what they know of him, whose business it is to bring others to the
   knowledge and love of him. That he might see the visions of God the
   heavens were opened; the darkness and distance which hindered his
   visions were conquered, and he was let into the light of the glories of
   the upper world, as near and clear as if heaven had been opened to him.
   2. He heard the voice of God (v. 3): The word of the Lord came
   expressly to him, and what he saw was designed to prepare him for what
   he was to hear. The expression is emphatic. Essendo fuit verbum
   Dei--The word of the Lord was a really it was to him. There was no
   mistake in it; it came to him in the fulness of its light and power, in
   the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit; it came close to him,
   nay, it came into him, took possession of him and dwelt in him richly.
   It came expressly, or accurately, to him; he did himself clearly
   understand what he said and was abundantly satisfied of the truth of
   it. The essential Word (so we may take it), the Word who is, who is
   what he is, came to Ezekiel, to send him on his errand. 3. He felt the
   power of God opening his eyes to see the visions, opening his ear to
   hear the voice, and opening his heart to receive both: The hand of the
   Lord was there upon him. Note, The hand of the Lord goes along with the
   word of the Lord, and so it becomes effectual; those only understand
   and believe the report to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. The
   hand of God was upon him, as upon Moses, to cover him, that he should
   not be overcome by the dazzling light and lustre of the visions he saw,
   Exod. xxxiii. 22. It was upon him (as upon St. John, Rev. i. 17), to
   revive and support him, that he might bear up, and not faint, under
   these discoveries, that he might neither be lifted up nor cast down
   with the abundance of the revelations. God's grace is sufficient for
   him, and, in token of that, his hand is upon him.

Vision of the Four Living Creatures. (b. c. 595.)

   4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great
   cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and
   out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of
   the fire.   5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four
   living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness
   of a man.   6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four
   wings.   7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their
   feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the
   colour of burnished brass.   8 And they had the hands of a man under
   their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and
   their wings.   9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned
   not when they went; they went every one straight forward.   10 As for
   the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the
   face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox
   on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.   11 Thus
   were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of
   every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
   12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to
   go, they went; and they turned not when they went.   13 As for the
   likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning
   coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down
   among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the
   fire went forth lightning.   14 And the living creatures ran and
   returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

   The visions of God which Ezekiel here saw were very glorious, and had
   more particulars than those which other prophets saw. It is the scope
   and intention of these vision, 1. To possess the prophet's mind with
   very great, and high, and honourable thoughts of that God by whom he
   was commissioned and for whom he was employed. It is the likeness of
   the glory of the Lord that he sees (v. 28), and hence he may infer that
   it is his honour to serve him, for he is one whom angels serve. He may
   serve him with safety, for he has power sufficient to bear him out in
   his work. It is at his peril to draw back from his service, for he has
   power to pursue him, as he did Jonah. So great a God as this must be
   served with reverence and godly fear; and with assurance may Ezekiel
   foretel what this God will do, for he is able to make his words good.
   2. To strike a terror upon the sinners who remained in Zion, and those
   who had already come to Babylon, who were secure, and bade defiance to
   the threatenings of Jerusalem's ruin, as we have found in Jeremiah's
   prophecy, and shall find in this, many did. "Let those who said, We
   shall have peace though we go on, know that our God is a consuming
   fire, whom they cannot stand before." That this vision had a reference
   to the destruction of Jerusalem seems plain from ch. xliii. 3, where he
   says that it was the vision which he saw when he came to destroy the
   city, that is, to prophesy the destruction of it. 3. To speak comfort
   to those that feared God, and trembled at his word, and humbled
   themselves under his mighty hand. "Let them know that, though they are
   captives in Babylon, yet they have God nigh unto them; though they have
   not the place of the sanctuary to be their glorious high throne, they
   have the God of the sanctuary." Dr. Lightfoot observes, "Now that the
   church is to be planted for a long time in another country, the Lord
   shows a glory in the midst of them, as he had done at their first
   constituting into a church in the wilderness; and out of a cloud and
   fire, as he had done there, he showed himself; and from between living
   creatures, as from between the cherubim, he gives his oracles." This
   put an honour upon them, by which they might value themselves when the
   Chaldeans insulted over them, and this might encourage their hopes of
   deliverance in due time.

   Now, to answer these ends, we have in these verses the first part of
   the vision, which represents God as attended and served by an
   innumerable company of angels, who are all his messengers, his
   ministers, doing his commandments and hearkening to the voice of his
   word. This denotes his grandeur, as it magnifies an earthly prince to
   have a splendid retinue and numerous armies at his command, which
   engages his allies to trust him and his enemies to fear him.

   I. The introduction to this vision of the angels is very magnificent
   and awakening, v. 4. The prophet, observing the heavens to open,
   looked, looked up (as it was time), to see what discoveries God would
   make to him. Note, When the heavens are opened it concerns us to have
   our eyes open. To clear the way, behold, a whirlwind came out of the
   north, which would drive away the interposing mists of this lower
   region. Fair weather comes out of the north, and thence the wind comes
   that drives away rain. God can by a whirlwind clear the sky and air,
   and produce that serenity of mind which is necessary to our communion
   with Heaven. Yet this whirlwind was attended with a great cloud. When
   we think that the clouds which arise from this earth are dispelled and
   we can see beyond them, yet still there is a cloud which heavenly
   things are wrapped in, a cloud from above, so that we cannot order our
   speech concerning them by reason of darkness. Christ here descended, as
   he ascended, in a cloud. Some by this whirlwind and cloud understand
   the Chaldean army coming out of the north against the land of Judah,
   bearing down all before them as a tempest; and so it agrees with that
   which was signified by one of the first of Jeremiah's visions (Jer. i.
   14, Out of the north an evil shall break forth); but I take it here as
   an introduction rather to the vision than to the sermons. This
   whirlwind came to Ezekiel (as that to Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 11), to
   prepare the way of the Lord, and to demand attention. He that has eyes,
   that has ears, let him see, let him hear.

   II. The vision itself. A great cloud was the vehicle of this vision, in
   which it was conveyed to the prophet; for God's pavilion in which he
   rests, his chariot in which he rides, is darkness and thick clouds, Ps.
   xviii. 11; civ. 3. Thus he holds back the face of his throne, lest its
   dazzling light and lustre should overpower us, by spreading a cloud
   upon it. Now,

   1. The cloud is accompanied with a fire, as upon Mount Sinai, where God
   resided in a thick cloud; but the sight of his glory was like a
   devouring fire (Exod. xxiv. 16, 17), and his first appearance to Moses
   was in a flame of fire in the bush; for our God is a consuming fire.
   This was a fire enfolding itself, a globe, or orb, or wheel of fire.
   God being his own cause, his own rule, and his own end, if he be as a
   fire, he is as a fire enfolding itself, or (as some read it) kindled by
   itself. The fire of God's glory shines forth, but it quickly enfolds
   itself; for he lets us know but part of his ways; the fire of God's
   wrath breaks forth, but it also quickly enfolds itself, for the divine
   patience suffers not all his wrath to be stirred up. If it were not a
   fire thus enfolding itself, O Lord! who shall stand?

   2. The fire is surrounded with a glory: A brightness was about it, in
   which it enfolded itself, yet it made some discovery of itself. Though
   we cannot see into the fire, cannot by searching find out God to
   perfection, yet we see the brightness that is round about it, the
   reflection of this fire from the thick cloud. Moses might see God's
   back parts, but not his face. We have some light concerning the nature
   of God, from the brightness which encompasses it, though we have not an
   insight into it, by reason of the cloud spread upon it. Nothing is more
   easy than to determine that God is, nothing more difficult than to
   describe what he is. When God displays his wrath as fire, yet there is
   a brightness about it; for his holiness and justice appear very
   illustrious in the punishment of sin and sinners: even about the
   devouring fire there is a brightness, which glorified saints will for
   ever admire.

   3. Out of this fire there shines the colour of amber. We are not told
   who or what it was that had this colour of amber, and therefore I take
   it to be the whole frame of the following vision, which came into
   Ezekiel's view out of the midst of the fire and brightness; and the
   first thing he took notice of before he viewed the particulars was that
   it was of the colour of amber, or the eye of amber; that is, it looked
   as amber does to the eye, of a bright flaming fiery colour, the colour
   of a burning coal; so some think it should be read. The living
   creatures which he saw coming out of the midst of the fire were
   seraphim--burners; for he maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a
   flaming fire.

   4. That which comes out of the fire, of a fiery amber colour, when it
   comes to be distinctly viewed, is the likeness of four living
   creatures; not the living creatures themselves (angels are spirits, and
   cannot be seen), but the likeness of them, such a hieroglyphic, or
   representation, as God saw fit to make use of for the leading of the
   prophet, and us with him, into some acquaintance with the world of
   angels (a matter purely of divine revelation), so far as is requisite
   to possess us with an awful sense of the greatness of that God who has
   angels for his attendants, and the goodness of that God who has
   appointed them to be attendants on his people. The likeness of these
   living creatures came out of the midst of the fire; for angels derive
   their being and power from God; they are in themselves, and to us, what
   he is pleased to make them; their glory is a ray of his. The prophet
   himself explains this vision (ch. x. 20): I knew that the living
   creatures were the cherubim, which is one of the names by which the
   angels are known in scripture. To Daniel was made known their number,
   ten thousand times ten thousand, Dan. vii. 10. But, though they are
   many, yet they are one, and that is made known to Ezekiel here; they
   are one in nature and operation, as an army, consisting of thousands,
   is yet called a body of men. We have here an account of,

   (1.) Their nature. They are living creatures; they are the creatures of
   God, the work of his hands; their being is derived; they have not life
   in and of themselves, but receive it from him who is the fountain of
   life. As much as the living creatures of this lower world excel the
   vegetables that are the ornaments of earth, so much do the angels, the
   living creatures of the upper world, excel the sun, moon, and stars,
   the ornaments of the heavens. The sun (say some) is a flame of fire
   enfolding itself, but it is not a living creature, as angels, those
   flames of fire, are. Angels are living creatures, living beings,
   emphatically so. Men on earth are dying creatures, dying daily (in the
   midst of life we are in death), but angels in heaven are living
   creatures; they live indeed, live to good purpose; and, when saints
   come to be equal unto the angels, they shall not die any more, Luke xx.
   36.

   (2.) Their number. They are four; so they appear here, though they are
   innumerable; not as if these were four particular angels set up above
   the rest, as some have fondly imagined, Michael and Gabriel, Raphael
   and Uriel, but for the sake of the four faces they put on, and to
   intimate their being sent forth towards the four winds of heaven, Matt.
   xxiv. 31. Zechariah saw them as four chariots going forth east, west,
   north, and south, Zech. vi. 1. God has messengers to send every way;
   for his kingdom is universal, and reaches to all parts of the world.

   (3.) Their qualifications, by which they are fitted for the service of
   their Maker and Master. These are set forth figuratively and by
   similitude, as is proper in visions, which are parables to the eye.
   Their description here is such, and so expressed, that I think it is
   not possible by it to form an exact idea of them in our fancies, or
   with the pencil, for that would be a temptation to worship them; but
   the several instances of their fitness for the work they are employed
   in are intended in the several parts of this description. Note, It is
   the greatest honour of God's creatures to be in a capacity of answering
   the end of their creation; and the more ready we are to every good work
   the nearer we approach to the dignity of angels. These living creatures
   are described here, [1.] By their general appearance: They had the
   likeness of a man; they appeared, for the main, in a human shape,
   First, To signify that these living creatures are reasonable creatures,
   intelligent beings, who have the spirit of a man which is the candle of
   the Lord. Secondly, To put an honour upon the nature of man, who is
   made lower, yet but a little lower, than the angels, in the very next
   rank of beings below them. When the invisible intelligences of the
   upper world would make themselves visible, it is in the likeness of
   man. Thirdly, To intimate that their delights are with the sons of men,
   as their Master's are (Prov. viii. 31), that they do service to men,
   and men may have spiritual communion with them by faith, hope, and holy
   love. Fourthly, The angels of God appear in the likeness of man because
   in the fulness of time the Son of God was not only to appear in that
   likeness, but to assume that nature; they therefore show this love to
   it. [2.] By their faces: Every one had four faces, looking four several
   ways. In St. John's vision, which has a near affinity with this, each
   of the four living creatures has one of these faces here mentioned
   (Rev. iv. 7); here each of them has all four, to intimate that they
   have all the same qualifications for service; though, perhaps, among
   the angels of heaven, as among the angels of the churches, some excel
   in one gift and others in another, but all for the common service. Let
   us contemplate their faces till we be in some measure changed into the
   same image, that we may do the will of God as the angels do it in
   heaven. They all four had the face of a man (for in that likeness they
   appeared, v. 5), but, besides that, they had the face of a lion, an ox,
   and an eagle, each masterly in its kind, the lion among wild beasts,
   the ox among tame ones, and the eagle among fowls, v. 10. Does God make
   use of them for the executing of judgments upon his enemies? They are
   fierce and strong as the lion and the eagle in tearing their prey. Does
   he make use of them for the good of his people? They are as oxen strong
   for labour and inclined to serve. And in both they have the
   understanding of a man. The scattered perfections of the living
   creatures on earth meet in the angels of heaven. They have the likeness
   of man; but, because there are some things in which man is excelled
   even by the inferior creatures, they are therefore compared to some of
   them. They have the understanding of a man, and such as far exceeds it;
   they also resemble man in tenderness and humanity. But, First, A lion
   excels man in strength and boldness, and is much more formidable;
   therefore the angels, who in this resemble them, put on the face of a
   lion. Secondly, An ox excels man in diligence, and patience, and
   painstaking, and an unwearied discharge of the work he has to do;
   therefore the angels, who are constantly employed in the service of God
   and the church, put on the face of an ox. Thirdly, An eagle excels man
   in quickness and piercingness of sight, and in soaring high; and
   therefore the angels, who seek things above, and see far into divine
   mysteries, put on the face of a flying eagle. [3.] By their wings:
   Every one had four wings, v. 6. In the vision Isaiah had of them they
   appeared with six, now with four; for they appeared above the throne,
   and had occasion for two to cover their faces with. The angels are
   fitted with wings to fly swiftly on God's errands; whatever business
   God sends them upon they lose no time. Faith and hope are the soul's
   wings, upon which it soars upward; pious and devout affections are its
   wings on which it is carried forward with vigour and alacrity. The
   prophet observes here, concerning their wings, First, That they were
   joined one to another, v. 9 and again v. 11. They did not make use of
   their wings for fighting, as some birds do; there is no contest among
   the angels. God makes peace, perfect peace, in his high places. But
   their wings were joined, in token of their perfect unity and unanimity
   and the universal agreement there is among them. Secondly, That they
   were stretched upward, extended, and ready for use, not folded up, or
   flagging. Let an angel receive the least intimation of the divine will,
   and he has nothing to seek, but is upon the wings immediately; while
   our poor dull souls are like the ostrich, that with much difficulty
   lifts up herself on high. Thirdly, That two of their wings were made
   use of in covering their bodies, the spiritual bodies they assumed. The
   clothes that cover us are our hindrance in work; angels need no other
   covering than their own wings, which are their furtherance. They cover
   their bodies from us, so forbidding us needless enquiries concerning
   them. Ask not after them, for they are wonderful, Judg. xiii. 18. They
   cover them before God, so directing us, when we approach to God, to see
   to it that we be so clothed with Christ's righteousness that the shame
   of our nakedness may not appear. [4.] By their feet, including their
   legs and thighs: They were straight feet (v. 7); they stood straight,
   and firm, and steady; no burden of service could make their legs to
   bend under them. The spouse makes this part of the description of her
   beloved, that his legs were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of
   fine gold (Cant. v. 15); such are the angels' legs. The sole of their
   feet was like that of a calf's foot, which divides the hoof and is
   therefore clean: as it were the sole of a round foot (as the Chaldee
   words it); they were ready for motion any way. Their feet were winged
   (so the LXX.); they went so swiftly that it was as if they flew. And
   their very feet sparkled like the colour of burnished brass; not only
   the faces, but the very feet, of those are beautiful whom God sends on
   his errands (Isa. lii. 7); every step the angels take is glorious. In
   the vision John had of Christ it is said, His feet were like unto fine
   brass, as if they burned in a furnace, Rev. i. 15. [5.] By their hands
   (v. 8): They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four
   sides, an arm and a hand under every wing. They had not only wings for
   motion, but hands for action. Many are quick who are not active; they
   hurry about a great deal, but do nothing to purpose, bring nothing to
   pass; they have wings, but no hands: whereas God's servants, the
   angels, not only go when he sends them and come when he calls them, but
   do what he bids them. They are the hands of a man, which are
   wonderfully made and fitted for service, which are guided by reason and
   understanding; for what angles do they do intelligently and with
   judgment. They have calves' feet; this denotes the swiftness of their
   motion (the cedars of Lebanon are said to skip like a calf, Ps. xxix.
   6); but they have a man's hand, which denotes the niceness and
   exactness of their performances, as the heavens are said to be the work
   of God's fingers. Their hands were under their wings, which concealed
   them, as they did the rest of their bodies. Note, The agency of angels
   is a secret thing and their work is carried on in an invisible way. In
   working for God, though we must not, with the sluggard, hide our hand
   in our bosom, yet we must, with the humble, not let our left hand know
   what our right hand doeth. We may observe that where these wings were
   their hands were under their wings; wherever their wings carried them
   they carried hands along with them, to be still doing something
   suitable something that the duty of the place requires.

   (4.) Their motions. The living creatures are moving. Angels are active
   beings; it is not their happiness to sit still and do nothing, but to
   be always well employed; and we must reckon ourselves then best when we
   are doing good, doing it as the angels do it, or whom it is here
   observed, [1.] That whatever service they went about they went every
   one straight forward (v. 9, 12), which intimates, First, That they
   sincerely aimed at the glory of God, and had a single eye to that, in
   all they did. Their going straight forward supposes that they looked
   straight forward, and never had any sinister intentions in what they
   did. And, if thus our eye be single, our whole body will be full of
   light. The singleness of the eye is the sincerity of the heart.
   Secondly, That they were intent upon the service they were employed in,
   and did it with a close application of mind. They went forward with
   their work; for what their hand found to do they did with all their
   might and did not loiter in it. Thirdly, That they were unanimous in
   it: They went straight forward, every one about his own work; they did
   not thwart or jostle one another, did not stand in one another's light,
   in one another's way. Fourthly, That they perfectly understood their
   business, and were thoroughly apprised of it, so that they needed not
   to stand still, to pause of hesitate, but pursue their work with
   readiness, as those that knew what they had to do and how to do it.
   Fifthly, They were steady and constant in their work. They did not
   fluctuate, did not tire, did not vary, but were of a piece with
   themselves. They moved in a direct line, and so went the nearest way to
   work in all they did and lost no time. When we go straight we go
   forward; when we serve God with one heart we rid ground, we rid work.
   [2.] They turned not when they went, v. 9, 12. First, They made no
   blunders or mistakes, which would give them occasion to turn back to
   rectify them; their work needed no correction, and therefore needed not
   to be gone over again. Secondly, They minded no diversions; as they
   turned not back, so they turned not aside, to trifle with any thing
   that was foreign to their business. [3.] They went whither the Spirit
   was to go (v. 12), either, First, Whither their own spirit was disposed
   to go; thither they went, having no bodies, as we have, to clog or
   hinder them. It is our infelicity and daily burden that, when the
   spirit if willing, yet the flesh is weak and cannot keep pace with it,
   so that the good which we would do we do it not; but angels and
   glorified saints labour under no such impotency; whatever they incline
   or intend to do they do it, and never come short of it. Or, rather,
   Secondly, Whithersoever the Spirit of God would have them go, thither
   they went. Though they had so much wisdom of their own, yet in all
   their motions and actions they subjected themselves to the guidance and
   government of the divine will. Whithersoever the divine Providence was
   to go they went, to serve its purposes and to execute its orders. The
   Spirit of God (says Mr. Greenhill) is the great agent that sets angels
   to work, and it is their honour that they are led, they are easily led,
   by the Spirit. See how tractable and obsequious these noble creatures
   are. Whithersoever the Spirit is to go they go immediately, with all
   possible alacrity. Note, Those that walk after the Spirit do the will
   of God as the angels do it. [4.] They ran and returned like a flash of
   lightning, v. 14. This intimates, First, That they made haste; they
   were quick in their motions, as quick as lightning. Whatever business
   they went about they despatched it immediately, in a moment, in the
   twinkling of an eye. Happy they that have no bodies to retard their
   motion in holy exercises. And happy shall we be when we come to have
   spiritual bodies for spiritual work. Satan falls like lightning into
   his own ruin, Luke x. 18. Angels fly like lightning in their Master's
   work. The angel Gabriel flew swiftly. Secondly, That they made haste
   back: They ran and returned; ran to do their work and execute their
   orders, and then returned to give an account of what they had done and
   receive new instructions, that they might be always doing. They ran
   into the lower world, to do what was to be done there; but, when they
   had done it, they returned like flash of lightning to the upper world
   again, to the beatific vision of their God, which they could not with
   any patience be longer from than their service did require. Thus we
   should be in the affairs of this world as out of our element. Though we
   run into them, we must not repose in them, but our souls must quickly
   return like lightning to God their rest and centre.

   5. We have an account of the light by which the prophet saw these
   living creatures, or the looking-glass in which he saw them, v. 13.
   (1.) He saw them by their own light, for their appearance was like
   burning coals of fire; they are seraphim-burners, denoting the ardour
   of their love to God, their fervent zeal in his service, their
   splendour and brightness, and their terror against God's enemies. When
   God employs them to fight his battles they are as coals of fire (Ps.
   xviii. 12) to devour the adversaries, as lightnings shot out to
   discomfit them. (2.) He saw them by the light of some lamps, which went
   up and down among them, the shining whereof was very bright. Satan's
   works are works of darkness; he is the ruler of the darkness of this
   world. But the angels of light are in the light, and, though they
   conceal their working, they show their work, for it will bear the
   light. But we see them and their works only by candle-light, but the
   dim light of lamps that go up and down among them; when the day breaks,
   and the shadows flee away, we shall see them clearly. Some make the
   appearance of these burning coals, and of the lightning that issues out
   of the fire, to signify the wrath of God, and his judgments, that were
   now to be executed upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, in which
   angels were to be employed; and accordingly we find afterwards coals of
   fire scattered upon the city to consume it, which were fetched from
   between the cherubim, ch. x. 2. But by the appearance of the lamps then
   we may understand the light of comfort which shone forth to the people
   of God in the darkness of this present trouble. If the ministry of the
   angels is as a consuming fire to God's enemies, it is as a rejoicing
   light to his own children. To the one this fire is bright, it is very
   reviving and refreshing; to the other, out of the fire comes fresh
   lightning to destroy them. Note, Good angels are our friends, or
   enemies, according as God is.

The Vision of the Wheels. (b. c. 595.)

   15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the
   earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.   16 The appearance
   of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and
   they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as
   it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.   17 When they went, they
   went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.   18 As
   for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their
   rings were full of eyes round about them four.   19 And when the living
   creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures
   were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.   20
   Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit
   to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit
   of the living creature was in the wheels.   21 When those went, these
   went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up
   from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the
   spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.   22 And the likeness
   of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the
   colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
     23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward
   the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one
   had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.   24 And when they
   went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters,
   as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of a
   host: when they stood, they let down their wings.   25 And there was a
   voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood,
   and had let down their wings.

   The prophet is very exact in making and recording his observations
   concerning this vision. And here we have,

   I. The notice he took of the wheels, v. 15-21. The glory of God appears
   not only in the splendour of his retinue in the upper world, but in the
   steadiness of his government here in this lower world. Having seen how
   God does according to his will in the armies of heaven, let us now see
   how he does according to it among the inhabitants of the earth; for
   there, on the earth, the prophet saw the wheels, v. 15. As he beheld
   the living creatures, and was contemplating the glory of that vision
   and receiving instruction from it, this other vision presented itself
   to his view. Note, Those who make a good use of the discoveries God has
   favoured them with may expect further discoveries; for to him that hath
   shall be given. We are sometimes tempted to think there is nothing
   glorious but what is in the upper world, whereas, could we with an eye
   of faith discern the beauty of Providence and the wisdom, power, and
   goodness, which shine in the administration of that kingdom, we should
   see, and say, Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth and acts
   like himself. There are many things in this vision which give us some
   light concerning the divine Providence. 1. The dispensations of
   Providence are compared to wheels, either the wheels of a chariot, in
   which the conqueror rides in triumph, or rather the wheels of a clock
   or watch, which all contribute to the regular motion of the machine. We
   read of the course or wheel of nature (James iii. 6), which is here set
   before us as under the direction of the God of nature. Wheels, though
   they move not of themselves, as the living creatures do, are yet made
   movable and are almost continually kept in action. Providence,
   represented by these wheels, produces changes; sometimes one spoke of
   the wheel is uppermost and sometimes another; but the motion of the
   wheel on its own axletree, like that of the orbs above, is very regular
   and steady. The motion of the wheels is circular; by the revolutions of
   Providence things are brought to the same posture and pass which they
   were in formerly; for the thing that is is that which has been, and
   there is no new thing under the sun, Eccl. i. 9, 10. 2. The wheel is
   said to be by the living creatures, who attended it to direct its
   motion; for the angels are employed as the ministers of God's
   providence, and have a greater hand in directing the motions of second
   causes to serve the divine purpose than we think they have. Such a
   close connexion is there between the living creatures and the wheels
   that they moved and rested together. Were angels busily employed? Men
   were busily employed as instruments in their hand, whether of mercy or
   judgment, though they themselves were not aware of it. Or, Are men
   active to compass their designs? Angels at the same time are acting to
   control and overrule them. This is much insisted on here (v. 19): When
   the living creatures went, to bring about any business, the wheels went
   by them; when God has work to do by the ministry of angels second
   causes are all found, or made, ready to concur in it; and (v. 21) when
   those stood these stood; when the angels had done their work the second
   causes had done theirs. If the living creatures were lifted up from the
   earth, were elevated to any service above the common course of nature
   and out of the ordinary road (as suppose in the working of miracles,
   the dividing of the water, the standing still of the sun), the wheels,
   contrary to their own natural tendency, which is towards the earth,
   move in concert with them, and are lifted up over against them; this is
   thrice mentioned, v. 19-21. Note, All inferior creatures are, and move,
   and act, as the Creator, by the ministration of angels, directs and
   influences them. Visible effects are managed and governed by invisible
   causes. The reason given of this is because the spirit of the living
   creatures was in the wheels; the same wisdom, power, and holiness of
   God, the same will and counsel of his, that guides and governs the
   angels and all their performances, does, by them, order and dispose of
   all the motions of the creatures in this lower world and the events and
   issues of them. God is the soul of the world, and animates the whole,
   both that above and that beneath, so that they move in perfect harmony,
   as the upper and lower parts of the natural body do, so that
   whithersoever the Spirit is to go (whatever God wills and purposes to
   be done and brought to pass) thither their spirit is to go; that is,
   the angels, knowingly and designedly, set themselves to bring it about.
   And their spirit is in the wheels, which are therefore lifted up over
   against them; that is, both the powers of nature and the wills of men
   are all made to serve the intention, which they infallibly and
   irresistibly effect, though perhaps they mean not so, neither doth
   their heart think so, Isa. x. 7; Mic. iv. 11, 12. Thus, though the will
   of God's precept be not done on earth as it is done in heaven, yet the
   will of his purpose and counsel is, and shall be. 3. The wheel is said
   to have four faces, looking four several ways (v. 15), denoting that
   the providence of God exerts itself in all parts of the world, east,
   west, north, and south, and extends itself to the remotest corners of
   it. Look which way you will upon the wheel of Providence, and it has a
   face towards you, a beautiful one, which you may admire the features
   and complexion of; it looks upon you as ready to speak to you, if you
   be but ready to hear the voice of it; like a well-drawn picture, it has
   an eye upon all that have an eye upon it. The wheel had so four faces
   that it had in it four wheels, which went upon their four sides, v. 17.
   At first Ezekiel saw it as one wheel (v. 15), one sphere; but
   afterwards he saw it was four, but they four had one likeness (v. 16);
   not only they were like one another, but they were as if they had been
   one. This intimates, (1.) That one event of providence is like another;
   what happens to us is that which is common to men and what we are not
   to think strange. (2.) That various events have a tendency to the same
   issue and concur to answer the same intention. 4. Their appearance and
   their work are said to be like the colour of a beryl (v. 16), the
   colour of Tarshish (so the word is), that is, of the sea; the beryl is
   of that colour, sea-green; blue Neptune we call it. The nature of
   things in this world is like that of the sea, which is in a continual
   flux and yet there is a constant coherence and succession of its parts.
   There is a chain of events which is always drawing one way or other.
   The sea ebbs and flows, so does Providence in its disposals, but always
   in the stated appointed times and measures. The sea looks blue, as the
   air does, because of the shortness and feebleness of our sight, which
   can see but a little way of either; to that colour therefore are the
   appearance and work of Providence fitly compared, because we cannot
   find out that which God does from the beginning to the end, Eccl. iii.
   11. We see but parts of his ways (Job xxvi. 14), and all beyond looks
   blue, which gives us to understand no more concerning it but that in
   truth we know it not; it is far above out of our sight. 5. Their
   appearance and their work are likewise said to be as it were a wheel in
   the middle of a wheel. Observe here again, Their appearance to the
   prophet is designed to set forth what their work really is. Men's
   appearance and their work often differ, but the appearance of God's
   providence and its work agree; if they seem to differ, it is through
   our ignorance and mistake. Now both were as a wheel in a wheel, a less
   wheel moved by a greater. We pretend not to give a mathematical
   description of it. The meaning is that the disposals of Providence seem
   to us intricate, perplexed, and unaccountable, and yet that they will
   appear in the issue to have been all wisely ordered for the best; so
   that though what God does we know not now, yet we shall know hereafter,
   John xiii. 7. 6. The motion of these wheels, like that of the living
   creatures, was steady, regular, and constant: They returned not when
   they went (v. 17), because they never went amiss, nor otherwise than
   they should do. God, in his providence, takes his work before him, and
   he will have it forward; and it is going on even when it seems to us to
   be going backward. They went as the Spirit directed them, and therefore
   returned not. We should not have occasion to return back as we have,
   and to undo that by repentance which we have done amiss, and to do it
   over again, if we were but led by the Spirit and followed his
   direction. The Spirit of life (so some read it) was in the wheels,
   which carried them on with ease and evenness, and then they returned
   not when they went. 7. The rings, or rims, of the wheels were so high
   that they were dreadful, v. 18. They were of a vast circumference, so
   that when they were reared, and put in motion, the prophet was even
   afraid to look upon them. Note, The vast compass of God's thought, and
   the vast reach of his design, are really astonishing; when we go about
   to describe the circle of Providence we are struck with amazement and
   are even swallowed up. O the height and depth of God's councils! The
   consideration of them should strike an awe upon us. 8. They were full
   of eyes round about. This circumstance of the vision is most surprising
   of all, and yet most significant, plainly denoting that the motions of
   Providence are all directed by infinite wisdom. The issues of things
   are not determined by a blind fortune, but by those eyes of the Lord
   which run to and fro through the earth, and are in every place,
   beholding the evil and the good. Note, It is a great satisfaction to
   us, and ought to be so, that, though we cannot account for the springs
   and tendencies of events, yet they are all under the cognizance and
   direction of an all-wise all-seeing God.

   II. The notice he took of the firmament above over the heads of the
   living creatures. When he saw the living creatures moving, and the
   wheels by them, he looked up, as it is proper for us to do when we
   observe the various motions of providence in this lower world; looking
   up, he saw the firmament stretched forth over the heads of the living
   creatures, v. 22. What is done on earth is done under the heaven (as
   the scripture often speaks), under its inspection and influence.
   Observe, 1. What he saw: The firmament was as the colour of the
   terrible crystal, truly glorious, but terribly so; the vastness and
   brightness of it put the prophet into an amazement and struck him with
   an awful reverence. The terrible ice, or frost (so it may be read), the
   colour of snow congealed, or as mountains of ice in the northern seas,
   which are very frightful. Daring sinners ask, Can God judge through the
   dark cloud? Job xxii. 13. But that which we take to be a dark cloud is
   to him transparent as crystal, through which, from the place of his
   habitation, he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth, Ps. xxxiii.
   14. Under the firmament he saw the wings of the living creatures erect,
   v. 23. When they pleased they used them either for flight or for
   covering. God is on high, above the firmament; the angels are under the
   firmament, which denotes their subjection to God's dominion and their
   readiness to fly on his errands in the open firmament of heaven, and to
   serve him unanimously. 2. What he heard. (1.) He heard the noise of the
   angels' wings, v. 24. Bees and other insects make a great noise with
   the vibration of their wings; here the angels do so, to awaken the
   attention of the prophet to that which God was about to say to him from
   the firmament, v. 25. Angels, by the providences they are employed in,
   sound God's alarms to the children of men and stir them up to hear his
   voice; for that is it that cries in the city and is heard and
   understood by the men of wisdom. The noise of their wings was loud and
   terrible, as the noise of great waters (like the rout or roaring of the
   sea), and as the noise of a host, the noise of war; but it was
   articulate and intelligible, and did not give an uncertain sound; for
   it was the voice of speech; nay, it was as the voice of the Almighty,
   for God, by his providences, speaks once, yea, twice, if we could by
   perceive it, Job xxxiii. 14. The Lord's voice cries, Mic. vi. 9. (2.)
   He heard a voice from the firmament, from him that sits upon the throne
   there, v. 25. When the angels moved they made a noise with their wings;
   but, when with that they had roused a careless world, they stood still,
   and let down their wings, that there might be a profound silence, and
   so God's voice might be the better heard. The voice of Providence is
   designed to open men's ears to the voice of the word, to do the office
   of the crier, who with a loud voice charges silence while the judge
   passes sentence. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Note, Noises
   on earth should awaken our attention to the voice from the firmament;
   for how shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from
   heaven!

The Vision of the Divine Throne. (b. c. 595.)

   26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness
   of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the
   likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man
   above upon it.   27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance
   of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even
   upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it
   were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.   28 As
   the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so
   was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the
   appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it,
   I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

   All the other parts of this vision were but a preface and introduction
   to this. God in them had made himself known as Lord of angels and
   supreme director of all the affairs of this lower world, whence it is
   easy to infer that whatever God by his prophets either promises or
   threatens to do he is able to effect it. Angels are his servants; men
   are his tools. But now that a divine revelation is to be given to a
   prophet, and by him to the church, we must look higher than the living
   creatures or the wheels, and must expect that from the eternal Word, of
   whom we have an account in these verses. Ezekiel, hearing a voice from
   the firmament, looked up, as John did, to see the voice that spoke with
   him, and he saw one like unto the Son of man, Rev. i. 12, 13. The
   second person sometimes tried the fashion of a man occasionally before
   he clothed himself with it for good and all; and the Spirit of prophecy
   is called the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet. i. 11) and the testimony of
   Jesus, Rev. xix. 10. 1. This glory of Christ that the prophet saw was
   above the firmament that was over the heads of the living creatures, v.
   26. Note, The heads of angels themselves are under the feet of the Lord
   Jesus; for the firmament that is over their heads is under his feet.
   Angels, principalities, and powers are made subject to him, 1 Pet. iii.
   22. This dignity and dominion of the Redeemer before his incarnation
   magnify his condescension in his incarnation, when he was made a little
   lower than the angels, Heb. ii. 9. 2. The first thing he observed was a
   throne; for divine revelation comes backed and supported with a royal
   authority. We must have an eye of faith to God and Christ as upon a
   throne. The first thing that John discovered in his visions was a
   throne set in heaven (Rev. iv. 2), which commands reverence and
   subjection. It is a throne of glory, a throne of grace, a throne of
   triumph, a throne of government, a throne of judgment. The Lord has
   prepared his throne in the heavens, has prepared it for his Son, whom
   he has set King on his holy hill of Zion. 3. On the throne he saw the
   appearance of a man. This is good news to the children of men, that the
   throne above the firmament is filled with one that is not ashamed to
   appear, even there, in the likeness of man. Daniel, in vision, saw the
   kingdom and dominion given to one like the Son of man, who therefore
   has authority given him to execute judgment because he is the Son of
   man (John v. 27), so appearing in these visions. 4. He saw him as a
   prince and judge upon this throne. Though he appeared in fashion as a
   man, yet he appeared in more than human glory, v. 27. (1.) Is God a
   shining light? So is he: when the prophet saw him he saw as the colour
   of amber, that is, a brightness round about; for God dwells in light,
   and covers himself with light as with a garment. How low did the
   Redeemer stoop for us when, to bring about our salvation, he suffered
   his glory to be eclipsed by the veil of his humanity! (2.) Is God a
   consuming fire? So is he: from his loins, both upward and downward,
   there was the appearance of fire. The fire above the loins was round
   about within the amber; it was inward and involved. That below the
   loins was more outward and open, and yet that also had brightness round
   about. Some make the former to signify Christ's divine nature, the
   glory and virtue of which are hidden within the colour of amber; it is
   what no man has seen nor can see. The latter they suppose to be his
   human nature, the glory of which there were those who saw; the glory as
   of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, John i.
   14. He had rays coming out of his hand, and yet there was the hiding of
   his power, Hab. iii. 4. The fire in which the Son of man appeared here
   might be intended to signify the judgments that were ready to be
   executed upon Judah and Jerusalem, coming form that fiery indignation
   of the Almighty which devours the adversaries. Nothing is more dreadful
   to the most daring sinners than the wrath of him that sits upon the
   throne, and of the Lamb, Rev. vi. 16. The day is coming when the Lord
   Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire, 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. It concerns
   us therefore to kiss the Son lest he be angry. 5. The throne is
   surrounded with a rainbow, v. 28. It is so in St. John's vision, Rev.
   iv. 3. The brightness about it was of divers colours, as the bow that
   is in the cloud in the day of rain, which, as it is a display of
   majesty, and looks very great, so it is a pledge of mercy, and looks
   very kind; for it is a confirmation of that gracious promise God has
   made that he will not drown the world again, and he has said, I will
   look upon the bow and remember the covenant, Gen. ix. 16. This
   intimates that he who sits upon the throne is the Mediator of the
   covenant, that his dominion is for our protection, not our destruction,
   that he interposes between us and the judgments our sins have deserved,
   and that all the promises of God are in him yea and amen. Now that the
   fire of God's wrath was breaking out against Jerusalem bounds should be
   set to it, and he would not make an utter destruction of it, for he
   would look upon the bow and remember the covenant, as he promised in
   such a case, Lev. xxvi. 42.

   Lastly, We have the conclusion of this vision. Observe, 1. What notion
   the prophet himself had of it: This was the appearance of the likeness
   of the glory of the Lord. Here, as all along, he is careful to guard
   against all gross corporeal thoughts of God, which might derogate from
   the transcendent purity of his nature. He does not say, This was the
   Lord (for he is invisible), but, This was the glory of the Lord, in
   which he was pleased to manifest himself a glorious being; yet it is
   not the glory of the Lord, but the likeness of that glory, some faint
   resemblance of it; nor is it any adequate likeness of that glory, but
   only the appearance of that likeness, a shadow of it, and not the very
   image of the thing, Heb. x. 1. 2. What impressions it made upon him:
   When I saw it, I fell upon my face. (1.) He was overpowered by it; the
   dazzling lustre of it conquered him and threw him upon his face; for
   who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Or, rather, (2.) He
   prostrated himself in a humble sense of his own unworthiness of the
   honour now done him, and of the infinite distance which he now, more
   than ever, perceived to be between him and God; he fell upon his face
   in token of that holy awe and reverence of God with which his mind was
   possessed and filled. Note, The more God is pleased to make known of
   himself to us the more low we should be before him. He fell upon his
   face to adore the majesty of God, to implore his mercy and to deprecate
   the wrath he saw ready to break out against the children of his people.
   3. What instructions he had from it. All he saw was only to prepare him
   for that which he was to hear; for faith comes by hearing. He therefore
   heard a voice of one that spoke; for we are taught by words, not merely
   by hieroglyphics. When he fell on his face, ready to received the word,
   then he heard the voice of one that spoke; for God delights to teach
   the humble.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. II.

   What our Lord Jesus said to St. Paul (Acts xxvi. 16) may fitly be
   applied to the prophet Ezekiel, to whom the same Jesus is here
   speaking, "Rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee
   for this purpose, to make thee a minister." We have here Ezekiel's
   ordination to his office, which the vision was designed to fit him for,
   not to entertain his curiosity with uncommon speculations, but to put
   him into business. Now here, I. He is commissioned to go as a prophet
   to the house of Israel, now captives in Babylon, and to deliver God's
   messages to them from time to time, ver. 1-5. II. He is cautioned not
   to be afraid of them, ver. 6. III. He is instructed what to say to
   them, and has words put into his mouth, signified by the vision of a
   roll, which he was ordered to eat (ver. 7-10), and which, in the next
   chapter, we find he did eat.

The Prophet Commissioned to Reprove. (b. c. 595.)

   1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will
   speak unto thee.   2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto
   me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.   3
   And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel,
   to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their
   fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.   4 For
   they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them;
   and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.   5 And they,
   whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a
   rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among
   them.

   The title here given to Ezekiel, as often afterwards, is very
   observable. God, when he speaks to him, calls him, Son of man (v. 1,
   3), Son of Adam, Son of the earth. Daniel is once called so (Dan. viii.
   17) and but once; the compellation is used to no other of the prophets
   but to Ezekiel all along. We may take it, 1. As a humble diminishing
   title. Lest Ezekiel should be lifted up with the abundance of the
   revelations, he is put in mind of this, that still he is a son of man,
   a mean, weak, mortal creature. Among other things made known to him, it
   was necessary he should be made to know this, that he was a son of man,
   and therefore that it was wonderful condescension in God that he was
   pleased thus to manifest himself to him. Now he is among the living
   creatures, the angels; yet he must remember that he is himself a man, a
   dying creature. What is man, or the son of man, that he should be thus
   visited, thus dignified? Though God had here a splendid retinue of holy
   angles about his throne, who were ready to go on his errands, yet he
   passes them all by, and pitches on Ezekiel, a son of man, to be his
   messenger to the house of Israel; for we have this treasure in earthen
   vessels, and God's messages sent us by men like ourselves, whose terror
   shall not make us afraid nor their hand be heavy upon us. Ezekiel was a
   priest, but the priesthood was brought low and the honour of it laid in
   the dust. It therefore became him, and all of his order, to humble
   themselves, and to lie low, as sons of men, common men. He was now to
   be employed as a prophet, God's ambassador, and a ruler over the
   kingdoms (Jer. i. 10), a post of great honour, but he must remember
   that he is a son of man, and, whatever good he did, it was not by any
   might of his own, for he was a son of man, but in the strength of
   divine grace, which must therefore have all the glory. Or, 2. We may
   take it as an honourable dignifying title; for it is one of the titles
   of the Messiah in the Old Testament (Dan. vii. 13, I saw one like the
   Son of man come with the clouds of heaven), whence Christ borrows the
   title he often calls himself by, The Son of man. The prophets were
   types of him, as they had near access to God and great authority among
   men; and therefore as David the king is called the Lord's anointed, or
   Christ, so Ezekiel the prophet is called son of man.

   I. Ezekiel is here set up, and made to stand, that he might receive his
   commission, v. 1, 2. He is set up,

   1. By a divine command: Son of man, stand upon thy feet. His lying
   prostrate was a posture of greater reverence, but his standing up would
   be a posture of greater readiness and fitness for business. Our
   adorings of God must not hinder, but rather quicken and excite, our
   actings for God. He fell on his face in a holy fear and awe of God, but
   he was quickly raised up again; for those that humble themselves shall
   be exalted. God delights not in the dejections of his servants, but the
   same that brings them low will raise them up; the same that is a Spirit
   of bondage will be a Spirit of adoption. Stand, and I will speak to
   thee. Note, We may expect that God will speak to us when we stand ready
   to do what he commands us.

   2. By a divine power going along with that command, v. 2. God bade him
   stand up; but, because he had not strength of his own to recover his
   feet nor courage to face the vision, the Spirit entered into him and
   set him upon his feet. Note, God is graciously pleased to work that in
   us which he requires of us and raises those whom he bids rise. We must
   stir up ourselves, and then God will put strength into us; we must work
   out our salvation, and then God will work in us. He observed that the
   Spirit entered into him when Christ spoke to him; for Christ conveys
   his Spirit by his word as the ordinary means and makes the word
   effectual by the Spirit. The Spirit set the prophet upon his feet, to
   raise him up from his dejections, for he is the Comforter. Thus, in a
   similar case, Daniel was strengthened by a divine touch (Dan. x. 18)
   and John was raised by the right hand of Christ laid upon him, Rev. i.
   17. The Spirit set him upon his feet, made him willing and forward to
   do as he was bidden, and then he heard him that spoke to him. He heard
   the voice before (ch. i. 28), but now he heard it more distinctly and
   clearly, heard it and submitted to it. The Spirit sets us upon our feet
   by inclining our will to our duty, and thereby disposes the
   understanding to receive the knowledge of it.

   II. Ezekiel is here sent, and made to go, with a message to the
   children of Israel (v. 3): I send thee to the children of Israel. God
   had for many ages been sending to them his servants the prophets,
   rising up betimes and sending them, but to little purpose; they were
   now sent into captivity for abusing God's messengers, and yet even
   there God sends this prophet among them, to try if their ears were open
   to discipline, now that they were holden in the cords of affliction. As
   the supports of life, so the means of grace, are continued to us after
   they have been a thousand times forfeited. Now observe,

   1. The rebellion of the people to whom this ambassador is sent; he is
   sent to reduce them to their allegiance, to bring back the children of
   Israel to the Lord their God. Let the prophet know that there is
   occasion for his going on this errand, for they are a rebellious nation
   (v. 3), a rebellious house, v. 5. They are called children of Israel;
   they retain the name of their pious ancestors, but they have wretchedly
   degenerated, they have become Goim--nations, the word commonly used for
   the Gentiles. The children of Israel have become as the children of the
   Ethiopian (Amos ix. 7), for they are rebellious; and rebels at home are
   much more provoking to a prince than enemies abroad. Their idolatries
   and false worships were the sins which, more than any thing,
   denominated them a rebellious nation; for thereby they set up another
   prince in opposition to their rightful Sovereign, and did homage and
   paid tribute to the usurper, which is the highest degree of rebellion
   that can be. (1.) They had been all along a rebellious generation and
   had persisted in their rebellion: They and their fathers have
   transgressed against me. Note, Those are not always in the right that
   have antiquity and the fathers on their side; for there are errors and
   corruptions of long standing: and it is so far from being an excuse for
   walking in a bad way that our fathers walked in it that it is really an
   aggravation, for it is justifying the sin of those that have gone
   before us. They have continued in their rebellion even unto this very
   day; notwithstanding the various means and methods that have been made
   use of to reclaim them, to this day, when they are under divine rebukes
   for their rebellion, they continue rebellious; many among them, like
   Ahaz, even in their distress, trespass yet more; they are not the
   better for all the changes that have befallen them, but still remain
   unchanged. (2.) They were now hardened in their rebellion. They are
   impudent children, brazen-faced, and cannot blush; they are
   still-hearted, self-willed, and cannot bend, cannot stoop, neither
   ashamed nor afraid to sin; they will not be wrought upon by the sense
   either of honour or duty. We are willing to hope this was not the
   character of all, but of many, and those perhaps the leading men.
   Observe, [1.] God knew this concerning them, how inflexible, how
   incorrigible, they were. Note, God is perfectly acquainted with every
   man's true character, whatever his pretensions and professions may be.
   [2.] He told the prophet this, that he might know the better how to
   deal with them and what handle to take them by. He must rebuke such men
   as those sharply, cuttingly, must deal plainly with them, though they
   call it dealing roughly. God tells him this, that it might be no
   surprise or stumbling-block to him if he found that his preaching
   should not make that impression upon them, which he had reason to think
   it would.

   2. The dominion of the prince by whom this ambassador is sent. (1.) He
   has authority to command him whom he sends: "I do send thee unto them,
   and therefore thou shalt say thus and thus unto them," v. 4. Note, it
   is the prerogative of Christ to send prophets and ministers and to
   enjoin them their work. St. Paul thanked Christ Jesus who put him into
   the ministry (1 Tim. i. 12); for, as he was sent of the Father,
   ministers are sent by him; and as he received the Spirit without
   measure he gives the Spirit by measure, saying, Receive you the Holy
   Ghost. They are impudent and rebellious, and yet I send thee unto them.
   Note, Christ gives the means of grace to many who he knows will not
   make a good use of those means, puts many a price into the hand of
   fools to get wisdom, who not only have no heart to it, but have their
   hearts turned against it. Thus he will magnify his own grace, justify
   his own judgment, leave them inexcusable, and make their condemnation
   more intolerable. (2.) He has authority by him to command those to whom
   he sends him: Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. All he
   said to them must be spoken in God's name, enforced by his authority,
   and delivered as from him. Christ delivered his doctrines as a
   Son--Verily, verily, I say unto you; the prophets as servants--Thus
   saith the Lord God, our Master and yours. Note, The writings of the
   prophets are the word of God, and so are to be regarded by every one of
   us. (3.) He has authority to call those to an account to whom he sends
   his ambassadors. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear,
   whether they will attend to the word or turn their backs upon it, they
   shall know that there has been a prophet among them, shall know by
   experience. [1.] If they hear and obey, they will know by comfortable
   experience that the word which did them good was brought to them by one
   that had a commission from God and a divine power going along with him
   in the execution of it. Thus those who were converted by St. Paul's
   preaching are said to be the seals of his apostleship, 1 Cor. ix. 2.
   When men's hearts are made to burn under the word, and their wills to
   bow to it, then they know and bear the witness in themselves that it is
   not the word of men, but of God. [2.] If they forbear, if they turn a
   deaf ear to the word (as it is to be feared they will, for they are a
   rebellious house), yet they shall be made to know that he whom they
   slighted was indeed a prophet, by the reproaches of their own
   consciences and the just judgments of God upon them for refusing him;
   they shall know it to their cost, know it to their confusion, know it
   by sad experience, what a pernicious dangerous thing it is to despise
   God's messengers. They shall know by the accomplishment of the
   threatenings that the prophet who denounced them was sent of God; thus
   the word will take hold of men, Zech. i. 6. Note, First, Those to whom
   the word of God is sent are upon their trial whether they will hear or
   whether they will forbear, and accordingly will their doom be.
   Secondly, Whether we be edified by the word or no, it is certain that
   God will be glorified and his word magnified and made honourable.
   Whether it be a savour of life unto life or of death unto death, either
   way it will appear to be of divine original.

The Prophet Cautioned Not to Fear; Charge Given to the Prophet. (b. c. 595.)

   6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of
   their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell
   among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their
   looks, though they be a rebellious house.   7 And thou shalt speak my
   words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear:
   for they are most rebellious.   8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say
   unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy
   mouth, and eat that I give thee.   9 And when I looked, behold, a hand
   was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;   10 And he
   spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there
   was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

   The prophet, having received his commission, here receives a charge
   with it. It is a post of honour to which he is advanced, but withal it
   is a post of service and work, and it is here required of him,

   I. That he be bold. He must act in the discharge of this trust with an
   undaunted courage and resolution, and not be either driven off from his
   work or made to drive on heavily, by the difficulties and oppositions
   that he would be likely to meet with in it: Son of man, be not afraid
   of them, v. 6. Note, Those that will do any thing to purpose in the
   service of God must not be afraid of the face of man; for the fear of
   men will bring a snare, which will be very entangling to us in the work
   of God. 1. God tells the prophet what was the character of those to
   whom he sent him, as before, v. 3, 4. They are briers and thorns,
   scratching, and tearing, and vexing a man, which way soever he turns.
   They are continually teazing God's prophets and entangling them in
   their talk (Matt. xxii. 15); they are pricking briers and grieving
   thorns. The best of them is as a brier, and the most upright sharper
   than a thorn-hedge, Mic. vii. 4. Thorns and briers are the fruit of sin
   and the curse, and of equal date with the enmity between the seed of
   the woman and the seed of the serpent. Note, Wicked men, especially the
   persecutors of God's prophets and people, are as briers and thorns,
   which are hurtful to the ground, choke the good seed, hinder God's
   husbandry, are vexatious to his husbandmen; but they are nigh unto
   cursing and their end is to be burned. Yet God makes use of them
   sometimes for the correction and instruction of his people, as Gideon
   taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briers, Judg. viii. 16. Yet
   this is not the worst of their character: they are scorpions, venomous
   and malignant. The sting of a scorpion is a thousand times more hurtful
   than the scratch of a brier. Persecutors are a generation of vipers,
   are of the serpent's seed, and the poison of asps is under their
   tongue; and they are more subtle than any beast of the field. And,
   which makes the prophet's case the more grievous, he dwells among these
   scorpions; they are continually about him, so that he cannot be safe
   nor quiet in his own house; these bad men are his bad neighbours, who
   thereby have many opportunities, and will let slip none, to do him a
   mischief. God takes notice of this to the prophet, as Christ to the
   angel of one of the churches, Rev. ii. 13. I know thy works, and where
   thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Ezekiel had been, in vision,
   conversing with angels, but when he comes down from this mount he finds
   he dwells with scorpions. 2. He tells him what would be their conduct
   towards him, that they would do what they could to frighten him with
   their looks and their words; they would hector him and threaten him,
   would look scornfully and spitefully at him, and do their utmost to
   face him down and put him our of countenance, that they might drive him
   off from being a prophet, or at least from telling them of their faults
   and threatening them with the judgments of God; or, if they could not
   prevail in this, that they might vex and perplex him, and disturb the
   repose of his mind. They were now themselves in subjection, divested of
   all power, so that they had no other way of persecuting the prophet
   than with their looks and their words; and so they did persecute him.
   Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest, Jer.
   iii. 5. If they had had more power, they would have done more mischief.
   They were now in captivity, smarting for their rebellion, and
   particularly their misusing God's prophets; and yet they are as bad as
   ever. Though thou brag a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness
   depart from him; no providences will of themselves humble and reform
   men, unless the grace of God work with them. But, how malicious soever
   they were, Ezekiel must not be afraid of them nor dismayed, he must not
   be deterred from his work, or any part of it, nor be disheartened or
   dispirited in it by all their menaces, but go on in it with resolution
   and cheerfulness, assuring himself of safety under the divine
   protection.

   II. It is required that he be faithful, v. 7. 1. He must be faithful to
   Christ who sent him: Thou shalt speak my words unto them. Note, As it
   is the honour of prophets that they are entrusted to speak God's words,
   so it is their duty to cleave closely to them and to speak nothing but
   what is agreeable to the words of God. Ministers must always speak
   according to that rule. 2. He must be faithful to the souls of those to
   whom he was sent: Whether they will hear of whether they will forbear,
   he must deliver his message to them as he received it. He must bring
   them to comply with the word, and not study to accommodate the word to
   their humours. "It is true they are most rebellious, they are rebellion
   itself; but, however, speak my words to them, whether they are pleasing
   or unpleasing." Note, The untractableness and unprofitableness of
   people under the word are no good reason why ministers should leave off
   preaching to them; nor must we decline an opportunity by which good may
   be done, though we have a great deal of reason to think no good will be
   done.

   III. It is required that he be observant of his instructions.

   1. Here is a general intimation what the instructions were that were
   given him, in the contents of the book which was spread before him, v.
   10. (1.) His instructions were large; for the roll was written within
   and without, on the inside and on the outside of the roll. It was as a
   sheet of paper written on all the four sides. One side contained their
   sins; the other side contained the judgments of God coming upon them
   for those sins. Note, God has a great deal to say to his people when
   they have degenerated and become rebellious. (2.) His instructions were
   melancholy. He was sent on a sad errand; the matter contained in the
   book was, lamentations, and mourning, and woe. The idea of his message
   is taken from the impression it would make upon the minds of those that
   carefully attended to it; it would set them a weeping and crying out,
   Woe! and, Alas! Both the discoveries of sin and the denunciations of
   wrath would be matter of lamentation. What could be more lamentable,
   more mournful, more woeful, than to see a holy happy people sunk into
   such a state of sin and misery as it appears by the prophecy of this
   book the Jews were at this time? Ezekiel echoes to Jeremiah's
   lamentations. Note, Though God is rich in mercy, yet impenitent sinners
   will find there are even among his words lamentations and woe.

   2. Here is an express charge given to the prophet to observe his
   instructions, both in receiving his message and delivering it. He is
   now to receive it and is here commanded, (1.) To attend diligently to
   it: son of man, hear what I say unto thee, v. 8. Note, Those that speak
   from God to others must be sure to hear from God themselves and be
   obedient to his voice: "Be not thou rebellious; do not refuse to go on
   this errand, or to deliver it; do not fly off, as Jonah did, for fear
   of disobliging thy countrymen. They are a rebellious house, among whom
   thou livest; but be not thou like them, do not comply with them in any
   thing that is evil." If ministers, who are reprovers by office, connive
   at sin and indulge sinners, either show them not their wickedness or
   show them not the fatal consequences of it, for fear of displeasing
   them and getting their ill-will, they hereby make themselves partakers
   of their guilt and are rebellious like them. If people will not do
   their duty in reforming, yet let ministers do theirs in reproving, and
   they will have the comfort of it in the reflection, whatever the
   success be, as that prophet had, Isa. l. 5. The Lord God has opened my
   ear, and I was not rebellious. Even the best of men, when their lot is
   cast in bad times and places, have need to be cautioned against the
   worst of crimes. (2.) To digest it in his own mind by an experience of
   the favour and power of it: "Do not only hear what I say unto thee, but
   open thy mouth, and eat that which I give thee. Prepare to eat it and
   eat it willingly and with an appetite." All God's children are content
   to be at their heavenly father's finding, and to eat whatever he gives
   them. That which God's hand reached out to Ezekiel was a roll of a
   book, or the volume of a book, a book or scroll of paper or parchment
   fully written and rolled up. Divine revelation comes to us from the
   hand of Christ; he gave it to the prophets, Rev. i. 1. When we look at
   the roll of thy book we must have an eye to the hand by which it is
   sent to us. He that brought it to the prophet spread it before him,
   that he might now swallow it with an implicit faith, but might fully
   understand the contents of it, and then receive it and make it his own.
   Be not rebellious, says Christ, but eat what I give thee. If we receive
   not what Christ in his ordinances and providences allots for us, if we
   submit not to his word and rod, and reconcile not ourselves to both, we
   shall be accounted rebellious.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. III.

   In this chapter we have the further preparation of the prophet for the
   work to which God called him. I. His eating the roll that was presented
   to him in the close of the foregoing chapter, ver. 1-3. II. Further
   instructions and encouragements given him to the same purport with
   those in the foregoing chapter, ver. 4-11. III. The mighty impulse he
   was under, with which he was carried to those that were to be his
   hearers, ver. 12-15. IV. A further explication of his office and
   business as a prophet, under the similitude of a watchman, ver. 16-21.
   V. The restraining and restoring of the prophet's liberty of speech, as
   God pleased, ver. 22-27.

The Prophet Ordered to Eat the Roll; Instructions Given to the Prophet; The
Prophet's Instructions; Ezekiel's Reluctance to Be a Reprover. (b. c. 595.)

   1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this
   roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.   2 So I opened my mouth,
   and he caused me to eat that roll.   3 And he said unto me, Son of man,
   cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give
   thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
     4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of
   Israel, and speak with my words unto them.   5 For thou art not sent to
   a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house
   of Israel;   6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of a hard
   language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent
   thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.   7 But the house of
   Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me:
   for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.   8 Behold,
   I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead
   strong against their foreheads.   9 As an adamant harder than flint
   have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their
   looks, though they be a rebellious house.   10 Moreover he said unto
   me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in
   thine heart, and hear with thine ears.   11 And go, get thee to them of
   the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them,
   and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or
   whether they will forbear.   12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard
   behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of
   the Lord from his place.   13 I heard also the noise of the wings of
   the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the
   wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.   14 So the
   spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the
   heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.   15
   Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the
   river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there
   astonished among them seven days.

   These verses are fitly joined by some translators to the foregoing
   chapter, as being of a piece with it and a continuation of the same
   vision. The prophets received the word from God that they might deliver
   it to the people of God, furnished themselves that they might furnish
   them with the knowledge of the mind and will of God. Now here the
   prophet is taught,

   I. How he must receive divine revelation himself, v. 1. Christ (whom he
   saw upon the throne, ch. i. 26) said to him, "Son of man, eat this
   roll, admit this revelation into thy understanding, take it, take the
   meaning of it, understand it aright, admit it into thy heart, apply it,
   and be affected with it; imprint it in thy mind, ruminate and chew the
   cud upon it; take it as it is entire, and make no difficulty of it,
   nay, take a pleasure in it as thou dost in thy meat, and let thy soul
   be nourished and strengthened by it; let it be meat and drink to thee,
   and as thy necessary food; be full of it, as thou art of the meat thou
   hast eaten." Thus ministers should in their studies and meditations
   take in that word of God which they are to preach to others. Thy words
   were found, and I did eat them, Jer. xv. 16. They must be both well
   acquainted and much affected with the things of God, that they may
   speak of them both clearly and warmly, with a great deal of divine
   light and heat. Now observe, 1. How this command is inculcated upon the
   prophet. In the foregoing chapter, Eat what I give thee; and here (v.
   1), "Eat that thou findest, that which is presented to thee by the hand
   of Christ." Note, Whatever we find to be the word of God, whatever is
   brought to us by him who is the Word of God, we must receive it without
   disputing. What we find set before us in the scripture, that we must
   eat. And again (v. 3), "Cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels
   with this roll; do not eat it and bring it up again, as that which is
   nauseous, but eat it and retain it, as that which is nourishing and
   grateful to the stomach. Feast upon this vision till thou be full of
   matter, as Elihu was, Job xxxii. 18. Let the word have a place in thee,
   the innermost place." We must take pains with our own hearts, that we
   may cause them duly to receive and entertain the word of God, that
   every faculty may do its office, in order to the due digesting of the
   word of God, that it may be turned in succum et sanguinem--into blood
   and spirits. We must empty ourselves of worldly things, that we may
   fill our bowels with this roll. 2. How this command is explained (v.
   10): "All my words that I shall speak unto thee, to be spoken unto the
   people, thou must receive in thy heart, as well as hear with thy ears,
   receive them in the love of them." Let these sayings sink down into
   your ears, Luke ix. 44. Christ demands the prophet's attention not only
   to what he now says, but to all that he shall at any time hereafter
   speak: Receive it all in thy heart; meditate on these things and give
   thyself wholly to them, 1 Tim. iv. 15. 3. How this command was obeyed
   in vision. He opened his mouth and Christ caused him to eat the roll,
   v. 2. If we be truly willing to receive the word into our hearts,
   Christ will by his Spirit bring it into them and cause it to dwell in
   us richly. If he that opens the roll, and by his Spirit, as a Spirit of
   revelation, spreads it before us, did not also open our understanding,
   and by his Spirit, as a Spirit of wisdom, give us the knowledge of it
   and cause us to eat it, we should be for ever strangers to it. The
   prophet had reason to fear that the roll would be an unpleasant morsel
   and a sorry dish to make a meal of, but it proved to be in his mouth as
   honey for sweetness. Note, if we readily obey even the most difficult
   commands, we shall find that comfort in the reflection which will make
   us abundant amends for all the hardships we meet with in the way of our
   duty. Though the roll was filled with lamentations, and mourning, and
   woe, yet it was to the prophet as honey for sweetness. Note, Gracious
   souls can receive those truths of God with great delight which speak
   most terror to wicked people. We find St. John let into some part of
   the revelation by such a sign as this, Rev. x. 9, 10. He took the book
   out of the angel's hand, and ate it up, and it was, as this, in his
   mouth sweet as honey; but it was bitter in the belly; and we shall find
   that this was so too, for (v. 14) the prophet went in bitterness.

   II. How he must deliver that divine revelation to others which he
   himself had received (v. 1): Eat this roll, and then go, speak to the
   house of Israel. He must not undertake to preach the things of God to
   others till he did himself fully understand them; let him not go
   without his errand, nor take it by the halves. But when he does himself
   fully understand them he must be both busy and bold to preach them for
   the good of others. We must not conceal the words of the Holy One (Job
   vi. 10), for that is burying a talent which was given us to trade with.
   He must go and speak to the house of Israel; for it is their privilege
   to have God's statutes and judgments made known to them; as the giving
   of the law (the lively oracles), so prophecy (the living oracles)
   pertains to them. He is not sent to the Chaldeans to reprove them for
   their sins, but to the house of Israel to reprove them for theirs; for
   the father corrects his own child if he do amiss, not the child of a
   stranger.

   1. The instructions given him in speaking to them are much the same
   with those in the foregoing chapter.

   (1.) He must speak to them all that, and that only, which God spoke to
   him. He had said before (ch. ii. 7): Thou shalt speak my words to them;
   here he says (v. 4), Thou shalt speak with my words unto them, or in my
   words. He must not only say that which for substance is the same that
   God had said to him, but as near as may be in the same language and
   expressions. Blessed Paul, though a man of a very happy invention, yet
   speaks of the things of God in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches,
   1 Cor. ii. 13. Scripture truths look best in scripture language, their
   native dress; and how can we better speak God's mind than with his
   words?

   (2.) He must remember that they are the house of Israel whom he is sent
   to speak to, God's house and his own; and therefore such as he ought to
   have a particular concern for and to deal faithfully and tenderly with.
   They were such as he had an intimate acquaintance with, being not only
   their countryman, but their companion in tribulation; they and he were
   fellow-sufferers, and had lately been fellow-travellers, in very
   melancholy circumstances, from Judea to Babylon, and had often mingled
   their tears, which could not but knit their affections to each other.
   It was well for the people that they had a prophet who knew
   experimentally how to sympathize with them, and could not but be
   touched with the feeling of their infirmities. It was well for the
   prophet that he had to do with those of his own nation, not with a
   people of strange speech and a hard language, deep of lip, so that thou
   canst not fathom their meaning, and heavy of tongue, whom it is
   intolerable and impossible to converse with. Every strange language
   seems to us to be deep and heavy. "Thou art not sent to many such
   people, whom thou couldst neither speak to nor hear from, neither
   understand nor be understood among but by an interpreter." The apostles
   indeed were sent to many people of a strange speech, but they could not
   have done any good among them if they had not had the gift of tongues;
   but Ezekiel was sent only to one people, those but a few, and his own,
   whom having acquaintance with he might hope to find acceptance with.

   (3.) He must remember what God had already told him of the bad
   character of those to whom he was sent, that, if he met with
   discouragement and disappointment in them, he might not be offended.
   They are impudent and hard-hearted (v. 7), no convictions of sin would
   make them blush, no denunciations of wrath would make them tremble. Two
   things aggravated their obstinacy:-- [1.] That they were more obstinate
   than their neighbours would have been if the prophet had been sent to
   them. Had God sent him to any other people, though of a strange speech,
   surely they would have hearkened to him; they would at least have given
   him a patient hearing and shown him that respect which he could not
   obtain of his own countrymen. The Ninevites were wrought upon by
   Jonah's preaching when the house of Israel, that was compassed about
   with so great a cloud of prophets, was unhumbled and unreformed. But
   what shall we say to these things? The means of grace are given to
   those that will not improve them and withheld from those that would
   have improved them. We must resolve this into the divine sovereignty,
   and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. [2.] That they were
   obstinate against God himself: "They will not hearken unto thee, and no
   marvel, for they will not hearken unto me;" they will not regard the
   word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God, by which
   the Lord's voice cries in the city. If they believe not God speaking to
   them by a minister, neither would they believe though he should speak
   to them by a voice from heaven; nay, therefore they reject what the
   prophet says, because it comes from God, whom the carnal mind is enmity
   to. They are prejudiced against the law of God, and for that reason
   turn a deaf ear to his prophets, whose business it is to enforce his
   law.

   (4.) He must resolve to put on courage, and Christ promises to steel
   him with it, v. 8, 9. He is sent to such as are impudent and
   hard-hearted, who will receive no impressions nor be wrought upon
   either by fair means or foul, who will take a pride in affronting God's
   messenger and confronting the message. It will be a hard task to know
   how to deal with them; but, [1.] God will enable him to put a good face
   on it: "I have made thy face strong against their faces, endued thee
   with all the firmness and boldness that the case calls for." Perhaps
   Ezekiel was naturally bashful and timorous, but, if God did not find
   him fit, yet by his grace he made him fit, to encounter the greatest
   difficulties. Note, The more impudent wicked people are in their
   opposition to religion the more openly and resolutely should God's
   people appear in the practice and defence of it. Let the innocent stir
   up himself against the hypocrite, Job xvii. 8. When vice is daring let
   not virtue be sneaking. And, when God has work to do, he will animate
   men for it and give them strength according to the day. If there be
   occasion, God can and will by his grace make the foreheads of faithful
   ministers as an adamant, so that the most threatening powers shall not
   dash them out of countenance. The Lord God will help men, therefore
   have I set my face like a flint, Isa. l. 7. [2.] He is therefore
   commanded to have a good heart on it, and to go on in his work with a
   holy security, not valuing either the censures or the threats of his
   enemies: "Fear not, neither be dismayed at their looks; let not the
   menaces of their impotent malice cast either a damp upon thee or a
   stumbling-block before thee." Bold sinners must have bold reprovers;
   evil beasts must be rebuked cuttingly (Tit. i. 12, 13), must be saved
   with fear, Jude 23. Those that keep closely to the service of God may
   be sure of the favour of God, and then they need not be dismayed at the
   proud looks of men. Let not the angry countenance that drives away a
   back-biting tongue give any check to a reproving tongue.

   (5.) He must continue instant with them in his preaching, whatever the
   success was, v. 11. He must go to those of the captivity, who, being in
   affliction, it was to be hoped would receive instruction; he must look
   upon them as the children of his people, to whom he was nearly allied,
   and for whom he therefore ought to have a very tender concern, as Paul
   for his kinsmen, Rom. ix. 3. And he must tell them not only what the
   Lord said, but that the Lord said it; let him speak in God's name, and
   back what he said with his authority: Thus saith the Lord God; tell
   them so, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. Not that
   it may be indifferent to us what success our ministry has, but,
   whatever it be, we must go on with our work and leave the issue to God.
   We must not say "Here are some so good that we do not need to speak to
   them," or, "Here are others so bad that it is to no purpose to speak to
   them;" but, however it be, deliver thy message faithfully, tell them,
   The Lord God saith so and so, let them reject it at their peril.

   2. Full instructions being thus given to the prophet, pursuant to his
   commission, we are here told,

   (1.) With what satisfaction this mission of his was applauded by the
   holy angels, who were very well pleased to see one of a nature inferior
   to their own thus honourable employed and entrusted. He heard a voice
   of a great rushing (v. 12), as if the angels thronged and crowded to
   see the inauguration of a prophet; for to them is known by the church
   (that is, by reflection from the church) the manifold wisdom of God,
   Eph. iii. 10. They seemed to strive who should get nearest to this
   great sight. He heard the noise of their wings that touched, or (as the
   word is) kissed one another, denoting the mutual affections and
   assistances of the angels. He heard also the noise of the wheels of
   Providence moving over-against the angels and in concert with them. All
   this was to engage his attention and to convince him that the God who
   sent him, having such a glorious train of attendants, no doubt had
   power sufficient to bear him out in his work. But all this noise ended
   in the voice of praise. He heard them saying, Blessed be the glory of
   the Lord from his place. [1.] From heaven, his place above, whence his
   glory was now in vision descending, or whither perhaps it was now
   returning. Let the innumerable company of angels above join with those
   employed in this vision in saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord.
   Praise you the Lord from the heavens. Praise him, all his angels, Ps.
   cxlviii. 1, 2. [2.] From the temple, his place on earth, whence his
   glory was now departing. They lament the departure of the glory, but
   adore the righteousness of God in it: however it be, yet God is blessed
   and glorious, and ever will be so. The prophet Isaiah heard God thus
   praised when he received his commission (Isa. vi. 3); and a comfort it
   is to all the faithful servants of God, when they see how much God is
   dishonoured in this lower world, to think how much he is admired and
   glorified in the upper world. The glory of the Lord has many slights
   from our place, but many praises from his place.

   (2.) With what reluctance of his own spirit, and yet with what a mighty
   efficacy of the Spirit of God, the prophet was himself brought to the
   execution of his office. The grace given to him was not in vain; for,
   [1.] The Spirit led him with a strong hand. God bade him go, but he
   stirred not till the Spirit took him up. The Spirit of the living
   creatures that was in the wheels now was in the prophet too, and took
   him up, first to hear more distinctly the acclamations of the angels
   (v. 12), but afterwards (v. 14) lifted him up, and took him away to his
   work, which he was backward to, being very loth either to bring trouble
   upon himself or foretel it to his people. He would gladly have been
   excused, but must own, as another prophet does (Jer. xx. 7), Thou was
   stronger than I, and hast prevailed. Ezekiel would willingly have kept
   all he heard and saw to himself, that it might go no further, but the
   hand of the Lord was strong upon him and overpowered him; he was
   carried on contrary to his own inclinations by the prophetical impulse,
   so that he could not but speak the things which he had heard and seen,
   as the apostles, Acts iv. 20. Note, Those whom God calls to the
   ministry, as he furnishes their heads for it, so he bows their hearts
   to it. [2.] He followed with a sad heart: The Spirit took me away, says
   he, and then I went, but it was in bitterness, in the heat of my
   spirit. He had perhaps seen what a hard task Jeremiah had at Jerusalem
   when he appeared as a prophet, what pains he took, what opposition he
   met with, how he was abused by hand and tongue, and what ill treatment
   he met with, and all to no purpose. "And" (thinks Ezekiel) "must I be
   set up for a mark like him?" The life of a captive was bad enough; but
   what would the life of a prophet in captivity be? Therefore he went in
   this fret and under this discomposure. Note, There may in some cases be
   a great reluctance of corruption even where there is a manifest
   predominance of grace. "I went, not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
   or shrinking from the work, as Jonah, but I went in bitterness, not at
   all pleased with it." When he received the divine revelation himself,
   it was to him sweet as honey (v. 3); he could with abundance of
   pleasure have spent all his days in meditating upon it; but when he is
   to preach it to others, who, he foresees, will be hardened and
   exasperated by it, and have their condemnation aggravated, then he goes
   in bitterness. Note, It is a great grief to faithful ministers, and
   makes them go on in their work with a heavy heart, when they find
   people untractable and hating to be reformed. He went in the heat of
   his spirit, because of the discouragements he foresaw he should meet
   with; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon him, not only to compel
   him to his work, but to fit him for it, to carry him through it, and
   animate him against the difficulties he would meet with (so we may
   understand it); and, when he found it so, he was better reconciled to
   his business and applied himself to it: Then he came to those of the
   captivity (v. 15), to some place where there were many of them
   together, and sat where they sat, working, or reading, or talking, and
   continued among them seven days to hear what they said and observe what
   they did; and all that time he was waiting for the word of the Lord to
   come to him. Note, Those that would speak suitably and profitably to
   people about their souls must acquaint themselves with them and with
   their case, must do as Ezekiel did here, must sit where they sit, and
   speak familiarly to them of the things of God, and put themselves into
   their condition, yea, though they sit by the rivers of Babylon. But
   observe, He was there astonished, overwhelmed with grief for the sins
   and miseries of his people and overpowered by the pomp of the vision he
   had seen. He was there desolate (so some read it); God showed him no
   visions, men made him no visit. Thus was he left to digest his grief,
   and come to a better temper, before the word of the Lord should come to
   him. Note, Those whom God designs to exalt and enlarge he first humbles
   and straitens for a time.

The Watchman's Office. (b. c. 595.)

   16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the
   Lord came unto me, saying,   17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman
   unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give
   them warning from me.   18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt
   surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the
   wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall
   die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.   19
   Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor
   from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast
   delivered thy soul.   20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his
   righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before
   him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall
   die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be
   remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.   21
   Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin
   not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned;
   also thou hast delivered thy soul.

   These further instructions God gave to the prophet at the end of seven
   days, that is, on the seventh day after the vision he had; and it is
   very probably that both that and this were on the sabbath day, which
   the house of Israel, even in their captivity, observed as well as they
   could in those circumstances. We do not find that their conquerors and
   oppressors tied them to any constant service, as their Egyptian
   task-masters had formerly done, but that they might observe the
   sabbath-rest for a sign to distinguish between them and their
   neighbours; but for the sabbath-work they had not the convenience of
   temple or synagogue, only it should seem they had a place by the river
   side where prayer was wont to be made (as Acts xvi. 13); there they met
   on the sabbath day; there their enemies upbraided them with the songs
   of Zion (Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 3); there Ezekiel met them, and the word of
   the Lord then and there came to him. He that had been musing and
   meditating on the things of God all the week was fit to speak to the
   people in God's name on the sabbath day, and disposed to hear God speak
   to him. This sabbath day Ezekiel was not so honoured with visions of
   the glory of God as he had been the sabbath before; but he is plainly,
   and by a very common similitude, told his duty, which he is to
   communicate to the people. Note, Raptures and transports of joy are not
   the daily bread of God's children, however they may upon special
   occasions be feasted with them. We must not deny but that we have truly
   communion with God (1 John i. 3) though we have it not always so
   sensibly as at some times. And, though the mysteries of the kingdom of
   heaven may sometimes be looked into, yet ordinarily it is plain
   preaching that is most for edification. God here tells the prophet what
   his office was, and what the duty of that office; and this (we may
   suppose) he was to tell the people, that they might attend to what he
   said and improve it accordingly. Note, It is good for people to know
   and consider what a charge their ministers have of them and what an
   account they must shortly give of that charge. Observe,

   I. What the office is to which the prophet is called: Son of man, I
   have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel, v. 17. The vision he
   saw astonished him: he knew not what to make of that, and therefore God
   used this plain comparison, which served better to lead him to the
   understanding of his work and so to reconcile him to it. He sat among
   the captives, and said little, but God comes to him, and tells him that
   will not do; he is a watchman, and has something to say to them; he is
   appointed to be as a watchman in the city, to guard against fire,
   robbers, and disturbers of the peace, as a watchman over the flock, to
   guard against thieves and beasts of prey, but especially as a watchman
   in the camp, in an invaded country or a besieged town, that is to watch
   the motions of the enemy, and to sound an alarm upon the approach, nay,
   upon the first appearance, of danger. This supposes the house of Israel
   to be in a military state, and exposed to enemies, who are subtle and
   restless in their attempts upon it; yea, and each of the particular
   members of that house to be in danger and concerned to stand upon their
   guard. Note, Ministers are watchmen on the church's walls (Isa. lxii.
   6), watchmen that go about the city, Cant. iii. 3. It is a toilsome
   office. Watchmen must keep awake, be they ever so sleepy, and keep
   abroad, be it ever so cold; they must stand all weathers upon the
   watch-tower, Isa. xxi. 8; Gen. xxxi. 40. It is a dangerous office.
   Sometimes they cannot keep their post, but are in peril of death from
   the enemy, who gain their point if they kill the sentinel; and yet they
   dare not quit their post upon pain of death from their general. Such a
   dilemma are the church's watchmen in; men will curse them if they be
   faithful, and God will curse them if they be false. But it is a needful
   office; the house of Israel cannot be safe without watchmen, and yet,
   except the Lord keep it, the watchman waketh but in vain, Ps. cxxvii.
   1, 2.

   II. What is the duty of this office. The work of a watchman is to take
   notice and to give notice.

   1. The prophet, as a watchman, must take notice of what God said
   concerning this people, not only concerning the body of the people, to
   which the prophecies of Jeremiah and other prophets had most commonly
   reference, but concerning particular persons, according as their
   character was. He must not, as other watchmen, look round to spy danger
   and gain intelligence, but he must look up to God, and further he need
   not look: Hear the word at my mouth, v. 17. Note, Those that are to
   preach must first hear; for how can those teach others who have not
   first learned themselves?

   2. He must give notice of what he heard. As a watchman must have eyes
   in his head, so he must have a tongue in his head; if he be dumb, it is
   as bad as if he were blind, Isa. lvi. 10. Thou shalt give them warning
   from me, sound an alarm in the holy mountain; not in his own name, or
   as from himself, but in God's name, and from him. Ministers are God's
   mouth to the children of men. The scriptures are written for our
   admonition. By them is thy servant warned, Ps. xix. 11. But, because
   that which is delivered vivâ voce--by the living voice, commonly makes
   the deepest impression, God is pleased, by men like ourselves, who are
   equally concerned, to enforce upon us the warnings of the written word.
   Now the prophet, in his preaching, must distinguish between the wicked
   and the righteous, the precious and the vile, and in his applications
   must suit his alarms to each, giving every one his portion; and, if he
   did this, he should have the comfort of it, whatever the success was,
   but, if not, he was accountable.

   (1.) Some of those he had to do with were wicked, and he must warn them
   not to go on in their wickedness, but to turn from it, v. 18, 19. We
   may observe here, [1.] That the God of heaven has said, and does say,
   to every wicked man, that if he go on still in his trespasses he shall
   surely die. His iniquity shall undoubtedly be his ruin; it tends to
   ruin and will end in ruin. Dying thou shalt die, thou shalt die so
   great a death, shalt die eternally, be ever dying, but never dead. The
   wicked man shall die in his iniquity, shall die under the guilt of it,
   die under the dominion of it. [2.] That if a wicked man turn from his
   wickedness, and from his wicked way, he shall live, and the ruin he is
   threatened with shall be prevented; and, that he may do so, he is
   warned of the danger he is in. The wicked man shall die if he go on,
   but shall live if he repent. Observe, he is to turn from his wickedness
   and from his wicked way. It is not enough for a man to turn from his
   wicked way by an outward reformation, which may be the effect of his
   sins leaving him rather than of his leaving his sins, but he must turn
   from his wickedness, from the love of it and the inclination to it, by
   an inward regeneration; if he do not so much as turn from his wicked
   way, there is little hope that he will turn from his wickedness. [3.]
   That it is the duty of ministers both to warn sinners of the danger of
   sin and to assure them of the benefit of repentance, to set before them
   how miserable they are if they go on in sin, and how happy they may be
   if they will but repent and reform. Note, The ministry of the word is
   concerning matters of life and death, for those are the things it sets
   before us, the blessing and the curse, that we may escape the curse and
   inherit the blessing. [4.] That, though ministers do not warn wicked
   people as they ought of their misery and danger, yet that shall not be
   admitted as an excuse for those that go on still in their trespasses;
   for, though the watchman did not give them warning, yet they shall die
   in their iniquity, for they had sufficient warning given them by the
   providence of God and their own consciences; and, if they would have
   taken it, they might have saved their lives. [5.] That if ministers be
   not faithful to their trust, if they do not warn sinners of the fatal
   consequences of sin, but suffer them to go on unreproved, the blood of
   those that perish through their carelessness will be required at their
   hand. It shall be charged upon them in the day of account that it was
   owing to their unfaithfulness that such and such precious souls
   perished in sin; for who knows but if they had had fair warning given
   them they might have fled in time from the wrath to come? And, if it
   contract so heinous a guilt as it does to be accessory to the murder of
   a dying body, what is it to be accessory to the ruin of an immortal
   soul? [6.] That if ministers do their duty in giving warning to
   sinners, though the warning be not taken, yet they may have this
   satisfaction, that they are clear from their blood, and have delivered
   their own souls, though they cannot prevail to deliver theirs. Those
   that are faithful shall have their reward, though they be not
   successful.

   (2.) Some of those he had to deal with were righteous, at least he had
   reason to think, in a judgment of charity, that they were so; and he
   must warn them not to apostatize and turn away from their
   righteousness, v. 20, 21. We may observe here, [1.] That the best men
   in the world have need to be warned against apostasy, and to be told of
   the danger they are in of it and the danger they are in by it. God's
   servants must be warned (Ps. xix. 11) that they do not neglect his work
   and quit his service. One good means to keep us from falling is to keep
   up a holy fear of falling, Heb. iv. 1. Let us therefore fear; and (Rom.
   xi. 20) even those that stand by faith must not be high-minded, but
   fear, and must therefore be warned. [2.] There is a righteousness which
   a man may turn from, a seeming righteousness, and, if men turn from
   this, it thereby appears that it was never sincere, how passable, nay,
   how plausible soever it was; for, if they had been of us, they would no
   doubt have continued with us, 1 John ii. 19. There are many that begin
   in the spirit, but end in the flesh, that set their faces heavenward,
   but look back; that had a first love, but have lost it, and turned from
   the holy commandment. [3.] When men turn from their righteousness they
   soon learn to commit iniquity. When they grow careless and remiss in
   the duties of God's worship, neglect them, or are negligent in them,
   they become an easy prey to the tempter. Omissions make way for
   commissions. [4.] When men turn from their righteousness, and commit
   iniquity, it is just with God to lay stumbling-blocks before them, that
   they may grow worse and worse, till they are ripened for destruction.
   When Pharaoh hardened his heart God hardened it. When sinners turn
   their back upon God, desert his service, and so cast a reproach upon
   it, he does, in a way of righteous judgment, not only withdraw his
   restraining grace and give them up to their own hearts' lusts, but
   order them by his providence into such circumstances as occasion their
   sin and hasten their ruin. There are those to whom Christ himself is a
   stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, 1 Pet. ii. 8. [5.] The
   righteousness which men relinquish shall never be remembered to their
   honour or comfort; it will stand them in no stead in this world or the
   other. Apostates lose all that they have wrought; their services and
   sufferings are all in vain, and shall never be brought to an account,
   because not continued in. It is a rule in the law, Factum non dicitur,
   quod non perseverat--We are said to do only that which we do
   perseveringly, Gal. iii. 3, 4. [6.] If ministers do no give fair
   warning, as they ought, of the weakness of the best, their aptness to
   stumble and fall, the particular temptations they are in and the fatal
   consequences of apostasy, the ruin of those that do apostatize will be
   laid at their door, and they shall answer for it. Not but that there
   are those who are warned against it, and yet turn from their
   righteousness; but that case is not put here, as was concerning the
   wicked man, but, on the contrary, that a righteous man, being warned,
   takes the warning and does not sin (v. 21); for, if you give
   instruction to a wise man, he will be yet wiser. We must not only not
   flatter the wicked, but not flatter even the righteous as if they were
   perfectly safe any where on this side heaven. [7.] If ministers give
   warning, and people take it, it is well for both. Nothing is more
   beautiful than a wise reprover upon an obedient ear; the one shall live
   because he is warned and the other has delivered his soul. What can a
   good minister desire more than to save himself and those that hear him?
   1 Tim. iv. 16.

The People's Contumacy Predicted. (b. c. 595.)

   22 And the hand of the Lord was there upon me; and he said unto me,
   Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.   23
   Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of
   the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar:
   and I fell on my face.   24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me
   upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself
   within thine house.   25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put
   bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go
   out among them:   26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of
   thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a
   reprover: for they are a rebellious house.   27 But when I speak with
   thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith
   the Lord God; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth,
   let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

   After all this large and magnificent discovery which God had made of
   himself to the prophet, and the full instructions he had given him how
   to deal with those to whom he sent him with an ample commission, we
   should have expected presently to see him preaching the word of God to
   a great congregation of Israel; but here we find it quite otherwise.
   his work here, at first, seems not at all proportionable to the pomp of
   his call.

   I. We have him here retired for further learning. By his unwillingness
   to go it should seem as if he were not so thoroughly convinced as he
   might have been of the ability of him that sent him to bear him out;
   and therefore, to encourage him against the difficulties he foresaw,
   God will favour him with another vision of his glory, which (if any
   thing) would put life into him and animate him for his work. In order
   for this, God calls him out to the plain (v. 22) and there he will have
   some talk with him. See and admire the condescension of God in
   conversing thus familiarly with a man, a son of man, a poor captive,
   nay, with a sinful man, who, when God sent him went in bitterness of
   spirit, and was at this time out of humour with his work. And let us
   own ourselves for ever indebted to the mediation of Christ for this
   blessed intercourse and communion between God and man, between heaven
   and earth. See here the benefit of solitude, and how much it befriends
   contemplation. It is very comfortable to be alone with God, withdrawn
   from the word for converse with him, to hear from him, to speak to him;
   and a good man will say that he is never less alone than when thus
   alone. Ezekiel went forth into the plain more willingly than he went
   among those of the captivity (v. 15); for those that know what it is to
   have communion with God cannot but prefer that before any converse with
   this world, especially such as is commonly met with. He went out into
   the plain, and there he saw the same vision that he had seen by the
   river of Chebar; for God is not tied to places. Note, Those who follow
   God shall meet with his consolations, wherever they go. God called him
   out to talk with him, but did more than that: he showed him his glory,
   v. 23. We are not now to expect such visions, but we must own that we
   have a favour done us no way inferior if we so by faith behold the
   glory of the Lord as to be changed into the same image, by the Spirit
   of the Lord; and this honour have all his saints. Praise you the Lord,
   2 Cor. iii. 18.

   II. We have him here restrained from further teaching for the present.
   When he saw the glory of the Lord he fell on his face, being struck
   with an awe of God's majesty and a dread of his displeasure; but the
   Spirit entered into him to raise him up, and then he recovered himself
   and got upon his feet and heard what the Spirit whispered to him, which
   is very surprising. One would have expected now that God would send him
   directly to the chief place of concourse, would give him favour in the
   eyes of his brethren, and make him and his message acceptable to them,
   that he would have a wider door of opportunity opened to him and that
   God would give him a door of utterance to open his mouth boldly; but
   what is here said to him is the reverse of all this.

   1. Instead of sending him to a public assembly, he orders him to
   confine himself to his own lodgings: Go, shut thyself within thy house,
   v. 24. He was not willing to appear in public, and, when he did, the
   people did not regard him, nor show him the respect he deserved, and as
   a just rebuke both to him and them, to him for his shyness of them and
   to them for their coldness towards him, God forbids him to appear in
   public. Note, Our choice is often made our punishment; and it is a
   righteous thing with God to remove teachers into corners when they, or
   their people, or both, grow indifferent to solemn assemblies. Ezekiel
   must shut up himself, some think, to give a sign of the besieging of
   Jerusalem, in which the people should be closely shut up as he was in
   his house, and which he speaks of in the next chapter. He must shut
   himself within his house, that he might receive further discoveries of
   the mind of God and might abundantly furnish himself with something to
   say to the people when he went abroad. We find that the elders of Judah
   visited him and sat before him sometimes in his house (ch. viii. 1), to
   be witnesses of his ecstasies; but it was not till ch. xi. 25 that he
   spoke to those of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shown
   him. Note, Those that are called to preach must find time to study, and
   a great deal of time too, must often shut themselves up in their
   houses, that they may give attendance to reading and meditation, and so
   their profiting may appear to all.

   2. Instead of securing him an interest in the esteem and affections of
   those to whom he sent him he tells him that they shall put bands upon
   him and bind him (v. 25), either (1.) As a criminal. They shall bind
   him in order to the further punishing of him as a disturber of the
   peace; though they were themselves sent into bondage in Babylon for
   persecuting the prophets, yet there they continue to persecute them.
   Or, rather, (2.) As a distracted man. They would go about to bind him
   as one beside himself; for to that they imputed his violent motions in
   his raptures. The captains asked Jehu, Wherefore came this mad fellow
   unto thee? Festus said to Paul, Thou art beside thyself; and so the
   Jews said of our Lord Jesus, Mark iii. 21. Perhaps this was the reason
   why he must keep within doors, because otherwise they would bind him,
   under pretence of his being mad, and therefore he must not go out among
   them. Justly are prophets forbidden to go to those that will abuse
   them.

   3. Instead of opening his lips that his mouth might show forth God's
   praise, God silence him, made his tongue cleave to the roof of his
   mouth, so that he was dumb for a considerable time, v. 26. The pious
   captives in Babylon used this imprecation upon themselves, that, if
   they should forget Jerusalem, their tongue might cleave to the roof of
   their mouth, Ps. cxxxvii. 6. Ezekiel remembers Jerusalem more than any
   of them, and yet his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, and he
   that can speak best is forbidden to speak at all; and the reason given
   is because they are a rebellious house to whom he is sent, and they are
   not worthy to have him for a reprover. He shall not give them
   instructions and admonitions, for they are lost and thrown away upon
   them. He is before commanded to speak boldly to them because they are
   most rebellious (ch. ii. 7); but, since that proves to no purpose, he
   is now for that reason enjoined silence and shall not speak at all to
   them. Note, Those whose hearts are hardened against conviction are
   justly deprived of the means of conviction. Why should not the
   reprovers be dumb, if, after long trials, it be found that the reproved
   resolve to be deaf? If Ephraim be joined to idols, let him alone. Thou
   shalt be dumb, and not be a reprover, implying that unless he were dumb
   he would be reproving; if he could speak at all, he would witness
   against the wickedness of the wicked. But when God speaks with him, and
   designs to speak by him, he will open his mouth, v. 27. Note, Though
   God's prophets may be silenced awhile, there will come a time when God
   will give them the opening of the mouth again. And, when God speaks to
   his ministers, he not only opens their ears to hear what he says, but
   opens their mouth to return an answer. Moses, who had a veil on his
   face when he went down to the people, took it off when he went up again
   to God, Exod. xxxiv. 34.

   4. Instead of giving him assurance of success when he should at any
   time speak to the people, he here leaves the matter very doubtful, and
   Ezekiel must not perplex and disquiet himself about it, but let it be
   as it will. He that hears, let him hear, and he is welcome to the
   comfort of it; let him hear, and his soul shall live; but he that
   forbears, let him forbear at his peril, and take what comes. If thou
   scornest, thou alone shalt bear it; neither God nor his prophet shall
   be any losers by it; but the prophet shall be rewarded for his
   faithfulness in reproving the sinner, and God will have the glory of
   his justice in condemning him for not taking the reproof.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. IV.

   Ezekiel was now among the captives in Babylon, but they there had
   Jerusalem still upon their hearts; the pious captives looked towards it
   with an eye of faith (as Daniel vi. 10), the presumptuous ones looked
   towards it with an eye of pride, and flattered themselves with a
   conceit that they should shortly return thither again; those that
   remained corresponded with the captives, and, it is likely, bouyed them
   up with hopes that all would be well yet, as long as Jerusalem was
   standing in its strength, and perhaps upbraided those with their folly
   who had surrendered at first; therefore, to take down this presumption,
   God gives the prophet, in this chapter, a very clear and affecting
   foresight of the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army and the
   calamities which would attend that siege. Two things are here
   represented to him in vision:--I. The fortifications that should be
   raised against the city; this is signified by the prophet's laying
   siege to the portraiture of Jerusalem (ver. 1-3) and laying first on
   one side and then on the other side before it, ver. 4-8. II. The famine
   that should rage within the city; this is signified by his eating very
   coarse fare, and confining himself to a little of it, so long as this
   typical representation lasted, ver. 9-17.

The Representation of a Siege. (b. c. 595.)

   1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and
   portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:   2 And lay siege against it,
   and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp
   also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.   3
   Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron
   between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be
   besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to
   the house of Israel.   4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the
   iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the
   days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.   5
   For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the
   number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear
   the iniquity of the house of Israel.   6 And when thou hast
   accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the
   iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each
   day for a year.   7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege
   of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy
   against it.   8 And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt
   not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days
   of thy siege.

   The prophet is here ordered to represent to himself and others by signs
   which would be proper and powerful to strike the fancy and to affect
   the mind, the siege of Jerusalem; and this amounted to a prediction.

   I. He was ordered to engrave a draught of Jerusalem upon a tile, v. 1.
   It was Jerusalem's honour that while she kept her integrity God had
   graven her upon the palms of his hands (Isa. xlix. 16), and the names
   of the tribes were engraven in precious stones on the breast-plate of
   the high priest; but, now that the faithful city has become a harlot, a
   worthless brittle tile or brick is thought good enough to portray it
   upon. This the prophet must lay before him, that the eye may affect the
   heart.

   II. He was ordered to build little forts against this portraiture of
   the city, resembling the batteries raised by the besiegers, v. 2.
   Between the city that was besieged and himself that was the besieger he
   was to set up an iron pan, as an iron wall, v. 3. This represented the
   inflexible resolution of both sides; the Chaldeans resolved, whatever
   it cost them, that they would make themselves masters of the city and
   would never quit it till they had conquered it; on the other side, the
   Jews resolved never to capitulate, but to hold out to the last
   extremity.

   III. He was ordered to lie upon his side before it, as it were to
   surround it, representing the Chaldean army lying before it to block it
   up, to keep the meat from going in and the mouths from going out. He
   was to lie on his left side 390 days (v. 5), about thirteen months; the
   siege of Jerusalem is computed to last eighteen months (Jer. lii. 4-6),
   but if we deduct from that five months' interval, when the besiegers
   withdrew upon the approach of Pharaoh's army (Jer. xxxvii. 5-8), the
   number of the days of the close siege will be 390. Yet that also had
   another signification. The 390 days, according to the prophetic
   dialect, signified 390 years; and, when the prophet lies so many days
   on his side, he bears the guilt of that iniquity which the house of
   Israel, the ten tribes, had borne 390 years, reckoning from their first
   apostasy under Jeroboam to the destruction of Jerusalem, which
   completed the ruin of those small remains of them that had incorporated
   with Judah. He is then to lie forty days upon his right side, and so
   long to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, the kingdom of the two
   tribes, because the measure-filling sins of that people were those
   which they were guilty of during the last forty years before their
   captivity, since the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to
   prophesy (Jer. i. 1, 2), or, as some reckon it, since the eighteenth,
   when the book of the law was found and the people renewed their
   covenant with God. When they persisted in their impieties and
   idolatries, notwithstanding they had such a prophet and such a prince,
   and were brought into the bond of such a covenant, what could be
   expected but ruin without remedy? Judah, that had such helps and
   advantages for reformation, fills the measure of its iniquity in less
   time than Israel does. Now we are not to think that the prophet lay
   constantly night and day upon his side, but every day, for so many days
   together, at a certain time of the day, when he received visits, and
   company came in, he was found lying 390 days on his left side and forty
   days on his right side before his portraiture of Jerusalem, which all
   that saw might easily understand to mean the close besieging of that
   city, and people would be flocking in daily, some for curiosity and
   some for conscience, at the hour appointed, to see it and to make their
   different remarks upon it. His being found constantly on the same side,
   as if bands were laid upon him (as indeed they were by the divine
   command), so that he could not turn himself from one side to another
   till he had ended the days of the siege, did plainly represent the
   close and constant continuance of the besiegers about the city during
   that number of days, till they had gained their point.

   IV. He was ordered to prosecute the siege with vigour (v. 7): Thou
   shalt set thy face towards the siege of Jerusalem, as wholly intent
   upon it and resolved to carry it; so the Chaldeans would be, and
   neither bribed nor forced to withdraw from it. Nebuchadnezzar's
   indignation at Zedekiah's treachery in breaking his league with him
   made him very furious in pushing on this siege, that he might chastise
   the insolence of that faithless prince and people; and his army
   promised themselves a rich booty of that pompous city; so that both set
   their faces against it, for they were very resolute. Nor were they less
   active and industrious, exerting themselves to the utmost in all the
   operations of the siege, which the prophet was to represent by the
   uncovering of his arm, or, as some read it, the stretching out of his
   arm, as it were to deal blows about without mercy. When God is about to
   do some great work he is said to make bare his arm, Isa. lii. 10. In
   short, The Chaldeans will go about their business, and go on in it, as
   men in earnest, who resolve to go through with it. Now, 1. This is
   intended to be a sign to the house of Israel (v. 3), both to those in
   Babylon, who were eye-witnesses of what the prophet did, and to those
   also who remained in their own land, who would hear the report of it.
   The prophet was dumb and could not speak (ch. iii. 26); but as his
   silence had a voice, and upbraided the people with their deafness, so
   even then God left not himself without witness, but ordered him to make
   signs, as dumb men are accustomed to do, and as Zacharias did when he
   was dumb, and by them to make known his mind (that is, the mind of God)
   to the people. And thus likewise the people were upbraided with their
   stupidity and dulness, that they were not capable of being taught as
   men of sense are, by words, but must be taught as children are, by
   pictures, or as deaf men are, by signs. Or, perhaps, they are hereby
   upbraided with their malice against the prophet. Had he spoken in words
   at length what was signified by these figures, they would have
   entangled him in his talk, would have indicted him for treasonable
   expressions, for they knew how to make a man an offender for a word
   (Isa. xxix. 21), to avoid which he is ordered to make use of signs. Or
   the prophet made use of signs for the same reason that Christ made use
   of parables, that hearing they might hear and not understand, and
   seeing they might see and not perceive, Matt. xiii. 14, 15. They would
   not understand what was plain, and therefore shall be taught by that
   which is difficult; and herein the Lord was righteous. 2. Thus the
   prophet prophesies against Jerusalem (v. 7); and there were those who
   not only understood it so, but were the more affected with it by its
   being so represented, for images to the eye commonly make deeper
   impressions upon the mind than words can, and for this reason
   sacraments are instituted to represent divine things, that we might see
   and believe, might see and be affected with those things; and we may
   expect this benefit by them, and a blessing to go along with them,
   while (as the prophet here) we make use only of such signs as God
   himself has expressly appointed, which, we must conclude, are the
   fittest. Note, The power of imagination, if it be rightly used, and
   kept under the direction and correction of reason and faith, may be of
   good use to kindle and excite pious and devout affections, as it was
   here to Ezekiel and his attendants. "Methinks I see so and so, myself
   dying, time expiring, the world on fire, the dead rising, the great
   tribunal set, and the like, may have an exceedingly good influence upon
   us: for fancy is like fire, a good servant, but a bad master." 3. This
   whole transaction has that in it which the prophet might, with a good
   colour of reason, have hesitated at and excepted against, and yet, in
   obedience to God's command, and in execution of his office, he did it
   according to order. (1.) It seemed childish and ludicrous, and beneath
   his gravity, and there were those that would ridicule him for it; but
   he knew the divine appointment put honour enough upon that which
   otherwise seemed mean to save his reputation in the doing of it. (2.)
   It was toilsome and tiresome to do as he did; but our ease as well as
   our credit must be sacrificed to our duty, and we must never call God's
   service in any instance of it a hard service. (3.) It could not but be
   very much against the grain with him to appear thus against Jerusalem,
   the city of God, the holy city, to act as an enemy against a place to
   which he was so good a friend; but he is a prophet, and must follow his
   instructions, not his affections, and must plainly preach the ruin of a
   sinful place, though its welfare is what he passionately desires and
   earnestly prays for. 4. All this that the prophet sets before the
   children of his people concerning the destruction of Jerusalem is
   designed to bring them to repentance, by showing them sin, the
   provoking cause of this destruction, sin the ruin of that once
   flourishing city, than which surely nothing could be more effectual to
   make them hate sin and turn from it; while he thus in lively colours
   describes the calamity with a great deal of pain and uneasiness to
   himself, he is bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah. "Look here"
   (says he) "and see what work sin makes, what an evil and bitter thing
   it is to depart from God; this comes of sin, your sins and the sin of
   your fathers; let that therefore be the daily matter of your sorrow and
   shame now in your captivity, that you may make your peace with God and
   he may return in mercy to you." But observe, It is a day of punishment
   for a year of sin: I have appointed thee each day for a year. The siege
   is a calamity of 390 days, in which God reckons for the iniquity of 390
   years; justly therefore do they acknowledge that God had punished them
   less than their iniquity deserved, Ezra ix. 13. But let impenitent
   sinners know that, though now God is long-suffering towards them, in
   the other world there is an everlasting punishment. When God laid bands
   upon the prophet, it was to show them how they were bound with the
   cords of their own transgression (Lam. i. 14), and therefore they were
   now holden in the cords of affliction. But we may well think of the
   prophet's case with compassion, when God laid upon him the bands of
   duty, as he does on all his ministers (1 Cor. ix. 16, Necessity is laid
   upon me, and woe unto me if I preach not the gospel); and yet men laid
   upon him bonds of restraint (ch. iii. 25); but under both it is
   satisfaction enough that they are serving the interests of God's
   kingdom among men.

The Representation of a Famine. (b. c. 595.)

   9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles,
   and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee
   bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie
   upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
   10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels
   a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.   11 Thou shalt drink also
   water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt
   thou drink.   12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt
   bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.   13 And the
   Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled
   bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.   14 Then said I,
   Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth
   up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is
   torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.   15
   Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung,
   and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.   16 Moreover he said unto
   me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem:
   and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink
   water by measure, and with astonishment:   17 That they may want bread
   and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their
   iniquity.

   The best exposition of this part of Ezekiel's prediction of Jerusalem's
   desolation is Jeremiah's lamentation of it, Lam. iv. 3, 4, &c., and v.
   10, where he pathetically describes the terrible famine that was in
   Jerusalem during the siege and the sad effects of it.

   I. The prophet here, to affect the people with the foresight of it,
   must confine himself for 390 days to coarse fare and short commons, and
   that ill-dressed, for they should want both food and fuel.

   1. His meat, for the quality of it, was to be of the worst bread, made
   of but little wheat and barley, and the rest of beans, and lentiles,
   and millet, and fitches, such as we feed horses or fatted hogs with,
   and this mixed, as mill corn, or as that in the beggar's bag, that has
   a dish full of one sort of corn at one house and of another at another
   house; of such corn as this must the prophet's bread be made while he
   underwent the fatigue of lying on his side, and needed something better
   to support him, v. 9. Note, It is our wisdom not to be too fond of
   dainties and pleasant bread, because we know not what hard meat we may
   be tied to, nay, and may be glad of, before we die. The meanest sort of
   food is better than we deserve, and therefore must not be despised nor
   wasted, nor must those that use it be looked upon with disdain, because
   we know not what may be our own lot.

   2. For the quantity of it, it was to be of the least that a man could
   be kept alive with, to signify that the besieged should be reduced to
   short allowance and should hold out till all the bread in the city was
   spent, Jer. xxxvii. 21. The prophet must eat but twenty shekels' weight
   of bread a day (v. 10), that was about ten ounces; and he must drink
   but the sixth part of a hin of water, that was half a pint, about eight
   ounces, v. 11. The stint of the Lessian diet is fourteen ounces of meat
   and sixteen of drink. The prophet in Babylon had bread enough and to
   spare, and was by the river side, where there was plenty of water; and
   yet, that he might confirm his own prediction and be a sign to the
   children of Israel, God obliges him to live thus sparingly, and he
   submits to it. Note, God's servants must learn to endure hardness, and
   to deny themselves the use of lawful delights, when they may thereby
   serve the glory of God, evidence the sincerity of their faith, and
   express their sympathy with their brethren in affliction. The body must
   be kept under and brought into subjection. Nature is content with a
   little, grace with less, but lust with nothing. It is good to stint
   ourselves of choice, that we may the better bear it if ever we should
   come to be stinted by necessity. And in times of public distress and
   calamity it ill becomes us to make much of ourselves, as those that
   drank wine in bowls and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph,
   Amos vi. 4-6.

   3. For the dressing of it, he must bake it with a man's dung (v. 12);
   that must be dried, and serve for fuel to heat his oven with. The
   thought of it would almost turn one's stomach; yet the coarse bread,
   thus baked, he must eat as barley-cakes, as freely as if it were the
   same bread he had been used to. This nauseous piece of cookery he must
   exercise publicly in their sight, that they might be the more affected
   with the calamity approaching, which was signified by it, that in the
   extremity of the famine they should not only have nothing that was
   dainty, but nothing that was cleanly, about them; they must take up
   with what they could get. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is
   sweet. This circumstance of the sign, the baking of his bread with
   man's dung, the prophet with submission humbly desired might be
   dispensed with (v. 14); it seemed to have in it something of a
   ceremonial pollution, for there was a law that man's dung should be
   covered with earth, that God might see no unclean thing in their camp,
   Deut. xxiii. 13, 14. And must he go and gather a thing so offensive,
   and use it in the dressing of his meat in the sight of the people? "Ah!
   Lord God," says he, "behold, my soul has not been polluted, and I am
   afraid lest by this it be polluted." Note, The pollution of the soul by
   sin is what good people dread more than any thing; and yet sometimes
   tender consciences fear it without cause, and perplex themselves with
   scruples about lawful things, as the prophet here, who had not yet
   learned that it is not that which goes into the mouth that defiles the
   man, Matt. xv. 11. But observe he does not plead, "Lord, from my youth
   I have been brought up delicately and have never been used to any thing
   but what was clean and nice" (and there were those who were so brought
   up, who in the siege of Jerusalem did embrace dunghills, Lam. iv. 5),
   but that he had been brought up conscientiously, and had never eaten
   any thing that was forbidden by the law, that died of itself or was
   torn in pieces; and therefore, "Lord, do not put this upon me now."
   Thus Peter pleaded (Acts x. 14), Lord, I have never eaten any thing
   that is common or unclean. Note, it will be comfortable to us, when we
   are reduced to hardships, if our hearts can witness for us that we have
   always been careful to abstain from sin, even from little sins, and the
   appearances of evil. Whatever God commands us, we may be sure, is good;
   but, if we be put upon any thing that we apprehend to be evil, we
   should argue against it, from this consideration, that hitherto we have
   preserved our purity--and shall we lose it now? Now, because Ezekiel
   with a manifest tenderness of conscience made this scruple, God
   dispensed with him in this matter. Note, Those who have power in their
   hands should not be rigorous in pressing their commands upon those that
   are dissatisfied concerning them, yea, though their dissatisfactions be
   groundless or arising from education and long usage, but should recede
   from them rather than grieve or offend the weak, or put a
   stumbling-block before them, in conformity to the example of God's
   condescension to Ezekiel, though we are sure his authority is
   incontestable and all his commands are wise and good. God allowed
   Ezekiel to use cow's dung instead of man's dung, v. 15. This is a tacit
   reflection upon man, as intimating that he being polluted with sin his
   filthiness is more nauseous and odious than that of any other creature.
   How much more abominable and filthy is man! Job xv. 16.

   II. Now this sign is particularly explained here; it signified,

   1. That those who remained in Jerusalem should be brought to extreme
   misery for want of necessary food. All supplies being cut off by the
   besiegers, the city would soon find the want of the country, for the
   king himself is served of the field; and thus the staff of bread would
   be broken in Jerusalem, v. 16. God would not only take away from the
   bread its power to nourish, so that they should eat and not be
   satisfied (Lev. xxvi. 26), but would take away the bread itself (Isa.
   iii. 1), so that what little remained should be eaten by weight, so
   much a day, so much a head, that they might have an equal share and
   might make it last as long as possible. But to what purpose, when they
   could not make it last always, and the besieged must be tired out
   before the besiegers? They should eat and drink with care, to make it
   go as far as might be, and with astonishment, when they saw it almost
   spent and knew not which way to look for a recruit. They should be
   astonished one with another; whereas it is ordinarily some alleviation
   of a calamity to have others share with us in it (Solamen miseris
   socios habuisse doloris), and some ease to the spirit to complain of
   the burden, it should be an aggravation of the misery that it was
   universal, and their complaining to one another should but make them
   all the more uneasy and increase the astonishment. And the event shall
   be as bad as their fears; they cannot make it worse than it is, for
   they shall consume away for their iniquity; multitudes of them shall
   die of famine, a lingering death, worse than that by the sword (Lam.
   iv. 9); they shall die so as to feel themselves die. And it is sin that
   brings all this misery upon them: They shall consume away in their
   iniquity (so it may be read); they shall continue hardened and
   impenitent, and shall die in their sins, which is more miserable than
   to die on a dunghill. Now, (1.) Let us see here what woeful work sin
   makes with a people, and acknowledge the righteousness of God herein.
   Time was when Jerusalem was filled with the finest of the wheat (Ps.
   cxlvii. 14); but now it would be glad of the coarsest, and cannot have
   it. Fulness of bread, as it was one of Jerusalem's mercies, so it had
   become one of her sins, Ezek. xvi. 49. The plenty was abused to luxury
   and excess, which were therefore thus justly punished with famine. It
   is a righteous thing with God to deprive us of those enjoyments which
   we have made the food and fuel of our lusts. (2.) Let us see what
   reason we have to bless God for plenty, not only for the fruits of the
   earth, but for the freedom of commerce, that the husbandman can have
   money for his bread and the tradesman bread for his money, that there
   is abundance not only in the field, but in the market, that those who
   live in cities and great towns, though they sow not, neither do they
   reap, are yet fed from day to day with food convenient.

   2. It signified that those who were carried into captivity should be
   forced to eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles (v. 13), to eat
   meat made up by Gentile hands otherwise than according to the law of
   the Jewish church, which they were always taught to call defiled, and
   which they would have as great an aversion to as a man would have to
   bread prepared with dung, that is (as perhaps it may be understood)
   kneaded and moulded with dung. Daniel and his fellows confined
   themselves to pulse and water, rather than they would eat the portion
   of the king's meat assigned them, because they apprehended it would
   defile them, Dan. i. 8. Or they should be forced to eat putrid meat,
   such as their oppressors would allow them in their slavery, and such as
   formerly they would have scorned to touch. Because they served not God
   with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things, God will make them
   serve their enemies in the want of all things.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. V.

   In this chapter we have a further, and no less terrible, denunciation
   of the judgments of God, which were coming with all speed and force
   upon the Jewish nation, which would utterly ruin it; for when God
   judges he will overcome. This destruction of Judah and Jerusalem is
   here, I. Represented by a sign, the cutting, and burning, and
   scattering of hair, ver. 1-4. II. That sign is expounded, and applied
   to Jerusalem. 1. Sin is charged upon Jerusalem as the cause of this
   desolation--contempt of God's law (ver. 5-7) and profanation of his
   sanctuary, ver. 11. 2. Wrath is threatened, great wrath (ver. 8-10), a
   variety of miseries (ver. 12, 16, 17), such as should be their reproach
   and ruin, ver. 13-15.

The Representation of Jerusalem's Ruin. (b. c. 594.)

   1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's
   razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then
   take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.   2 Thou shalt burn
   with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the
   siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about
   it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I
   will draw out a sword after them.   3 Thou shalt also take thereof a
   few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.   4 Then take of them
   again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the
   fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

   We have here the sign by which the utter destruction of Jerusalem is
   set forth; and here, as before, the prophet is himself the sign, that
   the people might see how much he affected himself with, and interested
   himself in, the case of Jerusalem, and how it lay to his heart, even
   when he foretold the desolations of it. He was so much concerned about
   it as to take what was done to it as done to himself, so far was he
   from desiring the woeful day.

   I. He must shave off the hair of his head and beard (v. 1), which
   signified God's utter rejecting and abandoning that people, as a
   useless worthless generation, such as could well be spared, nay, such
   as it would be his honour to part with; his judgments, and all the
   instruments he made use of in cutting them off, were this sharp knife
   and this razor, that were proper to be made use of, and would do
   execution. Jerusalem had been the head, but, having degenerated, had
   become as the hair, which, when it grows thick and long, is but a
   burden which a man wishes to get clear of, as God of the sinners in
   Zion. Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries, Isa. i. 24. Ezekiel must
   not cut off that hair only which was superfluous, but cut it all off,
   denoting the full end that God would make of Jerusalem. The hair that
   would not be trimmed and kept neat and clean by the admonitions of the
   prophets must be all shaved off by utter destruction. Those will be
   ruined that will not be reformed.

   II. He must weigh the hair and divide it into three parts. This
   intimates the very exact directing of God's judgments according to
   equity (by him men and their actions are weighed in the unerring
   balance of truth and righteousness) and the proportion which divine
   justice observes in punishing some by one judgment and others by
   another; one way or other, they shall all be met with. Some make the
   shaving of the hair to denote the loss of their liberty and of their
   honour: it was looked upon as a mark of ignominy, as in the disgrace
   Hanun put on David's ambassadors. It denotes also the loss of their
   joy, for they shaved their heads upon occasion of great mourning; I may
   add the loss of their Nazariteship, for the shaving of the head was a
   period to that vow (Num. vi. 18), and Jerusalem was now no longer
   looked upon as a holy city.

   III. He must dispose of the hair so that it might all be destroyed or
   dispersed, v. 2. 1. One third part must be burnt in the midst of the
   city, denoting the multitudes that should perish by famine and
   pestilence, and perhaps many in the conflagration of the city, when the
   days of the siege were fulfilled. Or the laying of that glorious city
   in ashes might well be looked upon as a third part of the destruction
   threatened. 2. Another third part was to be cut in pieces with a knife,
   representing the many who, during the siege, were slain by the sword,
   in their sallies out upon the besiegers, and especially when the city
   was taken by storm, the Chaldeans being then most furious and the Jews
   most feeble. 3. Another third part was to be scattered in the wind,
   denoting the carrying away of some into the land of the conqueror and
   the flight of others into the neighbouring countries for shelter; so
   that they were hurried, some one way and some another, like loose hairs
   in the wind. But, lest they should think that this dispersion would be
   their escape, God adds, I will draw out a sword after them, so that
   wherever they go evil shall pursue them. Note, God has variety of
   judgments wherewith to accomplish the destruction of a sinful people
   and to make an end when he begins.

   IV. He must preserve a small quantity of the third sort that were to be
   scattered in the wind, and bind them in his skirts, as one would bind
   that which he is very mindful and careful of, v. 3. This signified
   perhaps that little handful of people which were left under the
   government of Gedaliah, who, it was hoped, would keep possession of the
   land when the body of the people was carried into captivity. Thus God
   would have done well for them if they would have done well for
   themselves. But these few that were reserved must be taken and cast
   into the fire, v. 4. When Gedaliah and his friends were slain the
   people that put themselves under his protection were scattered, some
   gone into Egypt, others carried off by the Chaldeans, and in short the
   land totally cleared of them; then this was fulfilled, for out of those
   combustions a fire came forth into all the house of Israel, who, as
   fuel upon the fire, kindled and consumed one another. Note, It is ill
   with a people when those are taken away in wrath that seemed to be
   marked for monuments of mercy; for then there is no remnant or
   escaping, none shut up or left.

The Guilt of Jerusalem; The Punishment of Jerusalem. (b. c. 594.)

   5 Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the
   midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.   6 And
   she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations,
   and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for
   they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in
   them.   7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more
   than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my
   statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according
   to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;   8 Therefore
   thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will
   execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.   9
   And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will
   not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.   10
   Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the
   sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and
   the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.   11
   Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast
   defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine
   abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine
   eye spare, neither will I have any pity.   12 A third part of thee
   shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed
   in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round
   about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I
   will draw out a sword after them.   13 Thus shall mine anger be
   accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be
   comforted: and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my
   zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.   14 Moreover I will
   make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about
   thee, in the sight of all that pass by.   15 So it shall be a reproach
   and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that
   are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger
   and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it.   16
   When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be
   for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will
   increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:   17
   So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave
   thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will
   bring the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it.

   We have here the explanation of the foregoing similitude: This is
   Jerusalem. Thus it is usual in scripture language to give the name of
   the thing signified to the sign; as when Christ said, This is my body.
   The prophet's head, which was to be shaved, signified Jerusalem, which
   by the judgments of God was now to be stripped of all its ornaments, to
   be emptied of all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare, to be
   shaved with a razor that is hired, Isa. vii. 20. The head of one that
   was a priest, a prophet, a holy person, was fittest to represent
   Jerusalem the holy city. Now the contents of these verses are much the
   same with what we have often met with, and still shall, in the writings
   of the prophets. Here we have,

   I. The privileges Jerusalem was honoured with (v. 5): I have set it in
   the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her, and
   those famous nations and very considerable. Jerusalem was not situated
   in a remote obscure corner of the world, far from neighbours, but in
   the midst of kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized, famed
   for learning, arts, and sciences, and which then made the greatest
   figure in the world. But there seems to be more in it than this. 1.
   Jerusalem was dignified and preferred above the neighbouring nations
   and their cities. it was set in the midst of them as excelling them
   all. This holy mountain was exalted above all the hills, Isa. ii. 2.
   Why leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which God desires to
   dwell in, Ps. lxviii. 16. Jerusalem was a city upon a hill, conspicuous
   and illustrious, and which all the neighbouring nations had an eye
   upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. 2. Jerusalem was designed
   to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round about,
   was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread
   the light of divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the
   dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might
   diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was
   set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to
   invigorate this dead world with a divine life as well as to enlighten
   this dark world with a divine light, to be an example of every thing
   that was good. The nations that observed what excellent statutes and
   judgments they had concluded them to be a wise and understanding people
   (Deut. iv. 6), fit to be consulted as an oracle, as they were in
   Solomon's time, 1 Kings iv. 34. And, had they preserved this reputation
   and made a right use of it, what a blessing would Jerusalem have been
   to all the nations about! But, failing to be so, the accomplishment of
   this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of Zion went
   forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from Jerusalem, and
   there repentance and remission began to be preached, and thence the
   preachers of them went forth into all nations. And, when that was done,
   Jerusalem was levelled with the ground. Note, When places and persons
   are made great, it is with design that they may do good and that those
   about them may be the better for them, that their light may shine
   before men.

   II. The provocations Jerusalem was guilty of. A very high charge is
   here drawn up against that city, and proved beyond contradiction
   sufficient to justify God in seizing its privileges and putting it
   under military execution. 1. She has not walked in God's statutes, nor
   kept his judgments (v. 7); nay, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had
   refused his judgments and his statutes (v. 6); they did not do their
   duty, nay, they would not, they said that they would not. Those
   statutes and judgments which their neighbours admired they despised,
   which they should have set before their face they cast behind their
   back. Note, A contempt of the word and law of God opens a door to all
   manner of iniquity. God's statutes are the terms on which he deals with
   men; those that refuse his terms cannot expect his favours. 2. She had
   changed God's judgments into wickedness (v. 6), a very high expression
   of profaneness, that the people had not only broken God's laws, but had
   so perverted and abused them that they had made them the excuse and
   colour of their wickedness. They introduced the abominable customs and
   usages of the heathen, instead of God's institutions; this was changing
   the truth of God into a lie (Rom. i. 25) and the glory of God into
   shame, Ps. iv. 2. Note, Those that have been well educated, if they
   live ill, put the highest affront imaginable upon God, as if he were
   the patron of sin and his judgments were turned into wickedness. 3. She
   had been worse than the neighbouring nations, to whom she should have
   set a good example: She has changed my judgments, by idolatries and
   false worship, more than the nations (v. 6), and she has multiplied
   (that is, multiplied idols and altars, gods and temples, multiplied
   those things the unity of which was their praise) more than the nations
   that were round about. Israel's God is one, and his name one, his altar
   one; but they, not content with this one God, multiplied their gods to
   such a degree that according to the number of their cities so were
   their gods, and their altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field;
   so that they exceeded all their neighbours in having gods many and
   lords many. They corrupted revealed religion more than the Gentiles had
   corrupted natural religion. Note, If those who have made a profession
   of religion, and have had a pious education, apostatize from it, they
   are commonly more profane and vicious than those who never made any
   profession; they have seven other spirits more wicked. 4. She had not
   done according to the judgments of the nations, v. 7. Israel had not
   acted towards their God, as the nations had acted towards their gods,
   though they were false gods; they had not been so observant of him nor
   so constant to him. Has a nation changed its gods, or slighted them, so
   as they have? Jer. ii. 11. Or it may refer to their morals; instead of
   reforming their neighbors, they came short of them; and many who were
   of the uncircumcision kept the righteousness of the law better than
   those who were of the circumcision, Rom. ii. 26, 27. Those who had the
   light of scripture did not according to the judgments of many who had
   only the light of nature. Note, There are those who are called
   Christians who will in the great day be condemned by the better tempers
   and better lives of sober heathens. 5. The particular crime charged
   upon Jerusalem is profaning the holy things, which she had been both
   entrusted and honoured with (v. 11): Thou hast defiled my sanctuary
   with all thy detestable things, with thy idols and idolatries. The
   images of their pretended deities, and the groves erected in honour of
   them, were brought into the temple; and the ceremonies used by
   idolaters were brought into the worship of God. Thus every thing that
   is sacred was polluted. Note, Idols are detestable things any where,
   but more especially so in the sanctuary.

   III. The punishments that Jerusalem should fall under for these
   provocations: Shall not God visit for these things? No doubt he shall.
   The matter of the sentence here passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful,
   and the manner of expression makes it yet more so; the judgments are
   various, and the threatenings of them varied, reiterated, inculcated,
   that one may well say, Who is able to stand in God's sight when once he
   is angry?

   1. God will take this work of punishing Jerusalem into his own hands;
   and who knows the power of his anger and what a fearful thing it is to
   fall into his hands? Observe what a strong emphasis is laid upon it (v.
   8): I, even I, am against thee. God had been for Jerusalem, to defend
   and save it; but miserable is its case when he has turned to be its
   enemy and fights against it. If God be against us, the whole creation
   is at war with us, and nothing can be for us so as to stand us in any
   stead: "You think it is only the Chaldean army that is against you, but
   they are God's hand, or rather the staff in his hand; it is I, even I,
   that am against thee, not only to speak against thee by prophets, but
   to act against thee by providence. I will execute judgments in thee (v.
   10), in the midst of thee (v. 8), not only in the suburbs, but in the
   heart of the city, not only in the borders, but in the bowels of the
   country." Note, Those who will not observe the judgments of God's mouth
   shall not escape the judgments of his hand; and God's judgments, when
   they come with commission, will penetrate into the midst of a people,
   will enter into the soul, into the bowels like water and like oil into
   the bones. I will execute judgments. Note, God himself undertakes to
   execute his own judgments, according to the true and full intent of
   them; whatever are the instruments, he is the principal agent.

   2. These punishments shall come from his displeasure. As to the body of
   the people, it shall not be a correction in love, but he will execute
   judgments in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes (v. 15),
   strange expressions to come from a God who has said, Fury is not in me,
   and who has declared himself gracious, and merciful, and slow to anger.
   But they are designed to show the malignity of sin, and the offence it
   gives to the just and holy God. That must needs be a very evil thing
   which provokes him to such resentments, and against his own people too,
   that had been so high in his favour, and expressed with so much
   satisfaction (v. 13): "My anger, which has long been withheld, shall
   now be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them; it
   shall not only light upon them, but lie upon them, and fill them as
   vessels of wrath fitted by their own wickedness to destruction; and,
   justice being hereby glorified, I will be comforted, I will be entirely
   satisfied in what I have done." As, when God is dishonoured by the sins
   of men, he is said to be grieved (Ps. xcv. 10), so when he is honoured
   by their destruction he is said to be comforted. The struggle between
   mercy and judgment is over, and in this case judgment triumphs,
   triumphs indeed; for mercy that has been so long abused is now silent
   and gives up the cause, has not a word more to say on the behalf of
   such an ungrateful incorrigible people: My eye shall not spare, neither
   will I have any pity, v. 11. Divine compassion defers the punishment,
   or mitigates it, or supports under it, or shortens it; but here is
   judgment without mercy, wrath without any mixture or allay of pity.
   These expressions are thus sharpened and heightened perhaps with design
   to look further, to the vengeance of eternal fire, which some of the
   destructions we read of in the Old Testament were typical of, and
   particularly that of Jerusalem; for surely it is nowhere on this side
   hell that this word has its full accomplishment, My eye shall not
   spare, but I will cause my fury to rest. Note, Those who live and die
   impenitent will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when
   the Lord will not spare.

   3. Punishments shall be public and open: I will execute these judgments
   in the sight of the nations (v. 8); the judgments themselves shall be
   so remarkable that all the nations far and near shall take notice of
   them; they shall be all the talk of that part of the world, and the
   more for the conspicuousness of the place and people on which they are
   inflicted. Note, Public sins, as they call for public reproofs (those
   that sin rebuke before all), so, if those prevail not, they call for
   public judgments. He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of
   others (Job xxxiv. 26), that he may maintain and vindicate the honour
   of his government, for (as Grotius descants upon it here) why should he
   suffer it to be said, See what wicked lives those lead who profess to
   be the worshippers of the only true God! And, as the publicity of the
   judgments will redound to the honour of God, so it will serve, (1.) To
   aggravate the punishment, and to make it lie the more heavily.
   Jerusalem, being made waste, becomes a reproach among the nations in
   the sight of all that pass by, v. 14. The more conspicuous and the more
   peculiar any have been in the day of their prosperity the greater
   disgrace attends their fall; and that was Jerusalem's case. The more
   Jerusalem had been a praise in the earth the more it is now a reproach
   and a taunt, v. 15. This she was warned of as much as any thing when
   her glory commenced (1 Kings ix. 8), and this was lamented as much as
   any thing when it was laid in the dust, Lam. ii. 15. (2.) To teach the
   nations to fear before the God of Israel, when they see what a jealous
   God he is, and how severely he punishes sin even in those that are
   nearest to him: It shall be an instruction to the nations, v. 15.
   Jerusalem should have taught her neighbours the fear of God by her
   piety and virtue, but, she not doing that, God will teach it to them by
   her ruin; for they have reason to say, If this be done in the green
   tree, what shall be done in the dry? If judgment begin at the house of
   God, where will it end? If those be thus punished who only had some
   idolaters among them, what will become of us who are all idolaters?
   Note, The destruction of some is designed for the instruction of
   others. Malefactors are publicly punished in terrorem--that others may
   take warning.

   4. These punishments, in the kind of them, shall be very severe and
   grievous. (1.) They shall be such as have no precedent or parallel.
   Their sins being more provoking than those of others, the judgments
   executed upon them should be uncommon (v. 9): "I will do in thee that
   which I have not done in thee before, though thou hast long since
   deserved it; nay, that which I have not done in any other city." This
   punishment of Jerusalem is said to be greater than that of Sodom (Lam.
   iv. 6), which was more grievous than all that went before it; nay, it
   is such as "I will not do any more the like, all the circumstances
   taken in, to any other city, till the like come to be done again to
   this city, in the final overthrow by the Romans." This is a rhetorical
   expression of the most grievous judgments, like that character of
   Hezekiah, that there was none like him, before or after him. (2.) They
   shall be such as will force them to break the strongest bonds of
   natural affection to one another, which will be a just punishment of
   them for their wilfully breaking the bonds of their duty to God (v.
   10): The fathers shall eat the sons, and the sons shall eat the
   fathers, through the extremity of the famine, or shall be compelled to
   do it by their barbarous conquerors. (3.) There shall be a complication
   of judgments, any one of them terrible enough, and desolating; but what
   then would they be when they came all together and in perfection? Some
   shall be taken away by the plague (v. 12); the pestilence shall pass
   through thee (v. 17), sweeping all before it, as the destroying angel;
   others shall be consumed with famine, shall gradually waste away as men
   in a consumption (v. 12); this is again insisted on (v. 16): I will
   send upon them the evil arrows of famine; hunger shall make them pine,
   and shall pierce them to the heart, as if arrows, evil arrows, poisoned
   darts, were shot into them. God has many arrows, evil arrows, in his
   quiver; when some are discharged, he has still more in reserve. I will
   increase the famine upon you. A famine in a bereaved country may
   decrease as fruits spring forth; but a famine in a besieged city will
   increase of course; yet God speaks of it as his act: "I will increase
   it, and will break your staff of bread, will take away the necessary
   supports of life, will disappoint you of all that which you depend
   upon, so that there is no remedy, but you must fall to the ground."
   Life is frail, is weak, is burdened, so that, if it have not daily
   bread for its staff to lean upon, it cannot but sink, and is soon gone
   if that staff be broken. Others shall fall by the sword round about
   Jerusalem, when they sally out upon the besiegers; it is a sword which
   God will bring, v. 17. The sword of the Lord, that used to be drawn for
   Jerusalem's defence, is now drawn for its destruction. Others are
   devoured by evil beasts, which will make a prey of those that fly for
   shelter to the deserts and mountains. They shall meet their ruin where
   they expected refuge, for there is no escaping the judgments of God, v.
   17. And, lastly, those who escape shall be scattered into all parts of
   the world, into all the winds (so it is expressed, v. 10, 12),
   intimating that they should not only be dispersed, but hurried, and
   tossed, and driven to and fro, as chaff before the wind. Nay, and
   Cain's curse (to be fugitives and vagabonds) is not the worst of it
   neither; their restless life shall be cut off by a bloody death: "I
   will draw out a sword after them, which shall follow them wherever they
   go." Evil pursues sinners; and the curse shall come upon them and
   overtake them.

   5. These punishments will prove their ruin by degrees. They shall be
   diminished (v. 11); their strength and glory shall grow less and less.
   They shall be bereaved (v. 17), emptied of all that which was their joy
   and confidence. God sends these judgments on purpose to destroy them,
   v. 16. The arrows are not sent (as those which Jonathan shot) for their
   direction, but for their destruction; for God will accomplish his fury
   upon them (v. 13); the day of God's patience is over, and the ruin is
   remediless. Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment now
   quickly, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, yet the
   executioners not being named here, but the criminal only (this is
   Jerusalem), we may well suppose that it looks further, to the final
   destruction of that great city by the Romans when God made a full end
   of the Jewish nation, and caused his fury to rest upon them.

   6. All this is ratified by the divine authority and veracity: I the
   Lord have spoken it, v. 15 and again v. 17. The sentence is passed by
   him that is Judge of heaven and earth, whose judgment is according to
   truth, and the judgments of whose hand are according to the judgments
   of his mouth. He has spoken it who can do it, for with him nothing is
   impossible. He has spoken it who will do it, for he is not a man that
   he should lie. He has spoken it whom we are bound to hear and heed,
   whose ipse dixit--word commands the most serious attention and
   submissive assent: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it,
   v. 13. There were those who thought it was only the prophet that spoke
   it in his delirium; but God will make them know, by the accomplishment
   of it, that he has spoken it in his zeal. Note, Sooner or later, God's
   word will prove itself.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. VI.

   In this chapter we have, I. A threatening of the destruction of Israel
   for their idolatry, and the destruction of their idols with them, ver.
   1-7. II. A promise of the gracious return of a remnant of them to God,
   by true repentance and reformation, ver. 8-10. III. Directions given to
   the prophet and others, the Lord's servants, to lament both the
   iniquities and the calamities of Israel, ver. 11-14.

The Destruction of Idolatry. (b. c. 594.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set
   thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,   3
   And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus
   saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers,
   and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and
   I will destroy your high places.   4 And your altars shall be desolate,
   and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men
   before your idols.   5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children
   of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about
   your altars.   6 In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid
   waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be
   laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease,
   and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.   7
   And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I
   am the Lord.

   Here, I. The prophecy is directed to the mountains of Israel (v. 1, 2);
   the prophet must set his face towards them. If he could see so far off
   as the land of Israel, the mountains of that land would be first and
   furthest seen; towards them therefore he must look, and look boldly and
   stedfastly, as the judge looks at the prisoner, and directs his speech
   to him, when he passes sentence upon him. Though the mountains of
   Israel be ever so high and ever so strong, he must set his face against
   them, as having judgments to denounce that should shake their
   foundation. The mountains of Israel had been holy mountains, but now
   that they had polluted them with their high places God set his face
   against them and therefore the prophet must. Israel is here put, not,
   as sometimes, for the ten tribes, but for the whole land. The mountains
   are called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to shame the inhabitants
   that would not hear. The prophets might as soon gain attention from the
   mountains as from that rebellious and gainsaying people, to whom they
   all day long stretched out their hands in vain. Hear, O mountains! the
   Lord's controversy (Mic. vi. 1, 2), for God's cause will have a
   hearing, whether we hear it or no. But from the mountains the word of
   the Lord echoes to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; for to
   them also the Lord God speaks, intimating that the whole land is
   concerned in what is now to be delivered and shall be witnesses against
   this people that they had fair warning given them of the judgments
   coming, but they would not take it; nay, they contradicted the message
   and persecuted the messengers, so that God's prophets might more safely
   and comfortably speak to the hills and mountains than to them.

   II. That which is threatened in this prophecy is the utter destruction
   of the idols and the idolaters, and both by the sword of war. God
   himself is commander-in-chief of this expedition against the mountains
   of Israel. It is he that says, Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword
   upon you (v. 3); the sword of the Chaldeans is at God's command, goes
   where he sends it, comes where he brings it, and lights as he directs
   it. In the desolations of that war,

   1. The idols and all their appurtenances should be destroyed. The high
   places, which were on the tops of mountains (v. 3), shall be levelled
   and made desolate (v. 6); they shall not be beautified, shall not be
   frequented as they had been. The altars, on which they offered
   sacrifice and burnt incense to strange gods, shall be broken to pieces
   and laid waste; the images and idols shall be defaced, shall be broken
   and cease, and be cut down, and all the fine costly works about them
   shall be abolished, v. 4, 6. Observe here, (1.) That war makes woeful
   desolations, which those persons, places, and things that were esteemed
   most sacred cannot escape; for the sword devours one as well as
   another. (2.) That God sometimes ruins idolatries even by the hands of
   idolaters, for such the Chaldeans themselves were; but, as if the deity
   were a local thing, the greatest admirers of the gods of their own
   country were the greatest despisers of the gods of other countries.
   (3.) It is just with God to make that a desolation which we make an
   idol of; for he is a jealous God and will not bear a rival. (4.) If men
   do not, as they ought, destroy idolatry, God will, first or last, find
   out a way to do it. When Josiah had destroyed the high places, altars,
   and images, with the sword of justice, they set them up again; but God
   will now destroy them with the sword of war, and let us see who dares
   re-establish them.

   2. The worshippers of idols and all their adherents should be destroyed
   likewise. As all their high places shall be laid waste, so shall all
   their dwelling-places too, even all their cities, v. 6. Those that
   profane God's dwelling-place as they had done can expect no other than
   that he should abandon theirs, ch. v. 11. If any man defile the temple
   of God, him will God destroy, 1 Cor. iii. 17. It is here threatened
   that their slain shall fall in the midst of them (v. 7); there shall be
   abundance slain, even in those places which were thought most safe; but
   it is added as a remarkable circumstance that they shall fall before
   their idols (v. 4), that their dead carcases should be laid, and their
   bones scattered, about their altars, v. 5. (1.) Thus their idols should
   be polluted, and those places profaned by the dead bodies which they
   had had in veneration. If they will not defile the covering of their
   graven images, God will, Isa. xxx. 22. The throwing of the carcases
   among them, as upon the dunghill, intimates that they were but
   dunghill-deities. (2.) Thus it was intimated that they were but dead
   things, unfit to be rivals with the living God; for the carcases of
   dead men, that, like them, have eyes and see not, ears and hear not,
   were the fittest company for them. (3.) Thus the idols were upbraided
   with their inability to help their worshippers, and idolaters were
   upbraided with the folly of trusting in them; for, it should seem, they
   fell by the sword of the enemy when they were actually before their
   idols imploring their aid and putting themselves under their
   protection. Sennacherib was slain by his sons when he was worshipping
   in the house of his god. (4.) The sin might be read in this
   circumstance of the punishment; the slain men are cast before the
   idols, to show that therefore they are slain, because they worshipped
   those idols; see Jer. viii. 1, 2. Let the survivors observe it, and
   take warning not to worship images; let them see it, and know that God
   is the Lord, that the Lord he is God and he alone.

Mercy Promised to the Penitent; Effect of Repentance. (b. c. 594.)

   8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape
   the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the
   countries.   9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the
   nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken
   with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their
   eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe
   themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their
   abominations.   10 And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I
   have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

   Judgment had hitherto triumphed, but in these verses mercy rejoices
   against judgment. A sad end is made of this provoking people, but not a
   full end. The ruin seems to be universal, and yet will I leave a
   remnant, a little remnant, distinguished from the body of the people, a
   few of many, such as are left when the rest perish; and it is God that
   leaves them. This intimates that they deserved to be cut off with the
   rest, and would have been cut off if God had not left them. See Isa. i.
   9. And it is God who by his grace works that in them which he has an
   eye to in sparing them. Now,

   I. It is a preserved remnant, saved from the ruin which the body of the
   nation is involved in (v. 8): That you may have some who shall escape
   the sword. God said (ch. v. 12) that he would draw a sword after those
   who were scattered, that destruction should pursue them in their
   dispersion; but here is mercy remembered in the midst of that wrath,
   and a promise that some of the Jews of the dispersion, as they were
   afterwards called, should escape the sword. None of those who were to
   fall by the sword about Jerusalem shall escape; for they trust to
   Jerusalem's walls for security, and shall be made ashamed of that vain
   confidence. But some of them shall escape the sword among the nations,
   where, being deprived of all other stays, they stay themselves upon God
   only. They are said to have those who shall escape; for they shall be
   the seed of another generation, out of which Jerusalem shall flourish
   again.

   II. It is a penitent remnant (v. 9): Those who escape of you shall
   remember me. Note, To those whom god designs for life he will give
   repentance unto life. They are reprieved, and escape the sword, that
   they may have time to return to God. Note, God's patience both leaves
   room for repentance and is an encouragement to sinners to repent. Where
   God designs grace to repent he allows space to repent; yet many who
   have the space want the grace, many who escape the sword do not forsake
   the sin, as it is promised that these shall do. This remnant, here
   marked for salvation, is a type of the remnant reserved out of the body
   of mankind to be monuments of mercy, who are made safe in the same way
   that these were, by being brought to repentance. Now observe here,

   1. The occasion of their repentance, and that is a mixture of judgment
   and mercy-judgment, that they were carried captives, but mercy, that
   they escaped the sword in the land of their captivity. They were driven
   out of their own land, but not out of the land of the living, not
   chased out of the world, as other were and they deserved to be. Note,
   The consideration of the just rebukes of Providence we are under, and
   yet of the mercy mixed with them, should engage us to repent, that we
   may answer God's end in both. And true repentance shall be accepted of
   God, though we are brought to it by our troubles; nay, sanctified
   afflictions often prove means of conversion, as to Manasseh.

   2. The root and principle of their repentance: They shall remember me
   among the nations. Those who forgot God in the land of their peace and
   prosperity, who waxed fat and kicked, were brought to remember him in
   the land of their captivity. The prodigal son never bethought himself
   of his father's house till he was ready to perish for hunger in the far
   country. Their remembering God was the first step they took in
   returning to him. Note, Then there begins to be some hopes of sinners
   when they have sinned against the Lord, and to enquire, Where is God my
   Maker? Sin takes rise in forgetting God, Jer. iii. 21. Repentance takes
   rise from the remembrance of him and of our obligations to him. God
   says, They shall remember me, that is, "I will give them grace to do
   so;" for otherwise they would for ever forget him. That grace shall
   find them out wherever they are, and by bringing God to their mind
   shall bring them to their right mind. The prodigal, when he remembered
   his father, remembered how he has sinned against Heaven and before him;
   so do these penitents. (1.) They remember the base affront they had put
   upon God by their idolatries, and this is that which an ingenuous
   repentance fastens upon and most sadly laments. They had departed from
   God to idols, and given that honour to pretended deities, the creatures
   of men's fancies and the work of men's hands, which they should have
   given to the God of Israel. They departed from God, from his word,
   which they should have made their rule, from his work, which they
   should have made their business. Their hearts departed from him. The
   heart, which he requires and insists upon, and without which bodily
   exercise profits nothing, the heart, which should be set upon him, and
   carried out towards him, when that departs from him, is as the
   treacherous elopement of a wife from her husband or the rebellious
   revolt of a subject from his sovereign. Their eyes also go after their
   idols; they doted on them, and had great expectations from them. Their
   hearts followed their eyes in the choice of their gods (they must have
   gods that they could see), and then their eyes followed their hearts in
   the adoration of them. Now the malignity of this sin is that it is
   spiritual whoredom; it is a whorish heart that departs from God; and
   they are eyes that go a whoring after their idols. Note, Idolatry is
   spiritual whoredom; it is the breach of a marriage-covenant with God;
   it is the setting of the affections upon that which is a rival with
   him, and the indulgence of a base lust, which deceives and defiles the
   soul, and is a great wrong to God in his honour, (2.) They remember
   what a grief this was to him and how he resented it. They shall
   remember that I am broken with their whorish heart and their eyes that
   are full of this spiritual adultery, not only angry at it, but grieved,
   as a husband is at the lewdness of a wife whom he dearly loved, grieved
   to such a degree that he is broken with it; it breaks his heart to
   think that he should be so disingenuously dealt with; he is broken as
   an aged father is with the undutiful behaviour of a rebellious and
   disobedient son, which sinks his spirits and makes him to stoop. Forty
   years long was I grieved with this generation, Ps. xcv. 10. God's
   measures were broken (so some); a stop was put to the current of his
   favours towards them, and he was even compelled to punish them. This
   they shall remember in the day of their repentance, and it shall affect
   and humble them more than any thing, not so much that their peace was
   broken, and their country broken, as that God was broken by their sin.
   Thus they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn,
   Zech. xii. 10. Note, Nothing grieves a true penitent so much as to
   think that his sin has been a grief to God and to the Spirit of his
   grace.

   3. The product and evidence of their repentance: They shall loathe
   themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their
   abominations. Thus God will give them grace to qualify them for pardon
   and deliverance. Though he had been broken by their whorish heart, yet
   he would not quite cast them off. See Isa. lvii. 17, 18; Hos. ii. 13,
   14. His goodness takes occasion from their badness to appear the more
   illustrious. Note, (1.) True penitents see sin to be an abominable
   thing, that abominable thing which the Lord hates and which makes
   sinners, and even their services, odious to him, Jer. xliv. 4; Isa. i.
   11. It defiles the sinner's own conscience, and makes him, unless he be
   past feeling, an abomination to himself. An idol is particularly called
   an abomination, Isa. xliv. 19. Those gratifications which the hearts of
   sinners were set upon as delectable things the hearts of penitents are
   turned against as detestable things. (2.) There are many evils
   committed in these abominations, many included in them, attendant on
   them, and flowing from them, many transgressions in one sin, Lev. xvi.
   21. In their idolatries they were sometimes guilty of whoredom (as in
   the worship of Peor), sometimes of murder (as in the worship of
   Moloch); these were evils committed in their abominations. Or it
   denotes the great malignity there is in sin; it is an abomination that
   has abundance of evil in it. (3.) Those that truly loathe sin cannot
   but loathe themselves because of sin; self-loathing is evermore the
   companion of true repentance. Penitents quarrel with themselves, and
   can never be reconciled to themselves till they have some ground to
   hope that God is reconciled to them; nay, then they shall lie down in
   their shame, when he is pacified towards them, ch. xvi. 63.

   4. The glory that will redound to God by their repentance (v. 10):
   "They shall know that I am the Lord; they shall be convinced of it by
   experience, and shall be ready to own it, and that I have not said in
   vain that I would do this evil unto them, finding that what I have said
   is made good, and made to work for good, and to answer a good
   intention, and that it was not without just provocation that they were
   thus threatened and thus punished." Note, (1.) One way or other God
   will make sinners to know and own that he is the Lord, either by their
   repentance or by their ruin. (2.) All true penitents are brought to
   acknowledge both the equity and the efficacy of the word of God,
   particularly the threatenings of the word, and to justify God in them
   and in the accomplishment of them.

The Prophet's Lamentation. (b. c. 594.)

   11 Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy
   foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of
   Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the
   pestilence.   12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he
   that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is
   besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon
   them.   13 Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men
   shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high
   hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and
   under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to
   all their idols.   14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make
   the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward
   Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the
   Lord.

   The same threatenings which we had before in the foregoing chapter, and
   in the former part of this, are here repeated, with a direction to the
   prophet to lament them, that those he prophesied to might be the more
   affected with the foresight of them.

   I. He must by his gestures in preaching express the deep sense he had
   both of the iniquities and of the calamities of the house of Israel (v.
   11): Smite with thy hand and stamp with thy foot. Thus he must make it
   to appear that he was in earnest in what he said to them, that he
   firmly believed it and laid it to heart. Thus he must signify the just
   displeasure he had conceived at their sins, and the just dread he was
   under of the judgments coming upon them. Some would reject this use of
   these gestures, and call them antic and ridiculous; but God bids him
   use them because they might help to enforce the word upon some and give
   it the setting on; and those that know the worth of souls will be
   content to be laughed at by the wits, so they may but edify the weak.
   Two things the prophet must thus lament:--1. National sins. Alas! for
   all the evil abominations of the house of Israel. Note, The sins of
   sinners are the sorrows of God's faithful servants, especially the evil
   abominations of the house of Israel, whose sins are more abominable and
   have more evil in them than the sins of others. Alas! What will be in
   the end hereof? 2. National judgments. To punish them for these
   abominations they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the
   pestilence. Note, It is our duty to be affected not only with our own
   sins and sufferings, but with the sins and sufferings of others; and to
   look with compassion upon the miseries that wicked people bring upon
   themselves; as Christ beheld Jerusalem and wept over it.

   II. He must inculcate what he had said before concerning the
   destruction that was coming upon them. 1. They shall be run down and
   ruined by a variety of judgments which shall find them out and follow
   them wherever they are (v. 12): He that is far off, and thinks himself
   out of danger, because out of the reach of the Chaldeans' arrows, shall
   find himself not out of the reach of God's arrows, which fly day and
   night (Ps. xci. 5): He shall die of the pestilence. He that is near a
   place of strength, which he hopes will be to him a place of safety,
   shall fall by the sword, before he can retreat. He that is so cautious
   as not to venture out, but remains in the city, shall there die by the
   famine, the saddest death of all. Thus will God accomplish his fury,
   that is, do all that against them which he had purposed to do. 2. They
   shall read their sin in their punishment; for their slain men shall be
   among their idols, round about their altars, as was threatened before,
   v. 5-7. There, where they had prostrated themselves in honour of their
   idols, God will lay them dead, to their own reproach and the reproach
   of their idols. They lived among them and shall die among them. They
   had offered sweet odours to their idols, but there shall their dead
   carcases send forth an offensive smell, as it were to atone for that
   misplaced incense. 3. The country shall be all laid waste, as, before,
   the cities (v. 6): I will make the land desolate. That fruitful,
   pleasant, populous country, that has been as the garden of the Lord,
   the glory of all lands, shall be desolate, more desolate than the
   wilderness towards Diblath, v. 14. It is called Diblathaim (Num.
   xxxiii. 46; Jer. xlviii. 22), that great and terrible wilderness which
   is described, Deut. viii. 15, wherein were fiery serpents and
   scorpions. The land of Canaan is at this day one of the most barren
   desolate countries in the world. City and country are thus depopulated,
   that the altars may be laid waste and made desolate, v. 6. Rather than
   their idolatrous altars shall be left standing, both town and country
   shall be laid in ruins. Sin is a desolating thing; therefore stand in
   awe and sin not.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. VII.

   In this chapter the approaching ruin of the land of Israel is most
   particularly foretold in affecting expressions often repeated, that if
   possible they might be awakened by repentance to prevent it. The
   prophet must tell them, I. That it will be a final ruin, a complete
   utter destruction, which would make an end of them, a miserable end,
   ver. 1-6. II. That it is an approaching ruin, just at the door, ver.
   7-10. III. That it is an unavoidable ruin, because they had by sin
   brought it upon themselves, ver. 10-15. IV. That their strength and
   wealth should be no fence against it, ver. 16-19. V. That the temple,
   which they trusted in, should itself be ruined, ver. 20-22. VI. That it
   should be a universal ruin, the sin that brought it having been
   universal, ver. 23-27.

The Desolation of Israel. (b. c. 594.)

   1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Also, thou
   son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel; An end,
   the end is come upon the four corners of the land.   3 Now is the end
   come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge
   thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine
   abominations.   4 And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I
   have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine
   abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am
   the Lord.   5 Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold,
   is come.   6 An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee;
   behold, it is come.   7 The morning is come unto thee, O thou that
   dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and
   not the sounding again of the mountains.   8 Now will I shortly pour
   out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will
   judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all
   thine abominations.   9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I
   have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine
   abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am
   the Lord that smiteth.   10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the
   morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.   11
   Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall
   remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall
   there be wailing for them.   12 The time is come, the day draweth near:
   let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all
   the multitude thereof.   13 For the seller shall not return to that
   which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching
   the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any
   strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.   14 They have blown
   the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for
   my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.   15 The sword is without,
   and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall
   die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence
   shall devour him.

   We have here fair warning given of the destruction of the land of
   Israel, which was now hastening on apace. God, by the prophet, not only
   sends notice of it, but will have it inculcated in the same
   expressions, to show that the thing is certain, that it is near, that
   the prophet is himself affected with it and desires they should be so
   too, but finds them deaf, and stupid, and unaffected. When the town is
   on fire men do no seek for fine words and quaint expressions in which
   to give an account of it, but cry about the streets, with a loud and
   lamentable voice, "Fire! fire!" So the prophet here proclaims, An end!
   an end! it has come, it has come; behold, it has come. He that hath
   ears to hear let him hear.

   I. An end has come, the end has come (v. 2), and again (v. 3, 6), Now
   has the end come upon thee--the end which all their wickedness had a
   tendency to, and which God had often told them it would come to at
   last, when by his prophets he had asked them, What will you do in the
   end hereof?--the end which all the foregoing judgments had been working
   towards, as means to bring it about (their ruin shall now be
   completed)--or the end, that is, the period of their state, the final
   destruction of their nation, as the deluge was the end of all flesh,
   Gen. vi. 13. They had flattered themselves with hopes that they should
   shortly see an end of their troubles. "Yea," says God, "An end has
   come, but a miserable one, not the expected end" (which is promised to
   the pious remnant among them, Jer. xxix. 11); "it is the end, that end
   which you have been so often warned of, that last end which Moses
   wished you to consider (Deut. xxxii. 29), and which, because Jerusalem
   remembered not, therefore she came down wonderfully," Lam. i. 9. This
   end was long in coming, but now it has come. Though the ruin of sinners
   comes slowly, it comes surely. "It has come; it watches for thee, ready
   to receive thee." This perhaps looks further, to the last destruction
   of that nation by the Romans, which that by the Chaldeans was an
   earnest of; and still further to the final destruction of the world of
   the ungodly. The end of all things is at hand; and Jerusalem's last end
   was a type of the end of the world, Matt. xxiv. 3. Oh that we could all
   see that end of time and days very near, and the end of our own time
   and days much nearer, that we may secure a happy lot at the end of the
   days! Dan. xii. 13. This end comes upon the four corners of the land.
   The ruin, as it shall be final, so it shall be total; no part of the
   land shall escape; no, not that which lies most remote. Such will the
   destruction of the world be; all these things shall be dissolved. Such
   will the destruction of sinners be; none can avoid it. Oh that the
   wickedness of the wicked might come to an end, before it bring them to
   an end!

   II. An evil, an only evil, behold, has come, v. 5. Sin is an evil, an
   only evil, an evil that has no good in it; it is the worst of evils.
   But this is spoken of the evil of trouble; it is an evil, one evil, and
   that one shall suffice to affect and complete the ruin of the nation;
   there needs no more to do its business; this one shall make an utter
   end, affliction needs not rise up a second time, Nah. i. 9. It is an
   evil without precedent or parallel, an evil that stands alone; you
   cannot produce such another instance. It is to the impenitent an evil,
   an only evil; it hardens their hearts and irritates their corruptions,
   whereas there were those to whom it was sanctified by the grace of God
   and made a means of much good; they were sent into Babylon for their
   good, Jer. xxiv. 5. The wicked have the dregs of that cup to drink
   which to the righteous is full of mixtures of mercy, Ps. lxxv. 8. The
   same affliction is to us either a half evil or an only evil according
   as we conduct ourselves under it and make use of it. But when an end,
   the end, has come upon the wicked world, then an evil, an only evil,
   comes upon it, and not till then. The sorest of temporal judgments have
   their allays, but the torments of the damned are an evil, an only evil.

   III. The time has come, the set time, for the inflicting of this only
   evil and the making of this full end; for to all God's purposes there
   is a time, a proper time, and that prefixed, in which the purpose shall
   have its accomplishment; particularly the time of reckoning with wicked
   people, and rendering to them according to their desserts, is fixed,
   the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of god; and he
   sees, whether we see it or no, that his day is coming. This they are
   here told of again and again (v. 10): Behold, the day that has lingered
   so long has come at last, behold, it has come. The time has come, the
   day draws near, the day of trouble is near, v. 7, 12. Though threatened
   judgments may be long deferred, yet they shall not be dropped; the time
   for executing them will come. Though God's patience may put them off,
   nothing but man's sincere repentance and reformation will put them by.
   The morning has come unto thee (v. 7), and again (v. 10), The morning
   has gone forth; the day of trouble dawns, the day of destruction is
   already begun. The morning discovers that which was hidden; they
   thought their secret sins would never come to light, but now they will
   be brought to light. They used to try and execute malefactors in the
   morning, and such a morning of judgment and execution is now coming
   upon them, a day of trouble to sinners, the year of their visitation.
   See how stupid these people were, that, though the day of their
   destruction was already begun, yet they were not aware of it, but must
   be thus told of it again and again. The day of trouble, real trouble,
   is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains, that is, not a
   mere echo or report of troubles, as they were willing to think it was,
   nothing but a groundless surmise; as if the men that came against them
   were but the shadow of the mountains (as Zebul suggested to Gaal, Matt.
   ix. 36) and the intelligence they received were but an empty sound,
   reverberated from the mountains. No; the trouble is not a fancy, and so
   you will soon find.

   IV. All this comes from God's wrath, not allayed, as sometimes it has
   been, with mixtures of mercy. This is the fountain from which all these
   calamities flow; and this is the wormwood and the gall in the
   affliction and the misery, which make it bitter indeed (v. 3): I will
   send my anger upon thee. Observe, God is Lord of his anger; it does not
   break out but when he pleases, nor fasten upon any but as he directs it
   and gives it commission. The expression rises higher (v. 8): Now will I
   shortly pour out my fury upon thee in full vials, and accomplish my
   anger, all the purposes and all the products of it, upon thee. This
   wrath does not single out here and there one to be made examples, but
   it is upon all the multitude thereof (v. 12, 14); the whole body of the
   nation has become a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction. God does
   sometimes in wrath remember mercy, but now he says, My eye shall not
   spare thee, neither will I have pity, v. 4 and again v. 9. Those shall
   have judgment without mercy who made light of mercy when it was offered
   them.

   V. All this is the just punishment of their sins, and it is what they
   have by their own folly brought upon themselves. This is much insisted
   on here, that they might be brought to justify God in all he had
   brought upon them. God never sends his anger but in wisdom and justice;
   and therefore it follows, "I will judge thee according to thy ways, v.
   3. I will examine what thy ways have been, compare them with the law,
   and then deal with thee according to the merit of them, and recompense
   them to thee," v. 4. Note, In the heaviest judgments God inflicts upon
   sinners he does but recompense their own ways upon them; they are
   beaten with their own rod. And, when God comes to reckon with a sinful
   people, he will bring every provocation to account: "will recompense
   upon thee all thy abominations (v. 3); and now thy iniquity shall be
   found to be hateful (Ps. xxxvi. 2) and thy abominations shall be in the
   midst of thee" (v. 4); that is, the secret wickedness shall now be
   brought to light, and that shall appear to have been in the midst of
   thee which before was not suspected; and thy sin shall now become an
   abomination to thyself. So the abomination of iniquity will be when it
   comes to be an abomination of desolation, Matt. xxiv. 15. Or, Thy
   abominations (that is, the punishments of them) shall be in the midst
   of thee; they shall reach to thy heart. See Jer. iv. 18. Or therefore
   God will not spare, nor have pity, because, even when he is
   recompensing their ways upon them, yet in their distress they trespass
   yet more; their abominations are still in the midst of them, indulged
   and harboured in their hearts. It is repeated again (v. 8, 9), I will
   judge thee, I will recompense thee. Two sins are particularly specified
   as provoking God to bring these judgments upon them--pride and
   oppression. 1. God will humble them by his judgments, for they have
   magnified themselves. The rod of affliction has blossomed, but it was
   pride that budded, v. 10. What buds in sin will blossom in some
   judgment or other. The pride of Judah and Jerusalem appeared among all
   orders and degrees of men, as buds upon the tree in spring. 2. Their
   enemies shall deal hardly with them, for they have dealt hardly with
   one another (v. 11): Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness;
   that is, their injuriousness to one another is protected and patronised
   by the power of the magistrate. The rod of government had become a rod
   of wickedness, to such a degree of impudence was violence risen up. I
   saw the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, Eccl. iii. 16;
   Isa. v. 7. Whatever are the fruits of God's judgments, it is certain
   that our sin is the root of them.

   VI. There is no escape from these judgments nor fence against them, for
   they shall be universal and shall bear down all before them, without
   remedy. 1. Death in its various shapes shall ride triumphantly, both in
   town and in country, both within the city and without it, v. 15. Men
   shall be safe nowhere; for he that is in the field shall die by the
   sword (every field shall be to them a field of battle) and he that is
   in the city, though it be a holy city, yet it shall not be his
   protection, but famine and pestilence shall devour him. Sin had
   abounded both in city and country, Iliacos intra muros peccator et
   extra--Trojans and Greeks offend alike; and therefore among both
   desolations are made. 2. None of those that are marked for death shall
   escape: There shall none of them remain. None of those proud oppressors
   that did violence to their poor neighbours with the rod of wickedness,
   none of them shall be left, but they shall be all swept away by the
   desolation that is coming (v. 11): None of their multitude, that is, of
   the rabble, whom they set on to do mischief, and to countenance them in
   doing it, to cry, "Crucify, crucify," when they were resolved on the
   destruction of any, none of them shall remain, nor any of theirs; their
   families shall all be destroyed, and neither root nor branch left them.
   This multitude, this mob, divine vengeance will in a particular manner
   fasten upon; for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof (v. 12, 14)
   and the vision was touching the whole multitude thereof (v. 13), the
   bulk of the common people. The judgments coming shall carry them away
   by wholesale, and they shall neither secure themselves nor their
   masters whose creatures and tools they were. God's judgments, when they
   come with commission, cannot be overpowered by multitudes. Though hand
   join in hand, yet shall not the wicked go unpunished. 3. Those that
   fall shall not be lamented (v. 11): There shall be no wailing for them,
   for there shall be none left to bewail them, but such as are hastening
   apace after them. And the times shall be so bad that men shall rather
   congratulate than lament the death of their friends, as reckoning those
   happy that are taken away from seeing these desolations and sharing in
   them, Jer. xvi. 4, 5. 4. They shall not be able to make any resistance.
   The decree has gone forth, and the vision concerning them shall not
   return, v. 13. God will not reveal it, and they cannot defeat it; and
   therefore it shall not return re infecta--without having accomplished
   any thing, but shall accomplish that for which he sends it. God's word
   will take place, and then, (1.) Particular persons cannot make their
   part good against God: No man shall strengthen himself in the iniquity
   of his life; it will be to no purpose for sinners to set God and his
   judgments at defiance as they used to do. None ever hardened his heart
   against God and prospered. Those that strengthen themselves in their
   wickedness will be found not only to weaken, but to ruin, themselves,
   Ps. lii. 7. (2.) The multitude cannot resist the torrent of these
   judgments, nor make head against them (v. 14): They have blown the
   trumpet, to call their soldiers together, and to animate and encourage
   those whom they have got together, and thus they think to make all
   ready; but all in vain; none enlist themselves, or those that do have
   not courage to face the enemy. Note, If God be against us, none can be
   for us to do us any service. 5. They shall have no hope of the return
   of their prosperity, with which to support themselves in their
   adversity; they shall have given up all for gone; and therefore, "Let
   not the buyer rejoice that he is increasing his estate and has become a
   purchaser; nor let the seller mourn that he is lessening his estate and
   has become a bankrupt," v. 12. See the vanity of the things of this
   world, and how worthless they are--that in a time of trouble, when we
   have most need of them, we may perhaps make least account of them.
   Those that have sold are the more easy, having the less to lose, and
   those that have bought have but increased their own cares and fears.
   Because the fashion of this world passes away, let those that buy be as
   though they possessed not, because they know not how soon they may be
   dispossessed, 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. It is added (v. 13), "The seller shall
   not return, at the year of jubilee, to that which is sold, according to
   the law, though he should escape the sword and pestilence, and live
   till that year comes; for no inheritances shall be enjoyed here till
   the seventy years be accomplished, and then men shall return to their
   possessions, shall claim and have their own again." In the belief of
   this, Jeremiah, about this time, bought his uncle's field, yet,
   according to the charge, the buyer did not rejoice, but complain, Jer.
   xxxii. 25. 6. God will be glorified in all: "You shall know that I am
   the Lord (v. 4), that I am the Lord that smiteth, v. 9. You look at
   second causes, and think it is Nebuchadnezzar that smites you, but you
   shall be made to know he is but the staff: it is the hand of the Lord
   that smiteth you, and who knows the weight of his hand?" Those who
   would not know it was the Lord that did them good shall be made to know
   it is the Lord that smiteth them; for, one way or other, he will be
   owned.

The Desolation of Israel. (b. c. 594.)

   16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the
   mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one
   for his iniquity.   17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall
   be weak as water.   18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth,
   and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and
   baldness upon all their heads.   19 They shall cast their silver in the
   streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold
   shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord:
   they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because
   it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.   20 As for the beauty of
   his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their
   abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I
   set it far from them.   21 And I will give it into the hands of the
   strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and
   they shall pollute it.   22 My face will I turn also from them, and
   they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into
   it, and defile it.

   We have attended the fate of those that are cut off, and are now to
   attend the flight of those that have an opportunity of escaping the
   danger; some of them shall escape (v. 16), but what the better? As good
   die once as, in a miserable life, die a thousand deaths, and escape
   only like Cain to be fugitives and vagabonds, and afraid of being slain
   by every one they meet; so shall these be.

   I. They shall have no comfort or satisfaction in their own minds, but
   be in continual anguish and terror; for, wherever they go, they carry
   about with them guilty consciences, which make them a burden to
   themselves. 1. They shall be always solitary and under prevailing
   melancholy; they shall not be in the cities, or places of concourse,
   but all alone upon the mountains, not caring for society, but shy of
   it, as being ashamed of the low circumstances to which they are
   reduced. 2. They shall be always sorrowful. Those have reason to be so
   that are under the tokens of God's displeasure; and God can make those
   so that have been most jovial and have set sorrow at defiance. Those
   that once thought themselves as the lions of the mountains, so daring
   were they, now become as the doves of the valleys, so timid are they,
   and so dispirited, ready to flee when none pursues and to tremble at
   the shaking of a leaf. They are all of them mourning (not with a godly
   sorrow, but with the sorrow of the world, which works death), every one
   for his iniquity, that is, for those calamities which they now see
   their iniquity has brought upon them, not only the iniquity of the
   land, but their own: they shall then be brought to acknowledge what
   they have each of them contributed to the national guilt. Note, Sooner
   or later sin will have sorrow of one kind or other; and those that will
   not repent of their iniquity may justly be left to pine away in it;
   those that will not mourn for it as it is an offence to God shall be
   made to mourn for it as it is a shame and ruin to themselves, to mourn
   at the last, when the flesh and the body are consumed, and to say, How
   have I hated instruction! Prov. v. 11, 12. 3. They shall be deprived of
   all their strength of body and mind (v. 17): All hands shall be feeble,
   so that they shall not be able to fight, or defend themselves, and all
   knees shall be weak as water, so that they shall neither be able to
   flee nor to stand their ground; they shall feel a universal
   colliquation: their knees shall flow as water, so that they must fall
   of course. Note, It is folly for the strong man to glory in his
   strength, for God can soon weaken it. 4. They shall be deprived of all
   their hopes and shall abandon themselves to despair (v. 18); they shall
   have nothing to hold up their spirits with; their aspects shall show
   what are their prospects, all dreadful, for they shall gird themselves
   with sackcloth, as having no expectation ever to wear better clothing.
   Horror shall cover them, and shame, and baldness, all the expressions
   of a desperate sorrow, Isa. xvii. 11. Note, Those that will not be kept
   from sin by fear and shame shall by fear and shame be punished for it;
   such is the confusion that sin will end in.

   II. They shall have no benefit from their wealth and riches, but shall
   be perfectly sick of them, v. 19. Those that were reduced to this
   distress were such as had had abundance of silver and gold, money, and
   plate, and jewels, and other valuable goods, from which they promised
   themselves a great deal of advantage in times of public trouble. They
   thought their wealth would be their strong city, that with it they
   could bribe enemies and buy friends, that it would be the ransom of
   their lives, that they could never want bread as long as they had
   money, and that money would answer all things; but see how it proved.
   1. Their wealth had been a great temptation to them in the day of their
   prosperity; they set their affections upon it, and put their confidence
   in it. By their eager pursuit of it they were drawn into sin, and by
   their plentiful enjoyment of it they were hardened in sin; and thus it
   was the stumbling-block of their iniquity; it occasioned their falling
   into sin and obstructed their return to God. Note, There are many whose
   wealth is their snare and ruin. The gaining of the world is the losing
   of their souls; it makes them proud, secure, covetous, oppressive,
   voluptuous; and that which, if well used, might have been the servant
   of their piety, being abused, becomes the stumbling-block of their
   iniquity. 2. It was no relief to them now in the day of their
   adversity; for, (1.) Their gold and silver could not protect them from
   the judgments of God. They shall not be able to deliver them in the day
   of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not serve to atone his justice, or
   turn away his wrath, nor to screen them from the judgments he is
   bringing upon them. Note, Riches profit not in the day of wrath, Prov.
   xi. 4. They neither set them so high that God's judgments cannot reach
   them nor make them so strong that they cannot conquer them. There is a
   day of wrath coming, when it will appear that men's wealth is utterly
   unable to deliver them or do them any service. What the better was the
   rich man for his full barns when his soul was required of him, or that
   other rich man for his purple, and scarlet, and sumptuous fare, when in
   hell he could not procure a drop of water to cool his tongue? Money is
   no defence against the arrests of death, nor any alleviation to the
   miseries of the damned. (2.) Their gold and silver could not give them
   any content under their calamities. [1.] They could not fill their
   bowels; when there was no bread left in the city, none to be had for
   love or money, their silver and gold could not satisfy their hunger,
   nor serve to make one meal's meat for them. Note, We could better be
   without mines of gold than fields of corn; the products of the earth,
   which may easily be gathered from the surface of it, are much greater
   blessings to mankind than its treasures, which are with so much
   difficulty and hazard dug out of its bowels. If God give us daily
   bread, we have reason to be thankful, and no reason to complain, though
   silver and gold we have none. [2.] Much less could they satisfy their
   souls, or yield them any inward comfort. Note, The wealth of this world
   has not that in it which will answer the desires of the soul, or be any
   satisfaction to it in a day of distress. He that loves silver shall not
   be satisfied with silver, much less he that loses it. (3.) Their gold
   and silver shall be thrown into the streets, either by the hands of the
   enemy, who shall have more spoil than they care for or can carry away
   (silver shall be nothing accounted of; they shall cast that in the
   streets; but the gold, which is more valuable, shall be removed and
   brought to Babylon); or they themselves shall throw away their silver
   and gold, because it would be an incumbrance to them and retard their
   flight, or because it would expose them and be a temptation to the
   enemy to cut their throats for their money, or in indignation at it,
   because, after all the care and pains they had taken to scrape it
   together and hoard it up, they found that it would stand them in no
   stead, but do them a mischief rather. Note, The world passes away, and
   the lusts thereof, 1 John ii. 17. The time may come when worldly men
   will be as weary of their wealth as now they are wedded to it, when
   those will fare best that have least.

   III. God's temple shall stand them in no stead, v. 20-22. This they had
   prided themselves in, and promised themselves security from (Jer. vii.
   4; Mic. iii. 11); but this confidence of theirs shall fail them.
   Observe, 1. The great honour God had done to that people in setting up
   his sanctuary among them (v. 20): As for the beauty of his ornament,
   that holy and beautiful house, where they and their fathers praised God
   (Isa. lxiv. 11), which was therefore beautiful because holy (it was
   called the beauty of holiness, and holiness is the beauty of its
   ornament; it was also adorned with gold and gifts)--as for this, he set
   it in majesty; every thing was contrived to make it magnificent, that
   it might help to make the people of Israel the more illustrious among
   their neighbours. He built his sanctuary like high palaces, Ps.
   lxxviii. 69. It was a glorious high throne from the beginning, Jer.
   xvii. 12. But, 2. Here is the great dishonour they had done to God in
   profaning his sanctuary; they made the images of their counterfeit
   deities, which they set up in rivalship with God, and which are here
   called their abominations and their detestable things (for so they were
   to God, and so they should have been to them), and these they set up in
   God's temple, than which a greater affront could not be put upon him.
   And therefore, 3. It is here threatened that they shall be deprived of
   the temple, and it shall be no succour to them: Therefore have I set it
   far from them, that is, sent them far from it, so that it is out of the
   reach of their services and they are out of the reach of its
   influences. Note, God's ordinances, and the privileges of a profession
   of religion, will justly be taken away from those that despise and
   profane them. Nay, they shall not only be kept at a distance from the
   temple, but the temple itself shall be involved in the common
   desolation (v. 21); the Chaldeans, who are strangers, and therefore
   have no veneration for it, who are the wicked of the earth, and
   therefore have an antipathy to it, shall have it for a prey and for a
   spoil; all the ornaments and treasures of it shall fall into their
   hands, who will make no difference between that and other plunder. This
   was a grief to the saints in Zion, who complained of nothing so much as
   of that which the enemy did wickedly in the sanctuary (Ps. lxxiv. 3);
   but it was the punishment of the sinners in Zion, who, by profaning the
   temple with strange gods, provoked God to suffer it to be profaned by
   strange nations, and to turn his face from those that did it as if he
   had not seen them and their crimes and from those that deprecated it as
   not regarding them and their prayers. Let the soldiers do as they will;
   let them enter into the secret place, into the holy of holies, as
   robbers; let them strip it, let them pollute it; its defence has
   departed, and then farewell all its glory. Note, Those are unworthy to
   be honoured with the form of godliness who will not be governed by the
   power of godliness.

The Desolation of Israel. (b. c. 594.)

   23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is
   full of violence.   24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen,
   and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the
   strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.   25
   Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
     26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon
   rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall
   perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.   27 The king
   shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the
   hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them
   after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and
   they shall know that I am the Lord.

   Here is, I. The prisoner arraigned: Make a chain, in which to drag the
   criminal to the bar, and set him before the tribunal of divine justice;
   let him stand in fetters (as a notorious malefactor), stand pinioned to
   receive his doom. Note, Those that break the bands of God's law
   asunder, and cast away those cords from them, will find themselves
   bound and held by the chains of his judgments, which they cannot break
   nor cast from them. The chain signified the siege of Jerusalem, or the
   slavery of those that were carried into captivity, or that they were
   all bound over to the righteous judgment of God, reserved in chains.

   II. The indictment drawn up against the prisoner: The land is full of
   bloody crimes, full of the judgments of blood (so the word is), that
   is, of the guilt of blood which they had shed under colour of justice
   and by forms of law, with the solemnity of a judgment. The innocent
   blood which Manasseh shed, probably thus shed, by the judgment of the
   blood, was the measure-filling sin of Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxiv. 4. Or,
   It is full of such crimes as by the law were to be punished with death,
   the judgment of blood. Idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, Sodomy, and the
   like, were bloody crimes, for which particular sinners were to die; and
   therefore, when they had become national, there was no remedy but the
   nation must be cut off. Note, Bloody crimes will be punished with
   bloody judgments. The city, the city of David, the holy city, that
   should have been the pattern of righteousness, the protector of it, and
   the punisher of wrong, is now full of violence; the rulers of that
   city, having greater power and reputation, are greater oppressors than
   any others. This was sadly to be lamented. How has the faithful city
   become a harlot!

   III. Judgment given upon this indictment. God will reckon with them not
   only for the profaning of his sanctuary, but for the perverting of
   justice between man and man; for, as holiness becomes his house, so the
   righteous Lord loves righteousness and is the avenger of
   unrighteousness. Now the judgment given is, 1. That since they had
   walked in the way of the heathen, and done worse than they, God would
   bring the worst of the heathen upon them to destroy them and lay them
   waste, the most barbarous and outrageous, that have the least
   compassion to mankind and the greatest antipathy to the Jews. Note, Of
   the heathen some are worse than others, and God sometimes picks out the
   worst to be a scourge to his own people, because he intends them for
   the fire when the work is done. 2. That since they had filled their
   houses with goods unjustly gotten, and used their pomp and power for
   the crushing and oppressing of the weak, God would give their houses to
   be possessed and all the furniture of them to be enjoyed by strangers,
   and make the pomp of the strong to cease, so that their great men
   should not dazzle the eyes of the weak-sighted with their pomp, nor
   with their might at any time prevail against right, as they had done.
   3. That, since they had defiled the holy places with their idolatries,
   God would defile them with his judgments, since they had set up the
   images of other gods in the temple, God would remove thence the tokens
   of the presence of their own God. When the holy places are deserted by
   their God they will soon be defiled by their enemies. 4. Since they had
   followed one sin with another, God would pursue them with one judgment
   upon another: "Destruction comes, utter destruction (v. 25); for there
   shall come mischief upon mischief to ruin you, and rumour upon rumour
   to frighten you, like the waves in a storm, one upon the neck of
   another." Note, Sinners that are marked for ruin shall be prosecuted to
   it; for God will overcome when he judges. 5. Since they had
   disappointed God's expectations from them, he would disappoint their
   expectations from him; for, (1.) They shall not have the deliverance
   out of their troubles that they expect. They shall seek peace; they
   shall desire it and pray for it; they shall aim at and expect it: but
   there shall be none; their attempts both to court their enemies and to
   conquer them shall be in vain, and their troubles shall grow worse and
   worse. (2.) They shall not have the direction in the trouble that they
   expect (v. 26): They shall seek a vision of the prophet, shall desire,
   for their support under their troubles, to be assured of a happy issue
   out of them. They did not desire a vision to reprove them for sin, nor
   to warn them of danger, but to promise them deliverance. Such messages
   they longed to hear. But the law shall perish from the priest; he shall
   have no words either of counsel or comfort to say to them. They would
   not hear what God had to say to them by ways of conviction, and
   therefore he has nothing to say to them by way of encouragement.
   Counsel shall perish from the ancients; the elders of the people, that
   should advise them what to do in this difficult juncture, shall be
   infatuated and at their wits' end. It is bad with a people when those
   that should be their counsellors know not how to consider within
   themselves, consult with one another, or counsel them. 6. Since they
   had animated and encouraged one another to sin, God would dispirit and
   dishearten them all, so that they should not be able to make head
   against the judgments of God that were breaking in upon them. All
   orders and degrees of men shall lie down by consent under the load (v.
   27): The king, that should inspire life into them, and the prince, that
   should lead them onto attack the enemy, shall mourn and be clothed with
   desolation; their heads and hearts shall fail, their politics and their
   courage; and then no wonder if the hands of the people of the land,
   that should fight for them, be troubled. None of the men of might shall
   find their hands. What can men contrive or do for themselves when God
   has departed from them and appears against them? All must needs be in
   tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their
   deserts, and so make then know, to their cost, that he is the Lord, the
   God to whom vengeance belongs.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. VIII.

   God, having given the prophet a clear foresight of the people's
   miseries that were hastening on, here gives him a clear insight into
   the people's wickedness, by which God was provoked to bring these
   miseries upon them, that he might justify God in all his judgments,
   might the more particularly reprove the sins of the people, and with
   the more satisfaction foretel their ruin. Here God, in vision, brings
   him to Jerusalem, to show him the sins that were committed there,
   though God had begun to contend with them (ver. 1-4), and there he
   sees, I. The image of jealousy set up at the gate of the altar, ver. 5,
   6. II. The elders of Israel worshipping all manner of images in a
   secret chamber, ver. 7-12. III. The women weeping for Tammuz, ver. 13,
   14. IV. The men worshipping the sun, ver. 15, 16. And then appeals to
   him whether such a provoking people should have any pity shown them,
   ver. 17, 18.

The Vision of the Divine Glory. (b. c. 593.)

   1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the
   fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah
   sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.   2
   Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the
   appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even
   upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.   3
   And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine
   head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and
   brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner
   gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of
   jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.   4 And, behold, the glory of
   the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the
   plain.   5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the
   way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the
   north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of
   jealousy in the entry.   6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man,
   seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of
   Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but
   turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

   Ezekiel was now in Babylon; but the messages of wrath he had delivered
   in the foregoing chapters related to Jerusalem, for in the peace or
   trouble thereof the captives looked upon themselves to have peace or
   trouble, and therefore here he has a vision of what was done at
   Jerusalem, and this vision is continued to the close of the 11th
   chapter.

   I. Here is the date of this vision. The first vision he had was in the
   fifth year of the captivity, in the fourth month and the fifth day of
   the month, ch. i. 1, 2. This was just fourteen months after. Perhaps it
   was after he had lain 390 days on his left side, to bear the iniquity
   of Israel, and before he began the forty days on his right side, to
   bear the iniquity of Judah; for now he was sitting in the house, not
   lying. Note, God keeps a particular account of the messages he sends to
   us, because he will shortly call us to account about them.

   II. The opportunity is taken notice of, as well as the time. 1. The
   prophet was himself sitting in his house, in a sedate composed frame,
   deep perhaps in contemplation. Note, The more we retreat from the
   world, and retire into our own hearts, the better frame we are in for
   communion with God: those that sit down to consider what they have
   learned shall be taught more. Or, he sat in his house, ready to preach
   to the company that resorted to him, but waiting for instructions what
   to say. God will communicate more knowledge to those who are
   communicative of what they do know. 2. The elders of Judah, that were
   now in captivity with him, sat before him. It is probable that it was
   on the sabbath day, and that it was usual for them to attend on the
   prophet every sabbath day, both to hear the word from him and to join
   with him in prayer and praise: and how could they spend the sabbath
   better, now that they had neither temple nor synagogue, neither priest
   nor altar? It was a great mercy that they had opportunity to spend it
   so well, as the good people in Elisha's time, 2 Kings iv. 23. But some
   think it was on some extraordinary occasion that they attended him, to
   enquire of the Lord, and sat down at his feet to hear his word. Observe
   here, (1.) When the law had perished from the priests at Jerusalem,
   whose lips should keep knowledge (ch. vii. 26), those in Babylon had a
   prophet to consult. God is not tied to places or persons. (2.) Now that
   the elders of Judah were in captivity they paid more respect to God's
   prophets, and his word in their mouth, than they did when they lived in
   peace in their own land. When God brings men into the cords of
   affliction, then he opens their ears to discipline, Job xxxvi. 8, 10;
   Ps. cxli. 6. Those that despised a vision in the valley of vision
   prized it now that the word of the Lord was precious and there was no
   open vision. (3.) When our teachers are driven into corners, and are
   forced to preach in private houses, we must diligently attend them
   there. A minister's house should be a church for all his neighbours.
   Paul preached in his own hired house at Rome, and God owned him there,
   and no man forbad him.

   III. The divine influence and impression that the prophet was now
   under: The hand of the Lord fell there upon me. God's hand took hold of
   him, and arrested him, as it were, to employ him in this vision, but at
   the same time supported him to bear it.

   IV. The vision that the prophet saw, v. 2. He beheld a likeness, of a
   man we may suppose, for that was the likeness he saw before, but it was
   all brightness above the girdle and all fire below, fire and flame.
   This agrees with the description we had before of the apparition he
   saw, ch. i. 27. It is probably that it was the same person, the man
   Christ Jesus. It is probable that the elders that sat with him (as the
   men that journeyed with Paul) saw a light and were afraid, and this
   happy sight they gained by attending the prophet in a private meeting,
   but they had no distinct view of him that spoke to him, Acts xxii. 9.

   V. The prophet's remove, in vision, to Jerusalem. The apparition he saw
   put forth the form of a hand, which took him by a lock of his head, and
   the Spirit was that hand which was put forth, for the Spirit of God is
   called the finger of God. Or, The spirit within him lifted him up, so
   that he was borne up and carried on by an internal principle, not an
   external violence. A faithful ready servant of God will be drawn by a
   hair, by the least intimation of the divine will, to his duty; for he
   has that within him which inclines him to a compliance with it, Ps.
   xxvii. 8. He was miraculously lifted up between heaven and earth, as if
   he were to fly away upon eagles' wings. This, it is probable (so
   Grotius thinks), the elders that sat with him saw; they were witnesses
   of the hand taking him by the lock of hair, and lifting him up, and
   then perhaps laying him down again in a trance of ecstasy, while he had
   the following visions, whether in the body or out of the body, we may
   suppose, he could not tell, any more than Paul in a like case, much
   less can we. Note, Those are best prepared for communion with God and
   the communications of divine light that by divine grace are raised up
   above the earth and the things of it, to be out of their attractive
   force. But, being lifted up towards heaven, he was carried in vision to
   Jerusalem, and to God's sanctuary there; for those that would go to
   heaven must take that in their way. The Spirit represented to his mind
   the city and temple as plainly as if he had been there in person. O
   that by faith we could thus enter into the Jerusalem, the holy city,
   above, and see the things that are invisible!

   VI. The discoveries that were made to him there.

   1. There he saw the glory of God (v. 4): Behold, the glory of the God
   of Israel was there, the same appearance of the living creatures, and
   the wheels, and the throne, that he had seen, ch. i. Note, God's
   servants, wherever they are and whithersoever they go, ought to carry
   about with them a believing regard to the glory of God and to set that
   always before them; and those that have seen God's power and glory in
   the sanctuary should desire to see them again, so as they have seen
   them, Ps. lxiii. 2. Ezekiel has this repeated vision of the glory of
   God both to give credit to and to put honour upon the following
   discoveries. But it seems to have a further intention here; it was to
   aggravate this sin of Israel, in changing their own God, the God of
   Israel (who is a God of so much glory as here he appears to be), for
   dunghill gods, scandalous gods, false gods, are indeed no gods. Note,
   The more glorious we see God to be the more odious we shall see sin to
   be, especially idolatry, which turns his truth in to a lie, his glory
   into shame. It was also to aggravate their approaching misery, when
   this glory of the Lord should remove from them (ch. xi. 23) and leave
   the house and city desolate.

   2. There he saw the reproach of Israel--and that was the image of
   jealousy, set northward, at the gate of the altar, v. 3, 5. What image
   this was is uncertain, probably an image of Baal, or of the grove,
   which Manasseh made and set in the temple (2 Kings xxi. 7, 2 Chron.
   xxxiii. 3), which Josiah removed, but his successors, it seems,
   replaced it there, as probably they did the chariots of the sun which
   he found at the entering in of the house of the Lord (2 Kings xxiii.
   11), and this is here said to be in the entry. But the prophet, instead
   of telling us what image it was, which might gratify our curiosity,
   tells us that it was the image of jealousy, to convince our consciences
   that, whatever image it was, it was in the highest degree offensive to
   God and provoked him to jealousy. He resented it as a husband would
   resent the whoredoms of his wife, and would certainly revenge it; for
   God is jealous, and the Lord revenges, Nah. i. 2.

   (1.) The very setting up of this image in the house of the Lord was
   enough to provoke him to jealousy; for it is in the matters of his
   worship that we are particularly told, I the Lord thy God am a jealous
   God. Those that placed this image at the door of the inner gate, where
   the people assembled, called the gate of the altar (v. 5), thereby
   plainly intended, [1.] To affront God, to provoke him to his face, by
   advancing an idol to be a rival with him for the adoration of his
   people, in contempt of his law and in defiance of his justice. [2.] To
   debauch the people, and pick them up as they were entering into the
   courts of the Lord's house to bring their offerings to him, and to
   tempt them to offer them to this image; like the adulteress Solomon
   describes, that sits at the door of her house, to call passengers who
   go right on their ways, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither, Prov.
   ix. 14-16. With good reason therefore is this called the image of
   jealousy.

   (2.) We may well imagine what a surprise and what a grief it was to
   Ezekiel to see this image in the house of God, when he was in hopes
   that the judgments they were under had, by this time, wrought some
   reformation among them; but there is more wickedness in the world, in
   the church, than good men think there is. And now, [1.] God appeals to
   him whether this was not bad enough, and a sufficient ground for God to
   go upon in casting off this people and abandoning them to ruin. Could
   he, or any one else, expect any other than that God should go far from
   his sanctuary, when there were such abominations committed there, in
   that very place; nay, was he not perfectly driven thence? They did
   these things designedly, and on purpose that he should leave his
   sanctuary, and so shall their doom be; they have hereby, in effect,
   like the Gadarenes, desired him to depart out of their coasts, and
   therefore he will depart; he will no more dignify and protect his
   sanctuary, as he has done, but will give it up to reproach and ruin.
   But, [2.] Though this is bad enough, and serves abundantly to justify
   God in all that he brings upon them, yet the matter will appear to be
   much worse: But turn thyself yet again, and thou wilt be amazed to see
   greater abominations than these. Where there is one abomination it will
   be found that there are many more. Sins do not go alone.

Secret Abominations Discovered; The Chambers of Imagery. (b. c. 593.)

   7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold
   a hole in the wall.   8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in
   the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.   9 And he
   said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do
   here.   10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping
   things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of
   Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.   11 And there stood
   before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in
   the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man
   his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.   12 Then
   said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the
   house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his
   imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken
   the earth.

   We have here a further discovery of the abominations that were
   committed at Jerusalem, and within the confines of the temple, too. Now
   observe,

   I. How this discovery is made. God, in vision, brought Ezekiel to the
   door of the court, the outer court, along the sides of which the
   priests' lodgings were. God could have introduced him at first into the
   chambers of imagery, but he brings him to them by degrees, partly to
   employ his own industry in searching out these mysteries of iniquity,
   and partly to make him sensible with what care and caution those
   idolaters concealed their idolatries. Before the priests' apartments
   they had run up a wall, to make them the more private, that they might
   not lie open to the observation of those who passed by--a shrewd sign
   that they did something which they had reason to be ashamed of. He that
   doth evil hates the light. They were not willing that those who saw
   them in God's house should see them in their own, lest they should see
   them contradict themselves and undo in private what they did in public.
   But, behold, a hole in the wall, (v. 7), a spy-hole, by which you might
   see that which would give cause to suspect them. When hypocrites screen
   themselves behind the wall of an external profession, and with it think
   to conceal their wickedness from the eye of the world and carry on
   their designs the more successfully, it is hard for them to manage it
   with so much art by that there is some hole or other left in the wall,
   something that betrays them, to those who look diligently, not to be
   what they pretend to be. The ass's ears in the fable appeared from
   under the lion's skin. This hole in the wall Ezekiel made wider, and
   behold a door, v. 8. This door he goes in by into the treasury, or some
   of the apartments of the priests, and sees the wicked abominations that
   they do there, v. 9. Note, Those that would discover the mystery of
   iniquity in others, or in themselves, must accomplish a diligent
   search; for Satan has his wiles, and depths, and devices, which we
   should not be ignorant of, and the heart is deceitful above all things;
   in the examining of it therefore we are concerned to be very strict.

   II. What the discovery is. It is a very melancholy one. 1. He sees a
   chamber set round with idolatrous pictures (v. 10): All the idols of
   the house of Israel, which they had borrowed from the neighbouring
   nations, were portrayed upon the wall round about, even the vilest of
   them, the forms of creeping things, which they worshipped, and beasts,
   even abominable ones, which are poisonous and venomous; at least they
   were abominable when they were worshipped. This was a sort of pantheon,
   a collection of all the idols together which they paid their devotions
   to. Though the second commandment, in the letter of it, forbids only
   graven images, yet painted ones are as bad and as dangerous. 2. He sees
   this chamber filled with idolatrous worshippers (v. 11): There were
   seventy men of the elders of Israel offering incense to these painted
   idols. Here was a great number of idolaters strengthening one another's
   hands in this wickedness; though it was in a private chamber, and the
   meeting industriously concealed, yet here were seventy men engaged in
   it. I doubt these elders were many more than those in Babylon that sat
   before the prophet in his house, v. 1. They were seventy men, the
   number of the great Sanhedrim, or chief council of the nation, and, we
   have reason to fear, the same men; for they were the ancients of the
   house of Israel, not only in age, but in office, who were bound, by the
   duty of their place, to restrain and punish idolatry and to destroy and
   abolish all superstitious images wherever they found them; yet these
   were those that did themselves worship them in private, so undermining
   that religion which in public they professed to own and promote only
   because by it they held their preferments. They had every man his
   censer in his hand; so fond were they of the idolatrous service that
   they would all be their own priests, and very prodigal they were of
   their perfumes in honour of these images, for a thick cloud of incense
   went up, that filled the room. O that the zeal of these idolaters might
   shame the worshippers of the true God out of their indifference to his
   service! The prophet took particular notice of one whom he knew, who
   stood in the midst of these idolaters, as chief among them, being
   perhaps president of the great council at this time or most forward in
   this wickedness. No wonder the people were corrupt when the elders were
   so. The sins of leaders are leading sins.

   III. What the remark is that made upon it (v. 12): "Son of man, hast
   thou seen this? Couldst thou have imagined that there was such
   wickedness committed?" It is here observed concerning it, 1. That it
   was done in the dark; for sinful works are works of darkness. They
   concealed it, lest they should lose their places, or at least their
   credit. There is a great deal of secret wickedness in the world, which
   the day will declare, the day of the revelation of the righteous
   judgment of God. 2. That this one idolatrous chapel was but a specimen
   of many the like. Here they met together, to worship their images in
   concert, but, it should seem, they had every man the chamber of his
   imagery besides, a room in his own house for this purpose, in which
   every man gratified his own fancy with such pictures as he liked best.
   Idolaters had their household gods, and their family worship of them in
   private, which is a shame to those who call themselves Christians and
   yet have no church in their house, no worship of God in their family.
   Had they chambers of imagery, and shall not we have chambers of
   devotion? 3. That atheism was at the bottom of their idolatry. They
   worship images in the dark, the images of the gods of other nations,
   and they say, "Jehovah, the God of Israel, whom we should serve, seeth
   us not. Jehovah hath forsaken the earth, and we may worship what God we
   will; he regards us not." (1.) They think themselves out of God's
   sight: They say, The Lord seeth us not. They imagined, because the
   matter was carried on so closely that men could not discover it, nor
   did any of their neighbours suspect them to be idolaters, that
   therefore it was hidden from the eye of God; as if there were any
   darkness, or shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide
   themselves. Note, A practical disbelief of God's omniscience is at the
   bottom of our treacherous departures from him; but the church argues
   justly, as to this very sin of idolatry (Ps. xliv. 20, 21), If we have
   forgotten the name of our God, and stretched forth our hand to a
   strange god, will not God search this out? No doubt he will. (2.) They
   think themselves out of God's care: "The Lord has forsaken the earth,
   and looks not after the affairs of it; and then we may as well worship
   any other god as him." Or, "He has forsaken our land, and left it to be
   a prey to its enemies; and therefore it is time for us to look out for
   some other god, to whom to commit the protection of it. Our one God
   cannot, or will not, deliver us; and therefore let us have many." This
   was a blasphemous reflection upon God, as if he had forsaken them
   first, else they would not have forsaken him. Note, Those are ripe
   indeed for ruin who have arrived at such a pitch of impudence as to lay
   the blame of their sins upon God himself.

The Chambers of Imagery. (b. c. 593.)

   13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see
   greater abominations that they do.   14 Then he brought me to the door
   of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and,
   behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.   15 Then said he unto me,
   Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt
   see greater abominations than these.   16 And he brought me into the
   inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple
   of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and
   twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their
   faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
   17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a
   light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations
   which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence,
   and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch
   to their nose.   18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall
   not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears
   with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

   Here we have,

   I. More and greater abominations discovered to the prophet. He thought
   that what he had seen was bad enough and yet (v. 13): Turn thyself
   again, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations, and greater still,
   v. 15, as before, v. 6. There are those who live in retirement who do
   no think what wickedness there is in this world; and the more we
   converse with it, and the further we go abroad into it, the more
   corrupt we see it. When we have seen that which is bad we may have our
   wonder at it made to cease by the discovery of that which, upon some
   account or other, is a great deal worse. We shall find it so in
   examining our own hearts and searching into them; there is a world of
   iniquity in them, a great abundance and variety of abominations, and,
   when we have found out much amiss, still we shall find more; for the
   heart is desperately wicked, who can know it perfectly? Now the
   abominations here discovered were, 1. Women weeping for Tammuz, v. 14.
   An abominable thing indeed, that any should choose rather to serve an
   idol in tears than to serve the true God with joyfulness and gladness
   of heart! Yet such absurdities as these are those guilty of who follow
   after lying vanities and forsake their own mercies. Some think it was
   for Adonis, an idol among the Greeks, other for Osiris, an idol of the
   Egyptians, that they shed these tears. The image, they say, was made to
   weep, and then the worshippers wept with it. They bewailed the death of
   this Tammuz, and anon rejoiced in its returning to life again. These
   mourning women sat at the door of the gate of the Lord's house, and
   there shed their idolatrous tears, as it were in defiance of God and
   the sacred rites of his worship, and some think, with their idolatry,
   prostrating themselves also to corporeal whoredom; for these two
   commonly went together, and those that dishonoured the divine nature by
   the one were justly given up to vile affections and a reprobate sense
   to dishonour the human nature, which nowhere ever sunk so far below
   itself as in these idolatrous rites. 2. Men worshipping the sun, v. 16.
   And this was so much the greater an abomination that it was practised
   in the inner court of the Lord's house at the door of the temple of the
   lord, between the porch and the altar. There, where the most sacred
   rites of their holy religion used to be performed, was this abominable
   wickedness committed. Justly might God in jealousy say to those who
   thus affronted him at his own door, as the king to Haman, Will he force
   the queen also before me in the house? Here were about twenty-five men
   giving that honour to the sun which is due to God only. Some think they
   were the king and his princes; it should rather seem that they were
   priests, for this was the court of the priests, and the proper place to
   find them in. Those that were entrusted with the true religion, had it
   committed to their care and were charged with the custody of it, they
   were the men that betrayed it. (1.) They turned their backs towards the
   temple of the Lord, resolvedly forgetting it and designedly slighting
   it and putting contempt upon it. Note, When men turn their backs upon
   God's institutions, and despise them, it is no marvel if they wander
   endlessly after their own inventions. Impiety is the beginning of
   idolatry and all iniquity. (2.) They turned their faces towards the
   east, and worshipped the sun, the rising sun. This was an ancient
   instance of idolatry; it is mentioned in Job's time (Job xxxi. 26), and
   had been generally practised among the nations, some worshipping the
   sun under one name, others under another. These priests, finding it had
   antiquity and general consent and usage on its side (the two pleas
   which the papists use at this day in defence of their superstitious
   rites, and particularly this of worshipping towards the east),
   practised it in the court of the temple, thinking it an omission that
   it was not inserted in their ritual. See the folly of idolaters in
   worshipping that as a god, and calling it Baal--a lord, which God made
   to be a servant to the universe (for such the sun is, and so his name
   Shemesh signified, Deut. iv. 19), and in adoring the borrowed light and
   despising the Father of lights.

   II. The inference drawn from these discoveries (v. 17): "Hast thou seen
   this, O son of man! and couldst thou have thought ever to see such
   things done in the temple of the Lord?" Now, 1. He appeals to the
   prophet himself concerning the heinousness of the crime. Can he think
   it is a light thing to the house of Judah, who know and profess better
   things, and are dignified with so many privileges above other nations?
   Is it an excusable thing in those that have God's oracles and
   ordinances that they commit the abominations which they commit here? Do
   not those deserve to suffer that thus sin? Should not such abominations
   as these make desolate? Dan. ix. 27. 2. He aggravates it from the fraud
   and oppression that were to be found in all parts of the nations: They
   have filled the land with violence. It is not strange if those that
   wrong God thus make no conscience of wronging one another, and with all
   that is sacred trample likewise upon all that is just. And their
   wickedness in their conversations made even the worship they paid to
   their own God an abomination (Isa. i. 11, &c.): "They fill the land
   with violence, and then they return to the temple to provoke me to
   anger there; for even their sacrifices, instead of making an atonement,
   do but add to their guilt. They return to provoke me (they repeat the
   provocation, do it, and do it again), and, lo, they put the branch to
   their nose"--a proverbial expression denoting perhaps their scoffing at
   God and having him in derision; they snuffed at his service, as men do
   when they put a branch to their nose. Or it was some custom used by
   idolaters in honour of the idols they served. We read of garlands used
   in their idolatrous worships (Acts xiv. 13), out of which every zealot
   took a branch which they smelled to as a nosegay. Dr. Lightfoot (Hor.
   Heb. in John 15.6) gives another sense of this place: They put the
   branch to their wrath, or to his wrath, as the Masorites read it; that
   is, they are still bringing more fuel (such as the withered branches of
   the vine) to the fire of divine wrath, which they have already kindled,
   as if that wrath did not burn hot enough already. Or putting the branch
   to the nose may signify the giving of a very great affront and
   provocation either to God or man; they are an abusive generation of
   men. 3. He passes sentence upon them that they shall be utterly cut
   off: Therefore, because they are thus furiously bent upon sin, I will
   also deal in fury with them, v. 18. They filled the land with their
   violence, and God will fill it with the violence of their enemies; and
   he will not lend a favourable ear to the suggestions either, (1.) Of
   his own pity: My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity;
   repentance shall be hidden from his eyes; or, (2.) Of their prayers:
   Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them;
   for still their sins cry more loudly for vengeance than their prayers
   cry for mercy. God will now be as deaf to their prayers as their own
   idols were, on whom they cried aloud, but in vain, 1 Kings xviii. 26.
   Time was when God was ready to hear even before they cried and to
   answer while they were yet speaking; but now they shall seek me early
   and not find me, Prov. i. 28. It is not the loud voice, but the upright
   heart, that God will regard.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. IX.

   The prophet had, in vision, seen the wickedness that was committed at
   Jerusalem, in the foregoing chapter, and we may be sure that it was not
   represented to him worse than really it was; now here follows, of
   course, a representation of their ruin approaching; for when sin goes
   before judgments come next. Here is, I. Preparation made of instruments
   that were to be employed in the destruction of the city, ver. 1, 2. II.
   The removal of the Shechinah from the cherubim to the threshold of the
   temple, ver. 3. III. Orders given to one of the persons employed, who
   is distinguished from the rest, for the marking of a remnant to be
   preserved from the common destruction, ver. 3, 4. IV. The warrant
   signed for the execution of those that were not marked, and the
   execution begun accordingly, ver. 5-7. V. The prophet's intercession
   for the mitigation of the sentence, and a denial of any mitigation, the
   decree having now gone forth, ver. 8-10. VI. The report made by him
   that was to mark the pious remnant of what he had done in that matter,
   ver. 11. And this shows a usual method of Providence in the government
   of the world.

Preparations to Destroy Jerusalem; The Righteous Marked for Salvation. (b.
c. 593.)

   1 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that
   have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his
   destroying weapon in his hand.   2 And, behold, six men came from the
   way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a
   slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with
   linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood
   beside the brasen altar.   3 And the glory of the God of Israel was
   gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the
   house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the
   writer's inkhorn by his side;   4 And the Lord said unto him, Go
   through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set
   a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the
   abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The summons given to Jerusalem's destroyers to come forth and give
   their attendance. He that appeared to the prophet (ch. viii. 2), that
   had brought him to Jerusalem and had shown the wickedness that was done
   there, he cried, Cause those that have charge over the city to draw
   near (v. 1), or, as it might better be read, and nearer the original,
   Those that have charge over the city are drawing near. He had said (ch.
   viii. 18), I will deal in fury; now, says he to the prophet, thou shalt
   see who are to be employed as the instruments of my wrath.
   Appropinquaverunt visitationes civitatis--The visitations (or visitors)
   of the city are at hand. They would not know the day of their
   visitations in mercy, and now they are to be visited in wrath. Observe,
   1. How the notice of this is given to the prophet: He cried it in my
   ears with a loud voice, which intimates the vehemency of him that
   spoke; when men are highly provoked, and threaten in anger, they speak
   aloud. Those that regard not the counsels God gives them in a still
   small voice shall be made to hear the threatenings, to hear and
   tremble. It denotes also the prophet's unwillingness to be told this:
   he was deaf on that ear, but there is no remedy, their sin will not
   admit an excuse and therefore their judgment will not admit a delay:
   "He cried it in my ears with a loud voice; he made me hear it, and I
   heard it with a sad heart." 2. What this notice is. There are those
   that have charge over the city to destroy it, not the Chaldean armies,
   they are to be indeed employed in this work, but they are not the
   visitors, they are only the servants, or tools rather. God's angels
   have received a charge now to lay that city waste, which they had long
   had a charge to protect and watch over. They are at hand, as destroying
   angels, as ministers of wrath, for every man has his destroying weapon
   in his hand, as the angel that kept the way of the tree of life with a
   flaming sword. Note, Those that have by sin made God their enemy have
   made the good angels their enemies too. These visitors are called and
   caused to draw near. Note, God has ministers of wrath always within
   call, always at command, invisible powers, by whom he accomplishes is
   purposes. The prophet is made to see this in vision, that he might with
   the greater assurance in his preaching denounce these judgments. God
   told it him with a loud voice, taught it him with a strong hand (Isa.
   viii. 11), that it might make the deeper impression upon him and that
   he might thus proclaim it in the people's ears.

   II. Their appearance, upon this summons, is recorded. Immediately six
   men came (v. 2), one for each of the principal gates of Jerusalem. Two
   destroying angels were sent against Sodom, but six against Jerusalem;
   for Jerusalem's doom in the judgment will be thrice as heavy as that of
   Sodom. There is an angel watching at every gate to destroy, to bring in
   judgments from every quarter, and to take heed that none escape. One
   angel served to destroy the first-born of Egypt, and the camp of the
   Assyrians, but here are six. In the Revelation we find seven that were
   to pour out the vials of God's wrath, Rev. xvi. 1. They came with every
   one a slaughter-weapon in his hand, prepared for the work to which they
   were called. The nations of which the king of Babylon's army was
   composed, which some reckon to be six, and the commanders of his army
   (of whom six are named as principal, Jer. xxxix. 3), may be called the
   slaughter-weapons in the hands of the angels. The angels are thoroughly
   furnished for every service. 1. Observe whence they came--from the way
   of the higher gate, which lies towards the north (v. 2), either because
   the Chaldeans came from the north (Jer. i. 14, Out of the north an evil
   shall break forth) or because the image of jealousy was set up at the
   door of the inner gate that looks towards the north, ch. viii. 3, 5. At
   that gate of the temple the destroying angels entered, to show what it
   was that opened the door to them. Note, That way that sin lies
   judgments may be expected to come. 2. Observe where they placed
   themselves: They went in and stood beside the brazen altar, on which
   sacrifices were wont to be offered and atonement made. When they acted
   as destroyers they acted as sacrificers, not from any personal revenge
   or ill-will, but with a pure and sincere regard to the glory of God;
   for to his justice all they slew were offered up as victims. They stood
   by the altar, as it were to protect and vindicate that, and plead its
   righteous cause, and avenge the horrid profanation of it. At the altar
   they were to receive their commission to destroy, to intimate that the
   iniquity of Jerusalem, like that of Eli's house, was not to be purged
   by sacrifice.

   III. The notice taken of one among the destroying angels distinguished
   in his habit from the rest, from whom some favour might be expected; it
   should seem he was not one of the six, but among them, to see that
   mercy was mixed with judgment, v. 2. This man was clothed with linen,
   as the priests were, and he had a writer's inkhorn hanging at his side,
   as anciently attorneys and lawyers' clerks had, which he was to make
   use of, as the other six were to make use of their destroying weapons.
   Here the honours of the pen exceeded those of the sword, but he was the
   Lord of angels that made use of the writer's inkhorn; for it is
   generally agreed, among the best interpreters, that this man
   represented Christ as Mediator saving those that are his from the
   flaming sword of divine justice. He is our high priest, clothed with
   holiness, for that was signified by the fine linen, Rev. xix. 8. As
   prophet he wears the writer's inkhorn. The book of life is the Lamb's
   book. The great things of the law and gospel which God has written to
   us are of his writing; for it is the Spirit of Christ, in the writers
   of the scripture, that testifies to us, and the Bible is the revelation
   of Jesus Christ. Note, It is a matter of great comfort to all good
   Christians that, in the midst of the destroyers and the destructions
   that are abroad, there is a Mediator, a great high priest, who has an
   interest in heaven, and whom saints on earth have an interest in.

   IV. The removal of the appearance of the divine glory from over the
   cherubim. Some think this was that usual display of the divine glory
   which was between the cherubim over the mercy seat, in the most holy
   place, that took leave of them now, and never returned; for it is
   supposed that it was not in the second temple. Others think it was that
   display of the divine glory which the prophet now saw over the cherubim
   in vision; and this is more probable, because this is called the glory
   of the God of Israel (ch. viii. 4), and this is it which he had now his
   eye upon; this was gone to the threshold of the house, as it were to
   call to the servants that attended without the door, to send them on
   their errand and give them their instructions. And the removal of this,
   as well as the former, might be significant of God's departure from
   them, and leaving them their house desolate; and when God goes all good
   goes, but he goes from none till they first drive him from them. He
   went at first no further than the threshold, that he might show how
   loth he was to depart, and might give them both time and encouragement
   to invite his return to them and his stay with them. Note, God's
   departures from a people are gradual, but gracious souls are soon aware
   of the first step he takes towards a remove. Ezekiel immediately
   observed that the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the
   cherub: and what is a vision of angels if God be gone?

   V. The charge given to the man clothed in linen to secure the pious
   remnant from the general desolation. We do not read that this Saviour
   was summoned and sent for, as the destroyers were; for he is always
   ready, appearing in the presence of God for us; and to him, as the most
   proper person, the care of those that are marked for salvation is
   committed, v. 4. Now observe, 1. The distinguishing character of this
   remnant that is to be saved. They are such as sigh and cry, sigh in
   themselves, as men in pain and distress, cry to God in prayer, as men
   in earnest, because of all the abominations that are committed in
   Jerusalem. It was not only the idolatries they were guilty of, but all
   their other enormities, that were abominations to God. These pious few
   had witnessed against those abominations and had done what they could
   in their places to suppress them; but, finding all their attempts for
   the reformation of manners fruitless, they sat down, and sighted, and
   cried, wept in secret, and complained to God, because of the dishonour
   done to his name by their wickedness and the ruin it was bringing upon
   their church and nation. Note, It is not enough that we do not delight
   in the sins of others, and that we have not fellowship with them, but
   we must mourn for them, and lay them to heart; we must grieve for that
   which we cannot help, as those that hate sin for its own sake, and have
   a tender concern for the souls of others, as David (Ps. cxix. 136), and
   Lot, who vexed his righteous soul with the wicked conversation of his
   neighbours. The abominations committed in Jerusalem are to be in a
   special manner lamented, because they are in a particular manner
   offensive to God. 2. The distinguishing care taken of them. Orders are
   given to find those all out that are of such a pious public spirit: "Go
   through the midst of the city in quest of them, and though they are
   ever so much dispersed, and ever so closely hid from the fury of their
   persecutors, yet see that you discover them, and set a mark upon their
   foreheads," (1.) To signify that God owns them for his, and he will
   confess them another day. A work of grace in the soul is to God a mark
   upon the forehead, which he will acknowledge as his mark, and by which
   he knows those that are his. (2.) To give to them who are thus marked
   an assurance of God's favour, that they may know it themselves; and the
   comfort of knowing it will be the most powerful support and cordial in
   calamitous times. Why should we perplex ourselves about this temporal
   life if we know by the mark that we have eternal life? (3.) To be a
   direction to the destroyers whom to pass by, as the blood upon the
   door-posts was an indication that that was an Israelite's house, and
   the first-born there must not be slain. Note, Those who keep themselves
   pure in times of common iniquity God will keep safe in times of common
   calamity. Those that distinguish themselves shall be distinguished;
   those that cry for other men's sins shall not need to cry for their own
   afflictions, for they shall be either delivered from them or comforted
   under them. God will set a mark upon his mourners, will book their
   sighs and bottle their tears. The sealing of the servants of God in
   their foreheads mentioned in Rev. vii. 3 was the same token of the care
   God has of his own people which is related here; only this was to
   secure them from being destroyed, that from being seduced, which is
   equivalent.

The Righteous Distinguished; The Prophet's Intercession. (b. c. 593.)

   5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through
   the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:   6
   Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women:
   but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my
   sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the
   house.   7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts
   with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
     8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left,
   that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou
   destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon
   Jerusalem?   9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of
   Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and
   the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the
   earth, and the Lord seeth not.   10 And as for me also, mine eye shall
   not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way
   upon their head.   11 And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which
   had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done
   as thou hast commanded me.

   In these verses we have,

   I. A command given to the destroyers to do execution according to their
   commission. They stood by the brazen altar, waiting for orders; and
   orders are here given them to cut off and destroy all that were either
   guilty of, or accessory to, the abominations of Jerusalem, and that did
   not sigh and cry for them. Note, When God has gathered his wheat into
   his garner nothing remains but to burn up the chaff, Matt. iii. 12.

   1. They are ordered to destroy all, (1.) Without exception. They must
   go through the city, and smite; they must slay utterly, slay to
   destruction, give them their death's wound. They must make no
   distinction of age or sex, but cut off old and young; neither the
   beauty of the virgins, nor the innocency of the babes, shall secure
   them. This was fulfilled in the death of multitudes by famine and
   pestilence, especially by the sword of the Chaldeans, as far as the
   military execution went. Sometimes even such bloody work as this has
   been God's work. But what an evil thing is sin, then, which provokes
   the God of infinite mercy to such severity! (2.) Without compassion:
   "Let not your eye spare, neither have you pity (v. 5); you must not
   save any whom God has doomed to destruction, as Saul did Agag and the
   Amalekites, for that is doing the work of God deceitfully, Jer. xlviii.
   10. None need to be more merciful than God is; and he had said (ch.
   viii. 18), My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity." Note,
   Those that live in sin, and hate to be reformed, will perish in sin,
   and deserve not to be pitied; for they might easily have prevented the
   ruin, and would not.

   2. They are warned not to do the least hurt to those that were marked
   for salvation: "Come not near any man upon whom is the mark; do not so
   much as threaten or frighten any of them; it is promised them that
   there shall no evil come nigh them, and therefore you must keep at a
   distance from them." The king of Babylon gave particular orders that
   Jeremiah should be protected. Baruch and Ebed-melech were secured, and,
   it is likely, others of Jeremiah's friends, for his sake. God had
   promised that it should go well with his remnant and they should be
   well treated (Jer. xv. 11); and we have reason to think that none of
   the mourning praying remnant fell by the sword of the Chaldeans, but
   that God found out some way or other to secure them all, as, in the
   last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Christians were all
   secured in a city called Pella, and none of them perished with the
   unbelieving Jews. Note, None of those shall be lost whom God has marked
   for life and salvation; for the foundation of God stands sure.

   3. They are directed to begin at the sanctuary (v. 6), that sanctuary
   which, in the chapter before, he had seen the horrid profanation of;
   they must begin there because there the wickedness began which provoked
   God to send these judgments. The debaucheries of the priests were the
   poisoning of the springs, to which all the corruption of the streams
   was owing. The wickedness of the sanctuary was of all wickedness the
   most offensive to God, and therefore there the slaughter must begin:
   "Begin there, to try if the people will take warning by the judgments
   of God upon their priests, and will repent and reform; begin there,
   that all the world may see and know that the Lord, whose name is
   Jealous, is a jealous God, and hates sin most in those that are nearest
   to him." Note, When judgments are abroad they commonly begin at the
   house of God, 1 Pet. iv. 17. You only have I known, and therefore I
   will punish you, Amos iii. 2. God's temple is a sanctuary, a refuge and
   protection for penitent sinners, but not for any that go on still in
   their trespasses; neither the sacredness of the place nor the eminency
   of their place in it will be their security. It should seem the
   destroyers made some difficulty of putting men to death in the temple,
   but God bids them not to hesitate at that, but (v. 7), Defile the
   house, and fill the courts with slain. They will not be taken from the
   altar (as was appointed by the law, Exod. xxi. 14), but think to secure
   themselves by keeping hold of the horns of it, like Joab, and
   therefore, like him, let them die there, 1 Kings ii. 30, 31. There the
   blood of one of God's prophets had been shed (Matt. xxiii. 35) and
   therefore let their blood be shed. Note, If the servants of God's house
   defile it with their idolatries, God will justly suffer the enemies of
   it to defile it with their violences, Ps. lxxix. 1. But these acts of
   necessary justice were really, whatever they were ceremonially, rather
   a purification than a pollution of the sanctuary; it was putting away
   evil from among them. 4. They are appointed to go forth into the city,
   v. 6, 7. Note, Wherever sin has gone before judgement will follow
   after; and, though judgement begins at the house of God, yet it shall
   not end there. The holy city shall be no more a protection to the
   wicked people then the holy house was to the wicked priests.

   II. Here is execution done accordingly. They observed their orders,
   and, 1. They began at the elders, the ancient men that were before the
   house, and slew them first, either those seventy ancients who
   worshipped idols in their chambers (ch. viii. 12) or those twenty-five
   who worshipped the sun between the porch and the altar, who might more
   properly be said to be before the house. Note, Ringleaders in sin may
   expect to be first met with by the judgments of God; and the sins of
   those who are in the most eminent and public stations call for the most
   exemplary punishments. 2. They proceeded to the common people: They
   went forth and slew in the city; for, when the decree has gone forth,
   there shall be no delay; if God begin, he will make an end.

   III. Here is the prophet's intercession for a mitigation of the
   judgement, and a reprieve for some (v. 8): While they were slaying
   them, and I was left, I fell upon my face. Observe here, 1. How
   sensible the prophet was of God's mercy to him, in that he was spared
   when so many round about him were cut off. Thousands fell on his right
   hand, and on his left, and yet the destruction did not come nigh him;
   only with his eyes did he behold the just reward of the wicked, Ps.
   xci. 7, 8. He speaks as one that narrowly escaped the destruction,
   attributing it to God's goodness, not his own deserts. Note, The best
   saints must acknowledge themselves indebted to sparing mercy that they
   are not consumed. And when desolating judgments are abroad, and
   multitudes fall by them, it ought to be accounted a great favor if we
   have our lives given us for a prey; for we might justly have perished
   with those that perished. 2. Observe how he improved this mercy; he
   looked upon it that therefore he was left that he might stand in the
   gap to turn away the wrath of God. Note, We must look upon it that for
   this reason we are spared, that we may do good in our places, may do
   good by our prayers. Ezekiel did not triumph in the slaughter he made,
   but his flesh trembled for the fear of God, (as David's, Ps. cxix.
   120); he fell on his face, and cried, not in fear for himself (he was
   one of those that were marked), but in compassion to his
   fellow-creatures. Those that sigh and cry for the sins of sinners
   cannot but sigh and cry for their miseries too; yet the day is coming
   when all this concern will be entirely swallowed up in a full
   satisfaction in this, that God is glorified; and those that now fall on
   their faces, and cry, Ah! Lord God, will lift up their heads, and sing,
   Hallelujah, Rev. xix. 1, 3. The prophet humbly expostulates with God:
   "Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel, and shall there be none
   left but the few that are marked? Shall the Israel of God be destroyed,
   utterly destroyed? When there are but a few left shall those be cut
   off, who might have been the seed of another generation? And will the
   God of Israel be himself their destroyer? Wilt thou now destroy Israel,
   who wast wont to protect and deliver Israel? Wilt thou so pour out thy
   fury upon Jerusalem as by the total destruction of the city to ruin the
   whole country too? Surely thou wilt not!" Note, Though we acknowledge
   that God is righteous, yet we have leave to plead with him concerning
   his judgments, Jer. xii. 1.

   IV. Here is God's denial of the prophet's request for a mitigation of
   the judgement and his justification of himself in that denial, v. 9,
   10. 1. Nothing could be said in extenuation of this sin. God was
   willing to show mercy as the prophet could desire; he always is so. But
   here the case will not admit of it; it is such that mercy cannot be
   granted without wrong to justice; and it is not fit that one attribute
   of God should be glorified at the expense of another. Is it any
   pleasure to the Almighty that he should destroy, especially that he
   should destroy Israel? By no means. But the truth is their crimes are
   so flagrant that the reprieve of the sinners would be a connivance at
   the sin: "The iniquity of the house of Judah and Israel is exceedingly
   great; there is no suffering them to go on at this rate. The land is
   filled with the innocent blood, and, when the city courts are appealed
   to for the defence of injured innocency, the remedy is as bad as the
   disease, for the city is full of perverseness, or wrestling of
   judgement; and that which they support themselves with in this iniquity
   is the same atheistical profane principle with which they flattered
   themselves in their idolatry, ch. viii. 12. The Lord has forsaken the
   earth, and left it to us to do what we will in it; he will not
   intermeddle in the affairs of it; and, whatever wrong we do, he sees
   not; he either knows it not, or will not take cognizance of it." Now
   how can those expect benefit by the mercy of God who thus bid defiance
   to his justice? No; nothing can be offered by an advocate in excuse of
   the crimes while the criminal puts in such a plea as this in his own
   vindication; and therefore. 2. Nothing can be done to mitigate the
   sentence (v. 10): "Whatever thou thinkest of it, as for me, my eye
   shall not spare, neither will I have pity; I have borne with them as
   long as it was fit that such impudent sinners should be borne with; and
   therefore now I will recompense their way on their head." Note, Sinners
   sink and perish under the weight of their own sins; it is their own
   way, which they deliberately chose rather than the way of God, and
   which they obstinately persisted in, in contempt of the word of God,
   that is recompensed on them. Great iniquities justify God in great
   severities; nay, he is ready to justify himself, as he does here to the
   prophet, for he will be clear when he judges.

   V. Here is a return made of the writ of protection which was issued out
   for the securing of those that mourned in Zion (v. 11): The man clothed
   with linen reported the matter, gave an account of what he had done in
   pursuance of his commission; he had found out all that mourned in
   secret for the sins of the land, and cried out against them by a public
   testimony, and had marked them all in the forehead. Lord, I have done
   as thou hast commanded me. We do not find that those who were
   commissioned to destroy reported what destruction they had made, but he
   who was appointed to protect reported his matter; for it would be more
   pleasing both to God and to the prophet to hear of those that were
   saved than of those that perished. Or this report was made now because
   the thing was finished, whereas the destroying work would be a work of
   time, and when it was brought to an end then the report should be made.
   See how faithful Christ is to the trust reposed in him. Is he commanded
   to secure eternal life to the chosen remnant? He has done as was
   commanded him. Of all that thou hast given me I have lost none.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. X.

   The prophet had observed to us (ch. viii. 4) that when he was in vision
   at Jerusalem he saw the same appearance of the glory of God there that
   he had seen by the river Chebar; now, in this chapter, he gives us some
   account of the appearance there, as far as was requisite for the
   clearing up of two further indications of the approaching destruction
   of Jerusalem, which God here gave the prophet:--I. The scattering of
   the coals of fire upon the city, which were taken from between the
   cherubim, ver. 1-7. II. The removal of the glory of God from the
   temple, and its being upon the wing to be gone, ver. 8-22. When God
   goes out from a people all judgments break in upon them.

The Vision of the Cherubim. (b. c. 593.)

   1 Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head
   of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone,
   as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.   2 And he spake unto
   the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even
   under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between
   the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my
   sight.   3 Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when
   the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.   4 Then the
   glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold
   of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court
   was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory.   5 And the sound of
   the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of
   the Almighty God when he speaketh.   6 And it came to pass, that when
   he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from
   between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and
   stood beside the wheels.   7 And one cherub stretched forth his hand
   from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the
   cherubims, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was
   clothed with linen: who took it, and went out.

   To inspire us with a holy awe and dread of God, and to fill us with his
   fear, we may observe, in this part of the vision which the prophet had,

   I. The glorious appearance of his majesty. Something of the invisible
   world is here in the visible, some faint representations of its
   brightness and beauty, some shadows, but such as are no more to be
   compared with the truth and substance than a picture with the life; yet
   here is enough to oblige us all to the utmost reverence in our thoughts
   of God and approaches to him, if we will but admit the impressions this
   discovery of him will make. 1. He is here in the firmament above the
   head of the cherubim, v. 1. He manifests his glory in the upper world,
   where purity and brightness are both in perfection; and the vast
   expanse of the firmament aims to speak the God that dwells there
   infinite. It is the firmament of his power and of his prospect too; for
   thence he beholds all the children of men. The divine nature infinitely
   transcends the angelic nature, and God is above the head of the
   cherubim, in respect not only of his dignity above them, but of his
   dominion over them. Cherubim have great power, and wisdom, and
   influence, but they are all subject to God and Christ. 2. He is here
   upon the throne, or that which had the appearance of the likeness of a
   throne (for God's glory and government infinitely transcend all the
   brightest ideas our minds can either form or receive concerning them);
   and it was as it were a sapphire-stone, pure and sparkling; such a
   throne has God prepared in the heavens, far exceeding the thrones of
   any earthly potentates. 3. He is here attended with a glorious train of
   holy angels. When God came into his temple the cherubim stood on the
   right side of the house (v. 3), as the prince's life-guard, attending
   the gate of his palace. Christ has angels at command. The orders given
   to all the angels of God are, to worship him. Some observe that they
   stood on the right side of the house, that is, the south side, because
   on the north side the image of jealousy was, and other instances of
   idolatry, from which they would place themselves at as great a distance
   as might be. 4. The appearance of his glory is veiled with a cloud, and
   yet out of that cloud darts forth a dazzling lustre; in the house and
   inner court there was a cloud and darkness, which filled them, and yet
   either the outer court, or the same court after some time, was full of
   the brightness of the Lord's glory, v. 3, 4. There was a darting forth
   of light and brightness; but if any over curious eye pried into it, it
   would find itself lost in a cloud. His righteousness is conspicuous as
   the great mountains, and the brightness of it fills the court; but his
   judgments are a great deep, which we cannot fathom, a cloud which we
   cannot see through. The brightness discovers enough to awe and direct
   our consciences, but the cloud forbids us to expect the gratifying of
   our curiosity; for we cannot order our speech by reasons of darkness.
   Thus (Hab. iii. 4) he had rays coming out of his hand, and yet there
   was the hiding of his power. Nothing is more clear than that God is,
   nothing more dark than what he is. God covers himself with light, and
   yet, as to us, makes darkness his pavilion. God took possession of the
   tabernacle and the temple in a cloud, which was always the symbol of
   his presence. In the temple above there will be no cloud, but we shall
   see face to face. 5. The cherubim, made a dreadful sound with their
   wings, v. 5. The vibration of them, as of the strings of musical
   instruments, made a curious melody; bees, and other winged insects,
   make a noise with their wings. Probably this intimated their preparing
   to remove, by stretching forth and lifting up their wings, which made
   this noise as it were to give warning of it. This noise is said to be
   as the voice of the almighty God when he speaks, as the thunder, which
   is called the voice of the Lord (Ps. xxix. 3), or as the voice of the
   Lord when he spoke to Israel on Mount Sinai; and therefore he then gave
   the law with abundance of terror, to signify with what terror he would
   reckon for the violation of it, which he was now about to do. This
   noise of their wings was heard even to the outer court, the court of
   the people; for the Lord's voice, in his judgments, cries in the city,
   which those may hear that do not, as Ezekiel, see the visions of them.

   II. The terrible directions of his wrath. This vision has a further
   tendency than merely to set forth the divine grandeur; further orders
   are to be given for the destruction of Jerusalem. The greatest
   devastations are made by fire and sword. For a general slaughter of the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem orders were given in the foregoing chapter;
   now here we have a command to lay the city in ashes, by scattering
   coals of fire upon it, which in the vision were fetched from between
   the cherubim.

   1. For the issuing out of orders to do this the glory of the Lord was
   lifted up from the cherub (as in the chapter before for the giving of
   orders there, v. 3) and stood upon the threshold of the house, in
   imitation of the courts of judgement, which they kept in the gates of
   their cities. The people would not hear the oracles which God had
   delivered to them from his holy temple, and therefore they shall thence
   be made to hear their doom.

   2. The man clothed in linen who had marked those that were to be
   preserved is to be employed in this service; for the same Jesus that is
   the protector and Saviour of those that believe, having all judgement
   committed to him, that of condemnation as well as that of absolution,
   will come in a flaming fire to take vengeance on those that obey not
   his gospel. He that sits on the throne calls to the man clothed in
   linen to go in between the wheels, and fill his hand with coals of fire
   from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. This
   intimates, (1.) That the burning of the city and temple by the
   Chaldeans was a consumption determined, and that therein they executed
   God's counsel, did what he designed before should be done. (2.) That
   the fire of divine wrath, which kindles judgement upon a people, is
   just and holy, for it is fire fetched from between the cherubim. The
   fire on God's altar, where atonement was made, had been slighted, to
   avenge which fire is here fetched from heaven, like that by which Nadab
   and Abihu were killed for offering strange fire. If a city, or town, or
   house, be burnt, whether by design or accident, if we trace it in its
   original, we shall find that the coals which kindled the fire came from
   between the wheels; for there is not any evil of that kind in the city,
   but the Lord has done it. (3.) That Jesus Christ acts by commission
   from the Father, for from him he receives authority to execute
   judgement, because he is the Son of man. Christ came to send fire on
   the earth (Luke xii. 49) and in the great day will speak this world
   into ashes. By fire from his hand, the earth, and all the works that
   are therein, will be burnt up.

   3. This man clothed with linen readily attended to this service;
   though, being clothed with linen, he was very unfit to go among the
   burning coals, yet, being called, he said, Lo, I come; this commandment
   he had received of his Father, and he complied with it; the prophet saw
   him go in, v. 2. He went in, and stood beside the wheels, expecting to
   be furnished there with the coals he was to scatter; for what Christ
   was to give he first received, whether for mercy or judgement. He was
   directed to take fire, but he staid till he had it given him, to show
   how slow he is to execute judgement, and how long-suffering to us-ward.

   4. One of the cherubim reached him a handful of fire from the midst of
   the living creatures. The prophet, when he first saw this vision,
   observed that there were burning coals of fire, and lamps, that went up
   and down among the living creatures (ch. i. 13); thence this fire was
   taken, v. 7. The spirit of burning, the refiner's fire, by which Christ
   purifies his church, is of a divine original. It is by a celestial
   fire, fire from between the cherubim, that wonders are wrought. The
   cherubim put it into his hand; for the angels are ready to be employed
   by the Lord Jesus and to serve all his purposes.

   5. When he had taken the fire he went out, no doubt to scatter it up
   and down upon the city, as he was directed. And who can abide the day
   of his coming? Who can stand before him when he goes out in his anger?

The Vision of the Divine Glory. (b. c. 593.)

   8 And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under
   their wings.   9 And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the
   cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another
   cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl
   stone.   10 And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness,
   as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.   11 When they went,
   they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to
   the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as
   they went.   12 And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands,
   and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even
   the wheels that they four had.   13 As for the wheels, it was cried
   unto them in my hearing, O wheel.   14 And every one had four faces:
   the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the
   face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the
   face of an eagle.   15 And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the
   living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar.   16 And when the
   cherubims went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted
   up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned
   not from beside them.   17 When they stood, these stood; and when they
   were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of the
   living creature was in them.   18 Then the glory of the Lord departed
   from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims.   19
   And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth
   in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and
   every one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house; and
   the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.   20 This is the
   living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of
   Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.   21 Every one had
   four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the
   hands of a man was under their wings.   22 And the likeness of their
   faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their
   appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward.

   We have here a further account of the vision of God's glory which
   Ezekiel saw, here intended to introduce that direful omen of the
   departure of that glory from them, which would open the door for ruin
   to break in.

   I. Ezekiel sees the glory of God shining in the sanctuary, as he had
   seen it by the river of Chebar, and gives an account of it, that those
   who had by their wickedness provoked God to depart from them might know
   what they had lost and might lament after the Lord, groaning out their
   Ichabod, Where is the glory? Ezekiel here sees the operations of divine
   Providence in the government of the lower world, and the affairs of it,
   represented by the four wheels; and the perfections of the holy angels,
   the inhabitants of the upper world, and their ministrations,
   represented by the four living creatures, every one of which had four
   faces. The agency of the angels in directing the affairs of this world
   is represented by the close communication that was between the living
   creatures and the wheels, the wheels being guided by them in all their
   motions, as the chariot is by him that drives it. But the same Spirit
   being both in the living creatures and in the wheels denoted the
   infinite wisdom which serves its own purposes by the ministration of
   angels and all the occurrences of this lower world. So that this vision
   gives out faith a view of that throne which the Lord has prepared in
   the heavens, and that kingdom of which rules over all, Ps. ciii. 19.
   The prophet observes that this was the same vision with that he saw by
   the river of Chebar (v. 15, 22), and yet in one thing there seems to be
   a material difference, that that which was there was the face of an ox,
   and was on the left side (ch. i. 10), is here the face of a cherub, and
   is the first face (v. 14), whence some have concluded that the peculiar
   face of a cherub was that of an ox, which the Israelites had an eye to
   when they made the golden calf. I rather think that in this latter
   vision the first face was the proper appearance or figure of a cherub,
   which Ezekiel knew very well, being a priest, by what he had seen in
   the temple of the Lord (1 Kings vi. 29), but which we now have no
   certainty of at all; and by this Ezekiel knew assuredly, whereas before
   he only conjectured it, that they were all cherubim, though putting on
   different faces, v. 20. And this first appearing in the proper figure
   of a cherub, and yet it being proper to retain the number of four, that
   of the ox is left out and dropped, because the face of the cherub had
   been most abused by the worship of an ox. As sometimes when God
   appeared to deliver his people, so now when he appeared to depart from
   them, he rode on a cherub, and did fly. Now observe here, 1. That this
   world is subject to turns, and changes, and various revolutions. The
   course of affairs in it is represented by wheels (v. 9); sometimes one
   spoke is uppermost and sometimes another; they are still ebbing and
   flowing like the sea, waxing and waning like the moon, 1 Sam. ii. 4,
   &c. Nay, their appearance is as if there were a wheel in the midst of a
   wheel (v. 10), which intimates the mutual references of providence to
   each other, their dependences on each other, and the joint tendency of
   all to one common end, while their motions as to us are intricate, and
   perplexed, and seemingly contrary. 2. That there is an admirable
   harmony and uniformity in the various occurrences of providence (v.
   13): As for the wheels, though they moved several ways, yet it was
   cried to them, O wheel! they were all as one, being guided by one
   Spirit to one end; for God works all according to the counsel of his
   own will, which is one, for his own glory, which is one. And this makes
   the disposal of Providence truly admirable, and to be looked upon with
   wonder. As the works of his creation, considered separately, were good,
   but all together very good, so the wheels of Providence, considered by
   themselves, are wonderful, but put them together and they are very
   wonderful. O wheel! 3. That the motions of Providence are steady and
   regular, and whatever the Lord pleases that he does and is never put
   upon new counsels. The wheels turned not as they went (v. 11), and the
   living creatures went every one straight forward, v. 22. Whatever
   difficulties lay in their way, they were sure to get over them, and
   were never obliged to stand still, turn aside, or go back. So perfectly
   known to God are all his works that he never put upon to new counsels.
   4. That God makes more use of the ministration of angels in the
   government of this lower world than we are aware of: The four wheels
   were by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by
   another cherub, v. 9. What has been imagined by some concerning the
   spheres above, that every orb has its intelligence to guide it, is here
   intimated concerning the wheels below, that every wheel has its cherub
   to guide it. We think it a satisfaction to us if under the wise God
   there are wise men employed in managing the affairs of the kingdoms and
   churches; whether there be so or no, it appears by this that there are
   wise angels employed, a cherub to every wheel. 5. That all the motions
   of Providence and all the ministrations of angels are under the
   government of the great God. They are all full of eyes, those eyes of
   the Lord which run to and fro through the earth and which the angels
   have always an eye to, v. 12. The living creatures and the wheels
   concur in their motions and rests (v. 17); for the Spirit of life, as
   it may be read, or the Spirit of the living creatures, is in the
   wheels. The Spirit of God directs all the creatures, both upper and
   lower, so as to make them serve the divine purpose. Events are not
   determined by the wheel of fortune, which is blind, but by the wheels
   of Providence, which are full of eyes.

   II. Ezekiel sees the glory of God removing out of the sanctuary, the
   place where God's honour had long dwelt, and this sight is as sad as
   the other was grateful. It was pleasant to see that God had not
   forsaken the earth (as the idolaters suggested, ch. ix. 9), but sad to
   see that he was forsaking his sanctuary. The glory of the Lord stood
   over the threshold, having thence given the necessary orders for the
   destruction of the city, and it stood over the cherubim, not those in
   the most holy place, but those that Ezekiel now saw in vision, v. 18.
   It ascended that stately chariot, as the judge, when he comes off the
   bench, goes into his coach and is gone. And immediately the cherubim
   lifted up their wings (v. 19), as they were directed, and they mounted
   up from the earth, as birds upon the wing; and, when they went out, the
   wheels of this chariot were not drawn, but went by instinct, beside
   them, by which it appeared that the Spirit of the living creatures was
   in the wheels. Thus, when God is leaving a people in displeasure,
   angels above, and all events here below, shall concur to further his
   departure. But observe here, In the courts of the temple where the
   people of Israel had dishonoured their God, had cast off his yoke and
   withdrawn the shoulder from it, blessed angels appear very ready to
   serve him, to draw in his chariot, and to mount upwards with it. God
   has shown the prophet how the will of God was disobeyed by men on earth
   (ch. viii.); here he shows him how readily it is obeyed by angels and
   inferior creatures; and it is a comfort to us, when we grieve for the
   wickedness of the wicked, to think how his angels do his commandments,
   hearkening to the voice of his word, Ps. ciii. 20. Let us now, 1. Take
   a view of this chariot in which the glory of the God of Israel rides
   triumphantly. He that is the God of Israel is the God of heaven and
   earth, and has the command of all the powers of both. Let the faithful
   Israelites comfort themselves with this, that he who is their God is
   above the cherubim; their Redeemer is so (1 Pet. iii. 22) and has the
   sole and sovereign disposal of all events; the living creatures and the
   wheels agree to serve him, so that he is head over all things to the
   church. The rabbin call this vision that Ezekiel had Mercabah--the
   vision of the chariot; and thence they call the more abstruse part of
   divinity, which treats concerning God and spirits, Opus currus--The
   work of the chariot, as they do the other part, that is more plain and
   familiar, Opus bereshith--The work of the creation.--2. Let us attend
   the motions of this chariot: The cherubim, and the glory of God above
   them, stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, v. 19.
   But observe with how many stops and pauses God departs, as loth to go,
   as if to see if there be any that will intercede with him to return.
   None of the priests in the inner court, between the temple and the
   altar, would court his stay; therefore he leaves their court, and
   stands at the east gate, which led into the court of the people, to see
   if any of them would yet at length stand in the gap. Note, God removes
   by degrees from a provoking people; and, when he is ready to depart in
   displeasure, would return to them in mercy if they were but a repenting
   praying people.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XI.

   This chapter concludes the vision which Ezekiel saw, and this part of
   it furnished him with two messages:--I. A message of wrath against
   those who continued still at Jerusalem, and were there in the height of
   presumption, thinking they should never fall, ver. 1-13. II. A message
   of comfort to those who were carried captives into Babylon and were
   there in the depth of despondency, thinking they should never rise.
   And, as the former are assured that God has judgments in store for them
   notwithstanding their present security, so the later are assured that
   God has mercy in store for them notwithstanding their present distress,
   ver. 14-21. And so the glory of God removes further, ver. 22, 23. The
   vision disappears (ver. 24), and Ezekiel faithfully gives his hearers
   an account of it, ver. 25.

Message of Wrath to Jerusalem; Presumption of the Princes; Awakening
Predictions. (b. c. 593.)

   1 Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate
   of the Lord's house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of
   the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of
   Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.   2 Then
   said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief,
   and give wicked counsel in this city:   3 Which say, It is not near;
   let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.   4
   Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.   5 And the
   Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith
   the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things
   that come into your mind, every one of them.   6 Ye have multiplied
   your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with
   the slain.   7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Your slain whom ye
   have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the
   caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.   8 Ye have
   feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord
   God.   9 And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you
   into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.   10
   Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel;
   and ye shall know that I am the Lord.   11 This city shall not be your
   caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will
   judge you in the border of Israel:   12 And ye shall know that I am the
   Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my
   judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are
   round about you.   13 And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that
   Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and
   cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full
   end of the remnant of Israel?

   We have here,

   I. The great security of the prince's of Jerusalem, notwithstanding the
   judgments of God that were upon them, The prophet was brought, in
   vision, to the gate of the temple where these princes sat in council
   upon the present arduous affairs of the city: The Spirit lifted me up,
   and brought me to the east gate of the Lord's house, and behold
   twenty-five men were there. See how obsequious the prophet was to the
   Spirit's orders and how observant of all the discoveries that were made
   to him. It should seem, these twenty-five men were not the same with
   those twenty-five whom we saw at the door of the temple, worshipping
   towards the east (ch. viii. 16); those seem to have been priests or
   Levites, for they were between the porch and the altar, but these were
   princes sitting in the gate of the Lord's house, to try causes (Jer.
   xxvi. 10), and they are here charged, not with corruptions in worship,
   but with mal-administration in the government; two of them are named,
   because they were the most active leading men, and perhaps because the
   prophet knew them, though he had been some years absent--Pelatiah and
   Jaazaniah, not that mentioned ch. viii. 11, for he was the son of
   Shaphan, this is the son of Azur. Some tell us that Jerusalem was
   divided into twenty-four wards, and that these were the governors or
   aldermen of those wards, with their mayor or president. Now observe, 1.
   The general character which God gives of these men to the prophet (v.
   2): "These are the men that devise mischief; under pretence of
   concerting measures for the public safety they harden people in their
   sins, and take off their fear of God's judgments which they are
   threatened with by the prophets; they gave wicked counsel in this city,
   counselling them to restrain and silence the prophets, to rebel against
   the king of Babylon, and to resolve upon holding the city out to the
   last extremity." Note, It is bad with a people when the things that
   belong to their peace are hidden from the eyes of those who are
   entrusted with their counsels. And, when mischief is done, God knows at
   whose door to lay it, and, in the day of discovery and recompence, will
   be sure to lay it at the right door, and will say, These are the men
   that devised it, though they are great men, and pass for wise men, and
   must not now be contradicted or controlled. 2. The particular charge
   exhibited against them in proof of this character. They are indicted
   for words spoken at their council-board, which he that stands in the
   congregation of the mighty would take cognizance of (v. 3); they said
   to this effect, "It is not near; the destruction of our city, that has
   been so often threatened by the prophets, is not near, not so near as
   they talk of." They are conscious to themselves of such an enmity to
   reformation that they cannot but conclude it will come at last; but
   they have such an opinion of God's patience (though they have long
   abused it) that they are willing to hope it will not come this great
   while. Note, Where Satan cannot persuade men to look upon the judgment
   to come as a thing doubtful and uncertain, yet he gains his point by
   persuading them to look upon it as a thing at a distance, so that it
   loses its force: if it be sure, yet it is not near; whereas, in truth,
   the Judge stands before the door. Now, if the destruction is not near,
   they conclude, Let us build houses; let us count upon a continuance,
   for this city is the caldron and we are the flesh. This seems to be a
   proverbial expression, signifying no more than this, "We are as safe in
   this city as flesh in a boiling pot; the walls of the city shall be to
   us as walls of brass, and shall receive no more damage from the
   besiegers about it than the cauldron does from the fire under it. Those
   that think to force us out of our city into captivity shall find it to
   be as much at their peril as it would be to take the flesh out of a
   boiling pot with their hands." This appears to be the meaning of it, by
   the answer God gives to it (v. 9): "I will bring you out of the midst
   of the city, where you think yourselves safe, and then it will appear
   (v. 11) that this is not your caldron, neither are you the flesh."
   Perhaps it has a particular reference to the flesh of the
   peace-offerings, which it was so great an offence for the priests
   themselves to take out of the caldron while it was in seething (as we
   find 1 Sam. ii. 13, 14), and then it intimates that they were the more
   secure because Jerusalem was the holy city, and they thought themselves
   a holy people in it, not to be meddled with. Some think this was a
   banter upon Jeremiah, who in one of his first visions saw Jerusalem
   represented by a seething pot, Jer. i. 13. "Now," say they, in a way of
   jest and ridicule, "if it be a seething pot, we are as the flesh in it,
   and who dares meddle with us?" Thus they continued mocking the
   messengers of the Lord, even while they suffered for so doing; but be
   you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Those hearts are
   indeed which are made more secure by those words of God which were
   designed for warning to them.

   II. The method taken to awaken them out of their security. One would
   think that the providences of God which related to them were enough to
   startle them; but, to help them to understand and improve those, the
   word of God is sent to them to give them warning (v. 4): Therefore
   prophesy against them, and try to undeceive them; prophesy, O son of
   man! upon these dead and dry bones. Note, The greatest kindness
   ministers can do to secure sinners is to preach against them, and to
   show them their misery and danger, though they are ever so unwilling to
   see them. We then act most for them when we appear most against them.
   But the prophet, being at a loss what to say to men that were hardened
   in sin, and that bade defiance to the judgments of God, the Spirit of
   the Lord fell upon him, to make him full of power and courage, and said
   unto him, Speak. Note, When sinners are flattering themselves into
   their own ruin it is time to speak, and to tell them that they shall
   have no peace if they go on. Ministers are sometimes so bashful and
   timorous, and so much at a loss, that they must be put on to speak, and
   to speak boldly. But he that commands the prophet to speak gives him
   instructions what to say; and he must address himself to them as the
   house of Israel (v. 5), for not the princes only, but all the people,
   were concerned to know the truth of their cause, to know the worst of
   it. They are the house of Israel, and therefore the God of Israel is
   concerned, in kindness to them, to give them warning; and they are
   concerned in duty to him to take the warning. And what is it that he
   must say to them in God's name? 1. Let them know that the God of heaven
   takes notice of the vain confidences with which they support themselves
   (v. 5): "I know the things which come into your minds every one of
   them, what secret reasons you have for these resolutions, and what you
   aim at in putting so good a face upon a matter you know to be bad."
   Note, God perfectly knows not only the things that come out of our
   mouths, but the things that come into our minds, not only all we say,
   but all we think; even those thoughts that are most suddenly darted
   into our minds, and that as suddenly slip out of them again, so that we
   ourselves are scarcely aware of them, yet God knows them. He knows us
   better than we know ourselves; he understands our thoughts afar off.
   The consideration of this should oblige us to keep our hearts with all
   diligence, that no vain thoughts come into them or lodge within them.
   2. Let them know that those who advised the people to stand it out
   should be accounted before God the murderers of all who had fallen, or
   should yet fall, in Jerusalem, by the sword of the Chaldeans; and those
   slain were the only ones that should remain in the city, as the flesh
   in the caldron. "You have multiplied your slain in the city, not only
   those whom you have by the sword of justice unjustly put to death under
   colour of law, but those whom you have by your wilfulness and pride
   unwisely exposed to the sword of war, though you were told by the
   prophets that you should certainly go by the worst. Thus you, with your
   stubborn humour, have filled the streets of Jerusalem with the slain,"
   v. 6. Note, Those who are either unrighteous or imprudent in beginning
   or carrying on a war bring upon themselves a great deal of the guilt of
   blood; and those who are slain in the battles or sieges which they, by
   such a reasonable peace as the war aimed at, might have prevented, will
   be called their slain. Now these slain are the only flesh that shall be
   left in this caldron, v. 7. There shall none remain to keep possession
   of the city but those that are buried in it. There shall be no
   inhabitants of Jerusalem but the inhabitants of the graves there, no
   freemen of the city but the free among the dead. 3. Let them know that,
   how impregnable soever they thought their city to be, they should be
   forced out of it, either driven to flight or dragged into captivity: I
   will bring you forth out of the midst of it, whether you will or no, v.
   7, 9. They had provoked God to forsake the city, and thought they
   should do well enough by their own policy and strength when he was
   gone; but God will make them know that there is no peace to those that
   have left their God. If they have by their sins driven God from his
   house, he will soon by his judgments drive them from theirs; and it
   will be found that those are least safe that are most secure: "This
   city shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh; you
   shall not soak away in it as you promise yourselves, and die in your
   nest; you think yourself safe in the midst thereof, but you shall not
   be long there." 4. Let them know that when God has got them out of the
   midst of Jerusalem he will pursue them with his judgments wherever he
   finds them, the judgments which they thought to shelter themselves from
   by keeping close in Jerusalem. They feared the sword if they should go
   out to the Chaldeans, and therefore would abide in their caldron, but,
   says God, I will bring a sword upon you (v. 8) and you shall fall by
   the sword, v. 10. Note, The fear of the wicked shall come upon him. And
   there is no fence against the judgments of God when they come with
   commission, no, not in walls of brass. They were afraid of trusting to
   the mercy of strangers. "But," says God, "I will deliver you into the
   hands of strangers, whose resentments you shall feel, since you were
   not willing to lie at their mercy." See Jer. xxxviii. 17, 18. They
   thought to escape the judgments of God, but God says that he will
   execute judgments upon them; and whereas they resolved, if they must be
   judged, that it should be in Jerusalem, God tells them (v. 10 and again
   v. 11) that he will judge them in the borders of Israel, which was
   fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar slew all the nobles of Judah at Riblah in
   the land of Hamath, on the utmost border of the land of Canaan. Note,
   Those who have taken ever so deep root in the place where they live
   cannot be sure that in that place they shall die. 5. Let them know that
   all this is the due punishment of their sin, and the revelation of the
   righteous judgment of God against them: You shall know that I am the
   Lord, v. 10 and again v. 12. Those shall be made to know by the sword
   of the Lord who would not be taught by his word what a hatred he has to
   sin, and what a fearful thing it is for impenitent sinners to fall into
   his hands. I will execute judgments, and then you shall know that I am
   the Lord, for the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes upon
   those that have not walked in his statutes. Hereby it is known that he
   made the law, because he punishes the breach of it. I will execute
   judgments among you (says God) because you have not executed my
   judgments, v. 12. Note, The executing of the judgments of God's mouth
   by us, in a uniform steady course of obedience to his law, is the only
   way to prevent the executing of the judgments of his hand upon us in
   our ruin and confusion. One way or other. God's judgments will be
   executed; the law will take place either in its precept or in its
   penalty. If we do not give honour to God by executing his judgments as
   he has commanded, he will get him honour upon us by executing his
   judgments as he has threatened; and thus we shall know that he is the
   Lord, the sovereign Lord of all, that will not be mocked. And observe,
   When they cast off God's statutes, and walked not in them, they did
   after the manners of the heathen that were round about them, and
   introduced into their worship all their impure, ridiculous, and
   barbarous usages. When men leave the settled rule of divine
   institutions, they wander endlessly. Justly therefore was this made the
   reason why they should keep God's ordinances, that they might not
   commit the abominable customs of the heathen, Lev. xviii. 30.

   III. This awakening word is here immediately followed by an awakening
   providence, v. 13. Here we may observe, 1. With what power Ezekiel
   prophesied, or, rather, what a divine power went along with it: It came
   to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died; he
   was mentioned (v. 1) as a principal man among the twenty-five princes
   that made all the mischief in Jerusalem. It should seem, this was done
   in vision now, as the slaying of the ancient men (ch. ix. 6) upon
   occasion of which Ezekiel prayed (v. 8) as he did here; but it was an
   assurance that when this prophecy should be published it should be done
   in fact. The death of Pelatiah was an earnest of the complete
   accomplishment of this prophecy. Note, God is pleased often-times to
   single out some sinners, and to make them monuments of his justice, for
   warning to others of what is coming; and some that thought themselves
   very safe and snatched away suddenly, and drop down dead in an instant,
   as Ananias and Sapphira at Peter's feet when he prophesied. 2. With
   what pity Ezekiel prayed. Though the sudden death of Pelatiah was a
   confirmation of Ezekiel's prophecy, and really an honour to him, yet he
   was in deep concern about it, and laid it to heart as if he had been
   his relation or friend: He fell on his face and cried with a loud
   voice, as one in earnest, "Ah! Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of
   the remnant of Israel? Many are swept away by the judgments we have
   been under; and shall the remnant which have escaped the sword die thus
   by the immediate hand of heaven? Then thou wilt indeed make a full
   end." Perhaps it was Ezekiel's infirmity to bewail the death of this
   wicked prince thus, as it was Samuel's to mourn so long for Saul; but
   thus he showed how far he was from desiring the woeful day he foretold.
   David lamented the sickness of those that hated and persecuted him. And
   we ought to be much affected with the sudden death of others, yea,
   though they are wicked.

Judgments Predicted; Sufferings and Hopes of Pious Captives. (b. c. 593.)

   14 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   15 Son of man,
   thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the
   house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem
   have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is this land given in
   possession.   16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I
   have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered
   them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary
   in the countries where they shall come.   17 Therefore say, Thus saith
   the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you
   out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you
   the land of Israel.   18 And they shall come thither, and they shall
   take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations
   thereof from thence.   19 And I will give them one heart, and I will
   put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of
   their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh:   20 That they may
   walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they
   shall be my people, and I will be their God.   21 But as for them whose
   heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their
   abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith
   the Lord God.

   Prophecy was designed to exalt every valley as well as to bring low
   every mountain and hill (Isa. xl. 4), and prophets were to speak not
   only conviction to the presumptuous and secure, but comfort to the
   despised and desponding that trembled at God's word. The prophet
   Ezekiel, having in the former part of this chapter received
   instructions for the awakening of those that were at ease in Zion, is
   in these verses furnished with comfortable words for those that mourned
   in Babylon and by the rivers there sat weeping when they remembered
   Zion. Observe,

   I. How the pious captives were trampled upon and insulted over by those
   who continued in Jerusalem, v. 15. God tells the prophet what the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem said of him and the rest of them that were
   already carried away to Babylon. God had owned them as good figs, and
   declared it was for their good that he had sent them into Babylon; but
   the inhabitants of Jerusalem abandoned them, supposing those that were
   really the best saints to be the greatest sinners of all men that dwelt
   in Jerusalem. Observe, 1. How they are described: They are thy brethren
   (says God to the prophet), whom thou hast a concern and affection for;
   they are the men of thy kindred (the men of thy redemption, so the word
   is), thy next of kin, to whom the right of redeeming the alienated
   possession belongs, but who are so far from being able to do it that
   they have themselves gone into captivity. They are the whole house of
   Israel; God so accounts of them because they only have retained their
   integrity, and are bettered by their captivity. They were not only of
   the same family and nation with Ezekiel, but of the same spirit; they
   were his hearers, and he had communion with them in holy ordinances;
   and perhaps upon that account they are called his brethren and the men
   of his kindred. 2. How they were disowned by the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem; they said of them, Get you far from the Lord. Those that
   were at ease and proud themselves scorned their brethren that were
   humbled and under humbling providences. (1.) They cut them off from
   being members of their church. Because they had separated themselves
   from their rulers and in compliance with the will of God had
   surrendered themselves to the king of Babylon, they excommunicated
   them, and said, "Get you far from the Lord; we will have nothing to do
   with you." Those that were superstitious were very willing to shake off
   those that were conscientious, and were severe in their censures of
   them and sentences against them, as if they were forsaken and forgotten
   of the Lord and were cut off from the communion of the faithful. (2.)
   They cut them off from being members of the commonwealth too, as if
   they had no longer any part or lot in the matter: "Unto us is this land
   given in possession, and you have forfeited your estates by
   surrendering to the king of Babylon, and we have thereby become
   entitled to them." God takes notice of, and is much displeased with,
   the contempt which those that are in prosperity put upon their brethren
   that are in affliction.

   II. The gracious promises which God made to them in consideration of
   the insolent conduct of their brethren towards them. Those that hated
   them and cast them out said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall
   appear to their joy, Isa. lxvi. 5. God owns that his hand had gone out
   against them, which had given occasion to their brethren to triumph
   over them (v. 16): "It is true I have cast them far off among the
   heathen and scattered them among the countries; they look as if they
   were an abandoned people, and so mingled with the nations that they
   will be lost among them; but I have mercy in store for them." Note, God
   takes occasion from the contempts which are put upon his people to
   speak comfort to them, as David hoped God would reward him good for
   Shimei's cursing. His time to support his people's hopes is when their
   enemies are endeavouring to drive them to despair. Now God promises,

   1. That he will make up to them the want of the temple and the
   privileges of it (v. 16): I will be to them as a little sanctuary, in
   the countries where they shall come. Those at Jerusalem have the
   temple, but without God; those in Babylon have God, though without the
   temple. (1.) God will be a sanctuary to them; that is, a place of
   refuge; to him they shall flee, and in him they shall be safe, as he
   was that took hold on the horns of the altar. Or, rather, they shall
   have such communion with God in the land of their captivity as it was
   thought could be had nowhere but in the temple. They shall there see
   God's power and his glory, as they used to see them in the sanctuary;
   they shall have the tokens of God's presence with them, and his grace
   in their hearts shall sanctify their prayers and praises, as well as
   ever the altar sanctified the gift, so that they shall please the Lord
   better than an ox or bullock. (2.) He will be a little sanctuary, not
   seen or observed by their enemies, who looked with an evil and an
   envious eye upon that house at Jerusalem which was high and great, 1
   Kings ix. 8. They were but few and mean, and a little sanctuary was
   fittest for them. God regards the low estate of his people, and suits
   his favours to their circumstances. Observe the condescensions of
   divine grace. The great God will be to his people a little sanctuary.
   Note, Those that are deprived of the benefit of public ordinances, if
   it be not their own fault, may have the want of them abundantly made up
   in the immediate communications of divine grace and comforts.

   2. That God would in due time put an end to their afflictions, bring
   them out of the land of their captivity, and settle them again, them or
   their children, in their own land (v. 17): "I will gather even you that
   are thus dispersed, thus despised, and given over for lost by your own
   countrymen; I will gather you from the people, distinguish you from
   those with whom you are mingled, deliver you from those by whom you are
   held captives, and assemble you in a body out of the countries where
   you have been scattered; you shall not come back one by one, but all
   together, which will make your return more honourable, safe, and
   comfortable; and then I will give you the land of Israel, which now
   your brethren look upon you as for ever shut out from." Note, It is
   well for us that men's severe censures cannot cut us off from God's
   gracious promises. There are many that will be found to have a place in
   the holy land whom uncharitable men, by their monopolies of it to
   themselves, had secluded from it. I will give you the land of Israel,
   give it to you again by a new grant, and they shall come thither. If
   there be any thing in the change of the person from you to them, it may
   signify the posterity of those to whom the promise is made. "You shall
   have the title as the patriarchs had, and those that come after shall
   have the possession."

   3. That God by his grace would part between them and their sins, v. 18.
   Their captivity shall effectually cure them of their idolatry: When
   they come thither to their own land again they shall take away all the
   detestable things thereof. Their idols, that had been their delectable
   things, should now be looked upon with detestation, not only the idols
   of Babylon, where they were captives, but the idols of Canaan, where
   they were natives; they should not only not worship them as they had
   done, but they should not suffer any monuments of them to remain: They
   shall take all the abominations thereof thence. Note, Then it is in
   mercy that we return to a prosperous estate, when we return not to the
   sins and follies of that state. What have I to do any more with idols?

   4. That God would powerfully dispose them to their duty; they shall not
   only cease to do evil, but they shall learn to do well, because there
   shall be not only an end of their troubles, but a return to their
   peace.

   (1.) God will plant good principles in them; he will make the tree
   good, v. 19. This is a gospel promise, and is made good to all those
   whom God designs for the heavenly Canaan; for God prepares all for
   heaven whom he has prepared heaven for. It is promised, [1.] That God
   will give them one heart, a heart entire for the true God and not
   divided as it had been among many gods, a heart firmly fixed and
   resolved for God and not wavering, steady and uniform, and not
   inconstant with itself. One heart is a sincere and upright heart, its
   intentions of a piece with its professions. [2.] That he will put a new
   spirit within them, a temper of mind agreeable to the new circumstances
   into which God in his providence would bring them. All that are
   sanctified have a new spirit, quite different from what it was; they
   act from new principles, walk by new rules, and aim at new ends. A new
   name, or a new face, will not serve without a new spirit. If any man be
   in Christ, he is a new creature. [3.] That he will take away the stony
   heart out of their flesh, out of their corrupt nature. Their hearts
   shall no longer be, as they have been, dead and dry, and hard and
   heavy, as a stone, no longer incapable of bearing good fruit, so that
   the good seed is lost upon it, as it was on the stony ground. [4.] That
   he will give them a heart of flesh, not dead or proud flesh, but living
   flesh; he will make their hearts sensible of spiritual pains and
   spiritual pleasures, will make them tender, and apt to receive
   impressions. This is God's work, it is his gift, his gift by promise;
   and a wonderful and happy change it is that is wrought by it, from
   death to life. This is promised to those whom God would bring back to
   their own land; for then such a change of the condition is for the
   better indeed when it is accompanied with such a change of the heart;
   and such a change must be wrought in all those that shall be brought to
   the better country, that is, the heavenly.

   (2.) Their practices shall be consonant to those principles: I will
   give them a new spirit, not that they may be able to discourse well of
   religion and to dispute for it, but that they may walk in my statues in
   their whole conversation and keep my ordinances in all acts of
   religious worship, v. 20. These two must go together; and those to whom
   God has given a new heart and a new spirit will make conscience of
   both; and then they shall be my people and I will be their God. The
   ancient covenant, which seemed to be broken and forgotten, shall be
   renewed. By their idolatry, it should seem, they had cast God off; by
   their captivity, it should seem, God had cast them off. But when they
   were cured of their idolatry, and delivered out of their captivity, God
   and his Israel own one another again. God, by his good work in them,
   will make them his people; and then, by the tokens of his good-will
   towards them, he will show that he is their God.

   III. Here is a threatening of wrath against those who hated to be
   reformed. As, when judgments are threatened, the righteous are
   distinguished so as not to share in the evil of those judgments, so,
   when favours are promised, the wicked are distinguished so as not to
   share in the comfort of those favours; they have no part nor lot in the
   matter, v. 21. But, as for those that have no grace, what have they to
   do with peace? Observe, 1. Their description. Their heart walks after
   the heart of their detestable things; they have as great a minds to
   worship devils as devils have to be worshipped. Or, in opposition to
   the new heart which God gives his people, which is a heart after his
   own heart, they have a heart after the heart of their idols; in their
   temper and practice they conformed to the characters and accounts given
   them of their idols, and the ideas they had of them, and of them they
   learned lewdness and cruelty. Here lies the root of all their
   wickedness, the corruption of the heart; as the root of their
   reformation is laid in the renovation of the heart. The heart has its
   walks, and according as those are the man is. 2. Their doom. It carries
   both justice and terror in it: I will recompense their way upon their
   own heads; I will deal with them as they deserve. There needs no more
   than this to speak God righteous, that he does but render to men
   according to their deserts: and yet such are the deserts of sin that
   there needs no more than this to speak the sinner miserable.

The Visions of the Divine Glory. (b. c. 593.)

   22 Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside
   them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.   23 And
   the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood
   upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.   24
   Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the
   Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision
   that I had seen went up from me.   25 Then I spake unto them of the
   captivity all the things that the Lord had shewed me.

   Here is, 1. The departure of God's presence from the city and temple.
   When the message was committed to the prophet, and he was fully
   apprized of it, fully instructed how to separate between the precious
   and the vile, then the cherubim lifted up their wings and the wheels
   beside them (v. 22) as before, ch. x. 19. Angels, when they have done
   their errands in this lower world, are upon the wing to be gone, for
   they lose no time. We left the glory of the Lord last at the east gate
   of the temple (ch. x. 19), which is here said to be in the midst of the
   city. Now here we are told that, finding and wondering that there was
   none to intercede, none to uphold, none to invite its return, it
   removed next to the mountain which is on the east side of the city (v.
   23); that was the mount of Olives. On this mountain they had set up
   their idols, to confront God in his temple, when he dwelt there (1
   Kings xi. 7), and thence it was called the mount of corruption (2 Kings
   xxiii. 13); therefore there God does as it were set up his standard,
   his tribunal, as it were to confront those who thought to keep
   possession of the temple for themselves now that God had left it. From
   that mountain there was a full prospect of the city; thither God
   removed, to make good what he had said (Deut. xxxii. 20), I will hide
   my face from them, I will see what their end shall be. It was from this
   mountain that Christ beheld the city and wept over it, in the foresight
   of its last destruction by the Romans. The glory of the Lord removed
   thither, to be as it were yet within call, and ready to return if now
   at length, in this their day, they would have understood the things
   that belonged to their peace. Loth to depart bids oft farewell. God, by
   going away thus slowly, thus gradually, intimated that he left them
   with reluctance, and would not have gone if they had not perfectly
   forced him from them. He did now, in effect, say, How shall I give thee
   up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? But, though he bear
   long, he will not bear always, but will at length forsake those, and
   cast them off for ever, who have forsaken him and cast him off. 2. The
   departure of this vision from the prophet. At length it went up from
   him (v. 24); he saw it mount upwards, till it went out of sight, which
   would be a confirmation to his faith that it was a heavenly vision,
   that it descended from above, for thitherward it returned. Note, The
   visions which the saints have of the glory of God will not be constant
   till they come to heaven. They have glimpses of that glory, which they
   soon lose again, visions which go up from them, tastes of divine
   pleasures, but not a continual feast. It was from the mount of Olives
   that the vision went up, typifying the ascension of Christ to heaven
   from that very mountain, when those that had seen him manifested in the
   flesh saw him no more. It was foretold (Zech. xiv. 4) that his feet
   should stand upon the mount of Olives, stand last there. 3. The
   prophet's return to those of the captivity. The same spirit that had
   carried him in a trance or ecstasy to Jerusalem brought him back to
   Chaldea; for there the bounds of his habitation are at present
   appointed, and that is the place of his service. The Spirit came to
   him, not to deliver him out of captivity, but (which was equivalent) to
   support and comfort him in his captivity. 4. The account which he gave
   to his hearers of all he had seen and heard, v. 25. He received that he
   might give, and he was faithful to him that appointed him; he delivered
   his message very honestly: he spoke all that, and that only, which God
   had shown him. He told them of the great wickedness he had seen at
   Jerusalem, and the ruin that was hastening towards that city, that they
   might not repent of their surrendering themselves to the king of
   Babylon as Jeremiah advised them, and blame themselves for it, nor envy
   those that staid behind, and laughed at them for going when they did,
   nor wish themselves there again, but be content in their captivity. Who
   would covet to be in a city so full of sin and so near to ruin? It is
   better to be in Babylon under the favour of God than in Jerusalem under
   his wrath and curse. But, though this was delivered immediately to
   those of the captivity, yet we may suppose that they sent the contents
   of it to those at Jerusalem, with whom they kept up a correspondence;
   and well would it have been for Jerusalem if she had taken the warning
   hereby given.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XII.

   Though the vision of God's glory had gone up from the prophet, yet his
   word comes to him still, and is by him sent to the people, and to the
   same purport with that which was discovered to him in the vision,
   namely, to set forth the terrible judgments that were coming upon
   Jerusalem, by which the city and temple should be entirely laid waste.
   In this chapter, I. The prophet, by removing his stuff, and quitting
   his lodgings, must be a sign to set forth Zedekiah's flight out of
   Jerusalem in the utmost confusion when the Chaldeans took the city,
   ver. 1-16. II. The prophet, by eating his meat with trembling, must be
   a sign to set forth the famine in the city during the siege, and the
   consternation that the inhabitants should be in, ver. 17-20. III. A
   message is sent from God to the people, to assure them that all these
   predictions should have their accomplishment very shortly, and not be
   deferred, as they flattered themselves they would be, ver. 21-28.

Zedekiah's Captivity Foretold. (b. c. 593.)

   1 The word of the Lord also came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, thou
   dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see,
   and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a
   rebellious house.   3 Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff
   for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove
   from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will
   consider, though they be a rebellious house.   4 Then shalt thou bring
   forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou
   shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into
   captivity.   5 Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out
   thereby.   6 In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and
   carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou
   see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of
   Israel.   7 And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff
   by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the
   wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it
   upon my shoulder in their sight.   8 And in the morning came the word
   of the Lord unto me, saying,   9 Son of man, hath not the house of
   Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?   10 Say
   thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; This burden concerneth the
   prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.
   11 Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto
   them: they shall remove and go into captivity.   12 And the prince that
   is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall
   go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he
   shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.   13 My
   net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and
   I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he
   not see it, though he shall die there.   14 And I will scatter toward
   every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I
   will draw out the sword after them.   15 And they shall know that I am
   the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse
   them in the countries.   16 But I will leave a few men of them from the
   sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare
   all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they
   shall know that I am the Lord.

   Perhaps Ezekiel reflected with so much pleasure upon the vision he had
   had of the glory of God that often, since it went up from him, he was
   wishing it might come down to him again, and, having seen it once and a
   second time, he was willing to hope he might be a third time so
   favoured; but we do not find that he ever saw it any more, and yet the
   word of the Lord comes to him; for God did in divers manners speak to
   the fathers (Heb. i. 1) and they often heard the words of God when they
   did not see the visions of the Almighty. Faith comes by hearing that
   word of prophecy which is more sure than vision. We may keep up our
   communion with God without raptures and ecstasies. In these verses the
   prophet is directed,

   I. By what signs and actions to express the approaching captivity of
   Zedekiah king of Judah; that was the thing to be foretold, and it is
   foretold to those that are already in captivity, because as long as
   Zedekiah was upon the throne they flattered themselves with hopes that
   he would make his part good with the king of Babylon, whose yoke he was
   now projecting to shake off, from which, it is probable, these poor
   captives promised themselves great things; and it may be, when he was
   forming that design, he privately sent encouragement to them to hope
   that he would rescue them shortly, or procure their liberty by exchange
   of prisoners. While they were fed with these vain hopes they could not
   set themselves either to submit to their affliction or to get good by
   their affliction. It was therefore necessary, but very difficult, to
   convince them that Zedekiah, instead of being their deliverer, should
   very shortly be their fellow-suffered. Now, one would think it might
   have been sufficient if the prophet had only told them this in God's
   name, as he does afterwards (v. 10); but, to prepare them for the
   prophecy of it, he must first give them a sign of it, must speak it to
   their eyes first and then to their ears: and here we have, 1. The
   reason why he must take this method (v. 2): It is because they are a
   stupid, dull, unthinking people, that will not heed or will soon forget
   what they only hear of, or at least will not be at all affected with
   it; it will make no impression at all upon them: Thou dwellest in the
   midst of a rebellious house, whom it is next to impossible to work any
   good upon. They have eyes and ears, they have intellectual powers and
   faculties, but they see not, they hear not. They were idolaters, whose
   character it was that they were like the idols they worshipped, which
   have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, Ps. cxv. 5, 6, 8. Note, Those
   are to be reckoned rebellious that shut their eyes against the divine
   light and stop their ears to the divine law. The ignorance of those
   that are wilfully ignorant, that have faculties and means and will not
   use them, is so far from being their excuse that it adds rebellion to
   their sin. None so blind, so deaf, as those that will not see, that
   will not hear. They see not, they hear not; for they are a rebellious
   house. The cause is all from themselves: the darkness of the
   understanding is owing to the stubbornness of the will. Now this is the
   reason why he must speak to them by signs, as deaf people are taught,
   that they might be either instructed or ashamed. Note, Ministers must
   accommodate themselves not only to the weakness, but to the wilfulness
   of those they deal with, and deal with them accordingly: if they dwell
   among those that are rebellious they must speak to them the more
   plainly and pressingly, and take that course that is most likely to
   work upon them, that they may be left inexcusable. 2. The method he
   just took to awaken and affect them; he must furnish himself with all
   necessaries for removing (v. 3), provide for a journey clothes and
   money; he must remove from one place to another, as one unsettled and
   forced to shift; this he must do by day, in the sight of the people; he
   must bring out all his household goods, to be packed up and sent away
   (v. 4); and, because all the doors and gates were either locked up that
   they could not pass through them or so guarded by the enemy that they
   durst not, he must therefore dig through the wall, and convey his goods
   away clandestinely through that breach in the wall, v. 5. He must carry
   his goods away himself upon his own shoulders, for want of a servant to
   attend him; he must do this in the twilight, that he might not be
   discovered; and, when he has made what shift he can to secure some of
   the best of his effects, he must himself steal away at evening in their
   sight, with fear and trembling, and must go as those that go forth into
   captivity (v. 4); that is, he must cover his face (v. 6) as being
   ashamed to be seen and afraid to be known, or in token of very great
   sorrow and concern; he must go away as a poor broken tradesman, who,
   when he is forced to shut up shop, hides his head, or quits his
   country. Thus Ezekiel must be himself a sign to them; and when perhaps
   he seemed somewhat backward to put himself to all this trouble, and to
   expose himself to be bantered and ridiculed for it, to reconcile him to
   it God says (v. 3) "It may be they will consider, and will by it be
   taken off from their vain confidence, though they be a rebellious
   house." Note, We must not despair even of the worst, but that yet they
   may be brought to bethink themselves and repent; and therefore we must
   continue the use of proper means for their conviction and conversion,
   because, while there is life, there is hope. And ministers must be
   willing to go through the most difficult and inconvenient offices (for
   such was this of Ezekiel's removing), though there be but the it may be
   of success. If but one soul be awakened to consider, our care and pains
   will be well bestowed. 3. Ezekiel's ready and punctual obedience to the
   orders God gave him (v. 7): I did so as I was commanded. Hereby he
   teaches us all, and ministers especially, (1.) To obey with
   cheerfulness every command of God, even the most difficult. Christ
   himself learned obedience, and so we must all. (2.) To do all we can
   for the good of the souls of others, to put ourselves to any trouble or
   pains for the conviction of those that are unconvinced. We do all
   things (that is, we are willing to do any thing), dearly beloved, for
   your edifying. (3.) To be ourselves affected with those things
   wherewith we desire to affect others. When Ezekiel would give his
   hearers a melancholy prospect he does himself put on a melancholy
   aspect. (4.) To sit loose to this world, and prepare to leave it, to
   carry out our stuff for removing, because we have here no continuing
   city. Arise, depart, this it not your rest, for it is polluted. Thou
   dwellest in a rebellious house, therefore prepare for removing; for who
   would not be willing to leave such a house, such a wicked world as this
   is?

   II. He is directed by what words to explain those signs and actions, as
   Agabus, when he bound his own hands and feet, told whose binding was
   thereby signified. But observe, It was not till morning that God gave
   him an exposition of the sign, till the next morning, to keep up in him
   a continual dependence upon God for instruction. As what God does, so
   what he directs us to do, perhaps we know not now, but shall know
   hereafter.

   1. It was supposed that the people would ask the meaning of this sign,
   or at least they should (v. 9): "Hath not the house of Israel said unto
   thee, What doest thou? Yes, I know they have. Though they are a
   rebellious house, yet they are inquisitive concerning the mind of God,"
   as those (Isa. lviii. 2) who sought God daily. Therefore the prophet
   must do such a strange uncouth thing, that they might enquire what it
   meant; and then, it may be hoped, people will take notice of what is
   told them, and profit by it, when it comes to them in answer to their
   enquiries. But some understand it as an intimation that they had not
   made any such enquiries: "Hath not this rebellious house so much as
   asked thee, What doest thou? No; they take no notice of it; but tell
   them the meaning of it, though they do not ask." Note, When God sends
   to us by his ministers he observes what entertainment we give to the
   messages he sends us; he hearkens and hears what we say to them, and
   what enquiries we make upon them, and is much displeased if we pass
   them by without taking any notice of them. When we have heard the word
   we should apply to our ministers for further instruction; and then we
   shall know if we thus follow on to know.

   2. The prophet is to tell them the meaning of it. In general (v. 10),
   This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem; they knew who that was,
   and gloried in it now that they were in captivity that they had a
   prince of their own in Jerusalem, and that the house of Israel was yet
   entire there, and therefore doubted not but in time to do well enough.
   "But tell them," says God, "that in what thou hast done they may read
   the doom of their friends at Jerusalem. Say, I am your sign," v. 11. As
   the conversation of ministers should teach the people what they should
   do, so the providences of God concerning them are sometimes intended to
   tell them what they must expect. The unsettled state and removals of
   ministers give warning to people what they must expect in this world,
   no continuance, but constant changes. When times of trouble are coming
   on, Christ tells his disciples, They shall first lay their hands on
   you, Luke xxi. 12. (1.) The people shall be led away into captivity (v.
   11): As I have done, so shall it be done unto them; they shall be
   forced away from their own houses, no more to return to them, neither
   shall their place know them any more. We cannot say concerning our
   dwelling-place that it is our resting-place; for how far we may be
   tossed from it before we die we cannot foresee. (2.) The prince shall
   in vain attempt to make his escape; for he also shall go into
   captivity. Jeremiah had told Zedekiah the same to his face (Jer. xxxiv.
   3): Thou shalt not escape, but shalt surely be taken. Ezekiel here
   foretels it to those who made him their confidence and promised
   themselves relief from him. [1.] That he shall himself carry away his
   own goods: He shall bear upon his shoulder some of his most valuable
   effects. Note, The judgments of God can turn a prince into a porter. He
   that was wont to have the regalia carried before him, and to march
   through the city at noon-day, shall now himself carry his goods on his
   back and steal away out of the city in the twilight. See what a change
   sin makes with men! All the avenues to the palace being carefully
   watched by the enemy, they shall dig through the wall to carry out
   thereby. Men shall be their own house-breakers, and steal away their
   own goods; so it is when the sword of war has cancelled all right and
   property. [2.] That he shall attempt to escape in a disguise, with a
   mask or a visor on, which shall cover his face, so that he shall be
   able only to look before him, and shall not see the ground with his
   eyes. He who, when he was in pomp, affected to be seen, now that he is
   in his flight is afraid to be seen; let none therefore either be proud
   of being looked at or over-much pleased with looking about them, when
   they see a king with his face covered, that he cannot see the ground.
   [3.] That he shall be made a prisoner and carried captive into Babylon
   (v. 13): My net will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in my
   snare. It seemed to be the Chaldeans' net and their snare, but God owns
   them for his. Those that think to escape the sword of the Lord will
   find themselves taken in his net. Jeremiah had said that king Zedekiah
   should see the king of Babylon and that he should go to Babylon;
   Ezekiel says, He shall be brought to Babylon, yet he shall not see it,
   though he shall die there. Those that were disposed to cavil would
   perhaps object that these two prophets contradicted one another; for
   one said, He shall see the king of Babylon, the other said, He shall
   not see Babylon; and yet both proved true: he did see the king of
   Babylon at Riblah, where he passed sentence upon him for his rebellion,
   but there he had his eyes put out, so that he did not see Babylon when
   he was brought thither. These captives expected to see their prince
   come to Babylon as a conqueror, to bring them out of their trouble; but
   he shall come thither a prisoner, and his disgrace will be a great
   addition to their troubles. Little joy could they have in seeing him
   when he could not see them. [4.] That all his guards should be
   dispersed and utterly disabled for doing him any service (v. 14): I
   will scatter all that are about him to help him, so that he shall be
   left helpless; I will scatter them among the nations and disperse them
   in the countries (v. 15), to be monuments of divine justice wherever
   they go. But are there not hopes that they may rally again? (he that
   flies one time may fight another time); no: I will draw out the sword
   after them, which shall cut them off wherever if finds them; for the
   sword that God draws out will be sure to do the execution designed. Yet
   of Zedekiah's scattered troops some shall escape (v. 16): I will leave
   a few men of them. Though they shall all be scattered, yet they shall
   not all be cut off; some shall have their lives given them for a prey.
   And the end for which they are thus remarkably spared is very
   observable: That they may declare all their abominations among the
   heathen whither they come; the troubles they are brought into will
   bring them to themselves and to their right mind, and then they will
   acknowledge the justice of God in all that is brought upon them and
   will make an ingenuous confession of their sins, which provoked God
   thus to contend with them; and, as by this it shall appear that they
   were spared in mercy, so hereby they will make a suitable grateful
   return to God for his favours to them in sparing them. Note, When God
   has remarkably delivered us from the deaths wherewith we were
   surrounded we must look upon it that for this end, among others, we
   were spared, that we might glorify God and edify others by making a
   penitent acknowledgment of our sins. Those that by their afflictions
   are brought to this are then made to know that God is the Lord and may
   help to bring others to the knowledge of him. See how God brings good
   out of evil. The dispersion of sinners, who had done God much dishonour
   and disservice in their own country, proves the dispersion of
   penitents, who shall do him much honour and service in others
   countries. The Levites are by a curse divided in Jacob and scattered in
   Israel, yet it is turned into a blessing, for thereby they have the
   fairest opportunity to teach Jacob God's laws.

Prediction of the Famine. (b. c. 593.)

   17 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,   18 Son of man,
   eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with
   carefulness;   19 And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the
   Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel;
   They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with
   astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein,
   because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.   20 And the
   cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be
   desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

   Here again the prophet is made a sign to them of the desolations that
   were coming on Judah and Jerusalem. 1. He must himself eat and drink in
   care and fear, especially when he was in company, v. 17, 18. Though he
   was under no apprehension of danger to himself, but lived in safety and
   plenty, yet he must eat his bread with quaking (the bread of sorrows,
   Ps. cxxvii. 2) and drink his water with trembling and with carefulness,
   that he might express the calamitous condition of those that should be
   in Jerusalem during the siege; not that he must dissemble and pretend
   to be in fear and care when really he was not; but having to foretel
   this judgment, to show that he firmly believed it himself, and yet was
   far from desiring it, in the prospect of it he was himself affected
   with grief and fear. Note, When ministers speak of the ruin coming upon
   impenitent sinners they must endeavour to speak feelingly, as those
   that know the terrors of the Lord; and they must be content to endure
   hardness, so that they may but do good. 2. He must tell them that the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem should in like manner eat and drink with care
   and fear, v. 19, 20. Both those that have their home in Jerusalem and
   those of the land of Israel that come to shelter themselves there,
   shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with
   astonishment, either because they are afraid it will not hold out, but
   they shall want shortly, or because they are continually expecting the
   alarms of the enemy, their life hanging in doubt before them (Deut.
   xxiii. 66), so that what they have they shall have no enjoyment of nor
   will it do them any good. Note, Care and fear, if they prevail, are
   enough to embitter all our comforts and are themselves very sore
   judgments. They shall be reduced to these straits that thus by degrees,
   and by the hand of those that thus straiten them, both city and country
   may be laid in ruins; for it is no less than an utter destruction of
   both that is aimed at in these judgments--that her land may be desolate
   from all the fulness thereof, may be stripped of all its ornaments and
   robbed of all its fruits, and then of course the cities that are
   inhabited shall be laid waste, for they are served by the field. This
   universal desolation was coming upon them, and then no wonder that they
   eat their bread with care and fear. Now we are here told, (1.) How bad
   the cause of this judgment was; it is because of the violence of all
   those that dwell therein, their injustice and oppression, and the
   mischief they did one another, for which God would reckon with them, as
   well as for the affronts put upon him in his worship. Note, The decay
   of virtue in a nation brings on a decay of every thing else; and when
   neighbours devour one another it is just with God to bring enemies upon
   them to devour them all. (2.) How good the effect of this judgment
   should be: You shall know that I am the Lord; and if, by these
   judgments, they learn to know him aright, that will make up the loss of
   all they are deprived of by these desolations. Those are happy
   afflictions, how grievous soever to flesh and blood, that help to
   introduce us into and improve us in an acquaintance with God.

Message from God to the People; Impious and Deceitful Hopes. (b. c. 593.)

   21 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   22 Son of man, what
   is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days
   are prolonged, and every vision faileth?   23 Tell them therefore, Thus
   saith the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall
   no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are
   at hand, and the effect of every vision.   24 For there shall be no
   more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of
   Israel.   25 For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall
   speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your
   days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it,
   saith the Lord God.   26 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
     27 Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision
   that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times
   that are far off.   28 Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord
   God; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word
   which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God.

   Various methods had been used to awaken this secure and careless people
   to an expectation of the judgments coming, that they might be stirred
   up, by repentance and reformation, to prevent them. The prophecies of
   their ruin were confirmed by visions, and illustrated by signs, and all
   with such evidence and power that one would think they must needs be
   wrought upon; but here we are told how they evaded the conviction, and
   guarded against it, namely, by telling themselves, and one another,
   that though these judgments threatened should come at last yet they
   would not come of a long time. This suggestion, with which they
   bolstered themselves up in their security, is here answered, and shown
   to be vain and groundless, in two separate messages which God sent to
   them by the prophet at different times, both to the same purport; such
   care, such pains, must the prophet take to undeceive them, v. 21, 26.
   Observe,

   I. How they flattered themselves with hopes that the judgments should
   be delayed. One saying they had, which had become proverbial in the
   land of Israel, v. 22. They said, "The days are prolonged; the
   judgments have not come when they were expected to come, but seem to be
   still put off de die in diem--from day to day, and therefore we may
   conclude that every vision fails, because it should seem that some do,
   that because the destruction has not come yet it will never come; we
   will never trust a prophet again, for we have been more frightened than
   hurt." And another saying they had which, if it would not conquer their
   convictions, yet would cool their affections and abate their concern,
   and that was, "The vision is for a great while to come; it refers to
   events at a vast distance, and he prophesies of things which, though
   they may be true, are yet very far off, so that we need not trouble our
   heads about them (v. 27); we may die in honour and peace before these
   troubles come." And, if indeed the troubles had been thus adjourned,
   they might have made themselves easy, as Hezekiah did. Is it not well
   if peace and truth shall be in my days? But it was a great mistake, and
   they did but deceive themselves into their own ruin; and God is here
   much displeased at it; for, 1. It was a wretched abuse of the patience
   of God, who, because for a time he kept silence, was thought to be
   altogether such a one as themselves, Ps. l. 21. That forbearance of God
   which should have led them to repentance hardened them in sin. They
   were willing to think their works were not evil because sentence
   against them was not executed speedily; and therefore concluded the
   vision itself failed, because the days were prolonged. 2. It received
   countenance from the false prophets that were among them, as should
   seem from the notice God takes (v. 24) of the vain visions, and
   flattering divinations, even within the house of Israel, to whom were
   committed the oracles of God. No marvel if those that deceived
   themselves by worshipping pretended deities deceived themselves also by
   crediting pretended prophecies, to which strong delusions God justly
   gave them up for their idolatries. 3. These sayings had become
   proverbial; they were industriously spread among the people, so that
   they had got into very one's mouth, and not only so, but were generally
   assented to, as proverbs usually are, not only the proverbs of the
   ancients, but those of the moderns too. Note, It is a token of
   universal degeneracy in a nation when corrupt and wicked sayings have
   grown proverbial; and it is an artifice of Satan by them to confirm men
   in their prejudices against the word and ways of God, and a great
   offence to the God of heaven. It will not serve for an excuse, in
   saying ill, to plead that it is a common saying.

   II. How they are assured that they do but deceive themselves, for the
   judgments shall be hastened, these profane proverbs shall be
   confronted: Tell them, therefore, The days are at hand (v. 23), and
   again, There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, v. 28. Their
   putting the evil day far from them does but provoke God to bring it the
   sooner upon them; and it will be so much the sorer, so much the
   heavier, so much the more a surprise and terror to them when it does
   come. He must tell them,

   1. That God will certainly silence the lying proverbs, and the lying
   prophecies, with which they buoyed up their vain hopes, and will make
   them ashamed of both: (1.) I will make this proverb to cease; for when
   they find the days of vengeance have come, and not one iota or tittle
   of the prediction falls to the ground, they will be ashamed to use it
   as a proverb in Israel, The days are prolonged, and the vision fails.
   Note, Those that will not have their eyes opened and their mistakes
   rectified, by the word of God, shall be undeceived by his judgments:
   for every mouth that speaks perverse things shall be stopped. (2.)
   There shall be no more any vain vision, v. 24. The false prophets, who
   told the people they should have peace and should soon see an end of
   their troubles, shall be disproved by the event, and then shall be
   ashamed of their pretensions, and shall hide their heads and impose
   silence upon themselves. Note, As truth was older than error, so it
   will survive it; it got the start, and it will get the race. The true
   prophets' visions and predictions stand, and are in full force, power,
   and virtue; they give law, and receive credit, when the vain visions,
   and the flattering divinations, are lost and forgotten, and shall be no
   more in the house of Israel; for great is the truth, and will prevail.

   2. That God will certainly, and very shortly, accomplish every word
   that he has spoken. With what majesty does he say it (v. 25): I am the
   Lord! I am Jehovah! That glorious name of his speaks him a God giving
   being to his word by the performance of it, and therefore to the
   patriarchs, who lived by faith in a promise not yet performed, he was
   not known by his name Jehovah, Exod. vi. 3. But, as he is Jehovah in
   making good his promise, so he is in making good his threatenings. Let
   them know then that God, with whom they have to do, is the great
   Jehovah, and therefore, (1.) He will speak, whether they will hear or
   whether they will forbear: I am the Lord, I will speak. God will have
   his saying, whoever gainsays it. God's oracles are called lively ones,
   for they still speak when the pagan oracles are long ago struck dumb.
   There has been, and shall be, a succession of God's ministers to the
   end of the world, by whom he will speak; and, though contempt may be
   put upon them, that shall not put a period to their ministration: In
   your days, O rebellious house! will I say the word. Even in the worst
   ages of the church God left not himself without witness, but raised up
   men that spoke for him, that spoke from him. I will say the word, the
   word that shall stand. (2.) The word that he speaks shall come to pass;
   it shall infallibly be accomplished according to the true intent and
   meaning of it, and according to the full extent and compass of it: I
   will say the word and will perform it (v. 25), for his mind is never
   changed, nor his arm shortened, nor is Infinite Wisdom ever nonplussed.
   With men saying and doing are two things, but they are not so with God;
   with him it is dictum, factum--said, and done. In the works of
   providence, as in those of creation, he speaks and it is done; for he
   said, Let there be light, and there was light--Let there be a
   firmament, and there was a firmament, Num. xxiii. 19; 1 Sam. xv. 29.
   Whereas they had said, Every vision fails (v. 22), God says, "No, there
   shall be the effect of every vision (v. 23); it shall not return void,
   but every sign shall be answered by the thing signified." Those that
   see the visions of the Almighty do not see vain visions; God confirms
   the word of his servants by performing it. (3.) It shall be
   accomplished very shortly: "The days are at hand when you shall see the
   effect of every vision, v. 23. It is said, it is sworn, that delay
   shall be no longer (Rev. x. 6); the year of God's patience has now just
   expired, and he will no longer defer the execution of the sentence. It
   shall be no more prolonged (v. 25); he has borne with you a great
   while, but he will not bear always. In your days, O rebellious house!
   shall the word that is said be performed, and you shall see the
   threatened judgments and share in them. Behold, the Judge stands at the
   door. The righteous are taken away from the evil to come, but this
   rebellious house shall not be so quietly taken away; no, they shall
   live to be hurried away, to be chased out of the world." This is
   repeated (v. 28): "There shall none of my words be prolonged any more,
   but judgment shall now hasten on apace; and the longer the bow has been
   in the drawing the deeper shall the arrow pierce." When we tell sinners
   of death and judgment, heaven and hell, and think by them to persuade
   them to a holy life, though we do not find them downright infidels
   (they will own that they do believe there is a state of rewards and
   punishments in the other world), yet they put by the force of those
   great truths, and void the impressions of them, by looking upon the
   things of the other world as very remote; they tell us, "The vision you
   see is for many days to come, and you prophesy of the times that are
   very far off; it will be time enough to think of them when they come
   nearer," whereas really there is but a step between us and death,
   between us and an awful eternity; yet a little while and the vision
   shall speak and not lie, and therefore it concerns us to redeem time,
   and get ready with all speed for a future state; for, though it is
   future, it is very near, and while impenitent sinners slumber their
   damnation slumbers not.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XIII.

   Mention had been made, in the chapter before, of the vain visions and
   flattering divinations with which the people of Israel suffered
   themselves to be imposed upon (ver. 24); now this whole chapter is
   levelled against them. God's faithful prophets are nowhere so sharp
   upon any sort of sinners as upon the false prophets, not because they
   were the most spiteful enemies to them, but because they put the
   highest affront upon God and did the greatest mischief to his people.
   The prophet here shows the sin and punishment, I. Of the false
   prophets, ver. 1-16. II. Of the false prophetesses, ver. 17-23. Both
   agreed to sooth men up in their sins, and, under pretence of comforting
   God's people, to flatter them with hopes that they should yet have
   peace; but the prophets shall be proved liars, their prophecies mere
   shams, and the expectations of the people illusions; for God will let
   them know that "the deceived and the deceiver are his," are both
   accountable to him, Job xii. 16.

The Guilt of False Prophets. (b. c. 593.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou
   unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of
   the Lord;   3 Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets,
   that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!   4 O Israel, thy
   prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.   5 Ye have not gone up
   into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to
   stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.   6 They have seen vanity
   and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not
   sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm
   the word.   7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a
   lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not
   spoken?   8 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken
   vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the
   Lord God.   9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity,
   and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people,
   neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel,
   neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know
   that I am the Lord God.

   The false prophets, who are here prophesied against, were some of them
   at Jerusalem (Jer. xxiii. 14): I have seen in the prophets at Jerusalem
   a horrible thing; some of them among the captives in Babylon, for to
   them Jeremiah writes (Jer. xxix. 8), Let not your diviners, that be in
   the midst of you, deceive you. And as God's prophets, though at a
   distance from each other in place or time, yet preached the same
   truths, which was an evidence that they were guided by one and the same
   good Spirit, so the false prophets prophesied the same lies, being
   actuated by one and the same spirit of error. There were little hopes
   of bringing them to repentance, they were so hardened in their sin; yet
   Ezekiel must prophesy against them, in hopes that the people might be
   cautioned not to hearken to them; and thus a testimony will be left
   upon record against them, and they will thereby be left inexcusable.

   Ezekiel had express orders to prophesy against the prophets of Israel;
   so they called themselves, as if none but they had been worthy of the
   name of Israel's prophets, who were indeed Israel's deceivers. But it
   is observable that Israel was never imposed upon by pretenders to
   prophecy till after they had rejected and abused the true prophets; as,
   afterwards, they were never deluded by counterfeit messiahs till after
   they had refused the true Messiah and rejected him. These false
   prophets must be required to hear the word of the Lord. They took upon
   them to speak what concerned others as from God; let them now hear what
   concerned themselves as from him. And two things the prophet is
   directed to do:--

   I. To discover their sin to them, and to convince them of that if
   possible, or thereby to prevent their proceeding any further, by making
   manifest their folly unto all men, 2 Tim. iii. 9. They are here called
   foolish prophets (v. 3), men that did not at all understand the
   business they pretended to; to make fools of the people they made fools
   of themselves, and put the greatest cheat upon their own souls. Let us
   see what is here laid to their charge. 1. They pretend to have a
   commission from God, whereas he never sent them. They thrust themselves
   into the prophetic office, without warrant from him who is the Lord God
   of the holy prophets, which was a foolish thing; for how could they
   expect that God should own them in a work to which he never called
   them? They are prophets out of their own hearts (so the margin reads
   it, v. 2), prophets of their own making, v. 6. They say, The Lord
   saith; they pretend to be his messengers, but the Lord has not sent
   them, has not given them any orders. They counterfeit the broad seal of
   heaven, than which they cannot do a greater indignity to mankind, for
   hereby they put a reproach upon divine revelation, lessen its credit,
   and weaken its credibility. When these pretenders are found to be
   deceivers, atheists and infidels will thence infer, They are all so.
   The Lord has not sent them; for though crafty enough in other things
   like the foxes, and very wise for the world, yet they are foolish
   prophets and have no experimental acquaintance with the things of God.
   Note, Foolish prophets are not of God's sending, for whom he sends he
   either finds fit or makes fit. Where he gives warrant he gives wisdom.
   2. They pretend to have instructions from God, whereas he never made
   himself and his mind known to them: They followed their own spirit (v.
   3); they delivered that as a message from God which was the product
   either of their subtle invention, to serve a turn for themselves, or of
   their own crazed and heated imagination, to give vent to a fancy. For
   they have seen nothing, they have not really had any heavenly vision;
   they pretend that what they say the Lord saith it, but God disowns it:
   "I have not spoken it, I never said it, never meant any such thing."
   What they delivered was not what they had seen or heard, as that is
   which the ministers of Christ deliver (1 John i. 1), but either what
   they had dreamed or what they thought would please those they coveted
   to make an interest in; this is called their seeing vanity and lying
   divination (v. 6); they pretended to have seen that which they did not
   see, and produced that as a divine truth which they knew to be false.
   To the same purport (v. 7): You have see a vain vision and spoken a
   lying divination, which had no divine original and would have no
   effect, but would certainly be disproved by the event; the words are
   changed (v. 8): You have spoken vanity and seen lies; what they saw and
   what they said was all alike, a mere sham; they saw nothing, they said
   nothing, to the purpose, nothing that could be relied on or that
   deserved regard. Again (v. 9), They see vanity and divine lies; they
   pretended to have had visions, as the true prophets had, whereas really
   they had none, but either it was the creature of their own fancy (they
   thought they had a vision, as men in a delirium do, that was seeing
   vanity) or it was a fiction of their own politics, and they knew they
   had none, and then they saw lies, and divined lies. See Jer. xxiii. 16,
   &c. Note, Since the devil is universally know to be the father of lies,
   those put the highest affront imaginable upon God who tell lies, and
   then father them upon him. But those that had put God's character upon
   Satan, in worshipping devils, arrived at length at such a pitch of
   impiety as to put Satan's character upon God. 3. They took no care to
   prevent the judgments of God that were breaking in upon the kingdom.
   They are like the foxes in the deserts, running to and fro, and seeming
   to be in a great hurry, but it was to get away and shift for their own
   safety, not to do any good: The hireling flees, and leaves the sheep.
   They are like foxes that are greedy of prey for themselves, crafty and
   cruel to feed themselves. But (v. 5), "You have not gone up into the
   gaps, nor made up the hedge of the house of Israel. A breach is made in
   their fences, at which judgments are ready to pour in upon them, and
   then, if ever, is the time to do them service; but you have done
   nothing to help them." They should have made intercession for them, to
   turn away the wrath of God; but they were not praying prophets, had no
   interest in heaven nor intercourse with heaven (as prophets used to
   have, Gen. xx. 7) and so could do them no service that way. They should
   have made it their business by preaching and advice to bring people to
   repentance and reformation, and so have made up the hedge, and put a
   stop to the judgments of God; but this was none of their care: they
   contrived how to pleased people, not how to profit them. They saw a
   deluge of profaneness and impiety breaking in upon the land, waging war
   with virtue and holiness, and threatening to crush them and bear them
   down, and then they should have come in to the help of the Lord, to the
   help of the Lord against the mighty, by witnessing against the
   wickedness of the time and place they lived in; but they thought that
   would be as dangerous a piece of service as standing in a breach to
   make it good against the besiegers, and therefore they declined it, did
   nothing to stem the tide, stood not in the battle against vice and
   immorality, but basely deserted the cause of religion and reformation,
   in the day of the Lord, when it was proclaimed, Who is on the Lord's
   side? Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? Ps. xciv. 16.
   Those were unworthy the name of prophets that could think so favourably
   of sin, and had so little zeal for God and the public welfare. 4. They
   flattered people into a vain hope that the judgments God had threatened
   would never come, whereby they hardened those in sin whom they should
   have endeavoured to turn from sin (v. 6): They have made others to hope
   that all should be well, and they should have peace, though they went
   on still in their trespasses, and that the event would confirm the
   word. They were still ready to say, "We will warrant you that these
   troubles will be at an end quickly, and we shall be in prosperity
   again." as if their warrants would confirm false prophecies, in
   defiance of God himself.

   II. He is directed to denounce the judgments of God against them for
   these sins, from which their pretending to the character of prophets
   would not exempt them. 1. In general, here is a woe against them (v.
   3), and what that woe is we are told (v. 8). Behold, I am against you,
   saith the Lord God. Note, Those are in a woeful condition that have God
   against them. Woe, and a thousand woes, to those that have made him
   their enemy. 2. In particular, they are sentenced to be excluded from
   all the privileges of the commonwealth of Israel, for they are adjudged
   to have forfeited them all (v. 9): God's hand shall be upon them, to
   seize them and bring them to his bar, to shut them out from his
   presence, and they will find it a fearful thing to fall into his hands.
   They pretend to be prophets, particular favourites of heaven, and
   authorized to preside in the congregation of his church on earth; but,
   by pretending to the honours they were not entitled to, they lost those
   that otherwise they might have enjoyed, Matt. v. 19. Their doom is,
   (1.) To be expelled from the communion of saints, and not to be looked
   upon as belonging to it: They shall not be in the secret of my people;
   their folly shall be so clearly manifested that they shall never be
   consulted, nor their advice asked; they shall not be present at any
   debates about public affairs. Or, rather, they shall not be in the
   assembly of God's people for religious worship, for they shall be
   ashamed to show their heads there, when they are proved by the events
   to be false prophets, and, like Cain, shall go out from the presence of
   the Lord. The people that are deceived by them shall abandon them, and
   resolve to have no more to do with them. Those that usurped Moses's
   chair shall not be allowed so much as a door-keeper's place. In the
   great day they shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous
   (Ps. i. 5), when God gathers his saints together to him (Ps. l. 5, 16),
   to be for ever with him. (2.) To be expunged out of the book of the
   living. They shall die in their captivity, and shall die childless,
   shall leave no posterity to take their denomination from them, and so
   their names shall not be found among those who either themselves or
   their posterity returned out of Babylon, of whom a particular account
   was kept in a public register, which was called the writing of the
   house of Israel, such as we have Ezra ii. They shall not be found among
   the living in Jerusalem, Isa. iv. 3. Or they shall not be found written
   among those whom God has from eternity chosen to be vessels of his
   mercy to eternity. We read of those who prophesied in Christ's name,
   and yet he will tell them that he never knew them (Matt. vii. 22, 23),
   because they were not among those that were given to him. The Chaldee
   paraphrase reads it, They shall not be written in the writing of
   eternal life, which is written for the righteous of the house of
   Israel. See Ps. lxix. 28. (3.) To be for ever excluded from the land of
   Israel. God has sworn in his wrath concerning them that they shall
   never enter with the returning captives into the land of Canaan, which
   a second time remains a rest for them. Note, Those who oppose the
   design of God's threatenings, and will not be awed and influenced by
   them, forfeit the benefit of his promises, and cannot expect to be
   comforted and encouraged by them.

The Punishment of False Prophets; The Doom of False Prophets. (b. c. 593.)

   10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace;
   and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed
   it with untempered mortar:   11 Say unto them which daub it with
   untempered mortar, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing
   shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall
   rend it.   12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto
   you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?   13 Therefore
   thus saith the Lord God; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my
   fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great
   hailstones in my fury to consume it.   14 So will I break down the wall
   that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the
   ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it
   shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall
   know that I am the Lord.   15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the
   wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and
   will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
   16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem,
   and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith
   the Lord God.

   We have here more plain dealing with the false prophets, and some
   further articles of their doom. We have seen the people made ashamed of
   the false prophets (though sometimes they had been fond of them) and
   casting them away, as they shall do their false gods, with indignation;
   now here we find them as much ashamed of their false prophecies, which
   they had sometimes depended upon with much assurance. Observe,

   I. How the people are deceived by the false prophets. Those flatterers
   seduce them, saying, Peace, and there was no peace, v. 10. They
   pretended to have seen visions of peace, v. 16. But that could not be,
   for there was no peace, saith the Lord God. There was no prosperity
   designed for them, and therefore there could be no ground for their
   security; yet they told them that God was at peace with them, and had
   mercy in reserve for them, and that the war they were engaged in with
   the Chaldeans should soon end in an honourable peace, and their land
   should enjoy a happy repose and tranquillity. They told the idolaters
   and other sinners that there was neither harm nor danger in the way
   they were in. Thus they seduced God's people; they put a cheat upon
   them, led them into mistakes, and drew them aside out of that way of
   repentance and reformation which the other prophets were endeavouring
   to bring them into. Note, Those are the most dangerous seducers who
   suggest to sinners that which tends to lessen their dread of sin and
   their fear of God. Now this is compared to the building of a slight
   rotten wall, or, according to our Saviour's similitude, which is to the
   same purport with this (Matt. vii. 26), the building of a house upon
   the sand, which seems to be a shelter and protection for a while, but
   will fall when a storm comes. One false prophet built the wall, set up
   the notion that God was not at all displeased with Jerusalem, but that
   the city should be confirmed in its flourishing state, and be
   victorious over the powers that now threatened it. This notion was very
   pleasing, and he that started it made himself very acceptable by it and
   was caressed by every body, which invited others to say the same. They
   made the matter look yet more plausible and promising; they daubed the
   wall, which the first had built, but it was with untempered mortar,
   sorry stuff, that will not bind nor hold the bricks together; they had
   no ground for what they said, nor had it any consistency with itself,
   but was like ropes of sand. They did not strengthen the wall, were in
   no care to make it firm, to see that they went upon sure grounds; they
   only daubed it to hide the cracks and make it look well to the eye. And
   the wall thus built, when it comes to any stress, much more to any
   distress, will bulge and totter, and come down by degrees. Note,
   Doctrines that are groundless, though ever so grateful, that are not
   built upon a scripture foundation nor fastened with a scripture cement,
   though ever so plausible, ever so pleasing, are not of any worth, nor
   will stand men in any stead; and those hopes of peace and happiness
   which are not warranted by the word of God will but cheat men, like a
   wall that is well daubed indeed, but ill-built.

   II. How they will be soon undeceived by the judgment of God, which, we
   are sure, is according to truth. 1. God will in anger bring a terrible
   storm that shall beat fiercely and furiously upon the wall. The descent
   which the Chaldean army shall make upon Judah, and the siege which they
   shall lay to Jerusalem, will be as an overflowing shower, or inundation
   (such as Solomon calls a sweeping rain that leaves no food, Prov.
   xxviii. 3), will bear down all before it, as the deluge did in Noah's
   time: You, O great hailstones! shall fall, the artillery of heaven,
   every hailstone like a cannon-ball, battering this wall, and with these
   a stormy wind, which is sometimes so strong as to rend the rocks (1
   Kings xix. 11), much more an ill-built wall, v. 11. But that which
   makes this rain, and hail, and wind, most terrible is that they arise
   from the wrath of God, and are enforced by that; it is that which sends
   them; it is that which gives them the setting on (v. 13); it is a
   stormy wind in my fury, and an overflowing shower in my anger, and
   great hailstones in my fury. The fury of Nebuchadnezzar and his
   princes, who highly resented Zedekiah's treachery, made the invasion
   very formidable, but that was nothing in comparison with God's
   displeasure. The staff in their hand is my indignation, Isa. x. 5.
   Note, An angry God has winds and storms at command wherewith to alarm
   secure sinners; and his wrath makes them frightful and forcible indeed;
   for who can stand before him when he is angry? 2. This storm shall
   overturn the wall: it shall fall, and the wind shall rend it (v. 11),
   the hailstones shall consume it (v. 13); I will break it down (v. 14)
   and bring it to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be
   discovered; it will appear how false, how rotten it was, to the
   prophetical reproach of the builders. When the Chaldean army has made
   Judah and Jerusalem desolate then this credit of the prophets, and the
   hopes of the people, will both sink together; the former will be found
   false in flattering the people and the latter foolish in suffering
   themselves to be imposed upon by them, and so exposed to so much the
   greater confusion, when the judgment shall surprise them in their
   security. Note, Whatever men think to shelter themselves with against
   the judgments of God, while they continue unreformed, will prove but a
   refuge of lies and will not profit them in the day of wrath. See Isa.
   xxviii. 17. Men's anger cannot shake that which God has built (for the
   blast of the terrible ones is but as a storm against the wall, which
   makes a great noise, but never stirs the wall; see Isa. xxv. 4), but
   God's anger will overthrow that which men have built in opposition to
   him. They and all their attempts, they and all the securities wherein
   they intrench themselves, shall be as a bowing wall and as a tottering
   fence (Ps. lxii. 3, 10); and when their vain predictions are disproved,
   and their vain expectations disappointed, then it will be discovered
   that there was no ground for either, Hab. iii. 13. The day will declare
   what every man's work is, and the fire will try it, 1 Cor. iii. 13. 3.
   The builders of the wall, and those that daubed it, will themselves be
   buried in the ruins of it: It shall fall, and you shall be consumed in
   the midst thereof, v. 14. And thus the threatenings of God's wrath, and
   all the just intentions of it, shall be accomplished to the uttermost,
   both upon the wall and upon those that have daubed it, v. 15. The same
   judgments that will prove the false prophets to be false will punish
   them for their falsehood; and they themselves shall be involved in the
   calamity which they made the people believe there was no danger of, and
   become monuments of that justice which they bade defiance to. Thus, if
   the blind lead the blind, both the blind leaders and the blind
   followers will fall together into the ditch. Note, Those that deceive
   others will in the end prove to have deceived themselves; and no doom
   will be more fearful than that of unfaithful ministers, that flattered
   sinners in their sins. 4. Both the deceivers and the deceived, when
   they thus perish together, will justly be ridiculed and triumphed over
   (v. 12): When the wall has fallen shall it not be said unto you, by
   those that gave credit to the true prophets, and feared the word of the
   Lord, "Now where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed the wall?
   What has become of all the fine soft words and fair promises wherewith
   you flattered your wicked neighbours, and all the assurances you gave
   them that the troubles of the nation should soon be at an end?" The
   righteous shall laugh at them, the righteous God shall, righteous men
   shall, saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, Ps.
   lii. 6, 7. I also will laugh at your calamity, Prov. i. 26. They will
   say unto you (v. 15), "The wall is no more, neither he that daubed it;
   your hopes have vanished, and those that supported them, even the
   prophets of Israel," v. 16. Note, Those that usurp the honours that do
   not belong to them will shortly be filled with the shame that does.

The Guilt of the False Prophetesses. (b. c. 593.)

   17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy
   people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou
   against them,   18 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women
   that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of
   every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and
   will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?   19 And will ye
   pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of
   bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls
   alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your
   lies?   20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against your
   pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will
   tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls
   that ye hunt to make them fly.   21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear,
   and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in
   your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.   22
   Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I
   have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he
   should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:   23
   Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I
   will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am
   the Lord.

   As God has promised that when he pours out his Spirit upon his people
   both their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, so the devil, when
   he acts as a spirit of lies and falsehood, is so in the mouth not only
   of false prophets, but of false prophetesses too, and those are the
   deceivers whom the prophet is here directed to prophesy against; for
   they are not such despicable enemies to God's truths as deserve not to
   be taken notice of, nor yet will either the weakness of their sex
   excuse their sin or the tenderness and respect that are owing to it
   exempt them from the reproaches and threatenings of the word of God.
   No: Son of man, set they face against the daughters of thy people, v.
   17. God takes no pleasure in owning them for his people. They are thy
   people, as Exod. xxxii. 7. The women pretend to a spirit of prophecy,
   and are in the same song with the men, as Ahab's prophets were: Go on,
   and prosper. They prophesy out of their own heart too; they say what
   comes uppermost and what they know nothing of. Therefore prophesy
   against them from God's own mouth. The prophet must set his face
   against them, and try if they can look him in the face and stand to
   what they say. Note, When sinners grow very impudent it is time for
   reprovers to be very bold. Now observe,

   I. How the sin of these false prophetesses is described, and what are
   the particulars of it. 1. They told deliberate lies to those who
   consulted them, and came to them to be advised, and to be told their
   fortune: "You do mischief by your lying to my people that hear your
   lies (v. 19); they come to be told the truth, but you tell them lies;
   and, because you humour them in their sins, they are willing to hear
   you." Note, It is ill with those people who can better hear pleasing
   lies than unpleasing truths; and it is a temptation to those who lie in
   wait to deceive to tell lies when they find people willing to hear them
   and to excuse themselves with this, Si populus vult decipi,
   decipiatur--If the people will be deceived, let them. 2. They profaned
   the name of God by pretending to have received those lies from him (v.
   19): "You pollute my name among my people, and make use of that for the
   patronising of your lies and the gaining of credit to them." Note,
   Those greatly pollute God's holy name that make use of it to give
   countenance to falsehood and wickedness. Yet this they did for handfuls
   of barley and pieces of bread. They did it for gain; they cared not
   what dishonour they did to God's name by their lying, so they could but
   make a hand of it for themselves. There is nothing so sacred which men
   of mercenary spirits, in whom the love of this world reigns, will not
   profane and prostitute, if they can but get money by the bargain. But
   they did it for poor gain; if they could get no more for it, rather
   than break they would sell you a false prophecy that should please you
   to a nicety for the beggar's dole, a piece of bread or a handful of
   barley; and yet that was more than it was worth. Had they asked it as
   an alms, for God's sake, surely they might have had it, and God would
   have been honoured; but, taking it as a fee for a false prophecy, God's
   name if polluted, and the smallness of the reward heightens the
   offence. For a piece of bread that man will transgress, Prov. xxviii.
   21. Had their poverty been their temptation to steal, and so to take
   the name of the Lord in vain, it would not have been nearly so bad as
   when it tempted them to prophesy lies in his name and so to profane it.
   3. They kept people in awe, and terrified them with their pretensions:
   "You hunt the souls of my people (v. 18), hunt them to make them flee
   (v. 20), hunt them into gardens (so the margin reads it); you use all
   the arts you have to court or compel them into those places where you
   deliver your pretended predictions, or you have got such an influence
   upon them that you make them do just as you would have them to do, and
   tyrannise over them." It was indeed the people's fault that they did
   regard them, but it was their fault by lies and falsehoods to command
   that regard; they pretended to save the souls alive that came to them,
   v. 18. If they would but be hearers of them, and contributors to them,
   they might be sure of salvation; thus they beguiled unstable souls that
   had a concern about salvation as their end but did not rightly
   understand the way, and therefore hearkened to those who were most
   confident in promising it to them. "But will you pretend to save souls,
   or secure salvation to your party?" Those are justly suspected that
   make such pretensions. 4. They discouraged those that were honest and
   good, and encouraged those that were wicked and profane: You slay the
   souls that should not die, and save those alive that should not live,
   v. 19. This is explained (v. 22): You have made the heart of the
   righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; because they would not, they
   durst not, countenance your pretensions, you thundered out the
   judgments of God against them, to their great grief and trouble; you
   put them under invidious characters, to make them either despicable or
   odious to the people, and pretended to do it in God's name, which made
   them go many a time with a sad heart; whereas it was the will of God
   that they should be comforted, and by having respect put upon them
   should have encouragement given them. But on the other side, and which
   is still worse, you have strengthened the hands of the wicked and
   emboldened them to go on in their wicked ways and not to return from
   them, which was the thing the true prophets with earnestness called
   them to. "You have promised sinners life in their sinful ways, have
   told them that they shall have peace though they go on, by which their
   hands have been strengthened and their hearts hardened." Some think
   this refers to the severe censures they passed upon those who had
   already gone into captivity (who were humbled under their affliction,
   by which their hearts were made sad), and the commendations they gave
   to those who rebelled against the king of Babylon, who were hardened in
   their impieties, by which their hands were strengthened; or by their
   polluting the name of God they saddened the hearts of good people who
   have a value and veneration for the word of God, and confirmed atheists
   and infidels in their contempt of divine revelation and furnished them
   with arguments against it. Note, Those have a great deal to answer for
   who grieve the spirits, and weaken the hands, of good people, and who
   gratify the lusts of sinners, and animate them in their opposition to
   God and religion. Nor can any thing strengthen the hands of sinners
   more than to tell them that they may be saved in their sins without
   repentance, or that there may be repentance though they do not return
   from their wicked ways. 5. They mimicked the true prophets, by giving
   signs for the illustrating of their false predictions (as Hananiah did,
   Jer. xxviii. 10), and they were signs agreeable to their sex; they
   sewed little pillows to the people's arm-holes, to signify that they
   might be easy and repose themselves, and needed not be disquieted with
   the apprehensions of trouble approaching. And they made kerchiefs upon
   the head of every stature, of persons of every age, young and old,
   distinguishable by their stature, v. 18. These kerchiefs were badges of
   liberty or triumph, intimating that they should not only be delivered
   from the Chaldeans, but be victorious over them. Some think these were
   some superstitious rites which they used with those to whom they
   delivered their divinations, preparing them for the reception of them
   by putting enchanted pillows under their arms and handkerchiefs on
   their heads, to raise their fancies and their expectations of something
   great. Or perhaps the expressions are figurative: they did all they
   could to make people secure, which is signified by laying them easy,
   and to make people proud, which is signified by dressing them fine with
   handkerchiefs, perhaps laid or embroidered on their heads.

   II. How the wrath of God against them is expressed. Here is a woe to
   them (v. 18), and God declares himself against the methods they took to
   delude and deceive, v. 20. But what course will God take with them? 1.
   They shall be confounded in their attempts, and shall proceed no
   further; for (v. 23) you shall see no more vanity nor divine
   revelations; not that they shall themselves lay down their pretensions
   in a way of repentance, but when the event gives them the lie they
   shall be silent for shame; or their fancies and imaginations shall not
   be disposed to receive impressions which assist them in their
   divinations as they have been; or they themselves shall be cut off. 2.
   God's people shall be delivered out of their hands. When they see
   themselves deluded by them into a false peace and a fool's paradise,
   and that though they would not leave their sin their sin has left them,
   and they see no more vanity nor divine divinations, they shall turn
   their back upon them, shall slight their predictions. The righteous
   shall be no more saddened by them, no, nor the wicked strengthened: The
   pillows shall be torn from their arms, and the kerchiefs from their
   heads; the fallacies shall be discovered, their frauds detected, and
   the people of God shall no more be in their hand, to be hunted as they
   had been. Note, It is a great mercy to be delivered from a servile
   regard to, and fear of, those who, under colour of a divine authority,
   impose upon and tyrannise over the consciences of men, and say to their
   souls, Bow down, that we may go over. But it is a sore grief to those
   who delight in such usurpations to have their power broken and the prey
   delivered; such was the reformation to the church of Rome. And, when
   God does this, he makes it to appear that he is the Lord, that it is
   his prerogative to give law to souls.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XIV.

   Hearing the word, and prayer, are two great ordinances of God, in which
   we are to give honour to him and may hope to find favour and acceptance
   with him; and yet in this chapter, to our great surprise, we find some
   waiting upon God in the one and some in the other and yet not meeting
   with success as they expected. I. The elders of Israel come to hear the
   word, and enquire of the prophet, but, because they are not duly
   qualified, they meet with a rebuke instead of acceptance (ver. 1-5) and
   are called upon to repent of their sins and reform their lives, else it
   is at their peril to enquire of God, ver. 6-11. II. Noah, Daniel, and
   Job, are supposed to pray for this people, and yet, because the decree
   has gone forth, and the destruction of them is determined by a variety
   of judgments, their prayers shall not be answered, ver. 12-21. And yet
   it is promised, in the close, that a remnant shall escape, ver. 22, 23.

The Elders of Israel Rebuked; The Prophet's Address to the Elders. (b. c.
593.)

   1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
     2 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   3 Son of man,
   these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the
   stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face: should I be
   enquired of at all by them?   4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto
   them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that
   setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of
   his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord
   will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
   5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they
   are all estranged from me through their idols.   6 Therefore say unto
   the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn
   yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your
   abominations.   7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the
   stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me,
   and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block
   of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of
   him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself:   8 And I will
   set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb,
   and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know
   that I am the Lord.   9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath
   spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will
   stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my
   people Israel.   10 And they shall bear the punishment of their
   iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment
   of him that seeketh unto him;   11 That the house of Israel may go no
   more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their
   transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God,
   saith the Lord God.

   Here is, I. The address which some of the elders of Israel made to the
   prophet, as an oracle, to enquire of the Lord by him. They came, and
   sat before him, v. 1. It is probable that they were not of those who
   were now his fellow-captives, and constantly attended his ministry
   (such as those we read of ch. viii. 1), but some occasional hearers,
   some of the grandees of Jerusalem who had come upon business to
   Babylon, perhaps public business, on an embassy from the king, and in
   their way called on the prophet, having heard much of him and being
   desirous to know if he had any message from God, which might be some
   guide to them in their negotiation. By the severe answer given them one
   would suspect they had a design to ensnare the prophet, or to try if
   they could catch hold of any thing that might look like a contradiction
   to Jeremiah's prophecies, and so they might have occasion to reproach
   them both. However, they feigned themselves just men, complimented the
   prophet, and sat before him gravely enough, as God's people used to
   sit. Note, It is no new thing for bad men to be found employed in the
   external performances of religion.

   II. The account which God gave the prophet privately concerning them.
   They were strangers to him; he only knew that they were elders of
   Israel; that was the character they wore, and as such he received them
   with respect, and, it is likely, was glad to see them so well disposed.
   But God gives him their real character (v. 3); they were idolaters, and
   did only consult Ezekiel as they would any oracle of a pretended deity,
   to gratify their curiosity, and therefore he appeals to the prophet
   himself whether they deserved to have any countenance or encouragement
   given them: "Should I be enquired of at all by them? Should I accept
   their enquiries as an honour to myself, or answer them for satisfaction
   to them? No; they have no reason to expect it;" for, 1. They have set
   up their idols in their heart; they not only have idols, but they are
   in love with them, they dote upon them, are wedded to them, and have
   laid them so near their hearts, and have given them so great a room in
   their affections, that there is no parting with them. The idols they
   have set up in their houses, though they are now at a distance from the
   chambers of their imagery, yet they have them in their hearts, and they
   are ever and anon worshipping them in their fancies and imaginations.
   They have made their idols to ascend upon their hearts (so the word
   is); they have subjected their hearts to their idols, they are upon the
   throne there. Or when they came to enquire of the prophet they
   pretended to put away their idols, but it was in pretence only; they
   still had a secret reserve for them. They kept them up in their hearts;
   and, if they left them for a while, it was cum animo revertendi--with
   an intention to return to them, not a final farewell. Or it may be
   understood of spiritual idolatry; those whose affections are placed
   upon the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, whose god is
   their money, whose god is their belly, they set up their idols in their
   heart. Many who have no idols in their sanctuary have idols in their
   hearts, which is no less a usurpation of God's throne and a profanation
   of his name. Little children, keep yourselves from those idols. 2. They
   put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Their
   silver and gold were called the stumbling-block of their iniquity (ch.
   vii. 19), their idols of silver and gold, by the beauty of which they
   were allured to idolatry, and so it was the block at which they
   stumbled, and fell into that sin; or their iniquity is their
   stumbling-block, which throws them down, so that they fall into ruin.
   Note, Sinners are their own tempters (every man is tempted when he is
   drawn aside of his own lust), and so they are their own destroyers. If
   thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it; and thus they put the
   stumbling-block of their iniquity before their own faces, and stumble
   upon it though they see it before their eyes. It intimates that they
   are resolved to go on in sin, whatever comes of it. I have loved
   strangers, and after them I will go; that is the language of their
   hearts. And should God be enquired of by such wretches? Do they not
   hereby rather put an affront upon him than do him any honour, as those
   did who bowed the knee to Christ in mockery? Can those expect an answer
   of peace from God who thus continue their acts of hostility against
   him? "Ezekiel, what thinkest thou of it?"

   III. The answer which God, in just displeasure, orders Ezekiel to give
   them, v. 4. Let them know that it is not out of any disrespect to their
   persons that God refuses to give them an answer, but it is laid down as
   a rule for every man of the house of Israel, whoever he be, that if he
   continue in love and league with his idols, and come to enquire of God,
   God will resent it as an indignity done to him, and will answer him
   according to his real iniquity, not according to his pretended piety.
   He comes to the prophet, who, he expects, will be civil to him, but God
   will give him his answer, by punishing him for his impudence: I the
   Lord, who speak and it is done, I will answer him that cometh,
   according to the multitude of his idols. Observe, Those who set up
   idols in their hearts, and set their hearts upon their idols, commonly
   have a multitude of them. Humble worshippers God answers according to
   the multitude of his mercies, but bold intruders he answers according
   to the multitude of their idols, that is, 1. According to the desire of
   their idols; he will give them up to their own hearts' lust, and leave
   them to themselves to be as bad as they have a mind to be, till they
   have filled up the measure of their iniquity. Men's corruptions are
   idols in their hearts, and they are of their own setting up; their
   temptations are the stumbling-block of their iniquity, and they are of
   their own putting, and God will answer them accordingly; let them take
   their course. 2. According to the desert of their idols; they shall
   have such an answer as it is just that such idolaters should have. God
   will punish them as he usually punishes idolaters, that is, when they
   stand in need of his help he will send them to the gods whom they have
   chosen, Judg. x. 13, 14. Note, The judgment of God will dwell with men
   according to what they are really (that is, according to what their
   hearts are), not according to what they are in show and profession. And
   what will be the end of this? What will this threatened answer amount
   to? He tells them (v. 5): That I may take the house of Israel in their
   own heart, may lay them open to the world, that they may be ashamed;
   nay, lay them open to the curse, that they may be ruined. Note, The sin
   and shame, and pain and ruin, of sinners, are all from themselves, and
   their own hearts are the snares in which they are taken; they seduce
   them, they betray them; their own consciences witness against them,
   condemn them, and are a terror to them. If God take them, if he
   discover them, if he convict them, if he bind them over to his
   judgment, it is all by their own hearts. O Israel! thou hast destroyed
   thyself. The house of Israel is ruined by its own hands, because they
   are all estranged from me through their idols. Note, (1.) The ruin of
   sinners is owing to their estrangement from God. (2.) It is through
   some idol or other that the hearts of men are estranged from God; some
   creature has gained that place and dominion in the heart that God
   should have.

   IV. The extent of this answer which God had given them--to all the
   house of Israel, v. 7, 8. The same thing is repeated, which intimates
   God's just displeasure against hypocrites, who mock him with the shows
   and forms of devotion, while their hearts are estranged from him and at
   war with him. Observe, 1. To whom this declaration belongs. It concerns
   not only every one of the house of Israel (as before, v. 4), but the
   stranger that sojourns in Israel; let him not think it will be an
   excuse for him in his idolatries that he is but a stranger and a
   sojourner in Israel, and does but worship the gods that his father
   served and that he himself was bred up in the service of; no, let him
   not expect any benefit from Israel's oracles or prophets unless he
   thoroughly renounce his idolatry. Note, Even proselytes shall not be
   countenanced if they be not sincere: a dissembled conversion is no
   conversion. 2. The description here given of hypocrites: They separate
   themselves from God by their fellowship with idols; they cut themselves
   off from their relation to God and their interest in him; they break
   off their acquaintance and intercourse with him, and set themselves at
   a distance from him. Note, Those that join themselves to idols separate
   themselves from God; nor shall any be for ever separated from the
   vision and fruition of God, but such as now separate themselves from
   his service and wilfully withdraw their allegiance from him. But there
   are those who thus separate themselves from God, and yet come to the
   prophets with a seeming respect and deference to their office, to
   enquire of them concerning God, in order to satisfy a vain curiosity,
   to stop the mouth of a clamorous conscience, or to get or save a
   reputation among men, but without any desire to be acquainted with God
   or any design to be ruled by him. 3. The doom of those who thus trifle
   with God and think to impose upon him: "I the Lord will answer him by
   myself; let me alone to deal with him; I will give him an answer that
   shall fill him with confusion, that shall make him repent of his daring
   impiety." He shall have his answer, not by the words of the prophet,
   but by the judgments of God. And I will set my face against that man,
   which denotes great displeasure against him and a fixed resolution to
   ruin him. God can outface the most impenitent sinner. The hypocrite
   thought to save his credit, nay, and to gain applause, but, on the
   contrary, God will make him a sign and a proverb, will inflict such
   judgments upon him as shall make him remarkable and contemptible in the
   eyes of all about him; his misery shall be made use of to express the
   greatest misery, as when the worst of sinners are said to have their
   portion appointed them with hypocrites, Matt. xxiv. 51. God will make
   him an example; his judgments upon him shall be for warning to others
   to take heed of mocking God: for thus shall it be done to the man that
   separates himself from God, and yet pretends to enquire concerning him.
   The hypocrite thought to pass for one of God's people, and to crowd
   into heaven among them; but God will cut him off from the midst of his
   people, will discover him, and pluck him out from the thickest of them;
   and by this, says God, you shall know that I am the Lord. By the
   discovery of hypocrites it appears that God is omniscient: ministers
   know not how people stand affected when they come to hear the word, but
   God does. And by the punishment of hypocrites it appears that he is a
   jealous God, and one that cannot and will not be imposed upon.

   V. The doom of those pretenders to prophecy who give countenance to
   these pretenders to piety, v. 9, 10. These hypocritical enquirers,
   though Ezekiel will not give them a comfortable answer, yet hope to
   meet with some other prophets that will; and if they do, as perhaps
   they may, let them know that God permits those lying prophets to
   deceive them in part of punishment: "If the prophet that flatters them
   be deceived, and gives them hopes which there is no ground for, I the
   Lord have deceived that prophet, have suffered the temptation to be
   laid before him, and suffered him to yield to it, and overruled it for
   the hardening of those in their wicked courses who were resolved to go
   on in them." We are sure that God is not the author of sin, but we are
   sure that he is the Lord of all and the Judge of sinners, and that he
   often makes use of one wicked man to destroy another, and so of one
   wicked man to deceive another. Both are sins in him who does them, and
   so they are not from God; both are punishments to him to whom they are
   done, and so they are from God. We have a full instance of this in the
   story of Ahab's prophets, who were deceived by a lying spirit, which
   God put into their mouths (1 Kings xxii. 23), and another in those whom
   God gives up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, because they
   received not the love of the truth, 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. But read the
   fearful doom of the lying prophet: I will stretch out my hand upon him
   and will destroy him. When God has served his own righteous purposes by
   him he shall be reckoned with for his unrighteous purposes. As, when
   God had made use of the Chaldeans for the wasting of a sinful people,
   he justly punished them for their rage, so when he had made use of
   false prophets, and afterwards of false Christs, for the deceiving of a
   sinful people, he justly punished them for their falsehood. But herein
   we must acknowledge (as Calvin upon this place reminds us) that God's
   judgments are a great deep, that we are incompetent judges of them, and
   that, though we cannot account for the equity of God's proceedings to
   the satisfying and silencing of every caviller, yet there is a day
   coming when he will be justified before all the world, and particularly
   in this instance, when the punishment of the prophet that flattereth
   the hypocrite in his evil way shall be as the punishment of the
   hypocrite that seeketh to him and bespeaks smooth things only, Isa.
   xxx. 10. The ditch shall be the same to the blind leader and the blind
   followers.

   VI. The good counsel that is given them for the preventing of this
   fearful doom (v. 6): "Therefore repent, and turn yourselves from your
   idols. Let this separate between you and them, that they separate
   between you and God; because they set God's face against you, do you
   turn away your faces from them," which denotes, not only forsaking
   them, but forsaking them with loathing and detestation: "Turn from them
   as from abominations that you are sick of; and then you will be welcome
   to enquire of the Lord. Come now, and let us reason together."

   VII. The good issue of all this as to the house of Israel; therefore
   the pretending prophets, and the pretending saints, shall perish
   together by the judgments of God, that, some being made examples, the
   body of the people may be reformed, that the house of Israel may go no
   more astray from me, v. 11. Note, The punishments of some are designed
   for the prevention of sin, that others may hear, and fear, and take
   warning. When we see what becomes of those that go astray from God we
   should thereby be engaged to keep close to him. And, if the house of
   Israel go not astray, they will not be polluted any more. Note, Sin is
   a polluting thing; it renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure
   and holy God, and in his own eyes too whenever conscience is awakened;
   and therefore they shall no more be polluted, that they may be my
   people and I may be their God. Note, Those whom God takes into covenant
   with himself must first be cleansed from the pollutions of sin; and
   those who are so cleansed shall not only be saved from ruin, but be
   entitled to all the privileges of God's people.

Destruction of the People Determined; The Variety of the Divine Judgment; A
Remnant Preserved. (b. c. 593.)

   12 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,   13 Son of man, when
   the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I
   stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread
   thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast
   from it:   14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in
   it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness,
   saith the Lord God.   15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the
   land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass
   through because of the beasts:   16 Though these three men were in it,
   as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor
   daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be
   desolate.   17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go
   through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:   18 Though
   these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall
   deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered
   themselves.   19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out
   my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:   20 Though
   Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they
   shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their
   own souls by their righteousness.   21 For thus saith the Lord God; How
   much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword,
   and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off
   from it man and beast?   22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a
   remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold,
   they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their
   doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have
   brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon
   it.   23 And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their
   doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I
   have done in it, saith the Lord God.

   The scope of these verses is to show,

   I. That national sins bring national judgments. When virtue is ruined
   and laid waste every thing else will soon be ruined and laid waste too
   (v. 13): When the land sins against me, when vice and wickedness become
   epidemical, when the land sins by trespassing grievously, when the
   sinners have become very numerous and their sins very heinous, when
   gross impieties and immoralities universally prevail, then will I
   stretch forth my hand upon it, for the punishment of it. The divine
   power shall be vigorously and openly exerted; the judgments shall be
   extended and stretched forth to all the corners of the land, to all the
   concerns and interests of the nation. Grievous sins bring grievous
   plagues.

   II. That God has a variety of sore judgments wherewith to punish sinful
   nations, and he has them all at command and inflicts which he pleases.
   He did indeed give David his choice what judgment he would be punished
   with for his sin in numbering the people; for any of them would serve
   to answer the end, which was to lessen the numbers he was proud of; but
   David, in effect, referred it to God again: "Let us fall into the hands
   of the Lord; let him choose with what rod we shall be beaten." But he
   uses a variety of judgments that it may appear he has a universal
   dominion, and that in all our concerns we may see our dependence on
   him. Four sore judgments are here specified:-- 1. Famine, v. 13. The
   denying and withholding of common mercies is itself judgment enough,
   there needs no more to make a people miserable. God needs not bring the
   staff of oppression, it is but breaking the staff of bread and the work
   is soon done; he cuts off man and beast by cutting off the provisions
   which nature makes for both in the annual products of the earth. God
   breaks the staff of bread when, though we have bread, yet we are not
   nourished and strengthened by it. Hag. i. 6, You eat, but you have not
   enough. 2. Hurtful beasts, noisome and noxious, either as poisonous or
   as ravenous. God can make these to pass through the land (v. 15), to
   increase in all parts of it, and to bereave it, not only of the tame
   cattle, preying upon their flocks and herds, but of their people,
   devouring men, women, and children, so that no man may pass through
   because of the beasts; none dare travel even in the high roads for fear
   of being pulled in pieces by lions, or other beasts of prey, as the
   children of Beth-el by two bears. Note, When men revolt from their
   allegiance to God, and rebel against him, it is just with God that the
   inferior creatures should rise up in arms against men, Lev. xxvi. 22.
   3. War. God often chastises sinful nations by bringing a sword upon
   them, the sword of a foreign enemy, and he gives it its commission and
   orders what execution it shall do (v. 17): he says, Sword, go through
   the land. It is bad enough if the sword do but enter into the borders
   of a land, but much worse when it goes through the bowels of a land. By
   it God cuts off man and beast, horse and foot. What execution the sword
   does God does by it; for it is his sword, and it acts as he directs. 4.
   Pestilence (v. 19), a dreadful disease, which has sometimes depopulated
   cities; by it God pours out his fury in blood (that is, in death); the
   pestilence kills as effectually as if the blood were shed by the sword,
   for it is poisoned by the disease, the sickness we call it. See how
   miserable the case of mankind is that lies thus exposed to deaths in
   various shapes. See how dangerous the case of sinners is against whom
   God has so many ways of fighting, so that, though they escape one
   judgment, God has another waiting for them.

   III. That when God's professing people revolt from him, and rebel
   against him, they may justly expect a complication of judgments to fall
   upon them. God has various ways of contending with a sinful nation; but
   if Jerusalem, the holy city, become a harlot, God will send upon her
   all his four sore judgments (v. 21); for the nearer any are to God in
   name and profession the more severely will he reckon with them if they
   reproach that worthy name by which they are called and give the lie to
   that profession. They shall be punished seven times more.

   IV. That there may be, and commonly are, some few very good men, even
   in those places that by sin are ripened for ruin. It is no foreign
   supposition that, even in a land that has trespassed grievously, there
   may be three such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job. Daniel was now living,
   and at this time had scarcely arrived at the prime of his eminency, but
   he was already famous (at least this word of God concerning him would
   without fail make him so); yet he was carried away into captivity with
   the first of all, Dan. i. 6. Some of the better sort of people in
   Jerusalem might perhaps think that, if Daniel (of whose fame in the
   king of Babylon's court they had heard much) had but continued in
   Jerusalem, it would have been spared for his sake, as the magicians in
   Babylon were. "No," says God, "though you had him, who was as eminently
   good in bad times and places as Noah in the old world and Job in the
   land of Uz, yet a reprieve should not be obtained." In the places that
   are most corrupt, and in the ages that are most degenerate, there is a
   remnant which God reserves to himself, and which still hold fast their
   integrity and stand fair for the honour of delivering the land, as the
   innocent are said to do, Job xxii. 30.

   V. That God often spares very wicked places for the sake of a few godly
   people in them. This is implied here as the expectation of Jerusalem's
   friends in the day of its distress: "Surely God will stay his
   controversy with us; for are there not some among us that are emptying
   the measure of national guilt by their prayers, as others are filling
   it by their sins? And, rather than God will destroy the righteous with
   the wicked, he will preserve the wicked with the righteous. If Sodom
   might have been spared for the sake of ten good men, surely Jerusalem
   may."

   VI. That such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job, will prevail, if any can,
   to turn away the wrath of God from a sinful people. Noah was a perfect
   man, and kept his integrity when all flesh had corrupted their way;
   and, for his sake, his family, though one of them was wicked (Ham), was
   saved in the ark. Job was a great example of piety, and mighty in
   prayer for his children, for his friends; and God turned his captivity
   when he prayed. Those were very ancient examples, before Moses, that
   great intercessor; and therefore God mentions them, to intimate that he
   had some very peculiar favourites long before the Jewish nation was
   formed or founded, and would have such when it was ruined, for which
   reason, it should seem, those names were made use of, rather than
   Moses, Aaron, or Samuel; and yet, lest any should think that God was
   partial in his respects to the ancient days, here is a modern instance,
   a living one, placed between those two that were the glories of
   antiquity, and he now a captive, and that is Daniel, to teach us not to
   lessen the useful good men of our own day by over-magnifying the
   ancients. Let the children of the captivity know that Daniel, their
   neighbour, and companion in tribulation, being a man of great humility,
   piety, and zeal for God, and instant and constant in prayer, had as
   good an interest in heaven as Noah or Job had. Why may not God raise up
   as great and good men now as he did formerly, and do as much for them?

   VII. That when the sin of a people has come to its height, and the
   decree has gone forth for their ruin, the piety and prayers of the best
   men shall not prevail to finish the controversy. This is here asserted
   again and again, that, though these three men were in Jerusalem at this
   time, yet they should deliver neither son nor daughter; not so much as
   the little ones should be spared for their sakes, as the little ones of
   Israel were upon the prayer of Moses, Num. xiv. 31. No; the land shall
   be desolate, and God would not hear their prayers for it, though Moses
   and Samuel stood before him, Jer. xv. 1. Note, Abused patience will
   turn at last into inexorable wrath; and it should seem as if God would
   be more inexorable in Jerusalem's case than in another (v. 6), because,
   besides the divine patience, they had enjoyed greater privileges than
   any other people, which were the aggravations of their sin.

   VIII. That, though pious praying men may not prevail to deliver others,
   yet they shall deliver their own souls by their righteousness, so that,
   though they may suffer in the common calamity, yet to them the property
   of it is altered; it is not to them what it is to the wicked; it is
   unstrung, and does them no hurt; it is sanctified, and does them good.
   Sometimes their souls (their lives) are remarkably delivered, and given
   them for a prey; at least their souls (their spiritual interests) are
   secured. If their bodies be not delivered, yet their souls are. Riches
   indeed profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from
   death, from so great a death, so many deaths as are here threatened.
   This should encourage us to keep our integrity in times of common
   apostasy, that, if we do so, we shall be hidden in the day of the
   Lord's anger.

   IX. That, even when God makes the greatest desolations by his
   judgments, he reserves some to be the monuments of his mercy, v. 22,
   23. In Jerusalem itself, though marked for utter ruin, yet there shall
   be left a remnant, who shall not be cut off by any of those sore
   judgments before mentioned, but shall be carried into captivity, both
   sons and daughters, who shall be the seed of a new generation. The
   young ones, who had not grown up to such an obstinacy in sin as their
   fathers had who were therefore cut off as incurable, these shall be
   brought forth out of the ruins of Jerusalem by the victorious enemy,
   and behold they shall come forth to you that are in captivity, they
   shall make a virtue of a necessity, and shall come the more willingly
   to Babylon because so many of their friends have gone thither before
   them and are there ready to receive them; and, when they come, you
   shall see their ways and their doing; you shall hear them make a free
   and ingenuous confession of the sins they had formerly been guilty of,
   and a humble profession of repentance for them, with promises of
   reformation; and you shall see instances of their reformation, shall
   see what good their affliction has done them, and how prudently and
   patiently they conduct themselves under it. Their narrow escape shall
   have a good effect upon them; it shall change their temper and
   conversation, and make them new men. And this will redound, 1. To the
   satisfaction of their brethren: They shall comfort you when you see
   their ways. Note, It is a very comfortable sight to see people, when
   they are under the rod, repenting and humbling themselves, justifying
   God and accepting the punishment of their iniquity. When we sorrow (as
   we ought to do) for the afflictions of others, it is a great comfort to
   us in our sorrow to see them improving their afflictions and making a
   good use of them. When those captives told their friends how bad they
   had been, and how righteous God was in bringing these judgments upon
   them, it made them very easy, and helped to reconcile them to the
   calamities of Jerusalem, to the justice of God in punishing his own
   people so, and to the goodness of God, which now appeared to have had
   kind intentions in all; and thus "You shall be comforted concerning all
   the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and, when you better
   understand the thing, shall not have such direful apprehensions
   concerning it as you have had." Note, It is a debt we owe to our
   brethren, if we have got good by our afflictions, to comfort them by
   letting them know it. 2. It will redound to the honour of God: "You
   shall know that I have not done without cause, not without a just
   provocation, and yet not without a gracious design, all that I have
   done in it." Note, When afflictions have done their work, and have
   accomplished that for which they were sent, then will appear the wisdom
   and goodness of God in sending them, and God will be not only
   justified, but glorified in them.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XV.

   Ezekiel has again and again, in God's name, foretold the utter ruin of
   Jerusalem; but, it should seem, he finds it hard to reconcile himself
   to it, and to acquiesce in the will of God in this severe dispensation;
   and therefore God takes various methods to satisfy him not only that it
   shall be so, but that there is no remedy: it must be so; it is fit that
   it should be so. Here, in this short chapter, he shows him (probably
   with design that he should tell the people) that it was as requisite
   Jerusalem should be destroyed as that the dead and withered branches of
   a vine should be cut off and thrown into the fire. I. The similitude is
   very elegant (ver. 1-5), but, II. The explanation of the similitude is
   very dreadful, ver. 6-8.

Jerusalem a Condemned Vine. (b. c. 593.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, What
   is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among
   the trees of the forest?   3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any
   work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?   4
   Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the
   ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work?   5
   Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall
   it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is
   burned?   6 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As the vine tree among
   the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so
   will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.   7 And I will set my face
   against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall
   devour them; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face
   against them.   8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have
   committed a trespass, saith the Lord God.

   The prophet, we may suppose, was thinking what a glorious city
   Jerusalem was, above any city in the world; it was the crown and joy of
   the whole earth; and therefore what a pity it was that it should be
   destroyed; it was a noble structure, the city of God, and the city of
   Israel's solemnities. But, if these were the thoughts of his heart, God
   here returns an answer to them by comparing Jerusalem to a vine. 1. It
   is true, if a vine be fruitful, it is a most valuable tree, none more
   so; it was one of those that were courted to have dominion over the
   trees, and the fruit of it is such as cheers God and man (Judg. ix. 12,
   13); it makes glad the heart, Ps. civ. 15. So Jerusalem was planted a
   choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed (Jer. ii. 21); and, if it
   had brought forth fruit suitable to its character as a holy city, it
   would have been the glory both of God and Israel. It was a vine which
   God's right hand had planted, a branch out of a dry ground, which,
   though its original was mean and despicable, God had made strong for
   himself (Ps. lxxx. 15), to be to him for a name and for a praise. 2.
   But, if it be not fruitful, it is good for nothing, it is as worthless
   and useless a production of the earth as even thorns and briers are:
   What is the vine-tree, if you take the tree by itself, without
   consideration of the fruit? What is it more than any tree, that it
   should have so much care taken of it and so much cost laid out upon it?
   What is a branch of the vine, though it spread more than a branch which
   is among the trees of the forest, where it grows neglected and exposed?
   Or, as some read it, What is the vine more than any tree if the branch
   of it be as the trees of the forest; that is, if it bear no fruit, as
   forest-trees seldom do, being designed for timber-trees, not
   fruit-trees? Now there are some fruit-trees which, if they do not bear,
   are nevertheless of good use, as the wood of them may be made to turn
   to a good account; but the vine is not of this sort: if that do not
   answer its end as a fruit-tree, it is worth nothing as a timber-tree.
   Observe,

   I. How this similitude is expressed here. The wild vine, that is among
   the trees of the forest, or the empty vine (which Israel is compared
   to, Hos. x. 1), that bears no more fruit than a forest-tree, is good
   for nothing; it is as useless as a brier, and more so, for that will
   add some sharpness to the thorny hedge, which the vine-branch will not
   do. He shows, 1. That it is fit for no use. The wood of it is not taken
   to do any work; one cannot so much as make a pin of it to hand a vessel
   upon, v. 3. See how variously the gifts of nature are dispensed for the
   service of man. Among the plants, the roots of some, the seeds or
   fruits of others, the leaves of others, and of some the stalks, are
   most serviceable to us; so, among trees, some are strong and not
   fruitful, as the oaks and cedars; others are weak but very fruitful, as
   the vine, which is unsightly, low, and depending, yet of great use.
   Rachel is comely but barren, Leah homely but fruitful. 2. That
   therefore it is made use of for fuel; it will serve to heat the oven
   with. Because it is not meet for any work, it is cast into the fire, v.
   4. When it is good for nothing else it is useful this way, and answers
   a very needful intention, for fuel is a thing we must have, and to burn
   any thing for fuel which is good for other work is bad husbandry. To
   what purpose is this waste? The unfruitful vine is disposed of in the
   same way with the briers and thorns, which are rejected, and whose end
   is to be burnt, Heb. vi. 8. And what care is taken of it then? If a
   piece of solid timber be kindled, somebody perhaps may snatch it as a
   brand out of the burning, and say, "It is a pity to burn it, for it may
   be put to some better use;" but if the branch of a vine be on fire,
   and, as usual, both the ends of it and the middle be kindled together,
   nobody goes about to save it. When it was whole it was meet for no
   work, much less when the fire has devoured it (v. 5); even the ashes of
   it are not worth saving.

   II. How this similitude is applied to Jerusalem. 1. That holy city had
   become unprofitable and good for nothing. It had been as the vine-tree
   among the trees of the vineyard, abounding in the fruits of
   righteousness to the glory of God. When religion flourished there, and
   the pure worship of God was kept up, many a joyful vintage was then
   gathered in from it; and, while it continued so, God made a hedge about
   it; it was his pleasant plant (Isa. v. 7); he watered it every moment
   and kept it night and day (Isa. xxvii. 3); but it had now become the
   degenerate plant of a strange vine, of a wild vine (such as we read of
   2 Kings iv. 39), a vine-tree among the trees of the wild grapes (Isa.
   v. 4), which are not only of no use, but are nauseous and noxious
   (Deut. xxxii. 32), their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters
   are bitter. It is explained (v. 8): "They have trespassed a trespass,
   that is, they have treacherously prevaricated with God and perfidiously
   apostatized from him;" for so the word signifies. Note, Professors of
   religion, if they do not live up to their profession, but contradict
   it, if they degenerate and depart from it, are the most unprofitable
   creatures in the world, like the salt that has lost its savour and is
   thenceforth good for nothing, Mark ix. 50. Other nations were famed for
   valour or politics, some for war, others for trade, and retained their
   credit; but the Jewish nation, being famous as a holy people, when they
   lost their holiness, and became wicked, were thenceforth good for
   nothing; with that they lost all their credit and usefulness, and
   became the most base and despicable people under the sun, trodden under
   foot of the Gentiles. Daniel, and other pious Jews, were of great use
   in their generation; but the idolatrous Jews then, and the unbelieving
   Jews now since the preaching of the gospel, have been, and are, of no
   common service, not fit for any work. 2. Being so, it is given to the
   fire for fuel, v. 6. Note, Those who are not fruitful to the glory of
   God's grace will be fuel to the fire of his wrath; and thus, if they
   give not honour to him, he will get himself honour upon them, honour
   that will shine brightly in that flaming fire by which impenitent
   sinners will be for ever consumed. He will not be a loser at last by
   any of his creatures. The Lord has made all things for himself, yea,
   even the wicked, that would not otherwise be for him, for the day of
   evil (Prov. xvi. 4); and in those who would not glorify him as the God
   to whom duty belongs he will be glorified as the God to whom vengeance
   belongs. The fire of God's wrath had before devoured both the ends of
   the Jewish nation (v. 4), Samaria and the cities of Judah; and now
   Jerusalem, that was the midst of it, was thrown into the fire, to be
   burnt too, for it is meet for no work; it will not be wrought upon, by
   any of the methods God has taken, to be serviceable to him. The
   inhabitants of Jerusalem were like a vine-branch, rotten and awkward;
   and therefore (v. 7), "I will set my face against them, to thwart all
   their counsels," as they set their faces against God, to contradict his
   word and defeat all his designs. It is decreed; the consumption is
   determined: I will make the land quite desolate, and therefore, when
   they go out from one fire, another fire shall devour them (v. 7); the
   end of one judgment shall be the beginning of another, and their escape
   from one only a reprieve till another comes; they shall go from misery
   in their own country to misery in Babylon. Those who kept out of the
   way of the sword perished by famine or pestilence. When one descent of
   the Chaldean forces upon them was over, and they thought, Surely the
   bitterness of death is past, yet soon after they returned again with
   double violence, till they had made a full end. Thus they shall know
   that I am the Lord, a God of almighty power, when I set my face against
   them. Note, God shows himself to be the Lord, by perfecting the
   destruction of his implacable enemies as well as the deliverances of
   his obedient people. Those whom God sets his face, though they may come
   out of one trouble little hurt, will fall into another; though they
   come out of the pit, they will be taken in the snare (Isa. xxiv. 18);
   though they escape the sword of Hazael, they will fall by that of Jehu
   (1 Kings xix. 17); for evil pursues sinners. Nay, though they go out
   from the fire of temporal judgments, and seem to die in peace, yet
   there is an everlasting fire that will devour them; for, when God
   judges, first or last he will overcome, and he will be known by the
   judgments which he executes. See Matt. iii. 10; John xv. 6.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XVI.

   Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring
   upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the
   prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them
   as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared
   Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire;
   in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice,
   ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the
   people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they
   had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long
   discourse are set forth, I. The despicable and deplorable beginnings of
   that church and nation, ver. 3-5. II. The many honours and favours God
   had bestowed upon them, ver. 6-14. III. Their treacherous and
   ungrateful departures from him to the services and worship of idols,
   here represented by the most impudent whoredom, ver. 15-34. IV. A
   threatening of terrible destroying judgments, which God would bring
   upon them for this sin, ver. 35-43. V. An aggravation both of their sin
   and of their punishment, by comparison with Sodom and Samaria, ver.
   44-59. VI. A promise of mercy in the close, which God would show to a
   penitent remnant, ver. 60-63. And this is designed for admonition to
   us.

The Meanness of Judah's Origin. (b. c. 593.)

   1 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,   3 And say, Thus saith the
   Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of
   Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.   4 And as
   for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut,
   neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted
   at all, nor swaddled at all.   5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of
   these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out
   in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou
   wast born.

   Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at
   Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel
   upon the spot with them (ch. xxix.), so Ezekiel wrote for the use of
   Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was resident there; and yet they
   were far from looking upon it as an affront to one another's help both
   by preaching and writing. Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their
   consolation, which was the thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed
   to write to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and
   humiliation, which was the thing they needed.

   I. This is his commission (v. 2): "Cause Jerusalem to know her
   abominations (that is, her sins); set them in order before her." Note,
   1. Sins are not only provocations which God is angry at, but
   abominations which he hates, as contrary to his nature, and which we
   ought to hate, Jer. xliv. 4. 2. The sins of Jerusalem are in a special
   manner so. The practice of profaneness appears most odious in those
   that make a profession of religion. 3. Though Jerusalem is a place of
   great knowledge, yet she is loth to know her abominations; so partial
   are men in their own favour that they are hardly made to see and own
   their own badness, but deny it, palliate or extenuate it. 4. It is
   requisite that we should know our sins, that we may confess them, and
   may justify God in what he brings upon us for them. 5. It is the work
   of ministers to cause sinners, sinners in Jerusalem, to know their
   abominations, to set before them the glass of the law, that in it they
   may see their own deformities and defilements, to tell them plainly of
   their faults. Thou art the man.

   II. That Jerusalem may be made to know her abominations, and
   particularly the abominable ingratitude she had been guilty of, it was
   requisite that she should be put in mind of the great things God had
   done for her, as the aggravations of her bad conduct towards him; and,
   to magnify those favours, she is in these verses made to know the
   meanness and baseness of her original, from what poor beginnings God
   raised her, and how unworthy she was of his favour and of the honour he
   had put upon her. Jerusalem is here put for the Jewish church and
   nation, which is here compared to an outcast child, base-born and
   abandoned, which the mother herself has no affection nor concern for.
   1. The extraction of the Jewish nation was mean: "Thy birth is of the
   land of Canaan (v. 3); thou hadst from the very first the spirit and
   disposition of a Canaanite." The patriarchs dwelt in Canaan, and they
   were there but strangers and sojourners, had no possession, no power,
   not one foot of ground of their own but a burying-place. Abraham and
   Sarah were indeed their father and mother, but they were only inmates
   with the Amorites and Hittites, who, having the dominion, seemed to be
   as parents to the seed of Abraham, witness the court Abraham made to
   the children of Seth (Gen. xxiii. 4, 8), the dependence they had upon
   their neighbours the Canaanites, and the fear they were in of them,
   Gen. xiii. 7; xxxiv. 30. If the patriarchs, at their first coming to
   Canaan, had conquered it, and made themselves masters of it, this would
   have put an honour upon their family and would have looked great in
   history; but, instead of that, they went from one nation to another
   (Ps. cv. 13), as tenants from one farm to another, almost as beggars
   from one door to another, when they were but few in number, yea, very
   few. And yet this was not the worst; their fathers had served other
   gods in Ur of the Chaldees (Josh. xxiv. 2); even in Jacob's family
   there were strange gods, Gen. xxxv. 2. Thus early had they a genius
   leading them to idolatry; and upon this account their ancestors were
   Amorites and Hittites. 2. When they first began to multiply their
   condition was really very deplorable, like that of a new-born child,
   which must of necessity die from the womb if the knees prevent it not,
   Job iii. 11, 12. The children of Israel, when they began to increase
   into a people and became considerable, were thrown out from the country
   that was intended for them; a famine drove them thence. Egypt was the
   open field into which they were cast; there they had no protection or
   countenance from the government they were under, but, on the contrary,
   were ruled with rigour, and their lives embittered; they had no
   encouragement given them to build up their families, no help to build
   up their estates, no friends or allies to strengthen their interests.
   Joseph, who had been the shepherd and stone of Israel, was dead; the
   king of Egypt, who should have been kind to them for Joseph's sake, set
   himself to destroy this man-child as soon as it was born (Rev. xii. 4),
   ordered all the males to be slain, which, it is likely, occasioned the
   exposing of many as well as Moses, to which perhaps the similitude here
   has reference. The founders of nations and cities had occasion for all
   the arts and arms they were masters of, set their heads on work, by
   policies and stratagems, to preserve and nurse up their infant states.
   Tantæ molis erat Romanam condere gentem--So vast were the efforts
   requisite to the establishment of the Roman name. Virgil. But the
   nation of Israel had no such care taken of it, no such pains taken with
   it, as Athens, Sparta, Rome, and other commonwealths had when they were
   first founded, but, on the contrary, was doomed to destruction, like an
   infant new-born, exposed to wind and weather, the navel-string not cut,
   the poor babe not washed, not clothed, no swaddled, because not pitied,
   v. 4, 5. Note, We owe the preservation of our infant lives to the
   natural pity and compassion which the God of nature has put into the
   hearts of parents and nurses towards new-born children. This infant is
   said to be cast out, to the loathing of her person; it was a sign that
   she was loathed by those that bore her, and she appeared loathsome to
   all that looked upon her. The Israelites were an abomination to the
   Egyptians, as we find Gen. xliii. 32; xlvi. 34. Some think that this
   refers to the corrupt and vicious disposition of that people from their
   beginning: they were not only the weakest and fewest of all people
   (Deut. vii. 7), but the worst and most ill-humoured of all people. God
   giveth thee this good land, not for thy righteousness, for thou art a
   stiff-necked people, Deut. ix. 6. And Moses tells them there (v. 24),
   You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
   They were not suppled, nor washed, nor swaddled; they were not at all
   tractable or manageable, nor cast into any good shape. God took them to
   be his people, not because he saw any thing in them inviting or
   promising, but so it seemed good in his sight. And it is a very apt
   illustration of the miserable condition of all the children of men by
   nature. As for our nativity, in the day that we were born we were
   shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, our understandings darkened,
   our minds alienated from the life of God, polluted with sin, which
   rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God. Marvel not then that we are
   told, You must be born again.

God's Kindness to Israel. (b. c. 593.)

   6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
   I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto
   thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.   7 I have caused thee to
   multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
   great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are
   fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
   8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
   the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy
   nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with
   thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.   9 Then washed I
   thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and
   I anointed thee with oil.   10 I clothed thee also with broidered work,
   and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine
   linen, and I covered thee with silk.   11 I decked thee also with
   ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
     12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and
   a beautiful crown upon thine head.   13 Thus wast thou decked with gold
   and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered
   work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast
   exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.   14 And
   thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was
   perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the
   Lord God.

   In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did
   for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very
   considerable. 1. God saved them from the ruin they were upon the brink
   of in Egypt (v. 6): "When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in
   thy own blood, loathed and abandoned, and appointed to die, as sheep
   for the slaughter, then I said unto thee, Live. I designed thee for
   life when thou wast doomed to destruction, and resolved to save thee
   from death." Those shall live to whom God commands life. God looked
   upon the world of mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus
   polluted, thus weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were
   thoughts of good, designing it life, and that more abundantly. By
   converting grace, he says to the soul, Live. 2. He looked upon them
   with kindness and a tender affection, not only pitied them, but set his
   love upon them, which was unaccountable, for there was nothing lovely
   in them; but I looked upon thee, and, behold, thy time was the time of
   love, v. 8. It was the kindness and love of God our Saviour that sent
   Christ to redeem us, that sends the Spirit to sanctify us, that brought
   us out of a state of nature into a state of grace. That was a time of
   love indeed, distinguishing love, when God manifested his love to us,
   and courted our love to him. Then was I in his eyes as one that found
   favour, Cant. viii. 10. 3. He took them under his protection: "I spread
   my skirt over thee, to shelter thee from wind and weather, and to cover
   thy nakedness, that the shame of it might not appear." Boaz spread his
   skirt over Ruth, in token of the special favour he designed her, Ruth
   iii. 9. God took them into his care, as an eagle bears her young ones
   upon her wings, Deut. xxxii. 11, 12. When God owned them for his
   people, and sent Moses to Egypt to deliver them, which was an
   expression of the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush, then he
   spread his skirt over them. 4. He cleared them from the reproachful
   character which their bondage in Egypt laid them under (v. 9): "Then
   washed I thee with water, to make thee clean, and anointed thee with
   oil, to make thee sweet and supple thee." All the disgrace of their
   slavery was rolled away when they were brought, with a high hand and a
   stretched-out arm, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
   When God said, Israel is my son, my first-born--Let my people go, that
   they may serve me, that word, backed as it was with so many works of
   wonder, thoroughly washed away their blood; and when God led them under
   the convoy of the pillar of cloud and fire he spread his skirt over
   them. 5. He multiplied them and built them up into a people. This is
   here mentioned (v. 7) before his spreading his skirt over them, because
   their numbers increased exceedingly while they were yet bond-slaves in
   Egypt. They multiplied as the bud of the field in spring time; they
   waxed great, exceedingly mighty, Exod. i. 7, 20. Their breasts were
   fashioned when they were formed into distinct tribes and had officers
   of their own (Exod. v. 19); their hair grew when they grew numerous,
   whereas they had been naked and bare, very few and therefore
   contemptible. 6. He admitted them into covenant with himself. See what
   glorious nuptials this poor forlorn infant is preferred to at last. How
   she is dignified who at first had scarcely her life given her for a
   prey: I swore unto thee and entered into covenant with thee. This was
   done at Mount Sinai: "when the covenant between God and Israel was
   sealed and ratified then thou becamest mine." God called them his
   people, and himself the God of Israel. Note, Those to whom God gives
   spiritual life he takes into covenant with himself; by that covenant
   they become his subjects and servants, which intimates their duty--his
   portion, his treasure, which intimates their privilege; and it is
   confirmed with an oath, that we might have strong consolation. 7. He
   beautified and adorned them. This maid cannot forget her ornaments, and
   she is gratified with abundance of them, v. 10-13. We need not be
   particular in the application of these. Her wardrobe was well furnished
   with rich apparel; they had embroidered work to wear, shoes of fine
   badgers' skins, linen girdles, and silk veils, bracelets and necklaces,
   jewels and ear-rings, and even a beautiful crown, or coronet. Perhaps
   this may refer to the jewels and other rich goods which they took from
   the Egyptians, which might well be spoken of thus long after as a
   merciful circumstance of their deliverance, when it was spoken of long
   before, Gen. xv. 14. They shall come out with great substance. Or it
   may be taken figuratively for all those blessings of heaven which
   adorned both their church and state. In a little time they came to
   excellent ornaments, v. 7. The laws and ordinances which God gave them
   were to them as ornaments of grace to the head and chains about the
   neck, Prov. i. 9. God's sanctuary, which he set up among them, was a
   beautiful crown upon their head; it was the beauty of holiness. 8. He
   fed them with abundance, with plenty, with dainty: Thou didst eat fine
   flour, and honey, and oil--manna, angels' food--honey out of the rock,
   oil out of the flinty rock. In Canaan they did eat bread to the full,
   the finest of the wheat, Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. Those whom God takes into
   covenant with himself are fed with the bread of life, clothed with the
   robe of righteousness, adorned with the graces and comforts of the
   spirit. The hidden man of the heart is that which is incorruptible. 9.
   He gave them great reputation among their neighbours, and made them
   considerable, acceptable to their friends and allies and formidable to
   their adversaries: Thou didst prosper into a kingdom (v. 13), which
   speaks both dignity and dominion; and, They renown went forth among the
   heathen for thy beauty, v. 14. The nations about had their eye upon
   them, and admired them for the excellent laws by which they were
   governed, the privilege they had of access to God, Deut. iv. 7, 8.
   Solomon's wisdom, and Solomon's temple, were very much the renown of
   that nation; and, if we put all the privileges of the Jewish church and
   kingdom together, we must own that it was the most accomplished beauty
   of all the nations of the earth. The beauty of it was perfect; you
   could not name the thing that would be the honour of a people but it
   was to be found in Israel, in David's and Solomon's time, when that
   kingdom was in its zenith-piety, learning, wisdom, justice, victory,
   peace, wealth, and all sure to continue if they had kept close to God.
   It was perfect, saith God, through my comeliness which I had put upon
   thee, through the beauty of their holiness, as they were a people set
   apart for God, and devoted to him, to be to him for a name, and for a
   praise, and for a glory. It was this that put a lustre upon all their
   other honours and was indeed the perfection of their beauty. We may
   apply this spiritually. Sanctified souls are truly beautiful; they are
   so in God's sight, and they themselves may take the comfort of it. But
   God must have all the glory, for they were by nature deformed and
   polluted, and, whatever comeliness they have, it is that which God has
   put upon them and beautified them with, and he will be well pleased
   with the work of his own hands.

Ingratitude of Israel; Shameful Idolatry of Israel. (b. c. 593.)

   15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot
   because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one
   that passed by; his it was.   16 And of thy garments thou didst take,
   and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the
   harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be
   so.   17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my
   silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men,
   and didst commit whoredom with them,   18 And tookest thy broidered
   garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine
   incense before them.   19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour,
   and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before
   them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.   20
   Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast
   borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured.
   Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,   21 That thou hast slain my
   children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for
   them?   22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast
   not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare,
   and wast polluted in thy blood.   23 And it came to pass after all thy
   wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord God;)   24 That thou
   hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee a high
   place in every street.   25 Thou hast built thy high place at every
   head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast
   opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy
   whoredoms.   26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians
   thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to
   provoke me to anger.   27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my
   hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered
   thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the
   Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.   28 Thou hast played
   the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea,
   thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be
   satisfied.   29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the
   land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
     30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all
   these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;   31 In that thou
   buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine
   high place in every street; and hast not been as a harlot, in that thou
   scornest hire;   32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which
   taketh strangers instead of her husband!   33 They give gifts to all
   whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them,
   that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.   34 And
   the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none
   followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward,
   and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

   In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the
   people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the
   great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would
   think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness
   of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation
   of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well
   provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all
   respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great
   provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of
   Solomon's time (for from Samuel's till then I do not remember that we
   read any thing of it), and thenceforward continued more or less the
   crying sin of that nation till the captivity; and, though it now and
   then met with some check from the reforming kings, yet it was never
   totally suppressed, and for the most part appeared to a high degree
   impudent and barefaced. They not only worshipped the true God by
   images, as the ten tribes by the calves at Dan and Bethel, but they
   worshipped false gods, Baal and Moloch, and all the senseless rabble of
   the pagan deities.

   This is that which is here all along represented (as often elsewhere)
   under the similitude of whoredom and adultery, 1. Because it is the
   violation of a marriage-covenant with God, forsaking him and embracing
   the bosom of a stranger; it is giving that affection and that service
   to his rivals which are due to him alone. 2. Because it is the
   corrupting and defiling of the mind, and the enslaving of the spiritual
   part of the man, and subjecting it to the power and dominion of sense,
   as whoredom is. 3. Because it debauches the conscience, sears and
   hardens it; and those who by their idolatries dishonour the divine
   nature, and change the truth of God into a lie and his glory into
   shame, God justly punishes by giving them over to a reprobate mind, to
   dishonour the human nature with vile affections, Rom. i. 23, &c. It is
   a besotting bewitching sin; and, when men are given up to it, they
   seldom recover themselves out of the snare. 4. Because it is a shameful
   scandalous sin for those that have joined themselves to the Lord to
   join themselves to an idol. Now observe here,

   I. What were the causes of this sin. How came the people of God to be
   drawn away to the service of idols? How came a virgin so well taught,
   so well educated, to be debauched? Who would have thought it? But, 1.
   They grew proud (v. 15): "Thou trustedst to thy beauty, and didst
   expect that that should make thee an interest, and didst play the
   harlot because of thy renown." They thought, because they were so
   complimented and admired by their neighbours, that, further to
   ingratiate themselves with them and return their compliments, they must
   join with them in their worship and conform to their usages. Solomon
   admitted idolatry, to gratify his wives and their relations. Note,
   Abundance of young people are ruined by pride and particularly pride in
   their beauty. Rara est concordia formæ atque pudicitiæ--Beauty and
   chastity are seldom associated 2. They forgot their beginning (v. 22)
   "Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, how poor, and mean,
   and despicable thou wast, and what great things God did for thee and
   what lasting obligations he laid upon thee thereby." Note, It should be
   an effectual check to our pride and sensuality to consider what we are
   and how much we are beholden to the free grace of God. 3. They were
   weak in understanding and in resolution (v. 30): How weak is thy heart,
   seeing thou dost all these things. Note, The strength of men's lusts is
   an evidence of the weakness of their hearts; they have no acquaintance
   with themselves, nor government of themselves. She is weak, and yet an
   imperious whorish woman. Note, Those that are most foolish are commonly
   most imperious, and think themselves fit to manage others when they are
   far from being able to manage themselves.

   II. What were the particulars of it. 1. They worshipped all the idols
   that came in their way, all that they were ever courted to the worship
   of; they were at the beck of all their neighbours (v. 15): Thou
   pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
   They were ready to close with every temptation of this kind, though
   ever so absurd. No foreign idol could be imported, no new god invented,
   but they were ready to catch at it, as a common trumpet that
   prostitutes herself to all comers and multiplies her whoredoms, v. 25.
   Thus some common drunkards will be company for every one that puts up
   the finger to them; how weak are the hearts of such! 2. They adorned
   their idol-temples, and groves, and high places, with the fine rich
   clothing that God had given them (v. 16, 18): Thou deckedst thy high
   places with divers colours, with the coats of divers colours, like
   Joseph's, which God had given them as particular marks of his favour,
   and hast played the harlot (that is, worshipped idols) thereupon. Of
   this he saith, "The like things shall not come, neither shall it be so;
   that is, this is a thing by no means to be suffered; I will never
   endure such practices as these without showing my resentments." 3. They
   made images for worship of the jewels which God had given them (v. 17):
   The jewels of my gold and my silver which I had given thee. Note, It is
   God that gives us our gold and silver; the products of trade, of art
   and industry, are the gifts of God's providence to us, as well as the
   fruits of the earth. And what God gives us the use of he still retains
   a property in. "It is my silver and my gold, though I have given it to
   thee." It is his still, so that we ought to serve and honour him with
   it, and are accountable to him for the disposal of it. Every penny has
   God's image upon it as well as Cæsar's. Should we make our silver and
   gold, our plate, money, and jewels, the matter of our pride and
   contention, our covetousness and prodigality, if we duly considered
   that they were God's silver and his gold? The Israelites began betimes
   to turn their jewels into idols, when Aaron made the golden calf of
   their earrings. 4. They served their idols with the good things which
   God gave them for their own use and to serve him with (v. 18): "Thou
   hast set my oil and my incense before the, upon their altars, as
   perfumes to these dunghill-deities; my meat, and fine flour, and oil,
   and that honey which Canaan flowed with, and wherewith I fed thee, thou
   hast regaled them and their hungry priests with, hast made an offering
   of it to them for a sweet savour, to purify them, and procure
   acceptance with them: and thus it was, saith the Lord God; it is too
   plain to be denied, too bad to be excused. These things thou hast done.
   He that knows all things knows it." See how fond they were of their
   idols, that they would part with that which was given them for the
   necessary subsistence of themselves and their families to honour them
   with, which may shame our niggardliness and strait-handedness in the
   service of the true and living God. 5. They had sacrificed their
   children to their idols. This is insisted upon here, and often
   elsewhere, as one of the worst instances of their idolatry, as indeed
   there was none in which the devil triumphed so much over the children
   of men, both their natural reason and their natural affection, as in
   this (see Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35): Thou hast taken thy sons
   and thy daughters, and not only made them to pass through the fire, or
   between two fires, in token of their being dedicated to Moloch, but
   thou hast sacrificed them to be devoured, v. 20. Never was there such
   an instance of the degenerating of the paternal authority into the most
   barbarous tyranny as this was. Yet that was not the worst of it: it was
   an irreparable wrong to God himself, who challenged a special property
   in their children more than in their gold and silver and their meat:
   They are my children (v. 21), the sons and daughters which thou hast
   borne unto me, v. 20. He is the Father of spirits, and rational souls
   are in a particular manner his; and therefore the taking away of life,
   human life, unjustly, is a high affront to the God of life. But the
   children of Israelites were his by a further right; they were the
   children of the covenant, born in God's house. He had said to Abraham,
   I will be a God to thee and to thy seed; they had the seal of the
   covenant in their flesh from eight days old; they were to bear God's
   name, and keep up his church; to murder them was in the highest degree
   inhuman, but to murder them in honour of an idol was in the highest
   degree impious. One cannot think of it without the utmost indignation:
   to see the pitiless hands of the parents shedding the guiltless blood
   of their own children, and by offering those pieces of themselves to
   the devil for buying sacrifices openly avowing the offering up of
   themselves to him for living sacrifices! How absurd was this, that the
   children which were born to God should be sacrificed to devils! Note,
   The children of parents that are members of the visible church are to
   be looked upon as born unto God, and his children,; as such, and under
   that character, we are to love them, and pray for them, bring them up
   for him, and, if he calls for them, cheerfully part with them to him;
   for may he not do what he will with his own? Upon this instance of
   their idolatry, which indeed ought not to pass without a particular
   brand, this remark is made (v. 20), Is this of thy whoredoms a small
   matter? which intimates that there were those who made a small matter
   of it, and turned it into a jest. Note, There is no sin so heinous, so
   apparently heinous, which men of profligate consciences will not make a
   mock at. But is whoredom, is spiritual whoredom, a small matter? Is it
   a small matter for men to make their children brutes and the devil
   their god? It will be a great matter shortly. 6. They built temples in
   honour of their idols, that others might be invited to resort thither
   and join with them in the worship of their idols: "After all thy
   wickedness of this kind committed in private, for which, woe, woe, unto
   thee" (that comes in in a sad parenthesis, denoting those to be in a
   woeful condition who are going on in sin, and giving them warning in
   time, if they would but take it), "thou hast at length arrived at such
   a pitch of impudence as to proclaim it; thou hast long had a whore's
   heart, but now thou hast come to have a whore's forehead, and canst not
   blush," v. 23-35. Thou hast built there an eminent place, a
   brothel-house (so the margin reads it), and such their idol temples
   were. Thou hast made for thyself a high place, for one idol or other,
   in every street, and at every head of the way; and again v. 31. They
   did all they could to seduce and debauch others, and to spread the
   contagion, by making the temptations to idolatry as strong as possibly
   they could; and hereby the ringleaders in idolatry did but make
   themselves vile, and even those that had courted them to it, finding
   themselves outdone by them, began to be surfeited with the abundance
   and violence of their idolatries: Thou hast made thy beauty to be
   abhorred, even by those that had admired it. The Jewish nation, by
   leaving their own God, and doting on the gods of the nations round
   about them, had made themselves mean and despicable in the eyes even of
   their heathen neighbours; much more was their beauty abhorred by all
   that were wise and good, and had any concern for the honour of God and
   religion. Note, Those shame themselves that bring a reproach on their
   profession. And justly will that beauty, that excellency, at length be
   made the object of the loathing of others which men have made the
   matter of their own pride.

   III. What were the aggravations of this sin.

   1. They were fond of the idols of those nations which had been their
   oppressors and persecutors. As, (1.) The Egyptians. They were a people
   notorious for idolatry, and for the most sottish senseless idolatries;
   they had of old abused Israel by their barbarous dealings, and of late
   by their treacherous dealings-were always either cruel or false to
   them; and yet so infatuated were they that they committed fornication
   with the Egyptians their neighbours, not only by joining with them in
   their idolatries, but by entering into leagues and alliances with them,
   and depending upon them for help in their straits, which was an
   adulterous departure from God. (2.) The Assyrians. They had also been
   vexatious to Israel: "And yet thou hast played the whore with them (v.
   28); though they lived at a greater distance, yet thou hast entertained
   their idols and their superstitious usages, and so hast multiplied thy
   fornications unto Chaldea, hast borrowed images of gods, patterns of
   altars, rites of sacrificing, and one foolery or other of that kind,
   from that remote country, that enemy's country, and hast imported them
   into the land of Canaan, enfranchised and established them there." Thus
   Mr. George Herbert long since foretold, or feared at least,


   That Seine shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames

   By letting in them both pollute her streams.

   2. They had been under the rebukes of Providence for their sins, and
   yet they persisted in them (v. 27): I have stretched out my hand over
   thee, to threaten and frighten thee. So God did before he laid his hand
   upon them to ruin and destroy them; and that is his usual method, to
   try to bring men to repentance first by less judgments. He did so here.
   Before he brought such a famine upon them as broke the staff of bread
   he diminished their ordinary food, cut them short before he cut them
   off. When the overplus is abused, it is just with God to diminish that
   which is for necessity. Before he delivered them to the Chaldeans to be
   destroyed he delivered them to the daughters of the Philistines to be
   ridiculed for their idolatries; for they hated them, and, though they
   were idolaters themselves, yet were ashamed of the lewd way of the
   Israelites, who had grown more profane in their idolatries than any of
   their neighbours, who changed their gods, whereas other nations did not
   change theirs, Jer. ii. 10, 11. For this they were justly chastised by
   the Philistines. Or it may refer to the inroads which the Philistines
   made upon the south of Judah in the reign of Ahaz, by which it was
   weakened and impoverished, and which was the beginning of sorrows to
   them (2 Chron. xxviii. 18); but they did not take warning by those
   judgments, and therefore were justly abandoned to ruin at last. Note,
   In the account which impenitent sinners shall be called to they will be
   told not only of the mercies for which they have been ungrateful, but
   of the afflictions under which they have been incorrigible, Amos iv.
   11.

   3. They were insatiable in their spiritual whoredom: Thou couldst not
   be satisfied, v. 28 and again v. 29. When they had multiplied their
   idols and superstitious usages beyond measure, yet still they were
   enquiring after new gods and new fashions in worship. Those that in
   sincerity join themselves to the true God find enough in him for their
   satisfaction; and, though they still desire more of God, yet they never
   desire more than God. But those that forsake this living fountain for
   broken cisterns will find themselves soon surfeited, but never
   satisfied; they have soon enough of the gods they have, and are still
   enquiring after more.

   4. They were at great expense with their idolatry, and laid out a great
   deal of wealth in purchasing patterns of images and altars, and hiring
   priests to attend upon them from other countries. Harlots generally had
   their hire; but this impudent adulteress, instead of being hired to
   serve idols, hired idols to protect her and accept her homage. This is
   much insisted on, v. 31-34. "In this respect the contrary is in thee
   from other women in thy whoredoms: others are courted, but thou makest
   court to those that do not follow thee, art fond of making leagues and
   alliances with those heathen nations that despise thee; others have
   gifts given them, but thou givest thy gifts, the gifts which God had
   graciously given thee, to thy idols; herein thou art like a wife that
   commits adultery, not for gain, as harlots do, but entirely for the
   sin's sake." Note, Spiritual lusts, those of the mind, such as theirs
   after idols were, are often as strong and impetuous as any carnal lusts
   are. And it is a great aggravation of sin when men are their own
   tempters, and, instead of proposing to themselves any worldly advantage
   by their sin, are at great expense with it; such are transgressors
   without cause (Ps. xxv. 3), wicked transgressors indeed.

   And now is not Jerusalem in all this made to know her abominations? For
   what greater abominations could she be guilty of than these? Here we
   may see with wonder and horror what the corrupt nature of men is when
   God leaves them to themselves, yea, though they have the greatest
   advantages to be better and do better. And the way of sin is down-hill.
   Nitimur in vetitum--We incline to what is forbidden.

Grievous Punishment of Israel; Punishment Threatened. (b. c. 593.)

   35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord:   36 Thus saith the
   Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness
   discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the
   idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou
   didst give unto them;   37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy
   lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast
   loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them
   round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them,
   that they may see all thy nakedness.   38 And I will judge thee, as
   women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give
   thee blood in fury and jealousy.   39 And I will also give thee into
   their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall
   break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes,
   and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.   40
   They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone
   thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.   41 And
   they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee
   in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing
   the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.   42 So will I
   make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from
   thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.   43 Because thou
   hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all
   these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon
   thine head, saith the Lord God: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness
   above all thine abominations.

   Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious
   adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses
   found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with
   solemnity, v. 35. The prophet, as the judge, in God's name calls to
   her, O harlot! hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to
   harlots, for their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God,
   not as the prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate
   church is a harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has
   the faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the
   Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here. Rev. xvii.
   1, Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore. Those
   who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it shall be
   made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble at it.
   Let us attend while judgment is given.

   I. The crime is stated and the articles of the charge are summed up (v.
   36) and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations (v. 43); for when
   God speaks in wrath he will be justified, and clear when he judges,
   clear when he is judged; and sinners, when they are condemned, shall
   have their sins so set in order before them that their mouth shall be
   stopped and they shall not have a word to object against the equity of
   the sentence. The crimes which this harlot stands convicted of, and is
   now to be condemned for, are, 1. The violation of the first two
   commandments of the first table by idolatry, which is here called her
   whoredoms with her lovers (so she called them, Hos. ii. 12, because she
   loved them as if they had been indeed her benefactors), that is, with
   all the idols of her abominations, the abominable idols which she
   served and worshipped. This was the sin which provoked God to jealousy.
   2. The violation of the first two commandments of the second table by
   the murder of their own innocent infants: The blood of thy children
   which thou didst give unto them. It is not strange if those that have
   cast off God and his fear break through the strongest and most sacred
   bonds of natural affection. Their sins are aggravated from the
   consideration, (1.) Of the dishonour they had thereby done to
   themselves: "Hereby thy filthiness was poured out; the uncleanness that
   was in thy heart was hereby discovered and brought to light, and thy
   nakedness was exposed to view, and thou wast there by exposed to
   contempt." God is displeased with his professing people for shaming
   themselves by their sins. (2.) Their base ingratitude is another
   aggravation of their sins: "Thou hast not remembered the days of thy
   youth, and the kindness that was done thee then, when otherwise thou
   wouldst have perished," v. 43. And, (3.) The vexation which their sins
   gave to God, whom they ought to have pleased: "Thou hast fretted me in
   all these things, not only angered me, but grieved me." It is a strange
   expression, and, one would think, enough to melt a heart of stone, that
   the great God, who cannot admit any uneasiness, is pleased to speak of
   the sins and follies of his professing people as fretting to him. Forty
   years long was I grieved with this generation.

   II. The sentence is passed in general: I will judge thee as women that
   break wedlock and shed blood are judged (v. 38), and those two crimes
   were punished with death, with an ignominious death. "Thou hast shed
   blood, and therefore I will give thee blood; thou hast broken wedlock,
   and therefore I will give it thee, not only in justice, but in
   jealousy, not only as a righteous Judge, but as an injured and incensed
   husband, who will not spare in the day of vengeance," Prov. vi. 34, 35.
   He will recompense their way upon their head, v. 43. In all the
   judgments God executes upon sinners we must see their own way
   recompensed upon their head; they are dealt with not only as they
   deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as a
   way, had a direct tendency to. More particularly, 1. This criminal must
   be (as is usually done with criminals) exposed to public shame, v. 37.
   Malefactors are not executed privately, but are made a spectacle to the
   world. Care is here taken to bring spectators together: "All those whom
   thou hast loved, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, shall come to be
   witnesses of the execution, that they may take warning and prevent
   their own like ruin; and those also whom thou hast hated, who will
   insult over thee and triumph in thy fall." Both ways the calamities of
   Jerusalem will be aggravated, that they will be the grief of her
   friends and the joy of her foes. These shall not only be gathered
   around her, but gathered against her; even those with whom she took
   unlawful pleasure, with whom she contracted unlawful leagues, the
   Egyptians and Assyrians, shall now contribute to her ruin. As, when a
   man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace
   with him, so when a man's ways displease the Lord he makes even his
   friends to be at war with him; and justly makes those a scourge and a
   plague to sinners, and instruments of their destruction, who were their
   tempters, and with whom they were partakers in wickedness. Those whom
   they have suffered to strip them of their virtue shall see them
   stripped, and perhaps help to strip them, of all their other ornaments;
   to see the nakedness of the land will they come. It is added, to the
   same purport (v. 41), I will execute judgments upon thee in the sight
   of many women; thou shalt be made an example of in terrorem--that
   others may see and fear and do no more presumptuously. 2. The criminal
   is condemned to die, for her sins are such as death is the wages of (v.
   40): They shall bring up a company (that is, a company shall be brought
   up) against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust
   thee through with their swords; so great a death, so many deaths in
   one, is this adulteress adjudged to. When the walls of Jerusalem were
   battered down with stones shot against them, and the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem were put to the sword, then this sentence was executed in the
   letter of it. 3. The estate of the criminal is confiscated, and all
   that belonged to her destroyed with her (v. 39): They shall throw down
   thy eminent place, and (v. 41) they shall burn thy houses, as the
   habitations of bad women are destroyed, in detestation of their
   lewdness. Their high places, erected in honour of their idols, by which
   they thought to ingratiate themselves with their neighbours, shall be
   an offence to them, and even they shall break them down. It was long
   the complaint, even in some of the best reigns of the kings of Judah,
   that the high places were not taken away; but now the army of the
   Chaldeans, when they lay all waste, shall break them down. If iniquity
   be not taken away by the justice of the nation, it shall be taken away
   by the judgments of God upon the nation. 4. Thus both the sin and the
   sinners shall be abolished together, and an end put to both: Thou shalt
   cease from playing the harlot; there shall be no remainders of idolatry
   in the land, because the inhabitants shall be wholly extirpated, and
   they shall give no more hire because they shall have no more to give.
   Some that will not leave their sins live till their sins leave them.
   When all that with which they honoured their idols is taken from them
   they shall not give hire any more (v. 41): "Then thou shalt not commit
   this lewdness of sacrificing thy children, which was a crime provoking
   above all thy abominations, for thy children shall all be cut off by
   the sword or carried into captivity, so that thou shalt have none to
   sacrifice," v. 43. Or it may be meant of the reformation of those of
   them that escape and survive the punishment; they shall take warning,
   and shall do no more presumptuously. The captivity in Babylon made the
   people of Israel to cease for ever from playing the harlot; it
   effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. And then all
   shall be well, when this is the fruit, even the taking away of sin;
   then (v. 42) my jealousy shall depart. I will be quiet, and no more
   angry. When we begin to be at war with sin God will be at peace with
   us; for he continues the affliction no longer than till it has done its
   work. When sin departs God's jealousy will soon depart, for he is never
   jealous but when we give him just cause to be so. Yet some understand
   this as a threatening of utter ruin, that God will make a full end and
   the fire of his anger shall burn as long as there is any fuel for it.
   His fury shall rest upon them, and not remove. Compare this with that
   doom of unbelievers, John iii. 36. The wrath of God abideth on them.
   They shall drink the dregs of the cup, and then God will be no more
   angry, for he is eased of his adversaries (Isa. i. 24), is satisfied in
   the abandoning of them, and therefore will be no more angry, because
   there are no more for his anger to fasten upon. They had fretted him,
   when judgment and mercy were contesting; but now he is quiet, as he
   will be in the eternal damnation of sinners, wherein he will be
   glorified, and therefore he will be satisfied.

The Wickedness of Jerusalem; Punishment of Jerusalem. (b. c. 593.)

   44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against
   thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.   45 Thou art thy
   mother's daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children; and thou
   art the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and their
   children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.   46
   And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at
   thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand,
   is Sodom and her daughters.   47 Yet hast thou not walked after their
   ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very
   little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.   48
   As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor
   her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.   49 Behold,
   this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and
   abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she
   strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.   50 And they were haughty,
   and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I
   saw good.   51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but
   thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast
   justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
   52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for
   thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are
   more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy
   shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.   53 When I shall bring
   again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and
   the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the
   captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:   54 That thou mayest
   bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast
   done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.   55 When thy sisters,
   Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and
   Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then
   thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.   56 For thy
   sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
   57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach
   of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the
   daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.   58 Thou
   hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the Lord.   59
   For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou hast
   done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

   The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing
   her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she
   was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly
   and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by
   comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but
   as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not
   dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad,
   are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,

   I. That she was as bad as her mother, that is, as the accursed devoted
   Canaanites that were the possessors of this land before her. Those that
   use proverbs, as most people do, shall apply that proverb to Jerusalem,
   As is the mother, so is her daughter, v. 44. She is her mother's own
   child. The Jews are as like the Canaanites in temper and inclination as
   if they had been their own children. The character of the mother was
   that she loathed her husband and her children, she had all the marks of
   an adulteress; and that is the character of the daughter: she forsakes
   the guide of her youth, and is barbarous to the children of her own
   bowels. When God brought Israel into Canaan he particularly warned them
   not to do according to the abominations of the men of that land, who
   went before them (for which it had spued them out, Lev. xviii. 27, 28),
   the monuments of whose idolatry, with the remains of the idolaters
   themselves, would be a continual temptation to them; but they learned
   their way, and trod in their steps, and were as well affected to the
   idols of Canaan as ever they were (Ps. cvi. 38), and thus, in respect
   of imitation, it might truly be said that their mother was a Hittite
   and their father an Amorite (v. 45), for they resembled them more than
   Abraham and Sarah.

   II. That she was worse than her sisters Sodom and Samaria, that were
   adulteresses too, that loathed their husbands and their children, that
   were weary of the gods of their fathers, and were for introducing new
   gods, a-la-mode--quite in style, that came newly up, and new fashions
   in religion, and were given to change. On this comparison between
   Jerusalem and her sisters the prophet here enlarges, that he might
   either shame them into repentance or justify God in their ruin.
   Observe,

   1. Who Jerusalem's sisters were, v. 45. Samaria and Sodom. Samaria is
   called the elder sister, or rather the greater, because it was a much
   larger city and kingdom, richer and more considerable, and more nearly
   allied to Israel. If Jerusalem look northward, this is partly on her
   left hand. This city of Samaria, and the towns and villages, that were
   as daughters to that mother-city, these had been lately destroyed for
   their spiritual whoredom. Sodom, and the adjacent towns and villages
   that were her daughters, dwelt at Jerusalem's right hand, and was her
   less sister, less than Jerusalem, less than Samaria, and these were of
   old destroyed for their corporeal whoredom, Jude 7.

   2. Wherein Jerusalem's sins resembled her sisters', particularly
   Sodom's (v. 49): This was the iniquity of Sodom (it is implied, and
   this is thy iniquity too), pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
   idleness. Their going after strange flesh, which was Sodom's most
   flagrant wickedness, is not mentioned, because notoriously known, but
   those sins which did not look so black, but opened the door and led the
   way to these more enormous crimes, and began to fill that measure of
   her sins, which was filled up at length by their unnatural filthiness.
   Now these initiating sins were, (1.) Pride, in which the heart lifts up
   itself above and against both God and man. Pride was the first sin that
   turned angels into devils, and the garden of the Lord into a hell upon
   earth. It was the pride of the Sodomites that they despised righteous
   Lot, and would not bear to be reproved by him; and this ripened them
   for ruin. (2.) Gluttony, here called fulness of bread. It was God's
   great mercy that they had plenty, but their great sin that they abused
   it, glutted themselves with it, ate to excess and drank to excess, and
   made that the gratification of their lusts which was given them to be
   the support of their lives. (3.) Idleness, abundance of idleness, a
   dread of labour and a love of ease. Their country was fruitful, and the
   abundance they had they came easily by, which was a temptation to them
   to indulge themselves in sloth, which disposed them to all that
   abominable filthiness which kindled their flames. Note, Idleness is an
   inlet to much sin. The men of Sodom, who were idle, were wicked, and
   sinners before the Lord exceedingly, Gen. xiii. 13. The standing waters
   gather filth and the sitting bird is the fowler's mark. When David
   arose from off his bed at evening he saw Bathsheba. Quæritur, Ægisthus
   quare sit factus adulter? In promptu causa est; desidiosus erat--What
   made Ægisthus an adulterer? Indolence. (4.) Oppression: Neither did she
   strengthen the hands of the poor and needy; probably it is implied that
   she weakened their hands and broke their arms; however, it was bad
   enough that, when she had so much wealth, and consequently power and
   interest and leisure, she did nothing for the relief of the poor, in
   providing for whose wants those that themselves are full of bread may
   employ their time well; they need not be so abundantly idle as too
   often they are. These were the sins of the Sodomites, and these were
   Jerusalem's sins. Their pride, the cause of their sins, is mentioned
   again (v. 50): They were haughty, with the horrid effects of their
   sins, their abominations which they committed before God. Men arrive
   gradually at the height of impiety and wickedness. Nemo repente fit
   turpissimus--No man reaches the height of vice at once. But, where
   pride has got the ascendant in a man, he is in the high road to all
   abominations.

   3. How much the sins of Jerusalem exceeded those of Sodom and Samaria;
   they were more heinous in the sight of God, either in themselves or by
   reason of several aggravations: "Thou hast not only walked after their
   ways, and trod in their steps, but hast quite outdone them in
   wickedness, v. 47. Thou thoughtest it a very little thing to do as they
   did; didst laugh at them as sneaking sinners and silly ones; thou
   wouldst be more cunning, more daring, in wickedness, wouldst triumph
   more boldly over thy convictions, and bid more open defiance to God and
   religion: 'if a man will break, let him break for something.' Thus thou
   wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways." Jerusalem was more
   polite, and therefore sinned with more wit, more art and ingenuity,
   than Sodom and Samaria could. Jerusalem had more wealth and power, and
   its government was more absolute and arbitrary, and therefore had the
   more opportunity of oppressing the poor, and shedding malignant
   influences around her, than Sodom and Samaria had. Jerusalem had the
   temple, and the ark, and the priesthood, and kings of the house of
   David; and therefore the wickedness of that holy city, that was so
   dignified, so near, so dear to God, was more provoking to him than the
   wickedness of Sodom and Samaria, that had not Jerusalem's privileges
   and means of grace. Sodom has not done as thou hast done, v. 48. This
   agrees with what Christ says. Matt. xi. 24, It shall be more tolerable
   for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. The kingdom
   of the ten tribes had been very wicked; and yet Samaria has not
   committed half thy sins (v. 51), has not worshipped half so many idols,
   nor slain half so many prophets. It was bad enough that those of
   Jerusalem were guilty of Sodom's sins, Sodomy itself not excepted, 1
   Kings xiv. 24; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. And though the Dead Sea, the standing
   monument of Sodom's sin and ruin, bordered upon their country (Num.
   xxxiv. 12), and that sulphureous lake was always under their nose (God
   having taken away Sodom and her daughters in such way and manner as he
   saw good, as he says here, v. 50, so as that one thing should
   effectually make their overthrow an example to those that afterwards
   should live ungodly, 2 Pet. ii. 6), yet they did not take warning, but
   multiplied their abominations more than they; and, (1.) By this they
   justified Sodom and Samaria, v. 51. They pretended, in their
   haughtiness and superciliousness, to judge them, and in the days of
   old, when they retained their integrity, they did judge them, v. 52.
   But now they justify them comparatively: Sodom and Samaria are more
   righteous than thou, that is, less wicked. It will look like some
   extenuation of their sins that, bad as they were, Jerusalem was worse,
   though it was God's own city. Not that it will serve for a plea to
   justify Sodom, but it condemns Jerusalem, against which Sodom and
   Samaria will rise up in judgment. (2.) For this they ought themselves
   to be greatly ashamed: "Thou who hast judged thy sisters, and cried out
   shame on them, now bear thy own shame, for thy sins which thou hast
   committed, which, though of the same kind with theirs, yet, being
   committed by thee, are more abominable than theirs," v. 52. This may be
   taken either as foretelling their ruin (Thou shalt bear thy shame) or
   as inviting them to repentance: "Be thou confounded and bear thy shame;
   take the shame to thyself that is due to thee." It may be hoped that
   sinners will forsake their sins when they begin to be heartily ashamed
   of them. And therefore they shall go into captivity, and there they
   shall lie, that they may be confounded in all that they have done,
   because they had been a comfort and encouragement to Sodom and Samaria,
   v. 54. Note, There is nothing in sin which we have more reason to be
   ashamed of than this, that by our sin we have encouraged others in sin,
   and comforted them in that for which they must be grieved or they are
   undone. Another reason why they must now be ashamed is because in the
   day of their prosperity they had looked with so much disdain upon their
   neighbours: Thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thee in the day of
   they pride, v. 56. They thought Sodom not worthy to be named the same
   day with Jerusalem, little dreaming that Jerusalem would at length lie
   under a worse and more scandalous character than Sodom herself. Those
   that are high may perhaps come to stand upon a level with those they
   contemn. Or "Sodom was not mentioned, that is, the warning designed to
   be given to thee by Sodom's ruin was not regarded." If the Jews had but
   talked more frequently and seriously to one another, and to their
   children, concerning the wrath of God revealed from heaven against
   Sodom's ungodliness and unrighteousness, it might have kept them in
   awe, and prevented their treading in their steps; but they kept the
   thought of it at a distance, would not bear the mention of it, and (as
   the ancients say) put Isaiah to death for putting them in mind of it,
   when he called them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, Isa. i. 10.
   Note, Those are but preparing judgments for themselves that will not
   take notice of God's judgments upon others.

   4. What desolations God had brought and was bringing upon Jerusalem for
   these wickednesses, wherein they had exceeded Sodom and Samaria. (1.)
   She has already long ago been disgraced, and has fallen into contempt,
   among her neighbours (v. 57): Before her wickedness was discovered,
   before she came to be so grossly and openly flagitious, she bore the
   just punishment of her secret and more concealed lewdness, when she
   fell under the reproach of the daughters of Syria, of the Philistines,
   who were said to despise her and be ashamed of her (v. 27), and under
   the reproach of all that were round about her, which seems to refer to
   the descent made upon Judah by the Syrians in the days of Ahaz, and
   soon after another by the Philistines, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 18. Note,
   Those that disgrace themselves by yielding to their lusts will justly
   be brought into disgrace by being made to yield to their enemies; and
   it is observable that before God brought potent enemies upon them, for
   their destruction, he brought enemies upon them that were less
   formidable, for their reproach. If less judgments would do the work,
   God would not send greater. In this thou hast borne thy lewdness, v.
   58. Those that will not cast off their sins by repentance and
   reformation shall be made to bear their sins to their confusion. (2.)
   She is now in captivity, or hastening into captivity, and therein is
   reckoned with, not only for her lewdness (v. 58), but for her
   perfidiousness and covenant-breaking (v. 59): "I will deal with thee as
   thou hast done; I will forsake thee as thou hast forsaken me, and cast
   thee off as thou hast cast me off, for thou hast despised the oath, in
   breaking the covenant." This seems to be meant of the covenant God made
   with their fathers at Mount Sinai, whereby he took them and theirs to
   be a peculiar people to himself. They flattered themselves with a
   conceit that because God had hitherto continued his favour to them,
   notwithstanding their provocations, he would do so still. "No," says
   God, "you have broken covenant with me, have despised both the promises
   of the covenant and the obligations of it, and therefore I will deal
   with thee as thou hast done." Note, Those that will not adhere to God
   as their God have no reason to expect that he should continue to own
   them as his people. (3.) The captivity of the wicked Jews, and their
   ruin, shall be as irrevocable as that of Sodom and Samaria. In this
   sense, as a threatening, most interpreters take v. 53, 55. "When I
   shall bring again the captivity of Sodom and Samaria, and when they
   shall return to their former estate, then I will bring again the
   captivity of thy captives in the midst of them, and as it were for
   their sakes, and under their shadow and protection, because they are
   more righteous than thou, and then thou shalt return to thy former
   estate," But Sodom and Samaria were never brought back, nor ever
   returned to their former estate, and therefore let not Jerusalem expect
   it, that is, those who now remained there, whom God would deliver to be
   removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, Jer. xxiv.
   9, 10. Sooner shall the Sodomites arise out of the salt sea, and the
   Samaritans return out of the land of Assyria, than they enjoy their
   peace and prosperity again; for, to their shame be it spoken, it is a
   comfort to those of the ten tribes, who are dispersed and in captivity,
   to see those of the two tribes who had been as bad as they, or worse,
   in like manner dispersed and in captivity; and therefore they shall
   live and die, shall stand and fall, together. The bad ones of both
   shall perish together; the good ones of both shall return together.
   Note, Those who do as the worst of sinners do must expect to fare as
   they fare. Let my enemy be as the wicked.

Mercy in Reserve; Promise of Mercy. (b. c. 593.)

   60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of
   thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.   61
   Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt
   receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them
   unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.   62 And I will
   establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the
   Lord:   63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open
   thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee
   for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.

   Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of
   sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered,
   mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God
   swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they
   should not enter Canaan, "Yet" (says God) "your little ones shall;" so
   here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and
   Samaria (v. 53, 55), and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may
   be understood so, if by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the
   Jewish writers do) the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot,
   who once dwelt in Sodom; their captivity was returned (Jer. xlviii. 47;
   xlix. 6), as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah's with them.
   But these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which
   was in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews
   out of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in
   gospel-times, and in that repentance and that remission of sins which
   should then be preached with success to all nations, beginning at
   Jerusalem. Now observe here,

   I. Whence this mercy should take rise-from God himself, and his
   remembering his covenant with them (v. 60): Nevertheless, though they
   had been so provoking, and God had been provoked to such a degree that
   one would think they could never be reconciled again, yet "I will
   remember my covenant with thee, that covenant which I made with thee in
   the days of thy youth, and will revive it again. Though thou hast
   broken the covenant (v. 59), I will remember it, and it shall flourish
   again." See how much it is our comfort and advantage that God is
   pleased to deal with us in a covenant-way, for thus the mercies of it
   come to be sure mercies and everlasting (Isa. lv. 3); and, while this
   root stands firmly in the ground, there is hope of the tree, though it
   be cut down, that through the scent of water it will bud again. We do
   not find that they put him in mind of the covenant, but ex mero
   motu--from his own mere good pleasure, he remembers it as he had
   promised. Lev. xxvi. 42, Then will I remember my covenant, and will
   remember the land. He that bids us to be ever mindful of the covenant
   no doubt will himself be ever mindful of it, the word which he
   commanded (and what he commands stands fast for ever) to a thousand
   generations.

   II. How they should be prepared and qualified for this mercy (v. 61):
   "Thou shalt remember thy ways, thy evil ways; God will put thee in mind
   of them, will set them in order before thee, that thou mayest be
   ashamed of them." Note, God's good work in us commences and keeps pace
   with his good-will towards us. When he remembers his covenant for us,
   that he may not remember our sins against us, he puts us upon
   remembering our sins against ourselves. And if we will but be brought
   to remember our ways, how crooked and perverse they have been and how
   we have walked contrary to God in them, we cannot but be ashamed; and,
   when we are so, we are best prepared to receive the honour and comfort
   of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.

   III. What the mercy is that God has in reserve for them. 1. He will
   take them into covenant with himself (v. 60): I will establish unto
   thee an everlasting covenant; and again (v. 62), I will establish,
   re-establish, and establish more firmly than ever, my covenant with
   thee. Note, It is an unspeakable comfort to all true penitents that the
   covenant of grace is so well ordered in all things that every
   transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of the covenant,
   for that is inviolable. 2. He will bring the Gentiles into
   church-communion with them (v. 61): "Thou shalt receive thy sisters,
   the Gentile nations that are found about thee, thy elder and thy
   younger, greater than thou art and less, ancient nations and modern,
   and I will give them unto thee for daughters; they shall be founded,
   nursed, taught, and educated, by that gospel, that word of the Lord,
   which shall go forth from Zion and from Jerusalem; so that all the
   neighbours shall call Jerusalem mother, while the church continues
   there, and shall acknowledge the Jerusalem which is from above, and
   which is free, to be the mother of us all, Gal. iv. 26. They shall be
   thy daughters, but not by thy covenant, not by the covenant of
   peculiarity, not as being proselytes to the Jewish religion and subject
   to the yoke of the ceremonial law, but as being converts with thee to
   the Christian religion." Or not by thy covenant may mean, "not upon
   such terms as thou shalt think fit to impose upon them as conquered
   nations, as captives and homagers to whom thou mayest give law at
   pleasure" (such a dominion as that the carnal Jews hope to have over
   the nations); "no, they shall be thy daughters by my covenant, the
   covenant of grace made with thee and them in concert, as in indenture
   tripartite. I will be a Father, a common Father, both to Jews and
   Gentiles, and so they shall become sisters to one another. And, when
   thou shalt receive them, thou shalt be ashamed of thy own evil ways
   wherein thou wast conformed to them. Thou shalt blush to look a Gentile
   in the face, remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou wast in
   the day of thy apostasy."

   IV. What the fruit and effect of this will be. 1. God will hereby be
   glorified (v. 62): "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord. It shall hereby
   be known that the God of Israel is Jehovah, a God of power, and
   faithful to his covenant; and thou shalt know it who hast hitherto
   lived as if thou didst not know or believe it." It had often been said
   in wrath, You shall know that I am the Lord, shall know it to your
   cost; here it is said in mercy, You shall know it to your comfort; and
   it is one of the most precious promises of the new covenant which God
   has made with us that all shall know him from the least to the
   greatest. 2. They shall hereby be more humbled and abased for sin ( v.
   63): "That thou mayest be the more confounded at the remembrance of all
   that thou hast done amiss, mayest reproach thyself for it and call
   thyself a thousand times unwise, undutiful, ungrateful, and unlike what
   thou wast, and mayest never open thy mouth any more in contradiction to
   God, reflection on him, or complaints of him, but mayest be for ever
   silent and submissive because of thy shame." Note, Those that rightly
   remember their sins will be truly ashamed of them; and those that are
   truly ashamed of their sins will see great reason to be patient under
   their afflictions, to be dumb, and not open their mouths against what
   God does. But that which is most observable is, that all this shall be
   when I am pacified towards thee, saith the Lord God. Note, It is the
   gracious ingenuousness of true penitents that the clearer evidences and
   the fuller instances they have of God's being reconciled to them the
   more grieved and ashamed they are that ever they have offended God. God
   is in Jesus Christ pacified towards us; he is our peace, and it is by
   his cross that we are reconciled, and in his gospel that God is
   reconciling the world to himself. Now the consideration of this should
   be powerful to melt our hearts into a godly sorrow for sin. This is
   repenting because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The prodigal, after
   he had received the kiss which assured him that his father was pacified
   towards him, was ashamed and confounded, and said, Father, I have
   sinned against heaven and before thee. And the more our shame for sin
   is increased by the sense of pardoning mercy the more will our comfort
   in God be increased.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XVII.

   God was, in the foregoing chapter, reckoning with the people of Judah,
   and bringing ruin upon them for their treachery in breaking covenant
   with him; in this chapter he is reckoning with the king of Judah for
   his treachery in breaking covenant with the king of Babylon; for when
   God came to contend with them he found many grounds of his controversy.
   The thing was now in doing: Zedekiah was practising with the king of
   Egypt underhand for assistance in a treacherous project he had formed
   to shake off the yoke of the king of Babylon, and violate the homage
   and fealty he had sworn to him. For this God by the prophet here, I.
   Threatens the ruin of him and his kingdom, by a parable of two eagles
   and a vine (ver. 1-10), and the explanation of that parable, ver.
   11-21. But, in the close, II. He promises hereafter to raise the royal
   family of Judah again, the house of David, in the Messiah and his
   kingdom, ver. 22-24.

The Parable of the Eagles; The Parable Explained; Ruin of Zedekiah Predicted.
(b. c. 593.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, put
   forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;   3 And
   say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings,
   long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto
   Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:   4 He cropped off
   the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he
   set it in a city of merchants.   5 He took also of the seed of the
   land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters,
   and set it as a willow tree.   6 And it grew, and became a spreading
   vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots
   thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth
   branches, and shot forth sprigs.   7 There was also another great eagle
   with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her
   roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might
   water it by the furrows of her plantation.   8 It was planted in a good
   soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it
   might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.   9 Say thou, Thus
   saith the Lord God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots
   thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither
   in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many
   people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.   10 Yea, behold, being
   planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east
   wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.   11
   Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   12 Say now to the
   rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them,
   Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the
   king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to
   Babylon;   13 And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant
   with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty
   of the land:   14 That the kingdom might be base, that it might not
   lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand.
   15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt,
   that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper?
   shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant,
   and be delivered?   16 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the
   place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he
   despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of
   Babylon he shall die.   17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army
   and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and
   building forts, to cut off many persons:   18 Seeing he despised the
   oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and
   hath done all these things, he shall not escape.   19 Therefore thus
   saith the Lord God; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised,
   and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his
   own head.   20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken
   in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him
   there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.   21 And all
   his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that
   remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I
   the Lord have spoken it.

   We must take all these verses together, that we may have the parable
   and the explanation of it at one view before us, because they will
   illustrate one another. 1. The prophet is appointed to put forth a
   riddle to the house of Israel (v. 2), not to puzzle them, as Samson's
   riddle was put forth to the Philistines, not to hide the mind of God
   from them in obscurity, or to leave them in uncertainty about it, one
   advancing one conjecture and another another, as is usual in expounding
   riddles; no, he is immediately to tell them the meaning of it. Let him
   that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret, 1 Cor.
   xiv. 13. But he must deliver this message in a riddle or parable that
   they might take the more notice of it, might be the more affected with
   it themselves, and might the better remember it and tell it to others.
   For these reasons God often used similitudes by his servants the
   prophets, and Christ himself opened his mouth in parables. Riddles and
   parables are used for an amusement to ourselves and an entertainment to
   our friends. The prophet must make use of these to see if in this dress
   the things of God might find acceptance, and insinuate themselves into
   the minds of a careless people. Note, Ministers should study to find
   out acceptable words, and try various methods to do good; and, as far
   as they have reason to think will be for edification, should both bring
   that which is familiar into their preaching and their preaching too
   into their familiar discourse, that there may not be so vast a
   dissimilitude as with some there is between what they say in the pulpit
   and what they say out. 2. He is appointed to expound this riddle to the
   rebellious house, v. 12. Though being rebellious they might justly have
   been left in ignorance, to see and hear and not perceive, yet the thing
   shall be explained to them: Know you not what these things mean? Those
   that knew the story, and what was now in agitation, might make a shrewd
   guess at the meaning of this riddle, but, that they might be left
   without excuse, he is to give it to them in plain terms, stripped of
   the metaphor. But the enigma was first propounded for them to study on
   awhile, and to send to their friends at Jerusalem, that they might
   enquire after and expect the solution of it some time after.

   Let us now see what the matter of this message is.

   I. Nebuchadnezzar had some time ago carried off Jehoiachin, the same
   that was called Jeconiah, when he was but eighteen years of age and had
   reigned in Jerusalem but three months, him and his princes and great
   men, and had brought them captives to Babylon, 2 Kings xxiv. 12. This
   in the parable is represented by an eagle's cropping the top and tender
   branch of a cedar, and carrying it into a land of traffic, a city of
   merchants (v. 3, 4), which is explained v. 12. The king of Babylon took
   the king of Jerusalem, who was no more able to resist him than a young
   twig of a tree is to contend with the strongest bird of prey, that
   easily crops it off, perhaps towards the making of her nest.
   Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel's vision, is a lion, the king of beasts (Dan.
   vii. 4); there he has eagle's wings, so swift were his motions, so
   speedy were his conquests. Here, in this parable, he is an eagle, the
   king of birds, a great eagle, that lives upon spoil and rapine, whose
   young ones suck up blood, Job xxxix. 30. His dominion extends itself
   far and wide, like the great and long wings of an eagle; the people are
   numerous, for it is full of feathers; the court is splendid, for it has
   divers colours, which look like embroidering, as the word is. Jerusalem
   is Lebanon, a forest of houses, and very pleasant. The royal family is
   the cedar; Jehoiachin is the top branch, the top of the young twigs,
   which he crops off. Babylon is the land of traffic and city of
   merchants where it is set. And the king of Judah, being of the house of
   David, will think himself much degraded and disgraced to be lodged
   among tradesmen; but he must make the best of it.

   II. When he carried him to Babylon he made his uncle Zedekiah king in
   his room, v. 5, 6. His name was Mattaniah--the gift of the Lord, which
   Nebuchadnezzar changed into Zedekiah--the justice of the Lord, to
   remind him to be just like the God he called his, for fear of his
   justice. This was one of the seed of the land, a native, not a
   foreigner, not one of his Babylonian princes; he was planted in a
   fruitful field, for so Jerusalem as yet was; he placed it by great
   waters, where it would be likely to grow, like a willow-tree, which
   grows quickly, and grows best in moist ground, but is never designed
   nor expected to be a stately tree. He set it with care and
   circumspection (so some read it); he wisely provided that it might
   grow, but that it might not grow too big. He took of the king's seed
   (so it is explained, v. 13) and made a covenant with him that he should
   have the kingdom, and enjoy the regal power and dignity, provided he
   held it as his vassal, dependent on him and accountable to him. He took
   an oath of him, made him swear allegiance to him, swear by his own God,
   the God of Israel, that he would be a faithful tributary to him, 2
   Chron. xxxvi. 13. He also took away the mighty of the land, the chief
   of the men of war, partly as hostages for the performance of the
   covenant, and partly that, the land being thereby weakened, the king
   might be the less able, and therefore the less in temptation, to break
   his league. What he designed we are told (v. 14): That the kingdom
   might be base, in respect both of honour and strength, might neither be
   a rival with its powerful neighbours, nor a terror to its feeble ones,
   as it had been, that it might not left up itself to vie with the
   kingdom of Babylon, or to bear down any of the petty states that were
   in subjection to it. But yet he designed that by the keeping of this
   covenant it might stand, and continue a kingdom. Hereby the pride and
   ambition of that haughty potentate would be gratified, who aimed to be
   like the Most High (Isa. xiv. 14), to have all about him subject to
   him. Now see here, 1. How sad a change sin made with the royal family
   of Judah. Time was when all the nations about were tributaries to that;
   now that has not only lost its dominion over other nations, but has
   itself become a tributary. How has the gold become dim! Nations by sin
   sell their liberty, and princes their dignity, and profane their crowns
   by casting them to the ground. 2. How wisely Zedekiah did for himself
   in accepting these terms, though they were dishonourable, when
   necessity brought him to it. A man may live very comfortably and
   contentedly, though he cannot bear a part, and make a figure, as
   formerly. A kingdom may stand firmly and safely, though it do not stand
   so high as it has sometimes done; and so may a family.

   III. Zedekiah, while he continued faithful to the king of Babylon, did
   very well, and, if he would but have reformed his kingdom, and returned
   to God and his duty, he would have done better, and by that means might
   soon have recovered his former dignity, v. 6. This plant grew, and
   though it was set as a willow-tree, and little account was made of it,
   yet it became a spreading vine of low stature, a great blessing to his
   own country, and his fruits made glad their hearts; and it is better to
   be a spreading vine of low stature than a lofty cedar of no use.
   Nebuchadnezzar was pleased, for the branches turned towards him, and
   rested on him as the vine on the wall, and he had his share of the
   fruits of this vine; the roots thereof too were under him, and at his
   disposal. The Jews had reason to be pleased, for they sat under their
   own vine, which brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs, and
   looked pleasant and promising. See how gradually the judgments of God
   came upon this provoking people, how God gave them respite and so gave
   them space to repent. He made their kingdom base, to try if that would
   humble them, before he made it no kingdom; yet left it easy for them,
   to try if that would win upon them to return to him, that the troubles
   threatened might be prevented.

   IV. Zedekiah knew not when he was well off, but grew impatient of the
   disgrace of being a tributary to the king of Babylon, and, to get clear
   of it, entered into a private league with the king of Egypt. He had no
   reason to complain that the king of Babylon put any new hardships upon
   him or improved his advantages against him, that he oppressed or
   impoverished his country, for, as the prophet had said before (v. 6) to
   aggravate his treachery, he shows again (v. 8) what a fair way he was
   in to be considerable: He was planted in a good soil by great waters;
   his family was likely enough to be built up, and his exchequer to be
   filled, in a little time, so that, if he had dealt faithfully, he might
   have been a goodly vine. But there was another great eagle that he had
   an affection for, and put a confidence in, and that was the king of
   Egypt, v. 7. Those two great potentates, the kings of Babylon and
   Egypt, were but two great eagles, birds of prey. This great eagle of
   Egypt is said to have great wings, but not to be long-winged as the
   king of Babylon, because, though the kingdom of Egypt was strong, yet
   it was not of such a vast extent as that of Babylon was. The great
   eagle is said to have many feathers, much wealth and many soldiers,
   which he depended upon as a substantial defence, but which really were
   no more than so may feathers. Zedekiah, promising himself liberty, made
   himself a vassal to the king of Egypt, foolishly expecting ease by
   changing his master. Now this vine did secretly and under-hand bend her
   roots towards the king of Egypt, that great eagle, and after awhile did
   openly shoot forth her branches towards him, give him an intimation how
   much she coveted an alliance with him, that he might water it by the
   furrows of her plantation, whereas it was planted by great waters, and
   did not need any assistance from him. This is expounded, v. 15.
   Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon in sending his
   ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much
   people, to enable him to contend with the king of Babylon. See what a
   change sin had made with the people of God! God promised that they
   should be a numerous people, as the sand of the sea; yet now, if their
   king had occasion for much people, he must send to Egypt for them, they
   being for sin diminished and brought low, Ps. cvii. 39. See also the
   folly of fretful discontented spirits, that ruin themselves by striving
   to better themselves, whereas they might be easy and happy enough if
   they would but make the best of that which is.

   V. God here threatens Zedekiah with the utter destruction of him and
   his kingdom, and, in displeasure against him, passes that doom upon him
   for his treacherous revolt from the king of Babylon. This is
   represented in the parable (v. 9, 19) by the plucking up of this vine
   by the roots, the cutting off of the fruit, and the withering of the
   leaves, the leaves of her spring, when they are in their greenness (Job
   viii. 12), before they begin in autumn to wither of themselves. The
   project shall be blasted; it shall utterly wither. The affairs of this
   perfidious prince shall be ruined past retrieve; as a vine when the
   east wind blasts it, so that it shall be fit for nothing but the fire
   (as we had it in that parable, ch. xv. 4), it shall wither even in the
   furrows where it grew, though they were ever so well watered. It shall
   be destroyed without great power or many people to pluck it up; for
   what need is there of raising the militia to pluck up a vine? Note, God
   can bring great things to pass without much ado. He needs not great
   power and many people to effect his purposes; a handful will serve if
   he pleases. He can without any difficulty ruin a sinful king and
   kingdom, and make no more of it than we do of rooting up a tree that
   cumbers the ground. In the explanation of the parable the sentence is
   very largely recorded: Shall he prosper? v. 15. Can he expect to do ill
   and fare well? Nay, shall he that does such wicked things escape? Shall
   he break the covenant, and be delivered from that vengeance which is
   the just punishment of his treachery? No; can he expect to do ill and
   not suffer ill? Let him hear his doom.

   1. It is ratified by the oath of God (v. 16): As I live, saith the Lord
   God, he shall die for it. This intimates how highly God resented the
   crime, and how sure and severe the punishment of it would be. God
   swears in his wrath, as he did Ps. xcv. 11. Note, As God's promises are
   confirmed with an oath, for comfort to the saints, so are his
   threatenings, for terror to the wicked. As sure as God lives and is
   happy (I may add, and as long), so sure, so long, shall impenitent
   sinners die and be miserable.

   2. It is justified by the heinousness of the crime he had been guilty
   of. (1.) He had been very ungrateful to his benefactor, who had made
   him king, and undertook to protect him, had made him a prince when he
   might as easily have made him a prisoner. Note, It is a sin against God
   to be unkind to our friends and to lift up the heel against those that
   have helped to raise us. (2.) He had been very false to him whom he had
   covenanted with. This is mostly insisted on: He despised the oath. When
   his conscience or friends reminded him of it he made a jest of it, put
   on a daring resolution, and broke it, v. 15, 16, 18, 19. He broke
   through it, and took a pride in making nothing of it, as a great tyrant
   in our own day, whose maxim (they say) it is, That princes ought not to
   be slaves to their word any further than it is for their interest. That
   which aggravated Zedekiah's perfidiousness was that the oath by which
   he had bound himself to the king of Babylon was, [1.] A solemn oath. An
   emphasis is laid upon this (v. 18): When, lo, he had given his hand, as
   a confederate with the king of Babylon, not only as his subject, but as
   his friend, the joining of hands being a token of the joining of
   hearts. [2.] As sacred oath. God says (v. 19): It is my oath that he
   has despised and my covenant that he has broken. In every solemn oath
   God is appealed to as a witness of the sincerity of him that swears,
   and invocated as a judge and revenger of his treachery if he now swear
   falsely or at any time hereafter break his oath. But the oath of
   allegiance to a prince is particularly called the oath of God (Eccl.
   viii. 2), as if that had something in it more sacred than another oath;
   for princes are ministers of God to us for good, Rom. xiii. 4. Now
   Zedekiah's breaking this oath and covenant is the sin which God will
   recompense upon his own head (v. 19), the trespass which he has
   trespassed against God, for which God will plead with him, v. 20. Note,
   Perjury is a heinous sin and highly provoking to the God of heaven. It
   would not serve for an excuse, First, That he who took this oath was a
   king, a king of the house of David, whose liberty and dignity might
   surely set him above the obligation of oaths. No; though kings are gods
   to us, they are men to God, and not exempt from his law and judgment.
   The prince is doubtless as firmly bound before God to the people by his
   coronation-oath as the people are to the princes by the oath of
   allegiance. Secondly, Nor that this oath was sworn to the king of
   Babylon, a heathen prince, worse than a heretic, with whom the church
   of Rome says, No faith is to be kept. No; though Nebuchadnezzar was a
   worshipper of false gods, yet the true God will avenge this quarrel
   when one of his worshippers breaks his league with him; for truth is a
   debt due to all men; and, if the professors of the true religion deal
   perfidiously with those of a false religion, their profession will be
   so far from excusing, much less justifying them, that it aggravates
   their sin, and God will the more surely and severely punish it, because
   by it they give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme; as
   that Mahometan prince, who, when the Christians broke their league with
   him, cried out, O Jesus! are these thy Christians? Thirdly, Nor would
   it justify him that the oath was extorted from him by a conqueror, for
   the covenant was made upon a valuable consideration. He held his life
   and crown upon this condition, that he should be faithful and bear true
   allegiance to the king of Babylon; and, if he enjoy the benefit of his
   bargain, it is very unjust if he do not observe the terms. Let him know
   then that, having despised the oath, and broken the covenant, he shall
   not escape. And if the contempt and violation of such an oath, such a
   covenant as this, would be so punished, of how much sorer punishment
   shall those be thought worthy who break covenant with God (when, lo,
   they had given their hand upon it that they would be faithful), who
   tread under foot the blood of that covenant as an unholy thing? Between
   the covenants there is no comparison.

   3. It is particularized in divers instances, wherein the punishment is
   made to answer the sin. (1.) He had rebelled against the king of
   Babylon, and the king of Babylon should be his effectual conqueror. In
   the place where that king dwells whose covenant he broke, even with him
   in the midst of Babylon he shall die, v. 16. He thinks to get out of
   his hands, but he shall fall, more than before, into his hands. God
   himself will now take part with the king of Babylon against him: I will
   spread my net upon him, v. 20. God has a net for those who deal
   perfidiously and think to escape his righteous judgments, in which
   those shall be taken and held who would not be held by the bond of an
   oath and covenant. Zedekiah dreaded Babylon: "Thither I will bring
   him," says God, "and plead with him there." Men will justly be forced
   upon that calamity which they endeavour by sin to flee from. (2.) He
   had relied upon the king of Egypt, and the king of Egypt should be his
   ineffectual helper: Pharaoh with his mighty army shall not make for him
   in the war (v. 17), shall to him no service, nor give any check to the
   progress of the Chaldean forces; he shall not assist him in the siege
   by casting up mounts and building forts, nor in battle by cutting off
   many person. Note, Every creature is that to us which God makes it to
   be; and he commonly weakens and withers that arm of flesh which we
   trust in and stay ourselves upon. Now was again fulfilled what was
   spoken on a former similar occasion (Isa. xxx. 7), The Egyptians shall
   help in vain. They did so; for though, upon the approach of the
   Egyptian army, the Chaldeans withdrew from the siege of Jerusalem, upon
   their retreat they returned to it again and took it. It should seem,
   the Egyptians were not hearty, had strength enough, but no good-will,
   to help Zedekiah. Note, Those who deal treacherously with those who put
   a confidence in them will justly be dealt treacherously with by those
   they put a confidence in. Yet the Egyptians were not the only states
   Zedekiah stayed himself upon; he had bands of his own to stand by him,
   but those bands, though we may suppose they were veteran troops and the
   best soldiers his kingdom afforded, shall become fugitives, shall quit
   their posts, and make the best of their way, and shall fall by the
   sword of the enemy, and the remains of them shall be scattered, v. 21.
   This was fulfilled when the city was broken up and all the men of war
   fled, Jer. lii. 7. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.
   Note, Sooner or later God's word will prove itself; and those who will
   not believe shall find by experience the reality and weight of it.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 593.)

   22 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of
   the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his
   young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and
   eminent:   23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it:
   and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar:
   and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the
   branches thereof shall they dwell.   24 And all the trees of the field
   shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have
   exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the
   dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

   When the royal family of Judah was brought to desolation by the
   captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah it might be asked, "What has now
   become of the covenant of royalty made with David, that his children
   should sit upon his throne for evermore? Do the sure mercies of David
   prove thus unsure?" To this it is sufficient for the silencing of the
   objectors to answer that the promise was conditional. If they will keep
   my covenant, then they shall continue, Ps. cxxxii. 12. But David's
   posterity broke the condition, and so forfeited the promise. But the
   unbelief of man shall not invalidate the promise of God. He will find
   out another seed of David in which it shall be accomplished; and that
   is promised in these verses.

   I. The house of David shall again be magnified, and out of its ashes
   another phoenix shall arise. The metaphor of a tree, which was made us
   of in the threatening, is here presented in the promise, v. 22, 23.
   This promise had its accomplishment in part when Zerubbabel, a branch
   of the house of David, was raised up to head the Jews in their return
   out of captivity, and to rebuild the city and temple and re-establish
   their church and state; but it was to have its full accomplishment in
   the kingdom of the Messiah, who was a root out of a dry ground, and to
   whom God, according to promise, gave the throne of his father David,
   Luke i. 32. 1. God himself undertakes the reviving and restoring of the
   house of David. Nebuchadnezzar was the great eagle that had attempted
   the re-establishing of the house of David in a dependence upon him, v.
   5. But the attempt miscarried; his plantation withered and was plucked
   up. "Well," says God, "the next shall be of my planting: I will also
   take of the highest branch of the high cedar and I will set it." Note,
   As men have their designs, God also has his designs; but his will
   prosper when theirs are blasted. Nebuchadnezzar prided himself in
   setting up kingdoms at his pleasure, Dan. v. 19. But those kingdoms
   soon had an end, whereas the God of heaven sets up a kingdom that shall
   never be destroyed, Dan. ii. 44. 2. The house of David is revived in a
   tender one cropped from the top of his young twigs. Zerubbabel was so;
   that which was hopeful in him was but the day of small things (Zech.
   iv. 10), yet before him great mountains were made plain. Our Lord Jesus
   was the highest branch of the high cedar, the furthest of all from the
   root (for soon after he appeared the house of David was all cut off and
   extinguished), but the nearest of all to heaven, for his kingdom was
   not of this world. He was taken from the top of the young twigs, for he
   is the man, the branch, a tender plant, and a root out of a dry ground
   (Isa. liii. 2), but a branch of righteousness, the planting of the
   Lord, that he may be glorified. 3. This branch is planted in a high
   mountain (v. 22), in the mountain of the height of Israel, v. 23.
   Thither he brought Zerubbabel in triumph; there he raised up his son
   Jesus, sent him to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel that
   were scattered upon the mountains, set him his king upon his holy hill
   of Zion, sent forth the gospel from Mount Zion, the word of the Lord
   from Jerusalem; there, in the height of Israel, a nation which all its
   neighbours had an eye upon as conspicuous and illustrious, was the
   Christian church first planted. The churches of Judea were the most
   primitive churches. The unbelieving Jews did what they could to prevent
   its being planted there; but who can pluck up what God will plant? 4.
   Thence it spreads far and wide. The Jewish state, though it began very
   low in Zerubbabel's time, was set as a tender branch, which might
   easily be plucked up, yet took root, spread strangely, and after some
   time became very considerable; those of other nations, fowl of every
   wing, put themselves under the protection of it. The Christian church
   was at first like a grain of mustard-seed, but became, like this tender
   branch, a great tree, its beginning small, but its latter end
   increasing to admiration. When the Gentiles flocked into the church
   then did the fowl of every wing (even the birds of prey, which those
   preyed upon, as the wolf and the lamb feeding together, Isa. xi. 6)
   come and dwell under the shadow of this goodly cedar. See Dan. iv. 21.

   II. God himself will herein be glorified, v. 24. The setting up of the
   Messiah's kingdom in the world shall discover more clearly than ever to
   the children of men that God is the King of all the earth, Ps. xlvii.
   7. Never was there a more full conviction given of this truth, that all
   things are governed by an infinitely wise and mighty Providence, than
   that which was given by the exaltation of Christ and the establishment
   of his kingdom among men; for by that it appeared that God has all
   hearts in his hand, and the sovereign disposal of all affairs. All the
   trees of the field shall know, 1. That the tree which God will have to
   be brought down, and dried up, shall be so, though it be ever so high
   and stately, ever so green and flourishing. Neither honour nor wealth,
   neither external advancements nor internal endowments, will secure men
   from humbling withering providence. 2. That the tree which God will
   have to be exalted, and to flourish, shall so be, shall so do, though
   ever so low, and ever so dry. The house of Nebuchadnezzar, that now
   makes so great a figure, shall be extirpated, and the house of David,
   that now makes so mean a figure, shall become famous again; and the
   Jewish nation, that is now despicable, shall be considerable. The
   kingdom of Satan, that has borne so long, so large, a sway, shall be
   broken, and the kingdom of Christ, that was looked upon with contempt,
   shall be established. The Jews, who, in respect of church-privileges,
   had been high and green, shall be thrown out, and the Gentiles, who had
   been low and dry trees, shall be taken in their room, Isa. liv. 1. All
   the enemies of Christ shall be abased and made his footstool, and his
   interests shall be confirmed and advanced: I the Lord have spoken (it
   is the decree, the declared decree, that Christ must be exalted, must
   be the headstone of the corner), and I have done it, that is, I will do
   it in due time, but it is as sure to be done as if it were done
   already. With men saying and doing are two things, but they are not so
   with God. What he has spoken we may be sure that he will do, nor shall
   one iota or tittle of his word fall to the ground, for he is not a man,
   that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should repent either of
   his threatenings or of his promises.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XVIII.

   Perhaps, in reading some of the foregoing chapters, we may have been
   tempted to think ourselves not much concerned in them (though they also
   were written for our learning); but this chapter, at first view,
   appears highly and nearly to concern us all, very highly, very nearly;
   for, without particular reference to Judah and Jerusalem, it lays down
   the rule of judgment according to which God will deal with the children
   of men in determining them to their everlasting state, and it agrees
   with that very ancient rule laid down, Gen. iv. 7, "If though doest
   well, shalt thou not be accepted?" But, "if not, sin," the punishment
   of sin,"lies at the door." Here is, I. The corrupt proverb used by the
   profane Jews, which gave occasion to the message here sent them, and
   made it necessary for the justifying of God in his dealings with them,
   ver. 1-3. II. The reply given to this proverb, in which God asserts in
   general his own sovereignty and justice, ver. 4. Woe to the wicked; it
   shall be ill with them, ver. 4, 20. But say to the righteous, It shall
   be well with them, ver. 5-9. In particular, as to the case complained
   of, he assures us, 1. That it shall be ill with a wicked man, though he
   had a good father, ver. 10-13. 2. That it shall be well with a good
   man, though he had a wicked father, ver. 14-18. And therefore in this
   God is righteous, ver. 19, 20. 3. That it shall be well with penitents,
   though they began ever so ill, ver. 21-23 and 27, 28. 4. That it shall
   be ill with apostates, though they began ever so well, ver. 24, 26. And
   the use of all this is, (1.) To justify God and clear the equity of all
   his proceedings, ver. 25, 29. (2.) To engage and encourage us to repent
   of our sins and turn to God, ver. 30-32. And these are things which
   belong to our everlasting peace. O that we may understand and regard
   them before they be hidden from our eyes!

Proverb of the Sour Grapes; Reply to the Sour Grapes; Divine Judgments
Vindicated. (b. c. 593.)

   1 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,   2 What mean ye,
   that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The
   fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on
   edge?   3 As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any
   more to use this proverb in Israel.   4 Behold, all souls are mine; as
   the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul
   that sinneth, it shall die.   5 But if a man be just, and do that which
   is lawful and right,   6 And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither
   hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither
   hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a
   menstruous woman,   7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to
   the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his
   bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;   8 He
   that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase,
   that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment
   between man and man,   9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my
   judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the
   Lord God.

   Evil manners, we say, beget good laws; and in like manner sometimes
   unjust reflections occasion just vindications; evil proverbs beget good
   prophecies. Here is,

   I. An evil proverb commonly used by the Jews in their captivity. We had
   one before (ch. xii. 22) and a reply to it; here we have another. That
   sets God's justice at defiance: "The days are prolonged and every
   vision fails; the threatenings are a jest." This charges him with
   injustice, as if the judgments executed were a wrong: "You use this
   proverb concerning the land of Israel, now that it is laid waste by the
   judgments of God, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the
   children's teeth are set on edge; we are punished for the sins of our
   ancestors, which is as great an absurdity in the divine regimen as if
   the children should have their teeth set on edge, or stupefied, by the
   fathers' eating sour grapes, whereas, in the order of natural causes,
   if men eat or drink any thing amiss, they only themselves shall suffer
   by it." Now, 1. It must be owned that there was some occasion given for
   this proverb. God had often said that he would visit the iniquity of
   the fathers upon the children, especially the sin of idolatry,
   intending thereby to express the evil of sin, of that sin, his
   detestation of it, and just indignation against it, and the heavy
   punishments he would bring upon idolaters, that parents might be
   restrained from sin by their affection to their children and that
   children might not be drawn to sin by their reverence for their
   parents. He had likewise often declared by his prophets that in
   bringing the present ruin upon Judah and Jerusalem he had an eye to the
   sins of Manasseh and other preceding kings; for, looking upon the
   nation as a body politic, and punishing them with national judgments
   for national sins, and admitting the maxim in our law that a
   corporation never dies, reckoning with them now for the iniquities of
   former ages was but like making a man, when he is old, to possess the
   iniquities of his youth, Job xiii. 26. And there is no unrighteousness
   with God in doing so. But, 2. They intended it as a reflection upon
   God, and an impeachment of his equity in his proceedings against them.
   Thus far that is right which is implied in this proverbial saying, That
   those who are guilty of wilful sin eat sour grapes; they do that which
   they will feel from, sooner or later. The grapes may look well enough
   in the temptation, but they will be bitter as bitterness itself in the
   reflection. They will set the sinner's teeth on edge. When conscience
   is awake, and sets the sin in order before them, it will spoil the
   relish of their comforts as when the teeth are set on edge. But they
   suggest it as unreasonable that the children should smart for the
   fathers' folly and feel the pain of that which they never tasted the
   pleasure of, and that God was unrighteous in thus taking vengeance and
   could not justify it. See how wicked the reflection is, how daring the
   impudence; yet see how witty it is, and how sly the comparison. Many
   that are impious in their jeers are ingenious in their jests; and thus
   the malice of hell against God and religion is insinuated and
   propagated. It is here put into a proverb, and that proverb used,
   commonly used; they had it up ever and anon. And, though it had plainly
   a blasphemous meaning, yet they sheltered themselves under the
   similitude from the imputation of downright blasphemy. Now by this it
   appears that they were unhumbled under the rod, for, instead of
   condemning themselves and justifying God, they condemned him and
   justified themselves; but woe to him that thus strives with his Maker.

   II. A just reproof of, and reply to, this proverb: What mean you by
   using it? That is the reproof. "Do you intend hereby to try it out with
   God? Or can you think any other than that you will hereby provoke him
   to be angry with you till he has consumed you? Is this the way to
   reconcile yourselves to him and make your peace with him?" The reply
   follows, in which God tells them,

   1. That the use of the proverb should be taken away. This is said, it
   is sworn (v. 3): You shall not have occasion any more to use this
   proverb; or (as it may be read), You shall not have the use of this
   parable. The taking away of this parable is made the matter of a
   promise, Jer. xxxi. 29. Here it is made the matter of a threatening.
   There it intimates that God will return to them in ways of mercy; here
   it intimates that God would proceed against them in ways of judgment.
   He will so punish them for this impudent saying that they shall not
   dare to use it any more; as in another case, Jer. xxiii. 34, 36. God
   will find out effectual ways to silence those cavillers. Or God will so
   manifest both to themselves and others that they have wickedness of
   their own enough to bring all these desolating judgments upon them that
   they shall no longer for shame lay it upon the sins of their fathers
   that they were thus dealt with: "Your own consciences shall tell you,
   and all your neighbours shall confirm it, that you yourselves have
   eaten the same sour grapes that your fathers ate before you, or else
   your teeth would not have been set on edge."

   2. That really the saying itself was unjust and a causeless reflection
   upon God's government. For,

   (1.) God does not punish the children for the fathers' sins unless they
   tread in their fathers' steps and fill up the measure of their iniquity
   (Matt. xxiii. 32), and then they have no reason to complain, for,
   whatever they suffer, it is less than their own sin has deserved. And,
   when God speaks of visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
   children, that is so far from putting any hardship upon the children,
   to whom he only renders according to their works, that it accounts for
   God's patience with the parents, whom he therefore does not punish
   immediately, because he lays up their iniquity for their children, Job
   xxi. 19.

   (2.) It is only in temporal calamities that children (and sometimes
   innocent ones) fare the worse for their parents' wickedness, and God
   can alter the property of those calamities, and make them work for good
   to those that are visited with them; but as to spiritual and eternal
   misery (and that is the death here spoken of) the children shall by no
   means smart for the parents' sins. This is here shown at large; and it
   is a wonderful piece of condescension that the great God is pleased to
   reason the case with such wicked and unreasonable men, that he did not
   immediately strike them dumb or dead, but vouchsafed to state the
   matter before them, that he may be clear when he is judged. Now, in his
   reply,

   [1.] He asserts and maintains his own absolute and incontestable
   sovereignty: Behold, all souls are mine, v. 4. God here claims a
   property in all the souls of the children of men, one as well as
   another. First, Souls are his. He that is the Maker of all things is in
   a particular manner the Father of spirits, for his image is stamped on
   the souls of men; it was so in their creation; it is so in their
   renovation. He forms the spirit of man within him, and is therefore
   called the God of the spirits of all flesh, of embodied spirits.
   Secondly, All souls are his, all created by him and for him, and
   accountable to him. As the soul of the father, so the soul of the son,
   is mine. Our earthly parents are only the fathers of our flesh; our
   souls are not theirs; God challenges them. Now hence it follows, for
   the clearing of this matter, 1. That God may certainly do what he
   pleases both with fathers and children, and none may say unto him, What
   doest thou? He that gave us our being does us no wrong if he takes it
   away again, much less when he only takes away some of the supports and
   comforts of it; it is as absurd to quarrel with him as for the thing
   formed to say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 2.
   That God as certainly bears a good-will both to father and son, and
   will put no hardship upon either. We are sure that God hates nothing
   that he has made, and therefore (speaking of the adult, who are capable
   of acting for themselves) he has such a kindness for all souls that
   none die but through their own default. All souls are his, and
   therefore he is not partial in his judgment of them. Let us subscribe
   to his interest in us and dominion over us. He says, All souls are
   mine; let us answer, "Lord, my soul is thine; I devote it to thee to be
   employed for thee and made happy in thee." It is with good reason that
   God says, "My son, give me thy heart, for it is my own," to which we
   must yield, "Father, take my heart, it is thy own."

   [2.] Though God might justify himself by insisting upon his
   sovereignty, yet he waives that, and lays down the equitable and
   unexceptionable rule of judgment by which he will proceed as to
   particular persons; and it is this:--First, The sinner that persists in
   sin shall certainly die, his iniquity shall be his ruin: The soul that
   sins shall die, shall die as a soul can die, shall be excluded from the
   favour of God, which is the life and bliss of the soul, and shall lie
   for ever under his wrath, which is its death and misery. Sin is the act
   of the soul, the body being only the instrument of unrighteousness; it
   is called the sin of the soul, Mic. vi. 7. And therefore the punishment
   of sin is the tribulation and the anguish of the soul, Rom. ii. 9.
   Secondly, The righteous man that perseveres in his righteousness shall
   certainly live. If a man be just, have a good principle, a good spirit
   and disposition, and, as an evidence of that, do judgment and justice
   (v. 5), he shall surely live, saith the Lord God, v. 9. He that makes
   conscience of conforming in every thing to the will of God, that makes
   it his business to serve God and his aim to glorify God, shall without
   fail be happy here and for ever in the love and favour of God; and,
   wherein he comes short of his duty, it shall be forgiven him, through a
   Mediator. Now here is part of the character of this just man. 1. He is
   careful to keep himself clean from the pollutions of sin, and at a
   distance from all the appearances of evil. (1.) From sins against the
   second commandment. In the matters of God's worship he is jealous, for
   he knows God is so. He has not only not sacrificed in the high places
   to the images there set up, but he has not so much as eaten upon the
   mountains, that is, not had any communion with idolaters by eating
   things sacrificed to idols, 1 Cor. x. 20. He would not only not kneel
   with them at their altars, but not sit with them at their tables in
   their high places. He detests not only the idols of the heathen but the
   idols of the house of Israel, which were not only allowed of, but
   generally applauded and adored, by those that were accounted the
   professing people of God. He has not only not worshipped those idols,
   but he has not so much as lifted up his eyes to them; he has not given
   them a favourable look, has had no regard at all to them, neither
   desired their favour nor dreaded their frowns. He has observed so many
   bewitched by them that he has not dared so much as to look at them,
   lest he should be taken in the snare. The eyes of idolaters are said to
   go a whoring, Ezek. vi. 9. See Deut. iv. 19. (2.) From sins against the
   seventh commandment. He is careful to possess his vessel in
   sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness; and
   therefore he has not dared to defile his neighbour's wife, nor said or
   done any thing which had the least tendency to corrupt or debauch her,
   no, nor will he make any undue approaches to his own wife when she is
   put apart for her uncleanness, for it was forbidden by the law, Lev.
   xviii. 19; xx. 18. Note, It is an essential branch of wisdom and
   justice to keep the appetites of the body always in subjection to
   reason and virtue. (3.) From sins against the eighth commandment. He is
   a just man, who has not, by fraud and under colour of law and right,
   oppressed any, and who has not with force and arms spoiled any by
   violence, not spoiled them of their goods or estates, much less of
   their liberties and lives, v. 7. Oppression and violence were the sins
   of the old world, that brought the deluge, and are sins of which still
   God is and will be the avenger. Nay, he is one that has not lent his
   money upon usury, nor taken increase (v. 8), though, being done by
   contract, it may seem free from injustice (Volenti non fit
   injuria--What is done to a person with his own consent is no injury to
   him), yet, as far as it is forbidden by the law, he dares not do it. A
   moderate usury they were allowed to receive from strangers, but not
   from their brethren. A just man will not take advantage of his
   neighbour's necessity to make a prey of him, nor indulge himself in
   ease and idleness to live upon the sweat and toil of others, and
   therefore will not take increase from those who cannot make increase of
   what he lends them, nor be rigorous in exacting what was agreed for
   from those who by the act of God are disabled to pay it; but he is
   willing to share in loss as well as profit. Qui sentit commodum,
   sentire debet et onus--He who enjoys the benefit should bear the
   burden. 2. He makes conscience of doing the duties of his place. He has
   restored the pledge to the poor debtor, according to the law. Exod.
   xxii. 26. "If thou take thy neighbour's raiment for a pledge, the
   raiment that is for necessary use, thou shalt deliver it to him again,
   that he may sleep in his own bedclothes." Nay, he has not only restored
   to the poor that which was their own, but has given his bread to the
   hungry. Observe, It is called his bread, because it is honestly come
   by; that which is given to some is not unjustly taken from others; for
   God has said, I hate robbery for burnt-offerings. Worldly men insist
   upon it that their bread is their own, as Nabal, who therefore would
   not give of it to David (1 Sam. xxv. 11); yet let them know that it is
   not so their own but that they are bound to do good to others with it.
   Clothes are necessary as well as food, and therefore this just man is
   so charitable as to cover the naked also with a garment, v. 7. The
   coats which Dorcas had made for the poor were produced as witnesses of
   her charity, Acts ix. 39. This just man has withdrawn his hands from
   iniquity, v. 8. If at any time he has been drawn in through
   inadvertency to that which afterwards has appeared to him to be a wrong
   thing, he does not persist in it because he has begun it, but withdraws
   his hand from that which he now perceives to be iniquity; for he
   executes true judgment between man and man, according as his
   opportunity is of doing it (as a judge, as a witness, as a juryman, as
   a referee), and in all commerce is concerned that justice be done, that
   no man be wronged, that he who is wronged be righted, and that every
   man have his own, and is ready to interpose himself, and do any good
   office, in order hereunto. This is his character towards his
   neighbours; yet it will not suffice that he be just and true to his
   brother, to complete his character he must be so to his God likewise
   (v. 9): He has walked in my statutes, those which relate to the duties
   of his immediate worship; he has kept those and all his other
   judgments, has had respect to them all, has made it his constant care
   and endeavour to conform and come up to them all, to deal truly, that
   so he may approve himself faithful to his covenant with God, and,
   having joined himself to God, he does not treacherously depart from
   him, nor dissemble with him. This is a just man, and living he shall
   live; he shall certainly live, shall have life and shall have it more
   abundantly, shall live truly, live comfortably, live eternally. Keep
   the commandments, and thou shalt enter into life, Matt. xix. 17.

The Ways of God Justified; God's Vindication of Himself. (b. c. 593.)

   10 If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that
   doeth the like to any one of these things,   11 And that doeth not any
   of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled
   his neighbour's wife,   12 Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath
   spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up
   his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination,   13 Hath given
   forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall
   not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his
   blood shall be upon him.   14 Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth
   all his father's sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth
   not such like,   15 That hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither
   hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not
   defiled his neighbour's wife,   16 Neither hath oppressed any, hath not
   withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given
   his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment,
   17 That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received
   usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my
   statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall
   surely live.   18 As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed,
   spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among
   his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity.   19 Yet say ye,
   Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son
   hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my
   statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.   20 The soul that
   sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the
   father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the
   righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of
   the wicked shall be upon him.

   God, by the prophet, having laid down the general rule of judgment,
   that he will render eternal life to those that patiently continue in
   well-doing, but indignation and wrath to those that do not obey the
   truth, but obey unrighteousness (Rom. ii. 7, 8), comes, in these
   verses, to show that men's parentage and relation shall not alter the
   case either one way or other.

   I. He applied it largely and particularly both ways. As it was in the
   royal line of the kings of Judah, so it often happens in private
   families, that godly parents have wicked children and wicked parents
   have godly children. Now here he shows,

   1. That a wicked man shall certainly perish in his iniquity, though he
   be the son of a pious father. If that righteous man before described
   beget a son whose character is the reverse of his father's, his
   condition will certainly be so too. (1.) It is supposed as no uncommon
   case, but a very melancholy one, that the child of a very godly father,
   notwithstanding all the instructions given him, the good education he
   has had and the needful rebukes that have been given him, and the
   restraints he has been laid under, after all the pains taken with him
   and prayers put up for him, may yet prove notoriously wicked and vile,
   the grief of his father, the shame of his family, and the curse and
   plague of his generation. He is here supposed to allow himself in all
   those enormities which his good father dreaded and carefully avoided,
   and to shake off all those good duties which his father made conscience
   of and took satisfaction in; he undoes all that his father did, and
   goes counter to his example in every thing. He is here described to be
   a highwayman--a robber and a shedder of blood. He is an idolater: He
   has eaten upon the mountains (v. 11) and has lifted up his eyes to the
   idols, which his good father never did, and has come at length not only
   to feast with the idolaters, but to sacrifice with them, which is here
   called committing abomination, for the way of sin is down-hill. He is
   an adulterer, has defiled his neighbour's wife. He is an oppressor even
   of the poor and needy; he robs the spital, and squeezes those who, he
   knows, cannot defend themselves, and takes a pride and pleasure in
   trampling upon the weak and impoverishing those that are poor already.
   He takes away from those to whom he should give. He has spoiled by
   violence and open force; he has given forth upon usury, and so spoiled
   by contract; and he has not restored the pledge, but unjustly detained
   it even when the debt was paid. Let those good parents that have wicked
   children not look upon their case as singular; it is a case put here;
   and by it we see that grace does not run in the blood, nor always
   attend the means of grace. The race is not always to the swift, nor the
   battle to the strong, for then the children that are well taught would
   do well, but God will let us know that his grace is his own and his
   Spirit a free-agent, and that though we are tied to give our children a
   good education he is not tied to bless it. In this, as much as any
   thing, appears the power of original sin and the necessity of special
   grace. (2.) We are here assured that this wicked man shall perish for
   ever in his iniquity, notwithstanding his being the son of a good
   father. He may perhaps prosper awhile in the world, for the sake of the
   piety of his ancestors, but, having committed all these abominations,
   and never repented of them, he shall not live, he shall not be happy in
   the favour of God; though he may escape the sword of men, he shall not
   escape the curse of God. He shall surely die; he shall be for ever
   miserable; his blood shall be upon him. He may thank himself; he is his
   own destroyer. And his relation to a good father will be so far from
   standing him in stead that it will aggravate his sin and his
   condemnation. It made his sin the more heinous, nay, it made him really
   the more vile and profligate, and, consequently, will make his misery
   hereafter the more intolerable.

   2. That a righteous man shall be certainly happy, though he be the son
   of a wicked father. Though the father did eat the sour grapes, if the
   children do not meddle with them, they shall fare never the worse for
   that. Here, (1.) It is supposed (and, blessed be God, it is sometimes a
   case in fact) that the son of an ungodly father may be godly, that,
   observing how fatal his father's errors were, he may be so wise as to
   take warning, and not tread in his father's tests, v. 14. Ordinarily,
   children partake of the parents' temper and are drawn in to imitate
   their example; but here the son, instead of seeing his father's sins,
   and, as is usual, doing the like, sees them and dreads doing the like.
   Men indeed do not gather grapes of thorns, but God sometimes does,
   takes a branch from a wild olive and grafts it into a good one. Wicked
   Ahaz begets a good Hezekiah, who sees all his father's sins which he
   has done, and though he will not, like Ham, proclaim his father's
   shame, or make the worst of it, yet he loathes it, and blushes at it,
   and thinks the worse of sin because it was the reproach and ruin of his
   own father. He considers and does not such like; he considers how ill
   it became his father to do such things, what an offence it was to God
   and all good men, what a wound and dishonour he got by it, and what
   calamities he brought into his family, and therefore he does not such
   like. Note, If we did but duly consider the ways of wicked men, we
   should all dread being associates with them and followers of them. The
   particulars are here again enumerated almost in the same words with
   that character given of the just man (v. 6, &c.), to show how good men
   walk in the same spirit and in the same steps. This just man here, when
   he took care to avoid his father's sins, took care to imitate his
   grandfather's virtues; and, if we look back, we shall find some
   examples for our imitation, as well as others for our admonition. This
   just man can not only say, as the Pharisee, I am no adulterer, no
   extortioner, no oppressor, no usurer, no idolater; but he has given his
   bread to the hungry and covered the naked. He has taken off his hand
   from the poor; where he found his father had put hardships upon poor
   servants, tenants, neighbours, he eased their burden. He did not say,
   "What my father has done I will abide by, and if it was a fault it was
   his and not mine;" as Rehoboam, who contemned the taxes his father had
   imposed. No; he takes his hand off from the poor, and restores them to
   their rights and liberties again, v. 15-17. Thus he has executed God's
   judgments and walked in his statutes, not only done his duty for once,
   but one on in a course and way of obedience. (2.) We are assured that
   the graceless father alone shall die in his iniquity, but his gracious
   son shall fare never the worse for it. As for his father (v. 18),
   because he was a cruel oppressor, and did hurt, nay, because, though he
   had wealth and power, he did not with them do good among his people,
   lo, even he, great as he is, shall die in his iniquity, and be undone
   for ever; but he that kept his integrity shall surely live, shall be
   easy and happy, and he shall not die for the iniquity of his father.
   Perhaps his father's wickedness has lessened his estate and weakened
   his interest, but it shall be no prejudice at all to his acceptance
   with God and his eternal welfare.

   II. He appeals to themselves then whether they did not wrong God with
   their proverb. "Thus plain the case is, and yet you say, Does not the
   son bear the iniquity of the father? No, he does not; he shall not if
   he will himself do that which is lawful and right," v. 19. But this
   people that bore the iniquity of their fathers had not done that which
   is lawful and right, and therefore justly suffered for their own sin
   and had no reason to complain of God's proceedings against them as at
   all unjust, though they had reason to complain of the bad example their
   fathers had left them as very unkind. Our fathers have sinned and are
   not, and we have borne their iniquity, Lam. v. 7. It is true that there
   is a curse entailed upon wicked families, but it is as true that the
   entail may be cut off by repentance and reformation; let the impenitent
   and unreformed therefore thank themselves if they fall under it. The
   settled rule of judgment is therefore repeated (v. 20): The soul that
   sins shall die, and not another for it. What direction God has given to
   earthly judges (Deut. xxiv. 16) he will himself pursue: The son shall
   not die, not die eternally, for the iniquity of the father, if he do
   not tread in the steps of it, nor the father for the iniquity of the
   son, if he endeavour to do his duty for the preventing of it. In the
   day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, which is now
   clouded and eclipsed, the righteousness of the righteous shall appear
   before all the world to be upon him, to his everlasting comfort and
   honour, upon him as a robe, upon him as a crown; and the wickedness of
   the wicked shall be upon him, to his everlasting confusion, upon him as
   a chain, upon him as a load, as a mountain of lead to sink him to the
   bottomless pit.

Encouragement to Repentance. (b. c. 593.)

   21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
   committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and
   right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.   22 All his
   transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto
   him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.   23 Have I
   any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and
   not that he should return from his ways, and live?   24 But when the
   righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
   and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth,
   shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be
   mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that
   he hath sinned, in them shall he die.   25 Yet ye say, The way of the
   Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal?
   are not your ways unequal?   26 When a righteous man turneth away from
   his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his
   iniquity that he hath done shall he die.   27 Again, when the wicked
   man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth
   that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.   28
   Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions
   that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.   29
   Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O
   house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

   We have here another rule of judgment which God will go by in dealing
   with us, by which is further demonstrated the equity of his government.
   The former showed that God will reward or punish according to the
   change made in the family or succession, for the better or for the
   worse; here he shows that he will reward or punish according to the
   change made in the person himself, whether for the better or the worse.
   While we are in this world we are in a state of probation; the time of
   trial lasts as long as the time of life, and according as we are found
   at last it will be with us to eternity. Now see here,

   I. The case fairly stated, much as it had been before (ch. iii. 18,
   &c.), and here it is laid down once (v. 21-24) and again (v. 26-28),
   because it is a matter of vast importance, a matter of life and death,
   of life and death eternal. Here we have,

   1. A fair invitation given to wicked people, to turn from their
   wickedness. Assurance is here given us that, if the wicked will turn,
   he shall surely live, v. 21, 27. Observe,

   (1.) What is required to denominate a man a true convert, how he must
   be qualified that he may be entitled to this act of indemnity. [1.] The
   first step towards conversion is consideration (v. 28): Because he
   considers and turns. The reason why sinners go on in their evil ways is
   because they do not consider what will be in the end thereof; but if
   the prodigal once come to himself, if he sit down and consider a little
   how bad his state is and how easily it may be bettered, he will soon
   return to his father (Luke xv. 17), and the adulteress to her first
   husband when she considers that then it was better with her than now,
   Hos. ii. 7. [2.] This consideration must produce an aversion to sin.
   When he considers he must turn away from his wickedness, which denotes
   a change in the disposition of the heart; he must turn from his sins
   and his transgression, which denotes a change in the life; he must
   break off from all his evil courses, and, wherein he has done iniquity,
   must resolve to do so no more, and this from a principle of hatred to
   sin. What have I to do any more with idols? [3.] This aversion to sin
   must be universal; he must turn from all his sins and all his
   transgressions, with out a reserve for any Delilah, any house of
   Rimmon. We do not rightly turn from sin unless we truly hate it, and we
   do not truly hate sin, as sin, if we do not hate all sin. [4.] This
   must be accompanied with a conversion to God and duty; he must keep all
   God's statutes (for the obedience, if it be sincere, will be universal)
   and must do that which is lawful and right, that which agrees with the
   word and will of God, which he must take for his rule, and not the will
   of the flesh and the way of the world.

   (2.) What is promised to those that do thus turn from sin to God. [1.]
   They shall save their souls alive, v. 27. They shall surely live, they
   shall not die, v. 21 and again v. 28. Whereas it was said, The soul
   that sins it shall die, yet let not those that have sinned despair but
   that the threatened death may be prevented if they will but turn and
   repent in time. When David penitently acknowledges, I have sinned, he
   is immediately assured of his pardon: "The Lord has taken away thy sin,
   thou shalt not die (2 Sam. xii. 13), thou shalt not die eternally." He
   shall surely live; he shall be restored to the favour of God, which is
   the life of the soul, and shall not lie under his wrath, which is as
   messengers of death to the soul. [2.] The sins they have repented of
   and forsaken shall not rise up in judgment against them, nor shall they
   be so much as upbraided with them: All his transgressions that he has
   committed, though numerous, though heinous, though very provoking to
   God, and redounding very much to his dishonour, yet they shall not be
   mentioned unto him (v. 22), not mentioned against them; not only they
   shall not be imputed to him to ruin him, but in the great day they
   shall not be remembered against him to grieve or shame him; they shall
   be covered, shall be sought for and not found. This intimates the
   fulness of pardoning mercy; when sin is forgiven it is blotted out, it
   is remembered no more. [3.] In their righteousness they shall live; not
   for their righteousness, as if that were the purchase of their pardon
   and bliss and an atonement for their sins, but in their righteousness,
   which qualifies them for all the blessings purchased by the Mediator,
   and is itself one of those blessings.

   (3.) What encouragement a repenting returning sinner has to hope for
   pardon and life according to this promise. He is conscious to himself
   that his obedience for the future can never be a valuable compensation
   for his former disobedience; but he has this to support himself with,
   that God's nature, property, and delight, is to have mercy and to
   forgive, for he has said (v. 23): "Have I any pleasure at all that the
   wicked should die? No, by no means; you never had any cause given you
   to think so." It is true God has determined to punish sinners; his
   justice calls for their punishment, and, pursuant to that, impenitent
   sinners will lie for ever under his wrath and curse; that is the will
   of his decree, his consequent will, but it is not his antecedent will,
   the will of his delight. Though the righteousness of his government
   requires that sinners die, yet the goodness of his nature objects
   against it. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? It is spoken here
   comparatively; he has not pleasure in the ruin of sinners, for he would
   rather they should turn from their ways and live; he is better pleased
   when his mercy is glorified in their salvation than when his justice is
   glorified in their damnation.

   2. A fair warning given to righteous people not to turn from their
   righteousness, v. 24-26. Here is, (1.) The character of an apostate,
   that turns away from his righteousness. He never was in sincerity a
   righteous man (as appears by that of the apostle, 1 John ii. 19, If
   they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued with us), but
   he passed for a righteous man. He had the denomination and all the
   external marks of a righteous man; he thought himself one, and others
   thought him one. But he throws off his profession, leaves his first
   love, disowns and forsakes the truth and ways of God, and so turns away
   from his righteousness as one sick of it, and now shows, what he always
   had, a secret aversion to it; and, having turned away from his
   righteousness, he commits iniquity, grows loose, and profane, and
   sensual, intemperate, unjust, and, in short, does according to all the
   abominations that the wicked man does; for, when the unclean spirit
   recovers his possession of the heart, he brings with him seven other
   spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there,
   Luke xi. 26. (2.) The doom of an apostate: Shall he live because he was
   once a righteous man? No; factum non dicitur quod non perseverat--that
   which does not abide is not said to be done. In his trespass (v. 24)
   and for his iniquity (that is the meritorious cause of his ruin), for
   the iniquity that he has done, he shall die, shall die eternally, v.
   26. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. But will
   not his former professions and performances stand him in some
   stead--will they not avail at least to mitigate his punishment? No: All
   his righteousness that he has done, though ever so much applauded by
   men, shall not be mentioned so as to be either a credit or a comfort to
   him; the righteousness of an apostate is forgotten, as the wickedness
   of a penitent is. Under the law, if a Nazarite was polluted he lost all
   the foregoing days of his separation (Num. vi. 12), so those that have
   begun in the spirit and end in the flesh may reckon all their past
   services and sufferings in vain (Gal. iii. 3, 4); unless we persevere
   we lose what we have gained, 2 John 8.

   II. An appeal to the consciences even of the house of Israel, though
   very corrupt, concerning God's equity in all these proceedings; for he
   will be justified, as well as sinners judged, out of their own mouths.
   1. The charge they drew up against God is blasphemous, v. 25, 29. The
   house of Israel has the impudence to say, The way of the Lord is not
   equal, than which nothing could be more absurd as well as impious. He
   that formed the eye, shall he not see? Can his ways be unequal whose
   will is the eternal rule of good and evil, right and wrong? Shall not
   the Judge of all the earth do right? No doubt he shall; he cannot do
   otherwise. 2. God's reasonings with them are very gracious and
   condescending, for even these blasphemers God would rather have
   convinced and saved than condemned. One would have expected that God
   would immediately vindicate the honour of his justice by making those
   that impeached it eternal monuments of it. Must those be suffered to
   draw another breath that have once breathed out such wickedness as
   this? Shall that tongue ever speak again any where but in hell that has
   once said, The ways of the Lord are not equal? Yes, because this is the
   day of God's patience, he vouchsafes to argue with them; and he
   requires them to own, for it is so plain that they cannot deny, (1.)
   The equity of his ways: Are not my ways equal? No doubt they are. He
   never lays upon man more than is right. In the present punishments of
   sinners and the afflictions of his own people, yea, and in the eternal
   damnation of the impenitent, the ways of the Lord are equal. (2.) The
   iniquity of their ways: "Are not your ways unequal? It is plain that
   they are, and the troubles you are in you have brought upon your own
   heads. God does you no wrong, but you have wronged yourselves." The
   foolishness of man perverts his way, makes that unequal, and then his
   heart frets against the Lord, as if his ways were unequal, Prov. xix.
   3. In all our disputes with God, and in all his controversies with us,
   it will be found that his ways are equal, but ours are unequal, that he
   is in the right and we are in the wrong.

Warning against Apostasy. (b. c. 593.)

   30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according
   to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all
   your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.   31 Cast away
   from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and
   make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of
   Israel?   32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
   saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

   We have here the conclusion and application of this whole matter. After
   a fair trial at the bar of right reason the verdict is brought in on
   God's side; it appears that his ways are equal. Judgment therefore is
   next to be given; and one would think it should be a judgment of
   condemnation, nothing short of Go, you cursed, into everlasting fire.
   But, behold, a miracle of mercy; the day of grace and divine patience
   is yet lengthened out; and therefore, though God will at last judge
   every one according to his ways, yet he waits to be gracious, and
   closes all with a call to repentance and a promise of pardon upon
   repentance.

   I. Here are four necessary duties that we are called to, all amounting
   to the same:--1. We must repent; we must change our mind and change our
   ways; we must be sorry for what we have done amiss and ashamed of it,
   and go as far as we can towards the undoing of it again. 2. We must
   turn ourselves from all our transgressions, v. 30 and again v. 32. Turn
   yourselves, face about; turn from sin, nay, turn against it as the
   enemy you loathe, turn to God as the friend you love. 3. We must cast
   away from us all our transgressions; we must abandon and forsake them
   with a resolution never to return to them again, give sin a bill of
   divorce, break all the leagues we have made with it, throw it
   overboard, as the mariners did Jonah (for it has raised the storm),
   cast it out of the soul, and crucify it as a malefactor. 4. We must
   make us a new heart and a new spirit. This was the matter of a promise,
   ch. xi. 19. Here it is the matter of a precept. We must do our
   endeavour, and then God will not be wanting to us to give us his grace.
   St. Austin well explains this precept. Deus non jubet impossibilia, sed
   jubendo monet et facere quod possis et petere quod non possis--God does
   not enjoin impossibilities, but by his commands admonishes us to do
   what is in our power and to pray for what is not.

   II. Here are four good arguments used to enforce these calls to
   repentance:--1. It is the only way, and it is a sure way, to prevent
   the ruin which our sins have a direct tendency to: So iniquity shall
   not be your ruin, which implies that, if we do not repent, iniquity
   will be our ruin, here and for ever, but that, if we do, we are safe,
   we are snatched as brands out of the burning. 2. If we repent not, we
   certainly perish, and our blood will be upon our own heads. Why will
   you die, O house of Israel? What an absurd thing it is for you to
   choose death and damnation rather than life and salvation. Note, The
   reason why sinners die is because they will die; they will go down the
   way that leads to death, and not come up to the terms on which life is
   offered. Herein sinners, especially sinners of the house of Israel, are
   most unreasonable and act most unaccountably. 3. The God of heaven has
   no delight in our ruin, but desires our welfare (v. 32): I have no
   pleasure in the death of him that dies, which implies that he has
   pleasure in the recovery of those that repent; and this is both an
   engagement and an encouragement to us to repent. 4. We are made for
   ever if we repent: Turn yourselves, and live. He that says to us,
   Repent, thereby says to us, Live, yea, he says to us, Live; so that
   life and death are here set before us.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XIX.

   The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of the 17th, to
   foretel and lament the ruin of the house of David, the royal family of
   Judah, in the calamitous exit of the four sons and grandsons of
   Josiah--Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, in whom that
   illustrious line of kings was cut off, which the prophet is here
   ordered to lament, ver. 1. And he does it by similitudes. I. The
   kingdom of Judah and house of David are here compared to a lioness, and
   those princes to lions, that were fierce and ravenous, but were hunted
   down and taken in nets, ver. 2-9. II. That kingdom and that house are
   here compared to a vine, and these princes to branches, which had been
   strong and flourishing, but were now broken off and burnt, ver. 10-14.
   This ruin of that monarchy was now in the doing, and this lamentation
   of it was intended to affect the people with it, that they might not
   flatter themselves with vain hopes of the lengthening out of their
   tranquility.

The Fall of the Royal Family; Fall of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. (b. c. 593.)

   1 Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,   2
   And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she
   nourished her whelps among young lions.   3 And she brought up one of
   her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey;
   it devoured men.   4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in
   their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.   5
   Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she
   took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.   6 And he went
   up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to
   catch the prey, and devoured men.   7 And he knew their desolate
   palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and
   the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.   8 Then the nations
   set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net
   over him: he was taken in their pit.   9 And they put him in ward in
   chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into
   holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of
   Israel.

   Here are, I. Orders given to the prophet to bewail the fall of the
   royal family, which had long made so great a figure by virtue of a
   covenant of royalty made with David and his seed, so that the eclipsing
   and extinguishing of it are justly lamented by all who know what value
   to put upon the covenant of our God, as we find, after a very large
   account of that covenant with David ( Ps. lxxxix. 3, 20, &c.), a sad
   lamentation for the decays and desolations of his family (v. 38, 39):
   But thou hast cast off and abhorred, hast made void the covenant of thy
   servant and profaned his crown, &c. The kings of Judah are here called
   princes of Israel; for their glory was diminished and they had become
   but as princes, and their purity was lost; they had become corrupt and
   idolatrous as the kings of Israel, whose ways they had learned. The
   prophet must take up a lamentation for them; that is, he must describe
   their lamentable fall as one that did himself lay it to heart, and
   desired that those he preached and wrote to might do so to. And how can
   we expect that others should be affected with that which we ourselves
   are not affected with? Ministers, when they boldly foretel, must yet
   bitterly lament the destruction of sinners, as those that have not
   desired the woeful day. He is not directed to give advice to the
   princes of Israel (that had been long and often done in vain), but, the
   decree having gone forth, he must take up a lamentation for them.

   II. Instructions given him what to say. 1. He must compare the kingdom
   of Judah to a lioness, so wretchedly degenerated was it from what it
   had been formerly, when it sat as a queen among the nations, v. 2. What
   is thy mother? thine, O king? (we read of Solomon's crown wherewith his
   mother crowned him, that is, his people, Cant. iii. 11), thine, O
   Judah? The royal family is as a mother to the kingdom, a nursing
   mother. She is a lioness, fierce, and cruel, and ravenous. When they
   had left their divinity they soon lost their humanity too; and, when
   they feared not God, neither did they regard man. She lay down among
   lions. God had said, The people shall dwell alone, but they mingled
   with the nations and learned their works. She nourished her whelps
   among young lions, taught the young princes the way of tyrants, which
   was then used by the arbitrary kings of the east, filled their heads
   betimes with notions of their absolute despotic power, and possessed
   them with a belief that they had a right to enslave their subjects,
   that their liberty and property lay at their mercy: thus she nourished
   her whelps among young lions. 2. He must compare the kings of Judah to
   lions' whelps, v. 3. Jacob had compared Judah, and especially the house
   of David, to a lion's whelp, for its being strong and formidable to its
   enemies abroad (Gen. xlix. 9, He is an old lion; who shall stir him
   up?) and, if they had adhered to the divine law and promise, God would
   have preserved to them the might, and majesty, and dominion of a lion,
   and does it in Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But these lions'
   whelps were so to their own subjects, were cruel and oppressive to
   them, preyed upon their estates and liberties; and, when they thus by
   their tyranny made themselves a terror to those whom they ought to have
   protected, it was just with God to make those a terror to them whom
   otherwise they might have subdued. Here is lamented, (1.) The sin and
   fall of Jehoahaz, one of the whelps of this lioness. He became a young
   lion (v. 3); he was made king, and thought he was made so that he might
   do what he pleased, and gratify his own ambition, covetousness, and
   revenge, as he had a mind; and so he was soon master of all the arts of
   tyranny; he learned to catch the prey and devoured men. When he got
   power into his hand, all that had before in any thing disobliged him
   were made to feel his resentments and become a sacrifice to his rage.
   But what came of it? He did not prosper long in his tyranny: The
   nations heard of him (v. 4), heard how furiously he drove at his first
   coming to the crown, how he trampled upon all that is just and sacred,
   and violated all his engagements, so that they looked upon him as a
   dangerous neighbour, and prosecuted him accordingly, as a multitude of
   shepherds is called forth against a lion roaring on his prey, Isa.
   xxxi. 4. And he was taken, as a beast of prey, in their pit. His own
   subjects durst not stand up in defence of their liberties, but God
   raised up a foreign power that soon put an end to his tyranny, and
   brought him in chains to the land of Egypt. Thither Jehoahaz was
   carried captive, and never heard of more. (2.) The like sin and fall of
   his successor Jehoiakim. The kingdom of Judah for some time expected
   the return of Jehoahaz out of Egypt, but at length despaired of it, and
   then took another of the lion's whelps, and made him a young lion, v.
   5. And he, instead of taking warning by his brother's fate to use his
   power with equity and moderation, and to seek the good of his people,
   trod in his brother's steps: He went up and down among the lions, v. 6.
   He consulted and conversed with those that were fierce and furious like
   himself, and took his measures from them, as Rehoboam took the advice
   of the rash and hot-headed young men. And he soon learned to catch the
   prey, and he devoured men (v. 6); he seized his subjects' estates,
   fined and imprisoned them, filled his treasury by rapine and injustice,
   sequestrations and confiscations, fines and forfeitures, and swallowed
   up all that stood in his way. He had got the art of discovering what
   effects men had that lay concealed, and where the treasures were which
   they had hoarded up; he knew their desolate places (v. 7), where they
   hid their money and sometimes hid themselves; he knew where to find
   both out; and by his oppression he laid waste their cities, depopulated
   them by forcing the inhabitants to remove their families to some place
   of safety. The land was desolate, and the country villages were
   deserted; and though there was great plenty, and a fulness of all good
   things, yet people quitted it all for fear of the noise of his roaring.
   He took a pride in making all his subjects afraid of him, as the lion
   makes all the beasts of the forest to tremble (Amos iii. 8), and by his
   terrible roaring so astonished them that they fell down for fear, and,
   having not spirit to make their escape, became an easy prey to him, as
   they say the lions do. He hectored, and threatened, and talked big, and
   bullied people out of what they had. Thus he thought to establish his
   own power, but it had a contrary effect, it did but hasten his own ruin
   (v. 8): The nations set against him on every side, to restrain and
   reduce his exorbitant power, which they joined in confederacy to do for
   their common safety; and they spread their net over him, formed designs
   against him. God brought against Jehoiakim bands of the Syrians,
   Moabites, and Ammonites, with the Chaldees (2 Kings xxiv. 2), and he
   was taken in their pit. Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry
   him to Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6. They put this lion within grates,
   bound him in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon, v. 9. What
   became of him we know not; but his voice was nowhere heard roaring upon
   the mountains of Israel. There was an end of his tyranny: he was buried
   with the burial of an ass (Jer. xxii. 19), though he had been as a
   lion, the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Note, The
   righteousness of God is to be acknowledged when those who have
   terrified and enslaved others are themselves terrified and enslaved,
   when those who by the abuse of their power to destruction which was
   given them for edification make themselves as wild beasts, as roaring
   lions and ranging bears (for such, Solomon says, wicked rulers are over
   the poor people, Prov. xxviii. 15), are treated as such--when those
   who, like Ishmael, have their hand against every man, come at last to
   have every man's hand against them. It was long since observed that
   bloody tyrants seldom die in peace, but have blood given them to drink,
   for they are worthy.


   Ad generum Cereris sine cæde et sanguine pauci

   Descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni--

   How few of all the boastful men that reign

   Descend in peace to Pluto's dark domain!

   Juvenal.

The Fall of the Royal Family. (b. c. 593.)

   10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she
   was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.   11 And
   she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her
   stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her
   height with the multitude of her branches.   12 But she was plucked up
   in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up
   her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed
   them.   13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and
   thirsty ground.   14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches,
   which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a
   sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

   Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here represented by another similitude;
   she is a vine, and the princes are her branches. This comparison we had
   before, ch. xv. 1. Jerusalem is as a vine; the Jewish nation is so:
   Like a vine in thy blood (v. 10), the blood-royal, like a vine set in
   blood and watered with blood, which contributes very much to the
   flourishing and fruitfulness of vines, as if the blood which had been
   shed had been designed for the fattening and improving of the soil, in
   such plenty was it shed; and for a time it seemed to have that effect,
   for she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of the waters, the
   many waters near which she was planted. Places of great wickedness may
   prosper for a while; and a vine set in blood may be full of branches.
   Jerusalem was full of able magistrates, men of sense, men of learning
   and experience, that were strong rods, branches of this vine of
   uncommon bulk and strength, or poles for the support of this vine, for
   such magistrates are. The boughs of this vine had grown to such
   maturity that they were fit to make white staves of for the sceptres of
   those that bore rule, v. 11. And those are strong rods that are fit for
   sceptres, men of strong judgments and strong resolutions that are fit
   for magistrates. When the royal family of Judah was numerous, and the
   courts of justice were filled with men of sense and probity, then
   Jerusalem's stature was exalted among thick branches; when the
   government is in good able hands a nation is thereby made considerable
   Then she was not taken for a weak and lowly vine, but she appeared in
   her height, a distinguished city, with the multitude of her branches.
   Tanquam lenta solent inter viburna cupressi--Midst humble withies thus
   the cypress soars. "In thy quietness" (so some read that, v. 10, which
   we translate in thy blood) "thou wast such a vine as this." When
   Zedekiah was quiet and easy under the king of Babylon's yoke his
   kingdom flourished thus. See how slow God is to anger, how he defers
   his judgments, and waits to be gracious. 2. This vine is now quite
   destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar, being highly provoked by Zedekiah's
   treachery, plucked it up in fury (v. 12), ruined the city and kingdom,
   and cut off all the branches of the royal family that fell in his way.
   The vine was cut off close to the ground, though not plucked up by the
   roots. The east wind dried up the fruit that was blasted. The young
   people fell by the sword, or were carried into captivity. The aspect of
   it had nothing that was pleasing, the prospect nothing that was
   promising. Her strong rods were broken and withered; her great men were
   cut off, judges and magistrates deposed. The vine itself is planted in
   the wilderness, v. 13. Babylon was as a wilderness to those of the
   people that were carried captives thither; the land of Judah was as a
   wilderness to Jerusalem, now that the whole country was ravaged and
   laid waste by the Chaldean army--a fruitful land turned into
   barrenness. "It is burnt with fire (Ps. lxxx. 16) and that fire has
   gone out of a rod of her branches (v. 14); the king himself, by
   rebelling against the king of Babylon, has given occasion to all this
   mischief. She may thank herself for the fire that consumes her; she has
   by her wickedness made herself like tinder to the sparks of God's
   wrath, so that her own branches serve as fuel for her own consumption;
   in them the fire is kindled which devoured the fruit, the sins of the
   elder being the judgments which destroy the younger; her fruit is
   burned with her own branches, so that she has no strong rod to be a
   sceptre to rule, none to be found now that are fit for the government
   or dare take this ruin under their hand, as the complaint is (Isa. iii.
   6, 7), none of the house of David left that have a right to rule, no
   wise men, or men of sense, that are able to rule." It goes ill with any
   state, and is likely to go worse, when it is thus deprived of the
   blessings of government and has no strong rods for sceptres. Woe unto
   thee, O land! when thy king is a child, for it is as well to have no
   rod as not a strong rod. Those strong rods, we have reason to fear, had
   been instruments of oppression, assistant to the king in catching the
   prey and devouring men, and now they are destroyed with him. Tyranny is
   the inlet to anarchy; and, when the rod of government is turned into
   the serpent of oppression, it is just with God to say, "There shall be
   no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule; but let men be as are the fishes
   of the sea, where the greater devour the less." Note, This is a
   lamentation and shall be for a lamentation. The prophet was bidden (v.
   1) to take up a lamentation; and, having done so, he leaves it to be
   made use of by others. "It is a lamentation to us of this age, and, the
   desolations continuing long, it shall be for a lamentation to those
   that shall come after us; the child unborn will rue the destruction
   made of Judah and Jerusalem by the present judgments. They were a great
   while in coming; the bow was long in the drawing; but now that they
   have come they will continue, and the sad effects of them will be
   entailed upon posterity." Note, Those who fill up the measure of their
   fathers' sins are laying up in store for their children's sorrows and
   furnishing them with matter for lamentation; and nothing is more so
   than the overthrow of government.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XX.

   In this chapter, I. The prophet is consulted by some of the elders of
   Israel, ver. 1. II. He is instructed by his God what answer to give
   them. He must, 1. Signify God's displeasure against them, ver. 2, 3.
   And, 2. He must show them what just cause he had for that displeasure,
   by giving them a history of God's grateful dealings with their fathers
   and their treacherous dealings with God. (1.) In Egypt, ver. 5-9. (2.)
   In the wilderness, ver. 10-26. (3.) In Canaan, ver. 27-32. 3. He must
   denounce the judgments of God against them, ver. 33-36. 4. He must tell
   them likewise what mercy God had in store for them, when he would bring
   a remnant of them to repentance, re-establish them in their own land,
   and set up his sanctuary among them again, ver. 37-44. 5. Here is
   another word dropped towards Jerusalem, which is explained and enlarged
   upon in the next chapter, ver. 45-49.

The Prophet Consulted by the Elders. (b. c. 592.)

   1 And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the
   tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to
   enquire of the Lord, and sat before me.   2 Then came the word of the
   Lord unto me, saying,   3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel,
   and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye come to enquire of
   me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.
   4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to
   know the abominations of their fathers:

   Here is, 1. The occasion of the message which we have in this chapter.
   That sermon which we had ch. xviii. was occasioned by their
   presumptuous reflections upon God; this was occasioned by their
   hypocritical enquiries after him. Each shall have his own. This
   prophecy is exactly dated, in the seventh year of the captivity, about
   two years after Ezekiel began to prophesy. God would have them to keep
   account how long their captivity lasted, that they might see how the
   years went on towards their deliverance, though very slowly. Certain of
   the elders of Israel came to enquire of the Lord, not statedly (as
   those ch. viii. 1), but, as it should seem, occasionally, and upon a
   particular emergency. Whether they were of those that were now in
   captivity, or elders lately come from Jerusalem upon business to
   Babylon, is not certain; but, by what the prophet says to them (v. 32),
   it should seem, their enquiry was whether now that they were captives
   in Babylon, at a distance from their own country, where they had not
   only no temple, but no synagogue, for the worship of God, it was not
   lawful for them, that they might ingratiate themselves with their lords
   and masters, to join with them in their worship and do as the families
   of these countries do, that serve wood and stone. This matter was
   palliated as well as it would bear, like Naaman's pleading with Elisha
   for leave to bow in the house of Rimmon, in compliment to the king; but
   we have reason to suspect that their enquiry drove at this. Note, Those
   hearts are wretchedly hardened which ask God leave to go on in sin, and
   that when they are suffering for it. They came and sat very demurely
   and with a show of devotion before the prophet, ch. xxxiii. 31. 2. The
   purport of this message. (1.) They must be made to know that God is
   angry with them; he takes it as an affront that they come to enquire of
   him when they are resolved to go on still in their trespasses: As I
   live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you, v. 3. Their
   shows of devotion shall be neither acceptable to God nor advantageous
   to themselves. God will not take notice of their enquiries, nor give
   them any satisfactory answers. Note, A hypocritical attendance on God
   and his ordinances is so far from being pleasing to him that it is
   provoking. (2.) They must be made to know that God is justly angry with
   them (v. 4): "Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them?
   Thou art a prophet, surely thou wilt not plead for them, as an
   intercessor with God; but surely thou wilt pass sentence on them as a
   judge for God. See, I have set thee over the nation; wilt thou not
   declare to them the judgments of the Lord? Cause them therefore to know
   the abominations of their fathers." So the orders run now, as before
   (ch. xvi. 2) he must cause them to know their own abominations. Though
   their own abominations were sufficient to justify God in the severest
   of his proceedings against them, yet it would be of use for them to
   know the abominations of their fathers, that they might see what a
   righteous thing it was with God now at last to cut them off from being
   a people, who from the first were such a provoking people.

God's Gracious Dealings with Israel. (b. c. 592.)

   5 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when I chose
   Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob,
   and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up
   mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God;   6 In the day
   that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land
   of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and
   honey, which is the glory of all lands:   7 Then said I unto them, Cast
   ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not
   yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.   8 But
   they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not
   every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they
   forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon
   them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of
   Egypt.   9 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be
   polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I
   made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of
   Egypt.

   The history of the ingratitude and rebellion of the people of Israel
   here begins as early as their beginning; so does the history of man's
   apostasy from his Maker. No sooner have we read the story of our first
   parents' creation than we immediately meet with that of their
   rebellion; so we see here it was with Israel, a people designed to
   represent the body of mankind both in their dealings with God and in
   his with them. Here is,

   I. The gracious purposes of God's law concerning Israel in Egypt, where
   they were bond-slaves to Pharaoh. Be it spoken, be it written, to the
   immortal honour of free grace, that then and there, 1. He chose Israel
   to be a peculiar people to himself, though their condition was bad and
   their character worse, that he might have the honour of mending both.
   He therefore chose them, because they were the seed of the house of
   Jacob, the posterity of that prince with God, that he might keep the
   oath which he had sworn unto their fathers, Deut. vii. 7, 8. 2. He made
   himself known to them by his name Jehovah (a new name, Exod. vi. 3),
   when by reason of their servitude they had almost lost the knowledge of
   that name by which he was known to their fathers, God Almighty. Note,
   As the foundation of our blessedness is laid in God's choosing us, so
   the first step towards it is God's making himself known to us. And
   whatever distance we are at, whatever distress we are in, he that made
   himself known to Israel even in the land of Egypt can find us out, and
   follow us with the gracious discoveries and manifestations of his
   favour. 3. He made over himself to them as their God in covenant: I
   lifted up my hand unto them, saying it, and confirming it with an oath.
   "I am the Lord your God, to whom you are to pay your homage, and from
   whom and in whom you are to expect your bliss." 4. He promised to bring
   them out of Egypt; and made good what he promised. He lifted up his
   hand, that is, he swore unto them, that he would deliver them; and,
   they being very unworthy, and their deliverance very unlikely, it was
   requisite that the promise of it should be confirmed by an oath. Or, He
   lifted up his hand, that is, he put forth his almighty power to do it;
   he did it with an outstretched arm, Ps. cxxxvi. 12. 5. He assured them
   that he would put them in possession of the land of Canaan. He
   therefore brought them out of Egypt, that he might bring them into a
   land that he had spied out for them, a second garden of Eden, which was
   the glory of all lands. So he found it, the climate being temperate,
   the soil fruitful, the situation pleasant, and every thing agreeable
   (Deut. viii. 7; xi. 12); or, however this might be, so he made it, by
   setting up his sanctuary in it.

   II. The reasonable commands he gave them, and the easy conditions of
   his covenant with them at that time. Having told them what they might
   expect from him, he next tells them what was all he expected from them;
   it was no more than this (v. 7): "Cast you away every man his images
   that he uses for worship, that are the adorations, but should be the
   abominations, of his eyes. Let him abominate them, and put them out of
   his sight, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt." Of
   these, it seems, many of them were fond; the golden calf was one of
   them. It was just, and what might reasonably be expected, that, being
   delivered from the Egyptian slavery, they should quit the Egyptian
   idolatry, especially when God, at bringing them out, executed judgment
   upon the gods of Egypt (Num. xxxiii. 4) and thereby showed himself
   above them. And, whatever other idols they might have an inclination
   to, one would think they should have had a rooted aversion to the gods
   of Egypt for Egypt's sake, which had been to them a house of bondage.
   Yet, it seems, they needed this caution, and it is backed with a good
   reason: I am the Lord your God, who neither need an assistant nor will
   admit a rival.

   III. Their unreasonable disobedience to these commands, for which God
   might justly have cut them off as soon as ever they were formed into a
   people (v. 8): They rebelled against God, not only refused to comply
   with his particular precepts, but shook off their allegiance, and in
   effect told him that they should be at liberty to worship what god they
   pleased. And even then when God came down to deliver them, and sent
   Moses for that purpose, yet they would not forsake the idols of Egypt,
   which perhaps made them speak so affectionately of the onions of Egypt
   (Num. xi. 5), for among other things the Egyptians worshipped an onion.
   It was strange that all the plagues of Egypt would not prevail to cure
   them of their affection to the idols of Egypt. For this God said he
   would pour out his fury upon them, even while they were yet in the
   midst of the land of Egypt. Justly might he have said, "Let them die
   with the Egyptians." This magnifies the riches of God's goodness, that
   he was pleased to work so great a salvation for them even when he saw
   them ripe for ruin. Well might Moses tell them, It is not for your
   righteousness, Deut. ix. 4, 5.

   IV. The wonderful deliverance which God wrought for them,
   notwithstanding. Though they forfeited the favour while it was in the
   bestowing, and when God would have healed them when their iniquity was
   discovered (Hos. vii. 1), yet mercy rejoiced against judgment, and God
   did what he designed purely for his own name's sake, v. 9. When nothing
   in us will furnish him with a reason for his favours he furnishes
   himself with one. God made himself known to them in the sight of the
   heathen when he ordered Moses publicly to say to Pharaoh, Israel is my
   son, my first-born, let them go, that they may serve me. Now, if he had
   left them to perish for their wickedness as they deserved, the
   Egyptians would have reflected upon him for it, and his name would have
   been polluted, which ought to be sanctified and shall be so. Note, The
   church is secured, even when it is corrupt, because God will secure his
   own honour.

The Privileges and Sins of Israel. (b. c. 592.)

   10 Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and
   brought them into the wilderness.   11 And I gave them my statutes, and
   shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in
   them.   12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between
   me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify
   them.   13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the
   wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my
   judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my
   sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury
   upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.   14 But I wrought for my
   name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in
   whose sight I brought them out.   15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto
   them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which
   I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of
   all lands;   16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in
   my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their
   idols.   17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them,
   neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.   18 But I said
   unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of
   your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves
   with their idols:   19 I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and
   keep my judgments, and do them;   20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they
   shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord
   your God.   21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they
   walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which
   if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths:
   then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger
   against them in the wilderness.   22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand,
   and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the
   sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.   23 I
   lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would
   scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the
   countries;   24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had
   despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were
   after their fathers' idols.   25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes
   that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;   26
   And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass
   through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them
   desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.

   The history of the struggle between the sins of Israel, by which they
   endeavoured to ruin themselves, and the mercies of God, by which he
   endeavoured to save them and make them happy, is here continued: and
   the instances of that struggle in these verses have reference to what
   passed between God and them in the wilderness, in which God honoured
   himself and they shamed themselves. The story of Israel in the
   wilderness is referred to in the New Testament (1 Cor. x. and Heb.
   iii.), as well as often in the Old, for warning to us Christians; and
   therefore we are particularly concerned in these verses. Observe,

   I. The great things God did for them, which he puts them in mind of,
   not as grudging them his favours, but to show how ungrateful they had
   been. And we say, If you call a man ungrateful, you can call him no
   worse. It was a great favour, 1. That God brought them forth out of
   Egypt (v. 10), though, as it follows, he brought them into the
   wilderness and not into Canaan immediately. It is better to be at
   liberty in a wilderness than bond-slaves in a land of plenty, to enjoy
   God and ourselves in solitude than to lose both in a crowd; yet there
   were many of them who had such base servile spirits as not to
   understand this, but, when they met with the difficulties of a desert,
   wished themselves in Egypt again. 2. That he gave them the law upon
   Mount Sinai (v. 11), not only instructed them concerning good and evil,
   but by his authority bound them from the evil and to the good. He gave
   them his statutes, and a valuable gift it was. Moses commanded them a
   law that was the inheritance of the congregation of Israel, Deut.
   xxxiii. 4. God made them to know his judgments, not only enacted laws
   for them, but showed them the reasonableness and equity of those laws,
   with what judgment they were formed. The laws he gave them they were
   encouraged to observe and obey; for, if a man do them, he shall even
   live in them; in keeping God's commandments there is abundance of
   comfort and a great reward. Christ says, If thou wilt into enter life,
   and enjoy it, keep the commandments. Though those who are the most
   strict in their obedience are thus far unprofitable servants that they
   do no more than is their duty to do, yet it is thus richly recompensed:
   This do, and thou shalt live. The Chaldee says, He shall live an
   eternal life in them. St. Paul quotes this (Gal. iii. 12) to show that
   the law is not of faith, but proposes life upon condition of perfect
   obedience, which we are not capable of rendering, and therefore must
   have recourse to the grace of the gospel, without which we are all
   undone. 3. That he revived the ancient institution of the sabbath day,
   which was lost and forgotten while they were bond-slaves in Egypt; for
   their task-masters there would by no means allow them to rest one day
   in seven. In the wilderness indeed every day was a day of rest; for
   what need had those to labour who lived upon manna, and whose raiment
   waxed not old? But one day in seven must be a holy rest (v. 12): I gave
   them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them (the institution of
   the sabbath was a sign of God's good-will to them, and their observance
   of it a sign of their regard to him), that they might know that I am
   the Lord that sanctify them. By this God made it to appear that he had
   distinguished them from the rest of the world, and designed to model
   them for a peculiar people to himself; and by their attendance on God
   in solemn assemblies on sabbath days they were made to increase in the
   knowledge of God, in an experimental knowledge of the powers and
   pleasures of his sanctifying grace. Note, (1.) Sabbaths are privileges,
   and are so to be accounted; the church acknowledges as a great favour,
   in that chapter which is parallel to this and seems to have a reference
   to this (Neh. ix. 14), Thou madest known unto them thy holy sabbaths.
   (2.) Sabbaths are signs; it is a sign that men have a sense of
   religion, and that there is some good correspondence between them and
   God, when they make conscience of keeping holy and sabbath day. (3.)
   Sabbaths, if duly sanctified, are the means of our sanctification; if
   we do the duty of the day, we shall find, to our comfort, it is the
   Lord that sanctifies us, makes us holy (that is, truly happy) here, and
   prepares us to be happy (that is, perfectly holy) hereafter.

   II. Their disobedient undutiful conduct towards God, for which he might
   justly have thrown them out of covenant as soon as he had taken them
   into covenant (v. 13): They rebelled in the wilderness. There where
   they received so much mercy from God, and had such a dependence upon
   him, and were in their way to Canaan, yet there they broke out in many
   open rebellions against the God that led them and fed them. They did
   not only not walk in God's statutes, but they despised his judgments as
   not worth observing; instead of sanctifying the sabbaths, they polluted
   them, greatly polluted them; one gathered sticks, many went out to
   gather manna on this day. Hereupon God was ready sometimes to cut them
   off; he said, more than once, that he would consume them in the
   wilderness. But Moses interceded, so did God's own mercy more
   powerfully, and most of all a concern for his own glory, that his name
   might not be polluted and profaned among the heathen (v. 14), that the
   Egyptians might not say that for mischief he brought them thus far, or
   that he was not able to bring them any further, or that he had no such
   good land as was talked of to bring them to, Exod. xxxii. 12; Num. xiv.
   13, &c. Note, God's strongest reasons for his sparing mercy are those
   which are fetched from his own glory.

   III. God's determination to cut off that generation of them in the
   wilderness. He who lifted up his hand for them (v. 6) now lifted up his
   hand against them; he who by an oath confirmed his promise to bring
   them out of Egypt now by an oath confirmed his threatenings that he
   would not bring them into Canaan (v. 15, 16): I lifted up my hand unto
   them, saying, As truly as I live, these men who have tempted me these
   ten times shall never see the land which I swore unto their fathers,
   Num. xiv. 22, 23; Ps. xcv. 11. By their contempt of God's laws, and
   particularly of his sabbaths, they put a bar in their own door; and
   that which was at the bottom of their disobedience to God, and their
   neglect of his institutions, was a secret affection to the gods of
   Egypt: Their heart went after their idols. Note, The bias of the mind
   towards the world and the flesh, the money and the belly (those two
   great objects of spiritual idolatry), is the root of bitterness from
   which springs all disobedience to the divine law. The heart that goes
   after those idols despises God's judgments.

   IV. The reservation of a seed that should be admitted upon a new trial,
   and the instructions given to that seed, v. 17. Though they thus
   deserved ruin, and were doomed to it, yet my eye spared them. When he
   looked upon them he had compassion on them, and did not make an end of
   them, but reprieved them till a new generation was reared. Note, It is
   owing purely to the mercy of God that he has not long ago made an end
   of us. This new generation is well educated. Moses in Deuteronomy
   reported and enforce the laws which had been given to those that came
   out of Egypt, that their children might have them as it were sounding
   in their ears afresh when they entered Canaan (v. 18): "I said unto
   their children in the wilderness, in the plains of Moab, Walk in the
   statutes of your God and walk not in the statutes of your fathers; do
   not imitate their superstitious usages nor retain their foolish wicked
   customs; away with their vain conversation, which has nothing else to
   say for itself but that it was received by the tradition of your
   fathers, 1 Pet. i. 18. Defile not yourselves with their idols, for you
   see how odious they rendered themselves to God by them. But keep my
   judgments and hallow my sabbaths," v. 19, 20. Note, If parents be
   careless, and do not give their children good instructions as they
   ought, the children ought to make up the want by studying the word of
   God so much the more carefully and diligently themselves when they grow
   up; and the bad examples of parents must be made use of by their
   children for admonition, and not for imitation.

   V. The revolt of the next generation from God, by which they also made
   themselves obnoxious to the wrath of God (v. 21): The children rebelled
   against me too. And the same that was said of the fathers' rebellion is
   here said of the children's, for they were a seed of evil-doers. Moses
   told them that he knew their rebellion and their stiff neck, Deut.
   xxxi. 27. And Deut. ix. 24, You have been rebellious against the Lord
   from the day that I knew you. They walked not in my statutes (v. 21);
   nay, they despised my statutes, v. 24. Those who disobey God's statutes
   despise them, they show that they have a mean opinion of them and of
   him whose statutes they are. They polluted God's sabbaths, as their
   fathers. Note, The profanation of the sabbath day is an inlet to all
   impiety; those who pollute holy time will keep nothing pure. It was
   said of the fathers (v. 16) that their heart went after their idols;
   they worshipped idols because they had an affection for them. It is
   said of the children (v. 24) that their eyes went after their fathers'
   idols; they had grown atheistical, and had no affection for any gods at
   all, but they worshipped their fathers' idols because they were their
   fathers' and they had them before their eyes. They were used to them;
   and, if they must have gods, they would have such as they could see,
   such as they could manage. And that which aggravated their disobedience
   to God's statutes was that, if they had done them, they might have
   lived in them (v. 21), might have been a happy thriving people. Note,
   Those that go contrary to their duty go contrary to their interest;
   they will not obey, will not come to Christ, that they may have life,
   John v. 40. And it is therefore just that those who will not live and
   flourish as they might in their obedience should die and perish in
   their disobedience. Now the great instance of that generation's
   rebellion and inclination to idolatry was the iniquity of Peor, as that
   of their fathers was the golden calf. Then the anger of the Lord was
   kindled against Israel, Num. xxv. 3. Then there was a plague in the
   congregation of the Lord, which, if it had not been seasonably stayed
   by Phinehas's zeal, had cut them all off; and yet they owned, in
   Joshua's time, We were not cleansed from that iniquity unto this day,
   Josh. xxii. 17; Ps. cvi. 29. Then it was that God said he would pour
   out his fury upon them (v. 21), that he lifted up his hand unto them in
   the wilderness, when they were a second time just ready to enter
   Canaan, that he would scatter them among the heathen. This very thing
   he said to them by Moses in his parting song, Deut. xxxii. 20. Because
   they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, he said, I will hide
   my face from them; and (v. 26, 27) he said, I would scatter them into
   corners, were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, which
   explains this (v. 21, 22), I said I would pour out my fury upon them,
   but I withdrew my hand for my name's sake. Note, When the corruptions
   of the visible church are such, and so provoking, that we have reason
   to fear its total extirpation, yet then we may be confident of this, to
   our comfort, that God will secure his own honour, by making good his
   purpose, that while the world stands he will have a church in it.

   VI. The judgments of God upon them for their rebellion. They would not
   regard the statutes and judgments by which God prescribed them their
   duty, but despised them, and therefore God gave them statutes and
   judgments which were not good, and by which they should not live, v.
   25. By this we may understand the several ways by which God punished
   them while they were in the wilderness--the plague that broke in upon
   them, the fiery serpent, and the like--which, in allusion to the law
   they had broken, are called judgments, because inflicted by the justice
   of God, and statutes, because he gave orders concerning them and
   commanded desolations as sometimes he had commanded deliverances, and
   appointed Israel's plagues as he had done the plagues of Egypt. When
   God said, I will consume them in a moment (Num. xvi. 21), when he said,
   Take the heads of the people and hang them up (Num. xxv. 4), when he
   threatened them with the curse and obliged them to say Amen to every
   curse (Deut. xxvii. 28), then he gave them judgments by which they
   should not live. More is implied than is expressed; they are judgments
   by which they should die. Those that will not be bound by the precepts
   of the law shall be bound by the sentence of it; for one way or other
   the word of God will take hold of men, Zech. i. 6. Spiritual judgments
   are the most dreadful; and these God punished them with. The statutes
   and judgments which the heathen observed in the worship of their idols
   were not good, and in practising them they could not live; and God gave
   them up to those. He made their sin to be their punishment, gave them
   up to a reprobate mind, as he did the Gentile idolaters (Rom. i. 24,
   26), gave them up to their own heart's lusts (Ps. lxxxi. 12), punished
   them for those superstitious customs which were against the written law
   by giving them up to those which were against the very light and law of
   nature; he left them to themselves to be guilty of the most impure
   idolatries, as in the worship of Baal-peor (he polluted them, that is,
   her permitted them to pollute themselves, in their own gifts, v. 26),
   and of the most barbarous idolatries, as in the worship of Moloch, when
   they caused their children, especially their first-born, which God
   challenged a particular property in (the first-born of thy sons shalt
   thou give unto me), to pass through the fire, to be sacrificed to their
   idols; that thus he might make them desolate, not only that he might
   justly do it, but that he might do it by their own hands; for this must
   needs be a great weakening to their families and a diminution of the
   honour and strength of their country. Note, God sometimes makes sin to
   be its own punishment, and yet is not the author of sin; and there
   needs no more to make men miserable than to give them up to their own
   vile appetites and passions. Let them be put into the hand of their own
   counsels, and they will ruin themselves and make themselves desolate.
   And thus God makes them know that he is the Lord, and that he is a
   righteous God, which they themselves will be compelled to own when they
   see how much their wilful transgressions contribute to their own
   desolations. Note, Those who will not acknowledge God as the Lord their
   ruler shall be made to acknowledge him as the Lord their judge when it
   is too late.

The Rebellions of Israel. (b. c. 592.)

   27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto
   them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed
   me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.   28 For when I
   had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to
   give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick
   trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they
   presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their
   sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.   29 Then I
   said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name
   thereof is called Bamah unto this day.   30 Wherefore say unto the
   house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the
   manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their
   abominations?   31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons
   to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols,
   even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of
   Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by
   you.   32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all,
   that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the
   countries, to serve wood and stone.

   Here the prophet goes on with the story of their rebellions, for their
   further humiliation, and shows,

   I. That they had persisted in them after they were settled in the land
   of Canaan. Though God had so many times testified his displeasure
   against their wicked courses, "yet in this (that is, in the very same
   thing) your fathers have blasphemed me, continued to affront me, that
   they also have trespassed a trespass against me," v. 27. Note, It is a
   great aggravation of sin when men will not take warning by the
   mischievous consequences of sin in those that have gone before them:
   this is blaspheming God; it is speaking reproachfully of his judgments,
   as if they were of no significancy and were not worth regarding. 1. God
   had made good his promise: I brought them into the land that I had
   sworn to give them. Though their unbelief and disobedience had made the
   performance slow, and much retarded it, yet it did not make the promise
   of no effect. They were often very near being cut off in the
   wilderness, but a step between them and ruin, and yet they came to
   Canaan at last. Note, Even God's Israel get to heaven by hell-gates; so
   many are their transgressions, and so strong their corruptions, that it
   is a miracle of mercy they are happy at last; as hypocrites go to hell
   by heaven-gates. The righteous scarcely are saved. Per tot discrimina
   rerum tendimus ad coelum--Ten thousand dangers fill the road to heaven.
   2. They had broken his precept by their abominable idolatries. God had
   appointed them to destroy all the monuments of idolatry, that they
   might not be tempted to desert his sanctuary; but, instead of defacing
   them, they fell in love with them, and when they saw every high hill
   whence they had the most delightful prospects, and all the thick trees
   where they had the most delightful shades (the former to show forth
   their pompous idolatries, the latter to conceal their shameful ones),
   there they offered their sacrifices and made their sweet savour, which
   should have been presented upon God's altar only. There they presented
   the provocation of their offering (v. 28), that is, their offerings,
   which, instead of pacifying God, or pleasing him, were highly
   provoking-sacrifices which, though costly, yet being misplaced, were an
   abomination to the Lord. 3. They obstinately persisted herein
   notwithstanding all the admonitions that were given them (v. 29): "Then
   I told them, by my servants the prophets, told them where the high
   place was, to which they went; nay, I put them upon considering it, and
   asking their own consciences concerning it, by putting this question to
   them, Which is the high place whereunto you go? What do you find there
   so inviting that you will leave God's altars, where he requires your
   attendance, to frequent such places as he has forbidden you to worship
   in? Do you not know that those high places are of a heathenish
   extraction, and that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they
   sacrificed to devils and not to God? Did not Moses tell you so? Deut.
   xxxii. 17. And will you have fellowship with devils? What is that high
   place to which you go when you turn your back on God's altars? O
   foolish Israelites, who or what has bewitched you, that you will
   forsake the fountain of life for broken cisterns, that worship which
   God appoints, and will accept, for that which he forbids, which he
   abhors, and which he will punish?" And yet the name is called Bamah
   unto this day; they will have their way, let God and his prophets say
   what they please to the contrary. They are wedded to their high places;
   even in the best reigns those were not taken away; you could not
   prevail to take away the name of Bamah--the high place, out of their
   mouths, but still they would have that in the place of their worship.
   The sin and the sinner are with difficulty parted.

   II. That this generation, after they were unsettled, continued under
   the dominion of the same corrupt inclinations to idolatry, v. 30. He
   must say to the present house of Israel, some of whose elders were now
   sitting before him, "Are you polluted after the manner of your fathers?
   After all that God has said against you by a succession of prophets,
   and done against you by a series of judgments, yet will you take no
   warning? Will you still be as bad as your fathers were, and commit the
   same abominations that they committed? I see you will; you are bent
   upon returning to the old abominations; you offer your gifts in the
   high places, and you make your sons to pass through the fire; either
   you actually do it or you do it in purpose and imagination, and so you
   continue idolaters to this day." These elders seem now to have been
   projecting a coalition with the heathen; their hearts they will reserve
   for the God of Israel, but their knees they will be at liberty to bow
   to the gods of the nations among whom they live, that they may have the
   more respect and the fairer quarter among them. Now the prophet is here
   ordered to tell those who were forming this scheme, and were for
   compounding the matter between God and Baal, that they should have no
   comfort or benefit from either. 1. They should have no benefit by their
   consulting in private with the prophets of the Lord; for, because they
   were hearkening after idols, God would have nothing to do with them (v.
   31): As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.
   What he had said before (v. 3), having largely shown how just it was,
   he here repeats, as that which he would abide by. Let them not think
   that they honoured him by their enquiries, nor expect an answer of
   peace from him, as long as they continued in love and league with their
   idols. Note, Those reap no benefit by their religion that are not
   entire and sincere in it; nor can we have any comfortable communion
   with God in ordinances of worship unless we be inward and upright with
   him therein. We make nothing of our profession if it be but a
   profession. Nay, 2. They should have no benefit from their conforming
   in public to the practice of their neighbours (v. 32): "That which
   comes into your mind as a piece of refined politics in the present
   difficult juncture, and which you would be advised to for your own
   preservation, and that you may not by being singular expose yourselves
   to abuses, it shall not be at all, it shall turn to no account to you.
   You say, 'We will be as the heathen, we will join with them in
   worshipping their gods, though at the same time we do not believe them
   to be gods, but wood and stone, and then we should be taken as the
   families of the countries; they will not know, or in a little while
   will have forgotten, that we are Jews, and will allow us the same
   privileges with their own countrymen.' Tell them," says God, "that this
   project shall never prosper. Either their neighbours will not admit
   them to join with them in their worship, or, if they do, will think
   never the better, but the worse, of them for it, and will look upon
   them as dissemblers, and not fit to be trusted, who are thus false to
   their God, and put a cheat upon their neighbours." Note, There is
   nothing got by sinful compliances; and the carnal projects of
   hypocrites will stand them in no stead. It is only integrity and
   uprightness that will preserve men, and recommend them to God and man.

The Sins of Israel. (b. c. 592.)

   33 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a
   stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:   34
   And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of
   the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a
   stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.   35 And I will bring you
   into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face
   to face.   36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of
   the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.   37
   And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into
   the bond of the covenant:   38 And I will purge out from among you the
   rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth
   out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into
   the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.   39 As for
   you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every
   one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but
   pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
   40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,
   saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in
   the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require
   your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your
   holy things.   41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I
   bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries
   wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before
   the heathen.   42 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
   bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I
   lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.   43 And there shall ye
   remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled;
   and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils
   that ye have committed.   44 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when
   I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your
   wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of
   Israel, saith the Lord God.

   The design which was now on foot among the elders of Israel was that
   the people of Israel, being scattered among the nations, should lay
   aside all their peculiarities and conform to those among whom they
   lived; but God had told them that the design should not take effect, v.
   32. Now, in these verses, he shows particularly how it should be
   frustrated. They aimed at the mingling of the families of Israel with
   the families of the countries; but it will prove in the issue that the
   wicked Israelites, notwithstanding their compliances, shall not mingle
   with them in their prosperity, but shall be distinguished from them for
   destruction; for idolatrous Israelites, that are apostates from God,
   shall be sooner and more sorely punished than idolatrous Babylonians
   that never knew the way of righteousness. Read and tremble at the doom
   here passed upon them; it is backed with an oath not to be reversed: As
   I live, saith the Lord God, thus and thus will I deal with you. They
   think to make both Jerusalem and Babylon their friends by halting
   between two; but God threatens that neither of them shall serve for a
   rest or refuge for them.

   I. Babylon shall not protect them, nor any of the countries of the
   heathen; for God will cast them out of his protection and then what
   prince, what people, what place, can serve to be a sanctuary to them?
   God was Israel's King of old, and had they continued his loyal subjects
   he would have ruled over them with care and tenderness for their good,
   but now with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule
   over them, v. 33. That power which should have been exerted fore their
   protection shall be exerted for their destruction. Note, There is no
   shaking off God's dominion; rule he will, either with the golden
   sceptre or with the iron rod; and those that will not yield to the
   power of his grace shall be made to sink under the power of his wrath.
   Now when God is angry with them, though they may think that they shall
   be lost in the crowd of the heathen among whom they are scattered, they
   will be disappointed; for (v. 34) I will gather you out of the
   countries wherein you are scattered, as, when the rebels are dispersed
   in battle, those that have escaped the sword of war are pursued and
   brought together out of all the places whither they were scattered, to
   be punished by the sword of justice. They shall be brought into the
   wilderness of the people (v. 35), either into Babylon, which is called
   a wilderness (ch. xix. 13), and the desert of the sea (Isa. xxi. 1), or
   into some place which, though full of people, shall be to them as the
   wilderness was to Israel after they came out of Egypt, a place where
   God will plead with them face to face, as he pleaded with their fathers
   in the wilderness of Egypt (v. 36),--where their carcases shall fall
   and where he will swear concerning them that they shall never return to
   Canaan, as he did swear concerning their fathers that they should never
   come into Canaan,--where he will avenge the breach of his law with as
   much terror as that with which he gave it in the wilderness of Sinai.
   Note, God has a good action against apostates, and will find not only
   time, but a proper place, to plead with them in upon that action, a
   wilderness even in the midst of the people for that purpose.

   II. Israel shall be no more able to protect them than Babylon could;
   nor shall their relation to God's people stand them in any more stead
   for the other world than their compliance with idolaters shall for this
   world; nor shall they stand in the congregation of the righteous any
   more than in the congregation of evil-doers; for there will come a
   distinguishing day, when God will separate between the precious and the
   vile; he will cause them, as the shepherd causes his sheep, to pass
   under the rod, when he tithes them (Lev. xxvii. 32), that he may mark
   which is for God. God will take particular notice of each of them, one
   by one, as sheep are counted, and he will bring them into the bond of
   the covenant (v. 37); he will try them and judge of them according to
   the tenour of the covenant, and the difference made between some and
   others by the blessings and curses of the covenant. Or it may refer to
   those among them that repented and reformed; he will cause them to pass
   under the rod of affliction, and, having done them good by it, he will
   bring them again into the bond of the covenant, will be to them a God
   in covenant, and use them again as heirs of promise.

   1. He will separate the wicked from among them (v. 38): "I will purge
   out from among you the rebels, who have been a grief and scandal to
   you, and who have by their rebellions brought all these calamities upon
   you." The judgments of God shall find them out, and their naming the
   name of Israel shall be no shelter to them. They shall be brought out
   of the countries where they sojourn, and shall not have that rest in
   them which they promised themselves. But they shall not enter into the
   land of Israel, nor enjoy the benefit of that rest which God has
   promised to his people. Note, Though godly people may share with the
   wicked in the calamities of the world, yet wicked people shall have no
   share with the godly in the heavenly Canaan; but it shall be part of
   the blessedness of that world that they shall be purged out from among
   them, the tares from the wheat, the chaff from the corn, ch. xiii. 9.
   But wherever these idolaters of the house of Israel were contriving to
   worship both God and their idols, thinking to please both, God here
   protests against it (v. 39), as Elijah had done in his name: "If the
   Lord be God, then follow him, but, if Baal, then follow him; if you
   will serve your idols, do, and take what comes of it; but then do not
   pretend relation to God and a religious regard to him, nor pollute his
   holy name with your gifts at his altar." Spiritual judgments are the
   sorest judgments. Two of that kind of judgments are threatened in this
   verse against those that were for dividing between the God of Israel
   and the gods of the nations:--(1.) That they should be given up to the
   service of their idols. To them he said ironically, "Since you will not
   hearken unto me, go you, serve every one his idols, now that you think
   it will be for your interest, and hereafter also. You shall go on in
   it. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone; let him take his course,
   and see what he will get by it at last." Note, Those who think to serve
   themselves by sin will find in the end that they have but enslaved
   themselves to sin. (2.) That they should be cut off from the service of
   God and communion with God: "You shall not pollute my holy name with
   your vain oblations, Isa. i. 11. You bring your gifts in your hands,
   wherewith you pretend to honour me, but at the same time you bring your
   idols in your hearts, and therefore you do but pollute me, which I will
   not suffer any more," Amos v. 21, 22. Note, Those are justly forbidden
   God's house that profane his house.

   2. He will separate them to himself again. (1.) He will gather them in
   mercy out of the countries whither they were scattered, to be monuments
   of mercy, as the incorrigible were gathered to be vessels of wrath, v.
   41. Not one of God's jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world.
   (2.) He will bring them to the land of Israel, which he had promised to
   give to their fathers; and the discontinuance of their possession shall
   be no defeasance of their right; it is the land of Israel still, and
   thither God will bring them safely again, v. 42. (3.) He will
   re-establish his ordinances among them, will set up his sanctuary in
   his holy mountain, which is here called the mountain of the height of
   Israel; for, though the Mount Zion was none of the highest mountains,
   yet the temple there was one of the highest honours of Israel. It is
   promised that those who preserved their integrity, and would not serve
   idols, in other lands, shall return to their prosperity and shall serve
   the true God in their own land: All of them in the land shall serve me.
   Note, It is the true happiness of a people, and a sure token for good
   to them, when there is a prevailing disposition in them to serve God.
   Whereas God had forbidden the idolaters to bring their gifts to his
   altar, of these he will require offerings and first-fruits, and will
   accept them, v. 40. What he does not require he will not accept, but
   what is done with a regard to his precepts he will be well pleased
   with. He will accept them with their sweet savour, or savour of rest
   (v. 41), as being very grateful to him and what he takes a complacency
   in; whereas, to hypocritical worshippers, he says, I will not smell in
   your solemn assemblies. (4.) He will give them true repentance for
   their sins, v. 43. When they find how gracious God is to them they will
   be overcome with his kindness, and blush to think of their bad
   behaviour towards so good a God: "There, in my holy mountain, when you
   come to enjoy the privileges of that again, there shall you remember
   your doings, wherein you have been defiled." Note, The more conversant
   we are with God's holiness the more we shall see of the odious nature
   of sin. There you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight. Note,
   Ingenuous evangelical repentance makes people loathe themselves for
   their sins, as Job xlii. 5, 6. (5.) He will give them the knowledge of
   himself: They shall know by experience that he is the Lord, that he is
   a God of almighty power and inexhaustible goodness, kind to his people
   and faithful to his covenant with them. Note, All the favours we
   receive from God should lead us into a more intimate acquaintance with
   him. (6.) He will do all this for his own name's sake, notwithstanding
   their undeservings and ill-deservings (v. 44); he has wrought with
   them, that is, wrought for them, wrought in favour of them, wrought in
   concurrence with them, they doing their endeavour; he has wrought with
   them purely for his name's sake. His reasons were all fetched from
   himself. Had he dealt with them according to their wicked ways and
   their corrupt doings, though they were the better and sounder part of
   the house of Israel, he would have left them to be scattered and lost
   with the rest; but he recovered and restored them for the sake of his
   own name, not only that it might not be polluted (v. 14), but that he
   might be sanctified in them before the heathen (v. 41), that he might
   sanctify himself (so the word is); for it is God's work to glorify his
   own name. He will do well for his people that he may have the glory of
   it, that he may manifest himself to be a God pardoning sin and so
   keeping promise, that his people may praise him, and that their
   neighbours may likewise take notice of him, as they did when God burned
   again their captivity, Ps. cxxvi. 3. Then said they among the heathen,
   The Lord has done great things for them.

Judgment and Mercy. (b. c. 592.)

   45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   46 Son of man,
   set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and
   prophesy against the forest of the south field;   47 And say to the
   forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord
   God; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every
   green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be
   quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned
   therein.   48 And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it:
   it shall not be quenched.   49 Then said I, Ah Lord God! they say of
   me, Doth he not speak parables?

   We have here a prophecy of wrath against Judah and Jerusalem, which
   would more fitly have begun the next chapter than conclude this; for it
   has no dependence on what goes before, but that which follows in the
   beginning of the next chapter is the explication of it, when the people
   complained that this was a parable which they understood not. In this
   parable, 1. It is a forest that is prophesied against, the forest of
   the south field, Judah and Jerusalem. These lay south from Babylon,
   where Ezekiel now was, and therefore he is directed to set his face
   towards the south (v. 46), to intimate to them that God had set his
   face against them, was displeased with them, and determined to destroy
   them. But, though it be a message of wrath which he has to deliver, he
   must deliver it with mildness and tenderness; he must drop his word
   towards the south; his doctrine must distil as the rain (Deut. xxxii.
   2), that people's hearts might be softened by it, as the earth by the
   river of God, which drops upon the pastures of the wilderness (Ps. lxv.
   12) and which a south land more especially calls for, Josh. xv. 19.
   Judah and Jerusalem are called forests, not only because they had been
   full of people, as a wood of trees, but because they had been empty of
   fruit, for fruit-trees grow not in a forest; and a forest is put in
   opposition to a fruitful field, Isa. xxxii. 15. Those that should have
   been as the garden of the Lord, and his vineyard, had become like a
   forest, all overgrown with briers and thorns; and those that are so,
   that bring not forth the fruits of righteousness, God's word prophesies
   against. 2. It is a fire kindled in his forest that is prophesied of,
   v. 47. All those judgments which wasted and consumed both the city and
   the country-sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity, are signified by
   this fire. (1.) It is a fire of God's own kindling: I will kindle a
   fire in thee; the breath of the Lord is not as a drop, but as a stream,
   of brimstone to set it on fire, Isa. xxx. 33. He that had been himself
   a protecting fire about Jerusalem is now a consuming fire in it. All
   flesh shall see by the fury of this fire, and the desolations it shall
   make, especially when they compare it with the sins which had made them
   fuel for this fire, that it is the Lord that has kindled it (v. 48), as
   a just avenger of his own injured honour. (2.) This conflagration shall
   be general: all orders and degrees of men shall be devoured by
   it--young and old, rich and poor, high and low. Even green trees, which
   the fire does not easily fasten upon, shall be devoured by this fire;
   even good people shall some of them be involved in these calamities;
   and if this be done in the green trees, what shall be done in the dry?
   The dry trees shall be as tinder and touch-wood to this fire. All faces
   (that is, all that covers the face of the earth) from the south of
   Canaan to the north, from Beer-sheba to Dan, shall be burnt therein.
   (3.) The fire shall not be quenched; no attempts to give check to the
   dissolution shall prevail. When God will ruin a nation, who or what can
   save it?

   Now observe, 1. The people's reflection upon the prophet on occasion of
   this discourse. They said, Does he not speak parables? This was the
   language either of their ignorance or infidelity (the plainest truths
   were as parables to them), or of their malice and ill-will to the
   prophet. Note. It is common for those who will not be wrought upon by
   the word to pick quarrels with it; it is either too plain or too
   obscure, too fine or too homely, too common or too singular; something
   or other is amiss in it. 2. The prophet's complaint to God: Ah, Lord
   God! they say so and so of me. Note, It is a comfort to us, when people
   speak ill of us unjustly, that we have a God to complain to.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXI.

   In this chapter we have, I. An explication of the prophecy in the close
   of the foregoing chapter concerning the fire in the forest, which the
   people complained they could not understand (ver. 1-5), with directions
   to the prophet to show himself deeply affected with it, ver. 6, 7. II.
   A further prediction of the sword that was coming upon the land, by
   which all should be laid waste; and this expressed very emphatically,
   ver. 8-17. III. A prospect given of the king of Babylon's approach to
   Jerusalem, to which he was determined by divination, ver. 18-24. IV.
   Sentence passed upon Zedekiah king of Judah, ver. 25-27. V. The
   destruction of the Ammonites by the sword foretold, ver. 28-32. Thus is
   this chapter all threatenings.

Threatenings against Israel; Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 592.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set
   thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places,
   and prophesy against the land of Israel,   3 And say to the land of
   Israel, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw
   forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the
   righteous and the wicked.   4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee
   the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of
   his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:   5 That all
   flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of his
   sheath: it shall not return any more.   6 Sigh therefore, thou son of
   man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before
   their eyes.   7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore
   sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it
   cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and
   every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold,
   it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.

   The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with,
   in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the terms wherein he received
   it, not daring to add his own comment upon it; but, when he complained
   that the people found fault with him for speaking parables, the word of
   the Lord came to him again, and gave him a key to that figurative
   discourse, that with it he might let the people into the meaning of it
   and so silence that objection. For all men shall be rendered
   inexcusable at God's bar and every mouth shall be stopped. Note, He
   that speaks with tongues should pray that he may interpret, 1 Cor. xiv.
   13. When we speak to people about their souls we should study
   plainness, and express ourselves as we may be the best understood.
   Christ expounded his parables to his disciples, Mark iv. 34. 1. The
   prophet is here more plainly directed against whom to level the arrow
   of this prophecy. He must drop his word towards the holy places (v. 2),
   towards Canaan the holy land, Jerusalem the holy city, the temple the
   holy house. These were highly dignified above other places; but, when
   they polluted them, that word which used to drop in the holy places
   shall now drop against them: Prophesy against the land of Israel. It
   was the honour of Israel that it had prophets and prophecy; but these,
   being despised by them, are turned against them. And justly is Zion
   battered with her own artillery, which used to be employed against her
   adversaries, seeing she knew not how to value it. 2. He is instructed,
   and is to instruct the people, in the meaning of the fire that was
   threatened to consume the forest of the south: it signified a sword
   drawn, the sword of war which should make the land desolate (v. 3):
   Behold, I am against thee, O land of Israel! There needs no more to
   make a people miserable than to have God against them; for as, if he be
   for us, we need not fear, whoever are against us, so, if he be against
   us, we cannot hope, whoever are for us. And God's professing people,
   when they revolt from him, set him against them, who used to be for
   them. Was the fire there of God's kindling? The sword here is his
   sword, which he has prepared, and which he will give commission to; it
   is he that will draw it out of its sheath, where it had laid quiet and
   threatened no harm. Note, When the sword is unsheathed among the
   nations God's hand must be eyed and owned in it. Did the fire devour
   every green tree and every dry tree? The sword in like manner shall cut
   off the righteous and the wicked. Good and bad were involved in the
   common calamities of the nation; the righteous were cut off from the
   land of Israel when they were sent captives in Babylon, though perhaps
   few or none of them were cut off from the land of the living; and it
   was a threatening omen to the land of Israel that in the beginning of
   its troubles such excellent men as Daniel and his fellows, and Ezekiel,
   were cut off from it and conveyed to Babylon. But though the sword cut
   off the righteous and the wicked (for it devours one as well as
   another, 2 Sam. xi. 25), yet far be it from us to think that the
   righteous are as the wicked, Gen. xviii. 25. No; God's graces and
   comforts make a great difference when his providence seems to make
   none. The good figs are sent into Babylon for their good, Jer. xxiv. 5,
   6. It is only in outward appearance that there is one event to the
   righteous and to the wicked, Eccl. ix. 2. But it speaks the greatness
   of God's displeasure against the land of Israel. Well might it be said,
   His eye shall not spare, when it shall not spare, no, not the righteous
   in it. Since there are not righteous men sufficient to save the land,
   to make the justice of God the more illustrious the few that there are
   shall suffer with it, and God's mercy shall make it up to them some
   other way. Did the fire burn up all faces from the south to the north?
   The sword shall go forth against all flesh from the south to the north,
   shall go forth, as God's sword, with a commission that cannot be
   contested, with a force that cannot be resisted. Were all flesh made to
   know that God kindled the fire? They shall be made to know that he has
   drawn forth the sword, v. 5. And, lastly, Shall the fire that is
   kindled never be quenched? So when this sword of the Lord is drawn
   against Judah and Jerusalem the scabbard is thrown away, and it shall
   never be sheathed: It shall not return any more, till it has made a
   full end. 3. The prophet is ordered, by expressions of his own grief
   and concern for these calamities that were coming on, to try to make
   impressions of the like upon the people. When he has delivered his
   message he must sigh (v. 6), must fetch many deep sighs, with the
   breaking of his loins; he must sign as if his heart would burst, sigh
   with bitterness, with other expressions of bitter sorrow, and this
   publicly, in the sight of those to whom he delivered the foregoing
   message, that this might be a sermon to their eyes as that was to their
   ears; and it was well if both would work upon them. The prophet must
   sigh, though it was painful to himself and made his breast sore, and
   though it is probable that the profane among the people would ridicule
   him for it and call him a whining canting preacher. But, if we be
   beside ourselves it is to God; and, if this be to be vile, we will be
   yet more so. Note, Ministers, if they would affect others with the
   things they speak of, must show that they are themselves in the
   greatest sincerity affected with them, and must submit to that which
   may create uneasiness to themselves, so that it will promote the ends
   of their ministry. The people, observing the prophet to sigh so much
   and seeing no visible occasion for it, would ask, "Wherefore sighest
   thou? These sighs have some mystical meaning; let us know what it is."
   And he must answer them (v. 7): "It is for the tidings, the heavy
   tidings, that we shall hear shortly; the tidings come (the judgments
   come which we hear the tidings of), they come apace, and then you will
   all sigh; nay, that will not serve. every heart shall melt and every
   spirit fail; your courage will all be gone and you will have no
   animating considerations to support yourselves with. And, when heart
   and spirit fail, it will follow of course that all hands will be feeble
   and unable to fight, and all knees will be weak as water and unable to
   flee or to stand their ground." Those who have God for them when flesh
   and heart fail have him to be the strength of their heart; but those
   who have God against them have no cordial for a fainting spirit, but
   are as Belshazzar when his thoughts troubled him, Dan. v. 6. But some
   people are worse frightened than hurt; may not the case be so here and
   the event prove better than likely? No: Behold it cometh, and shall be
   brought to pass. It is not a bugbear that they are frightened with, but
   according to the fear so is the wrath, and more grievous than is
   feared.

Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 592.)

   8 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   9 Son of man,
   prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is
   sharpened, and also furbished:   10 It is sharpened to make a sore
   slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make
   mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.   11 And he hath
   given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is
   sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
     12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall
   be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall
   be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.   13 Because it is a
   trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more,
   saith the Lord God.   14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and
   smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third
   time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are
   slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.   15 I have set the
   point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint,
   and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up
   for the slaughter.   16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right
   hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.   17 I will also
   smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the Lord
   have said it.

   Here is another prophecy of the sword, which is delivered in a very
   affecting manner; the expressions here used are somewhat intricate, and
   perplex interpreters. The sword was unsheathed in the foregoing verses;
   here it is fitted up to do execution, which the prophet is commanded to
   lament. Observe,

   I. How the sword is here described. 1. It is sharpened, that it may cut
   and wound, and make a sore slaughter. The wrath of God will put an edge
   upon it; and, whatever instruments God shall please to make use of in
   executing his judgments, he will fill them with strength, courage, and
   fury, according to the service they are employed in. Out of the mouth
   of Christ goes a sharp sword, Rev. xix. 15. 2. It is furbished, that it
   may glitter, to the terror of those against whom it is drawn. It shall
   be a kind of flaming sword. If it have rusted in the scabbard for want
   of use, it shall be rubbed and brightened; for though the glory of
   God's justice may seem to have been eclipsed for a while, during the
   day of his patience and the delay of his judgments, yet it will shine
   out again and be made to glitter. 3. It is a victorious sword, nothing
   shall stand before it (v. 10): It contemneth the rod of my son as every
   tree. Israel, said God once, is my son, my first-born. The government
   of that people was called a rod, a strong rod; we read (ch. xix. 11) of
   the strong rods they had for sceptres. But when the sword of God's
   justice is drawn it contemns this rod, makes nothing of it; though it
   be a strong rod, and the rod of his son, it is no more than any other
   tree. When God's professing people have revolted from him, and are in
   rebellion against him, his sword despises them. What are they to him
   more than another people? The marginal reading gives another notion of
   this sword: It is the rod of my son; and we know of whom God has said
   (Ps. ii. 7), Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, and (v. 9)
   Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. This sword is that rod of
   iron which contemns every tree and will bear it down. Or, This sword is
   the rod of my son, a correcting rod, for the chastening of the
   transgression of God's people (2 Sam. vii. 14), not to cut them off
   from being a people. It is a sword to others, a rod to my son.

   II. How the sword is here put into the hand of the executioners: "It is
   the rod of my Son, and he has given it that it may be handled (v. 11),
   that it may be made use of for the end for which it was drawn. It is
   given into the hand, not of the fencer to be played with, but of the
   slayer to do execution with. The sword of war my Son makes use of as a
   sword of justice, and to him all judgment is committed. It is made
   bright (v. 15), it is wrapped up, that it may be kept safe, and clean,
   and sharp for the slaughter, not as Goliath's sword was wrapped up in a
   cloth only for a memorial," 1 Sam. xxi. 9.

   III. How the sword is directed, and against whom it is sent (v. 12): It
   shall be upon my people; they shall fall by this sword. It is repeated
   again, as that which is scarcely credible, that the sword of the
   heathen shall be upon God's own people; nay, it shall be upon all the
   princes of Israel; their dignity and power as princes shall be no more
   their security than their profession of religion as princes of Israel.
   But, if the sword be at any time upon God's people, have they not
   comfort within sufficient to arm them against every thing in it that is
   frightful? Yes, they have, while they conduct themselves as becomes his
   people; but these had not done so, and therefore terrors, by reason of
   the sword, shall be upon those that call themselves my people. Note,
   While good men are quiet, not only from evil, but from the fear of it,
   wicked men are disturbed not only with the sword, but with the terrors
   of it, arising from a consciousness of their own guilt. This sword is
   directed particularly against the great men, for they had been the
   greatest sinners among them; they had altogether broken the yoke and
   burst the bonds (Jer. v. 5), and therefore with them in a special
   manner God's controversy is, who had been the ringleaders in sin. The
   sword of the slain is the sword of the great men that are slain, v. 14.
   Though they have furnished themselves with places of retirement, places
   of concealment, where they flatter themselves with hopes that they
   shall be safe, they will find that the sword will enter into their
   privy chambers, and find them out there, as the frogs, when they were
   one of Egypt's plagues, found admission into the chambers of their
   kings. The sword, the point of this sword, is directed against their
   gates, against all their gates (v. 15), against all those things with
   which they thought to keep it out and fortify themselves against it.
   Note, The strongest gates, though they be gates of brass, ever so well
   barred, ever so well guarded, are no fence against the point of the
   sword of God's judgments. But when that is pointed against sinners, 1.
   They are ready to fear the worst; their hearts faint, so that they are
   not able to make any resistance. 2. The worst comes; whatever
   resistance they make, it is to no purpose, but they are ruined, and
   their ruins are multiplied. But what need have we to observe the
   particular directions of this sword when it has a general commission,
   is sent with a running warrant? (v. 16): "Go thee, one way or other,
   which way thou wilt, turn to the right hand or to the left, thou wilt
   find those that are obnoxious, for there are none free from guilt; and
   thou hast authority against them, for there are none exempt from
   punishment; and therefore, whithersoever thy face is set, that way do
   thou proceed, and, like Jonathan's sword, from the blood of the slain,
   from the fat of the mighty, thou shalt never return empty," 2 Sam. i.
   22. Note, So full is the world of wicked people that, which way soever
   God's judgments go forth, they will find work, will find matter to work
   upon. That fire will never go out on this earth for want of fuel. And
   such various methods God has of meeting with sinners that the sword of
   his justice is still as it was at first when it flamed in the hand of
   the cherubim: it turns every way, Gen. iii. 24.

   IV. What is the nature of this sword, and what are the intentions and
   limitations of it as to the people of God, v. 13. It is a correction;
   it is designed to be so; the sword to others is a rod to them. This is
   a comfortable word which comes in in the midst of these terrible ones,
   though it be expressed somewhat obscurely. 1. The people of God begin
   to be afraid that the sword will contemn even the rod, that the sword
   will go on with such fury that it will despise its commission to be a
   rod only, will forget its bounds and become a sword indeed, even to
   God's own people. They fear lest the Chaldeans' sword, which is the rod
   of God's anger, contemn its being called a rod, and become as the axe
   that boasts itself against him that heweth therewith or the staff that
   lifts up itself as if it were no wood, Isa. x. 15. Or, "What if the
   sword contemn even the rod? that is, what if this sword make the former
   rods, as that or Sennacherib, to be contemned as nothing to this? What
   if this should prove not a correcting rod, but a destroying sword, to
   make a full end of our church and nation?" This is that which the
   thinking, but timorous, few are apprehensive of. Note, When threatening
   judgments are abroad it is good to suppose the worst that may be the
   consequences of them, that we may provide accordingly. What if the
   sword contemn the tribe or sceptre? namely, that of Judah and the house
   of David (so some think Shebet here signifies); what if it should aim
   at the ruin of our government? If it do, the Lord is righteous and will
   be gracious notwithstanding. But, 2. These fears are silenced with an
   assurance that it is not so; the sword shall not forget itself, nor the
   errand on which it is sent: It is a trial, and it is no more than a
   trial. He that sends it makes what use of it, and sets what bounds to
   it, he pleases. Here shall its proud waves be stayed. Note, It is
   matter of comfort to the people of God, when his judgments are abroad,
   and they are ready to tremble for fear of them, that, whatever they are
   to others, to them they are but trials; and, when they are tried, they
   shall come forth as gold, and the proving of their faith shall be the
   improving of it.

   V. Here the prophet and the people must show themselves affected with
   these judgments threatened. 1. The prophet must be very serious in
   denouncing these judgments. He must say, A sword! a sword! v. 9. Let
   him not study for fine words, and a variety of quaint expressions; when
   the town is on fire people do not so give notice of it, but cry, with a
   frightful doleful voice, Fire! fire! So must the prophet cry, A sword!
   a sword! and (v. 14), Let the sword be doubled the third time in thy
   preaching. God speaks once, yea, twice, yea, thrice; it were well if
   men, after all, would perceive and regard it. It shall be doubled the
   third time in God's providence; for it was Nebuchadnezzar's third
   descent upon Jerusalem that made a full end of it. Ruin comes
   gradually, but at last comes effectually, upon a provoking people. Yet
   this is not all: the prophet is not only as a herald at arms to
   proclaim war, and to cry, A sword! a sword! once and again, and a third
   time, but, as a person nearly concerned, he must cry and howl (v. 12),
   must sadly lament the desolations that the sword would make, as one
   that did himself not only sympathize with the sufferers, but feel from
   the sufferings. Again (v. 14), Prophesy, and smite thy hands together,
   wring thy hands, as lamenting the desolation, or clap thy hands, as by
   thy prophecy instigating and encouraging those that were to be the
   instruments of it, or as one standing amazed at the suddenness and
   severity of the judgment. The prophet must smite his hands together;
   for (says God) I will also smite my hands together, v. 17. God is in
   earnest in pronouncing this sentence upon them, and therefore the
   prophet must show himself in earnest in publishing it. God's smiting
   his hands together, as well as the prophet's smiting, is in token of a
   holy indignation at their wickedness, which was really very
   astonishing. When Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam he smote his
   hands together, Num. xxiv. 10. Note, God and his ministers are justly
   angry at those who might be saved and yet will be ruined. Some make it
   an expression of triumph and exultation, agreeing with that (Isa. i.
   24), Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries; and that (Prov. i. 26), I
   also will laugh at their calamity. And so it follows here, I will cause
   my fury to rest, not only it shall be perfected, but it shall be
   pleased. And observe with what solemnity, with what authority, this
   sentence is ratified: "I the Lord have said it, who can and will make
   good what I have said. I have said it, and will never unsay it. I have
   said it, and who can gainsay it?" 2. The people must be very serious in
   the prospect of these judgments. An intimation of this comes in in a
   parenthesis (v. 10): Should we then make mirth? Seeing God has drawn
   the sword, and the prophet sighs and cries, Should we then make mirth?
   The prophet seems to give this as a reason why he sighs; as Neh. ii. 3,
   Why should not my countenance be sad, when Jerusalem lies waste? Note,
   Before we allow ourselves to be merry, we ought to consider whether we
   should be merry or no. Should we make mirth, we who are sentenced to
   the sword, who lie under the wrath and curse of God? Shall we make
   mirth as other people, who have gone a whoring from our God? Hos. ix.
   1. Should we now make mirth, when the hand of God has gone out against
   us, when God's judgments are abroad in the land and he by them calls to
   weeping and mourning? Isa. xxii. 11, 13. Shall we now make mirth as the
   king and Haman, when the church is in perplexity (Esther iii. 15), when
   we should be grieving for the affliction of Joseph? Amos vi. 6.

Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 592.)

   18 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,   19 Also, thou son
   of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon
   may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou
   a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.   20 Appoint a
   way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah
   in Jerusalem the defenced.   21 For the king of Babylon stood at the
   parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he
   made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the
   liver.   22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to
   appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the
   voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to
   cast a mount, and to build a fort.   23 And it shall be unto them as a
   false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he
   will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.   24
   Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity
   to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that
   in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are
   come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.   25 And thou,
   profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall
   have an end,   26 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take
   off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and
   abase him that is high.   27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it:
   and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will
   give it him.

   The prophet, in the verses before, had shown them the sword coming; he
   here shows them that sword coming against them, that they might not
   flatter themselves that by some means or other it should be diverted a
   contrary way.

   I. He must see and show the Chaldean army coming against Jerusalem and
   determined by a supreme power so to do. The prophet must appoint him
   two ways, that is, he must upon a paper draw out two roads (v. 19), as
   sometimes is done in maps; and he must bring the king of Babylon's army
   to the place where the roads part, for there they will make a stand.
   They both come out of the same land; but when they come to the place
   where one road leads to Rabbath, the head city of the Ammonites, and
   the other to Jerusalem, he makes a pause; for, though he is resolved to
   be the ruin of both, yet he is not determined which to attack first;
   here his politics and his politicians leave him at a loss. The sword
   must go either to Rabbath or to Judah in Jerusalem. Many of the
   inhabitants of Judah had now taken shelter in Jerusalem, and all the
   interests of the country were bound up in the safety of the city, and
   therefore it is called Judah in Jerusalem the defenced; so strongly
   fortified was it, both by nature and art, that it was thought
   impregnable, Lam. iv. 12. The prophet must describe this dilemma that
   the king of Babylon is at (v. 21); for the king of Babylon stood (that
   is, he shall stand considering what course to take) at the head of the
   two ways. Though he was a prince of great foresight and great
   resolution, yet, it seems, he knew neither his own interest nor his own
   mind. Let not the wise man then glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man
   in his arbitrary power, for even those that may do what they will
   seldom know what to do for the best. Now observe, 1. The method he took
   to come to a resolution; he used divination, applied to a higher and
   invisible power, perhaps to the determination of Providence by a lot,
   in order to which he made his arrows bright, that were to be drawn for
   the lots, in honour of the solemnity. Perhaps Jerusalem was written on
   one arrow and Rabbath on the other, and that which was first drawn out
   of the quiver he determined to attack first. Or he applied to the
   direction of some pretended oracle: he consulted with images or
   teraphim, expecting to receive audible answers from them. Or to the
   observations which the augurs made upon the entrails of the sacrifices:
   he looked in the liver, whether the position of that portended good or
   ill luck. Note, It is a mortification to the pride of the wise men of
   the earth that in difficult cases they have been glad to make their
   court to heaven for direction; as it is an instance of their folly that
   they have taken such ridiculous ways of doing it, when in cases proper
   for an appeal to Providence it is sufficient that the lot be cast into
   the lap, with that prayer, Give a perfect lot, and a firm belief that
   the disposal thereof is not fortuitous, but of the Lord, Prov. xvi. 33.
   2. The resolution he was hereby brought to. Even by these sinful
   practices God served his own purposes and directed him to go to
   Jerusalem, v. 22. The divination for Jerusalem happened to be at his
   right hand, which, according to the rules of divination, determined him
   that way. Note, What services God designs men for he will be sure in
   his providence to lead them to, though perhaps they themselves are not
   aware what guidance they are under. Well, Jerusalem being the mark set
   up, the campaign is presently opened with the siege of that important
   place. Captains are appointed for the command of the forces to be
   employed in the siege, who must open the mouth in the slaughter, must
   give directions to the soldiers what to do and make speeches to animate
   them. Orders are given to provide every thing necessary for carrying on
   the siege with vigour; battering rams must be prepared and forts built.
   O what pains, what cost, are men at to destroy one another!

   II. He must show both the people and the prince that they bring this
   destruction upon themselves by their own sin.

   1. The people do so, v. 23, 24. They slight the notices that are given
   them of the judgment coming. Ezekiel's prophecy is to them a false
   divination; they are not moved or awakened to repentance by it. When
   they hear that Nebuchadnezzar by his divination is directed to
   Jerusalem, and assured of success in that enterprise, they laugh at it
   and continue secure, calling it a false divination; because they have
   sworn oaths, that is, they have joined in a solemn league with the
   Egyptians, and they depend upon the promise they have made them to
   raise the siege, or upon the assurances which the false prophets have
   given them that it shall be raised. Or it may refer to the oaths of
   allegiance they had sworn to the king of Babylon, but had violated, for
   which treachery of theirs God had given them up to a judicial
   blindness, so that the fairest warnings given them were slighted by
   them as false divinations. Note, It is not strange if those who make a
   jest of the most sacred oaths can make a jest likewise of the most
   sacred oracles; for where will a profane mind stop? But shall their
   unbelief invalidate the counsel of God? Are they safe because they are
   secure? By no means; nay, the contempt they put upon divine warnings is
   a sin that brings to remembrance their other sins, and they may thank
   themselves if they be now remembered against them. (1.) Their present
   wickedness is discovered. Now that God is contending with them so
   perverse and obstinate are they that whatever they offer in their own
   defence does but add to their offence; they never conducted themselves
   so ill as they did now that they had the loudest call given them to
   repent and reform: "So that in all your doings your sins do appear.
   Turn yourselves which way you will, you show a black side." This is too
   true of every one of us; for not only there is none that lives and sins
   not, but there is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins
   not. Our best services have such allays of weakness, and folly, and
   imperfection, and so much evil is present with us even when we would do
   good, that we may say, with sorrow and shame, In all our doings, and in
   all our sayings too, our sins do appear, and witness against us, so
   that if we were under the law we were undone. (2.) This brings to mind
   their former wickedness: "You have made your iniquity to be remembered,
   not by yourselves that it might be repented of, but by the justice of
   God that it might be reckoned for. Your own sins make the sins of your
   fathers to be remembered against you, which otherwise you should never
   have smarted for." Note, God remembers former iniquities against those
   only who by the present discoveries of their wickedness show that they
   do not repent of them. (3.) That they may suffer for all together, they
   are turned over to the destroyed, that they may be taken (v. 23): "You
   shall be taken with the hand that God had appointed to seize you and to
   hold you and out of which you cannot escape." Men are said to be God's
   hand when they are made use of as the ministers of his justice, Ps.
   xvii. 14. Note, Those who will not be taken with the word of God's
   grace shall at last be taken by the hand of his wrath.

   2. The prince likewise brings his ruin upon himself. Zedekiah is the
   prince of Israel, to whom the prophet here, in God's name, addresses
   himself; and, if he had not spoken in God's name, he would not have
   spoken so boldly, so bluntly; for is it fit to say to a king, Thou art
   wicked? (1.) He gives him his character, v. 25. Thou profane and wicked
   prince of Israel! He was not so bad as some of his predecessors, and
   yet bad enough to merit his character. He was himself profane, lost to
   every thing that is virtuous and sacred. And he was wicked, as he
   promoted sin among his people; he sinned, and made Israel to sin. Note,
   Profaneness and wickedness are bad in any, but worst of all in a
   prince, a prince of Israel, who as an Israelite should know better
   himself, and as a prince should set a better example and have a better
   influence on those about him. (2.) He reads him his doom. His iniquity
   has an end; the measure of it is full, and therefore his day has come,
   the day of his punishment, the day of divine vengeance. Note, Though
   those who are wicked and profane may flourish awhile, yet their day
   will come to fall. The sentence here passed is, [1.] That Zedekiah
   shall be deposed. He has forfeited his crown, and he shall no longer
   wear it; he has by his profaneness profaned his crown, and it shall be
   cast to the ground (v. 26): Remove the diadem. Crowns and diadems are
   losable things; it is only in the other world that there is a crown of
   glory that fades not away, a kingdom that cannot be moved. The Chaldee
   paraphrase expounds it thus: Take away the diadem from Seraiah the
   chief priest, and I will take away the crown from Zedekiah the king;
   neither this nor that shall abide in his place, but shall be removed.
   This shall not be the same, not the same that he has been; this not
   this (so the word is); profane and wicked perhaps he is as he has been.
   Note, Men lose their dignity by their iniquity. Their profaneness and
   wickedness remove their diadem, and take off their crown, and make them
   the reverse of what they were. [2.] That great confusion and disorder
   in the state shall follow hereupon. Every thing shall be turned upside
   down. The conqueror shall take a pride in exalting him that is low and
   abasing him that is high, preferring some and degrading others, at his
   pleasure, without any regard either to right or merit. [3.] Attempts to
   re-establish the government shall be blasted and come to nothing,
   Gedaliah's particularly, and Ishmael's who was of the seed-royal (to
   which the Chaldee paraphrase refers this); neither of them shall be
   able to make any thing of it. I will overturn, overturn, overturn,
   first one project and then another; for who can build up what God will
   throw down? [4.] This monarchy shall never be restored till it is fixed
   for perpetuity in the hands of the Messiah. There shall be no more
   kings of the house of David after Zedekiah, till Christ comes, whose
   right the kingdom is, who is that seed of David in whom the promise was
   to have its full accomplishment, and I will give it to him. He shall
   have the throne of his father David, Luke i. 32. Immediately before the
   coming of Christ there was a long eclipse of the royal dignity, as
   there was also a failing of the spirit of prophecy, that his shining
   forth in the fulness of time both as king and prophet might appear the
   more illustrious. Note, Christ has an incontestable title to the
   dominion and sovereignty both in the church and in the world; the
   kingdom is his right. And, having the right, he shall in due time have
   the possession: I will give it to him; and there shall be a general
   overturning of all rather than he shall come short of his right, and a
   certain overturning of all the opposition that stands in his way to
   make room for him, Dan. ii. 45; 1 Cor. xv. 25. This is mentioned here
   for the comfort of those who feared that the promise made in David
   would fail for evermore. "No," says God, "that promise is sure, for the
   Messiah's kingdom shall last for ever."

The Destruction of the Ammonites. (b. c. 592.)

   28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God
   concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou,
   The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to
   consume because of the glittering:   29 Whiles they see vanity unto
   thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks
   of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their
   iniquity shall have an end.   30 Shall I cause it to return into his
   sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the
   land of thy nativity.   31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon
   thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver
   thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.   32 Thou
   shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the
   land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.

   The prediction of the destruction of the Ammonites, which was effected
   by Nebuchadnezzar about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem,
   seems to come in here upon occasion of the king of Babylon's diverting
   his design against Rabbath, when he turned it upon Jerusalem. Upon this
   the Ammonites grew very insolent, and triumphed over Jerusalem; but the
   prophet must let them know that forbearance is no acquittance; the
   reprieve is not a pardon; their day also is at hand; their turn comes
   next, and it will be but a poor satisfaction to them that they are to
   be devoured last, to be last executed.

   I. The sin of the Ammonites is here intimated; it is their reproach, v.
   28. 1. The reproach they put upon themselves when they hearkened to
   their false prophets (for such it seems there were among them as well
   as among the Jews), who pretended to foretel their perpetual safety in
   the midst of the desolations that were made of the countries round
   about them: "They see vanity unto thee and divine a lie, v. 29. They
   flatter thee with promises of peace, and thou art such a fool as to
   suffer thyself to be imposed upon by them and to encourage them therein
   by giving credit to them." Note, Those that feed themselves with a
   self-conceit in the day of their prosperity prepare matter for a
   self-reproach in the day of their calamity. 2. The reproach they put
   upon the Israel of God, when they triumphed in their afflictions, and
   thereby added affliction to them, which was very barbarous and inhuman.
   Their divines, by puffing them up with a conceit that they were a
   better people than Israel, being spared when they were cut off, and
   with a confidence that their prosperity should always continue, made
   them so very haughty and insolent that they did even tread on the necks
   of the Israelites that were slain, slain by the wicked Chaldeans, who
   had commission to execute God's judgments upon them when their iniquity
   had an end, that is, when the measure of it was full. We shall meet
   with this again, ch. xxv. 3, &c. Note, Those are ripening apace for
   misery who trample upon the people of God in their distress, whereas
   they ought to tremble when judgment begins at the house of God.

   II. The utter destruction of the Ammonites is threatened. For the
   reproach cast on the church by her neighbours will be returned into
   their own bosom, Ps. lxxix. 12. Let us see how terrible the threatening
   is and the destruction will be. 1. It shall come from the wrath of God,
   who resents the indignities and injuries done to his people as done to
   himself (v. 31): I will pour out my indignation as a shower of fire and
   brimstone upon thee. The least drop of divine indignation and wrath
   will create tribulation and anguish enough to the soul of man that does
   evil; what then would a full stream of that indignation and wrath do?
   "I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath; that is, I will blow
   up the fire of my wrath against thee; it shall burn with the utmost
   vehemence." Thou shalt be for fuel to this fire, v. 32. Note, Wicked
   men make themselves fuel to the fire of God's wrath; they are consumed
   by it, and it is inflamed by them. 2. It shall be effected by the sword
   of war; to them he must cry, as before to Israel, because they had
   triumphed in Israel's overthrow: The sword, the sword is drawn (v. 28,
   compare v. 9, 10); it is drawn to consume because of the glittering,
   because it is brandished and glitters, and is fit to be made use of.
   God's executions will answer his preparations. This sword, when it is
   drawn, shall not return into its sheath (v. 30) till it has done the
   work for which it was drawn. When the sword is drawn it does not return
   till God causes it to return, and he is in one mind and who can turn
   him? Who can change his purpose? 3. The persons employed in it are
   brutish men, and skilful to destroy. Men of such a bad character as
   this, who have the wit of men to do the work of wild beasts--human
   reason, which makes them skilful, but no human compassion, which makes
   them skilful only to destroy--though they are the scandal of mankind,
   yet sometimes are made use of to serve God's purposes. God delivers the
   Ammonites into the hands of such, and justly, for they themselves were
   brutish, and delighted in the destruction of God's Israel. We have
   reason to pray, as Paul desired to be prayed for, that we may be
   delivered from wicked and unreasonable men (2 Thess. iii. 2), men that
   seem made for doing mischief. 4. The place where they should thus be
   reckoned with: "I will judge thee where thou wast created, where thou
   wast first formed into a people, and where thou hast been settled ever
   since, and therefore where thou seemest to have taken root; the land of
   thy nativity shall be the land of thy destruction." Note, God can bring
   ruin upon us even where we are most secure, and turn us out of that
   land which we thought we had a title to not to be disputed and a
   possession of not to be disturbed. Thy blood shall be shed not only in
   thy borders, but in the midst of thy land. Lastly, it shall be an
   irreparable ruin: "Though thou mayest think to recover thyself, it is
   in vain to think of it; thou shalt be no more remembered with any
   respect," Ps. ix. 6. Justly is their name blotted out who would have
   Israel's name for ever lost.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXII.

   Here are three separate messages which God entrusts the prophet to
   deliver concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and all to the same purport, to
   show them their sins and the judgments that were coming upon them for
   those sins. I. Here is a catalogue of their sins, by which they had
   exposed themselves to shame and for which God would bring them to ruin,
   ver. 1-16. II. They are here compared to dross, and are condemned as
   dross to the fire, ver. 17-22. III. All orders and degrees of men among
   them are here found guilty of the neglect of the duty of their place
   and of having contributed to the national guilt, which therefore, since
   none appeared as intercessors, they must all expect to share in the
   punishment of, ver. 23-31.

The Sins of Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

   1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Now, thou son
   of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou
   shalt shew her all her abominations.   3 Then say thou, Thus saith the
   Lord God, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may
   come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.   4 Thou art
   become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled
   thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy
   days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I
   made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
     5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock
   thee, which art infamous and much vexed.   6 Behold, the princes of
   Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.   7 In
   thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee
   have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they
   vexed the fatherless and the widow.   8 Thou hast despised mine holy
   things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.   9 In thee are men that carry
   tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the
   midst of thee they commit lewdness.   10 In thee have they discovered
   their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set
   apart for pollution.   11 And one hath committed abomination with his
   neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law;
   and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
   12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury
   and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by
   extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.   13 Behold,
   therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou
   hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.   14
   Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that
   I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.   15
   And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the
   countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.   16 And thou
   shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen,
   and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

   In these verses the prophet by a commission from Heaven sits as a judge
   upon the bench, and Jerusalem is made to hold up her hand as a prisoner
   at the bar; and, if prophets were set over other nations, much more
   over God's nation, Jer. i. 10. This prophet is authorized to judge the
   bloody city, the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, not only
   because she had been guilty of the particular sin of blood-shed, but
   because her crimes in general were bloody crimes (ch. vii. 23), such as
   polluted her in her blood, and for which she deserved to have blood
   given her to drink. Now the business of a judge with a malefactor is to
   convict him of his crimes, and then to pass sentence upon him for them.
   These two things Ezekiel is to do here.

   I. He is to find Jerusalem guilty of many heinous crimes here
   enumerated in a long bill of indictment, and it is billa vera--a true
   bill; so he writes upon it whose judgment we are sure is according to
   truth. He must show her all her abominations (v. 2), that God may be
   justified in all the desolations brought upon her. Let us take a view
   of all the particular sins which Jerusalem here stands charged with;
   and they are all exceedingly sinful.

   1. Murder: The city sheds blood, not only in the suburbs, where the
   strangers dwell, but in the midst of it, where, one would think, the
   magistrates would, if any where, be vigilant. Even there people were
   murdered either in duels or by secret assassinations and poisonings, or
   in the courts of justice under colour of law, and there was no care
   taken to discover and punish the murderers according to the law (Gen.
   ix. 6), no, nor so much as the ceremony used to expiate an uncertain
   murder (Deut. xxi. 1), and so the guilt and pollution remains upon the
   city. Thus thou hast become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, v.
   4. This crime is insisted most upon, for it was Jerusalem's
   measure-filling sin more than any; it is said to be that which the Lord
   would not pardon, 2 Kings xxiv. 4. (1.) The princes of Israel, who
   should have been the protectors of injured innocence, every one were to
   their power to shed blood, v. 6. They thirsted for it, and delighted in
   it, and whoever came within their power were sure to feel it; whoever
   lay at their mercy were sure to find none. (2.) There were those who
   carried tales to shed blood, v. 9. They told lies of men to the
   princes, to whom they knew it would be pleasing, to incense them
   against them; or they betrayed what passed in private conversation, to
   make mischief among neighbours, and set them together by the ears, to
   bite, and devour, and worry one another, even to death. Note, Those
   who, by giving invidious characters and telling ill-natured stories of
   their neighbours, sow discord among brethren, will be accountable for
   all the mischief that follows upon it; as he that kindles a fire will
   be accountable for all the hurt it does. (3.) There were those who took
   gifts to shed blood (v. 12), who would be hired with money to swear a
   man out of his life, or, if they were upon a jury, would be bribed to
   find an innocent man guilty. When so much barbarous bloody work of this
   kind was done in Jerusalem we may well conclude, [1.] That men's
   consciences had become wretchedly profligate and seared and their
   hearts hardened; for those would stick at no wickedness who would not
   stick at this. [2.] That abundance of quiet, harmless, good people were
   made away with, whereby, as the guilt of the city was increased, so the
   number of those that should have stood in the gap to turn away the
   wrath of God was diminished.

   2. Idolatry: She makes idols against herself to destroy herself, v. 3.
   And again (v. 4), Thou hast defiled thyself in thy idols which thou
   hast made. Note, Those who make idols for themselves will be found to
   have made them against themselves, for idolaters put a cheat upon
   themselves and prepare destruction for themselves; besides that thereby
   they pollute themselves, they render themselves odious in the eyes of
   the just and jealous God, and even their mind and conscience are
   defiled, so that to them nothing is pure. Those who did not make idols
   themselves were yet found guilty of eating upon the mountains, or high
   places (v. 9), in honour of the idols and in communion with idolaters.

   3. Disobedience to parents (v. 7): In thee have the children set light
   by their father and mother, mocked them, cursed them, and despised to
   obey them, which was a sign of a more than ordinary corruption of
   nature as well as manners, and a disposition to all manner of disorder,
   Isa. iii. 5. Those that set light by their parents are in the highway
   to all wickedness. God had made many wholesome laws for the support of
   the paternal authority, but no care was taken to put them in execution;
   nay, the Pharisees in their day taught children, under pretence of
   respect to the Corban, to set light by their parents and refuse to
   maintain them, Matt. xv. 5.

   4. Oppression and extortion. To enrich themselves they wronged the poor
   (v. 7): They dealt by oppression and deceit with the stranger, taking
   advantage of his necessities, and his ignorance of the laws and customs
   of the country. In Jerusalem, that should have been a sanctuary to the
   oppressed, they vexed the fatherless and widows by unreasonable demands
   and inquisitions, or troublesome law-suits, in which might prevails
   against right. "Thou hast taken usury and increase (v. 12); not only
   there are those in thee that do it, but thou hast done it." It was an
   act of the city or community; the public money, which should have been
   employed in public charity, was put out to usury, with extortion. Thou
   hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by violence and wrong. For
   neighbours to gain by one another in a way of fair trading is well, but
   those who are greedy of gain will not be held within the rules of
   equity.

   5. Profanation of the sabbath and other holy things. This commonly goes
   along with the other sins for which they here stand indicted (v. 8):
   Thou hast despised my holy things, holy oracles, holy ordinances. The
   rites which God appointed were thought too plain, too ordinary; they
   despised them, and therefore were fond of the customs of the heathen.
   Note, Immorality and dishonesty are commonly attended with a contempt
   of religion and the worship of God. Thou hast profaned my sabbaths.
   There was not in Jerusalem that face of sabbath-sanctification that one
   would have expected in the holy city. Sabbath-breaking is an iniquity
   that is an inlet to all iniquity. Many have owned it to contribute as
   much to their ruin as any thing.

   6. Uncleanness and all manner of seventh-commandment sins, fruits of
   those vile affections to which God in a way of righteous judgment gives
   men up, to punish them for their idolatry and profanation of holy
   things. Jerusalem had been famous for its purity, but now in the midst
   of thee they commit lewdness (v. 9); lewdness goes bare-faced, though
   in the most scandalous instances, as that of a man's having his
   father's wife, which is the discovery of the father's nakedness (v. 10)
   and is a sin not to be named among Christians without the utmost
   detestation (1 Cor. v. 1), and was made a capital crime by the law of
   Moses, Lev. xx. 11. The time to refrain from embracing has not been
   observed (Eccles. iii. 6), for they have humbled her that was set apart
   for her pollution. They made nothing of committing lewdness with a
   neighbour's wife, with a daughter-in-law, or a sister, v. 11. And shall
   not God visit for these things?

   7. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness (v.
   12): "Thou hast forgotten me, else thou wouldst not have done thus."
   Note, Sinners do that which provokes God because they forget him; they
   forget their descent from him, dependence on him, and obligations to
   him; they forget how valuable his favour is, which they make themselves
   unfit for, and how formidable his wrath, which they make themselves
   obnoxious to. Those that pervert their ways forget the Lord their God,
   Jer. iii. 21.

   II. He is to pass sentence upon Jerusalem for these crimes.

   1. Let her know that she has filled up the measure of her iniquity, and
   that her sins are such as forbid delays and call for speedy vengeance.
   She has made her time to come (v. 3), her days to draw near; and she
   has come to her years of maturity for punishment (v. 4), as an heir
   that has come to age and is ready for his inheritance. God would have
   borne longer with them, but they had arrived at such a pitch of
   impudence in sin that God could not in honour give them a further day.
   Note, Abused patience will at last be weary of forbearing. And, when
   sinners (as Solomon speaks) grow overmuch wicked, they die before their
   time (Eccl. vii. 17) and shorten their reprieves.

   2. Let her know that she has exposed herself, and therefore God has
   justly exposed her, to the contempt and scorn of all her neighbours (v.
   4): I have made thee a reproach to the heathen, both those who are
   near, who are eye-witnesses of Jerusalem's apostasy and degeneracy, and
   those afar off, who, though at a distance, will think it worth taking
   notice of (v. 5); they shall all mock thee. While they were reproached
   by their neighbours for their adherence to God it was their honour, and
   they might be sure that God would roll away their reproach. But, now
   that they are laughed at for their revolt from God, they must lie down
   in their shame, and must say, The Lord is righteous. They make a mock
   at Jerusalem, both because her sins had been very scandalous (she is
   infamous, polluted in name, and has quite lost her credit), and because
   her punishment is very grievous--she is much vexed and frets without
   measure at her troubles. Note, Those who fret most at their troubles
   have commonly those about them who will be so much the more apt to make
   a jest of them.

   3. Let her know that God is displeased, highly displeased, at her
   wickedness, and does and will witness against it (v. 13): I have
   smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain. God, both by his prophets and by
   his providence, revealed his wrath from heaven against their
   ungodliness and unrighteousness, the oppressions they were guilty of,
   though they got by them, and their murders (the blood which has been in
   the midst of thee), and all their other sins. Note, God has
   sufficiently discovered how angry he is at the wicked courses of his
   people; and, that they may not say that they have not had fair warning,
   he smites his hand against the sin before he lays his hand upon the
   sinner. And this is a good reason why we should despise dishonest gain,
   even the gain of oppressions, and shake our hands from holding bribes,
   because these are sins against which God shakes his hands, Isa. xxxiii.
   15.

   4. Let her know that, proud and secure as she is, she is no match for
   God's judgments, v. 14. (1.) She is assured that the destruction she
   has deserved will come: I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. He
   that is true to his promises will be true to his threatenings too, for
   he is not a man that he should repent. (2.) It is supposed that she
   thinks herself able to contend with God, and so stand a siege against
   his judgments. She bade defiance to the day of the Lord, Isa. v. 19.
   But, (3.) She is convinced of her utter inability to make her part good
   with him: "Can thy heart endure, or can thy hand be strong, in the days
   that I shall deal with thee? Thou thinkest thou hast to do only with
   men like thyself, but shalt be made to know that thou fallest into the
   hands of a living God." Observe here, [1.] There is a day coming when
   God will deal with sinners, a day of visitation. He deals with some to
   bring them to repentance, and there is no resisting the force of
   convictions when he sets them on; he deals with others to bring them to
   ruin. He deals with sinners in this life, when he brings upon them his
   sore judgments; but the days of eternity are especially the days in
   which God will deal with them, when the full vials of God's wrath will
   be poured out without mixture. [2.] The wrath of God against sinners,
   when he comes to deal with them, will be found both intolerable and
   irresistible. There is no heart stout enough to endure it; it is none
   of the infirmities which the spirit of a man will sustain. Damned
   sinners can neither forget nor despise their torments, nor have they
   any thing wherewith to support themselves under their torments. There
   are no hands strong enough either to ward off the strokes of God's
   wrath or to break the chains with which sinners are bound over to the
   day of wrath. Who knows the power of God's anger?

   5. Let her know that, since she has walked in the way of the heathen,
   and learned their works, she shall have enough of them (v. 15): "I will
   not only send thee among the heathen, out of thy own land, but I will
   scatter thee among them and disperse thee in the countries, to be
   abused and insulted over by strangers." And since her filthiness and
   filthy ones continued in her, notwithstanding all the methods God had
   taken to refine her (she would not be made clean, Jer. xiii. 27), he
   will be his judgments consume her filthiness out of her; he will
   destroy those that are incurably bad and reform those that are inclined
   to be good.

   6. Let her know that God has disowned her and cast her off. He had been
   her heritage and portion; but now (v. 16), "Thou shalt take thy
   inheritance in thyself, shift for thyself, make the best hand thou
   canst for thyself, for God will no longer undertake for thee." Note,
   Those that give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts will justly be
   given up to be portioned by them. Those that resolve to be their own
   masters, let them expect no other comfort and happiness than what their
   own hands can furnish them with, and a miserable portion it will prove.
   Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. Thou in thy life-time
   receivedst thy good things. These are the same with this, "Thou shalt
   take thy inheritance in thyself, and then, when it is too late, shalt
   own in the sight of the heathen that I am the Lord, who alone am a
   portion sufficient for my people." Note, Those that have lost their
   interest in God will know how to value it.

The Sins of Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

   17 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   18 Son of man, the
   house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and
   iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of
   silver.   19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all
   become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of
   Jerusalem.   20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead,
   and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to
   melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will
   leave you there, and melt you.   21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow
   upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst
   thereof.   22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall
   ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord
   have poured out my fury upon you.

   The same melancholy string is still harped upon, and various turns are
   given it, to make it affecting, that it may be influencing. The prophet
   must here show, or at least it is here shown him, that the whole house
   of Israel has become as dross and that as dross they shall be consumed.
   What David has said concerning the wicked ones of the world is here
   said concerning the wicked ones of the church, now that it is corrupt
   and degenerate (Ps. cxix. 119): Thou puttest away all the wicked of the
   earth like dross.

   I. See here how the wretched degeneracy of the house of Israel is
   described. That state, in David's and Solomon's time, had been a head
   of gold; when the kingdoms were divided it was as the arms of silver.
   But now, 1. It has degenerated into baser metal, of no value in
   comparison with what it formerly was: They are all brass, and tin, and
   iron, and lead, which some make to signify divers sorts of sinners
   among them. Their being brass denotes the impudence of some in their
   wickedness; they are brazen-faced, and cannot blush; their shoes had
   been iron and brass (Deut. xxxiii. 25), but now their brow is so, Isa.
   xlviii. 4. Their being tin denotes the hypocritical profession of piety
   with which many of them cover their iniquity; they have a specious
   show, but no intrinsic worth. Their being iron denotes the cruel
   disposition of some, and their delight in war, according to the
   character of the iron age. Their being lead denotes their dulness,
   sottishness, and stupidity: though soft and pliable to evil, yet heavy
   and not movable to good. How has the gold become dross! How has the
   most fine gold changed! So is Jerusalem's degeneracy bewailed, Lam. iv.
   1. Yet this is not the worst; these metals, though of less value, are
   yet of good use. But, 2. The house of Israel has become dross to me. So
   she is in God's account, whatever she is in her own and her neighbours'
   account. They were silver, but now they are even the dross of silver;
   the word signifies all the dirt, and rubbish, and worthless stuff, that
   are separated from the silver in the washing, melting, and refining of
   it. Note, Sinners, and especially degenerate professors, are in God's
   account as dross, vile, and contemptible, and of no account, as the
   evil figs which could not be eaten, they were so evil. They are useless
   and fit for nothing; of no consistency with themselves and no service
   to man.

   II. How the woeful destruction of this degenerate house of Israel is
   foretold. They are all gathered together in Jerusalem; thither people
   fled from all parts of the country as to a city of refuge, not only
   because it was a strong city, but because it was the holy city. Now God
   tells them that their flocking into Jerusalem, which they intended for
   their security, should be as the gathering of various sorts of metal
   into the furnace or crucible, to be melted down, and to have the dross
   separated from them. They are in the midst of Jerusalem, surrounded by
   the forces of the enemy; and, being thus enclosed, 1. The fire of God's
   wrath shall be kindled upon this furnace, and it shall be blown, to
   make it burn fiercely and strongly, v. 20, 21. God will gather them in
   his anger and fury. The blowing of the fire makes a great noise, so
   will the judgments of God upon Jerusalem. When God stirs up himself to
   execute judgments upon a provoking people, from the consideration of
   his own glory and the necessity of making some examples, then he may be
   said to blow the fire of his wrath against sin and sinners, to heat the
   furnace seven times hotter. 2. The several sorts of metal gathered in
   it shall be melted; by a complication of judgments, as by a raging
   fire, their constitution shall be dissolved, they shall lose all their
   former shape and strength, and shall be utterly unable to stand before
   the wrath of God. The various sorts of sinners shall be melted down
   together, and united in a common overthrow, as brass and lead in the
   same furnace, as trees are bound in bundles for the fire. They came
   together into Jerusalem as a place of defence, but God brought them
   together there as unto a place of execution. 3. God will leave them in
   the furnace (v. 20): I will gather you into the furnace and will leave
   you there. When God brings his own people into the furnace he sits by
   them, as the refiner by his gold, to see that they be not continued
   there any longer than is fitting and needful; but he will bring these
   people into the furnace, as men throw dross into it, which they design
   shall be consumed, and therefore are in no care about it, but leave it
   there. Compare with this Hos. v. 14, I will tear and go away. 4. Hereby
   the dross shall be wholly separated and the good metal purified, the
   impenitent shall be destroyed and the penitent reformed and fitted for
   deliverance. Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come
   forth a vessel for the finer, Prov. xxv. 4. This judgment shall do that
   in the house of Israel for the doing of which other methods had been
   tried in vain, and reprobate silver shall they no more be called, Jer.
   vi. 30.

Charge against Prophets and Priests. (b. c. 591.)

   23 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   24 Son of man, say
   unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in
   the day of indignation.   25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in
   the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have
   devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they
   have made her many widows in the midst thereof.   26 Her priests have
   violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no
   difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed
   difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes
   from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.   27 Her princes in the
   midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to
   destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.   28 And her prophets have daubed
   them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto
   them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.
   29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery,
   and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the
   stranger wrongfully.   30 And I sought for a man among them, that
   should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land,
   that I should not destroy it: but I found none.   31 Therefore have I
   poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the
   fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads,
   saith the Lord God.

   Here is, I. A general idea given of the land of Israel, how well it
   deserved the judgments coming to destroy it and how much it needed
   these judgments to refine it. Let the prophet tell her plainly, "Thou
   art the land that is not cleansed, not refined as metal is, and
   therefore needest to be again put into the furnace. Means and methods
   of reformation have been ineffectual; thou art not rained upon in the
   day of indignation." This was one of the judgments which God brought
   upon them in the day of his wrath, he withheld the rain from them, Jer.
   xiv. 4. Or, "When thou art under the tokens of God's displeasure, even
   in the day of indignation thou art not rained upon; thou hast not
   received instruction by the prophets, whose doctrine is said to descend
   as the rain." Or, "When thou art corrected thou art not cleansed; thy
   filth is not carried away as that in the streets is by a sweeping rain.
   Nay, though it be a day of indignation with thee, yet thy filthiness,
   which should be done away, has become more offensive, as that of a city
   is in dry weather, when it is not rained upon." Or, "Thou hast nothing
   to refresh and comfort thyself with in the day of indignation; thou art
   not rained upon by divine consolations." So the rich man in torment had
   not a drop of water, or rain, to cool his tongue.

   II. A particular charge drawn up against the several orders and degrees
   of men among them, which shows that they had all helped to fill the
   measure of the nation's guilt, but none had done any thing towards the
   emptying of it; they are therefore all alike.

   1. They have every one corrupted his way, and those who should have
   been the brightest examples of virtue were ringleaders in iniquity and
   patterns of vice.

   (1.) The prophets, who pretended to make known the mind of God to them,
   were not only deceivers, but devourers (v. 25), and hardened them in
   their wickedness both by their preaching, wherein they promised them
   impunity and prosperity, and by their conversation, in which they were
   as profligate as any. There is a conspiracy of her prophets against God
   and religion, against the true prophets and all good men; they
   conspired together to be all in one song, as Ahab's prophets were, to
   assure them of peace in their sinful ways. Note, The unity which is
   found among pretenders to infallibility, and which they so much boast
   of, is only the result of a secret conspiracy against the truth. Satan
   is not divided against himself. The prophets are in conspiracy with the
   murderers and oppressors, to patronise and protect them in their
   wickedness, and justify what they did with their false prophecies,
   provided they may come in sharers with them in the profits of it. They
   are like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they thunder out threats
   against those whose ruin is aimed at, terrify them, or make them odious
   to the people, and so make themselves masters, [1.] Of their lives:
   They have devoured souls, have been accessory to the shedding of the
   blood of many an innocent person, and so have made many to become
   sorrowful widows who were comfortable wives. They have persecuted those
   to death who witnessed against their pretensions to prophecy and would
   not be imposed upon by their counterfeit commission. Or, They devoured
   souls by flattering sinners into a false peace and a vain hope, and
   seducing them into the paths of sin, which would be their eternal ruin.
   Note, Those who draw men to wickedness, and encourage them in it, are
   the devourers and murderers of their souls. [2.] Of their estates. When
   Naboth is slain they take possession of his vineyard; They have seized
   the treasure and precious things, as forfeited; some way or other they
   had of devouring the widows' houses, as the Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. 14.
   Or, They got this treasure, and all these precious things, as fees for
   false and flattering prophecies; for he that puts not into their
   mouths, they even prepare war against him, Mic. iii. 5. It was sad with
   Jerusalem when such men as these passed for prophets.

   (2.) The priests, who were teachers by office, and had the custody of
   the sacred things, and should have called the false prophets to
   account, were as bad as they, v. 26. [1.] They violated the law of God,
   which they should have observed and taught others to observe. They made
   no conscience of the law of the priesthood, but openly broke it, and
   with contempt, as Hophni and Phinehas. They did what they had a mind,
   with an express non obstante--notwithstanding to the word of God. And
   how should those teach the people their duty who lived in contradiction
   to their own? [2.] They profaned God's holy things, about which they
   were to minister, and which they ought to have restrained others from
   the profanation of. They suffered those to eat of the holy things who
   were unqualified by the law. The table of the Lord was contemptible
   with them. By dealing in holy things with such unhallowed hands they
   did themselves profane them. [3.] They did not themselves put a
   difference, nor did they show the people how to put a difference,
   between the holy and profane, the clean and the unclean, according to
   the directions and distinctions of the law. They did not exclude those
   from God's courts who were excluded by the law, nor teach the people to
   observe the difference the law had made between food clean and unclean,
   between times and places holy and common; but they lived at large
   themselves and encouraged the people to do so too. [4.] They hid their
   eyes from God's sabbaths; they took no care about them; it was all one
   to them whether God's sabbaths were kept holy or no; they neither gave
   countenance to those who observed them nor check to those who profaned
   them, nor did they themselves show any regard to them or veneration for
   them. They winked at those who did servile works on that day, and
   looked another way when they should have inspected the behaviour of the
   people on sabbath days. God's sabbaths have such a beauty and glory put
   upon them by the divine institution as may command respect; but they
   hid their eyes from them and would not see that excellency in them.
   [5.] By all this God himself was profaned among them; his authority was
   slighted, his goodness made light of, and the highest affront and
   contempt imaginable were put upon his holiness. Note, The profanation
   of the honour of the scriptures, of sabbaths and sacred things, is a
   profanation of the honour of God himself, who is interested in them.

   (3.) The princes, who should have interposed with their authority to
   redress these grievances, were as daring transgressors of the law as
   any (v. 27): They are like wolves ravening the prey; for such is power
   without justice and goodness to direct it. All their business was to
   gratify, [1.] Their own pride and ambition, by making themselves
   arbitrary and formidable. [2.] Their own malice and revenge, by
   shedding blood and destroying souls, sacrificing to their cruelty all
   those that stood in their way or had in any thing disobliged them. [3.]
   Their own avarice; all they aim at is to get dishonest gain, by
   crushing and oppressing their subject. Lucri bonus est odor ex re
   qualibet. Rem, rem, quocunque modo rem--Sweet is the odour of gain,
   from whatever substance it ascends. Money, money, by fairness or by
   fraud, get money. But, though they had power sufficient to carry them
   on in their oppressive courses, yet how could they answer it both to
   their credit and to their consciences? We are told how (v. 28): The
   prophets daubed them with untempered mortar, told them in God's name
   (horrid wickedness!) that there was no harm in what they did, that they
   might dispose of the lives and estates of their subjects as they
   pleased, and could do no wrong, nay, that in prosecuting such and such
   whom they had marked out they did God service; and thus they stopped
   the mouth of their consciences. They also justified what they did, to
   the people, nay, and magnified it as if it were all for the public
   good, and so saved their reputation, and kept their oppressed subjects
   from murmuring. Note, Daubing prophets are the great supporters of
   ravening princes, but will prove at last their great deceivers, for
   they daub with untempered mortar which will not hold, nor will the wall
   stand long that is built up with it. They pretend to be seers, but they
   see vanity; they pretend to be diviners, but they divine lies; they
   pretend a warrant from Heaven for what they say, and that it is all as
   true as gospel; they say, Thus saith the Lord God, but it is all a
   sham, for the Lord has not spoken any such thing.

   (4.) The people that had any power in their hands learned of their
   princes to abuse it, v. 29. Those that should have complained of the
   oppression of the subject, and have put in a claim of rights on behalf
   of the injured, that should have stood up for liberty and property,
   were themselves invaders of them: The people of the land have used
   oppression and exercised robbery. The rich oppress the poor, masters
   their servants, landlords their tenants, and even parents their own
   children; nay, the buyers and sellers will find some way to oppress one
   another. This is such a sin as, when it is national, is indeed a
   national judgment, and is threatened as such. Isa. iii. 5, The people
   shall be oppressed every one by his neighbour. It is an aggravation of
   the sin that they have vexed the poor and needy, whom they should have
   relieved, and have oppressed the stranger and deprived him of his
   right, to whom they ought to have been not only just, but kind. Thus
   was the apostasy universal and the disease epidemical.

   2. There is none that appears as an intercessor for them (v. 30): I
   sought for a man among them that should stand in the gap, but I found
   none. Note, (1.) Sin makes a gap in the hedge of protection that is
   about a people at which good things run out from them and evil things
   pour in upon them, a gap by which God enters to destroy them. (2.)
   There is a way of standing in the gap, and making up the breach against
   the judgments of God, by repentance, and prayer, and reformation. Moses
   stood in the gap when he made intercession for Israel to turn away the
   wrath of God, Ps. cvi. 23. (3.) When God is coming forth against a
   sinful people to destroy them he expects some to intercede for them,
   and enquires if there be but one that does; so much is it his desire
   and delight to show mercy. If there be but a man that stands in the
   gap, as Abraham for Sodom, he will discover him and be well pleased
   with him. (4.) It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in
   upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained, so that not one is
   found that will either give them a good word or speak a good word for
   them. (5.) When it is so, what can be expected but utter ruin?
   Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them (v. 31), have
   given it full scope, that it may come upon them in a full stream; yet,
   whatever God's wrath inflicts upon a people, it is their own way that
   is therein recompensed upon their heads, and God deals with them no
   worse, but even much better, than their iniquity deserves.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXIII.

   This long chapter (as before ch. xvi. and xx.) is a history of the
   apostasies of God's people from him and the aggravations of those
   apostasies under the similitude of corporal whoredom and adultery. Here
   the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the ten tribes and the two, with
   their capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem, are considered distinctly.
   Here is, I. The apostasy of Israel and Samaria from God (ver. 1-8) and
   their ruin for it, ver. 9, 10. II. The apostasy of Judah and Jerusalem
   from God (ver. 11-21) and sentence passed upon them, that they shall in
   like manner be destroyed for it, ver. 22-35. III. The joint wickedness
   of them both together (ver. 36-44) and the joint ruin of them both,
   ver. 45-49. And all that is written for warning against the sins of
   idolatry, and confidence in an arm of flesh, and sinful leagues and
   confederacies with wicked people (which are the sins here meant by
   committing whoredom), is that others may hear and fear, and not sin
   after the similitude of the transgressions of Israel and Judah.

The Sins of Samaria and Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

   1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   there were two women, the daughters of one mother:   3 And they
   committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth:
   there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of
   their virginity.   4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and
   Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and
   daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem
   Aholibah.   5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she
   doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,   6 Which were
   clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young
   men, horsemen riding upon horses.   7 Thus she committed her whoredoms
   with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with
   all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.   8
   Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth
   they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and
   poured their whoredom upon her.   9 Wherefore I have delivered her into
   the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she
   doted.   10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her
   daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among
   women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

   God had often spoken to Ezekiel, and by him to the people, to this
   effect, but now his word comes again; for God speaks the same thing
   once, yea, twice, yea, many a time, and all little enough, and too
   little, for man perceives it not. Note, To convince sinners of the evil
   of sin, and of their misery and danger by reason of it, there is need
   of line upon line, so loth we are to know the worst of ourselves. The
   sinners that are here to be exposed are two women, two kingdoms,
   sister-kingdoms, Israel and Judah, daughters of one mother, having been
   for a long time but one people. Solomon's kingdom was so large, so
   populous, that immediately after his death it divided into two.
   Observe, 1. Their character when they were one (v. 3): They committed
   whoredoms in Egypt, for there they were guilty of idolatry, as we read
   before, ch. xx. 8. The representing of those sins which are most
   provoking to God and most ruining to a people by the sin of whoredom
   plainly intimates what an exceedingly sinful sin uncleanness is, how
   offensive, how destructive. Doubtless it is itself one of the worst of
   sins, for the worst of other sins are compared to it here and often
   elsewhere, which should increase our detestation and dread of all
   manner of fleshly lusts, all appearances of them and approaches to
   them, as warring against the soul, infatuating sinners, bewitching
   them, alienating their minds from God and all that is good, debauching
   conscience, rendering them odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God,
   and drowning them at last in destruction and perdition. 2. Their names
   when they became two, v. 4. The kingdom of Israel is called the elder
   sister, because that first made the breach, and separated from the
   family both of kings and priests that God had appointed--the greater
   sister (so the word is), for ten tribes belonged to that kingdom and
   only two to the other. God says of them both, They were mine, for they
   were the seed of Abraham his friend and of Jacob his chosen; they were
   in covenant with God, and carried about with them the sign of their
   circumcision, the seal of the covenant. They were mine; and therefore
   their apostasy was the highest injustice. It was alienating God's
   property, it was the basest ingratitude to the best of benefactors, and
   a perfidious treacherous violation of the most sacred engagements.
   Note, Those who have been in profession the people of God, but have
   revolted from him, have a great deal to answer for more than those who
   never made any such profession. "They were mine; they were espoused to
   me, and to me they bore sons and daughters;" there were many among them
   that were devoted to God's honour, and employed in his service, and
   were the strength and beauty of these kingdoms, as children are of the
   families they are born in. In this parable Samaria and the kingdom of
   Israel shall bear the name of Aholah--her own tabernacle, because the
   places of worship which that kingdom had were of their own devising,
   their own choosing, and the worship itself was their own invention; God
   never owned it. Her tabernacle to herself (so some render it); "let her
   take it to herself, and make her best of it." Jerusalem and the kingdom
   of Judah bear the name of Aholibah--my tabernacle is in her, because
   their temple was the place which God himself had chosen to put his name
   there. He acknowledged it to be his, and honoured them with the tokens
   of his presence in it. Note, Of those that stand in relation to God,
   and make profession of his name, some have greater privileges and
   advantages than others; and, as those who have greater are thereby
   rendered the more inexcusable if they revolt from God, so those who
   have less will not thereby be rendered inexcusable. 3. The treacherous
   departure of the kingdom of Israel from God (v. 5): Aholah played the
   harlot when she was mine. Though the ten tribes had deserted the house
   of David, yet God owned them for his still; though Jeroboam, in setting
   up the golden calves, sinned, and made Israel to sin, yet, as long as
   they worshipped the God of Israel only, though by images, he did not
   quite cast them off. But the way of sin is down-hill. Aholah played the
   harlot, brought in the worship of Baal (1 Kings xvi. 31), set up that
   other god, that dunghill-god, in competition with Jehovah (1 Kings
   xviii. 21), as a vile adulteress dotes on her lovers, because they are
   well dressed and make a figure, because they are young and handsome (v.
   6), clothed with blue, captains and rulers, desirable young men,
   genteel, and that pass for men of honour, so she doted upon her
   neighbours, particularly the Assyrians, who had extended their
   conquests near them; she admired their idols and worshipped them,
   admired the pomp of their courts and their military strength and
   courted alliances with them upon any terms, as if her own God were not
   sufficient to be depended upon. We find one of the kings of Israel
   giving a thousand talents to the king of Assyria, to engage him in his
   interests, 2 Kings xv. 19. She doted on the chosen men of Assyria, as
   worthy to be trusted and employed in the service of the state (v. 7),
   and on all their idols with which she defiled herself. Note, Whatever
   creature we dote upon, pay homage to, and put a confidence in, we make
   an idol of that creature; and whatever we make an idol of we defile
   ourselves with. And now again the conviction looks back as far as the
   original of their nation: Neither left she her whoredoms which she
   brought from Egypt, v. 8. Their being idolaters in Egypt was a thing
   never to be forgotten--that they should be in love with Egypt's idols
   even when they were continually in fear of Egypt's tyrants and
   task-masters! But (as some have observed) therefore, at that time, when
   Satan boasted of his having walked through the earth as all his own, to
   disprove his pretensions God did not say, Hast thou considered my
   people Israel in Egypt? (for they had become idolaters, and were not to
   be boasted of), but, Hast thou considered my servant Job in the land of
   Uz? And this corrupt disposition in them, when they were first formed
   into a people, is an emblem of that original corruption which is born
   with us and is woven into our constitution, a strong bias towards the
   world and the flesh, like that in the Israelites towards idolatry; it
   was bred in the bone with them, and was charged upon them long after,
   that they left not their whoredoms brought from Egypt. It would never
   out of the flesh, though Egypt had been a house of bondage to them.
   Thus the corrupt affections and inclinations which we brought into the
   world with us we have not lost, nor got clear of, but still retain
   them, though the iniquity we were born in was the source of all the
   calamities which human life is liable to. 4. The destruction of the
   kingdom of Israel for their apostasy from God (v. 9, 10): I have
   delivered her into the hand of her lovers. God first justly gave her up
   to her lust (Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone), and then gave
   her up to her lovers. The neighbouring nations, whose idolatries she
   had conformed to and whose friendship she had confided in, and in both
   had affronted God, are now made use of as the instruments of her
   destruction. The Assyrians, on whom she doted, soon spied out the
   nakedness of the land, discovered her blind side, on which to attack
   her, stripped her of all her ornaments and all her defences, and so
   uncovered her, and made her naked and bare, carried her sons and
   daughters into captivity, slew her with the sword, and quite destroyed
   that kingdom and put an end to it. We have the story at large 2 Kings
   xvii. 6, &c., where the cause of the ruin of that once flourishing
   kingdom by the Assyrians is shown to be their forsaking the God of
   Israel, fearing other gods, and walking in the statutes of the heathen;
   it was for this that God was very angry with them and removed them out
   of his sight, v. 18. And that the Assyrians, whom they had been so fond
   of, should be employed in executing judgments upon them was very
   remarkable, and shows how God, in a way of righteous judgment, often
   makes that a scourge to sinners which they have inordinately set their
   hearts upon. The devil will for ever be a tormentor to those impenitent
   sinners who now hearken to him and comply with him as a tempter. Thus
   Samaria became famous among women, or infamous rather; she became a
   name (so the word is); not only she came to be the subject of
   discourse, and much talked of, as the desolations of cities and
   kingdoms fill the newspapers, but she was thus ruined for her
   idolatries in terrorem--for warning to all people to take heed of doing
   likewise; as the public execution of notorious malefactors makes them
   such a name, such an ill name, as may serve to frighten others from
   those wicked courses which have brought them to a miserable and
   shameful end. Deut. xxi. 21, All Israel shall hear and fear.

The Sins of Samaria and Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

   11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her
   inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in
   her whoredoms.   12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours,
   captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon
   horses, all of them desirable young men.   13 Then I saw that she was
   defiled, that they took both one way,   14 And that she increased her
   whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of
   the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,   15 Girded with girdles upon
   their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them
   princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the
   land of their nativity:   16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes,
   she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.   17
   And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled
   her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind
   was alienated from them.   18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and
   discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as
   my mind was alienated from her sister.   19 Yet she multiplied her
   whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she
   had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.   20 For she doted upon
   their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue
   is like the issue of horses.   21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the
   lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the
   paps of thy youth.

   The prophet Hosea, in his time, observed that the two tribes retained
   their integrity, in a great measure, when the ten tribes had
   apostatized (Hos. xi. 12, Ephraim indeed compasses me about with lies,
   but Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with the saints; and this
   was justly expected from them: Hos. iv. 15, Though thou Israel play the
   harlot, yet let not Judah offend); but this lasted not long. By some
   unhappy matches made between the house of David and the house of Ahab
   the worship of Baal had been brought into the kingdom of Judah, but had
   been by the reforming kings worked out again; and at the time of the
   captivity of the ten tribes, which was in the reign of Hezekiah, things
   were in a good posture: but it lasted not long. In the reign of
   Manasseh, soon after the kingdom of Judah had seen the destruction of
   the kingdom of Israel, they became more corrupt than Israel had been in
   their inordinate love of idols, v. 11. Instead of being made better by
   the warning which that destruction gave them, they were made worse by
   it, as if they were displeased because the Lord had made that breach
   upon Israel, and for that reason became disaffected to him and to his
   service. Instead of being made to stand in awe of him as a jealous God,
   they therefore grew strange to him, and liked those gods better that
   would admit of partners with them. Note, Those may justly expect God's
   judgments upon themselves who do not take warning by his judgments upon
   others, who see in others what is the end of sin and yet continue to
   make a light matter of it. But it is bad indeed with those who are made
   worse by that which should make them better, and have their lusts
   irritated and exasperated by that which was designed to suppress and
   subdue them. Jerusalem grew worse in her whoredoms than her sister
   Samaria had been in her whoredoms. This was observed before (ch. xvi.
   51), Neither has Samaria committed half of thy sins.

   I. Jerusalem, that had been a faithful city, became a harlot, Isa. i.
   21. She also doted upon the Assyrians (v. 12), joined in league with
   them, joined in worship with them, grew to be in love with their
   captains and rulers, and cried them up as finer and more accomplished
   gentlemen than any that ever the land of Israel produced. "See how
   richly, how neatly, they are dressed, clothed most gorgeously; how well
   they sit a horse; they are horsemen riding on horses; how charmingly
   they look, all of them desirable young men." And thus they grew to
   affect every thing that was foreign and to despise their own nation;
   and even the religion of it was mean and homely, and not to be compared
   with the curiosity and gaiety of the heathen temples. Thus she
   increased her whoredoms; she fell in love, fell in league, with the
   Chaldeans. Hezekiah himself was faulty this way when he was proud of
   the court which the king of Babylon made to him and complimented his
   ambassadors with the sight of all his treasures, Isa. xxxix. 2. And the
   humour increased (v. 14); she doted upon the pictures of the Babylonian
   captains (v. 15, 16), joined in alliance with that kingdom, invited
   them to come and settle in Jerusalem, that they might refine the genius
   of the Jewish nation and make it more polite; nay, they sent for
   patterns of their images, altars, and temples, and made use of them in
   their worship. Thus was she polluted with her whoredoms (v. 17), and
   thereby she discovered her own whoredom (v. 18), her own strong
   inclination to idolatry. And when she had had enough of the Chaldeans,
   and grew tired of them and disposed to break her league with them, as
   Jehoiakim and Zedekiah did, her mind being alienated from them, she
   courted the Egyptians, doted upon their paramours (v. 20), would come
   into an alliance with them, and, to strengthen the alliance, would join
   with them in their idolatries and then depend upon them to be their
   protectors from all other nations; for so wise, so rich, so strong, was
   the Egyptian nation, and came to such perfection in idolatry, that
   there was no nation now which they could take such satisfaction in as
   in Egypt. Thus they called to remembrance the days of their youth (v.
   19), the lewdness of their youth, v. 21. 1. They pleased themselves
   with the remembrance of it. When they began to set their affections
   upon Egypt, they encouraged themselves to put a confidence in that
   kingdom, because of the old acquaintance they had with it, as if they
   still retained the gust and relish of the leeks and onions they ate
   there, or rather of the idolatrous worship they learned there, and
   brought up with them thence. When they began an acquaintance with Egypt
   they remembered how merrily their fathers worshipped the golden calf,
   what music and dancing they had at that sport, which they learned in
   Egypt; and they hoped they should now have a fair pretence to come to
   that again. Thus she multiplied her whoredoms, repeated her former
   whoredoms, and encouraged herself to close with present temptations, by
   calling to remembrance the days of her youth. Note, Those who, instead
   of reflecting upon their former sins with sorrow and shame, reflect
   upon them with pleasure and pride, contract new guilt thereby,
   strengthen their own corruptions, and in effect bid defiance to
   repentance. This is returning with the dog to his vomit. 2. They called
   it God's remembrance, and provoked him to remember it against them. God
   had said indeed that he would reckon with them for the golden calf,
   that idol of Egypt (Exod. xxxii. 34); but such was his patience that he
   seemed to have forgotten it till they, by their league now with the
   Egyptians against the Chaldeans, did, as it were, put him in mind of
   it; and in the day when he visits he will now, as he has said, visit
   for that. It is very observable how this adulteress changes her lovers:
   she dotes first on the Assyrians; then she thought the Chaldeans finer
   and courted them; after a while her mind was alienated from them, and
   she thought the Egyptians more powerful (v. 20) and she must contract
   an intimacy with them. This shows the folly, (1.) Of fleshly lusts;
   when they are indulged they grow humoursome and fickle, are soon
   surfeited but never satisfied; they must have variety, and what is
   loved one day is loathed the next. Unius adulterium matrimonium
   vocant--One adultery is called marriage, as Seneca observes. (2.) Of
   idolatry. Those who think one God too little will not think a hundred
   sufficient, but will still be for trying more, as finding all
   insufficient. (3.) Of seeking to creatures for help; we go from one to
   another, but are disappointed in them all, and can never rest till we
   have made the God of Israel our help.

   II. The faithful God justly gives a bill of divorce to this now
   faithless city, that has become a harlot. His jealousy soon discovered
   her lewdness (v. 13): I saw that she was defiled, that she was
   debauched, and saw which way her inclination was, that the two sisters
   both took one way, and that Jerusalem grew worse than Samaria. For, if
   we stretch out our hand to a strange god, will not God search this out?
   No doubt he will; and when he has found it can he be pleased with it?
   No (v. 18): Then my mind was alienated from her, as it was from her
   sister. How could the pure and holy God any longer take delight in such
   a lewd generation? Note, Sin alienates God's mind from the sinner, and
   justly, for it is the alienation of the sinner's mind from God; but
   woe, and a thousand woes, to those from whom God's mind is alienated;
   for whom he turns from he will turn against.

The Punishment of Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

   22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will raise
   up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will
   bring them against thee on every side;   23 The Babylonians, and all
   the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with
   them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords
   and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.   24 And they shall come
   against thee with chariots, waggons, and wheels, and with an assembly
   of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet
   round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge
   thee according to their judgments.   25 And I will set my jealousy
   against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take
   away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword:
   they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be
   devoured by the fire.   26 They shall also strip thee out of thy
   clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.   27 Thus will I make thy
   lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of
   Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor
   remember Egypt any more.   28 For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I
   will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand
   of them from whom thy mind is alienated:   29 And they shall deal with
   thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave
   thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be
   discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.   30 I will do these
   things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen,
   and because thou art polluted with their idols.   31 Thou hast walked
   in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine
   hand.   32 Thus saith the Lord God; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's
   cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision;
   it containeth much.   33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and
   sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of
   thy sister Samaria.   34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and
   thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts:
   for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.   35 Therefore thus saith the
   Lord God; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back,
   therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

   Jerusalem stands indicted by the name of Aholibah, for that she, as a
   false traitor to her sovereign Lord the God of heaven, not having his
   fear before her eyes, but moved by the instigation of the devil, had
   revolted from her allegiance to him, had compassed and imagined to
   shake off his government, had kept up a correspondence had joined in
   confederacy with his enemies, and the pretenders to a deity, in
   contempt of his crown and dignity. To this indictment she has pleaded,
   Not guilty: I am not polluted; I have not gone after Baalim. But it is
   found against her by the notorious evidence of the fact, and she stands
   convicted of it, nor has any thing material to offer why judgment
   should not be given and execution awarded according to law. In these
   verses, therefore, we have the sentence.

   I. Her old confederates must be her executioners; and those whom she
   had courted to be her leaders in sin are now to be employed as
   instruments of her punishment (v. 22): "I will raise up thy lovers
   against thee, the Chaldeans, whom formerly thou didst so much admire
   and covet an acquaintance with, but from whom thy mind is since
   alienated and with whom thou hast perfidiously broken covenant." They
   are called thy lovers (v. 22) and yet (v. 28) those whom thou hatest.
   Note, It is common for sinful love soon to turn into hatred; as Amnon's
   to Tamar. Those of headstrong and unreasonable passions are often very
   hot against those persons and things that a little before they were as
   hot for. Fools run into extremes; nay, and wise men may see cause to
   change their sentiments. And therefore, as we should rejoice and weep
   as if we rejoiced not and wept not, so we should love and hate as if we
   loved not and hated not. Ita ama tanquam osurus--Love as one who may
   have cause to feel aversion.

   II. The execution to be done upon her is very terrible.

   1. Her enemies shall come against her on every side (v. 22), those of
   the several nations that constituted the Chaldean army (v. 23), all of
   them great lords and renowned, whose pomp, and grandeur, and splendid
   appearance made them look the more amiable when they came as friends to
   protect and patronise Jerusalem, but the more formidable when they came
   to chastise its treachery and aimed at no less than its ruin. (1.) They
   shall come with a great deal of military force (v. 24), with chariots
   and wagons furnished with all necessary provisions for a camp, with
   arms and ammunition, bag and baggage, with a vast army, and well armed.
   (2.) They shall have justice on their side: "I will set judgment before
   them" (they shall have right with them as well as might; for the king
   of Babylon had just cause to make war upon the king of Judah, because
   he had broken his league with him), "and therefore they shall judge
   thee, not only according to God's judgments, as the instruments of his
   justice, to punish thee for the indignities done to him, but according
   to their judgments, according to the law of nations, to punish thee for
   thy perfidious dealings with them." (3.) They shall prosecute the war
   with a great deal of fury and resentment. It being a war of revenge,
   they shall deal with thee hatefully, v. 29. This will make the
   execution the more severe that their swords will be dipped in poison.
   Thou hatest them, and they shall deal hatefully with thee; those that
   hate will be hated and will be hatefully dealt with. (4.) God himself
   will lead them on, and his anger shall be mingled with theirs (v. 25):
   I will set my jealousy against thee; that shall kindle this fire, and
   then they shall deal furiously with thee. If men deal ever so
   hatefully, ever so furiously, with us, yet, if we have God on our side,
   we need not fear them; they can do us no real hurt. But if men deal
   furiously with us, and God set his jealousy against us too, what will
   become of us?

   2. The particulars of the sentence here passed upon this notorious
   adulteress are, (1.) That all she has shall be seized on. The clothes
   and the fair jewels, with which she had endeavoured to recommend
   herself to her lovers, these she shall be stripped of, v. 26. All those
   things that were the ornaments of their state shall be taken away:
   "They shall take away all thy labour, all that thou hast gotten by thy
   labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare," v. 29. Both city and
   country shall be impoverished and all the wealth of both swept away.
   (2.) That her children shall go into captivity. "They shall take thy
   sons and thy daughters, and make slaves of them (v. 25); for they are
   children of whoredoms, unworthy the dignities and privileges of
   Israelites," Hos. ii. 4. (3.) That she shall be stigmatized and
   deformed: "They shall take away thy nose and thy ears, shall mark thee
   for a harlot, and render thee for ever odious," v. 25. This intimates
   the many cruelties of the Chaldean soldiers towards the Jews that fell
   into their hands, whom, it is probable, they used barbarously. Some
   will have this to be understood figuratively; and by the nose they
   think is meant the kingly dignity, and by the ears that of the
   priesthood. (4.) That she shall be exposed to shame: Thy lewdness and
   thy whoredoms shall be discovered (v. 29), as, when a malefactor is
   punished, all his crimes are ripped up, and repeated to his disgrace;
   what was secret then comes to light, and what was done long since is
   then called to mind. (5.) That she shall be quite cut off and ruined:
   "The remnant of thy people that have escaped the famine and pestilence
   shall fall by the sword; and the residue of thy houses that have not
   been battered down about thy ears shall be devoured by the fire," v.
   25. And this shall be the end of Jerusalem.

   III. Because she has trod in the steps of Samaria's sins, she must
   expect no other than Samaria's fate. It is common, in giving judgment,
   to have an eye to precedents; so has God in passing this sentence on
   Jerusalem (v. 31, &c.): "Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister,
   notwithstanding the warning thou hast had given thee, by the fatal
   consequences of her wickedness; and therefore I will give her cup, her
   portion of miseries, into thy hand, the cup of the Lord's fury, which
   will be to thee a cup of trembling." Now, 1. This cup is said to be
   deep and large, and to contain much (v. 32), abundance of God's wrath
   and abundance of miseries, the fruits of that wrath. It is such a cup
   as that which we read of, Jer. xxv. 15, 16. The cup of divine vengeance
   holds a great deal, and so those will find into whose hand it shall be
   put. 2. They shall be made to drink the very dregs of this cup, as the
   wicked are said to do (Ps. lxxv. 8): "Thou shalt drink it and suck it
   out, not because it is pleasant, but because it is forced upon thee (v.
   34); thou shalt break the shreds thereof, and pluck off thy own
   breasts, for indignation at the extreme bitterness of this cup, being
   full of the fury of the Lord (Isa. li. 20), as men in great anguish
   tear their hair, and throw every thing from them. Finding there is no
   remedy, but it must be drank (for I have spoken it, saith the Lord
   God), thou shalt have no manner of patience in the drinking of it." 3.
   They shall be intoxicated by it, made sick, and be at their wits' end,
   as men in drink are, staggering, and stumbling, and ready to fall (v.
   33): Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. Note,
   Drunkenness has sorrow attending it, to such a degree that the utmost
   confusion and astonishment are here represented by it. Who would think
   that that which is such a force upon nature, such a scandal to it,
   which deprives men of their reason, disorders them to the last degree,
   and is therefore expressive of the greatest misery, should yet be with
   many a beloved sin, that they should damn their own souls to distemper
   their own bodies? Who has woe and sorrow like them? Prov. xxiii. 29. 4.
   Being so intoxicated, they shall become, as drunkards deserve to be, a
   laughing-stock to all about them (v. 32): Thou shalt be laughed to
   scorn and had in derision, as acting ridiculously in every thing thou
   goest about. When God is about to ruin a people he makes their judges
   fools and pours contempt on their princes, Job xii. 17, 21.

   IV. In all this God will be justified, and by all this they will be
   reformed; and so the issue even of this will be God's glory and their
   good. 1. They have been bad, very bad, and that justifies God in all
   that is brought upon them (v. 30): I will do these things unto thee
   because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and (v. 35) because
   thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back. Note, Forgetfulness
   of God, and a contempt of him, of his eye upon us and authority over
   us, are at the bottom of all our treacherous adulterous departures from
   him. Therefore men wander after idols, because they forget God, and
   their obligations to him; nor could they look with so much desire and
   delight upon the baits of sin if they did not first cast God behind
   their back, as not worthy to be regarded. And those who put such an
   affront upon God, how can they think but that it should turn upon
   themselves at last? Therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy
   whoredoms; that is, thou shalt suffer the punishment of them, and thou
   alone must bear the blame. Men need no more to sink them than the
   weight of their own sins; and those who will not part with their
   lewdness and their whoredoms must bear them. 2. They shall be better,
   much better, and this fire, though consuming to many, shall be refining
   to a remnant (v. 27): Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee.
   The judgments which were brought upon them by their sins parted between
   them and their sins, and taught them at length to say, What have we to
   do any more with idols? Observe, (1.) How inveterate the disease was:
   Thy whoredoms were brought from the land of Egypt. Their disposition to
   idolatry was early and innate, their practice of it was ancient, and
   had gained a sort of prescription by long usage. (2.) How complete the
   cure was notwithstanding: "Though it has taken root, yet it shall be
   made to cease, so that thou shalt not so much as lift up thy eyes to
   the idols again, nor remember Egypt with pleasure any more." They shall
   avoid the occasions of this sin, for they shall not so much as look
   upon an idol, lest their hearts should unawares walk after their eyes.
   And they shall abandon all inclinations to it: "They shall not remember
   Egypt; they shall not retain any of that affection for idols which they
   had from the very infancy of their nation." They got it, through the
   corruption of nature, in their bondage in Egypt, and lost it, through
   the grace of God, in their captivity in Babylon, which this was the
   blessed fruit of, even the taking away of sin, of that sin; so that
   whereas, before the captivity, no nation (all things considered) was
   more impetuously bent upon idols and idolatry than they were, after
   that captivity no nation was more vehemently set against idols and
   idolatry than they were, insomuch that at this day the image-worship
   which is practised in the church of Rome confirms the Jews as much as
   any thing in their prejudices against the Christian religion.

Israel and Judah Accused; Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 591.)

   36 The Lord said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah
   and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;   37 That they
   have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their
   idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons,
   whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour
   them.   38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my
   sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.   39 For when
   they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same
   day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in
   the midst of mine house.   40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for
   men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they
   came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and
   deckedst thyself with ornaments,   41 And satest upon a stately bed,
   and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense
   and mine oil.   42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with
   her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the
   wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns
   upon their heads.   43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries,
   Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?   44 Yet
   they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the
   harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.
     45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of
   adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because
   they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.   46 For thus saith
   the Lord God; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them
   to be removed and spoiled.   47 And the company shall stone them with
   stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons
   and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.   48 Thus will
   I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught
   not to do after your lewdness.   49 And they shall recompense your
   lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye
   shall know that I am the Lord God.

   After the ten tribes were carried into captivity, and that kingdom was
   made quite desolate, the remains of it by degrees incorporated with the
   kingdom of Judah, and gained a settlement (many of them) in Jerusalem;
   so that the two sisters had in effect become one again; and therefore,
   in these verses, the prophet takes those to task jointly who were thus
   conjoined: "Wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah together? v. 36. Wilt
   thou go about to frame an excuse for them? Thou seest the matter is so
   bad as not to bear an excuse." Or, rather, "Thou shalt now be employed,
   in God's name, to judge them, ch. xx. 4. The matter is rather worse
   than better since the union."

   I. Let them be made to see the sins they are guilty of: Declare unto
   them openly and boldly their abominations. 1. They have been guilty of
   gross idolatry, here called adultery. With their idols they have
   committed adultery (v. 37), have broken their marriage-covenant with
   God, have lusted after the gratifications of a carnal sensual mind in
   the worship of God. This is the first and worst of the abominations he
   is to charge them with. 2. They have committed the most barbarous
   murders, in sacrificing their children to Moloch, a sin so unnatural
   that they deserve to hear of it upon all occasions: Blood is in their
   hands, innocent blood, the blood of their own children, which they have
   caused to pass through the fire (v. 37), not that they might be
   dedicated to the idols, but that they might be devoured, a sign that
   they loved their idols better than that which was dearest to them in
   the world. 3. They have profaned the sacred things with which God had
   dignified and distinguished them: This they have done unto me, this
   indignity, this injury, v. 38. Every contempt put upon that which is
   holy reflects upon him who is the fountain of holiness, and from a
   relation to whom whatever is called holy has its denomination. God had
   set up his sanctuary among them, but they defiled it, by making it a
   house of merchandise, a den of thieves; nay, and much worse; there they
   set up their idols and worshipped them, and there they shed the blood
   of God's prophets. God had revealed to them his holy sabbaths, but they
   profaned them, by doing all manner of servile work therein, or perhaps
   by sports and recreations on that day, not only practised, but allowed
   and encouraged by authority. They defiled the sanctuary on the same day
   that they profaned the sabbath. To defile the sanctuary was bad enough
   on any day, but to do it on the sabbath day was an aggravation. We
   commonly say, The better day the better deed; but here, the better day
   the worse deed. God takes notice of the circumstances of sin which add
   to the guilt. He shows (v. 39) what was their profanation both of the
   sanctuary and of the sabbath. They slew their children, and sacrificed
   them to their idols, to the great dishonour both of God and of human
   nature; and then came, on the same day, their hands imbrued with the
   blood of their children and their clothes stained with it, to attend in
   God's sanctuary, not to ask pardon for what they had done, but to
   present themselves before him, as other Israelites did, expecting
   acceptance with him, notwithstanding these villanies which they were
   guilty of; as if God either did not know their wickedness or did not
   hate it. Thus they profaned the sanctuary, as if that were a protection
   to the worst of malefactors; for thus they did in the midst of his
   house. Note, It is a profanation of God's solemn ordinances when those
   that are grossly and openly profane and vicious impudently and
   impenitently so intrude upon the services and privileges of them. Give
   not that which is holy unto dogs. Friend, how camest thou in hither? 4.
   They have courted foreign alliances, been proud of them, and reposed a
   confidence in them. This also is represented by the sin of adultery,
   for it was a departure from God, not only to whom alone they ought to
   pay their homage and not to idols, but in whom alone they ought to put
   their trust, and not in creatures. Israel was a peculiar people, must
   dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations; and they profane
   their crown, and lay their honour in the dust, when they covet to be
   like them or in league with them. But this they have now done; they
   have entered into strict alliances with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and
   Egyptians, the most renowned and potent kingdoms at that time; but they
   scorned alliances with the petty kingdoms and states that lay near
   them, which yet might have been of more real service to them. Note,
   Affecting an acquaintance and correspondence with great people has
   often been a snare to good people. Let us see how Jerusalem courts her
   high allies, thinking thereby to make herself considerable. (1.) She
   privately requested that a public embassy might be sent to her (v. 40):
   You sent a messenger for men to come from far. It seems, then, that the
   neighbours had no desire to come into a confederacy with Jerusalem, but
   she thrust herself upon them, and sent under-hand to desire them to
   court her: and, lo, they came. The wisest and best may be drawn
   unavoidably into company and conversation with profane and wicked
   people: but it is no sign either of wisdom or goodness to covet an
   intimacy with such and to court it. (2.) Great preparation was made for
   the reception of these foreign ministers, for their public entry and
   public audience, which is compared to the pains that an adulteress
   takes to make herself look handsome. Jezebel-like, thou paintedst thy
   face and deckedst thyself with ornaments, v. 40. The king and princes
   made themselves new clothes, fitted up the rooms of state, beautified
   the furniture, and made it look fresh. Thou sattest upon a stately bed
   (v. 41), a stately throne; a table was prepared, whereon thou has set
   my oil and my incense. This was either, [1.] A feast for the
   ambassadors, a noble treat, agreeable to the other preparations. There
   was incense to perfume the room and oil to anoint their heads. Or, [2.]
   An altar already furnished for the ambassadors' use in the worship of
   their idols, to let them know that the Israelites were not so
   strait-laced but that they could allow foreigners the free exercise of
   their religion among them, and furnish them with chapels, yea, and
   complimented them so far as to join with them in their devotions;
   though the law of their God was against it, yet they could easily
   dispense with themselves to oblige a friend. The oil and incense God
   calls his, not only because they were the gift of his providence, but
   because they should have been offered at his altar, which was an
   aggravation of their sin in serving idols and idolaters with them. See
   Hos. ii. 8. (3.) There was great joy at their coming, as if it were
   such a blessing as never happened to Jerusalem before (v. 42): A voice
   of a multitude being at ease was with her. The people were very easy,
   for they thought themselves very safe and happy now that they had such
   powerful allies; and therefore attended the ambassadors with loud
   huzzas and acclamations of joy. A great confluence of people there was
   to the court upon this occasion. The men of the common sort were there
   to grace the solemnity, and to increase the crowd; and with them were
   brought Sabeans from the wilderness. The margin reads it drunkards from
   the wilderness, that would drink healths to the prosperity of this
   grand alliance, and force them upon others, and be most noisy in
   shouting upon this occasion. Whoever they were, in honour of the
   ambassadors they put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns
   upon their heads, which made the cavalcade appear very splendid. (4.)
   God by his prophets warned them against making these dangerous leagues
   with foreigners (v. 43): "Then said I unto her that was old in
   adulteries, that from the first was fond of leagues with the heathen,
   of matching with their families (Judg. iii. 6), and afterwards of
   making alliances with their kingdoms, and, though often disappointed
   therein, would never be dissuaded from it (this was the adultery she
   was old in), I said, Will they now commit whoredoms with her and she
   with them? Surely experience and observation will by this time have
   convinced both them and her that an alliance between the nation of the
   Jews and a heathen nation can never be for the advantage of either."
   They are iron and clay, that will not mix, nor will God bless such an
   alliance, or smile upon it. But, it seems, her being old in these
   adulteries, instead of weaning her from them, as one would expect, does
   but make her the more impudent and insatiable in them; for, though she
   was thus admonished of the folly of it, yet they went in unto her, v.
   44. A bargain was soon clapped up, and a league made, first with this,
   and then with the other, foreign state. Samaria did so, Jerusalem did
   so, like lewd women. They could not rest satisfied in the embraces of
   God's laws and care, and the assurances of protection he gave them;
   they could not think his covenant with them security enough. But they
   must by treaties and leagues, politic ones (they thought) and
   well-concerted, throw themselves into the arms of foreign princes, and
   put their interests under their protection. Note, Those hearts go a
   whoring from God that take a complacency in the pomp of the world and
   put a confidence in its wealth, and in an arm of flesh, Jer. xvii. 5.

   II. Let them be made to foresee the judgments that are coming upon them
   for these sins (v. 45): The righteous men, they shall judge them. Some
   make the instruments of their destruction to be the righteous men that
   shall judge them. The Assyrians that destroyed Samaria, the Chaldeans
   that destroyed Jerusalem, those were comparatively righteous, had a
   sense of justice between man and man and justly resented the treachery
   of the Jewish nation; however, they executed God's judgments, which, we
   are sure, are all righteous. Others understand it of the prophets,
   whose office it was, in God's name, to judge them and pass sentence
   upon them. Or we may take it as an appeal to all righteous men, to all
   that have a sense of equity; they shall all judge concerning these
   cities, and agree in their verdict, that forasmuch as they have been
   notoriously guilty of adultery and murder, and the guilt is national,
   therefore they ought to suffer the pains and penalties which by law are
   inflicted upon women in their personal capacity that shed blood and are
   adulteresses. Righteous men will say, "Why should bloody filthy cities
   escape any better than bloody filthy persons? Judge, I pray thee," Isa.
   v. 3. This judgment being given by the righteous men, the righteous God
   will award execution. See here, 1. What the execution will be, v. 46,
   47. The same as before, v. 23, &c. God will bring a company of enemies
   upon them, who shall be made to serve his holy purposes even when they
   are serving their own sinful appetites and passions. These enemies
   shall easily prevail, for God will give them into their hands to be
   removed and spoiled; this company shall stone them with stones as
   malefactors, shall single them out and dispatch them with their swords;
   and, as was sometimes done in severe executions (witness that of
   Achan), they shall slay their children and burn their houses. 2. What
   will be the effects of it. (1.) Thus they shall suffer for their sins:
   Their lewdness shall be recompensed upon them (v. 49); and they shall
   bear the sins of their idols, v. 35, 49. Thus God will assert the
   honour of his broken law and injured government, and let the world know
   what a just and jealous God he is. (2.) Thus they shall be broken off
   from their sins: I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, v. 27,
   48. The destruction of God's city, like the death of God's saints,
   shall do that for them which ordinances and providences before could
   not do; it shall quite take away their sin, so that Jerusalem shall
   rise out of its ashes a new lump, as gold comes out of the furnace
   purified from its dross. (3.) Thus other cities and nations will have
   fair warning given them to keep themselves from idols. That all women
   may be taught not to do after your lewdness. This is the end of the
   punishment of malefactors, that they may be made examples to others,
   who will see and fear. Smite the scorner and the simple will beware.
   The judgments of God upon some are designed to teach others, and happy
   are those who receive instruction from them not to tread in the steps
   of sinners, lest they be taken in their snares; those who would be
   taught this must know God is the Lord (v. 49), that he is the governor
   of the world, a God that judges in the earth, and with whom there is no
   respect of persons.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXIV.

   Here are two sermons in this chapter, preached on a particular
   occasion, and they are both from Mount Sinai, the mount of terror, both
   from Mount Ebal, the mount of curses; both speak the approaching fate
   of Jerusalem. The occasion of them was the king of Babylon's laying
   siege to Jerusalem, and the design of them is to show that in the issue
   of that siege he should be not only master of the place, but destroyer
   of it. I. By the sign of flesh boiling in a pot over the fire are shown
   the miseries that Jerusalem should suffer during the siege, and justly,
   for her filthiness, ver. 1-14. II. By the sign of Ezekiel's not
   mourning for the death of his wife is shown that the calamities coming
   upon Jerusalem were too great to be lamented, so great that they should
   sink down under them into a silent despair, ver. 15-27.

The Parable of the Boiling Pot; The Explanation of the Parable. (b. c. 590.)

   1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the
   month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, write
   thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon
   set himself against Jerusalem this same day.   3 And utter a parable
   unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God;
   Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it:   4 Gather the
   pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the
   shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.   5 Take the choice of the
   flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let
   them seethe the bones of it therein.   6 Wherefore thus saith the Lord
   God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and
   whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no
   lot fall upon it.   7 For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it
   upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it
   with dust;   8 That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I
   have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be
   covered.   9 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city!
   I will even make the pile for fire great.   10 Heap on wood, kindle the
   fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be
   burned.   11 Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass
   of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be
   molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.   12 She hath
   wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of
   her: her scum shall be in the fire.   13 In thy filthiness is lewdness:
   because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be
   purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest
   upon thee.   14 I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I
   will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I
   repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they
   judge thee, saith the Lord God.

   We have here,

   I. The notice God gives to Ezekiel in Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar's
   laying siege to Jerusalem, just at the time when he was doing it (v.
   2): "Son of man, take notice, the king of Babylon, who is now abroad
   with his army, thou knowest not where, set himself against Jerusalem
   this same day." It was many miles, it was many days' journey, from
   Jerusalem to Babylon. Perhaps the last intelligence they had from the
   army was that the design was upon Rabbath of the children of Ammon and
   that the campaign was to be opened with the siege of that city. But God
   knew, and could tell the prophet, "This day, at this time, Jerusalem is
   invested, and the Chaldean army has sat down before it." Note, As all
   times, so all places, even the most remote, are present with God and
   under his view. He tells the prophet, that the prophet might tell the
   people, that so when it proved to be punctually true, as they would
   find by the public intelligence in a little time, it might be a
   confirmation of the prophet's mission, and they might infer that, since
   he was right in his news, he was so in his predictions, for he owed
   both to the same correspondence he had with Heaven.

   II. The notice which he orders him to take of it. He must enter it in
   his book, memorandum, that in the ninth year of Jehoiachin's captivity
   (for thence Ezekiel dated, ch. i. 2, which was also the ninth year of
   Zedekiah's reign, for he began to reign when Jehoiachin was carried
   off), in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the king of
   Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem; and the date here agrees exactly with
   the date in the history, 2 Kings xxv. 1. See how God reveals things to
   his servants the prophets, especially those things which serve to
   confirm their word, and so to confirm their own faith. Note, It is good
   to keep an exact account of the date of remarkable occurrences, which
   may sometimes contribute to the manifesting of God's glory so much the
   more in them, and the explaining and confirming of scripture
   prophecies. Known unto God are all his works.

   III. The notice which he orders him to give to the people thereupon,
   the purport of which is that this siege of Jerusalem, now begun, will
   infallibly end in the ruin of it. This he must say to the rebellious
   house, to those of them that were in Babylon, to be by them
   communicated to those that were yet in their own land. A rebellious
   house will soon be a ruinous house.

   1. He must show them this by a sign; for that stupid people needed to
   be taught as children are. The comparison made use of is that of a
   boiling pot. This agrees with Jeremiah's vision many years before, when
   he first began to be a prophet, and probably was designed to put them
   in mind of that (Jer. i. 13, I see a seething pot, with the face
   towards the north; and the explanation of it, v. 15, makes it to
   signify the besieging of Jerusalem by the northern nations); and, as
   this comparison is intended to confirm Jeremiah's vision, so also to
   confront the vain confidence of the princes of Jerusalem, who had said
   (ch. xi. 3), This city is the caldron and we are the flesh, meaning,
   "We are as safe here as if we were surrounded with walls of brass."
   "Well," says God, "it shall be so; you shall be boiled in Jerusalem, as
   the flesh in the caldron, boiled to pieces; let the pot be set on with
   water in it (v. 4); let it be filled with the flesh of the choice of
   the flock (v. 5), with the choice pieces (v. 4), and the marrow-bones,
   and let the other bones serve for fuel, that, one way or other, either
   in the pot or under it, the whole beast may be made use of." A fire of
   bones, though it be a slow fire (for the siege was to be long), is yet
   a sure and lasting fire; such was God's wrath against them, and not
   like the crackling of thorns under a pot, which has noise and blaze,
   but no intense heat. Those that from all parts of the country fled into
   Jerusalem for safety would be sadly disappointed when the siege laid to
   it would soon make the place too hot for them; and yet there was not
   getting out of it, but they must be forced to abide by it, as the flesh
   in a boiling pot.

   2. He must give them a comment upon this sign. It is to be construed as
   a woe to the bloody city, v. 6. And again (v. 9), being bloody, let it
   go to pot, to be boiled; that is the fittest place for it. Let us here
   see,

   (1.) What is the course God takes with it. Jerusalem, during the siege,
   is like a pot boiling over the fire, all in a heat, all in a hurry.
   [1.] Care is taken to keep a good fire under the pot, which signifies
   the closeness of the siege, and the many vigorous attacks made upon the
   city by the besiegers, and especially the continued wrath of God
   burning against them (v. 9): I will make the pile for fire great.
   Commission is given to the Chaldeans (v. 10) to heap on wood, and
   kindle the fire, to make Jerusalem more and more hot to the
   inhabitants. Note, The fire which God kindles for the consuming of
   impenitent sinners shall never abate, much less go out, for want of
   fuel. Tophet has fire and much wood, Isa. xxx. 33. [2.] The meat, as it
   is boiled, is taken out, and given to the Chaldeans for them to feast
   upon. "Consume the flesh; let it be thoroughly boiled, boiled to rags.
   Spice it well, and make it savoury, for those that will feast sweetly
   upon it. Let the bones be burnt." either the bones under the pot ("let
   them be consumed with the other fuel") or, as some think, the bones in
   the pot--"let it boil so furiously that not only the flesh may be
   sodden, but even the bones softened; let all the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem be by sickness, sword, and famine, reduced to the extremity
   of misery." And then (v. 6), "Bring it out piece by piece; let every
   man be delivered into the enemy's hand, to be either put to the sword
   or made a prisoner. Let them be an easy prey to them, and let the
   Chaldeans fall upon them as eagerly as a hungry man does upon a good
   dish of meat when it is set before him. Let no lot fall upon it; every
   piece in the pot shall be fetched out and devoured, first or last, and
   therefore it is no matter for casting lots which shall be fetched out
   first." It was a very severe military execution when David measured
   Joab with two lines to put to death and one full line to keep alive, 2
   Sam. viii. 2. But here is no line, no lot of mercy, made use of; all
   goes one way, and that is to destruction. [3.] When all the broth is
   boiled away the pot is set empty upon the coals, that it may burn too,
   which signifies the setting of the city on fire, v. 11. The scum of the
   meat, or (as some translate it) the rust of the meat, has so got into
   the pot that there is no making it clean by washing or scouring it, and
   therefore it must be done by fire; so let the filthiness be burnt out
   of it, or, rather, melted in it and burnt with it. Let the vipers and
   their nest be consumed together.

   (2.) What is the quarrel God has with it. He would not take these
   severe methods with Jerusalem but that he is provoked to it; she
   deserves to be thus dealt with, for, [1.] It is a bloody city (v. 7,
   8): Her blood is in the midst of her. Many a barbarous murder has been
   committed in the very heart of the city; nay, and they have a
   disposition to cruelty in their hearts; they inwardly delight in
   blood-shed, and so it is in the midst of them. Nay, they commit their
   murders in the face of the sun, and openly and impudently avow them, in
   defiance of the justice both of God and man. She did not pour out the
   blood she shed upon the ground, to cover it with dust, as being ashamed
   of the sin or afraid of the punishment. She did not look upon it as a
   filthy thing, proper to be concealed (Deut. xxiii. 13), much less
   dangerous. Nay, she poured out the innocent blood she shed upon a rock,
   where it would not soak in, upon the top of a rock, in despite of
   divine views and vengeance. They shed innocent blood under colour of
   justice; so that they gloried in it, as if they had done God and the
   country good service, so put it, as it were, on the top of a rock. Or
   it may refer to the sacrificing of their children on their high places,
   perhaps on the top of rocks. Now thus they caused fury to come up and
   take vengeance, v. 8. It could not be avoided but that God must in
   anger visit for these things; his soul must be avenged on such a nation
   as this. It is absolutely necessary that such a bloody city as this
   should have blood given her to drink, for she is worthy, for the
   vindicating of the honour of divine justice. And, the crime having been
   public and notorious, it is fit that the punishment should be so too: I
   have set her blood on the top of a rock. Jerusalem was to be made an
   example, and therefore was made a spectacle, to the world; God dealt
   with her according to the law of retaliation. It is fit that those who
   sin before all should be rebuked before all; and that the reputation of
   those should not be consulted by the concealment of their punishment
   who were so impudent as not to desire the concealment of their sin.
   [2.] It is a filthy city. Great notice is taken, in this explanation of
   the comparison, of the scum of this pot, which signifies the sin of
   Jerusalem, working up and appearing when the judgments of God were upon
   her. It is the pot whose scum is therein and has not gone out of it, v.
   6. The great scum that went not forth out of her (v. 12), that stuck to
   the pot when all was boiled away, and was molten in it (v. 11), some of
   this runs over into the fire (v. 12), inflames that, and makes it burn
   the more furiously, but it shall all be consumed at last, v. 11. When
   the hand of God had gone out against them, instead of humbling
   themselves under it, repenting and reforming, and accepting the
   punishment of their iniquity, they grew more impudent and outrageous in
   sin, quarrelled with God, persecuted his prophets, were fierce to one
   another, enraged to the last degree against the Chaldeans, snarled at
   the stone, gnawed their chain, and were like a wild bull in a net. This
   as their scum; in their distress they trespassed yet more against the
   Lord, like that king Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. There is little hope of
   those who are made worse by that which should make them better, whose
   corruptions are excited an exasperated by those rebukes both of the
   word and of the providence of God which were designed for the
   suppressing and subduing of them, or of those whose scum boiled up once
   in convictions, and confessions of sin, as if it would be taken off by
   reformation, but afterwards returned again, in a revolt from their good
   overtures; and the heart that seemed softened is hardened again. This
   was Jerusalem's case: She has wearied with lies, wearied her God with
   purposes and promises of amendment, which she never stood to, wearied
   herself with her carnal confidences, which have all deceived her, v.
   12. Note, Those that follow after lying vanities weary themselves with
   the pursuit. Now see her doom, v. 13, 14. Because she is incurably
   wicked she is abandoned to ruin, without remedy. First, Methods and
   means of reformation had been tried in vain (v. 13): "In thy filthiness
   is lewdness; thou hast become obstinate and impudent in it; thou hast
   got a habit of it, which is confirmed by frequent acts. In thy
   filthiness there is a rooted lewdness; as appears by this, I have
   purged thee and thou wast not purged. I have given thee medicine, but
   it has done thee no good. I have used the means of cleansing thee, but
   they have been ineffectual; the intention of them has not been
   answered." Note, It is sad to think how many there are on whom
   ordinances and providences are all lost. Secondly, It is therefore
   resolved that no more such methods shall be used: Thou shalt not be
   purged from thy filthiness any more. The fire shall no longer be a
   refining fire, but a consuming fire, and therefore shall not be
   mitigated and shortened, as it has been, but shall be continued in
   extremity, till it has done its destroying work. Note, Those that will
   not be healed are justly given up and their case adjudged desperate.
   There is a day coming when it will be said, He that is filthy, let him
   be filthy still. Thirdly, Nothing remains then but to bring them to
   utter ruin: I will cause my fury to rest upon thee. This is the same
   with what is said of the later Jews, that wrath has come upon them to
   the uttermost, 1 Thess. ii. 16. They deserve it: According to thy
   doings they shall judge thee, v. 14. And God will do it. The sentence
   is bound on with repeated ratifications, that they might be awakened to
   see how certain their ruin was: "I the Lord have spoken it, who am able
   to make good what I have spoken; it shall come to pass, nothing shall
   prevent it, for I will do it myself, I will not go back upon any
   entreaties; the decree has gone forth, and I will not spare in
   compassion to them, neither will I repent." He will neither change his
   mind nor his way. Hereby the prophet was forbidden to interceded for
   them, and they were forbidden to flatter themselves with hopes of an
   escape. God hath said it, and he will do it. Note, The declarations of
   God's wrath against sinners are as inviolable as the assurances he has
   given of favour to his people; and the case of such is sad indeed, who
   have brought it to this issue, that either God must be false or they
   must be damned.

The Death of the Prophet's Wife; A Sign of Jerusalem's Ruin. (b. c. 590.)

   15 Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   16 Son of man,
   behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke:
   yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run
   down.   17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire
   of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover
   not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.   18 So I spake unto the
   people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the
   morning as I was commanded.   19 And the people said unto me, Wilt thou
   not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?   20 Then
   I answered them, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   21 Speak
   unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will
   profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of
   your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your
   daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.   22 And ye shall
   do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of
   men.   23 And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon
   your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your
   iniquities, and mourn one toward another.   24 Thus Ezekiel is unto you
   a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this
   cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God.   25 Also, thou son of
   man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength,
   the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon
   they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,   26 That he that
   escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it
   with thine ears?   27 In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him
   which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou
   shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   These verses conclude what we have been upon all along from the
   beginning of this book, to wit, Ezekiel's prophecies of the destruction
   of Jerusalem; for after this, though he prophesied much concerning
   other nations, he said no more concerning Jerusalem, till he heard of
   the destruction of it, almost three years after, ch. xxxiii. 21. He had
   assured them, in the former part of this chapter, that there was no
   hope at all of the preventing of the trouble; here he assures them that
   they should not have the ease of weeping for it. Observe here,

   I. The sign by which this was represented to them, and it was a sign
   that cost the prophet very dear; the more shame for them that when he,
   by a divine appointment, was at such an expense to affect them with
   what he had to deliver, yet they were not affected by it.

   1. He must lose a good wife, that should suddenly be taken from him by
   death. God gave him notice of it before, that it might be the less
   surprise to him (v. 16): Behold, I take away from thee the desire of
   thy eyes with a stroke. Note, (1.) A married state may very well agree
   with the prophetical office; it is honourable in all, and therefore not
   sinful in ministers. (2.) Much of the comfort of human life lies in
   agreeable relations. No doubt Ezekiel found a prudent tender
   yoke-fellow, that shared with him in his griefs and cares, to be a
   happy companion in his captivity. (3.) Those in the conjugal relation
   must be to each other not only a covering of the eyes (Gen. xx. 16), to
   restrain wandering looks after others; but a desire of the eyes, to
   engage pleasing looks on one another. A beloved wife is the desire of
   the eyes, which find not any object more grateful. (4.) That is least
   safe which is most dear; we know not how soon the desire of our eyes
   may be removed from us and may become the sorrow of our hearts, which
   is a good reason why those that have wives should be as though they had
   none, and those who rejoice in them as though they rejoiced not, 1 Cor.
   vii. 29, 30. Death is a stroke which the most pious, the most useful,
   the most amiable, are not exempted from. (5.) When the desire of our
   eyes is taken away with a stroke we must see and own the hand of God in
   it: I take away the desire of thy eyes. He takes our creature-comforts
   from us when and how he pleases; he gave them to us, but reserved to
   himself a property in them; and may he not do what he will with his
   own? (6.) Under afflictions of this kind it is good for us to remember
   that we are sons of men; for so God calls the prophet here. If thou art
   a son of Adam, thy wife is a daughter of Eve, and therefore a dying
   creature. It is an affliction which the children of men are liable to;
   and shall the earth be forsaken for us? According to this prediction,
   he tells us (v. 18), I spoke unto the people in the morning; for God
   sent his prophets, rising up early and sending them; then he thought,
   if ever, they would be disposed to hearken to him. Observe, [1.] Though
   God had given Ezekiel a certain prospect of this affliction coming upon
   him, yet it did not take him off from his work, but he resolved to go
   on in that. [2.] We may the more easily bear an affliction if it find
   us in the way of our duty; for nothing can hurt us, nothing come amiss
   to us, while we keep ourselves in the love of God.

   2. He must deny himself the satisfaction of mourning for his wife,
   which would have been both an honour to her and an ease to the
   oppression of his own spirit. He must not use the natural expressions
   of sorrow, v. 16. He must not give vent to his passion by weeping, or
   letting his tears run down, though tears are a tribute due to the dead,
   and, when the body is sown, it is fit that it should thus be watered.
   But Ezekiel is not allowed to do this, though he thought he had as much
   reason to do it as any man and would perhaps be ill thought of by the
   people if he did it not. Much less might he use the customary
   formalities of mourners. He must dress himself in his usual attire,
   must bind his turban on him, here called the tire of his head, must put
   on his shoes, and not go barefoot, as was usual in such cases; he must
   not cover his lips, not throw a veil over his face (as mourners were
   wont to do, Lev. xiii. 45), must not be of a sorrowful countenance,
   appearing unto men to fast, Matt. vi. 18. He must not eat the bread of
   men, nor expect that his neighbours and friends should send him in
   provisions, as usually they did in such cases, presuming the mourners
   had no heart to provide meat for themselves; but, if it were sent, he
   must not eat of it, but go on in his business as at other times. It
   could not but be greatly against the grain to flesh and blood not to
   lament the death of one he loved so dearly, but so God commands; and I
   did in the morning as I was commanded. He appeared in public, in his
   usual habit, and looked as he used to do, without any signs of
   mourning. (1.) Here there was something peculiar, and Ezekiel, to make
   himself a sign to the people, must put a force upon himself and
   exercise an extraordinary piece of self-denial. Note, Our dispositions
   must always submit to God's directions, and his command must be obeyed
   even in that which is most difficult and displeasing to us. (2.) Though
   mourning for the dead be a duty, yet it must always be kept under the
   government of religion and right reason, and we must not sorrow as
   those that have no hope, nor lament the loss of any creature, even the
   most valuable, and that which we could worst spare, as if we had lost
   our God, or as if all our happiness were gone with it; and, of this
   moderation in mourning, ministers, when it is their case, ought to be
   examples. We must at such a time study to improve the affliction, to
   accommodate ourselves to it, and to get our acquaintance with the other
   world increased, by the removal of our dear relations, and learn with
   holy Job to bless the name of the Lord even when he takes as well as
   when he gives.

   II. The explication and application of this sign. The people enquired
   the meaning of it (v. 19): Wilt thou not tell us what these things are
   to us that thou doest so? They knew that Ezekiel was an affectionate
   husband, that the death of his wife was a great affliction to him, and
   that he would not appear so unconcerned at it but for some good reason
   and for instruction to them; and perhaps they were in hopes that it had
   a favourable signification, and gave them an intimation that God would
   now comfort them again according to the time he had afflicted them, and
   make them look pleasant again. Note, When we are enquiring concerning
   the things of God our enquiry must be, "What are those thing to us?
   What are we concerned in them? What conviction, what counsel, what
   comfort, do they speak to us? Wherein do they reach our case?" Ezekiel
   gives them an answer verbatim--word for word as he had received it from
   the Lord, who had told him what he must speak to the house of Israel.

   1. Let them know that as Ezekiel's wife was taken from him by a stroke
   so would God take from them all that which was dearest to them, v. 21.
   If this was done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry? If a
   faithful servant of God was thus afflicted only for his trial, shall
   such a generation of rebels against God go unpunished? By this
   awakening providence God showed that he was in earnest in his
   threatenings, and inexorable. We may suppose that Ezekiel prayed that,
   if it were the will of God, his wife might be spared to him, but God
   would not hear him; and should he be heard then in his intercessions
   for this provoking people? No, it is determined: God will take away the
   desire of your eyes. Note, The removal of the comforts of others should
   awaken us to think of parting with ours too; for are we better than
   they? We know not how soon the same cup, or a more bitter one, may be
   put into our hands, and should therefore weep with those that weep, as
   being ourselves also in the body. God will take away that which their
   soul pities, that is, of which they say, What a pity is it that it
   should be cut off and destroyed! That for which your souls are afraid
   (so some read it); you shall lose that which you most dread the loss
   of. And what is that? (1.) That which was their public pride, the
   temple: "I will profane my sanctuary, by giving that into the enemy's
   hand, to be plundered and burnt." This was signified by the death of a
   wife, a dear wife, to teach us that God's sanctuary should be dearer to
   us, and more the desire of our eyes, than any creature-comfort
   whatsoever. Christ's church, that is his spouse, should be ours too.
   Though this people were very corrupt, and had themselves profaned the
   sanctuary, yet it is called the desire of their eyes. Note, Many that
   are destitute of the power of godliness are yet very fond of the form
   of it; and it is just with God to punish them for their hypocrisy by
   depriving them of that too. The sanctuary is here called the excellency
   of their strength; they had many strong-holds and places of defence,
   but the temple excelled them all. It was the pride of their strength;
   they prided in it as their strength that they were the temple of the
   Lord, Jer. vii. 4. Note, The church-privileges that men are proud of
   are profaned by their sins, and it is just with God to profane them by
   his judgments. And with these God will take away, (2.) That which was
   their family-pleasure, which they looked upon with delight: "Your sons
   and your daughters (which are the dearer to you because they are but
   few left of many, the rest having perished by famine and pestilence)
   shall fall by the sword of the Chaldeans." What a dreadful spectacle
   would it be to see their own children, pieces, pictures, of themselves,
   whom they had taken such care and pains to bring up, and whom they
   loved as their own souls, sacrificed to the rage of the merciless
   conquerors! This, this, was the punishment of sin.

   2. Let them know that as Ezekiel wept not for his affliction so neither
   should they weep for theirs. He must say, You shall do as I have done,
   v. 22. You shall not mourn nor weep, v. 23. Jeremiah had told them the
   same, that men shall not lament for the dead nor cut themselves (Jer.
   xvi. 6); not that there shall be any such merciful circumstance
   without, or any such degrees of wisdom and grace within, as shall
   mitigate and moderate the sorrow; but they shall not mourn, for, (1.)
   Their grief shall be so great that they shall be quite overwhelmed with
   it; their passions shall stifle them, and they shall have no power to
   ease themselves by giving vent to it. (2.) Their calamities shall come
   so fast upon them, one upon the neck of another, that by long custom
   they shall be hardened in their sorrows (Job vi. 10) and perfectly
   stupefied, and moped (as we say), with them. (3.) They shall not dare
   to express their grief, for fear of being deemed disaffected to the
   conquerors, who would take their lamentations as an affront and
   disturbance to their triumphs. (4.) They shall not have hearts, nor
   time, nor money, wherewith to put themselves in mourning, and
   accommodate themselves with the ceremonies of grief: "You will be so
   entirely taken up with solid substantial grief that you will have no
   room for the shadow of it." (5.) Particular mourners shall not need to
   distinguish themselves by covering their lips, and laying aside their
   ornaments, and going barefoot; for it is well known that every body is
   a mourner. (6.) There shall be none of that sense of their affliction
   and sorrow for it which would help to bring them to repentance, but
   that only which shall drive them to despair; so it follows: "You shall
   pine away for your iniquities, with seared consciences and reprobate
   minds, and you shall mourn, not to God in prayer and confession of sin,
   but one towards another," murmuring, and fretting, and complaining of
   God, thus making their burden heavier and their wound more grievous, as
   impatient people do under their afflictions by mingling their own
   passions with them.

   III. An appeal to the event, for the confirmation of all this (v. 24):
   "When this comes, as it is foretold, when Jerusalem, which is this day
   besieged, is quite destroyed and laid waste, which now you cannot
   believe will ever be, then you shall know that I am the Lord God, who
   have given you this fair warning of it. Then you will remember that
   Ezekiel was to you a sign." Note, Those who regard not the threatenings
   of the word when they are preached will be made to remember them when
   they are executed. Observe,

   1. The great desolation which the siege of Jerusalem should end in (v.
   25): In that day, that terrible day, when the city shall be broken up,
   I will take from them, (1.) That which they depended on--their
   strength, their walls, their treasures, their fortifications, their men
   of war; none shall stand them in stead. (2.) That which they boasted
   of--the joy of their glory, that which they looked upon as most their
   glory, and which they most rejoiced in, the temple of their God and the
   palaces of their princes. (3.) That which they delighted in, which was
   the desire of their eyes, and on which they set their minds. Note,
   Carnal people set their minds upon that on which they can set their
   eyes; they look at, and dote upon, the things that are seen; and it is
   their folly to set their minds upon that which they have no assurance
   of and which may be taken from them in a moment, Prov. xxiii. 5. Their
   sons and their daughters were all this--their strength, and joy, and
   glory; and these shall go into captivity.

   2. The notice that should be brought to the prophet, not be revelation,
   as the notice of the siege was brought to him (v. 2), but in an
   ordinary way (v. 26): "He that escapes in that day shall, by a special
   direction of Providence, come to thee, to bring thee intelligence of
   it," which we find was done, ch. xxxiii. 21. The ill-news came slowly,
   and yet to Ezekiel and his fellow-captives it came too soon.

   3. The divine impression which he should be under upon receiving that
   notice, v. 27. Whereas, from this time to that, Ezekiel was thus far
   dumb that he prophesied no more against the land of Israel, but against
   the neighbouring nations, as we shall find in the following chapters,
   then he shall have orders given him to speak again to the children of
   his people (ch. xxxiii. 2, 22); then his mouth shall be opened. He was
   suspended from prophesying against them in the mean time, because,
   Jerusalem being besieged, his prophecies could not be sent into the
   city,--because, when God was speaking so loudly by the rod, there was
   the less need of speaking by the word,--and because then the
   accomplishment of his prophecies would be the full confirmation of his
   mission, and would the more effectually clear the way for him to begin
   again. It being referred to that issue, that issue must be waited for.
   Thus Christ forbade his disciples to preach openly that he was Christ
   till after his resurrection, because that was to be the full proof of
   it. "But then thou shalt speak with the greater assurance, and the more
   effectually, either to their conviction or to their confusion." Note,
   God's prophets are never silenced but for wise and holy ends. And when
   God gives them the opening of the mouth again (as he will in due time,
   for even the witnesses that are slain shall arise) it shall appear to
   have been for his glory that they were for a while silent, that people
   may the more certainly and fully know that God is the Lord.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXV.

   Judgment began at the house of God, and therefore with them the
   prophets began, who were the judges; but it must not end there, and
   therefore they must not. Ezekiel had finished his testimony which
   related to the destruction of Jerusalem. As to that he was ordered to
   say no more, but stand upon his watch-tower and wait the issue; and yet
   he must not be silent; there are divers nations bordering upon the land
   of Israel, which he must prophesy against, as Isaiah and Jeremiah had
   done before; and must proclaim God's controversy with them, chiefly for
   the injuries and indignities which they had done to the people of God
   in the day of their calamity. In this chapter we have his prophecy, I.
   Against the Ammonites, ver. 1-7. II. Against the Moabites, ver. 8-11.
   III. Against the Edomites, ver. 11-14. IV. Against the Philistines,
   ver. 15-17. That which is laid to the charge of each of them is their
   barbarous and insolent conduct towards God's Israel, for which God
   threatens to put the same cup of trembling into their hand. God's
   resenting it thus would be an encouragement to Israel to believe that
   though he had dealt thus severely with them yet he had not cast them
   off, but would still own them and plead their cause.

Various Nations Threatened. (b. c. 590.)

   1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set
   thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them;   3 And say
   unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord
   God; Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was
   profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and
   against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity;   4 Behold,
   therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession,
   and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in
   thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.   5 And
   I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a
   couching-place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.   6
   For thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and
   stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite
   against the land of Israel;   7 Behold, therefore I will stretch out
   mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen;
   and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to
   perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know
   that I am the Lord.

   Here, I. The prophet is ordered to address himself to the Ammonites, in
   the name of the Lord Jehovah the God of Israel, who is also the God of
   the whole earth. But what can Chemosh, the god of the children of
   Ammon, say, in answer to it? He is bidden to set his face against the
   Ammonites, for he is God's representative as a prophet, and thus he
   must signify that God set his face against them, for the face of the
   Lord is against those that do evil, Ps. xxxiv. 16. He must speak with
   boldness and assurance, as one that knew whose errand he went upon, and
   that he should be borne out in delivering it. He must therefore set his
   face as a flint, Isa. i. 7. He must show his displeasure against these
   proud enemies of Israel, and face them down, though they were very
   impudent, and thus must show that, though he had prophesied so much and
   so long against Israel, yet still he was for Israel, and, while he
   witnessed against their corruptions, he adhered to and gloried in God's
   covenant with them. Note, Those are miserable that have the preaching
   and praying of God's prophets against them, against whom their faces
   are set.

   II. He is directed what to say to them. Ezekiel is now a captive in
   Babylon, and has been so many years, and knows little of the state of
   his own nation, much less of the nations that were about it; but God
   tells him both what they were doing and what he was about to do with
   them. And thus by the spirit of prophecy he is enabled to speak as
   pertinently to their case as if he had been among them.

   1. He must upbraid the Ammonites with their insolent and barbarous
   triumphs over the people of Israel in their calamities, v. 3. The
   Ammonites said, when all went against the Jews, Aha! so would we have
   it. They were glad to see, (1.) The temple burned, the sanctuary
   profaned by the victorious Chaldeans. This is put first, to intimate
   what was the cause of the controversy; they had an enmity to the Jews
   for the sake of their religion, though it was only some poor remains of
   the profession of it that were to be found among them. (2.) The nation
   ruined. They rejoiced when the land of Israel was made desolate, the
   cities burnt, the country wasted, and both depopulated, and when the
   house of Judah went into captivity. When they had not power to oppress
   God's Israel themselves they were pleased to see the Chaldeans oppress
   them, partly because they envied their wealth and the good land they
   enjoyed, partly because they feared their growing power, and partly
   because they hated their religion and the divine oracles they were
   favoured with. It is repeated again (v. 6): They clapped with their
   hands, to irritate the rage of the Chaldeans, and to set them on as
   dogs upon the game; or they clapped their hands in triumph, attended
   this tragedy with their Plaudite--Give us your applause, thinking it
   well acted; never was there any thing more diverting or entertaining to
   them. They stamped with their feet, ready to leap and dance for joy
   upon this occasion; they not only rejoiced in heart, but they could not
   forbear showing it, though every one that had any sense of honour and
   humanity would cry shame upon them for it, especially considering that
   they rejoiced thus, not for any thing they got by Israel's fall (if so,
   they would have been the more excusable: most people are for
   themselves); but this as purely from a principle of malice and enmity:
   Thou hast rejoiced in heart with all thy despite (which signifies both
   scorn and hatred) against the land of Israel. Note, The people of God
   have always had a great deal of ill-will borne them by this wicked
   world; and their calamities have been their neighbours' entertainments.
   See to what unnatural instances of malice the enmity that is in the
   seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman will carry them. The
   Ammonites, of all people, should not have rejoiced in Jerusalem's ruin,
   but should rather have trembled, because they themselves had such a
   narrow escape at the same time; it was but "cross or pile" [the toss of
   a halfpenny] which should be besieged first, Rabbath or Jerusalem, ch.
   xxi. 20. And they had reason to think that the king of Babylon would
   set upon them next. But thus were their hearts hardened to their ruin,
   and their insolence against Jerusalem was to them an evident token of
   perdition, Phil. i. 28. It is a very wicked thing to be glad at the
   calamities of any, especially of God's people, and a sin that God will
   surely reckon for; such delight has God in showing mercy, and so
   backward is he to punish, that nothing is more pleasing to him than to
   be stopped in the ways of his judgments by intercessions, not any thing
   more provoking than to help forward the affliction when he is but a
   little displeased, Zech. i. 15.

   2. He must threaten the Ammonites with utter ruin for this insolence
   which they were guilty of. God turns away his wrath from Israel against
   them, as is said, Prov. xxiv. 17, 18. God is jealous for his people's
   honour, because his own is so nearly interested in it. And therefore
   those that touch that shall be made to know that they touch the apple
   of his eye. He had before predicted the destruction of the Ammonites,
   ch. xxi. 28. Had they repented, that would have been revoked; but now
   it is ratified. (1.) A destroying enemy is brought against them: I will
   deliver thee to the men of the east, first to the Chaldeans, who came
   from the north-east, and whose army, under the command of
   Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the country of the Ammonites, about five
   years after the destruction of Jerusalem (as Josephus relates, Antiq.
   10.181), and then to the Arabians, who were properly the children of
   the east, who, when the Chaldeans had made the country desolate, and
   quitted it, came and took possession of it for themselves, probably
   with the consent of the conquerors. Shepherds' tents were their
   palaces; these they set up in the country of the Ammonites; there they
   made their dwellings, v. 4. They enjoyed the products of the country:
   They shall eat thy fruit and drink thy milk; and the milk from the
   cattle is the fruit of the ground at second-hand. They made use even of
   the royal city for their cattle (v. 5): I will make Rabbath, that was a
   nice and splendid city, to be a stable for camels; for its new masters,
   whose wealth lies all in cattle, will not think they can put the
   palaces of Rabbath to a better use. Rabbath had been a habitation of
   brutish men; justly therefore is it now made a stable for camels and
   the country a couching-lace for flocks, more innocent beasts than those
   with which it had been before replenished. (2.) God himself acts as an
   enemy to them (v. 7): I will stretch out my hand upon thee, a hand that
   will reach far and strike home, which there is no resisting the blow
   of, for it is a mighty hand, nor bearing the weight of, for it is a
   heavy hand. God's hand stretched out against the Ammonites will not
   only deliver them for a spoil to the heathen, so that all their
   neighbours shall prey upon them, but will cut them off from the people
   and made them perish out of the countries, so that there shall be no
   remains of them in that place. Compare with this, Jer. xlix. 1, &c.
   What can sound more terrible than that resolution (v. 7), I will
   destroy thee? For the almighty God is able both to save and to destroy,
   and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands. Both the threatenings
   here (v. 5 and v. 7) conclude with this, You shall know that I am the
   Lord. For, [1.] Thus God will maintain his own honour, and will make it
   appear that he is the God of Israel, though he suffers them for a time
   to be captives in Babylon. [2.] Thus he will bring those that were
   strangers to him into an acquaintance with him, and it will be a
   blessed effect of their calamities. Better know God and be poor than be
   rich and ignorant of him.

Various Nations Threatened. (b. c. 590.)

   8 Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold,
   the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen;   9 Therefore, behold,
   I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are
   on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon,
   and Kiriathaim,   10 Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and
   will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered
   among the nations.   11 And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and
   they shall know that I am the Lord.   12 Thus saith the Lord God;
   Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking
   vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
   13 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out mine hand
   upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it
   desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.   14
   And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel:
   and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my
   fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.   15 Thus
   saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and
   have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old
   hatred;   16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will stretch
   out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims,
   and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.   17 And I will execute great
   vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am
   the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

   Three more of Israel's ill-natured neighbours are here arraigned,
   convicted, and condemned to destruction, for contributing to and
   triumphing in Jerusalem's fall.

   I. The Moabites. Seir, which was the seat of the Edomites, is joined
   with them (v. 8), because they said the same as the Moabites; but they
   were afterwards reckoned with by themselves, v. 12. Now observe,

   1. What was the sin of the Moabites; they said, Behold, the house of
   Judah is like unto all the heathen. They triumphed, (1.) In the
   apostasies of Israel, were please to see them forsake their God and
   worship idols, and hoped that in a while their religion would be quite
   lost and forgotten and the house of Judah would be like all the
   heathen, perfect idolaters. When those that profess religion walk
   unworthy of their profession they encourage the enemies of religion to
   hope that it will in time sink, and be run down, and quite abandoned;
   but let the Moabites know that, though there are those of the house of
   Judah who have made themselves like the heathen, yet there is a remnant
   that retain their integrity, the religion of the house of Judah shall
   recover itself, its peculiarities shall be preserved, it shall not lose
   itself among the heathen, but distinguish itself from them, till it
   deliver itself honourably into a better institution. (2.) In the
   calamities of Israel. They said, "The house of Judah is like all the
   heathen, in as bad a state as they; their God is no more able to
   deliver them from this overflowing scourge of these parts of the world
   than the gods of the heathen are to deliver them. Where are the
   promises they gloried in and all the wonders which they and their
   fathers told us of? What the better are they for the covenant of
   peculiarity, upon which they so much valued themselves? Those that
   looked with so much scorn upon all the heathen are now set upon a level
   with them, or rather sunk below them." Note, Those who judge only by
   outward appearance are ready to conclude that the people of God have
   lost all their privileges when they have lost their worldly prosperity,
   which does not follow, for good men, even in affliction, in captivity
   among the heathen, have graces and comforts within sufficient to
   distinguish them from all the heathen. Though the event seem one to the
   righteous and wicked, yet indeed it is vastly different.

   2. What should be the punishment of Moab for this sin; because they
   triumphed in the overthrow of Judah, their country shall be in like
   manner overthrown with that of the Ammonites, who were guilty of the
   same sin (v. 9, 10): "I will open the side of Moab, will uncover its
   shoulder, will take away all its defences, that it may become an easy
   prey to any that will make a prey of it." (1.) See here how it shall be
   exposed; the frontier-towns, that were its strength and guard, shall be
   demolished by the Chaldean forces, and laid open. Some of the cities
   are here named, which are said to be the glory of the country, which
   they trusted in, and boasted of as impregnable; these shall decay, be
   deserted, or betrayed, or fall into the enemies' hands, so that Moab
   shall lie exposed, and whoever will may penetrate into the heart of the
   country. Note, Those who glory in any other defence and protection than
   that of the divine power, providence, and promise, will sooner or later
   see cause to be ashamed of their glorying. (2.) See here to whom it
   shall be exposed: The men of the east, when they come to take
   possession of the country of the Ammonites, shall seize that of the
   Moabites too. God, the Lord of all lands, will give them that land; for
   the kingdoms of men he gives to whomsoever he will. The Arabians, who
   are shepherds, and live quietly, plain men dwelling in tents, shall by
   an overruling Providence be put in possession of the land of the
   Moabites, who are soldiers, men of war, and cunning hunters, that live
   turbulently. The Chaldeans shall get it by war, and the Arabians shall
   enjoy it in peace. Concerning the Ammonites it is said, They shall no
   more be remembered among the nations (v. 10), for they had been
   accessory to the murder of Gedaliah, Jer. xl. 14. But of the Moabites
   it is said, I will execute judgments upon Moab; they shall feel the
   weight of God's displeasure, but perhaps not to that degree that the
   Ammonites shall; however, so far as that they shall know that I am the
   Lord, that the God of Israel is a God of power, and that his covenant
   with his people is not broken.

   II. The Edomites, the posterity of Esau, between whom and Jacob there
   had been an old enmity. And here is,

   1. The sin of the Edomites, v. 12. They not only triumphed in the ruin
   of Judah and Jerusalem, as the Moabites and Ammonites had done, but
   they took advantage from the present distressed state to which the Jews
   were reduced to do them some real mischiefs, probably made inroads upon
   their frontiers and plundered their country: Edom has dealt against the
   house of Judah by taking vengeance. The Edomites had of old been
   tributaries to the Jews, according to the sentence that the elder
   should serve the younger. In Jehoram's time they revolted. Amaziah
   severely chastised them (2 Kings xiv. 7), and for this they took
   vengeance. Now they would pay off all the old scores, and not only
   incensed the Babylonians against Jerusalem, crying, Rase it, rase it
   (Ps. cxxxvii. 7), but cut off those that escaped, as we find in the
   prophecy of Obadiah, which is wholly directed against Edom, v. 11, 12,
   &c. It is called here revenging a revenge, which intimates that they
   were not only eager upon it, but very cruel in it, and recompensed to
   the Jews more than double. "Herein he has greatly offended." Note, It
   is a great offence to God for us to revenge ourselves upon our brother;
   for God has said, Vengeance is mine. We are forbidden to revenge or to
   bear a grudge. Suppose Judah had been hard upon Edom formerly, it was a
   base thing for the Edomites now, in revenge for it, to smite them
   secretly. But the Jews had a divine warrant to reign over the Edomites,
   for that therefore they ought not to have made reprisals; and it was
   the more disingenuous for them to retain the old enmity when God had
   particularly commanded his people to forget it. Deut. xxiii. 7, Thou
   shalt not abhor an Edomite.

   2. The judgments threatened against them for this sin. God will take
   them to task for it (v. 13): I will stretch out my hand upon Edom.
   Their country shall be desolate from Teman, which lay in the south part
   of it; and they shall fall by the sword unto Dedan, which lay north;
   the desolations of war should go through the nation. (1.) They had
   taken vengeance, and therefore God will lay his vengeance upon them (v.
   14): They shall know my vengeance. Those that will not leave it to God
   to take vengeance for them may expect that he will take vengeance on
   them; and those that will not believe and fear his vengeance shall be
   made to know and feel his vengeance; they shall be dealt with according
   to God's anger and according to his fury, not according to the weakness
   of the instruments that are employed in it, but according to the
   strength of the arm that employs them. (2.) They had taken vengeance on
   Israel, and God will lay his vengeance on them by the hand of his
   people Israel. They suffered much by the Chaldeans, which seems to be
   referred to, Jer. xlix. 8. But besides that there were saviours to come
   upon Mount Zion, who should judge the mount of Esau (Obad. 21), and
   Israel's Redeemer comes with dyed garments from Bozrah (Isa. lxiii. 1),
   this implies a promise that Israel should recover itself again to such
   a degree as to be in a capacity of curbing the insolence of its
   neighbours. And we find (1 Mac. v. 3) that Judas Maccabeus fought
   against the children of Esau in Idumea, gave them a great overthrow,
   abated their courage, and took their spoil; and Josephus says (Antiq.
   13.257), that Hircanus made the Edomites tributaries to Israel. Note,
   The equity of God's judgments is to be observed when he not only
   avenges injuries upon those that did them, but by those against whom
   they were done.

   III. The Philistines. And, 1. Their sin is much the same with that of
   the Edomites: They have dealt by revenge with the people of Israel, and
   have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, not to disturb them only,
   but to destroy them, for the old hatred (v. 15), the old grudge they
   bore them, or (as the margin reads it) with perpetual hatred, a hatred
   that began long since and which they resolved to continue. The anger
   was implacable: they dealt by revenge, traded in the acts of malice; it
   was their constant practice, and their heart, their spiteful heart, was
   upon it. 2. Their punishment likewise is much the same, v. 16. Those
   that were for destroying God's people shall themselves be cut off and
   destroyed; and (v. 17) those that were for avenging themselves shall
   find that God will execute great vengeance upon them. This was
   fulfilled when that country was wasted by the Chaldean army, not long
   after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is foretold, Jer. xlvii. It
   was strange that these nations, which bordered upon the land of Israel,
   were not alarmed by the success of the Chaldean army, and made to
   tremble in the apprehension of their own danger; when their neighbour's
   house was on fire it was time to look to their own; but their impiety
   and malice made them forget their politics, till God by his judgments
   convinced them that the cup was going round, and they were the less
   safe for being secure.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXVI.

   The prophet had soon done with those four nations that he set his face
   against in the foregoing chapters; for they were not at that time very
   considerable in the world, nor would their fall make any great noise
   among the nations nor any figure in history. But the city of Tyre is
   next set to the bar; this, being a place of vast trade, was known all
   the world over; and therefore here are three whole chapters, this and
   the two that follow, spent in the prediction of the destruction of
   Tyre. We have "the burden of Tyre," Isa. xxiii. It is but just
   mentioned in Jeremiah, as sharing with the natives in the common
   calamity, ch. xxv. 22; xxvii. 3; xlvii. 4. But Ezekiel is ordered to be
   copious upon that head. In this chapter we have, I. The sin charged
   upon Tyre, which was triumphing in the destruction of Jerusalem, ver.
   2. II. The destruction of Tyrus itself foretold. 1. The extremity of
   this destruction: it shall be utterly ruined, ver. 4-6, 12-14. 2. The
   instruments of this destruction, many nations (ver. 3), and the king of
   Babylon by name with his vast victorious army, ver. 7-11. 3. The great
   surprise that this should give to the neighbouring nations, who would
   all wonder at the fall of so great a city and be alarmed at it, ver.
   15-21.

The Burden of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the
   month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that
   was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be
   replenished, now she is laid waste:   3 Therefore thus saith the Lord
   God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to
   come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.   4 And
   they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I
   will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a
   rock.   5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of
   the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become
   a spoil to the nations.   6 And her daughters which are in the field
   shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
   7 For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with
   horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much
   people.   8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field:
   and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee,
   and lift up the buckler against thee.   9 And he shall set engines of
   war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy
   towers.   10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall
   cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of
   the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as
   men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.   11 With the hoofs of
   his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy
   people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the
   ground.   12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey
   of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy
   thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and
   thy dust in the midst of the water.   13 And I will cause the noise of
   thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
     14 And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place
   to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have
   spoken it, saith the Lord God.

   This prophecy is dated in the eleventh year, which was the year that
   Jerusalem was taken, and in the first day of the month, but it is not
   said what month, some think the month in which Jerusalem was taken,
   which was the fourth month, others the month after; or perhaps it was
   the first month, and so it was the first day of the year. Observe here,

   I. The pleasure with which the Tyrians looked upon the ruins of
   Jerusalem. Ezekiel was a great way off, in Babylon, but God told him
   what Tyrus said against Jerusalem (v. 2): "Aha! she is broken, broken
   to pieces, that was the gates of the people, to whom there was a great
   resort and where there was a general rendezvous of all nations, some
   upon one account and some upon another, and I shall get by it; all the
   wealth, power, and interest, which Jerusalem had, it is hoped, shall be
   turned to Tyre, and so now that she is laid waste I shall be
   replenished." We do not find that the Tyrians had such a hatred and
   enmity to Jerusalem and the sanctuary as the Ammonites and Edomites
   had, or were so spiteful and mischievous to the Jews. They were men of
   business, and of large acquaintance and free conversation, and
   therefore were not so bigoted, and of such a persecuting spirit, as the
   narrow souls that lived retired and knew not the world. All their care
   was to get estates, and enlarge their trade, and they looked upon
   Jerusalem not as an enemy, but as a rival. Hiram, king of Tyre, was a
   good friend to David and Solomon, and we do not read of any quarrels
   the Jews had with the Tyrians; but Tyre promised herself that the fall
   of Jerusalem would be an advantage to her in respect of trade a
   commerce, that now she shall have Jerusalem's customers, and the great
   men from all parts that used to come to Jerusalem for the accomplishing
   of themselves, and to spend their estates there, will now come to Tyre
   and spend them there; and whereas many, since the Chaldean army became
   so formidable in those parts, had retired into Jerusalem, and brought
   their estates thither for safety, as the Rechabites did, now they will
   come to Tyre, which, being in a manner surrounded with the sea, will be
   thought a place of greater strength than Jerusalem, and thus the
   prosperity of Tyre will rise out of the ruins of Jerusalem. Note, To be
   secretly pleased with the death or decay of others, when we are likely
   to get by it, with their fall when we may thrive upon it, is a sin that
   does most easily beset us, but is not thought to be such a bad thing,
   and so provoking to God, as really it is. We are apt to say, when those
   who stand in our light, in our way, are removed, when they break or
   fall into disgrace, "We shall be replenished now that they are laid
   waste." But this comes from a selfish covetous principle, and a desire
   to be placed alone in the midst of the earth, as if we grudged that any
   should live by us. This comes from a want of that love to our neighbour
   as to ourselves which the law of God so expressly requires, and from
   that inordinate love of the world as our happiness which the love of
   God so expressly forbids. And it is just with God to blast the designs
   and projects of those who thus contrive to raise themselves upon the
   ruins of others; and we see they are often disappointed.

   II. The displeasure of God against them for it. The providence of God
   had done well for Tyrus. Tyrus was a pleasant and wealthy city, and
   might have continued so if she had, as she ought to have done,
   sympathized with Jerusalem in her calamities and sent her an address of
   condolence; but when, instead of that, she showed herself pleased with
   her neighbour's fall, and perhaps sent an address of congratulation to
   the conquerors, then God says, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus! v.
   3. And let her not expect to prosper long if God be against her.

   1. God will bring formidable enemies upon her: Many nations shall come
   against thee, an army made up of many nations, or one nation that shall
   be as strong as many. Those that have God against them may expect all
   the creatures against them; for what peace can those have with whom God
   is at war? They shall come pouring in as the waves of the sea, one upon
   the neck of another, with an irresistible force. The person is named
   that shall bring this army upon them--Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a
   king of kings, that had many kings tributaries to him and dependents on
   him, besides those that were his captives, Dan. ii. 37, 38. He is that
   head of gold. He shall come with a vast army, horses and chariots, &c.,
   all land-forces. We do not find that he had any naval force, or any
   thing wherewith he might attack it by sea, which made the attempt the
   more difficult, as we find ch. xxix. 18, where it is called a great
   service which he served against Tyrus. He shall besiege it in form (v.
   8), make a fort, and cast a mount, and (v. 9) shall set engines of war
   against the walls. His troops shall be so numerous as to raise a dust
   that shall cover the city, v. 10. They shall make a noise that shall
   even shake the walls; and they shall shout at every attack, as soldiers
   do when they enter a city that is broken up; the horses shall prance
   with so much fury and violence that they shall even tread down the
   streets though so ever well paved.

   2. They shall do terrible execution. (1.) The enemy shall make
   themselves masters of all their fortifications, shall destroy the walls
   and break down the towers, v. 4. For what walls are so strongly built
   as to be a fence against the judgments of God? Her strong garrisons
   shall go down to the ground, v. 11. And the walls shall be broken down,
   v. 12. The city held out a long siege, but it was taken at last. (2.) A
   great deal of blood shall be shed: Her daughters who are in the field,
   the cities upon the continent, which were subject to Tyre as the
   mother-city, the inhabitants of them shall be slain by the sword, v. 6.
   The invaders begin with those that come first in their way. And (v. 11)
   he shall slay thy people with the sword; not only the soldiers that are
   found in arms, but the burghers, shall be put to the sword, the king of
   Babylon being highly incensed against them for holding out so long.
   (3.) The wealth of the city shall all become a spoil to the conqueror
   (v. 12): They shall make a prey of the merchandise. It was in hope of
   the plunder that the city was set upon with so much vigour. See the
   vanity of riches, that they are kept for the owners to their hurt; they
   entice and recompense thieves, and not only cease to benefit those who
   took pains for them and were duly entitled to them, but are made to
   serve their enemies, who are thereby put into a capacity of doing them
   so much the more mischief. (4.) The city itself shall be laid in ruins.
   All the pleasant houses shall be destroyed (v. 12), such as were
   pleasantly situated, beautified, and furnished, shall become a heap of
   rubbish. Let none please themselves too much in their pleasant houses,
   for they know not how soon they may see the desolation of them. Tyre
   shall be utterly ruined; the enemy shall not only pull down the houses,
   but shall carry away the stones and the timber, and shall lay them in
   the midst of the water, not to be recovered, or ever made use of again.
   Nay (v. 4), I will scrape her dust from her; not only shall the loose
   dust be blown away, but the very ground it stands upon shall be torn up
   by the enraged enemy, carried off, and laid in the midst of the water,
   v. 12. The foundation is in the dust; that dust shall be all taken
   away, and then the city must fall of course. When Jerusalem was
   destroyed it was ploughed like a field, Mic. iii. 12. But the
   destruction of Tyre is carried further than that; the very soil of it
   shall be scraped away, and it shall be made like the top of a rock (v.
   4, 14), pure rock that has no earth to cover it; it shall only be a
   place for the spreading of nets (v. 5, 14); it shall serve fishermen to
   dry their nets upon and mend them. (5.) There shall be a full period to
   all its mirth and joy (v. 13): I will cause the noise of thy songs to
   cease. Tyre had been a joyous city (Isa. xxiii. 7); with her songs she
   had courted customers to deal with her in a way of trade. But now
   farewell all her profitable commerce and pleasant conversation; Tyre is
   no more a place either of business or of sport. Lastly, It shall be
   built no more (v. 14), not built any more as it had been, with such
   state and magnificence, nor built any more in the same place, within
   the sea, nor built any where for a long time; the present inhabitants
   shall be destroyed or dispersed, so that this Tyre shall be no more.
   For God has spoken it (v. 5, 14); and when what he has said is
   accomplished they shall know thereby that he is the Lord, and not a man
   that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent.

The Burden of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   15 Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the
   sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in
   the midst of thee?   16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down
   from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their
   broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they
   shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be
   astonished at thee.   17 And they shall take up a lamentation for thee,
   and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of
   seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and
   her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!
   18 Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles
   that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.   19 For thus
   saith the Lord God; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the
   cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon
   thee, and great waters shall cover thee;   20 When I shall bring thee
   down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time,
   and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of
   old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and
   I shall set glory in the land of the living;   21 I will make thee a
   terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt
   thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.

   The utter ruin of Tyre is here represented in very strong and lively
   figures, which are exceedingly affecting.

   1. See how high, how great, Tyre had been, how little likely ever to
   come to this. The remembrance of men's former grandeur and plenty is a
   great aggravation of their present disgrace and poverty. Tyre was a
   renowned city (v. 17), famous among the nations, the crowning city (so
   she is called Isa. xxiii. 8), a city that had crowns in her gift,
   honoured all she smiled upon, crowned herself and all about her. She
   was inhabited of seas, that is, of those that trade at sea, of those
   who from all parts came thither by sea, bringing with them the
   abundance of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sand. She was
   strong in the sea, easy of access to her friends, but to her enemies
   inaccessible, fortified by a wall of water, which made her impregnable.
   So that she with her pomp, and her inhabitants with their pride, caused
   their terror to be on all that haunted that city, and upon any account
   frequented it. It was well fortified, and formidable in the eyes of all
   that acquainted themselves with it. Every body stood in awe of the
   Tyrians and was afraid of disobliging them. Note, Those who know their
   strength are too apt to cause terror, to pride themselves in
   frightening those they are an over-match for.

   2. See how low, how little, Tyre is made, v. 19, 20. This renowned city
   is made a desolate city, is no more frequented as it has been; there is
   no more resort of merchants to it; it is like the cities not inhabited,
   which are no cities, and having none to keep them in repair, will go to
   decay of themselves. Tyre shall be like a city overflowed by an
   inundation of waters, which cover it, and upon which the deep is
   brought up. As the waves had formerly been its defence, so now they
   shall be its destruction. She shall be brought down with those that
   descend into the pit, with the cities of the old world that were under
   water, and with Sodom and Gomorrah, that lie in the bottom of the Dead
   Sea. Or, she shall be in the condition of those who have been long
   buried, of the people of old time, who are old inhabitants of the
   silent grace, who are quite rotted away under ground and quite
   forgotten above ground; such shall Tyre be, free among the dead, set in
   the lower parts of the earth, humbled, mortified, reduced. It shall be
   like the places desolate of old, as well as like persons dead of old;
   it shall be like other cities that have formerly been in like manner
   deserted and destroyed. It shall not be inhabited again; none shall
   have the courage to attempt the rebuilding of it upon that spot, so
   that it shall be no more; The Tyrians shall be lost among the nations,
   so that people will look in vain for Tyre in Tyre: Thou shalt be sought
   for, and never found again. New persons may build a new city upon a new
   spot of ground hard by, which they may call Tyre, but Tyre, as it is,
   shall never be any more. Note, The strongest cities in this world, the
   best-fortified and best-furnished, are subject to decay, and may in a
   little time be brought to nothing. In the history of our own island
   many cities are spoken of as in being when the Romans were here which
   now our antiquaries scarcely know where to look for, and of which there
   remains no more evidence than Roman urns and coins digged up there
   sometimes accidentally. But in the other world we look for a city that
   shall stand for ever and flourish in perfection through all the ages of
   eternity.

   3. See what a distress the inhabitants of Tyre are in (v. 15): There is
   a great slaughter made in the midst of thee, many slain, and great men.
   It is probable that, when the city was taken, the generality of the
   inhabitants were put to the sword. Then did the wounded cry, and they
   cried in vain, to the pitiless conquerors; they cried quarter, but it
   would not be given them; the wounded are slain without mercy, or,
   rather, that is the only mercy that is shown them, that the second blow
   shall rid them out of their pain.

   4. See what a consternation all the neighbours are in upon the fall of
   Tyre. This is elegantly expressed here, to show how astonishing it
   should be. (1.) the islands shall shake at the sound of thy fall (v.
   15), as, when a great merchant breaks, all that he deals with are
   shocked by it, and begin to look about them; perhaps they had effects
   in his hands, which they are afraid they shall lose. Or, when they see
   one fail and become bankrupt of a sudden, in debt a great deal more
   than he is worth, it makes them afraid for themselves, lest they should
   do so too. Thus the isles, which thought themselves safe in the
   embraces of the sea, when they see Tyrus fall, shall tremble and be
   troubled, saying, "What will become of us?" And it is well if they make
   this good use of it, to take warning by it not to be secure, but to
   stand in awe of God and his judgments. The sudden fall of a great tower
   shakes the ground round about it; thus all the islands in the
   Mediterranean Sea shall feel themselves sensibly touched by the
   destruction of Tyre, it being a place they had so much knowledge of,
   such interests in, and such a constant correspondence with. (2.) The
   princes of the sea shall be affected with it, who ruled in those
   islands. Or the rich merchants, who live like princes (Isa. xxiii. 8),
   and the masters of ships, who command like princes, these shall condole
   the fall of Tyre in a most compassionate and pathetic manner (v. 16):
   They shall come down from their thrones, as neglecting the business of
   their thrones and despising the pomp of them. They shall lay away their
   robes of state, their broidered garments, and shall clothe themselves
   all over with tremblings, with sackcloth that will make them shiver. Or
   they shall by their own act and deed make themselves to tremble upon
   this occasion; they shall sit upon the ground in shame and sorrow; they
   shall tremble every moment at the thought of what has happened to Tyre,
   and for fear of what may happen to themselves; for what island is safe
   if Tyre be not? They shall take up a lamentation for thee, shall have
   elegies and mournful poems penned upon the fall of Tyre, v. 17. How art
   thou destroyed! [1.] It shall be a great surprise to them, and they
   shall be affected with wonder, that a place so well fortified by nature
   and art, so famed for politics and so full of money, which is the
   sinews of war, that held out so long and with so much bravery, should
   be taken at last (v. 21): I make thee a terror. Note, It is just with
   God to make those a terror to their neighbours, by the suddenness and
   strangeness of their punishment, who make themselves a terror to their
   neighbours by the abuse of their power. Tyre had caused her terror (v.
   17) and now is made a terrible example. [2.] It shall be a great
   affliction to them, and they shall be affected with sorrow (v. 17);
   they shall take up a lamentation for Tyre, as thinking it a thousand
   pities that such a rich and splendid city should be thus laid in ruins.
   When Jerusalem, the holy city, was destroyed, there were no such
   lamentations for it; it was nothing to those that passed by (Lam. i.
   12); but when Tyre, the trading city, fell, it was universally
   bemoaned. Note, Those who have the world in their hearts lament the
   loss of great men more than the loss of good men. [3.] It shall be a
   loud alarm to them: They shall tremble in the day of thy fall, because
   they shall have reason to think that their own turn will be next. If
   Tyre fall, who can stand? Howl, fir-trees, if such a cedar be shaken.
   Note, The fall of others should awaken us out of our security. The
   death or decay of others in the world is a check to us, when we dream
   that our mountain stands strongly and shall not be moved.

   5. See how the irreparable ruin of Tyre is aggravated by the prospect
   of the restoration of Israel. Thus shall Tyre sink when I shall set
   glory in the land of the living, v. 20. Note, (1.) The holy land is the
   land of the living; for none but holy souls are properly living souls.
   Where living sacrifices are offered to the living God, and where the
   lively oracles are, there the land of the living is; there David hoped
   to see the goodness of the Lord, Ps. xxvii. 13. That was a type of
   heaven, which is indeed the land of the living. (2.) Though this land
   of the living may for a time lie under disgrace, yet God will again set
   glory in it; the glory that had departed shall return, and the
   restoration of what they had been deprived of shall be so much more
   their glory. God will himself be the glory of the lands that are the
   lands of the living. (3.) It will aggravate the misery of those that
   have their portion in the land of the dying, of those that are for ever
   dying, to behold the happiness of those, at the same time, that shall
   have their everlasting portion in the land of the living. When the rich
   man was himself in torment he saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, and
   glory set for him in the land of the living.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXVII.

   Still we are attending the funeral of Tyre and the lamentations made
   for the fall of that renowned city. In this chapter we have, I. A large
   account of the dignity, wealth, and splendour of Tyre, while it was in
   its strength, the vast trade it drove, and the interest it had among
   the nations (ver. 1-25), which is designed to make its ruin the more
   lamentable. II. A prediction of its fall and ruin, and the confusion
   and consternation which all its neighbours shall thereby be put into,
   ver. 26-36. And this is intended to stain the pride of all worldly
   glory, and, by setting the one over-against the other, to let us see
   the vanity and uncertainty of the riches, honours, and pleasures of the
   world, and what little reason we have to place our happiness in them or
   to be confident of the continuance of them; so that all this is written
   for our learning.

The Prosperity of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   2 Now, thou son of
   man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus;   3 And say unto Tyrus, O thou
   that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the
   people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast
   said, I am of perfect beauty.   4 Thy borders are in the midst of the
   seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.   5 They have made all
   thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from
   Lebanon to make masts for thee.   6 Of the oaks of Bashan have they
   made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of
   ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.   7 Fine linen with
   broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy
   sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered
   thee.   8 The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy
   wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.   9 The ancients
   of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the
   ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy
   merchandise.   10 They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine
   army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they
   set forth thy comeliness.   11 The men of Arvad with thine army were
   upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they
   hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy
   beauty perfect.   12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the
   multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they
   traded in thy fairs.   13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy
   merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy
   market.   14 They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with
   horses and horsemen and mules.   15 The men of Dedan were thy
   merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought
   thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.   16 Syria was thy
   merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they
   occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and
   fine linen, and coral, and agate.   17 Judah, and the land of Israel,
   they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith,
   and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.   18 Damascus was thy
   merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude
   of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.   19 Dan also and
   Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and
   calamus, were in thy market.   20 Dedan was thy merchant in precious
   clothes for chariots.   21 Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they
   occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they
   thy merchants.   22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy
   merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and
   with all precious stones, and gold.   23 Haran, and Canneh, and Eden,
   the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.   24
   These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and
   broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and
   made of cedar, among thy merchandise.   25 The ships of Tarshish did
   sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very
   glorious in the midst of the seas.

   Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Tyrus, v.
   2. It was yet in the height of its prosperity, and there appeared not
   the least symptom of its decay; yet the prophet must lament it, because
   its prosperity is its snare, is the cause of its pride and security,
   which will make its fall the more grievous. Even those that live at
   ease are to be lamented if they be not preparing for trouble. He must
   lament it because its ruin is hastening on apace; it is sure, it is
   near; and though the prophet foretel it, and justify God in it, yet he
   must lament it. Note, We ought to mourn for the miseries of other
   nations, as well as for our own, out of an affection for mankind in
   general; it is a part of the honour we owe to all men to bewail their
   calamities, even those which they have brought upon themselves by their
   own folly.

   II. He is directed what to say, and to say it in the name of the Lord
   Jehovah, a name not unknown in Tyre, and which shall be better known,
   ch. xxvi. 6.

   1. He must upbraid Tyre with her pride: O Tyrus! thou hast said, I am
   of perfect beauty (v. 3), of universal beauty (so the word is), every
   way accomplished, and therefore every where admired. Zion, that had the
   beauty of holiness, is called indeed the perfection of beauty (Ps. l.
   2); that is the beauty of the Lord. But Tyre, because well-built and
   well-filled with money and trade, will set up for a perfect beauty.
   Note, It is the folly of the children of this world to value themselves
   on the pomp and pleasure they live in, to call themselves beauties for
   the sake of them, and, if in these they excel others, to think
   themselves perfect. But God takes notice of the vain conceits men have
   of themselves in their prosperity when the mind is lifted up with the
   condition, and often, for the humbling of the spirit, finds a way to
   bring down the estate. Let none reckon themselves beautified any
   further than they are sanctified, nor say that they are of perfect
   beauty till they come to heaven.

   2. He must upbraid Tyre with her prosperity, which was the matter of
   her pride. In elegies it is usual to insert encomiums of those whose
   fall we lament; the prophet, accordingly, praises Tyre for all that she
   had that was praiseworthy. He has nothing to say of her religion, her
   piety, her charity, her being a refuge to the distressed or using her
   interest to do good offices among her neighbours; but she lived great,
   and had a great trade, and all the trading part of mankind made court
   to her. The prophet must describe her height and magnificence, that God
   may be the more glorified in her fall, as the God who looks upon every
   one that is proud and abases him, hides the proud in the dust together,
   and binds their faces in secret, Job xl. 12.

   (1.) The city of Tyre was advantageously situated, at the entry of the
   sea (v. 3), having many commodious harbours each way, not as cities
   seated on rivers, which the shipping can come but one way to. It stood
   at the east end of the Mediterranean, very convenient for trade by land
   into all the Levant parts; so that she became a merchant of the people
   for many isles. Lying between Greece and Asia, it became the great
   emporium, or mart-town, the rendezvous of merchants from all parts:
   They borders are in the heart of the seas, v. 4. It was surrounded with
   water, which was a great advantage to its trade; it was the darling of
   the sea, laid in its bosom, in its heart. Note, It is a great
   convenience, upon many accounts, to live in an island: seas are the
   most ancient land-mark, not which our fathers have set, but the God of
   our fathers, and which cannot be removed as other land-marks may, nor
   so easily got over. The people so situated may the more easily dwell
   alone, if they please, as not reckoned among the nations, and yet, if
   they please, may the more easily traffic abroad and keep a
   correspondence with the nations. We therefore of this island must own
   that he who determines the bounds of men's habitations has determined
   well for us.

   (2.) It was curiously built, according as the fashion then was; and,
   being a city on a hill, it made a glorious show and tempted the ships
   that sailed by into her ports (v. 4): Thy builders have perfected thy
   beauty; they have so improved in architecture that nothing appears in
   the buildings of Tyre that can be found fault with; and yet it wants
   that perfection of beauty into which the Lord does and will build up
   his Jerusalem.

   (3.) It had its haven replenished with abundance of gallant ships, Isa.
   xxxiii. 21. The ship-carpenters did their part, as well as the
   house-carpenters theirs. The Tyrians are thought to be the first that
   invented the art of navigation; at least they improved it, and brought
   it to as great a perfection perhaps as it could be without the
   loadstone. [1.] They made the boards, or planks, for the hulk of the
   ship, of fir-trees fetched from Senir, a mount in the land of Israel,
   joined with Hermon, Cant. iv. 8. Planks of fir were smooth and light,
   but not so lasting as our English oak. [2.] They had cedars from
   Lebanon, another mountain of Israel, for their masts, v. 5. [3.] They
   had oaks from Bashan (Isa. ii. 13), to make oars of; for it is probable
   that their ships were mostly galleys, that go with oars. The people of
   Israel built few ships for themselves, but they furnished the Tyrians
   with timber for shipping. Thus one country uses what another produced,
   and so they are serviceable one to another, and cannot say to each
   other, I have no need of thee. [4.] Such magnificence did they affect
   in building their ships that they made the very benches of ivory, which
   they fetched from the isles of Chittim, from Italy or Greece, and had
   workmen from the Ashurites or Assyrians to make them, so rich would
   they have their state-rooms in their ships to be. [5.] So very prodigal
   were they that they made their sails of fine linen fetched from Egypt,
   and that embroidered too, v. 7. Or it may be meant of their flags
   (which they hoisted to notify what city they belonged to), which were
   very costly. The word signifies a banner as well as a sail. [6.] They
   hung those rooms on ship-board with blue and purple, the richest cloths
   and richest colours they could get from the isles they traded with. For
   though Tyre was itself famous for purple, which is therefore called the
   Tyrian dye, yet they must have that which was far-fetched.

   (4.) These gallant ships were well-manned, by men of great ingenuity
   and industry. The pilots and masters of the ships, that had command in
   their fleets, were of their own city, such as they could put a
   confidence in (v. 8): Thy wise men, O Tyrus! that were in thee, were
   thy pilots. But, for common sailors, they had men from other countries;
   The inhabitants of Arvad and Zidon were thy mariners. These came from
   cities hear them; Zidon was sister to Tyre, not two leagues off, to the
   northward; there they bred able seamen, which it is the interest of the
   maritime powers to support and give all the countenance they can to.
   They sent to Gebal in Syria for calkers, or strengtheners of the clefts
   or chinks, to stop them when the ships come home, after long voyages,
   to be repaired. To do this they had the ancients and wise men (v. 9);
   for there is more need of wisdom and prudence to repair what has gone
   to decay than to build anew. In public matters there is occasion for
   the ancients and wise men to be the repairers of the breaches and the
   restorers of paths to dwell in. Nay, all the countries they traded with
   were at their service, and were willing to send men into their pay, to
   put their youths apprentice in Tyre, or to put them on board their
   fleets; so that all the ships in the sea with their mariners were ready
   to occupy thy merchandise. Those that give good wages shall have hands
   at command.

   (5.) Their city was guarded by a military force that was very
   considerable, v. 10, 11. The Tyrians were themselves wholly given to
   trade; but it was necessary that they should have a good army on foot,
   and therefore they took those of other states into their pay, such as
   were fittest for service, though they had them from afar (which perhaps
   was their policy), from Persia, Lud, and Phut. These bore their arms
   when there was occasion, and in time of peace hung up the shield and
   buckler in the armoury, as it were to proclaim peace, and let the world
   know that they had at present no need of them, but they were ready to
   be taken down whenever there was occasion for them. Their walls were
   guarded by the man of Arvad; their towers were garrisoned by the
   Gammadim, robust men, that had a great deal of strength in their arms;
   yet the vulgar Latin renders it pygmies, men no longer than one's arm.
   They hung their shields upon the walls in their magazines or places of
   arms; or hung them out upon the walls of the city, that none might dare
   to approach them, seeing how well provided they were with all things
   necessary for their own defence. "Thus they set forth thy comeliness
   (v. 10), and made they beauty perfect," v. 11. It contributed as much
   as any thing to the glory of Tyre that it had those of all the
   surrounding nations in its service, except the land of Israel (though
   it lay next them), which furnished them with timber, but we do not find
   that it furnished them with men; that would have trenched upon the
   liberty and dignity of the Jewish nation, 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18. It was
   also the glory of Tyre that it had such a militia, so fit for service,
   and in constant pay, and such an armoury, like that in the tower of
   David, where hung the shields of mighty men, Cant. iv. 4. It is
   observable that there and here the armouries are said to be furnished
   with shields and helmets, defensive arms, not with swords and spears,
   offensive, though it is probable that there were such, to intimate that
   the military force of a people must be intended only for their own
   protection and not to invade and annoy their neighbours, to secure
   their own right, not to encroach upon the rights of others.

   (6.) They had a vast trade and a correspondence with all parts of the
   known world. Some nations they dealt with in one commodity and some in
   another, according as either its products or its manufactures were, and
   the fruits of nature or art were, with which it was blessed. This is
   very much enlarged upon here, as that which was the principal glory of
   Tyre, and which supported all the rest. We do not find any where in
   scripture so many nations named together as are here; so that this
   chapter, some think, gives much light to the first account we have of
   the settlement of the nations after the flood, Gen. x. The critics have
   abundance of work here to find out the several places and nations
   spoken of. Concerning many of them their conjectures are different and
   they leave us in the dark and at much uncertainty; it is well that it
   is not material. Modern surveys come short of explaining the ancient
   geography. And therefore we will not amuse ourselves here with a
   particular enquiry either concerning the traders or the goods they
   traded in. We leave it to the critical expositors, and observe that
   only which is improvable. [1.] We have reason to think that Ezekiel
   knew little, of his own knowledge, concerning the trade of Tyre. He was
   a priest, carried away captive far enough from the neighbourhood of
   Tyre, we may suppose when he was young, and there he had been eleven
   years. And yet he speaks of the particular merchandises of Tyre as
   nicely as if he had been comptroller of the custom-house there, by
   which it appears that he was divinely inspired in what he spoke and
   wrote. It is God that saith this, v. 3. [2.] This account of the trade
   of Tyre intimates to us that God's eye is upon men, and that he takes
   cognizance of what they do when they are employed in their worldly
   business, not only when they are at church, praying and hearing, but
   when they are in their markets and fairs, and upon the exchange, buying
   and selling, which is a good reason why we should in all our dealings
   keep a conscience void of offence, and have our eye always upon him
   whose eye is always upon us. [3.] We may here observe the wisdom of
   God, and his goodness, as the common Father of mankind, in making one
   country to abound in one commodity and another in another, and all more
   or less serviceable either to the necessity or to the comfort or
   ornament of human life. Non omis fert omnia tellus--One land does not
   supply all the varieties of produce. Providence dispenses its gifts
   variously, some to each, and all to none, that there may be a mutual
   commerce among those whom God has made of one blood, though they are
   made to dwell on all the face of the earth, Acts xvii. 26. Let every
   nations therefore thank God for the productions of its country; though
   they be not so rich as those of others, yet there is use for them in
   the public service of the world. [4.] See what a blessing trade and
   merchandise are to mankind, especially when followed in the fear of
   God, and with a regard not only to private advantage, but to a common
   benefit. The earth is full of God's riches, Ps. civ. 24. There is a
   multitude of all kinds of riches in it (as it is here, v. 12), gathered
   off its surface and dug out of its bowels. The earth is also full of
   the fruits of men's ingenuity and industry, according as their genius
   leads them. Now by exchange and barter these are made more extensively
   useful; thus what can be spared is helped off, and what is wanted is
   fetched in, in lieu of it, from the most distant countries. Those that
   are not tradesmen themselves have reason to thank God for tradesmen and
   merchants, by whom the productions of other countries are brought to
   our hands, as those of our own are by our husbandmen. [5.] Besides the
   necessaries that are here traded in, see what abundance of things are
   here mentioned that only serve to please fancy, and are made valuable
   only by men's humour and custom; and yet God allows us to use them, and
   trade in them, and part with those things for them which we can spare
   that are of an intrinsic worth much beyond them. Here are horns of
   ivory and ebony (v. 15), that are brought for a present, exposed to
   sale, and offered in exchange, or (as some think) presented to the
   city, or the great men of it, to obtain their favour. Here are
   emeralds, coral, and agate (v. 16), all precious stones, and gold (v.
   22), which the world could better be without than iron and common
   stones. Here are, to please the taste and smell, the chief of all
   spices (v. 22), cassia and calamus (v. 19), and, for ornament, purple,
   broidered work, and fine linen (v. 16), precious clothes for chariots
   (v. 20), blue clothes (which Tyre was famous for), broidered work, and
   chests of rich apparel, bound with rich cords, and made of cedar, a
   sweet wood to perfume the garments kept in them, v. 24. Upon the review
   of this invoice, or bill of parcels, we may justly say, What a great
   many things are here that we have no need of, and can live very
   comfortably without! [6.] It is observable that Judah and the land of
   Israel were merchants in Tyre too; in a way of trade they were allowed
   to converse with the heathen. But they traded mostly in wheat, a
   substantial commodity, and necessary, wheat of Minnith and Pannag, two
   countries in Canaan famous for the best wheat, as some think. The whole
   land indeed was a land of wheat (Deut. viii. 8); it had the fat of
   kidneys of wheat, Deut. xxxii. 14. Tyre was maintained by corn fetched
   from the land of Israel. They traded likewise in honey, and oil, and
   balm, or rosin; all useful things, and not serving to pride or luxury.
   And the land which these were the staple commodities of was that which
   was the glory of all lands, which God reserved for his peculiar people,
   not those that traded in spices and precious stones; and the Israel of
   God must reckon themselves well provided for if they have food
   convenient; for those that are acquainted with the delights of the
   children of God will not set their hearts on the delights of the sons
   and daughters of men, or the treasures of kings and provinces. We find
   indeed that the New-Testament Babylon trades in such things as Tyre
   traded in, Rev. xviii. 12, 13. For, notwithstanding its pretensions to
   sanctity, it is a mere worldly interest. [7.] Though Tyre was a city of
   great merchandise, and they got abundance by buying and selling,
   importing commodities from one place and exporting them to another, yet
   manufacture-trades were not neglected. The wares of their own making,
   and a multitude of such wares, are here spoken of, v. 16, 18. It is the
   wisdom of a nation to encourage art and industry, and not to bear hard
   upon the handicraft-tradesmen; for it contributes much to the wealth
   and honour of a nation to send abroad wares of their own making, which
   may bring them in the multitude of all riches. [8.] All this made Tyrus
   very great and very proud: The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in
   they market (v. 25); thou wast admired and cried up by all the nations
   that had dealings with thee; for thou wast replenished in wealth and
   number of people, wast beautified, and made very glorious, in the midst
   of the seas. Those that grow very rich are cried up as very glorious;
   for riches are glorious things in the eyes of carnal people, Gen. xxxi.
   1.

The Fall of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   26 Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath
   broken thee in the midst of the seas.   27 Thy riches, and thy fairs,
   thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the
   occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee,
   and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into
   the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.   28 The suburbs shall
   shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.   29 And all that handle
   the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down
   from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;   30 And shall cause
   their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall
   cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the
   ashes:   31 And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and
   gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness
   of heart and bitter wailing.   32 And in their wailing they shall take
   up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is
   like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?   33 When thy
   wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst
   enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of
   thy merchandise.   34 In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas
   in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the
   midst of thee shall fall.   35 All the inhabitants of the isles shall
   be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall
   be troubled in their countenance.   36 The merchants among the people
   shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any
   more.

   We have seen Tyre flourishing; here we have Tyre falling, and great is
   the fall of it, so much the greater for its having made such a figure
   in the world. Note, The most mighty and magnificent kingdoms and
   states, sooner or later, have their day to come down. They have their
   period; and, when they are in their zenith, they will begin to decline.
   But the destruction of Tyre was sudden. Her sun went down at noon. And
   all her wealth and grandeur, pomp and power, did but aggravate her
   ruin, and make it the more grievous to herself and astonishing to all
   about her. Now observe here, 1. How the ruin of Tyrus will be brought
   about, v. 26. She is as a great ship richly laden, that is split or
   sunk by the indiscretion of her steersmen: Thy rowers have themselves
   brought thee into great and dangerous waters; the governors of the
   city, and those that had the management of their public affairs, by
   some mismanagement or other involved them in that war with the
   Chaldeans which was the ruin of their state. By their insolence, by
   some affront given to the Chaldeans or some attempt made upon them, in
   confidence of their own ability to contend with them, they provoked
   Nebuchadnezzar to make a descent upon them, and, by their obstinacy in
   standing it out to the last, enraged him to such a degree that he
   determined on the ruin of their state, and, like an east wind, broke
   them in the midst of the seas. Note, It is ill with a people when those
   that sit at the stern, instead of putting them into the harbour, run
   them aground. 2. How great and general the ruin will be. All her wealth
   shall be buried with her, her riches, her fairs, and her merchandise
   (v. 27); all that had any dependence upon her, and dealings with her,
   in trade, in war, in conversation, shall ball with her into the midst
   of the seas, in the day of her ruin. Note, Those who make creatures
   their confidence, place their happiness in their interest in them and
   rest their hopes upon them, will of course fall with them; happy
   therefore are those that have the God of Jacob for their help, and
   whose hope is in the Lord their God, who lives for ever. 3. What sad
   lamentation would be made for the destruction of Tyre. The pilots, her
   princes and governors, when they see how wretchedly they have
   mismanaged and how much they have contributed to their own ruin, shall
   cry out so loud as to make even the suburbs shake (v. 28), such a
   vexation shall it be to them to reflect upon their own bad conduct. The
   inferior officers, that were as the mariners of the state, shall be
   forced to come down from their respective posts (v. 29), and they shall
   cry out against thee, as having deceived them, in not proving so well
   able to hold out as they thought thou hadst been; they shall cry
   bitterly for the common ruin, and their own share in it. They shall use
   all the most solemn expressions of grief; they shall cast dust on their
   heads, in indignation against themselves, shall wallow themselves in
   ashes, as having bid a final farewell to all ease and pleasure; they
   shall make themselves bald (v. 31), with tearing their hair; and,
   according to the custom of great mourners, those shall gird themselves
   with sackcloth who used to wear fine linen, and, instead of merry
   songs, they shall weep with bitterness of heart. Note, Losses and
   crosses are very grievous, and hard to be borne, to those that have
   long been wallowing in pleasure and sleeping in carnal security. 4. How
   Tyre should be upbraided with her former honour and prosperity (v. 32,
   33); she that was Tyrus the renowned shall now be called Tyrus the
   destroyed in the midst of the sea. "What city is like Tyre? Did ever
   any city come down from such a height of prosperity to such a depth of
   adversity? Time was when thy wares, those of thy own making and those
   that passed through thy hands, went forth out of the seas, and were
   exported to all parts of the world; then thou filledst many people, and
   didst enrich the kings of the earth and their kingdoms." The Tyrians,
   though they bore such a sway in trade, were yet, it seems, fair
   merchants, and let their neighbours not only live, but thrive by them.
   All that dealt with them were gainers; they did not cheat or oppress
   the people, but did enrich them with the multitude of their
   merchandise. "But now those that used to be enriched by thee shall be
   ruined with thee" (as is usual in trade); "when thou shalt be broken,
   and all thou hast is seized on, all thy company shall fall too," v. 34.
   There is an end of Tyre, that made such a noise and bustle in the
   world. This great blaze goes out in a snuff. 5. How the fall of Tyre
   should be matter of terror to some and laughter to others, according as
   they were differently interested and affected. Some shall be sorely
   afraid, and shall be troubled (v. 35), concluding it will be their own
   turn to fall next. Others shall hiss at her (v. 36), shall ridicule her
   pride, and vanity, and bad management, and think her ruin just. She
   triumphed in Jerusalem's fall, and there are those that will triumph in
   hers. When God casts his judgments on the sinner men also shall clap
   their hands at him and shall hiss him out of his place, Job xxvii. 22,
   23. Is this the city which men called the perfection of beauty?
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXVIII.

   In this chapter we have, I. A prediction of the fall and ruin of the
   king of Tyre, who, in the destruction of that city, is particularly set
   up as a mark for God's arrows, ver. 1-10. II. A lamentation for the
   king of Tyre, when he has thus fallen, though he falls by his own
   iniquity, ver. 11-19. III. A prophecy of the destruction of Zidon,
   which as in the neighbourhood of Tyre and had a dependence upon it,
   ver. 20-23. IV. A promise of the restoration of the Israel of God,
   though in the day of their calamity they were insulted over by their
   neighbours, ver. 24-26.

Fall of the Prince of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, say
   unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart
   is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God,
   in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou
   set thine heart as the heart of God:   3 Behold, thou art wiser than
   Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:   4 With thy
   wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and
   hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:   5 By thy great wisdom
   and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is
   lifted up because of thy riches:   6 Therefore thus saith the Lord God;
   Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;   7 Behold,
   therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the
   nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy
   wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.   8 They shall bring thee
   down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain
   in the midst of the seas.   9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth
   thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him
   that slayeth thee.   10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised
   by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

   We had done with Tyrus in the foregoing chapter, but now the prince of
   Tyrus is to be singled out from the rest. Here is something to be said
   to him by himself, a message to him from God, which the prophet must
   send him, whether he will hear or whether he will forbear.

   I. He must tell him of his pride. His people are proud (ch. xxvii. 3)
   and so is he; and they shall both be made to know that God resists the
   proud. Let us see, 1. What were the expressions of his pride: His heart
   was lifted up, v. 2. He had a great conceit of himself, was puffed up
   with an opinion of his own sufficiency, and looked with disdain upon
   all about him. Out of the abundance of the pride of his heart he said,
   I am a god; he did not only say it in his heart, but had the impudence
   to speak it out. God has said of princes, They are gods (Ps. lxxxii.
   6); but it does not become them to say so of themselves; it is a high
   affront to him who is God alone, and will not give his glory to
   another. He thought that the city of Tyre had as necessary a dependence
   upon him as the world has upon the God that made it, and that he was
   himself independent as God and unaccountable to any. He thought himself
   to have as much wisdom and strength as God himself, and as
   incontestable an authority, and that his prerogatives were as absolute
   and his word as much a law as the word of God. He challenged divine
   honours, and expected to be praised and admired as a god, and doubted
   not to be deified, among other heroes, after his death as a great
   benefactor to the world. Thus the king of Babylon said, I will be like
   the Most High (Isa. xiv. 14), not like the Most Holy. "I am the strong
   God, and therefore will not be contradicted, because I cannot be
   controlled. I sit in the seat of God; I sit as high as God, my throne
   equal with his. Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet--Cæsar divides
   dominion with Jove. I sit as safely as God, as safely in the heart of
   the seas, and as far out of the reach of danger, as he in the height of
   heaven." He thinks his guards of men of war about his throne as pompous
   and potent as the hosts of angels that are about the throne of God. He
   is put in mind of his meanness and mortality, and, since he needs to be
   told, he shall be told, that self-evident truth, Thou art a man, and
   not God, a depending creature; thou art flesh, and not spirit, Isa.
   xxxi. 3. Note, Men must be made to know that they are but men, Ps. ix.
   20. The greatest wits, the greatest potentates, the greatest saints,
   are men, and not gods. Jesus Christ was both God and man. The king of
   Tyre, though he has such a mighty influence upon all about him, and
   with the help of his riches bears a mighty sway, though he has tribute
   and presents brought to his court with as much devotion as if they were
   sacrifices to his altar, though he is flattered by his courtiers and
   made a god of by his poets, yet, after all, he is but a man; he knows
   it; he fears it. But he sets his heart as the heart of God; "Thou hast
   conceited thyself to be a god, hast compared thyself with God, thinking
   thyself as wise and strong, and as fit to govern the world, as he." It
   was the ruin of our first parents, and ours in them, that they would be
   as gods, Gen. iii. 5. And still that corrupt nature which inclines men
   to set up themselves as their own masters, to do what they will, and
   their own carvers, to have what they will, their own end, to live to
   themselves, and their own felicity, to enjoy themselves, sets their
   hearts as the heart of God, invades his prerogatives, and catches at
   the flowers of his crown--a presumption that cannot go unpunished.

   2. We are here told what it was that he was proud of. (1.) His wisdom.
   It is probable that this prince of Tyre was a man of very good natural
   parts, a philosopher, and well read in all the parts of learning that
   were then in vogue, at least a politician, and one that had great
   dexterity in managing the affairs of state. And then he thought himself
   wiser than Daniel, v. 3. We found, before, that Daniel, though now but
   a young man, was celebrated for his prevalency in prayer, ch. xiv. 14.
   Here we find he was famous for his prudence in the management of the
   affairs of this world, a great scholar and statesman, and withal a
   great saint, and yet not a prince, but a poor captive. It was strange
   that under such external disadvantages his lustre should shine forth,
   so that he had become wise to a proverb. When the king of Tyre dreams
   himself to be a god he says, I am wiser than Daniel. There is no secret
   that they can hide from thee. Probably he challenged all about him to
   prove him with questions, as Solomon was proved, and he had unriddled
   all their enigmas, had solved all their problems, and none of them all
   could puzzle him. He had perhaps been successful in discovering plots,
   and diving into the counsels of the neighbouring princes, and therefore
   thought himself omniscient, and that no thought could be withholden
   from him; therefore he said, I am a god. Note, Knowledge puffeth up; it
   is hard to know much and not to know it too well and to be elevated
   with it. He that was wiser than Daniel was prouder than Lucifer. Those
   therefore that are knowing must study to be humble and to evidence that
   they are so. (2.) His wealth. That way his wisdom led him; it is not
   said that by his wisdom he searched into the arcana either of nature or
   government, modelled the state better than it was, or made better laws,
   or advanced the interests of the commonwealth of learning; but his
   wisdom and understanding were of use to him in traffic. As some of the
   kings of Judah loved husbandry (2 Chron. xxvi. 10), so the king of Tyre
   loved merchandise, and by it he got riches, increased his riches, and
   filled his treasures with gold and silver, v. 4, 5. See what the wisdom
   of this world is; those are cried up as the wisest men that know how to
   get money and by right or wrong to raise estates; and yet really this
   their way is their folly, Ps. xlix. 13. It was the folly of the king of
   Tyre, [1.] That he attributed the increase of his wealth to himself and
   not to the providence of God, forgetting him who gave him power to get
   wealth, Deut. viii. 17, 18. [2.] That he thought himself a wise man
   because he was a rich man; whereas a fool may have an estate (Eccl. ii.
   19), yea, and a fool may get an estate, for the world has been often
   observed to favour such, when bread is not to the wise, Eccl. ix. 11.
   [3.] That his heart was lifted up because of his riches, because of the
   increase of his wealth, which made him so haughty and secure, so
   insolent and imperious, and which set his heart as the heart of God.
   The man of sin, when he had a great deal of worldly pomp and power,
   showed himself as a god, 2 Thess. ii. 4. Those who are rich in this
   world have therefore need to charge that upon themselves which the word
   of God charges upon them, that they be not high-minded, 1 Tim. vi. 17.

   II. Since pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a
   fall, he must bell him of that destruction, of that fall, which was now
   hastening on as the just punishment of his presumption in setting up
   himself a rival with God. "Because thou hast pretended to be a god (v.
   6), therefore thou shalt not be long a man," v. 7. Observe here,

   1. The instruments of his destruction: I will bring strangers upon
   thee--the Chaldeans, whom we do not find mentioned among the many
   nations and countries that traded with Tyre, ch. xxvii. If any of those
   nations had been brought against it, they would have had some
   compassion upon it, for old acquaintance-sake; but these strangers will
   have none. They are people of a strange language, which the king of
   Tyre himself, wise as he is, perhaps understands not. They are the
   terrible of the nations; it was an army made up of many nations, and it
   was at this time the most formidable both for strength and fury. These
   God has at command, and these he will bring upon the king of Tyre.

   2. The extremity of the destruction: They shall draw their swords
   against the beauty of thy wisdom (v. 7), against all those things which
   thou gloriest in as thy beauty and the production of thy wisdom. Note,
   It is just with God that our enemies should make that their prey which
   we have made our pride. The king of Tyre's palace, his treasury, his
   city, his navy, his army, these he glories in as his brightness, these,
   he thinks, made him illustrious and glorious as a god on earth. But all
   these the victorious enemy shall defile, shall deface, shall deform. He
   thought them sacred, things that none durst touch; but the conquerors
   shall seize them as common things, and spoil the brightness of them.
   But, whatever becomes of what he has, surely his person is sacred. No
   (v. 8): They shall bring thee down to the pit, to the grave; thou shalt
   die the death. And, (1.) It shall not be an honourable death, but an
   ignominious one. He shall be so vilified in his death that he may
   despair of being deified after his death. He shall die the deaths of
   those that are slain in the midst of the seas, that have no honour done
   them at their death, but their dead bodies are immediately thrown
   overboard, without any ceremony or mark of distinction, to be a feast
   for the fish. Tyre is likely to be destroyed in the midst of the sea
   (ch. xxvii. 32) and the prince of Tyre shall fare no better than the
   people. (2.) It shall not be a happy death, but a miserable one. He
   shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised (v. 10), of those that are
   strangers to God and not in covenant with him, and therefore die under
   his wrath and curse. It is deaths, a double death, temporal and
   eternal, the death both of body and soul. He shall die the second
   death; that is dying miserably indeed. The sentence of death here
   passed upon the king of Tyre is ratified by a divine authority: I have
   spoken it, saith the Lord God. And what he has said he will do. None
   can gainsay it, nor will he unsay it.

   3. The effectual disproof that this will be of all his pretensions to
   deity (v. 9): "When the conqueror sets his sword to thy breast, and
   thou seest no way of escape, wilt thou then say, I am God? Wilt thou
   then have such a conceit of thyself as thou now hast? No; thy being
   overpowered by death, and by the fear of it, will force thee to own
   that thou art not a god, but a weak, timorous, trembling, dying man. In
   the hand of him that slays thee (in the hand of God, and of the
   instruments that he employed) thou shalt be a man, and not God, utterly
   unable to resist, and help thyself." I have said, You are gods; but you
   shall die like men, Ps. lxxxii. 6, 7. Note, Those who pretend to be
   rivals with God shall be forced one way or other to let fall their
   claims. Death at furthest, when we come into his hand, will make us
   know that we are men.

Fall of the Prince of Tyre. (b. c. 588.)

   11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   12 Son of man,
   take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus
   saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and
   perfect in beauty.   13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every
   precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
   the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the
   carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes
   was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.   14 Thou art
   the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast
   upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the
   midst of the stones of fire.   15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from
   the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.   16
   By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee
   with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as
   profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering
   cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.   17 Thine heart was
   lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by
   reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay
   thee before kings, that they may behold thee.   18 Thou hast defiled
   thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity
   of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of
   thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the
   earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.   19 All they that
   know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a
   terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

   As after the prediction of the ruin of Tyre (ch. xxvi.) followed a
   pathetic lamentation for it (ch. xxvii.), so after the ruin of the king
   of Tyre is foretold it is bewailed.

   I. This is commonly understood of the prince who then reigned over
   Tyre, spoken to, v. 2. His name was Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, as Diodorus
   Siculus calls him that was king of Tyre when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed
   it. He was, it seems, upon all external accounts an accomplished man,
   very great and famous; but his iniquity was his ruin. Many expositors
   have suggested that besides the literal sense of this lamentation there
   is an allegory in it, and that it is an allusion to the fall of the
   angels that sinned, who undid themselves by their pride. And (as is
   usual in texts that have a mystical meaning) some passages here refer
   primarily to the king of Tyre, as that of his merchandises, others to
   the angels, as that of being in the holy mountain of God. But, if there
   be any thing mystical in it (as perhaps there may), I shall rather
   refer it to the fall of Adam, which seems to be glanced at, v. 13. Thou
   hast been in Eden the garden of God, and that in the day thou wast
   created.

   II. Some think that by the king of Tyre is meant the whole royal
   family, this including also the foregoing kings, and looking as far
   back as Hiram, king of Tyre. The then governor is called prince (v. 2);
   but he that is here lamented is called king. The court of Tyre with its
   kings had for many ages been famous; but sin ruins it. Now we may
   observe two things here:--

   1. What was the renown of the king of Tyre. He is here spoken of as
   having lived in great splendour, v. 12-15. He as a man, but it is here
   owned that he was a very considerable man and one that made a mighty
   figure in his day. (1.) He far exceeded other men. Hiram and other
   kings of Tyre had done so in their time; and the reigning king perhaps
   had not come short of any of them: Thou sealest up the sum full of
   wisdom and perfect in beauty. But the powers of human nature and the
   prosperity of human life seemed in him to be at the highest pitch. He
   was looked upon to be as wise as the reason of men could make him, and
   as happy as the wealth of this world and the enjoyment of it could make
   him; in him you might see the utmost that both could do; and therefore
   seal up the sum, for nothing can be added; he is a complete man,
   perfect in suo genere--in his kind. (2.) He seemed to be as wise and
   happy as Adam in innocency (v. 13): "Thou hast been in Eden, even in
   the garden of God; thou hast lived as it were in paradise all thy days,
   hast had a full enjoyment of every thing that is good for food or
   pleasant to the eyes, and an uncontroverted dominion over all about
   thee, as Adam had." One instance of the magnificence of the king of
   Tyre is, that he outdid all others princes in jewels, which those have
   the greatest plenty of that trade most abroad, as he did: Every
   precious stone was his covering. There is a great variety of precious
   stones; but he had of every sort and in such plenty that besides what
   were treasured up in his cabinet, and were the ornaments of his crown,
   he had his clothes trimmed with them; they were his covering. Nay (v.
   14), he walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, that is,
   these precious stones, which glittered and sparkled like fire. His
   rooms were in a manner set round with jewels, so that he walked in the
   midst of them, and then fancied himself as glorious as if, like God, he
   had been surrounded by so many angels, who are compared to a flame of
   fire. And, if he be such an admirer of precious stones as to think them
   as bright as angels, no wonder that he is such an admirer of himself as
   to think himself as great as God. Nine several sorts of previous stones
   are here named, which were all in the high priest's ephod. Perhaps they
   are particularly named because he, in his pride, used to speak
   particularly of them, and tell those about him, with a great deal of
   foolish pleasure, "This is such a precious stone, of such a value, and
   so and so are its virtues." Thus is he upbraided with his vanity. Gold
   is mentioned last, as far inferior in value to those precious stones;
   and he used to speak of it accordingly. Another thing that made him
   think his palace a paradise was the curious music he had, the tabrets
   and pipes, hand-instruments and wind-instruments. The workmanship of
   these was extraordinary, and they were prepared for him on purpose;
   prepared in thee, the pronoun is feminine--in thee, O Tyre! or it
   denotes that the king was effeminate in doting on such things. They
   were prepared in the day he was created, that is, either born, or
   created king; they were made on purpose to celebrate the joys either of
   his birth-day or of his coronation-day. These he prided himself much
   in, and would have all that came to see his palace take notice of them.
   (3.) He looked like an incarnate angel (v. 14): Thou art the anointed
   cherub that covers or protects; that is, he looked upon himself as a
   guardian angel to his people, so bright, so strong, so faithful,
   appointed to this office and qualified for it. Anointed kings should be
   to their subjects as anointed cherubim, that cover them with the wings
   of their power; and, when they are such, God will own them. Their
   advancement was from him: I have set thee so. Some think, because
   mention was made of Eden, that it refers to the cherub set on the east
   of Eden to cover it, Gen. iii. 24. He thought himself as able to guard
   his city from all invaders as that angel was for his charge. Or it may
   refer to the cherubim in the most holy place, whose wings covered the
   ark; he thought himself as bright as one of them. (4.) He appeared in
   as much splendour as the high priest when he was clothed with his
   garments for glory and beauty: "Thou wast upon the holy mountain of
   God, as president of the temple built on that holy mountain; thou didst
   look as great, and with as much majesty and authority, as ever the high
   priest did when he walked in the temple, which was garnished with
   precious stones (2 Chron. iii. 6), and had his habit on, which had
   precious stones both in the breast and on the shoulders; in that he
   seemed to walk in the midst of the stones of fire." Thus glorious is
   the king of Tyre; at least he thinks himself so.

   2. Let us now see what was the ruin of the king of Tyre, what it was
   that stained his glory and laid all this honour in the dust (v. 15):
   "Thou wast perfect in thy ways; thou didst prosper in all thy affairs
   and every thing went well with thee; thou hadst not only a clear, but a
   bright reputation, from the day thou wast created, the day of thy
   accession to the throne, till iniquity was found in thee; and that
   spoiled all." This may perhaps allude to the deplorable case of the
   angels that fell, and of our first parents, both of whom were perfect
   in their ways till iniquity was found in them. And when iniquity was
   once found in him it increased; he grew worse and worse, as appears (v.
   18): "Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries; thou hast lost the benefit of
   all that which thou thoughtest sacred, and in which, as in a sanctuary,
   thou thoughtest to take refuge; these thou hast defiled, and so exposed
   thyself by the multitude of thy iniquities." Now observe,

   (1.) What the iniquity was that was the ruin of the king of Tyre. [1.]
   The iniquity of his traffic (so it is called, v. 18), both his and his
   people's, for their sin is charged upon him, because he connived at it
   and set them a bad example (v. 16): By the multitude of thy merchandise
   they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thus thou hast
   sinned. The king had so much to do with his merchandise, and was so
   wholly intent upon the gains of that, that he took no care to do
   justice, to give redress to those that suffered wrong and to protect
   them from violence; nay, in the multiplicity of business, wrong was
   done to many by oversight; and in his dealings he made use of his power
   to invade the rights of those he dealt with. Note, Those that have much
   to do in the world are in great danger of doing much amiss; and it is
   hard to deal with many without violence to some. Trades are called
   mysteries; but too many make them mysteries of iniquity. [2.] His pride
   and vain-glory (v. 17): "Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty;
   thou wast in love with thyself, and thy own shadow. And thus thou hast
   corrupted thy wisdom by reason of the brightness, the pomp and
   splendour, wherein thou livedst." He gazed so much upon this that it
   dazzled his eyes and prevented him from seeing his way. He appeared so
   puffed up with his greatness that it bereaved him both of his wisdom
   and of the reputation of it. He really became a fool in glorying. Those
   make a bad bargain for themselves that part with their wisdom for the
   gratifying of their gaiety, and, to please a vain humour, lose a real
   excellency.

   (2.) What the ruin was that this iniquity brought him to. [1.] He was
   thrown out of his dignity and dislodged from his palace, which he took
   to be his paradise and temple (v. 16): I will cast thee as profane out
   of the mountain of God. His kingly power was high as a mountain,
   setting him above others; it was a mountain of God, for the powers that
   be are ordained of God, and have something in them that is sacred; but,
   having abused his power, he is reckoned profane, and is therefore
   deposed and expelled. He disgraces the crown he wears, and so has
   forfeited it, and shall be destroyed from the midst of the stones of
   fire, the precious stones with which his palace was garnished, as the
   temple was; and they shall be no protection to him. [2.] He was exposed
   to contempt and disgrace, and trampled upon by his neighbours: "I will
   cast thee to the ground (v. 17), will cast thee among the
   pavement-stones, from the midst of the precious stones, and will lay
   thee a rueful spectacle before kings, that they may behold thee and
   take warning by thee not to be proud and oppressive." [3.] He was quite
   consumed, his city and he in it: I will bring forth a fire from the
   midst of thee. The conquerors, when they have plundered the city, will
   kindle a fire in the heart of it, which shall lay it, and the palace
   particularly, in ashes. Or it may be taken more generally for the fire
   of God's judgments, which shall devour both prince and people, and
   bring all the glory of both to ashes upon the earth; and this fire
   shall be brought forth from the midst of thee. All God's judgments upon
   sinners take rise from themselves; they are devoured by a fire of their
   own kindling. [4.] He was hereby made a terrible example of divine
   vengeance. Thus he is reduced in the sight of all those that behold him
   (v. 18): Those that know him shall be astonished at him, and shall
   wonder how one that stood so high could be brought so low. The king of
   Tyre's palace, like the temple at Jerusalem, when it is destroyed shall
   be an astonishment and a hissing, 2 Chron. vii. 20, 21. So fell the
   king of Tyre.

The Fall of Zidon. (b. c. 588.)

   20 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   21 Son of man,
   set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,   22 And say, Thus
   saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be
   glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord,
   when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in
   her.   23 For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her
   streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the
   sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
   24 And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of
   Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that
   despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God.   25 Thus
   saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from
   the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in
   them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land
   that I have given to my servant Jacob.   26 And they shall dwell safely
   therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall
   dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those
   that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the
   Lord their God.

   God's glory is his great end, both in all the good and in all the evil
   which proceed out of the mouth of the Most High; so we find in these
   verses. 1. God will be glorified in the destruction of Zidon, a city
   that lay near to Tyre, was more ancient, but not so considerable, had a
   dependence upon it and stood and fell with it. God says here, I am
   against thee, O Zidon! and I will be glorified in the midst of thee, v.
   22. And again, "Those that would not know by gentler methods shall be
   made to know that I am the Lord, and I alone, and that I am a just and
   jealous God, when I shall have executed judgments in her, destroying
   judgments, when I shall have done execution according to justice and
   according to the sentence passed, and so shall be sanctified in her."
   The Zidonians, it should seem, were more addicted to idolatry than the
   Tyrians were, who, being men of business and large conversation, were
   less under the power of bigotry and superstition. The Zidonians were
   noted for the worship of Ashtaroth; Solomon introduced it, 1 Kings xi.
   5. Jezebel was daughter to the king of Zidon, who brought the worship
   of Baal into Israel (1 Kings xvi. 31); so that God had been much
   dishonoured by the Zidonians. Now, says he, I will be glorified, I will
   be sanctified. The Zidonians were borderers upon the land of Israel,
   where God was known, and where they might have got the knowledge of him
   and have learned to glorify him; but, instead of that, they seduced
   Israel to the worship of their idols. Note, When God is sanctified he
   is glorified, for his holiness is his glory; and those whom he is not
   sanctified and glorified by he will be sanctified and glorified upon,
   by executing judgments upon them, which declare him a just avenger of
   his own and his people's injured honour. The judgments that shall be
   executed upon Zidon are war and pestilence, two wasting depopulating
   judgments, v. 23. They are God's messengers, which he sends on his
   errands, and they shall accomplish that for which he sends them.
   Pestilence and blood shall be sent into her streets; there the dead
   bodies of those shall lie who perished, some by the plague, occasioned
   perhaps through ill diet when the city was besieged, and some by the
   sword of the enemy, most likely the Chaldean armies, when the city was
   taken, and all were put to the sword. Thus the wounded shall be judged;
   when they are dying of their wounds they shall judge themselves, and
   others shall say, They justly fall. Or, as some read it, They shall be
   punished by the sword, that sword which has commission to destroy on
   every side. It is God that judges, and he will overcome. Nor is it Tyre
   and Zidon only on which God would execute judgments, but on all those
   that despised his people Israel, and triumphed in their calamities; for
   this was now God's controversy with the nations that were round about
   them, v. 26. Note, When God's people are under his correcting hand for
   their faults he takes care, as he did concerning malefactors that were
   scourged, that they shall not seem vile to those that are about them,
   and therefore takes it ill of those who despise them and so help
   forward the affliction when he is but a little displeased, Zech. i. 15.
   God regards them even in their low estate; and therefore let not men
   despise them. 2. God will be glorified in the restoration of his people
   to their former safety and prosperity. God had been dishonoured by the
   sins of his people, and their sufferings too had given occasion to the
   enemy to blaspheme (Isa. lii. 5); but God will now both cure them of
   their sins and ease them of their troubles, and so will be sanctified
   in them in the sight of the heathen, will recover the honour of his
   holiness, to the satisfaction of all the world, v. 25. For, (1.) They
   shall return to the possession of their own land again: I will gather
   the house of Israel out of their dispersions, in answer to that prayer
   (Ps. cvi. 27), Save us, O Lord our God! and gather us from among the
   heathen; and in pursuance of that promise (Deut. xxx. 4), Thence will
   the Lord thy God gather thee. Being gathered, they shall be brought in
   a body, to dwell in the land that I have given to my servant Jacob. God
   had an eye to the ancient grant, in bringing them back, for that
   remained in force, and the discontinuance of the possession was not a
   defeasance of the right. He that gave it will again give it. (2.) They
   shall enjoy great tranquillity there. When those that have been
   vexatious to them are taken off they shall live in quietness; there
   shall be no more a pricking brier nor a grieving thorn, v. 24. They
   shall have a happy settlement, for they shall build houses, and plant
   vineyards; and they shall enjoy a happy security and serenity there;
   they shall dwell safely, shall dwell with confidence, and there shall
   be none to disquiet them or make them afraid, v. 26. This never had
   full accomplishment in the body of that people, for after their return
   out of captivity they were ever and anon molested by some bad neighbour
   or other. Nor has the gospel-church been ever quite free from pricking
   briers and grieving thorns; yet sometimes the church has rest, and
   believers always dwell safely under the divine protection and may be
   quiet from the fear of evil. But the full accomplishment of this
   promise is reserved for the heavenly Canaan, when all the saints shall
   be gathered together, and every thing that offends shall be removed,
   and all griefs and fears for ever banished.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXIX.

   Three chapters we had concerning Tyre and its king; next follow four
   chapters concerning Egypt and its king. This is the first of them.
   Egypt had formerly been a house of bondage to God's people; of late
   they had had but too friendly a correspondence with it, and had
   depended too much upon it; and therefore, whether the prediction
   reached Egypt or no, it would be of use to Israel, to take them off
   from their confidence in their alliance with it. The prophecies against
   Egypt, which are all laid together in these four chapters, were of five
   several dates; the first in the 10th year of the captivity (ver. 1),
   the second in the 27th (ver. 17), the third in the 11th year and the
   first month (ch. xxx. 20), the fourth in the 11th year and the third
   month (ch. xxxi. 1), the fifth in the 12th year (ch. xxxii. 1), and
   another in the same year, ver. 17. In this chapter we have, I. The
   destruction of Pharaoh foretold, for his dealing deceitfully with
   Israel, ver. 1-7. II. The desolation of the land of Egypt foretold,
   ver. 8-12. III. A promise of the restoration thereof, in part, after
   forty years, ver. 13-16. IV. The possession that should be given to
   Nebuchadnezzar of the land of Egypt, ver. 17-20. V. A promise of mercy
   to Israel, ver. 21.

Pride of Pharaoh; The Ruin of Pharaoh. (b. c. 589.)

   1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the
   month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set
   thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and
   against all Egypt:   3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold,
   I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth
   in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and
   I have made it for myself.   4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I
   will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will
   bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy
   rivers shall stick unto thy scales.   5 And I will leave thee thrown
   into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt
   fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor
   gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to
   the fowls of the heaven.   6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall
   know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the
   house of Israel.   7 When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou
   didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon
   thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.

   Here is, I. The date of this prophecy against Egypt. It was in the
   tenth year of the captivity, and yet it is placed after the prophecy
   against Tyre, which was delivered in the eleventh year, because, in the
   accomplishment of the prophecies, the destruction of Tyre happened
   before the destruction of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar's gaining Egypt was
   the reward of his service against Tyre; and therefore the prophecy
   against Tyre is put first, that we may the better observe that. But
   particular notice must be taken of this, that the first prophecy
   against Egypt was just at the time when the king of Egypt was coming to
   relieve Jerusalem and raise the siege (Jer. xxxvii. 5), but did not
   answer the expectations of the Jews from them. Note, It is good to
   foresee the failing of all our creature-confidences, then when we are
   most in temptation to depend upon them, that we may cease from man.

   II. The scope of this prophecy. It is directed against Pharaoh king of
   Egypt, and against all Egypt, v. 2. The prophecy against Tyre began
   with the people, and then proceeded against the prince. But this begins
   with the prince, because it began to have its accomplishment in the
   insurrections and rebellions of the people against the prince, not long
   after this.

   III. The prophecy itself. Pharaoh Hophrah (for so was the reigning
   Pharaoh surnamed) is here represented by a great dragon, or crocodile,
   that lies in the midst of his rivers, as Leviathan in the waters, to
   play therein, v. 3. Nilus, the river of Egypt, was famed for
   crocodiles. And what is the king of Egypt, in God's account, but a
   great dragon, venomous and mischievous? Therefore says God, I am
   against thee. I am above thee; so it may be read. How high soever the
   princes and potentates of the earth are, there is a higher than they
   (Eccl. v. 8), a God above them, that can control them, and, if they be
   tyrannical and oppressive, a God against them, that will be free to
   reckon with them. Observe here,

   1. The pride and security of Pharaoh. He lies in the midst of his
   rivers, rolls himself with a great deal of satisfaction in his wealth
   and pleasures; and he says, My river is my own. He boasts that he is an
   absolute prince (his subjects are his vassals; Joseph bought them long
   ago, Gen. xlvii. 23),--that he is a sole prince, and has neither
   partner in the government nor competitor for it,--that he is out of
   debt (what he has is his own, and none of his neighbours have any
   demands upon him),--that he is independent, neither tributary nor
   accountable to any. Note, Worldly carnal minds please themselves with,
   and pride themselves in, their property, forgetting that whatever we
   have we have only the use of it, the property is in God. We ourselves
   are not our own, but his. Our tongues are not our own, Ps. xii. 4. Our
   river is not our own, for its springs are in God. The most potent
   prince cannot call what he has his own, for, though it be so against
   all the world, it is not so against God. But Pharaoh's reason for his
   pretensions is yet more absurd: My river is my own, for I have made it
   for myself. Here he usurps two of the divine prerogatives, to be the
   author and the end of his own being and felicity. He only that is the
   great Creator can say of this world, and of every thing in it, I have
   made it for myself. He calls his river his own because he looks not
   unto the Maker thereof, nor has respect unto him that fashioned it long
   ago, Isa. xxii. 11. What we have we have received from God and must use
   for God, so that we cannot say, We made it, much less, We made it for
   ourselves; and why then do we boast? Note, Self is the great idol that
   all the world worships, in contempt of God and his sovereignty.

   2. The course God will take with this proud man, to humble him. He is a
   great dragon in the waters, and God will accordingly deal with him, v.
   4, 5. (1.) He will draw him out of his rivers, for he has a hook and a
   cord for this leviathan, with which he can manage him, though none on
   earth can (Job xli. 1): "I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy
   rivers, will cast thee out of thy palace, out of thy kingdom, out of
   all those things in which thou takest such a complacency and placest
   such a confidence." Herodotus related of this Pharaoh, who was now king
   of Egypt, that he had reigned in great prosperity for twenty-five
   years, and was so elevated with his successes that he said that God
   himself would not cast him out of his kingdom; but he shall soon be
   convinced of his mistake, and what he depended on shall be no defence.
   God can force men out of that in which they are most secure and easy.
   (2.) All his fish shall be drawn out with him, his servants, his
   soldiers, and all that had a dependence on him, as he thought, but
   really such as he had dependence upon. These shall stick to his scales,
   adhere to their king, resolving to live and die with him. But, (3.) The
   king and his army, the dragon and all the fish that stick to his
   scales, shall perish together, as fish cast upon dry ground, and shall
   be meat to the beasts and fowls, v. 5. Now this is supposed to have had
   its accomplishment soon after, when this Pharaoh, in defence of Aricius
   king of Libya, who had been expelled his kingdom by the Cyrenians,
   levied a great army, and went out against the Cyrenians, to
   re-establish his friend, but was defeated in battle, and all his forces
   were put to flight, which gave such disgust to his kingdom that they
   rose in rebellion against him. Thus was he left thrown into the
   wilderness, he and all the fish of the river with him. Thus issue men's
   pride, and presumption, and carnal security. Thus men justly lose what
   they might call their own, under God, when they call it their own
   against him.

   3. The ground of the controversy God has with the Egyptians; it is
   because they have cheated his people. They encouraged them to expect
   relief and assistance from them when they were in distress, but failed
   them (v. 6, 7): Because they have been a staff of reed to the house of
   Israel. They pretended to be a staff for them to lean upon, but, when
   any stress was laid upon them, they were either weak and could not or
   treacherous and would not do that for them which was expected. They
   broke under them, to their great disappointment and amazement, so that
   they rent their shoulder and made all their loins to be at a stand. The
   king of Egypt, it is probable, had encouraged Zedekiah to break his
   league with the king of Babylon, with a promise that he would stand by
   him, which, when he failed to do, to any purpose, it could not but put
   them into a great consternation. God had told them, long since, that
   the Egyptians were broken reeds, Isa. xxx. 6, 7. Rabshakeh had told
   them so, Isa. xxxvi. 6. And now they found it so. It was indeed the
   folly of Israel to trust them, and they were well enough served when
   they were deceived in them. God was righteous in suffering them to be
   so. But that is no excuse at all for the Egyptians' falsehood and
   treachery, nor shall it secure them from the judgments of that God who
   is and will be the avenger of all such wrongs. It is a great sin, and
   very provoking to God, as well as unjust, ungrateful, and very
   dishonourable and unkind, to put a cheat upon those that put a
   confidence in us.

Fall and Restoration of Egypt. (b. c. 589.)

   8 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring a sword upon
   thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.   9 And the land of Egypt
   shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord:
   because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.   10
   Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will
   make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of
   Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.   11 No foot of man shall pass
   through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it
   be inhabited forty years.   12 And I will make the land of Egypt
   desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her
   cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty
   years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will
   disperse them through the countries.   13 Yet thus saith the Lord God;
   At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people
   whither they were scattered:   14 And I will bring again the captivity
   of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into
   the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
   15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt
   itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they
   shall no more rule over the nations.   16 And it shall be no more the
   confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to
   remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that
   I am the Lord God.

   This explains the foregoing prediction, which was figurative, and looks
   something further. Here is a prophecy,

   I. Of the ruin of Egypt. The threatening of this is very full and
   particular; and the sin for which this ruin shall be brought upon them
   is their pride, v. 9. They said, The river is mine and I have made it;
   therefore their land shall spue them out. 1. God is against them, both
   against the king and against the people, against thee and against thy
   rivers. Waters signify people and multitudes, Rev. xvii. 15. 2.
   Multitudes of them shall be cut off by the sword of war, a sword which
   God will bring upon them to destroy both man and beast, the sword of
   civil war. 3. The country shall be depopulated. The land of Egypt shall
   be desolate and waste (v. 9), the country not cultivated, the cities
   not inhabited. The wealth of both was their pride, and that God will
   take away. It shall be utterly waste (wastes of waste, so the margin
   reads it), and desolate (v. 10); neither men nor beasts shall pass
   through it, nor shall it be inhabited (v. 11); it shall be desolate in
   the midst of the countries that are so, v. 12. This was the effect not
   so much of those wars spoken of before, which were made by them, but of
   the war which the king of Babylon made upon them. It shall be desolate
   from one end of the land to the other, from the tower of Syene even
   unto the border of Ethiopia. The sin of pride is enough to ruin a whole
   nation. 4. The people shall be dispersed and scattered among the
   nations (v. 12), so that those who thought the balance of power was in
   their hand should now become a contemptible people. Such a fall does a
   haughty spirit go before.

   II. Of the restoration of Egypt after awhile, v. 13. Egypt shall lie
   desolate forty years (v. 12) and then I will bring again the captivity
   of Egypt, v. 14. Some date the forty years from Nebuchadnezzar's
   destroying Egypt, others from the desolation of Egypt some time before;
   however, they end about the first year of Cyrus, when the seventy
   years' captivity of Judah ended, or soon after. Then this prediction
   was accomplished, 1. That God will gather the Egyptians out of all the
   countries into which they were dispersed, and make them to return to
   the land of their habitation, and give them a settlement there again,
   v. 14. Note, Though God will find out a way to humble the proud, yet he
   will not contend for ever, no, not with them in this world. 2. That yet
   they shall not make a figure again as they have done. Egypt shall be a
   kingdom again, but it shall be the basest of the kingdoms (v. 15); it
   shall have but little wealth and power, and shall not extend its
   conquests as formerly; it shall be the tail of the nations, and not the
   head. It is a mercy that it shall become a kingdom again, but, to
   humble it, it shall be a despicable kingdom; it shall be a long time
   before it recover any thing like its ancient lustre. For two reasons it
   shall be thus mortified:--(1.) That it may not domineer over its
   neighbours, that it may not exalt itself above the nations, nor rule
   over the nations, as it has done, but that it may know what it is to be
   low and despised. Note, Those who abuse their power will justly be
   stripped of it; and God, as King of nations, will find out a way to
   maintain the injured rights and liberties, not only of his own, but of
   other nations. (2.) That it may not deceive the people of God (v. 16):
   It shall no more be the confidence of the house of Israel; they shall
   no more be in temptation to trust in it as they have done, which is a
   sin that brings their iniquity to remembrance, that is, provokes God to
   punish them not for that only, but for all their other sins. Or it puts
   them in mind of their idolatries to return to them, when they look to
   the idolaters, to repose a confidence in them. Note, The creatures we
   confide in are often therefore ruined, because there is no other way
   effectually to cure us of our confidence in them. Rather than Israel
   shall be ensnared again, the whole land of Egypt shall be laid waste.
   He that once gave Egypt for their ransom (Isa. xliii. 3) will now give
   Egypt for their cure; and it shall be destroyed rather than Israel
   shall not in this particular be reformed. God, not only in justice, but
   in wisdom and goodness to us, breaks those creature-stays which we lean
   too much upon, and makes them to be no more, that they may be no more
   our confidence.

A Promise to Nebuchadnezzar. (b. c. 589.)

   17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first
   month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto
   me, saying,   18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his
   army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald,
   and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for
   Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:   19 Therefore
   thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto
   Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and
   take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his
   army.   20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith
   he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God.
     21 In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud
   forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of
   them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   The date of this prophecy is observable; it was in the twenty-seventh
   year of Ezekiel's captivity, sixteen years after the prophecy in the
   former part of the chapter, and almost as long after those which follow
   in the next chapters; but it comes in here for the explication of all
   that was said against Egypt. After the destruction of Jerusalem
   Nebuchadnezzar spent two or three campaigns in the conquest of the
   Ammonites and Moabites and making himself master of their countries.
   Then he spent thirteen years in the siege of Tyre. During all that time
   the Egyptians were embroiled in war with the Cyrenians and one with
   another, by which they were very much weakened and impoverished; and
   just at the end of the siege of Tyre God delivers this prophecy to
   Ezekiel, to signify to him that that utter destruction of Egypt which
   he had foretold fifteen or sixteen years before, which had been but in
   part accomplished hitherto, should now be completed by Nebuchadnezzar.
   The prophecy which begins here, it should seem, is continued to the
   twentieth verse of the next chapter. And Dr. Lightfoot observes that it
   is the last prophecy we have of this prophet, and should have been last
   in the book, but is laid here, that all the prophecies against Egypt
   might come together. The particular destruction of Pharaoh-Hophrah,
   foretold in the former part of this chapter, was likewise foretold Jer.
   xliv. 30. This general devastation of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar was
   foretold Jer. xliii. 10. Observe,

   I. What success God would give to Nebuchadnezzar and his forces against
   Egypt. God gave him that land, that he might take the spoil and prey of
   it, v. 19, 20. It was a cheap and easy prey. He subdued it with very
   little difficulty; the blood and treasure expended upon the conquest of
   it were inconsiderable. But it was a rich prey, and he carried off a
   great deal from it that was of value. Their having been divided among
   themselves, no doubt, gave a common enemy great advantage against them,
   who, when they had been so long preying upon one another, soon made a
   prey of them all. En! quo discordia cives perduxit miseros--What
   wretchedness does civil discord bring! Jeremiah foretold that
   Nebuchadnezzar should array himself with the land of Egypt as a
   shepherd puts on his coat, which intimates what a rich and cheap prey
   it should be.

   II. Upon what considerations God would give Nebuchadnezzar this success
   against Egypt; it was to be a recompence to him for the hard service
   with which he had caused his army to serve against Tyre, v. 18, 20. 1.
   The taking of Tyre was a tedious piece of work; it cost Nebuchadnezzar
   abundance of blood and treasure. It held out thirteen years; all that
   time the Chaldean army was hard at it, to make themselves masters of
   it. A large current of the sea, between Tyre and the continent, was
   filled up with earth, and many other difficulties which were thought
   insuperable they had to struggle with; but so great a prince, having
   begun such an undertaking, thought himself bound in honour to push it
   on, whatever it cost him. How many thousand lives have been sacrificed
   to such points of honour as this as! In prosecuting this siege every
   head was made bald, and every shoulder peeled, with carrying burdens
   and labouring in the water when they had a strong tide and a strong
   town to contend with. Egypt, a large kingdom, being divided within
   itself, is easily conquered; Tyre, a single city, being unanimous, is
   with difficulty subdued. Those that have much to do in the world find
   some affairs go on a great deal more readily and easily than others.
   But, 2. In this service God own that they wrought for him, v. 20. He
   set them at work, for the humbling of a proud city and its king, though
   they meant not so, neither did their heart think so, who were employed
   in it. Note, Even great men and bad men are tools that God makes use
   of, and are working for him even when they are pursuing their own
   covetous and ambitious designs; so wonderfully does God overrule all to
   his own glory. Yet, 3. For this service he had no wages nor his army.
   He was at a vast expense to take Tyre; and when he had it, though it
   was a very rich city, and he promised himself good plunder for his army
   from it, he was disappointed; the Tyrians sent away by ship their best
   effects, and threw the rest into the sea, so that they had nothing but
   bare walls. Thus are the children of this world ordinarily frustrated
   in their highest expectations from it. Therefore, 4. He shall have the
   spoil of Egypt to recompense him for his service against Tyre. Note,
   God will be behind-hand with none for any service they do for him, but,
   one way or other, will recompense them for it; none shall kindle a fire
   on his altar for nought. The service done for him by worldly men, with
   worldly designs, shall be recompensed with a mere worldly reward, which
   his faithful servants, that have a sincere regard to his will and
   glory, would not be put off with. This accounts for the prosperity of
   wicked men in this world; God is in it paying them for some service or
   other, in which he has made use of them. Verily they have their reward.
   Let none envy it them. The conquest of Egypt is spoken of as
   Nebuchadnezzar's full reward, for that completed his dominion over the
   then known world in a manner; that was the last of the kingdoms he
   subdued; when he was master of that he became the head of gold.

   III. The mercy God had in store for the house of Israel soon after.
   When the tide is at the highest it will turn, and so it will when it is
   at the lowest. Nebuchadnezzar was in the zenith of his glory when he
   had conquered Egypt, but within a year after he ran mad (Dan. iv.), was
   so seven years, and within a year or two after he had recovered his
   senses he resigned his life. When he was at the highest Israel was at
   the lowest; then were they in the depth of their captivity, their bones
   dead and dry; but in that day the horn of the house of Israel shall bud
   forth, v. 21. The day of their deliverance shall begin to dawn, and
   they shall have some little reviving in their bondage, in the honour
   that shall be done, 1. To their princes; they are the horns of the
   house of Israel, the seat of their glory and power. These began to bud
   forth when Daniel and his fellows were highly preferred in Babylon;
   Daniel sat in the gate of the city; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
   were set over the affairs of the province (Dan. ii. 49); these were all
   of the king's seed, and of the princes, Dan. i. 3. And it was within a
   year after the conquest of Egypt that they were thus preferred; and,
   soon after, three of them were made famous by the honour God put upon
   them in bringing them alive out of the burning fiery furnace. This
   might very well be called the budding forth of the horn of the house of
   Israel. And, some years after, this promise had a further
   accomplishment in the enlargement and elevation of Jehoiachin king of
   Judah, Jer. lii. 31, 32. They were both tokens of God's favour to
   Israel, and happy omens. 2. To their prophets. And I will give thee the
   opening of the mouth. Though none of Ezekiel's prophecies, after this,
   are recorded, yet we have reason to think he went on prophesying, and
   with more liberty and boldness, when Daniel and his fellows were in
   power, and would be ready to protect him not only from the Babylonians,
   but from the wicked ones of his own people. Note, It bodes well to a
   people when God enlarges the liberties of his ministers and they are
   countenanced and encouraged in their work.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXX.

   In this chapter we have, I. A continuation of the prophecy against
   Egypt, which we had in the latter part of the foregoing chapter, just
   before the desolation of that once flourishing kingdom was completed by
   Nebuchadnezzar, in which is foretold the destruction of all her allies
   and confederates, all her interests and concerns, and the several steps
   which the king of Babylon should take in pushing on this destruction,
   ver. 1-19. II. A repetition of a former prophecy against Egypt, just
   before the desolation of it begun by their own bad conduct, which
   gradually weakened them and prepared the way for the king of Babylon,
   ver. 20-26. It is all much to the same purport with what we had before.

Prophecy against Egypt; Destruction of Egypt Foretold. (b. c. 572.)

   1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
     3 For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy
   day; it shall be the time of the heathen.   4 And the sword shall come
   upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall
   fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her
   foundations shall be broken down.   5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia,
   and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is
   in league, shall fall with them by the sword.   6 Thus saith the Lord;
   They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power
   shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the
   sword, saith the Lord God.   7 And they shall be desolate in the midst
   of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the
   midst of the cities that are wasted.   8 And they shall know that I am
   the Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers
   shall be destroyed.   9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me
   in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall
   come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh.   10 Thus
   saith the Lord God; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by
   the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.   11 He and his people with
   him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land:
   and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with
   the slain.   12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into
   the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is
   therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it.   13 Thus
   saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause
   their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince
   of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.   14
   And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will
   execute judgments in No.   15 And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the
   strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.   16 And I
   will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent
   asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily.   17 The young men of
   Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall
   go into captivity.   18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened,
   when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her
   strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and
   her daughters shall go into captivity.   19 Thus will I execute
   judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   The prophecy of the destruction of Egypt is here very full and
   particular, as well as, in the general, very frightful. What can
   protect a provoking people when the righteous God comes forth to
   contend with them?

   I. It shall be a very lamentable destruction, and such as shall
   occasion great sorrow (v. 2, 3): "Howl you; you may justly shriek now
   that it is coming, for you will be made to shriek and make hideous
   outcries when it comes. Cry out, Woe worth the day! or, Ah the day!
   alas because of the day! the terrible day! Woe and alas! For the day is
   near; the day we have so long dreaded, so long deserved. It is the day
   of the Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself as a God of
   vengeance. You have your day now, when you carry all before you, and
   trample on all about you, but God will have his day shortly, the day of
   the revelation of his righteous judgment," Ps. xxxvii. 13. It will be a
   cloudy day, that is, dark and dismal, without the shining forth of any
   comfort; and it shall threaten a storm--fire, and brimstone, and a
   horrible tempest. It shall be the time of the heathen, of reckoning
   with the heathen for all their heathenish practices, that time which
   David spoke of when God would pour out his fury upon the heathen (Ps.
   lxxix. 6), when they should sink, Ps. ix. 15.

   II. It shall be the destruction of Egypt, and of all the states and
   countries in confederacy with her and in her neighbourhood. 1. Egypt
   herself shall fall (v. 4): The sword shall come upon Egypt, the sword
   of the Chaldeans, and it shall be a victorious sword, for the slain
   shall fall in Egypt, fall by it, fall before it. Is the country
   populous? They shall take away her multitude. Is it strong, and
   well-fixed? Her foundations shall be broken down, and then the fabric,
   though built ever so fine, ever so high, will fall of course. 2. Her
   neighbours and inmates shall fall with her. When the slain fall so
   thickly in Egypt great pain shall be in Ethiopia, both that in Africa,
   which is in the neighbourhood of Egypt on one side, and that in Asia,
   which is near to it on the other side. When their neighbour's house was
   on fire they could not but apprehend their own in danger; nor were
   their fears groundless, for they shall all fall with them by the sword,
   v. 5. Ethiopia and Libya (Cush and Phut, so the Hebrew names are, two
   of the sons of Ham who are mentioned, and Mizraim, that is, Egypt,
   between them, Gen. x. 6), and the Lydians (who were famous archers, and
   are spoken of as confederates with Egypt, Jer. xlvi. 9), these shall
   fall with Egypt and Chub (the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of the inner
   Libya); these and others were the mingled people; there were those of
   all these and other countries who upon some account or other resided in
   Egypt, as did also the men of the land that is in league, some of the
   remains of the people of Israel and Judah, the children of the
   covenant, or league, as they are called (Acts iii. 25), the children of
   the promise, Gal. iv. 28. These sojourned in Egypt contrary to God's
   command, and these shall fall with them. Note, Those that will take
   their lot with God's enemies shall have their lot with them, yea,
   though they be in profession the men of the land that is in league with
   God.

   III. All that pretend to support the sinking interests of Egypt shall
   come down under her, shall come down with her (v. 6): Those that uphold
   Egypt shall fall, and then Egypt must fall of course. See the justice
   of God; Egypt pretended to uphold Jerusalem when that was tottering,
   but proved a deceitful reed; and now those that pretended to uphold
   Egypt shall prove no better. Those that deceive others are commonly
   paid in their own coin; they are themselves deceived. 1. Does Egypt
   think herself upheld by the absolute authority and dominion of her
   king? The pride of her power shall come down, v. 6. The power of the
   king of Egypt was his pride; but that shall be broken, and humbled. 2.
   Is the multitude of her people her support? These shall fall by the
   sword, even from the tower of Syene, which is in the utmost corner of
   the land, from that side of it by which the enemy shall enter. Both the
   countries and the cities, the husbandmen and the merchants, shall be
   desolate, v. 7, as before, ch. xxix. 12. Even the multitude of Egypt
   shall be made to cease, v. 10. That populous country shall be
   depopulated. The land shall be even filled with the slain, v. 11. 3. Is
   the river Nile her support, and are the several channels of it a
   defence to her? "I will make the rivers dry (v. 12), so that those
   natural fortifications which were thought impregnable, because
   impassable, shall stand them in no stead." 4. Are her idols a support
   to her? They shall be destroyed; those imaginary upholders shall appear
   more than ever to be imaginary, for so images are when they pretend to
   be deliverers and strongholds (v. 13): I will cause their images to
   cease out of Noph. 5. Is her royal family her support? There shall be
   no more a prince in the land of Egypt; the royal family shall be
   extirpated and extinguished, which had continued so long. 6. Is her
   courage her support, and does she think to uphold herself by the
   bravery of her men of war, who have now of late been inured to service?
   That shall fail: I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 7. Is the
   rising generation her support? is she upheld by her children, and does
   she think herself happy because she has her quiver full of them? Alas!
   the young men shall fall by the sword (v. 17) and the daughters shall
   go into captivity (v. 18), and so she shall be robbed of all her hopes.

   IV. God shall inflict these desolating judgments on Egypt (v. 8): They
   shall know that I am the Lord, and greater than all gods, than all
   their gods, when I have set a fire in Egypt. The fire that consumes
   nations is of God's kindling; and, when he sets fire to a people, all
   their helpers shall be destroyed. Those that go about to quench the
   fire shall themselves be devoured by it; for who can stand before him
   when he is angry? When he pours out his fury upon a place, when he sets
   fire to it (v. 15, 16), neither its strength nor its multitude can
   stand it in any stead.

   V. The king of Babylon and his army shall be employed as instruments of
   this destruction: The multitude of Egypt shall be made to cease and be
   quite cut off by the hand of the king of Babylon, v. 10. Those that
   undertook to protect Israel from the king of Babylon shall not be able
   to protect themselves. It is said of the Chaldeans, who should destroy
   Egypt, 1. That they are strangers (v. 12), who therefore shall show no
   compassion for old acquaintance-sake, but shall behave strangely
   towards them. 2. That they are the terrible of the nations (v. 11),
   both in respect of force and in respect of fierceness; and, being
   terrible, they shall make terrible work. (3.) That they are the wicked,
   who will not be restrained by reason and conscience, the laws of nature
   or the laws of nations, for they are without law: I will sell the land
   into the hand of the wicked. They do violence unjustly, as they are
   wicked; yet, so far as they are instruments in God's hand of executing
   his judgments, it is on his part justly done. Note, God often makes one
   wicked man a scourge to another; and even wicked men acquire a title to
   prey, jure belli--by the laws of war, for God sells it into their
   hands.

   VI. No place in the land of Egypt shall be exempted from the fury of
   the Chaldean army, not the strongest, not the remotest: The sword shall
   go through the land. Various places are here named: Pathros, Zoan, and
   No (v. 14), Sin and Noph (v. 15, 16), Aven and Pi-beseth (v. 17), and
   Tehaphnehes, v. 18. These shall be made desolate, shall be fired, and
   God's judgments shall be executed upon them, and his fury poured out
   upon them. Their strength and multitude shall be cut off; they shall
   have great pain, shall be rent asunder with fear, and shall have
   distresses daily. Their day shall be darkened; their honours, comforts,
   and hopes, shall be extinguished. Their yokes shall be broken, so that
   they shall no more oppress and tyrannize as they have done. The pomp of
   their strength shall cease, and a cloud shall cover them, a cloud so
   thick that through it they shall not see any hopes, nor shall their
   glory be seen, or shine further. And, lastly, the Ethiopians, who are
   at a distance from them, as well as those who are mingled with them,
   shall share in their pain and terror. God will by his providence spread
   the rumour, and the careless Ethiopians shall be made afraid, v. 9.
   Note, God can strike a terror upon those that are most secure;
   fearfulness shall, when he pleases, surprise the most presumptuous
   hypocrites.

   The close of this prediction leaves, 1. The land of Egypt mortified:
   Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt, v. 19. The destruction of Egypt
   is the executing of judgments, which intimates not only that it is done
   justly, for its sins, but that it is done regularly and legally, by a
   judicial sentence. All the executions God does are according to his
   judgments. 2. The God of Israel herein glorified: They shall know that
   I am the Lord. The Egyptians shall be made to know it and the people of
   God shall be made to know it better. The Lord is known by the judgments
   which he executes.

Destruction of Egypt Foretold. (b. c. 572.)

   20 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the
   seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me,
   saying,   21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of
   Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller
   to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.   22 Therefore thus
   saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
   will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will
   cause the sword to fall out of his hand.   23 And I will scatter the
   Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the
   countries.   24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon,
   and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he
   shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.   25
   But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of
   Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I
   shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
   stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.   26 And I will scatter the
   Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and
   they shall know that I am the Lord.

   This short prophecy of the weakening of the power of Egypt was
   delivered about the time that the army of the Egyptians, which
   attempted to raise the siege of Jerusalem, was frustrated in its
   enterprises, and returned re infectâ--without accomplishing their
   purpose; whereupon the king of Babylon renewed the siege and carried
   his point. The kingdom of Egypt was very ancient, and had been for many
   ages considerable. That of Babylon had but lately arrived at its great
   pomp and power, being built upon the ruins of the kingdom of Assyria.
   Now it is with them as it is with families and states, some are growing
   up, others are declining and going back; one must increase and the
   others must of course decrease.

   I. It is here foretold that the king of Egypt shall grow weaker and
   weaker. The extent of his territories shall be abridged, his wealth and
   power shall be diminished, and he shall become less able than ever to
   help either himself or his friend. 1. This was in part done already (v.
   21): I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, some time ago. One arm of that
   kingdom might well be reckoned broken when the king of Babylon routed
   the forces of Pharaoh-Necho at Carchemish (Jer. xlvi. 2), and made
   himself master of all that pertained to Egypt from the river of Egypt
   to Euphrates, 2 Kings xxiv. 7. Egypt had been long in gathering
   strength and extending its dominions, and therefore, that there may be
   a proportion observed in providence, it loses its strength slowly and
   by degrees. It was soon after the king of Egypt slew good king Josiah,
   and in the same reign, that its arm was thus broken, and it received
   that fatal blow which it never recovered. Before Egypt's heart and neck
   were broken its arm was. God's judgments come upon a people by steps,
   that they may meet him repenting. When the arm of Egypt is broken it
   shall not be bound up to be healed, for none can heal the wounds that
   God gives but he himself. Those whom he disarms, whom he disables,
   cannot again hold the sword. 2. This was to be done again. One arm was
   broken before, and something was done towards the setting of it,
   towards the healing of the deadly wound that was given to the beast.
   But now (v. 22), I am against Pharaoh, and will break both his arms,
   both the strong and that which was broken and set again. Note, If less
   judgments do not prevail to humble and reform sinners, God will send
   greater. Now God will cause the sword to fall out of his hand, which he
   caught hold of as thinking himself strong enough to hold it. It is
   repeated (v. 24), I will break Pharaoh's arms. He had been a cruel
   oppressor to the people of God formerly, and of late the staff of a
   broken rod to them; and now God by breaking his arms reckons with him
   for both. God justly breaks that power which is abused either to put
   wrongs upon people or to put cheats upon them. But this is not all;
   (1.) The king of Egypt shall be dispirited when he finds himself in
   danger of the king of Babylon's forces: he shall groan before him with
   the groaning of a deadly wounded man. Note, It is common for those that
   are most elated in their prosperity to be most dejected and
   disheartened in their adversity. Pharaoh, even before the sword touches
   him, shall groan as if he had received his death's wound. (2.) The
   people of Egypt shall be dispersed (v. 23 and again v. 26): I will
   scatter them among the nations. Other nations had mingled with them (v.
   5); now they shall be mingled with other nations, and seek shelter in
   them, and so be made to know that the Lord is righteous.

   II. It is here foretold that the king of Babylon shall grow stronger
   and stronger, v. 24, 25. Put strength into the king of Babylon's arms,
   that he may be able to go through the service he is designed for. 2.
   That he will put a sword, his sword, into the king of Babylon's hand,
   which signified his giving him a commission and furnishing him with
   arms for carrying on a war, particularly against Egypt. Note, As judges
   on the bench, like Pilate (John xix. 11), so generals in the field,
   like Nebuchadnezzar, have no power but what is given them from above.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXI.

   The prophecy of this chapter, as the two chapters before, is against
   Egypt, and designed for the humbling and mortifying of Pharaoh. In
   passing sentence upon great criminals it is usual to consult
   precedents, and to see what has been done to others in the like case,
   which serves both to direct and to justify the proceedings. Pharaoh
   stands indicted at the bar of divine justice for his pride and
   haughtiness, and the injuries he had done to God's people; but he
   thinks himself so high, so great, as not to be accountable to any
   authority, so strong, and so well guarded, as not to be conquerable by
   any force. The prophet is therefore directed to make a report to him of
   the case of the king of Assyria, whose head city was Nineveh. I. He
   must show him how great a monarch the king of Assyria had been, what a
   vast empire he had, what a mighty sway he bore; the king of Egypt,
   great as he was could not go beyond him, ver. 3-9. II. He must then
   show him how like he was to the king of Assyria in pride and carnal
   security, ver. 10. III. He must next read him the history of the fall
   and ruin of the king of Assyria, what a noise it made among the nations
   and what a warning it gave to all potent princes to take heed of pride,
   ver. 11-17. IV. He must leave the king of Egypt to apply all this to
   himself, to see his own face in the looking-glass of the king of
   Assyria's sin, and to foresee his own fall through the perspective
   glass of his ruin, ver. 18.

The King of Assyria's Greatness. (b. c. 588.)

   1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the
   first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
     2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude;
   Whom art thou like in thy greatness?   3 Behold, the Assyrian was a
   cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and
   of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.   4 The
   waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers
   running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all
   the trees of the field.   5 Therefore his height was exalted above all
   the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his
   branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot
   forth.   6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and
   under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their
   young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.   7 Thus was he
   fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was
   by great waters.   8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide
   him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut-trees
   were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like
   unto him in his beauty.   9 I have made him fair by the multitude of
   his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of
   God, envied him.

   This prophecy bears date the month before Jerusalem was taken, as that
   in the close of the foregoing chapter about four months before. When
   God's people were in the depth of their distress, it would be some
   comfort to them, as it would serve likewise for a check to the pride
   and malice of their neighbours, that insulted over them, to be told
   from heaven that the cup was going round, even the cup of trembling,
   that it would shortly be taken out of the hands of God's people and put
   into the hands of those that hated them, Isa. li. 22, 23. In this
   prophecy,

   I. The prophet is directed to put Pharaoh upon searching the records
   for a case parallel to his own (v. 2): Speak to Pharaoh and to his
   multitude, to the multitude of his attendants, that contributed so much
   to his magnificence, and the multitude of his armies, that contributed
   so much to his strength. These he was proud of, these he put a
   confidence in; and they were as proud of him and trusted as much in
   him. Now ask him, Whom art thou like in thy greatness? We are apt to
   judge of ourselves by comparison. Those that think highly of themselves
   fancy themselves as great and as good as such and such, that have been
   mightily celebrated. The flatterers of princes tell them whom they
   equal in pomp and grandeur. "Well," says God, "let him pitch upon the
   most famous potentate that ever was, and it shall be allowed that he is
   like him in greatness and no way inferior to him; but, let him pitch
   upon whom he will, he will find that his day came to fall; he will see
   there was an end of all his perfection, and must therefore expect the
   end of his own in like manner." Note, The falls of others, both into
   sin and ruin, are intended as admonitions to us not to be secure or
   high-minded, nor to think we stand out of danger.

   II. He is directed to show him an instance of one whom he resembles in
   greatness, and that was the Assyrian (v. 3), whose monarchy had
   continued from Nimrod. Sennacherib was one of the mighty princes of
   that monarchy; but it sunk down soon after him, and the monarchy of
   Nebuchadnezzar was built upon its ruins, or rather grafted upon its
   stock. Let us now see what a flourishing prince the king of Assyria
   was. He is here compared to a stately cedar, v. 3. The glory of the
   house of David is illustrated by the same similitude, ch. xvii. 3. The
   olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine, which were all fruit-trees, had
   refused to be promoted over the trees because they would not leave
   their fruitfulness (Judg. ix. 8, &c.), and therefore the choice falls
   upon the cedar, that is stately and strong, and casts a great shadow,
   but bears no fruit. 1. The Assyrian monarch was a tall cedar, such as
   the cedars in Lebanon generally were, of a high stature, and his top
   among the thick boughs; he was attended by other princes that were
   tributaries to him, and was surrounded by a life-guard of brave men. He
   surpassed all the princes in his neighbourhood; they were all shrubs to
   him (v. 5): His height was exalted above all the trees of the field;
   they were many of them very high, but he overtopped them all, v. 8. The
   cedars, even those in the garden of Eden, which we may suppose were the
   best of the kind, would not hide him, but his top branches outshot
   theirs. 2. He was a spreading cedar; his branches did not only run up
   in height, but run out in breadth, denoting that this mighty prince was
   not only exalted to great dignity and honour, and had a name above the
   names of the great men of the earth, but that he obtained great
   dominion and power; his territories were large, and he extended his
   conquests far and his influences much further. This cedar, like a vine,
   sent forth his branches to the sea, to the river, Ps. lxxx. 11. His
   boughs were multiplied; his branches became long (v. 5); so that he had
   a shadowing shroud, v. 3. This contributed very much to his beauty,
   that he grew proportionably large as well as high. He was fair in his
   greatness, in the length of his branches (v. 7), very comely as well as
   very stately, fair by the multitude of his branches, v. 9. His large
   dominions were well managed, like a spreading tree that is kept in
   shape and good order by the skill of the gardener, so as to be very
   beautiful to the eye. His government was as amiable in the eyes of wise
   men as it was admirable in the eyes of all men. The fir-trees were not
   like his boughs, so straight, so green, so regular; nor were the
   branches of the chestnut-trees like his branches, so thick, so
   spreading. In short, no tree in the garden of God, in Eden, in Babylon
   (for that stood where paradise was planted), where there was every tree
   that was pleasant to the sight (Gen. ii. 9), was like to this cedar in
   beauty; that is, in all the surrounding nations there was no prince so
   much admired, so much courted, and whom every body was so much in love
   with, as the king of Assyria. Many of them did virtuously, but he
   excelled them all, outshone them all. All the trees of Eden envied him,
   v. 9. When they found they could not compare with him they were angry
   and grieved that he so far outdid them, and secretly grudged him the
   praise due to him. Note, It is the unhappiness of those who in any
   thing excel others that thereby they make themselves the objects of
   envy; and who can stand before envy? 3. He was serviceable, as far as a
   standing growing cedar could be, and that was only by his shadow (v.
   6): All the fowls of heaven, some of all sorts, made their nests in his
   boughs, where they were sheltered from the injuries of the weather. The
   beasts of the field put themselves under the protection of his
   branches. There they were levant--rising up, and couchant--lying down;
   there they brought forth their young; for they had there a natural
   covert from the heat and from the storm. The meaning of all is, Under
   his shadow dwelt all great nations; they all fled to him for safety,
   and were willing to swear allegiance to him if he would undertake to
   protect them, as travellers in a shower come under thick trees for
   shelter. Note, Those who have power ought to use it for the protection
   and comfort of those whom they have power over; for to that end they
   are entrusted with power. Even the bramble, if he be anointed king,
   invites the trees to come and trust in his shadow, Judg. ix. 15. But
   the utmost security that any creature, even the king of Assyria
   himself, can give, is but like the shadow of a tree, which is but a
   scanty and slender protection, and leaves a man many ways exposed. Let
   us therefore flee to God for protection, and he will take us under the
   shadow of his wings, where we shall be warmer and safer than under the
   shadow of the strongest and stateliest cedar, Ps. xvii. 8; xci. 4. 4.
   He seemed to be settled and established in his greatness and power.
   For, (1.) It was God that made him fair, v. 9. For by him kings reign.
   He was comely with the comeliness that God put upon him. Note, God's
   hand must be eyed and owned in the advancement of the great men of the
   earth, and therefore we must not envy them; yet that will not secure
   the continuance of their prosperity, for he that gave them their
   beauty, if they be deprived of it, knows how to turn it into deformity.
   (2.) He seemed to have a good bottom. This cedar was not like the heath
   in the desert, made to inhabit the parched places (Jer. xvii. 6); it
   was not a root in a dry ground, Isa. liii. 2. No; he had abundance of
   wealth to support his power and grandeur (v. 4): The waters made him
   great; he had vast treasures, large stores and magazines, which were as
   the deep that set him up on high, constant revenues coming in by taxes,
   customs, and crown-rents, which were as rivers running round about his
   plants; these enabled him to strengthen and secure his interests every
   where, for he sent out his little rivers, or conduits, to all the trees
   of the field, to water them; and when they had maintenance from the
   king's palace (Ezra iv. 14), and their country was nourished by the
   king's country (Acts xii. 20), they would be serviceable and faithful
   to him. Those that have wealth flowing upon them in great rivers find
   themselves obliged to send it out again in little rivers; for, as goods
   are increased, those are increased that eat them, and the more men have
   the more occasion they have for it; yea, and still the more they have
   occasion for. The branches of this cedar became long, because of the
   multitude of waters which fed them (v. 5 and 7); his root was by great
   waters, which seemed to secure it that its leaf should never wither
   (Ps. i. 3), that it should not see when heat came, Jer. xvii. 8. Note,
   Worldly people may seem to have an established prosperity, yet it only
   seems so, Job v. 3; Ps. xxxvii. 35.

The King of Assyria's Downfall; The Fall of Assyria. (b. c. 588.)

   10 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up
   thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs,
   and his heart is lifted up in his height;   11 I have therefore
   delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall
   surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.   12
   And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have
   left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are
   fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and
   all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have
   left him.   13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain,
   and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:   14 To the
   end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their
   height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither
   their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they
   are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the
   midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.   15
   Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I
   caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the
   floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon
   to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.   16
   I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him
   down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of
   Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be
   comforted in the nether parts of the earth.   17 They also went down
   into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they
   that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the
   heathen.   18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness
   among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees
   of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst
   of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is
   Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

   We have seen the king of Egypt resembling the king of Assyria in pomp,
   and power, and prosperity, how like he was to him in his greatness; now
   here we see,

   I. How he does likewise resemble him in his pride, v. 10. For, as face
   answers to face in a glass, so does one corrupt carnal heart to
   another; and the same temptations of a prosperous state by which some
   are overcome are fatal to many others too. "Thou, O king of Egypt! hast
   lifted up thyself in height, hast been proud of thy wealth and power,
   ch. xxix. 3. And just so he (that is, the king of Assyria); when he had
   shot up his top among the thick boughs his heart was immediately lifted
   up in his height, and he grew insolent and imperious, set God himself
   at defiance, and trampled upon his people;" witness the messages and
   letter which the great king, the king of Assyria, sent to Hezekiah,
   Isa. xxxvi. 4. How haughtily does he speak of himself and his own
   achievements! how scornfully of that great and good man! There were
   other sins in which the Egyptians and the Assyrians did concur,
   particularly that of oppressing God's people, which is charged upon
   them both together (Isa. lii. 4); but here that sin is traced up to its
   cause, and that was pride; for it is the contempt of the proud that
   they are filled with. Note, When men's outward condition rises their
   minds commonly rise with it; and it is very rare to find a humble
   spirit in the midst of great advancements.

   II. How he shall therefore resemble him in his fall; and for the
   opening of this part of the comparison,

   1. Here is a history of the fall of the king of Assyria. For his part,
   says God (v. 11), I have therefore, because he was thus lifted up,
   delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. Cyaxares,
   king of the Medes, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, in
   conjunction with Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the first year of
   his reign, destroyed Nineveh, and with it the Assyrian empire.
   Nebuchadnezzar, though he was not then, yet afterwards became, very
   emphatically, the mighty one of the heathen, most mighty among them and
   most mighty over them, to prevail against them.

   (1.) Respecting the fall of the Assyrian three things are
   affirmed:--[1.] It is God himself that orders his ruin: I have
   delivered him into the hand of the executioner; I have driven him out.
   Note, God is the Judge, who puts down one and sets up another (Ps.
   lxxv. 7); and when he pleases he can extirpate and expel those who
   think themselves, and seem to others, to have taken deepest root. And
   the mightiest ones of the heathens could not gain their point against
   those they contended with if the Almighty did not himself deliver them
   into their hands. [2.] It is his own sin that procures his ruin: I have
   driven him out for his wickedness. None are driven out from their
   honour, power, and possessions, but it is for their wickedness. None of
   our comforts are ever lost but what have been a thousand times
   forfeited. If the wicked are driven away, it is in their wickedness.
   [3.] It is a mighty one of the heathen that shall be the instrument of
   his ruin; for God often employs one wicked man in punishing another. He
   shall surely deal with him, shall know how to manage him, great as he
   is. Note, Proud imperious men will, sooner or later, meet with their
   match.

   (2.) In this history of the fall of the Assyrian observe, [1.] A
   continuation of the similitude of the cedar. He grew very high, and
   extended his boughs very far; but his day comes to fall. First, This
   stately cedar was cropped: The terrible of the nations cut him off.
   Soldiers, who being both armed and commissioned to kill, and slay, and
   destroy, may well be reckoned among the terrible of the nations. They
   have lopped off his branches first, have seized upon some parts of his
   dominion and forced them out of his hands; so that in all mountains and
   valleys of the nations about, in the high-lands and low-lands, and by
   all the rivers, there were cities or countries that were broken off
   from the Assyrian monarchy, that had been subject to it, but had either
   revolted or were recovered from it. Its feathers were borrowed; and,
   when every bird had fetched back its own, it was naked like the stump
   of a tree. Secondly, It was deserted: All the people of the earth, that
   had fled to him for shelter, have gone down from his shadow and have
   left him. When he was disabled to give them protection they thought
   they no longer owed him allegiance. Let not great men be proud of the
   number of those that attend them and have a dependence upon them; it is
   only for what they can get. When Providence frowns upon them their
   retinue is soon dispersed and scattered from them. Thirdly, It was
   insulted over, and its fall triumphed in (v. 13): Upon his ruin shall
   all the fowls of the heaven remain, to tread upon the broken branches
   of this cedar. Its fall is triumphed in by the other trees, who were
   angry to see themselves overtopped so much: All the trees of Eden, that
   were cut down and had fallen before him, all that drank water of the
   rain of heaven, as the stump of the tree that is left in the south is
   said to be wet with the dew of heaven (Dan. iv. 23) and to bud through
   the scent of water (Job xiv. 9), shall be comforted in the nether parts
   of the earth when they see this proud cedar brought as low as
   themselves. Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris--To have companions
   in woe is a solace to those who suffer. But, on the contrary, the trees
   of Lebanon, that are yet standing in their height and strength, mourned
   for him, and the trees of the field fainted for him, because they could
   not but read their own destiny in his fall. Howl, fir-trees, if the
   cedar be shaken, for they cannot expect to stand long, Zech. xi. 2.
   [2.] An explanation of the similitude of the cedar. By the cutting down
   of this cedar is signified the slaughter of this mighty monarch and all
   his adherents and supporters; they are all delivered to death, to fall
   by the sword, as the cedar by the axe. He and his princes, who, he
   said, were altogether kings, go down to the grave, to the nether parts
   of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, as common persons of
   no quality or distinction. They died like men (Ps. lxxxii. 7); they
   were carried away with those that go down to the pit, and their pomp
   did neither protect them nor descend after them. Again (v. 16), He was
   cast down to hell with those that descend into the pit; he went into
   the state of the dead, and was buried as others are, in obscurity and
   oblivion. Again (v. 17), They all that were his arm, on whom he stayed,
   by whom he acted and exerted his power, all that dwelt under his
   shadow, his subjects and allies, and all that had any dependence on
   him, they all went down into ruin, down into the grace with him, unto
   those that were slain with the sword, to those that were cut off by
   untimely deaths before them, under the load of guilt and shame. When
   great men fall a great many fall with them, as a great many in like
   manner have fallen before them. [3.] What God designed, and aimed at,
   in bringing down this mighty monarch and his monarchy. He designed
   thereby, First, To give an alarm to the nations about, to put them all
   to a stand, to put them all to a gaze (v. 16): I made the nations to
   shake at the sound of his fall. They were all struck with astonishment
   to see so mighty a prince brought down thus. It give a shock to all
   their confidences, every one thinking his turn would be next. When he
   went down to the grave (v. 15) I caused a mourning, a general
   lamentation, as the whole kingdom goes into mourning at the death of
   the king. In token of this general grief, I covered the deep for him,
   put that into black, gave a stop to business, in complaisance to this
   universal mourning. I restrained the floods, and the great waters were
   stayed, that they might run into another channel, that of lamentation.
   Lebanon particularly, the kingdom of Syria, that was sometimes in
   confederacy with the Assyrian, mourned for him; as the allies of
   Babylon, Rev. xviii. 9. Secondly, To give an admonition to the nations
   about, and to their kings (v. 14): To the end that none of all the
   trees by the waters, though ever so advantageously situated, may exalt
   themselves for their height, may be proud and conceited of themselves
   and shoot up their top among the thick boughs, looking disdainfully
   upon others, nor stand upon themselves for their height, confiding in
   their own politics and powers, as if they could never be brought down.
   Let them all take warning by the Assyrian, for he once held up his head
   as high, and thought he kept his footing as firm, as any of them; but
   his pride went before his destruction, and his confidence failed him.
   Note, The fall of proud presumptuous men is intended for warning to
   others to keep humble. It would have been well for Nebuchadnezzar, who
   was himself active in bringing down the Assyrian, if he had taken the
   admonition.

   2. Here is a prophecy of the fall of the king of Egypt in like manner,
   v. 18. He thought himself like the Assyrian in glory and greatness,
   over-topping all the trees of Eden, as the cypress does the shrubs.
   "But thou also shalt be brought down, with the other trees that are
   pleasant to the sight, as those in Eden. Thou shalt be brought to the
   grave, to the nether or lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the
   midst of the uncircumcised, that die in their uncleanness, die
   ingloriously, die under a curse and at a distance from God; then shall
   those whom thou hast trampled upon triumph over thee, saying, This is
   Pharaoh and all his multitude. See how mean he looks, how low he lies;
   see what all his pomp and pride have come to; here is all that is left
   of him." Note, Great men and great multitudes, with the great figure
   and great noise they make in the world, when God comes to contend with
   them, will soon become little, less than nothing, such as Pharaoh and
   all his multitude.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXII.

   Still we are upon the destruction of Pharaoh and Egypt, which is
   wonderfully enlarged upon, and with a great deal of emphasis. When we
   read so very much of Egypt's ruin, no less than six several prophecies
   at divers times delivered concerning it, we are ready to think, Surely
   there is some special reason for it. And, I. Perhaps it may look as far
   back as the book of Genesis, where we find (ch. xv. 14) that God
   determined to judge Egypt for oppressing his people; and, though that
   was in part fulfilled in the plagues of Egypt and the drowning of
   Pharaoh, yet, in this destruction, here foretold, those old scores were
   reckoned for, and that was to have its full accomplishment. II. Perhaps
   it may look as far forward as the book of the Revelation, where we find
   that the great enemy of the gospel-church, that makes war with the
   Lamb, is spiritually called Egypt, Rev. xi. 8. And, if so, the
   destruction of Egypt and its Pharaoh was a type of the destruction of
   that proud enemy; and between this prophecy of the ruin of Egypt and
   the prophecy of the destruction of the antichristian generation there
   is some analogy. We have two distinct prophecies in this chapter
   relating to Egypt, both in the same month, one on the 1st day, the
   other that day fortnight, probably both on the sabbath day. They are
   both lamentations, not only to signify how lamentable the fall of Egypt
   should be, but to intimate how much the prophet himself should lament
   it, from a generous principle of love to mankind. The destruction of
   Egypt is here represented under two similitudes:--1. The killing of a
   lion, or a whale, or some such devouring creature, ver. 1-16. 2. The
   funeral of a great commander or captain-general, ver. 17-32. The two
   prophecies of this chapter are much of the same length.

The Fall of Egypt; Lamentation for Pharaoh. (b. c. 587.)

   1 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the
   first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
     2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
   say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art
   as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and
   troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.   3
   Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over thee
   with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.
     4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon
   the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain
   upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.   5
   And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with
   thy height.   6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou
   swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.
     7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make
   the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon
   shall not give her light.   8 All the bright lights of heaven will I
   make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord
   God.   9 I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring
   thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast
   not known.   10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their
   kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword
   before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his
   own life, in the day of thy fall.   11 For thus saith the Lord God; The
   sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.   12 By the swords
   of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the
   nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all
   the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.   13 I will destroy also all
   the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot
   of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
   14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run
   like oil, saith the Lord God.   15 When I shall make the land of Egypt
   desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was
   full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they
   know that I am the Lord.   16 This is the lamentation wherewith they
   shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they
   shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith
   the Lord God.

   Here, I. The prophet is ordered to take up a lamentation for Pharaoh
   king of Egypt, v. 2. It concerns ministers to be much of a serious
   spirit, and, in order thereunto, to be frequent in taking up
   lamentations for the fall and ruin of sinners, as those that have not
   desired, but dreaded, the woeful day. Note, Ministers that would affect
   others with the things of God must make it appear that they are
   themselves affected with the miseries which sinners bring upon
   themselves by their sins. It becomes us to weep and tremble for those
   that will not weep and tremble for themselves, to try if thereby we may
   set them a weeping, set them a trembling.

   II. He is ordered to show cause for that lamentation.

   1. Pharaoh has been a troubler of the nations, even of his own nation,
   which he should have procured the repose of: He is like a young lion of
   the nations (v. 2), loud and noisy, hectoring and threatening as a lion
   when he roars. Great potentates, if they by tyrannical and oppressive,
   are in God's account no better than beasts of prey. He is like a whale,
   or dragon, like a crocodile (so some) in the seas, very turbulent and
   vexatious, as the leviathan that makes the deep to boil like a pot, Job
   xli. 31. When Pharaoh engaged in an unnecessary war with the Cyrenians
   he came forth with his rivers, with his armies, troubled the waters,
   disturbed his own kingdom and the neighbouring nations, fouled the
   rivers, and made them muddy. Note, A great deal of disquiet is often
   given to the world by the restless ambition and implacable resentments
   of proud princes. Ahab is he that troubles Israel, and not Elijah.

   2. He that has troubled others must expect to be himself troubled; for
   the Lord is righteous, Josh. vii. 25.

   (1.) This is set forth here by a comparison. Is Pharaoh like a great
   whale, which, when it comes up the river, gives great disturbance, a
   leviathan which Job cannot draw out with a hook? (Job xli. 1), yet God
   has a net for him which is large enough to enclose him and strong
   enough to secure him (v. 3): I will spread my net over thee, even the
   army of the Chaldeans, a company of many people; they shall force him
   out of his fastnesses, dislodge him out of his possessions, throw him
   like a great fish upon dry ground, upon the open field (v. 4), where
   being out of his element, he must die of course, and be a prey to the
   birds and beasts, as was foretold, ch. xxix. 5. What can the strongest
   fish do to help itself when it is out of the water and lies gasping?
   The flesh of this great whale shall be laid upon the mountains (v. 5)
   and the valleys shall be filled with his height. Such numbers of
   Pharaoh's soldiers shall be slain that the dead bodies shall be
   scattered upon the hills and there shall be heaps of them piled up in
   the valleys. Blood shall be shed in such abundance as to swell the
   rivers in the valleys. Or, Such shall be the bulk, such the height, of
   this leviathan, that, when he is laid upon the ground, he shall fill a
   valley. Such vast quantities of blood shall issue from this leviathan
   as shall water the land of Egypt, the land wherein now he swims, now he
   sports himself, v. 6. It shall reach to the mountains, and the waters
   of Egypt shall again be turned into blood by this means: The rivers
   shall be full of thee. The judgments executed upon Pharaoh of old are
   expressed by the breaking of the heads of leviathan in the waters, Ps.
   lxxiv. 13, 14. But now they go further; this old serpent not only has
   now his head bruised, but is all crushed to pieces.

   (2.) It is set forth by a prophecy of the deep impression which the
   destruction of Egypt should make upon the neighbouring nations; it
   would put them all into a consternation, as the fall of the Assyrian
   monarchy did, ch. xxxi. 15, 16. When Pharaoh, who had been like a
   blazing burning torch, is put out and extinguished it shall make all
   about him look black, v. 7. The heavens shall be hung with black, the
   stars darkened, the sun eclipsed, and the moon be deprived of her
   borrowed light. It is from the upper world that this lower receives its
   light; and therefore (v. 8), when the bright lights of heaven are made
   dark above, darkness by consequence is set upon the land, upon the
   earth; so it shall be on the land of Egypt. Here the plague of
   darkness, which was upon Egypt of old for three days, seems to be
   alluded to, as, before, the turning of the waters into blood. For, when
   former judgments are forgotten, it is just that they should be
   repeated. When their privy-counsellors, and statesmen, and those that
   have the direction of the public affairs, are deprived of wisdom and
   made fools, and the things that belong to their peace are hidden from
   their eyes, then their lights are darkened and the land is in a mist.
   This is foretold, Isa. xix. 13. The princes of Zoan have become fools.
   Now upon the spreading of the report of the fall of Egypt, and the
   bringing of the news to remote countries, countries which they had not
   known (v. 9), people shall be much affected, and shall feel themselves
   sensibly touched by it. [1.] It shall fill them with vexation to see
   such an ancient, wealthy, potent kingdom thus humbled and brought down,
   and the pride of worldly glory, which they have such a value for,
   stained. The hearts of many people will be vexed to see the word of the
   God of Israel fulfilled in the destruction of Egypt, and that all the
   gods of Egypt were not able to relieve it. Note, The destruction of
   some wicked people is a vexation to others. [2.] It shall fill them
   with admiration (v. 10): They shall be amazed at thee, shall wonder to
   see such great riches and power come to nothing, Rev. xviii. 17. Note,
   Those that admire with complacency the pomp of this world will admire
   with consternation the ruin of that pomp, which to those that know the
   vanity of all things here below is no surprise at all. [3.] It shall
   fill them with fear: even their kings (that think it their prerogative
   to be secure) shall be horribly afraid for thee, concluding their own
   house to be in danger when their neighbour's is on fire. When I shall
   brandish my sword before them they shall tremble every man for his own
   life. Note, When the sword of God's justice is drawn against some, to
   cut them off, it is thereby brandished before others, to give them
   warning. And those that will not be admonished by it, and made to
   reform, shall yet be frightened by it, and made to tremble. They shall
   tremble at every moment, because of thy fall. When others are ruined by
   sin we have reason to quake for fear, as knowing ourselves guilty and
   obnoxious. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?

   (3.) It is set forth by a plain and express prediction of the
   desolation itself that should come upon Egypt. [1.] The instruments of
   the desolation appear here very formidable. It is the sword of the king
   of Babylon, that warlike, that victorious prince, that shall come upon
   thee (v. 11), the swords of the mighty, even the terrible of the
   nations, all of them (v. 12), an army that there is no standing before.
   Note, Those that delight in war, and are upon all occasions entering
   into contention, may expect, some time or other, to be engaged with
   those that will prove too hard for them. Pharaoh had been forward to
   quarrel with his neighbour and to come forth with his rivers, with his
   armies, v. 2. But God will now give him enough of it. [2.] The
   instances of the desolation appear here very frightful, much the same
   with what we had before, ch. xxix. 10-12; xxx. 7. First, The multitude
   of Egypt shall be destroyed, not decimated, some picked out to be made
   examples, but all cut off. Note, The numbers of sinners, though they be
   a multitude, will neither secure them against God's power nor entitle
   them to his pity. Secondly, The pomp of Egypt shall be spoiled, the
   pomp of their court, what they have been proud of. Note, in renouncing
   the pomps of this world we did ourselves a great kindness, for they are
   things that are soon spoiled and that cheat their admirers. Thirdly,
   The cattle of Egypt, that used to feed by the rivers, shall be
   destroyed (v. 13), either cut off by the sword or carried off for a
   prey. Egypt was famous for horses, which would be an acceptable booty
   to the Chaldeans. The rivers shall be no more frequented as they have
   been by man and beast, that came thither to drink. Fourthly, The waters
   of Egypt, that used to flow briskly, shall now grow deep, and slow, and
   heavy, and shall run like oil (v. 14), a figurative expression
   signifying that there should be such universal sadness and heaviness
   upon the whole nation that even the rivers should go softly and
   silently like mourners, and quite forget their rapid motion. Fifthly,
   The whole country of Egypt shall be stripped of its wealth; it shall be
   destitute of what whereof it was full (v. 15), corn, and cattle, and
   all the pleasant fruits of the earth; when those are smitten that dwell
   therein the ground is untilled, and that which is gathered becomes an
   easy prey to the invader. Note, God can soon empty those of this
   world's goods that have the greatest fulness of those things and are
   full of them, that enjoy most and have their hearts set upon those
   enjoyments. The Egyptians were full of their pleasant and plentiful
   country, and its rich productions. Every one that talked with them
   might perceive how much it filled them. But God can soon make their
   country destitute of that whereof it is full; it is therefore our
   wisdom to be full of treasures in heaven. When the country is made
   destitute, 1. It shall be an instruction to them: Then shall they know
   that I am the Lord. A sensible conviction of the vanity of the world,
   and the fading perishing nature of all things in it, will contribute
   much to our right knowledge of God as our portion and happiness. 2. It
   shall be a lamentation to all about them: The daughters of the nations
   shall lament her (v. 16), either because, being in alliance with her,
   they share in her grievances and suffer with her, or, being admirers of
   her, they at least share in her grief and sympathize with her. They
   shall lament for Egypt and all her multitude; it shall excite their
   pity to see so great a devastation made. By enlarging the matters of
   our joy we increase the occasions of our sorrow.

The Fall of Egypt; Egypt's Destruction Completed. (b. c. 587.)

   17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of
   the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   18 Son of
   man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and
   the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the
   earth, with them that go down into the pit.   19 Whom dost thou pass in
   beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.   20 They
   shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is
   delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.   21 The
   strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell
   with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised,
   slain by the sword.   22 Asshur is there and all her company: his
   graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:   23
   Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round
   about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused
   terror in the land of the living.   24 There is Elam and all her
   multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the
   sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the
   earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have
   they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.   25 They
   have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude:
   her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the
   sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet
   have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is
   put in the midst of them that be slain.   26 There is Meshech, Tubal,
   and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them
   uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in
   the land of the living.   27 And they shall not lie with the mighty
   that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with
   their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their
   heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were
   the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.   28 Yea, thou
   shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with
   them that are slain with the sword.   29 There is Edom, her kings, and
   all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were
   slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with
   them that go down to the pit.   30 There be the princes of the north,
   all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain;
   with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie
   uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their
   shame with them that go down to the pit.   31 Pharaoh shall see them,
   and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his
   army slain by the sword, saith the Lord God.   32 For I have caused my
   terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of
   the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh
   and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

   This prophecy concludes and completes the burden of Egypt, and leaves
   it and all its multitude in the pit of destruction.

   I. We are here invited to attend the funeral of that once flourishing
   kingdom, to lament its fall, and to take a view of those who attend it
   to the grave and accompany it in the grave.

   1. This dead corpse of a kingdom is here brought to the grave. The
   prophet is ordered to cast them down to the pit (v. 18), to foretel
   their destruction as one that had authority, as Jeremiah was set over
   the kingdoms, Jer. i. 10. He must speak in God's name, and as from him
   who will cast them down. Yet he must foretel it as one that had an
   affectionate concern for them; he must wail for the multitude of Egypt,
   even when he casts them down. When Egypt is slain, let her have an
   honourable funeral, befitting her quality; let her be buried with the
   daughters of the famous nations, in their burying-places and with the
   same ceremony. It is but a poor allay to the reproach and terror of
   death to be buried with those that were famous; yet this is all that is
   allowed to Egypt. Shall Egypt think to exempt herself from the common
   fate of proud and imperious nations? No; she must take her lot with
   them (v. 19): "Whom dost thou surpass in beauty? Art thou so much
   fairer than any other nation that thou shouldst expect therefore to be
   excused? No; others as fair as thou have sunk into the pit; go down
   therefore, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. Thou art like them
   and art likely to lie among them. The multitude of Egypt shall all fall
   in the midst of those that are slain with the sword, now that there is
   a general slaughter made among the nations." Egypt with the rest must
   drink of the bloody cup, and therefore she is delivered to the sword,
   to the sword of war (but, in God's hand, the sword of justice), is
   delivered to be publicly executed. Draw her and all her multitude; draw
   them either as the dead bodies of great men are drawn in honour to the
   grave, in a hearse, or as malefactors are drawn in disgrace to the
   place of execution, on a sledge; draw them to the pit, and let them be
   made a spectacle to the world.

   2. This corpse of a kingdom is bid welcome to the grave, and Pharaoh is
   made free of the congregation of the dead, and admitted into their
   regions, not without some pomp and ceremony. As the surprising fall of
   the king of Babylon is thus illustrated, Hell from beneath is moved for
   thee to meet thee at thy coming, and to introduce thee into those
   mansions of darkness (Isa. xiv. 9, &c.), so here (v. 21), They shall
   speak to him out of the midst of hell, as it were congratulating his
   arrival and calling him to join with them in acknowledging that which
   neither he nor they would be brought to own when they were in their
   pomp and pride, that it is in vain to think of contesting with God, and
   none ever hardened their hearts against him and prospered. They shall
   say to him, and to those that pretended to help him, Where are you now?
   What have you brought your attempts to at last? Divers nations are here
   mentioned as gone down to the grave before Egypt that are ready to give
   her a scornful reception and upbraid her with coming to them at last.
   These nations here spoken of were probably such as had been of late
   years ruined and wasted by the king of Babylon, and their princes cut
   off; let Egypt know that she has neighbour's fare. When she goes to the
   grave she does but migrare ad plures--migrate to the majority; there
   are innumerable before her. But it is observable that though Judah and
   Jerusalem were just about this time, or a little before, utterly ruined
   and laid waste, yet they are not mentioned here among the nations that
   welcome Egypt to the pit; for though they suffered the same things that
   these nations suffered, and by the same hand, yet the kind intentions
   of their affliction, and its happy issue at last, and the mercy God had
   yet in reserve for them, altered the property of it; it was not to them
   a going down to the pit, as it was to the heathen; they were not
   smitten as others were, nor slain according to the slaughter of other
   nations, Isa. xxvii. 7. But let us see who those are that have gone to
   the grave before Egypt, that lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword,
   with whom she must now take up her lodging. (1.) There lie the Assyrian
   empire, and all the princes and mighty men of that monarchy (v. 22):
   Asshur is there and all her company, all the countries that were
   tributaries to and had dependence upon that crown. That mighty
   potentate who used to lie in state, with his guards and grandees about
   him, now lies in obscurity, with his graves about him and his soldiers
   in them, unable any longer to do him service or honour; they are all of
   them slain, fallen by the sword. The number of their months was cut off
   in the midst, and, being bloody and deceitful men, they were not
   suffered to live out half their days. Their braves were set in the
   sides of the pit, all in a row, like beds in a common chamber, v. 23.
   All their company is such as were slain, fallen by the sword; a vast
   congregation there is of such, who had caused terror in the land of the
   living. But as the death of those to whom they were a terror put an end
   to their fears (in the grave the prisoners rest together and hear not
   the voice of the oppressor, Job iii. 18), so the death of these mighty
   men puts an end to their terrors. Who is afraid of a dead lion? Note,
   Death will be a king of terrors to those who, instead of making
   themselves blessings, make themselves terrors, in their generation.
   (2.) There lies the kingdom of Persia, which perhaps within the memory
   of man at that time had been wasted and brought down: There is Elam and
   all her multitude, the king of Elam and his numerous armies, v. 24, 25.
   They also had caused their terror in the land of the living, had made a
   fearful noise and bluster among the nations in their day. But Elam has
   now a grave by herself, and the graves of the common people round about
   her, fallen by the sword; she has her bed in the midst of the slain
   that went down uncircumcised, unsanctified, unholy, and not in covenant
   with God. They have borne their shame with those that go down to the
   pit; they have fallen under the common disgrace and mortification of
   mankind, that they die and are buried; nay, they die under particular
   marks of ignominy, which God and man put upon them. Note, Those who
   cause their terror shall, sooner or later, bear their shame, and be
   made a terror to themselves. The king of Elam is put in the midst of
   those that are slain. All the honour he can now pretend to is to be
   buried in the chief sepulchre. (3.) There lies the Scythian power,
   which, about this time, was busy in the world. Meshech and Tubal, those
   barbarous northern nations, had lately made a descent upon the Medes,
   and caused their terror among them, lived among them upon free quarter
   for some years, making every thing their own that they could lay their
   hands on; but at length Cyaxares, king of the Medes, drew them by a
   wile into his power, but off abundance of them, and obliged them to
   quit his country, v. 26. There lie Meshech and Tubal, and all their
   multitude; there is a burying place for them, with their chief
   commander in the midst of them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the
   sword. These Scythians, dying ingloriously as they lived, are not laid,
   as the other nations spoken of before, in the bed of honour (v. 27):
   They shall not lie with the mighty, shall not be buried in state, as
   those are, even by consent of the enemy, that are slain in the field of
   battle, that go down to their graves with their weapons of war carried
   before the hearse, or trailed after it, that have particularly their
   swords laid under their heads, as if they could sleep the sweeter in
   the grave when they laid their heads on such a pillow. These Scythians
   are not buried with these marks of honour, but their iniquities shall
   be upon their sons; they shall, for their iniquity, be left unburied,
   though they were the terror even of the mighty in the land of the
   living. (4.) There lies the kingdom of Edom, which had flourished long,
   but about this time, at least before the destruction of Egypt, was made
   quite desolate, as was foretold, ch. xxv. 13. Among the sepulchres of
   the nations there is Edom, v. 29. There lie, not dignified with
   monuments or inscriptions, but mingled with common dust, her kings and
   all her princes, her wise statesmen (which Edom was famous for), and
   her brave soldiers. These with their might are laid by those that were
   slain by the sword; their might could not prevent it, nay, their might
   helped to procure it, for that both encouraged them to engage in war
   and incensed their neighbours against them, who thought it necessary to
   curb their growing greatness. A great deal of pains they took to ruin
   themselves, as many do, who with their might, with all their might, are
   laid by those that were slain with the sword. The Edomites retained
   circumcision, being of the seed of Abraham. But that shall stand them
   in no stead; they shall lie with the uncircumcised. (5.) There lie the
   princes of the north, and all the Zidonians. These were as well
   acquainted with maritime affairs as the Egyptians were, who relied much
   upon that part of their strength, but they have gone down with the
   slain (v. 30), down to the pit. Now they are ashamed of their might,
   ashamed to think how much they boasted of it and trusted to it; and, as
   the Edomites with their might, so these with their terror, are laid
   with those that are slain by the sword and are forced to take their lot
   with them. They bear their shame with those that go down to the pit,
   die in as much disgrace as those that are cut off by the hand of public
   justice. (6.) All this is applied to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who
   have no reason to flatter themselves with hopes of tranquillity when
   they see how the wisest, and wealthiest, and strongest, of their
   neighbours have been laid waste (v. 28): "Yea, thou shalt be broken in
   the midst of the uncircumcised; when God is pulling down the unhumbled
   and unreformed nations thou must expect to come down with them." [1.]
   It will be some extenuation of the miseries of Egypt to observe that it
   has been the case of so many great and mighty nations before (v. 31):
   Pharaoh shall see them and be comforted; it will be some ease to his
   mind that he is not the first king that has been slain in battle--his
   not the first army that has been routed, his not the first kingdom that
   has been made desolate. Mr. Greenhill observes here, "The comfort which
   wicked ones have after death is poor comfort, not real, but imaginary."
   They will find little satisfaction in having so many fellow-sufferers;
   the rich man in hell dreaded it. It is only in point of honour that
   Pharaoh can see and be comforted. [2.] But nothing will be an exemption
   from these miseries; for (v. 32) I have caused my terror in the land of
   the living. Great men have caused their terror, have studied how to
   make every body fear them. Oderint dum metuant--Let them hate, so that
   they do but fear. But now the great God has caused his terror in the
   land of the living; and therefore he laughs at theirs, because he sees
   that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13. In this day of terror Pharaoh
   and all his multitude shall be laid with those that are slain by the
   sword.

   II. The view which this prophecy gives us of ruined states may show us
   something, 1. Of this present world, and the empire of death in it.
   Come, and see the calamitous state of human life; see what a dying
   world this is. The strong die, the mighty die, Pharaoh and all his
   multitude. See what a killing world this is. They are all slain with
   the sword. As if men did not die fast enough of themselves, men are
   ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another. It is not only a
   great pit, but a great cock-pit. 2. Of the other world. Though it is
   the destruction of nations as such that perhaps is principally intended
   here, yet here is a plain allusion to the final and everlasting ruin of
   impenitent sinners, of those that are uncircumcised in heart; they are
   slain by the sword of divine justice; their iniquity is upon them, and
   with it they bear their shame. Those, Christ's enemies, that would not
   have him to reign over them, shall be brought forth and slain before
   him, though they be as pompous, though they be as numerous, as Pharaoh
   and all his multitude.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXIII.

   The prophet has now come off his circuit, which he went as judge, in
   God's name, to try and pass sentence upon the neighbouring nations,
   and, having finished with them, and read them all their doom, in the
   eight chapters foregoing, he now returns to the children of his people,
   and receives further instructions what to say to them. I. He must let
   them know what office he was in among them as a prophet, that he was a
   watchman, and had received a charge concerning them, for which he was
   accountable, ver. 1-9. The substance of this we had before, ch. iii.
   17, &c. II. He must let them know upon what terms they stand with God,
   that they are upon their trial, upon their good behaviour, that if a
   wicked man repent he shall not perish, but that if a righteous man
   apostatize he shall perish, ver. 10-20. III. Here is a particular
   message sent to those who yet remained in the land of Israel, and
   (which is very strange) grew secure there, and confident that they
   should take root there again, to tell them that their hopes would fail
   them because they persisted in their sins, ver. 21-29. IV. Here is a
   rebuke to those who personally attended Ezekiel's ministry, but were
   not sincere in their professions of devotion, ver. 30-33.

The Watchman's Office; The Prophet a Watchman to Israel. (b. c. 587.)

   1 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring
   the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their
   coasts, and set him for their watchman:   3 If when he seeth the sword
   come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;   4 Then
   whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if
   the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own
   head.   5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his
   blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his
   soul.   6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the
   trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any
   person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood
   will I require at the watchman's hand.   7 So thou, O son of man, I
   have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt
   hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.   8 When I say unto
   the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak
   to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his
   iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.   9 Nevertheless,
   if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn
   from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy
   soul.

   The prophet had been, by express order from God, taken off from
   prophesying to the Jews, just then when the news came that Jerusalem
   was invested, and close siege laid to it, ch. xxiv. 27. But now that
   Jerusalem is taken, two years after, he is appointed again to direct
   his speech to them; and there his commission is renewed. If God had
   abandoned them quite, he would not have sent prophets to them; nor, if
   he had not had mercy in store for them, would he have shown them such
   things as these. In these verses we have,

   I. The office of a watchman laid down, the trust reposed in him, the
   charge given him, and the conditions adjusted between him and those
   that employ him, v. 2, 6. 1. It is supposed to be a public danger that
   gives occasion for the appointing of a watchman--when God brings the
   sword upon a land, v. 2. The sword of war, whenever it comes upon a
   land, is of God's bringing; it is the sword of the Lord, of his
   justice, how unjustly soever men draw it. At such a time, when a
   country is in fear of a foreign invasion, that they may be informed of
   all the motions of the enemy, may not be surprised with an attack, but
   may have early notice of it, in order to their being at their arms and
   in readiness to give the invader a warm reception, they set a man of
   their coast, some likely person, that lives upon the borders of their
   country, where the threatened danger is expected, and is therefore well
   acquainted with all the avenues of it, and make him their watchman.
   Thus wise are the children of this world in their generation. Note, One
   man may be of public service to a whole country. Princes and statesmen
   are the watchmen of a kingdom; they are continually to employ
   themselves, and, if occasion be, as watchmen, to expose themselves for
   the public safety. 2. It is supposed to be a public trust that is
   lodged in the watchman and that he is accountable to the public for the
   discharge of it. His business is, (1.) To discover the approaches and
   advances of the enemy; and therefore he must not be blind nor asleep,
   for then he cannot see the sword coming. (2.) To give notice of them
   immediately by sound of trumpet, or, as sentinels among us, by the
   discharge of a gun, as a signal of danger. A special trust and
   confidence is reposed in him by those that set him to be their watchman
   that he will faithfully do these two things; and they venture their
   lives upon his fidelity. Now, [1.] If he do his part, if he be betimes
   aware of all the dangers that fall within his cognizance, and give
   warning of them, he has discharged his trust, and has not only
   delivered his soul, but earned his wages. If the people do not take
   warning, if they either will not believe the notice he gives them, will
   not believe the danger to be so great or so near as really it is, or
   will not regard it, and so are surprised by the enemy in their
   security, it is their own fault; the blame is not to be laid upon the
   watchman, but their blood is upon their own head. If any person goes
   presumptuously into the mouth of danger, though he heard the sound of
   the trumpet, and was told by it where the danger was, and so the sword
   comes and takes him away in his folly, he is felo de se--a suicide;
   foolish man, he has destroyed himself. But, [2.] If the watchman do not
   do his duty, if he might have seen the danger, and did not, but was
   asleep, or heedless, or looking another way, or if he did see the
   danger (for so the case is put here) and shifted only for his own
   safety, and blew not the trumpet to warn the people, so that some are
   surprised and cut off in their iniquity (v. 6), cut off suddenly,
   without having time to cry, Lord, have mercy upon me, time to repent
   and make their peace with God (which makes the matter much the worse,
   that the poor creature is taken away in his iniquity), his blood shall
   be required at the watchman's hand; he shall be found guilty of his
   death, because he did not give him warning of his danger. But if the
   watchman do his part, and the people do theirs, all is well; both he
   that gives warning and he that takes warning have delivered their
   souls.

   II. The application of this to the prophet, v. 7, 9.

   1. He is a watchman to the house of Israel. He had occasionally given
   warning to the nations about, but to the house of Israel he was a
   watchman by office, for they were the children of the prophets and the
   covenant They did not set him for a watchman, as the people of the
   land, v. 2 (for they were not so wise for their souls as to secure the
   welfare of them, as they would have been for the protection of their
   temporal interests); but God did it for them; he appointed them a
   watchman.

   2. His business as a watchman is to give warning to sinners of their
   misery and danger by reason of sin. This is the word he must hear from
   God's mouth and speak to them. (1.) God has said, The wicked man shall
   surely die; he shall be miserable. Unless he repent, he shall be cut
   off from God and all comfort and hope in him, shall be cut off from all
   good. He shall fall and lie for ever under the wrath of God, which is
   the death of the soul, as his favour is its life. The righteous God has
   said it, and will never unsay it, nor can all the world gainsay it,
   that the wages of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, brings forth
   death. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, not only against
   wicked nations, speaking ruin to them as nations, but against wicked
   persons, speaking ruin to them in their personal capacity, their
   personal interests, which pass into the other world and last to
   eternity, as national interests do not. (2.) It is the will of God that
   the wicked man should be warned of this: Warn them from me. This
   intimates that there is a possibility of preventing it, else it were a
   jest to give warning of it; nay, and that God is desirous it should be
   prevented. Sinners are therefore warned of the wrath to come, that they
   may flee from it, Matt. iii. 7. (3.) It is the work of ministers to
   give him warning, to say to the wicked, It shall be ill with thee, Isa.
   iii. 11. God ways in general, The soul that sinneth it shall die. The
   minister's business is to apply this to particular persons, and to say,
   "O wicked man! thou shalt surely die, whoever thou art; if thou go on
   still in thy trespasses, they will inevitably be thy ruin. O adulterer!
   O robber! O drunkard! O swearer! O sabbath-breaker! thou shalt surely
   die." And he must say this, not in passion, to provoke the sinner, but
   in compassion, to warn the wicked from his way, warn him to turn from
   it, that he may live. This is to be done by the faithful preaching of
   the word in public, and by personal application to those whose sins are
   open.

   3. If souls perish through his neglect of his duty, he brings guilt
   upon himself. "If the prophet do not warn the wicked of the ruin that
   is at the end of his wicked way, that wicked man shall die in his
   iniquity; for, though the watchman did not do his part, yet the sinner
   might have taken warning from the written word, from his own
   conscience, and from God's judgments upon others, by which his mouth
   shall be stopped, and God will be justified in his destruction." Note,
   It will not serve impenitent sinners to plead in the great day that
   their watchmen did not give them warning, that they were careless and
   unfaithful; for, though they were so, it will be made to appear that
   God left not himself without witness. "But he shall not perish alone in
   his iniquity; the watchman also shall be called to an account: His
   blood will I require at thy hand. The blind leader shall fall with the
   blind follower into the ditch." See what a desire God has of the
   salvation of sinners, in that he resents it so ill if those concerned
   do not what they can to prevent their destruction. And see what a great
   deal those ministers have to answer for another day who palliate sin,
   and flatter sinners in their evil way, and by their wicked lives
   countenance and harden them in their wickedness, and encourage them to
   believe that they shall have peace though they go on.

   4. If he do his duty, he may take the comfort of it, though he do not
   see the success of it (v. 9): "If thou warn the wicked of his way, if
   thou tell him faithfully what will be the end thereof, and call him
   earnestly to turn from it, and he do not turn, but persist in it, he
   shall die in his iniquity, and the fair warning given him will be an
   aggravation of his sin and ruin; but thou hast delivered thy soul."
   Note, It is a comfort to ministers that they may through grace save
   themselves, though they cannot be instrumental to save so many as they
   wish of those that hear them.

The Cavils of the People Answered. (b. c. 587.)

   10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus
   ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we
   pine away in them, how should we then live?   11 Say unto them, As I
   live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
   wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn
   ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?   12
   Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The
   righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his
   transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall
   thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall
   the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he
   sinneth.   13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely
   live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all
   his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that
   he hath committed, he shall die for it.   14 Again, when I say unto the
   wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that
   which is lawful and right;   15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give
   again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without
   committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.   16 None
   of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath
   done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.   17 Yet the
   children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as
   for them, their way is not equal.   18 When the righteous turneth from
   his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
     19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is
   lawful and right, he shall live thereby.   20 Yet ye say, The way of
   the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one
   after his ways.

   These verses are the substance of what we had before (ch. xviii. 20,
   &c.) and they are so full and express a declaration of the terms on
   which people stand with God (as the former were of the terms on which
   ministers stand) that it is no wonder that they are here repeated, as
   those were, though we had the substance of them before. Observe here,

   I. The cavils of the people against God's proceedings with them. God
   was now in his providence contending with them, but their uncircumcised
   hearts were not as yet humbled, for they were industrious to justify
   themselves, though thereby they reflected on God. Two things they
   insisted upon, in their reproaches of God, and in both they added
   iniquity to their sin and misery to their punishment:--1. They
   quarrelled with his promises and favours, as having no kindness nor
   sincerity in them, v. 10. God had set life before them, but they plead
   that he had set it out of their reach, and therefore did but mock them
   with the mention of it. The prophet had said, some time ago (ch. xxiv.
   23), You shall pine away for your iniquities; with that word he had
   concluded his threatenings against Judah and Jerusalem; and this they
   now upbraided him with, as if it had been spoken absolutely, to drive
   them to despair; whereas it was spoken conditionally, to bring them to
   repentance. Thus are the sayings of God's ministers perverted by men of
   corrupt minds, who are inclined to pick quarrels. He puts them in hopes
   of life and happiness; and herein they would make him contradict
   himself; "for" (say they) "if our transgressions and our sins be upon
   us, as thou hast often told us they are, and if we must, as thou
   sayest, pine away in them, and wear out a miserable captivity in a
   fruitless repentance, how shall we then live? If this be our doom,
   there is no remedy. We die, we perish, we all perish." Note, It is very
   common for those that have been hardened with presumption when they
   were warned against sin to sink into despair when they are called to
   repent, and to conclude there is no hope of life for them. 2. They
   quarrelled with his threatenings and judgments, as having no justice or
   equity in them. They said, The way of the Lord is not equal (v. 17,
   20), suggesting that God was partial in his proceedings, that with him
   there was respect of persons and that he was more severe against sin
   and sinners than there was cause.

   II. Here is a satisfactory answer given to both these cavils.

   1. Those that despaired of finding mercy with God are here answered
   with a solemn declaration of God's readiness to show mercy, v. 11. When
   they spoke of pining away in their iniquity God sent the prophet to
   them, with all speed, to tell them that though their case was sad it
   was not desperate, but there was yet hope in Israel. (1.) It is certain
   that God has no delight in the ruin of sinners, nor does he desire it.
   If they will destroy themselves, he will glorify himself in it, but he
   has no pleasure in it, but would rather they should turn and live, for
   his goodness is that attribute of his which is most his glory, which is
   most his delight. He would rather sinners should turn and live than go
   on and die. He has said it, he has sworn it, that by these two
   immutable things, in both which it is impossible for God to lie, we
   might have strong consolation. We have his word and his oath; and,
   since he could swear by no greater, he swears by himself: As I live.
   They questioned whether they should live, though they did repent and
   reform; yea, says God, as sure as I live, true penitents shall live
   also; for their life is hid with Christ in God. (2.) It is certain that
   God is sincere and in earnest in the calls he gives sinners to repent:
   Turn you, turn you, from your evil way. To repent is to turn from our
   evil way; this God requires sinners to do; this he urges them to do by
   repeated pressing instances: Turn you, turn you. O that they would be
   prevailed with to turn, to turn quickly, without delay! This he will
   enable them to do if they will but frame their doings to turn to the
   Lord, Hos. v. 4. For he has said, I will pour out my Spirit unto you,
   Prov. i. 23. And in this he will accept of them; for it is not only
   what he commands, but what he courts them to. (3.) It is certain that,
   if sinners perish in their impenitency, it is owing to themselves; they
   die because they will die; and herein they act most absurdly and
   unreasonably: Why will you die, O house of Israel? God would have heard
   them, and they would not be heard.

   2. Those that despaired of finding justice with God are here answered
   with a solemn declaration of the rule of judgment which God would go by
   in dealing with the children of men, which carries along with it the
   evidence of its own equity; he that runs may read the justice of it.
   The Jewish nation, as a nation, was now dead; it was ruined to all
   intents and purposes. The prophet must therefore deal with particular
   persons, and the rule of judgment concerning them is much like that
   concerning a nation, Jer. xviii. 8-10. If God speak concerning it to
   build and to plant, and it do wickedly, he will recall his favours and
   leave it to ruin. But if he speak concerning it to pluck up and
   destroy, and it repent, he will revoke the sentence and deliver it. So
   it is here. In short, The most plausible professors, if they
   apostatize, shall certainly perish for ever in their apostasy from God;
   and the most notorious sinners, if they repent, shall certainly be
   happy for ever in their return to God. This is here repeated again and
   again, because it ought to be again and again considered, and preached
   over to our own hearts. This was necessary to be inculcated upon this
   stupid senseless people, that said, The way of the Lord is not equal;
   for these rules of judgment are so plainly just that they need no other
   confirmation of them than the repetition of them.

   (1.) If those that have made a great profession of religion throw off
   their profession, quit the good ways of God and grow loose and carnal,
   sensual and worldly, the profession they made and all the religious
   performances with which they had for a great while kept up the credit
   of their profession shall stand them in no stead, but they shall
   certainly perish in their iniquity, v. 12, 13, 18. [1.] God says to the
   righteous man that he shall surely live, v. 13. He says it by his word,
   by his ministers. He that lives regularly, his own heart tells him, his
   neighbours tell him, He shall live. Surely such a man as this cannot
   but be happy. And it is certain, if he proceed and persevere in his
   righteousness, and if, in order to that, he be upright and sincere in
   it, if he be really as good as he seems to be, he shall live; he shall
   continue in the love of God and be for ever happy in that love. [2.]
   Righteous men, who have very good hopes of themselves and whom others
   have a very good opinion of, are yet in danger of turning to iniquity
   by trusting to their righteousness. So the case is put here: If he
   trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, and come to make a
   trade of sin--if he not only take a false step, but turn aside into a
   false way and persist in it. This may possibly be the case of a
   righteous man, and it is the effect of his trusting to his own
   righteousness. Note, Many eminent professors have been ruined by a
   proud conceitedness of themselves and confidence in themselves. He
   trust to the merit of his own righteousness, and thinks he has already
   made God so much his debtor that now he may venture to commit iniquity,
   for he has righteousness enough in stock to make amends for it; he
   fancies that whatever evil deeds he may do hereafter he can be in no
   danger from them, having so many good deeds beforehand to
   counterbalance them. Or, He trust to the strength of his own
   righteousness, thinks himself now so well established in a course of
   virtue that he may thrust himself into any temptation and it cannot
   overcome him, and so by presuming on his own sufficiency he is brought
   to commit iniquity. By making bold on the confines of sin he is drawn
   at length into the depths of hell. This ruined the Pharisees; they
   trusted to themselves that they were righteous, and that their long
   prayers, and fasting twice in the week, would atone for their devouring
   widows' houses. [3.] If righteous men turn to iniquity, and return not
   to their righteousness, they shall certainly perish in their iniquity,
   and all the righteousness they have formerly done, all their prayers,
   and all their alms, shall be forgotten. No mention shall be made, no
   remembrance had, of their good deeds; they shall be overlooked, as if
   they had never been. The righteousness of the righteous shall not
   deliver him from the wrath of God, and the curse of the law, in the day
   of his transgression. When he becomes a traitor and a rebel, and takes
   up arms against his rightful Sovereign, it will not serve for him to
   plead in his own defence that formerly he was a loyal subject, and did
   many good services to the government. No; he shall not be able to live.
   The remembrance of his former righteousness shall be no satisfaction
   either to God's justice or his own conscience in the day that he sins,
   but rather shall, in the estimate of both, highly aggravate the sin and
   folly of his apostasy. And therefore for his iniquity that he committed
   he shall die, v. 13. And again (v. 18), He shall even die thereby; and
   it is owing to himself.

   (2.) If those that have lived a wicked life repent and reform, forsake
   their wicked ways and become religious, their sins shall be pardoned,
   and they shall be justified and saved, if they persevere in their
   reformation. [1.] God says to the wicked, "Thou shalt surely die. The
   way that thou art in leads to destruction. The wages of thy sin is
   death, and thy iniquity will shortly be thy ruin." It was said to the
   righteous man, Thou shalt surely live, for his encouragement to proceed
   and persevere in the way of righteousness; but he made an ill use of
   it, and was emboldened by it to commit iniquity. It was said to the
   wicked man, Thou shalt surely die, for warning to him not to persist in
   his wicked ways; and he makes a good use of it, and is quickened
   thereby to return to God and duty. Thus even the threatenings of the
   word are to some, by the grace of God, a savour of life unto life,
   while even the promises of the word become to others, by their own
   corruption, a savour of death unto death. When God says to the wicked
   man, Thou shalt surely die, die eternally, it is to frighten him, not
   out of his wits, but out of his sins. [2.] There is many a wicked man
   who was hastening apace to his own destruction who yet is wrought upon
   by the grace of God to return and repent, and live a holy life. He
   turns from his sin (v. 14), and is resolved that he will have no more
   to do with it; and, as an evidence of his repentance for wrong done, he
   restores the pledge (v. 15) which he had taken uncharitably from the
   poor, he gives again that which he had robbed and taken unjustly from
   the rich. Nor does he only cease to do evil, but he learns to do well;
   he does that which is lawful and right, and makes conscience of his
   duty both to God and man--a great change, since, awhile ago, he neither
   feared God nor regarded man. But many such amazing changes, and blessed
   ones, have been wrought by the power of divine grace. He that was going
   on in the paths of death and the destroyer now walks in the statues of
   life, in the way of God's commandments, which has both life in it
   (Prov. xii. 28) and life at the end of it, Matt. xix. 17. And in this
   good way he perseveres without committing iniquity, though not free
   from remaining infirmity, yet under the dominion of no iniquity. He
   repents not of his repentance, nor returns to the commission of those
   gross sins which he before allowed himself in. [3.] He that does thus
   repent and return shall escape the ruin he was running into, and his
   former sins shall be no prejudice to his acceptance with God. Let him
   not pine away in his iniquity, for, if he confess and forsake it, he
   shall find mercy. He shall surely live; he shall not die, v. 15. Again
   (v. 16), He shall surely live. Again (v. 19), He has done that which is
   lawful and right, and he shall live thereby. But will not his
   wickednesses be remembered against him? No; he shall not be punished
   for them (v. 12): As for the wickedness of the wicked, though it was
   very heinous, yet he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns
   from his wickedness. Now that it has become his grief it shall not be
   his ruin. Now that there is a settled separation between him and sin
   there shall be no longer a separation between him and God. Nay, he
   shall not be so much as upbraided with them (v. 16): None of his sins
   that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him, either as a clog to
   his pardon or an allay to the comfort of it, or as any blemish and
   diminution to the glory that is prepared for him.

   Now lay all this together, and then judge whether the way of the Lord
   be not equal, whether this will not justify God in the destruction of
   sinners and glorify him in the salvation of penitents. The conclusion
   of the whole matter is (v. 20): "O you house of Israel, though you are
   all involved now in the common calamity, yet there shall be a
   distinction of persons made in the spiritual and eternal state, and I
   will judge you every one after his ways." Though they were sent into
   captivity by the lump, good fish and bad enclosed in the same net, yet
   there he will separate between the precious and the vile and will
   render to every man according to his works. Therefore God's way is
   equal and unexceptionable; but, as for the children of thy people, God
   turns them over to the prophet, as he did to Moses (Exod. xxxii. 7):
   "They are thy people; I can scarcely own them for mine." As for them,
   their way is unequal; this way which they have got of quarrelling with
   God and his prophets is absurd and unreasonable. In all disputes
   between God and his creatures it will certainly be found that he is in
   the right and they are in the wrong.

Message to Inhabitants of Judah; Rebuke to the Proud Jews. (b. c. 587.)

   21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the
   tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped
   out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.   22 Now
   the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, afore he that was
   escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the
   morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.   23 Then the
   word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   24 Son of man, they that
   inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was
   one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us
   for inheritance.   25 Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God;
   Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and
   shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?   26 Ye stand upon your
   sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's
   wife: and shall ye possess the land?   27 Say thou thus unto them, Thus
   saith the Lord God; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall
   fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the
   beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves
   shall die of the pestilence.   28 For I will lay the land most
   desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains
   of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.   29 Then
   shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most
   desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.

   Here we have,

   I. The tidings brought to Ezekiel of the burning of Jerusalem by the
   Chaldeans. The city was burnt in the eleventh year of the captivity and
   the fifth month, Jer. lii. 12, 13. Tidings hereof were brought to the
   prophet by one that was an eye-witness of the destruction, in the
   twelfth year, and the tenth month (v. 21), which was a year and almost
   five months after the thing was done; we may well suppose that, there
   being a constant correspondence at this time more than ever kept up
   between Jerusalem and Babylon, he had heard the news long before. But
   this was the first time he had an account of it from a refugee, from
   one who escaped, who could be particular, and would be pathetic, in the
   narrative of it. And the sign given him was the coming of such a one to
   him as had himself narrowly escaped the flames (ch. xxiv. 26): He that
   escapes in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with
   thy ears, to hear it more distinctly than ever, from one that could
   say, Quæque ipse miserrima vidi--These miserable scenes I saw.

   II. The divine impressions and influences he was under, to prepare him
   for those heavy tidings (v. 22): The hand of the Lord was upon me
   before he came, and had opened my mouth to speak to the house of Israel
   what we had in the former part of this chapter. And now he was no more
   dumb; he prophesied now with more freedom and boldness, being by the
   event proved a true prophet, to the confusion of those that
   contradicted him. All the prophecies from ch. xxiv. to this chapter
   have relation purely to the nations about, it is probable that the
   prophet, when he received them from the Lord, did not deliver them by
   word of mouth, but in writing; for he could not Say to the Ammonites,
   Say unto Tyrus, Say unto Pharaoh, &c., so and so, but by letters
   directed to the persons concerned, as Zacharias, when he could not
   speak, wrote; and herein he was as truly executing his prophetic office
   as ever. Note, Even silenced ministers may be doing a great deal of
   good by writing letters and making visits. But now the prophet's mouth
   is opened, that he may speak to the children of his people. It is
   probable that he had, during these three years, been continually
   speaking to them as a friend, putting them in mind of what he had
   formerly delivered to them, but that he never spoke to them as a
   prophet, by inspiration, till now, when the hand of the Lord came upon
   him, renewed his commission, gave him fresh instructions, and opened
   his mouth, furnished him with power to speak to the people as he ought
   to speak.

   III. The particular message he was entrusted with, relating to these
   Jews that yet remained in the land of Israel, and inhabited the wastes
   of that land, v. 24. See what work sin had made. The cities of Israel
   had now become the wastes of Israel, for they lay all in ruins; some
   few that had escaped the sword and captivity still continued there and
   began to think of re-settling. This was so long after the destruction
   of Jerusalem that it was some time before this that Gedaliah (a modest
   humble man) and his friends were slain; but probably at this time
   Johanan, and the proud men that joined with him, were at the height
   (Jer. xliii. 2); and before they came to a resolution to go into Egypt,
   wherein Jeremiah opposed them, it is probable that the project was to
   establish themselves in the wastes of the land of Israel, in which
   Ezekiel here opposed them, and probably despatched the message away by
   the person that brought him the news of Jerusalem's destruction. Or,
   perhaps, those here prophesied against might be some other party of
   Jews, that remained in the land, hoping to take root there and to be
   sole masters of it, after Johanan and his forces had gone into Egypt.
   Now here we have,

   1. An account of the pride of these remaining Jews, who dwelt in the
   wastes of the land of Israel. Though the providence of God concerning
   them had been very humbling, and still was very threatening, yet they
   were intolerably haughty and secure, and promised themselves peace. He
   that brought the news to the prophet that Jerusalem was smitten could
   not tell him (it is likely) what these people said, but God tells him,
   They say, "The land is given us for inheritance, v. 24. Our partners
   being gone, it is now all our own by survivorship, or, for want of
   heirs, it comes to us as occupants; we shall now be placed alone in the
   midst of the earth and have it all to ourselves." This argues great
   stupidity under the weighty hand of God, and a reigning selfishness and
   narrow-spiritedness; they pleased themselves in the ruin of their
   country as long as they hoped to find their own account in it, cared
   not though it were all waste, so that they might have the sole
   property--a poor inheritance to be proud of! They have the impudence to
   compare their case with Abraham's, glorying in this, We have Abraham to
   our father. "Abraham," say they, "was one, one family, and he inherited
   the land, and lived many years in the peaceable enjoyment of it; but we
   are many, many families, more numerous than he; the land is given us
   for inheritance." (1.) They think they can make out as good a title
   from God to this land as Abraham could: "If God gave this land to him,
   who was but one worshipper of him, as a reward of his service, much
   more will he give it to us, who are many worshippers of him, as the
   reward of our service." This shows the great conceit they had of the
   own merits, as if they were greater than those of Abraham their father,
   who yet was not justified by works. (2.) They think they can make good
   the possession of this land against the Chaldeans and all others
   invaders, as well as Abraham could against those that were competitors
   with him for it: "If he, who was but one, could hold it, much more
   shall we, who are many, and have many more at command than his 300
   trained servants." This shows the confidence they had in their own
   might; they had got possession, and were resolved to keep it.

   2. A check to this pride. Since God's providences did neither humble
   them nor terrify them, he sends them a message sufficient to do both.

   (1.) To humble them, he tells them of the wickedness they still
   persisted in, which rendered them utterly unworthy to possess this
   land, so that they could not expect God should give it to them. They
   had been followed with one judgment after another, but they had not
   profited by those means of grace as might be expected; they were still
   unreformed, and how could they expect that they should possess the
   land? "Shall you possess the land? What! such wicked people as you are?
   How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land?
   Jer. iii. 19. Surely you never reflect upon yourselves, else you would
   rather wonder that you are in the land of the living than expect to
   possess this land. For do you now know how bad you are?" [1.] "You make
   no conscience of forbidden fruit, forbidden food: You eat with the
   blood," directly contrary to one of the precepts given to Noah and his
   sons when God gave them possession of the earth, Gen. ix. 4. [2.]
   "Idolatry, that covenant-breaking sin, that sin which the jealous God
   has been in a particular manner provoked by to lay your country waste,
   is still the sin that most easily besets you and which you have a
   strong inclination to: You lift up your eyes towards your idols, which
   is a sign that though perhaps you do not bow your knee to them so much
   as you have done, yet you set your hearts upon them and hanker after
   them." [3.] "You are as fierce, and cruel, and barbarous as ever: You
   shed blood, innocent blood." [4.] "You confide in your own strength,
   your own arm, your own bow, and have no dependence on, or regard to,
   God and his providence: You stand upon your sword (v. 26); you think to
   carry all before you, and make all your own, by force of arms." How can
   those expect the inheritance of Isaac (as these did) who are of
   Ishmael's disposition, that had his hand against every man (Gen. xvi.
   12), and Esau's resolution to live by his sword? Gen. xxvii. 40. We met
   with those (ch. xxxii. 27) who, when they died, thought they could not
   lie easy underground unless they had their swords under their heads.
   Here we meet with those who, while they live, think they cannot stand
   firmly above ground unless they have their swords under their feet, as
   if swords were both the softest pillows and the strongest pillars;
   though it was sin, it was sin, that first drew the sword. But, blessed
   be God, there are those who know better, who stand upon the support of
   the divine power and promise and lay their heads in the bosom of divine
   love, not trusting in their own sword, Ps. xliv. 3. [5.] "You are
   guilty of all manner of abominations, and, particularly, you defile
   every one his neighbour's wife, which is an abomination of the first
   magnitude, and shall you possess the land? What! such vile miscreants
   as you?" Note, Those cannot expect to possess the land, nor to enjoy
   any true comfort or happiness here or hereafter, who live in rebellion
   against the Lord.

   (2.) To terrify them, he tells them of the further judgments God had in
   store for them, which should make them utterly unable to possess this
   land, so that they could not stand it out against the enemy. Do they
   say that they shall possess the land? God has said they shall not, he
   has sworn it, As I live, saith the Lord. Though he has sworn that he
   delights not in the death of sinners, yet he has sworn also that those
   who persist in impenitency and unbelief shall not enter into his rest.
   [1.] Those that are in the cities, here called the wastes, shall fall
   by the sword, either by the sword of the Chaldeans, who come to avenge
   the murder of Gedaliah, or by one another's swords, in their intestine
   broils. [2.] Those that are in the open field shall be devoured by wild
   beasts, which swarmed, of course, in the country when it was
   dispeopled, and there were none to master them and keep them under,
   Exod. xxiii. 29. When the army of the enemy had quitted the country
   still there was no safety in it. Noisome beasts constituted one of the
   four sore judgments, ch. xiv. 15. [3.] Those that are in the forts and
   in the caves, that think themselves safe in artificial or natural
   fastnesses, because men's eyes cannot discover them nor men's darts
   reach them, there the arrows of the Almighty shall find them out; they
   shall die of the pestilence. [4.] The whole land, even the land of
   Israel, that had been the glory of all lands, shall be most desolate,
   v. 28. It shall be desolation, desolation, all over as desolate as
   desolation itself can make it. The mountain of Israel, the fruitful
   mountains, Zion itself the holy mountain not excepted, shall be
   desolate, the roads unfrequented, the houses uninhabited, that none
   shall pass through; as it was threatened (Deut. xxviii. 62), You shall
   be left few in number. [5.] The pomp of her strength, whatever she
   glories in as her pomp and trusts to as her strength, shall be made to
   cease. [6.] The cause of all this was very bad; it is for all their
   abominations which they have committed. It is sin that does all this
   mischief, that makes nations desolate; and therefore we ought to call
   it an abomination. [7.] Yet the effect of all this will be very good:
   Then shall they know that I am the Lord, am their Lord, and shall
   return to their allegiance, when I have made the land most desolate.
   Those are untractable unteachable indeed that are not made to know
   their dependence upon God when all their creature-comforts fail them
   and are made desolate.

Hypocritical Professions. (b. c. 587.)

   30 Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking
   against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one
   to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and
   hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.   31 And they
   come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my
   people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with
   their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their
   covetousness.   32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of
   one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for
   they hear thy words, but they do them not.   33 And when this cometh to
   pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been
   among them.

   The foregoing verses spoke conviction to the Jews who remained in the
   land of Israel, who were monuments of sparing mercy and yet returned
   not to the Lord; in these verses those are reproved who were now in
   captivity in Babylon, under divine rebukes, and yet were not reformed
   by them. They are not indeed charged with the same gross enormities
   that the others are charged with. They made some show of religion and
   devotion; but their hearts were not right with God. The thing they are
   here accused of is mocking the messengers of the lord, one of their
   measure-filling sins, which brought this ruin upon them, and yet they
   were not cured of it. Two ways they mocked the prophet Ezekiel:--

   I. By invidious ill natured reflections upon him, privately among
   themselves, endeavouring by all means possible to render him
   despicable. The prophet did not know it, but charitably thought that
   those who spoke so well to him to his face, with so much seeming
   respect and deference, would surely not speak ill of him behind his
   back. But God comes and tells him, The children of thy people are still
   talking against thee (v. 30), or talking of thee, no good, I doubt.
   Note, Public persons are a common theme or subject of discourse; every
   one takes a liberty to censure them at pleasure. Faithful ministers
   know not how much ill is said of them every day; it is well that they
   do not; for, if they did, it might prove a discouragement to them in
   their work not to be easily got over. God takes notice of all that is
   said against his ministers, not only what is decreed against them, or
   sworn against them, not only what is written against them, or spoken
   with solemnity and deliberation, but of what is said against them in
   common talk, among neighbours when they meet in an evening, by the
   walls and in the doors of their houses, where whatever freedom of
   speech they use, if they reproach and slander any of God's ministers,
   God will reckon with them for it; his prophets shall not be made the
   song of the drunkards always. They had no crime to lay to the prophet's
   charge, but they loved to talk of him in a careless, scornful,
   bantering way; they said, jokingly, "Come, and let us hear what is the
   word that comes forth from the Lord; perhaps it will be something new,
   and will entertain us, and furnish us with matter for discourse." Note,
   Those have arrived as a great pitch of profaneness who can make so
   great a privilege, and so great a duty, as the preaching and hearing of
   the word of God, a matter of sport and ridicule, yea though it be not
   done publicly, but in private conversation among themselves. Serious
   things should be spoken of seriously.

   II. By dissembling with him in their attendance upon his ministry.
   Hypocrites mock God and mock his prophets. But their hypocrisy is open
   before God, and the day is coming when, as here, it will be laid open.
   Observe here,

   1. The plausible profession which these people made and the
   speciousness of their pretensions. They are like those (Matt. xv. 8)
   who draw nigh to God with their mouths and honour him with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from him. (1.) They were diligent and constant
   in their attendance upon the means of grace: They come unto thee as the
   people come. In Babylon they had no temple or synagogue, but they went
   to the prophet's house (ch. viii. 1), and there, it is probable, they
   spent their new moons and their sabbaths in religious exercises, 2
   Kings iv. 23. When the prophet was bound the word of the Lord was not
   bound; and the people, when they had not the help for their souls that
   they wished for, were thankful for what they had; it was a reviving in
   their bondage. Now these hypocrites came, according to the coming of
   the people, as duly and as early as any of the prophet's hearers. Their
   being said to come as the people came seems to intimate that the reason
   why they came was because other people came; they did not come out of
   conscience towards God, but only for company, for fashion-sake, and
   because it was now the custom of their countrymen. Note, Those that
   have no inward principle of love to God's ordinances may yet be found
   much in the external observance of them. Cain brought his sacrifice as
   well as Abel; and the Pharisee went up to the temple to pray as well as
   the publican. (2.) They behaved themselves very decently and reverently
   in the public assembly; there were none of them whispering, or
   laughing, or gazing about them, or sleeping. But they sit before thee
   as my people, with all the shows of gravity, and sereneness, and
   composure of mind. They sit out the time, without weariness, or wishing
   the sermon done. (3.) They were very attentive to the word preached:
   "They are not thinking of something else, but they hear thy words, and
   take notice of what thou sayest." (4.) They pretended to have a great
   kindness and respect for the prophet. Though, behind his back, they
   could not give him a good word, yet, to his face, they showed much love
   to him and his doctrine; they pretended to have a great concern lest he
   should spend himself too much in preaching or expose himself to the
   Chaldeans, for they would be thought to be some of his best friends and
   well-wishers. (5.) They took a great deal of pleasure in the word; they
   delighted to know God's word, Isa. lviii. 2. Herod heard John Baptist
   gladly, Mark vi. 20. Thou art unto them as a very lovely song.
   Ezekiel's matter was surprising, his language fine, his expressions
   elegant, his similitudes apt, his voice melodious, and his delivery
   graceful; so that they could sit with as much pleasure to hear him
   preach as (if I may speak in the language of our times) to see a play
   or an opera, or to hear a concert of music. Ezekiel was to them as one
   that had a pleasant voice and could sing well, or play well on an
   instrument. Note, Men may have their fancies pleased by the word, and
   yet not have their consciences touched nor their hearts changed, the
   itching ear gratified and yet not the corrupt nature sanctified.

   2. The hypocrisy of these professions and pretensions; it is all a
   sham, it is all a jest. (1.) They have no cordial affection for the
   word of God. While they show much love it is only with the mouth, from
   the teeth outward, but their heart goes after their covetousness; they
   are as much set upon the world as ever, as much in love and league with
   it as ever. Hearing the word is only their diversion and recreation, a
   pretty amusement now and then for an hour or two. But still their main
   business is with their farm and merchandise; the bent and bias of their
   souls are towards them, and their inward thoughts are employed in
   projects about them. Note, Covetousness is the ruining sin of
   multitudes that make a great profession of religion; it is the love of
   the world that secretly eats the love of God out of their hearts. The
   cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are the thorns that
   choke the seed, and choke the soul too. And those neither please God
   nor profit themselves who, when they are hearing the word of God, are
   musing upon their worldly affairs. God has his eye on the hearts that
   do so. (2.) They yield no subjection to it. They hear thy words, but it
   is only a hearing that they give thee, for they will not do them, v.
   31. And again (v. 32), they do them not. They will not be persuaded by
   all the prophet can say, either by authority or argument, to cross
   themselves in any instance, to part with any one beloved sin, or apply
   themselves to any one duty that is against the grain to flesh and
   blood. Note, There are many who take pleasure in hearing the word, but
   make no conscience of doing it; and so they build upon the sand, and
   deceive themselves.

   3. Let us see what will be in the end hereof: Shall their unbelief and
   carelessness make the word of God of no effect? By no means. (1.) God
   will confirm the prophet's word, though they contemn it, and make light
   of it, v. 33. What he says will come to pass, and not one jot or one
   tittle shall fall to the ground. Note, The curses of the law, though
   they may be bantered by profane wits, cannot be baffled. (2.) They
   themselves shall rue their folly when it is too late. When it comes to
   pass they shall know, shall know to their cost, know to their
   confusion, that a prophet has been among them, though they made no more
   of him than as one that had a pleasant voice. Note, Those who will not
   consider that a prophet is among them, and who improve not the day of
   their visitation while it is continued, will be made to remember that a
   prophet has been among them when the things that belong to their peace
   are hidden from their eyes. The day is coming when vain and worldly men
   will have other thoughts of things than now they have, and will feel a
   weight in that which they made light of. They shall know that a prophet
   has been among them when they see the event exactly answer the
   prediction, and the prophet himself shall be a witness against them
   that they had fair warning given them, but would not take it. When
   Ezekiel is gone, whom now they speak against, and there is no more any
   prophet, nor any to show them how long, then they will remember that
   once they had a prophet, but knew not how to use him well. Note, Those
   who will not know the worth of mercies by the improvement of them will
   justly be made to know the worth of them by the want of them, as those
   who should desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, which now
   they slighted, and might not see it.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXIV.

   The iniquities and calamities of God's Israel had been largely and
   pathetically lamented before, in this book. Now in this chapter the
   shepherds of Israel, their rulers both in church and state, are called
   to an account, as having been very much accessory to the sin and ruin
   of Israel, by their neglecting to do the duty of their place. Here is,
   I. A high charge exhibited against them for their negligence, their
   unskillfulness, and unfaithfulness in the management of public affairs,
   ver. 1-6 and ver. 8. II. Their discharge from their trust, for their
   insufficiency and treachery, ver. 7-10. III. A gracious promise that
   God would take care of his flock, though they did not, and that it
   should not always suffer as it had done by their mal-administrations,
   ver. 11-16. IV. Another charge exhibited against those of the flock
   that were fat and strong, for the injuries they did to those that were
   weak and feeble, ver. 17-22. V. Another promise that God would in the
   fulness of time send the Messiah, to be the great and good Shepherd of
   the sheep, who should redress all grievances and set every thing to
   rights with the flock, ver. 23-31.

The Shepherds Reproved. (b. c. 587.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them,
   Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of
   Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the
   flocks?   3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill
   them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.   4 The diseased have ye
   not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither
   have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again
   that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost;
   but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.   5 And they were
   scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all
   the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.   6 My sheep
   wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my
   flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search
   or seek after them.

   The prophecy of this chapter is not dated, nor any of those that follow
   it, till ch. xl. It is most probable that it was delivered after the
   completing of Jerusalem's destruction, when it would be very seasonable
   to enquire into the causes of it.

   I. The prophet is ordered to prophesy against the shepherds of
   Israel--the princes and magistrates, the priests and Levites, the great
   Sanhedrim or council of state, or whoever they were that had the
   direction of public affairs in a higher or lower sphere, the kings
   especially, for there were two of them now captives in Babylon, who, as
   well as the people, must have their transgressions shown them, that
   they might repent, as Manasseh in his captivity. God has something to
   say to the shepherds, for they are but under-shepherds, accountable to
   him who is the great Shepherd of Israel, Ps. lxxx. 1. And that which he
   says is, Woe to the shepherds of Israel! Though they are shepherds, and
   shepherds of Israel, yet he must not spare them, must not flatter them.
   Note, If men's dignity and power do not, as they ought, keep them from
   sin, they will not serve to exempt them from reproof, to excuse their
   repentance, or to secure them from the judgments of God if they do not
   repent. We had a woe to the pastors, Jer. xxiii. 1. God will in a
   particular manner reckon with them if they be false to their trust.

   II. He is here directed what to charge the shepherds with, in God's
   name, as the ground of God's controversy with them; for it is not a
   causeless quarrel. Two things they are charged with:--1. That all their
   care was to advance and enrich themselves and to make themselves great.
   Their business was to take care of those that were committed to their
   charge: Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? No doubt they should;
   they betray their trust if they do not. Not that they are to put the
   meat into their mouths, but to provide it for them and bring them to
   it. But these shepherds made this the least of their care; they fed
   themselves, contrived every thing to gratify and indulge their own
   appetite, and to make themselves rich and great, fat and easy. They
   made sure of the profits of their places; they did eat the fat, the
   cream (so some), for he that feeds a flock eats of the milk of it (1
   Cor. ix. 7), and they made sure of the best of the milk. They made sure
   of the fleece, and clothed themselves with the wool, getting into their
   hands as much as they could of the estates of their subjects, yea, and
   killed those that were well fed, that what they had might be fed upon,
   as Naboth was put to death for his vineyard. Note, There is a woe to
   those who are in public trusts, but consult only their own private
   interest, and are more inquisitive about the benefice than about the
   office, what money is to be got than what good to be done. It is an old
   complaint, All seek their own, and too many more than their own. 2.
   That they took no care for the benefit and welfare of those that were
   committed to their charge: You feed not the flock. They neither knew
   how to do it, so ignorant were they, nor would they take any pains to
   do it, so lazy and slothful were they; nay, they never desired nor
   designed it, so treacherous and unfaithful were they. (1.) They did not
   do their duty to those of the flock that were distempered, did not
   strengthen them, nor heal them, nor bind them up, v. 4. When any of the
   flock were sick or hurt, worried or wounded, it was all one to them
   whether they lived or died; they never looked after them. The princes
   and judges took no care to right those that suffered wrong or to
   shelter injured innocency. They took no care of the poor to see them
   provided for; they might starve, for them. The priests took no care to
   instruct the ignorant, to rectify the mistakes of those that were in
   error, to warn the unruly, or to comfort the feeble-minded. The
   ministers of state took no care to check the growing distempers of the
   kingdom, which threatened the vitals of it. Things were amiss, and out
   of course, every where, and nothing was done to rectify them. (2.) They
   did not do their duty to those of the flock that were dispersed, that
   were driven away by the enemies that invaded the country, and were
   forced to seek for shelter where they could find a place, or that
   wandered of choice upon the mountains and hills (v. 6), where they were
   exposed to the beasts of prey and became meat to them, v. 5. Every one
   is ready to seize a waif and stray. Some went abroad and begged, some
   went abroad and traded, and thus the country became thin of
   inhabitants, and was weakened and impoverished, and wanted hands both
   in the fields of corn and in the fields of battle, both in harvest and
   in war: My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, v. 6.
   And they were never enquired after, were never encouraged to return to
   their own country: None did search or seek after them. Nay, with force
   and cruelty they ruled them, which drove more away, and discouraged
   those that were driven away from all thoughts of returning. Their case
   is bad who have reason to expect better treatment among strangers than
   in their own country. It may be meant of those of the flock that went
   astray from God and their duty; and the priests, that should have
   taught the good knowledge of the Lord, used no means to convince and
   reclaim them, so that they became an easy prey to seducers. Thus were
   they scattered because there was no shepherd, v. 5. There were those
   that called themselves shepherds, but really they were not. Note, Those
   that do not do the work of shepherds are unworthy of the name. And if
   those that undertake to be shepherds are foolish shepherds (Zech. xi.
   15), if they are proud and above their business, idle and do not love
   their business, or faithless and unconcerned about it, the case of the
   flock is as bad as if it were without a shepherd. Better no shepherd
   than such shepherds. Christ complains that his flock were as sheep
   having no shepherd, when yet the scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses'
   seat, Matt. ix. 36. It is ill with the patient when his physician is
   his worst disease, ill with the flock when the shepherds drive them
   away and disperse them, by ruling them with force.

The Shepherds Reproved. (b. c. 587.)

   7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord;   8 As I live,
   saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock
   became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd,
   neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed
   themselves, and fed not my flock;   9 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear
   the word of the Lord;   10 Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am
   against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and
   cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds
   feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth,
   that they may not be meat for them.   11 For thus saith the Lord God;
   Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.   12
   As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his
   sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver
   them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
   dark day.   13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather
   them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and
   feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the
   inhabited places of the country.   14 I will feed them in a good
   pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be:
   there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they
   feed upon the mountains of Israel.   15 I will feed my flock, and I
   will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.   16 I will seek that
   which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will
   bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick:
   but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with
   judgment.

   Upon reading the foregoing articles of impeachment drawn up, in God's
   name, against the shepherds of Israel, we cannot but look upon the
   shepherds with a just indignation, and upon the flock with a tender
   compassion. God, by the prophet, here expresses both in a high degree;
   and the shepherds are called upon (v. 7, 9) to hear the word of the
   Lord, to hear this word. Let them hear how little he regards them, who
   made much of themselves, and how much he regards the flock, which they
   made nothing of; both will be humbling to them. Those that will not
   hear the word of the Lord giving them their direction shall be made to
   hear the word of the Lord reading them their doom. Now see here,

   I. How much displeased God is at the shepherds. Their crimes are
   repeated, v. 8. God's flock became a prey to the deceivers first that
   drew them to idolatry, and then to the destroyers that carried them
   into captivity; and these shepherds took no care to prevent either the
   one or the other, but were as if there had been no shepherds; and
   therefore God says (v. 10), and confirms it with an oath (v. 8), I am
   against the shepherds. They had a commission from God to feed the
   flock, and made use of this name in what they did, expecting he would
   stand by them. "No," says God, "so far from that, I am against them."
   Note, It is not our having the name and authority of shepherds that
   will engage God for us, if we do not the work enjoined us, and be not
   faithful to the trust reposed in us. God is against them, and they
   shall know it; for, 1. They shall be made to account for the manner in
   which they have discharged their trust: "I will require my flock at
   their hands, and charge it upon them that so many of them are missing."
   Note, Those will have a great deal to answer for in the judgment-day
   who take upon them the care of souls and yet take no care of them.
   Ministers must watch and work as those that must give account, Heb.
   xiii. 17. 2. They shall be deprived officio et beneficio--both of the
   work and of the wages. They shall cease from feeding the flock, that
   is, from pretending to feed it. Note, It is just with God to take out
   of men's hands that power which they have abused and that trust which
   they have betrayed. But, if this were all their punishment, they could
   bear it well enough; therefore it is added, "Neither shall the
   shepherds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my flock from
   their mouth, which, instead of protecting, they had made a prey of."
   Note, Those that are enriching themselves with the spoils of the public
   cannot expect that they shall always be suffered to do so. Nor will God
   always permit his people to be trampled upon by those that should
   support them, but will find a time to deliver them from the shepherds
   their false friends, as well as from the lions their open enemies.

   II. How much concerned God is for the flock; he speaks as if he were
   the more concerned for them because he saw them thus neglected, for
   with him the fatherless finds mercy. Precious promises are made here
   upon the occasion, which were to have their accomplishment in the
   return of the Jews out of their captivity and their re-establishment in
   their own land. Let the shepherds hear this word of the Lord, and know
   that they have no part nor lot in the matter. But let the poor sheep
   hear it and take the comfort of it. Note, Though magistrates and
   ministers fail in doing their part, for the good of the church, yet God
   will not fail in doing his; he will take the flock into his own hand
   rather than the church shall come short of any kindness he has designed
   for it. The under-shepherds may prove careless, but the chief Shepherd
   neither slumbers nor sleeps. They may be false, but God abides
   faithful.

   1. God will gather his sheep together that were scattered, and bring
   those back to the fold that had wandered from it: "I, even I, who alone
   can do it, will do it, and will have all the glory of it. I will both
   search my sheep and find them out (v. 11) as a shepherd does (v. 12),
   and bring them back as he does the stray-sheep, upon his shoulders,
   from all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
   dark day." There are cloudy and dark days, windy and stormy ones, which
   scatter God's sheep, which send them hither and thither, to divers and
   distant places, in quest of secresy and safety. But, (1.) Wherever they
   are the eye of God will find them out; for his eyes run to and fro
   through the earth, in favour of them. I will seek out my sheep; and not
   one that belongs to the fold, though driven ever so far off, shall be
   lost. The Lord knows those that are his; he knows their work and where
   they dwell (Rev. ii. 13), and where they are hidden. (2.) When his time
   shall come his arms will fetch them home (v. 13): I will bring them out
   from the people. God will both incline their hearts to come by his
   grace and will by his providence open a door for them and remove every
   difficulty that lies in the way. They shall not return one by one,
   clandestinely stealing away, but they shall return in a body: "I will
   gather them from the countries into which they are dispersed, not only
   the most considerable families of them, but every particular person. I
   will seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven
   away," v. 16. This was done when so many thousand Jews returned
   triumphantly out of Babylon, under the conduct of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and
   others. When those that have gone astray from God into the paths of sin
   are brought back by repentance, when those that erred come to the
   acknowledgment of the truth, when God's outcasts are gathered and
   restored, and religious assemblies, that were dispersed, rally again,
   upon the ceasing of persecution, and when the churches have rest and
   liberty, then this promise has a further accomplishment.

   2. God will feed his people as the sheep of his pasture, that had been
   famished. God will bring the returning captives safely to their own
   land (v. 13), will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, and that is
   a good pasture, and a fat pasture (v. 14); there shall their feeding
   be, and there shall be their fold; and it is a good fold. There God
   will not only feed them, but cause them to lie down (v. 15), which
   denotes a comfortable rest after they had tired themselves with their
   wanderings, and a constant continuing residence; they shall not be
   driven out again from these green pastures, as they have been, nor
   shall they be disturbed, but shall lie down in a sweet repose and there
   shall be none to make them afraid. Ps. xxiii. 2, He makes me to lie
   down in green pastures. Compare this with the like promise (Jer. xxiii.
   3, 4), when God restored them not only to the milk and honey of their
   own land, to the enjoyment of its fruits, but to the privileges of his
   sanctuary on Mount Zion, the chief of the mountains of Israel. When
   they had an altar and a temple again, and the benefit of a settled
   priesthood, then they were fed in a good pasture.

   3. He will succour those that are hurt, will bind up that which was
   broken and strengthen that which was sick, will comfort those that
   mourn in Zion and with Zion. If ministers, who should speak peace to
   those who are of a sorrowful spirit, neglect their duty, yet the Holy
   Ghost the Comforter will be faithful to his office. But, as it follows,
   the fat and the strong shall be destroyed. He that has rest for
   disquieted saints has terror to speak to presumptuous sinners. As every
   valley shall be filled, so every mountain and hill shall be brought
   low, Luke iii. 5.

God's Care of His Flock; Prediction of Messiah's Kingdom. (b. c. 587.)

   17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge
   between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.   18
   Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture,
   but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and
   to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with
   your feet?   19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have
   trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with
   your feet.   20 Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I,
   even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
     21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all
   the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;   22
   Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I
   will judge between cattle and cattle.   23 And I will set up one
   shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he
   shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.   24 And I the Lord
   will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord
   have spoken it.   25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and
   will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall
   dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.   26 And I will
   make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will
   cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of
   blessing.   27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the
   earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land,
   and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of
   their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served
   themselves of them.   28 And they shall no more be a prey to the
   heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they
   shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.   29 And I will
   raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed
   with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any
   more.   30 Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them,
   and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord
   God.   31 And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am
   your God, saith the Lord God.

   The prophet has no more to say to the shepherds, but he has now a
   message to deliver to the flock. God had ordered him to speak tenderly
   to them, and to assure them of the mercy he had in store for them. But
   here he is ordered to make a difference between some and others of
   them, to separate between the precious and the vile and then to give
   them a promise of the Messiah, by whom this distinction should be
   effectually made, partly at his first coming (for for judgment he came
   into this world, John ix. 39, to fill the hungry with good things and
   to send the rich empty away, Luke i. 53), but completely at his second
   coming, when he shall, as it is here said, judge between cattle and
   cattle, as a shepherd divides between the sheep and the goats, and
   shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left (Matt.
   xxv. 32, 33), which seems to have reference to this. We have here,

   I. Conviction spoken to those of the flock that were fat and strong,
   the rams and the he-goats (v. 17), those that, though they had not
   power, as shepherds and rulers, to oppress with, yet, being rich and
   wealthy, made use of the opportunity which this gave them to bear hard
   upon their poor neighbours. Those that have much would have more, and,
   if they set to it, will have more, so many ways have they of
   encroaching upon their poor neighbours, and forcing from them the one
   ewe-lamb, 2 Sam. xii. 4. Do not the rich oppress the poor merely with
   the help of their riches, and draw them before the judgment-seats? Jam.
   ii. 6. Poor servants and tenants are hardly used by their rich lords
   and masters. The rams and the he-goats not only kept all the good
   pasture to themselves, ate the fat and drank the sweet, but they would
   not let the poor of the flock have any comfortable enjoyment of the
   little that was left them; they trod down the residue of the pastures
   and fouled the residue of the waters, so that the flock was obliged to
   eat that which they had trodden into the dirt, and drink that which
   they had muddied, v. 18, 19. This intimates that the great men not only
   by extortion and oppression made and kept their neighbours poor, and
   scarcely left them enough to subsist on, but were so vexatious to them
   that what little coarse fare they had was embittered to them. And this
   seemed a small thing to them; they thought there was no harm in it, as
   if it were the privilege of their quality to be injurious to all their
   neighbours. Note, Many that live in pomp and at ease themselves care
   not what straits those about them are reduced to, so they may but have
   every thing to their mind. Those that are at ease, and the proud,
   grudge that any body should live by them with any comfort. But this as
   not all; they not only robbed the poor, to make them poorer, but were
   troublesome to the sick and weak of the flock (v. 21): They thrust with
   side and shoulder those that were feeble (for the weakest goes to the
   wall) and pushed the diseased with their horns, because they knew they
   could be too hard for them, when they durst not meddle with their
   match. It has been observed concerning sheep that if one of the flock
   be sick and faint the rest will secure it as well as they can, and
   shelter it from the scorching heat of the sun; but these, on the
   contrary, were most injurious to the diseased. Those that they could
   not serve themselves of they did what they could to rid the country of,
   and so scattered them abroad, as if the poor, whom, Christ says, we
   must have always with us, were public nuisances, not to be relieved,
   but sent far away from us. Note, It is a barbarous thing to add
   affliction to the afflicted. Perhaps these rams and he-goats are
   designed to represent the scribes and Pharisees, for they are such
   troublers of the church as Christ himself must come to deliver it from,
   v. 23. They devoured widows' houses, took away the key of knowledge,
   corrupted the pure water of divine truths, and oppressed the
   consciences of men with the traditions of the elders, besides that they
   were continually vexatious and injurious to the poor of the flock that
   waited on the Lord, Zech. xi. 11. Note, It is no new thing for the
   flock of God to receive a great deal of damage and mischief from those
   that are themselves of the flock, and in eminent stations in it, Acts
   xx. 30.

   II. Comfort spoken to those of the flock that are poor and feeble, and
   that wait for the consolation of Israel (v. 22): "I will save my flock,
   and they shall no more be spoiled as they have been by the beasts of
   prey, by their own shepherds or by the rams and he-goats among
   themselves." Upon this occasion, as is usual in the prophets, comes in
   a prediction of the coming of the Messiah, and the setting up of his
   kingdom, and the exceedingly great and precious benefits which the
   church should enjoy under the protection and influence of that kingdom.
   Observe what is here foretold,

   1. Concerning the Messiah himself. (1.) He shall have his commission
   from God himself: I will set him up (v. 23); I will raise him up, v.
   29. He sanctified and sealed him, appointed and anointed him. (2.) He
   shall be the great Shepherd of the sheep, who shall do that for his
   flock which no one else could do. He is the one Shepherd, under whom
   Jews and Gentiles should be one fold. (3.) He is God's servant,
   employed by him and for him, and doing all in obedience to his will,
   with an eye to his glory--his servant, to re-establish his kingdom
   among men and advance the interests of that kingdom. (4.) He is David,
   one after God's own heart, set as his King upon the holy hill of Zion,
   made the head of the corner, with whom the covenant of royalty is made,
   and to whom God would give the throne of his father David. He is both
   the root and offspring of David. (5.) He is the plant of renown,
   because a righteous branch (Jer. xxiii. 5), a branch of the Lord, that
   is beautiful and glorious, Isa. iv. 2. He has a name above every name,
   a throne above every throne, and may therefore well be called a branch
   of renown. Some understand it of the church, the planting of the Lord,
   Isa. lxi. 3. Its name shall be remembered (Ps. xlv. 17) and Christ's in
   it.

   2. Concerning the great charter by which the kingdom of the Messiah
   should be incorporated, and upon which it should be founded (v. 25): I
   will make with them a covenant of peace. The covenant of grace is a
   covenant of peace. In it God is at peace with us, speaks peace to us,
   and assures us of peace, of all good, all the good we need to make us
   happy. The tenour of this covenant is: "I the Lord will be their God, a
   God all-sufficient to them (v. 24), will own them and will be owned by
   them; in order to this my servant David shall be a prince among them,
   to reduce them to their allegiance, to receive their homage, and to
   reign over them, in them, and for them." Note, Those, and those only,
   that have the Lord Jesus for their prince have the Lord Jehovah for
   their God. And then they, even the house of Israel, shall be my people.
   If we take God to be our God, he will take us to be his people. From
   this covenant between God and Israel there results communion: "I the
   Lord their God am with them, to converse with them; and they shall know
   it, and have the comfort of it."

   3. Concerning the privileges of those that are the faithful subjects of
   this kingdom of the Messiah and interested in the covenant of peace.
   These are here set forth figuratively, as the blessings of the flock.
   But we have a key to it, v. 31. Those that belong to this flock, though
   they are spoken of as sheep, are really men, men that have the Lord for
   their God, and are in covenant with him. Now to them it is promised,

   (1.) That they shall enjoy a holy security under the divine protection.
   Christ, our good Shepherd, has caused the evil beasts to cease out of
   the land (v. 25), having vanquished all our spiritual enemies, broken
   their power, and triumphed over them; the roaring lion is not a roaring
   devouring lion to them; they shall no more be a prey to the heathen nor
   the heathen a terror to them, neither shall the beasts of the land
   devour them. Sin and Satan, death and hell, are conquered. And then
   they shall dwell safely, not only in the folds, but in the fields, in
   the wilderness, in the woods, where the beasts of prey are; they shall
   not only dwell there, but they shall sleep there, which denotes not
   only that the beasts being made to cease there shall be no danger, but,
   their consciences being purified and pacified, they shall be in no
   apprehension of danger; not only safe from evil, but quiet from the
   fear of evil. Note, Those may lay down and sleep securely, sleep at
   ease, that have Christ for their prince; for he will be their
   protector, and make them to dwell in safety. None shall hurt them, nay,
   none shall make them afraid. If God be for us, who can be against us?
   Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed. Through
   Christ, God delivers his people not only from the things they have
   reason to fear, but from their fear even of death itself, from all that
   fear that has torment. This safety from evil is promised (v. 27): They
   shall be safe in their land, in no danger of being invaded and
   enslaved, though their great plenty be a temptation to their neighbours
   to desire their land; and that which shall make them think themselves
   safe is their confidence in the wisdom, power, and goodness of God:
   They shall know that I am the Lord. All our disquieting fears arise
   from our ignorance of God and mistakes concerning him. Their experience
   of his particular care concerning them encourages their confidence in
   him: "I have broken the bands of their yoke, with which they have been
   brought and held down under oppression, and have delivered them out of
   the hand of those that served themselves of them, whence they shall
   argue, He that has delivered does and will, therefore will we dwell
   safely." This is explained, and applied to our gospel-state, Luke i.
   74. That we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might
   serve him without fear, as those may do that serve him in faith.

   (2.) That they shall enjoy a spiritual plenty of all good things, the
   best things, for their comfort and happiness: They shall no more be
   consumed with hunger in the land, v. 29. Famine and scarcity, when
   Israel was punished with that judgment, turned as much to their
   reproach among the heathen as any other, because the fruitfulness of
   Canaan was so much talked of. But now they shall not bear that shame of
   the heathen any more For the showers shall come down in their season,
   even showers of blessing, v. 26. Christ is a Shepherd that will feed
   his people; and they shall go in and out, and find pasture. [1.] They
   shall not be consumed with hunger; for they shall not be put off with
   the world for a portion, which is not bread, which satisfies not, and
   which leaves those that are put off with it to be consumed with hunger.
   The ordinances of the ceremonial law are called beggarly elements, for
   there was little in them, compared with the Christian institutes,
   wherewith the mower fills his hand and he that binds sheaves his bosom.
   Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall not be consumed
   with that hunger, for they shall be filled. And he that drinks of the
   water that Christ gives him, the still waters by which he leads his
   sheep, shall never thirst. [2.] Showers of blessings shall come upon
   them, v. 26, 27. The heavens shall yield their dews; the trees of the
   field also shall yield their fruit. The seat of this plenty is God's
   hill, his holy hill of Zion, for on that mountain, in the gospel
   church, it is, that God has made to all nations a feast; to that those
   must join themselves who would partake of gospel benefits. The cause of
   this plenty is the showers that come down in their season, that descend
   upon the mountains of Zion, the graces of Christ, his doctrine that
   drops as the dew, the graces of Christ, and the fruits and comforts of
   his Spirit, by which we are made fruitful in the fruits of
   righteousness. The instances of this plenty are the blessings of heaven
   poured down upon us and the productions of grace brought forth by us,
   our comfort in God's favour and God's glory in our fruit-bearing. The
   extent of this plenty is very large, to all the places round about my
   hill; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, shall go forth light to a
   dark world, and the river that shall water a dry and desert world; all
   that are in the neighbourhood of Zion shall fare the better for it; and
   the nearer the church the nearer its God. And, lastly, The effect of
   this plenty is, I will make them a blessing, eminently and exemplarily
   blessed, patterns of happiness, Isa. xix. 24. Or, They shall be
   blessings to all about them, diffusively useful. Note, Those that are
   the blessed of the Lord must study to make themselves blessings to the
   world. He that is good, let him do good; he that has received the gift,
   the grace, let him minister the same.

   Now this promise of the Messiah and his kingdom spoke much comfort to
   those to whom it was then made, for they might be sure that God would
   not utterly destroy their nation, how low soever it might be brought,
   as long as that blessing was in the womb of it, Isa. lxv. 8. But it
   speaks much more comfort to us, to whom it is fulfilled, who are the
   sheep of this good Shepherd, are fed in his pastures, and blessed with
   all spiritual blessings in heavenly things by him.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXV.

   It was promised, in the foregoing chapter, that when the time to favour
   Zion, yea, the set time, should come, especially the time for sending
   the Messiah and setting up his kingdom in the world, God would cause
   the enemies of his church to cease and the blessings and comforts of
   the church to abound. This chapter enlarges upon the former promise,
   concerning the destruction of the enemies of the church; the next
   chapter upon the latter promise, the replenishing of the church with
   blessings. Mount Seir (that is, Edom) is the enemy prophesied against
   in this chapter, but fitly put here, as in the prophecy of Obadiah, for
   all the enemies of the church; for, as those all walked in the way of
   Cain that hated Abel, so those all walked in the way of Esau who hated
   Jacob, but over whom Jacob, by virtue of a particular blessing, was to
   have dominion. Now here we have, I. The sin charged upon the Edomites,
   and that was their spite and malice to Israel, ver. 5, 10-13. II. The
   ruin threatened, that should come upon them for this sin. God will be
   against them (ver. 3) and then their country shall be laid waste (ver.
   4), depopulated, and made quite desolate (ver. 6-9), and left so when
   other nations that had been wasted should recover themselves, ver. 14,
   15.

The Fall of Edom. (b. c. 587.)

   1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man,
   set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,   3 And say
   unto it, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against
   thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make
   thee most desolate.   4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be
   desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.   5 Because thou hast
   had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of
   Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the
   time that their iniquity had an end:   6 Therefore, as I live, saith
   the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue
   thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.   7
   Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that
   passeth out and him that returneth.   8 And I will fill his mountains
   with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy
   rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.   9 I will make
   thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye
   shall know that I am the Lord.

   Mount Seir was mentioned as partner with Moab in one of the
   threatenings we had before (ch. xxv. 8); but here it is convicted and
   condemned by itself, and has woes of its own. The prophet must boldly
   set his face against Edom, and prophesy particularly against it; for
   the God of Israel has said, O Mount Seir! I am against thee. Note,
   Those that have God against them have the word of God against them, and
   the face of his ministers, nor dare they prophesy any good to them, but
   evil. The prophet must tell the Edomites that God has a controversy
   with them, and let them know,

   I. What is the cause and ground of that controversy, v. 5. God espouses
   his people's cause, and will plead it, takes what is done against them
   as done against himself, and will reckon for it; and it is upon their
   account that God now contends with the Edomites. 1. Because of the
   enmity they had against the people of God, that was rooted in the
   heart. "Thou hast had a perpetual hatred to them, to the very name of
   an Israelite." The Edomites kept up an hereditary malice against
   Israel, the same that Esau bore to Jacob, because he got the
   birth-right and the blessing. Esau had been reconciled to Jacob, had
   embraced and kissed him (Gen. xxxiii.), and we do not find that ever he
   quarrelled with him again. But the posterity of Esau would never be
   reconciled to the seed of Jacob, but hated them with a perpetual
   hatred. Note, Children will be more apt to imitate the vices than the
   virtues of their parents, and to tread in the steps of their sin than
   in the steps of their repentance. Parents should therefore be careful
   not to set their children any bad example, for though, through the
   grace of God, they may return, and prevent the mischief of what they
   have done amiss to themselves, they may not be able to obviate the bad
   influence of it upon their children. It is strange how deeply rooted
   national antipathies sometimes are, and how long they last; but it is
   not to be wondered at that profane Edomites hate pious Israelites,
   since the old enmity that was put between the seed of the woman and the
   seed of the serpent (Gen. iii. 15) will continue to the end. Marvel not
   if the world hate you. 2. Because of the injuries they had done to the
   people of God. They shed their blood by the force of the sword, in the
   time of their calamity; they did not attack them as fair and open
   enemies, but laid wait for them, to cut off those of them that had
   escaped (Obad. 14), or they drove them back upon the sword of the
   pursuers, by which they fell. It was cowardly, as well as barbarous, to
   take advantage of their distress; and for neighbours, with whom they
   had lived peaceably, to smite them secretly when strangers openly
   invaded them. It was in the time that their iniquity had an end, when
   the measure of it was full and destruction came. Note, Even those that
   suffer justly, and for their sins, are yet to be pitied and not
   trampled upon. If the father corrects one child, he expects the rest
   should tremble at it, not triumph in it.

   II. What should be the effect and issue of that controversy. If God
   stretch out his hand against the country of Edom, he will make it most
   desolate, v. 3. Desolation and desolation. 1. The inhabitants shall be
   slain with the sword (v. 6): I will prepare thee unto blood. Edom shall
   be gradually weakened, and so be the more easily conquered, and the
   enemy shall gather strength the more effectually to subdue it. Thus
   preparation is in the making a great while before for this destruction.
   Thou hast not hated blood; it implies, "Thou hast delighted in it and
   thirsted after it." Those that do not keep up a rooted hatred of sin,
   when a temptation to it is very strong, will be in danger of yielding
   to it. Some read it, "Unless thou hatest blood" (that is, "unless thou
   dost repent, and put off this bloody disposition) blood shall pursue
   thee." And then it is an intimation that the judgment may yet be
   prevented by a thorough reformation. If he turn not, he will whet his
   sword, Ps. vii. 12. But, if he turn, he will lay it by. Blood shall
   pursue thee, the guilt of the blood which thou hast shed or the
   judgment of blood; thy blood-thirsty enemies shall pursue thee, which
   way soever thou seekest to make thy escape. A great and general
   slaughter shall be made of the Idumeans, such as had been foretold
   (Isa. xxxiv. 6): The mountains and hills, the valleys and rivers, shall
   be filled with the slain, v. 8. The pursuers shall overtake those that
   flee and shall give no quarter, but put them all to the sword. Note,
   When God comes to make inquisition for blood those that have shed the
   blood of his Israel shall have blood given them to drink, for they are
   worthy. Satia te sanguine quem sitisti--Glut thyself with blood, after
   which thou hast thirsted. 2. The country shall be laid waste. The
   cities shall be destroyed (v. 4), the country made most desolate (v.
   7); for God will cut off from both him that passes out and him that
   returns; and when the inhabitants are cut off that should keep the
   cities in repair they will decay and go into ruins, and when those are
   cut off that should till the land that will soon be over-run with
   briers and thorns and become a wilderness. Note, Those that help
   forward the desolations of Israel may expect to be themselves made
   desolate. And that which completes the judgment is that Edom shall be
   made perpetual desolations (v. 9) and the cities shall never return to
   their former state, nor the inhabitants of them come back from their
   captivity and dispersion. Note, Those that have a perpetual enmity to
   God and his people, as the carnal mind has, can expect no other than to
   be made a perpetual desolation. Implacable malice will justly be
   punished with irreparable ruin.

The Fall of Edom. (b. c. 587.)

   10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries
   shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the Lord was there:   11
   Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to
   thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of
   thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when
   I have judged thee.   12 And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and
   that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against
   the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given
   us to consume.   13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me,
   and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.   14 Thus
   saith the Lord God; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee
   desolate.   15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of
   Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be
   desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall
   know that I am the Lord.

   Here is, I. A further account of the sin of the Edomites, and their bad
   conduct towards the people of God. We find the church complaining of
   them for setting on the Babylonians, and irritating them against
   Jerusalem, saying, Rase it, rase it, down with it, down with it (Ps.
   cxxxvii. 7), inflaming a rage that needed no spur; here it is further
   charged upon them that they triumphed in Jerusalem's ruin and in the
   desolations of the country. Many blasphemies they spoke against the
   mountains of Israel, saying, with pride and pleasure, They are laid
   desolate, v. 12. Note, The troubles of God's church, as they give
   proofs of the constancy and fidelity of its friends, so they discover
   and draw out the corruptions of its enemies, in whom there then appears
   more brutish malice than one would have thought of. Now their
   triumphing in Jerusalem's ruin is here said to proceed, 1. From a
   sinful passion against the people of Israel; from anger and envy, and
   hatred against them (v. 11), that perpetual hatred spoken of v. 5.
   Though they were not a match for them, and therefore could not do them
   a mischief themselves, yet they were glad when the Chaldeans did them a
   mischief. 2. From a sinful appetite to the land of Israel. They pleased
   themselves with hopes that when the people of Israel were destroyed
   they should be let into the possession of their country, which they had
   so often grudged and envied them. They thought they could make out
   something of a title to it, ob defectum sanguinis--for want of other
   heirs. If Jacob's issue fail, they think that they are next in the
   entail, and that the remainder will be to his brother's issue: "These
   two nations of Judah and Israel shall be mine. Now is the time for me
   to put in for them." At least they hope to come in as first occupants,
   being near neighbours: We will possess it when it is deserted. Ceditur
   occupanti--Let us get possession and that will be title enough. Note,
   Those have the spirit of Edomites who desire the death of others
   because they hope to get by it, or are pleased with their failing
   because they expect to come into their business. When we see the vanity
   of the world in the disappointments, losses, and crosses, that others
   meet with in it, instead of showing ourselves, upon such an occasion,
   greedy of it, we should rather be made thereby to sit more loose to it,
   and both take our affections off it and lower our expectations from it.
   But in this case of the Edomites' coveting the land of Israel, and
   gaping for it, there was a particular affront to God, when they said,
   "These lands are given us to devour, and we shall have our bellies full
   of their riches." God says, You have boasted against me and have
   multiplied your words against me; for they expected possession upon a
   vacancy, because Israel was driven out, whereas the Lord was still
   there, v. 10. His temple indeed was burnt, and the other tokens of his
   presence were gone; but his promise to give that land to the seed of
   Jacob for an inheritance was not made void, but remained in full force
   and virtue; and by that promise he did in effect still keep possession
   for Israel, till they should in due time be restored to it. That was
   Immanuel's land (Isa. viii. 8); in that land he was to be born, and
   therefore that people shall continue in it of whom he is to be born,
   till he has passed his time in it, and then let who will take it. The
   Lord is there, the Lord Jesus is to be there; and therefore Israel's
   discontinuance of possession is no defeasance of their right, but it
   shall be kept for them, and they shall have, hold, and enjoy it by
   virtue of the divine grant, till the promise of this Canaan shall by
   the Messiah be changed into the promise of a far better. Note, It is a
   piece of presumption highly offensive to God for Edomites to lay claim
   to those privileges and comforts that are peculiar to God's chosen
   Israel and are reserved for them. It is blasphemy against the mountains
   of Israel, the holy mountains, to say, because they are for the present
   made a prey of and trodden under foot of the Gentiles (Rev. xi. 2),
   even the holy city itself, that therefore the Lord has forsaken them,
   their God has forgotten them. The apostle will by no means admit such a
   thought as this, that God hath cast away his people, Rom. xi. 1. No;
   though they are cast down for a time, they are not cast off for ever.
   Those reproach the Lord who say they are.

   II. The notice God took of the barbarous insolence of the Edomites, and
   the doom passed upon them for it: I have heard all thy blasphemies, v.
   12. And again (v. 13), You have multiplied your words against me, and I
   have heard them, I have observed them, I have kept an account of them.
   Note, In the multitude of words, not one escapes God's cognizance; let
   men speak ever so much, ever so fast, though they multiply words, which
   they themselves regard not, but forget immediately, yet none of them
   are lost in the crowd, not the most idle words; but God hears them, and
   will be able to charge the sinner with them. All the haughty and hard
   speeches, particularly, which are spoken against the Israel of God, the
   words which are magnified (as it is in the margin, v. 13) as well as
   the words which are multiplied, God takes notice of. For, as the most
   trifling words are not below his cognizance, so the most daring are not
   above his rebuke. I have heard all thy blasphemies. This is a good
   reason why we should bear reproach as if we heard it not, because God
   will hear, Ps. xxxviii. 13, 15. God has heard the Edomites' blasphemy;
   let them therefore hear their doom, v. 14, 15. It was a national sin
   (the blasphemies charged upon them were the sense and language of all
   the Edomites), and therefore shall be punished with a national
   desolation. And, 1. It shall be a distinguishing punishment. As God has
   peculiar favours for Israelites, so he has peculiar plagues for
   Edomites: so that "When the whole earth rejoices I will make thee
   desolate; when other nations have their desolations repaired, to their
   joy, thine shall be perpetual," v. 9. 2. The punishment shall answer to
   the sin: "As thou didst rejoice in the desolation of the house of
   Israel, God will give thee enough of desolation; since thou art so fond
   of it, thou shalt be desolate; I will make thee so." Note, Those who,
   instead of weeping with the mourners, make a jest of their grievances,
   may justly be made to weep like the mourners, and themselves to feel
   the weight, to feel the smart, of those grievances which they set so
   light by. Some read v. 14 so as to complete the resemblance between the
   sin and the punishment: The whole earth shall rejoice when I make thee
   desolate, as thou didst rejoice when Israel was made desolate. Those
   that are glad at the death and fall of others may expect that others
   will be glad of their death, of their fall. 3. In the destruction of
   the enemies of the church God designs his own glory, and we may be sure
   that he will not come short of his design. (1.) That which he intends
   is to manifest himself, as a just and jealous God, firm to his covenant
   and faithful to his people and their injured cause (v. 11): I will make
   myself known among them when I have judged thee. The Lord is and will
   be known by the judgments which he executes. (2.) His intention shall
   be fully answered; not only his own people shall be made to know it to
   their comfort, but even the Edomites themselves, and all the other
   enemies of his name and people, shall know that he is the Lord, v. 4,
   9, 15. As the works of creation and common providence demonstrate that
   there is a God, so the care taken of Israel shows that Jehovah, the God
   of Israel, is that God alone, the true and living God.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXVI.

   We have done with Mount Seir, and left it desolate, and likely to
   continue so, and must now turn ourselves, with the prophet, to the
   mountains of Israel, which we find desolate too, but hope before we
   have done with the chapter to leave in better plight. Here are two
   distinct prophecies in this chapter:--I. Here is one that seems chiefly
   to relate to the temporal estate of the Jews, wherein their present
   deplorable condition is described and the triumphs of their neighbours
   in it; but it is promised that their grievances shall be all redressed
   and that in due time they shall be settled again in their own land, in
   the midst of peace and plenty, ver. 1-15. II. Here is another that
   seems chiefly to concern their spiritual estate, wherein they are
   reminded of their former sins and God's judgments upon them, to humble
   them for their sins and under God's mighty hand, ver. 16-20. But it is
   promised, 1. That God would glorify himself in showing mercy to them,
   ver. 21-24. 2. That he would sanctify them, by giving them his grace
   and fitting them for his service; and this for his own name's sake and
   in answer to their prayers, ver. 25-38.

God's Compassion for Israel. (b. c. 587.)

   1 Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and
   say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:   2 Thus saith
   the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the
   ancient high places are ours in possession:   3 Therefore prophesy and
   say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and
   swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the
   residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and
   are an infamy of the people:   4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel,
   hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the
   mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the
   desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a
   prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
   5 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy
   have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all
   Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy
   of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
   6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the
   mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus
   saith the Lord God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my
   fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:   7 Therefore
   thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen
   that are about you, they shall bear their shame.   8 But ye, O
   mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your
   fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.   9 For,
   behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled
   and sown:   10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of
   Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the
   wastes shall be builded:   11 And I will multiply upon you man and
   beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you
   after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your
   beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.   12 Yea, I will
   cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall
   possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no
   more henceforth bereave them of men.   13 Thus saith the Lord God;
   Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast
   bereaved thy nations;   14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,
   neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord God.   15 Neither
   will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more,
   neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither
   shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God.

   The prophet had been ordered to set his face towards the mountains of
   Israel and prophesy against them, ch. vi. 2. Then God was coming forth
   to contend with his people; but now that God is returning in mercy to
   them he must speak good words and comfortable words to these mountains,
   v. 1 and again v. 4. You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the
   Lord; and what he says to them he says to the hills, to the rivers, to
   the valleys, to the desolate wastes in the country, and to the cities
   that are forsaken, v. 4 and again v. 6. The people were gone, some one
   way and some another; nothing remained there to be spoken to but the
   places, the mountains and valleys; these the Chaldeans could not carry
   away with them. The earth abides for ever. Now, to show the mercy God
   had in reserve for the people, he is to speak of him as having a
   dormant kindness for the place, which, if the Lord had been pleased for
   ever to abandon, he would not have called upon to hear the word of the
   Lord, nor would he as at this time have shown it such things as these.
   Here is,

   I. The compassionate notice God takes of the present deplorable
   condition of the land of Israel. It has become both a prey and a
   derision to the heathen that are round about, v. 4. 1. It has become a
   prey to them; and they are all enriched with the plunder of it. When
   the Chaldeans had conquered them all their neighbours flew to the spoil
   as to a shipwreck, every one thinking all his own that he could lay his
   hands on (v. 3): They have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on
   every side, that you might be a possession to the heathen, to the
   residue of them, even such as had themselves narrowly escaped the like
   desolation. No one thought it any crime to strip an Israelite. Turba
   Romæ sequitur fortunam ut semper--The mob of Rome still praise the
   elevated and despise the fallen. It is the common dry, when a man is
   down, Down with him. 2. It has become a derision to them. They took all
   they had and laughed at them when they had done. The enemy said, "Aha!
   even the ancient high places are ours in possession, v. 2. Neither the
   antiquity, nor the dignity, neither the sanctity nor the
   fortifications, of the land of Israel, are its security, but we have
   become masters of it all." The more honours that land had been adorned
   with, and the greater figure it had made among the nations, the more
   pride and pleasure did they take in making a spoil of it, which is an
   instance of a base and sordid spirit; for the more glorious and
   prosperity was the more piteous is the adversity. God takes notice of
   it here as an aggravation of the present calamity of Israel: You are
   taken up in the lips of talkers and are an infamy of the people, v. 3.
   All the talk of the country about was concerning the overthrow of the
   Jewish nation; and every one that spoke of it had some peevish
   ill-natured reflection or other upon them. They were the scorning of
   those that were at ease and the contempt of the proud, Ps. cxxiii. 4.
   There are some that are noted for talkers, that have something to say
   of every body, but cannot find in their hearts to speak well of any
   body; God's people, among such people, were sure to be a reproach when
   the crown had fallen from their head. Thus it was the lot of
   Christianity, in its suffering days, to be every where spoken against.

   II. The expressions of God's just displeasure against those who
   triumphed in the desolations of the land of Israel, as many of its
   neighbours did, even the residue of the brethren, and Idumea
   particularly. Let us see, 1. How they dealt with the Israel of God.
   They carved out large possessions to themselves out of their land, out
   of God's land; for so indeed it was: "They have appointed my land into
   their possession (v. 5), and so not only invaded their neighbour's
   property, but intrenched upon God's prerogative." It was the holy land
   which they laid their sacrilegious hands upon. They did not own any
   dependence upon God, as the God of that land, nor acknowledge any
   remaining interest that Israel had in it, but cast it out for a prey,
   as if they had won it in a lawful war. And this they did without any
   dread of God and his judgments and without any compassion for Israel
   and their calamities, but with the joy of all their hearts, because
   they got by it, and with despiteful minds to Israel that lost by it.
   Increasing wealth, by right or wrong, is all the joy of a worldly
   heart; and the calamities of God's people are all the joy of a
   despiteful mind. And those that had not an opportunity of making a prey
   of God's people made a reproach of them; so that they were the shame of
   the heathen, v. 6. Every body ridiculed them and made a jest of them;
   and the truth is they had by their own sin made themselves vile; so
   that God was righteous herein, but men were unrighteous and very
   barbarous. 2. How God would deal with those who were thus in word and
   deed abusive to his people. He has spoken against the heathen; he has
   passed sentence upon them; he has determined to reckon with them for
   it, and this in the fire of his jealousy, both for his own honour and
   for the honour of his people, v. 5. Having a love for both as strong as
   death, he has a jealousy for both as cruel as the grave. They spoke in
   their malice against God's people, and he will speak in his jealousy
   against them; and it is easy to say which will speak most powerfully.
   God will speak in his jealousy and in his fury, v. 6. Fury is not in
   God; but he will exert his power against them and handle them as
   severely as men do when they are in a fury. He will so speak to them in
   his wrath as to vex them in his sore displeasure. What he says he will
   stand to, for it is backed with an oath. He has lifted up his hand and
   sworn by himself, has sworn and will not repent. And what is it that is
   said with so much heat, and yet with so much deliberation? It is this
   (v. 7), Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their
   shame. Note, The righteous God, to whom vengeance belongs, will render
   shame for shame. Those that put contempt and reproach upon God's people
   will, sooner or later, have it burned upon themselves, perhaps in this
   world (either their follies or their calamities, their miscarriages or
   their mischances, shall be their reproach), at furthest in that day
   when all the impenitent shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt.

   III. The promises of God's favour to his Israel and assurances given of
   great mercy God had in store for them. God takes occasion from the
   outrage and insolence of their enemies to show himself so much the more
   concerned for them and ready to do them good, as David hoped that God
   would recompense him good for Shimei's cursing him. Let them curse, but
   bless thou. In this way, as well as others, the enemies of God's people
   do them real service, even by the injuries they do them, against their
   will and beyond their intention. We shall have no reason to complain
   if, the more unkind men are, the more kind God is--if, the more kindly
   he speaks to us by his word and Spirit, the more kindly he acts for us
   in his providence. The prophet must say so to the mountains of Israel,
   which were now desolate and despised, that God is for them and will
   burn to them, v. 9. As the curse of God reaches the ground for man's
   sake, so does the blessing. Now that which is promised is, 1. That
   their rightful owners should return to the possession of them: My
   people Israel are at hand to come, v. 8. Though they are at a great
   distance from their own country, though they are dispersed in many
   countries, and though they are detained by the power of their enemies,
   yet they shall come again to their own border, Jer. xxxi. 17. The time
   is at hand for their return. Though there were above forty years of the
   seventy (perhaps fifty) yet remaining, it is spoken of as near, because
   it is sure, and there were some among them that should live to see it.
   A thousand years are with God but as one day. The mountains of Israel
   are now desolate; but God will cause men to walk upon them again, even
   his people Israel, not as travellers passing over them, but as
   inhabitants--not tenants, but freeholders: They shall possess thee, not
   for term of life, but for themselves and their heirs; thou shalt be
   their inheritance. It was a type of the heavenly Canaan, to which all
   God's children are heirs, every Israelite indeed, and into which they
   shall shortly be all brought together, out of the countries where they
   are now scattered. 2. That they should afford a plentiful comfortable
   maintenance for their owners at their return. When the land had enjoyed
   her sabbaths for so many years, it should be so much the more fruitful
   afterwards, as we should be after rest, especially a sabbath rest: You
   shall be tilled and sown (v. 9) and shall yield your fruit to my people
   Israel, v. 8. Note, It is a blessing to the earth to be made
   serviceable to men, especially to good men, that will serve God with
   cheerfulness in the use of those good things which the earth serves up
   to them. 3. That the people of Israel should have not only a
   comfortable sustenance, but a comfortable settlement, in their own
   land: The cities shall be inhabited; the wastes shall be builded, v.
   10. And I will settle you after your old estates, v. 11. Their own sin
   had unsettled them, but now God's favour shall resettle them. When the
   prodigal son has become a penitent he is settled again in his father's
   house, according to his former estate. Bring hither the first robe, and
   put it on him. Nay, I will do better unto you now than at your
   beginnings. There is more joy for the sheep that is brought back than
   there would have been if it had never gone astray. And God sometimes
   multiplies his people's comforts in proportion to the time that he has
   afflicted them. Thus God blessed the latter end of Job more than his
   beginning, and doubled to him all he had. 4. That the people, after
   their return, should be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the land,
   so that it should not only be inhabited again, but as thickly
   inhabited, and as well peopled, as ever. God will bring back to it all
   the house of Israel, even all of it (observe what an emphasis is laid
   upon that, v. 10), all whose spirits God stirred up to return; and
   those only were reckoned of the house of Israel, the rest had cut
   themselves off from it; or, though but few, in comparison, returned at
   first, yet afterwards, at divers times, they all returned; and then
   (says God) I will multiply these men (v. 10), multiply man and beast;
   and they shall increase, v. 11. Note, God's kingdom in the world is a
   growing kingdom; and his church, though for a time it may be
   diminished, shall recover itself and be again replenished. 5. That the
   reproach long since cast up on the land of Israel by the evil spies,
   and of late revived, that it was a land that ate up the inhabitants of
   it by famine, sickness, and the sword, should be quite rolled away, and
   there should never be any more occasion for it. Canaan had got into a
   bad name. It had of old spued out the inhabitants (Lev. xviii. 28), the
   natives, the aborigines, which was turned to its reproach by those that
   should have put another construction upon it, Num. xiii. 32. It had of
   late devoured the Israelites, and spued them out too; so that it was
   commonly said of it, It is a land which, instead of supporting its
   nations or tribes that inhabit it, bereaves them, overthrows them, and
   causes them to fall; it is a tenement which breaks all the tenants that
   come upon it. This character it had got among the neighbours; but God
   now promises that it shall be so no more: Thou shalt no more bereave
   them of men (v. 12), shalt devour men no more, v. 14. But the
   inhabitants shall live to a good old age, and not have the number of
   their months cut off in the midst. Compare this with that promise,
   Zech. viii. 4. Note, God will take away the reproach of his people by
   taking away that which was the occasion of it. When the nation is made
   to flourish in peace, plenty, and power, then they hear no more the
   shame of the heathen (v. 15), especially when it is reformed; when sin,
   which is the reproach of any people, particularly of God's professing
   people, is taken away, then they hear no more the reproach of the
   people. Note, When God returns in mercy to a people that return to him
   in duty, all their grievances will be soon redressed and their honour
   retrieved.

God's Compassion for Israel. (b. c. 587.)

   16 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   17 Son of man,
   when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by
   their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the
   uncleanness of a removed woman.   18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon
   them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their
   idols wherewith they had polluted it:   19 And I scattered them among
   the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according
   to their way and according to their doings I judged them.   20 And when
   they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy
   name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are
   gone forth out of his land.   21 But I had pity for mine holy name,
   which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they
   went.   22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord
   God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy
   name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
     23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the
   heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen
   shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be
   sanctified in you before their eyes.   24 For I will take you from
   among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring
   you into your own land.

   When God promised the poor captives a glorious return, in due time, to
   their own land, it was a great discouragement to their hopes that they
   were unworthy, utterly unworthy, of such a favour; therefore, to remove
   that discouragement, God here shows them that he would do it for them
   purely for his own name's sake, that he might be glorified in them and
   by them, that he might manifest and magnify his mercy and goodness,
   that attribute which of all others is most his glory. And, the
   restoration of that people being typical of our redemption by Christ,
   this is intended further to show that the ultimate end aimed at in our
   salvation, to which all the steps of it were made subservient, was the
   glory of God. To this end Christ directed all he did in that short
   prayer, Father, glorify thy name; and God declared it was his end in
   all he did in the immediate answer given to that prayer, by a voice
   from heaven: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again, John
   xii. 28. Now observe here,

   I. How God's name had suffered both by the sins and by the miseries of
   Israel; and this was more to be regretted than all their sorrow, which
   they had brought upon themselves; for the honour of God lies nearer the
   hearts of good men than any interests of their own. 1. God's glory had
   been injured by the sin of Israel when they were in their own land, v.
   17. It was a good land, a holy land, a land that had the eye of God
   upon it. But they defiled it by their own way, their wicked way; that
   is our own way, the way of our own choice; and we ourselves must bear
   the blame and shame of it. The sin of a people defiles their land,
   renders it abominable to God and uncomfortable to themselves; so that
   they cannot have any holy communion with him nor with one another. What
   was unclean might not be made use of. By the abuse of the gifts of
   God's bounty to us we forfeit the use of them; and, the mind and
   conscience being defiled with guilt, no comfort is allowed us, nothing
   is pure to us. Their way in the eye of God was like the pollution of a
   woman during the days of her separation, which shut her out from the
   sanctuary and made very things she touched ceremonially unclean, Lev.
   xv. 19. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which he
   cannot endure to look upon. They shed blood and worshipped idols (v.
   18) and with those sins defiled the land. For this God poured out his
   fury upon them, scattered them among the heathen. Their own land was
   sick of them, and they were sent into other lands. Herein God was
   righteous, and was justified in what he did; none could say that he did
   them any wrong, nay, he did justice to his own honour, for he judged
   them according to their way and according to their doings, v. 19. And
   yet, the matter being not rightly understood, he was not glorified in
   it; for the enemies did say, as Moses pleaded the Egyptians would say
   if he had destroyed them in the wilderness, that for mischief he
   brought them forth. Their neighbours considered them rather as a holy
   people than as a sinful people, and therefore took occasion from the
   calamities they were in, instead of glorifying God, as they might
   justly have done, to reproach him and put contempt upon him; and God's
   name was continually every day blasphemed by their oppressors, Isa.
   lii. 5. 2. When they entered into the land of the heathen God had no
   glory by them there; but, on the contrary, his holy name was profaned,
   v. 20. (1.) It was profaned by the sins of Israel; they were no credit
   to their profession wherever they went, but, on the contrary, a
   reproach to it. The name of God and his holy religion was blasphemed
   through them, Rom. ii. 24. When those that pretended to be in relation
   to God, in covenant and communion with him, were found corrupt in their
   morals, slaves to their appetites and passions, dishonest in their
   dealings, and false to their words and the trust reposed in them, the
   enemies of the Lord had thereby great occasion given them to blaspheme,
   especially when they quarrelled with their God for correcting them,
   than which nothing could be more scandalous. (2.) It was profaned by
   the sufferings of Israel; for from them the enemies of God took
   occasion to reproach God, as unable to protect his own worshippers and
   to make good his own grants. They said, in scorn, "These are the people
   of the land, these wicked people (you see he could not keep them in
   their obedience to his precepts), these miserable people--you see he
   could not keep them in the enjoyment of his favours. These are the
   people that came out of Jehovah's land, they are the very scum of the
   nations. Are these those that had statues so righteous whose lives are
   so unrighteous? Is this the nation that is so much celebrated for a
   wise and understanding people, and that is said to have God so nigh
   unto them? Do these belong to that brave, that holy nation, who appear
   here so vile, so abject?" Thus God sold his people and did not increase
   his wealth by their price, Ps. xliv. 12. The reproach they were under
   reflected upon him.

   II. Let us now see how God would retrieve his honour, secure it, and
   advance it, by working a great reformation upon them and then working a
   great salvation for them. He would have scattered them among the
   heathen, were it not that he feared the wrath of the enemy, Deut.
   xxxii. 26, 27. But, though they were unworthy of his compassion, yet he
   had pity for his own holy name, and a thousand pities it was that that
   should be trampled upon and abused. He looked with compassion on his
   own honour, which lay bleeding among the heathen, on that jewel which
   was trodden into the dirt, which the house of Israel, even in the land
   of their captivity, had profaned, v. 21. In pity to that God brought
   them out from the heathen, because their sins were more scandalous
   there than they had been in their own land. "Therefore I will gather
   you out of all countries and bring you into your own land, v. 24. Not
   for your sake, because you are worthy of such a favour, for you are
   most unworthy, but for my holy name's sake (v. 22), that I may sanctify
   my great name," v. 23. Observe, by the way, God's holy name is his
   great name. His holiness is his greatness; so he reckons it himself.
   Nor does any thing make a man truly great but being truly good, and
   partaking of God's holiness. God will magnify his name as a holy name,
   for he will sanctify it: I will sanctify my name which you have
   profaned. When God performs that which he has sworn by his holiness,
   then he sanctifies his name. The effect of this shall be very happy:
   The heathen shall know that I am the Lord when I shall be sanctified in
   you before their eyes and yours. When God proves his own holy name, and
   his saints praise it, then he is sanctified in them, and this
   contributes to the propagating of the knowledge of him. Observe, 1.
   God's reasons of mercy are all fetched from within himself; he will
   bring his people out of Babylon, not for their sakes, but for his own
   name's sake, because he will be glorified. 2. God's goodness takes
   occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious;
   therefore he will sanctify his name by the pardon of sin, because it
   has been profaned by the commission of sin.

The Promise of a New Heart; The Promise of Sanctifying Grace; Promised
Blessings Must Be Prayed for. (b. c. 587.)

   25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:
   from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
     26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
   within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
   I will give you a heart of flesh.   27 And I will put my spirit within
   you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
   judgments, and do them.   28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave
   to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
   29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call
   for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.   30
   And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the
   field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the
   heathen.   31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your
   doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own
   sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.   32 Not for your
   sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed
   and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.   33 Thus saith
   the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your
   iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes
   shall be builded.   34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas
   it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.   35 And they shall
   say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and
   the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are
   inhabited.   36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall
   know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was
   desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.   37 Thus saith
   the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of
   Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
     38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts;
   so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall
   know that I am the Lord.

   The people of God might be discouraged in their hopes of a restoration
   by the sense not only of their unworthiness of such a favour (which was
   answered, in the foregoing verses, with this, that God, in doing it,
   would have an eye to his own glory, not to their worthiness), but of
   their unfitness for such a favour, being still corrupt and sinful; and
   that is answered in these verses, with a promise that God would by his
   grace prepare and qualify them for the mercy and then bestow it on
   them. And this was in part fulfilled in that wonderful effect which the
   captivity in Babylon had upon the Jews there, that it effectually cured
   them of their inclination to idolatry. But it is further intended as a
   draught of the covenant of grace, and a specimen of those spiritual
   blessings with which we are blessed in heavenly things by that
   covenant. As (ch. xxxiv.) after a promise of their return the prophecy
   insensibly slid into a promise of the coming of Christ, the great
   Shepherd, so here it insensibly slides into a promise of the Spirit,
   and his gracious influences and operations, which we have as much need
   of for our sanctification as we have of Christ's merit for our
   justification.

   I. God here promises that he will work a good work in them, to qualify
   them for the good work he intended to bring about for them, v. 25-27.
   We had promises to the same purport, ch. xi. 18-20. 1. That God would
   cleanse them from the pollutions of sin (v. 25): I will sprinkle clean
   water upon you, which signifies both the book of Christ sprinkled upon
   the conscience to purify that and to take away the sense of guilt (as
   those that were sprinkled with the water of purification were thereby
   discharged from their ceremonial uncleanness) and the grace of the
   Spirit sprinkled on the whole soul to purify it from all corrupt
   inclinations and dispositions, as Naaman was cleansed from his leprosy
   by dipping in Jordan. Christ was himself clean, else his blood could
   not have been cleansing to us; and it is a Holy Spirit that makes us
   holy: From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
   you. And (v. 29) I will save you from all your uncleannesses. Sin is
   defiling, idolatry particularly is so; it renders sinners odious to God
   and burdensome to themselves. When guilt is pardoned, and the corrupt
   nature sanctified, then we are cleansed from our filthiness, and there
   is no other way of being saved from it. This God promises his people
   here, in order to his being sanctified in them, v. 23. We cannot
   sanctify God's name unless he sanctify our hearts, nor live to his
   glory, but by his grace. 2. That God would give them a new heart, a
   disposition of mind excellent in itself and vastly different from what
   it was before. God will work an inward change in order to a universal
   change. Note, All that have an interest in the new covenant, and a
   title to the new Jerusalem, have a new heart and a new spirit, and
   these are necessary in order to their walking in newness of life. This
   is that divine nature which believers are by the promises made
   partakers of. 3. That, instead of a heart of stone, insensible and
   inflexible, unapt to receive any divine impressions and to return any
   devout affections, God would give a heart of flesh, a soft and tender
   heart, that has spiritual senses exercised, conscious to itself of
   spiritual pains and pleasures, and complying in every thing with the
   will of God. Note, Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul
   as the turning of a dead stone into living flesh. 4. That since,
   besides our inclination to sin, we complain of an inability to do our
   duty, God will cause them to walk in his statutes, will not only show
   them the way of his statutes before them, but incline them to walk in
   it, and thoroughly furnish them with wisdom and will, and active
   powers, for every good work. In order to this he will put his Spirit
   within them, as a teacher, guide, and sanctifier. Note, God does not
   force men to walk in his statutes by external violence, but causes them
   to walk in his statutes by an internal principle. And observe what use
   we ought to make of this gracious power and principle promised us, and
   put within us: You shall keep my judgments. If God will do his part
   according to the promise, we must do ours according to the precept.
   Note, The promise of God's grace to enable us for our duty should
   engage and quicken our constant care and endeavour to do our duty.
   God's promises must drive us to his precepts as our rule, and then his
   precepts must send us back to his promises for strength, for without
   his grace we can do nothing.

   II. God here promises that he will take them into covenant with
   himself. The sum of the covenant of grace we have, v. 28. You shall be
   my people, and I will be your God. It is not, "If you will be my
   people, I will be your God" (though it is very true that we cannot
   expect to have God to be to us a God unless we be to him a people), but
   he has chosen us, and loved us, first, not we him; therefore the
   condition is of grace, is by promise, as well as the reward; not of
   merit, not of works: "You shall be my people; I will make you so; I
   will give you the nature and spirit of my people, and then I will be
   your God." And this is the foundation and top-stone of a believer's
   happiness; it is heaven itself, Rev. xxi. 3, 7.

   III. He promises that he will bring about all that good for them which
   the exigence of their case calls for. When they are thus prepared for
   mercy, 1. Then they shall return to their possessions and be settled
   again in them (v. 28): You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
   fathers. God will, in bringing them back to it, have an eye not to any
   merit of theirs, but to the promise made to the fathers; for therefore
   he gave it to them at first, Deut. vii. 7, 8. Therefore he is gracious,
   because he has said that he will be so. This shall follow upon the
   blessed reformation God would work among them (v. 33): "In the day that
   I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and so shall have
   made you meet for the inheritance, I will cause you to dwell in the
   cities, and so put you in possession of the inheritance." This is God's
   method of mercy indeed, first to part men from their sins, and then to
   restore them to their comforts. 2. Then they shall enjoy a plenty of
   all good things. When they are saved from their uncleanness, from their
   sins which kept good things from them, then I will call for the corn
   and will increase it, v. 29. Plenty comes at God's call, and the plenty
   he calls for shall be still growing; and when he speaks the word the
   fruit both of the tree and of the field shall multiply. As the
   inhabitants multiply the productions shall multiply for their
   maintenance; for he that sends mouths will send meat. Famine was one of
   the judgments which they had laboured under, and it had been as much as
   any a reproach to them, that they should be starved in a land so famed
   for fruitfulness. But now I will lay no famine upon you; and none are
   under that rod without having it laid on by him. Then they shall
   receive no more reproach of famine, shall never be again upbraided with
   that, nor shall it ever be said that God is a Master that keeps his
   servants to short allowance. Nay, they shall not only be cleared from
   the reproach of famine, but they shall have the credit of abundance.
   The land that had long lain desolate in the sight of all that passed
   by, that looked upon it, some with contempt and some with compassion,
   shall again be tilled (v. 34), and, having long lain fallow, it will
   now be the more fruitful. Observe, God will call for the corn and yet
   they must till the ground for it. Note, Even promised mercies must be
   laboured for; for the promise is not to supersede, but to quicken and
   encourage our industry and endeavour. And such a blessing will God
   command on the hand of the diligent that all who pass by shall take
   notice of it, with wonder, v. 35. They shall say, "See what a blessed
   change here is, how this land that was desolate has become like the
   garden of Eden, the desert turned again into a paradise," Note, God has
   honours in reserve for his people to be crowned with sufficient to
   counterbalance the contempt they are now loaded with, and in them he
   will be honoured. This wonderful increase both of the people of the
   land and of its products is compared (v. 38) to the large flocks of
   cattle that are brought to Jerusalem, to be sacrificed at one of the
   solemn feasts. Even the cities that now lie waste shall be filled with
   flocks of men, not like the flocks with which the pastures are covered
   over (Ps. lxvi. 13), but like the holy flock which is brought to the
   courts of the Lord's house. Note, Then the increase of the numbers of a
   people is honourable and comfortable indeed when they are all dedicated
   to God as a holy flock, to be presented to him for living sacrifices.
   Crowds are a lovely sight in God's temple.

   IV. He shows what shall be the happy effects of this blessed change. 1.
   It shall have a happy effect upon the people of God themselves, for it
   shall bring them to an ingenuous repentance for their sins (v. 31):
   Then shall you remember your own evil ways and shall loathe yourselves.
   See here what sin is; it is an abomination, a loathsome thing, that
   abominable thing which the Lord hates. See what is the first step
   towards repentance; it is remembering our own evil ways, reflecting
   seriously upon the sins we have committed and being particular in
   recapitulating them. We must remember against ourselves not only our
   gross enormities, our own evil ways, but our defects and infirmities,
   our doings that were not good, not so good as they should have been;
   not only our direct violations of the law, but our coming short of it.
   See what is evermore a companion of true repentance, and that is
   self-loathing, a holy shame and confusion of face: "You shall loathe
   yourselves in your own sight, seeing how loathsome you have made
   yourselves in the sight of God." Self-love is at the bottom of sin,
   which we cannot but blush to see the absurdity of; but our quarrelling
   with ourselves is in order to our being, upon good grounds, reconciled
   to ourselves. And, lastly, see what is the most powerful inducement to
   an evangelical repentance, and that is a sense of the mercy of God;
   when God settles them in the midst of plenty, then they shall loathe
   themselves for their iniquities. Note, The goodness of God should
   overcome our badness and lead us to repentance. The more we see of
   God's readiness to receive us into favour upon our repentance the more
   reason we shall see to be ashamed of ourselves that we could ever sin
   against so much love. That heart is hard indeed that will not be thus
   melted. 2. It shall have a happy effect upon their neighbours, for it
   shall bring them to a more clear knowledge of God (v. 36): "Then the
   heathen that are left round about you, that spoke ignorantly of God
   (for so all those do that speak ill of him) when they saw the land of
   Israel desolate, shall begin to know better, and to speak more
   intelligently of God, being convinced that he is able to rebuild the
   most desolate cities and to replant the most desolate countries, and
   that, though the course of his favours to his people may be obstructed
   for a time, they shall not be cut off for ever." They shall be made to
   know the truth of divine revelation by the exact agreement which they
   shall discern between God's word which he has spoken to Israel and his
   works which he has done for them: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will
   do it. With us saying and doing are two things, but they are not so
   with God.

   V. He proposes these things to them, not as the recompence of their
   merits, but as the return of their prayers.

   1. Let them not think that they have deserved it: Not for your sakes do
   I this, be it known to you (v. 22, 32); no, be you ashamed and
   confounded for your own ways. God is doing this, all this which he has
   promised; it is as sure to be done as if it were done already, and
   present events have a tendency towards it. But then, (1.) They must
   renounce the merit of their own good works, and be brought to
   acknowledge that it is not for their sakes that it is done; so, when
   God brought Israel into Canaan the first time, an express caveat was
   entered against this thought. Deut. ix. 4-6, It is not for thy
   righteousness. It is not for the sake of any of their good qualities or
   good deeds, not because God had any need of them, or expected any
   benefit by them. No, in showing mercy he acts by prerogative, not for
   our deserts, but for his own honour. See how emphatically this is
   expressed: Be it known to you, it is not for your sakes, which
   intimates that we are apt to entertain a high conceit of our own merits
   and are with difficulty persuaded to disclaim a confidence in them.
   But, one way or other, God will make all his favourites to know and own
   that it is his grace, and not their goodness, his mercy, and not their
   merit, that made them so; and that therefore not unto them, not unto
   them, but unto him, is all the glory due. (2.) They must repent of the
   sin of their own evil ways. They must own that the mercies they receive
   from God are not only not merited, but that they are a thousand times
   forfeited; and therefore they must be so far from boasting of their
   good works that they must be ashamed and confounded for their evil
   ways, and then they are best prepared for mercy.

   2. Yet let them know that they must desire and expect it (v. 37): I
   will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel. God has
   spoken, and he will do it, and he will be sought unto for it. He
   requires that his people should seek unto him, and he will incline
   their hearts to do it, when he is coming towards them in ways of mercy.
   (1.) They must pray for it, for by prayer God is sought unto, and
   enquired after. What is the matter of God's promises must be the matter
   of our prayers. By asking for the mercy promised we must give glory to
   the donor, express a value for the gift, own our dependence, and put
   honour upon prayer which God has put honour upon. Christ himself must
   ask, and then God will give him the heathen for his inheritance, must
   pray the Father, and then he will send the Comforter; much more must we
   ask that we may receive. (2.) They must consult the oracles of God, and
   thus also God is sought unto and enquired after. The mercy must be, not
   an act of providence only, but a child of promise; and therefore the
   promise must be looked at, and prayer made for it with an eye of faith
   fastened upon the promise, which must be both the guide and the ground
   of our expectations. Both these ways we find God enquired of by Daniel,
   in the name of the house of Israel, when he was about to do those great
   things for them; he consulted the oracles of God, for he understood by
   books, the book of the prophet Jeremiah, both what was to be expected
   and when; and then he set his face to seek God by prayer, Dan. ix. 2,
   3. Note, Our communion with God must be kept up by the word and prayer
   in all the operations of his providence concerning us and in both he
   must be enquired of.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXVII.

   The threatenings of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem for their
   sins, which we had in the former part of this book, were not so
   terrible, but the promises of their restoration and deliverance for the
   glory of God, which we have here in the latter part of the book, are as
   comfortable; and as those were illustrated with many visions and
   similitudes, for the awakening of a holy fear, so are these, for the
   encouraging of a humble faith. God had assured them, in the foregoing
   chapter, that he would gather the house of Israel, even all of it, and
   would bring them out of their captivity, and return them to their own
   land; but there were two things that rendered this very unlikely:--I.
   That they were so dispersed among their enemies, so destitute of all
   helps and advantages which might favour or further their return, and so
   dispirited likewise in their own minds; upon all these accounts they
   are here, in vision, compared to a valley full of the dry bones of dead
   men, which should be brought together and raised to life. The vision of
   this we have (ver. 1-10) and the explication of it, with its
   application to the present case, ver. 11-14. II. That they were so
   divided among themselves, too much of the old enmity between Judah and
   Ephraim remaining even in their captivity. But, as to this, by a sign
   of two sticks made one in the hand of the prophet is foreshown the
   happy coalition that should be, at their return, between the two
   nations of Israel and Judah, ver. 15-22. In this there was a type of
   the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Samaritans, in Christ and
   his church. And so the prophet slides into a prediction of the kingdom
   of Christ, which should be set up in the world with God's tabernacle in
   it, and of the glories and graces of that kingdom, ver. 23-28.

The Vision of the Dry Bones. (b. c. 586.)

   1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of
   the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of
   bones,   2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold,
   there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
   3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
   answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.   4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy
   upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of
   the Lord.   5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will
   cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:   6 And I will lay
   sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
   skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that
   I am the Lord.   7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I
   prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came
   together, bone to his bone.   8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and
   the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there
   was no breath in them.   9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the
   wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord
   God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain,
   that they may live.   10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
   breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an
   exceeding great army.   11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these
   bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are
   dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.   12
   Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold,
   O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of
   your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.   13 And ye shall
   know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people,
   and brought you up out of your graves,   14 And shall put my spirit in
   you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then
   shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith
   the Lord.

   Here is, I. The vision of a resurrection from death to life, and it is
   a glorious resurrection. This is a thing so utterly unknown to nature,
   and so contrary to its principles (a privatione ad habitum non datur
   regressus--from privation to possession there is no return), that we
   could have no thought of it but by the word of the Lord; and that it is
   certain by that word that there shall be a general resurrection of the
   dead some have urged from this vision, "For" (say they) "otherwise it
   would not properly be made a sign for the confirming of their faith in
   the promise of their deliverance out of Babylon, as the coming of the
   Messiah is mentioned for the confirming of their faith touching a
   former deliverance," Isa. vii. 14. But,

   1. Whether it be a confirmation or no, it is without doubt a most
   lively representation of a threefold resurrection, besides that which
   it is primarily intended to be the sign of. (1.) The resurrection of
   souls from the death of sin to the life or righteousness, to a holy,
   heavenly, spiritual, and divine life, by the power of divine grace
   going along with the word of Christ, John v. 24, 25. (2.) The
   resurrection of the gospel church, or any part of it, from an afflicted
   persecuted state, especially under the yoke of the New-Testament
   Babylon, to liberty and peace. (3.) The resurrection of the body at the
   great day, especially the bodies of believers that shall rise to life
   eternal.

   2. Let us observe the particulars of this vision.

   (1.) The deplorable condition of these dead bones. The prophet was
   made, [1.] to take an exact view of them. By a prophetic impulse and a
   divine power he was, in vision, carried out and set in the midst of a
   valley, probably that plain spoken of ch. iii. 22, where God then
   talked with him; and it was full of bones, of dead men's bones, not
   piled up on a heap, as in a charnel-house, but scattered upon the face
   of the ground, as if some bloody battle had been fought here, and the
   slain left unburied till all the flesh was devoured or putrefied, and
   nothing left but the bones, and those disjointed from one another and
   dispersed. He passed by them round about, and he observed not only that
   they were very many (for there are multitudes gone to the congregation
   of the dead), but that, lo, they were very dry, having been long
   exposed to the sun and wind. The bones that have been moistened with
   marrow (Job xxi. 24), when they have been any while dead, lose all
   their moisture, and are dry as dust. The body is now fenced with bones
   (Job x. 11), but then they will themselves be defenceless. The Jews in
   Babylon were like those dead and dry bones, unlikely ever to come
   together, to be so much as a skeleton, less likely to be formed into a
   body, and least of all to be a living body. However, they lay unburied
   in the open valley, which encouraged the hopes of their resurrection,
   as of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 8, 9. The bones of Gog and Magog
   shall be buried (ch. xxxix. 12, 15), for their destruction is final;
   but the bones of Israel are in the open valley, under the eye of
   Heaven, for there is hope in their end. [2.] He was made to own their
   case deplorable, and not to be helped by any power less than that of
   God himself (v. 3): "Son of man, can these bones live? Is it a thing
   likely? Cast thou devise how it should be done? Can thy philosophy
   reach to put life into dry bones, or thy politics to restore a captive
   nation?" "No," says the prophet, "I know not how it should be done, but
   thou knowest." He does not say, "They cannot live," lest he should seem
   to limit the Holy One of Israel; but, "Lord, thou knowest whether they
   can and whether they shall; if thou dost not put life into them, it is
   certain that they cannot live." Note, God is perfectly acquainted with
   his own power and his own purposes, and will have us to refer all to
   them, and to see and own that his wondrous works are such as could not
   be effected by any counsel or power but his own.

   (2.) The means used for the bringing of these dispersed bones together
   and these dead and dry bones to life. It must be done by prophecy.
   Ezekiel is ordered to prophesy upon these bones (v. 4 and again v. 9),
   to prophesy to the wind. So he prophesied as he was commanded, v. 7,
   10. [1.] He must preach, and he did so; and the dead bones lived by a
   power that went along with the word of God which he preached. [2.] He
   must pray, and he did so; and the dead bones were made to live in
   answer to prayer; for a spirit of life entered into them. See the
   efficacy of the word and prayer, and the necessity of both, for the
   raising of dead souls. God bids his ministers prophesy upon the dry
   bones. Say unto them, Live; yea, say unto them, Live; and they do as
   they are commanded, calling to them again and again, O you dry bones!
   hear the word of the Lord. But we call in vain, still they are dead,
   still they are very dry; we must therefore be earnest with God in
   prayer for the working of the Spirit with the word: Come, O breath! and
   breathe upon them. God's grace can save souls without our preaching,
   but our preaching cannot save them without God's grace, and that grace
   must be sought by prayer. Note, Ministers must faithfully and
   diligently use the means of grace, even with those that there seems
   little probability of gaining upon. To prophesy upon dry bones seems as
   great a penance as to water a dry stick; and yet, whether they will
   hear or forbear, we must discharge our trust, must prophesy as we are
   commanded, in the name of him who raises the dead and is the fountain
   of life.

   (3.) The wonderful effect of these means. Those that do as they are
   commanded, as they are commissioned, in the face of the greatest
   discouragements, need not doubt of success, for God will own and enrich
   his own appointments. [1.] Ezekiel looked down and prophesied upon the
   bones in the valley, and they became human bodies. First, That which he
   had to say to them was that God would infallibly raise them to life:
   Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, You shall live, v. 5 and
   again v. 6. And he that speaks the word will thereby do the work; he
   that says, They shall live, will make them alive: He will clothe them
   with skin and flesh (v. 6), as he did at first, Job x. 11. He that made
   us so fearfully and wonderfully, and curiously wrought us, can in like
   manner new-make us, for his arm is not shortened. Secondly, That which
   was immediately done for them was that they were moulded anew into
   shape. We may well suppose it was with great liveliness and vigour that
   the prophet prophesied, especially when he found what he said begin to
   take effect. Note, The opening, sealing, and applying of the promises,
   are the ordinary means of our participation of a new and divine nature.
   As Ezekiel prophesied in this vision there was a noise, a word of
   command, from heaven, seconding what he said; or it signified the
   motion of the angels that were to be employed as the ministers of the
   divine Providence in the deliverance of the Jews, and we read of the
   noise of their wings (Ezek. i. 24) and the sound of their going, 2 Sam.
   v. 24. And, behold, a shaking, or commotion, among the bones. Even dead
   and dry bones begin to move when they are called to hear the word of
   the Lord. This was fulfilled when, upon Cyrus's proclamation of
   liberty, those whose spirits God had stirred up began to think of
   making use of that liberty, and getting ready to be gone. When there
   was a noise, behold, a shaking; when David heard the sound of the going
   on the tops of the mulberry-trees then he bestirred himself; then there
   was a shaking. When Paul heard the voice saying, Why persecutest thou
   me? behold, a shaking of the dry bones; he trembled and was astonished.
   But this was not all: The bones came together bone to his bone, under a
   divine direction; and, though there is in man a multitude of bones, yet
   of all the bones of those numerous slain not one was missing, not one
   missed its way, not one missed its place, but, as it were by instinct,
   each knew and found its fellow. The dispersed bones came together and
   the displaced bones were knit together, the divine power supplying that
   to these dry bones which in a living body every joint supplies. Thus
   shall it be in the resurrection of the dead; the scattered atoms shall
   be ranged and marshalled in their proper place and order, and every
   bone come to his bone, by the same wisdom and power by which the bones
   were first formed in the womb of her that is with child. Thus it was in
   the return of the Jews; those that were scattered in several parts of
   the province of Babylon came to their respective families, and all as
   it were by consent to the general rendezvous, in order to their return.
   By degrees sinews and flesh came upon these bones, and the skin covered
   them, v. 8. This was fulfilled when the captives got their effects
   about them, and the men of their place helped them with silver, and
   gold, and whatever they needed for their remove, Ezra i. 4. But still
   there was no breath in them; they wanted spirit and courage for such a
   difficult and hazardous enterprise as this was of returning to their
   own land. [2.] Ezekiel then looked up and prophesied to the wind, or
   breath, or spirit, and said, Come, O breath! and breathe upon these
   slain. As good have been still dry bones as dead bodies: but as for God
   his work is perfect; he is not the God of the dead, but of the living;
   therefore breathe upon them that they may live. In answer to this
   request, the breath immediately came into them, v. 10. Note, the spirit
   of life is from God; he at first in the creation breathed into man the
   breath of life, and so he will at last in the resurrection. The
   dispirited despairing captives were wonderfully animated with
   resolution to break through all the discouragements that lay in the way
   of their return and applied themselves to it with all imaginable
   vigour. And then they stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army;
   not only living men, but effective men, fit for service in the wars and
   formidable to all that gave them any opposition. Note, With God nothing
   is impossible. He can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham and
   out of dead and dry bones levy an exceedingly great army to fight his
   battles and plead his cause.

   II. The application of this vision to the present calamitous condition
   of the Jews in captivity: These bones are the whole house of Israel,
   both the ten tribes and the two. See in this what they are and what
   they shall be.

   1. The depth of despair to which they are now reduced, v. 11. They all
   give up themselves for lost and gone; they say, "Our bones are dried,
   our strength is exhausted, our spirits are gone, our hope is all lost;
   every thing we looked for succour and relief from fails us, and we are
   cut off for our parts. Let who will cherish some hope, we see no ground
   for any." Note, When troubles continue long, hopes have been often
   frustrated, and all creature-confidences fail, it is not strange if the
   spirits sink; and nothing but an active faith in the power, promise,
   and providence of God will keep them from quite dying away. 2. The
   height of prosperity to which, notwithstanding this, they shall be
   advanced: "therefore, because things have come thus to the last
   extremity, prophesy to them, and tell them, now is God's time to appear
   for them. Jehovah-jireh--in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, v.
   12-14. Tell them," (1.) "That they shall be brought out of the land of
   their enemies, where they are as it were buried alive: I will open your
   graves." Those shall be restored, not only whose bones are scattered at
   the grave's mouth (Ps. cxli. 7), but who are buried in the grave;
   though the power of the enemy is like the bars of the pit, which one
   would think it impossible to break through, strong as death and cruel
   as the grave, yet it shall be conquered. God can bring his people up
   from the depths of the earth, Ps. lxxi. 20. (2.) "That they shall be
   brought into their own land, where they shall live in prosperity: I
   will bring you into the land of Israel (v. 12) and place you there (v.
   14), and will put my spirit in you and then you shall live." Note, Then
   God puts spirit in us to good purpose, and so that we shall indeed
   live, when he puts his Spirit in us. And (lastly) in all this God will
   be glorified: You shall know that I am the Lord (v. 13), and that I
   have spoken it and performed it, v. 14. Note, God's quickening the dead
   redounds more than any thing to his honour, and to the honour of his
   word, which he has magnified above all his name, and will magnify more
   and more by the punctual accomplishment of every tittle of it.

Cheering Promises. (b. c. 586.)

   15 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,   16 Moreover, thou
   son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for
   the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and
   write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house
   of Israel his companions:   17 And join them one to another into one
   stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.   18 And when the
   children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not
   shew us what thou meanest by these?   19 Say unto them, Thus saith the
   Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand
   of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them
   with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and
   they shall be one in mine hand.   20 And the sticks whereon thou
   writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.   21 And say unto
   them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of
   Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather
   them on every side, and bring them into their own land:   22 And I will
   make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one
   king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations,
   neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:   23
   Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor
   with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but
   I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have
   sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will
   be their God.   24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and
   they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments,
   and observe my statutes, and do them.   25 And they shall dwell in the
   land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have
   dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and
   their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their
   prince for ever.   26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with
   them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place
   them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them
   for evermore.   27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will
   be their God, and they shall be my people.   28 And the heathen shall
   know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in
   the midst of them for evermore.

   Here are more exceedingly great and precious promises made of the happy
   state of the Jews after their return to their own land; but they have a
   further reference to the kingdom of the Messiah and the glories of
   gospel-times.

   I. It is here promised that Ephraim and Judah shall be happily united
   in brotherly love and mutual serviceableness; so that whereas, ever
   since the desertion of the ten tribes from the house of David under
   Jeroboam, there had been continual feuds and animosities between the
   two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and it is to be feared there had been
   some clashings between them even in the land of their captivity
   (Ephraim upon all occasions envying Judah and Judah vexing Ephraim),
   now it should be no longer, but there should be a coalition between
   them, and, notwithstanding the old differences that had been between
   them, they should agree to love one another and to do one another all
   good offices. This is here illustrated by a sign. The prophet was to
   take two sticks, and write upon one, For Judah (including Benjamin,
   those of the children of Israel that were his companions), upon the
   other, For Joseph, including the rest of the tribes, v. 16. These two
   sticks must be so framed as to fall into one in his hand, v. 17. The
   people took notice of this, and desired him to tell them the meaning of
   it, for they knew he did not play with sticks for his diversion, as
   children do. Those that would know the meaning should ask the meaning
   of the word of God which they read and hear, and of the instituted
   signs by which spiritual and divine things are represented to us; the
   ministers' lips should keep the knowledge hereof and the people should
   ask it at their mouth, Mal. ii. 7. It is a necessary question for grown
   people, as well as children, to ask, What mean you by this service, by
   this sign? Exod. xii. 26. The meaning was that Judah and Israel should
   become one in the hand of God, v. 19. 1. They shall be one, one nation,
   v. 22. They shall have no separate interests, and, consequently, no
   divided affections. There shall be no mutual jealousies and
   animosities, no remembrance, no remains, of their former discord. But
   there shall be a perfect harmony between them, a good understanding one
   of another, a good disposition one to another, and a readiness to all
   good offices and services for one another's credit and comfort. They
   had been two sticks crossing and thwarting one another, nay, beating
   and bruising one another; but now they shall become one, supporting and
   strengthening one another. Vix unita fortior--Force added to force is
   proportionally more efficient. Behold, how good and how pleasant a
   thing it is to see Judah and Israel, that had long been at variance,
   now dwelling together in unity. Then they shall become acceptable to
   their God, amiable to their friends, and formidable to their enemies,
   Isa. xi. 13, 14. 2. They shall be one in God's hand; by his power they
   shall be united, and, being by his hand brought together, his hand
   shall keep them together, so that they shall not fly off, to be
   separated again. They shall be one in his hand, for his glory shall be
   the centre of their unity and his grace the cement of it. In him, in a
   regard to him and in his service and worship, they shall unite, and so
   shall become one. Both sides shall agree to put themselves into his
   hand, and so they shall be one. Qui conveniunt in aliquo tertio inter
   se conveniunt--Those who agree in a third agree with each other. Note,
   Those are best united that are one in God's hand, whose union with each
   other results from their union with Christ and their communion with God
   through him, Eph. i. 10. One in us, John xvii. 21. 3. They shall be one
   in their return out of captivity (v. 21): I will take them from among
   the heathen, and gather them on every side, and bring them together
   incorporated into one body to their own land. They shall be one in
   their separation from the heathen with whom they had mingled
   themselves: they shall both agree to part from them, and take their
   affections off from them, and no longer to comply with their usages,
   and then they will soon agree to join together in walking according to
   the rule of God's word. Their having been joint-sufferers will
   contribute to this blessed comprehension, when they begin to come to
   themselves and to consider things. Put many pieces of metal together
   into the furnace, and, when they are melted, they will run all
   together. It was time for them to strengthen one another when their
   oppressors were so busy to weaken and ruin them all. Likewise their
   being joint-sharers in the favour of God, and the great and common
   deliverance wrought out for them all, should help to unite them. God's
   loving them all was a good reason why they should love one another.
   Times of common joy, as well as times of common suffering, should be
   healing loving times. 4. They shall all be the subjects of one king,
   and so they shall become one. The Jews, after their return, were under
   one government, and not divided as formerly. But this certainly looks
   further, to the kingdom of Christ; he is that one King in allegiance to
   whom all God's spiritual Israel shall cheerfully unite, and under whose
   protection they shall all be gathered. All believers unite in one Lord,
   one faith, and one baptism. And the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the
   gospel church, their becoming one fold under Christ the one great
   Shepherd, is doubtless the union that is chiefly looked at in this
   prophecy. By Christ and partition-wall between them was taken down, and
   the enmity slain, and of them twain was made one new man, Eph. ii. 14,
   15.

   II. It is here promised that the Jews shall by their captivity be cured
   of their inclination to idolatry; this shall be the happy fruit of that
   affliction, even the taking away of their sin (v. 23): Neither shall
   they defile themselves any more with their idols, those detestable
   defiling things, no, nor with any of their former transgressions. Note,
   When one sin is sincerely parted with all sin is abandoned too, for he
   that hates sin, as sin, will hate all sin. And those that are cured of
   their spiritual idolatry, their inordinate affection to the world and
   the flesh, that no longer make a god of their money or their belly,
   have a happy blow given to the root of all their transgressions. Two
   ways God will take to cure them of their idolatry:--1. By bringing them
   out of the way of temptation to it: "I will save them out of all their
   dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, because there they met with
   the occasion of sin and allurements to it." Note, It is our wisdom to
   avoid the places where we have been overcome by temptations to sin, not
   to remain in them, or return to them, but to save ourselves out of
   them, as we would out of infected places; see Zech. ii. 7; Rev. xviii.
   4. And it is a great mercy when God, in his providence, saves us out of
   the dwelling-places where we have sinned, and keeps us from harm by
   keeping us out of harm's way, in answer to our prayer, Lead us not into
   temptation, but deliver us from evil. 2. By changing the disposition of
   their mind: "I will cleanse them (v. 28); that is, I will sanctify
   them, will work in them an aversion to the pollutions of sin and a
   complacency in the pleasures of holiness, and then you may be sure they
   will not defile themselves any more with their idols." Those whom God
   has cleansed he will keep clean.

   III. It is here promised that they shall be the people of God, as their
   God, and the subjects and sheep of Christ their King and Shepherd.
   These promises we had before, and they are here repeated (v. 23, 24)
   for the encouragement of the faith of Israel: They shall be my people,
   to serve me, and I will be their God, to save them and to make them
   happy. David, my servant, shall be king over them, to fight their
   battles, to protect them from injury, and to rule them, and overrule
   all things that concern them for their good. He shall be their
   shepherd, to guide them and provide for them. Christ is this David,
   Israel's King of old; and those whom he subdues to himself, and makes
   willing in the day of his power, he makes to walk in his judgments and
   to keep his statutes.

   IV. It is here promised that they shall dwell comfortably, v. 25, 26.
   They shall dwell in the land of Israel; for where else should
   Israelites dwell? And many things will concur to make their dwelling
   agreeable. 1. They shall have it by covenant; they shall come in again
   upon their old title, by virtue of the grant made unto Jacob, God's
   servant. As Christ was David, God's servant, so the church is Jacob,
   his servant too; and the members of the church shall come in for a
   share, as born in God's house. He will make a covenant of peace with
   them (v. 26), and in pursuance of that covenant he will place them, and
   multiply them. Note, Temporal mercies are doubly sweet when they come
   from the promise of the covenant, and not merely from common
   providence. 2. They shall come to it by prescription: "It is the land
   wherein your fathers have dwelt, and for that reason you cannot but
   have a special kindness for it, which God will graciously gratify." It
   was the inheritance of their ancestors, and therefore shall be theirs.
   They are beloved for their fathers' sakes. 3. They shall have it
   entailed upon them and the heirs of their body, and shall have their
   families built up, so that it shall not be lost for want of heirs. They
   shall dwell therein all their time, and never be turned out of
   possession, and they shall leave it for an inheritance to their
   children and their children's children for ever, who shall enjoy it
   when they are gone, the prospect of which will be a satisfaction to
   them. 4. They shall live under a good government, which will contribute
   very much to the comfort of their lives: My servant David shall be
   their prince for ever. This can be no other than Christ, of whom it was
   said, when he was brought into the world, He shall reign over the house
   of Jacob for ever, Luke i. 33. Note, It is the unspeakable comfort of
   all Christ's faithful subjects that, as his kingdom is everlasting, so
   he is an everlasting King, he lives to reign for ever; and, as sure and
   as long as he lives and reigns, they shall live and reign also. 5. The
   charter by which they hold all their privileges is indefeasible. God's
   covenant with them shall be an everlasting covenant; so the covenant of
   grace is, for it secures to us an everlasting happiness.

   V. It is here promised that God will dwell among them; and this will
   make them dwell comfortably indeed: I will set my sanctuary in the
   midst of them for evermore; my tabernacle also shall be with them, v.
   26, 27. 1. They shall have the tokens of God's special presence with
   them and his gracious residence among them. God will in very deed dwell
   with them upon the earth, for where his sanctuary is he is; when they
   profaned his sanctuary he took it from them (Isa. lxiv. 11), but now
   that they are purified God will dwell with them again. 2. They shall
   have opportunity of conversing with God, of hearing from him, speaking
   to him, and so keeping up communion with him, which will be the comfort
   of their lives. 3. They shall have the means of grace. By the oracles
   of God in his tabernacle they shall be made wiser and better, and all
   their children shall be taught of the Lord. 4. Thus their covenant
   relation to God shall be improved and the bond of it strengthened: "I
   will be their God and they shall be my people, and they shall know it
   by having my sanctuary among them, and shall have the comfort of it."

   VI. Both God and Israel shall have the honour of this among the
   heathen, v. 26. "Now the heathen observe how Israel have profaned their
   own crown by their sins, and God has profaned it by his judgments; but
   then, when Israel is reformed and God has returned in mercy to them,
   the very heathen shall be made to know that the Lord sanctifies Israel,
   has a title to them and an interest in them more than other people,
   because his sanctuary is, and shall be, in the midst of them." Note,
   God designs the sanctification of those among whom he sets up his
   sanctuary. And blessed and holy are those who, enjoying the privileges
   of the sanctuary, give such proofs and evidences of their
   sanctification that the heathen may know it is no less than the
   almighty grace of God that sanctifies them. Such have God's sanctuary
   in the midst of them, the kingdom of God within them, in the principles
   of the spiritual life, and shall have it so for evermore in the
   enjoyments of an eternal life.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXVIII.

   This chapter, and that which follows it, are concerning Gog and Magog,
   a powerful enemy to the people of Israel, that should make a formidable
   descent upon them, and put them into a consternation, but their army
   should be routed and their design defeated; and this prophecy, it is
   most probable, had its accomplishment some time after the return of the
   people of Israel out of their captivity, whether in the struggles they
   had with the kings of Syria, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, or perhaps
   in some other way not recorded, we cannot tell. If the sacred history
   of the Old Testament had reached as far as the prophecy, we should have
   been better able to understand these chapters, but, for want of that
   key, we are locked out of the meaning of them. God had by the prophet
   assured his people of happy times after their return to their own land;
   but lest they should mistake the promises which related to the kingdom
   of the Messiah and the spiritual privileges of that kingdom, as if from
   them they might promise themselves an uninterrupted temporal
   prosperity, he here tells them, as Christ told his disciples to prevent
   the like mistake, that in the world they shall have tribulation, but
   they may be of good cheer, for they shall be victorious at last. This
   prophecy here of Gog and Magog is without doubt alluded to in that
   prophecy which relates to the latter days, and which seems to be yet
   unfulfilled (Rev. xx. 8), that Gog and Magog shall be gathered to
   battle against the camp of the saints, as the Old-Testament prophecies
   of the destruction of Babylon are alluded to, Rev. xviii. But, in both,
   the Old-Testament prophecies had their accomplishment in the Jewish
   church as the New-Testament prophecies shall have when the time comes
   in the Christian church. In this chapter we have intermixed, I. The
   attempt that Gog and Magog should make upon the land of Israel, the
   vast army they should bring into the field, and their vast preparations
   (ver. 4-7), their project and design in it (ver. 8-13), God's hand in
   it, ver. 4. II. The great terror that this should strike upon the land
   of Israel, ver. 15, 16, 18-20. III. The divine restraint that these
   enemies should be under, and the divine protection that Israel should
   be under, ver. 2-4 and ver. 14. IV. The defeat that should be given to
   those enemies by the immediate hand of God (ver. 21-23), which we shall
   hear more of in the next chapter.

The Judgment of Gog and Magog. (b. c. 585.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set
   thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech
   and Tubal, and prophesy against him,   3 And say, Thus saith the Lord
   God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and
   Tubal:   4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and
   I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all
   of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with
   bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:   5 Persia,
   Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:   6
   Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters,
   and all his bands: and many people with thee.   7 Be thou prepared, and
   prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto
   thee, and be thou a guard unto them.   8 After many days thou shalt be
   visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is
   brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people,
   against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it
   is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of
   them.   9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a
   cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with
   thee.   10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at
   the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an
   evil thought:   11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of
   unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell
   safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor
   gates,   12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand
   upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people
   that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and
   goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.   13 Sheba, and Dedan, and
   the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say
   unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy
   company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away
   cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

   The critical expositors have enough to do here to enquire out Gog and
   Magog. We cannot pretend either to add to their observations or to
   determine their controversies. Gog seems to be the king and Magog the
   kingdom; so that Gog and Magog are like Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Some
   think they find them afar off, in Scythia, Tartary, and Russia. Others
   think they find them nearer the land of Israel, in Syria, and Asia the
   Less. Ezekiel is appointed to prophesy against Gog, and to tell him
   that God is against him, v. 2, 3. Note, God does not only see those
   that are now the enemies of his church and set himself against them,
   but he foresees those that will be so and lets them know by his word
   that he is against them too, and yet is pleased to make use of them to
   serve his own purposes, for the glory of his own name; surely their
   wrath shall praise him, and the remainder thereof he will restrain, Ps.
   lxxvi. 10. Let us observe here,

   I. The confusion which God designed to put this enemy to. It is
   remarkable that this is put first in the prophecy; before it is
   foretold that God will bring him forth against Israel, it is foretold
   that God will put hooks into his jaws and turn him back (v. 4), that
   they might have assurance of their deliverance before they had the
   prospect given them of their danger. Thus tender is God of the comfort
   of his people, thus careful that they may not be frightened; even
   before the trouble begins he tells them it will end well.

   II. The undertaking which he designed to engage him in, in order to
   this defeat and disappointment. 1. The nations that shall be
   confederate in this enterprise against Israel are many, and great, and
   mighty (v. 5, 6), Persia, Ethiopia, &c. Antiochus had an army made up
   of all the nations here named, and many others. These people had been
   at variance with one another, and yet in combination against Israel.
   How are those increased that trouble God's people! 2. They are well
   furnished with arms and ammunition, and bring a good train of artillery
   into the field--horses and horsemen (v. 4) bravely equipped with all
   sorts of armour, bucklers and shields for defence, and all handling
   swords for offence. Orders are given to make all imaginable preparation
   for this expedition (v. 7): "Be thou prepared, and do thou prepare. See
   what warlike preparations thou hast already in store, and, lest that
   should not suffice, make further preparation, thou and all thy
   company," Let Gog himself be a guard to the rest of the confederates.
   As commander-in-chief, let him engage to take care of them and their
   safety; let him pass his word for their security, and take them under
   his particular protection. The leaders of an army, instead of exposing
   their soldiers needlessly and presumptuously, and throwing away their
   lives upon desperate undertakings, should study to be a guard to them,
   and, whenever they send them forth in danger, should contrive to
   support and cover them. This call to prepare seems to be ironical--Do
   thy worst, but I will turn thee back; like that Isa. viii. 9. Gird
   yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces. 3. Their design is
   against the mountains of Israel (v. 8), against the land that is
   brought back from the sword. It is not long since it was harassed with
   the sword of war, and it has been always wasted, more or less, with one
   judgment or other; it is but newly gathered out of many people, and
   brought forth out of the nations; it has enjoyed comparatively but a
   short breathing-time, has scarcely recovered any strength since it was
   brought down by war and captivity; and therefore its neighbours need
   not fear its being too great, nay, and therefore it is very barbarous
   to pick a quarrel with it so soon. It is a people that dwell safely,
   all of them, in unwalled villages, very secure, and having neither bars
   nor gates, v. 11. It is a certain sign that they intend no mischief to
   their neighbours, for they fear no mischief from them. It cannot be
   thought that those will offend others who do not take care to defend
   themselves; and this aggravates the sin of these invaders. It is base
   and barbarous to devise evil against thy neighbour while he dwells
   securely by thee, and has no distrust of thee, Prov. iii. 29. But see
   here how the clouds return after the rain in this world, and what
   little reason we have ever to be secure till we come to heaven. It is
   not long since Israel was brought back from the sword of one enemy, and
   behold the sword of another is drawn against it. Former troubles will
   not excuse us from further troubles; but when we think we have put off
   the harness, at least for some time, by a fresh and sudden alarm we may
   be called to gird it on again; and therefore we must never boast nor be
   off our guard. 4. That which the enemy has in view, in forming this
   project, is to enrich himself and to make himself master, not of the
   country, but of the wealth of it, to spoil and plunder it, and make a
   prey of it: At the same time that God intends to bring this matter
   about things shall come into the mind of this enemy, and he shall think
   an evil thought, v. 10. Note, All the mischief men do, and particularly
   the mischief they do to the church of God, arises from evil thoughts
   that come into their mind, ambitious thoughts, covetous thoughts,
   spiteful thoughts against those that are good, for the sake of their
   goodness. It came into Antiochus's mind what a singular people these
   religious Jews were, and how their worship witnessed against and
   condemned the idolatries of their neighbours, and therefore, in enmity
   to their religion, he would plague them. It came into his mind what a
   wealthy people they were, that they had gotten cattle and goods in the
   midst of the land (v. 12), and withal how weak they were, how unable to
   make any resistance, how easy it would be to carry off what they had,
   and how much glory this rapine would add to his victorious sword; these
   things coming into his mind, and one evil thought drawing on another,
   he came at last to this resolve (v. 11, 12): "I will go up to the land
   of unwalled villages; yea, that I will; it will cost me nothing to make
   them all my own. I will go and disturb those that are at rest, without
   giving them any notice, not to crush their growing greatness, or
   chastise their insolence, or make reprisals upon them for any wrong
   they have done us (they had none of these pretences to make war upon
   them), but purely to take a spoil and to take a prey" (v. 12), in open
   defiance to all the laws of justice and equity, as much as the
   highwayman's killing the traveller that he may take his money. These
   were the thoughts that came into the mind of this wicked prince, and
   God knew them; nay, he knew them before they came into his mind, for he
   understands our thoughts afar off, Ps. cxxxix. 2. 5. According to the
   project thus formed he pours in all his forces upon the land of Israel,
   and finds those that are ready to come in to his assistance with the
   same prospects (v. 9): "Thou shalt ascent and come like a storm, with
   all the force, and fury, and fierceness imaginable, and thou shalt be
   like a cloud to cover the land, to darken it, and to threaten it, thou
   and not only all thy bands, all the force thou canst bring into the
   field, but many people with thee" (such as are spoken of v. 13), "Sheba
   and Dedan, the Arabians and the Edomites, and the merchants of
   Tarshish, of Tyre and Sidon and other maritime cities, they and their
   young lions that are greedy of spoil and live upon it, shall say, Hast
   thou come to take the spoil of this land?" Yes he has; and therefore
   they wish him success. Or perhaps they envy him, or grudge it to him.
   "Hast thou come for riches who art thyself so rich already?" Or,
   knowing that God was on Israel's side, they thus ridicule his attempts,
   foreseeing that they would be baffled and that he would be disappointed
   of the prey he promised himself. Or, if he come to take the prey, they
   will come and join with him, and add to his forces. When Lysias, who
   was general of Antiochus's army, came against the Jews, the
   neighbouring nations joined with him (1 Mac. iii. 41), to share in the
   guilt, in hopes to share in the prey. When thou sawest a thief then
   thou consentedst with him.

The Judgment of Gog and Magog. (b. c. 585.)

   14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the
   Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt
   thou not know it?   15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the
   north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon
   horses, a great company, and a mighty army:   16 And thou shalt come up
   against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be
   in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the
   heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before
   their eyes.   17 Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have
   spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which
   prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against
   them?   18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall
   come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall
   come up in my face.   19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath
   have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the
   land of Israel;   20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of
   the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that
   creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the
   earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown
   down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the
   ground.   21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my
   mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his
   brother.   22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with
   blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many
   people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones,
   fire, and brimstone.   23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify
   myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall
   know that I am the Lord.

   This latter part of the chapter is a repetition of the former; the
   dream is doubled, for the thing is certain and to be very carefully
   regarded.

   I. It is here again foretold that this spiteful enemy should make a
   formidable descent upon the land of Israel (v. 15): "Thou shalt come
   out of the north parts (Syria lay on the north of Canaan) with a mighty
   army, shalt come like a cloud, and cover the land of my people Israel,"
   v. 16. These words (v. 14), When my people Israel dwell safely, shalt
   thou not know it? may be taken two ways:--1. As intimating his
   inducements to this attempt. "Thou shalt have intelligence brought thee
   how securely, and therefore how carelessly, the people of Israel dwell,
   which shall give rise to thy project against them; for when thou
   knowest not only what a rich, but what an easy prey they are likely to
   be, thou wilt soon determine to fall upon them." Note, God's providence
   is to be acknowledged in the occasion, the small occasion perhaps, that
   is given, and that not designedly neither, to those first thoughts from
   which great enterprises take their original. God, to bring about his
   own purposes, lets men know that which yet he knows they will make a
   bad use of, as here. Or, 2. As intimating his disappointment in this
   attempt, which here, as before, the prophecy begins with: "When my
   people Israel dwell safely, not in their own apprehension only, but in
   reality, forasmuch as they dwell safely under the divine protection,
   shalt not thou be made to know it by the fruitlessness of thy
   endeavours to destroy them?" Thou shalt soon find that there is no
   enchantment against Jacob, that no weapon formed against them shall
   prosper; thou shalt know to thy cost, shalt know to thy shame, that
   though they have no walls, nor bars, nor gates, they have God himself,
   a wall of fire, round about them, and that he who touches them touches
   the apple of his eye; whosoever meddles with them meddles to his own
   hurt. And it is for the demonstrating of this to all the world that God
   will bring this mighty enemy against his people. Those that gathered
   themselves against Israel said, Let us take the spoil and take they
   prey, but they knew not the thoughts of the Lord, Mic. iv. 11, 12. I
   will bring thee against my land. This is strange news, that God will
   not only permit his enemies to come against his own children, but will
   himself bring them; but, if we understand what he aims at, we shall be
   well reconciled even to this: it is "that the heathen may know me to be
   the only living and true God when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog!
   that is, in thy defeat and destruction before their eyes, that all the
   nations may see, and say, There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun,
   that rides on the heavens for the help of his people." Note, God brings
   his people into danger and distress that he may have the honour of
   bringing about their deliverance, and suffers the enemies of his church
   to prevail awhile, though they profane his name by their sin, that he
   may have the honour of prevailing at last and sanctifying his own name
   in their ruin. Now it is said, This shall be in the latter days,
   namely, in the latter days of the Old-Testament church; so the mischief
   that Antiochus did to Israel was; but in the latter days of the
   New-Testament church another like enemy should arise, that should in
   like manner be defeated. Note, Effectual securities are treasured up in
   the word of God against the troubles and dangers the church may be
   brought into a great while hence, even in the latter days.

   II. Reference is herein had to the predictions of the former prophets
   (v. 17): Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time, of whom Moses
   spoke in his prophecy of the latter days (Deut. xxxii. 43, He will
   render vengeance to his adversaries), and David, Ps. ix. 15 (The
   heathen are sunk down into the pit that they made) and often elsewhere
   in the Psalms? This is the leviathan of whom Isaiah spoke (Isa. xxvii.
   1), that congress of the nations of which Joel spoke, Joel iii. 1. Many
   of the prophets had perhaps spoken particularly of this event, though
   it be not written, as they all had spoken and written too that which is
   applicable to it. Note, There is an amiable admirable harmony and
   agreement between the Lord's prophets, though they lived in several
   ages, for they were all guided by one and the same Spirit.

   III. It is here foretold that this furious formidable enemy should be
   utterly cut off in this attempt upon Israel, and that it should issue
   in his own ruin. This is supposed by many to have its accomplishment in
   the many defeats given by the Maccabees to the forces of Antiochus and
   the remarkable judgments of God executed upon his own person, for he
   died of sore diseases. But these things are here foretold, as usual, in
   figurative expressions, which we are not to look for the literal
   accomplishment of, and yet they might be fulfilled nearer the letter
   than we know of. 1. God will be highly displeased with this bold
   invader: When he comes up in pride and anger against the land of
   Israel, and thinks to carry all before him with a high hand, then God's
   fury shall come up in his face, which is an allusion to the manner of
   men, whose colour rises in their faces when some high affront is
   offered them and they are resolved to show their resentment of it, v.
   18. God will speak against them in his jealousy for his people and in
   the fire of his wrath against his and their enemies, v. 19. See how
   God's permitting sin, his laying occasions of sin before men, and his
   making use of it to serve his own purposes, consist with his hatred of
   sin and his displeasure against it. God brings this enemy against his
   land, letting him know what an easy prey it might be and determining
   thereby to glorify himself; and yet, when he comes against the land,
   God's fury comes up, and he speaks to him in the fire of his wrath. If
   any ask, Why does he thus find fault? for who has resisted his will? It
   is easy to answer, Nay, but, O man! who art thou that repliest against
   God? 2. His forces shall be put into the greatest confusion and
   consternation imaginable (v. 19): There shall be a great shaking of
   them in the land of Israel, a universal concussion (v. 20), such as
   shall affect the fishes and fowls, the beasts and creeping things, and
   much more the men that are upon the face of the earth, who sooner
   receive impressions of fear. There shall be such an earthquake as shall
   throw down the mountains, those natural heights, and the steep places,
   towers and walls, those artificial heights; they shall all fall to the
   ground. Some understand this of the fright which the land of Israel
   should be put into by the fury of the enemy. But it is rather to be
   understood of the fright which the enemy should be put into by the
   wrath of God; all those things which they both raise themselves and
   stay themselves upon shall be shaken down, and their hearts shall fail
   them. 3. He shall be routed and utterly ruined; both earth and heaven
   shall be armed against him (1.) The earth shall muster up its forces to
   destroy him. If the people of Israel have not strength and courage to
   resist him, God will call for a sword against him, v. 21. And he has
   swords always at command, that are bathed in heaven, Isa. xxxv. 5.
   Throughout all the mountains of Israel, where he hoped to meet with
   spoil to enrich him, he shall meet with swords to destroy him, and,
   rather than fail, every man's sword shall be against his brother, as in
   the day of Midian, Ps. lxxxiii. 9. The great men of Syria shall
   undermine and overthrow one another, shall accuse one another, shall
   fight duels with one another. Note, God can, and often does, make the
   destroyers of his people to be their own destroyers and the destroyers
   of one another. However, he will himself be their destroyer, will take
   the work into his own hand, that it may be done thoroughly (v. 22): I
   will plead against him with pestilence and blood. Note, Whom God acts
   against he pleads against; he shows them the ground of his controversy
   with them, that their mouths may be stopped, and he may be clear when
   he judges. (2.) The artillery of heaven shall also be drawn out against
   them: I will rain upon him an overflowing rain, v. 22. He comes like a
   storm upon Israel, v. 9. But God will come like a storm upon him, will
   rain upon him great hailstones as upon the Canaanites (Josh. x. 11),
   fire and brimstone as upon Sodom, and a horrible tempest, Ps. xi. 6.
   Thus the Gog and Magog in the New Testament shall be devoured with fire
   from heaven, and cast into the lake of brimstone, Rev. xx. 9, 10. That
   will be the everlasting portion of all the impenitent implacable
   enemies of God's church and people. 4. God, in all this, will be
   glorified. The end he aimed at (v. 16) shall be accomplished (v. 23):
   Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself. Note, In the
   destruction of sinners God makes it to appear that he is a great and
   holy God, and he will do so to eternity. And, if men do not magnify and
   sanctify him as they ought, he will magnify himself, and sanctify
   himself; and this we should desire and pray for daily, Father, glorify
   thy own name.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XXXIX.

   This chapter continues and concludes the prophecy against Gog and
   Magog, in whose destruction God crowns his favour to his people Israel,
   which shines very brightly after the scattering of that black cloud in
   the close of this chapter. Here is, I. An express prediction of the
   utter destruction of Gog and Magog, agreeing with what we had before,
   ver. 1-7. II. An illustration of the vastness of that destruction, in
   three consequences of it: the burning of their weapons (ver. 8-10), the
   burning of their slain (ver. 11-16), and the feasting of the fowls with
   the dead bodies of those that were unburied, ver. 17-22. III. A
   declaration of God's gracious purposes concerning his people Israel, in
   this and his other providences concerning them, and a promise of
   further mercy that he had yet in store for them, ver. 23-29.

The Judgment of Gog and Magog. (b. c. 585.)

   1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith
   the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of
   Meshech and Tubal:   2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the
   sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north
   parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:   3 And I will
   smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall
   out of thy right hand.   4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of
   Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I
   will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts
   of the field to be devoured.   5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field:
   for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.   6 And I will send a fire on
   Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they
   shall know that I am the Lord.   7 So will I make my holy name known in
   the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy
   name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy
   One in Israel.

   This prophecy begins as that before (ch. xxxviii. 3, 4, I am against
   thee, and I will turn thee back); for there is need of line upon line,
   both for the conviction of Israel's enemies and the comfort of Israel's
   friends. Here, as there, it is foretold that God will bring this enemy
   from the north parts, as formerly the Chaldeans were fetched from the
   north, Jer. i. 14 (Omne malum ab aquilone--Every evil comes from the
   north), and, long after, the Roman empire was overrun by the northern
   nations, that he will bring him upon the mountains of Israel (v. 2),
   first as a place of temptation, where the measures of his iniquity
   shall be filled up, and then as a place of execution, where his ruin
   shall be completed. And that is it which is here enlarged upon. 1. His
   soldiers shall be disarmed and so disabled to carry on their
   enterprise. Though the men of might may find their hands, yet to what
   purpose, when they find it is put out of their power to do mischief,
   when God shall smite their bow out of their left hand and their arrow
   out of their right? v. 3. Note, The weapons formed against Zion shall
   not prosper. 2. He and the greatest part of his army shall be slain in
   the field of battle (v. 4): Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of
   Israel; there they sinned, and there they shall perish, even upon the
   holy mountains of Israel, for there broke he the arrows of the bow, Ps.
   lxxvi. 3. The mountains of Israel shall be moistened, and fattened, and
   made fruitful, with the blood of the enemies. "Thou shalt fall upon the
   open field (v. 5) and shalt not be able even there to make thy escape."
   Even upon the mountains he shall not find a pass that he shall be able
   to maintain, and upon the open field he shall not find a road that he
   shall be able to make his escape by. He and his bands; his regular
   troops, and the people that are with him that follow the camp to share
   in the plunder, shall all fall with him. Note, Those that cast in their
   lot among wicked people (Prov. i. 14), that they may have one purse
   with them, must expect to take their lot with them, and fare as they
   fare, taking the worse with the better. There shall be such a general
   slaughter made that but a sixth part shall be left (v. 2), the other
   five shall all be cut off. Never was army so totally routed as this.
   And, for its greater infamy and reproach, their bodies shall be a feast
   to the birds of prey, v. 4. Compare v. 17, Thou shalt fall, for I have
   spoken it. Note, Rather shall the most illustrious princes (Antiochus
   was called Epiphanes--the illustrious) and the most numerous armies
   fall to the ground than any word of God; for he that has spoken will
   make it good. 3. His country also shall be made desolate: I will send a
   fire on Magog (v. 6) and among those that dwell carelessly, or
   confidently, in the isles, that is, the nations of the Gentiles. He
   designed to destroy the land of Israel, but shall not only be defeated
   in that design, but shall have his own destroyed by some fire, some
   consuming judgment or other. Note, Those who invade other people's
   rights justly lose their own. 4. God will by all this advance the
   honour of his own name, (1.) Among his people Israel; they shall hereby
   know more of God's name, of his power and goodness, his care of them,
   his faithfulness to them. His providence concerning them shall lead
   them into a better acquaintance with him; every providence should do
   so, as well as every ordinance: I will make my holy name known in the
   midst of my people. In Judah is God known; but those that know much of
   God should know more of him; we should especially increase in the
   knowledge of his name as a holy name. They shall know him as a God of
   perfect purity and rectitude and that hates all sin, and then it
   follows, I will not let them pollute my holy name any more. Note, Those
   that rightly know God's holy name will not dare to profane it; for it
   is through ignorance of it that men make light of it and make bold with
   it. And this is God's method of dealing with men, first to enlighten
   their understandings, and by that means to influence the whole man; he
   first makes us to know his holy name, and so keeps us from polluting it
   and engages us to honour it. And this is here the blessed effect of
   God's glorious appearances on the behalf of his people. Thus he
   completes his favours, thus he sanctifies them, thus he makes them
   blessings indeed; by them he instructs his people and reforms them.
   When the Almighty scattered kings for her she was white as snow in
   Salmon, Ps. lxviii. 14. (2.) Among the heathen; those that never knew
   it, or would not own it, shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in
   Israel. They shall be made to know by dearbought experience that he is
   a God of power, and his people's God and Saviour; and it is in vain for
   the greatest potentates to contend with him; none ever hardened their
   heart against him and prospered.

The Judgment of Gog. (b. c. 585.)

   8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the
   day whereof I have spoken.   9 And they that dwell in the cities of
   Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both
   the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the
   handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven
   years:   10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither
   cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with
   fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that
   robbed them, saith the Lord God.   11 And it shall come to pass in that
   day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the
   valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the
   noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his
   multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.   12 And
   seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they
   may cleanse the land.   13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury
   them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be
   glorified, saith the Lord God.   14 And they shall sever out men of
   continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the
   passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it:
   after the end of seven months shall they search.   15 And the
   passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone,
   then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in
   the valley of Hamongog.   16 And also the name of the city shall be
   Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.   17 And, thou son of man,
   thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every
   beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on
   every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great
   sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and
   drink blood.   18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the
   blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of
   bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.   19 And ye shall eat fat
   till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice
   which I have sacrificed for you.   20 Thus ye shall be filled at my
   table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of
   war, saith the Lord God.   21 And I will set my glory among the
   heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have
   executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.   22 So the house of
   Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and
   forward.

   Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment in the latter days,
   yet it is here spoken of as if it were already accomplished, because it
   is certain (v. 8): "Behold it has come, and it is done; it is as sure
   to be done when the time shall come as if it were done already; this is
   the day whereof I have long and often spoken, and, though it has been
   long in coming, yet at length it has come." Thus it was said unto John
   (Rev. xxi. 6), It is done. To represent the routing of the army of Gog
   as very great, here are three things specified as the consequences of
   it. It was God himself that gave the defeat; we do not find that the
   people of Israel drew a sword or struck a stroke: but,

   I. They shall burn their weapons, their bows and arrows, which fell out
   of their hands (v. 3), their shields and bucklers, their javelins,
   spears, leading staves, truncheons, and half-pikes, every thing that is
   combustible. They shall not lay them up in their armouries, nor reserve
   them for their own use, lest they should be tempted to put a confidence
   in them, but they shall burn them; not all at once, for a bonfire (to
   what purpose would be that waste?) but as they had occasion to use them
   for fuel in their houses, instead of other fire-wood, so that they
   should have no occasion to take wood out of the field or forests for
   seven years together (v. 10), such vast quantities of weapons shall
   there be left upon the open field where the enemy fell, and in the
   roads which they passed in their flight. The weapons were dry and
   fitter for fuel than green wood; and, by saving the wood in their
   coppices and forests, they gave it time to grow. Though the mountains
   of Israel produce plenty of all good things, yet it becomes the people
   of Israel to be good husbands of their plenty and to save what they can
   for the benefit of those that come after them, as Providence shall give
   them opportunity to do so. We may suppose that when those who dwelt in
   the cities of Israel came forth to spoil those who spoiled them, and
   make reprisals upon them, they found upon them silver, and gold, and
   ornaments; yet no mention is made of any thing particularly that they
   converted to their own use but the wood of the weapons for fuel, which
   is one of the necessaries of human life, to teach us to think it enough
   if we be well supplied with those, though we have but little of the
   delights and gaieties of it and of those things which we may very well
   live without. And every time they put fuel to the fire, and warmed
   themselves at it, they would be put in mind of the number and strength
   of their enemies, and the imminent peril they were in of falling into
   their hands, which would help to enlarge their hearts in thankfulness
   to that God who had so wonderfully, so seasonably, delivered them. As
   they sat by the fire with their children about them (their fire-side),
   they might from it take occasion to tell them what great things God had
   done for them.

   II. They shall bury their dead. Usually, after a battle, when many are
   slain, the enemy desire time to bury their own dead. But here the
   slaughter shall be so general that there shall not be a sufficient
   number of the enemies left alive to bury the dead. And, besides, the
   slain lie so dispersed on the mountains of Israel that it would be a
   work of time to find them out; and therefore it is left to the house of
   Israel to bury them as a piece of triumph in their overthrow. 1. A
   place shall be appointed on purpose for the burying of them, the valley
   of the passengers, on the east of the sea, either the salt sea or the
   sea of Tiberias, a valley through which there was great passing and
   repassing of travellers between Egypt and Chaldea. There shall be such
   a multitude of dead bodies, putrefying above ground, with such a
   loathsome stench, that the travellers who go that way shall be forced
   to stop their noses. See what vile bodies ours are; when the soul has
   been a little while from them the smell of them becomes offensive, no
   smell more nauseous or more noxious. There therefore where the greatest
   number lay slain shall the burying-place be appointed. In the place
   where the tree falls there let it lie. And it shall be called, The
   valley of Hamon-gog, that is, of the multitude of Gog; for that was the
   thing which was in a particular manner to be had in remembrance. How
   numerous the forces of the enemy were which God defeated and destroyed
   for the defence of his people Israel! 2. A considerable time shall be
   spent in burying them, no less than seven months (v. 12), which is a
   further intimation that the slain of the Lord in this action should be
   many and that great care should be taken by the house of Israel to
   leave none unburied, that so they might cleanse the land from the
   ceremonial pollution it contracted by the lying of so many dead corpses
   unburied in it, for the prevention of which it was appointed that those
   who were hanged on a tree should be speedily taken down and buried,
   Deut. xxi. 23. This is an intimation that times of eminent deliverances
   should be times of reformation. The more God has done for the saving of
   a land from ruin the more the inhabitants should do for the cleansing
   of the land from sin. 3. Great numbers shall be employed in this work:
   All the people of the land shall be ready to lend a helping hand to it,
   v. 13. Note, Every one should contribute the utmost he can in his place
   towards the cleansing of the land from the pollutions of it, and from
   every thing that is a reproach to it. Sin is a common enemy, which
   every man should take up arms against. In publico discrimine
   unusquisque homo miles est--In the season of public danger every man
   becomes a soldier. And whoever shall assist in this work it shall be to
   them a renown; though the office of grave-makers, or common scavengers
   of the country, seem but mean, yet, when it is for the cleansing and
   purifying of the land from dead works, it shall be mentioned to their
   honour. Note, Acts of humanity add much to the renown of God's Israel;
   it is a credit to religion when those that profess it are ready to
   every good work; and a good work it is to bury the dead, yea, though
   they be strangers and enemies to the commonwealth of Israel, for even
   they shall rise again. It shall be a renown to them in the day when God
   will be glorified. Note, It is for the glory of God when his Israel do
   that which adorns their profession; others will see their good works
   and glorify their Father, Matt. v. 16. And when God is honoured he will
   put honour upon his people. His glory is their renown. 4. Some
   particular persons shall make it their business to search out the dead
   bodies, or any part of them that should remain unburied. The people of
   the land will soon grow weary of burying the pollutions of the country,
   and therefore they shall appoint men of continual employment, that
   shall apply themselves to it and do nothing else till the land be
   thoroughly cleansed; for, otherwise, that which is every one's work
   would soon become nobody's work. Note, Those that are engaged in public
   work, especially for the cleansing and reforming of a land, ought to be
   men of continual employments, men that will stick to what they
   undertake and go through with it, men that will apply themselves to it;
   and those that will do good according to their opportunities will find
   themselves continually employed. 5. Even the passengers shall be ready
   to give information to those whose business it is to cleanse the land
   of what public nuisances they meet with, which call for their
   assistance. Those that pass through the land, though they will not stay
   to bury the dead themselves, lest they should contract a ceremonial
   pollution, will yet give notice of those that they find unburied. If
   they but discover a bone, they will set up a sign, that the buriers may
   come and bury it, and that, till it is buried, others may take need of
   touching it, for which reason their sepulchres among the Jews were
   whitened, that people might keep at a distance from them. Note, When
   good work is to be done every one should lend a hand to further it,
   even the passengers themselves, who must not think themselves
   unconcerned, in a common calamity, or a common iniquity, to put a stop
   to it. Those whose work it is to cleanse the land must not countenance
   any thing in it that is defiling; though it were not the body, but only
   the bone, of a man, that was found unburied, they must encourage those
   who will give information of it (private information, by a sign,
   concealing the informer), that they may take it away, and bury it out
   of sight. Nay, after the end of seven months, which was allowed them
   for this work, when all is taken away that appeared at first view, they
   shall search for more, that what is hidden may be brought to light;
   they shall search out iniquity till they find none. In memory of this
   they shall give a new name to their city. It shall be called
   Hamonah--The multitude. O what a multitude of our enemies have we of
   this city buried! Thus shall they cleanse the land, with all this care,
   with all this pains, v. 16. Note, After conquering there must be
   cleansing. Moses appointed those Israelites that had been employed in
   the war with the Midianites to purify themselves, Num. xxxi. 24. Having
   received special favours from God, let us cleanse ourselves from all
   filthiness.

   III. The birds and beasts of prey shall rest upon the carcases of the
   slain while they remain unburied and it shall be impossible to prevent
   them, v. 17, &c. We find a great slaughter represented by this figure,
   Rev. xix. 17, &c., which is borrowed from this.

   1. There is a general invitation given, v. 17. It is to the fowl of
   every wing and to every beast of the field, from the greatest to the
   least, that preys upon carcases, from the eagle to the raven, from the
   lion to the dog; let them all gather themselves on every side; here is
   meat enough for them, and they are all welcome. Let them come to God's
   sacrifice, to his feast; so the margin reads it. Note, The judgments of
   God, executed upon sin and sinners, are both a sacrifice and a feast, a
   sacrifice to the justice of God and a feast to the faith and hope of
   God's people. When God broke the head of leviathan, he gave him to be
   meat to Israel, Ps. lxxiv. 14. The righteous shall rejoice as at a
   feast when he sees the vengeance, and shall wash his foot, as at a
   feast, in the blood of the wicked. This sacrifice is upon the mountains
   of Israel; these are the high places, the altars, where God has been
   dishonoured by the idolatries of the people, but where he will now
   glorify himself in the destruction of his enemies.

   2. There is great preparation made: They shall eat the flesh of the
   mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, v. 18, 19. (1.)
   It is the flesh and blood of men that they shall be treated with. This
   has sometimes been an instance of the rebellion of the inferior
   creatures against man their master, which is an effect of his rebellion
   against God his Maker. (2.) It is the flesh and blood of great men,
   here called rams, and bullocks, and great goats, all of them fatlings
   of Bashan. It is the blood of the princes of the earth that they shall
   regale themselves with. What a mortification is this to the princes of
   the blood, as they call themselves, that God can make that blood, that
   royal blood, which swells their veins, a feast for the birds and beasts
   of prey! (3.) It is the flesh and blood of wicked men, the enemies of
   God's church and people, that they are invited to. They had accounted
   the Israel of God as sheep for the slaughter, and now they shall
   themselves be so accounted; they had thus used the dead bodies of Gods'
   servants (Ps. lxxix. 2), or would have done, and now it shall come upon
   themselves.

   3. They shall all be fed, they shall all be feasted to the full (v. 19,
   20): "You shall eat fat, and drink blood, which are satiating
   surfeiting things. The sacrifice is great and the feast upon the
   sacrifice is accordingly: You shall be filled at my table." Note, God
   keeps a table for the inferior creatures; he provides food for all
   flesh. The eyes of all wait upon him, and he satisfies their desires,
   for he keeps a plentiful table. And if the birds and beasts shall be
   filled at God's table, which he has prepared for them, much more shall
   his children be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his house,
   even of his holy temple. They shall be filled with horses and chariots;
   that is, those who ride in the chariots, mighty men and men of war, who
   triumphed over nations, are now themselves triumphed over by the ravens
   of the valley and the young eagles, Prov. xxx. 17. They thought to make
   an easy prey of God's Israel, and now they are themselves an easy prey
   to the birds and beasts. See how evil pursues sinners even after death.
   This exposing of their bodies to be a prey is but a type and sign of
   those terrors which, after death, shall prey upon their consciences
   (which the poetical fictions represented by a vulture continually
   pecking at the heart), and this shame is but an earnest of the
   everlasting shame and contempt they shall rise to.

   IV. This shall redound very much both to the glory of God and to the
   comfort and satisfaction of his people. 1. It shall be much for the
   honour of God, for the heathen shall hereby be made to know that he is
   the Lord (v. 21): All the heathen shall see and observe my judgments
   that I have executed, and thereby my glory shall be set among them.
   This principle shall be admitted and established among them more than
   ever, that the God of Israel is a great and glorious God. He is known
   to be so even among the heathen, that have not, or read not, his
   written word, by the judgments which he executes. 2. It shall be much
   for the satisfaction of his people; for they shall hereby be made to
   know that he is their God (v. 22): The house of Israel shall know,
   abundantly to their comfort, that I am the Lord their God from that day
   and forward. (1.) He will be so from that day and forward. God's
   present mercies are pledges and assurances of further mercies. If God
   evidence to us that he is our God he assures us that he will never
   leave us. This God is our God for ever and ever. (2.) They shall know
   it with more satisfaction from that day and forward. They had sometimes
   been ready to question whether the Lord was with them or no; but the
   events of this day shall silence their doubts, and, the matter being
   thus settled and made clear, it shall not be doubted of for the future.
   As boasting in themselves is hereby for ever excluded, so boasting in
   God is hereby for ever secured.

Mercy Promised to Israel. (b. c. 585.)

   23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into
   captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me,
   therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their
   enemies: so fell they all by the sword.   24 According to their
   uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto
   them, and hid my face from them.   25 Therefore thus saith the Lord
   God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon
   the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;   26
   After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses
   whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in
   their land, and none made them afraid.   27 When I have brought them
   again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands,
   and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;   28 Then shall
   they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led
   into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their
   own land, and have left none of them any more there.   29 Neither will
   I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon
   the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

   This is the conclusion of the whole matter going before, and has
   reference not only to the predictions concerning Gog and Magog, but to
   all the prophecies of this book concerning the captivity of the house
   of Israel, and then concerning their restoration and return out of
   their captivity.

   I. God will let the heathen know the meaning of his people's troubles,
   and rectify the mistake of those concerning them who took occasion from
   the troubles of Israel to reproach the God of Israel, as unable to
   protect them and untrue to his covenant with them. When God, upon their
   reformation and return to him, turned again their captivity, and
   brought them back to their own land, and, upon their perseverance in
   their reformation, wrought such great salvations for them as that from
   the attempts of Gog upon them, then it would be made to appear, even to
   the heathen that would but consider and compare things, that there was
   no ground at all for their reflection, that Israel went into captivity,
   not because God could not protect them, but because they had by sin
   forfeited his favour and thrown themselves out of his protection (v.
   23, 24): The heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into
   captivity for their iniquity, that iniquity which they learned from the
   heathen their neighbours, because they trespassed against God. That was
   the true reason why God hid his face from them and gave them into the
   hand of their enemies. It was according to their uncleanness and
   according to their transgressions. Now the evincing of this will not
   only silence their reflections on God, but will redound greatly to his
   honour; when the troubles of God's people are over, and we see the end
   of them, we shall better understand them than we did at first. And it
   will appear much for the glory of God when the world is made to know,
   1. That God punishes sin even in his own people, because he hates it
   most in those that are nearest and dearest to him, Amos iii. 2. It is
   the praise of justice to be impartial. 2. That, when God gives up his
   people for a prey, it is to correct them and reform them, not to
   gratify their enemies, Isa. x. 7; xlii. 24. Let not them therefore
   exalt themselves. 3. That no sooner do God's people humble themselves
   under the rod than he returns in mercy to them.

   II. God will give his own people to know what great favour he has in
   store for them notwithstanding the troubles he had brought them into
   (v. 25, 26): Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob.

   1. Why now? Now God will have mercy upon the whole house of Israel,
   (1.) Because it is time for him to stand up for his own glory, which
   suffers in their sufferings: Now will I be jealous for my holy name,
   that that may no longer be reproached. (2.) Because now they repent of
   their sins: They have borne their shame, and all their trespasses. When
   sinners repent, and take shame to themselves, God will be reconciled
   and put honour upon them. It is particularly pleasing to God that these
   penitents look a great way back in their penitential reflections, and
   are ashamed of all their trespasses which they were guilty of when they
   dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid. The remembrance
   of the mercies they enjoyed in their own land, and the divine
   protection they were under there, shall be improved as an aggravation
   of the sins they committed in that land; they dwelt safely, and might
   have continued to dwell so, and none should have given them any
   disquiet or disturbance if they had continued in the way of their duty.
   Nay, therefore they trespassed because they dwelt safely. Outward
   safety is often a cause of inward security, and that is an inlet to all
   sin, Ps. lxxiii. Now this they are willing to bear the shame of, and
   acknowledge that God has justly brought them into a land of trouble,
   where every one makes them afraid, because they had trespassed against
   him in a land of peace, where none made them afraid. And, when they
   thus humble themselves under humbling providences, God will bring again
   their captivity: and,

   2. What then? When God has gathered them out of their enemies' hands,
   and brought them home again, (1.) Then God will have the praise of it:
   I will be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, v. 27. As
   God was reproached in the reproach they were under during their
   captivity, so he will be sanctified in their reformation and the making
   of them a holy people again, and will be glorified in their restoration
   and the making of them a happy glorious people again. (2.) Then they
   shall have the benefit of it (v. 28): They shall know that I am the
   Lord their God. Note, The providences of God concerning his people,
   that are designed for their good, have the grace of God going along
   with them to teach them to eye God as the Lord, and their God, in all;
   and then they do them good. They shall eye him as the Lord and their
   God, [1.] In their calamities, that it was he who caused them to be led
   into captivity; and therefore they must not only submit to his will,
   but endeavour to answer his end in it. [2.] In their comfort, that it
   is he who has gathered them to their own land, and left none of them
   among the heathen. Note, By the variety of events that befal us, if we
   look up to God in all, we may come to acquaint ourselves better with
   his various attributes and designs. (3.) Then God and they will never
   part, v. 29. [1.] God will pour out his Spirit upon them, to prevent
   their departures from him and returns to folly again, and to keep them
   close to their duty. And then, [2.] He will never hide his face any
   more from them, will never suspend his favour as he had done; he will
   never turn from doing them good, and, in order to that, he will
   effectually provide that they shall never turn from doing him service.
   Note, The indwelling of the Spirit is an infallible pledge of the
   continuance of God's favour. He will hide his face no more from those
   on whom he has poured out his Spirit. When therefore we pray that God
   would never cast us away from his presence we must as earnestly pray
   that, in order to that, he would never take his Holy Spirit away from
   us, Ps. li. 11.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XL.

   The waters of the sanctuary which this prophet saw in vision (ch.
   xlvii. 1) are a proper representation of this prophecy. Hitherto the
   waters have been sometimes but to the ankles, in other places to the
   knees, or to the loins, but now the waters have risen, and have become
   "a river which cannot be passed over." Here is one continued vision,
   beginning at this chapter, to the end of the book, which is justly
   looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions of scripture in
   all the book of God. The Jews will not allow any to read it till they
   are thirty years old, and tell those who do read it that, though they
   cannot understand every thing in it, "when Elias comes he will explain
   it." Many commentators, both ancient and modern, have owned themselves
   at a loss what to make of it and what use to make of it. But because it
   is hard to be understood we must not therefore throw it by, but humbly
   search concerning it, get as far as we can into it and as much as we
   can out of it, and, when we despair of satisfaction in every difficulty
   we meet with, bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but
   that things necessary are plain enough, and wait till God shall reveal
   even this unto us. These chapters are the more to be regarded because
   the last two chapters of the Revelation seem to have a plain allusion
   to them, as Rev. xx. has to the foregoing prophecy of Gog and Magog.
   Here is the vision of a glorious temple (in this chapter and ch. xli.
   and xlii.), of God's taking possession of it (ch. xliii.), orders
   concerning the priests that are to minister in this temple (ch. xliv.),
   the division of the land, what portion should be allotted for the
   sanctuary, what for the city, and what for the prince, both in his
   government of the people and his worship of God (ch. xlv.), and further
   instructions for him and the people, ch. xlvi. After the vision of the
   holy waters we have the borders of the holy land, and the portions
   assigned to the tribes, and the dimensions and gates of the holy city,
   ch. xlvii., xlviii. Some make this to represent what had been during
   the flourishing state of the Jewish church, how glorious Solomon's
   temple was in its best days, that the captives might see what they had
   lost by sin and might be the more humbled. But that seems not probable.
   The general scope of it I take to be, 1. To assure the captives that
   they should not only return to their own land, and be settled there,
   which had been often promised in the foregoing chapters, but that they
   should have, and therefore should be encouraged to build, another
   temple, which God would own, and where he would meet them and bless
   them, that the ordinances of worship should be revived, and the sacred
   priesthood should there attend; and, though they should not have a king
   to live in such splendour as formerly, yet they should have a prince or
   ruler (who is often spoken of in this vision), who should countenance
   the worship of God among them and should himself be an example of
   diligent attendance upon it, and that prince, priests, and people,
   should have a very comfortable settlement and subsistence in their own
   land. 2. To direct them to look further than all this, and to expect
   the coming of the Messiah, who had before been prophesied of under the
   name of David because he was the man that projected the building of the
   temple and that should set up a spiritual temple, even the
   gospel-church, the glory of which should far exceed that of Solomon's
   temple, and which should continue to the end of time. The dimensions of
   these visionary buildings being so large (the new temple more spacious
   than all the old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem of greater extent than
   all the land of Canaan) plainly intimates, as Dr. Lightfoot observes,
   that these things cannot be literally, but must spiritually,
   understood. At the gospel-temple, erected by Christ and his apostles,
   was so closely connected with the second material temple, was erected
   so carefully just at the time when that fell into decay, that it might
   be ready to receive its glories when it resigned them, that it was
   proper enough that they should both be referred to in one and the same
   vision. Under the type and figure of a temple and altar, priests and
   sacrifices, is foreshown the spiritual worship that should be performed
   in gospel times, more agreeable to the nature both of God and man, and
   that perfected at last in the kingdom of glory, in which perhaps these
   visions will have their full accomplishment, and some think in some
   happy and glorious state of the gospel-church on this side heaven, in
   the latter days.

   In this chapter we have, I. A general account of this vision of the
   temple and city, ver. 1-4. II. A particular account of it entered upon;
   and a description given, 1. Of the outside wall, ver. 5. 2. Of the east
   gate, ver. 6-19. 3. Of the north gate, ver. 20-23. 4. Of the south gate
   (ver. 24-31) and the chambers and other appurtenances belonging to
   these gates. 5. Of the inner court, both towards the east and towards
   the south, ver. 32-38. 6. Of the tables, ver. 39-43. 7. Of the lodgings
   for the singers and the priests, ver. 44-47. 8. Of the porch of the
   house, ver. 48, 49.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of
   the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after
   that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was
   upon me, and brought me thither.   2 In the visions of God brought he
   me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by
   which was as the frame of a city on the south.   3 And he brought me
   thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the
   appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring
   reed; and he stood in the gate.   4 And the man said unto me, Son of
   man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine
   heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might
   shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou
   seest to the house of Israel.

   Here is, 1. The date of this vision. It was in the twenty-fifth year of
   Ezekiel's captivity (v. 1), which some compute to be the thirty-third
   year of the first captivity, and is here said to be the fourteenth year
   after the city was smitten. See how seasonably the clearest and fullest
   prospects of their deliverance were given, when they were in the depth
   of their distress, and an assurance of the return of the morning when
   they were in the midnight of their captivity: "Then the hand of the
   Lord was upon me and brought me thither to Jerusalem, now that it was
   in ruins, desolate and deserted"--a pitiable sight to the prophet. 2.
   The scene where it was laid. The prophet was brought, in the visions of
   God, to the land of Israel, v. 2. And it was not the first time that he
   had been brought thither in vision. We had him carried to Jerusalem to
   see it in its iniquity and shame (ch. viii. 3); here he is carried
   thither to have a pleasing prospect of it in its glory, though its
   present aspect, now that it was quite depopulated, was dismal. He was
   set upon a very high mountain, as Moses upon the top of Pisgah, to view
   this land, which was now a second time a land of promise, not yet in
   possession. From the top of this mountain he saw as the frame of a
   city, the plan and model of it; but this city was a temple as large as
   a city. The New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 22) had no temple therein; this
   which we have here is all temple, which comes much to one. It is a city
   for men to dwell in; it is a temple for God to dwell in; for in the
   church on earth God dwells with men, in that in heaven men dwell with
   God. Both these are framed in the counsel of God, framed by infinite
   wisdom, and all very good. 3. The particular discoveries of this city
   (which he had at first a general view of) were made to him by a man
   whose appearance was like the appearance of brass (v. 3), not a created
   angel, but Jesus Christ, who should be found in fashion as a man, that
   he might both discover and build the gospel-temple. He brought him to
   this city, for it is through Christ that we have both acquaintance with
   and access to the benefits and privileges of God's house. He it is that
   shall build the temple of the Lord, Zech. vi. 13. His appearing like
   brass intimates both his brightness and his strength. John, in vision,
   saw his feet like unto fine brass, Rev. i. 15. 4. The dimensions of
   this city or temple, and the several parts of it, were taken with a
   line of flax and a measuring reed, or rod (v. 3), as carpenters have
   both their line and a wooden measure. The temple of God is built by
   line and rule; and those that would let others into the knowledge of it
   must do it by that line and rule. The church is formed according to the
   scripture, the pattern in the mount. That is the line and the measuring
   reed that is in the hand of Christ. With that doctrine and laws ought
   to be measured, and examined by that; for then peace is upon the Israel
   of God when they walk according to that rule. 5. Directions are here
   given to the prophet to receive this revelation from the Lord and
   transmit it pure and entire to the church, v. 4. (1.) He must carefully
   observe every thing that was said and done in this vision. His
   attention is raised and engaged (v. 4): "Behold with thy eyes all that
   is shown thee (do not only see it, but look intently upon it), and hear
   with thy ears all that is said to thee; diligently hearken to it, and
   be sure to set thy heart upon it; attend with a fixedness of thought
   and a close application of mind." What we see of the works of God, and
   what we hear of the word of God, will do us no good unless we set out
   hearts upon it, as those that reckon ourselves nearly concerned in it,
   and expect advantage to our souls by it. (2.) He must faithfully
   declare it to the house of Israel, that they may have the comfort of
   it. Therefore he receives, that he may give. Thus the Revelation of
   Jesus Christ was lodged in the hands of John, that he might signify it
   to the churches, Rev. i. 1. And, because he is to declare it as a
   message from God, he must therefore be fully apprised of it himself and
   much affected with it. Note, Those who are to preach God's word to
   others ought to study it well themselves and set their hearts upon it.
   Now the reason given why he must both observe it himself and declare it
   to the house of Israel is because to this intent he is brought hither,
   and has it shown to him. Note, When the things of God are shown to us
   it concerns us to consider to what intent they are shown to us, and,
   when we are sitting under the ministry of the word, to consider to what
   intent we are brought thither, that we may answer the end of our
   coming, and may not receive the grace of God, in showing us such
   things, in vain.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the
   man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and a hand
   breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the
   height, one reed.   6 Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward
   the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of
   the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the
   gate, which was one reed broad.   7 And every little chamber was one
   reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were
   five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate
   within was one reed.   8 He measured also the porch of the gate within,
   one reed.   9 Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and
   the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.
   10 And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this
   side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the
   posts had one measure on this side and on that side.   11 And he
   measured the breadth of the entry of the gate, ten cubits; and the
   length of the gate, thirteen cubits.   12 The space also before the
   little chambers was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit
   on that side: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and
   six cubits on that side.   13 He measured then the gate from the roof
   of one little chamber to the roof of another: the breadth was five and
   twenty cubits, door against door.   14 He made also posts of threescore
   cubits, even unto the post of the court round about the gate.   15 And
   from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of
   the inner gate were fifty cubits.   16 And there were narrow windows to
   the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about,
   and likewise to the arches: and windows were round about inward: and
   upon each post were palm trees.   17 Then brought he me into the
   outward court, and, lo, there were chambers, and a pavement made for
   the court round about: thirty chambers were upon the pavement.   18 And
   the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the
   gates was the lower pavement.   19 Then he measured the breadth from
   the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court
   without, a hundred cubits eastward and northward.   20 And the gate of
   the outward court that looked toward the north, he measured the length
   thereof, and the breadth thereof.   21 And the little chambers thereof
   were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof
   and the arches thereof were after the measure of the first gate: the
   length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty
   cubits.   22 And their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees,
   were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east; and
   they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before
   them.   23 And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate
   toward the north, and toward the east; and he measured from gate to
   gate a hundred cubits.   24 After that he brought me toward the south,
   and behold a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts thereof
   and the arches thereof according to these measures.   25 And there were
   windows in it and in the arches thereof round about, like those
   windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty
   cubits.   26 And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches
   thereof were before them: and it had palm trees, one on this side, and
   another on that side, upon the posts thereof.

   The measuring-reed which was in the hand of the surveyor-general was
   mentioned before, v. 3. Here we are told (v. 5) what was the exact
   length of it, which must be observed, because the house was measured by
   it. It was six cubits long, reckoning, not by the common cubit, but the
   cubit of the sanctuary, the sacred cubit, by which it was fit that this
   holy house should be measured, and that was a hand-breadth (that it,
   four inches) longer than the common cubit: the common cubit was
   eighteen inches, this twenty-two, see ch. xliii. 13. Yet some of the
   critics contend that this measuring-reed was but six common cubits in
   length, and one handbreadth added to the whole. The former seems more
   probable. Here is an account,

   I. Of the outer wall of the house, which encompassed it round, which
   was three yards thick and three yards high, which denotes the
   separation between the church and the world on every side and the
   divine protection which the church is under. If a wall of this vast
   thickness will not secure it, God himself will be a wall of fire round
   about it; whoever attack it will do so at their peril.

   II. Of the several gates with the chambers adjoining to them. Here is
   no mention of the outer court of all, which was called the court of the
   Gentiles, some think because in gospel-times there should be such a
   vast confluence of Gentiles to the church that their court should be
   left unmeasured, to signify that the worshippers in that court should
   be unnumbered, Rev. vii. 9, 11, 12.

   1. He begins with the east gate, because that was the usual way of
   entering into the lower end of the temple, the holy of holies being at
   the west end, in opposition to the idolatrous heathen that worshipped
   towards the east. Now, in the account of this gate, observe, (1.) That
   he went up to it by stairs (v. 6), for the gospel-church was exalted
   above that of the Old Testament, and when we go to worship God we must
   ascend; so is the call, Rev. iv. 1. Come up hither. Sursum corda--Up
   with your hearts. (2.) That the chambers adjoining to the gates were
   but little chambers, about ten feet square, v. 7. These were for those
   to lodge in who attended the service of the house. And it becomes such
   as are made spiritual priests to God to content themselves with little
   chambers and not to seek great things to themselves; so that we may but
   have a place within the verge of God's court we have reason to be
   thankful though it be in a little chamber, a mean apartment, though we
   be but door-keepers there. (3.) The chambers, as they were each of them
   four-square, denoting their stability and due proportion and their
   exact agreement with the rule (for they were each of them one reed long
   and one reed broad), so they were all of one measure, that there might
   be an equality among the attendants on the service of the house. (4.)
   The chambers were very many; for in our Father's house there are many
   mansions (John xiv. 2), in his house above, and in that here on earth.
   In the secret of his tabernacle shall those be hid, and in a safe
   pavilion, whose desire is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the
   days of their life, Ps. xxvii. 4, 5. Some make these chambers to
   represent the particular congregations of believers, which are parts of
   the great temple, the universal church, which are, and must be, framed
   by the scripture-line and rule, and which Jesus Christ takes the
   measure of, that is, takes cognizance of, for he walks in the midst of
   the seven golden candle-sticks. (5.) It is said (v. 14), He made also
   the posts. He that now measured them was the same that made them; for
   Christ is the builder of his church and therefore is best able to give
   us the knowledge of it. And his reducing them to the rule and standard
   is called his making them, for no account is made of them further than
   they agree with that. To the law and to the testimony. (6.) Here are
   posts of sixty cubits, which, some think, was literally fulfilled when
   Cyrus, in his edict for rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, ordered
   that the height thereof should be sixty cubits, that is, thirty yards
   and more, Ezra vi. 3. (7.) Here were windows to the little chambers,
   and windows to the posts and arches (that is, to the cloisters below),
   and windows round about (v. 16), to signify the light from heaven with
   which the church is illuminated; divine revelation is let into it for
   instruction, direction, and comfort, to those that dwell in God's
   house, light to work by, light to walk by, light to see themselves and
   one another by. There were lights to the little chambers; even the
   least, and least considerable, parts and members of the church, shall
   have light afforded them. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
   But they are narrow windows, as those in the temple, 1 Kings vi. 4. The
   discoveries made to the church on earth are but narrow and scanty
   compared with what shall be in the future state, when we shall no
   longer see through a glass darkly. (8.) Divers courts are here spoken
   of, an outermost of all, then an outer court, then an inner, and then
   the innermost of all, into which the priests only entered, which (some
   think) may put us in mind "of the diversities of gifts, and graces, and
   offices, in the several members of Christ's mystical body here, as also
   of the several degrees of glory in the courts and mansions of heaven,
   as there are stars in several spheres and stars of several magnitudes
   in the fixed firmament." English Annotations. Some draw nearer to God
   than others and have a more intimate acquaintance with divine things;
   but to a child of God a day in any of his courts is better than a
   thousand elsewhere. These courts had porches, or piazzas, round them,
   for the shelter of those that attended in them from wind and weather;
   for when we are in the way of our duty to God we may believe ourselves
   to be under his special protection, that he will graciously provide for
   us, nay, that he will himself be to us a covert from the storm and
   tempest, Isa. iv. 5, 6. (9.) On the posts were palm-trees engraven (v.
   16), to signify that the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree in
   the courts of God's house, Ps. xcii. 12. The more they are depressed
   with the burden of affliction the more strongly do they grow, as they
   say of the palm-trees. It likewise intimates the saints' victory and
   triumph over their spiritual enemies; they have palms in their hands
   (Rev. vii. 9); but lest they should drop these, or have them snatched
   out of their hands, they are here engraven upon the posts of the temple
   as perpetual monuments of their honour. Thanks be to God, who always
   causes us to triumph. Nay, believers shall themselves be made pillars
   in the temple of our God, and shall go no more out, and shall have his
   name engraven on them, which will be their brightest ornament and
   honour, Rev. iii. 12. (10.) Notice is here taken of the pavement of the
   court, v. 17, 18. The word intimates that the pavement was made of
   porphyry--stone, which was of the colour of burning coals; for the
   brightest and most sparkling glories of this world should be put and
   kept under our feet when we draw near to God and are attending upon
   him. The stars are, as it were, the burning coals, or stones of a fiery
   colour, with which the pavement of God's celestial temple is laid; and,
   if the pavement of the court be so bright and glittering, how glorious
   must we conclude the mansions of that house to be!

   2. The gates that looked towards the north (v. 20) and towards the
   south (v. 24), with their appurtenances, are much the same with that
   towards the east, after the measure of the first gate, v. 21. But the
   description is repeated very particularly. And thus largely was the
   structure of the tabernacle related in Exodus, and of the temple in the
   books of Kings and Chronicles, to signify the special notice God does
   take, and his ministers should take, of all that belong to his church.
   His delight is in them; his eye is upon them. He knows all that are
   his, all his living temples and all that belongs to them. Observe, (1.)
   This temple had not only a gate towards the east, to let into it the
   children of the east, that were famous for their wealth and wisdom, but
   it had a gate to the north, and another to the south, for the admission
   of the poorer and less civilized nations. The new Jerusalem has twelve
   gates, three towards each quarter of the world (Rev. xxi. 13); for many
   shall come from all parts to sit down there, Matt. viii. 11. (2.) To
   those gates they went up by steps, seven steps (v. 22-26), which, as
   some observe, may remind us of the necessity of advancing in grace and
   holiness, adding one grace to another, going from step to step, from
   strength to strength, still pressing forward towards
   perfection--upward, upward, towards heaven, the temple above.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   27 And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he
   measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.   28 And
   he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the
   south gate according to these measures;   29 And the little chambers
   thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to
   these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof
   round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits
   broad.   30 And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits
   long, and five cubits broad.   31 And the arches thereof were toward
   the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the
   going up to it had eight steps.   32 And he brought me into the inner
   court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these
   measures.   33 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof,
   and the arches thereof, were according to these measures: and there
   were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about: it was
   fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.   34 And the
   arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon
   the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to
   it had eight steps.   35 And he brought me to the north gate, and
   measured it according to these measures;   36 The little chambers
   thereof, the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, and the windows to
   it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and
   twenty cubits.   37 And the posts thereof were toward the utter court;
   and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that
   side: and the going up to it had eight steps.   38 And the chambers and
   the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed
   the burnt offering.

   In these verses we have a delineation of the inner court. The survey of
   the outer court ended with the south side of it. This of the inner
   court begins with the south side (v. 27), proceeds to the east (v. 32),
   and so to the north (v. 35); for here is no gate either of the outer or
   inner court towards the west. It should seem that in Solomon's temple
   there were gates westward, for we find porters towards the west, 1
   Chron. ix. 24; xxvi. 8. But Josephus says that in the second temple
   there was no gate on the west side. Observe, 1. These gates into the
   inner court were exactly uniform with those into the outer court, the
   dimensions the same, the chambers adjoining the same, the galleries or
   rows round the court the same, and the very engravings on the posts the
   same. The work of grace, and its workings, are the same, for substance,
   in grown Christians that they are in young beginners, only that the
   former have got so much nearer their perfection. The faith of all the
   saints is alike precious, though it be not alike strong. There is a
   great resemblance between one child of God and another; for all they
   are brethren and bear the same image. 2. The ascent into the outer
   court at each gate was by seven steps, but the ascent into the inner
   court at each gate was by eight steps. This is expressly taken notice
   of (v. 31, 34, 37), to signify that the nearer we approach to God the
   more we should rise above this world and the things of it. The people,
   who worshipped in the outer court, must rise seven steps above other
   people, but the priests, who attended in the inner court, must rise
   eight steps above them, must exceed them at least one step more than
   they exceed other people.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   39 And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two
   tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin
   offering and the trespass offering.   40 And at the side without, as
   one goeth up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on
   the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables.
   41 Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the
   side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices.
   42 And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, of a
   cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit
   high: whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the
   burnt offering and the sacrifice.   43 And within were hooks, a hand
   broad, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the
   offering.   44 And without the inner gate were the chambers of the
   singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate;
   and their prospect was toward the south: one at the side of the east
   gate having the prospect toward the north.   45 And he said unto me,
   This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests,
   the keepers of the charge of the house.   46 And the chamber whose
   prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the
   charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of
   Levi, which come near to the Lord to minister unto him.   47 So he
   measured the court, a hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad,
   four-square; and the altar that was before the house.   48 And he
   brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the
   porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the
   breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on
   that side.   49 The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the
   breadth eleven cubits; and he brought me by the steps whereby they went
   up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and
   another on that side.

   In these verses we have an account,

   I. Of the tables that were in the porch of the gates of the inner
   court. We find no description of the altars of burnt-offerings in the
   midst of that court till ch. xliii. 13. But, because the one altar
   under the law was to be exchanged for a multitude of tables under the
   gospel, here is early notice taken of the tables, at our entrance into
   the inner court; for till we come to partake of the table of the Lord
   we are but professors at large; our admission to that is our entrance
   into the inner court. But in this gospel-temple we meet with no altar
   till after the glory of the Lord has taken possession of it, for Christ
   is our altar, that sanctifies every gift. Here were eight tables
   provided, whereon to slay the sacrifices, v. 41. We read not of any
   tables for this purpose either in the tabernacle or in Solomon's
   temple. But here they are provided, to intimate the multitude of
   spiritual sacrifices that should be brought to God's house in
   gospel-times, and the multitude of hands that should be employed in
   offering up those sacrifices. Here were the shambles for the altar;
   here were the dressers on which they laid the flesh of the sacrifice,
   the knives with which they cut it up, and the hooks on which they hung
   it up, that it might be ready to be offered on the altar (v. 43), and
   there also they washed the burnt-offerings (v. 38), to intimate that
   before we draw near to God's altar we must have every thing in
   readiness, must wash our hands, our hearts, those spiritual sacrifices,
   and so compass God's altar.

   II. The use that some of the chambers mentioned before were put to. 1.
   Some were for the singers, v. 44. It should seem they were first
   provided for before any other that attended this temple-service, to
   intimate, not only that the singing of psalms should still continue a
   gospel-ordinance, but that the gospel should furnish all that embrace
   it with abundant matter for joy and praise, and give them occasion to
   break forth into singing, which is often foretold concerning gospel
   times, Ps. xcvi. 1; xcviii. 1. Christians should be singers. Blessed
   are those that dwell in God's house, they will be still praising him.
   2. Others of them were for the priests, both those that kept the charge
   of the house, to cleanse it, and to see that none came into it to
   pollute it, and to keep it in good repair (v. 45), and those that kept
   the charge of the altar (v. 46), that came near to the Lord to minister
   to him. God will find convenient lodging for all his servants. Those
   that do the work of his house shall enjoy the comforts of it.

   III. Of the inner court, the court of the priests, which was fifty
   yards square, v. 47. The altar that was before the house was placed in
   the midst of this court, over-against the three gates, and, standing in
   a direct line with the three gates of the outer court, when the gates
   were set open all the people in the outer court might through them be
   spectators of the service done at the altar. Christ is both our altar
   and our sacrifice, to whom we must look with an eye of faith in all our
   approaches to God, and he is salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps.
   lxxiv. 12), to be looked unto from all quarters.

   IV. Of the porch of the house. The temple is called the house,
   emphatically, as if no other house were worthy to be called so. Before
   this house there was a porch, to teach us not to rush hastily and
   inconsiderately into the presence of God, but gradually, that is,
   gravely, and with solemnity, passing first through the outer court,
   then the inner, then the porch, ere we enter into the house. Between
   this porch and the altar was a place where the priests used to pray,
   Joel ii. 17. In the porch, besides the posts on which the doors were
   hung, there were pillars, probably for state and ornament, like Jachin
   and Boaz--He will establish; in him is strength, v. 49. In the gospel
   church every thing is strong and firm, and every thing ought to be kept
   in its place and to be done decently and in order.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLI.

   An account was given of the porch of the house in the close of the
   foregoing chapter; this brings us to the temple itself, the description
   of which here given creates much difficulty to the critical expositors
   and occasions differences among them. Those must consult them who are
   nice in their enquiries into the meaning of the particulars of this
   delineation; it shall suffice us to observe, I. The dimensions of the
   house, the posts of it (ver. 1), the door (ver. 2), the wall and the
   side-chambers (ver. 5, 6), the foundations and wall of the chambers,
   their doors (ver. 8-11), and the house itself, ver. 13. II. The
   dimensions of the oracle, or most holy place, ver. 3, 4. III. An
   account of another building over against the separate place, ver.
   12-15. IV. The manner of the building of the house, ver. 7, 16, 17. V.
   The ornaments of the house, ver. 18-20. VI. The altar of incense and
   the table, ver. 22. VII. The doors between the temple and the oracle,
   ver. 23-26. There is so much difference both in the terms and in the
   rules of architecture between one age and another, one place and
   another, that it ought not to be any stumbling-block to us that there
   is so much in these descriptions dark and hard to be understood, about
   the meaning of which the learned are not agreed. To one not skilled in
   mathematics the mathematical description of a modern structure would be
   scarcely intelligible; and yet to a common carpenter or mason among the
   Jews at that time we may suppose that all this, in the literal sense of
   it, was easy enough.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six
   cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side,
   which was the breadth of the tabernacle.   2 And the breadth of the
   door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the
   one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length
   thereof, forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits.   3 Then went he
   inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door,
   six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.   4 So he
   measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty
   cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy
   place.   5 After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the
   breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on
   every side.   6 And the side chambers were three, one over another, and
   thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house
   for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they
   had not hold in the wall of the house.   7 And there was an enlarging,
   and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding
   about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore
   the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the
   lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.   8 I saw also the height
   of the house round about: the foundations of the side chambers were a
   full reed of six great cubits.   9 The thickness of the wall, which was
   for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left
   was the place of the side chambers that were within.   10 And between
   the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on
   every side.   11 And the doors of the side chambers were toward the
   place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward
   the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits
   round about.

   We are still attending a prophet that is under the guidance of an
   angel, and therefore attend with reverence, though we are often at a
   loss to know both what this is and what it is to us. Observe here, 1.
   After the prophet had observed the courts he was at length brought to
   the temple, v. 1. If we diligently attend to the instructions given us
   in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led
   further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of
   heaven. Those that are willing to dwell in God's courts shall at length
   be brought into his temple. Ezekiel was himself a priest, but by the
   iniquity and calamity of the times was cut short of his birthright
   privilege of ministering in the temple; but God makes up the loss to
   him by introducing him into this prophetical, evangelical, celestial
   temple, and employing him to transmit a description of it to the
   church, in which he was dignified above all the rest of his order. 2.
   When our Lord Jesus spoke of the destroying of this temple, which his
   hearers understood of this second temple of Jerusalem, he spoke of the
   temple of his body (John ii. 19, 21); and with good reason might he
   speak so ambiguously when Ezekiel's vision had a joint respect to them
   both together, including also his mystical body the church, which is
   called the house of God (1 Tim. iii. 15), and all the members of that
   body, which are living temples, in which the Spirit dwells. 3. The very
   posts of this temple, the door-posts, were as far one from the other,
   and consequently the door was as wide, as the whole breadth of the
   tabernacle of Moses (v. 1), namely, twelve cubits, Exod. xxvi. 16, 22,
   25. In comparison with what had been under the law we may say, Wide is
   the gate which leads into the church, the ceremonial law, that wall of
   partition which had so much straitened the gate, being taken down. 4.
   The most holy place was an exact square, twenty cubits each way, v. 4.
   For the new Jerusalem is exactly square (Rev. xxi. 16), denoting its
   stability; for we look for a city that cannot be moved. 5. The upper
   stories were larger than the lower, v. 7. The walls of the temple were
   six cubits thick at the bottom, five in the middle story, and four in
   the highest, which gave room to enlarge the chambers the higher they
   went; but care was taken that the timber might have fast hold (though
   God builds high, he builds firmly), yet so as not to weaken one part
   for the strengthening of another; they had hold, but not in the wall of
   the house. By this spreading gradually, the side-chambers that were on
   the height of the house (in the uppermost story of all) were six
   cubits, whereas the lowest were but four; they gained a cubit every
   story. The higher we build up ourselves in our most holy faith the more
   should our hearts, those living temples, be enlarged.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   12 Now the building that was before the separate place at the end
   toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building
   was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety
   cubits.   13 So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the
   separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred
   cubits long;   14 Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the
   separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.   15 And he measured
   the length of the building over against the separate place which was
   behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other
   side, a hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the
   court;   16 The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries
   round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with
   wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the
   windows were covered;   17 To that above the door, even unto the inner
   house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without,
   by measure.   18 And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that
   a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two
   faces;   19 So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the
   one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the
   other side: it was made through all the house round about.   20 From
   the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and
   on the wall of the temple.   21 The posts of the temple were squared,
   and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the
   appearance of the other.   22 The altar of wood was three cubits high,
   and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the
   length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto
   me, This is the table that is before the Lord.   23 And the temple and
   the sanctuary had two doors.   24 And the doors had two leaves apiece,
   two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the
   other door.   25 And there were made on them, on the doors of the
   temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and
   there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without.   26 And
   there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the
   other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of
   the house, and thick planks.

   Here is, 1. An account of a building that was before the separate place
   (that is, before the temple), at the end towards the west (v. 12),
   which is here measured, and compared (v. 13) with the measure of the
   house, and appears to be of equal dimensions with it. This stood in a
   court by itself, which is measured (v. 15) and its galleries, or
   chambers belonging to it, its posts and windows, and the ornaments of
   them, v. 15-17. But what use was to be made of this other building we
   are not told; perhaps, in this vision, it signified the setting up of a
   church among the Gentiles not inferior to the Jewish temple, but of
   quite another nature, and which should soon supersede it. 2. A
   description of the ornaments of the temple, and the other building. The
   walls on the inside from top to bottom were adorned with cherubim and
   palm-trees, placed alternately, as in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 29.
   Each cherub is here said to have two faces, the face of a man towards
   the palm tree on one side and the face of a young lion towards the
   palm-tree on the other side, v. 19. These seem to represent the angels,
   who have more than the wisdom of a man and the courage of a lion; and
   in both they have an eye to the palms of victory and triumph which are
   set before them, and which they are sure of in all their conflicts with
   the powers of darkness. And in the assemblies of the saints angels are
   in a special manner present, 1 Cor. xi. 10. 3. A description of the
   posts of the doors both of the temple and of the sanctuary; they were
   squared (v. 21), not round like pillars; and the appearance of the one
   was as the appearance of the other. In the tabernacle, and in Solomon's
   temple, the door of the sanctuary, or most holy, was narrower than that
   of the temple, but here it was fully as broad; for in gospel-times the
   way into the holiest of all is made more manifest than it was under the
   Old Testament (Heb. ix. 8) and therefore the door is wider. These doors
   are described, v. 23, 24. The temple and the sanctuary had each of them
   its door, and they were two-leaved, folding doors. 4. We have here the
   description of the altar of incense, here said to be an altar of wood,
   v. 22. No mention is made of its being over-laid with gold; but surely
   it was intended to be so, else it would not bear the fire with which
   the incense was to be burned, unless we will suppose that it served
   only to put the censers upon. Or else it intimates that the incense to
   be offered in the gospel-temple shall be purely spiritual, and the fire
   spiritual, which will not consume an altar of wood. Therefore this
   altar is called a table. This is the table that is before the Lord.
   Here, as before, we find the altar turned into a table; for, the great
   sacrifice being now offered, that which we have to do is to feast upon
   the sacrifice at the Lord's table. 5. Here is the adorning of the doors
   and windows with palm-trees, that they might be of a piece with the
   walls of the house, v. 25, 26. Thus the living temples are adorned, not
   with gold, or silver, or costly array, but with the hidden man of the
   heart, in that which is not corruptible.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLII.

   This chapter continues and concludes the describing and measuring of
   this mystical temple, which it is very hard to understand the
   particular architecture of, and yet more hard to comprehend the
   mystical meaning of. Here is, I. A description of the chambers that
   were about the courts, their situation and structure (ver. 1-13), and
   the uses for which they were designed, ver. 13, 14. II. A survey of the
   whole compass of ground which was taken up with the house, and the
   courts belonging to it, ver. 15-20.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward the
   north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the
   separate place, and which was before the building toward the north.   2
   Before the length of a hundred cubits was the north door, and the
   breadth was fifty cubits.   3 Over against the twenty cubits which were
   for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for the
   utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.   4 And
   before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of
   one cubit; and their doors toward the north.   5 Now the upper chambers
   were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower,
   and than the middlemost of the building.   6 For they were in three
   stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore
   the building was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost
   from the ground.   7 And the wall that was without over against the
   chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the chambers, the
   length thereof was fifty cubits.   8 For the length of the chambers
   that were in the utter court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the
   temple were a hundred cubits.   9 And from under these chambers was the
   entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court.
   10 The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward
   the east, over against the separate place, and over against the
   building.   11 And the way before them was like the appearance of the
   chambers which were toward the north, as long as they, and as broad as
   they: and all their goings out were both according to their fashions,
   and according to their doors.   12 And according to the doors of the
   chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way,
   even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth
   into them.   13 Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south
   chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers,
   where the priests that approach unto the Lord shall eat the most holy
   things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat
   offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the
   place is holy.   14 When the priests enter therein, then shall they not
   go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay
   their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put
   on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the
   people.

   The prophet has taken a very exact view of the temple and the buildings
   belonging to it, and is now brought again into the outer court, to
   observe the chambers that were in that square.

   I. Here is a description of these chambers, which (as that which went
   before) seems to us very perplexed and intricate, through our
   unacquaintedness with the Hebrew language and the rules of architecture
   at that time. We shall only observe, in general, 1. That about the
   temple, which was the place of public worship, there were private
   chambers, to teach us that our attendance upon God in solemn ordinances
   will not excuse us from the duties of the closet. We must not only
   worship in the courts of God's house, but must, both before and after
   our attendance there, enter into our chambers, enter into our closets,
   and read and meditate, and pray to our Father in secret; and a great
   deal of comfort the people of God have found in their communion with
   God in solitude. 2. That these chambers were many; there were three
   stories of them, and, though the higher stories were not so large as
   the lower, yet they served as well for retirement, v. 5, 6. There were
   many, that there might be conveniences for all such devout people as
   Anna the prophetess, who departed not from the temple night or day,
   Luke ii. 37. In my Father's house are many mansions. In his house on
   earth there are so; multitudes by faith have taken lodgings in his
   sanctuary, and yet there is room. 3. That these chambers, though they
   were private, yet were near the temple, within view of it, within reach
   of it, to teach us to prefer public worship before private (the Lord
   loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and so
   must we), and to refer our private worship to the public. Our religious
   performances in our chambers must be to prepare us for the exercises of
   devotion in public, and to further us in our improvement of them, as
   our opportunities are. 4. That before these chambers there were walks
   of five yards broad (v. 4), in which those that had lodgings in these
   chambers might meet for conversation, might walk and talk together for
   their mutual edification, might communicate their knowledge and
   experiences. For we are not to spend all our time between the church
   and the chamber, though a great deal of time may be spent to very good
   purpose in both. But man is made for society, and Christians for the
   communion of saints; and the duties of that communion we must make
   conscience of, and the privileges and pleasures of that communion we
   must take the comfort of. It is promised to Joshua, who was high priest
   in the second temple, that God will give him places to walk in among
   those that stand by, Zech. iii. 7.

   II. Here is the use of these chambers appointed, v. 13, 14. 1. They
   were for the priests that approach unto the Lord, that they may be
   always near their business and may not be non-residents. Therefore they
   are called holy chambers, because they were for use of those that
   ministered in holy things during their ministration. Those that have
   public work to do for God and the souls of men have need to be much in
   private, to fit themselves for it. Ministers should spend much time in
   their chambers, in reading, meditation, and prayer, that their
   profiting may appear; and they ought to be provided with conveniences
   for this purpose. 2. There the priests were to deposit the most holy
   things, those parts of the offerings which fell to their share; and
   there they were to eat them, they and their families, in a religious
   manner, for the place is holy; and thus they must make a difference
   between those feasts upon the sacrifice and other meals. 3. There
   (among other uses) they were to lay their vestments, which God had
   appointed them to wear when they ministered at the altar, their linen
   ephods, coats, girdles, and bonnets. We read of the providing of
   priests garments after their return out of captivity, Neh. vii. 70, 72.
   When they had ended their service at the altar they must lay by those
   garments, to signify that the use of them should continue only during
   that dispensation; but they must put on other garments, such as other
   people wear, when they approached to those things which were for the
   people, that is, to do that part of their service which related to the
   people, to teach them the law and to answer their enquiries. Their holy
   garments must be laid up, that they may be kept clean and decent for
   the credit of their service.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought
   me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and
   measured it round about.   16 He measured the east side with the
   measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round
   about.   17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the
   measuring reed round about.   18 He measured the south side, five
   hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.   19 He turned about to the
   west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
   20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five
   hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation
   between the sanctuary and the profane place.

   We have attended the measuring of this mystical temple and are now to
   see how far the holy ground on which we tread extends; and that also is
   here measured, and found to take in a great compass. Observe, 1. What
   the dimensions of it were. It extended each way 500 reeds (v. 16-19),
   each reed above three yards and a half, so that it reached every way
   about an English measured mile, which, the ground lying square, was
   above four miles round. Thus large were the suburbs (as I may call
   them) of this mystical temple, signifying the great extent of the
   church in gospel-times, when all nations should be discipled and the
   kingdoms of the world made Christ's kingdoms. Room should be made in
   God's courts for the numerous forces of the Gentiles that shall flow
   into them, as was foretold, Isa. xlix. 18; lx. 4. It is in part
   fulfilled already in the accession of the Gentiles to the church; and
   we trust it shall have a more full accomplishment when the fulness of
   the Gentiles shall come in and all Israel shall be saved. 2. Why the
   dimensions of it were made thus large. It was to make a separation, by
   putting a very large distance between the sanctuary and the profane
   place; and therefore there was a wall surrounding it, to keep off those
   that were unclean and to separate between the precious and the vile.
   Note, A difference is to be put between common and sacred things,
   between God's name and other names, between his day and other days, his
   book and other books, his institutions and other observances; and a
   distance is to be put between our worldly and religious actions, so as
   still to go about the worship of God with a solemn pause.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLIII.

   The prophet, having given us a view of the mystical temple, the
   gospel-church, as he received it from the Lord, that it might appear
   not to be erected in vain, comes to describe, in this and the next
   chapter, the worship that should be performed in it, but under the type
   of the Old-Testament services. In this chapter we have, I. Possession
   taken of this temple, by the glory of God filling it, ver. 1-6. II. A
   promise given of the continuance of God's presence with his people upon
   condition of their return to, and continuance in, the instituted way of
   worship, and their abandoning idols and idolatry, ver. 7-12. III. A
   description of the altar of burnt-offerings, ver. 13-17. IV. Directions
   given for the consecration of that altar, ver. 18-27. Ezekiel seems
   here to stand between God and Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord
   did when the sanctuary was first set up.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh
   toward the east:   2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came
   from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many
   waters: and the earth shined with his glory.   3 And it was according
   to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the
   vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were
   like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my
   face.   4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of
   the gate whose prospect is toward the east.   5 So the spirit took me
   up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the
   Lord filled the house.   6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the
   house; and the man stood by me.

   After Ezekiel has patiently surveyed the temple of God, the greatest
   glory of this earth, he is admitted to a higher form, and honoured with
   a sight of the glories of the upper world; it is said to him, Come up
   hither. He has seen the temple, and sees it to be very spacious and
   splendid; but, till the glory of God comes into it, it is but like the
   dead bodies he had seen in vision (ch. xxxvii.), that had no breath
   till the Spirit of life entered into them. Here therefore he sees the
   house filled with God's glory.

   I. He has a vision of the glory of God (v. 2), the glory of the God of
   Israel, that God who is in covenant with Israel, and whom they serve
   and worship. The idols of the heathen have no glory but what they owe
   to the goldsmith or the painter; but this is the glory of the God of
   Israel. This glory came from the way of the east, and therefore he was
   brought to the gate that leads towards the east, to expect the
   appearance and approach of it. Christ's star was seen in the east, and
   he is that other angel that ascends out of the east, Rev. vii. 2. For
   he is the morning star, he is the sun of righteousness. Two things he
   observed in this appearance of the glory of God:--1. The power of his
   word which he heard: His voice was like a noise of many waters, which
   is heard very far, and makes impressions; the noise of purling streams
   is grateful, of a roaring sea dreadful, Rev. i. 15; xiv. 2. Christ's
   gospel, in the glory of which he shines, was to be proclaimed aloud,
   the report of it to be heard far; to some it is a savour of life, to
   others of death, according as they are. 2. The brightness of his
   appearance which he saw: The earth shone with his glory; for God is
   light, and none can bear the lustre of his light, none has seen nor can
   see it. Note, That glory of God which shines in the church shines on
   the world. When God appeared for David the brightness that was before
   him dispersed the clouds, Ps. xviii. 12. This appearance of the glory
   of God to Ezekiel he observed to be the same with the vision he saw
   when he first received his commission (ch. i. 4), according to that by
   the river Chebar (v. 3); because God is the same, he was pleased to
   manifest himself in the same manner, for with him is no variableness.
   "It was the same" (says he) "as that which I saw when I came to destroy
   the city, that is, to foretel the city's destruction," which he did
   with such authority and efficacy, and the event did so certainly answer
   the prediction, that he might be said to destroy it. As a judge, in
   God's name, he passed a sentence upon it, which was soon executed. God
   appeared in the same manner when he sent him to speak words of terror
   and when he sent him to speak words of comfort; for in both God is and
   will be glorified. He kills and he makes alive; he wounds and he heals,
   Deut. xxxii. 39. To the same hand that destroyed we must look for
   deliverance. He has smitten, and he will bind up. Una eademque manus
   vulnus opemque tulit--The same hand inflicted the wound and healed it.

   II. He has a vision of the entrance of this glory into the temple. When
   he saw this glory he fell upon his face (v. 3), as not able to bear the
   lustre of God's glory, or rather as one willing to give him the glory
   of it by a humble and reverent adoration. But the Spirit took him up
   (v. 5) when the glory of the Lord had come into the house (v. 4), that
   he might see how the house was filled with it. He saw how the glory of
   the Lord in this same appearance departed from the temple, because it
   was profaned, to his great grief; now he shall see it return to the
   temple to his great satisfaction. See ch. x. 18, 19; xi. 23. Note,
   Though God may forsake his people for a small moment, he will return
   with everlasting loving-kindness. God's glory filled the house as it
   had filled the tabernacle which Moses set up and the temple of Solomon,
   Exod. xl. 34; 1 Kings viii. 10. Now we do not find that ever the
   Shechinah did in that manner take possession of the second temple, and
   therefore this was to have its accomplishment in that glory of the
   divine grace which shines so brightly in the gospel church, and fills
   it. Here is no mention of a cloud filling the house as formerly, for we
   now with open face behold the glory of the Lord, in the face of Christ,
   and not as of old through the cloud of types.

   III. He receives instructions more immediately from the glory of the
   Lord, as Moses did when God had taken possession of the tabernacle
   (Lev. i. 1): I heard him speaking to me out of the house, v. 6. God's
   glory shining in the church, we must thence expect to receive divine
   oracles. The man stood by me; we could not bear to hear the voice of
   God any more than to see the face of God if Jesus Christ did not stand
   by us as Mediator. Or, if this was a created angel, it is observable
   that when God began to speak to Ezekiel he stood by and gave way,
   having no more to say. Nay, he stood by the prophet, as a learner with
   him; for to the principalities and powers, to the angels themselves,
   who desire to look into these things, is known by the church the
   manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii. 10. The man stood by him to conduct
   him thither where he might receive further discoveries, ch. xliv. 1.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the
   place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the
   children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of
   Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their
   whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.   8
   In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by
   my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my
   holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I
   have consumed them in mine anger.   9 Now let them put away their
   whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will
   dwell in the midst of them for ever.   10 Thou son of man, shew the
   house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their
   iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.   11 And if they be
   ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house,
   and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in
   thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and
   all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their
   sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the
   ordinances thereof, and do them.   12 This is the law of the house;
   Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall
   be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

   God does here, in effect, renew his covenant with his people Israel,
   upon his retaking possession of the house, and Ezekiel negotiates the
   matter, as Moses formerly. This would be of great use to the captives
   at their return both for direction and encouragement; but it looks
   further, to those that are blessed with the privileges of the
   gospel-temple, that they may understand how they are before him on
   their good behaviour.

   I. God, by the prophet, puts them in mind of their former provocations,
   for which they had long lain under the tokens of his displeasure. This
   conviction is spoken to them to make way for the comforts designed
   them. Though God gives and upbraids not, it becomes us, when he
   forgives, to upbraid ourselves with our unworthy conduct towards him.
   Let them now remember therefore, 1. That they had formerly defiled
   God's holy name, had profaned and abused all those sacred things by
   which he had made himself known among them, v. 7. They and their kings
   had brought contempt on the religion they professed, and their relation
   to God, by their spiritual whoredom, their idolatry, and by worshipping
   images, which they called their kings (for so Moloch signifies) or
   lords (for so Baal signifies), but which were really the carcases of
   kings, not only lifeless and useless, but loathsome and abominable as
   dead carcases, in their high places, set up in honour of them. They had
   defiled God's name by their abominations. And what were they? It was in
   setting their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts,
   that is, adding their own inventions to God's institutions, and urging
   all to a compliance with them, as if they had been of equal authority
   and efficacy, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Isa.
   xxix. 13); or, rather, setting up altars to their idols even in the
   courts of the temple, than which a more impudent affront could not be
   put upon the divine Majesty. Thus they set up a separation wall between
   him and them, which stopped the current of his favours to them and
   spoiled the acceptableness of their services to him. See what an
   indignity sinners do to God, setting up their walls in opposition to
   his, and thrusting him out from what is his right; and see what injury
   they do to themselves, for the nearer any come to God with their sins
   the further they set him at a distance from them. Some give this sense
   of it: Though their houses joined close to God's house, their posts and
   thresholds to his, so that they were in a manner his next neighbours,
   there was but a wall between me and them (so it is in the margin), so
   that it might have been expected they would acquaint themselves with
   him and be in care to please him, yet they were not so much as
   neighbourly. Note, It often proves too true, The nearer the church the
   further from God. They were, by profession, in covenant with God, and
   yet they had defiled the place of his throne and of the soles of his
   feet, his temple, where he did both reside and reign. Jerusalem is
   called the city of the great king (Ps. xlviii. 2) and his footstool,
   Ps. xcix. 5; cxxxii. 7. Note, When God's ordinances are profaned his
   holy name is polluted. 2. That for this God had had a controversy with
   them in their late troubles. They could not condemn him, for he had but
   brought upon them the desert of their sins: Wherefore I have consumed
   them in my anger. Note, Those that pollute God's holy name fall under
   his just displeasure.

   II. He calls upon them to repent and reform, and, in order to that, to
   be ashamed of their iniquities (v. 9): "Now let them put away their
   whoredom; now that they have smarted so severely for it, and now that
   God is returning in mercy to them and setting up his sanctuary again in
   the midst of them, now let them cast away their idols and have no more
   to do with them, that they may not again forfeit the privileges which
   they have been taught to know the worth of by the want of them. Let
   them put away their idols, those loathsome carcases of their kings, far
   from me, from being a provocation to me." This was seasonable counsel
   now that the prophet had the model or pattern of the temple to set
   before them; for, 1. If they see that pattern, they will surely be
   ashamed of their sins (v. 10): when they see what mercy God has in
   store for them, notwithstanding their utter unworthiness of it, they
   will be ashamed to think of their disingenuous conduct towards him.
   Note, The goodness of God to us should lead us to repentance,
   especially to a penitential shame. Let them measure the pattern
   themselves, and see how much it exceeds the former pattern, and guess
   by that what great things God has in store for them; and surely it will
   put them out of countenance to think what the desert of their sins was.
   And then, 2. If they be ashamed of their sins, they shall surely see
   more of the pattern, v. 11. If they be ashamed of all that they have
   done, upon a general view of the goodness of God, let them have a more
   distinct particular account of the temple. Note, Those that improve
   what they see and know of the goodness of God shall see and know more
   of it. And then, and not till then, we are qualified for God's favours,
   when we are truly humbled for our own follies. "Show them the form of
   the house; let them see what a stately structure it will be; and withal
   show them the ordinances and laws of it." Note, With the foresights of
   our comforts it is fit that we should get the knowledge of our duty;
   with the privileges of God's house we must acquaint ourselves with the
   rules of it. Show them these ordinances, that they may keep them and do
   them. Note, Therefore we are made to know our duty, that we may do it,
   and be blessed in our deed.

   III. He promises that they shall be such as they should be, and then he
   will be to them such as they would have him to be, v. 7. 1. The house
   of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. This is pure gospel. The
   precept of the law says, You must not defile my name: the grace of the
   gospel says, You shall not. Thus what is required in the covenant is
   promised in the covenant, Jer. xxxii. 40. 2. Then I will dwell in the
   midst of them for ever; and the same again v. 9. God secures to us his
   good-will by confirming in us his good work. If we do not defile his
   name, we may be sure that he will not depart from us.

   IV. The general law of God's house is laid down (v. 12), That, whereas
   formerly only the chancel, or sanctuary, was most holy, now the whole
   mountain of the house shall be so; the whole limit thereof, including
   all the courts and all the chambers, shall be as the most holy place,
   signifying that in gospel-times, 1. The whole church shall have the
   privilege of the holy of holies, that of a near access to God. All
   believers have now, under the gospel, boldness to enter into the
   holiest (Heb. x. 19), with this advantage, that whereas the high priest
   entered in the virtue of the blood of bulls and goats, we enter in the
   virtue of the blood of Jesus, and, wherever we are, we have through him
   access to the Father. 2. The whole church shall be under a mighty
   obligation to press towards the perfection of holiness, as he who has
   called us is holy. All must now be most holy. Holiness becomes God's
   house for ever, and in gospel-times more than ever. Behold this is the
   law of the house; let none expect the protection of it that will not
   submit to this law.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   13 And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit
   is a cubit and a hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and
   the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round
   about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar.
     14 And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall
   be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser settle
   even to the greater settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one
   cubit.   15 So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and
   upward shall be four horns.   16 And the altar shall be twelve cubits
   long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.   17 And the
   settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four
   squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the
   bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward
   the east.   18 And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord
   God; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall
   make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood
   thereon.   19 And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of
   the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith
   the Lord God, a young bullock for a sin offering.   20 And thou shalt
   take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on
   the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus
   shalt thou cleanse and purge it.   21 Thou shalt take the bullock also
   of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the
   house, without the sanctuary.   22 And on the second day thou shalt
   offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they
   shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock.   23
   When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young
   bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
   24 And thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall
   cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering
   unto the Lord.   25 Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for
   a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out
   of the flock, without blemish.   26 Seven days shall they purge the
   altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.   27 And
   when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and
   so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar,
   and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord God.

   This relates to the altar in this mystical temple, and that is mystical
   too; for Christ is our altar. The Jews, after their return out of
   captivity, had an altar long before they had a temple, Ezra iii. 3. But
   this was an altar in the temple. Now here we have,

   I. The measures of the altar, v. 13. It was six yards square at the top
   and seven yards square at the bottom; it was four yards and a half
   high; it had a lower bench or shelf, here called a settle, a yard from
   the ground, on which some of the priests stood to minister, and another
   two yards above that, on which others of them stood, and these were
   each of them half a yard broad, and had ledges on either side, that
   they might stand firmly upon them. The sacrifices were killed at the
   table spoken of before, ch. xl. 39. What was to be burnt on the altar
   was given up to those on the lower bench, and handed by them to those
   on the higher, and they laid it on the altar. Thus in the service of
   God we must be assistant to one another.

   II. The ordinances of the altar. Directions are here given, 1.
   Concerning the dedication of the altar at first. Seven days were to be
   spent in the dedication of it, and every day sacrifices were to be
   offered upon it, and particularly a goat for a sin-offering (v. 25),
   besides a young bullock for a sin-offering on the first day (v. 19),
   which teaches us in all our religious services to have an eye to Christ
   the great sin-offering. Neither our persons nor our performances can be
   acceptable to God unless sin be taken away, and that cannot be taken
   away but by the blood of Christ, which both sanctifies the altar (for
   Christ entered by his own blood, Heb. ix. 12) and the gift upon the
   altar. There were also to be a bullock and a ram offered for a
   burnt-offering (v. 24), which was intended purely for the glory of God,
   to teach us to have an eye to that in all our services; we present
   ourselves as living sacrifices, and our devotions as spiritual
   sacrifices, that we and they may be to him for a name, and for a
   praise, and for a glory. The dedication of the altar is here called the
   cleansing and purging of it, v. 20, 26. Christ, our altar, though he
   had no pollution to be cleansed from, yet sanctified himself (John
   xvii. 19); and when we consecrate the altars of our hearts to God, to
   have the fire of holy love always burning upon them, we must see that
   they be purified and cleansed from the love of the world and the lusts
   of the flesh. It is observable that there are several differences
   between the rites of dedication here and those which were appointed
   Exod. xxix., to intimate that the ceremonial institutions were mutable
   things, and the changes in them were earnests of their period in
   Christ. Only here, according to the general law, that all the
   sacrifices must be seasoned with salt (Lev. ii. 13), particular orders
   are given (v. 24) that the priests shall cast salt upon the sacrifices.
   Grace is the salt with which all our religious performances must be
   seasoned, Col. iv. 6. An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of
   salt, because it is incorruptible. The glory reserved for us is
   incorruptible and undefiled; and the grace wrought in us is the hidden
   man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. 2. Concerning the
   constant use that should be made of it, when it was dedicated:
   Henceforward the priests shall make their burnt-offerings and
   peace-offerings upon this altar (v. 27), for therefore it was
   sanctified, that it might sanctify the gift that was offered upon it.
   Observe further, (1.) Who were to serve at the altar: The priests of
   the seed of Zadok, v. 19. That family was substituted in the room of
   Abiathar by Solomon, and God confirms it. His name signifies righteous,
   for they are the righteous seed that are priests to God, through Christ
   the Lord our righteousness. (2.) How they should prepare for this
   service (v. 26): They shall consecrate themselves, shall fill their
   hand with the offerings, in token of the giving up of themselves with
   their offerings to God and to his service. Note, Before we minister to
   the Lord in holy things we must consecrate ourselves by getting our
   hands and hearts filled with those things. (3.) How they should speed
   in it (v. 27): I will accept you. And if God now accept our works, if
   our services be pleasing to him, it is enough, we need no more. Those
   that give themselves to God shall be accepted of God, their persons
   first and then their performances, through the Mediator.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLIV.

   In this chapter we have, I. The appropriating of the east gate of the
   temple to the prince, ver. 1-3. II. A reproof sent to the house of
   Israel for their former profanations of God's sanctuary, with a charge
   to them to be more strict for the future, ver. 4-9. III. The degrading
   of those Levites that had formerly been guilty of idolatry and the
   establishing of the priesthood in the family of Zadok, which had kept
   their integrity, ver. 10-16. IV. Divers laws and ordinances concerning
   the priests, ver. 17-31.

Message of the House of Israel. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary
   which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.   2 Then said the Lord
   unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man
   shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered
   in by it, therefore it shall be shut.   3 It is for the prince; the
   prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter
   by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of
   the same.

   The prophet is here brought to review what he had before once surveyed;
   for, though we have often looked into the things of God, they will yet
   bear to be looked over again, such a copiousness there is in them. The
   lessons we have learned we should still repeat to ourselves. Every time
   we review the sacred fabric of holy things, which we have in the
   scriptures, we shall still find something new which we did not before
   take notice of. The prophet is brought a third time to the east gate,
   and finds it shut, which intimates that the rest of the gates were open
   at all times to the worshippers. But such an account is given of this
   gate's being shut as puts honour, 1. Upon the God of Israel. It is for
   the honour of him that the gate of the inner court, at which his glory
   entered when he took possession of the house, was ever after kept shut,
   and no man was allowed to enter in by it, v. 2. The difference ever
   after made between this and the other gates, that this was shut when
   the others were open, was intended both to perpetuate the remembrance
   of the solemn entrance of the glory of the Lord into the house (which
   it would remain a traditional evidence of the truth of) and also to
   possess the minds of people with a reverence for the Divine Majesty,
   and with very awful thoughts of his transcendent glory, which was
   designed in God's charge to Moses at the bush, Put off thy shoe from
   off thy foot. God will have a way by himself. 2. Upon the prince of
   Israel, v. 3. It is an honour to him that though he may not enter in by
   this gate, for no man may, yet, (1.) He shall sit in this gate to eat
   his share of the peace-offerings, that sacred food, before the Lord.
   (2.) He shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, by some
   little door or wicket, either in the gate or adjoining to it, which is
   called the way of the porch. This is to signify that God puts some of
   his glory upon magistrates, upon the princes of his people, for he has
   said, You are gods. Some by the prince here understand the high
   priests, or the sagan or second priest; and that he only was allowed to
   enter by this gate, for he was God's representative. Christ is the high
   priest of our profession, who entered himself into the holy place, and
   opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Idolatry of the Levites. (b. c. 574.)

   4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I
   looked, and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the
   Lord: and I fell upon my face.   5 And the Lord said unto me, Son of
   man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears
   all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of
   the Lord, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of
   the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.   6 And thou shalt
   say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord
   God; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
     7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised
   in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute
   it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and
   they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.   8 And
   ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set
   keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.   9 Thus saith the
   Lord God; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in
   flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the
   children of Israel.

   This is much to the same purport with what we had in the beginning of
   ch. xliii. As the prophet must look again upon what he had before seen,
   so he must be told again what he had before heard. Here, as before, he
   sees the house filled with the glory of the Lord, which strikes an awe
   upon him, so that he falls prostrate at the sight, the humblest posture
   of adoration and the expression of a holy awe: I fell upon my face, v.
   4. Note, The more we see of the glory of God the more low we shall lie
   in our own eyes. Now here,

   I. God charges the prophet to take a very particular notice of all he
   saw, and all that was said to him (v. 5): "Behold with thy eyes what is
   shown thee, particularly the entering in of the house and every going
   forth of it, all the inlets and all the outlets of the sanctuary;"
   those he must take special notice of. Note, In acquainting ourselves
   with divine things we must not aim so much at an abstract speculation
   of the things themselves as at finding the plain appointed way of
   converse and communion with those things, that we may go in and out and
   find pasture. 2. Hear with thy ears all that I say unto thee about the
   laws and ordinances of the house, which he was to instruct the people
   in. Note, Those who are appointed to be teachers have need to be very
   diligent careful learners, that they may neither forget any of the
   things they are entrusted with nor mistake concerning them.

   II. He sends him upon an errand to the people, to the rebellious, even
   to the house of Israel, v. 6. It is sad to think that the house of
   Israel should deserve this character from him who perfectly knew them,
   that a people in covenant with God should be rebellious against him.
   Who are his subjects if the house of Israel be rebels? But it is an
   instance of God's rich mercy that, though they had been rebellious,
   yet, being the house of Israel, he does not cast them off, but sends an
   ambassador to them, to invite and encourage them to return to their
   allegiance, which he would not have done if he had been pleased to kill
   them. The whole race of mankind has fallen under the character here
   given of the house of Israel; but our Lord Jesus, when he ascended on
   high, received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious also, that,
   as here, the Lord God might dwell among them, Ps. lxviii. 18.

   1. He must tell them of their faults, must show them their rebellions,
   must show the house of Jacob their sins. Note, Those that are sent to
   comfort God's people must first convince them, and so prepare them for
   comfort. Let it suffice you of all your abominations, v. 6. Note, It is
   time for those that have continued long in sin to reckon it long
   enough, and too long, and to begin to think of taking up in time, and
   leaving off their evil courses. "Let the time past of your lives
   suffice, for by this time, surely, you have surfeited upon your
   abominations and have become sick of them," 1 Pet. iv. 3. That which is
   here charged upon them is, (1.) That they had admitted those to the
   privileges of the sanctuary that were not entitled to them; whereas God
   had said, The stranger that comes nigh shall be put to death, they had
   not only connived at the intrusion of strangers into the sanctuary, but
   had themselves introduced them (v. 7): You brought in strangers
   uncircumcised in flesh, and therefore under a legal incapacity to enter
   into the sanctuary, which was a breaking of the covenant of
   circumcision, throwing down the hedge of their peculiarity, and laying
   themselves in common with the rest of the world. Yet if these strangers
   had been devout and good, though they were not circumcised, the crime
   would not have been so great; but they were uncircumcised in heart too,
   unhumbled, unreformed, and strangers indeed to God and all goodness.
   When they came to offer sacrifice they brought these with them to feast
   with them upon the sacrifice, because they were fond of their company,
   and this was one of their abominations, wherewith they polluted God's
   sanctuary; it was giving that which was holy unto dogs, Matt. vii. 6.
   Note, The admission of those who are openly wicked and profane to
   special ordinances is a polluting of God's sanctuary and a great
   provocation to him. (2.) That they had employed those in the service of
   the sanctuary who were not fit for it. Though none but priests and
   Levites were to minister in the sanctuary, yet we may suppose that all
   who were priests and Levites did not immediately attend there, but
   chosen men of them, who were best qualified, who were most wise,
   serious, and conscientious, and most likely to keep the charge of the
   holy things carefully; but, in making this choice, they had not regard
   to merit and qualification for the work: "You have set keepers of my
   charge in my sanctuary for yourselves, such as you had some favour or
   affection for, such as you either had got, or hoped to get, money by,
   or such as would comply with your humours and would dispense with the
   laws of the sanctuary to please you; thus you have not kept the charge
   of my holy things." Note, Those who have the choice of the keepers of
   the holy things, if, to serve some secular selfish purpose, they choose
   such as are unfit and unfaithful, will justly have it laid at their
   door, that they have betrayed the holy things by lodging them in bad
   hands.

   2. He must tell them their duty (v. 9): "No stranger shall enter into
   my sanctuary till he has first submitted to the laws of it." But, lest
   any should think that this excluded the penitent believing Gentiles
   from the church, the stranger here is described to be one that is
   uncircumcised in heart, not in sincerity consenting to the covenant,
   nor putting away the filth of the flesh; whereas the believing Gentiles
   were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, Col. ii. 11.
   This circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, was
   what the unbelieving Jews were strangers to and unconcerned about,
   while yet they were zealous to keep out of the sanctuary uncircumcised
   Gentiles, witness their rage against Paul when they did but suspect him
   to have brought Greeks into the temple, Acts xxi. 28.

Idolatrous Priests Degraded. (b. c. 574.)

   10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went
   astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall
   even bear their iniquity.   11 Yet they shall be ministers in my
   sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to
   the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the
   people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.   12
   Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the
   house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine
   hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their
   iniquity.   13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office
   of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the
   most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their
   abominations which they have committed.   14 But I will make them
   keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and
   for all that shall be done therein.   15 But the priests the Levites,
   the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the
   children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to
   minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the
   fat and the blood, saith the Lord God:   16 They shall enter into my
   sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me,
   and they shall keep my charge.

   The Master of the house, being about to set up house again, takes
   account of his servants the priests, and sees who are fit to be turned
   out of their places and who to be kept in, and takes a course with them
   accordingly.

   I. Those who have been treacherous are degraded and put lower than
   those Levites--or priests who were carried down the stream of the
   apostasy of Israel formerly, who went astray from God after their idols
   (v. 10), who had complied with the idolatrous kings of Israel or Judah,
   who ministered to them before their idols (v. 12), bowed with them in
   the house of Rimmon, or set up altars for them, as Urijah did for Ahaz,
   and so caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, led them to
   sin and hardened them in sin; for, if the priests go astray, many will
   follow their pernicious ways. Perhaps in Babylon some of the Jewish
   priests had complied with the idolaters of the place, to the great
   scandal of their religion. Now these priests who had thus prevaricated
   were justly put under the mark of God's displeasure; or, if they were
   dead (as it is probable that they were, if the crime were committed
   before the captivity), the iniquity was visited upon their children. Or
   perhaps it was the whole family of Abiathar that had been guilty of
   this trespass, which was now called to account for it. And, 1. They are
   sentenced to be deprived, in part, of their office, and from the
   dignity of priests are put down into the condition or ordinary Levites.
   God has lifted up his hand against them, has said it, and sworn it,
   that they shall bear their iniquity (v. 12); assuredly they shall
   suffer for it, shall suffer disgrace for it; they shall bear their
   shame (v. 13), for though they have (we charitably hope) repented of
   it, yet they shall not come near to do the office of a priest, that is,
   those parts of the office that were peculiar to them, they shall not
   come near to any of the holy things within the sanctuary, v. 13. Note,
   those who have robbed God of his honour will justly be deprived of
   their honour. And it is really a great punishment to be forbidden to
   come near to God; and justly might those who have once gone away from
   him be rejected as unworthy ever to come near to him and put at an
   everlasting distance. 2. Yet there is a mixture of mercy in this
   sentence. God deals not in severity, as he might have done, with those
   who had dealt treacherously with him, but mitigates the sentence, v.
   11, 14. They are deprived but in part, ab officio--of their office,
   and, it should seem, not at all à beneficio--of their emoluments. They
   shall help to slay the sacrifice, which the Levites were permitted to
   do, and which in this temple was done, not at the altar, but at the
   tables, ch. xl. 29. They shall be porters at the gates of the house,
   and they shall be keepers of the charge of the house, for all the
   service thereof. Note, Those who may not be fit to be employed in one
   kind of service may yet be fit to be employed in another; and even
   those who have offended may yet be made use of, and not quite thrown
   aside, much less thrown away.

   II. Those who have been faithful are honoured and established, v. 15,
   16. These are remarkably distinguished from the other: "But the sons of
   Zadok, who kept their integrity in a time of general apostasy, who went
   not astray when others did, they shall come near to me, shall come near
   to my table." Note, God will put marks of honour upon those who give
   proofs of their fidelity and constancy to him in shaking trying times,
   and will employ those in his service who have kept close to his service
   when others deserted it and drew back. And it ought to be reckoned a
   true and great reward of stability in duty to be established in it. If
   we keep close to God, God will keep us close to him.

Directions Concerning the Priests. (b. c. 574.)

   17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of
   the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool
   shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner
   court, and within.   18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads,
   and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird
   themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.   19 And when they go
   forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people,
   they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them
   in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they
   shall not sanctify the people with their garments.   20 Neither shall
   they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall
   only poll their heads.   21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when
   they enter into the inner court.   22 Neither shall they take for their
   wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of
   the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.
   23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and
   profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
   24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall
   judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my
   statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.
   25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for
   father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for
   sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.   26 And
   after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.   27 And
   in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to
   minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the
   Lord God.   28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their
   inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their
   possession.   29 They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin
   offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in
   Israel shall be theirs.   30 And the first of all the firstfruits of
   all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations,
   shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of
   your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.   31
   The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn,
   whether it be fowl or beast.

   God's priests must be regulars, not seculars; and therefore here are
   rules laid down for them to govern themselves by and due encouragement
   given them to live up to those rules. Directions are here given,

   I. Concerning their clothes; they must wear linen garments when they
   went in to minister or do any service in the inner court, or in the
   sanctuary, and nothing that was woollen, because it would cause sweat,
   v. 17, 18. They must dress themselves cool, that they might go the more
   readily about their work; and they had the more need to do so because
   they were to attend the altars, which had constant fires upon them. And
   they must dress themselves clean and sweet, and avoid every thing that
   was sweaty and filthy, to signify the purity of mind with which the
   service of God is to be attended to. Sweat came in with sin and was
   part of the curse. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.
   Clothes came in with sin, coats of skins did; and therefore the priests
   must use as little and as light clothing as possible, and not such as
   caused sweat. When they had finished their service they must change
   their clothes again, and lay up their linen garments in the chambers
   appointed for that purpose, v. 19, as before, ch. xlii. 14. They must
   not go among the people with their holy garments on, lest they should
   imagine themselves sanctified by the touch of them; or, They shall
   sanctify the people, that is (as it is explained, ch. xlii. 14), they
   shall approach to those things which are for the people, in their
   ordinary garments.

   II. Concerning their hair; in that they must avoid extremes on both
   hands (v. 20): They must not shave their heads, in imitation of the
   Gentile priests, and as the priests of the Romish church do; nor, on
   the other hand, must they suffer their locks to grow long, as the
   beaux, or that they might be thought Nazarites, when really they were
   not; but they must be grave and modest, must poll their heads and keep
   their hair short. If a man, especially a minister, wear long hair, it
   is not becoming (1 Cor. xi. 14); it is effeminate.

   III. Concerning their diet; they must be sure to drink no wine when
   they went in to minister, lest they should drink to excess, should
   drink and forget the law, v. 21. It is not for kings to drink wine,
   more than will do them good, much less for priests. See Lev. x. 9;
   Prov. xxxi. 4, 5.

   IV. Concerning their marriages, v. 22. Here they must consult the
   credit of their office, and not marry one that had been divorced, that
   was at least under the suspicion of immodesty, nor a widow, unless she
   were a priest's widow, that had been accustomed to the usages of the
   priests' families. Others may do that which ministers may not do, but
   must deny themselves in, in honour of their character. Their wives as
   well as themselves must be of good report.

   V. Concerning their preaching and church-government. 1. It was part of
   their business to teach the people; and herein they must approve
   themselves both skilful and faithful (v. 23): They shall teach my
   people the difference between the holy and the profane, between good
   and evil, lawful and unlawful, that they may neither scruple what is
   lawful nor venture upon what is unlawful, that they may not pollute
   what is holy nor pollute themselves with what is profane. Ministers
   must take pains to cause people to discern between the clean and the
   unclean, that they may not confound the distinctions between right and
   wrong, nor mistake concerning them, so as to put darkness for light and
   light for darkness, but may have a good judgment of discretion
   concerning their own actions. 2. It was part of their business to judge
   upon appeals made to them (Deut. xvii. 8, 9); and in controversy they
   shall stand in judgment, v. 24. They shall have the honesty to stand up
   for what is right, and, when they have passed a right judgment, shall
   have the courage to stand to it and stand by it. They must judge, not
   according to their own fancies, or inclinations, or secular interests,
   but according to my judgments; that must be their rule and standard.
   Note, Ministers must decide controversies according to the word of God,
   to the law and to the testimony. Sit liber judex--Let the judge be
   unbiased. Their business is to keep courts in God's name, to preside in
   the congregations of his people. And herein they must go to the
   statute-book: They shall keep my statutes in all my assemblies. God
   calls the assemblies of his people his assemblies, because they are
   held in his name, to his glory. Ministers are the masters of those
   assemblies, are to preside in them, and in all their acts must keep
   close to God's laws. Another part of their work, as church governors,
   is to hallow God's sabbaths, to do the public work of that day with a
   becoming care and reverence, as the work of a holy day should be done,
   and to see that God's people also sanctify that day and do nothing to
   pollute it.

   VI. Concerning their mourning for dead relations; the rule here agrees
   with the law of Moses, Lev. xxi. 1, 11. A priest shall not come near
   any dead body (for they must be purified from dead works) except of his
   next relations, v. 25. Decent expressions of a pious sorrow for dear
   relations, when they are removed by death, are not disagreeable to the
   character of a minister. Yet by this approach to the dead body of a
   relation they contracted a ceremonial pollution, from which they must
   be cleansed by a sin-offering before they went in again to minister, v.
   26, 27. Note, Though sorrow for the dead is very allowable and
   commendable, yet there is danger of sinning in it, either by excess or
   dissimulation; and those tears have too often need to be wept over
   again.

   VII. Concerning their maintenance; they must live upon the altar at
   which they served, and live comfortably (v. 28): "You shall give them
   no possession in Israel, no lands or tenements, lest they should be
   entangled with the affairs of this life;" for God has said, I am their
   inheritance, and they need no other in reserve; I am their possession,
   and they need no other in hand. Some land was allowed them (ch. xlviii.
   10), but their principal subsistence was by their office. What God
   appropriated to himself they were the receivers of, for their own
   proper use and behoof; they lived upon the holy things, and so God
   himself was the portion both of their inheritance and of their cup.
   Note, Those who have God for their inheritance and their possession may
   be content with a little, and ought not to covet a great deal of the
   possessions and inheritances of this earth. If we have God, we have
   all; and therefore may well reckon that we have enough. Observe,

   1. What the priests were to have from the people, for their maintenance
   and encouragement. (1.) They must have the flesh of many of the
   offerings, the sin-offering and trespass-offering, which would supply
   them and their families with flesh-meat, and the meat-offerings, which
   would supply them with bread. What we offer to God will redound to our
   own advantage. (2.) They must have every dedicated devoted thing in
   Israel, which was in many cases to be turned into money and given to
   the priest. This is explained, v. 20. Every oblation or free-will
   offering (which in times of reformation and devotion would be many and
   considerable) of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the
   priest's. We have the law concerning them Lev. xxvii. (3.) They were to
   have the first of the dough when it was going to the oven, as well as
   the first of their fruits when they were going to the barn. God, who is
   the first, must have the first; and, if it belong to him, his priests
   must have it. We may then comfortably enjoy what we have, when a share
   of it has been first set apart for works of piety and charity. To this
   the apostle's rule bears some analogy, to begin the week with laying by
   for pious uses, 1 Cor. xvi. 2. The priests being so well provided for,
   it would be inexcusable in them if they (contrary to the law which
   every Israelite is bound by) should eat that which is torn or which
   died of itself, v. 31. Those that were in want of necessary food might
   perhaps expect to be dispensed with in such a case. Poverty has its
   temptations, but the priests were so well provided for that they could
   have no pretence for it.

   2. What the people might expect from the priest for their recompence.
   Those that are kind to a prophet, to a priest, shall have a prophet's,
   a priest's reward: That he may cause the blessing to rest in thy house
   (v. 30), that God may cause it by commanding it, that the priest may
   cause it by praying for it; and it was part of the priest's work to
   bless the people in the name of the Lord, not only their congregations,
   but their families. Note, It is all in all to the comfort of any house
   to have the blessing of God upon it and to have the blessing to rest in
   it, to dwell where we dwell and to attend the entail of it upon those
   that shall come after us. And the way to have the blessing of God abide
   upon our estates is to honour God with them, and to give him and his
   ministers, him and his poor, their share out of them. God blesses, he
   surely blesses, the habitation of those who are thus just, Prov. iii.
   33. And ministers, by instructing and praying for the families that are
   kind to them, should do their part towards causing the blessing to rest
   there. Peace be to this house.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLV.

   In this chapter is further represented to the prophet, in vision, I.
   The division of the holy land, so much for the temple, and the priests
   that attended the service of it (ver. 1-4), so much for the Levites
   (ver. 5), so much for the city (ver. 6), so much for the prince, and
   the residue to the people, ver. 7, 8. II. The ordinances of justice
   that were given both to prince and people, ver. 9-12. III. The
   oblations they were to offer, and the prince's part in those oblations,
   ver. 13-17. Particularly in the beginning of the year (ver. 18-20) and
   in the passover, and the feast of tabernacles, ver. 21-25. And all this
   seems to point at the new church-state that should be set up under the
   gospel, which, both for extent and for purity, should far exceed that
   of the Old Testament.

The Division of the Holy Land. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye
   shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, a holy portion of the land: the
   length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the
   breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders
   thereof round about.   2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five
   hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about;
   and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.   3 And of this
   measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and
   the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the
   most holy place.   4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the
   priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to
   minister unto the Lord: and it shall be a place for their houses, and
   an holy place for the sanctuary.   5 And the five and twenty thousand
   of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the
   ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for
   twenty chambers.   6 And ye shall appoint the possession of the city
   five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against
   the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of
   Israel.   7 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and
   on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the
   possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and
   before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and
   from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one
   of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.   8 In the
   land shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more
   oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the
   house of Israel according to their tribes.

   Directions are here given for the dividing of the land after their
   return to it; and, God having warranted them to do it, would be an act
   of faith, and not of folly, thus to divide it before they had it. And
   it would be welcome news to the captives to hear that they should not
   only return to their own land, but that, whereas they were now but few
   in number, they should increase and multiply, so as to replenish it.
   But this never had its accomplishment in the Jewish state after the
   return out of captivity, but was to be fulfilled in the model of the
   Christian church, which was perfectly new (as this division of the land
   was quite different from that in Joshua's time) and much enlarged by
   the accession of the Gentiles to it; and it will be perfected in the
   heavenly kingdom, of which the land of Canaan had always been a type.
   Now, 1. Here is the portion of land assigned to the sanctuary, in the
   midst of which the temple was to be built, with all its courts and
   purlieus; the rest round about it was for the priests. This is called
   (v. 1) an oblation to the Lord; for what is given in works of piety,
   for the maintenance and support of the worship of God and the
   advancement of religion, God accepts as given to him, if it be done
   with a single eye. It is a holy portion of the land, which is to be set
   out first, as the first-fruits that sanctify the lump. The
   appropriating of lands for the support of religion and the ministry is
   an act of piety that bids as fair for perpetuity, and the benefit of
   posterity, as any. This holy portion of the land was to be measured,
   and the borders of it fixed, that the sanctuary itself might not have
   more than its share and in time engross the whole land. So far the
   lands of the church shall extend and no further; as in our own kingdom
   donations to the church were of old limited by the statute of mortmain.
   The lands here allotted to the sanctuary were 25,000 reeds (so our
   translation makes it, though some make them only cubits) in length, and
   10,000 in breadth-about eighty miles one way and thirty miles another
   way (say some); twenty-five miles one way and ten miles the other way,
   so others. The priests and Levites that were to come near to minister
   were to have their dwellings in this portion of the land that was round
   about the sanctuary, that they might be near their work; whereas by the
   distribution of land in Joshua's time the cities of the priests and
   Levites were dispersed all the nation over. This intimates that gospel
   ministers should reside upon their charge; where their service lies
   there must they live. 2. Next to the lands of the sanctuary the
   city-lands are assigned, in which the holy city was to be built, and
   with the issues and profits of which the citizens were to be maintained
   (v. 6): It shall be for the whole house of Israel, not appropriated, as
   before, to one tribe or two, but some of all the tribes shall dwell in
   the city, as we find they did, Neh. xi. 1, 2. The portion for the city
   was fully as long, but only half as broad, as that for the sanctuary;
   for the city was enriched by trade and therefore had the less need of
   lands. 3. The next allotment after the church-lands and the city-lands
   is of the crown-lands, v. 7, 8. Here is no admeasurement of these, but
   they are said to lie on the one side and on the other side of the
   church-lands and city-lands, to intimate that the prince with his
   wealth and power was to be a protection to both. Some make the prince's
   share equal to the church's and city's share both together; others make
   it to be a thirteenth part of the rest of the land, the other twelve
   parts being for the twelve tribes. The prince that attends continually
   to the administration of public affairs must have wherewithal to
   support his dignity, and have abundance, that he may not be in
   temptation to oppress the people, which yet with many does not prevent
   that; but the grace of God shall prevent it, for it is promised here,
   My princes shall no more oppress my people; for God will make the
   officers peace and the exactors righteousness. Notwithstanding this, we
   find that after the return of the Jews to their own land the princes
   were complained of for their exactions. But Nehemiah was one that did
   not do as the former governors, and yet kept a handsome court, Neh. v.
   15, 18. But so much is said of the prince in this mystical holy state,
   to intimate that in the gospel-church magistrates should be as nursing
   fathers to it and Christian princes its patrons and protectors; and the
   holy religion they profess, as far as they are subject to the power of
   it, will restrain them from oppressing God's people, because they are
   more his people than theirs. 4. The rest of the lands were to be
   distributed to the people according to their tribes, who had reason to
   think themselves well settled, when they had both the testimony of
   Israel and the throne of judgment so near them.

Rules of Justice. (b. c. 574.)

   9 Thus saith the Lord God; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel:
   remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away
   your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God.   10 Ye shall have
   just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.   11 The ephah and
   the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth
   part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure
   thereof shall be after the homer.   12 And the shekel shall be twenty
   gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall
   be your maneh.

   We have here some general rules of justice laid down both for prince
   and people, the rules of distributive and commutative justice; for
   godliness without honesty is but a form of godliness, will neither
   please God nor avail to the benefit of any people. Be it therefore
   enacted, by the authority of the church's King and God, 1. That princes
   do not oppress their subjects, but duly and faithfully administer
   justice among them (v. 9): "Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel!
   that you have been oppressive to the people and have enriched
   yourselves by spoil and violence, that you have so long fleeced the
   flock instead of feeding them, and henceforward do so no more." Note,
   Even princes and great men that have long done amiss must at length
   think it time, high time, to reform and amend; for no prescription will
   justify a wrong. Instead of saying that they have been long accustomed
   to oppress, and therefore may persist in it, for the custom will bear
   them out, they should say that they have been long accustomed to it and
   therefore, as here, Let the time pass suffice, and let them now remove
   violence and spoil; let them drop wrongful demands, cancel wrongful
   usages, and turn out those from employments under them that do
   violence. Let them take away their exactions, ease their subjects of
   those taxes which they find lie heavily upon them, and let them execute
   judgment and justice according to the law, as the duty of their place
   requires. Note, All princes, but especially the princes of Israel, are
   concerned to do justice; for of their people God says, They are my
   people, and they in a special manner rule for God. 2. That one
   neighbour do not cheat another in commerce (v. 10): You shall have just
   balances, in which to weigh both money and goods, a just ephah for dry
   measure of corn and flour, a just bath for the measure of liquids,
   wine, and oil; and the ephah and bath shall be one measure, the tenth
   part of a chomer, or cor, v. 11. So that the ephah and bath contained
   (as the learned Dr. Cumberland has computed) seven wine gallons and
   four pints, and something more. An omer was but the tenth part of an
   ephah (Exod. xvi. 36) and the one hundredth part of a chomer, or homer,
   and contained about six pints. The shekel is here settled (v. 13); it
   is twenty jerahs, just half a Roman ounce, in our money 2s. 4 1/4d. and
   almost the eighth part of a farthing, as the aforesaid learned man
   exactly computes it. By the shekels the maneh, or pound, was reckoned,
   which, when it was set for a mere weight (says bishop Cumberland),
   without respect to coinage, contained just 100 shekels, as appears by
   comparing 1 Kings x. 17, where it is said three manehs, or pounds, of
   gold, went to one shield, with the parallel place, 2 Chron. ix. 16,
   where it is said 300 shekels of gold went to one shield. But when the
   maneh is set for a sum of money or coin it contains but sixty shekels,
   as appears here, where twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen
   shekels, which in all make sixty, shall be the maneh. But it is thus
   reckoned because they had one piece of money that weighed twenty
   shekels, another twenty-five, another fifteen, all of which made up one
   pound, as a learned writer here observes. Note, It concerns God's
   Israel to be very honest and just in all their dealings, very punctual
   and exact in rendering to all their due, and very cautious to do wrong
   to none, because otherwise they spoil the acceptableness of their
   profession with God and the reputation of it before men.

Oblations Enjoined. (b. c. 574.)

   13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah
   of a homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of a
   homer of barley:   14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil,
   ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an
   homer of ten baths; for ten baths are a homer:   15 And one lamb out of
   the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a
   meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to
   make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord God.   16 All the people
   of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.   17 And
   it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat
   offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons,
   and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he
   shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt
   offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house
   of Israel.   18 Thus saith the Lord God; In the first month, in the
   first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without
   blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:   19 And the priest shall take of
   the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house,
   and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the
   posts of the gate of the inner court.   20 And so thou shalt do the
   seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is
   simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.   21 In the first month, in
   the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of
   seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.   22 And upon that day
   shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land
   a bullock for a sin offering.   23 And seven days of the feast he shall
   prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bullocks and seven rams
   without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for
   a sin offering.   24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah
   for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
   25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do
   the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering,
   according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering,
   and according to the oil.

   Having laid down the rules of the righteousness toward men, which is
   really a branch off true religion, he comes next to give some
   directions for their religion towards God, which is a branch of
   universal righteousness.

   I. It is required that they offer an oblation to the Lord out of what
   they have (v. 13): All the people of the land must give an oblation, v.
   16. As God's tenants, they must pay a quitrent to their great landlord.
   They had offered an oblation out of their real estates (v. 1), a holy
   portion of their land; now they are directed to offer an oblation out
   of their personal estates, their goods and chattels, as an
   acknowledgement of their receivings from him, their dependence on him,
   and their obligations to him. Note, Whatever our substance is we must
   honour God with it, by giving him his dues out of it. Not that God has
   need of or may be benefited by any thing that we can give him, Ps. l.
   9. No; it is but an oblation; we only offer it to him; the benefit of
   it returns back to ourselves, to his poor, who, as our neighbours, are
   ourselves, or to his ministers who serve continually for our good.

   II. The proportion of this oblation is here determined, which was not
   done by the law of Moses. No mention is made of the title, but only of
   this oblation. And the quantum of this is thus settled:--1. Out of
   their corn they were to offer a sixtieth part; out of every homer of
   wheat and barley, which contained ten ephahs, they were to offer the
   sixth part of one ephah, which was a sixtieth part of the whole, v. 13.
   2. Out of their oil (and probably their wine too) they were to offer a
   hundredth part, for this oblation; out of every cor, or homer, which
   contained ten baths they were to offer the tenth part of one bath, v.
   14. This was given to the altar; for in every meat-offering there was
   flour mingled with oil. 3. Out of their flocks they were to give one
   lamb out of 200; that was the smallest proportion of all, v. 15. But it
   must be out of the fat pastures of Israel. They must not offer to God
   that which was taken up from the common, but the fattest and best they
   had, for burnt-offerings and peace-offerings: the former were offered
   for the giving of glory to God, the latter for the fetching in of
   mercy, grace, and peace, from God, and in our spiritual sacrifices
   these are our two great errands at the throne of grace; but, in order
   to the acceptance of both, these sacrifices were to make reconciliation
   for them. Christ is our sacrifice of atonement, by whom reconciliation
   is made, and to him we must have an eye in our sacrifices of
   acknowledgment.

   III. This oblation must be given for the prince in Israel, v. 16. Some
   read it to the prince, and understand it of Christ, who is indeed the
   prince in Israel, to whom we must offer our oblations, and into whose
   hands we must put them, to be presented to the Father. Or, They shall
   give it with the prince; every private person shall bring his oblation,
   to be offered with that of the prince; for it follows (v. 17). It shall
   be the prince's part to provide all the offerings, to make
   reconciliation for the house of Israel. The people were to bring their
   oblations to him according to the foregoing rules, and he was to bring
   them to the sanctuary, and to make up what fell short out of his own.
   Note, It is the duty of rulers to take care of religion, and to see
   that the duties of it be regularly and carefully performed by those
   under their charge, and that nothing be wanting that is requisite
   thereto: the magistrate is the keeper of both tables; and it is a happy
   thing when those that are above others in power and dignity go before
   them in the service of God.

   IV. Some particular solemnities are here appointed.

   1. Here is one in the beginning of the year, which seems to be
   altogether new, and not instituted by the law of Moses; it is the
   annual solemnity of cleansing the sanctuary. (1.) On the first day of
   the first month (upon new-year's day) they were to offer a sacrifice
   for the cleansing of the sanctuary (v. 18), that is, to make atonement
   for the iniquity of the holy things the year past, that they might
   bring none of the guilt of them into the services of the new year, and
   to implore grace for the preventing of that iniquity, and for the
   better performance of the service of the sanctuary the ensuing year.
   And, in token of this, the blood of this sin-offering was to be put
   upon the posts of the gate of the inner court (v. 19), to signify that
   by it atonement was intended to be made for the sins of all the
   servants that attended that house, priests, Levites, and people, even
   the sins that were found in all their services. Note, Even sanctuaries
   on earth need cleansing, frequent cleansing; that above needs none.
   Those what worship God together should often join in renewing their
   repentance for their manifold defects, and applying the blood of Christ
   for the pardon of them, and in renewing their covenants to be more
   careful for the future; and it is very seasonable to begin the year
   with this work, as Hezekiah did when it had been long neglected, 2
   Chron. xxix. 17. They were here appointed to cleanse the sanctuary upon
   the first day of the month, because on the fourteenth day of the month
   they were to eat the passover, an ordinance which, of all Old-Testament
   institutions, had most in it of Christ and gospel grace, and therefore
   it was very fit that they should begin to prepare for it a fortnight
   before by cleansing the sanctuary. (2.) This sacrifice was to be
   repeated on the seventh day of the first month, v. 20. And then it was
   intended to make atonement for every one that errs, and for him that is
   simple. Note, He that sins errs and is simple; he mistakes, he goes out
   of the way, and shows himself to be foolish and unwise. But here it is
   spoken of those sins which are committed through ignorance, mistake, or
   inadvertency, whether by any of the priests, or of the Levites, or of
   the people. Sacrifices were appointed to atone for such sins as men
   were surprised into, or did before they were aware, which they would
   not have done if they had known and remembered aright, which they were
   overtaken in, and for which, afterwards, they condemn themselves. But
   for presumptuous sins, committed with a high hand, there was no
   sacrifice appointed, Num. xv. 30. By these repeated sacrifices you
   shall reconcile the house, that is, God will be reconciled to it, and
   continue the tokens of his presence in it, and will let it alone this
   year also.

   2. The passover was to be religiously observed at the time appointed,
   v. 21. Christ is our passover, that is sacrificed for us. We celebrate
   the memorial of that sacrifice and feast upon it, triumphing in our
   deliverance out of the Egyptian slavery of sin and our preservation
   from the sword of the destroying angel, the sword of divine justice, in
   the Lord's supper, which is our passover-feast, as the whole Christian
   life is, and must be, the feast of unleavened bread. It is here
   appointed that the prince shall prepare a sin-offering, to be offered
   for himself and the people, a bullock on the first day (v. 22) and a
   kid of the goats every other day (v. 23), to teach us, in all our
   attendance upon God for communion with him, to have an eye to the great
   sin-offering, by which transgression was finished and an everlasting
   righteousness brought in. On every day of the feast there was to be a
   burnt-offering, purely for the honour of God, of no less than seven
   bullocks and seven rams, with their meat-offering, which were wholly
   consumed upon the altar, and yet no waste, v. 23, 24.

   3. The feast of tabernacles; that is spoken of next (v. 25), and there
   is no mention of the feast of pentecost, which came between that of the
   passover and that of tabernacles. Orders are here given (above what
   were given by the law of Moses) for the same sacrifices to be offered
   during the seven days of the passover. See the deficiency of the legal
   sacrifices for sin; they were therefore often repeated, not only every
   year, but every feast, every day of the feast, because they could not
   make the comers thereunto perfect, Heb. x. 1, 3. See the necessity of
   our frequently repeating the same religious exercises. Though the
   sacrifice of atonement is offered once for all, yet the sacrifices of
   acknowledgement, that of a broken heart, that of a thankful heart,
   those spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Christ
   Jesus, must be every day offered. We should, as here, fall into a
   method of holy duties, and keep to it.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLVI.

   In this chapter we have, I. Some further rules given both to the
   priests and to the people, relating to their worship, ver. 1-15. II. A
   law concerning the prince's disposal of his inheritance, ver. 16-18.
   III. A description of the places provided for the boiling of the
   sacrifices and the baking of the meat-offerings, ver. 19-24.

Rules Relating to Worship. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord God; The gate of the inner court that looketh
   toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath
   it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
     2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate
   without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall
   prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall
   worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the
   gate shall not be shut until the evening.   3 Likewise the people of
   the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord in the
   sabbaths and in the new moons.   4 And the burnt offering that the
   prince shall offer unto the Lord in the sabbath day shall be six lambs
   without blemish, and a ram without blemish.   5 And the meat offering
   shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he
   shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.   6 And in the
   day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and
   six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.   7 And he shall
   prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a
   ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and a
   hin of oil to an ephah.   8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall
   go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by
   the way thereof.   9 But when the people of the land shall come before
   the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the
   north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he
   that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of
   the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he
   came in, but shall go forth over against it.   10 And the prince in the
   midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth,
   shall go forth.   11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat
   offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to
   the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.   12 Now
   when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace
   offerings voluntarily unto the Lord, one shall then open him the gate
   that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering
   and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go
   forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.   13 Thou
   shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the Lord of a lamb of the
   first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.   14
   And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth
   part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil, to temper with
   the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance
   unto the Lord.   15 Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat
   offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.

   Whether the rules for public worship here laid down were designed to be
   observed, even in those things wherein they differed from the law of
   Moses, and were so observed under the second temple, is not certain; we
   find not in the history of that latter part of the Jewish church that
   they governed themselves in their worship by these ordinances, as one
   would think they should have done, but only by law of Moses, looking
   upon this then in the next age after as mystical, and not literal. We
   may observe, in these verses,

   I. That the place of worship was fixed, and rules were given concerning
   that, both to prince and people.

   1. The east gate, which was kept shut at other times, was to be opened
   on the sabbath days, on the moons (v. 1), and whenever the prince
   offered a voluntary offering, v. 12. Of the keeping of this gate
   ordinarily shut we read before (ch. xliv. 2); whereas the other gates
   of the court were opened every day, this was opened only on high days
   and on special occasions, when it was opened for the prince, who was to
   go in by the way of the porch of that gate, v. 2, 8. Some think he went
   in with the priests and Levites into the inner court (for into that
   court this gate was the entrance), and they observe that magistrates
   and ministers should join forces, and go the same way, hand in hand, in
   promoting the service of God. But it should rather seem that he did not
   go through the gate (as the glory of the Lord had done), though it was
   open, but he went by the way of the porch of the gate, stood at the
   post of the gate, and worshipped at the threshold of the gate (v. 2),
   where he had a full view of the priests' performances at the altar, and
   signified his concurrence in them, for himself and for the people of
   the land, that stood behind him at the door of that gate, v. 3. Thus
   must every prince show himself to be of David's mind, who would very
   willingly be a door-keeper in the house of his God, and, as the word
   there is, lie at the threshold, Ps. lxxxiv. 10. Note, The greatest of
   men are less than the least of the ordinances of God. Even princes
   themselves, when they draw near to God, must worship with reverence and
   godly fear, owning that even they are unworthy to approach to him. But
   Christ is our prince, whom God causes to draw near and approach to him,
   Jer. xxx. 21.

   2. As to the north gate and south gate, by which they entered into the
   court of the people (not into the inner court), there was this rule
   given, that whoever came in at the north gate should go out at the
   south gate, and whoever came in at the south gate should go out at the
   north gate, v. 9. Some think this was to prevent thrusting and jostling
   one another; for God is the God of order, and not of confusion. We may
   suppose that they came in at the gate that was next their own houses,
   but, when they went away, God would have them go out at that gate which
   would lead them the furthest way about, that they might have time for
   meditation; being thereby obliged to go a great way round the
   sanctuary, they might have an opportunity to consider the palaces of
   it, and, if they improved their time well in fetching this circuit,
   they would call it the nearest way home. Some observe that this may
   remind us, in the service of God, to be still pressing forward (Phil.
   iii. 13) and not to look back, and, in our attendance upon ordinances,
   not to go back as we came, but more holy, and heavenly, and spiritual.

   3. It is appointed that the people shall worship at the door of the
   east gate, where the prince does, he at the head and they attending
   him, both on the sabbath and on the new moons (v. 3), and that, when
   they come in and go out, the prince shall be in the midst of them, v.
   10. Note, Great men should, by their constant and reverent attendance
   on God in public worship, give a good example to their inferiors, both
   engaging them and encouraging them to do likewise. It is a very
   graceful becoming thing for persons of quality to go to church with
   their servants, and tenants, and poor neighbours about them, and to
   behave themselves there with an air of seriousness and devotion; and
   those who thus honour God with their honour he will delight to honour.

   II. That the ordinances of worship were fixed. Though the prince is
   supposed himself to be a very hearty zealous friend to the sanctuary,
   yet it is not left to him, no, not in concert with the priests, to
   appoint what sacrifices shall be offered, but God himself appoints
   them; for it is his prerogative to institute the rites and ceremonies
   of religious worship. 1. Every morning, as duly as the morning came,
   they must offer a lamb for a burnt-offering, v. 13. It is strange that
   no mention is made of the evening sacrifice; but Christ having come,
   and having offered himself now in the end of the world (Heb. ix. 26),
   we are to look upon him as the evening sacrifice, about the time of the
   offering up of which he died. 2. On the sabbath days, whereas by the
   law of Moses four lambs were to be offered (Num. xxviii. 9), it is here
   appointed that (at the prince's charge) there shall be six lambs
   offered, and a ram besides (v. 4), to intimate how much we should
   abound in sabbath work, now in gospel-time, and what plenty of the
   spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise we should offer up to God on
   that day; and, if with such sacrifice God is well-pleased, surely we
   have a great deal of reason to be so. 3. On the new moons, in the
   beginning of their months, there was over and above the usual
   sabbath-sacrifices the additional offering of a young bullock, v. 6.
   Those who do much for God and their souls, statedly and constantly,
   must yet, upon some occasions, do still more. 4. All the sacrifices
   were to be without blemish; so Christ, the great sacrifice, was (1 Pet.
   i. 19), and so Christians, who are to present themselves to God as
   living sacrifices, should aim and endeavour to be--blameless, and
   harmless, and without rebuke. 5. All the sacrifices were to have their
   meat-offerings annexed to them, for so the law of Moses had appointed,
   to show what a good table God keeps in his house and that we ought to
   honour him with the fruit of our ground as well as with the fruit of
   our cattle, because in both he has blessed us, Deut. xxviii. 4. In the
   beginning, Cain offered the one and Abel the other. Some observe that
   the meat-offerings here are much larger in proportion than they were by
   the law of Moses. Then the proportion was three tenth-deals to a
   bullock, and two to a ram (so many tenth parts of an ephah) and half a
   hin of oil at the most (Num. xv. 6-9); but here, for every bullock and
   every ram, a whole ephah and a whole hin of oil (v. 7), which intimates
   that under the gospel, the great atoning sacrifice having been offered,
   these unbloody sacrifices shall be more abounded in; or, in general, it
   intimates that as now, under the gospel, God abounds in the gifts of
   his grace to us, more than under the law, so we should abound in the
   returns of praise and duty to him. But it is observable that in the
   meat-offering for the lambs the prince is allowed to offer as he shall
   be able to give (v. 5, 7, 11), as his hand shall attain unto. Note,
   Princess themselves must spend as they can afford; and even in that
   which is laid out in works of piety God expects and requires but that
   we should do according to our ability, every man as God has prepared
   him, 1 Cor. xvi. 2. God has not made us to serve with an offering (Isa.
   xliii. 23), but considers our frame and state. Yet this will not
   countenance those who pretend a disability that is not real, or those
   who by their extravagances in other things disable themselves to do the
   good they should. And we find those praised who, in an extraordinary
   case of charity, went not only to their power, but beyond their power.

Laws Concerning the Prince's Inheritance. (b. c. 574.)

   16 Thus saith the Lord God; If the prince give a gift unto any of his
   sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their
   possession by inheritance.   17 But if he give a gift of his
   inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of
   liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall
   be his sons' for them.   18 Moreover the prince shall not take of the
   people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their
   possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own
   possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his
   possession.

   We have here a law for the limiting of the power of the prince in the
   disposing of the crown-lands. 1. If he have a son that is a favourite,
   or has merited well, he may, if he please, as a token of his favour and
   in recompence for his services, settle some parts of his lands upon him
   and his heirs for ever (v. 16), provided it do not go out of the
   family. There may be a cause for parents, when their children have
   grown up, to be more kind to one than to another, as Jacob gave to
   Joseph one portion above his brethren, Gen. xlviii. 22. 2. Yet, if he
   have a servant that is a favourite, he may not in like manner settle
   lands upon him, v. 17. The servant might have the rents, issues, and
   profits, for such a term, but the inheritance, the jus
   proprietarium--the right of proprietorship, shall remain in the prince
   and his heirs. It was fit that a difference should be put between a
   child and a servant, like that John viii. 35. The servant abides not in
   the house for ever, as the son does. 3. What estates he gives his
   children must be of his own (v. 18): He shall not take of the people's
   inheritance, under pretence of having many children to provide for; he
   shall not find ways to make them forfeit their estates, or to force
   them to sell them and so thrust his subjects out of their possession;
   but let him and his sons be content with their own. It is far from
   being a prince's honour to increase the wealth of his family and crown
   by encroaching upon the rights and properties of his subjects; nor will
   he himself be a gainer by it at last, for he will be but a poor prince
   when the people are scattered every man from his possession, when they
   quit their native country, being forced out of it by oppression,
   choosing rather to live among strangers that are free people, and where
   what they have they can call their own, be it ever so little. It is the
   interest of princes to rule in the hearts of their subjects, and then
   all they have is, in the best manner, at their service. It is better
   for themselves to gain their affections by protecting their rights than
   to gain their estates by invading them.

Buildings about the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

   19 After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the
   gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the
   north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward.   20
   Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil
   the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the
   meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to
   sanctify the people.   21 Then he brought me forth into the utter
   court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and,
   behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.   22 In the
   four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long
   and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure.   23 And
   there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four,
   and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.   24
   Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the
   ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.

   We have here a further discovery of buildings about the temple, which
   we did not observe before, and those were places to boil the flesh of
   the offerings in, v. 20. He that kept such a plentiful table at his
   altar needed large kitchens; and a wise builder will provide
   conveniences of that kind. Observe, 1. Where those boiling-places were
   situated. There were some at the entry into the inner court (v. 19) and
   others under the rows, in the four corners of the outer court, v.
   21-23. These were the places where, it is likely, there was most room
   to spare for this purpose; and this purpose was found for the spare
   room, that none might be lost. It is a pity that holy ground should be
   waste ground. 2. What use they were put to. In those places they were
   to boil the trespass-offering and the sin-offering, those parts of them
   which were allotted to the priests and which were more sacred than the
   flesh of the peace-offerings, of which the offerer also had a share.
   There also they were to bake the meat-offering, their share of it,
   which they had from the altar for their own tables, v. 20. Care was
   taken that they should not bear them out into the outer court, to
   sanctify the people. Let them not pretend to sanctify the people with
   this holy flesh, and so impose upon them; or let not the people imagine
   that by touching those sacred things they were sanctified, and made any
   the better or more acceptable to God. It should seem (from Hag. ii. 12)
   that there were those who had such a conceit; and therefore the priests
   must not carry any of the holy flesh away with them, lest they should
   encourage that conceit. Ministers must take heed of doing any thing to
   bolster up ignorant people in their superstitious vanities.
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E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLVII.

   In this chapter we have, I. The vision of the holy waters, their rise,
   extent, depth, and healing virtue, the plenty of fish in them, and an
   account of the trees growing on the banks of them, ver. 1-12. II. An
   appointment of the borders of the land of Canaan, which was to be
   divided by lot to the tribes of Israel and the strangers that sojourned
   among them, ver. 13-23.

The Vision of the Holy Waters. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and,
   behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house
   eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the
   waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the
   south side of the altar.   2 Then brought he me out of the way of the
   gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by
   the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the
   right side.   3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went
   forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me
   through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.   4 Again he
   measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were
   to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the
   waters were to the loins.   5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it
   was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen,
   waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.   6 And he
   said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and
   caused me to return to the brink of the river.   7 Now when I had
   returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the
   one side and on the other.   8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue
   out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into
   the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be
   healed.   9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth,
   which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and
   there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters
   shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall
   live whither the river cometh.   10 And it shall come to pass, that the
   fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they
   shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to
   their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.   11 But the
   miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they
   shall be given to salt.   12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on
   this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf
   shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall
   bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters
   they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for
   meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

   This part of Ezekiel's vision must so necessarily have a mystical and
   spiritual meaning that thence we conclude the other parts of his vision
   have a mystical and spiritual meaning also; for it cannot be applied to
   the waters brought by pipes into the temple for the washing of the
   sacrifices, the keeping of the temple clean, and the carrying off of
   those waters, for that would be to turn this pleasant river into a sink
   or common sewer. That prophecy, Zech. xiv. 8, may explain it, of living
   waters that shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them towards the
   former sea and half of them towards the hinder sea. And there is
   plainly a reference to this in St. John's vision of a pure river of
   water of life, Rev. xxii. 1. That seems to represent the glory and joy
   which are grace perfected. This seems to represent the grace and joy
   which are glory begun. Most interpreters agree that these waters
   signify the gospel of Christ, which went forth from Jerusalem, and
   spread itself into the countries about, and the gifts and powers of the
   Holy Ghost which accompanied it, and by virtue of which it spread far
   and produced strange and blessed effects. Ezekiel had walked round the
   house again and again, and yet did not till now take notice of those
   waters; for God makes known his mind and will to his people, not all at
   once, but by degrees. Now observe,

   I. The rise of these waters. He is not put to trace the streams to the
   fountain, but has the fountain-head first discovered to him (v. 1):
   Waters issued out from the threshold of the house eastward, and from
   under the right side of the house, that is, the south side of the
   alter. And again (v. 2), There ran out waters on the right side,
   signifying that from Zion should go forth the law and the word of the
   Lord from Jerusalem, Isa. ii. 3. There it was that the Spirit was
   poured out upon the apostles, and endued them with the gift of tongues,
   that they might carry these waters to all nations. In the temple first
   they were to stand and preach the words of this life, Acts v. 20. They
   must preach the gospel to all nations, but must begin at Jerusalem,
   Luke xxiv. 47. But that is not all: Christ is the temple; he is the
   door; from him those living waters flow, out of his pierced side. It is
   the water that he gives us that is the well of water which springs up,
   John iv. 14. And it is by believing in him that we receive from him
   rivers of living water; and this spoke he of the Spirit, John vii. 38,
   39. The original of these waters was not above-ground, but they sprang
   up from under the threshold; for the fountain of a believer's life is a
   mystery; it is hid with Christ in God, Col. iii. 3. Some observe that
   they came forth on the right side of the house to intimate that
   gospel-blessings are right-hand blessings. It is also an encouragement
   to those who attend at Wisdom's gates, at the posts of her doors, who
   are willing to lie at the threshold of God's house, as David was, that
   they lie at the fountainhead of comfort and grace; the very entrance
   into God's word gives light and life, Ps. cxix. 130. David speaks it to
   the praise of Zion, All my springs are in thee, Ps. lxxxvii. 7. They
   came from the side of the altar, for it is in and by Jesus Christ, the
   great altar (who sanctifies our gifts to God), that God has blessed us
   with spiritual blessings in holy heavenly places. From God as the
   fountain, in him as the channel, flows the river which makes glad the
   city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High,
   Ps. xlvi. 4. But observe how much the blessedness and joy of glorified
   saints in heaven exceed those of the best and happiest saints on earth;
   here the streams of our comfort arise from under the threshold; there
   they proceed from the throne the throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev.
   xxii. 1.

   II. The progress and increase of these waters: They went forth eastward
   (v. 3), towards the east country (v. 8), for so they were directed. The
   prophet and his guide followed the stream as it ran down from the holy
   mountains, and when they had followed it about a thousand cubits they
   went over across it, to try the depth of it, and it was to the ankles,
   v. 3. Then they walked along on the bank of the river on the other
   side, a thousand cubits more, and then, to try the depth of it, they
   waded through it the second time, and it was up to their knees, v. 4.
   They walked along by it a thousand cubits more, and then forded it the
   third time, and then it was up to their middle--the waters were to the
   loins. They then walked a thousand cubits further, and attempted to
   repass it the fourth time, but found it impracticable: The waters had
   risen, by the addition either of brooks that fell into it above ground
   or by springs under ground, so that they were waters to swim in, a
   river that could not be passed over, v. 5. Note, 1. The waters of the
   sanctuary are running waters, as those of a river, not standing waters,
   as those of a pond. The gospel, when it was first preached, was still
   spreading further. Grace in the soul is still pressing forward; it is
   an active principle, plus ultra--onward still, till it comes to
   perfection. 2. They are increasing waters. This river, as it runs
   constantly, so the further it goes the fuller it grows. The
   gospel-church was very small in its beginnings, like a little purling
   brook; but by degrees it came to be to the ankles, to the knees: many
   were added to it daily, and the grain of mustard seed grew up to be a
   great tree. The gifts of the Spirit increase by being exercised, and
   grace, where it is true, is growing, like the light of the morning,
   which shines more and more to the perfect day. 3. It is good for us to
   follow these waters, and go along with them. Observe the progress of
   the gospel in the world; observe the process of the work of grace in
   the heart; attend the motions of the blessed Spirit, and walk after
   them, under a divine guidance, as Ezekiel here did. 4. It is good to be
   often searching into the things of God, and trying the depth of them,
   not only to look on the surface of those waters, but to go to the
   bottom of them as far as we can, to be often digging, often diving,
   into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, as those who covet to be
   intimately acquainted with those things. 5. If we search into the
   things of God, we shall find some things very plain and easy to be
   understood, as the waters that were but to the ankles, others more
   difficult, and which require a deeper search, as the water to the knees
   or the loins, and some quite beyond our reach, which we cannot
   penetrate into, or account for, but, despairing to find the bottom,
   must, as St. Paul, sit down at the brink, and adore the depth, Rom. xi.
   33. It has been often said that in the scripture, like these waters of
   the sanctuary, there are some places so shallow that a lamb may wade
   through them, and others so deep that an elephant may swim in them. And
   it is our wisdom, as the prophet here, to begin with that which is most
   easy, and get our hearts washed with those things before we proceed to
   that which is dark and hard to be understood; it is good to take our
   work before us.

   III. The extent of this river: It issues towards the east country, but
   thence it either divide itself into several streams or fetches a
   compass, so that it goes down into the desert, and so goes into the
   sea, either into the dead sea, which lay south-east, or the sea of
   Tiberias, which lay north-east, or the great sea, which lay west, v. 8.
   This was accomplished when the gospel was preached with success
   throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria (Acts viii. 1), and
   afterwards the nations about, nay, and those that lay most remote, even
   in the isles of the sea, were enlightened and leavened by it. The sound
   of it went forth to the end of the world; and the enemies of it could
   no more prevail to stop the progress of it than that of a mighty river.

   IV. The healing virtue of this river. The waters of the sanctuary,
   wherever they come and have a free course, will be found a wonderful
   restorative. Being brought forth into the sea, the sulphureous lake of
   Sodom, that standing monument of divine vengeance, even those waters
   shall be healed (v. 8), shall become sweet, and pleasant, and
   healthful. This intimates the wonderful and blessed change that the
   gospel would make, wheresoever it came in its power, as great change,
   in respect both of character and condition, as the turning of the dead
   sea into a fountain of gardens. When children of wrath became children
   of love, and those that were dead in trespasses and sins were made
   alive, then this was fulfilled. The gospel was as that salt which
   Elisha cast into the spring of the waters of Jericho, with which he
   healed them, 2 Kings ii. 20, 21. Christ, coming into the world to be
   its physician, sent his gospel as the great medicine, the panpharmacon;
   there is in it a remedy for every malady. Nay, wherever these rivers
   come, they make things to live (v. 9), both plants and animals; they
   are the water of life, Rev. xxii. 1, 17. Christ came, that we might
   have life and for that end he sends his gospel. Every thing shall live
   whither the river comes. The grace of God makes dead sinners alive and
   living saints lively; everything is made fruitful and flourishing by
   it. But its effect is according as it is received, and as the mind is
   prepared and disposed to receive it; for (v. 11) with respect to the
   marshes and miry places thereof, that are settled in the mire of their
   own sinfulness, and will not be healed, or settled in the moisture of
   their own righteousness, and think they need no healing, their doom is,
   They shall not be healed; the same gospel which to others is a savour
   of life unto life shall to them be a savour of death unto death; they
   shall be given to salt, to perpetual barrenness, Deut. xxix. 23. Those
   that will not be watered with the grace of God, and made fruitful,
   shall be abandoned to their own hearts' lusts, and left for ever
   unfruitful. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. Never fruit
   grow on thee more for ever. They shall be given to salt, that is, to be
   monuments of divine justice, as Lot's wife that was turned into a
   pillar of salt, to season others.

   V. The great plenty of fish that should be in this river. Every living
   moving thing shall be found here, shall live here (v. 9), shall come on
   and prosper, shall be the best of the kind, and shall increase greatly;
   so that there shall be a very great multitude of fish, according to
   their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. There
   shall be as great plenty of the river fish, and as vast shoals of them,
   as there is of salt-water fish, v. 10. There shall be so great numbers
   of Christians in the church, and those multiplying like fishes in the
   rising generations and the dew of their youth. In the creation the
   waters brought forth the fish abundantly (Gen. i. 20, 21), and they
   still live in and by the waters that produced them; so believers are
   begotten by the word of truth (James i. 18), and born by it (1 Pet. i.
   23), that river of God; by it they live, from it they have their
   maintenance and subsistence; in the waters of the sanctuary they are as
   in their element, out of them they are as fish upon dry ground; so
   David was when he thirsted and panted for God, for the living God.
   Where the fish are known to be in abundance, thither will the fishers
   flock, and there they will cast their nets; and therefore, to intimate
   the replenishing of these waters and their being made every way useful,
   it is here foretold that the fishers shall stand upon the banks of this
   river, from En-gedi, which lies on the border of the dead sea, to
   En-eglaim, another city, which joins to that sea, and all along shall
   spread their nets. The dead sea, which before was shunned as noisome
   and noxious, shall be frequented. Gospel-grace makes those persons and
   places which were unprofitable and good for nothing to become
   serviceable to God and man.

   VI. The trees that were on the banks of this river--many trees on the
   one side and on the other (v. 7), which made the prospect very pleasant
   and agreeable to the eye; the shelter of these trees also would be a
   convenience to the fishery. But that is not all (v. 12); they are trees
   for meat, and the fruit of them shall not be consumed, for it shall
   produce fresh fruit every month. The leaf shall be for medicine, and it
   shall not fade, This part of the vision is copied out into St. John's
   vision very exactly (Rev. xxii. 2), where, on either side of the river,
   is said to grow the tree of life, which yielded her fruit every month,
   and the leaves were for the healing of the nations. Christians are
   supposed to be these trees, ministers especially, trees of
   righteousness, the planting of the Lord (Isa. lxi. 3), set by the
   rivers of water, the waters of the sanctuary (Ps. i. 3), grafted into
   Christ the tree of life, and by virtue of their union with him made
   trees of life too, rooted in him, Col. ii. 7. There is a great variety
   of these trees, through the diversity of gifts with which they are
   endued by that one Spirit who works all in all. They grow on the bank
   of the river, or they keep close to holy ordinances, and through them
   derive from Christ sap and virtue. They are fruit-trees, designed, as
   the fig tree and the olive, with their fruits to honour God and man,
   Judg. ix. 9. The fruit thereof shall be for meat, for the lips of the
   righteous feed many. The fruits of their righteousness are one way or
   other beneficial. The very leaves of these trees are for medicine, for
   bruises and sores, margin. Good Christians with their good discourses,
   which are as their leaves, as well as with their charitable actions,
   which are as their fruits, do good to those about them; they strengthen
   the weak, and bind up the broken-hearted. Their cheerfulness does good
   like a medicine, not only to themselves, but to others also. They shall
   be enabled by the grace of God to persevere in their goodness and
   usefulness; their leaf shall not fade, or lose its medicinal virtue,
   having not only life in their root, but sap in all their branches;
   their profession shall not wither (Ps. i. 3), neither shall the fruit
   thereof be consumed; that is, they shall not lose the principle of
   their fruitfulness, but shall still bring forth fruit in old age, to
   show that the Lord is upright (Ps. xcii. 14, 15), or the reward of
   their fruitfulness shall abide for ever; they bring forth fruit that
   shall abound to their account in the great day, fruit to life eternal;
   that is indeed fruit which shall not be consumed. They bring new fruit
   according to their months, some in one month and others in another: so
   that still there shall be one or other found to serve the glory of God
   for the purpose he designs. Or each one of them shall bring forth fruit
   monthly, which denotes an abundant disposition to fruit-bearing (they
   shall never be weary of well-doing), and a very happy climate, such
   that there shall be a perpetual spring and summer. And the reason of
   this extraordinary fruitfulness is because their waters issued out of
   the sanctuary; it is not to be ascribed to any thing in themselves, but
   to the continual supplies of divine grace, with which they are watered
   every moment (Isa. xxvii. 3); for, whoever planted them, it was that
   which gave the increase.

The Borders of the Land Appointed. (b. c. 574.)

   13 Thus saith the Lord God; This shall be the border, whereby ye shall
   inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall
   have two portions.   14 And ye shall inherit it, one as well as
   another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto
   your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance.   15
   And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from
   the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad;   16 Hamath,
   Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the
   border of Hamath; Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran.   17
   And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of
   Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this
   is the north side.   18 And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran,
   and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by
   Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side.
   19 And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of
   strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south
   side southward.   20 The west side also shall be the great sea from the
   border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side.
   21 So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of
   Israel.   22 And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot
   for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among
   you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you
   as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have
   inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.   23 And it shall come
   to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye
   give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God.

   We are now to pass from the affairs of the sanctuary to those of the
   state, from the city to the country. 1. The Land of Canaan is here
   secured to them for an inheritance (v. 14): I lifted up my hand to give
   it unto your fathers, that is, promised it upon oath to them and their
   posterity. Though the possession had been a great while discontinued,
   yet God had not forgotten his oath which he swore to their fathers.
   Though God's providences may for a time seem to contradict his
   promises, yet the promise will certainly take place at last, for God
   will be ever mindful of his covenant. I lifted up my hand to give it,
   and therefore it shall without fail fall to you for an inheritance.
   Thus the heavenly Canaan is sure to all the seed, because it is what
   God, who cannot lie, has promised. 2. It is here circumscribed, and the
   bounds and limits of it are fixed, which they must not pass over to
   encroach upon their neighbours and which their neighbours shall not
   break through to encroach upon them. We had such a draught of the
   borders of Canaan when Joshua was to put the people in possession of
   it, Num. xxxiv. 1, &c. That begins with the salt sea in the south, goes
   round and ends there. This begins with Hamath about Damascus in the
   north, and so goes round and ends there, v. 20. Note, It is God that
   appoints the bounds of our habitation; and his Israel shall always have
   cause to say that the lines have fallen to them in pleasant places. The
   lake of Sodom is here called the east sea, for it, being healed by the
   waters of the sanctuary, it is no more to be called a salt sea, as it
   was in Numbers. 3. It is here ordered to be divided among the tribes of
   Israel, reckoning Joseph for two tribes, to make up the number of
   twelve, when Levi was taken out to attend the sanctuary, and had his
   lot adjoining to that (v. 13, 21): You shall inherit it, one as well as
   another, v. 14. The tribes shall have an equal share, one as much as
   another. As the tribes returned out of Babylon, this seems unequal,
   because some tribes were much more numerous than the other, and indeed
   the most were of Judah and Benjamin and very few of the other ten
   tribes; but as the twelve tribes stand, in type and vision, for the
   gospel-church, the Israel of God, it was very equal, because we find in
   another vision an equal number of each of the twelve tribes sealed for
   the living God, just 12,000 of each, Rev. vii. 5, &c. And to those
   sealed ones these allotments did belong. It intimates likewise that all
   the subjects of Christ's kingdom have obtained like precious faith.
   Male and female, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, are all alike welcome
   to Christ and made partakers of him. 4. The strangers who sojourn among
   them, who shall beget children and be built up into families, and so
   help to people their country, shall have inheritance among the tribes,
   as if they had been native Israelites (v. 22, 23), which was by no
   means allowed in Joshua's division of the land. This is an act for a
   general naturalization, which would teach the Jews who was their
   neighbour, not those only of their own nation and religion, but those,
   whoever they were, that they had an opportunity of showing kindness to,
   because from them they would be willing to receive kindness. It would
   likewise invite strangers to come and settle among them, and put
   themselves under the wings of the divine Majesty. But it certainly
   looks at gospel-times, when the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile
   was taken down, and both one in Christ, in whom there is no difference,
   Rom. x. 12. This land was a type of the heavenly Canaan, that better
   country (Heb. xi. 16), in which believing Gentiles shall have a blessed
   lot, as well as believing Jews, Isa. lvi. 3.
     __________________________________________________________________

E Z E K I E L.

  CHAP. XLVIII.

   In this chapter we have particular directions given for the
   distribution of the land, of which we had the metes and bounds assigned
   in the foregoing chapter. I. The portions of the twelve tribes, seven
   to the north of the sanctuary (ver. 1-7) and five to the south, ver.
   23-29. II. The allotment of land for the sanctuary, and the priests
   (ver. 8-11), for the Levites (ver. 12-14), for the city (ver. 15-20),
   and for the prince, ver. 21, 22. Much of this we had before, ch. xlv.
   III. A plan of the city, its gates, and the new name given to it (ver.
   30-35), which seals up, and concludes, the vision and prophecy of this
   book.

The Division of the Land. (b. c. 574.)

   1 Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the
   coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazar-enan, the
   border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his
   sides east and west; a portion for Dan.   2 And by the border of Dan,
   from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.   3 And by
   the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a
   portion for Naphtali.   4 And by the border of Naphtali, from the east
   side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.   5 And by the border
   of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for
   Ephraim.   6 And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto
   the west side, a portion for Reuben.   7 And by the border of Reuben,
   from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.   8 And by
   the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be
   the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in
   breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side
   unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.   9
   The oblation that ye shall offer unto the Lord shall be of five and
   twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth.   10 And for
   them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the
   north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten
   thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and
   toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary
   of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.   11 It shall be for the
   priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my
   charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray,
   as the Levites went astray.   12 And this oblation of the land that is
   offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the
   Levites.   13 And over against the border of the priests the Levites
   shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in
   breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the
   breadth ten thousand.   14 And they shall not sell of it, neither
   exchange, nor alienate the first-fruits of the land: for it is holy
   unto the Lord.   15 And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth
   over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for
   the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the
   midst thereof.   16 And these shall be the measures thereof; the north
   side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand
   and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred,
   and the west side four thousand and five hundred.   17 And the suburbs
   of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward
   the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and
   fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.   18 And the residue
   in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten
   thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over
   against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof
   shall be for food unto them that serve the city.   19 And they that
   serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.   20 All
   the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty
   thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation four-square, with the
   possession of the city.   21 And the residue shall be for the prince,
   on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the
   possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of
   the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five
   and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions
   for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of
   the house shall be in the midst thereof.   22 Moreover from the
   possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being
   in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah
   and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.   23 As for the
   rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin
   shall have a portion.   24 And by the border of Benjamin, from the east
   side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.   25 And by the
   border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a
   portion.   26 And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto
   the west side, Zebulun a portion.   27 And by the border of Zebulun,
   from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion.   28 And by the
   border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even
   from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward
   the great sea.   29 This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto
   the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions,
   saith the Lord God.   30 And these are the goings out of the city on
   the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures.

   We have here a very short and ready way taken for the dividing of the
   land among the twelve tribes, not so tedious and so far about as the
   way that was taken in Joshua's time; for in the distribution of
   spiritual and heavenly blessings there is not that danger of murmuring
   and quarrelling that there is in the participation of the temporal
   blessings. When God gave to the labourers every one his penny those
   that were uneasy at it were soon put to silence with, May I not do what
   I will with my own? And such is the equal distribution here among the
   tribes. In this distribution of the land we may observe, 1. That it
   differs very much from the division of it in Joshua's time, and agrees
   not with the order of their birth, nor with that of their blessing by
   Jacob or Moses. Simeon here is not divided in Jacob, nor is Zebulun a
   haven of ships, a plain intimation that it is not so much to be
   understood literally as spiritually, though the mystery of it is very
   much hidden from us. In gospel times old things have passed away;
   behold, all things have become new. The Israel of God is cast into a
   new method. 2. That the tribe of Dan, which was last provided for in
   the first division of Canaan (Josh. xix. 40), is first provided for
   here, v. 1. Thus in the gospel the last shall be first, Matt. xix. 30.
   God, in the dispensation of his grace, does not follow the same method
   that he does in the disposals of his providence. But Dan had now his
   portion thereabouts where he had only one city before, northward, on
   the border of Damascus, and furthest of all from the sanctuary, because
   that tribe had revolted to idolatry. 3. That all the ten tribes that
   were carried away by the king of Assyria, as well as the two tribes
   that were long afterwards carried to Babylon, have their allotment in
   this visionary land, which some think had its accomplishment in the
   particular persons and families of those tribes who returned with Judah
   and Benjamin, of which we find many instances in Ezra and Nehemiah; and
   it is probable that there were returns of many more afterwards at
   several times, which are not recorded; and the Jews having Galilee, and
   other parts, that had been the possessions of the ten tribes, put into
   their hands, in common with them, they enjoyed them. Grotius says, If
   the ten tribes had repented and returned to God, as the chief fathers
   of Judah and Benjamin did, and the priests and Levites (Ezra i. 5),
   they would have fared as those two tribes did, but they forfeited the
   benefit of this glorious prophecy by sin. However, we believe it has
   its designed accomplishment in the establishment and enlargement of the
   gospel church, and the happy settlement of all those who are Israelites
   indeed in the sure and sweet enjoyment of the privileges of the new
   covenant, in which there is enough for all and enough for each. 4. That
   every tribe in this visionary distribution had its particular lot
   assigned it by a divine appointment; for it was never the intention of
   the gospel to pluck up the hedge of property and lay all in common; it
   was in a way of charity, not of legal right, that the first Christians
   had all things common (Acts ii. 44), and many precepts of the gospel
   suppose that every man should know his own. We must not only
   acknowledge, but acquiesce in, the hand of God appointing us our lot,
   and be well pleased with it, believing it fittest for us. He shall
   choose our inheritance for us, Ps. xlvii. 4. 5. That the tribes lay
   contiguous. By the border of one tribe was the portion of another, all
   in a row, in exact order, so that, like stones in an arch, they fixed,
   and strengthened, and wedged in one another. Behold how good and how
   pleasant a thing it is for brethren thus to dwell together! It was a
   figure of the communion of churches and saints under the
   gospel-government; thus, though they are many, yet they are one, and
   should hold together in holy love and mutual assistance. 6. That the
   lot of Reuben, which before lay at a distance beyond Jordan, now lies
   next to Judah, and next but one to the sanctuary; for the scandal he
   lay under, for which he was told he should not excel, began by this
   time to wear off. What has turned to the reproach of any person or
   people ought not to be remembered for ever, but should at length be
   kindly forgotten. 7. That the sanctuary was in the midst of them. There
   were seven tribes to the north of it and the Levites, the prince's, and
   the city's portion, with that of five tribes more, to the south of it;
   so that it was, as it ought to be, in the heart of the kingdom, that it
   might diffuse its benign influences to the whole, and might be the
   centre of their unity. The tribes that lay most remote from each other
   would meet there in a mutual acquaintance and fellowship. Those of the
   same parish or congregation, though dispersed, and having no occasion
   otherwise to know each other, yet by meeting statedly to worship God
   together should have their hearts knit to each other in holy love. 8.
   That where the sanctuary was the priests were: For them, even for the
   priests, shall this holy oblation be, v. 10. As, on the one hand, this
   denotes honour and comfort to ministers, that what is given for their
   support and maintenance is reckoned a holy oblation to the Lord, so it
   intimates their duty, which is that, since they are appointed and
   maintained for the service of the sanctuary, they ought to attend
   continually to this very thing, to reside on their cures. Those that
   live upon the altar must serve at the altar, not take the wages to
   themselves and devolve the work upon others; but how can they serve the
   altar, his altar they live upon, if they do not live near it? 9. Those
   priests had the priests' share of these lands that had approved
   themselves faithful to God in times of trial (v. 11): It shall be for
   the sons of Zadok, who, it seems, had signalized themselves in some
   critical juncture, and went not astray when the children of Israel, and
   the other Levites, went astray. God will put honour upon those who keep
   their integrity in times of general apostasy, and he has special
   favours in reserve for them. Those are swimming upwards, and so they
   will find at last, that are swimming against the stream. 10. The land
   which was appropriated to the ministers of the sanctuary might by no
   means be alienated. It was in the nature of the first-fruits of the
   land, and was therefore holy to the Lord; and, though the priests and
   Levites had both the use of it and the inheritance of it to them and
   their heirs, yet they might not sell it nor exchange it, v. 14. It is
   sacrilege to convert that to other uses which is dedicated to God. 11.
   The land allotted for the city and its suburbs is called a profane
   place (v. 15), or common; not but that the city was a holy city above
   other cities, for the Lord was there, but, in comparison with the
   sanctuary, it was a profane place. Yet it is too often true in the
   worst sense that great cities, even those which, like this, have the
   sanctuary near them, are profane places, and it ought to be deeply
   lamented. It was the complaint of old, From Jerusalem has profaneness
   gone forth into all the land, Jer. xxiii. 15. 12. The city is made to
   be exactly square, and the suburbs extending themselves equally on all
   sides, as the Levites' cities did in the first division of the land (v.
   16, 17), which, never being literally fulfilled in any city, intimates
   that it is to be understood spiritually of the beauty and stability of
   the gospel church, that city of the living God, which is formed
   according to the wisdom and counsel of God, and is made firm and
   immovable by his promise. 13. Whereas, before, the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem were principally of Judah and Benjamin, in whose tribe it
   lay, now the head city lies not in the particular lot of any of the
   tribes, but those that serve the city, and bear office in it, shall
   serve it out of all the tribes of Israel, v. 19. The most eminent men
   must be picked out of all the tribes of Israel for the service of the
   city, because many eyes were upon it, and there was great resort to it
   from all parts of the nation and from other nations. Those that live in
   the city are said to serve the city, for, wherever we are, we must
   study to be serviceable to the place, some way or other, according as
   our capacity is. They must not come out of the tribes of Israel to the
   city to take their ease, and enjoy their pleasures, but to serve the
   city, to do all the good they can there, and in so doing they would
   have a good influence upon the country too. 14. Care was taken that
   those who applied themselves to public business in the city, as well as
   in the sanctuary, should have an honourable comfortable maintenance;
   lands are appointed, the increase whereof shall be food unto those that
   serve the city, v. 18. Who goes a warfare at his own charges?
   Magistrates, that attend the service of the state, as well as
   ministers, that attend the service of the church, should have all due
   encouragement and support in so doing; and for this cause pay we
   tribute also. 15. The prince had a lot for himself, suited to the
   dignity of his high station (v. 21); we took an account of it before,
   ch. xlv. He was seated near the sanctuary, where the testimony of
   Israel was, and near the city, where the thrones of judgment were, that
   he might be a protection to both and might see the that duty of both
   was carefully and faithfully done; and herein he was a minister of God
   for good to the whole community. Christ is the church's prince, that
   defends it on every side, and creates a defense; nay, he is himself a
   defence upon all its glory and encompasses it with his favour. 16. As
   Judah had his lot next the sanctuary on one side, so Benjamin had, of
   all the tribes, his lot nearest to it on the other side, which honour
   was reserved for those who adhered to the house of David and the temple
   at Jerusalem when the other ten tribes went astray from both. It is
   enough if treachery and apostasy, upon repentance, he pardoned, but
   constancy and fidelity shall be rewarded and preferred.

The Plan of the City. (b. c. 574.)

   31 And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of
   Israel: three gates northward; one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah,
   one gate of Levi.   32 And at the east side four thousand and five
   hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin,
   one gate of Dan.   33 And at the south side four thousand and five
   hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of
   Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.   34 At the west side four thousand and
   five hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of
   Asher, one gate of Naphtali.   35 It was round about eighteen thousand
   measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is
   there.

   We have here a further account of the city that should be built for the
   metropolis of this glorious land, and to be the receptacle of those who
   would come from all parts to worship in the sanctuary adjoining. It is
   nowhere called Jerusalem, nor is the land which we have had such a
   particular account of the dividing of any where called the land of
   Canaan; for the old names are forgotten, to intimate that the old
   things are done away, behold all things have become new. Now,
   concerning this city, observe here, 1. The measures of its out-lets,
   and the grounds belonging to it, for its several conveniences; each way
   its appurtenances extended 4500 measures 18,000 in all, v. 35. But what
   these measures were is uncertain. It is never said, in all this
   chapter, whether so many reeds (as our translation determines by
   inserting that word, v. 8, each reed containing six cubits and span,
   ch. xl. 5, and why should the measurer appear with the measuring reed
   in his hand of that length if he did not measure with that, except
   where it is expressly said he measured by cubits?) or whether, as
   others think, it is so many cubits, because those are mentioned ch.
   xlv. 2 and ch. xlvii. 3. Yet that makes me incline rather to think that
   where cubits are not mentioned must be intended so many lengths of the
   measuring reed. But those who understand it of so many cubits are not
   agreed whether it be meant of the common cubit, which was half a yard,
   or the geometrical cubit, which, for better expedition, is supposed to
   be mostly used in surveying lands, which, some say, contained six
   cubits, others about three cubits and a half, so making 1000 cubits the
   same with 1000 paces, that is, an English mile. But our being left at
   this uncertainty is an intimation that these things are to be
   understood spiritually, and that what is principally meant is that
   there is an exact and just proportion observed by Infinite Wisdom in
   modelling the gospel church, which though now we cannot discern we
   shall when we come to heaven. 2. The number of its gates. It had twelve
   gates in all, three on each side, which was very agreeable when it lay
   four square; and these twelve gates were inscribed to the twelve
   tribes. Because the city was to be served out of all the tribes of
   Israel (v. 19) it was fit that each tribe should have its gate; and,
   Levi being here taken in, to keep to the number twelve Ephraim and
   Manasseh are made one in Joseph, v. 32. On the north side were the
   gates of Reuben, Judah, and Levi (v. 31), on the east the gates of
   Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan (v. 32), on the south the gates of Simeon,
   Issachar, and Zebulun (v. 33), and on the west the gates of Gad, Asher,
   and Naphtali, v. 34. Conformable to this, in St. John's vision, the new
   Jerusalem (for so the holy city is called there, though not here) has
   twelve gates, three on a side, and on them are written the names of the
   twelve tribes of the children of Israel, Rev. xxi. 12, 13. Note, Into
   the church of Christ, both militant and triumphant, there is a free
   access by faith for all that come of every tribe, from every quarter.
   Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven for all believers. Whoever will
   may come and take of the water of life, of the tree of life, freely. 3.
   The name given to this city: From that day, when it shall be
   newly-erected according to this model, the name of it shall be, not, as
   before, Jerusalem--The vision of peace, but which is the original of
   that, and more than equivalent to it, Jehovah Shammah--The Lord is
   there, v. 35. This intimated, (1.) That the captives, after their
   return, should have manifest tokens of God's presence with them and his
   residence among them, both in his ordinances and his providences. They
   shall have no occasion to ask, as their fathers did, Is the Lord among
   us, or is he not? for they shall see and say that he is with them of a
   truth. And then, though their troubles were many and threatening, they
   were like the bush which burned but was not consumed, because the Lord
   was there. But when God departed from their temple, when he said,
   Migremus hinc--Let us go hence, their house was soon left unto them
   desolate. Being no longer his, it was not much longer theirs. (2.) That
   the gospel-church should likewise have the presence of God in it,
   though not in the Shechinah, as of old, yet in a token of it no less
   sure, that of his Spirit. Where the gospel is faithfully preached,
   gospel ordinances are duly administered, and God is worshipped in the
   name of Jesus Christ only, it may truly be said, The Lord is there; for
   faithful is he that has said, and he will be as good as his word, Lo, I
   am with you always even unto the end of the world. The Lord is there in
   his church, to rule and govern it, to protect and defend it, and
   graciously to accept and own his sincere worshippers, and to be nigh
   unto them in all that they call upon him for. This should engage us to
   keep close to the communion of saints, for the Lord is there; and then
   whither shall we go to better ourselves? Nay, it is true of every good
   Christian; he dwells in God, and God in him; whatever soul has in it a
   living principle of grace, it may be truly said, The Lord is There.
   (3.) That the glory and happiness of heaven should consist chiefly in
   this, that the Lord is there. St. John's representation of that blessed
   state does indeed far exceed this in many respects. That is all gold,
   and pearls, and precious stones; it is much larger than this, and much
   brighter, for it needs not the light of the sun. But, in making the
   presence of God the principal matter of its bliss, they both agree.
   There the happiness of the glorified saints is made to be that God
   himself shall be with them (Rev. xxi. 3), that he who sits on the
   throne shall dwell among them, Rev. vii. 15. And here it is made to
   crown the bliss of this holy city that the Lord is there. Let us
   therefore give all diligence to make sure to ourselves a place in that
   city, that we may be for ever with the Lord.
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Daniel
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

D A N I E L.
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   The book of Ezekiel left the affairs of Jerusalem under a doleful
   aspect, all in ruins, but with a joyful prospect of all in glory again.
   This of Daniel fitly follows. Ezekiel told us what was seen, and what
   was foreseen, by him in the former years of the captivity: Daniel tells
   us what was seen, and foreseen, in the latter years of the captivity.
   When God employs different hands, yet it is about the same work. And it
   was a comfort to the poor captives that they had first one prophet
   among them and then another, to show them how long, and a sign that God
   had not quite cast them off. Let us enquire, I. Concerning this prophet
   His Hebrew name was Daniel, which signifies the judgment of God; his
   Chaldean name was Belteshazzar. He was of the tribe of Judah, and, as
   it should seem, of the royal family. He was betimes eminent for wisdom
   and piety. Ezekiel, his contemporary, but much his senior, speaks of
   him as an oracle when thus he upbraids the king of Tyre with his
   conceitedness of himself: Thou art wiser then Daniel, Ezek. xxxviii. 3.
   He is likewise there celebrated for success in prayer, when Noah,
   Daniel, and Job are reckoned as three men that had the greatest
   interest in heaven of any, Ezek. xiv. 14. He began betimes to be
   famous, and continued long so. Some of the Jewish rabbin are loth to
   acknowledge him to be a prophet of the higher form, and therefore rank
   his book among the Hagiographa, not among the prophecies, and would not
   have their disciples pay much regard to it. One reason they pretend is
   because he did not live such a mean mortified life as Jeremiah and some
   other of the prophets did, but lived like a prince, and was a
   prime-minister of state; whereas we find him persecuted as other
   prophets were (ch. vi.), and mortifying himself as other prophets did,
   when he ate no pleasant bread (ch. x. 3), and fainting sick when he was
   under the power of the Spirit of prophecy, ch. viii. 27. Another reason
   they pretend is because he wrote his book in a heathen country, and
   there had his visions, and not in the land of Israel; but, for the same
   reason, Ezekiel also must be expunged out of the roll of prophets. But
   the true reason is that he speaks so plainly of the time of the
   Messiah's coming that the Jews cannot avoid the conviction of it and
   therefore do not care to hear of it. But Josephus calls him one of the
   greatest of the prophets, nay, the angel Gabriel calls him a man
   greatly beloved. He lived long an active life in the courts and
   councils of some of the greatest monarchs the world ever had,
   Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius; for we mistake if we confine the
   privilege of an intercourse with heaven to speculative men, or those
   that spend their time in contemplation; no, who was more intimately
   acquainted with the mind of God than Daniel, a courtier, a statesman,
   and a man of business? The Spirit, as the wind, blows where it lists.
   And, if those that have much to do in the world plead that as an excuse
   for the infrequency and slightness of their converse with God, Daniel
   will condemn them. Some have thought that he returned to Jerusalem, and
   was one of the masters of the Greek synagogue; but nothing of that
   appears in scripture; it is therefore generally concluded that he died
   in Persia at Susan, where he lived to be very old. II. Concerning this
   book. The first six chapters of it are historical, and are plain and
   easy; the last six are prophetical, and in them are many things dark,
   and hard to be understood, which yet would be more intelligible if we
   had a more complete history of the nations, and especially the Jewish
   nation, from Daniel's time to the coming of the Messiah. Our Saviour
   intimates the difficulty of apprehending the sense of Daniel's
   prophecies when, speaking of them, he says, Let him that readeth
   understand, Matt. xxiv. 15. The first chapter, and the first three
   verses of the second chapter, are in Hebrew; thence to the eighth
   chapter is in the Chaldee dialect; and thence to the end is in Hebrew.
   Mr. Broughton observes that, as the Chaldeans were kind to Daniel, and
   gave cups of cold water to him when he requested it, rather than the
   king's wine, God would not have them lose their reward, but made that
   language which they taught him to have honour in his writings through
   all the world, unto this day. Daniel, according to his computation,
   continues the holy story from the first surprising of Jerusalem by the
   Chaldean Babel, when he himself was carried away captive, until the
   last destruction of it by Rome, the mystical Babel, for so far forward
   his predictions look, ch. ix. 27. The fables of Susannah, and of Bel
   and the Dragon, in both which Daniel is made a party, are apocryphal
   stories, which we think we have no reason to give any credit to, they
   being never found in the Hebrew or Chaldee, but only in the Greek, nor
   ever admitted by the Jewish church. There are some both of the
   histories and of the prophecies of this book that bear date in the
   latter end of the Chaldean monarchy, and others of both that are dated
   in the beginning of the Persian monarchy. But both Nebuchadnezzar's
   dream, which Daniel interpreted, and his own visions, point at the
   Grecian and Roman monarchies, and very particularly at the Jews'
   troubles under Antiochus, which it would be of great use to them to
   prepare for; as his fixing the very time for the coming of the Messiah
   was of use to all those that waited for the consolation of Israel, and
   is to us, for the confirming of our belief, That this is he who should
   come, and we are to look for no other.
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D A N I E L.

  CHAP. I.

   This chapter gives us a more particular account of the beginning of
   Daniel's life, his original and education, than we have of any other of
   the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, began immediately with
   divine visions; but Daniel began with the study of human learning, and
   was afterwards honoured with divine visions; such variety of methods
   has God taken in training up men for the service of his church. We have
   here, I. Jehoiakim's first captivity (ver. 1, 2), in which Daniel, with
   others of the seed-royal, was carried to Babylon. II. The choice made
   of Daniel, and some other young men, to be brought up in the Chaldean
   literature, that they might be fitted to serve the government, and the
   provision made for them, ver. 3-7. III. Their pious refusal to eat the
   portion of the king's meat, and their determining to live upon pulse
   and water, which, having tried it, the master of the eunuchs allowed
   them to do, finding that it agreed very well with them, ver. 8-16. IV.
   Their wonderful improvement, above all their fellows, in wisdom and
   knowledge, ver. 17-21.

The Siege of Jerusalem. (b. c. 606.)

   1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came
   Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.   2 And
   the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the
   vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar
   to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure
   house of his god.   3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of
   his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel,
   and of the king's seed, and of the princes;   4 Children in whom was no
   blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in
   knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them
   to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning
   and the tongue of the Chaldeans.   5 And the king appointed them a
   daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so
   nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand
   before the king.   6 Now among these were of the children of Judah,
   Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:   7 Unto whom the prince of the
   eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar;
   and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to
   Azariah, of Abednego.

   We have in these verses an account,

   I. Of the first descent which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the
   first year of his reign, made upon Judah and Jerusalem, in the third
   year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and his success in that expedition (v.
   1, 2): He besieged Jerusalem, soon made himself master of it, seized
   the king, took whom he pleased and what he pleased away with him, and
   then left Jehoiakim to reign as tributary to him, which he did about
   eight years longer, but then rebelled, and it was his ruin. Now from
   this first captivity most interpreters think the seventy years are to
   be dated, though Jerusalem was not destroyed, nor the captivity
   completed, till about nineteen years after, In that first year Daniel
   was carried to Babylon, and there continued the whole seventy years
   (see v. 21), during which time all nations shall serve Nebuchadnezzar,
   and his son, and his son's son, Jer. xxv. 11. This one prophet
   therefore saw within the compass of his own time the rise, reign, and
   ruin of that monarchy; so that it was res unius ætatis--the affair of a
   single age, such short-lived things are the kingdoms of the earth; but
   the kingdom of heaven is everlasting. The righteous, that see them
   taking root, shall see their fall, Job v. 3; Prov. xxix. 16. Mr.
   Broughton observes the proportion of times in God's government since
   the coming out of Egypt: thence to their entering Canaan forty years,
   thence seven years to the dividing of the land, thence seven Jubilees
   to the first year of Samuel, in whom prophecy began, thence to this
   first year of the captivity seven seventies of years, 490 (ten
   Jubilees), thence to the return one seventy, thence to the death of
   Christ seven seventies more, thence to the destruction of Jerusalem
   forty years.

   II. The improvement he made of this success. He did not destroy the
   city or kingdom, but did that which just accomplished the first
   threatening of mischief by Babylon. It was denounced against Hezekiah,
   for showing his treasures to the king of Babylon's ambassadors (Isa.
   xxxix. 6, 7), that the treasures and the children should be carried
   away, and, if they had been humbled and reformed by this, hitherto the
   king of Babylon's power and success should have gone, but no further.
   If less judgments do the work, God will not send greater; but, if not,
   he will heat the furnace seven times hotter. Let us see what was now
   done. 1. The vessels of the sanctuary were carried away, part of them,
   v. 2. They fondly trusted to the temple to defend them, though they
   went on in their iniquity. And now, to show them the vanity of that
   confidence, the temple is first plundered. Many of the holy vessels
   which used to be employed in the service of God were taken away by the
   king of Babylon, those of them, it is likely, which were most valuable,
   and he brought them as trophies of victory to the house of his god, to
   whom, with a blind devotion, he gave praise of his success; and having
   appropriated these vessels, in token of gratitude, to his god, he put
   them in the treasury of his temple. See the righteousness of God; his
   people had brought the images of other gods into his temple, and now he
   suffers the vessels of the temple to be carried into the treasuries of
   those other gods. Note, When men profane the vessels of the sanctuary
   with their sins it is just with God to profane them by his judgments.
   It is probable that the treasures of the king's house were rifled, as
   was foretold, but particular mention is made of the taking away of the
   vessels of the sanctuary because we shall find afterwards that the
   profanation of them was that which filled up the measure of the
   Chaldeans' iniquity, ch. v. 3. But observe, It was only part of them
   that went now; some were left them yet upon trial, to see if they would
   take the right course to prevent the carrying away of the remainder.
   See Jer. xxvii. 18. 2. The children and young men, especially such as
   were of noble or royal extraction, that were sightly and promising, and
   of good natural parts, were carried away. Thus was the iniquity of the
   fathers visited upon the children. These were taken away by
   Nebuchadnezzar, (1.) As trophies, to be made a show of for the
   evidencing and magnifying of his success. (2.) As hostages for the
   fidelity of their parents in their own land, who would be concerned to
   conduct themselves well that their children might have the better
   treatment. (3.) As a seed to serve him. He took them away to train them
   up for employments and preferments under him, either out of an
   unaccountable affectation, which great men often have, to be attended
   by foreigners, though they be blacks, rather than by those of their own
   nation, or because he knew that there were no such witty, sprightly,
   ingenious young men to be found among his Chaldeans as abounded among
   the youth of Israel; and, if that were so, it was much for the honour
   of the Jewish nation, as of an uncommon genius above other people, and
   a fruit of the blessing. But it was a shame that a people who had so
   much wit should have so little wisdom and grace. Now observe, [1.] The
   directions which the king of Babylon gave for the choice of these
   youths, v. 4. They must not choose such as were deformed in body, but
   comely and well-favoured, whose countenances were indexes of ingenuity
   and good humour. But that is not enough; they must be skilful in all
   wisdom, and cunning, or well-seen in knowledge, and understanding
   science, such as were quick and sharp, and could give a ready and
   intelligent account of their own country and of the learning they had
   hitherto been brought up in. He chose such as were young, because they
   would be pliable and tractable, would forget their own people and
   incorporate with the Chaldeans. He had an eye to what he designed them
   for; they must be such as had ability in them to stand in the king's
   palace, not only to attend his royal person, but to preside in his
   affairs. This is an instance of the policy of this rising monarch, now
   in the beginning of his reign, and was a good omen of his prosperity,
   that he was in care to raise up a succession of persons fit for public
   business. He did not, like Ahasuerus, appoint them to choose him out
   young women for the service of his government. It is the interest of
   princes to have wise men employed under them; it is therefore their
   wisdom to take care for the finding out and training up of such. It is
   the misery of this world that so many who are fit for public stations
   are buried in obscurity, and so many who are unfit for them are
   preferred to them. [2.] The care which he took concerning them. First,
   For their education. He ordered that they should be taught the learning
   and tongue of the Chaldeans. They are supposed to be wise and knowing
   young men, and yet they must be further taught. Give instructions to a
   wise man and he will increase in learning. Note, Those that would do
   good in the world when they grow up must learn when they are young.
   That is the learning age; if that time be lost, it will hardly be
   redeemed. It does not appear that Nebuchadnezzar designed they should
   learn the unlawful arts that were used among the Chaldeans, magic and
   divination; if he did, Daniel and his fellows would not defile
   themselves with them. Nay, we do not find that he ordered them to be
   taught the religion of the Chaldeans, by which it appears that he was
   at this time no bigot; if men were skilful and faithful, and fit for
   his business, it was not material to him what religion they were of,
   provided they had but some religion. They must be trained up in the
   language and laws of the country, in history, philosophy, and
   mathematics, in the arts of husbandry, war, and navigation, in such
   learning as might qualify them to serve their generation. Note, It is
   real service to the public to provide for the good education of the
   youth. Secondly, For their maintenance. He provided for them three
   years, not only necessaries, but dainties for their encouragement in
   their studies. They had daily provision of the king's meat, and of the
   wine which he drank, v. 5. This was an instance of his generosity and
   humanity; though they were captives, he considered their birth and
   quality, their spirit and genius, and treated them honourably, and
   studied to make their captivity easy to them. There is a respect due to
   those who are well-born and bred when they have fallen into distress.
   With a liberal education there should be a liberal maintenance.

   III. A particular account of Daniel and his fellows. They were of the
   children of Judah, the royal tribe, and probably of the house of David,
   which had grown a numerous family; and God told Hezekiah that of the
   children that should issue from him some should be taken and made
   eunuchs, or chamberlains, in the palace of the king of Babylon. The
   prince of the eunuchs changed the names of Daniel and his fellows,
   partly to show his authority over them and their subjection to him, and
   partly in token of their being naturalized and made Chaldeans. Their
   Hebrew names, which they received at their circumcision, had something
   of God, or Jah, in them: Daniel--God is my Judge; Hananiah--The grace
   of the Lord; Mishael--He that is the strong God; Azariah--The Lord is a
   help. To make them forget the God of their fathers, the guide of their
   youth, they give them names that savour of the Chaldean idolatry.
   Belteshazzar signifies the keeper of the hidden treasures of Bel;
   Shadrach--The inspiration of the sun, which the Chaldeans worshipped;
   Meshach--Of the goddess Shach, under which name Venus was worshipped;
   Abed-nego, The servant of the shining fire, which they worshipped also.
   Thus, though they would not force them from the religion of their
   fathers to that of their conquerors, yet they did what they could by
   fair means insensibly to wean them from the former and instil the
   latter into them. Yet see how comfortably they were provided for;
   though they suffered for their fathers' sins they were preferred for
   their own merits, and the land of their captivity was made more
   comfortable to them than the land of their nativity at this time would
   have been.

Favour Shown to Daniel; Daniel's Conscientiousness. (b. c. 606.)

   8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
   with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank:
   therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not
   defile himself.   9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender
   love with the prince of the eunuchs.   10 And the prince of the eunuchs
   said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat
   and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the
   children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head
   to the king.   11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the
   eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,   12 Prove
   thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to
   eat, and water to drink.   13 Then let our countenances be looked upon
   before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the
   portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
     14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
     15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and
   fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the
   king's meat.   16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and
   the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.

   We observe here, very much to our satisfaction,

   I. That Daniel was a favourite with the prince of the eunuchs (v. 9),
   as Joseph was with the keeper of the prison; he had a tender love for
   him. No doubt Daniel deserved it, and recommended himself by his
   ingenuity and sweetness of temper (he was greatly beloved, ch. ix. 23);
   and yet it is said here that it was God that brought him into favour
   with the prince of the eunuchs, for every one does not meet with
   acceptance according to his merits. Note, The interest which we think
   we make for ourselves we must acknowledge to be God's gift, and must
   ascribe to him the glory of it. Whoever are in favour, it is God that
   has brought them into favour; and it is by him that they find good
   understanding. Herein was again verified That work (Ps. cvi. 46), He
   made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Let
   young ones know that the way to be acceptable is to be tractable and
   dutiful.

   II. That Daniel was still firm to his religion. They had changed his
   name, but they could not change his nature. Whatever they pleased to
   call him, he still retained the spirit of an Israelite indeed. He would
   apply his mind as closely as any of them to his books, and took pains
   to make himself master of the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans, but
   he was resolved that he would not defile himself with the portion of
   the king's meat, he would not meddle with it, nor with the wine which
   he drank, v. 8. And having communicated his purpose, with the reasons
   of it, to his fellows, they concurred in the same resolution, as
   appears, v. 11. This was not out of sullenness, or peevishness, or a
   spirit of contradiction, but from a principle of conscience. Perhaps it
   was not in itself unlawful for them to eat of the king's meat or to
   drink of his wine. But, 1. They were scrupulous concerning the meat,
   lest it should be sinful. Sometimes such meat would be set before them
   as was expressly forbidden by their law, as swine's flesh; or they were
   afraid lest it should have been offered in sacrifice to an idol, or
   blessed in the name of an idol. The Jews were distinguished from other
   nations very much by their meats (Lev. xi. 45, 46), and these pious
   young men, being in a strange country, thought themselves obliged to
   keep up the honour of their being a peculiar people. Though they could
   not keep up their dignity as princes, they would not lose it as
   Israelites; for on that they most valued themselves. Note, When God's
   people are in Babylon they have need to take special care that they
   partake not in her sins. Providence seemed to lay this meat before
   them; being captives they must eat what they could get and must not
   disoblige their masters; yet, if the command be against it, they must
   abide by that. Though Providence says, Kill and eat, conscience says,
   Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has come into my mouth. 2.
   They were jealous over themselves, lest, though it should not be sinful
   in itself, it should be an occasion of sin to them, lest, by indulging
   their appetites with these dainties, they should grow sinful,
   voluptuous, and in love with the pleasures of Babylon. They had learned
   David's prayer, Let me not eat of their dainties (Ps. cxli. 4), and
   Solomon's precept, Be not desirous of dainties, for they are deceitful
   meat (Prov. xxiii. 3), and accordingly they form their resolution.
   Note, It is very much the praise of all, and especially of young
   people, to be dead to the delights of sense, not to covet them, not to
   relish them, but to look upon them with indifference. Those that would
   excel in wisdom and piety must learn betimes to keep under the body and
   bring it into subjection. 3. However, they thought it unseasonable now,
   when Jerusalem was in distress, and they themselves were in captivity.
   They had no heart to drink wine in bowls, so much were they grieved for
   the affliction of Joseph. Though they had royal blood in their veins,
   yet they did not think it proper to have royal dainties in their mouths
   when they were thus brought low. Note, It becomes us to be humble under
   humbling providences. Call me not Naomi; call me Marah. See the benefit
   of affliction; by the account Jeremiah gives of the princes and great
   men now at Jerusalem it appears that they were very corrupt and wicked,
   and defiled themselves with things offered to idols, while these young
   gentlemen that were in captivity would not defile themselves, no, not
   with their portion of the king's meat. How much better is it with those
   that retain their integrity in the depths of affliction than with those
   that retain their iniquity in the heights of prosperity! Observe, The
   great thing that Daniel avoided was defiling himself with the
   pollutions of sin; that is the thing we should be more afraid of than
   of any outward trouble. Daniel, having taken up this resolution,
   requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile
   himself, not only that he might not be compelled to do it, but that he
   might not be tempted to do it, that the bait might not be laid before
   him, that he might not see the portion appointed him of the king's
   meat, nor look upon the wine when it was red. It will be easier to keep
   the temptation at a distance than to suffer it to come near and then be
   forced to put a knife to our throat. Note, We cannot better improve our
   interest in any with whom we have found favour than by making use of
   them to keep us from sin.

   III. That God wonderfully owned him herein. When Daniel requested that
   he might have none of the king's meat or wine set before him the prince
   of the eunuchs objected that, if he and his fellows were not found in
   as good case as any of their companions, he should be in danger of
   having anger and of losing his head, v. 10. Daniel, to satisfy him that
   there would be no danger of any bad consequence, desires the matter
   might be put to a trial. He applies himself further to the
   under-officer, Melzar, or the steward: "Prove us for ten days; during
   that time let us have nothing but pulse to eat, nothing but herbs and
   fruits, or parched peas or lentils, and nothing but water to drink, and
   see how we can live upon that, and proceed accordingly," v. 13. People
   will not believe the benefit of abstemiousness and a spare diet, nor
   how much it contributes to the health of the body, unless they try it.
   Trial was accordingly made. Daniel and his fellows lived for ten days
   upon pulse and water, hard fare for young men of genteel extraction and
   education, and which one would rather expect they should have indented
   against than petitioned for; but at the end of the ten days they were
   compared with the other children, and were found fairer and fatter in
   flesh, of a more healthful look and better complexion, than all those
   who did eat the portion of the king's meat, v. 15. This was in part a
   natural effect of their temperance, but it must be ascribed to the
   special blessing of God, which will make a little to go a great way, a
   dinner of herbs better than a stalled ox. By this it appears that man
   lives not by bread alone; pulse and water shall be the most nourishing
   food if God speak the word. See what it is to keep ourselves pure from
   the pollutions of sin; it is the way to have that comfort and
   satisfaction which will be health to the navel and marrow to the bones,
   while the pleasures of sin are rottenness to the bones.

   IV. That his master countenanced him. The steward did not force them to
   eat against their consciences, but, as they desired, gave them pulse
   and water (v. 16), the pleasures of which they enjoyed, and we have
   reason to think were not envied the enjoyment. Here is a great example
   of temperance and contentment with mean things; and (as Epicurus said)
   "he that lives according to nature will never be poor, but he that
   lives according to opinion will never be rich." This wonderful
   abstemiousness of these young men in the days of their youth
   contributed to the fitting of them, 1. For their eminent services.
   Hereby they kept their minds clear and unclouded, and fit for
   contemplation, and saved for the best employments a great deal both of
   time and thought; and thus they prevented those diseases which
   indispose men for the business of age that owe their rise to the
   intemperances of youth. 2. For their eminent sufferings. Those that had
   thus inured themselves to hardship, and lived a life of self-denial and
   mortification, could the more easily venture upon the fiery furnace and
   the den of lions, rather than sin against God.

Wisdom of Daniel and His Companions. (b. c. 606.)

   17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all
   learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and
   dreams.   18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he
   should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in
   before Nebuchadnezzar.   19 And the king communed with them; and among
   them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:
   therefore stood they before the king.   20 And in all matters of wisdom
   and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten
   times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all
   his realm.   21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king
   Cyrus.

   Concerning Daniel and his fellows we have here,

   I. Their great attainments in learning, v. 17. They were very sober and
   diligent, and studied hard; and we may suppose their tutors, finding
   them of an uncommon capacity, took a great deal of pains with them,
   but, after all, their achievements are ascribed to God only. It was he
   that gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; for
   every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father of the
   lights. It is the Lord our God that gives men power to get this wealth;
   the mind is furnished only by him that formed it. The great learning
   which God gave these four children was, 1. A balance for their losses.
   They had, for the iniquity of their fathers, been deprived of the
   honours and pleasures that would have attended their noble extraction;
   but, to make them amends for that, God, in giving them learning, gave
   them better honours and pleasures than those they had been deprived of.
   2. A recompence for their integrity. They kept to their religion, even
   in the minutest instances of it, and would not so much as defile
   themselves with the king's meat or wine, but became, in effect,
   Nazarites; and now God rewarded them for it with eminency in learning;
   for God gives to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and
   knowledge, and joy with them, Eccl. ii. 26. To Daniel he gave a double
   portion; he had understanding in visions and dreams; he knew how to
   interpret dreams, as Joseph, not by rules of art, such as are pretended
   to be given by the oneirocritics, but by a divine sagacity and wisdom
   which God gave him. Nay, he was endued with a prophetic spirit, by
   which he was enabled to converse with God, and to receive the notices
   of divine things in dreams and visions, Num. xii. 6. According to this
   gift given to Daniel, we find him, in this book, all along employed
   about dreams and visions, interpreting or entertaining them; for, as
   every one has received the gift, so shall he have an opportunity, and
   so should he have a heart, to minister the same, 1 Pet. iv. 10.

   II. Their great acceptance with the king. After three years spent in
   their education (they being of some maturity, it is likely, when they
   came, perhaps about twenty years old) they were presented to the king
   with the rest that were of their standing, v. 18. And the king examined
   them and communed with them himself, v. 19. He could do it, being a man
   of parts and learning himself, else he would not have come to be so
   great; and he would do it, for it is the wisdom of princes, in the
   choice of the persons they employ, to see with their own eyes, to
   exercise their own judgment, and not trust too much to the
   representation of others. The king examined them not so much in the
   languages, in the rules of oratory or poetry, as in all matters of
   wisdom and understanding, the rules of prudence and true politics; he
   enquired into their judgment about the due conduct of human life and
   public affairs; not "Were they wits?" but, "Were they wise?" And he not
   only found them to excel the young candidates for preferment that were
   of their own standing, but found that they had more understanding than
   the ancients, than all their teachers, Ps. cxix. 99, 100. So far was
   the king from being partial to his own countrymen, to seniors, to those
   of his own religion and of an established reputation, that he freely
   owned that, upon trial, he found those poor young captive Jews ten
   times wiser and better than all the magicians that were in all his
   realm, v. 20. He was soon aware of something extraordinary in these
   young men, and, which gave him a surprising satisfaction, was soon
   aware that a little of their true divinity was preferable to a great
   deal of the divination he had been used to. What is the chaff to the
   wheat? what are the magicians' rods to Aaron's? There was no comparison
   between them. These four young students were better, were ten times
   better, than all the old practitioners, put them all together, that
   were in all his realm, and we may be sure that they were not a few.
   This contempt did God pour upon the pride of the Chaldeans, and this
   honour did he put upon the low estate of his own people; and thus did
   he make not only these persons, but the rest of their nation for their
   sakes, the more respected in the land of their captivity. Lastly, This
   judgment being given concerning them, they stood before the king (v.
   19); they attended in the presence-chamber, nay, and in the
   council-chamber, for to see the king's face is the periphrasis of a
   privy-counsellor, Esth. i. 14. This confirms Solomon's observation,
   Seest thou a man diligent in his business, sober and humble? he shall
   stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. Industry is the
   way to preferment. How long the other three were about the court we are
   not told; but Daniel, for his part, continued to the first year of
   Cyrus (v. 21), though not always alike in favour and reputation. He
   lived and prophesied after the first year of Cyrus; but that is
   mentioned to intimate that he lived to see the deliverance of his
   people out of their captivity and their return to their own land. Note,
   Sometimes God favours his servants that mourn with Zion in her sorrows
   to let them live to see better times with the church than they saw in
   the beginning of their days and to share with her in her joys.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. II.

   It was said (ch. i. 17) that Daniel had understanding in dreams; and
   here we have an early and eminent instance of it, which soon made him
   famous in the court of Babylon, as Joseph by the same means came to be
   so in the court of Egypt. This chapter is a history, but it is the
   history of a prophecy, by a dream and the interpretation of it.
   Pharaoh's dream, and Joseph's interpretation of it, related only to the
   years of plenty and famine and the interest of God's Israel in them;
   but Nebuchadnezzar's dream here, and Daniel's interpretation of that,
   look much higher, to the four monarchies, and the concerns of Israel in
   them, and the kingdom of the Messiah, which should be set up in the
   world upon the ruins of them. In this chapter we have, I. The great
   perplexity that Nebuchadnezzar was put into by a dream which he had
   forgotten, and his command to the magicians to tell him what it was,
   which they could not pretend to do, ver. 1-11. II. Orders given for the
   destroying of all the wise men of Babylon, and of Daniel among the
   rest, with his fellows, ver. 12-15. III. The discovery of this secret
   to him, in answer to prayer, and the thanksgiving he offered up to God
   thereupon, ver. 16-23. IV. His admission to the king, and the discovery
   he made to him both of his dream and of the interpretation of it, ver.
   24-45. V. The great honour which Nebuchadnezzar put upon Daniel, in
   recompence for this service, and the preferment of his companions with
   him, ver. 46-49.

Nebuchadnezzar's Forgotten Dream. (b. c. 603.)

   1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar
   dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake
   from him.   2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the
   astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king
   his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.   3 And the king
   said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to
   know the dream.   4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O
   king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the
   interpretation.   5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The
   thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream,
   with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your
   houses shall be made a dunghill.   6 But if ye show the dream, and the
   interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and
   great honour: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation
   thereof.   7 They answered again and said, Let the king tell his
   servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.   8 The
   king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the
   time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.   9 But if ye will not
   make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye
   have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time
   be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can
   show me the interpretation thereof.   10 The Chaldeans answered before
   the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the
   king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked
   such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.   11 And it is
   a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can
   show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with
   flesh.   12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and
   commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.   13 And the decree
   went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel
   and his fellows to be slain.

   We meet with a great difficulty in the date of this story; it is said
   to be in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, v. 1. Now
   Daniel was carried to Babylon in his first year, and, it should seem,
   he was three years under tutors and governors before he was presented
   to the king, ch. i. 5. How then could this happen in the second year?
   Perhaps, though three years were appointed for the education of other
   children, yet Daniel was so forward that he was taken into business
   when he had been but one year at school, and so in the second year he
   became thus considerable. Some make it to be the second year after he
   began to reign alone, but the fifth or sixth year since he began to
   reign in partnership with his father. Some read it, and in the second
   year, (the second after Daniel and his fellows stood before the king),
   in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, or in his reign, this happened; as
   Joseph, in the second year after his skill in dreams, showed and
   expounded Pharaoh's, so Daniel, in the second year after he commenced
   master in that art, did this service. I would much rather take it some
   of these ways than suppose, as some do, that it was in the second year
   after he had conquered Egypt, which was the thirty-sixth year of his
   reign, because it appears by what we meet with in Ezekiel, that Daniel
   was famous both for wisdom and prevalence in prayer long before that;
   and therefore this passage, or story, which shows how he came to be so
   eminent for both these must be laid early in Nebuchadnezzar's reign.
   Now here we may observe,

   I. The perplexity that Nebuchadnezzar was in by reason of a dream which
   he had dreamed but had forgotten (v. 1): He dreamed dreams, that is, a
   dream consisting of divers distinct parts, or which filled his head as
   much as if it had been many dreams. Solomon speaks of a multitude of
   dreams, strangely incoherent, in which there are divers vanities, Eccl.
   v. 7. This dream of Nebuchadnezzar's had nothing in the thing itself
   but what might be paralleled in many a common dream, in which are often
   represented to men things as foreign as are here mentioned; but there
   was something in the impression it made upon him which carried with it
   an incontestable evidence of its divine original and its prophetic
   significancy. Note, The greatest of men are not exempt from, nay, they
   lie most open to, those cares and troubles of mind which disturb their
   repose in the night, while the sleep of the labouring man is sweet and
   sound, and the sleep of the sober temperate man free from confused
   dreams. The abundance of the rich will not suffer them to sleep at all
   for care, and the excesses of gluttons and drunkards will not suffer
   them to sleep quietly for dreaming. But this recorded here was not from
   natural causes. Nebuchadnezzar was a troubler of God's Israel, but God
   here troubled him; for he that made the soul can make his sword to
   approach to it. He had his guards about him, but they could not keep
   trouble from his spirit. We know not the uneasiness of many that live
   in great pomp, and, one would think, in pleasure, too. We look into
   their houses, and are tempted to envy them; but, could we look into
   their hearts, we should pity them rather. All the treasures and all the
   delights of the children of men, which this mighty monarch had command
   of, could not procure him a little repose, when by reason of the
   trouble of his mind his sleep broke from him. But God gives his beloved
   sleep, who return to him as their rest.

   II. The trial that he made of his magicians and astrologers whether
   they could tell him what his dream was, which he had forgotten. They
   were immediately sent for, to show the king his dreams, v. 2. There are
   many things which we retain the impressions of, and yet have lost the
   images of the things; though we cannot tell what the matter was, we
   know how we were affected with it; so it was with this king. His dream
   had slipped out of his mind, and he could not possibly recollect it,
   but he was confident he should know it if he heard it again. God
   ordered it so that Daniel might have the more honour, and, in him, the
   God of Daniel. Note, God sometimes serves his own purposes by putting
   things out of men's minds as well as by putting things into their
   minds. The magicians, it is likely, were proud of their being sent for
   into the king's bed-chamber, to give him a taste of their office, not
   doubting but it would be for their honour. He tells them that he had
   dreamed a dream, v. 3. They speak to him in the Syriac tongue, which
   was then the same with the Chaldee, but now they differ much. And
   henceforward Daniel uses that language, or dialect of the Hebrew, for
   the same reason that those words, Jer. x. 11, are in that language
   because designed to convince the Chaldeans of the folly of their
   idolatry and to bring them to the knowledge and worship of the true and
   living God, which the stories of these chapters have a direct tendency
   to. But ch. viii. and forward, being intended for the comfort of the
   Jews, is written in their peculiar language. They, in their answer,
   complimented the king with their good wishes, desired him to tell his
   dream, and undertook with all possible assurance to interpret it, v. 4.
   But the king insisted upon it that they must tell him the dream itself,
   because he had forgotten it and could not tell it to them. And, if they
   could not do this, they should all be put to death as deceivers (v. 5),
   themselves cut to pieces and their houses made a dunghill. If they
   could, they should be rewarded and preferred, v. 6. And they knew, as
   Balaam did concerning Balak, that he was able to promote them to great
   honour, and give them that wages of unrighteousness which, like him,
   they loved so dearly. No question therefore that they will do their
   utmost to gratify the king; if they do not, it is not for want of
   good-will, but for want of power, Providence so ordering it that the
   magicians of Babylon might now be as much confounded and put to shame
   as of old the magicians of Egypt had been, that, how much soever his
   people were both in Egypt and Babylon vilified and made contemptible,
   his oracles might in both be magnified and made honourable, by the
   silencing of those that set up in competition with them. The magicians,
   having reason on their side, insist upon it that the king must tell
   them the dream, and then, if they do not tell him the interpretation of
   it, it is their fault, v. 7. But arbitrary power is deaf to reason. The
   king falls into a passion, gives them hard words, and, without any
   colour of reason, suspects that they could tell him but would not; and
   instead of upbraiding them with impotency, and the deficiency of their
   art, as he might justly have done, he charges them with a combination
   to affront him: You have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak
   before me. How unreasonable and absurd is this imputation! If they had
   undertaken to tell him what his dream was, and had imposed upon him
   with a sham, he might have charged them with lying and corrupt words;
   but to say this of them when they honestly confessed their own weakness
   only shows what senseless things indulged passions are, and how apt
   great men are to think it is their prerogative to pursue their humour
   in defiance of reason and equity, and all the dictates of both. When
   the magicians begged of him to tell them the dream, though the request
   was highly rational and just, he tells them that they did but dally
   with him, to gain time (v. 8), till the time be changed (v. 9), either
   till the king's desire to know his dream be over, and he grown
   indifferent whether he be told it or no, though now he is so hot upon
   it, or till they may hope he has so perfectly forgotten his dream (the
   remaining shades of which are slipping from him apace as he catches at
   them) that they may tell him what they please and make him believe it
   was his dream, and, when the thing which is going, is quite gone from
   him, as it will be in a little time, he will not be able to disprove
   them. And therefore, without delay, they must tell him the dream. In
   vain do they plead, 1. That there is no man on earth that can retrieve
   the king's dream, v. 10. There are settled rules by which to discover
   what the meaning of the dream was; whether they will hold or no is the
   question. But never were any rules offered to be given by which to
   discover what the dream was; they cannot work unless they have
   something to work upon. They acknowledge that the gods may indeed
   declare unto man what is his thought (Amos iv. 13), for God understands
   our thoughts afar off (Ps. cxxxix. 2), what they will be before we
   think them, what they are when we do not regard them, what they have
   been when we have forgotten them. But those who can do this are gods,
   that have not their dwelling with flesh (v. 11), and it is they alone
   that can do this. As for men, their dwelling is with flesh; the wisest
   and greatest of men are clouded with a veil of flesh, which quite
   obstructs and confounds all their acquaintance with spirit, and their
   powers and operations; but the gods, that are themselves pure spirit,
   know what is in man. See here an instance of the ignorance of these
   magicians, that they speak of many gods, whereas there is but one and
   can be but one infinite; yet see their knowledge of that which even the
   light of nature teaches and the works of nature prove, that there is a
   God, who is a Spirit, and perfectly knows the spirits of men and all
   their thoughts, so as it is not possible that any man should. This
   confession of the divine omniscience is here extorted from these
   idolaters, to the honour of God and their own condemnation, who though
   they knew there is a God in heaven, to whom all hearts are open, all
   desires known, and from whom no secret is hid, yet offered up their
   prayers and praises to dumb idols, that have eyes and see not, ears and
   hear not. 2. That there is no king on earth that would expect or
   require such a thing, v. 10. This intimates that they were kings,
   lords, and potentates, not ordinary people, that the magicians had most
   dealings with, and at whose devotion they were, while the oracles of
   God and the gospel of Christ are dispensed to the poor. Kings and
   potentates have often required unreasonable things of their subjects,
   but they think that never any required so unreasonable a thing as this,
   and therefore hope his imperial majesty will not insist upon it. But it
   is all in vain; when passion is in the throne reason is under foot: He
   was angry and very furious, v. 12. Note, It is very common for those
   that will not be convinced by reason to be provoked and exasperated by
   it, and to push on with fury what they cannot support with equity.

   III. The doom passed upon all the magicians of Babylon. There is but
   one decree for them all (v. 9); they all stand condemned without
   exception or distinction. The decree has gone forth, they must every
   man of them be slain (v. 13), Daniel and his fellows (though they knew
   nothing of the matter) not excepted. See here, 1. What are commonly the
   unjust proceedings of arbitrary power. Nebuchadnezzar is here a tyrant
   in true colours, speaking death when he cannot speak sense, and
   treating those as traitors whose only fault is that they would serve
   him, but cannot. 2. What is commonly the just punishment of pretenders.
   How unrighteous soever Nebuchadnezzar was in this sentence, as to the
   ringleaders in the imposture, God was righteous. Those that imposed
   upon men, in pretending to do what they could not do, are now sentenced
   to death for not being able to do what they did not pretend to.

The Dream Revealed to Daniel; Daniel's Thanksgiving. (b. c. 603.)

   14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain
   of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of
   Babylon:   15 He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is
   the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to
   Daniel. 2:15 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would
   give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation.   17
   Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah,
   Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:   18 That they would desire
   mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and
   his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
     19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then
   Daniel blessed the God of heaven.   20 Daniel answered and said,
   Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are
   his:   21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings,
   and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to
   them that know understanding:   22 He revealeth the deep and secret
   things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with
   him.   23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who
   hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we
   desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's
   matter.

   When the king sent for his wise men to tell them his dream, and the
   interpretation of it (v. 2), Daniel, it seems, was not summoned to
   appear among them; the king, though he was highly pleased with him when
   he examined him, and thought him ten times wiser than the rest of his
   wise men, yet forgot him when he had most occasion for him; and no
   wonder, when all was done in a heat, and nothing with a cool and
   deliberate thought. But Providence so ordered it; that the magicians
   being nonplussed might be the more taken notice of, and so the more
   glory might redound to the God of Daniel. But, though Daniel had not
   the honour to be consulted with the rest of the wise men, contrary to
   all law and justice, by an undistinguishing sentence, he stands
   condemned with them, and till he has notice brought him to prepare for
   execution he knows nothing of the matter. How miserable is the case of
   those who live under arbitrary government, as this of Nebuchadnezzar's!
   How happy are we, whose lives are under the protection of the law and
   methods of justice, and lie not thus at the mercy of a peevish and
   capricious prince!

   We have found already, in Ezekiel, that Daniel was famous both for
   prudence and prayer; as a prince he had power with God and by man; by
   prayer he had power with God, by prudence he had power with man, and in
   both he prevailed. Thus did he find favour and good understanding in
   the sight of both, and in these verses we have a remarkable instance of
   both.

   I. Daniel by prudence knew how to deal with men, and he prevailed with
   them. When Arioch, the captain of the guard, that was appointed to slay
   all the wise men of Babylon, the whole college of them, seized Daniel
   (for the sword of tyranny, like the sword of war, devours one as well
   as another), he answered with counsel and wisdom (v. 14); he did not
   fall into a passion, and reproach the king as unjust and barbarous,
   much less did he contrive how to make resistance, but mildly asked, Why
   is the decree so hasty? v. 15. And whereas the rest of the wise men had
   insisted upon it that it was utterly impossible for him ever to have
   his demand gratified, which did but make him more outrageous, Daniel
   undertakes, if he may but have a little time allowed him, to give the
   king all the satisfaction he desired, v. 16. The king, being now
   sensible of his error in not sending for Daniel sooner, whose character
   he began to recollect, was soon prevailed upon to respite the judgment,
   and make trial of Daniel. Note, The likeliest method to turn away
   wrath, even the wrath of a king, which is as the messenger of death, is
   by a soft answer, by that yielding which pacifies great offences; thus,
   though where the word of a king is there is power, yet even that word
   may be repelled, and that so as to be repealed; and so some read it
   here (v. 14): Then Daniel returned, and stayed the counsel and edict,
   through Arioch, the king's provost-marshal.

   II. Daniel knew how by prayer to converse with God, and he found favour
   with him, both in petition and in thanksgiving, which are the two
   principal parts of prayer. Observe,

   1. His humble petition for this mercy, that God would discover to him
   what was the king's dream, and the interpretation of it. When he had
   gained time he did not go to consult with the rest of the wise men
   whether there was anything in their art, in their books, that might be
   of use in this matter, but went to his house, there to be alone with
   God, for from him alone, who is the Father of lights, he expected this
   great gift. Observe, (1.) He did not only pray for this discovery
   himself, but he engaged his companions to pray for it too. He made the
   thing known to those who had been all along his bosom-friends and
   associates, requesting that they would desire mercy of God concerning
   this secret, v. 17, 18. Though Daniel was probably their senior, and
   every way excelled them, yet he engaged them as partners with him in
   this matter, Vis unita fortior--The union of forces produces greater
   force. See Esth. iv. 16. Note, Praying friends are valuable friends; it
   is good to have an intimacy with and an interest in those that have
   fellowship with God and an interest at the throne of grace; and it well
   becomes the greatest and best of men to desire the assistance of the
   prayers of others for them. St. Paul often entreats his friends to pray
   for him. Thus we must show that we put a value upon our friends, upon
   prayer, upon their prayers. (2.) He was particular in this prayer, but
   had an eye to, and a dependence upon, the general mercy of God: That
   they would desire the mercies of the God of heaven concerning this
   secret, v. 18. We ought in prayer to look up to God as the God of
   heaven, a God above us, and who has dominion over us, to whom we owe
   adoration and allegiance, a God of power, who can do everything. Our
   savior has taught us to pray to God as our Father in heaven. And,
   whatever good we pray for, our dependence must be upon the mercies of
   God for it, and an interest in those mercies we must desire; we can
   expect nothing by way of recompence for our merits, but all as the gift
   of God's mercies. They desired mercy concerning this secret. Note,
   Whatever is the matter of our care must be the matter of our prayer; we
   must desire mercy of God concerning this thing and the other thing that
   occasions us trouble and fear. God gives us leave to be humbly free
   with him, and in prayer to enter into the detail of our wants and
   burdens. Secret things belong to the Lord our God, and therefore, if
   there be any mercy we stand in need of that concerns a secret, to him
   we must apply; and, though we cannot in faith pray for miracles, yet we
   may in faith pray to him who has all hearts in his hand, and who in his
   providence does wonders without miracles, for the discovery of that
   which is out of our view and the obtaining of that which is out of our
   reach, as far as is for his glory and our good, believing that to him
   nothing is hidden, nothing is hard. (3.) Their plea with God was the
   imminent peril they were in; they desired mercy of God in this matter,
   that so Daniel and his fellows might not perish with the rest of the
   wise men of Babylon, that the righteous might not be destroyed with the
   wicked. Note, When the lives of good and useful men are in danger it is
   time to be earnest with God for mercy for them, as for Peter in prison,
   Acts xii. 5. (4.) The mercy which Daniel and his fellows prayed for was
   bestowed. The secret was revealed unto Daniel in a night-vision, v. 19.
   Some think he dreamed the same dream, when he was asleep, that
   Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed; it should rather seem that when he was
   awake, and continuing instant in prayer, and watching in the same, the
   dream itself, and the interpretation of it, were communicated to him by
   the ministry of an angel, abundantly to his satisfaction. Note, The
   effectual fervent prayer of righteous men avails much. There are
   mysteries and secrets which by prayer we are let into; with that key
   the cabinets of heaven are unlocked, for Christ has said, Thus knock,
   and it shall be opened unto you.

   2. His grateful thanksgiving for this mercy when he had received it:
   Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven, v. 19. He did not stay till he
   had told it to the king, and seen whether he would own it to be his
   dream or no, but was confident that it was so, and that he had gained
   his point, and therefore he immediately turned his prayers into
   praises. As he had prayed in a full assurance that God would do this
   for him, so he gave thanks in a full assurance that he had done it; and
   in both he had an eye to God as the God of heaven. His prayer was not
   recorded, but his thanksgiving is. Observe,

   (1.) The honour he gives to God in this thanksgiving, which he studies
   to do in a great variety and copiousness of expression: Blessed be the
   name of God for ever and ever. There is that for ever in God which is
   to be blessed and praised; it is unchangeably and eternally in him. And
   it is to be blessed for ever and ever; as the matter of praise is God's
   eternal perfection, so the work of praise shall be everlastingly in the
   doing. [1.] He gives to God the glory of what he is in himself: Wisdom
   and might are his, wisdom and courage (so some); whatever is fit to be
   done he will do; whatever he will do he can do, he dares do, and he
   will be sure to do it in the best manner, for he has infinite wisdom to
   design and contrive and infinite power to execute and accomplish. With
   him are strength and wisdom, which in men are often parted. [2.] He
   gives him the glory of what he is to the world of mankind. He has a
   universal influence and agency upon all the children of men, and all
   their actions and affairs. Are the times changed? Is the posture of
   affairs altered? Does every thing lie open to mutability? It is God
   that changes the times and the seasons, and the face of them. No change
   comes to pass by chance, but according to the will and counsel of God.
   Are those that were kings removed and deposed? Do they abdicate? Are
   they laid aside? It is God that removes kings. Are the poor raised out
   of the dust, to be set among princes? It is God that sets up kings; and
   the making and unmaking of kings is a flower of his crown who is the
   fountain of all power, King of kings and Lord of lords. Are there men
   that excel others in wisdom, philosophers and statesmen, that think
   above the common rate, contemplative penetrating men? It is God that
   gives wisdom to the wise, whether they be so wise as to acknowledge it
   or no; they have it not of themselves, but it is he that gives
   knowledge to those that know understanding, which is a good reason why
   we should not be proud of our knowledge, and why we should serve and
   honour God with it and make it our business to know him. [3.] He gives
   him the glory of this particular discovery. He praises him, First, For
   that he could make such a discovery (v. 22): He reveals the deep and
   secret things which are hidden from the eyes of all living. It was he
   that revealed to man what is true wisdom when none else could (Job
   xxvii. 27, 28); it is he that reveals things to come to his servants
   and prophets. He does himself perfectly discern and distinguish that
   which is most closely and most industriously concealed, for he will
   bring into judgment every secret thing; the truth will be evident in
   the great day. He knows what is in the darkness, and what is done in
   the darkness, for that hides not from him, Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12. The
   light dwells with him, and he dwells in the light (1 Tim. vi. 16), and
   yet, as to us, he makes darkness his pavilion. Some understand it of
   the light of prophecy and divine revelation, which dwells with God and
   is derived from him; for he is the Father of lights, of all lights;
   they are all at home in him. Secondly, For that he had made this
   discovery to him. Here he has an eye to God as the God of his fathers;
   for, though the Jews were now captives in Babylon, yet they were
   beloved for their father's sake. He praises God, who is the fountain of
   wisdom and might, for the wisdom and might he had given him, wisdom to
   know this great secret and might to bear the discovery. Note, What
   wisdom and might we have we must acknowledge to be God's gift. Thou
   hast made this known to me, v. 23. What was hidden from the celebrated
   Chaldeans, who made the interpreting of dreams their profession, is
   revealed to Daniel, a captive-Jew, a babe, much their junior. God would
   hereby put honour upon the Spirit of prophecy just when he was putting
   contempt upon the spirit of divination. Was Daniel thus thankful to God
   for making known that to him which was the saving of the lives of him
   and his fellows? Much more reason have we to be thankful to him for
   making known to us the great salvation of the soul, to us and not to
   the world, to us and not to the wise and prudent.

   (2.) The respect he puts upon his companions in this thanksgiving.
   Though it was by his prayers principally that this discovery was
   obtained, and to him that it was made, yet he owns their partnership
   with him, both in praying for it (it is what we desired of thee) and in
   enjoying it--Thou hast made known unto us the king's matter. Either
   they were present with Daniel when the discovery was made to him, or as
   soon as he knew it he told it them (heureka, heureka--I have found it,
   I have found it), that those who had assisted him with their prayers
   might assist him in their praises; his joining them with him is an
   instance of his humility and modesty, which well become those that are
   taken into communion with God. Thus St. Paul sometimes joins Sylvanus,
   Timotheus, or some other minister, with himself in the inscriptions to
   many of his epistles. Note, What honour God puts upon us we should be
   willing that our brethren may share with us in.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. (b. c. 603.)

   24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to
   destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him;
   Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I
   will show unto the king the interpretation.   25 Then Arioch brought in
   Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a
   man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the
   interpretation.   26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name
   was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I
   have seen, and the interpretation thereof?   27 Daniel answered in the
   presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded
   cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers,
   show unto the king;   28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth
   secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in
   the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed,
   are these;   29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind
   upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth
   secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.   30 But as for
   me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more
   than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the
   interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of
   thy heart.

   We have here the introduction to Daniel's declaring the dream, and the
   interpretation of it.

   I. He immediately bespoke the reversing of the sentence against the
   wise men of Babylon, v. 24. He went with all speed to Arioch, to tell
   him that his commission was now superseded: Destroy not the wise men of
   Babylon. Though there were those of them perhaps that deserved to die,
   as magicians, by the law of God, yet here that which they stood
   condemned for was not a crime worth of death or of bonds, and therefore
   let them not die, and be unjustly destroyed, but let them live, and be
   justly shamed, as having been nonplussed and unable to do that which a
   prophet of the Lord could do. Note, Since God shows common kindness to
   the evil and good, we should do so too, and be ready to save the lives
   of even bad men, Matt. v. 45. A good man is a common good. To Paul in
   the ship God gave the souls of all that sailed with him; they were
   saved for his sake. To Daniel was owing the preservation of all the
   wise men, who yet rendered not according to the benefit done to them,
   ch. iii. 8.

   II. He offered his service, with great assurance, to go to the king,
   and tell him his dream and the interpretation of it, and was admitted
   accordingly, v. 24, 25. Arioch brought him in haste to the king, hoping
   to ingratiate himself by introducing Daniel; he pretends he had sought
   him to interpret the king's dream, whereas really it was to execute
   upon him the king's sentence that he sought him. But courtiers'
   business is every way to humour the prince and make their own services
   acceptable.

   III. He contrived as much as might be to reflect shame upon the
   magicians, and to give honour to God, upon this occasion. The king
   owned that it was a bold undertaking, and questioned whether he could
   make it good (v. 26): Art thou able to make known unto me the dream?
   What! Such a babe in this knowledge, such a stripling as thou are, wilt
   thou undertake that which thy seniors despair of doing? The less likely
   it appeared to the king that Daniel should do this the more God was
   glorified in enabling him to do it. Note, In transmitting divine
   revelation to the children of men it has been God's usual way to make
   use of the weak and foolish things and persons of the world, and such
   as were despised and despaired of, to confound the wise and mighty,
   that the excellency of the power might be of him, 1 Cor. i. 27, 28.
   Daniel from this takes occasion, 1. To put the king out of conceit with
   his magicians and soothsayers, whom he had such great expectations from
   (v. 27): "This secret they cannot show to the king; it is out of their
   power; the rules of their art will not reach to it. Therefore let not
   the king be angry with them for not doing that which they cannot do;
   but rather despise them, and cast them off, because they cannot do it."
   Broughton reads it generally: "This secret no sages, astrologers,
   enchanters, or entrail-cookers, can show unto the king; let not the
   king therefore consult them any more." Note, The experience we have of
   the inability of all creatures to give us satisfaction should lessen
   our esteem of them, and lower our expectations from them. They are
   baffled in their pretensions; we are baffled in our hopes from them.
   Hitherto they come, and no further; let us therefore say to them, as
   Job to his friends, Now you are nothing; miserable comforters are you
   all. 2. To bring him to the knowledge of the one only living and true
   God, the God whom Daniel worshipped: "Though they cannot find out the
   secret, let not the king despair of having it found out, for there is a
   God in heaven that reveals secrets," v. 28. Note, The insufficiency of
   creatures should drive us to the all-sufficiency of the Creator. There
   is a God in heaven (and it is well for us there is) who can do that for
   us, and make known that to us, which none on earth can, particularly
   the secret history of the work of redemption and the secret designs of
   God's love to us therein, the mystery which was hidden from ages and
   generations; divine revelation helps us out where human reason leaves
   us quite at a loss, and makes known that, not only to kings, but to the
   poor of this world, which none of the philosophers or politicians of
   the heathens, with all their oracles and arts of divination to help
   them, could ever pretend to give us any light into, Rom. xvi. 25, 26.

   IV. He confirmed the king in his opinion that the dream he was thus
   solicitous to recover the idea of was really well worth enquiring
   after, that it was of great value and of vast consequence, not a common
   dream, the idle disport of a ludicrous and luxuriant fancy, which was
   not worth remembering or telling again, but that it was a divine
   discovery, a ray of light darted into his mind from the upper world,
   relating to the great affairs and revolutions of this lower world. God
   in it made known to the king what should be in the latter days (v. 28),
   that is, in the times that were to come, reaching as far as the setting
   up of Christ's kingdom in the world, which was to be in the latter
   days, Heb. i. 1. And again (v. 29): "The thoughts which came into thy
   mind were not the repetitions of what had been before, as our dreams
   usually are"--


   Omnia quæ sensu volvuntur vota diurno

   Tempore sopito reddit amica quies--

   The sentiments which we indulge throughout the day

   often mingle with the grateful slumbers of the night.

   Claudian.

   "But they were predictions of what should come to pass hereafter, which
   he that reveals secrets makes known unto thee; and therefore thou art
   in the right in taking the hint and pursuing it thus." Note, Things
   that are to come to pass hereafter are secret things, which God only
   can reveal; and what he has revealed of those things, especially with
   reference to the last days of all, to the end of time, ought to be very
   seriously and diligently enquired into and considered by every one of
   us. Some think that the thoughts which are said to have come into the
   king's mind upon his bed, what should come to pass hereafter, were his
   own thoughts when he was awake. Just before he fell asleep, and dreamed
   this dream, he was musing in his own mind what would be the issue of
   his growing greatness, what his kingdom would hereafter come to; and so
   the dream was an answer to those thoughts. What discoveries God intends
   to make he thus prepares men for.

   V. He solemnly professes that he could not pretend to have merited from
   God the favour of this discovery, or to have obtained it by any
   sagacity of his own (v. 30): "But, as for me, this secret is not found
   out by me, but is revealed to me, and that not for any wisdom that I
   have more than any living, to qualify me for the receiving of such a
   discovery." Note, It well becomes those whom God has highly favoured
   and honoured to be very humble and low in their own eyes, to lay aside
   all opinion of their own wisdom and worthiness, that God alone may have
   all the praise of the good they are, and have, and do, and that all may
   be attributed to the freeness of his good-will towards them and the
   fulness of his good work in them. The secret was made known to him not
   for his own sake, but, 1. For the sake of his people, for their sakes
   that shall make known the interpretation to the king, that is, for the
   sake of his brethren and companions in tribulation, who had by their
   prayers helped him to obtain this discovery, and so might be said to
   make known the interpretation--that their lives might be spared, that
   they might come into favour and be preferred, and all the people of the
   Jews might fare the better, in their captivity, for their sakes. Note,
   Humble men will be always ready to think that what God does for them
   and by them is more for the sake of others than for their own. 2. For
   the sake of his prince; and some read the former clause in this sense,
   "Not for any wisdom of mine, but that the king may know the
   interpretation, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart,
   that thou mightest have satisfaction given thee as to what thou wast
   before considering, and thereby instruction given thee how to behave
   towards the church of God." God revealed this thing to Daniel that he
   might make it known to the king. Prophets receive that they may give,
   that the discoveries made to them may not be lodged with themselves,
   but communicated to the persons that are concerned.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream Interpreted. (b. c. 603.)

   31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image,
   whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof
   was terrible.   32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and
   his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,   33 His legs of
   iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.   34 Thou sawest till
   that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his
   feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.   35 Then
   was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to
   pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer
   threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was
   found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great
   mountain, and filled the whole earth.   36 This is the dream; and we
   will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.   37 Thou, O
   king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a
   kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.   38 And wheresoever the
   children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the
   heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over
   them all. Thou art this head of gold.   39 And after thee shall arise
   another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass,
   which shall bear rule over all the earth.   40 And the fourth kingdom
   shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and
   subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it
   break in pieces and bruise.   41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and
   toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be
   divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron,
   forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.   42 And as the
   toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom
   shall be partly strong, and partly broken.   43 And whereas thou sawest
   iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed
   of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not
   mixed with clay.   44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of
   heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the
   kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces
   and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.   45
   Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain
   without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the
   clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the
   king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and
   the interpretation thereof sure.

   Daniel here gives full satisfaction to Nebuchadnezzar concerning his
   dream and the interpretation of it. That great prince had been kind to
   this poor prophet in his maintenance and education; he had been brought
   up at the king's cost, preferred at court, and the land of his
   captivity had hereby been made much easier to him than to others of his
   brethren. And now the king is abundantly repaid for all the expense he
   had been at upon him; and for receiving this prophet, though not in the
   name of a prophet, he had a prophet's reward, such a reward as a
   prophet only could give, and for which that wealthy mighty prince was
   now glad to be beholden to him. Here is,

   I. The dream itself, v. 31, 45. Nebuchadnezzar perhaps was an admirer
   of statues, and had his palace and gardens adorned with them; however,
   he was a worshipper of images, and now behold a great image is set
   before him in a dream, which might intimate to him what the images were
   which he bestowed so much cost upon, and paid such respect to; they
   were mere dreams. The creatures of fancy might do as well to please the
   fancy. By the power of imagination he might shut his eyes, and
   represent to himself what forms he thought fit, and beautify them at
   his pleasure, without the expense and trouble of sculpture. This was
   the image of a man erect: It stood before him, as a living man; and,
   because those monarchies which were designed to be represented by it
   were admirable in the eyes of their friends, the brightness of this
   image was excellent; and because they were formidable to their enemies,
   and dreaded by all about them, the form of this image is said to be
   terrible; both the features of the face and the postures of the body
   made it so. But that which was most remarkable in this image was the
   different metals of which it was composed--the head of gold (the
   richest and most durable metal), the breast and arms of silver (the
   next to it in worth), the belly and sides (or thighs) of brass, the
   legs of iron (still baser metals), and lastly the feet part of iron and
   part of clay. See what the things of this world are; the further we go
   in them the less valuable they appear. In the life of a man youth is a
   head of gold, but it grows less and less worthy of our esteem; and old
   age is half clay; a man is then as good as dead. It is so with the
   world; later ages degenerate. The first age of the Christian church, of
   the reformation, was a head of gold; but we live in an age that is iron
   and clay. Some allude to this in the description of a hypocrite, whose
   practice is not agreeable to his knowledge. He has a head of gold, but
   feet of iron and clay: he knows his duty, but does it not. Some observe
   that in Daniel's visions the monarchies were represented by four beasts
   (ch. vii.), for he looked upon that wisdom from beneath, by which they
   were turned to be earthly and sensual, and a tyrannical power, to have
   more in it of the beast than of the man, and so the vision agreed with
   his notions of the thing. But to Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen prince, they
   were represented by a gay and pompous image of a man, for he was an
   admirer of the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. To him the
   sight was so charming that he was impatient to see it again. But what
   became of this image? The next part of the dream shows it to us
   calcined, and brought to nothing. He saw a stone cut out of the quarry
   by an unseen power, without hands, and this stone fell upon the feet of
   the image, that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces; and
   then the image must fall of course, and so the gold, and silver, and
   brass, and iron, were all broken to pieces together, and beaten so
   small that they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors,
   and there were not to be found any the least remains of them; but the
   stone cut out of the mountain became itself a great mountain, and
   filled the earth. See how God can bring about great effects by weak and
   unlikely causes; when he pleases a little one shall become a thousand.
   Perhaps the destruction of this image of gold, and silver, and brass,
   and iron, might be intended to signify the abolishing of idolatry out
   of the world in due time. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold,
   as this image was, and they shall perish from off the earth and from
   under these heavens, Jer. x. 11; Isa. ii. 18. And whatever power
   destroys idolatry is in the ready way to magnify and exalt itself, as
   this stone, when it had broken the image to pieces, became a great
   mountain.

   II. The interpretation of this dream. Let us now see what is the
   meaning of this. It was from God, and therefore from him it is fit that
   we take the explication of it. It should seem, Daniel had his fellows
   with him, and speaks for them as well as for himself, when he says, We
   will tell the interpretation, v. 36. Now,

   1. This image represented the kingdoms of the earth that should
   successively bear rule among the nations and have influence on the
   affairs of the Jewish church. The four monarchies were not represented
   by four distinct statues, but by one image, because they were all of
   one and the same spirit and genius, and all more or less against the
   church. It was the same power, only lodged in four different nations,
   the two former lying eastward of Judea, the two latter westward. (1.)
   The head of gold signified the Chaldean monarchy, which was now in
   being (v. 37, 38): Thou, O king! art (or rather, shalt be) a king of
   kings, a universal monarch, to whom many kings and kingdoms shall be
   tributaries; or, Thou art the highest of kings on earth at this time
   (as a servant of servants is the meanest servant); thou dost outshine
   all other kings. But let him not attribute his elevation to his own
   politics or fortitude. No; it is the God of heaven that has given thee
   a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory, a kingdom that exercises
   great authority, stands firmly, and shines brightly, acts by a puissant
   army with an arbitrary power. Note, The greatest of princes have no
   power but what is given them from above. The extent of his dominion is
   set forth (v. 38), that wheresoever the children of men dwell, in all
   the nations of that part of the world, he was ruler over them all, over
   them and all that belonged to them, all their cattle, not only those
   which they had a property in, but those that were feræ naturæ--wild,
   the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven. He was lord of all
   the woods, forests, and chases, and none were allowed to hunt or fowl
   without his leave. Thus "thou art the head of gold; thou, and thy son,
   and thy son's son, for seventy years." Compare this with Jer. xxv. 9,
   11, especially Jer. xxvii. 5-7. There were other powerful kingdoms in
   the world at this time, as that of the Scythians; but it was the
   kingdom of Babylon that reigned over the Jews, and that began the
   government which continued in the succession here described till
   Christ's time. It is called a head, for its wisdom, eminency, and
   absolute power, a head of gold for its wealth (Isa. xiv. 4); it was a
   golden city. Some make this monarchy to begin in Nimrod, and so bring
   into it all the Assyrian kings, about fifty monarchs in all, and
   compute that it lasted above 1600 years. But it had not been so long a
   monarchy of such vast extent and power as is here described, nor any
   thing like it; therefore others make only Nebuchadnezzar,
   Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, to belong to this head of gold; and a
   glorious high throne they had, and perhaps exercised a more despotic
   power than any of the kings that went before them. Nebuchadnezzar
   reigned forty-five years current, Evil-merodach twenty-three years
   current, and Belshazzar three. Babylon was their metropolis, and Daniel
   was with them upon the spot during the seventy years. (2.) The breast
   and arms of silver signified the monarchy of the Medes and Persians, of
   which the king is told no more than this, There shall arise another
   kingdom inferior to thee (v. 39), not so rich, powerful, or victorious.
   This kingdom was founded by Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, in
   alliance with each other, and therefore represented by two arms,
   meeting in the breast. Cyrus was himself a Persian by his father, a
   Mede by his mother. Some reckon that this second monarchy lasted 130
   years, others 204 years. The former computation agrees best with the
   scripture chronology. (3.) The belly and thighs of brass signified the
   monarchy of the Grecians, founded by Alexander, who conquered Darius
   Codomannus, the last of the Persian emperors. This is the third
   kingdom, of brass, inferior in wealth and extent of dominion to the
   Persian monarchy, but in Alexander himself it shall by the power of the
   sword bear rule over all the earth; for Alexander boasted that he had
   conquered the world, and then sat down and wept because he had not
   another world to conquer. (4.) The legs and feet of iron signified the
   Roman monarchy. Some make this to signify the latter part of the
   Grecian monarchy, the two empires of Syria and Egypt, the former
   governed by the family of the Seleucidæ, from Seleucus, the latter by
   that of the Lagidæ, from Ptolemæus Lagus; these they make the two legs
   and feet of this image: Grotius, and Junius, and Broughton, go this
   way. But it has been the more received opinion that it is the Roman
   monarchy that is here intended, because it was in the time of that
   monarchy, and when it was at its height, that the kingdom of Christ was
   set up in the world by the preaching of the everlasting gospel. The
   Roman kingdom was strong as iron (v. 40), witness the prevalency of
   that kingdom against all that contended with it for many ages. That
   kingdom broke in pieces the Grecian empire and afterwards quite
   destroyed the nation of the Jews. Towards the latter end of the Roman
   monarchy it grew very weak, and branched into ten kingdoms, which were
   as the toes of these feet. Some of these were weak as clay, others
   strong as iron, v. 42. Endeavours were used to unite and cement them
   for the strengthening of the empire, but in vain: They shall not cleave
   one to another, v. 43. This empire divided the government for a long
   time between the senate and the people, the nobles and the commons, but
   they did not entirely coalesce. There were civil wars between Marius
   and Sylla, Cæsar and Pompey, whose parties were as iron and clay. Some
   refer this to the declining times of that empire, when, for the
   strengthening of the empire against the irruptions of the barbarous
   nations, the branches of the royal family intermarried; but the
   politics had not the desired effect, when the day of the fall of that
   empire came.

   2. The stone cut out without hands represented the kingdom of Jesus
   Christ, which should be set up in the world in the time of the Roman
   empire, and upon the ruins of Satan's kingdom in the kingdoms of the
   world. This is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, for it
   should be neither raised nor supported by human power or policy; no
   visible hand should act in the setting of it up, but it should be done
   invisibly by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. This was the stone which
   the builders refused, because it was not cut out by their hands, but it
   has now become the head-stone of the corner. (1.) The gospel-church is
   a kingdom, which Christ is the sole and sovereign monarch of, in which
   he rules by his word and Spirit, to which he gives protection and law,
   and from which he receives homage and tribute. It is a kingdom not of
   this world, and yet set up in it; it is the kingdom of God among men.
   (2.) The God of heaven was to set up this kingdom, to give authority to
   Christ to execute judgment, to set him as King upon his holy hill of
   Zion, and to bring into obedience to him a willing people. Being set up
   by the God of heaven, it is often in the New Testament called the
   kingdom of heaven, for its original is from above and its tendency is
   upwards. (3.) It was to be set up in the days of these kings, the kings
   of the fourth monarchy, of which particular notice is taken (Luke ii.
   1), That Christ was born when, by the decree of the emperor of Rome,
   all the world was taxed, which was a plain indication that that empire
   had become as universal as any earthly empire ever was. When these
   kings are contesting with each other, and in all the struggles each of
   the contending parties hopes to find its own account, God will do his
   own work and fulfil his own counsels. These kings are all enemies to
   Christ's kingdom, and yet it shall be set up in defiance of them. (4.)
   It is a kingdom that knows no decay, is in no danger of destruction,
   and will not admit any succession or revolution. It shall never be
   destroyed by any foreign force invading it, as many other kingdoms are;
   fire and sword cannot waste it; the combined powers of earth and hell
   cannot deprive either the subjects of their prince or the prince of his
   subjects; nor shall this kingdom be left to other people, as the
   kingdoms of the earth are. As Christ is a monarch that has no successor
   (for he himself shall reign for ever), so his kingdom is a monarchy
   that has no revolution. The kingdom of God was indeed taken from the
   Jews and given to the Gentiles (Matt. xxi. 43), but still it was
   Christianity that ruled, the kingdom of the Messiah. The Christian
   church is still the same; it is fixed on a rock, much fought against,
   but never to be prevailed against, by the gates of hell. (5.) It is a
   kingdom that shall be victorious over all opposition. It shall break in
   pieces and consume all those kingdoms, as the stone cut out of the
   mountain without hands broke in pieces the image, v. 44, 45. The
   kingdom of Christ shall wear out all other kingdoms, shall outlive
   them, and flourish when they are sunk with their own weight, and so
   wasted that their place knows them no more. All the kingdoms that
   appear against the kingdom of Christ shall be broken with a rod of
   iron, as a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 9. And in the kingdoms that submit
   to the kingdom of Christ tyranny, and idolatry, and every thing that is
   their reproach, shall, as far as the gospel of Christ gets ground, be
   broken. The day is coming when Jesus Christ shall have put down all
   rule, principality, and power, and have made all his enemies his
   footstool; and then this prophecy will have its full accomplishment,
   and not till then, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Our savior seems to refer to this
   (Matt. xxi. 44), when, speaking of himself as the stone set at nought
   by the Jewish builders, he says, On whomsoever this stone shall fall,
   it will grind him to powder. (6.) It shall be an everlasting kingdom.
   Those kingdoms of the earth that had broken in pieces all about them at
   length came, in their turn, to be in like manner broken; but the
   kingdom of Christ shall break other kingdoms in pieces and shall itself
   stand for ever. His throne shall be as the days of heaven, his seed,
   his subjects, as the stars of heaven, not only so innumerable, but so
   immutable. Of the increase of Christ's government and peace there shall
   be no end. The Lord shall reign for ever, not only to the end of time,
   but when time and days shall be no more, and God shall be all in all to
   eternity.

   III. Daniel having thus interpreted the dream, to the satisfaction of
   Nebuchadnezzar, who gave him no interruption, so full was the
   interpretation that he had no question to ask, and so plain that he had
   no objection to make, he closes all with a solemn assertion, 1. Of the
   divine original of this dream: The great God (so he calls him, to
   express his own high thoughts of him, and to beget the like in the mind
   of this great king) has made known to the king what shall come to pass
   hereafter, which the gods of the magicians could not do. And thus a
   full confirmation was given to that great argument which Isaiah had
   long before urged against idolaters, and particularly the idolaters of
   Babylon, when he challenged the gods they worshipped to show things
   that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods (Isa.
   xli. 23), and by this proved the God of Israel to be the true God, that
   he declares the end from the beginning, Isa. xlvi. 10. 2. Of the
   undoubted certainty of the things foretold by this dream. He who makes
   known these things is the same that has himself designed and determined
   them, and will by his providence effect them; and we are sure that his
   counsel shall stand, and cannot be altered, and therefore the dream is
   certain and the interpretation thereof sure. Note, Whatever God has
   made known we may depend upon.

Nebuchadnezzar's Honours Daniel. (b. c. 603.)

   46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped
   Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet
   odours unto him.   47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a
   truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a
   revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.   48 Then
   the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and
   made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the
   governors over all the wise men of Babylon.   49 Then Daniel requested
   of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the
   affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the
   king.

   One might have expected that when Nebuchadnezzar was contriving to make
   his own kingdom everlasting he would be enraged at Daniel, who foretold
   the fall of it and that another kingdom of another nature should be the
   everlasting kingdom; but, instead of resenting it as an affront, he
   received it as an oracle, and here we are told what the expressions
   were of the impressions it made upon him. 1. He was ready to look upon
   Daniel as a little god. Though he saw him to be a man, yet from this
   wonderful discovery which he had made both of his secret thoughts, in
   telling him the dream, and of things to come, in telling him the
   interpretation of it, he concluded that he had certainly a divinity
   lodged in him, worthy his adoration; and therefore he fell upon his
   face and worshipped Daniel, v. 46. It was the custom of the country by
   prostration to give honour to kings, because they have something of a
   divine power in them (I have said, You are gods); and therefore this
   king, who had often received such veneration from others, now paid the
   like to Daniel, whom he supposed to have in him a divine knowledge,
   which he was so struck with an admiration of that he could not contain
   himself, but forgot both that Daniel was a man and that himself was a
   king. Thus did God magnify divine revelation and make it honourable,
   extorting from a proud potentate such a veneration but for one glimpse
   of it. He worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an
   oblation to him, and burn incense. Herein he cannot be justified, but
   may in some measure be excused, when Cornelius was thus ready to
   worship Peter, and John the angel, who both knew better. But, though it
   is not here mentioned, yet we have reason to think that Daniel refused
   these honours that he paid him, and said, as Peter to Cornelius, Stand
   up, I myself also am a man, or, as the angel to St. John, See thou do
   it not; for it is not said that the oblation was offered unto him,
   though the king commanded it, or rather said it, for so the word is. He
   said, in his haste, Let an oblation be offered to him. And that Daniel
   did say something to him which turned his eyes and thoughts another way
   is intimated in what follows (v. 47), The king answered Daniel. Note,
   It is possible for those to express a great honour for the ministers of
   God's word who yet have no true love for the word. Herod feared John,
   and heard him gladly, and yet went on in his sins, Mark vi. 20. 2. He
   readily acknowledged the God of Daniel to be the great God, the true
   God, the only living and true God. If Daniel will not suffer himself to
   be worshipped, he will (as Daniel, it is likely, directed him) worship
   God, by confessing (v. 47), Of a truth your God is a God of gods, such
   a God as there is no other, above all gods in dignity, over all gods in
   dominion. He is a Lord of kings, from whom they derive their power and
   to whom they are accountable; and he is both a discoverer and a
   revealer of secrets; what is most secret he sees and can reveal, and
   what he has revealed is what was secret and which none but himself
   could reveal, 1 Cor. ii. 10. 3. He preferred Daniel, made him a great
   man, v. 48. God made him a great man indeed when he took him into
   communion with himself, a greater man than Nebuchadnezzar could make
   him; but, because God had magnified him, therefore the king magnified
   him. Does wealth make men great? The king gave him many great gifts;
   and he had no reason to refuse them, when they all put him into so much
   the greater capacity of doing good to his brethren in captivity. These
   gifts were grateful returns for the good services he had done, and not
   aimed at, nor bargained for, by him, as the rewards of divination were
   by Balaam. Does power make a man great? He made him ruler over the
   whole province of Babylon, which no doubt had great influence upon the
   other provinces; he made him likewise chancellor of the university,
   chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon, to instruct
   those whom he had thus outdone; and, since they could not do what the
   king would have them do, they shall be obliged to do what Daniel would
   have them do. Thus it is fit that the fool should be servant to the
   wise in heart. Seeing Daniel could reveal this secret (v. 47), the king
   thus advanced him. Note, It is the wisdom of princes to advance and
   employ those who receive divine revelation, and are much conversant
   with it, who, as Daniel here, show themselves to be well acquainted
   with the kingdom of heaven. Joseph, like Daniel here, was advanced in
   the court of the king of Egypt for his interpreting his dreams; and he
   called him Zaphnath-paaneah--a revealer of secrets, as the king of
   Babylon here calls Daniel; so that the preambles to their patents of
   honour are the same--for, and in consideration of, their good services
   done to the crown in revealing secrets. 4. He preferred his companions
   for his sake, and upon his special instance and request, v. 49. Daniel
   himself sat in the gate of the king, as president of the council,
   chief-justice, or prime-minister of state, or perhaps chamberlain of
   the household; but he used his interest for his friends as became a
   good man, and procured places in the government for Shadrach, Meshach,
   and Abednego. Those that helped him with their prayers shall share with
   him in his honours, such a grateful sense had he even of that service.
   The preferring of them would be a great stay and help to Daniel in his
   place and business. And these pious Jews, being thus preferred in
   Babylon, had great opportunity of serving their brethren in captivity,
   and of doing them many good offices, which no doubt they were ready to
   do. Thus, sometimes, before God brings his people into trouble, he
   prepares it, that it may be easy to them.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. III.

   In the close of the foregoing chapter we left Daniel's companions,
   Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in honour and power, princes of the
   provinces, and preferred for their relation to the God of Israel and
   the interest they had in him. I know not whether I should say. It were
   well if this honour had all the saints. No, there are many whom it
   would not be good for; the saints' honour is reserved for another
   world. But here we have those same three men as much under the king's
   displeasure as when they were in his favour, and yet more truly, more
   highly, honoured by their God than there they were honoured by their
   prince, both by the grace wherewith he enabled them rather to suffer
   than to sin and by the miraculous and glorious deliverance which he
   wrought for them out of their sufferings. It is a very memorable story,
   a glorious instance of the power and goodness of God, and a great
   encouragement to the constancy of his people in trying times. The
   apostle refers to it when he mentions, among the believing heroes,
   those who by faith "quenched the violence of fire," Heb. xi. 34. We
   have here, I. Nebuchadnezzar's erecting and dedicating a golden image,
   and his requiring all his subjects, of what rank or degree soever, to
   fall down and worship it, and the general compliance of his people with
   that command, ver. 1-7. II. Information given against the Jewish
   princes for refusing to worship this golden image, ver. 8-12. III.
   Their constant persisting in that refusal, notwithstanding his rage and
   menaces, ver. 13-18. IV. The casting of them into the fiery furnace for
   their refusal, ver. 19-23. V. Their miraculous preservation in the fire
   by the power of God, and their invitation out of the fire by the favour
   of the king, who was by this miracle convinced of his error in casting
   them in, ver. 24-27. VI. The honour which the king gave to God
   hereupon, and the favour he showed to those faithful worthies, ver.
   28-30.

Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image. (b. c. 587.)

   1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was
   threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in
   the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.   2 Then Nebuchadnezzar
   the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the
   captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs,
   and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the
   image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.   3 Then the princes,
   the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the
   counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were
   gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar
   the king had set up; and they stood before the image that
   Nebuchadnezzar had set up.   4 Then a herald cried aloud, To you it is
   commanded, O people, nations, and languages,   5 That at what time ye
   hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer,
   and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that
   Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:   6 And whoso falleth not down and
   worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning
   fiery furnace.   7 Therefore at that time, when all the people heard
   the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds
   of music, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and
   worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

   We have no certainty concerning the date of this story, only that if
   this image, which Nebuchadnezzar dedicated, had any relation to that
   which he dreamed of, it is probable that it happened not long after
   that; some reckon it to be about the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, a
   year before Jehoiachin's captivity, in which Ezekiel was carried away.
   Observe,

   I. A golden image set up to be worshipped. Babylon was full of idols
   already, yet nothing will serve this imperious prince but they must
   have one more; for those who have forsaken the one only living God, and
   begin to set up many gods, will find the gods they set up so
   unsatisfying, and their desire after them so insatiable, that they will
   multiply them without measure, wander after them endlessly, and never
   know when they have sufficient. Idolaters are fond of novelty and
   variety. They choose new gods. Those that have many will wish to have
   more. Nebuchadnezzar the king, that he might exert the prerogative of
   his crown, to make what god he thought fit, set up this image, v. 1.
   Observe, 1. The valuableness of it; it was an image of gold, not all
   gold surely; rich as he was, it is probable that he could not afford
   that, but overlaid with gold. Note, The worshippers of false gods are
   not wont to mind charges in setting up images and worshipping them;
   they lavish gold out of the bag for that purpose (Isa. xlvi. 6), which
   shames our niggardliness in the worship of the true God. 2. The
   vastness of it; it was threescore cubits high and six cubits broad. It
   exceeded the ordinary stature of a man fifteen times (for that is
   reckoned but four cubits, or six feet), as if its being monstrous would
   make amends for its being lifeless. But why did Nebuchadnezzar set up
   this image? Some suggest that it was to clear himself from the
   imputation of having turned a Jew, because he had lately spoken with
   great honour of the God of Israel and had preferred some of his
   worshippers. Or perhaps he set it up as an image of himself, and
   designed to be himself worshipped in it. Proud princes affected to have
   divine honours paid them; Alexander did so, pretending himself to be
   the son of Jupiter Olympius. He was told that in the image he had seen
   in his dream he was represented by the head of gold, which was to be
   succeeded by kingdoms of baser metal; but here he sets up to be himself
   the whole image, for he makes it all of gold. See here, (1.) How the
   good impressions that were then made upon him were quite lost, and
   quickly. He then acknowledged that the God of Israel is of a truth a
   God of gods and a Lord of kings; and yet now, in defiance of the
   express law of that God, he sets up an image to be worshipped, not only
   continues in his former idolatries, but contrives new ones. Note,
   Strong convictions often come short of a sound conversion. Many a pang
   have owned the absurdity and dangerousness of sin, and yet have gone on
   in it. (2.) How that very dream and the interpretation of it, which
   then made such good impressions upon him, now had a quite contrary
   effect. Then it made him fall down as a humble worshipper of God; now
   it made him set up for a bold competitor with God. Then he thought it a
   great thing to be the golden head of the image, and owned himself
   obliged to God for it; but, his mind rising with his condition, now he
   thinks that too little, and, in contradiction to God himself and his
   oracle, he will be all in all.

   II. A general convention of the states summoned to attend the solemnity
   of the dedication of this image, v. 2, 3. Messengers are despatched to
   all parts of the kingdom to gather together the princes, dukes, and
   lords, all the peers of the realm, with all officers civil and
   military, the captains and commanders of the forces, the judges, the
   treasurers or general receivers, the counsellors, and the sheriffs, and
   all the rulers of the provinces; they must all come to the dedication
   of this image upon pain and peril of what shall fall thereon. He
   summons the great men, for the great honour of his idol; it is
   therefore mentioned to the glory of Christ that kings shall bring
   presents unto him. If he can bring them to pay homage to his golden
   image, he doubts not but the inferior people will follow of course. In
   obedience to the king's summons all the magistrates and officers of
   that vast kingdom leave the services of their particular countries, and
   come to Babylon, to the dedication of this golden image; long journeys
   many of them took, and expensive ones, upon a very foolish errand; but,
   as the idols are senseless things, such are the worshippers.

   III. A proclamation made, commanding all manner of persons present
   before the image, upon the signal given, to fall down prostrate, and
   worship the image, under the style and title of The golden image which
   Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. A herald proclaims this aloud
   throughout this vast assembly of grandees, with their numerous train of
   servants and attendants, and a great crowd of people, no doubt, that
   were not sent for; let them all take notice, 1. That the king does
   strictly charge and command all manner of persons to fall down and
   worship the golden image; whatever other gods they worship at other
   times, now they must worship this. 2. That they must all do this just
   at the same time, in token of their communion with each other in this
   idolatrous service, and that, in order hereunto, notice shall be given
   by a concert of music, which would likewise serve to adorn the
   solemnity and to sweeten and soften the minds of those that were loth
   to yield and bring them to comply with the king's command. This mirth
   and gaiety in the worship would be very agreeable to carnal sensual
   minds, that are strangers to that spiritual worship which is due to God
   who is a spirit.

   IV. The general compliance of the assembly with this command, v. 7.
   They heard the sound of the musical instruments, both wind-instruments
   and hand-instruments, the cornet and flute, with the harp, sackbut,
   psaltery, and dulcimer, the melody of which they thought was ravishing
   (and fit enough it was to excite such a devotion as they were then to
   pay), and immediately they all, as one man, as soldiers that are wont
   to be exercised by beat of drum, all the people, nations, and
   languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image. And no marvel
   when it was proclaimed, That whosoever would not worship this golden
   image should be immediately thrown into the midst of a burning fiery
   furnace, ready prepared for that purpose, v. 6. Here were the charms of
   music to allure them into a compliance and the terrors of the fiery
   furnace to frighten them into a compliance. Thus beset with temptation,
   they all yielded. Note, That way that sense directs the most will go;
   there is nothing so bad which the careless world will not be drawn to
   by a concert of music, or driven to by a fiery furnace. And by such
   methods as these false worship has been set up and maintained.

The Hebrew Princes Accused; Fortitude of the Jewish Princes. (b. c. 587.)

   8 Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the
   Jews.   9 They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live
   for ever.   10 Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that
   shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and
   dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the
   golden image:   11 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he
   should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.   12 There
   are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of
   Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not
   regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image
   which thou hast set up.   13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury
   commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought
   these men before the king.   14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto
   them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my
   gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?   15 Now if ye
   be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute,
   harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall
   down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship
   not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery
   furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
   16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O
   Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.   17
   If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the
   burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O
   king.   18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not
   serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

   It was strange that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would be present
   at this assembly, when, it is likely, they knew for what intent it was
   called together. Daniel, we may suppose, was absent, either his
   business calling him away or having leave from the king to withdraw,
   unless we suppose that he stood so high in the king's favour that none
   durst complain of him for his noncompliance. But why did not his
   companions keep out of the way? Surely because they would obey the
   king's orders as far as they could, and would be ready to bear a public
   testimony against this gross idolatry. They did not think it enough not
   to bow down to the image, but, being in office, thought themselves
   obliged to stand up against it, though it was the image which the king
   their master set up, and would be a golden image to those that
   worshipped it. Now,

   I. Information is brought to the king by certain Chaldeans against
   these three gentlemen that they did not obey the king's edict, v. 8.
   Perhaps these Chaldeans that accused them were some of those magicians
   or astrologers that were particularly called Chaldeans (ch. ii. 2, 4)
   who bore a grudge to Daniel's companions for his sake, because he had
   eclipsed them, and so had these companions. They by their prayers had
   obtained the mercy which saved the lives of these Chaldeans, and,
   behold, how they requite them evil for good! for their love they are
   their adversaries. Thus Jeremiah stood before God, to speak good for
   those who afterwards dug a pit for his life, Jer. xviii. 20. We must
   not think it strange if we meet with such ungrateful men. Or perhaps
   they were such of the Chaldeans as expected the places to which they
   were advanced, and envied them their preferments; and who can stand
   before envy ? They appeal to the king himself concerning the edict,
   with all due respect to his majesty, and the usual compliment, O king!
   live forever (as if they aimed at nothing but his honour, and to serve
   his interest, when really they were putting him upon that which would
   endanger the ruin of him and his kingdom); they beg leave, 1. To put
   him in mind of the law he had lately made, That all manner of persons,
   without exception of nation or language, should fall down and worship
   this golden image; they put him in mind also of the penalty which by
   the law was to be inflicted upon recusants, that they were to be cast
   into the midst of the burning fiery furnace, v. 10, 11. It cannot be
   denied but that this was the law; whether a righteous law or no ought
   to be considered. 2. To inform him that these three men, Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abednego, had not conformed to this edict, v. 12. It is
   probable that Nebuchadnezzar had no particular design to ensnare them
   in making the law, for then he would himself have had his eye upon
   them, and would not have needed this information; but their enemies,
   that sought an occasion against them, laid hold on this, and were
   forward to accuse them. To aggravate the matter, and incense the king
   the more against them, (1.) They put him in mind of the dignity to
   which the criminals had been preferred. Though they were Jews,
   foreigners, captives, men of a despised nation and religion, yet the
   king had set them over the affairs of the province of Babylon. It was
   therefore very ungrateful, and an insufferable piece of insolence, for
   them to disobey the king's command, when they had shared so much of the
   king's favour. And, besides, the high station they were in would make
   their refusal the more scandalous; it would be a bad example, and have
   a bad influence upon others; and therefore it was necessary that it
   should be severely animadverted upon. Thus princes that are incensed
   enough against innocent people commonly have but too many about them
   who do all they can to make them worse. (2.) They suggest that it was
   done maliciously, contumaciously, and in contempt of him and his
   authority: "They have set no regard upon thee; for they serve not the
   gods which thou servest, and which thou requirest them to serve, nor
   worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

   II. These three pious Jews are immediately brought before the king, and
   arraigned and examined upon this information. Nebuchadnezzar fell into
   a great passion, and in his rage and fury commanded them to be seized,
   v. 13. How little was it the honour of this mighty prince that he had
   rule over so many nations when at the same time he had no rule over his
   own spirit, that there were so many who were subjects and captives to
   him when he was himself a perfect slave to his own brutish passions and
   led captive by them! How unfit was he to rule reasonable men who could
   not himself be ruled by reason! It needed not be a surprise to him to
   hear that these three men did not now serve his gods, for he knew very
   well they never had served them, and that their religion, which they
   had always adhered to, forbade them to do it. Nor had he any reason to
   think that they designed any contempt of his authority, for they had in
   all instances shown themselves respectful and dutiful to him as their
   prince. But it was especially unseasonable at this time, when he was in
   the midst of his devotions, dedicating his golden image, to be in such
   a rage and fury, and so much to discompose himself. The discretion of a
   man, one would think, should at least have deferred this anger. True
   devotion calms the spirit, quiets and meekens it; but superstition, and
   a devotion to false gods, inflame men's passions, inspire them with
   rage, and fury, and turn them into brutes. The wrath of a king is as
   the roaring of a lion; so was the wrath of this king; and yet, when he
   was in such a heat, these three men were brought before him, and
   appeared with an undaunted courage, and unshaken constancy.

   III. The case is laid before them in short, and it is put to them
   whether they will comply or no. 1. The king asked them whether it was
   true that they had not worshipped the golden image when others did, v.
   14. "Is it of purpose?" so some read it. "Was it designedly and
   deliberately done, or was it only through inadvertency, that you have
   not served my gods? What! you that I have nourished and brought up,
   that have been educated and maintained at my charge, that I have been
   so kind to and done so much for, you that have been in such reputation
   for wisdom, and therefore should better have known your duty to your
   prince; what! do not you serve my gods nor worship the golden image
   which I have set up?" Note, The faithfulness of God's servants to him
   has often been the wonder of their enemies and persecutors, who think
   it strange that they run not with them to the same excess of riot. 2.
   He was willing to admit them to a new trial; if they did on purpose not
   do it before, yet, it may be, upon second thoughts, they will change
   their minds; it is therefore repeated to them upon what terms they now
   stand, v. 15. (1.) The king is willing that music shall play again,
   only for their sakes, to soften them into a compliance; and if they
   will not, like the deaf adder, stop their ears, but will hearken to the
   voice of the charmers and will worship the golden image, well and good;
   their former omission shall be pardoned. But, (2.) The king is
   resolved, if they persist in their refusal, that they shall immediately
   be cast into the fiery furnace, and shall not have so much as an hour's
   reprieve. Thus does the matter lie in a little compass--Turn, or burn;
   and, because he knew they buoyed themselves up in their refusal with a
   confidence in their God, he insolently set him a defiance: "And who is
   that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Let him, if he can."
   Now he forgot what he himself once owned, that their God was a God of
   gods and a Lord of kings, ch. ii. 47. Proud men are still ready to say,
   as Pharaoh, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? or, as
   Nebuchadnezzar, Who is the Lord, that I should fear his power?

   IV. They give in their answer, which they all agree in, that they still
   adhere to their resolution not to worship the golden image, v. 16-18.
   We have here such an instance of fortitude and magnanimity as is
   scarcely to be paralleled. We call these the three children (and they
   were indeed young men), but we should rather call them the three
   champions, the first three of the worthies of God's kingdom among men.
   They did not break out into any intemperate heat or passion against
   those that did worship the golden image, did not insult or affront
   them; nor did they rashly thrust themselves upon the trial, or go out
   of their way to court martyrdom; but, when they were duly called to the
   fiery trial, they acquitted themselves bravely, with a conduct and
   courage that became sufferers for so good a cause. The king was not so
   daringly bad in making this idol, but they were as daringly good in
   witnessing against it. They keep their temper admirably well, do not
   call the king a tyrant or an idolater (the cause of God needs not the
   wrath of man), but, with an exemplary calmness and sedateness of mind,
   they deliberately give in their answer, which they resolve to abide by.
   Observe,

   1. Their gracious and generous contempt of death, and the noble
   negligence with which they look upon the dilemma that they are put to:
   O Nebuchadnezzar! we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
   They do not in sullenness deny him an answer, nor stand mute; but they
   tell him that they are in no care about it. There needs not an answer
   (so some read it); they are resolved not to comply, and the king is
   resolved they shall die if they do not; the matter therefore is
   determined, and why should it be disputed? But it is better read, "We
   want not an answer for thee, nor have it to seek, but come prepared."
   (1.) They needed no time to deliberate concerning the matter of their
   answer; for they did not in the least hesitate whether they should
   comply or no. It was a matter of life and death, and one would think
   they might have considered awhile before they had resolved; life is
   desirable, and death is dreadful. But when the sin and duty that were
   in the case were immediately determined by the letter of the second
   commandment, and no room was left to question what was right, the life
   and death that were in the case were not to be considered. Note, Those
   that would avoid sin must not parley with temptation. When that which
   we are allured or affrighted to is manifestly evil the motion is rather
   to be rejected with indignation and abhorrence than reasoned with;
   stand not to pause about it, but say, as Christ has taught us, Get thee
   behind me, Satan. (2.) They needed no time to contrive how they should
   word it. While they were advocates for God, and were called out to
   witness in his cause, they doubted not but it should be given them in
   that same hour what they should speak, Matt. x. 19. They were not
   contriving an evasive answer, when a direct answer was expected from
   them; no, nor would they seem to court the king not to insist upon it.
   Here is nothing in their answer that looks like compliment; they begin
   not, as their accusers did, with, O king! live for ever, no artful
   insinuation, ad captandam benevolentiam--to put him into a good humour,
   but every thing that is plain and downright: O Nebuchadnezzar! we are
   not careful to answer thee. Note, Those that make their duty their main
   care need not be careful concerning the event.

   2. Their believing confidence in God and their dependence upon him, v.
   17. It was this that enabled them to look with so much contempt upon
   death, death in pomp, death in all its terrors: they trusted in the
   living God, and by that faith chose rather to suffer than to sin; they
   therefore feared not the wrath of the king, but endured, because by
   faith they had an eye to him that is invisible (Heb. xi. 25, 27): "If
   it be so, if we are brought to this strait, if we must be thrown into
   the fiery furnace unless we serve thy gods, know then," (1.) "That
   though we worship not thy gods yet we are not atheists; there is a God
   whom we can call ours, to whom we faithfully adhere." (2.) "That we
   serve this God; we have devoted ourselves to his honour; we employ
   ourselves in his work, and depend upon him to protect us, provide for
   us, and reward us." (3.) "That we are well assured that this God is
   able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; whether he will or
   no, we are sure that he can either prevent our being cast into the
   furnace or rescue us out of it." Note, The faithful servants of God
   will find him a Master able to bear them out in his service, and to
   control and overrule all the powers that are armed against them. Lord,
   if thou wilt, thou canst. (4.) "That we have reason to hope he will
   deliver us," partly because, in such a vast appearance of idolaters, it
   would be very much for the honour of his great name to deliver them,
   and partly because Nebuchadnezzar had defied him to do it--Who is that
   God that shall deliver you? God sometimes appears wonderfully for the
   silencing of the blasphemies of the enemy, as well as for the answering
   of the prayers of his people, Ps. lxxiv. 18-22; Deut. xxxii. 27. "But,
   if he do not deliver us from the fiery furnace, he will deliver us out
   of thy hand." Nebuchadnezzar can but torment and kill the body, and
   after that, there is no more that he can do; then they are got out of
   his reach, delivered out of his hand. Note, Good thoughts of God, and a
   full assurance that he is with us while we are with him, will help very
   much to carry us through sufferings; and, if he be for us, we need not
   fear what man can do unto us; let him do his worst. God will deliver us
   either from death or in death.

   3. Their firm resolution to adhere to their principles, whatever might
   be the consequence (v. 18): "But, if not, though God should not think
   fit to deliver us from the fiery furnace (which yet we know he can do),
   if he should suffer us to fall into thy hand, and fall by thy hand, yet
   be it known unto thee, O king! we will not serve these gods, though
   they are thy gods, nor worship this golden image, though thou thyself
   hast set it up." They are neither ashamed nor afraid to own their
   religion, and tell the king to his face that they do not fear him, they
   will not yield to him; had they consulted with flesh and blood, much
   might have been said to bring them to a compliance, especially when
   there was no other way of avoiding death, so great a death. (1.) They
   were not required to abjure their own God, or to renounce his worship,
   no, nor by any verbal profession or declaration to own this golden
   image to be a god, but only to bow down before it, which they might do
   with a secret reserve of their hearts for the God of Israel, inwardly
   detesting this idolatry, as Naaman bowed in the house of Rimmon. (2.)
   They were not to fall into a course of idolatry; it was but one single
   act that was required of them, which would be done in a minute, and the
   danger was over, and they might afterwards declare their sorrow for it.
   (3.) The king that commanded it had an absolute power; they were under
   it, not only as subjects, but as captives; and, if they did it, it was
   purely by coercion and duress, which would serve to excuse them. (4.)
   He had been their benefactor, had educated and preferred them, and in
   gratitude to him they ought to go as far as they could, though it were
   to strain a point, a point of conscience. (5.) They were now driven
   into a strange country, and to those that were so driven out it was, in
   effect, said, Go, and serve other gods, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. It was taken
   for granted that in their disposition they would serve other gods, and
   it was made a part of the judgment, Deut. iv. 28. They might be excused
   if they should go down the stream, when it is so strong. (6.) Did not
   their kings, and their princes, and their fathers, yea, and their
   priests too, set up idols even in God's temple, and worship them there,
   and not only bow down to them, but erect altars, burn incense, and
   offer sacrifices, even their own children, to them? Did not all the ten
   tribes, for many ages, worship gods of gold at Dan and Bethel? And
   shall they be more precise than their fathers? Communis error facit
   jus--What all do must be right. (7.) If they should comply, they would
   save their lives and keep their places, and so be in a capacity to do a
   great deal of service to their brethren in Babylon, and to do it long;
   for they were young men, and rising men. But there is enough in that
   one word of God wherewith to answer and silence these and many more
   such like carnal reasonings: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to any
   images, nor worship them. They know they must obey God rather than man;
   they must rather suffer than sin, and must not do evil that good may
   come. And therefore none of these things move them; they are resolved
   rather to die in their integrity than live in their iniquity. While
   their brethren, who yet remained in their own land, were worshipping
   images by choice, they in Babylon would not be brought to it by
   constraint, but, as if they were good by antiperistasis, were most
   zealous against idolatry in an idolatrous country. And truly, all
   things considered, the saving of them from this sinful compliance was
   as great a miracle in the kingdom of grace as the saving of them out of
   the fiery furnace was in the kingdom of nature. These were those who
   formerly resolved not to defile themselves with the king's meat, and
   now they as bravely resolve not to defile themselves with his gods.
   Note, A stedfast self-denying adherence to God and duty in less
   instances will qualify and prepare us for the like in greater. And in
   this we must be resolute, never, under any pretence whatsoever, to
   worship images, or to say "A confederacy" with those that do so.

The Three Hebrews in the Furnace; Deliverance from the Furnace. (b. c. 587.)

   19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was
   changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake,
   and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more
   than it was wont to be heated.   20 And he commanded the most mighty
   men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and
   to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.   21 Then these men were
   bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other
   garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
   22 Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace
   exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up
   Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.   23 And these three men, Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning
   fiery furnace.   24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose
   up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast
   three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto
   the king, True, O king.   25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men
   loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the
   form of the fourth is like the Son of God.   26 Then Nebuchadnezzar
   came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and
   said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high
   God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
   came forth of the midst of the fire.   27 And the princes, governors,
   and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw
   these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of
   their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of
   fire had passed on them.

   In these verses we have,

   I. The casting of these three faithful servants of God into the fiery
   furnace. Nebuchadnezzar had himself known and owned so much of the true
   God that, one would have thought, though his pride and vanity induced
   him to make this golden image, and set it up to be worshipped, yet what
   these young men now said (whom he had formerly found to be wiser than
   all his wise men) would revive his convictions, and at least engage him
   to excuse them; but it proved quite otherwise. 1. Instead of being
   convinced by what they said, he was exasperated, and made more
   outrageous, v. 19. It made him full of fury, and the form of his visage
   was changed against these men. Note, Brutish passions the more they are
   indulged the more violent they grow, and even change the countenance,
   to the great reproach of the wisdom and reason of a man.
   Nebuchadnezzar, in this heat, exchanged the awful majesty of a prince
   upon his throne, or a judge upon the bench, for the frightful fury of a
   wild bull in a net. Would men in a passion but view their faces in a
   glass, they would blush at their own folly and turn all their
   displeasure against themselves. 2. Instead of mitigating their
   punishment, in consideration of their quality and the posts of honour
   they were in, he ordered it to be heightened, that they should heat the
   furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated for other
   malefactors, that is, that they should put seven times more fuel to it,
   which, though it would not make their death more grievous, but rather
   dispatch them sooner, was designed to signify that the king looked upon
   their crime as seven times more heinous than the crimes of others, and
   so made their death more ignominious. But God brought glory to himself
   out of this foolish instance of the tyrant's rage; for, though it would
   not have made their death the more grievous, yet it did make their
   deliverance much the more illustrious. 3. He ordered them to be bound
   in their clothes, and cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace,
   which was done accordingly, v. 20, 21. They were bound, that they might
   not struggle, or make any resistance, were bound in their clothes, for
   haste, or that they might be consumed the more slowly and gradually.
   But God's providence ordered it for the increase of the miracle, in
   that their clothes were not so much as singed. They were bound in their
   coats or mantles, their hosen or breeches, and their hats or turbans,
   as if, in detestation of their crime, they would have their clothes to
   be burnt with them. What a terrible death was this--to be cast bound
   into the midst of a burning fiery furnace! v. 23. It makes one's flesh
   tremble to think of it, and horror to take hold on one. It is amazing
   that the tyrant was so hard-hearted as to inflict such a punishment,
   and that the confessors were so stout-hearted as to submit to it rather
   than sin against God. But what is this to the second death, to that
   furnace into which the tares shall be cast in bundles, to that lake
   which burns eternally with fire and brimstone? Let Nebuchadnezzar heat
   his furnace as hot as he can, a few minutes will finish the torment of
   those who are cast into it; but hell-fire tortures and does not kill.
   The pain of damned sinners is more exquisite, and the smoke of their
   torment ascends for ever and ever, and those have no rest, no
   intermission, no cessation of their pains, who have worshipped the
   beast and his image (Rev. xiv. 10, 11), whereas their pain would be
   soon over that were cast into this furnace for not worshipping this
   Babylonian beast and his image. 4. It was a remarkable providence that
   the men, the mighty men, that bound them, and threw them into the
   furnace, were themselves consumed or suffocated by the flame, v. 22.
   The king's commandment was urgent, that they should dispatch them
   quickly, and be sure to do it effectually; and therefore they resolved
   to go to the very mouth of the furnace, that they might throw them into
   the midst of it, but they were in such haste that they would not take
   time to arm themselves accordingly. The apocryphal additions to Daniel
   say that the flame ascended forty-nine cubits above the mouth of the
   furnace. Probably God ordered it so that the wind blew it directly upon
   them with such violence that it smothered them. God did thus
   immediately plead the cause of his injured servants, and take vengeance
   for them on their persecutors, whom he punished, not only in the very
   act of their sin, but by it. But these men were only the instruments of
   cruelty; he that bade them do it had the greater sin; yet they suffered
   justly for executing an unjust decree, and it is very probable that
   they did it with pleasure and were glad to be so employed.
   Nebuchadnezzar himself was reserved for a further reckoning. There is a
   day coming when proud tyrants will be punished, not only for the
   cruelties they have been guilty of, but for employing those about them
   in their cruelties, and so exposing them to the judgments of God.

   II. The deliverance of these three faithful servants of God out of the
   furnace. When they were cast bound into the midst of that devouring
   fire we might well conclude that we should hear no more of them, that
   their very bones would be calcined; but, to our amazement, we here find
   that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are yet alive.

   1. Nebuchadnezzar finds them walking in the fire. He was astonished,
   and rose up in haste, v. 24. Perhaps the slaying of the men that
   executed his sentence was that which astonished him, as well it might,
   for he had reason to think his own turn would be next; or it was some
   unaccountable impression upon his own mind that astonished him, and
   made him rise up in haste, and go to the furnace, to see what had
   become of those he had cast into it. Note, God can strike those with
   astonishment whose hearts are most hardened both against him and
   against his people. He that made the soul can make his sword to
   approach to it, even to that of the greatest tyrant. In his
   astonishment he calls his counsellors about him, and appeals to them.
   Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? It seems, it was done by
   order, not only of the king, but of the council. They durst not but
   concur with him, which he forced them to do, that they might share with
   him in the guilt and odium? "True, O king!" say they; "we did order
   such an execution to be done and it was done." "But now," says the
   king, "I have been looking into the furnace, and I see four men, loose,
   walking in the midst of the fire," v. 25. (1.) They were loosed from
   their bonds. The fire that did not so much as singe their clothes burnt
   the cords wherewith they were bound, and set them at liberty; thus
   God's people have their hearts enlarged, through the grace of God, by
   those very troubles with which their enemies designed to straiten and
   hamper them. (2.) They had no hurt, made no complaint, felt no pain or
   uneasiness in the least; the flame did not scorch them; the smoke did
   not stifle them; they were alive and as well as ever in the midst of
   the flames. See how God of nature can, when he pleases, control the
   powers of nature, to make them serve his purposes. Now was fulfilled in
   the letter gracious promise (Isa. xliii. 2), When thou walkest through
   the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon
   thee. By faith they quench the violence of the fire, quench the fiery
   darts of the wicked. (3.) They walked in the midst of the fire. The
   furnace was large, so that they had room to walk; they were unhurt, so
   that they were able to walk; their minds were easy, so that they were
   disposed to walk, as in a paradise or garden of pleasure. Can a man
   walk upon hot coals and his feet not be burnt? Prov. vi. 28. Yes, they
   did it with as much pleasure as the king of Tyrus walked up and down in
   the midst of his stones of fire, his precious stones that sparkled as
   fire, Ezek. xxviii. 14. They were not striving to get out, finding
   themselves unhurt; but, leaving it to that God who preserved them in
   the fire to bring them out of it, they walked up and down in the midst
   of it unconcerned. One of the apocryphal writings relates at large the
   prayer which Azariah, one of the three, prayed in the fire (wherein he
   laments the calamities and iniquities of Israel, and entreats God's
   favour to his people), and the song of praise which they all three sang
   in the midst of the flames, in both which there are remarkable strains
   of devotion; but we have reason to think, with Grotius, that they were
   composed by some Jew of a later age, not as what were used, but only as
   what might have been used, on this occasion, and therefore we justly
   reject them as no part of holy writ. (4.) There was a fourth seen with
   them in the fire, whose form, in Nebuchadnezzar's judgment, was like
   the Son of God; he appeared as a divine person, a messenger from
   heaven, not as a servant, but as a son. Like an angel (so some); and
   angels are called sons of God, Job xxxviii. 7. In the apocryphal
   narrative of this story it is said, The angel of the Lord came down
   into the furnace; and Nebuchadnezzar here says (v. 28), God sent his
   angel and delivered them; and it was an angel that shut the lions'
   mouths when Daniel was in the den, ch. vi. 22. But some think it was
   the eternal Son of God, the angel of the covenant, and not a created
   angel. He appeared often in our nature before he assumed it in his
   incarnation, and never more seasonable, nor to give a more proper
   indication and presage of his great errand into the world in the
   fulness of time, than now, when, to deliver his chosen out of the fire,
   he came and walked with them in the fire. Note, Those that suffer for
   Christ have his gracious presence with them in their sufferings, even
   in the fiery furnace, even in the valley of the shadow of death, and
   therefore even there they need fear no evil. Hereby Christ showed that
   what is done against his people he takes as done against himself;
   whoever throws them into the furnace does, in effect, throw him in. I
   am Jesus, whom thou persecutest, Isa. lxiii. 9.

   2. Nebuchadnezzar calls them out of the furnace (v. 26): He comes near
   to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and bids them come forth and
   come hither. Come forth, come (so some read it); he speaks with a great
   deal of tenderness and concern, and stands ready to lend them his hand
   and help them out. He is convinced by their miraculous preservation
   that he did evil in casting them into the furnace; and therefore he
   does not thrust them out privily; no verily, but he will come himself
   and fetch them out, Acts xvi. 37. Observe the respectful title that he
   gives them. When he was in the heat of his fury and rage against them
   it is probable that he called them rebels, and traitors, and all the
   ill names he could invent; but now he owns them for the servants of the
   most high God, a God who now appears able to deliver them out of his
   hand. Note, Sooner or later, God will convince the proudest of men that
   he is the most high God, and above them, and too hard for them, even in
   those things wherein they deal proudly and presumptuously, Exod. xviii.
   11. He will likewise let them know are who his servants, and that he
   owns them and will stand by them. Elijah prayed (1 Kings xviii. 36),
   Let it be known that thou art God and that I am thy servant.
   Nebuchadnezzar now embraces those whom he had abandoned, and is very
   officious about them, now that he perceives them to be the favourites
   of Heaven. Note, What persecutors have done against God's servants,
   when God opens their eyes, they must as far as they can undo again. How
   the fourth, whose form was like the Son of God, withdrew, and whether
   he vanished away or visibly ascended, we are not told, but of the other
   three we are informed, (1.) That they came forth out of the midst of
   the fire, as Abraham their father out of Ur (that is, the fire) of the
   Chaldees, into which, says this tradition of the Jews, he was cast, for
   refusing to worship idols, and out of which he was delivered, as those
   his three children were. When they had their discharge they did not
   tempt God by staying in any longer, but came forth as brands out of the
   burning. (2.) That it was made to appear, to the full satisfaction of
   all the amazed spectators, that they had not received the least damage
   by the fire, v. 27. All the great men came together to view them, and
   found that there was not so much as a hair of their head singed. Here
   that was true in the letter which our Saviour spoke figuratively, for
   an assurance to his suffering servants that they should sustain no real
   damage (Luke xxi. 18), There shall not a hair of your head perish.
   Their clothes did not so much as change colour, nor smell of fire, much
   less were their bodies in the least scorched or blistered; no, the fire
   had no power on them. The Chaldeans worshipped the fire, as a sort of
   image of the sun, so that, in restraining the fire now, God put
   contempt, not only upon their king, but upon their god too, and showed
   that his voice divides the flames of fire as well as the floods of
   water (Ps. xxix. 7), when he pleases to make a way for his people
   through the midst of it. It is our God only that is the consuming fire
   (Heb. xii. 29); other fire, if he but speak the word, shall not
   consume.

Nebuchadnezzar Gives Glory to God; Nebuchadnezzar Honours God. (b. c. 587.)

   28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his
   servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and
   yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god,
   except their own God.   29 Therefore I make a decree, That every
   people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the
   God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and
   their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God
   that can deliver after this sort.   30 Then the king promoted Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.

   The strict observations that were made, super visum corporis--on
   inspecting their bodies, by the princes and governors, and all the
   great men who were present upon this public occasion, and who could not
   be supposed partial in favour of the confessors, contributed much to
   the clearing of this miracle and the magnifying of the power and grace
   of God in it. That indeed a notable miracle has been done is manifest,
   and we cannot deny it, Acts iv. 16. Let us now see what effect it had
   upon Nebuchadnezzar.

   I. He gives glory to the God of Israel as a God able and ready to
   protect his worshippers (v. 28): "Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abednego. Let him have the honour both of the faithful
   allegiance which his subjects bear to him and the powerful protection
   he grants to them, neither of which can be paralleled by any other
   nation and their gods." The king does himself acknowledge and adore
   him, and thinks it is fit that he should be acknowledged and adored by
   all. Blessed be thee God of Shadrach. Note, God can extort confessions
   of his blessedness even from those that have been ready to curse him to
   his face. 1. He gives him the glory of his power, that he was able to
   protect his worshippers against the most mighty and malign ant enemies:
   There is no other God that can deliver after this sort (v. 29), no, not
   this golden image which he had set up. For this reason there was no
   other god that obliged his worshippers to cleave to him only, and to
   suffer death rather than worship any other, as the God of Israel did,
   for they could not engage to bear them out in so doing, as he could. If
   God can work such deliverance as no other can, he may demand such
   obedience as no other may. 2. He gives him the glory of his goodness,
   that he was ready to do it (v. 28): He has sent his angel and delivered
   his servants. Bel could not save his worshippers from being burnt at
   the mouth of the furnace, but the God of Israel saved his from being
   burnt when they were cast into the midst of the furnace because they
   refused to worship any other god. By this Nebuchadnezzar was plainly
   given to understand that all the great success which he had had, and
   should yet have, against the people of Israel, which he gloried in, as
   he had therein overpowered the God of Israel, was owing purely to their
   sin: if the body of that nation had faithfully adhered to their own God
   and the worship of him only, as these three men did, they would all
   have been delivered out of his hand as these three men were. And this
   was a necessary instruction for him at this time.

   II. He applauds the constancy of these three men in their religion, and
   describes it to their honour, v. 28. Though he is not himself persuaded
   to own their God for his and to worship him, because, if he do so, he
   knows he must worship him only and renounce all others, and he calls
   him the God of Shadrach, not my God, yet he commends them for cleaving
   to him, and not serving nor worshipping any other God but their own.
   Note, There are many who are not religious themselves, and yet will own
   that those are clearly in the right that are religious and are stedfast
   in their religion. Though they are not themselves persuaded to close
   with it, they will commend those who, having closed with it, cleave to
   it. If men have given up their names to that God who will alone be
   served, let them keep to their principles, and serve him only, whatever
   it cost them. Such a constancy in the true religion will turn to men's
   praise, even among those that are without, when unsteadiness,
   treachery, and double dealing, are what all men will cry shame on. He
   commends them that they did this, 1. With a generous contempt of their
   lives, which they valued not, in comparison with the favour of God and
   the testimony of a good conscience. They yielded their own bodies to be
   cast into the fiery furnace rather than they would not only not forsake
   their God, but not affront him, by once paying that homage to any other
   which is due to him alone. Note, Those shall have their praise, if not
   of men, yet of God, who prefer their souls before their bodies, and
   will rather lose their lives than forsake their God. Those know not the
   worth and value of religion who do not think it worth suffering for. 2.
   They did it with a glorious contradiction to their prince: They changed
   the king's word, that is, they were contrary to it, and thereby put
   contempt upon both his precepts and threatenings, and made him repent
   and revoke both. Note, Even kings themselves must own that, when their
   commands are contrary to the commands of God, he is to be obeyed and
   not they. (3.) They did it with a gracious confidence in their God.
   They trusted in him that he would stand by them in what they did, that
   he would either bring them out of the fiery furnace back to their place
   on earth or lead them through the fiery furnace forward to their place
   in heaven; and in this confidence they became fearless of the king's
   wrath and regardless of their own lives. Note, A stedfast faith in God
   will produce a stedfast faithfulness to God. Now this honourable
   testimony, thus publicly borne by the king himself to these servants of
   God, we may well think, would have a good influence upon the rest of
   the Jews that were, or should be, captives in Babylon. Their neighbours
   could not with any confidence urge them to do that, nor could they for
   shame do that, which their brethren were so highly applauded by the
   king himself for not doing. Nay, and what God did for these his
   servants would help not only to keep the Jews close to their religion
   while they were in captivity, but to cure them of their inclination to
   idolatry, for which end they were sent into captivity; and, when it had
   had that blessed effect upon them, they might be assured that God would
   deliver them out of that furnace, as now he delivered their brethren
   out of this.

   III. He issues a royal edict, strictly forbidding any to speak evil of
   the God of Israel, v. 29. We have reason to think that both the sins
   and the troubles of Israel had given great occasion, though no just
   occasion, to the Chaldeans to blaspheme the God of Israel, and, it is
   likely, Nebuchadnezzar himself had encouraged it; but now, though he is
   no true convert, nor is wrought upon to worship him, yet he resolves
   never to speak ill of him again, nor to suffer others to do so:
   "Whoever shall speak any thing amiss, any error (so some), or rather
   any reproach or blasphemy, whoever shall speak with contempt of the God
   of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they shall be counted the worst of
   malefactors, and dealt with accordingly, they shall be cut in pieces,
   as Agag was by the sword of Samuel, and their houses shall be
   demolished and made a dunghill." The miracle now wrought by the power
   of this God in defence of his worshippers, publicly in the sight of the
   thousands of Babylon, was a sufficient justification of this edict. And
   it would contribute much to the ease of the Jews in their captivity to
   be by this law screened from the fiery darts of reproach and blasphemy,
   with which otherwise they would have been continually annoyed. Note, It
   is a great mercy to the church, and a good point gained, when its
   enemies though they have not their hearts turned, yet have their mouths
   stopped and their tongues tied. If a heathen prince laid such a
   restraint upon the proud lips of blasphemers, much more should
   Christian princes do it; nay, in this thing, one would think that men
   should be a law to themselves, and that those who have so little love
   to God that they care not to speak well of him, yet could never find in
   their hearts, for we are sure they could never find cause, to speak any
   thing amiss of him.

   IV. He not only reverses the attainder of these three men, but restores
   them to their places in the government (makes them to prosper, so the
   word is), and prefers them to greater and more advantageous trusts than
   they had been in before: He promoted them in the province of Babylon,
   which was much to their honour and the comfort of their brethren in
   captivity there. Note, It is the wisdom of princes to prefer and employ
   men of stedfastness in religion; for those are most likely to be
   faithful to them who are faithful to God, and it is likely to be well
   with them when God's favourites are made theirs.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. IV.

   The penman of this chapter is Nebuchadnezzar himself: the story here
   recorded concerning him is given us in his own words, as he himself
   drew it up and published it; but Daniel, a prophet, by inspiration,
   inserts it in his history, and so it has become a part of sacred writ
   and a very memorable part. Nebuchadnezzar was as daring a rival with
   God Almighty for the sovereignty as perhaps any mortal man ever was;
   but here he fairly owns himself conquered, and gives it under his hand
   that the God of Israel is above him. Here is, I. The preface to his
   narrative, wherein he acknowledges God's dominion over him, ver. 1-3.
   II. The narrative itself, wherein he relates, 1. His dream, which
   puzzled the magicians, ver. 1-18. 2. The interpretation of his dream by
   Daniel, who showed him that it was a prognostication of his own fall,
   advising him therefore to repent and reform, ver. 19-27. 3. The
   accomplishment of it in his running stark mad for seven years, and then
   recovering the use of his reason again, ver. 28-36. 4. The conclusion
   of the narrative, with a humble acknowledgment and adoration of God as
   Lord of all, ver. 37. This was extorted from him by the overruling
   power of that God who has all men's hearts in his hand, and stands upon
   record a lasting proof of God's supremacy, a monument of his glory, a
   trophy of his victory, and a warning to all not to think of prospering
   while they lift up or harden their hearts against God.

Nebuchadnezzar Magnifies God. (b. c. 570.)

   1 Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages,
   that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.   2 I
   thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath
   wrought toward me.   3 How great are his signs! and how mighty are his
   wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is
   from generation to generation.

   Here is, I. Something of form, which was usual in writs, proclamations,
   or circular letters, issued by the king, v. 1. The royal style which
   Nebuchadnezzar makes use of has nothing in it of pomp or fancy, but is
   plain, short, and unaffected--Nebuchadnezzar the king. If at other
   times he made use of great swelling words of vanity in his title, how
   he laid them all aside; for he was old, he had lately recovered from a
   distraction which had humbled and mortified him, and was now in the
   actual contemplation of God's greatness and sovereignty. The
   declaration is directed not only to his own subjects, but to all to
   whom this present writing shall come--to all people, nations, and
   languages, that dwell in all the earth. He is not only willing that
   they should all hear of it, though it carry the account if his own
   infamy (which perhaps none durst have published if he had not done it
   himself, and therefore Daniel published the original paper), but he
   strictly charges and commands all manner of persons to take notice of
   it; for all are concerned, and it may be profitable to all. He salutes
   those to whom he writes, in the usual form, Peace be multiplied unto
   you. Note, It becomes kings with their commands to disperse their good
   wishes, and, as fathers of their country, to bless their subjects. So
   the common form with us. We send greeting, Omnibus quibus hæ præsentes
   literæ pervenerint, salutem--To all to whom these presents shall come,
   health; and sometimes Salutem sempiternam--Health and salvation
   everlasting.

   II. Something of substance and matter. He writes this, 1. To acquaint
   others with the providences of God that had related to him (v. 2): I
   thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God (so he
   calls the true God) has wrought towards me. He thought it seemly (so
   the word is), that it was his duty, and did well become him, that it
   was a debt he owed to God and the world, now that he had recovered from
   his distraction, to relate to distant places, and record for future
   ages, how justly God had humbled him and how graciously he had at
   length restored him. All the nations, no doubt, had heard what befell
   Nebuchadnezzar, and rang of it; but he thought it fit that they should
   have a distinct account of it from himself, that they might know the
   hand of God in it, and what impressions were made upon his own spirit
   by it, and might speak of it not as a matter of news, but as a matter
   of religion. The events concerning him were not only wonders to be
   admired, but signs to be instructed by, signifying to the world that
   Jehovah is greater than all gods. Note, We ought to show to others
   God's dealings with us, both the rebukes we have been under and the
   favours we have received; and though the account hereof may reflect
   disgrace upon ourselves, as this did upon Nebuchadnezzar, yet we must
   not conceal it, as long as it may redound to the glory of God. Many
   will be forward to tell what God has done for their souls, because that
   turns to their own praise, who care not for telling what God has done
   against them, and how they deserved it; whereas we ought to give glory
   to God, not only by praising him for his mercies, but by confessing our
   sins, accepting the punishment of our iniquity, and in both taking
   shame to ourselves, as this mighty monarch here does. 2. To show how
   much he was himself affected with them and convinced by them, v. 3. We
   should always speak of the word and works of God with concern and
   seriousness and show ourselves affected with those great things of God
   which we desire others should take notice of. (1.) He admires God's
   doings. He speaks of them as one amazed: How great are his signs, and
   how mighty are his wonders! Nebuchadnezzar was now old, had reigned
   above forty years, and had seen as much of the world and the
   revolutions of it as most men ever did; and yet never till now, when
   himself was nearly touched, was he brought to admire surprising events
   as God's signs and his wonders. Now, How great, how mighty, are they!
   Note, The more we see events to be the Lord's doing, and see in them
   the product of a divine power and the conduct of a divine wisdom, the
   more marvellous they will appear in our eyes, Ps. cxviii. 23; lxvi. 2.
   (2.) He thence infers God's dominion. This is that which he is at
   length brought to subscribe to: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom;
   and not like his own kingdom, which he saw, and long since foresaw, in
   a dream, hastening towards a period. He now owns that there is a God
   that governs the world and has a universal, incontestable, absolute
   dominion in and over all the affairs of the children of men. And it is
   the glory of this kingdom that it is everlasting. Other reigns are
   confined to one generation, and other dynasties to a few generations,
   but God's dominion is from generation to generation. It should seem,
   Nebuchadnezzar here refers to what Daniel had foretold of a kingdom
   which the God of heaven would set up, that should never be destroyed
   (ch. ii. 44), which, though meant of the kingdom of the Messiah, he
   understood of the providential kingdom. Thus we may make a profitable
   practical use and application of those prophetical scriptures which yet
   we do not fully, and perhaps not rightly, comprehend the meaning of.

Nebuchadnezzar's Second Dream; Nebuchadnezzar Relates His Dream. (b. c. 570.)

   4 I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my
   palace:   5 I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon
   my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.   6 Therefore made I a
   decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they
   might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.   7 Then came
   in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers:
   and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me
   the interpretation thereof.   8 But at the last Daniel came in before
   me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and
   in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the
   dream, saying,   9 O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I
   know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret
   troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and
   the interpretation thereof.   10 Thus were the visions of mine head in
   my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the
   height thereof was great.   11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the
   height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of
   all the earth:   12 The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof
   much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow
   under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and
   all flesh was fed of it.   13 I saw in the visions of my head upon my
   bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven;   14
   He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his
   branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts
   get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches:   15
   Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a
   band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be
   wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in
   the grass of the earth:   16 Let his heart be changed from man's, and
   let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over
   him.   17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand
   by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know
   that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
   whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.   18 This
   dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar,
   declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my
   kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation: but thou
   art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

   Nebuchadnezzar, before he relates the judgments of God that had been
   wrought upon him for his pride, gives an account of the fair warning he
   had of them before they came, a due regard to which might have
   prevented them. But he was told of them, and of the issue of them,
   before they came to pass, that, when they did come to pass, by
   comparing them with the prediction of them, he might see, and say, that
   they were the Lord's doing, and might be brought to believe that there
   is a divine revelation in the world, as well as a divine Providence,
   and that the works of God agree with his word.

   Now, in the account he here gives of his dream, by which he had notice
   of what was coming, we may observe,

   I. The time when this alarm was given to him (v. 4); it was when he was
   at rest in his house, and flourishing in his palace. He had lately
   conquered Egypt, and with it completed his victories, and ended his
   wars, and made himself monarch of all those parts of the world, which
   was about the thirty-fourth or thirty-fifth year of his reign, Ezek.
   xxix. 17. Then he had this dream, which was accomplished about a year
   after. Seven years his distraction continued, upon his recovery from
   which he penned this declaration, lived about two years after, and died
   in his forty-fifth year. He had undergone a long fatigue in his wars,
   had made many a tedious and dangerous campaign in the field; but now at
   length he is at rest in his house, and there is no adversary, nor any
   evil occurrent. Note, God can reach the greatest of men with his
   terrors even when they are most secure, and think themselves at rest
   and flourishing.

   II. The impression it made upon him (v. 5): I saw a dream which made me
   afraid. One would think no little thing would frighten him that had
   been a man of war from his youth, and used to look the perils of war in
   the face without change of countenance; yet, when God pleases, a dream
   strikes a terror upon him. His bed, no doubt, was soft, and easy, and
   well-guarded, and yet his own thoughts upon his bed made him uneasy,
   and the visions of his head, the creatures of his own imagination,
   troubled him. Note, God can make the greatest of men uneasy even when
   they say to their souls, Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry; he
   can make those that have been the troublers of the world, and have
   tormented thousands, to be their own troublers, their own tormentors,
   and those that have been the terror of the mighty a terror to
   themselves. By the consternation which this dream put him into, and the
   impression it made upon him, he perceived it to be, not an ordinary
   dream, but sent of God on a special errand.

   III. His consulting, in vain, with the magicians and astrologers
   concerning the meaning of it. He had not now forgotten the dream, as
   before, ch. ii. He had it ready enough, but he wanted to know the
   interpretation of it and what was prefigured by it, v. 6. Orders are
   immediately given to summon all the wise men of Babylon that were such
   fools as to pretend by magic, divination, inspecting the entrails of
   beasts, or observations of the stars, to predict things to come: they
   must all come together, to see if any, or all of them in consultation,
   could interpret the king's dream. It is probable that these people had
   sometimes, in a like case, given the king some sort of satisfaction,
   and by the rules of their art had answered the king's queries so as to
   please him, whether it were right or wrong, hit or missed; but now his
   expectation from them was disappointed: He told them the dream (v. 7),
   but they could not tell him the interpretation of it, though they had
   boasted, with great assurance (ch. ii. 4, 7), that, if they had but the
   dream told them, they would without fail interpret it. But the key of
   this dream was in a sacred prophecy (Ezek. xxxi. 3, &c.), where the
   Assyrian is compared, as Nebuchadnezzar here, to a tree cut down, for
   his pride; and that was a book they had not studied, nor acquainted
   themselves with, else they might have been let into the mystery of this
   dream. Providence ordered it so that they should be first puzzled with
   it, that Daniel's interpreting it afterwards might redound to the glory
   of the God of Daniel. Now was fulfilled what Isaiah foretold (ch.
   xlvii. 12, 13), that when the ruin of Babylon was drawing on her
   enchantments and sorceries, her astrologers and star-gazers, should not
   be able to do her any service.

   IV. The court he made to Daniel, to engage him to expound his dream to
   him: At the last Daniel came in. v. 8. Either he declined associating
   with the rest because of their badness, or they declined his company
   because of his goodness; or perhaps the king would rather that his own
   magicians should have the honour of doing it if they could than that
   Daniel should have it; or Daniel, being governor of the wise men (ch.
   ii. 48), was, as is usual, last consulted. Many make God's word their
   last refuge, and never have recourse to it till they are driven off
   from all other succours. He compliments Daniel very highly, takes
   notice of the name which he had himself given him, in the choice of
   which he thinks he was very happy and that it was a good omen: "His
   name was Belteshazzar, from Bel, the name of my god." He applauds his
   rare endowments: He has the spirit of the holy gods, so he tells him to
   his face (v. 9), with which we may suppose that Daniel was so far from
   being puffed up that he was rather very much grieved to hear that which
   he had by gift from the God of Israel, the true and living God,
   ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar's god, a dunghill deity. Here is a strange
   medley in Nebuchadnezzar, but such as is commonly found in those that
   side with their corruptions against their convictions. 1. He retains
   the language and dialect of his idolatry, and therefore, it is to be
   feared, is no convert to the faith and worship of the living God. He is
   an idolater, and his speech betrayeth him. For he speaks of many gods,
   and is brought to acquiesce in one as sufficient, no, not in him who is
   all-sufficient. And some think, when he speaks of the spirit of the
   holy gods, that he supposes there are some evil malignant deities, whom
   men are concerned to worship, only to prevent their doing them a
   mischief, and some who are good beneficent deities, and that by the
   spirit of the latter Daniel was animated. He also owns that Bel was his
   god still, though he had once and again acknowledged the God of Israel
   to be Lord of all, ch. ii. 47; iii. 29. He also applauds Daniel, not as
   a servant of God, but as master of the magicians (v. 9), supposing his
   knowledge to differ from theirs, not in kind, but only in degree; and
   he consulted him not as a prophet, but as a celebrated magician, so
   endeavouring to save the credit of the art when those blundered and
   were nonplussed who were masters of the art. See how close his idolatry
   sat to him. He has got a notion of many gods, and has chosen Bel for
   his god, and he cannot persuade himself to quit either his notion or
   his choice, though the absurdity of both had been evidenced to him,
   more than once, beyond contradiction. He, like other heathens, would
   not change his gods, though they were no gods, Jer. ii. 11. Many
   persist in a false way only because they think they cannot in honour
   leave it. See how loose his convictions sat, and how easily he had
   dropped them. He once called the God of Israel a God of gods, ch. ii.
   47. Now he sets him upon a level with the rest of those whom he calls
   the holy gods. Note, If convictions be not speedily prosecuted, it is a
   thousand to one but in a little time they will be quite lost and
   forgotten. Nebuchadnezzar, not going forward with the acknowledgements
   he had been brought to make of the sovereignty of the true God, soon
   went backwards, and relapsed to the same veneration he had always had
   for his false gods. And yet, 2. He professes a great opinion of Daniel,
   whom he knows to be a servant of the true God, and of him only. He
   looked upon him as one that had such an insight, such a foresight, as
   none of his magicians had: I know that no secret troubles thee. Note,
   The spirit of prophecy quite outdoes the spirit of divination, even the
   enemies themselves being judges; for so it was adjudged here, upon a
   fair trial of skill.

   V. The particular account he gives him of his dream.

   1. He saw a stately flourishing tree, remarkable above all the trees of
   the wood. This tree was planted in the midst of the earth (v. 10),
   fitly representing him who reigned in Babylon, which was about the
   midst of the then known world. His dignity and eminency above all his
   neighbours were signified by the height of this tree, which was
   exceedingly great; it reached unto heaven. He over-topped those about
   him, and aimed to have divine honours given him; nay, he over-powered
   those about him, and the potent armies he had the command of, with
   which he carried all before him, are signified by the strength of this
   tree: it grew and was strong. And so much were Nebuchadnezzar and his
   growing greatness the talk of the nations, so much had they their eye
   upon him (some a jealous eye, all a wondering eye), that the sight of
   this tree is said to be to the end of all the earth. This tree had
   every thing in it that was pleasant to the eye and good for food (v.
   12); The leaves thereof were fair, denoting the pomp and splendour of
   Nebuchadnezzar's court, which was the wonder of strangers and the glory
   of his own subjects. Nor was this tree for sight and state only, but
   for use. (1.) For protection; the boughs of it were for shelter both to
   the beasts and to the fowls. Princes should be a screen to their
   subjects from the heat and from the storm, should expose themselves to
   secure them, and study how to make them safe and easy. If the bramble
   be promoted over the trees, he invites them to come and trust in his
   shadow, such as it is, Judg. ix. 15. It is protection that draws
   allegiance. The kings of the earth are to their subjects but as the
   shadow of a great tree; but Christ is to his subjects as the shadow of
   a great rock, Isa. xxxii. 2. Nay, because that, though strong, may be
   cold, they are said to be hidden under the shadow of his wings (Ps.
   xvii. 8), where they are not only safe, but warm. (2.) For provision,
   The Assyrian was compared to a cedar (Ezek. xxxi. 6), which affords
   shadow only; but this tree here had much fruit--in it was meat for all
   and all flesh was fed of it. This mighty monarch, it should seem by
   this, not only was great, but did good; he did not impoverish, but
   enrich his country, and by his power and interest abroad brought wealth
   and trade to it. Those that exercise authority would be called
   benefactors (Luke xxii. 25), and the most effectual course they can
   take to support their authority is to be really benefactors. And see
   what is the best that great men, with their wealth and power can attain
   to, and that is to have the honour of having many to live upon them and
   to be maintained by them; for, as goods are increased, those are
   increased that eat them.

   2. He heard the doom of this tree read, which he perfectly remembered,
   and related here, perhaps word for word as he heard it. The sentence
   was passed upon it by an angel, whom he saw come down from heaven, and
   heard proclaim this sentence aloud. This angel is here called a
   watcher, or watchman, not only because angels by their nature are
   spirits, and therefore neither slumber nor sleep, but because by their
   office they are ministering spirits, and attend continually to their
   ministrations, watching all opportunities of serving their great
   Master. They, as watchers, encamp round those that fear God, to deliver
   them, and bear them up in their hands. This angel was a messenger, or
   ambassador (so some read it), and a holy one. Holiness becomes God's
   house; therefore angels that attend and are employed by him are holy
   ones; they preserve the purity and rectitude of their nature, and are
   in every thing conformable to the divine will. Let us review the doom
   passed upon the tree.

   (1.) Orders are given that it be cut down (v. 14); now also the axe is
   laid to the root of this tree. Though it is ever so high, ever so
   strong, that cannot secure it when its day comes to fall; the beasts
   and fowls, that are sheltered in and under the boughs of it, are driven
   away and dispersed; the branches are cropped, the leaves shaken off,
   and the fruit scattered. Note, Worldly prosperity in its highest degree
   is a very uncertain thing; and it is no uncommon thing for those that
   have lived in the greatest pomp and power to be stripped of all that
   which they trusted to and gloried in. By the turns of providence, those
   who made a figure become captives, those who lived in plenty, and above
   what they had, are reduced to straits, and live far below what they
   had, and those perhaps are brought to be beholden to others who once
   had many depending upon them and making suit to them. But the trees of
   righteousness, that are planted in the house of the Lord and bring
   forth fruit to him, shall not be cut down, nor shall their leaf wither.

   (2.) Care is taken that the root be preserved (v. 15); "Leave the stump
   of it in the earth, exposed to all weathers. There let it lie neglected
   and buried in the grass. Let the beasts that formerly sheltered
   themselves under the boughs now repose themselves upon the stump; but
   that it may not be raked to pieces, nor trodden to dirt, and to show
   that it is yet reserved for better days, let it be hooped round with a
   band of iron and brass, to keep it firm." Note, God in judgment
   remembers mercy; and may yet have good things in store for those whose
   condition seems most forlorn. There is hope of a tree, if it be cut
   down, that it will sprout again, that through the scent of water it
   will bud, Job xiv. 7-9.

   (3.) The meaning of this is explained by the angel himself to
   Nebuchadnezzar, v. 16. Whoever is the person signified by this tree he
   is sentenced to be deposed from the honour, state, and dignity of a
   man, to be deprived of the use of his reason, and to be and live like a
   brute, till seven times pass over him. Let a beast's heart be given
   unto him. This is surely the saddest and sorest of all temporal
   judgments, worse a thousand times than death, and though, like it,
   least felt by those that lie under it, yet to be dreaded and deprecated
   more than any other. Nay, whatever outward affliction God is pleased to
   lay upon us, we have reason to bear it patiently, and to be thankful
   that he continues to us the use of our reason and the peace of our
   consciences. But those proud tyrants who set their heart as the heart
   of God (Ezek. xxvii. 2) may justly be deprived of the heart of man, and
   have a beast's heart given them.

   (4.) The truth of it is confirmed (v. 17); This matter is by the decree
   of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones. God has
   determined it, as a righteous Judge; he has signed this edict; pursuant
   to his eternal counsel, the decree has gone forth, And, [1.] The angels
   of heaven have subscribed to it, as attesting it, approving it, and
   applauding it. It is by the decree of the watchers; not that the great
   God needs the counsel or concurrence of the angels in any thing he
   determines or does, but, as he uses their ministration in executing his
   counsels, so he is sometimes represented, after the manner of men, as
   if he consulted them. Whom shall I send? Isa. vi. 8. Who shall persuade
   Ahab? 1 Kings xxii. 20. So it denotes the solemnity of this sentence.
   The king's breves, or short writs, pass, Teste me ipso--in my presence;
   but charters used to be signed, His testibus--In the presence of us
   whose names are under-written; such was Nebuchadnezzar's doom; it was
   by the decree of the watchers. [2.] The saints on earth petitioned for
   it, as well as the angels in heaven: The demand is by the word of the
   holy ones. God's suffering people, that had long groaned under the
   heavy yoke of Nebuchadnezzar's tyranny, cried to him for vengeance;
   they made the demand, and God gave this answer to it; for, when the
   oppressed cry to God, he will hear, Exod. xxii. 27. Sentence was
   passed, in Ahab's time, that there should be no more rain, at Elijah's
   word, when he made intercession against Israel, 1 Kings xvii. 1.

   (5.) The design of it is declared. Orders are given for the cutting
   down of this tree, to the intent that the living may know that the Most
   High rules. This judgment must be executed, to convince the unthinking,
   unbelieving, world, that verily there is a God that judges in the
   earth, a God that governs the world, that not only has a kingdom of his
   own in it, and administers the affairs of that kingdom, but rules also
   in the kingdom of men, in the dominion that one man has over another,
   and gives that to whomsoever he will; from him promotion comes, Ps.
   lxxv. 6, 7. He advances men to power and dominion that little expected
   it, and crosses the projects of the ambitious and aspiring. Sometimes
   he sets up the basest of men, and serves his own purposes by them. He
   sets up mean men, as David from the sheepfold; he raises the poor out
   of the dust, to set them among princes, Ps. cxiii. 7, 8. Nay, sometimes
   he sets up bad men, to be a scourge to a provoking people. Thus he can
   do, thus he may do, thus he often does, and gives not account of any of
   his matters. By humbling Nebuchadnezzar it was designed that the living
   should be made to know this. The dead know it, that have gone to the
   world of spirits, the world of retribution; they know that the Most
   High rules; but the living must be made to know it and lay it to heart,
   that they may make their peace with God before it be too late.

   Thus has Nebuchadnezzar fully and faithfully related his dream, what he
   saw and what he heard, and then demands of Daniel the interpretation of
   it (v. 18), for he found that no one else was able to interpret it, but
   was confident that he was: For the spirit of the holy gods is in thee,
   or of the Holy God, the proper title of the God of Israel. Much may be
   expected from those that have in them the Spirit of the Holy God.
   Whether Nebuchadnezzar had any jealousy that it was his own doom that
   was read by this dream does not appear; perhaps he was so vain and
   secure as to imagine that it was some other prince that was a rival
   with him, whose fall he had the pleasing prospect of given him in this
   dream; but, be it for him or against him, he is very solicitous to know
   the true meaning of it and depends upon Daniel to give it to him. Now,
   When God gives us general warnings of his judgments we should be
   desirous to understand his mind in them, to hear the Lord's voice
   crying in the city.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream Interpreted. (b. c. 570.)

   19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonied for one hour,
   and his thoughts troubled him. The king spake, and said, Belteshazzar,
   let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee.
   Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate
   thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.   20 The tree
   that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto
   the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;   21 Whose leaves
   were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all;
   under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the
   fowls of the heaven had their habitation:   22 It is thou, O king, that
   art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth
   unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.   23 And whereas
   the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from heaven, and
   saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the
   roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the
   tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven,
   and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times
   pass over him;   24 This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the
   decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:   25 That
   they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
   beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and
   they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass
   over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of
   men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.   26 And whereas they
   commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be
   sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do
   rule.   27 Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee,
   and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by
   showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy
   tranquillity.

   We have here the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream; and when
   once it is applied to himself, and it is declared that he is the tree
   in the dream (Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur--Change but the name,
   the fable speaks of thee), when once it is said, Thou art the man,
   there needs little more to be said for the explication of the dream.
   Out of his own mouth he is judged; so shall his doom be, he himself has
   decided it. The thing was so plain that Daniel, upon hearing the dream,
   was astonished for one hour, v. 19. He was struck with amazement and
   terror at so great a judgment coming upon so great a prince. His flesh
   trembled for fear of God. He was likewise struck with confusion when he
   found himself under a necessity of being the man that must bring to the
   king these heavy tidings, which, having received so many favours from
   the king, he had rather he should have heard from any one else; so far
   is he from desiring the woeful day that he dreads it, and the thoughts
   of it trouble him. Those that come after the ruined sinner are said to
   be astonished at his day, as those that went before, and saw it coming
   (as Daniel here), were affrighted, Job xviii. 20.

   I. The preface to the interpretation is a civil compliment which, as a
   courtier, he passes upon the king. The king observed him to stand as
   one astonished, and, thinking he was loth to speak out for fear of
   offending him, he encouraged him to deal plainly and faithfully with
   him; Let not the dream, nor the interpretation thereof, trouble thee.
   This he speaks either, 1. As one that sincerely desired to know this
   truth. Note, Those that consult the oracles of God must be ready to
   receive them as they are, whether they be for them or against them, and
   must accordingly give their ministers leave to be free with them. Or,
   2. As one that despised the truth, and set it at defiance. When we see
   how regardless he was of this warning afterwards we are tempted to
   think that this was his meaning; "Let it not trouble thee, for I am
   resolved it shall not trouble me; nor will I lay it to heart." But,
   whether he have any concern for himself or no, Daniel is concerned for
   him, and therefore wishes, "The dream be to those that hate thee. Let
   the ill it bodes light on the head of thy enemies, not on thy head."
   Though Nebuchadnezzar was an idolater, a persecutor, and an oppressor
   of the people of God, yet he was, at present, Daniel's prince; and
   therefore, though Daniel foresees, and is now going to foretell, ill
   concerning him, he dares not wish ill to him.

   II. The interpretation itself is only a repetition of the dream, with
   application to the king. "As for the tree which thou sawest flourishing
   (v. 20, 21), it is thou, O king!" v. 22. And willing enough would the
   king be to hear this (as, before, to hear, Thou art the head of gold),
   but for that which follows. He shows the king his present prosperous
   state in the glass of his own dream; "Thy greatness has grown and
   reaches as near to heaven as human greatness can do, and thy dominion
   is to the end of the earth," ch. ii. 37, 38. "As for the doom passed
   upon the tree (v. 23), it is the decree of the Most High, which comes
   upon my lord the king," v. 24. He must not only be deposed from his
   throne, but driven from men, and being deprived of his reason, and
   having a beast's heart given him, his dwelling shall be with the beasts
   of the field, and with them he shall be a fellow-commoner: he shall eat
   grass as oxen, and, like them, lie out all weathers, and be wet with
   the dew of heaven, and this till seven times pass over him, that is,
   seven years; and then he shall know that the Most High rules, and when
   he is brought to know and own this he shall be restored to his dominion
   again (v. 26): "Thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, shall remain as
   firm as the stump of the tree in the ground, and thou shalt have it,
   after thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule." God is here
   called the heavens, because it is in heaven that he has prepared his
   throne (Ps. ciii. 19), thence he beholds all the sons of men, Ps.
   xxxiii. 13. The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lord's; and the
   influence which the visible heavens have upon this earth is intended as
   a faint representation of the dominion the God of heaven has over this
   lower world; we are said to sin against heaven, Luke xv. 18. Note, Then
   only we may expect comfortably to enjoy our right in, and government
   of, both ourselves and others, when we dutifully acknowledge God's
   title to, and dominion over, us and all we have.

   III. The close of the interpretation is the pious counsel which Daniel,
   as a prophet, gave the king, v. 27. Whether he appeared concerned or
   not at the interpretation of the dream, a word of advice would be very
   seasonable--if careless, to awaken him, if troubled, to comfort him;
   and it is not inconsistent with the dream and the interpretation of it,
   for Daniel knew not but it might be conditional, like the prediction of
   Nineveh's destruction. Observe, 1. How humbly he gives his advice, and
   with what tenderness and respect: "O king! let my counsel be acceptable
   unto thee; take it in good part, as coming from love, and well-meant,
   and let it not be misinterpreted." Note, Sinners need to be courted to
   their own good, and respectfully entreated to do well for themselves.
   The apostle beseeches men to suffer the word of exhortation, Heb. xiii.
   22. We think it a good point gained if people will be persuaded to take
   good counsel kindly; nay, if they will take it patiently. 2. What his
   advice is. He does not counsel him to enter into a course of physic,
   for the preventing of the distemper in his head, but to break off a
   course of sin that he was in, to reform his life. He wronged his own
   subjects, and dealt unfairly with his allies; and he must break off
   this by righteousness, by rendering to all their due, making amends for
   wrong done, and not triumphing over right with might. He had been cruel
   to the poor, to God's poor, to the poor Jews; and he must break off
   this iniquity by showing mercy to those poor, pitying those oppressed
   ones, setting them at liberty or making their captivity easy to them.
   Note, It is necessary, in repentance, that we not only cease to do
   evil, but learn to do well, not only do no wrong to any, but do good to
   all. 3. What the motive is with which he backs this advice: If it may
   be a lengthening of thy tranquility. Though it should not wholly
   prevent the judgment, yet by this means a reprieve may be obtained, as
   by Ahab's humbling himself, 1 Kings xxi. 29. Either the trouble may be
   the longer before it comes or the shorter when it does come; yet he
   cannot assure him of this, but it may be, it may prove so. Note, The
   mere probability of preventing a temporal judgment is inducement enough
   to a work so good in itself as the leaving off of our sins and
   reforming of our lives, much more the certainty of preventing our
   eternal ruin. "That will be a healing of thy error" (so some read it);
   "thus the quarrel will be taken up, and all will be well again."

Nebuchadnezzar Driven among Beasts. (b. c. 569.)

   28 All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.   29 At the end of
   twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.   30
   The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built
   for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the
   honour of my majesty?   31 While the word was in the king's mouth,
   there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee
   it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.   32 And they shall
   drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the
   field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall
   pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the
   kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.   33 The same hour
   was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from
   men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of
   heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails
   like birds' claws.

   We have here Nebuchadnezzar's dream accomplished, and Daniel's
   application of it to him justified and confirmed. How he took it we are
   not told, whether he was pleased with Daniel or displeased; but here we
   have,

   I. God's patience with him: All this came upon him, but not till twelve
   months after (v. 29), so long there was a lengthening of his
   tranquility, though it does not appear that he broke off his sins, or
   showed any mercy to the poor captives, for this was still God's quarrel
   with him, that he opened not the house of his prisoners, Isa. xiv. 17.
   Daniel having counselled him to repent, God so far confirmed his word
   that he gave him space to repent; he let him alone this year also, this
   one year more, before he brought this judgment upon him. Note, God is
   long-suffering with provoking sinners, because he is not willing that
   any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, 2 Pet. iii.
   9.

   II. His pride, and haughtiness, and abuse of that patience. He walked
   in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, in pomp and pride, pleasing
   himself with the view of that vast city, which, with all the
   territories thereunto belonging, was under his command, and he said,
   either to himself or to those about him, perhaps some foreigners to
   whom he was showing his kingdom and the glory of it, Is not this great
   Babylon? Yes, it is great, of vast extent, no less that forty-five
   miles compass within the walls. It is full of inhabitants, and they are
   full of wealth. It is a golden city, and that is enough to proclaim it
   great, Isa. xiv. 4. See the grandeur of the houses, walls, towers, and
   public edifices. Every thing in Babylon he thinks looks great; "and
   this great Babylon I have built." Babylon was built many ages before he
   was born, but because he fortified and beautified it, and we may
   suppose much of it was rebuilt during his long and prosperous reign, he
   boasts that he has built it, as Augustus Cæsar boasted concerning Rome,
   Lateritiam inveni, marmoream reliqui--I found it brick, but I left it
   marble. He boasts that he built it for the house of the kingdom, that
   is, the metropolis of his empire. This vast city, compared with the
   countries that belonged to his dominions, was but as one house. He
   built it with the assistance of his subjects, yet boasts that he did it
   by the might of his power; he built it for his security and
   convenience, yet, as if he had no occasion for it, boasts that he built
   it purely for the honour of his majesty. Note, Pride and
   self-conceitedness are sins that most easily beset great men, who have
   great things in the world. They are apt to take the glory to themselves
   which is due to God only.

   III. His punishment for his pride. When he was thus strutting, and
   vaunting himself, and adoring his own shadow, while the proud word was
   in the king's mouth the powerful word came from heaven, by which he was
   immediately deprived, 1. Of his honour as a king: The kingdom has
   departed from thee. When he thought he had erected impregnable bulwarks
   for the preserving of his kingdom, now, in an instant, it has departed
   from him; when he thought it so well guarded that none could take it
   from him, behold, it departs of itself. As soon as he becomes utterly
   incapable to manage it, it is of course taken out of his hands. 2. He
   is deprived of his honour as a man. He loses his reason, and by that
   means loses his dominion: They shall drive thee from men, v. 32. And it
   was fulfilled (v. 33): he was driven from men the same hour. On a
   sudden he fell stark mad, distracted in the highest degree that ever
   any man was. His understanding and memory were gone, and all the
   faculties of a rational soul broken, so that he became a perfect brute
   in the shape of a man. He went naked, and on all four, like a brute,
   did himself shun the society of reasonable creatures and run wild into
   the fields and woods, and was driven out by his own servants, who,
   after some time of trial, despairing of his return to his right mind,
   abandoned him, and looked after him no more. He had not the spirit of a
   beast of prey (that of the royal lion), but of the abject and less
   honourable species, for he was made to eat grass as oxen; and,
   probably, he did not speak with human voice, but lowed like an ox. Some
   think that his body was all covered with hair; however, the hair of his
   head and beard, being never cut nor combed, grew like eagles feathers,
   and his nails like birds' claws. Let us pause a little, and view this
   miserable spectacle; and let us receive instruction from it. (1.) Let
   us see here what a mercy it is to have the use of our reason, how
   thankful we ought to be for it, and how careful we ought to be not to
   do any thing which may either provoke God or may have a natural
   tendency to put us out of the possession of our own souls. Let us learn
   how to value our own reason, and to pity the case of those that are
   under the prevailing power of melancholy or distraction, or are
   delirious, and to be very tender in our censures of them and conduct
   towards them, for it is a trial common to men, and a case which, some
   time or other, may be our own. (2.) Let us see here the vanity of human
   glory and greatness. Is this Nebuchadnezzar the Great? What this
   despicable animal that is meaner than the poorest beggar? Is this he
   that looked so glorious on the throne, so formidable in the camp, that
   had politics enough to subdue and govern kingdoms, and now has not so
   much sense as to keep his own clothes on his back? Is this the man that
   made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? Isa. xiv. 16. Never
   let the wise man then glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man in his
   strength. (3.) Let us see here how God resists the proud, and delights
   to abase them and put contempt upon them. Nebuchadnezzar would be more
   than a man, and therefore God justly makes him less than a man, and
   puts him upon a level with the beasts who set up for a rival with his
   Maker. See Job xl. 11-13.

Nebuchadnezzar Restored. (b. c. 562.)

   34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto
   heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most
   High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose
   dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
   to generation:   35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as
   nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and
   among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say
   unto him, What doest thou?   36 At the same time my reason returned
   unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness
   returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I
   was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
     37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of
   heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those
   that walk in pride he is able to abase.

   We have here Nebuchadnezzar's recovery from his distraction, and his
   return to his right mind, at the end of the days prefixed, that is, of
   the seven years. So long he continued a monument of God's justice and a
   trophy of his victory over the children of pride, and he was made more
   so by being struck mad than if he had been in an instant struck dead
   with a thunderbolt; yet it was a mercy to him that he was kept alive,
   for while there is life there is hope that we may yet praise God, as he
   did here: At the end of the days (says he), I lifted up my eyes unto
   heaven (v. 34), looked no longer down towards the earth as a beast, but
   begun to look up as a man. Os homini sublime dedit--Heaven gave to man
   an erect countenance. But there was more in it than this; he looked up
   as a devout man, as a penitent, as a humble petitioner for mercy, being
   perhaps never till now made sensible of his own misery. And now,

   I. He has the use of his reason so far restored to him that with it he
   glorifies God, and humbles himself under his mighty hand. He was told
   that he should continue in that forlorn case till he should know that
   the Most High rules, and here we have him brought to the knowledge of
   this: My understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High.
   Note, Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not
   bless and praise God; nor do men ever rightly use their reason till
   they begin to be religious, nor live as men till they live to the glory
   of God. As reason is the substratum or subject of religion (so that
   creatures which have no reason are not capable of religion), so
   religion is the crown and glory of reason, and we have our reason in
   vain, and shall one day wish we had never had it, if we do not glorify
   God with it. This was the first act of Nebuchadnezzar's returning
   reason; and, when this became the employment of it, he was then, and
   not till then, qualified for all the other enjoyments of it. And till
   he was for a great while disabled to exercise it in other things he
   never was brought to apply it to this, which is the great end for which
   our reason is given us. His folly was the means whereby he became wise;
   he was not recovered by his dream of this judgment (that was soon
   forgotten like a dream), but he is made to feel it, and then his ear is
   opened to discipline. To bring him to himself, he must first be beside
   himself. And by this it appears that what good thoughts there were in
   his mind, and what good work was wrought there, were not of himself
   (for he was not his own man), but it was the gift of God. Let us see
   what Nebuchadnezzar is now at length effectually brought to the
   acknowledgment of; and we may learn from it what to believe concerning
   God. 1. That the most high God lives for ever, and his being knows
   neither change nor period, for he has it of himself. His flatterers
   often complimented him with, O king! live for ever. But he is now
   convinced that no king lives for ever, but the God of Israel only, who
   is still the same. 2. That his kingdom is like himself, everlasting,
   and his dominion from generation to generation; there is no succession,
   no revolution, in his kingdom. As he lives, so he reigns, for ever, and
   of his government there is no end. 3. That all nations before him are
   as nothing. He has no need of them; he makes no account of them. The
   greatest of men, in comparison with him, are less than nothing. Those
   that think highly of God think meanly of themselves. 4. That his
   kingdom is universal, and both the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
   of the earth are his subjects, and under his check and control. Both
   angels and men are employed by him, and are accountable to him; the
   highest angel is not above his command, nor the meanest of the children
   of men beneath his cognizance. The angels of heaven are his armies, the
   inhabitants of the earth his tenants. 5. That his power is
   irresistible, and his sovereignty uncontrollable, for he does according
   to his will, according to his design and purpose, according to his
   decree and counsel; whatever he pleases that he does; whatever he
   appoints that he performs; and none can resist his will, change his
   counsel, nor stay his hand, nor say unto him, What doest thou? None can
   arraign his proceedings, enquire into the meaning of them, nor demand a
   reason for them. Woe to him that strives with his Maker, that says to
   him, What doest thou? Or, Why doest thou so? 6. That every thing which
   God does is well done: His works are truth, for they all agree with his
   word. His ways are judgment, both wise and righteous, exactly consonant
   to the rules both of prudence and equity, and no fault is to be found
   with them. 7. That he has power to humble the haughtiest of his enemies
   that act in contradiction to him or competition with him: Those that
   walk in pride he is able to abuse (v. 37); he is able to deal with
   those that are most confident of their own sufficiency to contend with
   him.

   II. He has the use of his reason so far restored to him as with it to
   re-enjoy himself, and the pleasures of his re-established prosperity
   (v. 36): At the same time my reason returned to me; he had said before
   (v. 34) that his understanding returned to him, and here he mentions it
   again, for the use of our reason is a mercy we can never be
   sufficiently thankful for. Now his lords sought to him; he did not need
   to seek to them, and they soon perceived, not only that he had
   recovered his reason and was fit to rule, but that he had recovered it
   with advantage, and was more fit to rule than ever. It is probable that
   the dream and the interpretation of it were well known, and much talked
   of, at court; and the former part of the prediction being fulfilled,
   that he should go distracted, they doubted not but that, according to
   the prediction, he should come to himself again at seven years' end,
   and, in confidence of that, when the time had expired they were ready
   to receive him; and then his honour and brightness returned to him, the
   same that he had before his madness seized him. He is now established
   in his kingdom as firmly as if there had been no interruption given
   him. He becomes a fool, that he may be wise, wiser than ever; and he
   that but the other day was in the depth of disgrace and ignominy has
   now excellent majesty added to him, beyond what he had when he went
   from kingdom to kingdom conquering and to conquer. Note, 1. When men
   are brought to honour God, particularly by a penitent confession of sin
   and a believing acknowledgment of his sovereignty, then, and not till
   then, they may expect that God will put honour upon them, will not only
   restore them to the dignity they lost by the sin of the first Adam, but
   add excellent majesty to them from the righteousness and grace of the
   second Adam. 2. Afflictions shall last no longer than till they have
   done the work for which they were sent. When this prince is brought to
   own God's dominion over himself. 3. All the accounts we take and give
   of God's dealing with us ought to conclude with praises to him. When
   Nebuchadnezzar is restored to his kingdom he praises, and extols, and
   honours the King of heaven (v. 37), before he applies himself to his
   secular business. Therefore we have our reason, that we may be in a
   capacity of praising him, and therefore our prosperity, that we may
   have cause to praise him.

   It was not long after this that Nebuchadnezzar ended his life and
   reign. Abydenus, quoted by Eusebius (Præp. Evang. 1. 9), reports, from
   the tradition of the Chaldeans, that upon his death-bed he foretold the
   taking of Babylon by Cyrus. Whether he continued in the same good mind
   that here he seems to have been in we are not told, nor does any thing
   appear to the contrary but that he did: and, if so great a blasphemer
   and persecutor did find mercy, he was not the last. And, if our charity
   may reach so far as to hope he did, we must admire free grace, by which
   he lost his wits for a while that he might save his soul for ever.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. V.

   The destruction of the kingdom of Babylon had been long and often
   foretold when it was at a distance; in this chapter we have it
   accomplished, and a prediction of it the very same night that it was
   accomplished. Belshazzar now reigned in Babylon; some compute he had
   reigned seventeen years, others but three; we have here the story of
   his exit and the period of his kingdom. We must know that about two
   years before this Cyrus king of Persia, a growing monarch, came against
   Babylon with a great army; Belshazzar met him, fought him, and was
   routed by him in a pitched battle. He and his scattered forces retired
   into the city, where Cyrus besieged them. They were very secure,
   because the river Euphrates was their bulwark, and they had twenty
   years; provision in the city; but in the second year of the siege he
   took it, as is here related. We have in this chapter, I. The riotous,
   idolatrous, sacrilegious feast which Belshazzar made, in which he
   filled up the measure of his iniquity, ver. 1-4. II. The alarm given
   him in the midst of his jollity by a hand-writing on the wall, which
   none of his wise men could read or tell him the meaning of, ver. 5-9.
   III. The interpretation of the mystical characters by Daniel, who was
   at length brought in to him, and dealt plainly with him, and showed him
   his doom written, ver. 10-28. IV. The immediate accomplishment of the
   interpretation in the slaying of the king and seizing of the kingdom,
   ver. 30, 31.

Belshazzar's Feast; The Hand-writing on the Wall. (b. c. 538.)

   1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords,
   and drank wine before the thousand.   2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted
   the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his
   father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in
   Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his
   concubines, might drink therein.   3 Then they brought the golden
   vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was
   at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his
   concubines, drank in them.   4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of
   gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.   5 In
   the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over
   against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's
   palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.   6 Then the
   king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that
   the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against
   another.   7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the
   Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the
   wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the
   interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain
   of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
   8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the
   writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.   9
   Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was
   changed in him, and his lords were astonied.

   We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden very
   gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he
   affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of
   this contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God
   prospered.

   I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He made a
   great feast, or banquet of wine; probably it was some anniversary
   solemnity, in honour of his birth-day or coronation-day, or in honour
   of some of their idols. Historians say that Cyrus, who was now with his
   army besieging Babylon, knew of this feast, and presuming that they
   then would be off their guard, somno vinoque sepulti--buried in sleep
   and wine, took that opportunity to attack the city, and so with the
   more ease made himself master of it. Belshazzar upon this occasion
   invited a thousand of his lords to come and drink with him. Perhaps
   they were such as had signalized themselves in defense of the city
   against the besiegers; or these were his great council of war, with
   whom, when they had well drunk, he would advise what was further to be
   done. And they were to look upon it as a great favour that he drank
   wine before them, for it was the pride of those eastern kings to be
   seldom seen. He drank wine before them, for he made this feast, as
   Ahasuerus did, to show the honour of his majesty. Now in this sumptuous
   feast, 1. He put an affront upon the providence of God and bade
   defiance to his judgments. His city was now besieged; a powerful enemy
   was at his gates; his life and kingdom lay at stake. In all this the
   hand of the Lord had gone out against him, and by it he called him to
   weeping, and mourning, and girding with sackcloth. God's voice cried in
   the city, as Jonah to Nineveh, Yet forty days, or fewer, and Babylon
   shall be destroyed. He should therefore, like the king of Nineveh, have
   proclaimed a fast; but, as one resolved to walk contrary to God, he
   proclaims a feast, and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, killing
   sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine, as if he dared the Almighty to
   do his worst, Isa. xxii. 12, 13. To show how little fear he had of
   being forced to surrender, for want of provisions, he spent thus
   extravagantly. Note, Security and sensuality are sad presages of
   approaching ruin. Those that will not be warned by judgments of God may
   expect to be wounded by them. 2. He put an affront upon the temple of
   God, and bade defiance to his sanctuary, v. 2. While he tasted the
   wine, he commanded to bring the vessels of the temple, that they might
   drink in them. When he tasted how rich and fine the wine was, "O," said
   he, "it is a pity but we should have holy vessels to drink such
   delicious wine as this in," which was looked upon as a piece of wit,
   and, to carry on the humour, the vessels of the temple were immediately
   sent for. Nay, there seems to have been something more in it than a
   frolic, and that it was done in a malicious despite to the God of
   Israel. The heart of his people was very much upon these sacred
   vessels, as appears from Jer. xxvii. 16, 18. Their principal care, at
   their return, was about these, Ezra i. 7. Now, we may suppose, they had
   an expectation of their deliverance approaching, reckoning the seventy
   years of their captivity near a period; and some of them might perhaps
   have given out some words to that purport, that shortly they should
   have the vessels of the sanctuary restored to them, in defiance of
   which Belshazzar here proclaims them to be his own, will keep them in
   store no longer, but will make use of them among his own plate. Note,
   That mirth is sinful indeed, and fills the measure of men's iniquity
   apace, which profanes sacred things and jests with them. This ripened
   Babylon for ruin--that no songs would serve them but the songs of Zion
   (Ps. cxxxvii. 3), no vessels but the vessels of the sanctuary. Let
   those who thus sacrilegiously alienate what is dedicated to God and his
   honour know that he will not be mocked. 3. He put an affront upon God
   himself, and bade defiance to his deity; for they drank wine, and
   praised the gods of gold and silver, v. 4. They gave that glory to
   images, the work of their own hands and creatures of their own fancy,
   which is due to the true and living God only. They praised them either
   with sacrifices offered to them or with songs sung in honour of them.
   When their heads were giddy, and their hearts merry, with wine, they
   were in the fittest frame to praise the gods of gold and silver, wood
   and stone; for one would think that men in their senses, who had the
   command of a clear and sober thought, could not be guilty of so gross
   an absurdity; they must be intoxicated ere they could be so infatuated.
   Drunken worshippers, who are not men, but beasts, are the most proper
   for the service of dunghill deities, that are not gods, but devils.
   They have erred through wine, Isa. xxvii. 7. They drank wine, and
   praised their idol-gods, as if they had been the founders of their
   feast and the givers of all good things to them. Or, when they were
   drinking wine, they praised their gods by drinking healths to them; and
   the king drank wine before them (v. 1), that is, he began the health,
   first to this god, and then to the other, till they went through the
   bead-roll or farrago of them, those of wood and stone not excepted.
   Note, Immorality and impiety, vice and profaneness, strengthen the
   hands and advance the interests one of another. Drunken frolics were an
   introduction to idolatry, and then idolatrous healths were a
   shoeing-horn to further drunkenness.

   II. See how God affrighted the king, and struck a terror upon him.
   Belshazzar and his lords are in the midst of their revels, the cups
   going round apace, and all upon the merry pin, drinking confusion, it
   may be, to Cyrus and his army, and roaring out huzzas, in confidence of
   the speedy raising of the siege; but the hour had come when that must
   be fulfilled which had been long ago said of the king of Babylon, when
   his city should be besieged by the Persians and Medes, Isa. xxi. 2-4.
   The night of my pleasures has he turned into fear to me. The mirth of
   this ball at court must be spoiled, and a damp cast upon their jollity,
   though the king himself be master of the revels; immediately, when God
   speaks the word, we have him and all his guests in the utmost
   confusion, and the end of their mirth is heaviness. 1. There appear the
   fingers of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall, before the
   king's face (v. 5), "the angel Gabriel," say the rabbin, "directing
   these fingers and writing by them." "That divine hand" (says a rabbi of
   our own, Dr. Lightfoot) "that had written the two tables for a law to
   his people now writes the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall."
   Here was nothing sent to frighten them which made a noise, or
   threatened their lives, no claps of thunder nor flashes of lightning,
   no destroying angel with his sword drawn in his hand, only a pen in the
   hand, writing upon the wall, over-against the candlestick, where they
   might all see it by the light of their own candle. Note, God's written
   word is sufficient to put the proudest boldest sinners into a fright,
   when he is pleased to give it the setting on. The king saw the part of
   the hand that wrote, but saw not the person whose hand it was, which
   made the thing more frightful. Note, What we see of God, the part of
   the hand that writes in the book of the creatures and the book of the
   scriptures (Lo, these are parts of his ways, Job xxvi. 14), may serve
   to possess us with awful thoughts concerning that of God which we do
   not see. If this be the finger of God, what is his arm made bare? And
   what is he? 2. The king is immediately seized with a panic fear (v. 6):
   His countenance was changed (his colour went and came); the joints of
   his loins were loosed, so that he had no strength in them, but was
   struck with a pain in his back, as is usual in a great fright; his
   knees smote one against another, so violently did he tremble like an
   aspen leaf. But what was the matter? Why is he in such a fright? He
   perceives not what is written, and how does he know but it may be some
   happy presage of deliverance to him and to his kingdom? But the
   business was his thoughts troubled him; his own guilty conscience flew
   in his face, and told him that he had no reason to expect any good news
   from Heaven, and that the hand of an angel could write nothing but
   terror to him. He that knew himself liable to the justice of God
   immediately concluded this to be an arrest in his name, a summons to
   appear before him. Note, God can soon awaken the most secure and make
   the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there needs no more to
   do it than to let loose his own thoughts upon him; they will soon play
   the tyrant, and give him trouble enough. 3. The wise men of Babylon are
   immediately called in, to see what they can make of this writing upon
   the wall, v. 7. The king cried aloud, as one in haste, as one in
   earnest, to bring the whole college of magicians, to try if they can
   read this writing, and show the interpretation of it; for the king and
   all his lords cannot pretend to it, it is out of their sphere. The
   study of divine revelation (such as they had, or thought they had) and
   converse with the world of spirits were by the heathen confined to one
   profession, and no other meddled with it; but what is written to us by
   the finger of God is legible to all; whoever will may read the mind of
   God in the scriptures. To engage these wise men to exert the utmost of
   their skill in this matter, and provoke them to an emulation in the
   attempt, he promised that whoever would give him a satisfactory account
   of this writing should be dignified with the highest honours of the
   court. He knew what these pretenders to wisdom aimed at, and what would
   please them, and therefore promised them a scarlet robe and a gold
   chain, glorious things in the eyes of those that know no better. Nay,
   he should be primus par regni--chief minister of state, the third ruler
   in the kingdom, next to the king and his heir apparent. 4. The king is
   disappointed in his expectations from them; they can none of them read
   the writing, much less interpret it (v. 8), which increases the king's
   confusion, v. 9. He likes the thing yet worse and worse, and fears that
   mischief is towards him. His lords also, that had been partners with
   him in his jollity, are now sharers with him in his terrors; they also
   were astonished at their wits' end; and neither their numbers nor their
   refreshment by wine would serve to keep up their spirits. The reason
   why the wise men could not read the writing was not because it was
   written in any language or characters unknown to them, but God either
   cast a mist before their eyes or put such confusion upon their spirits
   that they could not read it, that the honour of expounding this
   mystical writing might be reserved for Daniel. Note, The terror of an
   awakened convinced conscience may justly be increased by the utter
   insufficiency of all creatures to give it ease or satisfaction.

Daniel Brought before Belshazzar. (b. c. 538.)

   10 Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords,
   came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live
   for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be
   changed:   11 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of
   the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding
   and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the
   king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made
   master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;   12
   Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding,
   interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving
   of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named
   Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will show the
   interpretation.   13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And
   the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of
   the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought
   out of Jewry?   14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the
   gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom
   is found in thee.   15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been
   brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make
   known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not show the
   interpretation of the thing:   16 And I have heard of thee, that thou
   canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read
   the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou
   shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck,
   and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.   17 Then Daniel answered
   and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy
   rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make
   known to him the interpretation.   18 O thou king, the most high God
   gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and
   honour:   19 And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations,
   and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew;
   and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom
   he would he put down.   20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his
   mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they
   took his glory from him:   21 And he was driven from the sons of men;
   and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the
   wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet
   with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in
   the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.
     22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart,
   though thou knewest all this;   23 But hast lifted up thyself against
   the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house
   before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines,
   have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and
   gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor
   know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy
   ways, hast thou not glorified:   24 Then was the part of the hand sent
   from him; and this writing was written.   25 And this is the writing
   that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.   26 This is the
   interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and
   finished it.   27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art
   found wanting.   28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the
   Medes and Persians.   29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed
   Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a
   proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the
   kingdom.

   Here is, I. The information given to the king, by the queen-mother,
   concerning Daniel, how fit he was to be consulted in this difficult
   case. It is supposed that this queen was the widow of Evil-Merodach,
   and was that famous Nitocris whom Herodotus mentions as a woman of
   extraordinary prudence. She was not present at the feast, as the king's
   wives and concubines were (v. 2); it was not agreeable to her age and
   gravity to keep a merry night. But, tidings of the fright which the
   king and his lords were put into being brought to her apartment, she
   came herself to the banqueting-house, to recommend to the king a
   physician for his melancholy. She entreated him not to be discouraged
   by the insufficiency of his wise men to solve this riddle, for that
   there was a man in his kingdom that had more than once helped his
   grandfather at such a dead lift, and, no doubt, could help him, v. 11,
   12. She could not undertake to read the writing herself, but directed
   him to one that could; let Daniel be called now, who should have been
   called first. Now observe, 1. The high character she gives of Daniel:
   He is a man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, who has something
   in him more than human, not only the spirit of a man, which, in all, is
   the candle of the Lord, but a divine spirit. According to the language
   of her country and religion, she could not give a higher encomium of
   any man; she speaks honourably of him as a man that had, (1.) An
   admirably good head: Light, and understanding, and wisdom, like the
   wisdom of the gods, were found in him. Such an insight had he into
   things secret, and such a foresight of things to come, that it was
   evident he was divinely inspired; he had knowledge and understanding
   beyond all the other wise men for interpreting dreams, explaining
   enigmas or hard sentences, untying knots, and resolving doubts. Solomon
   had a wonderful sagacity of this kind; but it should seem that in these
   things Daniel had more of an immediate divine direction. Behold, a
   greater than Solomon himself is here. Yet what was the wisdom of them
   both compared with the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ? (2.) He
   had an admirably good heart: An excellent spirit was found in him,
   which was a great ornament to his wisdom and knowledge, and qualified
   him to receive that gift; for God gives to a man that is good in his
   sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. He was of a humble, holy,
   heavenly spirit, had a devout and gracious spirit, a spirit of zeal for
   the glory of God and the good of men. This was indeed an excellent
   spirit. 2. The account she gives of the respect that Nebuchadnezzar had
   for him; he was much in his favour, and was preferred by him: "The king
   thy father" (that is, thy grandfather, but even to many generations
   Nebuchadnezzar might well be called the father of that royal family,
   for he it was that raised it to such a pitch of grandeur), "the king, I
   say, thy father, made him master of the magicians." Perhaps Belshazzar
   had sometimes, in his pride, spoken slightly of Nebuchadnezzar, and his
   politics, and the methods of his government, and the ministers he
   employed, and thought himself wiser than he; and therefore his mother
   harps upon that. "The king, I say, thy father, to whose good management
   all thou hast owing, he pronounced him chief of, and gave him dominion
   over, all the wise men of Babylon, and named him Belteshazzar,
   according to the name of his god, thinking thereby to put honour upon
   him;" but Daniel, by constantly making use of his Jewish name himself
   (which he resolved to keep, in token of his faithful adherence to his
   religion), had worn out that name; only the queen-dowager remembered
   it, otherwise he was generally called Daniel. Note, It is a very good
   office to revive the remembrance of the good services of worthy men,
   who are themselves modest, and willing that they should be forgotten.
   3. The motion she makes concerning him: Let Daniel be called, and he
   will show the interpretation. By this it appears that Daniel was now
   forgotten at court. Belshazzar was a stranger to him, knew not that he
   had such a jewel in his kingdom. With the new king there came in a new
   ministry, and the old one was laid aside. Note, There are a great many
   valuable men, and such as might be made very useful, that lie long
   buried in obscurity, and some that have done eminent services that live
   to be overlooked and taken no notice of; but, whatever men are, God is
   not unrighteous to forget the services done to his kingdom. Daniel,
   being turned out of his place, lived privately, and sought not any
   opportunity to come into notice again; yet he lived near the court and
   within call, though Babylon was now besieged, that he might be ready,
   if there were occasion, to do any good office, by what interest he had
   among the great ones, for the children of his people. But Providence so
   ordered it that now, just at the fall of that monarchy, he should by
   the queen's means be brought to court again, that he might lie there
   ready for preferment in the ensuing government. Thus do the righteous
   shine forth out of obscurity, and before honour is humility.

   II. The introducing of Daniel to the king, and his request to him to
   read and expound the writing. Daniel was brought in before the king, v.
   13. He was now nearly ninety years of age, so that his years, and
   honours, and former preferments, might have entitled him to a free
   admission into the king's presence; yet he was willing to be conducted
   in, as a stranger, by the master of the ceremonies. Note, 1. The king
   asks, with an air of haughtiness: Art thou that Daniel who art of the
   children of the captivity? Being a Jew, and a captive, he was loth to
   be beholden to him if he could help it. 2. He tells him what an
   encomium he had heard of him (v. 14), that the spirit of the gods was
   in him; and he had sent for him to try whether he deserved so high a
   character or no. 3. He acknowledges that all the wise men of Babylon
   were baffled; they could not read this writing, nor show the
   interpretation, v. 16. But, 4. He promises him the same rewards that he
   had promised them if he would do it, v. 16. It was strange that the
   magicians, when now, and in Nebuchadnezzar's time, once and again, they
   were nonplussed, did not attempt something to save their credit; if
   they had with a good assurance said, "This is the meaning of such a
   dream, such a writing," who could disprove them? But God so ordered it
   that they had nothing at all to say, as, when Christ was born, the
   heathen oracles were struck dumb.

   III. The interpretation which Daniel gave of these mystic characters,
   which was so far from easing the king of his fears that we may suppose
   it increased them rather. Daniel was now in years, and Belshazzar was
   young; and therefore he seems to take a greater liberty of dealing
   plainly and roundly with him than he had done upon the like occasions
   with Nebuchadnezzar. In reproving any man, especially great men, there
   is need of wisdom to consider all circumstances; for they are the
   reproofs of instruction that are the way of life. In Daniel's discourse
   here,

   1. He undertakes to read the writing which gave them this alarm, and to
   show them the interpretation of it, v. 17. He slights the offer he made
   him of rewards, is not pleased that it was mentioned, for he is not one
   of those that divine for money; what gratuities Nebuchadnezzar gave him
   afterwards he gladly accepted, but he scorned to bargain for them, or
   to read the writing to the king for and in consideration of such and
   such honours promised him. No: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, for they
   will not be long thine, and give thy fee to another, to any of the wise
   men whom thou wouldst have most wished to earn it; I value it not."
   Daniel sees his kingdom now at its last gasp, and therefore looks with
   contempt upon his gifts and rewards. And thus should we despise all the
   gifts and rewards that this world can give did we see, as we may by
   faith, its final period hastening on. Let it give its perishing gifts
   to another; there are better gifts which we have our eyes and hearts
   upon; but let us do our duty in the world, do it all the real service
   we can, read God's writing to it in a profession of religion, and by an
   agreeable conversation make known the interpretation of it, and then
   trust God for his gifts, his rewards, in comparison with which all the
   world can give is mere trash and trifles.

   2. He largely recounts to the king God's dealings with his father
   Nebuchadnezzar, which were intended for instruction and warning to him,
   v. 18, 21. This is not intended for a flourish or an amusement, but is
   a necessary preliminary to the interpretation of the writing. Note,
   That we may understand aright what God is doing with us, it is of use
   to us to review what he has done with others.

   (1.) He describes the great dignity and power to which the divine
   Providence had advanced Nebuchadnezzar, v. 18, 19. He had a kingdom,
   and majesty, and glory, and honour, for aught we know, above what any
   heathen prince ever had before him; he thought that he got his glory by
   his own extraordinary conduct and courage, and ascribed his successes
   to a projecting active genius of his own; but Daniel tells him who now
   enjoyed what he had laboured for that it was the most high God, the God
   of gods and Lord of kings (as Nebuchadnezzar himself had called him),
   that gave him that kingdom, that vast dominion, that majesty wherewith
   he presided in the affairs of it, and that glory and honour which by
   his prosperous management he acquired. Note, Whatever degree of outward
   prosperity any arrive at, they must own that it is of God's giving, not
   their own getting. Let it never be said, My might, and the power of my
   hand, have gotten me this wealth, this preferment; but let it always be
   remembered that it is God that gives men power to get wealth, and gives
   success to their endeavours. Now the power which God gave to
   Nebuchadnezzar is here described to be very great in respect both of
   ability and of authority. [1.] His ability was so strong that it was
   irresistible; such was the majesty that God gave him, so numerous were
   the forces he had at command, and such an admirable dexterity he had at
   commanding them, that, which way soever his sword turned, it prospered.
   He could captivate and subdue nations by threatening them, without
   striking a stroke, for all people trembled and feared before him, and
   would compound with him for their lives upon any terms. See what force
   is, and what the fear of it does. It is that by which the brutal part
   of the world, even of the world of mankind, both governs and is
   governed. [2.] His authority was so absolute that it was
   uncontrollable. The power which was allowed him, which descended upon
   him, or which, at least, he assumed, was without contradiction, was
   absolute and despotic, none shared with him either in the legislative
   or in the executive part of it. In dispensing punishments he condemned
   or acquitted at pleasure: Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he
   saved alive, though both were equally innocent or equally guilty. The
   jus vitæ et necis--the power of life and death was entirely in his
   hand. In dispensing rewards he granted or denied preferment at
   pleasure: Whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down,
   merely for a humour, and without giving a reason so much as to himself;
   but it is all ex mero motu--of his own good pleasure, and stat pro
   ratione voluntas--his will stands for a reason. Such was the
   constitution of the eastern monarchies, such the manner of their kings.

   (2.) He sets before him the sins which Nebuchadnezzar had been guilty
   of, whereby he had provoked God against him. [1.] He behaved
   insultingly towards those that were under him, and grew tyrannical and
   oppressive. The description given of his power intimates his abuse of
   his power, and that he was directed in what he did by humour and
   passion, not by reason and equity; so that he often condemned the
   innocent and acquitted the guilty, both which are an abomination to the
   Lord. He deposed men of merit and preferred unworthy men, to the great
   detriment of the public, and for this he was accountable to the most
   high God, that gave him his power. Note, It is a very hard and rare
   thing for men to have an absolute arbitrary power, and not to make an
   ill use of it. Camden has a distich of Giraldus, wherein he speaks of
   it as a rare instance, concerning our king Henry II of England, that
   never any man had so much power and did so little hurt with it.


   Glorior hoc uno, quod nunquam vidimus unum,

   Nec potuisse magis, nec nocuisse minus--

   Of him I can say, exulting, that with the same power

   to do harm no one was ever more inoffensive.

   But that was not all. [2.] He behaved insolently towards the God above
   him, and grew proud and haughty (v. 20): His heart was lifted up, and
   there his sin and ruin began; his mind was hardened in pride, hardened
   against the commands of God and his judgments; he was willful and
   obstinate, and neither the word of God nor his rod made any lasting
   impression upon him. Note, Pride is a sin that hardens the heart in all
   other sins and renders the means of repentance and reformation
   ineffectual.

   (3.) He reminds him of the judgments of God that were brought upon him
   for his pride and obstinacy, how he was deprived of his reason, and so
   deposed from his kingly throne (v. 20), driven from among men, to dwell
   with the wild asses, v. 21. He that would not govern his subjects by
   rules of reason had not reason sufficient for the government himself.
   Note, Justly does God deprive men of their reason when they become
   unreasonable and will not use it, and of their power when they become
   oppressive and use it ill. He continued like a brute till he knew and
   embraced that first principle of religion, That the most high God
   rules. And it is rather by religion than reason that man is
   distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts; and it is more his
   honour to be a subject to the supreme Creator than to be lord of the
   inferior creatures. Note, Kings must know, or shall be made to know,
   that the most high God rules in their kingdoms (that is an imperium in
   imperio--an empire within an empire, not to be excepted against), and
   that he appoints over them whomsoever he will. As he makes heirs, so he
   makes princes.

   3. In God's name, he exhibits articles of impeachment against
   Belshazzar. Before he reads him his doom, from the hand-writing on the
   wall, he shows him his crime, that God may be justified when he speaks,
   and clear when he judges. Now that which he lays to his charge is, (1.)
   That he had not taken warning by the judgments of God upon his father
   (v. 22): Thou his son, O Belshazzar! hast not humbled thy heart, though
   thou knewest all this. Note, It is a great offence to God if our hearts
   be not humbled before him to comply both with his precepts and with his
   providences, humbled by repentance, obedience, and patience; nay, he
   expects from the greatest of men that their hearts should be humbled
   before him, by an acknowledgment that, great as they are, to him they
   are accountable. And it is a great aggravation of the unhumbledness of
   our hearts when we know enough to humble them but do not consider and
   improve it, particularly when we know how others have been broken that
   would not bend, how others have fallen that would not stoop, and yet we
   continue stiff and inflexible. It makes the sin of children the more
   heinous if they tread in the steps of their parents' wickedness, though
   they have seen how dearly it has cost them, and how pernicious the
   consequences of it have been. Do we know this, do we know all this, and
   yet are we not humbled? (2.) That he had affronted God more impudently
   than Nebuchadnezzar himself had done, witness the revels of this very
   night, in the midst of which he was seized with this horror (v. 23):
   "Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, hast swelled
   with rage against him, and taken up arms against his crown and dignity,
   in this particular instance, that thou hast profaned the vessels of his
   house, and made the utensils of his sanctuary instruments of thy
   iniquity, and, in an actual designed contempt of him, hast praised the
   gods of silver and gold, which see not, nor hear, nor know anything, as
   if they were to be preferred before the God that sees, and hears, and
   knows every thing." Sinners that are resolved to go on in sin are well
   enough pleased with gods that neither see, nor hear, nor know, for then
   they may sin securely; but they will find, to their confusion, that
   though those are the gods they choose those are not the gods they must
   be judged by, but one to whom all things are naked and open. (3.) That
   he had not answered the end of his creation and maintenance: The God in
   whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not
   glorified. This is a general charge, which stands good against us all;
   let us consider how we shall answer it. Observe, [1.] Our dependence
   upon God as our creator, preserver, benefactor, owner, and ruler; not
   only from his hand our breath was at first, but in his hand our breath
   is still; it is he that holds our souls in life, and, if he take away
   our breath, we die. Our times being in his hand, so is our breath, by
   which our times are measured. In him we live, and move, and have our
   being; we live by him, live upon him, and cannot live without him. The
   way of man is not in himself, not at his own command, at his own
   disposal, but his are all our ways; for our hearts are in his hand, and
   so are the hearts of all men, even of kings, who seem to act most as
   free-agents. [2.] Our duty to God, in consideration of this dependence;
   we ought to glorify him, to devote ourselves to his honour and employ
   ourselves in his service, to make it our care to please him and our
   business to praise him. [3.] Our default in this duty, notwithstanding
   that dependence; we have not done it; for we have all sinned, and come
   short of the glory of God. This is the indictment against Belshazzar;
   there needs no proof, it is made good by the notorious evidence of the
   fact, and his own conscience cannot but plead guilty to it. And
   therefore,

   4. He now proceeds to read the sentence, as he found it written upon
   the wall: "Then" (says Daniel) "when thou hast come to such a height of
   impiety as thus to trample upon the most sacred things, then when thou
   wast in the midst of thy sacrilegious idolatrous feast, then was the
   part of the hand, the writing fingers, sent from him, from that God
   whom thou didst so daringly affront, and who had borne so long with
   thee, but would bear no longer; he sent them, and this writing, thou
   now seest, was written, v. 24. It is he that now writes bitter things
   against thee, and makes thee to possess thy iniquities," Job xiii. 26.
   Note, As the sin of sinners is written in the book of God's
   omniscience, so the doom of sinners is written in the book of God's
   law; and the day is coming when those books shall be opened, and they
   shall be judged by them. Now the writing was, Mene, Mene, Tekel,
   Upharsin, v. 25. It is well that we have an authentic exposition of
   these words annexed, else we could make little of them, so concise are
   they; the signification of them is, He has numbered, he has weighed,
   and they divide. The Chaldean wise men, because they knew not that
   there is but one God only, could not understand who this He should be,
   and for that reason (some think) the writing puzzled them. (1.) Mene;
   that is repeated, for the thing is certain--Mene, mene; that signifies,
   both in Hebrew and Chaldee, He has numbered and finished, which Daniel
   explains thus (v. 26): "God has numbered thy kingdom, the years and
   days of the continuance of it; these were numbered in the counsel of
   God, and now they are finished; the term has expired for and during
   which thou wast to hold it, and now it must be surrendered. Here is an
   end of thy kingdom." (2.) Tekel; that signifies, in Chaldee, Thou art
   weighed, and, in Hebrew, Thou art too light. So Dr. Lightfoot. For this
   king and his actions are weighed in the just and unerring balances of
   divine equity. God does as perfectly know his true character as the
   goldsmith knows the weight of that which he has weighed in the nicest
   scales. God does not give judgment against him till he has first
   pondered his actions, and considered the merits of his case. "But thou
   art found wanting, unworthy to have such a trust lodged in thee, a
   vain, light, empty man, a man of no weight or consideration." (3.)
   Upharsin, which should be rendered, and Pharsin, or Peres. Parsin, in
   Hebrew, signifies the Persians; Paresin, in Chaldee, signifies
   dividing; Daniel puts both together (v. 28): "Thy kingdom is divided,
   is rent from thee, and given to the Medes and Persians, as a prey to be
   divided among them." Now this may, without any force, be applied to the
   doom of sinners. Mene, Tekel, Peres, may easily be made to signify
   death, judgment, and hell. At death, the sinner's days are numbered and
   finished; after death the judgment, when he will be weighed in the
   balance and found wanting; and after judgment the sinner will be cut
   asunder, and given as a prey to the devil and his angels. Daniel does
   not here give Belshazzar such advice and encouragement to repent as he
   had given Nebuchadnezzar, because he saw the decree had gone forth and
   he would not be allowed any space to repent.

   One would have thought that Belshazzar would be exasperated against
   Daniel, and, seeing his own case desperate, would be in a rage against
   him. But he was so far convicted by his own conscience of the
   reasonableness of all he said that he objected nothing against it; but,
   on the contrary, gave Daniel the reward he promised him, put on him the
   scarlet gown and the gold chain, and proclaimed him the third ruler in
   the kingdom (v. 29), because he would be as good as his word, and
   because it was not Daniel's fault if the exposition of the hand-writing
   was not such as he desired. Note, Many show great respect to God's
   prophets who yet have no regard to his word. Daniel did not value these
   titles and ensigns of honour, yet would not refuse them, because they
   were tokens of his prince's good-will: but we have reason to think that
   he received them with a smile, foreseeing how soon they would all
   wither with him that bestowed them. They were like Jonah's gourd, which
   came up in a night and perished in a night, and therefore it was folly
   for him to be exceedingly glad of them.

Daniel Deals Plainly with Belshazzar; Interpreting of the Writing on the
Wall. (b. c. 538.)

   30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.   31
   And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two
   years old.

   Here is, 1. The death of the king. Reason enough he had to tremble, for
   he was just falling into the hands of the king of terrors, v. 30. In
   that night, when his heart was merry with wine, the besiegers broke
   into the city, aimed at the palace; there they found the king, and gave
   him his death's wound. He could not find any place so secret as to
   conceal him, or so strong as to protect him. Heathen writers speak of
   Cyrus's taking Babylon by surprise, with the assistance of two
   deserters that showed him the best way into the city. And it was
   foretold what a consternation it would be to the court, Jer. li. 11,
   39. Note, Death comes as a snare upon those whose hearts are
   overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. 2. The transferring of the
   kingdom into other hands. From the head of gold we now descend to the
   breast and arms of silver. Darius the Mede took the kingdom in
   partnership with, and by the consent of, Cyrus, who had conquered it,
   v. 31. They were partners in war and conquest, and so they were in
   dominion, ch. vi. 28. Notice is taken of his age, that he was now
   sixty-two years old, for which reason Cyrus, who was his nephew, gave
   him the precedency. Some observe that being now sixty-two years old, in
   the last year of the captivity, he was born in the eighth year of it,
   and that was the year when Jeconiah was carried captive and all the
   nobles, &c. See 2 Kings xxiv. 13-15. Just at that time when the most
   fatal stroke was given was a prince born that in process of time should
   avenge Jerusalem upon Babylon, and heal the wound that was now given.
   Thus deep are the counsels of God concerning his people, thus kind are
   his designs towards them.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. VI.

   Daniel does not give a continued history of the reigns in which he
   lived, nor of the state-affairs of the kingdoms of Chaldea and Persia,
   though he was himself a great man in those affairs; for what are those
   to us? But he selects such particular passages of story as serve for
   the confirming of our faith in God and the encouraging of our obedience
   to him, for the things written aforetime were written for our learning.
   It is a very observable improvable story that we have in this chapter,
   how Daniel by faith "stopped the mouths of lions," and so "obtained a
   good report," Heb. xi. 33. The three children were cast into the fiery
   furnace for not committing a known sin, Daniel was cast into the lions'
   den for not omitting a known duty, and God's miraculously delivering
   both them and him is left upon record for the encouragement of his
   servants in all ages to be resolute and constant both in their
   abhorrence of that which is evil and in their adherence to that which
   is good, whatever it cost them. In this chapter we have, I. Daniel's
   preferment in the court of Darius, ver. 1-3. II. The envy and malice of
   his enemies against him, ver. 4, 5. III. The decree they obtained
   against prayer for thirty days, ver. 6-9. IV. Daniel's continuance and
   constancy in prayer, notwithstanding that decree, ver. 10. V.
   Information given against him for it, and the casting of him into the
   den of lions, ver. 11-17. VI. His miraculous preservation in the lions'
   den, and deliverance out of it, ver. 18-23. VII. The casting of his
   accusers into the den, and their destruction there, ver. 24. VIII. The
   decree which Darius made upon this occasion, in honour of the God of
   Daniel, and the prosperity of Daniel afterwards, ver. 25-28. And this
   God is our God for ever and ever.

Daniel Preferred by Darius. (b. c. 537.)

   1 It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty
   princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;   2 And over these
   three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give
   accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage.   3 Then this
   Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an
   excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the
   whole realm.   4 Then the presidents and princes sought to find
   occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find
   none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was
   there any error or fault found in him.   5 Then said these men, We
   shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it
   against him concerning the law of his God.

   We are told concerning Daniel,

   I. What a great man he was. When Darius, upon his accession to the
   crown of Babylon by conquest, new-modelled the government, he made
   Daniel prime-minister of state, set him at the helm, and made him first
   commissioner both of the treasury and of the great seal. Darius's
   dominion was very large; all he got by his conquests and acquests was
   that he had so many more countries to take care of; no more can be
   expected from himself than what one man can do, and therefore others
   must be employed under him. He set over the kingdom 120 princes (v. 1),
   and appointed them their districts, in which they were to administer
   justice, preserve the public peace, and levy the king's revenue. Note,
   Inferior magistrates are ministers of God to us for good as well as the
   sovereign; and therefore we must submit ourselves both to the king as
   supreme and to the governors that are constituted and commissioned by
   him, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. Over these princes there was a triumvirate, or
   three presidents, who were to take and state the public accounts, to
   receive appeals from the princes, or complaints against them in case of
   mal-administration, that the king should have no damage (v. 2), that he
   should not sustain loss in his revenue and that the power he delegated
   to the princes might not be abused to the oppression of the subject,
   for by that the king (whether he thinks so or no) receives real damage,
   both as it alienates the affections of his people from him and as it
   provokes the displeasure of his God against him. Of these three Daniel
   was chief, because he was found to go beyond them all in all manner of
   princely qualifications. He was preferred above the presidents and
   princes (v. 3), and so wonderfully well pleased the king was with his
   management that he thought to set him over the whole realm, and let him
   place and displace at his pleasure. Now, 1. We must take notice of it
   to the praise of Darius that he would prefer a man thus purely for his
   personal merit, and his fitness for business; and those sovereigns that
   would be well served must go by that rule. Daniel had been a great man
   in the kingdom that was conquered, and for that reason, one would
   think, should have been looked upon as an enemy, and as such imprisoned
   or banished. He was a native of a foreign kingdom, and a ruined one,
   and upon that account might have been despised as a stranger and
   captive. But, Darius, it seems, was very quick-sighted in judging of
   men's capacities, and was soon aware that this Daniel had something
   extraordinary in him, and therefore, though no doubt he had creatures
   of his own, not a few, that expected preferment in this newly-conquered
   kingdom, and were gaping for it, and those that had been long his
   confidants would depend upon it that they should be now his presidents,
   yet so well did he consult the public welfare that, finding Daniel to
   excel them all in prudence and virtue, and probably having heard of his
   being divinely inspired, he made him his right hand. 2. We must take
   notice of it, to the glory of God, that, though Daniel was now very old
   (it was above seventy years since he was brought a captive to Babylon),
   yet he was as able as ever for business both in body and mind, and that
   he who had continued faithful to his religion through all the
   temptations of the foregoing reigns in a new government was as much
   respected as ever. He kept in by being an oak, not by being a willow,
   by a constancy in virtue, not by a pliableness to vice. Such honesty is
   the best policy, for it secures a reputation; and those who thus honour
   God he will honour.

   II. What a good man he was: An excellent spirit was in him, v. 3. And
   he was faithful to every trust, dealt fairly between the sovereign and
   the subject, and took care that neither should be wronged, so that
   there was no error, or fault, to be found in him, v. 4. He was not only
   not chargeable with any treachery or dishonesty, but not even with any
   mistake or indiscretion. He never made any blunder, nor had any
   occasion to plead inadvertency or forgetfulness for his excuse. This is
   recorded for an example to all that are in places of public trust to
   approve themselves both careful and conscientious, that they may be
   free, not only from fault, but from error, not only from crime, but
   from mistake.

   III. What ill-will was borne him, both for his greatness and for his
   goodness. The presidents and princes envied him because he was advanced
   above them, and probably hated him because he had a watchful eye upon
   them and took care they should not wrong the government to enrich
   themselves. See here, 1. The cause of envy, and that is every thing
   that is good. Solomon complains of it as a vexation that for every
   right work a man is envied of his neighbour (Eccl. iv. 4), that the
   better a man is the worse he is thought of by his rivals. Daniel is
   envied because he has a more excellent spirit than his neighbours. 2.
   The effect of envy, and that is every thing that is bad. Those that
   envied Daniel sought no less than his ruin. His disgrace would not
   serve them; it was his death that they desired. Wrath is cruel, and
   anger is outrageous, but who can stand before envy? Prov. xxvii. 4.
   Daniel's enemies set spies upon him, to observe him in the management
   of his place; they sought to find occasion against him, something on
   which to ground an accusation concerning the kingdom, some instance of
   neglect or partiality, some hasty word spoken, some person borne hard
   upon, or some necessary business overlooked. And if they could but have
   found the mote, the mole-hill, of a mistake, it would have been soon
   improved to the beam, to the mountain, of an unpardonable misdemeanour.
   But they could find no occasion against him; they owned that they could
   not. Daniel always acted honestly, and now the more warily, and stood
   the more upon his guard, because of his observers, Ps. xxvii. 11. Note,
   We have all need to walk circumspectly, because we have many eyes upon
   us, and some that watch for our halting. Those especially have need to
   carry their cup even that have it full. They concluded, at length, that
   they should not find any occasion against him except concerning the law
   of his God v. 5. It seems then that Daniel kept up the profession of
   his religion, and held it fast without wavering or shrinking, and yet
   that was no bar to his preferment; there was no law that required him
   to be of the king's religion, or incapacitated him to bear office in
   the state unless he were. It was all one to the king what God he prayed
   to, so long as he did the business of his place faithfully and well. He
   was at the king's service usque ad aras--as far as the altars; but
   there he left him. In this matter therefore his enemies hoped to
   ensnare him. Quærendum est crimen læsæ religionis ubi majestatis
   deficit--When treason could not be charged upon him he was accused of
   impiety. Grotius. Note, It is an excellent thing, and much for the
   glory of God, when those who profess religion conduct themselves so
   inoffensively in their whole conversation that their most watchful
   spiteful enemies may find no occasion of blaming them, save only in the
   matters of their God, in which they walk according to their
   consciences. It is observable that, when Daniel's enemies could find no
   occasion against him concerning the kingdom, they had so much sense of
   justice left that they did not suborn witnesses against him to accuse
   him of crimes he was innocent of, and to swear treason upon him,
   wherein they shame many that were called Jews and are called
   Christians.

A Plot against Daniel. (b. c. 537.)

   6 Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and
   said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.   7 All the presidents
   of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and
   the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and
   to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God
   or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the
   den of lions.   8 Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the
   writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and
   Persians, which altereth not.   9 Wherefore king Darius signed the
   writing and the decree.   10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was
   signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his
   chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day,
   and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

   Daniel's adversaries could have no advantage against him from any law
   now in being; they therefore contrive a new law, by which they hope to
   ensnare him, and in a matter in which they knew they should be sure of
   him; and such was his fidelity to his God that they gained their point.
   Here is,

   I. Darius's impious law. I call it Darius's, because he gave the royal
   assent to it, and otherwise it would not have been of force; but it was
   not properly his: he contrived it not, and was perfectly wheedled to
   consent to it. The presidents and princes framed the edict, brought in
   the bill, and by their management it was agreed to by the convention of
   the states, who perhaps were met at this time upon some public
   occasion. It is pretended that this bill which they would have to pass
   into a law was the result of mature deliberation, that all the
   presidents of the kingdom, the governors, princes, counsellors, and
   captains, had consulted together about it, and that they not only
   agreed to it, but advised it, for divers good causes and
   considerations, that they had done what they could to establish it for
   a firm decree; nay, they intimate to the king that it was carried
   nemine contradicente--unanimously: "All the presidents are of this
   mind;" and yet we are sure that Daniel, the chief of the three
   presidents, did not agree to it, and have reason to think that many
   more of the princes excepted against it as absurd and unreasonable.
   Note, It is no new thing for that to be represented, and with great
   assurance too, as the sense of the nation, which is far from being so;
   and that which few approve of is sometimes confidently said to be that
   which all agree to. But, O the infelicity of kings, who, being under a
   necessity of seeing and hearing with other people's eyes and ears, are
   often wretchedly imposed upon! These designing men, under colour of
   doing honour to the king, but really intending the ruin of his
   favourite, press him to pass this into a law, and make it a royal
   statute, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for
   thirty days, save of the king, shall be put to death after the most
   barbarous manner, shall be cast into the den of lions, v. 7. This is
   the bill they have been hatching, and they lay it before the king to be
   signed and passed into a law. Now, 1. There is nothing in it that has
   the least appearance of good, but that it magnifies the king, and makes
   him seem both very great and very kind to his subjects, which, they
   suggest, will be of good service to him now that he has newly come to
   his throne, and will confirm his interests. All men must be made to
   believe that the king is so rich, and withal so ready to all
   petitioners, that none in any want or distress need to apply either to
   God or man for relief, but to him only. And for thirty days together he
   will be ready to give audience to all that have any petition to present
   to him. It is indeed much for the honour of kings to be benefactors to
   their subjects and to have their ears open to their complaints and
   requests; but if they pretend to be their sole benefactors, and
   undertake to be to them instead of God, and challenge that respect from
   them which is due to God only, it is their disgrace, and not their
   honour. But, 2. There is a great deal in it that is apparently evil. It
   is bad enough to forbid asking a petition of any man. Must not a beggar
   ask an alms, or one neighbour beg a kindness of another? If the child
   want bread, must he not ask it of his parents, or be cast into the den
   of lions if he do? Nay, those that have business with the king, may
   they not petition those about him to introduce them? But it was much
   worse, and an impudent affront to all religion, to forbid asking a
   petition of any god. It is by prayer that we give glory to God, fetch
   in mercy from God; and so keep up our communion with God; and to
   interdict prayer for thirty days is for so long to rob God of all the
   tribute he has from man and to rob man of all the comfort he has in
   God. When the light of nature teaches us that the providence of God has
   the ordering and disposing of all our affairs does not the law of
   nature oblige us by prayer to acknowledge God and seek to him? Does not
   every man's heart direct him, when he is in want or distress, to call
   upon God, and must this be made high treason? We could not live a day
   without God; and can men live thirty days without prayer? Will the king
   himself be tied up for so long from praying to God; or, if it be
   allowed him, will he undertake to do it for all his subjects? Did ever
   any nation thus slight their gods? But see what absurdities malice will
   drive men to. Rather than not bring Daniel into trouble for praying to
   his God, they will deny themselves and all their friends the
   satisfaction of praying to theirs. Had they proposed only to prohibit
   the Jews from praying to their God, Daniel would have been as
   effectually ensnared; but they knew the king would not pass such a law,
   and therefore made it thus general. And the king, puffed up with a
   fancy that this would set him up as a little god, was fond of the
   feather in his cap (for so it was, and not a flower in his crown) and
   signed the writing and the decree (v. 9), which, being once done,
   according to the constitution of the united kingdom of the Medes and
   Persians, was not upon any pretence whatsoever to be altered or
   dispensed with, or the breach of it pardoned.

   II. Daniel's pious disobedience to this law, v. 10. He did not retire
   into the country, nor abscond for some time, though he knew the law was
   levelled against him; but, because he knew it was so, therefore he
   stood his ground, knowing that he had now a fair opportunity of
   honouring God before men, and showing that he preferred his favour, and
   his duty to him, before life itself. When Daniel knew that the writing
   was signed he might have gone to the king, and expostulated with him
   about it; nay, he might have remonstrated against it, as grounded upon
   a misinformation that all the presidents had consented to it, whereas
   he that was chief of them had never been consulted about it; but he
   went to his house, and applied himself to his duty, cheerfully trusting
   God with the event. Now observe,

   1. Daniel's constant practice, which we were not informed of before
   this occasion, but which we have reason to think was the general
   practice of the pious Jews. (1.) He prayed in his house, sometimes
   alone and sometimes with his family about him, and made a solemn
   business of it. Cornelius was a man that prayed in his house, Acts x.
   30. Note, Every house not only may be, but ought to be, a house of
   prayer; where we have a tent God must have an alter, and on it we must
   offer spiritual sacrifices. (2.) In every prayer he gave thanks. When
   we pray to God for the mercies we want we must praise him for those we
   have received. Thanksgiving must be a part of every prayer. (3.) In his
   prayer and thanksgiving he had an eye to God as his God, his in
   covenant, and set himself as in his presence. He did this before his
   God, and with a regard to him. (4.) When he prayed and gave thanks he
   kneeled upon his knees, which is the most proper gesture in prayer, and
   most expressive of humility, and reverence, and submission to God.
   Kneeling is a begging posture, and we come to God as beggars, beggars
   for our lives, whom it concerns to be importunate. (5.) He opened the
   windows of his chamber, that the sight of the visible heavens might
   affect his heart with an awe of that God who dwells above the heavens;
   but that was not all: he opened them towards Jerusalem, the holy city,
   though now in ruins, to signify the affection he had for its very
   stones and dust (Ps. cii. 14) and the remembrance he had of its
   concerns daily in his prayers. Thus, though he himself lived great in
   Babylon, yet he testified his concurrence with the meanest of his
   brethren the captives, in remembering Jerusalem and preferring it
   before his chief joy, Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6. Jerusalem was the place which
   God had chosen to put his name there; and, when the temple was
   dedicated, Solomon's prayer to God was that if his people should in the
   land of their enemies pray unto him with their eye towards the land
   which he gave them, and the city he had chosen, and the house which was
   built to his name, then he would hear and maintain their cause (1 Kings
   viii. 48, 49), to which prayer Daniel had reference in this
   circumstance of his devotions. (6.) He did this three times a day,
   three times every day according to the example of David (Ps. lv. 17),
   Morning, evening, and at noon, I will pray. It is good to have our
   hours of prayer, not to bind, but to remind conscience; and, if we
   think our bodies require refreshment by food thrice a day, can we think
   seldomer will serve our souls? This is surely as little as may be to
   answer the command of praying always. (7.) He did this so openly and
   avowedly that all who knew him knew it to be his practice; and he thus
   showed it, not because he was proud of it (in the place where he was
   there was no room for that temptation, for it was not reputation, but
   reproach, that attended it), but because he was not ashamed of it.
   Though Daniel was a great man, he did not think it below him to be
   thrice a day upon his knees before his Maker and to be his own
   chaplain; though he was an old man, he did not think himself past it;
   nor, though it had been his practice from his youth up, was he weary of
   this well doing. Though he was a man of business, vast business, for
   the service of the public, he did not think that would excuse him from
   the daily exercises of devotion. How inexcusable then are those who
   have but little to do in the world, and yet will not do thus much for
   God and their souls! Daniel was a man famous for prayer, and for
   success in it (Ezek. xiv. 14), and he came to be so by thus making a
   conscience of prayer and making a business of it daily; and in thus
   doing God blessed him wonderfully.

   2. Daniel's constant adherence to this practice, even when it was made
   by the law a capital crime. When he knew that the writing was signed he
   continued to do as he did aforetime, and altered not one circumstance
   of the performance. Many a man, yea, and many a good man, would have
   thought it prudence to omit it for these thirty days, when he could not
   do it without hazard of his life; he might have prayed so much oftener
   when those days had expired and the danger was over, or he might have
   performed the duty at another time, and in another place, so secretly
   that it should not be possible for his enemies to discover it; and so
   he might both satisfy his conscience and keep up his communion with
   God, and yet avoid the law, and continue in his usefulness. But, if he
   had done so, it would have been thought, both by his friends and by his
   enemies, that he had thrown up the duty for this time, through
   cowardice and base fear, which would have tended very much to the
   dishonour of God and the discouragement of his friends. Others who
   moved in a lower sphere might well enough act with caution; but Daniel,
   who had so many eyes upon him, must act with courage; and the rather
   because he knew that the law, when it was made, was particularly
   levelled against him. Note, We must not omit duty for fear of
   suffering, no, nor so much as seems to come short of it. In trying
   times great stress is laid upon our confessing Christ before men (Matt.
   x. 32), and we must take heed lest, under pretence of discretion, we be
   found guilty of cowardice in the cause of God. If we do not think that
   this example of Daniel obliges us to do likewise, yet I am sure it
   forbids us to censure those that do, for God owned him in it. By his
   constancy to his duty it now appears that he had never been used to
   admit any excuse for the omission of it; for, if ever any excuse would
   serve to put it by, this would have served now, (1.) That it was
   forbidden by the king his master, and in honour of the king too; but it
   is an undoubted maxim, in answer to that, We are to obey God rather
   than men. (2.) That it would be the loss of his life, but it is an
   undoubted maxim, in answer to that, Those who throw away their souls
   (as those certainly do that live without prayer) to save their lives
   make but a bad bargain for themselves; and though herein they make
   themselves, like the king of Tyre, wiser than Daniel, at their end they
   will be fools.

Daniel in the Den of Lions. (b. c. 537.)

   11 Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making
   supplication before his God.   12 Then they came near, and spake before
   the king concerning the king's decree; Hast thou not signed a decree,
   that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within
   thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?
   The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of
   the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.   13 Then answered they and
   said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the
   captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that
   thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.   14 Then
   the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself,
   and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the
   going down of the sun to deliver him.   15 Then these men assembled
   unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of
   the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king
   establisheth may be changed.   16 Then the king commanded, and they
   brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake
   and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will
   deliver thee.   17 And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of
   the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the
   signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning
   Daniel.

   Here is 1. Proof made of Daniel's praying to his God, notwithstanding
   the late edict to the contrary (v. 11): These men assembled, then came
   tumultuously together, so the word is, the same that was used v. 6,
   borrowed from Ps. ii. 1, Why do the heathen rage? They came together to
   visit Daniel, perhaps under pretence of business, at that time which
   they knew to be his usual hour of devotion; and, if they had not found
   him so engaged, they would have upbraided him with his
   faint-heartedness and distrust of his God, but (which they rather
   wished to do) they found him on his knees praying and making
   supplication before his God. For his love they are his adversaries;
   but, like his father David, he gives himself unto prayer, Ps. cix. 4.
   2. Complaint made of it to the king. When they had found occasion
   against Daniel concerning the law of his God they lost no time, but
   applied to the king (v. 12), and having appealed to his whether there
   was not such a law made, and gained from him a recognition of it, and
   that it was so ratified that it might not be altered, they proceeded to
   accuse Daniel, v. 13. They so describe him, in the information they
   give, as to exasperate the king and incense him the more against him:
   "He is of the children of the captivity of Judah; he is of Judah, that
   despicable people, and now a captive in a despicable state, that can
   call nothing his own but what he has by the king's favour, and yet he
   regards not thee, O king! nor the decree that thou hast signed." Note,
   It is no new thing for that which is done faithfully, in the conscience
   towards God, to be misrepresented as done obstinately and in contempt
   of the civil powers, that is, for the best saints to be reproached as
   the worst men. Daniel regarded God, and therefore prayed, and we have
   reason to think prayed for the king and his government, yet this is
   construed as not regarding the king. That excellent spirit which Daniel
   was endued with, and that established reputation which he had gained,
   could not protect him from these poisonous darts. They do not say, He
   makes his petition to his God, lest Darius should take notice of that
   to his praise, but only, He makes his petition, which is the thing the
   law forbids. 3. The great concern the king was in hereupon. He now
   perceived that, whatever they pretended, it was not to honour him, but
   in spite to Daniel, that they had proposed that law, and now he is
   sorely displeased with himself for gratifying them in it, v. 14. Note,
   When men indulge a proud vain-glorious humour, and please themselves
   with that which feeds it, they know not what vexations they are
   preparing for themselves; their flatterers may prove their tormentors,
   and are but spreading a net for their feet. Now, the king sets his
   heart to deliver Daniel; both by argument and by authority he labours
   till the going down of the sun to deliver him, that is, to persuade his
   accusers not to insist upon his prosecution. Note, We often do that,
   through inconsideration, which afterwards we see cause a thousand times
   to wish undone again, which is a good reason why we should ponder the
   path of our feet, for then all our ways will be established. 4. The
   violence with which the prosecutors demanded judgment, v. 15. We are
   not told what Daniel said; the king himself is his advocate, he needs
   not plead his own cause, but silently commits himself and it to him
   that judges righteously. But the prosecutors insist upon it that the
   law must have its course; it is a fundamental maxim in the constitution
   of the government of the Medes and Persians, which had now become the
   universal monarchy, that no decree or statute which the king
   establishes may be changed. The same we find Esth. i. 19; viii. 8. The
   Chaldeans magnified the will of their king, by giving him a power to
   make and unmake laws at his pleasure, to slay and keep alive whom he
   would. The Persians magnified the wisdom of their king, by supposing
   that whatever law he solemnly ratified it was so well made that there
   could be no occasion to alter it, or dispense with it, as if any human
   foresight could, in framing a law, guard against all inconveniences.
   But, if this maxim be duly applied to Daniel's case (as I am apt to
   think it is not, but perverted), while it honours the king's
   legislative power it hampers his executive power, and incapacitates him
   to show that mercy which upholds the throne, and to pass acts of
   indemnity, which are the glories of a reign. Those who allow not the
   sovereign's power to dispense with a disabling statute, yet never
   question his power to pardon an offence against a penal statute. But
   Darius is denied this power. See what need we have to pray for princes
   that God would give them wisdom, for they are often embarrassed with
   great difficulties, even the wisest and best are. 5. The executing of
   the law upon Daniel. The king himself, with the utmost reluctance, and
   against his conscience, signs the warrant for his execution; and
   Daniel, that venerable grave man, who carried such a mixture of majesty
   and sweetness in his countenance, who had so often looked great upon
   the bench, and at the council-board, and greater upon his knees, who
   had power with God and man, and had prevailed, is brought, purely for
   worshipping his God, as if he had been one of the vilest of
   malefactors, and thrown into the den of lions, to be devoured by them,
   v. 16. One cannot think of it without the utmost compassion to the
   gracious sufferer and the utmost indignation at the malicious
   prosecutors. To make sure work, the stone laid upon the mouth of the
   den is sealed, and the king (an over-easy man) is persuaded to seal it
   with his own signet (v. 17), that unhappy signet with which he had
   confirmed the law that Daniel falls by. But his lords cannot trust him,
   unless they add their signets too. Thus, when Christ was buried, his
   adversaries sealed the stone that was rolled to the door of his
   sepulchre. 6. The encouragement which Darius gave to Daniel to trust in
   God: Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee, v.
   16. Here (1.) He justifies Daniel from guilt, owning all his crime to
   be serving his God continually, and continuing to do so even when it
   was made a crime. (2.) He leaves it to God to free him from punishment,
   since he could not prevail to do it: He will deliver thee. He is sure
   that his God can deliver him, for he believes him to be an almighty
   God, and he has reason to think he will do it, having heard of his
   delivering Daniel's companions in a like case from the fiery furnace,
   and concluding him to be always faithful to those who approve
   themselves faithful to him. Note, Those who serve God continually he
   will continually preserve, and will bear them out in his service.

Daniel's Preservation and Deliverance. (b. c. 537.)

   18 Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting:
   neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep
   went from him.   19 Then the king arose very early in the morning, and
   went in haste unto the den of lions.   20 And when he came to the den,
   he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and
   said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom
   thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?   21
   Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever.   22 My God hath
   sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not
   hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also
   before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.   23 Then was the king
   exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up
   out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of
   hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.   24 And the
   king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel,
   and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and
   their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their
   bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.

   Here is, I. The melancholy night which the king had, upon Daniel's
   account, v. 18. He had said, indeed, that God would deliver him out of
   the danger, but at the same time he could not forgive himself for
   throwing him into the danger; and justly might God deprive him of a
   friend whom he had himself used so barbarously. He went to his palace,
   vexed at himself for what he had done, and calling himself unwise and
   unjust for not adhering to the law of God and nature with a non
   obstante--a negative to the law of the Medes and Persians. He ate no
   supper, but passed the night fasting; his heart was already full of
   grief and fear. He forbade the music; nothing is more unpleasing than
   songs sung to a heavy heart. He went to bed, but got no sleep, was full
   of tossings to and fro till the dawning of the day. Note, the best way
   to have a good night is to keep a good conscience, then we may lie down
   in peace.

   II. The solicitous enquiry he made concerning Daniel the next morning,
   v. 19, 20. He was up early, very early; for how could he lie in bed
   when he could not sleep for dreaming of Daniel, nor lie awake quietly
   for thinking of him? And he was no sooner up than he went in haste to
   the den of lions, for he could not satisfy himself to send a servant
   (that would not sufficiently testify his affection for Daniel), nor had
   he patience to stay so long as till a servant would return. When he
   comes to the den, not without some hopes that God had graciously undone
   what he had wickedly done, he cries, with a lamentable voice, as one
   full of concern and trouble, O Daniel! art thou alive? He longs to
   know, yet trembles to ask the question, fearing to be answered with the
   roaring of the lions after more prey: O Daniel! servant of the living
   God, has thy God whom thou servest made it to appear that he is able to
   deliver thee from the lions? If he rightly understood himself when he
   called him the living God, he could not doubt of his ability to keep
   Daniel alive, for he that has life in himself quickens whom he will;
   but has he thought fit in this case to exert his power? What he doubted
   of we are sure of, that the servants of the living God have a Master
   who is well able to protect them and bear them out in his service.

   III. The joyful news he meets with-that Daniel is alive, is safe, and
   well, and unhurt in the lions' den, v. 21, 22. Daniel knew the king's
   voice, though it was now a lamentable voice, and spoke to him with all
   the deference and respect that were due to him: O king! live for ever.
   He does not reproach him for his unkindness to him, and his easiness in
   yielding to the malice of his persecutors; but, to show that he has
   heartily forgiven him, he meets him with his good wishes. Note, We
   should not upbraid those with the diskindnesses they have done us who,
   we know, did them with reluctance, and are very ready to upbraid
   themselves with them. The account Daniel gives the king is very
   pleasant; it is triumphant. 1. God has preserved his life by a miracle.
   Darius had called him Daniel's god (thy God whom thou servest), to
   which Daniel does as it were echo back, Yea, he is my God, whom I own,
   and who owns me, for he has sent his angel. The same bright and
   glorious being that was seen in the form of the Son of God with the
   three children in the fiery furnace had visited Daniel, and, it is
   likely, in a visible appearance had enlightened the dark den, and kept
   Daniel company all night, and had shut the lions' mouths, that they had
   not in the least hurt him. The angel's presence made even the lions'
   den his strong-hold, his palace, his paradise; he had never had a
   better night in his life. See the power of God over the fiercest
   creatures, and believe his power to restrain the roaring lion that goes
   about continually seeking to devour from hurting those that are his.
   See the care God takes of his faithful worshippers, especially when he
   calls them out to suffer for him. If he keeps their souls from sin,
   comforts their souls with his peace, and receives their souls to
   himself, he does in effect stop the lions' mouths, that they cannot
   hurt them. See how ready the angels are to minister for the good of
   God's people, for they own themselves their fellow servants. 2. God has
   therein pleaded his cause. He was represented to the king as
   disaffected to him and his government. We do not find that he said any
   thing in his own vindication, but left it to God to clear up his
   integrity as the light; and he did it effectually, by working a miracle
   for his preservation. Daniel, in what he had done, had not offended
   either God or the king: Before him whom I prayed to innocency was found
   in me. He pretends not to a meritorious excellence, but the testimony
   of his conscience concerning his sincerity is his comfort--As also that
   before thee, O king! I have done no hurt, nor designed thee any
   affront.

   IV. The discharge of Daniel from his confinement. His prosecutors
   cannot but own that the law is satisfied, though they are not, or, if
   it be altered, it is by a power superior to that of the Medes and
   Persians; and therefore no cause can be shown why Daniel should not be
   fetched out of the den (v. 23): The king was exceedingly glad to find
   him alive, and gave orders immediately that they should take him out of
   the den, as Jeremiah out of the dungeon; and, when they searched, no
   manner of hurt was found upon him; he was nowhere crushed nor scarred,
   but was kept perfectly well, because he believed in his God. Note,
   Those who boldly and cheerfully trust in God to protect them in the way
   of their duty shall never be made ashamed of their confidence in him,
   but shall always find him a present help.

   V. The committing of his prosecutors to the same prison, or place of
   execution rather, v. 24. Darius is animated by this miracle wrought for
   Daniel, and now begins to take courage and act like himself. Those that
   would not suffer him to show mercy to Daniel shall, now that God has
   done it for him, be made to feel his resentments; and he will do
   justice for God who had shown mercy for him. Daniel's accusers, now
   that his innocency is cleared, and Heaven itself has become his
   compurgator, have the same punishment inflicted upon them which they
   designed against him, according to the law of retaliation made against
   false accusers, Deut. xix. 18, 19. Such they were to be reckoned now
   that Daniel was proved innocent; for, though the fact was true, yet it
   was not a fault. They were cast into the den of lions, which perhaps
   was a punishment newly invented by themselves; however, it was what
   they maliciously designed for Daniel. Nec lex est justior ulla quàm
   necis artifices arte perire suâ--No law can be more just than that
   which adjudges the devisers of barbarity to perish by it, Ps. vii. 15,
   16; ix. 15, 16. And now Solomon's observation is verified (Prov. xi.
   8), The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in
   his stead. In this execution we may observe, 1. The king's severity, in
   ordering their wives and children to be thrown to the lions with them.
   How righteous are God's statutes above those of the nations! for God
   commanded that the children should not die for the fathers' crimes,
   Deut. xxiv. 16. Yet they were put to death in extraordinary cases, as
   those of Achan, and Saul, and Haman. 2. The lion's fierceness. They had
   the mastery of them immediately, and tore them to pieces before they
   came to the bottom of the den. This verified and magnified the miracle
   of their sparing Daniel; for hereby it appeared that it was not because
   they had not appetite, but because they had not leave. Mastiffs that
   are kept muzzled are the more fierce when the muzzle is taken off; so
   were these lions. And the Lord is known by those judgments which he
   executes.

The Decree of Darius. (b. c. 537.)

   25 Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that
   dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.   26 I make a
   decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear
   before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for
   ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his
   dominion shall be even unto the end.   27 He delivereth and rescueth,
   and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath
   delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.   28 So this Daniel
   prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the
   Persian.

   Darius here studies to make some amends for the dishonour he had done
   both to God and Daniel, in casting Daniel into the lions' den, by doing
   honour to both.

   I. He gives honour to God by a decree published to all nations, by
   which they are required to fear before him. And this is a decree which
   is indeed fit to be made unalterable, according to the laws of the
   Medes and Persians, for it is the everlasting gospel, preached to those
   that dwell on the earth, Rev. xiv. 7. Fear God, and give glory to him.
   Observe, 1. To whom he sends this decree--to all people, nations and
   languages, that dwell in all the earth, v. 25. These are great words,
   and it is true that all the inhabitants of the earth are obliged to
   that which is here decreed; but here they mean no more than every
   dominion of his kingdom, which, though it contained many nations, did
   not contain all nations; but so it is, those that have much are ready
   to think they have all. 2. What the matter of the decree is--that men
   tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. This goes further than
   Nebuchadnezzar's decree upon a similar occasion, for that only
   restrained people from speaking amiss of this God, but this requires
   them to fear before him, to keep up and express awful reverent thoughts
   of him. And well might this decree he prefaced, as it is, with Peace be
   multiplied unto you, for the only foundation of true and abundant peace
   is laid in the fear of God, for that is true wisdom. If we live in the
   fear of God, and walk according to that rule, peace shall be upon us,
   peace shall be multiplied to us. But, though this decree goes far, it
   does not go far enough; had he done right, and come up to his present
   convictions, he would have commanded all men not only to tremble and
   fear before this God, but to love him and trust in him, to forsake the
   service of their idols, and to worship him only, and call upon him as
   Daniel did. But idolatry had been so long and so deeply rooted that it
   was not to be extirpated by the edicts of princes, nor by any power
   less than that which went along with the glorious gospel of Christ. 3.
   What are the causes and considerations moving him to make this decree.
   They are sufficient to have justified a decree for the total
   suppression of idolatry, much more will they serve to support this.
   There is good reason why all men should fear before this God, for, (1.)
   His being is transcendent. "He is the living God, lives as a God,
   whereas the gods we worship are dead things, have not so much as an
   animal life." (2.) His government is incontestable. He has a kingdom,
   and a dominion; he not only lives, but reigns as an absolute sovereign.
   (3.) Both his being and his government are unchangeable. He is himself
   stedfast for ever, and with him is no shadow of turning. And his
   kingdom too is that which shall not be destroyed by any external force,
   nor has his dominion any thing in itself that threatens a decay or
   tends towards it, and therefore it shall be even to the end. (4.) He
   has an ability sufficient to support such an authority, v. 27. He
   delivers his faithful servants from trouble and rescues them out of
   trouble; he works signs and wonders, quite above the utmost power of
   nature to effect, both in heaven and on earth, by which it appears that
   he is sovereign Lord of both. (5.) He has given a fresh proof of all
   this in delivering his servant Daniel from the power of the lions. This
   miracle, and that of the delivering of the three children, were wrought
   in the eyes of the world, were seen, published, and attested by two of
   the greatest monarchs that ever were, and were illustrious
   confirmations of the first principles of religion, abstracted from the
   narrow scheme of Judaism, effectual confutations of all the errors of
   heathenism, and very proper preparations for pure catholic
   Christianity.

   II. He puts honour upon Daniel (v. 28): So this Daniel prospered. See
   how God brought to him good out of evil. This bold stroke which his
   enemies made at his life was a happy occasion of taking them off, and
   their children too, who otherwise would still have stood in the way of
   his preferment, and have been upon all occasions vexatious to him; and
   now he prospered more than ever, was more in favour with his prince and
   in reputation with the people, which gave him a great opportunity of
   doing good to his brethren. Thus out of the eater (and that was a lion
   too) comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. VII.

   The six former chapters of this book were historical; we now enter with
   fear and trembling upon the six latter, which are prophetical, wherein
   are many things dark and hard to be understood, which we dare not
   positively determine the sense of, and yet many things plain and
   profitable, which I trust God will enable us to make a good use of. In
   this chapter we have, I. Daniel's vision of the four beasts, ver. 1-8.
   II. His vision of God's throne of government and judgment, ver. 9-14.
   III. The interpretation of these visions, given him by an angel that
   stood by, ver. 15-28. Whether those visions look as far forward as the
   end of time, or whether they were to have a speedy accomplishment, is
   hard to say, nor are the most judicious interpreters agreed concerning
   it.

The Vision of the Four Beasts. (b. c. 555.)

   1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream
   and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told
   the sum of the matters.   2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision
   by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the
   great sea.   3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one
   from another.   4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I
   beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from
   the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was
   given to it.   5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear,
   and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth
   of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise,
   devour much flesh.   6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a
   leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast
   had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.   7 After this I saw
   in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
   and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and
   brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it
   was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten
   horns.   8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among
   them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first
   horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like
   the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

   The date of this chapter places it before ch. v., which was in the last
   year of Belshazzar, and ch. iv., which was in the first of Darius; for
   Daniel had those visions in the first year of Belshazzar, when the
   captivity of the Jews in Babylon was drawing near a period.
   Belshazzar's name here is, in the original, spelt differently from what
   it used to be; before it was Bel-she-azar--Bel is he that treasures up
   riches. But this is Bel-eshe-zar--Bel is on fire by the enemy. Bel was
   the god of the Chaldeans; he had prospered, but is now to be consumed.

   We have, in these verses, Daniel's vision of the four monarchies that
   were oppressive to the Jews. Observe,

   I. The circumstances of this vision. Daniel had interpreted
   Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and now he is himself honoured with similar
   divine discoveries (v. 1): He had visions of his head upon his bed,
   when he was asleep; so God sometimes revealed himself and his mind to
   the children of men, when deep sleep fell upon them (Job xxxiii. 15);
   for when we are most retired from the world, and taken off from the
   things of sense, we are most fit for communion with God. But when he
   was awake he wrote the dream for his own use, lest he should forget it
   as a dream which passes away; and he told the sum of the matters to his
   brethren the Jews for their use, and gave it to them in writing, that
   it might be communicated to those at a distance and preserved for their
   children after them, who shall see these things accomplished. The Jews,
   misunderstanding some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
   flattered themselves with hopes that, after their return to their own
   land, they should enjoy a complete and uninterrupted tranquility; but
   that they might not so deceive themselves, and their calamities be made
   doubly grievous by the disappointment, God by this prophet lets them
   know that they shall have tribulation: those promises of their
   prosperity were to be accomplished in the spiritual blessings of the
   kingdom of grace; as Christ has told his disciples they must expect
   persecution, and the promises they depend upon will be accomplished in
   the eternal blessings of the kingdom of glory. Daniel both wrote these
   things and spoke them, to intimate that the church should be taught
   both by the scriptures and by ministers' preaching, both by the written
   word and by word of mouth; and ministers in their preaching are to tell
   the sum of the matters that are written.

   II. The vision itself, which foretels the revolutions of government in
   those nations which the church of the Jews, for the following ages, was
   to be under the influence of. 1. He observed the four winds to strive
   upon the great sea, v. 2. They strove which should blow strongest, and,
   at length, blow alone. This represents the contests among princes for
   empire, and the shakings of the nations by these contests, to which
   those mighty monarchies, which he was now to have a prospect of, owed
   their rise. One wind from any point of the compass, if it blow hard,
   will cause a great commotion in the sea; but what a tumult must needs
   be raised when the four winds strive for mastery! This is it which the
   kings of the nations are contending for in their wars, which are as
   noisy and violent as the battle of the winds; but how is the poor sea
   tossed and torn, how terrible are its concussions, and how violent its
   convulsions, while the winds are at strife which shall have the sole
   power of troubling it! Note, This world is like a stormy tempestuous
   sea; thanks to the proud ambitious winds that vex it. 2. He saw four
   great beasts come up from the sea, from the troubled waters, in which
   aspiring minds love to fish. The monarchs and monarchies are
   represented by beasts, because too often it is by brutish rage and
   tyranny that they are raised and supported. These beasts were diverse
   one from another (v. 3), of different shapes, to denote the different
   genius and complexion of the nations in whose hands they were lodged.
   (1.) The first beast was like a lion, v. 4. This was the Chaldean
   monarchy, that was fierce and strong, and made the kings absolute. This
   lion had eagle's wings, with which to fly upon the prey, denoting the
   wonderful speed that Nebuchadnezzar made in his conquest of kingdoms.
   But Daniel soon sees the wings plucked, a full stop put to the career
   of their victorious arms. Divers countries that had been tributaries to
   them revolt from them, and make head against them; so that this
   monstrous animal, this winged lion, is made to stand upon the feet as a
   man, and a man's heart is given to it. It has lost the heart of a lion,
   which it had been famous for (one of our English kings was called Coeur
   de Lion--Lion-heart), has lost its courage and become feeble and faint,
   dreading every thing and daring nothing; they are put in fear, and made
   to know themselves to be but men. Sometimes the valour of a nation
   strangely sinks, and it becomes cowardly and effeminate, so that what
   was the head of the nations in an age or two becomes the tail. (2.) The
   second beast was like a bear, v. 5. This was the Persian monarchy, less
   strong and generous than the former, but no less ravenous. This bear
   raised up itself on one side against the lion, and soon mastered it. It
   raised up one dominion; so some read it. Persia and Media, which in
   Nebuchadnezzar's image were the two arms in one breast, now set up a
   joint government. This bear had three ribs in the mouth of it between
   the teeth, the remains of those nations it had devoured, which were the
   marks of its voraciousness, and yet an indication that though it had
   devoured much it could not devour all; some ribs still stuck in the
   teeth of it, which it could not conquer. Whereupon it was said to it,
   "Arise, devour much flesh; let alone the bones, the ribs, that cannot
   be conquered, and set upon that which will be an easier prey." The
   princes will stir up both the kings and the people to push on their
   conquests, and let nothing stand before them. Note, Conquests, unjustly
   made, are but like those of the beasts of prey, and in this much worse,
   that the beasts prey not upon those of their own kind, as wicked and
   unreasonable men do. (3.) The third beast was like a leopard, v. 6.
   This was the Grecian monarchy, founded by Alexander the Great, active,
   crafty, and cruel, like a leopard. He had four wings of a fowl; the
   lion seems to have had but two wings; but the leopard had four, for
   though Nebuchadnezzar made great despatch in his conquests Alexander
   made much greater. In six years' time he gained the whole empire of
   Persia, a great part besides of Asia, made himself master of Syria,
   Egypt, India, and other nations. This beast had four heads; upon
   Alexander's death his conquests were divided among his four chief
   captains; Seleucus Nicanor had Asia the Great; Perdiccas, and after him
   Antigonus, had Asia the Less; Cassander had Macedonia; and Ptolemeus
   had Egypt. Dominion was given to this beast; it was given of God, from
   whom alone promotion comes. (4.) The fourth beast was more fierce, and
   formidable, and mischievous, than any of them, unlike any of the other,
   nor is there any among the beasts of prey to which it might be
   compared, v. 7. The learned are not agreed concerning this anonymous
   beast; some make it to be the Roman empire, which, when it was in its
   glory, comprehended ten kingdoms, Italy, France, Spain, Germany,
   Britain, Sarmatia, Pannonia, Asia, Greece, and Egypt; and then the
   little horn which rose by the fall of three of the other horns (v. 8)
   they make to be the Turkish empire, which rose in the room of Asia,
   Greece, and Egypt. Others make this fourth beast to be the kingdom of
   Syria, the family of the Seleucidæ, which was very cruel and oppressive
   to the people of the Jews, as we find in Josephus and the history of
   the Maccabees. And herein that empire was diverse from those which went
   before, that none of the preceding powers compelled the Jews to
   renounce their religion, but the kings of Syria did, and used them
   barbarously. Their armies and commanders were the great iron teeth with
   which they devoured and broke in pieces the people of God, and they
   trampled upon the residue of them. The ten horns are then supposed to
   be ten kings that reigned successively in Syria; and then the little
   horn is Antiochus Epiphanes, the last of the ten, who by one means or
   other undermined three of the kings, and got the government. He was a
   man of great ingenuity, and therefore is said to have eyes like the
   eyes of a man; and he was very bold and daring, had a mouth speaking
   great things. We shall meet with him again in these prophecies.

The Vision of the Four Beasts. (b. c. 555.)

   9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did
   sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the
   pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as
   burning fire.   10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before
   him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten
   thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were
   opened.   11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words
   which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his
   body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.   12 As concerning the
   rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives
   were prolonged for a season and time.   13 I saw in the night visions,
   and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven,
   and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
     14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that
   all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is
   an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
   that which shall not be destroyed.

   Whether we understand the fourth beast to signify the Syrian empire, or
   the Roman, or the former as the figure of the latter, it is plain that
   these verses are intended for the comfort and support of the people of
   God in reference to the persecutions they were likely to sustain both
   from the one and from the other, and from all their proud enemies in
   every age; for it is written for their learning on whom the ends of the
   world have come, that they also, through patience and comfort of this
   scripture, might have hope. Three things are here discovered that are
   very encouraging:--

   I. That there is a judgment to come, and God is the Judge. Now men have
   their day, and every pretender thinks he should have his day, and
   struggles for it. But he that sits in heaven laughs at them, for he
   sees that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13. I beheld (v. 9) till the
   thrones were cast down, not only the thrones of these beasts, but all
   rule, authority, power, that are set up in opposition to the kingdom of
   God among men (1 Cor. xv. 24): such are the thrones of the kingdoms of
   the world, in comparison with God's kingdom; those that see them set up
   need but wait awhile, and they will see them cast down. I beheld till
   thrones were set up (so it may as well be read), Christ's throne and
   the throne of his Father. One of the rabbin confesses that these
   thrones are set up, one for God, another for the Son of David. It is
   the judgment that is here set, v. 10. Now, 1. This is intended to
   proclaim God's wise and righteous government of the world by his
   providence; and an unspeakable satisfaction it gives to all good men,
   in the midst of the convulsions and revolutions of states and kingdoms,
   that the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom
   rules over all (Ps. ciii. 19), that verily there is a God that judges
   in the earth, Ps. lviii. 11. 2. Perhaps it points at the destruction
   brought by the providence of God upon the empire of Syria, or that of
   Rome, for their tyrannizing over the people of God. But, 3. It seems
   principally designed to describe the last judgment, for though it
   follow not immediately upon the dominion of the fourth beast, nay,
   though it be yet to come, perhaps many ages to come, yet it was
   intended that in every age the people of God should encourage
   themselves, under their troubles, with the belief and prospect of it.
   Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, Jude 14. Does the mouth
   of the enemy speak great things, v. 8. Here are far greater things
   which the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Many of the New-Testament
   predictions of the judgment to come have a plain allusion to this
   vision, especially St John's vision of it, Rev. xx. 11, 12. (1.) The
   Judge is the Ancient of days himself, God the Father, the glory of
   whose presence is here described. He is called the Ancient of days,
   because he is God from everlasting to everlasting. Among men we reckon
   that with the ancient is wisdom, and days shall speak; shall not all
   flesh then be silent before him who is the Ancient of days? The glory
   of the Judge is here set forth by his garment, which was white as snow,
   denoting his splendour and purity in all the administrations of his
   justice; and the hair of his head clean and white, as the pure wool,
   that, as the white and hoary head, he may appear venerable. (2.) The
   throne is very formidable. It is like the fiery flame, dreadful to the
   wicked that shall be summoned before it. And the throne being movable
   upon wheels, or at least the chariot in which he rode the circuit, the
   wheels thereof are as burning fire, to devour the adversaries; for our
   God is a consuming fire, and with him are everlasting burnings, Isa.
   xxxiii. 14. This is enlarged upon, v. 10. As to all his faithful
   friends there proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb a pure
   river of water of life (Rev. xxii. 1), so to all his implacable enemies
   there issues and comes forth from his throne a fiery stream, a stream
   of brimstone (Isa. xxx. 33), a fire that shall devour before him. He is
   a swift witness, and his word a word upon the wheels. (3.) The
   attendants are numerous and very splendid. The Shechinah is always
   attended with angels; it is so here (v. 10): Thousand thousands
   minister to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him.
   It is his glory that he has such attendants, but much more his glory
   that he neither needs them nor can be benefited by them. See how
   numerous the heavenly hosts are (there are thousands of angels), and
   how obsequious they are--they stand before God, ready to go on his
   errands and to take the first intimation of his will and pleasure. They
   will particularly be employed as ministers of his justice in the last
   judgment day, when the Son of man shall come, and all the holy angels
   with him. Enoch prophesied that the Lord should come with his holy
   myriads. (4.) The process is fair and unexceptionable: The judgment is
   set, publicly and openly, that all may have recourse to it; and the
   books are opened. As in courts of judgment among men the proceedings
   are in writing and upon record, which is laid open when the cause comes
   to a hearing, the examination of witnesses is produced, and affidavits
   are read, to clear the matter of fact, and the statute and common-law
   books are consulted to find out what is the law, so, in the judgment of
   the great day, the equity of the sentence will be as incontestably
   evident as if there were books opened to justify it.

   II. That the proud and cruel enemies of the church of God will
   certainly be reckoned with and brought down in due time, v. 11, 12.
   This is here represented to us, 1. In the destroying of the fourth
   beast. God's quarrel with this beast is because of the voice of the
   great words which the horn spoke, bidding defiance to Heaven, and
   triumphing over all that is sacred; this provokes God more than any
   thing, for the enemy to behave himself proudly, Deut. xxxii. 27.
   Therefore Pharaoh must be humbled, because he has said, Who is the
   Lord? and has said, I will pursue, I will overtake. Enoch foretold that
   therefore the Lord would come to judge the world, that he might
   convince all that are ungodly of their hard speeches, Jude 15. Note,
   Great words are but idle words, for which men must give account in the
   great day. And see what becomes of this beast that talks so big: He is
   slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. The
   Syrian empire, after Antiochus, was destroyed. He himself died of a
   miserable disease, his family was rooted out, the kingdom wasted by the
   Parthians and Armenians, and at length made a province of the Roman
   empire by Pompey. And the Roman empire itself (if we take that for the
   fourth beast), after it began to persecute Christianity, declined and
   wasted away, and the body of it was destroyed. So shall all thy enemies
   perish, O Lord! and be slain before thee. 2. In the diminishing and
   weakening of the other three beasts (v. 12): They had their dominion
   taken away, and so were disabled from doing the mischiefs they had done
   to the church and people of God; but a prolonging in life was given
   them, for a time and a season, a set time, the bounds of which they
   could not pass. The power of the foregoing kingdoms was quite broken,
   but the people of them still remained in a mean, weak, and low
   condition. We may allude to this in describing the remainders of sin in
   the hearts of good people; they have corruptions in them, the lives of
   which are prolonged, so that they are not perfectly free from sin, but
   the dominion of them is taken away, so that sin does not reign in their
   mortal bodies. And thus God deals with his church's enemies; sometimes
   he breaks the teeth of them (Ps. iii. 7), when he does not break the
   neck of them, crushes the persecution, but reprieves the persecutors,
   that they may have space to repent. And it is fit that God, in doing
   his own work, should take his own time and way.

   III. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, and kept up, in
   the world, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness.
   Let the heathen rage and fret as long as they please, God will set his
   King upon his holy hill of Zion. Daniel sees this in vision, and
   comforts himself and his friends with the prospect of it. This is the
   same with Nebuchadnezzar's foresight of the stone cut out of the
   mountain without hands, which broke in pieces the image; but in this
   vision there is much more of pure gospel than in that. 1. The Messiah
   is here called the Son of man--one like unto the Son of man; for he was
   made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was found in fashion as a man. I
   saw one like unto the Son of man, one exactly agreeing with the idea
   formed in the divine counsels of him that in the fulness of time was to
   be the Mediator between God and man. He is like unto the son of man,
   but is indeed the Son of God. Our Savior seems plainly to refer to this
   vision when he says (John v. 27) that the Father has therefore given
   him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man, and
   because he is the person whom Daniel saw in vision, to whom a kingdom
   and dominion were to be given. 2. He is said to come with the clouds of
   heaven. Some refer this to his incarnation; he descended in the clouds
   of heaven, came into the world unseen, as the glory of the Lord took
   possession of the temple in a cloud. The empires of the world were
   beasts that rose out of the sea; but Christ's kingdom is from above: he
   is the Lord from heaven. I think it is rather to be referred to his
   ascension; when he returned to the Father the eye of his disciples
   followed him, till a cloud received him out of their sight, Acts i. 9.
   He made that cloud his chariot, wherein he rode triumphantly to the
   upper world. He comes swiftly, irresistibly, and comes in state, for he
   comes with the clouds of heaven. 3. He is here represented as having a
   mighty interest in Heaven. When the cloud received him out of the sight
   of his disciples, it is worth while to enquire (as the sons of the
   prophets concerning Elijah in a like case) whither it carried him,
   where it lodged him; and here we are told, abundantly to our
   satisfaction, that he came to the Ancient of days; for he ascended to
   his Father and our Father, to his God and our God (John xx. 17); from
   him he came forth, and to him he returns, to be glorified with him, and
   to sit down at his right hand. It was with a great deal of pleasure
   that he said, Now I go to him that sent me. But was he welcome? Yes,
   not doubt, he was, for they brought him near before him; he was
   introduced into his Father's presence, with the attendance and
   adorations of all the angels of God, Heb. i. 6. God caused him to draw
   near and approach to him, as an advocate and undertaker for us (Jer.
   xxx. 21), that we through him might be made nigh. By this solemn near
   approach which he made to the Ancient of days it appears that the
   Father accepted the sacrifice he offered, and the satisfaction he made,
   and was entirely well pleased with all he had done. He was brought
   near, as our high priest, who for us enters within the veil, and as our
   forerunner, 4. He is here represented as having a mighty influence upon
   this earth, v. 14. When he went to be glorified with his Father he had
   a power given him over all flesh, John xvii. 2, 5. With the prospect of
   this Daniel and his friends are here comforted, that not only the
   dominion of the church's enemies shall be taken away (v. 12), but the
   church's head and best friend shall have the dominion given him; to him
   every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Phil. ii. 9, 10. To him
   are given glory and a kingdom, and they are given by him who has an
   unquestionable right to give them, which, some think with an eye to
   these words, our Savior teaches us to acknowledge in the close of the
   Lord's prayer, For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. It
   is here foretold that the kingdom of the exalted Redeemer shall be,
   (1.) A universal kingdom, the only universal monarchy, whatever others
   have pretended to, or aimed at: All people, nations, and languages,
   shall fear him, and be under his jurisdiction, either as his willing
   subjects or as his conquered captives, to be either ruled or overruled
   by him. One way or other, the kingdoms of the world shall all become
   his kingdoms. (2.) An everlasting kingdom. His dominion shall not pass
   away to any successor, much less to any invader, and his kingdom is
   that which shall not be destroyed. Even the gates of hell, or the
   infernal powers and policies, shall not prevail against it. The church
   shall continue militant to the end of time, and triumphant to the
   endless ages of eternity.

The Vision of the Four Beasts. (b. c. 555.)

   15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the
   visions of my head troubled me.   16 I came near unto one of them that
   stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made
   me know the interpretation of the things.   17 These great beasts,
   which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
   18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess
   the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.   19 Then I would know
   the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others,
   exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass;
   which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
     20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which
   came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes,
   and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout
   than his fellows.   21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the
   saints, and prevailed against them;   22 Until the Ancient of days
   came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the
   time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.   23 Thus he said, The
   fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be
   diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall
   tread it down, and break it in pieces.   24 And the ten horns out of
   this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise
   after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue
   three kings.   25 And he shall speak great words against the most High,
   and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change
   times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and
   times and the dividing of time.   26 But the judgment shall sit, and
   they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto
   the end.   27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
   kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the
   saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and
   all dominions shall serve and obey him.   28 Hitherto is the end of the
   matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my
   countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

   Here we have, I. The deep impressions which these visions made upon the
   prophet. God in them put honour upon him, and gave him satisfaction,
   yet not without a great allay of pain and perplexity (v. 15): I Daniel
   was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body. The word here used
   for the body properly signifies a sheath or scabbard, for the body is
   no more to the soul; that is the weapon; it is that which we are
   principally to take care of. The visions of my head troubled me, and
   again (v. 28), my cogitations much troubled me. The manner in which
   these things were discovered to him quite overwhelmed him, and put his
   thoughts so much to the stretch that his spirits failed him, and the
   trance he was in tired him and made him faint. The things themselves
   that were discovered amazed and astonished him, and put him into a
   confusion, till by degrees he recollected and conquered himself, and
   set the comforts of the vision over against the terrors of it.

   II. His earnest desire to understand the meaning of them (v. 16): I
   came near to one of those that stood by, to one of the angels that
   appeared attending the Son of man in his glory, and asked him the truth
   (the true intent and meaning) of all this. Note, It is a very desirable
   thing to take the right and full sense of what we see and hear from
   God; and those that would know must ask by faithful and fervent prayer
   and by accomplishing a diligent search.

   III. The key that was given him, to let him into the understanding of
   this vision. The angel told him, and told him so plainly that he made
   him know the interpretation of the thing, and so made him somewhat more
   easy.

   1. The great beasts are great kings and their kingdoms, great monarchs
   and their monarchies, which shall arise out of the earth, as those
   beasts did out of the sea, v. 17. They are but terræfilii--from
   beneath; they savour of the earth, and their foundation is in the dust;
   they are of the earth earthy, and they are written in the dust, and to
   the dust they shall return.

   2. Daniel pretty well understands the first three beasts, but
   concerning the fourth he desires to be better informed, because it
   differed so much from the rest, and was exceedingly dreadful, and not
   only so, but very mischievous, or it devoured and broke in pieces, v.
   19. Perhaps it was this that put Daniel into such a fright, and this
   part of the visions of his head troubled him more than any of the rest.
   But especially he desired to know what the little horn was, that had
   eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, and whose countenance
   was more fearless and formidable than that of any of his fellows, v.
   20. And this he was most inquisitive about because it was this horn
   that made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, v. 21. While
   no more is intimated than that the children of men make war with one
   another, and prevail against one another, the prophet does not show
   himself so much concerned (let the potsherds strive with the potsherds
   of the earth, and be dashed in pieces one against another); but when
   they make war with the saints, when the precious sons of Zion,
   comparable to fine gold, are broken as earthen pitchers, it is time to
   ask, "What is the meaning of this? Will the Lord cast off his people?
   Will he suffer their enemies to trample upon them and triumph over
   them? What is this same horn that shall prevail so far against the
   saints?" To this his interpreter answers (v. 23-25) that this fourth
   beast is a fourth kingdom, that shall devour the whole earth, or (as it
   may be read) the whole land. That the ten horns are ten kings, and the
   little horn is another king that shall subdue three kings, and shall be
   very abusive to God and his people, shall act, (1.) Very impiously
   towards God. He shall speak great words against the Most High, setting
   him, and his authority and justice, at defiance. (2.) Very imperiously
   towards the people of God. He shall wear out the saints of the Most
   High; he will not cut them off at once, but wear them out by long
   oppressions and a constant course of hardships put upon them, ruining
   their estates and weakening their families. The design of Satan has
   been to wear out the saints of the Most High, that they may be no more
   in remembrance; but the attempt is vain, for while the world stands God
   will have a church in it. He shall think to change times and laws, to
   abolish all the ordinances and institutions of religion, and to bring
   every body to say and do just as he would have them. He shall trample
   upon laws and customs, human and divine. Diruit, ædificut, mutat
   quadrata rotundis--He pulls down, he builds, he changes square into
   round, as if he meant to alter even the ordinances of heaven
   themselves. And in these daring attempts he shall for a time prosper
   and have success; they shall be given into his hand until time, times,
   and half a time (that is, for three years and a half), that famous
   prophetical measure of time which we meet with in the Revelation, which
   is sometimes called forty-two months, sometimes 1260 days, which come
   all to one. But at the end of that time the judgment shall sit and take
   away his dominion (v. 26), which he expounds (v. 11) of the beast being
   slain and his body destroyed. And (as Mr. Mede reads v. 12) as to the
   rest of the beast, the ten horns, especially the little ruffling horn
   (as he calls it), they had their dominion taken away. Now the question
   is, Who is this enemy, whose rise, reign, and ruin, are foretold?
   Interpreters are not agreed. Some will have the fourth kingdom to be
   that of the Seleucidæ, and the little horn to be Antiochus, and show
   the accomplishment of all this in the history of the Maccabees; so
   Junius, Piscator, Polanus, Broughton, and many others: but others will
   have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Romans, and the little horn
   to be Julius Cæsar, and the succeeding emperors (says Calvin), the
   antichrist, the papal kingdom (says Mr. Joseph Mede), that wicked one,
   which, as this little horn, is to be consumed by the brightness of
   Christ's second coming. The pope assumes a power to change times and
   laws, potestas autokratorike--an absolute and despotic power, as he
   calls it. Others make the little horn to be the Turkish empire; so
   Luther, Vatablus, and others. Now I cannot prove either side to be
   wrong; and therefore, since prophecies sometimes have many fulfillings,
   and we ought to give scripture its full latitude (in this as in many
   other controversies), I am willing to allow that they are both in the
   right, and that this prophecy has primary reference to the Syrian
   empire, and was intended for the encouragement of the Jews who suffered
   under Antiochus, that they might see even these melancholy times
   foretold, but might foresee a glorious issue of them at last, and the
   final overthrow of their proud oppressors; and, which is best of all,
   might foresee, not long after, the setting up of the kingdom of the
   Messiah in the world, with the hopes of which it was usual with the
   former prophets to comfort the people of God in their distresses. But
   yet it has a further reference, and foretels the like persecuting power
   and rage in Rome heathen, and no less in Rome papal, against the
   Christian religion, that was in Antiochus against the pious Jews and
   their religion. And St. John, in his visions and prophecies, which
   point primarily at Rome, has plain reference, in many particulars, to
   these visions of Daniel.

   3. He has a joyful prospect given him of the prevalency of God's
   kingdom among men, and its victory over all opposition at last. And it
   is very observable that in the midst of the predictions of the force
   and fury of the enemies this is brought in abruptly (v. 18 and again v.
   22), before it comes, in the course of the vision, to be interpreted,
   v. 26, 27. And this also refers, (1.) To the prosperous days of the
   Jewish church, after it had weathered the storm under Antiochus, and
   the power which the Maccabees obtained over their enemies. (2.) To the
   setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world by the preaching
   of his gospel. For judgment Christ comes into this world, to rule by
   his Spirit, and to make all his saints kings and priests to their God.
   (3.) To the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the saints shall judge
   the world, shall sit down with him on his throne and triumph in the
   complete downfall of the devil's kingdom. Let us see what is here
   foretold. [1.] The Ancient of days shall come, v. 22. God shall judge
   the world by his Son, to whom he has committed all judgment, and, as an
   earnest of that, he comes for the deliverance of his oppressed people,
   comes for the setting up of his kingdom in the world. [2.] The judgment
   shall sit, v. 26. God will make it appear that he judges in the earth,
   and will, both in wisdom and in equity, plead his people's righteous
   cause. At the great day he will judge the world in righteousness by
   that man whom he has ordained. [3.] The dominion of the enemy shall be
   taken away, v. 26. All Christ's enemies shall be made his footstool,
   and shall be consumed and destroyed to the end: these were the apostle
   uses concerning the man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. 8. He shall be consumed
   with the spirit of Christ's mouth and destroyed with the brightness of
   his coming. [4.] Judgment is given to the saints of the Most High. The
   apostles are entrusted with the preaching of a gospel by which the
   world shall be judged. All the saints by their faith and obedience
   condemn an unbelieving disobedient world; in Christ their head they
   shall judge the world, shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, Matt.
   xix. 28. See what reason we have to honour those that fear the Lord;
   how mean and despicable soever the saints now appear in the eye of the
   world, and how much contempt soever is poured upon them; they are the
   saints of the Most High; they are near and dear to God, and he owns
   them for his, and judgment is given to them. [5.] That which is most
   insisted upon is that the saints of the Most High shall take the
   kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, v. 18. And again (v. 22),
   The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And again (v. 27),
   The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the
   whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most
   High. Far be it from us to infer hence that dominion is founded on
   grace, or that this will warrant any, under pretence of saintship, to
   usurp kingship. No; Christ's kingdom is not of this world; but this
   intimates the spiritual dominion of the saints over their own lusts and
   corruptions, their victories over Satan and his temptations, and the
   triumphs of the martyrs over death and its terrors. It likewise
   promises that the gospel kingdom shall be set up, a kingdom of grace,
   the privileges and comforts of which now, under the heavens, shall be
   the earnest and first-fruits of the kingdom of glory in the heavens.
   When the empire became Christian, and princes used their power for the
   defence and advancement of Christianity, then the saints possessed the
   kingdom. The saints rule by the Spirit's ruling in them (and this is
   the victory overcoming the world, even their faith) and by making the
   kingdoms of this world to become Christ's kingdom. But the full
   accomplishment of this will be in the everlasting happiness of the
   saints, the kingdom that cannot be moved, which we, according to his
   promise, look for (that is the greatness of the kingdom), the crown of
   glory that fades not away--that is the everlasting kingdom. See what an
   emphasis is laid upon this (v. 18): The saints shall possess the
   kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever; and the reason is because he
   whose saints they are is the Most High and his kingdom is an
   everlasting kingdom, v. 27. He is so, and therefore theirs shall be so.
   Because I live, you shall live also, John xiv. 19. His kingdom is
   theirs; they reckon themselves exalted in his exaltation, and desire no
   greater honour and satisfaction to themselves than that all dominions
   should serve and obey him, as they shall do, v. 27. They shall either
   be brought into subjection to his golden sceptre or brought to
   destruction by his iron rod.

   Daniel, in the close, when he ends that matter, tells us what
   impressions this vision made upon him; it overwhelmed his spirits to
   such a degree that his countenance was changed, and it made him look
   pale; but he kept the matter in his heart. Note, The heart must be the
   treasury and store-house of divine things; there we must hide God's
   word, as the Virgin Mary kept the sayings of Christ, Luke ii. 51.
   Daniel kept the matter in his heart, with a design, not to keep it from
   the church, but to keep it for the church, that what he had received
   from the Lord he might fully and faithfully deliver to the people.
   Note, It concerns God's prophets and ministers to treasure up the
   things of God in their minds, and there to digest them well. If we
   would have God's word ready in our mouths when we have occasion for it,
   we must keep it in our hearts at all times.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. VIII.

   The visions and prophecies of this chapter look only and entirely at
   the events that were then shortly to come to pass in the monarchies of
   Persia and Greece, and seem not to have any further reference at all.
   Nothing is here said of the Chaldean monarchy, for that was now just at
   its period; and therefore this chapter is written not in Chaldee, as
   the six foregoing chapters were, for the benefit of the Chaldeans, but
   in Hebrew, and so are the rest of the chapters to the end of the book,
   for the service of the Jews, that they might know what troubles were
   before them and what the issue of them would be, and might provide
   accordingly. In this chapter we have, I. The vision itself of the ram,
   and the he-goat, and the little horn that should fight and prevail
   against the people of God, for a certain limited time, ver. 1-14. II.
   The interpretation of this vision by an angel, showing that the ram
   signified the Persian empire, the he-goat the Grecian, and the little
   horn a king of the Grecian monarchy, that should set himself against
   the Jews and religion, which was Antiochus Epiphanes, ver. 15-27. The
   Jewish church, from its beginning, had been all along, more or less,
   blessed with prophets, men divinely inspired to explain God's mind to
   them in his providences and give them some prospect of what was coming
   upon them; but, soon after Ezra's time, divine inspiration ceased, and
   there was no more any prophet till the gospel day dawned. And therefore
   the events of that time were here foretold by Daniel, and left upon
   record, that even then God might not leave himself without witness, nor
   them without a guide.

The Vision of the Ram and Goat. (b. c. 553.)

   1 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared
   unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the
   first.   2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that
   I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I
   saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.   3 Then I lifted up
   mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram
   which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher
   than the other, and the higher came up last.   4 I saw the ram pushing
   westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand
   before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand;
   but he did according to his will, and became great.   5 And as I was
   considering, behold, a he goat came from the west on the face of the
   whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable
   horn between his eyes.   6 And he came to the ram that had two horns,
   which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the
   fury of his power.   7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he
   was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two
   horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he
   cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none
   that could deliver the ram out of his hand.   8 Therefore the he goat
   waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken;
   and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
   9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed
   exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the
   pleasant land.   10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and
   it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and
   stamped upon them.   11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of
   the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place
   of his sanctuary was cast down.   12 And a host was given him against
   the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the
   truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.   13 Then I heard
   one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint
   which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily
   sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the
   sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?   14 And he said unto
   me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary
   be cleansed.

   Here is, I. The date of this vision, v. 1. It was in the third year of
   the reign of Belshazzar, which proved to be his last year, as many
   reckon; so that this chapter also should be, in order of time, before
   the fifth. That Daniel might not be surprised at the destruction of
   Babylon, now at hand, God gives him a foresight of the destruction of
   other kingdoms hereafter, which in their day had been as potent as that
   of Babylon. Could we foresee the changes that shall be hereafter, when
   we are gone, we should the less admire, and be less affected with, the
   changes in our own day; for that which is done is that which shall be
   done, Eccl. i. 9. Then it was that a vision appeared to me, even to me,
   Daniel. Here he solemnly attests the truth of it: it was to him, even
   to him, that the vision was shown; he was the eye-witness of it. And
   this vision puts him in mind of a former vision which appeared to him
   at the first, in the first year of this reign, which he makes mention
   of because this vision was an explication and confirmation of that, and
   points at many of the same events. That seems to have been a dream, a
   vision in his sleep; this seems to have been when he was awake.

   II. The scene of this vision. The place where that was laid was in
   Shushan the palace, one of the royal seats of the kings of Persia,
   situated on the banks of the river Ulai, which surrounded the city; it
   was in the province of Elam, that part of Persia which lay next to
   Babylon. Daniel was not there in person, for he was now in Babylon, a
   captive, in some employment under Belshazzar, and might not go to such
   a distant country, especially being now an enemy's country. But he was
   there in vision; as Ezekiel, when a captive in Babylon, was often
   brought, in the spirit, to the land of Israel. Note, The soul may be a
   liberty when the body is in captivity; for, when we are bound, the
   Spirit of the Lord is not bound. The vision related to that country,
   and therefore there he was made to fancy himself to be as strongly
   affected as if he had really been there.

   III. The vision itself and the process of it.

   1. He saw a ram with two horns, v. 3. This was the second monarchy, of
   which the kingdoms of Media and Persia were the two horns. The horns
   were very high; but that which came up last was the higher, and got the
   start of the former. So the last shall be first, and the first last.
   The kingdom of Persia, which rose last, in Cyrus, became more eminent
   than that of the Medes.

   2. He saw this ram pushing all about him with his horns (v. 4),
   westward (towards Babylon, Syria, Greece, and Asia the less), northward
   (towards the Lydians, Armenians, and Scythians), and southward (towards
   Arabia, Ethiopia, and Egypt), for all these nations did the Persian
   empire, one time or other, make attempts upon for the enlarging of
   their dominion. And at last he became so powerful that no beasts might
   stand before him. This ram, though of a species of animal often preyed
   upon, became formidable even to the beasts of prey themselves, so that
   there was no standing before him, no escaping him, none that could
   deliver out of his hand, but all must yield to him: the kings of Persia
   did according to their will, prospered in all their ways abroad, had an
   uncontrollable power at home, and became great. He thought himself
   great because he did what he would; but to do good is that which makes
   men truly great.

   3. He saw this ram overcome by a he-goat. He was considering the ram
   (wondering that so weak an animal should come to be so prevalent) and
   thinking what would be the issue; and, behold, a he-goat came, v. 5.
   This was Alexander the Great, the son of Philip king of Macedonia. He
   came from the west, from Greece, which lay west from Persia. He fetched
   a great compass with his army: he came upon the face of the whole
   earth; he did in effect conquer the world, and then sat down and wept
   because there was not another world to be conquered. Unus Pellæo juveni
   non sufficit orbis--One world was too little for the youth of Pellæ.
   This he-goat (a creature famed for comeliness in going, Prov. xxx. 31)
   went on with incredible swiftness, so that he touched not the ground,
   so lightly did he move; he rather seemed to fly above the ground than
   to go upon the ground; or none touched him in the earth, that is, he
   met with little or no opposition. This he-goat, or buck, had a notable
   horn between his eyes, like a unicorn. He had strength, and knew his
   own strength; he saw himself a match for all his neighbours. Alexander
   pushed his conquests on so fast, and with so much fury, that none of
   the kingdoms he attacked had courage to make a stand, or give check to
   the progress of his victorious arms. In six years he made himself
   master of the greatest part of the then known world. Well might he be
   called a notable horn, for his name still lives in history as the name
   of one of the most celebrated commanders in war that ever the world
   knew. Alexander's victories and achievements are still the
   entertainment of the ingenious. This he-goat came to the ram that had
   two horns, v. 6. Alexander with his victorious army attacked the
   kingdom of Persia, an army consisting of no more than 30,000 foot and
   5000 horse. He ran unto him, to surprise him ere he could get
   intelligence of his motions, in the fury of his power. He came close to
   the ram. Alexander with his army came up with Darius Codomannus, then
   emperor of Persia, being moved with choler against him, v. 7. It was
   with the greatest violence that Alexander pushed on his war against
   Darius, who, though he brought vast numbers into the field, yet, for
   want of skill, was an unequal match for him, so that Alexander was too
   hard for him whenever he engaged him, smote him, cast him down to the
   ground, and stamped upon him, which three expressions, some think,
   refer to the three famous victories that Alexander obtained over
   Darius, at Granicus, at Issus, and at Arbela, by which he was at length
   totally routed, having, in the last battle, had 600,000 men killed, so
   that Alexander became absolute master of all the Persian empire, broke
   his two horns, the kingdoms of Media and Persia. The ram that had
   destroyed all before him (v. 4) now is himself destroyed; Darius has no
   power to stand before Alexander, not has he any friends or allies to
   help to deliver him out of his hand. Note, Those kingdoms which, when
   they had power, abused it, and, because none could oppose them,
   withheld not themselves from the doing of any wrong, may expect to have
   their power at length taken from them, and to be served in their own
   kind, Isa. xxxiii. 1.

   4. He saw the he-goat made hereby very considerable; but the great
   horn, that had done all this execution, was broken, v. 8. Alexander was
   about twenty years old when he began his wars. When he was about
   twenty-six he conquered Darius, and became master of the whole Persian
   empire; but when he was about thirty-two or thirty-three years of age,
   when he was strong, in his full strength, he was broken. He was not
   killed in war, in the bed of honour, but died of a drunken surfeit, or,
   as some suspect, by poison and left no child living behind him to enjoy
   that which he had endlessly laboured for, but left a lasting monument
   of the vanity of worldly pomp and power, and their insufficiency to
   make a man happy.

   5. He saw this kingdom divided into four parts, and that instead of
   that one great horn there came up four notable ones, Alexander's four
   captains, to whom he bequeathed his conquests; and he had so much that,
   when it was divided among four, they had each of them enough for any
   one man. These four notable horns were towards the four winds of
   heaven, the same with the four heads of the leopard (ch. vii. 6), the
   kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, Asia and Greece-Syria lying to the east,
   Greece to the west, Asia Minor to the north, and Egypt to the south.
   Note, Those that heap up riches know not who shall gather them, nor
   whose all those things shall be which they have provided.

   6. He saw a little horn which became a great persecutor of the church
   and people of God; and this was the principal thing that was intended
   to be shown to him in this vision, as afterwards, ch. xi. 30, &c. All
   agree that this was Antiochus Epiphanes (so he called himself)--the
   illustrious, but others called him Antiochus Epimanes--Antiochus the
   furious. He is called here (as before, ch. vii. 8), a little horn,
   because he was in his original contemptible; there were others between
   him and the kingdom, and he was of a base servile disposition, had
   nothing in him of princely qualities, and had been for some time a
   hostage and prisoner at Rome, whence he made his escape, and, though,
   the youngest brother, and his elder living, got the kingdom. He waxed
   exceedingly great towards the south, for he seized upon Egypt, and
   towards the east, for he invaded Persia and Armenia. But that which is
   here especially taken notice of is the mischief that he did to the
   people of the Jews. They are not expressly named, or prophecies must
   not be too plain; but they are here so described that it would be easy
   for those who understood scripture-language to know who were meant; and
   the Jews, having notice of this before, might be awakened to prepare
   themselves and their children beforehand for these suffering trying
   times. (1.) He set himself against the pleasant land, the land of
   Israel, so called because it was the glory of all lands, for
   fruitfulness and all the delights of human life, but especially for the
   tokens of God's presence in it, and its being blessed with divine
   revelations and institutions; it was Mount Zion that was beautiful for
   situation, the joy of the whole earth, Ps. xlviii. 2. The pleasantness
   of that land was that there the Messiah was to be born, who would be
   both the consolation and the glory of his people Israel. Note, We have
   reason to reckon that a pleasant place which is a holy place, in which
   God dwells, and where we may have opportunity of communing with him.
   Surely, It is good to be here. (2.) He fought against the host of
   heaven, that is, the people of God, the church, which is the kingdom of
   heaven, the church-militant here on earth. The saints, being born from
   above, and citizens of heaven, and doing the will of God, by his grace,
   in some measure, as the angels of heaven do it, may be well called a
   heavenly host. Or the priests and Levites, who were employed in the
   service of the tabernacle, and there warred a good warfare, were this
   host of heaven. These Antiochus set himself against; he waxed great to
   the host of heaven, in opposition to them and in defiance of them. (3.)
   He cast down some of the host (that is, of the stars, for they are
   called the host of heaven) to the ground, and stamped upon them. Some
   of those that were most eminent both in church and state, that were
   burning and shining lights in their generation, he either forced to
   comply with his idolatries or put them to death; he got them into his
   hands, and then trampled upon them and triumphed over them; as good old
   Eleazar, and the seven brethren, whom he put to death with cruel
   tortures, because they would not eat swine's flesh, 2 Mac. vi. 7. He
   gloried in it that herein he insulted Heaven itself and exalted his
   throne above the stars of God, Isa. xiv. 13. (4.) He magnified himself
   even to the prince of the host. He set himself against the high priest,
   Onias, whom he deprived of his dignity, or rather against God himself,
   who was Israel's King of old, who reigns for ever Zion's King, who
   himself heads his own host that fight his battles. Against him
   Antiochus magnified himself; as Pharaoh, when he said, Who is the Lord?
   Note, Those who persecute the people of God persecute God himself. (5.)
   He took away the daily sacrifice. The morning and evening lamb, which
   God appointed to be offered every day upon his altar to his honour,
   Antiochus forbade and restrained the offering of. No doubt he took away
   all other sacrifices, but only the daily sacrifice is mentioned,
   because that was the greatest loss of all, for in that they kept up
   their constant communion with God, which they preferred before that
   which is only occasional. God's people reckon their daily sacrifices,
   their morning and evening exercises of devotion, the most needful of
   their daily business and the most delightful of their daily comforts,
   and would not for all the world part with them. (6.) He cast down the
   place of his sanctuary. He did not burn and demolish the temple, but he
   cast it down, when he profaned it, made it the temple of Jupiter
   Olympius, and set up his image in it. He also cast down the truth to
   the ground, trampled upon the book of the law, that word of truth, tore
   it, and burnt it, and did what he could to destroy it quite, that it
   might be lost and forgotten for ever. These were the projects of that
   wicked prince. In these he practised. And (would you think it?) in
   these he prospered. He carried the matter very far, seemed to have
   gained his point, and went near to extirpate that holy religion which
   God's right hand had planted. But lest he or any other should triumph,
   as if herein he had prevailed against God himself and been too hard for
   him, the matter is here explained and set in a true light. [1.] He
   could not have done this if God had not permitted him to do it, could
   have had no power against Israel unless it had been given him from
   above. God put this power into his hand, and gave him a host against
   the daily sacrifice. God's providence put that sword into his hand by
   which he was enabled thus to bear down all before him. Note, We ought
   to eye and own the hand of God in all the enterprises and all the
   successes of the church's enemies against the church. They are but the
   rod in God's hand. [2.] God would not have permitted it if his people
   had not provoked him to do so. It is by reason of transgression, the
   transgression of Israel, to correct them for that, that Antiochus is
   employed to give them all this trouble. Note, When the pleasant land
   and all its pleasant things are laid waste, it must be acknowledged
   that sin is the procuring cause of all the desolation. Who gave Jacob
   to the spoil? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? Isa.
   xlii. 24. The great transgression of the Jews after the captivity (when
   they were cured of idolatry) was a contempt and profanation of the holy
   things, snuffing at the service of God, bringing the torn and the lame
   for sacrifice, as if the table of the Lord were a contemptible thing
   (so we find Mal. i. 7, 8, &c., and that the priests were guilty of this
   Mal. ii. 1, 8), and therefore God sent Antiochus to take away the daily
   sacrifice and cast down the place of his sanctuary. Note, It is just
   with God to deprive those of the privileges of his house who despise
   and profane them, and to make those know the worth of ordinances by the
   want of them who would not know it by the enjoyment of them.

   7. He heard the time of this calamity limited and determined, not the
   time when it should come (that is not here fixed, because God would
   have his people always prepared for it), but how long it should last,
   that, when they had no more any prophets to tell them how long (Ps.
   lxxiv. 9, which psalm seems to have been calculated for this dark and
   doleful day), they might have this prophecy to give them a prospect of
   deliverance in due time. Now concerning this we have here,

   (1.) The question asked concerning it, v. 13. Observe [1.] By whom the
   question was put: I heard one saint speaking to this purport, and then
   another saint seconded him. "O that we knew how long this trouble will
   last!" The angels here are called saints, for they are holy ones (ch.
   iv. 13), the holy myriads, Jude 14. The angels concern themselves in
   the affairs of the church, and enquire concerning them, if, as here,
   concerning its temporal salvations, much more do they desire to look
   into the great salvation, 1 Pet. i. 12. One saint spoke of the thing,
   and another enquired concerning it. Thus John, who lay in Christ's
   bosom, was beckoned to by Peter to ask Christ a question, John xiii.
   23, 24. [2.] To whom the question was put. He said unto Palmoni that
   spoke. Some make this certain saint to be a superior angel who
   understood more than the rest, to whom therefore they came with their
   enquiries. Others make it to be the eternal Word, the Son of God. He is
   the unknown One. Palmoni seems to be compounded of Peloni Almoni, which
   is used (Ruth iv. 1) for Ho, such a one, and (2 Kings vi. 8) for such a
   place. Christ was yet the nameless One. Wherefore asked thou after my
   name, seeing it is secret? Judg. xiii. 18. He is the numberer of
   secrets (as some translate it), for from him there is nothing
   hidden--the wonderful numberer, so others; his name is called
   Wonderful. Note, If we would know the mind of God, we must apply to
   Jesus Christ, who lay in the bosom of the Father, and in whom are
   hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not hidden from us,
   but hidden for us. [3.] The question itself that was asked: "How long
   shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice? How long shall the
   prohibition of it continue? How long shall the pleasant land be made
   unpleasant by that severe interdict? How long shall the transgression
   of desolation (the image of Jupiter), that great transgression which
   makes all our sacred things desolate, how long shall that stand in the
   temple? How long shall the sanctuary and the host, the holy place and
   the holy persons that minister in it, be trodden under foot by the
   oppressor?" Note, Angels are concerned for the prosperity of the church
   on earth and desirous to see an end of its desolations. The angels
   asked, for the satisfaction of Daniel, not doubting but he was desirous
   to know, how long these calamities should last? The question takes it
   for granted that they should not last always. The rod of the wicked
   shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, though it may come upon
   their lot. Christ comforted himself in his sufferings with this, The
   things concerning me have an end (Luke xxii. 37), and so may the church
   in hers. But it is desirable to know how long they shall last, that we
   may provide accordingly.

   (2.) The answer given to this question, v. 14. Christ gives instruction
   to the holy angels, for they are our fellow-servants; but here the
   answer was given to Daniel, because for his sake the question was
   asked: He said unto me. God sometimes gives in great favours to his
   people, in answer to the enquiries and requests of their friends for
   them. Now, [1.] Christ assures him that the trouble shall end; it shall
   continue 2300 days and no longer, so many evenings and mornings (so the
   word is), so many nychthemerai, so many natural days, reckoned, as in
   the beginning of Genesis, by the evenings and mornings, because it was
   the evening and the morning sacrifice that they most lamented the loss
   of, and thought the time passed very slowly while they were deprived of
   them. Some make the morning and the evening, in this number, to stand
   for two, and then 2300 evenings and as many mornings will make but 1150
   days; and about so many days it was that the daily sacrifice was
   interrupted: and this comes nearer to the computation (ch. vii. 25) of
   a time, times, and the dividing of a time. But it is less forced to
   understand them of so many natural days; 2300 days make six years and
   three months, and about eighteen days; and just so long they reckon
   from the defection of the people, procured by Menelaus the high priest
   in the 142nd year of the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, the sixth month of
   that year, and the 6th day of the month (so Josephus dates it), to the
   cleansing of the sanctuary, and the reestablishment of religion among
   them, which was in the 148th year, the 9th month, and the 25th day of
   the month, 1 Mac. iv. 52. God reckons the time of his people's
   afflictions he is afflicted. Rev. ii. 10, Thou shalt have tribulation
   ten days. [2.] He assures him that they shall see better days
   afterwards: Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Note, The cleansing
   of the sanctuary is a happy token for good to any people; when they
   begin to be reformed they will soon be relieved. Though the righteous
   God may, for the correction of his people, suffer his sanctuary to be
   profaned for a while, yet the jealous God will, for his own glory, see
   to the cleansing of it in due time. Christ died to cleanse his church,
   and he will so cleanse it as at length to present it blameless to
   himself.

The Vision of the Ram and Goat. (b. c. 553.)

   15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and
   sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the
   appearance of a man.   16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks
   of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand
   the vision.   17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was
   afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son
   of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.   18 Now as he
   was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the
   ground: but he touched me, and set me upright.   19 And he said,
   Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the
   indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.   20 The ram
   which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
   21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is
   between his eyes is the first king.   22 Now that being broken, whereas
   four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation,
   but not in his power.   23 And in the latter time of their kingdom,
   when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
   countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.   24 And
   his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall
   destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy
   the mighty and the holy people.   25 And through his policy also he
   shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself
   in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up
   against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
   26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is
   true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.
     27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose
   up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision,
   but none understood it.

   Here we have,

   I. Daniel's earnest desire to have this vision explained to him (v.
   15): I sought the meaning. Note, Those that rightly know the things of
   God cannot but desire to know more and more of them, and to be led
   further into the mystery of them; and those that would find the meaning
   of what they have seen or heard from God must seek it, and seek it
   diligently. Seek and you shall find. Daniel considered the thing,
   compared it with the former discoveries, to try if he could understand
   it; but especially he sought by prayer (as he had done ch. ii. 18), and
   he did not seek in vain.

   II. Orders given to the angel Gabriel to inform him concerning this
   vision. One in the appearance of a man (who, some think, was Christ
   himself, for who besides could command angels?) orders Gabriel to make
   Daniel understand this vision. Sometimes God is pleased to make use of
   the ministration of angels, not only to protect his children, but to
   instruct them, to serve the kind intentions, not only of his
   providence, but of his grace.

   III. The consternation that Daniel was in upon the approach of his
   instructor (v. 17): When he came near I was afraid. Though Daniel was a
   man of great prudence and courage, and had been conversant with the
   visions of the Almighty, yet the approach of an extraordinary messenger
   from heaven put him into this fright. He fell upon his face, not to
   worship the angel, but because he could no longer bear the dazzling
   lustre of his glory. Nay, being prostrate upon the ground, he fell into
   a deep sleep, (v. 18), which came not from any neglect of the vision,
   or indifference towards it, but was an effect of his faintness and the
   oppression of spirit he was under, through the abundance of
   revelations. The disciples in the garden slept for sorrow; and, as
   there, so here, the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Daniel
   would have kept awake, and could not.

   IV. The relief which the angel gave to Daniel, with great encouragement
   to him to expect a satisfactory discovery of the meaning of this
   vision. 1. He touched him, and set him upon his feet, v. 18. Thus when
   John, in a similar case, was in similar consternation, Christ laid his
   right hand upon him, Rev. i. 17. It was a gentle touch that the angel
   here gave to Daniel, to show that he came not to hurt him, not to plead
   against him with his great power, or with a hand heavy upon him, but to
   help him, to put strength into him (Job xxiii. 6), which God can do
   with a touch. When we are slumbering and grovelling on this earth we
   are very unfit to hear from God, and to converse with him. But, if God
   design instruction for us, he will be his grace awaken us out of our
   slumber, raise us from things below, and set us upright. 2. He promised
   to inform him: "Understand, O son of man! v. 17. Thou shalt understand,
   if thou wilt but apply thy mind to understand." He calls him son of man
   to intimate that he would consider his frame, and would deal tenderly
   with him, accommodating himself to his capacity as a man. Or thus he
   preaches humility to him; though he be admitted to converse with
   angels, he must not be puffed up with it, but must remember that he is
   a son of man. Or perhaps this title puts honour upon him: the Messiah
   was lately called the Son of man (ch. vii. 13), and Daniel is akin to
   him, and is a figure of him as a prophet and one greatly beloved. He
   assures him that he shall be made to know what shall be in the last end
   of the indignation, v. 19. Let it be laid up for a comfort to those who
   shall live to see these calamitous times that there shall be an end of
   them; the indignation shall cease (Isa. x. 25); it shall be overpast,
   Isa. xxvi. 20. It may intermit and return again, but the last end shall
   be glorious; good will follow it, nay, and good will be brought out of
   it. He tells him (v. 17), "At the time of the end shall be the vision;
   when the last end of the indignation comes, when the course of this
   providence is completed, then the vision shall be made plain and
   intelligible by the event, as the event shall be made plain and
   intelligible by the vision." Or, "At the time of the end of the Jewish
   church, in the latter days of it, shall this vision be accomplished,
   300 or 400 years hence; understand it therefore, that thou mayest leave
   it on record for the generations to come." But is he ask more
   particularly, "When is the time of the end? And how long will it be
   before it arrive?" let this answer suffice (v. 19): At the time
   appointed the end shall be; it is fixed in the divine counsel, which
   cannot be altered and which must not be pried into.

   V. The exposition which he gave him of the vision.

   1. Concerning the two monarchies of Persia and Greece, v. 20-22. The
   ram signified the succession of the kings of Media and Persia; the
   rough goat signified the kings of Greece; the great horn was Alexander;
   the four horns that rose in his room were the four kingdoms into which
   his conquests were cantoned, of which before, v. 8. They are said to
   stand up out of the nations, but not in his power; none of them ever
   made the figure that Alexander did. Josephus relates that when
   Alexander had taken Tyre, and subdued Palestine, and was upon his march
   to Jerusalem, Jaddas, who was them high priest (Nehemiah mentions one
   of his name, ch. xii. 11), fearing his rage, had recourse to God by
   prayer and sacrifice for the common safety, and was by him warned in a
   dream that upon Alexander's approach he should throw open the gates of
   the city, and that he and the rest of the priests should go forth to
   meet him in their habits, and all the people in white. Alexander,
   seeing this company at a distance, went himself alone to the high
   priest, and, having prostrated himself before that God whose name was
   engraven in the golden plate of his mitre, he first saluted him; and,
   being asked by one of his own captains why he did so, he said that
   while he was yet in Macedon, musing on the conquest of Asia, there
   appeared to him a man like unto this, and thus attired, who invited him
   into Asia, and assured him of success in the conquest of it. The
   priests led him to the temple, where he offered sacrifice to the God of
   Israel as they directed him; and there they showed him this book of the
   prophet Daniel, that it was there foretold that a Grecian should come
   and destroy the Persians, which animated him very much in the
   expedition he was now meditating against Darius. Hereupon he took the
   Jews and their religion under his protection, promised to be kind to
   those of their religion in Babylon and Media, whither he was now
   marching, and in honour of him all the priests that had sons born that
   year called them Alexander. Joseph. lib. 11.

   2. Concerning Antiochus, and his oppression of the Jews. This is said
   to be in the latter time of the kingdom of the Greeks, when the
   transgressors are come to the full (v. 23); that is, when the
   degenerate Jews have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and are
   ripe for this destruction, so that God cannot in honour bear with them
   any longer then shall stand up this king, to be flagellum Dei--the rod
   in God's hand for the chastising of the Jews. Now observe here, (1.)
   His character: He shall be a king of fierce countenance, insolent and
   furious, neither fearing God nor regarding man, understanding dark
   sentences, or (rather) versed in dark practices, the hidden things of
   dishonesty; he was master of all the arts of dissimulation and deceit,
   and knew the depths of Satan as well as any man. He was wise to do
   evil. (2.) His success. He shall make dreadful havoc of the nations
   about him: His power shall be mighty, bear down all before it, but not
   by his own power (v. 24), but partly by the assistance of his allies,
   Eumenes and Attalus, partly by the baseness and treachery of many of
   the Jews, even of the priests that came into his interests, and
   especially by the divine permission. it was not by his own power, but
   by a power given him from above, that he destroyed wonderfully, and
   thought he made himself a great man by being a great destroyer. He
   destroys wonderfully indeed, for he destroys, [1.] The mighty people,
   and they cannot resist him by their power. The princes of Egypt cannot
   stand before him with all their forces, but he practises against them
   and prospers. Note, The mighty ones of the earth commonly meet with
   those at length that are too hard for them, that are more mighty than
   they. Let not the strong man then glory in his strength, be it ever so
   great, unless he could be sure that there were none stronger than he.
   [2.] He destroys the holy people, or the people of the holy ones; and
   their sacred character does neither deter him from destroying them nor
   defend them from being destroyed. All things come alike to all, and
   there is one event to the mighty and to the holy in this world. [3.]
   The methods by which he will gain this success, not by true courage,
   wisdom, or justice, but by his policy and craft (v. 25), by fraud and
   deceit, and serpentine subtlety: He shall cause craft to prosper; so
   cunningly shall he carry on his projects that he shall gain his point
   by the art of wheedling. By peace he shall destroy many, as others do
   by war; under the pretence of treaties, leagues, and alliances, with
   them, he shall encroach on their rights, and trick them into a
   subjection to him. Thus sometimes what a nation truly brave has gained
   in a righteous war a nation truly base has regained in a treacherous
   peace, and craft has been caused to prosper. [4.] The mischief that he
   shall do to religion: He shall magnify himself in his heart, and think
   himself fit to prescribe and give law to every body, so that he shall
   stand up against the Prince of princes, that is, against God himself.
   He will profane his temple and altar, prohibit his worship, and
   persecute his worshippers. See what a height of impudence some men's
   impiety brings them to; they openly bid defiance to God himself though
   he is the Kings of kings. [5.] The ruin that he shall be brought to at
   last: He shall be broken without hand, that is, without the hand of
   man. He shall not be slain in war, nor shall he be assassinated, as
   tyrants commonly were, but he shall fall into the hand of the living
   God and die by an immediate stroke of his vengeance. He, hearing that
   the Jews had cast the image of Jupiter Olympius out of the temple,
   where he had placed it, was so enraged at the Jews that he vowed he
   would make Jerusalem a common burial-place, and determined to march
   thither immediately; but no sooner had he spoken these proud words than
   he was struck with an incurable plague in his bowels; worms bred so
   fast in his body that whole flakes of flesh sometimes dropped from him;
   his torments were violent, and the stench of his disease such that none
   could endure to come near him. He continued in this misery very long.
   At first he persisted in his menaces against the Jews; but at length,
   despairing of his recovery, he called his friends together, and
   acknowledged all those miseries to have fallen upon him for the
   injuries he had done to the Jews and his profaning the temple at
   Jerusalem. Then he wrote courteous letters to the Jews, and vowed that
   if he recovered he would let them have the free exercise of their
   religion. But, finding his disease grow upon him, when he could no
   longer endure his own smell, he said, It is meet to submit to God, and
   for man who is mortal not to set himself in competition with God, and
   so died miserably in a strange land, on the mountains of Pacata near
   Babylon: so Ussher's Annals, A.M. 3840, about 160 years before the
   birth of Christ.

   3. As to the time fixed for the continuance of the cessation of the
   daily sacrifice, it is not explained here, but only confirmed (v. 26).
   That vision of the evening and morning is true, in the proper sense of
   the words, and needs no explication. How unlikely soever it might be
   that God should suffer his own sanctuary to be thus profaned, yet it is
   true, it is too true, so it shall be.

   VI. Here is the conclusion of this vision, and here, 1. The charge
   given to Daniel to keep it private for the present: Shut thou up the
   vision; let it not be publicly know among the Chaldeans, lest the
   Persians, who were now shortly to possess the kingdom, should be
   incensed against the Jews by it, because the downfall of their kingdom
   was foretold by it, which would be unseasonable now that the edict for
   their release was expected from the king of Persia. Shut it up, for it
   shall be for many days. It was about 300 years from the time of this
   vision to the time of the accomplishment of it; therefore he must shut
   it up for the present, even from the people of the Jews, lest it should
   amaze and perplex them, but let it be kept safely for the generations
   to come, that should live about the time of the accomplishment of it,
   for to them it would be both most intelligible and most serviceable.
   Note, What we know of the things of God should be carefully laid up,
   that hereafter, when there is occasion, it may be faithfully laid out;
   and what we have not now any use for, yet we may have another time.
   Divine truths should be sealed up among our treasures, that we may find
   them again after many days. 2. The care he took to keep it private,
   having received such a charge, v. 27. He fainted, and was sick, with
   the multitude of his thoughts within him occasioned by this vision,
   which oppressed and overwhelmed him the more because he was forbidden
   to publish what he had seen, so that his belly was as wine which has no
   vent, he was ready to burst like new bottles, Job xxxii. 19. However,
   he kept it to himself, stifled and smothered the concern he was in; so
   that those he conversed with could not perceive it, but he did the
   king's business according to the duty of his place, whatever it was.
   Note, As long as we live in this world we must have something to do in
   it; and even those whom God has most dignified with his favours must
   not think themselves above their business; nor must the pleasure of
   communion with God take us off from the duties of our particular
   callings, but still we must in them abide with God. Those especially
   that are entrusted with public business must see to it that they
   conscientiously discharge their trust.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. IX.

   In this chapter we have, I. Daniel's prayer for the restoration of the
   Jews who were in captivity, in which he confesses sin, and acknowledges
   the justice of God in their calamities, but pleads God's promises of
   mercy which he had yet in store for them, ver. 1-19. II. An immediate
   answer sent him by an angel to his prayer, in which, 1. He is assured
   of the speedy release of the Jews out of their captivity, ver. 20-23.
   And, 2. He is informed concerning the redemption of the world by Jesus
   Christ (of which that was a type), what should be the nature of it and
   when it should be accomplished, ver. 24-27. And it is the clearest,
   brightest, prophecy of the Messiah, in all the Old Testament.

Daniel's Confession and Prayer. (b. c. 538.)

   1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the
   Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;   2 In the
   first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the
   years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that
   he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.   3
   And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and
   supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

   We left Daniel, in the close of the foregoing chapter, employed in the
   king's business; but here we have him employed in better business than
   any king had for him, speaking to God and hearing from him, not for
   himself only, but for the church, whose mouth he was to God, and for
   whose use the oracles of God were committed to him, relating to the
   days of the Messiah. Observe, 1. When it was that Daniel had this
   communion with God (v. 1), in the first year of Darius the Mede, who
   was newly made king of the Chaldeans, Babylon being conquered by him
   and his nephew, or grandson, Cyrus. In this year the seventy years of
   the Jews' captivity ended, but the decree for their release was not yet
   issued out; so that this address of Daniel's to God seems to have been
   ready in that year, and, probably, before he was cast into the lions'
   den. And one powerful inducement, perhaps, it was to him then to keep
   so close to the duty of prayer, though it cost him his life, that he
   had so lately experienced the benefit and comfort of it. 2. What
   occasioned his address to God by prayer (v. 2): He understood by books
   that seventy years was the time fixed for the continuance of the
   desolations of Jerusalem. v. 2. The book by which he understood this
   was the book of the prophecies of Jeremiah, in which he found it
   expressly foretold (Jer. xxix. 10), After seventy years be accomplished
   in Babylon (and therefore they must be reckoned from the first
   captivity, in the third year of Jehoiakim, which Daniel had reason to
   remember by a good token, for it was in that captivity that he was
   carried away himself, ch. i. 1), I will visit you, and perform my good
   word towards you. It was likewise said (Jer. xxv. 11), This whole land
   shall be seventy years a desolation (chorbath), the same word that
   Daniel here uses for the desolations of Jerusalem, which shows that he
   had that prophecy before him when he wrote this. Though Daniel was
   himself a great prophet, and one that was well acquainted with the
   visions of God, yet he was a diligent student in the scripture, and
   thought it no disparagement to him to consult Jeremiah's prophecies. He
   was a great politician, and prime-minister of state to one of the
   greatest monarchs upon earth, and yet could find both heart and time to
   converse with the word of God. The greatest and best men in the world
   must not think themselves above their Bibles. 3. How serious and solemn
   his address to God was when he understood that the seventy years were
   just upon expiring (for it appears, by Ezekiel's dating of his
   prophecies, that they exactly computed the years of their captivity),
   then he set his face to seek God by prayer. Note, God's promises are
   intended, not to supersede, but to excite and encourage, our prayers;
   and, when we see the day of the performance of them approaching, we
   should the more earnestly plead them with God and put them in suit. So
   Daniel did here; he prayed three times a day, and, no doubt, in every
   prayer made mention of the desolations of Jerusalem; yet he did not
   think that enough, but even in the midst of his business set time apart
   for an extraordinary application to Heaven on Jerusalem's behalf. God
   had said to Ezekiel that though Daniel, among others, stood before him,
   his intercession should not prevail to prevent the judgment (Ezek. xiv.
   14), yet he hopes, now that the warfare is accomplished (Isa. xl. 2),
   his prayer may be heard for the removing of the judgment. When the day
   of deliverance dawns it is time for God's praying people to bestir
   themselves; something extraordinary is then expected and required from
   them, besides their daily sacrifice. Now Daniel sought by prayer and
   supplications, for fear lest the sins of the people should provoke him
   to defer their deliverance longer than was intended, or rather that the
   people might be prepared by the grace of God for the deliverance now
   that the providence of God was about to work it out for them. Now
   observe, (1.) The intenseness of his mind in this prayer; I set my face
   unto the Lord God to seek him, which denotes the fixedness of his
   thoughts, the firmness of his faith, and the fervour of his devout
   affections, in the duty. We must, in prayer, set God before us, an set
   ourselves as in his presence; to him we must direct our prayer and must
   look up. Probably, in token of his setting his face towards God, he
   did, as usual, set his face towards Jerusalem, to affect his own heart
   the more with the desolations of it. (2.) The mortification of his body
   in this prayer. In token of his deep humiliation before God for his own
   sins, and the sins of his people, and the sense he had of his
   unworthiness, when he prayed he fasted, put on sackcloth, and lay in
   ashes, the more to affect himself with the desolations of Jerusalem,
   which he was praying for the repair of, and to make himself sensible
   that he was now about an extraordinary work.

Daniel's Confession and Prayer; Daniel's Prayer for His People. (b. c. 538.)

   4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said,
   O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to
   them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;   5 We have
   sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have
   rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
   6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake
   in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the
   people of the land.   7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but
   unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to
   the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and
   that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven
   them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
     8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our
   princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.   9
   To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have
   rebelled against him;   10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord
   our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants
   the prophets.   11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by
   departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is
   poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the
   servant of God, because we have sinned against him.   12 And he hath
   confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges
   that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole
   heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.   13 As it
   is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made
   we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our
   iniquities, and understand thy truth.   14 Therefore hath the Lord
   watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is
   righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
     15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of
   the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as
   at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.   16 O Lord,
   according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and
   thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain:
   because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem
   and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.   17 Now
   therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his
   supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is
   desolate, for the Lord's sake.   18 O my God, incline thine ear, and
   hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which
   is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before
   thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.   19 O Lord,
   hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own
   sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

   We have here Daniel's prayer to God as his God, and the confession
   which he joined with that prayer: I prayed, and made my confession.
   Note, In every prayer we must make confession, not only of the sins we
   have been guilty of (which we commonly call confession), but of our
   faith in God and dependence upon him, our sorrow for sin and our
   resolutions against it. It must be our confession, must be the language
   of our own convictions and that which we ourselves do heartily
   subscribe to.

   Let us go over the several parts of this prayer, which we have reason
   to think that he offered up much more largely than is here recorded,
   these being only the heads of it.

   I. Here is his humble, serious, reverent address to God, 1. As a God to
   be feared, and whom it is our duty always to stand in awe of: "O Lord!
   the great and dreadful God, that art able to deal with the greatest and
   most terrible of the church's enemies." 2. As a God to be trusted, and
   whom it is our duty to depend upon and put a confidence in: Keeping the
   covenant and mercy to those that love him, and, as a proof of their
   love to him, keep his commandments. If we fulfil our part of the
   bargain, he will not fail to fulfil his. He will be to his people as
   good as his word, for he keeps covenant with them, and not one iota of
   his promise shall fall to the ground; nay, he will be better than his
   word, for he keeps mercy to them, something more than was in the
   covenant. It was proper for Daniel to have his eye upon God's mercy now
   that he was to lay before him the miseries of his people, and upon
   God's covenant now that he was to sue for the performance of a promise.
   Note, We should, in prayer, look both at God's greatness and his
   goodness, his majesty and mercy in conjunction.

   II. Here is a penitent confession of sin, the procuring cause of all
   the calamities which his people had for so many years been groaning
   under, v. 5, 6. When we seek to God for national mercies we ought to
   humble ourselves before him for national sins. These are the sins
   Daniel here laments; and we may here observe the variety of words he
   makes use of to set forth the greatness of their provocations (for it
   becomes penitents to lay load upon themselves): We have sinned in many
   particular instances, nay, we have committed iniquity, we have driven a
   trade of sin, we have done wickedly with a hard heart and a stiff neck,
   and herein we have rebelled, have taken up arms against the King of
   kings, his crown and dignity. Two things aggravated their sins:--1.
   That they had violated the express laws God had given them by Moses:
   "We have departed from thy precepts and from thy judgments, and have
   not conformed to them. And (v. 10) we have not obeyed the voice of the
   Lord our God." That which speaks the nature of sin, that it is the
   transgression of the law, does sufficiently speak the malignity of it;
   if sin be made to appear sin, it cannot be made to appear worse; its
   sinfulness is its greatest hatefulness, Rom. vii. 13. God has set his
   laws before us plainly and fully, as the copy we should write after,
   yet we have not walked in them, but turned aside, or turned back. 2.
   That they had slighted the fair warnings God had given them by the
   prophets, which in every age he had sent to them, rising up betimes and
   sending them (v. 6): "We have not hearkened to thy servants the
   prophets, who have put us in mind of thy laws, and of the sanctions of
   them; though they spoke in thy name, we have not regarded them; though
   they delivered their message faithfully, with a universal respect to
   all orders and degrees of men, to our kings and princes, whom they had
   the courage and confidence to speak to, to our fathers, and to all the
   people of the land, whom they had the condescension and compassion to
   speak to, yet we have not hearkened to them, nor heard them, or not
   heeded them, or not complied with them." Mocking God's messengers, and
   despising his words, were Jerusalem's measure-filling sins, 2 Chron.
   xxxvi. 16. This confession of sin is repeated here, and much insisted
   on; penitents should again and again accuse and reproach themselves
   till they find their hearts thoroughly broken. All Israel have
   transgressed thy law, v. 11. It is Israel, God's professing people, who
   have known better, and from whom better is expected--Israel, God's
   peculiar people, whom he has surrounded with his favours; not here and
   there one, but it is all Israel, the generality of them, the body of
   the people, that have transgressed by departing and getting out of the
   way, that they might not hear, and so might not obey, thy voice. This
   disobedience is that which all true penitents do most sensibly charge
   upon themselves (v. 14): We obeyed not his voice, and (v. 15) we have
   sinned, we have done wickedly. Those that would find mercy must thus
   confess their sins.

   III. Here is a self-abasing acknowledgment of the righteousness of God
   in all the judgments that were brought upon them; and it is evermore
   the way of true penitents thus to justify God, that he may be clear
   when he judges, and the sinner may bear all the blame. 1. He
   acknowledges that it was sin that plunged them in all these troubles.
   Israel is dispersed through all the countries about, and so weakened,
   impoverished, and exposed. God's hand has driven them hither and
   thither, some near, where they are known and therefore the more
   ashamed, others afar off, where they are not known and therefore the
   more abandoned, and it is because of their trespass that they have
   trespassed (v. 7); they mingled themselves with the nations that they
   might be debauched by them, and now God mingles them with the nations
   that they might be stripped by them. 2. He owns the righteousness of
   God in it, that he had done them no wrong in all he had brought upon
   them, but had dealt with them as they deserved (v. 7): "O Lord!
   righteousness belongs to thee; we have no fault to find with thy
   providence, no exceptions to make against thy judgments, for (v. 14)
   the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he does, even in
   the sore calamities we are now under, for we obeyed not the words of
   his mouth, and therefore justly feel the weight of his hand." This
   seems to be borrowed from Lam. i. 18. 3. He takes notice of the
   fulfilling of the scripture in what was brought upon them. In very
   faithfulness he afflicted them; for it was according to the word which
   he had spoken. The curse is poured upon us and the oath, that is, the
   curse that was ratified by an oath in the law of Moses, v. 11. This
   further justifies God in their troubles, that he did but inflict the
   penalty of the law, which he had given them fair notice of. It was
   necessary for the preserving of the honour of God's veracity, and
   saving his government from contempt, that the threatenings of his word
   should be accomplished, otherwise they look but as bugbears, nay, they
   seem not at all frightful. Therefore he has confirmed his words which
   spoke against us because we broke his laws, and against our judges that
   judged us because they did not according to the duty of their place
   punish the breach of God's laws. He told them many a time that if they
   did not execute justice, as terrors to evil-workers, he must and would
   take the work into his own hands; and now he has confirmed what he said
   by bringing upon us a great evil, in which the princes and judges
   themselves deeply shared. Note, It contributes very much to our
   profiting by the judgments of God's hand to observe how exactly they
   agree with the judgments of his mouth. 4. He aggravates the calamities
   they were in, lest they should seem, having been long used to them, to
   make light of them, and so to lose the benefit of the chastening of the
   Lord by despising it. "It is not some of the common troubles of life
   that we are complaining of, but that which has in it some special marks
   of divine displeasure; for under the whole heaven has not been done as
   has been done upon Jerusalem," v. 12. It is Jeremiah's lamentation in
   the name of the church, Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow? which must
   suppose another similar question, Was ever sin like unto my sin? 5. He
   puts shame upon the whole nation, from the highest to the lowest; and
   if they will say Amen to his prayer, as it was fit they should if they
   would come in for a share in the benefit of it, they must all put their
   hand upon their mouth, and their mouth in the dust: "To us belongs
   confusion of faces as at this day (v. 7); we lie under the shame of the
   punishment of our iniquity, for shame is our due." If Israel had
   retained their character, and had continued a holy people, they would
   have been high above all nations in praise, and name, and honour (Deut.
   xxvi. 19); but now that they have sinned and done wickedly confusion
   and disgrace belong to them, to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem, the inhabitants both of the country and of the city, for
   they have been all alike guilty before God; it belongs to all Israel,
   both to the two tribes, that are near, by the rivers of Babylon, and to
   the ten tribes, that are afar off, in the land of Assyria. "Confusion
   belongs not only to the common people of our land, but to our kings,
   our princes, and our fathers (v. 8), who should have set a better
   example, and have used their authority and influence for the checking
   of the threatening torrent of vice profaneness." 6. He imputes the
   continuance of the judgment to their incorrigibleness under it (v. 13,
   14): "All this evil has come upon us, and has lain long upon us, yet
   made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, not in a right manner,
   as we should have made it, with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient
   heart. We have been smitten, but have not returned to him that smote
   us. We have not entreated the face of the Lord our God" (so the word
   is); "we have taken no care to make our peace with God and reconcile
   ourselves to him." Daniel set his brethren a good example of praying
   continually, but he was sorry to see how few there were that followed
   his example; in their affliction it was expected that they would seek
   God early, but they sought him not, that they might turn from their
   iniquities and understand his truth. The errand upon which afflictions
   are sent is to bring men to turn from their iniquities and to
   understand God's truth; so Elihu had explained them, Job xxxvi. 10. God
   by them opens men's ears to discipline and commands that they return
   from iniquity. And if men were brought rightly to understand God's
   truth, and to submit to the power and authority of it, they would turn
   from the error of their ways. Now the first step towards this is to
   make our prayer before the Lord our God, that the affliction may be
   sanctified before it is removed, and that the grace of God may go along
   with the providence of God, to make it answer the end. Those who in
   their affliction make not their prayer to God, who cry not when he
   binds them, are not likely to turn from iniquity or to understand his
   truth. "Therefore, because we have not improved the affliction, the
   Lord has watched upon the evil, as the judge takes care that execution
   be done according to the sentence. Because we have not been melted, he
   has kept us still in the furnace, and watched over it, to make the heat
   yet more intense;" for when God judges he will overcome, and will be
   justified in all his proceedings.

   IV. Here is a believing appeal to the mercy of God, and to the ancient
   tokens of his favour to Israel, and the concern of his own glory in
   their interests. 1. It is some comfort to them (and not a little) that
   God has been always ready to pardon sin (v. 9): To the Lord our God
   belong mercies and forgiveness; this refers to that proclamation of his
   name, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, The Lord God, gracious and merciful, forgiving
   iniquity. Note, It is very encouraging to poor sinners to recollect
   that mercies belong to God, as it is convincing and humbling to them to
   recollect that righteousness belongs to him; and those who give him the
   glory of his righteousness may take to themselves the comfort of his
   mercies, Ps. lxii. 12. There are abundant mercies in God, and not only
   forgiveness but forgivenesses; he is a God of pardons (Neh. ix. 17,
   marg.); he multiplies to pardon, Isa. lv. 7. Though we have rebelled
   against him, yet with him there is mercy, pardoning mercy, even for the
   rebellious. 2. It is likewise a support to them to think that God had
   formerly glorified himself by delivering them out of Egypt; so far he
   looks back for the encouragement of his faith (v. 15): "Thou hast
   formerly brought thy people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and wilt
   thou not now with the same mighty hand bring them out of Babylon? Were
   they then formed into a people, and shall they not now be reformed and
   new-formed? Are they now sinful and unworthy, and were they not so
   then? Are their oppressors now mighty and haughty, and were they not so
   then? And has not God said that their deliverance out of Babylon shall
   outshine even that out of Egypt?" Jer. xvi. 14, 15. The force of this
   plea lies in that, "Thou hast gotten thyself renown, hast made thyself
   a name" (so the word is) "as at this day, even to this day, by bringing
   us out of Egypt; and wilt thou lose the credit of that by letting us
   perish in Babylon? Didst thou get a renown by that deliverance which we
   have so often commemorated, and wilt thou not now get thyself a renown
   by this which we have so often prayed for, and so long waited for?"

   V. Here is a pathetic complaint of the reproach that God's people lay
   under, and the ruins that God's sanctuary lay in, both which redounded
   very much to the dishonour of God and the diminution of that name and
   renown which God had gained by bringing them out of Egypt. 1. God's
   holy people were despised. By their sins and the iniquities of their
   fathers they had profaned their crown and made themselves despicable,
   and then though they are, in name and profession, God's people, and
   upon that account truly great and honourable, yet they become a
   reproach to all that are round about them. Their neighbours laugh them
   to scorn, and triumph in their disgrace. Note, Sin is a reproach to any
   people, but especially to God's people, that have more eyes upon them
   and have more honour to lose than other people. 2. God's holy place was
   desolate. Jerusalem, the holy city, was a reproach (v. 16) when it lay
   in ruins; it was an astonishment and a hissing to all that passed by.
   The sanctuary, the holy house, was desolate (v. 17), the altars were
   demolished, and all the buildings laid in ashes. Note, The desolations
   of the sanctuary are the grief of all the saints, who reckon all their
   comforts in this world buried in the ruins of the sanctuary.

   VI. Here is an importunate request to God for the restoring of the poor
   captive Jews to their former enjoyments again. The petition is very
   pressing, for God gives us leave in prayer to wrestle with him: "O
   Lord! I beseech thee, v. 16. If ever thou wilt do any thing for me, do
   this; it is my heart's desire and prayer. Now therefore, O our God!
   hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplication (v. 17), and grant
   an answer of peace." Now what are his petitions? What are his requests?
   1. That God would turn away his wrath from them; that is it which all
   the saints dread and deprecate more than any thing: O let thy anger be
   turned away from thy Jerusalem, thy holy mountain! v. 16. He does not
   pray for the turning again of their captivity (let the Lord do with
   them as seems good in his eyes), but he prays first for the turning
   away of God's wrath. Take away the cause, and the effect will cease. 2.
   That he would lift up the light of his countenance upon them (v. 17):
   "Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate; return in
   thy mercy to us, and show that thou art reconciled to us, and then all
   shall be well." Note, The shining of God's face upon the desolations of
   the sanctuary is all in all towards the repair of it; and upon that
   foundation it must be rebuilt. If therefore its friends would begin
   their work at the right end, they must first be earnest with God in
   prayer for his favour, and recommend his desolate sanctuary to his
   smiles. Cause thy face to shine and then we shall be saved, Ps. lxxx.
   3. 3. That he would forgive their sins, and then hasten their
   deliverance (v. 19): O Lord! hear; O Lord! forgive. "That the mercy
   prayed for may be granted in mercy, let the sin that threatens to come
   between us and it be removed: O Lord! hearken and do, not hearken and
   speak only, but hearken and do; do that for us which none else can, and
   that speedily--defer not, O my God!" Now that he saw the appointed day
   approaching he could in faith pray that God would make haste to them
   and not defer. David often prays, Make haste, O God! to help me.

   VII. Here are several pleas and arguments to enforce the petitions. God
   gives us leave not only to pray, but to plead with him, which is not to
   move him (he himself knows what he will do), but to move ourselves, to
   excite our fervency and encourage our faith. 1. They disdain a
   dependence upon any righteousness of their own; they pretend not to
   merit any thing at God's hand but wrath and the curse (v. 18): "We do
   not present our supplications before thee with hope to speed for our
   righteousness, as if we were worthy to receive thy favour for any good
   in us, or done by us, or could demand any thing as a debt; we cannot
   insist upon our own justification, no, though we were more righteous
   than we are; nay, though we knew nothing amiss of ourselves, yet are we
   not thereby justified, nor would we answer, but we would make
   supplication to our Judge." Moses had told Israel long before that,
   whatever God did for them, it was not for their righteousness, Deut.
   ix. 4, 5. And Ezekiel had of late told them that their return out of
   Babylon would be not for their sakes, Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32. Note,
   Whenever we come to God for mercy we must lay aside all conceit of, and
   confidence in, our own righteousness. 2. They take their encouragement
   in prayer from God only, as knowing that his reasons of mercy are
   fetched from within himself, and therefore from him we must borrow all
   our pleas for mercy, and so give honour to him when we are suing for
   grace and mercy from him. (1.) "Do it for thy own sake (v. 19), for the
   accomplishment of thy own counsel, the performance of thy own promise,
   and the manifestation of thy own glory." Note, God will do his own
   work, not only in his own way and time, but for his own sake, and so we
   must take it. (2.) "Do it for the Lord's sake, that is, for the Lord
   Christ's sake," for the sake of the Messiah promised, who is the Lord
   (so the most and best of our Christian interpreters understand it), for
   the sake of Adonai, so David called the Messiah (Ps. cx. 1), and mercy
   is prayed for for the church for the sake of the Son of man (Ps. lxxx.
   17), and for thy Word's sake, he is Lord of all. It is for his sake
   that God causes his face to shine upon sinners when they repent and
   turn to him, because of the satisfaction he has made. In all our
   prayers that therefore must be our plea; we must make mention of his
   righteousness, even of his only, Ps. lxxi. 16. Look upon the face of
   the anointed. He has himself directed us to ask in his name. (3.) "Do
   it according to all thy righteousness (v. 16), that is, plead for us
   against our persecutors and oppressors according to thy righteousness.
   Though we are ourselves unrighteous before God, yet with reference to
   them we have a righteous cause, which we leave it with the righteous
   God to appear in the defence of." Or, rather, by the righteousness of
   God here is meant his faithfulness to his promise. God had, according
   to his righteousness, executed the threatening, v. 11. "Now, Lord, wilt
   thou not do according to all thy righteousness? Wilt thou not be as
   true to thy promises as thou hast been to thy threatenings and
   accomplish them also?" (4.) "Do it for thy great mercies (v. 18), to
   make it to appear that thou art a merciful God." The good things we ask
   of God we call mercies, because we expect them purely from God's mercy.
   And, because misery is the proper object of mercy, the prophet here
   spreads the deplorable condition of the church before God, as it were
   to move his compassion: "Open thy eyes and behold our desolations,
   especially the desolations of the sanctuary. O look with pity upon a
   pitiable case!" Note, The desolations of the church must in prayer be
   laid before God and then left with him. (5.) "Do it for the sake of the
   relation we stand in to thee. The sanctuary that is desolate is thy
   sanctuary (v. 17), dedicated to thy honour, employed in thy service,
   and the place of thy residence. Jerusalem is thy city and thy holy
   mountain (v. 16); it is the city which is called by thy name," v. 18.
   It was the city which God had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
   to put his name there. "The people that have become a reproach are thy
   people, and thy name suffers in the reproach cast upon them (v. 16);
   they are called by thy name, v. 19. Lord, thou hast a property in them,
   and therefore art interested in their interests; wilt thou not provide
   for thy own, for those of thy own house? They are thine, save them,"
   Ps. cxix. 94.

Daniel's Prayer Answered; The Answer to Daniel's Prayer; The Coming of the
Messiah; Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold. (b. c. 538.)

   20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and
   the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the
   Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;   21 Yea, whiles I was
   speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
   at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the
   time of the evening oblation.   22 And he informed me, and talked with
   me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and
   understanding.   23 At the beginning of thy supplications the
   commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art
   greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the
   vision.   24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
   holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
   to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
   righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
   the most Holy.   25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going
   forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the
   Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:
   the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
     26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but
   not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall
   destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a
   flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.   27 And
   he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst
   of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and
   for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even
   until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the
   desolate.

   We have here the answer that was immediately sent to Daniel's prayer,
   and it is a very memorable one, as it contains the most illustrious
   prediction of Christ and gospel-grace that is extant in all the Old
   Testament. If John Baptist was the morning-star, this was the day-break
   to the Sun of righteousness, the day-spring from on high. Here is,

   I. The time when this answer was given.

   1. It was while Daniel was at prayer. This he observed and laid a
   strong emphasis upon: While I was speaking (v. 20), yea, while I was
   speaking in prayer (v. 21), before he rose from his knees, and while
   there was yet more which he intended to say.

   (1.) He mentions the two heads he chiefly insisted upon in prayer, and
   which perhaps he designed yet further to enlarge upon. [1.] He was
   confessing sin and lamenting that--"both my sin and the sin of my
   people Israel." Daniel was a very great and good man, and yet he finds
   sin of his own to confess before God and is ready to confess it; for
   there is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not, nor
   that sins and repents not. St. John puts himself into the number of
   those who deceive themselves if they say that they have no sin, and who
   therefore confess their sins, 1 John i. 8. Good men find it an ease to
   their consciences to pour out their complaints before the Lord against
   themselves; and that is confessing sin. He also confessed the sin of
   his people, and bewailed that. Those who are heartily concerned for the
   glory of God, the welfare of the church, and the souls of men, will
   mourn for the sins of others as well as for their own. [2.] He was
   making supplication before the Lord his God, and presenting it to him
   as an intercessor for Israel; and in this prayer his concern was for
   the holy mountain of his God, Mount Zion. The desolations of the
   sanctuary lay nearer his heart than those of the city and the land; and
   the repair of that, and the setting up of the public worship of God of
   Israel again, were the things he had in view, in the deliverance he was
   preparing for, more than re-establishment of their civil interests.
   Now,

   (2.) While Daniel was thus employed, [1.] He had a grant made him of
   the mercy he prayed for. Note, God is very ready to hear prayer and to
   give an answer of peace. Now was fulfilled what God had spoken Isa.
   lxv. 24, While they are yet speaking, I will hear. Daniel grew very
   fervent in prayer, and his affections were very strong, v. 18, 19. And,
   while he was speaking with such fervour and ardency, the angel came to
   him with a gracious answer. God is well pleased with lively devotions.
   We cannot now expect that God should send us answers to our prayer by
   angels, but, if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised,
   we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer;
   for he is faithful that has promised. [2.] He had a discovery made to
   him of a far greater and more glorious redemption which God would work
   out for his church in the latter days. Note, Those that would be
   brought acquainted with Christ and his grace must be much in prayer.

   2. It was about the time of the evening oblation, v. 21. The altar was
   in ruins, and there was no oblation offered upon it, but, it should
   seem, the pious Jews in their captivity were daily thoughtful of the
   time when it should have been offered, and at that hour were ready to
   weep at the remembrance of it, and desired and hoped that their prayer
   should be set forth before God as incense, and the lifting up of their
   hands, and their hearts with their hands, should be acceptable in his
   sight as the evening-sacrifice, Ps. cxli. 2. The evening oblation was a
   type of the great sacrifice which Christ was to offer in the evening of
   the world, and it was in the virtue of that sacrifice that Daniel's
   prayer was accepted when he prayed for the Lord's sake; and for the
   sake of that this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him.
   The Lamb opened the seals in the virtue of his own blood.

   II. The messenger by whom this answer was sent. It was not given him in
   a dream, nor by a voice from heaven, but, for the greater certainty and
   solemnity of it, an angel was sent on purpose, appearing in a human
   shape, to give this answer to Daniel. Observe,

   1. Who this angel, or messenger, was; it was the man Gabriel. If
   Michael the archangel be, as many suppose, no other than Jesus Christ,
   this Gabriel is the only created angel that is named in scripture.
   Gabriel signifies the mighty one of God; for the angels are great in
   power and might, 2 Pet. ii. 11. It was he whom I had seen in the vision
   at the beginning. Daniel heard him called by his name, and thence
   learned it (Dan. viii. 16); and, though then he trembled at his
   approach, yet he observed him so carefully that now he knew him again,
   knew him to be the same that he had seen at the beginning, and, being
   somewhat better acquainted with him, was not now so terrified at the
   sight of him as he had been at first. When this angel said to
   Zacharias, I am Gabriel (Luke i. 19), he intended thereby to put him in
   mind of this notice which he had given to Daniel of the Messiah's
   coming when it was at a distance, for the confirming of his faith in
   the notice he was then about to give of it as at the door.

   2. The instructions which this messenger received from the Father of
   lights to whom Daniel prayed (v. 23): At the beginning of thy
   supplications the word, the commandment, came forth from God. Notice
   was given to the angels in heaven of this counsel of God, which they
   were desirous to look into; and orders were given to Gabriel to go
   immediately and bring the notice of it to Daniel. By this it appears
   that it was not any thing which Daniel said that moved God, for the
   answer was given as he began to pray; but God was well pleased with his
   serious solemn address to the duty, and, in token of that, sent him
   this gracious message. Or perhaps it was at the beginning of Daniel's
   supplications that Cyrus's word, or commandment, went forth to restore
   and to build Jerusalem, that going forth spoken of v. 25. "The thing
   was done this very day; the proclamation of liberty to the Jews was
   signed this morning, just when thou wast praying for it;" and now, at
   the close of this fast-day, Daniel had notice of it, as, at the close
   of the day of atonement, the jubilee-trumpet sounded to proclaim
   liberty.

   3. The haste he made to deliver his message: He was caused to fly
   swiftly, v. 21. Angels are winged messengers, quick in their motions,
   and delay not to execute the orders they receive; they run and return
   like a flash of lightning, Ezek. i. 14. But, it should seem, sometimes
   they are more expeditious than at other times, and make a quicker
   despatch, as here the angel was caused to fly swiftly; that is, he was
   ordered and he was enabled to fly swiftly. Angels do their work in
   obedience to divine command and in dependence upon divine strength.
   Though they excel in wisdom, they fly swifter or slower as God directs;
   and, though they excel in power, they fly but as God causes them to
   fly. Angels themselves are to us what he makes them to be; they are his
   ministers, and do his pleasure, Ps. ciii. 21.

   4. The prefaces or introductions to his message. (1.) He touched him
   (v. 21), as before (ch. viii. 18), not to awaken him out of sleep as
   then, but to give him a hint to break off his prayer and to attend to
   that which he has to say in answer to it. Note, In order to the keeping
   up of our communion with God we must not only be forward to speak to
   God, but as forward to hear what he has to say to us; when we have
   prayed we must look up, must look after our prayers, must set ourselves
   upon our watch-tower. (2.) He talked with him (v. 22), talked
   familiarly with him, as one friend talks with another, that his terror
   might not make him afraid. He informed him on what errand he came, that
   he was sent from heaven on purpose with a kind message to him: "I have
   come to show thee (v. 23), to tell thee that which thou didst not know
   before." He had shown him the troubles of the church under Antiochus,
   and the period of those troubles (ch. viii. 19); but now he has greater
   things to show him, for he that is faithful in a little shall be
   entrusted with more. "Nay, I have now come forth to give thee skill and
   understanding (v. 22), not only to show thee these things, but to make
   thee understand them." (3.) He assured him that he was a favourite of
   Heaven, else he would not have had this intelligence sent him, and he
   must take it for a favour: "I have come to show thee, for thou art
   greatly beloved. Thou art a man of desires, acceptable to God, and whom
   he has a favour for." Note, Though God loves all his children, yet
   there are some that are more than the rest greatly beloved. Christ had
   one disciple that lay in his bosom; and that beloved disciple was he
   that was entrusted with the prophetical visions of the New Testament,
   as Daniel was with those of the Old. For what greater token can there
   be of God's favour to any man than for the secrets of the Lord to be
   with him? Abraham is the friend of God; and therefore Shall I hide from
   Abraham that thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17. Note, Those may reckon
   themselves greatly beloved of God to whom, and in whom, he reveals his
   Son. Some observe that the title which this angel Gabriel gives to the
   Virgin Mary is much the same with this which he here gives to Daniel,
   as if he designed to put her in mind of it--Thou that art highly
   favoured; as Daniel, greatly beloved. (4.) He demands his serious
   attention to the discovery he was now about to make to him: Therefore
   understand the matter, and consider the vision, v. 23. This intimates
   that it was a thing well worthy of his regard, above any of the visions
   he had been before favoured with. Note, Those who would understand the
   things of God must consider them, must apply their minds to them,
   ponder upon them, and compare spiritual things with spiritual. The
   reason why we are so much in the dark concerning the revealed will of
   God, and mistake concerning it, is want of consideration. This vision
   both requires and deserves consideration.

   III. The message itself. It was delivered with great solemnity,
   received no doubt with great attention, and recorded with great
   exactness; but in it, as is usual in prophecies, there are things dark
   and hard to be understood. Daniel, who understood by the book of the
   prophet Jeremiah the expiration of the seventy years of the captivity,
   is now honourably employed to make known to the church another more
   glorious release, which that was but a shadow of, at the end of another
   seventy, not years, but weeks of years. He prayed over that prophecy,
   and received this in answer to that prayer. He had prayed for his
   people and the holy city--that they might be released, that it might be
   rebuilt; but God answers him above what he was able to ask or think.
   God not only grants, but outdoes, the desires of those that fear him,
   Ps. xxi. 4.

   1. The times here determined are somewhat hard to be understood. In
   general, it is seventy weeks, that is, seventy times seven years, which
   makes just 490 years. The great affairs that are yet to come concerning
   the people of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem, will lie within the
   compass of these years.

   (1.) These years are thus described by weeks, [1.] In conformity to the
   prophetic style, which is, for the most part, abstruse, and out of the
   common road of speaking, that the things foretold might not lie too
   obvious. [2.] To put an honour upon the division of time into weeks,
   which is made purely by the sabbath day, and to signify that that
   should be perpetual. [3.] With reference to the seventy years of the
   captivity; as they had been so long kept out of the possession of their
   own land, so, being now restored to it they should seven times as long
   be kept in the possession of it. So much more does God delight in
   showing mercy than in punishing. The land had enjoyed its sabbaths, in
   a melancholy sense, seventy years, Lev. xxvi. 34. But now the people of
   the Lord shall, in a comfortable sense, enjoy their sabbaths seven
   times seventy years, and in them seventy sabbatical years, which makes
   ten jubilees. Such proportions are there in the disposals of
   Providence, that we might see and admire the wisdom of him who has
   determined the times before appointed.

   (2.) The difficulties that arise about these seventy weeks are, [1.]
   Concerning the time when they commence and whence they are to be
   reckoned. They are here dated from the going forth of the commandments
   to restore and to build Jerusalem, v. 25. I should most incline to
   understand this of the edict of Cyrus mentioned Ezra i. 1, for by it
   the people were restored; and, though express mention be not made there
   of the building of Jerusalem, yet that is supposed in the building of
   the temple, and was foretold to be done by Cyrus, Isa. xliv. 28. He
   shall say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built. That was, both in prophecy
   and in history, the most famous decree for the building of Jerusalem;
   nay, it should seem, this going forth of the commandment (which may as
   well be meant of God's command concerning it as of Cyrus's) is the same
   with that going forth of the commandment mentioned v. 23, which was at
   the beginning of Daniel's supplications. And it looks very graceful
   that the seventy weeks should begin immediately upon the expiration of
   the seventy years. And there is nothing to be objected against this but
   that by this reckoning the Persian monarchy, from the taking of Babylon
   by Cyrus to Alexander's conquest of Darius, lasted but 130 years;
   whereas, by the particular account given of the reigns of the Persian
   emperors, it is computed that it continued 230 years. So Thucydides,
   Xenophon, and others reckon. Those who fix it to that first edict set
   aside these computations of the heathen historians as uncertain and not
   to be relied upon. But others, willing to reconcile them, begin the 490
   years, not at the edict of Cyrus (Ezra i. 1), but at the second edict
   for the building of Jerusalem, issued out by Darius Nothus above 100
   years after, mentioned Ezra vi. Others fix on the seventh year of
   Artaxerxes Mnemon, who sent Ezra with a commission, Ezra vii. 8-12. The
   learned Mr. Poole, in his Latin Synopsis, has a vast and most elaborate
   collection of what has been said, pro and con, concerning the different
   beginnings of these weeks, with which the learned may entertain
   themselves. [2.] Concerning the termination of them; and here likewise
   interpreters are not agreed. Some make them to end at the death of
   Christ, and think the express words of this famous prophecy will
   warrant us to conclude that from this very hour when Gabriel spoke to
   Daniel, at the time of the evening oblation, to the hour when Christ
   died, which was towards evening too, it was exactly 490 years; and I am
   willing enough to be of that opinion. But others think, because it is
   said that in the midst of the weeks (that is, the last of the seventy
   weeks) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, they end
   three years and a half after the death of Christ, when the Jews having
   rejected the gospel, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. But those who
   make them to end precisely at the death of Christ read it thus, "He
   shall make strong the testament to the many; the last seven, or the
   last week, yea, half that seven, or half that week (namely, the latter
   half, the three years and a half which Christ spent in his public
   ministry), shall bring to an end sacrifice and oblation." Others make
   these 490 years to end with the destruction of Jerusalem, about
   thirty-seven years after the death of Christ, because these seventy
   weeks are said to be determined upon the people of the Jews and the
   holy city; and much is said here concerning the destruction of the city
   and the sanctuary. [3.] Concerning the division of them into seven
   weeks, and sixty-two weeks, and one week; and the reason of this is as
   hard to account for as any thing else. In the first seven weeks, or
   forty-nine years, the temple and city were built; and in the last
   single week Christ preached his gospel, by which the Jewish economy was
   taken down, and the foundations were laid of the gospel city and
   temple, which were to be built upon the ruins of the former.

   (3.) But, whatever uncertainty we may labour under concerning the exact
   fixing of these times, there is enough clear and certain to answer the
   two great ends of determining them. [1.] It did serve them to raise and
   support the expectations of believers. There were general promises of
   the coming of the Messiah made to the patriarchs; the preceding
   prophets had often spoken of him as one that should come, but never was
   the time fixed for his coming until now. And, though there might be so
   much doubt concerning the date of this reckoning that they could not
   ascertain the time just to a year, yet by the light of this prophecy
   they were directed about what time to expect him. And we find,
   accordingly, that when Christ came he was generally looked for as the
   consolation of Israel, and redemption in Jerusalem by him, Luke ii. 25,
   38. There were those that for this reason thought the kingdom of God
   should immediately appear (Luke xix. 11), and some think it was this
   that brought a more than ordinary concourse of people to Jerusalem,
   Acts ii. 5. [2.] It does serve still to refute and silence the
   expectations of unbelievers, who will not own that Jesus is he who
   should come, but still look for another. This prediction should silence
   them, and will condemn them; for, reckon these seventy weeks from which
   of the commandments to build Jerusalem we please, it is certain that
   they have expired above 1500 years ago; so that the Jews are for ever
   without excuse, who will not own that the Messiah has come when they
   have gone so far beyond their utmost reckoning for his coming. But by
   this we are confirmed in our belief of the Messiah's being come, and
   that our Jesus is he, that he came just at the time prefixed, a time
   worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance.

   2. The events here foretold are more plain and easy to be understood,
   at least to us now. Observe what is here foretold,

   (1.) Concerning the return of the Jews now speedily to their own land,
   and their settlement again there, which was the thing that Daniel now
   principally prayed for; and yet it is but briefly touched upon here in
   the answer to his prayer. Let this be a comfort to the pious Jews, that
   a commandment shall go forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, v. 25.
   And the commandment shall not be in vain; for though the times will be
   very troublous, and this good work will meet with great opposition, yet
   it shall be carried on, and brought to perfection at last. The street
   shall be built again, as spacious and splendid as ever it was, and the
   walls, even in troublous times. Note, as long as we are here in this
   world we must expect troublous times, upon some account or other. Even
   when we have joyous times we must rejoice with trembling; it is but a
   gleam, it is but a lucid interval of peace and prosperity; the clouds
   will return after the rain. When the Jews are restored in triumph to
   their own land, yet there they must expect troublous times, and prepare
   for them. But this is our comfort, that God will carry on his own work,
   will build up his Jerusalem, will beautify it, will fortify it, even in
   troublous times; nay, the troublousness of the times may by the grace
   of God contribute to the advancement of the church. The more it is
   afflicted the more it multiplies.

   (2.) Concerning the Messiah and his undertaking. The carnal Jews looked
   for a Messiah that could deliver them from the Roman yoke and give them
   temporal power and wealth, whereas they were here told that the Messiah
   should come upon another errand, purely spiritual, and upon the account
   of which he should be the more welcome. [1.] Christ came to take away
   sin, and to abolish that. Sin had made a quarrel between God and man,
   had alienated men from God and provoked God against man; it was this
   that put dishonour upon God and brought misery upon mankind; this was
   the great mischief-maker. He that would do God a real service, and man
   a real kindness, must be the destruction of this. Christ undertakes to
   be so, and for this purpose he is manifested, to destroy the works of
   the devil. He does not say to finish your transgressions and your sins,
   but transgression and sin in general, for he is the propitiation not
   only for our sins, that are Jews, but for the sins of the whole world.
   He came, First, To finish transgression, to restrain it (so some), to
   break the power of it, to bruise the head of that serpent that had done
   so much mischief, to take away the usurped dominion of that tyrant, and
   to set up a kingdom of holiness and love in the hearts of men, upon the
   ruins of Satan's kingdom there, that, where sin and death had reigned,
   righteousness and life through grace might reign. When he died he said,
   It is finished; sin has now had its death-wound given it, like
   Samson's, Let me die with the Philistines. Animamque in vulnere
   ponit--He inflicts the wound and dies. Secondly, To make an end of sin,
   to abolish it, that it may not rise up in judgment against us, to
   obtain the pardon of it, that it may not be our ruin, to seal up sins
   (so the margin reads it), that they may not appear or break out against
   us, to accuse and condemn us, as, when Christ cast the devil into the
   bottomless pit, he set a seal upon him, Rev. xx. 3. When sin is
   pardoned it is sought for and not found, as that which is sealed up.
   Thirdly, To make reconciliation for iniquity, as by a sacrifice, to
   satisfy the justice of God and so to make peace and bring God and man
   together, not only as an arbitrator, or referee, who only brings the
   contending parties to a good understanding one of another, but as a
   surety, or undertaker, for us. He is not only the peace-maker, but the
   peace. He is the atonement. [2.] He came to bring in an everlasting
   righteousness. God might justly have made an end of the sin by making
   an end of the sinner; but Christ found out another way, and so made an
   end of sin as to save the sinner from it, by providing a righteousness
   for him. We are all guilty before God, and shall be condemned as
   guilty, if we have not a righteousness wherein to appear before him.
   Had we stood, our innocency would have been our righteousness, but,
   having fallen, we must have something else to plead; and Christ has
   provided us a plea. The merit of his sacrifice is our righteousness;
   with this we answer all the demands of the law; Christ has died, yea,
   rather, has risen again. Thus Christ is the Lord our righteousness, for
   he is made of God to us righteousness, that we might be made the
   righteousness of God in him. By faith we apply this to ourselves and
   plead it with God, and our faith is imputed to us for righteousness,
   Rom. iv. 3, 5. This is an everlasting righteousness, for Christ, who is
   our righteousness, and the prince of our peace, is the everlasting
   Father. It was from everlasting in the counsels of it and will be to
   everlasting in the consequences of it. The application of it was from
   the beginning, for Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
   world; and it will be to the end, for he is able to save to the
   uttermost. It is of everlasting virtue (Heb. x. 12); it is the rock
   that follows us to Canaan. [3.] He came to seal up the vision and
   prophecy, all the prophetical visions of the Old Testament, which had
   reference to the Messiah. He sealed them up, that is, he accomplished
   them, answered to them to a tittle; all things that were written in the
   law, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning the Messiah, were
   fulfilled in him. Thus he confirmed the truth of them as well as his
   own mission. He sealed them up, that is, he put an end to that method
   of God's discovering his mind and will, and took another course by
   completing the scripture-canon in the New Testament, which is the more
   sure word of prophecy than that by vision, 2 Pet. i. 19; Heb. i. 1.
   [4.] He came to anoint the most holy, that is, himself, the Holy One,
   who was anointed (that is, appointed to his work and qualified for it)
   by the Holy Ghost, that oil of gladness which he received without
   measure, above his fellows; or to anoint the gospel-church, his
   spiritual temple, or holy place, to sanctify and cleanse it, and
   appropriate it to himself (Eph. v. 26), or to consecrate for us a new
   and living way into the holiest, by his own blood (Heb. x. 20), as the
   sanctuary was anointed, Exod. xxx. 25, &c. He is called Messiah (v. 25,
   26), which signifies Christ-Anointed (John i. 41), because he received
   the unction both for himself and for all that are his. [5.] In order to
   all this the Messiah must be cut off, must die a violent death, and so
   be cut off from the land of the living, as was foretold, Isa. liii. 8.
   Hence, when Paul preaches the death of Christ, he says that he preached
   nothing but what the prophet said should come, Acts xxvi. 22, 23. And
   thus it behoved Christ to suffer. He must be cut off, but not for
   himself--not for any sin of his own, but, as Caiaphas prophesied, he
   must die for the people, in our stead and for our good,--not for any
   advantage of his own (the glory he purchased for himself was no more
   than the glory he had before, John xvii. 4, 5); no; it was to atone for
   our sins, and to purchase life for us, that he was cut off. [6.] He
   must confirm the covenant with many. He shall introduce a new covenant
   between God and man, a covenant of grace, since it had become
   impossible for us to be saved by a covenant of innocence. This covenant
   he shall confirm by his doctrine and miracles, by his death and
   resurrection, by the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, which
   are the seals of the New Testament, assuring us that God is willing to
   accept us upon gospel-terms. His death made his testament of force, and
   enabled us to claim what is bequeathed by it. He confirmed it to the
   many, to the common people; the poor were evangelized, when the rulers
   and Pharisees believed not on him. Or, he confirmed it with many, with
   the Gentile world. The New Testament was not (like the Old) confined to
   the Jewish church, but was committed to all nations. Christ gave his
   life a ransom for many. [7.] He must cause the sacrifice and oblation
   to cease. By offering himself a sacrifice once for all he shall put an
   end to all the Levitical sacrifices, shall supersede them and set them
   aside; when the substance comes the shadows shall be done away. He
   causes all the peace-offerings to cease when he has made peace by the
   blood of his cross, and by it confirmed the covenant of peace and
   reconciliation. By the preaching of his gospel to the world, with which
   the apostles were entrusted, he took men off from expecting remission
   by the blood of bulls and goats, and so caused the sacrifice and
   oblation to cease. The apostle in his epistle to the Hebrews shows what
   a better priesthood, altar, and sacrifice, we have now than they had
   under the law, as a reason why we should hold fast our profession.

   (3.) Concerning the final destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish
   church and nation; and this follows immediately upon the cutting off of
   the Messiah, not only because it was the just punishment of those that
   put him to death, which was the sin that filled up the measure of their
   iniquity and brought ruin upon them, but because, as things were, it
   was necessary to the perfecting of one of the great intentions of his
   death. He died to take away the ceremonial law, quite to abolish that
   law of commandments, and to vacate the obligation of it. But the Jews
   would not be persuaded to quit it; still they kept it up with more zeal
   than ever; they would hear no talk of parting with it; they stoned
   Stephen (the first Christian martyr) for saying that Jesus should
   change the customs which Moses delivered them (Acts vi. 14); so that
   there was no way to abolish the Mosaic economy but by destroying the
   temple, and the holy city, and the Levitical priesthood, and that whole
   nation which so incurably doted on them. This was effectually done in
   less than forty years after the death of Christ, and it was a
   desolation that could never be repaired to this day. And this is it
   which is here largely foretold, that the Jews who returned out of
   captivity might not be overmuch lifted up with the rebuilding of their
   city and temple, because in process of time they would be finally
   destroyed, and not as now for seventy years only, but might rather
   rejoice in hope of the coming of the Messiah, and the setting up of his
   spiritual kingdom in the world, which should never be destroyed. Now,
   [1.] It is here foretold that the people of the prince that shall come
   shall be the instruments of this destruction, that is, the Roman
   armies, belonging to a monarchy yet to come (Christ is the prince that
   shall come, and they are employed by him in this service; they are his
   armies, Matt. xxii. 7), or the Gentiles (who, though now strangers,
   shall become the people of the Messiah) shall destroy the Jews. [2.]
   That the destruction shall be by war, and the end of that war shall be
   this desolation determined. The wars of the Jews with the Romans were
   by their own obstinacy made very long and very bloody, and they issued
   at length in the utter extirpation of that people. [3.] That the city
   and sanctuary shall in a particular manner be destroyed and laid quite
   waste. Titus the Roman general would fain have saved the temple, but
   his soldiers were so enraged against the Jews that he could not
   restrain them from burning it to the ground, that this prophecy might
   be fulfilled. [4.] That all the resistance that shall be made to this
   destruction shall be in vain: The end of it shall be with a flood. It
   shall be a deluge of destruction, like that which swept away the old
   world, and which there will be no making head against. [5.] That hereby
   the sacrifice and oblation shall be made to cease. And it must needs
   cease when the family of the priests was so extirpated, and the
   genealogies of it were so confounded, that (they say) there is no man
   in the world that can prove himself of the seed of Aaron. [6.] that
   there shall be an overspreading of abominations, a general corruption
   of the Jewish nation and an abounding of iniquity among them, for which
   it shall be made desolate, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Or it is rather to be
   understood of the armies of the Romans, which were abominable to the
   Jews (they could not endure them), which overspread the nation, and by
   which it was made desolate; for these are the words which Christ refers
   to, Matt. xxiv. 15, When you shall see the abomination of desolation,
   spoken of by Daniel, stand in the holy place, then let those who shall
   be in Judea flee, which is explained Luke xxi. 20, When you shall see
   Jerusalem encompassed with armies then flee. [7.] That the desolation
   shall be total and final: He shall make it desolate, even until the
   consummation, that is, he shall make it completely desolate. It is a
   desolation determined, and it will be accomplished to the utmost. And
   when it is made desolate, it should seem, there is something more
   determined that is to be poured upon the desolate (v. 27), and what
   should that be but the spirit of slumber (Rom. xi. 8, 25), that
   blindness which has happened to Israel until the fulness of the
   Gentiles shall come in? And then all Israel shall be saved.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. X.

   This chapter and the two next (which conclude this book) make up one
   entire vision and prophecy, which was communicated to Daniel for the
   use of the church, not by signs and figures, as before (ch. vii. and
   viii.), but by express words; and this was about two years after the
   vision in the foregoing chapter. Daniel prayed daily, but had a vision
   only now and then. In this chapter we have some things introductory to
   the prophecy, in the eleventh chapter the particular predictions, and
   ch. xii. the conclusion of it. This chapter shows us, I. Daniel's
   solemn fasting and humiliation, before he had this vision, ver. 1-3.
   II. A glorious appearance of the Son of God to him, and the deep
   impression it made upon him, ver. 4-9. III. The encouragement that was
   given him to expect such a discovery of future events as should be
   satisfactory and useful both to others and to himself, and that he
   should be enabled both to understand the meaning of this discovery,
   though difficult, and to bear up under the lustre of it, though
   dazzling and dreadful, ver. 10-21.

Vision near the River Hiddekel. (b. c. 534.)

   1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto
   Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but
   the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had
   understanding of the vision.   2 In those days I Daniel was mourning
   three full weeks.   3 I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor
   wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole
   weeks were fulfilled.   4 And in the four and twentieth day of the
   first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is
   Hiddekel;   5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a
   certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of
   Uphaz:   6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the
   appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms
   and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his
   words like the voice of a multitude.   7 And I Daniel alone saw the
   vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great
   quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.   8
   Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there
   remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into
   corruption, and I retained no strength.   9 Yet heard I the voice of
   his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a
   deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.

   This vision is dated in the third year of Cyrus, that is, of his reign
   after the conquest of Babylon, his third year since Daniel became
   acquainted with him and a subject to him. Here is,

   I. A general idea of this prophecy (v. 1): The thing was true; every
   word of God is so; it was true that Daniel had such a vision, and that
   such and such things were said. This he solemnly attests upon the word
   of a prophet. Et hoc paratus est verificare--He was prepared to verify
   it; and, if it was a word spoken from heaven, no doubt it is stedfast
   and may be depended upon. But the time appointed was long, as long as
   to the end of the reign of Antiochus, which was 300 years, a long time
   indeed when it is looked upon as to come. Nay, and because it is usual
   with the prophets to glance at things spiritual and eternal, there is
   that in this prophecy which looks in type as far forward as to the end
   of the world and the resurrection of the dead; and then he might well
   say, The time appointed was long. It was, however, made as plain to him
   as if it had been a history rather than a prophecy; he understood the
   thing; so distinctly was it delivered to him, and received by him, that
   he could say he had understanding of the vision. It did not so much
   operate upon his fancy as upon his understanding.

   II. An account of Daniel's mortification of himself before he had this
   vision, not in expectation of it, nor, when he prayed that solemn
   prayer ch. ix., does it appear that he had any expectation of the
   vision in answer to it, but purely from a principle of devotion and
   pious sympathy with the afflicted people of God. He was mourning full
   three weeks (v. 2), for his own sins and the sins of his people, and
   their sorrows. Some think that the particular occasion of his mourning
   was slothfulness and indifference of many of the Jews, who, though they
   had liberty to return to their own land, continued still in the land of
   their captivity, not knowing how to value the privileges offered them;
   and perhaps it troubled him the more because those that did so
   justified themselves by the example of Daniel, though they had not that
   reason to stay behind which he had. Others think that it was because he
   heard of the obstruction given to the building of the temple by the
   enemies of the Jews, who hired counsellors against them, to frustrate
   their purpose (Ezra iv. 4, 5), all the days of Cyrus, and gained their
   point from his son Cambyses, or Artaxerxes, who governed while Cyrus
   was absent in the Scythian war. Note, Good men cannot but mourn to see
   how slowly the work of God goes on in the world and what opposition it
   meets with, how weak its friends are and how active its enemies. During
   the days of Daniel's mourning he ate no pleasant bread; he could not
   live without meat, but he ate little, and very sparingly, and mortified
   himself in the quality as well as the quantity of what he ate, which
   may truly be reckoned fasting, and a token of humiliation and sorrow.
   He did not eat the pleasant bread he used to eat, but that which was
   course and unpalatable, which he would not be tempted to eat any more
   of than was just necessary to support nature. As ornaments, so
   delicacies, are very disagreeable to a day of humiliation. Daniel ate
   no flesh, drank no wine, nor anointed himself, for those three week's
   time, v. 3. Though he was now a very old man, and might plead that the
   decay of his nature required what was nourishing, though he was a very
   great man, and might plead that, being used to dainty meats, he could
   not do without them, it would prejudice his health if he were, yet,
   when it was both to testify and to assist his devotion, he could thus
   deny himself; let this be noted to the shame of many young people in
   the common ranks of life who cannot persuade themselves thus to deny
   themselves.

   III. A description of that glorious person whom Daniel saw in vision,
   which, it is generally agreed, could be no other that Christ himself,
   the eternal Word. He was by the side of the river Hiddekel (v. 4),
   probably walking there, not for diversion, but devotion and
   contemplation, as Isaac walked in the field, to meditate; and, being a
   person of distinction, he had his servants attending him at some
   distance. There he looked up, and saw one man Christ Jesus. It must be
   he, for he appears in the same resemblance wherein he appeared to St.
   John in the isle of Patmos, Rev. i. 13-15. His dress was priestly, for
   he is the high priest of our profession, clothed in linen, as the high
   priest himself was on the day of atonement, that great day; his loins
   were girded (in St. John's vision his paps were girded) with a golden
   girdle of the finest gold, that of Uphaz, for every thing about Christ
   is the best in its kind. The girding of the loins denotes his ready and
   diligent application to his work, as his Father's servant, in the
   business of our redemption. His shape was amiable, his body like the
   beryl, a precious stone of a sky-colour. His countenance was awful, and
   enough to strike a terror on the beholders, for his face was as the
   appearance of lightning, which dazzles the eyes, both brightens and
   threatens. His eyes were bright and sparkling, as lamps of fire. His
   arms and feet shone like polished brass, v. 6. His voice was loud, and
   strong, and very piercing, like the voice of a multitude. The vox
   Dei--voice of God can overpower the vox populi--voice of the people.
   Thus glorious did Christ appear, and it should engage us, 1. To think
   highly and honourably of him. Now consider how great this man is, and
   in all things let him have the pre-eminence. 2. To admire his
   condescension for us and our salvation. Over all this splendour he drew
   a veil when he took upon him the form of a servant, and emptied
   himself.

   IV. The wonderful influence that this appearance had upon Daniel and
   his attendants, and the terror that it struck upon him and them.

   1. His attendants saw not the vision; it was not fit that they should
   be honoured with the sight of it. There is a divine revelation
   vouchsafed to all, from converse with which none are excluded who do
   not exclude themselves; but such a vision must be peculiar to Daniel,
   who was a favourite. Paul's companions were aware of the light, but saw
   no man, Acts ix. 7; xxii. 9. Note, It is the honour of those who are
   beloved of God that, what is hidden from others, is known to them.
   Christ manifests himself to them, but not to the world, John xiv. 22.
   But, though they saw not the vision, they were seized with an
   unaccountable trembling; either from the voice they heard, or from some
   strange concussion or vibration of the air they felt, so it was that a
   great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves,
   probably among the willows that grew by the river's side. Note, Many
   have a spirit of bondage to fear who never receive a spirit of
   adoption, to whom Christ has been, and will be, never otherwise than a
   terror. Now the fright that Daniel's attendants were in is a
   confirmation of the truth of the vision; it could not be Daniel's
   fancy, or the product of a heated imagination of his own, for it had a
   real, powerful, and strange effect upon those about him.

   2. He himself saw it, and saw it alone, but he was not able to bear the
   sight of it. It not only dazzled his eyes, but overwhelmed his spirit,
   so that there remained no strength in him, v. 8. He said, as Moses
   himself, I exceedingly fear and quake. His spirits were all so
   employed, either in an intense speculation of the glory of this vision
   or in the fortifying of his heart against the terror of it, that his
   body was left in a manner lifeless and spiritless. He had no vigour in
   him, and was but one remove from a dead carcase; he looked as pale as
   death, his colour was gone, his comeliness in him was turned into
   corruption, and he retained no strength. Note, the greatest and best of
   men cannot bear the immediate discoveries of the divine glory; no man
   can see it and live; it is next to death to see a glimpse of it, as
   Daniel here; but glorified saints see Christ as he is and can bear the
   sight. But, though Daniel was thus dispirited with the vision of
   Christ, yet he heard the voice of his words and knew what he said.
   Note, We must take heed lest our reverence of God's glory, by which we
   should be awakened to hear his voice both in his word and in his
   providence, should degenerate into such a dread of him as will disable
   or indispose us to hear it. It should seem that when the vision of
   Christ terrified Daniel the voice of his words soon pacified and
   composed him, silenced his fear, and laid him to sleep in a holy
   security and serenity of mind: When I heard the voice of his words I
   fell into a slumber, a sweet slumber, on my face, and my face towards
   the ground. When he saw the vision he threw himself prostrate, into a
   posture of the most humble adoration, and dropped asleep, not as
   careless of what he heard and saw, but charmed with it. Note, How
   dreadful soever Christ may appear to those who are under convictions of
   sin, and in terror by reason of it, there is enough in his word to
   quiet their spirits and make them easy, if they will but attend to it
   and apply it.

Daniel Alarmed and Comforted. (b. c. 534.)

   10 And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon
   the palms of my hands.   11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man
   greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand
   upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word
   unto me, I stood trembling.   12 Then said he unto me, Fear not,
   Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to
   understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were
   heard, and I am come for thy words.   13 But the prince of the kingdom
   of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of
   the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings
   of Persia.   14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall
   thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
   15 And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the
   ground, and I became dumb.   16 And, behold, one like the similitude of
   the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and
   said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows
   are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.   17 For how can
   the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me,
   straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath
   left in me.   18 Then there came again and touched me one like the
   appearance of a man, and he strengthened me,   19 And said, O man
   greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be
   strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said,
   Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.   20 Then said he,
   Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight
   with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of
   Grecia shall come.   21 But I will show thee that which is noted in the
   scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these
   things, but Michael your prince.

   Much ado here is to bring Daniel to be able to bear what Christ has to
   say to him. Still we have him in a fright, hardly and very slowly
   recovering himself; but he is still answered and supported with good
   words and comfortable words. Let us see how Daniel is by degrees
   brought to himself, and gather up the several passages that are to the
   same purport.

   I. Daniel is in a great consternation and finds it very difficult to
   get clear of it. The hand that touched him set him at first upon his
   knees and the palms of his hands, v. 10. Note, Strength and comfort
   commonly come by degrees to those that have been long cast down and
   disquieted; they are first helped up a little, and then more. After two
   days he will revive us, and then the third day he will raise us up. And
   we must not despise the day of small things, but be thankful for the
   beginnings of mercy. Afterwards he is helped up, but he stands
   trembling (v. 11), for fear lest he fall again. Note, Before God gives
   strength and power unto his people he makes them sensible of their own
   weakness. I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of
   trouble, Hab. iii. 16. But when, afterwards, Daniel recovered so much
   strength in his limbs that he could stand steadily, yet he tells us (v.
   15) that he set his face towards the ground and became dumb; he was as
   a man astonished, who knew not what to say, struck dumb with admiration
   and fear, and was loth to enter into discourse with one so far above
   him; he kept silence, yea, even from good, till he had recollected
   himself a little. Well, at length he recovered, not only the use of his
   feet, but the use of his tongue; and, when he opened his mouth (v. 16),
   that which he had to say was to excuse his having been so long silent,
   for really he durst not speak, he could not speak: "O my lord" (so, in
   great humility, this prophet calls the angel, though the angels, in
   great humility, called themselves fellow-servants to the prophets, Rev.
   xxii. 9), "by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me; they break in
   up on me with violence; the sense of my sinful sorrowful state turns
   upon me when I see thy purity and brightness." Note, Man, who has lost
   his integrity, has reason to blush, and be ashamed of himself, when he
   sees or considers the glory of the blessed angels that keep their
   integrity. "My sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no
   strength to resist them or bear up a head against them." And again (v.
   17), like one half dead with the fright, he complains, "As for me,
   straightway there remained no strength in me to receive these displays
   of the divine glory and these discoveries of the divine will; nay,
   there is no breath left in me." Such a deliquium did he suffer that he
   could not draw one breath after another, but panted and languished, and
   was in a manner breathless. See how well it is for us that the treasure
   of divine revelation is put into earthen vessels, that God speaks to us
   by men like ourselves and not by angels. Whatever we may wish, in a
   peevish dislike of the method God takes in dealing with us, it is
   certain that if we were tried we should all be of Israel's mind at Mt.
   Sinai, when they said to Moses, Speak thou to us, and we will hear, but
   let not God speak to us lest we die, Exod. xx. 19. If Daniel could not
   bear it, how could we? Now this he insists upon as an excuse for his
   irreverent silence, which otherwise would have been blame-worthy: How
   can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? v. 17. Note,
   Whenever we enter into communion with God it becomes us to have a due
   sense of the vast distance and disproportion that there are between us
   and the holy angels, and of the infinite distance, and no proportion at
   all, between us and the holy God, and to acknowledge that we cannot
   order our speech by reason of darkness. How shall we that are dust and
   ashes speak to the Lord of glory?

   II. The blessed angel that was employed by Christ to converse with him
   gave him all the encouragement and comfort that could be. It should
   seem, it was not he whose glory he saw in vision (v. 5, 6) that here
   touched him, and talked with him; that was Christ, but this seems to
   have been the angel Gabriel, whom Christ had once before ordered to
   instruct Daniel, ch. viii. 16. That glorious appearance (as that of the
   God of glory to Abraham, Acts vii. 2) was to give authority and to gain
   attention to what the angel should say. Christ himself comforted John
   when he in a like case fell at his feet as dead (Rev. i. 17); but here
   he did it by the angel, whom Daniel saw in a glory much inferior to
   that of the vision in the verses before; for he was like the similitude
   of the sons of men (v. 16), one like the appearance of a man, v. 18.
   When he only appeared, as he had done before (ch. ix. 21), we do not
   find that Daniel was put into any disorder by it, as he was by this
   vision; and therefore he is here employed a third time with Daniel.

   1. He lent him his hand to help him, touched him, and set him upon his
   hands and knees (v. 10), else he would still have lain grovelling,
   touched his lips (v. 16), else he would have been still dumb; again he
   touched him (v. 18), and put strength into him, else he would still
   have been staggering and trembling. Note, The hand of God's power going
   along with the word of his grace is alone effectual to redress all our
   grievances, and to rectify whatever is amiss in us. One touch from
   heaven brings us to our knees, sets us on our feet, opens our lips, and
   strengthens us; for it is God that works on us, and works in us, both
   to will and to do that which is good.

   2. He assured him of the great favour that God had for him: Thou art a
   man greatly beloved (v. 11); and again (v. 19), O man greatly beloved!
   Note, Nothing is more likely, nothing more effectual, to revive the
   drooping spirits of the saints than to be assured of God's love to
   them. Those are greatly beloved indeed whom God loves; and it is
   comfort enough to know it.

   3. He silenced his fears, and encouraged his hopes, with good words and
   comfortable words. He said unto him, Fear not, Daniel (v. 12); and
   again (v. 19), O man greatly beloved! fear not; peace be unto thee; be
   strong, yea, be strong. Never did any tender mother quiet her child,
   when any thing had grieved or frightened it, with more compassion and
   affection than the angel here quieted Daniel. Those that are beloved of
   God have no reason to be afraid of any evil; peace is to them; God
   himself speaks peace to them; and they ought, upon the warrant of that,
   to speak peace to themselves; and that peace, that joy of the Lord,
   will be their strength. Will God plead against us with his great power?
   will he take advantage against us of our being overcome by his terror?
   No, but he will put strength into us, Job xxiii. 6. So he did into
   Daniel here, when, by reason of the lustre of the vision, no strength
   of his own remained in him; and he acknowledges it (v. 19): When he had
   spoken to me I was strengthened. Note, God by his word puts life, and
   strength, and spirit into his people; for if he says, Be strong, power
   goes along with the word. And, now that Daniel has experienced the
   efficacy of God's strengthening word and grace, he is ready for any
   thing: "Now, Let my lord speak, and I can hear it, I can bear it, and
   am ready to do according to it, for thou hast strengthened me." Note,
   To those that (like Daniel here) have no might God increases strength,
   Isa. xl. 29. And we cannot keep up our communion with God but by
   strength derived from him; but, when he is pleased to put strength into
   us, we must make a good use of it, and say, Speak, Lord, for thy
   servant hears. Let God enable us to comply with his will, and then,
   whatever it is, we will stand complete in it. Da quod jubes, et jube
   quod vis--Give what thou commandest, and then command what thou wilt.

   4. He assured him that his fastings and prayers had come up for a
   memorial before God, as the angel told Cornelius (Acts x. 4): Fear not,
   Daniel, v. 12. It is natural to fallen man to be afraid of an
   extraordinary messenger from heaven, as dreading to hear evil tidings
   thence; but Daniel need not fear, for he has by his three weeks'
   humiliation and supplication sent extraordinary messengers to heaven,
   which he may expect to return with an olive-branch of peace: "From the
   first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand the word of God,
   which is to be the rule of thy prayers, and to chasten thyself before
   thy God, that thou mightest put an edge upon thy prayers, thy words
   were heard," as, before, at the beginning of thy supplication, ch. ix.
   23. Note, As the entrance of God's word is enlightening to the upright,
   so the entrance of their prayers is pleasing to God, Ps. cxix. 130.
   From the first day that we begin to look towards God in a way of duty
   he is ready to meet us in a way of mercy. Thus ready is God to hear
   prayer. I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest.

   5. He informed him that he was sent to him on purpose to bring him a
   prediction of the future state of the church, as a token of God's
   accepting his prayers for the church: "Knowest thou wherefore I come
   unto thee? If thou knewest on what errand I come, thou wouldst not be
   put into such a consternation by it." Note, If we rightly understood
   the meaning of God's dealings with us, and the methods of his
   providence and grace concerning us, we should be better reconciled to
   them. "I have come for thy words (v. 12), to bring thee a gracious
   answer to thy prayers." Thus, when God's praying people call to him, he
   says, Here I am (Isa. lviii. 9); what would you have with me? See the
   power of prayer, what glorious things it has, in its time, fetched from
   heaven, what strange discoveries! On what errand did this angel come to
   Daniel? He tells him (v. 14): I have come to make thee understand what
   shall befal thy people in the latter days. Daniel was a curious
   inquisitive man, that had all his days been searching into secret
   things, and it would be a great gratification to him to be let into the
   knowledge of things to come. Daniel had always been concerned for the
   church; its interests lay much upon his heart, and it would be a
   particular satisfaction to him to know what its state should be, and he
   would know the better what to pray for as long as he lived. He was now
   lamenting the difficulties which his people met with in the present
   day; but, that he might not be offended in those, the angel must tell
   him what greater difficulties are yet before them; and, if they be
   wearied now that they only run with the footmen, how will they contend
   with horses? Note, It would abate our resentment of present troubles to
   consider that we know not but much greater are before us, which we are
   concerned to provide for. Daniel must be made to know what shall befal
   his people in the latter days of the church, after the cessation of
   prophecy, and when the time drew nigh for the Messiah to appear, for
   yet the vision is for many days; the principal things that this vision
   was intended to give the church the foresight of would come to pass in
   the days of Antiochus, nearly 300 years after this. Now that which the
   angel is entrusted to communicate to Daniel, and which Daniel is
   encouraged to expect from him, is not any curious speculations, moral
   prognostications, nor rational prospects of his own, though he is an
   angel, but what he has received from the Lord. It was the revelation of
   Jesus Christ that the angel gave to St. John to be delivered to the
   churches, Rev. i. 1. So here (v. 21): I will show thee what is written
   in the scriptures of truth, that is, what is fixed in the determinate
   counsel and foreknowledge of God. The decree of God is a thing written,
   it is a scripture which remains and cannot be altered. What I have
   written I have written. As there are scriptures for the revealed will
   of God, the letters-patent, which are published to the world, so there
   are scriptures for the secret will of God, the close rolls, which are
   sealed among his treasures, the book of his decrees. Both are
   scriptures of truth; nothing shall be added to nor taken from either of
   them. The secret things belong not to us, only now and then some few
   paragraphs have been copied out from the book of God's counsels, and
   delivered to the prophets for the use of the church, as here to Daniel;
   but they are the things revealed, even the words of this law, which
   belong to us and to our children; and we are concerned to study what is
   written in these scriptures of truth, for they are things which belong
   to our everlasting peace.

   6. He gave him a general account of the adversaries of the church's
   cause, from whom it might be expected that troubles would arise, and of
   its patrons, under whose protection it might be assured of safety and
   victory at last. (1.) The kings of the earth are and will be its
   adversaries; for they set themselves against the Lord, and against his
   Anointed, Ps. ii. 2. The angel told Daniel that he was to have come to
   him with a gracious answer to his prayers, but that the prince of the
   kingdom of Persia withstood him one and twenty days, just the three
   weeks that Daniel had been fasting and praying. Cambyses king of Persia
   had been very busy to embarrass the affairs of the Jews, and to do them
   all the mischief he could, and the angel had been all that time
   employed to counter-work him; so that he had been constrained to defer
   his visit to Daniel till now, for angels can be but in one place at a
   time. Or, as Dr. Lightfoot says, This new king of Persia, by hindering
   the temple, had hindered those good tidings which otherwise he should
   have brought him. The kings and kingdoms of the world were indeed
   sometimes helpful to the church, but more often they were injurious to
   it. "When I have gone forth from the kings of Persia, when their
   monarchy is brought down for their unkindness to the Jews, then the
   prince of Grecia shall come," v. 20. The Grecian monarchy, though
   favourable to the Jews at first, as the Persian was, will yet come to
   be vexatious to them. Such is the state of the church-militant; when it
   has got clear of one enemy it has another to encounter: and such a
   hydra's head is that of the old serpent; when one storm has blown over
   it is not long before another rises. (2.) The God of heaven is, and
   will be, its protector, and, under him, the angels of heaven are its
   patrons and guardians. [1.] Here is the angel Gabriel busy in the
   service of the church, making his part good in defence of it twenty-one
   days, against the prince of Persia, and remaining there with the kings
   of Persia, as consul, or liege-ambassador, to take care of the affairs
   of the Jews in that court, and to do them service, v. 13. And, though
   much was done against them by the kings of Persia (God permitting it),
   it is probably that much more mischief would have been done them, and
   they would have been quite ruined (witness Haman's plot) if God had not
   prevented it by the ministration of angels. Gabriel resolves, when he
   has despatched this errand to Daniel, that he will return to fight with
   the prince of Persia, will continue to oppose him, and will at length
   humble and bring down that proud monarchy (v. 20), though he knows that
   another as mischievous, even that of Grecia, will rise instead of it.
   [2.] Here is Michael our prince, the great protector of the church, and
   the patron of its just but injured cause: The first of the chief
   princes, v. 13. Some understand it not of a created angel, but an
   archangel of the highest order, 1 Thess. iv. 16; Jude 9. Others think
   that Michael the archangel is no other than Christ himself, the angel
   of the covenant, and the Lord of the angels, he whom Daniel saw in
   vision, v. 5. He came to help me (v. 13); and there is none but he that
   holds with me in these things, v. 21. Christ is the church's prince;
   angels are not, Heb. ii. 5. He presides in the affairs of the church
   and effectually provides for its good. He is said to hold with the
   angels, for it is he that makes them serviceable to the heirs of
   salvation; and, if he were not on the church's side, its case were bad.
   But, says David, and so says the church, The Lord takes my part with
   those that help me, Ps. cxviii. 7. The Lord is with those that uphold
   my soul, Ps. liv. 4.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. XI.

   The angel Gabriel, in this chapter, performs his promise made to Daniel
   in the foregoing chapter, that he would "show him what should befal his
   people in the latter days," according to that which was "written in the
   scriptures of truth:" very particularly does he here foretel the
   succession of the kings of Persia and Grecia, and the affairs of their
   kingdoms, especially the mischief which Antiochus Epiphanes did in his
   time to the church, which was foretold before (ch. viii. 11-12). Here
   is, I. A brief prediction of the setting up of the Grecian monarchy
   upon the ruins of the Persian monarchy, which was now newly begun, ver.
   1-4. II. A prediction of the affairs of the two kingdoms of Egypt and
   Syria, with reference to each other, ver. 5-20. III. Of the rise of
   Antiochus Epiphanes, and his actions and successes, ver. 21-29. IV. Of
   the great mischief that he should do to the Jewish nation and religion,
   and his contempt of all religion, ver. 30-39. V. Of his fall and ruin
   at last, when he is in the heat of his pursuit, ver. 40-45.

Ruin of the Persian Monarchy. (b. c. 534.)

   1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm
   and to strengthen him.   2 And now will I show thee the truth. Behold,
   there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be
   far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he
   shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.   3 And a mighty king
   shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according
   to his will.   4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be
   broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not
   to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his
   kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

   Here, 1. The angel Gabriel lets Daniel know the good service he has
   done to the Jewish nation (v. 1): "In the first year of Darius the
   Mede, who destroyed Babylon and released the Jews out of that house of
   bondage, I stood a strength and fortress to him, that is, I was
   instrumental to protect him, and give him success in his ward, and,
   after he had conquered Babylon, to confirm him in his resolution to
   release the Jews," which, it is likely, met with much opposition. Thus
   by the angel, and at the request of the watcher, the golden head was
   broken, and the axe laid to the root of the tree. Note, We must
   acknowledge the hand of God in the strengthening of those that are
   friends to the church for the service they are to do it, and confirming
   them in their good resolutions; herein he uses the ministry of angels
   more than we are aware of. And the many instances we have known of
   God's care of his church formerly encourage us to depend upon him in
   further straits and difficulties. 2. He foretels the reign of four
   Persian kings (v. 2): Now I will tell thee the truth, that is, the true
   meaning of the visions of the great image, and of the four beasts, and
   expound in plain terms what was before represented by dark types. (1.)
   There shall stand up three kings in Persia, besides Darius, in whose
   reign this prophecy is dated, ch. ix. 1. Mr. Broughton makes these
   three to be Cyrus, Artaxasta or Artaxerxes, called by the Greeks
   Cambyses, and Ahasuerus that married Esther, called Darius son of
   Hystaspes. To these three the Persians gave these attributes--Cyrus was
   a father, Cambyses a master, and Darius a hoarder up. So Herodotus.
   (2.) There shall be a fourth, far richer than they all, that is,
   Xerxes, of whose wealth the Greek authors take notice. By his strength
   (his vast army, consisting of 800,000 men at least) and his riches,
   with which he maintained and paid that vast army, he stirred up all
   against the realm of Greece. Xerxes's expedition against Greece is
   famous in history, and the shameful defeat that he met with. He who
   when he went out was the terror of Greece, in his return was the scorn
   of Greece. Daniel needed not to be told what disappointment he would
   meet with, for he was a hinderer of the building of the temple; but
   soon after, about thirty years after the first return from captivity,
   Darius, a young king, revived the building of the temple, owning the
   hand of God against his predecessors for hindering it, Ezra vi. 7. 3.
   He foretels Alexander's conquests and the partition of his kingdom, v.
   3. He is that mighty king that shall stand up against the kings of
   Persia, and he shall rule with great dominion, over many kingdoms, and
   with a despotic power, for he shall do according to his will, and undo
   likewise, which, by the law of the Medes and Persians, their kings
   could not. When Alexander, after he had conquered Asia, would be
   worshipped as a god, then this was fulfilled, that he shall do
   according to his will. That is God's prerogative, but was his
   pretension. But (v. 4) his kingdom shall soon be broken, and divided
   into four parts, but not to his posterity, nor shall any of his
   successors reign according to his dominion; none of them shall have
   such large territories nor such an absolute power. His kingdom was
   plucked up for others besides those of his own family. Arideus, his
   brother, was made king in Macedonia; Olympias, Alexander's mother,
   killed him, and poisoned Alexander's two sons, Hercules and Alexander.
   Thus was his family rooted out by its own hands. See what decaying
   perishing things worldly pomp and possessions are, and the powers by
   which they are got. Never was the vanity of the world and its greatest
   things shown more evidently than in the story of Alexander. All is
   vanity and vexation of spirit.

The Affairs of Egypt and Syria; The Reign of Antiochus Magnus; The Fall of
Antiochus Magnus. (b. c. 534.)

   5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes;
   and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall
   be a great dominion.   6 And in the end of years they shall join
   themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to
   the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain
   the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she
   shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her,
   and he that strengthened her in these times.   7 But out of a branch of
   her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an
   army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and
   shall deal against them, and shall prevail:   8 And shall also carry
   captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their
   precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more
   years than the king of the north.   9 So the king of the south shall
   come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land.   10 But his
   sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great
   forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through:
   then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress.   11 And
   the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth
   and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set
   forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his
   hand.   12 And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall
   be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall
   not be strengthened by it.   13 For the king of the north shall return,
   and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall
   certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much
   riches.   14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the
   king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt
   themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.   15 So the
   king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most
   fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither
   his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.
   16 But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will,
   and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious
   land, which by his hand shall be consumed.   17 He shall also set his
   face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones
   with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of
   women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be
   for him.   18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and
   shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the
   reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall
   cause it to turn upon him.   19 Then he shall turn his face toward the
   fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
     20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory
   of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in
   anger, nor in battle.

   Here are foretold,

   I. The rise and power of two great kingdoms out of the remains of
   Alexander's conquests, v. 5. 1. The kingdom of Egypt, which was made
   considerable by Ptolemæus Lagus, one of Alexander's captains, whose
   successors were, from him, called the Lagidæ. He is called the king of
   the south, that is, Egypt, named here, v. 8, 42, 43. The countries that
   at first belonged to Ptolemy are reckoned to be Egypt, Phoenicia,
   Arabia, Libya, Ethiopia, &c. Theocr. Idyl. 17. 2. The kingdom of Syria,
   which was set up by Seleucus Nicanor, or the conqueror; he was one of
   Alexander's princes, and became stronger than the other, and had the
   greatest dominion of all, was the most powerful of all Alexander's
   successors. It was said that he had no fewer than seven-two kingdoms
   under him. Both these were strong against Judah (the affairs of which
   are particularly eyed in this prediction); Ptolemy, soon after he
   gained Egypt, invaded Judea, and took Jerusalem on a sabbath,
   pretending a friendly visit. Seleucus also gave disturbance to Judea.

   II. The fruitless attempt to unite these two kingdoms as iron and clay
   in Nebuchadnezzar's image (v. 6): "At the end of certain years, about
   seventy after Alexander's death, the Lagidæ and the Seleucidæ shall
   associate, but not in sincerity. Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt,
   shall marry his daughter Berenice to Antiochus Theos, king of Syria,"
   who had already a wife called Laodice. "Berenice shall come to the king
   of the north, to make an agreement, but it shall not hold: She shall
   not retain the power of the arm; neither she nor her posterity shall
   establish themselves in the kingdom of the north, neither shall Ptolemy
   her father, nor Antiochus her husband (between whom there was to be a
   great alliance), stand, nor their arm, but she shall be given up and
   those that brought her," all that projected that unhappy marriage
   between her and Antiochus, which occasioned so much mischief, instead
   of producing a coalition between the northern and southern crowns, as
   was hoped. Antiochus divorced Berenice, took his former wife Laodice
   again, who soon after poisoned him, procured Berenice and her son to be
   murdered, and set up her own son by Antiochus to be king, who was
   called Seleucus Callinicus.

   III. A war between the two kingdoms, v. 7, 8. A branch from the same
   root with Berenice shall stand up in his estate. Ptolemæus Euergetes,
   the son and successor of Ptolemæus Philadelphus, shall come with an
   army against Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria, to avenge his sister's
   quarrel, and shall prevail; and he shall carry away a rich booty both
   of persons and goods into Egypt, and shall continue more years than the
   king of the north. This Ptolemy reigned forty-six years; and Justin
   says that if his own affairs had not called him home he would, in this
   war, have made himself master of the whole kingdom of Syria. But (v. 9)
   he shall be forced to come into his kingdom and return into his own
   land, to keep peace there, so that he can no longer carry on the war
   abroad. Note, It is very common for a treacherous peace to end in a
   bloody war.

   IV. The long and busy reign of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria.
   Seleucus Callinicus, that king of the north that was overcome (v. 7)
   and died miserably, left two sons, Seleucus and Antiochus; these are
   his sons, the sons of the king of the north, that shall be stirred up,
   and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, to recover what their
   father had lost, v. 10. But Seleucus the elder, being weak, and unable
   to rule his army, was poisoned by his friends, and reigned only two
   years; and his brother Antiochus succeeded him, who reigned
   thirty-seven years, and was called the Great. And therefore the angel,
   though he speaks of sons at first, goes on with the account of one
   only, who was but fifteen years old when he began to reign, and he
   shall certainly come, and overflow, and over-run, and shall be restored
   at length to what his father lost. 1. The king of the south, in this
   war, shall at first have very great success. Ptolemæus Philopater,
   moved with indignation at the indignities done by Antiochus the Great,
   shall (though otherwise a slothful prince) come forth, and fight with
   him, and shall bring a vast army into the field of 70,000 foot, and
   5000 horse, and seventy-three elephants. And the other multitude (the
   army of Antiochus, consisting of 62,000 foot, and 6000 horse, and 102
   elephants) shall be given into his hand. Polybius, who lived with
   Scipio, has given a particular account of this battle of Raphia.
   Ptolemæus Philopater, having gained this victory, grew very insolent;
   his heart was lifted up; then he went into the temple of God at
   Jerusalem, and, in defiance of the law, entered the most holy place,
   for which God has a controversy with him, so that, though he shall cast
   down many myriads, yet he shall not be strengthened by it, so as to
   secure his interest. For, 2. The king of the north, Antiochus the
   Great, shall return with a greater army than the former; and, at the
   end of times (that is, years) he shall come with a mighty army, and
   great riches, against the king of the south, that is, Ptolemæus
   Epiphanes, who succeeded Ptolemæus Philopater his father, when he was a
   child, which gave advantage to Antiochus the Great. In this expedition
   he had some powerful allies (v. 14): Many shall stand up against the
   king of the south. Philip of Macedon was confederate with Antiochus
   against the king of Egypt, and Scopas his general, whom he sent into
   Syria; Antiochus routed him, destroyed a great part of his army;
   whereupon the Jews willingly yielded to Antiochus, joined with him,
   helped him to besiege Ptolemæus's garrisons. They the robbers of thy
   people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, to help forward
   the accomplishment of this prophecy; but they shall fall, and shall
   come to nothing, v. 14. Hereupon (v. 15) the king of the north, this
   same Antiochus Magnus, shall carry on his design against the king of
   the south another way. (1.) He shall surprise his strong-holds; all
   that he has got in Syria and Samaria, and the arms of the south, all
   the power of the king of Egypt, shall not be able to withstand him. See
   how dubious and variable the turns of the scale of war are; like buying
   and selling, it is winning and losing; sometimes one side gets the
   better and sometimes the other; yet neither by chance; it is not, as
   they call it, the fortune of war, but according to the will and counsel
   of God, who brings some low and raises others up. (2.) He shall make
   himself master of the land of Judea (v. 16): He that comes against him
   (that is, the king of the north) shall carry all before him and do what
   he pleases, and he shall stand and get footing in the glorious land; so
   the land of Israel was, and by his hand it was wasted and consumed, for
   with the spoil of that good land he victualled his vast army. The land
   of Judea lay between these two potent kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, so
   that in all the struggles between them that was sure to suffer, for to
   it they both bore ill will. Yet some read this, By his hand it shall be
   perfected; as if it intimated that the land of Judea, being taken under
   the protection of this Antiochus, shall flourish, and be in better
   condition than it had been. (3.) He shall still push on his war against
   the king of Egypt, and set his face to enter with the strength of his
   whole kingdom, taking advantage of the infancy of Ptolemy Epiphanes,
   and the upright ones, many of the pious Israelites, siding with him, v.
   17. In prosecution of his design, he shall give him his daughter
   Cleopatra to wife, designing, as Saul in giving his daughter Cleopatra
   to David, that she should be a snare to him, and do him a mischief; but
   she shall not stand on her father's side, nor be for him, but for her
   husband, and so that plot failed him. (4.) His war with the Romans is
   here foretold (v. 18): He shall turn his face to the isles (v. 18), the
   isles of the Gentiles (Gen. x. 5), Greece and Italy. He took many of
   the isles about the Hellespont-Rhodes, Samos, Delos, &c., which by war
   or treaty he made himself master of; but a prince, or state (so some),
   even the Roman senate, or a leader, even the Roman general, shall
   return his reproach with which he abused the Romans upon himself, or
   shall make his shame rest on himself, and without his own shame, or any
   disgrace to himself, shall pay him again. This was fulfilled when the
   two Scipios were sent with an army against Antiochus. Hannibal was then
   with him, and advised him to invade Italy and waste it as he had done;
   but he did not take his advice; and Scipio joined battle with him, and
   gave him a total defeat, though Antiochus had 70,000 men and the Romans
   but 30,000. Thus he caused the reproach offered by him to cease. (5.)
   His fall. When he was totally routed by the Romans, and was forced to
   abandon to them all he had in Europe, and had a very heavy tribute
   exacted from him, he turned to his own land, and, not knowing which way
   to raise money to pay his tribute, he plundered a temple of Jupiter,
   which so incensed his own subjects against him that they set upon him,
   and killed him; so he was overthrown, and fell, and was no more found,
   v. 19. (6.) His next successor, v. 20. There rose up one in his place,
   a raiser of taxes, a sender forth of the extortioner, or extorter. This
   character was remarkably answered in Seleucus Philopater, the elder son
   of Antiochus the Great, who was a great oppressor of his own subjects,
   and exacted abundance of money from them; and, when he was told he
   would thereby lose his friends, he said he knew no better friend he had
   than money. He likewise attempted to rob the temple at Jerusalem, which
   this seems especially to refer to. But within a few days he shall be
   destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle, but poisoned by Heliodorus,
   one of his own servants, when he had reigned but twelve years, and done
   nothing remarkable.

   V. From all this let us learn, 1. That God in his providence sets up
   one, and pulls down another, as he pleases, advances some from low
   beginnings and depresses others that were very high. Some have called
   great men the foot-balls of fortune; or, rather, they are the tools of
   Providence. 2. This world is full of wars and fightings, which come
   from men's lusts, and make it a theatre of sin and misery. 3. All the
   changes and revolutions of states and kingdoms, and every event, even
   the most minute and contingent, were plainly and perfectly foreseen by
   the God of heaven, and to him nothing is new. 4. No word of God shall
   fall to the ground; but what he has designed, what he has declared,
   shall infallibly come to pass; and even the sins of men shall be made
   to serve his purpose, and contribute to the b ringing of his counsels
   to birth in their season; and yet God is not the author of sin. 5.
   That, for the right understanding of some parts of scripture, it is
   necessary that heathen authors be consulted, which give light to the
   scripture, and show the accomplishment of what is there foretold; we
   have therefore reason to bless God for the human learning with which
   many have done great service to divine truths.

The Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes; Cruelty and Impiety of Antiochus; The Death
of Antiochus. (b. c. 534.)

   21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall
   not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and
   obtain the kingdom by flatteries.   22 And with the arms of a flood
   shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also
   the prince of the covenant.   23 And after the league made with him he
   shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong
   with a small people.   24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the
   fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers
   have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them
   the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices
   against the strong holds, even for a time.   25 And he shall stir up
   his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great
   army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a
   very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall
   forecast devices against him.   26 Yea, they that feed of the portion
   of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many
   shall fall down slain.   27 And both these kings' hearts shall be to do
   mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not
   prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.   28 Then
   shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be
   against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his
   own land.   29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward
   the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.   30
   For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be
   grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so
   shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that
   forsake the holy covenant.   31 And arms shall stand on his part, and
   they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the
   daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh
   desolate.   32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he
   corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be
   strong, and do exploits.   33 And they that understand among the people
   shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by
   captivity, and by spoil, many days.   34 Now when they shall fall, they
   shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with
   flatteries.   35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try
   them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the
   end: because it is yet for a time appointed.   36 And the king shall do
   according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself
   above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of
   gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that
   that is determined shall be done.   37 Neither shall he regard the God
   of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he
   shall magnify himself above all.   38 But in his estate shall he honour
   the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour
   with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
   39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom
   he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them
   to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.   40 And at the
   time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king
   of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots,
   and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the
   countries, and shall overflow and pass over.   41 He shall enter also
   into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but
   these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief
   of the children of Ammon.   42 He shall stretch forth his hand also
   upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.   43 But he
   shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all
   the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall
   be at his steps.   44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north
   shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to
   destroy, and utterly to make away many.   45 And he shall plant the
   tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy
   mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

   All this is a prophecy of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the little
   horn spoken of before (ch. viii. 9) a sworn enemy to the Jewish
   religion, and a bitter persecutor of those that adhered to it. What
   troubles the Jews met with in the reigns of the Persian kings were not
   so particularly foretold to Daniel as these, because then they had
   living prophets with them, Haggai and Zechariah, to encourage them; but
   these troubles in the days of Antiochus were foretold, because, before
   that time, prophecy would cease, and they would find it necessary to
   have recourse to the written word. Some things in this prediction
   concerning Antiochus are alluded to in the New-Testament predictions of
   the antichrist, especially v. 36, 37. And as it is usual with the
   prophets, when they foretel the prosperity of the Jewish church, to
   make use of such expressions as were applicable to the kingdom of
   Christ, and insensibly to slide into a prophecy of that, so, when they
   foretel the troubles of the church, they make use of such expressions
   as have a further reference to the kingdom of the antichrist, the rise
   and ruin of that. Now concerning Antiochus, the angel foretels here,

   I. His character: He shall be a vile person. He called himself
   Epiphanes--the illustrious, but his character was the reverse of his
   surname. The heathen writers describe him to be an odd-humoured man,
   rude and boisterous, base and sordid. He would sometimes steal out of
   the court into the city, and herd with any infamous company
   incognito--in disguise he made himself a companion of the common sort,
   and of the basest strangers that came to town. He had the most
   unaccountable whims, so that some took him to be silly, others to be
   mad. Hence he was called Epimanes--the madman. He is called a vile
   person, for he had been a long time a hostage at Rome for the fidelity
   of his father when the Romans had subdued him; and it was agreed that,
   when the other hostages were exchanged, he should continue a prisoner
   at large.

   II. His accession to the crown. By a trick he got his elder brother's
   son, Demetrius, to be sent a hostage to Rome, in exchange for him,
   contrary to the cartel; and, his elder brother being made away with by
   Heliodorus (v. 20), he took the kingdom. The states of Syria did not
   give it to him (v. 21), because they knew it belonged to his elder
   brother's son, nor did he get it by the sword, but came in peaceably,
   pretending to reign for his brother's son, Demetrius, then a hostage at
   Rome. But with the help of Eumenes and Attalus, neighbouring princes,
   he gained an interest in the people, and by flatteries obtained the
   kingdom, established himself in it, and crushed Heliodorus, who made
   head against him with the arms of a flood; those that opposed him were
   overflown and broken before him, even the prince of the covenant, his
   nephew, the rightful heir, whom he pretended to covenant with that he
   would resign to him whenever he should return, v. 22. But (v. 23) after
   the league made with him he shall work deceitfully, as one whose avowed
   maxim it is that princes ought not to be bound by their word any longer
   than it is for their interest. And with a small people, that at first
   cleave to him, he shall become strong, and (v. 24) he shall enter
   peaceably upon the fattest places of the kingdom of Syria, and, very
   unlike his predecessors, shall scatter among the people the prey, and
   the spoil, and riches, to insinuate himself into their affections; but,
   at the same time, he shall forecast his devices against the
   strong-holds, to make himself master of them, so that his generosity
   shall last but for a time; when he has got the garrisons into his hands
   he will scatter his spoil no more, but rule by force, as those commonly
   do that come in by fraud. He that comes in like a fox reigns like a
   lion. Some understand these verses of his first expedition into Egypt,
   when he came not as an enemy, but as a friend and guardian to the young
   king Ptolemæus Philometer, and therefore brought with him but few
   followers, yet those stout men, and faithful to his interest, whom he
   placed in divers of the strong-holds in Egypt, thereby making himself
   master of them.

   III. His war with Egypt, which was his second expedition thither. This
   is described, v. 25, 27. Antiochus shall stir up his power and courage
   against Ptolemæus Philometer king of Egypt. Ptolemy, thereupon, shall
   be stirred up to battle against him, shall come against him with a very
   great and mighty army; but Ptolemy, though he has such a vast army,
   shall not be able to stand before him; for Antiochus's army shall
   overthrow his, and overpower it, and great multitudes of the Egyptian
   army shall fall down slain. And no marvel, for the king of Egypt shall
   be betrayed by his own counsellors; those that feed of the portion of
   his meat, that eat of his bread and live upon him, being bribed by
   Antiochus, shall forecast devices against him, and even they shall
   destroy him; and what fence is there against such treachery? After the
   battle, a treaty of peace shall be set on foot, and these two kings
   shall meet at one council-board, to adjust the articles of peace
   between them; but they shall neither of them be sincere in it, for they
   shall, in their pretences and promises of amity and friendship, lie to
   one another, for their hearts shall be at the same time to do one
   another all the mischief they can. And then no marvel that it shall not
   prosper. The peace shall not last; but the end of it shall be at the
   time appointed in the divine Providence, and then the war shall break
   out again, as a sore that is only skinned over.

   IV. Another expedition against Egypt. From the former he returned with
   great riches (v. 28), and therefore took the first occasion to invade
   Egypt again, at the time appointed by the divine Providence, two years
   after, in the eighth year of his reign, v. 29. He shall come towards
   the south. But this attempt shall not succeed, as the two former did,
   nor shall he gain his point, as he had done before once and again; for
   (v. 30) the ships of Chittim shall come against him, that is, the navy
   of the Romans, or only ambassadors from the Roman senate, who came in
   ships. Ptolemæus Philometer, king of Egypt, being now in a strict
   alliance with the Romans, craved their aid against Antiochus, who had
   besieged him and his mother Cleopatra in the city of Alexandria. The
   Roman senate thereupon sent an embassy to Antiochus, to command him to
   raise the siege, and, when he desired some time to consider of it and
   consult with his friends about it, Popilius, one of the ambassadors,
   with his staff drew a circle about him, and told him, as one having
   authority, he should give a positive answer before he came out of that
   circle; whereupon, fearing the Roman power, he was forced immediately
   to give orders for the raising of the siege and the retreat of his army
   out of Egypt. So Livy and others relate the story which this prophecy
   refers to. He shall be grieved, and return; for it was a great vexation
   to him to be forced to yield thus.

   V. His rage and cruel practices against the Jews. This is that part of
   his government, or mis-government rather, which is most enlarged upon
   in this prediction. In his return from his expedition into Egypt (which
   is prophesied of, v. 28) he did exploits against the Jews, in the sixth
   year of his reign; then he spoiled the city and temple. But the most
   terrible storm was in his return from Egypt, two years after,
   prophesied of v. 30. Then he took Judea in his way home; and, because
   he could not gain his point in Egypt by reason of the Romans
   interposing, he wreaked his revenge upon the poor Jews, who gave him no
   provocation, but had greatly provoked God to permit him to do it, Dan.
   viii. 23.

   1. He had a rooted antipathy to the Jews' religion: His heart was
   against the holy covenant, v. 28. And (v. 30) he had indignation
   against the holy covenant, that covenant of peculiarity by which the
   Jews were incorporated a people distinct from all other nations, and
   dignified above them. He hated the law of Moses and the worship of the
   true God, and was vexed at the privileges of the Jewish nation and the
   promises made to them. Note, That which is the hope and joy of the
   people of God is the envy of their neighbours, and that is the holy
   covenant. Esau hated Jacob because he had got the blessing. Those that
   are strangers to the covenant are often enemies to it.

   2. He carried on his malicious designs against the Jews by the
   assistance of some perfidious apostate Jews. He kept up intelligence
   with those that forsook the holy covenant (v. 30), some of the Jews
   that were false to their religion, and introduced the customs of the
   heathen, with whom they made a covenant. See the fulfilling of this, 1
   Mac. i. 11-15, where it is expressly said, concerning those renegado
   Jews, that they made themselves uncircumcised and forsook the holy
   covenant. We read (2 Mac. iv. 9) of Jason, the brother of Onias the
   high priest, who by the appointment of Antiochus set up a school at
   Jerusalem, for the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen;
   and (2 Mac. iv. 23, &c.) of Menelaus, who fell in with the interests of
   Antiochus, and was the man that helped him into Jerusalem, now in his
   last return from Egypt. We read much in the book of the Maccabees of
   the mischief done to the Jews by these treacherous men of their own
   nation, Jason and Menelaus, and their party. These upon all occasions
   he made use of. "Such as do wickedly against the covenant, such as
   throw up their religion, and comply with the heathen, he shall corrupt
   with flatteries, to harden them in their apostasy, and to make use of
   them as decoys to draw in others," v. 32. Note, It is not strange if
   those who do not live up to their religion, but in their conversations
   do wickedly against the covenant, are easily corrupted by flatteries to
   quit their religion. Those that make shipwreck of a good conscience
   will soon make shipwreck of the faith.

   3. He profaned the temple. Arms stand on his part (v. 31), not only his
   own army which he now brought from Egypt, but a great party of
   deserters from the Jewish religion that joined with them; and they
   polluted the sanctuary of strength, not only the holy city, but the
   temple. The story of this we have, 1 Mac. i. 21, &c. He entered proudly
   into the sanctuary, took away the golden altar, and the candlestick,
   &c. And therefore (v. 25) there was a great mourning in Israel; the
   princes and elders mourned, &c. And (2 Mac. v. 15, &c.) Antiochus went
   into the most holy temple, Menelaus, that traitor to the laws and to
   his own country, being his guide. Antiochus, having resolved to bring
   all about him to be of his religion, took away the daily sacrifice, v.
   31. Some observe that the word Tammidh, which signifies no more than
   daily, is only here, and in the parallel place, used for the daily
   sacrifice, as if there were a designed liberty left to supply it either
   with sacrifice, which was suppressed by Antiochus, or with
   gospel-worship, which was suppressed by the Antichrist. Then he set up
   the abomination of desolation upon the altar (1 Mac. i. 54), even an
   idol altar (v. 59), and called the temple the temple of Jupiter
   Olympius, 2 Mac. vi. 2.

   4. He persecuted those who retained their integrity. Though there are
   many who forsake the covenant and do wickedly against it, yet there is
   a people who do know their God and retain the knowledge of him, and
   they shall be strong and do exploits, v. 32. When others yield to the
   tyrant's demands, and surrender their consciences to his impositions,
   they bravely keep their ground, resist the temptation, and make the
   tyrant himself ashamed of his attempt upon them. Good old Eleazar, one
   of the principal scribes, when he had swine's flesh thrust into his
   mouth, did bravely spit it out again, though he knew he must be
   tormented to death for so doing, and was so, 2 Mac. vi. 19. The mother
   and her seven sons were put to death for adhering to their religion, 2
   Mac. vii. This might well be called doing exploits; for to choose
   suffering rather than sin is a great exploit. And it was by faith, by
   being strong in faith, that they did those exploits, that they were
   tortured, not accepting deliverance, as the apostle speaks, probably
   with reference to that story, Heb. xi. 35. Or it may refer to the
   military courage and achievements of Judas Maccabæus and others in
   opposition to Antiochus. Note, The right knowledge of God is, and will
   be, the strength of the soul, and, in the strength of that, gracious
   souls do exploits. Those that know his name will put their trust in
   him, and by that trust will do great things. Now, concerning this
   people that knew their God, we are here told, (1.) That they shall
   instruct many, v. 33. They shall make it their business to show others
   what they have learned themselves of the difference between truth and
   falsehood, good and evil. Note, Those that have the knowledge of God
   themselves should communicate their knowledge to those about them, and
   this spiritual charity must be extensive: they must instruct many. Some
   understand this of a society newly erected for the propagating of
   divine knowledge, called Assideans, godly men, pietists (so the name
   signifies), that were both knowing and zealous in the law; these
   instructed many. Note, In times of persecution and apostasy, which are
   trying times, those that have knowledge ought to make use of it for the
   strengthening and establishing of others. Those that understand aright
   themselves ought to do what they can to bring others to understand; for
   knowledge is a talent that must be traded with. Or, They shall instruct
   many by their perseverance in their duty and their patient suffering
   for it. Good examples instruct many, and with many are the most
   powerful instructions. (2.) They shall fall by the cruelty of
   Antiochus, shall be put to the torture, and put to death, by his rage.
   Though they are so excellent and intelligent themselves, and so useful
   and serviceable to others, yet Antiochus shall show them no mercy, but
   they shall fall for some days; so it may be read, Rev. ii. 10, Thou
   shalt have tribulation ten days. We read much, in the books of the
   Maccabees, of Antiochus's barbarous usage of the pious Jews, how many
   he slew in wars and how many he murdered in cold blood. Women were put
   to death for having their children circumcised, and their infants were
   hanged about their necks, 1 Mac. i. 60, 61. But why did God suffer
   this? How can this be reconciled with the justice and goodness of God?
   I answer, Very well, if we consider what it was that God aimed at in
   this (v. 35): Some of those of understanding shall fall, but it shall
   be for the good of the church and for their own spiritual benefit. It
   shall be to try them, and to purge, and to make them white. They needed
   these afflictions themselves. The best have their spots, which must be
   washed off, their dross, which must be purged out; and their troubles,
   particularly their share in the public troubles, help to do this; being
   sanctified to them by the grace of God, they are means of mortifying
   their corruptions, weaning them from the world, and awakening them to
   greater seriousness and diligence in religion. They try them, as silver
   in the furnace is refined from its dross; they purge them, as wheat in
   the barn is winnowed from the chaff; and they make them white, as cloth
   by the fuller is cleared from its spots. See 1 Pet. i. 7. Their
   sufferings for righteousness' sake would try and purge the nation of
   the Jews, would convince them of the truth, excellency, and power of
   that holy religion which these understanding men died for their
   adherence to. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church; it is
   precious blood, and not a drop of it should be shed but upon such a
   valuable consideration. (3.) The cause of religion, though it be thus
   run upon, shall not be run down. When they shall fall they shall not be
   utterly cast down, but they shall be holpen with a little help, v. 34.
   Judas Maccabæus, and his brethren, and a few with them, shall make head
   against the tyrant, and assert the injured cause of their religion;
   they pulled down the idolatrous altars, circumcised the children that
   they found uncircumcised, recovered the law out of the hand of the
   Gentiles, and the work prospered in their hands, 1 Mac. ii. 45, &c.
   Note, Those that stand by the cause of religion when it is threatened
   and struck at, though they may not immediately be delivered and made
   victorious, shall yet have present help. And a little help must not be
   despised; but, when times are very bad, we must be thankful for some
   reviving. It is likewise foretold that many shall cleave to them with
   flatteries; when they see the Maccabees prosper some Jews shall join
   with them that are no true friends to religion, but will only pretend
   friendship either with design to betray them or in hope to rise with
   them; but the fiery trial (v. 35) will separate between the precious
   and the vile, and by it those that are perfect will be made manifest
   and those that are not. (4.) Though these troubles may continue long,
   yet they will have an end. They are for a time appointed, a limited
   time, fixed in the divine counsels. This warfare shall be accomplished.
   Hitherto the power of the enemy shall come, and no further; here shall
   its proud waves be stayed.

   5. He grew very proud, insolent, and profane, and, being puffed up with
   his conquests, bade defiance to Heaven, and trampled upon every thing
   that was sacred, v. 36, &c. And here some think begins a prophecy of
   the antichrist, the papal kingdom. It is plain that St. Paul, in his
   prophecy of the rise and reign of the man of sin, alludes to this (2
   Thess. ii. 4), which shows that Antiochus was a type and figure of that
   enemy, as Babylon also was; but, this being joined in a continued
   discourse with the foregoing prophecies concerning Antiochus, to me it
   seems probably that it principally refers to him, and in him had its
   primary accomplishment, and has reference to the other only by way of
   accommodation. (1.) He shall impiously dishonour the God of Israel, the
   only living and true God, called here the God of gods. He shall, in
   defiance of him and his authority, do according to his will against his
   people and his holy religion; he shall exalt himself above him, as
   Sennacherib did, and shall speak marvellous things against him and
   against his laws and institutions. This was fulfilled when Antiochus
   forbade sacrifices to be offered in God's temple, and ordered the
   sabbaths to be profaned, the sanctuary and the holy people to be
   polluted, &c., to the end that they might forget the law and change all
   the ordinances, and this upon pain of death, 1 Mac. i. 45. (2.) He
   shall proudly put contempt upon all other gods, shall magnify himself
   above every god, even the gods of the nations. Antiochus wrote to his
   own kingdom that every one should leave the gods he had worshipped, and
   worship such as he ordered, contrary to the practice of all the
   conquerors that went before him, 1 Mac. i. 41, 42. And all the heathen
   agreed according to the commandment of the king; fond as they were of
   their gods, they did not think them worth suffering for, but, their
   gods being idols, it was all alike to them what gods they worshipped.
   Antiochus did not regard any god, but magnified himself above all, v.
   37. He was so proud that he thought himself above the condition of a
   mortal man, that he could command the waves of the sea, and reach to
   the stars of heaven, as his insolence and haughtiness are expressed, 2
   Mac. ix. 8, 10. Thus he carried all before him, till the indignation
   was accomplished (v. 36), till he had run his length, and filled up the
   measure of his iniquity; for that which is determined shall be done,
   and nothing more, nothing short. (3.) He shall, contrary to the way of
   the heathen, disregard the god of his fathers, v. 37. Though an
   affection to the religion of their ancestors was, among the heathen,
   almost as natural to them as the desire of women (for, if you search
   through the isles of Chittim, you will not find an instance of a nation
   that has changed its gods, Jer. ii. 10, 11), yet Antiochus shall not
   regard the god of his fathers; he made laws to abolish the religion of
   his country, and to bring in the idols of the Greeks. And though his
   predecessors had honoured the God of Israel, and given great gifts to
   the temple at Jerusalem (2 Mac. iii. 2, 3), he offered the greatest
   indignities to God and his temple. His not regarding the desire of
   women may denote his barbarous cruelty (he shall spare no age or sex,
   no, not the tender ones) or his unnatural lusts, or, in general, his
   contempt of every thing which men of honour have a concern for, or it
   might be accomplished in something we meet not with in history. Its
   being joined to his not regarding the god of his fathers intimates that
   the idolatries of his country had in them more of the gratifications of
   the flesh than those of other countries (Lucian has written of the
   Syrian goddesses), and yet that would not prevail to keep him to them.
   (4.) He shall set up an unknown god, a new god, v. 38. In his estate,
   in the room of the god of his fathers (Apollo and Diana, deities of
   pleasure), he shall honour the god of forces, a supposed deity of
   power, a god whom his fathers knew not, nor worshipped; because he will
   be thought in wisdom and strength to excel his fathers, he shall honour
   this god with gold, and silver, and precious stones, thinking nothing
   too good for the god he has taken a fancy to. This seems to be Jupiter
   Olympius, known among the Phoenicians by the name of Baal-Semen, the
   lord of heaven, but never introduced among the Syrians till Antiochus
   introduced it. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds, in the temple
   of Jerusalem, which is called the sanctuary of strength (v. 31), and
   here the fortresses of munitions; there he shall set up the image of
   this strange god. Some read it, He shall commit the munitions of
   strength, or of the most strong God (that is, the city Jerusalem), to a
   strange god; he put it under the protection and government of Jupiter
   Olympius. This god he shall not only acknowledge, but shall increase
   with glory, by setting his image even upon God's altar. And he shall
   cause those that minister to this idol to rule over many, shall put
   them into places of power and trust, and they shall divide the land for
   gain, shall be maintained richly out of the profits of the country.
   Some by the Mahuzzim, or god of forces, that Antiochus shall worship,
   understand money, which is said to answer all things, and which is the
   great idol of worldly people.

   Now here is very much that is applicable to the man of sin; he exalts
   himself above all that is called god or that is worshipped; magnifies
   himself above all; his flatterers call him our lord god the pope. By
   forbidding marriage, and magnifying the single life, he pretends not to
   regard the desire of women; and honours the god of forces, the god
   Mahuzzim, or strong holds, saints and angels, whom his followers take
   for their protectors, as the heathen did of old their demons; these
   they make presidents of several countries, &c. These they honour with
   vast treasures dedicated to them, and therein the learned Mr. Mede
   thinks that this prophecy was fulfilled, and that it is referred to 1
   Tim. iv. 1, 2.

   VI. Here seems to be another expedition into Egypt, or, at least, a
   struggle with Egypt. The Romans had tied him up from invading Ptolemy,
   but now that king of the south pushes at him (v. 40), makes an attempt
   upon some of his territories, where upon Antiochus, the king of the
   north, comes against him like a whirlwind, with incredible swiftness
   and fury, with chariots, and horses, and many ships, a great force. He
   shall come through countries, and shall overflow and pass over. In this
   flying march many countries shall be overthrown by him; and he shall
   enter into the glorious land, the land of Israel; it is the same word
   that is translated the pleasant land, ch. viii. 9. He shall make
   dreadful work among the nations thereabout; yet some shall escape his
   fury, particularly Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of
   Ammon, v. 41. He did not put these countries under contribution,
   because they had joined with him against the Jews. But especially the
   land of Egypt shall not escape, but he will quite beggar that, so bare
   will he strip it. This some reckon his fourth and last expedition
   against Egypt, in the tenth or eleventh year of his reign, under
   pretence of assisting the younger brother of Ptolemæus Philometer
   against him. We read not of any great slaughter made in this
   expedition, but great plunder; for, it should seem, that was what he
   came for: He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver,
   and all the precious things of Egypt, v. 43. Polybius, in Athenæus,
   relates that Antiochus, having got together abundance of wealth, by
   spoiling young Philometer, and breaking league with him, and by the
   contributions of his friends, bestowed a vast deal upon a triumph, in
   imitation of Paulus Æmilius, and describes the extravagance of it; here
   we are told how he got that money which he spent so profusely. Notice
   is here taken likewise of the use he made of the Lybians and
   Ethiopians, who bordered upon Egypt; they were at his steps; he had
   them at his foot, had them at his beck, and they made inroads upon
   Egypt to serve him.

   VII. Here is a prediction of the fall and ruin of Antiochus, as before
   (ch. viii. 25), when he is in the height of his honour, flushed with
   victory, and laden with spoils, tidings out of the east and out of the
   north (out of the north-east) shall trouble him, v. 44. Or, He shall
   have intelligence, both from the eastern and northern parts, that the
   king of Parthia is invading his kingdom. This obliged him to drop the
   enterprises he had in hand, and to go against the Persians and
   Parthians that were revolting from him; and this vexed him, for now he
   thought utterly to ruin and extirpate the Jewish nation, when that
   expedition called him off, in which he perished. This is explained by a
   passage in Tacitus (though an impious one) where he commends Antiochus
   for his attempt to take away the superstition of the Jews, and bring in
   the manners of the Greeks, among them (ut teterrimam gentem in melius
   mutaret--to meliorate an odious nation), and laments that he was
   hindered from accomplishing it by the Parthian war. Now here is, 1. The
   last effort of his rage against the Jews. When he finds himself
   perplexed and embarrassed in his affairs he shall go forth with great
   fury to destroy and utterly to make away many, v. 44. The story of this
   we have 1 Mac. iii. 27, &c., what a rage Antiochus was in when he heard
   of the successes of Judas Maccabæus, and the orders he gave to Lysias
   to destroy Jerusalem. Then he planted the tabernacles of his palace, or
   tents of his court, between the seas, between the Great Sea and the
   Dead Sea. He set up his royal pavilion at Emmaus near Jerusalem, in
   token that, though he could not be present himself, yet he gave full
   power to his captains to prosecute the war against the Jews with the
   utmost rigour. He placed his tent there, as if he had taken possession
   of the glorious holy mountain and called it his own. Note, When impiety
   grows very impudent we may see its ruin near. 2. His exit: He shall
   come to his end and none shall help him; God shall cut him off in the
   midst of his days and none shall be able to prevent his fall. This is
   the same with that which was foretold ch. viii. 25 (He shall be broken
   without hand), where we took a view of his miserable end. Note, When
   God's time shall come to bring proud oppressors to their end none shall
   be able to help them, nor perhaps inclined to help them; for those that
   covet to be feared by all when they are in their grandeur, when they
   come to be in distress will find themselves loved by none; none will
   lend them so much as a hand or a prayer to help them; and, if the Lord
   do not help, who shall?

   Of the kings that came after Antiochus nothing is here prophesied, for
   that was the most malicious mischievous enemy to the church, that was a
   type of the son of perdition, whom the Lord shall consume with the
   breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, and
   none shall help him.
     __________________________________________________________________

D A N I E L.

  CHAP. XII.

   After the prediction of the troubles of the Jews under Antiochus,
   prefiguring the troubles of the Christian church under the
   anti-christian power, we have here, I. Comforts, and very precious
   ones, prescribed as cordials for the support of God's people in those
   times of trouble; and they are such as may indifferently serve both for
   those former times of trouble under Antiochus and those latter which
   were prefigured by them, ver. 1-4. II. A conference between Christ and
   an angel concerning the time of the continuance of these events,
   designed for Daniel's satisfaction, ver. 5-7. III. Daniel's enquiry for
   his own satisfaction, ver. 8. And the answer he received to that
   enquiry, ver. 9-12.

The Promised Appearance of Michael; The Prophecy Sealed Up. (b. c. 534.)

   1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which
   standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of
   trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same
   time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that
   shall be found written in the book.   2 And many of them that sleep in
   the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
   to shame and everlasting contempt.   3 And they that be wise shall
   shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
   righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.   4 But thou, O Daniel,
   shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many
   shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

   It is usual with the prophets, when they foretel the grievances of the
   church, to furnish it at the same time with proper antidotes, a remedy
   for every malady. And no relief is so sovereign, of such general
   application, so easily accommodated to every case, and of such powerful
   efficacy, as those that are fetched from Christ and the future state;
   thence the comforts here are fetched.

   I. Jesus Christ shall appear his church's patron and protector: At that
   time, when the persecution is at the hottest, Michael shall stand up,
   v. 1. The angel had told Daniel what a firm friend Michael was to the
   church, ch. x. 21. He all along showed this friendship in the upper
   world; the angels knew it; but now Michael shall stand up in his
   providence, and work deliverance for the Jews, when he sees that their
   power is gone, Deut. xxxii. 3. 6. Christ is that great prince, for he
   is the prince of the kings of the earth, Rev. i. 5. And, if he stand up
   for his church, who can be against it? But this is not all: At that
   time (that is, soon after) Michael shall stand up for the working out
   of our eternal salvation; the Son of God shall be incarnate, shall be
   manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Christ stood for the
   children of our people when he was made sin and a curse for them, stood
   in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the cure for them, to bear it from
   them. He stands for them in the intercession he ever lives to make
   within the veil, stands up for them, and stands their friend. And after
   the destruction of antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type, Christ
   shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, shall appear for the
   complete redemption of all his.

   II. When Christ appears he will recompense tribulation to those that
   trouble his people. There shall be a time of trouble, threatening to
   all, but ruining to all the implacable enemies of God's kingdom among
   men, such trouble as never was since there was a nation. This is
   applicable. 1. To the destruction of Jerusalem, which Christ calls
   (perhaps with an eye to this prediction) such a great tribulation as
   was not since the beginning of the world to this time, Matt. xxiv. 21.
   This the angel had spoken much of (ch. ix. 26, 27); and it happened
   about the same time that Christ set up the gospel-kingdom in the world,
   that Michael our prince stands up. Or, 2. To the judgment of the great
   day, that day that shall burn as an oven, and consume the proud and all
   that do wickedly; that will be such a day of trouble as never was to
   all those whom Michael our prince stands against.

   III. He will work salvation for his people: "At that time thy people
   shall be delivered, delivered from the mischief and ruin designed them
   by Antiochus, even all those that were marked for preservation, that
   were written among the living," Isa. iv. 3. When Christ comes into the
   world he will save his spiritual Israel from sin and hell, and will, at
   his second coming, complete their salvation, even the salvation of as
   many as were given him, as many as have their names in the book of
   life, Rev. xx. 15. They were written there before the world, and will
   be found written there at the end of the world, when the books shall be
   opened.

   IV. There shall be a distinguishing resurrection of those that sleep in
   the dust, v. 2. 1. When God works deliverance for his people from
   persecution it is a kind of resurrection; so the Jews' release out of
   Babylon was represented in vision (Ezek. xxxvii.) and so the
   deliverance of the Jews from Antiochus, and other restorations of the
   church to outward prosperity; they were as life from the dead. Many of
   those who had long slept in the dust of obscurity and calamity shall
   then awake, some to that life, and honour, and comfort which will be
   lasting, everlasting; but to others, who, when they return to their
   prosperity, will return to their iniquity, it will be a resurrection to
   shame and contempt, for the prosperity of fools will but expose them
   and destroy them. 2. When, upon the appearing of Michael our prince,
   his gospel is preached, many of those who sleep in the dust, both Jews
   and Gentiles, shall be awakened by it to take upon them a profession of
   religion, and shall rise out of their heathenism or Judaism; but, since
   there will be always a mixture of hypocrites with true saints, it is
   but some of those who are raised to life to whom the gospel is a savour
   of life unto life, but others will be raised by it to shame and
   contempt, to whom the gospel of Christ will be a savour of death unto
   death, and Christ himself set for their fall. The net of the gospel
   encloses both good and bad. But, 3. It must be meant of the general
   resurrection at the last day: The multitude of those that sleep in the
   dust shall awake, that is, all, which shall be a great many. Or, Of
   those that sleep in the dust many shall arise to life and many to
   shame. The Jews themselves understand this of the resurrection of the
   dead at the end of time; and Christ seems to have an eye to it when he
   speaks of the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation
   (John v. 29); and upon this the Jews are said by St. Paul to expect a
   resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust, Acts xxiv.
   15. And nothing could come in more seasonably here, for, under
   Antiochus's persecution, some basely betrayed their religion, others
   bravely adhered to it. Now it would be a trouble to them that, when the
   storm was over, they could neither reward the one nor punish the other;
   this therefore would be a satisfaction to them, that they would both be
   recompensed according to their works in the resurrection. And the
   apostle, speaking of the pious Jews that suffered martyrdom under
   Antiochus, tells us that though they were tortured yet they accepted
   not deliverance, because they hoped to obtain this better resurrection,
   Heb. xi. 35.

   V. There shall be a glorious reward conferred on those who, in the day
   of trouble and distress, being themselves wise, did instruct many. Such
   were taken particular notice of in the prophecy of the persecution (ch.
   xi. 33), that they should do eminent service, and yet should fall by
   the sword and by flame; now, if there were not another life after this,
   they would be of all men most miserable, and therefore we are here
   assured that they shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just
   (v. 3): Those that are wise (that are teachers, so some read it, for
   teachers have need of wisdom, and those that have wisdom themselves
   should communicate it to others) shall shine as the brightness of the
   firmament, shall shine in glory, heavenly glory, the glory of the upper
   world; and those that by the wisdom they have, and the instructions
   they give, are instrumental to turn any, especially to turn many to
   righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. Note, 1.
   There is a glory reserved for all the saints in the future state, for
   all that are wise, wise for their souls and eternity. A man's wisdom
   now makes his face to shine (Eccles. viii. 1), but much more will it do
   so in that state where its power shall be perfected and its services
   rewarded. 2. The more good any do in this world, especially to the
   souls of men, the greater will be their glory and reward in the other
   world. Those that turn men to righteousness, that turn sinners from the
   errors of their ways and help to save their souls from death (Jam. v.
   20), will share in the glory of those they have helped to heaven, which
   will be a great addition to their own glory. 3. Ministers of Christ,
   who have obtained mercy of him to be faithful and successful, and so
   are made burning and shining lights in this world, shall shine very
   brightly in the other world, shall shine as the stars. Christ is the
   sun, the fountain, of the lights both of grace and glory; ministers, as
   stars, shine in both, with a light derived from him, and a diminutive
   light in comparison of him; yet to those that are earthen vessels it
   will be a glory infinitely transcending their deserts. They shall shine
   as the stars of different magnitudes, some in less, others in greater
   lustre; but, whereas the day is coming when the stars shall fall from
   heaven as leaves in autumn, these stars shall shine for ever and ever,
   shall never set, never be eclipsed.

   VI. That this prophecy of those times, though sealed up now, would be
   of great use to those that should live then, v. 4. Daniel must now shut
   up the words and seal the book because the time would be long ere these
   things would be accomplished: and it was some comfort that the Jewish
   nation, though, in the infancy of their return from Babylon, while they
   were few and weak, they met with obstructions in their work, were not
   persecuted for their religion till a long time after, when they had
   grown to some strength and maturity. He must seal the book because it
   would not be understood, and therefore would not be regarded, till the
   things contained in it were accomplished; but he must keep it safely,
   as a treasure of great value, laid up for the ages to come, to whom it
   would be of great service; for many shall then run to and fro, and
   knowledge shall be increased. Then this hidden treasure shall be
   opened, and many shall search into it, and dig for the knowledge of it,
   as for silver. They shall run to and fro, to enquire out copies of it,
   shall collate them, and see that they be true and authentic. They shall
   read it over and over, shall meditate upon it, and run it over in their
   minds; discurrent--they shall discourse of it, and talk it over among
   themselves, and compare notes about it, if by any means they may sift
   out the meaning of it; and thus knowledge shall be increased. By
   consulting this prophecy on this occasion they shall be led to search
   other scriptures, which shall contribute much to their advancement in
   useful knowledge; for then shall we know if we follow on to know the
   Lord, Hos. vi. 3. Those that would have their knowledge increased must
   take pains, must not sit still in slothfulness and bare wishes but run
   to and fro, must make use of all the means of knowledge and improve all
   opportunities of getting their mistakes rectified, their doubts
   resolved, and their acquaintance with the things of God improved, to
   know more and to know better what they do know. And let us here see
   reason to hope that, 1. Those things of God which are now dark and
   obscure will hereafter be made clear, and easy to be understood. Truth
   is the daughter of time. Scripture prophecies will be expounded by the
   accomplishment of them; therefore they are given, and for that
   explication they are reserved. Therefore they are told us before, that,
   when they do come to pass, we may believe. 2. Those things of God which
   are despised and neglected, and thrown by as useless, shall be brought
   into reputation, shall be found to be of great service, and be brought
   into request; for divine revelation, however slighted for a time, shall
   be magnified and made honourable, and, above all, in the judgment of
   the great day, when the books shall be opened, and that book among the
   rest.

Daniel's Solicitude to Know the Times; Period of Prophecy; Daniel Comforted.
(b. c. 534.)

   5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on
   this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the
   bank of the river.   6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which
   was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of
   these wonders?   7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon
   the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left
   hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall
   be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished
   to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be
   finished.   8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my
   Lord, what shall be the end of these things?   9 And he said, Go thy
   way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of
   the end.   10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but
   the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand;
   but the wise shall understand.   11 And from the time that the daily
   sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate
   set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.   12
   Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred
   and five and thirty days.   13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for
   thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

   Daniel had been made to foresee the amazing revolutions of states and
   kingdoms, as far as the Israel of God was concerned in them; in them he
   foresaw troublous times to the church, suffering trying times, the
   prospect of which much affected him and filled him with concern. Now
   there were two questions proper to be asked upon this head:--When shall
   the end be? And, What shall the end be? These two questions are asked
   and answered here, in the close of the book; and though the comforts
   prescribed in the foregoing verses, one would think, were satisfactory
   enough, yet, for more abundant satisfaction, this is added.

   I. The question, When shall the end be? is asked by an angel, v. 5, 6.
   Concerning this we may observe,

   1. Who it was that asked the question. Daniel had had a vision of
   Christ in his glory, the man clothed in linen, ch. x. 5. But his
   discourse had been with the angel Gabriel, and now he looks, and behold
   other two (v. 5), two angels that he had not seen before, one upon the
   bank of the river on one side and the other on the other side, that,
   the river being between them, they might not whisper to one another,
   but what they said might be heard. Christ stood on the waters of the
   river, (v. 6), between the banks of Ulai; it was therefore proper that
   the angels his attendants should stand on either bank, that they might
   be ready to go, one one way and the other the other way, as he should
   order them. These angels appeared, (1.) To adorn the vision, and make
   it the more illustrious; and to add to the glory of the Son of man,
   Heb. i. 6. Daniel had not seen them before, though it is probable that
   they were there; but now, when they began to speak, he looked up, and
   saw them. Note, The further we look into the things of God, and the
   more we converse with them, the more we shall see of those things, and
   still new discoveries will be made to us; those that know much, if they
   improve it, shall know more. (2.) To confirm the discovery, that out of
   the mouth of two or three witnesses the word might be established.
   Three angels appeared to Abraham. (3.) To inform themselves, to hear
   and ask questions; for the mysteries of God's kingdom are things which
   the angels desire to look into (1 Pet. i. 12) and they are known to the
   church, Eph. iii. 10. Now one of these two angels said, When shall the
   end be? Perhaps they both asked, first one and then the other, but
   Daniel heard only one.

   2. To whom this question was put, to the man clothed in linen, of whom
   we read before (ch. x. 5), to Christ our great high priest, who was
   upon the waters of the river, and whose spokesman, or interpreter, the
   angel Gabriel had all this while been. This river was Hiddekel (ch. x.
   4), the same with Tigris, the place whereabout many of the events
   prophesied of would happen; there therefore is the scene laid. Hiddekel
   was mentioned as one of the rivers that watered the garden of Eden
   (Gen. ii. 14); fitly therefore does Christ stand upon that river, for
   by him the trees in the paradise of God are watered. Waters signify
   people, and so his standing upon the waters denotes his dominion over
   all; he sits upon the flood (Ps. xxix. 10); he treads upon the waters
   of the sea, Job ix. 8. And Christ, to show that this was he, in the
   days of his flesh walked upon the waters, Matt. xiv. 25. He was above
   the waters of the river (so some read it); he appeared in the air over
   the river.

   3. What the question was: How long shall it be to the end of these
   wonders? Daniel would not ask the question, because he would not pry
   into what was hidden, nor seem inquisitive concerning the times and the
   seasons, which the Father has put in his own power, Acts i. 7. But,
   that he might have the satisfaction of the answer, the angel put the
   question in his hearing. Our Lord Jesus sometimes answered the
   questions which his disciples were afraid or ashamed to ask, John xvi.
   19. The angel asked as one concerned, How long shall it be? What is the
   time prefixed in the divine counsels for the end of these wonders,
   these suffering trying times, that are to pass over the people of God?
   Note, (1.) The troubles of the church are the wonder of angels. They
   are astonished that God will suffer his church to be thus afflicted,
   and are anxious to know what good he will do his church by its
   afflictions. (2.) Good angels know no more of things to come than God
   is pleased to discover to them, much less do evil angels. (3.) The holy
   angels in heaven are concerned for the church on earth, and lay to
   heart its afflictions; how much more then should we, who are more
   immediately related to it, and have so much of our peace in its peace?

   4. What answer was returned to it by him who is indeed the numberer of
   secrets, and knows things to come.

   (1.) Here is a more general account given of the continuance of these
   troubles to the angel that made the enquiry (v. 7), that they shall
   continue for a time, times, and a half, that is, a year, two years, and
   half a year, as was before intimated (ch. vii. 25), but the one half of
   a prophetical week. Some understand it indefinitely, a certain time for
   an uncertain; it shall be for a time (a considerable time), for times
   (a longer time yet, double what it was thought at first that it would
   be), and yet indeed it shall be but half a time, or a part of a time;
   when it is over it shall seem not half so much as was feared. But it is
   rather to be taken for a certain time; we meet with it in the
   Revelation, under the title sometimes of three days and a half, put for
   three years and a half, sometimes forty-two months, sometimes 1260
   days. Now this determination of the time is here [1.] Confirmed by an
   oath. The man clothed in linen lifted up both his hands to heaven, and
   swore by him that lives for ever and ever that it should be so. Thus
   the mighty angel whom St. John saw is brought in, with a plain
   reference to this vision, standing with his right foot on the sea and
   his left foot on the earth, and with his hand lifted up to heaven,
   swearing that there shall be no longer delay, Rev. x. 5, 6. This Mighty
   One that Daniel saw stood with both feet on the water, and swore with
   both hands lifted up. Note, An oath is of use for confirmation; God
   only is to be sworn by, for he is the proper Judge to whom we are to
   appeal; and lifting up the hand is a very proper and significant sign
   to be used in a solemn oath. [2.] It is illustrated with a reason. God
   will suffer him to prevail till he shall have accomplished to scatter
   the power of the holy people. God will suffer him to do his worst, and
   run his utmost length, and then all these things shall be finished.
   Note, God's time to succour and relieve his people is when their
   affairs are brought to the last extremity; in the mount of the Lord it
   shall be seen that Isaac is saved just when he lies ready to be
   sacrificed. Now the event answered the prediction; Josephus says
   expressly, in his book of the Wars of the Jews, that Antiochus,
   surnamed Epiphanes, surprised Jerusalem by force, and held it three
   years and six months, and was then cast out of the country by the
   Asmoneans or Maccabees. Christ's public ministry continued three years
   and a half, during which time he endured the contradiction of sinners
   against himself, and lived in poverty and disgrace; and then when his
   power seemed to be quite scattered at his death, and his enemies
   triumphed over him, he obtained the most glorious victory and said, It
   is finished.

   (2.) Here is something added more particularly concerning the time of
   the continuance of those troubles, in what is said to Daniel, v. 11,
   12, where we have, [1.] The event fixed from which the time of the
   trouble is to be dated, from the taking away of the daily sacrifice by
   Antiochus, and the setting up of the image of Jupiter upon the altar,
   which was the abomination of desolation. They must reckon their
   troubles to begin indeed when they were deprived of the benefit of
   public ordinances; that was to them the beginning of sorrows; that was
   what they laid most to heart. [2.] The continuance of their trouble; it
   shall last 1290 days, three years and seven months, or (as some reckon)
   three years, six months, and fifteen days; and then, it is probable,
   the daily sacrifice was restored, and the abomination of desolation
   taken away, in remembrance of which the feast of dedication was
   observed even to our Saviour's time, John x. 22. Though it does not
   appear by the history that it was exactly so long to a day, yet it
   appears that the beginning of the trouble was in the 145th year of the
   Seleucidæ, and the end of it in the 148th year; and either the
   restoring of the sacrifice, and the taking away of the image, were just
   so many days after, or some other previous event that was remarkable,
   which is not recorded. There are many particular times fixed in the
   scripture-prophecies, which it does not appear by any history, sacred
   or profane, that the event answered, and yet no doubt it did
   punctually; as Isa. xvi. 14. [3.] The completing of their deliverance,
   or at least a further advance towards it, which is here set forty-five
   days after the former, and, some think, points at the death of
   Antiochus, 1335 days after his profaning the temple. Blessed is he that
   waits and comes to that time. It is said (1 Mac. ix. 28; x. 1) that the
   Maccabees, under a divine conduct, recovered the temple and the city.
   Many good interpreters make these to be prophetical days (that is, so
   many years), and date them from the destruction of Jerusalem by the
   Romans; but what events they then fall upon they are not agreed. Others
   date them from the corruption of the gospel-worship by the antichrist,
   whose reign is confined in the Apocalypse to 1260 days (that is,
   years), at the end of which he shall begin to fall; but thirty years
   after he shall be quite fallen, at the end of 1290 days; and whoever
   lives forty years longer, to 1335 days, will see glorious times indeed.
   Whether it looks so far forward or no I cannot tell; but this, however,
   we may learn, First, That there is a time fixed for the termination of
   the church's troubles, and the bringing about of her deliverance, and
   that this time will be punctually observed to a day. Secondly, That
   this time must be waited for with faith and patience. Thirdly, That,
   when it comes, it will abundantly recompense us for our long
   expectations of it. Blessed is he who, having waited long, comes to it
   at last, for he will then have reason to say, Lo, this is our God, and
   we have waited for him.

   II. The question, What shall the end be? is asked by Daniel, and an
   answer given to it. Observe,

   1. Why Daniel asked this question; it was because, though he heard what
   was said to the angel, yet he did not understand it, v. 8. Daniel was a
   very intelligent man, and had been conversant in visions and
   prophecies, and yet here he was puzzled; he did not understand the
   meaning of the time, times, and the part of a time, at least not so
   clearly and with so much certainty as he wished. Note, The best men are
   often much at a loss in their enquiries concerning divine things, and
   meet with that which they do not understand. But the better they are
   the more sensible they are of their own weaknesses and ignorance, and
   the more ready to acknowledge them.

   2. What the question was: O my Lord! What shall be the end of these
   things? He directs his enquiry not to the angel that talked with him,
   but immediately to Christ, for to whom else should we go with our
   enquiries? "What shall be the final issue of these events? What do they
   tend to? What will then end in?" Note, When we take a view of the
   affairs of this world, and of the church of God in it, we cannot but
   think, What will be the end of these things? We see things move as if
   they would end in the utter ruin of God's kingdom among men. When we
   observe the prevalence of vice and impiety, the decay of religion, the
   sufferings of the righteous, and the triumphs of the ungodly over them,
   we may well ask, O my Lord! what will be the end of these things? But
   this may satisfy us in general, that all will end well at last. Great
   is the truth, and will prevail at long-run. All opposing rule,
   principality, and power, will be put down, and holiness and love will
   triumph, and be in honour, to eternity. The end, this end, will come.

   3. What answer is returned to this question. Besides what refers to the
   time (v. 11, 12), of which before, here are some general instructions
   given to Daniel, with which he is dismissed from further attendance.

   (1.) He must content himself with the discoveries that had been made to
   him, and not enquire any further: "Go thy way, Daniel; let it suffice
   thee that thou has been admitted thus far to the foresight of things to
   come, but stop here. Go thy way about the king's business again, ch.
   viii. 27. Go thy way, and record what thou hast seen and heard, for the
   benefit of posterity, and covet not to see and hear more at present."
   Note, Communion with God is not our continual feast in this world; we
   sometimes are taken to be witnesses of Christ's glory, and we say, It
   is good to be here; but we must go down from the mount, and have there
   no continuing city. Those that know much know but in part, and still
   see there is a great deal that they are kept in the dark about, and are
   likely to be so till the veil is rent; hitherto their knowledge shall
   go, but no further. "Go thy way, Daniel, satisfied with what thou
   hast."

   (2.) He must not expect that what had been said to him would be fully
   understood till it was accomplished: The words are closed up and
   sealed, are involved in perplexities, and are likely to be so, till the
   time of the end, till the end of these things; nay, till the end of all
   things. Daniel was ordered to seal the book to the time of the end, v.
   4. The Jews used to say, When Elias comes he will tell us all things.
   "They are closed up and sealed, that is, the discovery designed to be
   made by them is now fully settled and completed; nothing is to be added
   to it nor taken from it, for it is closed up and sealed; ask not
   therefore after more." Nescire velle quæ magister maximus docere non
   vult erudita inscitia est--He has learned much who is willing to be
   ignorant of those things which the great teacher does not choose to
   impart.

   (3.) He must count upon no other than that, as long as the world
   stands, there will still be in it such a mixture as now we see there is
   of good and bad, v. 10. We long to see all wheat and no tares in God's
   field, all corn and no chaff in God's floor; but it will not be till
   the time of ingathering, till the winnowing day, comes; both must grow
   together until the harvest. As it has been, so it is, and will be, The
   wicked shall do wickedly, but the wise shall understand. In this, as in
   other things, St. John's Revelation closes as Daniel did. Rev. xxii.
   11, He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is holy,
   let him be holy still. [1.] There is no remedy but that wicked people
   will do wickedly; and such people there are and will be in the world to
   the end of time. So said the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness
   proceeds from the wicked (1 Sam. xxiv. 13); and the observation of the
   moderns says the same. Bad men will do bad things; and a corrupt tree
   will never bring forth good fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or
   bring forth good things from an evil treasure in the heart? No; wicked
   practices are the natural products of wicked principles and
   dispositions. Marvel not at the matter then, Eccl. v. 8. We are told,
   before, that the wicked will do wickedly; we can expect no better from
   them: but, which is worse, none of the wicked shall understand. This is
   either, First, A part of their sin. They will not understand; they shut
   their eyes against the light, and none so blind as those that will not
   see. Therefore they are wicked because they will not understand. If
   they did but rightly know the truths of God, they would readily obey
   the laws of God, Ps. lxxxii. 5. Wilful sin is the effect of wilful
   ignorance; they will not understand because they are wicked; they hate
   the light, and come not to the light, because their deeds are evil,
   John iii. 19. Or, Secondly, It is a part of their punishment; they will
   do wickedly, and therefore God has given them up to blindness of mind,
   and has said concerning them, They shall not understand, nor be
   converted and healed, Matt. xiii. 14, 15. God will not give them eyes
   to see, because they will do wickedly, Deut. xxix. 4. [2.] Yet, bad as
   the world is, God will secure to himself a remnant of good people in
   it; still there shall be some, there shall be many, to whom the
   providences and ordinances of God shall be a savour of life unto life,
   while to others they are a savour of death unto death. First, the
   providences of God shall do them good: Many shall be purified, and made
   white, and tried, by their troubles (compare ch. xi. 35), by the same
   troubles which will but stir up the corruptions of the wicked and make
   them do more wickedly. Note, The afflictions of good people are
   designed for their trial; but by these trials they are purified and
   made white, their corruptions are purged out, their graces are
   brightened, and made both more vigorous and more conspicuous, and are
   found to praise, and honour, and glory, 1 Pet. i. 7. To those who are
   themselves sanctified and good every event is sanctified, and works for
   good, and helps to make them better. Secondly, The word of God shall do
   them good. When the wicked understand not, but stumble at the word, the
   wise shall understand. Those who are wise in practice shall understand
   doctrine; those who are influenced and governed by the divine law and
   love shall be illuminated with a divine light. For if any man will do
   his will he shall know the truth, John vii. 17. Give instruction to a
   wise man, and he will be yet wiser.

   (4.) He must comfort himself with the pleasing prospect of his own
   happiness in death, in judgment, and to eternity, v. 13. Daniel was now
   very old, and had been long engaged both in an intimate acquaintance
   with heaven and in a great deal of public business on this earth. And
   now he must think of bidding farewell to this present state: Go thou
   thy way till the end be. [1.] It is good for us all to think much of
   going away from this world; we are still going, and must be gone
   shortly, gone the way of all the earth. That must be our way; but this
   is our comfort, We shall not go till God calls for us to another world,
   and till he has done with us in this world, till he says, "Go thou thy
   way; thou hast finished thy testimony, done thy work, and accomplished
   as a hireling thy day, therefore now, Go thy way, and leave it to
   others to take thy room." [2.] When a good man goes his way from this
   world he enters into rest: "Thou shalt rest from all thy present toils
   and agitations, and shalt not see the evils that are coming on the next
   generation." Never can a child of God say more pertinently than in his
   dying moments, Return unto thy rest, O my soul! [3.] Time and days will
   have an end; not only our time and days will end very shortly, but all
   times and days will have an end at length; yet a little while, and time
   shall be no more, but all its revolutions will be numbered and
   finished. [4.] Our rest in the grave will be but till the end of the
   days; and then the peaceful rest will be happily disturbed by a joyful
   resurrection. Job foresaw this when he said of the dead, Till the
   heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their
   sleep, implying that then they shall, Job xiv. 12. [5.] We must every
   one of us stand in our lot at the end of the days. In the judgment of
   the great day we must have our allotment according to what we were, and
   what we did, in the body, either, Come, you blessed or, Go, you cursed;
   and we must stand for ever in that lot. It was a comfort to Daniel, it
   is a comfort to all the saints, that, whatever their lot is in the days
   of time, they shall have a happy lot in the end of the days, shall have
   their lot among the chosen. And it ought to be the great care and
   concern of every one of us to secure a happy lot at last in the end of
   the days, and they we may well be content with our present lot, welcome
   the will of God. [6.] A believing hope and prospect of a blessed lot in
   the heavenly Canaan, at the end of the days, will be an effectual
   support to us when we are going our way out of this world, and will
   furnish us with living comforts in dying moments.
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Hosea
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

H O S E A.
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   I. We have now before us the twelve minor prophets, which some of the
   ancients, in reckoning up the books of the Old Testament, put all
   together, and reckon but as one book. They are called the minor
   prophets, not because their writings are of any less authority or
   usefulness than those of the greater prophets, or as if these prophets
   were less in God's account or might be so in ours than the other, but
   only because they are shorter, and less in bulk, than the other. We
   have reason to think that these prophets preached as much as the
   others, but that they did not write so much, nor is so much of their
   preaching kept upon record. Many excellent prophets wrote nothing, and
   others but little, who yet were very useful in their day. And so in the
   Christian church there have been many burning and shining lights, who
   are not known to posterity by their writings, and yet were no way
   inferior in gifts, and graces, and serviceableness to their own
   generation, than those who are; and some who have left but little
   behind them, and make no great figure among authors, were yet as
   valuable men as the more voluminous writers. These twelve small
   prophets, Josephus says, were put into one volume by the men of the
   great synagogue in Ezra's time, of which learned and pious body of men
   the last three of these twelve prophets are supposed to have been
   themselves members. These are what remained of the scattered pieces of
   inspired writing. Antiquaries value the fragmenta veterum--the
   fragments of antiquity; these are the fragments of prophecy, which are
   carefully gathered up by the divine Providence and the care of the
   church, that nothing might be lost, as St. Paul's short epistles after
   his long ones. The son of Sirach speaks of these twelve prophets with
   honour, as men that strengthened Jacob, Ecclus. xlix. 10. Nine of these
   prophets prophesied before the captivity, and the last three after the
   return of the Jews to their own land. Some difference there is in the
   order of these books. We place them as the ancient Hebrew did; and all
   agree to put Hosea first; but the ancient thing is not material. And,
   if we covet to place them according to their seniority, as to some of
   them we shall find no certainty.

   II. We have before us the prophecy of Hosea, who was the first of all
   the writing prophets, being raised up somewhat before the time of
   Isaiah. The ancients say, He was of Bethshemesh, and of the tribe of
   Issachar. He continued very long a prophet; the Jews reckoned that he
   prophesied nearly fourscore and ten years; so that, as Jerome observes,
   he prophesied of the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes when
   it was at a great distance, and lived himself to see and lament it, and
   to improve it when it was over, for warning to its sister kingdom. The
   scope of his prophecy is to discover sin, and to denounce the judgments
   of God against a people that would not be reformed. The style is very
   concise and sententious, above any of the prophets; and in some places
   it seems to be like the book of Proverbs, without connexion, and rather
   to be called Hosea's sayings than Hosea's sermons. And a weighty adage
   may sometimes do more service than a laboured discourse. Huetius
   observes that many passages in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel
   seem to refer to, and to be borrowed from, the prophet Hosea, who wrote
   a good while before them. As Jer. vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10; and Ezek.
   xxvi. 13, speak the same with Hos. ii. 11; so Ezek. xvi. 16, &c., is
   taken from Hos. ii. 8. And that promise of serving the Lord their God,
   and David their king, Jer. xxx. 8, 9. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, Hosea had
   before, ch. iii. 5. And Ezek. xix. 12 is taken from Hos. xiii. 15. Thus
   one prophet confirms and corroborates another; and all these worketh
   that one and the self-same Spirit.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. I.

   The mind of God is revealed to this prophet, and by him to the people,
   in the first three chapters, by signs and types, but afterwards only by
   discourse. In this chapter we have, I. The general title of the whole
   book, ver. 1. II. Some particular instructions which he was ordered to
   give to the people of God. 1. He must convince them of their sin in
   going a whoring from God, by marrying a wife of whoredoms, ver. 2, 3.
   2. He must foretel the ruin coming upon them for their sin, in the
   names of his sons, which signified God's disowning and abandoning them,
   ver. 4-6, 8, 9. 3. He must speak comfortable to the kingdom of Judah,
   which still retained the pure worship of God, and assure them of the
   salvation of the Lord, ver. 7. 4. He must give an intimation of the
   great mercy God had in store both for Israel and Judah, in the latter
   days (ver. 10, 11), for in this prophecy many precious promises of
   mercy are mixed with the threatenings of wrath.

The Time of Hosea's Prophecy. (b. c. 768.)

   1 The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the
   days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the
   days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

   1. Here is the prophet's name and surname; which he himself, as other
   prophets, prefixes to his prophecy, for the satisfaction of all that he
   is ready to attest what he writes to be of God; he sets his hand to it,
   as that which he will stand by. His name, Hosea, or Hosea (for it is
   the very same with Joshua's original name), signifies a saviour; for
   prophets were instruments of salvation to the people of God, so are
   faithful ministers; they help to save many a soul from death, by saving
   it from sin. his surname was Ben-Beeri, or the son of Beeri. As with us
   now, so with them then, some had their surname from their place, as
   Micah the Morashite, Nahum the Elkoshite; others from their parents, as
   Joel the son of Bethuel, and here Hosea the son of Beeri. And perhaps
   they made use of that distinction when the eminence of their parents
   was such as would bring honour upon them; but it is a groundless
   conceit of the Jews that where a prophet's father is names he also was
   a prophet. Beeri signifies a well, which may put us in mind of the
   fountain of life and living waters from which prophets are drawn and
   must be continually drawing. 2. Here are his authority and commission:
   The word of the Lord came to him. It was to him; it came with power and
   efficacy to him; it was revealed to him as a real thing, and not a
   fancy or imagination of his own, in some such way as God then
   discovered himself to his servants the prophets. What he said and wrote
   was by divine inspiration; it was by the word of the Lord, as St. Paul
   speaks concerning that which he had purely by revelation, 1 Thess. iv.
   15. Therefore this book was always received among the canonical books
   of the Old Testament, which is confirmed by what is quoted out of it in
   the New Testament, Matt. ii. 15; ix. 13; xii. 7; Rom. ix. 25, 26; 1
   Pet. ii. 10. For the word of the Lord endures for ever. 3. Here is a
   particular account of the times in which he prophesied--in the days of
   Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of
   Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. We have only this general
   date of his prophecy; and not the date of any particular part of it,
   as, before, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and, afterwards,
   in Haggai and Zechariah. Here is only one king of Israel named, though
   there were many more within this time, because, having mentioned the
   kings of Judah, there was no necessity of naming the other; and, they
   being all wicked, he took no pleasure in naming them, nor would do them
   the honour. Now by this account here given of the several reigns in
   which Hosea prophesied (and it should seem the word of the Lord still
   came to him, more or less, at times, throughout all these reigns) it
   appears, (1.) That he prophesied a long time, that he began when he was
   very young, which gave him the advantage of strength and sprightliness,
   and that he continued at his work till he was very old, which gave him
   the advantage of experience and authority. It was a great honour to him
   to be thus long employed in such good work, and a great mercy to the
   people to have a minister so long among them that so well knew their
   state, and naturally cared for it, one they had been long used to and
   who therefore was the more likely to be useful to them. And yet, for
   aught that appears, he did but little good among them; the longer they
   enjoyed him the less they regarded him; they despised his youth first,
   and afterwards his age. (2.) That he passed through a variety of
   conditions. Some of these kings were very good, and, it is likely,
   countenanced and encouraged him; others were very bad, who (we may
   suppose) frowned upon him and discouraged him; and yet he was still the
   same. God's ministers must expect to pass through honour and dishonour,
   evil report and good report, and must resolve in both to hold fast
   their integrity and keep close to their work. (3.) That he began to
   prophesy at a time when the judgments of God were abroad, when God was
   himself contending in a more immediate way with that sinful people, who
   fell into the hands of the Lord, before they were turned over into the
   hands of man; for in the days of Uzziah, and of Jeroboam his
   contemporary, the dreadful earthquake was, mentioned Zech. xiv. 5 and
   Amos i. 1. And then was the plague of locusts, Joel i. 2-4; Amos vii.
   1; Hos. iv. 3. The rod of God is sent to enforce the word and the word
   of God is sent to explain the rod, yet neither prevails till God by his
   Spirit opens the ear to instruction and discipline. (4.) That he began
   to prophesy in Israel at a time when their kingdom was in a flourishing
   prosperous condition, for so it was in the reign of Jeroboam the
   second, as we find 2 Kings xiv. 25, He restored the coast of Israel,
   and God saved them by his hand; yet then Hosea boldly tells them of
   their sins and foretels their destruction. Men are not to be flattered
   in their sinful ways because they prosper in the world, but even then
   must be faithfully reproved, and plainly told that their prosperity
   will not be their security, nor will it last long if they go on still
   in their trespasses.

The Prophet's Marriage; Threatenings against Israel; Intimation of Mercy to
Judah. (b. c. 768.)

   2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to
   Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of
   whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from
   the Lord.   3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which
   conceived, and bare him a son.   4 And the Lord said unto him, Call his
   name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of
   Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of
   the house of Israel.   5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I
   will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.   6 And she
   conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her
   name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of
   Israel; but I will utterly take them away.   7 But I will have mercy
   upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and
   will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor
   by horsemen.

   These words, The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, may refer
   either, 1. To that glorious set of prophets which was raised up about
   this time. About this time there lived and prophesied Joel, Amos,
   Micah, Jonah, Obadiah, and Isaiah; but Hosea was the first of them that
   foretold the destruction of Israel; the beginning of this word of the
   Lord was by him. We read in the history of this Jeroboam here named (2
   Kings xiv. 27) that the Lord had not yet said he would blot out the
   name of Israel, but soon after he said he would, and Hosea was the man
   that began to say it, which made it so much the harder task to him, to
   be the first that should carry an unpleasing message and some time
   before any were raised up to second him. Or, rather, 2. To Hosea's own
   prophecies. This was the first message God sent him upon to this
   people, to tell them that they were an evil and an adulterous
   generation. He might have desired to be excused from dealing so roughly
   with them till he had gained authority and reputation, and some
   interest in their affections. No; he must begin with this, that they
   might know what to expect from a prophet of the Lord. Nay, he must not
   only preach this to them, but he must write it, and publish it, and
   leave it upon record as a witness against them. Now here,

   I. The prophet must, as it were in a looking-glass, show them their
   sin, and show it to be exceedingly sinful, exceedingly hateful. The
   prophet is ordered to take unto him a wife of whoredoms and children of
   whoredoms, v. 2. And he did so, v. 3. He married a woman of ill fame,
   Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, not one that had been married and had
   committed adultery, for then she must have been put to death, but one
   that had lived scandalously in the single state. To marry such a one
   was not malum in se--evil in itself, but only malum per
   accidens--incidentally an evil, not prudent, decent, or expedient, and
   therefore forbidden to the priests, and which, if it were really done,
   would be an affliction to the prophet (it is threatened as a curse on
   Amaziah that his wife should be a harlot, Amos vii. 17), but not a sin
   when God commanded it for a holy end; nay, if commanded, it was his
   duty, and he must trust God with his reputation. But most commentators
   think that it was done in vision, or that it is no more than a parable;
   and that was a way of teaching commonly used among the ancients,
   particularly prophets; what they meant of others they transferred to
   themselves in a figure, as St. Paul speaks, 1 Cor. iv. 6. He must take
   a wife of whoredoms, and have such children by her as every one would
   suspect, though born in wedlock, to be children of whoredoms, begotten
   in adultery, because it is too common for those who have lived lewdly
   in the single state to live no better in the married state. "Now"
   (saith God) "Hosea, this people is to me such a dishonour, and such a
   grief and vexation, as a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms
   would be to thee. For the land has committed great whoredoms." In all
   instances of wickedness they had departed from the Lord; but their
   idolatry especially is the whoredom they are here charged with. Giving
   that glory to any creature which is due to God alone is such an injury
   and affront to God as for a wife to embrace the bosom of a stranger is
   to her husband. It is especially so in those that have made a
   profession of religion, and have been taken into covenant with God; it
   is breaking the marriage-bond; it is a heinous odious sin, and, as much
   as any thing, besots the mind and takes away the heart. Idolatry is
   great whoredom, worse than any other; it is departing from the Lord, to
   whom we lie under greater obligations than any wife does or can do to
   her husband. The land has committed whoredom; it is not here and there
   a particular person that is guilty of idolatry, but the whole land is
   polluted with it; the sin has become national, the disease epidemical.
   What an odious thing would it be for the prophet, a holy man, to have a
   whorish wife, and children whorish like her! What an exercise would it
   be of his patience, and, if she persisted in it, what could be expected
   but that he should give her a bill of divorce! And is it not then much
   more offensive to the holy God to have such a people as this to be
   called by his name and have a place in his house? How great is his
   patience with them! And how justly may he cast them off! It was as if
   he should have married Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who probably was
   at that time a noted harlot. The land of Israel was like Gomer the
   daughter of Diblaim. Gomer signifies corruption; Diblaim signifies two
   cakes, or lumps of figs; this denotes that Israel was near to ruin, and
   that their luxury and sensuality were the cause of it. They were as the
   evil figs that could not be eaten, they were so evil. It intimates sin
   to be the daughter of plenty and destruction the daughter of the abuse
   of plenty. Some give this sense of the command here given to the
   prophet: "Go, take thee a wife of whoredoms, for, if thou shouldst go
   to seek for an honest modest woman, thou wouldst not find any such, for
   the whole land, and all the people of it, are given to whoredom, the
   usual concomitant of idolatry."

   II. The prophet must, as it were through a perspective glass, show them
   their ruin; and this he does in the names given to the children born of
   this adulteress; for as lust, when it has conceived, brings forth sin,
   so sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

   1. He foretels the fall of the royal family in the name he is appointed
   to give to his first child, which was a son: Call his name Jezreel, v.
   4. We find that the prophet Isaiah gave prophetical names to his
   children (Isa. vii. 3; viii. 3), so this prophet here. Jezreel
   signifies the seed of God (so they should have been); but it signifies
   also the scattered of God; they shall be as sheep on the mountains that
   have no shepherds. Call them not Israel, which signifies dominion, they
   have lost all the honour of that name; but call them Jezreel, which
   signifies dispersion, for those that have departed from the Lord will
   wander endlessly. Hitherto they have been scattered as seek; let them
   now be scattered as chaff. Jezreel was the name of one of the royal
   seats of the kings of Israel; it was a beautiful city, seated in a
   pleasant valley, and it is with allusion to that city that this child
   is called Jezreel, for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood
   of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, from whom the present king,
   Jeroboam, was lineally descended. The house of Jehu smarted for the
   sins of Jehu, for God often lays up men's iniquity for their children
   and visits it upon them. It is the kingdom of the house of Israel,
   which may be meant either of the present royal family, that of Jehu,
   which God did quickly cause to cease (for the son of this Jeroboam,
   Zechariah, reigned but six months, and he was the last of Jehu's race),
   or of the whole kingdom in general, which continued corrupt and wicked,
   and which was made to cease in the reign of Hoshea, about seventy years
   after; and with God that is but a little while. Note, Note, Neither the
   pomp of kings nor the power of kingdoms can secure them from God's
   destroying judgments, if they continue to rebel against him. (2.) What
   is the ground of this controversy: I will revenge the blood of Jezreel
   upon the house of Jehu, the blood which Jehu shed at Jezreel, when by
   commission from God and in obedience to his command, he utterly
   destroyed the house of Ahab, and all that were in alliance with it,
   with all the worshippers of Baal. God approved of what he did (2 Kings
   x. 30): Thou has done well in executing that which is right in my eyes;
   and yet here God will avenge that blood upon the house of Jehu, when
   the time has expired during which it was promised that his family
   should reign, even to the fourth generation. But how comes the same
   action to be both rewarded and punished? Very justly; the matter of it
   was good; it was the execution of a righteous sentence passed upon the
   house of Ahab, and, as such, it was rewarded; but Jehu did it not in a
   right manner; he aimed at his own advancement, not at the glory of God,
   and mingled his own resentments with the execution of God's justice. He
   did it with a malice against the sinners, but not with any antipathy to
   the sin; for he kept up the worship of the golden calves, and took no
   heed to walk in the law of God, 2 Kings x. 31. And therefore when the
   measure of the iniquity of his house was full, and God came to reckon
   with them, the first article in the account is (and, being first, it is
   put for all the rest) for the blood of the house of Ahab, here called
   the blood of Jezreel. Thus when the house of Baasha was rooted out it
   was because he did like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed
   him, 1 Kings xvi. 7. Note, Those that are entrusted with the
   administration of justice are concerned to see to it that they do it
   from a right principle and with a right intention, and that they do not
   themselves live in those sins which they punish in others, lest even
   their just executions should be reckoned for, another day, as little
   less than murders. (3.) How far the controversy shall proceed; it shall
   be not a correction, but a destruction. Some make those words, I will
   visit, or appoint, the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, to
   signify, not as we read it the revenging of that bloodshed, but the
   repeating of that bloodshed: "I will punish the house of Jehu, as I
   punished the house of Ahab, because Jehu did not take warning by the
   punishment of his predecessors, but trod in the steps of their
   idolatry. And after the house of Jehu is destroyed I will cause to
   cease the kingdom of the house of Israel; I will begin to bring it
   down, though now it flourish." After the death of Zechariah, the last
   of the house of Jehu, the kingdom of the ten tribes went to decay, and
   dwindled sensibly. And, in order to the ruin of it, it is threatened
   (v. 5), I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel; the
   strength of the warriors of Israel, so the Chaldee. God will disable
   them either to defend themselves or to resist their enemies. And the
   bow abiding in strength, and being renewed in the hand, intimates a
   growing power, so the breaking of the bow intimates a sinking ruined
   power. The bow shall be broken in the valley of Jezreel, where,
   probably, the armoury was; or, it may be, in that valley some battle
   was fought, wherein the kingdom of Israel was very much weakened. Note,
   There is no fence against God's controversy; when he comes forth
   against a people their strong bows are soon broken and their
   strong-holds broken down. In the valley of Jezreel they shed that blood
   which the righteous God would in that very place avenge upon them; as
   some notorious malefactors are hanged in chains just where the villainy
   they suffer for was perpetrated, that the punishment may answer the
   sin.

   2. He foretels God's abandoning the whole nation in the name he gives
   to the second child. This was a daughter, as the former was a son, to
   intimate that both sons and daughters had corrupted their way. Some
   make to signify that Israel grew effeminate, and was thereby enfeebled
   and made weak. Call the name of this daughter Lo-ruhamah--not beloved
   (so it is translated Rom. ix. 25), or not having obtained mercy, so it
   is translated 1 Pet. ii. 10. It comes all to one. This reads the doom
   of the house of Israel: I will no more have mercy upon them. It
   intimates that God had shown them great mercy, but they had abused his
   favours, and forfeited them, and now he would show them favour no more.
   Note, Those that forsake their own mercies for lying vanities have
   reason to expect that their own mercies should forsake them, and that
   they should be left to their lying vanities, Jonah ii. 8. Sin turns
   away the mercy of God even from the house of Israel, his own professing
   people, whose case is sad indeed when God says that he will no more
   have mercy upon them. And then it follows, I will utterly take them
   away, will utterly remove them (so some), will utterly pluck them up,
   so others. Note, When the streams of mercy are stopped we can expect no
   other than that the vials of wrath should be opened. Those whom God
   will no more have mercy upon shall be utterly taken away, as dross and
   dung. The word for taking away sometimes signifies to forgive sin; and
   some take it in that sense here: I will no more have mercy upon them,
   though in pardoning I have pardoned them heretofore. Though God has
   borne long, he will not bear always, with a people that hate to be
   reformed. Or, I will no more have mercy upon them, that I should in any
   wise pardon them, or (as our margin reads it) that I should altogether
   pardon them. If pardoning mercy is denied, no other mercy can be
   expected, for that opens the door to all the rest. Some make this to
   speak comfort: I will no more have mercy upon them till in pardoning I
   shall pardon them, that is, till the Redeemer comes to Zion to turn
   away ungodliness from Jacob. The Chaldee reads it, But, if they repent,
   in pardoning I will pardon them. Even the greatest sinners, if in time
   they bethink themselves and return, will find that there is forgiveness
   with God.

   III. He must show them what mercy God had in store for the house of
   Judah, at the same time that he was thus contending with the house of
   Israel (v. 7): But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah. Note,
   Though some are justly cast off for their disobedience, yet God will
   always secure to himself a remnant that shall be the vessels and
   monuments of mercy. When divine justice is glorified in some, yet there
   are others in whom free grace is glorified. And, though some through
   unbelief are broken off, yet God will have a church in this world till
   the end of time. It aggravates the rejection of Israel that God will
   have mercy on Judah, and not on them, and magnifies God's mercy to
   Judah that, though they also have done wickedly, yet God did not reject
   them, as he rejected Israel: I will have mercy upon them and will save
   them. Note, Our salvation is owing purely to God's mercy, and not to
   any merit of our own. Now,

   1. This, without doubt, refers to the temporal salvations which God
   wrought for Judah in a distinguishing way, the favours shown to them
   and not to Israel. When the Assyrian armies had destroyed Samaria, and
   carried the ten tribes away into captivity, they proceeded to besiege
   Jerusalem; but God had mercy on the house of Judah, and saved them by
   the vast slaughter which an angel made, in one night, in the camp of
   the Assyrians; then they were saved by the Lord their God immediately,
   and not by sword or bow. When the ten tribes were continued in their
   captivity, and their land was possessed by others, they being utterly
   taken away, God had mercy on the house of Judah and saved them, and,
   after seventy years, brought them back, not by might or power, but by
   the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. 6. I will save them by the
   Lord their God, that is, by myself. God will be exalted in his own
   strength, will take the work into his own hands. That salvation is sure
   which he undertakes to be the author of; for, if he will work, none
   shall hinder. And that salvation is most acceptable which he does by
   himself. So the Lord alone did lead him. The less there is of man in
   any salvation, and the more of God, the brighter it shines and the
   sweeter it tastes. I will save them in the word of the Lord (so the
   Chaldee), for the sake of Christ, the eternal word, and by his power. I
   will save them not by bow nor by sword, that is, (1.) They shall be
   saved when they are reduced to so low an ebb that they have neither bow
   nor sword to defend themselves with, Judg. v. 8; 1 Sam. xiii. 22. (2.)
   They shall be saved by the Lord when they are brought off from trusting
   to their own strength and their weapons of war, Ps. xliv. 6. (3.) They
   shall be saved easily, without the trouble of sword and bow, v. 7. Isa.
   ix. 5, I will save them by the Lord their God. In the calling him their
   God, he upbraids the ten tribes who had cast him off from being theirs,
   for which reason he had cast them off, and intimates what was the true
   reason why he had mercy, distinguishing mercy, for the house of Judah,
   and saved them: it was in pursuance of his covenant with them as the
   Lord their God, and in recompence for their faithful adherence to him
   and to his word and worship. But,

   2. This may refer also to the salvation of Judah from idolatry, which
   qualified and prepared them for their other salvations. And this is
   indeed a salvation by the Lord their God; it is wrought only by the
   power of his grace, and can never be wrought by sword or bow. Just at
   the time that the kingdom of Israel was utterly taken away, under
   Hoshea, the kingdom of Judah was gloriously reformed, under Hezekiah,
   and was therefore preserved; and in Babylon God saved them from their
   idolatry first, and then from their captivity.

   3. Some make this promise to look forward to the great salvation which,
   in the fulness of time, was to be wrought out by the Lord our God,
   Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save his people from their
   sins.

Temporary Rejection of Israel; Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 768.)

   8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
   9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I
   will not be your God.   10 Yet the number of the children of Israel
   shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered;
   and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto
   them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are
   the sons of the living God.   11 Then shall the children of Judah and
   the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one
   head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the
   day of Jezreel.

   We have here a prediction,

   I. Of the rejection of Israel for a time, which is signified by the
   name of another child that Hosea had by his adulterous spouse, v. 8, 9.
   And still we must observe that those children whose names carried these
   direful omens in them to Israel were all children of whoredoms (v. 2),
   all born of the harlot that Hosea married, to intimate that the ruin of
   Israel was the natural product of the sin of Israel. If they had not
   first revolted from God, they would never have been rejected by him;
   God never leaves any till they first leave him. Here is, 1. The birth
   of this child: When she had weaned her daughter, she conceived and bore
   a son. Notice is taken of the delay of the birth of this child, which
   was to carry in its name a certain presage of their utter rejection, to
   intimate God's patience with them, and his unwillingness to proceed to
   extremity. Some think that her bearing another son signifies that
   people's persisting in their wickedness; lust still conceived and
   brought forth sin. They added to do evil (so the Chaldee paraphrase
   expounds it); they were old in adulteries, and obstinate. 2. The name
   given him: Call him Lo-ammi--Not my people. When they were told that
   God would no more have mercy on them they regarded it not, but buoyed
   up themselves with this conceit, that they were God's people, whom he
   could not but have mercy on. And therefore he plucks that staff from
   under them, and disowns all relation to them: You are not my people,
   and I will not be your God. "I will not be yours (so the word it); I
   will be in no relation to you, will have nothing to do with you; I will
   not be your King, your Father, your patron and protector." We supply it
   very well with that which includes all, "I will not be your God; I will
   not be to you what I have been, nor what you vainly expect I should be,
   nor what I would have been if you had kept close to me." Observe, "You
   are not my people; you do not act as becomes my people; you are not
   observant of me and obedient to me, as my people should be; you are not
   my people, but the people of this and the other dunghill-deity; and
   therefore I will not own you for my people, will not protect you, will
   not put in any claim to you, not demand you, not deliver you out of the
   hands of those that have seized you; let them take you; you are none of
   mine. You will not have me to be your God, but pay your homage to the
   pretenders, and therefore I will not be your God; you shall have no
   interest in me, shall expect no benefit from me." Note, Our being taken
   into covenant with God is owing purely to him and to his grace, for
   then it begins on his side: I will be to them a God, and then they
   shall be to me a people; we love him because he first loved us. But our
   being cast out of covenant is owing purely to ourselves and our own
   folly. The breach is on man's side: You are not my people, and
   therefore I will not be your God; if God hate any, it is because they
   first hated him. This was fulfilled in Israel when they were utterly
   taken away into the land of Assyria, and their place knew them no more.
   They were no longer God's people, for they lost the knowledge and
   worship of him; no prophets were sent to them, no promises made to
   them, as were to the two tribes in their captivity; nay, they were no
   longer a people, but, for aught that appears, were mingled with the
   nations into which they were carried, and lost among them.

   II. Of the reduction and restoration of Israel in the fulness of time.
   Here, as before, mercy is remembered in the midst of wrath; the
   rejection, as it shall not be total, so it shall not be final (v. 10,
   11): Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of
   the sea. See how the same hand that wounded is stretched forth to heal,
   and how tenderly he that has torn binds up; though God cause grief by
   his threatenings, yet he will have compassion, and will gather with
   everlasting kindness. They are very precious promises which are here
   made concerning the Israel of God, and which may be of use to us now.

   1. Some think that these promises had their accomplishment in the
   return of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon, when many of the
   ten tribes joined themselves to Judah, and took the benefit of the
   liberty which Cyrus proclaimed, came up in great numbers out of the
   several countries into which they were dispersed, to their own land,
   appointed Zerubbabel their head, and coalesced into one people, whereas
   before they had been two distinct nations. And in their own land, where
   God had by his prophets disowned and rejected them as none of his, he
   would by his prophets own them and appear for them as his children; and
   from all parts of the country they should come up to the temple to
   worship. And we have reason to think that, though this promise has a
   further reference, yet it was graciously intended and piously used for
   the support and comfort of the captives in Babylon, as giving them a
   general assurance of mercy which God had in store for them and their
   land; their nation could not be destroyed so long as this blessing was
   in it, was in reserve for it.

   2. Some think that these promises will not have their accomplishment,
   at least not in full, till the general conversion of the Jews in the
   latter days, which is expected yet to come, when the vast incredible
   numbers of Jews, that are now dispersed as the sand of the sea, shall
   be brought to embrace the faith of Christ and be incorporated in the
   gospel-church. Then, and not till then, God will own them as his
   people, his children, even there where they had lain under the dismal
   tokens of their rejection. The Jewish doctors look upon this promise as
   not having had its accomplishment yet. But,

   3. It is certain that this promise had its accomplishment in the
   setting up of the kingdom of Christ, by the preaching of the gospel,
   and the bringing in both of Jews and Gentiles to it, for to this these
   words are applied by St. Paul (Rom. ix. 25, 26), and by St. Peter when
   he writes to the Jews of the dispersion, 1 Pet. ii. 10. Israel here is
   the gospel-church, the spiritual Israel (Gal. vi. 16), all believers
   who follow the steps, and inherit the blessing of faithful Abraham, who
   is the father of all that believe, whether Jews or Gentiles, Rom. iv.
   11, 12. Now let us see what is promised concerning this Israel.

   (1.) That it shall greatly multiply, and the numbers of it be
   increased; it shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
   nor numbered. Though Israel according to the flesh be diminished and
   made few, the spiritual Israel shall be numerous, shall be innumerable.
   In the vast multitudes that by the preaching of the gospel have been
   brought to Christ, both in the first ages of Christianity and ever
   since, this promise is fulfilled, thousands out of every tribe in
   Israel, and out of other nations, a multitude which no man can number,
   Rev. vii. 4, 9; Gal. iv. 27. In this the promise made to Abraham, when
   God called him Abraham the high father of a multitude, had its full
   accomplishment (Gen. xvii. 5), and that Gen. xxii. 17. Some observe
   that they are here compared to the sand of the sea, not only for their
   numbers, but as the sand of the sea serves for a boundary to the
   waters, that they shall not overflow the earth, so the Israelites
   indeed are a wall of defence to the places where they live, to keep off
   judgments. God can do nothing against Sodom while Lot is there.

   (2.) That God will renew his covenant with the gospel-Israel, and will
   incorporate it a church to himself, by as full and ample a charter as
   that whereby the Old-Testament church was incorporated; nay, and its
   privileges shall be much greater: "In the place where it was said unto
   them, You are not my people, there shall you be again admitted into
   covenant, and owned as my people." The abandoned Gentiles in their
   respective places, and the rejected Jews in theirs, shall be favoured
   and blessed. There, where the fathers were cast off for their unbelief,
   the children, upon their believing, shall be taken in. This is a
   blessed resurrection, the making of those the people of God that were
   not a people. Nay, but the privilege is enlarged; now it is not only,
   You are my people, as formerly, but You are the sons of the living God,
   whether by birth you were Jews or Gentiles. Israel under the law was
   God's son, his first-born, but then they were as children under age;
   now, under the gospel, they have grown up both to greater understanding
   and greater liberty, Gal. iv. 1, 2. Note, [1.] It is the unspeakable
   privilege of all believers that they have the living God for their
   Father, the ever-living God, and may look upon themselves as his
   children by grace and adoption. [2.] The sonship of believers shall be
   owned and acknowledged; it shall be said to them, for their comfort and
   satisfaction, nay, and it shall be said for their honour in the hearing
   of the world, You are the sons of the living God. Let not the saints
   disquiet themselves; let not others despise them; for, sooner or later,
   there shall be a manifestation of the children of God, and all the
   world shall be made to know their excellency and the value God has for
   them. [3.] It will add much to their comfort, very much to their
   honour, when they are dignified with the tokens of God's favour in that
   very place where they had long lain under the tokens of his
   displeasure. This speaks comfort to the believing Gentiles, that they
   need not go up to Jerusalem, to be received and owned as God's
   children; no, they may stay where they are, and in that place, though
   it be in the remotest corner of the earth, in that place where they
   were at a distance, where it was said to them, "You are not God's
   people," but are separated from them (Isa. lvi. 3, 6), even there,
   without leaving their country and kindred, they may by faith receive
   the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with their spirits that "they are
   the children of God."

   (3.) That those who had been at variance should be happily brought
   together (v. 11): Then shall the children of Judah and the children of
   Israel be gathered together. This uniting of Judah and Israel, those
   two kingdoms that were now so much at variance, biting and devouring
   one another, is mentioned only as a specimen, or one instance, of the
   happy effect of the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world, the
   bringing of those that had been at the greatest enmity one against
   another to a good understanding one of another and a good affection one
   to another. This was literally fulfilled when the Galileans, who
   inhabited that part of the country which belonged to the ten tribes,
   and probably for the most part descended from them, so heartily joined
   with those that were probably called Jews (that were of Judea) in
   following Christ and embracing his gospel; and his first disciples were
   partly Jews and partly Galileans. The first that were blessed with the
   light of the gospel were of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali (Matt. iv.
   15); and, though there was no good-will at all between the Jews and the
   Galileans, yet, upon their believing in Christ, they were happily
   consolidated, and there were no remains of the former disaffection they
   had to one another; nay, when the Samaritans believed, though between
   them and the Jews there was a much greater enmity, yet in Christ there
   was a perfect unanimity, Acts viii. 14. Thus Judah and Israel were
   gathered together; yet this was but a type of the much more celebrated
   coalition between Jews and Gentiles, when, by the death of Christ, the
   partition-wall of the ceremonial law was taken down. See Eph. ii.
   14-16. Christ died, to gather together in one all the children of God
   that were scattered abroad, John xi. 51; Eph. i. 10.

   (4.) That Jesus Christ should be the centre of unity to all God's
   spiritual Israel. They shall all agree to appoint to themselves one
   head, which can be no other than he whom God has appointed, even
   Christ. Note, Jesus Christ is the head of the church, the one only head
   of it, not only a head of government, as of the body politic, but a
   head of vital influence, as of the natural body. To believe in Christ
   is to appoint him to ourselves for our head, that is, to consent to
   God's appointment, and willingly commit ourselves to his guidance and
   government; and this in concurrence and communion with all good
   Christians that make him their head; so that, though they are many, yet
   in him they are one, and so become one with each other. Qui conveniunt
   in aliquo tertio inter se conveniunt--Those who agree with a third
   agree with each other.

   (5.) That, having appointed Christ for their head, they shall come up
   out of the land; they shall come, some of all sorts, from all parts, to
   join themselves to the church, as, under the Jewish economy, they came
   up from all corners of the land of Israel to Jerusalem, to worship (Ps.
   cxxii. 4), Thither the tribes go up, to which there is a plain allusion
   in that prophecy of the accession of the Gentiles to the church (Isa.
   ii. 3), Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. It denotes
   not a local remove (for they are said to be in the same place, v. 10),
   but a change of their mind, a spiritual ascent to Christ. They shall
   come up from the earth (so it may be read); for those who have given up
   themselves to Christ as their head take their affections off from this
   earth, and the things of it, to set them upon things above (Col. iii.
   1, 2); for they are not of the world (John xv. 19), but have their
   conversation in heaven. They shall come up out of the land, though it
   be the land of their nativity; they shall, in affection, come out from
   it, that they may follow the Lamb withersoever he goes. Thus the
   learned Dr. Pocock takes it.

   (6.) That, when all this comes to pass, great shall be the day of
   Jezreel. Though great is the day of Jezreel's affliction (so some
   understand it), yet great shall be the day of Jezreel's glory. This
   shall be Israel's day; the day shall be their own, after their enemies
   have long had their day. Israel is here called Jezreel, the seed of
   God, the holy seed (Isa. vi. 13), the substance of the land. This seed
   is now sown in the earth, and buried under the clods; but great shall
   be its day when the harvest comes. Great was the church's day when
   there were added to it daily such as should be saved; then did the
   Almighty do great things for it.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. II.

   The scope of this chapter seems to be much the same with that of the
   foregoing chapter, and to point at the same events, and the causes of
   them. As there, so here, I. God, by the prophet, discovers sin to them,
   and charges it home upon them, the sin of their idolatry, their
   spiritual whoredom, their serving idols and forgetting God and their
   obligations to him, ver. 1, 2, 5, 8. II. He threatens to take away from
   them that plenty of all good things with which they had served their
   idols, and to abandon them to ruin without remedy, ver. 3, 4, 6, 7,
   9-13. III. Yet he promises at last to return in ways of mercy to them
   for his own sake (ver. 14), to restore them to their former plenty
   (ver. 15), to cure them of their inclination to idolatry (ver. 16, 17),
   to renew his covenant with them (ver. 18-20), and to bless them with
   all good things, ver. 21-23.

The Sinfulness of Israel. (b. c. 764.)

   1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.   2
   Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her
   husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and
   her adulteries from between her breasts;   3 Lest I strip her naked,
   and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a
   wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.   4
   And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children
   of whoredoms.   5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that
   conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my
   lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine
   oil and my drink.

   The first words of this chapter some make the close of the foregoing
   chapter, and add them to the promises which we have here of the great
   things God would do for them. When they shall have appointed Christ
   their head, and centered in him, then let them say to one another, with
   triumph and exultation (let the prophets say it to them, so the
   Chaldee--Comfort you, comfort you, my people, is now their commission),
   "say to them, Ammi, and Ruhamah; call them so again, for they shall no
   longer lie under the reproach and doom of Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah; they
   shall now be my people again, and shall obtain mercy." God's spiritual
   Israel, made up of Jews and Gentiles without distinction, shall call
   one another brethren and sisters, shall own one another for the people
   of God and beloved of him, and, for that reason, shall embrace one
   another, and stir up one another both to give thanks for and to walk
   worthy of this common salvation which they partake of. Or rather,
   because the following words seem to have a coherence with these, these
   also are designed for conviction and humiliation. The mother (v. 2)
   seems to be the same with the brethren and sisters (v. 1), the church
   of the ten tribes, the body of the people, who were brethren, and in a
   special manner with the heads and leaders, who were as the mother by
   whom the rest were brought up and nursed. But who are the children that
   must plead with their mother thus? Either, 1. The godly that were among
   them, that witnessed against the iniquities of the times, let them
   boldly go on to bear their testimony against the idolatries and gross
   corruptions that prevail among them. Let those that had not bowed the
   knee to Baal reason the case with those that had, and endeavour to
   convince them with such arguments as are here put into their mouths.
   Note, Private persons may, and ought in their places, to appear and
   plead against the public profanations of God's name and worship.
   Children may humbly and modestly argue with their parents when they do
   amiss: Plead with your mother, plead, as Jonathan with Saul concerning
   David. Or, 2. The sufferers among them, that shared in the calamities
   of the times, let them not complain of God, let them not quarrel with
   him, nor lay the blame on him, as if he had dealt hardly with them, and
   not like a tender father. No; let them plead with their mother, and lay
   the fault on her, where it ought to be laid; compare Isa. l. 1. "For
   her transgressions is your mother put away; she may thank herself, and
   you may thank her for all your miseries." Let us see now how they must
   plead with her.

   I. They must put here in mind of the relation wherein she had stood to
   God, the kindness he had had for her, the many favours he had bestowed
   upon her, and the further favours he had designed her. Let them tell
   their brethren and sisters that they had been Ammi and Ruhamah, that
   they had been God's people and vessels of his mercy, and might have
   been so still if it had not been their own fault, v. 1. Note, Our
   relation to God and dependence on him are a great aggravation of our
   revolts from him and rebellions against him.

   II. They must, in God's name, charge her with the violation of the
   marriage-covenant between her and God. Let them tell her that God does
   not look upon her as his wife, nor upon himself as her husband any
   longer. Tell her (v. 2) that she is not my wife, neither am I her
   husband, that by her spiritual whoredom she has forfeited all the
   honour and comfort of her relation to God, and provoked him to give her
   a bill of divorce. Note, No consideration can be more powerful to
   awaken us to repentance than the provocation we have by sin given to
   God to disown and cast us off. It is time to look about us, and to
   think what course we must take, when God threatens to reject us; for
   woe unto us if he be not our husband. They must charge this home upon
   her (v. 5): Their mother has played the harlot; their congregation has
   run a whoring after false prophets (so the Chaldee), or, rather, after
   idols, wherein they were encouraged by their false prophets; she that
   conceived them has done shamefully, in making and worshipping idols. An
   idol is called a shame (ch. ix. 10) and idolatry is a shameful thing.
   It is not only an affront to God, but a reproach to men, to fall down
   to the stock of a tree, as the prophet speaks. Or it denotes that the
   sinner was shameless, impudent in sin, and could not blush; Jer. vi.
   15. Or, She has made ashamed, has made all that see her ashamed of her;
   her own children are ashamed of their relation to her.

   III. They must upbraid her with her horrid ingratitude to God her
   benefactor, in ascribing to her idols the glory of the gifts he had
   given her, and then giving that for a reason why she paid them the
   homage due to him only, v. 5. In this she did shamefully indeed, that
   she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water.
   Observe here, 1. Her wicked resolution to persist in idolatry,
   notwithstanding all that God said, both by his prophets and by his
   providences, to draw her from it. She said, Whatever is offered to the
   contrary, I will go after my lovers, or those that cause me to love
   them, whom I cannot but be in love with. The Chaldee understands it of
   the nations whose alliance Israel courted and depended upon, who
   supplied them with what they needed. But it is rather to be understood
   of the idols they worshipped, to justify their love of which they
   called them their lovers. See who do shamefully; those that are wilful
   and resolute in sin, and those that openly profess and own their
   resolution to go on in it. See the folly of idolaters, to call those
   their lovers that had not so much as life; yet let us learn to call our
   God our lover; let us keep up good thoughts of him, and put a high
   value upon our interest in him and in his love. 2. The gross mistake
   upon which this resolution was grounded: "I will go after my lovers,
   because they give me my bread and my water, which are necessary to
   sustain the body, my wool and my flax, which are necessary to clothe
   the body, and pleasant things, my oil, and my drink, my liquors" (so
   the word is), "wine and strong drink." Note, (1.) The things of sense
   are the best things with carnal hearts, and the most powerful
   attractives, in pursuit of which they care not what they follow after.
   The God of Israel set before them his statutes and judgments (Deut. iv.
   8), more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than honey (Ps. cxix.
   10), promised them his favour, which would put gladness in their hearts
   more than corn, wine, and oil (Ps. iv. 7); but they had no relish at
   all for these things. Whence they thought their oil and their drink
   came, thither they would return their best affections. O curvæ in
   terram animæ et coelestium inanes!--O degenerate minds, bending towards
   the earth, and devoid of every thing heavenly! (2.) It is a great abuse
   and injury to God, in pursuance of the pleasures and delights of sense
   to forsake him, who not only gives us better things, but gives us even
   those things too. The idolaters made Ceres the goddess of their corn,
   Bacchus the god of their wine, &c., and then foolishly fancied they had
   their corn and wine from these, forgetting the Lord their God, who both
   gave them that good land and gave them power to get wealth out of it.
   (3.) Many are hardened in sin by their worldly prosperity. They had an
   abundance of those things when they served their idols, and then
   imagined them to be given them by their idols, which kept them to their
   service; thus they argued (Jer. xliv. 17, 18), While we burnt incense
   to the queen of heaven we had plenty of victuals.

   IV. They must persuade her to repent and reform. God will disown her if
   she persist in her whoredoms; let her therefore put away her whoredoms,
   v. 2. Let her be convinced that it is possible for her to reform; the
   idols, dear as they are, may yet be parted with; and it will certainly
   be well with her if she do reform. Note, Our pleading with sinners must
   be to drive them to repentance, not to drive them to despair. Let her
   put away her whoredoms and her adulteries; the doubling of words to the
   same purport, and both plural, denotes the abundance of idolatries they
   were guilty of, all which must be abandoned ere God would be reconciled
   to them. Let her put them out of her sight, as detestable things which
   she cannot endure to look upon; let her say unto them, Get you hence,
   Isa. xxx. 22. Let her put them from her face and from between her
   breasts, that is, let her not do as harlots use to do, that both
   discover their own wicked disposition, and allure others to wickedness,
   by painting their faces, and exposing their naked breasts, and adorning
   them; let her not thus, by annexing all possible gaieties and pleasures
   to the worship of idols, engage herself and allure others to it. Let
   her put away all these. Every sinful course, persisted in, is an
   adulterous departure from God. And here we may see what it is truly to
   repent of it and turn from it. 1. True penitents will forsake both open
   sins, will put away not only the whoredoms that lie in sight, but those
   that lie in secret between their breasts, the sin that is rolled under
   the tongue as a sweet morsel. 2. They will both avoid the outward
   occasions of sin and mortify the inward disposition to it. Idolaters
   walked after their own eyes, which went a whoring after their idols
   (Ezek. vi. 9, Deut. iv. 19), and therefore they must put them away out
   of their sight, lest they should be tempted to worship them. Look not
   upon the wine when it is red. But that is not enough: the axe must be
   laid to the root; the corrupt bent and inclination of the heart must be
   changed, and it must be put away from between the breasts, that Christ
   alone may have the innermost and uppermost place there. Cant. i. 13.

   V. They must show her the utter ruin that will certainly be the fatal
   consequence of her sin if she do not repent and reform (v. 3): Lest I
   strip her naked. This comes in here not by way of sentence passed upon
   her, but by way of warning given to her, that she may prevent it: Let
   her put away her whoredoms, that I may not strip her naked (so it may
   be read), intimating that God waits to show mercy to sinners, if they
   would but qualify themselves for that mercy. It is here threatened that
   God will deal with her as the just and jealous husband at length does
   with an adulterous wife, that has filled his house with a spurious
   brood, and will not be reclaimed; he turns her and her children out of
   doors and sends them a begging; I will not have mercy upon her children
   (v. 4); the particular persons that share in the calamity of the
   nation, and the rising generation, shall be ruined by it, for they are
   children of whoredoms, and keep up the vain conversation received by
   tradition from their fathers. Now it is here threatened that they shall
   be both stripped and starved. They thought their idols gave them their
   bread and their water, their wool and their flax; but God, by taking
   them away, will let them know that it was he that gave them. 1. She
   shall be stripped: Lest I strip her of all her ornaments which she is
   proud of, and with which she courts her lovers, strip her and set her
   as in the day that she was born, send her as naked out of the world as
   she came into it; this death does, Job i. 21. I will strip her, and so
   expose her to cold, and expose her to shame; and justly is she exposed
   to shame that did shamefully, v. 5. The day when God brought them out
   of Egypt, where they were no better than slaves and beggars, was the
   day in which they were born; and God threatens to bring them back to as
   low and miserable a condition as he then found them in. Whatever they
   had that either gained them respect or screened them from contempt,
   among their neighbours, should be taken from them. See Ezek. xvi. 4,
   39. 2. She shall be starved, shall be deprived not only of her honours,
   but of her comforts and necessary supports. She shall be famished,
   shall be made as a wilderness and a dry land, and slain with thirst.
   She that boasted so much of her bread and water, her oil and her
   drinks, which her lovers had given her, shall not have so much as
   necessary food. The land shall not afford subsistence for the
   inhabitants, for want of the rain of heaven; or, if it do, it shall be
   taken from them by the enemy, so that the rightful owners shall perish
   for want of it. Some understand it thus: I will make her as she was in
   the wilderness, and set her as she was in the desert land, where she
   was sometimes ready to perish for thirst. So it explains the former
   part of the verse: I will set her as in the day that she was born; for
   it was in the vast howling wilderness that Israel was first formed into
   a people. They shall be in as deplorable a condition as their fathers
   were, whose carcases fell in the wilderness, and in this respect,
   worse, that then the children were reserved to be heirs of the land of
   promise, but now I will not have mercy upon her children, for their
   mother has played the harlot.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 764.)

   6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
   wall, that she shall not find her paths.   7 And she shall follow after
   her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them,
   but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my
   first husband; for then was it better with me than now.   8 For she did
   not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her
   silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.   9 Therefore will I
   return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the
   season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her
   nakedness.   10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of
   her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.   11 I will
   also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and
   her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.   12 And I will destroy her
   vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards
   that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the
   beasts of the field shall eat them.   13 And I will visit upon her the
   days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked
   herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her
   lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord.

   God here goes on to threaten what he would do with this treacherous
   idolatrous people; and he warns that he may not wound, he threatens
   that he may not strike. If he turn not, he will whet his sword (Ps.
   vii. 12); but, if he turn, he will sheathe it. They did not turn, and
   therefore all this came upon them: and its being threatened before
   shows that it was the execution of a divine sentence upon them for
   their wickedness; and it is written for admonition to us.

   I. They shall be perplexed and embarrassed in all their counsels, and
   disappointed in all their expectations. This is threatened v. 6, 7. But
   to the threatening is annexed a promise that this shall be a means to
   convince them of their folly, and bring them home to their duty; and so
   good shall be brought out of evil, in token of the mercy God has yet in
   reserve for them. And, this being the happy fruit and effect of the
   distress, it is hard to say whether the prediction, or the distress
   itself, should be called a threatening or a promise.

   1. God will raise up difficulties and troubles in their way, so that
   their public counsels and affairs shall have no success, nor shall they
   be able to get forward in them: I will hedge up thy way with thorns,
   with such crosses as, like thorns and briers, are the product of sin
   and the curse, and are scratching, and tearing, and vexing, and, when
   the way we are in is hedged up with them, stop our progress, and force
   us to turn back. She said, "I will go after my lovers; I will pursue my
   leagues and alliances with foreign powers, and depend upon them." But
   God says, "She shall be frustrated in these projects, and not be able
   to proceed in them. I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and, if that
   do not serve, I will make a wall." If some smaller difficulties be got
   over, and prevail not to break her measures, God will raise greater,
   for he will overcome when he judges. It shall be such a hedge, and such
   a wall, that she shall not find her paths. The change of the person
   here, I will hedge up thy way, and then, She shall not find it, is
   usual in scripture, especially in an earnest way of speaking. "Sinner,
   do thou take notice, I will hedge up thy way, and all you that are
   bystanders take notice what will be the effect of this, you may observe
   that she cannot find her paths." She shall be as a traveller that not
   only knows not which way to go, of many that are before him, but that
   finds no way at all to go forward. And then she shall follow after her
   lovers, but she shall not overtake them; she shall endeavour to make an
   interest in the Assyrians and Egyptians, and to have them for her
   protectors, but she shall not gain her point; they shall either not
   come into confederacy with her or not do her any service, shall help in
   vain and be as the staff of a broken reed. She shall seek them, but
   shall not find them, shall seek to her idols, but shall not find that
   satisfaction in them which she promised herself; the gods whom she
   trusted and courted not only can do nothing for her, but have nothing
   to say to her to encourage her. Now, (1.) This is such a just judgment
   as the Sodomites met with, that were struck with blindness, and wearied
   themselves to find the door (Gen. xix. 11), and the Syrians, 2 Kings
   vi. 18. Note, Those that are most resolute in their sinful pursuits are
   commonly most crossed in them. Thorns and snares are in the way of the
   froward (Prov. xxii. 5); and thus with them God shows himself froward
   (Ps. xviii. 26), and walks contrary to those that walk contrary to him,
   Lev. xxvi. 23, 24. The lamenting prophet complains, He has enclosed my
   ways, Lam. iii. 7, 9. The way of God and duty is often hedged about
   with thorns, but we have reason to think it is a sinful way that is
   hedged up with thorns. (2.) This is such a kind rebuke, and indeed such
   a mercy, as Balaam met with, when the angel stood in his way, to hinder
   his going forward to curse Israel, Num. xxii. 22. Note, Crosses and
   obstacles in an evil course are great blessings, and are so to be
   accounted. They are God's hedges, to keep us from transgressing, to
   restrain us from wandering out of the green pastures, to withdraw man
   from his purpose (Job xxxiii. 17), to make the way of sin difficult,
   that we may not go on in it, and to keep us from it whether we will or
   not. We have reason to bless God both for restraining grace and for
   restraining providences.

   2. These difficulties that God raises up in their way shall raise up in
   their minds thoughts of turning back: "Then shall she say, Since I
   cannot overtake my lovers, I will even go and return to my first
   husband, that is, will return to God, and humble myself to him, and
   desire him to take me in again; for, when I kept close to him, it was
   every way better with me than now." Two things are here extorted from
   this degenerate apostate people:--(1.) A just acknowledgement of the
   folly of their apostasy. They are now brought to own that it was better
   with them while they kept close to their God than ever it was since
   they forsook him. Note, Whoever have exchanged the service of God for
   the services of the world and the flesh have, sooner or later, been
   made to own that they changed for the worse, and that while they
   continued in good company, and went on in the way of good duties, and
   made conscience how they spent their time and what they said or did, it
   was better with them; they had more true comfort and enjoyment of
   themselves than ever they had since they went astray. (2.) A good
   purpose, to come back again to their duty: I will go, and return to my
   first husband; and she knows so much of his goodness and readiness to
   forgive that she speaks without any doubt of his receiving her again
   into favour and making her condition as good as ever. Note, The
   disappointments we meet with in our pursuits of satisfaction in the
   creature should, if nothing else will do it, drive us at length to the
   Creator, in whom alone it is to be had. When Moab is weary of the high
   place he shall go to the sanctuary, Isa. xvi. 12. And when the prodigal
   son is reduced to husks, short allowance indeed, and remembers that in
   his father's house there is bread enough, then he says, I will arise
   and go to my father's house, Luke xv. 17, 18.

   II. The necessary supports and comforts of life shall be taken from
   them, because they had dishonoured God with them, v. 8, 9. Their land
   was plenteous. Now see here, 1. How graciously their plenty was given
   to them. God gave them not only corn for necessity, but wine for
   delight, and oil for ornament. Nay, he multiplied their silver and
   gold, wherewith to traffic with other nations and bring home their
   products, and which they might hoard up for posterity. Silver and gold
   will keep longer than corn, and wine, and oil. He gave them wool and
   flax too, to cover their nakedness, and to serve for ornament enough to
   them, Ezek. xvi. 10. Note, God is a bountiful benefactor even to those
   who, he foresees, will be ungrateful and unthankful to him.

   2. How basely their plenty was abused by them. (1.) They robbed God of
   the honour of his gifts: She did not know that I gave her corn and
   wine; she did not remember it. The law and the prophets had told them,
   again and again, that all their comforts they received from God's
   bountiful providence; but they were so often told by their false
   prophets and idolatrous priests that they had their corn from such an
   idol, and their wine from such an idol, &c., that they had quite
   forgotten their relation to their great benefactor and their
   obligations to him. She did not consider it; she would not acknowledge
   it. This they were willingly ignorant of, and more brutish than the ox,
   that knows his owner, and the ass, that knows his master's crib. She
   did not know it, for she did not return thanks to him for his gifts,
   nor study what she should render; nor did she give him his dues out of
   them, but acted as if she were ignorant who was the donor. (2.) They
   served and honoured his enemies with them: They prepared them for Baal;
   they adorned their images with gold and silver (Jer. x. 4), and adorned
   themselves for the worship of their images, v. 13. See Ezek. xvi.
   17-19. Wherewith they made Baal (so the margin reads it), that is, the
   image of Baal. Note, It is a very great dishonour to the God of heaven
   to make those gifts of his providence the food and fuel of our lusts
   which he gave us for our support in his service, and to be oil to the
   wheels of our obedience.

   3. How justly their plenty should be taken from them: "Therefore will I
   return; I will alter my dealings with them, will take another course,
   and will take away my corn and other good things that I gave her." I
   will recover them, a law term, as a man by due course of law recovers
   what is unjustly detained from him, or as, when the tenant has
   committed waste, the landlord recovers locum vastatum--dilapidations.
   Observe, God calls their abundance my corn and my wine, my wool and my
   flax. They called it theirs (my bread and my water, v. 5), but God lets
   them know that it is not theirs; he only allowed them the use of it as
   tenants, entrusted them with the management of it as stewards, but
   still reserved the property in himself. "It is my corn and my wine."
   God will have us to know, not only that we have all our
   creature-comforts and enjoyments from him, but that he has still an
   incontestable right and title to them, that they are more his than
   ours, and therefore are to be used for him, and accounted for to him.
   He will therefore take their plenty away from them, because they have
   forfeited it by disowning his right, as a tenant by copy of court-roll,
   who holds at the will of his lord, forfeits his estate if he makes a
   feoffment of it as though he were a freeholder. He will recover it,
   will free or deliver it, that it may be no longer abused, as the
   creature is said to be delivered from the bondage of corruption under
   which it groans, Rom. viii. 21. He will take it away in the time
   thereof, and in the season thereof, just when they expected it, and
   thought that they were sure of it. It shall suffer shipwreck in the
   harbour; and the harvest shall be a heap. He will take it away by
   unseasonable weather or by unreasonable men. Note, Those that abuse the
   mercies God gives them, to his dishonour, cannot expect to enjoy them
   long.

   III. They shall lose all their honour, and be exposed to contempt (v.
   10): "I will discover her lewdness, will bring to light all her secret
   wickedness, and make it public, to her shame; I will show by the
   punishment of it how heinous, how odious, how offensive it is. The fact
   has been denied, but now it shall appear; the fault has been
   diminished, but now it shall appear exceedingly sinful. And this in the
   sight of her lovers, in the sight of the neighbouring nations, with
   whom she courted an alliance, and on whom she had a dependence; they
   shall despise her and be ashamed of her because of her weakness, and
   poverty, and ill conduct; they shall not think her any longer worthy of
   their friendship." See this fulfilled, Lam. i. 8, All that honoured her
   despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Or in the sight of
   the sun and moon, which she worshipped as her lovers; before them shall
   her lewdness be discovered. Compare this with Jer. vii. 1, 2, They
   shall bring out the bones of their kings and princes, and spread them
   before the sun and moon, whom they have loved and served. Note, Sin
   will have shame; let those expect it that have done shamefully. What
   other lot can this impudent adulteress expect but that of a common
   harlot, to be carted through the town? And, when God comes to deal thus
   with her, none shall deliver her out of his hands, neither the gods nor
   the men they confide in. Note, Those who will not deliver themselves
   into the hand of God's mercy cannot be delivered out of the hand of his
   justice.

   IV. They shall lose all their pleasure, and shall be left melancholy
   (v. 11): I will cause her mirth to cease. It seems, then, though they
   had gone a whoring from their God, yet they could find in their hearts
   to rejoice as other people, which is forbidden, ch. ix. 1. Note, Many
   who lie under guilt and wrath are yet very jocund and merry, and live
   jovially; but, whether in their laughter their hearts be sad or no, it
   is certain that the end of their mirth will be heaviness; for God will
   cause all their mirth to cease. It is as Mr. Burroughs observes here,
   Sin and mirth can never hold long together; but, if men will not take
   away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their sin.

   1. God will take away the occasions of their sacred mirth--their
   feast-days, their new moons, their sabbaths, and all their solemn
   feasts. These God instituted to be observed in a religious manner, and
   they were to be observed with rejoicing; and, it seems, though they had
   departed from the pure worship of God, yet they kept up the observance
   of these, not at God's temple at Jerusalem, for they had long since
   forsaken that, but probably at Dan and Bethel, where the calves were,
   or in some other places of meeting that they had. They observed them,
   not for the honour of God, nor with any true devotion towards him, but
   only because they were times of mirth and feasting, music and dancing,
   and meeting of friends, received by tradition from their fathers. Thus,
   when they had lost the power of godliness, and denied that, yet, for
   the pleasing of a vain and carnal mind, they kept up the form of it;
   and by this means their new-moons and their sabbaths became an iniquity
   which God could not away with, Isa. i. 13. Now observe, (1.) God calls
   them their new-moons and their sabbaths, not his (he disowns them), but
   theirs. (2.) He will cause them to cease. Note, When men by their sins
   have caused the life and substance of ordinances to cease it is just
   with God by his judgments to cause the remaining show and shadow of
   them to cease.

   2. He will take away the supports of their carnal mind. They loved the
   new-moons and the sabbaths only for the sake of the good cheer that was
   stirring then, not for the sake of any religious exercises then
   performed; these they had dropped long ago; and now God will take away
   their provisions for these solemnities (v. 12): I will destroy her
   vines and her fig-trees. Note, If men destroy God's words and
   ordinances, by which he should be honoured on their feast-days, it is
   just with him to destroy their vines and fig-trees, with which they
   regale themselves. While they took the pleasure of these, they gave
   their lovers the praise of them: "These are my rewards which my lovers
   have given me; I may thank my stars for these, and my worship of them;
   I may thank my neighbours for these, and my alliance with them." And
   therefore God will destroy them, will wither them with a blast, or
   bring in a foreign enemy that shall lay the country waste, so that
   their vineyards shall become a forest; the enclosures shall be thrown
   down, as is usual in war; all shall be laid in common, so that the
   beasts of the field shall eat their grapes and their figs. Or they
   shall be so blasted with the east wind that fruit-trees shall be of no
   more use than forest-trees; but, being withered and good for nothing,
   what fruit there is shall be left to the beasts of the field. Or it
   shall be devoured by their enemies, by men as barbarous as wild beasts.
   Now, (1.) This shall be the ruin of their mirth: God will cause all her
   mirth to cease. How will he do it? Taking away the new-moons and the
   sabbaths will not do it; they can very easily part with them, and find
   no loss; but "I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, will take
   away her sensual pleasures, and then she will think herself undone
   indeed." Note, The destruction of the vines and the fig-trees causes
   all the mirth of a carnal heart to cease; it will say, as Micah, You
   have taken away my gods, and what have I more? (2.) This shall be the
   punishment of her idolatry (v. 13): "I will visit upon her the days of
   Baalim; I will reckon with her for all the worship of all the Baals
   they have made gods of, from the days of their fathers unto this day."
   We read of their worshipping Baal as long ago as the time of the
   Judges, and, for aught I know, this may look as far back as those
   times, those days of Baalim; for it is in the second commandment, which
   forbids idolatry, that God threatens to visit the iniquities of the
   fathers upon the children; and justly is that sin so visited, more than
   any other, because it commonly supports itself by prescription and long
   usage. Now that the measure of the iniquity of Israel was full all
   their former sins came into the account, and shall be required of this
   generation. Or the days of Baalim are the solemn festival days which
   they kept in honour of their idols. Days of sinful mirth must be
   visited in days of mourning. These were the days wherein she burnt
   incense to idols, and, to grace the solemnity, decked herself with her
   ear-rings and her jewels, that, appearing honourable, the honour she
   did to Baal might be thought the greater. Or she was as a wife that
   decks herself with the ear-rings and jewels that her husband gave her,
   to make herself amiable to her lovers, whom she follows after, and is
   ever mindful of. But she forgot me, saith the Lord. Note, Our
   treacherous departures from God are owing to our forgetfulness of him,
   of his nature and attributes, his relation to us and our obligations to
   him. Many who plead that they have weak memories, and forget the things
   of God, can remember other things well enough; nay, it is because they
   are so mindful of lying vanities that they are so forgetful of their
   own mercies.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 764.)

   14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the
   wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.   15 And I will give her
   her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope:
   and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the
   day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.   16 And it shall be at
   that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call
   me no more Baali.   17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of
   her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.   18 And
   in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the
   field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of
   the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out
   of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.   19 And I will
   betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
   righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
     20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt
   know the Lord.   21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear,
   saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
     22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and
   they shall hear Jezreel.   23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth;
   and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will
   say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they
   shall say, Thou art my God.

   The state of Israel ruined by their own sin did not look so black and
   dismal in the former part of the chapter, but that the state of Israel,
   restrained by the divine grace, looks as bright and pleasant here in
   the latter part of the chapter, and the more surprisingly so as the
   promises follow thus close upon the threatenings; nay, which is very
   strange, they are by a note of connexion joined to, and inferred from,
   that declaration of their sinfulness upon which the threatenings of
   their ruin are grounded: She went after her lovers, and forgot me,
   saith the Lord; therefore I will allure her. Fitly therefore is that
   therefore which is the note of connexion immediately followed with a
   note of admiration: Behold I will allure her! When it was said, She
   forgot me, one would think it should have followed, "Therefore I will
   abandon her, I will forget her, I will never look after her more." No,
   Therefore I will allure her. Note, God's thoughts and ways of mercy are
   infinitely above ours; his reasons are all fetched from within himself,
   and not from any thing in us; nay, his goodness takes occasion from
   man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious, Isa. lvii. 17,
   18. Therefore, because she will not be restrained by the denunciations
   of wrath, God will try whether she will be wrought upon by the offers
   of mercy. Some think it may be translated, Afterwards, or nevertheless,
   I will allure her. It comes all to one; the design is plainly to
   magnify free grace to those on whom God will have mercy purely for
   mercy's sake. Now that which is here promised to Israel is,

   I. That though now they were disconsolate, and ready to despair, they
   should again be revived with comforts and hopes, v. 14, 15. This is
   expressed here with an allusion to God's dealings with that people when
   he brought them out of Egypt, through the wilderness to Canaan, as
   their forlorn and deplorable condition in their captivity was compared
   to their state in Egypt in the day that they were born, v. 3. They
   shall be new-formed by such miracles of love and mercy as they were
   first-formed by, and such a transport of joy shall they be in as they
   were in then. It is hard to say when this had its accomplishment in the
   kingdom of the ten tribes; but it principally aims, no doubt, at the
   bringing in both of Jews and Gentiles into the church by the gospel of
   Christ; and it is applicable, nay, we have reason to think it was
   designed that it should be applied, to the conversion of particular
   souls to God. Now observe,

   1. The gracious methods God will take with them. (1.) He will bring
   them into the wilderness, as he did at first when he brought them out
   of Egypt, where he instructed them, and took them into covenant with
   himself. The land of their captivity shall be to them now, as that
   wilderness was then, the furnace of affliction, in which God will
   choose them. See Ezek. xx. 35, 36, I will bring you into the wilderness
   of the people, and there will I plead with you. God had said that he
   would make them as a wilderness (v. 3), which was a threatening; now,
   when it is here made part of a promise that he would bring them into
   the wilderness, the meaning may be that he would by his grace bring
   their minds to their condition: "They shall have humble hearts under
   humbling providences; being poor, they shall be poor in spirit, shall
   accept of the punishment of their iniquity, and then they are prepared
   to have comfort spoken to them." When God delivered Israel out of Egypt
   he led them into the wilderness, to humble them and prove them, that he
   might do them good (Deut. viii. 2, 3, 15, 16), and so he will do again.
   Note, Those whom God has mercy in store for he first brings into a
   wilderness--into solitude and retirement, that they may the more freely
   converse with him out of the noise of this world,--into distress of
   mind, through sense of guilt and dread of wrath, which brings a soul to
   be quite at a loss in itself and bewildered, and by those convictions
   he prepares for consolations,--and sometimes into outward distress and
   trouble, thereby to open the ear to discipline. (2.) He will then
   allure them and speak comfortably to them, will persuade them and speak
   to their hearts, that is, he will by his word and Spirit incline their
   hearts to return to him, and encourage them to do so. He will allure
   them with the promises of his favour, as before he had terrified them
   with the threatenings of his wrath, will speak friendly to them, both
   by his prophets and by his providences, as before he had spoken
   roughly, Isa. xl. 1, 2. By the hand of my servants the prophets I will
   speak comfort to her heart; so the Chaldee. This refers to the gospel
   of Christ, and the offers of divine grace in the gospel, by which we
   are allured to forsake our sins and to turn to God, and which speaks to
   the heart of a convinced sinner that which is every way suited to his
   case, speaks abundant consolation to those that sorrow for sin and
   lament after the Lord. And when by the Spirit it is indeed spoken to
   the heart effectually, and so as to reach the conscience (which it is
   God's prerogative to do), O what a blessed change is wrought by it!
   Note, The best way of reducing wandering souls to God is by fair means.
   By the promise of rest in Christ we are invited to take his yoke upon
   us; and the work of conversion may be forwarded by comforts as well as
   by convictions. (3.) He will give her her vineyards thence. From that
   time and from that place where he has afflicted her, and brought her to
   see her folly and to humble herself, thenceforward he will do her good;
   not only speak comfortably to her, but do well for her, and undo what
   he had done against her. He had destroyed her vines (v. 12), but now he
   will give her whole vineyards, as if for every vine destroyed she
   should have a vineyard restored, and so be repaid with interest; she
   shall not only have corn for necessity, but vineyards for delight.
   These denote the privileges and comforts of the gospel, which are
   prepared for those that come up out of the wilderness leaning upon
   Christ as their beloved, Cant. viii. 5. Note, God has vineyards of
   consolation ready to bestow on those who repent and return to him; and
   he can give vineyards out of a wilderness, which are of all others the
   most welcome, as rest to the weary. (4.) He will give her the valley of
   Achor for a door of hope. The valley of Achor was that in which Achan
   was stoned; it signifies the valley of trouble, because he troubled
   Israel, and there God troubled him. This was the beginning of the wars
   of Canaan; and their putting away the accursed thing in that place gave
   them ground to hope that God would continue his presence with them and
   complete their victories. So when God returns to his people in mercy,
   and they to him in duty, it will be to them as happy an omen as any
   thing. If they put away the accursed thing from among them, if by
   mortifying sin they stone the Achan that has troubled their camp, their
   subduing that enemy within themselves is an earnest to them of victory
   over all the kings of Canaan. Or, if the allusion be to the name, it
   intimates that trouble for sin, if it be sincere, opens a door of hope;
   for that sin which truly troubles us shall not ruin us. The valley of
   Achor was a very fruitful pleasant valley, some think the same with the
   valley of Engedi, famous for vineyards, Cant. i. 14. This God gave to
   Israel as a pattern and pledge of the whole land of Canaan; so "God
   will by his gospel give to all believers such gifts, graces, and
   comforts in this life, as shall be a taste of those more perfect good
   things of the kingdom of heaven, and shall give them as assured hope of
   a full possession of them in due time." So the learned Dr. Pocock
   expounds it; and, to the same purport, this whole context.

   2. The great rejoicing with which they shall receive God's gracious
   returns towards them: She shall sing there as in the days of her youth.
   This plainly refers to that triumphant and prophetic song which Moses
   and the children of Israel sang at the Red Sea, Exod. xv. 1. When they
   are delivered out of captivity they shall repeat that song, and to them
   it shall be a new song, because sung upon a new occasion, not inferior
   to the former. God had said (v. 11) that he would cause all her mirth
   to cease, but now he would cause it to revive: She shall sing as in the
   day that she came out of Egypt. Note, When God repeats former mercies
   we must repeat former praises; we find the song of Moses sung in the
   New Testament, Rev. xv. 3. This promise of Israel's singing has its
   accomplishment in the gospel of Christ, which furnishes us with
   abundant matter for joy and praise, and wherever it is received in its
   power enlarges the heart in joy and praise; and this is that land
   flowing with milk and honey which the valley of Achor opens a door of
   hope to. We rejoice in tribulation.

   II. That, though they had been much addicted to the worship of Baal,
   they should now be perfectly weaned from it, should relinquish and
   abandon all appearances of idolatry and approaches towards it, and
   cleave to God only, and worship him as he appoints, v. 16, 17. Note,
   The surest pledge and token of God's favour to any people is his
   effectual parting between them and their beloved sins. The worship of
   Baal was the sin that did most easily beset the people of Israel; it
   was their own iniquity, the sin that had dominion over them; but now
   that idolatry shall be quite abolished, and there shall not be the
   least remains of it among them. 1. The idols of Baal shall not be
   mentioned, not any of the Baals that in the days of Baalim had made so
   great a noise with, O Baal! hear us; O Baal! hear us. The very names of
   Baalim shall be taken out of their mouths; they shall be so disused
   that they shall be quite forgotten, as if their names had never been
   known in Israel; they shall be so detested that people will not bear to
   mention them themselves, nor to hear others mention them, so that
   posterity shall scarcely know that ever there were such things. They
   shall be so ashamed of their former love to Baal that they shall do all
   they can to blot out the remembrance of it. They shall tie themselves
   up to the strictest literal meaning of that law against idolatry (Exod.
   xxiii. 13), Make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it
   be heard out of thy mouth, as David, Ps. xvi. 4. Thus the apostle
   expresses the abhorrence we ought to have of all fleshly lusts: Let
   them not be once named among you, Eph. v. 3. But how can such a change
   of the Ethiopian's skin be wrought? It is answered, The power of God
   can do it, and will. I will take away the names of Baalim; as Zech.
   xiii. 2, I will cut off the names of the idols. Note, God's grace in
   the heart will change the language by making that iniquity to be
   loathed which was beloved. Zeph. iii. 9, I will turn to the people a
   pure language. One of the rabbin says, This promise relates to the
   Gentiles, by the gospel of Christ, from the idolatries which they had
   been wedded to, 1 Thess. i. 9. 2. The very word Baal shall be laid
   aside, even in its innocent signification. God says, Thou shalt call me
   Ishi, and call me no more Baali; both signify my husband, and both had
   been made use of concerning God. Isa. liv. 5, Thy Maker is thy husband,
   thy Baal (so the word is), thy owner, patron, and protector. It is
   probable that many good people had, accordingly, made use of the word
   Baali in worshipping the God of Israel; when their wicked neighbours
   bowed the knee to Baal they gloried in this, that God was their Baal.
   "But," says God, "you shall call me so no more, because I will have the
   very names of Baalim taken away." Note, That which is very innocent in
   itself should, when it has been abused to idolatry, be abolished, and
   the very use of it taken away, that nothing may be done to keep idols
   in remembrance, much less to keep them in reputation. When calling God
   Ishi will do as well, and signify as much, as Baali, let that word be
   chosen rather, lest, by calling him Baali, others should be put in mind
   of their quondam Baals. Some think that there is another reason
   intimated why God would be called Ishi and not Baali; they both signify
   my husband, but Ishi is a compellation of love, and sweetness, and
   familiarity, Baali of reverence and subjection. Ishi is vir meus--my
   man; Baali is dominus meus--my lord. In gospel-times God has so
   revealed himself to us as to encourage us to come boldly to the throne
   of his grace, and to use a holy humble freedom there; we ought to call
   God our Master, for so he is, but we are more taught to call him our
   Father. Ishi is a man the Lord (Gen. iv. 1), and intimates that in
   gospel-times the church's husband shall be the man Christ Jesus, made
   like unto his brethren, and therefore they shall call him Ishi, not
   Baali.

   III. That though they had been in continual troubles, as if the whole
   creation had been at war with them, now they shall enjoy perfect peace
   and tranquillity, as if they were in a league of friendship with the
   whole creation (v. 18): In that day, when they have forsaken their
   idols, and put themselves under the divine protection, I will make a
   covenant for them. 1. They shall be protected from evil; nothing shall
   hurt them, nor do them any mischief. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat
   amnia--When God is at peace with us he makes every creature to be so
   too. The inferior creatures shall do them no harm, as they had done
   when the beasts of the field ate up their vineyards (v. 12) and when
   noisome beasts were one of God's sore judgments, Ezek. xiv. 15. The
   fowl and the creeping things are taken into this covenant; for they
   also, when God makes use of them as the instruments of his justice, may
   be come very hurtful, but they shall be no more so; nay, by virtue of
   this covenant, they shall be made serviceable to them and brought into
   their interests. Note, God has the command of the inferior creatures,
   and brings them into what covenant he pleases; he can make the beasts
   of the field to honour him (so he has promised, Isa. xliii. 20) and to
   contribute to his people's comfort. And, if the inferior creatures are
   thus laid under an engagement to serve us, it is our part of the
   covenant not to abuse them, but to serve God with them. Some think that
   this had its accomplishment in the miraculous power Christ gave his
   disciples to take up serpents, Mark xvi. 17, 18. It agrees with the
   promises made particularly to Israel, in their return out of captivity
   (Ezek. xxxiv. 25, I will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the
   land), and the more general ones to all the saints. Job v. 22, 23, The
   beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee; and Ps. xci. 13, Thou
   shalt tread upon the lion and the adder. But this is not all; men are
   more in danger from one another than from the brute beast, and
   therefore it is further promised that God will make wars to cease, will
   disarm the enemy: I will break the bow, and sword, and battle. He can
   do it when he pleases (Ps. xliv. 9), and will do it for those whose
   ways please him, for he makes even their enemies to be at peace with
   them, Prov. xvi. 7. This agrees with the promise that in gospel-times
   swords shall be beaten into plough-shares, Isa. ii. 4. 2. They shall be
   quiet from the fear of evil. God will not only keep them safe, but make
   them to lie down safely, as those that know themselves to be under the
   protection of Heaven, and therefore are not afraid of the powers of
   hell.

   IV. That, though God had given them a bill of divorce for their
   whoredoms, yet, upon their repentance, he would again take them into
   covenant with himself, into a marriage-covenant, v. 19, 20. God's
   making a covenant for them with the inferior creatures was a great
   favour; but it was nothing to this, that he took them into covenant
   with himself and engaged himself to do them good. Observe,

   1. The nature of this covenant; it is a marriage-covenant, founded in
   choice and love, and founding the nearest relation: I will betroth thee
   unto me; and again, and a third time, I will betroth thee. Note, All
   that are sincerely devoted to God are betrothed to him; God gives them
   the most sacred and inviolable security imaginable that he will love
   them, protect them, and provide for them, that he will do the part of a
   husband to them, and that he will incline their hearts to join
   themselves to him and will graciously accept of them in so doing.
   Believing souls are espoused to Christ, 2 Cor. xi. 2. The gospel-church
   is the bride, the Lamb's wife; and they would never come into that
   relation to him if he did not by the power of his grace betroth them to
   himself. The separation begins on our side; we alienate ourselves from
   God. The coalition begins on his side; he betroths us to himself.

   2. The duration of this covenant: "I will betroth thee for ever. The
   covenant itself shall be inviolable; God will not break it on his part,
   and you shall not on yours; and the blessings of it shall be
   everlasting." One of the Jewish rabbin says, This is a promise that she
   shall attain to the life of the world to come, which is absolute
   eternity or perpetuity.

   3. The manner in which this covenant shall be made. (1.) In
   righteousness and judgment, that is, God will deal sincerely and
   uprightly in covenant with them; they have broken covenant, and God is
   righteous. "But," says God, "I will renew the covenant in
   righteousness." The matter shall be so ordered that God may receive
   even these backsliding children into his family again, without any
   reflection upon his justice, nay, his justice being satisfied by the
   Mediator of this covenant very much to the honour of it. But what
   reason can there be why God should take a people into covenant with him
   that had so often dealt treacherously? Will it not reflect upon his
   wisdom? "No," says God; "I will do it in judgment, not rashly, but upon
   due consideration; let me alone to give a reason for it and to justify
   my own conduct." (2.) In lovingkindness and in mercies. God will deal
   tenderly and graciously in covenanting with them; and will be not only
   as good as his word, but better; and, as he will be just in keeping
   covenant with them, so he will be merciful in keeping them in the
   covenant. They are subject to many infirmities, and, if he be extreme
   to mark what they do amiss, they will soon lose the benefit of the
   covenant. He therefore promises that it shall be a covenant of grace,
   made in a compassionate consideration of their infirmities, so that
   every transgression in the covenant shall not throw them out of
   covenant; he will gather with everlasting lovingkindness. (3.) In
   faithfulness. Every article of the covenant shall be punctually
   performed. Faithful is he that has called them, who also will do it; he
   cannot deny himself.

   4. The means by which they shall be kept tight and faithful to the
   covenant on their part: Thou shalt know the Lord. This is not only a
   promise that God will reveal himself to them more fully and clearly
   than ever, but that he will give them a heart to know him; they shall
   know more of him, and shall know him in another manner than ever yet.
   The ground of their apostasy was their not knowing God to be their
   benefactor (v. 8); therefore, to prevent the like, they shall all be
   taught of God to know him. Note, God keeps up his interest in men's
   souls by giving them a good understanding and a right knowledge of
   things, Heb. viii. 11.

   V. That, though the heavens had been to them as brass, and the earth as
   iron, now the heavens shall yield their dews, and by that means the
   earth its fruits, v. 21, 22. God having betrothed the gospel-church and
   in it all believers to himself, how shall he not with himself and with
   his Son freely give them all things, all things pertaining both to life
   and godliness, all things they need or can desire? All is theirs, for
   they are Christ's, betrothed to him; and with the righteousness of the
   kingdom of God, which they seek first, all other things shall be added
   unto them. And yet this promise of corn and wine is to be taken also in
   a spiritual sense (so the learned Dr. Pocock thinks): it is an effusion
   of those blessings and graces which relate to the soul that is here
   promised under the metaphor of temporal blessings, the dew of heaven,
   as well as the fatness of the earth, and that put first, as in the
   blessing of Jacob, Gen. xxvii. 28. God had threatened (v. 9) that he
   would take away the corn and the wine; but now he promises to restore
   them, and that in the common course and order of nature. While they lay
   under the judgment of famine they called to the earth for corn and wine
   for the support of themselves and their families. Very gladly would the
   earth have supplied them, but she cannot give unless she receive,
   cannot produce corn and wine unless she be enriched with the river of
   God (Ps. lxv. 9); and therefore she calls to the heavens for rain, the
   former and latter rain in their season, grapes for it, and by her
   melancholy aspect when rain is denied pleads for it. "But," say the
   heavens, "we have no rain to give unless he who has the key of the
   clouds unlock them, and open these bottles; so that, if the Lord do not
   help you, we cannot." But, when God takes them into covenant with
   himself, then the wheel of nature shall be set a-going again in favour
   of them, and the streams of mercy shall flow in the usual channel: Then
   I will hear, saith the Lord; I will receive your prayers (so the
   Chaldee interprets the first hearing); God will graciously take notice
   of their addresses to him. And then I will hear the heavens; I will
   answer them (so it may be read); and then they shall hear and answer
   the earth, and pour down seasonable rain upon it; and then the earth
   shall hear the corn and vines, and supply them with moisture, and they
   shall hear Jezreel, and be nourishment and refreshment for those that
   inhabit Jezreel. See here the coherence of second causes with one
   another, as links in a chain, and the necessary dependence they all
   have upon God, the first Cause. Note, We must expect all our comforts
   from God in the usual method and by the appointed means; and, when we
   are at any time disappointed in them, we must look up to God, above the
   hills and the mountains, Ps. cxxi. 1, 2. See how ready the creatures
   are to serve the people of God, how desirous of the honour: the corn
   cries to the earth, the earth to the heavens, the heavens to God, and
   all that they may supply them. And see how ready God is to give relief:
   I will hear, saith the Lord, yea, I will hear. And, if God will hear
   the cry of the heavens for his people, much more will he hear the
   intercession of his Son for them, who is made higher than the heavens.
   See what a peculiar delight those that are in covenant with God may
   take in their creature-comforts, as seeing them all come to them from
   the hand of God; they can trace up all the streams to the fountain, and
   taste covenant-love in common mercies, which makes them doubly sweet.

   VI. That whereas they were now dispersed, not only, as Simeon and Levi,
   divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel, but divided and scattered all
   the world over, God will turn this curse, as he did that, into a
   blessing: "I will not only water the earth for her, but will sow her
   unto me in the earth; her dispersion shall be not like that of the
   chaff in the floor, which the wind drives away, but like that of the
   seed in the field, in order to its greater increase; wherever they are
   scattered they shall take root downward and bear fruit upward. The good
   seed are the children of the kingdom. I will sow her unto me." This
   alludes to the name of Jezreel, which signifies sown of God, or for
   God; as she was scattered of him (which is one signification of the
   words) so she shall be sown of him; and to what he sows he will give
   the increase. When in all parts of the world Christianity got footing,
   and every where there were professors of it, then this promise was
   fulfilled, I will sow her unto me in the earth. Note, The greatest
   blessing of this earth is that God has a church in it, and from that
   arises all the tribute of glory which he has out of it; it is what he
   has sown to himself, and what he will therefore secure to himself.

   VII. That, whereas they had been Lo-ammi--not a people, and
   Lo-ruhamah--not finding mercy with God, now they shall be restored to
   his favour and taken again into covenant with him (v. 23): They had not
   obtained mercy, but seemed to be abandoned; they were not my people,
   not distinguished, not dealt with, as my people, but left to lie in
   common with the nations. This was the case with the rejected Jews; and
   the same, or more deplorable, was that of the Gentile world (to whom
   the apostle applies this, Rom. ix. 24, 25), that had no hope, and was
   without God in the world; but when great multitudes both of Jews and
   Gentiles were, upon their believing in Christ, incorporated into a
   Christian church, then, 1. God had mercy on those who had not obtained
   mercy. Those found favour with God, and became the children of his
   love, who had been long out of favour and the children of his wrath,
   and, if infinite mercy had not interposed, would have been for ever so.
   Note, God's mercy must not be despaired of any where on this side hell.
   2. He took those into a covenant-relation to himself who had been
   strangers and foreigners. He says to them, "Thou art my people, whom I
   will own and bless, protect and provide for;" and they shall say, "Thou
   art my God, whom I will serve and worship, and to whose honour I will
   be entirely and for ever devoted." Note, (1.) The sum total of the
   happiness of believers is the mutual relation that is between them and
   God, that he is theirs and they are his; this is the crown of all the
   promises. (2.) This relation is founded in free grace. We have not
   chosen him, but he has chosen us. He first says, They are my people,
   and makes them willing to be so in the day of his power, and then they
   avouch him to be theirs. (3.) As we need desire no more to make us
   happy than to be the people of God, so we need desire no more to make
   us easy and cheerful than to have him to assure us that we are so, to
   say unto us, by his Spirit witnessing with ours, Thou art my people.
   (4.) Those that have accepted the Lord for their God must avouch him to
   be so, must go to him in prayer and tell him so, Thou art my God, and
   must be ready to make profession before men. (5.) It adds to the
   comfort of our covenant with God that in it there is a communion of
   saints, who, though they are many, yet here are one. It is not, I will
   say to them, You are my people, but, Thou art; for he looks upon them
   as all one in Christ, and, as such in him, he speaks to them and
   covenants with them; and they also do not say, Thou art our God, for
   they look upon themselves as one body, and desire with one mind and one
   mouth to glorify him, and therefore say, Thou art my God. Or it
   intimates that such a covenant as God made of old with his people
   Israel, in general, now under the gospel he makes with particular
   believers, and says to each of them, even the meanest, with as much
   pleasure as he did of old to the thousands of Israel, Thou art my
   people, and invites and encourages each of them to say, Thou art my
   God, and to triumph therein, as Moses and all Israel did. Exod. xv. 2,
   He is my God, and my father's God.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. III.

   God is still by the prophet inculcating the same thing upon this
   careless people, and much in the same manner as before, by a type or
   sign, that of the dealings of a husband with an adulterous wife. In
   this chapter we have, I. The bad character which the people of Israel
   now had; they were, as is said of the Athenians (Acts xvii. 16),
   "wholly given to idolatry," ver. 1. II. The low condition which they
   should be reduced to by their captivity, and the other instances of
   God's controversy with them, ver. 2-4. III. The blessed reformation
   that should at length be wrought upon them in the latter days, ver. 5.

Idolatry of Israel; The Prophet's Remonstrances; Promises to the Penitent.
(b. c. 760.)

   1 Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her
   friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the
   children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
   2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer
   of barley, and a half homer of barley:   3 And I said unto her, Thou
   shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou
   shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.   4 For the
   children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a
   prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
   ephod, and without teraphim:   5 Afterward shall the children of Israel
   return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall
   fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

   Some think that this chapter refers to Judah, the two tribes, as the
   adulteress the prophet married (ch. i. 3) represented the ten tribes;
   for this was not to be divorced, as the ten tribes were, but to be left
   desolate for a long time, and then to return, as the two tribes did.
   But these are called the children of Israel, which was the ten tribes,
   and therefore it is more probable that of them this parable, as well as
   that before, is to be understood. Go, and repeat it, says God to the
   prophet; Go yet again. Note, For the conviction and reduction of
   sinners it is necessary that precept be upon precept, and line upon
   line. If they will not believe one sign, try another, Exod. iv. 8, 9.
   Now,

   I. In this parable we may observe,

   1. God's goodness and Israel's badness strangely serving for a foil to
   each other, v. 1. Israel is as a woman beloved of her friend, either of
   him that has married her or of him that only courts her, and yet an
   adulteress; such is the case between God and Israel. We say of those
   whose affection is mutual that there is no love lost between them; but
   here we find a great deal of the love even of God himself lost and
   thrown away upon an unworthy ungrateful people. The God of Israel
   retains a very great love for the children of Israel, and yet they are
   an evil and adulterous generation. Be astonished, O heavens! at this,
   and wonder, O earth! (1.) That God's goodness has not put an end to
   their badness; the Lord loves them, has a kindness for them, and is
   continually showing kindness to them; they know it, they cannot but own
   it, that he has been as a friend and Father to them; and yet they look
   to other gods, gods that they can see, and to the love of which they
   are drawn by the eye; they look to them with an eye of adoration (they
   offer up all their services to them) and with an eye of dependence
   (they expect all their comforts from them); if they were restrained
   from bowing the knee to idols, yet they gave them an amorous glance,
   and had eyes full of that spiritual adultery. And they loved flagons of
   wine; they joined with idolaters because they lived merrily and drank
   hard; they had a kindness for other gods for the sake of the plenty of
   good wine with which they had been sometimes treated in their temples.
   Idolatry and sensuality commonly go together; those that make a god of
   their belly, as drunkards do, will easily be brought to make a god of
   any thing else. God's priests were to drink no wine when they went in
   to minister, and his Nazarites none at all. But the worshippers of
   other gods drank wine in bowls; nay, no less than flagons of wine would
   content them. (2.) That their badness had not stopped the current of
   his favours to them. This is a wonder of mercy indeed, that she is thus
   beloved of her friend, though an adulteress; such is the love of the
   Lord towards the children of Israel. "Go," says God, "love such a
   woman; see if thou canst find in thy heart to do it. No, thou canst
   not, the breast of no man would admit such a love; yet such is my love
   to the children of Israel; it is love to the loveless, to the unlovely,
   to those that have a thousand times forfeited it." Note, In God's
   goodwill to poor sinners his thoughts and ways are infinitely above
   ours, and his love is more condescending and compassionate than ours
   is, or can be; in this, as much as any thing, he is God, and not man,
   Hos. xi. 9.

   2. The method found for the bringing of a God so very good and a people
   so very bad together again; this is the thing aimed at, and what God
   aims at he will accomplish. To our great surprise, we find a breach
   thus wide as the sea effectually healed; miracles cease not so long as
   divine mercy does not cease. Observe here, (1.) The course God takes to
   humble them and make them know themselves (v. 2): I bought her to me
   for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley, that
   is, I courted her to be reconciled, to leave her ill courses, and
   return to her first husband, as ch. ii. 14. I allured her, and spoke
   comfortably to her; as the Levite who went after his concubine that had
   played the harlot from him, and had run away with another man, spoke
   friendly to her, Judg. xix. 3. But here the present which the prophet
   brought her for the purchasing of her favour is observed to be a very
   small one; but it was all that was intended for her separate
   maintenance, and in it she is reduced to a short allowance, and, to
   punish her for her pride, is made to look very mean. When Samson went
   to be reconciled to his wife that had disobliged him he visited her
   with a kid (Judg. xv. 1), which was a genteel entertainment. But the
   prophet here visited his wife with fifteen pieces of silver, a small
   sum, which yet she must be content to live upon a great while, so long
   as till her husband thought fit to restore her to her first estate. She
   shall also have a homer and a half of barley, for bread-corn, and that
   is all she must expect till she be sufficiently humbled, and, by a
   competent time of trial, satisfactory proof given that she is indeed
   reformed. Let her be made sensible that it is not for her own merit
   that her husband makes court to her; it is but a lame price that he
   values her at. The price of a servant was thirty shekels, Exod. xxi.
   32. This was but half so much; yet let her know that it is more than
   she is worth. God had given Egypt for Israel's ransom once, so precious
   were they then in his sight, and so honourable, Isa. xliii. 3, 4. But
   now that they have gone a whoring from him he will give but fifteen
   pieces of silver for them, so much have they lost in their value by
   their iniquity. Note, Those whom God designs honour and comfort for he
   first makes sensible of their own worthlessness, and brings them to
   acknowledge, with the prodigal, I am no more worthy to be called thy
   son. Time was when Israel was fed with the finest of the wheat, but
   they grew wanton, and loved flagons of wine, and therefore, in order to
   the humbling and reducing of them, they must be brought in the land of
   their captivity to eat barley-bread, and be thankful they can get it,
   and to eat that too by weight and measure, whereas they did not use to
   be stinted. Note, Poverty and disgrace sometimes prove a happy means of
   making great sinners true penitents. (2.) The new terms upon which God
   is willing to come with them (v. 3): Thou shalt abide for me many days,
   and shalt not be for another, so will I be for thee. He might justly
   have given them a bill of divorce, and have resolved to have no more to
   do with them; but he is willing to show them kindness, and that the
   matter should be compromised; he deals not with them in strict justice,
   according to the rigour of the law, but according to the multitude of
   his mercies; and it represents God's gracious dealings with the
   apostate race of mankind, that had gone a whoring from him; he bought
   them indeed with an inestimable price, not for their honour, but for
   the honour of his own justice; and now this is the proposal he makes to
   them, the covenant of grace he is willing to enter into with them--they
   must be to him a people, and he will be to them a God, the same with
   the proposal here made to Israel. [1.] They must take to themselves the
   shame of their apostasy from him, must submit to, and accept of, the
   punishment of their iniquity: Thou shalt abide for me many days in
   solitude and silence, as a widow that is desolate and in sorrow; they
   must lay aside their ornaments, and wait with patience and submission
   to know what God will do with them, and whether he will please to admit
   such unworthy wretches into his favour again, as they did Exod. xxxiii.
   4, 5. Their father, their husband, has spit in their face (as God said
   concerning Miriam), has put them under the marks of his displeasure,
   and therefore, like her, they must be ashamed seven days, and be shut
   out of the camp (Num. xii. 14), till their uncircumcised hearts be
   humbled, Lev. xxvi. 41. Let them sit alone and keep silence, waiting
   for the salvation of the Lord, and in the mean time let them bear the
   yoke, Lam. iii. 26-28. Let them not expect that God should speedily
   return in mercy to them,; no, let them want it, let them wait for it
   many days, during all the days of their captivity, and reckon it a
   miracle of mercy, and well worth waiting for, it if come at last. Note,
   Those whom God designs mercy for he will first bring to abase
   themselves and to put a high value upon his favours. [2.] They must
   never return to folly again; that is the condition upon which God will
   speak peace to his people and to his saints (Ps. lxxxv. 8), and no
   other. "Thou shalt not play the harlot, shalt not worship idols in the
   land of thy captivity, while thou art there set apart for the
   uncleanness." Note, It is not enough to take shame to ourselves for the
   sins we have committed, and to justify God in correcting us for them,
   but we must resolve, in the strength of God's grace, that we will not
   offend any more, that we will not again go a whoring from God, after
   the world and the flesh. Blessed be God, though it is the law of the
   covenant, it is not the condition of it that we shall never in any
   thing do amiss: "But thou shalt not play the harlot; thou shalt not
   serve other gods, shalt not be for another man." In the land of their
   captivity they would be courted to worship the idols of the country;
   that would be a trial for them, a long trial, many days: "But if thou
   keep thy ground, and hold fast thy integrity, if, when all this comes
   upon thee, thou dost not stretch out thy hand to a strange god, thou
   wilt be qualified for the returns of God's favour." Note, It is a
   certain sign that our afflictions are means of much good to us, and
   earnests of more, when we are kept by the grace of God from being
   overcome by the temptations of an afflicted state. [3.] Upon these
   terms their Maker will again be their husband: So will I also be for
   thee. This is the covenant between God and returning sinners, that, if
   they will be for him to serve him, he will be for them to save them.
   Let them renounce and abjure all rivals with God for the throne in the
   heart, and devote themselves entirely to him and him only, and he will
   be to them a God all-sufficient. If we be faithful and constant to God
   in a way of duty, and will never leave nor forsake him, he will be so
   to us in a way of mercy, and will never leave nor forsake us. And a
   fairer proposal could not be made.

   II. In the last two verses we have the interpretation of the parable
   and the application of it to Israel.

   1. They must long sit like a widow, stripped of all their joys and
   honours, Lam. iv. 1, 2. They shall abide many days without a king, and
   without a prince; and a nation in this condition may well be called a
   widow. They want the blessing, (1.) Of civil government: They shall
   abide without a king, and without a prince, of their own. There were
   kings and princes over them to oppress them and rule them with rigour,
   but they had no king nor prince to protect them, to fight their battles
   for them, to administer justice to them, and to take care of their
   common safety and welfare. Note, Magistracy is a very great blessing to
   a people, and it is a sad and sore judgment to want it. (2.) Of public
   worship: They shall abide without a sacrifice, and without an image (or
   a statue, or pillar; the word is used concerning the pillars Jacob
   erected, Gen. xxviii. 18; xxxi. 45; xxxv. 20), and without an ephod and
   teraphim. The teraphim being here closely joined to the ephod, some
   thing the urim and thummim were meant by it in the breast-plate of the
   high priest. The meaning is that in their captivity they should not
   only have no face of a nation upon them, but no face of a church; they
   should not have (as a learned expositor speaks) liberty of any public
   profession or exercise of religion, either true or false, according to
   their choice. They shall have no sacrifice or altar (so the LXX.), and
   therefore no sacrifice because no altar. They shall have no ephod, nor
   teraphim, no legal priesthood, no means of knowing God's mind, no
   oracle to consult in doubtful cases, but shall be all in the dark.
   Note, The case of those is very melancholy that are deprived of all
   opportunities to worship God in public. This was the case of the Jews
   in their captivity; and it is so far the case of the scattered Jews at
   this day that, though they have their synagogues, they have no
   temple-service. Desolate indeed is their condition that are shut out
   from communion with God, that have no opportunity of directing their
   addresses to God by sacrifice and altar, and of receiving instruction
   from him by ephod and teraphim.

   2. They shall at length be received again as a wife (v. 5): Afterwards,
   in process of time, when they have gone through this discipline, they
   shall return, that is, they shall repent of their idolatries and
   forsake them, they shall apply themselves to God and adhere to him, and
   herein they shall be accepted of him. Two things are here promised as
   instances of their return, and steps towards their acceptance with God
   in their return:--(1.) The enquiries they shall make after God: They
   shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king. Note, Those that
   would find God, and find favour with him, must seek him, must ask after
   him, covet acquaintance with him, desire to be reconciled to him, set
   their love on him, and labour in this that they may be accepted of him.
   Their seeking him implies that they had lost him, that they were
   lamenting their loss, and that they were solicitous to retrieve what
   they had lost. They shall seek him as their God; for should not a
   people seek unto their God? And they shall seek David their King, who
   can be no other than the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
   David, the root and offspring of David, whom David himself called Lord
   (Ps. cx. 1), and to whom God gave the throne of his father David, Luke
   i. 32. The Chaldee reads it, They shall seek the service of the Lord
   their God, and shall obey Messiah, the Son of David their king. Compare
   this with Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 23; xxxvii. 25. Note, Those that
   would seek the Lord so as to find him must apply to Jesus Christ, and
   must seek to him as their King, and become his willing people, and take
   an oath of fealty and allegiance to him. (2.) The reverence they shall
   have of God: They shall fear the Lord and his goodness. Some by his
   goodness here understand the temple, towards which they shall look, in
   worshipping God. The Jews say, There were three things which Israel
   cast off in the days of Rehoboam--the kingdom of heaven, the family of
   David, and the house of the sanctuary; and it will never be well with
   them till they return, and seek them all three, which is here promised.
   They shall seek the kingdom of heaven in the Lord their God, the royal
   family in David their King, and the temple in the goodness of the Lord.
   Others by his goodness understand Christ, the same with David their
   King. But it is rather to be taken for that attribute of God which he
   showed as his glory, and by which he proclaimed his name. Note, It is
   not only the Lord and his greatness that we are to fear, but the Lord
   and his goodness, not only his majesty, but his mercy. They shall flee
   for fear to the Lord and his goodness (so some take it), shall flee to
   it as their city of refuge. We must fear God's goodness, that is, we
   must admire it, and stand amazed at it, must adore it, and worship as
   Moses did at the proclaiming of this name, Exod. xxxiv. 6. We must be
   afraid of offending his goodness, of making any ungrateful returns for
   it, and so forfeiting it. There is forgiveness with God, that he may be
   feared, Ps. cxxx. 4. We must rejoice with trembling in the goodness of
   God, must not be high-minded, but fear. Now this promise had its
   accomplishment when by the gospel of Christ great multitudes both of
   Jews and Gentiles were brought home to God, and incorporated in the
   New-Testament church, served God in Christ, with a filial fear of
   divine grace, and were accepted of God as his Israel. And some think it
   is to be yet further accomplished in the conversion of those Jews to
   the faith of Christ who shall remain in unbelief, when they shall seek
   their Messiah as David their King, and by him all Israel shall be
   saved, when the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in. Time was when
   they sought him to put him to death, saying, We have no king but Cæsar;
   but the day is coming when they shall seek him to appoint him their
   head, and to lay their necks under his yoke. He that has here promised
   that they shall do it will enable them to do it, and bring about this
   great work in his own way and time, in the latter days of the last
   times, the times of the Messiah: but, alas! who shall live when God
   does this? How far we are to expect a general conversion of that nation
   I cannot say; but I am sure we ought to pray that the Jews may be
   converted.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. IV.

   Prophets were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and
   to warn them of the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed
   themselves; so the prophet is employed in this and the following
   chapters. He is here, as counsel for the King of kings, opening an
   indictment against the people of Israel, and labouring to convince them
   of sin, and of their misery and danger because of sin, that he might
   prevail with them to repent and reform. I. He shows them what were the
   grounds of God's controversy with them, a general prevalency of vice
   and profaneness (ver. 1, 2), ignorance and forgetfulness of God (ver.
   6, 7), the worldly-mindedness of the priests (ver. 8), drunkenness and
   uncleanness (ver. 11), using divination and witchcraft (ver. 12),
   offering sacrifice in the high places (ver. 13), whoredoms (ver. 14,
   18), and bribery among magistrates, ver. 18. II. He shows them what
   would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish them
   for these things, ver. 9. The whole land should be laid waste (ver. 3),
   all sorts of people cut off (ver. 5), their honour lost (ver. 7), their
   creature-comforts unsatisfying (ver. 10), and themselves made ashamed,
   ver. 19. And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest
   judgment of all, they should be let alone in their sins (ver. 17), they
   shall not reprove one another (ver. 4), God will not punish them (ver.
   14), nay, he will let them prosper, ver. 16. III. He gives warning to
   Judah not to tread in the steps of Israel, because they saw their steps
   went down to hell, ver. 15.

The Sinfulness of Israel. (b. c. 758.)

   1 Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a
   controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no
   truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.   2 By swearing,
   and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they
   break out, and blood toucheth blood.   3 Therefore shall the land
   mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the
   beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of
   the sea also shall be taken away.   4 Yet let no man strive, nor
   reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the
   priest.   5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also
   shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

   Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded:
   "Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the
   word of this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will
   forbear." Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from
   him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing
   people? Yea, they will be ready enough to hear when God speaks
   comfortably to them; but are they willing to hear when he has a
   controversy with them? Yes, they must hear him when he pleads against
   them, when he has something to lay to their charge: The Lord has a
   controversy with the inhabitants of the land, of this land, of this
   holy land. Note, Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord
   between God and Israel. God sees sin in his own people, and a good
   action he has against them for it. Some more particular actions lie
   against his own people, which do not lie against other sinners. He has
   a controversy with them for breaking covenant with him, for bringing a
   reproach upon him, and for an ungrateful return to him for his favours.
   God's controversy will be pleaded, pleaded by the judgments of his
   mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of his hand, that he may
   be justified in all he does and may make it appear that he desires not
   the death of sinners; and God's pleadings ought to be attended to, for,
   sooner or later, they shall have a hearing.

   II. The indictment read, by which the whole nation stands charged with
   crimes of a heinous nature, by which God is highly provoked. 1. They
   are charged with national omissions of the most important duties: There
   is no truth nor mercy, neither justice nor charity, these most weighty
   matters of the law, as our Saviour accounts them (Matt. xxiii. 23),
   judgment, mercy, and faith. The generality of the people seemed to have
   no sense at all of the thing called honesty; they made no conscience of
   what they said and did, though ever so contrary to the truth and
   injurious to their neighbour. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or
   any obligation they were under to pity and help the poor. And it is not
   strange that there is no truth and mercy when there is no knowledge of
   God in the land. What good can be expected where there is no knowledge
   of God? It was the privilege of that land that in Israel God was made
   known, and his name was great, which was an aggravation of their sin,
   that they did not know him, Ps. lxxvi. 1. 2. Hence follows national
   commissions of the most enormous sins against both the first and second
   table, for they had no regard at all to either. Swearing, and lying,
   and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, against the third,
   ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments, were to be found in all
   corners of the land, and among all orders and degrees of men among
   them, v. 2. The corruption was universal; what good people there were
   among them were either lost or hid, or they hid themselves. By these
   they break out, that is, they transgress all bounds of reason and
   conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded (Job xxxvi. 9); they
   have been overmuch wicked (Eccl. vii. 17); they suffer their
   corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break
   through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their
   sinful career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent
   thing and its power exorbitant; when men's hearts are fully set in them
   to do evil (Eccl. viii. 11) what will be restrained from them? Gen. xi.
   6. When they break out thus blood touches blood, that is, abundance of
   murders are committed in all parts of the country, and, as it were, in
   a constant series and succession. Cædes aliæ aliis sunt
   contiguæ--Murders touch murders; a stream of blood runs down among
   them, even royal blood. It was about this time that there was so much
   blood shed in grasping at the crown; Shallum slew Zechariah, and
   Menahem slew Shallum, Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew Pekah; and
   the like bloody work, it is likely, there was among other contenders,
   so that the land was polluted with blood (Ps. cvi. 38); it was filled
   with blood from one end to the other, 2 Kings xxi. 16.

   III. Sentence passed upon this guilty and polluted land, v. 3. It shall
   be utterly destroyed and laid waste. The whole land is infected with
   sin, and therefore the whole land shall mourn under God's sore
   judgments, shall sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and
   beauty. As the valleys are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there
   are plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when by war and
   famine they are made desolate. The whole land shall be brimstone, and
   salt, and burning, was as threatened in the law, Deut. xxix. 33. They
   had broken all God's commandments, and now God threatens to take away
   all their comforts. The land mourns when there is neither grass for the
   cattle nor herbs for the service of man; and then every one that dwells
   therein shall languish for want of nice food to support a wasting life,
   and fret for want of the usual dainties for delight. The beasts of the
   field will languish, Jer. xiv. 5, 6. Nay, the destruction of the fruits
   of the earth shall be so great that there shall not be picking for the
   fowls of the air, to keep them alive; they shall suffer with man, and
   their dying, or growing lean, will be a punishment to those who used to
   have their tables replenished with wild-fowl. Nay, the fishes of the
   sea shall be taken away, or gathered together, that they may go away in
   shoals to some other coast, and then the fishing trade will be worth
   nothing. This desolation shall be in that respect more general than
   that by Noah's flood, for that did not affect the fishes of the sea,
   but this shall. It was part of one of the plagues of Egypt that he slew
   their fish (Ps. cv. 29); when the waters are dried the fish die, Isa.
   l. 2; Zeph. i. 2, 3. Note, When man becomes disobedient to God, it is
   just that the inferior creatures should be made unserviceable to man.
   Oh what reason have we to admire God's patience and mercy to our land,
   that though there is in it so much swearing, and lying, and killing,
   and stealing, and adultery, yet there is plenty of flesh, and fish, and
   fowl, on our tables!

   IV. An order of court that no pains should be taken with the condemned
   criminal to bring him to repentance, with the reason for that order.
   Observe, 1. The order itself (v. 4): Yet let no man strive nor reprove
   another; let no means be used to reduce and reclaim them; let their
   physicians give them up as desperate and past cure. It intimates that
   as long as there is any hope we ought to reprove sinners for their
   sins; it is a duty we owe to one another to give and to take reproofs;
   it was one of the laws of Moses (Lev. xix. 17), Thou shalt in any wise
   rebuke thy neighbour; it is an instance of brotherly love. Sometimes
   there is need to rebuke sharply, not only to reprove, but to strive, so
   loth are men to part with their sins. But it is a sign that persons and
   people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let them not be reproved.
   Yet this is to be understood as God's commands sometimes to the
   prophets not to pray for them, notwithstanding which they did pray for
   them; but the meaning is, They are so hardened in sin, and so ripened
   for ruin, that it will be to little purpose either to deal with them or
   to deal with God for them. Note, It bodes ill to a people when
   reprovers are silenced, and when those who should witness against the
   sins of the times, retire into a corner, and give up the cause. See 2
   Chron. xxv. 16. 2. The reasons of this order. Let them not reprove one
   another; for, (1.) They are determined to go on in sin, and no reproofs
   will cure them of that: Thy people are as those that strive with the
   priests; they have grown so very impudent in sin, so very insolent, and
   impatient of reproof, that they will fly in the face even of a priest
   himself if he should but give them the least check, without any regard
   to his character and office; and how then can it be thought that they
   should take a reproof from a private person? Note, Those sinners have
   their hearts wickedly hardened who quarrel with their ministers for
   dealing faithfully with them; and those who rebel against ministerial
   reproof, which is an ordinance of God for their reformation, have
   forfeited the benefit of brotherly reproof too. Perhaps this may refer
   to the late wickedness of Joash king of Judah, and his people, who
   stoned Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, for delivering them a message
   from God, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21. He was a priest; with him they strove when
   he was officiating between the temple and the altar; and Dr. Lightfoot
   thinks the prophet had an eye to his case when he spoke (v. 2) of blood
   touching blood; the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood
   of the sacrifice, That, says he, was the apex of their
   wickedness--thence their ruin was to be dated (Matt. xxiii. 35), as
   this is of their incorrigibleness, that they are as those who strive
   with the priest, therefore let no man reprove them; for, (2.) God also
   is determined to proceed in their ruin (v. 5): "Therefore, because thou
   wilt take no reproof, no advice, thou shalt fall, and it is in vain for
   any to think of preventing it, for the decree has gone forth. Thou
   shalt stumble and fall in the day, and the prophet, the false prophet
   that flattered and seduced thee, shall fall with thee in the night;
   both thou and thy prophet shall fall night and day, shall be
   continually falling into one calamity or other; the darkness of the
   night shall not help to cover thee from trouble nor the light of the
   day help thee to flee from it." The prophets are blind leaders and the
   people blind followers; and to the blind day and night are alike, so
   that whether it be day or night both shall fall together into the
   ditch. "Thou shalt fall in the day, when thy fall is least feared by
   thyself and thou art very secure; and in the day, when it will be seen
   and observed by others, and turn most to thy shame; and the prophet
   shall fall in the night, when to himself it will be most terrible."
   Note, The ruin of those who have helped to ruin others will, in a
   special manner, be intolerable. And did the children think that when
   they were in danger of falling their mother would help them? It shall
   be in vain to expect it, for I will destroy thy mother, Samaria, the
   mother-city, the whole state, or kingdom, which is as a mother to every
   part. It shall all be made silent. Note, When all are involved in guilt
   nothing less can be expected than that all should be involved in ruin.

Grounds of God's Controversy with Israel; The Sins of the Priests and People.
(b. c. 758.)

   6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast
   rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no
   priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will
   also forget thy children.   7 As they were increased, so they sinned
   against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.   8 They
   eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their
   iniquity.   9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will
   punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.   10 For they
   shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall
   not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.   11
   Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

   God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and
   with the people. The people were as those that strove with the priests
   (v. 4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of
   them lived in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those
   priests, and for the people that love to have it so, Jer. v. 31. And it
   is observable here how the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for
   the justifying of his own proceedings, God sets the one over-against
   the other.

   I. The people strove with the priests that should have taught them the
   knowledge of God; justly therefore were they destroyed for lack of
   knowledge, v. 6. Note, Those that rebel against the light can expect no
   other than to perish in the dark. Or it is a charge upon the priests,
   who should have been still teaching the people knowledge (Eccl. xii.
   9), but they did not, or did it in such a manner that it was as if they
   had not done it at all, so there was no knowledge of God in the land;
   and because there was no vision, or none to any purpose, the people
   perished, Prov. xxix. 18. Note, Ignorance is so far from being the
   mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction; lack of
   knowledge is ruining to any person or people. They are my people that
   are thus destroyed; their relation to God as his people aggravates both
   their sin in not taking pains to get the knowledge of that God whose
   command they were under and with whom they were taken into covenant,
   and likewise the sin of those who should have taught them; God set his
   children to school to them, and they never minded them nor took any
   pains with them.

   II. Both priests and people rejected knowledge; and justly therefore
   will God reject them. The reason why the people did not learn, and the
   priests did not teach, was not because they had not the light, but
   because they hated it--not because they had not ways of coming to the
   knowledge of God and of communicating it, but because they had no heart
   to it; they rejected it. They desired not the knowledge of God's ways,
   but put it from them, and shut their eyes against the light; and
   therefore "I will also reject thee; I will refuse to take cognizance of
   thee and to own thee; you will not know me, but bid me depart; I will
   therefore say, Depart from me, I know you not. Thou shalt be no priest
   to me." 1. The priests shall be no longer admitted to the privileges,
   or employed in the services, of the priesthood, nor shall they ever be
   received again, as we find, Ezek. xliv. 13. Note, Ministers that reject
   knowledge, that are grossly ignorant and scandalous, ought not to be
   owned as ministers; but that which they seem to have should be taken
   away, Luke viii. 18. 2. The people shall be no longer as they have
   been, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, Exod. xix. 6. God's
   people, by rejecting knowledge, forfeit their honour and profane their
   own crown.

   III. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to
   retain it in mind, nor to transmit the remembrance of it to their
   posterity, and therefore justly will God forget them and their
   children, the people's children; they did not educate them, as they
   ought to have done, in the knowledge of God and their duty to him, and
   therefore God will disown them, as not in covenant with him. Note, If
   parents do not teach their children, when they are young, to remember
   their Creator, they cannot expect that their Creator should remember
   them. Or it may be meant of the priests' children; they shall not
   succeed them in the priests' office, but shall be reduced to poverty,
   as is threatened against Eli's house, 1 Sam. ii. 20.

   IV. They dishonoured God with that which was their honour, and justly
   therefore will God strip them of it, v. 7. It was their honour that
   they were increased in number, wealth, power, and dignity. The
   beginning of their nation was small, but in process of time it greatly
   increased, and grew very considerable; the family of the priests
   increased wonderfully. But, as they were increased, so they sinned
   against God. The more populous the nation grew, the more sin was
   committed and the more profane they were; their wealth, honour, and
   power, did but make them the more daring in sin. Therefore, says God,
   will I change their glory into shame. Are their numbers their glory?
   God will diminish them and make them few. Is their wealth their glory?
   God will impoverish them and bring them low; so that they shall
   themselves be ashamed of that which they gloried in. Their priests
   shall be made contemptible and base, Mal. ii. 9. Note, That which is
   our honour, if we dishonour God with it, will sooner or later be turned
   into shame to us: for those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed,
   1 Sam. ii. 30.

   V. The priests ate up the sin of God's people, and therefore they shall
   eat and not have enough. 1. They abused the maintenance that was
   allowed to the priests, to the priests of the house of Aaron, by the
   law of God, and to the mock-priests of the calves by their constitution
   (v. 8): They eat up the sin of my people, that is, their sin-offerings.
   If it be meant of the priests of the calves, it intimates their seizing
   that which they had no right to; they usurped the revenues of the
   priests, though they were no priests. If it be meant of those who were
   legal priests, it intimates their greediness of the profits and
   perquisites of their office, when they took no care at all to do the
   duty of it. They feasted upon their part of the offerings of the Lord,
   but forgot the work for which they were so well paid. They set their
   heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted up their soul to them,
   that is, they were glad then people did commit iniquity, that they
   might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement for it, which
   they should have their share of; the more sins the more sacrifices, and
   therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of. Instead of
   warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the
   sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it
   needed such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to
   sin, since an atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they
   glutted themselves upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up
   that which they should have beaten down. Note, It is a very wicked
   thing to be well pleased with the sins of others because, in some way
   or other, they may turn to our advantage. 2. God will therefore deny
   them his blessing upon their maintenance (v. 10): They shall eat and
   not have enough. Though they have great plenty by the abundance of
   offerings that are brought in, yet they shall have no satisfaction in
   it. Either their food shall yield no good nourishment or their greedy
   appetites shall not be satisfied with it. Note, What is unlawfully
   gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately
   coveted; it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always
   be unsatisfied, and that those should never have enough who never know
   when they have enough. See Mic. vi. 14; Hag. i. 6.

   VI. The more they increased the more they sinned (v. 7), and therefore
   though they commit whoredom, though they take the most wicked methods
   to multiply their people, yet they shall not increase. Though they have
   many wives and concubines, as Solomon had, yet they shall not have
   their families built up thereby in a numerous progeny, any more than he
   had. Note, Those that hope any way to increase by unlawful means will
   be disappointed. And therefore God will thus blast all their projects
   because they have left off to take heed to the Lord; time was when they
   had some regard to God, and to his authority over them and interest in
   them, but they have left it off; they take no heed to his word nor to
   his providences; they do not eye him in either. They forsake him, so as
   not to take heed to him; they have apostatized to such a degree that
   they have no manner of regard to God, but are perfectly without God in
   the world. Note, Those that leave off to take heed to the Lord leave
   off all good, and can expect no other than that all good should leave
   them.

   VII. The people and the priests did harden one another in sin; and
   therefore justly shall they be sharers in the punishment (v. 9): There
   shall be, like people, like priest. So they were in character; people
   and priest were both alike ignorant and profane, regardless of God and
   their duty, and addicted to idolatry: and so they shall be in
   condition; God will bring judgments upon them, that shall be the
   destruction both of priest and people; the famine that deprives the
   people of their meat shall deprive the priests of their meat-offerings,
   Joel i. 9. It is part of the description of a universal desolation that
   it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, Isa. xxiv. 2. God's
   judgments, when they come with commission, will make no difference.
   Note, Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin. Thus God will
   punish them both for their ways, and reward them for their doings. God
   will cause their doings to return upon them (so the word is); when a
   sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone and he shall hear no more
   of it, but he shall find it called over again, and made to return,
   either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.

   VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up
   their hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (v.
   11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join
   this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take
   heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have taken
   away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from
   their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it
   as a distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed
   by every day's experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins
   which besot and infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away
   both the understanding and the courage.

The Sins of the Priests and the People; Warning to Judah. (b. c. 758.)

   12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth
   unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and
   they have gone a whoring from under their God.   13 They sacrifice upon
   the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks
   and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore
   your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit
   adultery.   14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit
   whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves
   are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore
   the people that doth not understand shall fall.   15 Though thou,
   Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto
   Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The Lord liveth.   16
   For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed
   them as a lamb in a large place.   17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let
   him alone.   18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom
   continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.   19 The wind hath
   bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their
   sacrifices.

   In these verses we have, as before,

   I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a
   controversy with them, and they are,

   1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of
   whoredoms, a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their
   hearts are that way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out
   towards it with an unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err.
   Note, The errors and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the
   corrupt affections; men therefore have a good opinion of sin, because
   they have a disposition towards it. And having such erroneous notions
   of idols, and such passionate motions towards them, no marvel that with
   such a head and such a heart they have gone a whoring from under their
   God, v. 12. They ought to have been in subjection to him as their head
   and husband, to have been under his guidance and command, but they
   revolted from their allegiance, and put themselves under the guidance
   and protection of false gods. So (v. 15) Israel has played the harlot;
   their conduct in the worship of their idols was like that of a harlot,
   wanton and impudent. And (v. 16), Israel slideth back as a backsliding
   heifer, as an untamed heifer (so some), or as a perverse or refractory
   one (so others), as a heifer that is turned loose runs madly about the
   pasture, or, if put under the yoke (which seems rather to be alluded to
   here), will draw back instead of going forward, will struggle to get
   her neck out of the yoke and her feet out of the furrow. Thus unruly,
   ungovernable, untractable, were the people of Israel. They had begun to
   draw in the yoke of God's ordinances, but they drew back, as children
   of Belial, that will not endure the yoke; and when the prophets were
   sent with the goads of reproof, to put them forward, they kicked
   against the pricks, and ran backwards. The sum of all is (v. 17),
   Ephraim is joined to idols, is perfectly wedded to them; his affections
   are glued to them, and his heart is upon them. There are two instances
   given of their spiritual whoredom, in both which they gave that honour
   to their idols which is due to God only:--(1.) They consulted them as
   oracles, and used those arts of divination which they had learned from
   their idolatrous priests (v. 12): My people ask counsel at their
   stocks, their wooden gods; they apply to them for advice and direction
   in what they should do and for information concerning the event. They
   say to a stock, Thou art my father (Jer. ii. 27); and, if it were
   indeed a father, it were worthy of this honour; but it was a great
   affront to God, who was indeed their Father, and whose lively oracles
   they had among them, with which they had liberty to consult at any
   time, thus to ask counsel at their stocks. And they expect that their
   staff should declare to them what course they should take and what the
   event should be. It is probable that this refers to some wicked methods
   of divination used among the Gentiles, and which the Jews learned from
   them, by a piece of wood, or by a staff, like Nebuchadnezzar's divining
   by his arrows, Ezek. xxi. 21. Note, Those who forsake the oracles of
   God, to take their measures from the world and the flesh, do in effect
   but consult with their stocks and their staves. (2.) They offered
   sacrifice to them as gods, whose favour they wanted and whose wrath
   they dreaded and deprecated (v. 13): They sacrifice to them, to atone
   and pacify them, and burn incense to them, to please and gratify them,
   and hope by both to recommend themselves to them. God had pitched upon
   the place where he would record his name; but they, having forsaken
   that, chose places for their irreligious rites which pleased their own
   fancies; they chose, [1.] High places, upon the tops of the mountains
   and upon the hills, foolishly imagining that the height of the ground
   gave them some advantage in their approaches towards heaven. [2.] Shady
   places, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof
   is pleasant to them, especially in those hot countries, and therefore
   they thought it was pleasing to their gods; or they fancied that a
   thick shade befriends contemplation, possesses the mind with something
   of awe, and therefore is proper for devotion.

   2. Corporal whoredom is another crime here charged upon them: They have
   committed whoredom continually, v. 18. They drove a trade of
   uncleanness; it was not a single act now and then, but their constant
   practice, as it is of many that have eyes full of adultery and which
   cannot cease from that sin, 2 Pet. ii. 14. Now the abominable
   filthiness and lewdness that was found in Israel is here spoken of,
   (1.) As a concomitant of their idolatry; their false gods drew them to
   it; for the devil whom they worshipped, though a spirit, is an unclean
   spirit. Those that worshipped idols were separated with harlots, and
   they sacrificed with harlots; for because they liked not to retain God
   in their knowledge, but dishonoured him, therefore God gave them up to
   vile affections, by the indulging of which they dishonoured themselves,
   Rom. i. 24, 28. (2.) As a punishment of it. The men that worshipped
   idols were separated with harlots that attended the idolatrous rites,
   as in the worship of Baal-peor, Num. xxv. 1, 2. To punish them for that
   God gave up their wives and daughters to the like vile affections: They
   committed whoredom and adultery (v. 13), which could not but be a great
   grief and reproach to their husbands and parents; for those that are
   not chaste themselves desire to have their wives and daughters so. But
   thus they might read their sin in their punishment, as David's adultery
   was punished in the debauching of his concubines by his own son, 2 Sam.
   xii. 11. Note, When the same sin in others is made men's grief and
   affliction which they have themselves been guilty of they must own that
   the Lord is righteous.

   3. The perverting of justice, v. 18. Their rulers (be it spoken to
   their shame) do love, Give ye, that is, they love bribes, and have it
   continually in their mouths, Give, give. They are given to filthy
   lucre; every one that has any business with them must expect to be
   asked, What will you give? Though, as rulers, they are bound by office
   to do justice, yet none can have justice done them without a fee; and
   you may be sure that for a fee they will do injustice. Note, The love
   of money is the ruin of equity and the root of all iniquity. But of all
   men it is a shame for rulers (who should be men fearing God and hating
   covetousness) to love Give ye. Perhaps this is intended in that part of
   the charge here, Their drink is sour; it is dead; it is gone. Justice,
   duly administered, is refreshing, like drink to the thirsty, but when
   it is perverted, and rulers take rewards either to acquit the guilty or
   to condemn the innocent, the drink is sour; they turn judgment into
   wormwood, Amos v. 7. Or it may refer in general to the depraved morals
   of the whole nation; they had lost all their life and spirit, and were
   as offensive to God as dead and sour drink is to us. See Deut. xxxi.
   32, 33.

   II. The tokens of God's wrath against them for their sins. 1. Their
   wives and daughters should not be punished for the injury and disgrace
   they did to their families (v. 14): I will not punish your daughters;
   and, not being punished for their sin, they would go on in it. Note,
   The impunity of one sinner is sometimes made the punishment of another.
   Or, "I will not punish them as I will punish you; for you must own, as
   Judah did concerning his daughter-in-law, that they are more righteous
   than you," Gen. xxxviii. 26. 2. They themselves should prosper for a
   while, but their prosperity should help to destroy them. It comes in as
   a token of God's wrath (v. 16): The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a
   large place; they shall have a fat pasture, and a large one, in which
   they shall be fed to the full, and fed of the best, but it shall be
   only to prepare them for the slaughter, as a lamb is that is so fed. If
   they wax fat and kick, they do but wax fat for the butcher. But others
   make them feed as a lamb on the common, a large place indeed, but where
   it has short grass and lies exposed. The Shepherd of Israel will turn
   them both out of his pastures and out of his protection. 3. No means
   should be used to bring them to repentance (v. 17): "Ephraim is joined
   to idols, is in love with them and addicted to them, and therefore let
   him alone, as v. 4, Let no man reprove him. Let him be given up to his
   own heart's lusts, and walk in his own counsel; we would have healed
   him, and he would not be healed, therefore forsake him," See what their
   end will be, Deut. xxxii. 20. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment for
   any man to be let alone in sin, for God to say concerning a sinner, "He
   is joined to his idols, the world and the flesh; he is incurably proud,
   covetous, or profane, an incurable drunkard or adulterer; let him
   alone; conscience, let him alone; minister, let him alone; providences,
   let him alone. Let nothing awaken him till the flames of hell do it."
   The father corrects not the rebellious son any more when he determines
   to disinherit him. "Those that are not disturbed in their sin will be
   destroyed for their sin." 4. They should be hurried away with a swift
   and shameful destruction (v. 19): The wind has bound her up in her
   wings, to carry her away into captivity, suddenly, violently, and
   irresistibly; he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, Ps. lviii.
   9. And then they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices, ashamed
   of their sin in offering sacrifice to idols, ashamed of their folly in
   putting themselves to such an expense upon gods that have no power to
   help them, and thereby making that God their enemy who has almighty
   power to destroy them. Note, There are sacrifices that men will one day
   be ashamed of. Those that have sacrificed their time, strength, honour,
   and all their comforts, to the world and the flesh, will shortly be
   ashamed of it. Yea, and those that bring to God blind, and lame, and
   heartless sacrifices, will be ashamed of them too.

   III. The warning given to Judah not to sin after the similitude of
   Israel's transgression. It is said in the close of v. 14, Those that do
   not understand shall fall; those must needs fall that do not understand
   how to avoid, or get over, the stumbling-blocks they meet with (and
   therefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall),
   particularly the two tribes (v. 15): Though thou, Israel, play the
   harlot, yet let not Judah offend. Though Israel be given to idolatry,
   yet let not Judah take the infection. Now, 1. This was a very needful
   caution. The men of Israel were brethren, and near neighbours, to the
   men of Judah; Israel was more numerous, and at this time in a
   prosperous condition, and therefore there was danger lest the men of
   Judah should learn their way and get a snare to their souls. Note, The
   nearer we are to the infection of sin the more need we have to stand
   upon our guard. 2. It was a very rational caution: "Let Israel play the
   harlot, yet let not Judah do so; for Judah has greater means of
   knowledge than Israel, has the temple and priesthood, and a king of the
   house of David; from Judah Shiloh is to come; and for Judah God has
   reserved great blessings in store; therefore let not Judah offend, for
   more is expected from them than from Israel, they will have more to
   answer for if they do offend, and from them God will take it more
   unkindly. If Israel play the harlot, let not Judah do so too, for then
   God will have no professing people in the world." God bespeaks Judah
   here, as Christ does the twelve, when many turned their backs upon him,
   Will you also go away? John vi. 67. Note, Those that have hitherto kept
   their integrity should, for that reason, still hold it fast, even in
   times of general apostasy. Now, to preserve Judah from offending as
   Israel had done, two rules are here given:--(1.) That they might not be
   guilty of idolatry they must keep at a distance from the places of
   idolatry: Come not you unto Gilgal, where all their wickedness was (ch.
   ix. 15; xii. 11); there they multiplied transgression (Amos iv. 4); and
   perhaps they contracted a veneration for that place because there it
   was said to Joshua, The place where thou standest is holy ground (Josh.
   v. 15); therefore they are forbidden to enter into Gilgal, Amos v. 5.
   And for the same reason they must not go up to Bethel, here called the
   house of vanity, for so Bethaven signifies, not the house of God, as
   Bethel signifies. Note, Those that would be kept from sin, and not fall
   into the devil's hands, must studiously avoid the occasions of sin and
   not come upon the devil's ground. (2.) That they might not be guilty of
   idolatry they must take heed of profaneness, and not swear, The Lord
   liveth. They are commanded to swear, The Lord liveth in truth and
   righteousness (Jer. iv. 2); and therefore that which is here forbidden
   is swearing so in untruth and unrighteousness, swearing rashly and
   lightly, or falsely and with deceit, or swearing by the Lord and the
   idol, Zeph. i. 5. Note, Those that would be steady in their adherence
   to God must possess themselves with an awe and reverence of God, and
   always speak of him with solemnity and seriousness; for those that can
   make a jest of the true God will make a god of any thing.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. V.

   The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the foregoing
   chapter, to discover the sin both of Israel and Judah, and to denounce
   the judgments of God against them. I. They are called to hearken to the
   charge, ver. 1, 8. II. They are accused of many sins, which are here
   aggravated. 1. Persecution, ver. 1, 2. 2. Spiritual whoredom, ver. 3,
   4. 3. Pride, ver. 5. 4. Apostasy from God, ver. 7. 5. The tyranny of
   the princes, and the tameness of the people in submitting to it, ver.
   10, 11. III. They are threatened with God's displeasure for their sins;
   he knows all their wickedness (ver. 3) and makes known his wrath
   against them for it, ver. 9. 1. They shall fall in their iniquity, ver.
   5. 2. God will forsake them, ver. 6. 3. Their portions shall be
   devoured, ver. 7. 4. God will rebuke them, and pour out his wrath upon
   them, ver. 9, 10. 5. They shall be oppressed, ver. 11. 6. God will be
   as a moth to them in secret judgments (ver. 12) and as a lion in public
   judgments, ver. 14. IV. They are blamed for the wrong course they took
   under their afflictions, ver. 13. V. It is intimated that they shall at
   length take a right course, ver. 15. The more generally these things
   are expressed of so much the more general use they are for our
   learning, and particularly for our admonition.

Charge against Israel and Judah; Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 758.)

   1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye
   ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have
   been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.   2 And the
   revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker
   of them all.   3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for
   now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.   4
   They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit
   of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.
     5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall
   Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with
   them.   6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek
   the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from
   them.   7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have
   begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their
   portions.

   Here, I. All orders and degrees of men are cited to appear and answer
   to such things as shall be laid to their charge (v. 1): Hear you this,
   O priests! whether in holy orders (as those in Judah, and perhaps many
   in Israel too, for in the ten tribes there were divers cities of
   priests and Levites, who, it is probable, staid in their own lot after
   the revolt of the ten tribes and did so much of their office as might
   be done at a distance from the temple) or pretending holy orders, as
   the priests of the calves, who, some think, are included here.
   "Hearken, you house of Israel, the common people, and give ear, O house
   of the king!" let them all take notice, for they have all contributed
   to the national guilt, and they shall all share in the national
   judgments. Note, If neither the sanctity of the priesthood nor the
   dignity of the royal family will prevail to keep out sin, it cannot be
   expected that they should avail to keep out wrath. If the priests, and
   the house of the king, though they bear such noble characters, sin like
   others, their noble characters will not excuse them, but they must
   smart like others. Nor shall it be any plea for the house of Israel
   that they were misled by their priests and princes, but they shall
   receive their doom with them, and neither their meanness nor their
   multitude shall be their exemption.

   II. Witness is produced against them, one instead of a thousand; it is
   God's omniscience (v. 3): I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from
   me. They have not known the Lord (v. 4), but the Lord has known them,
   knows their true character however disguised, knows their secret
   wickedness however concealed. Note, Men's rejecting the knowledge of
   God will not secure them from his knowledge of them; and when he
   contends with them he will prove their sins upon them by his own
   knowledge, so that is will be in vain to plead Not guilty.

   III. Very bad things are laid to their charge. 1. They had been very
   ingenious and very industrious to draw people either into sin or into
   trouble: You have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor
   (v. 1), that is, such snares and nets as the huntsmen used to lay upon
   those mountains in pursuit of their game. When the worship of the
   calves was set up in Israel the patrons of that idolatry, and sticklers
   for it, contrived by all possible arts and wiles to draw men into it
   and reconcile those to it that at first had a dread of it. Note, Those
   that allure and entice men to sin, however they may pretend friendship
   and good-will, are to be looked upon as snares and nets to them, and
   their hands as bands, Eccl. vii. 26. But to those whom they could not
   seduce into sin they were as a net and a snare to bring them into
   trouble. Some think it was their practice to set spies in the road, and
   particularly upon the mountains of Mizpah and Tabor, at the times of
   the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, to watch if any of their people who
   were piously affected went thither, and to inform against them, that
   they might be prosecuted for it, thus doing the devil's work, who
   disquiets those whom he cannot debauch. 2. They had been both very
   crafty and very cruel in carrying on their designs (v. 2): The
   revolters are profound to make slaughter. Note, Those who have
   themselves apostatized from the truths of God are often the most subtle
   and barbarous persecutors of those who still adhere to them. Nothing
   will serve them but to make slaughter (it is the blood of the saints
   that they thirst after): and with the serpent's sting they have his
   head; they are profound to do it. O the depth of the depths of Satan,
   of the wickedness of his agents, of those that have deeply revolted!
   Isa. xxxi. 6. Now that which aggravated this was the many reproofs and
   warnings that had been given them: Though I have been a rebuker of them
   all. The prophet had been so, a reprover by office. He had many a time
   told them of the evil of their ways and doings, had dealt plainly with
   them all, and had not spared either the priests or the house of the
   king. God himself had been a rebuker of them all by their own
   consciences and by his providences. Note, Sins against reproof are
   doubly sinful, Prov. xxix. 1. 3. They had committed whoredom, had
   defiled their own bodies with fleshly lusts, had defiled their own
   souls with the worship of idols, v. 3. This God was a witness to,
   though secretly committed and artfully palliated. Nay, the piercing eye
   of God saw the spirit of whoredom that was in the midst of them, their
   secret inclination and disposition to those sins, the love they had to
   their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them, how much they
   were under the power of a spirit of whoredom, that root of bitterness
   which bore all this gall and wormwood, that corrupt and poisoned
   fountain. 4. They had no disposition at all to come into acquaintance
   and communion with God. The spirit of whoredoms, having caused them to
   err from him, keeps them wandering endlessly, v. 4. (1.) They have not
   known the Lord, nor desire to know him, but have rather declined, nay
   dreaded, the knowledge of him, for that would disturb them in their
   sinful ways. (2.) Therefore they will not frame their doings to turn to
   their God, by which it appeared that they did not know him aright. This
   intimates their obstinate persistence in their apostasy from God; they
   would not turn to God, though he was their God, theirs in covenant, by
   whose name they had been called, and whom they were bound to serve.
   They would not return to the worship of him, from which they had turned
   aside. Nay, they would not frame their doings to turn to God. They
   would not consider their ways, nor dispose themselves into a serious
   temper, nor apply their minds to think of those things that would bring
   them to God. It is true we cannot by our own power, without the special
   grace of God, turn to him; but we may by the due improvement of our
   faculties, and the common aids of his Spirit, frame our doings to turn
   to him. Those that will not do this, that prepare not their hearts to
   seek the Lord (2 Chron. xii. 14), owe it to themselves that they are
   not turned; they die because they will die; and to those that will do
   this further grace shall not be wanting. (5.) They were guilty of
   notorious arrogancy, and insolence in sin (v. 5): The pride of Israel
   doth testify to his face, doth witness against him that he is a rebel
   to God and his government. The spirit of whoredoms which was in the
   midst of them showed itself in the gaiety and gaudiness of their
   worship, as a harlot is known by her attire, Prov. vii. 10. The
   wantonness of her dress testifies to her face that she is not a modest
   woman. Or their pride in confronting the prophets God sent them and the
   message they brought (Jer. xliii. 2), or a haughty scornful conduct
   towards their brethren and those that were under them, witnessed
   against them that they were not God's people and justified God in all
   the humbling judgments he brought upon them. His pride testifies in his
   face; so some read it, agreeing with Isa. iii. 9, The show of their
   countenance doth witness against them. They have that proud look which
   the Lord hates. (6.) They departed from God to idols, and bred up their
   children in idolatry (v. 7): They have dealt treacherously against the
   Lord, as a wife, who, in contempt of the marriage covenant, forsakes
   her husband, and lives in adultery with another. Thus those who are
   guilty of spiritual idolatry, whose god is their money, whose god is
   their belly, deal treacherously against the Lord; they violate their
   engagements to him and frustrate his expectations from them. Note,
   Wilful sinners are treacherous dealers. They have begotten strange
   children, that is, their children which they have begotten are
   estranged from God, and trained up in a false way of worship; they are
   a spurious brood, as children of fornication (John viii. 41), whom God
   will disown. Note, Those deal treacherously with God indeed who not
   only turn from following him themselves but train up their children in
   wicked ways.

   IV. Very sad things are made to be their doom. In general (v. 1),
   "Judgment is towards you. God is coming forth to contend with you, and
   to testify his displeasure against you for your sins." It is time to
   hearken when judgment is towards us. In particular,

   1. They shall fall in their iniquity. This follows upon their pride
   testifying to their face (v. 5) Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall
   in their iniquity. Note, Pride will have a fall; it is the certain
   presage and forerunner of it. Those that exalt themselves shall be
   abased. The face in which pride testifies shall be filled with
   confusion. They shall not only fall, but fall in their iniquity, the
   saddest fall of any. Their pride kept them from repenting of their
   iniquity, and therefore they shall fall in it. Note, Those that are not
   humbled for their sins are likely to perish for ever in their sins. It
   is added, Judah also shall fall with them in her iniquity. As the ten
   tribes were carried captive into Assyria, for their idolatry, so the
   two tribes, in process of time, were carried into Babylon for following
   their bad example; but the former fell and were utterly cast down, the
   latter fell and were raised up again. Judah had the temple and
   priesthood, and yet these shall not secure them, but, if they sin with
   Israel and Ephraim, with them they shall fall.

   2. They shall fall short of God's favour when they profess to seek it
   (v. 6): They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek
   the Lord, but in vain; they shall not find him. This seems to be spoken
   principally of Judah, when they fell into their iniquity, and when they
   fell in their iniquity. (1.) When they fell into their iniquity they
   sought the Lord; but they did not seek him only, and therefore he was
   not found of them. When they worshipped strange gods, yet they kept up
   the show and shadow of the worship of the true God; they went as usual,
   at the solemn feasts, with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord; but
   their hearts were not upright with him, because they were not entire
   for him, and therefore he would not accept them; for then only shall we
   find him when we seek him with our whole heart, not divided between God
   and Baal, Ezek. xiv. 3. (2.) When they fell in their iniquity, or found
   themselves falling by it, they sought the Lord; but they did not seek
   him early, and therefore he will not be found of them. They shall see
   ruin coming upon them, and shall then, in their distress, flee to God,
   and think to make him their friend with burnt-offerings and sacrifices;
   but it will be too late then to turn away his wrath when the decree has
   gone forth. Even Josiah's reformation did not prevail to turn away the
   wrath of God, 2 Kings xxiii. 25, 26. Those that go with their flocks
   and their herds only to seek the Lord, and not with their hearts and
   souls, cannot expect to find him, for his favour is not to be purchased
   with thousands of rams. Nor shall those speed who do not seek the Lord
   while he may be found, for there is a time when he will not be found.
   They shall not find him, for he has withdrawn himself; he will not be
   enquired of by them, but will turn a deaf ear to their sacrifices. See
   how much it is our concern to seek God early, now while the accepted
   time is, and the day of salvation.

   3. They and their portions shall all be swallowed up. They have dealt
   treacherously against the Lord, and have thought to strengthen
   themselves in it by their alliances with strange children; but now
   shall a month devour them with their portions, that is, their estates
   and inheritances, all those things which they have taken, and taken up
   with, as their portion; or by their portions is meant their idols, whom
   they chose for their portion instead of God. Note, Those that make an
   idol of the world, by taking it for their portion, will themselves
   perish with it. A month shall devour them, or eat them up--a certain
   time prefixed, and a short time. When God's judgments begin with them
   they shall soon make an end; one month will do their business. How much
   may a body be weakened by one month's sickness, or a kingdom wasted by
   one month's war! Three shepherds (says God) I cut off in one month,
   Zech. xi. 8. Note, The judgments of God sometimes make quick work with
   a sinful people. A month devours more, and more portions, than many
   years can repair.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 758.)

   8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at
   Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.   9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the
   day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which
   shall surely be.   10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove
   the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
   11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly
   walked after the commandment.   12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as
   a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.   13 When Ephraim saw
   his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the
   Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure
   you of your wound.   14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a
   young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I
   will take away, and none shall rescue him.   15 I will go and return to
   my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in
   their affliction they will seek me early.

   Here is, I. A loud alarm sounded, giving notice of judgments coming (v.
   8): Blow you the cornet in Gibeah and in Ramah, two cities near
   together in the confines of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel,
   Gibeah a frontier-town of the kingdom of Judah, Ramah of Israel; so
   that the warning is hereby sent into both kingdoms. "Cry aloud at
   Beth-aven, or Bethel, which place seems to be already seized upon by
   the enemy, and therefore the trumpet is not sounded there, but you hear
   the outcries of those that shout for mastery, mixed with theirs that
   are overcome." Let them cry aloud, "After thee, O Benjamin! comes the
   enemy. The tribe of Ephraim is already vanquished, and the enemy will
   be upon thy back, O Benjamin! in a little time; thy turn comes next.
   The cup of trembling shall go round." The prophet had described God's
   controversy with them as a trial at law (ch. iv. 1); here he describes
   it as a trial by battle; and here also when he judges he will overcome.
   Let all therefore prepare to meet their God. He had before spoken of
   the judgments as certain; here he speaks of them as near; and, when
   they are apprehended as just at the door, they are very startling and
   awakening. The blowing of this cornet is explained, v. 9. Among the
   tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be, that
   which is true or certain, so the word is. Note, The destruction of
   impenitent sinners is a thing which shall surely be; it is not mere
   talk, to frighten them, but it is an irrevocable sentence. And it is a
   mercy to us that it is made known to us, that we have timely warning
   given us of it, that we may flee from the wrath to come. It is the
   privilege of the tribes of Israel that, as they are told their duty, so
   they are told their danger, by the oracles of God committed to them.

   II. The ground of God's controversy with them. 1. He has a quarrel with
   the princes of Judah, because they were daring leaders in sin, v. 10.
   They are like those that remove the bound, or the ancient land-marks.
   God has given them his law, to be a fence about his own property; but
   they have sacrilegiously broken through it, and set it aside; they have
   encroached even upon God's rights, have trampled upon the distinctions
   between good and evil, and the most sacred obligations of reason and
   equity, thinking, because they were princes, that they might do any
   thing, Quicquid libet, licet--Their will was a law. Or it may be
   understood of their invading the liberty and property of the subject
   for the advancing of the prerogative, which was like removing the
   ancient land-marks. Some have observed that the princes of Judah were
   more absolute, and assumed a more arbitrary power, than the princes of
   Israel did; now, for this, God has a controversy with them: I will pour
   out my wrath upon them like water, in great abundance, like the waters
   of the flood, which were poured upon the giants of the old world, for
   the violence which the earth was filled with through them, Gen. vi. 13.
   Note, There are bounds which even princes themselves must not remove,
   bounds both of religion and justice, which they are limited by, and, if
   they break through them, they must know that there is a God above them
   that will call them to account for it. 2. He has a quarrel with the
   people of Ephraim, because they were sneaking followers in sin (v. 11):
   He willingly walked after the commandment, that is, the commandment of
   Jeroboam and the succeeding kings of Israel, who obliged all their
   subjects by a law to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel, and never to
   go up to Jerusalem to worship. This was the commandment; it was the law
   of the land, and backed with reasons of state; and the people not only
   walked after it in a blind implicit obedience to authority, but they
   willingly walked after it, from a secret antipathy they had to the
   worship of idols. Note, An easy compliance with the commandments of men
   that thwart the commandments of God ripens a people for ruin as much as
   any thing. And the punishment of the sequacious disobedience (if I may
   so call it) answers to the sin; for it is for this that Ephraim is
   oppressed and broken in judgment, has all his civil rights and
   liberties broken in upon and trodden down; and, (1.) It is just with
   God that it should be so, that those who betray God's property should
   lose their own, that those who subject their consciences to an
   infallible judge, and an arbitrary power, should have enough of both.
   (2.) There is a natural tendency in the thing itself towards it. Those
   that willingly walk after the commandment, even when it walks contrary
   to the command of God, will find the commandment an encroaching thing,
   and that the more power is given it the more it will claim. Note,
   Nothing gives greater advantage to a mastiff-like tyranny, that is
   fierce and furious, than a spaniel-like submission, that is fawning and
   flattering. Thus is Ephraim oppressed and broken in judgment, that is,
   he is wronged under a face and colour of right. Note, It is a sad and
   sore judgment upon any people to be oppressed under pretence of having
   justice done them. This explains the threatening v. 9, Ephraim shall be
   desolate in the day of rebuke. Note, Daring sinners must expect that a
   day of rebuke will come, and such a day of rebuke as will make them
   desolate, will deprive them of the comfort of all they have and all
   they hope for.

   III. The different methods that God would take both with Judah and
   Ephraim, sometimes one method and sometimes the other, and sometimes
   both together, or rather by which, first the one and then the other, he
   would advance towards their complete ruin.

   1. He would begin with less judgments, which should sometimes work
   silently and insensibly (v. 12): I will be (that is, my providences
   shall be) unto Ephraim as a moth; nay (as it might better be supplied),
   they are unto Ephraim as a moth, for it is such a sickness as Ephraim
   now sees, v. 13. Note, The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful
   people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm. The former signifies
   the little animals that breed in clothes, the latter those that breed
   in wood; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the
   judgments of God consume them. (1.) Silently, so as not to make any
   noise in the world, nay, so as they themselves shall not be sensible of
   it; they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but, when they come
   to look more narrowly into their state, shall find themselves wasting
   and decaying. (2.) Slowly, and with long delays and intervals, that he
   may give them space to repent. Many a nation, as well as many a person,
   in the prime of its time, dies of a consumption. (3.) Gradually. God
   comes upon sinners with less judgments, so to prevent greater, if they
   will be wise and take warning; he comes upon them step by step, to show
   he is not willing that they should perish. (4.) The moth breeds in the
   clothes, and the worm or rottenness in the wood; thus sinners are
   consumed by a fire of their own kindling.

   2. When it appeared that those had not done their work he would come
   upon them with greater (v. 14): I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and
   to the house of Judah as a young lion, though Judah is himself, in
   Jacob's blessing, a lion's whelp. Lest any should think his power
   weakened, because he was said to be as a moth to them, he says that he
   will now be as a lion to them, not only to frighten them with his
   roaring, but to pull them to pieces. Note, If less judgments prevail
   not to do their work, it may be expected that God will send greater.
   Christ is sometimes a lion of the tribe of Judah, here he is a lion
   against that tribe. See what God will do to a people that are secure in
   sin: Even I will tear. He seems to glory in it, as his prerogative, to
   be able to destroy, as the alone lawgiver, Jam. iv. 12. "I, even I,
   will take the work into my own hands; I say it that will do it." There
   is a more immediate work of God in some judgments than in others. I
   will tear, and go away. He will go away, (1.) As not fearing them; he
   will go away in state, and with a majestic face, as the lion from his
   prey. (2.) As not helping them. If God tear by afflicting providences,
   and yet by his graces and comforts stays with us, it is well enough;
   but our condition is sad indeed if he tear and go away, if, when he
   deprives us of our creature comforts, he does himself depart from us.
   When he goes away he will take away all that is valuable and dear, for,
   when God goes, all good goes along with him. He will take away, and
   none shall rescue him, as the prey cannot be rescued from the lion,
   Mic. v. 8. Note, None can be delivered out of the hands of God's
   justice but those that are delivered into the hands of his grace. It is
   in vain for a man to strive with his Maker.

   IV. The different effects of those different methods. 1. When God
   contended with them by less judgments they neglected him, and sought to
   creatures for relief, but sought in vain, v. 13. When God was to them
   as a moth, and as rottenness, they perceived their sickness and their
   wound; after a while they found themselves going down the hill, and
   that they were behind--hand in their affairs, their estate was sensibly
   decaying, and then they sent to the Assyrian, to come in to their
   assistance, made their court to king Jareb, which some think, was one
   of the names of Pul, or Tiglathpileser, kings of Assyria, to whom both
   Israel and Judah applied for relief in their distress, hoping by an
   alliance with them to repair and re-establish their declining
   interests. Note, Carnal hearts, in time of trouble, see their sickness
   and see their wound, but do not see the sin that is the cause of it,
   nor will be brought to acknowledge that, no, nor to acknowledge the
   hand of God, his mighty hand, much less his righteous hand, in their
   trouble; and therefore, instead of going the next way to the Creator,
   who could relieve them, they take a great deal of pains to go about to
   creatures, who can do them no service. Those who repent not that they
   have offended God by their sins are loth to be beholden to him in their
   afflictions, but would rather seek relief any where than with him. And
   what is the consequence? Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of
   your wound. Note, Those who neglect God, and seek to creatures for
   help, will certainly be disappointed; those who depend upon them for
   support will find them, not foundations, but broken reeds; those who
   depend upon them for supply will find them, not fountains, but broken
   cisterns; those who depend upon them for comfort and a cure will find
   them miserable comforters, and physicians of no value. The kings of
   Assyria, whom Judah and Israel sought unto, distressed them and helped
   them not, 2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 28. Some make king Jareb to signify the
   great, potent, or magnificent king, for they built much upon his power;
   others the king that will plead, or should plead, for they built much
   upon his wisdom and eloquence, and in his interesting himself in their
   affairs. They had sent him a present (ch. x. 6), a good fee, and,
   having so retained him of counsel for them, they doubted not of his
   fidelity to them; but he deceived them, as an arm of flesh does those
   that trust in it, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. 2. When, to convince them of their
   folly, God brought greater judgments upon them, then they would at
   length be forced to apply to him, v. 15. When he has torn as a lion,
   (1.) He will leave them: I will go and return to my place, to heaven,
   or to the mercy-seat, the throne of grace, which is his glory. When God
   punishes sinners he comes out of his place (Isa. xxvi. 21); but, when
   he designs them favour, he returns to his place, where he waits to be
   gracious, upon their submission. Or he will return to his place when he
   has corrected them, as not regarding them, hiding his face from them,
   and not taking notice of their troubles or prayers; and this for their
   further humiliation, till they are qualified in some measure for the
   returns of his favour. (2.) He will at length work upon them, and bring
   them home to himself, by their afflictions, which is the thing he waits
   for; and then he will no longer withdraw from them. Two things are here
   mentioned as instances of their return:-- [1.] Their penitent
   confession of sin: Till they acknowledge their offence; marg. Till they
   be guilty, that is, till they be sensible of their guilt, and be
   brought to own it, and humble themselves before God for it. Note, When
   men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions then
   there begins to be some hope of them; and this is that which God
   requires of us, when we are under his correcting hand, that we own
   ourselves in a fault and justly corrected. [2.] Their humble petition
   for the favour of God: Till they seek my face, which, it may be
   expected, they will do when they are brought to the last extremity, and
   they have tried other helpers in vain. In their affliction they will
   seek me early, that is, diligently and earnestly, and with great
   importunity; and if they seek him thus, and be sincere in it, though it
   might be called seeking him late, because it was long ere they were
   brought to it, yet it is not too late, nay, he is pleased to call it
   seeking him early, so willing is he to make the best of true penitents
   in their return to him. Note, When we are under the convictions of sin,
   and the corrections of the rod, our business is to seek God's face; we
   must desire the knowledge of him, and an acquaintance with him, that he
   may manifest himself to us, and for us, in token of his being at peace
   with us. And it may reasonably be expected that affliction will bring
   those to God that had long gone astray from him, and kept at a
   distance. Therefore God for a time turns away from us, that he may turn
   us to himself, and then return to us. Is any among you afflicted? Let
   him pray.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. VI.

   The closing words of the foregoing chapter gave us some hopes that God
   and his Israel, notwithstanding their sins and his wrath, might yet be
   happily brought together again, that they would seek him and he would
   be found of them; now this chapter carries that matter further, and
   some join the beginning of this chapter with the end of that, "They
   will seek me early," saying, "Come and let us return." But God doth
   again complain of the wickedness of this people; for, though some did
   repent and reform, the greater part continued obstinate. Observe, I.
   Their resolution to return to God, and the comforts wherewith they
   encourage themselves in their return, ver. 1-3. II. The instability of
   many of them in their professions and promises of repentance, and the
   severe course which God therefore took with them, ver. 4, 5. III. The
   covenant God made with them, and his expectations from them (ver. 6);
   their violation of that covenant and frustrating those expectations,
   ver. 7-11.

Penitential Resolutions; Promises. (b. c. 758.)

   1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will
   heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.   2 After two days
   will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall
   live in his sight.   3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the
   Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come
   unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

   These may be taken either as the words of the prophet to the people,
   calling them to repentance, or as the words of the people to one
   another, exciting and encouraging one another to seek the Lord, and to
   humble themselves before him, in hopes of finding mercy with him. God
   had said, In their affliction they will seek me; now the prophet, and
   the good people his friends, would strike while the iron was hot, and
   set in with the convictions their neighbours seemed to be under. Note,
   Those who are disposed to turn to God themselves should do all they can
   to excite, and engage, and encourage others to return to him. Observe,

   I. What it is they engage to do: "Come, and let us return to the Lord,
   v. 1. Let us go no more to the Assyrian, nor send to king Jareb; we
   have had enough of that. But let us return to the Lord, return to the
   worship of him from our idolatries, and to our hope in him from all our
   confidences in the creature." Note, It is the great concern of those
   who have revolted from God to return to him. And those who have gone
   from him by consent, and in a body, drawing one another to sin, should
   by consent, and in a body, return to him, which will be for his glory
   and their mutual edification.

   II. What inducements and encouragements to do this they fasten upon, to
   stir up one another with.

   1. The experience they had had of his displeasure: "Let us return to
   him, for he has torn, he has smitten. We have been torn, and it was he
   that tore us; we have been smitten, and it was he that smote us.
   Therefore let us return to him, because it is for our revolts from him
   that he has torn and smitten us in anger, and we cannot expect that he
   should be reconciled to us till we return to him; and for this end he
   has afflicted us thus, that we might be wrought upon to return to him.
   His hand will be stretched out still against us if the people turn not
   to him that smites them," Isa. ix. 12, 13. Note, The consideration of
   the judgments of God upon us and our land, especially when they are
   tearing judgments, should awaken us to return to God by repentance, and
   prayer, and reformation.

   2. The expectation they had of his favour: "He that has torn will heal
   us, he that has smitten will bind us up," as the skilful surgeon with a
   tender hand binds up the broken bone or bleeding wound. Note, The same
   providence of God that afflicts his people relieves them, and the same
   Spirit of God that convinces the saints comforts them; that which is
   first a Spirit of bondage is afterwards a Spirit of adoption. This is
   an acknowledgement of the power of God (he can heal though we be ever
   so ill torn), and of his mercy (he will do it); nay, therefore he has
   torn that he may heal. Some think this points particularly to the
   return of the Jews out of Babylon, when they sought the Lord, and
   joined themselves to him, in the prospect of his gracious return to
   them in a way of mercy. Note, It will be of great use to us, both for
   our support under our afflictions and for our encouragement in our
   repentance, to keep up good thoughts of God and of his purposes and
   designs concerning us. Now this favour of God which they are here in
   expectation of is described in several instances:--

   (1.) They promise themselves that their deliverance out of their
   troubles should be to them as life from the dead (v. 2): "After two
   days he will revive us (that is, in a short time, in a day or two), and
   the third day, when it is expected that the dead body should putrefy
   and corrupt, and be buried out of our sight, then will he raise us up,
   and we shall live in his sight, we shall see his face with comfort and
   it shall be reviving to us. Though he forsake for a small moment, he
   will gather with everlasting kindness." Note, The people of God may not
   only be torn and smitten, but left for dead, and may lie so a great
   while; but they shall not always lie so, nor shall they long lie so;
   God will in a little time revive them; and the assurance given them of
   this should engage them to return and adhere to him. But this seems to
   have a further reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and the
   time limited is expressed by two days and the third day, that it may be
   a type and figure of Christ's rising the third day, which he is said to
   do according to the scriptures, according to this scripture; for all
   the prophets testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
   should follow. Let us see and admire the wisdom and goodness of God, in
   ordering the prophet's words so that when he foretold the deliverance
   of the church out of her troubles he should at the same time point out
   our salvation by Christ, which other salvations were both figures and
   fruits of; and, though they might not be aware of this mystery in the
   words, yet now that they are fulfilled in the letter of them in the
   resurrection of Christ it is a confirmation to our faith that this is
   he that should come, and we are to look for no other. And it is every
   way suitable that a prophecy of Christ's rising should be thus
   expressed, "He will raise us up, and we shall live," for Christ rose as
   the first-fruits, and we revive with him, we live through him; he rose
   for our justification, and all believers are said to be risen with
   Christ. See Isa. xxvi. 19. And it would serve for a comfort to the
   church then, and an assurance that God would raise them out of their
   low estate, for in his fulness of time he would raise his Son from the
   grave, who would be the life and glory of his people Israel. Note, A
   regard by faith to a rising Christ is a great support to a suffering
   Christian, and gives abundant encouragement to a repenting returning
   sinner; for he has said, Because I live, you shall live also.

   (2.) That then they shall improve in the knowledge of God (v. 3): Then
   shall we know, if we follow on to know, the Lord. Then, when God
   returns in mercy to his people and designs favour for them, he will, as
   a pledge and fruit of his favour, give them more of the knowledge of
   himself; the earth shall be full of that knowledge, Isa. xi. 9.
   Knowledge shall be increased, Dan. xii. 4. All shall know God, Jer.
   xxxi. 34. We shall know, we shall follow to know, the Lord, (so the
   words are); and it may be taken as the fruit of Christ's resurrection,
   and the life we live in God's sight by him, that we shall have not only
   greater means of knowledge, but grace to improve in knowledge by those
   means. Note, When God designs mercy for a people he gives them a heart
   to know him, Jer. xxiv. 7. Those that have risen with Christ have the
   spirit of wisdom and revelation given them. And if we understand our
   living in his sight, as the Chaldee paraphrast does, of the day of the
   resurrection of the dead, it fitly follows, We shall know, we shall
   follow to know, the Lord; for in that day we shall see him be
   perfected, and yet be eternally increasing. Or, taking it as we read
   it, If we follow on to know, we have here, [1.] A precious blessing
   promised: Then shall we know, shall know the Lord, then when we return
   to God; those that come to God shall be brought into an acquaintance
   with him. When we are designed to live in his sight, then he gives us
   to know him; for this is life eternal to know God, John xvii. 3. [2.]
   The way and means of obtaining this blessing. We must follow on to know
   him. We must value and esteem the knowledge of God as the best
   knowledge, we must cry after it, and dig for it (Prov. ii. 3, 4), must
   seek and intermeddle with all wisdom (Prov. xviii. 1), and must proceed
   in our enquiries after this knowledge and our endeavours to improve in
   it. And, if we do the prescribed duty, we have reason to expect the
   promised mercy, that we shall know more and more of God, and be at last
   perfect in this knowledge.

   (3.) That then they shall abound in divine consolations: His going
   forth is prepared as the morning, that is, the returns of his favour,
   which he had withdrawn from us when he went and returned to his place.
   His out-goings again are prepared and secured to us as firmly as the
   return of the morning after a dark night, and we expect it, as those do
   that wait for the morning after a long night, and are sure that it will
   come at the time appointed and will not fail; and the light of his
   countenance will be both welcome to us and growing upon us, unto the
   perfect day, as the light of the morning is. He shall come to us, and
   be welcome to us, as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the
   earth, which refreshes it and makes it fruitful. Now this looks further
   than their deliverance out of captivity, and, no doubt, was to have its
   full accomplishment in Christ, and the grace of the gospel. The
   Old-Testament saints followed on to know him, earnestly looked for
   redemption in Jerusalem; and at length the out-goings of divine grace
   in him, in his going forth to visit this world, were [1.] As the
   morning to this earth when it is dark for he went forth as the sun of
   righteousness, and in him the day-spring from on high visited us. His
   going forth was prepared as the morning, for he came in the fulness of
   time; John Baptist was his fore-runner, nay, he was himself the bright
   and morning star. [2.] As the rain to this earth when it is dry. He
   shall come down as the rain upon the mown grass, Ps. lxxii. 6. In him
   showers of blessings descend upon this world, which give seed to the
   sower and bread to the eater, Isa. lv. 10. And the favour of God in
   Christ is what is said of the king's favour, like the cloud of the
   latter rain, Prov. xvi. 15. The grace of God in Christ is both the
   latter and the former rain, for by it the good work of our
   fruit-bearing is both begun and carried on.

Promises and Expostulations; The Crimes of the People. (b. c. 758.)

   4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto
   thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it
   goeth away.   5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have
   slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light
   that goeth forth.   6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the
   knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.   7 But they like men have
   transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against
   me.   8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted
   with blood.   9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company
   of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.   10
   I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the
   whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.   11 Also, O Judah, he hath set
   a harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

   Two things, two evil things, both Judah and Ephraim are here charged
   with, and justly accused of:--

   I. That they were not firm to their own convictions, but were unsteady,
   unstable as water, v. 4, 5. O Ephraim! what shall I do unto thee? O
   Judah! what shall I do unto thee? This is a strange expression. Can
   Infinite Wisdom be at a loss what to do? Can it be nonplussed, or put
   upon taking new measures? By no means; but God speaks after the manner
   of men, to show how absurd and unreasonable they were, and how just his
   proceedings against them were. Let them not complain of him as harsh
   and severe in tearing them, and smiting them, as he has done; for what
   else should he do? What other course could he take with them? God had
   tried various methods with them (What could have been done more to his
   vineyard than he had done? Isa. v. 4), and very loth he was to let
   things go to extremity; he reasons with himself (as ch. xi. 9), How
   shall I give thee up, Ephraim? God would have done them good, but they
   were not qualified for it: "What shall I do unto thee? What else can I
   do but cast thee off, when I cannot in honour save thee?" Note, God
   never destroys sinners till he sees there is no other way with them.
   See here, 1. What their conduct was towards God: Their goodness, or
   kindness, was as the morning cloud. Some understand it of their
   kindness to themselves and their own souls, in their repentance; it is
   indeed mercy to ourselves to repent of our sins, but they soon
   retracted that kindness to themselves, undid it again, and wronged
   their own souls as much as ever. But it is rather to be taken for their
   piety and religion; what good appeared in them sometimes, it soon
   vanished and disappeared again, as the morning cloud and the early dew.
   Such was the goodness of Israel in Jehu's time, and of Judah in
   Hezekiah's and Josiah's time; it was soon gone. In time of drought the
   morning-cloud promises rain, and the early dew is some present
   refreshment to the earth; but the cloud is dispersed (and hypocrites
   are compared to clouds without water, Jude 12) and the dew does not
   soak into the ground, but is drawn back again into the air, and the
   earth is parched still. What shall he do with them? Shall he accept
   their goodness? No, for it passes away; and factum non dicitur quod non
   perseverat--that which does not continue can scarcely be said to be
   done. Note, That goodness will never be either pleasing to God or
   profitable to ourselves which is as the morning cloud and the early
   dew. When men promise fair and do not perform, when they begin well in
   religion and do not hold on, when they leave their first love and their
   first works, or, though they do not quite cast off religion, are yet
   unsteady, uneven, and inconstant in it, then is their goodness as the
   morning cloud and the early dew. 2. What course God had taken with them
   (v. 5): "Therefore, because they were so rough and ill-shapen, I have
   hewn them by the prophets, as timber or stone is hewn for use; I have
   slain them by the words of my mouth." What the prophets did was done by
   the word of God in their mouths, which never returned void. By it they
   thought themselves slain, were ready to say that the prophets killed
   them, or cut them to the heart when they dealt faithfully with them.
   (1.) The prophets hewed them by convictions of sin, endeavouring to cut
   off their transgressions from them. They were uneven in religion (v.
   4), therefore God hewed them. The hearts of sinners are not only as
   stone, but as rough stone, which requires a great deal of pains to
   bring it into shape, or as knotty timber, that is not squared without a
   great deal of difficulty; ministers' work is to hew them, and God by
   the minister hews them, for with the froward will he show himself
   froward. And there are those whom ministers must rebuke sharply; every
   word should cut, and though the chips fly in the face of the workman,
   though the reproved fly in the face of the reprover and reckon him an
   enemy because he tells the truth, yet he goes on with his work. (2.)
   They slew them by the denunciations of wrath, foretelling that they
   should be slain, as Ezekiel is said to destroy the city when he
   prophesied of the destruction of it, Ezek. xliii. 3. And God
   accomplished that which was foretold: "I have slain them by my
   judgments, according to the words of my mouth." Note, The word of God
   will be the death either of the sin or of the sinner, a savour either
   of life unto life or of death unto death. Some read it, "I have hewn
   the prophets, and slain them by the words of my mouth, that is, I have
   employed them in laborious service for the people's good, which has
   wasted their strength; they have spent themselves, and hews away all
   their spirits, in their work, and in hazardous service, which has cost
   many of them their lives." Note, Ministers are the tools which God
   makes use of in working upon people; and, though with many they labour
   in vain, yet God will reckon for the wearing out of his tools. (3.) God
   was hereby justified in the severest proceedings against them
   afterwards. His prophets had taken a great deal of pains with them, had
   admonished them of their sin and warned them of their danger, but the
   means used had not the desired effect; some good impressions perhaps
   were made for the present, but they wore off, and passed away as the
   morning cloud, and now they cannot charge God with severity if he bring
   upon them the miseries threatened. The prophet turns to him and
   acknowledges, Thy judgments are as the light that goes forth, evidently
   just and righteous. Note, Though sinners be not reclaimed by the pains
   that ministers take with them, yet thereby God will be justified when
   he speaks and clear when he judges. See Matt. xi. 17-19.

   II. That they were not faithful to God's covenant with them, v. 6, 7.
   Here observe,

   1. What the covenant was that God made with them, and upon what terms
   they should obtain his favour and be accepted of him (v. 6): I desired
   mercy and not sacrifice (that is, rather than sacrifice), and insisted
   upon the knowledge of God more than upon burnt-offerings. Mercy here is
   the same word which in v. 4 is rendered goodness--chesed--piety,
   sanctity; it is put for all practical religion; it is the same with
   charity in the New Testament, the reigning love of God and our
   neighbour, and this accompanied with and flowing from the knowledge of
   God, as he has revealed himself in his word, a firm belief that he is,
   and is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him, a good affection
   to divine things guided by a good judgment, which cannot but produce a
   very good conversation; this is that which God by his covenant
   requires, and not sacrifice and offering. This is fully explained, Jer.
   vii. 22, 23. I spoke not to your fathers concerning burnt-offerings
   (that was the smallest of the matters I spoke to them of, and on which
   the least stress was laid), but this I said, Obey my voice, Mic. vi.
   6-8. To love God and our neighbour is better than all burnt offering
   and sacrifice, Mark xii. 33; Ps. li. 16, 17. Not but that sacrifice and
   offering were required, and to be paid, and had their use, and, when
   they were accompanied with mercy and the knowledge of God, were
   acceptable to him, but, without them, God regarded them not, he
   despised them, Isa. i. 10, 11. Perhaps this is mentioned here to show a
   difference between the God whom they deserted and the gods whom they
   went over to. The true God aimed at nothing but that they should be
   good men, and live good lives for their own good, and the ceremony of
   honouring him with sacrifices was one of the smallest matters of his
   law; whereas the false gods required that only; let their priests and
   altars be regaled with sacrifices and offerings, and the people might
   live as they listed. What fools were those then that left a God who
   aimed at giving his worshippers a new nature, for gods who aimed at
   nothing but making themselves a new name! It is mentioned likewise to
   show that God's controversy with them was not for the omission of
   sacrifices (I will not reprove thee for them, Ps. l. 8), but because
   there was no justice, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God, among them (ch.
   iv. 1), and to teach us all that the power of godliness is the main
   thing God looks at and requires, and without it the form of godliness
   is of no avail. Serious piety in the heart and life is the one thing
   needful, and, separate from that, the performances of devotion, though
   ever so plausible, ever so costly, are of no account. Our Saviour
   quotes this to show that moral duties are to be preferred before
   rituals whenever they come in competition, and to justify himself in
   eating with publicans and sinners, because it was in mercy to the souls
   of men, and in healing on the sabbath day, because it was in mercy to
   the bodies of men, to which the ceremony of singularity in eating and
   the sabbath-rest must give way, Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7.

   2. How little they had regarded this covenant, though it was so well
   ordered in all things, though they, and not God, would be the gainers
   by it. See here what came of it.

   (1.) In general, they broke with God, and proved unfaithful; there were
   good things committed to them to keep, the jewels of mercy and piety,
   and the knowledge of God, in the cabinet of sacrifice and
   burnt-offering, but they betrayed their trust, kept the cabinet, but
   pawned the jewels for the gratification of a base lust, and this is
   that for which God has justly a quarrel with them (v. 7): They, like
   men, have transgressed the covenant, that covenant which God made with
   them; they have broken the conditions of it, and so forfeited the
   benefit of it. By casting off mercy and the knowledge of God, and other
   instances of disobedience, [1.] They had contracted the guilt of
   perjury and covenant-breaking; they were like men that transgress a
   covenant by which they had solemnly bound themselves, which is a thing
   that all the world cries out shame on; men that have done so deserve
   not again to be valued, or trusted, or dealt with. "There, in that
   thing, they have dealt treacherously against me; they have been
   perfidious, base, and false children, in whom is no faith, though I
   depended upon their being children that would not lie." [2.] In this
   they had but acted like themselves, like men, who are generally false
   and fickle, and in whose nature (their corrupt nature) it is to deal
   treacherously; all men are liars, and they are like the rest of that
   degenerate race, all gone aside, Ps. xiv. 2, 3. They have transgressed
   the covenant like men (like the Gentiles that transgressed the covenant
   of nature), like mean men (the word here used is sometimes put for men
   of low degree); they have dealt deceitfully, like base men that have no
   sense of honour. [3.] Herein they trod in the steps of our first
   parents: They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant (so it might
   very well be read); as he transgressed the covenant of innocency, so
   they transgressed the covenant of grace, so treacherously, so
   foolishly; there in paradise he violated his engagements to God, and
   there in Canaan, another paradise, they violated their engagements. And
   by their treacherous dealing they, like Adam, have ruined themselves
   and theirs. Note, Sin is so much the worse the more there is in it of
   the similitude of Adam's transgression, Rom. v. 14. [4.] Low thoughts
   of God and of his authority and favour were at the bottom of all this;
   for so some read it: They have transgressed the covenant, as of a man,
   as if it had been but the covenant of a man, that stood upon even
   ground with them, as if the commands of the covenant were but like
   those of a man like themselves, and the kindness conveyed by it no more
   valuable than that of a man. There is something sacred and binding in a
   man's covenant (as the apostle shows, Gal. iii. 15), but much more in
   the covenant of God, which yet they made small account of; and there in
   that covenant they dealt treacherously, promised fair, but performed
   nothing. Dealing treacherously with God is here called dealing
   treacherously against him, for it is both an affront and an opposition.
   Deserters are traitors, and will be so treated; the revolting heart is
   a rebellious heart.

   (2.) Some particular instances of their treachery are here given: There
   they dealt treacherously, that is, in the places hereafter named [1.]
   Look on the other side Jordan, to the country which lay most exposed to
   the insults of the neighbouring nations, and where therefore the people
   were concerned to keep themselves under the divine protection, and yet
   there you will find the most daring provocations of the divine Majesty,
   v. 8. Gilead, which lay in the lot of Gad and the half tribe of
   Manasseh, was a city of the workers of iniquity. Wickedness was the
   trade that was driven there; the country was called Gilead, but it was
   all called a city, because they were all as it were incorporated in one
   society of rebels against God. Or (as most think) Ramoth Gilead is the
   city here meant, one of the three cities of refuge on the other side
   Jordan, and a Levites' city; the inhabitants of it, though of the
   sacred tribe, were workers of iniquity, contrived it, and practised it.
   Note, It is bad indeed when a Levites' city is a city of those that
   work iniquity, when those that are to preach good doctrine live bad
   lives. Particularly it is polluted with blood, as if that were a sin
   which the wicked Levites were in a special manner guilty of. In popish
   countries the clergy are observed to be the most bloody persecutors.
   Or, as it was a city of refuge, by abusing the power it had to judge of
   murders it became polluted with blood. They would, for a bribe, protect
   those that were guilty of wilful murder, whom they ought to have put to
   death, and would deliver those to the avenger of blood who were guilty
   but of chance-medley, if they were poor and had nothing to give them;
   and both these ways they were polluted with blood. Note, Blood defiles
   the land where it is shed, and where no inquisition is made or no
   vengeance taken for it. See how the best institutions, that are ever so
   well designed to keep the balance even between justice and mercy, are
   capable of being abused and perverted to the manifest prejudice and
   violation of both. [2.] Look among those whose business it was to
   minister in holy things, and they were as bad as the worst and as vile
   as the vilest (v. 9): The company of priests are so, not here and there
   one that is the scandal of his order, but the whole order and body of
   them, the priests go all one way by consent, with one shoulder (as the
   word is), one and all; and they make one another worse, more daring,
   and fierce, and impudent, in sin, more crafty and more cruel. A company
   of priests will say and do that in conspiracy which none of them would
   dare to say or do singly. The companies of priests were as troops of
   robbers, as banditti, or gangs of highwaymen, that cut men's throats to
   get their money. First, They were cruel and blood-thirsty. They murder
   those that they have a pique against, or that stand in their way;
   nothing less will satisfy them. Secondly, They were cunning. They laid
   wait for men, that they might have a fair opportunity to compass their
   mischievous malicious designs; thus the company of priests laid wait
   for Christ to take him, saying, Not on the feast-day. Thirdly, They
   were concurring as one man: They murder in the way; in the highway,
   where travellers should be safe, there they murder by consent, aiding
   and abetting one another in it. See how unanimous wicked people are in
   doing mischief; and should not good people be so then in doing good?
   They murder in the way to Shechem (so the margin reads it, as a proper
   name) such as were going to Jerusalem (for that way Shechem lay) to
   worship. Or in the way to Shechem (some think) means in the same manner
   that their father Levi, with Simeon his brother, murdered the
   Shechemites (Gen. xxxiv.), by fraud and deceit; and some understand it
   of their destroying the souls of men by drawing them to sin. Fourthly,
   They did it with contrivance: They commit lewdness; the word signifies
   such wickedness as is committed with deliberation, and of malice
   prepense, as we say. The more there is of device and design in sin the
   worse it is. [3.] Look into the body of the people, take a view of the
   whole house of Israel, and they are all alike (v. 10): I have seen a
   horrible thing in the house of Israel, and, though it be ever so
   artfully managed, God discovers it, and will discover it to them; and
   who can deny that which God himself says that he has seen? There is the
   whoredom of Ephraim, both corporal and spiritual whoredom; there it is
   too plain to be denied. Note, The sin of sinners, especially sinners of
   the house of Israel, has enough in it to make them tremble, for it is a
   horrible thing, it is amazing, and it is threatening, enough to make
   them blush, for Israel is thereby defiled and rendered odious in the
   sight of God. [4.] Look into Judah, and you find them sharing with
   Israel (v. 11): Also, O Judah! he has set a harvest for thee; thou must
   be reckoned with as well as Ephraim; thou art ripe for destruction too,
   and the time, even the set time, of thy destruction is hastening on,
   when thou that hast ploughed iniquity, and sown wickedness, shalt reap
   the same. The general judgment is compared to a harvest (Matt. xiii.
   39), so are particular judgments, Joel iii. 13; Rev. xiv. 15. I have
   appointed a time to call thee to account, even when I returned the
   captivity of my people, that is, when those captives of Judah which
   were taken by the men of Israel were restored, in obedience to the
   command of God sent them by Oded the prophet, 2 Chron. xxviii. 8-15.
   When God spared them that time he set them a harvest, that is, he
   designed to reckon with them another time for all together. Note,
   Preservations from present judgments, if a good use be not made of
   them, are but reservations for greater judgments.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. VII.

   In this chapter we have, I. A general charge drawn up against Israel
   for those high crimes and misdemeanors by which they had obstructed the
   course of God's favours to them, ver. 1, 2. II. A particular
   accusation, 1. Of the court--the king, princes, and judges, ver. 3-7.
   2. Of the country. Ephraim is here charged with conforming to the
   nations (ver. 8), senselessness and stupidity under the judgments of
   God (ver. 9-11), ingratitude to God for his mercies (ver. 13),
   incorrigibleness under his judgments (ver. 14), contempt of God (ver.
   15), and hypocrisy in their pretences to return to him, ver. 16. They
   are also threatened with a severe chastisement, which shall humble them
   (ver. 12), and, if that prevail not, then with an utter destruction
   (ver. 13), particularly their princes, ver. 16.

Charge Drawn up against Israel; The Crimes of the Princes. (b. c. 750.)

   1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was
   discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood;
   and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.   2
   And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their
   wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before
   my face.   3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the
   princes with their lies.   4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated
   by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough,
   until it be leavened.   5 In the day of our king the princes have made
   him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
     6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie
   in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth
   as a flaming fire.   7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured
   their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that
   calleth unto me.

   Some take away the last words of the foregoing chapter, and make them
   the beginning of this: "When I returned, or would have returned, the
   captivity of my people, when I was about to come towards them in ways
   of mercy, even when I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of
   Ephraim (the country and common people) was discovered, and the
   wickedness of Samaria, the court and the chief city." Now, in these
   verses, we may observe,

   I. A general idea given of the present state of Israel, v. 1, 2. See
   how the case now stood with them.

   1. God graciously designed to do well for them: I would have healed
   Israel. Israel were sick and wounded; their disease was dangerous and
   malignant, and likely to be fatal, Isa. i. 6. But God offered to be
   their physician, to undertake the cure, and there was balm in Gilead
   sufficient to recover the health of the daughter of his people; their
   case was bad, but it was not desperate, nay, it was hopeful, when God
   would have healed Israel. (1.) He would have reformed them, would have
   separated between them and their sins, would have purged out the
   corruptions that were among them, by his laws and prophets. (2.) He
   would have delivered them out of their troubles, and restored to them
   their peace and prosperity. Several healing attempts were made, and
   their declining state seemed sometimes to be in a hopeful way of
   recovery; but their own folly put them back again. Note, If sinful
   miserable souls be not healed and helped, but perish in their sin and
   misery, they cannot lay the blame on God, for he both could and would
   have healed them; he offered to take the ruin under his hand. And there
   are some special seasons when God manifests his readiness to heal a
   distempered church and nation, now and then a hopeful crisis, which, if
   carefully watched and improved, might, even when the case is very bad,
   turn the scale for life and health.

   2. They stood in their own light and put a bar in their own door. When
   God would have healed them, when they bade fair for reformation and
   peace, then their iniquity was discovered and their wickedness, which
   stopped that current of God's favours, and undid all again. (1.) Then,
   when their case came to be examined and enquired into, in order to
   their cure, that wickedness which had been concealed and palliated was
   found out; not that it was ever hid from God, but he speaks after the
   manner of men; as a surgeon, when he probes a wound in order to the
   cure of it and finds that it touches the vitals and is incurable, goes
   no further in his endeavour to cure it, so, when God came down to see
   the case of Israel (as the expression is, Gen. xviii. 21), with kind
   intentions towards them, he found their wickedness so very flagrant,
   and them so hardened in it, so impudent and impenitent, that he could
   not in honour show them the favour he designed them. Note, Sinners are
   not healed because they would not be healed. Christ would have gathered
   them, and they would not. (2.) Then, when some endeavours were used to
   reform and reclaim them, that wickedness which had been restrained and
   kept under broke out; and from God's steps towards the healing of them
   they took occasion to be so much the more provoking. When endeavours
   were used to reform them vice grew more impetuous, more outrageous, and
   swelled so much the higher, as a stream when it is damned up. When they
   began to prosper they grew more proud, wanton, and secure, and so
   stopped the progress of their cure. Note, It is sin that turns away
   good things from us when they are coming towards us; and it is the
   folly and ruin of multitudes that, when God would do well for them,
   they do ill for themselves. And what was it that did them this
   mischief? In one word, they commit falsehood; they worship idols (so
   some), defraud one another (so others), or, rather, they dissemble with
   God in their professions of repentance and regard to him. They say that
   they are desirous to be healed by him, and, in order to that, willing
   to be ruled by him; but they lie unto him with their mouth and flatter
   him with their tongue.

   3. A practical disbelief of God's omniscience and government was at the
   bottom of all their wickedness (v. 2): "They consider not in their
   hearts, they never say it to their own hearts, never think of this,
   that I remember all their wickedness." As if God could not see it,
   though he is all eye, or did not heed it, though his name is Jealous,
   or had forgotten it, though he is an eternal mind that can never be
   unmindful, or would not reckon for it, though he is the Judge of heaven
   and earth. This is the sinner's atheism; as good say that there is no
   God as say that he is either ignorant or forgetful, that there is none
   that judges in the earth as that he remembers not the things he is to
   give judgment upon. It is a high affront they put upon God; it is a
   damning cheat they put upon themselves; they say, The Lord shall not
   see, Ps. xciv. 7. They cannot but know that God remembers all their
   works; they have been told it many a time; nay, if you ask them, they
   cannot but own it, and yet they do not consider it; they do not think
   of it when they should, and with application to themselves and their
   own works, else they would not, they durst not, do as they do. But the
   time will come when those who thus deceive themselves shall be
   undeceived: "Now their own doings have beset them about, that is, they
   have come at length to such a pitch of wickedness that their sins
   appear on every side of them; all their neighbours see how bad they
   are, and can they think that God does not see it?" Or, rather, "The
   punishment of their doings besets them about; they are surrounded and
   embarrassed with troubles, so that they cannot get out, by which it
   appears that the sins they smart for are before my face, not only that
   I have seen them, but that I am displeased at them;" for, till God by
   pardoning our sins has cast them behind his back, they are still before
   his face. Note, Sooner or later, God will convince those who do not now
   consider it that he remembers all their works.

   4. God had begun to contend with them by his judgments, in earnest of
   what was further coming: The thief comes in, and the troop of robbers
   spoils without. Some take this as an instance of their wickedness, that
   they robbed and spoiled one another. Nec hospes ab hospite tutus--The
   host and the guest stand in fear of each other. It seems rather to be a
   punishment of their sin; they were infested with secret thieves among
   themselves, that robbed their houses and shops and picked their
   pockets, and troops of robbers, foreign invaders, that with open
   violence spoiled abroad; so far was Israel from being healed that they
   had fresh wounds given them daily by robbers and spoilers; and all this
   the effect of sin, all to punish them for robbing God, Isa. xlii. 24;
   Mal. iii. 8, 11.

   II. A particular account of the sins of the court, of the king and
   princes, and those about them, and the tokens of God's displeasure that
   they were under for them.

   1. Their king and princes were pleased with the wickedness and
   profaneness of their subjects, who were emboldened thereby to be so
   much them ore wicked (v. 3): They make the king and princes glad with
   their wickedness. It pleased them to see the people conform to their
   wicked laws and examples, in the worship of their idols, and other
   instances of impiety and immorality, and to hear them flatter and
   applaud them in their wicked ways. When Herod saw that his wickedness
   pleased the people he proceeded further in it, much more will the
   people do so when they see that it pleases the prince, Acts xii. 3.
   Particularly, they made them glad with their lies, with the lying
   praises with which they crowned the favourites of the prince and the
   lying calumnies and censures with which they blackened those whom they
   knew the princes had a dislike to. Those who show themselves pleased
   with slanders and ill-natured stories shall never want those about them
   who will fill their ears with such stories. Prov. xxix. 12, If a ruler
   hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked, and will make him glad
   with their lies.

   2. Drunkenness and revelling abound much at the court, v. 5. The day of
   our king was a merry day with them, either his birth-day or his
   inauguration-day, of which it is probable that they had an anniversary
   observation, or perhaps it was some holiday of his appointing, which
   was therefore called his day; on that day the princes met to drink the
   king's health, and got him among them, to be merry, and made him sick
   with bottles of wine. It should seem the king did not ordinarily drink
   to excess, but he was not upon a high day brought to it by the
   artifices of the princes, tempted by the goodness of the wine, the
   gaiety of the company, or the healths they urged; and so little was he
   used to it that it made him sick; and it is justly charged as a crime,
   as crimen læsæ majestatis--treason, upon those who thus imposed upon
   him and made him sick; nor would it serve for an excuse that it was the
   day of their king, but was rather an aggravation of the crime, that,
   whey they pretended to do him honour, they dishonoured him to the
   highest degree. If it is a great affront and injury to a common person
   to make him drunk, and there is a woe to those that do it (Hab. ii.
   15), much more to a crowned head; for the greater any man's dignity is
   the greater disgrace it is to him to be drunk. It is not for kings, O
   Lemuel! it is not for kings, to drink wine, Prov. xxxi. 4, 5. See what
   a prejudice the sin of drunkenness is to a man, to a king. (1.) In his
   health; it made him sick. It is a force upon nature; and strange it is
   by what charms men, otherwise rational enough, can be drawn to that
   which besides the offence it gives to God, and the damage it does to
   their spiritual and eternal welfare, is a present disorder and
   distemper to their own bodies. (2.) In his honour; for, when he was
   thus intoxicated, he stretched out his hand with scorners; then he that
   was entrusted with the government of a kingdom lost the government of
   himself, and so far forgot, [1.] The dignity of a king that he made
   himself familiar with players and buffoons, and those whose company was
   a scandal. [2.] The duty of a king that he joined in confederacy with
   atheists, and the profane scoffers at religion, whom he ought to have
   silenced and put to shame; he sat in the seat of the scornful, of those
   that had arrived at the highest pitch of impiety; he struck in with
   them, said as they said, did as they did, and exerted his power, and
   stretched forth the hand of his government, in concurrence with them.
   Goodness and good men are often made the song of the drunkards (Ps.
   lxix. 12; xxxv. 16); but woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is such a
   child as to stretch forth his hand with those that make them so, Eccl.
   x. 16.

   3. Adultery and uncleanness prevailed much among the courtiers. This is
   spoken of v. 4, 6, 7, and the charge of drunkenness comes in in the
   midst of this article; for wine is oil to the fire of lust, Prov.
   xxiii. 33. Those that are inflamed with fleshly lusts, that are
   adulterers (v. 4), are here again and again compared to an oven heated
   by the baker (v. 4): They have made ready their heart like an oven (v.
   6); they are all hot as an oven, v. 7. Note, (1.) An unclean heart is
   like an oven heated; and the unclean lusts and affections of it are as
   the fuel that makes it hot. It is an inward fire, it keeps the heat
   within itself; so adulterers and fornicators secretly burn in lust, as
   the expression is, Rom. i. 27. The heat of the oven is an intense heat,
   especially as it is here described; he that heats it stirs up the fire,
   and ceases not from raising it up, till the bread is ready to be put
   in, being kneaded and leavened, all which only signifies that they are
   like an oven when it is at the hottest; nay, when it is too hot for the
   baker (so the learned Dr. Pocock), when it is hotter than he would have
   it, so that the raiser up of the fire ceases as long as while the dough
   that is kneaded is in the fermenting, that the heat may abate a little.
   Thus fiery hot are the lusts of an unclean heart. (2.) The unclean wait
   for an opportunity to compass their wicked desires; having made ready
   their heart like an oven, they lie in wait to catch their prey. The eye
   of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Job xxiv. 15. Their baker
   sleeps all the night, but in the morning it burns as a flaming fire. As
   the baker, having kindled a fire in his oven and laid sufficient fuel
   to it, goes to bed, and sleeps all night, and in the morning finds his
   oven well heated, and ready for his purpose, so these wicked people,
   when they have laid some wicked plot, and formed a design for the
   gratifying of some covetous, ambitious, revengeful, or unclean lusts,
   have their hearts so fully set in them to do evil that, though they may
   stifle them for a while, yet the fire of corrupt affections is still
   glowing within, and, as soon as ever there is an opportunity for it,
   their purposes which they have compassed and imagined break out into
   overt acts, as a fire flames out when it has vent given it. Thus they
   are all hot as an oven. Note, Lust in the heart is like fire in an
   oven, puts it into a heat; but the day is coming when those who thus
   make themselves like a fiery oven with their own vile affections, if
   that fire be not extinguished by divine grace, shall be made as a fiery
   oven by divine wrath (Ps. xxi. 9), when the day comes that shall burn
   as an oven, Mal. iv. 1.

   4. They resist the proper methods of reformation and redress: They have
   devoured their judges, those few good judges that were among them, that
   would have put out these fires with which they were heated; they fell
   foul upon them, and would not suffer them to do justice, but were ready
   to stone them, and perhaps did so; or, as some think, they provoked God
   to deprive them of the blessing of magistracy and to leave all in
   confusion: All their kings have fallen one after another, and their
   families with them, which could not but put the kingdom into confusion,
   crumble it into contending parties, and occasion a great deal of
   bloodshed. There are heart-burnings among them; they are hot as an oven
   with rage and malice at one another, and this occasions the devouring
   of their judges, the falling of their kings. For the transgressions of
   a land many are the princes thereof, Prov. xxviii. 2. But in the midst
   of all this trouble and disorder there is none among them that calls
   unto God, that sees his hand stretched out against them in these
   judgments, and deprecates the strokes of it, none, or next to none,
   that stir up themselves to take hold on God, Isa. lxiv. 7. Note, Those
   are not only heated with sin, but hardened in sin, that continue to
   live without prayer even when they are in trouble and distress.

The Crimes of the People; Infatuation of Ephraim; Ephraim's Obstinate
Rebellion; Ephraim's Hypocrisy. (b. c. 750.)

   8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake
   not turned.   9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it
   not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
   10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not
   return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.   11 Ephraim
   also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to
   Assyria.   12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I
   will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them,
   as their congregation hath heard.   13 Woe unto them! for they have
   fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed
   against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies
   against me.   14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when
   they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and
   wine, and they rebel against me.   15 Though I have bound and
   strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.   16
   They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow:
   their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue:
   this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

   Having seen how vicious and corrupt the court was, we now come to
   enquire how it is with the country, and we find that to be no better;
   and no marvel if the distemper that has so seized the head affect the
   whole body, so that there is no soundness in it; the iniquity of
   Ephraim is discovered, as well as the sin of Samaria, of the people as
   well as the princes, of which here are divers instances.

   I. They were not peculiar and entire for God, as they should have been,
   v. 8. 1. They did not distinguish themselves from the heathen, as God
   had distinguished them: Ephraim, he has mingled himself among the
   people, has associated with them, and conformed himself to them, and
   has in a manner confounded himself with them and lost his character
   among them. God had said, The people shall dwell alone; but they
   mingled themselves with the heathen and learned their works, Ps. xvi.
   35. They went up and down among the heathen, to beg help of one of them
   against another (so some); whereas, if they had kept close to God, they
   would not have needed the help of any of them. 2. They were not
   entirely devoted to God: Ephraim is a cake not turned, and so is burnt
   on one side and dough on the other side, but good for nothing on either
   side. As in Ahab's time, so now, they halted between God and Baal;
   sometimes they seemed zealous for God, but at other times as hot for
   Baal. Note, It is sad to think how many, who, after a sort, profess
   religion, are made up of contraries and inconsistencies, as a cake not
   turned, a constant self-contradiction, and always in one extreme or the
   other.

   II. They were strangely insensible of the judgments of God, which they
   were under, and which threatened their ruin, v. 9. Observe, 1. The
   condition they were in. God was not to them, in his judgments, as a
   moth and as rottenness; they were silently and slowly drawing towards
   the ruin of their state partly by the encroachments of foreigners upon
   them: Strangers have devoured his strength, and eaten him up; they have
   wasted his wealth and treasure, lessened his numbers, and consumed the
   fruits of the earth. Some devoured them by open wars (as 2 Kings xiii.
   7, when the king of Syria made them like the dust by threshing), others
   by pretending treaties of peace and amity, in which they extorted
   abundance of wealth from them, and made them pay dearly for that which
   did them no good, but which afterwards they paid more dearly for, as 2
   Kings xvi. 9. This Ephraim got by mingling with the heathen, and
   suffering them to mingle with him; they devoured that which he rested
   upon and supported himself with. Note, Those that make not God their
   strength (Ps. lii. 7) make that their strength which will soon be
   devoured by strangers. They were thus reduced partly by their own
   mal-administrations among themselves: Yea, gray hairs are here and
   there upon him (are sprinkled upon him, so the word is), that is, the
   sad symptoms of a decaying declining state, which is waxing old and
   ready to vanish away, and the effects of trouble and vexation. Cura
   facit canos--Care turns gray. The almond-tree does not as yet flourish,
   but it begins to turn colour, which speaks aloud to him that the evil
   days are coming, and the years of which he shall say, I have no
   pleasure in them, Eccl. xii. 1, 5. 2. Their regardlessness of these
   warnings: He knows it not; he is not aware of the hand of God gone out
   against him; it is lifted up, but he will not see, Isa. xxvi. 11. He
   does not know how near his ruin is, and takes no care to prevent it.
   Note, Stupidity under less judgments is a presage of greater coming.

   III. They went on frowardly in their wicked ways, and were not
   reclaimed by the rebukes they were under (v. 10): The pride of Israel
   still testifies to his face, as it had done before (ch. v. 5); under
   humbling providences their hearts were still unhumbled, their lusts
   unmortified; and it is through the pride of their countenance that they
   will not seek after God (Ps. x. 4); they do not return to the Lord
   their God by repentance and reformation, nor do they seek him by faith
   and prayer for all this; though they suffer for going astray from him,
   though it can never be well with them till they come back to him, and
   though they have in vain sought to others for relief, yet they think
   not of applying to God.

   IV. They were infatuated in their counsels, and took very wrong methods
   when they were in distress (v. 11, 12): Ephraim is like a silly dove
   without heart. To be harmless as a dove, without gall, and not to hurt
   or injure others, is commendable; but to be sottish as a dove, without
   heart, that knows not how to defend herself and provide for her own
   safety, is a shame.

   1. The silliness of this dove is, (1.) That she laments not the loss of
   her young that are taken from her, but will make her nest again in the
   same place; so they have their people carried away by the enemy, and
   are not affected with it, but continue their dealings with those that
   deal barbarously with them. (2.) That she is easily enticed by the bait
   into the net, and has no heart, no understanding, to discern her
   danger, as many other fowls do, Prov. i. 17. She hastes to the snare,
   and knows not that it is for her life (Prov. vii. 23); so they were
   drawn into leagues with neighbouring nations that were their ruin. (3.)
   That, when she is frightened, she has not courage to stay in the
   dove-house, where she is safe, and under the careful protection of her
   owner, but flutters and hovers, seeking shelter first in one place,
   then in another, and thereby exposes herself so much the more; so this
   people, when they were in distress, sought not to God, did not fly like
   the doves to their windows where they might have been secured from all
   the birds of prey that struck at them, but threw themselves out of
   God's protection, and then called to Egypt to help them, and went in
   all haste to Assyria, to seek for that aid in vain which they might, by
   repentance and prayer, have found nearer home, in their God. Note, It
   is a silly senseless thing for those who have a God in heaven to trust
   to creatures for the refuge and relief which are to be had in him only;
   and those that do so are a people of no understanding, they are without
   heart. Now,

   2. See what becomes of this silly dove (v. 12): When they shall go to
   Egypt and Assyria, I will spread my net upon them. Note, Those that
   will not abide by the mercy of God must expect to be pursued by the
   justice of God. Here, (1.) They are ensnared: "I will spread my net
   upon them, bring them into straits, that they may see their folly and
   think of returning." Note, It is common for those that go away from God
   to find snares where they expected shelters. (2.) They are humbled;
   they soar upward, proud of their foreign alliances and confiding in
   them; but I will bring them down, let them fly ever so high, as the
   fowls of heaven, that are shot flying. Note, God can and will bring
   those down that exalt themselves as the eagle, Obad. 3, 4. (3.) They
   are made to smart for their folly: I will chastise them. Note, The
   disappointments we meet with in the creature, when we put a confidence
   in it, are a necessary chastisement, or discipline, that we may learn
   to be wiser another time. (4.) In all this the scripture is fulfilled.
   It is as their congregation has heard; they have been many a time told
   by the word of God, read, and preached, and sung, in their religious
   assemblies, that "vain is the help of man, that in the son of man there
   is no help; they have heard both from the law and from the prophets
   what judgments God would bring upon them for their wickedness; and as
   they have heard now they shall see, they shall feel." Note, It concerns
   us to take notice of the word of God which we hear from time to time in
   the congregation, and to be governed by it, for we must shortly be
   judged by it; and it will justify God in the condemnation of sinners,
   and aggravate it to them, that they have had plain public warning given
   them of it; it is what their congregation has heard many a time, but
   they would not take warning. "Son, remember thou wast told what would
   come of it; and now thou seest they were not vain words." See Zech. i.
   6.

   V. They revolted from God and rebelled against him, notwithstanding the
   various methods he took to retain them in their allegiance, v. 13-15.
   Here observe,

   1. How kindly and tenderly God had dealt with them, as a gracious
   sovereign towards a people dear unto him, and whose prosperity he had
   much at heart. He had redeemed them (v. 13), brought them, at first,
   out of the land of Egypt, and, since, delivered them out of many a
   distress. He had bound and strengthened their arms, v. 15. When their
   power was weakened, like an arm broken or out of joint, God set it
   again, and bound it, as a surgeon does a broken bone, to make it knit.
   God had given Israel victories over the Syrians (2 Kings xiii. 16, 17),
   had restored their coast (2 Kings xiv. 25, 26), had girded them with
   strength for battle. "Though I have chastened them" (so the margin
   reads it), "sometimes corrected them for their faults and thereby
   taught them, at other times strengthened their arms and relieved them,
   though I have used both fair means and foul to work upon them, it was
   all to no purpose; they were mercy-proof and judgment-proof."

   2. How impudent their conduct had been towards him notwithstanding,
   which is described here for the conviction and humiliation of all those
   who have gone on in any way of wickedness, that they may see how
   exceedingly sinful their sin is, how heinous, how the God of heaven
   interprets it, how he resents it. (1.) He had courted them to him, and
   taken them into covenant with himself; but they fled from him, as if he
   had been their dangerous enemy who had always approved himself their
   faithful friend. They wandered from him, as the silly dove from her
   nest, for those who forsake God will find no rest nor settlement in the
   creature, but wander endlessly. They fled from God when they forsook
   the worship of him, and ran away from his service, and withdrew
   themselves from their allegiance to him. (2.) He had given them his
   laws, which were all holy, just, and good, by which he designed to keep
   them in the right way; but they transgressed against him; they sinned
   with a high hand and a stiff neck, wilfully and presumptuously (so the
   words signifies); they broke through the fence of the divine law, and
   therein thwarted the design of the divine love. (3.) He had made known
   his truths to them, and given them all possible proofs of the sincerity
   of his good-will to them; and yet they spoke lies against him. They set
   up false gods in competition with him; they denied his providence and
   power; thus they belied the Lord, Jer. v. 12. They rejected his
   messages sent them by his prophets, and said that they should have
   peace, though they went on in sin, directly against what he said. In
   their hypocritical professions of religion, shows of devotion, and
   promises of amendment, they lied to the Lord, which he took as lying
   against him. (4.) He was their rightful Lord and King, and had always
   ruled in Jacob with equity, and for the public good; and yet they
   rebelled against him, v. 14. They not only went off from him, but took
   up arms against him, would have deposed him if they could and set up
   another. (5.) He designed well for them, but they imagined mischief
   against him, v. 15. Sin is a mischievous thing; it is mischief against
   God, for it is treason against his crown and dignity; not that the
   sinners can do any thing to hurt their Creator (as one of the ancients
   observes on these words), but what they can they do; and it is so much
   the worse when it is not done by surprise, or through inadvertency, but
   designedly and with contrivance. The Jews have a saying, which Dr.
   Pocock quotes here, The thoughts of transgression are worse than the
   transgression. The designing of mischief is doing it, in God's account.
   Compassing and imagining the death of the king is treason by our law.
   Those that imagine an evil thing, though it prove a vain thing (Ps. ii.
   1), will be reckoned with for the imagination.

   3. How they shall be punished for this (v. 13): Woe unto them! for they
   have fled from me. Note, Those who flee from God have woes sent after
   them, and are, without doubt, in a woeful case. The wrath of God is
   revealed from heaven against them; the word of God says, Woe to them!
   And observe what follows immediately, Destruction unto them! Note, The
   woes of God's word have real effects; destruction makes them good. The
   judgments of his hand shall verify the judgments of his mouth. Those
   whom he curses, and pronounces woeful, they are cursed, they are woeful
   indeed.

   VI. Their shows of devotion and reformation were but shows, and in them
   they did but mock God.

   1. They pretended devotion, but it was not sincere, v. 14. When the
   hand of God had gone forth against them they made some sort of
   application to him. When he slew them, then they sought him. Lord, in
   trouble have they visited thee. But it was all in hypocrisy. (1.) When
   they were under personal troubles, and called upon God in secret, they
   were not sincere in that: They have not cried unto me with their heart,
   when they howled upon their beds. When they were chastened with pain
   upon their beds, and the multitude of their bones with strong pains,
   perhaps ill of the wounds they received in war, they cried, and
   groaned, and complained in the forms of devotion, and, it may be, they
   used many good words, proper enough for the circumstances they were in;
   they cried, God help us, and, Lord, look upon us. But they did not cry
   with their heart, and therefore God reckons it as no crying to him.
   Moses is said to cry unto God when he spoke not a word, only his heart
   prayed with faith and fervency, Exod. xiv. 15. These made a great
   noise, and said a great deal, and yet did not cry to God, because their
   hearts were not right with him, not subjected to his will, devoted to
   his honour, nor employed in his service. To pray is to lift up the soul
   to God, this is the essence of prayer. If this be not done, words,
   though ever so well chosen, are but wind; but, if it be, it is an
   acceptable prayer, though the groanings cannot be uttered. Note, Those
   do not pray to God at all that do not pray in the spirit. Nay, God is
   so far from approving their prayer and accepting it that he calls it
   howling. Some think it intimates the noisiness of their prayers (they
   cried to God as they used to cry to Baal, when they thought he must be
   awakened), or the brutish violent passions which they vented in their
   prayers; they snarled at the stone, and howled under the whip, but
   regarded not the hand. Or it denotes that their hypocritical prayers
   were so far from being pleasing to God that they were offensive to him;
   he was angry at their prayers. The songs of the temple shall be
   howlings, Amos viii. 3. God will be so far from pitying them that he
   will justly laugh at their calamity, who have so often laughed at his
   authority. (2.) When they were under public troubles, and met together
   to implore God's favour, in that also they were hypocritical; they
   assembled themselves, for fashion-sake, because it was usual to call a
   solemn assembly in times of general mourning, Zeph. ii. 1. But it was
   only to pray for corn and wine that they came together, which were the
   things they wanted, and feared being deprived of by the want of rain,
   the judgment they now laboured under. They did not pray for the favour
   or grace of God, that God would give them repentance, pardon their
   sins, and turn away his wrath, but only that he would not take away
   from them their corn and wine. Note, Carnal hearts, in their prayers to
   God, covet temporal mercies only, and dread and deprecate no other but
   temporal judgments, for they have no sense of any other.

   2. They pretended reformation, but neither was that sincere, v. 16.
   Here is, (1.) The sin of Israel: They return, that is, they make as if
   they would return; they pretend to repent and amend their doings, but
   they make nothing of it; they do not come home to God nor return to
   their allegiance, whereas God says (Jer. iv. 1), If thou wilt return, O
   Israel! return to me; do not only turn towards me, but return to me.
   This dissimulation of theirs makes them like a deceitful bow, which
   looks as if it were fit for business, and is bent and drawn
   accordingly, but, when strength comes to be laid to it, either the bow
   or the string breaks, and the arrow, instead of flying to the mark,
   drops at the archer's foot. Such were their essays towards repentance
   and reformation. (2.) The sin of the princes of Israel. That which is
   charged upon them is the rage of their tongue, quarrelling with God and
   his providence and with all about them when they are crossed. Princes
   think they may say what they will, and that it is their prerogative to
   huff and bluster, to curse and rail, and to call names at their
   pleasure, but let them know there is a God above them that will call
   them to an account for the rage of their tongues and make their own
   tongues to fall upon them. (3.) The punishment of Israel and their
   princes for their sin. As for the princes, they shall fall by the sword
   either of their enemies or of their own people, some by one and some by
   the other; and this shall be their derision, this is that for which
   they shall be derided in the land of Egypt, when they flee to the
   Egyptians for succour, v. 11. Their sin and punishment shall make them
   a laughing-stock to all about them. Note, Those that are treacherous
   and deceitful in their dealings with God, and passionate and outrageous
   in their conduct towards men, will justly be made a derision to their
   neighbours, for they make themselves ridiculous.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. VIII.

   This chapter, as that before, divides itself into the sins and
   punishments of Israel; every verse almost declares both, and all to
   bring them to repentance. When they saw the malignant nature of their
   sin, in the descriptions of that, they could not but be convinced now
   much it was their duty to repent of what was so bad in itself; and when
   they saw the mischievous consequences of their sin, in the predictions
   of them, they could not but see how much it was their interest to
   repent for the preventing of them. I. The sin of Israel is here set
   forth, 1. In many general expressions, ver. 1, 3, 12, 14. 2. In many
   particular instances; setting up kings without God (ver. 4), setting up
   idols against God (ver. 4-6, 11), and courting alliances with the
   neighbouring nations,, ver. 8-10. 3. In this aggravation of it, that
   they still kept up a profession of religion and relation to God, ver.
   2, 13, 14. II. The punishment of Israel is here set forth as answering
   to the sin. God would bring an enemy upon them, ver. 1, 3. All their
   projects should be blasted, ver. 7. Their confidence both in their
   idols and in their foreign alliances should disappoint them, ver. 6, 8,
   10. Their strength at home should fail them, ver. 14. Their sacrifices
   should have no reckoning made of them, and their sins should have a
   reckoning made for them, ver. 13.

Sin and Punishment of Israel; Crimes Charged against Israel; Sottish Idolatry
of Israel. (b. c. 745.)

   1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the
   house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and
   trespassed against my law.   2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we
   know thee.   3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy
   shall pursue him.   4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have
   made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have
   they made them idols, that they may be cut off.   5 Thy calf, O
   Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how
   long will it be ere they attain to innocency?   6 For from Israel was
   it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of
   Samaria shall be broken in pieces.   7 For they have sown the wind, and
   they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no
   meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

   The reproofs and threatenings here are introduced with an order to the
   prophet to set the trumpet to his mouth (v. 1), thus to call a solemn
   assembly, that all might take notice of what he had to deliver and take
   warning by it. He must sound an alarm, must, in God's name, proclaim
   war with this rebellious nation. An enemy is coming with speed and fury
   to seize their land, and he must awaken them to expect it. Thus the
   prophet must do the part of a watchman, that was by sound of trumpet to
   call the besieged to stand to their arms, when he saw the besiegers
   making their attack, Ezek. xxxiii. 3. The prophet must lift up his
   voice like a trumpet (Isa. lviii. 1), and the people must hearken to
   the sound of the trumpet, Jer. vi. 17. Now,

   I. Here is a general charge drawn up against them as sinners, as rebels
   and traitors against their sovereign Lord. 1. They have transgressed my
   covenant, v. 1. They have not only transgressed the command (every sin
   does that), but they have transgressed the covenant; they have been
   guilty of such sins as break the original contract; they have revolted
   from their allegiance, and violated the marriage-covenant by their
   spiritual whoredom; they have, in effect, declared that they will be no
   longer God's people, nor take him for their God; that is transgressing
   the covenant. They have not only done foolishly, but have dealt
   deceitfully. 2. They have trespassed against my law in many particular
   instances. God's law is the rule by which we are to walk; and this is
   the malignity of sin, that it trespasses upon the bounds set us by that
   law. 3. They have cast off the thing that is good. They have put away
   and rejected good, that is, God himself; so some understand it, and
   very fitly. He is good, and does good, and is our goodness. There is
   none good but one, that is God, the fountain of all good. They have
   cast him off, as not desiring to have any thing more to do with him.
   God was abandoning them to ruin, and here gives the reason for it.
   Note, God never casts off any till they first cast him off. Or, as we
   read it, They have cast off the thing that is good; they have cast off
   the service and worship of God, which is, in effect, casting God off.
   They have cast off that which denominates men good; they have cast off
   the fear of God, and the regard of man, and all sense of virtue and
   honesty. Observe, They have transgressed my covenant; it has come to
   this at last; for they trespassed against my law. Breaking the command
   made way for breaking the covenant; and they did that, for they cast
   off that which was good; there it began first. They left off to be wise
   and to do good, and then they went all to naught, Ps. xxxvi. 3. See the
   method of apostasy; men first cast off that which is good; then those
   omissions make way for commissions; and frequent actual transgressions
   of God's law bring men at length to an habitual renunciation of his
   covenant. When men cast off praying, and hearing, and
   sabbath-sanctification, and other things that are good, they are in the
   high road to a total forsaking of God.

   II. Here are general threatenings of wrath and ruin for their sin: The
   enemy shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, and (v. 3)
   shall pursue him. If by the house of the Lord we understand the temple
   at Jerusalem, by the eagle that comes against it we must suppose to be
   meant either Sennacherib, who had taken all the fenced cities of Judah,
   laid siege to Jerusalem (and, no doubt, aimed at the house of the Lord,
   to lay that waste, as he had done the temples of the gods of other
   nations), or Nebuchadnezzar, who burnt the temple and made a prey of
   the vessels of the temple. But, if we make it to point at the
   destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria, we
   must reckon it is the body of that people which as Israelites, to whom
   pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, is here called
   the house of the Lord. They thought their being so would be their
   protection; but the prophet is directed to tell them that now they had
   lost the life and spirit of their religion, though they still retained
   the name and form of it, they were but as a carcase to which the eagles
   and other birds of prey should be gathered together. The enemy shall
   pursue them as an eagle, so swiftly, so strongly, so furiously. Note,
   Those who break their covenant of friendship with God expose themselves
   to the enmity of all about them, to whom they make themselves a cheap
   and easy prey; and their having been the house of the Lord, and his
   living temples, will be no excuse nor refuge to them. See Amos iii. 2.

   III. Here is the people's hypocritical claim of relation to God, when
   they were in trouble and distress (v. 2): Israel shall cry unto me;
   when either they are threatened with these judgments, and would plead
   an exemption, or when the judgments are inflicted on them and they
   apply to God for relief, pouring out a prayer when God's chastening is
   upon them, they will plead that among them God is known and his name is
   great (Ps. lxxvi. 1) and in their distress will pretend to that
   knowledge of God's ways which in their prosperity they desired not, but
   despised. They will then cry unto God, will call him their God, and (as
   impudent beggars) will tell him they are well acquainted with him, and
   have known him long. Note, There are many who in works deny God, and
   disown him, yet, to serve a turn, will profess that they know him, that
   they know more of him than some of their neighbours do. But what stead
   will it stand a man in to be able to say, My God, I know thee, when he
   cannot say, "My God, I love thee," and "My God, I serve thee, and
   cleave to thee only?"

   IV. Here is the prophet's expostulation with them, in God's name (v.
   5): How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? It is not meant
   of absolute innocency (that is what the guilty can never attain to);
   but how long will it be ere they repent and reform, ere they become
   innocent in this matter, and free from the sin of idolatry? They are
   wedded to their idols; how long will it be ere they are weaned from
   them, ere they are able to get clear of them? so it might be rendered.
   This intimates that custom in sin makes it very difficult for men to
   part with it. It is hard to cleanse from that filthiness, either of
   flesh or spirit, which has been long wallowed in. But God speaks as if
   he thought the time long till sinners cast away their iniquities and
   come to live a new life. He complains of their obstinacy; it is that
   which keeps his anger against them burning, which would soon be turned
   away if they did but attain to innocency from those sins that kindled
   it. They in trouble cry, How long will it be ere God return to us in a
   way of mercy? but they do not hear him ask, How long will it be ere
   they return to God in a way of duty?

   V. Here are some particular sins which they are charged with, are
   convicted of the folly of, and warned of the fatal consequences of, and
   for which God's anger is kindled against them.

   1. In their civil affairs. They set up kings without God, and in
   contempt of him, v. 4. So they did when they rejected Samuel, in whom
   the Lord was their king, and chose Saul, that they might be like the
   nations. So they did when they revolted from their allegiance to the
   house of David, and set up Jeroboam, wherein, though they fulfilled
   God's secret counsel, yet they aimed not at his glory, nor consulted
   his oracle, nor applied to him by prayer for direction, nor had any
   regard to his providence, but were led by their own humour and hurried
   on by the impetus of their own passions. So they did now about the time
   when Hosea prophesied, when it seems to have grown fashionable to set
   up kings, and depose them again, according as the contenders for the
   crown could make an interest, 2 Kings xv. 8, &c. Note, We cannot expect
   comfort and success in our affairs when we go about them, and go on in
   them, without consulting God and acknowledge not him in all our ways:
   "They set up kings, and I knew it not, that is, I did not know it from
   them, they did not ask counsel at my mouth, whether they might lawfully
   do it or whether it would be best for them to do it, though they had
   prophets and oracles with whom they might have advised." They looked
   not to the Holy One of Israel, Isa. xxxi. 1. Nor did the princes do as
   Jephthah, who, before he took upon him the government, uttered all his
   words before the Lord in Mizpeh, Judg. xi. 11. Note, Those that are
   entrusted with public concerns, and particularly with the election and
   nomination of magistrates, ought to take God along with them therein,
   by desiring his direction and designing his honour.

   2. In their religious matters they did much worse; for they set up
   calves against God, in competition with him and contradiction to him.
   "Of their silver and their gold which God gave them, and multiplied to
   them, that they might serve and honour him with them, they have made
   them idols." They called them gods (1 Kings xii. 28, Behold thy gods, O
   Israel!) but God calls them idols; the word signifies griefs, or
   troubles, because they are offensive to God and will be ruining to
   those that worship them. Their silver and their gold they have made to
   them idols; so the words are, referring primarily to the images of
   their gods, which they made of gold and silver, especially the golden
   calves at Dan and Bethel. Idolaters spare no cost in worshipping their
   idols. But they are very applicable to the spiritual idolatry of the
   covetous: Their silver and their gold are the gods they place their
   happiness in, set their hearts upon, to which they pay their homage,
   and in which they put their confidence. Now, to show them the folly of
   their idolatry, he tells them,

   (1.) Whence their gods came. Trace them to their original, and they
   will be found the creatures of their own fancies and the work of their
   own hands, v. 6. The calf they worshipped is here called the calf of
   Samaria, because it is probable that when Samaria, in Ahab's time,
   became the metropolis of the kingdom, a calf was set up there to be
   near the court, besides those at Dan and Bethel, or perhaps one of
   those was removed thither; for those that are for new gods will still
   be for newer. Now let them consider what this god of theirs owed its
   rise and being to. [1.] To their own invention and institution: From
   Israel was it also, not from the God of Israel (he expressly forbade
   it), but from Israel; it was a device of their own (some think), not
   borrowed from any of their neighbours, no, not from the Egyptians, for,
   though they worshipped Apis in a living cow, they never worshipped a
   golden calf; that was from Israel; it was their own iniquity. Now could
   that be worthy of their worship which was a contrivance of their own?
   It was from Israel, that is, the gold and silver of which it was made
   were collected from the people of Israel by a brief: it was a poor god
   that was framed by contribution. [2.] It was owing to the skill and
   labour of the craftsman, Deut. xxvii. 15. The workmen made it,
   therefore it is not God, v. 6. This is a very cogent conclusive
   argument, and the inference so very plain that one would think their
   own thoughts should have suggested it to them, so as to make them
   ashamed of their idolatry. What can be more absurd than for men to
   worship that as a god, giving being and good to them, which they
   themselves gave being to (both matter and form), but could not give
   life to? A made god is no God. This is a self-evident truth; and yet
   St. Paul was accused as a criminal for preaching that those are no gods
   which are made with hands, Acts xix. 26. And, here, this which should
   have turned them from their idols comes in as a reason why they were
   inseparably wedded to them; therefore they could not attain to
   innocency because it was from themselves; they were willing to have
   gods of their own to do what they pleased with, that they themselves
   might do what they pleased.

   (2.) What their gods would come to. If they are not gods, they will not
   last; nay, if they pretend to be gods, they will be reckoned with: The
   calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces, and those that would not
   yield to the force of the former argument shall be convinced by this
   that it is not God, but an unprofitable idol, as the Chaldee calls it.
   It shall be broken to shivers, like a potter's vessel, though it be a
   golden calf. It shall be chips or saw-dust; it shall be a spider's web;
   so St. Jerome. It seems to allude to Moses's grinding to powder the
   golden calf that was in his time. This shall be served as that was.
   Sennacherib boasted what he had done to Samaria and her idols, Isa. x.
   11. Note, Deifying any creature makes way for the destruction of it. If
   they had made vessels and ornaments for themselves of their silver and
   gold, they might have remained; but, if they make gods of them, they
   shall be broken to pieces.

   (3.) What their gods would bring them to. The breaking of them to
   pieces would be a disappointment to those who trusted in them. But that
   was not all: They have made to themselves idols, that they may be cut
   off (v. 4), that their gold and silver, which they so abused, may be
   cut off (so some take it), nay, that they may themselves be cut off
   from God, from their own land, from the land of the living. Their
   idolatry will as certainly end in their extirpation as if they had
   purposely designed it. And, when this proves to be the effect of their
   sin, what relief will they have from the gods wherein they trusted?
   None at all: "Thy calf, O Samaria! has cast thee off; it cannot give
   thee any help in thy distress, and the pleasure thou now takest in it
   will vanish, and be no pleasure to thee." Those that were justly sent
   to the gods whom they had chosen found them miserable comforters, Judg.
   x. 14. If men will not quit the love and service of sin, yet they shall
   certainly lose all the delights and profits of it. If Samaria had
   continued firm and faithful to the God of Israel, he would have been a
   present powerful help to her; but the calf she preferred before him was
   a broken reed. The case will be the same with those that make their
   silver and their gold their god. It will cast them off, and not profit
   them in the day of wrath, Ezek. vii. 12. Note, Those that suffer
   themselves to be deceived into any idolatries will certainly find
   themselves deceived in them. Cardinal Wolsey owned that if he had
   served his God as faithfully as he had served his prince he would not
   have cast him off, as his prince did, in his old age. Their
   disappointment in their idols is illustrated (v. 7) by a similitude
   which intimates both that and the destruction which God brought upon
   them for their idolatry. [1.] They got no good to themselves by
   worshipping idols: They have sown the wind. They have put themselves to
   a great deal of trouble and expense to make and worship their idols,
   have made a business of it as much as the husbandman does of sowing his
   corn, in expectation of reaping some mighty advantage from it, and that
   they should be as prosperous and victorious as the neighbouring nations
   were, that worshipped idols. But it is all a cheat; it is like sowing
   the wind, which can yield no increase; they labour in vain, labour for
   the wind, Eccl. v. 16. They take great pains to no purpose, and weary
   themselves for very vanity, Hab. ii. 13. Those that make an idol of
   this world do so; they set their eyes on that which is not, which, like
   the wind, makes a great noise, but has nothing substantial in it. [2.]
   They brought ruin upon themselves by it: They shall reap the whirlwind,
   a great whirlwind (so the word signifies), which shall hurry them away
   and dash them to pieces. They not only have not their false gods for
   them but they set the true God against them; their favour will stand
   them in no more stead than the wind, but his wrath will do them more
   mischief than a whirlwind. As a man sows, so shall he reap. "If it may
   be supposed that a man should sow the wind, and cover it with earth, or
   keep it there for a while penned up, what could he expect but that it
   should be forced by its being shut up, and the accession of what might
   increase its strength, to break forth again in greater quantities with
   greater violence?" So Dr. Pocock. They promise themselves plenty,
   peace, and victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations come
   to nothing. What they sow never comes up; it has no stalk, no blade,
   or, if it have, the bud shall yield no meal; it shall be as the thin
   ears in Pharaoh's dream, that were blasted with the east wind, and
   there was nothing in them. Or if it yield, if they do prosper for a
   while in their idolatrous courses, the strangers shall swallow it up;
   it shall be so far from doing them any service that it shall be but as
   a bait to invite strangers to invade them, and as a spoil to enrich
   those strangers and enable them to do so much the more mischief. Note,
   The service of idols is an unprofitable service, and the works of
   darkness are unfruitful; nay, in the end they will be pernicious. Rom.
   vi. 21, The end of those things is death. Those that sow iniquity reap
   vanity: nay, those that sow to the flesh, reap corruption. The hopes of
   sinners will be cheats, and their gains will be snares.

The Sins of Israel; The Crimes of the People. (b. c. 745.)

   8 Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a
   vessel wherein is no pleasure.   9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a
   wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.   10 Yea, though
   they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they
   shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.   11
   Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him
   to sin.   12 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they
   were counted as a strange thing.   13 They sacrifice flesh for the
   sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them
   not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they
   shall return to Egypt.   14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and
   buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will
   send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

   It was the honour and happiness of Israel that they had but one God to
   trust to and he all-sufficient in every strait, and but one God to
   serve, and he well worthy of all their devotions. But it was their sin,
   and folly, and shame, that they knew not when they were well off, that
   they forsook their own mercies for lying vanities; for,

   I. They multiplied their alliances (v. 9): They have hired lovers, or
   (as the margin reads it) they have hired loves. They were at great
   expense to purchase the friendship of the nations about them, that
   otherwise had no value nor affection at all for them, nor cared for
   having any thing to do with them but only upon the Shechemites'
   principles--Shall not their cattle and their substance be ours? Gen.
   xxxiv. 23. Had Israel maintained the honour of their peculiarity, the
   surrounding nations would have continued to admire them as a wise and
   understanding people; but, when they profaned their own crown, their
   neighbours despised them, and they had no interest in them further than
   they paid dearly for it. But those surely have behaved ill among their
   neighbours who have no loves, no lovers, but what they hire. See here,
   1. The contempt that Israel lay under among the nations (v. 8): Israel
   is swallowed up, devoured by strangers, their land eaten up (v. 7), and
   themselves too, and, being impoverished, they have quite lost their
   credit and reputation, like a merchant that has become a bankrupt, so
   that they are among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure, a
   vessel of dishonour (2 Tim. ii. 20), a despised broken vessel, Jer.
   xxii. 28. None of their neighbours have any value for them, nor care to
   have any thing to do with them. Note, Those that have professed
   religion, if they degenerate and grow profane, are of all men the most
   contemptible. If the salt have lost its savour, it is fit for nothing
   but to be trodden under foot of men. Or it denotes their dispersion and
   captivity among the Gentiles; they shall be among them poor and
   prisoners; and who has pleasure in such? 2. The court that Israel made
   to the nations notwithstanding (v. 9): They have gone to Assyria, to
   engage the king of Assyria to help them; and herein they are as a wild
   ass alone by himself, foolish, headstrong, and unruly; they will have
   their way, and nothing shall hold them in, no, not the bridle of God's
   laws, nothing shall turn them back, no, not the sword of God's wrath.
   They take a course by themselves, and the effect will be that, like a
   wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey to the
   lion. See Job xi. 12; Jer. ii. 24. Note, Man is in nothing more like
   the wild ass's colt than in seeking for that succour and that
   satisfaction in the creature which are to be had in God only. 3. The
   crosses that they were likely to meet with in their alliances with the
   neighbouring nations (v. 10): Though they have hired among the nations,
   and hoped thereby to prevent their own ruin, yet now will I gather
   them, as the sheaves in the floor (Mic. iv. 12); so that what they
   provided for their own safety shall but make them the easier prey to
   their enemies. Note, There is no fence against the judgments of God,
   when they come with commission; nay, that which men hire for their own
   preservation often contributes to their own destruction. See Isa. vii.
   20. The king of Assyria, whose friendship they courted, called himself
   a king of princes, Isa. x. 8. Are not my princes altogether kings? He
   laid burdens upon Israel, levied taxes upon them, 2 Kings xv. 19, 20.
   And for these they shall sorrow a little; this shall be but a little
   burden to them in comparison of what they may further expect; or they
   will be but little sensible of this grievance, will not lay it to
   heart, and therefore may expect heavier judgments. They have begun to
   be diminished (so some read it), by the burden of the king of princes;
   but this is only the beginning of sorrows (Matt. xxiv. 8), the
   beginning of revenges, Deut. xxxii. 42. Note, God often comes gradually
   with his judgments upon a provoking people, that he may show how slow
   he is to wrath, and may awaken them to repentance; but those that are
   made to sorrow a little, if they are not thereby brought to sorrow
   after a godly sort, will, another day, be made to sorrow a great deal,
   to sorrow everlastingly.

   II. They multiplied their altars and temples. Observe,

   1. How they denied the power of godliness, and wholly cast that off (v.
   12): I have written to him the great things of my law; this intimates
   the privilege they enjoyed, as having God's statutes and judgments made
   known to them, and being entrusted with the lively oracles. Note, (1.)
   The things of God's law are magnalia Dei--the great things of God. They
   are things that proclaim the greatness of the Law-maker, and things of
   great use and great importance to us; they are our life, and our
   eternal welfare depends upon our observance of them and obedience to
   them; they will make us great if we make a right use of them; and they
   are things which God will magnify and make honourable. (2.) It is a
   great privilege to have the things of God's law written; thus they are
   reduced to a greater certainty, spread the further, and last the
   longer, with much less danger of being embezzled and corrupted than if
   they were transmitted by word of mouth only. (3.) The things of God's
   law are of his own writing; for Moses and the prophets were his
   amanuenses, and holy men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
   (4.) It is the advantage of those that are members of the visible
   church that these great things are written to them, are intended for
   their direction, and so they must receive them; what things were
   written in former ages were written for our learning, and are
   profitable for us. And, if those were happy who had the great things of
   God's law written to them, how much happier are we who have the gospel
   written to us! But see how this privilege was slighted; these great
   things of the law were counted as a strange thing, as unintelligible
   and unreasonable (which might therefore be slighted, because not to be
   fathomed, not to be accounted for), or as foreign, and things of no
   concernment to them, things that they had nothing to do with nor were
   to be governed by; they used those things as strangers, which they were
   shy of, and knew not how to bid welcome. We desire not the knowledge of
   thy ways. Note, [1.] God having written to us the great things of his
   law, we ought to make them familiar to us, as our nearest relations
   (Prov. vii. 3, 4); for therefore we have them written, that they may
   talk with us, Prov. vi. 22. [2.] We make nothing of the things of God's
   law if we make strange of them, as if they did not affect us and
   therefore we need not be affected with them.

   2. How they kept up the form of godliness notwithstanding, and to what
   little purpose they did so.

   (1.) They multiplied their altars (v. 11): Ephraim made many altars to
   sin. God appointed that there should be but one altar for sacrifice
   (Deut. xii. 3, 5); but the ten tribes, having forsaken that, would
   still be thought very devout, and zealous for the honour of God, and,
   as if they would make amends for the affront they put on God's altar,
   they made many altars, dedicated to the God of Israel, whom hereby they
   intended, or at least pretended, to give glory to; but that would not
   justify their violation of God's express command, nor would the example
   of the patriarchs, who before the law of Moses had many altars. No,
   they made many altars to sin (that is, they did that which turned into
   sin to them), and therefore these altars shall be unto them to sin,
   that is, God will charge it upon them as a heinous sin, and put that
   upon the score of their crimes which they designed to be for the
   expiation of their crimes. Or they shall be to them an occasion of
   further sin. Their multiplying of altars dedicated to the God of Israel
   would introduce altars dedicated to other gods. Note, It is a great sin
   to corrupt the worship of God, and it will be charged as sin upon those
   that do it, how plausible soever their pretensions may be. And the way
   of this, as other sins, is down-hill; those that once deviate from the
   fixed rule of God's commands will wander endlessly.

   (2.) They multiplied their sacrifices, v. 13. Their altars were smoking
   altars: They sacrificed flesh for the sacrifices of God's offerings,
   and they celebrated their feasts upon their sacrifices; they were at a
   great expense upon their devotions, and (as those commonly are who set
   up their own inventions in the room of divine institutions) were very
   zealous in their way; as if they hoped by their impositions on
   themselves to atone for the contempt of the great atonement, and by
   their observing a ceremonial law of their own to excuse themselves from
   the obligation of all God's moral precepts. But how did they speed?
   [1.] God makes no reckoning of their services: The Lord accepts them
   not. How should he, when they did not offer their sacrifice upon that
   altar which alone sanctified the gift, and when they only sacrificed
   flesh, but not the spiritual sacrifice of a penitent believing heart?
   Note, Those services only are acceptable to God which are performed
   according to the rule of his word, and through Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii.
   5. [2.] He takes that occasion to reckon with them for their sins; now
   will he, instead of pardoning their iniquity and blotting out their
   sins, as they expected, remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
   Such an abomination to the Lord are the sacrifices of the wicked that
   they provoke him to call them to an account for all their other
   abominations. When they think by their sacrifices to bribe the Judge of
   heaven and earth into a connivance at their wickedness he will resent
   that as the highest affront they can put upon him, and it shall be the
   measure-filling sin. Note, A petition for leave to sin amounts to an
   imprecation of the curse for sin, and so it shall be answered,
   according to the multitude of the idols. "I will punish their sins, for
   they shall return to Egypt;" they shall be carried captive into
   Assyria, which shall be to them a house of bondage, as Egypt was to
   their fathers. Or it refers to Deut. xxviii. 68, where returning to
   Egypt is made to close and complete the miseries of that sinful nation.

   (3.) They multiplied their temples, and these also in honour of the
   true God, as they pretended, but really in contempt of the choice he
   had made of Jerusalem to put his name there. Israel has forgotten his
   Maker, v. 14. They pretended to know him, and yet forgot him, for they
   liked not to retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him
   would give check to their lusts. It was an aggravation of their sin in
   forgetting God that he was their Maker (Deut. xxxii. 15, 18; Job xxxv.
   10), as nothing obliges us more to remember him than that he is our
   Creator, Eccl. xii. 1. "He has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples;
   he seems by the temples he builds to me mindful of his Maker, and to be
   desirous still to keep him in mind, and yet really he has forgotten
   him, because he has cast off the fear of him." Some by temples here
   understand palaces, for so the word sometimes signifies. "He has
   forgotten his Maker, and yet is so secure and haughty that he sets his
   judgments at defiance, as Nebuchadnezzar did when he said, Is not this
   great Babylon that I have built?" Judah is likewise charged with
   multiplying fenced cities, and trusting in them for safety, when the
   judgments of God were abroad. To fortify their cities in subjection and
   subordination to God was well enough; but to fortify them in opposition
   to God, and without any regard to him or his providence (Isa. xxii.
   11), shows their hearts to be desperately hardened through the
   deceitfulness of sin. But none ever hardened his heart against God and
   prospered, nor shall they. God will send a fire upon his cities, upon
   the cities both of Judah and Israel, not only the head-cities of
   Jerusalem and Samaria, but all the other cities of those two kingdoms,
   and it shall devour not only the cottages, but the palaces thereof;
   though ever so strong, the fire shall master them; though ever so
   stately and sumptuous, the fire shall not spare them. This was
   fulfilled when all the cities of Israel were laid in ashes by the king
   of Assyria, and all the cities of Judah by the king of Babylon. The
   fires they both kindled were of his sending; and when he judges he will
   overcome.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. IX.

   In this chapter, I. God threatens to deprive this degenerate seed of
   Israel of all their worldly enjoyments, because by sin they had
   forfeited their title to them; so that they should have no comfort
   either in receiving them themselves or in offering them to God, ver.
   1-5. II. He dooms them to utter ruin, for their own sins and the sins
   of their prophets, ver. 6-8. III. He upbraids them with the wickedness
   of their fathers before them, whose steps they trod in, ver. 9, 10. IV.
   He threatens them with the destruction of their children and the
   rooting out of their posterity, ver. 11-17.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 740.)

   1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a
   whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn-floor.
   2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine
   shall fail in her.   3 They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but
   Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in
   Assyria.   4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither
   shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as
   the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for
   their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
   5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the
   Lord?   6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall
   gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their
   silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their
   tabernacles.

   Here, I. The people of Israel are charged with spiritual adultery: O
   Israel! thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, v. 1. Their covenant
   with God was a marriage-covenant, by which they were joined to him as
   their God, renouncing all others. But when they set up idols and
   worshipped them, when they fled to creatures for succour and put a
   confidence in them, they went a whoring from God as their God, and
   honoured the pretenders and rivals with the affection, adoration, and
   confidence, which were due to God only. Other people were idolaters,
   but that sin was not, in them, going a whoring from God, as it was in
   Israel that had been married to him. Note, The sins of those who have
   made a profession of religion and relation to God are more provoking to
   him than the sins of others. As a proof of their going a whoring from
   God, it is charged upon them that they loved a reward upon every
   corn-floor. 1. They loved to give rewards to their idols, in the
   offerings and first-fruits they presented to them out of every
   corn-floor. They took a strange pleasure in serving their idols with
   that which they would have grudged to consecrate to God and employ in
   his service. Note, It is common for those that are niggardly in the
   expenses of their religion to be very prodigal in spending upon their
   lusts. Or, 2. They loved to receive rewards from their idols; and such
   they reckoned the fruits of the earth to be: These are my rewards,
   which my lovers have given me, ch. ii. 12. Note, Those are directly
   disposed to spiritual idolatry that love a reward in the corn-floor
   better than a reward in the favour of God and eternal life.

   II. They are forbidden to rejoice as other people do: "Rejoice not, O
   Israel! for joy. Do not expect to rejoice. What peace, what joy, what
   hast thou to do with either, while thy whoredoms and witchcrafts are so
   many?" 2 Kings ix. 19-22. Be not disposed to rejoice, for it does not
   become thee, but rather to be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, Jam. iv.
   9. Judah, that keeps close to the true God, nay, and other people that
   never knew him nor could ever be charged with revolting from him, may
   be allowed to rejoice, as not having so much cause to be ashamed as
   Israel has, that has gone a whoring from him. Some think that they had
   at this time particular occasions for joy, probably upon the account of
   some losses recovered, or some advantages gained, or some league made
   with a potent ally, for which they had public rejoicings, as other
   people used to have upon such occasions; but God sends to them not to
   rejoice. Note, Joy is forbidden fruit to wicked people. They must not
   rejoice, because they have gone a whoring from their God; and
   therefore, 1. Whatever it was that they rejoiced in, it would be no
   security nor advantage to them, so long as they were at a distance from
   God and at war with him. Note, We are likely to have small joy of any
   of our creature-comforts if we make not God our chief joy. 2. The sense
   of sin and dread of wrath ought to be a damp upon their joy and a
   strong alloy to all their comforts. Note, Those who by departing from
   God have made work for repentance have thereby marred their own mirth,
   till they return and make their peace with God.

   III. They are threatened with destroying judgments for their spiritual
   whoredoms, according to what was said long before. Ps. lxxii. 27, Thou
   hast destroyed all those that go a whoring from thee. It is here
   threatened,

   1. That their land shall not yield its wonted increase. Canaan, that
   fruitful land, shall be turned into barrenness for the wickedness of
   those that dwell therein. They love the reward in the corn-floor, and
   are so full of the joy of harvest that they have no disposition at all
   to mourn for their sins; and therefore God will, for their effectual
   humiliation, take away from them, not only their delights and dainties,
   but even their necessary food (v. 2): The floor and the wine-press
   shall not feed them, much less feast them; they shall either be blasted
   by the hand of God or plundered by the hand of man. The new wine with
   which they used to make merry shall fail in her. Note, When we make the
   world, and the things of it, our idol and portion, above what they were
   designed for, it is just with God to deny us even support and
   nourishment from them, according to that which they were designed for,
   to show us our folly and correct us for it. Let those miss of their
   food in the corn-floor that look for their reward in the corn-floor. We
   forfeit the good things of this world if we love them as the best
   things.

   2. That their land shall not only cease to feed them, but cease to
   lodge them and to be a habitation for them; it shall spue them out, as
   it had done the Canaanites before them (v. 3): They shall not dwell any
   longer in the Lord's land. The land of Canaan was in a peculiar manner
   the Lord's land, the land of the Shechinah (so the Chaldee), the land
   of the Lord of the world (so the Arabic); he whose all the earth is
   (Ps. xxiv. 1) took that for his demesne. The land is mine, says God,
   Lev. xxv. 23. They had used it, or abused it rather, as if it had been
   their own, had not paid the rent, nor done the services, due to God as
   their landlord, and therefore God justly enters, and takes possession
   of it, they having forfeited their lease. "It is my land" (says God)
   "and I will make it appear, for they shall be turned off, as bad
   tenants, and be made to know that, though they thought themselves
   freeholders, they were but tenants at will." Note, It is for the honour
   of God's justice and holiness that those who go a whoring from God
   should not be suffered to dwell upon his land; and therefore, sooner or
   later, the wicked shall be chased out of the world. Or it is called the
   Lord's land because it was the holy land, Immanuel's land, the land
   that had peculiar tokens of God's favour to it, and presence in it,
   where God was known and his name was great, where God's prophets and
   oracles were; it was a kind of copy of the earthly paradise, and a type
   of the heavenly one. It was a great privilege to have a lot in such a
   land as this. It was a great sin and folly to rebel against God, and go
   a whoring from him, in such a land as this, to deal unjustly in a land
   of uprightness, Isa. xxvi. 10. And it was a sad and sore judgment to be
   driven out from such a land as this; it was like driving our first
   parents out of the garden of Eden, and almost amounted to an exclusion
   out of the heavenly Canaan. Note, Those cannot expect to dwell in the
   Lord's land that will not be subject to the Lord's laws, nor be
   influenced by his love. Those have forfeited the privileges of the
   church that conform not to the rules of it.

   3. That, when they are turned out from the Lord's land, they shall have
   no rest nor satisfaction in any other land. When Cain was driven out
   from the presence of the Lord he was a fugitive and a vagabond ever
   after, and dwelt in the land of trembling. So Israel here. Some shall
   return into Egypt, the old house of bondage; thither they shall flee
   from the Assyrian (ch. viii. 13) and they shall lose and ruin
   themselves where they thought to hide and help themselves. Others shall
   be carried captives to Assyria and there shall be forced to eat unclean
   things, either (1.) Such things as were not fit for men to eat, that
   which is rotten and putrefied, intimating that they shall be reduced to
   the utmost poverty, as the prodigal that would fain have filled his
   belly with the husks. Or, (2.) Such things as were not fit for Jews to
   eat, being prohibited by their law. It is probable that while they were
   in their own land, however disobedient in other things, they kept up
   the distinction of meats, and prided themselves in that; but, since
   they would not keep the law of God in other things, they should not be
   suffered to keep it in that, and it was a just punishment of their sin
   in eating things offered to idols. Note, When at any time we suffer in
   our food, and either through want or for our health are forced to eat
   or drink that which is unpleasing, we must acknowledge that God is
   righteous, because we have sinned about our food, and have indulged
   ourselves too much in that which is pleasing.

   4. That in the land of their enemies, to which they shall be driven,
   they shall have no opportunity either of giving honour to God or
   obtaining favour with God, by offering any acceptable sacrifice to him;
   they should not be in a capacity of keeping up any face or show of
   religion among them; "and so" (as Dr. Pocock expresses it) "should be
   as it were quite cut off from any expression of relation to him, from
   all signs of grace, and means of reconciliation with him, which would
   be to them a token of their being rejected of God, estranged from him,
   and no more owned by him as his people." (1.) They shall have no
   sacrifices to offer, nor any altar to offer them on, nor priests to
   offer them; they shall not so much as offer drink-offerings to the
   Lord, much less any other sacrifices. (2.) If they should offer them,
   neither they nor their sacrifices shall be pleasing to him, for they
   cannot have any legal offerings, nor are their hearts humbled. (3.)
   Instead of their sacrifices of joy and praise, they shall eat the bread
   of mourners; they shall live desolate, and disconsolate, mourning for
   the death of their relations and their own miseries, so that if they
   had opportunity of sacrificing they should never be themselves in a
   frame fit for it; for they were forbidden to eat of the holy things in
   their mourning, Deut. xxvi. 14 All that eat of the bread of mourners
   are polluted, and incapacitated to partake of the altar. (4.) Their
   bread for their soul, the bread which they must either eat or starve,
   the bread which they shall have for the support of their lives, shall
   not come into the house of the Lord; they shall have no house of the
   Lord to bring it to, or, if they had, it is such as is not fit to be
   brought, nor are they rightly disposed to bring it. (5.) The return of
   the days of their sacred and solemn feasts would therefore be very
   melancholy and uncomfortable to them (v. 5): What will you do in the
   solemn day, in the sabbath, the solemn day of every week, in the new
   moons, the solemn days of every month, at the return of the times for
   keeping the passover, pentecost, and feast of the tabernacles, the
   solemn days of every year, the days of the feasts of the Lord? Note,
   The feasts of the Lord are solemn days; and, when we are invited to
   those feasts, we ought to consider seriously what we shall do. But the
   question is here put to those who were to be deprived of the benefit
   and comfort of those solemn feasts, "What will you do then? You will
   then spend those days in sorrow and lamentation which, if it had not
   been your own fault, you might have been spending in joy and praise.
   You will then be made to know the worth of mercies by the want of them
   and to prize spiritual bread by being made to feel a famine of it."
   Note, When we enjoy the means of grace we ought to consider what we
   shall do if ever we should know the want of them, if either they should
   be taken from us or we be disabled to attend upon them.

   5. That they should perish in the land of their dispersion (v. 6): For,
   lo, they have gone out of the Lord's land, where they might have spent
   both their sabbath days and other days with comfort, gone because of
   destruction, gone to Egypt because of the destruction of their own
   country by the Assyrians, flattering themselves with hopes that they
   shall return when the storm is over; but those hopes also shall fail
   them; they shall find there are graves in Egypt, as their murmuring
   ancestors said (Exod. xiv. 11), graves for them; for Egypt shall gather
   them up, as dead men are gathered up and carried forth to the grave,
   and Memphis (one of the chief cities of Egypt) shall bury them.
   Gathering and burying are put together, Jer. viii. 2; Job xxvii. 19.
   Note, Those that think presumptuously to flee from the judgments of God
   are likely enough to meet their death where they hoped to save their
   lives.

   6. That their land, which they left behind and to which they hoped to
   return, should become a desolation: As for their tabernacles, where
   they formerly dwelt and where they kept their stores, the pleasant
   places for their silver, they shall be demolished and laid in ruins, to
   such a degree that they shall be overgrown with nettles; so that if
   they should survive the trouble, and return to their own land again,
   they would find it neither fruitful nor habitable; it would afford them
   neither food nor lodging. Note, Those that make their money their god
   reckon the places of their silver their pleasant places, as those that
   make the Lord their God reckon his tabernacles amiable and his
   ordinances their pleasant things, Isa. lxiv. 11. But, while the
   pleasures of communion with God are out of the reach of chance and
   change, the pleasant places of men's silver, which were purchased with
   silver, or in which they deposited their silver, or which were
   beautified and adorned with silver, are liable to be laid in ruins, in
   nettles, and therewith all the pleasure men took in them.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 740.)

   7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come;
   Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad,
   for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.   8 The
   watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a
   fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.   9 They
   have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore
   he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.   10 I found
   Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first
   ripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and
   separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were
   according as they loved.

   For their further awakening, it is here threatened,

   I. That the destruction spoken of shall come speedily. They shall have
   no reason to hope for a long reprieve, for the judgment slumbers not;
   it is at the door (v. 7): The days of visitation have come, and there
   shall be no more delay; the days of recompence have come, which they
   have been so often warned to expect; their prophets have told them that
   destruction would come, and now it has come, and the time of the divine
   patience has expired. Note, 1. The day of God's judgments is both a day
   of visitation, in which men's sins are enquired into and brought to
   light, and a day of recompence, in which men's doom will be passed, and
   a reward given to every man according to his work; the strict
   visitation is in order to a just retribution. 2. This day of visitation
   and recompence is hastening on apace. It is sure; it is near; as if it
   had already come.

   II. That hereby they shall be made ashamed of their sentiments
   concerning their prophets. When the day of visitation comes Israel
   shall know it, shall be made to know that by sad experience which they
   would not know by instruction. Israel shall know then what an evil and
   bitter thing it is to depart from God, and what a fearful thing it is
   to fall into his hands. When thy hand is lifted up they will not see,
   but they shall see. Israel shall know the difference between true
   prophets and false. 1. They shall know then that the pretenders to
   prophecy, who flattered them in their sins, and rocked them asleep in
   their security, and told them that they should have peace though they
   went on, however they pretended to be spiritual men (as Ahab's prophets
   did, 1 Kings xxii. 24) were fools and madmen, and not true prophets;
   they deceived themselves and those to whom they prophesied. But why
   would God suffer his people Israel to be imposed upon by those false
   prophets? He answers, "It is for the multitude of thy iniquity which,
   in contempt of the divine law, thou hast persisted in, and, for the
   great hatred of the true prophets, that reproved thee, in God's name,
   for it." Note, Because men receive not the love of the truth, but
   conceive a hatred of it, and by the multitude of their iniquities bid
   defiance to it, therefore God shall send them strong delusions, to
   believe a lie, so strong that they shall not be undeceived till the day
   of visitation and recompence comes, which will convince them of the
   folly and madness of those that seduced them and of their own folly and
   madness in suffering themselves to be seduced by them. 2. They shall
   know then whether the true prophets, that were really spiritual men,
   guided by the Spirit of God, were such as they called and counted them,
   fools and madmen; and they shall be convinced that they were so far
   from being so that they were the wise men of their times, and God's
   faithful ambassadors to them. When Israel saw that none of Samuel's
   words fell to the ground they knew he was established to be a prophet
   (1 Sam. iii. 20); and so here, when God fulfils the word of his
   messengers, by bringing the days of recompence they foretold, then
   those that despised and ridiculed them, and thought Bedlam the fittest
   place for them, will be ashamed of the multitude of their iniquities of
   that kind, and of their great hatred, for which God brings upon them
   this swift destruction. Mocking the messengers of the Lord was the sin
   they were punished for, and so made ashamed of.

   III. That hereby the wickedness of the false prophets themselves shall
   be manifested to their shame (v. 8): "The watchman of Ephraim was with
   my God; he had been formerly. They had a set of worthy good ministers,
   that kept close to God and maintained communion with him; but now they
   have a race of corrupt, malignant, persecuting prophets, that are the
   ring-leaders of all mischief." Or, "The watchman of Ephraim now
   pretends to have been with my God, and prefaces his lies with, Thus
   saith the Lord; but he is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and is
   cunning to draw the simple into sin and the upright into trouble; and
   he is so full of hatred and enmity to goodness and good men that he has
   become hatred itself in the house of his God, or against the house of
   his God." Note, Wicked prophets are the worst of men; their sins
   against God are most heinous, and their plots against religion most
   dangerous. They may boast that they are watchmen, speculators, and, as
   far as speculation goes, they may be right, and with my God, may have
   their heads full of good notions; but look into their lives, and they
   are the snare of a fowler in all their ways, catching for themselves
   and making a prey of others; look into their hearts, and they are
   hatred in the house of my God, very malicious and spiteful against good
   ministers and good people. Woe unto thee, O land! unto thee, O church!
   that hast such watchmen, such prophets, that are seers, but not doers!
   Corruptio optimi est pessima--The best things, when corrupted, become
   the worst.

   IV. That God will now reckon with them for the sins of their fathers,
   which they have trod in the steps of, v. 9, 10. 1. They were as bad as
   their fathers: They have deeply corrupted themselves; they are rooted
   and riveted in sin; they are far gone in the depths of Satan (Isa.
   xxxi. 6), so that it is next to impossible that they should be
   recovered; the stain of their corruption is deep, not to be got out; it
   is as scarlet and crimson, or as the spots of the leopard: and it is
   their own fault; they have corrupted themselves, have polluted and
   hardened their own hearts, as in the days of Gibeah, when the Levite's
   concubine was abused to death by the men of Gibeah and the whole tribe
   of Benjamin patronised the villany; that was a time of deep corruption
   indeed, and such were the present days. Lewdness and wickedness were as
   impudent and daring now as in the days of Gibeah; and therefore what
   can be expected but such a vengeance as was then taken on Gibeah? Every
   tribe is now as bad as the tribe of Benjamin then was, and therefore
   may expect to be brought as low as that tribe then was. 2. They shall
   therefore be reckoned with for their fathers' sins: He will remember
   their iniquity and visit their sins, the iniquity they have by kind and
   by entail, the sin that runs in the blood; the sin of the father shall
   now be visited upon the children. Hence God takes occasion to upbraid
   them with the degeneracy and apostasy of their ancestors, their
   perfidiousness and base ingratitude, v. 10. Here observe, (1.) The
   great honour God put upon Israel when he first formed them into a
   people: I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. He took as much
   delight and pleasure in them as a poor traveller would do if he found
   grapes in a wilderness, where he most needed them and least expected
   them. Or when they were in the wilderness he found them as grapes, not
   precious in themselves, but precious to him, and pleasant as the
   first-ripe grapes to the lord of the vineyard. They were precious in
   his sight, and honourable (Isa. xliii. 4); he planted them a choice
   vine, a right seed (Jer. ii. 21), and found them no better than he
   himself made them, good grapes at first. I saw them with pleasure, as
   the first-ripe in the fig-tree at the first time. Good people are
   compared to the good things that are first ripe, Jer. xxiv. 2. One then
   is worth more than many afterwards. This intimates the delight God took
   in them and in doing them good, not for their sakes, but because he
   loved their fathers. He preserved them carefully, as a man does the
   first and choicest fruits of his vineyard. Now when he put all this
   honour upon them, and they stood so fair for preferment, one would
   think they should have maintained their excellency; but, (2.) See the
   great disgrace they put upon themselves. God set them apart for himself
   as a peculiar people, but they went to Baal-peor, joined with the
   Moabites in sacrificing to that dirty dunghill deity (Num. xxv. 2, 3),
   and they separated themselves unto that shame, that shameful idol, so
   Baal-peor was in a particular manner, if (as should seem) the whoredom
   which the people committed with the daughters of Moab was a part of the
   service done to Baal-peor. Note, Whatever those separate themselves to
   that forsake God it will certainly be a shame to them, first or last.
   Their abominations are here said to be as they loved; their practices
   which were an abomination to God were as the best-beloved of their
   souls. Or when they had once forsaken God they multiplied their
   abominations, their idols and abominable idolatries, at their pleasure.
   This was the way of their fathers; God had done well for them, but they
   had acted ungratefully towards him, and in the same manner had the
   present generation deeply corrupted themselves.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 740.)

   11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the
   birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.   12 Though they
   bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not
   be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!   13
   Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim
   shall bring forth his children to the murderer.   14 Give them, O Lord:
   what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.   15
   All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the
   wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will
   love them no more: all their princes are revolters.   16 Ephraim is
   smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though
   they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
     17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him:
   and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

   In the foregoing verses we saw the sin of Israel derived from their
   fathers; here we see the punishment of Israel derived to their
   children; for, as death entered by sin at first, so it is still
   entailed with it. We may observe, in these verses,

   I. The sin of Ephraim. Some expressions are here which describe that.
   1. They did not hearken to God (v. 17); they did not give attention to
   the voice either of his word or of his rod; they did not believe what
   he said, nor would they be ruled by him. He told them their duty, their
   interest, their danger, but they regarded him not; all he said to them
   by his words and by his prophets was to them as a tale that is told;
   and then no wonder that we hear, 2. Of the wickedness of their doings
   (v. 15), the downright malice that was in their sins; they were not
   infirmities, but daring presumptions. How can those but do wickedly who
   will not hearken to the word of God, that would teach and persuade them
   to do well? And no wonder that there were wicked doings among them
   when, 3. Their worship was corrupt (v. 15): All their wickedness is in
   Gilgal, which was a place infamous for idolatry, as appears, ch. iv.
   15; xii. 11; Amos iv. 4; v. 5. It is probable that the idolaters chose
   that place for their head-quarters because it had been famous in other
   ages for solemn transactions between God and Israel, as Josh. v. 2, 10;
   1 Sam. x. 8; xi. 15. There, where the source of idolatry was, whence it
   spread through the kingdom, there it might be said that all their
   wickedness was, for all other wickedness owed its origin to that.
   Corruptions in worship make way for corruptions in morals. The mother
   of harlots is the mother of all other abominations, Rev. xvii. 5. The
   learned Grotius conjectures that there is a mystical sense here.
   Golgotha in Syriac is the same with Gilgal in Hebrew, and therefore he
   thinks this may have reference to the putting of Christ to death at
   Golgotha, which was the greatest sin of the Jewish nation, and of which
   it might truly be said, All their wickedness was summed up in that. And
   no wonder that the people did wickedly, both in worship and
   conversation, when 4. All their princes were revolters; the whole
   succession of the kings of the ten tribes did evil in the sight of the
   Lord, or all the set of judges and magistrates at this time were
   wicked; they turned aside to sinful ways and persisted in those ways.

   II. The displeasure of God against Ephraim for sin. This is variously
   expressed here, to show what a provocation sin is to the pure eyes of
   his glory, and how odious it makes the sinner to him. 1. He departs
   from them, v. 12. When they revolt from him, and withdraw from their
   allegiance to him, how can they expect but that he should depart from
   them and withdraw both his protection and his bounty? And well may his
   threatening be enforced as it is, and made terrible: Woe also unto them
   when I depart from them! Note, Those are in a woeful condition indeed
   whom God has forsaken. Our weal or woe depends upon the gracious
   presence of God with us; and, if he goes, all weal goes with him and
   all woes come upon us. God has forsaken him; persecute and take him.
   Saul knew this when he laid such an emphasis upon this part of his
   complaint, The Philistines make war against me, and God has departed
   from me. Nay, he does not only depart from them, but, 2. He hates them.
   In Gilgal, where all their wickedness is, there I hated them. There,
   where the abominations of sin are committed, there God abominates the
   sinners. In Gilgal he had bestowed many tokens of his favour upon their
   ancestors, but now that is the place where he hates them for their base
   ingratitude. Nay, he not only hates them, but, 3. He will love them no
   more, will never take them into his favour again; the breach between
   God and Israel is wide as the sea, which cannot be healed. This agrees
   with what he had said, (ch. i. 6, 7), I will no more have mercy upon
   the house of Israel, the ten tribes. 4. He will discard them, and have
   no more to do with them: For the wickedness of their doings, I will
   drive them out of my house. He will no longer own them as his, or as
   belonging to his family in the world; he will turn them out of doors as
   unfaithful tenants that pay him no rent, as unprofitable servants that
   do him neither credit nor work. Note, Those that profane God's house
   can expect no other than to be expelled his house, and no longer
   suffered to be either lodgers in it or retainers to it. Nay, he will
   not only drive them out of his house, but, 5. He will drive them far
   enough (v. 17): My God will cast them away, not only out of his house,
   but out of his sight; he will quite abandon and reject them; they shall
   be cast-aways. God said that he would drive them out of his house, and
   here the prophet seconds it, as one that knew his Master's mind very
   well: My God will cast them away. See with what comfort and pleasure he
   calls God his God. Note, When others disown God, and are disowned by
   him, it is a very great satisfaction to good people that they can call
   God their God, can cheerfully own him and see themselves owned by
   him--all revolters, all ruined, yet God is my God.

   III. The fruit of this displeasure, in the cutting off and abandoning
   of their posterity, which is the judgment here threatened again and
   again. Observe here,

   1. How numerous Ephraim seemed likely to be. The name Ephraim is
   derived from fruitfulness, Gen. xli. 51. Joseph is a fruitful bough,
   Gen. xlix. 22. And Moses's blessing foretold the ten thousands of
   Ephraim, Deut. xxxiii. 17. This was his glory, v. 11. For this he
   seemed designed by him that appoints the bounds of men's habitation;
   for Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place, to
   encourage his increase, which one may expect as from a tree planted by
   the river's side. Ephraim is as strong and rich as ever Tyre was, and
   as proud and secure. The Chaldee paraphrase gives this sense of it, The
   congregation of Israel, while they observed the law, was like to Tyrus
   in prosperity and security.

   2. How few Ephraim should be (v. 11): Their glory shall fly away like a
   bird; their children shall be taken away and the hopes of their
   families cut off. All their glory shall fly as an eagle towards heaven,
   swiftly and irrecoverably. Note, Worldly glory is glory that will fly
   away; but those that have their God their glory have in him an unfading
   everlasting glory. Ephraim has been as a fruitful tree. But now Ephraim
   is smitten, is blasted; their root is dried up; they shall bear no
   fruit, v. 16. If the root be dried, the branch must wither of course.
   Observe,

   (1.) God's threatening this judgment of the destroying of their
   children. [1.] They shall perish of themselves by the immediate hand of
   God (v. 11): They shall fly away from the birth, and from the womb, and
   from the conception. Some of their children shall die as soon as they
   are born; the cradle shall be presently turned into a coffin. Others of
   them shall be still-born, or the womb shall be their grave, and their
   death there their mothers' death too. Of others their mothers shall
   miscarry almost as soon as they have conceived, and they shall be as
   untimely fruit. See how easily God can, and how justly we are sure he
   might, root out the whole race of mankind, that degenerate, guilty,
   obnoxious race, and blot out the name of it from under heaven; it is
   but doing as he does by Ephraim here, writing them all childless,
   making all their glory to fly away from the birth, the womb, and the
   conception, drying up their root, that they bear no fruit, and their
   business is done in a few years. [2.] They shall perish by the hand of
   their enemies; they shall die violent deaths (v. 12): "Though they
   bring up their children to some maturity, though they escape the
   diseases and deaths which the infant age is liable to, and are thought
   to be reared past danger, yet will I bereave them (v. 12), by one
   judgment or other, so that there shall not be a man left to build up
   their families and bear up their name." Again (v. 13), Ephraim shall
   bring forth his children to the murderer. The mothers shall travail
   with pain to bear their children, and a great deal of care, and pains,
   and cost shall be bestowed upon the nursing of them, and when a cruel
   enemy comes and puts all to the word, young and old, without mercy,
   then they seem but as lambs that were all this while fed for the
   slaughter. Note, It is a great alloy to the comfort parents have in
   their children that they know not what they have brought them forth and
   brought them up for, perhaps for the murderer, or, which is worse, to
   be themselves the plagues of their generation. It is threatened again
   (v. 16), Though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved
   fruit of their womb, those children that they are most fond of. Note,
   The parents' love is no security to the children's lives; nay,
   sometimes death is commissioned to take the darlings of the family and
   leave the burdens of it. When sentence was passed upon Israel in the
   wilderness, that they should all perish there, this mercy was mixed
   with the wrath, that their children should nevertheless enter into that
   rest which they through unbelief could not enter into. But this is a
   total and final rejection; even their children shall be cut off, and
   the land shall escheat to the crown, ob defectum sanguinis--shall be
   lost for want of heirs. The Chaldee-paraphrase, and many of the rabbin,
   by the murderers to whom the children were brought forth, understand
   those that sacrificed their children to Moloch, a sin which was its own
   punishment, which showed the parents void of bowels and justly left
   them void of blessings. [3.] Those few that escape and remain shall be
   dispersed (v. 17): They shall be wanderers among the nations; so the
   remains of the Jews are at this day, and there is no place in the world
   where they are a distinct nation.

   (2.) The prophet's prayer relating to it (v. 14): Give them, O Lord!
   what wilt thou give? What shall I ask for a people thus doomed to
   destruction? It is this; since the decree has gone forth, that they
   must either die from the womb or be brought forth for the murderer, of
   the two let them rather die from the womb. Rather let them have no
   children than have them to be made miserable; for the same reason, when
   a total ruin was coming on the Jewish nation, Christ said, Blessed is
   the womb that never bore and the paps that never gave suck, Luke xxiii.
   29. "Give therefore a miscarrying womb and dry breasts; for it is
   better to fall into the hands of the Lord, whose mercies are great,
   than into the hands of man." Note, Those that are childless may with
   this reconcile themselves to the will of God herein, that the time may
   come when, if they were not so, they would wish they had been so.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. X.

   In this chapter, I. The people of Israel are charged with gross
   corruptions in the worship of God and are threatened with the
   destruction of their images and altars, ver. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8. II. They
   are charged with corruptions in the administration of the civil
   government and are threatened with the ruin of that, ver. 3, 4, 7. III.
   They are charged with imitating the sins of their fathers, and with
   security in their own sins, and are threatened with smarting humbling
   judgments, ver. 9-11. IV. They are earnestly invited to repent and
   reform, and are threatened with ruin if they did not, ver. 12-15.

Degeneracy of Israel; Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 730.)

   1 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself:
   according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars;
   according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.   2
   Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break
   down their altars, he shall spoil their images.   3 For now they shall
   say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should
   a king do to us?   4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making
   a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the
   field.   5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves
   of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the
   priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it
   is departed from it.   6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a
   present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be
   ashamed of his own counsel.   7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as
   the foam upon the water.   8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of
   Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on
   their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the
   hills, Fall on us.

   Observe, I. What the sins are which are here laid to Israel's charge,
   the national sins which bring down national judgment. The prophet deals
   plainly with them; for what good would it do them to be flattered?

   1. They were not fruitful in the fruits of righteousness to the glory
   of God. Here all their other wickedness began (v. 1): Israel is an
   empty vine. The church of God is fitly compared to a vine, weak, and of
   an unpromising outside, yet spreading and fruitful; believers are
   branches of that vine, and partake of its root and fatness. But this
   was the character of Israel, they were as an empty vine, a vine that
   had no sap or virtue in it, and therefore none of those good fruits
   produced by it that were expected from it, with which God and man
   should be honoured. Note, There are many who, though they have not
   become degenerate vines, are yet empty vines, have no good in them. A
   vine is of all trees least serviceable if it do not bear fruit. It is
   thenceforth good for nothing, Ezek. xv. 3, 5. And those that bring
   forth no grapes will soon come to bring forth wild grapes; those that
   do no good will do hurt. He is an empty vine, for he brings forth fruit
   to himself. What good there is in him is not directed to the glory of
   God, but he takes the praise of it to himself, and prides himself in
   it. Christians live not to themselves (Rom. xiv. 6), but hypocrites
   make self their centre; they eat and drink to themselves, Zech. vii. 5,
   6. Or Israel is by the judgments of God emptied and spoiled of all his
   wealth, because he made use of it in the service of his lusts, and not
   to the honour of God who gave it to him. Note, What we do not rightly
   employ we may justly expect to be emptied of.

   2. They multiplied their altars and images, and the more bountiful
   God's providence was to them the more prodigal they were in serving
   their idols: According to the multitude of his fruit which his land
   brought forth he has increased the altars, and according to the
   goodness of his land they have made goodly images. Note, It is a great
   affront to God, and an abuse of his goodness, when the more mercies we
   receive from him the more sins we commit against him, and when the more
   wealth men have the more mischief they do. Should not we be thus
   abundant in the service of our God, as they were in the service of
   their idols? As we find our estates increasing, we should
   proportionably abound the more in works of piety and charity.

   3. Their hearts were divided, v. 2. (1.) They were divided among
   themselves. They were at variance about their idols, some for one, some
   for another, at variance about their kings, whose separate interests
   made parties in the kingdom, and in them their very hearts were
   divided, and alienated one from another, and there was no such thing as
   cordial friendship to be found among them; it follows therefore, Now
   shall they be found faulty. Note, The divisions and animosities of a
   people are the causes of much sin and the presages of ruin. (2.) They
   were divided between God and their idols. They had a remaining
   affection in their hearts for God, but a reigning affection for their
   idols. They halted between God and Baal, that was the dividing of their
   heart. But God is the sovereign of the heart and he will by no means
   endure a rival; he will either have all or none. Satan, like the
   pretended mother, says, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide
   it; but, if this be yielded to, God says, Nay, let him take it all. A
   heart thus divided will be found faulty, and be rejected as treacherous
   in covenanting with God. Note, A heart divided between God and mammon,
   though it may trim the matter so as to appear plausible, will, in the
   day of discovery, be found faulty.

   4. They made no conscience of what they said and what they did in the
   most solemn manner, v. 4 (1.) Not of what they said in swearing, which
   is the most solemn speaking: They have spoken words, and words only,
   for they meant not as they said; they did verba dare--give words. They
   swore falsely in making a covenant; they were deceitful in their
   covenanting with God, the covenant of circumcision, the fair promises
   they made of reformation when they were in distress; and no marvel if
   those that were false to their God were false to all mankind. They
   contracted such a habit of treachery that they broke through the most
   sacred bonds, and made nothing of them; subjects violated their oaths
   of allegiance and their kings their coronation-oaths; they broke their
   leagues with the nations they were in alliance with, nor was any
   conscience made of contracts between private persons. (2.) Nor of what
   they did in judgment, which is the most solemn acting. Justice could
   not take place when men made nothing of forswearing themselves; for
   thus judgment, which should have been a healing medicinal plant and of
   a sweet smell, sprang up as hemlock, which is both nauseous and
   noxious, in the furrows of the field, in the field that was ploughed
   and furrowed for good corn. Note, God is greatly offended with
   corruptions, not only in his own worship, but in the administration of
   justice between man and man, and the dishonesty of a people shall be
   the ground of his controversy with them as well as their idolatry and
   impiety; for God's laws are intended for man's benefit and the good of
   the community, as well as for God's honour, and the profanation of
   courts of justice shall be avenged as surely as the profanation of
   temples.

   II. What the judgments are with which Israel should be punished for
   these sins; they sinned both in civil and religious matters, and in
   both they shall be punished. 1. They shall have no joy of their kings
   and of their government. Because justice is turned into oppression,
   therefore those who are entrusted with the administration of it, and
   should be blessings to the state, shall be complained of as the burdens
   of it (v. 3), and those that would not rule their people well shall not
   be able to protect them: Now they shall say, "We have no king, that is,
   we are as if we had none, we have none to do us any good nor stand us
   in any stead, none to keep us from destroying ourselves or being
   destroyed by our enemies, none to preserve the public peace nor to
   fight our battles; and justly has this come to us. Because we feared
   not the Lord, when we were safe under the protection of our kings,
   therefore we are rejected by him, and then what shall a king do for us?
   What good can we expect from a king when we have forfeited the favour
   of our God?" Note, Those that cast off the fear of God are not likely
   to have joy of any of their creature-comforts; nor will men's loyalty
   to their prince befriend them without religion, for, though that may
   engage him to be for them, what good will that do them if God be
   against them? Those that keep themselves in the fear and favour of God
   may say, with triumph, "What can the greatest of men do against us?"
   But those that throw themselves out of his protection must say, with
   despair, "What can the greatest of men do for us?" He was a king that
   said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence should I help thee? Yet he
   is a fool that says, If a king cannot help us, we must perish (as these
   intimate here), for God can do that for us which kings cannot. Time was
   when they doted upon having a king; but now what can a king (who, they
   thought, could do any thing) do for them? God can make people sick of
   those creature-confidences which they were most fond of. This is their
   complaint when their king is disabled to help them, yet this is not the
   worst; their civil government shall not only be weakened, but quite
   destroyed (v. 7): As for Samaria, the royal city, which is now almost
   all that is left, her king is cut off as the foam from the water. The
   foam swims uppermost, and makes a great show upon the face of the
   water, yet it is but a heap of bubbles raised by the troubling of the
   water. Such were the kings of Israel, after their revolt from the house
   of David, a mere scum; their government had no foundation. No better
   are the greatest of kings when they set up in opposition to God; when
   God comes to contend with them by his judgments he can as easily
   disperse and dissolve them, and bring them to nothing, as the froth
   upon the water. 2. They shall have no joy of their idols and of their
   worship of them. And miserable is the case of that people whose gods
   fail them when their kings do. (1.) The idols they had made, and the
   altars they had set up in honour of them, should be broken down, and
   spoiled, and carried away, as common plunder, by the victorious enemy:
   He shall break down their altars. God shall do it by the hand of the
   Assyrians: the Assyrians shall do it by order from God. He shall spoil
   their images, v. 2. Note, What men make idols of it is just with God to
   break down and spoil. But the calf at Bethel was the sovereign idol; it
   was this that the inhabitants of Samaria doted most upon; now it is
   here foretold that this should be destroyed: The glory of it has
   departed from it (v. 5) when it is thrown down and defaced, no more to
   be worshipped; but this is not all: It shall also be carried to Assyria
   (as some think that the calf at Dan was some time before) for a present
   to king Jareb. It was carried to him as a rich booty (for it was a
   golden calf, and probably adorned with the gifts and offerings of its
   worshippers) and as a trophy of victory over their enemies: and what
   more glorious trophy could they bring than this, or more incontestable
   proof of an absolute conquest? Thus it is said, The sin of Israel shall
   be destroyed (v. 8), that is, the idols which they made the matter of
   their sin; it is said of them, They became a sin to all Israel, 1 Kings
   xii. 30. Note, If the grace of God prevail not to destroy the love of
   sin in us, it is just that the providence of God should destroy the
   food and fuel of sin about us. With the idols, the high places shall be
   destroyed, the high places of Aven, that is, of Bethaven (v. 5) or
   Bethel; it was called the house of God (so Bethel signifies), but now
   it is called the house of iniquity, nay, iniquity itself. The kings did
   not, as they ought to have done, take away the high places by the sword
   of justice, and therefore God will take them away by the sword of war;
   so that the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, that
   is, they shall lie in ruins. Their altars, while they stood, were as
   thorns and thistles, offensive to God and good men, and fruits of sin
   and the curse; justly therefore are they buried in thorns and thistles.
   (2.) The destruction of their idols, their altars, and their high
   places, shall be the occasion of sorrow, and shame, and terror to them.
   [1.] It shall be an occasion of sorrow to them. When the calf at Bethel
   is broken the people thereof shall mourn over it. They looked upon the
   calf to be the protector of their nation, and, when that was gone,
   thought they must all be undone, which made the poor ignorant people
   that were deluded into the love of it lament bitterly, as Micah did
   (Judg. xviii. 24), You have taken away my gods, and what have I more?
   The priests that had rejoiced in it shall now mourn for it with the
   people. Note, Whatever men make a god of they will mourn for the loss
   of; and an inordinate sorrow for the loss of any worldly good is a sign
   we made an idol of it. They used to be very merry in the worship of
   their idols, but now they shall mourn over them; for sinful mirth
   shall, sooner or later, be turned into mourning. [2.] It shall be an
   occasion of shame to them (v. 6): Ephraim shall receive shame when he
   sees the gods he trusted to carried into captivity, and Israel shall be
   ashamed of his own counsel, in putting such confidence in them and
   paying such adoration to them. God's ark and altars were never thrown
   down till the people rejected them; but the idolatrous altars were
   thrown down when the people were doting on them, which shows that the
   contempt of the former, and the veneration for the latter, were the
   sins for which God visited them. [3.] It shall be an occasion of fear
   to them (v. 5): The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear; they shall be in
   pain for their gods and afraid of losing them; or, rather, they shall
   be in pain for themselves and their children and families, when they
   see the judgments of God breaking in upon them and beginning with their
   idols, as he executed judgment against the gods of Egypt, Exod. xii.
   12. Thus idolaters are brought in trembling when God arises to shake
   terribly the earth, Isa. ii. 21. And here (v. 8), They shall say to the
   mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. The supporters of
   idolatry (Rev. vi. 15, 16) are brought in calling thus in vain to rocks
   and mountains to shelter them from God's wrath.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 730.)

   9 O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood:
   the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake
   them.   10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the
   people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves
   in their two furrows.   11 And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught,
   and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck:
   I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break
   his clods.   12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy;
   break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he
   come and rain righteousness upon you.   13 Ye have plowed wickedness,
   ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou
   didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.   14
   Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses
   shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle:
   the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.   15 So shall Bethel
   do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the
   king of Israel utterly be cut off.

   Here, I. They are put in mind of the sins of their fathers and
   predecessors, for which God would now reckon with them. It was told
   them (ch. ix. 9) that they had corrupted themselves, as in the days of
   Gibeah, and here (v. 9), O Israel! thou hast sinned from the days of
   Gibeah. Not only the wickedness that was committed in that age is
   revived in this, and reacted, a copy from that original, but the
   wickedness that was committed in that age has been continued in a
   constant series and succession through all the intervening ages down to
   this; so that the measure of iniquity had been long in filling; and
   still there had been made additions to it. Or, "Thou has sinned more
   than in the days of Gibeah" (so it may be read); "the sins of this age
   exceed those of the worst of former ages. The case was bad then, for
   there they stood; the criminals stood in their own defence, and the
   tribes of Israel, who undertook to chastise them for their wickedness,
   were at a stand, when both in the first and in the second battle the
   malefactors were the victors; and the battle in Gibeah against the
   children of iniquity did not overtake them till the third engagement,
   and then did not overtake them all, for 600 made their escape. But thy
   sin is worse than theirs, and therefore thou canst not expect but that
   the battle against the children of iniquity should overtake thee, and
   overcome thee."

   II. They have warning given them, fair warning, of the judgments of God
   that were coming upon them, v. 10. God had hitherto pitied and spared
   them. Though they had been very provoking, he had a mind to try whether
   they would be wrought upon by patience and forbearance; but now, "It is
   in my desire that I should chastise them; it is what I have a purpose
   of and will take pleasure in." He will rejoice over them to do them
   hurt, Deut. xxviii. 63. Note, Because God does not desire the death and
   ruin of sinners, therefore he does desire their chastisement. And see
   what the chastisement it: The people shall be gathered against them, as
   all the other tribes were against Benjamin in the battle of Gibeah. One
   of the rabbin thus descants upon it: "Because they receive not
   chastisement from me by my prophets, who in my name rebuke them, I will
   chastise them by the hands of the people who shall be gathered against
   them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows," that is,
   when they shall think to fortify themselves, as it were, within a
   double entrenchment. Or, When I shall bind them for their two
   transgressions (so the margin reads it), meaning their corporal and
   spiritual whoredom, which they are so often charged with, or the two
   calves at Dan and Bethel, or those two great evils mentioned Jer. ii.
   13. Or, When I shall bind them to their two furrows, that is, bring
   them into servitude to the Assyrians, who shall keep them under the
   yoke as oxen in the plough, who are bound to the two furrows up the
   field and down it, and dare not, for fear of the goad, stir a step out
   of them. The Chaldee says, Those that are gathered against them shall
   exercise dominion over them, in like manner as a pair of heifers are
   tied to their two furrows. Thus those that would not be God's freemen
   shall be their enemies' slaves, and shall be made to know the
   difference between God's service and the service of the kingdoms of the
   countries, 2 Chron. xii. 8.

   III. They are made to know that their unacquaintedness with sufferings
   and hardships should not excuse them from a very miserable captivity,
   v. 11. See how nice, and tender, and delicate, Ephraim is; he is as a
   heifer that is taught to tread out the corn, and loves that work,
   because, being not allowed to be muzzled, she has liberty to eat at
   pleasure, and the work itself was dry and easy, and both its own
   diversion and its own wages. "But," says God, "I have a yoke to put
   upon her fair neck, fair as it is. I will make Ephraim to ride, that
   is, I will tame them, or cause them to be ridden by the Assyrians and
   other conquerors that shall rule them with rigour, as men do the beasts
   they ride upon (Ps. lxvi. 12); and Judah too shall be made to plough,
   and Jacob to break the clods," that is, they shall be used hardly, but
   not so hardly as Ephraim. Note, It is just with God to make those know
   what hardships mean that indulge themselves too much in their own ease
   and pleasure. The learned Dr. Pocock inclines to another sense of these
   words, as intimating the tender gentle methods God took with this
   people, to bring them into obedience to his law, as a reason why they
   should return to that obedience; he had managed them as the husbandman
   does his cattle that he trains up for service. Ephraim being as a
   docile heifer, fit to be employed, God took hold of her fair neck, to
   accustom her to the hand, harnessed her, or put the yoke of his
   commandments upon her, gave his people Israel a law, that, being
   trained up in his institutions, they might not be tempted by the usages
   of the heathen; he had used all fair and likely means with them to keep
   them in their obedience, had set Judah to plough and Jacob to break the
   clods, had employed them in the observance of precepts proper for them;
   and yet they would not be retained in their obedience, but started
   aside.

   IV. They are invited and encouraged to return to God by prayer,
   repentance, and reformation, v. 12, 13. See here,

   1. The duties they are called to. They are God's husbandry (1 Cor. iii.
   9), and the duties are expressed in language borrowed from the
   husbandman's calling. If they would not be brought into bondage by
   their oppressors, let them return to God's service. (1.) Let them break
   up the fallow ground; let them cleanse their hearts from all corrupt
   affections and lusts, which are as weeds and thorns, and let them be
   humbled for their sins, and be of a broken and contrite spirit in the
   sense of them; let them be full of sorrow and shame at the remembrance
   of them, and prepare to receive the divine precepts, as the ground that
   is ploughed is to receive the seed, that it may take root. See Jer. iv.
   3. (2.) Let them sow to themselves in righteousness; let them return to
   the practice of good works, according to the law of God, which is the
   rule of righteousness; let them abound in works of piety towards God,
   and of justice and charity towards one another, and herein let them sow
   to the Spirit, as the apostle speaks, Gal. vi. 7, 8. Every action is
   seed sown. Let them sow in righteousness; let them sow what they should
   sow, do what they should do, and they themselves shall have the benefit
   of it. (3.) Let them seek the Lord; let them look up to him for his
   grace, and beg of him to bless the seed sown. The husbandman must
   plough and sow with an eye to God, asking of him rain in the season
   thereof.

   2. The arguments used for the pressing of these duties. Consider, (1.)
   It is time to do it; it is high time. The husbandman sows in seed-time,
   and, if that time be far spent, he applies to the work with the more
   diligence. Note, Seeking the Lord is to be every day's work, but there
   are some special occasions given by the providence and grace of God
   when it is, in a particular manner, time to seek him. (2.) If we do our
   part, God will do his. If we sow to ourselves in righteousness--if we
   be careful and diligent to do our duty, in a dependence upon his
   grace--he will shower down his grace upon us, will rain righteousness,
   the very thing that those need most who are to sow in righteousness;
   for by the grace of God we are what we are. Some apply it to Christ,
   who should come in the fulness of time, and for whose coming they must
   prepare themselves; he shall come as the Lord our righteousness, and
   shall rain righteousness upon us, that everlasting righteousness which
   he has brought in; he will grant us of it abundantly. It is foretold
   (Ps. lxxii. 6) that he shall come down like rain. (3.) If we sow in
   righteousness, we shall reap in mercy, which agrees with that promise,
   If we sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
   We shall reap according to the measure of mercy (so the word is); it
   shall be a great reward, according to the riches of mercy, such a
   reward, not as becomes such mean creatures as we are to receive, but as
   becomes a God of infinite mercy to give, a reward, not of debt, but of
   grace. We reap not in merit, but in mercy. It is what is sown; God
   gives a body as it has pleased him. (4.) We have ploughed wickedness
   and reaped iniquity; and the time past of our life may suffice that we
   have done so, v. 13. "You have taken a great deal of pains in the
   service of sin, have laboured at it in the very fire; and will you
   grudge to bear the burden and heat of the day in God's service and in
   doing that which will be for your own advantage? You have done much to
   damn your souls; will you not undo it again, and do something to save
   them?" (5.) We never got any thing in the service of sin. They have
   ploughed wickedness (that is, they have done the drudgery of sin), and
   they have reaped iniquity, that is, they have got all that is to be got
   by it; they have carried it on to the harvest, and what the better? It
   is all a cheat. They have eaten the fruit of lies, fruit that is but a
   lie, which looks fair, but is rotten within; the works of darkness are
   unfruitful works, Eph. v. 11; Rom. vi. 21. Even the gains of sin yield
   the sinner no satisfaction. (6.) As our comforts, so our confidences,
   in the service of sin will certainly fail us: "Thou didst trust in thy
   ways, in the multitude of thy mighty men; thou has stayed thyself upon
   creatures, thy own power and policy, and therefore hast ventured to
   plough wickedness, and thy hopes have deceived thee; come therefore,
   and seek the Lord, and thy hope in him shall not deceive thee."

   V. They are threatened with utter destruction, both for their carnal
   practices and for their carnal confidences, v. 14, 15. Therefore,
   because thou has sown wickedness, and trusted in thy own way, a tumult
   shall arise among thy people, either by insurrections at home or
   invasions from abroad, either of which will put a kingdom into
   confusion and make a noise, much more both together. 1. Their cities
   and strongholds shall be a prey to the enemy: The fortresses which they
   confided in, and in which they had laid up their effects, shall be
   seized and rifled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle.
   This refers to some event that had lately happened, not elsewhere
   recorded; and probably Shalman is the same with Shalmaneser king of
   Assyria, who had lately put some town, or castle, or house (Beth-arbel
   is the house of Arbel), under military execution, which perhaps he used
   with severity in the beginning of his conquests, to terrify other
   garrisons into a speedy surrender at the first summons. God tells them
   that thus Samaria should be spoiled. 2. The inhabitants shall be put to
   the sword, as it was at Beth-arbel; when it was taken the mother was
   dashed in pieces upon her children, that is, they were both dashed in
   pieces together by the fury of the soldiers. See what cruel work war
   makes. Jusque datum sceleri--Wickedness has free course. It is strange
   that any of the human race could be so inhuman; but see what comes of
   sin. Homo homini lupus--Man is a wolf to man, and then, Homo homini
   agnus--Man is a lamb to man. 3. Even royal blood shall be mingled with
   common gore: In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off,
   v. 15. Hoshea was the last king of Israel; in him the whole kingdom was
   cut off and came to a period; it may refer either to him or to some of
   his predecessors that were cut off by treachery. It shall be done in a
   morning, in a very little time, as suddenly as the dawning of the
   morning, or at the time appointed, for so the morning comes, punctually
   at its time. Or in the morning, when they think the night of calamity
   is over, and expect a returning day, then shall all their hopes be
   dashed by the sudden cutting off of their king, v. 7. Kings, though
   gods to us, are men to God, and shall die like men. And (lastly) what
   does all this desolation owe its rise to? What is the spring of this
   bloodshed? He tells us (v. 15): So shall Bethel do unto you. Bethel was
   the place where one of the calves was; Gilgal, where all their
   wickedness is said to have been, was hard by; there was their great
   wickedness, the evil of their evil (so the word is), the sum and
   quintessence of their sin; and that was it that did this to them, that
   made all this havoc, for that was it that provoked God to bring it upon
   them. He does not say, "So shall the king of Assyria do to you;" but,
   "So shall Bethel do to you." Note, Whatever mischief is done to us it
   is sin that does it. Are the fortresses spoiled? Are the women and
   children murdered? Is the king cut off? It is sin that does all this.
   It is sin that ruins soul, body, estate, all. So shall Bethel do unto
   you. It is thy own wickedness that corrects thee and thy backslidings
   that reprove thee.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. XI.

   In this chapter we have, I. The great goodness of God towards his
   people Israel, and the great things he had done for them, ver. 1, 3, 4.
   II. Their ungrateful conduct towards him, notwithstanding his favours
   towards them, ver. 2-4, 7, 12. III. Threatenings of wrath against them
   for their ingratitude and treachery, ver. 5, 6. IV. Mercy remembered in
   the midst of wrath, ver. 8, 9. V. Promises of what God would yet do for
   them, ver. 10, 11. VI. An honourable character given of Judah, ver. 12.

God's Goodness to Israel; The Ingratitude of Israel; God's Displeasure with
Israel. (b. c. 730.)

   1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of
   Egypt.   2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed
   unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.   3 I taught Ephraim
   also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed
   them.   4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I
   was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid
   meat unto them.   5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the
   Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.   6 And the
   sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and
   devour them, because of their own counsels.   7 And my people are bent
   to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none
   at all would exalt him.

   Here we find,

   I. God very gracious to Israel. They were a people for whom he had done
   more than for any people under heaven, and to whom he had given more,
   which they are here, I will not say upbraided with (for God gives, and
   upbraids not), but put in mind of, as an aggravation of their sin and
   an encouragement to repentance. 1. He had a kindness for them when they
   were young (v. 1): When Israel was a child then I loved him; when they
   first began to multiply into a nation in Egypt God then set his love
   upon them, and chose them because he loved them, because he would love
   them, Deut. vii. 7, 8. When they were weak and helpless as children,
   foolish and froward as children, when they were outcasts, and children
   exposed, then God loved them; he pitied them, and testified his
   goodwill to them; he bore them as the nurse does the sucking child,
   nourished them, and suffered their manners. Note, Those that have grown
   up, nay, those that have grown old, ought often to reflect upon the
   goodness of God to them in their childhood. 2. He delivered them out of
   the house of bondage: I called my son out of Egypt, because a son,
   because a beloved son. When God demanded Israel's discharge from
   Pharaoh he called them his son, his first-born. Note, Those whom God
   loves he calls out of the bondage of sin and Satan into the glorious
   liberty of his children. These words are said to have been fulfilled in
   Christ, when, upon the death of Herod, he and his parents were called
   out of Egypt (Matt. ii. 15), so that the words have a double aspect,
   speaking historically of the calling of Israel out of Egypt and
   prophetically of the bringing of Christ thence; and the former was a
   type of the latter, and a pledge and earnest of the many and great
   favours God had in reserve for that people, especially the sending of
   his Son into the world, and the bringing him again into the land of
   Israel when they had unkindly driven him out, and he might justly never
   have returned. The calling of Christ out of Egypt was a figure of the
   calling of all that are his, through him, out of spiritual slavery. 3.
   He gave them a good education, took care of them, took pains with them,
   not only as a father or tutor, but, such is the condescension of divine
   grace, as a mother or nurse (v. 3): I taught Ephraim also to go, as a
   child in leading-strings is taught. When they were in the wilderness
   God led them by the pillar of cloud and fire, showed them the way in
   which they should go, and bore them up, taking them by the arms. He
   taught them to go in the way of his commandments, by the institutions
   of the ceremonial law, which were as tutors and governors to that
   people under age. He took them by the arms, to guide them, that they
   might not stray, and to hold them up, that they might not stumble and
   fall. God's spiritual Israel are thus supported. Thou has holden me by
   my right hand, Ps. lxxiii. 23. 4. When any thing was amiss with them,
   or they were ever so little out of order, he was their physician: "I
   healed them; I not only took a tender care of them (a friend may do
   that), but wrought an effectual cure: it is a God only that can do
   that. I am the Lord that healeth thee (Exod. xv. 26), that redresseth
   all thy grievances." 5. He brought them into his service by mild and
   gentle methods (v. 4): I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of
   love. Note, It is God's work to draw poor souls to himself; and none
   can come to him except he draw them, John vi. 44. He draws, (1.) With
   the cords of a man, with such cords as men draw with that have a
   principle of humanity, or such cords as men are drawn with; he dealt
   with them as men, in an equitable rational way, in an easy gentle way,
   with the cords of Adam. He dealt with them as with Adam in innocency,
   bringing them at once into a paradise, and into covenant with himself.
   (2.) With bands of love, or cartropes of love. This word signifies
   stronger cords than the former. He did not drive them by force into his
   service, whether they would or no, nor rule them with rigour, nor
   detain them by violence, but his attractives were all loving and
   endearing, all sweet and gentle, that he might overcome them with
   kindness. Moses, whom he made their guide, was the meekest man in the
   world. Kindnesses among men we commonly call obligations, or bonds,
   bonds of love. Thus God draws with the savour of his good ointments
   (Cant. i. 4), draws with lovingkindness, Jer. xxxi. 3. Thus God deals
   with us, and we must deal in like manner with those that are under our
   instruction and government, deal rationally and mildly with them. 6. He
   eased them of the burdens they had been long groaning under: I was to
   them as those that take off the yoke on their jaws, alluding to the
   care of the good husbandman, who is merciful to his beast, and will not
   tire him with hard and constant labour. Probably, in those times, the
   yoke on the neck of the oxen was fastened with some bridle, or
   headstall, over the jaws, which muzzled the mouth of the ox. Israel in
   Egypt were thus restrained from the enjoyments of their comforts and
   constrained to hard labour; but God eased them, removed their shoulder
   from the burden, Ps. lxxxi. 6. Note, Liberty is a great mercy,
   especially out of bondage. 7. He supplied them with food convenient. In
   Egypt they fared hard, but, when God brought them out, he laid meat
   unto them, as the husbandman, when he has unyoked his cattle, fodders
   them. God rained manna about their camp, bread from heaven, angels'
   food; other creatures seek their meat, but God laid meat to his own
   people, as we do to our children, was himself their caterer and carver,
   anticipated them with the blessings of goodness.

   II. Here is Israel very ungrateful to God.

   1. They were deaf and disobedient to his voice. He spoke to them by his
   messengers, Moses and his other prophets, called them from their sins,
   called them to himself, to their work and duty; but as they called them
   so they went from them; they rebelled in those particular instances
   wherein they were admonished; the more pressing and importunate the
   prophets were with them, to persuade them to that which was good, the
   more refractory they were, and the more resolute in their evil ways,
   disobeying for disobedience-sake. This foolishness is bound in the
   hearts of children, who, as soon as they are taught to go, will go from
   those that call them.

   2. They were fond of idols, and worshipped them: They sacrificed to
   Baalim, first one Baal and then another, and burnt incense to graven
   images, though they were called to by the prophets of the Lord again
   and again not to do this abominable thing which he hated. Idolatry was
   the sin which from the beginning, and all along, had most easily beset
   them.

   3. They were regardless of God, and of his favours to them: They knew
   not that I healed them. They looked only at Moses and Aaron, the
   instruments of their relief, and, when any thing was amiss, quarrelled
   with them, but looked not through them to God who employed them. Or,
   When God corrected them, and kept them under a severe discipline, they
   understood not that it was for their good, and that God thereby healed
   them, and it was necessary for the perfecting of their cure, else they
   would have been better reconciled to the methods God took. Note,
   Ignorance is at the bottom of ingratitude, ch. ii. 8.

   4. They were strongly inclined to apostasy. This is the blackest
   article in the charge (v. 7): My people are bent to backsliding from
   me. Every word here is aggravating. (1.) They backslide. There is no
   hold of them, no stedfastness in them; they seem to come forward,
   towards God, but they quickly slide back again, and are as a deceitful
   bow. (2.) They backslide from me, from God, the chief good, the
   fountain of life and living waters, from their God who never turned
   from them, nor war as a wilderness to them. (3.) They are bent to
   backslide; they are ready to sin; there is in their natures a
   propensity to that which is evil; at the best they hang in suspense
   between God and the world, so that a little thing serves to draw them
   the wrong way; they are forward to close with every temptation. It also
   intimates that they are resolute in sin; their hearts are fully set in
   them to do evil the bias is strong that way; and they persist in their
   backslidings, whatever is said or done to stop them; and yet, (4.)
   "They are, in profession, my people. They are called by my name, and
   profess relation to me; they are mine, whom I have done much for and
   expect much from, whom I have nourished and brought up, as children,
   and yet they backslide from me." Note, In our repentance we ought to
   lament not only our backslidings, but our bent to backslide, not only
   our actual transgressions, but our original corruption, the sin that
   dwells in us, the carnal mind.

   5. They were strangely averse to repentance and reformation. Here are
   two expressions of their obstinacy:-- (1.) They refused to return, v.
   5. So much were they bent to backslide that, though they could not but
   find, upon trial, the folly of their backslidings, and that when they
   forsook God they changed for the worse, yet they went on frowardly. I
   have loved strangers, and after them I will go. They were commanded to
   return, were courted and entreated to return, were promised that if
   they would they should be kindly received, but they refused. (2.)
   Though they called them to the Most High. God's prophets and ministers
   called them to return to the God from whom they had revolted, to the
   most high God, from whom they had sunk into this wretched degeneracy;
   they called them from the worship of the idols, which were so much
   below them, and the worship of which was therefore their disparagement,
   to the true God, who was so much above them, and the worship of whom
   was therefore their preferment; they called them from this earth to
   high and heavenly things; but they called in vain. None at all would
   exalt him. Though he is the most high God they would not acknowledge
   him to be so, would do nothing to honour him nor give him the glory due
   to his name. Or, They would not exalt themselves, would not rise out of
   that state of apostasy and misery into which they had precipitated
   themselves; but there they contentedly lay still, would not lift up
   their heads nor lift up their souls. Note, God's faithful ministers
   have taken a great deal of pains, to no purpose, with backsliding
   children, have called them to the Most High; but none would stir, none
   at all would exalt him.

   III. Here is God very angry, and justly so, with Israel; see what are
   the tokens of God's displeasure with which they are here threatened. 1.
   God, who brought them out of Egypt, to take them for a people to
   himself, since they would not be faithful to him, shall bring them into
   a worse condition than he at first found them in (v. 5): "He shall not
   return into the land of Egypt, though that was a house of bondage
   grievous enough; but he shall go into a harder service, for the
   Assyrian shall be his king, who will use him worse than ever Pharaoh
   did." They shall not return into Egypt, which lies near, where they may
   hear often from their own country, and whence they may hope shortly to
   return to it again; but they shall be carried into Assyria, which lies
   much more remote, and where they shall be cut off from all
   correspondence with their own land and from all hopes of returning to
   it, and justly, because they refused to return. Note, Those that will
   not return to the duties they have left cannot expect to return to the
   comforts they have lost. 2. God, who gave them Canaan, that good land,
   and a very safe and comfortable settlement in it, shall bring his
   judgments upon them there, which shall make their habitation unsafe and
   uncomfortable (v. 6): The sword shall come upon them, the sword of war,
   the sword of a foreign enemy, prevailing against them and triumphing
   over them. (1.) This judgment shall spread far. The sword shall fasten
   upon their cities, those nests of people and store-houses of wealth; it
   shall likewise reach to their branches, the country villages (so some),
   the citizens themselves (so others), or the bars (so the word
   signifies) and gates of their city, or all the branches of their
   revenue and wealth, or their children, the branches of their families.
   (2.) It shall last long: It shall abide on their cities. David thought
   three months flying before his enemies was the only judgment of the
   three that was to be excepted against; but this sword shall abide much
   longer than three months on the cities of Israel. They continued their
   rebellions against God, and therefore God continued his judgments on
   them. (3.) It shall make a full end: It shall consume their branches,
   and devour them, and lay all waste, and this because of their own
   counsels, that is, because they would have their own projects, which
   God therefore, in a way of righteous judgment, gave them up to. Note,
   The confusion of sinners is owing to their contrivance. God's counsels
   would have saved them, but their own counsels ruined them.

The Divine Forbearance. (b. c. 730.)

   8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?
   how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine
   heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.   9 I
   will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to
   destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst
   of thee: and I will not enter into the city.   10 They shall walk after
   the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the
   children shall tremble from the west.   11 They shall tremble as a bird
   out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will
   place them in their houses, saith the Lord.   12 Ephraim compasseth me
   about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet
   ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

   In these verses we have,

   I. God's wonderful backwardness to destroy Israel (v. 8, 9): How shall
   I give thee up? Here observe,

   1. God's gracious debate within himself concerning Israel's case, a
   debate between justice and mercy, in which victory plainly inclines to
   mercy's side. Be astonished, O heavens! at this, and wonder, O earth!
   at the glory of God's goodness. Not that there are any such struggles
   in God as there are in us, or that he is ever fluctuating or
   unresolved; no, he is in one mind, and knows it; but they are
   expressions after the manner of men, designed to show what severity the
   sin of Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified
   in sparing them notwithstanding. The connexion of this with what goes
   before is very surprising; it was said of Israel (v. 7) that they were
   bent to backslide from God, that though they were called to him they
   would not exalt him, upon which, one would think, it should have
   followed, "Now I am determined to destroy them, and never show them
   mercy any more." No, such is the sovereignty of mercy, such the
   freeness, the fulness, of divine grace, that it follows immediately,
   How shall I give thee up? See here, (1.) The proposals that justice
   makes concerning Israel, the suggestion of which is here implied. Let
   Ephraim be given up, as an incorrigible son is given up to be
   disinherited, as an incurable patient is given over by his physician.
   Let him be given up to ruin. Let Israel be delivered into the enemy's
   hand, as a lamb to the lion to be torn in pieces; let them be made as
   Admah and set as Zeboim, the two cities that with Sodom and Gomorrah
   were destroyed by fire and brimstone rained from heaven upon them; let
   them be utterly and irreparably ruined, and be made as like these
   cities in desolation as they have been in sin. Let that curse which is
   written in the law be executed upon them, that the whole land shall be
   brimstone and salt, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and
   Zeboim, Deut. xxix. 23. Ephraim and Israel deserve to be thus
   abandoned, and God will do them no wrong if he deal thus with them.
   (2.) The opposition that mercy makes to these proposals: How shall I do
   it? As the tender father reasons with himself, "How can I cast off my
   untoward son? for he is my son, though he be untoward; how can I find
   in my heart to do it?" Thus, "Ephraim has been a dear son, a pleasant
   child: How can I do it? He is ripe for ruin; judgments stand ready to
   seize him; there wants nothing but giving him up, but I cannot do it.
   They have been a people near unto me; there are yet some good among
   them; theirs are the children of the covenant; if they be ruined, the
   enemy will triumph; it may be they will yet repent and reform; and
   therefore how can I do it?" Note, The God of heaven is slow to anger,
   and is especially loth to abandon a people to utter ruin that have been
   in special relation to him. See how mercy works upon the mention of
   those severe proceedings: My heart is turned within me, as we say, Our
   heart fails us, when we come to do a thing that is against the grain
   with us. God speaks as if he were conscious to himself of a strange
   striving of affections in compassion to Israel: as Lam. i. 20, My
   bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me. As it follows here,
   My repentings are kindled together. His bowels yearned towards them,
   and his soul was grieved for their sin and misery, Judg. x. 16. Compare
   Jer. xxxi. 20. Since I spoke against him my bowels are troubled for
   him. When God was to give up his Son to be a sacrifice for sin, and a
   Saviour for sinners, he did not say, How shall I give him up? No, he
   spared not his own Son; it pleased the Lord to bruise him; and
   therefore God spared not him, that he might spare us. But this is only
   the language of the day of his patience; when men have sinned that
   away, and the great day of his wrath comes, then no difficulty is made
   of it; nay, I will laugh at their calamity.

   2. His gracious determination of this debate. After a long contest
   mercy in the issue rejoices against judgment, has the last word, and
   carries the day, v. 9. It is decreed that the reprieve shall be
   lengthened out yet longer, and I will not now execute the fierceness of
   my anger, though I am angry; though they shall not go altogether
   unpunished, yet he will mitigate the sentence and abate the rigour of
   it. He will show himself to be justly angry, but not implacably so;
   they shall be corrected, but not consumed. I will not return to destroy
   Ephraim; the judgments that have been inflicted shall not be repeated,
   shall not go so deep as they have deserved. He will not return to
   destroy, as soldiers, when they have pillaged a town once, return a
   second time, to take more, as when what the palmer-worm has left the
   locust has eaten. It is added, in the close of the verse, "I will not
   enter into the city, into Samaria, or any other of their cities; I will
   not enter into them as an enemy, utterly to destroy them, and lay them
   waste, as I did the cities of Admah and Zeboim."

   3. The ground and reason of this determination: For I am God and not
   man, the Holy One of Israel. To encourage them, to hope that they shall
   find mercy, consider, (1.) What he is in himself: He is God, and not
   man, as in other things, so in pardoning sin and sparing sinners. If
   they had offended a man like themselves, he would not, he could not
   have borne it; his passion would have overpowered his compassion, and
   he would have executed the fierceness of his anger; but I am God, and
   not man. He is Lord of his anger, whereas men's anger commonly lords it
   over them. If an earthly prince were in such a strait between justice
   and mercy, he would be at a loss how to compromise the matter between
   them; but he who is God, and not man, knows how to find out an
   expedient to secure the honour of his justice and yet advance the
   honour of his mercy. Man's compassions are nothing in comparison with
   the tender mercies of our God, whose thoughts and ways, in receiving
   returning sinners, are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth,
   Isa. lv. 9. Note, It is a great encouragement to our hope in God's
   mercies to remember that he is God, and not man. He is the Holy One.
   One would think this were a reason why he should reject such a
   provoking people. No; God knows how to spare and pardon poor sinners,
   not only without any reproach to his holiness, but very much to the
   honour of it, as he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
   therein declares his righteousness, now Christ has purchased the pardon
   and he has promised it. (2.) What he is to them; he is the Holy One in
   the midst of thee; his holiness is engaged for the good of his church,
   and even in this corrupt and degenerate land and age there were some
   that gave thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, and he required of
   them all to be holy as he is, Lev. xix. 2. As long as we have the Holy
   One in the midst of us we are safe and well; but woe to us when he
   leaves us! Note, Those who submit to the influence may take the comfort
   of God's holiness.

   II. Here is his wonderful forwardness to do good for Israel, which
   appears in this, that he will qualify them to receive the good he
   designs for them (v. 10, 11): They shall walk after the Lord. This
   respects the same favour with that (ch. iii. 5), They shall return, and
   seek the Lord their God; it is spoken of the ten tribes, and had its
   accomplishment, in part, in the return of some of them with those of
   the two tribes in Ezra's time; but it had its more full accomplishment
   in God's spiritual Israel, the gospel-church, brought together and
   incorporated by the gospel of Christ. The ancient Jews referred it to
   the time of the Messiah; the learned Dr. Pocock looks upon it as a
   prophecy of Christ's coming to preach the gospel to the dispersed
   children of Israel, the children of God that were scattered abroad. And
   then observe, 1. How they were to be called and brought together: The
   Lord shall roar like a lion. The word of the Lord (so says the Chaldee)
   shall be as a lion that roars. Christ is called the lion of the tribe
   of Judah, and his gospel, in the beginning of it, was the voice of one
   crying in the wilderness. When Christ cried with a loud voice it was as
   when a lion roared, Rev. x. 3. The voice of the gospel was heard afar,
   as the roaring of a lion, and it was a mighty voice. See Joel iii. 16.
   2. What impression this call should make upon them, such an impression
   as the roaring of a lion makes upon all the beasts of the forest: When
   he shall roar then the children shall tremble. See Amos iii. 8, The
   lion has roared; the Lord God has spoken; and then who will not fear?
   When those whose hearts the gospel reached trembled, and were
   astonished, and cried out, What shall we do?--when they were by it put
   upon working out their salvation, and worshipping God with fear and
   trembling, then this promise was fulfilled. The children shall tremble
   from the west. The dispersed Jews were carried eastward, to Assyria and
   Babylon, and those that returned came from the east; therefore this
   seems to have reference to the calling of the Gentiles that lay
   westward from Canaan, for that way especially the gospel spread. They
   shall tremble; they shall move and come with trembling, with care and
   haste, from the west, from the nations that lay that way, to the
   mountain of the Lord (Isa. ii. 3), to the gospel-Jerusalem, upon
   hearing the alarm of the gospel. The apostle speaks of mighty signs and
   wonders that were wrought by the preaching of the gospel from Jerusalem
   round about to Illyricum, Rom. xv. 19. Then the children trembled from
   the west. And, whereas Israel after the flesh was dispersed in Egypt
   and Assyria, it is promised that they shall be effectually summoned
   thence (v. 11): They shall tremble; they shall come trembling, and with
   all haste, as a bird upon the wing, out of Egypt, and as a dove out of
   the land of Assyria; a dove is noted for swift and constant flight,
   especially when she flies to her windows, which the flocking of Jews
   and Gentiles to the church is here compared to, as it is Isa. lx. 8.
   Wherever those are that belong to the election of grace--east, west,
   north, or south--they shall hear the joyful sound, and be wrought upon
   by it; those of Egypt and Assyria shall come together; those that lay
   most remote from each other shall meet in Christ, and be incorporated
   in the church. Of the uniting of Egypt and Assyria, it was prophesied,
   Isa. xix. 23. 3. What effect these impressions should have upon them.
   Being moved with fear, they shall flee to the ark: They shall walk
   after the Lord, after the service of the Lord (so the Chaldee); they
   shall take the Lord Christ for their leader and commander; they shall
   enlist themselves under him as the captain of their salvation, and give
   up themselves to the direction of the Spirit as their guide by the
   word; they shall leave all to follow Christ, as becomes disciples.
   Note, Our holy trembling at the word of Christ will draw us to him, not
   drive us from him. When he roars like a lion the slaves tremble and
   flee from him, the children tremble and flee to him. 4. What
   entertainment they shall meet with at their return (v. 11): I will
   place them in their houses (all those that come at the gospel-call
   shall have a place and a name in the gospel-church, in the particular
   churches which are their houses, to which they pertain; they shall
   dwell in God, and be at home in him, both easy and safe, as a man in
   his own house; they shall have mansions, for there are many in our
   Father's house), in his tabernacle on earth and his temple in heaven,
   in everlasting habitations, which may be called their houses, for they
   are the lot they shall stand in at the end of the days.

   III. Here is a sad complaint of the treachery of Ephraim and Israel,
   which may be an intimation that it is not Israel after the flesh, but
   the spiritual Israel, to whom the foregoing promises belong, for as for
   this Ephraim, this Israel, they compass God about with lies and deceit;
   all their services of him, when they pretended to compass his altar,
   were feigned and hypocritical; when they surrounded him with their
   prayers and praises, every one having a petition to present to him,
   they lied to him with their mouth and flattered him with their tongue;
   their pretensions were so fair, and yet their intentions so foul, that
   they would, if possible, have imposed upon God himself. Their
   professions and promises were all a cheat, and yet with these they
   thought to compass God about, to enclose him as it were, to keep him
   among them, and prevent his leaving them.

   IV. Here is a pleasant commendation of the integrity of the two tribes,
   which they held fast, and this comes in as an aggravation of the
   perfidiousness of the ten tribes, and a reason why God had that mercy
   in store for Judah which he had not for Israel (ch. i. 6, 7), for Judah
   yet rules with God and is faithful with the saints, or with the Most
   Holy. 1. Judah rules with God, that is, he serves God, and the service
   of God is not only true liberty and freedom, but it is dignity and
   dominion. Judah rules, that is, the princes and governors of Judah rule
   with God; they use their power for him, for his honour, and the support
   of his interest. Those rule with God that rule in the fear of God (2
   Sam. xxiii. 3), and it is their honour to do so, and their praise shall
   be of God, as Judah's here is. Judah is Israel--a prince with God. 2.
   He is faithful with the holy God, keeps close to his worship and to his
   saints, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose steps they faithfully
   tread in. They walk in the way of good men; and those that do so rule
   with God, they have a mighty interest in Heaven. Judah yet does thus,
   which intimates that the time would come when Judah also would revolt
   and degenerate. Note, When we see how many there are that compass God
   about with lies and deceit it may be a comfort to us to think that God
   has his remnant that cleave to him with purpose of heart, and are
   faithful to his saints; and for those who are thus faithful unto death
   is reserved a crown of life, when hypocrites and all liars shall have
   their portion without.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. XII.

   In this chapter we have, I. A high charge drawn up against both Israel
   and Judah for their sins, which were the ground of God's controversy
   with them, ver. 1, 2. Particularly the sin of fraud and injustice,
   which Ephraim is charged with (ver. 7), and justifies himself in, ver.
   8. And the sin of idolatry (ver. 11), by which God is provoked to
   contend with them, ver. 14. II. The aggravations of the sins they are
   charged with, taken from the honour God put upon their father Jacob
   (ver. 3-5), the advancement of them into a people from low and mean
   beginnings (ver. 12, 13), and the provision he had made them of helps
   for their souls by the prophets he sent them, ver. 10. III. A call to
   the unconverted to turn to God, ver. 6. IV. An intimation of mercy that
   God had in store for them, ver. 9.

The Crimes of Israel and Judah; Expostulations with Israel. (b. c. 723.)

   1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily
   increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the
   Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.   2 The Lord hath also a
   controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
   according to his doings will he recompense him.   3 He took his brother
   by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:   4
   Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made
   supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with
   us;   5 Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.   6
   Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on
   thy God continually.

   In these verses,

   I. Ephraim is convicted of folly, in staying himself upon Egypt and
   Assyria, when he was in straits (v. 1): Ephraim feeds on wind, that is,
   feeds himself with vain hopes of assistance from man, when he is at
   variance with God; and, when he meets with disappointments, he still
   pursues the same game, and greedily pants and follows after the east
   wind, which he cannot catch holy of, nor, if he could, would it be
   nourishing, nay, would be noxious. We say of the wind in the east, It
   is good neither for man nor beast. It was said (ch. viii. 7), He sows
   the wind; and as he sows so he reaps (He reaps the whirlwind); and as
   he reaps so he feeds--He feeds on the wind, the east wind. Note, Those
   that make creatures their confidence make fools of themselves, and take
   a great deal of pains to put a cheat upon their own souls and to
   prepare vexation for themselves: He daily increaseth lies, that is,
   multiplies his correspondences and leagues with his neighbours, which
   will all prove deceitful to him; nay, they will prove desolation to
   him. Those very nations that he makes his refuge will prove his ruin.
   Those that stay themselves upon lies will be still coveting to increase
   them, that they may build their hopes firmly upon them; as if many lies
   twisted together would make one truth, or many broken reeds and rotten
   supports one sound one, which is a great delusion and will prove to
   them a great desolation; for those that observe lying vanities the more
   they increase them the more disappointments they prepare for themselves
   and the further they run from their own mercies. The men of Ephraim did
   so when they thought to secure the Assyrians in their interests by a
   solemn league, signed, sealed, and sworn to: They make a covenant with
   the Assyrians, but they will find there is no hold of them; that potent
   prince will be a slave to his word no longer than he pleases. They
   thought to secure the Egyptians for their confederates by a rich
   present of the commodities of their country, not only to purchase their
   favour, but to show that their friendship was worth having: Oil is
   carried into Egypt. But the Egyptians, when they had got the bribe,
   dropped the cause, and Ephraim was never the better for them. Oleum
   perdidit et operam--The oil and the labour are both lost. This was
   feeding on wind; this was increasing lies and desolation.

   II. Judah is contended with too, and Jacob, which includes both Ephraim
   and Judah (v. 2): The Lord has also a controversy with Judah; for
   though he had a while ago ruled with God, and been faithful with the
   saints, yet now he begins to degenerate. Or though, in keeping close to
   the house of David and the house of Aaron, and in them to the covenants
   of royalty and priesthood, they were so far in the right, in the former
   they ruled with God and in the latter were faithful to the saints, yet
   upon other accounts God had a controversy with them, and would punish
   them. Note, Men's being in the right in some things, in the main
   things, will not exempt them from correction, and therefore should not
   exempt them from reproof, for those things wherein they are in the
   wrong. There were those of the seven churches of Asia whom Christ
   approved and commended, and yet he adds, Nevertheless I have something
   against thee. So here; though the seed of Jacob are a people near to
   God, yet God will punish them according to the evil ways they are found
   in and the evil doings they are found guilty of; for God sees sin even
   in his own people, and will reckon with them for it.

   III. Both Ephraim and Judah are put in mind of their father Jacob,
   whose seed they were and whose name they bore (and it was their
   honour), of the extraordinary things which he did and which God did for
   him, that they might be the more ashamed of themselves for degenerating
   from so illustrious a progenitor and staining the lustre of so great a
   name, and yet that they might be engaged and encouraged to return to
   God, the God of their father Jacob, in hopes for his sake to find
   favour with him. He had called this people Jacob (v. 2), threatening to
   punish them; but how shall I give them up? How shall that dear name be
   forgotten?

   1. Three glorious things concerning Jacob the person Jacob the people
   are here put in mind of; but by brief hints only, for it is presumed
   that they knew the story:--(1.) His struggling with Esau in the womb:
   There he took his brother by the heel, v. 3. We have the story Gen.
   xxv. 26. It was an early act of bravery, and an effort for the best
   precedency, a pious ambition for that birthright in the covenant which
   Esau is justly branded as profane for despising. But his degenerate
   seed, by mingling with the nations, and making leagues with them,
   profaned that crown, and laid that honour in the dust, which he so
   gloriously put in for. Then it was that the dominion was given to him:
   The elder shall serve the younger. Then he was owned of God as his
   beloved: Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. But they had by
   their sin forfeited both the love of God and dominion over their
   neighbours. (2.) His wrestling with the angel. "Remember how your
   father Jacob had power with God by his own strength, the strength he
   had by the gift of God, who pleaded not against him by his great power,
   but put strength into him," Job xxii. 6. The angel he wrestled with is
   called God, and therefore is supposed to be the Son of God, the angel
   of the covenant. "God was both a combatant with Jacob and an assistant
   of him, showing, in the latter respect, greater strength than in the
   former, fighting as it were against him with his left hand and for him
   with his right, and to that putting greater force." So, Dr. Pocock. The
   providence of God fought against him when he met with one danger after
   another, in his return homewards; but the grace of God enabled him to
   go on cheerfully in his way, and, when his faith acted upon the divine
   promise that was for him prevailed above his fears that arose from the
   divine providences that wee against him, then by his strength he had
   power with God. But it refers especially to his prayer for deliverance
   from Esau, and for a blessing: He had power over the angel and
   prevailed, for he wept and made supplication. Here was a mixture of the
   greatest courage and the greatest tenderness, Jacob wrestling like a
   champion and yet weeping like a child. Note, Prayers and tears are the
   weapons with which the saints have obtained the most glorious
   victories. Thus Jacob commenced Israel--a prince with God; his
   posterity was called Israel, but they were unworthy the name, for they
   had forfeited and lost their communion with God, and their interest in
   him, by revolting from their duty to him. (3.) His meeting with God at
   Bethel: God found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us. God found
   him the first time in Bethel, as he went to Padanaram (Gen. xxviii.
   10), and a second time after his return, Gen. xxxv. 9, &c. It is
   probable that this refers to both; for in both God spoke to Jacob, and
   renewed the covenant with him, and the prophet might very well say,
   There he spoke with us who are the seed of Jacob, for both times that
   God spoke with Jacob at Bethel he spoke with him concerning his seed.
   Gen. xxviii. 14, Thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and Gen.
   xxxv. 12, This land I will give unto thy seed. Thus God then covenanted
   with him and his seed after him. Now justly are they upbraided with
   this; for in that very place which their father Jacob called
   Bethel--the house of God, in remembrance of the communion he there had
   with God, did they set up one of the calves, and worship it; thus they
   turned that Bethel into a Beth-aven--a house of iniquity. There God
   spoke with them exceedingly great and precious promises, which they had
   despised and lost the benefit of.

   2. Two inferences are here drawn from these stories concerning Jacob,
   for instruction to his seed:--

   (1.) Here is a use of information. From what passed between God and
   Jacob we may learn that Jehovah, the Lord God of hosts, is the God of
   Israel; he was the God of Jacob, and this is his memorial throughout
   all the generations of the seed of Jacob (v. 5)--the more shame for
   those who forgot the memorial of their church, deserted the God of
   their fathers, and exchanged a Lord of hosts for Baalim. Note, Those
   only are accounted the people of God that keep up a memorial of God,
   such a memorial of him as he himself has instituted, by which he makes
   himself known and will have us to remember him. Here are two memorials
   of his, by which he is distinguished from all others, and is to be
   acknowledged and adored by us. [1.] The former denotes his existence of
   himself. He is Jehovah, much the same with I AM, the same that was, and
   is, and is to come, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Jehovah is his
   memorial, his peculiar name. [2.] The latter denotes his dominion over
   all: He is the God of hosts, that has all the hosts of heaven and earth
   at his beck and command, and makes what use he pleases of them. Jacob
   saw Mahanaim--God's two hosts, about the time that he wrestled with the
   angel (Gen. xxxii. 1, 2), and so learned to call God the God of hosts,
   and transmitted it to us as his memorial. God's names, titles, and
   attributes, are the memorials of him; there is no need for images to be
   such. And that which was a revelation of God to one is his memorial to
   many, to all generations.

   (2.) Here is a use of exhortation, v. 6. "Is this so, that Jacob thy
   father had this communion with the Lord God of hosts, and is this still
   his memorial?" Then, [1.] Let those that have gone astray from God be
   converted to him: Therefore turn thou to thy God. He that was the God
   of Jacob is the God of Israel, is thy God; from him thou hast unjustly
   and unkindly revolted; therefore turn thou to him by repentance and
   faith, turn to him as thine, to love him, obey him, and depend upon
   him. [2.] Let those that are converted to him walk with him in all holy
   conversation and godliness: "Keep mercy and judgment, mercy in
   relieving and succouring the poor and distressed, judgment in rendering
   to all their due; be kind to all; do wrong to none. Keep piety and
   judgment" (so it may be read); "live righteously and godly in this
   present world; be devout and be honest. Do not only practise these
   occasionally, but be careful, and constant, and conscientious in the
   practice of them." [3.] Let those that walk with God be encouraged to
   live a life of dependence upon him: "Wait on thy God continually, with
   a believing expectation to receive from him all the succours and
   supplies thou standest in need of." Those that live a life of
   conformity to God may live a life of confidence and comfort in him, if
   it be not their own fault. Let our eyes be ever towards the Lord, and
   let us preserve a holy security and serenity of mind under the
   protection of the divine power and the influence of the divine favour,
   looking, without anxiety, for a dubious event, and by faith keeping our
   spirits sedate and even; this is waiting on God as our God in covenant,
   and this we must do continually.

Reproof for Sin; Judgment Threatened; Memorials of Divine Mercy. (b. c. 723.)

   7 He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth
   to oppress.   8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me
   out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me
   that were sin.   9 And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of
   Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the
   solemn feast.   10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have
   multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the
   prophets.   11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity:
   they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in
   the furrows of the fields.   12 And Jacob fled into the country of
   Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.   13
   And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet
   was he preserved.   14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly:
   therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his
   Lord return unto him.

   Here are intermixed, in these verses,

   I. Reproofs for sin. When God is coming forth to contend with a people,
   that he may demonstrate his own righteousness, he will demonstrate
   their unrighteousness. Ephraim was called to turn to his God and keep
   judgment (v. 6); now, to show that he had need of that call, he is
   charged with turning from his God by idolatry, and breaking the laws of
   justice and judgment.

   1. He is here charged with injustice against the precepts of the second
   table, v. 7, 8. Here observe,

   (1.) What the sin is wherewith he is charged: He is a merchant. The
   margin reads it as a proper name, He is Canaan, or a Canaanite,
   unworthy to be denominated from Jacob and Israel, and worthy to be cast
   out with a curse from this good land, as the Canaanites were. See Amos
   ix. 7. But Canaan sometimes signifies a merchant, and therefore is most
   likely to do so here, where Ephraim is charged with deceit in trade.
   Though God had given his people a land flowing with milk and honey, yet
   he did not forbid them to enrich themselves by merchandise, and they
   succeeded the Canaanites in that as well as in their husbandry; they
   sucked the abundance of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sand,
   Deut. xxxiii. 19. And, if they had been fair merchants, it would have
   been no reproach at all to them, but an honour and a blessing. But he
   is such a merchant as the Canaanites were, who were honest only with
   good looking to, and, if they could, cheated all they dealt with.
   Ephraim does so; he deceives and thereby oppresses. Note, There is
   oppression by fraud as well as oppression by force. It is not only
   princes, lords, and masters, that oppress their subjects, tenants, and
   servants, but merchants and traders are often guilty of oppressing
   those they deal with, when they impose upon their ignorance, or take
   advantage of their necessity, to make hard bargains with them, or are
   rigorous and severe in exacting their debts. Ephraim cheated, [1.] With
   a great deal of art and cunning: The balances of deceit are in his
   hand. He uses balances, and delivers his goods by weight and measure,
   as if he would be very exact, but they are balances of deceit, false
   weights and false measures, and thus, under colour of doing right, he
   does the greatest wrong. Note, God has his eye upon merchants and
   traders, when they are weighing their goods and paying their money,
   whether they do honestly or deceitfully. He observes what balances they
   have in their hand, and how they hold them; and, though those they deal
   with may not be aware of that sleight of hand with which they make them
   balances of deceit, God sees it, and knows it. Trades by the wit of man
   are made mysteries, but it is a pity that by the sin of man they should
   ever be made mysteries of iniquity. [2.] With a great deal of pleasure
   and pride: He loves to oppress. To oppress is bad enough, but to love
   to do so is much worse. His conscience does not check and reprove him
   for it, as it ought to do; if it did, though he committed the sin, he
   could not delight in it; but his corruptions are so strong, and have so
   triumphed over his convictions, that he not only loves the gain of
   oppression, but he loves to oppress, sins for sinning-sake, and takes a
   pleasure in out-witting and over-reaching those that suspect him not.

   (2.) How he justifies himself in this sin, v. 8. Wicked men will have
   something to say for themselves now when they are told of their faults,
   some frivolous turn-off or other wherewith to evade the convictions of
   the word. Ephraim stands indicted for a common cheat. Now see what he
   pleads to the indictment. He does not deny the charge, nor plead, Not
   guilty, yet does not make a penitent confession of it and ask pardon,
   but insists upon his own justification. Suppose it were so that he did
   use balances of deceit, yet, [1.] He pleads that he had got a good
   estate. Let the prophet say what he pleased of his deceit, of the sin
   of it and the curse of God that attended it, he could not be convinced
   there was any harm or danger in it, for this he was sure of that he had
   thriven in it: "Yet I have become rich, I have found me out substance.
   Whatever you make of it, I have made a good hand of it." Note, Carnal
   hearts are often confirmed in a good opinion of their evil ways by
   their worldly prosperity and success in those ways. But it is a great
   mistake. Every word in what Ephraim says here proclaims his folly.
   First, It is folly to call the riches of this world substance, for they
   are things that are not, Prov. xxiii. 5. Secondly, It is folly to think
   that we have them of ourselves, to say (as some read it), I have made
   myself rich; what substance I have is owing purely to my ingenuity and
   industry--I have found it; my might and the power of my hand have
   gotten me this wealth. Thirdly, It is folly to think that what we have
   is for ourselves. I have found me out substance, as if we had it for
   our own proper use and behoof, whereas we hold it in trust, only as
   stewards. Fourthly, It is folly to think that riches are things to be
   gloried in, and to say with exultation, I have become rich. Riches are
   not the honours of the soul, are not peculiar to the best men, nor sure
   to us; and therefore let not the rich man glory in his riches, Jam. i.
   9, 10. Fifthly, It is folly to think that growing rich in a sinful way
   makes us innocent, or will make us safe, or may make us easy, in that
   way; for the prosperity of fools deceives and destroys them. See Isa.
   xlvii. 10; Prov. i. 32. [2.] He pleads that he had kept a good
   reputation. It is common for sinners, when they are justly reproved by
   their ministers, to appeal to their neighbours, and because they know
   no ill of them, or will say none, or think well of what the prophets
   charge them with as bad, fly in the face of their reprovers: In all my
   labours (says Ephraim) they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin.
   Note, Carnal hearts are apt to build a good opinion of themselves upon
   the fair character they have among their neighbours. Ephraim was very
   secure; for, First, All his neighbours knew him to be diligent in his
   business; they had an eye upon all his labours, and commended him for
   them. Men will praise thee when thou doest well for thyself. Secondly,
   None of them knew him to be deceitful in his business. He acted with so
   much policy that nobody could say to the contrary but that he acted
   with integrity. For either, 1. He concealed the fraud, so that none
   discovered it: "Whatever iniquity there is, they shall find none;" as
   if no iniquity were displeasing to God, and damning to the soul, but
   that which is open and scandalous before men. What will it avail us
   that men shall find no iniquity in us, when God finds a great deal, and
   will bring every secret work, even secret frauds, into judgment? Or, 2.
   He excused the fraud, so that none condemned it: "They shall find no
   iniquity in me that were sin, nothing very bad, nothing but what is
   very excusable, only some venial sins, sins not worth speaking of,"
   which they think God will make nothing of because they do not. It is a
   fashionable iniquity; it is customary; it is what every body does; it
   is pleasant; it is gainful; and this, they think, is no iniquity that
   is sin; nobody will think the worse of them for it. But God sees not as
   man sees; he judges not as man judges.

   2. He is here charged with idolatry, against the precepts of the first
   table, with that iniquity which is in a special manner vanity, the
   making and worshipping of images, which are vanities (v. 11): Surely
   they are vanity; they do not profit, but deceive. Now the prophet
   mentions two places notorious for idolatry:--(1.) Gilead on the other
   side Jordan, which had been branded for it before (ch. vi. 8): Is there
   iniquity in Gilead? It is a thing to be wondered at; it is a thing to
   be sadly lamented. What! iniquity in Gilead? idolatry there? Gilead was
   a fruitful pleasant country (pleasant to a proverb, Jer. xxii. 6), and
   does it so ill requite the Lord? It was a frontier-country, and lay
   much exposed to the insults of enemies, and therefore stood in special
   need of the divine protection; what! and yet by iniquity throw itself
   out of that protection? Is there iniquity in Gilead? Yea, (2.) And in
   Gilgal too; there they sacrifice bullocks (ch. ix. 15), and there their
   altars which they have set up, either to strange gods in opposition to
   his own appointed altar, are as thick as heaps of manure in the furrows
   of the field that is to be sown, ch. viii. 11. Is there iniquity in
   Gilead only? so some. Is it only in those remote parts of the nation
   that people are so superstitious, where they border upon other nations?
   No; they are as bad at Gilgal. In Gilead God protected Jacob their
   father (of whom he had been speaking) from the rage of Laban; and will
   you there commit iniquity?

   II. Here are threatenings of wrath for sin. Some make that to be so (v.
   9), I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the
   appointed time, that is, I will bring thee into such a condition as the
   Israelites were in when they dwelt in tents and wandered for forty
   years; that was the time appointed in the wilderness. Ephraim forgot
   that God brought him out of Egypt and brought him up to be what he was,
   and was proud of his wealth, and took sinful courses to increase it;
   and therefore God threatens to bring him to a tabernacle-state again,
   to a poor, mean, desolate, unsettled condition. Note, It is just with
   God, when men have by their sins turned their tents into houses, by his
   judgments to turn their houses into tents again. However, that is
   certainly a threatening (v. 14), Ephraim provoked him to anger most
   bitterly. See how men are deceived in their opinion of themselves, and
   how they will one day be undeceived. Ephraim thought that there was no
   iniquity in him that deserved to be called sin (v. 8); but God told him
   that there was that in him which was sin, and would be found so if he
   did not repent and reform; for, 1. It was extremely offensive to his
   God: Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly with his iniquities,
   which were so distasteful to God, and to him too would be bitterness in
   the latter end. He was so wilful in sinning against his knowledge and
   convictions that any one might see, and say, that he designed no other
   than to provoke God in the highest degree. 2. It would certainly be
   destructive to himself; that cannot be otherwise which provokes God
   against him, and kindles the fire of his wrath. Therefore, (1.) He
   shall take away his forfeited life: He shall leave his blood upon him,
   that is, he shall not hold him guiltless, but bring upon him that death
   which is the wages of sin. His blood shall be upon his own head (2 Sam.
   i. 16), for his own iniquity has testified against him and he alone
   shall bear it. Note, When sinners perish their blood is left upon them.
   (2.) He shall take away his forfeited honour: His reproach shall his
   Lord return upon him. God is his Lord; he had by idolatry and other
   sins reproached the Lord, and done dishonour to him, and to his name
   and family, and had given occasion to others to reproach him; and now
   God will return the reproach upon him, according to the word he has
   spoken, that those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed. Note,
   Shameful sins shall have shameful punishments. If Ephraim put contempt
   on his God, he shall be so reduced that all his neighbours shall look
   with contempt upon him.

   III. Here are memorials of former mercy, which come in to convict them
   of base ingratitude in revolting from God. Let them blush to remember,

   1. That God had raised them from meanness. When Ephraim had become
   rich, and was proud of that, he forgot that which God (that he might
   not forget it) obliged them every year to acknowledge (Deut. xxvi. 5),
   A Syrian ready to perish was my father. But God here puts them in mind
   of it, v. 12. Let them remember, not only the honours of their father
   Jacob, what a mighty prince he was with God, v. 3 (an honour which they
   had no share in while they were in rebellion against God), but what a
   poor servant he was to Laban, which was sufficient to mortify those
   that were puffed up with the estates they had raised. Jacob fled into
   Syria from a malicious brother, and there served a covetous uncle for a
   wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, because he had not estate to endow
   a wife with. Jacob was poor, and low, and a fugitive; therefore his
   posterity ought not to be proud. He was a plain man, dwelling in tents,
   and keeping sheep; therefore balances of deceit ill became them. He
   served for a wife that was not a Canaanitess, as Esau's wives were;
   therefore it was a shame for them to degenerate into Canaanites, and
   mingle with the nations. God wonderfully preserved him in his flight
   and preserved him in his service, so that he multiplied exceedingly,
   and from that root in a dry ground sprang an illustrious nation, that
   bore his name, which magnifies the goodness of God both to him and them
   and leaves them under the stain of base ingratitude to that God who was
   their founder and benefactor.

   2. That God had rescued them from misery, had raised them to what they
   were, not only out of poverty, but out of slavery (v. 13), which laid
   them under much stronger obligations to serve him and under a yet
   deeper guilt in serving other gods. (1.) God brought Israel out of
   Egypt on purpose that they might serve him, and by redeeming them out
   of bondage acquired a special title to them and to their service. (2.)
   He preserved them, as sheep are kept by the shepherd's care. He
   preserved them from Pharaoh's rage at the sea, even at the Red Sea,
   protected them from all the perils of the wilderness, and provided for
   them. (3.) He did this by a prophet, Moses, who, though he is called
   king in Jeshurun (Deut. xxxiii. 5), yet did what he did for Israel as a
   prophet, by direction from God and by the power of his word. The ensign
   of his authority was not a royal sceptre, but the rod of God; with that
   he summoned both Egypt's plagues and Israel's blessings. Moses, as a
   prophet, was a type of Christ (Acts iii. 22), and it is by Christ as a
   prophet that we are brought out of the Egypt of sin and Satan by the
   power of his truth. Now this shows how very unworthy and ungrateful
   this people were, [1.] In rejecting their God, who had brought them out
   of Egypt, which, in the preface to the commandments, is particularly
   mentioned as a reason for the first, why they should have no other gods
   before him. [2.] In despising and persecuting his prophets, whom they
   should have loved and valued, and have studied to answer God's end in
   sending them, for the sake of that prophet by whom God had brought them
   out of Egypt and preserved them in the wilderness. Note, The benefit we
   have had by the word of God greatly aggravates our sin and folly if we
   put any slight upon the word of God.

   3. That God had taken care of their education as they grew up. This
   instance of God's goodness we have, v. 10. As by a prophet he delivered
   them, so by prophets he still continued to speak to them. Man, who is
   formed out of the earth, is fed out of the earth; so that nation, that
   was formed by prophecy, by prophecy was fed and taught; beginning at
   Moses, and so going on to all the prophets through the several ages of
   that church, we find that divine revelation was all along their
   tuition. (1.) They had prophets raised up among themselves (Amos ii.
   11), a succession of them, were scarcely ever without a Spirit of
   prophecy among them more or less, from Moses to Malachi. (2.) These
   prophets were seers; they had visions, and dreams, in which God
   discovered his mind to them immediately, with a full assurance that it
   was his mind, Num. xii. 6. (3.) These visions were multiplied; God
   spoke not only once, yea, twice, but many a time; if one vision was not
   regarded, he sent another. The prophets had variety of visions, and
   frequent repetitions of the same. (4.) God spoke to them by the
   prophets. What the prophets received from the Lord they plainly and
   faithfully delivered to them. The people at Mount Sinai begged that God
   would speak to them by men like themselves, and he did so. (5.) In
   speaking to them by the prophets he used similitudes, to make the
   messages he sent by them intelligible, more affecting, and more likely
   to be remembered. The visions they saw were often similitudes, and
   their discourses were embellished with very apt comparisons. And, as
   God by his prophets, so by his Son, he used similitudes, for he opened
   his mouth in parables. Note, God keeps an account, whether we do or no,
   of the sermons we hear; and those that have long enjoyed the means of
   grace in purity, plenty, and power, that have been frequently,
   faithfully, and familiarly, told the mind of God, will have a great
   deal to answer for another day if they persist in a course of iniquity.

   IV. Here are intimations of further mercy, and this remembered too in
   the midst of sin and wrath (as some understand v. 9): "I that am the
   Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, who then and there took thee to be
   my people, and have approved myself thy God ever since, in a constant
   series of merciful providences, have yet a kindness for thee, bad as
   thou art; and I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles, not as in the
   wilderness, but as in the days of the solemn feast," the feast of
   tabernacles, which was celebrated with great joy, Lev. xxiii. 40. 1.
   They shall be made to see, by the grace of God, that though they are
   rich, and have found out substance, yet they are but in a
   tabernacle-state, and have in their worldly wealth no continuing city.
   2. They shall yet have cause to rejoice in God, and have opportunity to
   do it in public ordinances. The feast of tabernacles was the first
   solemn feast the Jews kept after their return out of Babylon, Ezra iii.
   4. 3. This, as other promises, was to have its full accomplishment in
   the grace of the gospel, which provides tabernacles for believers in
   their way to heaven, and furnishes them with matter of joy, holy joy,
   joy in God, such as was in the feast of tabernacles, Zech. xiv. 18, 19.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. XIII.

   The same strings, though generally unpleasing ones, are harped upon in
   this chapter that were in those before. People care not to be told
   either of their sin or of their danger by sin; and yet it is necessary,
   and for their good, that they should be told of both, nor can they
   better hear of either than from the word of God and from their faithful
   ministers, while the sin may be repented of and the danger prevented.
   Here, I. The people of Israel are reproved and threatened for their
   idolatry, ver. 1-4. II. They are reproved and threatened for their
   wantonness, pride, and luxury, and other abuses of their wealth and
   prosperity, ver. 5-8. III. The ruin that is coming upon them for these
   and all their other sins is foretold as very terrible, ver. 12, 13, 15,
   16. IV. Those among them that yet retain a respect for their God are
   here encouraged to hope that he will yet appear for their relief,
   though their kings and princes, and all their other supports and
   succours, fail them, ver. 9-11, 14.

Reproofs and Threatenings. (b. c. 722.)

   1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when
   he offended in Baal, he died.   2 And now they sin more and more, and
   have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to
   their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say
   of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.   3 Therefore they
   shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away,
   as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as
   the smoke out of the chimney.   4 Yet I am the Lord thy God from the
   land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no
   saviour beside me.

   Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset the Jewish nation till
   after the captivity; the ten tribes from the first were guilty of it,
   but especially after the days of Ahab; and this is the sin which, in
   these verses, they are charged with. Observe,

   I. The provision that God made to prevent their falling into idolatry.
   This we have, v. 4. God did what was fit to be done to keep them close
   to himself; what could have been done more? 1. He made known himself to
   them as the Lord their God, and took them to be his people in a
   peculiar manner. Both by his word and by his works all along from the
   land of Egypt he declared, I am the Lord thy God; he told them so from
   heaven at Mount Sinai, that he was the Lord and their God, who brought
   them out of the land of Egypt. This he continued both to declare and to
   prove to them by his prophets and by his providences. 2. He gave them a
   law forbidding them to worship any other: "Thou shalt know no God but
   me; not only shalt not own and worship any other, but shalt not
   acquaint thyself with any other, nor make the rites and usages of the
   Gentiles familiar to thee." Note, It is a happy ignorance not to know
   that which we ought not to meddle with. We find those commended who
   have not known the depths of Satan. 3. He gave them a good reason for
   it: There is no saviour besides me. Whatever we take for our God we
   expect to have for our saviour, to make us happy here and hereafter;
   as, where we have protection, we owe allegiance, so where we have
   salvation, and hope for it, we owe adoration.

   II. The honour that Ephraim had, while he kept himself clear from
   idolatry (v. 1): While Ephraim spoke trembling, or with trembling (that
   is, as Dr. Pocock understands it, while he behaved himself towards God
   as his father Jacob did, with weeping and supplications, and spoke not
   proudly and insolently against God and his prophets, while he kept up a
   holy fear of God, and worshipped him in that fear) so long he exalted
   himself in Israel, that is, he was very considerable among the tribes
   and made a figure. Jeroboam, who was of that tribe, exalted himself and
   his family. When he spoke there was trembling, that is, all about him
   stood in awe of him; so some understand it. Note, Those that humble
   themselves, especially that humble themselves before God, shall be
   exalted. When people speak with modesty and jealousy of themselves,
   with a diffidence of their own judgment and a deference to others, they
   exalt themselves, they gain a reputation. But as for Ephraim he soon
   lost himself: When he offended in Baal he died, that is, he lost his
   reputation, his honour soon dwindled and sunk, and was laid in the
   dust. Baal is here put for all idolatry; when Ephraim forsook God, and
   took to worship images, the state received its death's wound and was
   never good for any thing afterwards. Note, Deserting God is the death
   of any person or persons.

   III. The lamentable growth of idolatry among them (v. 2): Now they sin
   more and more. When once he began to offend in Baal the ice was broken,
   and he grew worse and worse, coveted more idols, doted more upon those
   he had, and grew more ridiculous in the worship of them. Note, The way
   of idolatry, as of other sins, is down-hill, and men cannot easily stop
   themselves. It is the sad case of all those who have forsaken God that
   they sin yet more and more. Let us trace them in their apostasy. 1.
   They made themselves molten images, proud to have gods that they could
   cast into what mould they pleased; probably these were the calves in
   miniature like the silver shrines for Diana; the zealots for the
   calf-worship carried about with them, it may be, images of the gods
   they worshipped, made on purpose for themselves. 2. They made them of
   their silver, and then doubted not of their property in them, when they
   purchased them with their own money or made them of their own plate
   melted down for that purpose. See what cost they put themselves to in
   the service of their idols, which they honoured with the best they had,
   and therefore made their molten images of silver. 3. They made them
   according to their own understanding, according to their own fancy.
   They consulted with themselves what shape they should make their idol
   in, and made it accordingly, a god according to the best of their
   judgment. Or according to their own likeness, in the form of a man.
   And, when they made their idols men like themselves in shape, they made
   themselves stocks and stones like them in reality; for those that make
   them are like unto them, and so is every one that trusts in them. 4. It
   was all the work of the craftsmen. Their images did not pretend, like
   that of Diana, to have come down from Jupiter (Acts xix. 35); no,
   perhaps the workmen stamped their names upon them, such an idol was
   such a man's work. See ch. viii. 6; Isa. xliv. 9, &c. 5. Though they
   were thus the work of their hands, yet they were the beloved of their
   souls; for they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the
   calves. Either the priests called upon the people thus to pay their
   homage, or the people, who were not allowed to come so near themselves,
   called upon the men that sacrificed, the priests that attended for
   them, to kiss the calves in their name and stead, because they could
   not reach to do it, so very fond were they of paying their utmost
   respects to such an idol as they were taught to have a veneration for.
   Though they were calves, yet, if they were gods, the worshippers, by
   themselves or their proxies, thus made their honours to them. They
   kissed the calves, in token of the adoration of them, affection for
   them, and allegiance to them, as theirs. Thus we are directed to kiss
   the Son, to take him for our Lord and our God.

   IV. Threatenings of wrath for their idolatry. The Lord, whose name is
   Jealous, is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another; and
   therefore all those that worship images shall be confounded, especially
   if Ephraim do it, Ps. xcvii. 7. Because they are so fond of kissing
   their calves, therefore God will give them sensible convictions of
   their folly, v. 3. They promise themselves a great deal of safety and
   satisfaction in the worship of their idols, and that their prosperity
   will thereby be established; but God tells them that they shall be
   disappointed, and driven away in their wickedness. This is illustrated
   by four similitudes:--They shall be, 1. As the morning cloud, which
   promises showers of rain to the parched ground. 2. As the early dew,
   which seems to be an earnest of such showers. But both pass away, and
   the day proves as dry and hot as ever; so fleet and transitory their
   profession of piety was (ch. vi. 4), and so had they disappointed God's
   expectation from them, and therefore it is just that so their
   prosperity should be, and so their expectations from their idols should
   be disappointed, and so will all theirs be that make an idol of this
   world. 3. They are as the chaff, light and worthless; and they shall be
   driven as the chaff is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, Ps.
   i. 4; xxv. 5; Job xxi. 18. Nay, 4. They are as the smoke, noisome and
   offensive (see Isa. lxv. 5), and they shall be driven away as the smoke
   out of the chimneys, that is soon dissipated and disappears, Ps.
   lxviii. 2. Note, No solid lasting comfort is to be expected any where
   but in God.

Ingratitude of Israel. (b. c. 722.)

   5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.   6
   According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and
   their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.   7
   Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I
   observe them:   8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her
   whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour
   them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

   We may observe here, 1. The plentiful provision God had made for Israel
   and the seasonable supplies he had blessed them with (v. 5): "I did
   know thee in the wilderness, took cognizance of thy case and made
   provision for thee, even in a land of great drought, when thou wast in
   extreme distress, and when no relief was to be had in an ordinary way."
   See a description of this wilderness, Deut. viii. 15, Jer. ii. 6, and
   say, The God that knew them, and owned them, and fed them there, was a
   friend indeed, for he was a friend at need and an all-sufficient
   friend, that could victual so vast an army when all ordinary ways of
   provision were cut off, and where, if miracles had not been their daily
   bread, they must all have perished. Note, Help at an exigency lays
   under peculiar obligations and must never be forgotten. 2. Their
   unworthy ungrateful abuse of God's favour to them. God not only took
   care of them in the wilderness, but put them in possession of Canaan, a
   good land, a large and fat pasture. And (v. 6) according to their
   pasture so were they filled. God gave them both plenty and dainties,
   and they did not spare it, but, having been long confined to manna,
   when they came into Canaan they fed themselves to the full. And this
   was no hopeful presage; it would have looked better, and promised
   better, if they had been more modest and moderate in the use of their
   plenty, and had learned to deny themselves; but what was the effect of
   it? They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Their luxury and
   sensuality made them proud, insolent, and secure. The best comment upon
   this is that of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 13-15. But Jeshurun waxed fat and
   kicked. When the body was stuffed up with plenty the soul was puffed up
   with pride. Then they began to think their religion a thing below them,
   and they could not persuade themselves to stoop to the services of it.
   The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after
   God. When they were poor and lame in the wilderness they thought it was
   necessary for them to keep in with God; but when they were replenished
   and established in Canaan they began to think they had no further need
   of him: Their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten me.
   Note, Worldly prosperity, when it feeds men's pride, makes them
   forgetful of God; for they remember him only when they want him. When
   Israel was filled, what more could the Almighty do for them? And
   therefore they said to him, Depart from us, Job xxii. 17. It is sad
   that those favours which ought to make us mindful of God, and studious
   what we shall render to him, should make us unmindful of him, and
   regardless what we do against him. We ought to know that we live upon
   God when we live upon common providence, though we do not, as Israel in
   the wilderness, live upon miracles. 3. God's just resentment of their
   base ingratitude, v. 7, 8. The judgments threatened (v. 3) intimated
   the departure of all good from them. The threatenings here go further,
   and intimate the breaking in of all evils upon them; for God, who had
   so much befriended them, now turns to be their enemy and fights against
   them, which is expressed here very terribly: I will be unto them as a
   lion and as a leopard. The lion is strong, and there is no resisting
   him. The leopard is here taken notice of to be crafty and vigilant: As
   a leopard by the way will I observe them. As that beast of prey lies in
   wait by the road-side to catch travellers, and devour them, so will God
   by his judgments watch over them to do them hurt, as he had watched
   over them to do them good, Jer. xliv. 27. No opportunity shall be let
   slip that may accelerate or aggravate their ruin (Jer. v. 6): A leopard
   shall watch over their cities. A lynx, or spotted beast (and such the
   leopard is), is noted for quicksightedness above any creature (lynx
   visu--the eyes of a lynx), and so it intimates that not only the power,
   but the wisdom of God is engaged against those whom he has a
   controversy with. Some read it (and the original will bear it), I will
   be as a leopard in the way of Assyria. The judgments of God shall
   surprise them just when they are going to the Assyrians to seek for
   protection and help from them. It is added, I will meet them as a bear
   that is bereaved, and thereby exasperated and made more cruel (2 Sam.
   xvii. 8, Prov. xxviii. 15), which intimates how highly God was
   provoked, and he would make them feel it: He will rend the caul of
   their heart. The lion is observed to aim at the heart of the beasts he
   preys upon, and thus will God devour them like a lion. He will send
   such judgments upon them as shall prey upon their spirits and consume
   their vitals. Their heart was exalted (v. 6), but God will take an
   effectual course to bring it down: The wild beast shall tear them; not
   only God will be as a lion and leopard to them, but the metaphor shall
   be fulfilled in the letter, for noisome beasts are one of the four sore
   judgments with which God will destroy a provoking people, Ezek. xiv.
   15.

   Now all this teaches us, 1. That abused goodness turns into the greater
   severity. Those who despise God and affront him, when he is to them as
   a careful tender shepherd, shall find he will be even to his own flock
   as the beasts of prey are. Those whom God has in vain endured with much
   long-suffering, and invited with much affection, in them he will show
   his wrath and make them vessels of it, Rom. ix. 22. Patientia læsa fit
   furor--Despised patience will turn into fury. 2. That the judgments of
   God, when they come with commission against impenitent sinners, will be
   irresistible and very terrible. They will rend the caul of the heart,
   will fill the soul with confusion, and tear that in pieces; and we are
   as unable to grapple with them as a lamb is to make his part good
   against a roaring lion, for who knows the power of God's anger? Knowing
   therefore the terror of the Lord, let us be persuaded to make peace
   with him; for are we stronger then he?

The Folly of Israel; Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 722.)

   9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.   10
   I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy
   cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
     11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
   12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.   13 The
   sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son;
   for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of
   children.   14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will
   redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will
   be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.   15 Though
   he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of
   the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become
   dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of
   all pleasant vessels.   16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath
   rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants
   shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped
   up.

   The first of these verses is the summary, or contents, of all the rest
   (v. 9), where we have, 1. All the blame of Israel's ruin laid upon
   themselves: O Israel! thy perdition is thence; it is of and from
   thyself; or, "It has destroyed thee, O Israel! that is, all that sin
   and folly of thine which thou art before charged with. As thy own
   wickedness has many a time corrected thee, so that has now at length
   destroyed thee." Note, Wilful sinners are self-destroyers. Obstinate
   impenitence is the grossest self-murder. Those that are destroyed of
   the destroyer have their blood upon their own head; they have destroyed
   themselves. 2. All the glory of Israel's relief ascribed to God: But in
   me is thy help. That is, (1.) It might have been: "I would have helped
   thee and healed thee, but thou wouldst not be healed and helped, but
   wast resolutely set upon thy own destruction." This will aggravate the
   condemnation of sinners, not only that they did that which tended to
   their own ruin, but that they opposed the offers God made them and the
   methods he took with them to prevent it: I would have gathered them,
   and they would not. They might have been easily and effectually helped,
   but they put the help away from them. Nay, (2.) It may be: "Thy case is
   bad, but it is not desperate. Thou hast destroyed thyself; but come to
   me, and I will help thee." This is a plank thrown out after shipwreck,
   and greatly magnifies not only the power of God, that he can help when
   things are at the worst, can help those that cannot help themselves,
   but the riches of his grace, that he will help those that have
   destroyed themselves and therefore might justly be left to perish, that
   he will help those that have long refused his help. Dr. Pocock gives a
   different reading and sense of this verse: "O Israel! this has
   destroyed thee, that in me is thy help. Presuming upon God and his
   favour has emboldened thee in those wicked ways which have been thy
   ruin."

   Now, in the rest of these verses, we may see,

   I. How Israel destroyed themselves. It is said (v. 16), They rebelled
   against God, revolted from their allegiance to him, entered into a
   confederacy with his enemies, and took up arms against him; and this
   was the thing that ruined them, for never any hardened themselves
   against God and prospered. Note, Those that rebel against their God
   destroy themselves, for they make him their enemy for whom they are an
   unequal match.

   1. They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and so they destroy
   themselves. They are doing that, every day, which will be remembered
   against them another day (v. 12): The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up,
   and his sin is hid; God took notice of it, kept it upon record, and
   will produce it against him and reckon with him for it afterwards.
   Their former sins contributed to their present destruction; for they
   were laid up in store with God, Deut. xxxii. 34, 35; Job xiv. 17. It is
   laid up in safety, and will not be forgotten, nor the evidence against
   him lost; but it is laid up in secret; it is hid; the sinner himself is
   not aware of it. It is bound up in God's omniscience, in the sinner's
   own conscience. Note, The sin of sinners is not forgotten till it is
   pardoned, but an exact account is kept of it, which will be opened in
   proper time.

   2. They make no haste to repent and help themselves when they are under
   divine rebukes; they are their own ruin because they will not do what
   they should do towards their own salvation, v. 13. (1.) They are
   brought into trouble and distress by sin: The sorrows of a travailing
   woman shall come upon him. They shall smart for sin, and so be made
   sensible of it; they shall be thrown into pangs and agonies by it, very
   sharp and severe, and yet, like the pains of a woman in labour, hopeful
   and promising, and in order to deliverance; and by these, though God
   corrects them, yet he designs their good. They are chastened, that they
   may not be destroyed. But, (2.) They are not by these forwarded as they
   ought to be towards repentance and reformation, which would cause their
   sorrows to issue in true joy: He is an unwise son, for he should not
   stay long, as he does, in the place of the breaking forth of children,
   but, being brought to the birth, should struggle to get forth, lest he
   be stifled and still-born at last. Were the child which the mother is
   in travail of capable of understanding its own case, we should reckon
   it an unwise child that would choose to stay long in the birth; for the
   captive exile hasteth to be loosed, lest he die in the pit, Isa. li.
   14. Note, Those may justly be reckoned their own destroyers who defer
   and put off their repentance, by which alone they might help
   themselves. Those are in danger of miscarrying in conversion who delay
   it, and will not put forth themselves to speed the work and bring it to
   an issue.

   3. Therefore they are destroyed because they have done that which will
   be their certain ruin and neglected that which would have been their
   only relief. Here is a sad description of the desolation they are
   doomed to, v. 15, 16. It is here taken for granted that Ephraim is
   fruitful among his children; his name signifies fruitfulness. He is
   fruitful in respect of the plentiful products of his country and the
   great numbers of its inhabitants; it was both a rich and a populous
   tribe, as was foretold concerning it; but sin turns this fruitful tribe
   into barrenness. Joseph was a fruitful bough, but for sin it was
   blasted. The instrument is an east wind, representing a foreign enemy
   that should invade it. It is called the wind of the Lord, not only
   because it shall be a very great and strong wind, but because it shall
   be sent by divine direction; it shall come from the Lord, and do
   whatever he appoints; and see what effect it shall have upon that
   flourishing tribe, what desolations war shall make. (1.) Was it a rich
   tribe? The foreign enemy shall make it poor enough. This wind of the
   Lord shall come up from the wilderness, a freezing blasting wind, and
   shall dry up the springs and fountains with which this tree is watered,
   shall exhaust the sources of its wealth. The invader shall waste the
   country and so impoverish the husbandman, shall intercept trade and
   commerce and so impoverish the merchant; and let not the great men,
   whose wealth lies in their rich furniture, think that they shall be
   exempted from the judgment, for he shall spoil the treasure of all
   pleasant vessels. See the folly of those that lay up their treasure on
   earth, that lay it up in pleasant vessels (vessels of desire, so the
   word is), on which they set their affections, and in which they place
   their comfort and satisfaction. This is treasure that may be spoiled
   and that they may be spoiled of; it is what either moth or rust may
   corrupt, or what thieves and soldiers may steal and carry away. But
   wise and happy are those who have laid up their treasures in heaven,
   and in the pleasant things of that world, which cannot be spoiled,
   which they cannot be stripped of; ever happy are they, and therefore
   truly wise. (2.) Was it a populous tribe, and numerous? The enemy shall
   depopulate it and make its men few: Samaria shall become desolate,
   without inhabitants. [1.] Those shall be cut off who are the guard and
   joy of the present generation; the men who bear arms shall bear them to
   no purpose, for they shall fall by the sword, so that there shall be
   none to make head against the fury of the conqueror nor to take care of
   the concerns either of the public or of private families. [2.] Those
   shall be cut off who are the seed and hope of the next generation, who
   should rise up in the places of those who fell by the sword; the whole
   nation must be rooted out, and therefore the infants shall be dashed to
   pieces, in the most cruel and barbarous manner, and, which is if
   possible yet more inhuman, the women with child shall be ripped up.
   Thus shall the glory of Samaria flee away from the birth, and from the
   womb, ch. ix. 11; x. 14. See instances of this cruelty, 2 Kings viii.
   12; xv. 16; Amos i. 13.

   II. Let us now see how God was the help of this self-destroying people,
   how he was their only help (v. 10): I will be thy King, to rule and
   save thee. Though they had refused to be his subjects and had rebelled
   against him, yet he would still be their King and would not abandon
   them. The business and care of a good king is to keep his people, not
   only from ruined by foreign enemies, but from ruining themselves and
   one another. Thus will God yet be Israel's King, as he was their King
   of old. Note, Our case would be sad indeed if God were not better to us
   than we are to ourselves.

   1. God will be their King when they have no other king; he will protect
   and save them when those are cut off and gone who should have been
   their protectors and saviours: I will be he (so v. 10 may be read), he
   that shall help thee. "Where is the king that may save thee in all thy
   cities, that may go in and out before thee, and fight thy battles, when
   thy cities are invaded by a foreign power, and suppress the more
   dangerous quarrels of thy citizens among themselves? Where are thy
   judges, who by administering public justice should preserve the public
   peace? For it is righteousness and peace that kiss each other. Where
   are thy judges that thou hadst such a desire of and such a dependence
   upon, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? This refers,
   (1.) To the foolish wicked desire which the whole nation had of a
   kingly government, being weary of the theocracy, or divine government,
   which they had been under during the time of the Judges, because it
   looked too mean for them. They rejected Samuel, and in him the Lord,
   when they said, Give us a king like the nations, whereas the Lord was
   their King. (2.) To the desire which the ten tribes had of a kingly
   government different from that of the house of David, because they
   thought that was too absolute and bore too hard upon them, and they
   hoped to better themselves by setting up Jeroboam. Both these are
   instances, [1.] Of men's improvidence for themselves. When they are
   uneasy with their present lot they are fond of novelty, and think to
   better themselves by a change; but they are commonly disappointed, and
   do not find that advantage in the alteration which they promised
   themselves. [2.] Of men's impiety towards God, in thinking to refine
   upon his appointments and amend them. God gave Israel judges and
   prophets for their guidance; but they were weary of them, and cried,
   Give us a king and princes. God gave them the house of David,
   established it by a covenant of royalty; but they were soon weary of
   that too, and cried, We have no part in David. Those destroy themselves
   who are not pleased with what God does for them, but think they can do
   better for themselves. Well, in both these requests, Providence
   humoured them, gave them Saul first, and afterwards Jeroboam. And what
   the better were they for them? Saul was given in anger (given in
   thunder, 1 Sam. xii. 18, 19) and soon after was taken away in wrath,
   upon Mount Gilboa. The kingly government of the ten tribes was given in
   anger, not only against Solomon for his defection, but against the ten
   tribes that desired it, for their discontent and disaffection to the
   house of David; and God was now about to take that away in wrath by the
   power of the king of Assyria. And then, where is thy King? He is gone,
   and thou shalt abide many days without a king, and without a prince
   (ch. iii. 4), shalt have none to save thee, none to rule thee. Note,
   First, God often gives in anger what we sinfully and inordinately
   desire, gives it with a curse, and with it gives us up to our own
   hearts' lusts. Thus he gave Israel quails. Secondly, What we
   inordinately desire we are commonly disappointed in, and it cannot save
   us, as we expected it should. Thirdly, What God gives in anger he takes
   away in wrath; what he gives because we did not desire it well he takes
   away because we did not use it well. It is the happiness of the saints
   that, whether God gives or takes, it is all in love, and furnishes them
   with matter for praise. To the pure all things are pure. It is the
   misery of the wicked that, whether God gives or takes, it is all in
   wrath; to them nothing is pure, nothing is comfortable.

   2. God will do that for them which no other king could do if they had
   one (v. 14): I will ransom them from the power of the grave. Though
   Israel, according to the flesh, be abandoned to destruction, God has
   mercy in store for his spiritual Israel, in whom all the promises were
   to have their accomplishment, and this among the rest, for to them the
   apostle applies it (1 Cor. xv. 55), and particularly to the blessed
   resurrection of believers at the great day, yet not excluding their
   spiritual resurrection from the death of sin to a holy, heavenly,
   spiritual, and divine life. It is promised, (1.) That the captives
   shall be delivered, shall be ransomed, from the power of the grave.
   Their deliverance shall be by ransom; and we know who it was that paid
   their ransom, and what the ransom was, for it was the Son of man that
   gave his life a ransom for many, Matt. xx. 28. It is he that thus
   redeemed them. Those who, upon their repenting and believing, are, for
   the sake of Christ's righteousness, acquitted from the guilt of sin and
   saved from death and hell, which are the wages of sin, are those
   ransomed of the Lord that shall, in the great day, be brought out of
   the grave in triumph, and it shall be as impossible for the banks of
   death to hold them as it was to hold their Master. (2.) That the
   conqueror shall be destroyed: O death! I will be thy plagues. Jesus
   Christ was the plague and destruction of death and the grave when by
   death he destroyed him that had the power of death, and when in his own
   resurrection he triumphed over the grave. But the complete destruction
   of them will be in the resurrection of believers at the great day, when
   death shall for ever be swallowed up in victory, and it is the last
   enemy that shall be destroyed. But the word which we translate I will
   may as well be rendered Ubi nunc--Where now are thy plagues? And so the
   apostle took it: 'O death! where is thy plague, or sting, with which
   thou hast so long pestered the world? O grave! where is thy victory, or
   thy destruction, wherewith thou has destroyed mankind?" Christ has
   abolished death, has broken the power of it and altered the property of
   it, and so enabled us to triumph over it. This promise he has made, and
   it shall be made good to all that are his; for repentance shall be
   hidden from his eyes; he will never recall this sentence passed on
   death and the grave, for he is not a man that he should repent. Thanks
   be to God therefore who gives us the victory.
     __________________________________________________________________

H O S E A.

  CHAP. XIV.

   The strain of this chapter differs from that of the foregoing chapters.
   Those were generally made up of reproofs for sin and threatenings of
   wrath; but this is made up of exhortations to repentance and promises
   of mercy, and with these the prophet closes; for all the foregoing
   convictions and terrors he had spoken were designed to prepare and make
   way for these. He wounds that he may heal. The Spirit convinces that he
   may comfort. This chapter is a lesson for penitents; and some such
   there were in Israel at this day, bad as things were. We have here, I.
   Directions in repenting, what to do and what to say, ver. 1-3. II.
   Encouragements to repent taken from God's readiness to receive
   returning sinners (ver. 4, 8) and the comforts he has treasured up for
   them, ver. 5-7. III. A solemn recommendation of these things to our
   serious thoughts, ver. 9.

Penitents Encouraged. (b. c. 720.)

   1 O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine
   iniquity.   2 Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him,
   Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render
   the calves of our lips.   3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride
   upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye
   are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

   Here we have,

   I. A kind invitation given to sinners to repent, v. 1. It is directed
   to Israel, God's professing people. They are called to return. Note,
   Conversion must be preached even to those that are within the pale of
   the church as well as to heathen. "Thou are Israel, and therefore art
   bound to thy God in duty, gratitude, and interest; thy revolt from him
   is so much the more heinous, and thy return to him so much the more
   necessary." Let Israel see, 1. What work he has made for repentance:
   "Thou has fallen by thy iniquity." Thou has stumbled; so some read it.
   Their idols were their stumbling-blocks. "Thou has fallen from God into
   sin, fallen off from all good, fallen down under the load of guilt and
   the curse." Note, Sin is a fall; and it concerns those that have fallen
   by sin to get up again by repentance. 2. What work he has to do in his
   repentance: "Return to the Lord thy God; return to him as the Lord whom
   thou has a dependence upon, as thy God, thine in covenant, whom thou
   has an interest in." Note, It is the great concern of those that have
   revolted from God to return to God, and so to do their first works.
   "Return to him from whom thou has fallen, and who alone is able to
   raise thee up. Return even to the Lord, or quite home to the Lord; do
   not only look to him, or take some steps towards him, but make thorough
   work of it." The ancient Jews had a saying grounded on this, Repentance
   is a great thing, for it brings men quite up to the throne of glory.

   II. Necessary instructions given them how to repent. 1. They must
   bethink themselves what to say to God when they come to him: Take with
   you words. They are required to bring, not sacrifices and offerings,
   but penitential prayers and supplications, the fruit of thy lips, yet
   not of the lips only, but of the heart, else words are but wind. One of
   the rabbin says, They must be such words as proceed from what is spoken
   first in the inner man; the heart must dictate to the tongue. We must
   take good words with us, by taking good thoughts and good affections
   with us. Verbaque prævisam rem non invita sequentur--Those who master a
   subject are seldom at a loss for language. Note, When we come to God we
   should consider what we have to say to him; for, if we come without an
   errand, we are likely to go without an answer. Ezra ix. 10, What shall
   we say? We must take with us words from the scripture, take them from
   the Spirit of grace and supplication, who teaches us to cry, Abba,
   Father, and makes intercession in us. 2. They must bethink themselves
   what to do. They must not only take with them words, but must turn to
   the Lord; inwardly in their hearts, outwardly in their lives.

   III. For their assistance herein, and encouragement, God is pleased to
   put words into their mouths, to teach them what they shall say. Surely
   we may hope to speed with God, when he himself has ordered our address
   to be drawn up ready to our hands, and his own Spirit has indited it
   for us; and no doubt we shall speed if the workings of our souls agree
   with the words here recommended to us. They are,

   1. Petitioning words. Two things we are here directed to petition
   for:--(1.) To be acquitted from guilt. When we return to the Lord we
   must say to him, Lord, take away all iniquity. They were now smarting
   for sin, under the load of affliction, but are taught to pray, not as
   Pharaoh, Take away this death, but, Take away this sin. Note, When we
   are in affliction we should be more concerned for the forgiveness of
   our sins than for the removal of our trouble. "Take away iniquity, lift
   it off as a burden we are ready to sink under or as the stumbling-block
   which we have often fallen over. Lord, take it away, that it may not
   appear against us, to our confusion and condemnation. Take it all away
   by a free and full remission, for we cannot pretend to strike any of it
   off by a satisfaction of our own." When God pardons sin he pardons all,
   that great debt; and when we pray against sin we must pray against it
   all and not except any. (2.) To be accepted as righteous in God's
   sight: "Receive us graciously. Let us have thy favour and love, and
   have thou respect to us and to our performances. Receive our prayer
   graciously; be well pleased with that good which by thy grace we are
   enabled to do." Take good (so the word is); take it to bestow upon us,
   so the margin reads it--Give good. This follows upon the petition for
   the taking away of iniquity; for, till iniquity is taken away, we have
   no reason to expect any good from God, but the taking away of iniquity
   makes way for the conferring of good removendo prohibens--by taking
   that out of the way which hindered. Give good; they do not say what
   good, but refer themselves to God; it is not good of the world's
   showing (Ps. iv. 6), but good of God's giving. "Give good, that good
   which we have forfeited, and which thou has promised, and which the
   necessity of our case calls for." Note, God's gracious acceptance, and
   the blessed fruits and tokens of that acceptance, are to be earnestly
   desired and prayed for by us in our returning to God. "Give good, that
   good which will make us good and keep us from returning to iniquity
   again."

   2. Promising words. These also are put into their mouths, not to move
   God, or to oblige him to show them mercy, but to move themselves, and
   oblige themselves to returns of duty. Note, Our prayers for pardon and
   acceptance with God should be always accompanied with sincere purposes
   and vows of new obedience. Two things they are to promise and
   vow:--(1.) Thanksgiving. "Pardon our sins, and accept of us, so will we
   render the calves of our lips." The fruit of our lips (so the LXX.), a
   word they used for burnt-offerings, and so it agrees with the Hebrew.
   The apostle quotes this phrase (Heb. xiii. 15), and by the fruit of our
   lips understands the sacrifice of praise to God, giving thanks to his
   name. Note, Praise and thanksgiving are our spiritual sacrifice, and,
   if they come from an upright heart, shall please the Lord better than
   an ox or bullock, Ps. lxxix. 30, 32. And the sense of our pardon and
   acceptance with God will enlarge our hearts in praise and thankfulness.
   Those that are received graciously may, and must, render the calves of
   their lips--poor returns for rich receivings, yet, if sincere, more
   acceptable than the calves of the stall. (2.) Amendment of life. They
   are taught to promise, not only verbal acknowledgements, but a real
   reformation. And we are taught here, [1.] In our returns to God to
   covenant against sin. We cannot expect that God should take it away by
   forgiving it if we do not put it away by forsaking it. [2.] To be
   particular in our covenants and resolutions against sin, as we ought to
   be in our confession, because deceit lies in generals. [3.] To covenant
   especially and expressly against those sins which we have been most
   subject to, which have most easily beset us, and which we have been
   most frequently overcome by. We must keep ourselves from, and therefore
   must thus fortify ourselves against, our own iniquity, Ps. xviii. 23.
   The sin they here covenant against, owning thereby that they had been
   guilty of it, is giving that glory to another which is due to God only;
   this they promise they will never do, First, By putting that confidence
   in creatures which should be put in God only. They will not trust to
   their alliances abroad: Asshur (that is, Assyria) shall not save us.
   "We will not court the help of the Assyrians when we are in distress,
   as we have done (ch. v. 13; vii. 11; viii. 9); we will not contract for
   it, nor will we confide in it, or depend upon it. Having a God to go
   to, a God all-sufficient to trust to, we scorn to be beholden to the
   Assyrians for help." They will not trust to their warlike preparations
   at home, especially not those which they were forbidden to multiply:
   "We will not ride upon horses, that is, we will not make court to
   Egypt," for thence they fetched their horses, Deut. xvii. 16; Isa. xxx.
   16; xxxi. 1, 3. "When our enemies invade us we will depend upon our God
   to succour our infantry, and will be in no care to remount our
   cavalry." Or, "We will not post on horseback, for haste, from one
   creature to another, to seek relief, but will take the nearest way, and
   the only sure way, by addressing ourselves to God," Isa. xx. 5. Note,
   True repentance takes us off from trusting to an arm of flesh, and
   brings us to rely on God only for all the good we stand in need of.
   Secondly, Nor will they do it by paying that homage to creatures which
   is due to God only. We will not say any more to the works of our hands,
   You are our gods. They must promise never to worship idols again, and
   for a good reason, because it is the most absurd and senseless thing in
   the world to pray to that as a god which is the work of our hands. We
   must promise that we will not set our hearts upon the gains of this
   world, nor pride ourselves in our external performances in religion,
   for that is, in effect, to say to the work of our hands, You are our
   gods.

   3. Pleading words are here put into their mouths: For in thee the
   fatherless find mercy. We must take our encouragement in prayer, not
   from any merit God finds in us, but purely from the mercy we hope to
   find in God. This contains in itself a great truth, that God takes
   special care of fatherless children, Ps. lxviii. 4, 5. So he did in his
   law, Exod. xxii. 22. So he does in his providence, Ps. xxvii. 10. It is
   God's prerogative to help the helpless. In him there is mercy for such,
   for they are proper objects of mercy. In him they find it; there it is
   laid up for them, and there they must seek it; seek and you shall find.
   It comes in here as a good plea for mercy and grace and an encouraging
   one to their faith. (1.) They plead the distress of their state and
   condition: "We are fatherless orphans, destitute of help." Those may
   expect to find help in God that are truly sensible of their
   helplessness in themselves and are willing to acknowledge it. This is a
   good step towards comfort. "If we have not yet boldness to call God
   Father, yet we look upon ourselves as fatherless without him, and
   therefore lay ourselves at his feet, to be looked upon by him with
   compassion." (2.) They plead God's wonted lovingkindness to such as
   were in that condition: With thee the fatherless not only may find, but
   does find, and shall find, mercy. It is a great encouragement to our
   faith and hope, in returning to God, that it is his glory to father the
   fatherless and help the helpless.

Assurance of Mercy; Repentance of Ephraim. (b. c. 720.)

   4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine
   anger is turned away from him.   5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he
   shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.   6 His
   branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and
   his smell as Lebanon.   7 They that dwell under his shadow shall
   return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent
   thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

   We have here an answer of peace to the prayers of returning Israel.
   They seek God's face, and they shall not seek in vain. God will be sure
   to meet those in a way of mercy who return to him in a way of duty. If
   we speak to God in good prayers, God will speak to us in good promises,
   as he answered the angel with good words and comfortable words, Zech.
   i. 13. If we take with us the foregoing words in our coming to God, we
   may take home with us these following words for our faith to feast
   upon; and see how these answer those.

   I. Do they dread and deprecate God's displeasure, and therefore return
   to him? He assures them that, upon their submission, his anger is
   turned away from them. This is laid as the ground of all the other
   favours here promised. I will do so and so, for my anger is turned
   away, and thereby a door is opened for all good to flow to them, Isa.
   xii. 1. Note, Though God is justly and greatly angry with sinners, yet
   he is not implacable in his anger; it may be turned away; it shall be
   turned away, from those that turn away from their iniquity. God will be
   reconciled to those that are reconciled to him and to his whole will.

   II. Do they pray for the taking away of iniquity? He assures them that
   he will heal their backslidings; so he promised, Jer. iii. 22. Note,
   Though backslidings from God are the dangerous diseases and wounds of
   the soul, yet they are not incurable, for God has graciously promised
   that if backsliding sinners will apply to him as their physician, and
   comply with his methods, he will heal their backslidings. He will heal
   the guilt of their backslidings by pardoning mercy and their bent to
   backslide by renewing grace. Their iniquity shall not be their ruin.

   III. Do they pray that God will receive them graciously? In answer to
   that, behold, it is promised, I will love them freely. God had hated
   them while they went on sin (ch. ix. 15); but now that they return and
   repent he loves them, not only ceases to be angry with them, but takes
   complacency in them and designs their good. He loves them freely, with
   an absolute entire love (so some), so that there are no remains of his
   former displeasure, with a liberal bountiful love (so others); he will
   be open-handed in his love to them, and will think nothing too much to
   bestow upon them or to do for them. Or with a cheerful willing love; he
   will love them without reluctancy or renitency. He will not say in the
   day of thy repentance, How shall I receive thee again? as he said in
   the day of thy apostasy, How shall I give thee up? Or with an unmerited
   preventing love. Whom God loves he loves freely, not because they
   deserve it, but of his own good pleasure. He loves because he will
   love, Deut. vii. 7, 8.

   IV. Do they pray that God will give good, will make them good? In
   answer to that, behold, it is promised, I will be as the dew unto
   Israel, v. 5. Observe,

   1. What shall be the favour God will bestow upon them. It is the
   blessing of their father Jacob, God give thee the dew of heaven, Gen.
   xxvii. 28. Nay, what they need God will not only give them, but he will
   himself be that to them, all that which they need: I will be as the dew
   unto Israel. This ensures spiritual blessings in heavenly things; and
   it follows upon the healing of their backslidings, for pardoning mercy
   is always accompanied with renewing grace. Note, To Israelites indeed
   God himself will be as the dew. He will instruct them; his doctrine
   shall drop upon them as the dew, Deut. xxxii. 2. They shall know more
   and more of him, for he will come to them as the rain, Hos. vi. 3. He
   will refresh them with his comforts, so that their souls shall be as a
   watered garden, Isa. lviii. 11. He will be to true penitents as the dew
   to Israel when they were in the wilderness, dew that had manna in it,
   Exod. xvi. 14; Num. xi. 9. The graces of the Spirit are the hidden
   manna, hidden in the dew; God will give them bread from heaven, as he
   did to Israel in the dew in abundance, John i. 16.

   2. What shall be the fruit of that favour which shall be produced in
   them. The grace thus freely bestowed on them shall not be in vain.
   Those souls, those Israelites, to whom God is as the dew, on whom his
   grace distils,

   (1.) Shall be growing. The bad being by the grace of God made good,
   they shall by the same grace be made better; for grace, wherever it is
   true, is growing. [1.] They shall grow upwards, and be more
   flourishing, shall grow as the lily, or (as some read it) shall blossom
   as the rose. The growth of the lily, as that of all bulbous roots, is
   very quick and speedy. The root of the lily seems lost in the ground
   all winter, but, when it is refreshed with the dews of the spring, it
   starts up in a little time; so the grace of God improves young converts
   sometimes very fast. The lily, when it has come to its height, is a
   lovely flower (Matt. vi. 29), so grace is the comeliness of the soul,
   Ezek. xvi. 14. It is the beauty of holiness that is produced by the dew
   of the morning, Ps. cx. 3. [2.] They shall grow downwards, and be more
   firm. The lily indeed grows fast, and grows fine, but it soon fades and
   is easily plucked up; and therefore it is here promised to Israel that
   with the flower of the lily he shall have the root of the cedar: He
   shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon, as the trees of Lebanon, which,
   having taken deep root, cannot be plucked up, Amos ix. 15. Note,
   Spiritual growth consists most in the growth of the root, which is out
   of sight. The more we depend upon Christ and draw sap and virtue from
   him, the more we act in religion from a principle and the more
   steadfast and resolved we are in it, the more we cast forth our roots.
   [3.] They shall grow round about (v. 6): His branches shall spread on
   all sides. And (v. 7) he shall grow as the vine, whose branches extend
   furthest of any tree. Joseph was to be a fruitful bough, Gen. xlix. 22.
   When many are added to the church from without, when a hopeful
   generation rises up, then Israel's branches spread. When particular
   believers abound in good works, and increase in the knowledge of God
   and in every good gift, then their branches may be said to spread. The
   inward man is renewed day by day.

   (2.) They shall be graceful and acceptable both to God and man. Grace
   is the amiable thing, and makes those that have it truly amiable. They
   are here compared to such trees as are pleasant, [1.] To the sight: His
   beauty shall be as the olive-tree, which is always green. The Lord
   called thy name a green olive-tree, Jer. xi. 16. Ordinances are the
   beauty of the church, and in them it is, and shall be, ever green.
   Holiness is the beauty of a soul; when those that believe with the
   heart make profession with the mouth, and justify and adorn that
   profession with an agreeable conversation, then their beauty is as the
   olive-tree, Ps. lii. 8. It is a promise to the trees of righteousness
   that their leaf shall not wither. [2.] To the smell: His smell shall be
   as Lebanon (v. 6) and his scent as the wine of Lebanon, v. 7. This was
   the praise of their father Jacob, The smell of my son is as the smell
   of a field which the Lord has blessed, Gen. xxvii. 27. The church is
   compared to a garden of spices (Cant. iv. 12, 14), which all her
   garments smell of. True believers are acceptable to God and approved of
   men. God smells a sweet savour from their spiritual sacrifices (Gen.
   viii. 21), and they are accepted of the multitude of the brethren.
   Grace is the perfume of the soul, the perfume of the name, makes it
   like a precious ointment, Eccl. vii. 1. The memorial thereof shall be
   as the wine of Lebanon (so the margin reads it), not only their
   reviving comforts now, but their surviving honours when they are gone,
   shall be as the wine of Lebanon, that has a delicate flavour.
   Flourishing churches have their faith spoken of throughout the world
   (Rom. i. 8) and leave their name to be remembered (Ps. xlv. 17); and
   the memory of flourishing saints is blessed, and shall be so, as theirs
   who by faith obtained a good report.

   (3.) They shall be fruitful and useful. The church is compared here to
   the vine and the olive, which brings forth useful fruits, to the honour
   of God and man. Nay, the very shadow of the church shall be agreeable
   (v. 7): Those that dwell under his shadow shall return--under God's
   shadow (so some), under the shadow of the Messias, so the Chaldee.
   Believers dwell under God's shadow (Ps. xci. 1), and there they are and
   may be safe and easy. But it is rather under the shadow of Israel,
   under the shadow of the church. Note, God's promises pertain to those,
   and those only, that dwell under the church's shadow, that attend on
   God's ordinances and adhere to his people, not those that flee to that
   shadow only for shelter in a hot gleam, but those that dwell under it.
   Ps. xxvii. 4. We may apply it to particular believers; when a man is
   effectually brought home to God all that dwell under his
   shadow--children, servants, subjects, friends. This day has salvation
   come to this house. Those that dwell under the shadow of the church
   shall return; their drooping spirits shall return, and they shall be
   refreshed and comforted. He restores my soul, Ps. xxiii. 3. They shall
   revive as the corn, which, when it is sown, dies first, and then
   revives, and brings forth much fruit, John xii. 24. It is promised that
   God's people shall be blessings to the world, as corn and wine are. And
   a very great and valuable mercy it is to be serviceable to our
   generation. Comfort and honour attend it.

Assurances of Mercy. (b. c. 720.)

   8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have
   heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy
   fruit found.   9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?
   prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right,
   and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall
   therein.

   Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

   I. Concerning Ephraim; he is spoken of and spoken to, v. 8. Here we
   have,

   1. His repentance and reformation: Ephraim shall say, What have I to do
   any more with idols? As some read it, God here reasons and argues with
   him, why he should renounce idolatry: "O Ephraim! what to me and idols?
   What concord or agreement can there be between me and idols? What
   communion between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial? 2 Cor.
   vi. 14, 15. Therefore thou must break off thy league with them if thou
   wilt come into covenant with me." As we read it, God promises to bring
   Ephraim and keep him to this: Ephraim shall say, God will put it into
   his heart to say it, What have I to do any more with idols? He has
   promised (v. 3) not to say any more to the works of his hands, You are
   my gods. But God's promises to us are much more our security and our
   strength for the mortifying of sin than our promises to God; and
   therefore God himself is here surety for his servant to good, will put
   in into his heart and into his mouth. And, whatever good we say or do
   at any time, it is he that works it in us. Ephraim had solemnly engaged
   not to call his idols his gods; but God here engages further for him
   that he shall resolve to have no more to do with them. He shall abolish
   them, he shall abandon them, and that with the utmost detestation; for
   it is necessary not only that in our lives we be turned from sin, but
   that in our hearts we be turned against sin. See here, (1.) The power
   of divine grace. Ephraim had been joined to his idols (ch. iv. 17), was
   so fond of them that one would have thought he could never fall out
   with them; and yet God will work such a change in him that he shall
   loathe them as much as ever he loved them. (2.) See the benefit of
   sanctified afflictions. Ephraim had smarted for his idolatry; it had
   brought one judgment after another upon him, and this at length is the
   fruit, even the taking away of his sin, Isa. xxvii. 9. (3.) See the
   nature of repentance; it is a firm and fixed resolution to have no more
   to do with sin. This is the language of the penitent: "I am ashamed
   that ever I had to do with sin; but I have had enough of it; I hate it,
   and by the grace of God I will never have any thing to do with it
   again, no, not with the occasions of it." Thou shalt say to thy idol,
   Get thee hence (Isa. xxx. 22), shalt say to the tempter, Get thee
   behind me, Satan.

   2. The gracious notice God is pleased to take of it: I have heard him,
   and observed him. I have heard, and will look upon him; so some read
   it. Note, The God of heaven takes cognizance of the penitent
   reflections and resolutions of returning sinners. He expects and
   desires the repentance of sinners, because he has no pleasure in their
   ruin. He looks upon men (Job xxxiii. 27), hearkens and hears, Jer.
   viii. 6. And, if there be any disposition to repent, he is well pleased
   with it. When Ephraim bemoans himself before God, he is a dear son, he
   is a pleasant child, Jer. xxxi. 20. He meets penitents with mercy, as
   the father of the prodigal met his returning son. God observed Ephraim,
   to see whether he would bring forth fruits meet for this profession of
   repentance that he made, and whether he would continue in this good
   mind. He observed him to do him good, and comfort him, according to the
   exigencies of his case.

   3. The mercy of God designed for him, in order to his comfort and
   perseverance in his resolutions; still God will be all in all to him.
   Before, Israel was compared to a tree, now God compares himself to one.
   He will be to his people, (1.) As the branches of a tree: "I am like a
   green fir-tree, and will be so to thee." The fir-trees, in those
   countries, were exceedingly large and thick, and a shelter against sun
   and rain. God will be to all true converts both a delight and a
   defence; under his protection and influence they shall both dwell in
   safety and dwell in ease. He with be either a sun and a shield or a
   shade and a shield, according as their case requires. They shall sit
   down under his shadow with delight, Cant. ii. 3. He will be so all
   weathers, Isa. iv. 6. (2.) As the root of a tree: From me is thy fruit
   found, which may be understood either of the fruit brought forth to us
   (to him we owe all our comforts) or of the fruit brought forth by
   us--from him we receive grace and strength to enable us to do our duty.
   Whatever fruits of righteousness we brought forth, all the praise of
   them is due to God; for he works in us both to will and to do that
   which is good.

   II. Concerning every one that hears and reads the words of the prophecy
   of this book (v. 9): Who is wise? and he shall understand these things.
   Perhaps the prophet was wont to conclude that sermons he preached with
   these words, and now he closes with them the whole book, in which he
   has committed to writing some fragments of the many sermons he had
   preached. Observe, 1. The character of those that do profit by the
   truths he delivered: Who is wise and prudent? He shall understand these
   things, he shall know them. Those that set themselves to understand and
   know these things thereby make it to appear that they are truly wise
   and prudent, and will thereby be made more so; and, if any do not
   understand and know them, it is because they are foolish and unwise.
   Those that are wise in the doing of their duty, that are prudent in
   practical religion, are most likely to know and understand both the
   truths and providences of God, which are a mystery to others, John vii.
   17. The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him, Ps. xxv. 14.
   Who is wise? This intimates a desire that those who read and hear these
   things would understand them (O that they were wise!) and a complaint
   that few were so--Who has believed our report? 2. The excellency of
   these things concerning which we are here instructed: The ways of the
   Lord are right; and therefore it is our wisdom and duty to know and
   understand them. The way of God's precepts, in which he requires us to
   walk, is right, agreeing with the rules of eternal reason and equity
   and having a direct tendency to our eternal felicity. The ways of God's
   providence, in which he walks toward us, are all right; no fault is to
   be found with any thing that God does, for it is all well done. His
   judgments upon the impenitent, his favours to the penitent, are all
   right; however they may be perverted and misinterpreted, God will at
   last be justified and glorified in them all. His ways are equal. 3. The
   different use which men make of them. (1.) The right ways of God to
   those that are good are, and will be, a savour of life unto life: The
   just shall walk in them; they shall conform to the will of God both in
   his precepts and in his providences, and shall have the comfort of so
   doing. They shall well understand the mind of God both in his word and
   in his works; they shall be well reconciled to both, and shall
   accommodate themselves to God's intention in both. The just shall walk
   in those ways towards their great end, and shall not come short of it.
   (2.) The right ways of God will be to those that are wicked a savour of
   death unto death: The transgressors shall fall not only in their own
   wrong ways, but even in the right ways of the Lord. Christ, who is a
   foundation stone to some, is to others a stone of stumbling and a rock
   of offence. That which was ordained to life becomes through their abuse
   of it, death to them. God's providences, being not duly improved by
   them, harden them in sin and contribute to their ruin. God's discovery
   of himself both in the judgments of his mouth and in the judgments of
   his hand is to us according as we are affected under it. Recipitur ad
   modum recipientis--What is received influences according to the
   qualities of the receiver. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay.
   But of all transgressors those certainly have the most dangerous fatal
   falls that fall in the ways of God, that split on the rock of ages, and
   suck poison out of the balm of Gilead. Let the sinners in Zion be
   afraid of this.
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     __________________________________________________________________

Joel
     __________________________________________________________________

   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

J O E L.
     __________________________________________________________________

   We are altogether uncertain concerning the time when this prophet
   prophesied; it is probable that it was about the same time Amos
   prophesied, not for the reason that the rabbin give, "Because Amos
   begins his prophecy with that wherewith Joel concludes his, The Lord
   shall roar out of Zion," but for the reason Dr. Lightfoot gives,
   "Because he speaks of the same judgments of locusts, and drought, and
   fire, that Amos laments, which is an intimation that they appeared
   about the same time, Amos in Israel and Joel in Judah. Hosea and
   Obadiah prophesied about the same time; and it appears that Amos
   prophesied in the days of Jeroboam, the second king of Israel, Amos
   vii. 10. God sent a variety of prophets, that they might strengthen the
   hands one of another, and that out of the mouth of two or three
   witnesses every word might be established. In this prophecy, I. The
   desolations made by hosts of noxious insects is described, ch. i. and
   part of ch. ii. II. The people are hereupon called to repentance, ch.
   ii. III. Promises are made of the return of mercy upon their repentance
   (ch. ii.), and promises of the pouring out of the Spirit in the latter
   days. IV. The cause of God's people is pleaded against their enemies,
   whom God would in due time reckon with (ch. iii.); and glorious things
   are spoken of the gospel--Jerusalem and of the prosperity and
   perpetuity of it.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O E L.

  CHAP. I.

   This chapter is the description of a lamentable devastation made of the
   country of Judah by locusts and caterpillars. Some think that the
   prophet speaks of it as a thing to come and gives warning of it
   beforehand, as usually the prophets did of judgments coming. Others
   think that it was now present, and that his business was to affect the
   people with it and awaken them by it to repentance. I. It is spoken of
   as a judgment which there was no precedent of in former ages, ver. 1-7.
   II. All sorts of people sharing in the calamity are called upon to
   lament it, ver. 8-13. III. They are directed to look up to God in their
   lamentations, and to humble themselves before him, ver. 14-20.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 720.)

   1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.   2 Hear
   this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath
   this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?   3 Tell
   ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and
   their children another generation.   4 That which the palmer-worm hath
   left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath
   the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath
   the caterpillar eaten.   5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all
   ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from
   your mouth.   6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and
   without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the
   cheek teeth of a great lion.   7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked
   my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches
   thereof are made white.

   It is a foolish fancy which some of the Jews have, that this Joel the
   prophet was the same with that Joel who was the son of Samuel (1 Sam.
   viii. 2); yet one of their rabbin very gravely undertakes to show why
   Samuel is here called Pethuel. This Joel was long after that. He here
   speaks of a sad and sore judgment which was now brought, or to be
   brought, upon Judah, for their sins. Observe,

   I. The greatness of the judgment, expressed here in two things:--1. It
   was such as could not be paralleled in the ages that were past, in
   history, or in the memory of any living, v. 2. The old men are appealed
   to, who could remember what had happened long ago; nay, and all the
   inhabitants of the land are called on to testify, if they could any of
   them remember the like. Let them go further than any man's memory, and
   prepare themselves for the search of their fathers (Job viii. 8), and
   they would not find an account of the like in any record. Note, Those
   that outdo their predecessors in sin may justly expect to fall under
   greater and sorer judgments than any of their predecessors knew. 2. It
   was such as would not be forgotten in the ages to come (v. 3): "Tell
   you your children of it; let them know what dismal tokens of the wrath
   of God you have been under, that they make take warning, and may learn
   obedience by the things which you have suffered, for it is designed for
   warning to them also. Yea, let your children tell their children, and
   their children another generation; let them tell it not only as a
   strange thing, which may serve for matter of talk" (as such uncommon
   accidents are records in our almanacs--It is so long since the plague,
   and fire--so long since the great frost, and the great wind), "but let
   them tell it to teach their children to stand in awe of God and of his
   judgments, and to tremble before him." Note, We ought to transmit to
   posterity the memorial of God's judgments as well as of his mercies.

   II. The judgment itself; it is an invasion of the country of Judea by a
   great army. Many interpreters both ancient and modern understand it of
   armies of men, the forces of the Assyrians, which, under Sennacherib,
   took all the defenced cities of Judah, and then, no doubt, made havoc
   of the country and destroyed the products of it: nay, some make the
   four sorts of animals here names (v. 4) to signify the four monarchies
   which, in their turns, were oppressive to the people of the Jews, one
   destroying what had escaped the fury of the other. Many of the Jewish
   expositors think it is a parabolic expression of the coming of enemies,
   and their multitude, to lay all waste. So the Chaldee paraphrast
   mentions these animals (v. 4); but afterwards (ch. ii. 25) puts instead
   of them, Nations, peoples, tongues, languages, potentates, and
   revenging kingdoms. But it seems much rather to be understood literally
   of armies of insects coming upon the land and eating up the fruits of
   it. Locusts were one of the plagues of Egypt. Of them it is said, There
   never were any like them, nor should be (Exod. x. 14), none such as
   those in Egypt, none such as these in Judah--none like those locusts
   for bigness, none like these for multitude and the mischief they did.
   The plague of locusts in Egypt lasted but for a few days; this seems to
   have continued for four years successively (as some think), because
   here are four sorts of insects mentioned (v. 4), one destroying what
   the other left; but others think they came all in one year. We are not
   told, in the history of the Old Testament, when this happened, but we
   are sure that no word of God fell to the ground; and, though a
   devastation by these insects is primarily intended here, yet it is
   expressed in such a language as is very applicable to the destruction
   of the country by a foreign enemy invading it, because, if the people
   were not humbled and reformed by that less judgment which devoured the
   land, God would send this greater upon them, which would devour the
   inhabitants; and by the description of that they are bidden to take it
   for a warning. If this nation of worms do not subdue them, another
   nation shall come to ruin them. Observe, 1. What these animals are that
   are sent against them--locusts and caterpillars, palmer-worms and
   canker-worms, v. 4. We cannot now describe how these differed one from
   another; they were all little insects, any one of them despicable, and
   which a man might easily crush with his foot or with his finger; but
   when they came in vast swarms, or shoals, they were very formidable and
   ate up all before them. Note, God is Lord of hosts, has all creatures
   at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud
   and rebellious people by the weakest and most contemptible creatures.
   Man is said to be a worm; and by this it appears that he is less than a
   worm, for, when God pleases, worms are too hard for him, plunder his
   country, eat up that for which he laboured, destroy the forage, and cut
   off the subsistence of a potent nation. The weaker the instrument is
   that God employs the more is his power magnified. 2. What fury and
   force they came with. They are here called a nation (v. 6), because
   they are embodied, and act by consent, and as it were with a common
   design; for, though the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of
   them by bands (Prov. xxx. 27), and it is there mentioned as an instance
   of their wisdom. It is prudence for those that are weak severally to
   unite and act jointly. They are strong, for they are without number.
   The small dust of the balance is light, and easily blown away, but a
   heap of dust is weighty; so a worm can do little (yet one worm served
   to destroy Jonah's gourd), but numbers of them can do wonders. They are
   said to have teeth of a lion, of a great lion, because of the great and
   terrible execution they do. Note, Locusts become as lions when they
   come armed with a divine commission. We read of the locusts out of the
   bottomless pit, that their teeth were as the teeth of lions, Rev. ix.
   8. 3. What mischief they do. They eat up all before them (v. 4); what
   one leaves the other devours; they destroy not only the grass and corn,
   but the trees (v. 7): The vine is laid waste. There vermin eat the
   leaves which should be a shelter to the fruit while it ripens, and so
   that also perishes and comes to nothing. They eat the very bark of the
   fig-tree, and so kill it. Thus the fig-tree does not blossom, nor is
   there fruit in the vine.

   III. A call to the drunkards to lament this judgment (v. 5): Awake and
   weep, all you drinkers of wine. This intimates, 1. That they should
   suffer very sensibly by this calamity. It should touch them in a tender
   part; the new wine which they loved so well should be cut off from
   their mouth. Note, It is just with God to take away those comforts
   which are abused to luxury and excess, to recover the corn and wine
   which are prepared for Baal, which are made the food and fuel of a base
   lust. And to them judgments of that kind are most grievous. The more
   men place their happiness in the gratification of sense the more
   pressing temporal afflictions are upon them. The drinkers of water need
   not to care when the vine was laid waste; they could live as well
   without it as they had done; it was no trouble to the Nazarites. But
   the drinkers of wine will weep and howl. The more delights we make
   necessary to our satisfaction the more we expose ourselves to trouble
   and disappointment. 2. It intimates that they had been very senseless
   and stupid under the former tokens of God's displeasure; and therefore
   they are here called to awake and weep. Those that will not be roused
   out of their security by the word of God shall be roused by his rod;
   those that will not be startled by judgments at a distance shall be
   themselves arrested by them; and when they are going to partake of the
   forbidden fruit a prohibition of another nature shall come between the
   cup and the lip, and cut off the wine from their mouth.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 720.)

   8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her
   youth.   9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the
   house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.   10 The
   field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new
   wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.   11 Be ye ashamed, O ye
   husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley;
   because the harvest of the field is perished.   12 The vine is dried
   up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree
   also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are
   withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.   13 Gird
   yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar:
   come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat
   offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your
   God.

   The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all
   sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of
   their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better
   borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who
   are therefore called to lament (v. 8), as a virgin laments the death of
   her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so
   that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married,
   from whom the husband of her youth, her young husband, or the husband
   to whom she was married when she was young, is suddenly taken away by
   death. Between a new-married couple that are young, that married for
   love, and that are every way amiable and agreeable to each other, there
   is great fondness, and consequently great grief if either be taken
   away. Such lamentation shall there be for the loss of their corn and
   wine. Note, The more we are wedded to our creature-comforts that harder
   it is to part with them. See that parallel place, Isa. xxxii. 10-12.
   Two sorts of people are here brought in, as concerned to lament this
   devastation, countrymen and clergymen.

   I. Let the husbandmen and vine-dressers lament, v. 11. Let them be
   ashamed of the care and pains they have taken about their vineyards,
   for it will be all labour lost, and they shall gain no advantage by it;
   they shall see the fruit of their labour eaten up before their eyes,
   and shall not be able to save any of it. Note, Those who labour only
   for the meat that perishes will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their
   labour. The vine-dressers will then express their extreme grief by
   howling, when they see their vineyards stripped of leaves and fruit,
   and the vines withered, so that nothing is to be had or hoped for from
   them, wherewith they might pay their rent and maintain their families.
   The destruction is particularly described here: The field is laid waste
   (v. 10).; all is consumed that is produced; the land mourns; the ground
   has a melancholy aspect, and looks ruefully; all the inhabitants of the
   land are in tears for what they have lost, are in fear of perishing for
   want, Isa. xxiv. 4; Jer. iv. 28. "The corn, the bread-corn, which is
   the staff of life, is wasted; the new wine, which should be brought
   into the cellars for a supply when the old is drunk, is dried up, is
   ashamed of having promised so fair what it is not now able to perform;
   the oil languishes, or is diminished, because (as the Chaldee renders
   it) the olives have fallen off." The people were not thankful to God as
   they should have been for the bread that strengthens man's heart, the
   wine that makes glad the heart, and the oil that makes the face to
   shine (Ps. civ. 14, 15); and therefore they are justly brought to
   lament the loss and want of them, of all the products of the earth,
   which God had given either for necessity or for delight (this is
   repeated, v. 11, 12)--the wheat and barley, the two principal grains
   bread was then made of, wheat for the rich and barley for the poor, so
   that the rich and poor meet together in the calamity. The trees are
   destroyed, not only the vine and the fig-tree (as before, v. 7), which
   were more useful and necessary, but other trees also that were for
   delight--the pomegranate, palm-tree, and apple-tree, yea, all the trees
   of the field, as well as those of the orchard, timber-trees as well as
   fruit-trees. In short, all the harvest of the field has perished, v.
   11. And by this means joy has withered away from the children of men
   (v. 11); the joy of harvest, which is used to express great and general
   joy, has come to nothing, is turned into shame, is turned into
   lamentation. Note, The perishing of the harvest is the withering of the
   joy of the children of men. Those that place their happiness in the
   delights of the sense, when they are deprived of them, or in any way
   disturbed in the enjoyment of them, lose all their joy; whereas the
   children of God, who look upon the pleasures of sense with holy
   indifference and contempt, and know what it is to make God their
   hearts' delight, can rejoice in him as the God of their salvation even
   when the fig-tree does not blossom; spiritual joy is so far from
   withering then, that it flourishes more than ever, Hab. iii. 17, 18.
   Let us see here, 1. What perishing uncertain things all our
   creature-comforts are. We can never be sure of the continuance of them.
   Here the heavens had given their rains in due season, the earth had
   yielded her strength, and, when the appointed weeks of harvest were at
   hand, they saw no reason to doubt but that they should have a very
   plentiful crop; yet then they are invaded by these unthought-of
   enemies, that lay all waste, and not by fire and sword. It is our
   wisdom not to lay up our treasure in those things which are liable to
   so many untoward accidents. 2. See what need we have to live in
   continual dependence upon God and his providence, for our own hands are
   not sufficient for us. When we see the full corn in the ear, and think
   we are sure of it--nay, when we have brought it home, if he blow upon
   it, nay, if he do not bless it, we are not likely to have any good of
   it. 3. See what ruinous work sin makes. A paradise is turned into a
   wilderness, a fruitful land, the most fruitful land upon earth, into
   barrenness, for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein.

   II. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, lament, for they share
   deeply in the calamity: Gird yourselves with sackcloth (v. 13); nay,
   they do mourn, v. 9. Observe, The priests are called the ministers of
   the altar, for on that they attended, and the ministers of the Lord (of
   my God, says the prophet), for in attending on the altar they served
   him, did is work, and did him honour. Note, Those that are employed in
   holy things are therein God's ministers, and on him they attend. The
   ministers of the altar used to rejoice before the Lord, and to spend
   their time very much in singing; but now they must lament and howl, for
   the meat-offering and drink-offering were cut off from the house of the
   Lord (v. 9), and the same again (v. 13), from the house of your God.
   "He is your God in a particular manner; you are in a nearer relation to
   him than other Israelites are; and therefore it is expected that you
   should be more concerned than others for that which is a hindrance to
   the service of his sanctuary." It is intimated, 1. That the people, as
   long as they had the fruits of the earth brought in in their season,
   presented to the Lord his dues out of them, and brought the offerings
   to the altar and tithes to those that served at the altar. Note, A
   people may be filling up the measure of their iniquity apace, and yet
   may keep up a course of external performances in religion. 2. That,
   when the meat and drink failed, the meat-offering and drink-offering
   failed of course; and this was the sorest instance of the calamity.
   Note, As far as any public trouble is an obstruction to the course of
   religion it is to be upon that account, more than any other, sadly
   lamented, especially by the priests, the Lord's ministers. As far as
   poverty occasions the decay of piety and the neglect of divine offices,
   and starves the cause of religion among a people, it is indeed a sore
   judgment. When the famine prevailed God could not have his sacrifices,
   nor could the priests have their maintenance; and therefore let the
   Lord's ministers mourn.

Threatenings of Judgment; A Proclamation for a Fast. (b. c. 720.)

   14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and
   all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God,
   and cry unto the Lord,   15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord
   is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.   16
   Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the
   house of our God?   17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the
   garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is
   withered.   18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are
   perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are
   made desolate.   19 O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath
   devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all
   the trees of the field.   20 The beasts of the field cry also unto
   thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured
   the pastures of the wilderness.

   We have observed abundance of tears shed for the destruction of the
   fruits of the earth by the locusts; now here we have those tears turned
   into the right channel, that of repentance and humiliation before God.
   The judgment was very heavy, and here they are directed to own the hand
   of God in it, his mighty hand, and to humble themselves under it. Here
   is,

   I. A proclamation issued out for a general fast. The priests are
   ordered to appoint one; they must not only mourn themselves, but they
   must call upon others to mourn too: "Sanctify a fast; let some time be
   set apart from all worldly business to be spent in the exercises of
   religion, in the expressions of repentance and other extraordinary
   instances of devotion." Note, Under public judgments there ought to be
   public humiliations; for by them the Lord God calls to weeping and
   mourning. With all the marks of sorrow and shame sin must be confessed
   and bewailed, the righteous of God must be acknowledged, and his favour
   implored. Observe what is to be done by a nation at such a time. 1. A
   day is to be appointed for this purpose, a day of restraint (so the
   margin reads it), a day in which people must be restrained from their
   other ordinary business (that they may more closely attend God's
   service), and from all bodily refreshments; for, 2. It must be a fast,
   a religious abstaining from meat and drink, further than is of absolute
   necessity. The king of Nineveh appointed a fast, in which they were to
   taste nothing, Jonah iii. 7. Hereby we own ourselves unworthy of our
   necessary food, and that we have forfeited it and deserve to be wholly
   deprived of it, we punish ourselves and mortify the body, which has
   been the occasion of sin, we keep it in a frame fit to serve the soul
   in serving God, and, by the appetite's craving food, the desires of the
   soul towards that which is better than life, and all the supports of
   it, are excited. This was in a special manner seasonable now that God
   was depriving them of their meat and drink; for hereby they
   accommodated themselves to the affliction they were under. When God
   says, You shall fast, it is time to say, We will fast. 3. There must be
   a solemn assembly. The elders and the people, magistrates and subjects,
   must be gathered together, even all the inhabitants of the land, that
   God might be honoured by their public humiliations, that they might
   thereby take the more shame to themselves, and that they might excite
   and stir up one another to the religious duties of the day. All had
   contributed to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity,
   and therefore they must all join in the professions of repentance. 4.
   They must come together in the temple, the house of the Lord their God,
   because that was the house of prayer, and there they might be hope to
   meet with God because it was the place which he had chosen to put his
   name there, there they might hope to speed because it was a type of
   Christ and his mediation. Thus they interested themselves in Solomon's
   prayer for the acceptance of all the requests that should be put up in
   or towards this house, in which their present case was particularly
   mentioned. 1 Kings vii. 37, If there be locust, if there be
   caterpillar. 5. They must sanctify this fast, must observe it in a
   religious manner, with sincere devotion. What is a fast worth if it be
   not sanctified? 6. They must cry unto the Lord. To him they must make
   their complaint and offer up their supplication. When we cry in our
   affliction we must cry to the Lord; this is fasting to him, Zech. vii.
   5.

   II. Some considerations suggested to induce them to proclaim this fast
   and to observe it strictly.

   1. God was beginning a controversy with them. It is time to cry unto
   the Lord, for the day of the Lord is at hand, v. 15. Either they mean
   the continuance and consequences of this present judgment which they
   now saw but breaking in upon them, or some greater judgments which this
   was but a preface to. However it be, this they are taught to make the
   matter of their lamentation: Alas, for the day! for the day of the Lord
   is at hand. Therefore cry to God. For, (1.) "The day of his judgment is
   very near, it is at hand; it will not slumber, and therefore you should
   not. It is time to fast and pray, for you have but a little time to
   turn yourselves in." (2.) It will be very terrible; there is no
   escaping it, no resisting it: As a destruction from the Almighty shall
   it come. See Isa. xiii. 6. It is not a correction, but a destruction;
   and it comes from the hand, not of a weak creature, but of the
   Almighty; and who knows (nay, who does not know) the power of his
   anger? Whither should we go with our cries but to him from whom the
   judgment we dread comes? There is no fleeing from him but by fleeing to
   him, no escaping destruction from the Almighty but by making our
   submission and supplication to the Almighty; this is taking hold on his
   strength, that we may make peace, Isa. xxvii. 5.

   2. They saw themselves already under the tokens of his displeasure. It
   is time to fast and pray, for their distress is very great, v. 16. (1.)
   Let them look into their own houses, and was no plenty there, as used
   to be. Those who kept a good table were now obliged to retrench: Is not
   the meat cut off before our eyes? If, when God's hand is lifted up, men
   will not see, when his hand is laid on they shall see. Is not the meat
   many a time cut off before our eyes? Let us then labour for that
   spiritual meat which is not before our eyes, and which cannot be cut
   off. (2.) Let them look into God's house, and see the effects of the
   judgment there; joy and gladness were cut off from the house of God.
   Note, The house of our God is the proper place of joy and gladness;
   when David goes to the altar of God, it is to God my exceeding joy; but
   when joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, either by
   corruption of holy things or the persecution of holy persons, when
   serious godly decays and love waxes cold, then it time to cry to the
   Lord, time to cry, Alas!

   3. The prophet returns to describe the grievousness of the calamity, in
   some particulars of it. Corn and cattle are the husbandman's staple
   commodities; now here he is deprived of both. (1.) The caterpillars
   have devoured the corn, v. 17. The garners, which they used to fill
   with corn, are laid desolate, and the barns broken down, because the
   corn has withered, and the owners think it not worth while to be at the
   charge of repairing them when they have nothing to put in them, nor are
   likely to have any thing; for the seed it rotten under the clods,
   either through too much rain or (which was the more common case in
   Canaan) for want of rain, or perhaps some insects under ground ate it
   up. When one crop fails the husband man hopes the next may make it up;
   but here they despair of that, the seedness being as bad as the
   harvest. (2.) The cattle perish too for want of grass (v. 18): How do
   the beasts groan! This the prophet takes notice of, that the people
   might be affected with it and lay to heart the judgment. The groans of
   the cattle should soften their hard and impenitent hearts. The herds of
   cattle, the large cattle (black cattle we call them), are perplexed;
   nay, even the flocks of sheep, which will live upon a common and be
   content with very short grass, are made desolate. See here the inferior
   creatures suffering for our transgression, and groaning under the
   double burden of being serviceable to the sin of man and subject to the
   curse of God for it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake.

   III. The prophet stirs them up to cry to God, with the consideration of
   the examples given them for it.

   1. His own example (v. 19): O Lord! to thee will I cry. He would not
   put them upon doing that which he would not resolve to do himself; nay,
   whether they would do it or no, he would. Note, If God's ministers
   cannot prevail to affect others with the discoveries of divine wrath,
   yet they ought to be themselves affected with them; if they cannot
   bring others to cry to God, yet they themselves be much in prayer. In
   time of trouble we must not only pray, but cry, must be fervent and
   importunate in prayer; and to God, from whom both the destruction is
   and the salvation must be, ought our cry to be always directed. That
   which engaged him to cry to God was, not so much any personal
   affliction, as the national calamity: The fire has devoured the
   pastures of the wilderness, which seems to be meant of some parching
   scorching heat of the sun, which was as fire to the fruits of the
   earth; it consumed them all. Note, When God calls to contend by fire it
   concerns those that have any interest in heaven to cry mightily to him
   for relief. See Num. xi. 2; Amos vii. 4, 5.

   2. The example of the inferior creatures: "The beasts of the field do
   not only groan, but cry unto thee, v. 20. They appeal to thy pity,
   according to their capacity, and as if, though they are not capable of
   a rational and revealed religion, yet they had something of dependence
   upon God by natural instinct." At least, when they groan by reason of
   their calamity, he is pleased to interpret it as if they cried to him;
   much more will he put a favourable construction upon the groanings of
   his own children, though sometimes so feeble that they cannot be
   uttered, Rom. viii. 26. The beasts are here said to cry unto God, as
   from him the lions seek their meat (Ps. civ. 21) and the young ravens,
   Job xxxviii. 41. The complaints of the brute-creatures here are for
   want of water (The rivers are dried up, through the excessive heat),
   and for want of grass, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the
   wilderness. And what better are those than beasts who never cry to God
   but for corn and wine, and complain of nothing but the want of delight
   of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases shames the stupidity
   of those who cry not to God in any case.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O E L.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have, I. A further description of that terrible
   desolation which should be made in the land of Judah by the locusts and
   caterpillars, ver. 1-11. II. A serious call to the people, when they
   are under this sore judgment, to return and repent, to fast and pray,
   and to seek unto God for mercy, with directions how to do this aright,
   ver. 12-17. III. A promise that, upon their repentance, God would
   remove the judgment, would repair the breaches made upon them by it,
   and restore unto them plenty of all good things, ver. 18-27. IV. A
   prediction of the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the
   world, by the pouring out of the Spirit in the latter days, ver. 28-32.
   Thus the beginning of this chapter is made terrible with the tokens of
   God's wrath, but the latter end of it made comfortable with the
   assurances of his favour, and it is in the way of repentance that this
   blessed change is made; so that, though it is only the last paragraph
   of the chapter that points directly at gospel-times, yet the whole may
   be improved as a type and figure, representing the curses of the law
   invading men for their sins, and the comforts of the gospel flowing in
   to them upon their repentance.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 720.)

   1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain:
   let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord
   cometh, for it is nigh at hand;   2 A day of darkness and of
   gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning
   spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not
   been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the
   years of many generations.   3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind
   them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them,
   and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape
   them.   4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as
   horsemen, so shall they run.   5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops
   of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that
   devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.   6
   Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall
   gather blackness.   7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb
   the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways,
   and they shall not break their ranks:   8 Neither shall one thrust
   another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon
   the sword, they shall not be wounded.   9 They shall run to and fro in
   the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the
   houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.   10 The earth
   shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the
   moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:   11
   And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is
   very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of
   the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

   Here we have God contending with his own professing people for their
   sins and executing upon them the judgment written in the law (Deut.
   xxviii. 42), The fruit of thy land shall the locust consume, which was
   one of those diseases of Egypt that God would bring upon them, v. 60.

   I. Here is the war proclaimed (v. 1): Blow the trumpet in Zion, either
   to call the invading army together, and then the trumpet sounds a
   charge, or rather to give notice to Judah and Jerusalem of the approach
   of the judgment, that they might prepare to meet their God in the way
   of his judgments and might endeavor by prayers and tears, the church's
   best artillery, to put by the stroke. It was the priests' business to
   sound the trumpet (Num. x. 8), both as an appeal to God in the day of
   their distress and a summons to the people to come together to seek his
   face. Note, It is the work of ministers to give warning from the word
   of God of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal his wrath from
   heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And though
   it is not the privilege of Zion and Jerusalem to be exempted from the
   judgments of God, if they provoke him, yet it is their privilege to be
   warned of them, that they might make their peace with him. Even in the
   holy mountain the alarm must be sounded, and then it sounds most
   dreadful, Amos iii. 2. Now, shall a trumpet be blown in the city, in
   the holy city, and the people not be afraid? Surely they will. Amos
   iii. 6. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; they shall be made
   to tremble by the judgment itself; let them therefore tremble at the
   alarm of it.

   II. Here is a general idea given of the day of battle, which cometh,
   which is nigh at hand, and there is no avoiding it. It is the day of
   the Lord, the day of his judgment, in which he will both manifest and
   magnify himself. It is a day of darkness and gloominess (v. 2),
   literally so, the swarms of locusts and caterpillars being so large and
   so thick as to darken the sky (Exod. x. 15), or rather figuratively; it
   will be a melancholy time, a time of grievous affliction. And it will
   come as the morning spread upon the mountains; the darkness of this day
   will come as suddenly as the morning light, as irresistibly, will
   spread as far, and grow upon them as the morning light.

   III. Here is the army drawn up in array (v. 2): They are a great
   people, and a strong. Any one sees the vast numbers that there shall be
   of locusts and caterpillars, destroying the land, will say (as we are
   all apt to be most affected with what is present), "Surely, never was
   the like before, nor ever will be the like again." Note, Extraordinary
   judgments are rare things, and seldom happen, which is an instance of
   God's patience. When God had drowned the world once he promised never
   to do it again. The army is here describe to be, 1. Very bold and
   daring: They are as horses, as war-horses, that rush into the battle
   and are not affrighted (Job xxxix. 22); and as horsemen, carried on
   with martial fire and fury, so they shall run, v. 4. Some of the
   ancients have observed that the head of a locust is very like, in
   shape, to the head of a horse. 2. Very loud and noisy--like the noise
   of chariots, of many chariots, when driven furiously over rough ground,
   on the tops of the mountains, v. 5. Hence is borrowed part of the
   description of the locusts which St. John saw rise out of the
   bottomless pit. Rev. ix. 7, 9, The shapes of the locusts were like unto
   horses prepared to the battle; and the sound of their wings was as the
   sound of chariots, of many horses running to the battle. Historians
   tell us that the noise made by swarms of locusts in those countries
   that are infested with them has sometimes been heard six miles off. The
   noise is likewise compared to that of a roaring fire; it is like the
   noise of a flame that devours the stubble, which noise is the more
   terrible because that which it is the indication of is devouring. Note,
   When God's judgments are abroad they make a great noise; and it is
   necessary for the awakening of a secure and stupid world that they
   should do so. (3.) They are very regular, and keep ranks in their
   march; though numerous and greedy of spoil, yet they are as a strong
   people set in battle array (v. 5): They shall march every one on his
   ways, straight forward, as if they had been trained up by the
   discipline of war to keep their post and observe their right-hand man.
   They shall not break their ranks, nor one thrust another, v. 7, 8.
   Their number and swiftness shall breed no confusion. See how God can
   make creatures to act by rule that have no reason to act by, when he
   designs to serve his own purposes by them. And see how necessary it is
   that those who are employed in any service for God should observe
   order, and keep ranks, should diligently go on in their own work and
   stand in one another's way. 4. They are very swift; they run like
   horsemen (v. 4), run like mighty men (v. 7); they run to and fro in the
   city, and run upon the wall, v. 9. When God sends forth his command on
   earth his word runs very swiftly, Ps. cxlvii. 15. Angels have wings,
   and so have locusts, when God makes use of them.

   IV. Here is the terrible execution done by this formidable army, 1. In
   the country, v. 3. View the army in the front, and you will see a fire
   devouring before them; they consume all as if they breathed fire. View
   it in the rear, and you will see those that come behind as furious as
   the foremost: Behind them a flame burns. When they are gone, then it
   will appear what destruction they have made. Look upon the fields that
   they have not yet invaded, and they are as the garden of Eden, pleasant
   to the eye, and full of good fruits; they are the pride and glory of
   the country. But look upon the fields that they have eaten up and they
   are as a desolate wilderness; one would not think that these had ever
   been like the former, and yet so they were perhaps but the day before,
   or that those should ever be made like these, and yet so they shall be
   perhaps by to-morrow night; yea, and nothing shall escape them than can
   possibly be made food for them. Let none be proud of the beauty of
   their grounds any more than of their bodies, for God can soon change
   the face of both. 2. In the city. They shall climb the wall (v. 7),
   they shall run upon the houses, and enter in at the windows like a
   thief (v. 9); when Egypt was plagued with locusts, they filled
   Pharaoh's houses and the houses of his servants, Exod. x. 5, 6. The
   locusts out of the bottomless pit, Satan's emissaries, and missionaries
   of the man of sin, do as these locusts. God's judgments too, when they
   come with commission, cannot be kept out with bars and bolts; they will
   find or force their way.

   V. The impressions that should hereby be made upon the people. They
   shall find it to no purpose to make opposition. These enemies are
   invulnerable and therefore irresistible: When they fall upon the sword
   they shall not be wounded, v. 8. And those that cannot be hurt cannot
   be stopped; and therefore before their faces the people shall be much
   pained (v. 6), as the merchants are in pain for their trading ships
   when they hear they are just in the mouth of a squadron of the enemies.
   "One is in pain for his field, another for his vineyard, and all faces
   gather blackness," which denotes the utmost consternation imaginable.
   Men in fear look pale, but men in despair look black; the whiteness of
   a sudden fright, when it is settled, turns into blackness. What is the
   matter of our pride and pleasure God can soon make the matter of our
   pain. The terror that the country should be in is described (v. 10) by
   figurative expressions: The earth shall quake and the heavens tremble;
   even the hearts that seemed undaunted, so firm that nothing would
   frighten them, as immovable as heaven or earth, shall be seized with
   astonishment. Or when the inhabitants of the land are made to quake it
   seems to them as if all about them trembled too. Through the prevalency
   of their fear, or for want of the supports of life which they used to
   have, their eye shall wax dim and their sight fail them, so that to
   them the sun and moon shall seem to be dark, and the stars to withdraw
   their shining. Note, When God frowns upon men the lights of heaven will
   be small joy to them; for man, by rebelling against his Creator, has
   forfeited the benefit of all the creatures. But, though this is to be
   understood figuratively, there is a day coming when it will be
   accomplished in the letter, when the heavens shall be rolled together
   like a scroll, and the earth, and all the works that are therein, shall
   be burnt up. Particular judgments should awaken us to think of the
   general judgment.

   VI. We are here directed to look up both him who is the
   commander-in-chief of this formidable army, and that is God himself, v.
   11. It is his army; it is his camp. He raised it; he gives it
   commission; he utters his voice before it, as the general gives orders
   to his army what to do and makes a speech to animate the soldiers; it
   is the Lord that gives the word of command to all these animals, which
   they exactly observe. Some think that with this cloud of locusts God
   sent terrible thunder, for that is called, The voice of the Lord, and
   was another of the plagues of Egypt, and this made the heavens and the
   earth tremble. It is the day of the Lord (as it was called, v. 1), for
   in this war we are sure he carries the day; it must needs be his, for
   his camp is great and numerous. Those whom he makes war upon he can, as
   here, overpower with numbers; and whoever he employs to execute his
   word, as the minister of his justice, is sure to be made strong and par
   negotio--equal to what he undertakes; whom God gives commission to he
   girds with strength for the executing of that commission. And this
   makes the great day of the Lord very terrible to all those who in that
   day are to be made the monuments of his justice; for who can abide it?
   None can escape the arrests of God's wrath, can make head against the
   force of it, or bear up under the weight of it, 1 Sam. vi. 20; Ps.
   lxxvi. 7.

Exhortation to Repentance. (b. c. 720.)

   12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your
   heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:   13 And
   rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your
   God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
   kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.   14 Who knoweth if he will
   return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat
   offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?   15 Blow the
   trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:   16 Gather
   the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
   children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth
   of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.   17 Let the priests,
   the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and
   let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to
   reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they
   say among the people, Where is their God?

   We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred from that
   desolating judgment described and threatened in the foregoing verses:
   Therefore now turn you to the Lord. 1. "Thus you must answer the end
   and intention of the judgment; for it was sent for this end, to
   convince you of your sins, to humble you for them, to reduce you to
   your right minds and to your allegiance." God brings us into straits,
   that he may bring us to repentance and so bring us to himself. 2. "Thus
   you may stay the progress of the judgment. Things are bad with you, but
   thus you may prevent their growing worse; nay, if you take this course,
   they will soon grow better." Here is a gracious invitation,

   I. To a personal repentance, exercised in the soul, every family apart,
   and their wives apart, Zech. xii. 12. When the judgments of God are
   abroad, each person is concerned to contribute his quota to the common
   supplications, having contributed to the common guilt. Every one must
   mend one and mourn for one, and then we should all be mended and all
   found among God's mourners. Observe,

   1. What we are here called to, which will teach us what it is to
   repent, for it is the same that the Lord our God still requires of us,
   we having all made work for repentance. (1.) We must be truly humbled
   for our sins, must be sorry we have by sin offended God, and ashamed we
   have by sin wronged ourselves, both wronged our judgments and wronged
   our interests. There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame,
   fasting, and weeping, and mourning; tears for the sin that procured it.
   But what will the outward expressions of sorrow avail if the inward
   impressions be not agreeable, and not only accompany them, but be the
   root and spring of them, and give rise to them? And therefore it
   follows, Rend your heart, and not your garments; not but that,
   according to the custom of that age, it was proper for them to rend
   their garments, in token of great grief for their sins and a holy
   indignation against themselves for their folly; but, "Rest not in the
   doing of that, as if that were sufficient, but be more in care to
   accommodate your spirits than to accommodate your dress to a day of
   fasting and humiliation; nay, rend not your garments at all, unless
   withal you rend your hearts, for the sign without the thing signified
   is but a jest and a mockery, and an affront to God." Rending the heart
   is that which God looks for and requires; that is the broken and
   contrite heart which he will not despise, Ps. li. 17. When we are
   greatly grieved in soul for sin, so that it even cuts us to the heart
   to think how we have dishonoured God and disparaged ourselves by it,
   when we conceive an aversion to sin, and earnestly desire and endeavor
   to get clear of the principles of it and never to return to the
   practice of it, then we rend our hearts for it, and then will God rend
   the heavens and come down to us with mercy. (2.) We must be thoroughly
   converted to our God, and come home to him when we fall out with sin.
   Turn you even to me, said the Lord (v. 12), and again (v. 13), Turn
   unto the Lord your God. Our fasting and weeping are worth nothing if we
   do not with them turn to God as our God. When we are fully convinced
   that it is our duty and interest to keep in with him, and are heartily
   sorry we have ever turned the back upon him, and thereupon, by a firm
   and fixed resolution, make his glory our end, his will our rule, and
   his favour our felicity, then we return to the Lord our God, and this
   we are all commanded and invited to do, and to do it quickly.

   2. What arguments are here used to persuade this people thus to turn to
   the Lord, and to turn to him with all their hearts. When the heart is
   rent for sin, and rent from it, then it is prepared to turn entirely to
   God, and to be devoted entirely to him, and he will have it all or
   none. Now, to bring ourselves to this, let us consider, (1.) We are
   sure that he is, in general, a good God. We must turn to the Lord our
   God, not only because he has been just and righteous in punishing us
   for our sins, the fear of which should drive us to him, but because he
   is gracious and merciful, in receiving upon us our repentance, the hope
   of which should draw us to him. He is gracious and merciful, delights
   not in the death of sinners, but desires that they may turn and live.
   He is slow to anger against those that offend him, but of great
   kindness towards those that desire to please him. These very
   expressions are used in God's proclamation of his name when he caused
   his goodness, and with it all his glory, to pass before Moses, Exod.
   xxxiv. 6, 7. He repents him of the evil, not that he changes his mind,
   but, when the sinner's mind is changed, God's way towards him is
   changed; the sentence is reversed, and the curse of the law is taken
   off. Note, That is genuine, ingenuous, and evangelical repentance,
   which arises from a firm belief of the mercy of God, which we have
   sinned against, and yet are not in despair. Repent, for the kingdom of
   heaven is at hand. The goodness of God, if it be rightly understood,
   instead of emboldening us to go on in sin, will be the most powerful
   inducement to repentance, Ps. cxxx. 4. The act of indemnity brings
   those to God whom the act of attainder frightened from him. (2.) We
   have reason to hope that he will, upon our repentance, give us that
   good which by sin we have forfeited and deprived ourselves of (v. 14),
   that he will return and repent, that he will not proceed against us as
   he has done, but will act in favour of us. Therefore let us repent of
   our sins against him, and return to him in a way of duty, because then
   we may hope that he will repent of his judgments against us and return
   to us in a way of mercy. Now observe, [1.] The manner of expectation is
   very humble and modest: Who knows if he will? Some think it is
   expressed thus doubtfully to check the presumption and security of the
   people, and to quicken them to a holy carefulness and liveliness in
   their repentance, as Josh. xxiv. 19. Or, rather, it is expressed
   doubtfully because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they
   here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident as we can
   that, in general, God is gracious and merciful. There is no question at
   all to be made but that if we truly repent of our sins God will forgive
   them, and be reconciled to us; but whether he will remove this or the
   other affliction which we are under may well be questioned, and yet the
   probability of it should encourage us to repent. Promises of temporal
   good things are often made with a peradventure. It may be, you shall be
   hid, Zeph. ii. 3. David's sin is pardoned, and yet the child shall die,
   and, when David prayed for its life, he said, as here, Who can tell
   whether God will be gracious to me in this matter likewise? 2 Sam. xii.
   22. The Ninevites repented and reformed upon such a consideration as
   this, Jonah iii. 9. [2.] The matter of expectation is very pious. They
   hope God will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, not
   as if he were about to go from them, and they could be content with any
   blessing in lieu of his presence, but behind him, that is, "After he
   has ceased his controversy with us, he will bestow a blessing upon us;"
   and what is it? It is a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord
   our God. The fruits of the earth are called a blessing (Isa. xlv. 8)
   because they depend upon God's blessing and are necessary blessings to
   us. They had been deprived of these, and that which grieved them most
   while they were so was that God's altar was deprived of its offerings
   and God's priests of their maintenance; that therefore which they
   comfort themselves with the prospect of in their return of plenty is
   that then there shall be meat-offerings and drink-offerings in
   abundance brought to God's altar, which they more desired than to see
   the wonted abundance of meat and drink brought to their own tables.
   Thus when Hezekiah was in hopes that he should recover of his sickness
   he asked, What is the sign that I shall go up, not to the thrones of
   judgment, or to the councilboard, but to the house of the Lord? Isa.
   xxxviii. 22. Note, The plentiful enjoyment of God's ordinances in their
   power and purity is the most valuable instance of a nation's prosperity
   and the greatest blessing that can be desired. If God give the blessing
   of meat-offering and the drink-offering, that will bring along with it
   other blessings, will sanctify them, sweeten them, and secure them.

   II. They are here called to a public national repentance, to be
   exercised in the solemn assembly, as a national act, for the glory of
   God and the excitement of one another, and that the neighbouring
   nations might know and observe what it was that qualified them for
   God's gracious returns in mercy to them, which they would be the
   admiring witnesses of. Let us see here, 1. How the congregation must be
   called together, v. 15, 16. The trumpet was blown (v. 1), to sound an
   alarm of war; but now it must be blown in order to a treaty of peace.
   God is willing to show mercy to his people if he do but find them in a
   frame fit for it; and therefore, Call them together; sanctify a fast.
   By the law many annual feasts were appointed, but only one day in the
   year was to be observed as a fast, the day of atonement, a day to
   afflict the soul; and, if they had kept close to God and their duty,
   there would have been no occasion to observe any more; but now that
   they had by sin brought the judgments of God upon them they are often
   called to fasting. What was said ch. i. 14 is here repeated: "Call a
   solemn assembly; gather the people (press them to come together upon
   this errand); sanctify the congregation; appoint a time for solemn
   preparation beforehand and put them in mind to prepare themselves. Let
   not the greatest be excused, but assemble the elders, the judges and
   magistrates. Let not the meanest be passed by, but gather the children,
   and those that suck the breasts." It is good to bring little children,
   as soon as they are capable of understanding any thing, to religious
   assemblies, that they may be trained up betimes in the way wherein they
   should go; but these were brought even when they were at the breast and
   were kept fasting, that by their cries for the breast the hearts of the
   parents might be moved to repent of sin, which God might justly so
   visit upon their children that the tongue of the sucking child might
   cleave to the roof of his mouth (Lam. iv. 4), and that on them God
   might have compassion, as he had on the infants of Nineveh, Jonah iv.
   11. New-married people must not be exempted: Let the bridegroom go
   forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet; let them not take
   state upon them as usual, not put on their ornaments, nor indulge
   themselves in mirth, but address themselves to the duties of the public
   fast with as much gravity and sadness as any of their neighbours. Note,
   Private joys must always give way to public sorrows, both those for
   affliction and those for sin. 2. How the work of the day must be
   carried on, v. 17. (1.) The priests, the Lord's ministers, must preside
   in the congregation, and be God's mouth to the people, and theirs to
   God; who should stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God but
   those whose business it was to make intercession upon ordinary
   occasions? (2.) They must officiate between the porch and the altar.
   There they used to attend about the sacrifices, and therefore now that
   they have no sacrifices to offer, or next to none, there they must
   offer up spiritual sacrifices. There the people must see them weeping
   and wrestling, like their father Jacob, and be helped into the same
   devout frame. Ministers must themselves be affected with those things
   wherewith they desire to affect others. It was between the porch and
   the altar that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was put to death for his
   faithfulness; that precious blood God would require at their hands, and
   therefore, to turn away the judgment threatened for it, there they must
   weep. (3.) They must pray. Words here are put into their mouths, which
   they might in their prayers enlarge upon. Their petition must be, Spare
   thy people, O Lord! God's people, when they are in distress, can expect
   no relief against God's justice but what comes from his mercy. They
   cannot say, Lord, right us, but, Lord, spare us. We deserve the
   correction; we need it; but, Lord, mitigate it. The sinner's
   supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. Their plea must be taken from the
   relation wherein they stand to God ("They are thy people, and thy
   heritage, therefore have compassion on them"), but especially from the
   concern of God's glory in their trouble--"Lord, give not thy heritage
   to reproach, to the reproach of famine; let not the land of Canaan,
   that has so long been celebrated as the glory of all lands, now be made
   the scorn of all lands; let not the heathen rule over them, as they
   will easily do when thy heritage is thus impoverished and disabled to
   subsist. Let not the heathen make them a proverb, or a by-word" (so
   some read it); "let it never be said, As poor and beggarly as an
   Israelite." Note, The maintaining of the credit of the nation among its
   neighbours is a blessing to be desired and prayed for by all that wish
   well to it. But that reproach of the church is especially to be dreaded
   and deprecated which reflects upon God: "Let them not say among the
   people, Where is their God--that God who has promised to help them,
   whom they have boasted so much of and put such a confidence in?" If
   God's heritage be destroyed, the neighbours will say, "God was either
   weak and could not relieve them or unkind and would not." Deut. xxxii.
   37, Where are now their gods in whom they trusted? And Sennacherib thus
   triumphs over them. Where are they gods of Hamath and Arpad? But it
   must by no means be suffered that they should say of Israel, Where is
   their God? For we are sure that our God is in the heavens (Ps. cxv. 2,
   3), is in his temple, Ps. xi. 4.

Promise of Mercy. (b. c. 720.)

   18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
   19 Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will
   send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith:
   and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:   20 But I
   will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into
   a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his
   hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his
   ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.   21 Fear
   not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
   22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the
   wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and
   the vine do yield their strength.   23 Be glad then, ye children of
   Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the
   former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the
   rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.   24 And
   the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with
   wine and oil.   25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust
   hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm,
   my great army which I sent among you.   26 And ye shall eat in plenty,
   and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath
   dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.   27
   And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the
   Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

   See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to
   be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand,
   and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his
   favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what
   good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God's promises
   are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and
   doing are not two things. Now observe,

   I. Whence this mercy promised shall take rise (v. 18): God will be
   jealous for his land and pity his people. He will have an eye, 1. To
   his own honour, and the reputation of his covenant with Israel, by
   which he had conveyed to them that good land and had given in the value
   of it very high; now he will not suffer it to be despised nor
   disparaged, but will be jealous for the credit of his land, and the
   inhabitants of it, who had been praised as a happy people and therefore
   must not lie open to reproach as a miserable people. 2. To their
   distress: He will pity his people, and, in pity to them, he will
   restore them their forfeited comforts. God's compassion is a great
   encouragement to those that come humbly to him as penitents and as
   petitioners.

   II. What his mercy shall be, in several instances:--1. The destroying
   army shall be dispersed and defeated (v. 20): "I will remove far off
   from you the northern army, that army of locusts and caterpillars that
   invaded you from the north, brought in upon the wings of a north wind,
   an army which you could put no stop to the progress of; but, when you
   have made your peace with God, he will ease you of these soldiers that
   are quartered upon you and will drive them into a land barren and
   desolate, into that vast howling wilderness that Israel wandered in,
   where, after having surfeited upon the plenty of Canaan, they shall
   perish for want of sustenance. Those that have their face to the east
   sea (the Dead Sea, which lay east of Judea) shall perish in that, and
   the rear of the army shall be lost in the Great Sea," called here the
   utmost sea. They had made the land barren and desolate, and now God
   will cast them into a land barren and desolate. Thus those whom God
   employs for the correction of his people come afterwards to be
   themselves reckoned with; and the rod is thrown into the fire. Nothing
   shall remain of these swarms of insects but the ill savour of them.
   When Egypt was eased of the plague of locusts they were carried away to
   the Red Sea, Exod. x. 19. Note, When an affliction has done its work it
   shall be removed in mercy, as the locusts of Canaan were from a
   penitent people, not as the locusts of Egypt were removed, in wrath,
   from an impenitent prince, only to make room for another plague. Many
   interpreters, by this northern army, understand that of Sennacherib,
   which was dispersed when God by it had accomplished his whole work upon
   Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, Isa. x. 12. This enemy shall be driven
   away, because he has done great things, has done a great deal of
   mischief, and has magnified to do it, has done it in the pride of his
   heart; therefore it follows (v. 21), The Lord will do great things for
   his people, as the enemy has done great things against them, to
   convince them that wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above
   them, that, what great things soever they did, they did no more than
   God commissioned them to do; and as, when he said to them, Go, they
   went, so, when he said to them, Come, they came, to show that they were
   soldiers under him. 2. The destroyed land shall be watered and made
   fruitful. When the army is scattered, yet what shall we do if the
   desolation they have made continue? It is therefore promised (v. 22)
   that the pastures of the wilderness, the pastures which the locusts had
   left as bare as the wilderness, shall again spring and the trees shall
   again bear their fruit, particularly the fig-tree and the vine. But,
   when we see how the country is wasted, we are tempted to say, Can these
   dry bones live? If the Lord should make windows in heaven, it cannot
   be; but it shall be, for (v. 23) the Lord has given and will give you
   the former rain and the latter rain, and, if he give them in mercy, he
   will give them moderately, so that the rain shall not turn into a
   judgment, and he will give them in due season, the latter rain in the
   first month, when it was wanted and expected. It would make it
   comfortable to them to see it coming from the hand of God, and ordered
   by his wisdom, for then we are sure it is well ordered. He has given
   you a teacher of righteousness, (so the margin reads it, for the same
   word that signifies the rain signifies a teacher. and that which we
   translate moderately is according to righteousness), and this teacher
   of righteousness, says one of the rabbin, is the King Messias, and of
   him many others understand this; for he is a teacher come from God, and
   he shows us the way of righteousness. But others understand it of any
   prophet that instructs unto righteousness, and some of Hezekiah
   particularly, others of Isaiah. Note, It is a good sign that God has
   mercy in store for a people when he sends them teachers of
   righteousness, pastors after his own heart. 3. All their losses shall
   be repaired (v. 25): "I will restore to you the years that the locust
   has eaten; you shall be comforted according to the time that you have
   been afflicted, and shall have years of plenty to balance the years of
   famine." Thus does it repent the Lord concerning his servants, when
   they repent, and, to show how perfectly he is reconciled to them, he
   makes good the damage they have sustained by his judgments, and, like
   the jailer, washes their stripes. Though, in justice, he distrained
   upon them, and did them no wrong, yet, in compassion, he makes
   restitution; as the father of the prodigal, upon his return, made up
   all he had lost by his sin and folly, and took him into his family, as
   in his former estate. The locusts and caterpillars are here called
   God's great army which he sent among them, and he will repair what they
   had devoured because they were his army. 4. They shall have great
   abundance of all good things. The earth shall yield her increase, and
   they shall enjoy it. Look into the stores where they lay up, and you
   shall find the floors full of wheat, and the fats overflowing with wine
   and oil (v. 24), whereas, in the day of their distress, the wine and
   oil languished and the barns were broken down, ch. i. 10, 17. Look upon
   their tables, where they lay out what they have laid up, and you shall
   find that they eat in plenty and are satisfied, v. 26. They do not eat
   to excess, nor are surfeited; we hope the drunkards are cured by the
   late affliction of their inordinate love of wine and strong drink, for,
   though they were brought in howling for their scarcity (ch. i. 5), they
   are now brought in again here singing for the plenty of it; but now all
   shall have enough, and shall known when they have enough, for God will
   make their food nourishing and give them to be content with it.

   These are the mercies promised, and in these God does great things (v.
   21), He deals wondrously with his people, v. 26. Herein he glorifies
   his power, and shows that he can relieve his people though their
   distress be ever so great, and glorifies his goodness, that he will do
   it upon their repentance though their provocations were ever so great.
   Note, When God deals graciously with poor sinners that return to him it
   must be acknowledged that he deals wondrously and does great things.
   Some expositors understand these promises figuratively, as pointing at
   gospel-grace, and having their accomplishment in the abundant comforts
   that are treasured up for believers in the covenant of grace and the
   satisfaction of soul they have therein. When God sends us his promises
   to be the matter of our comfort, his graces to be the grounds of it,
   and his Spirit to be the author of it, we may well own that he has sent
   us (according to his promise here, v. 19) corn, and wine, and oil, or
   that which is unspeakably better, and we have reason to be satisfied
   therewith.

   III. What use shall be made of these returns of God's mercy to them and
   the good account they shall turn to.

   1. God shall have the glory thereof, for they shall rejoice in the Lord
   their God (v. 23), and what is the matter of their rejoicing shall be
   the matter of their thanksgiving; they shall praise the name of the
   Lord their God (v. 26) and not praise their idols, nor call their corn
   and wine the rewards that their lovers had given them. Note, The plenty
   of our creature-comforts is a mercy indeed to us when by them our
   hearts are enlarged in love and thankfulness to God, who gives us all
   things richly to enjoy, though we serve him but poorly. When God
   restores to us plenty after we have known scarcity, as it is doubly
   pleasant to us, so it should make us the more thankful to God. When
   Israel comes out of a wilderness into a Canaan, and there eats and is
   full, surely he will then bless the Lord, with a very sensible
   pleasure, for that good land which he has given him, Deut. viii. 10.

   2. They shall have the credit, and comfort, and spiritual benefit,
   thereof. When God gives them plenty again, and gives them to be
   satisfied with it, (1.) Their reputation shall be retrieved; they and
   their God shall be no more reflected upon as unfaithful to one another
   when they have returned to him in a way of duty and he to them in a way
   of mercy (v. 19): "I will no more make you a reproach among the
   heathen, that triumphed in your calamities and insulted over you;" and
   v. 26, 27, "My people shall never be ashamed, as they have been, of
   their good land which they used to boast of, but shall again and ever
   have the same occasion to boast of it." Note, It redounds much to the
   honour of God when he does that which saves the honour of his people;
   and those that are his people indeed, though they may be for a time,
   shall not be always, a reproach among the heathens; if we be rightly
   ashamed of our sins against God, we shall never be ashamed of our
   glorying in God. (2.) Their joys shall be revived (v. 23): Be glad and
   rejoice, O land! and all the inhabitants of it. Times of plenty are
   commonly times of joy; yet the favour of God puts gladness into the
   heart more than those who have corn, and wine, and oil increase. But
   especially be glad them, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord
   your God, v. 23. They mourned in Zion (v. 15), and therefore there in a
   particular manner they shall rejoice; for those that sow in penitential
   tears shall certainly reap in thankful joys. The children of Zion, who
   led the rest in fasting, must lead the rest in rejoicing. But observe,
   They shall rejoice in the Lord their God, not so much in the good
   themselves that are given them as in the good hand that gives them and
   in the return of his favour to them, as theirs in covenant, which these
   good things are the tokens and pledges of. The joy of harvest and the
   joy of a feast must both terminate in God, whose love we should taste
   in all the gifts of his bounty, that we may make him our chief joy, as
   he is our chief good, and the fountain of all good to us. (3.) Their
   faith in God shall be confirmed and increased. When temporal mercies
   are made by the grace of God to be of spiritual advantage to us, and
   plenty for the body is so far from being an enemy (as with many it
   proves) that it becomes a friend to the prosperity of the soul, then
   they are mercies indeed to us. This is promised here (v. 27): You shall
   know that I am in the midst of Israel, the Holy One in the midst of
   thee (Hos. xi. 9), and that I am the Lord your God, and none else. As
   it proves that the Lord is God, and there is none other, because he
   wounds and he heals, he forms light and darkness, he does good and evil
   (Isa. xlv. 7; Deut. xxxii. 39), so it proves him to be God of Israel, a
   God in covenant with his people and a father to them, that as a father
   he both corrects them when they offend and comforts them when they
   repent. It was the burden of the threatenings in Ezekiel's prophecy,
   Such and such evils I will bring upon you, and you shall know that I am
   the Lord; and the same is here made the crown of the promises: You
   shall eat, and be satisfied, and rejoice, and thus you shall know that
   I am the Lord. Note, We should labour to grow in our acquaintance with
   God by all providences, both merciful and afflictive. When God gives to
   his people plenty, and peace, and joy, upon their return to him, he
   thereby gives them to understand that he is pleased with their
   repentance, that he has pardoned their sins, and that he is theirs as
   much as ever--that they are taken into the same covenant with him, for
   he is the Lord their God, and into the same communion, for he is in the
   midst of them, nigh unto them in all that they call upon him for, and,
   as the sun in the centre of the worlds, so in the midst of them as to
   diffuse his benign influences to all the parts of his land.

   3. Even the inferior creatures shall share therein and be made easy
   thereby: Fear not, O land! v. 21. Be not afraid, you beasts of the
   field, v. 22. They had suffered for the sin of man, and for God's
   quarrel with him; and now they shall fare the better for man's
   repentance and God's reconciliation to him. Nay, the beasts were said
   to cry unto God (ch. i. 20); and now that cry is answered, and they are
   directed not to be afraid, for they shall have plenty of all that which
   their nature craves. God, in sparing Nineveh, had an eye to the cattle
   (Jonah iv. 11), for the cattle had fasted, ch. iii. 8. This may lead us
   to think of the restitution of all things, when the creature, that is
   now made subject to vanity and groans under it, shall be brought,
   though not into the glorious joy, yet into the glorious liberty, of the
   children of God, Rom. viii. 21.

Promise of Mercy. (b. c. 720.)

   28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit
   upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
   old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:   29 And
   also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour
   out my spirit.   30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the
   earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.   31 The sun shall be
   turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the
   terrible day of the Lord come.   32 And it shall come to pass, that
   whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in
   mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath
   said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

   The promises of corn, and wine, and oil, in the foregoing verses, would
   be very acceptable to a wasted country; but here we are taught that we
   must not rest in those things. God has reserved some better things for
   us, and these verses have reference to those better things, both the
   kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory, with the happiness of true
   believers in both. We are here told,

   I. How the kingdom of grace shall be introduced by a plentiful effusion
   of the Spirit, (v. 28, 29). We are not at a loss about the meaning of
   this promise, nor in doubt what it refers to and wherein it had its
   accomplishment, for the apostle Peter has given us an infallible
   explication and application of it, assuring us that when the Spirit was
   poured out upon the apostles, on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 1,
   &c.), that was the very thing which was spoken of here by the prophet
   Joel, v. 16, 17. That was the gift of the Spirit, which, according to
   this prediction, was to come, and we are not to look for any other, any
   more than for another accomplishment of the promise of the Messiah.
   Now, 1. The blessing itself here promised is the pouring out of the
   Spirit of God, his gifts, graces, and comforts, which the blessed
   Spirit is the author of. We often read in the Old Testament of the
   Spirit of the Lord coming by drops, as it were, upon the judges and
   prophets whom God raised up for extraordinary services; but now the
   Spirit shall be poured out plentifully in a full stream, as was
   promised with an eye to gospel-times, Isa. xliv. 3. I will pour my
   Spirit upon thy seed. 2. The time fixed for this is afterwards; after
   the fulfilling of the foregoing promises this shall be fulfilled. St.
   Peter expounds this of the last days, the days of the Messiah, by whom
   the world was to have its last revelation of the divine will and grace
   in the last days of the Jewish church, a little before its dissolution.
   3. The extent of this blessing, in respect of the persons on whom it
   shall be bestowed. The Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh, not
   as hitherto upon Jews only, but upon Gentiles also; for in Christ there
   is no distinction between Jew and Greek, Rom. x. 11, 12. Hitherto
   divine revelation was confined to the seed of Abraham, none but those
   of the land of Israel had the Spirit of prophecy; but, in the last
   days, all flesh shall see the glory of God (Isa. xl. 5) and shall come
   to worship before him, Isa. lxvi. 23. The Jews understand it of all
   flesh in the land of Israel, and Peter himself did not fully understand
   it as speaking of the Gentiles till he saw it accomplished in the
   descent of the Holy Ghost upon Cornelius and his friends, who were
   Gentiles (Acts x. 44, 45), which was but a continuation of the same
   gift which was bestowed on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit shall be
   poured out upon all flesh, that is, upon all those whose hearts are
   made hearts of flesh, soft and tender, and so prepared to receive the
   impressions and influences of the Holy Ghost. Upon all flesh, that is,
   upon some of all sorts of men; the gifts of the Spirit shall not be so
   sparing, or so much confined, as they have been, but shall be more
   general and diffusive of themselves. (1.) The Spirit shall be poured
   out upon some of each sex. Not your sons only, but your daughters,
   shall prophesy; we read of four sisters in one family that were
   prophetesses, Acts xxi. 9. Not the parents only, but the children,
   shall be filled with the Spirit, which intimates the continuance of
   this gift for some ages successively in the church. (2.) Upon some of
   each age: "Your old men, who are past their vigour and whose spirits
   begin to decay, your young men, who have yet but little acquaintance
   with and experience of divine things, shall yet dream dreams and see
   visions;" God will reveal himself by dreams and visions both to the
   young and old. (3.) Upon those of the meanest rank and condition, even
   upon the servants and the handmaids. The Jewish doctors say, Prophecy
   does not reside on any but such as are wise, valiant, and rich, not
   upon the soul of a poor man, or a man in sorrow. But in Christ Jesus
   there is neither bond nor free, Gal. iii. 28. There were many that were
   called being servants (1 Cor. vii. 21), but that was no obstruction to
   their receiving the Holy Ghost. (4.) The effect of this blessing: They
   shall prophesy; they shall receive new discoveries of divine things,
   and that not for their own use only, but for the benefit of the church.
   They shall interpret scripture, and speak of things secret, distant,
   and future, which by the utmost sagacities of reason, and their natural
   powers, they could not have any insight into nor foresight of. By these
   extraordinary gifts the Christian church was first founded and set up,
   and the scriptures were written, and the ministry settled, by which,
   with the ordinary operations and influences of the Spirit, it was to be
   afterwards maintained and kept up.

   II. How the kingdom of glory shall be introduced by the universal
   change of nature, v. 30, 31. The pouring out of the Spirit will be very
   comfortable to the righteous; but let the unrighteous hear this, and
   tremble. There is a great and terrible day of the Lord coming, which
   shall be ushered in with wonders in heaven and earth, blood, and fire,
   and pillars of smoke, the turning of the sun into darkness and the moon
   into blood. This is to have its full accomplishment (as the learned Dr.
   Pocock thinks) in the day of judgment, at the end of time, before which
   these signs will be performed in the letter of them, yet so that it was
   accomplished in part in the death of Christ (which is called the
   judgment of this world, when the earth quaked and the sun was darkened,
   and a great and terrible day it was), and more fully in the destruction
   of Jerusalem, which was a type and figure of the general judgment, and
   before which there were many amazing prodigies, besides the convulsions
   of states and kingdoms prophesied of under the figurative expressions
   of turning the sun into darkness and the moon into blood, and the wars
   and rumours of wars, and distress of nations, which our Saviour spoke
   of as the beginning of these sorrows, Matt. xxiv. 6, 7. But before the
   last judgment there will be wonders indeed in heaven and earth, the
   dissolution of both, without a metaphor. The judgments of God upon a
   sinful world, and the frequent destruction of wicked kingdoms by fire
   and sword, are prefaces to and presages of the judgment of the world in
   the last day. Those on whom the Spirit is poured out shall foresee and
   foretel that great and terrible day of the Lord, and expound the
   wonders in heaven and earth that go before it; for, as to his first
   coming, so to his second, all the prophets did and do bear witness,
   Rev. x. 7.

   III. The safety and happiness of all true believers both in the first
   and second coming of Jesus Christ, v. 32. This speaks of particular
   persons, for to them the New Testament has more respect, and less to
   kingdoms and nations, than the Old. Now observe here, 1. That there is
   a salvation wrought out. Though the day of the Lord will be great and
   terrible, yet in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance
   from the terror of it. It is the day of the Lord, the day of his
   judgment, who knows how to separate between the precious and the vile.
   In the everlasting gospel, which went from Zion, in the church of the
   first-born typified by Mount Zion, and which is the Jerusalem that is
   from above, there is deliverance; a way of escaping the wrath to come
   is found out and laid open. Christ is himself not only the Saviour, but
   the salvation; he is so to the ends of the earth. This deliverance,
   laid up for us in the covenant of grace, is in performance of the
   promises made to the fathers. There shall be deliverance, as the Lord
   has said. See Luke i. 72. Note, This is ground of comfort and hope to
   sinners, that, whatever danger there is in their case, there is also
   deliverance, deliverance for them, if it be not their own fault. And,
   if we would share in this deliverance, we must ourselves apply to the
   gospel--Zion, to God's Jerusalem. 2. That there is a remnant interested
   in this salvation, and for whom the deliverance is wrought. It is in
   that remnant (that is, among them) that the deliverance is, or in their
   souls and spirits; there are the earnests and evidences of it. Christ
   in you, the hope of glory. They are called a remnant, because they are
   but a few in comparison with the multitudes that are left to perish; a
   little remnant but a chosen one, a remnant according to the election of
   grace. And here we are told who they are that shall be delivered in the
   great day. (1.) Those that sincerely call upon God: Whosoever shall
   call upon the name of the Lord, whether Jew or Gentile (for the apostle
   so expounds it, Rom. x. 13, where he lays this down as the great rule
   of the gospel by which we must all be judged), shall be delivered. This
   calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire towards
   him, dependence on him, and, as an evidence of the sincerity of all
   this, a conscientious obedience to him; for, without that, crying Lord,
   Lord, will not stand us in any stead. Note, It is the praying remnant
   that shall be the saved remnant. And it will aggravate the ruin of
   those who perish that they might have been saved on such easy terms.
   (2.) Those that are effectually called to God. The deliverance is sure
   to the remnant whom the Lord shall call, not only with the common call
   of the gospel, with which many are called that are not chosen, but with
   a special call into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, whom the Lord
   predestinates, or prepares, so the Chaldee. St. Peter borrows this
   phrase, Acts ii. 39. Note, Those only shall be delivered in the great
   day that are now effectually called from sin to God, from self to
   Christ, from things below to things above.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O E L.

  CHAP. III.

   In the close of the foregoing chapter we had a gracious promise of
   deliverance in Mount Zion and Jerusalem; now this whole chapter is a
   comment upon that promise, showing what that deliverance shall be, how
   it shall be wrought by the destruction of the church's enemies, and how
   it shall be perfected in the everlasting rest and joy of the church.
   This was in part accomplished in the deliverance of Jerusalem from the
   attempt that Sennacherib made upon it in Hezekiah's time, and
   afterwards in the return of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon,
   and other deliverances wrought for the Jewish church between that and
   Christ's coming. But it has a further reference, to the great
   redemption wrought out for us by Jesus Christ, and the destruction of
   our spiritual enemies and all their agents, and will have its full
   accomplishment in the judgment of the great day. Here is a prediction,
   I. Of God's reckoning with the enemies of his people for all the
   injuries and indignities that they had done them, and returning them
   upon their own head, ver. 1-8. II. Of God's judging all nations when
   the measure of their iniquity is full, and appearing publicly, to the
   everlasting confusion of all impenitent sinners and the everlasting
   comfort of all his faithful servants, ver. 9-17. III. Of the provision
   God has made for the refreshment of his people, for their safety and
   purity, when their enemies shall be made desolate, ver. 18-21. These
   promises were not of private interpretation only, but were written for
   our learning, "that we, through patience and comfort of this scripture,
   might have hope."

Threatenings against Israel's Enemies. (b. c. 720.)

   1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring
   again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,   2 I will also gather all
   nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and
   will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel,
   whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.   3 And
   they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for a harlot,
   and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.   4 Yea, and what have
   ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?
   will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and
   speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;   5 Because
   ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples
   my goodly pleasant things:   6 The children also of Judah and the
   children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might
   remove them far from their border.   7 Behold, I will raise them out of
   the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence
   upon your own head:   8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters
   into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the
   Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.

   We have often heard of the year of the redeemed, and the year of
   recompences for the controversy of Zion; now here we have a description
   of the transactions of that year, and a prophecy of what shall be done
   when it comes, whenever it comes, for it comes often, and at the end of
   time it will come once for all.

   I. It shall be the year of the redeemed, for God will bring again the
   captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, v. 1. Though the bondage of God's
   people may be grievous and very long, yet it shall not be everlasting.
   That in Egypt ended at length in their deliverance into the glorious
   liberty of the children of God. Let my son go, the he may serve me.
   That in Babylon shall likewise end well. And the Lord Jesus will
   provide for the effectual redemption of poor enslaved souls from under
   the dominion of sin and Satan, and will proclaim that acceptable year,
   the year of jubilee, the release of debts and servants, and the opening
   of the prison to those that were bound. There is a day, there is a
   time, fixed for the bringing again of the captivity of God's children,
   for the redeeming of them from the power of the grave; and it shall be
   the last day and the end of all time.

   II. It shall be the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
   Though God may suffer the enemies of his people to prevail against them
   very far and for a long time, yet he will call them to an account for
   it, and will lead captivity captive (Ps. lxviii. 18), will lead those
   captive that led his people captive, Rev. xiii. 10. Observe,

   1. Who those are that shall be reckoned with--all nations, v. 2. This
   intimates, (1.) That all the nations had made themselves liable to the
   judgment of God for wrong done to his people. Persecution is the
   reigning crying sin of the world; that lying in wickedness itself is
   set against godliness. The enmity that is in the old serpent, the god
   of this world, against the seed of the woman, appears more or less in
   the children of this world. Marvel not if the world hate you. (2.)
   That, whatsoever nation injured God's nation, they should not go
   unpunished; for he that touches the Israel of God shall be made to know
   that he touches the apple of his eye. Jerusalem will be a burdensome
   stone to all people, Zech. xii. 3. But the neighboring nations shall be
   particularly reckoned with--Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coasts of
   Palestine, or the Philistines, who have been troublesome neighbours to
   the Israel of God, v. 4. When the more remote and potent nations that
   laid Israel wastes are reckoned with the impotent malice of those that
   lay near them, and helped forward the affliction, (Zech. i. 15), and
   made a hand of it (Ezek. xxvi. 2), shall not be passed by. Note, Little
   persecutors shall be called to an account as well as great ones; and,
   though they could not do much mischief, shall be reckoned with
   according to the wickedness of their endeavors and the mischief they
   would have done.

   2. The sitting of this court for judgment. They shall all be gathered
   (v. 2), that those who have combined together against God's people,
   with one consent (Ps. lxxxiii. 5), may together receive their doom.
   They shall be brought down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, which lay
   near Jerusalem, and there God will plead with them, (1.) Because it is
   fit that criminals should be tried in the same country where they did
   the fact. (2.) For their greater confusion, when they shall see that
   Jerusalem which they have so long endeavored and hoped for the ruin of,
   in spite of all their rage, made a praise in the earth. (3.) For the
   greater comfort and honor of God's Jerusalem, which shall see God
   pleading their cause. (4.) Then shall be re-acted what God did for
   Jehoshaphat when he gave him victory over those that invaded him, and
   furnished him and his people with matter of joy and praise, in the
   valley of Berachah. See 2 Chron. xx. 26. (5.) It was in this valley of
   Jehoshaphat (as Dr. Lightfoot suggests) that Sennacherib's army, or
   part of it, lay, when it was destroyed by an angel. They came together
   to ruin Jerusalem, but God brought them together for their own ruin, as
   sheaves into the floor, Mic. iv. 12.

   3. The plaintiff called, on whose behalf this prosecution is set on
   foot; it is for my people, and for my heritage Israel. It is their
   cause that God will now plead with jealousy. Note, God's people are his
   heritage, his peculiar, his portion, his treasure, above all people,
   Exod. xix. 5; Deut. xxxii. 9. They are his demesne, and therefore he
   has a good action against those that trespass upon them.

   4. The charge exhibited against them, which is very particular. Many
   affronts they had put upon God by their idolatries, but that for which
   God has a quarrel with them is the affront they have put upon his
   people and upon the vessels of his sanctuary.

   (1.) They had been very abusive to the people of Israel, had scattered
   them among the nations and forced them to seek for shelter where they
   could find a place, or carried them captive into their respective
   countries and there industriously dispersed them, for fear of their
   incorporating for their common safety. They parted their land, and took
   every one his share of it as their own; nay, they have cast lots for my
   people, and sold them. When they had taken them prisoners, [1.] They
   made a jest of them, made a scorn of them as of no value. They would
   not release them and yet thought them not worth the keeping; they made
   nothing of playing them away at dice. Or they made a dividend of the
   prisoners by lot, as the soldiers did of Christ's garments. [2.] They
   made a gain of them. When they had them they sold them, yet with so
   much contempt that they did not increase their wealth by their price,
   but sold them for their pleasure rather than their profit; they gave a
   boy taken in war for the hire of a harlot, and a girl for so many
   bottles of wine as would serve them for one sitting, a goodly price at
   which they valued them, and goodly preferment for a son and daughter of
   Israel to be a slave and a drudge in a tavern or a brothel. Observe,
   here, how that which is got by sin is commonly spent upon another. The
   spoil which these enemies of the Jews gathered by injustice and
   violence they scattered and threw away in drinking and whoring; such is
   frequently the character, and such the conversation, of the enemies and
   persecutors of the people of God. The Tyrians and Philistines, when
   they seized any of the children of Judah and Jerusalem, either took
   them prisoners in war or kidnapped them, they sold them to the Grecians
   (with whom the men of Tyre traded in the persons of men, Ezek. xxvii.
   13), that they might remove them far from their own border, v. 6. It
   was a great reproach to Israel, God's first-born, his free-born, to be
   thus bought and sold among the heathen.

   (2.) They had unjustly seized God's silver and gold (v. 5), by which
   some understand the wealth of Israel. The silver and gold which God's
   people had he calls his, because they had received it from him and
   devoted it to him; and whosoever robbed them God took it as if they had
   robbed him and would make reprisals accordingly. Those who take away
   the estates of good men for well-doing will be found guilty of
   sacrilege; they take God's silver and gold. But it seems rather to be
   meant of the vessels and treasures of the temple, which God here calls
   his goodly pleasant things, precious and desirable to him and all that
   are his. These they carried into their temples as trophies of their
   victory over God's Israel, thinking that therein they triumphed over
   Israel's God, nay, and that their idols triumphed over him. Thus the
   ark was put in Dagon's temple. Thus they did unjustly. "What have you
   to do with me (v. 4), with my people; what wrong have they done you?
   What provocation have they given you? You had nothing to do with them,
   and yet you do all this against them. Devices are devised against the
   quiet in the land, and those offended and harmed that are harmless and
   inoffensive: Will you render me a recompence?" Can they pretend that
   either God or his people have done them any injury, for which they may
   justify themselves by the law of retaliation in doing them these
   mischiefs? No; they have no colour for it. Note, It is no new thing for
   those who have been very civil and obliging to their neighbours to find
   them very unkind and unneighbourly and for those who do no injuries to
   suffer many.

   5. The sentence passed upon them. In general (v. 4), "If you recompense
   me, if you pretend a quarrel with me, if you provoke me thus to
   jealousy, if you touch the apple of my eye, I will swiftly and speedily
   return your recompence upon your own head." Those that contend with God
   will find themselves unable to make their part good with him. He will
   recompense them suddenly, when they little think of it, and have not
   time to prevent it; if he take them to task, he will soon effect their
   ruin. Particularly, it is threatened, (1.) That they should not gain
   their end in the mischief they designed against God's people. They
   thought to remove them so far from their border that they should never
   return to it again, v. 6. But (says God) "I will raise them out of the
   place whither you have sold them, and they shall not, as you intended,
   be buried alive there." Men's selling the people of God will not
   deprive him of his property in them. (2.) That they shall be paid in
   their own coin, as Adonibezek was (v. 8): "I will sell your sons and
   your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah; you shall lie
   as much at their mercy as they have been at yours," Isa. lx. 14. Thus
   the Jews had rule over those that hated them, Esther ix. 1. And then
   they shall justly be sold to the Sabeans, to a people far off. This
   (some think) had its accomplishment in the victories obtained by the
   Maccabees over the enemies of the Jews; others think it looks as far
   forward as the last day, when the upright shall have dominion (Ps.
   xlix. 14) and the saints shall judge the world. It is certain that none
   ever hardened his heart against God, or his church, and prospered long;
   no, not Pharaoh himself, for the Lord has spoken it, for the comfort of
   all his suffering servants, that vengeance is his and he will repay.

Threatenings against Israel's Enemies. (b. c. 720.)

   9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty
   men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:   10 Beat your
   plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the
   weak say, I am strong.   11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye
   heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy
   mighty ones to come down, O Lord.   12 Let the heathen be wakened, and
   come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all
   the heathen round about.   13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is
   ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for
   their wickedness is great.   14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
   decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
   15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw
   their shining.   16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his
   voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but
   the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the
   children of Israel.   17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God
   dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and
   there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

   What the psalmist had long before ordered to be said among the heathen
   (Ps. xcvi. 10) the prophet here will have in like manner to be
   published to all nations, That the Lord reigns, and that he comes, he
   comes to judge the earth, as he had long been judging in the earth. The
   notice here given of God's judging the nations may have reference to
   the destruction of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and to the
   Antichrist especially, and all the proud enemies of the Christian
   church; but some of the best interpreters, ancient and modern
   (particularly the learned Dr. Polock), think the scope of these verses
   is to set forth the day of the last judgment under the similitude of
   God's making war upon the enemies of his kingdom, and his gathering in
   the harvest of the earth, both which similitudes we find used in the
   Revelation, ch. xix. 11; xiv. 18. Here we have,

   I. A challenge given to all the enemies of God's kingdom to do their
   worst. To signify to them that God is preparing war against them, they
   are called upon to prepare war against him, v. 9-11. When the hour of
   God's judgment shall come effectual methods shall be taken to gather
   all nations to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, Rev. xvi.
   14; xx. 8. It seems to be here spoken ironically: "Proclaim you this
   among the Gentiles; let all the forces of the nations be summoned to
   join in confederacy against God and his people." It is like that, Isa.
   vii. 9, "Associate yourselves, O you people! and gird yourselves, but
   you shall be broken to pieces. Prepare war; muster up all your
   strength; wake up the mighty men; call them into your service; excite
   them to vigilance and resolution; let all the men of war draw near. Let
   them come and enter the lists with Omnipotence if they dare; let them
   not complain for want of weapons, but let them beat their ploughshares
   into swords and their pruning-hooks into spears. Let them resolve, if
   they will, never to return to their husbandry again, but either to
   conquer or die; let none plead unfitness to bear arms, but let the weak
   say, I am strong and will venture into the field of battle." Thus does
   a God of almighty power bid defiance to all the opposition of the
   powers of darkness; let the heathen rage, and the kings of the earth
   take counsel together, against the Lord and his Christ; let them
   assemble, and come, and gather themselves together; but he that sits in
   heaven shall laugh at them, and, while he thus calls them, he has them
   in derision, Ps. ii. 1, 4. The heathen must be wakened, must be raised
   from the dead, that they may come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to
   receive their doom (v. 12), may come up out of their graves, come up
   into the air, to meet the Lord there. Jehoshaphat signifies the
   judgment of the Lord. Let them come to the place of God's judgment,
   which perhaps is the chief reason for the using of this name here, but
   it is put together as a proper name for the sake of allusions to the
   place so called, which we observed before; let them come thither where
   God will sit to judge the heathen, to that throne of glory before which
   shall be gathered all nations (Matt. xxv. 32), for before the
   judgment-seat of Christ we must all appear. The challenge (v. 9) is
   turned into a summons, v. 12. It is not only, Come if you dare, but You
   shall come whether you will or no, for there is no escaping the
   judgments of God.

   II. A charge given to the ministers of God's justice to appear and act
   against these daring enemies of his kingdom among men: And therefore
   cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord! v. 11. When they bring
   their forces into the field, let God bring his, let the archangel's
   trumpet sound a charge, to call together his mighty ones, that is, his
   angels. Perhaps it is with reference to this that Christ's coming from
   heaven at the last day is said to be with his mighty angels, 2 Thess.
   i. 7. These are the hosts of the Lord, that shall fight his battles
   when he shall put down all opposing rule, principality, and power when
   he shall judge among the heathen, Ps. cx. 6. Some think these words (v.
   9, 10), Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, are not a challenge to the
   enemies' hosts, but a charge to God's hosts; let them draw near, and
   come up. When God's cause is to be pleaded, either by the law or by the
   sword, he has those ready that shall please it effectually, witnesses
   ready to appear for him in the court of judgment, soldiers ready to
   appear for him in the field of battle. They shall beat ploughshares
   into swords, if need be. However, it is plain that to them the charge
   in given (v. 13), Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; that
   is, their wickedness is great, the measure of it is full, and they are
   ripe for ruin. Our Saviour has expounded this, Matt. xiii. 39. The
   harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. And
   they are commanded to thrust in their sickle. their sharp sickle, and
   gather in both the harvest and the vintage, Rev. xiv. 15, 18. Note, The
   greatness of men's wickedness makes them ripe for God's judgment.

   III. The vast appearance that shall be in that great and solemn day (v.
   14): Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision, the same which
   before was called the valley of Jehoshaphat, or of the judgment of the
   Lord, for the day of the Lord is near in that valley. Note, 1. The
   judgment-day, that day of the Lord, has all along been looked upon, and
   spoken of, as nigh at hand. Enoch said, Behold, the Lord comes, as if
   the Judge were then standing before the do or, because it is certain
   that that day will come and will come according to the appointment, and
   a thousand years with God are but as one day; things are ripening apace
   for it; we ought always to be ready for it, because our judgment is at
   hand. 2. The day of judgment will be the day of decision, when every
   man's eternal state will be determined, and the controversy that has
   been long depending between the kingdom of Christ and that of Satan
   shall be finally decided, and an end put to the struggle. The valley of
   the distribution of judgment (so the Chaldee), when every man shall
   receive according to the things done in the body. The valley of
   threshing (so the margin), carrying on the metaphor of the harvest, v.
   13. The proud enemies of God's people will then be crushed and broken
   to pieces, and made as the dust of the summer threshing-floors. 3.
   Innumerable multitudes will be gathered together to receive their final
   doom in that day, as in the destruction of Gog we read of the valley of
   Hamon-Gog, and the city of Hamonah (Ezek. xxxix. 15, 16), both
   signifying the multitude of the vanquished enemies; it is the word here
   used, Hamonim, Hamonim, expressed by the way of admiration--O what vast
   multitudes of sinners will divine justice be glorified in the ruin of
   at that day! A multitude of living (says one of the rabbin) and a
   multitude of dead, for Christ shall come to judge both the quick and
   the dead.

   IV. The amazing change that shall then be made in the kingdom of nature
   (v. 15): The sun and moon shall be darkened, as before, ch. ii. 31.
   Their glory and lustre shall be eclipsed by the far greater brightness
   of that glory in which the Judge shall then appear. Nay, they shall
   themselves be set aside in the dissolution of all things; for the
   damned sinners in hell shall not be allowed their light, for God
   himself will be their everlasting light, Isa. lx. 19. Those that fall
   under the wrath of God in that day of wrath shall be cut off from all
   comfort and joy, signified by the darkening not only of sun and moon,
   but of the stars also.

   V. The different impressions which that day will make upon the children
   of this world and the children of God, according as it will be to them.
   1. To the wicked it will be a terrible day. The Lord shall then speak
   from Zion and Jerusalem, from the throne of his glory, from heaven,
   where he manifests himself in a peculiar manner, as sometimes he has
   done in the glorious high throne of his sanctuary, which yet was but a
   faint resemblance of the glory of that day. He shall speak from heaven,
   from the midst of his saints and angels (so some understand it), the
   holy society of which may be called Zion and Jerusalem; for, when we
   come to the heavenly Jerusalem, we come to the innumerable company of
   angels; see Heb. xii. 22, 25. Now is speaking in that day will be to
   the wicked as roaring, terrible as the roaring of a lion (for so the
   word signifies); he long kept silence, but now our God shall come, and
   shall not keep silence, Ps. l. 3, 21. Note, The judgment of the great
   day will make the ears of those to tingle that continue the implacable
   enemies of God's kingdom. God's voice will then shake terribly both
   heaven and earth (Isa. ii. 21), yet once more, Hag. ii. 6; Heb. xii.
   26. This denotes that the voice of God will in the great day speak such
   terror to the wicked as were enough to put even heaven and earth into a
   consternation. When God comes to pull down and destroy his enemies, and
   make them all his footstool, though heaven and earth should stand up in
   defence of them and undertake their protection, it shall be all in
   vain. Even they shall shake before him and be an insufficient shelter
   to those whom he comforts forth to contend with. Note, As blessings out
   of Zion are the sweetest blessings, and enough to make heaven and earth
   sing, so terrors out of Zion are the sorest terrors, and enough to make
   heaven and earth shake. 2. To the righteous it will be a joyful day.
   When the heaven and earth shall tremble, and be dissolved and burnt up,
   then will the Lord be the hope of his people and the strength of the
   children of Israel (v. 16), and then shall Jerusalem be holy, v. 17.
   The saints are the Israel of God; they are his people; the church is
   his Jerusalem. They are in covenant and communion with him; now in the
   great day, (1.) Their longings shall be satisfied: The Lord will be the
   hope of his people. As he always was the founder and foundation of
   their hopes, so he then will be the crown of their hopes. He will be
   the harbour of his people (so the word is), their receptacle, refuge,
   and home. The saints in the great day shall arrive at the desired
   haven, shall put to shore after a stormy voyage; they shall go to be
   for ever at home with God, to their Father's house, the house not made
   with hands. (2.) Their happiness shall be confirmed. God will be in
   that day the strength of the children of Israel, enabling them to bid
   that day welcome and to bear up under the weight of its glories and
   joys. In this world, when the judgments of God are abroad, and sinners
   are falling under them, God is and will be the hope and strength of his
   people, the strength of their heart, and their portion, when other
   men's hearts fail them for fear. (3.) Their holiness shall be completed
   (v. 17): Then shall Jerusalem be holy, the holy city indeed; such shall
   the heavenly Jerusalem be, such the glorious church, without spot, or
   wrinkle, or any such thing. Jerusalem shall be holiness (so the word
   is); it shall be perfectly holy; there shall be no remainder of sin in
   it. The gospel-church is a holy society, even in its militant state,
   but will never be holiness itself till it comes to be triumphant. Then
   no stranger shall pass through her any more; there shall not enter into
   the New Jerusalem any thing that defiles or works iniquity; none shall
   be there but those who have a right to be there, none but its own
   citizens; for it shall be an unmixed society. (4.) God shall in all
   this be manifested and magnified: So shall you know that I am the Lord
   your God. By the sanctifying and glorifying of the church God will be
   known in his holiness and glory, as the God that dwells in his holy
   mountain and makes it holy by dwelling in it; and those that are
   sanctified and glorified are so through the knowledge of him that
   called them. The knowledge which true believers have of God is, [1.] An
   appropriating knowledge. They know that he is the Lord their God, yet
   not theirs only, but theirs in common with the whole church, that he is
   their God, but dwelling in Zion his holy mountain; for, though faith
   appropriates, it does not engross or monopolize the privileges of the
   covenant. [2.] It is an experimental knowledge. They shall find him
   their hope and strength in the worst of times, and so they shall know
   that he is the Lord their God. Those know best the goodness of God who
   have tasted and seen it, and have found him good to them.

Judgments and Mercies; Promises to the Church. (b. c. 720.)

   18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop
   down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers
   of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the
   house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.   19 Egypt
   shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the
   violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent
   blood in their land.   20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem
   from generation to generation.   21 For I will cleanse their blood that
   I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.

   These promises with which this prophecy concludes have their
   accomplishments in part in the kingdom of grace, and the comforts and
   graces of all the faithful subjects of that kingdom, but will have
   their full accomplishment in the kingdom of glory; for, as to the
   Jewish church, we know not of any event concerning that which answers
   to the extent of these promises, and what instances of peace and
   prosperity they were blessed with, which they may be supposed to be a
   hyperbolical description of, they were but figures of better things
   reserved for us, that they in their best estate without us might not be
   made perfect.

   I. It is promised that the enemies of the church shall be vanquished
   and brought down, v. 19. Egypt, that old enemy of Israel, and Edom,
   which had an inveterate enmity to Israel, derived from Esau, these
   shall be a desolation, a desolate wilderness, no more to be inhabited;
   they have become the people of God's curse; so the Idumeans were, Isa.
   xxxiv. 5. No strength nor wealth of a nation is a defence against the
   judgment of God. But what is the quarrel God has with these potent
   kingdoms? It is for their violence against the children of Judah, and
   the injuries they had done them; see Ezek. xxv. 3, 8, 12, 15; xxvi. 2.
   They had shed the innocent blood of the Jews that fled to them for
   shelter or were making their escape through their country. Note, The
   innocent blood of God's people is very precious to him, and not a drop
   of it shall be shed but it shall be reckoned for. In the last day this
   earth, which has been filled with violence against the people of God,
   shall be made a desolation, when it and all the works that are therein
   shall be burnt up. And, sooner or later, the oppressors and persecutors
   of God's Israel shall be brought down and laid in the dust, nay, they
   will at length be brought down and laid in the flames.

   II. It is promised that the church shall be very happy; and truly happy
   it is in spiritual privileges, even during its militant state, but much
   more when it comes to be triumphant. Three things are here promised
   it:--

   1. Purity. This is put last here, as a reason for the rest (v. 21); but
   we may consider it first, as the ground and foundation of the rest: I
   will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, that is, their
   bloody heinous sins, especially shedding innocent blood; that filth and
   guilt they had contracted by sin, which rendered them unfit for
   communion with God, and made them odious to his holiness and obnoxious
   to his justice; this they shall be washed from in the fountain opened,
   Zech. xiii. 1. That shall be cleansed by the blood of Christ which
   could not be cleansed by the sacrifices and purifications of the
   ceremonial law. Or, if we apply it to the happiness of a future state,
   it intimates the cleansing of the saints from all these corruptions
   from which they were not cleansed either by ordinances or providences
   in the world; there shall not be the least remains of sin in them
   there. Here, though they are washing daily, there is still something
   that is not cleansed; but in heaven, even that also shall be done away.
   And the reason is because the Lord dwells in Zion, dwells with his
   church, and much more gloriously with that in heaven, and holiness
   becomes his house for ever, for which reason, where he dwells there
   must be, there shall be, a perfection of holiness. Note, Though the
   refining and reforming of the church is work that goes on slowly, and
   still there is something we complain of that is not cleansed, yet there
   is a day coming when every thing that is amiss shall be amended, and
   the church shall be all fair, and no spot, no stain in her; and we must
   wait for that day.

   2. Plenty, v. 18. This is put first, because it is the reverse of the
   judgment threatened in the foregoing chapters. (1.) The streams of this
   plenty overflow the land and enrich it: The mountains shall drop new
   wine and the hills shall flow with milk, such great abundance shall
   they have of suitable provision, both for babes and for strong men. It
   intimates the abundance of vineyards, and all fruitful; and the
   abundance of cattle in the pastures that fill them with milk. And, to
   make the corn-land fruitful, the rivers of Judah shall flow with water,
   so that the country shall be like the garden of Eden, well-watered
   every where and greatly enriched, Ps. lxv. 9. But this seems to be
   meant spiritually; the graces and comforts of the new covenant are
   compared to wine and milk (Isa. lv. 1), and the Spirit to rivers of
   living water, John vii. 38. And these gifts abound much more under the
   New Testament than they did under the Old; when believers receive grace
   for grace from Christ's fulness, when they are enriched with
   everlasting consolations, and filled with joy and peace in believing,
   then the mountains drop new wine, and the hills flow with milk. Drink
   you, drink abundantly, O beloved! When there is plentiful effusion of
   the Spirit of grace, then the rivers of Judah flow with water, and make
   glad, not only the city of our God (Ps. xlvi. 4), but the whole land.
   (2.) The fountain of this plenty is in the house of God, whence the
   streams take their rise, as those waters of the sanctuary (Ezek. xlvii.
   1) from under the threshold of the house, and the river of life out of
   the throne of God and the Lamb, Rev. xxii. 1. The psalmist, speaking of
   Zion, says, All my springs are in thee, Ps. lxxxvii. 7. Those that take
   temporal blessings to be meant in the former part of the verse, yet by
   this fountain out of the house of the Lord understand the grace of God,
   which, if we abound in temporal blessings, we have so much more need
   of, that we may not abuse them. Christ himself is the fountain; his
   merit and grace cleanse us, refresh us, and make us fruitful. This is
   said to water the valley of Shittim, which lay a great way off from the
   temple at Jerusalem, on the other side of Jordan, and was a dry and
   barren valley, which intimates that gospel-grace, flowing from Christ,
   shall reach far, even to the Gentile world, to the most remote regions
   of it, and shall make those to abound in the fruits of righteousness
   who had long lain as the barren wilderness. This grace is a fountain
   overflowing, ever-flowing, from which we may be continually drawing,
   and yet need not fear its being drawn dry. This fountain comes out of
   the house of the Lord above, from his temple in heaven, flows all that
   good which here we are daily tasting the streams of, but hope to be
   shortly, hope to be eternally, drinking at the fountain-head of.

   3. Perpetuity. This crowns all the rest (v. 20): Judah shall dwell for
   ever (when Egypt and Edom are made a desolation), and Jerusalem shall
   continue from generation to generation. This is a promise, and a
   precious promise it is, (1.) That the church of Christ shall continue
   in the world to the end of time. As one generation of professing
   Christians passes away, another shall come, in whom the throne of
   Christ shall endure for ever, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
   against it. (2.) That all the living members of that church (Judah and
   Jerusalem are put for the inhabitants of that city and country, Matt.
   iii. 5) shall be established in their happiness to the utmost ages of
   eternity. This new Jerusalem shall be from generation to generation,
   for it is a city that has foundations, not made with hands, but eternal
   in the heavens.
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Amos
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

A M O S.
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   Though this prophet appeared a little before Isaiah, yet he was not, as
   some have mistaken, that Amos who was the father of Isaiah (Isa. i. 1),
   for in the Hebrew their names are very different; their families too
   were of a different character, for Isaiah was a courtier, Amos a
   country-farmer. Amos signifies a burden, whence the Jews have a
   tradition that he was of a slow tongue and spoke with stammering lips;
   we may rather, in allusion to his name, say that his speech was weighty
   and his word the burden of the Lord. He was (as most think) of Judah,
   yet prophesied chiefly against Israel, and at Bethel, ch. vii. 13. Some
   think his style savours of his extraction, and is more plain and rustic
   than that of some other of the prophets; I do not see it so; but it is
   plain that his matter agreed with that of his contemporary Hosea, that
   out of the mouth of these two witnesses the word might be established.
   It appears by his contest with Amaziah the priest of Bethel that he met
   with opposition in his work, but was a man of undaunted resolution in
   it, faithful and bold in reproving sin and denouncing the judgments of
   God for it, and pressing in his exhortations to repentance and
   reformation. He begins with threatenings against the neighbouring
   nations that were enemies to Israel, ch. i. and ii. He then calls
   Israel to account, and judges them for their idolatry, their unworthy
   walking under the favours God had bestowed upon them, and their
   incorrigibleness under his judgments, ch. iii. and iv. He calls them to
   repentance ( ch. v.), rejecting their hypocritical sacrifices unless
   they did repent. He foretels the desolations that were coming upon them
   notwithstanding their security (ch. vi.), some particular judgments
   (ch. vii.), particularly on Amaziah; and, after other reproofs and
   threatenings (ch. viii. and ix.), concludes with a promise of the
   setting up of the Messiah's kingdom and the happiness of God's
   spiritual Israel therein, just as the prophecy of Joel concluded. These
   prophets, having opened the wound in their reproofs and threatenings,
   which show all wrong, in the promises of gospel-grace open the remedy,
   which alone will set all to rights.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. The general title of this prophecy (ver.
   1), with the general scope of it, ver. 2. II. God's particular
   controversy with Syria (ver. 3-5), with Palestine (ver. 6-8), with Tyre
   (ver. 9, 10), with Edom (ver. 11, 12), and with Ammon (ver. 13-15), for
   their cruelty to his people and the many injuries they had done them.
   This explains God's pleading with the nations, Joel iii. 2.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 790.)

   1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw
   concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days
   of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the
   earthquake.   2 And he said, The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter
   his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall
   mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

   Here is, I. The general character of this prophecy. It consists of the
   words which the prophet saw. Are words to be seen? Yes, God's words
   are; the apostles speak of the word of life, which they had not only
   heard, but which they had seen with their eyes, which they had looked
   upon, and which their hands had handled (1 John i. 1), such a real
   substantial thing is the word of God. The prophet saw these words, that
   is, 1. They were revealed to him in a vision, as John is said to see
   the voice that spoke to him, Rev. i. 12. 2. That which was foretold by
   them was to him as certain as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes.
   It intimates how strong he was in that faith which is the evidence of
   things not seen.

   II. The person by whom this prophecy was sent--Amos, who was among the
   herdmen of Tekoa, and was one of them. Some think he was a rich dealer
   in cattle; the word is used concerning the king of Moab (2 Kings iii.
   4, He was a sheep-master); it is probable that he got money by that
   business, and yet he must quit it, to follow God as a prophet. Others
   think he was a poor keeper of cattle, for we find (ch. vii. 14, 15)
   that he was withal a gatherer of wild figs, a poor employment by which
   we may suppose he could but just get his bread, and that God took him,
   as he did David, from following the flock, and Elisha from following
   the plough. Many were trained up for great employments, in the quiet,
   innocent, contemplative business of shepherds. When God would send a
   prophet to reprove and warn his people, he employed a shepherd, a
   herdsman, to do it; for they had made themselves as the horse and mule
   that have no understanding, nay, worse than the ox that knows his
   owner. God sometimes chooses the foolish things of the world to
   confound the wise, 1 Cor. i. 27. Note, Those whom God has endued with
   abilities for his service ought not to be despised nor laid aside for
   the meanness either of their origin or of their beginnings. Though Amos
   himself is not ashamed to own that he was a herdsman, yet others ought
   not to upbraid him with it nor think the worse of him for it.

   III. The persons concerned in the prophecy of this book; it is
   concerning Israel, the ten tribes, who were now ripened in sin and
   ripening apace for ruin. God has raised them up prophets among
   themselves (ch. ii. 11), but they regarded them not; therefore God
   sends them one from Tekoa, in the land of Judah, that, coming from
   another country, he might be the more valued, and perhaps he was the
   rather sent out of his own country because there he was despised for
   his having been a herdsman. See Matt. xiii. 55-57.

   IV. The time when these prophecies were delivered. 1. The book is
   dated, as laws used to be, by the reigns of the kings under whom the
   prophet prophesied. It was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, when
   the affairs of that kingdom went very well, and of Jeroboam the second
   kind of Israel, when the affairs of that kingdom went pretty well; yet
   then they must both be told both of the sins they were guilty of and of
   the judgments that were coming upon them for those sins, that they
   might not with the present gleam of prosperity flatter themselves
   either into an opinion of their innocence or a confidence of their
   perpetual security. 2. It is dated by a particular event to which is
   prophecy had a reference; it was two years before the earthquake, that
   earthquake which is mentioned to have been in the days of Uzziah (Zech.
   xiv. 5), which put the nation into a dreadful fright, for it is there
   said, They fled before it. But how could they flee from it? Some
   conjecture that this earthquake was at the time of Isaiah's vision,
   when the posts of the door were moved, Isa. vi. 4. The tradition of the
   Jews is that it happened just at the time when Uzziah presumptuously
   invaded the priest's office and went in to burn incense, 2 Chron. xxvi.
   16. Josephus mentions this earthquake, Antiq. 9.225, and says, "By it
   half of a mountain was removed and carried to a plain four furlongs
   off; and it spoiled the king's gardens." God by this prophet gave
   warning of it two years before, that God by it would shake down their
   houses, ch. iii. 15.

   V. The introduction to these prophecies, containing the general scope
   of them (v. 2): The Lord will roar from Zion. His threatenings by his
   prophets, and the executions of those threatenings in his providence,
   will be as terrible as the roaring of a lion is to the shepherds and
   their flocks. Amos here speaks the same language with his
   contemporaries, Hosea (ch. xi. 10) and Joel, ch. iii. 16. The lion
   roars before he tears; God gives warning before he strikes. Observe, 1.
   Whence this warning comes--from Zion and Jerusalem, from the oracles of
   God there delivered; for by them is thy servant warned, Ps. xix. 11.
   Our God, whose special residence is there, will issue out warrants,
   given at that court, as it were, for the executing of judgments on the
   land. See Jer. xxv. 30. In Zion was the mercy-seat; thence the Lord
   roars, intimating that God's acts of justice are consistent with mercy,
   allayed and mitigated by mercy, nay, as they are warnings, they are
   really acts of mercy. We are chastened, that we may be not be
   condemned. 2. What effect the warning has: The habitations of the
   shepherds mourn, either because they fear the roaring lion or because
   they feel what is signified by that comparison, the consequences of a
   great drought (ch. iv. 7), which made the top of Carmel (of the most
   fruitful fields) to wither and become a desert, Joel i. 12-17.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 790.)

   3 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for
   four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have
   threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:   4 But I will send
   a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of
   Benhadad.   5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the
   inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre
   from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity
   unto Kir, saith the Lord.   6 Thus saith the Lord; For three
   transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the
   punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole
   captivity, to deliver them up to Edom:   7 But I will send a fire on
   the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof:   8 And I
   will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the
   sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the
   remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.   9 Thus
   saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will
   not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the
   whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant:
   10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the
   palaces thereof.   11 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of
   Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;
   because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all
   pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for
   ever:   12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the
   palaces of Bozrah.   13 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions
   of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the
   punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of
   Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:   14 But I will kindle a
   fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof,
   with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the
   whirlwind:   15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his
   princes together, saith the Lord.

   What the Lord says here may be explained by what he says Jer. xii. 14,
   Thus said the Lord, against all my evil neighbours that touch the
   inheritance of my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them out.
   Damascus was a near neighbour to Israel on the north, Tyre and Gaza on
   the west, Edom on the south, Ammon and (in the next chapter) Moab on
   the east; and all of them had been, one time, one way, or other,
   pricking briers and grieving thorns to Israel, evil neighbours to them;
   and, because God espouses his people's cause, he there calls them his
   evil neighbours, and here comes forth to reckon with them. The method
   is taken in dealing with each of them is, in part, the same, and
   therefore we put them together, and yet in each there is something
   peculiar.

   I. Let us see what is repeated, both by way of charge and by way of
   sentence, concerning them all. The controversy God has with each of
   them is prefaced with, Thus said the Lord, Jehovah the God of Israel.
   Though those nations will not worship him as their God, yet they shall
   be made to know that they are accountable to him as their Judge. The
   God of Israel is the God of the whole earth, and has something to say
   to them that shall make them tremble. Against them the Lord roars out
   of Zion. And before God, by the prophet, threatens Israel and Judah, he
   denounces judgments against those nations whom he made use of as
   scourges to them for their being so, which might serve for a check to
   their pride and insolence and a relief to his people under their
   dejections; for hereby they might see that God had not quitted his
   interest in them, and therefore might hope they had not lost their
   interest in him. Now as to all these nations here arraigned,

   1. The indictment drawn up against them all is thus far the same, (1.)
   That they are charged in general with three transgressions, and with
   four, that is, with many transgressions (as by one or two we mean a
   few, so by three or four we mean many, as in Latin a man that is very
   happy is said to be terque quarterque beatus--three and four times
   happy); or with three and four, that is, with seven transgressions, a
   number of perfection, intimating that they have filled up the measure
   of their iniquities, and are ripe for ruin; or with three (that is, a
   variety of sins) and with a fourth especially, which is specified
   concerning each of them, though the other three are not, as Prov. xxx.
   15, 18, 21, 29, where we read of three things, yea, four, generally one
   seems to be more especially intended. (2.) That the particular sin
   which is fastened upon as the fourth, and which alone is specified, is
   the sin of persecution: it is some mischief or other done to the people
   of God that is particularly charged upon every one of them, for
   persecution is the measure-filling sin of any people, and it is this
   sin that will be particularly reckoned for--I was hungry, and you gave
   me no meat; much more if it may be said, I was hungry, and you took my
   meat from me.

   2. The judgment given against them all is thus far the same, (1.) That,
   their sin having risen to such a height, God will not turn away the
   punishment thereof. Though he has granted them a long reprieve, and has
   often turned away their punishment, yet now he will turn it away no
   longer, but justice shall take its course. "I will not revoke it (so
   some read it); I will not recall the voice which has gone forth from
   Zion to Jerusalem (v. 2), speaking death and terror to the sinful
   nations." It is an irrevocable sentence. God has spoken it, and he will
   not call it back. Note, Though God bear long, he will not bear always,
   with those that provoke him; and, when the decree brings forth, it will
   bring up. (2.) That God will kindle a fire among them; this is said
   concerning all these evil neighbours, v. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14. God will
   send a fire into their cities. When fires are kindled that lay cities,
   towns, and houses in ashes, whether designedly or casually, God must be
   acknowledged in it; they are of his sending. Sin stirs up the fire of
   his jealousy, and that kindles other fires.

   II. Let us see what is mentioned, both by way of charge and by way of
   sentence, that is peculiar to each of them, that every one may take his
   portion.

   1. Concerning Damascus, the head-city of Syria, a kingdom that was
   often vexatious to Israel. (1.) The peculiar sin of Damascus was using
   the Gileadites barbarously: They threshed Gilead with
   threshing-instruments of iron (v. 3), which may be understood literally
   of their putting to the torture, or to cruel deaths, the inhabitants of
   Gilead whom they got into their hands, as David put the Ammonites under
   saws and harrows 2 Sam. xii. 31. We read with what inhumanity Hazael
   king of Syria prosecuted his wars with Israel (2 Kings viii. 12); he
   dashed their children, and ripped up their women with child; and see
   what desolations he made in their land, 2 Kings x. 32, 33. Or it may be
   taken figuratively, for his laying the country waste, and this very
   similitude is used in the history of it. 2 Kings xiii. 7, He destroyed
   them, and made them like the dust by threshing. Note, Men often do that
   unjustly and wickedly, and shall be severely reckoned with for it,
   which yet God just permits them to do. The church is called God's
   threshing, and the corn of his floor (Isa. xxi. 10); but if men make it
   their threshing, and the chaff of their floor, they shall be sure to
   hear of it. (2.) The peculiar punishment of Damascus is [1.] That the
   fire which shall be sent shall fasten upon the court in the first
   place, not on the chief city, nor the country towns, but on the house
   of Hazael, which he built; and it shall devour the palaces of
   Ben-hadad, the royal palaces inhabited by the kings of Syria, many of
   whom were of that name. Note, Even royal palaces are no defence against
   the judgments of God, though ever so richly furnished, though ever so
   strongly fortified. [2.] That the enemy shall force his way into the
   city (v. 5): I will break the bar of Damascus, and then the gate flies
   open. Or it may be understood figuratively: all that which is depended
   upon as the strength and safety of that great city shall fail, and
   prove insufficient. When God's judgments come with commission it is in
   vain to think of turning them out. [3.] That the people shall be
   destroyed with the sword: I will cut off the inhabitant from the plain
   of Aven, the valley of idolatry, for the gods of the Syrians were gods
   of the valleys (1 Kings xx. 23), were worshipped in valleys; as the
   idols of Israel were worshipped on the hills; him also that holdeth the
   sceptre of power, some petty king or other that used to boast of the
   sceptre he held from Beth-Eden, the house of pleasure. Both those that
   were given to idolatry and those that were given to sensuality should
   be cut off together. [4.] That the body of the nation shall be carried
   off. The people shall go into captivity unto Kir, which was in the
   country of the Medes. We find this fulfilled (2 Kings xvi. 9) about
   fifty years after this, when the king of Assyria went up against
   Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and
   slew Rezin, at the instigation of Ahaz king of Judah.

   2. Concerning Gaza, a city of the Philistines, and now the metropolis
   of that country. (1.) The peculiar sin of the Philistines was carrying
   away captive the whole captivity, either of Israel or Judah, which some
   think refers to that inroad made upon Jehoram when they took away all
   the king's sons and all his substance (2 Chron. xxi. 17), or, perhaps,
   it refers to their seizing those that fled to them for shelter when
   Sennacherib invaded Judah, and selling them to the Grecians (Joel iii.
   4-6), or (as here) to the Edomites, who were always sworn enemies to
   the people of God. They spared none, but carried off all they could lay
   their hands on, designing, if possible, to cut off the name of Israel,
   Ps. lxxxiii. 4-7. (2.) The peculiar punishment of the Philistines is
   that the fire which God will send shall devour the palaces of Gaza, and
   that the inhabitants of the other cities of the Philistines, Ashdod (or
   Azotus), Ashkelon, and Ekron, shall all be cut off, and God will make
   as thorough work with them in their ruin as they would have made with
   God's people when they carried away the whole captivity; for even the
   remnant of them shall perish, v. 8. Note, God will make a full end of
   those that think to make a full end of his church and people.

   3. Concerning Tyre, that famous city of wealth and strength, that was
   itself a kingdom, v. 9. (1.) The peculiar sin of Tyre is delivering up
   the whole captivity to Edom, that is, selling to the Edomites those of
   Israel that fled to them for shelter, or in any way fell into their
   hands; not caring what hardships they put upon them, so that they could
   but make gain of them to themselves. Herein they forgot the brotherly
   covenant, the league that was between Solomon and Hiram king of Tyre (1
   Kings v. 12), which was intimate that Hiram called Solomon his brother,
   1 Kings ix. 13. Note, It is a great aggravation of enmity and malice
   when it is the violation of friendship and of a brotherly covenant.
   (2.) Here is nothing peculiar in the punishment of Tyrus but that the
   palaces thereof shall be devoured, which was done when Nebuchadnezzar
   took it after thirteen years' siege. Their merchants were all princes,
   and their private houses were as palaces; but the fire shall make no
   more of them than of cottages.

   4. Concerning Edom, the posterity of Esau. (1.) Their peculiar sin was
   an unmerciful, unwearied, pursuit of the people of God, and their
   taking all advantages against them to do them a mischief, v. 11. He did
   pursue his brother with the sword, not only of old, when the king of
   Edom took up arms to oppose the children of Israel's passage through
   his border (Num. xx. 18), but ever since upon all occasions; they had
   not strength and courage enough to face them in the field of battle,
   but, whenever any other enemy had put Judah or Israel to flight, then
   the Edomites set in with the pursuers, fell upon the rear, slew those
   that were half dead already, and (as is usual with cowards when they
   have an enemy at an advantage) they did cast off all pity. Those that
   are least courageous are commonly most cruel. Edom was so; his malice
   destroyed his compassion (so the word is); he stripped himself of the
   tenderness of a man, and put on the fierceness of a beast of prey; and,
   as such a one, he did tear, his anger did tear perpetually. His cruelty
   was insatiable, and he never knew when he had sucked enough of the
   blood of Israel, but, like the horse-leech, still cried, Give, give.
   Nay, he kept his wrath for ever; when he wanted objects of his wrath,
   and opportunity to show it, yet he kept it in reserve (it rested in his
   bosom), he rolled it under his tongue as a sweet morsel, and had it
   ready to spit in the face of Israel upon the next occasion. Cursed be
   such cruel wrath, and anger so fierce, so outrageous, which makes men
   like the devil, who continually seeks to devour, and unlike to God, who
   keeps not his anger for ever. Edom's malice was unnatural, for thus he
   pursued his brother, whom he ought to have protected: it was
   hereditary, as if it had been entailed upon the family ever since Esau
   hated Jacob, and time itself could not wear it out, no, nor the
   brotherly conduct of Israel towards them (Deut. ii. 4), and the express
   law given to Israel (Deut. xxiii. 7), Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite,
   for he is thy brother. (2.) Here is nothing peculiar in their
   punishment; but (v. 12) a fire shall be sent to devour their palaces.
   Note, The fire of our anger against our brethren kindles the fire of
   God's anger against us.

   5. Concerning the Ammonites, v. 13-15. (1.) See how violently the fire
   of their anger turned against the people of God; they not only
   triumphed in their calamities (as we find, Ezek. xxv. 2, 6), but they
   did themselves use them barbarously; they ripped up the women with
   child of Gilead, a piece of cruelty the very mention of which strikes a
   horror upon one's mind; one would think it is not possible that any of
   the human race should be so inhuman. Hazael was guilty of it, 2 Kings
   viii. 12. It was done not only in a brutish rage, which falls without
   consideration upon all that comes before it, but with a devilish design
   to extirpate the race of Israel by killing not only all that were born,
   but all that were to be born, worse than Egyptian cruelty. It was that
   they might enlarge their border, that they might make the land of
   Gilead their own, and there might be none to lay claim to it or given
   them any disturbance in the possession of it. We find (Jer. xlix. 1)
   that the Ammonites inherited Gad (that is, Gilead) under pretence that
   Israel had no sons, no heirs. We know how heavy the doom of those was,
   and how heinous their crime, who said, This is the heir; come, let us
   kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours by occupancy. See what
   cruelty covetousness is the cause of, and what horrid practices those
   are often put upon that are greedy to enlarge their own border. (2.)
   See how violently the fire of God's anger burned against them; shall
   not God visit for these things done to any of mankind, especially when
   they are done to his own people? Shall not his soul be avenged on such
   a nation as this? No doubt, it shall. The fire shall be kindled with
   shouting in the day of battle, that is, war shall kindle the fire; it
   shall be a fire accompanied with the sword, or a roaring fire, which
   shall make a noise like that of soldiers ready to engage, and it shall
   be as a tempest in the day of the whirlwind, which comes swiftly,
   furiously, and bears down all before it. Or this tempest and whirlwind
   shall be as bellows to the fire, to make it burn the stronger, and
   spread the further. It is particularly threatened that their king and
   his princes shall go together into captivity, carried away by the king
   of Babylon, not long after Judah was. See what changes God's providence
   often makes with men, or rather their own sin; kings become captives,
   and princes prisoners. Milchom shall go into captivity; some understand
   it of the god of the Ammonites, whom they called Moloch--a king. He,
   and his princes, and his priests that attended him, shall to into
   captivity; their idol shall be so far from protecting them that it
   shall itself go into captivity with them. Note, Those who by violence
   and fraud seek to enlarge their own border will justly be expelled and
   excluded their own border; nor is it strange if those who make no
   conscience of invading the rights of others be able to make no
   resistance against those who invade theirs.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter, I. God, by the prophet, proceeds in a like controversy
   with Moab as before with other nations, ver. 1-3. II. He shows what
   quarrel he had with Judah, ver. 4, 5. III. He at length begins his
   charge against Israel, to which all that goes before is but an
   introduction. Observe, 1. The sins they are charged with--injustice,
   oppression, whoredom, ver. 6-8. 2. The aggravations of those sins--the
   temporal and spiritual mercies God had bestowed upon them, for which
   they had made him such ungrateful returns, ver. 9-12. 3. God's
   complaint of them for their sins (ver. 13) and his threatenings of
   their ruin, and their utter inability to prevent it, ver. 14-16.

The Judgment of Moab and of Judah; The Judgment of Israel. (b. c. 790.)

   1 Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four,
   I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the
   bones of the king of Edom into lime:   2 But I will send a fire upon
   Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die
   with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:   3 And
   I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the
   princes thereof with him, saith the Lord.   4 Thus saith the Lord; For
   three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the
   punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the Lord, and
   have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err,
   after the which their fathers have walked:   5 But I will send a fire
   upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.   6 Thus
   saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I
   will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the
   righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;   7 That pant
   after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the
   way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same
   maid, to profane my holy name:   8 And they lay themselves down upon
   clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the
   condemned in the house of their god.

   Here is, I. The judgment of Moab, another of the nations that bordered
   upon Israel. They are reckoned with and shall be punished for three
   transgressions and for four, as those before. Now, 1. Moab's fourth
   transgression, as theirs who were before set to the bar, was cruelty.
   The instance given refers not to the people of God, but to a heathen
   like themselves: The king of Moab burnt the bones of the king of Edom
   into lime. We find there was war between the Edomites and the Moabites,
   in which the king of Moab, in distress and rage, offered his own son
   for a burnt-offering, to appease his deity, 2 Kings iii. 26, 27. And it
   should seem that afterwards he, or some of his successors, in revenge
   upon the Edomites for bringing him to that extremity, having an
   advantage against the king of Edom, seized him alive and burnt him to
   ashes, or slew him and burnt his body, or dug up the bones of their
   dead king, of that particularly who had so straitened him, and, in
   token of his rage and fury, burnt them to lime. and perhaps made use of
   the powder of his bones for the white-washing of the walls and ceilings
   of his palace, that he might please himself with the sight of that
   monument of his revenge. Est vindicta bonum vita jucundius
   ipsa--Revenge is sweeter than life itself. It is barbarous to abuse
   human bodies, for we ourselves also are in the body; it is senseless to
   abuse dead bodies, nay, it is impious, for we believe and look for
   their resurrection; and to abuse the dead bodies of kings (whose
   persons and names ought to be in a particular manner respected and had
   in veneration) is an affront to majesty; it is an argument of a base
   spirit for those to trample upon a dead lion who, were he alive, would
   tremble before him. 2. Moab's doom for this transgression is, (1.) A
   judgment of death. Those that deal cruelly shall be cruelly dealt with
   (v. 2): Moab shall die; the Moabites shall be cut off with the sword of
   war, which kills with tumult, with shouting, and with sound of trumpet,
   circumstances that make it so much the more terrible, as the lion's
   roaring aggravates his tearing. Every battle of the warrior is with
   confused noise, Isa. ix. 5. (2.) It is a judgment upon their judge, who
   had passed the sentence upon the bones of the king of Edom that they
   should be burnt to lime: I will cut him off, says God (v. 3); he shall
   know there is a judge that is higher than he. The king, the chief
   judge, and all the inferior judges and princes, shall be cut off
   together. If the people sometimes suffer for the sin of their princes,
   yet the princes themselves shall not escape, Jer. xlviii. 47. Thus far
   is the judgment of Moab.

   II. Judah also is a near neighbour to Israel, and therefore, now that
   justice is riding the circuit, that shall not be passed by; that nation
   has made itself like the heathen and mingled with them, and therefore
   the indictment here runs against them in the same form in which it had
   run against all the rest: For these transgressions of Judah, and for
   four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; their sins are as
   many as the sins of other nations, and we find them huddled up with
   them in the same character, Jer. ix. 26, "As for Egypt, and Judah, and
   Edom, jumble them together; they are all alike;" the sentence here also
   is the same (v. 5): "I will send a fire upon Judah, though it is the
   land where God is known, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem,
   though it is the holy city, and God has formerly been known in its
   palaces for a refuge," Ps. xlviii. 3. But the sin here charged upon
   Judah is different from all the rest. The other nations were reckoned
   with for injuries done to men, but Judah is reckoned with for
   indignities done to God, v. 4. 1. They put contempt upon his statutes
   and persisted in disobedience to them: They have despised the law of
   the Lord, as if it were not worth taking notice of, nor had any thing
   in it valuable; and herein they despised the wisdom, justice, and
   goodness, as well as the authority and sovereignty, of the Lawmaker;
   this they did, in effect, when they kept not his commandments, made no
   conscience of them, took no care about them. 2. They put honour upon
   his rivals, their idols, here called their lies which caused them to
   err; for an image is a teacher of lies, Hab. ii. 18. And those that are
   led away into the error of idolatry are by that led into a multitude of
   other errors, Uno dato absurdo mille sequuntur--One absurdity draws
   after it a thousand. God is an infinite eternal Spirit; but, when the
   truth of God is by idolatry changed into a lie, all his other truths
   are in danger of being so changed likewise; thus their idols caused
   them to err, and God justly gave them up to strong delusions; nor was
   it any excuse for their sin that they were lies after which their
   father walked, for they should rather have taken warning than taken
   pattern by those that perished with these lies in their right hand.

   III. We now at length come to the words which Amos saw concerning
   Israel. The reproofs and threatenings having walked the round, here
   they centre, here they settle. He begins with them as with the rest:
   For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away
   the punishment thereof; if all these nations must be punished for their
   iniquities, shall Israel go unpunished? Observe here what their sins
   were, for which God would reckon with them. 1. Perverting justice. This
   was the sin of those who were entrusted with the administration of
   justice, the judges and magistrates, and all parties concerned. They
   made nothing of selling a righteous man, and his righteous cause when
   it came to be tried before them, for a piece of silver; sentence was
   passed, not according to the merits of the cause, but the bribe always
   turned the scale, and judgment was set to sale by auction to the
   highest bidder. They would sell the life and livelihood of a poor man
   for a pair of shoes, for the least advantage to themselves that could
   be proposed to them; give them but a pair of shoes, and the cause of a
   poor man, who could not give them as much as that, should be betrayed,
   and left at the mercy of those that will have no mercy. They will
   rather play at small game that sit out. For a piece of bread such a man
   will transgress. Note, Those who will wrong their consciences for any
   thing will come at length to do it for next to nothing; those who begin
   to sell justice for silver will in time be so sordid as to see it for a
   pair of shoes, for a pair of old shoes. 2. Oppressing the poor, and
   seeking to benefit themselves by doing them a mischief: They pant after
   the dust of the earth on the head of the poor; they swallow up the poor
   with the utmost greediness, and make a prey of those that are in sorrow
   with dust on their heads, poor orphans that are in mourning for their
   parents; they catch at them to get their estates into their hands; they
   never rest till they have got the heads of the poor in the dust, to be
   trodden on. Or, They pant after the dust of the earth, that is, silver
   and gold, white and yellow dust; they covet it earnestly, and levy it
   upon the head of the poor by their unjust exactions. Note, Men's
   seeking to enrich themselves by the impoverishing of others is a
   transgression which God will not long turn away the punishment of. This
   is turning aside the way of the meek, contriving to do injury to those
   who, they know, are mild and patient and will bear injury. They invade
   their rights, break their measures, and obstruct the course of justice
   in favour of them, not suffering them to go on with their righteous
   cause; this is turning aside their way. Note, The more patiently men
   bear injuries that are done them the greater is the sin of those that
   injure them, and the more occasion they have to expect that God will
   give them redress, and take vengeance for them. I, as a deaf man, heard
   not, and then thou wilt hear. 3. Abominable uncleanness, even incest
   itself, such as it not named among the Gentiles, that a man should have
   his father's wife (1 Cor. v. 1), his father's concubine: A man and his
   father will go in unto the same young woman, as black an instance as
   any other of an unbounded promiscuous lust; and yet where the former
   iniquities of oppression and extortion are this also is found; for laws
   of modesty seldom hold those that have broken the bands of justice and
   cast away its cords from them. This wickedness is such a scandal to
   religion, and the profession of it, that those who are guilty of it are
   looked upon as designing thereby to profane God's holy name, and to
   render it odious among the heathen, as if he countenanced the
   villainies which those who pretend relation to him allow themselves in,
   and were altogether such a one as they. 4. Regaling themselves and yet
   pretending to honour their God with that which they had got by
   oppression and extortion, v. 8. They add idolatry to their injustice,
   and then think to atone for their injustice with their idolatry. (1.)
   They make merry with that which they have unjustly squeezed from the
   poor. They lay themselves down at ease, and in state, and stretch
   themselves upon clothes laid to pledge, which they ought to have
   restored the same night, according to the law, Deut. xxiv. 12, 13. And
   they drink the wine of the condemned, of such as they have fined and
   laid heavy mulcts upon, spending that in sensuality which they have got
   by injustice. (2.) They think to make atonement for this by feasting on
   the gains of oppression before their altars, and drinking this wine in
   the house of their God, in the temples where they worshipped their
   calves, as if they would make God a partner in their crimes by making
   him a partner of the profits of them--service good enough for false
   gods; but the true God will not thus be mocked; he has declared that he
   hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and cannot be served acceptably but
   with that which is got honestly.

God's Remonstrance with Israel. (b. c. 790.)

   9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the
   height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed
   his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.   10 Also I brought
   you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the
   wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.   11 And I raised up of
   your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not
   even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord.   12 But ye gave
   the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying,
   Prophesy not.   13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed
   that is full of sheaves.   14 Therefore the flight shall perish from
   the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall
   the mighty deliver himself:   15 Neither shall he stand that handleth
   the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself:
   neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.   16 And he
   that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,
   saith the Lord.

   Here, I. God puts his people Israel in mind of the great things he has
   done for them, in putting them into possession of the land of Canaan,
   the greatest part of which these ten tribes now enjoyed, v. 9, 10.
   Note, We need often to be reminded of the mercies we have received,
   which are the heaviest aggravations of the sins we have committed. God
   gives liberally, and upbraids us not with our meanness and
   unworthiness, and the disproportion between his gifts and our merits;
   but he justly upbraids us with our ingratitude, and ill requital of his
   favours, and tells us what he has done for us, to shame us for not
   rendering again according to the benefit done to us. "Son, remember;
   Israel, remember, 1. That God brought thee out of a house of bondage,
   rescued thee out of the land of Egypt, where thou wouldst otherwise
   have perished in slavery." 2. That he led thee forty years through a
   desert land, and fed thee in a wilderness, where thou wouldst otherwise
   have perished with hunger. Mercies to our ancestors were mercies to us,
   for, if they had been cut off, we should not have been. 3. That he made
   room for them in Canaan, by extirpating the natives by a series of
   wonders little inferior to those by which they were redeemed out of
   Egypt: I destroyed the Amorite before them, here put for all the
   devoted nations. Observe the magnificence of the enemies that stood in
   their way, which is taken notice of, that God may be the more magnified
   in the subduing of them. They were of great stature (whose height was
   like the height of the cedars) and the people of Israel were as shrubs
   to them; and they were also of great strength, not only tall, but
   well-set: He was strong as the oaks. Their kingdom was eminent among
   the nations, and over-topped all its neighbours. The supports and
   defences of it seemed impregnable; it was as fine as the stately cedar;
   it was as firm as the sturdy oak; yet, when God had a vine to plant
   there (Ps. lxxx. 8, 9), this Amorite was not only cut down, but plucked
   up: I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath, so
   that the Amorites were no more a nation, nor ever read of any more.
   Thus highly did God value Israel. He gave men for them and people for
   their life, Isa. xliii. 4. How ungrateful then were those who put such
   contempt upon him! 4. That he made them possess the land of the
   Amorite, not only put it into their hands, so that they became masters
   of it jure belli--by right of conquest, but gave them a better title to
   it, so that it became theirs by promise.

   II. He likewise upbraids them with the spiritual privileges and
   advantages they enjoyed as a holy nation, v. 11. They had helps for
   their souls, which taught them how to make good use of their temporal
   enjoyments and were therefore more valuable. It is true the ten tribes
   had not God's temple, altar, and priesthood, and it was their own fault
   that they deserted them, and for that they might justly have been left
   in utter darkness; but God left not himself without witness, nor them
   without guides to show them the way. 1. They had prophets that were
   powerful instructors in piety, divinely inspired, and commissioned to
   make known the mind of God to them, to show them what is pleasing to
   God and what displeasing, to reprove them for their faults and warn
   them of their dangers, to direct them in their difficulties and comfort
   them in their troubles. God raised them up prophets, animated them for
   that work and employed them in it. He raised them up of their sons,
   from among themselves, as Moses and Christ were raised up from among
   their brethren, Deut. xviii. 15. It was an honour put upon their
   nation, and upon their families, that they had children of their own to
   be God's messengers to them, of their own language, not strangers sent
   from another country, whom they might suspect to be prejudiced against
   them and their land, but those who, they knew, wished well to them.
   Note, Faithful ministers are great blessings to any people, and it is
   God that raises them up to be so, that they may justly be reckoned an
   honour to the families they are of. 2. They had Nazarites that were
   bright examples of piety: I raised up of your young men for Nazarites,
   men that bound themselves by a vow to God and his service, and, in
   pursuance of that, denied themselves many of the lawful delights of
   sense, as drinking wine and eating grapes. There were some of their
   young men that were in their prime for the enjoyment of the pleasures
   of this life and yet voluntarily abridged themselves of them; these God
   raised up by the power of his grace, to be monuments of his grace, to
   his glory, and to be his witnesses against the impieties of that
   degenerate age. Note, It is as great a blessing to any place to have
   eminent good Christians in it as to have eminent good ministers in it;
   for so they have examples to their rules. We must acknowledge that it
   bodes well to any people when God raises up numbers of hopeful young
   people among them, when he makes their young men Nazarites, devout, and
   conscientious, and mortified to the pleasures of sense; and those that
   are such Nazarites are purer than snow, whiter than milk; they are
   indeed the polite young men, for their polishing is of sapphires, Lam.
   iv. 7. Those that have such men, such young men, among them, have
   therein such an advantage, both for direction and encouragement, to be
   religious, as they will be called to an account for another day if they
   do not improve. Israel is here reckoned with, not only for the
   prophets, but for the Nazarites, raised up among them. Concerning the
   truth of this, he appeals to themselves: "Is it not even thus, O you
   children of Israel? Can you deny it? Have not you yourselves been
   sensible of the advantage you had by the prophets and Nazarites raised
   up among you?" Note, Sinners' own consciences will be witnesses for God
   that he has not been wanting to them in the means of grace, so that, if
   they perish, it is because they have been wanting to themselves in not
   improving those means. The men of Judah shall themselves judge between
   God and his vineyard, whether he could have done more for it, Isa. v.
   3, 4.

   III. He charges them with the abuse of the means of grace they enjoyed,
   and the opposition they gave to God's designs in affording them those
   means, v. 12. They were so far from walking in the light that they
   rebelled against it, and did what they could to extinguish it, that it
   might not shine in their faces, to their conviction. 1. They did what
   they could to debauch good people, to draw them off from their
   seriousness in devotion and their strictness in conversation: You gave
   the Nazarites wine to drink, contrary to their vow, that, having broken
   it in that instance, they might not pretend to keep it in any other.
   Some they surprised, or allured into it, and with their much fair
   speech caused them to yield; others they forced and frightened into it,
   reproached and threatened them if they were more precise than their
   neighbours; and, by drawing them in to drink wine, they spoiled them
   for Nazarites. Note, Satan and his agents are very busy to corrupt the
   minds of young people that look heavenward; and many that we thought
   would have been Nazarites they have overcome by giving them wine to
   drink, by drawing them in to the love of mirth and pleasure, and
   drinking company. Multitudes of young men that bade fair for eminent
   professors of religion have erred through wine, and been undone for
   ever. And how do the factors for hell triumph in the debauching of a
   Nazarite! 2. They did what they could to silence good ministers, and to
   stop their mouths: "You commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not,
   and threatened them if they did prophesy (ch. vii. 12), as if God's
   messengers were bound to observe your orders, and might not deliver
   their errand unless you gave them leave, and so you not only received
   the grace of God, in raising up those prophets, in vain, but put the
   highest affront imaginable upon that God in whose name the prophets
   spoke." Note, Those have a great deal to answer for that cannot bear
   faithful preaching, and those much more that suppress it.

   IV. He complains of the wrong they did him by their sins (v. 13): "I am
   pressed under you, I am straitened by you, and can no longer bear it,
   and therefore I will ease myself of my adversaries, Isa. i. 24. I am
   pressed under you and the load of your sins as a cart is pressed that
   is full of sheaves, is loaded with corn, in the midst of the joy of
   harvest, as long as any will lie on." Note, The great God complains of
   sin, especially the sins of his professing people, as a burden to him.
   He is grieved with this generation (Ps. xcv. 10), is broken with their
   whorish heart (Ezek. vi. 9), a consideration which, if it make not the
   sinner's repentance very deep, will make his ruin very great. The great
   God that upholds the world, and never complains that his is pressed
   under the weight of it (he fainteth not, neither is weary), yet
   complains of the sins of Israel, yea, and of their hypocritical
   services too, that he is weary of bearing them, Isa. i. 14. No wonder
   the creature groans being burdened (Rom. viii. 22), when the Creator
   says, I am pressed under them.

   V. He threatens them with unavoidable ruin. And so some read, v. 13,
   "Behold I will press, or straiten, your place, as a cart full of
   sheaves presses; they shall be loaded with judgments till they shall
   sink under them, and shall make a noise, as a cart overloaded does."
   Those that will not submit to the convictions of the word, that will
   neither be won by that nor by the conversation of those about them,
   shall be made to sink under the weight of God's judgments. If God load
   us daily with his benefits, and we, notwithstanding that, load him with
   our sins, how can we expect any other than that he should load us with
   his judgments? And it is here threatened in the last three verses that,
   when God comes forth to contend with this provoking people, they shall
   not be able to stand before him, to flee from him, nor to make their
   part good with him; for when God judges he will overcome. Though his
   patience be tired out, his power is not, and so the sinner shall find,
   to his cost. When the Assyrian army comes to lay the country waste by
   sword and captivity none shall escape, but every one shall have his
   share in the common desolation. 1. It will be in vain to think of
   fleeing from the enemy that comes armed with a commission to make all
   desolate: The flight shall perish from the swift; those that have been
   famed for happy escapes and happy retreats shall now find their arts
   fail them; they shall have no time to flee, or shall find no way to
   take, or they shall have no strength or spirit to attempt it; they
   shall be at their wits' end, and then they are soon at their flight's
   end. Are they, as Asahel, as swift of foot as a wild roe? (2 Sam. ii.
   18), yet, like him, they shall run the faster upon their own
   destruction: He that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself, v. 15.
   Or do they say (as those, Isa. xxx. 16), We will flee upon horses, and
   we will ride upon the swift? Yet they shall be overtaken: Neither shall
   he that rides the horse deliver himself from his pursuers. A horse is a
   vain thing for safety. 2. It will be in vain to think of fighting it
   out. God is at war with them; and are they stronger than he? Is there
   any military force that can pretend to be a match for Omnipotence? No:
   The strong shall not strengthen his force. He that has a habit of
   strength shall not be able to exert it when he has occasion for it. And
   the mighty, whose should protect and deliver others, shall not be able
   to deliver himself, to deliver his soul (so the word is), shall not
   save his life. Let not the strong man then glory in his strength, nor
   trust in it, but strengthen himself in the Lord his God, for in him is
   everlasting strength. And, as the bodily strength shall fail, so shall
   the weapons of war. The armour as well as the arm shall become
   insufficient: Neither shall he stand that handles the bow, though he
   stand at a distance, but shall betake himself to flight, and not trust
   to his own bow to save him. Though the arm be ever so strong, and the
   armour ever so well fixed, neither will avail when the spirit fails (v.
   16): He that is courageous among the mighty, that used to look danger
   in the face, and not be dismayed at it, shall flee away naked in that
   day, not only disarmed, having thrown away his weapons both offensive
   and defensive, but plundered of his treasure, which he thought to carry
   away with him, and he shall think it as much as he could expect that he
   has his life for a prey. Thus when God pleases he takes away the heart
   of the chief of the people of the earth, and causes those who used to
   boast of their courage, and their daring enterprises in the field, to
   wander and sneak in a wilderness where there is no way, Job xii. 24.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. III.

   A stupid, senseless, heedless people, are, in this chapter, called upon
   to take notice, I. Of the judgments of God denounced against them and
   the warnings he gave them of those judgments, and to be hereby awakened
   out of their security, ver. 1-8. II. Of the sins that were found among
   them, by which God was provoked thus to threaten, thus to punish, that
   they might justify God in his controversy with them, and, unless they
   repented and reformed, might expect no other than that God should
   proceed in his controversy, ver. 9-15.

God's Remonstrance with Israel. (b. c. 790.)

   1 Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of
   Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of
   Egypt, saying,   2 You only have I known of all the families of the
   earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.   3 Can two
   walk together, except they be agreed?   4 Will a lion roar in the
   forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if
   he have taken nothing?   5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth,
   where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and
   have taken nothing at all?   6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city,
   and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the
   Lord hath not done it?   7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he
   revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.   8 The lion hath
   roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but
   prophesy?

   The scope of these verses is to convince the people of Israel that God
   had a controversy with them. That which the prophet has to say to them
   is to let them know that the Lord has something to say against them, v.
   1. They were his peculiar people above others, knew his name, and were
   called by it; nevertheless he had something against them, and they were
   called to hear what it was, that they might consider what answer they
   should make, as the prisoner at the bar is told to hearken to his
   indictment. The children of Israel would not regard the words of
   counsel and comfort that God had many a time spoken to them, and now
   they shall be made to hear the word of reproof and threatening that the
   Lord has spoken against them; for he will act as he has spoken.

   I. Let them know that the gracious cognizance God has taken of them,
   and the favours he has bestowed upon them, should not exempt them from
   the punishment due to them for their sins. Israel is a family that God
   brought up out of the land of Egypt, (v. 1), and it was no more than a
   family when it went down thither; thence God delivered it; thence he
   fetched it to be a family to himself. It is not only the ten tribes,
   the kingdom of Israel, that must take notice of this, but that of Judah
   also, for it is spoken against the whole family that God brought up out
   of Egypt. It is a family that God has bestowed distinguishing favours
   upon, has owned in a peculiar manner. You only have I known of all the
   families of the earth. Note, God's church in the world is a family
   dignified above all the families of the earth. Those that know God are
   known of him. In Judah is God known, and therefore Judah is more than
   any people known of God. God has known them, that is, he has chosen
   them, covenanted with them, and conversed with them as his
   acquaintance. Now, one would think, it should follow, "Therefore I will
   spare you, will connive at your faults, and excuse you." No: Therefore
   I will punish you for all your iniquities. Note, The distinguishing
   favours of God to us, if they do not serve to restrain us from sin,
   shall not serve to exempt us from punishment; nay, the nearer any are
   to God in profession, and the kinder notice he has taken of them, the
   more surely, the more quickly, and the more severely will he reckon
   with them, if they by a course of wilful sin profane their character,
   disgrace their relation to him, violate their engagements, and put a
   slight upon the favours and honours with which they have been
   distinguished. Therefore they shall be punished, because their sins
   dishonour him, affront him, and grieve him, more than the sins of
   others, and because it is necessary that God should vindicate his own
   honour by making it appear that he hates sin and hates it most in those
   that are nearest to him; if they be but as bad as others, they shall be
   punished worse than others, because it is justly expected that they
   should be so much better than others. Judgment begins at the house of
   God, begins at the sanctuary; for God will be sanctified either by or
   upon those that come nigh unto him, Lev. x. 3.

   II. Let them know that they could not expect any comfortable communion
   with God unless they first made their peace with him (v. 3): Can two
   walk together except they be agreed? No; how should they? Where there
   is not friendship there can be no fellowship; if two persons be at
   variance, they must first accommodate the matters in difference between
   them before there can be any interchanging of good offices. Israel has
   affronted God, had broken their covenant with him, and ill-requited his
   favours to them; and yet they expected that he should continue to walk
   with them, should take their part, act for them, and give them
   assurances of his presence with them, though they took no care by
   repentance and reformation to agree with their adversary and to turn
   away his wrath. "But how can that be?" says God. "While you continue to
   walk contrary to God you can look for no other than that he should walk
   contrary to you," Lev. xxvi. 23, 24. Note, We cannot expect that God
   should be present with us, or act for us, unless we be reconciled to
   him. God and man cannot walk together except they be agreed. Unless we
   agree with God in our end, which is his glory, we cannot walk with him
   by the way.

   III. Let them know that the warnings God gave them of judgments
   approaching were not causeless and groundless, merely to amuse them,
   but certain declarations of the wrath of God against them, which (if
   they did not speedily repent) they would infallibly feel the effects of
   (v. 4): "Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey in view?
   No: he roars upon his prey. Nor will a young lion cry out of his den if
   the old lion have taken nothing to bring home to him; nor would God
   thus give you warning both by the threatenings of his word, and by less
   judgments, if you had not by your sins made yourselves a prey to his
   wrath, nor if he were not really about to fall upon you with desolating
   destroying judgments." Note, The threatenings of the word and
   providence of God are not bugbears, to frighten children and fools, but
   are certain inferences from the sin of man and certain presages of the
   judgments of God.

   IV. Let them know that, as their own wickedness was the procuring cause
   of these judgments, so they shall not be removed till they have done
   their work, v. 5. When God has come forth to contend with a sinful
   people it is necessary that they should understand, 1. That it is their
   own sin that has entangled them; for can a bird fall in a snare upon
   the earth where no gin is for him? No, nature does not lay snares for
   the creatures, but the art of men; a bird is not taken in a snare by
   chance, but with the fowler's design; so the providence of God prepares
   trouble for sinners, and it is in the work of their own hands that they
   are snared. Affliction does not spring out of the dust, but it is God's
   justice, and our own wickedness, that correct us. 2. It is nothing but
   their own repentance that can disentangle them; for shall one take up a
   snare from the earth, which he laid with design, except he have taken
   something as he designed? So neither will God remove the affliction he
   has sent till it have done its work and accomplished that for which he
   sent it. If our hearts be duly humbled, and we are brought by our
   afflictions to confess and forsake our sins, then the snare has taken
   something, then the point is gained, the end is answered, and then, and
   not till then, the snare is broken, is taken up from the earth, and we
   are delivered in love and mercy.

   V. Let them know that all their troubles came from the hand of God's
   providence and from the counsel of his will (v. 6): Shall there be evil
   in a city, in a family, in a nation, and the Lord has not done it,
   appointed it, and performed what he appointed? The evil of sin is from
   ourselves; it is our own doing. But the evil of trouble, personal or
   public, is from God, and is his doing; whoever are the instruments, God
   is the principal agent. Out of his mouth both evil and good proceed.
   This consideration, that, whatever evil is in the city, the Lord has
   done it, should engage us patiently to bear our share in public
   calamities and to study to answer God's intention in them.

   VI. Let them know that their prophets, who give them warning of
   judgments approaching, deliver nothing to them but what they have
   received from the Lord to be delivered to his people. 1. God makes it
   known beforehand to the prophets (v. 7): Surely the Lord Jehovah will
   do nothing, none of that evil in the city spoken of (v. 6), but he
   reveals it to his servants the prophets, though to others it is a
   secret. Therefore those know not what they do who make light of the
   warnings which the prophets give them, in God's name. Observe, God's
   prophets are his servants, whom he employs to go on his errands to the
   children of men. The secret of God is with them; it is in some sense
   with all the righteous (Prov. iii. 32), with all that fear God (Ps.
   xxv. 14), but in a peculiar manner with the prophets, to whom the
   Spirit of prophecy is a Spirit of revelation. It would have put honour
   enough upon prophets if it had been only said that sometimes God is
   pleased to reveal to his prophets what he designs to do, but it speaks
   something very great to say that he does nothing but what he reveals to
   them, as if they were the men of his counsel. Shall I hide from
   Abraham, who is a prophet, the thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17. God
   will therefore be sure to reckon with those that put contempt on the
   prophets, whom he puts this honour upon. 2. The prophets cannot but
   make that known to the people which God has made known to them (v. 8):
   The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy? His prophets, to whom he
   has spoken in secret by dreams and visions, cannot but speak in public
   to the people what they have heard from God. They are so full of those
   things themselves, so well assured concerning them, and so much
   affected with them, that they cannot but speak of them; for out of the
   abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. I believed; therefore have
   I spoken, Acts iv. 20. Nay, and besides the prophetic impulse which
   went along with the inspiration, and made the word like a fire in their
   bones (Jer. xx. 9), they received a command from God to deliver what
   they had been charged with; and they would have been false to their
   trust if they had not done it. Necessity was laid upon them, as upon
   the preachers of the gospel, 1 Cor. ix. 16.

   VII. Let them know that they ought to tremble before God upon the fair
   warning he had given them, as they would, 1. Upon the sounding of a
   trumpet, to give notice of the approach of the enemy, that all may
   stand upon their guard and stand to their arms: Shall a trumpet be
   blown in the city, and the people be not afraid, or run together? so
   some read it, v. 6. Will they not immediately come together in a
   fright, to consider what is best to be done for the common safety? Yet
   when God by his prophets gives them notice of their danger, and summons
   them to come and enlist themselves under his banner, it makes no
   impression; they will sooner give credit to a watchman on their walls
   than to a prophet sent of God, will sooner obey the summons of the
   governor of their city than the orders given them by the Governor of
   the world. God says, Hearken to the voice of the trumpet; but they will
   not hearken, nay, and they tell him plainly that they will not, Jer.
   vi. 17. 2. Upon the roaring of a lion. God is sometimes as a lion, and
   a young lion, to the house of Judah, Hos. v. 14. The lion roars before
   he tears; thus God warns before he wounds. If therefore the lion roars
   upon a poor traveller (as he did against Samson, Judg. xiv. 5), he
   cannot but be put into great consternation; yet the Lord roars out of
   Zion (ch. i. 2), and none are afraid, but they go on securely as if
   they were in no danger. Note, The fair warning given to a careless
   world, if it be not taken, will aggravate its condemnation another day.
   The lion roared, and they were not moved with fear to prepare an ark. O
   the amazing stupidity of an unbelieving world, that will not be wrought
   upon, no, not by the terrors of the Lord!

Israel Convicted and Condemned. (b. c. 790.)

   9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of
   Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and
   behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the
   midst thereof.   10 For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who
   store up violence and robbery in their palaces.   11 Therefore thus
   saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the
   land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces
   shall be spoiled.   12 Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out
   of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the
   children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of
   a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.   13 Hear ye, and testify in the
   house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts,   14 That in the
   day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will
   also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be
   cut off, and fall to the ground.   15 And I will smite the winter house
   with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the
   great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.

   The Israelites are here again convicted and condemned, and particular
   notice given of the crimes they are convicted of and the punishment
   they are condemned to.

   1. Notice is given of it to their neighbours. The prophet is ordered to
   publish it in the palaces of Ashdod, one of the chief cities of the
   Philistines; nay, the summons must go further, even to the palaces in
   the land of Egypt. "The great men of both those nations, that dwell in
   the palaces, that are inquisitive concerning the affairs of the
   neighboring nations, and are conversant with the public intelligence,
   let them assemble themselves upon the mountains of Samaria," v. 9.
   There, upon a throne high and lifted up, the judgment is set. Samaria
   is the criminal that is to be tried; let them be present at the trial,
   for it shall be (as other trials are) public, in the face of the
   country; let them make an appointment to meet there from all parts, to
   judge between God and his vineyard. God appeals to all impartial
   righteous men, Ezek. xxiii. 45. They will all subscribe to the equity
   of his proceedings when they see how the case stands. Note, God's
   controversies with sinners do not fear a scrutiny; even Philistines and
   Egyptians will be made to see, and say, that the ways of the Lord are
   equal, but our ways are unequal. They are likewise summoned to attend,
   not only that they may justify God and be witness for him that he deals
   fairly, but that they may themselves take warning; for, if judgment
   begin at the house of God, as they see it does, what shall be the end
   of those that are strangers to him? 1 Pet. iv. 17. If this be done in a
   green tree, what shall be done in a dry? Or this intimates that the sin
   of Israel had been so notorious that the neighboring nations could come
   in witnesses against them, and therefore it was fit that their
   punishment should be so. "If it could have been concealed, we would
   have said, Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of
   Ashkelon;" but why should their friends consult their reputation, when
   they themselves do not consult it? If they have grown impudent in sin,
   let them bear the shame: "Publish it in Ashdod, in Egypt."

   1. Let them see how black the charge is, and how well proved. Let them
   observe the behaviour of the inhabitants of Samaria; let them look off
   from the adjacent hills, and they may see how rude and boisterous they
   are, and hear how loud they cry of their sin is, as was that of Sodom.
   (1.) Look into their streets and you will see nothing but riot and
   disorder, great tumults in the midst thereof; reason and justice are
   upon all occasions run down by the noise and fury of an outrageous mob,
   the dominion of which is the sin and shame of any people, and is likely
   to be their ruin. (2.) Look into their prisons, and you will see them
   filled with injured innocents: The oppressed are in the midst thereof,
   thrown down and crushed by their oppressors, overpowered and
   overwhelmed, and they had no comforter, Eccl. iv. 1. (3.) Look into
   their courts of justice, and you will see that those who preside in
   those courts know not to do right, because they have always been
   accustomed to do wrong; they act as if they had no notion at all of the
   thing called justice, are in no care to do justice themselves nor to
   see that others do justice. (4.) Look into their treasures and stores,
   and you will see them replenished with violence and robbery, with that
   which was unjustly got and is still unjustly kept. Thus they have
   heaped treasures together for the last days, but it will prove a
   treasure of wrath against the day of wrath. It may well be said, Those
   know not to do right who think to enrich themselves by doing wrong.

   2. Let them see how heavy the doom is, and how well executed, v. 11,
   12.

   (1.) Their country shall be invaded and ruined; and observe how the
   punishment answers to the sin. [1.] Great tumults are in the midst of
   the land, and therefore an adversary shall be even round about the
   land; the Assyrian forces shall surround it and break in upon it on
   every side. Note, When sin is harboured and indulged in the midst of a
   people they can expect no other than that adversaries should be round
   about them, so that, go which way they will, they go into the mouth of
   danger, Luke xix. 43. [2.] They strengthened themselves in their
   wickedness, but the enemy shall bring down their strength from them,
   that strength which they abused in oppressing the poor, and doing
   violence to all about them. Note, That power which is made an
   instrument of unrighteousness will justly be brought down and broken.
   [3.] They stored up robbery in their palaces, and therefore their
   palaces shall be spoiled; for what is got and kept wrongfully will not
   be kept long. Even palaces will be no protection to fraud and
   oppression; but the greatest of men, if they have spoiled others, shall
   themselves be spoiled, for the Lord is the avenger of all such.

   (2.) Their countrymen shall not escape, v. 12. They shall be in the
   hands of the enemy, as a lamb in the mouth of a lion, all devoured and
   eaten up, and they shall be utterly unable to make an resistance; and
   if any do make their escape, so as neither to fall by the sword or go
   into captivity, yet they shall be very few, and those of the meanest
   and least considerable, like two legs, or shanks, of a lamb, or, it may
   be, a piece of an ear, which the lion drops, or the shepherd takes from
   him, when he has eaten the whole body; so, perhaps, here and there one
   may escape from Samaria and from Damascus, when the king of Assyria
   shall fall upon them both, but none to make any account of; and those
   that do escape shall do so with the utmost difficult and hazard, by
   hiding themselves in the corner of a bed or under the bed's feet, which
   intimates that their spirits shall sneak shamefully in the time of
   danger. They shall not hide themselves in dens and caves, but in the
   corner of a bed, or the piece of a bed, such as poor people must be
   content with. They shall very narrowly escape, as it is foretold
   concerning the last destruction of Jerusalem that there shall be two in
   a bed together, one taken and the other left. Note, When God's
   judgments come forth against a people with commission it will be in
   vain to think of escaping them. Some make their dwelling in the corner
   of a bed, and in a couch, to denote their present security and
   sensuality; they are at ease, as in a bed, or on a couch, but, when God
   comes to contend with them, he shall make them uneasy, shall take them
   away out of the bed of their sloth and slumber. Those that stretch
   themselves lazily upon their couches when God's judgments are abroad
   shall go captive with the first that go captive.

   II. Notice is given of it to themselves, v. 13. Let this be testified,
   and heard, in the house of Jacob, among all the seed of Israel, for it
   is spoken by the Lord God, the God of hosts, who has authority to pass
   this sentence and ability to execute it; let them know from him that
   the day is at hand when God will visit the transgressions of Israel
   upon him, when he will enquire into them and reckon for them: there
   will come a day of visitation, a day of punishment, and in that day all
   those things they are proud of, and put confidence in, shall fail them,
   and so they shall smart for the sins they have been guilty of about
   them. 1. Woe to their altars, for God will visit them. He will enquire
   into the sins they have been guilty of at their altars, and bring into
   the account all their superstition and idolatry, all their expenses on
   their false gods, and all their expectations from them; and he will lay
   the altars themselves under the marks of his displeasure, for the horns
   of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground, and with them
   the altar itself demolished and broken to pieces. We find the altar at
   Bethel prophesied against (1 Kings xiii. 2), and immediately rent (v.
   3), and that prophecy fulfilled with Josiah burnt men's bones upon it,
   2 Kings xxiii. 15, 16. This seconds that prophecy, and seems to point
   at the same event. Note, If men will not destroy idolatrous altars, God
   will, and those with them that had them in veneration. Some make the
   horns of the altar to signify all those things which they flee to for
   refuge, and trust in, and which they make their sanctuary: they shall
   all be cut off, so that they shall have nothing to take hold of. 2. Woe
   to their houses, for God will visit them too. He will enquire into the
   sins they have been guilty of in their houses, the robbery that have
   stored up in their houses, and the luxury in which they lived: and I
   will smite the winter-house with the summer-house, v. 15. Their
   nobility, and gentry, and rich merchants, had their winter-houses in
   the city and their summer-houses in the country, so nice were they in
   guarding against the inconveniences of the winter when the country was
   thought too cold, and of the summer when the city was thought too hot,
   though the climate of that good land was so temperate, like that of
   ours, that neither the cold nor heat was ever in extremity. They
   indulged a foolish affectation of change and variety; but God will,
   either by war or by the earthquake, smite both the winter-house and the
   summer-house; neither shall serve to shelter them from his judgments.
   The houses of ivory (so called because the ceiling, or wainscot, or
   some of the ornaments of them, were edged or inlaid with ivory) shall
   perish, shall be burnt or pulled down; and the great houses shall have
   an end; the most splendid and spacious houses, the houses of their
   great men, shall no longer be, or at least be no longer theirs. Note,
   The pomp or pleasantness of men's houses will be so far from fortifying
   them against God's judgments that it will make them the more grievous
   and vexatious, as their extravagance about them will be put to the
   score of their sins and follies.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. IV.

   In this chapter, I. The oppressors in Israel are threatened for their
   oppression of the poor, ver. 1-3. II. The idolaters in Israel, being
   joined to idols, are given up to their own heart's lusts, ver. 4, 5.
   III. All the sins of Israel are aggravated from their incorrigibleness
   in them, and their refusal to return and reform, notwithstanding the
   various rebukes of Providence which they had been under, ver. 6-11. IV.
   They are invited yet at length to humble themselves before God, since
   it is impossible for them to make their part good against him, ver. 12,
   13.

Threatenings against Oppressors; Punishment of Proud Oppressors. (b. c. 790.)

   1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of
   Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to
   their masters, Bring, and let us drink.   2 The Lord God hath sworn by
   his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take
   you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks.   3 And ye
   shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her;
   and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord.   4 Come to
   Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring
   your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:   5
   And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and
   publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of
   Israel, saith the Lord God.

   It is here foretold, in the name of God, that oppressors shall be
   humbled and idolaters shall be hardened.

   I. That proud oppressors shall be humbled for their oppressions: for he
   that does wrong shall receive according to the wrong that he has done.
   Now observe,

   1. How their sin is described, v. 1. They are compared to the kine of
   Bashan, which were a breed of cattle very large and strong, especially
   if, though bred there, they were fed upon the mountain of Samaria,
   where the pastures were extraordinarily fat. Amos had been a herdsman,
   and he speaks in a dialect of his calling, comparing the rich and great
   men, that lived in luxury and wantonness, to the kine of Bashan, which
   were wanton and unruly, would not be kept within the bounds of their
   own pasture, But broke through the hedges, broke down all the fences,
   and trespassed upon the neighboring grounds; and not only so, but
   pushed and gored the smaller cattle that were not a match for them.
   Those that had their summer-houses upon the mountains of Samaria when
   they went thither for fresh air were as mischievous as the kine upon
   the mountains of Bashan and as injurious to those about them. (1.) They
   oppress the poor and needy themselves; they crush them, to squeeze
   something to themselves out of them. They took advantage of their
   poverty, and necessity, and inability to help themselves, to make them
   poorer and more necessitous than they were. They made use of their
   power as judges and magistrates for the invading of men's rights and
   properties, the poor not excepted; for they made no conscience of
   robbing even the hospital. (2.) They are in confederacy with those that
   do so. They say to their masters (to the masters of the poor, that
   abuse them and violently take from them what they have, when they ought
   to relieve them), "Bring, and let us drink; let us feast with you upon
   the gains of our oppression, and then we will protect you, and stand by
   you in it, and reject the appeals of the poor against you." Note, What
   is got by extortion is commonly made use of as provisions for the
   flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof; and therefore men are tyrants to
   the poor because they are slaves to their appetites. Bring, and let us
   drink, is the language of those that crush the needy, as if the tears
   of the oppressed, mingled with their wine, made it drink the better.
   And by their associations for drinking and reveling, and an excess of
   riot, they strengthen their combinations for persecution and
   oppression, and harden the hearts of one another in it.

   2. How their punishment is described, v. 2, 3. God will take them away
   with hooks, and their posterity with fish-hooks; he will send the
   Assyrian army upon them, that shall make a prey of them, shall not only
   enclose the body of the nation in their net, but shall angle for
   particular persons, and take them prisoners and captives as with hooks
   and fish-hooks, shall draw them out of their own land as fish are drawn
   out of the water, which is their element, them and their children with
   them, or, They in their day shall be drawn out by one victorious enemy,
   and their posterity in their day by another, so that by a succession of
   destroying judgments they shall at length be wholly extirpated. These
   kine of Bashan thought they could no more be drawn out with a hook and
   a cord than the Leviathan can, Job xli. 1, 2. But God will make them
   know that he has a hook for their nose and a bridle for their jaws,
   Isa. xxxvii. 29. The enemy shall take them away as easily as the
   fisherman takes away the little fish, and shall make it their sport and
   recreation. When the enemy has made himself master of Samaria, then,
   (1.) Some shall attempt to escape by flight: You shall go out at the
   breaches made in the wall of the city, every cow at that which is
   before her, to shift for her own safety, and make the best of her way;
   and now the unruly kine of Bashan are tamed, and are themselves
   crushed, as they crushed the poor and needy. Note, Those to whom God
   has given a good pasture, if they are wanton in it, will justly be
   turned out of it; and those who will not be kept within the hedge of
   God's precept forfeit the benefit of the hedge of God's protection, and
   will be forced in vain to flee through the breaches they have
   themselves fearfully made in that hedge. (2.) Others shall think to
   shelter themselves, or at least their best effects, in the palace,
   because it is a castle well fortified and a garrison well manned: You
   shall throw yourselves (so some read it), or throw them (that is, your
   posterity, your children, or whatever is dear to you), into the palace,
   where the enemy will find it ready to be seized. Note, What is got by
   oppression cannot long be enjoyed with satisfaction.

   3. How their sentence to this punishment is ratified: The Lord God has
   sworn it by his holiness. He had often said it, and they regarded it
   not; they thought God and his prophets did but jest with them;
   therefore he swears it in his wrath, and what he has sworn he will not
   revoke. He swears by his holiness, that attribute of his which is so
   much his glory, and which is so much glorified in the punishment of
   wicked people; for, as sure as God is a holy God, those that plough
   iniquity and sow wickedness shall reap the same.

   II. That obstinate idolaters shall be hardened in their idolatries (v.
   4, 5): Come to Bethel, and transgress. It is spoken ironically: "Do so;
   take your course; multiply your transgressions by multiplying your
   sacrifices, for this liketh you; but what will you do in the end
   hereof?" Here we see, 1. How intent they were upon the service of their
   idols, and how willing they were to be at cost upon them; they brought
   their sacrifices, and their tithes, and their free-will offerings,
   hoping that therein they should be accepted of God, but it was all an
   abomination to him. The profuseness of idolaters in the service of
   their false gods may shame our strait-handedness in the service of the
   true and living God. 2. How they mimicked God's institutions. They had
   their daily sacrifice at the altar of Bethel, as God had at his altar;
   they had their thank-offerings as God had, only they allowed leaven in
   them, which God had forbidden, because their priests did not like to
   have the bread to heavy and tasteless as it would be if it had not
   leaven in it, for something to ferment it. Holy bread would not serve
   them, unless it were pleasant bread. 3. How well pleased they were with
   these services themselves: This liketh you, O you children of Israel!
   So you love. What was their own invention they were fond of and wedded
   to, and thought it must be pleasing to God because it was agreeable to
   their own fancy. 4. How they upbraided with it: "Come to Bethel, to
   Gilgal; bring the sacrifices and tithes yourselves; proclaim and
   publish to the nation the free-offerings, pressing them to bring in
   abundance of such; go on in this way;" that is, (1.) "It is plain that
   you are resolved to do it, whatever God and conscience say to the
   contrary." (2.) "Your prophets shall let you alone in it, and not
   admonish you as they have done, for it is to no purpose. Let no man
   strive nor rebuke his neighbour." (3.) "Your foolish hearts shall be
   more and more darkened and besotted, and you shall be quite given up to
   these strong delusions, to believe a lie." (4.) "What will you get by
   it? Come to Bethel and multiply your sacrifices, and see what the
   better you will be, what returns you will have to your sacrifices, what
   stead they will stand you in in the day of distress. You shall be
   ashamed of Bethel your confidence," Jer. xlviii. 13. (5.) "Come, and
   transgress, come, and multiply your transgression, that you may fill up
   the measure of your iniquity and be ripened for ruin." Thus Christ said
   to Judas, What thou doest do quickly; and to the Jews, Fill you up the
   measure of your fathers, Matt. xxiii. 32.

Incorrigibleness of Israel; Judgments Called to Remembrance; Greater
Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 790.)

   6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and
   want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me,
   saith the Lord.   7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when
   there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain
   upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece
   was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.   8 So
   two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they
   were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
   9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and
   your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the
   palmer-worm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the
   Lord.   10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of
   Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away
   your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto
   your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.   11 I
   have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and
   ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not
   returned unto me, saith the Lord.   12 Therefore thus will I do unto
   thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet
   thy God, O Israel.   13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and
   createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that
   maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the
   earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.

   Here, I. God complains of his people's incorrigibleness under the
   judgments which he had brought upon them in order to their humiliation
   and reformation. He had by several tokens intimated to them his
   displeasure, with this design, that they might by repentance make their
   peace with him; but it had not that effect.

   1. It is five times repeated in these verses, as the burden of the
   charge, "Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord; you have
   been several times corrected, but in vain; you are not reclaimed, there
   is no sign of amendment. You have been sent for by one messenger after
   another, but you have not come back, you have not come home." (1.) This
   intimates that that which God designed in all his providential rebukes
   was to reduce them to their allegiance, to influence them to return to
   him. (2.) That, if they had returned to their God, they would have been
   accepted, he would have bidden them welcome, and the troubles they were
   in would have been removed. (3.) That the reason why God sent further
   troubles was because former troubles had not done the work, otherwise
   it is no pleasure to the Almighty that he should afflict. (4.) That God
   was grieved at their obstinacy, and took it unkindly that they should
   force him to do that which he did so unwillingly: "You have not
   returned to me from whom you have revolted, to me with whom you are in
   covenant, to me who stands ready to receive you, to me who have so
   often called you." Now,

   2. To aggravate their incorrigibleness, and to justify himself in
   inflicting greater judgments, he recounts the less judgments with which
   he had tried to bring them to repentance.

   (1.) There had sometimes been a scarcity of provisions, though there
   was no visible cause of it (v. 6): "I have given you cleanness of teeth
   in all your cities, for you had no meat to chew, whereby your teeth
   might be fouled," especially no flesh, which dirties the teeth. Or, I
   have given you emptiness of teeth, nothing to fill your mouths with.
   "Bread, the staff of life, has been wanting, for you have sown much and
   brought in little," as Hag. i. 9. Some think this refers to that seven
   years' famine that was in Elisha's time, which we read of 2 Kings viii.
   1. Now when God thus took away their corn in the season thereof,
   because they had prepared it for Baal, they should have said, We will
   go and return to our first husband, having paid dearly for leaving him;
   but it had not that effect. They have not returned to me, saith the
   Lord.

   (2.) Sometimes they had wanted rain, and then of course they wanted the
   fruits of the earth. This evil was of the Lord: I have withholden the
   rain from you. God has the key of the clouds, and, if he shut up, who
   can open? v. 7. The rain was withheld when there were yet three months
   to the harvest, at the time when they used to have it, and therefore
   the withholding of it was an extraordinary thing, and, if the course of
   nature was altered, they must therein own the hand of the God of
   nature; and it was at a time when they most needed it, and therefore
   the want of it was a very sore judgment, and blasted their expectations
   of a crop at harvest. And one circumstance which made this very
   remarkable was that when there were some places that wanted rain, and
   withered for want of it, there were other places near adjoining that
   had it in abundance. God caused it to rain upon one city, and not upon
   another, in the same country; nay, he caused it to rain upon one field,
   one piece of a field, and it was thereby made fruitful and flourishing,
   but on the next field, on the other side of the hedge, nay, on another
   part of the same field, it rained not at all, and it was so long
   without rain that all the products of it withered. No doubt this was
   literally true, and there were many instances of it which were
   generally taken notice of. Now, [1.] By this it appeared that the
   withholding of the rain was not casual, but by a divine direction and
   disposal, and that the cloud which waters the earth is turned round
   about by the counsels of God, to do whatsoever he commands it, whether
   for correction, or for his land, or for his mercy, Job xxxvii. 12-18.
   Rain does not go by planets (as common people speak), but as God sends
   it by his winds. [2.] We have reason to think that those cities on
   which it rained not were the most infamous for wickedness, such as
   Bethel and Gilgal (v. 4), and that those on which it rained were such
   as retained something of religion and virtue among them. And so in the
   town-fields it rained or rained not, upon the piece, according as the
   owner was; for we are sure the curse of the Lord is in the house, and
   upon the ground, of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the
   just, and his field is a field that the Lord has blessed. [3.] It would
   be the greater grief and vexation to those whose fields withered for
   want of rain to see their neighbours' fields well watered and
   flourishing. My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry, Isa. lxv.
   13. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved. Probably those that were
   oppressed were rained upon, and so they recovered their losses, while
   the oppressors withered, and so lost their gains. [4.] Yet, as to the
   nation in general, it was a mixture of mercy with the judgment, and,
   consequently, strengthened the call to repentance and reformation, and
   encouraged them to hope for all mercy, in their returns to God, since
   there was so much mercy even in God's rebukes of them. But, because
   they did not make good use of this gracious allay to the extremity of
   the judgment, they had not the benefit of it, which otherwise they
   might have had, for (v. 8) two or three cities wandered at uncertainty,
   as beggars, unto one city, to drink water, and, if possible, to have
   some to carry home with them, but they were not satisfied; it was but
   here and there one city that had water, while many wanted, and then it
   was not, as usual, Usus communis aquarum--Water is free to all. Those
   that had it had occasion for it, or knew not how soon they might, and
   therefore could afford but little to those that wanted, saying, Lest
   there be not enough for us and you. Those that came drank water, but
   they were not satisfied, because they drank it by measure, and with
   astonishment; and those that drink of this water shall thirst again,
   John iv. 13. They were not satisfied, because their desires were
   greedy, and what they had God did not bless to them, Hag. i. 6. And
   now, one would think, when they met with all this disappointment, they
   should have considered their ways and repented; but it had not that
   effect: "Yet have you not returned to me, no, not so much as to pray in
   a right manner for the former and latter rain," Zech. x. 1. See the
   folly of carnal hearts; they will wander from city to city, from one
   creature to another, in pursuit of satisfaction, and still they miss of
   it; they labour for that which satisfies not (Isa. lv. 2), and yet,
   after all, they will not return to God, will not incline their ear to
   him in whom they might have satisfaction. The preaching of the gospel
   is as rain; God sometimes blesses one place with it more than another;
   some countries, some cities, are, like Gideon's fleece, wet with this
   dew, while the ground about is dry; all withers where this rain is
   wanting. But it were well if people were but as wise for their souls as
   they are for their bodies, and, when they have not this rain near them,
   would go and seek it where it is to be had; and, if they seek aright,
   they shall not seek in vain.

   (3.) Sometimes the fruits of their ground were eaten up by
   caterpillars, or blasted with mildew, v. 9. Heaven and earth are armed
   against those who have made God their enemy. When God pleased, that is,
   when he was displeased, [1.] They suffered by a malignant air, the
   influence of which, either too hot or too cold, blasted their fruits,
   with a force that could be neither discerned nor resisted, and against
   which there was no defence. [2.] They suffered by malignant animals.
   Their vineyards and gardens yielded their increase in great abundance,
   so did their fig-trees and olive-trees; but the palmer-worm devoured
   them before the fruits were ripe, and fit to be gathered in. This was
   either the same judgment with that which we read of Joel i. 4-6, or a
   less judgment of the same nature, sent before to give warning of that.
   But they did not take warning: Yet have you not returned unto me.

   (4.) Sometimes the plague had raged among them, and the sword of war
   had cut off multitudes, v. 10. The pestilence is God's messenger; this
   he sent among them, with directions whom to strike dead, and it was
   done. It was a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; deaths were
   scattered among them by the hand of a destroying angel at midnight. And
   perhaps this pestilence, as that of Egypt, fastened upon the
   first-born. In the way of Egypt (so the margin); when they were making
   their escape to Egypt, or going thither to seek for aid, the pestilence
   seized them by the way and stopped their journey. The sword of war is
   likewise the sword of the Lord; this was drawn among them with
   commission; and then it slew their young men, the strength of the
   present generation and the seed of the next. God says, I have slain
   them; he avows the execution. The slain of the Lord are many. The enemy
   took away their horses, and converted them to their own use; and the
   dead carcases of those that were slain either with sword or pestilence
   were so many, and for want of surviving friends were left so long
   unburied, that the stench of their camps came up into their nostrils,
   and was both noisome and dangerous, and might put them in mind of the
   offensiveness of their sin to God. And yet this did not prevail to
   humble and reclaim them: You have not returned to him that smites you.
   Such a rueful woeful sight as this prevailed not to make them
   religious.

   (5.) In these and other judgments some were remarkably cut off, and
   made monuments of justice, others were remarkably spared, and made
   monuments of mercy, the setting of which the one over against the other
   one would have thought likely to work upon them, but it had not its
   effect, v. 11. [1.] Some were quite ruined, their families destroyed,
   and themselves in them: I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew
   Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps they were consumed with lightning, as Sodom
   was, or the houses were, in some other way, burnt to the ground, and
   the inhabitants in them. Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be condemned
   with an overthrow, and so made an example, 2 Pet. ii. 6. God had
   threatened to destroy the whole land with such an overthrow as that of
   Sodom, Deut. xxix. 23. But he began with some particular places first,
   to give them warning, or perhaps with some particular persons, whose
   sins went beforehand to judgment. [2.] Others very narrowly escaped:
   "You were many of you as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, like
   Lot out of Sodom, when the fire had already kindled upon you; and yet
   you hate sin never the more for the danger it has brought you to, nor
   love God ever the more for the deliverance he wrought for you. You that
   have been so signally delivered, and in such a distinguishing way, have
   not returned unto me."

   II. God, in the close, calls upon his people, now at length, in this
   their day, to understand the things that belong to their peace, before
   they were hidden from their eyes, v. 12, 13. Observe here,

   1. How God threatens them with sorer judgments than any they had yet
   been under: "Therefore, seeing you have not been wrought upon by
   correction hitherto, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel!" He does not
   say how he will do, but it shall be something worse than had come yet,
   John v. 14. Or, "Thus I will go on to do unto thee, following one
   judgment with another, like the plagues of Egypt, till I have made a
   full end." Nothing but reformation will prevent the ruin of a sinful
   people. If they turn not to him, his anger is not turned away, but his
   hand is stretched out still. I will punish you yet seven times more, if
   you will not be reformed; so it was written in the law, Lev. xxvi. 23,
   24.

   2. How he awakens them therefore to think of making their peace with
   God: "Seeing I will do this unto thee, and there is no remedy, prepare
   to meet they God, O Israel!" that is, (1.) "Consider how unable thou
   art to meet him as a combatant." Some make it to be spoken by way of
   irony or challenge: "Prepare to meet God, who is coming forth to
   contend with thee. What armour of proof canst thou put on? What courage
   canst thou steel thyself with? Alas! it is but putting briers and
   thorns before a consuming fire, Isa. xxvii. 4, 5. Art thou able with
   less than 10,000 to meet him that comes forth against thee with more
   than 20,000?" Luke xiv. 31. (2.) "Resolve therefore to meet him as a
   penitent, as a humble suppliant, to meet him as thy God, in covenant
   with thee, to submit, and stand it out no longer." We must prepare to
   meet God in the way of his judgments (Isa. xxvi. 8), to take hold on
   his strength, that we may make peace. Note, Since we cannot flee from
   God we are concerned to prepare to meet him; and therefore he gives us
   warning, that we may prepare. When we are to meet him in his ordinances
   we must prepare to meet him, prepare to seek him.

   3. How he sets forth the greatness and power of God as a reason why we
   should prepare to meet him, v. 13. If he be such a God as he is here
   described to be, it is folly to contend with him, and our duty and
   interest to make our peace with him; it is good having him our friend
   and bad having him our enemy. (1.) He formed the mountains, made the
   earth, the strongest stateliest parts of it, and by the word of his
   power still upholds it and them. Whatever are the products of the
   everlasting mountains, he formed them; whatever salvation is hoped for
   from hills and mountains, he is the founder of it, Ps. lxxxix. 11, 12.
   He that formed the great mountains can make them plain, when they stand
   in the way of his people's salvation. (2.) He creates the wind. The
   power of the air is derived from him, and directed by him; he brings
   the wind out of his treasures, and orders from what point of the
   compass it shall blow; and he that made it rules it; even the winds and
   the seas obey him. (3.) He declares unto man what is his thought. He
   makes known his counsel by his servants the prophets to the children of
   men, the thought of his justice against impenitent sinners, and the
   thought of good he thinks towards those that repent. He can also make
   known, for he perfectly knows, the thought that is in man's heart; he
   understands it afar off, and in the day of conviction will set the evil
   thoughts among the other sins of sinners in order before them. (4.) He
   often makes the morning darkness, by thick clouds overspreading the sky
   immediately after the sun rose bright and glorious; so when we look for
   prosperity and joy he can dash our expectations with some unlooked-for
   calamity. (5.) He treads upon the high places of the earth, is not only
   higher than the highest, but has dominion over all, tramples upon proud
   men, and upon the idols that were worshipped in the highest places.
   (6.) Jehovah the God of hosts is his name, for he has his being of
   himself, and is the fountain of all being, and all the hosts of heaven
   and earth are at his command. Let us humble ourselves before this God,
   prepare to meet him, and give all diligence to make him our God, for
   happy are the people whose God he is, who have all this power engaged
   for them.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. V.

   The scope of this chapter is to prosecute the exhortation given to
   Israel in the close of the foregoing chapter to prepare to meet their
   God; the prophet here tells them, I. What preparation they must make;
   they must "seek the Lord," and not seek any more to idols (ver. 4-8);
   they must seek good, and love it, ver. 14, 15. II. Why they must make
   this preparation to meet their God, 1. Because of the present
   deplorable condition they were in, ver. 1-3. 2. Because it was by sin
   that they were brought into such a condition, ver. 7, 10-12. 3. Because
   it would be their happiness to seek God, and he was ready to be found
   of them, ver. 8, 9, 14. 4. Because he would proceed, in his wrath, to
   their utter ruin, if they did not seek him, ver. 5, 6, 13, 16, 17. 5.
   Because all their confidences would fail them if they did not seek unto
   God, and make him their friend. (1.) Their profane contempt of God's
   judgments, and setting them at defiance, would not secure them, ver.
   18-20. (2.) Their external services in religion, and the shows of
   devotion, would not avail to turn away the wrath of God, ver. 21-24.
   (3.) Their having been long in possession of church-privileges, and in
   a course of holy duties, would not be their protection, while all along
   they had kept up their idolatrous customs, ver. 25-27. They have
   therefore no way left them to save themselves, but by repentance and
   reformation.

Invitations and Warnings. (b. c. 790.)

   1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O
   house of Israel.   2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more
   rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.   3
   For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall
   leave a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall leave
   ten, to the house of Israel.

   This chapter begins, as those two next foregoing began, with, Hear this
   word. Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear; it is
   our duty, it is our interest, yet so stupid are most men that they need
   to be again and again called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to give
   audience, to give attention. Hear this word. this convincing awakening
   word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace;
   the word that is taken up against us, as well as that which makes for
   us; for, whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect,
   and not a tittle of it shall fall to the ground. It is the word which I
   take up--not the prophet only, but the God that sent him. It is the
   word that the Lord has spoken, ch. iii. 1. The word to be heard is a
   lamentation, a lamentable account of the present calamitous state of
   the kingdom of Israel, and a lamentable prediction of its utter
   destruction. Their condition is sad: The virgin of Israel has fallen
   (v. 2), has come down from what she was; that state, though not pure
   and chaste as a virgin, yet was beautiful and gay, and had its charms;
   she looked high herself, and was courted by many as a virgin; but she
   has fallen into contempt and poverty, and is universally slighted. Nay,
   and their condition is helpless: She shall no more rise, shall never
   recover her former dignity again. God had lately begun to cut Israel
   short (2 Kings x. 32), and, because they repented not, it was not long
   before he cut Israel down. 1. Their princes, that should have helped
   them up, were disabled: She is forsaken upon her land. Not only those
   she was in alliance with abroad failed her, but her friends at home
   deserted her; she would not have been carried captive into a strange
   land if she had not first been forsaken upon her own land and thrown to
   the ground there, and all her true interests abandoned by those that
   should have had them at heart. There is none to raise her up, none that
   can do it, not that cares to lend her a hand. 2. Their people, that
   should have helped them up, were diminished, v. 3. "The city that had a
   militia, 1000 strong, and, in the beginning of the war, had furnished
   out 1000 effective men, able-bodied and well-armed, when they come to
   review their troops after the battle, shall find but 100 left; and, in
   proportion, the city that sent out 100 shall have but ten come back, so
   great a slaughter shall be made, and so few left to the house of Israel
   for the public service and safety." Scarcely one in ten shall escape of
   the hands that should relieve this abject, this dejected, nation. Note,
   The lessening of the numbers of God's spiritual Israel, by death or
   desertion, is just a matter for lamentation; for by whom shall Jacob
   arise, by whom shall the decays of piety be repaired, when he is thus
   made small?

God's Message to Israel; The Aggravated Sins of Israel; Warnings and
Exhortations; Exhortations and Encouragements. (b. c. 790.)

   4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye
   shall live:   5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass
   not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and
   Bethel shall come to nought.   6 Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest
   he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there
   be none to quench it in Bethel.   7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood,
   and leave off righteousness in the earth,   8 Seek him that maketh the
   seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the
   morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the
   waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The
   Lord is his name:   9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the
   strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.   10 They
   hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh
   uprightly.   11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,
   and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn
   stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant
   vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.   12 For I know your
   manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just,
   they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their
   right.   13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for
   it is an evil time.   14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and
   so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
   15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the
   gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the
   remnant of Joseph.

   This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which,

   I. They are told of their faults, that they might see what occasion
   there was for them to repent and reform, and that, when they were
   called to return, they might not need to ask, Wherein shall we return?

   1. God tells them, in general (v. 12), "I know your manifold
   transgressions, and your mighty sins; and you shall be made to know
   them too." In our penitent reflections upon our sins we must consider,
   as God does in his judicial remarks upon them, and will do in the great
   day, (1.) That they are very numerous; they are our manifold
   transgressions, sins of various kinds and often repeated. Oh what a
   multitude of vain and vile thoughts lodge within us! What a multitude
   of idle, foolish, wicked words have been spoken by us! In what a
   multitude of instances have we gratified and indulged our corrupt
   appetites and passions! And how many our own omissions of duty and in
   duty! Who can understand his errors? Who can tell how often he offends?
   God knows how many, just how many, our transgressions are; none of them
   pass him unobserved; we know that they are to us innumerable; more than
   the hairs of our head; and we have reason to see what danger we have
   brought ourselves into, and what abundance of work we have made for
   repentance, by our manifold transgressions, by the numberless number of
   our sins of daily incursion. (2.) That some of them are very heinous;
   they are our mighty sins; sins that are more exceedingly sinful in
   their own nature and by being committed presumptuously and with a high
   hand, sins against the light of nature, flagrant crimes, that are
   mighty to overpower your convictions and to pull down judgments upon
   you.

   2. He specifies some of these mighty sins. (1.) They corrupted the
   worship of God, and turned to idols; this is implied v. 5. They had
   sought to Bethel, where one of the golden calves was; they had
   frequented Gilgal, a place which they chose to set up idols in, because
   it had been made famous in the days of Joshua by God's wonderful
   appearances to and for his people. Beer-sheba likewise, a place that
   had been famous in the days of the patriarchs, was now another
   rendezvous of idols; as we find also, ch. viii. 14. And thither they
   passed, though it lay at a distance, in the land of Judah. Now, having
   thus shamefully gone a whoring from God, no doubt they should have felt
   themselves concerned to return to him. (2.) They perverted justice
   among themselves (v. 7): "You turn judgment to wormwood, that is, you
   make your administrations of justice bitter and nauseous, and highly
   displeasing both to God and man." That fruit has become a weed, a weed
   in the garden; as nothing is more venerable, nothing more valuable,
   than justice duly administered, so nothing is more hurtful, nothing
   more abominable, than designedly doing wrong under colour and pretence
   of doing right. Corruptio optimi est pessima--The best, when corrupted,
   becomes the worst. "You leave off righteousness in the earth, as if
   those that do wrong were accountable to the God of heaven only, and not
   to the princes and judges of the earth." Thus it was as before the
   flood, when the earth was filled with violence. (3.) They were very
   oppressive to the poor, and made them poorer; they trod upon the poor
   (v. 11), trampled upon them, hectored over them, made them their
   footstool, and were most imperious and barbarous to those that were
   most obsequious and submissive; they care not what shame and slavery
   they put those to who were poor and such as they could get nothing by.
   The judges aimed at nothing but to enrich themselves; and therefore
   they took from the poor burdens of wheat, took it by extortion, either
   by way of bribe or by usury. The poor had no other way to save
   themselves from being trodden upon, and trodden to dirt, by them, than
   by presenting to them horse-loads of that corn which they and their
   families should have had to subsist upon, and they forced them to do
   it. They took from the poor debts of wheat, so some read it. It was
   legally due either for rent or for corn lent, but they exacted it with
   rigour from those who were disabled by the providence of God to pay it,
   as Neh. v. 2, 5. In demanding and recovering even a just debt we must
   take heed lest we act either unjustly or uncharitably. This sin of
   oppression by are again charged with (v. 12): They afflict the just, by
   turning the edge of the law and of the sword of justice against those
   that are the innocent and quiet in the land; they hated men because
   they were more righteous than themselves, and he that departed from
   evil thereby made himself a prey to them. They take a bribe from the
   rich to patronize and protect them in oppressing the poor, so that he
   who has money in his hand is sure to have the judgment on his side, be
   his cause ever so bad. Thus they turn aside the poor in the gate, in
   the courts of justice, from their right. If the poor sue for their
   right, who cannot bribe them, or are so honest that they will not,
   though they have it ever so clear in view and ever so near, yet they
   are turned away from it by their unrighteous sentence and cannot come
   at it. And therefore the prudent will keep silence, v. 13. Men will
   reckon it their prudence, when they are wronged and injured, to be
   silent, and make no complaints to the magistrates, for it will be to no
   purpose; they shall not have justice done them. (4.) They were
   malicious persecutors of God's faithful ministers and people, v. 10.
   Their hearts were so fully set in them to do evil that they could not
   bear to be reproved, [1.] By the ministry of the word, by the reading
   and expounding of the law, and the messages which prophets delivered to
   them in the name of the Lord. They hate him that rebukes in the gate,
   in the gate of the Lord's house, or in their courts of justice, or in
   the places of concourse, where Wisdom is lifting up her voice, Prov. i.
   21. Reprovers in the gate are reprovers by office; these they hated,
   counting them their enemies because they told them the truth, as Ahab
   hated Micaiah. They not only despised them, but had an enmity to them,
   and sought to do them mischief. Those that hate reproof love ruin. [2.]
   By the conversation of their honest neighbours. Though things were
   generally very bad, yet there were some among them that spoke uprightly
   that made conscience of what they said, and, as it was their praise, so
   it was the shame of those that spoke deceitfully, and condemned them,
   as Noah's faith condemned the unbelief of the old world, and for that
   reason they abhorred them; they were such inveterate enemies to the
   thing called honesty that they could not endure the sight of an honest
   man. All that have any sense of the common interest of mankind will
   love and value such as speak uprightly, for veracity is the bond of
   human society; to what a pitch of folly and madness then have those
   arrived who, having banished all notions of justice out of their own
   hearts, would have them banished out of the world too, and so put
   mankind into a state of war, for they abhor him that speaks uprightly!
   And for this reason the prudent shall keep silence in that time, v. 13.
   Prophets cannot, dare not, keep silence; the impulse they are under
   will not allow them to act on prudential considerations; they must cry
   aloud, and not spare. But as for other wise and good men they shall
   keep silence, and shall reckon it is their prudence to do so, because
   it is an evil time. First, They shall think it dangerous to complain,
   and therefore shall keep silence; this was one way in which they
   afflicted the just, that by false suggestions and strained innuendos
   they made men offenders for a word (Isa. xix. 21); and therefore the
   prudent, who were wise as serpents, because they knew not how what they
   said might be misinterpreted and misrepresented, were so cautious as to
   say nothing, lest they should run themselves into a premunire, because
   it was an evil time. Note, Through the iniquity of the times, as good
   men are hidden, so good men are silent, and it is their wisdom to be
   so; little said soon amended. But it is their comfort that they may
   speak freely to God when they know not to whom else they can speak
   freely. Secondly, They shall think if fruitless to reprove. They see
   what wickedness is committed, and their spirits are stirred up, as
   Paul's at Athens; but they shall think it prudent not to bear an open
   testimony against it, because it is to no purpose. They are joined to
   their idols; let them alone. Let no man strive or rebuke another; for
   it is but casting pearls before swine. The cautious men will say to a
   bold reprover, as Erasmus to Luther, "Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere
   mei, Domine--Away to thy cell, and cry, Have mercy on me, O Lord!" Let
   grave lessons and counsels be kept for better men and better times. And
   there is a time to keep silence as well as a time to speak, Eccl. iii.
   7. Evil times will not bear plain dealing, that is evil men will not;
   and the men the prophet here speaks of had reason to think themselves
   evil men indeed, when wise and good men thought it in vain to speak to
   them and were afraid of having any thing to do with them.

   II. They are told of their danger and what judgments they lay exposed
   to for their sins. 1. The places of their idolatry are in danger of
   being ruined in the first place, v. 5. Gilgal, the head-quarters of
   idolatry, shall go into captivity, not only its inhabitants, but its
   images, and Bethel, with its golden calf shall come to nought. The
   victorious enemy shall make nothing of it, so easily shall it be
   spoiled, and shall bring it to nothing, so effectually shall it be
   spoiled. Idols were always vanity, and things of nought, and so they
   shall prove when God appears to abolish them. 2. The body of the
   kingdom is in danger of being ruined with them, v. 6. There is danger
   lest, if you seek him not in time, he break out like a fire in the
   house of Joseph and devour it; for our God is a righteous Judge, is a
   consuming fire, and the men of Israel, as criminals, are stubble before
   him; woe to those that make themselves fuel to the fire of God's wrath.
   It follows, And there shall be none to quench it in Bethel. There their
   idols were, and their idolatrous priests; thither they brought their
   sacrifices, and there they offered up their prayers. But God tells them
   that when the fire of his judgments should kindle upon them all the
   gods they served at Bethel should not be able to quench it, should not
   turn away the judgment, nor be any relief to them under it. Thus those
   that make an idol of the world will find it insufficient to protect
   them when God comes to reckon with them for their spiritual idolatry.
   3. What they have got by oppression and extortion shall be taken from
   them (v. 11): "You have built houses of hewn stone, which you thought
   would be lasting; but you shall not dwell in them, for your enemies
   shall burn them down, or possess them for themselves, or take you into
   captivity. You have planted pleasant vineyards, have contrived how to
   make them every way agreeable, and have promised yourselves many a
   pleasant walk in them; but you shall be forced to walk off, and shall
   never drink wine of them." The law had tenderly provided that if a man
   had built a house, or planted a vineyard, he should be at his liberty
   to return from the wars, Deut. xx. 5, 6. But now the necessity would be
   so urgent that it would not be allowed; all must go to the battle, and
   many of those who had lately been building and planting should fall in
   battle, and never enjoy what they had been labouring for. What is not
   honestly got is not likely to be long enjoyed.

   III. They are told their duty, and have great encouragement to set
   about it in good earnest, and good reason. The duties here prescribed
   to them are godliness and honesty, seriousness in their applications to
   God and justice in their dealings with men; and each of these is here
   pressed upon them with proper arguments to enforce the exhortation.

   1. They are here exhorted to be sincere and devout in their addresses
   to God, v. 4. God says to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and with
   good reason, for should not a people seek unto their God? Isa. viii.
   19. Whither else should they go but to their protector? Israel was a
   prince with God; let his descendants seek the Lord, as he did, and they
   shall be so too. Now, in order to their doing this, they must abandon
   their idolatries. God is not sought truly if he be not sought
   exclusively, for he will endure no rivals: "Seek you the Lord, and seek
   not Bethel (v. 5), consult not your idol-oracles, nor ask at the mouth
   of the priests of Bethel; seek not to the golden calf there for
   protection, nor bring your prayers and sacrifices any longer thither,
   or to Gilgal, for you forsake your own mercies if you observe those
   lying vanities. But seek the Lord (v. 6, 8); enquire after him; enquire
   of him; seek to know his mind as your rule, to secure his favour as
   your felicity." To press this exhortation we are told to consider, (1.)
   What we shall get by seeking God; it will be our life; we shall find
   him, and shall be happy in him. So he tells them himself (v. 4): Seek
   you me, and you shall live. Those that seek perishing gods shall perish
   with them (v. 5), but those that seek the living God shall live with
   him: "You shall be delivered from the killing judgments which you are
   threatened with; your nation shall live, shall recover from its present
   languishings; your souls shall live; you shall be sanctified and
   comforted, and made for ever blessed. You shall live." (2.) What a God
   he is whom we are to seek, v. 8, 9. [1.] He is a God of almighty power
   himself. The idols were impotent things, could do neither good nor
   evil, and therefore it was folly either to fear or trust them; but the
   God of Israel does every thing, and can do any thing, and therefore we
   ought to seek him; he challenges our homage who has all power in his
   hand, and it is our interest to have him on our side. Divers proofs and
   instances are here given of God's power, as Creator, in the kingdom of
   nature, as both founding and governing that kingdom. Compare ch. iv.
   13. First, The stars are the work of his hands; those stars which the
   heathens worshipped (v. 26), the stars of your god, those stars are
   God's creatures and servants. He makes the seven stars and Orion, two
   very remarkable constellations, which Amos, a herdsman, while he kept
   his cattle by night, had particularly observed the motions of. He made
   them at the first, he still makes them to be what they are to this
   earth and either binds or looses the sweet influences of Peliades and
   Orion, the two constellations here mentioned. See Job xxxviii. 31; ix.
   9, to which passages Amos seems here to refer, putting them in mind of
   those ancient discoveries of the glory of God before he was called the
   God of Israel. Secondly, The constant succession of day and night is
   under his direction, and is kept up by his power and providence. It is
   he that turns the night (which is dark as the shadow of death) into the
   morning by the rising of the sun, and by the setting of the sun makes
   the day dark with night; and the same power can, for humble penitents,
   easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, but can as
   easily turn the prosperity of presumptuous sinners into darkness, into
   utter darkness. Thirdly, The rain rises and falls as he appoints. He
   calls for the waters of the sea; out of them vapours are drawn up by
   the heat of the sun, which gather into clouds, and are poured out upon
   the face of the earth, to water it and make it fruitful. This was the
   mercy that had been withholden from them of late (ch. iv. 7); and
   therefore to whom should they apply but to him who had power to give
   it? For all the vanities of the heathen could not give rain, nor could
   the heavens themselves give showers Jer. xiv. 22. It is God that has
   made these things; Jehovah is his name, the name by which the God of
   nature, the God of the whole earth, has made himself known to his
   people Israel and covenanted with them. [2.] As he is God of almighty
   power himself, so he gives strength and power unto his people that seek
   him, and renews strength to those that had lost it, if they wait upon
   him for it; for (v. 9) he strengthens the spoiled against the strong to
   such a degree that the spoiled come against the fortress and make bold
   and brave attacks upon those that had spoiled them. This is an
   encouragement to the people to seek the Lord, that, if they do so, they
   shall find him above to retrieve their affairs, when they are brought
   to the lowest ebb; though they are the spoiled, and their enemies are
   the strong, if they can but engage God for them, they shall soon
   recruit so as the next time to be not only the aggressors, but the
   conquerors; they come against the fortress, to make reprisals and
   become masters of it.

   2. They are here exhorted to be honest and just in their dealings with
   men, v. 14, 15, where observe, (1.) The duty required: Seek good, and
   not evil. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in
   the gate; re-establish it there, whence it has been banished, v. 7.
   Note, Things are not so bad but that they may be amended if the right
   course be taken; we must not despair but that grievances may be
   redressed and abuses rectified; justice may yet triumph where injustice
   tyrannizes. In order to this, good must be loved and sought, evil must
   be hated and no longer sought. We must love good principles and adhere
   to them, love to do good and abound in doing it, love good people, and
   good converse, and good duties; and, whatever good we do, we must do it
   from a principle of love, do it of choice and with delight. Those who
   thus love good will seek it, will contrive to do all the good they can,
   enquire for opportunities of doing it, and endeavor to do it to the
   utmost of their power. They will also hate evil, will abhor the thought
   of doing an unjust thing, and abstain from all appearance of it. In
   vain do we pretend to seek God in our devotions if we do not seek good
   in our whole conversations. (2.) The reasons annexed. [1.] This is the
   sure way to be happy ourselves and to have the continual presence of
   God with us: "Seek good, and not evil, that you may live, may escape
   the punishment of the evil you have sought and loved (righteousness
   delivereth from death), that you may have the favour of God, which is
   your life, which is better than life itself, that you may have comfort
   in yourselves and may live to some good purpose. You shall live, for so
   the Lord God of hosts shall be with you and be your life." Note, Those
   that keep in the way of duty have the presence of God with them, as the
   God of hosts, a God of almighty power. "He will be with you as you have
   spoken, that is, as you have gloried; you shall have that really which,
   while you went on in unrighteous ways, you only seemed to have and
   boasted of as if you had." Those that truly repent and reform enter
   into the enjoyment of that comfort which before they had only flattered
   themselves with the imagination of. Or, "As you have prayed when you
   sought the Lord. Live up to your prayers, and you shall have what you
   pray for." [2.] This is the likeliest way to make the nation happy: "If
   you seek and love that which is good, you may contribute to the saving
   of the land from ruin." It may be, the Lord God of hosts will be
   gracious to the remnant of Joseph; though there is but a remnant left,
   yet, if God be gracious to that remnant, it will rise to a great nation
   again; and if some among them turn from sin, especially if judgment be
   established in the gate, though we cannot be certain, yet there is a
   great probability that public affairs will take a new and happy turn,
   and every thing will mend if men mend their lives. Temporary promises
   are made with an It may be; and our prayers must be made accordingly.

Threatenings and Reproofs. (b. c. 790.)

   16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing
   shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas!
   alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are
   skilful of lamentation to wailing.   17 And in all vineyards shall be
   wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.   18 Woe unto
   you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day
   of the Lord is darkness, and not light.   19 As if a man did flee from
   a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand
   on the wall, and a serpent bit him.   20 Shall not the day of the Lord
   be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

   Here is, I. A very terrible threatening of destruction approaching, v.
   16, 17. Since they would not take the right course to obtain the favour
   of God, God would take an effectual course to make them feel the weight
   of his displeasure. The threatening is introduced with more than
   ordinary solemnity, to strike an awe upon them; it is not the word of
   the prophet only (if so, it might be made light of) but it is the Lord
   Jehovah, who has an infinite eternal being; it is the God of hosts, who
   has a boundless irresistible power, and it is Adonai--the Lord, who has
   an absolute incontestable sovereignty, and a universal dominion; it is
   he who says it, who can and will make his words good, and he has said,
   1. That the land of Israel shall be put in mourning, true mourning,
   that all places shall be filled with lamentation for the calamities
   coming upon them. Look into the cities, and wailing shall be in all
   streets, in the great streets, in the by-streets. Look into the
   country, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! we are all
   undone! The lamentation shall be so great as not to be confined within
   doors, nor kept within the bounds of decency, but it shall be
   proclaimed in the streets and highways, and shall run wild. The
   husbandman shall be called from the plough by the calamities of his
   country to the natural expressions of mourning; and, because those who
   will come short of the merits of the cause, such as are skilful of
   lamentation shall be called to artificial mourning, to put accents upon
   the lamentations of the real mourners with their Ahone, ahone. Even in
   all vineyards, where there used to be nothing but mirth and pleasure,
   there shall be general wailing, when a foreign force invades the
   country, lays all waste, and there is no making any head against it, no
   weapons left but prayers and tears. 2. That the land of Israel shall be
   brought to ruin, and the advances of that ruin are the occasion of all
   this wailing: I will pass through thee, as the destroying angel passed
   through the land of Egypt to destroy the first-born, but then passed
   over the houses of the Israelites. God's judgments had often passed by
   them, but now they shall pass through them, shall run them through.

   II. A just and severe reproof to those who made light of these
   threatenings, and impudently bade defiance to the justice of God and
   his judgments, v. 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord,
   that really wish for times of war and confusion, as some do who have
   restless spirits, and long for changes, or who choose to fish in
   troubled waters, hoping to raise their families, as some had done, upon
   the ruins of their country; but the prophet tells them that this should
   be so great a desolation that nobody could get by it. Or it is spoken
   to those who, in their wailings and lamentations for the calamities
   they were in, wished they might die, and be delivered out of their
   misery, as Job did, with passion. The prophet shows them the folly of
   this. Do they know what death is to those who are unprepared for it,
   and how much more terrible it will be than any thing that can befal
   them in this life? Or, rather, it is spoken to those who speak
   jestingly of that day of the Lord which the prophet spoke so seriously
   of; they desired it, that is, they challenged it; they said, Let him do
   his worst; let him make speed, and hasten his work, Isa. v. 19. Where
   is the promise of his coming? 2 Pet. iii. 4. It intimates, 1. That they
   do not believe it. They say that they wish it would come because they
   do not believe it will ever come; nor will they believe it unless they
   see it. 2. That they do not fear it; though they may have some belief
   of it, yet they had so little consideration of it, and their mind is so
   intent upon other things, that they are under no apprehension at all of
   peril from it; instead of having the conscience to dread it, they have
   the curiosity to desire it. In answer to this, (1.) He shows the folly
   of those who impudently wished for any of God's judgments, and made a
   jest of any of the terrors of the Lord: "To what end is it for you that
   the day of the Lord should come? You will find it both certain and sad;
   not a thing to be bantered, for it is neither a thing to be questioned
   whether it will come or no nor a thing to be turned off with a slight
   when it does come. The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light, v.
   18. Shall it not be so? v. 20. Do not your own consciences tell you
   that it will be so, that it will be very dark, and no brightness in
   it?" Note, The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to
   all impenitent sinners; the day of judgment will be so; and sometimes
   the day of their present trouble. And, when God makes a day dark, all
   the world cannot make it light. (2.) He shows the folly of those who
   impatiently wished for a change of God's judgment, in hopes that the
   next would be better and more tolerable. They desire the day of the
   Lord, in hopes to better themselves (though their hearts and lives be
   not amended), or, at least, to know the worst. But the prophet tells
   them that they know not what they ask, v. 19. It is as if a man did
   flee from a lion and a bear met him, a beast of prey more cruel and
   ravenous than a lion, or as if a man, to escape all dangers abroad,
   went into the house for security, and leaned his hand on the wall to
   rest himself, and there a serpent bit him. Note, Those who are not
   reformed by the judgments of God will be pursued by them; and, if they
   escape one, another stands ready to seize them; fear and the pit and
   snare surround them, Isa. xxiv. 17, 18. It is madness therefore to defy
   the day of the Lord.

Hypocritical Services Rejected; Threatenings against Israel. (b. c. 790.)

   21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your
   solemn assemblies.   22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your
   meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace
   offerings of your fat beasts.   23 Take thou away from me the noise of
   thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.   24 But let
   judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.   25
   Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness
   forty years, O house of Israel?   26 But ye have borne the tabernacle
   of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye
   made to yourselves.   27 Therefore will I cause you to go into
   captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of
   hosts.

   The scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows
   of devotion, nay, how much he detested them, while they went on in
   their sins. Observe,

   I. How unpleasing, nay, how displeasing, their hypocritical services
   were to God. They had their feast-days at Bethel, in imitation of those
   at Jerusalem, in which they pretended to rejoice before God. They had
   their solemn assemblies for religious worship, in which they put on the
   gravity of those who come before God as his people come, and sit before
   him as his people sit. They offered to God burnt-offerings, to the
   honour of God, together with the meat-offerings which by the law were
   to be offered with them; they offered the peace-offerings, to implore
   the favour of God, and they offered them of the fat beasts that they
   had, v. 21, 22. In imitation likewise of the temple-music, they had the
   noise of their songs and the melody of their viols (v. 23), vocal and
   instrumental music, with which they praised God. With these services
   they hoped to make God amends for the sins they had committed, and to
   obtain leave to go on in sin; and therefore they were so far from being
   acceptable to God that they were abominable. He hated, he despised,
   their feast-days, not only despised them as no valuable services done
   to him, but hated them as an affront and provocation to him, as we hate
   to see men dissemble with us, pretend a respect for us when really they
   have none. Nothing more hateful, more despicable, than hypocrisy. He
   that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, it shall be counted a
   curse, when it appears that his heart is not with him. God will not
   smell in their solemn assemblies, for there is nothing in them that is
   grateful to him, but a great deal that is offensive. Their sacrifices
   are not to him of a sweet smelling savour, as Noah's was, Gen. viii.
   21. He will not accept them; he will not regard them, will not take any
   notice of them; he will not hear the melody of their viols; for, when
   sin is a jar in the harmony, it grates in his ears: "Take it away,"
   says God, "I cannot bear it." Now this intimates, 1. That sacrifice
   itself is of small account with God in comparison with moral duties; to
   love God and our neighbour is better than all burnt offering and
   sacrifice. 2. That the sacrifice of the wicked is really an abomination
   to him, Prov. xv. 8. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and so it
   will be found when, if any place in hell be hotter than another, that
   will be the hypocrite's portion.

   II. What it was that he required in order to the acceptableness of
   their sacrifices and without which no sacrifice would be acceptable (v.
   24): Let judgment run down as waters, among you, and righteousness as a
   mighty stream, that is 1. "Let there be a general reformation of
   manners among you; let religion (God's judgment) and righteousness have
   their due influence upon you; let your land be watered with it, and let
   it bear down all the opposition of vice and profaneness; let it run
   wide as overflowing waters, and yet run strong as mighty stream." (2.)
   "In particular, let justice be duly administered by magistrates and
   rulers; let not the current of it be stopped by partiality and bribery,
   but let it come freely as waters do, in the natural course; let it be
   pure as running waters, not muddied with corruption or whatever may
   pervert justice; let it run like a mighty stream, and not suffer itself
   to be obstructed, or its course retarded, by the fear of man; let all
   have free access to it as a common stream, and have benefit by it as
   trees planted by the rivers of waters." The great thing laid to
   Israel's charge was turning judgment into wormwood (v. 7); in that
   matter therefore they must reform, Zech. vii. 9. This was what God
   desired more than sacrifices, Hos. vi. 6; 1 Sam. xv. 22.

   III. What little stress God had laid upon the law of sacrifices, though
   it was his own law, in comparison with the moral precepts (v. 25): "Did
   you offer unto me sacrifices in the wilderness forty years? No, you did
   not." For the greatest part of that time sacrifice was very much
   neglected, because of the unsettledness of their state; after the
   second year, the passover was not kept till they came into Canaan, and
   other institutions were in like manner intermitted; and yet, because
   God will have mercy and not sacrifice, he never imputed the omission to
   them as their fault, but continued his care of them and kindness to
   them: it was not that, but their murmuring and unbelief, for which God
   was displeased with them. He that so owned his people, though they did
   not sacrifice, when in other things they kept close to him, will
   certainly disown them, though they do sacrifice, if in other things
   they depart from him. But, though ritual sacrifices may thus be
   dispensed with, spiritual sacrifices will not; even justice and honesty
   will not excuse for the want of prayer and praise, a broken heart and
   the love of God. Stephen quotes this passage (Acts vii. 42), to show
   the Jews that they ought not to think it strange that ceremonial law
   was repealed when from the beginning it was comparatively made light
   of. Compare Jer. vii. 22, 23.

   IV. What little reason they had to expect that their sacrifices should
   be acceptable to God, when they and their fathers had been all along
   addicted to the worship of other gods. So some take v. 25, "Did you
   offer to me sacrifices, that is, to me only? No, and therefore not at
   all to me acceptably;" for the law of worshipping the Lord our God is,
   Him only we must serve. "But you have borne the tabernacle of your
   Moloch (v. 26), little shrines that you made to carry about with you,
   pocket-idols for your private superstition, when you durst not be seen
   to do it publicly. You have had the images of your Moloch--your king"
   (probably representing the sun, that sits king among the heavenly
   bodies), "and Chiun, or Remphan" (as Stephen calls it, Acts vii. 43,
   after the LXX.), which it is supposed, represented Saturn, the highest
   of the seven planets. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, was the
   most ancient, most general, and most plausible idolatry. They made to
   themselves the star of their God, some particular star which they took
   to be their god, or the name of which they gave to their god. This
   idolatry Israel was from the beginning prone to (Deut. iv. 19); and
   those that retain an affection for false gods cannot expect the favour
   of the true God.

   V. What punishment God would inflict upon them for their persisting in
   idolatry (v. 27): I will cause you to go into captivity beyond
   Damascus. They were led captive by Satan into idolatry, and therefore
   God caused them to go into captivity among idolaters, and hurried them
   into a strange land, since they were so fond of strange gods. They were
   carried beyond Damascus. Their captivity by the Assyrians was far
   beyond that by the Syrians; for, if less judgments do not work that for
   which they were sent, God will send greater. Or the captivity of Israel
   under Shalmaneser was far beyond that of Damascus under
   Tiglath-pileser, and much more grievous and destructive, which was
   foretold ch. i. 5. For, as the sins of God's professing people are
   greater than the sins of others, so it may be expected that their
   punishments will be proportionable. We find the spoil of Damascus and
   that of Samaria carried off together by the king of Assyria, Isa. viii.
   4. Stephen reads it, I will carry you away beyond Babylon (Acts vii.
   43), further than Judah shall be carried, so far further as not to
   return. And, to make this sentence appear both the more certain and the
   more dreadful, he that passes it calls himself the Lord, whose name is,
   The God of hosts, and who is therefore able to execute the sentence,
   having hosts at command.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. VI.

   In this chapter we have, I. A sinful people studying to put a slight
   upon God's threatenings and to make them appear trivial, confiding in
   their privileges and pre-eminences above other nations (ver. 2, 3), and
   their power (ver. 13), and wholly addicted to their pleasures, ver.
   4-6. II. A serious prophet studying to put a weight upon God's
   threatenings and to make them appear terrible, by setting forth the
   severity of those judgments that were coming upon these sensualists
   (ver. 7), God's abhorring them, and abandoning them and theirs to death
   (ver. 8-11), and bringing utter desolation upon them, since they would
   not be wrought upon by the methods he had taken for their conviction,
   ver. 12-14.

The Danger of False Security. (b. c. 790.)

   1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of
   Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of
   Israel came!   2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to
   Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they
   better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?
   3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to
   come near;   4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon
   their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out
   of the midst of the stall;   5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and
   invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;   6 That drink
   wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they
   are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.   7 Therefore now shall
   they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them
   that stretched themselves shall be removed.

   The first words of the chapter are the contents of these verses; but
   they sound very strangely, and contrary to the sentiments of a vain
   world: Woe to those that are at ease! We are ready to say, Happy are
   those that are at ease, that neither feel any trouble nor fear any,
   that lie soft and warm, and lay nothing to heart; and wise we think are
   those that do so, that bathe themselves in the delights of sense and
   care not how the world goes. Those are looked upon as doing well for
   themselves that do well for their bodies and make much of them; but
   against them this woe is denounced, and we are here told what their
   ease is, and what the woe is.

   I. Here is a description of their pride, security, and sensuality, for
   which God would reckon with them.

   1. They were vainly conceited of their own dignities, and thought those
   would secure them from the judgments threatened and be their defence
   against the wrath both of God and man. (1.) Those that dwelt in Zion
   thought that was honour and protection enough for them, and they might
   there be quiet from all fear of evil, because it was a strong city,
   well fortified both by nature and art (we read of Zion's strong-holds
   and her bulwarks), and because it was a royal city, where were set the
   thrones of the house of David (it was the head-city of Judah, and
   therefore truly great), and especially because it was the holy city,
   where the temple was, and the testimony of Israel; those that dwelt
   there doubted not but that God's sanctuary would be a sanctuary to them
   and would shelter them from his judgments. The temple of the Lord are
   these, Jer. vii. 4. They are haughty because of the holy mountain,
   Zeph. iii. 11. Note, Many are puffed up with pride, and rocked asleep
   in carnal security, by their church-privileges, and the place they have
   in Zion. (2.) Those that dwelt in the mountain of Samaria, though it
   was not a holy hill, like that of Zion, yet they trusted in it, because
   it was the metropolis of a potent kingdom, and perhaps, in imitation of
   Jerusalem, was the head-quarters of its religion; and by lapse of time
   the hill of Shemer became with them in as good repute as the hill of
   Zion ever was. They hoped for salvation from these hills and mountains.
   (3.) Both these two kingdoms valued themselves upon their relation to
   Israel, that prince with God, which they looked upon as masking them
   the chief of the nations, more ancient and honourable than any of them;
   the first-fruits of the nations (so the word is), dedicated to God and
   sanctifying the whole harvest. The house of Israel came to them, that
   is, was divided into those kingdoms, of which Zion and Samaria were the
   mother cities. Those that were at ease were the princes and rulers, the
   great men, that were chief of the nations, chief of those two kingdoms,
   and to whom, having their residence in Zion and Samaria, the whole
   house of Israel applied for judgment. Note, It is hard to be great and
   not to be proud. Great nations and great men are apt to overvalue
   themselves, and to overlook their neighbours, because they think they a
   little overtop them. But, for a check to their pride and security, the
   prophet bids them take notice of those cities that were within the
   compass of their knowledge, that had been as illustrious in their time
   as ever Zion or Samaria was, and yet were destroyed, v. 2. "Go to
   Calneh (which was an ancient city built by Nimrod, Gen. x. 10), and see
   what has become of that, it is now in ruins; so is Hamath the great,
   one of the chief cities of Syria. Sennacherib boasts of destroying the
   gods of Hamath. Gath was likewise made desolate by Hazael, and not long
   ago, 2 Kings xii. 17. Now were they better than these kingdoms of Judah
   and Israel? Yes, they were, and their border greater than your border,
   so that they had more reason than you to be confident of their own
   safety; yet you see what has become of them, and dare you be secure?
   Art thou better than populous No?" Nah. iii. 8. Note, The examples of
   others' ruin forbid us to be secure.

   2. They persisted in their wicked courses upon a presumption that they
   should never be called to an account for them (v. 3): "You put far away
   the evil day, the day of reckoning, as a thing that shall never come,
   or you look upon it as at such a distance that it makes no impression
   at all upon you; you put it far away, and think you can still put it
   yet further, and adjourn it de die in diem--from day to day, and
   therefore you cause the seat of violence to draw near; you venture upon
   all acts of injustice and oppression, and have fellowship with the
   throne of iniquity, which frames mischief by a law, Ps. xciv. 20. You
   cause that to come near, as if that would be your protection from these
   judgments which really ripens you for them." Note, Therefore men take
   sin to be near them, because they take judgment to be far off from
   them; but those deceive themselves who thus mock God.

   3. They indulged themselves in all manner of sensual pleasures and
   delights, v. 4-6. These Israelites were perfect epicures and slaves to
   their appetites. Their dignities (in consideration of which they ought
   to have been examples of self-denial and mortification), they thought,
   would justify them in their sensuality; the gains of their oppression
   and violence, they thought, would bear the charge of it; and they put
   the evil day at a distance, that they might give them no disturbance in
   it. That which they are here charged with is not in itself sinful
   (these things might be soberly and moderately used), but they placed
   their happiness in the gratification of their carnal appetites; and
   though they were men in office, that had business to mind, they gave
   themselves up to their pleasures, spent their time in them, and threw
   away their thoughts, and cares, and estates upon them. They were in
   these enjoyments as in their element. Their hearts were upon them; they
   exceeded all bounds in them, and this at a time when God in his
   providence was calling them to weeping and mourning, Isa. xxii. 12, 13.
   When they were under guilt and wrath, and the judgments of God were
   ready to break in upon them, they called for wine and strong drink,
   presuming that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant
   (Isa. lvi. 12), thus walking contrary to God and setting his justice at
   defiance. (1.) They were extravagant in their furniture. Nothing would
   serve them but beds of ivory to sleep upon, or to sit on at their meat,
   when sackcloth and ashes would have become them better. (2.) They were
   lazy, and humoured themselves in the love of ease. They did not only
   lie down, but stretched themselves upon their couches, when they should
   have stirred up themselves to their business; they were willingly
   slothful, and took a pride in doing nothing; they abound in
   superfluities (so the margin reads it), when many of their poor
   brethren wanted necessaries. (3.) They were nice and curious in their
   diet, must have every thing of the best and abundance of it: They ate
   the lambs out of the flock (lambs by wholesale) and the calves out of
   the midst of the stall, the fattest they could lay their hand on; and
   these perhaps not out of their own flock and their own stall, but taken
   by oppression from the poor. (4.) They were merry and jovial, and
   diverted themselves at their feasts with music and singing: They chant
   to the sound of the viol, sing and play in concert, and they invent
   new-fashioned instruments of music, striving herein, more than in any
   thing else, to excel their ancestors; they set their wits on work to
   contrive how to please their fancy. Some men never show their ingenuity
   but in their luxury; on that they bestow all their faculty of invention
   and contrivance. They invent instruments of music, like David,
   entertain themselves with that which formerly used to be the
   entertainment of kings only. Or it intimates their profaneness in their
   mirth; they mimicked the temple-music, and made a jest of that,
   because, it may be, it was old-fashioned, and they took a pride in
   bantering it as the Babylonians did when they urged the captives to
   sing to them the songs of Zion; such was Belshazzar's profaneness when
   he drank wine in temple-bowls, and such is theirs that sing vain and
   loose songs in psalm-tunes, on purpose to ridicule a divine
   institution. (5.) They drank to excess, and never thought they could
   pour down enough: They drank wink in bowls, not in glasses, or cups (as
   Jer. xxxv. 5); they hate to be stinted, and must have large draughts,
   and therefore make use of vessels that they can steal a draught out of.
   (6.) They affected the strongest perfumes: They anoint themselves with
   the chief ointments, to please the smell, and to make them more in love
   with their own bodies, and to guard against those presages of
   putrefaction which they carry about with them while they live. No
   ordinary ointments would serve their turn; they must have the chief,
   such as were far-fetched and dear-bought, when cheaper would have
   served as well.

   4. They had no concern at all for the interests of the church of God,
   and of the nation, that were sinking and going to decay: They are not
   grieved for the affliction of Joseph; the church of God, including both
   the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (which are called Joseph, Ps. lxxx.
   1), was in distress, invaded, insulted, and broken in upon. As to their
   own kingdom which they were entrusted with the government of, the
   affairs of which they were directors of, the peace of which they were
   the conservators of, great breaches were made upon it, upon its peace
   and welfare; and they were so besotted that they were not aware of
   them, so indulgent of their pleasures that they never laid them to
   heart, and had such an aversion to the thing called business that they
   were in no care or concern to get them repaired. It is all one to them
   whether the nation sink or swim, so that they can but lie at ease and
   live in pleasure. Particular persons that belonged to Joseph were in
   affliction, and they took no cognizance of their case of the wrongs and
   hardships they sustained and the troubles they were in, nor took any
   care to relieve them, and right them, contrary to the temper of holy
   Job, who, when he was in prosperity, wept with him that was in misery
   and his soul was grieved for the poor, Job xxx. 25. Some think that, in
   calling the afflicted church Joseph, there is an allusion to the story
   of Pharaoh's butler, who, when he preferred to give the cup again into
   his master's hand, remembered not Joseph, but forgot him, Gen. xl. 21,
   23. Thus they drank wine in bowls, but were not grieved for the
   affliction of Joseph. Note, Those are commonly careless of the troubles
   of others who are set upon their own pleasures; and it is a great
   offence to God when his church is in affliction and we are not grieved
   for it, nor lay it to heart.

   II. Here is the doom passed upon them (v. 7): Therefore now shall they
   go captive with the first that go captive, and shall fall into all the
   miseries that attend captives; and the banquet of those that stretched
   themselves upon their couches shall be removed. Their plenty shall be
   taken from them, and they from it, because they made it the food and
   fuel of their lusts. 1. Those who lived in luxury shall lose even their
   liberty; and by being brought into servitude shall be justly punished
   for the abuse of their dignity and dominion. 2. Those who trusted in
   the delights and pleasures of their own land shall be carried away into
   a strange land, and so made ashamed of their pride and confidence; they
   shall go captive. 3. Those who placed their happiness in the pleasures
   of sense, and set their hearts upon them, shall be deprived of those
   pleasures; their banquet shall be removed, and they shall know what it
   is to fare hard. 4. Those who stretched themselves shall be made to
   contract themselves, and to come into a less compass. 5. Those who put
   the evil day far from them shall find it nearer to them than it is to
   others; those shall go captive with the first who flattered themselves
   with hopes that if trouble did come they should be the last who should
   be seized by it. Those are ripening apace for trouble themselves who
   lay not to heart the trouble of others and of the church of God. Those
   who give themselves to mirth, when God calls them to mourning, will
   find it a sin that shall not go unpunished, Isa. xxii. 14.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 790.)

   8 The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts,
   I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I
   deliver up the city with all that is therein.   9 And it shall come to
   pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.   10
   And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring
   out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the
   sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No.
   Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the
   name of the Lord.   11 For, behold, the Lord commandeth, and he will
   smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
     12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for
   ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into
   hemlock:   13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we
   not taken to us horns by our own strength?   14 But, behold, I will
   raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the
   God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath
   unto the river of the wilderness.

   In the former part of the chapter we had these secure Israelites
   loading themselves with pleasures, as if they could never be made merry
   enough; here we have God loading them with punishments, as if they
   could never be made miserable enough. And observe,

   I. How strongly this burden is bound on, not to be shaken off by their
   presumption and security; for it is bound by the Lord the God of hosts,
   by his mighty, his almighty, hand, which none can resist; it is bound
   with an oath, which puts the sentence past revocation: The Lord God has
   sworn, and he will not repent, and, since he could swear by no greater,
   he has sworn by himself. How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of
   those whose ruin, whose eternal ruin, God himself has sworn, who can
   execute his purpose and cannot alter it!

   II. How heavily this burden lies! Let us see the particulars. 1. God
   will abhor and abandon them, and that implies misery enough, all
   misery: I abhor the excellency of Jacob, all that which they are proud
   of, and value themselves upon, and for which they call and count
   themselves the chief of nations. Their visible church-membership, and
   the privileges of that, their temple, altar, and priesthood, these
   were, more than any thing, the excellencies of Jacob; but, when these
   were profaned and polluted by sin, God abhorred them; he hated and
   despised them, ch. v. 21. Note, God abhors that form of godliness which
   hypocrites keep up, while they abhor the power of it. And if he abhors
   their temple, for the iniquity of that, no marvel that he hates their
   palaces, for the injustices and oppression he finds there. Note, that
   creature which we take such a complacency and put such a confidence in
   as to make it a rival with God is thereby made abominable to him. He
   hates the palaces of sinners, for the sake of wickedness of those that
   dwell therein. Prov. iii. 33, The curse of the Lord is in the house of
   the wicked. And, if God abhor them, immediately it follows, He will
   deliver up the city with all that is therein, deliver it up into the
   hands of the enemy, that will lay it waste, and make a prey of all its
   wealth. Note, Those that are abhorred and abandoned of God are undone
   to all intents and purposes. 2. There shall be a great and general
   mortality among them (v. 9): If there remain ten men in one house, that
   have escaped the sword of the enemy, yet they shall be met with another
   way; they shall all die by famine or pestilence. In the most sickly
   times, if there be ten in a house, one may hope that at least the
   one-half of them will escape, according to the proportion of two in a
   bed, one taken and the other left; but here not one of ten shall live
   to bury the rest. Another instance of the greatness of the mortality is
   (v. 10) that the nearest relations of the dead shall be forced with
   their own hands to wind up their bodies, and bury them, for want of
   other hands to be employed in it; that is all that the next of kin, to
   whom the right of redemption belongs, can do for them, and with great
   reluctance will they do that. It intimates that the young people shall
   be cut off soonest; for the uncle that survives is, ordinarily, the
   senior relation. "When the uncle comes with the sexton (or him that
   burns), to bring out the bones out of the house, he shall say to him
   that he sees next about the house, 'Is there any yet with thee? Are
   there any left alive?' And he shall say, 'No, this is the last; now the
   whole family is cut off by death, and neither root nor branch
   remains.'" But that which makes the judgment the more grievous is that
   their hearts seem to be hardened under it. "When he that is found by
   the sides of the house begin to enter into discourse with those that
   are carrying off the dead, they shall say, 'Hold thy tongue; do not
   stand preaching to us about the hand of Providence in this calamity,
   for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord; God is so angry
   with us that there is no speaking to him; he is so extreme to mark what
   we do amiss that we dare not so much as make mention of his name." '
   Thus the foolishness of men perverts their way, and brings them into
   distress, and then their heart frets against the Lord. Even then they
   will not take notice of his hand, nor suffer those about them to do it.
   Perhaps it was forbidden by some of the idolatrous kings to make
   mention of the name of Jehovah, as by the law of Moses it was forbidden
   to make mention of the names of the heathen-gods: "We may not do it
   without incurring the penalty." Note, Those hearts are wretchedly
   hardened indeed that will not be brought to make mention of God's name,
   and to worship him, when the hand of God has gone out against them, and
   when, as here, sickness and death are in their families. Thus those
   heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them. 3. Their houses shall be
   destroyed, v. 11. God will smite the great house with breaches, and the
   little house with clefts; they shall both be cracked so as to lose
   their beauty and strength, and to be hastening towards a fall. The
   princes' palaces are not above the rebuke of divine justice, nor the
   poor men's cottages beneath it; neither shall escape. When sin has
   marked them for ruin God will find ways to bring it about. It is by
   order from him that breaches are made.

   III. How justly they are thus burdened. If we understand the matter
   aright, we shall say, The Lord is righteous. 1. The methods used for
   their reformation had been all fruitless and ineffectual (v. 12): Shall
   horses run upon the rock, to hurl or harrow the ground there? Or will
   one plough there with oxen? No, for there will be no profit to
   countervail the pains. God has sent them his prophets, to break up
   their fallow-ground; but they found them as hard and inflexible as the
   rock, rough and rugged, and they could do no good with them, nor work
   upon them, and therefore they shall not attempt it any more. They will
   not be reclaimed, and therefore shall not be reproved, but quite
   abandoned. Note, Those who will not be cultivated as fields and
   vineyards shall be rejected as barren rocks and deserts, Heb. vi. 7, 8.
   2. They had abused their power to the wrong and oppression of many,
   whose injured cause the sovereign Judge would not only right, but
   revenge: You have turned judgment into gall, which is nauseous, and the
   fruit of righteousness into hemlock, which is noxious; it would make
   one sick to see how those that were entrusted with the administration
   of public justice bore down equity with that power which they out to
   have defended and supported it, and so turned its own artillery against
   itself. Note, When our services of God are soured with sin his
   providences will justly be embittered to us. 3. They had set the
   judgments of God at defiance, and, confiding in their own strength,
   thought themselves a match for Omnipotence, v. 13. They rejoiced in a
   thing of nought, pleased themselves with a fancy that no evil should
   befal them, though they had no ground at all for that confidence,
   nothing to trust to that would bear any weight. They said, "Have we not
   taken to us horns; have we not arrived to great dignity and dominion,
   have we not pushed down our enemies and pushed on our victories, and
   this by our own strength, our own skill and courage, our own wealth and
   military force? Who then need we be afraid of? Who then need we make
   court to? Not God himself." Note, Prosperity and success commonly make
   men secure and haughty; and those that have done much think they can do
   any thing, any thing without God, nay, any thing against him. But those
   who trust in their own strength rejoice in a thing of nought, and so
   they will find. Probably they did not say this with their lips, totidem
   verbis--in so many words, but it was the language of their hearts and
   of their actions, both which God understands.

   IV. How easily and effectually this burden shall be brought upon them,
   v. 14. He that brings it upon them is the Lord the God of hosts, who
   both may do and can do what he pleases, who has all creatures at his
   command, and who, when he has work to do, will not be at a loss for
   instruments to do it with; though they are the house of Israel, yet he
   will raise up against them a nation which they feared not, but had many
   a time hoped in, even the Assyrians, and this nation shall afflict
   them, bring them into straits, and put them to pain, from the entering
   in of Hamath, in the north, to the river of the wilderness, the river
   of Egypt, Sihor or Nile, in the south. The whole nation has shared in
   the iniquity, and therefore must expect to share in the calamity. Note,
   When men are in any way instruments of affliction to us we must see God
   raising them up against us, for they are in his hand--the rod, the
   sword, in his hand. The Lord has bidden Shimei curse David.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. VII.

   In this chapter we have, I. God contending with Israel, by the
   judgments, but are reprieved, and the judgments turned away at the
   prayer of Amos, ver. 1-6. 2. God's patience is at length worn out by
   their obstinacy, and they are rejected, and sentenced to utter ruin,
   ver. 7-9. II. Israel contending with God, by the opposition given to
   his prophet. 1. Amaziah informs against Amos (ver. 10, 11) and does
   what he can to rid the country of him as a public nuisance, ver. 12,
   13. 2. Amos justifies himself in what he did as a prophet (ver. 14, 15)
   and denounces the judgments of God against Amaziah his prosecutor (ver.
   16, 17); for, when the contest is between God and man, it is easy to
   foresee, it is very easy to foretel, who will come off with the worst
   of it.

Intercession for Israel; Ruin of Israel Foretold. (b. c. 785.)

   1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed
   grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth;
   and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.   2 And it
   came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the
   land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall
   Jacob arise? for he is small.   3 The Lord repented for this: It shall
   not be, saith the Lord.   4 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and,
   behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the
   great deep, and did eat up a part.   5 Then said I, O Lord God, cease,
   I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.   6 The
   Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God.   7
   Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a
   plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.   8 And the Lord said unto
   me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the
   Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel:
   I will not again pass by them any more:   9 And the high places of
   Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid
   waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

   We here see that God bears long, but that he will not bear always, with
   a provoking people, both these God here showed the prophet: Thus hath
   the Lord God showed me, v. 1, 4, 7. He showed him what was present,
   foreshowed him what was to come, gave him the knowledge both of what he
   did and of what he designed; for the Lord God reveals his secret unto
   his servants the prophets, ch. iii. 7.

   I. We have here two instances of God's sparing mercy, remembered in the
   midst of judgment, the narratives of which are so much like one another
   that they will be best considered together, and very considerable they
   are.

   1. God is here coming forth against this sinful nation, first by one
   judgment and then by another. (1.) He begins with the judgment of
   famine. The prophet saw this in vision. He saw God forming
   grasshoppers, or locusts, and bringing them up upon the land, to eat up
   the fruits of it, and so to strip it of its beauty and starve its
   inhabitants, v. 1. God formed these grasshoppers, not only as they were
   his creatures (and much of the wisdom and power of God appears in the
   formation of minute animals, as much in the structure of an ant as of
   an elephant), but as they were instruments of his wrath. God is said to
   frame evil against a sinful people, Jer. xviii. 11. These grasshoppers
   were framed on purpose to eat up the grass of the land; and vast
   numbers of them were prepared accordingly. They were sent in the
   beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, after the king's
   mowings. See here how the judgment was mitigated by the mercy that went
   before it. God could have sent these insects to eat up the grass at the
   beginning of the first growth, in the spring, when the grass was most
   needed, was most plentiful, and was the best in its kind; but God
   suffered that to grow, and suffered them to gather it in; the king's
   mowings were safely housed, for the king himself is served from the
   field (Eccl. v. 9), and could as ill be without his mowings as without
   any other branch of his revenues. Uzziah, who was now king of Judah,
   loved husbandry, 2 Chron. xxvi. 10. But the grasshoppers were
   commissioned to eat up only the latter growth (the edgrew we call it in
   the country), the after-grass, which is of little value in comparison
   with the former. The mercies which God give us, and continues to us,
   are more numerous and more valuable than those he removes from us,
   which is a good reason why we should be thankful and not complain. The
   remembrance of the mercies of the former growth should make us
   submissive to the will of God when we meet with disappointments in the
   latter growth. The prophet, in vision, saw this judgment prevailing
   far. These grasshoppers ate up the grass of the land, which should have
   been for the cattle, which the owners must of course suffer by. Some
   understand this figuratively of a wasting destroying army brought upon
   them. In the days of Jeroboam the kingdom of Israel began to recover
   itself from the desolations it had been under in the former reigns (2
   Kings xiv. 25); the latter growth shot up, after the mowings of the
   kings of Syria, which we read of 2 Kings xiii. 3. And then God
   commissioned the king of Assyria with an army of caterpillars to come
   upon them and lay them waste, that nation spoken of ch. vi. 14, which
   afflicted them from the entering of Hamath to the river of the
   wilderness, which seems to refer to 2 Kings xiv. 25, where Jeroboam is
   said to have restored their coast from the entering of Hamath to the
   sea of the plain. God can bring all to ruin when we think all is in
   some good measure repaired. (2.) He proceeds to the judgment of fire,
   to show that he has many arrows in his quiver, many ways of humbling a
   sinful nation (v. 4): The Lord God called to contend by fire. He
   contended, for God's judgment upon a people are his controversies with
   them; in them he prosecutes his action against them; and his
   controversies are neither causeless nor groundless. He called to
   contend; he did by his prophets give them notice of his controversy,
   and drew up a declaration, setting forth the meaning of it. Or he
   called for his angels, or other ministers of his justice, that were to
   be employed in it. A fire was kindled among them, by which perhaps is
   meant a great drought (the heat of the sun, which should have warmed
   the earth, scorched it, and burnt up the roots of the grass which the
   locusts had eaten the spires of), or a raging fever, which was as a
   fire in their bones, which devoured and ate up multitudes, or
   lightning, fire from heaven, which consumed their houses, as Sodom and
   Gomorrah were consumed (ch. iv. 11), or it was the burning of their
   cities, either by accident or by the hand of the enemy, for fire and
   sword used to go together; thus were the towns wasted, as the country
   was by the grasshoppers. This fire, which God called for, did terrible
   execution; it devoured the great deep, as the fire that fell from
   heaven on Elijah's altar licked up the water that was in the trench.
   Though the water designed for the stopping and quenching of this fire
   was as the water of the great deep, yet it devoured it; for who, or
   what, can stand before a fire kindled by the wrath of God! It did eat
   up a part, a great part, of the cities where it was sent; or it was as
   the fire at Taberah, which consumed the outermost parts of the camp
   (Num. xi. 1); when some were overthrown others were as brands plucked
   out of the fire. All deserved to be devoured, but it ate up only a
   part, for God does not stir up all his wrath.

   2. The prophet goes forth to meet him in the way of his judgments, and
   by prayer seeks to turn away his wrath, v. 2. When he saw, in vision,
   what dreadful work these caterpillars made, that they had eaten up in a
   manner all the grass of the land (he foresaw they would do so, if
   suffered to go on), then he said, O Lord God! forgive, I beseech thee
   (v. 2); cease, I beseech thee, v. 5. He that foretold the judgment in
   his preaching to the people, yet deprecated it in his intercessions for
   them. He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee. It was the business
   of prophets to pray for those to whom they prophesied, and so to make
   it appear that though they denounced they did not desire the woeful
   day. Therefore, God showed his prophets the evils coming, that they
   might befriend the people, not only by warning them, but by praying for
   them, and standing in the gap, to turn away God's wrath, as Moses, that
   great prophet, often did. Now observe here,

   (1.) The prophet's prayer: O Lord God! [1.] Forgive, I beseech thee,
   and take away the sin, v. 2. He sees sin at the bottom of the trouble,
   and therefore concludes that the pardon of sin must be at the bottom of
   deliverance, and prays for that in the first place. Note, Whatever
   calamity we are under, personal or public, the forgiveness of sin is
   that which we should be most earnest with God for. [2.] Cease, I
   beseech thee, and take away the judgment; cease the fire, cease the
   controversy; cause they anger towards us to cease. This follows upon
   the forgiveness of sin. Take away the cause and effect will cease.
   Note, Those whom God contends with will soon find what need they have
   to cry for a cessation of arms; and there are hopes that though God has
   begun, and proceeded far, in his controversy, yet it may be obtained.

   (2.) The prophet's plea to enforce this prayer: By whom shall Jacob
   arise, for he is small? v. 2. And it is repeated (v. 5) and yet no vain
   repetition. Christ, in his agony, prayed earnestly, saying the same
   words, again and again. [1.] It is Jacob that he is interceding for,
   the professing people of God, called by his name, calling on his name,
   the seed of Jacob, his chosen, and in covenant with him. It it Jacob's
   case that is in this prayer spread before the God of Jacob. [2.] Jacob
   is small, very small already, weakened and brought low by former
   judgments; and therefore, if these come, he will be quite ruined and
   brought to nothing. The people are few; the dust of Jacob, which was
   once innumerable, is now soon counted. Those few are feeble (it is the
   worm Jacob, Isa. xli. 14); they are unable to help themselves or one
   another. Sin will soon make a great people small, will diminish the
   numerous, impoverish the plenteous, and weaken the courageous. [3.] By
   whom shall he arise? He has fallen, and cannot help himself up, and he
   has no friend to help him, none to raise him, unless the hand of God do
   it; what will become of him, then, if the hand that should raise him to
   stretched out against him? Note, When the state of God's church is very
   low and very helpless it is proper to be recommended by our prayers to
   God's pity.

   3. God graciously lets fall his controversy, in answer to the prophet's
   prayer, once and again (v. 3): The Lord repented for this. He did not
   change his mind, for he is one mind and who can turn him? But he
   changed his way, took another course, and determined to deal in mercy
   and not in wrath. He said, It shall not be. And again (v. 6), This also
   shall not be. The caterpillars were countermanded, were remanded; a
   stop was put to the progress of the fire, and thus a reprieve was
   granted. See the power of prayer, of effectual fervent prayer, and how
   much it avails, what great things it prevails for. A stop has many a
   time been put to a judgment by making supplication to the Judge. This
   was not the first time that Israel's life was begged, and so saved. See
   what a blessing praying people, praying prophets, are to a land, and
   therefore how highly they ought to be valued. Ruin would many a time
   have broken in if they had not stood in the breach, and made good the
   pass. See how ready, how swift, God is to show mercy, how he waits to
   be gracious. Amos moves for a reprieve, and obtains it, because God
   inclines to grant it and looks about to see if there be any that will
   intercede for it, Isa. lix. 16. Nor are former reprieves objected
   against further instances of mercy, but are rather encouragements to
   pray and hope for them. This also shall not be, any more than that. It
   is the glory of God that he multiplies to pardon, that he spares, and
   forgives, to more than seventy times seven times.

   II. We have here the rejection of those at last who had been often
   reprieved and yet never reclaimed, reduced to straits and yet never
   reduced to their God and their duty. This is represented to the prophet
   by a vision (v. 7, 8) and an express prediction of utter ruin, v. 9.

   1. The vision is of a plumb-line, a line with a plummet at the end of
   it, such as masons and bricklayers use to run up a wall by, that they
   may work it straight and true, and by rule. (1.) Israel was a wall, a
   strong wall, which God himself had reared, as a bulwark, or wall of
   defence, to his sanctuary, which he set up among them. The Jewish
   church says of herself (Cant. viii. 10), I am a wall, and my breasts
   are like towers. This wall was made by a plumb-line, very exact and
   firm. So happy was its constitution, so well compacted, and every thing
   so well ordered according to the model; it had long stood fast as a
   wall of brass. But, (2.) God now stands upon this wall, not to hold it
   up, but to tread it down, or, rather, to consider what he should do
   with it. He stands upon it with a plumb-line in his hand, to take
   measure of it, that it may appear to be a bowing, bulging wall. Recti
   est index sui et oblique--This plumb-line would discover where it was
   crooked. Thus God would bring the people of Israel to the trial, would
   discover their wickedness, and show wherein they erred; and he would
   likewise bring his judgments upon them according to equity, would set a
   plumb-line in the midst of them, to mark how far their wall must be
   pulled down, as David measured the Moabites with a line (2 Sam. viii.
   2) to put them to death. And, when God is coming to the ruin of a
   people, he is said to lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the
   plummet; for when he punishes it is with exactness. It is now
   determined: "I will not again pass by them any more; they shall not be
   spared and reprieved as they have been; their punishment shall not be
   turned away," ch. i. 3. Note, God's patience, which has long been
   sinned against, will at length be sinned away; and the time will come
   when those that have been spared often shall be no longer spared. My
   spirit shall not always strive. After frequent reprieves, yet a day of
   execution will come.

   2. The prediction is of utter ruin, v. 9. (1.) The body of the people
   shall be destroyed, with all those things that were their ornament and
   defence. They are here called Isaac as well as Israel, the house of
   Isaac (v. 16), some think in allusion to the signification of Isaac's
   name; it is laughter; they shall become a jest among all their
   neighbours; their neighbours shall laugh at them. The desolation shall
   fasten upon their high places and their sanctuaries, either their
   castles or their temples, both built on high places. Their castles they
   thought safe, and their temples sacred as sanctuaries. These shall be
   laid waste, to punish them for their idolatry and to make them ashamed
   of their carnal confidences, which were the two things for which God
   had a controversy with them. When these were made desolate they might
   read their sin and folly in their punishment. (2.) The royal family
   shall sink first, as an earnest of the ruin of the whole kingdom: I
   will rise against the house of Jeroboam, Jeroboam the second, who was
   now king of the ten tribes; his family was extirpated in his son
   Zecharias, who was slain with the sword before the people, by Shallum
   who conspired against him, 2 Kings xv. 10. How unrighteous soever the
   instruments were, God was righteous, and in them God rose up against
   that idolatrous family. Even king's houses will be no shelter against
   the sword of God's wrath.

Amaziah's Charge against Amos; Amaziah's Doom. (b. c. 785.)

   10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel,
   saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of
   Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.   11 For thus Amos
   saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led
   away captive out of their own land.   12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O
   thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat
   bread, and prophesy there:   13 But prophesy not again any more at
   Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.   14
   Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was
   I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore
   fruit:   15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord
   said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.   16 Now therefore
   hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against
   Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.   17
   Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city,
   and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land
   shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and
   Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

   One would have expected, 1. That what we met with in the former part of
   the chapter would awaken the people to repentance, when they saw that
   they were reprieved in order that they might have space to repent and
   that they could not obtain a pardon unless they did repent. 2. That it
   would endear the prophet Amos to them, who had not only shown his
   good-will to them in praying against the judgments that invaded them,
   but had prevailed to turn away those judgments, which, if they had had
   any sense of gratitude, would have gained him an interest in their
   affections. But it fell out quite contrary; they continue impenitent,
   and the next news we hear of Amos is that he is persecuted. Note, As it
   is the praise of great saints that they pray for those that are enemies
   to them, so it is the shame of many great sinners that they are enemies
   to those who pray for them, Ps. xxxv. 13, 15; cix. 4. We have here,

   I. The malicious information brought to the king against the prophet
   Amos, v. 10, 11. The informer was Amaziah the priest of Bethel, the
   chief of the priests that ministered to the golden calf there, the
   president of Bethel (so some read it), that had the principal hand in
   civil affairs there. He complained against Amos, not only because he
   prophesied without license from him, but because he prophesied against
   his altars, which would soon be deserted and demolished if Amos's
   preaching could but gain credit. Thus the shrine-makers at Ephesus
   hated Paul, because his preaching tended to spoil their trade. Note,
   Great pretenders to sanctity are commonly the worst enemies to those
   who are really sanctified. Priests have been the most bitter
   persecutors. Amaziah brings an information to Jeroboam against Amos.
   Observe, 1. The crime he is charged with is no less than treason: "Amos
   has conspired against thee, to depose and murder thee; he aims at
   succeeding thee, and therefore is taking the most effectual way to
   weaken thee. He sows the seeds of sedition in the hearts of the good
   subjects of the king, and makes them disaffected to him and his
   government, that he may draw them by degrees from their allegiance;
   upon this account the land is not able to bear his words." It is slyly
   insinuated to the king that the country was exasperated against him,
   and it is given in as their sense that his preaching was intolerable,
   and such as nobody could be reconciled to, such as the times would by
   no means bear, that is, the men of the times would not. Both the
   impudence of his supposed treason, and the bad influence it would have
   upon the country, are intimated in that part of the charge, that he
   conspired against the king in the midst of the house of Israel. Note,
   It is no new thing for the accusers of the brethren to misrepresent
   them as enemies to the king and kingdom, as traitors to their prince
   and troublers of the land, when really they are the best friends to
   both. And it is common for designing men to assert that as the sense of
   the country which is far from being so. And yet here, I doubt, it was
   too true, that the people could not bear plain dealing any more than
   the priests. 2. The words laid in the indictment for the support of
   this charge (v. 11): Amos says (and they have witnesses ready to prove
   it) Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall be led away
   captive; and hence they infer that he is an enemy to his king and
   country, and not to be tolerated. See the malice of Amaziah; he does
   not tell the king how Amos had interceded for Israel, and by his
   intercession had turned away first one judgment and then another, and
   did not let fall his intercession till he saw the decree had gone
   forth; he does not tell him that these threatenings were conditional,
   and that he had often assured them that if they would repent and reform
   the ruin should be prevented. Nay, it was not true that he said,
   Jeroboam shall die by the sword, nor did he so die (2 Kings xiv. 28),
   but that God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword,
   v. 9. God's prophets and ministers have often had occasion to make
   David's complaint (Ps. lvi. 5), Every day they wrest my words. But
   shall it be made the watchman's crime, when he sees the sword coming,
   to give warning to the people, that they may get themselves secured? or
   the physician's crime to tell his patient of the danger of his disease,
   that he may use means for the cure of it? What enemies are foolish men
   to themselves, to their own peace, to their best friends! It does not
   appear that Jeroboam took any notice of this information; perhaps he
   reverenced a prophet, and stood more in awe of the divine authority
   than Amaziah his priest did.

   II. The method he used to persuade Amos to withdraw and quit the
   country (v. 12, 13); when he could not gain his point with the king to
   have Amos imprisoned, banished, or put to death, or at least to have
   him frightened into silence or flight, he tried what he could do by
   fair means to get rid of him; he insinuated himself into his
   acquaintance, and with all the arts of wheedling endeavored to persuade
   him to go and prophesy in the land of Judah, and not at Bethel. He owns
   him to be a seer, and does not pretend to enjoin him silence, but
   suggests to him,

   1. That Bethel was not a proper place for him to exercise his ministry
   in, for it was the king's chapel, or sanctuary, where he had his idols
   and their altars and priests; and it was the king's court, or the house
   of the kingdom, where the royal family resided and where were set the
   thrones of judgment; and therefore prophesy not any more here. And why
   not? (1.) Because Amos is too plain and blunt a preacher for the court
   and the king's chapel. Those that wear silk and fine clothing, and
   speak silken soft words, are fit for king's palaces. (2.) Because the
   worship that is in the king's chapel will be a continual vexation and
   trouble to Amos; let him therefore get far enough from it, and what the
   eye sees not the heart grieves not for. (3.) Because it was not fit
   that the king and his house should be affronted in their own court and
   chapel by the reproofs and threatenings which Amos was continually
   teazing them with in the name of the Lord; as if it were the
   prerogative of the prince, and the privilege of the peers, when they
   are running headlong upon a precipice, not to be told of their danger.
   (4.) Because he could not expect any countenance or encouragement
   there, but, on the contrary, to be bantered and ridiculed by some and
   to be threatened and brow-beaten by others; however, he could not think
   to make any converts there, or to persuade any from that idolatry which
   was supported by the authority and example of the king. To preach his
   doctrine there was but (as we say) to run his head against a post; and
   therefore prophesy no more there. But,

   2. He persuades him that the land of Judah was the fittest place for
   him to set up in: Flee thee away thither with all speed, and there eat
   bread, and prophesy there. There thou wilt be safe; there thou wilt be
   welcome; the king's court and chapel there are on thy side; the
   prophets there will second thee; the priests and princes there will
   take notice of thee, and allow thee an honourable maintenance. See
   here, (1.) How willing wicked men are to get clear of their faithful
   reprovers, and how ready to say to the seers, See not, or See not for
   us; the two witnesses were a torment to those that dwelt on the earth
   (Rev. xi. 10), and it were indeed a pity that men should be tormented
   before the time, but that it is in order to the preventing of eternal
   torment. (2.) How apt worldly men are to measure others by themselves.
   Amaziah, as a priest, aimed at nothing but the profits of his place,
   and he thought Amos, as a prophet, had the same views, and therefore
   advised him to prophesy were he might eat bread, where he might be sure
   to have as much as he chose; whereas Amos was to prophesy where God
   appointed him, and where there was most need of him, not where he would
   get most money. Note, Those that make gain their godliness, and are
   governed by the hopes of wealth and preferment themselves, are ready to
   think these the most powerful inducements with others also.

   III. The reply which Amos made to these suggestions of Amaziah's. He
   did not consult with flesh and blood, nor was it his care to enrich
   himself, but to make full proof of his ministry, and to be found
   faithful in the discharge of it, not to sleep in a whole skin, but to
   keep a good conscience; and therefore he resolved to abide by his post,
   and, in answer to Amaziah,

   1. He justified himself in his constant adherence to his work and to
   his place (v. 14, 15); and that which he was sure would not only bear
   him out, but bind him to it, was that he had a divine warrant and
   commission for it: "I was no prophet, nor prophet's son, neither born
   nor bred to the office, not originally designed for a prophet, as
   Samuel and Jeremiah, not educated in the schools of the prophets, as
   many others were; but I was a herdsman, a keeper of cattle, and a
   gatherer of sycamore-fruit." Our sycamores bear no fruit, but, it
   seems, theirs did, which Amos gathered either for his cattle or for
   himself and his family, or to sell. He was a plain country-man, bred up
   and employed in country work and used to country fare. He followed the
   flocks as well as the herds, and thence God took him, and bade him go
   and prophesy to his people Israel, deliver to them such messages as he
   should from time to time receive from the Lord. God made him a prophet,
   and a prophet to them, appointed him his work and appointed him his
   post. Therefore he ought not to be silenced, for, (1.) He could produce
   a divine commission for what he did. He did not run before he was sent,
   but pleads, as Paul, that he was called to be an apostle; and men will
   find it is at their peril if they contradict and oppose any that come
   in God's name, if they say to his seers, See not, or silence those whom
   he has bidden to speak; such fight against God. An affront done to an
   ambassador is an affront to the prince that sends him. Those that have
   a warrant from God ought not to fear the face of man. (2.) The mean
   character he wore before he received that commission strengthened his
   warrant, so far was it from weakening it. [1.] He had no thoughts at
   all of ever being a prophet, and therefore his prophesying could not be
   imputed to a raised expectation or a heated imagination, but purely to
   a divine impulse. [2.] He was not educated nor instructed in the art or
   mystery of prophesying, and therefore he must have his abilities for it
   immediately from God, which is an undeniable proof that he had his
   mission from him. The apostles, being originally unlearned and ignorant
   men, evidenced that they owed their knowledge to their having been with
   Jesus, Acts iv. 13. When the treasure is put into such earthen vessels,
   it is thereby made to appear that the excellency of the power is of
   God, and not of man, 2 Cor. iv. 7. [3.] He had an honest calling, by
   which he could comfortably maintain himself and his family; and
   therefore did not need to prophesy for bread, as Amaziah suggested (v.
   12), did not take it up as a trade to live by, but as a trust to honour
   God and do good with. [4.] He had all his days been accustomed to a
   plain homely way of living among poor husbandmen, and never affected
   either gaieties or dainties, and therefore would not have thrust
   himself so near the king's court and chapel if the business God had
   called him to had not called him thither. [5.] Having been so meanly
   bred, he could not have the courage to speak to kings and great men,
   especially to speak such bold and provoking things to them, if he had
   not been animated by a greater spirit than his own. If God, that sent
   him, had not strengthened him, he could not thus have set his face as a
   flint, Isa. l. 7. Note, God often chooses the weak and foolish things
   of the world to confound the wise and mighty; and a herdman of Tekoa
   puts to shame a priest of Bethel, when he receives from God authority
   and ability to act for him.

   2. He condemns Amaziah for the opposition he gave them, and denounces
   the judgments of God against him, not from any private resentment or
   revenge, but in the name of the Lord and by authority from him, v. 16,
   17. Amaziah would not suffer Amos to preach at all, and therefore he is
   particularly ordered to preach against him: Now therefore hear thou the
   word of the Lord, hear it and tremble. Those that cannot bear general
   woes may expect woes of their own. The sin he is charged with is
   forbidding Amos to prophesy; we do not find that he beat him, or put
   him in the stocks, only he enjoined him silence: Prophesy not against
   Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac; he must not
   only thunder against them, but he must not so much as drop a word
   against them; he cannot bear, no, not the most gentle distilling of
   that rain, that small rain. Let him therefore hear his doom.

   (1.) For the opposition he gave to Amos God will bring ruin upon
   himself and his family. This was the sin that filled the measure of his
   iniquity. [1.] He shall have no comfort in any of his relations, but be
   afflicted in those that were nearest to him: His wife shall be a
   harlot; either she shall be forcibly abused by the soldiers, as the
   Levite's concubine by the men of Gibeah (they ravish the women of Zion,
   Lam. v. 11), or she shall herself wickedly play the harlot, which,
   though her sin, her great sin, would be his affliction, his great
   affliction and reproach, and a just punishment upon him for promoting
   spiritual whoredom. Sometimes the sins of our relations are to be
   looked upon as judgments of God upon us. His children, though they keep
   honest, yet shall not keep alive: His sons and his daughters shall fall
   by the sword of war, and he himself shall live to see it. He has
   trained them up in iniquity, and therefore God will cut them off in it.
   [2.] He shall be stripped of all his estate; it shall fall into the
   hand of the enemy, and be divided by line, by lot, among the soldiers.
   What is ill begotten will not be long kept. [3.] He shall himself
   perish in a strange country, not in the land of Israel, which had been
   holiness to the Lord, but in a polluted land, in a heathen country, the
   fittest place for such a heathen to end his days in, that hated and
   silenced God's prophets and contributed so much to the polluting of his
   own land with idolatry.

   (2.) Notwithstanding the opposition he gave to Amos, God will bring
   ruin upon the land and nation. He was accused for saying, Israel shall
   be led away captive (v. 11), but he stands to it, and repeats it; for
   the unbelief of man shall not make the word of God of no effect. The
   burden of the word of the Lord may be striven with, but it cannot be
   shaken off. Let Amaziah rage, and fret, and say what he will to the
   contrary, Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.
   Note, it is to no purpose to contend with the judgments of God; for
   when God judges he will overcome. Stopping the mouths of God's
   ministers will not stop the progress of God's word, for it shall not
   return void.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. VIII.

   Sinful times are here attended with sorrowful times, so necessary is
   the connexion between them; it is threatened here again and again that
   the laughter shall be turned into mourning. I. By the vision of "basket
   of summer-fruit" is signified the hastening on of the ruin threatened
   (ver. 1-3) and that shall change their note. II. Oppressors are here
   called to an account for their abusing the poor; and their destruction
   is foretold, which will set them a mourning, ver. 4-10. III. A famine
   of the word of God is here made the punishment of a people that go a
   whoring after other gods (ver. 11-14); yet for this, which is the most
   mournful judgment of all, they are not here brought in mourning.

The Vision of Summer Fruit. (b. c. 785.)

   1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer
   fruit.   2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of
   summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my
   people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.   3 And the
   songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God:
   there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them
   forth with silence.

   The great reason why sinners defer their repentance de die in
   diem--from day to day, is because they think God thus defers his
   judgments, and there is no song wherewith they so effectually sing
   themselves asleep as that, My Lord delays his coming; and therefore
   God, by his prophets, frequently represents to Israel the day of his
   wrath not only as just and certain, but as very near and hastening on
   apace; so he does in these verses.

   I. The approach of the threatened ruin is represented by a basket of
   summer-fruit which Amos saw in vision; for the Lord showed it to him
   (v. 1) and obliged him to take notice of it (v. 2): Amos, what seest
   thou? Note, It concerns us to enquire whether we do indeed see that
   which God has been pleased to show us, and hear what he has been
   pleased to say to us; for many a thing God speaks, God shows once, yea
   twice, and men perceive it not. Are we in the midst of the visions of
   the Almighty? Let us consider what we see. He saw a basket of
   summer-fruit gathered and ready to be eaten, which signified, 1. That
   they were ripe for destruction, rotten ripe, and it was time for God to
   put in the sickle of his judgments and to cut them off; nay, the thing
   was in effect done already, and they lay ready to be eaten up. 2. That
   the year of God's patience was drawing towards a conclusion; it was
   autumn with them, and their year would quickly have its period in a
   dismal winter. 3. Those we call summer-fruits that will not keep till
   winter, but must be used immediately, an emblem of this people, that
   had nothing solid or consistent in them.

   II. The intent and meaning of this vision is no more than this: It
   signifies that the end has come upon my people Israel. The word that
   signifies the end is ketz, which is of near affinity with kitz, the
   word used for summer-fruit. God has long spared them, and borne with
   them, but now his patience is tired out; they are indeed his people
   Israel, but their end, that latter end they have been so often reminded
   of, but have so long forgotten, has now come. Note, If sinners do not
   make an end of sin, God will make an end of them, yea though they be
   his people Israel. What was said ch. vii. 8 is here repeated as God's
   determined resolution, I will not again pass by them any more; they
   shall not be connived at as they have been, nor the judgment coming
   turned away.

   III. The consequence of this shall be a universal desolation (v. 3):
   When the end shall come sorrow and death shall ride in triumph; they
   are accustomed to go together, and shall at length go away together,
   when in heaven there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, Rev. xxi. 4.
   But here in a sinful world, in a sinful nation, 1. Sorrow reigns,
   reigns to such a degree that the songs of the temple shall be
   howlings--the songs of God's temple at Jerusalem, or rather of their
   idol-temples, where they used, when, in honour of the golden calves,
   they had eaten and drunk, to rise up to play. They were perhaps wanton
   profane songs; and it is certain that sooner or later those will be
   turned into howlings. Or, if they had a sound and show of piety and
   religion, yet, not coming from the heart, nor being sung to the glory
   of God, he valued them not, but would justly turn them into howlings.
   Note, Mourning will follow sinful mirth, yea, and sacred mirth too, it
   if be not sincere. And, when God's judgments are abroad, they will soon
   turn the greatest joy into the greatest heaviness, the temple-songs,
   which used to sound so pleasantly, not only into sighs and groans, but
   into loud howlings, which sound dismally. They shall come to the
   temple, and, finding that in ruins, there they shall howl most
   bitterly. 2. Death reigns, reigns to such a degree that there shall be
   dead bodies, many dead bodies in every place (Ps. cx. 6), slain by
   sword or pestilence, so many that the survivors shall not bury them
   with the usual pomp and solemnity of funerals; they shall not so much
   as have the bell tolled, but they shall cast them forth with silence,
   shall bury them in the dead of the night, and charge all about them to
   be silent and to take notice of it, either because they have not
   wherewithal to bear the charges of a funeral, or because, the killing
   disease being infectious, none will come near them, or for fear the
   enemy should be provoked, if they should be known to lament their
   slain. Or they shall charge themselves and one another silently to
   submit to the hand of God in these desolating judgments, and not to
   repine and quarrel with him. Or it may be taken not for a patient, but
   a sullen silence; their hearts shall be hardened, and all these
   judgments shall not extort from them one word of acknowledgment either
   of God's righteousness or their own unrighteousness.

The Sin and Doom of Oppressors. (b. c. 785.)

   4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of
   the land to fail,   5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we
   may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the
   ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by
   deceit?   6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a
   pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?   7 The Lord hath
   sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of
   their works.   8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one
   mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood;
   and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.   9 And
   it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will
   cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the
   clear day:   10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your
   songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins,
   and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an
   only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

   God is here contending with proud oppressors, and showing them,

   I. The heinousness of the sin they were guilty of; in short, they had
   the character of the unjust judge (Luke xviii. 2) that neither feared
   God nor regarded man.

   1. Observe them in their devotions, and you will say, "They had no
   reverence for God." Bad as they are, they do indeed keep up a show and
   form of godliness; they observe the sabbath and the new moon; they put
   some difference between those days and other days, but they were soon
   weary of them, and had no affection at all to them, for their hearts
   were wholly set upon the world and the things of it. It is a sad
   character which this gives of them, that they said, When will the
   sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn? Yet is still the character of
   many that are called Christians. (1.) They were weary of sabbath days.
   "When will they be gone?" They were weary of the restraints of the
   sabbaths and the new-moons, and wished them over because they might do
   no servile work therein. They were weary of the work or business of the
   sabbaths and new-moons, snuffed at it (Mal. i. 13), and were, as Doeg,
   detained before the Lord (1 Sam. xxi. 7); they would rather have been
   any where else than about God's altars. Note, Sabbath days and sabbath
   work are a burden to carnal hearts, that are always afraid of doing too
   much for God and eternity. Can we spend our time better than in
   communication with God? And how much time do we spend pleasantly with
   the world? Will not the sabbath be gone before we have done the work of
   it and reaped the gains of it? Why then should we be in such haste to
   part with it? (2.) They were fond of market-days: they longed to be
   selling corn and setting forth wheat. When they were employed in
   religious services they were thinking of their marketings; their hearts
   went after their covetousness (Ezek. xxxiii. 31), and thus made my
   Father's house a house of merchandise, nay, a den of thieves. They were
   weary of holy duties because their worldly business stood still the
   while; in this they were as in their element, but in God's sanctuary as
   a fish upon dry ground. Note, Those are strangers to God, and enemies
   to themselves, that love market days better than sabbath days, that
   would rather be selling corn than worshipping God.

   2. Observe them in their conversations, and you will see they have no
   regard to man; and this commonly follows upon the former; those that
   have lost the savour of piety will not long retain the sense of common
   honesty. They neither do justly nor love mercy. (1.) They cheat those
   they deal with. When they sell their corn they impose upon the buyer,
   both in giving out the goods and in receiving the money for them. They
   measure him the corn by their own measure, and pretend to give him what
   he agreed for, but they make the ephah small. The measure is scanty,
   and not statute-measure, and so they wrong him that way. When they
   receive his money they must weigh fit in their own scales, by their own
   weights, and the shekel they weigh by is above standard: They make the
   shekel great, so that the money, being found too light, must have more
   added to it; and so they cheat that way too, and this under colour and
   pretence of exactness in doing justice. By such wicked practices as
   these men show such a greediness of the world, such a love of
   themselves, such a contempt of mankind in general, of the particular
   persons they deal with, and of the sacred laws of justice, as prove
   them to have in their hearts neither the fear nor the love of that God
   who has so plainly said that false weights and balances are an
   abomination to him. Another instance of their fraudulent dealing is
   that they sell the refuse of the wheat, and, taking advantage of their
   neighbour's ignorance or necessity, make them take it at the same price
   at which they sell the finest of the wheat. (2.) They are barbarous and
   unmerciful to the poor: They swallow up the needy, and make the poor of
   the land to fail. [1.] They valued themselves so much on their wealth
   that they looked upon all that were poor with the highest contempt
   imaginable; they hated them, could not endure them, but abandoned them,
   and therefore did what they could to make them cease, not by relieving
   them to make them cease to be poor, but by banishing and destroying
   them to make them cease to be, or at least to be in their land. But he
   who thus reproaches the poor despises his Maker, in whose hands rich
   and poor meet together. [2.] They were so eager to increase their
   wealth, and make it more, that they robbed the poor to enrich
   themselves; and they fastened upon the poor, to make a prey of them,
   because they were not able to obtain any redress nor to resist or
   revenge the violence of their oppressors. Those riches that are got by
   the ruin of the poor will bring ruin on those that get them. They
   swallowed up the poor by making them hard bargains, and cheating them
   in those bargains; for therefore they falsify the balances by deceit,
   not only that they may enrich themselves, may have money at command,
   and so may have every thing else (as they think) at command too, but
   that they may impoverish those about them, and bring them so low that
   they may force them to become slaves to them, and so, having drained
   them of every thing else, they may have their labour for nothing, or
   next to nothing. Thus they buy the poor for silver; they bring them and
   their children into bondage, because they have not wherewithal to pay
   for the corn they have bought; see Neh. v. 2-5. And there were so many
   that they were reduced to this extremity that the price was very low;
   and the oppressors had beaten it down so that you might buy a poor man
   to be your slave for a pair of shoes. Property was first invaded and
   then liberty; it is the method of oppressors first to make men beggars
   and then to make them their vassals. Thus is the dignity of the human
   nature lost in the misery of those that are trampled on and the
   tenderness of it in the sin of those that trample on them.

   II. The grievousness of the punishment that shall be inflicted on them
   for this sin. When the poor are injured they will cry unto God, and he
   will hear their cry, and reckon with those that are injurious to them,
   for, they being his receivers, he takes the wrongs done to them as done
   to himself, Exod. xxii. 23, 24.

   1. God will remember their sin against them: He has sworn by the
   excellency of Jacob (v. 7), by himself, for he can swear by no greater;
   and who but he is the glory and magnificence of Jacob? He has sworn by
   those tokens of his presence with them, and his favour to them, which
   they had profaned and abused, and had done what they could to make them
   detestable to him; for he is said (ch. vi. 8) to abhor the excellency
   of Jacob. He swears in his wrath, swears by his own name, that name
   which was so well known and was so great in Israel. He swears, Surely I
   will never forget any of their works, but upon all occasions they shall
   be remembered against them, for more is implied than is expressed. I
   will never forget them is as much as to say, I will never forgive them;
   and then it proclaims the case of these unjust unmerciful men to be
   miserable indeed, eternally miserable; woe, and a thousand woes, to
   that man that is cut off by an oath of God from all benefit by
   pardoning mercy; and those have reason to fear judgment without mercy
   that have shown no mercy.

   2. He will bring utter ruin and confusion upon them. It is here
   described largely, and in a great variety of emphatic expressions,
   that, if possible, they might be frightened into a sincere repentance
   and reformation. (1.) There shall be a universal terror and
   consternation: Shall not the land tremble for this (v. 8), this land,
   out of which you thought to drive the poor? Shall not every one mourn
   that dwells therein? Certainly he shall. Note, Those that will not
   tremble and mourn as they ought for national sins shall be made to
   tremble and mourn for national judgments; those that look without
   concern upon the sins of the oppressors, which should make them
   tremble, and upon the miseries of the oppressed, which should them
   mourn, God will find out a way to make them tremble at the fury of
   those that oppress them and mourn for their own losses and sufferings
   by it. (2.) There shall be a universal deluge and desolation. When God
   comes forth against them the waters of trouble and calamity shall rise
   up wholly as a flood, that swells, when it is dammed up, and soon
   overflows its banks. Every thing shall make against them. That with
   which they thought to check the progress of God's judgments shall but
   make them rise the higher. Judgments shall force their way as the
   breaking forth of waters. The whole land shall be cast out, and
   drowned, and laid under water, as the land of Egypt is every year by
   the overflowing of its river Nile. Or the expressions may allude to
   some former judgments of God. Their ruin shall rise up wholly as a
   flood, as Noah's flood, which overwhelmed the whole world, so shall
   this the whole land; and the land shall be cast out, and drowned, as by
   the flood of Egypt, as Pharaoh and his Egyptians were buried in the Red
   Sea, which was to them the flood of Egypt, both which judgments, as
   this which is here threatened, were the punishment of violence and
   oppression, which the Lord is the avenger of.

   3. It shall surprise them, and come upon them when they little think of
   it (v. 9): "I will cause the sun to go down at noon, when it is in its
   full strength and lustre, at their noon, when they promise themselves a
   long afternoon, and think they have at least half a day good before
   them. The earth shall be darkened in the clear day, when every thing
   looks pleasant and hopeful." Thus uncertain are all our
   creature-comforts and enjoyments, even life itself; the highest degree
   of health and prosperity often proves the next degree to sickness and
   adversity; Job's sun went down at noon; many are taken away in the
   midst of their days, and their sun goes down at noon. In the midst of
   life we are in death. Thus terrible are the judgments of God to those
   that sleep in security; they are to them as the sun's going down at
   noon; the less they are expected the more confounding they are. When
   they cry Peace and safety then sudden destruction comes, comes as a
   snare, Luke xxi. 35.

   4. It shall change their note, and mar all their mirth (v. 10): I will
   turn your feasts into mourning, as (v. 3) the songs of the temple into
   howlings. Note, The end of the sinner's mirth and jollity is heaviness.
   As to the upright there arises light in the darkness, which gives them
   the oil of joy for mourning, so on the wicked there falls darkness in
   the midst of light, which turns their laughter into mourning, their joy
   into heaviness. So great, so general, shall the desolation be, that
   sackcloth shall be brought upon all loins, and baldness upon every
   head, instead of the well-set hair and the rich garments they used to
   wear. The mourning at that day shall be as mourning for an only son,
   which denotes the most bitter and lasting lamentation. But are there
   then no hopes that when things are at the worst they will mend, and
   that at evening time it will yet be light? No, even the end thereof
   shall be as a bitter day, a day of bitter mourning; that state of
   impenitent sinners grows worse and worse, and the last of all will be
   the worst of all. This shall you have at my hand, you shall lie down in
   sorrow.

Spiritual Famine Threatened; Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 785.)

   11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine
   in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
   hearing the words of the Lord:   12 And they shall wander from sea to
   sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to
   seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.   13 In that day
   shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.   14 They that
   swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The
   manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up
   again.

   In these verses is threatened,

   I. A general judgment of spiritual famine coming upon the whole land, a
   famine of the word of God, the failing of oracles and the scarcity of
   good preaching. This is spoken of as a thing at some distance: The days
   come, they will come hereafter, when another kind of darkness shall
   come upon that land of light. When Amos prophesied, and for a
   considerable time after, they had great plenty of prophets, abundant
   opportunities of hearing the word of God, in season and out of season;
   they had precept upon precept and line upon line; prophecy was their
   daily bread; and it is probable that they surfeited upon it, as Israel
   on the manna, and therefore God threatens that hereafter he will
   deprive them of this privilege. Probably in the land of Israel there
   were not so many prophets, about the time that their destruction came
   upon them, as there were in the land of Judah; and when the ten tribes
   went into captivity they saw not their signs, there were no more any
   prophets, none to show them how long, Ps. lxxiv. 9. The Jewish church,
   after Malachi, had no prophets for many ages; and some think this
   threatening looks further yet, to the blindness which has in part
   happened to Israel in the days of the Messiah, and the veil that is on
   the heart of the unbelieving Jews. They reject the gospel, and the
   ministers of it that God sends to them, and covet to have prophets of
   their own, as their fathers had, but they shall have none, the kingdom
   of God being taken from them and given to another people. Observe here,

   1. What the judgment itself is that is threatened. It is a famine, a
   scarcity, not of bread and water (which are the necessary support of
   the body, and the want of which is very grievous), but a much sorer
   judgment than that, even a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
   There shall be no congregations for ministers to preach to, nor any
   ministers to preach, nor any instructions and abilities given to those
   that do set up for preachers, to fit them for their work. The word of
   the Lord shall be precious and scarce; there shall be no vision, 1 Sam.
   iii. 1. They shall have the written word, Bibles to read, but no
   ministers to explain and apply it to them, the water in the well, but
   nothing to draw with. It is a gracious promise (Isa. xxx. 20) that
   though they have a scarcity of bread they shall have plenty of the
   means of grace. God will give them the bread of adversity and the water
   of affliction, but their eyes shall see their teachers; and it was a
   common saying among the Puritans that brown bread and the gospel are
   good fare. But it is here a threatening that on the contrary they
   should have plenty enough of bread and water, and yet their teachers
   should be removed. Now, (1.) This was the departure of a great part of
   their glory from their land. This made their nation great and high,
   that to them were committed the oracles of God; but, when these were
   taken from them, their beauty was stained and their honour laid in the
   dust. (2.) This was a token of God's highest displeasure against them.
   Surely he was angry indeed with them when he would no more speak to
   them as he had done, and had abandoned them to ruin when he would no
   more afford them the means of bringing them to repentance. (3.) This
   made all the other calamities that were upon them truly melancholy,
   that they had no prophets to instruct and comfort them from the word of
   God, nor to give them any hopeful prospect. We should say at any time,
   and shall say in a time of trouble, that a famine of the word of God is
   the sorest famine, the heaviest judgment.

   2. What will be the effect of this (v. 12): They shall wander from sea
   to sea, from the sea of Tiberias to the Great Sea, from one border of
   the country to another, to see if God will send them prophets, either
   by sea or land, from other countries; since they have none among
   themselves, they shall go from the north to the east; when they are
   disappointed in one place they shall try another, and shall run to and
   fro, as men at a loss, and in a hot pursuit to seek the word of the
   Lord, to enquire if there be any prophets, any prophecy, any message
   from God, but they shall not find it. (1.) Though to many this is no
   affliction at all, yet some will be very sensible of it as a great
   grievance, and will gladly travel far to hear a good sermon; but they
   shall sensibly feel the loss of those mercies which others have
   foolishly sinned away. (2.) Even those that slighted prophets when they
   had them shall wish for them as Saul did for Samuel, when they are
   deprived of them. Many never know the worth of mercies till they feel
   the want of them. Or it may be meant thus, Though they should thus
   wander from sea to sea, in quest of the word of God, yet shall they not
   find it. Note, The means of grace are moveable things; and the
   candlestick, when we think it stands most firmly, may be removed out of
   its place (Rev. ii. 5); and those that now slight the days of the son
   of man may wish in vain to see them. And in the day of this famine the
   fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst (v. 13); those
   who, one would think, could well enough have borne the toil, shall sink
   under it. The Jewish churches, and the masters of their synagogues,
   some take to be meant by the virgins and the young men; these shall
   lose the word of the Lord, and the benefit of divine revelation, and
   shall faint away for want of it, shall lose all their strength and
   beauty. Those that trust in their own merit and righteousness, and
   think they have no need of Christ, others take to be meant by the fair
   virgins and the choice young men; they shall faint for thirst, when
   those that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ shall be
   abundantly satisfied and filled.

   II. The particular destruction of those that were ringleaders in
   idolatry, v. 14. Observe, 1. The sin they are charged with: They swear
   by the sin of Samaria, that is, by the god of Samaria, the idol that
   was worshipped at Bethel, not far off from Samaria. Thus did they glory
   in their shame, and swear by them as their god which was their
   iniquity, thinking that could help them which would certainly ruin
   them, and giving the highest honour to that which they should have
   looked upon with the utmost abhorrence and detestation. They say, Thy
   god, O Dan! liveth; that was the other golden calf, a dumb deal idol,
   and yet caressed and complimented as if it had been the living and true
   God. They say, The manner, or way, of Beer-sheba liveth; they swore by
   the religion of Beer-sheba, the way and manner of worship used there,
   which they looked upon as sacred, and therefore swore by and appealed
   to as a judge of controversy. Thus the papists swear by the mass, as
   the manner of Beer-sheba. 2. The destruction they are threatened with.
   Those who thus give that honour to idols which is due to God alone will
   find that the God they affront is thereby made their enemy, so that
   they shall fall, and the gods they serve cannot stand their friends, so
   that they shall never rise again. They will find that God is jealous
   and will resent the indignity done him, and that he will be victorious
   and it is to no purpose to contend with him.
     __________________________________________________________________

A M O S.

  CHAP. IX.

   In this chapter we have, I. Judgment threatened, which the sinners
   shall not escape (ver. 1-4), which an almighty power shall inflict
   (ver. 5, 6), which the people of Israel have deserved as a sinful
   people (ver. 7, 8); and yet it shall not be the utter ruin of their
   nation (ver. 8), for a remnant of good people shall escape, ver. 9. But
   the wicked ones shall perish, ver. 10. II. Mercy promised, which was to
   be bestowed in the latter days (ver. 11-15), as appears by the
   application of it to the days of the Messiah, Acts xv. 16. And with
   those comfortable promises, after all the foregoing rebukes and
   threatenings, the book concludes.

The Certainty of the Sinner's Doom. (b. c. 784.)

   1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel
   of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of
   them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth
   of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be
   delivered.   2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take
   them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
   3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search
   and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the
   bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite
   them:   4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
   thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set
   mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.   5 And the Lord God of
   hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that
   dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood;
   and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.   6 It is he that
   buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the
   earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out
   upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.   7 Are ye not as
   children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the
   Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the
   Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?   8 Behold, the
   eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it
   from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy
   the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.   9 For, lo, I will command, and I
   will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted
   in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.   10 All
   the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil
   shall not overtake nor prevent us.

   We have here the justice of God passing sentence upon a provoking
   people; and observe,

   I. With what solemnity the sentence is passed. The prophet saw in
   vision the Lord standing upon the altar (v. 1), the altar of
   burnt-offerings; for the Lord has a sacrifice, and multitudes must fall
   as victims to his justice. He is removed from the mercy-seat between
   the cherubim, and stands upon the altar, the judgment-seat, on which
   the fire of God used to fall, to devour the sacrifices. He stands upon
   the altar, to show that the ground of his controversy with this people
   was their profanation of his holy things; here he stands to avenge the
   quarrel of his altar, as also to signify that the sin of the house of
   Israel, like that of the house of Eli, shall not be purged with
   sacrifice nor offering forever, 1 Sam. iii. 14. He stands on the altar,
   to prohibit sacrifice. Now the order given is, Smite the lintel of the
   door of the temple, the chapiter, smite it with such a blow that the
   posts may shake, and cut them, wound them in the head, all of them;
   break down the doors of God's house, or of the courts of his house, in
   token of this, that he is going out from it, and forsaking it, and then
   all judgments are breaking in upon it. Or it signifies the destruction
   of those in the first place that should be as the door-posts to the
   nation for its defence, so that, they being broken down, it becomes as
   a city without gates and bars. "Smite the king, who is as the lintel of
   the door, that the princes, who are as the posts, may shake; cut them
   in the head, cleave them down, all of them, as wood for the fire; and I
   will slay the last of them, the posterity of them, them and their
   families, or the least of them, them and all that are employed under
   them; or, I will slay them all, them and all that remain of them, till
   it comes to the last man; the slaughter shall be general." There is no
   living for those on whom God has said, I will slay them, no standing
   before his sword.

   II. What effectual care is taken that none shall escape the execution
   of this sentence. This is enlarged upon here, and is intended for
   warning to all that provoke the Lord to jealousy. Let sinners read it,
   and tremble; as there is no fighting it out with God, so there is no
   fleeing from him. His judgments, when they come with commission, as
   they will overpower the strongest that think to outface them, so they
   will overtake the swiftest that think to out-run them, v. 2. Those of
   them that flee, and take to their heels, shall soon be out of breath,
   and shall not flee away out of the reach of danger; for, as sometimes
   the wicked flee when none pursues, so he cannot flee away when God
   pursues, though he would fain flee out of his hand. Nay, he that
   escapes of them, that thinks he has gained his point, shall not be
   delivered. Evil pursues sinners, and will arrest them. This is here
   enlarged upon by showing that wherever sinners flee for shelter from
   God's justice, it will overtake them, and the shelter will prove but a
   refuge of lies. What David says of the ubiquity of God's presence ( Ps.
   cxxxix. 7-10) is here said of the extent of God's power and justice.
   (1.) Hell itself, though it has its name in English from its being
   hilled, or covered over, or hidden, cannot hide them (v. 2): "Though
   they dig into hell, into the centre of the earth, or the darkest
   recesses of it, yet thence shall my hand take them, and bring them
   forth to be made public monuments of divine justice." The grave is a
   hiding-place to the righteous from the malice of the world (Job iii.
   17), but it shall be no hiding-place to the righteous from the justice
   of God; thence God's hands shall take them, when they shall rise in the
   great day to everlasting shame and contempt. (2.) Heaven, though it has
   its name from being heaved, or lifted up, shall not put them out of
   reach of God's judgments; as hell cannot hide them, so heaven will not.
   Though they climb up to heaven in their conceit, yet thence will I
   bring them down. Those whom God brings to heaven by his grace shall
   never be brought down; but those who climb thither themselves, by their
   own presumption, and confidence in themselves, will be brought down and
   filled with shame. (3.) The top of Carmel, one of the highest parts of
   the dust of the world in that country, shall not protect them: "Though
   they hide themselves there, where they imagine nobody will look for
   them, I will search, and take them out thence; neither the thickest
   bushes, nor the darkest caves, in the top of Carmel, will serve to hide
   them." (4.) The bottom of the sea shall not serve to conceal them;
   though they think to hide themselves there, even there the judgments of
   God shall find them out, and lay hold on them: Thence will I command
   the serpent, and he shall bite them, the crooked serpent, even the
   dragon that is in the sea, Isa. xxvii. 1. They shall find their plague
   and death where they hope to find shelter and protection; diving will
   stand them in no more stead than climbing. (5.) Remote countries will
   not befriend them, nor shall less judgments excuse them from greater
   (v. 4): Thought they go into captivity before their enemies, who carry
   them to places at a great distance, and mingle them with their own
   people, among whom they seem to be lost, yet that shall not serve their
   turn: Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them, the
   sword of the enemy, or one another's sword. When God judges he will
   overcome. That which binds on all this, makes their escape impossible
   and their ruin inevitable, is that God will set his eyes upon them for
   evil, and not for good. His eyes are in every place, are upon all men
   and upon all the ways of men, upon some for good, to show himself
   strong on their behalf, but upon others for evil, to take notice of
   their sins (Job xiii. 27) and take all opportunities of punishing them
   for their sins. Their case is truly miserable who have the providence
   of God: and all the dispensations of it, against them, working for
   their hurt.

   3. What a great and mighty God he is that passes this sentence upon
   them, and will take the executing of it into his own hands.
   Threatenings are more or less formidable according to the power of him
   that threatens. We laugh at impotent wrath; but the wrath of God is not
   so; it is omnipotent wrath. Who knows the power of it? What he had
   before said he would do (ch. viii. 8) is here repeated, that he would
   make the land melt and tremble, and all that dwell therein mourn, that
   the judgment should rise up wholly like a flood, and the country should
   be drowned, and laid under water, as by the flood of Egypt, v. 5. But
   is he able to make his words good? Yes, certainly he is; he does but
   touch the land and it melts, touch the mountains and they smoke; he can
   do it with the greatest ease, for, (1.) He is the Lord God of hosts,
   who undertakes to do it, the God who has all the power in his hand, and
   all creatures at his beck and call, who having made them all, and given
   them their several capacities, makes what use he pleases of them and
   all their powers. Very miserable is the case of those who have the Lord
   of hosts against them, for they have hosts against them, the whole
   creation at war with them. (2.) He is the Creator and governor of the
   upper world: It is he that builds his stories in the heavens, the
   celestial orbs, or spheres, one over another, as so many stories in a
   high and stately palace. They are his, for he built them at first, when
   he said, Let there be a firmament, and he made the firmament; and he
   builds them still, is continually building them, not that they need
   repair, but by his providence he still upholds them; his power is the
   pillars of heaven, by which it is borne up. Now he that has the command
   of those stories is certainly to be feared, for thence, as from a
   castle, he can fire upon his enemies, or cast upon them great
   hailstones, as on the Canaanites, or make the stars in their courses,
   the furniture of those stories, to fight against them, as against
   Sisera. (3.) He has the management and command of this lower world too,
   in which we dwell, the terraqueous globe, both earth and sea, so that,
   which way soever his enemies think to make their escape, he will meet
   them, or to make opposition, he will match them. Do they think to make
   a land-fight of it? He has founded his troop in the earth, his troop of
   guards, which he has at command, and makes use of for the protection of
   his subjects and the punishment of his enemies. All the creatures on
   earth make one bundle (as the margin reads it), one bundle of arrows,
   out of which he takes what he pleases to discharge against the
   persecutors, Ps. vii. 13. They are all one army, one body, so closely
   are they connected, and so harmoniously and so much in concert do they
   act for the accomplishing of their Creator's purposes. Do they think to
   make a sea-fight of it? He will be too hard for them there, for he has
   the waters of the sea at command; even its waves, the most tumultuous
   rebellious waters, do obey him. He calls for the waters of the sea in
   the course of his common providence, causes vapours to ascend out of
   it, and pours them out in showers, the small rain and the great rain of
   his strength, upon the face of the earth; this was mentioned before as
   a reason why we should seek the Lord (ch. v. 8) and make him our
   friend, as it is here made a reason why we should fear him and dread
   having him for our enemy.

   4. How justly God passes this sentence upon the people of Israel. He
   does not destroy them by an act of sovereignty, but by an act of
   righteousness; for (v. 8), it is a sinful kingdom, and the eyes of the
   Lord are upon it, discovering it to be so; he sees the great sinfulness
   of it, and therefore he will destroy it from off the face of the earth.
   Note, When those kingdoms that in name and profession were holy
   kingdoms, and kingdoms of priests, as Israel was, become sinful
   kingdoms, no other can be expected than that they should be cut off and
   abandoned. Let sinful kingdoms, and sinful families, and sinful persons
   too, see the eyes of the Lord upon them, observing all their
   wickedness, and reserving the notice of it for the day of reckoning and
   recompence. This being a sinful kingdom, see how light God makes of it,
   v. 7.

   (1.) Of the relation wherein he stood to it: Are you not as children of
   Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? A sad change! Children of
   Israel become as children of the Ethiopians! [1.] They were so in
   themselves; that was their sin. It is a thing to be greatly lamented
   that the children of Israel often become as children of the Ethiopians;
   this children of godly parents degenerate, and become the reverse of
   those that went before them. Those that were well-educated, and trained
   up in the knowledge and fear of God, and set out well, and promised
   fair, throw off their profession and become as bad as the worst. How
   has the gold become dim! [2.] They were so in God's account, and that
   was their punishment. He valued them no more, though they were children
   of Israel, than if they had been children of the Ethiopians. We read of
   one in the title of Ps. vii. that was Cush (an Ethiopian, as some
   understand it) and yet a Benjamite. Those that by birth and profession
   are children of Israel, if they degenerate, and become wicked and vile,
   are to God no more than children of the Ethiopians. This is an
   intimation of the rejection of the unbelieving Jews in the days of the
   Messiah; because they embraced not the doctrine of Christ, the kingdom
   of God was taken from them, they were unchurched, and cast out of
   covenant, became as children of the Ethiopians, and are so to this day.
   And it is true of those that are called Christians, but do not live up
   to their name and profession, that rest in the form of piety, but live
   under the power of reigning iniquity, that they are to God as children
   of the Ethiopians; he rejects them, and their services.

   (2.) See how light he makes of the favours he had conferred upon them;
   they thought he would not, he could not, cast them off, and put them
   upon a level with other nations, because he had done that for them
   which he had not done for other nations, whereby they thought he was
   bound to them, so as never to leave them. "No," says he, "The favours
   shown to you are not so distinguishing as you think they are: Have I
   not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt?" It is true I have; but
   I have also brought the Philistines from Caphtor, or Cappadocia, where
   they were natives, or captives, or both; they are called the remnant of
   the country of Caphtor (Jer. xlvii. 4), and the Philistim are joined
   with the Caphtorim, Gen. x. 14. In like manner the Syrians were brought
   up from Kir when they had been carried away thither, 2 Kings xvi. 9.
   Note, If God's Israel lose the peculiarity of their holiness, they lose
   the peculiarity of their privileges; and what was designed as a favour
   of special grace shall be set in another light, shall have its property
   altered, and shall become an act of common providence; if professors
   liken themselves to the world, God will level them with the world. And,
   if we live not up to the obligation of God's mercies, we forfeit the
   honour and comfort of them.

   5. How graciously God will separate between the precious and the vile
   in the day of retribution. Though the wicked Israelites shall be as the
   wicked Ethiopians, and their being called Israelites shall stand them
   in no stead, yet the pious Israelites shall not be as the wicked ones;
   no, the Judge of all the earth will do right, more right than to slay
   the righteous with the wicked, Gen. xviii. 25. His eyes are upon the
   sinful kingdom, to spy out those in it who preserve their integrity and
   swim against the stream, who sigh and cry for the abominations of their
   land, and they shall be marked for preservation, so that the
   destruction shall not be total: I will not utterly destroy the house of
   Jacob, not ruin them by wholesale and in the gross, good and bad
   together, but I will distinguish, as becomes a righteous judge. The
   house of Israel shall be sifted as corn is sifted; they shall be
   greatly hurried, and shaken, and tossed, but still in the hands of God,
   in both his hands, as the sieve in the hands of him that sifts (v. 9):
   I will sift the house of Israel among all nations. Wherever they are
   shaken and scattered, God will have his eye upon them, and will take
   care to separate between the corn and chaff, which was the thing he
   designed in sifting them. (1.) The righteous ones among them, that are
   as the solid wheat, shall none of them perish; they shall be delivered
   either from or through the common calamities of the kingdom; not the
   least grain shall fall on the earth, so as to be lost and
   forgotten--not the least stone (so the word is), for the good corn is
   weighty as a stone in comparison with that which we call light corn.
   Note, Whatever shakings there may be in the world, God does and will
   effectually provide that none who are truly his shall be truly
   miserable. (2.) The wicked ones among them who are hardened in their
   sins shall all of them perish, v. 10. See what a height of impiety they
   have come to: They say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
   They think they are innocent, and do not deserve punishment, or that
   the profession they make of relation to God will be their exemption and
   security from punishment, or that they shall be able to make their part
   good against the judgments of God, that they shall flee so swiftly from
   them that they shall not overtake them, or guard so carefully against
   them that they shall not prevent or surprise them. Note, Hope of
   impunity is the deceitful refuge of the impenitent. But see what it
   will come to at last: All the sinners that thus flatter themselves, and
   affront God, shall die by the sword, the sword of war, which to them
   shall be the sword of divine vengeance; yea, though they be the sinners
   of my people, for their profession shall not be their protection. Note,
   Evil is often nearest those that put it at the greatest distance from
   them.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 784.)

   11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,
   and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I
   will build it as in the days of old:   12 That they may possess the
   remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name,
   saith the Lord that doeth this.   13 Behold, the days come, saith the
   Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of
   grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine,
   and all the hills shall melt.   14 And I will bring again the captivity
   of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and
   inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine
   thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.   15
   And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled
   up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.

   To him to whom all the prophets bear witness this prophet, here in the
   close, bears his testimony, and speaks of that day, those days that
   shall come, in which God will do great things for his church, by the
   setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah, for the rejecting of which
   the rejection of the Jews was foretold in the foregoing verses. The
   promise here is said to agree to the planting of the Christian church,
   and in that to be fulfilled, Acts xv. 15-17. It is promised,

   I. That in the Messiah the kingdom of David shall be restored (v. 11);
   the tabernacle of David it is called, that is, his house and family,
   which, though great and fixed, yet, in comparison with the kingdom of
   heaven, was mean and movable as a tabernacle. The church militant, in
   its present state, dwelling as in shepherds' tents to feed, as in
   soldiers' tents to fight, is the tabernacle of David. God's tabernacle
   is called the tabernacle of David because David desired and chose to
   dwell in God's tabernacle for ever, Ps. lxi. 4. Now, 1. These
   tabernacles had fallen and gone to decay, the royal family was so
   impoverished, its power abridged, its honour stained, and laid in the
   dust; for many of that race degenerated, and in the captivity it lost
   the imperial dignity. Sore breaches were made upon it, and at length it
   was laid in ruins. So it was with the church of the Jews; in the latter
   days of it its glory departed; it was like a tabernacle broken down and
   brought to ruin, in respect both of purity and of prosperity. 2. By
   Jesus Christ these tabernacles were raised and rebuilt. In him God's
   covenant with David had its accomplishment; and the glory of that
   house, which was not only sullied, but quite sunk, revived again; the
   breaches of it were closed and its ruins raised up, as in the days of
   old; nay, the spiritual glory of the family of Christ far exceeded the
   temporal glory of the family of David when it was at its height. In him
   also God's covenant with Israel had its accomplishment, and in the
   gospel-church the tabernacle of God was set up among men again, and
   raised up out of the ruins of the Jewish state. This is quoted in the
   first council at Jerusalem as referring to the calling in of the
   Gentiles and God's taking out of them a people for his name. Note,
   While the world stands God will have a church in it, and, if it be
   fallen down in one place and among one people, it shall be raised up
   elsewhere.

   II. That that kingdom shall be enlarged, and the territories of it
   shall extend far, by the accession of many countries to it (v. 12),
   that the house of David may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the
   heathen, that is, that Christ may have them given him for his
   inheritance, even the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession,
   Ps. ii. 8. Those that had been strangers and enemies shall become
   willing faithful subjects to the Son of David, shall be added to the
   church, or those of them that are called by my name, saith the Lord,
   that is, that belong to the election of grace and are ordained to
   eternal life (Acts xiii. 48), for it is true of the Gentiles as well as
   of the Jews that the election hath obtained and the rest were blinded,
   Rom. xi. 7. Christ died to gather together in one the children of God
   that were scattered abroad, here said to be those that were called by
   his name. The promise is to all that are afar off, even as many of them
   as the Lord our God shall call, Acts ii. 39. St. James expounds this as
   a promise that the residue of men should seek after the Lord, even all
   the Gentiles upon whom my name is called. But may the promise be
   depended upon? Yes, the Lord says this, who does this, who can do it,
   who has determined to do it, the power of whose grace is engaged for
   the doing of it, and with whom saying and doing are not two things, as
   they are with us.

   III. That in the kingdom of the Messiah there shall be great plenty, an
   abundance of all good things that the country produces (v. 13): The
   ploughman shall overtake the reaper, that is, there shall be such a
   plentiful harvest every year, and so much corn to be gathered in, that
   it shall last all summer, even till autumn, when it is time to begin to
   plough again; and in like manner the vintage shall continue till
   seed-time, and there shall be such abundance of grapes that even the
   mountains shall drop new wine into the vessels of the grape-gatherers,
   and the hills that were dry and barren shall be moistened and shall
   melt with the fatness or mellowness (as we call it) of the soil.
   Compare this with Joel ii. 24, and iii. 18. This must certainly be
   understood of the abundance of spiritual blessings in heavenly things,
   which all those are, and shall be, blessed with, who are in sincerity
   added to Christ and his church; they shall be abundantly replenished
   with the goodness of God's house, with the graces and comforts of his
   Spirit; they shall have bread, the bread of life, to strengthen their
   hearts, and the wine of divine consolations to make them glad-meat
   indeed and drink indeed--all the benefit that comes to the souls of men
   from the word and Spirit of God. These had been long confined to the
   vineyard of the Jewish church; divine revelation, and the power that
   attended it, were to be found only within that enclosure; but in
   gospel-times the mountains and hills of the Gentile world shall be
   enriched with these privileges by the gospel of Christ preached, and
   professed, and received in the power of it. When great multitudes were
   converted to the faith of Christ, and nations were born at once, when
   the preachers of the gospel were always caused to triumph in the
   success of their preaching, then the ploughman overtook the reaper; and
   when, the Gentile churches were enriched in all utterance, and in all
   knowledge, and all manner of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. i. 5), then the
   mountains dropped sweet wine.

   IV. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be well peopled; as the
   country shall be replenished, so shall the cities be; there shall be
   mouths for this meat, v. 14. Those that were carried captives shall be
   brought back out of their captivity; their enemies shall not be able to
   detain them in the land of their captivity, nor shall they themselves
   incline to settle in it, but the remnant shall return, and shall build
   the waste cities and inhabit them, shall form themselves into Christian
   churches and set up pure doctrine, worship, and discipline among them,
   according to the gospel charter, by which Christ's cities are
   incorporated; and they shall enjoy the benefit and comfort thereof;
   they shall plant vineyards, and make gardens. Though the mountains and
   hills drop wine, and the privileges of the gospel-church are laid in
   common, yet they shall enclose for themselves, not to monopolize these
   privileges, to the exclusion of others, but to appropriate and improve
   these privileges, in communion with others, and they shall drink the
   wine, and eat the fruit, of their own vineyards and gardens; for those
   that take pains in religion, as men must do about their vineyards and
   gardens, shall have both the pleasure and profit of it. The bringing
   again of the captivity of God's Israel, which is here promised, may
   refer to the cancelling of the ceremonial law, which had been long to
   God's Israel as a yoke of bondage, and the investing of them in the
   liberty wherewith Christ came to make his church free, Gal. v. 1.

   V. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall take such deep rooting in the
   world as never to be rooted out of it (v. 15): I will plant them upon
   their land. God's spiritual Israel shall be planted by the right hand
   of God himself upon the land assigned them, and they shall no more be
   pulled up out of it, as the old Jewish church was. God will preserve
   them from throwing themselves out of it by a total apostasy, and will
   preserve them from being thrown out of it by malice of their enemies;
   the church may be corrupted, but shall not quite forsake God, may be
   persecuted, but shall not quite be forsaken of God, so that the gates
   of hell, neither with their temptations nor with their terrors, shall
   prevail against it. Two things secure the perpetuity of the church:--1.
   God's grants to it: It is the land which I have given them; and God
   will confirm and maintain his own grants. The part he has given to his
   people is that good part which shall never be taken from them; he will
   not revoke his grant, and all the powers of earth and hell shall not
   invalidate it. 2. Its interest in him: He is the Lord thy God, who has
   said it, and will make it good, thine, O Israel! who shall reign for
   ever as thine unto all generations. And because he lives the church
   shall live also.
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Obadiah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

O B A D I A H.
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   This is the shortest of all the books of the Old Testament, the least
   of those tribes, and yet is not to be passed by, or thought meanly of,
   for this penny has Cæsar's image and superscription upon it; it is
   stamped with a divine authority. There may appear much of God in a
   short sermon, in a little book; and much good may be done by it, multum
   in parvo--much in a little. Mr. Norris says, "If angels were to write
   books, we should have few folios." That may be very precious which is
   not voluminous. This book is entitled, The Vision of Obadiah. Who this
   Obadiah was does not appear from any other scripture. Some of the
   ancients imagined him to be the same with that Obadiah that was steward
   to Ahab's household (1 Kings xviii. 3); and, if so, he that hid and fed
   the prophets had indeed a prophet's reward, when he was himself made a
   prophet. But that is a conjecture which has no ground. This Obadiah, it
   is probable, was of a later date, some think contemporary with Hosea,
   Joel, and Amos; others think he lived about the time of the destruction
   of Jerusalem, when the children of Edom so barbarously triumphed in
   that destruction. However, what he wrote was what he saw; it is his
   vision. Probably there was much more which he was divinely inspired to
   speak, but this is all he was inspired to write; and all he writes is
   concerning Edom. It is a foolish fancy of some of the Jews that because
   he prophesies only concerning Edom he was himself an Edomite by birth,
   but a proselyte to the Jewish religion. Other prophets prophesied
   against Edom, and some of them seem to have borrowed from him in their
   predictions against Edom, as Jer. xlix. 7, &c.; Ezek. xxv. 12, &c. Out
   of the mouth of these two or three witnesses every word will be
   established.
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O B A D I A H.

  CHAP. I.

   This book is wholly concerning Edom, a nation nearly allied and near
   adjoining to Israel, and yet an enemy to the seed of Jacob, inheriting
   the enmity of their father Esau to Jacob. Now here we have, after the
   preface, ver. 1. I. Threatenings against Edom, 1. That their pride
   should be humbled, ver. 2-4. 2. That their wealth should be plundered,
   ver. 5-7. 3. That their wisdom should be infatuated, ver. 8, 9. 4. That
   their spiteful behaviour towards God's Israel should be avenged, ver.
   10-16. II. Gracious promises to Israel; that they shall be restored and
   reformed, and shall be victorious over the Edomites, and become masters
   of their land and the lands of others of their neighbours (ver. 17-20),
   and that the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up by the bringing in
   of the great salvation, ver. 21.

The Doom of Edom. (b. c. 587.)

   1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We
   have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the
   heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.   2
   Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly
   despised.   3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that
   dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that
   saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?   4 Though
   thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the
   stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.   5 If thieves
   came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they
   not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers came to
   thee, would they not leave some grapes?   6 How are the things of Esau
   searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!   7 All the men of
   thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were
   at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they
   that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none
   understanding in him.   8 Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even
   destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of
   Esau?   9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end
   that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

   Edom is the nation against which this prophecy is levelled, and which,
   some think, is put for all the enemies of Israel, that shall be brought
   down first or last. The rabbin by Edom understand Rome. Rome Christians
   they understand it of, and have an implacable enmity to it a such; but,
   if we understand it of Rome antichristian, we shall find the passages
   of it applicable enough. And though Edom was mortified in the times of
   the Maccabees, as it had been before by Jehoshaphat, yet its
   destruction seems to have been typical, as their father Esau's
   rejection, and to have had further reference to the destruction of the
   enemies of the gospel-church; for so shall all God's enemies perish;
   and we find (Isa. xxxiv. 5) the sword of the Lord coming down upon
   Idumea, to signify the general day of God's recompences for the
   controversy of Zion, v. 8. Some have well observed that it could not
   but be a great temptation to the people of Israel, when they saw
   themselves, who were the children of beloved Jacob, in trouble, and the
   Edomites, not only prospering, but triumphing over them in their
   troubles; and therefore God gives them a prospect of the destruction of
   Edom, which should be total and final, and of a happy issue of their
   own correction. Now we may observe here,

   I. A declaration of war against Edom, (v. 1): "We have heard a rumour,
   or rather an order, from the Lord, the God of hosts; he has given the
   word of command; it is his counsel and decree, which can neither be
   reversed nor resisted, that all who do mischief to his people shall
   certainly bring mischief upon themselves. We have heard a report that
   God is raised up out of his holy habitation, and is preparing his
   throne for judgment; and an ambassador is sent among the heathen," a
   herald rather, some minister or messenger of Providence, to alarm the
   nations, or the Lord's prophets, who gave each nation its burden. Those
   whom God employs cry to each other, Arise ye, stir up yourselves and
   one another, and let us rise up against Edom in battle. The confederate
   forces under Nebuchadnezzar thus animate themselves and one another to
   make a descent upon that country: Gather yourselves together, and come
   against her; so it is in the parallel place, Jer. xlix. 14. Note, When
   God has bloody work to do among the enemies of his church he will find
   out and fit up both hands and hearts to do it.

   II. A prediction of the success of that war. Edom shall certainly be
   subdued, and spoiled, and brought down; for all her confidences shall
   fail her and stand her in no stead, and in like manner shall all the
   enemies of God's church be disappointed in those things which they
   stayed themselves upon.

   1. Do they depend upon their grandeur, the figure they make among the
   nations, their influence upon them, and interest in them? That shall
   dwindle (v. 2): "Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen, so
   that none of thy neighbours will court thy friendship, or court an
   alliance with thee; thou art greatly despised among them, and looked
   upon with contempt, as an infatuated and unfaithful nation." And thus
   (v. 3) the pride of thy heart has deceived thee. Note, (1.) Those that
   think well of themselves are apt to fancy that others think well of
   them too; but, when they come to make trial of them, they will find
   themselves mistaken, and thus their pride deceives them and by it slays
   them. (2.) God can easily lay those low that have magnified and exalted
   themselves, and will find out a way to do it, for he resists the proud;
   and we often see those small and greatly despised who once looked very
   big and were greatly caressed and admired.

   2. Do they depend upon the fortifications of their country, both by
   nature and art, and glory in the advantages they have thereby? Those
   also shall deceive them. They dwelt in the clefts of the rock, as an
   eagle in her nest, and their habitation was high, not only exalted
   above their neighbours, which was the matter of their pride, but
   fortified against their enemies, which was the matter of their
   security, so high as to be out of the reach of danger. Now observe,
   (1.) What Edom says in the pride of his heart: Who shall bring me down
   to the ground? He speaks with a confidence of his own strength, and a
   contempt of God's judgments, as if almighty power itself could not
   overpower him. As for all his enemies, even God himself, he puffs at
   them (Ps. x. 5), sets them all at defiance. Their father Esau had sold
   his birthright, and yet they lifted up themselves, as if to them had
   still pertained the excellency of dignity and power. Many forfeit their
   privileges, and yet boast of them. Because Edom is high and lifted up,
   he imagines none can bring him down. Note, Carnal security is a sin
   that most easily besets men in the day of their pomp, power, and
   prosperity, and does, as much as any thing, both ripen men for ruin and
   aggravate it when it comes. (2.) What God says to this, v. 4. If men
   will dare to challenge Omnipotence, their challenge shall be taken up:
   Who shall bring me down? says Edom. "I will," says God. "Though thou
   exalt thyself as the eagle that soars high and builds high, nay, though
   thou set thy nest among stars, higher than ever any eagle flew, it is
   but in thy own imagination, and thence will I bring thee down." This we
   had Jer. xlix. 15, 16. Note, Sinners will certainly be made ashamed of
   their pride and security of their pride when it has a fall and of their
   security when their confidences fail their expectation.

   3. Do they depend upon their wealth and treasure, the abundance of
   which is looked upon as the sinews of war? Is their money their
   defence? Is that their strong city? It is so only in their own conceit,
   for it shall rather expose them than protect them; it shall be made a
   prey to the enemy, and they for the sake of it, v. 5, 6. Much to this
   purport we had Jer. xlix. 9, 10. Only here comes in, in a parenthesis,
   How art thou cut off! thou and all thy stores. The prophet foretels it,
   but laments it, that the thread of their prosperity was cut off. How
   art thou fallen, and how great is thy fall! How art thou stupefied! so
   the Chaldee words it. How senseless art thou under these desolating
   judgments, as if they were but common strokes! But he shows that it
   should be an utter ruin, not a usual calamity; for, (1.) It is indeed a
   usual calamity for those that have wealth to have it stolen, and to
   lose a little out of their great deal. Thieves come to them (for where
   the carcase is, there will the birds of prey be gathered together),
   robbers come by night, and they steal till they have enough, what they
   have occasion for, what they have a mind for; they steal no more than
   they think they can carry away, and out of a great stock it is scarcely
   missed. Those that rob orchards, or vineyards, carry off what they
   think fit; but they leave some grapes, some fruit for the owner, who
   easily bears his loss perhaps and soon recruits it. But, (2.) It shall
   not be so with Edom; his wealth shall all be taken away, and nothing
   shall escape the hands of the destroying army, not that which is most
   precious and valuable, v. 6. How are the things of Esau, the things he
   sets his heart upon and places his happiness in, his good things, his
   best things, how are these things, which were so carefully treasured up
   and concealed, now searched out by the enemy and seized! How are the
   hidden things, his hidden treasures, plundered, rifled, and sought up!
   His hoards, that had not see the light for many years, are now a spoil
   to the enemy. Note, Treasures on earth, though ever so fast locked up
   and ever so artfully hidden, cannot be so safely laid up but that
   thieves may break through and steal; it is therefore our wisdom to lay
   up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

   4. Do they depend upon their alliances with neighbouring states and
   potentates? Those also shall fail them (v. 7): "The men of thy
   confederacy, all of them, the Ammonites and Moabites, and other thy
   high allies that were at peace with thee, that entered into a league
   offensive and defensive with thee, that solemnly engaged not only to do
   thee no hurt, but to do thee all the service the could, did eat thy
   bread, were magnificently treated and entertained by thee, lived upon
   thee; their soldiers had free quarter in thy country, and took pay as
   thy auxiliaries; they brought thee even to the border of thy land, were
   very respectful to thy ambassadors, and brought them on their way home,
   even to the utmost limits of their country; they seemed forward to
   serve thee with their forces when thou hadst occasion for them, and
   came along with thee to the border, till thou wast just ready to engage
   the invading enemy; but then," (1.) "They had deceived thee; they flew
   back and retreated when thou wast in extremity, and proved as a broken
   reed to the traveller that is weary, and as the brooks in summer to the
   traveller that is thirsty; they bear no weight, yield no relief." Nay,
   (2.) "They have prevailed against thee; they were too hard for thee in
   the treaty imposed upon thee, and by cheating thee ruined thee, brought
   thee into danger, and there left thee an easy prey to thy enemy." Note,
   Those that make flesh their arm arm it against them. Yet this was not
   the worst. (3.) "They have laid a wound under thee; that is, they have
   laid that under thee for a stay and support, for a foundation to rely
   on, for a pillow to repose on, which will prove a wound to thee; not as
   thorns only, but as swords." If God lay under us the arms of his power
   and love, these will be firm and easy under us; the God of our covenant
   will never deceive us. But if we trust to the men of our confederacy,
   and what they will lay under us, it may prove to us a wound and
   dishonour. And observe the just censure here passed upon Edom for
   trusting to those who thus played tricks with him: "There is no
   understanding in him, or else he would never have put it into their
   power to betray him by putting such a confidence in them." Note, Those
   show they have no understanding in them who, when they are encouraged
   to trust in the Creator, put a cheat upon themselves by reposing a
   confidence in the creature.

   5. Do they depend upon the politics of their counsellors? These shall
   fail them, v. 8. Edom had been famous for great statesmen, men of
   learning and experience, that sat at the help of government, and were
   masters of all the arts of management, that in all treaties used to
   outwit their neighbours; but now the counsellors have become fools, and
   the wise God makes them so: Shall I not in that day destroy the wise
   men out of Edom? As men they shall fall by the sword in common with
   others (Ps. xlix. 10), and their wisdom shall not secure them; as wise
   men they shall be infatuated in all their counsels; their best-laid
   designs shall be baffled, their measures broken, and those very
   projects by which they thought to establish themselves and the public
   interests shall be the ruin of both. Thus wisdom perishes from Teman,
   as it is in the parallel place, Jer. xlix. 7. This was, (1.) The just
   punishment of their folly in trusting to an arm of flesh: There is no
   understanding in them, v. 7. They have not sense to trust in a living
   God, and a God of truth, but put confidence in men that are frail,
   fickle, and false; and therefore God will destroy their understanding.
   Note, God will justly deny those understanding to keep out of the way
   of danger that will not use their understanding to keep out of the way
   of sin. He that will be foolish, let him be foolish still. (2.) It was
   the forerunner of their destruction. A nation is certainly marked for
   ruin when God hides the things that belong to its peace from the eyes
   of those that are entrusted with its counsels. Quos Deus vult perdere,
   eos dementat--God infatuates those whom he designs to destroy. Job xii.
   17.

   6. Do they depend upon the strength and courage of their soldiers? They
   are not only able-bodied, but men of spirit and courage, that can face
   an enemy and stand their ground; but now (v. 9), Thy mighty men, O
   Teman! shall be dismayed; their courage shall fail them, to the end
   that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter, and
   none escape. The weak, and feeble, and unarmed must fall of course into
   the hand of the destroyer when the mighty men are dismayed, and not
   only lose the day, but lose their lives, because they have lost their
   spirit. Howl, fir-trees, if the cedars be shaken. Note, The death or
   disuniting of the mighty often proves the death and destruction of the
   many; and it is in vain to depend upon mighty men for our protection if
   we have not an almighty God for us, much less if we have an almighty
   God against us.

The Guilt of Edom. (b. c. 587.)

   10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee,
   and thou shalt be cut off for ever.   11 In the day that thou stoodest
   on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive
   his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon
   Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.   12 But thou shouldest not
   have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a
   stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of
   Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have
   spoken proudly in the day of distress.   13 Thou shouldest not have
   entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea,
   thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their
   calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their
   calamity;   14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to
   cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have
   delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.   15
   For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast
   done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine
   own head.   16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all
   the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall
   swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

   When we have read Edom's doom, no less than utter ruin, it is natural
   to ask, Why, what evil has he done? What is the ground of God's
   controversy with him? Many things, no doubt, were amiss in Edom; they
   were a sinful people, and a people laden with iniquity. But that one
   single crime which is laid to their charge, as filling their measure
   and bringing this ruin upon them, that for which they here stand
   indicted, of which they are convicted, and for which they are
   condemned, is the injury they had done to the people of God (v. 10):
   "It is for thy violence against thy brother Jacob, that ancient and
   hereditary grudge which thou hast borne to the people of Israel, that
   all this shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever."
   Note, Injuries to men are affronts to God, the righteous God, that
   loveth righteousness and hateth wickedness; and, as the Judge of all
   the earth, he will give redress to those that suffer wrong and take
   vengeance on those that do wrong. All violence, all unrighteousness, is
   sin; but it is a great aggravation of the violence if it be done
   either, 1. Against any of our own people; it is violence against thy
   brother, thy near relation, to whom thou shouldst be a goël--a
   redeemer, whom it is thy duty to right if others wronged him; how
   wicked is it then for thee thyself to wrong him! Thou slanderest and
   abusest thy own mother's son; this makes the sin exceedingly sinful,
   Ps. l. 20. Or, 2. Much more if it be done against any of God's people;
   "it is thy brother Jacob that is in covenant with God, and dear to him.
   Thou hatest him whom God has loved, and because God espouses and will
   plead with jealousy, and in whose interests God is pleased so far to
   interest himself that he takes the violence done to him as done to
   himself. Whoso touches Jacob touches the apple of the eye of Jacob's
   God." So that it is crimen læsæ majestatis--high treason, for which, as
   for high treason, let Edom expect an ignominious punishment: Shame
   shall cover thee, and a ruining one; thou shalt be cut off for ever.

   In the following verses we are told more particularly,

   I. What the violence was which Edom did against his brother Jacob, and
   what are the proofs of this charge. It does not appear that the
   Edomites did themselves invade Israel, but that was more for want of
   power than will; they had malice enough to do it, but were not a match
   for them. But that which is laid to their charge is their barbarous
   conduct towards Judah and Jerusalem when they were in distress, and
   ready to be destroyed, probably by the Chaldeans, or upon occasion of
   some other of the calamities of the Jews; for this seems to have been
   always their temper towards them. See this charged upon the Edomites
   (Ps. cxxxvii. 7), that in the day of Jerusalem they said, Rase it, rase
   it, and Ezek. xxv. 12. They are here told particularly what they did,
   by being told what they should not have done (v. 12-14): "Thou shouldst
   not have looked, thou shouldst not have entered; but thou didst so."
   Note, In reflecting upon ourselves it is good to compare what we have
   done with what we should have done, our practice with the rule, that we
   may discover wherein we have done amiss, have done those things which
   we ought not to have done. We should not have been where we were at
   such a time, should not have been in such and such company, should not
   have said what we said, nor have taken the liberty that we took. Sin
   thus looked upon, in the glass of the commandment, will appear
   exceedingly sinful. Let us see,

   1. What was the case of Judah and Jerusalem when the Edomites behaved
   themselves thus basely and insulted over them. (1.) It was a day of
   distress with them (v. 12): It was the day of their calamity, so it is
   called three times, v. 13. With the Edomites it was a day of prosperity
   and peace when with the Israelites it was a day of distress and
   calamity, for judgment commonly begins at the house of God. Children
   are corrected when strangers are let alone. (2.) It was the day of
   their destruction (v. 12), when both city and country were laid waste,
   were laid in ruins. (3.) It was a day when foreigners entered into the
   gates of Jerusalem, when the city, after a long siege, was broken up,
   and the great officers of the king of Babylon's army came, and sat in
   the gates, as judges of the land; when they cast lots upon the spoils
   of Jerusalem, as the soldiers on Christ's garments, what shares each of
   the conquerors shall have, what shares of the lands, what shares of the
   goods; or they cast lots to determine when and where they should attack
   it. (4.) It was a day when the strangers carried away captive his
   forces (v. 11), took the men of war prisoners of war, and carried them
   off, in poverty and shame, to their own country, or such a multitude of
   captives that they were as an army. (5.) "It was a day when thy brother
   himself, that had long been at home, at rest in his own land, became a
   stranger, an exile in a strange land." Now, when this was the woeful
   case of the Jews, the Edomites, their neighbours and brethren, should
   have pitied them and helped them, condoled with them and comforted
   them, and should have trembled to think that their own turn would come
   next; for, if this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in
   the dry? But,

   2. See what was the conduct of the Edomites towards them when they were
   in this distress, for which they are here condemned. (1.) They looked
   with pleasure upon the affliction of God's people; they stood on the
   other side (v. 11), afar off, when they should have come in to the
   relief of their distressed neighbours, and looked upon them, and their
   day, looked on their affliction (v. 12, 13), with a careless
   unconcerned eye, as the priest and Levite looked upon the wounded man,
   and passed by on the other side. Those have a great deal to answer for
   that are idle spectators of the troubles and afflictions of their
   neighbours, when they are capable of being their active helpers. But
   this was not all; they looked upon it with a scornful eye, with an eye
   of complacency and satisfaction; they looked and laughed to see Israel
   in distress, saying, Aha! so we would have it. They fed their eyes with
   the rueful spectacle of Jerusalem's ruin, and looked at it as those
   that had long looked for it and often wished to see it. Note, We must
   take heed with what eye we look upon the afflictions of our brethren;
   and, if we cannot look upon them with a gracious eye of sympathy and
   tenderness, it is better not to look upon them at all: Thou shouldst
   not have looked as thou didst upon the day of thy brother. (2.) They
   triumphed and insulted over them, upbraided their brethren with their
   sorrows, and made themselves and their companions merry with them. They
   rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.
   They had not the good manners to conceal the pleasure they took in
   Judah's destruction and to dissemble it, but openly declared it, and
   rudely and insolently declared it to them; they rejoiced over them,
   crowed, and hectored, and trampled upon them. Those have the spirit of
   Edomites that can rejoice over any, especially over Israelites, in the
   day of their calamity. (3.) They spoke proudly-magnified the mouth (so
   the word is), against Israel, talked with a great disdain of the
   suffering Israelites, and with an air of haughtiness of the present
   safety and prosperity of Edom, as it if might be inferred from their
   present different state that the tables were turned, and now Esau was
   beloved, and the favourite of heaven, and Jacob hated and rejected.
   Note, Those must expect to be in some way or other effectually humbled
   and mortified themselves that are puffed up and made proud by the
   humiliations and mortifications of others. (4.) They went further yet,
   for they entered into the gate of God's people in the day of their
   calamity, and laid hands on their substance. Though they did not help
   to conquer them, they helped to plunder them, and put in for a share in
   the prey, v. 13. Jerusalem was thrown open, and then they entered in;
   its wealth was thrown about, and they seized it for themselves,
   excusing it with this, that they might as well take it as let it be
   lost; whereas it was taking what was not their own. Babylon lays
   Jerusalem waste, but Edom, by meddling with the spoil, becomes
   particeps criminis--partaker of the crime, and shall be reckoned with
   as an accessary ex post facto--after the fact. Note, Those do but
   impoverish themselves that think to enrich themselves by the ruins of
   the people of God; and those deceive themselves who think they may call
   all that substance their own which they can lay their hands on in a day
   of calamity. (5.) They did yet worse things; they not only robbed their
   brethren, but murdered them, in the day of their calamity; laid hands
   not only on their substance, but on their persons, v. 14. When the
   victorious sword of the Chaldeans was making bloody work among the Jews
   many made their escape, and were in a fair way to save themselves by
   flight; but the Edomites basely intercepted them, stood in the
   cross-way where several roads met, by each of which the trembling
   Israelites were making the best of their way from the fury of the
   pursuers, and there they stopped them: some they barbarously and
   cowardlike cut off themselves; others they took prisoners, and
   delivered up to the pursuers, only to ingratiate themselves with them,
   because they were now the conquerors. They should not have been thus
   cruel to those that lay at their mercy, and never had done, nor were
   every likely to do, them any hurt; they should not have betrayed those
   whom they had such a fair opportunity to protect; but such are the
   tender mercies of the wicked. One cannot read this without a high
   degree of compassion towards those who were thus basely abused, who
   when they fled from the sword of an open enemy, and thought they had
   got out of the reach of it, fell upon and fell by the sword of a
   treacherous neighbour, whom they were not apprehensive of any danger
   from. Nor can one read this without a high degree of indignation
   towards those who were so perfectly lost to all humanity as to exercise
   such cruelty upon such proper objects of compassion. (6.) In all this
   they joined with the open enemies and persecutors of Israel: Even thou
   wast as one of them, an accessary equally guilty with the principals.
   He that joins in with the evil doers, and is aiding and abetting in
   their evil deeds, shall be reckoned, and shall be reckoned with, as one
   of them.

   II. What the shame is that shall cover them for this violence of
   theirs. 1. They shall soon find that the cup is going round, even the
   cup of trembling; and, when they come to be in the same calamitous
   condition that the Israel of God is now in, they will be ashamed to
   remember how they triumphed over them (v. 15): The day of the Lord is
   near upon all the heathen, when God will recompense tribulation to the
   troublers of his church. Though judgment begin at the house of God, it
   shall not end there. This should effectually restrain us from
   triumphing over others in their misery, that we know not how soon it
   may be our own case. 2. Their enmity to the people of God, and the
   injuries they had done them, shall be recompensed into their own
   bosoms: As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee. The righteous
   God will render both to nations and to particular persons according to
   their works; and the punishment is often made exactly to answer to the
   sin, and those that have abused others come to be themselves abused in
   like manner. The just and jealous God will find out a time and way to
   avenge the wrongs done to his people on those that have been injurious
   to them. As you have drunk upon my holy mountain (v. 16), that is, as
   God's professing people, who inhabit his holy mountain, have drunk
   deeply of the cup of affliction (and their being of the holy mountain
   would not excuse them), so shall all the heathen drink, in their turn,
   of the same bitter cup; for, if God bring evil on the city that is
   called by his name, shall those be unpunished that never knew his name?
   See Jer. xxv. 29. And it is part of the burden of Edom (Jer. xlix. 12),
   Those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup (who had reason to
   promise themselves an exemption from it) have assuredly drunken, and
   shall Edom that is the generation of God's wrath go unpunished? No,
   thou shalt surely drink of it; the cup of trembling shall be taken out
   of the hand of God's people, and put into the hand of those that
   afflict them, Isa. li. 22, 23. Nay, they may expect their case to be
   worse in the day of their distress than that of Israel was in their
   day; for, (1.) The afflictions of God's people were but for a moment,
   and soon had an end, but their enemies shall drink continually the wine
   of God's wrath, Rev. xiv. 10. (2.) The dregs of the cup are reserved
   for the wicked of the earth (Ps. lxxv. 8); they shall drink and swallow
   down, or sup up (as the margin reads it), shall drink it to the bottom.
   (3.) The people of God, though they may be made to drink of the wine of
   astonishment for a while (Ps. lx. 3), shall yet recover, and come to
   themselves again; but the heathen shall drink and be as though they had
   not been; there shall be neither any remains nor any remembrance of
   them, but they shall be wholly extirpated and rooted out. So let all
   thy enemies perish, O Lord! so they shall perish, if they turn not.

Promises to Israel and Judah. (b. c. 587.)

   17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be
   holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.   18
   And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a
   flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in
   them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the
   house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.   19 And they of the south
   shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines:
   and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of
   Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.   20 And the captivity of
   this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the
   Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which
   is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.   21 And
   saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and
   the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

   After the destruction of the church's enemies is threatened, which will
   be completely accomplished in the great day of recompence, and that
   judgment for which Christ came once, and will come again, into this
   world, here follow precious promises of the salvation of the church,
   with which this prophecy concludes, and those of Joel and Amos did,
   which, however they might be in part fulfilled in the return of the
   Jews out of Babylon notwithstanding the triumphs of Edom in their
   captivity, as if it were perpetual, are yet, doubtless, to have their
   full accomplishment in that great salvation wrought out by Jesus
   Christ, to which all the prophets bore witness. It is promised here,

   I. That there shall be salvation upon Mount Zion, that holy hill where
   God sets his anointed King (Ps. ii. 6): Upon Mount Zion shall be
   deliverance, v. 17. There shall be those that escape; so the margin. A
   remnant of Israel, upon the holy mountain shall be saved, v. 16. Christ
   said, Salvation is of the Jews, John iv. 22. God wrought deliverances
   for the Jews, typical of our redemption by Christ. But Mount Zion is
   the gospel-church, from which the New-Testament law went forth, Isa.
   ii. 3. There salvation shall be preached and prayed for; to the
   gospel-church those are added who shall be saved; and for those who
   come in faith and hope to this Mount Zion deliverance shall be wrought
   from wrath and the curse, from sin, and death, and hell, while those
   who continue afar off shall be left to perish.

   II. That, where there is salvation, there shall be sanctification in
   order to it: And there shall be holiness, to prepare and qualify the
   children of Zion for this deliverance; for wherever God designs glory
   he gives grace. Temporal deliverances are indeed wrought for us in
   mercy when with them there is holiness, when there is wrought in us a
   disposition to receive them with love and gratitude to God; when we are
   sanctified, they are sanctified to us. Holiness is itself a great
   deliverance, and an earnest of that eternal salvation which we look
   for. There, upon Mount Zion, in the gospel-church, shall be holiness;
   for that is it which becomes God's house for ever, and the great design
   of the gospel, and its grace, is to plant and promote holiness. There
   shall be the Holy Spirit, the holy ordinances, the holy Jesus, and a
   select remnant of holy souls, in whom, and among whom, the holy God
   will delight to dwell. Note, Where there is holiness there shall be
   deliverance.

   III. That this salvation and sanctification shall spread, and prevail,
   and get ground in the world: The house of Jacob, even this Mount Zion,
   with the deliverance and their holiness there wrought, shall possess
   their possessions; that is, the gospel-church shall be set up among the
   heathen, and shall replenish the earth; the apostles of Christ by their
   preaching shall gain possession of the hearts of men for him whose
   messengers and ministers they are, and when they possess their hearts
   they shall possess their possessions, for those who have given up
   themselves to the Lord give up all they have to him. When Lydia's heart
   was opened to Christ her house was opened to his ministers. When the
   Gentile nations became nations of those that were saved, were
   disciplined, walked in the light of the Lord, and brought their glory
   and honour into the new Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 24), then the house of
   Jacob possessed their possessions. This is the part fulfilled by the
   planting of the Christian religion in the world, and shall be fulfilled
   yet more and more by the setting up of Christ's throne where Satan's
   seat is, and the erecting of trophies of his victory upon the ruins of
   the devil's kingdom. Now here is foretold,

   1. How this possession shall be gained, and the opposition given to it
   got over (v. 18): The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of
   Joseph a flame, for their God is, and will be, a consuming fire; and
   the house of Esau shall be for stubble, easily devoured and consumed by
   this fire. This is fulfilled, (1.) In the conversion of multitudes by
   the grace of Christ; the gospel, preached in the house of Jacob and
   Joseph, and there owned and professed, shall be as a fire and a flame
   to melt and to soften hard hearts, to burn up the dross of sin and
   corruption, that they may be purified and refined with the spirit of
   judgment and the spirit of burning. Christ, when he comes, shall be as
   a refiner's fire, Mal. iii. 1, 2. (2.) In the confusion of all the
   impenitent implacable enemies of the gospel of Christ, that oppose it
   and do all they can to hinder the setting up of the kingdom of the
   Messiah by it. The gospel day is a day that burns like an oven, in
   which all the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be a stubble, Mal.
   iv. 1. Jacob and Joseph shall be as a fire and a flame; for those that
   meddle with them, to do them hurt, will find that they do so at their
   peril; they shall be to them as a torch of fire in a sheaf, Zech. xii.
   6. The word of God in the mouth of his ministers is said to be like
   fire, and the people as wood to be devoured by it, Jer. v. 14. And the
   man of sin is to be consumed by the breath of Christ's mouth, 2 Thess.
   ii. 8. Those that are not refined as gold by fire of the gospel shall
   be consumed as dross by it; for it will be a savour either of life or
   of death. When idols and idolatry were abolished, and the wealth and
   power of nations were brought into the service of Christ and his
   gospel, and the spoils of the strong man armed were divided by him that
   was stronger than he, then the house of Jacob and Joseph devoured the
   house of Esau, so that there was none of them left remaining. This the
   Lord spoke by his prophets, and this he did by his apostles.

   2. How far this possession shall extend, v. 19, 20. This is described
   in Jewish language, which speaks the accession made to the land of
   Israel, after the return out of captivity into Babylon. The captivity
   of this host of Israel, that is, this host of Israel that have been so
   long in captivity and now they have come back are still called the
   children of the captivity, these shall not only recover their own land,
   but shall gain ground upon their neighbours adjoining to them, some of
   whom shall become proselytes and shall incorporate with the Jews, who,
   by possessing them in a holy communion, possess their land. We must
   reckon ourselves truly enriched by the conversion of our neighbours to
   the fear of God and the faith of Christ, and their coming to join with
   us in the worship of God. Such an accession to our Christian communion
   we must reckon to be more our wealth and strength than an accession to
   our estates. Or, The ancient inhabitants of those lands that were
   carried away into captivity being lost, and never returning to their
   estates, the children of Israel shall take possession of that which
   lies next them; for their numbers shall so increase that their own land
   shall be too strait for them, and their neighbours' estates shall
   escheat to them ob defectum sanguinis--through default of heirs. They
   shall enter upon that which is adjoining to them. The country of Esau
   shall be possessed by those of the south parts of Canaan, for to them
   it lies contiguous. Those of the plain, on the west of Canaan, which
   was a champaign country, shall enter upon the land of the Philistines,
   their neighbours. Those of Judah, which was the chief of the two
   returning tribes, shall possess the field of Ephraim and Samaria, which
   before belonged to the ten tribes; and Benjamin, the other tribe, shall
   possess Gilead on the other side of Jordan, which had belonged to the
   two tribes and a half. The kingdom of Israel shall join with that of
   Judah both in civil and sacred interests, and, as friends and brethren,
   shall mutually possess and enjoy one another; and both together shall
   possess the Canaanites, even to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon;
   and Jerusalem shall possess the cities of the south, even to Sepharad.
   Thus did the Jews enlarge their borders on all sides. The modern rabbin
   teach their scholars by Zarephath and Sepharad to understand France and
   Spain, grounding upon this a foolish groundless expectation that some
   time or other the Jews shall be masters of those countries; and they
   call and count the Christians Edomites, over whom they are to have
   dominion. But the promise here, no doubt, has a spiritual
   signification, and had its accomplishment in the setting up of the
   Christian church, the gospel-Israel, in the world, and shall have its
   accomplishment more and more in the enlargement of it and the additions
   made to it, till the mystical body is completed. When ministers and
   Christians prevail with their neighbours to come to Christ, to yield
   themselves to the Lord, they possess them. The converts that Abraham
   had are said to be the souls that he had gotten, Gen. xii. 5. The
   possession is gained, not vi et armis--by force and arms; for the
   weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual; it is by the
   preaching of the gospel, and the power of divine grace going along with
   it, that this possession is got and kept.

   IV. That the kingdom of the Redeemer shall be erected and maintained,
   to the comfort of his loyal subjects and the terror and shame of all
   his enemies (v. 21): The kingdom shall be the Lord's, the Lord
   Christ's. God shall give it to him, by putting all things into his
   hand, all power both in heaven and in earth; men shall give it to him,
   by resigning themselves to him as his willing people, and appointing
   him their head. Now the work of kings is to protect their subjects and
   suppress their enemies; and this Christ will do; he will both reward
   and punish. 1. The mountain of Zion shall be saved; on it saviours
   shall come, the preachers of the gospel, who are called saviours,
   because their business is to save themselves and those that hear them;
   and in this they are workers together with Christ, but to little
   purpose if he by his grace did not work together with them. 2. The
   mountain of Esau shall be judged; and the same that come as saviours on
   Mount Zion shall judge the mountain of Esau; for the word of the gospel
   in their mouth, that saves believers, judges unbelievers, convinces and
   condemns them. Christ's ministers are saviours on Mount Zion when they
   preach that he that believes shall be saved; but they judge the mount
   of Esau when they preach that he that believeth not shall be damned,
   which they are not only commissioned, but commanded to do, Mark xvi.
   16. And in the course of God's providence his scripture is fulfilled;
   when God raises up friends to the church in her distress (as he raised
   up judges to deliver Israel of old, Judg. ii. 16), then saviours come
   on Mount Zion, to save it from being sunk and ruined; and when the
   enemies of the church are brought down, and their power broken, then is
   the mount of Esau judged; and this shall be done in every age in such a
   way as God thinks best; we may depend upon it that the gates of hell
   shall not prevail against the church, but the church shall prevail
   against them; for the kingdom shall be the Lord's; the kingdoms of the
   world shall become his, and he has taken, and will take, to himself his
   great power and reign.
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Jonah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

J O N A H.
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   This book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the
   prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a
   prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and
   Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the
   preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the
   obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things
   dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and
   are strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant story,
   which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes. Probably
   Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other
   inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence that in
   these writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We read of
   this same Jonah 2 Kings xiv. 25, where we find that he was of
   Gath-hepher in Galilee, a city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun,
   in a remote corner of the land of Israel; for the Spirit, which like
   the wind, blows where it listeth, will as easily find out Jonah in
   Galilee as Isaiah at Jerusalem. We find also that he was a messenger of
   mercy to Israel in the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the success of
   his arms, in the restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be
   according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his
   servant Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to
   writing, but this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the
   story that depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the sake
   of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable
   instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in
   pardoning repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with
   repining saints, witness Jonah.
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J O N A H.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. A command given to Jonah to preach at
   Nineveh, ver. 1, 2. II. Jonah's disobedience to that command, ver. 3.
   III. The pursuit and arrest of him for that disobedience by a storm, in
   which he was asleep, ver. 4-6. IV. The discovery of him, and his
   disobedience, to be the cause of the storm, ver. 7-10. V. The casting
   of him into the sea, for the stilling of the storm, ver. 11-16. VI. The
   miraculous preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish (ver.
   17), which was his reservation for further services.

A Commission against Nineveh; The Prophet's Disobedience. (b. c. 840.)

   1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
     2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for
   their wickedness is come up before me.   3 But Jonah rose up to flee
   unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa;
   and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and
   went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of
   the Lord.

   Observe, 1. The honour God put upon Jonah, in giving him a commission
   to go and prophesy against Nineveh. Jonah signifies a dove, a proper
   name for all God's prophets, all his people, who ought to be harmless
   as doves, and to mourn as doves for the sins and calamities of the
   land. His father's name was Amittai--My truth; for God's prophets
   should be sons of truth. To him the word of the Lord came--to him it
   was (so the word signifies), for God's word is a real thing; men's
   words are but wind, but God's words are substance. He has been before
   acquainted with the word of the Lord, and knew his voice from that of a
   stranger; the orders now given him were, Arise, go to Nineveh, that
   great city, v. 2. Nineveh was at this time the metropolis of the
   Assyrian monarchy, an eminent city (Gen. x. 11), a great city, that
   great city, forty-eight miles in compass (some make it much more),
   great in the number of the inhabitants, as appears by the multitude of
   infants in it (ch. iv. 11), great in wealth (there was no end of its
   store, Nah. ii. 9), great in power and dominion; it was the city that
   for some time ruled over the kings of the earth. But great cities, as
   well as great men, are under God's government and judgment. Nineveh was
   a great city, and yet a heathen city, without the knowledge and worship
   of the true God. How many great cities and great nations are there that
   sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death! This great
   city was a wicked city: Their wickedness has come up before me (their
   malice, so some read it); their wickedness was presumptuous, and they
   sinned with a high hand. It is sad to think what a great deal of sin is
   committed in great cities, where there are many sinners, who are not
   only all sinners, but making one another sin. Their wickedness has come
   up, that is, it has come to a high degree, to the highest pitch; the
   measure of it is full to the brim; their wickedness has come up, as
   that of Sodom, Gen. xviii. 20, 21. It has come up before me--to my face
   (so the word is); it is a bold and open affront to God; it is sinning
   against him, in his sight; therefore Jonah must cry against it; he must
   witness against their great wickedness, and must warn them of the
   destruction that was coming upon them for it. God is coming forth
   against it, and he sends Jonah before, to proclaim war, and to sound an
   alarm. Cry aloud, spare not. He must not whisper his message in a
   corner, but publish it in the streets of Nineveh; he that hath ears let
   him hear what God has to say by his prophet against that wicked city.
   When the cry of sin comes up to God the cry of vengeance comes out
   against the sinner. He must go to Nineveh, and cry there upon the spot
   against the wickedness of it. Other prophets were ordered to send
   messages to the neighbouring nations, and the prophecy of Nahum is
   particularly the burden of Nineveh; but Jonah must go and carry the
   message himself: "Arise quickly; apply thyself to the business with
   speed and courage, and the resolution that becomes a prophet; arise,
   and go to Nineveh." Those that go on God's errands must rise and go,
   must stir themselves to the work cut out for them. The prophets were
   sent first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet not to them
   only; they had the children's bread, but Nineveh eats of the crumbs. 2.
   The dishonour Jonah did to God in refusing to obey his orders, and to
   go on the errand on which he was sent (v. 3): But Jonah, instead of
   rising to go to Nineveh, rose up to flee to Tarshish, to the sea, not
   bound for any port, but desirous to get away from the presence of the
   Lord; and, if he might but do that, he cared not whither he went, not
   as if he thought he could go any where from under the eye of God's
   inspection, but from his special presence, from the spirit of prophecy,
   which, when it put him upon this work, he thought himself haunted with,
   and coveted to get out of the hearing of. Some think Jonah went upon
   the opinion of some of the Jews that the spirit of prophecy was
   confined to the land of Israel (which in Ezekiel and Daniel was
   effectually proved to be a mistake), and therefore he hoped he should
   get clear of it if he could but get out of the borders of that land.
   (1.) Jonah would not go to Nineveh to cry against it either because it
   was a long and dangerous journey thither, and in a road he knew not, or
   because he was afraid it would be as much as his life was worth to
   deliver such an ungrateful message to that great and potent city. He
   consulted with flesh and blood, and declined the embassy because he
   could not go with safety, or because he was jealous for the
   prerogatives of his country, and not willing that any other nation
   should share in the honour of divine revelation; he feared it would be
   the beginning of the removal of the kingdom of God from the Jews to
   another nation, that would bring forth more of the fruits of it. He
   owns himself (ch. iv. 2) that the reason of his aversion to this
   journey was because he foresaw that the Ninevites would repent, and God
   would forgive them and take them into favour, which would be a slur
   upon the people of Israel, who had been so long a peculiar people to
   God. (2.) He therefore went to Tarshish, to Tarsus in Cilicia (so
   some), probably because he had friends and relations there, with whom
   he hoped for some time to sojourn. He went to Joppa, a famous seaport
   in the land of Israel, in quest of a ship bound for Tarshish, and there
   he found one. Providence seemed to favour his design, and give him an
   opportunity to escape. We may be out of the way of duty and yet may
   meet with a favourable gale. The ready way is not always the right way.
   He found the ship just ready to weigh anchor perhaps, and to set sail
   for Tarshish, and so he lost no time. Or, perhaps, he went to Tarshish
   because he found the ship going thither; otherwise all places were
   alike to him. He did not think himself out of his way, the way he would
   go, provided he was not in his way, the way he should go. So he paid
   the fare thereof; for he did not regard the charge, so he could but
   gain his point, and get to a distance from the presence of the Lord. He
   went with them, with the mariners, with the passengers, with the
   merchants, whoever they were that were going to Tarshish. Jonah,
   forgetting his dignity as well as his duty, herded with them, and went
   down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish. See what the best of
   men are when God leaves them to themselves, and what need we have, when
   the word of the Lord comes to us, to have the Spirit of the Lord come
   along with the word, to bring every thought within us into obedience to
   it. The prophet Isaiah owns that therefore he was not rebellious,
   neither turned away back, because God not only spoke to him, but opened
   his ear, Isa. l. 5. Let us learn hence to cease from man, and not to be
   too confident either of ourselves or others in a time of trial; but let
   him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

The Prophet in the Storm; The Prophet Convicted by the Lot. (b. c. 840.)

   4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a
   mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.   5
   Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and
   cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it
   of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he
   lay, and was fast asleep.   6 So the ship-master came to him, and said
   unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so
   be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.   7 And they said
   every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know
   for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot
   fell upon Jonah.   8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee,
   for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and
   whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
   9 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of
   heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.   10 Then were the
   men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For
   the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had
   told them.

   When Jonah was set on ship-board, and under sail for Tarshish, he
   thought himself safe enough; but here we find him pursued and
   overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God, as one that
   had run his colours.

   I. God sends a pursuer after him, a mighty tempest in the sea, v. 4.
   God has the winds in his treasure (Ps. cxxxv. 7), and out of these
   treasures God sent forth, he cast forth (so the word is), with force
   and violence, a great wind into the sea; even stormy winds fulfil his
   word, and are often the messengers of his wrath; he gathers the winds
   in his fist (Prov. xxx. 4), where he holds them, and whence he squeezes
   them when he pleases; for though, as to us, the wind blows where it
   listeth, yet not as to God, but where he directs. The effect of this
   wind as a mighty tempest; for when the winds rise the waves rise. Note,
   Sin brings storms and tempests into the soul, into the family, into
   churches and nations; it is a disquieting disturbing thing. The tempest
   prevailed to such a degree that the ship was likely to be broken; the
   mariners expected no other; that ship (so some read it), that and no
   other. Other ships were upon the same sea at the same time, yet, it
   should seem, that ship in which Jonah was was tossed more than any
   other and was more in danger. This wind was sent after Jonah, to fetch
   him back again to God and to his duty; and it is a great mercy to be
   reclaimed and called home when we go astray, though it be by a tempest.

   II. The ship's crew were alarmed by this mighty tempest, but Jonah
   only, the person concerned, was unconcerned, v. 5. The mariners were
   affected with their danger, though it was not with them that God has
   this controversy. 1. They were afraid; though, their business leading
   them to be very much conversant with dangers of this kind, they used to
   make light of them, yet now the oldest and stoutest of them began to
   tremble, being apprehensive that there was something more than ordinary
   in this tempest, so suddenly did it rise, so strongly did it rage.
   Note, God can strike a terror upon the most daring, and make even great
   men and chief captains call for shelter from rocks and mountains. 2.
   They cried every man unto his god; this was the effect of their fear.
   Many will not be brought to prayer till they are frightened to it; he
   that would learn to pray, let him go to sea. Lord, in trouble they have
   visited thee. Every man of them prayed; they were not some praying and
   others reviling, but every man engaged; as the danger was general, so
   was the address to heaven; there was not one praying for them all, but
   every one for himself. They cried every man to his god, the god of his
   country or city, or his own tutelar deity; it is a testimony against
   atheism that every man had a god, and had the belief of a God; but it
   is an instance of the folly of paganism that they had gods many, every
   man the god he had a fancy for, whereas there can be but one God, there
   needs to be no more. But, though they had lost that dictate of the
   light of nature that there is but one God, they still were governed by
   that direction of the law of nature that God is to be prayed to (Should
   not a people seek under their God? Isa. viii. 19), and that he is
   especially to be prayed to when we are in distress and danger. Call
   upon me in the time of trouble. Is any afflicted? Is any frightened?
   Let him pray. 3. Their prayers for deliverance were seconded with
   endeavours, and, having called upon their gods to help them, they did
   what they could to help themselves; for that is the rule, Help thyself
   and God will help thee. They cast forth the wares that were in the ship
   into the sea, to lighten it of them, as Paul's mariners in a like case
   cast forth even the tackling of the ship, and the wheat, Acts xxvii.
   18, 19, 38. They were making a trading voyage, as it should seem, and
   were laden with many goods and much merchandise, by which they hoped to
   get gain; but now they are content to suffer loss by throwing them
   overboard. to save their lives. See how powerful the natural love of
   life is. Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for it.
   And shall we not put a like value upon the spiritual life, the life of
   the soul, reckoning that the gain of all the world cannot countervail
   the loss of the soul? See the vanity of worldly wealth, and the
   uncertainty of its continuance with us. Riches make themselves wings
   and fly away; nay, and the case may be such that we may be under a
   necessity of making wings for them, and driving them away, as here,
   when they could not be kept for the owners thereof but to their hurt,
   so that they themselves are glad to be rid of them, and sink that which
   otherwise would sink them, though they have no prospect of ever
   recovering it. Oh that men would be thus wise for their souls, and
   would be willing to part with that wealth, pleasure, and honour which
   they cannot keep without making shipwreck of faith and a good
   conscience and ruining their souls for ever! Those that thus quit their
   temporal interests for the securing of their spiritual welfare will be
   unspeakable gainers at last; for what they lose upon those terms they
   shall find again to life eternal. But where is Jonah all this while?
   One would have expected gone down into his cabin, nay, into the hold,
   between the sides of the ship, and there he lies, and is fast asleep;
   neither the noise without, nor the sense of guilt within, awoke him.
   Perhaps for some time before he had avoiding sleeping, for fear of
   God's speaking to him again in a dream; and now that he imagined
   himself out of the reach of that danger, he slept so much the more
   soundly. Note, Sin is of a stupifying nature, and we are concerned to
   take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness
   of it. It is the policy of Satan, when by his temptations he has drawn
   men from God and their duty, to rock them asleep in carnal security,
   that they may not be sensible of their misery and danger. It concerns
   us all to watch therefore.

   III. The master of the ship called Jonah up to his prayers, v. 6. The
   ship-master came to him, and bade him for shame get up, both to pray
   for life and to prepare for death; he gave him, 1. A just and necessary
   chiding: What meanest thou, O sleeper? Here we commend the ship-master,
   who gave him this reproof; for, though he was a stranger to him, he
   was, for the present, as one of his family; and whoever has a precious
   soul we must help, as we can, to save it from death. We pity Jonah, who
   needed this reproof; as a prophet of the Lord, if he had been in his
   place, he might have been reproving the king of Nineveh, but, being out
   of the way of his duty, he does himself lie open to the reproofs of a
   sorry ship-master. See how men by their sin and folly diminish
   themselves and make themselves mean. Yet we must admire God's goodness
   in sending him this seasonable reproof, for it was the first step
   towards his recovery, as the crowing of the cock was to Peter. Note,
   Those that sleep in a storm may well be asked what they mean. 2. A
   pertinent word of advice: "Arise, call upon thy God; we are here crying
   every man to his god, why dost not thou get up and cry to thine? Art
   not thou equally concerned with the rest both in the danger dreaded and
   in the deliverance desired?" Note, The devotions of others should
   quicken ours; and those who hope to share in a common mercy ought in
   all reason to contribute their quota towards the prayers and
   supplications that are made for it. In times of public distress, if we
   have any interest at the throne of grace, we ought to improve it for
   the public good. And the servants of God themselves have sometimes need
   to be called and stirred up to this part of their duty. 3. A good
   reason for this advice: If so be that God will think upon us, that we
   perish not. It should seem, the many gods they called upon were
   considered by them only as mediators between them and the supreme God,
   and intercessors for them with him; for the ship-master speaks of one
   God still, from whom he expected relief. To engage prayer, he suggested
   that the danger was very great and imminent: "We are all likely to
   perish; there is but a step between us and death, and that just ready
   to be stepped." Yet he suggested that there was some hope remaining
   that their destruction might be prevented and they might not perish.
   While there is still life there is hope, and while there is hope there
   is room for prayer. He suggested also that it was God only that could
   effect their deliverance, and it must come from his power and his pity.
   "If he think upon us, and act for us, we may yet be saved." And
   therefore to him we must look, and in him we must put our trust, when
   the danger is ever so imminent.

   IV. Jonah is found out to be the cause of the storm.

   1. The mariners observed so much peculiar and uncommon either in the
   storm itself or in their own distress by it that they concluded it was
   a messenger of divine justice sent to arrest some one of those that
   were in that ship, as having been guilty of some enormous crime,
   judging as the barbarous people (Acts xxviii. 4), "no doubt one of us
   is a murderer, or guilty of sacrilege, or perjury, or the like, who is
   thus pursued by the vengeance of the sea, and it is for his sake that
   we all suffer." Even the light of nature teaches that in extraordinary
   judgments the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against some
   extraordinary sins and sinners. Whatever evil is upon us at any time we
   must conclude there is a cause for it; there is evil done by us, or
   else this evil would not be upon us; there is a ground for God's
   controversy.

   2. They determined to refer it to the lot which of them was the
   criminal that had occasioned this storm: Let us cast lots, that we may
   know for whose cause the evil is upon us. None of them suspected
   himself, or said, Is it I, Lord; is it I? But they suspected one
   another, and would find out the man. Note, It is a desirable thing,
   when any evil is upon us, to know for what cause it is upon us, that
   what is amiss may be amended, and, the grievance being redressed, the
   grief may be removed. In order to this we must look up to heaven, and
   pray, Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me; that which I see
   not teach thou me. These mariners desired to know the person that was
   the dead weight in their ship, the accursed thing, that that one man
   might die for the people and that the whole ship might not be lost;
   this was not only expedient, but highly just. In order to this they
   cast lots, by which they appealed to the judgment of God, to whom all
   hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid, agreeing to acquiesce
   in his discovery and determination, and to take that for true which the
   lot spoke; for they knew by the light of nature, what the scripture
   tells us, that the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal
   thereof is of the Lord. Even the heathen looked upon the casting of
   lots to be a sacred thing, to be done with seriousness and solemnity,
   and not to be made a sport of. It is a shame for Christians if they
   have not a like reverence for an appeal to Providence.

   3. The lot fell upon Jonah, who could have saved them this trouble if
   he would but have told them what his own conscience told him, Thou are
   the man; but as is usual with criminals, he never confesses till he
   finds he cannot help it, till the lot falls upon him. We may suppose
   there were those in the ship who, upon other accounts, were greater
   sinners than Jonah, and yet he is the man that the tempest pursues and
   that the lot pitches upon; for it is his own child, his own servant,
   that the parent, that the master, corrects, if they do amiss; others
   that offend he leaves to the law. The storm is sent after Jonah,
   because God has work for him to do, and it is sent to fetch him back to
   it. Note, God has many ways of bringing to light concealed sins and
   sinners, and making manifest that folly which was thought to be hidden
   from the eyes of all living. God's right hand will find out all his
   servants that desert him, as well as all his enemies that have designs
   against him; yea, though they flee to the uttermost parts of the sea,
   or go down to the sides of the ship.

   4. Jonah is hereupon brought under examination before the master and
   mariners. He was a stranger; none of them could say that they knew the
   prisoner, or had any thing to lay to his charge, and therefore they
   must extort a confession from him and judge him out of his own mouth;
   and for this there needed no rack, the shipwreck they were in danger of
   was sufficient to frighten him, so as to make him tell the truth.
   Though it was discovered by the lot that he was the person for whose
   sake they were thus damaged and exposed, yet they did not fly
   outrageously upon him, as one would fear they might have done, but
   calmly and mildly enquired into his case. There is a compassion due to
   offenders when they are discovered and convicted. They give him no hard
   words, but, "Tell us, we pray thee, what is the matter?" Two things
   they enquire of him:--(1.) Whether he would himself own that he was the
   person for whose sake the storm was sent, as the lot had intimated:
   "Tell us for whose cause this evil is upon us; is it indeed for thy
   cause, and, if so, for what cause? What is this offence for which thou
   art thus prosecuted?" Perhaps the gravity and decency of Jonah's aspect
   and behaviour made them suspect that the lot had missed its man, had
   missed its mark, and therefore they would not trust it, unless he would
   himself own his guilt; they therefore begged of him that he would
   satisfy them in this matter. Note, Those that would find out the cause
   of their troubles must not only begin, but pursue the enquiry, must
   descend to particulars and accomplish a diligent search. (2.) What his
   character was, both as to his calling and as to his country. [1.] They
   enquire concerning his calling: What is thy occupation? This was a
   proper question to be put to a vagrant. Perhaps they suspected his
   calling to be such as might bring this trouble upon them: "Art thou a
   diviner, a sorcerer, a student in the black art? Hast thou been
   conjuring for this wind? Or what business are thou now going on? It is
   like Balaam's, to curse any of God's people, and is this wind send to
   stop thee?" [2.] They enquire concerning his country. One asked, Whence
   comest thou? Another, not having patience to stay for an answer to
   that, asked, What is thy country? A third to the same purport, "Of what
   people art thou? Art thou of the Chaldeans," that were noted for
   divination, "or of the Arabians," that were noted for stealing? They
   wished to know of what country he was, that, knowing who was the god of
   his country, they might guess whether he was one that could do them any
   kindness in this storm.

   5. In answer to these interrogatories Jonah makes a full discovery.
   (1.) Did they enquire concerning his country? He tells them he is a
   Hebrew (v. 9), not only of the nation of Israel, but of their religion,
   which they received from their fathers. He is a Hebrew, and therefore
   is the more ashamed to own that he is a criminal; for the sins of
   Hebrews, that make such a profession of religion and enjoy such
   privileges, are greater than the sins of others, and more exceedingly
   sinful. (2.) Did they enquire concerning his calling--What is thy
   occupation? In answer to that he gives an account of his religion, for
   that was his calling, that was his occupation, that was it that he made
   a business of: "I fear the Lord Jehovah; that is the God I worship, the
   God I pray to, even the God of heaven, the sovereign Lord of all, that
   has made the sea and the dry land and has command of both." Not the god
   of one particular country, which they enquired after, and such as the
   gods were that they had been every man calling upon, but the God of the
   whole earth, who, having made both the sea and the dry land, makes what
   work he pleases in both and makes what use he pleases of both. This he
   mentions, not only as condemning himself for his folly, in fleeing from
   the presence of this God, but as designing to bring these mariners from
   the worship and service of their many gods to the knowledge and
   obedience of the one only living and true God. When we are among those
   that are strangers to us we should do what we can to bring them
   acquainted with God, by being ready upon all occasions to own our
   relation to him and our reverence for him. (3.) Did they enquire
   concerning his crime, for which he is now persecuted? He owns that he
   fled from the presence of the Lord, that he was here running away from
   his duty, and the storm was sent to fetch him back. We have reason to
   think that he told them this with sorrow and shame, justifying God and
   condemning himself and intimating to the mariners what a great God
   Jehovah is, who could send such a messenger as this tempest was after a
   runagate servant.

   6. We are told what impression this made upon the mariners: The men
   were exceedingly afraid, and justly, for they perceived, (1.) That God
   was angry, even that God that made the sea and the dry land. This
   tempest comes from the hand of an offended justice, and therefore they
   have reason to fear it will go hard with them. Judgments inflicted for
   some particular sin have a peculiar weight and terror in them. (2.)
   That God was angry with one that feared and worshipped him, only for
   once running from his work in particular instance; this made them
   afraid for themselves. "If a prophet of the Lord be thus severely
   punished for one offence, what will become of us that have been guilty
   of so many, and great, and heinous offences?" If the righteous be thus
   scarcely saved, and for a single act of disobedience thus closely
   pursued, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1 Pet. iv. 17,
   18. They said to him, "Why hast thou done this? If thou fearest the God
   that made the sea and the dry land, why wast thou such a fool as to
   think thou couldst flee from his presence? What an absurd unaccountable
   thing is it!" Thus he was reproved, as Abraham by Abimelech (Gen. xx.
   16); for if the professors of religion do a wrong thing they must
   expect to hear of it from those that make no such profession. "Why hast
   thou done this to us?" (so it may be taken) "Why has thou involved us
   in the prosecution?" Note, Those that commit a willful sin know not how
   far the mischievous consequences of it may reach, nor what mischief may
   be done by it.

The Prophet Confesses His Folly; The Prophet Reads His Own Doom; The Prophet
Cast into the Sea; Jonah's Preservation in the Fish's Belly. (b. c. 840.)

   11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea
   may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.   12 And
   he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall
   the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great
   tempest is upon you.   13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it
   to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was
   tempestuous against them.   14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and
   said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for
   this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord,
   hast done as it pleased thee.   15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him
   forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.   16 Then the
   men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord,
   and made vows.   17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow
   up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three
   nights.

   It is plain that Jonah is the man for whose sake this evil is upon
   them, but the discovery of him to be so was not sufficient to answer
   the demands of this tempest; they had found him out, but something more
   was to be done, for still the sea wrought and was tempestuous (v. 11),
   and again (v. 13), it grew more and more tempestuous (so the margin
   reads it); for if we discover sin to be the cause of our troubles, and
   do not forsake it, we do but make bad worse. Therefore they went on
   with the prosecution.

   I. They enquired of Jonah himself what he thought they must do with him
   (v. 11): What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm to us?
   They perceived that Jonah is a prophet of the Lord, and therefore will
   not do any thing, no, not in his own case, without consulting him. He
   appears to be a delinquent, but he appears also to be a penitent, and
   therefore they will not insult over him, nor offer him any rudeness.
   Note, We ought to act with great tenderness towards those that are
   overtaken in a fault and are brought into distress by it. They would
   not cast him into the sea if he could think of any other expedient by
   which to save the ship. Or, perhaps, thus they would show how plain the
   case was, that there was no remedy but he must be thrown overboard; let
   him be his own judge as he had been his own accuser, and he himself
   will say so. Note, When sin has raised a storm, and laid us under the
   tokens of God's displeasure, we are concerned to enquire what we shall
   do that the sea may be calm; and what shall we do? We must pray and
   believe, when we are in a storm, and study to answer the end for which
   it was sent, and then the storm shall become a calm. But especially we
   must consider what is to be done to the sin that raised the storm; that
   must be discovered, and penitently confessed; that must be detested,
   disclaimed, and utterly forsaken. What have I to do any more with it?
   Crucify it, crucify it, for this evil it has done.

   II. Jonah reads his own doom (v. 12): Take me up, and cast me forth
   into the sea. He would not himself leap into the sea, but he put
   himself into their hands, to cast him into the sea, and assured them
   that then the sea would be calm, and not otherwise. He proposed this,
   in tenderness to the mariners, that they might not suffer for his sake.
   "Let thy hand be upon me" (says David, 1 Chron. xxi. 17), "who am
   guilty; let me die for my own sin, but let not the innocent suffer for
   it." This is the language of true penitents, who earnestly desire that
   none but themselves may ever smart, or fare the worse, for their sins
   and follies. He proposed it likewise in submission to the will of God,
   who sent this tempest in pursuit of him; and therefore judged himself
   to be cast into the sea, because to that he plainly saw God judging
   him, that he might not be judged of the Lord to eternal misery. Note,
   Those who are truly humbled for sin will cheerfully submit to the will
   of God, even in a sentence of death itself. If Jonah sees this to be
   the punishment of his iniquity, he accepts it, he subjects himself to
   it, and justifies God in it. No matter though the flesh be destroyed,
   no matter how it is destroyed, so that the spirit may be but saved in
   the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. v. 5. The reason he gives is, For I
   know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. See how ready
   Jonah is to take all the guilt upon himself, and to look upon all the
   trouble as theirs: "It is purely for my sake, who have sinned, that
   this tempest is upon you; therefore cast me forth into the sea; for,"
   1. "I deserve it. I have wickedly departed from my God, and it is upon
   my account that he is angry with you. Surely I am unworthy to breathe
   in that air which for my sake has been hurried with winds, to live in
   that ship which for my sake has been thus tossed. Cast me into the sea
   after the wares which for my sake you have thrown into it. Drowning is
   too good for me; a single death is punishment too little for such a
   complicated offence." 2. "Therefore there is no way of having the sea
   calm. If it is I that have raised the storm, it is not casting the
   wares into the sea that will lay it again; no, you must cast me
   thither." When conscience is awakened, and a storm raised there,
   nothing will turn it into a calm but parting with the sin that
   occasioned the disturbance, and abandoning that. It is not parting with
   our money that will pacify conscience; no, it is the Jonah that be
   thrown overboard. Jonah is herein a type of Christ, that he gives his
   life a ransom for many; but with this material difference, that the
   storm Jonah gave himself up to still was of his own raising, but that
   storm which Christ gave himself up to still was of our raising. Yet, as
   Jonah delivered himself up to be cast into a raging sea that it might
   be calm, so did our Lord Jesus, when he died that we might live.

   III. The poor mariners did what they could to save themselves from the
   necessity of throwing Jonah into the sea, but all in vain (v. 13): They
   rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, that, if they must part with
   Jonah, they might set him safely on shore; but they could not. All
   their pains were to no purpose; for the sea wrought harder than they
   could, and was tempestuous against them, so that they could by no means
   make the land. If they thought sometimes that they had gained their
   point, they were quickly thrown off to sea again. Still their ship was
   overladen; their lightening it of the wares made it never the lighter
   as long as Jonah was in it. And, besides, they rowed against wind and
   tide, the wind of God's vengeance, the tide of his counsels; and it is
   in vain to contend with God, in vain to think of saving ourselves any
   other way than by destroying our sins. By this it appears that these
   mariners were very loth to execute Jonah's sentence upon himself,
   though they knew it was for his sake that this tempest was upon them.
   They were thus very backward to it partly from a dread of bringing upon
   themselves the guilt of blood, and partly from a compassion they could
   not but have for poor Jonah, as a good man, as a man in distress, and
   as a man of sincerity. Note, The more sinners humble and abase
   themselves, judge and condemn themselves, the more likely they are to
   find pity both with God and man. The more forward Jonah was to say,
   Cast me into the sea, the more backward they were to do it.

   IV. When they found it necessary to cast Jonah into the sea they first
   prayed to God that the guilt of his blood might not lie upon them, nor
   be laid to their charge, v. 14. When they found it in vain to row hard
   they quitted their oars and went to their prayers: Wherefore they cried
   unto the Lord, unto Jehovah, the true and living God, and no more to
   the gods many. and lords many, that the had cried to, v. 5. They prayed
   to the God of Israel, being now convinced, by the providences of God
   concerning Jonah and the information he had given them, that he is God
   alone. Having determined to cast Jonah into the sea, they first enter a
   protestation in the court of heaven that they do not do it willingly,
   much less maliciously, or with any design to be revenged upon him
   because it was for his sake that this tempest was upon them. No; his
   god forgive him, as they do! But they are forced to do it se
   defendendo--in self-defence, having no other way to save their own
   lives; and they do it as ministers of justice, both God and himself
   having sentenced him to so great a death. They therefore present a
   humble petition to the God whom Jonah feared, that they might not
   perish for his life. See, 1. What a fear they had of contracting the
   guilt of blood, especially the blood of one that feared God, and
   worshipped him, and had fellowship with him, as they perceived Jonah
   had, though in a single instance he had been faulty. Natural conscience
   cannot but have a dread of blood-guiltiness, and make men very earnest
   in prayer, as David was, to be delivered from it, Ps. li. 14. So they
   were here: We beseech thee, O Lord! we beseech thee, lay not upon us
   innocent blood. They are now as earnest in praying to be saved from the
   peril of sin as they were before in praying to be saved from the peril
   of the sea, especially because Jonah appeared to them to be no ordinary
   person, but a very good man, a man of God, a worshipper of the great
   Creator of heaven and earth, upon which account even these rude
   mariners conceived a veneration for him, and trembled at the thought of
   taking away his life. Innocent blood is precious, but saints' blood,
   prophets' blood, is much more precious, and so those will find to their
   cost that any way bring themselves under the guilt of it. The mariners
   saw Jonah pursued by divine vengeance, and yet could not without horror
   think of being his executioners. Though his God has a controversy with
   him, yet, think they, Let not our hand be upon him. The Israelites were
   at this time killing the prophets for doing their duty (witness
   Jezebel's late persecution), and were prodigal of their lives, which is
   aggravated by the tenderness these heathens had for one whom they
   perceived to be a prophet, though he was now out of the way of his
   duty. 2. What a fear they had of incurring the wrath of God; they were
   jealous lest he should be angry if they should be the death of Jonah,
   for he had said, Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm; it
   is at your peril if you do. "Lord," say they, "let us not perish for
   this man's life. Let it not be such a fatal dilemma to us. We see we
   must perish if we spare his life; Oh let us not perish for taking away
   his life." And their plea is good: "For thou, O Lord! hast done as it
   pleased thee; thou had laid us under a necessity of doing it; the wind
   that pursued him, the lot that discovered him, were both under thy
   direction, which we are herein governed by; we are but the instruments
   of Providence, and it is sorely against our will that we do it; but we
   must say, The will of the Lord be done." Note, When we are manifestly
   led by Providence to do things contrary to our own inclinations, and
   quite beyond our own intentions, it will be some satisfaction to us to
   be able to say, Thou, O Lord! has done as it pleased thee. And, if God
   please himself, we ought to be satisfied though he do not please us.

   V. Having deprecated the guilt they dreaded, they proceeded to
   execution (v. 15): They took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea.
   They cast him out of their ship, out of their company, and cast him
   into the sea, a raging stormy sea, that cried, "Give, give; surrender
   the traitor, or expect no peace." We may well think what confusion and
   amazement poor Jonah was in when he saw himself ready to be hurried
   into the presence of that God as a Judge whose presence as a Master he
   was now fleeing from. Note, Those know not what ruin they run upon that
   run away from God. Woe unto them! for they have fled from me. When sin
   is the Jonah that raises the storm, that must thus be cast forth into
   the sea; we must abandon it, and be the death of it, must drown that
   which otherwise will drown us in destruction and perdition. And if we
   thus by a thorough repentance and reformation cast our sins forth into
   the sea, never to recall them or return to them again, God will by
   pardoning mercy subdue our iniquities, and cast them into the depths of
   the sea too, Mic. vii. 19.

   VI. The throwing of Jonah into the sea immediately put an end to the
   storm. The sea has what she came for, and therefore rests contended;
   she ceases from her raging. It is an instance of the sovereign power of
   God that he can soon turn the storm into a calm, and of the equity of
   his government that when the end of an affliction is answered and
   attained the affliction shall immediately be removed. He will not
   contend for ever, will not contend any longer till we submit ourselves
   and give up the cause. If we turn from our sins, he will soon turn from
   his anger.

   VII. The mariners were hereby more confirmed in their belief that
   Jonah's God was the only true God (v. 16): Then the men feared the Lord
   with a great fear, were possessed with a deep veneration for the God of
   Israel, and came to a resolution that they would worship him only for
   the future; for there is no other God that can destroy, that can
   deliver, after this sort. When they saw the power of God in raising and
   laying the tempest, when they saw his justice upon Jonah his own
   servant, and when they saw his goodness to them in saving them from the
   brink of ruin, then they feared the Lord, Jer. v. 22. As an evidence of
   their fear of him, they offered sacrifice to him when they came ashore
   again in the land of Israel, and for the present made vows that they
   would do so, in thankfulness for their deliverance, and to make
   atonement for their souls. Or, perhaps, they had something yet on board
   which might be for a sacrifice to God immediately. Or it may be meant
   of the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, with which God is
   better pleased than with that of an ox or bullock that has horns and
   hoofs. See Ps. cvii. 2, &c. We must make vows, not only when we are in
   the pursuit of mercy, but, which is much more generous, when we have
   received mercy, as those that are still studying what we shall render.

   VIII. Jonah's life, after all, is saved by a miracle, and we shall hear
   of him again for all this. In the midst of judgment God remembers
   mercy. Jonah shall be worse frightened than hurt, not so much punished
   for his sin as reduced to his duty. Though he flees from the presence
   of the Lord, and seems to fall into his avenging hands, yet God has
   more work for him to do, and therefore has prepared a great fish to
   swallow up Jonah (v. 17), a whale our Saviour calls it (Matt. xii. 40),
   one of the largest sorts of whales, that have wider throats than
   others, in the belly of which has sometimes been found the dead body of
   a man in armour. Particular notice is taken, in the history of
   creation, of God's creating great whales (Gen. i. 21) and the leviathan
   in the waters made to play therein, Ps. civ. 26. But God finds work for
   this leviathan, has prepared him, has numbered him (so the word is),
   has appointed him to be Jonah's receiver and deliverer. Note, God has
   command of all the creatures, and can make any of them serve his
   designs of mercy to his people, even the fishes of the sea, that are
   most from under man's cognizance, even the great whales, that are
   altogether from under man's government. This fish was prepared, lay
   ready under water close by the ship, that he might keep Jonah from
   sinking to the bottom, and save him alive, though he deserved to die.
   Let us stand still and see this salvation of the Lord, and admire his
   power, that he could thus save a drowning man, and his pity, that he
   would thus save one that was running from him and had offended him. It
   was of the Lord's mercies that Jonah was not now consumed. The fish
   swallowed up Jonah, not to devour him, but to protect him. Out of the
   eater comes forth meat; for Jonah was alive and well in the belly of
   the fish three days and three nights, not consumed by the heat of the
   animal, nor suffocated for want of air. It is granted that to nature
   this was impossible, but not to the God of nature, with whom all things
   are possible. Jonah by this miraculous preservation was designed to be
   made, 1. A monument of divine mercy, for the encouragement of those
   that have sinned, and gone away from God, to return and repent. 2. A
   successful preacher to Nineveh; and this miracle wrought for his
   deliverance, if the tidings of it reached Nineveh, would contribute to
   his success. 3. An illustrious type of Christ, who was buried and rose
   again according to the scriptures (1 Cor. xv. 4), according to this
   scripture, for, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's
   belly, so was the Son of man three days and three nights in the heart
   of the earth, Matt. xii. 40. Jonah's burial was a figure of Christ's.
   God prepared Jonah's grave, so he did Christ's, when it was long before
   ordained that he should make his grave with the rich, Isa. liii. 9. Was
   Jonah's grave a strange one, a new one? So was Christ's, one in which
   never man before was laid. Was Jonah there the best part of three days
   and three nights? So was Christ; but both in order to their rising
   again for the bringing of the doctrine of repentance to the Gentile
   world. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O N A H.

  CHAP. II.

   We left Jonah in the belly of the fish, and had reason to think we
   should hear no more of him, that if he were not destroyed by the waters
   of the sea he would be consumed in the bowels of that leviathan, "out
   of whose mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire, and whose breath
   kindles coals," Job xli. 19, 21. But God brings his people through
   fire, and through water (Ps. lxvi. 12); and by his power, behold, Jonah
   the prophet is yet alive, and is heard of again. In this chapter God
   hears from him, for we find him praying; in the next Nineveh hears from
   him, for we find him preaching. In his prayer we have, I. The great
   distress and danger he was in, ver. 2, 3, 5, 6. II. The despair he was
   thereby almost reduced to, ver. 4. III. The encouragement he took to
   himself, in this deplorable condition, ver. 4, 7. IV. The assurance he
   had of God's favour to him, ver. 6, 7. V. The warning and instruction
   he gives to others, ver. 8. VI. The praise and glory of all given to
   God, ver. 9. In the last verse we have Jonah's deliverance out of the
   belly of the fish, and his coming safe and sound upon dry land again.

Jonah's Prayer; The Prophet in the Fish's Belly. (b. c. 840.)

   1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,   2
   And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he
   heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
     3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and
   the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed
   over me.   4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look
   again toward thy holy temple.   5 The waters compassed me about, even
   to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped
   about my head.   6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the
   earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my
   life from corruption, O Lord my God.   7 When my soul fainted within me
   I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy
   temple.   8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
   9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will
   pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

   God and his servant Jonah had parted in anger, and the quarrel began on
   Jonah's side; he fled from his country that he might outrun his work;
   but we hope to see them both together again, and the reconciliation
   begins on God's side. In the close of the foregoing chapter we found
   God returning to Jonah in a way of mercy, delivering him from going
   down to the pit, having found a ransom; in this chapter we find Jonah
   returning to God in a way of duty; he was called up in the former
   chapter to pray to his God, but we are not told that he did so;
   however, now at length he is brought to it. Now observe here,

   I. When he prayed (v. 1): Then Jonah prayed; then when he was in
   trouble, under the sense of sin and the tokens of God's displeasure
   against him for sin, then he prayed. Note, When we are in affliction we
   must pray; then we have occasion to pray, then we have errands at the
   throne of grace and business there; then, if ever, we shall have a
   disposition to pray, when the heart is humbled, and softened, and made
   serious; then God expects it (in their affliction they will seek me
   early, seek me earnestly); and, though we bring our afflictions upon
   ourselves by our sins, yet, if we pray in humility and godly sincerity,
   we shall be welcome to the throne of grace, as Jonah was. Then when he
   was in a hopeful way of deliverance, being preserved alive by miracle,
   a plain indication that he was reserved for further mercy, then he
   prayed. An apprehension of God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our
   offences, gives us boldness of access to him, and opens the lips in
   prayer which were closed with the sense of guilt and dread of wrath.

   II. Where he prayed--in the fish's belly. No place is amiss for prayer.
   I will that men pray every where. Wherever God casts us we may find a
   way open to heaven-ward, if it be not our own fault. Undique ad coelos
   tantundem est viæ--The heavens are equally accessible from every part
   of the earth. He that has Christ dwelling in his heart by faith,
   wherever he goes carries the altar along with him, that sanctifies the
   gift, and is himself a living temple. Jonah was here in confinement;
   the belly of the fish was his prison, was a close and dark dungeon to
   him; yet there he had freedom of access to God, and walked at liberty
   in communion with him. Men may shut us out from communion with one
   another, but not from communion with God. Jonah was now in the bottom
   of the sea, yet out of the depths he cries to God; as Paul and Silas
   prayed in the prison, in the stocks.

   III. To whom he prayed--to the Lord his God. He had been fleeing from
   God, but now he sees the folly of it, and returns to him; by prayer he
   draws near to that God whom he had gone aside from, and engages his
   heart to approach him. In prayer he has an eye to him, not only as the
   Lord, but as his God, a God in covenant with him; for, thanks be to
   God, every transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of
   covenant. This encourages even backsliding children to return. Jer.
   iii. 22, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God.

   IV. What his prayer was. He afterwards recollected the substance of it,
   and left it upon record. He reflects upon the workings of his heart
   towards God when he was in his distress and danger, and the conflict
   that was then in his breast between faith and sense, between hope and
   fear.

   1. He reflects upon the earnestness of his prayer, and God's readiness
   to hear and answer (v. 2): He said, I cried, by reason of my
   affliction, unto the Lord. Note, Many that prayed not at all, or did
   but whisper prayer, when they were in prosperity, are brought to pray,
   nay, are brought to cry, by reason of their affliction; and it is for
   this end that afflictions are sent, and they are in vain if this end be
   not answered. Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them, Job
   xxxvi. 13. "Out of the belly of hell and the grave cried I." The fish
   might well be called a grave, and, as it was a prison to which Jonah
   was condemned for his disobedience and in which he lay under the wrath
   of God, it might well be called the belly of hell. Thither this good
   man was cast, and yet thence he cried to God, and it was not in vain;
   God heard him, heard the voice of his affliction, the voice of his
   supplication. There is a hell in the other world, out of which there is
   no crying to God with any hope of being heard; but, whatever hell we
   may be in the belly of in this world, we may thence cry to God. When
   Christ lay, as Jonah, three days and three nights in the grave, though
   he prayed not, as Jonah did, yet his very lying there cried to God for
   poor sinners, and the cry was heard.

   2. He reflects upon the very deplorable condition that he was in when
   he was in the belly of hell, which, when he lay there, he was very
   sensible of and made particular remarks upon. Note, If we would get
   good by our troubles, we must take notice of our troubles, and of the
   hand of God in them. Jonah observes here, (1.) How low he was thrown
   (v. 3): Thou hadst cast me into the deep. The mariners cast him there;
   but he looked above them, and saw the hand of God casting him there.
   Whatever deeps we are cast into, it is God that casts us into them, and
   he it is who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell. He was
   cast into the midst of the seas--the heart of the seas (so the word
   is), and thence Christ borrows that Hebrew phrase, when he applies it
   to his own lying so long in the heart of the earth. For he that is laid
   dead in the grave, though it be ever so shallow, is cut off as
   effectually from the land of the living as if he were laid in the heart
   of the earth. (2.) How terribly he was beset: The floods compassed me
   about. The channels and springs of the waters of the sea surrounded him
   on every side; it was always high-water with him. God's dear saints and
   servants are sometimes encompassed with the floods of affliction, with
   troubles that are very forcible and violent, that bear down on all
   before them, and that run constantly upon them, as the waters of a
   river in a continual succession, one trouble upon the neck of another,
   as Job's messengers of evil tidings; they are enclosed by them on all
   sides, as the church complains, Lam. iii. 7. He has hedged me about,
   that I cannot get out, nor see which way I may flee for safety. All thy
   billows and thy waves passed over me. Observe, He calls them God's
   billows and his waves, not only because he made them (the sea is his,
   and he made it), and because he rules them (for even the winds and the
   seas obey him), but because he had now commissioned them against Jonah,
   and limited them, and ordered them to afflict and terrify him, but not
   to destroy him. These words are plainly quoted by Jonah from Ps. xlii.
   7, where, though the translations differ a little, in the original
   David's complaint is the same verbatim--word for word, with this of
   Jonah's: All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. What David spoke
   figuratively and metaphorically Jonah applied to himself as literally
   fulfilled. For the reconciling of ourselves to our afflictions, it is
   good to search precedents, that we may find there has no temptation
   taken us but such as is common to men. If ever any man's case was
   singular, and not to be paralleled, surely Jonah's was, and yet, to his
   great satisfaction, he finds even the man after God's own heart making
   the same complaint of God's waves and billows going over him that he
   has now occasion to make. When God performs the thing that is appointed
   for us we shall find that many such things are with him, that even our
   path of trouble is no untrodden path, and that God deals with us no
   otherwise than as he uses to deal with those that love his name. And
   therefore for our assistance in our addresses to God, when we are in
   trouble, it is good to make use of the complaints and prayers which the
   saints that have been before us made use of in the like case. See how
   good it is to be ready in the scriptures; Jonah, when he could make no
   use of his Bible, by the help of his memory furnished himself from the
   scripture with a very proper representation of his case: All thy
   billows and thy waves passed over me. To the same purport, v. 5, The
   waters compassed me about even to the soul; they threatened his life,
   which was hereby brought into imminent danger; or they made an
   impression upon his spirit; he saw them to be tokens of God's
   displeasure, and in them the terrors of the Almighty set themselves in
   array against him; this reached to his soul, and put that into
   confusion. And this also is borrowed from David's complaint, Ps. lxix.
   1. The waters have come in unto my soul. When without are fightings it
   is no marvel that within are fears. Jonah, in the fish's belly, finds
   the depths enclosing him round about, so that if he would get out of
   his prison, yet he must unavoidably perish in the waters. He feels the
   sea-weed (which the fish sucked in with the water) wrapped about his
   head, so that he has no way left him to help himself, nor hope that any
   one else can help him. Thus are the people of God sometimes perplexed
   and entangled, that they may learn not to trust in themselves, but in
   God that raises the dead, 2 Cor. i. 8, 9. (3.) How fast he was held (v.
   6): He went down to the bottom of the mountains, to the rocks in the
   sea, upon which the hills and promontories by the seaside seem to be
   bottomed; he lay among them, nay, he lay under them; the earth with her
   bars was about him, so close about him that it was likely to be about
   him for ever. The earth was so shut and locked, so barred and bolted,
   against him, that he was quite cut off from any hope of ever returning
   to it. Thus helpless, thus hopeless, did Jonah's case seem to be. Those
   whom God contends with the whole creation is at war with.

   3. He reflects upon the very black and melancholy conclusion he was
   then ready to make concerning himself, and the relief he obtained
   against it, 3v. 4, 7. (1.) He began to sink into despair, and to give
   up himself for gone and undone to all intents and purposes. When the
   waters compassed him about even to the soul no marvel that his soul
   fainted within him, fainted away, so that he had not any comfortable
   enjoyments or expectations; his spirits quite failed, and he looked
   upon himself as a dead man. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight,
   and the apprehension of that was the thing that made his spirit faint
   within him. He thought God had quite forsaken him, would never return
   in mercy to him, nor show him any token for good again. He had no
   example before him of any that were brought alive out of a fish's
   belly; if he thought of Job upon the dunghill, Joseph in the pit, David
   in the cave, yet these did not come up to his case. Nor was there any
   visible way of escape open for him but by miracle; and what reason had
   he to expect that a miracle of mercy should be wrought for him who was
   now made a monument of justice? His own conscience told him that he had
   wickedly fled from the presence of the Lord, and therefore he might
   justly cast him away from his presence, and, in token of that, take
   away his Holy Spirit from him, never to visit him more. What hopes
   could he have of deliverance out of a trouble which his own ways and
   doings had procured to himself? Observe, When Jonah would say the worst
   he could of his case he says this, I am cast out of thy sight; those,
   and those only, are miserable, whom God has cast out of his sight, whom
   he will no longer own and favour. What is the misery of the damned in
   hell but this, that they are cast out of God's sight? For what is the
   happiness of heaven but the vision and fruition of God? Sometimes the
   condition of God's people may be such in this world that they may think
   themselves quite excluded from God's presence, so as no more to see
   him, or to be regarded by him. Jacob and Israel said, My way is hidden
   from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God, Isa. xl. 27.
   Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, my God has forgotten me, Isa.
   xlix. 14. But it is only the surmise of unbelief, for God has not cast
   away his people whom he has chosen. (2.) Yet he recovered himself from
   sinking into despair, with some comfortable prospects of deliverance.
   Faith corrected and controlled the surmises of fear and distrust. Here
   was a fierce struggle between sense and faith, but faith had the last
   word and came off a conqueror. In trying times, the issue will be good
   at last, providing our faith do not fail; it was therefore the
   continuance of that in its vigour that Christ secured to Peter. I have
   prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, Luke xxii. 32. David would
   have fainted if he had not believed, Ps. xxvii. 13. Jonah's faith said,
   Yet I will look again towards thy holy temple. Thus, though he was
   perplexed, yet not in despair; in the depth of the sea he had this hope
   in him, as an anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast. That which he
   supports himself with the hope of is that he shall yet look again
   towards God's holy temple. [1.] That he shall live; he shall look again
   heaven-ward, shall again see the light of the sun, though now he seems
   to be cast into utter darkness. Thus against hope he believed in hope.
   [2.] That he shall live, and praise God; and a good man does not desire
   to live for any other purpose, Ps. cxix. 175. That he shall enjoy
   communion with God again in holy ordinances, shall look towards, and go
   up to, the holy temple, there to enquire, there to behold the beauty of
   the Lord. When Hezekiah desired that he might be assured of his
   recovery, he asked, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of
   the Lord? (Isa. xxxviii. 22), as if that were the only thing for the
   sake of which he wished for health; so Jonah here hopes he shall look
   again towards the temple; that way he had looked many a time with
   pleasure, rejoicing when he was called to go up to the house of the
   Lord; and the remembrance of it was his comfort, that, when he had
   opportunity, he was no stranger to the holy temple. But now he could
   not so much as look towards it; in the fish's belly he could not tell
   which way it lay, but he hopes he shall be again able to look towards
   it, to look on it, to look into it. Observe, How modestly Jonah
   expresses himself; as one conscious to himself of guilt and
   unworthiness, he dares not speak of dwelling in God's house, as David,
   knowing that he is no more worthy to be called a son, but he hopes that
   he may be admitted to look towards it. He calls it the holy temple, for
   the holiness of it was, in his eye, the beauty of it, and that for the
   sake of which he loved and looked towards it. The temple was a type of
   heaven; and he promises himself that though being now a captive exile,
   he should never be loosed, but die in the pit, yet he should look
   towards the heavenly temple, and be brought safely thither. Though he
   die in the fish's belly, in the bottom of the sea, yet thence he hopes
   his soul shall be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. Or these
   words may be taken as Jonah's vow when he was in distress, and he
   speaks (v. 9) of paying what he vowed; his vow is that if God deliver
   him he will praise him in the gates of the daughter of Zion, Ps. ix.
   13, 14. His sin for which God pursued him was fleeing from the presence
   of the Lord, the folly of which he is now convinced of, and promises
   not only that he will never again look towards Tarshish, but that he
   will again look towards the temple, and will go from strength to
   strength till he appear before God there. And thus we see how faith and
   hope were his relief in his desponding condition. To these he added
   prayer to God (v. 7): "When my soul fainted within me, then I
   remembered the Lord, I betook myself to that cordial." He remembered
   what he is, how nigh to those that seem to be thrown at the greatest
   distance by trouble, how merciful to those that seem to have thrown
   themselves at a distance from him by sin. He remembered what he had
   done for him, what he had done for others, what he could do, what he
   had promised to do; and this kept him from fainting. Remembering God,
   he made his addresses to him: "My prayer came in unto thee; I sent it
   in, and expected to receive an answer to it." Note, Our afflictions
   should put us in mind of God, and thereby put us upon prayer to him.
   When our souls faint we must remember God; and, when we remember God,
   we must send up a prayer to him, a pious ejaculation at least; when we
   think on his name we should call on his name.

   4. He reflects upon the favour of God to him when thus in his distress
   he sought to God and trusted him. (1.) He graciously accepted his
   prayer, and gave admission and audience to it (v. 7): My prayer, being
   sent to him, came in unto him, even into his holy temple; it was heard
   in the highest heavens, though it was prayed in the lowest deeps. (2.)
   He wonderfully wrought deliverance for him, and, when he was in the
   depth of his misery, gave him the earnest and assurance of it (v. 6):
   Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God! Some
   think he said this when he was vomited up on dry ground; and then it is
   the language of thankfulness, and he sets it over-against the great
   difficulty of his case, that the power of God might be the more
   magnified in his deliverance: The earth with her bars was about me for
   ever, and yet thou hast brought up my life from the pit, from the bars
   of the pit. Or, rather, we may suppose it spoken while he was yet in
   the fish's belly, and then it is the language of his faith: "Thou hast
   kept me alive here, in the pit, and therefore thou canst, thou wilt,
   bring up my life from the pit;" and he speaks of it with as much
   assurance as if it were done already: Thou has brought up my life.
   Though he has not an express promise of deliverance, he has an earnest
   of it, and on that he depends: he has life, and therefore believes his
   life shall be brought up from corruption; and this assurance he
   addresses to God: Thou has done it, O Lord my God! Thou art the Lord,
   and therefore canst do it for me, my God, and therefore wilt do it.
   Note, If the Lord be our God, he will be to us the resurrection and the
   life, will redeem our lives from destruction, from the power of the
   grave.

   5. He gives warning to others, and instructs them to keep close to God
   (v. 8): Those that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, that
   is, (1.) Those that worship other gods, as the heathen mariners did,
   and call upon them, and expect relief and comfort from them, forsake
   their own mercy; they stand in their own light; they turn their back
   upon their own happiness, and go quite out of the way of all good.
   Note, Idols are lying vanities, and those that pay that homage to them
   which is due to God only act as contrarily to their interests as to
   their duty. Or, (2.) Those that follow their own inventions, as Jonah
   himself had done when he fled from the presence of the Lord to go to
   Tarshish, forsake their own mercy, that mercy which they might find in
   God, and might have such a covenant-right and title to it as to be able
   to call it their own, if they would but keep close to God and their
   duty. Those that think to go any where to be from under the eye of God,
   as Jonah did--that think to better themselves by deserting his service,
   as Jonah did--and that grudge his mercy to any poor sinners, and
   pretend to be wiser than he in judging who are fit to have prophets
   sent them and who are not, as Jonah did--they observe lying vanities,
   are led away by foolish groundless fancies, and, like him, they forsake
   their own mercy, and no good can come of it. Note, Those that forsake
   their own duty forsake their own mercy; those that run away from the
   work of their place and day run away from the comfort of it.

   6. He solemnly binds his soul with a bond that, if God work deliverance
   for him, the God of his mercies shall be the God of his praises, v. 9.
   He covenants with God, (1.) That he will honour him in his devotions
   with the sacrifice of thanksgiving; and God has said, for the
   encouragement of those that do so, that those that offer praise glorify
   him. He will, according to the law of Moses, bring a sacrifice of
   thanksgiving, and will offer that according to the law of nature, with
   the voice of thanksgiving. The love and thankfulness of the heart to
   God are the life and soul of this duty; without these neither the
   sacrifice of thanksgiving nor the voice of thanksgiving will avail any
   thing. But gratitude was then, by a divine appointment, to be expressed
   by a sacrifice, in which the offerer presented the beast slain to God,
   not in lieu of himself, but in token of himself; and it is now to be
   expressed by the voice of thanksgiving, the calves of our lips (Hos.
   xiv. 2), the fruit of our lips (Heb. xiii. 15), speaking forth, singing
   forth, the high praises of our God. This Jonah here promises, that with
   the sacrifice of thanksgiving he will mention the lovingkindness of the
   Lord, to his glory, and the encouragement of others. (2.) That he will
   honour him in his conversation by a punctual performance of his vows,
   which he made in the fish's belly. Some think it was some work of
   charity that he vowed, or such a vow as Jacob's was, Of all that thou
   hast given me I will give the tenth unto thee. More probably his vow
   was that if God would deliver him he would readily go wherever he
   should please to send him, though it were to Nineveh. When we smart for
   deserting our duty it is time to promise that we will adhere to it, and
   abound in it. Or, perhaps, the sacrifice of thanksgiving is the thing
   he vowed, and that is it which he will pay, as David, Ps. cxvi. 17-19.

   7. He concludes with an acknowledgment of God as the Saviour of his
   people: Salvation is of the Lord; it belongs to the Lord, Ps. iii. 8.
   He is the God of salvation, Ps. lxviii. 19, 20. He only can work
   salvation, and he can do it be the danger and distress ever so great;
   he has promised salvation to his people that trust in him. All the
   salvations of his church in general, and of particular saints, were
   wrought by him; he is the Saviour of those that believe, 1 Tim. iv. 10.
   Salvation is still of him, as it has always been; from him alone it is
   to be expected, and on him we are to depend for it. Jonah's experience
   shall encourage others, in all ages, to trust in God as the God of
   their salvation; all that read this story shall say with assurance, say
   with admiration, that salvation is of the Lord, and is sure to all that
   belongs to him.

Jonah's Deliverance. (b. c. 840.)

   10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the
   dry land.

   We have here Jonah's discharge from his imprisonment, and his
   deliverance from that death which there he was threatened with--his
   return, though not to life, for he lived in the fish's belly, yet to
   the land of the living, for from that he seemed to be quite cut
   off--his resurrection, though not from death, yet from the grave, for
   surely never man was so buried alive as Jonah was in the fish's belly.
   His enlargement may be considered, 1. As an instance of God's power
   over all the creatures. God spoke to the fish, gave him orders to
   return him, as before he had given him orders to receive him. God
   speaks to other creatures, and it is done; they are all his ready
   obedient servants. But to man he speaks once, yea, twice, and he
   perceives it not, regards it not, but turns a deaf ear to what he says.
   Note, God has all creatures at his command, makes what use he pleases
   of them, and serves his own purposes by them. 2. As an instance of
   God's mercy to a poor penitent, that in his distress prays to him.
   Jonah had sinned, and had done foolishly, very foolishly; his own
   backslidings did not correct him, and it appears by his after-conduct
   that his foolishness was not quite driven from him, no, not by the rod
   of this correction; and yet, upon his praying, and humbling himself
   before God, here is a miracle in nature wrought for his deliverance, to
   intimate what a miracle of grace, free grace, God's reception and
   entertainment of returning sinners are. When God had him at his mercy
   he showed him mercy, and did not contend for ever. 3. As a type and
   figure of Christ's resurrection. He died and was buried, to lay in the
   grave, as Jonah did, three days and three nights, a prisoner for our
   debt; but the third day he came forth, as Jonah did, by his messengers
   to preach repentance, and remission of sins, even to the Gentiles. And
   thus was another scripture fulfilled, After two days he will receive
   us, and the third day he will raise us up, Hos. vi. 2. The earth
   trembled as if full of her burden, as the fish was of Jonah.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O N A H.

  CHAP. III.

   In this chapter we have, I. Jonah's mission renewed, and the command a
   second time given him to go preach at Nineveh, ver. 1, 2. II. Jonah's
   message to Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its speedy overthrow
   was threatened, ver. 3, 4. III. The repentance, humiliation, and
   reformation of the Ninevites hereupon, ver. 5-9. IV. God's gracious
   revocation of the sentence passed upon them, and the preventing of the
   ruin threatened, ver. 10.

Jonah's Mission Renewed; The Prophet's Mission to Nineveh. (b. c. 840.)

   1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,   2
   Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the
   preaching that I bid thee.   3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh,
   according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great
   city of three days' journey.   4 And Jonah began to enter into the city
   a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh
   shall be overthrown.

   We have here a further evidence of the reconciliation between God and
   Jonah, and that it was a thorough reconciliation, though the
   controversy between them had run high.

   I. Jonah's commission is renewed and readily obeyed.

   1. By this it appears that God was perfectly reconciled to Jonah, that
   he employed him again in his service; and the commission anew given him
   was an evidence of the remission of his former disobedience. Among men,
   it has been justly pleaded that the giving of a commission to a
   criminal convicted is equivalent to a pardon, so it was to Jonah. The
   word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time (v. 1); for, 1. Jonah
   must be tried, whether he do indeed repent of his former disobedience
   or no, and whether he have gotten the good designed him both by his
   strange punishment and by his strange deliverance. He had deserted his
   work and duty, and had been under arrest for it, had received a
   sentence of death within himself; but, upon his submission, God had
   released him, had given him his life, had given him his liberty; but it
   is upon his good behaviour that he is released, and he must again be
   put upon the trial whether he will follow the will of God or his own
   will. After he has been thrown into the sea, and thrown out of it
   again, God comes and asks him, "Jonah, wilt thou go to Nineveh now?"
   For when God judges he will overcome, he will gain his point; he will
   bring the disobedient stubborn child to his foot at last. Note, When
   God has afflicted us, and delivered us out of affliction, we must hear
   his voice, saying to us, Now return to the duties which before you
   neglected, and which by these providences you are called to. God now
   said, in effect, to Jonah, as Christ said to the impotent man, when he
   had healed him, "Now go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto
   thee (John v. 14), a worse thing than lying three days and three nights
   in the whale's belly." God looks upon men, when he has afflicted them
   and has delivered them out of their affliction, to see whether they
   will mend of that fault, particularly, for which they were corrected;
   and therefore in that thing we are concerned to see to it that we
   receive not the grace of God in vain, neither in the correction nor in
   the deliverance, for both are designed to be means of grace. (2.) Jonah
   shall be trusted, in token of God's favour to him. God might justly
   have said concerning Jonah, as we should concerning one that had
   cheated us and dealt treacherously with us, that though we would not
   proceed to the rigour of the law against him, nor ruin him, yet we
   would never again repose a confidence in him; justly might the Spirit
   of prophecy, which Jonah had resisted and rebelled against, depart from
   him, with a resolution never to return to him any more. One would have
   expected that though his life was spared, yet he would be laid under a
   disability and incapacity ever to serve the government again in the
   character of a prophet. But, behold! the word of the Lord comes to him
   again, to show that when God forgives he forgets, and whom he forgives
   he gives a new heart and a new spirit to; he receives those into his
   family again, and restores them to their former estate, that had been
   prodigal children and disobedient servants. Note, God's making use of
   us is the best evidence of his being at peace with us. Hereby it will
   appear that our sins are pardoned, and we have the good-will of God
   towards us; does his good word come unto us, and do we experience his
   good work in us! if so, we have reason to admire the riches of free
   grace and to own our obligations to the Lord Jesus, who received gifts
   for men, yea, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
   dwell even among them, and employ them in his word, Ps. lxviii. 18.

   2. By this it appears that Jonah was well reconciled to God, that he
   was not now, as he had been before, disobedient to the heavenly vision,
   did not flee from the presence of the Lord, as he had done. He neither
   endeavored to avoid hearing the command, nor did he decline obeying it;
   he made no objections, as he had done, that the journey was long, the
   errand invidious, the delivery of it perilous, and, if the threatened
   judgment did come, he should be reproached as a false prophet, and the
   impenitence of his own nation would be upbraided, which he had
   objected, ch. iv. 2. But now, without murmuring and disputing, Jonah
   arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, v. 3.
   See here, (1.) The nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind
   and way, and a return to our work and duty, from which we had turned
   aside; it is doing that good which we had left undone. (2.) The benefit
   of affliction; it reduces those to their place that had deserted it.
   Jonah might truly say with David, "Before I was afflicted I went
   astray, but now have I kept thy word; and therefore, though it was
   dreadful, though it was painful to me, and for the present not joyous,
   but grievous, yet it was good, very good, for me, that I was
   afflicted." (3.) See the power of divine grace working with affliction,
   for otherwise affliction of itself would rather drive men from God than
   bring them to him; but God by his grace can turn the disobedient to the
   wisdom of the just, and make those willing in the day of his power,
   freely willing to come under his yoke, whose neck had been as an iron
   sinew. (4.) See the duty of all those to whom the word of the Lord
   comes; they must in all points conform themselves to it, and yield a
   cheerful faithful obedience to the orders God gives them. Jonah arose,
   and did not sit still in sloth or sullenness; he went directly to
   Nineveh, though it was a great way off, and a place where, it is
   likely, he never was before; yet thither he took his journey, according
   to the word of the Lord. God's servants must go where he sends them,
   come when he calls them, and do what he bids them; whatever appears to
   be the word of the Lord we must conscientiously do according to it.

   II. Let us now see what was the command or commission given him, and
   what he did in prosecution of it.

   1. He was sent as a herald at arms, in the name of the God of heaven,
   to proclaim war with Nineveh (v. 2): "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
   city," that metropolis, and preach unto it, preach against it, so the
   Chaldee. What is against us is preached to us, that we may hear it and
   take warning; and what is preached to us, if we do not give ear to it,
   and mix faith with it, will prove to be against us. Jonah is sent to
   Nineveh, which was at this time the chief city of the Gentile world, as
   an indication of God's gracious intentions in process of time to make
   the light of divine revelation to shine in those dark regions. God knew
   that if Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, had had the means of grace,
   they would have repented, and yet he denied them those means, Matt. xi.
   21, 23. He knew that if Nineveh had now the means of grace they would
   repent, and he gave them those means, sent Jonah, though not to preach
   repentance to them expressly (for we find not that he had that in his
   commission), yet to preach them to repentance, for that was the happy
   effect of what he had in commission. If God thus in dispensing his
   favours, in giving the means of grace to some places and not to others,
   and the spirit of grace to some persons and not to others, acts by
   prerogative and in a way of sovereignty, who may say unto him, What
   doest thou? May he not do what he will with his own? He is debtor to no
   man. Go, and preach (says God) the preaching that I bid thee. That is,
   (1.) "The preaching that I did bid thee when I first ordered thee to go
   thither (ch. i. 2); go, and cry against it; denounce divine judgments
   against it; tell the men of Nineveh that their wickedness has come up
   to God, and God's vengeance is coming down upon them." This was the
   message Jonah was then very loth to deliver, and therefore flew off and
   went to Tarshish; but, when he is brought to it the second time, God
   does not at all alter the message, to gratify him, or make it the more
   passable with him; no, he must now preach the very same that he was
   then ordered to preach and would not. Note, The word of God is an
   unalterable thing, and will not be made to bend to the humours either
   of its preachers or of its hearers; it shall never comply with their
   humours and fancies, but they must comply with its truths and laws. See
   Jer. xv. 19. Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.
   Or, (2.) "The preaching that I shall bid thee when thou comest
   thither." This was an encouragement to him in his undertaking, that God
   would go along with him, that the Spirit of prophecy should abide upon
   him, and be ready to him, when he was at Nineveh, to give him all the
   further instructions that were needed for him. This intimated that he
   should hear from him again, which would be his great support in this
   hazardous expedition; as, when God sent Abraham to offer up Isaac, he
   gave him a similar intimation, by telling him he must do it upon one of
   the mountains which he would afterwards direct him to. The steps of a
   good man are ordered by the Lord; he leads his people step by step, and
   so he expects they should follow him. Jonah must go with an implicit
   faith. Though he knows whither he goes, he shall not know, till he come
   thither, what message he must deliver, but, whatever it is, he must
   deliver it, be it pleasing or displeasing. Thus God will keep us in a
   continual dependence upon himself, and the directions of his word and
   providence. What he does, and what he will have us do, we know not now,
   but we shall know hereafter. Admirals, sometimes, when they are sent
   abroad, are not to open their commission till they have got so many
   leagues off at sea; so Jonah must go to Nineveh, and, when he comes
   there, shall be told what to say.

   III. He faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. When he came to
   Nineveh he found his diocese large; it was an exceedingly great city of
   three days' journey (v. 3); a city great to God, so the Hebrew phrase
   is, meaning no more than as we render it, exceedingly great; this
   honour that language does to the great God that great things derive
   their denomination from him. The greatness of Nineveh consisted chiefly
   in the extent of it; it was much larger than Babylon, such a city, says
   Diodorus Siculus, as no man ever after built. It was 150 furlongs long
   and 90 broad, and 480 in compass; the walls 100 feet high, and so thick
   that three chariots might go a-breast upon them; on them were 1500
   towers, each of them 200 feet high. It is here said to be of three
   days' journey; for the compass of the walls, as some relate, was 480
   furlongs, which, allowing eight furlongs to a mile, makes sixty miles,
   which may well be reckoned three days' journey for a footman, twenty
   miles a day. Or, walking slowly and gravely as Jonah must when he went
   about preaching, it would take him up at least three days to go through
   all the principal streets and lanes of the city, to proclaim his
   message, that all might have notice of it. When he came thither he lost
   no time; he did not come to look about him, but applied closely to his
   work; and, when he began to enter into the city, he did not retire into
   an inn, to refresh himself after his journey, but opened his commission
   immediately, according to his instructions, and he cried, and said, Yet
   forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. This, no doubt, he had
   particular warrant and direction to say; whether he enlarged upon this
   text, as is most probable, showing them the controversy God had with
   them, and how provoking their wickedness was, and what reason they had
   to expect destruction and give credit to this warning, or whether he
   only repeated those words again and again, is not certain, but this was
   the purport of his message. 1. He must tell them that this great city
   shall be overthrown; he meant, and they understood him, that it should
   be overthrown, not by war, but by some immediate stroke from heaven,
   either by an earthquake or by fire and brimstone as Sodom was. The
   wickedness of cities ripens them for destruction, and their wealth and
   greatness cannot protect them from destruction when the measure of
   their iniquity is full and the measure of their vengeance has come.
   Great cities are easily overthrown when the great God comes to reckon
   with them. 2. He must tell them that it shall shortly be overthrown, at
   the end of forty days. It has a reprieve granted. So long God will wait
   to see if, upon this alarm given, they will humble themselves and amend
   their doings, and so prevent the ruin threatened. See how slow God is
   to wrath; though Nineveh's wickedness cried for vengeance, yet it shall
   be spared for forty days, that it may have space to repent and meet God
   in the way of his judgments. But he will wait no longer; if in that
   time they turn not, they shall know that he has whet his sword, and
   made it ready. Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to defer
   his judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to
   repent and reform in, and so turn away the judgments coming. The fixing
   of the day thus, with all possible assurance, would help to convince
   them that it was a message from God, for no man durst be so positive in
   fixing a time, however he might prognosticate the thing itself; it
   would also startle them into preparation for it. It may justly awaken
   secure sinners by a sincere conversion to prevent their own ruin when
   they see they have but a little time to turn in. And should it not
   awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that the thing itself is
   certain, and the time fixed in the counsel of God, but that we are kept
   in the dark and uncertainty about it in order that we may be always
   ready? We cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days as Nineveh
   now was that it should stand forty days; nay, I think it is more
   probable that we shall die within thirty or forty days than we should
   live thirty or forty years; and so many years in the day of our
   security we are apt to promise ourselves.


   Fleres, si scires unum tua tempora mensem;

   Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.


   We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live

   a month, and yet we are careless, though we

   are not sure to live a day.

Nineveh's Repentance. (b. c. 840.)

   5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put
   on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.   6
   For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne,
   and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat
   in ashes.   7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through
   Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither
   man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor
   drink water:   8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and
   cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way,
   and from the violence that is in their hands.   9 Who can tell if God
   will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we
   perish not?   10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their
   evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would
   do unto them; and he did it not.

   Here is I. A wonder of divine grace in the repentance and reformation
   of Nineveh, upon the warning given them of their destruction
   approaching. Verily I say unto you, we have not found so great an
   instance of it, no, not in Israel; and it will rise up in judgment
   against the men of the gospel--generation, and condemn them; for the
   Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonas, but behold, a greater
   than Jonas is here, Matt. xii. 41. Nay, it did condemn the impenitence
   and obstinacy of Israel at that time. God sent many prophets to Israel,
   and those well known among them to be mighty in word and deed; but to
   Nineveh he sent only one, and him a stranger, whose aspect was mean, we
   may suppose, and his bodily presence weak, especially after the fatigue
   of so long a journey; and yet they repented, but Israel repented not.
   Jonah preached but one sermon, and we do not find that he gave them any
   sign or wonder by the accomplishment of which his word might be
   confirmed; and yet they were wrought upon, while Israel continued
   obstinate, whose prophets chose out words wherewith to reason with
   them, and confirmed them by signs following. Jonah only threatened
   wrath and ruin; we do not find that he gave them any calls to
   repentance or directions how to repent, much less any encouragements to
   hope that they should find mercy if they did repent, and yet they
   repented; but Israel persisted in impenitence, though the prophets sent
   to them drew them with cords of a man, and with bands of love, and
   assured them of great things which God would do for them if they did
   repent and reform. Now let us see what was the method of Nineveh's
   repentance, what were the steps and particular instances of it.

   1. They believed God; they gave credit to the word which Jonah spoke to
   them in the name of God: they believed that though they had many that
   they called gods, yet there was but one living and true God, the
   sovereign Lord of all,--that to him they were accountable,--that they
   had sinned against him and had become obnoxious to his justice,--that
   this notice sent them of ruin approaching came from him, and
   consequently that the ruin itself would come from him at a time
   prefixed if it were not prevented by a timely repentance,--that he is a
   merciful God, and there might be some hopes of the turning away of the
   wrath threatened, if they did turn away from the sins for which it was
   threatened. Note, Those that come to God, that come back to him after
   they have revolted from him, must believe, must believe that he is,
   that he is reconcilable, that he will be theirs if they take the right
   course. And observe what great faith God can work by very small, weak,
   and unlikely means; he can bring even Ninevites by a few threatening
   words to be obedient to the faith. Some think the Ninevites heard, from
   the mariners or others, or from Jonah himself, of his being cast into
   the sea and delivered thence by miracle, and that this served for a
   confirmation of his mission, and brought them the more readily to
   believe God speaking by him. But of this we have no certainty. However,
   Christ's resurrection, typified by that of Jonah's, served for the
   confirmation of his gospel, and contributed abundantly to their great
   success who in his name preached repentance and remission of sins to
   all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

   2. They brought word to the king of Nineveh, who, some think, was at
   this time Sardanapalus, others Pul, king of Assyria. Jonah was not
   directed to go to him first, in respect to his royal dignity; crowned
   heads, when guilty heads, are before God upon a level with common
   heads, and therefore Jonah is not sent to the court, but to the streets
   of Nineveh, to make his proclamation. However, an account of his errand
   is brought to the king of Nineveh, not by way of information against
   Jonah, as a disturber of public peace, that he might be silenced and
   punished, which perhaps would have been done if he had cried thus in
   the streets of Jerusalem, who killed God's prophets and stoned those
   that were sent unto her. No; the account was brought him of it, not as
   of a crime, but as a message from heaven, by some that were concerned
   for the public welfare, and whose hearts trembled for it. Note, Those
   kings are happy who have such about them as will give them notice of
   the things that belong to the kingdom's peace, of the warnings both of
   the word and of the providence of God, and of the tokens of God's
   displeasure which they are under; and those people are happy who have
   such kings over them as will take notice of those things.

   3. The king set them a good example of humiliation, v. 6. When he heard
   of the word of God sent to him he rose from his throne, as Eglon the
   king of Moab, who, when Ehud told him he had a message to him from God,
   rose up out of his seat. The king of Nineveh rose from his throne, not
   only in reverence to a word from God in general, but in fear of a word
   of wrath in particular, and in sorrow and shame for sin, by which he
   and his people had become obnoxious to his wrath. He rose from his
   royal throne, and laid aside his royal robe, the badge of his imperial
   dignity, as an acknowledgment that, having not used his power as he
   ought to have done for the restraining of violence and wrong, and the
   maintaining of right, he had forfeited his throne and robe to the
   justice of God, had rendered himself unworthy of the honour put upon
   him and the trust reposed in him as a king, and that it was just with
   God to take his kingdom from him. Even the king himself disdained not
   to put on the garb of a penitent, for he covered himself with
   sackcloth, and sat in ashes, in token of his humiliation for sin and
   his dread of divine vengeance. It well becomes the greatest of men to
   abase themselves before the great God.

   4. The people conformed to the example of the king, nay, it should
   seem, they led the way, for they first began to put on sackcloth, from
   the greatest of them even to the least of them, v. 5. The least of
   them, that had least to lose in the overthrow of the city, did not
   think themselves unconcerned in the alarm; and the greatest of them,
   that were accustomed to lie at ease and live in state, did not think it
   below them to put on the marks of humiliation. The wearing of
   sackcloth, especially to those who were used to fine linen, was a very
   uneasy thing, and they would not have done it if they had not had a
   deep sense of their sin and their danger by reason of sin, which hereby
   they designed to express. Note, Those that would not be ruined must be
   humbled, those that would not destroy their souls must afflict their
   souls; when God's judgments threaten us we are concerned to humble
   ourselves under his mighty hand; and though bodily exercise alone
   profits nothing, and man's spreading sackcloth and ashes under him, if
   that be all, is but a jest (it is the heart that God looks at, Isa.
   lviii. 5), yet on solemn days of humiliation, when God in his
   providence calls to mourning and girding with sackcloth, we must by the
   outward expressions of inward sorrow glorify God with our bodies, at
   least by laying aside their ornaments.

   5. A general fast was proclaimed and observed throughout that great
   city, v. 7-9. It was ordered by the decree of the king and his nobles;
   the whole legislative power concurred in appointing it, and the whole
   body of the people concurred in observing it, and in both these ways it
   became a national act, and it was necessary that it should be so when
   it was to prevent a national ruin. We have here the contents of this
   proclamation, and it is very observable. See here,

   (1.) What it is that is required by it. [1.] That the fast (properly so
   called) be very strictly observed. On the day appointed for this
   solemnity, let neither man or beast taste any thing; let them not take
   the least refreshment, no, no so much as drink water; let them not
   plead that they cannot fast so long without prejudice to their health,
   or that they cannot bear it; let them try for once. What if they do
   feel it an uneasiness, and feel from it for some time after? It is
   better to submit to that than be wanting in any act or instance of that
   repentance which is necessary to save a sinking city. Let them make
   themselves uneasy in body by putting on sackcloth, as well as by
   fasting, to show how uneasy they are in mind, through sorrow for sin
   and the fear of divine wrath. Even the beasts must do penance as well
   as man, because they have been made subject to vanity as instruments of
   man's sin, and that, either by their complaints or their silent pining
   for want of meat, they might stir up their owners, and those that
   attended them, to the expressions of sorrow and humiliation. Those
   cattle that were kept within doors must not be fed and watered as
   usual, because no meat must be stirring on that day. Things of that
   kind must be forgotten, and not minded. As when the psalmist was intent
   upon the praises of God he called upon the inferior creatures to join
   with him therein, so when the Ninevites were full of sorrow for sin,
   and dread of God's judgments, they would have the inferior creatures
   concur with them in the expressions of penitence. The beasts that used
   to be covered with rich and fine trappings, which were the pride of
   their masters, and theirs too, must now be covered with sackcloth; for
   the great men will (as becomes them) lay aside their equipage. [2.]
   With their fasting and mourning they must join prayer and supplication
   to God; for the fasting is designed to fit the body for the service of
   the soul in the duty of prayer, which is the main matter, and to which
   the other is but preparatory or subservient. Let them cry mightily to
   God; let even the brute creatures do it according to their capacity;
   let their cries and moans for want of food be graciously construed as
   cries to God, as the cries of the young ravens are (Job xxxviii. 41),
   and of the young lions, Ps. civ. 21. But especially let the men, women,
   and children, cry to God; let them cry mightily for the pardon of the
   sins which cry against them. It was time to cry to God when there was
   but a step between them and ruin--high time to seek the Lord. In prayer
   we must cry mightily, with a fixedness of thought, firmness of faith,
   and fervour of pious and devout affections. By crying mightily we
   wrestle with God; we take hold of him; and we are concerned to do so
   when he is not only departing from us as a friend, but coming forth
   against us as an enemy. It therefore concerns us in prayer to stir up
   all that is within us. Yet this is not all; [3.] They must to their
   fasting and praying add reformation and amendment of life: Let them
   turn every one from his evil way, the evil way he has chosen, the evil
   way he is addicted to, and walks in, the evil way of his heart, and the
   evil way of his conversation, and particularly from the violence that
   is in their hands; let them restore what they had unjustly taken, and
   make reparation for what wrong they have done, and let them not any
   more oppress those they have power over nor defraud those they have
   dealings with; let the men in authority, at the court-end of the town,
   turn from the violence that is in their hands, and not decree
   unrighteous decrees, nor give wrong judgment upon appeals made to them.
   Let the men of business, at the trading-end of the town, turn from the
   violence in their hands, and use no unjust weights or measures, nor
   impose upon the ignorance or necessity of those they trade with. Note,
   It is not enough to fast for sin, but we must fast from sin, and, in
   order to the success of our prayers, must no more regard iniquity in
   our hearts, Ps. lxvi. 18. This is the only fast that God has chosen and
   will accept, Isa. lviii. 6; Zech. vii. 5, 9. The work of a fast-day is
   not done with the day; no, then the hardest and most needful part of
   the work begins, which is to turn from sin, and to live a new life, and
   not return with the dog to his vomit.

   (2.) Upon what inducement this fast is proclaimed and religiously
   observed (v. 9). Who can tell if God will turn and repent? Observe,
   [1.] What it is that they hope for--that God will, upon their repenting
   and turning, change his way towards them and revoke his sentence
   against them, that he will turn from his fierce anger, which they own
   they deserve and yet humbly and earnestly deprecate, and that thus
   their ruin will be prevented, and they perish not. They cannot object
   against the equity of the judgment, they pretend not to set it aside by
   appealing to a higher court, but hope in God himself, that he will
   repent, and that his own mercy (to which they fly) shall rejoice
   against judgment. They believe that God is justly angry with them,
   that, their sin being very heinous, his anger is very fierce, and that,
   if he proceed against them, there is no remedy, but they die, they
   perish, they all perish, and are undone; for who knows the power of his
   anger? It is not therefore the threatened overthrow that they pray for
   the prevention of, but the anger of God that they pray for the turning
   away of. As when we pray for the favour of God we pray for all good, so
   when we pray against the wrath of God we pray against all evil. [2.]
   What degree of hope they had of it: Who can tell if God will turn to
   us? Jonah had not told them; they had not among them any other prophets
   to tell them, so that they could not be so confident of finding mercy
   upon their repentance as we may be, who have the promise and oath of
   God to depend upon, and especially the merit and mediation of Christ to
   trust to, for pardon upon repentance. Yet they had a general notion of
   the goodness of God's nature, his mercy to man, and his being pleased
   with the repentance and conversion of sinners; and from this they
   raised some hopes that he would spare them; they dare not presume, but
   they will not despair. Note, Hope of mercy is the great encouragement
   to repentance and reformation; and though there be but some glimmerings
   of hope mixed with great fears arising from a sense of our own
   sinfulness, and unworthiness, and long abuse of divine patience, yet
   they may serve to quicken and engage our serious repentance and
   reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves at the footstool of free
   grace, resolving that if we perish, we will perish there; yet who knows
   but God will look upon us with compassion?

   II. Here is a wonder of divine mercy in the sparing of these Ninevites
   upon their repentance (v. 10): God saw their works; he not only heard
   their good words, by which they professed repentance, but saw their
   good works, by which they brought forth fruits meet for repentance; he
   saw that they turned from their evil way, and that was the thing he
   looked for and required. If he had not seen that, their fasting and
   sackcloth would have been as nothing in his account. He saw there was
   among them a general conviction of their sins and a general resolution
   not to return to them, and that for some days they lived better, and
   there was a new face of things upon the city; and this he was well
   pleased with. Note, God takes notice of every instance of the
   reformation of sinners, even those instances that fall not under the
   cognizance and observation of the world. He sees who turn from their
   evil way and who do not, and meets those with favour that meet him in a
   sincere conversion. When they repent of the evil of sin committed by
   them he repents of the evil of judgment pronounced against them. Thus
   he spared Nineveh, and did not the evil which he said he would do
   against it. Here were no sacrifices offered to God, that we read of, to
   make atonement for sin, but the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a
   broken and contrite heart, such as the Ninevites now had, is what he
   will not despise; it is what he will give countenance to and put honour
   upon.
     __________________________________________________________________

J O N A H.

  CHAP. IV.

   We read, with a great deal of pleasure, in the close of the foregoing
   chapter, concerning the repentance of Nineveh; but in this chapter we
   read, with a great deal of uneasiness, concerning the sin of Jonah;
   and, as there is joy in heaven and earth for the conversion of sinners,
   so there is grief for the follies and infirmities of saints. In all the
   book of God we scarcely find a "servant of the Lord" (and such a one we
   are sure Jonah was, for the scripture calls him so) so very much out of
   temper as he is here, so very peevish and provoking to God himself. In
   the first chapter we had him fleeing from the face of God; but here we
   have him, in effect, flying in the face of God; and, which is more
   grieving to us, there we had an account of his repentance and return to
   God; but here, though no doubt he did repent, yet, as in Solomon's
   case, no account is left us of his recovering himself; but, while we
   read with wonder of his perverseness, we read with no less wonder of
   God's tenderness towards him, by which it appeared that he had not cast
   him off. Here is, I. Jonah's repining at God's mercy to Nineveh, and
   the fret he was in about it, ver. 1-3. II. The gentle reproof God gave
   him for it, ver. 4. III. Jonah's discontent at the withering of the
   gourd, and his justifying himself in that discontent, ver. 5-9. IV.
   God's improving it for his conviction, that he ought not to be angry at
   the sparing of Nineveh, ver. 10-11. Man's badness and God's goodness
   serve here for a foil to each other, that the former may appear the
   more exceedingly sinful and the latter the more exceedingly gracious.

The Prophet's Discontent. (b. c. 840.)

   1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.   2 And
   he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my
   saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto
   Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow
   to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.   3
   Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is
   better for me to die than to live.   4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou
   well to be angry?

   See here, I. How unjustly Jonah quarrelled with God for his mercy to
   Nineveh, upon their repentance. This gives us occasion to suspect that
   Jonah had only delivered the message of wrath against the Ninevites,
   and had not at all assisted or encouraged them in their repentance, as
   one would think he should have done; for when they did repent, and
   found mercy,

   1. Jonah grudged them the mercy they found (v. 1): It displeased Jonah
   exceedingly; and (would you think it?) he was very angry, was in a
   great heat about it. It was very wrong, (1.) That he had so little
   government of himself as to be displeased and very angry; he had no
   rule over his own spirit, and therefore, as a city broken down, lay
   exposed to temptations and snares. (2.) That he had so little reverence
   of God as to be displeased and angry at what he did, as David was when
   the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza; whatever pleases God should
   please us, and, though we cannot account for it, yet we must acquiesce
   in it. (3.) That he had so little affection for men as to be displeased
   and very angry at the conversion of the Ninevites and their reception
   into the divine favour. This was the sin of the scribes and Pharisees,
   who murmured at our Saviour because he entertained publicans and
   sinners; but is our eye evil because his is good? But why was Jonah so
   uneasy at it, that the Ninevites repented and were spared? It cannot be
   expected that we should give any good reason for a thing so very absurd
   and unreasonable; no, nor any thing that has the face or colour of a
   reason; but we may conjecture what the provocation was. Hot spirits are
   usually high spirits. Only by pride comes contention both with God and
   man. It was a point of honour that Jonah stood upon and that made him
   angry. [1.] He was jealous for the honour of his country; the
   repentance and reformation of Nineveh shamed the obstinacy of Israel
   that repented not, but hated to be reformed; and the favour God had
   shown to these Gentiles, upon their repentance, was an ill omen to the
   Jewish nation, as if they should be (as at length they were) rejected
   and cast out of the church and the Gentiles substituted in their room.
   When it was intimated to St. Peter himself that he should make no
   difference between Jews and Gentiles he startled at the thing, and
   said, Not so, Lord; no marvel then that Jonah looked upon it with
   regret that Nineveh should become a favourite. Jonah herein had a zeal
   for God as the God of Israel in a particular manner, but not according
   to knowledge. Note, Many are displeased with God under pretence of
   concern for his glory. [2.] He was jealous for his own honour, fearing
   lest, if Nineveh was not destroyed within forty days, he should be
   accounted a false prophet, and stigmatized accordingly; whereas he
   needed not be under any discontent about that, for in the threatening
   of ruin it was implied that, for the preventing of it, they should
   repent, and, if they did, it should be prevented. And no one will
   complain of being deceived by him that is better than his word; and he
   would rather gain honour among them, by being instrumental to save
   them, than fall under any disgrace. But melancholy men (and such a one
   Jonah seems to have been) are apt to make themselves uneasy by fancying
   evils to themselves that are not, nor are ever likely to be. Most of
   our frets, as well as our frights, are owing to the power of
   imagination; and those are to be pitied as perfect bond-slaves that are
   under the power of such a tyrant.

   2. He quarreled with God about it. When his heart was hot within him,
   he spoke unadvisedly with his lips; and here he tells us what he said
   (v. 2, 3): He prayed unto the Lord, but it is a very awkward prayer,
   not like that which he prayed in the fish's belly; for affliction
   teaches us to pray submissively, which Jonah now forgot to do. Being in
   discontent, he applied to the duty of prayer, as he used to do in his
   troubles, but his corruptions got head of his graces, and, when he
   should have been praying for benefit by the mercy of God himself, he
   was complaining of the benefit others had by that mercy. Nothing could
   be spoken more unbecomingly. (1.) He now begins to justify himself in
   fleeing from the presence of the Lord, when he was first ordered to go
   to Nineveh, for which he had before, with good reason, condemned
   himself: "Lord," said he, "was not this my saying when I was in my own
   country? Did I not foresee that if I went to preach to Nineveh they
   would repent, and thou wouldst forgive them, and then thy word would be
   reflected upon and reproached as yea and nay?" What a strange sort of
   man was Jonah, to dread the success of his ministry! Many have been
   tempted to withdraw from their work because they had despaired of doing
   good by it, but Jonah declined preaching because he was afraid of doing
   good by it; and still he persists in the same corrupt notion, for, it
   seems, the whale's belly itself could not cure him of it. It was his
   saying when he was in his own country, but it was a bad saying; yet
   here he stands to it, and, very unlike the other prophets, desires the
   woeful day which he had foretold and grieves because it does not come.
   Even Christ's disciples know not what manner of spirit they are of;
   those did not who wished for fire from heaven upon the city that did
   not receive them, much less did Jonah, who wished for fire from heaven
   upon the city that did receive him, Luke ix. 55. Jonah thinks he has
   reason to complain of that, when it is done, which he was before afraid
   of; so hard is it to get a root of bitterness plucked out of the mind,
   when once it is fastened there. And why did Jonah expect that God would
   spare Nineveh? Because I knew that thou was a gracious God, indulgent
   and easily pleased, that thou wast slow to anger and of great kindness,
   and repentest thee of the evil. All this is very true; and Jonah could
   not but know it by God's proclamation of his name and the experiences
   of all ages; but it is strange and very unaccountable that that which
   all the saints had made the matter of their joy and praise Jonah should
   make the matter of reflection upon God, as if that were an imperfection
   of the divine nature which is indeed the greatest glory of it--that God
   is gracious and merciful. The servant that said, I knew thee to be a
   hard man, said that which was false, and yet, had it been true, it was
   not the proper matter of a complaint; but Jonah, though he says what is
   true, yet, speaking it by way of reproach, speaks very absurdly. Those
   have a spirit of contention and contradiction indeed that can find in
   their hearts to quarrel with the goodness of God, and his sparing
   pardoning mercy, to which we all owe it that we are out of hell. This
   is making that to be to us a savour of death unto death which ought to
   be a savour of life unto life. (2.) In a passion, he wishes for death
   (v. 3), a strange expression of his causeless passion! "Now, O Lord!
   take, I beseech thee, my life from me. If Nineveh must live, let me
   die, rather than see thy word and mine disproved, rather than see the
   glory of Israel transferred to the Gentiles," as if there were not
   grace enough in God both for Jews and Gentiles, or as if his countrymen
   were the further off from mercy for the Ninevites being taken into
   favour. When the prophet Elijah had laboured in vain, he wished he
   might die, and it was his infirmity, 1 Kings xix. 4. But Jonah labours
   to good purpose, saves a great city from ruin, and yet wishes he may
   die, as if, having done much good, he were afraid of living to do more;
   he sees of the travail of his soul, and is dissatisfied. What a
   perverse spirit is mingled with every word he says! When Jonah was
   brought alive out of the whale's belly, he thought life a very valuable
   mercy, and was thankful to that God who brought up his life from
   corruption, (ch. ii. 6), and a great blessing his life had been to
   Nineveh; yet now, for that very reason, it became a burden to himself
   and he begs to be eased of it, pleading, It is better for me to die
   than to live. Such a word as this may be the language of grace, as it
   was in Paul, who desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far
   better; but here it was the language of folly, and passion, and strong
   corruption; and so much the worse, [1.] Jonah being now in the midst of
   his usefulness, and therefore fit to live. He was one whose ministry
   God wonderfully owned and prospered. The conversion of Nineveh might
   give him hopes of being instrumental to convert the whole kingdom of
   Assyria; it was therefore very absurd for him to wish he might die when
   he had a prospect of living to so good a purpose and could be so ill
   spared. [2.] Jonah being now so much out of temper and therefore unfit
   to die. How durst he think of dying, and going to appear before God's
   judgment-seat, when he was actually quarrelling with him? Was this a
   frame of spirit proper for a man to go out of the world in? But those
   who passionately desire death commonly have least reason to do it, as
   being very much unprepared for it. Our business is to get ready to die
   by doing the work of life, and then to refer ourselves to God to take
   away our life when and how he pleases.

   II. See how justly God reproved Jonah for this heat that he was in (v.
   4): The Lord said, Doest thou well to be angry? Is doing well a
   displeasure to thee? so some read it. What! dost thou repent of thy
   good deeds? God might justly have rejected him for this impious heat
   which he was in, might justly have taken him at his word, and have
   struck him dead when he wished to die; but he vouchsafes to reason with
   him for his conviction and to bring him to a better temper, as the
   father of the prodigal reasoned with his elder son, when, as Jonah
   here, he murmured at the remission and reception of his brother. Doest
   thou well to be angry? See how mildly the great God speaks to this
   foolish man, to teach us to restore those that have fallen with a
   spirit of meekness, and with soft answers to turn away wrath. God
   appeals to himself and to his own conscience: "Doest thou well? Thou
   knowest thou does not." We should often put this question to ourselves,
   Is it well to say thus, to do thus? Can I justify it? Must I not unsay
   it and undo it again by repentance, or be undone forever? Ask, 1. Do I
   well to be angry? When passion is up, let it meet with this check, "Do
   I well to be so soon angry, so often angry, so long angry, to put
   myself into such a heat, and to give others such ill language in my
   anger? Is this well, that I suffer these headstrong passions to get
   dominion over me?" 2. "Do I well to be angry at the mercy of God to
   repenting sinners?" That was Jonah's crime. Do we do well to be angry
   at that which is so much for the glory of God and the advancement of
   his kingdom among men--to be angry at that which angels rejoice in and
   for which abundant thanksgivings will be rendered to God? We do ill to
   be angry at that grace which we ourselves need and are undone without;
   if room were not left for repentance, and hope given of pardon upon
   repentance, what would become of us? Let the conversion of sinners,
   which is the joy of heaven, be our joy, and never our grief.

The Prophet's Discontent; The Withering of the Prophet's Gourd; God's
Remonstrance with Jonah. (b. c. 840.)

   5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city,
   and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he
   might see what would become of the city.   6 And the Lord God prepared
   a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow
   over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding
   glad of the gourd.   7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose
   the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.   8 And it came
   to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east
   wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and
   wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to
   live.   9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the
   gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.   10 Then
   said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast
   not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and
   perished in a night:   11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great
   city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot
   discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much
   cattle?

   Jonah persists here in his discontent; for the beginning of strife both
   with God and man is as the letting forth of waters, the breach grows
   wider and wider, and, when passion gets head, bad is made worse; it
   should therefore be silenced and suppressed at first. We have here,

   I. Jonah's sullen expectation of the fate of Nineveh. We may suppose
   that the Ninevites, giving credit to the message he brought, were ready
   to give entertainment to the messenger that brought it, and to show him
   respect, that they would have made him welcome to the best of their
   houses and tables. But Jonah was out of humour, would not accept their
   kindness, nor behave towards them with common civility, which one might
   have feared would have prejudiced them against him and his word; but
   when there is not only the treasure put into earthen vessels, but the
   trust lodged with men subject to like passions as we are, and yet the
   point gained, it must be owned that the excellency of the power appears
   so much the more to be of God and not of man. Jonah retires, goes out
   of the city, sits alone, and keeps silence, because he sees the
   Ninevites repent and reform, v. 5. Perhaps he told those about him that
   he went out of the city for fear of perishing in the ruins of it; but
   he went to see what would become of the city, as Abraham went up to see
   what would become of Sodom, Gen. xix. 27. The forty days were now
   expiring, or had expired, and Jonah hoped that, if Nineveh was not
   overthrown, yet some judgement or other would come upon it, sufficient
   to save his credit; however, it was with great uneasiness that he
   waited the issue. He would not sojourn in a house, expecting it would
   fall upon his head, but he made himself a booth of the boughs of trees,
   and sat in that, though there he would lie exposed to wind and weather.
   Note, It is common for those that have fretful uneasy spirits
   industriously to create inconveniences themselves, that, resolving to
   complain, they may still have something to complain of.

   II. God's gracious provision for his shelter and refreshment when he
   thus foolishly afflicted himself and was still adding yet more and more
   to his own affliction, v. 6. Jonah was sitting in his booth, fretting
   at the cold of the night and the heat of the day, which were both
   grievous to him, and God might have said, It is his own choice, his own
   doing, a house of his own building, let him make the best of it; but he
   looked on him with compassion, as the tender mother does on the froward
   child, and relieved him against the grievances which he by his own
   wilfulness created to himself. He prepared a gourd, a plant with broad
   leaves, and full of them, that suddenly grew up, and covered his hut or
   booth, so as to keep off much of the injury of the cold and heat. It
   was a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief, that, being
   refreshed in body, he might the better guard against the uneasiness of
   his mind, which outward crosses and troubles are often the occasion and
   increase of. See how tender God is of his people in their afflictions,
   yea, though they are foolish and froward, nor is he extreme to mark
   what they do amiss. God had before prepared a great fish to secure
   Jonah from the injuries of the water, and here a great gourd to secure
   him from the injuries of the air; for he is the protector of his people
   against evils of every kind, has the command of plants as well as
   animals, and can soon prepare them, to make them serve his purposes,
   can make their growth sudden, which, in a course of nature, is slow and
   gradual. A gourd, one would think, was but a slender fortification at
   the best, yet Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd; for, 1. It was
   really at that time a great comfort to him. A thing in itself small and
   inconsiderable, yet, coming seasonably, may be to us a very valuable
   blessing. A gourd in the right place may do us more service than a
   cedar. The least creatures may be great plagues (as flies and lice were
   to Pharaoh) or great comforts (as the gourd to Jonah), according as God
   is pleased to make them. 2. He being now much under the power of
   imagination took a greater complacency in it than there was cause for.
   He was exceedingly glad of it, was proud of it, and triumphed in it.
   Note, Persons of strong passions, as they are apt to be cast down with
   a trifle that crosses them, so they are apt to be lifted up with a
   trifle that pleases them. A small toy will serve sometimes to pacify a
   cross child, as the gourd did Jonah. But wisdom and grace would teach
   us both to weep for our troubles as though we wept not, and to rejoice
   in our comforts as though we rejoiced not. Creature-comforts we ought
   to enjoy and be thankful for, but we need not be exceedingly glad of
   them; it is God only that must be our exceeding joy, Ps. xliii. 4.

   III. The sudden loss of this provision which God had made for his
   refreshment, and the return of his trouble, v. 7, 8. God that had
   provided comfort for him provided also an affliction for him in that
   very thing which was his comfort; the affliction did not come by
   chance, but by divine direction and appointment. 1. God prepared a worm
   to destroy the gourd. He that gave took away, and Jonah ought to have
   blessed his name in both; but because, when he took the comfort of the
   gourd, he did not give God the praise of it, God deprived him of the
   benefit of it, and justly. See what all our creature-comforts are, and
   what we may expect them to be; they are gourds, have their root in the
   earth, are but a thin and slender defence compared with the rock of
   ages; they are withering things; they perish in the using, and we are
   soon deprived of the comfort of them. The gourd withered the next day
   after it sprang up; our comforts come forth like flowers and are soon
   cut down. When we please ourselves most with them, and promise
   ourselves most from them, we are disappointed. A little thing withers
   them; a small worm at the root destroys a large gourd. Something unseen
   and undiscerned does it. Our gourds wither, and we know not what to
   attribute it to. And perhaps those wither first that we have been more
   exceedingly glad of; that proves least safe that is most dear. God did
   not send an angel to pluck up Jonah's gourd, but sent a worm to smite
   it; there it grew still, but it stood him in no stead. Perhaps our
   creature-comforts are continued to us, but they are embittered; the
   creature is continued, but the comfort is gone; and the remains, or
   ruins of it rather, do but upbraid us with our folly in being
   exceedingly glad of it. 2. He prepared a wind to make Jonah feel the
   want of the gourd, v. 8. It was a vehement east wind, which drove the
   heat of the rising sun violently upon the head of Jonah. This wind was
   not as a fan to abate the heat, but as bellows to make it more intense.
   Thus poor Jonah lay open to sun and wind.

   IV. The further fret that this put Jonah into (v. 8): He fainted, and
   wished in himself that he might die. "If the gourd be killed, if the
   gourd be dead, kill me too, let me die with the gourd." Foolish man,
   that thinks his life bound up in the life of a weed! Note, It is just
   that those who love to complain should never be left without something
   to complain of, that their folly may be manifested and corrected, and,
   if possible, cured. And see here how the passions that run into an
   extreme one way commonly run into an extreme the other way. Jonah, who
   was in transports of joy when the gourd flourished, is in pangs of
   grief when the gourd has withered. Inordinate affection lays a
   foundation for inordinate affliction; what we are over-fond of when we
   have it we are apt to over-grieve for when we lose it, and we may see
   our folly in both.

   V. The rebuke God gave him for this; he again reasoned with him: Dost
   thou well to be angry for the gourd? v. 9. Note, The withering of a
   gourd is a thing which it does not become us to be angry at. When
   afflicting providences deprive us of our relations, possessions, and
   enjoyments, we must bear it patiently, must not be angry at God, must
   not be angry for the gourd. It is comparatively but a small loss, the
   loss of a shadow; that is the most we can make of it. It was a gourd, a
   withering thing; we could expect no other than that it should wither.
   Our being angry for the withering of it will not recover it; we
   ourselves shall shortly wither like it. If one gourd be withered,
   another gourd may spring up in the room of it; but that which should
   especially silence our discontent is that though our gourd be gone our
   God is not gone, and there is enough in him to make up all our losses.

   Let us therefore own that we do ill, that we do very ill, to be angry
   for the gourd; and let us under such events quiet ourselves as a child
   that is weaned from his mother.

   VI. His justification of his passion and discontent; and it is very
   strange, v. 9. He said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. It is
   bad to speak amiss, yet if it be in haste, if what is said amiss be
   speedily recalled and unsaid again, it is the more excusable; but to
   speak amiss and stand to it is bad indeed. So Jonah did here, though
   God himself rebuked him, and by appealing to his conscience expected he
   would rebuke himself. See what brutish things ungoverned passions are,
   and how much it is our interest, and ought to be our endeavour, to
   chain up these roaring lions and ranging bears. Sin and death are two
   very dreadful things, yet Jonah, in his heat, makes light of them both.
   1. He has so little regard for God as to fly in the face of his
   authority, and to say that he did well in that which God said was ill
   done. Passion often over-rules conscience, and forces it, when it is
   appealed to, to give a false judgment, as Jonah here did. 2. He has so
   little regard to himself as to abandon his own life, and to think it no
   harm to indulge his passion even to death, to kill himself with
   fretting. We read of wrath that kills the foolish man, and envy that
   slays the silly one (Job v. 2), and foolish silly ones indeed those are
   that cut their own throats with their own passions, that fret
   themselves into consumptions and other weaknesses, and put themselves
   into fevers with their own intemperate heats.

   VII. The improvement of it against him for his conviction that he did
   ill to murmur at the sparing of Nineveh. Out of his own mouth God will
   judge him; and we have reason to think it overcame him; for he made no
   reply, but, we hope, returned to his right mind and recovered his
   temper, though he could not keep it, and all was well. Now,

   1. Let us see how God argued with him (v. 10, 11): "Thou hast had pity
   on the gourd, hast spared it" (so the word is), "didst what thou
   couldst, and wouldst have done more, to keep it alive, and saidst, What
   a pity it is that this gourd should ever wither! and should not I then
   spare Nineveh? Should not I have as much compassion upon that as thou
   hadst upon the gourd, and forbid the earthquake which would ruin that,
   as thou wouldst have forbidden the worm that smote the gourd?
   Consider," (1.) "The gourd thou hadst pity on was but one; but the
   inhabitants of Nineveh, whom I have pity on, are numerous." It is a
   great city and very populous, as appears by the number of the infants,
   suppose from two years old and under; there are 120,000 such in
   Nineveh, that have not come to so much use of understanding as to know
   their right hand from their left, for they are yet but babes. These are
   taken notice of because the age of infants is commonly looked upon as
   the age of innocence. So many there were in Nineveh that had not been
   guilty of any actual transgression, and consequently had not themselves
   contributed to the common guilt, and yet, if Nineveh had been
   overthrown, they would all have been involved in the common calamity;
   "and shall not I spare Nineveh then, with an eye to them?" God has a
   tender regard to little children, and is ready to pity and succour
   them, nay, here a whole city is spared for their sakes, which may
   encourage parents to present their children to God by faith and prayer,
   that though they are not capable of doing him any service (for they
   cannot discern between their right hand and their left, between good
   and evil, sin and duty), yet they are capable of participating in his
   favours and of obtaining salvation. The great Saviour discovered a
   particular kindness for the children that were brought to him, when he
   took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
   Nay, God took notice of the abundance of cattle too that were in
   Nineveh, which he had more reason to pity and spare than Jonah had to
   pity and to spare the gourd, inasmuch as the animal life is more
   excellent than the vegetable. (2.) The gourd which Jonah was concerned
   for was none of his own; it was that for which he did not labour and
   which he made not to grow; but the persons in Nineveh whom God had
   compassion on were all the work of his own hands, whose being he was
   the author of, whose lives he was the preserver of, whom he planted and
   made to grow; he made them, and his they were, and therefore he had
   much more reason to have compassion on them, for he cannot despise the
   work of his own hands (Job x. 3); and thus Job there argues with him
   (v. 8, 9), Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me, have made me as
   the clay; and wilt thou destroy me, wilt thou bring me into dust again?
   And thus he here argues with himself. (3.) The gourd which Jonah had
   pity on was of a sudden growth, and therefore of less value; it came up
   in a night, it was the son of a night (so the word is); but Nineveh is
   an ancient city, of many ages standing, and therefore cannot be so
   easily given up; "the persons I spare have been many years in growing
   up, not so soon reared as the gourd; and shall not I then have pity on
   those that have been so many years the care of my providence, so many
   years my tenants?" (4.) The gourd which Jonah had pity on perished in a
   night; it withered, and there was an end of it. But the precious souls
   in Nineveh that God had pity on are not so short-lived; they are
   immortal, and therefore to be carefully and tenderly considered. One
   soul is of more value than the whole world, and the gain of the world
   will not countervail the loss of it; surely then one soul is of more
   value than many gourds, of more value than many sparrows; so God
   accounts, and so should we, and therefore have a greater concern for
   the children of men than for any of the inferior creatures, and for our
   own and others' precious souls than for any of the riches and
   enjoyments of this world.

   2. From all this we may learn, (1.) That though God may suffer his
   people to fall into sin, yet he will not suffer them to lie still in
   it, but will take a course effectually to show them their error, and to
   bring them to themselves and to their right mind again. We have reason
   to hope that Jonah, after this, was well reconciled to the sparing of
   Nineveh, and was as well pleased with it as ever he had been
   displeased. (2.) That God will justify himself in the methods of his
   grace towards repenting returning sinners as well as in the course his
   justice takes with those that persist in their rebellion; though there
   be those that murmur at the mercy of God, because they do not
   understand it (for his thoughts and ways therein are as far above ours
   as heaven above the earth), yet he will make it evident that therein he
   acts like himself, and will be justified when he speaks. See what pains
   he takes with Jonah to convince him that it is very fit that Nineveh
   should be spared. Jonah had said, I do well to be angry, but he could
   not prove it. God says and proves it, I do well to be merciful; and it
   is a great encouragement to poor sinners to hope that they shall find
   mercy with him, that he is so ready to justify himself in showing mercy
   and to triumph in those whom he makes the monuments of it, against
   those whose eye is evil because his is good. Such murmurers shall be
   made to understand this doctrine, that, how narrow soever their souls,
   their principles, are, and how willing soever they are to engross
   divine grace to themselves and those of their own way, there is one
   Lord over all, that is rich in mercy to all that call upon him, and in
   every nation, in Nineveh as well as in Israel, he that fears God and
   works righteousness is accepted of him; he that repents, and turns from
   his evil way, shall find mercy with him.
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Micah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

M I C A H.
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   We shall have some account of this prophet in the first verse of the
   book of his prophecy; and therefore shall here only observe that, being
   contemporary with the prophet Isaiah (only that he began to prophesy a
   little after him), there is a near resemblance between that prophet's
   prophecy and this; and there is a prediction of the advancement and
   establishment of the gospel-church, which both of them have, almost in
   the same words, that out of the mouth of two such witnesses so great a
   word might be established. Compare Isa. ii. 2, 3, with Mic. iv. 1, 2.
   Isaiah's prophecy is said to be concerning Judah and Jerusalem, but
   Micah's concerning Samaria and Jerusalem; for, though this prophecy be
   dated only by the reigns of the kings of Judah, yet it refers to the
   kingdom of Israel, the approaching ruin of which, in the captivity of
   the ten tribes, he plainly foretels and sadly laments. What we find
   here in writing was but an abstract of the sermons he preached during
   the reigns of three kings. The scope of the whole is, I. To convince
   sinners of their sins, by setting them in order before them, charging
   both Israel and Judah with idolatry, covetousness, oppression, contempt
   of the word of God, and their rulers especially, both in church and
   state, with the abuse of their power; and also by showing them the
   judgments of God ready to break in upon them for their sins. II. To
   comfort God's people with promises of mercy and deliverance, especially
   with an assurance of the coming of the Messiah and of the grace of the
   gospel through him. It is remarkable concerning this prophecy, and
   confirms its authority, that we find two quotations out of it made
   publicly upon very solemn occasions, and both referring to very great
   events. 1. One is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (ch.
   iii. 12), which we find quoted in the Old Testament, by the elders of
   the land (Jer. xxvi. 17, 18), in justification of Jeremiah, when he
   foretold the judgments of God coming upon Jerusalem, and to stay the
   proceedings of the court against him. "Micah (say they) foretold that
   Zion should be ploughed as a field, and Hezekiah did not put him to
   death; why then should we punish Jeremiah for saying the same?" 2.
   Another is a prediction of the birth of Christ (ch. v. 2) which we find
   quoted in the New Testament, by the chief priests and scribes of the
   people, in answer to Herod's enquiry, where Christ should be born
   (Matt. ii. 5, 6); for still we find that to him bear all the prophets
   witness.
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M I C A H.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. The title of the book (ver. 1) and a
   preface demanding attention, ver. 2. II. Warning given of desolating
   judgments hastening upon the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (ver. 3, 4),
   and all for sin, ver. 5. III. The particulars of the destruction
   specified, ver. 6, 7. IV. The greatness of the destruction illustrated,
   1. By the prophet's sorrow for it, ver. 8, 9. 2. By the general sorrow
   that should be for it, in the several places that must expect to share
   in it, ver. 10-16. These prophecies of Micah might well be called his
   lamentations.

Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 743.)

   1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of
   Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning
   Samaria and Jerusalem.   2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and
   all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the
   Lord from his holy temple.   3 For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out
   of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the
   earth.   4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys
   shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are
   poured down a steep place.   5 For the transgression of Jacob is all
   this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the
   transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places
   of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?   6 Therefore I will make Samaria as
   a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour
   down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the
   foundations thereof.   7 And all the graven images thereof shall be
   beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the
   fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered
   it of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an
   harlot.

   Here is, I. A general account of this prophet and his prophecy, v. 1.
   This is prefixed for the satisfaction of all that read and hear the
   prophecy of this book, who will give the more credit to it when they
   know the author and his authority. 1. The prophecy is the word of the
   Lord; it is a divine revelation. Note, What is written in the Bible,
   and what is preached by the ministers of Christ according to what is
   written there, must be heard and received, not as the word of dying
   men, which we may be judges of, but as the word of the living God,
   which we must be judged by, for so it is. This word of the Lord came to
   the prophet, came plainly, came powerfully, came in a preventing way,
   and he saw it, saw the vision in which it was conveyed to him, saw the
   things themselves which he foretold, with as much clearness and
   certainty as if they had been already accomplished. 2. The prophet is
   Micah the Morasthite; his name Micah is a contraction of Micaiah, the
   name of a prophet some ages before (in Ahab's time, 1 Kings xxii. 8);
   his surname, the Morasthite, signifies that he was born, or lived, at
   Moresheth, which is mentioned here (v. 14), or Mareshah, which is
   mentioned v. 15, and Josh. xv. 44. The place of his abode is mentioned,
   that any one might enquire in that place, at that time, and might find
   there was, or had been, such a one there, who was generally reputed to
   be a prophet. 3. The date of his prophecy is in the reigns of three
   kings of Judah--Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Ahaz was one of the worst
   of Judah's kings, and Hezekiah one of the best; such variety of times
   pass over God's ministers, times that frown and times that smile, to
   each of which they must study to accommodate themselves, and to arm
   themselves against the temptations of both. The promises and
   threatenings of this book are interwoven, by which it appears that even
   in the wicked reign he preached comfort, and said to the righteous then
   that it should be well with them; and that in the pious reign he
   preached conviction, and said to the wicked then that it should be ill
   with them; for, however the times change, the word of the Lord is still
   the same. 4. The parties concerned in this prophecy; it is concerning
   Samaria and Jerusalem, the head cities of the two kingdoms of Israel
   and Judah, under the influence of which the kingdoms themselves were.
   Though the ten tribes have deserted the houses both of David and Aaron,
   yet God is pleased to send prophets to them.

   II. A very solemn introduction to the following prophecy (v. 2), in
   which, 1. The people are summoned to draw near and give their
   attendance, as upon a court of judicature: Hear, all you people, Note,
   Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear; we all
   must, for we are all concerned in what is delivered. "Hear, you people"
   (all of them, so the margin reads it), "all you that are now within
   hearing, and all others that hear it at second hand." It is an unusual
   construction; but those words with which Micah begins his prophecy are
   the very same in the original with those wherewith Micaiah ended his, 1
   Kings xxii. 28. 2. The earth is called upon, with all that therein is,
   to hear what the prophet has to say: Hearken, O earth! The earth shall
   be made to shake under the stroke and weight of the judgments coming;
   sooner will the earth hear than this stupid senseless people; but God
   will be heard when he pleads. If the church, and those in it, will not
   hear, the earth, and those in it, shall, and shame them. 3. God himself
   is appealed to, and his omniscience, power, and justice, are vouched in
   testimony against this people: "Let the Lord God be witness against
   you, a witness that you had fair warning given you, that your prophets
   did their duty faithfully as watchmen, but you would not take the
   warning; let the accomplishment of the prophecy be a witness against
   your contempt and disbelief of it, and prove, to your conviction and
   confusion, that it was the word of God, and no word of his shall fall
   to the ground." Note, God himself will be a witness, by the judgments
   of his hand, against those that would not receive his testimony in the
   judgments of his mouth. He will be a witness from his holy temple in
   heaven, when he comes down to execute judgment (v. 3) against those
   that turned a deaf ear to his oracles, wherein he witnessed to them,
   out of his holy temple at Jerusalem.

   III. A terrible prediction of destroying judgments which should come
   upon Judah and Israel, which had its accomplishment soon after in
   Israel, and at length in Judah; for it is foretold, 1. That God himself
   will appear against them, v. 3. They boasted of themselves and their
   relation to God, as if that would secure them; but, though God never
   deceives the faith of the upright, he will disappoint the presumption
   of the hypocrites, for, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place,
   quits his mercy-seat, where they thought they had him fast, and
   prepares his throne for judgment; his glory departs, for they drive it
   from them. God's way towards this people had long been a way of mercy,
   but now he changes his way, he comes out of his place, and will come
   down. He had seemed to retire, as one regardless of what was done, but
   now he will show himself, he will rend the heavens, and will come down,
   not as sometimes, in surprising mercies, but in surprising judgments,
   to do things not for them, but against them, which they looked not for,
   Isa. lxiv. 1; xxvi. 21. 2. That when the Creator appears against them
   it shall be in vain for any creature to appear for them. He will tread
   with contempt and disdain upon the high places of the earth, upon all
   the powers that are advanced in competition with him or in opposition
   to him; and he will so tread upon them as to tread them down and level
   them. High places, set up for the worship of idols or for military
   fortifications, shall all be trodden down and trampled into the dust.
   Do men trust to the height and strength of the mountains and rocks, as
   if they were sufficient to bear up their hopes and bear off their
   fears? They shall be molten under him, melted down as wax before the
   fire, Ps. lxviii. 2. Do they trust to the fruitfulness of the valleys,
   and their products? They shall be cleft, or rent, with those fiery
   streams that shall come pouring down from the mountains when they are
   melted. They shall be ploughed and washed away as the ground is by the
   waters that are poured down a steep place. God is said to cleave the
   earth with rivers, Hab. iii. 9. Neither men of high degree, as the
   mountains, nor men of low degree, as the valleys, shall be able to
   secure either themselves or the land from judgments of God, when they
   are sent with commission to lay all waste, and, like a sweeping rain,
   to leave no food, Prov. xxviii. 3. This is applied particularly to the
   head city of Israel, which they hoped would be a protection to the
   kingdom (v. 6): I will make Samaria, that is now a rich and populous
   city, as a heap of the field, as a heap of dung laid there to be
   spread, or as a heap of stones gathered together to be carried away,
   and as plantings of a vineyard, as hillocks of earth raised to plant
   vines in. God will make of that city a heap, of that defenced city a
   ruin, Isa. xxv. 2. Their altars had been as heaps in the furrows of the
   fields (Hos. xii. 11) and now their houses shall be so, as ruinous
   heaps. The stones of the city are poured down into the valley by the
   fury of the conqueror, who will thus be revenged on those walls that so
   long held out against him. They shall be quite pulled down, so that the
   very foundations shall be discovered, that had been covered by the
   superstructure; and not one stone shall be left upon another.

   IV. A charge of sin upon them, as the procuring cause of these
   desolating judgments (v. 5): For the transgression of Jacob is all
   this. If it be asked, "Why is God so angry, and why are Jacob and
   Israel thus brought to ruin by his anger?" the answer is ready: Sin has
   done all the mischief; sin has laid all waste; all the calamities of
   Jacob and Israel are owing to their transgressions; if they had not
   gone away from God, he would never have appeared thus against them.
   Note, External privileges and professions will not secure a sinful
   people from the judgments of God. If sin be found in the house of
   Israel, if Jacob be guilty of transgression and rebellion, God will not
   spare them; no, he will punish them first, for their sins are of all
   others most provoking to him, for they are most reproaching. But it is
   asked, What is the transgression of Jacob? Note, When we feel the smart
   of sin it concerns us to enquire what the sin is which we smart for,
   that we may particularly war against that which wars against us. And
   what is it? 1. It is idolatry; it is the high places; that is the
   transgression, the great transgression which reigns in Israel; that is
   spiritual whoredom, the violation of the marriage-covenant, which
   merits a divorce. Even the high places of Judah, though not so bad as
   the transgression of Jacob, were yet offensive enough to God, and a
   remaining blemish upon some of the good reigns. Howbeit the high places
   were not taken away. 2. It is the idolatry of Samaria and Jerusalem,
   the royal cities of those two kingdoms. These were the most populous
   places, and where there were most people there was most wickedness, and
   they made one another worse. These were the most pompous places; there
   men lived most in wealth and pleasure, and they forgot God. These were
   the places that had the greatest influence upon the country, by
   authority and example; so that from them idolatry and profaneness went
   forth throughout all the land, Jer. xxiii. 15. Note, Spiritual
   distempers are most contagious in persons and places that are most
   conspicuous. If the head city of a kingdom, or the chief family in a
   parish, be vicious and profane, many will follow their pernicious ways,
   and write after a bad copy when great ones set it for them. The vices
   of leaders and rulers are leading ruling vices, and therefore shall be
   surely and sorely punished. Those have a great deal to answer for
   indeed that not only sin, but make Israel to sin. Those must expect to
   be made examples that have been examples of wickedness. If the
   transgression of Jacob is Samaria, therefore shall Samaria become a
   heap. Let the ringleaders in sin hear this and fear.

   V. The punishment made to answer the sin, in the particular destruction
   of the idols, v. 7. 1. The gods they worshipped shall be destroyed: The
   graven images shall be beaten to pieces by the army of the Assyrians,
   and all the idols shall be laid desolate. Samaria and her idols were
   ruined together by Sennacherib (Isa. x. 11), and their gods cast into
   the fire, for they were no gods (Isa. xxxvii. 19); and this was the
   Lord's doing: I will lay the idols desolate. Note, If the law of God
   prevail not to make men in authority destroy idols, God will take the
   work into his own hands, and will do it himself. 2. The gifts that
   passed between them and their gods shall be destroyed; for all the
   hires thereof shall be burnt with fire, which may be meant either of
   the presents they made to their idols for the replenishing of their
   altars, and the adorning of their statues and temples (these shall
   become a prey to the victorious army, which shall rifle not only
   private houses, but the houses of their gods), or of the corn, and
   wine, and oil, which they called the rewards, or hires, which their
   idols, their lovers, gave them (Hos. ii. 12); these shall be taken from
   them by him whom (by ascribing them to their dear idols) they had
   defrauded of the honour due to him. Note, That cannot prosper by which
   men either are hired to sin or hire others to sin; for the wages of sin
   will be death. She gathered it of the hire of the harlot, and it shall
   return to the hire of a harlot. They enriched themselves by their
   leagues with the idolatrous nations, who gave them advantages, to court
   them into the service of their idols, and their idols' temples were
   enriched with gifts by those who went a whoring after them. And all
   this wealth shall become a prey to the idolatrous nations, and so be
   the hire of a harlot again, wages to an army of idolaters, who shall
   take it as a reward given them by their gods. It shall be a present to
   king Jareb, Hos. x. 6. What they gave to their idols, and what they
   thought they got by them, shall be as the hire of a harlot; the curse
   of God shall be upon it, and it shall never prosper, nor do them any
   good. It is common that what is squeezed out by one lust is squandered
   away upon another.

Judgments Predicted. (b. c. 743.)

   8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will
   make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.   9 For her
   wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate
   of my people, even to Jerusalem.   10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep
   ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.   11
   Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the
   inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he
   shall receive of you his standing.   12 For the inhabitant of Maroth
   waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the Lord unto the
   gate of Jerusalem.   13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot
   to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of
   Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.   14
   Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of
   Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.   15 Yet will I bring an
   heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam
   the glory of Israel.   16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy
   delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone
   into captivity from thee.

   We have here a long train of mourners attending the funeral of a ruined
   kingdom.

   I. The prophet is himself chief mourner (v. 8, 9): I will wail and
   howl; I will go stripped and naked, as a man distracted with grief. The
   prophets usually expressed their own grief for the public grievances,
   partly to mollify the predictions of them, and to make it appear that
   is was not out of ill-will that they denounced the judgments of God (so
   far were they from desiring the woeful day that they dreaded it more
   than any thing), partly to show how very dreadful and mournful the
   calamities would be, and to stir up in the people a holy fear of them,
   that by repentance they might turn away the wrath of God. Note, We
   ought to lament the punishments of sinners as well as the sufferings of
   saints in this world; the weeping prophet did so (Jer. ix. 1); so did
   this prophet. He makes a wailing like the dragons, or rather the
   jackals, ravenous beasts that in those countries used to meet in the
   night, and howl, and make hideous noises; he mourns as the owls, the
   screech-owls, or ostriches, as some read it. Two things the prophet
   here thus dolefully laments:--1. That Israel's case is desperate: Her
   wound is incurable; it is ruin without remedy; man cannot help her; God
   will not, because she will not by repentance and reformation help
   herself. There is indeed balm in Gilead and a physician there; but they
   will not apply to the physician, nor apply the balm to themselves, and
   therefore the wound is incurable. 2. That Judah likewise is in danger.
   The cup is going round, and is now put into Judah's hand: The enemy has
   come to the gate of Jerusalem. Soon after the destruction of Samaria
   and the ten tribes, the Assyrian army, under Sennacherib, laid siege to
   Jerusalem, came to the gate, but could not force their way any further;
   however, it was with great concern and trouble that the prophet foresaw
   the fright, so dearly did he love the peace of Jerusalem.

   II. Several places are here brought in mourning, and are called upon to
   mourn; but with this proviso, that they should not let the Philistines
   hear them (v. 10): Declare it not in Gath; this is borrowed from
   David's lamentation for Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 20), Tell it not
   in Gath, for the uncircumcised will triumph in Israel's tears. Note,
   One would not, if it could be helped, gratify those that make
   themselves and their companions merry with the sins or with the sorrows
   of God's Israel. David was silent, and stifled his griefs, when the
   wicked were before him, Ps. xxxix. 1. But, though it may be prudent not
   to give way to a noisy sorrow, yet it is duty to admit a silent one
   when the church of God is in distress. "Roll thyself in the dust" (as
   great mourners used to do) "and so let the house of Judah and every
   house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah, a house of dust, covered
   with dust, crumbled into dust." When God makes the house dust it
   becomes us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and to put our
   mouths in the dust, thus accommodating ourselves to the providences
   that concern us. Dust we are; God brings us to the dust, that we may
   know it, and own it. Divers other places are here named that should be
   sharers in this universal mourning, the names of some of which we do
   not find elsewhere, whence it is conjectured that they are names put
   upon them by the prophet, the signification of which might either
   indicate or aggravate the miseries coming upon them, thereby to awaken
   this secure and stupid people to a holy fear of divine wrath. We find
   Sennacherib's invasion thus described, in the prediction of it, by the
   impressions of terror it should make upon the several cities that fell
   in his way, Isa. x. 28, 29, &c. Let us observe the particulars here, 1.
   The inhabitants of Saphir, which signifies neat and beautiful (thou
   that dwellest fairly, so the margin reads it), shall pass away into
   captivity, or be forced to flee, stripped of all their ornaments and
   having their shame naked. Note, Those who appear ever so fine and
   delicate know not what contempt they may be exposed to; and the more
   grievous will the shame be to those who have been inhabitants of
   Saphir. 2. The inhabitants of Zaanan, which signifies the country of
   flocks, a populous country, where the people are as numerous and thick
   as flocks of sheep, shall yet be so taken up with their own calamities,
   felt or feared, that they shall not come forth in the mourning of
   Bethezel, which signifies a place near, shall not condole with, nor
   bring any succour to, their next neighbours in distress; for he shall
   receive of you his standing; the enemy shall encamp among you, O
   inhabitants of Zaanan! shall take up a station there, shall find
   footing among you. Those may well think themselves excused from helping
   their neighbours who find they have enough to do to help themselves and
   to hold their own. 3. As for the inhabitants of Maroth (which, some
   think, is put for Ramoth, others that it signifies the rough places),
   they waited carefully for good, and were grieved for the want of it,
   but were disappointed; for evil came from the Lord unto the gate of
   Jerusalem, when the Assyrian army besieged it, v. 12. The inhabitants
   of Maroth might well overlook their own particular grievances when they
   saw the holy city itself in danger, and might well overlook the
   Assyrian, that was the instrument, when they saw the evil coming from
   the Lord. 4. Lachish was a city of Judah, which Sennacherib laid siege
   to, Isa. xxxvi. 1,2. The inhabitants of that city are called to bind
   the chariot to the swift beast, to prepare for a speedy flight, as
   having no other way left to secure themselves and their families; or it
   is spoken ironically: "You have had your chariots and your swift
   beasts, but where are they now?" God's quarrel with Lachish is that she
   is the beginning of sin, probably the sin of idolatry, to the daughter
   of Zion (v. 13); they had learned it from the ten tribes, their near
   neighbours, and so infected the two tribes with it. Note, Those that
   help to bring sin into a country do but thereby prepare for the
   throwing of themselves out of it. Those must expect to be first in the
   punishment who have been ringleaders in sin. The transgressions of
   Israel were found in thee; when they came to be traced up to their
   original they were found to take rise very much from that city. God
   knows at whose door to lay the blame of the transgressions of Israel,
   and whom to find guilty. Lachish, having been so much accessory to the
   sin of Israel, shall certainly be reckoned with: Thou shalt give
   presents to Moresheth-gath, a city of the Philistines, which perhaps
   had a dependence upon Gath, that famous Philistine city; thou shalt
   send to court those of that city to assist thee, but it shall be in
   vain, for (v. 14) the houses of Achzib (a city which joined to
   Mareshah, or Moresheth, and is mentioned with it, Josh. xv. 44) shall
   be a lie to the kings of Israel; though they depend upon their
   strength, yet they shall fail them. Here there is an allusion to the
   name. Achzib signifies a lie, and so it shall prove to those that trust
   in it. 5. Mareshah, that could not, or would not, help Israel, shall
   herself be made a prey (v. 15): "I will bring a heir (that is, an
   enemy) that shall take possession of thy lands, with as much assurance
   as if he were heir at law to them, and he shall come to Adullam, and to
   the glory of Israel, that is, to Jerusalem the head city;" or "The
   glory of Israel shall come to be as Adullam, a poor despicable place;"
   or, "The king of Assyria, whom Israel had gloried in, shall come to
   Adullam, in laying the country waste." 6. The whole land of Judah seems
   to be spoken to (v. 16) and called to weeping and mourning: "Make thee
   bald, by tearing thy hair and shaving thy head; poll thee for thy
   delicate children, that had been tenderly and nicely brought up;
   enlarge thy baldness as the eagle when she casts her feathers and is
   all over bald; for they have gone into captivity from thee, and are not
   likely to return; and their captivity will be the more grievous to them
   because they have been brought up delicately and have not been inured
   to hardship." Or this is directed particularly to the inhabitants of
   Mareshah, as v. 15. That was the prophet's own city, and yet he
   denounces the judgments of God against it; for it shall be an
   aggravation of its sin that it had such a prophet, and knew not the day
   of its visitation. Its being thus privileged, since it improved not the
   privilege, shall not procure favour for it either with God or with his
   prophet.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have, I. The sins with which the people of Israel
   are charged--covetousness and oppression, fraudulent and violent
   practices (ver. 1, 2), dealing barbarously, even with women and
   children, and other harmless people, ver. 8, 9. Opposition of God's
   prophets and silencing them (ver. 6, 7), and delighting in false
   prophets, ver. 11. II. The judgments with which they are threatened for
   those sins, that they should be humbled, and impoverished (ver. 3-5),
   and banished, ver. 10. III. Gracious promises of comfort, reserved for
   the good people among them, in the Messiah, ver. 12, 13. And this is
   the sum and scope of most of the chapters of this and other prophecies.

The Sins of the People. (b. c. 740.)

   1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when
   the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of
   their hand.   2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and
   houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a
   man and his heritage.   3 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold,
   against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove
   your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.   4
   In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a
   doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed
   the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away
   he hath divided our fields.   5 Therefore thou shalt have none that
   shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord.

   Here is, I. The injustice of man contriving the evil of sin, v. 1, 2.
   God was coming forth against this people to destroy them, and here he
   shows what was the ground of his controversy with them; it is that
   which is often mentioned as a sin that hastens the ruin of nations and
   families as much as any, the sin of oppression. Let us see the steps of
   it. 1. They eagerly desire that which is not their own--that is the
   root of bitterness, the root of all evil, v. 2. They covet fields and
   houses, as Ahab did Naboth's vineyard. "Oh that such a one's field and
   house were mine! It lies convenient for me, and I would manage it
   better than he does; it is fitter for me than for him." 2. They set
   their wits on work to invent ways of accomplishing their desire (v. 4);
   they devise iniquity with a great deal of cursed art and policy; they
   plot how to do it effectually, and yet so as not to expose themselves,
   or bring themselves into danger, or under reproach, by it. This is
   called working evil! they are working it in their heads, in their
   families, and are as intent upon it, and with as much pleasure, as if
   they were doing it, and are as confident of their success (so wisely do
   they think they have laid the scheme) as if it were assuredly done.
   Note, It is bad to do mischief upon a sudden thought, but much worse to
   devise it, to do it with design and deliberation; when the craft and
   subtlety of the old serpent appear with his poison and venom, it is
   wickedness in perfection. They devised it upon their beds, when they
   should have been asleep; care to compass a mischievous design held
   their eyes waking. Upon their beds, where they should have been
   remembering God, and meditating upon him, where they should have been
   communing with their own hearts and examining them, they were devising
   iniquity. It is of great consequence to improve and employ the hours of
   our retirement and solitude in a proper manner. 3. They employ their
   power in executing what they have designed and contrived; they practise
   the iniquity they have devised, because it is in the power of their
   hand; they find that they can compass it by the help of their wealth,
   and the authority and interest they have, and that none dare control
   them, or call them to an account for it; and this, they think, will
   justify them and bear them out in it. Note, It is the mistake of many
   to think that as they can do they may do; whereas no power is given for
   destruction, but all for edification. 4. They are industrious and very
   expeditious in accomplishing the iniquity they have devised; when they
   have settled the matter in their thoughts, in their beds, they lose no
   time, but as soon as the morning is light they practice it; they are up
   early in the prosecution of their designs, and what ill their hand
   finds to do they do it with all their might, which shames our
   slothfulness and dilatoriness in doing good, and should shame us out of
   them. In the service of God, and our generation, let it never be said
   that we left that to be done to-morrow which we could do to-day. 5.
   They stick at nothing to compass their designs; what they covet they
   take away, if they can, and, (1.) They care not what wrong they do,
   though it be ever so gross and open; they take away men's fields by
   violence, not only by fraud, and underhand practices and colour of law,
   but by force and with a high hand. (2.) They care not to whom they do
   wrong nor how far the iniquity extends which they devise: They oppress
   a man and his house; they rob and ruin those that have numerous
   families to maintain, and are not concerned though they send them and
   their wives and children a begging. They oppress a man and his
   heritage; they take away from men that which they have an
   unquestionable title to, having received it from their ancestors, and
   which they have but in trust, to transmit it to their posterity; but
   those oppressors care not how many they impoverish, so they may but
   enrich themselves. Note, If covetousness reigns in the heart, commonly
   all compassion is banished from it; and if any man love this world, as
   the love of the Father, so the love of his neighbour is not in him.

   II. The justice of God contriving the evil of punishment for this sin
   (v. 3): Therefore thus saith the Lord, the righteous God, that judges
   between man and man, and is an avenger on those that do wrong, Behold,
   against this family do I devise an evil, that is, against the whole
   kingdom, the house of Israel, and particularly those families in it
   that were cruel and oppressive. They unjustly devise evil against their
   brethren, and God will justly devise evil against them. Infinite Wisdom
   will so contrive the punishment of their sin that it shall be very
   sure, and such as cannot be avoided, very severe, and such as they
   cannot bear, very signal and remarkable, and such as shall be
   universally observed to answer to the sin. The more there appears of a
   wicked wit in the sin the more there shall appear of a holy wisdom and
   fitness in the punishment; for the Lord will be known by the judgments
   he executes; he will be owned by them. 1. He finds them very secure,
   and confident that they shall in some way or other escape the judgment,
   or, though they fall under it, shall soon throw it off and get clear of
   it, and therefore he tells them, It is an evil from which they shall
   not remove their neck. They were children of Belial, that would not
   endure the easy yoke of God's righteous commands, but broke those bonds
   asunder, and cast away those cords from them; and therefore God will
   lay upon them the heavy yoke of his righteous judgments, and they shall
   not be able to withdraw their necks from that; those that will not be
   overruled shall be overcome. 2. He finds them very proud and stately,
   and therefore he tells them that they shall not go haughtily, with
   stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go
   (Isa. iii. 16); for this time is evil, and the events of it are very
   humbling and mortifying, and such as will bring down the stoutest
   spirit. 3. He finds them very merry and jovial, and therefore tells
   them their note shall be changed, their laughter shall be turned into
   mourning and their joy into heaviness (v. 4): In that day, when God
   comes to punish you for your oppression, shall one take up a parable
   against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, with a lamentation
   of lamentations (so the word is), a most lamentable lamentation, as a
   song of songs is a most pleasing song. Their enemies shall insult over
   them, and make a jest of their griefs, for they shall take up a parable
   against them. Their friends shall mourn over them, and lay to heart
   their calamities, and this shall be the general cry, "We are utterly
   spoiled; we are all undone." Note, Those that were most haughty and
   secure in their prosperity are commonly most dejected and most ready to
   despair in their adversity. 4. He finds them very rich in houses and
   lands, which they have gained by oppression, and therefore tells them
   that they shall be stripped of all. (1.) They shall, in their despair,
   give it all up; they shall say, We are utterly spoiled; he has changed
   the portion of my people, so that it is now no longer theirs, but it is
   in the possession and occupation of their enemies: How has he removed
   it from me! How suddenly, how powerfully! What is unjustly got by us
   will not long continue with us; the righteous God will remove it.
   Turning away from us in wrath, he has divided our fields, and given
   them into the hands of strangers. Woe to those from whom God turns
   away. The margin reads it, "Instead of restoring, he has divided our
   fields; instead of putting us again in the possession of our estates,
   he has confirmed those in the possession of them that have taken them
   from us." Note, It is just with God that those who have dealt
   fraudulently and violently with others should themselves be dealt
   fraudulently and violently with. (2.) God shall ratify what they say in
   their despair (v. 5); so it shall be: Thou shalt have none to cast a
   cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord, none to divide
   inheritances, because there shall be no inheritances to divide, no
   courts to try titles to lands, or determine controversies about them,
   or cast lots upon them, as in Joshua's time, for all shall be in the
   enemies' hand. This land, which should be taken from them, they had not
   only an unquestionable title to, but a very comfortable enjoyment of,
   for it was in the congregation of the Lord, or rather the congregation
   of the Lord was in it; it was God's land; it was a holy land, and
   therefore it was the more grievous to them to be turned out of it.
   Note, Those are to be considered the sorest calamities which cut us off
   from the congregation of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of
   the privileges of it.

Expostulation with the House of Jacob; The Sin and Punishment of Oppression.
(b. c. 740.)

   6 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not
   prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.   7 O thou that art
   named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are
   these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh
   uprightly?   8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull
   off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men
   averse from war.   9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their
   pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for
   ever.   10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it
   is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.   11
   If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will
   prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the
   prophet of this people.

   Here are two sins charged upon the people of Israel, and judgments
   denounced against them for each, such judgments as exactly answer the
   sin--persecuting God's prophets and oppressing God's poor.

   I. Persecuting God's prophets, suppressing and silencing them, is a sin
   that provokes God as much as anything, for it not only spits in the
   face of his authority over us, but spurns at the bowels of his mercy to
   us; for his sending prophets to us is a sure and valuable token of his
   goodwill. Now observe here,

   1. What the obstruction and opposition were which this people gave to
   God's prophets: They said to those that prophesy, Prophesy ye not, as
   Isa. xxx. 10. They said to the seers, "See not; do not trouble us with
   accounts of what you have seen, nor bring us any such frightful
   messages." They must either not prophesy at all or prophesy only what
   is pleasing. The word for prophesying here signifies dropping, for the
   words of the prophets dropped from heaven as the dew. Note, Those that
   hate to be reformed hate to be reproved, and do all they can to silence
   faithful ministers. Amos was forbidden to prophesy, Amos vii. 10, &c.
   Therefore persecutors stop their breath, because they have no other way
   to stop their mouths; for, if they live, they will preach and torment
   those that dwell on the earth, as the two witnesses did, Rev. xi. 10.
   Some read it, Prophesy not; let these prophesy. Let not those prophesy
   that tell us of our faults, and threaten us, but let those prophesy
   that will flatter us in our sins, and cry peace to us. They will not
   say that they will have no ministers at all, but they will have such as
   will say just what they would have them and go their way. This they are
   charged with (v. 11), that when they silenced and frowned upon the true
   prophets they countenanced and encouraged pretenders, and set them up,
   and made an interest for them, to confront God's faithful prophets: If
   a man walk in the spirit of falsehood, pretend to have the Spirit of
   God, while really it is a spirit of error, a spirit of delusion, and he
   himself knows that he has no commission, no instruction, from God, yet,
   if he says, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink, if he
   will but assure them that they shall have wine and strong drink enough,
   that they need not fear the judgments of war and famine which the other
   prophets threatened them with, that they shall always have plenty of
   the delights of sense and never know the want of them, and if he will
   but tell them that it is lawful for them to drink as much as they
   please of their wine and strong drink, and they need not scruple being
   drunk, that they shall have peace though they go on and add drunkenness
   to thirst, such a prophet as this is a man after their own heart, who
   will tell them that there is neither sin nor danger in the wicked
   course of life they lead: He shall even be the prophet of this people;
   such a man they would have to be their prophet, that will not only
   associate with them in their rioting and revellings, but will pretend
   to consecrate their sensualities by his prophecies and so harden them
   in their security and sensuality. Note, It is not strange if people
   that are vicious and debauched covet to have ministers that are
   altogether such as themselves, for they are willing to believe God is
   so too, Ps. l. 21. But how are sacred things profaned when they are
   prostituted to such base purposes, when prophecy itself shall be
   pressed into the services of a lewd and profane crew! But thus that
   servant who said, My Lord delays his coming, by the spirit of
   falsehood, smote his fellow servants and ate and drank with the
   drunken.

   2. How they are here expostulated with upon this matter (v. 7): "O thou
   that art named the house of Jacob, does it become thee to say and do
   thus? Wilt thou silence those that prophesy, and forbid them to speak
   in God's name?" Note, It is an honour and privilege to be named of the
   house of Jacob. Thou art called a Jew, Rom. ii. 17. But, when those who
   are called by that worthy name degenerate, they commonly prove the
   worst of men themselves and the worst enemies to God's prophets. The
   Jews who were named of the house of Jacob were the most violent
   persecutors of the first preachers of the gospel. Upon this the prophet
   here argues with these oppressors of the word of God, and shows them,
   (1.) What an affront they hereby put upon God, the God of the holy
   prophets: "Is the Lord's Spirit straitened? In silencing the Lord's
   prophets you do what you can to silence his Spirit too; but do you
   think you can do it? Can you make the Spirit of God your prisoner and
   your servant? Will you prescribe to him what he shall say, and forbid
   him to say what is displeasing to you? If you silence the prophets, yet
   cannot the Spirit of the Lord find out other ways to reach your
   consciences? Can your unbelief frustrate the divine counsels?" (2.)
   What a scandal it was to their profession as Jews: "You are named the
   house of Jacob, and this is your honour; but are these his doings? Are
   these the doings of your father Jacob? Do you herein tread in his
   steps? No; if you were indeed his children you would do his works; but
   now you seek to kill and silence a man that tells you the truth, in
   God's name; this did not Abraham (John viii. 39, 40); this did not
   Jacob." Or, "Are these God's doings? Are these the doings that will
   please him? Are these the doings of his people? No, you know they are
   not, however some may be so strangely blinded and bigoted as to kill
   God's ministers and think that therein they do him service," John xvi.
   2. (3.) Let them consider how unreasonable and absurd the thing was in
   itself: Do not my words do good to those that walk uprightly? Yes;
   certainly they do; it is an appeal to the experiences of the generation
   of the upright: "Call now if there be any of them that will answer you,
   and to which of the saints will you turn? Turn to which you will, and
   you will find they all agree in this, that the word of God does good to
   those that walk uprightly; and will you then oppose that which does
   good, so much good as good preaching does? Herein you wrong God, who
   owns the words of the prophets to be his words (they are my words) and
   who by them aims and designs to do good to mankind (Ps. cxix. 68); and
   will you hinder the great benefactor from doing good? Will you put the
   light of the world under a bushel: You might as well say to the sun,
   Shine not, as say to the seers, See not. Herein you wrong the souls of
   men, and deprive them of the benefit designed them by the word of God."
   Note, Those are enemies not only to God, but to the world, they are
   enemies to their country, that silence good ministers, and obstruct the
   means of knowledge and grace; for it is certainly for the public common
   good of states and kingdoms that religion should be encouraged. God's
   words do good to those that walk uprightly. It is the character of good
   people that they walk uprightly (Ps. xv. 2); and it is their comfort
   that the words of God are good and do good to them; they find comfort
   in them. God's words are good words to good people, and speak
   comfortably to them. But those that opposed the words of God, and
   silenced the prophets, pleaded, in justification of themselves, that
   God's words were unprofitable and unpleasant to them, and did them no
   good, nor prophesied any good concerning them, but evil, as Ahab
   complained of Micaiah, in answer to which the prophet here tells them
   that it was their own fault; they might thank themselves. They might
   find it of good use to them if they were but disposed to make a good
   use of it; if they would but walk uprightly, as they should, and so
   qualify themselves for comfort, the word of God would speak comfortably
   to them. Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise for the
   same.

   3. What they are threatened with for this sin; God also will choose
   their delusions, and, (1.) They shall be deprived of the benefit of a
   faithful ministry. Since they say, Prophesy not, God will take them at
   their word, and they shall not prophesy to them; their sin shall be
   their punishment. If men will silence God's ministers, it is just with
   God to silence them, as he did Ezekiel, and to say, They shall no more
   be reprovers and monitors to them. Let the physician no longer attend
   the patient that will not be healed, for he will not be ruled. They
   shall not prophesy to them, and then they will not take shame. As it is
   the work of magistrates, so it is also of ministers, to put men to
   shame when they do amiss (Judg. xviii. 7), that, being made ashamed of
   their folly, they may not return again to it; but, when God gives men
   up to be impudent and shameless in sin, he says to his prophets, They
   are joined to idols; let them alone. (2.) They shall be given up to the
   blind guidance of an unfaithful ministry. We may understand v. 11 as a
   threatening: If a man be found walking in the spirit of falsehood,
   having such a lying spirit as was in the mouth of Ahab's prophets, that
   will strengthen their hands in their wicked ways, he shall be the
   prophet of this people, that is, God will leave them to themselves to
   hearken to such; since they will be deceived, let them be deceived;
   since they will not admit the truth in the love of it, God will send
   them strong delusions to believe a lie, 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. They shall
   have prophets that will prophesy to them for wine and strong drink (so
   some read it), that will give you a cast of their office to your mind
   for a bottle of wine of a flagon of ale, will soothe sinners in their
   sins if they will but feed them with the gratifications of their lusts;
   to have such prophets, and to be ridden by them, is as sad a judgment
   as any people can be under and as bad a preface of ruin approaching as
   it is to a particular person to be under the influence of a debauched
   conscience.

   II. Oppressing God's poor is another sin they are charged with, as
   before (v. 1, 2), for it is a sin doubly hateful and provoking to God.
   Observe,

   1. How the sin is described, v. 8, 9. When they contemned God's
   prophets and opposed them they broke out into all other wickedness;
   what bonds will hold those that have no reverence for God's word? Those
   who formerly rose up against the enemies of the nation, in defence of
   their country and therein behaved themselves bravely, now of late rose
   up as enemies of the nation, and, instead of defending it, destroyed
   it, and did it more mischief (as usually such vipers in the bowels of a
   state do) than a foreign enemy could do. They made a prey of men,
   women, and children, (1.) Of men, that were travelling on the way, that
   pass by securely as men averse from war, that were far from any bad
   designs, but went peaceably about their lawful occasions; those they
   set upon, as if they had been dangerous obnoxious people, and pulled
   off the robe with the garment from them, that is, they stripped them
   both of the upper and the inner garment, took away their cloak, and
   would have their coat also; thus barbarously did they use those that
   were quiet in the land, who, being harmless, were fearless, and so the
   more easily make a prey of. (2.) Of women, whose sex should have been
   their protection (v. 9): The women of my people have you cast out from
   their pleasant houses. They devoured widows' houses (Matt. xxiii. 14),
   and so turned them out of the possession of them, because they were
   pleasant houses, and such as they had a mind for. It was inhuman to
   deal thus barbarously with women; but that which especially aggravated
   it was that they were the women of God's people, whom they knew to be
   under his protection. (3.) Of children, whose age entitles them to a
   tender usage: From their children have you taken away my glory for
   ever. It was the glory of the Israelites' children that they were free,
   but they enslaved them--that they were born in God's house, and had a
   right to the privileges of it, but they sold them to strangers, sent
   them into idolatrous countries, where they were deprived for ever of
   that glory; at least the oppressors designed their captivity should be
   perpetual. Note, The righteous God will certainly reckon for injuries
   done to the widows and fatherless, who, being helpless and friendless,
   cannot otherwise expect to be righted.

   2. What the sentence is that is passed upon them for it (v. 10): "Arise
   ye, and depart; prepare to quit this land, for you shall be forced out
   of it, as you have forced the women and children of my people out of
   their possessions; it is not, it shall not, be your rest, as it was
   intended that Canaan should be, Ps. xcv. 11. You shall have neither
   contentment nor continuance in it, because it is polluted by your
   wickedness." Sin is defiling to a land, and sinners cannot expect to
   rest in a land which they have polluted, but is will spew them out, as
   this land spewed out the Canaanites of old when they had polluted it
   with their abominations, Lev. xviii. 27, 28. "Nay, you shall not only
   be obliged to depart out of this land, but it shall destroy you even
   with a sore destruction; you shall either be turned out of it or (which
   is all one) you shall be ruined in it." We may apply this to our state
   in this present world; it is polluted; there is a great deal of
   corruption in the world, through lust, and therefore we should arise,
   and depart out of it, keep at a distance from the corruption that is in
   it, and keep ourselves unspotted from it. It is not our rest; it was
   never intended to be so; it was designed for our passage, but not for
   our portion--our inn, but not our home. Here we have no continuing
   city; let us therefore arise and depart; let us sit loose to it and
   live above it, and think of leaving it and seek a continuing city
   above.

Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 740.)

   12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather
   the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah,
   as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by
   reason of the multitude of men.   13 The breaker is come up before
   them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are
   gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on
   the head of them.

   After threatenings of wrath, the chapter here concludes, as is usual in
   the prophets, with promises of mercy, which were in part fulfilled when
   the Jews returned out of Babylon, and had their full accomplishment in
   the kingdom of the Messiah. Their grievances shall be all redressed. 1.
   Whereas they were dispersed, they shall be brought together again, and
   shall jointly receive the tokens of God's favour to them, and shall
   have communion with each other and comfort in each other (v. 12): "I
   will surely assemble, O Jacob! all of thee, all that belong to thee,
   all that are named of the house of Jacob (v. 7) that are now expelled
   your country, v. 10. I will bring you together again, and not one of
   you shall be lost, not one of you shall be missing. I will surely
   gather the remnant of Israel, that remnant that is designed and
   reserved for salvation; they shall be brought to incorporate in one
   body. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah." Sheep are
   inoffensive and sociable creatures; they shall be as the flock in the
   midst of their fold, where they are safe under the shepherd's eye and
   care; and they shall make great noise (as numerous flocks and herds do,
   with their bleating and lowing) by reason of the multitude of men (for
   the sheep are men, as the prophet explains this comparison, Ezek.
   xxxiv. 31), not by reason of their strifes and contentions, but by
   reason of their great numbers. This was accomplished when Christ by his
   gospel gathered together in one all the children of God that were
   scattered abroad, and united both Jews and Gentiles in one fold, and
   under one Shepherd, when all the complaint was that the place was too
   strait for them--that was the noise, by reason of their multitude (Isa.
   xlix. 19, 20), when there were some added to the church from all parts
   of the world, and all men were drawn to Christ by the attractive power
   of his cross, which shall be done yet more and more, and perfectly
   done, when he shall send forth his angels to gather in his elect from
   the four winds. 2. Whereas God had seemed to desert them, and cast them
   off, now he will own them, and head them, and help them through all the
   difficulties that are in the way of their return and deliverance (v.
   13): the breaker has come up before them, to break down all opposition,
   and clear the road for them; and under his guidance they have broken
   up, and have passed through the gate, the door of escape out of their
   captivity, and have gone out by it with courage and resolution, having
   Omnipotence for their van-guard. Their King shall pass before them, to
   head them in the way, even Jehovah (he was their king) on the head of
   them, as he was on the head of the armies of Israel when they followed
   the pillar of cloud and fire through the wilderness and when he
   appeared to Joshua as captain of the Lord's host. Christ is the
   church's King; he is Jehovah; he heads them, passes before them, brings
   them out of the land of their captivity, brings them into the land of
   their rest. He is the breaker, that broke through them, that rent the
   veil, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The learned
   bishop Pearson applies it to the resurrection of Christ, by which he
   obtained the power and became the pattern of our resurrection. The
   breaker has gone up before us out of the grave, and has carried away
   its gates, as Samson did Gaza's, bar and all, and by that breach we go
   out. The learned Dr. Pocock mentions, as the sense which some of the
   ancient Jews give of it, that the breaker is Elias, and their King the
   Messiah, the Son of David; and he thinks we may apply it to Christ and
   his forerunner John the Baptist. John was the breaker; he broke the
   ice, prepared the way of the Lord by the baptism of repentance; in him
   the gospel began; from his time the kingdom of heaven suffered
   violence; and so the Christian church is introduced, with Messiah the
   Prince before it, on the head of it, going forth conquering and to
   conquer.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. III.

   What the apostle says of another of the prophets is true of this, who
   was also his contemporary--"Esaias is very bold," Rom. x. 20. So, in
   this chapter, Micah is very bold in reproving and threatening the great
   men that were the ringleaders in sin; and he gives the reason (ver. 8)
   why he was so bold, because he had commission and instruction from God
   to say what he said, and was carried out in it by a higher spirit and
   power than his own. Magistracy and ministry are two great ordinances of
   God, for good to his church, but these were both corrupted and the
   intentions of them perverted; and upon those that abused them, and so
   abused the church with them, the prophet is very severe, and justly so.
   I. He gives them their lesson severally, reproving and threatening
   princes (ver. 1-4) and false flattering prophets, ver. 5-7. II. He
   gives them their lesson jointly, putting them together, as acting in
   conjunction for the ruin of the kingdom, which they should see the
   ruins of, ver. 9-12.

The Crimes of the Princes and Prophets. (b. c. 726.)

   1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the
   house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?   2 Who hate the
   good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and
   their flesh from off their bones;   3 Who also eat the flesh of my
   people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones,
   and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the
   caldron.   4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear
   them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have
   behaved themselves ill in their doings.   5 Thus saith the Lord
   concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their
   teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they
   even prepare war against him.   6 Therefore night shall be unto you,
   that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye
   shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the
   day shall be dark over them.   7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and
   the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for
   there is no answer of God.

   Princes and prophets, when they faithfully discharge the duty of their
   office, are to be highly honoured above other men; but when they betray
   their trust, and act contrary to it, they should hear of their faults
   as well as others, and shall be made to know that there is a God above
   them, to whom they are accountable; at his bar the prophet here, in his
   name, arraigns them.

   I. Let the princes hear their charge and their doom. The heads of
   Jacob, and the princes of the house of Israel, are called upon to hear
   what the prophet has to say to them, v. 1. The word of God has reproofs
   for the greatest of men, which the ministers of that word ought to
   apply as there is occasion. The prophet here has comfort in the
   reflection upon it, that, whatever the success was, he had faithfully
   discharged his trust: And I said, Hear, O princes! He had the testimony
   of his conscience for him that he had not shrunk from his duty for fear
   of the face of men. He tells them,

   1. What was expected from them: Is it not for you to know judgment? He
   means to do judgment, for otherwise the knowledge of it is of no avail.
   "Is it not your business to administer justice impartially, and not to
   know faces" (as the Hebrew phrase for partiality and respect of persons
   is), "but to know judgment, and the merits of every cause?" Or it may
   be taken for granted that the heads and rulers are well acquainted with
   the rules of justice, whatever others are; for they have those means of
   knowledge, and have not those excuses for ignorance, which some others
   have, that are poor and foolish (Jer. v. 4); and, if so, their
   transgression of the laws of justice is the more provoking to God, for
   they sin against knowledge. "Is it not for you to know judgment? Yes,
   it is; therefore stand still, and hear your own judgment, and judge if
   it be not right, whether any thing can be objected against it."

   2. How wretchedly they had transgressed the rules of judgment, though
   they knew what they were. Their principle and disposition are bad: They
   hate the good and love the evil; they hate good in others, and hate it
   should have any influence on themselves; they hate to do good, hate to
   have any good done, and hate those that are good and do good; and they
   love the evil, delight in mischief. This being their principle, their
   practice is according to it; they are very cruel and severe towards
   those that are under their power, and whoever lies at their mercy will
   find that they have none. They barbarously devour those whom they
   should protect, and, as unfaithful shepherds, fleece the flock they
   should feed; nay, instead of feeding it, they feed upon it, Ezek.
   xxxiv. 2. It is fit indeed that he who feeds a flock should eat of the
   milk of the flock (1 Cor. ix. 7), but that will not content them: They
   eat the flesh of my people. It is fit that they should be clothed with
   the wool, but that will not serve: They flay the skin from off them, v.
   3. By imposing heavier taxes upon them than they can bear, and exacting
   them with rigour, by mulcts, and fines, and corporal punishments, for
   pretended crimes, they ruined the estates and families of their
   subjects, took away from some their lives, from others their
   livelihoods, and were to their subjects as beasts of prey, rather than
   shepherds. "They break their bones to come at the marrow, and chop the
   flesh in pieces as for the pot." This intimates that they were, (1.)
   Very ravenous and greedy for themselves, indulging themselves in luxury
   and sensuality. (2.) Very barbarous and cruel to those that were under
   them, not caring whom they beggared, so they could but enrich
   themselves; such evil is the love of money the root of.

   3. How they might expect that God should deal with them, since they had
   been thus cruel to his subjects. The rule is fixed, Those shall have
   judgment without mercy that have shown no mercy (v. 4): "They shall cry
   to the Lord, but he will not hear them, in the day of their distress,
   as the poor cried to them in the day of their prosperity and they would
   not hear them." There will come a time when the most proud and scornful
   sinners will cry to the Lord, and sue for that mercy which they once
   neither valued nor copied out. But it will then be in vain; God will
   even hide his face from them at that time, that time when they need his
   favour, and see themselves undone without it. At another time they
   would have turned their back upon him; but at that time he will turn
   his back upon them, as they have behaved themselves ill in their
   doings. Note, Men cannot expect to do ill and fare well, but may expect
   to find, as Adoni-bezek did, that done to them which they did to
   others; for he is righteous who takes vengeance. With the froward God
   will show himself froward, and he often gives up cruel and unmerciful
   men into the hands of those who are cruel and unmerciful to them, as
   they themselves have formerly been to others. This agrees with Prov.
   xxi. 13, Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he shall cry
   himself and shall not be heard; but the merciful have reason to hope
   that they shall obtain mercy.

   II. Let the prophets hear their charge too, and their doom; they were
   such as prophesied falsely, and the princes bore rule by their means.
   Observe,

   1. What was their sin. (1.) They made it their business to flatter and
   deceive the people: They make my people err, lead them into mistakes,
   both concerning what they should do and concerning what God would do
   with them. It is ill with a people when their leaders cause them to
   err, and those draw them out of the way that should guide them and go
   before them in it. "They make them to err by crying peace, by telling
   them that they do well, and that all shall be well with them; whereas
   they are in the paths of sin, and within a step of ruin. They cry
   peace, but they bite with their teeth," which perhaps is meant of their
   biting their own lips, as we are apt to do when we would suppress
   something which we are ready to speak. When they cried peace their own
   hearts gave them the lie, and they were just ready to eat their own
   words and to contradict themselves, but they bit with their teeth, and
   kept it in. They were not blind leaders of the blind, for they saw the
   ditch before them, and yet led their followers into it. (2.) They made
   it all their aim to glut themselves, and serve their own belly, as the
   seducers in St. Paul's time (Rom. xvi. 18), for their god is their
   belly, Phil. iii. 19. They bite with their teeth, and cry peace; that
   is, they will flatter and compliment those that will feed them with
   good bits, will give them something to eat; but as for those that put
   not into their mouths, that are not continually cramming them, they
   look upon them as their enemies; to them they do not cry peace, as they
   do to those whom they look upon as their benefactors, but they even
   prepare war against them; against them they denounce the judgments of
   God, but as they are to them, as the crafty priests of the church of
   Rome, in some places, make their image either to smile or frown upon
   the offerer according as his offering is. Justly is it insisted on as a
   necessary qualification of a minister (1 Tim. iii. 3, and again Tit. i.
   7) that he be not greedy of filthy lucre.

   2. What is the sentence passed upon them for this sin, v. 6, 7. It is
   threatened, (1.) That they shall be involved in troubles and miseries
   with those to whom they had cried peace: Night shall be upon them, a
   dark cold night of calamity, such as they, in their flattery, led the
   people to hope would never come. It shall be dark unto you, darker to
   you than to others; the sun shall go down over the prophets, shall go
   down at noon; all comfort shall depart from them, and they shall be
   deprived of all hope of it. The day shall be dark over them, in which
   they promised themselves light. Nor shall they be surrounded with
   outward troubles only, but their mind shall be full of confusion, and
   they shall be brought to their wits' end; their heads shall be clouded,
   and their own thoughts shall trouble them; and that is trouble enough.
   They kept others in the dark, and now God will bring them into the
   dark. (2.) That thereby they shall be silenced, and all their
   pretensions to prophecy for ever shamed. They never had any true
   vision; and now, the event disproving their predictions of peace, it
   shall be made to appear that they never had any, that there never was
   an answer of God to them, but it was all a sham, and they were cheats
   and impostors. Their reputation being thus quite sunk, their confidence
   would of course fail them. And, their spirits being ruffled and
   confused, their invention would fail them too; and by reason of this
   darkness, both without and within too, they shall not divine, they
   shall not have so much as a counterfeit vision to produce, they shall
   be ashamed, and confounded, and cover their lips, as men that are quite
   baffled and have nothing to say for themselves. Note, Those who deceive
   others are but preparing confusion for their own faces.

The Crimes of the Princes and Prophets. (b. c. 726.)

   8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of
   judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to
   Israel his sin.   9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of
   Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and
   pervert all equity.   10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem
   with iniquity.   11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests
   thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet
   will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none
   evil can come upon us.   12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be
   plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain
   of the house as the high places of the forest.

   Here, I. The prophet experiences a divine power going along with him in
   his work, and he makes a solemn profession and protestation of it, as
   that which would justify him, and bear him out, in his plain dealing
   with the princes and rulers. He would not, he durst not, make thus bold
   with the great men, but that he was carried out to do it by a
   prophetical impulse and impression. It was not he that said it, but God
   by him, and he could not but speak the word that God put into his
   mouth. It comes in likewise by way of opposition to the false prophets,
   who were full of shame when they lived to see themselves proved liars,
   and who never had courage to deal faithfully with the people, but
   flattered them in their sins; they were sensual, not having the Spirit,
   but truly (says Micah) I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, v.
   8. Having in himself an assurance of the truth of what he said, he said
   it with assurance. Compare him with those false prophets, and you will
   say, There is no comparison between them. What is the chaff to the
   wheat? Jer. xxiii. 28. What is painted fire to real fire? Observe here,
   1. What the qualifications were with which this prophet was endured: He
   was full of power, and of judgment, and of might; he had an ardent love
   to God and to the souls of men, a deep concern for his glory and their
   salvation, and a flaming zeal against sin. He had likewise courage to
   reprove it and witness against it, not fearing the wrath either of
   great men or of great multitudes; whatever difficulties or
   discouragements he met with, they did not deter him nor drive him from
   his work; none of these things moved him. And all this was guided by
   judgment and discretion; he was a man of wisdom as well as courage; in
   all his preaching there was light as well as heat, and a spirit of
   wisdom as well as of zeal. Thus was this man of God thoroughly
   furnished for every good word he had to say, and every good work he had
   to do. Those he preached to could not but perceive him to be full both
   of power and judgment, for they found both their understandings opened
   and their hearts made to burn within them, with such evidence and
   demonstration, and with such power, did the word come from him. 2.
   Whence he had these qualifications, not from and of himself, but he was
   full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Knowing that it was indeed the
   Spirit of the Lord that was in him, and spoke by him, that it was a
   divine revelation that he delivered, he spoke it boldly, and as one
   having authority, set his face as a flint, knowing he should be
   justified and borne out in what he said, Isa. l. 7, 8. Note, Those who
   act honestly may act boldly; and those who are sure that they have a
   commission from God need not be afraid of opposition from men. Nay, he
   had not only a Spirit of prophecy, which was the ground of his
   boldness, but the Spirit of sanctification endued him with the boldness
   and wisdom which were requisite for him. It was not in any strength of
   his own that he was strong; for who is sufficient for these things? but
   in the Lord, and in the power of his might; for from him all our
   sufficiency is. Are we full of power at any time, for that which is
   good? It is purely by the Spirit of the Lord, for of ourselves we are
   weak as water; it is the God of Israel that gives strength and power
   both to his people and to his ministers. 3. What use he made of these
   qualifications--this judgment and this power; he declared to Jacob his
   transgression and to Israel his sin. If transgression be found in Jacob
   and Israel, they must be told of it, and it is the business of God's
   prophets to tell them of it, to cry aloud and not to spare, Isa. lviii.
   1. Those who come to hear the word of God must be willing to be told of
   their faults, and must not only give their ministers leave to deal
   plainly and faithfully with them, but take it kindly, and be thankful;
   but, since few have meekness enough to receive reproof, those have need
   of a great deal of boldness who are to give reproofs, and must pray for
   a spirit both of wisdom and might.

   II. The prophet exerts this power in dealing with the heads of the
   house of Jacob, both the princes and the prophets, whom he had drawn up
   a high charge against in the former part of the chapter. He repeats the
   summons of their attendance and attention (v. 9), the same that we had
   v. 1, directing himself to the princes of the house of Israel, yet he
   means those of Judah; for it appears (Jer. xxvi. 18, 19, where v. 12 is
   quoted) that this was spoken in Hezekiah's kingdom; but, the ten tribes
   being gone into captivity, Judah is all that is now left of Jacob and
   Israel. The prophet speaks respectfully to them (hear, I pray you) and
   gives them their titles of heads and princes. Ministers must be
   faithful to great men in reproving them for their sins, but they must
   not be rude and uncivil to them. Now observe here,

   1. The great wickedness that these heads of the house of Jacob were
   guilty of, princes, priest, and prophets; in short, they were covetous
   and prostituted their offices to their love of money. (1.) The princes
   abhorred all judgment; they would not be governed by any of its laws,
   either in their own practice or in passing sentence upon appeals made
   to them; they perverted all equity, and scorned to be under the
   direction or correction of justice, when it could not be made pliable
   to their secular interests. When, under pretence of doing right, they
   did the most palpable wrongs, then they perverted equity, and made it
   serve a purpose contrary to the intention of the founder of magistracy
   and fountain of power. It is laid to their charge (v. 10) that they
   build up Zion with blood. "They pretend, in justification of their
   extortion and oppressions, that they build up Zion and Jerusalem; they
   add new streets and squares to the holy cities, and adorn them; they
   establish and advance the public interests both in church and state,
   and think that therein they do God and Israel good service. But it is
   with blood and with iniquity, and therefore it cannot prosper; nor will
   their intentions of good to the city of God justify their
   contradictions to the law of God." Those mistake who think that a
   burning zeal for holy church, and the propagating of the faith, will
   serve to consecrate robberies and murders, massacres and depredations;
   no, Zion's walls owe those no thanks that build them up with blood and
   iniquity. The sin of man works not the righteousness of God. "The
   office of the princes is to judge upon appeals made to them; but they
   judge for reward (v. 11); they give judgment on the side of those that
   give the bribe; the most righteous cause shall not be carried without a
   fee, and for a fee the most unrighteous cause shall be carried."
   Miserable is the people's case when the judge's enquiry upon a cause is
   not, "What is to be done in it?" but, "What is to be got by it?" (2.)
   The priests' work was to teach the people, and for that the law had
   provided them a very honourable comfortable maintenance; but that will
   not content them, they teach for hire over and above, and will be hired
   to teach anything, as an oracle of God, which they know will please and
   gain them an interest. (3.) The prophets, it should seem, had honorary
   fees given them by way of gratuity (1 Sam. ix. 7, 8); but these
   prophets governed themselves in their prophesying by the prospect of
   temporal advantage and that was the main thing they had in their eye:
   They divine for money. Their tongues were mercenary; they would either
   prophesy or let it alone, according as they found it most for their
   advantage; and a man might have what oracle he would from them if he
   would but pay them for it. Thus they were fit successors of Balaam, who
   loved the wages of unrighteousness. Note, Though that which is wicked
   can never be consecrated by a zeal for the church, yet that which is
   sacred may be, and often is, desecrated, by the love of the world. When
   men do that which in itself is good, but do it for filthy lucre, it
   loses its excellency, and becomes an abomination both to God and man.

   2. Their vain presumption and carnal confidence, notwithstanding: They
   lean upon the Lord, and because they are, in profession, his people,
   they think there is neither harm nor danger in these their wicked
   practices. Faith builds upon the Lord, rests in him, and relies upon
   him, as the soul's foundation; presumption only leans upon the Lord as
   a prop, makes use of him to serve a turn, while still the world is the
   foundation that is built upon. They speak with a great deal of
   confidence, (1.) Of their honour: "Is not the Lord among us? Have we
   not the tokens of his presence with us, his temple, his ark, his lively
   oracles?" They are haughty because of the holy mountain and its
   dignities (Zeph. iii. 11), as if their church-privileges would palliate
   the worst of practices, or as if God's presence with them were intended
   to make the priests and people rich with the sale of their
   performances. It was true that the Lord was among them by his
   ordinances, and this puffed them up with pride; but, if they imagined
   that he was among them by his favour and love, they were mistaken: but
   it is a cheat the children of men often put upon themselves to think
   they have God with them, when they have by their sin provoked him to
   depart from them. (2.) They are confident of their own safety: No evil
   can come upon us. Many are rocked asleep; in a fatal security by their
   church-privileges, as if those would protect them in sin, and shelter
   them from punishment, which are really, and will be, the greatest
   aggravations both of their sin and of their punishment. If men's having
   the Lord among them will not restrain them from doing evil, it can
   never secure them from suffering evil for so doing; and it is very
   absurd for sinners to think that their impudence will be their
   impunity.

   3. The doom passed upon them for their real wickedness, notwithstanding
   their imaginary protection (v. 12): Therefore shall Zion for your sake
   be ploughed as a field. This is that passage which is quoted as a bold
   word spoken by Micah (Jer. xxvi. 18), which yet Hezekiah and his
   princes took well, though in another reign it might have gone near to
   cost him his head; nay, they repented and reformed, and so the
   execution of this threatening was prevented, and did not come in those
   days. (1.) It is the ruin of holy places that is here foretold, places
   that had been highly honoured with the tokens of God's presence and the
   performances of his worship; it is Zion that shall be ploughed as a
   field, the building burnt to the ground and levelled with it. Some
   observe that this was literally fulfilled in the destruction of
   Jerusalem by the Romans, when the ground on which the city stood was
   ploughed up in token of its utter desolation, and that no city should
   be built upon that ground without the emperor's leave. Even Jerusalem,
   the holy city, shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the
   house, on which the temple is built, shall be overgrown with briars and
   thorns, as the high places of the forest. If sacred places be polluted
   by sin, they must expect to be wasted and ruined by the judgments of
   God. (2.) It is the wickedness of those who preside in them that brings
   the ruin: "It is for your sake that Zion shall be ploughed as a field;
   you pretend to build up Zion, but, doing it by blood and iniquity, you
   pull it down." Note, The sin of priests and princes is often the ruin
   of states and churches. Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi--The kings
   act foolishly and the people suffer for it.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. IV.

   Comparing this chapter with the close of the foregoing chapter, the
   comfortable promises here with the terrible threatenings there, we may,
   with the apostle, "behold the goodness and severity of God," (Rom. xi.
   22), towards the Jewish church which fell, severity when Zion was
   ploughed as a field, but towards the Christian church, which was built
   upon the ruins of it, goodness, great goodness; for it is here
   promised, I. That it shall be advanced and enlarged by the accession of
   the nations to it, ver. 1, 2. II. That it shall be protected in
   tranquility and peace, ver. 3, 4. III. That it shall be kept close, and
   constant, and faithful to God, ver. 5. IV. That under Christ's
   government, all its grievances shall be redressed, ver. 6, 7. V. That
   it shall have an ample and flourishing dominion, ver. 8. VI. That its
   troubles shall be brought to a happy issue at length, ver. 9, 10. VII.
   That its enemies shall be disquieted, nay, that they shall be destroyed
   in and by their attempts against it, ver. 11-13.

The Prosperity of the Church Predicted. (b. c. 726.)

   1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the
   house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and
   it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.   2
   And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the
   mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
   teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall
   go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.   3 And he
   shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and
   they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
   pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither
   shall they learn war any more.   4 But they shall sit every man under
   his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for
   the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.   5 For all people will
   walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of
   the Lord our God for ever and ever.   6 In that day, saith the Lord,
   will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven
   out, and her that I have afflicted;   7 And I will make her that halted
   a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord
   shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

   It is a very comfortable but with which this chapter begins, and very
   reviving to those who lay the interests of God's church near their
   heart and are concerned for the welfare of it. When we sometimes see
   the corruptions of the church, especially of church-rulers, princes,
   priests, and prophets, seeking their own things and not the things of
   God, and when we soon after see the desolations of the church, Zion for
   their sakes ploughed as a field, we are ready to fear that it will one
   day perish between both, that the name of Israel shall be no more in
   remembrance; we are ready to give up all for gone, and to conclude the
   church will have neither root not branch upon earth. But let not our
   faith fail in this matter; out of the ashes of the church another
   phoenix shall arise. In the last words of the foregoing chapter we left
   the mountain of the house as desolate and waste as the high places of
   the forest; and is it possible that such a wilderness should ever
   become a fruitful field again? Yes, the first words of this chapter
   bring in the mountain of the Lord's house as much dignified by being
   frequented as ever it had been disgraced by being deserted. Though Zion
   be ploughed as a field, yet God has not cast off his people, but by the
   fall of the Jews salvation has come to the Gentiles, so that it proves
   to be the riches of the world, Rom. xi. 11, 12. This is the mystery
   which God by the prophet here shows us, and he says the very same in
   the first three verses of this chapter which another prophet said by
   the word of the Lord at the same time (Isa. ii. 2-4), that out of the
   mouth of these two witnesses these promises might be established; and
   very precious promises they are, relating to the gospel-church, which
   have been in part accomplished, and will be yet more and more, for he
   is faithful that has promised.

   I. That there shall be a church for God set up in the world, after the
   defection and destruction of the Jewish church, and this in the last
   days; that is, as some of the rabbin themselves acknowledge, in the
   days of the Messiah. The people of God shall be incorporated by a new
   charter, a new spiritual way of worship shall be enacted, and a new
   institution of offices to attend it; better privileges shall be granted
   by this new charter, and better provision made for enlarging and
   establishing the kingdom of God among men than had been made by the
   Old-Testament constitution: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall
   again appear firm ground for God's faithful worshippers to stand, and
   go, and build upon, in their attendance on him, v. 1. And it shall be a
   centre of unity to them; a church shall be set up in the world, to
   which the Lord will be daily adding such as shall be saved.

   II. That this church shall be firmly founded and well-built: It shall
   be established in the top of the mountains; Christ himself will build
   it upon a rock; it shall be an impregnable fort upon an immovable
   foundation, so that the gates of hell shall neither overthrow the one
   nor undermine the other (Matt. xvi. 18); its foundations are still in
   the holy mountains (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), the everlasting mountains, which
   cannot, which shall not, be removed. It shall be established, not as
   the temple, upon one mountain, but upon many; for the foundations of
   the church, as they are sure, so they are large.

   III. That it shall be highly advanced, and become eminent and
   conspicuous: It shall be exalted above the hills, observed with wonder
   for its growing greatness from small beginnings. The kingdom of Christ
   shall shine with greater lustre than ever any of the kingdoms of the
   earth did. It shall be as a city on a hill, which cannot be hid, Matt.
   v. 14. The glory of this latter house is greater than that of the
   former, Hag. ii. 9. See 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8, &c.

   IV. That there shall be a great accession of converts to it and
   succession of converts in it. People shall flow unto it as the waters
   of a river are continually flowing; there shall be a constant stream of
   believers flowing in from all parts into the church, as the people of
   the Jews flowed into the temple, while it was standing, to worship
   there. Then many tribes came to the mountain of the house, to enquire
   of God's temple; but in gospel-times many nations shall flow into the
   church, shall fly like a cloud and as the doves to their windows.
   Ministers shall be sent forth to disciple all nations, and they shall
   not labour in vain; for, multitudes being wrought upon to believe the
   gospel and embrace the Christian religion, they shall excite and
   encourage one another, and shall say, "Come, and let us go up to the
   mountain of the Lord now raised among us, even to the house of the God
   of Jacob, the spiritual temple which we need not travel far to, for it
   is brought to our doors and set up in the midst of us." Thus shall
   people be made willing in the day of his power (Ps. cx. 3), and shall
   do what they can to make others willing, as Andrew invited Peter, and
   Philip Nathanael, to be acquainted with Christ. They shall call the
   people to the mountain (Deut. xxxiii. 19), for there is in Christ
   enough for all, enough for each. Now observe what it is, 1. Which these
   converts expect to find in the house of the God of Jacob. They come
   thither for instruction: "He will teach us of his ways, what is the way
   in which he would have us to walk with him and in which we may depend
   upon him to meet us graciously." Note, Where we come to worship God we
   come to be taught of him. 2. Which they engage to do when they are thus
   taught of God: We will walk in his paths. Note, Those may comfortably
   expect that God will teach them who are firmly resolved by his grace to
   do as they are taught.

   V. That, in order to this, a new revelation shall be published to the
   world, on which the church shall be founded, and by which multitudes
   shall be brought into it: For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the
   word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The gospel is here called the word of
   the Lord, for the Lord gave the word, and great was the company of
   those that published it, Ps. lxviii. 11. It was of a divine original, a
   divine authority; it began to be spoken by the Lord Christ himself,
   Heb. ii. 3. And it is a law, a law of faith; we are under the law to
   Christ. This was to go forth from Jerusalem, from Zion, the metropolis
   of the Old-Testament dispensation, where the temple, and altars, and
   oracles were, and whither the Jews went to worship from all parts;
   thence the gospel must take rise, to show the connexion between the Old
   Testament and the New, that the gospel is not set up in opposition to
   the law, but is an explication and illustration of it, and a branch
   growing out of its roots. It was in Jerusalem that Christ preached and
   wrought miracles; there he died, rose again, and ascended; there the
   Spirit was poured out; and those that were to preach repentance and
   remission of sins to all nations were ordered to begin at Jerusalem, so
   that thence flowed the streams that were to water the desert world.

   VI. That a convincing power should go along with the gospel of Christ,
   in all places where it should be preached (v. 3): He shall judge among
   many people. Messiah, the lawgiver (v. 2), is here the judge, for to
   him the Father committed all judgment, and for judgment he came into
   this world; his word, the word of his gospel, that was to go forth from
   Jerusalem, was the golden sceptre by which he shall rule and judge when
   he sits as king on the holy hill of Zion, Ps. ii. 6. By it he shall
   rebuke strong nations afar off; for the Spirit working with the word
   shall reprove the world, John xvi. 8. It is promised to the Son of
   David that he shall judge among the heathen (Ps. cx. 6), which he does
   when in the chariot of his everlasting gospel he goes forth, and goes
   on, conquering and to conquer.

   VII. That a disposition to mutual peace and love shall be the happy
   effect of the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah: They shall beat
   their swords into plough-shares; that is, angry passionate men, that
   have been fierce and furious, shall be wonderfully sweetened, and made
   mild and meek, Tit. iii. 2, 3. Those who, before their conversion, did
   injuries, and would bear none, after their conversion can bear
   injuries, but will do none. As far as the gospel prevails it makes men
   peaceable, for such is the wisdom from above; it is gentle and easy to
   be entreated; and if nations were but leavened by it, there would be
   universal peace. When Christ was born there was universal peace in the
   Roman empire; those that were first brought into the gospel church were
   all of one heart and of one soul (Acts iv. 32); and it was observed of
   the primitive Christians how well they loved one another. In heaven
   this will have its full accomplishment. It is promised, 1. That none
   shall be quarrelsome. The art of war, instead of being improved (which
   some reckon the glory of a kingdom), shall be forgotten and laid aside
   as useless. They shall not learn war any more as they have done, for
   they shall have no need to defend themselves nor any inclination to
   offend their neighbours. Nation shall no longer lift up sword against
   nation; not that the gospel will make men cowards, but it will make men
   peaceable. 2. That all shall be quiet, both from evil and from the fear
   of evil (v. 4): They shall sit safely, and none shall disturb them;
   they shall sit securely, and shall not disturb themselves, every man
   under his vine and under his fig-tree, enjoying the fruit of them, and
   needing no other shelter than the leaves of them. None shall make them
   afraid; not only there shall be nothing that is likely to frighten
   them, but they shall not be disposed to fear. under the dominion of
   Christ, as that of Solomon, there shall be abundance of peace. Though
   his followers have trouble in the world, in him they enjoy great
   tranquillity. If this seems unlikely, yet we may depend upon it, for
   the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and no word of his shall fall to
   the ground; what he has spoken by his word he will do by his providence
   and grace. He that is the Lord of hosts will be the God of peace; and
   those may well be easy whom the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, undertakes
   the protection of.

   VIII. That the churches shall be constant in their duty, and so shall
   make a good use of their tranquillity and shall not provoke the Lord to
   deprive them of it, v. 5. When the churches have rest they shall be
   edified, and confirmed, and comforted, and shall resolve to be as firm
   to their God as other nations are to theirs, though they be no gods.
   Where we find the foregoing promises, Isa. ii. 2, &c. it follows (v.
   5), O house of Jacob! come ye, and let us walk in the light of the
   Lord; and here, We will walk in the name of the Lord our God. Note,
   Peace is a blessing indeed when it strengthens our resolutions to
   cleave to the Lord. Observe, 1. How constant other nations were to
   their gods: All people will walk every one in the name of his god, will
   own their god and cleave to him, will worship their god and serve him,
   will depend upon him and put confidence in him. Whatever men make a god
   of they will make use of, and take his name along with them in all
   their actions and affairs. The mariners, in a storm, cried every man to
   his god, Jonah i. 5. And no instance could be found of a nation's
   changing its gods, Jer. ii. 11: If the hosts of heaven were their gods,
   they loved them, and served them, and walked after them, Jer. viii. 2.
   2. How constant God's people now resolve to be to him: "We will walk in
   the name of the Lord our God, will acknowledge him in all our ways, and
   govern ourselves by a continual regard to him, doing nothing but what
   we have warrant from him for, and openly professing our relation to
   him." Observe, Their resolution is peremptory; it is not a thing that
   needs be disputed: "We will walk in the name of the Lord our God." It
   is just and reasonable: He is our God. And it is a resolution for a
   perpetuity: "We will do it for ever and ever, and will never leave him.
   He will be ours for ever, and therefore so we will be his, and never
   repent our choice."

   IX. That notwithstanding the dispersions, distress, and infirmities of
   the church, it shall be formed and established, and made very
   considerable, v. 6, 7. 1. The state of the church had been low, and
   weak, and very helpless, in the latter times of the Old Testament,
   partly through the corruptions of the Jewish nation, and partly through
   the oppressions under which they groaned. They were like a flock of
   sheep that were maimed, worried, and scattered, Ezek. xxxiv. 16; Jer.
   l. 6, 17. The good people among them, and in other places, that were
   well inclined, were dispersed, were very infirm, and in a manner lost
   and cast far off. 2. It is promised that all these grievances shall be
   redressed and the distemper healed. Christ will come himself (Matt. xv.
   24), and send his apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
   Matt. x. 6. From among the Jews that halted, or that for want of
   strength, could not go upright, God gathered a remnant (v. 7), that
   remnant according to the election of grace which is spoken of in Rom.
   xi. 7, which embraced the gospel of Christ. And from among the Gentiles
   that were cast far off (so the Gentiles are described to be, Eph. ii.
   13, Acts ii. 39) he raised a strong nation; greater numbers of them
   were brought into the church than of the Jews, Gal. iv. 27. And such a
   strong nation the gospel-church is that the gates of hell shall never
   be able to prevail against it. The church of Christ is more numerous
   than any other nation, and strong in the Lord and in the power of his
   might.

   X. That the Messiah shall be the king of this kingdom, shall protect
   and govern it, and order all the affairs of it for the best, and this
   to the end of time. The Lord Jesus shall reign over them in Mount Zion
   by his word and Spirit in his ordinances, and this henceforth and for
   ever, for of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no
   end.

Judgments and Mercies. (b. c. 726.)

   8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of
   Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom
   shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.   9 Now why dost thou cry out
   aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs
   have taken thee as a woman in travail.   10 Be in pain, and labour to
   bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt
   thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and
   thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the
   Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.   11 Now also
   many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled,
   and let our eye look upon Zion.   12 But they know not the thoughts of
   the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them
   as the sheaves into the floor.   13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of
   Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass:
   and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their
   gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole
   earth.

   These verses relate to Zion and Jerusalem, here called the tower of the
   flock or the tower of Edor; we read of such a place (Gen. xxxv. 21)
   near Bethlehem; and some conjecture it is the same place where the
   shepherds were keeping their flocks when the angels brought them
   tidings of the birth of Christ, and some think Bethlehem itself is here
   spoken of, as ch. v. 2. Some think it is a tower at that gate of
   Jerusalem which is called the sheep-gate (Neh. iii. 32), and conjecture
   that through that gate Christ rode in triumph into Jerusalem. However,
   it seems to be put for Jerusalem itself, or for Zion the tower of
   David. All the sheep of Israel flocked thither three times a year; it
   was the stronghold (Ophel, which is also a name of a place in
   Jerusalem, Neh. iii. 27), or castle, of the daughter of Zion. Now here,

   I. We have a promise of the glories of the spiritual Jerusalem, the
   gospel-church, which is; the tower of the flock, that one fold in which
   all the sheep of Christ are protected under one Shepherd: "Unto thee
   shall it come; that which thou hast long wanted and wished for, even
   the first dominion, a dignity and power equal to that of David and
   Solomon, by whom Jerusalem was first raised, that kingdom shall again
   come to the daughter of Jerusalem, which it was deprived of at the
   captivity. It shall make as great a figure and shine with as much
   lustre among the nations, and have as much influence upon them, as ever
   it had; this is the first or chief dominion." Now this had by no means
   its accomplishment in Zerubbabel; his was nothing like the first
   dominion either in respect of splendour and sovereignty at home or the
   extent of power abroad; and therefore it must refer to the kingdom of
   the Messiah (and to that the Chaldee-paraphrase refers it) and had its
   accomplishment when God gave to our Lord Jesus the throne of his father
   David (Luke i. 32), set him king upon the holy hill of Zion and gave
   him the heathen for his inheritance (Ps. ii. 6), made him, his
   first-born, higher than the kings of the earth, Ps. lxxxix. 27; Dan.
   vii. 14. David, in spirit, called him Lord, and (as Dr. Pocock
   observes) he witnessed of himself, and his witness was true, that he
   was greater than Solomon, none of their dominions being like his for
   extent and duration. The common people welcomed Christ into Jerusalem
   with hosannas to the son of David, to show that it was the first
   dominion that came to the daughter of Zion; and the evangelist applies
   it to the promise of Zion's king coming to her, Matt. xxi. 5; Zech. ix.
   9. Some give this sense of the words: To Zion, and Jerusalem that tower
   of the flock, to the nation of the Jews, came the first dominion; that
   is, there the kingdom of Christ was first set up, the gospel of the
   kingdom was first preached (Luke xxiv. 47), there Christ was first
   called king of the Jews.

   II. This is illustrated by a prediction of the calamities of the
   literal Jerusalem, to which some favour and relief should be granted,
   as a type and figure of what God would do for the gospel-Jerusalem in
   the last days, notwithstanding its distresses. We have here,

   1. Jerusalem put in pain by the providences of God. "She cries out
   aloud, that all her neighbours may take notice of her griefs, because
   there is no king in her, none of that honour and power she used to
   have. Instead of ruling the nations, as she did when she sat a queen,
   she is ruled by them, and has become a captive. Her counsellors have
   perished; she is no longer at her own disposal, but is given up to the
   will of her enemies, and is governed by their counsellors. Pangs have
   taken her." (1.) She is carried captive to Babylon, and there is in
   pangs of grief. "She goes forth out of the city, and is constrained to
   dwell in the field, exposed to all manner of inconveniences; she goes
   even to Babylon, and there wears out seventy tedious years in a
   miserable captivity, all that while in pain, as a woman in travail,
   waiting to be delivered, and thinking the time very long." (2.) When
   she is delivered out of Babylon, and redeemed from the hand of her
   enemies there, yet still she is in pangs of fear; the end of one
   trouble is but the beginning of another; for now also, when Jerusalem
   is in the rebuilding, many nations are gathered against her, v. 11.
   They were so in Ezra's and Nehemiah's time, and did all they could to
   obstruct the building of the temple and the wall. They were so in the
   time of the Maccabees; they said, Let her be defiled; let her be looked
   upon as a place polluted with sin, and be forsaken and abandoned both
   of God and man; let her holy places be profaned and all her honours
   laid in the dust; let our eye look upon Zion, and please itself with
   the sight of its ruins, as it is said of Edom (Obad. 12, Thou shouldst
   not have looked upon the day of thy brother); let our eyes see our
   desire upon Zion, the day we have long wished for. When they hear the
   enemies thus combine against them, and insult over them, no wonder that
   they are in pain, and cry aloud. Without are fightings, within are
   fears.

   2. Jerusalem made easy by the promises of God: "Why dost thou cry out
   aloud? Let thy griefs and fears be silenced; indulge not thyself in
   them, for, though things are bad with thee, they shall end well; thy
   pangs are great, but they are like those of a woman in travail (v. 9),
   that labours to bring forth (v. 10), the issue of which will be good at
   last." Jerusalem's pangs are not as dying agonies, but as travailing
   throes, which after a while will be forgotten, for joy that a child is
   born into the world. Let the literal Jerusalem comfort herself with
   this, that, whatever straits she may be reduced to, she shall continue
   until the coming of the Messiah, for there his kingdom must be first
   set up, and she shall not be destroyed while that blessing is in her;
   and when at length she is ploughed as a field, and become heaps (as is
   threatened, ch. iii. 12), yet her privileges shall be resigned to the
   spiritual Jerusalem, and in that the promises made to her shall be
   fulfilled. Let Jerusalem be easy then, for, (1.) Her captivity in
   Babylon shall have an end, a happy end (v. 10): There shalt thou be
   delivered, and the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies
   there. This was done by Cyrus, who acted therein as God's servant; and
   that deliverance was typical of our redemption by Jesus Christ, and the
   release from our spiritual bondage which is proclaimed in the
   everlasting gospel, that acceptable year of the Lord, in which Christ
   himself preached liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
   to those that were bound, Luke iv. 18, 19. (2.) The designs of her
   enemies against her afterwards shall be baffled, nay, they shall turn
   upon themselves, v. 12, 13. They promise themselves a day of it, but it
   shall prove God's day. They are gathered against Zion, to destroy it,
   but it shall prove to their own destruction, which Israel and Israel's
   God shall have the glory of. [1.] Their coming together against Zion
   shall be the occasion of their ruin. They associate themselves, and
   gird themselves, that they may break Jerusalem in pieces, but it will
   prove that they shall be broken in pieces, Isa. viii. 9. They know not
   the thoughts of the Lord. When they are gathering together, and
   Providence favours them in it, they little think what God is designing
   by it, nor do they understand his counsel; they know what they aim at
   in coming together, but they know not what God aims at in bringing them
   together; they aim at Zion's ruin, but God aims at theirs. Note, When
   men are made use of as instruments of Providence in accomplishing its
   purposes it is very common for them to intend one thing and for God to
   intend quite the contrary. The king of Assyria is to be a rod in God's
   hand for the correction of his people, in order to their reformation;
   howbeit he means not so, nor does his heart think so, Isa. x. 7. And
   thus it is here; the nations are gathered against Zion, as soldiers
   into the field, but God gathers them as sheaves into the floor, to be
   beaten to pieces; and they could not have been so easily, so
   effectually, destroyed, if they had not gathered together against Zion.
   Note, The designs of enemies for the ruin of the church often prove
   ruining to themselves; and thereby they prepare themselves for
   destruction and put themselves in the way of it; they are snared in the
   work of their own hands. [2.] Zion shall have the honour of being
   victorious over them, v. 13. When they are gathered as sheaves into the
   floor, to be trodden down, as the corn then was by the oxen, then,
   "Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion! instead of fearing them, and
   fleeing from them, boldly set upon them, and take the opportunity
   Providence favours thee with of trampling upon them. Plead not thy own
   weakness, and that thou art not a match for so many confederated
   enemies; God will make thy horn iron, to push them down, and thy hoofs
   brass, to tread upon them when they are down; and thus thou shalt beat
   in pieces many people, that have long been beating thee in pieces."
   Thus, when God pleases, the daughter of Babylon is made a threshing
   floor (it is time to thresh her, Jer. li. 33), and the worm Jacob is
   made a threshing instrument, with which God will thresh the mountains,
   and make them as chaff, Isa. xli. 14, 15. How strangely, how happily,
   are the tables turned, since Jacob was the threshing-floor and Babylon
   the threshing instrument! Isa. xxi. 10. Note, When God has conquering
   work for his people to do he will furnish them with strength and
   ability for it, will make the horn iron and the hoofs brass; and, when
   he does so, they must exert the power he gives them, and execute the
   commission; even the daughter of Zion must arise, and thresh. [3.] The
   glory of the victory shall redound to God. Zion shall thresh these
   sheaves in the floor, but the corn threshed out shall be a
   meat-offering at God's altar: I will consecrate their gain unto the
   Lord (that is, I will have it consecrated) and their substance unto the
   Lord of the whole earth. The spoils gained by Zion's victory shall be
   brought into the sanctuary, and devoted to God, either in part, as
   those of Midian (Num. xxxi. 28), or in whole, as those of Jericho,
   Josh. vi. 17. God is Jehovah, the fountain of being; he is the Lord of
   the whole earth, the fountain of power; and therefore he needs not any
   of our gain or substance, but may challenge and demand it all if he
   please; and with ourselves we must devote all we have to his honour, to
   be employed as he directs. Thus far all we have must have holiness to
   the Lord written upon it, all our gain and substance must be
   consecrated to the Lord of the whole earth, Isa. xxiii. 18. And
   extraordinary successes call for extraordinary acknowledgments, whether
   they be of spoils in war or gains in trade. It is God that gives us
   power to get wealth, which way soever it is honestly got, and therefore
   he must be honoured with what we get. Some make all this to point at
   the defeat of Sennacherib when he besieged Jerusalem, others to the
   destruction of Babylon, others to the successes of the Maccabees; but
   the learned Dr. Pocock and others think it had its full accomplishment
   in the spiritual victories obtained by the gospel of Christ over the
   powers of darkness that fought against it. The nations thought to ruin
   Christianity in its infancy, but it was victorious over them; those
   that persisted in their enmity were broken to pieces (Matt. xxi. 44),
   particularly the Jewish nation; but multitudes by divine grace were
   gained to the church, and they and their substance were consecrated to
   the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. V.

   In this chapter we have, I. A prediction of the troubles and distresses
   of the Jewish nation, ver. 1. II. A promise of the Messiah, and of his
   kingdom, to support the people of God in the day of these troubles. 1.
   Of the birth of the Messiah, ver. 2, 3. 2. Of his advancement, ver. 4.
   3. Of his protection of his people, and his victory over his and their
   enemies, ver. 5, 6. 4. Of the great world by it, ver. 7. 5. Of the
   destruction of the enemies of the church, both those without, that
   attack it, and those within, that expose it, ver. 8-15.

The Abasement and Distress of Zion; Birth of the Messiah Predicted; The Glory
of Messiah. (b. c. 720.)

   1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid
   siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon
   the cheek.   2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
   among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
   me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of
   old, from everlasting.   3 Therefore will he give them up, until the
   time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of
   his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.   4 And he shall
   stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name
   of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great
   unto the ends of the earth.   5 And this man shall be the peace, when
   the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our
   palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight
   principal men.   6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the
   sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he
   deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he
   treadeth within our borders.

   Here, as before, we have,

   I. The abasement and distress of Zion, v. 1. The Jewish nation, for
   many years before the captivity, dwindled, and fell into disgrace: Now
   gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops! It is either a summons
   to Zion's enemies, that had troops at their service, to come and do
   their worst against her (God will suffer them to do it), or a challenge
   to Zion's friends, that had troops too at command, to come and do their
   best for her; Let them gather in troops, yet it shall be to no purpose;
   for, says the prophet, in the name of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, He
   has laid siege against us; the king of Assyria has, the king of Babylon
   has, and we know not which way to defend ourselves; so that the enemies
   shall gain their point, and prevail so far as to smite the judge of
   Israel--the king, the chief justice, and the other inferior
   judges--with a rod upon the cheek, in contempt of them and their
   dignity; having made them prisoners, they shall use them as shamefully
   as any of the common captives. Complaint had been made of the judges of
   Israel (ch. iii. 11) that they were corrupt and took bribes, and this
   disgrace came justly upon them for abusing their power; yet it was a
   great calamity to Israel to have their judges treated thus
   ignominiously. Some make this the reason why the troops (that is, the
   Roman army) shall lay siege to Jerusalem, because the Jews shall smite
   the judge of Israel upon the cheek, because of the indignities they
   shall do to the Messiah, the Judge of Israel, whom they smote on the
   cheek, saying, Prophesy, who smote thee. But the former sense seems
   more probable, and that it is meant of the besieging of Jerusalem, not
   by the Romans, but the Chaldeans, and was fulfilled in the indignities
   done to king Zedekiah and the princes of the house of David.

   II. The advancement of Zion's King. Having shown how low the house of
   David should be brought, and how vilely the shield of that mighty
   family should be cast away, as though it had not been anointed with
   oil, to encourage the faith of God's people, who might be tempted now
   to think that his covenant with David and his house was abrogated
   (according to the psalmist's complaint, Ps. lxxxix. 38, 39), he adds an
   illustrious prediction of the Messiah and his kingdom, in whom that
   covenant should be established, and the honours of that house should be
   revived, advanced, and perpetuated. Now let us see,

   1. How the Messiah is here described. It is he that is to be ruler in
   Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,
   from the days of eternity, as the word is. Here we have, (1.) His
   existence from eternity, as God: his goings forth, or emanations, as
   the going forth of the beams from the sun, were, or have been, of old,
   from everlasting, which (says Dr. Pocock) is so signal a description of
   Christ's eternal generation, or his going forth as the Son of God,
   begotten of his Father before all worlds, that this prophecy must
   belong only to him, and could never be verified of any other. It
   certainly speaks of a going forth that was now past, when the prophet
   spoke, and cannot but be read, as we read it, his outgoings have been;
   and the putting of both these words together, which severally are used
   to denote eternity, plainly shows that they must here be taken in the
   strictest sense (the same with Ps. xc. 2, From everlasting to
   everlasting thou are God), and can be applied to no other than to him
   who was able to say, Before Abraham was, I am, John viii. 58. Dr.
   Pocock observes that the going forth is used (Deut. viii. 3) for a word
   which proceeds out of the mouth, and is therefore very fitly used to
   signify the eternal generation of him who is called the Word of God,
   that was in the beginning with God, John i. 1, 2. (2.) His office as
   Mediator; he was to be ruler in Israel, king of his church; he was to
   reign over the house of Jacob for ever, Luke i. 32, 33. The Jews object
   that our Lord Jesus could not be the Messiah, for he was so far from
   being ruler in Israel that Israel ruled over him, and put him to death,
   and would not have him to reign over them; but he answered that himself
   when he said, My kingdom is not of this world, John xviii. 36. And it
   is a spiritual Israel that he reigns over, the children of promise, all
   the followers of believing Abraham and praying Jacob. In the hearts of
   these he reigns by his Spirit and grace, and in the society of these by
   his word and ordinances. And was not he ruler in Israel whom winds and
   seas obeyed, to whom legions of devils were forced to submit, and who
   commanded away diseases from the sick and called the dead out of their
   graves? None but he whose goings forth were from of old, from
   everlasting, was fit to be ruler in Israel, to be head of the church,
   and head over all things to the church.

   2. What is here foretold concerning him.

   (1.) That Bethlehem should be the place of his nativity, v. 2. This was
   the scripture which the scribes went upon when with the greatest
   assurance they told Herod where Christ should be born (Matt. ii. 6),
   and hence it was universally known among the Jews that Christ should
   come out of the town of Bethlehem where David was, John vii. 42.
   Beth-lehem signifies the house of bread, the fittest place for him to
   be born in who is the bread of life. And, because it was the city of
   David, by a special providence it was ordered that he should be born
   there who was to be the Son of David, and his heir and successor for
   ever. It is called Bethlehem-Ephratah, both names of the same city, as
   appears Gen. xxxv. 19. It was little among the thousands of Judah, not
   considerable either for the number of the inhabitants or the figure
   they made; it had nothing in it worthy to have this honour put upon it;
   but God in that, as in other instances, chose to exalt those of low
   degree, Luke i. 52. Christ would give honour to the place of his birth,
   and not derive honour from it: Though thou be little, yet this shall
   make thee great, and, as St. Matthew reads it, Thou art not the least
   among the princes of Judah, but upon this account art really honourable
   above any of them. A relation to Christ will magnify those that are
   little in the world.

   (2.) That in the fulness of time he should be born of a woman (v. 3):
   Therefore will he give them up; he will give up his people Israel to
   distress and trouble, and will defer their salvation, which has been so
   long promised and expected, until the time, the set time, that she who
   travails has brought forth, or (as it should be read) that she who
   shall bring forth shall have brought forth, that the blessed virgin,
   who was to be the mother of the Messiah, shall have brought him forth
   at Bethlehem, the place appointed. This Dr. Pocock thinks to be the
   most genuine sense of the words. Though the out-goings of the Messiah
   were from everlasting, yet the redemption in Jerusalem, the consolation
   of Israel, must be waited for (Luke ii. 25-38) until the time that she
   who should bring forth (so the virgin Mary is called, as Christ is
   himself called, He that shall come) shall bring forth; and in the mean
   time he will give them up. Divine salvations must be waited for until
   the time fixed for the bringing of them forth.

   (3.) That the remnant of his brethren shall then return to the children
   of Israel. The remnant of the Jewish nation shall return to the spirit
   of the true genuine children of Israel, a people in covenant with God;
   the hearts of the children shall be turned to the fathers, Mal. iv. 6.
   Some understand it of all believers, Gentiles as well as Jews; they
   shall all be incorporated into the commonwealth of Israel; and, as they
   are all brethren to one another, so he is not ashamed to call them
   brethren, Heb. ii. 11.

   (4.) That he shall be a glorious prince, and his subjects shall be
   happy under his government (v. 4): He shall stand and feed, that is, he
   shall both teach and rule, and continue to do so, as a good shepherd,
   with wisdom, and care, and love. So it was foretold. He shall feed his
   flock like a shepherd, shall provide green pastures for them, and
   under-shepherds to lead them into these pastures. He is the good
   shepherd that goes before the sheep, and presides among them. He shall
   do this, not as an ordinary man, but in the strength of the Lord, as
   one clothed with a divine power to go through his work, and break
   through the difficulties in his way, so as not to fail, or be
   discouraged; he shall do it in the majesty of the name of the Lord his
   God, so as plainly to evidence that God's name was in him (Exod. xxiii.
   21) the majesty of his name, for he taught as one having authority and
   not as the scribes. The prophets prefaced their messages with, Thus
   saith the Lord; but Christ spoke, not as a servant, but as a
   Son--Verily, verily, I say unto you. This was feeding in the majesty of
   the name of the Lord his God. All power was given him in heaven and in
   earth, a power over all flesh, by virtue of which he still rules in the
   majesty of the name of the Lord his God, a name above every name.
   Christ's government shall be, [1.] Very happy for his subjects, for
   they shall abide; they shall be safe and easy, and continue so for
   ever. Because he lives, they shall live also. They shall lie down in
   the green pastures to which he shall lead them, shall abide in God's
   tabernacle for ever, Ps. lxi. 4. His church shall abide, and he in it,
   and with it, always, even to the end of the world. [2.] It shall be
   very glorious to himself: Now shall he be great to the ends of the
   earth. Now that he stands and feeds his flock, now shall he be great.
   For Christ reckons it his greatness to do good. Now he shall be great
   to the ends of the earth, for the uttermost parts of the earth shall be
   given him for his possession, and the ends of the world shall see his
   salvation.

   (5) That he shall secure the peace and welfare of his church and people
   against all the attempts of his and their enemies (v. 5, 6): This man,
   as king and ruler, shall be the peace when the Assyrians shall come
   into our land. This refers to the deliverance of Hezekiah and his
   kingdom from the power of Sennacherib, who invaded them, in the type;
   but, under the shadow of that, it is a promise of the safety of the
   gospel-church and of all believers from the designs and attempts of the
   powers of darkness, Satan and all his instruments, the dragon and his
   angels, that seek to devour the church of the first-born and all that
   belong to it. Observe, [1.] The peril and danger which Christ's
   subjects are supposed to be in. The Assyrian, a potent enemy, comes
   into their land (v. 5, 6), treads within their borders, nay, prevails
   so far as to tread in their palaces; it was a time of treading down and
   of perplexity when Sennacherib made a descent upon Judah, took all the
   defenced cities, and laid siege to Jerusalem, Isa. xxxvi. 1; xxxvii. 3.
   This represented the gates of hell fighting against the kingdom of
   Christ, encompassing the camp of the saints and of the holy city, and
   threatening to bear down all before them. When the terrors of the law
   set themselves in array against a convinced soul, when the temptations
   of Satan assault the people of God, and the troubles of the world
   threaten to rob them of all their comforts, then the Assyrian comes
   into their land and treads in their palaces. Without are fightings,
   within are fears. [2.] The protection and defence which his subjects
   are then sure to be under. First, Christ will himself be their peace.
   When the Assyrian comes with such a force into a land, can there be any
   other peace than a tame submission and an unresisted desolation? Yes,
   even then the church's King will be the conservator of the church's
   peace, will be for a hiding-place, Isa. xxxii. 1, 2. Christ is our
   peace as a priest, making atonement for sin, and reconciling us to God;
   and he is our peace as a king, conquering our enemies and commanding
   down disquieting fears and passions; he creates the fruit of the lips,
   peace. Even when the Assyrian comes into the land, when we are in the
   greatest distress and danger and have received a sentence of death
   within ourselves, yet this man may be the peace. In me, says Christ,
   you shall have peace, when in the world you have tribulation; at such a
   time our souls may dwell at ease in him. Secondly, He will find out
   proper instruments to be employed for their protection and deliverance,
   and the defeat of their enemies: Then shall we raise against him seven
   shepherds and eight principal men, that is, a competent number of
   persons, proper to oppose the enemy, and make head against him, and
   protect the church of God in peace, men that shall have the care and
   tenderness of shepherds and the courage and authority of principal men,
   or princes of men. Seven and eight are a certain number for an
   uncertain. Note, When God has work to do he will not want fitting
   instruments to do it with; and when he pleases he can do it by a few;
   he needs not raise thousands, but seven or eight principal men may
   serve the turn if God be with them. Magistrates and ministers are
   shepherds and principal men, raised in defence of religion's righteous
   cause against the powers of sin and Satan in the world. Thirdly, The
   opposition given to the church shall be got over, and the opposers
   brought down. This is represented by the laying of Assyria and Chaldea
   waste, which two nations were the most formidable enemies to the Israel
   of God of any, and the destruction of them signified the making of
   Christ's enemies his footstool: They shall waste the land of Assyria
   with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; they
   shall make inroads upon the land, and put to the sword all that they
   find in arms. Note, Those that threaten ruin to the church of God
   hasten ruin to themselves; and their destruction is the church's
   salvation: Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian. When Satan fell
   as lightning from heaven before the preaching of the gospel, and
   Christ's enemies, that would not have him to reign over them, were
   slain before him, then this was fulfilled.

The Increase of the Church; Encouraging Predictions. (b. c. 720.)

   7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a
   dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for
   man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.   8 And the remnant of Jacob
   shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among
   the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep:
   who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and
   none can deliver.   9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine
   adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.   10 And it shall
   come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy
   horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:   11
   And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy
   strong holds:   12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand;
   and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:   13 Thy graven images also
   will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and
   thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.   14 And I will
   pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy
   cities.   15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the
   heathen, such as they have not heard.

   Glorious things are here spoken of the remnant of Jacob, that remnant
   which was raised of her that halted (ch. iv. 7), and it seems to be
   that remnant which the Lord our God shall call (Joel ii. 32), on whom
   the Spirit shall be poured out, the remnant that shall be saved, Rom.
   ix. 27. Note, God's people are but a remnant, a small number in
   comparison with the many that are left to perish, a little flock; but
   they are the remnant of Jacob, a people in covenant with God, and in
   his favour. Now concerning this remnant it is here promised,

   I. That they shall be as a dew in the midst of the nations, v. 7. God's
   church is dispersed all the world over; it is in the midst of many
   people, as gold in the ore, wheat in the heap. Israel according to the
   flesh dwelt alone, and was not numbered among the nations; but the
   spiritual Israel lies scattered in the midst of many people, as the
   salt of the earth, or as seed sown in the ground, here a grain and
   there a grain, Hos. ii. 23. Now this remnant shall be as dew from the
   Lord. 1. They shall be of a heavenly extraction; as dew from the Lord,
   who is the Father of the rain, and has begotten the drops of the dew,
   Job xxxviii. 28. They are born from above, and are not of the earth,
   savouring the things of the earth. 2. They shall be numerous as the
   drops of dew in a summer's morning. Ps. cx. 3, Thou hast the dew of thy
   youth. 3. They shall be pure and clear, not muddy and corrupt, but
   crystal drops, as the water of life. 4. They shall be produced silently
   and without noise, as the dew that distils insensibly, we know not how;
   such is the way of the Spirit. 5. They shall live in a continual
   dependence upon God, and be still deriving from him, as the dew, which
   tarries not for man, not waits for the sons of men; they shall not rely
   upon human aids and powers, but on divine grace, for they are, and own
   that they are, no more than what the free grace of God makes them every
   day. 6. They shall be great blessings to those among whom they live, as
   the dew and the showers are to the grass, to make it grow without the
   help of man, or the sons of men. Their doctrine, example, and prayers,
   shall make them as dew, to soften and moisten others, and make them
   fruitful. Their speech shall distil as the dew (Deut. xxxii. 2), and
   all about them shall wait for them as for the rain, Job xxix. 23. The
   people among whom they live shall be as the grass, which flourishes
   only by the blessing of God, and not by the art and care of man; they
   shall be beneficial to those about them by drawing down God's blessings
   on them, as Jacob on Laban's house, and by cooling and mitigating God's
   wrath, which otherwise would burn them up, as the dew preserves the
   grass from being scorched by the sun; so Dr. Pocock; they shall be mild
   and gentle in their behaviour, like their Master, who comes down like
   rain upon the new-mown grass, Ps. lxxii. 6.

   II. That they shall be as a lion among the beasts of the forest, that
   treads down and tears in pieces, v. 8. As they shall be silent, and
   gentle, and communicative of all good, to those that receive the truth
   in the love of it, so they shall be bold as a lion in witnessing
   against the corruptions of the times and places they live in, and
   strong as a lion, in the strength of God, to resist and overcome their
   spiritual enemies. The weapons of their warfare are mighty, through
   God, to the pulling down of strongholds, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. They shall
   have courage which all their adversaries shall not be able to resist
   (Luke xxi. 15), as when the lion tears none can deliver. When
   infidelity is silenced, and all iniquity made to stop her mouth, when
   sinners are convinced and converted by the power of the gospel, in the
   doctrine of its ministers and the conversation of its professors, then
   the remnant of Jacob is like a lion. This is explained, v. 9, Thy hand
   shall be lifted up upon thy adversaries; the church shall have the
   upper hand at last of all that oppose her. Her enemies shall be cut
   off; they shall cease to be enemies; their enmity shall be cut off.
   Christ's arrows of conviction shall be sharp in their hearts, so that
   they shall fall under him; they shall yield themselves subjects to him
   (Ps. xlv. 5) and be happily conquered and subdued, Ps. cx. 2.

   III. That they shall be brought off from all carnal confidences, which
   they have relied on, that by the providence of God they shall enjoy
   such a security that they shall not need them, and by the grace of God
   they shall be brought to see the folly of them and come off from them.
   It was the sin of Israel that they furnished themselves extravagantly
   with horses and chariots, and were soothsayers and idolaters; see Isa.
   ii. 6-8. But here it is promised that they shall not regard them any
   more. The tranquillity of the kingdom of Christ is intended in that
   promise, which explains this, Zech. ix. 10, I will cut off the chariot
   from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. Note, It is a great mercy to
   be deprived of those things in which we have reposed a confidence in
   competition with God, which we have made our arm, and after which we
   have gone a whoring from God. Let us observe the particulars:-- 1. They
   had trusted in chariots and horses, and multiplied them (Ps. xx. 7);
   but now God will cut off their horses, and destroy their chariots (v.
   10), as David houghed the chariot-horses, 2 Sam. viii. 4. They shall
   not have them, lest they should be tempted to trust in them. 2. They
   depended upon their strongholds, and fortified cities, for their
   security; but God will take care that they be demolished (v. 11): I
   will cut off the cities of thy land; I will throw down thy strongholds.
   They shall have them for habitations, but not for garrisons, for God
   will be their only place of defence, their high tower, and their
   deliverer. 3. Many of them depended much upon the conduct and advice of
   their conjurors, diviners, and fortune-tellers; and those God will cut
   off, not only as weak things, and insufficient to relieve them, but as
   wicked things, and sufficient to ruin them (v. 12): "I will cut off
   witchcrafts out of thy hand, that thou shalt no more take hold of them,
   and stay thyself upon them, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers,
   for thou shalt be convinced that all their pretensions are a cheat."
   The justice of the nation shall cut them off according to law, Lev. xx.
   27. The preaching of the gospel brought men off from using curious
   arts, Acts xix. 19. 4. Many of them had said to the work of their
   hands, You are our gods; but now idolatry shall be abolished and
   abandoned (v. 13): "Thy graven images will I cut off, and thy standing
   images, both those that were movable and those that were fixed; they
   shall be destroyed by the power of the law of Moses and deserted by the
   power of the gospel of Christ, so that thou shalt no more worship the
   work of thy hands, but be ashamed that ever thou hast been so deluded.
   Among other monuments of idolatry, I will pluck up thy groves out of
   the midst of thee," v. 14. These were planted and preserved in honour
   of their idols, and used in the worship of them; these they were
   ordered to burn (Deut. xii. 2, 3), and, if they do not, God will, so
   that they shall not have them to trust to. And so will I destroy their
   cities, meaning the cities that were dedicated to the idols, to some
   dunghill-deity or other, which they confided in for their protection.

   IV. That those who stand it out against the gospel of Christ, and
   continue in league with their idolatries and witchcrafts, shall fall
   under the wrath of God, and be consumed by it (v. 15): I will execute
   vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen (that is, upon
   heathenism), such as they have not heard; idolatries shall be done
   away, and idolaters put to shame. I will execute vengeance upon the
   heathen who have not heard (so some read it), or who would not hear and
   receive the doctrine of Christ. God will give his Son either the hearts
   or the necks of his enemies, and make them either his friends or his
   footstool.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. VI.

   After the precious promises in the two foregoing chapters, relating to
   the Messiah's kingdom, the prophet is here directed to set the sins of
   Israel in order before them, for their conviction and humiliation, as
   necessary to make way for the comfort of gospel-grace. Christ's
   forerunner was a reprover, and preached repentance, and so prepared his
   way. Here, I. God enters an action against his people for their base
   ingratitude, and the bad returns they had made him for his favours,
   ver. 1-5. II. He shows the wrong course they should have taken, ver.
   6-8. III. He calls upon them to hear the voice of his judgments, and
   sets the sins in order before them for which he still proceeded in his
   controversy with them (ver. 9), their injustice (ver. 10-15), and their
   idolatry (ver. 16), for both which ruin was coming upon them.

God's Expostulations with His People. (b. c. 710.)

   1 Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the
   mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.   2 Hear ye, O mountains,
   the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the
   Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
     3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied
   thee? testify against me.   4 For I brought thee up out of the land of
   Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent
   before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.   5 O my people, remember now
   what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor
   answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the
   righteousness of the Lord.

   Here, I. The prefaces to the message are very solemn and such as may
   engage our most serious attention. 1. The people are commanded to give
   audience: Hear you now what the Lord says. What the prophet speaks he
   speaks from God, and in his name; they are therefore bound to hear it,
   not as the word of a sinful dying man, but of the holy living God. Hear
   now what he saith, for, first or last, he will be heard. 2. The prophet
   is commanded to speak in earnest, and to put an emphasis upon what he
   said: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, or with the mountains,
   and let the hills hear thy voice, if it were possible; contend with the
   mountains and hills of Judea, that is, with the inhabitants of those
   mountains and hills; and, some think, reference is had to those
   mountains and hills on which they worshipped idols and which were thus
   polluted. But it is rather to be taken more generally, as appears by
   his call, not only to the mountains, but to the strong foundations of
   the earth, pursuant to the instructions given him. This is designed,
   (1.) To excite the earnestness of the prophet; he must speak as
   vehemently as if he designed to make even the hills and mountains hear
   him, must cry aloud, and not spare; what he had to say in God's name he
   must proclaim publicly before the mountains, as one that was neither
   ashamed nor afraid to own his message; he must speak as one concerned,
   as one that desired to speak to the heart, and therefore appeared to
   speak from the heart. (2.) To expose the stupidity of the people; "Let
   the hills hear thy voice, for this senseless careless people will not
   hear it, will not heed it. Let the rocks, the foundations of the earth,
   that have no ears, hear, since Israel, that has ears, will not hear."
   It is an appeal to the mountains and hills; let them bear witness that
   Israel has fair warning given them, and good counsel, if they would but
   take it. Thus Isaiah begins with, Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O
   earth! Let them judge between God and his vineyard.

   II. The message itself is very affecting. He is to let all the world
   know that God has a quarrel with his people, good ground for an action
   against them. Their offences are public, and therefore so are the
   articles of impeachment exhibited against them. Take notice the Lord
   has a controversy with his people and he will plead with Israel, will
   plead by his prophets, plead by his providences, to make good his
   charge. Note, 1. Sin begets a controversy between God and man. The
   righteous God has an action against every sinner, an action of debt, an
   action of trespass, an action of slander. 2. If Israel, God's own
   professing people, provoke him by sin, he will let them know that he
   has a controversy with them; he sees sin in them, and is displeased
   with it, nay, their sins are more displeasing to him than the sins of
   others, as they are a greater grief to his Spirit and dishonour to his
   name. 3. God will plead with those whom he has a controversy with, will
   plead with his people Israel, that they may be convinced and that he
   may be justified. In the close of the foregoing chapter he pleaded with
   the heathen in anger and fury, to bring them to ruin; but here he
   pleads with Israel in compassion and tenderness, to bring them to
   repentance, Come now, and let us reason together. God reasons with us,
   to teach us to reason with ourselves. See the equity of God's cause, it
   will bear to be pleaded, and sinners themselves will be forced to
   confess judgment, and to own that God's ways are equal, but their ways
   are unequal, Ezek. xviii. 25. Now, (1.) God here challenges them to
   show what he had done against them which might give them occasion to
   desert him. They had revolted from God and rebelled against him; but
   had they any cause to do so? (v. 3): "O my people! what have I done
   unto thee? Wherein have I wearied thee?" If subjects quit their
   allegiance to their prince, they will pretend (as the ten tribes did
   when they revolted from Rehoboam), that his yoke is too heavy for them;
   but can you pretend any such thing? What have I done to you that is
   unjust or unkind? Wherein have I wearied you with the impositions of
   service or the exactions of tribute? Have I made you to serve with an
   offering? Isa. xliii. 23. What iniquity have your fathers found in me?
   Jer. ii. 5. He never deceived us, nor disappointed our expectations
   from him, never did us wrong, nor put disgrace upon us; why then do we
   wrong and dishonour him, and frustrate his expectations from us? Here
   is a challenge to all that ever were in God's service to testify
   against him if they have found him, in any thing, a hard Master, or if
   they have found his demands unreasonable. (2.) Since they could not
   show any thing that he had done against them, he will show them a great
   deal that he has done for them, which should have engaged them for ever
   to his service, v. 4, 5. They are here directed, and we in them, to
   look a great way back in their reviews of the divine favour; let them
   remember their former days, their first days, when they were formed
   into a people, and the great things God did for them, [1.] When he
   brought them out of Egypt, the land of their bondage, v. 4. They were
   content with their slavery, and almost in love with their chains, for
   the sake of the garlic and onions they had plenty of; but God brought
   them up, inspired them with an ambition of liberty and animated them
   with a resolution by a bold effort to shake off their fetters. The
   Egyptians held them fast, and would not let the people go; but God
   redeemed them, not by price, but by force, out of the house of
   servants, or, rather, the house of bondage, for it is the same word
   that is used in the preface to the ten commandments, which insinuates
   that the considerations which are arguments for duty, if they be not
   improved by us, will be improved against us as aggravations of sin.
   When he brought them out of Egypt into a vast howling wilderness, as he
   left not himself without witness, so he left not them without guides,
   for he sent before them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, three prophets (says
   the Chaldee paraphrase), Moses the great prophet of the Old Testament,
   Aaron his prophet (Exod. vii. 1), and Miriam a prophetess, Exod. xv.
   20. Note, When we are calling to mind God's former mercies to us we
   must not forget the mercy of good teachers and governors when we were
   young; let those be made mention of, to the glory of God, who went
   before us, saying, This is the way, walk in it; it was God that sent
   them before us, to prepare the way of the Lord and to prepare a people
   for him. [2.] When he brought them into Canaan. God no less glorified
   himself, and honoured them, in what he did for them when he brought
   them into the land of their rest than in what he did for them when he
   brought them out of the land of their servitude. When Moses, Aaron, and
   Miriam, were dead, yet they found God the same. Let them remember now
   what God did for them, First, In baffling and defeating the designs of
   Balak and Balaam against them, which he did by the power he has over
   the hearts and tongues of men, v. 5. Let them remember what Balak the
   king of Moab consulted, what mischief he devised and designed to do to
   Israel, when they encamped in the plains of Moab; that which he
   consulted was to curse Israel, to divide between them and their God,
   and to disengage him from the protection of them. Among the heathen,
   when they made war upon any people, they endeavoured by magic charms or
   otherwise to get from them their tutelar gods, as to rob Troy of its
   Palladium. Macrobius has a chapter de ritu evocandi Deos--concerning
   the solemnity of calling out the gods. Balak would try this against
   Israel; but remember what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, how
   contrary to his own intention and inclination; instead of cursing
   Israel, he blessed them, to the extreme confusion and vexation of
   Balak. Let them remember the malice of the heathen against them, and
   for that reason never learn the way of the heathen, nor associate with
   them. Let them remember the kindness of their God to them, how he
   turned the curse into a blessing (because the Lord thy God loved thee,
   as it is, Deut. xxiii. 5), and for that reason never forsake him. Note,
   The disappointing of the devices of the church's enemies ought always
   to be remembered to the glory of the church's protector, who can make
   the answer of the tongue directly to contradict the preparation and
   consultation of the heart, Prov. xvi. 1. Secondly, In bringing them
   from Shittim, their last lodgment out of Canaan, unto Gilgal, their
   first lodgment in Canaan. There it was, between Shittim and Gilgal,
   that, upon the death of Moses, Joshua, a type of Christ, was raised up
   to put Israel in possession of the land of promise and to fight their
   battles; there it was that they passed over Jordan through the divided
   waters, and renewed the covenant of circumcision; these mercies of God
   to their fathers they must now remember, that they may know the
   righteousness of the Lord, his righteousness (so the word is), his
   justice in destroying the Canaanites, his goodness in giving rest to
   his people Israel, and his faithfulness to his promise made unto the
   fathers. The remembrance of what God had done to them might convince
   them of all this, and engage them for ever to his service. Or they may
   refer to the controversy now pleaded between God and Israel; let them
   remember God's many favours to them and their fathers, and compare with
   them their unworthy ungrateful conduct towards him, that they may know
   the righteousness of the Lord in contending with them, and it may
   appear that in this controversy he has right on his side; his ways are
   equal, for he will be justified when he speaks, and clear when he
   judges.

Anxiety Respecting the Divine Favour. (b. c. 710.)

   6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the
   high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of
   a year old?   7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or
   with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my
   transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?   8 He hath
   shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of
   thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
   God?

   Here is the proposal for accommodation between God and Israel, the
   parties that were at variance in the beginning of the chapter. Upon the
   trial, judgment is given against Israel; they are convicted of
   injustice and ingratitude towards God, the crimes with which they stood
   charged. Their guilt is too plain to be denied, too great to be
   excused, and therefore,

   I. They express their desires to be at peace with God upon any terms
   (v. 6, 7): Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? Being made sensible
   of the justice of God's controversy with them, and dreading the
   consequences of it, they were inquisitive what they might do to be
   reconciled to God and to make him their friend. They apply to a proper
   person, with this enquiry, to the prophet, the Lord's messenger, by
   whose ministry they had been convinced. Who so fit to show them their
   way as he that had made them sensible of their having missed it? And it
   is observable that each one speaks for himself: Wherewith shall I come?
   Knowing every one the plague of his own heart, they ask, not, What
   shall this man do? But, What shall I do? Note, Deep convictions of
   guilt and wrath will put men upon careful enquiries after peace and
   pardon, and then, and not till then, there begins to be some hope of
   them. They enquire wherewith they may come before the Lord, and bow
   themselves before the high God. They believe there is a God, that he is
   Jehovah, and that he is the high God, the Most High. Those whose
   consciences are convinced learn to speak very honourably of God, whom
   before they spoke slightly of. Now, 1. We know we must come before God;
   he is the God with whom we have to do; we must come as subjects, to pay
   our homage to him, as beggars, to ask alms from him, nay, we must come
   before him, as criminals, to receive our doom from him, must come
   before him as our Judge. 2. When we come before him we must bow before
   him; it is our duty to be very humble and reverent in our approaches to
   him; and, when we come before him, there is no remedy but we must
   submit; it is to no purpose to contend with him. 3. When we come and
   bow before him it is our great concern to find favour with him, and to
   be accepted of him; their enquiry is, What will the Lord be pleased
   with? Note, All that rightly understand their own interest cannot but
   be solicitous what they must do to please God, to avoid his displeasure
   and to obtain his good-will. 4. In order to God's being pleased with
   us, our care must be that the sin by which we have displeased him may
   be taken away, and an atonement made for it. The enquiry here is, What
   shall I give for my transgression, for the sin of my soul? Note, The
   transgression we are guilty of is the sin of our soul, for the soul
   acts it (without the soul's act it is not sin) and the soul suffers by
   it; it is the disorder, disease, and defilement of the soul, and
   threatens to be the death of it: What shall I give for my
   transgressions? What will be accepted as a satisfaction to his justice,
   a reparation of his honour? And what will avail to shelter me from his
   wrath? 5. We must therefore ask, Wherewith may we come before him? We
   must not appear before the Lord empty. What shall we bring with us? In
   what manner must we come? In whose name must we come? We have not that
   in ourselves which will recommend us to him, but must have it from
   another. What righteousness then shall we appear before him in?

   II. They make proposals, such as they are, in order to it. Their
   enquiry was very good and right, and what we are all concerned to make,
   but their proposals betray their ignorance, though they show their
   zeal; let us examine them:--

   1. They bid high. They offer, (1.) That which is very rich and
   costly--thousands of rams. God required one ram for a sin-offering;
   they proffer flocks of them, their whole stock, will be content to make
   themselves beggars, so that they may but be at peace with God. They
   will bring the best they have, the rams, and the most of them, till it
   comes to thousands. (2.) That which is very dear to them, and which
   they would be most loth to part with. They could be content to part
   with their first-born for their transgressions, if that would be
   accepted as an atonement, and the fruit of their body for the sin of
   their soul. To those that had become vain in their imaginations this
   seemed a probable expedient of making satisfaction for sin, because our
   children are pieces of ourselves; and therefore the heathen sacrificed
   their children, to appease their offended deities. Note, Those that are
   thoroughly convinced of sin, of the malignity of it, and of their
   misery and danger by reason of it, would give all the world, if they
   had it, for peace and pardon.

   2. Yet they do not bid right. It is true some of these things were
   instituted by the ceremonial law, as the bringing of burnt-offerings to
   God's altar, and calves of a year old, rams for sin-offerings, and oil
   for the meat-offerings; but these alone would not recommend them to
   God. God had often declared that to obey is better than sacrifice, and
   to hearken than the fat of rams, that sacrifice and offering he would
   not; the legal sacrifices had their virtue and value from the
   institution, and the reference they had to Christ the great
   propitiation; but otherwise, of themselves, it was impossible that the
   blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. And as to the other
   things here mentioned, (1.) Some of them are impracticable things, as
   rivers of oil, which nature has not provided to feed men's luxury, but
   rivers of water to supply men's necessity. All the proposals of peace
   but those that are according to the gospel are absurd. One stream of
   the blood of Christ is worth ten thousand rivers of oil. (2.) Some of
   them are wicked things, as to give our first-born and the fruit of our
   body to death, which would but add to the transgression and the sin of
   the soul. He that hates robbery for burnt-offerings much more hates
   murder, such murder. What right have we to our first born and the fruit
   of our body? Do they not belong to God? Are they not his already, and
   born to him? Are they not sinners by nature, and their lives forfeited
   upon their own account? How then can they be a ransom for ours? (3.)
   They are all external things, parts of that bodily exercise which
   profiteth little, and which could not make the comers thereunto
   perfect. (4.) They are all insignificant, and insufficient to attain
   the end proposed; they could not answer the demands of divine justice,
   nor satisfy the wrong done to God in his honour by sin, nor would they
   serve in lieu of the sanctification of the heart and the reformation of
   the life. Men will part with any thing rather than their sins, but they
   part with nothing to God's acceptance unless they part with them.

   III. God tells them plainly what he demands, and insists upon, from
   those that would be accepted of him, v. 8. Let their money perish with
   them that think the pardon of sin and the favour of God may be so
   purchased; no, God has shown thee, O man! what is good. Here we are
   told,

   1. That God has made a discovery of his mind and will to us, for the
   rectifying of our mistakes and the direction of our practice. (1.) It
   is God himself that has shown us what we must do. We need not trouble
   ourselves to make proposals, the terms are already settled and laid
   down. He whom we have offended, and to whom we are accountable, has
   told us upon what conditions he will be reconciled to us. (2.) It is to
   man that he has shown it, not only to thee, O Israel! but to thee, O
   man! Gentiles as well as Jews--to men, who are rational creatures, and
   capable of receiving the discovery, and not to brutes,--to men, for
   whom a remedy is provided, not to devils, whose case is desperate. What
   is spoken to all men every where in general, must by faith be applied
   to ourselves in particular, as if it were spoken to thee, O man! by
   name, and to no other. (3.) It is a discovery of that which is good,
   and which the Lord requires of us. He has shown us our end, which we
   should aim at, in showing us what is good, wherein our true happiness
   does consist; he has shown us our way in which we must walk towards
   that end in showing us what he requires of us. There is something which
   God requires we should do for him and devote to him; and it is good. It
   is good in itself; there is an innate goodness in moral duties,
   antecedent to the command; they are not, as ceremonial observances,
   good because they are commanded, but commanded because they are good,
   consonant to the eternal rule and reason of good and evil, which are
   unalterable. It has likewise a direct tendency to our good; our
   conformity to it is not only the condition of our future happiness, but
   is a great expedient of our present happiness; in keeping God's
   commandments there is great reward, as well as after keeping them. (4.)
   It is shown us. God has not only made it known, but made it plain; he
   has discovered it to us with such convincing evidence as amounts to a
   demonstration. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is.

   2. What that discovery is. The good which God requires of us is not the
   paying of a price for the pardon of sin and acceptance with God, but
   doing the duty which is the condition of our interest in the pardon
   purchased. (1.) We must do justly, must render to all their due,
   according as our relation and obligation to them are; we must do wrong
   to none, but do right to all, in their bodies, goods, and good name.
   (2.) We must love mercy; we must delight in it, as our God does, must
   be glad of an opportunity to do good, and do it cheerfully. Justice is
   put before mercy, for we must not give that in alms which is wrongfully
   got, or with which our debts should be paid. God hates robbery for a
   burnt-offering. (3.) We must walk humbly with our God. This includes
   all the duties of the first table, as the two former include all the
   duties of the second table. We must take the Lord for our God in
   covenant, must attend on him and adhere to him as ours, and must make
   it our constant care and business to please him. Enoch's walking with
   God is interpreted (Heb. xi. 5) his pleasing God. We must, in the whole
   course of our conversation, conform ourselves to the will of God, keep
   up our communion with God, and study to approve ourselves to him in our
   integrity; and this we must do humbly (submitting our understandings to
   the truths of God and our will to his precepts and providences); we
   must humble ourselves to walk with God (so the margin reads it); every
   thought within us must be brought down, to be brought into obedience to
   God, if we would walk comfortably with him. This is that which God
   requires, and without which the most costly services are vain
   oblations; this is more than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

Accusations and Threatenings. (b. c. 710.)

   9 The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall
   see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.   10 Are
   there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and
   the scant measure that is abominable?   11 Shall I count them pure with
   the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?   12 For
   the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof
   have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.   13
   Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee
   desolate because of thy sins.   14 Thou shalt eat, but not be
   satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou
   shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest
   will I give up to the sword.   15 Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not
   reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with
   oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.   16 For the statutes of
   Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in
   their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the
   inhabitants thereof a hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of
   my people.

   God, having shown them how necessary it was that they should do justly,
   here shows them how plain it was that they had done unjustly; and since
   they submitted not to his controversy, nor went the right way to have
   it taken up, here he proceeds in it. Observe,

   I. How the action is entered against them, v. 9. God speaks to the
   city, to Jerusalem, to Samaria. His voice cries to it by his servants
   the prophets who were to cry aloud and not spare. Note, The voice of
   the prophets is the Lord's voice, and that cries to the city, cries to
   the country. Doth not wisdom cry? Prov. viii. 1. When the sin of a city
   cries to God his voice cries against the city; and, when the judgments
   of God are coming upon a city, his voice first cries unto it. He warns
   before he wounds, because he is not willing that any should perish. Now
   observe, 1. How the voice of God is discerned by some: The man of
   wisdom will see thy name. When the voice of God cries to us we may by
   it see his name, may discern and perceive that by which he makes
   himself known. Yet many see it not, are not aware of it, because they
   do not regard it. God speaks once, yea, twice, and they perceive it not
   (Job xxxiii. 14); but those that are men of wisdom will see it, and
   perceive it, and make a good use of it. Note, It is a point of true
   wisdom to discover the name of God in the voice of God, and to learn
   what he is from what he says. Wisdom shall see thy name, for the
   knowledge of the holy is understanding. 2. What this voice of God says
   to all: "Hear you the rod, and who hath appointed it. Hear the rod when
   it is coming; hear it at a distance, before you see it and feel it; and
   be awakened to go forth to meet the Lord in the way of his judgments.
   Hear the rod when it has come, and is actually upon you, and you are
   sensible of the smart of it; hear what it says to you, what
   convictions, what counsels, what cautions, it speaks to you." Note,
   Every rod has a voice, and it is the voice of God that is to be heard
   in the rod of God, and it is well for those that understand the
   language of it, which if we would do we must have an eye to him that
   appointed it. Note, Every rod is appointed, of what kind it shall be,
   where it shall light, and how long it shall lie. God in every
   affliction performs the thing that is appointed for us (Job xxiii. 14),
   and to him therefore we must have an eye, to him we must have an ear;
   we must hear what he says to us by the affliction. Hear it, and know it
   for thy good, Job v. 6. The work of ministers is to explain the
   providences of God and to quicken and direct men to learn the lessons
   that are taught by them.

   II. What is the ground of the action, and what are the things that are
   laid to their charge.

   1. They are charged with injustice, a sin against the second table. Are
   there yet to be found among them the marks and means of fraudulent
   dealing? What! after all the methods that God has taken to teach them
   to do justly, will they yet deal unjustly? It seems, they will, v. 10.
   And shall I count them pure? v. 11. No; this is a sin which will by no
   means consist with a profession of purity. Those that are dishonest in
   their dealings have not the spots of God's children, and shall never be
   reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion they may make. Be not
   deceived, God is not mocked. When a man is suspected of theft, or
   fraud, the justice of peace will send a warrant to search his house.
   God here does, as it were, search the houses of those citizens, and
   there he finds, (1.) Treasures of wickedness, abundance of wealth, but
   it is ill-got, and not likely to prosper; for treasures of wickedness
   profit nothing. (2.) A scant measure, by which they sold to the poor,
   and so exacted upon them and cheated them. (3.) They had wicked
   balances and a bag of false weights, by which, under a pretence of
   weighing what they sold, and giving the buyer what was right, they did
   him the greatest wrong, v. 11. (4.) Those that had wealth and power in
   their hands abused it to oppression and extortion; The rich men thereof
   are full of violence; for those that have much would have more, and are
   in a capacity of making it more by the power which their abundance of
   wealth gives them. They are full of violence, that is, they have their
   houses full of that which is got by violence. (5.) Those that had not
   the advantage of doing wrong by their wealth yet found means of
   defrauding those they dealt with: The inhabitants thereof have spoken
   lies; if they are not able to use force and violence, they use fraud
   and deceit; the inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is
   deceitful in their mouth; they do not stick at a deliberate lie, to
   make a good bargain. Some understand it of their speaking falsely
   concerning God, saying, The Lord seeth not; he hath forsaken the earth,
   Ezek. viii. 12.

   2. They are charged with idolatry (v. 6): The statutes of Omri are
   kept, and all the work of the house of Ahab. Both these kings were
   wicked, and did evil in the sight of the Lord; but the wickedness which
   they established by a law, concerning which they made statutes, and
   which was the peculiar work of that house, was idolatry. Omri walked in
   the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin of provoking God to anger with
   their vanities, 1 Kings xvi. 26, 31. Ahab introduced the worship of
   Baal. These reigns were some ages before the time when this prophet
   lived, and yet the wickedness which they established by their laws and
   examples remained to this day; those statutes were still kept, and that
   work was still done; and the princes and people still walked in their
   counsels, took the same measures, and governed themselves and the
   people by the same politics. Observe, (1.) The same wickedness
   continued from one generation to another. Sin is a root of bitterness,
   soon planted, but not so soon plucked up again. The iniquity of former
   ages is often transmitted to, and entailed upon, the succeeding ones.
   Those that make corrupt laws, and bring in corrupt usages, are doing
   that which perhaps may prove the ruin of the child unborn. (2.) It was
   not the less evil in itself, provoking to God, and dangerous to the
   sinners, for its having been established and confirmed by the laws of
   princes, the examples of great men, and a long prescription. Though the
   worship of idols is enacted by the statutes of Omri, recommended by the
   practice of the house of Ahab, and pleads that it has been the usage of
   many generations, yet it is still displeasing to God and destructive to
   Israel; for no laws nor customs are of force against the divine
   command.

   III. What is the judgment given upon this. Being found guilty of these
   crimes, the sentence is that that which God had given them warning of
   (v. 9) shall be brought upon them (v. 13): Therefore also will I make
   thee sick, in smiting thee. As they had smitten the poor with the rod
   of their oppressions, so would God in like manner smite them, so as to
   make them sick, sick of the gains they had unjustly gotten, so that
   though they had swallowed down riches they should vomit them up again,
   Job xx. 15. Their doom is,

   1. That what they have they shall not have any comfortable enjoyment
   of; it shall do them no good. They grasped at more than enough, but,
   when they have it, it shall not be enough to make them easy and happy.
   What is got by fraud and oppression cannot be kept or enjoyed with any
   satisfaction. (1.) Their food shall not nourish them: Thou shalt eat,
   but not be satisfied, either because the food shall not digest, for
   want of God's blessing going along with it, or because the appetite
   shall by disease be made insatiable and still craving, the just
   punishment of those that were greedy of gain and enlarged their desires
   as hell. Men may be surfeited with the good things of this world and
   yet not satisfied, Eccl. v. 10; Isa. lv. 2. (2.) Their country shall
   not harbour and protect them: "Thy casting down shall be in the midst
   of thee, that is, thou shalt be broken and ruined by the intestine
   troubles, mischiefs at home enough to cast thee down, though thou
   shouldst not be invaded by a foreign force." God can cast a nation down
   by that which is in the midst of them, can consume them by a fire in
   their own bowels. (3.) They shall not be able to preserve what they
   have from a foreign force, nor to recover what they have lost: "Thou
   shalt take hold of what is about to be taken from thee, but thou shalt
   not hold it fast, shalt catch at it, but shalt not deliver it, shalt
   not retrieve it." It is meant of their wives and children, that were
   very dear to them, which they took hold of, as resolved not to part
   with them, but there is no remedy, they must go into captivity. Note,
   What we hold closest we commonly lose soonest, and that proves least
   safe which is most dear. (4.) What they save for a time shall be
   reserved for a future and sorer stroke: That which thou deliverest out
   of the hand of one enemy will I give up to the sword of another enemy;
   for God has many arrows in his quiver; if one miss the sinner, the next
   shall not. (5.) What they have laboured for they shall not enjoy (v.
   15): "Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; it shall be blasted and
   withered, and there shall be nothing to reap, or an enemy shall come
   and reap it for himself, or thou shalt be carried into captivity, and
   leave it to be reaped by thou knowest not whom. Thou shalt tread the
   olives, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with oil, having no heart to
   make use of ornaments and refreshments when all is going to ruin. Thou
   shalt tread out the sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine, for many
   things may fall between the cup and the lip." Note, It is very grievous
   to be disappointed of our expectations, and not to have the pleasure of
   that which we have taken pains for; and this will be the just
   punishment of those that frustrate God's expectations from them, and
   answer not the cost he has been at upon them. See this threatened in
   the law, Lev. xxvi. 16; Deut. xxviii. 30, 38, &c.; and compare Isa.
   lxii. 8, 9.

   2. That all they have shall at length be taken from them (v. 13): Thou
   shalt be made desolate because of thy sins; and v. 16, a desolation and
   a hissing. Sin makes a nation desolate; and when a people that have
   been famous and flourishing are made desolate it is the astonishment of
   some and the triumph of others; some lament it, and others hiss at it.
   Thus you shall bear the reproach of my people. Their being the people
   of God, in name and profession while they kept close to their duty and
   kept themselves in his love, was an honour to them, and all their
   neighbours thought it so; but now that they have corrupted and ruined
   themselves, now that their sins and God's judgments have made their
   land desolate, their having been once the people of God does but turn
   so much the more to their reproach; their enemies will say, These are
   the people of the Lord, Ezek. xxxvi. 20. Note, If professors of
   religion ruin themselves, their ruin will be the most reproachful of
   any; and they in a special manner will rise at the last day to
   everlasting shame and contempt.
     __________________________________________________________________

M I C A H.

  CHAP. VII.

   In this chapter, I. The prophet, in the name of the church, sadly
   laments the woeful decay of religion in the age wherein he lived, and
   the deluge of impiety and immorality which overwhelmed the nation,
   which levelled the differences, and bore down the fences, of all that
   is just and sacred, ver. 1-6. II. The prophet, for the sake of the
   church, prescribes comforts, which may be of use at such a time, and
   gives counsel what to do. 1. They must have an eye to God, ver. 7. 2.
   They must courageously bear up against the insolences of the enemy,
   ver. 8-10. 3. They must patiently lie down under the rebukes of their
   God, ver. 9. 4. They must expect no other than that the trouble would
   continue long, and must endeavour to make the best of it, ver. 11-13.
   5. They must encourage themselves with God's promises, in answer to the
   prophet's prayers, ver. 14, 15. 6. They must foresee the fall of their
   enemies, that now triumphed over them, ver. 16, 17. 7. They must
   themselves triumph in the mercy and grace of God, and his faithfulness
   to his covenant (ver. 18-20), and with that comfortable word the
   prophecy concludes.

The Sins of the People. (b. c. 700.)

   1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as
   the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul
   desired the first-ripe fruit.   2 The good man is perished out of the
   earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for
   blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.   3 That they may do
   evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh
   for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so
   they wrap it up.   4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright
   is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy
   visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.   5 Trust ye not in a
   friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth
   from her that lieth in thy bosom.   6 For the son dishonoureth the
   father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law
   against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own
   house.

   This is such a description of bad times as, some think, could scarcely
   agree to the times of Hezekiah, when this prophet prophesied; and
   therefore they rather take it as a prediction of what should be in the
   reign of Manasseh. But we may rather suppose it to be in the reign of
   Ahaz (and in that reign he prophesied, ch. i. 1) or in the beginning of
   Hezekiah's time, before the reformation he was instrumental in; nay, in
   the best of his days, and when he had done his best to purge out
   corruptions, still there was much amiss. The prophet cries out, Woe is
   me! He bemoans himself that his lot was cast in such a degenerate age,
   and thinks it his great unhappiness that he lived among a people that
   were ripening apace for a ruin which many a good man would unavoidably
   be involved in. Thus David cries out, Woe is me that I sojourn in
   Mesech! He laments, 1. That there were so few good people to be found,
   even among those that were God's people; and this was their reproach:
   The good man has perished out of the earth, or out of the land, the
   land of Canaan; it was a good land, and a land of uprightness (Isa.
   xxvi. 10), but there were few good men in it, none upright among them,
   v. 2. The good man is a godly man and a merciful man; the word
   signifies both. Those are completely good men that are devout towards
   God and compassionate and beneficent towards men, that love mercy and
   walk with God. "These have perished; those few honest men that some
   time ago enriched and adorned our country are now dead and gone, and
   there are none risen up in their stead that tread in their steps;
   honesty is banished, and there is no such thing as a good man to be met
   with. Those that were of religious education have degenerated, and
   become as bad as the worst; the godly man ceases," Ps. xii. 1. This is
   illustrated by a comparison (v. 1): they were as when they have
   gathered the summer fruits; it was as hard a thing to find a good man
   as to find any of the summer-fruits (which were the choicest and best,
   and therefore must carefully be gathered in) when the harvest is over.
   The prophet is ready to say, as Elijah in his time (1 Kings xix. 10),
   I, even I only, am left. Good men, who used to hang in clusters, are
   now as the grape-gleanings of the vintage, here and there a berry, Isa.
   xvii. 6. You can find no societies of them as bunches of grapes, but
   those that are are single persons: There is no cluster to eat; and the
   best and fullest grapes are those that grow in large clusters. Some
   think that this intimates not only that good people were few, but that
   those few who remained, who went for good people, were good for little,
   like the small withered grapes, the refuse that were left behind, not
   only by the gatherer, but by the gleaner. When the prophet observed
   this universal degeneracy it made him desire the first-ripe fruit; he
   wished to see such worthy good men as were in the former ages, were the
   ornaments of the primitive times, and as far excelled the best of all
   the present age as the first and full-ripe fruits do those of the
   latter growth, that never come to maturity. When we read and hear of
   the wisdom and zeal, the strictness and conscientiousness, the devotion
   and charity, of the professors of religion in former ages, and see the
   reverse of this in those of the present age, we cannot but sit down,
   and wish, with a sigh, O for primitive Christianity again! Where are
   the plainness and integrity of those that went before us? Where are the
   Israelites indeed, without guile? Our souls desire them, but in vain.
   The golden age is gone, and past recall; we must make the best of what
   is, for we are not likely to see such times as have been. 2. That there
   were so many wicked mischievous people among them, not only none that
   did any good, but multitudes that did all the hurt they could: "They
   all lie in wait for blood, and hunt every man his brother. To get
   wealth to themselves, they care not what wrong, what hurt, they do to
   their neighbours and nearest relations. They act as if mankind were in
   a state of war, and force were the only right. They are as beasts of
   prey to their neighbours, for they all lie in wait for blood as lions
   for their prey; they thirst after it, make nothing of taking away any
   man's life or livelihood to serve a turn for themselves, and lie in
   wait for an opportunity to do it. Their neighbours are as beasts of
   prey to them, for they hunt every man his brother with a net; they
   persecute them as noxious creatures, fit to be taken and destroyed,
   though they are innocent excellent ones." We say of him that is
   outlawed, Caput gerit lupinum--He is to be hunted as a wolf. "Or they
   hunt them as men do the game, to feast upon it; they have a thousand
   cursed arts of ensnaring men to their ruin, so that they may but get by
   it. Thus they do mischief with both hands earnestly; their hearts
   desire it, their heads contrive it, and then both hands are ready to
   put it in execution." Note, The more eager and intent men are upon any
   sinful pursuit, and the more pains they take in it, the more provoking
   it is. 3. That the magistrates, who by their office ought to have been
   the patrons and protectors of right, were the practicers and promoters
   of wrong: That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, to excite
   and animate themselves in it, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh,
   for a reward, for a bribe, with which they well be hired to exert all
   their power for the supporting and carrying on of any wicked design
   with both hands. They do evil with both hands well (so some read it);
   they do evil with a great deal of art and dexterity; they praise
   themselves for doing it so well. Others read it thus: To do evil they
   have both hands (they catch at an opportunity of doing mischief), but
   to do good the prince and the judge ask for a reward; if they do any
   good offices they are mercenary in them, and must be paid for them. The
   great man, who has wealth and power to do good, is not ashamed to utter
   his mischievous desire in conjunction with the prince and the judge,
   who are ready to support him and stand by him in it. So they wrap it
   up; they perplex the matter, involve it, and make it intricate (so some
   understand it), that they may lose equity in a mist, and so make the
   cause turn which way they please. It is ill with a people when their
   princes, and judges, and great men are in a confederacy to pervert
   justice. And it is a sad character that is given of them (v. 4), that
   the best of them is as a brier, and the most upright is sharper than a
   thorn-hedge; it is a dangerous thing to have any thing to do with them;
   he that touches them must be fenced with iron (2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7), he
   shall be sure to be scratched, to have his clothes torn, and his eyes
   almost pulled out. And, if this be the character of the best and most
   upright, what are the worst? And, when things have come to this pass,
   the day of thy watchmen comes, that is, as it follows, the day of thy
   visitation, when God will reckon with thee for all this wickedness,
   which is called the day of the watchmen, because their prophets, whom
   God set as watchmen over them, had often warned them of that day. When
   all flesh have corrupted their way, even the best and the most upright,
   what can be expected but a day of visitation, a deluge of judgments, as
   that which drowned the old world when the earth was filled with
   violence? 4. That there was no faith in man; people had grown so
   universally treacherous that one knew not whom to repose any confidence
   in, v. 5. "Those that have any sense of honour, or spark of virtue,
   remaining in them, have a firm regard to the laws of friendship; they
   would not discover what passed in private conversation, nor divulge
   secrets, to the prejudice of a friend. But those things are now made a
   jest of; you will not meet with a friend that you dare trust, whose
   word you dare take, or who will have any tenderness or concern for you;
   so that wise men shall give it and take it for a rule, trust you not in
   a friend, for you will find him false, you can trust him no further
   than you can see him; and even him that passes for an honest man you
   will find to be so only with good looking to. Nay, as for him that
   undertakes to be your guide, to lead you into any business which he
   professes to understand better than you, you cannot put a confidence in
   him, for he will be sure to mislead you if he can get any thing by it."
   Some by a guide understand a husband, who is called the guide of thy
   youth; and that agrees well enough with what follows, "Keep the doors
   of thy lips from her that lieth in thy bosom, from thy own wife; take
   heed what thou sayest before her, lest she betray thee, as Delilah did
   Samson, lest she be the bird of the air that carries the voice of that
   which thou sayest in thy bed-chamber," Eccl. x. 20. It is an evil time
   indeed when the prudent are obliged even thus far to keep silence. 5.
   That children were abusive to their parents, and men had no comfort, no
   satisfaction, in their own families and their nearest relations, v. 6.
   The times are bad indeed when the son dishonours his father, gives him
   bad language, exposes him, threatens him, and studies to do him a
   mischief, when the daughter rises up in rebellion against her own
   mother, having no sense of duty, or natural affection; and no marvel
   that then the daughter-in-law quarrels with her mother-in-law, and is
   vexatious to her. Either they cannot agree about their property and
   interest, or their humours and passions clash, or from a spirit of
   bigotry and persecution, the brother shall deliver up the brother to
   death, and the father the child, Matt. x. 4; Luke xxi. 16. It is sad
   when a man's betrayers and worst enemies are the men of his own house,
   his own children and servants, that should be his guard and his best
   friends. Note, The contempt and violation of the laws of domestic
   duties are a sad symptom of a universal corruption of manners. Those
   are never likely to come to good that are undutiful to their parents,
   and study to be provoking to them and cross them.

Seeking Comfort in God; The Sins of the People. (b. c. 700.)

   7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my
   salvation: my God will hear me.   8 Rejoice not against me, O mine
   enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord
   shall be a light unto me.   9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
   because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute
   judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall
   behold his righteousness.   10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see
   it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy
   God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the
   mire of the streets.   11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in
   that day shall the decree be far removed.   12 In that day also he
   shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities,
   and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from
   mountain to mountain.   13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate
   because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

   The prophet, having sadly complained of the wickedness of the times he
   lived in, here fastens upon some considerations for the comfort of
   himself and his friends, in reference thereunto. The case is bad, but
   it is not desperate. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this
   thing.

   I. "Though God be now displeased he shall be reconciled to us, and then
   all will be well, v. 7, 9. We are now under the indignation of the
   Lord; God is angry with us, and justly, because we have sinned against
   him." Note, It is our sin against God that provokes his indignation
   against us; and we must see it, and own it, whenever we are under
   divine rebukes, that we may justify God, and may study to answer his
   end in afflicting us, by repenting of sin and breaking off from it.
   Now, at such a time, 1. We must have recourse to God under our troubles
   (v. 7): Therefore I will look unto the Lord. When a child of God has
   ever so much occasion to cry, Woe is me (as the prophet here, v. 1),
   yet it may be a comfort to him that he has a God to look to, a God to
   come to, to fly to, in whom he may rejoice and have satisfaction. All
   may look bright above him when all looks black and dark about him. The
   prophet had been complaining that there was no comfort to be had, no
   confidence to be put, in friends and relations on earth, and this
   drives him to his God: Therefore I will look unto the Lord. The less
   reason we have to delight in any creature the more reason we have to
   delight in God. If princes are not to be trusted, we may say, Happy is
   the man that has the God of Jacob for his help, and happy am I, even in
   the midst of my present woes, if he be my help. If men be false, this
   is our comfort, that God is faithful; if relations be unkind, he is and
   will be gracious. Let us therefore look above and beyond them, and
   overlook our disappointment in them, and look unto the Lord. 2. We must
   submit to the will of God in our troubles: "I will bear the indignation
   of the Lord, will bear it patiently, without murmuring and repining,
   because I have sinned against him." Note, Those that are truly penitent
   for sin will see a great deal of reason to be patient under affliction.
   Wherefore should a man complain for the punishment of his sin? When we
   complain to God of the badness of the times we ought to complain
   against ourselves for the badness of our own hearts. 3. We must depend
   upon God to work deliverance for us, and put a good issue to our
   troubles in due time; we must not only look to him, but look for him:
   "I will wait for the God of my salvation, and for his gracious returns
   to me." In our greatest distresses we shall see no reason to despair of
   salvation if by faith we eye God as the God of our salvation, who is
   able to save the weakest upon their humble petition, and willing to
   save the worst upon their true repentance. And, if we depend on God as
   the God of our salvation, we must wait for him, and for his salvation,
   in his own way and his own time. Let us now see what the church is here
   taught to expect and promise herself from God, even when things are
   brought to the last extremity. (1.) My God will hear me; if the Lord be
   our God, he will hear our prayers, and grant an answer of peace to
   them. (2.) "When I fall, and am in danger of being dashed in pieces by
   the fall, yet I shall arise, and recover myself again. I fall, but am
   not utterly cast down," Ps. xxxvii. 24. (3.) "When I sit in darkness,
   desolate and disconsolate, melancholy and perplexed, and not knowing
   what to do, nor which way to look for relief, yet then the Lord shall
   be a light to me, to comfort and revive me, to instruct and teach me,
   to direct and guide me, as a light to my eyes, a light to my feet, a
   light in a dark place." (4.) He will plead my cause, and execute
   judgment for me, v. 9. If we heartily espouse the cause of God, the
   just but injured cause of religion and virtue, and make it our cause,
   we may hope he will own our cause, and plead it. The church's cause,
   though it seem for a time to go against her, will at length be pleaded
   with jealousy, and judgment not only given against, but executed upon,
   the enemies of it. (5.) "He will bring me forth to the light, make me
   shine eminently out of obscurity, and become conspicuous, will make my
   righteousness shine evidently from under the dark cloud of calumny, Ps.
   xxxvii. 6; Isa. lviii. 10. The morning of comfort shall shine forth out
   of the long and dark night of trouble." (6.) "I shall behold his
   righteousness; I shall see the equity of his proceedings concerning me
   and the performance of his promises to me."

   II. Though enemies triumph and insult, they shall be silenced and put
   to shame, v. 8, 10. Observe here,

   1. How proudly the enemies of God's people trample upon them in their
   distress. They said, Where is the Lord their God? As if because they
   were afflicted God had forsaken them, and they knew not where to find
   him with their prayers, and he knew not how to help them with his
   favours. This David's enemies said to him, and it was a sword in his
   bones, Ps. xlii. 10, and see Ps. cxv. 2. Thus, in reproaching Israel as
   an abandoned people, they reflected on the God of Israel as an unkind
   unfaithful God.

   2. How comfortably the people of God by faith bear up themselves under
   these insults (v. 8): "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! I am now
   down, but shall not be always so, and when my God appears for me then
   she that is my enemy shall see it, and be ashamed" (not only being
   disappointed in her expectations of the church's utter ruin, but having
   the same cup of trembling put into her hand), "then my eyes shall
   behold her in the same deplorable condition that I am now in; now shall
   she be trodden down." Note, The deliverance of the church will be the
   confusion of her enemies; and their shame shall be double, when, as
   they have trampled upon God's people, so they shall themselves be
   trampled upon.

   III. Though the land continue a great while desolate, yet it shall at
   length be replenished again, when the time, even the set time, of its
   deliverance comes. 1. Its salvation shall not come till after it has
   been desolate; so the margin reads it, v. 13. God has a controversy
   with the land, and it must lie long under his rebukes, because of those
   that dwell therein; it is their iniquity that makes their land desolate
   (Ps. cvii. 34); it is for the fruit of their doings, their evil doings
   which they have been themselves guilty of, and the evil fruit of them,
   the sins of others, which they have been accessory to by their bad
   influence and example. For this they must expect to smart a great
   while; for the world shall know that God hates sin even in his own
   people. 2. When it does come it shall be a complete salvation; and it
   seems to refer to their deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus, which
   Isaiah about this time prophesied of, as a type of our redemption by
   Christ. (1.) The decree shall be far removed. God's decree concerning
   their captivity, and Nebuchadnezzar's decree concerning the perpetuity
   of it, his resolution never to release them, "these shall be set aside
   and revoked, and you shall hear no more of them; they shall no more lie
   as a yoke upon thy neck." (2.) Jerusalem and the cities of Judah shall
   be again reared: Then thy walls shall be built, walls for habitation,
   walls for defence, house-walls, town-walls, temple-walls; it is in
   order to these that the decree is repealed, Isa. xliv. 28. Though
   Zion's walls may lie long in ruins, there will come a day when they
   shall be repaired. (3.) All that belong to the land of Israel,
   whithersoever dispersed, and howsoever distressed, far and wide over
   the face of the whole earth, shall come flocking to it again (v. 12):
   He shall come even to thee, having liberty to return and a heart to
   return, from Assyria, whither the ten tribes were carried away, though
   it lay remote, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress,
   those strongholds in which they thought they had them fast; for when
   God's time comes, though Pharaoh will not let the people go, God will
   fetch them out with a high hand. They shall come from all the remote
   parts, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain, not turning back
   for fear of your discouragements, but they shall go from strength to
   strength till they come to Zion. Thus in the great day of redemption
   God will gather his elect from the four winds.

Encouraging Prospects; Encouraging Promises. (b. c. 700.)

   14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which
   dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in
   Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.   15 According to the days of
   thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous
   things.   16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their
   might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be
   deaf.   17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out
   of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the
   Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.   18 Who is a God like
   unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of
   the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever,
   because he delighteth in mercy.   19 He will turn again, he will have
   compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast
   all their sins into the depths of the sea.   20 Thou wilt perform the
   truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto
   our fathers from the days of old.

   Here is, I. The prophet's prayer to God to take care of his own people,
   and of their cause and interest, v. 14. When God is about to deliver
   his people he stirs up their friends to pray for them, and pours out a
   spirit of grace and supplication, Zech. xii. 10. And when we see God
   coming towards us in ways of mercy, we must go forth to meet him by
   prayer. It is a prophetic prayer, which amounts to a promise of the
   good prayed for; what God directed his prophet to ask no doubt he
   designed to give. Now, 1. The people of Israel are here called the
   flock of God's heritage, for they are the sheep of his hand, the sheep
   of his pasture, his little flock in the world; and they are his
   heritage, his portion in the world. Jacob is the lot of his
   inheritance. 2. This flock dwells solitarily in the wood, or forest, in
   the midst of Carmel, a high mountain. Israel was a peculiar people,
   that dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations, like a flock
   of sheep in a wood. They were now a desolate people (v. 13), were in
   the land of their captivity as sheep in a forest, in danger of being
   lost and made a prey of to the beasts of the forest. They are scattered
   upon the mountains as sheep having no shepherd. 3. He prays that God
   would feed them there with his rod, that is, that he would take care of
   them in their captivity, would protect them, and provide for them, and
   do the part of a good shepherd to them: "Let thy rod and staff comfort
   them, even in that darksome valley; and even there let them want
   nothing that is good for them. Let them be governed by thy rod, not the
   rod of their enemies, for they are thy people." 4. He prays that God
   would in due time bring them back to feed in the plains of Bashan and
   Gilead, and no longer to be fed in the woods and mountains. Let them
   feed in their own country again, as in the days of old. Some apply this
   spiritually, and make it either the prophet's prayer to Christ or his
   Father's charge to him, to take care of his church, as the great
   Shepherd of the sheep, and to go in and out before them while they are
   here in this world as in a wood, that they may find pasture as in
   Carmel, as in Bashan and Gilead.

   II. God's promise, in answer to this prayer; and we may well take God's
   promises as real answers to the prayers of faith, and embrace them
   accordingly, for with him saying and doing are not two things. The
   prophet prayed that God would feed them, and do kind things for them;
   but God answers that he will show them marvellous things (v. 15), will
   do for them more than they are able to ask or think, will out-do their
   hopes and expectations; he will show them his marvellous
   lovingkindness, Ps. xvii. 7. 1. He will do that for them which shall be
   the repetition of the wonders and miracles of former ages--according to
   the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt. Their deliverance out
   of Babylon shall be a work of wonder and grace not inferior to their
   deliverance out of Egypt, nay, it shall eclipse the lustre of that
   (Jer. xvi. 14, 15), much more shall the work of redemption by Christ.
   Note, God's former favours to his church are patterns of future
   favours, and shall again be copied out as there is occasion. 2. He will
   do that for them which shall be matter of wonder and amazement to the
   present age, v. 16, 17. The nations about shall take notice of it, and
   it shall be said among the heathen, The Lord has done great things for
   them, Ps. cxxvi. 2. The impression which the deliverance of the Jews
   out of Babylon shall make upon the neighbouring nations shall be very
   much for the honour both of God and his church. (1.) Those that had
   insulted over the people of God in their distress, and gloried that
   when they had them down they would keep them down, shall be confounded,
   when they see them thus surprisingly rising up; they shall be
   confounded at all the might with which the captives shall now exert
   themselves, whom they thought for ever disabled. They shall now lay
   their hands upon their mouths, as being ashamed of what they have said,
   and not able to say more, by way of triumph over Israel. Nay, their
   ears shall be deaf too, so much shall they be ashamed at the wonderful
   deliverance; they shall stop their ears, as being not willing to hear
   any more of God's wonders wrought for that people, whom they had so
   despised and insulted over. (2.) Those that had impudently confronted
   God himself shall now be struck with a fear of him, and thereby
   brought, in profession at least, to submit to him (v. 17): They shall
   lick the dust like a serpent, they shall be so mortified, as if they
   were sentenced to the same curse the serpent was laid under (Gen. iii.
   14), Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. They shall
   be brought to the lowest abasements imaginable, and shall be so
   dispirited that they shall tamely submit to them. His enemies shall
   lick the dust, Ps. lxxii. 9. Nay, they shall lick the dust of the
   church's feet, Isa. xlix. 23. Proud oppressors shall now be made
   sensible how mean, how little, they are, before the great God, and they
   shall with trembling and the lowest submission move out of the holes
   into which they had crept (Isa. ii. 21), like worms of the earth as
   they are, being ashamed and afraid to show their heads; so low shall
   they be brought, and such abjects shall they be, when they are abased.
   When God did wonders for his church many of the people of the land
   became Jews, because the fear of the Jews, and of their God, fell upon
   them, Esth. viii. 17. So it is promised here: They shall be afraid of
   the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee, O Israel! Forced
   submissions are often but feigned submissions; yet they redound to the
   glory of God and the church, though not to the benefit of the
   dissemblers themselves.

   III. The prophet's thankful acknowledgment of God's mercy, in the name
   of the church, with a believing dependence upon his promise, v. 18-20.
   We are here taught,

   1. To give to God the glory of his pardoning mercy, v. 18. God having
   promised to bring back the captivity of his people, the prophet, on
   that occasion, admires pardoning mercy, as that which was at the bottom
   of it. As it was their sin that brought them into bondage, so it was
   God's pardoning their sin that brought them our of it; Ps. lxxxv. 1, 2,
   and Isa. xxxiii. 24; xxxviii. 17; lx. 1, 2. The pardon of sin is the
   foundation of all other covenant-mercies, Heb. viii. 12. This the
   prophet stands amazed at, while the surrounding nations stood amazed
   only at those deliverances which were but the fruits of this. Note,
   (1.) God's people, who are the remnant of his heritage, stand charged
   with many transgressions; being but a remnant, a very few, one would
   hope they should all be very good, but they are not so; God's children
   have their spots, and often offend their Father. (2.) The gracious God
   is ready to pass by and pardon the iniquity and transgression of his
   people, upon their repentance and return to him. God's people are a
   pardoned people, and to this they owe their all. When God pardons sin,
   he passes it by, does not punish it as justly he might, nor deal with
   the sinner according to the desert of it. (3.) Though God may for a
   time lay his own people under the tokens of his displeasure, yet he
   will not retain his anger for ever, but though he cause grief he will
   have compassion; he is not implacable; yet against those that are not
   of the remnant of his heritage, that are unpardoned, he will keep his
   anger for ever. (4.) The reasons why God pardons sin, and keeps not his
   anger for ever, are all taken from within himself; it is because he
   delights in mercy, and the salvation of sinners is what he has pleasure
   in, not their death and damnation. (5.) The glory of God in forgiving
   sin is, as in other things, matchless, and without compare. There is no
   God like unto him for this; no magistrate, no common person, forgives
   as God does. In this his thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours;
   in this he is God, and not man. (6.) All those that have experienced
   pardoning mercy cannot but admire that mercy; it is what we have reason
   to stand amazed at, if we know what it is. Has God forgiven us our
   transgressions? We may well say, Who is a God like unto thee? Our holy
   wonder at pardoning mercy will be a good evidence of our interest in
   it.

   2. To take to ourselves the comfort of that mercy and all the grace and
   truth that go along with it. God's people here, as they look back with
   thankfulness upon God's pardoning their sins, so they look forward with
   assurance upon what he would yet further do for them. His mercy endures
   for ever, and therefore as he has shown mercy so he will, v. 19, 20.
   (1.) He will renew his favours to us: He will turn again; he will have
   compassion; that is, he will again have compassion upon us as formerly
   he had; his compassions shall be new every morning; he seemed to be
   departing from us in anger, but he will turn again and pity us. He will
   turn us to himself, and then will turn to us, and have mercy upon us.
   (2.) He will renew us, to prepare and qualify us for his favour: He
   will subdue our iniquities; when he takes away the guilt of sin, that
   it may not damn us, he will break the power of sin, that it may not
   have dominion over us, that we may not fear sin, nor be led captive by
   it. Sin is an enemy that fights against us, a tyrant that oppresses us;
   nothing less than almighty grace can subdue it, so great is its power
   in fallen man and so long has it kept possession. But, if God forgive
   the sin that has been committed by us, he will subdue the sin that
   dwells in us, and in that there is none like him in forgiving; and all
   those whose sins are pardoned earnestly desire and hope; to have their
   corruptions mortified and their iniquities subdued, and please
   themselves with the hopes of it. If we be left to ourselves, our
   iniquities will be too hard for us; but God's grace, we trust, shall be
   sufficient for us to subdue them, so that they shall not rule us, and
   then they shall not ruin us. (3.) He will confirm this good work, and
   effectually provide that his act of grace shall never be repealed: Thou
   wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea, as when he brought
   them out of Egypt (to which he has an eye in the promises here, v. 15)
   he subdued Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and cast them into the depth of
   the sea. It intimates that when God forgives sin he remembers it no
   more, and takes care that it shall never be remembered more against the
   sinner. Ezek. xviii. 22, His transgressions shall not be mentioned unto
   him; they are blotted out as a cloud which never appears more. He casts
   them into the sea, not near the shore-side, where they may appear again
   next low water, but into the depth of the sea, never to rise again. All
   their sins shall be cast there without exception, for when God forgives
   sin he forgives all. (4.) He will perfect that which concerns us, and
   with this good work will do all that for us which our case requires and
   which he has promised (v. 20): Then wilt thou perform thy truth to
   Jacob and thy mercy to Abraham. It is in pursuance of the covenant that
   our sins are pardoned and our lusts mortified; from that spring all
   these streams flow, and with these he shall freely give us all things.
   The promise is said to be mercy to Abraham, because, as made to him
   first, it was mere mercy, preventing mercy, considering what state it
   found him in. But it was truth to Jacob, because the faithfulness of
   God was engaged to make good to him and his seed, as heirs to Abraham,
   all that was graciously promised to Abraham. See here, [1.] With what
   solemnity the covenant of grace is ratified to us; it was not only
   spoken, written, and sealed, but which is the highest confirmation, it
   was sworn to our fathers; nor is it a modern project, but is confirmed
   by antiquity too; it was sworn from the days of old; it is an ancient
   charter. [2.] With what satisfaction it may be applied and relied upon
   by us; we may say with the highest assurance, Thou wilt perform the
   truth and mercy; not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the ground.
   Faithful is he that has promised, who also will do it.
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Nahum
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

N A H U M.
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   The name of this prophet signifies a comforter; for it was a charge
   given to all the prophets, Comfort you, comfort you, my people: and
   even this prophet, though wholly taken up in foretelling the
   destruction of Nineveh, which speaks terror to the Assyrians, is, even
   in that, comforter to the ten tribes of Israel, who, it is probable,
   were now lately carried captives into Assyria. It is very uncertain at
   what time he lived and prophesied, but it is most probable that he
   lived in the time of Hezekiah, and prophesied against Nineveh, after
   the captivity of Israel by the king of Assyria, which was in the ninth
   year of Hezekiah, and before Sennacherib's invading Judah, which was in
   the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, for to that attempt, and the defeat of
   it, it is supposed, the first chapter has reference; and it is probable
   that it was delivered a little before it, for the encouragement of
   God's people in that day of treading down and perplexity. It is the
   conjecture of the learned Huetius that the two other chapters of this
   book were delivered by Nahum some years after, perhaps in the reign of
   Manasseh, and in that reign the Jewish chronologies generally place
   him, somewhat nearer to the time when Nineveh was conquered, and the
   Assyrian monarchy reduced, by Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar, some time
   before the first captivity of Judah. It is probable that Nahum did by
   word of mouth prophesy many things concerning Israel and Judah, as it
   is certain that Jonah did (2 Kings xiv. 25), though we have nothing of
   either of them in writing, but what related to Nineveh, of which though
   a great and ancient city, yet probably we should never have heard in
   sacred writ if the Israel of God had not had some concern in it.
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N A H U M.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter we have, I. The inscription of the book, ver. 1. II. A
   magnificent display of the glory of God, in a mixture of wrath and
   justice against the wicked, and mercy and grace towards his people, and
   the discovery of his majesty and power in both, ver. 2-8. III. A
   particular application of this (as most interpreters think) to the
   destruction of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, when they besieged
   Jerusalem, which was a very memorable and illustrious instance of the
   power both of God's justice and of his mercy, and spoke abundance of
   terror to his enemies and encouragement to his faithful servants, ver.
   9-16.

Inscription of the Book. (b. c. 710.)

   1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

   This title directs us to consider, 1. The great city against which the
   word of the Lord is here delivered; it is the burden of Nineveh, not
   only a prophecy, and a weighty one, but a burdensome prophecy, a dead
   weight to Nineveh, a mill-stone hanged about its neck. Nineveh was the
   place concerned, and the Assyrian monarchy, which that was the royal
   seat of. About 100 years before this Jonah had, in God's name, foretold
   the speedy overthrow of this great city; but then the Ninevites
   repented and were spared, and that decree did not bring forth. The
   Ninevites then saw clearly how much it was to their advantage to turn
   from their evil way; it was the saving of their city; and yet, soon
   after, they returned to it again; it became worse than ever, a bloody
   city, and full of lies and robbery. They repented of their repentance,
   returned with the dog to his vomit, and at length grew worse than ever
   they had been. Then God sent them not this prophet, as Jonah, but this
   prophecy, to read them their doom, which was now irreversible. Note,
   The reprieve will not be continued if the repentance be not continued
   in. If men turn from the good they began to do, they can expect no
   other than that God should turn from the favour he began to show, Jer.
   xviii. 10. 2. The poor prophet by whom the word of the Lord is here
   delivered: It is the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. The
   burden of Nineveh was what the prophet plainly foresaw, for it was his
   vision, and what he left upon record (it is the book of the vision),
   that, when he was gone, the event might be compared with the prediction
   and might confirm it. All the account we have of the prophet himself is
   that he was an Elkoshite, of the town called Elkes, or Elcos, which,
   Jerome says, was in Galilee. Some observe that the scripture ordinarily
   says little of the prophets themselves, that our faith might not stand
   upon their authority, but upon that of the blessed Spirit by whom their
   prophecies were indited.

The Judgment of Nineveh; The Awful Power of God. (b. c. 710.)

   2 God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is
   furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he
   reserveth wrath for his enemies.   3 The Lord is slow to anger, and
   great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath
   his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust
   of his feet.   4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up
   all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of
   Lebanon languisheth.   5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills
   melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all
   that dwell therein.   6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who
   can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like
   fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.   7 The Lord is good, a
   strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in
   him.   8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the
   place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

   Nineveh knows not God, that God that contends with her, and therefore
   is here told what a God he is; and it is good for us all to mix faith
   with that which is here said concerning him, which speaks a great deal
   of terror to the wicked and comfort to good people; for this glorious
   description of the Sovereign of the world, like the pillar of cloud and
   fire, has a bright side towards Israel and a dark side towards the
   Egyptians. Let each take his portion from it; let sinners read it and
   tremble; let saints read it and triumph. The wrath of God is here
   revealed from heaven against him enemies, his favour and mercy are here
   assured to his faithful loyal subjects, and his almighty power in both,
   making his wrath very terrible and his favour very desirable.

   I. He is a God of inflexible justice, a jealous God, and will take
   vengeance on his enemies; let Nineveh know this, and tremble before
   him. Their idols are insignificant things; there is nothing formidable
   in them. But the God of Israel is greatly to be feared; for, 1. He
   resents the affronts and indignities done him by those that deny his
   being or any of his perfections, that set up other gods in competition
   with him, that destroy his laws, arraign his proceedings, ridicule his
   word, or are abusive to his people. Let such know that Jehovah, the one
   only living and true God, is a jealous God, and a revenger; he is
   jealous for the comfort of his worshippers, jealous for his land (Joel
   ii. 18), and will not have that injured. He is a revenger, and he is
   furious; he has fury (so the word is), not as man has it, in whom it is
   an ungoverned passion (so he has said, Fury is not in me, Isa. xxvii.
   4), but he has it in such a way as becomes the righteous God, to put an
   edge upon his justice, and to make it appear more terrible to those who
   otherwise would stand in no awe of it. He is Lord of anger (so the
   Hebrew phrase is for that which we read, he is furious); he has anger,
   but he has it at command and under government. Our anger is often lord
   over us, as theirs that have no rule over their own spirits, but God is
   always Lord of his anger and weighs a path to it, Ps. lxxviii. 50. 2.
   He resolves to reckon with those that put those affronts upon him. We
   are told here, not only that he is a revenger, but that he will take
   vengeance; he has said he will, he has sworn it, Deut. xxxii. 40, 41.
   Whoever are his adversaries and enemies among men, he will make them
   feel his resentments; and, though the sentence against his enemies is
   not executed speedily, yet he reserves wrath for them and reserves them
   for it in the day of wrath. Against his own people, who repent and
   humble themselves before him, he keeps not his anger for ever, but
   against his enemies he will for ever let out his anger. He will not at
   all acquit the wicked that sin, and stand to it, and do not repent, v.
   3. Those wickedly depart from their God that depart, and never return
   (Ps. xviii. 21), and these he will not acquit. Humble supplicants will
   find him gracious, but scornful beggars will not find him easy, or that
   the door of mercy will be opened to a loud, but late, Lord, Lord. This
   revelation of the wrath of God against his enemies is applied to
   Nineveh (v. 8), and should be applied by all those to themselves who go
   on still in their trespasses: With an over-running flood he will make
   an utter end of the place thereof. The army of the Chaldeans shall
   overrun the country of the Assyrians, and lay it all waste. God's
   judgments, when they come with commission, are like a deluge to any
   people, which they cannot keep off nor make head against. Darkness
   shall pursue his enemies; terror and trouble shall follow them,
   whithersoever they go, shall pursue them to utter darkness; if they
   think to flee from the darkness which pursues them they will but fall
   into that which is before them.

   II. He is a God of irresistible power, and is able to deal with his
   enemies, be they ever so many, ever so mighty, ever so hardy. He is
   great in power (v. 3), and therefore it is good having him our friend
   and bad having him our enemy. Now here,

   1. The power of God is asserted and proved by divers instances of it in
   the kingdom of nature, where we always find its visible effects in the
   ordinary course of nature, and sometimes in the surprising alterations
   of that course. (1.) If we look up into the regions of the air, there
   we shall find proofs of his power, for he has his ways in the whirlwind
   and the storm. Which way soever God goes he carries a whirlwind and a
   storm along with him, for the terror of his enemies, Ps. xviii. 9, &c.
   And, wherever there is a whirlwind and a storm, God has the command of
   it, the control of it, makes his way through it, goes on his way in it,
   and serves his own purposes by it. He spoke to Job out of the
   whirlwind, and even stormy winds fulfil his word. He has his way in the
   whirlwind, that is, he goes on undiscerned, and the methods of his
   providence are to us unaccountable; as it is said, His way is in the
   sea. The clouds are the dust of his feet; he treads on them, walks on
   them, raises them when he pleases, as a man with his feet raises a
   cloud of dust. It is but by permission, or usurpation rather, that the
   devil is the prince of the power of the air, for that power is in God's
   hand. (2.) If we cast our eye upon the great deeps, there we find that
   the sea is his, for he made it; for, when he pleases, he rebukes the
   sea and makes it dry, by drying up all the rivers with which it is
   continually supplied. He gave those proofs of his power when he divided
   the Red Sea and Jordan, and can do the same again whenever he pleases.
   (3.) If we look round us on this earth, we find proofs of his power,
   when, either by the extreme heat and drought of summer or the cold and
   frost of winter, Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of
   Lebanon languishes, the choicest and strongest flower languishes. His
   power is often seen in earthquakes, which shake the mountains (v. 5),
   melt the hills, and melt them down, and level them with the plains.
   When he pleases the earth is burnt at his presence by the scorching
   heat of the sun, and he could burn it with fire from heaven, as he did
   Sodom, and at the end of time he will burn the world and all that dwell
   therein. The earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt
   up. Thus great is the Lord and of great power.

   2. This is particularly applied to his anger. If God be an almighty
   God, we may thence infer (v. 6), Who can stand before his indignation?
   The Ninevites had once found God slow to anger (as he says v. 3), and
   perhaps presumed upon the mercy they had then had experience of, and
   thought they might make bold with him; but they will find he is just
   and jealous as well as merciful and gracious, and, having shown the
   justice of his wrath, in the next he shows the power of it, and the
   utter insufficiency of his enemies to contend with him. It is in vain
   for the stoutest and strongest of sinners to think to make their part
   good against the power of God's anger. (1.) See God here as a consuming
   fire, terrible and mighty. Here is his indignation against sin, and the
   fierceness of his anger, his fury poured out, not like water, but like
   fire, like the fire and brimstone rained on Sodom, Ps. xi. 6. Hell is
   the fierceness of God's anger, Rev. xvi. 19. God's anger is so fierce
   that it beats down all before it: The rocks are thrown down by him,
   which seemed immovable. Rocks have sometimes been rent by the eruption
   of subterraneous fires, which is a faint resemblance of the fierceness
   of God's anger against sinners whose hearts are rocky, for none ever
   hardened their hearts against him and prospered. (2.) See sinners here
   are stubble before the fire, weak and impotent, and a very unequal
   match for the wrath of God. [1.] They are utterly unable to bear up
   against it, so as to resist it, and put by the strokes of it: Who can
   stand before his indignation? Not the proudest and most daring sinner;
   not the world of the ungodly; no, not the angels that sinned. [2.] They
   are utterly unable to bear up under it so as to keep up their spirits,
   and preserve any enjoyment of themselves: Who can abide in the
   fierceness of his anger? As it is irresistible, so it is intolerable.
   Some of the effects of God's displeasure in this world a man may bear
   up under, but the fierceness of his anger, when it fastens immediately
   upon the soul, who can bear? Let us therefore fear before him; let us
   stand in awe, and not sin.

   III. He is a God of infinite mercy; and in the midst of all this wrath
   mercy is remembered. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid, that go on
   still in their transgressions, but let not those that trust in God
   tremble before him. For, 1. He is slow to anger (v. 3), not easily
   provoked, but ready to show mercy to those who have offended him and to
   receive them into favour upon their repentance. 2. When the tokens of
   his rage against the wicked are abroad he takes care for the safety and
   comfort of his own people (v. 7): The Lord is good to those that are
   good, and to them he will be a stronghold in the day of trouble. Note,
   The same almighty power that is exerted for the terror and destruction
   of the wicked is engaged, and shall be employed, for the protection and
   satisfaction of his own people; he is able both to save and to destroy.
   In the day of public trouble, when God's judgments are in the earth,
   laying all waste, he will be a place of defence to those that by faith
   put themselves under his protection, those that trust in him in the way
   of their duty, that live a life of dependence upon him, and devotedness
   to him; he knows them, he owns them for his, he takes cognizance of
   their case, knows what is best for them, and what course to take most
   effectually for their relief. They are perhaps obscure and little
   regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them, Ps. i. 6.

Destruction of the Assyrian Army; Overthrow of Sennacherib. (b. c. 710.)

   9 What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end:
   affliction shall not rise up the second time.   10 For while they be
   folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards,
   they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.   11 There is one come out
   of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.
   12 Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet
   thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have
   afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.   13 For now will I break
   his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.   14 And
   the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy
   name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven
   image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
   15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good
   tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts,
   perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is
   utterly cut off.

   These verses seem to point at the destruction of the army of the
   Assyrians under Sennacherib, which may well be reckoned a part of the
   burden of Nineveh, the head city of the Assyrian empire, and a pledge
   of the destruction of Nineveh itself about 100 years after; and this
   was an event which Isaiah, with whom probably this prophet was
   contemporary, spoke much of. Now observe here,

   I. The great provocation which the Assyrians gave to God, the just and
   jealous God, for which, though slow to anger, he would take vengeance
   (v. 11): There is one come out of thee, that imagines evil against the
   Lord--Sennacherib, and his spokesman Rabshakeh. They framed an evil
   letter and an evil speech, not only against Hezekiah and his people,
   but against God himself, reflecting upon him as level with the gods of
   the heathen, and unable to protect his worshippers, dissuading his
   people from putting confidence in him, and urging them rather to put
   themselves under the protection of the great king, the king of Assyria.
   They contrived to alter the property of Jerusalem, that it should be no
   longer the city of the Lord, the holy city. This one, this mighty one,
   so he thinks himself, that comes out of Nineveh, imagining evil against
   the Lord, brings upon Nineveh this burden. Never was the glorious
   Majesty of heaven and earth more daringly, more blasphemously affronted
   than by Sennacherib at that time. He was a wicked counsellor who
   counselled them to despair of God's protection, and surrender
   themselves to the king of Assyria, and endeavour to put them out of
   conceit with Hezekiah's reformation (Isa. xxxvi. 7); with this wicked
   counsellor he here expostulates (v. 9): "What do you imagine against
   the Lord? What a foolish wicked thing it is for you to plot against
   God, as if you could outwit divine wisdom and overpower omnipotence
   itself!" Note, There is a great deal imagined against the Lord by the
   gates of hell, and against the interests of his kingdom in the world;
   but it will prove a vain thing, Ps. ii. 1, 2. He that sits in heaven
   laughs at the imaginations of the pretenders to politics against him,
   and will turn their counsels headlong.

   II. The great destruction which God would bring upon them for it, not
   immediately upon the whole monarchy (the ruin of that was deferred till
   the measure of their iniquity was full), but,

   1. Upon the army; God will make an utter end of that; it shall be
   totally cut off and ruined at one blow; one fatal stroke of the
   destroying angel shall lay them dead upon the spot; affliction shall
   not rise up the second time, for it shall not need. With some sinners
   God makes a quick despatch, does their business at once. Divine
   vengeance goes not by one certain rule, nor in one constant track, but
   one way or other, by acute diseases or chronical ones, by slow deaths
   or lingering ones, he will make an utter end of all his enemies, who
   persist in their imaginations against him. We have reason to think that
   the Assyrian army were mostly of the same spirit, and spoke the same
   language, with their general, and now God would take them to task,
   though they did but say as they were taught; and it shall appear that
   they have laid themselves open to divine wrath by their own act and
   deed, v. 10. (1.) They are as thorns that entangle one another, and are
   folded together. They make one another worse, and more inveterate
   against God and his Israel, harden one another's hearts, and strengthen
   one another's hands, in their impiety; and therefore God will do with
   them as the husbandman does with a bush of thorns when he cannot part
   them: he puts them all into the fire together. (2.) They are as drunken
   men, intoxicated with pride and rage; and such as they shall be
   irrecoverably overthrown and destroyed. They shall be as drunkards,
   besotted to their own ruin, and shall stumble and fall, and make
   themselves a reproach, and be justly laughed at. (3.) They shall be
   devoured as stubble fully dry, which is irresistibly and irrecoverably
   consumed by the flame. The judgments of God are as devouring fire to
   those that make themselves as stubble to them. It is again threatened
   concerning this great army (v. 12) that though they be quiet and
   likewise many, very secure, not fearing the sallies out of the besieged
   upon them, because they are numerous, yet thus shall they be cut down,
   or certainly shall they be cut down, as grass and corn are cut down,
   with as little ado, when he shall pass through, even the destroying
   angel that is commissioned to cut them down. Note, The security of
   sinners, and their confidence in their own strength, are often presages
   of ruin approaching.

   2. Upon the king. He imagined evil against the Lord, and shall he
   escape? No (v. 14): "The Lord has given a commandment concerning thee;
   the decree has gone forth, that thy name be no more sown, that thy
   memory perish, that thou be no more talked of as thou hast been, and
   that the report of thy mighty actions be dispersed upon the wings of
   fame and celebrated with her trumpet." Because Sennacherib's son
   reigned in his stead, some make this to point at the overthrow of the
   Assyrian empire not long after. Note, Those that imagine evil against
   the Lord hasten evil upon themselves and their own families and
   interests, and ruin their own names by dishonouring his name. It is
   further threatened, (1.) That the images he worshipped should be cut
   off from their temple, the graven image and the molten image out of the
   house of his gods, which, some think, was fulfilled when Sennacherib
   was slain by his two sons, as he was worshipping in the house of
   Nisroch his god, by which barbarous parricide we may suppose the temple
   was looked upon as defiled, and was therefore disused, and the images
   were cut off from it, the worshippers of those images no longer
   attending there. Or it may be taken more generally to denote the utter
   ruin of Assyria; the army of the enemy shall lay all waste, and not
   spare even the images of their gods, by which God would intimate to
   them that one of the grounds of his controversy with them was their
   idolatry. (2.) That Sennacherib's grave shall be made there, some think
   in the house of his god; there he is slain, and there he shall be
   buried, for he is vile; he lies under this perpetual mark of disgrace,
   that he had so far lost his interest in the natural affection of his
   own children that two of them murdered him. Or it may be meant of the
   ignominious fall of the Assyrian monarchy itself, upon the ruins of
   which that of Babylon was raised. What a noise was made about the grave
   of that once formidable state, but now despicable, is largely
   described, Ezek. xxxi. 3, 11, 15, 16. Note, Those that make themselves
   vile by scandalous sins God will make vile by shameful punishments.

   III. The great deliverance which God would hereby work for his own
   people and the city that was called by his name. The ruin of the
   church's enemies is the salvation of the church, and a very great
   salvation it was that was wrought for Jerusalem by the overthrow of
   Sennacherib's army.

   1. The siege shall hereby be raised: "Now will I break his yoke from
   off thee, by which thou art kept in servitude, and will burst thy bonds
   asunder, by which thou seemest bound over to the Assyrian's wrath."
   That vast victorious army, when it forced free quarters for itself
   throughout all the land of Judah, and lived at discretion there, was as
   yokes and bonds upon them. Jerusalem, when it was besieged, was, as it
   were, bound and fettered by it; but, when the destroying angel had done
   his work, Jerusalem's bonds were burst asunder, and it was set at
   liberty again. This was a figure of the great salvation, by which the
   Jerusalem that is above is made free, is made free indeed.

   2. The enemy shall be so weakened and dispirited that they shall never
   make any such attempt again, and the end of this trouble shall be so
   well gained by the grace of God that there shall be no more occasion
   for such a severe correction. (1.) God will not again afflict
   Jerusalem; his anger is turned away, and he says, It is enough; for he
   has by this fright accomplished his whole work upon Mount Zion (Isa. x.
   12), and therefore "though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee
   no more;" the bitter portion shall not be repeated unless there be need
   and the patient's case call for it; for God doth not afflict willingly.
   (2.) The enemy shall not dare again to attack Jerusalem (v. 15): The
   wicked shall no more pass through thee as they have done, to lay all
   waste, for he is utterly cut off and disabled to do it. His army is cut
   off, his spirit cut off, and at length he himself is cut off.

   3. The tidings of this great deliverance shall be published and
   welcomed with abundance of joy throughout the kingdom, v. 15. While
   Sennacherib prevailed, and carried all before him, every day brought
   bad news; but now, behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him that
   bringeth good tidings, the feet of the evangelist; he is seen coming at
   a distance upon the mountains, as fast as his feet will carry him; and
   how pleasant a sight is it once more to see a messenger of peace, after
   we have received so many of Job's messengers! We find these words made
   use of by another prophet to illustrate the mercy of the deliverance of
   the people of God out of Babylon (Isa. lii. 7), not that the prophets
   stole the word one from another (as those did, Jer. xxiii. 30), but
   speaking by the same Spirit, they often used the same expressions; and
   it may be of good use for ministers to testify their consent to
   wholesome truths (1 Tim. vi. 3) by concurring in the same forms of
   sound words, 2 Tim. i. 13. These words are also quoted by the apostle,
   both from Isaiah and Nahum, and applied to the great redemption wrought
   out for us by our Lord Jesus, and the publishing of it to the world by
   the everlasting gospel, Rom. x. 15. Christ's ministers are those
   messengers of good tidings, that preach peace by Jesus Christ. How
   beautiful are the feet of those messengers! How welcome their message
   to those that see their misery and danger by reason of sin! And
   observe, He that brings these good tidings brings with them a call to
   Judah to keep her solemn feasts and perform her vows. During the
   trouble, (1.) The ordinary feasts had been intermitted. Inter arma
   silent leges--The voice of law cannot be heard amidst the shouts of
   battle. While Jerusalem was encompassed with armies they could not go
   thither to worship; but now that the embargo is taken off they must
   return to the observance of their feasts; and the feasts of the Lord
   will be doubly sweet to the people of God when they have been for some
   time deprived of the benefit of them and God graciously restores them
   their opportunities again, for we are taught the worth of such mercies
   by the want of them. (2.) They had made vows to God, that, if he would
   deliver them out of this distress, they would do something
   extraordinary in his service, to his honour; and now that the
   deliverance is wrought they are called upon to perform their vows; the
   promise they had then made must now be made good, for better it is not
   to vow than to vow and not to pay. And those words, The wicked shall no
   more pass through thee, may be taken as a promise of the perfecting of
   the good work of reformation which Hezekiah had begun; the wicked shall
   not, as they have done, walk on every side, but they shall be cut off,
   and the baffling of the attempts from the wicked enemies abroad is a
   mercy indeed to a nation when it is accompanied with the restraint and
   reformation of the wicked at home, who are its more dangerous enemies.
     __________________________________________________________________

N A H U M.

  CHAP. II.

   We now come closer to Nineveh, that great city; she took, not warning
   by the destruction of her armies and the fall of her king, and
   therefore may expect, since she persists in her enmity to God, that he
   will proceed in his controversy with her. Here is foretold, I. The
   approach of the enemy that should destroy Nineveh, and the terror of
   his military preparations, ver. 1-5. II. The taking of the city, ver.
   6. III. The captivity of the queen, the flight of the inhabitants, the
   seizing of all its wealth, and the great consternation it should be in,
   ver. 7-10. IV. All this is traced up to its true causes--their sinning
   against God and God's appearing against them, ver. 11-13. All this was
   fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar, in the first year of his reign, in
   conjunction with Cyaxares, or Ahasuerus, king of the Medes, conquered
   Nineveh, and made himself master of the Assyrian monarchy.

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

   1 He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the
   munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power
   mightily.   2 For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as
   the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and
   marred their vine branches.   3 The shield of his mighty men is made
   red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming
   torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be
   terribly shaken.   4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall
   justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like
   torches, they shall run like the lightnings.   5 He shall recount his
   worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to
   the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.   6 The gates of
   the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.   7 And
   Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her
   maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their
   breasts.   8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall
   flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.   9
   Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none
   end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.   10 She
   is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees
   smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them
   all gather blackness.

   Here is, I. An alarm of war sent to Nineveh, v. 1. The prophet speaks
   of it as just at hand, for it is neither doubtful nor far distant:
   "Look about thee, and see, he that dashes in pieces has come up before
   thy face. Nebuchadnezzar, who is noted, and will be yet more so, for
   dashing nations in pieces, begins with thee, and will dissipate and
   disperse thee;" so some render the word. Babylon is called the hammer
   of the whole earth, Jer. l. 23. The attempt of Nebuchadnezzar upon
   Nineveh is public, bold, and daring: "He has come up before thy face,
   avowing his design to ruin thee; and therefore stand to thy arms, O
   Nineveh! keep the munition; secure thy towers and magazines: watch the
   way; set guards upon all the avenues to the city; make thy loins
   strong; encourage thy soldiers; animate thyself and them; fortify thy
   power mightily, as cities do when an enemy is advancing against them"
   (this is spoken ironically); "do the utmost thou canst, yet thou shalt
   not be able to put by the stroke of this judgment, for there is no
   counsel or strength against the Lord."

   II. A manifesto published, showing the causes of the war (v. 2): The
   Lord has turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of
   Israel, that is, 1. The Assyrians have been abusive to Jacob, the two
   tribes (have humbled and mortified them), as well as to Israel, the ten
   tribes, have emptied them, and marred their vine-branches. For this God
   will reckon with them; though done long since, it shall come into the
   account now against that kingdom, and Nineveh the head-city of it.
   God's quarrel with them is for the violence done to Jacob. Or, (2.) God
   is now by Nebuchadnezzar about to turn away the pride of Jacob by the
   captivity of the two tribes, as he did the pride of Israel by their
   captivity; He has determined to do it, to bring emptiers upon them, and
   the enemy that is to do it must begin with Nineveh, and reduce that
   first, and humble the pride of that. God is looking upon proud cities,
   and abasing them, even those that are nearest to him. Samaria is
   humbled, and Jerusalem is to be humbled, and their pride brought low;
   and shall not Nineveh, that proud city, be brought down too? Emptiers
   have emptied the cities, and marred the vine-branches in the country of
   Jacob and Israel; and must not the excellency of Nineveh, that is so
   much her pride, be turned away too?

   III. A particular account given in of the terrors wherein the invading
   enemy shall appear against Nineveh; every thing shall contribute to
   make him formidable. 1. The shields of his mighty men are made red, and
   probably their other arms and array, as if they were already tinctured
   with the blood they had shed, or intended hereby to signify they would
   put all to the sword; they hung out a red flag, in token that they
   would give no quarter. 2. The valiant men are in scarlet; not only red
   clothes, to intimate what bloody work they designed to make, but rich
   clothes, to intimate the wealth of the army, and that is the sinews of
   war. 3. The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his
   preparation; when they are making their approaches, they shall fly as
   swiftly as lightning; the wheels shall strike fire upon the stones, and
   those that drive them shall drive furiously with a flaming indignation,
   as Jehu drove. Or they carried flaming torches with them in the open
   chariots, when they made their approach in the night, as Gideon's
   soldiers carried lamps in their pitchers, to be both a guide to
   themselves and a terror to their enemies, and with them to set all on
   fire wherever they went. 4. The fir-trees shall be terribly shaken; the
   great men of Nineveh, that overtop their neighbours, as the stately
   firs do the shrubs; or the very standing trees shall be made to shake
   by the violent concussions of the earth, which that great army shall
   cause. 5. The chariots of war shall be very terrible (v. 4): They shall
   rage in the streets, that is, those that drive them shall rage; you
   would think the chariots themselves raged; they shall be so numerous,
   and drive with so much fury, that even in the broad ways, where, one
   would think, there should be room enough, they shall jostle one
   another; and these iron chariots shall be made so bright that in the
   beams of the sun they shall seem like torches in the night; they shall
   run like the lightnings, so swiftly, so furiously. Nebuchadnezzar's
   commanders are here called his worthies, his gallants (so the margin
   reads it), his heroes; those he shall recount, and order them
   immediately and without fail to render themselves at their respective
   posts, for he is entering upon action, is resolved to take the field
   immediately, and to open the campaign with the siege of Nineveh. His
   worthies shall remember (so some read it); they shall be mindful of the
   duty of their place, and the charge they have received, and shall
   thereby be made so intent upon their business that they shall stumble
   in their walks, shall make more haste than good speed; they stumble,
   but shall not fall; for they shall make haste to the wall thereof,
   shall open the trenches; and the defence, or the covered way, shall be
   prepared (something to shelter them from the darts of the besieged),
   and they shall so closely carry on the siege, and with so much vigour,
   that at length the gates of the rivers shall be opened (v. 6); those
   gates of Nineveh which open upon the river Tigris (on which Nineveh was
   built) shall be first forced by, or betrayed to, the enemy, and by
   those gates they shall enter. And then the palace shall be dissolved,
   either the king's house or the house of Nisroch his god; the same word
   signifies both a palace and a temple. When the God of heaven goes forth
   to contend with a people, neither the palaces nor their kings, neither
   the temples nor their gods, can protect and shelter them, but must all
   inevitably fall with them.

   IV. A prediction of the consequences of this; and it is easy to guess
   how dismal those will be. 1. The queen shall fall into the hands of the
   enemy (v. 7): Huzzab shall be led away captive; she that was
   established (so some read it), thought herself safe because she was
   concealed and shut up in secret, shall be discovered (so the margin
   reads it) and shall be led away captive, in greater disgrace than that
   of common prisoners; she shall be brought up in a mock state, and her
   maids of honour shall lead her, because she is weak and faint, not able
   to bear such frights and hardships, which are doubly hard and frightful
   to those that have not been used to them; they shall attend her, not to
   speak cheerfully to her and to encourage her, but murmuring and moaning
   themselves, as with the voice of doves, the doves of the valleys (Ezek.
   vii. 16), noted for their mourning, Isa. xxxviii. 14; lix. 11. They
   shall be tabering upon their breasts, beating their own breasts in
   grief and vexation, as if they were drumming upon them, for so the word
   signifies. 2. The inhabitants, though numerous, shall none of them be
   able to make head against the invaders, or stand their ground (v. 8):
   Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, replenished with people as a
   pool with water (and waters signify multitudes, Rev. xvii. 15), or as
   those waters with fish; it was long ago a populous city; in Jonah's
   time there were 120,000 little children in it (Jonah iv. 11), and,
   ordinarily, cities and countries are increasing in their number every
   year; but, though they have so many hands to be employed in the public
   service, yet they shall not be able to inspire one another with
   courage, but they shall flee away like cowards. Their commanders shall
   do what they can to animate them; they shall cry, "Stand, stand, have a
   good heart on it, and we shall do well enough;" but none shall so much
   as look back; they shall not have the least spark of courage remaining,
   but every one shall think it is his wisest course to make his best of
   the opportunity to escape; they shall not so much as look back to see
   who calls for them. Note, God can dispirit the strongest and boldest,
   in the day of distress, so that they shall not be what one would expect
   from them, but like a pool of water, the water whereof is dried up and
   gone. 3. The wealth of the city shall become a prey, and all its rich
   furniture shall fall into the hands of the victorious enemy (v. 9);
   they shall thus animate and excite one another to plunder: Take the
   spoil of silver; take the spoil of gold; thus the officers shall stir
   up the soldiers to improve their opportunity; here are silver and gold
   enough for them, for there is no end of the store of money and plate.
   Nineveh, having been of old like a pool of water, has gathered a vast
   deal of mud; and abundance of glory it has out of all the pleasant
   furniture, all the vessels of desire, which they have gloried in and
   which shall now be a prey and a pride to the conquerors. Note, Those
   who prepare raiment as the clay, and heap up silver as the dust, know
   not who may put on the raiment and divide the silver, Job xxvii. 16,
   17. Thus this rich city is empty, and void, and waste, v. 10. See the
   vanity of worldly wealth; instead of defending its owners, it does but
   expose them, and enable their enemies to do them so much the more
   mischief. 4. The soldiers and people shall have no heart to appear for
   the defence of the city. Their spirits shall melt away like wax before
   the fire; their knees shall smite together (as Belshazzar's did, in his
   agony, Dan. v. 6), so that they shall not be able to stand their
   ground, no, nor to make their escape; much pain shall be in all loins,
   as is the case in extreme frights, so that they shall not be able to
   hold up their backs. And the faces of them all shall gather blackness,
   like that of a pot that is every day over the fire; so the word
   signifies. Note, Guilt in the conscience will fill men with terror in
   an evil day, and those who place their happiness in the wealth of this
   world and set their hearts upon it think themselves undone when their
   silver, and their gold, and their pleasant furniture are taken from
   them.

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

   11 Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the
   young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's
   whelp, and none made them afraid?   12 The lion did tear in pieces
   enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his
   holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.   13 Behold, I am against
   thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the
   smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off
   thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more
   be heard.

   Here we have Nineveh's ruin, 1. Triumphed in by its neighbours, who now
   remember against it all the oppressions and abuse of power it had been
   guilty of in its pomp and prosperity (v. 11, 12): Where is the dwelling
   of the lions? It is gone; there appear no remnants, no footsteps, of
   it. Where is the feeding place of the young lions, where they glutted
   themselves with prey? The princes of Nineveh had been as lions, as
   beasts of prey; cruel tyrants are no better, nay, in this respect much
   worse--that, being men, humanity is expected from them; nay, if they
   were indeed lions, they would not prey upon those of their own kind.
   Savis inter se convenit ursæ--Fierce bears agree together. But in the
   shape of men they had the cruelty of lions: they walked in Nineveh as a
   lion in the woods, and none made them afraid; every one stood in awe of
   them, and they were under no apprehensions of danger from any; though
   nobody loved them, every body feared them, and that was all they
   desired. Oderint, dum metuant--Let them hate, so that they do but fear.
   The king himself, as well as every prince, made it his business, by all
   the arts of violence and extortion, to enrich himself and raise his
   family; he did tear in pieces enough for his whelps (and no little
   would be enough for them) and he strangled for his lioness, killed all
   that came near him, and seized what they had for his children, for his
   wives and concubines, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with
   ravin, as lions are wont to do. Note, Many make it an excuse for their
   rapine and injustice that they have wives and children to provide for,
   whereas what is so got will never do them any good; those that fear the
   Lord, and get what they have honestly, shall not want a competency for
   themselves and theirs; verily they shall be fed, when the young lions,
   though dens and holes were filled with prey and ravin for them, shall
   lack, and suffer hunger, Ps. xxxiv. 10. 2. It is avowed by the
   righteous Judge of heaven and earth; it is his doing, and let all the
   world take notice that it is so (v. 13): Behold, I am against thee,
   saith the Lord of hosts. And what good can hosts do for her in her
   defence, when the Lord of hosts is against her for her destruction? The
   oppressors in Nineveh thought they only set their neighbours against
   them, who were not a match for them, and whom they could easily
   overpower; but it proved they set God against them, who is, and will
   be, the asserter of right and the avenger of wrong. God is against the
   princes of Nineveh, and then, (1.) These military preparations will
   stand them in no stead: I will burn their chariots in the smoke; he
   does not say in the fire, but, in contempt of them, the very smoke of
   God's indignation shall serve to burn their chariots; they shall be
   consumed as soon as the fire of his indignation is kindled, while as
   yet it does but smoke, and not flame out. Or, The drivers of the
   chariots shall be smothered and stifled with the smoke; then the
   chariots of their glory shall be the shame of their families, Isa.
   xxii. 18. (2.) Their children, the hopes of their families, shall be
   cut off: The sword shall devour the young lions, whom they were so
   solicitous to provide for by oppression and extortion. Note, It is just
   with God to deprive those of their children, or (which is all one) of
   comfort in them, that take sinful courses to enrich them, and (as has
   been said of some) damn their souls to make their sons gentlemen. (3.)
   The wealth they have heaped up by fraud and violence shall neither be
   enjoyed by them nor employed for them: I will cut off thy prey from the
   earth; not only thou shalt not be the better for it, but no one else
   shall. Some understand it of the disabling of them for the future to
   prey upon their neighbours. (4.) Their agents abroad shall not have
   that respect from their neighbours and that influence upon them which
   sometimes they had had: The voice of thy messengers shall no more be
   heard, no more be heeded, which some think refers to Rabshakeh, one of
   Nineveh's messengers, that had blasphemed the living God, an iniquity
   which was remembered against Nineveh long after. Those are not worthy
   to be heard again that have once spoken reproachfully of God.
     __________________________________________________________________

N A H U M.

  CHAP. III.

   This chapter goes on with the burden of Nineveh, and concludes it. I.
   The sins of that great city are charged upon it, murder (ver. 1),
   whoredom and witchcraft (ver. 4), and a general extent of wickedness,
   ver. 19. II. Judgments are here threatened against it, blood for blood
   (ver. 2, 3), and shame for shameful sins, ver. 5-7. III. Instances are
   given of the like desolations brought upon other places for the like
   sins, ver. 8-11. IV. The overthrow of all those things which they
   depended upon, and put confidence in, is foretold, ver. 12-19.

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

   1 Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey
   departeth not;   2 The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling
   of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
     3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering
   spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of
   carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon
   their corpses:   4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the
   well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations
   through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.   5
   Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover
   thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness,
   and the kingdoms thy shame.   6 And I will cast abominable filth upon
   thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock.   7 And
   it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee
   from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence
   shall I seek comforters for thee?

   Here is, I. Nineveh arraigned and indicted. It is a high charge that is
   here drawn up against that great city, and neither her numbers nor her
   grandeur shall secure her from prosecution. 1. It is a city of blood,
   in which a great deal of innocent blood is shed by unrighteous war, or
   under colour and pretence of public justice, or by suffering barbarous
   murders to go unpunished; for this the righteous God will make
   inquisition. 2. It is all full of lies; truth is banished from among
   them; there is no such thing as honesty; one knows not whom to believe
   nor whom to trust. 3. It is all full of robbery and rapine; no man
   cares what mischief he does, nor to whom he does it: The prey departs
   not, that is, they never know when they have got enough by spoil and
   oppression. They shed blood, and told lies, in pursuit of the prey,
   that they might enrich themselves. 4. There is a multitude of whoredoms
   in it, that is, idolatries, spiritual whoredoms, by which she defiled
   herself, and to which she seduced the neighbouring nations, as a
   well-favoured harlot, and sold and ruined nations through her
   whoredoms. 5. She is a mistress of witchcrafts, and by them she sells
   families, v. 4. That which Nineveh aimed at was a universal monarchy,
   to be the metropolis of the world, and to have all her neighbours under
   her feet; to compass this, she used not only arms, but arts, compelling
   some, deluding others, into subjection to her, and wheedling them as a
   harlot by her charms to lay their necks under her yoke, suggesting to
   them that it would be for their advantage. She courted them to join
   with her in her idolatrous rites, to tie them the faster to her
   interests, and made use of her wealth, power, and greatness, to draw
   people into alliances with her, by which she gained advantages over
   them, and made a hand of them. These were her whoredoms, like those of
   Tyre, Isa. xxiii. 15, 17. These were her witchcrafts, with which she
   unaccountably gained dominion. And for this that God has a quarrel with
   her who, having made of one blood all nations of men, never designed
   one to be a nation of tyrants and another of slaves, and who claims it
   as his own prerogative to be universal Monarch.

   II. Nineveh condemned to ruin upon this indictment. Woe to this bloody
   city! v. 1. See what this woe is.

   1. Nineveh had with her cruelties been a terror and destruction to
   others, and therefore destruction and terror shall be brought upon her.
   Those that are for overthrowing all that come in their way will, sooner
   or later, meet with their match. (1.) Hear the alarm with which Nineveh
   shall be terrified, v. 2. It is a formidable army that advances against
   it; you may hear them at a distance, the noise of the whip, driving the
   chariot-horses with fury; you may hear the noise of the rattling of the
   wheels, the prancing horses, and the jumping chariots; the very noise
   is frightful, but much more so when they know that all this force is
   coming with all this speed against them, and they are not able to make
   head against it. (2.) See the slaughter with which Nineveh shall be
   laid waste (v. 3), the sword drawn with which execution shall be done,
   the bright sword lifted up and the glittering spear, the dazzling
   brightness of which is very terrible to those whom they are lifted up
   against. See what havoc these make when they are commissioned to slay:
   There is a great number of carcases, for the slain of the land shall be
   many; there is no end of their corpses; there is such a multitude of
   slain that it is in vain to go about to take the number of them; they
   lie so thick that passengers are ready to stumble upon their corpses at
   every step. The destruction of Sennacherib's army, which, in the
   morning, were all dead corpses, is perhaps looked upon here as a figure
   of the like destruction that should afterwards be in Nineveh; for those
   that will not take warning by judgments at a distance shall have them
   come nearer.

   2. Nineveh had with her whoredoms and witchcrafts drawn others to
   shameful wickedness, and therefore God will load her with shame and
   contempt (v. 5-7): The Lord of hosts is against her, and then she shall
   be exposed to the highest degree of disgrace and ignominy, shall not
   only lose all her charms, but shall be made to appear very odious. When
   it shall be seen that while she courted her neighbours it was with
   design to ruin their liberty and property, when all her wicked
   artifices shall be brought to light, then her shame is discovered to
   the nations. When her proud pretensions are baffled, and her vain
   towering hopes of an absolute and universal dominion brought to nought,
   and she appears not to have been so strong and considerable as she
   would have been thought to be, then to see the nakedness of the land do
   they come, and it appears ridiculous. Then do they cast abominable
   filth upon her, as upon a carted strumpet, and make her vile as the
   offscouring of all things; that great city, which all nations had made
   court to and coveted an alliance with, has become a gazing-stock, a
   laughing stock. Those that formerly looked upon her, and fled to her,
   in hopes of protection from her, now look upon her and flee from her,
   for fear of being ruined with her. Note, Those that abuse their honour
   and interest will justly be disgraced and abandoned, and, because
   miserable, will be made contemptible, and thereby be made more
   miserable. When Nineveh is laid waste who will bemoan her? Her trouble
   will be so great, and her sense of it so deep, as not to admit relief
   from sympathy, or any comforting considerations; or, if it would, none
   shall do any such good office: When shall I seek comforters for thee?
   Note, Those that showed no pity in the day of their power can expect to
   find no pity in the day of their fall. When those about Nineveh, that
   had been deceived by her wiles, come to be undeceived in her ruin,
   every one shall insult over her, and none bemoan her. This was
   Nineveh's fate, when she was made a spectacle, or gazing-stock. Note,
   The greater men's show was in the day of their abused prosperity the
   greater will their shame be in the day of their deserved destruction. I
   will make thee an example; so Drusus reads it. Note, When proud sinners
   are humbled and brought down it is designed that others should take
   example by them not to lift up themselves in security and insolence
   when they prosper in the world.

The Judgment of Nineveh. (b. c. 710.)

   8 Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers,
   that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her
   wall was from the sea?   9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it
   was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.   10 Yet was she carried
   away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in
   pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her
   honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.   11 Thou
   also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength
   because of the enemy.   12 All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees
   with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into
   the mouth of the eater.   13 Behold, thy people in the midst of thee
   are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine
   enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.   14 Draw thee waters for the
   siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the mortar,
   make strong the brick-kiln.   15 There shall the fire devour thee; the
   sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm:
   make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
     16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the
   cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.   17 Thy crowned are as the
   locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the
   hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and
   their place is not known where they are.   18 Thy shepherds slumber, O
   king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is
   scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.   19 There is
   no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the
   bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not
   thy wickedness passed continually?

   Nineveh has been told that God is against her, and then none can be for
   her, to stand her in any stead; yet she sets God himself at defiance,
   and his power and justice, and says, I shall have peace. Threatened
   folks live long; therefore here the prophet largely shows how vain her
   confidences would prove and insufficient to ward off the judgment of
   God. To convince them of this,

   I. He shows them that other places, which had been as strong and as
   secure as they, could not keep their ground against the judgments of
   God. Nineveh shall fall unpitied and uncomforted (for miserable
   comforters will those prove who speak peace to those on whom God will
   fasten trouble), and she shall not be able to help herself: Art thou
   better than populous No? v. 8. He takes them off from their vain
   confidences by quoting precedents. The city mentioned is No, a great
   city in the land of Egypt (Jer. xlvi. 25), No-Ammon, so some read it
   both there and here. We read of it, Ezek. xxx. 14-16. Some think it was
   Diospolis, others Alexandria. As God said to Jerusalem, Go, see what I
   did to Shiloh (Jer. vii. 12), so to Nineveh that great city, Go, see
   what I did to populous No. Note, It will help to keep us in a holy fear
   of the judgments of God to consider that we are not better than those
   that have fallen under those judgments before us. We deserve them as
   much, and are as little able to grapple with them. This also should
   help to reconcile us to afflictions. Are we better than such and such,
   who were in like manner exercised? Nay, were not they better than we,
   and less likely to be afflicted? Now, concerning No, observe, 1. How
   firm her standing seemed to be, v. 8. She was fortified both by nature
   and art, was situate among the rivers. Nile, in several branches, not
   only watered her fields, but guarded her wall. Her rampart was the sea,
   the lake of Mareotis, an Egyptian sea, like the sea of Tiberias. Her
   wall was from the sea; it was fenced with a wall which was thought to
   make the place impregnable. It was also supported by its interests and
   alliances abroad, v. 9. Ethiopia, or Arabia, was her strength, either
   by the wealth brought to her in a way of trade or by the auxiliary
   forces furnished for military service. The whole country of Egypt also
   contributed to the strength of this populous city; so that it was
   infinite, and there was no end of it (so it might be rendered); She set
   no bounds to her ambition and knew no end of her wealth and strength;
   people flocked to her endlessly, and she thought there never would be
   any end of it; but it is God's prerogative to be infinite. Put and
   Lubim were thy helpers, two neighbouring countries of Africa,
   Mauritania and Libya, that is, Libya Cyrenica, a country that Egypt had
   much dependence upon. No, thus helped, seemed to sit as a queen, and
   was not likely to see any sorrow. But, 2. See how fatal her fall proved
   to be (v. 10): Yet was she carried away, and her strength failed her;
   even she that was so strong, so secure, yet went into captivity. This
   refers to some destruction of that city which was then well-known, and
   probably fresh in memory, though not recorded in history; for the
   destruction of it by Nebuchadnezzar (if we should understand this
   prophetically) could not be made an example to Nineveh; for the
   reducing of Nineveh was one of the first of his victories and that of
   Egypt one of the last. The strength and grandeur of that great city
   could not be its protection from military execution. (1.) Not from that
   which was most barbarous; for her young children had no compassion
   shown them, but were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets by
   the merciless conquerors. (2.) Not from that which was most inglorious
   and disgraceful: They cast lots for her honourable men that were made
   prisoners of war, who should have them for their slaves. So many had
   they of them that they knew not what to do with them, but they made
   sport with throwing dice for them; all her great men, that used to be
   adorned on state-days with chains of gold, were now bound in chains of
   iron; they were pinioned or handcuffed (so the word properly
   signifies), not only as slaves, but as condemned malefactors. What a
   mortification was this to populous No, to have her honourable men and
   great men, that were her pride and confidence, thus abused! Now hence
   he infers against Nineveh (v. 11), "Thou also shalt be intoxicated,
   infatuated; thou also shalt reel and stagger, as drunk with the cup of
   the Lord's fury, that shall be put into thy hand" (see Jer. xxv. 17,
   27); "Thou shalt fall and rise no more. The cup shall go round, and
   come to thy turn, O Nineveh! to drink off at last, and shall be to thee
   as the waters of jealousy."

   II. He shows them that all those things which they reposed a confidence
   in should fail them. 1. Did the men of Nineveh trust to their own
   magnanimity and bravery? Their hearts should sink and fail them. They
   shall be hid, shall abscond for shame, being in disgrace, abscond for
   fear, being in distress and danger, and not able to face the enemies,
   because of whose strength and terror, having no strength of their own,
   they shall seek strength, shall come sneaking to their neighbours to
   beg their assistance in a time of need. Thus God can cut off the spirit
   of princes, and take away their heart. 2. Did they depend upon their
   barrier, the garrisons and strongholds they had, which were regularly
   fortified and bravely manned? Those shall prove but paper-walls, and
   like the first-ripe figs, which, if you give the tree but a little
   shake, will fall into the mouth of the eater that gapes for them; so
   easily will all their strongholds be made to surrender to the advancing
   enemy, upon the first summons, v. 12. Note, Strongholds, even the
   strongest, are no fence against the judgments of God, when they come
   with commission. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and a high
   wall, but only in his own conceit, Prov. xviii. 10. They are supposed
   to make their strongholds as strong as possible, and are challenged to
   do their utmost to make them tenable, and serviceable to them against
   the invader (v. 14): Draw thee water for the siege; lay in great
   quantities of water, that that which is so necessary to the support of
   human life may not be wanting; it is put here for all manner of
   provision, with which Nineveh is ironically told to furnish herself, in
   expectation of a siege. "Take ever so much care that thou mayest not be
   starved out, and forced by famine to surrender, yet that shall not
   avail. Fortify the strongholds, by adding out-works to them, or putting
   men and arms into them," as with us by planting cannon upon them. "Go
   into clay, and tread the mortar, and make strong the brick-kiln; take
   all the pains thou canst in erecting new fortifications; but it shall
   be all in vain, for (v. 15) there shall even the fire devour thee if it
   be taken by storm." It is by fire and sword that in time of war the
   great devastations are made. 3. Did they put confidence in the
   multitude of their inhabitants? Were they, from their number and
   valour, reckoned their strongest walls and fortifications? Alas! these
   shall stand them in no stead; they shall but sink the sooner under the
   weight of their own numbers (v. 13): Thy people in the midst of thee
   are women; they have no wisdom, no courage; they shall be fickle,
   feeble, and faint-hearted, as women commonly are in such times of
   danger and distress; they shall be at their wits' end, adding to their
   griefs and fears by the power of their own imagination, and utterly
   unable to do any thing for themselves; the valiant men shall become
   cowards. O verè Phrygiæ, neque enim Phryges--Phrygian dames, not
   Phrygian men. Though they make themselves many (v. 15), as the
   canker-worm and as the locust, that come in vast swarms, though thou
   hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven, though thy
   exchange be thronged with wealthy traders, who, having so much money to
   stand up in defence of and so much to lay out in the means of their
   defence, should, one would think, give the enemy a warm reception, yet
   their hearts shall fail them too; though they be numerous as
   caterpillars, yet the fire and sword shall eat them up easily and
   irresistibly as the canker-worm, v. 15. They are as numerous as those
   wasting insects, but their enemies shall be mischievous like them. He
   adds (v. 16), The canker-worm spoils, or spreads herself, and flies
   away. Both the merchants and the enemies were compared to canker-worms.
   The enemies shall spoil Nineveh, and carry away the spoil, without
   opposition, or any hope of recovering it. Or the rich merchants, who
   have come from abroad to settle in Nineveh, and have raised vast
   estates there, out of which it was hoped they would contribute largely
   for the defence of the city, when they see the country invaded and the
   city likely to be besieged, will send away their effects, and remove to
   some other place, will spread their wings and fly away where they may
   be safe, and Nineveh shall be never the better for them. Note, It is
   rare to find even those that have shared with us in our joys willing to
   share with us in our griefs too. The canker-worms will continue upon
   the field while there is any thing to be had, but they are gone when
   all is gone. Those that men have got by they do not care to lose by.
   Nineveh's merchants bid her farewell in her distress. Riches themselves
   are as the canker-worms, which on a sudden fly away as the eagle
   towards heaven, Prov. xxiii. 5. 4. Did they put a confidence in the
   strength of their gates and bars? What fence will those be against the
   force of the judgments of God? v. 13. The gates of thy land shall be
   set wide open unto thy enemies, the gates of thy rivers (ch. ii. 6),
   the flood-gates, or the passes and avenues, by which the enemy would
   make his entrance into the country, or the gates of the cities; these,
   though ever so strong and well-guarded, shall not answer their end: The
   fire shall devour thy bars, the bars of thy gates, and then they shall
   fly open. 5. Did they put a confidence in their king and princes? They
   should do them no service (v. 17): Thy crowned heads are as the
   locusts; those that had pomp and power, as crowned heads, were
   enfeebled, and had no power to make resistance, when the enemy came in
   like a flood. "Thy captains, that should lead thy forces into the
   field, are great indeed, and look great, but they are as the great
   grasshoppers, the maximum quod sic--the largest specimens of that
   species; still they are but grasshoppers, worthless things, that can do
   no service. They encamp in the hedges, in the cold day, the cold
   weather, but, when the sun arises, they flee away, and are gone, nobody
   knows whither. So these mercenary soldiers that lay slumbering about
   Nineveh, when any trouble arises, flee away, and shift for their own
   safety. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling." The king of
   Assyria is told, and it is a shame he needs to be told it (who might
   observe it himself), that his shepherds slumber; they have no life or
   spirit to appear for the flock, and are very remiss in the discharge of
   the duty of their place and the trust reposed in them: Thy nobles shall
   dwell in the dust, and be buried in silence. 6. Did they hope that they
   should yet recover themselves and rally again? In this also they should
   be disappointed; for, when the shepherds are smitten, the sheep are
   scattered; the people are dispersed upon the mountains and no man
   gathers them, nor will they ever come together of themselves, but will
   wander endlessly, as scattered sheep do. The judgment they are under is
   as a wound, and it is incurable; there is no relief for it, "no healing
   of thy bruise, no possibility that the wound, which is so grievous and
   painful to thee, should be so much as skinned over; thy case is
   desperate (v. 19) and thy neighbours, instead of lending a hand to help
   thee, shall clap their hands over thee, and triumph in thy fall; and
   the reason is, because thou hast been one way or other injurious to
   them all: Upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually? Thou
   hast been always doing mischief to those about thee; there is none of
   them but what thou hast abused and insulted; and therefore they shall
   be so far from pitying thee that they shall be glad to see thee
   reckoned with." Note, Those that have been abusive to their neighbours
   will, one time or another, find it come home to them; they are but
   preparing enemies to themselves against their day comes to fall: and
   those that dare not lay hands on them themselves will clap their hands
   over them, and upbraid them with their former wickedness, for which
   they are now well enough served and paid in their own coin. The
   troublers shall be troubled will be the burden of many, as it is here
   the burden of Nineveh.
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Habakkuk
     __________________________________________________________________

   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

H A B A K K U K.
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   It is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this
   prophet was the son of the Shunamite woman that was at first
   miraculously given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha (2 Kings
   iv.), as they say also that the prophet Jonah was the son of the widow
   of Zarephath, which Elijah raised to life. It is a more probable
   conjecture of their modern chronologers that he lived and prophesied in
   the reign of king Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and destruction
   was hastening on, destruction by the Chaldeans, whom this prophet
   mentions as the instruments of God's judgments; and Manasseh was
   himself carried to Babylon, as an earnest of what should come
   afterwards. In the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is
   made of Habakkuk the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried
   thence by an angel to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den; those who
   give credit to that story take pains to reconcile our prophet's living
   before the captivity, and foretelling it, with that. Huetius thinks
   that that was another of the same name, a prophet, this of the tribe of
   Simeon, that of Levi; others that he lived so long as to the end of
   that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some
   have imagined that Habakkuk's feeding Daniel in the den is to be
   understood mystically, that Daniel then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had
   said the just should do; he was fed by that word, Hab. ii. 4. The
   prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet's addresses to God in
   the people's name and to the people in God's name; for it is the office
   of the prophet to carry messages both ways. We have in it a lively
   representation of the intercourse and communion between a gracious God
   and a gracious soul. The whole refers particularly to the invasion of
   the land of Judah by the Chaldeans, which brought spoil upon the people
   of God, a just punishment of the spoil they had been guilty of among
   themselves; but it is of general use, especially to help us through
   that great temptation with which good men have in all ages been
   exercised, arising from the power and prosperity of the wicked and the
   sufferings of the righteous by it.
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H A B A K K U K.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter, I. The prophet complains to God of the violence done
   by the abuse of the sword of justice among his own people and the
   hardships thereby put upon many good people, ver. 1-4. II. God by him
   foretels the punishment of that abuse of power by the sword of war, and
   the desolations which the army of the Chaldeans should make upon them,
   ver. 5-11. III. Then the prophet complains of that too, and is grieved
   that the Chaldeans prevail so far (ver. 12-17), so that he scarcely
   knows which is more to be lamented, the sin or the punishment of it,
   for in both many harmless good people are very great sufferers. It is
   well that there is a day of judgment, and a future state, before us, in
   which it shall be eternally well with all the righteous, and with them
   only, and ill with all the wicked, and them only; so the present
   seeming disorders of Providence shall be set to rights, and there will
   remain no matter of complaint whatsoever.

The Sins of the People. (b. c. 600.)

   1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.   2 O Lord, how long
   shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of
   violence, and thou wilt not save!   3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity,
   and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before
   me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.   4 Therefore
   the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked
   doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

   We are told no more in the title of this book (which we have, v. 1)
   than that the penman was a prophet, a man divinely inspired and
   commissioned, which is enough (if that be so, we need not ask
   concerning his tribe or family, or the place of his birth), and that
   the book itself is the burden which he saw; he was as sure of the truth
   of it as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes already accomplished.
   Here, in these verses, the prophet sadly laments the iniquity of the
   times, as one sensibly touched with grief for the lamentable decay of
   religion and righteousness. It is a very melancholy complaint which he
   here makes to God, 1. That no man could call what he had his own; but,
   in defiance of the most sacred laws of property and equity, he that had
   power on his side had what he had a mind to, though he had no right on
   his side: The land was full of violence, as the old world was, Gen. vi.
   11. The prophet cries out of violence (v. 2), iniquity and grievance,
   spoil and violence. In families and among relations, in neighbour-hoods
   and among friends, in commerce and in courts of law, every thing was
   carried with a high hand, and no man made any scruple of doing wrong to
   his neighbour, so that he could but make a good hand of it for himself.
   It does not appear that the prophet himself had any great wrong done
   him (in losing times it fared best with those that had nothing to
   lose), but it grieved him to see other people wronged, and he could not
   but mingle his tears with those of the oppressed. Note, Doing wrong to
   harmless people, as it is an iniquity in itself, so it is a great
   grievance to all that are concerned for God's Jerusalem, who sigh and
   cry for abominations of this kind. He complains (v. 4) that the wicked
   doth compass about the righteous. One honest man, one honest cause,
   shall have enemies besetting it on every side; many wicked men, in
   confederacy against it, run it down; nay, one wicked man (for it is
   singular) with so many various arts of mischief sets upon a righteous
   man, that he perfectly besets him. 2. That the kingdom was broken into
   parties and factions that were continually biting and devouring one
   another. This is a lamentation to all the sons of peace: There are that
   raise up strife and contention (v. 3), that foment divisions, widen
   breaches, incense men against one another, and sow discord among
   brethren, by doing the work of him that is the accuser of the brethren.
   Strifes and contentions that have been laid asleep, and begun to be
   forgotten, they awake, and industriously raise up again, and blow up
   the sparks that were hidden under the embers. And, if blessed are the
   peace-makers, cursed are such peace-breakers, that make parties, and so
   make mischief that spreads further, and lasts longer, than they can
   imagine. It is sad to see bad men warming their hands at those flames
   which are devouring all that is good in a nation, and stirring up the
   fire too. 3. That the torrent of violence and strife ran so strongly as
   to bid defiance to the restraints and regulations of laws and the
   administration of justice, v. 4. Because God did not appear against
   them, nobody else would; therefore the law is slacked, is silent; it
   breathes not; its pulse beats not (so, it is said, the word signifies);
   it intermits, and judgment does not go forth as it should; no
   cognizance is taken of those crimes, no justice done upon the
   criminals; nay, wrong judgment proceeds; if appeals be made to the
   courts of equity, the righteous shall be condemned and the wicked
   justified, so that the remedy proves the worst disease. The legislative
   power takes no care to supply the deficiencies of the law for the
   obviating of those growing threatening mischiefs; the executive power
   takes no care to answer the good intentions of the laws that are made;
   the stream of justice is dried up by violence, and has not its free
   course. 4. That all this was open and public, and impudently avowed; it
   was barefaced. The prophet complains that this iniquity was shown him;
   he beheld it which way soever he turned his eyes, nor could he look off
   it: Spoiling and violence are before me. Note, The abounding of
   wickedness in a nation is a very great eye-sore to good people, and, if
   they did not see it, they could not believe it to be so bad as it is.
   Solomon often complains of the vexation of this kind which he saw under
   the sun; and the prophet would therefore gladly turn hermit, that he
   might not see it, Jer. ix. 2. But then we must needs go out of the
   world, which there-fore we should long to do, that we may remove to
   that world where holiness and love reign eternally, and no spoiling and
   violence shall be before us. 5. That he complained of this to God, but
   could not obtain a redress of those grievances: "Lord," says he, "why
   dost thou show me iniquity? Why hast thou cast my lot in a time and
   place when and where it is to be seen, and why do I continue to sojourn
   in Mesech and Kedar? I cry to thee of this violence; I cry aloud; I
   have cried long; but thou wilt not hear, thou wilt not save; thou dost
   not take vengeance on the oppressors, nor do justice to the oppressed,
   as if thy arm were shortened or thy ear heavy." When God seems to
   connive at the wickedness of the wicked, nay, and to countenance it, by
   suffering them to prosper in their wickedness, it shocks the faith of
   good men, and proves a sore temptation to them to say, We have cleansed
   our hearts in vain (Ps. lxxiii. 13), and hardens those in their impiety
   who say, God has forsaken the earth. We must not think it strange if
   wickedness be suffered to prevail far and prosper long. God has
   reasons, and we are sure they are good reasons, both for the reprieves
   of bad men and the rebukes of good men; and therefore, though we plead
   with him, and humbly expostulate concerning his judgments, yet we must
   say, "He is wise, and righteous, and good, in all," and must believe
   the day will come, though it may be long deferred, when the cry of sin
   will be heard against those that do wrong and the cry of prayer for
   those that suffer it.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 600.)

   5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for
   I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it
   be told you.   6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and
   hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to
   possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.   7 They are terrible
   and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of
   themselves.   8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and
   are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall
   spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall
   fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.   9 They shall come all for
   violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall
   gather the captivity as the sand.   10 And they shall scoff at the
   kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride
   every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.   11 Then
   shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing
   this his power unto his god.

   We have here an answer to the prophet's complaint, giving him assurance
   that, though God bore long, he would not bear always with this
   provoking people; for the day of vengeance was in his heart, and he
   must tell them so, that they might by repentance and reformation turn
   away the judgment they were threatened with.

   I. The preamble to the sentence is very awful (v. 5): Behold, you among
   the heathen, and regard. Since they will not be brought to repentance
   by the long-suffering of God, he will take another course with them. No
   resentments are so keen, so deep, as those of abused patience. The Lord
   will inflict upon them, 1. A public punishment, which shall be beheld
   and regarded among the heathen, which the neighbouring nations shall
   take notice of and stand amazed at; see Deut. xxix. 24, 25. This will
   aggravate the desolations of Israel, that they will thereby be made a
   spectacle to the world. 2. An amazing punishment, so strange and
   surprising, and so much out of the common road of Providence, that it
   shall not be paralleled among the heathen, shall be sorer and heavier
   than what God has usually inflicted upon the nations that know him not;
   nay, it shall not be credited even by those that had the prediction of
   it from God before it comes, or the report of it from those that were
   eye-witnesses of it when it comes: You will not believe it, though it
   be told you; it will be thought incredible that so many judgments
   should combine in one, and every circumstance so strangely concur to
   enforce and aggravate it, that so great and potent a nation should be
   so reduced and broken, and that God should deal so severely with a
   people that had been taken into the bond of the covenant and that he
   had done so much for. The punishment of God's professing people cannot
   but be the astonishment of all about them. 3. A speedy punishment: "I
   will work a work in your days, now quickly; this generation shall not
   pass till the judgment threatened be accomplished. The sins of former
   days shall be reckoned for in your days; for now the measure of the
   iniquity is full," Mt. xxiii. 36. 4. It shall be a punishment in which
   much of the hand of God shall appear; it shall be a work of his own
   working, so that all who see it shall say, This is the Lord's doing;
   and it will be found a fearful thing to fall into his hands; woe to
   those whom he takes to task! 5. It shall be such a punishment as will
   typify the destruction to be brought upon the despisers of Christ and
   his gospel, for to that these words are applied Acts xiii. 41, Behold,
   you despisers, and wonder, and perish. The ruin of Jerusalem by the
   Chaldeans for their idolatry was a figure of their ruin by the Romans
   for rejecting Christ and his gospel, and it is a very marvellous thing,
   and almost incredible. Is there not a strange punishment to the workers
   of iniquity?

   II. The sentence itself is very dreadful and particular (v. 6): Lo, I
   raise up the Chaldeans. There were those that raised up a great deal of
   strife and contention among them, which was their sin; and now God will
   raise up the Chaldeans against them, who shall strive and contend with
   them, which shall be their punishment. Note, When God's professing
   people quarrel among themselves, snarl at, and devour one another, it
   is just with God to bring the common enemy upon them, that shall make
   peace by making a universal devastation. The contending parties in
   Jerusalem were inveterate one against another, when the Romans came and
   took away their place and nation. The Chaldeans shall be the
   instruments of the destruction threatened, and, though themselves
   acting unrighteously, they shall execute the righteousness of the Lord
   and punish the unrighteousness of Israel. Now, here we have,

   1. A description of the people that shall be raised up against Israel,
   to be a scourge to them. (1.) They are a bitter and hasty nation, cruel
   and fierce, and what they do is done with violence and fury; they are
   precipitate in their counsels, vehement in their passions, and push on
   with resolution in their enterprises; they show no mercy and they spare
   no pains. Miserable is the case of those that are given up into the
   hand of these cruel ones. (2.) They are strong, and therefore
   formidable, and such as there is no standing before, and yet no fleeing
   from (v. 7): They are terrible and dreadful, famed for the gallant
   troops they bring into the field (v. 8); their horses are swifter than
   leopards to charge and pursue, and more fierce than the evening wolves;
   and wolves are observed to be the most ravenous towards the evening,
   after they have been kept hungry all day, waiting for that darkness
   under the protection of which all the beasts of the forest creep forth,
   Ps. civ. 20. Their squadrons of horse shall be very numerous: "Their
   horse-men shall spread themselves a great way, for they shall come from
   far, from all parts of their own country, and shall be dispersed into
   all parts of the country they invade, to plunder it, and enrich
   themselves with the spoil of it. And, in making speed to spoil, they
   shall hasten to the prey (as those, Isa. viii. 1, margin), for they
   shall fly as the eagle towards the earth when she hastens to eat and
   strikes at the prey she has an eye upon." (3.) Their own will is a law
   to them, and, in the fierceness of their pursuits, they will not be
   governed by any laws of humanity, equity, or honour: Their judgment and
   their dignity shall proceed of themselves, v. 7. Appetite and passion
   rule them, and not reason nor conscience. Their principle is, Quicquid
   libet, licet--My will is my law. And, Sic volo, sic jubeo; stat pro
   ratione voluntas--This is my wish, this is my command; it shall be done
   because I choose it. What favour can be hoped for from such an enemy?
   Note, Those who have been unjust and unmerciful, among whom the law is
   slacked, and judgment doth not go forth, will justly be paid in their
   own coin and fall into the hands of those who will deal unjustly and
   unmercifully with them.

   2. A prophecy of the terrible execution that shall be made by this
   terrible nation: They shall march through the breadth of the earth (so
   it may be read); for in a little time the Chaldean forces subdued all
   the nations in those parts, so that they seemed to have conquered the
   world; they overran Asia and part of Africa. Or, through the breadth of
   the land of Israel, which was wholly laid waste by them. It is here
   foretold, (1.) That they shall seize all as their own that they can lay
   their hands on. They shall come to possess the dwelling-places that are
   not theirs, which they have no right to, but that which their sword
   gives them. (2.) That they shall push on the war with all possible
   vigour: They shall all come for violence (v. 9), not to determine any
   disputed right by the sword, but, right or wrong, to enrich themselves
   with the spoil. Their faces shall sup up as the east wind; their very
   countenances shall be so fierce and frightful that a look will serve to
   make them masters of all they have a mind to; so that they shall
   swallow up all, as the east wind nips and blasts the buds and flowers.
   Their faces shall look towards the east (so some read it); they shall
   still have an eye to their own country, which lay eastward from Judea,
   and all the spoil they seize they shall remit thither. (3.) That they
   shall take a vast number of prisoners, and send them into Babylon: They
   shall gather the captivity as the sand for multitude, and shall never
   know when they have enough, as long as there are any more to be had.
   (4.) That they shall make nothing of the opposition that is given to
   them, v. 10. Do the distressed Jews depend upon their great men to make
   a stand, and with their wisdom and courage to give check to the
   victorious arms of the Chaldeans? Alas! they will make nothing of them.
   They shall scoff (he shall, so it is in the original, meaning
   Nebuchadnezzar, who being puffed up with his successes, shall scoff) at
   the kings and commanders of the forces that think to make head against
   him; and the princes shall be a scorn to them, so unequal a match shall
   they appear to be. Do they depend upon their garrisons and fortified
   towns? He shall deride every stronghold, for to him it shall be weak,
   and he shall heap dust, and take it; a little soil, thrown up for
   ramparts, shall serve to give him all the advantage against them that
   he can desire; he shall make but a jest of them, and a sport of taking
   them. (5.) By all this he shall be puffed up with an intolerable pride,
   which shall be his destruction (v. 11): Then shall his mind change for
   the worse. The spirit both of the people and of the king shall grow
   more haughty and insolent. Those that will not be content with their
   own rights will not be content when they have made themselves masters
   of other people's rights too; but as the condition rises the mind rises
   too. This victorious king shall pass over all the bounds of reason,
   equity, and modesty, and break through all their bonds, and thereby he
   shall offend, shall make God his enemy, and so prepare ruin for himself
   by imputing this his power to his god, whereas he had it from the God
   of Israel. Bel and Nebo were the gods of the Chaldeans, and to them
   they gave the glory of their successes; they were hardened in their
   idolatry, and blasphemously argued that because they had conquered
   Israel their gods were too strong for the God of Israel. Note, It is a
   great offence (and the common offence of proud people) to take that
   glory to ourselves, or to give it to gods of our own making, which is
   due to the living and true God only. These closing words of the
   sentence give a glimpse of comfort to the afflicted people of God; it
   is to be hoped that they will change their minds, and grow better, and
   ripen for deliverance; and they did so. However, their enemies will
   change their minds, and grow worse, and ripen for destruction, which
   will inevitably come in God's due time; for a haughty spirit, lifted up
   against God, goes before a fall.

The Prophet's Plea; The Prophet's Complaint. (b. c. 600.)

   12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we
   shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O
   mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.   13 Thou art of
   purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:
   wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest
   thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous
   than he?   14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping
   things, that have no ruler over them?   15 They take up all of them
   with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their
   drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.   16 Therefore they
   sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by
   them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.   17 Shall they
   therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the
   nations?

   The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver
   to the people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for
   the ease of his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is
   full of complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence
   done by Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence
   done against Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy
   sight. His thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our
   duty to be affected both with the iniquities and with the calamities of
   the church of God and of the times and places wherein we live; but we
   must take heed lest we grow peevish in our resentments, and carry them
   too far, so as to entertain any hard thoughts of God, or lose the
   comfort of our communion with him. The world is bad, and always was so,
   and will be so; it is out of our power to mend it; but we are sure that
   God governs the world, and will bring glory to himself out of all, and
   therefore we must resolve to make the best of it, must be ourselves
   better, and long for the better world. The prospect of the prevalence
   of the Chaldeans drives the prophet to his knees, and he takes the
   liberty to plead with God concerning it. In his plea we may observe,

   I. The truths which he lays down, which he resolves to abide by, and
   with which he endeavours to comfort himself and his friends, under the
   growing threatening power of the Chaldeans; and they will furnish us
   with pleasing considerations for our support in the like case.

   1. However it be, yet God is the Lord our God, and our Holy One. The
   victorious Chaldeans impute their power to their idols, but we are
   taught to tell them that the God of Israel is the true God, the living
   God, Jer. x. 10, 11. (1.) He is Jehovah, the fountain of all being,
   power, and perfection. Our rock is not as theirs. (2.) "He is my God."
   He speaks in the people's name; every Israelite may say, "He is mine.
   Though we are thus sore broken, and all this has come upon us, yet have
   we not forgotten the name of our God, nor quitted our relation to him,
   yet have we not disowned him, nor hath he disowned us, Ps. xliv. 17. We
   are an offending people; he is an offended God; yet he is ours, and we
   will not entertain any hard thoughts of him, nor of his service, for
   all this." (3.) "He is my Holy One." This intimates that the prophet
   loved God as a holy God, loved him for the sake of his holiness. "He is
   mine because he is a Holy One; and therefore he will be my sanctifier
   and my Saviour, because he is my Holy One. Men are unholy, but my God
   is holy."

   2. Our God is from everlasting. This he pleads with him: Art thou not
   from everlasting, O Lord my God? It is matter of great and continual
   comfort to God's people, under the troubles of this present life, that
   their God is from everlasting. This intimates, (1.) The eternity of his
   nature; if he is from everlasting, he will be to everlasting, and we
   must have recourse to this first principle, when things seen, which are
   temporal, are discouraging, that we have hope and help sufficient in a
   god that is not seen, that is eternal. "Art thou not from everlasting,
   and then wilt thou not make bare thy everlasting arm, in pursuance of
   thy everlasting counsels, to make unto thyself an everlasting name?"
   (2.) The antiquity of his covenant: "Art thou not from of old, a God in
   covenant with thy people" (so some understand it), "and hast thou not
   done great things for them in the days of old, which we have heard with
   our ears, and which our fathers have told us of; and art thou not the
   same God still that thou ever wast? Thou art God, and changest not."

   3. While the world stands God will have a church in it. Thou art from
   everlasting, and then we shall not die. The Israel of God shall not be
   extirpated, nor the name of Israel blotted out, though it may sometimes
   seem to be very near it; like the apostles (2 Cor. vi. 9), chastened,
   and not killed; chastened sorely, but not delivered over to death, Ps.
   cxviii. 18. See how the prophet infers the perpetuity of the church
   from the eternity of God; for Christ has said, Because I live, and
   therefore as long as I live, you shall live also, John xiv. 19. He is
   the rock on which the church is so firmly built that the gates of hell
   shall not, cannot, prevail against it. We shall not die.

   4. Whatever the enemies of the church may do against her, it is
   according to the counsel of God, and is designed and directed for wise
   and holy ends: Thou hast ordained them; thou hast established them. It
   was God that gave the Chaldeans their power, made them a formidable
   people, and in his counsel determined what they should do, nor had they
   any power against his Israel but what was given them from above. He
   gave them their commission to take the spoil and to take the prey, Isa.
   x. 6. Herein God appears a mighty God, that the power of mighty men is
   derived from him, depends upon him, and is under his check; he says
   concerning it, Hitherto shall it come, and no further. Those whom God
   ordains shall do no more than what God has ordained, which is a great
   comfort to God's suffering people. Men are God's hand, the rod in his
   hand, Ps. xvii. 14. And he has ordained them for judgment, and for
   correction. God's people need correction, and deserve it; they must
   expect it; they shall have it; when wicked men are let loose against
   them, it is not for their destruction, that they may be ruined, but for
   their correction, that they may be reformed; they are not intended for
   a sword, to cut them off, but for a rod, to drive out the foolishness
   that is found in their hearts, though they mean not so, neither does
   their heart think so, Isa. x. 7. Note, It is matter of great comfort to
   us, in reference to the troubles and afflictions of the church, that,
   whatever mischief men design to them, God designs to bring good out of
   them, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand.

   5. Though the wickedness of the wicked may prosper for a while, yet God
   is a holy God, and does not approve of that wickedness (v. 13): Thou
   art of purer eyes than to behold evil. The prophet, observing how very
   vicious and impious the Chaldeans were, and yet what great success they
   had against God's Israel, found a temptation arising from it to say
   that it was vain to serve God, and that it was indifferent to him what
   men were. But he soon suppresses the thought, by having recourse to his
   first principle, That God is not, that he cannot be, the author or
   patron of sin; as he cannot do iniquity himself, so he is of purer eyes
   than to behold it with any allowance or approbation; no, it is that
   abominable thing which the Lord hates. He sees all the sin that is
   committed in the world, and it is an offence to him, it is odious in
   his eyes, and those that commit it are thereby made obnoxious to his
   justice. There is in the nature of God an antipathy to those
   dispositions and practices that are contrary to his holy law; and,
   though an expedient is happily found out for his being reconciled to
   sinners, yet he never will, nor can, be reconciled to sin. And this
   principle we must resolve to abide by, though the dispensations of his
   providence may for a time, and in some instances, seem to be
   inconsistent with it. Note, God's connivance at sin must never be
   interpreted into a giving countenance to it; for he is not a God that
   has pleasure in wickedness, Ps. v. 4, 5. The iniquity which, it is here
   said, God does not look upon, may be meant especially of the mischief
   done to God's people by their persecutors; though God sees cause to
   permit it, yet he does not approve of it; so it agrees with that of
   Balaam (Num. xxiii. 21), He has not be held iniquity against Jacob, nor
   seen, with allowance, perverseness against Israel, which is very
   comfortable to the people of God, in their afflictions by the rage of
   men, that they cannot infer God's anger from it; though the instruments
   of their trouble hate them, it does not therefore follow that God does;
   nay, he loves them, and it is in love that he corrects them.

   II. The grievances he complains of, and finds hard to reconcile with
   these truths: "Since we are sure that thou art a holy God, why have
   atheists temptation given them to question whether thou art so or no?
   Wherefore lookest thou upon the Chaldeans that deal treacherously with
   thy people, and givest them success in their attempts upon us? Why dost
   thou suffer thy sworn enemies, who blaspheme thy name, to deal thus
   cruelly, thus perfidiously, with thy sworn subjects, who desire to fear
   thy name? What shall we say to this?" This was a temptation to Job (ch.
   xxi. 7; xxiv. 1), to David (Ps. lxxiii. 2, 3), to Jeremiah, ch. xii. 1,
   2. 1. That God permitted sin, and was patient with the sinners. He
   looked upon them; he saw all their wicked doings and designs, and did
   not restrain nor punish them, but suffered them to speed in their
   purposes, to go on and prosper, and to carry all before them. Nay, his
   looking upon them intimates that he not only gave them no check or
   rebuke, but that he gave them encouragement and assistance, as if he
   smiled upon them and favoured them. He held his tongue when they went
   on in their wicked courses, said nothing against them, gave no orders
   to stop them. These things thou hast done, and I kept silence. 2. That
   his patience was abused, and, because sentence against these evil works
   and workers was not executed speedily, therefore their hearts were the
   more fully set in them to do evil. (1.) They were false and deceitful,
   and there was no credit to be given them, nor any confidence to be put
   in them. They deal treacherously; under colour of peace and friendship,
   they prosecute and execute the most mischievous designs, and make no
   conscience of their word in any thing. (2.) They hated and persecuted
   men because they were better than themselves, as Cain hated Abel
   because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. The wicked
   devours the man that is more righteous than he, for that very reason,
   because he shames him; they have an ill will to the image of God, and
   therefore devour good men, because they bear that image. Though many of
   the Jews were as bad as the Chaldeans themselves, and worse, yet there
   were those among them that were much more righteous, and yet were
   devoured by them. (3.) They made no more of killing men that of
   catching fish. The prophet complains that, Providence having delivered
   up the weaker to be prey to the stronger, they were, in effect, made as
   the fishes of the sea, v. 14. So they had been among themselves,
   preying upon one another as the greater fishes do upon the less (v. 3),
   and they were made so to the common enemy. They were as the creeping
   things, or swimming things (for the word is used for fish, Gen. i. 20),
   that have no ruler over them, either to restrain them from devouring
   one another or to protect them from being devoured by their enemies.
   They are given up to the Chaldeans as fish to the fishermen. Those
   proud oppressors make no conscience of killing them, any more than men
   do of pulling fish out of the water, so small account do they make of
   human lives. They make no difficulty of killing them, but do it with as
   much ease as men catch fish, that make no resistance, but are unguarded
   and unarmed, and it is rather a pastime than any pains to take them.
   They make no distinction among them, but all is fish that comes to
   their net; and they reckon every thing their own that they can lay
   their hands on. They have various ways of spoiling and destroying, as
   men have of taking fish. Some they take up with the angle (v. 15), one
   by one; others they catch in shoals, and by wholesale, in their net,
   and gather them in their drag, their enclosing net. Such variety of
   methods have they to destroy those by whom they hope to enrich
   themselves. (4.) They gloried in what they got, and pleased themselves
   with it, though it was got dishonestly: Their portion is fat, and their
   meat plenteous; they prosper in their oppression and fraud; they have a
   great deal, and it is of the best; their land is good, and they have
   abundance of it. And therefore, [1.] They have great complacency in
   themselves, and are very pleasant; they live merrily (v. 15): Therefore
   they rejoice and are glad, because their wealth is great, and their
   projects succeed for the increase of it, Job xxxi. 25. Soul, take thy
   ease, Luke xii. 19. [2.] They have a great conceit of themselves, and
   are great admirers of their own ingenuity and management: They
   sacrifice to their own net, and burn incense to their own drag; they
   applaud themselves for having got so much money, though ever so
   dishonestly. Note, There is a proneness in us to take the glory of our
   outward prosperity to ourselves, and to say, My might, and the power of
   my hands, have gotten me this wealth, Deut. viii. 17. This is idolizing
   ourselves, sacrificing to the dragnet, because it is our own, which is
   as absurd a piece of idolatry as sacrificing to Neptune or Dagon. That
   which makes them adore their net thus is because by it their portion is
   fat. Those that make a god of their money will make a god of their
   drag-net, if they can but get money by it.

   III. The prophet, in the close, humbly expresses his hope that God will
   not suffer these destroyers of mankind always to go on and prosper
   thus, and expostulates with God concerning it (v. 17): "Shall they
   therefore empty their net? Shall they enrich themselves, and fill their
   own vessels, with that which they have by violence and oppression taken
   away from their neighbours? Shall they empty their net of what they
   have caught, that they may cast it into the sea again, to catch more?
   And wilt thou suffer them to proceed in this wicked course? Shall they
   not spare continually to slay the nations? Must the numbers and wealth
   of nations be sacrificed to their net? As if it were a small thing to
   rob men of their estates, shall they rob God of his glory? Is not God
   the king of nations, and will he not assert their injured rights? Is he
   not jealous for his own honour, and will he not maintain that?" The
   prophet lodges the matter in God's hand, and leaves it with him, as the
   psalmist does. Ps. lxxiv. 22, Arise, O God! Plead thy own cause.
     __________________________________________________________________

H A B A K K U K.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have an answer expected by the prophet (ver. 1), and
   returned by the Spirit of God, to the complaints which the prophet made
   of the violences and victories of the Chaldeans in the close of the
   foregoing chapter. The answer is, I. That after God has served his own
   purposes by the prevailing power of the Chaldeans, has tried the faith
   and patience of his people, and distinguished between the hypocrites
   and the sincere among them, he will reckon with the Chaldeans, will
   humble and bring down, not only that proud monarch Nebuchadnezzar, but
   that proud monarchy, for their boundless and insatiable thirst after
   dominion and wealth, for which they themselves should at length be made
   a prey, ver. 2-8. II. That not they only, but all other sinners like
   them, should perish under a divine woe. 1. Those that are covetous, are
   greedy of wealth and honours, ver. 9, 11. 2. Those that are injurious
   and oppressive, and raise estates by wrong and rapine, ver. 12-14. 3.
   Those that promote drunkenness that they may expose their neighbours to
   shame, ver. 15-17. 4. Those that worship idols, ver. 18-20.

Waiting upon God; The People Directed. (b. c. 600.)

   1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch
   to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am
   reproved.   2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and
   make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.   3 For the
   vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and
   not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it
   will not tarry.   4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright
   in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

   Here, I. The prophet humbly gives his attendance upon God (v. 1): "I
   will stand upon my watch, as a sentinel on the walls of a besieged
   city, or on the borders of an invaded country, that is very solicitous
   to gain intelligence. I will look up, will look round, will look
   within, and watch to see what he will say unto me, will listen
   attentively to the words of his mouth and carefully observe the steps
   of his providence, that I may not lose the least hint of instruction or
   direction. I will watch to see what he will say in me" (so it may be
   read), "what the Spirit of prophecy in me will dictate to me, by way of
   answer to my complaints." Even in a ordinary way, God not only speaks
   to us by his word, but speaks in us by our own consciences, whispering
   to us, This is the way, walk in it; and we must attend to the voice of
   God in both. The prophet's standing upon his tower, or high place,
   intimates his prudence, in making use of the helps and means he had
   within his reach to know the mind of God, and to be instructed
   concerning it. Those that expect to hear from God must withdraw from
   the world, and get above it, must raise their attention, fix their
   thought, study the scriptures, consult experiences and the experienced,
   continue instant in prayer, and thus set themselves upon the tower. His
   standing upon his watch intimates his patience, his constancy and
   resolution; he will wait the time, and weather the point, as a watchman
   does, but he will have an answer; he will know what God will say to
   him, not only for his own satisfaction, but to enable him as a prophet
   to give satisfaction to others, and answer their exceptions, when he is
   reproved or argued with. Herein the prophet is an example to us. 1.
   When we are tossed and perplexed with doubts concerning the methods of
   Providence, are tempted to think that it is fate, or fortune, and not a
   wise God, that governs the world, or that the church is abandoned, and
   God's covenant with his people cancelled and laid aside, then we must
   take pains to furnish ourselves with considerations proper to clear
   this matter; we must stand upon our watch against the temptation, that
   it may not get ground upon us, must set ourselves upon the tower, to
   see if we can discover that which will silence the temptation and solve
   the objected difficulties, must do as the psalmist, consider the days
   of old and make a diligent search (Ps. lxxvii. 6), must go into the
   sanctuary of God, and there labour to understand the end of these
   things (Ps. lxxiii. 17); we must not give way to our doubts, but
   struggle to make the best of our way out of them. 2. When we have been
   at prayer, pouring out our complaints and requests before God, we must
   carefully observe what answers God gives by his word, his Spirit, and
   his providences, to our humble representations; when David says, I will
   direct my prayer unto thee, as an arrow to the mark, he adds, I will
   look up, will look after my prayer, as a man does after the arrow he
   has shot, Ps. v. 3. We must hear what God the Lord will speak, Ps.
   lxxxv. 8. 3. When we go to read and hear the word of God, and so to
   consult the lively oracles, we must set ourselves to observe what God
   will thereby say unto us, to suit our case, what word of conviction,
   caution, counsel, and comfort, he will bring to our souls, that we may
   receive it, and submit to the power of it, and may consider what we
   shall answer, what returns we shall make to the word of God, when we
   are reproved by it. 4. When we are attacked by such as quarrel with God
   and his providence as the prophet here seems to have been--beset,
   besieged, as in a tower, by hosts of objectors--we should consider how
   to answer them, fetch our instructions from God, hear what he says to
   us for our satisfaction, and have that ready to say to others, when we
   are reproved, to satisfy them, as a reason of the hope that is in us (1
   Pet. iii. 15), and beg of God a mouth and wisdom, and that it may be
   given us in that same hour what we shall speak.

   II. God graciously gives him the meeting; for he will not disappoint
   the believing expectations of his people that wait to hear what he will
   say unto them, but will speak peace, will answer them with good words
   and comfortable words, Zech. i. 13. The prophet had complained of the
   prevalence of the Chaldeans, which God had given him a prospect of;
   now, to pacify him concerning it, he here gives him a further prospect
   of their fall and ruin, as Isaiah, before this, when he had foretold
   the captivity in Babylon, foretold also the destruction of Babylon.
   Now, this great and important event being made known to him by a
   vision, care is taken to publish the vision, and transmit it to the
   generations to come, who should see the accomplishment of it.

   1. The prophet must write the vision, v. 2. Thus, when St. John had a
   vision of the New Jerusalem, he was ordered to write, Rev. xxi. 5. He
   must write it, that he might imprint it on his own mind, and make it
   more clear to himself, but especially that it might be notified to
   those in distant places and transmitted to those in future ages. What
   is handed down by tradition is easily mistaken and liable to
   corruption; but what is written is reduced to a certainty, and
   preserved safe and pure. We have reason to bless God for written
   visions, that God has written to us the great things of his prophets as
   well as of his law. He must write the vision, and make it plain upon
   tables, must write it legibly, in large characters, so that he who runs
   may read it, that those who will not allow themselves leisure to read
   it deliberately may not avoid a cursory view of it. Probably, the
   prophets were wont to write some of the most remarkable of their
   predictions in tables, and to hang them up in the temple, Isa. viii. 1.
   Now the prophet is told to write this very plain. Note, Those who are
   employed in preaching the word of God should study plainness as much as
   may be, so as to make themselves intelligible to the meanest
   capacities. The things of our everlasting peace, which God has written
   to us, are made plain, they are all plain to him that understands
   (Prov. viii. 9), and they are published with authority; God himself has
   prefixed his imprimatur to them; he has said, Make them plain.

   2. The people must wait for the accomplishment of the vision (v. 3):
   "The vision is yet for an appointed time to come. You shall now be told
   of your deliverance by the breaking of the Chaldeans' power, and that
   the time of it is fixed in the counsel and decree of God. There is an
   appointed time, but it is not near; it is yet to be deferred a great
   while;" and that comes in here as a reason why it must be written, that
   it may be reviewed afterwards and the event compared with it. Note, God
   has an appointed time for his appointed work, and will be sure to do
   the work when the time comes; it is not for us to anticipate his
   appointments, but to wait his time. And it is a great encouragement to
   wait with patience, that, though the promised favour be deferred long,
   it will come at last, and be an abundant recompence to us for our
   waiting: At the end it shall speak and not lie. We shall not be
   disappointed of it, for it will come at the time appointed; nor shall
   we be disappointed in it, for it will fully answer our believing
   expectations. The promise may seem silent a great while, but at the end
   it shall speak; and therefore, though it tarry longer than we expected,
   yet we must continue waiting for it, being assured it will come, and
   willing to tarry until it does come. The day that God has set for the
   deliverance of his people, and the destruction of his and their
   enemies, is a day, (1.) That will surely come at last; it is never
   adjourned sine die--without fixing another day, but it will without
   fail come at the fixed time and the fittest time. (2.) It will not
   tarry, for God is not slack, as some count slackness (2 Pet. iii. 9);
   though it tarry past our time, yet it does not tarry past God's time,
   which is always the best time.

   3. This vision, the accomplishment of which is so long waited for, will
   be such an exercise of faith and patience as will try and discover men
   what they are, v. 4. (1.) There are some who will proudly disdain this
   vision, whose hearts are so lifted up that they scorn to take notice of
   it; if God will work for them immediately, they will thank him, but
   they will not give him credit; their hearts are lifted up towards
   vanity, and, since God puts them off, they will shift for themselves
   and not be beholden to him; they think their own hands sufficient for
   them, and God's promise is to them an insignificant thing. That man's
   soul that is thus lifted up is not upright in him; it is not right with
   God, is not as it should be. Those that either distrust or despise
   God's all-sufficiency will not walk uprightly with him, Gen. xvii. 1.
   But, (2.) Those who are truly good, and whose hearts are upright with
   God, will value the promise, and venture their all upon it; and, in
   confidence of the truth of it, will keep close to God and duty in the
   most difficult trying times, and will then live comfortably in
   communion with God, dependence on him, and expectation of him. The just
   shall live by faith; during the captivity good people shall support
   themselves, and live comfortably, by faith in these precious promises,
   while the performance of them is deferred. The just shall live by his
   faith, by that faith which he acts upon the word of God. This is quoted
   in the New Testament (Rom. i. 17; Gal. iii. 11; Heb. x. 38), for the
   proof of the great doctrine of justification by faith only and of the
   influence which the grace of faith has upon the Christian life. Those
   that are made just by faith shall live, shall be happy here and for
   ever; while they are here, they live by it; when they come to heaven
   faith shall be swallowed up in vision.

Judgment Predicted; Judgment of the King of Babylon. (b. c. 600.)

   5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man,
   neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as
   death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and
   heapeth unto him all people:   6 Shall not all these take up a parable
   against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him
   that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth
   himself with thick clay!   7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall
   bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties
   unto them?   8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant
   of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the
   violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.   9
   Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may
   set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
     10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people,
   and hast sinned against thy soul.   11 For the stone shall cry out of
   the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.   12 Woe to
   him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by
   iniquity!   13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people
   shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves
   for very vanity?   14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge
   of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

   The prophet having had orders to write the vision, and the people to
   wait for the accomplishment of it, the vision itself follows; and it
   is, as divers other prophecies we have met with, the burden of Babylon
   and Babylon's king, the same that was said to pass over and offend, ch.
   i. 11. It reads the doom, some think, of Nebuchadnezzar, who was
   principally active in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of that
   monarchy, or of the whole kingdom of the Chaldeans, or of all such
   proud and oppressive powers as bear hard upon any people, especially
   upon God's people. Observe,

   I. The charge laid down against this enemy, upon which the sentence is
   grounded, v. 5. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the
   pride of life, are the entangling snares of men, and great men
   especially; and we find him that led Israel captive himself led captive
   by each of these. For, 1. He is sensual and voluptuous, and given to
   his pleasures: He transgresses by wine. Drunkenness is itself a
   transgression, and is the cause of abundance of transgression. We read
   of those that err through wine, Isa. xxviii. 7. Belshazzar (in whom
   particularly this prophecy had its accomplishment) was in the height of
   his transgression by wine when the hand-writing upon the wall signed
   the warrant for his immediate execution, pursuant to this sentence,
   Dan. v. 1. 2. He is haughty and imperious: He is a proud man, and his
   pride is a certain presage of his fall coming on. If great men be proud
   men, the great God will make them know he is above them. His
   transgressing by wine is made the cause of his arrogance and insolence:
   therefore he is a proud man. When a man is drunk, though he makes
   himself as mean as a beast, yet he thinks himself as great as a king,
   and prides himself in that by which he shames himself. We find the
   crown of pride upon the head of the drunkards of Ephraim, and a woe to
   both, Isa. xxviii. 1. 3. He is covetous and greedy of wealth, and this
   is the effect of his pride; he thinks himself worthy to enjoy all, and
   therefore makes it his business to engross all. The Chaldean monarchy
   aimed to be a universal one. He keeps not at home, is not content with
   his own, which he has an incontestable title to, but thinks it too
   little, and so enjoys it not, nor takes the comfort he might in his own
   palace, in his own dominion. His sin is his punishment, his ambition is
   his perpetual uneasiness. Though the home be a palace, yet to a
   discontented mind it is a prison. He enlarges his desire as hell, or
   the grave, which daily receives the body of the dead, and yet still
   cries, Give, give; he is as death, which continues to devour, and
   cannot be satisfied. Note, It is the sin and folly of many who have a
   great deal of the wealth of this world that they do not know when they
   have enough, but the more they have the more they would have, and the
   more eager they are for it. And it is just with God that the desires
   which are insatiable should still be unsatisfied; it is the doom passed
   on those that love silver that they shall never be satisfied with it,
   Eccl. v. 10. Those that will not be content with their allotments shall
   not have the comfort of their achievements. This proud prince is still
   gathering to him all nations, and heaping to him all people, invading
   their rights, seizing their properties, and they must not be unless
   they will be his, and under his command. One nation will not satisfy
   him unless he has another, and then another, and all at last; as those
   in a lower sphere, to gratify the same inordinate desire, lay house to
   house, and field to field, that they may be placed alone in the earth,
   Isa. v. 8. And it is hard to say which is more to be pitied, the folly
   of such ambitious princes as place their honour in enlarging their
   dominions, and not in ruling them well, or the misery of those nations
   that are harassed and pulled to pieces by them.

   II. The sentence passed upon him (v. 6): Shall not all these take up a
   parable against him? His doom is,

   1. That, since pride has been his sin, disgrace and dishonour shall be
   his punishment, and he shall be loaded with contempt, shall be laughed
   at and despised by all about him, as those that look big, and aim high,
   deserve to be, and commonly are, when they are brought down and
   baffled.

   2. That, since he has been abusive to his neighbours, those very
   persons whom he has abused shall be the instruments of his disgrace:
   All those shall take up a taunting proverb against him. They shall have
   the pleasure of insulting over him and he the shame of being trampled
   upon by them. Those that shall triumph in the fall of this great tyrant
   are here furnished with a parable, and a taunting proverb, to take up
   against him. He shall say (he that draws up the insulting ditty shall
   say thus), Ho, he that increases that which is not his! Aha! what has
   become of him now? So it may be read in a taunting way. Or, He shall
   say, that is, the just, who lives by his faith, he to whom the vision
   is written and made plain, with the help of that shall say this, shall
   foretel the enemy's fall, even when he sees him flourishing, and
   suddenly curse his habitation, even when he is taking root, Job v. 3.
   He shall indeed denounce woes against him.

   (1.) Here is a woe against him for increasing his own possessions by
   invading his neighbour's rights, v. 6-8. He increases that which is not
   his, but other people's. Note, No more of what we have is to be
   reckoned ours than what we came honestly by; nor will it long be ours,
   for wealth gotten by vanity will be diminished. Let not those that
   thrive in the world be too forward to bless themselves in it, for, if
   they do not thrive lawfully, they are under a woe. See here, [1.] What
   this prosperous prince is doing; he is lading himself with thick clay.
   Riches are but clay, thick clay; what are gold and silver but white and
   yellow earth? Those that travel through thick clay are both retarded
   and dirtied in their journey; so are those that go through the world in
   the midst of an abundance of the wealth of it; but, as if that were not
   enough, what fools are those that load themselves with it, as if this
   trash would be their treasure! They burden themselves with continual
   care about it, with a great deal of guilt in getting, saving, and
   spending it, and with a heavy account which they must give of it
   another day. They overload their ship with this thick clay, and so sink
   it and themselves into destruction and perdition. [2.] See what people
   say of him, while he is thus increasing his wealth; they cry, "How
   long? How long will it be ere he has enough?" They cry to God, "How
   long wilt thou suffer this proud oppressor to trouble the nations?" Or
   they say to one another, "See how long it will last, how long he will
   be able to keep what he gets thus dishonestly." They dare not speak
   out, but we know what they mean when they say, How long? [3.] See what
   will be in the end hereof. What he has got by violence from others,
   others shall take by violence from him. The Medes and Persians shall
   make a prey of the Chaldeans, as they have done of other nations, v. 7,
   8. "There shall be those that will bite thee and vex thee; those from
   whom thou didst not fear any danger, that seemed asleep, shall rise up
   and awake to be a plague to thee. They shall rise up suddenly when thou
   are most secure, and least prepared to receive the shock and ward off
   the blow. Shall they not rise up suddenly? No doubt they shall, and
   thou thyself hast reason to expect it, to be dealt with as thou hast
   dealt with others, that thou shalt be for booties unto them, as others
   have been unto thee, that, according to the law of retaliation, as thou
   hast spoiled many nations so thou shalt thyself be spoiled (v. 8); all
   the remnant of the people shall spoil thee." The king of Babylon
   thought he had brought all the nations round about him so low that none
   of them would be able to make reprisals upon him; but though they were
   but a remnant of people, a very few left, yet these shall be sufficient
   to spoil him, when God has such a controversy with him, First, For
   men's blood, and the thousands of lives that have been sacrificed to
   his ambition and revenge, especially for the blood of Israelites, which
   is in a special manner precious to God. Secondly, For the violence of
   the land, his laying waste so many countries, and destroying the fruits
   of the earth, especially in the land of Israel. Thirdly, For the
   violence of the city, the many cities that he had turned into ruinous
   heaps, especially Jerusalem the holy city, and of all that dwelt
   therein, who were ruined by him. Note, The violence done by proud men
   to advance and enrich themselves will be called over again (and must be
   accounted for) another day, by him to whom vengeance belongs.

   (2.) Here is a woe against him for coveting still more, and aiming to
   be still higher, v. 9-11. The crime for which this woe is denounced is
   much the same with that in the foregoing article--an insatiable desire
   of wealth and honour; it is coveting an evil covetousness to his house,
   that is, grasping at an abundance for his family. Note, Covetousness is
   a very evil thing in a family; it brings disquiet and uneasiness into
   it (he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house), and, which is
   worse, it brings the curse of God upon it and upon all the affairs of
   it. Woe to him that gains an evil gain; so the margin reads it. There
   is a lawful gain, which by the blessing of God may be a comfort to a
   house (a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children),
   but what is got by fraud and injustice is ill-got, and will be poor
   gain, will not only do no good to a family, but will bring poverty and
   ruin upon it. Now observe, [1.] What this covetous wretch aims at; it
   is to set his nest on high, to raise his family to some greater dignity
   than it had before arrived at, or to set it, as he apprehends, out of
   the reach of danger, that he may be delivered from the power of evil,
   that it may not be in the power of the worst of his enemies to do him a
   mischief nor so much as to disturb his repose. Note, It is common for
   men to pretend it as an excuse for their covetousness and ambition that
   they only consult their own safety, and aim to secure themselves; and
   yet they do but deceive themselves when they think their wealth will be
   a strong city to them, and a high wall, for it is so only in their own
   conceit, Prov. xviii. 11. [2.] What he will get by it: Thou hast
   consulted, not safety, but shame, to thy house, by cutting off many
   people, v. 10. Note, An estate raised by iniquity is a scandal to a
   family. Those that cut off, or undermine, others, to make room for
   themselves, that impoverish others to enrich themselves, do but consult
   shame to their houses, and fasten upon them a mark of infamy. Yet that
   is not the worst of it: "Thou hast sinned against thy own soul, hast
   brought that under guilt and wrath, and endangered that." Note, Those
   that do wrong to their neighbour do a much greater wrong to their own
   souls. But if the sinner pleads, Not guilty, and thinks he has managed
   his frauds and violence with so much art and contrivance that they
   cannot be proved upon him, let him know that if there be no other
   witnesses against him the stone shall cry out of the wall against him,
   and the beam out of the timber in the roof shall answer it, shall
   second it, shall witness it, that the money and materials wherewith he
   built the house were unjustly gotten, v. 11. The stones and timber cry
   to heaven for vengeance, as the whole creation groans under the sin of
   man and waits to be delivered from that bondage of corruption.

   (3.) Here is a woe against him for building a town and a city by blood
   and extortion (v. 12): He builds a town, and is him-self lord of it; he
   establishes a city, and makes it his royal seat. So Nebuchadnezzar did
   (Dan. iv. 30): Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the
   house of the kingdom? But it is built with the blood of his own
   subjects, whom he has oppressed, and the blood of his neighbours, whom
   he has unjustly invaded; it is established by iniquity, by the
   unrighteous laws that are made for the security of it. Woe to him that
   does so; for the towns and cities thus built can never be established;
   they will fall, and their founders be buried in the ruins of them.
   Babylon, which was built by blood and iniquity, did not continue long;
   its day soon came to fall; and then this woe took effect, when that
   prophecy, which is expressed as a history (Isa. xxi. 9), proved a
   history indeed: Babylon has fallen, has fallen! And the destruction of
   that city was, [1.] The shame of the Chaldeans, who had taken so much
   pains, and were at such a vast expense, to fortify it (v. 13): Is it
   not of the Lord of hosts that the people who have laboured so hard to
   defend that city shall labour in the very fire, shall see the out-works
   which they confided in the strength of set on fire, and shall labour in
   vain to save them? Or they, in their pursuits of worldly wealth and
   honour, put themselves to great fatigue, and ran a great hazard, as
   those that labour in the fire do. The worst that can be said of the
   labourers in God's vineyards is that they have borne the burden and
   heat of the day (Matt. xx. 12); but those that are eager in their
   worldly pursuits labour in the very fire, make themselves perfect
   slaves to their lusts. There is not a greater drudge in the world than
   he that is under the power of reigning covetousness. And what comes of
   it? Though they take a world of pains they are but poorly paid for it;
   for, after all, they weary themselves for very vanity; they were told
   it was vanity, and when they find themselves disappointed of it, and
   disappointed in it, they will own it is worse than vanity, it is
   vexation of spirit. [2.] It was the honour of God, as a God of
   impartial justice and irresistible power; for by the ruin of the
   Chaldean monarchy (which all the world could not but take notice of)
   the earth was filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, v.
   14. The Lord is known by these judgments which he executes, especially
   when he is pleased to look upon proud men and abase them, for he
   thereby proves himself to be God alone, Job xl. 11, 12. See what good
   God brings out of the staining and sinking of earthly glory; he thereby
   manifests and magnifies his own glory, and fills the earth with the
   knowledge of it as plentifully as the waters cover the sea, which lie
   deep, spread far, and shall not be dried up until time shall be no
   more. Such is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
   Christ given by the gospel (2 Cor. iv. 6), and such was the knowledge
   of his glory by the miraculous ruin of Babylon. Note, Such as will not
   be taught the knowledge of God's glory by the judgments of his mouth
   shall be made to know and acknowledge it by the judgments of his hand.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 600.)

   15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy
   bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on
   their nakedness!   16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou
   also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right
   hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy
   glory.   17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil
   of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the
   violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.   18
   What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it;
   the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work
   trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?   19 Woe unto him that saith to
   the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it
   is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the
   midst of it.   20 But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth
   keep silence before him.

   The three foregoing articles, upon which the woes here are grounded,
   are very near akin to each other. The criminals charged by them are
   oppressors and extortioners, that raise estates by rapine and
   injustice; and it is mentioned here again (v. 17), the very same that
   was said v. 8, for that is the crime upon which the greatest stress is
   laid; it is because of men's blood, innocent blood, barbarously and
   unjustly shed, which is a provoking crying thing; it is for the
   violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein, which
   God will certainly reckon for, sooner or later, as the asserter of
   right and the avenger of wrong.

   But here are two articles more, of a different nature, which carry a
   woe to all those in general to whom they belong, and particularly to
   the Babylonian monarchs, by whom the people of God were taken and held
   captives.

   I. The promoters of drunkenness stand here impeached and condemned.
   Belshazzar was one of those; he was so, remarkably that very night that
   the prophecy of this chapter was fulfilled in the period of his life
   and kingdom, when he drank wine before a thousand of his lords (Dan. v.
   1), began the healths, and forced them to pledge him. And perhaps it
   was one reason why the succeeding monarchs of Persia made it a law of
   their kingdom that in drinking none should compel, but they should do
   according to every man's pleasure (as we find, Esth. i. 8), because
   they had seen in the kings of Babylon the mischievous consequences of
   forcing healths and making people drunk. But the woe here stands firm
   and very fearful against all those, whoever they are, who are guilty of
   this sin at any time, and in any place, from the stately palace (where
   that was) to the paltry ale-house. Observe,

   1. Who the sinner is that is here articled against; it is he that makes
   his neighbour drunk, v. 15. To give a neighbour drink who is in want,
   who is thirsty and poor, though it be but a cup of cold water to a
   disciple, in the name of a disciple, to give drink to weary traveller,
   nay, and to give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine
   to those that are heavy of heart, is a piece of charity which is
   required of us, and shall be recompensed to us. I was thirsty, and you
   gave me drink. But to give a neighbour drink who has enough already,
   and more than enough, with design to intoxicate him, that he may expose
   himself, may talk foolishly, and make himself ridiculous, may disclose
   his own secret concerns, or be drawn in to agree to a bad bargain for
   himself--this is abominable wickedness; and those who are guilty of it,
   who make a practice of it, and take a pride and pleasure in it, are
   rebels against God in heaven, and his sacred laws, factors for the
   devil in hell, and his cursed interests, and enemies to men on earth,
   and their honour and welfare; they are like the son of Nebat, who
   sinned and made Israel to sin. To entice others to drunkenness, to put
   the bottle to them, that they may be allured to it by its charms, by
   looking on the wine when it is red and gives its colour in the cup, or
   to force them to it, obliging them by the rules of the club (and
   club-laws indeed they are) to drink so many glasses, and so filled, is
   to do what we can, and perhaps more than we know of, towards the murder
   both of soul and body; and those that do so have a great deal to answer
   for.

   2. What the sentence is that is here passed upon him. There is a woe to
   him (v. 15), and a punishment (v. 16) that shall answer to the sin.
   (1.) Does he put the cup of drunkenness into the hand of his neighbour?
   The cup of fury, the cup of trembling, the cup of the Lord's right
   hand, shall be turned unto him; the power of God shall be armed against
   him. That cup which had gone round among the nations, to make them a
   desolation, an astonishment, and a hissing, which had made them stumble
   and fall, so that they could rise no more, shall at length be put into
   the hand of the king of Babylon, as was foretold, Jer. xxv. 15, 16, 18,
   26, 27. Thus the New-Testament Babylon, which had made the nations
   drunk with the cup of her fornications, shall have blood given her to
   drink, for she is worthy, Rev. xviii. 3, 6. (2.) Does he take a
   pleasure in putting his neighbour to shame? He shall himself be loaded
   with contempt: "Thou art filled with shame for glory, with shame
   instead of glory, or art filled now with shame more than ever thou wast
   with glory; and the glory thou hast been filled with shall but serve to
   make thy shame the more grievous to thyself, and the more ignominious
   in the eyes of others. Thou also shalt drink of the cup of trembling,
   and shalt expose thyself by thy fear and cowardice, which shall be as
   the uncovering of thy nakedness, to thy shame; and all about thee shall
   load thee with disgrace, for shameful spewing shall be on thy glory, on
   that which thou hast most prided thyself in, thy dignity, wealth, and
   dominion; those whom thou hast made drunk shall themselves spew upon
   it. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of
   beasts (v. 17); thou shalt be hunted and run down with as much violence
   as ever any wild beasts in Lebanon were, shall be spoiled as they are,
   and thy fall made a sport of; for thou art as one of the beasts that
   made them afraid, and therefore they triumph when they have got the
   mastery of thee." Or, "It is because of the violence thou hast done to
   Lebanon, that is, the land of Israel (Deut. iii. 25) and the temple
   (Zech. xi. 1), that God now reckons with thee; that is the sin that now
   covers thee."

   II. The promoters of idolatry stand here impeached and condemned; and
   this also was a sin that Babylon was notoriously guilty of; it was the
   mother of harlots. Belshazzar, in his revels, praised his idols. And
   for this, here is a woe against them, and in them against all others
   that do likewise, particularly the New-Testament Babylon. Now see here,

   1. What they do to promote idolatry; they are mad upon their idols; so
   the Chaldeans are said to be, Jer. l. 38. For, (1.) They have a great
   variety of idols, their graven images and molten images, that people
   may take their choice, which they like best. (2.) They are very nice
   and curious in the framing of them: The maker of the work has performed
   his part admirably well, the fashioner of his fashion (so it is in the
   margin), that contrived the model in the most significant manner. (3.)
   They are at great expense in beautifying and adorning them: They lay
   them over with gold and silver; because these are things people love
   and dote upon wherever they meet with them, they dress up their idols
   in them, the more effectually to court the adoration of the children of
   this world. (4.) They have great expectations from them: The maker of
   the work trusts therein as his god, puts a confidence in it, and gives
   honour to it as his god. The worshippers of God give honour to him, by
   offering up their prayers to him, and waiting to receive instructions
   and directions from him; and these honours they give to their idols.
   [1.] They pray to them: They say to the wood, Awake for our relief,
   "awake to hear our prayers;" and to the dumb stone, "Arise, and save
   us," as the church prays to her God, Awake, O Lord! arise, Ps. xliv.
   23. They own their image to be a god by praying to it. Deliver me, for
   thou art my God, Isa. xliv. 17. Deos qui rogat ille facit--That to
   which a man addresses petitions is to him a god. [2.] They consult them
   as oracles, and expect to be directed and dictated to by them: They say
   to the dumb stone, though it cannot speak, yet it shall teach. What the
   wicked demon, or no less wicked priest, speaks to them from the image,
   they receive with the utmost veneration, as of divine authority, and
   are ready to be governed by it. Thus is idolatry planted and propagated
   under the specious show of religion and devotion.

   2. How the extreme folly of this is exposed. God, by Isaiah, when he
   foretold the deliverance of his people out of Babylon, largely showed
   the shameful stupidity and sottishness of idolaters, and so he does
   here by the prophet, on the like occasion. (1.) Their images, when they
   have made them, are but mere matter, which is the meanest lowest rank
   of being; and all the expense they are at upon them cannot advance them
   one step above that. They are wholly void both of sense and reason,
   lifeless and speechless (the idol is a dumb idol, a dumb stone, and
   there is no breath at all in the midst of it), so that the most minute
   animal, that has but breath and motion, is more excellent then they.
   They have not so much as the spirit of a beast. (2.) It is not in their
   power to do their worshippers any good (v. 18): What profits the graven
   image? Though it be mere matter, if it were cast into some other form
   it might be serviceable to some purpose or other of human life; but, as
   it is made a god of, it is of no profit at all, nor can do its
   worshippers the least kindness. Nay, (3.) It is so far from profiting
   them that it puts a cheat upon them, and keeps them under the power of
   a strong delusion; they say, It shall teach, but it is a teacher of
   lies; for it represents God as having a body, as being finite, visible,
   and dependent, whereas he is a Spirit, infinite, invisible, and
   independent, and it confirms those that become vain in their
   imaginations in the false notions they have of God, and makes the idea
   of God to be a precarious thing, and what every man pleases. If we may
   say to the works of our hands, You are our gods, we may say so to any
   of the creatures of our own fancy, though the chimera be ever so
   extravagant. An image is a doctrine of vanities; it is falsehood, and a
   work of errors, Jer. x. 8, 14, 15. It is therefore easy to see what the
   religion of those is, and what they aim at, who recommend those
   teachers of lies as laymen's books, which they are to study and govern
   themselves by, when they have locked up from them the book of the
   scriptures in an unknown tongue.

   3. How the people of God triumph in him, and therewith support
   themselves, when the idolaters thus shame themselves (v. 20): But the
   Lord is in his holy temple. (1.) Our rock is not as their rock, Deut.
   xxxii. 31. Theirs are dumb idols; ours is Jehovah, a living God, who is
   what he is, and not, as theirs, what men please to make him. He is in
   his holy temple in heaven, the residence of his glory, where we have
   access to him in the way, not which we have invented, but which he
   himself has instituted. Compare Ps. cxv. 3, But our God is in the
   heavens, and Ps. xi. 4. (2.) The multitude of their gods which they set
   up, and take so much pains to support, cannot thrust out our God; he
   is, and will be, in his holy temple still, and glorious in holiness.
   They have laid waste his temple at Jerusalem; but he has a temple above
   that is out of the reach of their rage and malice, but within the reach
   of his people's faith and prayers. (3.) Our God will make all the world
   silent before him, will strike the idolaters as dumb as their idols,
   convincing them of their folly, and covering them with shame. He will
   silence the fury of the oppressors, and check their rage against his
   people. (4.) It is the duty of his people to attend him with silent
   adorings (Ps. lxv. 1), and patiently to wait for his appearing to save
   them in his own way and time. Be still, and know that he is God, Zech.
   ii. 13.
     __________________________________________________________________

H A B A K K U K.

  CHAP. III.

   Still the correspondence is kept up between God and his prophet. In the
   first chapter he spoke to God, then God to him, and then he to God
   again; in the second chapter God spoke wholly to him by the Spirit of
   prophecy; now, in this chapter, he speaks wholly to God by the Spirit
   of prayer, for he would not let the intercourse drop on his side, like
   a genuine son of Abraham, who "returned not to his place until God had
   left communing with him." Gen. xviii. 33. The prophet's prayer, in this
   chapter, is in imitation of David's psalms, for it is directed "to the
   chief musician," and is set to musical instruments. The prayer is left
   upon record for the use of the church, and particularly of the Jews in
   their captivity, while they were waiting for their deliverance,
   promised by the vision in the foregoing chapter. I. He earnestly begs
   of God to relieve and succour his people in affliction, to hasten their
   deliverance, and to comfort them in the mean time, ver. 2. II. He calls
   to mind the experiences which the church formerly had of God's glorious
   and gracious appearances on her behalf, when he brought Israel out of
   Egypt through the wilderness to Canaan, and there many a time wrought
   wonderful deliverances for them, ver. 3-15. III. He affects himself
   with a holy concern for the present troubles of the church, but
   encourages himself and others to hope that the issue will be
   comfortable and glorious at last, though all visible means fail, ver.
   16-19.

The Prophet's Prayer. (b. c. 600.)

   1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.   2 O Lord, I have
   heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst
   of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember
   mercy.

   This chapter is entitled a prayer of Habakkuk. It is a meditation with
   himself, an intercession for the church. Prophets were praying men;
   this prophet was so (He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, Gen.
   xx. 7); and sometimes they prayed for even those whom they prophesied
   against. Those that were intimately acquainted with the mind of God
   concerning future events knew better than others how to order their
   prayers, and what to pray for, and, in the foresight of troublous
   times, could lay up a stock of prayers that might then receive a
   gracious answer, and so be serving the church by their prayers when
   their prophesying was over. This prophet had found God ready to answer
   his requests and complaints before, and therefore now repeats his
   applications to him. Because God has inclined his ear to us, we must
   resolve that therefore we will call upon him as long as we live. 1. The
   prophet owns the receipt of God's answer to his former representation,
   and the impression it made upon him (v. 2): "O Lord! I have heard thy
   speech, thy hearing" (so some read it), "that which thou wouldst have
   us hear, the decree that has gone forth for the afflicting of thy
   people. I received thine, and it is before me." Note, Those that would
   rightly order their speech to God must carefully observe, and lay
   before them, his speech to them. He had said (ch. ii. 1), I will watch
   to see what he will say; and now he owns, Lord, I have heard thy
   speech; for, if we turn a deaf ear to God's word, we can expect no
   other than that he should turn a deaf ear to our prayers, Prov. xxviii.
   9. I heard it, and was afraid. Messages immediately from heaven
   commonly struck even the best and boldest men into a consternation;
   Moses, Isaiah, and Daniel, did exceedingly fear and quake. But, besides
   that, the matter of this message made the prophet afraid, when he heard
   how low the people of God should be brought, under the oppressing power
   of the Chaldeans, and how long they should continue under it; he was
   afraid lest their spirits should quite fail, and lest the church should
   be utterly rooted out and run down, and, being kept low so long, should
   be lost at length. 2. He earnestly prays that for the elect's sake
   these days of trouble might be shortened, or the trouble of these days
   mitigated and moderated, or the people of God supported and comforted
   under it. He thinks it very long to wait till the end of the years;
   perhaps he refers to the seventy years fixed for the continuance of the
   captivity, and therefore, "Lord," says he, "do something on our behalf
   in the midst of the years, those years of our distress; though we be
   not delivered, and our oppressors destroyed, yet let us not be
   abandoned and cast off." (1.) "Do something for thy own cause: Revive
   thy work, thy church" (that is the work of God's own hand, formed by
   him, formed for him); "revive that, even when it walks in the midst of
   trouble, Ps. cxxxviii. 7, 8. Grant thy people a little reviving in
   their bondage, Ezra ix. 8; Ps. lxxxv. 6. Preserve alive thy work" (so
   some read it); "though thy church be chastened, let it not be killed;
   though it have not its liberty, yet continue its life, save a remnant
   alive, to be a seed of another generation. Revive the work of thy grace
   in us, by sanctifying the trouble to us and supporting us under it,
   though the time be not yet come, even the set time, for our deliverance
   out of it. Whatever becomes of us, though we be as dead and dry bones,
   Lord, let thy work be revived, let not that sink, and go back, and come
   to nothing." (2.) "Do something for thy own honour: In the midst of the
   years make known, make thyself known, for now verily thou art a God
   that hidest thyself (Isa. xlv. 15), make known thy power, thy pity, thy
   promise, thy providence, in the government of the world, for the safety
   and welfare of thy church. Though we be buried in obscurity, yet, Lord,
   make thyself known; whatever becomes of Israel, let not the God of
   Israel be forgotten in the world, but discover himself even in the
   midst of the dark years, before thou art expected to appear." When in
   the midst of the years of the captivity God miraculously owned the
   three children in the fiery furnace, and humbled Nebuchadnezzar, this
   prayer was answered, In the midst of the years make known. (3.) "Do
   something for thy people's comfort: In wrath remember mercy, and make
   that known. Show us thy mercy, O Lord!" Ps. lxxxv. 7. They see God's
   displeasure against them in their troubles, and that makes them
   grievous indeed. There is wrath in the bitter cup; that therefore they
   deprecate, and are earnest in begging that he is a merciful God and
   they are vessels of his mercy. Note, Even those that are under the
   tokens of God's wrath must not despair of his mercy; and mercy, mere
   mercy, is that which we must flee to for refuge, and rely upon as our
   only plea. He does not say, Remember our merit, but, Lord, remember thy
   own mercy.

The Divine Majesty; Wonders Wrought for Israel. (b. c. 600.)

   3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His
   glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.   4
   And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his
   hand: and there was the hiding of his power.   5 Before him went the
   pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.   6 He stood, and
   measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the
   everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his
   ways are everlasting.   7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and
   the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.   8 Was the Lord
   displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was
   thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and
   thy chariots of salvation?   9 Thy bow was made quite naked, according
   to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the
   earth with rivers.   10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the
   overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and
   lifted up his hands on high.   11 The sun and moon stood still in their
   habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining
   of thy glittering spear.   12 Thou didst march through the land in
   indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.   13 Thou wentest
   forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine
   anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by
   discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.   14 Thou didst strike
   through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a
   whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor
   secretly.   15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses,
   through the heap of great waters.

   It has been the usual practice of God's people, when they have been in
   distress and ready to fall into despair, to help themselves by
   recollecting their experiences, and reviving them, considering the days
   of old, and the years of ancient times (Ps. lxxvii. 5), and pleading
   with God in prayer, as he is pleased sometimes to plead them with
   himself. Isa. lxiii. 11, Then he remembered the days of old. This is
   that which the prophet does here, and he looks as far back as the first
   forming of them into a people, when they were brought by miracles out
   of Egypt, a house of bondage, through the wilderness, a land of
   drought, into Canaan, then possessed by mighty nations. He that thus
   brought them at first into Canaan, through so much difficulty, can now
   bring them thither again out of Babylon, how great soever the
   difficulties are that lie in the way. Those works of wonder, wrought of
   old, are here most magnificently described, for the greater
   encouragement to the faith of God's people in their present straits.

   I. God appeared in his glory, so as he never did before or since (v. 3,
   4): He came from Teman, even the Holy One from Mount Paran. This refers
   to the visible display of the glory of God when he gave the law upon
   Mount Sinai, as appears by Deut. xxxiii. 2 whence these expressions are
   borrowed. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in a cloud (Exod.
   xix. 20) and his glory was as the devouring fire, not only to enforce
   the law he then gave them, but to avow the deliverance he had wrought
   for them and to magnify it; for the first word he said there was, "I am
   the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. I that
   appear in this glory am the author of that work." Then his glory
   covered the heavens, which shone with the reflection of that glorious
   appearance of his; the earth also was full of his praise, or of his
   splendour, as some read it. People at a distance saw the cloud and fire
   on the top of Mount Sinai, and praised the God of Israel. Or the earth
   was full of those works of God which were to be praised. His brightness
   was as the light, as the light of the sun when he goes forth in his
   strength; he had horns, or bright beams (so it should be rendered),
   coming out of his side or hand. Rays of glory were darted forth around
   him; and with some rays borrowed thence it was that Moses's face shone
   when he came down from that mount of glory. Some by the horns, the two
   horns (for the word is dual), coming out of his hand, understand the
   two tables of the law, which perhaps, when God delivered them to Moses,
   though they were tables of stone, had a glory round them; those books
   were gilt with beams, and so it agrees with Deut. xxxiii. 2, From his
   right hand went a fiery law for them. It is added, And there was the
   hiding of his power; there was his hidden power, in the rays that came
   out of his hand. The operations of his power, compared with what he
   could have done, were rather the hiding of it than the discovery of it;
   the secrets of his power, as well as of his wisdom, are double to that
   which is, Job xi. 6.

   II. God sent plagues on Egypt, for the humbling of proud Pharaoh, and
   the obliging of him to let the people go (v. 5): Before him went the
   pestilence, which slew all the first-born of Egypt in one night; and
   burning coals went forth at his feet, when, in the plague of hail,
   there was fire mingled with hail--burning diseases (so the margin reads
   it), some think those that wasted Egypt, others those with which the
   number of the Canaanites was diminished before Israel was brought in up
   on them. These were at his feet, that is, at his coming, for they are
   at his command; he says to them, Go, and they go, Come, and they come,
   Do this, and they do it.

   III. He divided the land of Canaan to his people Israel, and expelled
   the heathen from before them (v. 6): He stood, and measured the earth,
   measured that land, to assign it for an inheritance to Israel his
   people, Deut. xxxii. 8, 9. He beheld, and drove asunder the nations
   that were in possession of it; though they combined together against
   Israel, God dispersed and discomfited them before Israel. Or he exerted
   such a mighty power as was enough to shake in pieces all the nations of
   the earth. Then the everlasting mountains were scattered, and the
   perpetual hills did bow; the mighty princes and potentates of Canaan,
   that seemed as high, as strong, and as firmly fixed, as the mountains
   and hills, were broken to pieces; they and their kingdoms were totally
   subdued. Or the power of God was so exerted as to shake the mountains
   and hills; nay, and Sinai did tremble, and the adjacent hills; see Ps.
   lxviii. 7, 8. To this he adds, His ways are everlasting, that is, all
   the motions of his providence are according to his eternal counsels;
   and he is the same for ever, that which he was yesterday and to-day.
   His covenant is unchangeable, and his mercy endures for ever. When he
   drove asunder the nations of Canaan one might have seen the tents of
   Cushan in affliction, the curtains of the land of Midian trembling, and
   all the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries taking the alarm; and
   though they were not in the commission given to Israel to destroy, nor
   their land within the warrant given to Israel to possess, yet they
   thought their own house in danger when their neighbour's house was on
   fire, and therefore they were in a great fright, v. 7. Balak the king
   of Moab was so, Num. xxii. 3, 4. Some make the tents of Cushan to be in
   affliction when, in the days of judge Othniel, God delivered
   Cushan-rishathaim into his hand (Judg. iii. 8), and the curtains of the
   land of Midian to tremble when, in the days of judge Gideon, a barley
   cake, in a dream, overthrew the tent of Midian, Judg. vii. 13.

   IV. He divided the Red Sea and Jordan, when they stood in the way of
   Israel's progress, and yet fetched a river out of a rock when Israel
   wanted it, v. 8. One would have thought that God was displeased with
   the rivers, and that his wrath was against the sea, for he made them
   give way and flee before him when he rode upon his horses and chariots
   of salvation, as a general at the head of his forces, mighty to save.
   Note, God's chariots are not so much chariots of state to himself as
   chariots of salvation to his people; it is his glory to be Israel's
   Saviour. This seems to be referred to again (v. 15): "Thou didst walk
   through the sea, through the Red Sea, with thy horses, in the pillar of
   cloud and fire (that was his chariot drawn by angels); thus thou didst
   walk secure, and so as to accommodate thyself to the slow pace that
   Israel could go, as Jacob tenderly drove, in consideration of his
   children and cattle: Thou didst walk through the heap, or mud, of great
   waters; and Israel likewise was led through the deep as a horse through
   the wilderness," Isa. lxiii. 13, 14. When they came to enter Canaan the
   overflowing of the water passed by, that is, Jordan, which at that time
   overflowed all his banks, was divided, Jos. iii. 15. Note, When the
   difficulties in the way of perfecting the salvation of Israel seem most
   insuperable, when they rise to the height, and overflow, yet then God
   can put them by, break through them, and get over them. Then the deep
   uttered his voice, when, the Red Sea and Jordan being divided, the
   waters roared and made a noise, as if they were sensible of the
   restraint they were under from proceeding in their natural course, and
   complained of it. They lifted up their hands, or sides, on high (for
   the waters stood up on a heap, Jos. iii. 16), as if they would have
   made opposition to the orders given them. They lifted up their voice,
   lifted up their waves; but in vain. The Lord on high was mightier than
   they, Ps. xciii. 3, 4. With the dividing of the sea and Jordan, notice
   is again taken of the trembling of the mountains, as if the stop given
   to the waters gave a shock to the adjacent hills; they are put
   together, Ps. cxiv. 3, 4. When the sea saw it and fled, and Jordan was
   driven back, the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like
   lambs. The whole creation yielded; earth and waters trembled at the
   presence of the Lord, at the presence of the mighty God of Jacob. But
   (as Mr. Cowley paraphrases it)


   Fly where thou wilt, thou sea; and, Jordan's current, cease.

       Jordan, there is no need of thee;

   For at God's word, whene'er he please,

   The rocks shall weep new waters forth instead of these.

   So here, Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers; channels were made in
   the wilderness, such as seemed to cleave the earth, for the waters to
   run in, which issued out of the rock, to supply the camp of Israel, and
   which followed them in all their removes. Note, The God of nature can
   alter and control the powers of nature, which way he pleases, can turn
   waters into crystal rocks and rocks into crystal streams.

   V. He arrested the motion of the sun and moon, to befriend and complete
   Israel's victories (v. 11): The sun and moon stood still at the prayer
   of Joshua, that the Canaanites might not have the benefit of the night
   to favour their escape; they stood still in their habitation in the
   heaven (Ps. xix. 4), but with an eye to Gibeon and the valley of
   Ajalon, where God's work was in the doing, and of which they, though at
   so vast a distance, attended the motions. At the light, at the
   direction, of thy arrows, they went, and at the shining of thy
   glittering spear; they followed Israel's arms, to favour them;
   according to the intimation of the arrows God shot (as Jonathan's
   arrows, 1 Sam. xx. 20), and which way soever his spear pointed (the
   glittering light of which they acknowledged to outshine theirs) that
   way they directed their influences, benign to Israel and malignant
   against their enemies, as when the stars in their courses fought
   against Sisera. Note, The heavenly bodies, as well as earth and seas,
   are at God's command, and, when he pleases, at Israel's service too.

   VI. He carried on and completed Israel's victories over the nations of
   Canaan and their kings; he slew great kings and famous, Ps. cxxxvi. 17,
   18. This is largely insisted upon here, as a proper plea with God to
   enforce the present petition, that he would restore them again to that
   land which they were, at the expense of so many lives, so many
   miracles, first put in possession of.

   1. Many expressions are here used to set forth the conquest of Canaan.
   (1.) God's bow was made quite naked, taken out of the case, to be
   employed for Israel; we should say, his sword was quite unsheathed, not
   drawn out a little way, to frighten the enemy, and then put up again,
   but quite drawn out, not to be returned till they are all cut off. (2.)
   He marched through the land from end to end, in indignation, as
   scorning to let that wicked generation of Canaanites any longer possess
   so good a land. He marched cum fastidio--with distaste (so some),
   despising their confederacies. (3.) He threshed the heathen in anger,
   trod them down, nay, he trod them out, as corn in the floor, to give
   them, and what they had, to be meat to his people Israel, Mic. iv. 13.
   (4.) He wounded the heads out of the house of the wicked; he destroyed
   the families of the Canaanites, and wounded their princes, the heads of
   their families; nay, he cut off the heads, and so discovered the
   foundations of them, even to the neck. Are they a building? They are
   razed even to the foundation. Are they a body? They are plunged into
   deep mire even to the neck, so that they cannot get out, or help
   themselves. He broke the heads of leviathan in pieces, Ps. lxxiv. 14.
   Some apply this to Christ's victories over Satan and the powers of
   darkness, in which he wounded the heads over many countries, Ps. cx. 6.
   (5.) He struck through with his staves the head of the villages (v.
   14); with Israel's staves God struck through the head of the villages
   of the enemies, whether Egypt or Canaan. Staves shall do the same
   execution as swords when God pleases to make use of them. The enemy
   came out with the utmost force and fury, as a whirlwind to scatter me
   (says Israel); for many a time have they thus afflicted me, thus
   attacked me, from my youth, Ps. cxxix. 1. Pharaoh, when he pursued
   Israel to the Red Sea, came out as a whirlwind; so did the kings of
   Canaan in their confederacies against Israel. Their rejoicing was as to
   devour the poor secretly; they were as confident of success in their
   enterprise as ever any great man was of devouring a poor man, that was
   no way a match for him; and his design against him was carried on with
   secrecy. But God disappointed them, and their pride did but make their
   fall the more shameful and God's care of his poor the more illustrious.
   (6.) He walked to the sea with his horses (so some read it, v. 15),
   that is, he carried Israel's victories to the Great Sea, which was
   opposite to that side of Canaan at which they entered, so that they
   went quite through it, and made themselves masters of it all, or rather
   God made them so, for they got it not by their own sword, Ps. xliv. 3.
   Now,

   2. There were three things that God had a eye to, in giving Israel so
   many bloody victories over the Canaanites:--(1.) He would hereby make
   good his promise to the fathers; it was according to the oaths of the
   tribes, even his word, v. 9. He had sworn to give this land to the
   tribes of Israel; it was his oath to Isaac confirmed to Jacob, and
   repeated many a time to the tribes of Israel, Unto thee will I give the
   land of Canaan. This word God will accomplish, though Israel be ever so
   unworthy (Deut. ix. 5) and their enemies ever so many and mighty. Note,
   What God does for his tribes is according to the oaths of the tribes,
   according to what he has said and sworn to them; for he is faithful
   that has promised. (2.) He would hereby show his kindness to his
   people, because of their relation to him, and his interest in them:
   Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, v. 13. All the
   powers of nature are shaken, and the course of nature changed, and
   every thing seems to be thrown into disorder, and all is for the
   salvation of God's people. There are a people in the world who are
   God's people, and their salvation is that which he has in his eye in
   all the operations of his providence. Heaven and earth shall sooner
   come together than any of the links in the golden chain of their
   salvation shall be broken; and even that which seems most unlikely
   shall by an overruling hand be made to work for their salvation, Phil.
   i. 19. (3.) He would hereby give a type and figure of the redemption of
   the world by Jesus Christ. It is for salvation with thy anointed, with
   Joshua, who led the armies of Israel and was a figure of him whose name
   he bore, even Jesus our Joshua. What God did for his Israel of old was
   done with an eye to his anointed, for the sake of the Mediator, who was
   both the founder and foundation of the covenant made with them. It was
   salvation with him, for in all the salvations wrought for them, God
   looked upon the face of the anointed, and did them by him.

The Conquest of Canaan; Devout Confidence. (b. c. 600.)

   16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice:
   rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I
   might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he
   will invade them with his troops.   17 Although the fig tree shall not
   blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive
   shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut
   off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:   18 Yet I
   will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.   19
   The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet,
   and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer
   on my stringed instruments.

   Within the compass of these few lines we have the prophet in the
   highest degree both of trembling and triumphing, such are the varieties
   both of the state and of the spirit of God's people in this world. In
   heaven there shall be no more trembling, but everlasting triumphs.

   I. The prophet had foreseen the prevalence of the church's enemies and
   the long continuance of the church's troubles; and the sight made him
   tremble, v. 16. Here he goes on with what he had said v. 2, "I have
   heard thy speech and was afraid. When I heard what sad times were
   coming upon the church my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the
   voice; the news made such an impression that it put me into a perfect
   ague fit." The blood retiring to the heart, to succour that when it was
   ready to faint, the extreme parts were left destitute of spirits, so
   that his lips quivered. Nay, he was so weak, and so unable to help
   himself, that he was as if rottenness had entered into his bones; he
   had no strength left in him, could neither stand nor go; he trembled in
   himself, trembled all over him, trembled within him; he yielded to his
   trembling, and troubled himself, as our Savior did; his flesh trembled
   for fear of God and he was afraid of his judgments, Ps. cxix. 120. He
   was touched with a tender concern for the calamities of the church, and
   trembled for fear lest they should end at length in ruin, and the name
   of Israel be blotted out. Nor did he think it any disparagement to him,
   nor any reproach to his courage, but freely owned he was one of those
   that trembled at God's word, for to them he will look with favour: I
   tremble in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. Note, When
   we see a day of trouble approaching it concerns us to provide
   accordingly, and to lay up something in store, by the help of which we
   may rest in that day; and the best way to make sure rest for ourselves
   in the day of trouble is to tremble within ourselves at the word of God
   and the threatenings of that word. He that has joy in store for those
   that sow in tears has rest in store for those that tremble before him.
   Good hope through grace is founded in a holy fear. Noah, who was moved
   with fear, trembled within himself at the warning given him of the
   deluge coming, had the ark for his resting place in the day of that
   trouble. The prophet tells us what he said in his trembling. His fear
   is that, when he comes up to the people, when the Chaldean comes up to
   the people of Israel, he will invade them, will surround them, will
   break in upon them, nay (as it is in the margin), He will cut them in
   pieces with his troops; he cried out, We are all undone; the whole
   nation of the Jews is lost and gone. Note, When things look bad we are
   too apt to aggravate them, and make the worst of them.

   II. He had looked back upon the experiences of the church in former
   ages, and had observed what great things God had done for them, and so
   he recovered himself out of his fright, and not only retrieved his
   temper, but fell into a transport of holy joy, with an express non
   obstante--notwithstanding to the calamities he foresaw coming, and this
   not for himself only, but in the name of every faithful Israelite.

   1. He supposes the ruin of all his creature comforts and enjoyments,
   not only of the delights of this life, but even of the necessary
   supports of it, v. 17. Famine is one of the ordinary effects of war,
   and those commonly feel it first and most that sit still and are quiet;
   the prophet and his pious friends, when the Chaldean army comes, will
   be plundered and stripped of all they have. Or he supposes himself
   deprived of all by blasting and unseasonable weather, or some other
   immediate hand of God. Or though the captives in Babylon have not that
   plenty of all good things in their own land. (1.) He supposes the
   fruit-tree to be withered and become barren; the fig-tree (which used
   to furnish them with much of their food; hence we often read of cakes
   of figs) shall not so much as blossom, nor shall fruit be in the vine,
   from which they had their drink, that made glad the heart: he supposes
   the labour of the olive to fail, their oil, which was to them as butter
   is to us; the labour of the olive shall lie (so it is in the margin);
   their expectations from it shall be disappointed. (2.) He supposes the
   bread-corn to fail; the fields shall yield no meat; and, since the king
   himself is served of the field, if the productions of that be
   withdrawn, every one will feel the want of them. (3.) He supposes the
   cattle to perish for want of the food which the field should yield and
   does not, or by disease, or being destroyed and carried away by the
   enemy: The flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the
   stall. Note, When we are in the full enjoyment of our creature comforts
   we should consider that there may come a time when we shall be stripped
   of them all, and use them accordingly, as not abusing them, 1 Cor. vii.
   29, 30.

   2. He resolves to delight and triumph in God notwithstanding; when all
   is gone his God is not gone (v. 18): "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord; I
   shall have him to rejoice in, and will rejoice in him." Destroy the
   vines and the fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a carnal heart
   to cease, Hos. ii. 11, 12. But those who, when they were full, enjoyed
   God in all, when they are emptied and impoverished can enjoy all in
   God, and can sit down upon a melancholy heap of the ruins of all their
   creature comforts and even then can sing to the praise and glory of
   God, as the God of their salvation. This is the principal ground of our
   joy in God, that he is the God of our salvation, our eternal salvation,
   the salvation of the soul; and, if he be so, we may rejoice in him as
   such in our greatest distresses, since by them our salvation cannot be
   hindered, but may be furthered. Note, Joy in God is never out of
   season, nay, it is in a special manner seasonable when we meet with
   losses and crosses in the world, that it may then appear that our
   hearts are not set upon these things, nor our happiness bound up in
   them. See how the prophet triumphs in God: The Lord God is my strength,
   v. 19. He that is the God of our salvation in another world will be our
   strength in this world, to carry us on in our journey thither, and help
   us over the difficulties and oppositions we meet with in our way. Even
   when provisions are cut off, to make it appear that man lives not by
   bread alone, we may have the want of bread supplied by the graces and
   comforts of God's Spirit and with the supplies of them. (1.) We shall
   be strong for our spiritual warfare and work: The Lord God is my
   strength, the strength of my heart. (2.) We shall be swift for our
   spiritual race: "He will make my feet like hinds' feet, that with
   enlargement of heart I may run the way of his commands and outrun my
   troubles." (3.) We shall be successful in our spiritual enterprises:
   "He will make me to walk upon my high places; that is, I shall gain my
   point, shall be restored unto my own land, and tread upon the high
   places of the enemy," Deut. xxxii. 13; xxxiii. 29. Thus the prophet,
   who began his prayer with fear and trembling, concludes it with joy and
   triumph, for prayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul. When Hannah had
   prayed she went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more
   sad. This prophet, finding it so, publishes his experience of it, and
   puts it into the hand of the chief singer for the use of the church,
   especially in the day of our captivity. And, though then the harps were
   hung upon the willow-trees, yet in the hope that they would be resumed,
   and their right hand retrieve its cunning, which it had forgotten, he
   set his song upon Shigionoth (v. 1), wandering tunes, according to the
   variable songs, and upon Neginoth (v. 19), the stringed instruments. He
   that is afflicted, and has prayed aright, may then be so easy, may then
   be so merry, as to sing psalms.
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Zephaniah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

Z E P H A N I A H.
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   This prophet is placed last, as he was last in time, of all the minor
   prophets before the captivity, and not long before Jeremiah, who lived
   at the time of the captivity. He foretels the general destruction of
   Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and sets their sins in order
   before them, which had provoked God to bring their ruin upon them,
   calls them to repentance, threatens the neighbouring nations with the
   like destructions, and gives encouraging promises of their joyful
   return out of captivity in due time, which have a reference to the
   grace of the gospel. We have, in the first verse, an account of the
   prophet and the date of his prophecy, which supersedes our enquiry
   concerning them here.
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Z E P H A N I A H.

  CHAP. I.

   After the title of the book (ver. 1) here is, I. A threatening of the
   destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, an utter destruction, by the
   Chaldeans, ver. 2-4. II. A charge against them for their gross sin,
   which provoked God to bring that destruction upon them (ver. 5, 6); and
   so he goes on in the rest of the chapter, setting both the judgments
   before them, that they might prevent them or prepare for them, and the
   sins that destroy them, that they might judge themselves, and justify
   God in what was brought upon them. 1. They must hold their peace
   because they had greatly sinned, ver. 7-9. But, 2, They shall howl
   because the trouble will be great. The day of the Lord is near, and it
   will be a terrible day, ver. 10-18. Such fair and timely warning as
   this did God give to the Jews of the approaching captivity; but they
   hardened their neck, which made their destruction remediless.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 612.)

   1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the
   son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of
   Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.   2 I will utterly consume all
   things from off the land, saith the Lord.   3 I will consume man and
   beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the
   sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man
   from off the land, saith the Lord.   4 I will also stretch out mine
   hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will
   cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the
   Chemarims with the priests;   5 And them that worship the host of
   heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the
   Lord, and that swear by Malcham;   6 And them that are turned back from
   the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for
   him.

   Here is, I. The title-page of this book (v. 1), in which we observe, 1.
   What authority it has, and who gave it that authority; it is from
   heaven, and not of men: It is the word of the Lord. 2. Who was the
   instrument of conveying it to the church. His name was Zephaniah, which
   signifies the servant of the Lord, for God revealed his secrets to his
   servants the prophets. The pedigree of other prophets, whose extraction
   we have an account of, goes no further back than their father, except
   Zecharias, whose grandfather also is named. But this of Zephaniah goes
   back four generations, and the highest mentioned is Hizkiah; it is the
   very same name in the original with that of Hezekiah king of Judah (2
   Kings xviii. 1), and refers probably to him; if so, our prophet, being
   lineally descended from that pious prince, and being of the royal
   family, could with the better grace reprove the folly of the king's
   children as he does, v. 8. 3. When this prophet prophesied--in the days
   of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned well, and in the twelfth year of
   his reign began vigorously, and carried on a work of reformation, in
   which he destroyed idols and idolatry. Now it does not appear whether
   Zephaniah prophesied in the beginning of his reign; if so, we may
   suppose his prophesying had a great and good influence on that
   reformation. When he, as God's messenger, reproved the idolatries of
   Jerusalem, Josiah, as God's vice-gerent, removed them; and reformation
   is likely to go on and prosper when both magistrates and ministers do
   their part towards it. If it were towards the latter end of his reign
   that he prophesied, we sadly see how a corrupt people relapse into
   their former distempers. The idolatries Josiah had abolished, it should
   seem, returned in his own time, when the heat of the reformation began
   a little to abate and wear off. What good can the best reformers do
   with a people that hate to be reformed, as if they longed to be ruined?

   II. The summary, or contents, of this book. The general proposition
   contained in it is, That utter destruction is coming apace upon Judah
   and Jerusalem for sin. Without preamble, or apology, he begins abruptly
   (v. 2): By taking away I will make an end of all things from off the
   face of the land, Saith the Lord. Ruin is coming, utter ruin,
   destruction from the Almighty. He has said it who can, and will, make
   good what he has said: "I will utterly consume all things. I will
   gather all things" (so some); "I will recall all the blessings I have
   bestowed, because they have abused them and so forfeited them." The
   consumption determined shall take away, 1. The inferior creatures: I
   will consume the beasts, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the
   sea (v. 3), as, in the deluge, every living substance was destroyed
   that was upon the face of the ground, Gen. vii. 23. The creatures were
   made for man's use, and therefore when he has perverted the use of
   them, and made them subject to vanity, God, to show the greatness of
   his displeasure against the sin of man, involves them in his
   punishment. The expressions are figurative, denoting universal
   desolation. Those that fly ever so high, as the fowls of heaven, and
   think themselves out of the reach of the enemies' hand--those that hide
   ever so close, as the fishes of the sea, and think themselves out of
   the reach of the enemies' eye--shall yet become a prey to them, and be
   utterly consumed. 2. The children of men: "I will consume man; I will
   cut off man from the land. The land shall be dispeopled and left
   uninhabited; I will destroy, not only Israel, but man. The land shall
   enjoy her sabbaths. I will cut off, not only the wicked men, but all
   men; even the few among them that are good shall be involved in this
   common calamity. Though they shall not be cut off from the Lord, yet
   they shall be cut off from the land." It is with Judah and Jerusalem
   that God has this quarrel, both city and country, and upon them he will
   stretch out his hand, the hand of his power, the hand of his wrath; and
   who knows the power of his anger? v. 4. Those that will not humble
   themselves under God's mighty hand shall be humbled and brought down by
   it. Note, Even Judah, where God is known, and Jerusalem, where his
   dwelling-place is, if they revolt from him and rebel against him, shall
   have his hand stretched out against them. 3. All wicked people, and all
   those things that are the matter of their wickedness (v. 3): "I will
   consume the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, the idols with the
   idolaters, the offences with the offenders." Josiah had taken away the
   stumbling-blocks, and, as far as he could, had purged the land of the
   monuments of idolatry, hoping that there would be no more idolatry; but
   the wicked will do wickedly, the dog will return to his vomit, and
   therefore, since the sin will not otherwise be cured, the sinners must
   themselves be consumed, even the wicked with the stumbling-blocks of
   their iniquity, Ezek. xiv. 3. Since it was not done by the sword of
   justice, it shall be done by the sword of war. See who the sinners are
   that shall be consumed. (1.) The professed idolaters, who avowed
   idolatry, and were wedded to it. The remnant of Baal shall be cut off,
   the images of Baal, and the worshippers of those images. Josiah cut off
   a great deal of Baal; but that which was so close as to escape the eye,
   or so bold as to escape the hand, of his justice, God will cut off,
   even all the remains of it. The Chaldeans would spare none of the
   images of Baal, or the worshippers of those images. The Chemarim shall
   be cut off; we read of them in the history of Josiah's reformation. 2
   Kings xxiii. 5, He put down the idolatrous priests: the word is the
   Chemarim. The word signifies black men, some think because they wore
   black clothes, affecting to appear grave, others because their faces
   were black with attending the altars, or the fires in which they burnt
   their children to Moloch. They seem to have been immediate attendants
   upon the service of Baal. They shall be cut off with the priests, the
   regulars with the seculars. The very name of them shall be cut off; the
   order shall be quite abolished, so as to be forgotten, or remembered
   with detestation. And, among other idolaters, the worshippers of the
   host of heaven upon the house-tops shall be cut off (v. 5), who
   justified themselves in their idolatry with those that did not worship
   images, the work of their own hands, but offered their sacrifices and
   burnt their incense to the sun, moon, and stars, immediately upon the
   tops of their houses. But God will let them know that he is a jealous
   God, and will not endure any rival; and, though some have thought that
   the most specious and plausible idolatry, yet it will appear as great
   an offence to God to give divine honours to a star as to give them to a
   stone or a stock. Even the worshippers of the host of heaven shall be
   consumed as well as the worshippers of the beasts of the earth or the
   fiends of hell. The sin of the adulteress is not the less sinful for
   the gaiety of the adulterer. (2.) Those also shall be consumed that
   think to compound the matter between God and idols, and keep an even
   hand between them, that halt between God and Baal, and worship between
   Jehovah and Moloch, and swear by both; or, as it might better be read,
   swear to the Lord and to Malcham. They bind themselves by oath and
   covenant to the service both of God and idols. They have a good opinion
   of the worship of the God of Israel; it is the religion of their
   country, and has been long so, and therefore they will by no means quit
   it; but they think it will be very much improved and beautified if they
   join with it the worship of Moloch, for that also is much used in other
   countries, and travellers admire it; there is a great deal of good
   fancy and strong flame in it. They cannot keep always to the worship of
   a God whom they have no visible representation of, and therefore they
   must have an image; and what better than the image of Moloch--a king?
   They think they shall effectually atone for their sin if they swear to
   Moloch, and, pursuant to that oath, burn their children in sacrifice to
   that idol; and yet, if they do amiss in that, they hope to atone for it
   in worshipping the God of Israel too. Note, Those that think to divide
   their affections and adorations between God and idols will not only
   come short of acceptance with God, but will have their doom with the
   worst of idolaters; for what communion can there be between light and
   darkness, Christ and Belial, God and mammon? She whose own the child is
   not pleads for the dividing of it, for, if Satan have half, he will
   have all; but the true mother says, Divide it not, for, if God have but
   half, he will have none. Such waters will not be long sweet, if they
   come from a fountain that sends forth bitter water too; what have those
   to do to swear by the Lord that swear by Malcham? (3.) Those also shall
   be consumed that have apostatized from God, together with those that
   never gave up their names to him, v. 6. I will cut off, [1.] Those that
   are turned back from the Lord, that were well taught, and began well,
   that had given up their names to him, and set out at first in the
   worship of him, but have flown off, and turned aside, and fallen in
   with idolaters, and deserted those good ways of God which they were
   brought up in, and despised them. Those God will be sure to reckon with
   who are renegadoes from his service, who began in the Spirit and ended
   in the flesh; they shall be treated as deserters, to whom no mercy is
   shown. [2.] Those that have not sought the Lord, nor ever enquired for
   him, never made any profession of religion, and think to excuse
   themselves with that, shall find that this will not excuse them; nay,
   this is the thing laid to their charge; they are atheistical careless
   people, that live without God in the world; and those that do so are
   certainly unworthy to live upon God in the world.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 612.)

   7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the
   Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid
   his guests.   8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's
   sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and
   all such as are clothed with strange apparel.   9 In the same day also
   will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their
   masters' houses with violence and deceit.   10 And it shall come to
   pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a
   cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great
   crashing from the hills.   11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all
   the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut
   off.   12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search
   Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their
   lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will
   he do evil.   13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their
   houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit
   them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

   Notice is here given to Judah and Jerusalem that God is coming forth
   against them, and will be with them shortly; his presence, as a just
   avenger, his day, the day of his judgment and his wrath, are not far
   off, v. 7. Those that improve not the presence of God with them as a
   Father, but sin away that presence, may expect his presence with them
   as a Judge, to call them to an account for the contempt put upon his
   grace. The day of the Lord will come. Men have their day now, when they
   take a liberty to do what they please; but God's day is at hand; it is
   here called his sacrifice, a sacrifice of his preparing, for the
   punishing of presumptuous sinners is a sacrifice to the justice of God,
   some reparation to his injured honour. Those that brought their
   offerings to other gods were themselves justly made victims to the true
   God. On a day of sacrifice great slaughter was made; so shall there be
   in Jerusalem; men shall be killed up as fast as lambs for the altar,
   with as little regret, with as much pleasure: The slain of the Lord
   shall be many. On a day of sacrifice great feasts were made upon the
   sacrifices; so the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem shall be feasted
   upon by their enemies the Chaldeans; these are the guests God has
   prepared and invited to come and glut themselves--their revenge with
   slaughter and their covetousness with plunder. Now observe,

   I. Who those are that are marked to be sacrificed, that shall be
   visited and punished in this day of reckoning, and what it is they
   shall be called to an account for. 1. The royal family, because of the
   dignity of their place, shall be first reckoned with for their pride,
   and vanity, and affectation (v. 8): I will punish the princes, and the
   king's children, who think themselves accountable to God, and that,
   high as they are, he is above them. They shall be punished, and all
   such as, like them, are clothed with strange apparel, such as, in
   contempt of their own country (where, probably, it was the custom to go
   in a very plain dress, as became the seed of Jacob that plain man),
   affected to appear in the fashion of other nations and introduced their
   modes in apparel, studying to resemble those from whom God had
   appointed them, even in their clothes, industriously to distinguish
   themselves. The princes and the king's children scorned to wear any
   home-made stuffs, though God had provided them fine linen and silks
   (Ezek. xvi. 10), but they must send abroad to strange countries for
   their clothes, which would not please unless they were far-fetched and
   dear-bought; and even those of inferior rank affected to imitate the
   princes and the king's children. Pride in apparel is displeasing to
   God, and a symptom of the degeneracy of a people. 2. The noblemen, and
   their stewards and servants, come next to be reckoned with (v. 9): In
   the same day will I punish those that leap on the threshold, a phrase,
   no doubt, well understood then, and which probably signified the
   invading of their neighbour's rights. Entering their houses by force
   and violence, and seizing their possessions, they leap on the
   threshold, as much as to say that the house is their own and they will
   keep their hold of it; and, accordingly, they make all in it their own
   that they can lay their hands on, and so fill their masters' houses
   with goods gotten by violence and deceit and with all the guilt thereby
   contracted. Nor shall it suffice them to say that the ill-gotten gains
   were not for themselves but for their masters, and that what they did
   was by their order; for the obligations we lie under to keep God's
   commandments are prior and superior to the obligations we lie under to
   serve the interests of any master on earth. 3. The trading people, and
   the rich merchants, are next called to account. Iniquity is found in
   their end of the town, among the inhabitants of Maktesh, a low part of
   Jerusalem, deep like a mortar (for so the word signifies); the
   goldsmiths lived there (Neh. iii. 32) and the merchants; and they are
   now cut down (they are broken, and have shut up their shops, and become
   bankrupts); nay, All those that bear silver are cut off, in the first
   place, by the invaders, for the sake of the silver they carry, which is
   so far from being a protection to them that it will expose and betray
   them. The conquerors aimed at the wealthy men, and carried them off
   first, while the poor of the land escaped. Or it may be meant of a
   general decay of trade, which was a preface and introduction to the
   general destruction of the land. It is the token of a declining state
   when great dealers are cut down, and great bankers are cut off and
   become bankrupts, who cannot fall alone, but with themselves ruin many.
   4. All the secure and careless people, the sons of pleasure, that live
   a loose idle life, are next reckoned with (v. 12); they come from all
   parts of the country, to take up their quarters in the head-quarters of
   the kingdom, where they take private lodgings, and indulge themselves
   in ease and luxury; but God will find them out, and punish them: At
   that time I will search Jerusalem with candles, to discover them, that
   they may be brought out to condign punishment. This intimates that they
   conceal themselves, as being either ashamed of the sin or afraid of the
   punishment of it; when the judgments of God are abroad they hope to
   escape by absconding and getting out of the way, but God will search
   Jerusalem, as search is made for a malefactor in disguise, that is
   harboured by his accomplices. God's hand will find out all his enemies,
   wherever they lie hid, and will punish not only the secret idolaters,
   but the secret epicures and profane; and those are the persons that are
   here described, and marks are given by which they will be discovered
   when strict search is made for them. (1.) Their dispositions are
   sensual: They are settled on their lees, intoxicated with their
   pleasures, strengthening themselves in their wealth and wickedness;
   they are secure and easy, and, because they have had no changes, they
   fear none, as Moab, Jer. xlviii. 11. They have not been emptied from
   vessel to vessel. They fill themselves with wine and strong drink, and
   banish all thought, saying, To-morrow shall be as this day, Isa. lvi.
   12. Their being settled on their lees signifies the same with being
   enclosed in their own fat, Ps. xvii. 10. (2.) Their notions are
   atheistical. They could not live such loose lives but that they say in
   their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil; that
   is, He will do nothing. They deny his providential government of the
   world: "What good and evil there is in the world comes by the wheel of
   fortune, and not by the disposal of a wise and supreme director." They
   deny his moral government, and his dispensing rewards and punishments:
   "The Lord will not do good to those that serve him, nor do evil to
   those that rebel against him; and therefore there is nothing got by
   religion, nor lost by sin." This was the effect of their sensuality; if
   they were not drowned in sense, they could not be thus senseless, nor
   could they be so stupid if they had not stupefied themselves with the
   love of pleasure. It was also the cause of their sensuality; men would
   not make a god of their belly if they had not at first become so vain,
   so vile, in their imaginations, as to think the God that made them
   altogether such a one as themselves. But God will punish them; their
   end is destruction, Phil. iii. 19.

   II. What the destruction will be with which God will punish these
   sinners, and what course he will take with them. 1. He will silence
   them (v. 7): Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord. He will force
   them to hold their peace, will strike them dumb with horror and
   amazement. They shall be speechless. All the excuses of their sin, and
   exceptions against the sentence, will be overruled, and they shall not
   have a word to say for themselves. 2. He will sacrifice them, for it is
   the day of the Lord's sacrifice (v. 8); he will give them into the
   hands of their enemies, and glorify himself thereby. 3. He will fill
   both city and country with lamentation (v. 10): In that day there shall
   be a noise of a cry from the fish-gate, so called because near either
   to the fish-ponds or to the fish-market. It belonged to the city of
   David (2 Chron. xxxiii. 14; Neh. iii. 3); perhaps the same with that
   which is called the first gate (Zech. xiv. 10), and, if so, it will
   explain what follows here, And a howling from the second, that is, the
   second gate, which was next to that fish-gate. The alarm shall go round
   the walls of Jerusalem from gate to gate; and there shall be a great
   crashing from the hills, a mighty noise from the mountains round about
   Jerusalem, from the acclamations of the victorious invaders, or from
   the lamentations of the timorous invaded, or from both. The inhabitants
   of the city, even of the closest safest part of the city, shall howl
   (v. 11), so clamorous shall the grief be. 4. They shall be stripped of
   all they have; it shall be a prey to the enemy (v. 13): Their household
   goods, and shop-goods, shall become a booty, and a rich booty they
   shall be; their houses shall be levelled with the ground and be a
   desolation; those of them that have built new houses shall not inherit
   them, but the invaders shall get and keep possession of them. And the
   vineyards they have planted they shall not drink the wine of, but,
   instead of having it for the relief of their friends that faint among
   them, they shall part with it for the animating of their foes that
   fight against them, Deut. xxviii. 30.

Judgment Predicted. (b. c. 612.)

   14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly,
   even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there
   bitterly.   15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and
   distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and
   gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,   16 A day of the
   trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high
   towers.   17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk
   like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their
   blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.   18
   Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in
   the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by
   the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of
   all them that dwell in the land.

   Nothing could be expressed with more spirit and life, nor in words more
   proper to startle and awaken a secure and careless people, than the
   warning here given to Judah and Jerusalem of the approaching
   destruction by the Chaldeans. That is enough to make the sinners in
   Zion tremble--that it is the day of the Lord, the day in which he will
   manifest himself by taking vengeance on them. It is the great day of
   the Lord, a specimen of the day of judgment, a kind of doom's-day, as
   the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is represented to be in
   our Saviour's prediction concerning it, Matt. xxiv. 27.

   I. This day of the Lord is here spoken of as very near. The vision is
   not for a great while to come, as those imagine who put the evil day
   far from them. Those deceive themselves who look upon it as a thing at
   a distance, for it is near--it is near--it hastens greatly. The prophet
   gives the alarm like one that is in earnest, like one that awakens a
   family with the cry of Fire! fire! when it is at the next door that the
   danger is: "It is near! it is near! and therefore it is high time to
   bestir yourselves, and do what you can for your own safety before it be
   too late." It is madness for those to slumber whose damnation slumbers
   not, and to linger when it hastens.

   II. It is spoken of as a very dreadful day. The very voice of this day
   of the Lord, the noise of it, when it is coming, shall be so terrible
   as to make the mighty men cry there bitterly, cry for fear as children
   do. It shall be a vexation to hear the report of it. In the last great
   day of the Lord the mighty men shall cry bitterly to rocks and
   mountains to shelter them; but in vain. Observe how emphatically the
   prophet speaks of this day approaching (v. 15): It is a day of wrath,
   God's wrath, wrath in perfection, wrath to the utmost. It will be a day
   of trouble and distress to the sinners; they shall be in pain, and
   shall see no ways of easing or helping themselves. The miseries of the
   damned are summed up (perhaps with reference to this) in the
   indignation and wrath of God, which are the cause, and the tribulation
   and anguish of the sinner's soul, which are the effect, Rom. ii. 8, 9.
   It will be a day of trouble and distress to the inhabitants, and a day
   of wasteness and desolation to the whole land; that fruitful land shall
   be turned into a wilderness. It shall be a day of darkness and
   gloominess; every thing shall look dismal, and there shall not be the
   least gleam of comfort, or glimpse of hope; look round, and it is all
   black. It is a day of clouds and thick darkness; there is not only
   nothing encouraging, but every thing threatening; the thick clouds are
   big with storms and tempests.

   III. It is spoken of as a destroying day, v. 16, 17. It shall be
   destroying, 1. To places, even the strongest and best fortified: A day
   of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, to break into them,
   and against the high towers, to bring them down; for what forts, what
   fences, can hold out against the wrath of God? 2. To persons (v. 17):
   "I will bring distress upon men, the strongest and stoutest of men;
   their hearts and hands shall fail them; they shall walk like blind men,
   wandering endlessly, because they have sinned against the Lord." Note,
   Those that walk as bad men will justly be left to walk as blind men,
   always in the dark, in doubt and danger, without any guide or comfort,
   and falling at length into the ditch. Because they have sinned against
   the Lord he will deliver them into the hands of cruel enemies, that
   shall pour out their blood as dust, so profusely, and with as little
   regret, and their flesh shall be thrown as dung upon the dunghill.

   IV. The destruction of that day will be unavoidable and universal, v.
   18. 1. There shall be no escaping it by ransom: Neither their silver
   nor their gold, which they have hoarded up so covetously against the
   evil day, or which they have spent so prodigally to make friends for
   such a time, shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's
   wrath. Another prophet borrowed these words from this, with reference
   to the same event, Ezek. vii. 19. Note, Riches profit not in the day of
   wrath, Prov. xi. 4. Nay, riches expose to the wrath of men (Eccl. v.
   13.), and riches abused to the wrath of God. 2. There shall be no
   escaping it by flight or concealment; for the whole land shall be
   devoured by the fire of his jealousy, and where then can a hiding-place
   be found? See what the fire of God's jealousy is, and what the force of
   it; it will devour whole lands; how then can particular persons stand
   before it? He shall make riddance, a speedy riddance, of all those that
   dwell in the land, as the husbandman, when he rids his ground, cuts up
   all the briers and thorns for the fire. Note, Sometimes the judgments
   of God make riddance, even utter riddance, with sinful nations, a
   speedy riddance; their destruction is effected, is completed, in a
   little time. Let not sinners be laid asleep by the patience of God, for
   when the measure of their iniquity is full his justice will both
   overtake and overcome, will make quick work and thorough work.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E P H A N I A H.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have, I. An earnest exhortation to the nation of the
   Jews to repent and make their peace with God, and so to prevent the
   judgments threatened before it was too late (ver. 1-3), and this
   inferred from the revelation of God's wrath against them in the
   foregoing chapter. II. A denunciation of the judgments of God against
   several of the neighbouring nations that had assisted, or rejoiced in,
   the calamity of Israel. 1. The Philistines, ver. 4-7. 2. The Moabites
   and Ammonites, ver. 8-11. 3. The Ethiopians and Assyrians, ver. 12-15.
   All these shall drink of the same cup of trembling that is put into the
   hands of God's people, as was also foretold by other prophets before
   and after.

The People Exhorted to Repent. (b. c. 612.)

   1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not
   desired;   2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the
   chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the
   day of the Lord's anger come upon you.   3 Seek ye the Lord, all ye
   meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness,
   seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's
   anger.

   Here we see what the prophet meant in that terrible description of the
   approaching judgments which we had in the foregoing chapter. From first
   to last his design was, not to drive the people to despair, but to
   drive them to God and to their duty--not to frighten them out of their
   wits, but to frighten them out of their sins. In pursuance of that he
   here calls them to repentance, national repentance, as the only way to
   prevent national ruin. Observe,

   I. The summons given them to a national assembly (v. 1): Gather
   yourselves together. He had told them, in the last words of the
   foregoing chapter, that God would make a speedy riddance of all that
   dwelt in the land, upon which, one would think, it should follow,
   "Disperse yourselves, and flee for shelter where you can find a place."
   When the decree had absolutely gone forth for the last destruction of
   Jerusalem by the Romans, that was the advice given (Matt. xxiv. 16),
   Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; but here it is
   otherwise. God warns, that he may not wound, threatens, that he may not
   strike, and therefore calls to the people to use means for the turning
   away of his wrath. The summons is given to a nation not desired. The
   word signifies either, 1. Not desiring, that has not any desires
   towards God or the remembrance of his name, is not desirous of his
   favour or grace, but very indifferent to it, has no mind to repent and
   reform. "Yet come together, and see if you can stir up desires in one
   another." Thus God is often found of those that sought him not, nor
   asked for him, Isa. lxv. 1. Or, 2. Not desirable, no ways lovely, nor
   having any thing in them amiable, or which might recommend them to God.
   The land of Israel had been a pleasant land, a land of delight (Dan.
   xi. 41); but now it is unlovely, it is a nation not desired, to which
   God might justly say, Depart from me; but he says, "Gather together to
   me, and let us see if any expedient can be found out for the preventing
   of the ruin. Gather together, that you may in a body humble yourselves
   before God, may fast, and pray, and seek his face. Gather together, to
   consult among yourselves what is to be done in this critical juncture,
   that every one may consider of it, may give and take advice, and speak
   his mind, and that what is done may be done by consent and so may be a
   national act." Some read it, "Enquire into yourselves, yea, enquire
   into yourselves; examine your consciences; look into your hearts;
   search and try your ways; enquire into yourselves, that you may find
   out the sin by which God has been provoked to this displeasure against
   you, and may find out the way of returning to him." Note, When God is
   contending with us it concerns us to enquire into ourselves.

   II. Arguments urged to press them to the utmost seriousness and
   expedition herein (v. 2): "Do it in earnest; do it with all speed
   before it is too late, before the decree bring forth, before the day
   pass." The manner of speaking here is very lively and awakening,
   designed to make them apprehensive, as all sinners are concerned to be,
   1. That their danger is very great, that their all lies at stake, that
   it is a matter of life and death, which therefore well requires and
   well deserves the closest application of mind that can be. It is not a
   trifle, and therefore is not a thing to be trifled about. It is the
   fierce anger of the Lord that is kindled against them, and is just
   ready to kindle upon them, that devouring fire which none can dwell
   with, which none can make head against or hold up their head under. "It
   is the day of the Lord's anger, the day set for the pouring out of the
   full vials of it, that you are threatened with, that great day of the
   Lord" spoken of, ch. i. 14. "Are you not concerned to prepare for that
   day?" 2. That it is very imminent: "Bestir yourselves now quickly,
   before the decree bring forth, and then it will be too late, the
   opportunity will be lost and never retrieved. The decree is as it were
   big with child, and it will bring forth the day, the terrible day,
   which shall pass as chaff, which shall hurry you away into captivity as
   chaff before the wind." We know not what a day may bring forth (Prov.
   xxvii. 1), but we do know what the decree will bring forth against
   impenitent sinners, whom therefore it highly concerns to repent in
   time, in the accepted time. Note, It is the wisdom of those whom God
   has a controversy with to agree with him quickly, while they are in the
   way, before his fierce anger comes upon them, not to be turned away. In
   a case of this nature delays are highly dangerous and may be fatal;
   they will be so if by them the heart is hardened. How solicitous should
   we all be to make our peace with God before the Spirit withdraw from
   us, or cease to strive with us, before the day of grace be over or the
   day of life, before our everlasting state shall be determined on the
   other side of the great gulf fixed!

   III. Directions prescribed for the doing of this effectually. It is not
   enough to gather together in a consternation, but they must seriously
   and calmly apply to the duty of the day (v. 3): Seek you the Lord. That
   they might find mercy with God, they are here put upon seeking; for so
   is the rule--Seek, and you shall find. A general call was given to the
   whole nation to gather together, but little good is to be expected from
   the far greater part of them; if the land be saved, it must be by the
   interest and intercession of the pious few, and therefore to them the
   exhortation here is particularly directed. And observe, 1. How they are
   described--they are the meek of the earth, or of the land. It is the
   distinguishing character of the people of God that they are the meek
   ones of the earth; this is their badge; it is their livery. They are
   modest, and humble, and low in their own eyes; they are mild, and
   gentle, and yielding to others, not soon angry, not very angry, not
   long angry; they are the quiet in the land, Ps. xxxv. 20. And they are
   subject and submissive to their God, to all his precepts and all his
   providences. Actuated by this principle and disposition, they have
   wrought his judgments, that is, have obeyed his laws, observed his
   institutions, have made conscience of their duty to him, and have laid
   out themselves for the advancement of his honour and interest in the
   world. 2. What they are required to do; they must seek, which denotes
   both a careful enquiry and a constant endeavour, that they may know and
   do their duty. (1.) They must seek the Lord, seek his favour and grace,
   address him upon all occasions, ask of him what they need, seek him
   early, seek him diligently, and continue seeking him. (2.) They must
   seek righteousness. "Seek to God for the performance of his promises to
   you, and see to it that you abound yet more in duty to him; seek for
   the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to you, for the graces of
   God's Spirit to be implanted in you; hunger and thirst after them."
   (3.) They must seek meekness. This is a grace they were so eminent for
   that they were denominated the meek of the land, and yet this they must
   seek. Note, Those that are ever so good must still strive to be better,
   those that have ever so much grace must be still praying and labouring
   for more. Nay, those that excel in any particular grace must still seek
   to excel yet more in that, because in that most assaults will be made
   upon them by their enemies, in that most is expected from them by their
   friends, and in that they are most apt to be themselves secure. Si
   dixisti, Sufficit, periisti--Say but, I am all that I ought to be, and
   you are undone. In the difficult trying times approaching, the meek
   will find exercise for all the meekness they have, and all little
   enough, and therefore should seek it earnestly, and pray that when God
   in his providence gives them occasion for it he would by his grace
   enable them to exercise it, to show all meekness to all men, in all
   instances, that, as the day is, so may the strength be.

   IV. Encouragements given to take these directions: It may be, you shall
   be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. 1. "You particularly that are
   the meek of the earth. Though the day of the Lord's anger do come upon
   the land, yet you shall be safe, you shall be taken under special
   protection. Verily it shall be well with thy remnant, Jer. xv. 11. Thy
   life will I give unto thee for a prey, Jer. xlv. 5. I will deliver thee
   in that day, Jer. xxxix. 17. It may be, you shall be hid; if any be
   hid, you shall." Good men cannot be sure of temporal preservation, for
   all things come alike to all, but they are most likely to be hid, and
   stand fairest for a distinguishing care of Providence. It is expressed
   thus doubtfully to try if they will trust the goodness of God's nature,
   though they have but the it may be of a promise, and to keep up in them
   a holy fear and watchfulness lest they should seem to come short, and
   should do any thing to throw themselves out of the divine protection.
   Note, those that hold fast their integrity, in times of common
   iniquity, have reason to hope that God will find out a hiding-place for
   them, where they shall be safe and easy, in times of common calamity.
   They shall be hid (as Luther says) aut in coelo, aut sub coelo--either
   in heaven or under heaven, either in the possession of heaven or under
   the protection of heaven. Or, 2. "You of this nation, though it be a
   nation not desired, yet, in the day of the Lord's anger with the
   neighbouring nations, when his judgments are abroad, you shall be hid;
   your land shall be preserved for the sake of those few meek ones that
   stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God." It concerns us all to
   make it sure to ourselves that we shall be hid in the great day of
   God's wrath; and, if we hide ourselves in the chambers of duty, God
   will hide us in chambers of safety, Isa. xxvi. 20. If we prepare an
   ark, that shall be our hiding-place, Gen. vii. 1.

The Punishment of the Philistines. (b. c. 612.)

   4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall
   drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.   5 Woe
   unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites!
   the word of the Lord is against you; O Canaan, the land of the
   Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no
   inhabitant.   6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for
   shepherds, and folds for flocks.   7 And the coast shall be for the
   remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses
   of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the Lord their God
   shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.

   The prophet here comes to foretel what share the neighbouring nations
   should have in the destruction made upon those parts of the world by
   Nebuchadnezzar and his victorious Chaldees, as others of the prophets
   did at that time, which is designed, 1. To awaken the people of the
   Jews, by making them sensible how strong, how deep, how large, the
   inundation of calamities should be, that the day of the Lord, which was
   near, might appear the more dreadful, and they might thereby be
   quickened to prepare for it as for a general deluge. 2. To comfort them
   with this thought, that their case, though sad, should not be singular
   (Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris--The wretched find it
   consolatory to have companions of their woe), and much more with this,
   that though God had seemed to be their enemy, and to fight against
   them, yet he was still so far their friend, and an enemy to their
   enemies, that he resented, and would revenge, the indignities done
   them.

   In these verses we have the doom of the Philistines, who were near
   neighbours, and old enemies, to the people of Israel. Five lordships
   there were in that country; only four are here named--Gaza and
   Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron; Gath, the fifth, is not named, some think
   because it was now subject to Judah. They were the inhabitants of the
   sea-coasts (v. 5), for their country lay upon the Great Sea. The nation
   of the Cherethites is here joined with them, which bordered upon them
   (1 Sam. xxx. 14) and fell with them, as is foretold also, Ezek. xxv.
   16. The Philistines' land is here called Canaan, for it belonged to
   that country which God gave to his people Israel, and was inserted in
   the grant made to them, Josh. xiii. 3. This land is yet to be possessed
   (five lords of the Philistines), so that they wrongfully kept Israel
   out of the possession of it (Judg. iii. 3), which is now remembered
   against them. For, though the rights of others may be long detained
   unjustly, the righteous God will at length avenge the wrong.

   I. It is here foretold that the Philistines, the usurpers, shall be
   dispossessed and quite extirpated. In general, here is a woe to them
   (v. 5), which, coming from God, denotes all misery: The word of the
   Lord is against them--the word of the former prophets, which, though
   not yet accomplished, will be in its season, Isa. xiv. 31. This word,
   now by this prophet, is against them. Note, Those are really in a
   woeful condition that have the word of the Lord against them, for no
   word of his shall fall to the ground. Those that rebel against the
   precepts of God's word shall have the threatenings of the word against
   them. The effect will be no less than their destruction, 1. God himself
   will be the author of it: "I will even destroy thee, who can make good
   what I say and will." 2. It shall be a universal destruction; it shall
   extend itself to all parts of the land, both city and country: Gaza
   shall be forsaken, though now a populous city. It was foretold (Jer.
   xlvii. 6) that baldness should come upon Gaza; Alexander the Great
   razed that city, and we find (Acts viii. 26) that Gaza was a desert.
   Ashkelon shall be a desolation, a pattern of desolation. Ashdod shall
   be driven out at noon-day; in the extremity of the scorching heat they
   shall have no shade, no shelter to protect them; but then, when most
   incommoded by the weather, they shall be forced away into captivity,
   which will be an aggravating circumstance of it. Ekron likewise shall
   be rooted up, that had been long taking root. The land of the
   Philistines shall be dispeopled; there shall be no inhabitant, v. 5.
   God made the earth to be inhabited (Isa. xlv. 18), otherwise he would
   have made it in vain; but, if men do not answer the end of their
   creation in serving God, it is just with God that the earth should not
   answer the end of its creation in serving them for a habitation; man's
   sin has sometimes subjected it to this vanity. 3. It shall be an utter
   destruction. The sea-coast, which used to be a harbour for ships and a
   habitation for merchants, shall now be deserted, and be only cottages
   for shepherds and folds for flocks (v. 6), and then perhaps put to
   better use than when it was possessed by the lords of the Philistines.

   II. It is here foretold that the house of Judah, the rightful owners,
   shall recover the possession of it, v. 7. The remnant of those that
   shall return out of captivity, when God visits them, shall be made to
   lie down in safety in the houses of Ashkelon, to lie down in the
   evening, when they are weary and sleepy. There they shall feed
   themselves and their flocks. Note, God will at length restore his
   people to their rights, though they may be long kept out from them.

The Punishment of Various Nations. (b. c. 612.)

   8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children
   of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified
   themselves against their border.   9 Therefore as I live, saith the
   Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and
   the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and
   salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall
   spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.   10 This
   shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and
   magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts.   11 The
   Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the
   earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all
   the isles of the heathen.

   The Moabites and Ammonites were both of the posterity of Lot; their
   countries joined, and, both adjoining to Israel, they are here put
   together in the prophecy against them.

   I. They are both charged with the same crime, and that was reproaching
   and reviling the people of God and triumphing in their calamities (v.
   8): They have reproached my people; while God's people kept close to
   their duty it is probable that they reproached them for the
   singularities of their religion; and now that they had revolted from
   God, and fallen under his displeasure, they reproached them for that
   too. It has been the common lot of God's people in all ages to be
   reproached and reviled upon one account or other. Thus the old serpent
   spits his venom; and pride is at the bottom of it; it is in their pride
   that they have magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of
   hosts, thinking themselves as good as they, as great, and every way as
   happy. It is the comtempt of the proud that God's people are filled
   with, Ps. cxxiii. 4. They have spoken big (so some read it, magna
   locuti sunt--they have spoken great things) against their border (v.
   8), against those of them that bordered upon their country, whom upon
   all occasions they insulted, or against the property they claimed,
   which they disputed, or the protection they boasted of, which they
   ridiculed; they spoke big against the people of the Lord of hosts as a
   deserted abandoned people. Great swelling words of vanity are the
   genuine language of the church's enemies. "But I have heard them" (says
   God), "and will let you know that I have heard them. I have heard, and
   I will reckon for them," Jude 15. And, if God hears the reproaches and
   revilings we are under, it is a good reason why we should be as a deaf
   man that hears not, Ps. xxxviii. 14, 15. Nay, God not only takes notice
   of, but interests himself in the reproaches cast on his people, because
   they are his; and it is certain that those who look with disdain upon
   the people of the Lord of hosts thereby dishonour the Lord of hosts
   himself. See this very thing charged on Moab and Ammon, Ezek. xxv. 3,
   8.

   II. They are both laid under the same doom. Associates in iniquity may
   expect to be such in desolation. See with what solemnity sentence is
   pronounced upon them, v. 9. It is the Lord of hosts, the sovereign Lord
   of all, who has authority to pass this sentence and ability to execute
   it; it is the God of Israel, who is jealous for their honour; it is he
   that has said it, nay, he has sworn it, As I live, saith the Lord. The
   sentence is, 1. That the Moabites and Ammonites shall be quite
   destroyed; they shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, the marks of whose
   ruins in the Dead Sea lay near adjoining to the countries of Moab and
   Ammon; they shall, though not by the same means (even fire from
   heaven), Yet almost in the same manner, be laid waste; not again to be
   inhabited, or not of a long time. The country shall produce nothing but
   nettles, instead of corn; and there shall be brine-pits, instead of the
   pleasant fountains of water with which the country had abounded. 2.
   That Israel shall be too hard for them, shall spoil them of their goods
   and possess their country by lawful war. Note, Proud men sometimes, by
   the just judgment of God, fall under the mortification of being
   trampled upon themselves by those whom once they haughtily trampled
   upon. And this shall they have for their pride.

   III. Other nations shall in like manner be humbled, that the Lord alone
   may be exalted (v. 11): The Lord will be terrible unto the Moabites and
   Ammonites in particular, who have made themselves a terror to his
   Israel. For, 1. Heathen gods must be abolished. They have long had
   possession, and their worshippers have both glorified them and gloried
   in them. But the Lord will famish all the gods of the earth, will
   starve them out of their strong-holds. The Pagans had a fond conceit
   that their idols were regaled by their offerings, and did eat the fat
   of their sacrifices, Deut. xxxii. 38. Omnia comesta à Belo--Bel has
   eaten all. But it is here promised that when the Christian religion is
   set up in the world men shall be turned from the service of these dumb
   idols, shall forsake their altars, and bring no more sacrifices to
   them, and thus they shall be famished, or made lean (as the word is),
   their priests shall. This intimates the vanity of those idols; it lies
   in the power of their worshippers to famish them; whereas the true God
   says, If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. It intimates also the
   victory of the God of Israel over them. Now know we that he is greater
   than all gods. 2. Heathen nations must be converted; when the gospel
   gets ground, by it men shall be brought to worship him who lives for
   ever (for that is the command of the everlasting gospel, Rev. xiv. 7),
   every one from his place; they shall not need to go up to Jerusalem to
   worship the God of Israel, but wherever they are, they may have access
   to him. I will that men pray every where. God shall be worshipped, not
   only by all the tribes of Israel and the strangers who join themselves
   to them, but by all the isles of the heathen. This is a promise which
   looks favourably upon our native country, for it is one of the most
   considerable of the isles of the Gentiles, by which God will be
   glorified.

Ethiopia and Assyria Threatened. (b. c. 612.)

   12 Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword.   13 And he will
   stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will
   make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.   14 And flocks
   shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both
   the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it;
   their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the
   thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.   15 This is the
   rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and
   there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for
   beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and
   wag his hand.

   The cup is going round, when Nebuchadnezzar is going on conquering and
   to conquer; and not only Israel's near neighbours, but those that lay
   more remote, must be reckoned with for the wrongs they have done to
   God's people; the Ethiopians and the Assyrians are here taken to task.
   1. The Ethiopians, or Arabians, that had sometimes been a terror to
   Israel (as in Asa's time, 2 Chron. xiv. 9), must now be reckoned with:
   They shall be slain by my sword, v. 12. Nebuchadnezzar was God's sword,
   the instrument in his hand with which these and other enemies were
   subdued and punished, Ps. xvii. 14. 2. The Assyrians, and Nineveh the
   head city of their monarchy, are next set to the bar, to receive their
   doom: He that is God's sword will stretch out his hand against the
   north, and destroy Assyria, and make himself master of it. Assyria had
   been the rod of God's anger against Israel, and now Babylon is the rod
   of God's anger against Assyria, Isa. x. 5. He will make Nineveh a
   desolation, as was lately and largely foretold by the prophet Nahum.
   Observe, (1.) How flourishing Nineveh's state had formerly been (v.
   15): This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly. Nineveh was so
   strong that she feared no evil, and therefore dwelt carelessly and set
   danger at defiance; she was so rich that she thought herself sure of
   all good, and therefore was a rejoicing city, full of mirth and gaiety;
   and she had such a dominion that she admitted no rival, but said in her
   heart, "I am, and there is none besides me that can compare with me, no
   city in the world that can pretend to be equal with me." God can with
   his judgments frighten the most secure, humble the most haughty, and
   mar the mirth of those that most laugh now. (2.) How complete Nineveh's
   ruin shall now be; it shall be made a desolation, v. 13. Such a heap of
   ruins shall this once pompous city be that it shall be, [1.] A
   receptacle for beasts, such a wilderness that flocks shall lie down in
   it; nay, such a waste, desolate, frightful place, that wild beasts,
   shall take up their abode there; the melancholy birds, as the cormorant
   and bittern, shall make their nests in what remains of the houses, as
   they sometimes do in old ruinous buildings that are uninhabited and
   unfrequented. The lintels, or chapiters of the pillars, the windows and
   thresholds, and all the fine cedar-work curiously engraven, shall lie
   exposed; and on them these rueful ominous birds shall perch, and their
   voice shall sing. How are the songs of mirth turned into hideous horrid
   noises! What little reason have men to be proud of stately buildings,
   and rich furniture, when they know not what all the pomp of them may
   come to at last! [2.] A derision to travellers. Those that had come
   from far, to gratify their curiosity with the sight of Nineveh's
   splendour, shall now look on her with as much contempt as ever they
   looked upon her with admiration (v. 15): Every one that passes by shall
   hiss at her, and wag his hand, making light of her desolations, nay,
   and making sport with them--"There is an end of proud Nineveh." They
   shall not weep, and wring their hands (the adversities of those are
   unpitied and unlamented who were insolent and haughty in their
   prosperity), but they shall hiss and wag their hands, forgetting that
   perhaps their own ruin is not far off.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E P H A N I A H.

  CHAP. III.

   We now return to Jerusalem, and must again hear what God has to say to
   her, I. By way of reproof and threatening, for the abundance of
   wickedness that was found in her, of which divers instances are given,
   with the aggravations of them, ver. 1-7. II. By way of promise of mercy
   and grace, which God had yet in reserve for them. Two general heads of
   promises here are:--1. That God would bring in a glorious work of
   reformation among them, cleanse them from their sins, and bring them
   home to himself; many promises of this kind here are, ver. 8-13. 2.
   That he would bring about a glorious work of salvation for them, when
   he had thus prepared them for it, ver. 14-20. Thus the "Redeemer shall
   come to Zion," and to clear his own way, shall "turn away ungodliness
   from Jacob." These promises were to have their full accomplishment in
   gospel-times and gospel-graces.

The Depravity of Jerusalem. (b. c. 612.)

   1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!   2
   She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not
   in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.   3 Her princes within her
   are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the
   bones till the morrow.   4 Her prophets are light and treacherous
   persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done
   violence to the law.   5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will
   not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he
   faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.   6 I have cut off the
   nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that
   none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man,
   that there is none inhabitant.   7 I said, Surely thou wilt fear me,
   thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off,
   howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their
   doings.

   One would wonder that Jerusalem, the holy city, where God was known,
   and his name was great, should be the city of which this black
   character is here given, that a place which enjoyed such abundance of
   the means of grace should become so very corrupt and vicious, and that
   God should permit it to be so; yet so it is, to show that the law made
   nothing perfect; but if this be the true character of Jerusalem, as no
   doubt it is (for God's judgments will make none worse than they are),
   it is no wonder that the prophet begins with woe to her. For the holy
   God hates sin in those that are nearest to him, nay, in them he hates
   it most. A sinful state is, and will be, a woeful state.

   I. Here is a very bad character given of the city in general. How has
   the faithful city become a harlot! 1. She shames herself; she is filthy
   and polluted (v. 1), has made herself infamous (so some read it), the
   gluttonous city (so the margin), always cramming, and making provision
   for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it. Sin is the filthiness and
   pollution of persons and places, and makes them odious in the sight of
   the holy God. 2. She wrongs her neighbours and inhabitants; she is the
   oppressing city. Never any place had statutes and judgments so
   righteous as this city had, and yet, in the administration of the
   government, never was more unrighteousness. 3. She is very provoking to
   her God, and in every respect walks contrary to him, v. 2. He had given
   his law, and spoken to her by his servants the prophets, telling her
   what was the good she should do and what the evil she should avoid; but
   she obeyed not his voice, nor made conscience of doing as he commanded
   her, in any thing. He had taken her under an excellent discipline, both
   of the word and of the rod; but she did not receive the instruction of
   the one nor the correction of the other, did not submit to God's will
   nor answer his end in either. He encouraged her to depend upon him, and
   his power and promise, for deliverance from evil and supply with good;
   but she trusted not in the Lord; her confidence was placed in her
   alliances with the nations more than in her covenant with God. He gave
   her tokens of his presence, and instituted ordinances of communion for
   her with himself; but she drew not near to her God, did not meet him
   where he appointed and where he promised to meet her. She stood at a
   distance, and said to the Almighty, Depart.

   II. Here is a very bad character of the leading men in it; those that
   should by their influence suppress vice and profaneness there are the
   great patterns and patrons of wickedness, and those that should be her
   physicians are really her worst disease. 1. Her princes are ravenous
   and barbarous as roaring lions that make a prey of all about them, and
   they are universally feared and hated; they use their power for
   destruction, and not for edification. 2. Her judges, who should be the
   protectors of injured innocence, are evening wolves, rapacious and
   greedy, and their cruelty and covetousness both insatiable: They gnaw
   not the bones till the morrow; they take so much delight and pleasure
   in cruelty and oppression that when they have devoured a good man they
   reserve the bones, as it were, for a sweet morsel, to be gnawed the
   next morning, Job xxxi. 31. 3. Her prophets, who pretend to be special
   messengers from heaven to them, are light and treacherous persons,
   fanciful, and of a vain imagination, frothy and airy, and of a loose
   conversation, men of no consistency with themselves, in whom one can
   put no confidence. They were so given to bantering that it was hard to
   say when they were serious. Their pretended prophecies were all a sham,
   and they secretly laughed at those that were deluded by them. 4. Her
   priests, who are teachers by office and have the charge of the holy
   things, are false to their trust and betray it. They were to preserve
   the purity of the sanctuary, but they did themselves pollute it, and
   the sacred offices of it, which they were to attend upon--such priests
   as Hophni and Phinehas, who by their wicked lives made the sacrifices
   of the Lord to be abhorred. They were to expound and apply the law, and
   to judge according to it; but, in their explications and applications
   of it, they did violence to the law; they corrupted the sense of it,
   and perverted it to the patronising of that which was directly contrary
   to it. By forced constructions, they made the law to speak what they
   pleased, to serve a turn, and so, in effect, made void the law.

   III. We have here the aggravations of this general corruption of all
   orders and degrees of men in Jerusalem.

   1. They had the tokens of God's presence among them, and all the
   advantages that could be of knowing his will, with the strongest
   inducements possible to do it, and yet they persisted in their
   disobedience, v. 5. (1.) They had the honour and privilege of the
   Shechinah, God's dwelling in their land, so as he dwelt not with any
   other people: "The just Lord is in the midst of thee, to take
   cognizance of all thou doest amiss and give countenance to all thou
   doest well; he is in the midst of thee as a holy God, and therefore thy
   pollutions are the more offensive, Deut. xxiii. 14. He is in the midst
   of you as a just God, and therefore will punish the affronts you put
   upon him, and the wrongs and injuries you do to one another." (2.) They
   had God's own example set before them, in the discovery he made of
   himself to them, that they might conform to it: "He will not do
   iniquity, and therefore you should not;" for this was the great rule of
   their institution, "Be you holy, for I am holy. God will be true to
   you; be not you then false to him." (3.) He sent to them his prophets,
   rising up early and sending them: Every morning he brings his judgment
   to light, as duly as the morning comes; he fails not. He shows them
   plainly what the good is which he requires of them, and puts them in
   mind of it; he wakens morning by morning (Isa. l. 4), wakens his
   prophets with the rising sun, to bring to light the things which belong
   to their peace. So that, upon the whole matter, what more could have
   been done to his vineyard, to make it fruitful? Isa. v. 4. And yet,
   after all, the unjust know no shame; those that have been unjust are
   unjust still, and are not ashamed of their unrighteousness, neither can
   they blush. If they had any sense of honour, any shame left in them,
   they would not go so directly contrary to their profession and to the
   instructions given them. But those that are past shame are past cure.

   2. God had set before their eyes some remarkable monuments of his
   justice, which were designed for warning to them (v. 6): I have cut off
   the nations, the seven nations of Canaan, which the land spewed out for
   their wickedness, upon which they had this caution given them, to take
   heed lest it spew them out also, Lev. xviii. 28. Or it may refer to
   some of the neighbouring nations that were made desolate for their
   wickedness, especially to the nations of Israel, the ten tribes. Their
   towers were desolate, their high towers, their strong towers, their
   pride and power broken; their streets were wasted, so that none passed
   along through them; their cities were destroyed and laid in ruins; no
   man was to be found in them, no inhabitant, all were slain or carried
   into captivity. The enemies did it, but God avows it: I cut them off,
   says he. And God designed this for an admonition to Jerusalem (Ezek.
   xxiii. 9, 11): "I said, Surely thou wilt fear me; surely these
   judgments upon others will deter thee from the like wicked practices;
   surely thou wilt receive instruction by these providences; it ought to
   be expected that thou wouldst not continue to sin like the nations when
   thou seest the ruin which their sin brought upon them." They could not
   but see their own house in danger when their neighbour's was on fire;
   and, when we are frightened, God should be feared.

   3. He had set before them life and death, good and evil, both in his
   word and in his providence. (1.) He had assured them of the continuance
   of their prosperity if they would fear him and receive instruction, for
   so their dwelling would not be cut off as their neighbour's was; if
   they took the warning given them, and reformed, what was past should be
   pardoned, and their tranquility lengthened out. (2.) He had made them
   feel the smart of the rod, though he reprieved them from the sword:
   Howsoever I punished them, that, being chastened, they might not be
   condemned. Such various methods did God take with them, to reclaim
   them, but all in vain; they were not won upon by gentle methods, nor
   had severe ones any effect, for they rose early, and corrupted all
   their doings; they were more resolute and eager in their wicked courses
   than ever, more studious and solicitous in making provision for their
   lusts, and let slip no opportunity for the gratification of them. God
   rose up early, to send them his prophets, to reduce and reclaim them,
   but they were up before him, to shut and bolt the door against them.
   Their wickedness was universal: All their doings were corrupted; and it
   was all owing to themselves; they could not lay the blame upon the
   tempter, but they alone must bear it; they themselves wilfully and
   designedly corrupted all their doings; for every man is tempted when he
   is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed.

Judgment and Mercy; Promises of Mercy. (b. c. 612.)

   8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise
   up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I
   may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all
   my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of
   my jealousy.   9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language,
   that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one
   consent.   10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even
   the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.   11 In that
   day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast
   transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of
   thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty
   because of my holy mountain.   12 I will also leave in the midst of
   thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of
   the Lord.   13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak
   lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for
   they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

   Things looked very bad with Jerusalem in the foregoing verses; she has
   got into a very bad name, and seems to be incorrigible, incurable,
   mercy-proof and judgment-proof. Now one would think it should follow,
   Therefore expect no other but that she should be utterly abandoned and
   rejected as reprobate silver; since they will not be wrought upon by
   prophets or providences, let them be made a desolation as their
   neighbours have been. But behold and wonder at the riches of divine
   grace, which takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the
   more illustrious. They still grew worse and worse, therefore wait you
   upon me, saith the Lord, v. 8. "Since the law, it seems, will make
   nothing perfect, the bringing in of a better hope shall. Let those that
   lament the corruptions of the church wait upon God, till he send his
   Son into the world, to save his people from their sins, till he send
   his gospel to reform and refine his church, and to purify to himself a
   peculiar people both of Jews and Gentiles." And there were those who,
   according to this direction and encouragement, waited for redemption,
   for this redemption in Jerusalem; and long-looked-for came at last,
   Luke ii. 38. For judgment Christ will come into this world, John ix.
   39.

   I. To avenge what has been done amiss against his church, to bring down
   and destroy the enemies of it, its spiritual enemies, of which the
   destruction of Babylon, and other oppressors of God's people, in the
   Old-Testament times, was a type, and would be a happy presage. He will
   rise up to the prey, to lead captivity captive (Ps. lxvii. 18), to
   conquer and spoil the powers of darkness, and the powers on earth that
   set themselves against the Lord and his anointed; he will break them
   with a rod of iron (Ps. ii. 5, 9; xi. 5, 6); his determination is to
   gather the nations and to assemble the kingdoms. By the gospel of
   Christ preached to every creature all nations are summoned, as it were,
   to appear in a body before the Lord Jesus, who is about to set up his
   kingdom in the world. But, since the greatest part of mankind will not
   obey the summons, he will pour upon them his indignation, for he that
   believes not is condemned already. At the time of the setting up of the
   kingdom of the Messiah, there shall be on earth distress of nations
   with perplexity (Luke xxi. 25), great tribulation, such as never was,
   nor ever shall be, Matt. xxiv. 21. Then God pours upon the nations his
   indignation, even all his fierce anger, for their indignation and
   fierce anger against the Messiah and his kingdom, Ps. ii. 1, 2. Then
   all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy; both
   Jews and Gentiles shall be reckoned with for their enmity to the
   gospel. Principalities and powers shall be spoiled, and made a show of
   openly, and the victorious Redeemer shall triumph over them. The end of
   those that continue to be of the earth, and to mind earthly things,
   after God has set up the kingdom of heaven among men, shall be
   destruction (Phil. iii. 19); they shall be devoured with the fire of
   God's jealousy.

   II. To amend what he finds amiss in his church. When God intends the
   restoration of Israel, and the revival of their peace and prosperity,
   he makes way for the accomplishment of his purpose by their reformation
   and the revival of their virtue and piety; for this is God's method,
   both with particular persons and with communities, first to make them
   holy and then to make them happy. These promises were in part
   accomplished after the return of the Jews out of Babylon, when by their
   captivity they were thoroughly cured of their idolatry; and this was
   all the fruit, even the taking away of sin. But they look further, to
   the blessed effects of the gospel and the grace of it, to those times
   of reformation in which we live, Heb. ix. 10.

   1. It is promised that there shall be a reformation in men's discourse,
   which had been generally corrupt, but should now be with grace seasoned
   with salt (v. 9): "Then will I turn to the people a pure language; I
   will turn the people to such a language from that evil communication
   which has almost ruined all good manners among them." Note, Converting
   grace refines the language, not by making the phrases witty, but the
   substance wise. Among the Jews, after the captivity, there needed a
   reformation of the dialect, for they had mingled the language of Canaan
   with that of Ashdod (Neh. xiii. 24), and that grievance shall be
   redressed. But that is not all: their language shall be purified from
   all profaneness, filthiness, and falsehood. I will turn them to a
   choice language (so some read it); they shall not speak rashly, but
   with caution and deliberation; they shall choose out their words. Note,
   An air of purity and piety in common conversation is a very happy omen
   to any people; other graces, other blessings, shall be given where God
   gives a pure language to those who have been a people of unclean lips.

   2. That the worship of God, according to his will, shall be more
   closely applied to, and more unanimously concurred in. Instead of
   sacrifice and incense, they shall call upon the name of the Lord.
   Prayer is the spiritual offering with which God must be honoured; and,
   to prepare and fit us for that duty, it is necessary that we have a
   pure language. We are utterly unfit to take God's name into our lips,
   unless they be pure lips. The purifying of the language in common
   conversation is necessary to the acceptableness of the words of our
   mouth and the meditation of our heart on our devotion; for how can
   sweet waters and bitter come out of the same fountain? James iii. 9-12.
   It is likewise promised that their language being thus purified they
   shall serve God with one consent, with one shoulder (so the word is),
   alluding to oxen in the yoke, that draw even. When Christians are
   unanimous in the service of God the work goes on cheerfully. This is
   the effect of the pure language, purified from passion, envy, and
   censoriousness. Note, Purity is the way to unity; the reformation of
   manners is the way to a comprehension. The wisdom from above is first
   pure, then peaceable.

   3. That those that were driven from God shall return to him and be
   accepted of him (v. 10): From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that is,
   from Egypt (so described, Isa. xviii. 1) or from some other very remote
   country--my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring
   my offering. Those that by reason of their distance had almost
   forgotten God, their obligations to him, shall be put in mind of him,
   as the prodigal son was of his father's house, in the far country.
   Those that by reason of their dispersion, under the tokens of his
   displeasure, might be afraid of coming to him, yet even they shall be
   gathered under his wings; the daughter of his dispersed, that is afar
   off, will be found among those whom the Lord our God shall call; and,
   though they are dispersed, he will own them for his; his calling them
   my dispersed puts honour upon them, sufficient to counterbalance all
   the disgrace of their dispersion. These shall come, (1.) With their
   humble petitions: They are my suppliants. Note, True converts are
   suppliants to God; they do not plead, but make supplication to their
   Judge (Job ix. 15); and wherever they are, though beyond the rivers of
   Ethiopia, a great way off from his house of prayer, he has his eye upon
   them and his ear open to them; they are his suppliants. (2.) With their
   spiritual sacrifices: They shall bring my offering, shall bring
   themselves as spiritual sacrifices to God (Rom. xii. 1); the conversion
   of the Gentiles is called the offering up of the Gentiles (Rom. xv.
   16); and with themselves they shall bring the gospel-sacrifices of
   prayer, and praise, and alms, with which God is well pleased.

   4. That sin and sinners shall be purged out from among them, v. 11. God
   will take away, (1.) Their just reproach: In that day shalt thou not be
   ashamed for all thy doings. They shall be ashamed as penitents, and
   shall continue to be so (see Ezek. xvi. 63), but they shall not be
   ashamed as sinners that return to folly again. "Thou shalt not be
   ashamed, that is, thou shalt no more do a shameful thing, as thou hast
   done." The guilt of sin being taken away by pardoning mercy, the
   reproach of it shall be rolled away from the sinner's own conscience,
   that being purified, and pacified, and cleansed from dead works. When
   wickedness and wicked people abound in a nation those few in it that
   are good are ashamed of them and of their land; but when sinners are
   converted, and the land reformed, that shame and the cause of it are
   removed. (2.) Their unjust glorying: "I will take away out of the midst
   of thee, not only the profane, who are a shame to thy land, but the
   hypocrites, who appear beautiful outwardly, and rejoice in thy pride,
   in the holy city, the holy house." These were indeed Israel's glory,
   but they made them their pride, and rejoiced in them, as if they were
   an invincible bulwark to secure them in their sinful ways; they relied
   on them as their righteousness and strength, boasting of the temple of
   the Lord, the temple of the Lord (Jer. vii. 4); they were haughty
   because of the holy mountain, were conceited of themselves, scornful of
   others, and set even the judgments of God at defiance. Note,
   Church-privileges, when they are not duly improved as they ought to be,
   are often made the matter of men's pride and the ground of their
   security. But that haughtiness is the most offensive to God which is
   supported and fed by the pretensions of holiness. This God will silence
   and take away.

   5. That God will have a remnant of holy, humble, serious people among
   them, that shall have the comfort of their relation to him and interest
   in him (v. 12): I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor
   people. When the Chaldeans carried away the Jews into captivity they
   left of the poor of the land for vine-dressers and husbandmen, a type
   and figure of God's distinguished remnant, whom he sets apart for
   himself. They are afflicted and poor, low in the world; such God has
   chosen, James ii. 5. The poor are evangelized, low in their own eyes,
   afflicted for sin, poor in spirit. They are God's leaving, for it is a
   remnant according to the election of grace. I have reserved them to
   myself, says God (Rom. xi. 4, 5), and they shall trust in the name of
   the Lord. Note, Those whom God designs for the glory of his name he
   enables to trust in his name; and the greater their affliction and
   poverty in the world are the more reason they see to trust in God,
   having nothing else to trust to, 1 Tim. v. 5.

   6. That this select remnant shall be blessed with purity and peace, v.
   13. (1.) They shall be blessed with purity, both in words and actions:
   They shall neither do iniquity nor speak lies. Justice and veracity
   shall command them and govern them, though they be ever so much against
   their secular interest. They shall not only not speak a direct
   deliberate lie, but there shall not be a deceitful tongue found in
   their mouth, not in the mouth of any of them; not the least
   equivocation shall come from them. (2.) They shall be blessed with
   peace. They shall, as the sheep of God's pasture, feed and lie down,
   and none shall make them afraid. They shall not be fearful themselves,
   nor shall any about them be frightful to them. Note, Those that are
   careful not to do iniquity need not be afraid of any calamity, for it
   cannot hurt them, and therefore should not terrify them.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 612.)

   14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with
   all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.   15 The Lord hath taken away
   thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even
   the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.
   16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to
   Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.   17 The Lord thy God in the midst
   of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he
   will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.   18 I will
   gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of
   thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.   19 Behold, at that
   time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that
   halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise
   and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.   20 At that
   time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I
   will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I
   turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.

   After the promises of the taking away of sin, here follow promises of
   the taking away of trouble; for when the cause is removed the effect
   will cease. What makes a people holy will make them happy of course.
   The precious promises here made to the purified people were to have
   their full accomplishment in the comforts of the gospel, in the hope,
   and much more in the enjoyment, of which, they are here called upon, 1.
   To rejoice and sing (v. 14): Sing, O daughter of Zion! sing for joy;
   Shout, O Israel! in a holy transport and exultation; be glad and
   rejoice with all the heart; let the joy be inward, let it be great.
   Those that love God with all their heart have occasion with all their
   heart to rejoice in him. It was promised (v. 13) that their sins should
   be mortified and their fears silenced, and then follows, Sing and
   rejoice. Note, Those that reform have cause to rejoice, whereas Israel
   cannot rejoice for joy as other people, while she goes a whoring from
   her God. God's promises, applied by faith, furnish the saints with
   constant and abundant matter for joy; they are filled with joy and
   peace in believing them. 2. To throw off all their discouragements (v.
   16): In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem (God will say it by his
   prophets, by his providences, their neighbours shall say it, they shall
   say it to one another), "Fear thou not, be not disposed to fear, do not
   easily admit the impressions of it; when things are bad, fear not their
   being worse, but hope they will mend; frighten not thyself upon every
   occasion. Let not thy hands be slack or faint; wring not thy hands in
   despair; drop not thy hands in despondence; disfit not thyself for thy
   work and warfare by giving way to doubts and fears. Pluck up thy
   spirits, and, in token of that, lift up thy hands, the hands that hung
   down, Heb. xii. 12; Isa. xxxv. 3. Lift up thy hands in prayer to God;
   lift up thy hands to help thyself." Fear makes the hands slack, but
   faith and hope make them vigorous, and the joy of the Lord will be our
   strength both for doing and suffering.

   Let us now see what these precious promises are which are here made to
   the people of God, for the banishing of their griefs and fears and the
   encouraging of their hopes and joys; and to us are these promises made
   as well as to them.

   I. An end shall be put to all their troubles and distresses (v. 15):
   "The Lord has taken away thy judgments, has removed all the calamities
   thou hast been groaning under, which were the punishments of thy sin;
   the noise of war shall be silenced, the reproach of famine done away,
   and the captivity brought back. Though some grievances remain, they
   shall be only afflictions, and not judgments, for sin shall be
   pardoned. He has cast out thy enemy, that has thrust himself into thy
   land, and triumphed over thee. He has swept out thy enemy" (so some
   read it), "as dirt is swept out of the house to the dunghill." When
   they sweep out their sins with the besom of reformation God will sweep
   out their enemies with the besom of destruction. If they should need
   correction, they shall fall into the hands of the Lord, whose mercies
   are great, and shall not again fall into the hands of man, whose tender
   mercies are cruel: "Thou shalt not see evil any more, not such evil
   days as thou hast seen." Note, The way to get clear of the evil of
   trouble is to keep clear from the evil of sin; and to those that do so
   trouble has no real evil in it.

   II. God will give them the tokens of his presence with them; though he
   has long seemed to stand at a distance (they having provoked him to
   withdraw), he will make it to appear that he is with them of a truth:
   "The Lord is in the midst of thee, O Zion! of thee, O Jerusalem! as the
   sun in the centre of the universe, to diffuse his light and influence
   upon every part. He is in the midst of thee, to preside in all thy
   affairs and to take care of all thy interests." And, 1. "He is the King
   of Israel (v. 15) and is in the midst of thee as a king in the midst of
   his people." With an eye to this, our Lord Jesus is called the King of
   Israel (John i. 49); and he is, and will be, in the midst of his church
   always, even to the end of the world, to receive the homage of his
   subjects, and to give out his favours to them, even where but two or
   three are gathered together in his name. 2. "He is the Lord thy God,
   thine in covenant, and he is in the midst of thee as thy God, whom thou
   hast an interest in and whose own thou art. He has put himself into
   dear relations to thee, laid himself by promise under obligations to
   thee, and, that thou mayest have abundant comfort in both, he is in the
   midst of thee, nigh at hand to answer both." 3. "He that is in the
   midst of thee as thy God and King is mighty, is almighty, is able to do
   all that for thee that thou needest and canst desire." 4. "He has
   engaged his power for thy succour: He will save. He will be Jesus, will
   answer the name, for he will save his people from their sins."

   III. God will take delight in them, and in doing them good. The
   expressions of this are very lively and affecting (v. 17): He will
   rejoice over thee with joy, will not only be well pleased with thee,
   upon thy repentance and reformation, and take thee into favour, but
   will take a complacency in thee, as the bridegroom does in his bride,
   or the bride in her ornaments, Isa. lxii. 3-5. The conversion of
   sinners and the consolation of saints are the joy of angels, for they
   are the joy of God him-self. The church should be the joy of the whole
   earth (Ps. xlviii. 2), for it is the joy of the whole heaven. He will
   rest in his love, will be silent in his love, so the word is. "I will
   not rebuke thee as I have done, for thy sins; I will acquiesce in thee,
   and in my relation to thee." I know not where there is the like
   expression of Christ's love to his church, unless in that song of
   songs, Cant. iv. 9, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse,
   with one of thy eyes. O the condescensions of divine grace! The great
   God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them, is pleased
   that he has pitched upon these objects of his love. He will joy over
   them with singing. He that is grieved for the sin of sinners rejoices
   in the graces and services of the saints, and is ready to express that
   joy by singing over them. The Lord takes plea-sure in those that fear
   him, and in them Jesus Christ will shortly be glorified and admired.

   IV. God will comfort Zion's mourners, who sympathize with her in her
   griefs, and will wipe away their tears (v. 18): I will gather those who
   are sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, to whom the reproach of it was
   a burden. See, 1. Who those are whom God will rejoice in and make to
   rejoice. They are such as are sorrowful. Those only must expect to reap
   in joy that sow in tears. The sorrowful now shall be for ever joyful.
   2. What is the great matter of sorrow to Zion's mourners, when Zion is
   in mourning. Many are her calamities. The city is ruined, and the
   palaces are demolished; trade is at an end, and the administration of
   public justice; but all these are nothing to them in comparison with
   the desolations of the sanctuary, the destruction of the temple and the
   altar, to attend on which, in solemn feasts, all Israel used to come
   together three times a year. It is for those sacred solemn assemblies
   that they are sorrowful, (1.) Because they are dispersed; there is no
   temple to come up to, or, if there were, no people to come up to it; so
   that the solemn feasts and sabbaths are forgotten in Zion, Lam. ii. 6.
   Note, The restraining of public assemblies for religious worship, the
   scattering of them by their enemies, or the forsaking of them by their
   friends, so that either there are no assemblies or not solemn ones, is
   a very sorrowful thing to all good people. If the ways of Zion mourn,
   the sons of Zion mourn too. And hereby they make it to appear that they
   are indeed of Zion, living members of that body with the grievances of
   which they are so sensibly affected. (2.) Because they are despised;
   the reproach of the solemn assemblies is a burden to them. It had been
   the lot of the solemn assemblies to lie under a great deal of reproach.
   Satan and his instruments having a particular spite at them, as the
   great support of the interest of God's kingdom among men. Black and
   odious characters have been put upon those assemblies; and this is a
   burden to all those that have a cordial concern for the glory of God
   and the welfare of the souls of men. They reckon that the reproaches of
   those who reproach the solemn assemblies fall upon them, fall foul upon
   them.

   V. God will recover the captives out of the hands of their oppressors,
   and bring home the banished that seemed to be expelled, v. 19, 20. 1.
   Their enemies shall be disabled to detain them in bondage: "At that
   time I will undo all that afflict thee, will break their power, and
   blast their counsels, so that they shall be forced to surrender the
   prey they have taken." Conficiam--I will take them to task; "I will be
   doing with them shortly, and so as to make an end of them." Note, Those
   that abuse and oppress God's people take the ready way to undo
   themselves. 2. They shall be enabled to assert and recover their
   liberty, and all the difficulties in the way of it shall be surmounted.
   Is the church weak and wounded? I will save her that halts, as was
   promised, Mic. iv. 7. He will help her when she cannot help herself;
   even the lame shall take the prey, Isa. xxxiii. 23. Is she dispersed,
   and not likely to incorporate for her common benefit? I will gather her
   that was driven out, and bring her again at the time that I gather her.
   One act of mercy and grace shall serve both to collect them out of
   their dispersions and to conduct them to their own land. When the
   people's hearts are prepared, the work will be done suddenly; and who
   can hinder it if God undertake to effect it? "I will turn back your
   captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord; you shall plainly discern
   the hand of God in it, and say, This is the Lord's doing."

   VI. God will by all this put honour upon them and gain them respect
   from all about them. Israel was at first made high above all nations in
   praise and fame, Deut. xxvi. 19. The reproach brought upon them was
   therefore one of the sorest of their grievances (nothing cuts deeper to
   those that are in honour than disgrace does); and therefore when God
   returns, in mercy, to his church, it is here promised that she shall
   regain her credit; all the reproach shall be for ever rolled way, as
   Israel's at Gilgal, Josh. v. 9. The church shall be as honourable as
   ever she had been despicable. 1. Even those that reproached her shall
   be made to respect her: "I will get them praise and fame in every land,
   where they have been put to shame, that the same who were the witnesses
   of their disgrace may see cause to change their mind concerning them."
   Those that said, "This is Zion whom no man looks after," shall say,
   "This is Zion whom the great God looks after." And she that was looked
   upon to be the offscouring of the earth now appears to be the darling
   of heaven. 2. Even those that never knew her shall be brought to honour
   her (v. 20): I will make you a name and a praise among all people of
   the earth. So the Jewish church was when the fear of the Jews fell upon
   their neighbours (Esth. viii. 17), and some of all nations said, we
   will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you, Zech. viii.
   23. So the Christian church was when it was made to flourish in the
   world, for there is that in it which may justly recommend it to the
   value and esteem of all the people of the earth. And so the universal
   church of the firstborn will be in the great day, when the saints shall
   be brought together to Christ, that he may be admired and glorified in
   them, and they admired and glorified in him before angels and men. Then
   will God's Israel be made a name and a praise to eternity.
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Haggai
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

H A G G A I.
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   The captivity in Babylon gave a very remarkable turn to the affairs of
   the Jewish church both in history and prophecy. It is made a signal
   epocha in our Saviour's genealogy, Matt. i. 17. Nine of the twelve
   minor prophets, whose oracles we have been hitherto consulting, lived
   and preached before that captivity, and most of them had an eye to it
   in their prophecies, foretelling it as the just punishment of
   Jerusalem's wickedness. But the last three (in whom the Spirit of
   prophecy took its period, until it revived in Christ's forerunner)
   lived and preached after the return out of captivity, not immediately
   upon it, but some time after. Haggai and Zechariah appeared much about
   the same time, eighteen years after the return, when the building of
   the temple was both retarded by its enemies and neglected by its
   friends. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of
   Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Jerusalem, in the name of
   the God of Israel, even unto them (so we read Ezra v. 1), to reprove
   them for their remissness, and to encourage them to revive that good
   work when it had stood still for some time, and to go on with it
   vigorously, notwithstanding the opposition they met with in it. Haggai
   began two months before Zechariah, who was raised up to second him,
   that out of the mouth of two witnesses the word might be established.
   But Zechariah continued longer at the work; for all Haggai's prophecies
   that are recorded were delivered within four months, in the second year
   of Darius, between the beginning of the sixth month and the end of the
   ninth. But we have Zechariah's prophecies dated above two years after,
   Zech. vii. 1. Some have the honour to lead, others to last, in the work
   of God. The Jews ascribe to these two prophets the honour of being
   members of the great synagogue (as they call it), which was formed
   after the return out of captivity; we think it more certain, and it was
   their honour, and a much greater honour, that they prophesied of
   Christ. Haggai spoke of him as the glory of the latter house, and
   Zechariah as the man, the branch. In them the light of that morning
   star shone more brightly than in the foregoing prophecies, as they
   lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and
   now began to see his day approaching. The LXX. makes Haggai and
   Zechariah to be the penmen of Ps. cxxxviii. and of Ps. cxlvi., cxlvii.,
   and cxlviii.
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H A G G A I.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter, after the preamble of the prophecy, we have, I. A
   reproof of the people of the Jews for their dilatoriness and
   slothfulness in building the temple, which had provoked God to contend
   with them by the judgment of famine and scarcity, with an exhortation
   to them to resume that good work and to prosecute it in good earnest,
   ver. 1-11. II. The good success of this sermon, appearing in the
   people's return and close application to that work, wherein the
   prophet, in God's name, animated and encouraged them, assuring them
   that God was with them, ver. 12-15.

The Jews Reproved; God's Controversy with the Jews; The Prophet's Good
Advice. (b. c. 520.)

   1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the
   first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet
   unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua
   the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,   2 Thus speaketh the
   Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time
   that the Lord's house should be built.   3 Then came the word of the
   Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,   4 Is it time for you, O ye, to
   dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?   5 Now
   therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.   6 Ye have
   sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye
   drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is
   none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag
   with holes.   7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.   8
   Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will
   take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.   9 Ye
   looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it
   home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine
   house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.   10
   Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is
   stayed from her fruit.   11 And I called for a drought upon the land,
   and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and
   upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon
   men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

   It was the complaint of the Jews in Babylon that they saw not their
   signs, and there was no more prophet (Ps. lxxiv. 9), which was a just
   judgment upon them for mocking and misusing the prophets. We read of no
   prophets they had in their return, as they had in their coming out of
   Egypt, Hos. xii. 13. God stirred them up immediately by his Spirit to
   exert themselves in that escape (Ezra i. 5); for, though God makes use
   of prophets, he needs them not, he can do his work without them. But
   the lamp of Old-Testament prophecy shall yet make some bright and
   glorious efforts before it expire; and Haggai is the first that appears
   under the character of a special messenger from heaven, when the word
   of the Lord had been long precious (as when prophecy began, 1 Sam. iii.
   1) and there had been no open vision. In the reign of Darius Hystaspes,
   the third of the Persian kings, in the second year of his reign, this
   prophet was sent; and the word of the Lord came to him, and came by him
   to the leading men among the Jews, who are here named, v. 1. The chief
   governor, 1. In the state; that was Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
   of the house of David, who was commander-in-chief of the Jews, in their
   return out of captivity. 2. In the church; and that was Joshua the son
   of Josedech, who was now high priest. They were great men and good men,
   and yet were to be stirred up to their duty when they grew remiss. What
   the people also were faulty in they must be told of, that they might
   use their power and interest for the mending of it. The prophets, who
   were extraordinary messengers, did not go about to set aside the
   ordinary institutions of magistracy and ministry, but endeavoured to
   render both more effectual for the ends to which they were appointed,
   for both ought to be supported. Now observe,

   I. What the sin of the Jews was at this time, v. 2. As soon as they
   came up out of captivity they set up an altar for sacrifice, and within
   a year after laid the foundations of a temple, Ezra iii. 10. They then
   seemed very forward in it, and it was likely enough that the work would
   be done suddenly; but, being served with a prohibition some time after
   from the Persian court, and charged not to go on with it, they not only
   yielded to the force, when they were actually under it, which might be
   excused, but afterwards, when the violence of the opposition had
   abated, they continued very indifferent to it, had no spirit nor
   courage to set about it again, but seemed glad that they had a pretence
   to let it stand still. Though those who are employed for God may be
   driven off from their work by a storm, yet they must return to it as
   soon as the storm is over. These Jews did not do so, but continued
   loitering until they were afresh reminded of their duty. And that which
   they suggested one to another was, The time has not come, the time that
   the Lord's house should be built; that is, 1. "Our time has not come
   for the doing of it, because we have not yet recovered, after our
   captivity; our losses are not repaired, nor have we yet got before-hand
   in the world. It is too great an undertaking for new beginners in the
   world, as we are; let us first get our own houses up, before we talk of
   building churches, and in the mean time let a bare altar serve us, as
   it did our father Abraham." They did not say that they would not build
   a temple at all, but, "Not yet; it is all in good time." Note, Many a
   good work is put by by being put off, as Felix put off the prosecution
   of his convictions to a more convenient season. They do not say that
   they will never repent, and reform, and be religious, but, "Not yet."
   And so the great business we were sent into the world to do is not
   done, under pretence that it is all in good time to go about it. 2.
   "God's time has not come for the doing of it; for (say they) the
   restraint laid upon us by authority in a legal way is not broken off,
   and therefore we ought not to proceed, though there be a present
   connivance of authority." Note, There is an aptness in us to
   misinterpret providential discouragements in our duty, as if they
   amounted to a discharge from our duty, when they are only intended for
   the trial and exercise of our courage and faith. It is bad to neglect
   our duty, but it is worse to vouch Providence for the patronising of
   our neglects.

   II. What the judgments of God were by which they were punished for this
   neglect, v. 6, 9-11. They neglected the building of God's house, and
   put that off, that they might have time and money for their secular
   affairs. They desired to be excused from such an expensive piece of
   work under this pretence, that they must provide for their families;
   their children must have meat and portions too, and, until they have
   got before-hand in the world, they cannot think of rebuilding the
   temple. Now, that the punishment might answer to the sin, God by his
   providence kept them still behind-hand, and that poverty which they
   thought to prevent by not building the temple God brought upon them for
   not building it. They were sensible of the smart of the judgment, and
   every one complained of the unseasonable weather, the great losses they
   sustained in their corn and cattle, and the decay of trade; but they
   were not sensible of the cause of the judgment, and the ground of God's
   controversy with them. They did not, or would not, see and own that it
   was for their putting off the building of the temple that they lay
   under these manifest tokens of God's displeasure; and therefore God
   here gives them notice that this is that for which he contended with
   them. Note, We need the help of God's prophets and ministers to expound
   to us, not only the judgments of God's mouth, but the judgments of his
   hands, that we may understand his mind and meaning in his rod as well
   as in his word, to discover to us not only wherein we have offended
   God, but wherein God shows himself offended at us. Let us observe,

   1. How God contended with them. He did not send them into captivity
   again, nor bring a foreign enemy upon them, as they deserved, but took
   the correcting of them into his own hands; for his mercies are great.
   (1.) He that gives seed to the sower denied his blessing upon the seed
   sown, and then it never prospered; they had nothing, or next to
   nothing, from it. They sowed much (v. 6), kept a great deal of ground
   in tillage, which, they might expect, would turn to a better advantage
   than usual, because their land had long lain fallow and had enjoyed its
   sabbaths. Having sown much, they looked for much from it, enough to
   spend and enough to spare too; but they were disappointed: They bring
   in little, very little (v. 6); when they have made the utmost of it, it
   comes to little (v. 9); it did not yield as they expected. Isa. v. 10,
   The seed of a homer shall yield an ephah, a bushel's sowing shall yield
   a peck. Note, Our expectations from the creature are often most
   frustrated when they are most raised; and then, when we look for much,
   it comes to little, that our expectation may be from God only, in whom
   it will be outdone. We are here told how they came to be disappointed
   (v. 10): The heaven over you is stayed from dew; he that has the key of
   the clouds in his hands shut them up, and withheld the rain when the
   ground called for it, the former or the latter rain, and then of course
   the earth is stayed from her fruit; for, if the heaven be as brass, the
   earth is as iron. The corn perhaps came up very well, and promised a
   very plentiful crop, but, for want of the dews at earing-time, it never
   filled, but was parched with the heat of the sun and withered away. The
   restored captives, who had long been kept bare in Babylon, thought they
   should never want when they had got their own land in possession again
   and had that at command. But what the better are they for it, unless
   they had the clouds at command too? God will make us sensible of our
   necessary and constant dependence upon him, throughout all the links in
   the chain of second causes, from first to last; so that we can at no
   time say, "Now we have no further occasion for God and his providence."
   See Hos. ii. 21. But God not only withheld the cooling rains, but he
   appointed the scorching heats (v. 11): I called for a drought upon the
   land, ordered the weather to be extremely hot, and then the fruits of
   the earth were burnt up. See how every creature is that to us which God
   makes it to be, either comfortable or afflictive, serving us or
   incommoding us. Nothing among the inferior creatures is so necessary
   and beneficial to the world as the heat of the sun; it is that which
   puts life into the plants and renews the face of the earth at spring.
   And yet, if that go into an extreme, it undoes all again. Our Creator
   is our best friend; but, if we make him our enemy, we make the best
   friends we have among the creatures our enemies too. This drought God
   called for, and it came at the call; as the winds and the waves, so the
   rays of the sun, obey him. It was universal, and the ill effects of it
   were general; it was a drought upon the mountains, which, lying high,
   were first affected with it. The mountains were their pasture-grounds,
   and used to be covered over with flocks, but now there was no grass for
   them. It was upon the corn, the new wine, and the oil; all failed
   through the extremity of the hot weather, even all that the ground
   brought forth; it all withered. Nay, it had a bad influence upon men;
   the hot weather enfeebled some, and made them weary and faint, and
   spent their spirits; it inflamed others, and put them into fevers. It
   should seem, it brought diseases upon cattle too. In short, it spoiled
   all the labour of their hands, which they hoped to eat of and maintain
   their families by. Note, Meat for the belly is meat that perishes, and,
   if we labour for that only, we are in danger of losing our labour; but
   we are sure our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord if we labour
   for the meat which endures to eternal life. For the hand of the
   diligent, in the business of religion, will infallibly make rich,
   whereas, in the business of this life, the most solicitous and the most
   industrious often lose the labour of their hands. The race is not to
   the swift, nor the battle to the strong. (2.) He that gives bread to
   the eater denied his blessing upon the bread they ate, and then that
   did not nourish them. The cause of the withering and failing of the
   corn in the field was visible--it was for want of rain; but, besides
   that, there was a secret blast and curse attending that which they
   brought home. [1.] When they had it in the barn they were not sure of
   it: I did blow upon it, saith the Lord of hosts (v. 9), and that
   withered it, as buds are sometimes blasted in the spring by a nipping
   frost, which we see the effects of, but know not the way of. I did blow
   it away; so the margin reads it. When men have heaped wealth together
   God can scatter it with the breath of his mouth as easily as we can
   blow away a feather. Note, We can never be sure of any thing in this
   world; it is exposed, not only when it is in the field, but when it is
   housed; for there moth and rust corrupt, Matt. vi. 19. And, if we would
   have the comfort and continuance of our temporal enjoyments, we must
   make God our friend; for, if he bless them to us, they are blessings
   indeed, but if he blow upon them we can expect no good from them: they
   make themselves wings and fly away. [2.] When they had it upon the
   board it was not that to them that they expected: "You eat, but you
   have not enough, either because the meat is washy, and not satisfying,
   or because the stomach is greedy, and not satisfied. You eat, but you
   have no good digestion, and so are not nourished by it, nor does it
   answer the end, or you have not enough because you are not content, nor
   think it enough. You drink, but are not cooled and refreshed by it; you
   are not filled with drink; you are stinted, and have not enough to
   quench your thirst. The new wine is cut off from your mouth (Joel i.
   5), nay, and you drink your water too by measure and with astonishment;
   you have no comfort of it, because you have no plenty of it, but are
   still in fear of falling short." [3.] That which they had upon their
   backs did them no good there: "You clothe yourselves, but there is none
   warm; your clothes soon wear out, and wax old, and grow thin, because
   God blows upon them," contrary to what Israel's did in the wilderness
   when God blessed them. It is God that makes our garments warm upon us,
   when he quiets the earth, Job xxxvii. 17. [4.] That which they had in
   their bags, which was not laid out, but laid up, they were not sure of:
   "He that earns wages by hard labour, and has it paid him in ready
   current money, puts it into a bag with holes; it drops through, and
   wastes away insensibly. Every thing is so scarce and dear that they
   spend their money as fast as they get it." Those that lay up their
   treasure on earth put it into a bag with holes; they lose it as they go
   along, and those that come after them pick it up. But, if we lay up our
   treasure in heaven, we provide for ourselves bags that wax not old,
   Luke xii. 33.

   2. Observe wherefore God thus contended with them, and stopped the
   current of the favours promised them at their return (Joel ii. 24);
   they provoked him to do it: It is because of my house that is waste.
   This is the quarrel God has with them. The foundation of the temple is
   laid, but the building does not go on. "Every man runs to his own
   house, to finish that, and to make that convenient and fine, and no
   care is taken about the Lord's house; and therefore it is that God
   crosses you thus in all your affairs, to testify his displeasure
   against you for that neglect, and to bring you to a sense of your sin
   and folly." Note, As those who seek first the kingdom of God and the
   righteousness thereof shall not only find them, but are most likely to
   have other things added to them, so those who neglect and postpone
   those things will not only lose them, but will justly have other things
   taken away from them. And if God cross us in our temporal affairs, and
   we meet with trouble and disappointment, we shall find this is the
   cause of it, the work we have to do for God and our own souls is left
   undone, and we seek our own things more than the things of Jesus
   Christ, Phil. ii. 21.

   III. The reproof which the prophet gives them for their neglect of the
   temple-work (v. 4): "Is it time for you, O you! to dwell in your ceiled
   houses, to have them beautified and adorned, and your families settled
   in them?" They were not content with walls and roofs for necessity, but
   they must have for gaiety and fancy. "It is high time," says one, "that
   my house were wainscoted." "It is high time," says another, "that mine
   were painted." And God's house, all this time, lies waste, and nothing
   is done at it. "What!" says the prophet, "is it time that you should
   have your humour pleased, and not time you should have your God
   pleased?" How much was their disposition the reverse of David's, who
   could not be easy in his house of cedar while the ark of God was in
   curtains (2 Sam. vii. 2), and of Solomon's, who built the temple of God
   before he built a palace for himself. Note, Those are very much
   strangers to their own interest who prefer the conveniences and
   ornaments of the temporal life before the absolute necessities of the
   spiritual life, who are full of care to enrich their own houses, while
   God's temple in their hearts lies waste, and nothing is done for it or
   in it.

   IV. The good counsel which the prophet gives to those who thus despised
   God, and whom God was therefore justly displeased with. 1. He would
   have them reflect: Now therefore consider your ways, v. 5 and again v.
   7. "Be sensible of the hand of God gone out against you, and enquire
   into the reason; think what you have done that has provoked God thus to
   break in upon your comforts; and think what you will do to testify your
   repentance, that God may return in mercy to you." Note, It is the great
   concern of every one of us to consider our ways, to set our hearts to
   our ways (so the word is), to think on our ways (Ps. cxix. 59), to
   search and try them (Lam. iii. 40), to ponder the path of our feet
   (Prov. iv. 26), to apply our minds with all seriousness to the great
   and necessary duty of self-examination, and communing with our own
   hearts concerning our spiritual state, our sins that are past, and our
   duty for the future; for sin is what we must answer for, duty is what
   we must do; about these therefore we must be inquisitive, rather than
   about events, which we must leave to God. Many are quick-sighted to pry
   into other people's ways who are very careless of their own; whereas
   our concern is to prove every one his own work, Gal. vi. 4. 2. He would
   have them reform (v. 8): "Go up to the mountain, to Lebanon, and bring
   wood, and other materials that are wanting, and build the house with
   all speed; put it off no longer, but set to it in good earnest." Note,
   Our considering our ways must issue in the amending of whatever we find
   amiss in them. If any duty has been long neglected, that is not a
   reason why it should still be so, but why now at length it should be
   revived; better late than never. For their encouragement to apply in
   good earnest to this work, he assures them, (1.) That they should be
   accepted of him in it: Build the house, and I will take pleasure in it;
   and that was encouragement enough for them to apply to it with alacrity
   and resolution, and to go through with it, whatever it cost them. Note,
   Whatever God will take pleasure in, when it is done, we ought to take
   pleasure in the doing of, and to reckon that inducement enough to set
   about it, and go on with it in good earnest; for what greater
   satisfaction can we have in our own bosoms than in contributing any
   thing towards that which God will take pleasure in? It ought to be the
   top of our ambition to be accepted of the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 9. Though
   they had foolishly neglected the house of God, yet, if at length they
   will resume the care of it, God will not remember against them their
   former neglects, but will take pleasure in the work of their hands.
   Those who have long deferred their return to God, if at length they
   return with all their heart, must not despair of his favour. (2.) That
   he would be honoured by them in it: I will be glorified, saith the
   Lord. He will be served and worshipped in the temple when it is built,
   and sanctified in those that come nigh to him. It is worth while to
   bestow all possible care, and pains, and cost, upon that by which God
   may be glorified.

The People's Obedience. (b. c. 520.)

   12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of
   Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed
   the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet,
   as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the
   Lord.   13 Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message
   unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.   14 And the
   Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor
   of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high
   priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came
   and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,   15 In the
   four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius
   the king.

   As an ear-ring of gold (says Solomon), and an ornament of fine gold, so
   amiable, so acceptable, in the sight of God and man, is a wise reprover
   upon an obedient ear, Prov. xxv. 12. The prophet here was a wise but
   faithful reprover, in God's name, and he met with an obedient ear. The
   foregoing sermon met with the desired success among the people, and
   their obedience met with due encouragement from God. Observe,

   I. How the people returned to God in a way of duty. All those to whom
   that sermon was preached received the word in the love of it, and were
   wrought upon by it. Zerubbabel, the chief governor, did not think
   himself above the check and command of God's word. He was a man that
   had been eminently useful in his day, and serviceable to the interest
   of the church, yet did not plead his former merits in answer to this
   reproof for his present remissness, but submitted to it. Joshua's
   business, as high priest, was to teach, and yet he was willing himself
   to be taught, and willingly received admonition and instruction. The
   remnant of the people (and the whole body of them was but a remnant, a
   very few of the many thousands of Israel) also were very pliable; they
   all obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and bowed their neck to the
   yoke of his commands, and it is here recorded to their honour that they
   did so, v. 12. Their father said, Sons, go work to-day in my vineyard,
   in my temple; and they not only said, We go, sir, but they went
   immediately. 1. They looked upon the prophet to be the Lord's
   messenger, and the word he delivered to be the Lord's message to them;
   and there-fore received it not as the word of man, but as the word of
   Almighty God; they obeyed his words, as the Lord their God had sent
   him, v. 12. Note, In attending to God's ministers we must have an eye
   to him that sent them, and receive them for his sake, while they act
   according to their commission. 2. They did fear before the Lord.
   Prophecy was a new thing with them; they had had no special messenger
   from heaven for a great while, and therefore now that they had one, and
   but one, they paid an extraordinary regard to him; whereas their
   fathers, who had many prophets, mocked and misused them. It is
   sometimes so; when good preaching is most scarce it does most good,
   whereas the manna that is rained in plenty is loathed as light bread.
   And, because they so readily received this prophet, God, within a month
   or two after, raised them up another, Zech. i. 1. They feared before
   the Lord; they had a great regard to the divine authority and a great
   dread of the divine wrath, and were of those that trembled at God's
   word. The judgments of God which they had been under, though very
   severe, had not prevailed to make them fear before the Lord, until the
   word of God was sent to expound his providences, and then they feared.
   Note, A holy fear of God will have a great influence upon our obedience
   to him. Serve the Lord with fear; if we fear him not, we shall not
   serve him. 3. The Lord stirred up their spirits, v. 14. (1.) He excited
   them to their duty, and put it into their hearts to go about it. Note,
   Then the word of God has its success when God by his grace stirs up our
   spirits to comply with it; and without that grace we should remain
   stupid and utterly averse to every thing that is good. It is in the day
   of a divine power that we are made willing. (2.) He encouraged them in
   their duty, and with those encouragements enlarged their hearts, Ps.
   cxix. 32. When they heard the word they feared; but, lest they should
   sink under the weight of that fear, God stirred them up, and made them
   cheerful and bold to encounter the difficulties they might meet with.
   Note, When God has work to do, he will either find or make men fit to
   do it, and stir them up to it. 4. They applied to their work with all
   possible vigour: They came and did work in the house of the Lord of
   hosts their God. Every one, according as his capacity or ability was,
   lent a hand, some way or other, to further that good work; and this
   they did with an eye to God as the Lord of hosts, and as their God, the
   God of Israel. The consideration of God's sovereign dominion in the
   world by his providence, and his covenant-relation to his people by his
   grace, should stir up our spirits to act for him, and for the
   advancement of the interest of his kingdom among men, to the utmost of
   our power. 5. They did this speedily; it was but on the first day of
   the sixth month that Haggai preached them this sermon, and by the
   twenty-fourth of the same month, little more than three weeks after,
   they were all busy working in the house of the Lord their God, v. 15.
   To show that they were ashamed of their delays hitherto, now that they
   were convinced and called they were resolved to delay no longer, but to
   strike while the iron was hot, and to set about the work while they
   were under convictions. Note, Those that have lost time have need to
   redeem time; and the longer we have loitered in that which is good the
   more haste we should make when we are convinced of our folly.

   II. How God met them in a way of mercy. The same prophet that brought
   them the reproof brought them a very comforting encouraging word (v.
   13): Then spoke Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message, in
   his name, and as from him, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. That
   is all he has to say, and that is enough; as that word of Christ to his
   disciples is (Matt. xxviii. 20), "Lo, I am with you always, even to the
   end of the world. I am with you, that is, I will forgive your neglects
   hitherto, and they shall not be remembered against you; I will remove
   the judgments you have been under for those neglects, and will appear
   for you, as I have in them appeared against you. I am with you to
   protect you against your enemies that bear ill-will to your work, and
   to prosper you, and to give you success in it--with you to strengthen
   your hands, and bless the work of them, without which blessing those
   labour in vain that build." Note, Those that work for God have God with
   them; and, if he be for us, who can be against us? If he be with us,
   what difficulty can stand before us?
     __________________________________________________________________

H A G G A I.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have three sermons preached by the prophet Haggai
   for the encouragement of those that are forward to build the temple. In
   the first he assures the builders that the glory of the house they were
   now building should, in spiritual respects, though not in outward,
   exceed that of Solomon's temple, in which he has an eye to the coming
   of Christ, ver. 1-9. In the second he assures them that though their
   sin, in delaying to build the temple, had retarded the prosperous
   progress of all their other affairs, yet now that they had set about it
   in good earnest he would bless them, and give them success, ver. 10-19.
   In the third he assures Zerubbabel that, as a reward of his pious zeal
   and activity herein, he should be a favourite of Heaven, and one of the
   ancestors of Messiah the Prince, whose kingdom should be set up on the
   ruins of all opposing powers, ver. 20-23.

The Glory of the Latter House. (b. c. 520.)

   1 In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came
   the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying,   2 Speak now to
   Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the
   son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people,
   saying,   3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first
   glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison
   of it as nothing?   4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord;
   and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be
   strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am
   with you, saith the Lord of hosts:   5 According to the word that I
   covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth
   among you: fear ye not.   6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once,
   it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and
   the sea, and the dry land;   7 And I will shake all nations, and the
   desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with
   glory, saith the Lord of hosts.   8 The silver is mine, and the gold is
   mine, saith the Lord of hosts.   9 The glory of this latter house shall
   be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this
   place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

   Here is, I. The date of this message, v. 1. It was sent on the
   twenty-first day of the seventh month, when the builders had been about
   a month at work (since the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month), and
   had got it in some forwardness. Note, Those that are hearty in the
   service of God shall receive fresh encouragements from him to proceed
   in it, as their case calls for them. Set the wheels a going, and God
   will oil them.

   II. The direction of this message, v. 2. The encouragements here are
   sent to the same persons to whom the reproofs in the foregoing chapter
   are directed; for those that are wounded by the convictions of the word
   shall be healed and bound up by its consolations. Speak to Zerubbabel,
   and Joshua, and the residue of the people, the very same that obeyed
   the voice of the Lord (ch. i. 12) and whose spirits God stirred up to
   do so (ch. i. 14); to them are sent these words of comfort.

   III. The message itself, in which observe,

   1. The discouragements which those laboured under who were employed in
   this work. That which was such a damp upon them, and an alloy to their
   joy, when the foundation of the temple was laid, was still a clog upon
   them--that they could not build such a temple now as Solomon built, not
   so large, so stately, so sumptuous, a one as that was. This fetched
   tears from the eyes of many, when the dimensions of it were first laid
   (Ezra iii. 12), and still it made the work go on heavily--that the
   glory of this house, in comparison with that of the former, was as
   nothing, v. 3. It was now about seventy years since Solomon's temple
   was destroyed (for that was in the nineteenth year of the captivity,
   and this about the nineteenth after the captivity), so that there might
   be some yet alive who could remember to have seen it, and still they
   would be upbraiding themselves and their brethren with the great
   disparity between this house and that. One could remember the gold with
   which it was overlaid, another the precious stones with which it was
   garnished; one could describe the magnificence of the porch, another of
   the pillars--and where are these now? This weakened the hands of the
   builders; for, though our gracious God is pleased with us if we do in
   sincerity as well as we can in his service, yet our proud hearts will
   scarcely let us be pleased with ourselves unless we do as well as
   others whose abilities far exceed ours. And it is sometimes the fault
   of old people to discourage the services of the present age by crying
   up too much the performances and attainments of the former age, with
   which others should be provoked to emulation, but not exposed to
   contempt. Say not thou that the former days were better than these
   (Eccl. vii. 10), but thank God that there is any good in these, bad as
   they are.

   2. The encouragement that is given them to go on in the work,
   notwithstanding (v. 4): Yet now, though this house is likely to be much
   inferior to the former, be strong, O Zerubbabel! and be strong, O
   Joshua! Let not these leading men give way to this suggestion, nor be
   disheartened by it, but do as well as they can, when they cannot do so
   well as they would; and let all the people of the land be strong too,
   and work; and, if the leaders have but a good heart on it, it is hoped
   that the followers will have the better heart. Note, Those that work
   for God ought to exert themselves with vigour, and then to encourage
   themselves with hope that it will end well.

   3. The grounds of these encouragements. God himself says to them, Fear
   you not (v. 5), and he gives good reasons for it.

   (1.) They have God with them, his Spirit and his special presence: Be
   strong, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 4. This he had
   said before (ch. i. 13), I am with you. But we need to have these
   assurances repeated, that we may have strong consolation. The presence
   of God with us, as the Lord of hosts, is enough to silence all our
   fears and to help us over all the discouragements we may meet with in
   the way of our duty. The Jews had hosts against them, but they had the
   Lord of hosts with them, to take their part and plead their cause. He
   is with them; for, [1.] He adheres to his promise. His covenant is
   inviolable, and he will be always theirs, and will appear and act for
   them, according to the word that he covenanted with them when they came
   out of Egypt. Though he chastens them for their transgressions with the
   rod, yet he will not make his faithfulness to fail. [2.] He dwells
   among them by his Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy. When he first formed
   them into a people he gave his good Spirit to instruct them (Neh. ix.
   20); and still the Spirit, though often grieved and provoked to
   withdraw, remained among them. It was the Spirit of God that stirred up
   their spirits to come out of Babylon (Ezra i. 5), and now to build the
   temple, Hag. i. 14. Note, We have reason to be encouraged as long as we
   have the Spirit of God remaining among us to work upon us, for so long
   we have God with us to work for us.

   (2.) They shall have the Messiah among them shortly--him that should
   come. To him bore all the prophets witness and this prophet
   particularly here, v. 6, 7. Here is an intimation of the time of his
   coming, that it should not be long ere he came: "Yet once, it is a
   little while, and he shall come. The Old-Testament church has but one
   stage more (if we may say so) to travel; five stages were now past,
   from Adam to Noah, thence to Abraham, thence to Moses, thence to
   Solomon's temple, thence to the captivity, and now yet one stage more,
   its sixth day's journey, and then comes the sabbatism of the Messiah's
   kingdom. Let the Son of man, when he comes, find faith on the earth,
   and let the children of promise continue still looking for him, for now
   it is but a little while and he will come; hold out, faith and
   patience, yet awhile, for he that shall come will come, and will not
   tarry." And, as he then said of his first appearance, so now of his
   second, Surely I come quickly. Now concerning his coming it is here
   foretold, [1.] That it shall be introduced by a general shaking (v. 6):
   I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.
   This is applied to the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world, to
   make way for which he will judge among the heathen, Ps. cx. 6. God will
   once again do for his church as he did when he brought them out of
   Egypt; he shook the heavens and earth at Mount Sinai, with thunder, and
   lightnings, and earthquakes; he shook the sea and the dry land when
   lanes were made through the sea and streams fetched out of the rock.
   This shall be done again, when, at the sufferings of Christ, the sun
   shall be darkened, the earth shake, the rocks rend--when, at the birth
   of Christ, Herod and all Jerusalem are troubled (Matt. ii. 3), and he
   is set for the fall and rising again of many. When his kingdom was set
   up it was with a shock to the nations; the oracles were silenced, idols
   were destroyed, and the powers of the kingdoms were moved and removed,
   Heb. xii. 27. It denotes the removing of the things that are shaken.
   Note, The shaking of the nations is often in order to the settling of
   the church and the establishing of the things that cannot be shaken.
   [2.] That it shall issue in a general satisfaction. He shall come as
   the desire of all nations--desirable to all nations, for in him shall
   all the families of the earth be blessed with the best of
   blessings--long expected and desired by the good people in all nations,
   that had any intelligence from the Old-Testament predictions concerning
   him. Balaam in the land of Moab had spoken of a star that should arise
   out of Jacob, and Job in the land of Uz of his living Redeemer; the
   concourse of devout men from all parts at Jerusalem (Acts ii. 5) was in
   expectation of the setting up of the Messiah's kingdom about that time.
   All the nations that are brought in to Christ, and discipled in his
   name, have called him, and will call him, all their salvation and all
   their desire. This glorious title of Christ seems to refer to Jacob's
   prophecy (Gen. xlix. 10), that to him shall the gathering of the people
   be.

   (3.) The house they are now building shall be filled with glory to such
   a degree that its glory shall exceed that of Solomon's temple. The
   enemies of the Jews followed them with reproach, and cast contempt upon
   the house they were building; but they might very well endure that when
   God undertook to fill it with glory. It is God's prerogative to fill
   with glory; the glory that comes from him is satisfying, and not vain
   glory. Moses's tabernacle and Solomon's temple were filled with glory
   when God in a cloud took possession of them; but this house shall be
   filled with glory of another nature. [1.] Let them not be concerned
   because this house will not have so much silver and gold about it as
   Solomon's temple had, v. 8. God needs not the silver and gold to adorn
   his temple, for (says he), The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.
   All the silver and gold in the world are his; all that is hid in the
   bowels of the earth (for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness
   thereof), all that is laid up in the exchequers, banks, and treasuries
   of the children of men, and all that circulates for the maintaining of
   trade and commerce; it is all the Lord's. Every penny bears his image
   as well as Cæsar's; and therefore when gold and silver are dedicated to
   his honour, and employed in his service, no addition is made to him,
   for it was his before. When David and his princes offered vast sums for
   the service of the house of God, they acknowledged, It is all thy own,
   and of thy own, Lord, have we given thee, 1 Chron. xxix. 14, 16.
   Therefore God needs not sacrifice, for every beast of the forest is
   his, Ps. l. 10. Note, If we have silver and gold, we must serve and
   honour God with them, for they are all his own, we have but the use of
   them, the property remains in him; but, if we have not silver and gold
   to honour him with, we must honour him with such as we have, and he
   will accept us, for he needs them not; all the silver and gold in the
   world are his already. The earth is full of his riches, so is the great
   and wide sea also. [2.] Let them be comforted with this, that, though
   this temple have less gold in it, it shall have more glory than
   Solomon's (v. 9): The glory of this latter house shall be greater than
   of the former. This was never true in respect of outward glory. This
   latter house was indeed in its latter times very much beautified and
   enriched by Herod, and we find the disciples admiring the stones and
   buildings of the temple, how fine they were (Mark xiii. 1); but it was
   nothing in comparison with Solomon's temple; and, besides, the Jews own
   that several of the divine glories of the first temple were wanting in
   this--the ark, the urim and thummim, the fire from heaven, and the
   Schechinah; so that we cannot conceive how the glory of this latter
   house should in any thing exceed that of the former, but in that which
   would indeed excel all the glories of the first house--the presence of
   the Messiah in it, the Son of God, his being presented there the glory
   of his people Israel, his attending there at twelve years old, and
   afterwards his preaching and working miracles there, and his driving
   the buyers and sellers out of it. It was necessary, then, that the
   Messiah should come while the second temple stood; but, that being long
   since destroyed, we must conclude that our Lord Jesus is the Christ, is
   he that should come, and we are to look for no other. It was also the
   glory of this latter house, First, That, before the coming of Christ,
   it was always kept free from idols and idolatries, and was never
   polluted with those abominable things, as the first temple often was (2
   Kings xxiii. 11, 12), and in this its glory excelled all the glory of
   that. Note, The purity of the church, and the strict adherence to
   divine institutions, are much more its glory than external pomp and
   splendour. Secondly, That, after Christ, the gospel was preached in it
   by the apostles, even all the words of this life, Acts v. 20. In the
   temple Jesus Christ was daily preached, Acts v. 42. Now the
   ministration of righteousness and life by the gospel was unspeakably
   more glorious than the law, which was a ministration of death and
   condemnation, 2 Cor. iii. 9, 10. Note, That is the most valuable glory
   which arises from our relation to Christ and our interest in him. As,
   where Christ is, behold a greater than Solomon is there, so the heart
   in which he dwells, and makes a living temple, behold it is more
   glorious than Solomon's temple, and will be so to eternity.

   (4.) They should see a comfortable end of their present troubles, and
   enjoy the pleasure of a happy settlement: In this place will I give
   peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Note, God's presence with his people in
   his ordinances secures to them all good. If God be with us, peace is
   with us. But the Jews under the latter temple had so much trouble that
   we must conclude this promise to have its accomplishment in that
   spiritual peace which Jesus Christ has by his blood purchased for, and
   by his last will and testament bequeathed to, all believers (John xiv.
   27), that peace which Christ himself preached as the prophet of peace,
   and gives as the prince of peace. God will give peace in this place; he
   will give his Son to be the peace, Eph. ii. 14.

Evil More Communicable than Good; Encouragement to Build the Temple. (b.
c. 520.)

   10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year
   of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
   11 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the
   law, saying,   12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment,
   and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any
   meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.   13
   Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of
   these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall
   be unclean.   14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and
   so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of
   their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.   15 And now,
   I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was
   laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord:   16 Since those days
   were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten:
   when one came to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the
   press, there were but twenty.   17 I smote you with blasting and with
   mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned
   not to me, saith the Lord.   18 Consider now from this day and upward,
   from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day
   that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it.   19 Is
   the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and
   the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this
   day will I bless you.

   This sermon was preached two months after that in the former part of
   the chapter. The priests and Levites preached constantly, but the
   prophets preached occasionally; both were good and needful. We have
   need to be taught our duty in season and out of season. The people were
   now going on vigorously with the building of the temple, and in hopes
   shortly to have it ready for their use and to be employed in the
   services of it; and now God sends them a message by his prophet, which
   would be of use to them.

   I. By way of conviction and caution. They were now engaged in a very
   good work, but they were concerned to see to it, not only that it was
   good for the matter of it, but that it was done in a right manner, for
   otherwise it would not be accepted of God. God sees there are many
   among them that spoil this good work, by going about it with
   unsanctified hearts and hands, and are likely to gain no advantage to
   themselves by it; these are here convicted, and all are warned thereby
   to purify the hands they employ in this work, for to the pure only all
   things are pure, and from the pure only that comes which is pure. This
   matter is here illustrated by the established rules of the ceremonial
   law, in putting a difference between the clean and the unclean, about
   which many of the appointments of the law were conversant. Hereby it
   appears that a spiritual use is to be made of the ceremonial law, and
   that it was intended, not only as a divine ritual to the Jews, but for
   instruction in righteousness to all, even to us upon whom the ends of
   the world have come, to discover to us both sin and Christ, both our
   disease and our remedy. Now observe here,

   1. What the rule of the law was. The prophet is ordered to enquire of
   the priests concerning it (v. 11); for their lips should keep this
   knowledge, and the people should enquire the law at their mouth, Mal.
   ii. 7. Haggai himself, though a prophet, must ask the priests
   concerning the law. His business, as an extraordinary messenger, was to
   expound the providences of God, and to give directions concerning
   particular duties, as he had done, ch. i. 8, 9. But he would not take
   the priests' work out of the hands of those who were the ordinary
   ministers, and whose business it was to expound the ordinances of God,
   to teach the people the meaning of them, and to give the general rules
   for the observance of them. In a case of that nature, Haggai must
   himself consult them. Note, God has given to his ministers diversities
   of gifts, and calls them out to do diversities of services, so that
   they have need one of another, should make use one of another, and be
   helpful one to another. The prophet, though divinely inspired, cannot
   say to the priest, I have no need of thee, nor can the priest say so to
   the prophet. Perhaps Haggai was therefore ordered to consult the
   priests, that out of their own mouths he might judge both them and the
   people committed to their charge, and convict them of worse than
   ceremonial pollution. See Lev. x. 10, 11. Now the rules of the law, in
   the cases propounded, are, (1.) That he that has holy flesh in his
   clothes cannot by the touch of his clothes communicate holiness (v.
   12): If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, though the
   garment is thereby so far made a devoted thing as that it is not to be
   put to common use till it has first been washed in the holy place (Lev.
   vi. 27), yet it shall by no means transmit a holiness to either meat or
   drink, so as to make it ever the better to those that use it. (2.) That
   he that is ceremonially unclean by the touch of a dead body does by his
   touch communicate that uncleanness. The law is express (Num. xix. 22),
   Whatsoever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; yet this Haggai
   will have from the priests' own mouth, for concerning those things that
   we find very plain in our Bibles yet it is good to have the advice of
   our ministers. The sum of these two rules is that pollution is more
   easily communicated than sanctification; that is (says Grotius), There
   are many ways of vice, but only one of virtue, and that a difficult
   one. Bonum oritur ex integris; malum ex quolibet defectu--Good implies
   perfection; evil commences with the slightest defect. Let not men think
   that living among good people will recommend them to God if they are
   not good themselves, but let them fear that touching the unclean thing
   will defile them, and therefore let them keep at a distance from it.

   2. How it is here applied (v. 14): So is this people, and so is this
   nation, before me. He does not call them his people and his nation
   (they are unworthy to be owned by him), but this people, and this
   nation. They have been thus before God; they thought their offering
   sacrifices on the altar would sanctify them, and excuse their neglect
   to build the temple, and remove the curse which by that neglect they
   had brought upon their common enjoyments: "No," says God, "your holy
   flesh and your altar will be so far from sanctifying your meat and
   drink, your wine and oil, to you, that your contempt of God's temple
   will bring a pollution, not only on your common enjoyments, but even on
   your sacrifices too; so that while you continued in that neglect all
   was unclean to you, nay, and so is this people still; and so they will
   be; on these terms they will still stand with me, and on no other--that
   if they be profane, and sensual, and morally impure, if they have
   wicked hearts, and live wicked lives, though they work ever so hard at
   the temple while it is building, and though they offer ever so many and
   costly sacrifices there when it is built, yet that shall not serve to
   sanctify their meat and drink to them, and to give them a comfortable
   use of them; nay, the impurity of their hearts and lives shall make
   even that work of their hands, and all their offerings, unclean, and an
   abomination to God." And the case is the same with us. Those whose
   devotions are plausible, but whose conversation is wicked, will find
   their devotions unable to sanctify their enjoyments, but their
   wickedness prevailing to pollute them. Note, When we are employed in
   any good work we should be jealous over ourselves, lest we render it
   unclean by our corruptions and mismanagements.

   II. By way of comfort and encouragement. If their hearts be right with
   God, and their eye single in his service, they shall have the benefit
   of their devotion. God will take away the judgment of famine wherewith
   they have been corrected for their remissness, and will restore them
   great plenty. This they are called to consider, and to observe whether
   God would not be to the utmost as good as his word, and by his
   providence remarkably countenance and recompense their reformation in
   this matter. To make this the more signal, let them set down the day
   when they began to work at the building of the temple, to raise the
   structure upon the foundations that had been laid some time before. On
   the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month they began to prepare
   materials (ch. i. 15), and now on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth
   month they began to lay a stone upon a stone in the temple of the Lord;
   let them take notice of this day, and observe, 1. How they had gone
   behind-hand in their estates before this day. Let them remember the
   time when there was a sensible waste and decay in all they had, v. 16.
   A man went to his garner, expecting to find a heap of twenty measures
   of corn, so much he used to have from such a piece of ground, or so
   much used to be left at that time of the year, or so much he took it
   for granted there was when he fetched the last from it, but he found it
   unaccountably diminished, and, when he came to measure it, there were
   but ten measures; it had run in and dried away in the keeping, or
   vermin had eaten it, or it was stolen. In like manner he went to the
   wine-press, expecting to draw fifty vessels of wine, for so much he
   used to have from such a quantity of grapes, but they did not yield as
   usual, for he could get but twenty. This agrees with what we had, ch.
   i. 9, You looked for much, and it came to little. Note, It is our folly
   that we are apt to raise our expectation from the creature, and to
   think tomorrow must needs be as this day and much more abundant, but we
   are commonly disappointed, and the more we expect the more grievous the
   disappointment is. In the stores and treasures of the new covenant we
   need not fear being disappointed when we come by faith to draw from
   them. But this was not all. God did visibly contend with them in the
   weather (v. 17): I smote you with blastings, winds and frosts, which
   made every green thing to wither, and with mildew, which choked the
   corn when it was knitting, and with hail, which battered it down and
   broke it when it had grown to some maturity; thus they were
   disappointed in all the labour of their hands, while they neglected to
   lay their hand to the work of God and to labour in that. Note, While we
   take no care of God's interest we cannot expect he should take care of
   ours. And, when he thus walks contrary to us, he expects that we should
   return to him and to our duty. But this people either saw not the hand
   of God in it (imputing it to chance) or saw not their own sin as the
   provoking cause of it, and therefore turned not to him. They were a
   long time incorrigible and unhumbled under these rebukes, so that God's
   hand was stretched out still, for the people turned not to him that
   smote them, Isa. ix. 12, 13. They might easily observe that as long as
   they continued in neglect of the temple work all their affairs went
   backward. But, 2. Let them now observe, and they should find that from
   this day forward God would bless them (v. 18, 19): "Consider now
   whether when you begin to change you way towards God you do not find
   God changing his way towards you; from this day, when you fall to work
   about the temple, consider it, I say, and you shall find a remarkable
   turn given for the better to all your affairs. Is the seed yet in the
   barn? Yes it is, and not yet thrown into the ground. The fruit-trees do
   not as yet bud, the vine, and the fig-tree, and the olive-tree, have
   not as yet brought forth, so that nothing appears to promise a good
   harvest or vintage next year. Nature does not promise it; but now that
   you begin to apply in good earnest to your duty, the God of nature
   promises it; he has said, From this day I will bless you. It is the
   best day's work you ever did in your lives, for hence you may date the
   return of your prosperity." He does not say what they shall be, but, in
   general, I will bless you; and those that know what are the fruits
   flowing from God's blessing know they can desire no more to make them
   happy. "I will bless you, and then you shall soon recover all your
   losses, shall thrive as fast as before you went backward; for the
   blessing of the Lord, that maketh rich, and those whom he blesses are
   blessed indeed." Note, When we begin to make conscience of our duty to
   God we may expect his blessing; and this tree of life is so known by
   its fruits that one may discern almost to a day a remarkable turn of
   Providence in favour of those that return in a way of duty; so that
   they and others may say that from this day they are blessed. See Mal.
   iii. 10. And whoso is wise will observe these things, and understand by
   them the lovingkindness of the Lord.

Encouraging Promises; A Promise to Zerubbabel. (b. c. 520.)

   20 And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and
   twentieth day of the month, saying,   21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor
   of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;   22 And I
   will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength
   of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and
   those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come
   down, every one by the sword of his brother.   23 In that day, saith
   the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son
   of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I
   have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.

   After Haggai's sermon ad populum--to the people, here follows one, the
   same day, ad magistratum--to the magistrates, a word directed
   particularly to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, who was a leading
   active man in this good work which the people now set about, and
   therefore he shall have some particular marks put upon him (v. 21):
   Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, speak to him by himself. He has
   thoughts in his head far above those of the common people, as wise
   princes are wont to have, who move in a higher and larger sphere than
   others. The people of the land are in care about their corn-fields and
   vineyards; God has assured them that they shall prosper, and we hope
   that will make them easy; but Zerubbabel is concerned about the
   community and its interests, about the neighbouring nations, and the
   revolutions of their governments, and what will become of the few and
   feeble Jews in those changes and convulsions, and how such a poor
   prince as he is should be able to keep his ground and serve his
   country. "Go to him," says God, "and tell him it shall be well with him
   and his remnant, and let that make him easy."

   I. Let him expect to hear of great commotions in the nations of the
   earth, and let them not be a surprise to him; behold, he is told of
   them before (v. 21, 22): I will shake the heavens and the earth. This
   he had said before (v. 6, 7), and now says it again to Zerubbabel; let
   him expect shaking times, universal concussions. The world is like the
   sea, like the wheel, always in motion, but sometimes in a special
   manner turbulent. But, Blessed be God, if the earth be shaken, it is to
   shake the wicked out of it, Job xxxviii. 13. In the apocalyptic visions
   earthquakes bode no ill to the church. Here the heavens and the earth
   are shaken, that proud oppressors may be broken and brought down: I
   will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. The Chaldean monarchy, which had
   been the throne of kingdoms a great while, was already overthrown; and
   the powers that are, and are yet to come, shall in like manner be
   overthrown; their day will come to fall. 1. Though they be ever so
   powerful, yet the strength of their kingdoms shall be destroyed. They
   trust in chariots and horses (Ps. xx. 7), but their chariots shall be
   overthrown, and those that ride in them, so that they shall not be able
   to attack the people of God, whom they persecute, not to escape the
   judgments of God, which persecute them. 2. Though there appear none
   likely to be the instruments of their destruction, yet God will bring
   it about, for they shall be brought down every one by the sword of his
   brother. This reads the doom of all the enemies of God's church, that
   will not repent to give him glory; it seems likewise designed as a
   promise of Christ's victory over the powers of darkness, his overthrow
   of Satan's throne, that throne of kingdoms, the throne of the god of
   this world, the taking from him all the armour wherein he trusted and
   dividing the spoil. And all opposing rule, principality, and power,
   shall be put down, that the kingdom may be delivered up to God, even
   the Father.

   II. Let him depend upon it that he shall be safe under the divine
   protection in the midst of all these commotions, v. 23. Zerubbabel was
   active to build God a house, and therefore God makes the same promise
   to him as he did to David on the like occasion--that he would build him
   a house, and establish it, even in that day when heaven and earth are
   shaken. This promise refers to this good man himself and to his family.
   He honoured God, and God would honour him. His successors likewise in
   the government of Judah might take encouragement from it; though their
   authority was very precarious as to men, yet God would confirm it, and
   this would contribute to the stability of the people over whom God had
   set them. But this promise has special reference to Christ, who
   lineally descended from Zerubbabel, and is the sole builder of the
   gospel-temple. 1. Zerubbabel is here owned as God's servant, and it is
   an honourable mention that is hereby made of him, as Moses and David my
   servants. When God destroys his enemies he will prefer his servants.
   Our Lord Jesus is his Father's servant in the work of redemption, but
   faithful as a Son, Isa. xlii. 1. 2. He is owned as God's elect: I have
   chosen thee to this office; and whom God makes choice of he will make
   use of. Our Lord Jesus is chosen of God, 1 Pet. ii. 4. And he is the
   head of the chosen remnant; in him they are chosen. 3. It is promised
   that, being chosen, God will make him as a signet. Jeconiah had been as
   the signet on God's right hand, but was plucked thence (Jer. xxii. 24);
   and now Zerubbabel is substituted in the room of him. He shall be near
   and dear to God, precious in his sight, and honourable, and his family
   shall continue till the Messiah spring out of it, who is the signet on
   God's right hand. This intimates, (1.) The delight the Father has in
   him. In him he once and again declared himself to be well pleased. He
   is set as a seal upon his heart, a seal upon his arm, is brought near
   unto him (Dan. vii. 13), is hidden in the shadow of his hand, Isa.
   xlix. 2. (2.) The dominion the Father has entrusted him with. Princes
   sign their edicts, grants, and commissions, with their signet-rings,
   Esth. iii. 10. Our Lord Jesus is the signet on God's right hand, for
   all power is given to him and derived from him. By him the great
   charter of the gospel is signed and ratified, and it is in him that all
   the promises of God are yea and amen.
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Zechariah
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

Z E C H A R I A H.
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   This prophet was colleague with the prophet Haggai, and a worker
   together with him in forwarding the building of the second temple (Ezra
   v. 1); for two are better than one. Christ sent forth his disciples two
   and two. Zechariah began to prophesy some time after Haggai. But he
   continued longer, soared higher in visions and revelations, wrote more,
   and prophesied more particularly concerning Christ, than Haggai had
   done; so the last shall be first: the last in time sometimes proves
   first in dignity. He begins with a plain practical sermon, expressive
   of that which was the scope of his prophesying, in the first five
   verses; but afterwards, to the end of ch. vi., he relates the visions
   he saw, and the instructions he received immediately from heaven by
   them. At ch. vii., from an enquiry made by the Jews concerning fasting,
   he takes occasion to show them the duty of their present day, and to
   encourage them to hope for God's favour, to the end of ch. viii., after
   which there are two sermons, which are both called burdens of the word
   of the Lord (one begins with ch. ix., the other with ch. xii.), which
   probably were preached some time after; the scope of them is to reprove
   for sin, and threaten God's judgments against the impenitent, and to
   encourage those that feared God with assurances of the mercy God had in
   store for his church, and especially of the coming of the Messiah and
   the setting up of his kingdom in the world.
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Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. I.

   In this chapter, after the introduction (ver. 1), we have, I. An
   awakening call to a sinful people to repent of their sins and return to
   God, ver. 2-6. II. Great encouragement given to hope for mercy. 1. By
   the vision of the horses, ver. 7-11. 2. By the prayer of the angel for
   Jerusalem, and the answer to that prayer, ver. 12-17. 3. By the vision
   of the four carpenters that were employed to cut off the four horns
   with which Judah and Jerusalem were scattered, ver. 18-21.

Repentance Urged. (b. c. 520.)

   1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of
   the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the
   prophet, saying,   2 The Lord hath been sore displeased with your
   fathers.   3 Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of
   hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto
   you, saith the Lord of hosts.   4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom
   the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
   Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they
   did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord.   5 Your fathers,
   where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?   6 But my
   words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did
   they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as
   the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and
   according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

   Here is, I. The foundation of Zechariah's ministry; it is laid in a
   divine authority: The word of the Lord came to him. He received a
   divine commission to be God's mouth to the people and with it
   instructions what to say. He received of the Lord that which also he
   delivered unto them. The word of the Lord was to him; it came in the
   evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, as a real thing, and not a
   fancy. For the ascertaining of this, we have here, 1. The time when the
   word of the Lord came first to him, or when the word that next follows
   came to him: it was in the second year of Darius. Before the captivity
   the prophets dated their writings by the reigns of the kings of Judah
   and Israel; but now by the reigns of the kings of Persia, to whom they
   were subjects. Such a melancholy change had sin made of their
   circumstances. Zerubbabel took not so much state upon him as to have
   public acts dated by the years of his government, and in things of this
   nature the prophets, as is fit, complied with the usage of the time,
   and scrupled not to reckon by the years of the heathen kings, as Dan.
   vii. 1; viii. 1. Zechariah preached his first sermon in the eighth
   month of this second year of Darius; Haggai preached his in the sixth
   month of the same year, Hag. i. 1. The people being readily obedient to
   the word of the Lord in the mouth of Haggai, God blessed them with
   another prophet; for to him that has, and uses well what he has, more
   shall be given. 2. The name and family of the prophet to whom the word
   of the Lord came; He was Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, the son of
   Iddo, and he was the prophet, as Haggai is called the prophet, Hag. i.
   1. For, though in former ages there was one Iddo a prophet (2 Chron.
   xii. 15), yet we have no reason to think that Zechariah was of his
   progeny, or should be denominated from him. The learned Mr. Pemble is
   decidedly of opinion that this Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, is the
   same that our Saviour says was slain between the temple and the altar,
   perhaps many years after the rebuilding of the temple (Matt. xxiii.
   35), and that our Saviour does not mean (as is commonly thought)
   Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, for why should Jehoiada be called
   Barachiah? And he thinks the manner of Christ's account persuades us to
   think so; for, reckoning up the innocent blood shed by the Jews, he
   begins at Abel, and ends even in the last of the holy prophets.
   Whereas, after Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, many prophets and
   righteous men were put to death by them. It is true there is no mention
   made in any history of their slaying this Zechariah, but Josephus might
   industriously conceal that shame of his nation. Perhaps what Zechariah
   spoke in his prophesying concerning Christ of his being sold, his being
   wounded in the house of his friends, and the shepherd being smitten,
   was verified in the prophet himself, and so he became a type of Christ.
   Probably, being assaulted by his persecutors, he took sanctuary in the
   court of the priests (and some think he was himself a priest), and so
   was slain between the porch and the altar.

   II. The first-fruits of Zechariah's ministry. Before he came to visions
   and revelations, and delivered his prophetic discourses, he preached
   that which was plain and practical; for it is best to begin with that.
   Before he published the promises of mercy, he published calls to
   repentance, for thus the way of the Lord must be prepared. Law must be
   first preached, and then gospel. Now,

   1. The prophet here puts them in mind of the controversy God had had
   with their fathers (v. 2): "The Lord has been sorely displeased with
   your fathers, and has laid them under the tokens of his displeasure.
   You have heard with your ears, and your fathers have told you of it;
   you have seen with your eyes the woeful remains of it. God's quarrel
   with you has been of long standing, and therefore it is time for you to
   think of taking it up." Note, The judgments of God, which those that
   went before us were under, should be taken as warnings to us not to
   tread in their steps, and calls to repentance, that we may cut off the
   entail of the curse and get it turned into a blessing.

   2. He calls them, in God's name, to return to him, and make their peace
   with him, v. 3. God by him says that to this backsliding people which
   he had often said by his servants the prophets: "Turn you to me in a
   way of faith and repentance, duty and obedience, and I will turn to you
   in a way of favour and mercy, peace and reconciliation." Let the rebels
   return to their allegiance, and they shall be taken under the
   protection of the government and enjoy all the privileges of good
   subjects. Let them change their way, and God will change his. See Mal.
   iii. 7. But that which is most observable here is that God is called
   here the Lord of hosts three times: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts. It
   is he that speaks, and therefore you are bound to regard what he says."
   Turn you to me, saith the Lord of hosts (this intimates the authority
   and obligation of the command), and I will turn to you, saith the Lord
   of hosts--this intimates the validity and value of the promise; so that
   it is no vain repetition. Note, The consideration of God's almighty
   power and sovereign dominion should both engage and encourage sinners
   to repent and turn to him. It is very desirable to have the Lord of
   hosts our friend and very dreadful to have him our enemy.

   3. He warns them not to persist in their impenitence, as their fathers
   had done (v. 4): Be you not as your fathers. Instead of being hardened
   in their evil courses by the example of their fathers' sins, let them
   rather be deterred from them by the example of their fathers'
   punishment. We are apt to be governed very much by precedent, and we
   are well or ill governed according to the use we make of the precedents
   before us. The same examples to some are a savour of life unto life, to
   others a savour of death unto death. Some argued, "Shall we be wiser
   than our fathers? They never minded the prophets, and why then should
   we mind them? They made laws against them, and why should we tolerate
   them?" But they are here taught how they should argue: "Our fathers
   slighted the prophets, and God was sorely displeased with them for it;
   therefore let us the more carefully regard what God says to us by his
   prophets." "Review what is past, and observe,"

   (1.) "What was the message that God sent by his servants the prophets
   to your fathers: The former prophets cried to your fathers. cried
   aloud, and did not spare, not spare themselves, not spare your fathers;
   they cried as men in earnest, as men that would be heard; they spoke
   not as from themselves, but in the name of the Lord of hosts; and this
   was the substance of what they said, the burden of every song, the
   application of every sermon--Turn you now from your evil ways, and from
   your evil doings; the very same that we now preach to you. Be persuaded
   to leave your sins; resolve to have no more to do with them. A speedy
   reformation is the only way to prevent an approaching ruin: Turn you
   now from sin to God without delay."

   (2.) "How little this message was regarded by your fathers: But they
   did not hear, they did not heed. They turned a deaf ear to these calls:
   They would not hearken unto me, saith the Lord. They would not be
   reclaimed, would not be ruled, by the word I sent them; say not then
   that you will do as your fathers did, for they did amiss;" see Jer.
   xliv. 17. Note, We must not follow the examples of our dear fathers
   unless they were God's dear children, nor any further than they were
   dutiful and obedient to him.

   (3.) "What has become both of your fathers and of the prophets that
   preached to them? They are all dead and gone," v. 5. [1.] Your fathers,
   where are they? The whole generation of them is swept away, and their
   place knows them no more. Note, When we think of our ancestors, that
   have gone through the world and gone out of it before us, we should
   think, Where are they? Here they were, in the towns and countries where
   we live, passing and repassing in the same streets, dwelling in the
   same houses, trading in the same shops and exchanges, worshipping God
   in the same churches. But where are they? They are somewhere still;
   when they died there was not an end of them. They are in eternity, in
   the world of spirits, the unchangeable world, to which we are hastening
   apace. Where are they? Those of them that lived and died in sin are in
   torment, and we are warned by Moses and the prophets, Christ and his
   apostles, to look to it that we come not to that place of torment, Luke
   xvi. 28, 29. Those of them that lived and died in Christ are in
   paradise; and, if we live and die as they did, we shall be with them
   shortly, with them eternally. [2.] The prophets also, did they live for
   ever? No, they are gone too. The treasure is put into earthen vessels,
   the water of life into earthen pitchers, often cracked, and brought
   home broken at last. Christ is a prophet that lives for ever, but all
   other prophets have a period put to their office. Note, Ministers are
   dying men, and live not for ever in this world. They are to look upon
   themselves as such, and to preach accordingly, as those that must be
   silenced shortly, and know not which sermon may be the last. People are
   to look upon them as such, and to hear accordingly, as those that yet a
   little while have the light with them, that they may walk and work
   while they have the light. Oh that this weighty consideration had its
   due weight given it, that we are dying ministers dealing with dying
   people about the concerns of immortal souls and an awful eternity,
   which both they and we are standing upon the brink of! It concerns us
   to think of the prophets that are gone, that were before us of old,
   Jer. xxviii. 8. Those that were the glory of men withered and fell; but
   the word of the Lord endures for ever, 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. The prophets
   that are now, do we live for ever? (so some read it); no, Haggai and
   Zechariah will not be long with you, and prophecy itself shall shortly
   cease. In another world both we and our prophets shall live for ever;
   and to prepare for that world ought to be our great care and business
   in this.

   (4.) "What were the effects of the word which God spoke to them by his
   prophets, v. 6. The preachers died, and the hearers died, but the word
   of God died not; that took effect, and not one iota or tittle of it
   fell to the ground." As the rain and snow from heaven, it shall not
   return void, Isa. lv. 11. He appealed to themselves; they knew very
   well, [1.] That the judgments God had threatened were executed upon
   their fathers, and they were made to feel what they would not believe
   and fear: "My statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets, the
   precepts with the penalties annexed, which I charged them with the
   delivery of, did they not take hold of your fathers?" Though God's
   prophets could not fasten convictions upon them, the calamities
   threatened overtook them, and they could not escape them, nor get out
   of the reach of them. God's words took hold of them as the bailiff
   arrests the debtor, and takes him in execution for contempt. Note, The
   unbelief of man cannot make the threatenings of God's word of no
   effect, but, sooner or later, they will take place, if the prescribed
   course be not taken to prevent the execution of them. God's anger will
   certainly take hold of those that will not be taken hold of by his
   authority; for when he judges he will overcome. [2.] That they
   themselves could not but own the accomplishment of the word of God in
   the judgments of God that were upon them, and that therein he was
   righteous, and had done them no wrong: They returned, and said (they
   changed their mind, and when it was too late to prevent the ruin of
   their nation they acknowledged), Like as the Lord of hosts thought to
   do unto us according to our ways and doings, to reckon with us for
   them, so has he dealt with us, and we must acknowledge both his truth
   and his justice, must blame ourselves only, and have no blame to lay to
   him. Sero sapiunt Phryges--It is late before the Phrygians become wise.
   This after-wit, as it is a proof of the truth of God, so it is a proof
   of the folly of men, who will look no further than they can see. They
   would never be persuaded to say in time, "God will be as good as his
   word, for he is faithful; he will deal with us according to our
   deserts, for he is righteous." But now they see both plainly enough
   when the sentence is executed; now he that runs may read, and publish
   the exact agreement that appears between the present providences and
   the former predictions which then were slighted, between the present
   punishments and the former sins which then were persisted in. Now they
   cannot but say, The Lord is righteous, Dan. ix. 11-13.

The Vision of the Horse and Myrtles; Intercession for Jerusalem. (b. c. 520.)

   7 Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the
   month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord
   unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet,
   saying,   8 I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse,
   and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind
   him were there red horses, speckled, and white.   9 Then said I, O my
   lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I
   will shew thee what these be.   10 And the man that stood among the
   myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent
   to walk to and fro through the earth.   11 And they answered the angel
   of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked
   to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still,
   and is at rest.   12 Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O
   Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on
   the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these
   threescore and ten years?   13 And the Lord answered the angel that
   talked with me with good words and comfortable words.   14 So the angel
   that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the
   Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great
   jealousy.   15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are
   at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the
   affliction.   16 Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to
   Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord
   of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.   17 Cry
   yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity
   shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and
   shall yet choose Jerusalem.

   We not come to visions and revelations of the Lord; for in that way God
   chose to speak by Zechariah, to awaken the people's attention, and to
   engage their humble reverence of the word and their humble enquiries
   into it, and to fix it the more in their minds and memories. Most of
   the following visions seem designed for the comfort of the Jews, now
   newly returned out of captivity, and their encouragement to go on with
   the building of the temple. The scope of this vision (which is as an
   introduction to the rest) is to assure the Jews of the care God took of
   them, and the eye of his providence that was upon them for good, now in
   their present state, when they seem to be deserted, and their case
   deplorable. The vision is dated (v. 7) the twenty-fourth day of the
   eleventh month, three months after he preached that sermon (v. 1), in
   which he calls them to repentance from the consideration of God's
   judgments. Finding that that sermon had a good effect, and that they
   returned to God in a way of duty, the assurances he had given them are
   confirmed, that God would return to them in a way of mercy. Now observe
   here,

   I. What the prophet saw, and the explication of that. 1. He saw a grove
   of myrtle-trees, a dark shady grove, down in a bottom, hidden by the
   adjacent hills, so that you were not aware of it till you were just
   upon it. This represented the low, dark, solitary, melancholy condition
   of the Jewish church at this time. They were over-topped by all their
   neighbours, buried in obscurity; what friends they had were hidden, and
   there appeared no way of relief and succour for them. Note, The church
   has not been always visible, but sometimes hidden, as the woman in the
   wilderness, Rev. xii. 6. 2. He saw a man mounted upon a red horse,
   standing in the midst of this shady myrtle-grove. This man is no other
   than the man Christ Jesus, the same that appeared to Joshua with his
   sword drawn in his hand as captain of the host of the Lord (Josh. v.
   13, 14) and to John with his bow and his crown, Rev. vi. 2. Though the
   church was in a low condition, yet Christ was present in the midst of
   it. Was it hidden by the hills? He was much more hidden in the
   myrtle-grove, yet hidden as in an ambush, ready to appear for the
   seasonable relief of his people, to their happy surprise. Compare Isa.
   xlv. 15, Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, and yet Israel's
   God and Saviour at the same time, their Holy One in the midst of them.
   He was riding, as a man of war, as a man in haste, riding on the
   heavens for the help of his people, Deut. xxxiii. 26. He rode on a red
   horse, either naturally so or dyed red with the blood of war, as this
   same victorious prince appeared red in his apparel, Isa. lxiii. 1, 2.
   Red is a fiery colour, denoting that he is jealous for Jerusalem (v.
   14) and very angry at her enemies. Christ, under the law, appeared on a
   red horse, denoting the terror of that dispensation, and that he had
   yet his conflict before him, when he was to resist unto blood. But,
   under the gospel, he appears on a white horse (Rev. vi. 2, and again
   ch. xix. 11), denoting that he has now gained the victory, and rides in
   triumph, and hangs out the white, not the bloody flag. 3. He saw a
   troop of horse attending him, ready to receive and obey his orders:
   Behind him there were some red horses, and some speckled, and some
   white, angels attending the Lord Jesus, ready to be employed by him for
   the service of his church, some in acts of judgment, others of mercy,
   others in mixed events. Note, The King of the church has angels at
   command, not only to do him honour, but to minister for the good of
   those that are his. 4. He enquired into the signification of this
   vision. He had an angel talking with him, as his instructor, besides
   those he saw in the vision; so had Ezekiel (ch. xl. 3), and Daniel, ch.
   viii. 16. Zechariah asked him (v. 9), O my Lord! what are these? And,
   it should seem this angel that talked with him was Christ himself, the
   man on the red horse, whom the rest were attendants on; to him
   immediately Zechariah addresses himself. Would we be acquainted with
   the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, we must make our application,
   not to angels (they are themselves learners), but to Christ himself,
   who is alone able to take the book, and open the seals, Rev. v. 7. The
   prophet's question implies a humble acknowledgment of his own ignorance
   and an earnest desire to be informed. O let me know what these are!
   This he desired, not for the satisfying of his curiosity, but that he
   might be furnished with something proper for the comfort and
   encouragement of the people of God, in their present distress. 5. He
   received from the angel that talked with him (v. 9), and from the man
   that stood among the myrtle-trees (v. 10), the interpretation of this
   vision. Note, Jesus Christ is ready to instruct those that are humbly
   desirous to be taught the things of God. He immediately said, I will
   show thee what these are. What knowledge we have, or may have,
   concerning the world of spirits, we are indebted to Christ for. The
   account given him was, These are those whom the Lord has sent: they are
   his messengers, his envoys, appointed (as his eyes are said to do, 2
   Chron. xvi. 9) to walk, to run, to fly swiftly through the earth, to
   observe what is done in it and to execute the divine commands. God
   needs them not, but he is pleased to employ them, and we need the
   comfort arising from the doctrine of their administration.

   II. What the prophet heard, and what instructions were thereby given
   him. Faith comes by hearing, and, generally, in visions there was
   something said.

   1. He heard the report or representation which the angels made to
   Christ of the present state of the world, v. 11. They had been out
   abroad, as flying posts (being hastened by the King of kings'
   commandment, Esth. iii. 15), and, having returned, they give this
   account to the Angel that stood among the myrtle-trees (for to the Lord
   Jesus angels themselves are accountable): We have walked to and fro
   through the earth, and, behold all the earth sits still and is at rest.
   We are taught to pray that the will of God may be done by men on earth
   as it is done by the angels in heaven; and here we see what need we
   have to pray so, for it is far from being so. For, (1.) We find the
   world of angels here very busy. Those that are employed in the court
   above rest not day nor night from praising God, which is their business
   there; and those that are employed in the camp below are never idle,
   nor lose time; they are still ascending and descending upon the Son of
   man (John i. 51, as on Jacob's ladder, Gen. xxviii. 12); they are still
   walking to and fro through the earth. Thus active, thus industrious,
   Satan owns himself to be in doing mischief, Job i. 7. It is well for us
   that good angels bestir themselves as much to do good, and that here in
   this earth we have guardians going about continually seeking to do us a
   kindness, as we have adversaries which, as roaring lions, go about
   continually, seeking to devour us. Though holy angels in this earth
   meet with a great deal that is disagreeable, yet, while they are going
   on God's errands, they hesitate not to walk to and fro through it.
   Their own habitation, which those that fell liked not, they will like
   the better when they return. (2.) We find the world of mankind here
   very careless: All the earth sits still, and is at rest, while all the
   church is made uneasy, tossed with tempests and not comforted. Those
   that are strangers to the church are secure; those that are enemies to
   it are successful. The Chaldeans and Persians dwell at ease, while the
   poor Jews are continually alarmed; as when the king and Haman sat down
   to drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed. The children of men are
   merry and jovial, but none grieve for the affliction of God's children.
   Note, It is sad to think what a deep sleep the world is cast into, what
   a spirit of slumber has seized the generality of mankind, that are
   under God's wrath and Satan's power, and yet secure and unconcerned!
   They sit still and are at rest, Luke xvii. 26, &c.

   2. He heard Christ's intercession with the Father for his afflicted
   church, v. 12. The angels related the posture of affairs in this lower
   world, but we read not of any prayers they made for the redress of the
   grievances they had made a remonstrance of. No; it is the Angel among
   the myrtle-trees that is the great intercessor. Upon the report of the
   angels he immediately turned heavenward, and said, Lord, wilt thou not
   have mercy on thy church? (1.) The thing he intercedes for is mercy; as
   Ps. lxxxv. 7, Show us thy mercy, O Lord! Note, God's mercy is all in
   all to the church's comfort; and all his mercy must be hoped for
   through Christ's mediation. (2.) The thing he complains of is the delay
   of this mercy: How long wilt thou not have mercy! He knows that mercies
   through him shall be built up for ever (Ps. lxxxix. 2), but thinks it
   long that the building is deferred. (3.) The objects of compassion
   recommended to the divine mercies are, Jerusalem, the holy city, and
   the other cities of Judah that were now in ruins; for God had had
   indignation against them now threescore and ten years. He mentions
   seventy years because that was the time fixed in the divine councils
   for the continuance of the captivity; so long the indignation lasted,
   and though now for a little space grace had been shown them from the
   Lord their God, to give them some reviving (Ezra ix. 8), yet the scars
   of those seventy years' captivity still remained so deep, so painful,
   that this is the melancholy string they still harp upon--the divine
   indignation during those seventy years. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that
   whereas the seventy years of the captivity were reckoned from
   Jehoiakim's fourth year, and ended in the first of Cyrus, these seventy
   years are to be computed from the eleventh of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem
   and the temple were burnt, about nineteen years after the first
   captivity, and which ended in this second year of Darius Hystaspes,
   about seventeen years after Cyrus's proclamation, as that seventy years
   mentioned ch. vii. 5 was about nineteen years after; the captivity went
   off, as it came on, gradually. "Lord, we are still under the burden of
   the seventy years' wrath, and wilt thou be angry with us for ever?"

   3. He heard a gracious reply given to this intercession of Christ's for
   his church; for it is a prevailing intercession, always acceptable, and
   him the Father heareth always (v. 13): The Lord answered the angel,
   this angel of the covenant, with good words and comfortable words, with
   promises of mercy and deliverance, and the perfecting of what he had
   begun in favour to them. These were comfortable words to Christ, who is
   grieved in the grievances of his church, and comfortable to all that
   mourn with Zion. God often answers prayer with good words, when he does
   not immediately appear in great works; and those good words are real
   answers to prayer. Men's good words will not feed the body (Jam. ii.
   16), but God's good words will feed the faith, for saying and doing
   with him are not two things, though they are with us.

   4. He heard that reply which was given to the angel repeated to
   himself, with a commission to publish it to the children of his people,
   for their comfort. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him
   he signified to his servant John, and by him to the churches, Rev. i.
   1, 4. Thus all the good words and comfortable words of the gospel we
   receive from Jesus Christ, as he received them from the Father, in
   answer to the prayer of his blood, and his ministers are appointed to
   preach them to all the world. Now that God would speak comfortably to
   Jerusalem, Zechariah is the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
   Prepare you the way of the Lord. The voice said, Cry. Cry then. The
   prophets must now cry as loudly to show God's people their comforts as
   ever they did formerly to show them their transgressions, Isa. xl. 2,
   3, 6. And if he ask, What shall I cry? he is here instructed. (1.) He
   must proclaim the wrath God has in store for the enemies of Jerusalem.
   He is jealous for Zion with great jealousy, v. 14. He takes himself to
   be highly affronted by the injuries and indignities that are done to
   his church, as he had been formerly by the iniquities found in his
   church. The earth sat still and was at rest (v. 11), not relenting at
   all, nor showing the least remorse, for all the mischief they had done
   to Jerusalem, as Joseph's brethren, who, when they had sold him, sat
   down to eat bread; and this God took very ill (v. 15): I am very sorely
   displeased with the heathen, that are at ease, and have no concern for
   the afflicted church. Much more will he be displeased with those that
   are at ease in Zion (Amos vi. 1), with Zion's own sons, that sympathize
   not with her in her sorrows. But this was not all; they were not only
   not concerned for her, but they were concerned against her: I was but a
   little displeased with my people, and designed to correct them
   moderately, but those that were employed as instruments of the
   correction cast off all pity, and with the greatest rage and malice
   helped forward the affliction and added to it, persecuting those whom
   God had smitten (Ps. lxix. 26) and insulting over those whom he had
   troubled. See Isa. xlvii. 6; x. 5; Ezek. xxv. 12, 15. Note, God is
   displeased with those who help forward the affliction even of such as
   suffer justly; for true humanity, in such a case, is good divinity.
   (2.) He must proclaim the mercy God has in store for Jerusalem and the
   cities of Judah, v. 16. He must cry, "Thus saith the Lord, I have
   returned to Jerusalem with mercies. I was going away in wrath, but I am
   now returning in love. Cry yet to the same purport," v. 17. There must
   now be line upon line for consolation, as formerly there had been for
   conviction. The Lord, even the Lord of hosts, assures them, [1.] That
   the temple shall be built that is now but in the building. This good
   work which they are now about, though it meet with much discouragement,
   shall be perfected, and they shall have the tokens of God's presence,
   and opportunities of conversing with him, and worshipping him, as
   formerly. Note, It is good news indeed to any place to hear that God
   will build his house in it. [2.] That Jerusalem shall again be built as
   a city compact together, which had formerly been its glory, Ps. cxxii.
   3. A line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem, in order to the
   rebuilding of it with great exactness and uniformity. [3.] That the
   nation shall again become populous and rich, though now diminished and
   impoverished. Not only Jerusalem, but other cities that are reduced and
   lie in a little compass, shall yet spread abroad, or be diffused; their
   suburbs shall extend far, and colonies shall be transplanted from them;
   and this through prosperity: they shall be so numerous, and so wealthy,
   that there shall not be room for them; they shall complain that the
   place is too strait, Isa. xlix. 20. As they had been scattered and
   spread abroad, through their calamities, so they should now be through
   their prosperity. Let thy fountains be dispersed, Prov. v. 16. The
   cities that should thus increase God calls his cities; they are blessed
   by him, and they are fruitful and multiply, and replenish the land.
   [4.] That all their present sorrows should not only be balanced, but
   for ever silenced, by divine consolations: The Lord shall yet comfort
   Zion. Yet at length, though her griefs and grievances may continue
   long, God has comforts in reserve for Zion and all her mourners. [5.]
   That all this will be the fruit of God's preventing distinguishing
   favour: He shall yet choose Jerusalem, shall renew his choice, renew
   his covenant, shall make it appear that he has chosen Jerusalem. As he
   first built them up into a people when he brought them out of Egypt, so
   he will now rebuild them, when he brings them out of Babylon, not for
   any worthiness of theirs, but in pursuance of his own choice, Deut.
   vii. 7, 8. Jerusalem is the city he has chosen, and he will not cast it
   off.

Comfort for Jerusalem. (b. c. 520.)

   18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.   19 And
   I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he
   answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel,
   and Jerusalem.   20 And the Lord shewed me four carpenters.   21 Then
   said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the
   horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head:
   but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles,
   which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

   It is the comfort and triumph of the church (Isa. lix. 19) that when
   the enemy shall come in like a flood, with mighty force and fury, then
   the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Now, in
   this vision (the second which this prophet had), we have an
   illustration of that, God's Spirit making a stand, and making head,
   against the formidable power of the church's adversaries.

   I. We have here the enemies of the church bold and daring, and
   threatening to be its death, to cut off the name of Israel; such the
   people of God had lately been insulted by: I looked and behold four
   horns (v. 18), which are explained v. 19. They are the horns which have
   scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, that is, the Jews both in the
   country and in the city, because they were the Israel of God. They have
   tossed them (so some read it), as furious bulls with their horns toss
   that which they are enraged at. They have scattered them, so that no
   man did lift up his head, v. 21. No man durst show his face for fear of
   them, much less give them any opposition, or make head against them.
   They are horns, denoting their dignity and dominion--horns exalted,
   denoting also their strength, and power, and violence. They are four
   horns, for the Jews are surrounded with them on every side; when they
   avoid one horn that pushes at them they run upon another. The men of
   Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many of Israel that joined
   themselves to them, set about the building of the temple; but the
   enemies of that work from all sides pushed at them, and drove them from
   it. Rehum, and Shimshai, and the other Samaritans that opposed the
   building of the temple, were these horns, Ezra iv. 8. So were Sanballat
   and Tobiah, and the Ammonites and Arabians, that opposed the building
   of the wall, Neh. iv. 7. Note, The church's enemies have horns, and use
   them to the hindrance of every good work. The great enemy of the
   New-Testament church has seven heads and ten horns (Rev. xvii. 3), so
   that those who endeavour to do the church any service must expect to be
   pushed at.

   II. We have here the friends of the church active and prevailing. The
   prophet did himself lift up his eyes and see the four horns, and saw
   them so formidable that he began to despair of the safety of every good
   man, and the success of every good work; but the Lord then showed him
   four carpenters, or smiths, who were empowered to cut off these horns,
   v. 20, 21. With an eye of sense we see the power of the enemies of the
   church; look which way we will, the world shows us that. But it is with
   an eye of faith that we see it safe, notwithstanding; it is the Lord
   that shows us that, as he opened the eyes of the prophet's servant to
   see the angelic guards round about his master, 2 Kings vi. 17. Observe,
   Those that were to fray or break the horns of the Gentiles, and to cast
   them out, were, 1. Carpenters or smiths (for they are supposed by some
   to have been horns of iron), men who had skill and ability to do it,
   whose proper business it was, and who understood their business and had
   tools at hand to do it with. Note, God calls those to serve the
   interests of his church whom he either finds, or makes, fit for it. If
   there be horns (which denote the force and fury of beasts) against the
   church, there are carpenters (which denote the wisdom and forecast of
   men) for the church, by which they find ways to master the strongest
   beasts, for every kind of beasts is tamed, and has been tamed, of
   mankind, Jam. iii. 7. 2. They were four carpenters, as many horns so
   many hands to saw them off. Note, Which way soever the church is
   threatened with mischief, and opposition given to its interests, God
   can find out ways and means to check the force, to restrain the wrath,
   and make it turn to his praise. Some by these four carpenters
   understand Zerubbabel and Joshua, Ezra and Nehemiah, who carried on the
   work of God in spite of the opposition given to it. Those horned beasts
   broke into God's vineyard to tread it down; but the good magistrates
   and the good ministers whom God raised up, though they had not power to
   cut off the horns of the wicked (as David did, Ps. lxxv. 5, 10), yet
   frightened them and cast them out. Note, When God has work to do he
   will raise up some to do it and others to defend it and protect those
   that are employed in the doing of it.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. II.

   In this chapter we have, I. Another vision which the prophet saw, not
   for his own entertainment, but for his satisfaction and the edification
   of those to whom he was sent, ver. 1, 2. II. A sermon upon it, in the
   rest of the chapter, 1. By way of explication of the vision, showing it
   to be a prediction of the replenishing of Jerusalem and of its safety
   and honour, ver. 3-5. 2. By way of application. Here is, (1.) A use of
   exhortation to the Jews that were yet in Babylon, pressing them to
   hasten their return to their own land, ver. 6-9. (2.) A use of
   consolation to those that were returned, in reference to the many
   difficulties they had to struggle with, ver. 10-12. (3.) A use of
   caution to all not to prescribe to God, or limit him, but patiently to
   wait for him, ver. 13.

The Vision of the Measuring Line. (b. c. 520.)

   1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a
   measuring line in his hand.   2 Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he
   said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof,
   and what is the length thereof.   3 And, behold, the angel that talked
   with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,   4 And
   said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be
   inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle
   therein:   5 For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire
   round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.

   This prophet was ordered, in God's name, to assure the people (ch. i.
   16) that a line should be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Now here we
   have that promise illustrated and confirmed, that the prophet might
   deliver that part of his message to the people with the more clearness
   and assurance.

   I. He sees, in a vision, a man going to measure Jerusalem (v. 1, 2): He
   lifted up his eyes again, and looked. God had shown him that which was
   very encouraging to him, (ch. i. 20), and therefore now he lifted up
   his eyes again and looked. Note, The comfortable sights which by faith
   we have had of God's goodness made to pass before us should engage us
   to lift up our eyes again, and to search further into the discoveries
   made to us of the divine grace; for there is still more to be seen. In
   the close of the foregoing chapter he had seen Jerusalem's enemies
   baffled and broken, so that now he begins to hope she shall not be
   ruined. But that is not enough to make her happy, and therefore that is
   not all that is promised. Here is more carpenter's work to be done.
   When David had resolved to cut off the horns of the wicked he engaged
   likewise that the horns of the righteous should be exalted, Ps. lxxv.
   10. And so does the Son of David here; for he is the man, even the man
   Christ Jesus, whom the prophet sees with a measuring line in his hand;
   for he is the master builder of his church (Heb. iii. 3), and he builds
   exactly by line and level. Zechariah took the boldness to ask him
   whither he was going and what he designed to do with that measuring
   line. And he readily told him that he was going to measure Jerusalem,
   to take a particular account of the dimensions of it each way, that it
   might be computed what was necessary for the making of a wall about it,
   and that it might appear, by comparing its dimensions with the vast
   numbers that should inhabit it, what additions were necessary to be
   made for the receiving and containing of them; when multitudes flock to
   Jerusalem (Isa. lx. 4) it is time for her to enlarge the place of her
   tent, Isa. liv. 2. Note, God takes notice of the extent of his church,
   and will take care that, when ever so many guests are brought in to the
   wedding supper, still there shall be room, Luke xiv. 22. In the New
   Jerusalem, my Father's house above, there are many mansions.

   II. He is informed that this vision means well to Jerusalem, that the
   measuring line he saw was not a line of confusion (as that Isa. xxxiv.
   11), not a line to mete out for destruction, as when God purposed to
   destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion he stretched out a line (Lam.
   ii. 8); but it is as when he divided the inheritance by line, Ps.
   lxxviii. 55. The angel that talked with the prophet went forth, as he
   designed, to measure Jerusalem, but another angel went out to meet him,
   to desire that he would first explain this vision to the prophet, that
   it might not occasion him any uneasy speculations: Run, and speak to
   this young man (for, it seems, the prophet entered upon his prophecy
   when he was young, yet no man ought to despise his youth when God thus
   highly honoured it); he is a young man, not experienced, and may be
   ready to fear the worst; therefore bid him hope the best; tell him that
   Jerusalem shall be both safe and great, 1. As safe and great as numbers
   of men can make it (v. 4): Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns
   without walls; the inhabitants of it shall increase, and multiply, and
   replenish it to admiration, so that it shall extend itself far beyond
   the present dimensions which now there is an account taken of. The
   walls of a city, as they defend it, so they straiten and confine it,
   and keep its inhabitants from multiplying beyond such a pitch; but
   Jerusalem, even when it is walled, to keep off the enemy, shall be
   inhabited as towns without walls. The city shall be in a manner lost in
   the suburbs, as London is, where the out-parishes are more populous
   than those within the walls. So shall it be with Jerusalem; it shall be
   extended as freely as if it had no walls at all, and yet shall be as
   safe as if it had the strongest walls, such a multitude of men (which
   are the best walls of a city) shall there be therein, and of cattle
   too, to be not only food, but wealth too, for those men. Note, The
   increase of the numbers of a people is a great blessing, is a fruit of
   God's blessing on them and an earnest of further blessings, Ps. cvii.
   38. They are multiplied, for he blesses them. 2. As safe and great as
   the presence of God can make it, v. 5. (1.) It shall be safe, for God
   himself will be a wall of fire round about it. Jerusalem had no walls
   about it at this time, but lay naked and exposed; formerly, when it had
   walls, the enemies not only broke through them, but broke them down;
   but now God will be unto her a wall of fire. Some think it alludes to
   shepherds that made fires about their flocks, or travellers that made
   fires about their tents in desert places, to frighten wild beasts from
   them. God will not only make a hedge about them as he did about Job
   (ch. i. 10), not only make walls and bulwarks about them, Isa. xxvi. 1
   (those may be battered down), not only be as the mountains round about
   them, Ps. cxxv. 2 (mountains may be got over), but he will be a wall of
   fire round them, which cannot be broken through, nor scaled, nor
   undermined, nor the foundations of it sapped, nor can it be attempted,
   or approached, without danger to the assailants. God will not only make
   a wall of fire about her, but he will himself be such a wall; for our
   God is a consuming fire to his and his church's enemies. He is a wall
   of fire, not on one side only, but round about on every side. (2.) It
   shall be great, for God himself will be the glory in the midst of it.
   His temple, his altar, shall be set up and attended there, and his
   institutions observed, and there then shall the tokens of his special
   presence and favour be, which will be the glory in the midst of them,
   will make them truly admirable in the eyes of all about them. God will
   have honour from them, and put honour upon them. Note, Those that have
   God for their God have him for their glory; those that have him in the
   midst of them have glory in the midst of them, and thence the church is
   said to be all glorious within. And those persons and places that have
   God to be the glory in the midst of them have him for a wall of fire
   round about them, for upon all that glory there is, and shall be, a
   defence, Isa. iv. 5. Now all this was fulfilled in part in Jerusalem,
   which in process of time became a very flourishing city, and made a
   very great figure in those parts of the world, much beyond what could
   have been expected, considering how low it was brought and how long it
   was ere it recovered itself; but it was to have its full accomplishment
   in the gospel-church, which is extended far, as towns without walls, by
   the admission of the Gentiles into it, and which has God, the Son of
   God, for its prince and protector.

Zion Invited to Liberty. (b. c. 520.)

   6 Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the
   Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven,
   saith the Lord.   7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the
   daughter of Babylon.   8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the
   glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that
   toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.   9 For, behold, I will
   shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants:
   and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.

   One would have thought that Cyrus's proclamation, which gave liberty to
   the captive Jews to return to their own land, would suffice to bring
   them all back, and that, as when Pharaoh gave them leave to quit Egypt
   and their house of bondage there, they would not leave a hoof behind;
   but it seems it had not that effect. There were about 40,000 whose
   spirits God stirred up to go, and they went; but many, perhaps the
   greater part, stayed behind. The land of their captivity was to most of
   them the land of their nativity; they had taken root there, had gained
   a settlement, and many of them a very comfortable one; some perhaps had
   got estates and preferments there, and they did not think they could
   better themselves by returning to their own land. Patria est ubicunque
   bene est--My country is every spot where I feel myself happy. They had
   no great affection to their own land, and apprehended the difficulties
   in their way to it insuperable. This proceeded from a bad cause--a
   distrust of the power and promise of God, a love of ease and worldly
   wealth, and an indifference to the religion of their country and to the
   God of Israel himself; and it had a bad effect, for it was a tacit
   censure of those as foolish, rash, and given to change, that did
   return, and a weakening of their hands in the work of God. Such as
   these could not sing (Ps. cxxxvii.) in their captivity, for they had
   forgotten thee, O Jerusalem! and were so far from preferring thee
   before their chief joy that they preferred any joy before thee. Here is
   therefore another proclamation issued out by the God of Israel,
   strictly charging and commanding all his free-born subjects, wherever
   they were dispersed, speedily to return into their own land and render
   themselves at their respective posts there. They are loudly summoned
   (v. 6): Ho! ho! come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith
   the Lord. This fitly follows upon the promise of the rebuilding and
   enlarging of Jerusalem. If God will build it for them and their
   comfort, they must come and inhabit it for him and his glory, and not
   continue sneaking in Babylon. Note, The promises and privileges with
   which God's people are blessed should engage us, whatever it cost us,
   to join ourselves to them and cast in our lot among them. When Zion is
   enlarged, to make room for all God's Israel, it is the greatest madness
   imaginable for any of them to stay in Babylon. The captivity of a
   sinful state is by no means to be continued in, though a man be ever so
   easy upon temporal accounts. No: Come forth and flee with all speed,
   and lose no time. Escape for thy life; look not behind thee. To induce
   them to hasten their return, let them consider, 1. They are now
   dispersed, and are concerned to incorporate themselves for their mutual
   common defence (v. 6): "I have spread you abroad as the four winds of
   heaven, sent some into one corner of the world and some into another;
   this has been your condition a long time, and therefore you should now
   think of coming together again, to help one another." God owns that his
   scattering them was in wrath, and therefore they must take this
   invitation as a token of God's being willing to be reconciled to them
   again, so that they kicked at his kindness in refusing to accept the
   call. 2. They are now in bondage, and are concerned to assert their own
   liberty; and therefore, "Deliver thyself, O Zion! flee from the
   oppressor, and make the best of thy way. Let us see some such bold
   efforts and struggles to help thyself as become the generous gracious
   seed of Abraham." v. 7. Note, When Christ has proclaimed that
   deliverance to the captives which he has himself wrought out it then
   concerns each of us to deliver ourselves, to loose ourselves from the
   bands of our necks (Isa. lii. 2), and, since we are under grace, to
   resolve that sin shall not have dominion over us, Zion herself is here
   said to dwell with the daughter of Babylon, because many of the
   precious sons of Zion dwelt there, and where the people of God are
   there the church of God is, for it is not tied to places. Now it is not
   fit that Zion should dwell with the daughter of Babylon; what communion
   can light have with darkness? Zion will be in danger of partaking with
   the daughter of Babylon both in her sins and in her plagues; and
   therefore, "Come out of her, my people, Rev. xviii. 4. Deliver thyself,
   O Zion! by a speedy return to thy own land, and do not destroy thyself
   by continuing in that polluted devoted land." Those that would be found
   among the generation of God's children must save themselves from the
   untoward generation of this world; it was St. Peter's charge to his new
   converts, Acts ii. 40. 3. They have seemed to be forsaken and forgotten
   of God, but God will now make it to appear that he espouses their cause
   and will plead it with jealousy, v. 8, 9. It was a discouragement to
   those who remained in Babylon to hear of the difficulties and
   oppositions which their brethren met with that had returned, by which
   they were still in danger of being crushed and overpowered. "And we
   might as well sit still" (think they) "as rise up and fall." In answer
   to this objection, the angel that talked with the prophet (that is,
   Jesus Christ) tells him what he had commission to do for their
   protection and the perfecting of their salvation, and herein he has an
   eye to the great redemption which, in the fulness of time, he was to be
   the author of. Christ, who is Jehovah, and the Lord of hosts, of all
   the hosts of heaven and earth, in both which he has a sovereign power,
   says, He (that is, the Father) has sent me. Note, What Jesus has done,
   and does, for his church against his enemies, he was sent and
   commissioned by the Father to do. With great satisfaction he often
   speaks of the Father that sent him. (1.) He is sent after the glory.
   After the glorious beginning of their deliverance he is sent to perfect
   it, for he is the finisher of that work which he is the author of.
   Christ is sent, in the first place, to the nation and people of the
   Jews, to whom pertained the glory, Rom. ix. 4. And he was himself the
   glory of his people Israel. But after the glory, after his care of
   them, he is sent to the nations, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles,
   by the power of his gospel to captivate them, and bring them, and every
   high thought among them, into obedience to himself. (2.) He is sent to
   the nations that spoiled them, to take vengeance on them for the wrongs
   done to Zion, when the year of his redeemed comes and the year of
   recompences for the controversy of Zion, Isa. xxxiv. 8. He is sent to
   shake his hand upon them, to lift up his mighty hand against them and
   to lay upon them his heavy hand, to bruise them with a rod of iron and
   dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 9. Some think it
   intimates how easily God can subdue and humble them with the turn of
   his hand; it is but shaking his hand over them and the work is done.
   They shall be a spoil to their servants, shall be enslaved to those
   whom they had enslaved, and be plundered by those whom they had
   plundered. In Esther's time this was fulfilled, when the Jews had rule
   over those that hated them (Esth. ix. 1), and often in the time of the
   Maccabees. The promise is further fulfilled in Christ's victory over
   our spiritual enemies, his spoiling principalities and powers and
   making a show of them openly, Col. ii. 15. And it is still in force to
   the gospel-church. Christ will reckon with all that are enemies to it,
   and sooner or later will make them his footstool, Ps. cx. 1; Rev. iii.
   9. (3.) What he will do for his church shall be an evident proof of
   God's tender care of it and affection to it: He that touches you
   touches the apple of his eye. This is a high expression of God's love
   to his church. By his resentment of the injuries done to her it appears
   how dear she is to him, how he interests himself in all her interests,
   and takes what is done against her, not only as done against himself,
   but as done against the very apple of his eye, the tenderest part,
   which nature has made very fine, has put a double guard upon, and
   taught us to be in a special manner careful of, and which the least
   touch is a great offence to. This encourages the people of God to pray
   with David (Ps. xvii. 8), Keep me as the apple of thy eye; and engages
   them to do as Solomon directs (Prov. vii. 2), to keep his law as the
   apple of their eye. Some understand it thus: "He that touches you
   touches the apple of his own eye; whoever do you any injury will prove,
   in the issue, to have done the greatest injury to themselves." (4.) It
   shall be an evident proof of Christ's mission: You shall know that the
   Lord of hosts has sent me to be the protector of his church, that the
   promises made to the church are yea and amen in him. Christ's victory
   over our spiritual enemies proves that the Father sent him and was with
   him.

Zion's Prosperity Predicted. (b. c. 520.)

   10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will
   dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.   11 And many nations shall
   be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will
   dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts
   hath sent me unto thee.   12 And the Lord shall inherit Judah his
   portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.   13 Be
   silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his
   holy habitation.

   Here is, I. Joy proclaimed to the church of God, to the daughter of
   Zion, that had separated herself from the daughter of Babylon. The Jews
   that had returned were in distress and danger, their enemies in the
   neighbourhood were spiteful against them, their friends that remained
   in Babylon were cool towards them, shy of them, and declined coming in
   to their assistance; and yet they are directed to sing, and to rejoice
   even in tribulation. Note, Those that have recovered their purity, and
   integrity, and spiritual liberty, though they have not yet recovered
   their outward prosperity, have reason to sing and rejoice, to give
   glory to God and take comfort to themselves.

   I. God will have a people among them. If their brethren in Babylon will
   not come to them, those of other nations shall, and shall replenish
   Jerusalem and the cities of Judah: Many nations shall be joined to the
   Lord in that day that are now at a distance from him and strangers to
   him. The Jewish nation, after the captivity, multiplied very much, by
   the accession of proselytes to it, that were naturalized, and were
   entitled to all the privileges of native Israelites, and perhaps they
   were equal in number; and therefore Paul mentions it as an honour to
   him which many Jews had not, that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, a
   Hebrew of the Hebrews, Phil. iii. 5. And this was an earnest of the
   bringing in of the Gentiles into the christian church and in that this
   and other similar promises were to have their full accomplishment. It
   was therefore strange that that should be so great an offence to the
   Jews, as we find it was in the apostles' times, which was promised them
   as a blessing in the prophets' times--that many nations should be
   joined to the Lord. And, as there had been one law, so should there be
   one gospel for the stranger and for those born in the land; whatever
   nation they come from, when they join themselves to the Lord, they
   shall be my people, as dear to God as ever Israel had been. Note, God
   will own those for his people who with purpose of heart join themselves
   to him; and, when many do so, we ought to look upon them, not with a
   jealous eye, but with a joyful one. Angels rejoice, and therefore so
   should the daughter of Zion, when many nations are joined to the Lord.

   II. They shall have his presence among them: Sing and rejoice, for I
   come. Those to whom God comes have reason to rejoice, for he will be to
   them their chief joy. God will come, not to make them a visit only, but
   to reside with them and preside over them: I will dwell in the midst of
   thee (v. 10), and it is repeated (v. 11), because it was to have a
   double accomplishment, 1. In the dedication of the temple, in their
   regularly observing all God's institutions there and God's owning them
   therein. Those have God dwelling in the midst of them that have his
   ordinances administered in their purity, and a divine power going along
   with them; with these tokens of God's presence the Jewish church was
   blessed, after this, as much as ever. 2. In the incarnation of Christ.
   He that here promises to dwell among them is that Lord whom the Lord of
   hosts has sent (v. 11), and therefore must be the Lord Jesus, who came
   and dwelt in the midst of the Jewish nation, the eternal Word, that was
   made flesh, and dwelt among us. This was the great honour reserved for
   that nation in its last days; the promise of it effectually secured
   their continuance till it was accomplished. They could not be destroyed
   while that blessing was in them; and the prospect of it, according to
   the promise, was the great support and comfort of those who looked for
   redemption in Jerusalem. It is promised that when Christ comes and
   dwells among them they shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent him;
   all that were Israelites indeed were made to know it; sufficient proofs
   were given of it by the miracles Christ wrought, so that they might
   have known it, and yet there were those that perished in ignorance and
   unbelief, that would not know it, for, if they had known it, they would
   not have crucified the Lord of glory.

   III. They shall have all their ancient dignities and privileges
   restored to them again, v. 12. 1. Canaan shall be a holy land again,
   not polluted by sin as it had been formerly, not profaned by the
   enemies as it had been of late; it shall be an enclosure again, and not
   laid in common. 2. Judah shall be in this holy land, shall inhabit it,
   and enjoy the comfort of it, and no longer be lost and scattered in
   Babylon. 3. Judah shall be God's portion, which he will delight in,
   which shall be dear to him, by which he will be served, and in which he
   will be glorified. The Lord's portion is his people. 4. God will
   inherit Judah again as his portion, will claim his interest, and
   recover the possession out of the hands of those that had invaded his
   right. He will protect his people and govern them as a man does his
   inheritance, and will be at home among them. 5. He will choose
   Jerusalem again, as he had chosen it formerly, to put his name there;
   he will renew and confirm the choice, and continue it a chosen place,
   till it must resign its honours to the Jerusalem that is from above.
   Though the election seemed to be set aside for a while, yet it shall
   obtain.

   II. Here is silence proclaimed to all the world besides, v. 13. The
   daughter of Zion must sing, but all flesh must be silent. Observe here,
   1. A very awful description of God's appearances for the relief of his
   people. He is raised up out of his holy habitation; as a man out of
   sleep (Ps. xliv. 23; lxxviii. 65), or as a man entering with resolution
   upon a business that he will go through with. Heaven is his holy
   habitation above; thence we must expect him to appear, Isa. lxiv. 1.
   His temple is so in this lower world; thence from between the cherubim
   he will shine forth, Ps. lxxx. 1. He is about to do something unusual,
   unexpected, and very surprising, and to plead his people's cause, which
   had long seemed neglected. 2. A seasonable caution and direction at
   such a time: Be silent, O all flesh! before the Lord--before Christ and
   his grace (let not flesh object against the methods he takes)--before
   God and his providence; the enemies of the church shall be silenced;
   all iniquity shall stop her mouth. The friends of the church also must
   be silent. Leave it to God to take his own way, and neither prescribe
   to him what he should do nor quarrel with him whatever he does. Be
   still, and know that he is God. Stand still, and see his salvation. See
   Hab. ii. 20; Zeph. i. 7. Silently acquiesce in his holy will, and
   patiently wait the issue, as those who are assured that when God is
   raised up out of his holy habitation he will not retreat, nor sit down
   again, till he has accomplished his whole work.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. III.

   The vision in the foregoing chapter gave assurances of the
   re-establishing of the civil interests of the Jewish nation, the
   promises of which terminated in Christ. Now the vision in this chapter
   concerns their church-state, and their ecclesiastical interests, and
   assures them that they shall be put into a good posture again; and the
   promises of this also have an eye to Christ, who is not only our
   prince, but the high priest of our profession, of whom Joshua was a
   type. Here is, I. A vision relating to Joshua, as the representative of
   the church in his time, representing the disadvantages he laboured
   under, and the people in him, with the redress of the grievances of
   both. 1. He is accused by Satan, but is brought off by Christ, ver. 1,
   2. 2. He appears in filthy garments, but has them changed, ver. 3-5. 3.
   He is assured of being established in his office if he conduct himself
   well, ver. 6, 7. II. A sermon relating to Christ, who is here called
   "The branch," who should be endued with all perfections for his
   undertaking, should be carried triumphantly through it, and by whom we
   should have pardon and peace, ver. 8-10.

Joshua resisted and Upheld; Joshua Purified from Pollution; Joshua
Reinstalled in His Office. (b. c. 520.)

   1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
   the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.   2 And
   the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord
   that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out
   of the fire?   3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood
   before the angel.   4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood
   before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto
   him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee,
   and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.   5 And I said, Let them
   set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head,
   and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.   6
   And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,   7 Thus saith
   the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep
   my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my
   courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.

   There was a Joshua that was a principal agent in the first settling of
   Israel in Canaan; here is another of the same name very active in their
   second settlement there after the captivity; Jesus is the same name,
   and it signifies Saviour; and they were both figures of him that was to
   come, our chief captain and our chief priest. The angel that talked
   with Zechariah showed him Joshua the high priest; it is probable that
   the prophet saw him frequently, that he spoke to him, and that there
   was a great intimacy between them; but, in his common views, he only
   saw how he appeared before men; if he must know how he stands before
   the Lord, it must be shown him in vision; and so it is shown him. And
   men are really as they are with God, not as they appear in the eye of
   the world. He stood before the angel of the Lord, that is, before
   Christ, the Lord of the angels, to whom even the high priests
   themselves, of Aaron's order, were accountable. He stood before the
   angel of the Lord to execute his office, to minister to God under the
   inspection of the angels. He stood to consult the oracle on the behalf
   of Israel, for whom, as high priest, he was agent. Guilt and corruption
   are our two great discouragements when we stand before God. By the
   guilt of the sins committed by us we have become obnoxious to the
   justice of God; by the power of the sin that dwells in us we have
   become odious to the holiness of God. All God's Israel are in danger
   upon these two accounts. Joshua was so here, for the law made men
   priests that had infirmity, Heb. vii. 28. And, as to both, we have
   relief from Jesus Christ, who is made of God to us both righteousness
   and sanctification.

   I. Joshua is accused as a criminal, but is justified. 1. A violent
   opposition is made to him. Satan stands at his right hand to resist him
   to be a Satan to him, a law-adversary. He stands at his right hand, as
   the prosecutor, or witness, at the right hand of the prisoner. Note,
   The devil is the accuser of the brethren, that accuses them before God
   day and night, Rev. xii. 10. Some think the chief priest was accused
   for the sin of many of the inferior priests, in marrying strange wives,
   which they were much guilty of after their return out of captivity,
   Ezra ix. 1, 2; Neh. xiii. 28. When God is about to reestablish the
   priesthood Satan objects the sins that were found among the priests, as
   rendering them unworthy the honour designed them. It is by our own
   folly that we give Satan advantage against us and furnish him with
   matter for reproach and accusation; and if any thing be amiss,
   especially with the priests, Satan will be sure to aggravate it and
   make the worst of it. He stood to resist him, that is, to oppose the
   service he was doing for the public good. He stood at his right hand,
   the hand of action, to discourage him, and raise difficulties in his
   way. Note, When we stand before God to minister to him, or stand up for
   God to serve his interests, we must expect to meet with all the
   resistance that Satan's subtlety and malice can give us. Let us then
   resist him that resists us and he shall flee from us. 2. A victorious
   defence is made for him (v. 2): The Lord (that is, the Lord Christ)
   said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee. Note, It is the happiness of the
   saints that the Judge is their friend; the same that they are accused
   to is their patron and protector, and an advocate for them, and he will
   be sure to bring them off. (1.) Satan is here checked by one that has
   authority, that has conquered him, and many a time silenced him. The
   accuser of the brethren, of the ministers and the ministry, is cast
   out; his indictments are quashed, and his suggestions against them as
   well as his suggestions to them, are shown to be malicious, frivolous,
   and vexatious. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! The Lord said (that is,
   the Lord our Redeemer), The Lord rebuke thee, that is, the Lord the
   Creator. The power of God is engaged for the making of the grace of
   Christ effectual. "The Lord restrain thy malicious rage, reject thy
   malicious charge, and revenge upon thee thy enmity to a servant of his"
   Note, those that belong to Christ have him ready to appear vigorously
   for them when Satan appears most vehement against them. He does not
   parley with him, but stops his mouth immediately with this sharp
   reprimand: The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! This is the best way of
   dealing with that furious enemy. Get thee behind me, Satan. (2.) Satan
   is here argued with. He resists the priest, but let him know that his
   resistance, [1.] Will be fruitless; it will be to no purpose to attempt
   any thing against Jerusalem, for the Lord has chosen it, and he will
   abide by his choice. Whatever is objected against God's people, God saw
   it; he foresaw it when he chose them and yet he chose them, and
   therefore that can be no inducement to him now to reject them; he knew
   the worst of them when he chose them; and his election shall obtain.
   [2.] It is unreasonable; for is not this a brand plucked out of the
   fire? Joshua is so, and the priesthood, and the people, whose
   representative he is. Christ has not that to say for them for which
   they are to be praised, but that for which they are to be pitied. Note,
   Christ is ready to make the best of his people, and takes notice of
   every thing that is pleadable in excuse of their infirmities, so far is
   he from being extreme to mark what they do amiss. They have been lately
   in the fire; no wonder that they are black and smoked, and have the
   smell of fire upon them, but they are therefore to be excused, not to
   be accused. One can expect no other than that those who but the other
   day were captives in Babylon should appear very mean and despicable.
   They have been lately brought out of great affliction; and is Satan so
   barbarous as to desire to have them thrown into affliction again? They
   have been wonderfully delivered out of the fire, that God might be
   glorified in them; and will he then cast them off and abandon them? No,
   he will not quench the smoking flax, the smoking fire-brand; for he
   snatched it out of the fire because he intended to make use of it.
   Note, Narrow escapes from imminent danger are happy presages and
   powerful pleas for more eminent favours. A converted soul is a brand
   plucked out of the fire by a miracle of free grace, and therefore shall
   not be left to be a prey to Satan.

   II. Joshua appears as one polluted, but is purified; for he represents
   the Israel of God, who are all as an unclean thing, till they are
   washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
   of our God. Now observe here, 1. The impurity wherein Joshua appeared
   (v. 3): He was clothed, not only in coarse, but in filthy garments,
   such as did very ill become the dignity of his office and the sanctity
   of his work. By the law of Moses the garments of the high priest were
   to be for glory and for beauty, Exod. xxviii. 2. But Joshua's garments
   were a shame and reproach to him; yet in them he stood before the angel
   of the Lord; he had no clean linen wherein to minister and to do the
   duty of his place. Now this intimates, not only that the priesthood was
   poor and despised, and loaded with contempt, but that there was a great
   deal of iniquity cleaving to the holy things. The returned Jews were so
   taken up with their troubles that they thought they needed not complain
   of their sins, and were not aware that those were the great hindrances
   of the progress of God's work among them; because they were free from
   idolatry they thought themselves chargeable with no iniquity. But God
   showed them there were many things amiss in them, which retarded the
   advances of God's favours towards them. There were spiritual enemies
   warring against them, more dangerous than any of the neighbouring
   nations. The Chaldee paraphrase says, Joshua had sons who took unto
   them wives which were not lawful for the priests to take; and we find
   it was so, Ezra x. 18. And, no doubt, there were other things amiss in
   the priesthood, Mal. ii. 1. Yet Joshua was permitted to stand before
   the angel of the Lord. Though his children did not as they should, yet
   the covenant of priesthood was not broken. Note, Christ bears with his
   people, whose hearts are upright with him, and admits them into
   communion with himself, notwithstanding their manifold infirmities. 2.
   The provision that was made for his cleansing. Christ gave orders to
   the angels that attended him, and were ready to do his pleasure, to put
   Joshua into a better state. Joshua presented himself before the Lord in
   his filthy garments, as an object of his pity; and Christ graciously
   looked upon him with compassion, and not, as justly he might have done,
   with indignation. Christ loathed the filthiness of Joshua's garments,
   yet did not put him away, but put them away. Thus God by his grace does
   with those whom he chooses to be priests to himself; he parts between
   them and their sins, and so prevents their sins parting between them
   and their God; he reconciles himself to the sinner, but not to the sin.
   Two things are here done for Joshua, representing a double work of
   divine grace wrought in and for believers:--(1.) His filthy garments
   are taken from him, v. 4. The meaning of this is given us in what
   Christ said, and he said it as one having authority, Behold, I have
   caused thy iniquity to pass from thee. The guilt of it is taken away by
   pardoning mercy, the stench and stain of it by peace spoken to the
   conscience, and the power of it broken by renewing grace. When God
   forgives our sins he causes our iniquity to pass from us, that it may
   not appear against us, to condemn us; it passes from us as far as the
   east is from the west. When he sanctifies the nature he enables us to
   put off the old man, to cast away from us the filthy rags of our
   corrupt affections and lusts, as things we will never have any thing
   more to do with, will never gird to us or appear in. Thus Christ washes
   those from their sins in his own blood whom he makes to our God kings
   and priests, Rev. i. 5, 6. Either we must be cleansed from the
   pollutions of sin or we shall, as polluted, be put from that
   priesthood, Ezra ii. 62. (2.) He is clothed anew, has not only the
   shame of his filthiness removed, but the shame of his nakedness
   covered: I will clothe thee with change of raiment. Joshua had no clean
   linen of his own, but Christ will provide for him, for he will not let
   a priesthood of his own instituting be lost, be either contemptible
   before men or unacceptable before God. The change of raiment here is
   rich costly raiment, such as is worn on high days. Joshua shall appear
   as lovely as ever he appeared loathsome. Those that minister in holy
   things shall not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; God will
   make them wise, and humble, and diligent, and faithful, and examples of
   every thing that is good; and then Joshua is clothed with change of
   raiment. Thus those whom Christ makes spiritual priests are clothed
   with the spotless robe of his righteousness and appear before God in
   that, and with the graces of his Spirit, which are ornaments to them.
   The righteousness of saints, both imputed and implanted, is the fine
   linen, clean and white, with which the bride, the Lamb's wife, is
   arrayed, Rev. xix. 8.

   III. Joshua is in danger of being turned out of office; but, instead of
   that, he is reinstalled and established in his office. He not only has
   his sins pardoned, and is furnished with grace sufficient for himself,
   but, as rectus in curia--acquitted in court, he is restored to his
   former honours and trusts. 1. The crown of the priesthood is put upon
   him, v. 5. This was done at the special instance and request of the
   prophet: I said, "Let them set a fair mitre upon his head, as a badge
   of his office. Now that he looks clean, let him also look great; let
   him be dressed up in all the garments of the high priest." Note, When
   God designs the restoring or reviving of religion he stirs up his
   prophets and people to pray for it, and does it in answer to their
   prayers. Zechariah prayed that the angels might be ordered to set the
   mitre on Joshua's head, and they did it immediately, and clothed him
   with the priestly garments; for no man took this honour to himself, but
   he that was called of God to it. The angel of the Lord stood by, as
   having the oversight of the work which the created angels were employed
   in. He stood by, as one well pleased with it, and resolved to stand by
   the orders he had given for the doing of it and to continue his
   presence with that priesthood. 2. The covenant of the priesthood is
   renewed with him, which is called God's covenant of peace, Num. xxv.
   12. Mr. Pemble calls it the patent of his office, which is here
   declared and delivered to him before witnesses, v. 6, 7. The angel of
   the Lord, having taken care to make him fit for his office (and all
   that God calls to any office he either finds fit or makes so), invests
   him in it. And though he is not made a priest with an oath (that honour
   is reserved for him who is a priest after the order of Melchisedek,
   Heb. vii. 21), yet, being a type of him, he is inaugurated with a
   solemn declaration of the terms upon which he held his office. The
   angel of the Lord protested to Joshua that, if he would be sure to do
   the duty of his place, he should enjoy the dignity and reward of it.
   Now see, (1.) What the conditions are upon which he enters into his
   office. Let him know that he is upon his good behaviour; he must walk
   in God's ways, that is, he must live a good life and be holy in all
   manner of conversation; he must go before the people in the paths of
   God's commandments, and walk circumspectly. He must also keep God's
   charge, must carefully do all the services of the priesthood, and must
   see to it that the inferior priests performed the duties of their place
   decently and in order. He must take heed to himself, and to all the
   flock, Acts xx. 28. Note, Good ministers must be good Christians; yet
   that is not enough: they have a trust committed to them, they are
   charged with it, and they must keep it with all possible care, that
   they may give up their account of it with joy, 1 Tim. vi. 14. (2.) What
   the privileges are which we may expect, and be assured of, in the due
   discharge of his office. His patent runs, Quamdiu se bene
   gesserit--During good behaviour. Let him be sure to do his part, and
   God will own him. [1.] "Thou shalt judge my house; thou shalt preside
   in the affairs of the temple, and the inferior priests shall be under
   thy direction." Note, The power of the church, and of church rulers, is
   not a legislative, but only a judicial power. The high priest might not
   make any new laws for God's house, nor ordain any other rites of
   worship than what God had ordained; but he must judge God's house, that
   is, he must see to it that God's laws and ordinances were punctually
   observed, must protect and encourage those that did observe them, and
   enquire into and punish the violation of them. [2.] "Thou shalt also
   keep my courts; thou shalt have oversight of what is done in all the
   courts of the temple, and shalt keep them pure and in good order for
   the worship to be performed in them." Note, Ministers are God's
   stewards, and they are to keep his courts, in honour of him who is the
   chief Lord and for the preserving of equity and good order among his
   tenants. [3.] "I will give thee places to walk among those that stand
   by, among these angels that are inspectors and assistants in this
   instalment." They shall stand by while Joshua is at work for God, and
   shall be as a guard to him, or he shall be highly honoured and
   respected as an angel of God, Gal. iv. 14. Ministers are called angels,
   Rev. i. 20. Those that walk in God's ways may be said to walk among the
   angels themselves, for they do the will of God as the angels do it that
   are in heaven, and are their fellow-servants, Rev. xix. 10. Some make
   it a promise of eternal life, and of a reward of his fidelity in the
   future state. Heaven is not only a palace, a place to repose in, but a
   paradise, a garden, a place to walk in; and there are walks among the
   angels, in society with that holy and glorious company. See Ezek.
   xxviii. 14.

Advent of Christ Predicted; Prediction Relating to Christ. (b. c. 520.)

   8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit
   before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring
   forth my servant the BRANCH.   9 For behold the stone that I have laid
   before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will
   engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove
   the iniquity of that land in one day.   10 In that day, saith the Lord
   of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and
   under the fig tree.

   As the promises made to David often slide insensibly into promises of
   the Messiah, whose kingdom David's was a type of, so the promises here
   made to Joshua immediately rise as far upward, and look as far forward,
   as to Christ, whose priesthood Joshua's was now a shadow of, not only
   in general, as it kept up the line of Aaron's priesthood, but
   especially as it was the reviving of that happy method of
   correspondence between heaven and earth, to which a great interruption
   had been given by the iniquity and captivity of Israel. Christ is a
   high priest, as Joshua was, for sinners and sufferers, to mediate for
   those that have been under guilt and wrath. And it was fit that Joshua
   should understand the priesthood of Christ, because all the virtue of
   his priesthood, its value and usefulness to the church, depended upon
   and was derived from the priesthood of Christ. See,

   I. To whom this promise of Christ is directed (v. 8): "Hear now, O
   Joshua! Thou hast heard with pleasure what belongs to thyself; but,
   behold, a greater than Joshua is at hand. Hear now concerning him, thou
   and the rest of the priests, thy fellows, who sit before thee, at thy
   feet, as learners, but whom thou art to look upon as thy fellows, for
   all you are brethren; let the high priest, and all the inferior
   priests, take notice of this, for they are men wondered at." They are
   set for signs, for types and figures of Christ's priesthood. What God
   now did for Joshua and his fellows was a happy omen of the coming of
   the Messiah promised, and would be so interpreted, with a pleasing
   wonder, by all that had understanding of the times. Or they are men
   wondered at for their singularity, hooted at as strange sort of people,
   because they run not with others to the same excess of riot (1 Pet. iv.
   4), or for their strange afflictions and surprising deliverance out of
   them, as Ps. lxxi. 7, I am as a wonder unto many. They are men of
   wonder; they are a wonder to themselves, are amazed to think how
   happily their condition is altered. God's people and ministers are,
   upon many accounts, men wondered at. The high priest and his fellows
   here (as the prophet and his children, Isa. viii. 18) are for signs and
   for wonders. But men's wonder at them will cease when the Messiah
   comes, as the stars are eclipsed by the light of the sun; for his name
   shall be called Wonderful.

   II. The promise itself, which consists of several parts, all designed
   for the comfort and encouragement of Joshua and his friends in that
   great good work of building the temple, which they were now engaged in.
   An eye to Christ, and a believing dependence upon the promises relating
   to him and his kingdom, would carry them through the difficulties they
   met with in that and their other services. 1. The Messiah shall come:
   Behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. He has been long hid,
   but the fulness of time is now at hand, when he shall be brought forth
   into the world, brought forth among his people Israel. God himself
   undertakes to bring him forth, and therefore, no doubt, he will own him
   and stand by him. He is God's servant, employed in his work, obedient
   to his will, and entirely devoted to his honour and glory. He is the
   branch; so he was called Isa. iv. 2, The branch of the Lord. Isa. xi.
   1, A branch out of the roots of Jesse. Jer. xxiii. 5, A righteous
   branch; and Jer. xxiii. 15, The branch of righteousness. His beginning
   was small, as a tender branch, but in time he should become a great
   tree and fill the earth, Isa. liii. 2. He is the branch from which all
   our fruit must be gathered. 2. Many eyes shall be upon him. He is the
   stone laid before Joshua, alluding to the foundation or chief
   corner-stone, of the temple, which probably was laid, with great
   solemnity, in the presence of Joshua. Christ is not only the branch,
   which is the beginning of a tree, but the foundation, which is the
   beginning of a building; and, when he shall be brought forth, seven
   eyes shall be upon him. The eye of his Father was upon him, to take
   care of him, and protect him, especially in his sufferings; when he was
   buried in the grave, as the foundation-stones are under ground, the
   eyes of Heaven were still upon him, buried out of men's sight, but not
   out of God's. The eyes of all the prophets and Old-Testament saints
   were upon this one stone; Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, and he
   saw it and was glad. The eyes of all believers are upon him; they look
   unto him and are saved, as the eyes of the stung Israelites were upon
   the brazen serpent. Some understand this one stone to have the seven
   eyes in it as the wheels had in Ezekiel's vision, and think it denotes
   that perfection of wisdom and knowledge which Jesus Christ was endued
   with, for the good of his church. His eyes run to and fro through the
   earth. 3. God himself will beautify him, and put honour upon him: I
   will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts. This stone
   the builders refused, as rough and unsightly; but God undertakes to
   smooth and polish it, nay, and to carve it so that it shall be the head
   stone of the corner, the most beautiful in all the building. Christ was
   God's workmanship; and abundance of his wisdom appears in the
   contrivance of our redemption, which will appear when the engraving is
   perfected. This stone is a precious stone, though laid for a
   foundation; and the graving of it seems to allude to the precious
   stones in the breast-plate of the high priest, which had the names of
   the tribes graven upon them, as the engraving of a signet, Exod.
   xxviii. 21, 22. In that breast-plate there were twelve stones laid
   before Aaron, and for aught that appears those were lost; but there
   shall be one worth them all laid before Joshua, and that is Christ
   himself. This precious stone shall sparkle as if it had seven eyes;
   there shall appear a perfection of wisdom and prudence in the oracles
   that proceed from the breast-plate of judgment. And God will engrave
   the engraving thereof; he will entrust Christ with all his elect, and
   he shall appear as their representative, and agent for them, as the
   high priest did when he went in before the Lord with the names of all
   Israel engraven in the precious stones of his breast-plate. When God
   gave a remnant to Christ, to be brought through grace to glory, then he
   engraved the graving of this precious stone. 4. By him sin shall be
   taken away, both the guilt and the dominion of it: I will remove the
   iniquity of that land in one day. When the high priest had the names of
   Israel engraven on the precious stones he was adorned with he is said
   to bear the iniquity of the holy things (Exod. xxviii. 38); but the law
   made nothing perfect, Heb. x. 1. He bore the iniquity of the land, as a
   type of Christ; but he could not remove it; the doing of that was
   reserved for Christ, that blessed Lamb of God, that takes away the sin
   of the world; and he did it in one day, that day in which he suffered
   and died; that was done by the sacrifice offered that day which could
   not be done by the sacrifices of ages before, no, not by all the days
   of atonement which from Moses to Christ returned every year. This
   agrees with the angel's prediction (Dan. ix. 24): He shall finish
   transgression and make an end of sin. And some make the engravings
   wherewith God engraved him to signify the wounds and stripes which were
   given to his blessed body, which he underwent for our transgression,
   for our iniquity, and by which we are healed. 5. The effect of all this
   shall be the sweet enjoyment which all believers shall have of
   themselves, and the sweet communion they shall have with one another
   (v. 10): In that day you shall call every man his neighbour under the
   vine and the fig-tree, which yield most pleasant fruit, and whose
   leaves also afford a refreshing shade for arbours. When iniquity is
   taken away, (1.) We reap precious benefits and privileges from our
   justification, more precious than the products of the vine or the
   fig-tree, Rom. v. 1. (2.) We repose in a sweet tranquillity and are
   quiet from the fear of evil. What should terrify us when iniquity is
   taken away, when nothing can hurt us? We sit down under Christ's shadow
   with delight, and by it are sheltered from the scorching heat of the
   curse of the law. We live as Israel in the peaceable reign of Solomon
   (1 Kings iv. 24, 25); for he is the prince of peace. (3.) We ought to
   invite others to come to partake with us in the enjoyment of these
   privileges, to call every man his neighbour to come and sit with him,
   for mutual converse, under the vine and fig-tree, and to share with him
   in the fruits he is surrounded with. Gospel-grace, as far as it comes
   with power, makes men neighbourly; and those that have the comfort of
   acquaintance with Christ themselves, and communion with God through
   him, will be forward to court others to it. Let us go unto the house of
   the Lord.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. IV.

   In this chapter we have another comfortable vision, which, as it was
   explained to the prophet, had much in it for the encouragement of the
   people of God in their present straits, which were so great that they
   thought their case helpless, that their temple could never be rebuilt
   nor their city replenished; and therefore the scope of the vision is to
   show that God would, by his own power, perfect the work, though the
   assistance given to it by its friends were ever so weak, and the
   resistance given to it by its enemies were ever so strong. Here is, I.
   The awakening of the prophet to observe the vision, ver. 1. II. The
   vision itself, of a candlestick with seven lamps, which were supplied
   with oil, and kept burning, immediately from two olive-trees that grew
   by it, one on either side, ver. 2, 3. III. The general encouragement
   hereby intended to be given to the builders of the temple to go on in
   that good work, assuring them that it should be brought to perfection
   at last, ver. 4-10. IV. The particular explication of the vision, for
   the illustration of these assurances, ver. 11-14.

The Vision of the Golden Candlestick; The Building of the Temple Encouraged.
(b. c. 520.)

   1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man
   that is wakened out of his sleep,   2 And said unto me, What seest
   thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold,
   with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven
   pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:   3 And two
   olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other
   upon the left side thereof.   4 So I answered and spake to the angel
   that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?   5 Then the
   angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not
   what these be? And I said, No, my lord.   6 Then he answered and spake
   unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
   Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
     7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become
   a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings,
   crying, Grace, grace unto it.   8 Moreover the word of the Lord came
   unto me, saying,   9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
   of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that
   the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.   10 For who hath despised the
   day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet
   in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the
   Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

   Here is, I. The prophet prepared to receive the discovery that was to
   be made to him: The angel that talked with him came and waked him, v.
   1. It seems, though he was in conference with an angel, and about
   matters of great and public concern, yet he grew dull and fell asleep,
   as it should seem, while the angel was yet talking with him. Thus the
   disciples, when they saw Christ transfigured, were heavy with sleep,
   Luke ix. 32. The prophet's spirit, no doubt, was willing to attend to
   that which was to be seen and heard, but the flesh was weak; his body
   could not keep pace with his soul in divine contemplations; the
   strangeness of the visions perhaps stupefied him, and so he was
   overcome with sleep, or perhaps the sweetness of the visions composed
   him and even sung him asleep. Daniel was in a deep sleep when he heard
   the voice of the angel's words, Dan. x. 9. We shall never be fit for
   converse with spirits till we have got clear of these bodies of flesh.
   It should seem, the angel let him lose himself a little, that he might
   be fresh to receive new discoveries, but then waked him, to his
   surprise, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. Note, We need the
   Spirit of God, not only to make known to us divine things, but to make
   us take notice of them. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear,
   Isa. l. 4. We should beg of God that, whenever he speaks to us, he
   would awaken us, and we should then stir up ourselves.

   II. The discovery that was made to him when he was thus prepared. The
   angel asked him, What seest thou? v. 2. When he was awake perhaps he
   would not have taken notice of what was presented to his view if he had
   not thus been excited to look about him. When he observed he saw a
   golden candlestick, such a one as was in the temple formerly, and with
   the like this temple should in due time be furnished. The church is a
   candlestick, set up for the enlightening of this dark world and the
   holding forth of the light of divine revelation to it. The candle is
   God's; the church is but the candlestick, but all of gold, denoting the
   great worth and excellence of the church of God. This golden
   candlestick had seven lamps branching out from it, so many sockets, in
   each of which was a burning and shining light. The Jewish church was
   but one, and though the Jews that were dispersed, it is probable, had
   synagogues in other countries, yet they were but as so many lamps
   belonging to one candlestick; but now, under the gospel, Christ is the
   centre of unity, and not Jerusalem, or any one place; and therefore
   seven particular churches are represented, not as seven lamps, but as
   seven several golden candlesticks, Rev. i. 20. This candlestick had one
   bowl, or common receiver, on the top, into which oil was continually
   dropping, and from it, by seven secret pipes, or passages, it was
   diffused to the seven lamps, so that, without any further care, they
   received oil as fast as they wasted it (as in those which we call
   fountain-ink-horns, or fountain-pens); they never wanted, nor were ever
   glutted, and so kept always burning clear. And the bowl too was
   continually supplied, without any care or attendance of man; for (v. 3)
   he saw two olive-trees, one on each side the candlestick, that were so
   fat and fruitful that of their own accord they poured plenty of oil
   continually into the bowl, which by two larger pipes (v. 12) dispersed
   the oil to smaller ones and so to the lamps; so that nobody needed to
   attend this candlestick, to furnish it with oil (it tarried not for
   man, nor waited for the sons of men), the scope of which is to show
   that God easily can, and often does, accomplish his gracious purposes
   concerning his church by his own wisdom and power, without any art or
   labour of man, and that though sometimes he makes use of instruments,
   yet he neither needs them nor is tied to them, but can do his work
   without them, and will rather than it shall be undone.

   III. The enquiry which the prophet made concerning the meaning of this,
   and the gentle reproof given him for his dulness (v. 4): I answered and
   spoke to the angel, saying, What are these, my lord? Observe how
   respectfully he speaks to the angel; he calls him my lord. Those that
   would be taught must give honour to their teachers. He saw what these
   were, but asked what these signified. Note, It is very desirable to
   know the meaning of God's manifestations of himself and his mind both
   in his word and by his ordinances and providences. What mean you by
   these services, by these signs? And those that would understand the
   mind of God must be inquisitive. Then shall we know if we follow on to
   know, if we not only hear, but, as Christ, ask questions upon what we
   hear, Luke ii. 46. The angel answered him with a question, Knowest thou
   not what these be? intimating that if he had considered, and compared
   spiritual things with spiritual, he might have guessed at the meaning
   of these things; for he knew that there was a golden candlestick in the
   tabernacle, which it was the priests' constant business to supply with
   oil and to keep burning, for the use of the tabernacle; when therefore
   he saw, in vision, such a candlestick, with lamps always kept burning,
   and yet no priests to attend it, nor any occasion for them, he might
   discern the meaning of this to be that though God had set up the
   priesthood again, yet he could carry on his own work for and in his
   people without them. Note, We have reason to be ashamed of ourselves
   that we do not more readily apprehend the meaning of divine
   discoveries. The angel asked the prophet this question, to draw from
   him an acknowledgment of his own dulness, and darkness, and slowness to
   understand, and he had it immediately: "I said, No, my lord; I know not
   what these are." Visions had their significance, but often dark and
   hard to be understood, and the prophets themselves were not always
   aware of it at first. But those that would be taught of God must see
   and acknowledge their own ignorance, and their need to be taught, and
   must apply to God for instruction. To him that gave us the cabinet we
   must apply for the key wherewith to unlock it. God will teach the meek
   and humble, not those that are conceited of themselves and lean on the
   broken reed of their own understanding.

   IV. The general intention of this vision. Without a critical descant
   upon every circumstance of the vision, the design of it is to assure
   the prophet, and by him the people, that this good work of building the
   temple should, by the special care of divine Providence, and the
   immediate influence of divine grace, be brought to a happy issue,
   though the enemies of it were many and mighty and the friends and
   furtherers of it few and feeble. Note, In the explication of visions
   and parables, we must look at the principal scope of them, and be
   satisfied with that, if that be clear, though we may not be able to
   account for every circumstance, or accommodate it to our purpose. The
   angel lets the prophet know, in general, that this vision was designed
   to illustrate a word which the Lord had to say to Zerubbabel, to
   encourage him to go on with the building of the temple. Let him know
   that he is a worker together with God in it, and that it is a work
   which God will own and crown.

   1. God will carry on and complete this work, as he had begun their
   deliverance from Babylon, not by external force, but by secret
   operations and internal influences upon the minds of men. He says this
   who is the Lord of hosts, and could do it vi et armis--by force, has
   legions at command; but he will do it, not by human might or power, but
   by his own Spirit. What is done by his Spirit is done by might and
   power, but it stands in opposition to visible force. Israel was brought
   out of Egypt, and into Canaan, by might and power; in both these works
   of wonder great slaughter was made. But they were brought out of
   Babylon, and into Canaan the second time, by the Spirit of the Lord of
   hosts working upon the spirit of Cyrus, and inclining him to proclaim
   liberty to them, and working upon the spirits of the captives, and
   inclining them to accept the liberty offered them. It was by the Spirit
   of the Lord of hosts that the people were excited and animated to build
   the temple; and therefore they are said to be helped by the prophets of
   God, because they, as the Spirit's mouth, spoke to their hearts, Ezra
   v. 2. It was by the same Spirit that the heart of Darius was inclined
   to favour and further that good work and that the sworn enemies of it
   were infatuated in their councils, so that they could not hinder it as
   they designed. Note, The work of God is often carried on very
   successfully when yet it is carried on very silently, and without the
   assistance of human force; the gospel-temple is built, not by might or
   power (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal), but by the
   Spirit of the Lord of hosts, whose work on men's consciences is mighty
   to the pulling down of strong-holds; thus the excellency of the power
   is of God, and not of man. When instruments fail, let us therefore
   leave it to God to do his work himself by his own Spirit.

   2. All the difficulties and oppositions that lie in the way shall be
   got over and removed, even those that seem insuperable (v. 7): Who art
   thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
   See here, (1.) How the difficulty is represented; it is a great
   mountain, impassable and immovable, a heap of rubbish, like a great
   mountain, which must be got away, or the work cannot go on. The enemies
   of the Jews are proud and hard as great mountains; but, when God has
   work to do, the mountains that stand in the way of it shall dwindle
   into mole-hills; for see here, (2.) How these difficulties are
   despised: "Who art thou, O great mountain! that thou shouldst stand in
   God's way and think to stop the progress of his work? Who art thou that
   lookest so big, that thus threatenest, and art thus feared? Before
   Zerubbabel, when he is God's agent, thou shalt become a plain. All the
   difficulties shall vanish, and all the objections be got over. Every
   mountain and hill shall be brought low when the way of the Lord is to
   be prepared," Isa. xl. 4. Faith will remove mountains and make them
   plains. Christ is our Zerubbabel; mountains of difficulty were in the
   way of his undertaking, but before him they were all levelled; nothing
   is too hard for his grace to do.

   3. The same hand that has begun this good work will perform it: He
   shall bring forth the head-stone (v. 7); and again (v. 9), The hands of
   Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, be it spoken to his
   honour (perhaps with his own hands he laid the first stone), and though
   it has been long retarded, and is still much opposed, yet it shall be
   finished at last; he shall live to see it finished, nay, and his hands
   shall also finish it; herein he is a type of Christ, who is both the
   author and the finisher of our faith; and his being the author of it is
   an assurance to us that he will be the finisher, for, as for God, his
   work is perfect; has he begun and shall he not make an end? Zerubbabel
   shall himself bring forth the head-stone with shoutings, and loud
   acclamations of joy, among the spectators. The acclamations are not
   huzzas, but Grace, grace; that is the burden of the triumphant songs
   which the church sings. It may be taken, (1.) As magnifying free grace,
   and giving to that all the glory of what is done. When the work is
   finished it must be thankfully acknowledged that it was not by any
   policy or power of our own that it was brought to perfection, but that
   it was grace that did it--God's good-will towards us and his good work
   in us and for us. Grace, grace, must be cried, not only to the
   head-stone, but to the foundation-stone, the corner-stone, and indeed
   to every stone in God's building; from first to last it is nothing of
   works, but all of grace, and all our crowns must be cast at the feet of
   free grace. Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us. (2.) As depending upon
   free grace, and desiring the continuance of it, for what is yet to be
   done. Grace, grace, is the language of prayer as well as of praise; now
   that this building is finished, all happiness attend it! Peace be
   within its walls, and, in order to that, grace. Let the beauty of the
   Lord our God be upon it! Note, What comes from the grace of God may, in
   faith, and upon good grounds, be committed to the grace of God, for God
   will not forsake the work of his own hands.

   4. This shall be a full ratification of the prophecies which went
   before concerning the Jews' return, and their settlement again. When
   the temple is finished then thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has
   sent me unto you. Note, The exact accomplishment of scripture
   prophecies is a convincing proof of their divine original. Thus God
   confirms the word of his servant, by saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be
   built, Isa. xliv. 26. No word of God shall fall to the ground, nor
   shall there fail one iota or tittle of it. Zechariah's prophecies of
   the approaching day of deliverance to the church would soon appear, by
   the accomplishment of them, to be of God.

   5. This shall effectually silence those that looked with contempt upon
   the beginning of this work, v. 10. Who, where, is he now that despised
   the day of small things, and thought this work would never come to any
   thing? The Jews themselves despised the foundation of the second
   temple, because it was likely to be so far inferior to the first, Ezra
   iii. 12. Their enemies despised the wall when it was in the building,
   Neh. ii. 19; iv. 2, 3. But let them not do it. Note, In God's work the
   day of small things is not to be despised. Though the instruments be
   weak and unlikely, God often chooses such, by them to bring about great
   things. As a great mountain becomes a plain before him when he pleases,
   so a little stone, cut out of a mountain without hands, comes to fill
   the earth, Dan. ii. 35. Though the beginnings be small, God can make
   the latter end greatly to increase; a grain of mustard-seed may become
   a great tree. Let not the dawning light be despised, for it will shine
   more and more to the perfect day. The day of small things is the day of
   precious things, and will be the day of great things.

   6. This shall abundantly satisfy all the hearty well-wishers to God's
   interest, who will be glad to see themselves mistaken in despising the
   day of small things. Those that despaired of the finishing of the work
   shall rejoice when they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, when
   they see him busy among the builders, giving orders and directions what
   to do, and taking care that the work be done with great exactness, that
   it may be both fine and firm. Note, It is matter of great rejoicing to
   all good people to see magistrates careful and active for the edifying
   of the house of God, to see the plummet in the hand of those who have
   power to do much, if they have but a heart according to it; we see not
   Zerubbabel with the trowel in his hand (that is left to the workmen,
   the ministers), but we see him with the plummet in his hand, and it is
   no disparagement, but an honour to him. Magistrates are to inspect
   ministers' work, and to speak comfortably to the Levites that do their
   duty.

   7. This shall highly magnify the wisdom and care of God's providence,
   which is always employed for the good of his church. Zerubbabel does
   his part, does as much as man can do to forward the work, but it is
   with those seven, those seven eyes of the Lord which we read of ch.
   iii. 9. He could do nothing if the watchful, powerful, gracious
   providence of God did not go before him and go along with him in it.
   Except the Lord had built this house, Zerubbabel and the rest would
   have laboured in vain, Ps. cxxvii. 1. These eyes of the Lord are those
   that run to and fro through the whole earth, that take cognizance of
   all the creatures and all their actions (2 Chron. xvi. 9), and inspire
   and direct all, according to the divine counsels. Note, We must not
   think that God is so taken up with the affairs of his church as to
   neglect the world; but it is a comfort to us that the same all-wise
   almighty Providence that governs the nations of the earth is in a
   particular manner conversant about the church. Those seven eyes that
   run through the earth are all upon the stone that Zerubbabel is laying
   straight with his plummet, to see that it be well laid. And those that
   have the plummet in their hand must look up to those eyes of the Lord,
   must have a constant regard to divine Providence, and act in dependence
   upon its guidance and submission to its disposals.

The Vision of the Olive-Trees. (b. c. 520.)

   11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees
   upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
     12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive
   branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of
   themselves?   13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what
   these be? And I said, No, my lord.   14 Then said he, These are the two
   anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

   Enough is said to Zechariah to encourage him, and to enable him to
   encourage others, with reference to the good work of building the
   temple which they were now about, and that was the principal intention
   of the vision he saw; but still he is inquisitive about the
   particulars, which we will ascribe, not to any vain curiosity, but to
   the value he had for divine discoveries and the pleasure he took in
   acquainting himself with them. Those that know much of the things of
   God cannot but have a humble desire to know more. Now observe,

   I. What his enquiry was. He understood the meaning of the candlestick
   with its lamps: It is Jerusalem, it is the temple, and their salvation
   that is to go forth as a lamp that burns; but he wants to know what are
   these two olive-trees (v. 11), these two olive-branches? v. 12. Observe
   here, 1. He asked. Note, Those that would be acquainted with the things
   of God must be inquisitive concerning those things. Ask, and you shall
   be told. 2. He asked twice, his first question having no reply given to
   it. Note, If satisfactory answers be not given to our enquiries and
   requests quickly, we must renew them, and repeat them, and continue
   instant and importunate in them, and the vision shall at length speak,
   and not lie. 3. His second query varied somewhat from the former. He
   first asked, What are these two olive-trees, but afterwards, What are
   these two olive-branches? that is, those boughs of the tree that hung
   over the bowl and distilled oil into it. When we enquire concerning the
   grace of God, it must be rather as it is communicated to us by the
   fruitful boughs of the word and ordinances (for that is one of the
   things revealed, which belong to us and to our children) than as it is
   resident in the good olive where all our springs are, for that is one
   of the secret things, which belong not to us. 4. In his enquiry he
   mentioned the observations he had made upon the vision; he took notice
   not only of what was obvious at first sight, that the two olive-trees
   grew, one on the right side and the other on the left side of the
   candlestick (so nigh, so ready, is divine grace to the church), but he
   observed further, upon a more narrow inspection, that the two
   olive-branches, from which in particular the candlestick did receive of
   the root and fatness of the olive (as the apostle says of the church,
   Rom. xi. 17), did empty the golden oil (that is, the clear bright oil,
   the best in its kind, and of great value, as if it were aurum
   potabile--liquid gold) out of themselves through the two golden pipes,
   or (as the margin reads it) which by the hand of the two golden pipes
   empty out of themselves oil into the gold, that is, into the golden
   bowl on the head of the candlestick. Our Lord Jesus emptied himself, to
   fill us; his precious blood is the golden oil in which we are supplied
   with all we need.

   II. What answer was given to his enquiry. Now again the angel obliged
   him expressly to own his ignorance, before he informed him (v. 13):
   "Knowest thou not what these are? If thou knowest the church to be the
   candlestick, canst thou think the olive-trees, that supply it with oil,
   to be any other than the grace of God?" But he owned he either did not
   fully understand it or was afraid he did not rightly understand it: I
   said, No, my Lord, how should I, except some one guide me? And then he
   told him (v. 14): These are the two sons of oil (so it is in the
   original), the two anointed ones (so we read it), rather, the two oily
   ones. That which we read (Isa. v. 1) a very fruitful hill is in the
   original the horn of the son of oil, a fat and fattening soil. 1. If by
   the candlestick we understand the visible church, particularly that of
   the Jews at that time, for whose comfort it was primarily intended,
   these sons of oil, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth, are
   the two great ordinances and offices of the magistracy and ministry, at
   that time lodged in the hands of those two great and good men
   Zerubbabel and Joshua. Kings and priests were anointed; this prince,
   this priest, were oily ones, endued with the gifts and graces of God's
   Spirit, to qualify them for the work to which they were called. They
   stood before the Lord of the whole earth, to minister to him, and to
   receive direction from him; and a great influence they had upon the
   affairs of the church at that time. Their wisdom, courage, and zeal,
   were continually emptying themselves into the golden bowl, to keep the
   lamps burning; and, when they are gone, others shall be raised up to
   carry on the same work; Israel shall no longer be without prince and
   priest. Good magistrates and good ministers that are themselves
   anointed with the grace of God and stand by the Lord of the whole
   earth, as faithful adherents to his cause, contribute very much to the
   maintaining and advancing of religion and the shining forth of the word
   of life. 2. If by the candlestick we understand the church of the
   first-born, of true believers, these sons of oil may be meant of Christ
   and the Spirit, the Redeemer and the Comforter. Christ is not only the
   Messiah, the Anointed One himself, but he is the good olive to his
   church; and from his fulness we receive, John i. 16. And the Holy
   Spirit is the unction or anointing which we have received, 1 John ii.
   20, 27. From Christ, the olive tree, by the Spirit, the olive branch,
   all the golden oil of grace is communicated to believers, which keeps
   their lamps burning, and without a constant supply of which they would
   soon go out. They stand by the Lord of the whole earth, who is in a
   special manner the church's Lord; for the Son was to be sent by the
   Father, and so was the Holy Ghost, in the time appointed, and they
   stand by him ready to go.
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Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. V.

   Hitherto we have seen visions of peace only, and all the words we have
   heard have been good words and comfortable words. But the pillar of
   cloud and fire has a black and dark side towards the Egyptians, as well
   as a bright and pleasant side towards Israel; so have Zechariah's
   visions; for God's prophets are not only his ambassadors, to treat of
   peace with the sons of peace, but heralds, to proclaim war against
   those that delight in war, and persist in their rebellion. In this
   chapter we have two visions, by which "the wrath of God is revealed
   from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." God
   will do great and kind things for his people, which the faithful sons
   of Zion shall rejoice in; but "let the sinners in Zion be afraid;" for,
   I. God will reckon severely with those particular persons among them
   that are wicked and profane, and that hated to be reformed in these
   times of reformation; while God is showing kindness to the body of the
   nation, and loading that with his blessings, they and their families
   shall, notwithstanding that, lie under the curse, which the prophet
   sees in a flying roll, ver. 1-4. II. If the body of the nation
   hereafter degenerate, and wickedness prevail among them, it shall be
   carried off and hurried away with a swift destruction, under the
   pressing weight of divine wrath, represented by a talent of lead upon
   the mouth of an ephah, carried upon the wing I know not where, ver.
   5-11.

The Vision of the Flying Roll. (b. c. 520.)

   1 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a
   flying roll.   2 And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered,
   I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the
   breadth thereof ten cubits.   3 Then said he unto me, This is the curse
   that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that
   stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every
   one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.   4
   I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into
   the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely
   by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall
   consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

   We do not find that the prophet now needed to be awakened, as he did
   ch. iv. 1. Being awakened then, he kept wakeful after; nay, now he
   needs not be so much as called to look about him, for of his own accord
   he turns and lifts up his eyes. This good men sometimes get by their
   infirmities, they make them the more careful and circumspect
   afterwards. Now observe,

   I. What it was that the prophet saw; he looked up into the air, and
   behold a flying roll. A vast large scroll of parchment which had been
   rolled up, and is therefore called a roll, was now unrolled and
   expanded; this roll was flying upon the wings of the wind, carried
   swiftly through the air in open view, as an eagle that shoots down upon
   her prey; it was a roll, like Ezekiel's that was written within and
   without with lamentations, and mourning, and woe, Ezek. ii. 9, 10. As
   the command of the law is in writing, for certainty and perpetuity, so
   is the curse of the law; it writes bitter things against the sinner.
   "What I have written I have written and what is written remains." The
   angel, to engage the prophet's attention, and to raise in him a desire
   to have it explained, asks him what he sees? And he gives him this
   account of it: I see a flying roll, and as near as he can guess by his
   eye it is twenty cubits long (that is, ten yards) and ten cubits broad,
   that is, five yards. The scriptures of the Old Testament and the New
   are rolls, in which God has written to us the great things of his law
   and gospel. Christ is the Master of the rolls. They are large rolls,
   have much in them. They are flying rolls; the angel that had the
   everlasting gospel to preach flew in the midst of heaven, Rev. xiv. 6.
   God's word runs very swiftly, Ps. cxlvii. 15. Those that would be let
   into the meaning of these rolls must first tell what they see, must go
   as far as they can themselves. "What is written in the law? how readest
   thou? Tell me that, and then thou shalt be made to understand what thou
   readest."

   II. How it was expounded to him, v. 3, 4. This flying roll is a curse;
   it contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those
   sinners especially who by swearing affront God's majesty or by stealing
   invade their neighbour's property. Let every Israelite rejoice in the
   blessings of his country with trembling; for if he swear, if he steal,
   if he live in any course of sin, he shall see them with his eyes, but
   shall not have the comfort of them, for against him the curse has gone
   forth. If I be wicked, woe to me for all this. Now observe here,

   1. The extent of this curse; the prophet sees it flying, but which way
   does it steer its course? It goes forth over the face of the whole
   earth, not only of the land of Israel, but the whole world; for those
   that have sinned against the law written in their hearts only shall by
   that law be judged, though they have not the book of the law. Note, All
   mankind are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are,
   any where upon the face of the whole earth, the curse of God can and
   will find them out and seize them. Oh that we could with an eye of
   faith see the flying roll of God's curse hanging over the guilty world
   as a thick cloud, not only keeping off the sun-beams of God's favour
   from them, but big with thunders, lightnings, and storms, ready to
   destroy them! How welcome then would the tidings of a Saviour be, who
   came to redeem us from the curse of the law by being himself made a
   curse for us, and, like the prophet, eating this roll! The vast length
   and breadth of this roll intimate what a multitude of curses sinners
   lie exposed to. God will make their plagues wonderful, if they turn
   not.

   2. The criminals against whom particularly this curse is levelled. The
   world is full of sin in great variety: so was the Jewish church at this
   time. But two sorts of sinners are here specified as the objects of
   this curse:--(1.) Thieves; it is for every one that steals, that by
   fraud or force takes that which is not his own, especially that robs
   God and converts to his own use what was devoted to God and his honour,
   which was a sin much complained of among the Jews at this time, Mal.
   iii. 8; Neh. xiii. 10. Sacrilege is, without doubt, the worst kind of
   thievery. He also that robs his father or mother, and saith, It is no
   transgression (Prov. xxviii. 24), let him know that against him this
   curse is directed, for it is against every one that steals. The letter
   of the eighth commandment has no penalty annexed to it; but the curse
   here is a sanction to that command. (2.) Swearers. Sinners of the
   former class offend against the second table, these against the first;
   for the curse meets those that break either table. He that swears
   rashly and profanely shall not be held guiltless, much less he that
   swears falsely (v. 4); he imprecates the curse upon himself by his
   perjury, and so shall his doom be; God will say Amen to his
   imprecation, and turn it upon his own head. He has appealed to God's
   judgment, which is always according to truth, for the confirming of a
   lie, and to that judgment he shall go which he has so impiously
   affronted.

   3. The enforcing of this curse, and the equity of it: I will bring it
   forth, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 4. He that pronounces the sentence
   will take care to see it executed. His bringing it forth denotes, (1.)
   His giving it commission. It is a righteous curse, for he is a
   righteous God that warrants it. (2.) His giving it the setting on. He
   brings it forth with power, and orders what execution it shall do; and
   who can put by or resist the curse which a God of almighty power brings
   forth?

   4. The effect of this curse; it is very dreadful, (1.) Upon the sinner
   himself: Every one that steals shall be cut off, not corrected, but
   destroyed, cut off from the land of the living. The curse of God is a
   cutting thing, a killing thing. He shall be cut off as on this side
   (cut off from this place, that is, from Jerusalem), and so he that
   swears from this side (it is the same word), from this place. God will
   not spare the sinners he finds among his own people, nor shall the holy
   city be a protection to the unholy. Or they shall be cut off from
   hence, that is, from the face of the whole earth, over which the curse
   flies. Or he that steals shall be cut off on this side, and he that
   swears on that side; they shall all be cut off, one as well as another,
   and both according to the curse, for the judgments of God's hand are
   exactly agreeable with the judgments of his mouth. (2.) Upon his
   family: It shall enter into the house of the thief and of him that
   swears. God's curse comes with a warrant to break open doors, and
   cannot be kept out by bars or locks. There where the sinner is most
   secure, and thinks himself out of danger,--there where he promises
   himself refreshment by food and sleep,--there, in his own house, shall
   the curse of God seize him; nay, it shall fall not upon him only, but
   upon all about him for his sake. Cursed shall be his basket and his
   store, and cursed the fruit of his body, Deut. xxviii. 17, 18. The
   curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, Prov. iii. 33. It
   shall not only beset his house, or he at the door, but it shall remain
   in the midst of his house, and diffuse its malignant influences to all
   the parts of it. It shall dwell in his tabernacle because it is none of
   his, Job xviii. 15. It shall dwell where he dwells, and be his constant
   companion at bed and board, to make both miserable to him. Having got
   possession, it shall keep it, and, unless he repent and reform, there
   is no way to throw it out or cut off the entail of it. Nay, it shall so
   remain in it as to consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones
   thereof, which, though ever so strong, though the timber be heart of
   oak and the stones hewn out of the rocks of adamant, yet they shall not
   be able to stand before the curse of God. We heard the stone and the
   timber complaining of the owner's extortion and oppression, and
   groaning under the burden of them, Hab. ii. 11. Now here we have them
   delivered from that bondage of corruption. While they were in their
   strength and beauty they supported, sorely against their will, the
   sinner's pride and security; but, when they are consumed, their ruins
   will, to their satisfaction, be standing monuments of God's justice and
   lasting witnesses of the sinner's injustice. Note, Sin is the ruin of
   houses and families, especially the sins of injury and perjury. Who
   knows the power of God's anger, and the operations of his curse? Even
   timber and stones have been consumed by them; let us therefore stand in
   awe and not sin.

The Vision of the Ephah. (b. c. 520.)

   5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift
   up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.   6 And I
   said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He
   said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.   7
   And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman
   that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.   8 And he said, This is
   wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the
   weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.   9 Then lifted I up mine eyes,
   and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in
   their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they
   lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.   10 Then said I
   to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?   11
   And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar: and it
   shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

   The foregoing vision was very plain and easy, but in this are things
   dark and hard to be understood; and some think that the scope of it is
   to foretel the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation and
   the dispersion of the Jews, when, by crucifying Christ and persecuting
   his gospel, they should have filled up the measure of their iniquities;
   therefore it is industriously set out in obscure figures and
   expressions, "lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of
   temple and state might discourage them too much from going forward in
   the present restoration of both." So Mr. Pemble.

   The prophet was contemplating the power and terror of the curse which
   consumes the houses of thieves and swearers, when he was told to turn
   and he should see greater desolations than these made by the curse of
   God for the sin of man: Lift up thy eyes now, and see what is here, v.
   5. What is this that goeth forth? Whether over the face of the whole
   earth, as the flying roll (v. 3), or only over Jerusalem, is not
   certain. But, it seems, the prophet now, through either the distance or
   the dimness of his sight, could not well tell what it was, but asked,
   What is it? v. 6. And the angel tells him both what it is and what it
   means.

   I. He sees an ephah, a measure wherewith they measured corn; it
   contained ten omers (Exod. xvi. 36) and was the tenth part of a homer
   (Ezek. xlv. 11); it is put for any measure used in commerce, Deut. xxv.
   14. And this is their resemblance, the resemblance of the Jewish nation
   over all the earth, wherever they are now dispersed, or at least it
   will be so when their ruin draws near. They are filling up the measure
   of their iniquity, which God has set them; and when it is full, as the
   ephah of corn, they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom
   God has sold them for their sins; they are meted to destruction, as an
   ephah of corn measured to the market or to the mill. And some think
   that the mentioning of an ephah, which is used in buying and selling,
   intimates that fraud, and deceit, and extortion in commerce, were sins
   abounding much among them, as that people are known to be notoriously
   guilty of them at this day. This is a proper representation of them
   through all the earth. There is a measure set them, and they are
   filling it up apace. See Matt. xxiii. 32; 1 Thess. ii. 16.

   II. He sees a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah, representing the
   sinful church and nation of the Jews in their latter and degenerate
   age, when the faithful city became a harlot. He that weighs the
   mountains in scales and the hills in a balance measures nations and
   churches as in an ephah; so exact is he in his judicial dealings with
   them. God's people are called the corn of his floor, Isa. xxi. 10. And
   here he puts this corn into the bushel, in order to his parting with
   it. The angel says of the woman in the ephah, This is wickedness; it is
   a wicked nation, else God would not have rejected it thus; it is as
   wicked as wickedness itself, it is abominably wicked. How has the gold
   become dim! Israel was holiness to the Lord (Jer. ii. 3); but now this
   is wickedness, and wickedness is nowhere so scandalous, so odious, and,
   in many instances, so outrageous, as when it is found among professors
   of religion.

   III. He sees the woman thrust down into the ephah, and a talent, or
   large weight, of lead, cast upon the mouth of it, by which she is
   secured, and made a close prisoner in the ephah, and utterly disabled
   to get out of it. This is designed to show that the wrath of God
   against impenitent sinners is, 1. Unavoidable, and what they cannot
   escape; they are bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up
   under the curse, as this woman in the ephah; he would fain flee out of
   his hand (Job xxvii. 22), but he cannot. 2. It is insupportable, and
   what they cannot bear up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of
   lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. When Christ said of the things of
   Jerusalem's peace, Now they are hidden from thy eyes, that threw a
   talent of lead upon them.

   IV. He sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed to death in it,
   carried away into some far country. 1. The instruments employed to do
   it were two women, who had wings like those of a stork, large and
   strong, and, to make them fly the more swiftly, they had the wind in
   their wings, denoting the great violence and expedition with which the
   Romans destroyed the Jewish nation. God has not only winged messengers
   in heaven, but he can, when he pleases, give wings to those also whom
   he employs in this lower world; and, when he does so, he forwards them
   with the wind in their wings; his providence carries them on with a
   favourable gale. 2. They bore it up in the air, denoting the terrors
   which pursued the wicked Jews, and their being a public example of
   God's vengeance to the world. They lifted it up between the earth and
   the heaven, as unworthy of either and abandoned by both; for the Jews,
   when this was fulfilled, pleased not God and were contrary to all men,
   1 Thess. ii. 15. This is wickedness, and this comes of it; heaven
   thrust out wicked angels, and earth spewed out wicked Canaanites. 3.
   When the prophet enquired whither they carried their prisoner whom they
   had now in execution (v. 10) he was told that they designed to build it
   a house in the land of Shinar. This intimates that the punishment of
   the Jews should be a final dispersion; they should be hurried out of
   their own country, as the chaff which the wind drives away, and should
   be forced to dwell in far countries, particularly in the country of
   Babylon, whither many of the scattered Jews went after the destruction
   of their country by the Romans, as they did also to other countries,
   especially in the Levant parts, not to sojourn, as in their former
   captivity, for seventy years, but to be nailed down for perpetuity.
   There the ephah shall be established, and set upon her own base. This
   intimates, (1.) That their calamity shall continue from generation to
   generation, and that they shall be so dispersed that they shall never
   unite or incorporate again; they shall settle in a perpetual
   unsettlement, and Cain's doom shall be theirs, to dwell in the land of
   shaking. (2.) That their iniquity shall continue too, and their hearts
   shall be hardened in it. Blindness has happened unto Israel, and they
   are settled upon the lees of their own unbelief; their wickedness is
   established upon its own basis. God has given them a spirit of slumber
   (Rom. xi. 8), lest at any time they should convert, and be healed.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. VI.

   The two kingdoms of providence and grace are what we are all very
   nearly interested in, and therefore are concerned to acquaint ourselves
   with, all our temporal affairs being in a necessary subjection to
   divine Providence, and all our spiritual and eternal concerns in a
   necessary dependence upon divine grace; and these two are represented
   to us in this chapter--the former by a vision, the latter by a type.
   Here is, I. God, as King of nations, ruling the world by the ministry
   of angels, in the vision of the four chariots, ver. 1-8. II. God, as
   King of saints, ruling the church by the mediation of Christ, in the
   figure of Joshua the high priest crowned, the ceremony performed, and
   then explained concerning Christ, ver. 9-15.

The Vision of the Four Chariots. (b. c. 520.)

   1 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there
   came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains
   were mountains of brass.   2 In the first chariot were red horses; and
   in the second chariot black horses;   3 And in the third chariot white
   horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.   4 Then I
   answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these,
   my lord?   5 And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the
   four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the
   Lord of all the earth.   6 The black horses which are therein go forth
   into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the
   grisled go forth toward the south country.   7 And the bay went forth,
   and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and
   he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they
   walked to and fro through the earth.   8 Then cried he upon me, and
   spake unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the north country
   have quieted my spirit in the north country.

   The prophet is forward to receive this vision, and, as if he expected
   it, he turned and lifted up his eyes and looked. Though this was the
   seventh vision he had had, yet he did not think he had had enough; for
   the more we know of God and his will, if we know it aright, the more
   desirous we shall be to get a further acquaintance with God. Now
   observe here the sight that the prophet had offour chariots drawn by
   horses of divers colours, together with the explication of the sight,
   v. 1-5. He did not look long before he discovered that which was worth
   seeing, and which would serve very much for the encouraging of himself
   and his friends in this dark day. We are very much in the dark
   concerning the meaning of this vision. Some by the four chariots
   understand the four monarchies; and then they read (v. 5), These are
   the four winds of the heavens, and suppose that therein reference is
   had to Dan. vii. 2, where Daniel saw, in vision, the four winds of the
   heavens striving upon the great sea, representing the four monarchies.
   The Babylonian monarchy, they think, is here represented by the red
   horses, which are not afterwards mentioned, because that monarchy was
   now extinct. The second chariot with the black horses is the Persian
   monarchy, which went forth northward against the Babylonians, and
   quieted God's Spirit in the north country, by executing his judgments
   on Babylon and freeing the Jews from their captivity. The white, the
   Grecians, go forth after them in the north, for they overthrow the
   Persians. The grizzled, the Romans, who conquered the Grecian empire,
   are said to go forth towards the south country, because Egypt, which
   lay southward, was the last branch of the Grecian empire that was
   subdued by the Romans. The bay horses had been with the grizzled, but
   afterwards went forth by themselves; and by these they understand the
   Goths and Vandals, who with their victorious arms walked to and fro
   through the earth, or the Seleucidæ and Lagidæ, the two branches of the
   Grecian empire. Thus Grotius and others.

   But I incline rather to understand this vision more generally, as
   designing to represent the administration of the kingdom of Providence
   in the government of this lower world. The angels are often called the
   chariots of God, as Ps. lxviii. 17; xviii. 10. The various providences
   of God concerning nations and churches are represented by the different
   colours of horses, Rev. vi. 2, 4, 5, 8. And so we may observe here, 1.
   That the counsels and decrees of God are the spring and original of all
   events, and they are immovable, as mountains of brass. The chariots
   came from between the two mountains; for God performs the thing that is
   appointed for us: his appointments are the originals, and his
   performances are but copies from them; he does all according to the
   counsel of his will. We could as soon grasp the mountains in our arms
   as comprehend the divine counsels in our finite understandings, and as
   soon remove mountains of brass as alter any of God's purposes; for he
   is in one mind, and who can turn him? Whatever the providences of God
   are concerning us, as to public or private affairs, we should see them
   all coming from between the mountains of brass, and therefore see it as
   much our folly to quarrel with them as it is our duty to acquiesce in
   them. Who may say to God, What doest thou, or why doest thou so? Acts
   ii. 23; iv. 28. 2. That God executes his decrees in the works of
   Providence, which are as chariots, in which he rides as a prince in an
   open chariot, to show his glory to the world, in which, as in chariots
   of war, he rides forth conquering and to conquer, and triumphing over
   all the enemies of his glory and government. God is great and terrible
   in his doings (Ps. lxvi. 3), and in them we see the goings of our God,
   our King, Ps. lxviii. 24. His providences move swiftly and strongly as
   chariots, but all directed and governed by his infinite wisdom and
   sovereign will, as chariots by their drivers. 3. That the holy angels
   are the ministers of God's providence, and are employed by him, as the
   armies of heaven, for the executing of his counsels among the
   inhabitants of the earth; they are the chariots, or, which comes all to
   one, they are the horses that draw the chariots, great in power and
   might, and who, like the horse that God himself describes (Job xxxix.
   19, &c.), are clothed with thunder, are terrible, but cannot be
   terrified nor made afraid; they are chariots of fire, and horses of
   fire, to carry one prophet to heaven and guard another on earth. They
   are as observant of and obsequious to the will of God as well-managed
   horses are to their rider or driver. Not that God needs them or their
   services, but he is pleased to make use of them, that he may put honour
   upon them, and encourage our trust in his providence. 4. That the
   events of Providence have different aspects and the face of the times
   often changes. The horses in the first chariot were red, signifying war
   and bloodshed, blood to the horse-bridles, Rev. xiv. 20. Those in the
   second chariot were black, signifying the dismal melancholy
   consequences of war; it puts all into mourning, lays all waste,
   introduces famines, and pestilences, and desolations, and makes whole
   lands to languish. Those in the third chariot were white, signifying
   the return of comfort, and peace, and prosperity, after these dark and
   dismal times: though God cause grief to the children of men, yet will
   he have compassion. Those in the fourth chariot were of a mixed colour,
   grizzled and bay; some speckled and spotted, and ash-coloured,
   signifying events of different complexions interwoven and
   counter-changed, a day of prosperity and a day of adversity set the one
   over-against the other. The cup of Providence in the hand of the Lord
   isfull of mixture, Ps. lxxv. 8. 5. That all the instruments of
   Providence, and all the events of it, come from God, and from him they
   receive their commissions and instructions (v. 5): These are the four
   spirits of heaven, the four winds (so some), which seem to blow as they
   list, from the various points of the compass; but God has them in his
   fists and brings them out of his treasuries. Or, rather, These are the
   angels that go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth, to
   attend upon him and minister to him, to behold his glory in the upper
   world, which is their blessedness, and to serve his glory in their
   blessedness, and to serve his glory in this lower world, which is their
   business. They stand before him as the Lord of the whole earth, to
   receive orders from him and give up their accounts to him concerning
   their services on this earth, for it is all within his jurisdiction.
   But, when he appoints, they go forth as messengers of his counsels and
   ministers of his justice and mercy. Those secret motions and impulses
   upon the spirits of men by which the designs of Providence are carried
   on, some think, are these four spirits of the heavens, which go forth
   from God and fulfil what he appoints, who is the God of the spirits of
   all flesh. 6. That there is an admirable beauty in Providence, and one
   event serves for a balance to another (v. 6): The black horses went
   forth, carrying with them very dark and melancholy events, such as made
   every person and every thing look black; but presently the white went
   forth after them, carrying joy to those that mourned, and, by a new
   turn given to affairs, making them to look pleasant again. Such are
   God's dealings with his church and people: if the black horses go
   forth, the white ones presently go after them; for as affliction
   abounds consolation much more abounds. 7. That the common general
   aspect of providence is mixed and compounded. The grizzled and bay
   horses were both in the fourth chariot (v. 3), and though they went
   forth, at first, towards the south country, yet afterwards they sought
   to walk to and fro through the earth and were directed to do so, v. 7.
   If we go to and fro through the earth, we shall find the events of
   Providence neither all black nor all white, but ash-coloured, or gray,
   mixed of black and white. Such is the world we live in; that before us
   is unmixed. Here we are singing, at the same time, of mercy and
   judgment, and we must sing unto God of both (Ps. ci. 1) and labour to
   accommodate ourselves to God's will and design in the mixtures of
   Providence, rejoicing in our comforts as though we rejoiced not,
   because they have their allays, and weeping for our afflictions as
   though we wept not, because there is so much mercy mixed with them. 8.
   That God is well-pleased with all the operations of his own providence
   (v. 8): These have quieted my spirit, these black horses which denote
   extraordinary judgments, and the white ones which denote extraordinary
   deliverances, both which went towards the north country, while the
   common mixed providences went all the world over. These have quieted my
   spirit in the north-country, which had of late been the most remarkable
   scene of action with reference to the church; that is, by these
   uncommon appearances and actings of providence God's wrath is executed
   upon the enemies of the church, and his favours are conferred upon the
   church, both which had long been deferred, and in both God had
   fulfilled his will, accomplished his word, and so quieted his Spirit.
   The Lord is well-pleased for his righteousness' sake; and, as he
   speaks, Isa. i. 24, made himself easy.

The Coronation of Joshua; Prediction of the Messiah. (b. c. 520.)

   9 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,   10 Take of them of
   the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are
   come from Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of
   Josiah the son of Zephaniah;   11 Then take silver and gold, and make
   crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the
   high priest;   12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of
   hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall
   grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord:
   13 Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the
   glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest
   upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
   14 And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah,
   and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the
   Lord.   15 And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple
   of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto
   you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice
   of the Lord your God.

   God did not only at sundry times, but in divers manners, speak in time
   past by the prophets to his church. In the former part of this chapter
   he spoke by a vision, which only the prophet himself saw; here, in this
   latter part, he speaks by a sign, or type, which many saw, and which,
   as it was explained, was an illustrious prediction of the Messiah as
   the priest and king of his church. Here is,

   I. The significant ceremony which God appointed, and that was the
   coronation of Joshua the high priest, v. 10, 11. It is observable that
   there should be two eminent types of Christ in the Old Testament that
   were both named Joshua (the same name with Jesus, and by the LXX., and
   in the New Testament, rendered Jesus, Acts vii. 45)--Joshua the chief
   captain, a type of Christ the captain of our salvation, and Joshua the
   chief priest, a type of Christ the high priest of our profession, and
   both in their day saviours and leaders into Canaan. And this is
   peculiar to Joshua the high priest, that here was something done to him
   by the divine appointment on purpose that he might be a type of Christ,
   a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was both a king and a
   priest. Joshua was far from being ambitious of a crown, and the people
   of having a crowned head over them; but the prophet, to the great
   surprise of both, is ordered to crown Joshua as if he had been a king.
   And, as Zerubbabel's prudence and piety kept this from being any
   affront to him (as the setting up of a rival with him), so God's
   providence kept the kings of Persia from taking umbrage at it, as
   raising a rebellion against them. In doing what we are sure is God's
   pleasure, as this was, we may well venture men's displeasure. 1. Here
   were some Jews come from Babylon that brought an offering to the house
   of God, some of the captivity, here named to their honour, that came
   from Babylon on a visit to Jerusalem. They ought to have bidden a final
   farewell to Babylon, and to have come and settled with their brethren
   in their own land, and for their remissness and indifference in not
   doing so they thought to atone by this visit. Perhaps they came as
   ambassadors from the body of the Jews that were in Babylon, who lived
   there in ease and fulness; and, hearing that the building of the temple
   went on slowly for want of money, they sent them with an offering of
   gold and silver for the service of the house of God. Note, Those that
   by reason of distance, or otherwise, cannot forward a good work by
   their persons, must, as they are able, forward it by their purses; if
   some find hands, let others fill them. 2. Time and place are appointed
   for the prophet to meet them. They thought to bring their present to
   the priest, God's ordinary minister; but God has a prophet, an
   extraordinary one, ready to receive them and it, which would be an
   encouragement to them, who, in their captivity, had so often
   complained, We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet, and
   would invite them and others to re-settle in their own land, which then
   began to look like itself, like a holy land, when the Spirit of
   prophecy was revived in it. Zechariah was ordered to give them the
   meeting the same day they came (for when they had arrived they would
   lose no time, but present their offering immediately), and to bid them
   welcome, assuring them that God now accepted their gifts. He was to
   meet them in the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who probably
   was receiver-general for the temple, and kept the treasures of it. They
   brought their gold and silver, to be employed about the temple, but God
   ordered it to be used in honour of One greater than the temple, Matt.
   xii. 6. 3. Crowns are to be made, and put upon the head of Joshua, v.
   11. It is supposed that there were two crowns provided, one of silver
   and the other of gold; the former (as some think) denoting his priestly
   dignity, the latter his kingly dignity. Or, rather, he being a priest
   already, and having a crown of gold, of pure gold, already, to signify
   his honour and power as a priest, these crowns of silver and gold both
   signify the royal dignity, the crown of silver being perhaps designed
   to typify the kingdom of the Messiah when he was here on earth, for
   then he was the King of Israel (John i. 49), but the crown of gold his
   kingdom in his exalted state, the glory of which as far exceeded that
   of the former as gold does silver. The sun shines as gold, when he goes
   forth in his strength; and the beams of the moon, when she walks in
   brightness, we call silver beams. Those that had worshipped the sun and
   moon shall now fall down before the golden and silver crowns of the
   exalted Redeemer, before whom the sun shall be ashamed and the moon
   confounded, being both out-shone.

   II. The signification which God gave of this ceremony. Every one would
   be ready to ask, "What is the meaning of Joshua's being crowned thus?"
   And the prophet is as ready to tell them the meaning of it. Upon this
   speaking sign is grafted a prediction, and the sign was used to make it
   the more taken notice of and the better remembered. Now the promise is,

   1. That God will, in the fulness of time, raise up a great high priest,
   like Joshua. Tell Joshua that he is but the figure of one that is to
   come, a faint shadow of him (v. 12): Speak unto him in the name of the
   Lord of hosts, that the man whose name is The BRANCH shall grow up out
   of his place, out of Bethlehem the city of David, the place appointed
   for his birth; though the family be a root in a dry ground, yet this
   branch shall spring out of it, as in the spring, when the sun returns,
   the flowers spring out of the roots, in which they lay buried out of
   sight and out of mind. He shall grow up for himself (so some read it)
   propria virtute--by his own vital energy, shall be exalted in his own
   strength.

   2. That, as Joshua was an active useful instrument in building the
   temple, so the man, the branch, shall be the master-builder, the sole
   builder of the spiritual temple, the gospel-church. He shall build the
   temple of the Lord; and it is repeated (v. 13), Even he shall build the
   temple of the Lord. He shall grow up to do good, to be an instrument of
   God's glory and a great blessing to mankind. Note, The gospel-church is
   the temple of the Lord, a spiritual house (1 Pet. ii. 5), a holy
   temple, Eph. ii. 21. In the temple God made discoveries of himself to
   his people, and there he received the service and homage of his people;
   so, in the gospel-church, the light of divine revelation shines by the
   word, and the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise are offered.
   Now Christ is not only the foundation, but the founder, of this temple,
   by his Spirit and grace.

   3. That Christ shall bear the glory. Glory is a burden, but not too
   heavy for him to bear who upholds all things. The cross was his glory,
   and he bore that; so was the crown an exceeding weight of glory, and he
   bears that. The government is upon his shoulders, and in it he bears
   the glory, Isa. ix. 6. They shall hang upon him all the glory of his
   Father's house, Isa. xxii. 24. It becomes him, and he is par
   negotio--well able to bear it. The glory of the priesthood and royalty
   had been divided between the house of Aaron and that of David; but now
   he alone shall bear all the glory of both. That which he shall bear,
   which he shall undertake, shall be indeed the glory of Israel; and they
   must wait for that, and, in prospect of it, must be content in the want
   of that external glory which they formerly had. He shall bear such a
   glory as shall make the glory of this latter house greater than that of
   the former. He shall lift up the glory (so it may be read); the glory
   of Israel had been thrown down and depressed, but he shall raise it out
   of the dust.

   4. That he shall have a throne, and be both priest and king upon his
   throne. A throne denotes both dignity and dominion, an exalted honour
   with an extensive power. (1.) This priest shall be a king, and his
   office as a priest shall be no diminution to his dignity as a king: He
   shall sit and rule upon his throne. Christ, as a priest, ever lives to
   make intercession for us; but he does it sitting at his Father's right
   hand, as one having authority, Heb. viii. 1. We have such a high priest
   as Israel never had, for he is set on the right hand of the throne of
   the Majesty in the heavens, which puts a prevailing virtue into his
   mediation; he that appears for us within the veil is one that sits and
   rules there. Christ, who is ordained to offer sacrifices for us, is
   authorized to give law to us. He will not save us unless we be willing
   that he should govern us. God has prepared him a throne in the heavens;
   and, if we would have any benefit by that, we must prepare him a throne
   in our hearts, and be willing and glad that he should sit and rule upon
   that throne; and to him every thought within us must be brought into
   obedience. (2.) This king shall be a priest, a priest upon his throne.
   With the majesty and power of a king, he shall have the tenderness and
   simplicity of a priest, who, being taken from among men, is ordained
   for men, and can have compassion on the ignorant, Heb. v. 1, 2. In all
   the acts of his government as a king he prosecutes the intentions of
   his grace as a priest. Let not therefore those that are his look upon
   his throne, though a throne of glory and a throne of judgment, with
   terror and amazement; for, as there is a rainbow about the throne, so
   he is a priest upon the throne.

   5. That the counsel of peace shall be between them both. That is, (1.)
   Between Jehovah and the man the branch, between the Father and the Son;
   the counsels concerning the peace to be made between God and man, by
   the mediation of Christ, shall be concerted (that is, shall appear to
   have been concerted) by Infinite Wisdom in the covenant of redemption;
   the Father and the Son understood one another perfectly well in that
   matter. Or, rather, (2.) Between the priest and the throne, between the
   priestly and kingly office of Jesus Christ. The man the branch must
   grow up to carry on a counsel of peace, peace on earth, and, in order
   to that, peace with heaven. God's thoughts towards us were thoughts of
   peace, and, in prosecution of them, he exalted his Son Christ Jesus to
   be both a prince and a Saviour; he gave him a throne, but with this
   proviso, that he should be a priest upon his throne, and by executing
   the two offices of a priest and king should bring about that great
   undertaking of man's reconciliation to God and happiness in God. Some
   think it alludes to the former government of the Jews' state, wherein
   the king and priest, separate officers, did take counsel one with
   another, for the maintenance of peace and prosperity in church and
   state, as did Zerubbabel and Joshua now. I may add, the prophets of God
   helping them. So shall the peace and welfare of the gospel-church, and
   of all believers, be wrought, though not by two separate persons, yet
   by virtue of two separate offices meeting in one--Christ purchasing all
   peace by his priesthood and maintaining and defending it by his
   kingdom; so Mr. Pemble. And his prophetic office is serviceable to both
   in this great design.

   6. That there shall be a happy coalition between Jews and Gentiles in
   the gospel-church, and they shall both meet in Christ, the priest upon
   his throne, as the centre of their unity (v. 15): Those that are far
   off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord. Some understand it
   of the Jews that were now afar off in Babylon, that staid behind in
   captivity, to the great discouragement of their brethren that had
   returned, who wanted their help in building the temple. Now God
   promises that many of them, and some of other nations too, proselyted
   to the Jewish religion, should come in, and lend a helping hand to the
   building of the temple, and many hands would make light work. The kings
   of Persia contributed to the building of the temple (Ezra vi. 8) and
   the furnishing of it, Ezra vii. 19, 20. And, in after-times, Herod the
   Great, and others that were strangers, helped to beautify and enrich
   the temple. But it has a further reference to that temple of the Lord
   which the man the branch was to build. The Gentiles, strangers afar
   off, shall help to build it, for from among them God will raise up
   ministers that shall be workers together with Christ about that
   building; and all the Gentile converts shall be stones added to this
   building, so that it shall grow up to a holy temple, Eph. ii. 20-22.
   When God's temple is to be built he can fetch in those that are afar
   off and employ them in the building of it.

   7. That the accomplishment of this will be a strong confirmation of the
   truth of God's word: You shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me
   unto you. That promise, that those that were afar off should come and
   assist them in building the temple of the Lord, was as it were the
   giving of them a sign; by this they might be assured that the other
   promises should be fulfilled in due time. This should be fulfilled now
   very speedily; it was so, for those that had been their enemies and
   accusers, in obedience to the king's edict, became their helpers and
   did speedily what they were ordered to do for the furtherance of the
   work, and by that means the work went on and was finished; see Ezra vi.
   13, 14. Now, by this surprising assistance which they had from afar off
   in building the temple, they might know that Zechariah, who told them
   of it before, was sent of God, and that therefore his word concerning
   the man the branch should be fulfilled.

   8. That these promises were strong obligations to obedience: "For this
   shall come to pass (you shall have help in building the temple) if you
   will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. You shall have the
   help of foreigners in building the temple, if you will but set about it
   in good earnest yourselves." The assistance of others, instead of being
   an excuse for our slothfulness, should be a spur to our industry. "You
   shall have the benefit and comfort of all those promises if you make
   conscience of your duty." They must know that they are upon their good
   behaviour; and, though their God is coming towards them in a way of
   mercy, they cannot expect him to proceed in it unless they conform to
   his laws. Note, That which God requires of us, to qualify us for his
   favour, is obedience to his revealed will; and it must be a diligent
   obedience. We cannot obey the voice of God without a great deal of care
   and pains, nor will our obedience be accepted of God unless it be
   laboured by us.

   III. The provision that was made to preserve the remembrance of this.
   The crowns that were used in this solemnity were not given to Joshua,
   but must be kept for a memorial in the temple of the Lord, v. 14.
   Either they were laid up in the temple treasury or (as the Jews'
   tradition is) they were hung up in the windows of the temple, in the
   view of all, in perpetuam rei memoriam--for a perpetual memorial, for a
   traditional evidence of the promise of the Messiah and this typical
   transaction used for the confirmation of that promise. The crowns were
   delivered to those who found the materials (and some think their names
   were engraven on the crowns), to be preserved as a public testimony of
   their pious liberality and an encouragement to others in like manner to
   bring presents to the house of God. Note, Various means were used for
   the support of the faith of the Old-Testament saints, who waited for
   the consolation of Israel, till the time, the set time, for it came.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. VII.

   We have done with the visions, but not with the revelations of this
   book; the prophet sees no more such signs as he had seen, but still
   "the word of the Lord came to him." In this chapter we have, I. A case
   of conscience proposed to the prophet by the children of the captivity
   concerning fasting, whether they should continue their solemn fasts
   which they had religiously observed during the seventy years of their
   captivity, ver. 1-3. II. The answer to this question, which is given in
   this and the next chapter; and this answer was given not all at once,
   but by piece-meal, and, it should seem, at several times, for here are
   four distinct discourses which have all of them reference to this case,
   each of them prefaced with "the word of the Lord came," ver. 4-8 and
   ch. viii. 1, 18. The method of them is very observable. In this
   chapter, 1. The prophet sharply reproves them for the mismanagements of
   their fasts, ver. 4-7. 2. He exhorts them to reform their lives, which
   would be the best way of fasting, and to take heed of those sins which
   brought those judgments upon them which they kept these fasts in memory
   of, ver. 8-14. And then in the next chapter, having searched the wound,
   he binds it up, and heals it, with gracious assurances of great mercy
   God had yet in store for them, by which he would turn their fasts into
   feasts.

An Enquiry Concerning Fasting; Hypocrisy Reproved. (b. c. 520.)

   1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word
   of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month,
   even in Chisleu;   2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer
   and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the Lord,   3 And to
   speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts,
   and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month,
   separating myself, as I have done these so many years?   4 Then came
   the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,   5 Speak unto all the
   people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and
   mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did
   ye at all fast unto me, even to me?   6 And when ye did eat, and when
   ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
     7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the
   former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and
   the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and
   the plain?

   This occasional sermon, which the prophet preached, and which is
   recorded in this and the next chapter, was above two years after the
   former, in which he gave them an account of his visions, as appears by
   comparing the date of this (v. 1), in the ninth month of the fourth
   year of Darius, with the date of that (ch. i. 1), in the eighth month
   of the second year of Darius; not that Zechariah was idle all that
   while (it is expressly said that he and Haggai continued prophesying
   till the temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius; Ezra vi. 14,
   15), but during that time he did not preach any sermon that was
   afterwards published, and left upon record, as this is. God may be
   honoured, his work done, and his interest served, by word of mouth as
   well as by writing; and by inculcating and pressing what has been
   taught, as well as by advancing something new. Now here we have,

   I. A case proposed concerning fasting. Some persons were sent to
   enquire of the priests and prophets whether they should continue to
   observe their yearly fasts, particularly that in the fifth month, as
   they had done. It is uncertain whether the case was put by those that
   yet remained in Babylon, who, being deprived of the benefit of the
   solemn feasts which God's ordinance appointed them, made up the want by
   the solemn fasts which God's providences called them to; or by those
   that had returned, but lived in the country, as some rather incline to
   think, because they are called the people of the land, v. 5. But, as to
   that, the answer given to the messengers of the captive Jews might be
   directed, not to them only, but to all the people. Observe,

   1. Who they were that came with this enquiry--Sherezer and
   Regem-melech, persons of some rank and figure, for they came with their
   men, and did not think it below them, or any disparagement to them, to
   be sent on this errand, but rather an addition to their honour to be,
   (1.) Attendants in God's house, there to do duty and receive orders.
   The greatest of men are less than the least of the ordinances of Jesus
   Christ. (2.) Agents for God's people, to negotiate their affairs. Men
   of estates, having more leisure than men of business, ought to employ
   their time in the service of the public, and by doing good they make
   themselves truly great; the messengers of the churches were the glory
   of Christ, 2 Cor. viii. 23.

   2. What the errand was upon which they came. They were sent perhaps not
   with gold and silver (as those, ch. vi. 10, 11), or, if they were, that
   is not mentioned, but upon the two great errands which should bring us
   all to the house of God, (1.) to intercede with God for his mercy. They
   were sent to pray before the Lord, and, some think (according to the
   usage then), to offer sacrifice, with which they offered up their
   prayers. The Jews, in captivity, prayed towards the temple (as appears
   Dan. vi. 10); but now that it was in a fair way to be rebuilt they sent
   their representatives to pray in it, remembering that God had said that
   his house should be called a house of prayer for all people, Isa. lvi.
   7. In prayer we must set ourselves as before the Lord, must see his eye
   upon us and have our eye up to him. (2.) To enquire of God concerning
   his mind. Note, When we offer up our requests to God it must be with a
   readiness to receive instructions from him; for, if we turn away our
   ear from hearing his law, we cannot expect that our prayers should be
   acceptable to him. We must therefore desire to dwell in the house of
   the Lord all the days of our life that we may enquire there (Ps. xxvii.
   4), asking, not only, Lord, what wilt thou do for me? but, Lord what
   wilt thou have me to do?

   3. Whom they consulted. They spoke to the priests that were in the
   house of the Lord and to the prophets; the former were an oracle for
   ordinary cases, the latter for extraordinary; they were blessed with
   both, and would try if either could acquaint them with the mind of God
   in this case. Note, God having given diversities of gifts to men, and
   all to profit with, we should make use of all as there is occasion.
   They were not so wedded to the priests, their stated ministers, as to
   distrust the prophets, who appeared, by the gifts given them, well
   qualified to serve the church; nor yet were they so much enamoured with
   the prophets as to despise the priests, but they spoke both to the
   priests and to the prophets, and, in consulting both, gave glory to the
   God of Israel, and that one Spirit who works all in all. God might
   speak to them either by urim or by prophets (1 Sam. xxviii. 6), and
   therefore they would not neglect either. The priests and the prophets
   were not jealous one of another, nor had any difference among
   themselves; let not the people then make differences between them, but
   thank God they had both. The prophets did indeed reprove what was amiss
   in the priests, but at the same time told the people that the priest's
   lips should keep knowledge, and they must enquire the law at his mouth,
   for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, Mal. ii. 7. Note, Those
   that would know God's mind should consult God's ministers, and in
   doubtful cases ask advice of those whose special business it is to
   search the scriptures.

   4. What the case was which they desired satisfaction in (v. 3): Should
   I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so
   many years. Observe, (1.) What had been their past practice, not only
   during the seventy years of the captivity but to this time, which was
   twenty years after the liberty proclaimed them; they kept up solemn
   stated fasts for humiliation and prayer, which they religiously
   observed, according as their opportunities were, in their closets,
   families, or such assemblies for worship as they had. In the case here,
   they mention only one, that of the fifth month; but it appears, by ch.
   viii. 19, that they observed four anniversary fasts, one in the fourth
   month (June 17), in remembrance of the breaking up of the wall of
   Jerusalem (Jer. lii. 6), another in the fifth month (July 4), in
   remembrance of the burning of the temple (Jer. lii. 12, 13), another in
   the seventh month (September 3), in remembrance of the killing of
   Gedaliah, which completed their dispersion, and another in the tenth
   month (December 10), in remembrance of the beginning of the siege of
   Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxv. 1. Now it was very commendable in them to keep
   those fasts, thus to humble themselves under those humbling
   providences, by which God called them to weeping and mourning, thus to
   accommodate themselves to their troubles, and prepare themselves for
   deliverance. It would likewise be a means of possessing their children
   betimes with a due sense of the hand of the Lord gone out against them.
   (2.) What was their present doubt-whether they should continue these
   fasts or no. The case is put as by a single person: Should I weep? But
   it was the case of many, and the satisfaction of one would be a
   satisfaction to the rest. Or perhaps many had left it off, but the
   querist will not be determined by the practice of others; if God will
   have him continue it, he will, whatever others do. His fasting is
   described by his weeping, separating himself. A religious fast must be
   solemnized, not only by abstinence, here called a separating ourselves
   from the ordinary lawful comforts of life, but by a godly sorrow for
   sin, here expressed by weeping. "Should I still keep such days to
   afflict the soul as I have done these so many years?" It is said (v. 5)
   to be seventy years, computed from the last captivity, as before, ch.
   i. 12. The enquiry intimates a readiness to continue it, if God so
   appoint, though it be a mortification to the flesh. [1.] Something is
   to be said for the continuance of these fasts. Fasting and praying are
   good work at any time, and do good; we have always both cause enough
   and need enough to humble ourselves before God. To throw off these
   fasts would be an evidence of their being too secure, and a cause of
   their being more so. They were still in distress, and under the tokens
   of God's displeasure; and it is unwise for the patient to break off his
   course of physic while he is sensible of such remains of his distemper.
   But, [2.] There is something to be said for the letting fall of these
   fasts. God had changed the method of his providences concerning them,
   and returned in ways of mercy to them; and ought not they then to
   change the method of their duties? Now that the bridegroom has
   returned, why should the children of the bride-chamber fast? Every
   thing is beautiful in its season. And as to the fast of the fifth month
   (which is that they particularly enquire about), that, being kept in
   remembrance of the burning of the temple, might seem to be superseded
   rather than any of the other, because the temple was now in a fair way
   to be rebuilt. But, having long kept up this fast, they would not leave
   it off without advice, and without asking and knowing God's mind in the
   case. Note, A good method of religious services, which we have found
   beneficial to ourselves and others, ought not to be altered without
   good reason, and therefore not without mature deliberation.

   II. An answer given to this case. It should seem that, though the
   question looked plausible enough, those who proposed it were not
   conscientious in it, for they were more concerned about the ceremony
   than about the substance; they seemed to boast of their fasting, and to
   upbraid God Almighty with it, that he had not sooner returned in mercy
   to them; "for we have done it these so many years." As those, Isa.
   lviii. 3, Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? And some think
   that unbelief, and distrust of the promises of God, were at the bottom
   of their enquiry; for, if they had given them the credit that was due
   to them, they needed not to doubt but that their fasts ought to be laid
   aside, now that the occasion of them was over. And therefore the first
   answer to their enquiry is a very sharp reproof of their hypocrisy,
   directed, not only to the people of the land, but to the priests, who
   had set up these fasts, and perhaps some of them were for keeping them
   up, to serve some purpose of their own. Let them all take notice that,
   whereas they thought they had made God very much their debtor by these
   fasts, they were much mistaken, for they were not acceptable to him,
   unless they had been observed in a better manner and to better purpose.

   1. What they did that was good was not done aright (v. 5): You fasted
   and mourned. They were not chargeable with the omission or neglect of
   the duty, though it was displeasing to the body (thy fasts were
   continually before me, Ps. l. 8), but they had not managed them aright.
   Note, Those that come to enquire of their duty must be willing first to
   be told of their faults. And those that seem zealous for the outside of
   a duty ought to examine themselves faithfully whether they have the
   regard they ought to have to the inside of it. (1.) They had not an eye
   to God in their fasting: Did you at all fast unto me, even to me? He
   appeals to their own consciences; they will witness against them that
   they had not been sincere in it, much more will God, who is greater
   than the heart and knows all things. You know very well that you did
   not at all fast to me; in fasting did you fast to me? There was the
   carcase and form of the duty, but none of the life, and soul, and power
   of it. Was it to me, even to me? The repetition intimates what a great
   deal of stress is laid upon this as the main matter, in that and other
   holy exercises, that they be done to God, even to him, with an eye to
   his word as our rule, and his glory as our end, in them, seeking to
   please him and to obtain his favour, and studious by the sincerity of
   our intention to approve ourselves to him. When this was wanting every
   fast was but a jest. To fast, and not fast to God, was to mock him and
   provoke him, and could not be pleasing to him. Those that make fasting
   a cloak for sin, as Jezebel's fast, or by it make their court to men
   for their applause, as the Pharisees, or that rest in outward
   expressions of humiliation while their hearts are unhumbled, as Ahab,
   do they fast to God, even to him? Is this the fast that God has chosen?
   Isa. lviii. 5. If the solemnities of our fasting, though frequent,
   long, and severe, do not serve to put an edge upon devout affections,
   to quicken prayer, to increase godly sorrow, and to alter the temper of
   our minds and the course of our lives for the better, they do not at
   all answer the intention, and God will not accept them as performed to
   him, even to him. (2.) They had the same eye to themselves in their
   fasting that they had in their eating and drinking (v. 6): "When you
   did eat, and when you did drink, on other days (nay, perhaps on your
   fast-days, in the observation of which you could, when you saw cause,
   dispense with yourselves, and take a liberty to eat and drink), did you
   not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Have you not always
   done as you had a mind yourselves? Why then do you now pretend a desire
   to know the mind of God? In your religious feasts and thanksgivings you
   have had no more an eye to God than in your fasts." Or, rather, it
   refers to their common meals; they did no more design the honour of God
   in their fasting and praying than they did in their eating and
   drinking; but self was still the centre in which the lines of all their
   actions, natural, civil, and religious, met. They needed not be in such
   care about the continuance of their fasts, unless they had kept them
   better. Note, We miss our end in eating and drinking when we eat to
   ourselves and drink to ourselves, whereas we should eat and drink to
   the glory of God (1 Cor. x. 31), that our bodies may be fit to serve
   our souls in his service.

   2. The principal good thing they should have done was left undone (v.
   7): "Should you not hear the words which the Lord has cried by the
   former prophets? Yes, that you should have done on your fast-days; it
   was not enough to weep and separate yourselves on your fast-days, in
   token of your sorrow for the judgments you were under, but you should
   have searched the scriptures of the prophets, that you might have seen
   what was the ground of God's controversy with your fathers, and might
   have taken warning by their miseries not to tread in the steps of their
   iniquities. You ask, Shall we do as we have done, in fasting? No, you
   must do that which you have not yet done; you must repent of your sins
   and reform you lives. This is what we now call you to, and it is the
   same that the former prophets called your fathers to." To affect them
   the more with the mischief that sin had done them, that they might be
   brought to repent of it, he puts them in mind of the former flourishing
   state of their country: Jerusalem was then inhabited and in prosperity,
   that is now desolate and in distress. The cities round about, that are
   now in ruins, were then inhabited too and in peace. The country
   likewise was very populous: Men inhabited the south of the plain, which
   was not at all fortified, and yet they lived safely, and which was
   fruitful, and so they lived plentifully. But then God by the prophets
   cried to them, as one in earnest, and importunate with them, to amend
   their ways and doings, or else their prosperity would soon be at an
   end. "Now," says the prophet, "you should have taken notice of that,
   and have inferred that what was required of them for the preventing of
   the judgments, and which they did not, is required of you for the
   removal of the judgments; and, if you do it not, all your fasting and
   weeping signify nothing." Note, The words of the later prophets agree
   with those of the former; and, whether people are in prosperity or
   adversity, they must be called upon to leave their sins and do their
   duty; this must still be the burden of every song.

Wilful Disobedience of Israel; Consequences of Disobedience. (b. c. 520.)

   8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,   9 Thus
   speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew
   mercy and compassions every man to his brother:   10 And oppress not
   the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none
   of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.   11 But they
   refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their
   ears, that they should not hear.   12 Yea, they made their hearts as an
   adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the
   Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore
   came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.   13 Therefore it is come to
   pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I
   would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:   14 But I scattered them with
   a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was
   desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they
   laid the pleasant land desolate.

   What was said v. 7, that they should have heard the words of the former
   prophets, is here enlarged upon, for warning to these hypocritical
   enquirers, who continued their sins when they asked with great
   preciseness whether they should continue their fasts. This prophet had
   before put them in mind of their fathers' disobedience to the calls of
   the prophets, and what was the consequence of it (ch. i. 4-6), and now
   here again; for others' harms should be our warnings. God's judgments
   upon Israel of old for their sins were written for admonition to us
   Christians (1 Cor. x. 11), and the same use we should make of similar
   providences in our own day.

   I. This prophet here repeats the heads of the sermons which the former
   prophets preached to their fathers (v. 9, 10), because the very same
   things were required of them now. "Thus does the Lord of hosts speak to
   you now, and thus he did speak to your fathers, saying, Execute true
   judgment." The duties here required of them, which would have been the
   lengthening of the tranquillity of their fathers and must be the
   restoring of their tranquillity, are not keeping fasts and offering
   sacrifices, but doing justly and loving mercy, duties which they were
   bound to by the light and law of nature, though there had been no
   prophets sent to insist upon them, duties which had a direct tendency
   to the public welfare and peace, and which they themselves would be the
   gainers by, and not God. 1. Magistrates must administer justice
   impartially, according to the maxims of the law and the merits of the
   cause, without respect of persons: "Judge judgment of truth, and
   execute it when you have judged it." 2. Neighbours must have a tender
   concern for one another, and must not only do one another no wrong, but
   must be ready to do one another all the good offices that lie in their
   power. They must show mercy and compassion every man to his brother, as
   the case called for it. The infirmities of others, as well as their
   calamities, are to be looked upon with compassion. Hanc veniam
   petimusque damusque vicissim--This kindness we ask and exercise. 3.
   They must not bear hard upon those whom they have advantage against,
   and who, they know, are not able to help themselves. They must not,
   either in commerce or in course of law, oppress the widow, the
   fatherless, the stranger, and the poor, v. 10. The weakest must not be
   thrust to the wall because they are weakest. No thanks to men not to
   deny right to those who are in a capacity to demand it and recover it;
   but we must, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake, give
   those their own who have not power to force it from us. Or it intimates
   that that which is but exactness with others is exaction upon the
   widows and the fatherless; nay, that not relieving and helping them as
   we ought is, in effect, oppressing them. 4. They must not only not do
   wrong to any, but they must not so much as desire it nor think of it:
   "Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. Do not
   project it; do not wish it; nay do not so much as please yourself with
   the fancy of it." The law of God lays a restraint upon the heart, and
   forbids the entertaining, forbids the admitting, of a malicious,
   spiteful, ill-natured thought. Deut. xv. 9, Beware that there be not a
   thought in thy Belial heart against thy brother.

   II. He describes the wilfulness and disobedience of their fathers, who
   persisted in all manner of wickedness and injustice, notwithstanding
   these exhortations and admonitions frequently given them in God's name;
   various expressions to this purport are here heaped up (v. 11, 12),
   setting forth the stubbornness of that carnal mind which is enmity
   against God, and is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed
   can be. They were obstinate and refractory, and persisted in their
   transgressions of the law purely from a spirit of contradiction to the
   law. 1. They would not, if they could help it, come within hearing of
   the prophets, but kept at a distance; or, if they could not avoid
   hearing what they said, yet they resolved they would not heed it: They
   refused to hearken, and looked another way as if they had not been
   spoken to. 2. If they did hear what was said to them, and, as it
   seemed, inclined at first to comply with it, yet they flew off when it
   came to the setting to, and, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke,
   they pulled away the shoulder, and would not submit to the easy yoke
   and the light burden of God's commandments. They gave a withdrawing
   shoulder (so the word is); they seemed to lay their shoulder to the
   work, but they presently withdrew it again, as those Jer. xxxiv. 10,
   11. They were like a deceitful bow, as that son that said, I go, sir,
   but went not. 3. They filled their own minds with prejudices against
   the word of God, and had some objection or other ready wherewith to
   fortify themselves against every sermon they heard. They stopped their
   ears, that they should not hear, as the deaf adder (Ps. lviii. 4), and
   none are so deaf as those that will not hear, that make their own ear
   heavy, as the word is. 4. They resolved that nothing which was said to
   them, for the enforcing of these injunctions, should make any
   impression upon them: They made their hearts as an adamant-stone, as a
   diamond, the hardest of stones to be wrought upon, or as a flint, which
   the mason cannot hew into shape as he can other stone out of the
   quarry. Nothing is so hard, so unmalleable, so inflexible, as the heart
   of a presumptuous sinner; and those whose hearts are hard may thank
   themselves; they are of their own hardening, and it is just with God to
   give them over to a reprobate sense, to the hardness and impenitence of
   their own hearts. These stubborn sinners hardened their hearts on
   purpose lest they should hear what God said to them by the written
   word, by the law of Moses, and by the words of the prophets that
   preached to them; they had Moses and the prophets, but resolved they
   would hear neither, nor would they have been persuaded though one had
   been sent to them from the dead. The words of the prophet were not
   regarded by them, though they were words which the Lord of hosts sent
   and directed to them, though he sent them immediately by his Spirit in
   the prophets; so that in despising them they affronted God himself and
   resisted the Holy Ghost. Note, The reason why men are not good is
   because they will not be so; they will not consider, will not comply;
   and therefore, if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

   III. He shows the fatal consequences of it to their fathers: Therefore
   came great wrath from the Lord of hosts. God was highly displeased with
   them, and justly; he required nothing of them but what was reasonable
   in itself and beneficial to them; and yet they refused, and in a most
   insolent manner too. What master could bear to be so abused by his own
   servant? Such an implacable enmity to the gospel as this was to the law
   and the prophets was that which brought wrath to the uttermost upon the
   last generation of the Jewish church, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Great sins
   against the Lord of hosts, whose authority is incontestable, bring
   great wrath from the Lord of hosts, whose power is irresistible. And
   the effect was, 1. As they had turned a deaf ear to God's word, so God
   turned a deaf ear to their prayers, v. 13. As he cried to them in their
   prosperity to leave their sins, and they would not hear, but persisted
   in their iniquities, so they cried to him in the day of their trouble
   to remove his judgments, and he would not hear, but lengthened out
   their calamities. Those that set God at defiance, in the height of
   their pride, when pangs came upon them cried unto him. Lord, in trouble
   have they visited thee. But God has said it, and will abide by it, He
   that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be
   an abomination, Prov. xxviii. 9; i. 24, &c. Iniquity, regarded in the
   heart, will certainly spoil the success of prayer, Ps. lxvi. 18. 2. As
   they flew off from their duty and allegiance to God, and were of
   desultory and unsettled spirits, so God dissipated them and threw them
   about as chaff before a whirlwind: He scattered them among all the
   nations whom they knew not, and whom therefore they could not expect to
   receive any kindness from, v. 14. 3. As they violated all the laws of
   their land, so God took away all the glories of it: Their land was
   desolate after them, and no man passed through or returned. All that
   country that was the kingdom of the two tribes, after the dispersion of
   the remaining Jews, upon the slaughter of Gedaliah, was left utterly
   uninhabited; there was not man, woman, or child, in it, till the Jews
   returned at the end of seventy years' captivity; nay, it should seem,
   the very roads that lay through the country were deserted (none passed
   or repassed), which, as it had an intimation of mercy in it (though
   they were cast out of it, yet it was kept empty for their return), so
   for the present it made the judgment appear much the more dismal; for
   what a horrid wilderness must a land be that had been so many years
   uninhabited! And they might thank themselves; it was they that by their
   own wickedness laid the pleasant land desolate. It was not so much the
   Chaldeans that did it. No; they did it themselves. The desolations of a
   land are owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants, Ps. cvii. 34. This
   came of their wilful disobedience to the law of God. And the present
   generation saw how desolate sin had made that pleasant land, and yet
   would not take warning.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. VIII.

   The work of ministers is rightly to divide the word of truth and to
   give every one his portion. So the prophet is here instructed to do, in
   the further answer he gives to the case of conscience proposed about
   continuing the public fasts. His answer, in the foregoing chapter, is
   by way of reproof to those that were disobedient and would not obey the
   truth. But here he is ordered to change his voice, and to speak by way
   of encouragement to the willing and obedient. Here are two words from
   the Lord of hosts, and they are both good words and comfortable words.
   In the former of these messages (ver. 1) God promises that Jerusalem
   shall be restored, reformed, replenished (ver. 2-8), that the country
   shall be rich, and the affairs of the nation shall be successful, their
   reputation retrieved, and their state in all respects the reverse of
   what it had been for many years past (ver. 9-15); he then exhorts them
   to reform what was amiss among them, that they might be ready for these
   favours designed them (ver. 16, 17). In the latter of these messages
   (ver. 18) he promises that their fasts should be superseded by the
   return of mercy (ver. 19), and that thereupon they should be
   replenished, enriched, and strengthened, by the accession of foreigners
   to them, ver. 20-23.

Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 517.)

   1 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,   2 Thus
   saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy,
   and I was jealous for her with great fury.   3 Thus saith the Lord; I
   am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and
   Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord
   of hosts the holy mountain.   4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; There
   shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and
   every man with his staff in his hand for very age.   5 And the streets
   of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets
   thereof.   6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If it be marvellous in the
   eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be
   marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts.   7 Thus saith the
   Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and
   from the west country;   8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell
   in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be
   their God, in truth and in righteousness.

   The prophet, in his foregoing discourses, had left his hearers under a
   high charge of guilt and a deep sense of wrath; he had left them in a
   melancholy view of the desolations of their pleasant land, which was
   the effect of their fathers' disobedience; but because he designed to
   bring them to repentance, not to drive them to despair, he here sets
   before them the great things God had in store for them, encouraging
   them hereby to hope that their case of conscience would shortly
   determine itself and that God's providence would as loudly call them to
   joy and gladness as ever it called them to fasting and mourning. It is
   here promised,

   I. That God will appear for Jerusalem, and will espouse and plead her
   cause. 1. He will be revenged on Zion's enemies (v. 2): I was jealous
   for Zion, or of Zion; that is, "I have of late been heartily concerned
   for her honour and interests, with great jealousy. The great wrath that
   was against her (ch. vii. 12) now turns against her adversaries. I am
   now jealous for her with great fury, and can no more bear to have her
   abused in her afflictions than I could bear to be abused by her
   provocations." This he had said before (ch. i. 14, 15), that they might
   promise themselves as much from the power of his anger, when it was
   turned for them, as they had felt from it when it was against them. The
   sins of Zion were her worst enemies, and had done her the most
   mischief; and therefore God, in his jealousy for her honour and
   comfort, will take away her sins, and then, whatever other enemies
   injured her, it was at their peril. 2. He will be resident in Zion's
   palaces (v. 3): "I have returned to Zion, after I had seemed so long to
   stand at a distance, and I will again dwell in the midst of Jerusalem
   as formerly." This secures to them the tokens of his presence in his
   ordinances and the instances of his favour in his providences.

   II. That there shall be a wonderful reformation in Jerusalem, and
   religion, in the power of it, shall prevail and flourish there.
   "Jerusalem, that has dealt treacherously both with God and man, shall
   become so famous for fidelity and honesty that it shall be called and
   known by the name of a city of truth, and the inhabitants of it shall
   be called children that will not lie. The faithful city has become a
   harlot (Isa. i. 21), but shall now become a faithful city again,
   faithful to the God of Israel and to the worship of him only." This was
   fulfilled; for the Jews after the captivity, though there was much
   amiss among them, were never guilty of idolatry. Jerusalem shall be
   called the mountain of the Lord of hosts, owning him and owned by him,
   and therefore the holy mountain, cleared from idols and consecrated to
   God, and not, as it had been, the mount of corruption, 2 Kings xxiii.
   13. Note, The city of God ought to be a city of truth and the mountain
   of the Lord of hosts a holy mountain. Those that profess religion, and
   relation to God, must study to adorn their profession by all instances
   of godliness and honesty.

   III. That there shall be in Jerusalem a great increase of people, and
   all the marks and tokens of a profound tranquillity, When it has become
   a city of truth and a mountain of holiness, it is then peaceable and
   prosperous, and every thing in it looks bright and pleasant. 1. You may
   look with pleasure upon the generation that is going off the stage, and
   see them fairly quitting it in the ordinary course of nature, and not
   driven off from it by war, famine, or pestilence (v. 4): In the streets
   of Jerusalem, that had been filled with the bodies of the slain, or
   deserted and left desolate, shall now dwell old men and old women, who
   have not been cut off by untimely deaths (either through their own
   intemperance or God's vengeance), but have the even thread of their
   days spun out to a full length; they shall feel no distemper but the
   decay of nature, and go to their grave in a full age, as a shock of
   corn in his season. They shall have every one his staff in his hand,
   for very age, to support him, as Jacob, who worshipped, leaning upon
   the top of his staff, Heb. xi. 21. Old age needs a support, and should
   not be ashamed to use it, but should furnish itself with divine graces,
   which will be the strength of the heart and a better support than a
   staff in the hand. Note, The hoary head, as it is a crown of glory to
   those that wear it, so it is to the places where they live. It is a
   graceful thing to a city to see abundance of old people in it; it is a
   sign, not only of the healthfulness of the air, but of the prevalence
   of virtue and the suppression and banishment of those many vices which
   cut off the number of men's months in the midst; it is a sign, not only
   that the climate is temperate, but that the people are so. 2. You may
   look with as much pleasure upon the generation that is rising up in
   their room (v. 5): The streets of the city shall be full of boys and
   girls playing in the streets. This intimates, (1.) That they shall be
   blessed with a multitude of children; their families shall increase and
   multiply, and replenish the city, which was an early product of the
   divine blessing, Gen. i. 28. Happy the man, happy the nation, whose
   quiver is full of these arrows! They shall have of both sexes, boys and
   girls, in whom their families shall afterwards be joined, and another
   generation raised up. (2.) That their children shall be healthful, and
   strong, and active; their boys and girls shall not lie sick in bed, or
   sit pining in the corner, but (which is a pleasant sight to parents)
   shall be hearty and cheerful, and play in the streets. It is their
   pleasant playing age; let us not grudge it to them; much good may it do
   them and no harm. Evil days will come time enough, and years of which
   they will say that they have no pleasure in them, in consideration of
   which they are concerned not to spend all their time in play, but to
   remember their Creator. (3.) That they shall have great plenty, meat
   enough for all their mouths. In time of famine we find the children
   swooning as the wounded, in the streets of the city, Lam. ii. 11, 12.
   If they are playing in the streets, it is a good sign that they want
   for nothing. (4.) That they shall not be terrified with the alarms of
   war, but enjoy a perfect security. There shall be no breaking in of
   invaders, no going out of deserters, no complaining in the streets (Ps.
   cxliv. 14); for, when there is playing in the streets, it is a sign
   that there is little care or fear there. Time was when the enemy hunted
   their steps so closely that they could not go in their streets (Lam.
   iv. 18), but now they shall play in the streets and fear no evil. (5.)
   That they shall have love and peace among themselves. The boys and
   girls shall not be fighting in the streets, as sometimes in cities that
   are divided into factions and parties the children soon imbibe and
   express the mutual resentments of the parents; but they shall be
   innocently and lovingly playing in the streets, not devouring, but
   diverting, one another. (6.) That the sports and diversions used shall
   be all harmless and inoffensive; the boys and girls shall have no other
   play than what they are willing that persons should see in the streets,
   no play that seeks corners, no playing the fool, or playing the wanton,
   for it is the mountain of the Lord, the holy mountain, but honest and
   modest recreations, which they have no reason to be ashamed of. (7.)
   That childish youthful sports shall be confined to the age of childhood
   and youth. It is pleasing to see the boys and girls playing in the
   streets, but it is ill-favoured to see men and women playing there, who
   should fill up their time with work and business. It is well enough for
   children to be sitting in the market-place, crossing questions (Matt.
   xi. 16, 17), but it is no way fit that men, who are able to work in the
   vineyard, should stand all the day idle there, Matt. xx. 3.

   IV. That the scattered Israelites shall be brought together again from
   all parts whither they were dispersed (v. 7): "I will save my people
   from the east country, and from the west; I will save them from being
   lost, or losing themselves, in Babylon, or in Egypt, or in any other
   country whither they were driven." They shall neither be detained by
   the nations among whom they sojourn nor shall they incorporate with
   them; but I will save them, will separate them, and will bring them to
   their own land again; by the prosperity of their land I will invite
   them back, and at the same time incline them to return; and they shall
   dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, shall choose to dwell there, because
   it is the holy city, though, upon many other accounts, it was more
   eligible to dwell in the country; and therefore we find (Neh. xi. 2)
   that the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to
   dwell at Jerusalem.

   V. That God would renew his covenant with them, would be faithful to
   them and make them so to him: They shall be my people and I will be
   their God. That is the foundation and crown of all these promises, and
   is inclusive of all happiness. They shall obey God's laws, and God will
   secure and advance all their interests. This contract shall be made,
   shall be new-made, in truth and in righteousness. Some think that the
   former denotes God's part of the covenant (he will be their God in
   truth, he will make good all his promises of favour to them) and the
   latter man's part of the covenant--they shall be his people in
   righteousness, they shall be a righteous people and shall abound in the
   fruits of righteousness, and shall not, as they have done, deal
   treacherously and unjustly with their God. See Hos. ii. 19, 20. God
   will never leave nor forsake them in a way of mercy, as he has promised
   them; and they shall never leave nor forsake him in a way of duty, as
   they have promised him. These promises were fulfilled in the
   flourishing state of the Jewish church, for some ages, between the
   captivity and Christ's time; they were to have a further and a fuller
   accomplishment in the gospel-church, that heavenly Jerusalem, which is
   from above, is free, and is the mother of us all; but the fullest
   accomplishment of all will be in the future state.

   All these precious promises are here ratified, and the doubts of God's
   people silenced, with that question (v. 6): "If it be marvellous in the
   eyes of this people, should it be marvellous in my eyes? If it seem
   unlikely to you that ever Jerusalem should be thus repaired, should be
   thus replenished, is it therefore impossible with God?" The remnant of
   this people (and God's people in this world are but a remnant), being
   few and feeble, thought all this was too good news to be true,
   especially in these days, these difficult days, these cloudy and dark
   days. Considering how bad the times are, it is highly improbable, it is
   morally impossible, they should ever come to be so good as the prophet
   speaks. How can these things be? How can dry bones live? But should it
   therefore appear so in the eyes of God? Note, We do both God and
   ourselves a deal of wrong if we think that, when we are nonplussed, he
   is so, and that he cannot get over the difficulties which to us seem
   insuperable. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are
   possible; so far are God's thoughts and ways above ours.

Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 517.)

   9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear
   in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in
   the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid,
   that the temple might be built.   10 For before these days there was no
   hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to
   him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all
   men every one against his neighbour.   11 But now I will not be unto
   the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the Lord of
   hosts.   12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her
   fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall
   give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess
   all these things.   13 And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a
   curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will
   I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be
   strong.   14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; As I thought to punish
   you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts,
   and I repented not:   15 So again have I thought in these days to do
   well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not.   16 These
   are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his
   neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:   17
   And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour;
   and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the
   Lord.

   God, by the prophet, here gives further assurances of the mercy he had
   in store for Judah and Jerusalem. Here is line upon line for their
   comfort, as before there was for their conviction. These verses contain
   strong encouragements with reference to the difficulties they now
   laboured under. And we may observe,

   I. Who they were to whom these encouragements did belong--to those who,
   in obedience to the call of God by his prophets, applied in good
   earnest to the building of the temple (v. 9): "Let your hands be
   strong, that are busy at work for God, you that hear in these days
   these words by the mouth of the prophets, and are not disobedient to
   them as your fathers were, in the former days, to the words of those
   prophets that were sent to them. You may take the comfort of the
   promises, and shall have the benefit of them, who have obeyed the
   precepts given you in the day that the foundation of the house of the
   Lord was laid, when you were told that, having begun with it, you must
   go on, that the temple might be built; God told you that you must go on
   with it, and you have laboured hard at it for some time, in obedience
   to the heavenly vision. Now you are those whose hands must be
   strengthened and whose hearts must be comforted, with these precious
   promises; to you is the word of this consolation sent." Note, Those,
   and those only, that are employed for God, may expect to be encouraged
   by him; those who lay their hands to the plough of duty shall have them
   strengthened with the promises of mercy; and those who avoid their
   fathers' faults, not only cut off the entail of the curse, but have it
   turned into a blessing.

   II. What the discouragements were which they had hitherto laboured
   under, v. 10. These are mentioned as a foil to the blessings God was
   now about to bestow upon them, to make them appear the more strange, to
   the glory of God, and the more sweet, to their comfort. The truth was
   the times had long been very bad, and the calamities and difficulties
   of them were many and great. 1. Trade was dead; there was nothing to be
   done and therefore nothing to be got. Before these days of reformation
   began there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beasts. The fruits of
   the earth (though it had long lain fallow, and therefore, one would
   think, should have been the more fertile) were thin and poor, so that
   the husbandman had no occasion to hire harvest people to reap his corn,
   nor teams to carry it home, for he could be scarcely said to have any.
   Merchants had no goods to import or export, so that they needed not to
   hire either men or beasts; hence the poor people, who lived by their
   labour, had no way of getting bread for themselves and their families.
   2. Travelling was dangerous, so that all commerce both by sea and land
   was cut off; nay, none durst stir abroad so much as to visit their
   friends, for their was no peace to him that went out, or came in,
   because of the affliction. The Samaritans, and Ammonites, and their
   other evil neighbours, made inroads upon them in small parties, and
   seized all they could lay their hands on; the roads were infested with
   highwaymen, and both city and country with housebreakers; so that
   neither men's persons nor their goods were safe at home or abroad. 3.
   There was no such thing as friendship or good neighbourship among them:
   I set all men every one against his neighbour. In this there was a
   great deal of sin, for these wars and fightings came from men's lust,
   and this God was not the author of; but there was in it a great deal of
   misery also, and so God was in it a just avenger of their disobedience
   to him; because they were of an evil spirit towards him, a spirit of
   contradiction to his laws, God sent among them an evil spirit, to make
   them vexatious one to another. Those that throw off the love of God
   forfeit the comfort of brotherly love.

   III. What encouragement they shall now have to proceed in the good work
   they are about, and to hope that it shall yet be well with them: "Thus
   and thus you have been harassed and afflicted, but now God will change
   his way towards you, v. 11. Now that you return to your duty God will
   comfort you according to the time that he has afflicted you; the ebbing
   tide shall flow again." 1. God will not proceed in his controversy with
   them; I will not be to them as in the former days. Note, It is with us
   well or ill according as God is to us; for every creature is that to us
   which he makes it to be. And, if we walk not contrary to God as in the
   former days, he will not walk contrary to us as in the former days; for
   it is only with the froward that he will wrestle. 2. They shall have
   great plenty and abundance of all goods things (v. 12): The seed sown
   shall be prosperous, and yield a great increase; the vine shall give
   her fruit, which makes glad the heart, and the ground its products,
   which strengthen the heart; they shall have all they can desire, not
   only for necessity, but for ornament and delight. The heavens shall
   give their dew, without which the earth would not yield her increase,
   which is a constant intimation to us of the beneficence of the God of
   heaven to men on earth and of their dependence on him. It is said of a
   sweeping rain that it leaves no food (Prov. xxviii. 3); but here the
   gentle dew waters the earth, that it may give seed to the sower and
   bread to the eater. And thus God will cause the remnant of this people
   to possess all these things. They are but a remnant, a residue, very
   few, one would think scarcely worth looking after; but, now that they
   are at work for God, he will take care that they shall want nothing
   which is fit for them. This confirms what the prophet's colleague had
   said, a little before (Hag. ii. 16, 19), From this day will I bless
   you. Note, God's people, that serve him faithfully, have great
   possessions. "All is yours, for you are Christ's." 3. They shall
   recover their credit among their neighbours (v. 13): You were a curse
   among the heathen. Every one censured and condemned them, spoke ill of
   them, and wished ill to them, upon the account of the great disgrace
   that they were under; some think that they were made a form of
   execration, so that if a man would load his enemy with the heaviest
   curse he would say, God make thee like a Jew! "But now, I will save
   you, and you shall be a blessing. Your restoration shall be as much
   taken notice of to your honour as ever your desolation and dispersion
   were to your reproach; you shall be applauded and admired as much as
   ever you were vilified and run down, shall be courted and caressed as
   much as ever you were slighted and abandoned." Most men smile or frown
   upon their neighbours according as Providence smiles or frowns upon
   them; but those whom God plainly blesses as his own, shows favour to
   and puts honour upon, we ought also to respect and be kind to. The
   blessed of the Lord are the blessing of the land, and should be so
   accounted by us. This is here promised to the house both of Israel and
   Judah; for many of the ten tribes returned out of captivity with the
   two tribes, and shared with them in those blessings; and, it is
   probable, besides what came at first, many, very many, flocked to them
   afterwards, when they saw their affairs take this turn. 4. God himself
   will determine to do them good, v. 14, 15. All their comforts take rise
   from the thoughts of the love that God had towards them, Jer. xxix. 11.
   Compare these promises with the former threatenings. (1.) When they
   provoked him to anger with their sins, he said that he would punish
   them, and so he did; it was his declared purpose to bring destroying
   judgments upon them, and, because they repented not of their rebellions
   against him, he repented not of his threatenings against them, but let
   the sentence of the law take its course. Note, God's punishing sinners
   is never a sudden and hasty resolve, but is always the product of
   thought, and there is a counsel in that part of the will of God. If the
   sinner turn not, God will not turn. (2.) Now that they pleased him with
   their services; he said that he would do them good; and will he not be
   as true to his promises as he was to his threatenings? No doubt he
   will: "So again have I thought to do well to Jerusalem in those days,
   when you begin to hearken to the voice of God speaking to you by his
   prophets; and these thoughts also shall be performed."

   IV. The use they are to make of these encouragements.

   1. Let them take the comfort which these promises give to them: Fear
   you not (v. 15); let your hands be strong (v. 9); and both together (v.
   13), Fear not, but let your hands be strong. (1.) The difficulties they
   met with in their work must not drive them from it, nor make them go on
   heavily in it, for the issue would be good and the reward great. Let
   this therefore animate them to proceed with vigour and cheerfulness.
   (2.) The dangers they were exposed to from their enemies must not
   terrify them; those that have God for them, engaged to do them good,
   need not fear what man can do against them.

   2. Let them do the duty which those promises call for from them, v. 16,
   17. The very same duties which the former prophets pressed upon their
   fathers from the consideration of the wrath threatened (ch. vii. 9, 10)
   this prophet presses upon them from the consideration of the mercy
   promised: "Leave it to God, to perform for you what he has promised, in
   his own way and time, but upon condition that you make conscience of
   your duty. These are the things then that you shall do; this is your
   part of the covenant; these are the articles which you are to perform,
   fulfil, and keep, that you may not put a bar in your own door and stop
   the current of God's favours." (1.) "You must never tell a lie, but
   always speak as you think, and as the matter is, to the best of your
   knowledge: Speak you every man the truth to his neighbour, both in
   bargains and in common converse; dread every word that looks like a
   lie." This precept the apostle quotes (Eph. iv. 25), and backs it with
   this reason, We are members one of another. (2.) Those that are
   entrusted with the administration of public justice must see to it, not
   only that none be wronged by it, but that those who are wronged be
   righted by it: Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.
   Let the judges that sit in the gates in all their judicial proceedings
   have regard both to truth and to peace; let them take care to do
   justice, to accommodate differences, and to prevent vexatious suits. It
   must be a judgment of truth in order to peace, and making those friends
   that were at variance, and a judgment of peace as far as is consistent
   with truth, and no further. (3.) No man must bear malice against his
   neighbour upon any account; this is the same with what we had ch. vii.
   10. We must not only keep our hands from doing evil, but we must watch
   over our hearts, that they imagine not any evil against our neighbour,
   Prov. iii. 29. Injury and mischief must be crushed in the thought, in
   the embryo. (4.) Great reverence must be had for an oath, and
   conscience made of it: "Never take a false oath, nay, love no false
   oath; that is, hate it, dread it, keep at a distance from it. Love not
   to impose oaths upon others, lest they swear falsely; love not that any
   should take a false oath for your benefit, and forswear themselves to
   do you a kindness." A very good reason is annexed against all these
   corrupt and wicked practices: "For all these are things that I hate,
   and therefore you must hate them if you expect to have God your
   friend." These things here forbidden are all of them found among the
   seven things which the Lord hates, Prov. vi. 16-19. Note, We must
   forbear sin, not only because God is angry at it, and therefore it is
   dangerous to us, but because he hates it, and therefore it ill becomes
   us and is a very ungrateful thing.

Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 517.)

   18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying,   19 Thus
   saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of
   the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth,
   shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts;
   therefore love the truth and peace.   20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
   It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the
   inhabitants of many cities:   21 And the inhabitants of one city shall
   go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and
   to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also.   22 Yea, many people and
   strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and
   to pray before the Lord.   23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those
   days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all
   languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that
   is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is
   with you.

   These verses contain two precious promises, for the further
   encouragement of those pious Jews that were hearty in building the
   temple.

   I. That a happy period should be put to their fasts, and there should
   be no more occasion for them, but they should be converted into
   thanksgiving days, v. 19. This is a direct answer to the enquiry
   concerning their fasts, ch. vii. 3. Those of them that fasted in
   hypocrisy had their doom in the foregoing chapter, but those that in
   sincerity humbled themselves before God, and sought his face, have here
   a comfortable assurance given them of a large share in the happy times
   approaching. The four yearly fasts which they had religiously observed
   should be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and solemn feasts,
   and those cheerful ones. Note, Joyous times will come to the church
   after troublous times; if weeping endure for more than a night, and joy
   come not next morning, yet the morning will come that will introduce it
   at length. And, when God comes towards us in ways of mercy, we must
   meet him with joy and thankfulness; when God turns judgments into
   mercies we must turn fasts into festivals, and thus walk after the
   Lord. And those who sow in tears with Zion shall reap in joy with her;
   those who submit to the restraints of her solemn fasts while they
   continue shall share in the triumphs of her cheerful feasts when they
   come, Isa. lxvi. 10. The inference from this promise is, "Therefore
   love the truth and peace; be faithful and honest in all your dealings,
   and let it be a pleasure to you to be so, though thereby you cut
   yourselves short of those gains which you see others get dishonestly;
   and, as much as in you lies, live peaceably with all men, and be in
   your element when you are in charity. Let the truths of God rule in
   your heads, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts."

   II. That a great accession should be made to the church by the
   conversion of many foreigners, v. 20-23. This was fulfilled but in part
   when, in the latter times of the Jewish church, there were abundance of
   proselytes from all the countries about, and some that lay very remote,
   who came yearly to worship at Jerusalem, which added very much both to
   the grandeur and wealth of that city, and contributed greatly to the
   making of it so considerable as it came to be before our Saviour's
   time, though now it was but just peeping out of its ruins. But it would
   be accomplished much more fully in the conversion of the Gentiles to
   the faith of Christ, and the incorporating of them with the believing
   Jews in one great body, under Christ the head, a mystery which is made
   manifest by the scriptures of the prophets (Rom. xvi. 26), and by this
   among the rest, which makes it strange that when it was accomplished it
   was so great a surprise and stumbling-block to the Jews. Observe,

   1. Who they are that shall be added to the church--people, and the
   inhabitants of many cities (v. 20); not only a few ignorant country
   people that may be easily imposed upon, or some idle people that have
   nothing else to do, but intelligent inquisitive citizens, men of
   business and acquaintance with the world, shall embrace the gospel of
   Christ; yea, many people and strong nations (v. 22), some of all
   languages, v. 23. By this it appears that they are brought into the
   church, not by human persuasion, for they are of different languages,
   not by external force, for they are strong nations, able to have kept
   their ground if they had been so attacked, but purely by the effectual
   working of divine truth and grace. Note, God has his remnant in all
   parts; and in the general assembly of the church of the first-born some
   will be found out of all nations and kindreds, Rev. vii. 9.

   2. How their accession to the church is described: They shall come to
   pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts (v. 21); and, to
   show that this is the main matter in which their conversion consists,
   it is repeated (v. 22): They shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in
   Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. No mention is made of their
   offering sacrifices, not only because these were not expected from the
   proselytes of the gate, but because, when the Gentiles should be
   brought in, sacrifice and offering should be quite abolished. See who
   are to be accounted converts to God and members of the church: and all
   that are converts to God are members of the church. (1.) They are such
   as seek the Lord of hosts, such as enquire for God their Maker, covet
   and court his favour, and are truly desirous to know his mind and will
   and sincerely devoted to his honour and glory. This is the generation
   of those that seek him. (2.) They are such as pray before the
   Lord,--such as make conscience, and make a business, of the duty of
   prayer,--such as dare not, would not, for all the world, live without
   it,--such as by prayer pay their homage to God, own their dependence
   upon him, maintain their communion with him, and fetch in mercy and
   grace from him. (3.) They are such as herein have an eye to the divine
   revelation and institution, which is signified by their doing this in
   Jerusalem, the place which God had chosen, where his word was, where
   his temple was, which was a type of Christ and his mediation, which all
   faithful worshippers will have a believing regard to.

   3. How unanimous they shall be in their accession to the church, and
   how zealous in exciting one another to it (v. 21): The inhabitants of
   one city shall go to another, as formerly when they went up from all
   parts of the country to worship at the yearly feasts; and they shall
   say, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord; I will go also. This
   intimates, (1.) That those who are brought into an acquaintance with
   Christ themselves should do all they can to bring others acquainted
   with him; thus Andrew invited Peter to Christ and Philip invited
   Nathanael. True grace hates monopolies. (2.) That those who are duly
   sensible of their need of Christ, and of the favour of God through him,
   will stir up themselves and others without delay to hasten to him: "Let
   us go speedily to pray; it is for our lives, and the lives of our
   souls, that we are to petition, and therefore it concerns us to lose no
   time; in a matter of such moment delays are dangerous." (3.) That our
   communion with God is very much assisted and furthered by the communion
   of saints. It is pleasant to go to the house of God in company (Ps. lv.
   14), with the multitude (Ps. xlii. 4), and it is of good use to those
   that do so to excite one another to go speedily and lose no time; we
   should be glad when it is said to us, Let us go, Ps. cxxii. 1. As iron
   sharpens iron, so may good men sharpen the countenances and spirits one
   of another in that which is good. (4.) That those who stir up others to
   that which is good must take heed that they do not turn off, or tire,
   or draw back themselves; he that says, Let us go, says, I will go also.
   What good we put others upon doing we must see to it that we do
   ourselves, else we shall be judged out of our own mouths. Not, "Do you
   go, and I will stay at home;" but, "Do you go, and I will go with you."
   "A singular pattern (says Mr. Pemble) of zealous charity, that neither
   leaves others behind nor turns others before it."

   4. Upon what inducement they shall join themselves to the church, not
   for the church's sake, but for his sake who dwells in it (v. 23): Ten
   men of different nations and languages shall take hold of the skirt of
   him that is a Jew, begging of him not to outgo them, but to take them
   along with him. This intimates the great honour they have for a Jew, as
   one of the chosen people of God, and therefore well worthy their
   acquaintance; they cannot all come to take him by the hand, or embrace
   him in their arms, but are ambitious to take hold of the skirt of his
   robe, to touch the hem of his garment, saying, We will go with you, for
   we have heard that God is with you. The gospel was preached to the Jews
   first (for of that nation the apostles were) and by them it was carried
   to the Gentiles. St. Paul was a Jew whose skirt many took hold of when
   they welcomed him as an angel of God, and begged him to take them along
   with him to Christ; thus the Greeks took hold of Philip's skirt,
   saying, Sir, we would see Jesus, John xii. 21. Note, It is the
   privilege of the saints that they have God with them, have him among
   them--the knowledge, and fear, and worship of him; they have his favour
   and gracious presence, and this should invite us into communion with
   them. It is good being with those who have God with them, and those who
   join themselves to the Lord must join themselves to his disciples; if
   we take God for our God, we must take his people for our people, cast
   in our lot among them, and be willing to take our lot with them.
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Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. IX.

   At this chapter begins another sermon, which is continued to the end of
   ch. xi. It is called, "The burden of the word of the Lord," for every
   word of God has weight in it to those who regard it, and will be a
   heavy weight upon those who do not, a dead weight. Here is, I. A
   prophecy against the Jews' unrighteous neighbours--the Syrians,
   Tyrians, Philistines, and others (ver. 1-6), with an intimation of
   mercy to some of them, in their conversion (ver. 7), and a promise of
   mercy to God's people, in their protection, ver. 8. II. A prophecy of
   their righteous King, the Messiah, and his coming, with a description
   of him (ver. 9) and of his kingdom, the nature and extent of it, ver.
   10. III. An account of the obligation the Jews lay under to Christ for
   their deliverance out of their captivity in Babylon, ver. 11, 12. IV. A
   prophecy of the victories and successes God would grant to the Jews
   over their enemies, as typical of our great deliverance by Christ, ver.
   13-15. V. A promise of great plenty, and joy, and honour, which God had
   in reserve for his people (ver. 16, 17), which was written for their
   encouragement.

Prophecy against Syria; Prophecy against the Enemies of Israel; Judgments and
Mercies. (b. c. 510.)

   1 The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and
   Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the
   tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord.   2 And Hamath also shall
   border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise.   3 And Tyrus
   did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and
   fine gold as the mire of the streets.   4 Behold, the Lord will cast
   her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be
   devoured with fire.   5 Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also
   shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation
   shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon
   shall not be inhabited.   6 And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I
   will cut off the pride of the Philistines.   7 And I will take away his
   blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth:
   but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be
   as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.   8 And I will encamp
   about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by,
   and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through
   them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes.

   After the precious promises we had in the foregoing chapter of favour
   to God's people, their persecutors, who hated them, come to be reckoned
   with, those particularly that bordered close upon them.

   I. The Syrians had been bad neighbours to Israel, and God had a
   controversy with them. The word of the Lord shall be a burden in the
   land of Hadrach, that is, of Syria, but it does not appear why it was
   so called. That that kingdom is meant is plain, because Damascus, the
   metropolis of that kingdom, is said to be the rest of this burden; that
   is, the judgments here threatened shall light and lie upon that city.
   Those are miserable upon whom the burden of the word of the Lord rests,
   upon whom the wrath of God abides (John iii. 36); for it is a weight
   that they can neither shake off nor bear up under. There are those whom
   God causes his fury to rest upon. Those whom the wrath of God makes its
   mark it will be sure to hit; those whom it makes its rest it will be
   sure to sink. And the reason of this burden's resting on Damascus is
   because the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel (or rather,
   even of all the tribes of Israel), are towards the Lord, because the
   people of God by faith and prayer look up to him for succour and relief
   and depend upon him to take their part against their enemies. Note, It
   is a sign that God is about to appear remarkably for his people when he
   raises their believing expectations from him and dependence upon him,
   and when by his grace he turns them from idols to himself. Isa. xvii.
   7, 8, At that day shall a man look to his Maker. It may be read thus,
   for the Lord has an eye upon man, and upon all the tribes of Israel; he
   is King of nations as well as King of saints; he governs the world as
   well as the church, and therefore will punish the sins of other people
   as well as those of his own people. God is Judge of all, and therefore
   all must give account of themselves to him. When St. Paul was converted
   at Damascus, and preached there, and disputed with the Jews, then the
   word of the Lord might be said to rest there, and then the eyes of men,
   of other men besides the tribes of Israel, began to be towards the
   Lord; see Acts ix. 22. Hamath, a country which lay north of Damascus,
   and which we often read of, shall border thereby (v. 2); it joins to
   Syria, and shall share in the burden of the word of the Lord that rests
   upon Damascus. The Jews have a proverb, Woe to the wicked man, and woe
   to his neighbour, who is in danger of partaking in his sins and in his
   plagues. Woe to the land of Hadrach, and woe to Hamath that borders
   thereby.

   II. Tyre and Zidon come next to be called to an account here, as in
   other prophecies, v. 2-4. Observe here,

   1. Tyrus flourishing, thinking herself very safe, and ready to set
   God's judgments, not only at a distance, but at defiance: for, (1.) She
   is very wise. It is spoken ironically; she thinks herself very wise,
   and able to outwit even the wisdom of God. It is granted that her king
   is a great politician, and that her statesmen are so, Ezek. xxviii. 3.
   But with all their wit and policy they shall not be able to evade the
   judgments of God when they come with commission; there is no wisdom nor
   counsel against the Lord; nay, it is his honour to take the wise in
   their own craftiness. (2.) She is very strong, and well fortified both
   by nature and art: Tyrus did build herself a strong-hold, which she
   thought could never be brought down nor got over. (3.) She is very
   rich; and money is a defence; it is the sinews of war, Eccl. vii. 12.
   By her vast trade she has heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold
   as the mire of the streets, that is, she has an abundance of them,
   heaps of silver as common as heaps of sand, Job xxvii. 16. Solomon made
   silver to be in Jerusalem as the stones of the streets; but Tyre went
   further, and made fine gold to be as the mire of the streets. It were
   well if we could all learn so to look upon it, in comparison with the
   merchandise of wisdom and grace and the gains thereof.

   2. Tyrus falling, after all. Her wisdom, and wealth, and strength,
   shall not be able to secure her (v. 4): The Lord will cast her out of
   that strong-hold wherein she has fortified herself, will make her poor
   (so some read it); there have been instances of those that have fallen
   from the height of plenty to the depth of poverty, and great riches
   have come to nothing. God will smite her power in the sea; her being
   surrounded by the water shall not secure her, but she shall be devoured
   with fire, and burnt down to the ground. Tyrus, being seated in the
   midst of the water, was, one would have thought, in danger of being
   some time or other overflowed or washed away by that; yet God chooses
   to destroy it by the contrary element. Sometimes he brings ruin upon
   his enemies by those means which they least suspect. Water enough was
   nigh at hand to quench the flames of Tyre, and yet by them she shall be
   devoured; for who can put out the fire which the breath of the Almighty
   blows up?

   III. God next contends with the Philistines, with their great cities
   and great lords, that bordered southward upon Israel.

   1. They shall be alarmed and affrighted by the word of the Lord
   lighting and resting upon Damascus (v. 5); the disgraces of Israel had
   many a time been published in the streets of Ashkelon, and they had
   triumphed in them; but now Ashkelon shall see the ruin of her friends
   and allies, and shall fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very
   sorrowful, and Ekron, concluding that their own turns come next, now
   that the cup of trembling goes round. What will become of their house
   when their neighbour's is on fire? They had looked upon Tyre and Zidon
   as a barrier to their country; but, when those strong cities were
   ruined, their expectations from them were ashamed, as our expectation
   from all creatures will be in the issue.

   2. They shall themselves be ruined and wasted. (1.) The government
   shall be dissolved: The king shall perish from Gaza, not only the
   present king shall be cut off, but there shall be no succession, no
   successor, (2.) The cities shall be dispeopled: Ashkelon shall not be
   inhabited; the rightful owners shall be expelled, either slain or
   carried into captivity. (3.) Foreigners shall take possession of their
   land and become masters of all its wealth (v. 6): A bastard shall dwell
   in Ashdod; a spurious brood of strangers shall enter upon the
   inheritances of the natives, which they have no more right to than a
   bastard has to the estates of the legitimate children. And thus God
   will cut off the pride of the Philistines, all the strength and wealth
   which they prided themselves in, and which were the ground of their
   confidence in themselves and their contempt of the Israel of God. This
   prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines, and of Damascus, and
   Tyre, was accomplished, not long after this, by Alexander the Great,
   who ravaged all these countries with his victorious army, took the
   cities, and planted colonies in them, which Quintus Curtius gives a
   particular account of in the history of his conquests. And some think
   he is meant by the bastard that shall dwell in Ashdod, for his mother
   Olympia owned him begotten in adultery, but pretended it was by
   Jupiter. The Jews afterwards got ground of the Philistines, Syrians,
   and others of their neighbours, took some of their cities from them and
   possessed their countries, as appears by the histories of Josephus and
   the Maccabees, and this was foretold before, Zeph. ii. 4, &c.; Obad.
   20.

   3. Some among them shall be converted, and brought home to God, by his
   gospel and grace; so some understand v. 7, as a promise, (1.) That God
   would take away the sins of these nations--their blood and their
   abominations, their cruelties and their idolatries. God will part
   between them and these sins which they have rolled under their tongue
   as a sweet morsel, and are as loth to part with as men are to part with
   the meat out of their mouths, and which they hold fast between their
   teeth. Nothing is too hard for the grace of God to do. (2.) That he
   would accept of a remnant of them for his own: He that remains shall be
   for our God. God would preserve a remnant even of these nations, that
   should be the monuments of his mercy and grace and be set apart for
   him; and the disadvantages of their birth shall be no bar to their
   acceptance with God, but a Philistine shall be as acceptable to God,
   upon gospel-terms, as one of Judah, nay, as a governor, or chief one,
   in Judah, and a man of Ekron shall be as a Jebusite, or a man of
   Jerusalem, as a proselyted Jebusite, as Araunah the Jebusite, 2 Sam.
   xxiv. 16. In Christ Jesus there is no distinction of nations, but all
   are one in him, all alike welcome to him.

   IV. In all this God intends mercy for Israel, and it is in kindness to
   them that God will deal thus with the neighbouring nations, to avenge
   their quarrel for what is past and to secure them for the future.

   1. Thus some understand the seventh verse, as intimating, (1.) That
   thus God would deliver his people from their bloody adversaries, who
   hated them, and to whom they were an abomination, when they were just
   ready to devour them and make a prey of them: I will take away his
   blood (that is, the blood of Israel) out of the mouth of the
   Philistines and from between their teeth (Amos iii. 12), when, in their
   hatred of them and enmity to them, they were greedily devouring them.
   (2.) That lie would thus give them victory and dominion over them: And
   he that remains (that is, the remnant of Israel) shall be for our God,
   shall be taken into his favour, shall own him and be owned by him, and
   he shall be as a governor in Judah; though the Jews have been long in
   servitude, they shall recover their ancient dignity, and be victorious,
   as David and other governors in Judah formerly were; and Ekron (that
   is, the Philistines) shall be as the Jebusites, and the rest of the
   devoted nations, who were brought into subjection under them.

   2. However, this is plainly the sense of v. 8, that God will take his
   people under his special protection, and therefore will weaken their
   neighbours, that it may not be in their power to do them a mischief: I
   will encamp about my house because of the army. Note, God's house lies
   in the midst of an enemy's country, and his church is as a lily among
   thorns; and therefore God's power and goodness are to be observed in
   the special preservation of it. The camp of the saints, being a little
   flock in comparison with the numerous armies of the powers of darkness
   that are set against it round about, would certainly be swallowed up if
   the angels of God did not encamp about it, as they did about Elisha, to
   deliver it, Rev. xx. 9; Ps. xxxiv. 7. When the times are unusually
   perilous, when armies are marching and counter-marching, and all
   bearing ill-will to Zion, then Providence will as it were double its
   guards upon the church of God, because of him that passes by and
   because of him that returns, that whether he return a conqueror or
   conquered he may do it no harm. And, as none that pass by shall hurt
   them, so no oppressor shall pass through them any more; they shall have
   no enemy within themselves to rule them with rigour, and to make their
   lives bitter to them with sore bondage, as of old in Egypt. This was
   fulfilled when, for some time after the struggles of the Maccabees,
   Judea was a free and flourishing state, or perhaps when Alexander the
   Great, struck with an awe of Jaddus the high priest, favoured the Jews,
   and took them under his protection, at the same time when he wasted the
   neighbouring countries. And the reason given for all this is, "For now
   have I seen with my eyes, now have I carefully distinguished between my
   people and other people, with whom before they seemed to have their lot
   in common, and have made it to appear that I know those that are mine,"
   This agrees with Ps. xxxiv. 15, The eyes of the Lord are upon the
   righteous; now his eyes, which run to and fro through the earth, shall
   fix upon them, that he may show himself tender of them, and strong on
   their behalf, 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

Predictions Relating to Messiah. (b. c. 510.)

   9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
   behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation;
   lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.   10
   And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from
   Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak
   peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea,
   and from the river even to the ends of the earth.   11 As for thee
   also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out
   of the pit wherein is no water.

   That here begins a prophecy of the Messiah and his kingdom is plain
   from the literal accomplishment of the ninth verse in, and its express
   application to, Christ's riding in triumph into Jerusalem, Matt. xxi.
   5; John xii. 15.

   I. Here is notice given of the approach of the Messiah promised, as
   matter of great joy to the Old-Testament church: Behold, thy king
   cometh unto thee. Christ is a king, invested with regal powers and
   prerogatives, a sovereign prince, an absolute monarch, having all power
   both in heaven and on earth. He is Zion's king. God has set him upon
   his holy hill of Zion, Ps. ii. 6. In Zion his glory as a king shines;
   thence his law went forth, even the word of the Lord. In the
   gospel-church his spiritual kingdom is administered; it is by him that
   the ordinances of the church are instituted, and its officers
   commissioned; and it is taken under his protection; he fights the
   church's battles and secures its interests, as its king. "This King has
   been long in coming, but now, behold, he cometh; he is at the door.
   There are but a few ages more to run out, and he that shall come will
   come. He cometh unto thee; the Word will shortly be made flesh, and
   dwell within thy borders; he will come to his own. And therefore
   rejoice, rejoice greatly, and shout for joy; look upon it as good news,
   and be assured it is true; please thyself to think that he is coming,
   that he is on his way towards thee; and be ready to go forth to meet
   him with acclamations of joy, as one not able to conceal it, it is so
   great, nor ashamed to own it, it is so just; cry Hosanna to him."
   Christ's approaches ought to be the church's applauses.

   II. Here is such a description of him as renders him very amiable in
   the eyes of all his loving subjects, and his coming to them very
   acceptable. 1. He is a righteous ruler; all his acts of government will
   be exactly according to the rules of equity, for he is just. 2. He is a
   powerful protector to all those that bear faith and true allegiance to
   him, for he has salvation; he has it in his power; he has it to bestow
   upon all his subjects. He is the God of salvation; treasures of
   salvation are in him. He is servatus--saving himself (so some read it),
   rising out of the grave by his own power and so qualifying himself to
   be our Saviour. (3.) He is a meek, humble, tender Father to all his
   subjects as his children; he is lowly; he is poor and afflicted (so the
   word signifies), so it denotes the meanness of his condition; having
   emptied himself, he was despised and rejected of men. But the
   evangelist translates it so as to express the temper of his spirit: he
   is meek, not taking state upon him, nor resenting injuries, but
   humbling himself from first to last, condescending to the mean,
   compassionate to the miserable; this was a bright and excellent
   character of him as a prophet (Matt. xi. 29, Learn of me, for I am meek
   and lowly in heart), and no less so as a king. It was a proof of this
   that, when he made his public entry into his own city (and it was the
   only passage of his life that had any thing in it magnificent in the
   eye of the world), he chose to ride, not upon a stately horse, or in a
   chariot, as great men used to ride, but upon an ass, a beast of service
   indeed, but a poor silly and contemptible one, low and slow, and in
   those days ridden only by the meaner sort of people; nor was it an ass
   fitted for use, but an ass's colt, a little foolish unmanageable thing,
   that would be more likely to disgrace his rider than be any credit to
   him; and that not his own neither, nor helped off, as sometimes a sorry
   horse is, by good furniture, for he had no saddle, no housings, no
   trappings, no equipage, but his disciples' clothes thrown upon the
   colt;' for he made himself of no reputation when he visited us in great
   humility.

   III. His kingdom is here set forth in the glory of it. This king has,
   and will have, a kingdom, not of this world, but a spiritual kingdom, a
   kingdom of heaven. 1. It shall not be set up and advanced by external
   force, by an arm of flesh or carnal weapons of warfare. No; he will cut
   off the chariot from Ephraim and the horses from Jerusalem (v. 10), for
   he shall have no occasion for them while he himself rides upon an ass.
   He will, in kindness to his people, cut off their horses and chariots,
   that they may not cut themselves off from God by putting that
   confidence in them which they should put in the power of God only. He
   will himself undertake their protection, will himself be a wall of fire
   about Jerusalem and give his angels charge concerning it (those
   chariots of fire and horses of fire), and then the chariots and horses
   they had in their service shall be discarded and cut off as altogether
   needless. 2. It shall be propagated and established by the preaching of
   the gospel, the speaking of peace to the heathen; for Christ came and
   preached peace to those that were afar off and to those that were nigh;
   and so established his kingdom by proclaiming on earth peace, and
   good-will towards men. 3. His kingdom, as far as it prevails in the
   minds of men and has the ascendant over them, will make them peaceable,
   and slay all enmities; it will cut off the battle-bow, and beat swords
   into plough-shares. It will not only command the peace, but will create
   the fruit of the lips, peace. 4. It shall extend itself to all parts of
   the world, in defiance of the opposition given to it. "The chariot and
   horse that come against Ephraim and Jerusalem, to oppose the progress
   of Zion's King, shall be cut off; his gospel shall be preached to the
   world, and be received among the heathen, so that his dominion shall be
   from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth, as
   was foretold by David," Ps. lxxii. 8. The preachers of the gospel shall
   carry it from one country, one island, to another, till some of the
   remotest corners of the world are enlightened and reduced by it.

   IV. Here is an account of the great benefit procured for mankind by the
   Messiah, which is redemption from extreme misery, typified by the
   deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon (v. 11): "As
   for thee also (thee, O daughter of Jerusalem! or thee, O Messiah the
   Prince!) by the blood of thy covenant, by force and virtue of the
   covenant made with Abraham, sealed with the blood of circumcision, and
   the covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai, sealed with the blood of
   sacrifices, in pursuance and performance of that covenant, I have now
   of late sent forth thy prisoners, thy captives out of Babylon, which
   was to them a most uncomfortable place, as a pit in which was no
   water." It was part of the covenant that, if in the land of their
   captivity, they sought the Lord, he would be found of them, Lev. xxvi.
   42, 44, 45; Deut. xxx. 4. It was by the blood of that covenant,
   typifying the blood of Christ, in whom all God's covenants with man are
   yea and amen, that they were released out of captivity; and this was
   but a shadow of the great salvation wrought out by thy King, O daughter
   of Zion! Note, A sinful state is a state of bondage; it is a spiritual
   prison; it is a pit, or a dungeon, in which there is no water, no
   comfort at all to be had. We are all by nature prisoners in this pit;
   the scripture has concluded us all under sin, and bound us over to the
   justice of God. God is pleased to deal upon new terms with these
   prisoners, to enter into another covenant with them; the blood of
   Christ is the blood of that covenant, purchased it for us and all the
   benefits of it; by that blood of the covenant effectual provision is
   made for the sending forth of these prisoners upon easy and honourable
   terms, and proclamation made of liberty to the captives and the opening
   of the prison to those that were bound, like Cyrus's proclamation to
   the Jews in Babylon, which all those whose spirits God stirs up will
   come and take the benefit of.

Gospel Invitations; Promises of God's Favour to Israel. (b. c. 510.)

   12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I
   declare that I will render double unto thee;   13 When I have bent
   Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O
   Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a
   mighty man.   14 And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow
   shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the
   trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.   15 The Lord of
   hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling
   stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and
   they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.   16
   And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his
   people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an
   ensign upon his land.   17 For how great is his goodness, and how great
   is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the
   maids.

   The prophet, having taught those that had returned out of captivity to
   attribute their deliverance to the blood of the covenant and to the
   promise of the Messiah (for they were so wonderfully helped because
   that blessing was in them, was yet in the womb of their nation), now
   comes to encourage them with the prospect of a joyful and happy
   settlement, and of glorious times before them; and such a happiness
   they did enjoy, in a great measure, for some time; but these promises
   have their full accomplishment in the spiritual blessings of the gospel
   which we enjoy by Jesus Christ.

   I. They are invited to look unto Christ, and flee unto him as their
   city of refuge (v. 12): Turn you to the strong-hold, you prisoners of
   hope. The Jews that had returned out of captivity into their own land
   were yet, in effect, but prisoners (We are servants this day, Neh. ix.
   36), yet prisoners of hope, or expectation, for God had given them a
   little reviving in their bondage, Ezra ix. 8, 9. Those that yet
   continued in Babylon, detained by their affairs there, yet lived in
   hope some time or other to see their own land again. Now both these are
   directed to turn their eyes upon the Messiah, set before them in the
   promise as their strong-hold, to shelter themselves in him, and stay
   themselves upon him, for the perfecting of the mercy which by his
   grace, and for his sake, was so gloriously begun. Look unto him, and be
   you saved, Isa. xlv. 22. The promise of the Messiah was the strong-hold
   of the faithful long before his coming; they saw his day at a distance
   and were glad, and the believing expectation of the redemption in
   Jerusalem was long the support and consolation of Israel, Luke ii. 25,
   38. They, in their dangers and distresses, were ready to turn towards
   this and the other creature for relief; but the prophets directed them
   still to turn to Christ, and to comfort themselves with the joy of
   their king coming to them with salvation. But, as their deliverance was
   typical of our redemption by Christ (v. 11), so this invitation to the
   strong-hold speaks the language of the gospel-call. Sinners are
   prisoners, but they are prisoners of hope; their case is sad, but it is
   not desperate; yet now there is hope in Israel concerning them. Christ
   is a strong-hold for them, a strong tower, in whom they may be safe and
   quiet from the fear of the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the
   assaults of their spiritual enemies. To him they must turn by a lively
   faith; to him they must flee, and trust in his name.

   II. They are assured of God's favour to them: "Even to day do I
   declare, when things are at the worst, and you think your case
   deplorable to the last degree, yet I solemnly promise that I will
   render double unto thee, to thee, O Jerusalem! to every one of you
   prisoners of hope. I will give you comforts double to the sorrows you
   have experienced, or blessings double to what I ever bestowed upon your
   fathers, when their condition was at the best; the glory of your latter
   state, as well as of your latter house, shall be greater, shall be
   twice as great as that of your former." And so it was no otherwise than
   by the coming of the Messiah, the preaching of his gospel, and the
   setting up of his kingdom; these spiritual blessings in heavenly things
   were double to what they had ever enjoyed in their most prosperous
   state. As a pledge of this, in the fulness of time God here promises to
   the Jews victory, plenty, and joy, in their own land, which yet should
   be but a type and shadow of more glorious victories, riches, and joys,
   in the kingdom of Christ.

   1. They shall triumph over their enemies. The Jews, after their return,
   were surrounded with enemies on all sides. They were as a speckled
   bird; all the birds of the field were against them. Their land lay
   between the two potent kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, branches of the
   Grecian monarchy, and what frequent dangers they should be in between
   them was foretold, Dan. xi. But it is here promised that out of them
   all the Lord would deliver them; and this promise had its primary
   accomplishment in the times of the Maccabees, when the Jews made head
   against their enemies, kept their head above water, and, after many
   struggles and difficulties, came to be head over them. It is promised,
   (1.) That they shall be instruments in God's hand for the defeating and
   baffling of their persecutors: "I have bent Judah for me, as my bow of
   steel; that bow I have filled with Ephraim as my arrows, have drawn it
   up to its full bent, till the arrow be at the head;" for some think
   that this is signified by the phrase of filling the bow. The
   expressions here are very fine, and the figures lively. Judah had been
   taught the use of the bow (2 Sam. i. 18), and Ephraim had been famous
   for it, Ps. lxxviii. 9. But let them not think that they gain their
   successes by their own bow, for they themselves are no more than God's
   bow and his arrows, tools in his hands, which he makes use of and
   manages as he pleases, which he holds as his bow and directs to the
   mark as his arrows. The best and bravest of men are but what God makes
   them, and do no more service than he enables them to do. The preachers
   of the gospel were the bow in Christ's hand, with which he went forth,
   he went on, conquering and to conquer, Rev. vi. 2. The following words
   explain this: I have raised up and animated thy sons, O Zion! against
   thy sons, O Greece! This was fulfilled when against Antiochus, one of
   the kings of the Grecian monarchy, the people that knew their God were
   strong and did exploits, Dan. xi. 32. And they in the hand of an
   almighty God were made as the sword of a mighty man, which none can
   stand before. Wicked men are said to be God's sword (Ps. xvii. 13), and
   sometimes good men are made so; for he employs both as he pleases. (2.)
   That God will be captain, and commander-in-chief, over them, in every
   expedition and engagement (v. 14): The Lord shall be seen over them; he
   shall make it appear that he presides in their affairs, and that in all
   their motions they are under his direction, as apparently, though not
   as sensibly, as he was seen over Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire
   when he led them through the wilderness. [1.] Is their army to be
   raised, or mustered, and brought into the field? The Lord shall blow
   the trumpet, to gather the forces together, to proclaim the war, to
   sound the alarm, and to give directions which way to march, which way
   to move; for, if God blow the trumpet, it shall not give an uncertain
   sound, nor a feeble ineffectual one. [2.] Is the army taking the field,
   and entering upon action? Whatever enterprise the campaign is opened
   with, God shall go forth at the head of their forces, with whirlwinds
   of the south, which were of incredible swiftness and fierceness; and
   before these whirlwinds thy sons, O Greece! shall be as chaff. [3.] Is
   the army actually engaged? God's arrows shall go forth as lightning, so
   strongly, so suddenly, so irresistibly; his lightnings shall go forth
   as arrows and scattered them, that is, he shot out his lightnings and
   discomfited them. This alludes to that which God had done for Israel of
   old when he brought them out of Egypt, and into Canaan, and had its
   accomplishment partly in the wonderful successes which the Jews had
   against their neighbours that attacked them in the time of the
   Maccabees, by the special appearances of the divine Providence for
   them, and perfectly in the glorious victories gained by the cross of
   Christ and the preaching of the cross over Satan and all the powers of
   darkness, whereby we are made more than conquerors. [4.] Are they in
   danger of being overpowered by the enemy? The Lord of hosts shall
   defend them (v. 15); The Lord their God shall save them (v. 16); so
   that their enemies shall not prevail over them, nor prey upon them. God
   shall be unto them for defence as well as offence, the shield of their
   help as well as the sword of their excellency, and this as the Lord of
   hosts, who has power to defend them, and as their God, who is engaged
   by promise to defend them, and by the property he has in them. He shall
   save them in that day, that critical dangerous day, as the flock of his
   people, with the same care and tenderness that the shepherd protects
   his sheep with. Those are safe whom God saves. [5.] Did their enemies
   hope to swallow them up? It shall be turned upon them, and they shall
   devour their enemies, and shall subdue with sling-stones, for want of
   better weapons, those that come forth against them. The stones of the
   brook, when God pleases, shall do as great execution as the best train
   of artillery; for the stars in their courses shall fight on the same
   side. Goliath was subdued with a sling-stone. Having subdued, they
   shall devour, shall drink the blood of their enemies, as it were, and,
   as conquerors are wont to do, they shall make a noise as through wine.
   It is usual for conquerors with loud huzzas and acclamations to glory
   in their victories and proclaim them. We read of those that shout for
   mastery, and of the shout of a king among God's people. They shall be
   filled with blood and spoil, as the bowls and basins of the temple, or
   the corners of the altar, were wont to be filled with the blood of the
   sacrifices; for their enemies shall fall as victims to divine justice.

   2. They shall triumph in their God. They shall take the comfort and
   give God the glory of their successes. So some read v. 15. They shall
   eat (that is, they shall quietly enjoy) what they have got; God will
   give them power to eat it after they have subdued the sling-stones
   (that is, their enemies that slung stones at them), and they shall
   drink and make a noise, a joyful noise, before the Lord their maker and
   protector, as through wine, as men are merry at a banquet of wine.
   Being not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but filled with the
   Spirit, they shall speak to themselves and one another in psalms, and
   hymns, and spiritual songs, as those that are drunk do with vain and
   foolish songs, Eph. v. 18, 19. And, in the fulness of their joy, they
   shall offer abundance of sacrifices to the honour of God, so that they
   shall fill both the bowls and the corners of the altar with the fat and
   blood of their sacrifices. And, when they thus triumph in their
   successes, their joy shall terminate in God as their God, the God of
   their salvation. They shall triumph, (1.) In the love he has for them,
   and the relation wherein they stand to him, that they are the flock of
   his people and he is their Shepherd, and that they are to him as the
   stones of a crown, which are very precious and of great value, and
   which are kept under a strong guard. Never was any king so pleased with
   the jewels of his crown as God is, and will be, with his people, who
   are near and dear unto him, and in whom he glories. They are a crown of
   glory and a royal diadem in his hand, Isa. lxii. 2, 3. And they shall
   be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels, Mal.
   iii. 17. And they shall be lifted up as an ensign upon his land, as the
   royal standard is displayed in token of triumph and joy. God's people
   are his glory; so he is pleased to make them, so he is pleased to
   reckon them. He sets them up as a banner upon his own land, waging war
   against those who hate him, to whom it is a flag of defiance, while it
   is a centre of unity to all that love him, to all the children of God,
   that are scattered abroad, who are invited to come and enlist
   themselves under this banner, Isa. xi. 10, 12. (2.) In the provision he
   makes for them, v. 15. This is the matter of their triumph (v. 17): For
   how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty! This is the
   substance, this the burden, of the songs wherewith they shall make a
   noise before the Lord. We are here taught, [1.] To admire and praise
   the amiableness of God's being: How great is his beauty! All the
   perfections of God's nature conspire to make him infinitely lovely in
   the eyes of all that know him. They are to him as the stones of a
   crown; but what is he to them? Our business in the temple is to behold
   the beauty of the Lord (Ps. xxvii. 4), and how great is that beauty!
   How far does it transcend all other beauties, particularly the beauty
   of his holiness. This may refer to the Messiah, to Zion's King that
   cometh. See that king in his beauty (Isa. xxxiii. 17), who is fairer
   than the children of men, the fairest of ten thousand, and altogether
   lovely. Though, in the eye of the world, he had no form or comeliness,
   in the eye of faith how great is his beauty! [2.] To admire and give
   thanks for the gifts of God's favour and grace, his bounty as well as
   his beauty; for how great is his goodness! How rich in mercy is he! How
   deep, how full, are its springs! How various, how plenteous, how
   precious, are its streams! What a great deal of good does God do! How
   rich in mercy is he! Here is an instance of his goodness to his people:
   Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids; that is,
   God will bless his people with an abundance of the fruits of the earth.
   Whereas they had been afflicted with scarcity to such a degree that the
   young men and the maidens were ready to swoon and faint away for hunger
   and thirst (Lam. ii. 12, 21; iv. 7, 8; v. 10), now they shall have
   bread enough and to spare, not water only, but wine, new wine, which
   shall make the young people grow and be cheerful, and (which some have
   observed to be the effect of plenty and the cheapness of corn) the poor
   will be encouraged to marry, and re-people the land, when they shall
   have wherewithal to maintain their families. Note, What good gifts God
   bestows upon us we must serve him cheerfully with, and must race the
   streams up to the fountain, and, when we are refreshed with corn and
   wine, must say, How great is his goodness!
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. X.

   The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of the foregoing
   chapter--to encourage the Jews that had returned with hopes that though
   they had been under divine rebukes for their negligence in rebuilding
   the temple, and were now surrounded with enemies and dangers, yet God
   would do them good, and make them prosperous at home and victorious
   abroad. Now, I. They are here directed to eye the great God in all
   events that concerned them, and, both in the evils they suffered and in
   the comforts they desired, to acknowledge his hand, ver. 1-4. II. They
   are encouraged to expect strength and success from him in all their
   struggles with the enemies of their church and state, and to hope that
   the issue would be glorious at last, ver. 5-12.

Encouragements to Trust in God. (b. c. 510.)

   1 Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord
   shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one
   grass in the field.   2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the
   diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in
   vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled,
   because there was no shepherd.   3 Mine anger was kindled against the
   shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited
   his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in
   the battle.   4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail,
   out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.

   Gracious things and glorious ones, very glorious and very gracious,
   were promised to this poor afflicted people in the foregoing chapter;
   now here God intimates to them that he will for these things be
   enquired of by them, and that he expects they should acknowledge him in
   all their ways and in all his ways towards them--and not idols that
   were rivals with him for their respects.

   I. The prophet directs them to apply to God by prayer for rain in the
   season thereof. He had promised, in the close of the foregoing chapter,
   that there should be great plenty of corn and wine, whereas for several
   years, by reason of unseasonable weather, there had been great scarcity
   of both; but the earth will not yield its fruits unless the heavens
   water it, and therefore they must look up to God for the dew of heaven,
   in order to the fatness and fruitfulness of the earth (v. 1): "Ask you
   of the Lord rain. Do not pray to the clouds, nor to the stars, for
   rain, but to the Lord; for he it is that hears the heavens, when they
   hear the earth," Hos. ii. 21. Seasonable rain is a great mercy, which
   we must ask of God, rain in the time of the latter rain, when there is
   most need of it. The former rain fell at the seed-time, in autumn, the
   latter fell in the spring, between March and May, which brought the
   corn to an ear and filled it. If either of these rains failed, it was
   very bad with that land; for from the end of May to September they
   never had any rain at all. Jerome, who lived in Judea, says that he
   never saw any rain there in June or July. They are directed to ask for
   it in the time when it used to come. Note, We must, in our prayers,
   dutifully attend the course of Providence; we must ask for mercies in
   their proper time, and not expect that God should go out of his usual
   way and method for us. But, since sometimes God denied rain in the
   usual time as a token of his displeasure, they must pray for it then as
   a token of his favour, and they shall not pray in vain. Ask and it
   shall be given you. So the Lord shall make bright clouds (which, though
   they are without rain themselves, are yet presages of rain)--lightnings
   (so the margin reads it), for he maketh lightnings for the rain. He
   will give them showers of rain in great abundance, and so give to every
   one grass in the field; for God is universally good, and makes his rain
   to fall upon the just and the unjust.

   II. He shows them the folly of making their addresses to idols as their
   fathers had done (v. 2): The idols have spoken vanity; the teraphim,
   which they courted and consulted in their distress, were so far from
   being able to command rain for them that they could not so much as tell
   them when they should have rain. They pretended to promise them rain at
   such a time, but it did not come. The diviners, who were the prophets
   of those idols, have seen a lie (their visions were all a cheat and a
   sham); and they have told false dreams, such as the event did not
   answer, which proved that they were not from God. Thus they comforted
   in vain those that consulted the lying oracles; all the vanities of the
   heathen put together could not give rain, Jer. xiv. 22. Yet this was
   not the worst of it; they not only got nothing by the false gods, but
   they lost the favour of the true God, for therefore they went their way
   into captivity as a flock driven into the fold, and they were troubled
   with one vexation after another, as scattered sheep are, because there
   was no shepherd, no prince to rule them, no priest to intercede for
   them, none to take care of them and keep them together. Those that
   wandered after strange gods were made to wander, into strange nations.

   III. He shows them the hand of God in all the events that concerned
   them, both those that made against them and those that made for them,
   v. 3. Let them consider, 1. When every thing went cross it was God that
   walked contrary to them (v. 3): "My anger was kindled against the
   shepherds that should have fed the flock, but neglected it, and starved
   it. I was displeased at the wicked magistrates and ministers, the
   idol-shepherds." The captivity in Babylon was a token of God's anger
   against them; in it likewise he punished the goats, those of the flock
   that were filthy and mischievous; they were set on the left hand, to go
   away into punishment. Though the body of the nation suffered in the
   captivity, yet it was only the goats and the shepherds that God was
   angry with, and that he punished; the same affliction to others came
   from the love of God, and was but a fatherly chastisement, which to
   them came from his wrath, and was a judicial punishment. 2. When things
   began to change for the better it was God that gave them the happy
   turn. "He has now visited his flock with favour, to enquire after them,
   and provides what he finds proper for them, and he has made them as his
   goodly horse in the battle, has beautified them, taken care of them,
   managed and made use of them, as a man does the horse he rides on, has
   made them valuable in themselves and formidable to those about them, as
   his goodly horse." It is God that makes us what we are, and it is with
   us as he appoints.

   IV. He shows them that every creature is to them what God makes it to
   be (v. 4): Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nails. 1.
   All the power that was engaged against them was from God. Out of him
   came all the combined force of their enemies; every oppressor together
   (and the oppressors of Israel were not a few) did but what his hand and
   his counsel determined before to be done; nor could they have had such
   power against them unless it had been given them from above. 2. All the
   power likewise that was engaged for them was derived from him and
   depended on him. Out of him came forth the corner-stone of the
   building, the power of magistrates, which keeps the several parts of
   the state together. Princes are often called the corners of the people,
   as 1 Sam. xiv. 38, marg. Out of him came forth the nail that fixed the
   state, the nail in the sure place (Isa. xxii. 23), the nail in his holy
   place, Ezra ix. 8. Out of him came forth the battle-bow, the military
   power, and out of him every oppressor, or exactor, that had the civil
   power in his hand; and therefore to God, the fountain of power, we must
   always have an eye, and see every man's judgment proceeding from him.

Evangelical Promises; Encouraging Prospects. (b. c. 510.)

   5 And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in
   the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because
   the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
   6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house
   of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy
   upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I
   am the Lord their God, and will hear them.   7 And they of Ephraim
   shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through
   wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall
   rejoice in the Lord.   8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I
   have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.   9
   And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far
   countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
   10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather
   them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and
   Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.   11 And he shall pass
   through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea,
   and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria
   shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.   12
   And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down
   in his name, saith the Lord.

   Here are divers precious promises made to the people of God, which look
   further than to the state of the Jews in the latter days of their
   church, and have certain reference to the spiritual Israel of God, the
   gospel-church, and all true believers.

   I. They shall have God's favour and presence, and shall be owned and
   accepted of him. This is the foundation of all the rest: The Lord is
   with them, v. 5. He espouses their cause, takes their part, is on their
   side; and, if he be for them, who can be against them? Again (v. 6), I
   have mercy upon them. All their dignity and joy are owing purely to
   God's mercy; and mercy, as it supposes misery, so it excludes merit.
   They had been cast off, the effect of which could not but be misery;
   they had been justly cast off, and therefore could pretend to merit
   nothing at God's hand but wrath and the curse; yet it is promised, They
   shall be as though I had not cast them off. The transgressions of their
   fathers, for which they had been rejected, shall not only not be
   visited upon them, but shall not be so much as remembered against them.
   God will be as perfectly reconciled to them as if he had never
   contended with them, and the falling out of these lovers shall rather
   be the renewing than the weakening of love. They shall have such a full
   assurance of God's being reconciled to them, and upon that shall be so
   well reconciled to themselves, that they shall be as easy as if they
   had never been cast off; and their condition, after their restoration
   to the divine favour, shall be so very happy that there shall not
   remain the least scar from the wounds which were given them by their
   being cast off. Such favour does God show to returning repenting
   sinners, who were by nature at a distance, and children of wrath; such
   fellowship are they admitted into, and such freedom does he use with
   them, that they are as though they had never been cast off. 1. The
   covenant they are admitted into is the same that ever it was: I am the
   Lord their God, according to the original contract, the covenant made
   with their fathers. 2. The communion they are admitted into is the same
   that ever it was: I will hear them. They shall be as welcome as ever to
   speak to him, and as sure as ever to receive from him an answer of
   peace; for, as he never did, so he never will, say to Jacob's seed,
   Seek you me in vain.

   II. They shall be victorious over their enemies, that would draw them
   from either their duty to God or their comfort in God (v. 5): They
   shall be as mighty men, that are both strong in body and bold in
   spirit, men of vigour, men of valour, effective men. Those of Ephraim,
   as well as those of Judah, shall be like a mighty man (v. 7), that
   dares to go about a difficult enterprise and is able to go through with
   it. They shall, as mighty men, tread down their enemies in the battle,
   as the dirt that is thrown out of the houses is trodden with other dirt
   in the mire of the streets. And they shall therefore fight, because the
   Lord is with them. Some would argue that they may therefore sit still,
   and do nothing, because the Lord is with them, who can and will do all.
   No; God's gracious presence with us to help us must not supersede, but
   quicken and animate, our endeavours to help ourselves; and we must
   therefore work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because it is
   God that works in us both to will and to do. They shall fight with
   readiness and resolution because, if God be with them, they are sure to
   be conquerors, more than conquerors. For then the riders on horses
   shall be confounded. The cavalry of the enemies shall be routed, and
   put into disorder, by the infantry of the Jews. The preachers of the
   gospel of Christ went forth to war a good warfare; they charged
   bravely, because God was with them; and the riders on horses that
   opposed them were confounded, for God chose the weak and foolish things
   of the world to confound the wise and mighty. But whence have they all
   this might? How come they to be so able, so active? It is in the Lord,
   and in the power of his might, that they are so (v. 6): I will
   strengthen the house of Judah, and so I will save the house of Joseph.
   Note, God saves us by strengthening us, and works out our happiness by
   working in us to do our duty. And thus we are engaged to the utmost
   diligence in using the strength God gives us; and yet, when all is
   done, God must have the glory of all. God is our strength, and so
   becomes both our song and our salvation.

   III. Those of them that are dispersed shall be gathered together into
   one body (v. 6): I will bring them again to place them, bring them from
   other lands to place them in their own land. This was a token of their
   being perfectly restored to all their other ancient privileges--they
   shall be restored to the possession of their own land. This was
   fulfilled when the children of God that were scattered abroad were by
   faith in Christ incorporated in the gospel-church, and Jews and
   Gentiles became one fold, John x. 16. In order to this (v. 8) I will
   hiss for them, or, rather, whistle for them, as the shepherd with his
   pipe calls his sheep together, that know his voice; and so I will
   gather them. The preaching of the gospel was, as it were, God's hissing
   for souls to come to Jesus Christ, his calling in his scattered sheep
   to the green pastures. I will gather them, for I have redeemed them.
   Note, Those whom Christ has redeemed by his blood God will gather by
   his grace, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. This promise is
   enlarged upon v. 10, I will bring them again also out of the land of
   Egypt. Some think this was literally fulfilled when Ptolemæus
   Philadelphus king of Egypt sent 120,000 Jews out of his country into
   their own land, as was the promise of gathering them out of Assyria by
   Alexander the son of Antiochus Epiphanes. But it has its spiritual
   accomplishment in the gathering in of precious souls out of a bondage
   worse than that in Egypt or Assyria, and the bringing of them into the
   glorious liberties of the children of God and their enjoyments, which
   are as the beautiful fruitful pastures in the land of Gilead and
   Lebanon. All the land of promise is theirs, even Gilead, the utmost
   border of it eastward, and Lebanon, the utmost border northward. But
   how shall this be? How shall a people so dispersed be got together? How
   shall those that are set at such a distance from their own country be
   brought to it again? It is true the difficulties seem insuperable, but
   they shall be got over as easily, as effectually as those that lay in
   the way of their deliverance out of Egypt and their entrance into
   Canaan: He shall pass through the sea with affliction, as of old
   through the Red Sea, to the sore affliction of Pharaoh and his hosts,
   or to the sore affliction of the sea, the waves whereof he shall smite,
   so that it shall be driven back, as when the sea saw and fled, Ps.
   cxiv. 3. And all the deeps of the river (all the rivers, though ever so
   deep) shall dry up, as Jordan did, to make way for Israel's passage
   into that good land which God had given them. Does the pride of Assyria
   stand in the way of their deliverance? He shall give check to it who
   sets bounds to the proud waves of the sea, and it shall be brought
   down. Does the sceptre of Egypt oppose it? That shall depart away, so
   that it shall not be able to obstruct the gathering in of God's Israel
   when his time shall come for the doing of it. When the gospel-church
   was to be gathered out of all nations by the preaching of the gospel
   great opposition was given to it by the enraged combined powers of
   earth and hell. Insuperable difficulties seemed to be in the way of it.
   But, by a divine power going along with the doctrine of Christ, it
   became mighty to the pulling down of strong holds, and the conversion
   and salvation of thousands. Then the sea fled, and Jordan was driven
   back at the presence of the Lord.

   IV. They shall greatly multiply, and the church, that new world, shall
   be replenished (v. 8): They shall increase as they have increased
   formerly in Egypt, and great additions shall be made to their numbers,
   as in the days of David and Solomon. When God gathers his redeemed ones
   to himself they shall help to gather in others with them, and their
   motion homeward shall be like that of a snow-ball. Crescit eundo--The
   further it goes the larger it grows by accretion. I will gather them,
   and they shall increase. Note, The church of Christ is a growing body,
   as long as it is in the present state of minority, till it comes to the
   measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. There are added to it
   daily such as shall be saved. 1. It shall spread to distant places. It
   shall fill Canaan, even to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, so that no
   more place, no more room, shall be found for it there, v. 10. In Judah
   only God had been known, and his name was great in Israel only; here
   only he revealed his statutes and judgments. But in gospel-times that
   place shall be much too strait; the church's tent must be enlarged, and
   its cords lengthened: Then I will sow them among the people, v. 9.
   Their scattering shall be like the scattering of seed in the ground,
   not to bury it, but to increase it, that it may bring forth much fruit.
   The Jews are said to be dispersed into every nation under heaven (Acts
   ii. 5); and, as it was their troubles that dispersed some of them, so
   perhaps others transplanted themselves into colonies because the land
   of Israel was too strait for them; and many were natives of other
   nations, but proselyted to the Jewish religion. Now these were sown
   among the people, Hos. ii. 23. And this contributed very much to the
   spreading of the gospel. The Jews that came from all parts to worship
   at Jerusalem fetched thence the gospel light and fire to their own
   countries, as those Acts ii., and the eunuch, Acts viii. And their own
   synagogues in the several cities of the Gentiles were the first
   receptacles of the apostles and their preaching, wherever they came.
   Thus when God sowed them among the people, that they might not get hurt
   by the Gentiles, but do good to them, he took care that they should
   remember him, and make mention of his name in far countries; and, by
   keeping up the knowledge of God among them as he had revealed himself
   in the Old Testament, they would be the more ready to admit the
   knowledge of Christ as he has revealed himself in the New Testament. 2.
   It shall last to future ages. The church shall not be res unius
   ætatis--a temporary thing, but a seed in it shall serve the Lord, v. 7.
   Yea, their children shall see it and be glad; and they shall live with
   their children, and turn again, v. 9. Converts to Christ shall have
   their children about them, whom they shall teach the knowledge of the
   Lord, and bring with them when they turn again to the holy land and the
   way of holiness. It was said to those to whom the gospel was first
   preached, The promise is to you and to your children, Acts ii. 39. They
   shall be so sown among the people as never to be extirpated. Christ's
   family upon earth shall never be extinct, nor his purchased possession
   lost for want of heirs.

   V. God himself will be both their strength and their song. 1. In him
   they shall be comforted, and shall have abundant satisfaction (v. 7):
   Their heart shall rejoice as through wine; for Christ's love, which is
   their joy, is better than wine. They shall be like a mighty man, and
   their heart shall rejoice. When we resolutely resist, and so overcome,
   our spiritual enemies, then our hearts shall rejoice. But we ruin our
   own joy if our resistance be feeble and we yield to the temptations of
   Satan. Their heart shall rejoice, and then they shall be as a mighty
   man; for the joy of the Lord will be our strength. And with their
   graces their joys shall be propagated: Their children shall see it and
   be glad, and their hearts also shall rejoice in the Lord. It is good to
   acquaint children betimes with the delights of religion, and to make
   the services of it as pleasant as may be to them, that, learning
   betimes to rejoice in the Lord, they may with purpose of heart cleave
   to him. 2. By him they shall be carried on with vigour, and enlargement
   of heart, in his service (v. 12): I will strengthen them in the Lord,
   strengthen them for their walk and work, as well as for their warfare.
   It is the God of Israel that gives strength and power unto his people,
   that strengthens all their powers and faculties for spiritual
   performances, above what they are by nature and against what they are
   by the corruption of nature. Now observe, (1.) How they are thus
   enabled and invigorated for their duty: I the Lord will strengthen them
   in the Lord, in the Messiah, who is Jehovah our strength, as well as
   Jehovah our righteousness. Strength is treasured up for us in Christ,
   and from him it is communicated to us. It is through Christ
   strengthening us that we can do all things, and without him we can do
   nothing. His strength is commanded him for this purpose, Ps. lxviii.
   28. (2.) What good use they shall make of this strength given unto
   them: They shall walk up and down in his name. If God strengthen us, we
   must bestir ourselves, must walk up and down in all the duties of the
   Christian life, must be active and busy in the work of God, must walk
   up and down as industrious men do, losing no time, and letting slip no
   opportunity. But still we must walk up and down in the name of Christ,
   must do all by warrant from him and in dependence on him, with an eye
   to his word as our rule and his glory as our end. To us to live must be
   Christ; and, whatever we do in word or deed, we must do all in the name
   of the Lord Jesus, that we receive not the strengthening grace of God
   in vain. See Ps. lxxx. 17, 18.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. XI.

   God's prophet, who, in the chapters before, was an ambassador sent to
   promise peace, is here a herald sent to declare war. The Jewish nation
   shall recover its prosperity, and shall flourish for some time and
   become considerable; it shall be very happy, at length, in the coming
   of the long-expected Messiah, in the preaching of his gospel, and in
   the setting up of his standard there. But, when thereby the chosen
   remnant among them are effectually called in and united to Christ, the
   body of the nation, persisting in unbelief, shall be utterly abandoned
   and given up to ruin, for rejecting Christ; and it is this that is
   foretold here in this chapter--the Jews rejecting Christ, which was
   their measure-filling sin, and the wrath which for that sin came upon
   them to the uttermost. Here is, I. A prediction of the destruction
   itself that should come upon the Jewish nation, ver. 1-3. II. The
   putting of it into the hands of the Messiah. 1. He is charged with the
   custody of that flock, ver. 4-6. 2. He undertakes it, and bears rule in
   it, ver. 7, 8. 3. Finding it perverse, he gives it up (ver. 9), breaks
   his shepherd's staff (ver. 10, 11), resents the indignities done him
   and the contempt put upon him (ver. 12, 13), and then breaks his other
   staff, ver. 14. 4. He turns them over into the hands of foolish
   shepherds, who, instead of preventing, shall complete their ruin, and
   both the blind leaders and the blind followers shall fall together into
   the ditch, ver. 15-17. This is foretold to the poor of the flock before
   it comes to pass, that, when it does come to pass, they may not be
   offended.

Destruction of the Jewish State. (b. c. 510.)

   1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.   2
   Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are
   spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is
   come down.   3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for
   their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the
   pride of Jordan is spoiled.

   In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture
   predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of
   Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which
   our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly
   and expressly. We have here, 1. Preparation made for that destruction
   (v. 1): "Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let
   thy king in--he came to his own and his own received him not; now thou
   must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the forest, and all
   the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire come in and devour
   its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the temple, which was built
   of cedars from Lebanon, and the stones of it white as the snow of
   Lebanon. It was burnt with fire by the Romans, and its gates were
   forced open by the fury of the soldiers. To confirm this, they tell a
   story, that forty years before the destruction of the second temple the
   gates of it opened of their own accord, upon which prodigy Rabbi
   Johanan made this remark (as it is found in one of the Jewish authors),
   "Now I know," said he, "that the destruction of the temple is at hand,
   according to the prophecy of Zechariah, Open thy doors, O Lebanon! that
   the fire may devour thy cedars." Others understand it of Jerusalem, or
   rather of the whole land of Canaan, to which Lebanon was an inlet on
   the north. All shall lie open to the invader, and the cedars, the
   mighty and eminent men, shall be devoured, which cannot but alarm those
   of an inferior rank, v. 2. If the cedars have fallen (if all the mighty
   are spoiled, and brought to ruin), let the fir-tree howl. How can the
   slender fir-trees stand if stately cedars fall? If cedars are devoured
   by fire, it is time for the fir-trees to howl; for no wood is so
   combustible as that of the fir. And let the oaks of Bashan, that lie
   exposed to every injury, howl, for the forest of the vintage (or the
   flourishing vineyard, that used to be guarded with a particular care)
   has come down, or (as some read it) when the defenced forests, such as
   Lebanon was, have come down. Note, The falls of the wise and good into
   sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms
   to those that are every way their inferiors not to be secure. 2.
   Lamentation made for the destruction (v. 3): There is a voice of
   howling. Those who have fallen howl for grief and shame, and those who
   see their own turn coming howl for fear. But the great men especially
   receive the alarm with the utmost confusion. Those who were roaring in
   the day of their revels and triumphs are howling in the day of their
   terrors; for now they are tormented more than others. Those great men
   were by office shepherds, and such should have protected God's flock
   committed to their charge; it is the duty both of princes and priests.
   But they were as young lions, that made themselves a terror to the
   flock with their roaring and the flock a prey to themselves with their
   tearing. Note, It is sad with a people when those who should be as
   shepherds to them are as young lions to them. But what is the issue?
   The shepherds howl, for their glory is spoiled. Their pastures, and the
   flocks which covered them, which were the glory of the swains, are laid
   waste. The young lions howl, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. The
   pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks, in which the lions
   reposed themselves; and therefore, when the river overflowed and
   spoiled them, the lions came up from them (as we read Jer. xlix. 19),
   and they came up roaring. Note, When those who have power proudly abuse
   their power, and, instead of being shepherds, are as young lions, they
   may expect that the righteous God will humble their pride and break
   their power.

Judgments Predicted and Typified. (b. c. 510.)

   4 Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;   5
   Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they
   that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own
   shepherds pity them not.   6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of
   the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one
   into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they
   shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
   7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the
   flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the
   other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.   8 Three shepherds also I
   cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also
   abhorred me.   9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let
   it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the
   rest eat every one the flesh of another.   10 And I took my staff, even
   Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had
   made with all the people.   11 And it was broken in that day: and so
   the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of
   the Lord.   12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my
   price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces
   of silver.   13 And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a
   goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces
   of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.   14
   Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the
   brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

   The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah
   sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for
   judgment Christ came into this world (John ix. 39), for judgment to the
   Jewish church and nation, which were, about the time of his coming,
   wretchedly corrupted and degenerated by the worldliness and hypocrisy
   of their rulers. Christ would have healed them, but they would not be
   healed; they are therefore left desolate, and abandoned to ruin.
   Observe here,

   I. The desperate case of the Jewish church, under the tyranny of their
   own governors. Their slavery in their own country made them as
   miserable as their captivity in strange countries had done: Their
   possessors slay them and sell them, v. 5. In Zechariah's time we find
   the rulers and the nobles justly rebuked for exacting usury of their
   brethren; and the governors, even by their servants, oppressive to the
   people, Neh. v. 7, 15. In Christ's time the chief priests and the
   elders, who were the possessors of the flock, by their traditions, the
   commandments of men, and their impositions on the consciences of the
   people, became perfect tyrants, devoured their houses, engrossed their
   wealth, and fleeced the flock instead of feeding it. The Sadducees, who
   were deists, corrupted their judgments. The Pharisees, who were bigots
   for superstition, corrupted their morals, by making void the
   commandments of God, Matt. xv. 16. Thus they slew the sheep of the
   flock, thus they sold them. They cared not what became of them so they
   could but gain their own ends and serve their own interests. And, 1. In
   this they justified themselves: They slay them and hold themselves not
   guilty. They think that there is no harm in it, and that they shall
   never be called to an account for it by the chief Shepherd; as if their
   power were given them for destruction, which was designed only for
   edification, and as if, because they sat in Moses's seat, they were not
   under the obligation of Moses's law, but might dispense with it, and
   with themselves in the breach of it, at their pleasure. Note, Those
   have their minds woefully blinded indeed who do ill and justify
   themselves in doing it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold
   themselves so. 2. In this they affronted God, by giving him thanks for
   the gain of their oppression: They said, Blessed be the Lord, for I am
   rich, as if, because they prospered in their wickedness, got money by
   it, and raised estates, God had made himself patron of their unjust
   practices, and Providence had become particeps criminis--the associate
   of their guilt. What is got honestly we ought to give God thanks for,
   and to bless him whose blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow with it.
   But with what face can we go to God either to beg a blessing upon the
   unlawful methods of getting wealth or to return him thanks for success
   in them? They should rather have gone to God to confess the sin, to
   take shame to themselves for it, and to vow restitution, than thus to
   mock him by making the gains of sin the gift of God, who hates robbery
   for burnt-offerings, and reckons not himself praised by the
   thanksgiving if he be dishonoured either in the getting or the using of
   that which we give him thanks for. 3. In this they put contempt upon
   the people of God, as unworthy their regard or compassionate
   consideration: Their own shepherds pity them not; they make them
   miserable, and then do not commiserate them. Christ had compassion on
   the multitude because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as if
   they had no shepherd (as really they had worse than none); but their
   own shepherds pitied them not, nor showed any concern for them. Note,
   It is ill for a church when its pastors have no tenderness, no
   compassion for precious souls, when they can look upon the ignorant,
   the foolish, the wicked, the weak, without pity.

   II. The sentence of God's wrath passed upon them for their
   senselessness and stupidity in this condition. There was a general
   decay, nay, a destruction, of religion among them, and it was all one
   to them; they regarded it not. My people love to have it so, Jer. v.
   31. Though they were oppressed and broken in judgment, yet they
   willingly walked after the commandment, Hos. v. 11. And, as their
   shepherds pitied them not, so they did not bemoan themselves; therefore
   God says (v. 6), "I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land. They
   have courted their own destruction, and so let their doom be." But
   those are truly miserable whom the God of mercy himself will no more
   have compassion upon. Those who are willing to have their consciences
   oppressed by those who teach for doctrines the commandments of men (as
   the Jews were, who called those Rabbi, Rabbi, that did so, Matt. xv. 9;
   xxiii. 7), are often punished by oppression in their civil interests,
   and justly, for those forfeit their own rights who tamely give up God's
   rights. The Jews did so; the Papists do so; and who can pity them if
   they be ruled with rigour? God here threatens them, 1. That he will
   deliver them into the hand of oppressors, every one into his
   neighbour's hand, so that they shall use one another barbarously. The
   several parties in Jerusalem did so; the zealots, the seditious, as
   they were called, committed greater outrages than the common enemy did,
   as Josephus relates in his history of the wars of the Jews. They shall
   be delivered every one into the hand of his king, that is, the Roman
   emperor, whom they chose to submit to rather than to Christ, saying, We
   have no king but Cæsar. Thus they thought to ingratiate themselves with
   their lords and masters. But for this God brought the Romans upon them,
   who took away their place and nation. 2. That he will not deliver them
   out of their hands: They shall smite the land, the whole land, and out
   of their hand I will not deliver them; and, if the Lord do not help
   them, none else can, nor can they help themselves.

   III. A trial yet made whether their ruin might be prevented by sending
   Christ among them as a shepherd; God had sent his servants to them in
   vain, but last of all he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will
   reverence my Son, Matt. xxi. 37. Divers of the prophets had spoken of
   him as the Shepherd of Israel, Isa. xl. 11; Ezek. xxxiv. 23. He himself
   told the Pharisees that he was the Shepherd of the sheep, and that
   those who pretended to be shepherds were thieves and robbers (John x.
   1, 2, 11), apparently referring to this passage, where we have, 1. The
   charge he received from his Father to try what might be done with this
   flock (v. 4): Thus saith the Lord my God (Christ called his Father his
   God because he acted in compliance with his will and with an eye to his
   glory in his whole undertaking), Feed the flock of the slaughter. The
   Jews were God's flock, but they were the flock of slaughter, for their
   enemies had killed them all the day long and accounted them as sheep
   for the slaughter; their own possessors slew them, and God himself had
   doomed them to the slaughter. Yet "feed them by reproof instruction,
   and comfort; provide wholesome food for those who have so long been
   soured with the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees." Other sheep he
   had, which were not of this fold, and which afterwards must be brought;
   but he is first sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matt.
   xv. 24. 2. His acceptance of this charge, and his undertaking pursuant
   to it, v. 7. He does as it were say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my
   God! and, since this is thy will, it is mine: I will feed the flock of
   slaughter. Christ will care for these lost sheep; he will go about
   among them, teaching and healing even you, O poor of the flock! Christ
   did not neglect the meanest, nor overlook them for their meanness. The
   shepherds that made a prey of them regarded not the poor; they were
   conversant with those only that they could get by; but Christ preached
   his gospel to the poor, Matt. xi. 5. It was an instance of his
   humiliation that his converse was mostly with the inferior sort of
   people; his disciples, who were his constant attendants, were of the
   poor of the flock. 3. His furnishing himself with tools proper for the
   charge he had undertaken: I took unto me two staves, pastoral staves;
   other shepherds have but one crook, but Christ had two, denoting the
   double care he took of his flock, and what he did both for the souls
   and for the bodies of men. David speaks of God's rod and his staff (Ps.
   xxiii. 4), a correcting rod and a supporting staff. One of these staves
   was called Beauty, denoting the temple, which is called the beauty of
   holiness and one of its gates beautiful, which Christ called his
   Father's house, and for which he showed a great zeal when he cleared it
   of the buyers and sellers; the other he called Bands, denoting their
   civil state, and the incorporate society of that nation, which Christ
   also took care of by preaching love and peace among them. Christ, in
   his gospel, and in all he did among them, consulted the advancement
   both of their civil and of their sacred interests. 4. His execution of
   his office, as the chief Shepherd. He fed the flock (v. 7), and he
   displaced those under-shepherds that were false to their trust (v. 8):
   Three shepherds I cut off in one month. Through the deficiency and
   uncertainty of the history of the Jewish church, in its latter ages, we
   know not what particular event this had its accomplishment in; in
   general, it seems to be an act of power and justice for the punishment
   of the sinful shepherds and the redress of the grievances of the abused
   flock. Some understand it of the three orders of princes, priests, and
   scribes or prophets, who, when Christ had finished his work, were laid
   aside for their unfaithfulness. Others understand it of the three sects
   among the Jews, of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, all whom Christ
   silenced in dispute (Matt. xxii.) and soon after cut off, all in a
   little time.

   IV. Their enmity to Christ, and making themselves odious to him. He
   came to his own, the sheep of his own pasture; it might have been
   expected that between them and him there would be an entire affection,
   as between the shepherd and his sheep; but they conducted themselves so
   ill that his soul loathed them, was straitened towards them (so it may
   be read); he intended them kindness, but could not do them the kindness
   he intended them, because of their unbelief, Matt. xiii. 58. He was
   disappointed in them, discouraged concerning them, grieved for them,
   not only for the shepherds, whom he cut off, but for the people, whom
   Christ often looked upon with grief in his heart and tears in his eyes.
   Their provocations even wore out his patience, and he was weary of that
   faithless and perverse generation. Their soul also it abhorred me; and
   therefore it was that his soul loathed them; for, whatever estrangement
   there is between God and man, it begins on man's side. The Jewish
   shepherds rejected this chief Shepherd, as the Jewish builders rejected
   this chief corner stone. They had indignation at Christ's doctrine and
   miracles, and his interest in the people, to whom they did all they
   could to render him odious, as they had made themselves odious to him.
   Note, There is a mutual enmity between God and wicked people; they are
   hateful to God and haters of God. Nothing speaks more the sinfulness
   and misery of an unregenerate state than this does. The carnal mind,
   the friendship of the world, are enmity to God, and God hates all the
   workers of iniquity; and it is easy to foresee what this will end in,
   if the quarrel be not taken up in time, Isa. xxvii. 4, 5.

   V. Christ's rejecting them as incurable, and leaving them their house
   desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. The things of their peace are now hidden
   from their eyes, because they knew not the day of their visitation.
   Here we have,

   1. The sentence of their rejection passed (v. 9): "Then said I, I will
   not feed you. I will take no further care of you; you shall not see me
   again; take your own course. As I will not feed you, so I will not cure
   you; that that dieth, let it die (the Shepherd will do nothing to save
   its forfeited life); that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off;
   that which will make itself a prey to the wolf, let it be a prey, and
   let the rest so far forget their own mild and gentle nature as to eat
   the flesh of one another; let these sheep fight like dogs." Those that
   reject Christ will be certainly and justly rejected by him, and then
   are miserable of course.

   2. A sign of it given (v. 10): I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it
   asunder, in token of this, that he would be no longer a shepherd to
   them, as the lord high steward determines his commission by breaking
   his white staff, and as Moses's breaking the tables of the law put a
   stop, for the present, to the treaty between God and Israel. The
   breaking of this staff signified the breaking of God's covenant which
   he had made with all the people, the covenant of peculiarity made with
   all the tribes of Israel, and all other people who, by being proselyted
   to their religion, were incorporated into their nation. The Jewish
   church was now stripped of all its glory; its crown was profaned and
   cast to the ground, and all its honour laid in the dust; for God
   departed from it, and would no more own it for his. When Christ told
   them plainly that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and
   given to another people, then be broke the staff of Beauty, Matt. xxi.
   43. And it was broken in that day, though Jerusalem and the Jewish
   nation held up forty years longer, yet from that day we may reckon the
   staff of Beauty broken, v. 11. And though the great men did not, or
   would not, understand it as a divine sentence, but thought to put it by
   with a cold God forbid (Luke xx. 16), yet the poor of the flock, the
   disciples of Christ, that waited on him, and understood with what
   authority he spoke, and could distinguish the voice of their Shepherd
   from that of a stranger, knew that it was the word of the Lord, and
   trembled at it, and were confident that it should not fall to the
   ground. Note, Christ is waited on by the poor of the flock; he chose
   them to be with him, to be his pupils, to be his witnesses; the poor
   received him and his gospel, when those that had great possessions
   turned their backs upon him. And those that wait upon Christ, that sit
   at his feet, to hear and receive his words, shall know of the doctrine
   whether it be of God, John vii. 17.

   3. A further reason given for their rejection. It was said before,
   Their souls abhorred him; and here we have an instance of it, their
   buying and selling him for thirty pieces of silver, either thirty Roman
   pence, or rather thirty Jewish shekels; this is here foretold in
   somewhat obscure expressions, as it is fit that such particular
   prophecies should be delivered, lest otherwise the plainness of the
   prophecy might prevent the accomplishment of it. Here, (1.) The
   Shepherd comes to them for his wages (v. 12): "If you think good, give
   me my price; you are weary of me, pay me off and discharge me; and, if
   not, forbear; if you be willing to continue me longer in your service,
   I will continue, or, if to turn me off without wages, I am content."
   Christ was no hireling, and yet the labourer is worthy of his hire.
   Compare with this what Christ said to Judas when he was going to sell
   him, "What thou doest do quickly; be at a word with the chief priests;
   let them either take the bargain or leave it," John xiii. 27. Those
   that betray Christ are not forced to it; they might have chosen. (2.)
   They value him at thirty pieces of silver. Many years' service he had
   done them as a Shepherd, yet this is all they will now turn him off
   with--"A goodly price that I with all my care and pains was valued at
   by them." If Judas fixed this sum in his demand, it is observable that
   his name was Judah, the same name with that of the body of the people,
   for it was a national act; or, if (as it rather seems) the chief
   priests pitched upon this sum in their proffers, they were the
   representatives of the people; it was part of the priest's office to
   put a value upon the devoted things (Lev. xxvii. 8), and thus they
   valued the Lord Jesus. It was the ordinary price of a slave, Exod. xxi.
   32. Making light of Christ, and undervaluing the love of that great and
   good Shepherd, are the ruin of multitudes, and justly so. (3.) The
   silver being no way proportionable to his worth, it is thrown to the
   potter with disdain: "Let him take it to buy clay with, or for any use
   that a little money will serve to, for it is not worth hoarding; it may
   be enough for a potter's stock, but not for the pay of such a shepherd,
   much less for his purchase." So the prophet cast the thirty pieces of
   silver to the potter in the house of the Lord: "Let him take them, and
   do what he will with them." Now we find a particular accomplishment of
   this in the history of Christ's sufferings, and reference is had to
   this prophecy, Matt. xxvii. 9, 10. Thirty pieces of silver was the very
   sum for which Christ was sold to the chief priests; the money, when
   Judas would not keep it, and the chief priests would not take it back
   was laid out in the purchase of the potter's field. Even that sudden
   resolve of the chief priests was according to an ancient prophecy and
   the more ancient counsel and foreknowledge of God.

   4. The completing of their rejection in the cutting asunder of the
   other staff, v. 14. The former denoted the ruin of their church, by
   breaking the covenant between God and them--that defaced their beauty;
   this denotes the ruin of their state, by breaking the brotherhood
   between Judah and Israel, by reviving animosities and contention among
   them, such as were of old between Judah and Israel, the writing of whom
   as one stick in the hand of the Lord was one of the blessings promised
   after their return out of captivity, Ezek. xxxvii. 19. But that union
   shall now be dissolved; they shall be crumbled into parties and
   factions, exasperated one against another; and their kingdom, being
   thus divided, shall be brought to desolation. (1.) Nothing ruins a
   people so certainly, so inevitably, as the breaking of the staff of
   Bands, and the weakening of the brotherhood among them; for hereby they
   become an easy prey to the common enemy. (2.) This follows upon the
   dissolving of the covenant between God and them, and the decay of
   religion among them. When iniquity abounds love waxes cold. No wonder
   if those fall out among themselves that have provoked God to fall out
   with them. When the staff of Beauty is broken the staff of Bands will
   not hold long. An unchurched people will soon be an undone people.

Judgments Predicted and Typified. (b. c. 510.)

   15 And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a
   foolish shepherd.   16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,
   which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the
   young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth
   still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in
   pieces.   17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword
   shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean
   dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

   God, having shown the misery of this people in their being justly
   abandoned by the good Shepherd, here shows their further misery in
   being shamefully abused by a foolish shepherd. The prophet is himself
   to personate and represent this pretended shepherd (v. 15): Take unto
   thee the instruments or accoutrements of a foolish shepherd, that are
   no way fit for the business, such a shepherd's coat, and bag, and
   staff, as a foolish shepherd would appear in; for such a shepherd shall
   be set over them (v. 16), who, instead of protecting them, shall
   oppress them and do them mischief. 1. They shall be under the
   inspection of unfaithful ministers. Their scribes, and priests, and
   doctors of their law, shall bind heavy burdens upon them, and grievous
   to be borne, and, with their traditions imposed, shall make the
   ceremonial law much more a yoke than God had made it. The description
   here given of the foolish shepherd suits very well with the character
   Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. 2. They shall
   be under the tyranny of unmerciful princes, that shall rule them with
   rigour, and make their own land as much a house of bondage to them as
   ever Egypt or Babylon was. When they had rejected him by whom princes
   decree justice it was just that they should be turned over to those who
   decree unrighteous decrees. 3. They shall be imposed upon and deluded
   by false Christs and false prophets, as our Saviour foretold, Matt.
   xxiv. 5. Many such there were, who by their seditious practices
   provoked the Romans, and hastened the ruin of the Jewish nation; but it
   is observable that they were never cheated by a counterfeit Messiah
   till they had refused and rejected the true Messiah. Now observe,

   I. What a curse this foolish shepherd should be to the people, v. 16.
   God will, for their punishment, raise up a foolish shepherd, who will
   not do the duty of a shepherd; he will not visit those that are cut
   off, nor go after those that go astray, nor seek those that are
   missing, to find them out and bring them home, as the good shepherd
   does, Matt. xviii. 12, 13. Their shepherds take no care of the young
   ones, that need their care and are well worthy of it, as Christ does,
   Isa. xl. 11. They do not heal that which was broken, which was worried
   and torn, but let it die of its bruises, when a little thing, in time,
   would have saved it. They do not feed those who, through weakness,
   stand still, and are ready to faint, and cannot get forward, but leave
   them behind, let who will take them up; they do not carry that which
   stands still (so some read it); they never do any thing to support the
   weak and comfort the feeble-minded; but, on the contrary, 1. They are
   luxurious themselves: They eat of the flesh of the fat; they will have
   of the best for themselves; and, like that wicked servant that said, My
   lord delays his coming, they eat and drink with the drunken, and serve
   their own bellies. 2. They are barbarous to the flock. Their passions
   are as ill-governed as their appetites, for, when they are in a rage
   against any of the flock, they tear their very claws in pieces by
   over-driving them; they beat their hoofs; they smite their fellow
   servants. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is such a child!

   II. What a curse this foolish shepherd should bring upon himself (v.
   17): Woe to the idol-shepherd, who, like an idol, has eyes and sees
   not, who, like an idol, receives abundance of respect and homage from
   the people and the chief of their offerings, but neither can nor will
   do them any kindness. He leaves the flock when they most need his care,
   leaves them destitute, and flees, because he is a hireling; his doom is
   that the sword of God's justice shall be upon his arm and his right
   eye, so that he shall quite lose the use of both. His arm shall wither
   and be dried up, so that he who would not help his friends when it was
   required shall not know how to help himself; his right eye shall be
   utterly darkened, that he shall not discern the danger that his flock
   is in, nor know which way to look for relief. This was fulfilled when
   Christ said to the Pharisees, I have come that those who see may be
   made blind, John ix. 39. Those that have gifts which qualify them to do
   good, if they do not do good with them, shall be deprived of them;
   those that should have been workmen, but were slothful and would do
   nothing, will justly have their arm dried up; and those that should
   have been watchmen, but were sleepy and would never look about them,
   will justly have their eye blinded.
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. XII.

   The apostle (Gal. iv. 25, 26) distinguishes between "Jerusalem which
   now is, and is in bondage with her children"--the remaining carcase of
   the Jewish church that rejected Christ, and "Jerusalem that is from
   above, that is free, and is the mother of us all"--the Christian
   church, the spiritual Jerusalem, which God has chosen to put his name
   there; in the foregoing chapter we read the doom of the former, and
   left that carcase to be a prey to the eagles that should be gathered to
   it. Now, in this chapter, we have the blessings of the latter, many
   precious promises made to the gospel-Jerusalem by him who (ver. 1)
   declares his power to make them good. It is promised, I. That the
   attempts of the church's enemies against her shall be to their own
   ruin, and they shall find that it is at their peril if they do her any
   hurt, ver. 2-4, 6. II. That the endeavours of the church's friends and
   patrons for her good shall be pious, regular, and successful, ver. 5.
   III. That God will protect and strengthen the meanest and weakest that
   belong to his church, and work salvation for them, ver. 7, 8. IV. That
   as a preparative for all this mercy, and a pledge of it, he will pour
   upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance, the effect of which shall
   be universal and very particular, ver. 9-14. These promises were of use
   then to the pious Jews that lived in the troublous times under
   Antiochus, and other persecutors and oppressors; and they are still to
   be improved in every age for the directing of our prayers and the
   encouraging of our hopes with reference to the gospel-church.

The Security of the Church; Punishment of the Church's Enemies; Promises to
Judah. (b. c. 500.)

   1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which
   stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth,
   and formeth the spirit of man within him.   2 Behold, I will make
   Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they
   shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.   3 And
   in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people:
   all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all
   the people of the earth be gathered together against it.   4 In that
   day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and
   his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of
   Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.   5 And
   the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of
   Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.   6 In
   that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among
   the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour
   all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and
   Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
     7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory
   of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do
   not magnify themselves against Judah.   8 In that day shall the Lord
   defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them
   at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God,
   as the angel of the Lord before them.

   Here is, I. The title of this charter of promises made to God's Israel;
   it is the burden of the word of the Lord, a divine prediction; it is of
   weight in the delivery of it; it is to be pressed upon people, and will
   be very pressing in the accomplishment of it; it is a burden, a heavy
   burden, to all the church's enemies, like that talent of lead, ch. v.
   7, 8. But it is for Israel; it is for their comfort and benefit. As
   even the fiery law (Deut. xxxiii. 2), so the fiery prophecies and fiery
   providences that come from God's right hand, come for them; the word
   that speaks terror to their enemies speaks peace to them, as the pillar
   of cloud and fire, which turned a bright side towards the Israelites,
   to direct and encourage them, but a black side towards the Egyptians,
   to terrify and dispirit them. Happy are those that have even the
   burdens of God's word for them, as well as the blessings of it.

   II. The title of him that grants this charter, which is prefixed to it
   to show that he has both authority to make these promises and ability
   to make them good, for he is the Creator of the world and our Creator,
   and therefore has an incontestable irresistible dominion. 1. He
   stretches out the heavens; not only he did so at the first, when he
   said, Let there be a firmament, and he made the firmament, but he does
   so still; he keeps them stretched out like a curtain, keeps them from
   running in, and will do so till the end come, when the heavens shall be
   rolled together as a scroll. No bounds can be set to his power who
   stretches out the heavens, nor can any thing be too hard for him. 2. He
   lays the foundation of the earth, and keeps it firm and fixed on its
   own basis, or rather on its own axis, though it is founded on the seas
   (Ps. xxiv. 1, 2), nay, though it is hung upon nothing, Job xxvi. 7. The
   founder of this earth is no doubt the ruler of it, and judges in it,
   and those deceive themselves who say, The Lord has forsaken the earth,
   for, if he had, it would have sunk, since it is he that not only did
   lay its foundations at first, but does still lay them, still uphold
   them. 3. He forms the spirit of man within him. He made us these souls,
   Jer. xxxviii. 16. He not only breathed into the first man, but still
   breathes into every man the breath of life; the body is derived from
   the fathers of our flesh, but the soul is infused by the Father of
   spirits, Heb. xii. 9. He fashions men's hearts; they are in his hand,
   and he turns them as the rivers of water, and casts them into what
   mould he pleases, so as to serve his own purposes with them; and he can
   therefore save his church by inspiriting his friends and dispiriting
   his enemies, and will eternally save all his chosen by forming their
   spirits anew.

   III. The promises themselves that are here made them, by which the
   church shall be secured, and in which all its friends may enjoy a holy
   security.

   1. It is promised that, whatever attacks the enemies of the church may
   make upon her purity or peace, they will certainly issue in their own
   confusion. The enemies of God and of his kingdom bear a great deal of
   malice and ill-will to Jerusalem, and form designs for its destruction;
   but it will prove, at last, that they are but preparing ruin for
   themselves; Jerusalem is in safety, and those are in all the danger who
   fight against it. This is here illustrated by three comparisons:--

   (1.) Jerusalem shall be a cup of trembling to all that lay siege to it,
   v. 2. They promise themselves that it shall be to them a cup of wine,
   which they shall easily and with pleasure drink off, and they thirst
   for its spoils, nay, they thirst for its blood, as for such a cup; but
   it shall prove a cup of slumber, nay, a cup of poison, to them, which,
   when they take it into their hands, and think it is all their own, they
   shall not be able to drink off: the fumes of it shall give them enough.
   When the kings were assembled against her, and saw how God was known in
   her palaces for a refuge, they trembled and hasted away; fear took hold
   upon them, as we find, Ps. xlviii. 3-6. Thus Alexander the Great was
   struck with amazement when he met Jaddus the high priest, and was
   deterred thereby from offering any violence to Jerusalem. When
   Sennacherib laid siege against Judah and Jerusalem he found them such a
   cup of stupifying wine as laid all his mighty men asleep, Ps. lxxvi. 5,
   6. Some read it, I will make Jerusalem a post of contrition or
   breaking. Those that make any attempts upon Jerusalem do but run their
   heads against a post, which they cannot move, but are sure to hurt
   themselves. The blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the
   wall (Isa. xxv. 4), broken by it, but not shaking it. God's church is a
   cup of consolation to all her friends (Isa. lxvi. 11), but a cup of
   trembling to all that would either debauch her by errors and
   corruptions or destroy her by wars and persecutions. See Isa. li. 22,
   23.

   (2.) Jerusalem shall be a burdensome stone to all that attempt to
   remove it or carry it away, v. 3. All the people of the earth are here
   supposed to be gathered together against it, some one time and some
   another; there has been a succession of enemies, from age to age,
   making war upon the church. But though they were all at once in a
   confederacy against it, and had formed a resolution to cut off the name
   of Israel, that it should be no more in remembrance (Ps. lxxxiii. 4),
   they will find it a task too hard for them. Those that are for keeping
   up and advancing the kingdom of sin in the world look upon Jerusalem,
   even the church of God, as the great obstacle to their designs, and
   they must have it out of the way; but they will find it heavier than
   they think it is; so that, [1.] They cannot remove it. God will have a
   church in the world, in spite of them; it is built upon a rock, and is
   as Mount Zion, that abides for ever, Ps. cxxv. 1. This stone, cut out
   of the mountain without hands, will not only keep its ground, but fill
   the earth, Dan. ii. 35. Nay, [2.] It will break in pieces all that
   burden themselves with it, as that stone smote the image, Dan. ii. 45.
   All that think themselves a match for it shall be cut in pieces by it.
   Some think it is an allusion to a sport which Jerome, upon this place,
   says was in use among the Jews, as among us: young men tried their
   strength, and strove for mastery, by heaving up great stones, which, if
   they proved too heavy for them, fell upon them, and bruised them. Those
   that make a jest of religion, and banter sacred things, will find them
   a burdensome stone, that it is ill-jesting with edged-tools, and though
   they make light of it (saying, Am not I in sport?) they bring upon
   themselves an insupportable sinking load of guilt. Our Saviour seems to
   allude to these words when he speaks of himself as a burdensome stone
   to those that will not have him for their foundation-stone, which shall
   fall upon them and grind them to powder, Matt. xxi. 44.

   (3.) The governors of Judah shall be among their enemies like a hearth
   of fire among the wood, and a torch of fire in a sheaf, v. 6. Not that
   their own passions shall make them incendiaries and firebrands to all
   about them; no; Zion's King is meek and lowly, and all subordinate
   governors must be like him; but God's justice will make them avengers
   of his cause, and theirs, upon their enemies. Those that contend with
   them will find it is like an opposition given by briers and thorns to a
   consuming fire, Isa. xxvii. 4. It will go through them, and burn them
   together. It is God's wrath, and not theirs, that is the fire which
   devours the adversaries. God's fire is said to be in Zion, and his
   furnace in Jerusalem. Isa. xxxi. 9. The enemies thought to be as water
   to this fire, to extinguish it and put it quite out; but God will make
   them as wood, nay, as a sheaf of corn (which is more combustible), to
   this fire, not only to be consumed by it, but to be made thereby to
   burn the more strongly. When God would make Abimelech and the men of
   Shechem one another's destroyers fire is said to come out from the one
   to devour the other, Judg. ix. 20. So here, Fire shall come out from
   the governors of Judah to devour all the people round about, as from
   the mouth of God's witnesses to consume those who offer to hurt them,
   Rev. xi. 5. The persecutors of the primitive church found this
   fulfilled in it, witness Lactantius's history of God's judgments upon
   the primitive persecutors, and the confession of Julian the apostate at
   last. Thou hast overcome me, O thou Galilean! The church's motto may
   be, Nemo me impune lacesset--He that assails me does it at his peril.
   If you are weary of your life, persecute the Christians, was once a
   proverb.

   2. It is promised that God will infatuate the counsels and enfeeble the
   courage of the church's enemies (v. 4): "In that day, when the people
   of the earth are gathered together against Jerusalem, I will smite
   every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness;" and again,
   "I will smite every horse of the people with blindness, so that they
   shall be no way serviceable to them; blinding the horses will be as bad
   as houghing them." The horses and their horsemen shall both forget the
   military exercise to which they were trained, and, instead of keeping
   ranks and observing the rules of their discipline, they shall both grow
   mad, and ruin themselves. The church's infantry shall be too hard for
   the enemy's cavalry; and those who were upbraided with trusting in
   horses shall be baffled by those who were forbidden to multiply horses.

   3. It is promised that Jerusalem shall be re-peopled and replenished
   (v. 6): Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in
   Jerusalem. The natives of Jerusalem shall not incorporate in a colony
   in some other country, and build a city there, and call that Jerusalem,
   and see the promises fulfilled in that, as those in New England called
   their towns by the names of towns in Old England. No; they shall have a
   new Jerusalem upon the same foundation, the same spot of ground, with
   the old one. They had so after their return out of captivity, but this
   was to have its full accomplishment in the gospel-church, which is a
   Jerusalem inhabited in its own place; for, the gospel being to be
   preached to all the world, it may call every place its own.

   4. It is promised that the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be enabled to
   defend themselves, and yet shall be taken under the divine protection,
   v. 8. See here in what method God preserves his church, and those that
   are his, from the gates of hell to and through the gates of heaven.
   (1.) He does himself secure them: In that day shall the Lord defend the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem, not only Jerusalem itself from being taken
   and destroyed, but every inhabitant of it from being any way damaged.
   God will not only be a wall of fire about the city, to fortify that,
   but he will encompass particular persons with his favour as with a
   shield, so that no dart of the besiegers shall touch them. (2.) He does
   it by giving them strength and courage to help themselves. What God
   works in his people by his grace contributes more to their preservation
   and defence than what he works for them by his providence. The God of
   Israel gives strength and power to his people, that they may do their
   part, and then he will not be wanting to do his. It is the glory of God
   to strengthen the weak, that most need his help, that see and own their
   need of it, and will be the most thankful for it. [1.] In that day the
   feeblest of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be as David, shall be
   men of war, as bold and brave, as skilful and strong, as David himself,
   shall attempt and accomplish great things, as David did, and become as
   serviceable to Jerusalem in guarding it as David himself was in
   founding it, and as formidable as he was to the enemies of it. See what
   divine grace does; it makes children not only men, but champions, makes
   weak saints to be not only good soldiers, but great soldiers, like
   David. And see how God often does his own work as easily and
   effectually, and more to his own glory, by weak and obscure instruments
   than by the most illustrious. [2.] The house of David shall be as God,
   that is, as the angel of the Lord, before them. Zerubbabel was now the
   top-branch of the house of David; he shall be endued with wisdom and
   grace for the service to which he is called, and shall go before the
   people as an angel, as that angel (so some think) which went before the
   people of Israel through the wilderness, which was God himself, Exod.
   xxiii. 20. God will increase the gifts and abilities both of the people
   and princes, in proportion to the respective services for which they
   are designed. It was said of David that he was as an angel of God, to
   discern good and bad, 2 Sam. xiv. 17. Such shall the house of David now
   be. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be as strong and fit for action
   as nature made David, and their magistrates as wise and fit for counsel
   as grace made him. But this was to have its full accomplishment in
   Christ; now the house of David looked little and mean, and its glory
   was eclipsed, but in Christ the house of David shone more brightly than
   ever, and its countenance was as that of an angel; in him it became
   more blessed, and more a blessing, than ever it had been.

   5. It is promised that there shall be a very good understanding between
   the city and the country, and that the balance shall be kept even
   between them; there shall be no mutual envies or jealousies between
   them; they shall not keep up any separate interests, but shall heartily
   unite in their counsels, and act in concert for the common good; and
   this happy agreement between the city and the country, the head and the
   body, is very necessary to the health, welfare, and safety of any
   nation. (1.) The governors of Judah, the magistrates and gentry of the
   country, shall think honourably of the citizens, the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem, the merchants and tradesmen; they shall not run them down,
   and contrive how to keep them under, but they shall say in their
   hearts, not in compliment but in sincerity, The inhabitants of
   Jerusalem shall be my strength, the strength of my country, of my
   family, in the Lord of hosts their God, v. 5. They will therefore, upon
   all occasions, pay respect and deference to Jerusalem, as the
   mother-city, the ruling-city, and the city that is to be first served,
   because they look upon it to be the bulwark of the nation and its
   strongest fortification in times of public danger and distress, which
   therefore they would all come in to the assistance of and come under
   the protection of, and this not so much because it was a rich city, and
   money is the sinews of war, nor because it was a populous city and
   could bring the greatest numbers into the field, nor because its
   inhabitants were generally the most ingenious active men, the best
   soldiers and the best commanders (of Zion it shall be said, This and
   that brave man were born there), but because it was a holy city, where
   God's house and household, the temple and the priests, were, where his
   worship was kept up and his feasts were observed, and because it should
   now be more than ever a praying city, for upon the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem God will pour a spirit of supplication (v. 10); therefore the
   governors of Judah shall say, These are my strength; they are so upon
   the account of their relation to, their interest in, and their
   communion with, the Lord of hosts, their God. Because the Lord of hosts
   is in a particular manner their God (for in Salem is his tabernacle and
   his dwelling-place in Zion), therefore they shall be my strength. Note,
   It is well with a kingdom when its great men know how to value its good
   men, when its governors look upon religion and religious people to be
   their strength, and consider it their interest to support them, and
   learn to call godly praying people, and skilful faithful ministers, the
   chariots and horsemen of Israel, as Joash called Elisha, and not the
   troublers of the land, as Ahab called Elijah. (2.) The court and the
   city shall not despise, nor look with contempt upon, the inhabitants of
   the country; no, not the meanest of them, much less upon the governors
   of Judah; for God will put signal honour upon Judah, and so save them
   from the contempt of their brethren. As Jerusalem was dignified by
   special ordinances, so Judah shall be dignified with special
   providences. God says (v. 4), I will open my eyes upon the house of
   Judah, upon the poor country people. Proud men scornfully overlook
   them, but the great God will graciously look upon them and look after
   them. Nay, (v. 7), the Lord shall save the tents of Judah first. Those
   that dwell in tents lie most exposed; but God will remarkably protect
   and deliver them before those that dwell in Jerusalem. He will appear
   glorious in what he does for the inhabitants of his villages in Israel,
   Judg. v. 11. Thus, in the mystical body, God gives more abundant honour
   to that part which lacked, that there may be no schism in the body (see
   1 Cor. xii. 22-25), which is the reason here given why the glory of the
   house of David, which has great power, and the glory of the inhabitants
   of Jerusalem, who have great wealth, and both which live in great pomp
   and pleasure, may not magnify themselves against Judah and the tents of
   Judah, the dwellers in which work hard, and fare hard, and perhaps are
   not so well bred. Note, Courtiers and citizens ought not to despise
   country people, nor look with disdain upon those whom God opens his
   eyes upon and who are first saved, while it is so hard for the rich and
   great to enter the kingdom of God. If God by his grace has magnified
   the dwellers in the tents of Judah, having chosen the weak and foolish
   things of the world and chosen to employ them, we affront him if we
   vilify them, or magnify ourselves against them, Jam. ii. 5, 6. This
   promise has a further reference to the gospel-church, in which no
   difference shall be made between high and low, rich and poor, bond and
   free, circumcision and uncircumcision, but all shall be alike welcome
   to Christ, and partake of his benefits, Col. iii. 11. Jerusalem shall
   not then be thought, as it had been, more holy than other parts of the
   land of Israel.

Promises to Judah; Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 500.)

   9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy
   all the nations that come against Jerusalem.   10 And I will pour upon
   the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
   of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they
   have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his
   only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in
   bitterness for his firstborn.   11 In that day shall there be a great
   mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of
   Megiddon.   12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family
   of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the
   house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;   13 The family of the
   house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart,
   and their wives apart;   14 All the families that remain, every family
   apart, and their wives apart.

   The day here spoken of is the day of Jerusalem's defence and
   deliverance, that glorious day when God will appear for the salvation
   of his people, which, if it do refer to the successes which the Jews
   had against their enemies in the time of the Maccabees, yet certainly
   looks further, to the gospel-day, to Christ's victories over the powers
   of darkness and the great salvation he has wrought for his chosen. Now
   we have here an account of two remarkable works designed in that day.

   I. A glorious work of God to be wrought for his people: "I will seek to
   destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, v. 9. Nations come
   against Jerusalem, many and mighty nations; but they shall all be
   destroyed, their power shall be broken, and their attempts baffled; the
   mischief they intend shall return upon their own head." God will seek
   to destroy them, not as if he were at a loss for ways and means to
   bring it about (Infinite Wisdom was never nonplussed), but his seeking
   to do it intimates that he is very earnest and intent upon it (he is
   jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and has the day of vengeance in
   his heart) and that he overrules means and instruments, and all the
   motions and operations of second causes, in order to it. He is framing
   evil against them; when he seems to be setting them up he is seeking to
   destroy them. In Christ's first coming, he sought to destroy him that
   had the power of death, and did destroy him, bruised the serpent's
   head, and broke all the powers of darkness that fought against God's
   kingdom among men and against the faithful friends and subjects of that
   kingdom; he spoiled them, and made a show of them openly. In his second
   coming, he will complete their destruction, when he shall put down all
   opposing rule, principality, and power, and death itself shall be
   swallowed up in that victory. The last enemy shall be destroyed of all
   that fought against Jerusalem.

   II. A gracious work of God to be wrought in his people, in order to the
   work that is to be wrought for them. When he seeks to destroy their
   enemies he will pour upon them the Spirit of grace and supplication.
   Note, When God intends great mercy for his people the first thing he
   does is to set them a praying; thus he seeks to destroy their enemies
   by stirring them up to seek to him that he would do it for them;
   because, though he has proposed it and promised it, and it is for his
   own glory to do it, yet he will for this be enquired of by the house of
   Israel, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. Ask, and it shall be given. This honour will
   he have to himself, and this honour will he put upon prayer and upon
   praying people. And it is a happy presage to the distressed church of
   deliverance approaching, and is, as it were, the dawning of its day,
   when his people are stirred up to cry mightily to him for it. But this
   promise has reference to, and is performed in, the graces of the Spirit
   given to all believers, as that Isa. xliv. 3, I will pour my Spirit
   upon thy seed, which was fulfilled when Jesus was glorified, John vii.
   39. It is a promise of the Spirit, and with him of all spiritual
   blessings in heavenly things by Christ. Now observe here,

   1. On whom these blessings are poured out. (1.) On the house of David,
   on the great men; for they are no more, and no better, than the grace
   of God makes them. It was promised (v. 8) that the house of David
   should be as the angel of the Lord. Now, in order to that, the Spirit
   of grace is poured upon them; for the more the saints have of the
   Spirit of grace the more like they are to the holy angels. When God was
   about to appear for the land, he poured his Spirit of grace upon the
   house of David, the leading men of the land. It bodes well to a people
   when princes and great men go before the rest in that which is good, as
   2 Chron. xx. 5. The house of David is all summed up in Jesus Christ,
   the Son of David; and upon him, as the head, the Spirit of grace is
   poured out, from him to be diffused to all his members; from his
   fulness we receive, and grace for grace. (2.) On the inhabitants of
   Jerusalem, the common people; for the operations of the Spirit are the
   same upon the mean and weak Christians that they are upon the strong
   and more grown. The inhabitants of Jerusalem cannot influence public
   affairs by their powers and policies, as the great men of the house of
   David may, yet they may do good service by their prayers, and therefore
   upon them the Spirit shall be poured out. The church is Jerusalem, the
   heavenly Jerusalem; all true believers, that have their conversation in
   the heaven, are inhabitants of this Jerusalem, and to them this promise
   belongs. God will pour his Spirit upon them. This is the earnest which
   all that believe in Christ shall receive; thus they are sanctified;
   thus they are sealed.

   2. What these blessings are: I will pour upon them the Spirit. That
   includes all good things, as it qualifies us for the favour of God, and
   all his other gifts. He will pour out the Spirit, (1.) As a Spirit of
   grace, to sanctify us and to make us gracious. (2.) As a Spirit of
   supplications, inclining us to, instructing and assisting us in, the
   duty of prayer. Note, Wherever the Spirit is given as a Spirit of
   grace, he is given as a Spirit of sanctification. Wherever he is a
   Spirit of adoption, he teaches to cry, Abba, Father. As soon as ever
   Paul was converted, Behold, he prays, Acts ix. 11. You may as soon find
   a living man without breath as a living saint without prayer. There is
   a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of prayer now under the gospel
   than was under the law; and the further the work of sanctification is
   carried in us the better is the work of supplication carried on by us.

   3. What the effect of them will be: I will pour upon them the Spirit of
   grace. One would think that it should follow, "And they shall look on
   him whom they have believed, and shall rejoice" (and it is true that
   that is one of the fruits of the pouring out of the Spirit, whence we
   read of the joy of the Holy ghost), but it follows, They shall mourn;
   for there is a holy mourning, that is the effect of the pouring out of
   the Spirit, a mourning for sin, which is of use to quicken faith in
   Christ and qualify for joy in God. It is here made the matter of a
   promise that they shall mourn, for there is a mourning that will end in
   rejoicing and has a blessing entailed upon it. This mourning is a fruit
   of the Spirit of grace, an evidence of a work of grace in the soul, and
   a companion of the Spirit of supplication, as it expresses lively
   affections working in prayer; hence prayers and tears are often put
   together, 2 Kings xx. 5. Jacob, that wrestler with God, wept and made
   supplication. But here it is a mourning for sin that is the effect of
   the pouring out of the Spirit.

   (1.) It is a mourning grounded upon a sight of Christ: They shall look
   on me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him. Here, [1.] It is
   foretold that Christ should be pierced, and this scripture is quoted as
   that which was fulfilled when Christ's side was pierced upon the cross;
   see John xix. 37. [2.] He is spoken of as one whom we have pierced; it
   is spoken primarily of the Jews, who persecuted him to death (and we
   find that those who pierced him are distinguished from the other
   kindreds of the earth that shall wail because of him, Rev. i. 7); yet
   it is true of us all as sinners, we have pierced Christ, inasmuch as
   our sins were the cause of his death, for he was wounded for our
   transgressions, and they are the grief of his soul; he is broken with
   the whorish heart of sinners, who therefore are said to crucify him
   afresh and put him to open shame. [3.] Those that truly repent of sin
   look upon Christ as one whom they have pierced, who was pierced for
   their sins and is pierced by them; and this engages them to look unto
   him, as those that are deeply concerned for him. [4.] This is the
   effect of their looking to Christ; it makes them mourn. This was
   particularly fulfilled in those to whom Peter preached Christ
   crucified; when they heard it those who had had a hand in piercing him
   were pricked to the heart, and cried out, What shall we do? It is
   fulfilled in all those who sorrow for sin after a godly sort; they look
   to Christ, and mourn for him, not so much for his sufferings as for
   their own sins that procured them. Note, The genuine sorrows of a
   penitent soul flow from the believing sight of a pierced Saviour.
   Looking by faith upon the cross of Christ will set us a mourning for
   sin after a godly sort.

   (2.) It is a great mourning. [1.] it is like the mourning of a parent
   for the death of a beloved child. They shall mourn for sin as one
   mourns for an only son, in whose grave the hopes of his family are
   buried, and shall be inwardly in bitterness as one that is in
   bitterness for his first-born, as the Egyptians were when there was a
   cry throughout all their land for the death of their first-born. The
   sorrow of children for the death of their parents is sometimes
   counterfeited, is often small, and soon wears off and is forgotten; but
   the sorrow of parents for a child, for a son, for an only son, for a
   first-born, is natural, sincere, unforced, and unaffected, it is secret
   and lasting; such are the sorrows of a true penitent, flowing purely
   from love to Christ above any other. [2.] It is like the mourning of a
   people for the death of a wise and good prince. It shall be like the
   mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, where good king
   Josiah was slain, for whom there was a general lamentation (v. 11), and
   perhaps the greater because they were told that it was their sin that
   provoked God to deprive them of so great a blessing; therefore they
   cried out, The crown has fallen from our head. Woe unto us, for we have
   sinned! Lam. v. 16. Christ is our King; our sins were his death, and,
   for that reason, ought to be our grief.

   (3.) It is a general universal mourning (v. 12): The land shall mourn.
   The land itself put on mourning at the death of Christ, for there was
   then darkness over all the land, and the earth trembled; but this is a
   promise that, in consideration of the death of Christ, multitudes shall
   be effectually brought to sorrow for sin and turn to God; it shall be
   such a universal gracious mourning as was when all the house of Israel
   lamented after the Lord, 1 Sam. vii. 2. Some think this is yet to have
   its complete accomplishment in the general conversion of the Jewish
   nation.

   (4.) It is also a private particular mourning. There shall be not only
   a mourning of the land, by its representatives in a general assembly
   (as Judg. ii. 5, when the place was called Bochim--A place of weepers),
   but it shall spread itself into all corners of the land: Every family
   apart shall mourn (v. 12), all the families that remain, v. 14. All
   have contributed to the guilt, and therefore all shall share in the
   grief. Note, The exercises of devotion should be performed by private
   families among themselves, besides their joining in public assemblies
   for religious worship. National fasts must be observed, not only in our
   synagogues, but in our houses. In the mourning here foretold the wives
   mourn apart by themselves, in their own apartment, as Esther and her
   maids. And some think it intimates their denying themselves the use
   even of lawful delights in a time of general humiliation 1 Cor. vii. 5.
   Four several families are here specified as examples to others in this
   mourning:--[1.] Two of them are royal families: the house of David, in
   Solomon, and the house of Nathan, another son of David, brother to
   Solomon, from whom Zerubbabel descended, as appears by Christ's
   genealogy, Luke iii. 27-31. The house of David, particularly that of
   Nathan, which is now the chief branch of that house, shall go before in
   this good work. The greatest princes must not think themselves exempted
   from the law of repentance, but rather obliged most solemnly to express
   it, for the exciting of others, as Hezekiah humbled himself (2 Chron.
   xxxii. 26), the princes and the king (2 Chron. xii. 6), and the king of
   Nineveh, Jonah iii. 6. [2.] Two of them are sacred families (v. 13),
   the family of the house of Levi, which was God's tribe, and in it
   particularly the family of Shimei, which was a branch of the tribe of
   Levi (1 Chron. vi. 17), and probably some of the descendants of that
   family were now of note for preachers to the people or ministers to the
   altar. As the princes must mourn for the sins of the magistracy, so
   must the priests for the iniquity of the holy things. In times of
   general tribulation and humiliation the Lord's ministers are concerned
   to weep between the porch and the altar (Joel ii. 17), and not only
   there, but in their houses apart; for in what families should
   godliness, both in the form and in the power of it, be found, if not in
   ministers' families?
     __________________________________________________________________

Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. XIII.

   In this chapter we have, I. Some further promises relating to
   gospel-times. Here is a promise of the remission of sins (ver. 1), of
   the reformation of manners (ver. 2), and particularly of the convicting
   and silencing of false prophets, ver. 2-6. II. A clear prediction of
   the sufferings of Christ and the dispersion of his disciples thereupon
   (ver. 7), of the destruction of the greater part of the Jewish nation
   not long after (ver. 8), and of the purifying of a remnant of them, a
   peculiar people to God, ver. 9.

Evangelical Predictions; The Destruction of False Prophets. (b. c. 500.)

   1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
   and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.   2
   And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I
   will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no
   more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean
   spirit to pass out of the land.   3 And it shall come to pass, that
   when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat
   him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in
   the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him
   shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.   4 And it shall come to
   pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his
   vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough
   garment to deceive:   5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a
   husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.   6 And one
   shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall
   answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

   Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, the sin of the
   church; for therefore was the Son of God manifested, to take away our
   sin, 1 John iii. 5.

   I. He takes away the guilt of sin by the blood of his cross (v. 1): In
   that day, in the gospel-day, there shall be a fountain opened, that is,
   provision made for the cleansing of all those from the pollutions of
   sin who truly repent and are sorry for them. In that day, when the
   Spirit of grace is poured out to set them a mourning for their sins,
   they shall not mourn as those who have no hope, but they shall have
   their sins pardoned, and the comfort of their pardon in their bosoms.
   Their consciences shall be purified and pacified by the blood of
   Christ, which cleanses from all sin, 1 John i. 7. For Christ is exalted
   to give both repentance and remission of sins; and where he gives the
   one no doubt he gives the other. This fountain opened is the pierced
   side of Jesus Christ, spoken of just before (ch. xii. 10), for thence
   came there out blood and water, and both for cleansing. And those who
   look upon Christ pierced, and mourn for their sins that pierced him,
   and are therefore in bitterness for him, may look again upon Christ
   pierced and rejoice in him, because it pleased the Lord thus to smite
   this rock, that it might be to us a fountain of living waters. See
   here, 1. How we are polluted; we are all so; we have sinned, and sin is
   uncleanness; it defiles the mind and conscience, renders us odious to
   God and uneasy in ourselves, unfit to be employed in the service of God
   and admitted into communion with him, as those who were ceremonially
   unclean were shut out of the sanctuary. The house of David and the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem are under sin, which is uncleanness. The truth
   is, we are all as an unclean thing, and deserve to have our portion
   with the unclean. 2. How we may be purged. Behold, there is fountain
   opened for us to wash in, and there are streams flowing to us from that
   fountain, so that, if we be not made clean, it is our own fault. The
   blood of Christ, and God's pardoning mercy in that blood, revealed in
   the new covenant, are, (1.) A fountain; for there is in them an
   inexhaustible fulness. There is mercy enough in God, and merit enough
   in Christ, for the forgiving of the greatest sins and sinners, upon
   gospel-terms. Such were some of you, but you are washed, 1 Cor. vi. 11.
   Under the law there were a brazen laver and a brazen sea to wash in;
   those were but vessels, but we have a fountain to ourselves,
   overflowing, ever-flowing. (2.) A fountain opened; for, whoever will,
   may come and take the benefit of it; it is opened, not only to the
   house of David, but to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the poor and
   mean as well as to the rich and great; or it is opened for all
   believers, who, as the spiritual seed of Christ, are of the house of
   David, and, as living members of the church, are inhabitants of
   Jerusalem. Through Christ all that believe are justified, are washed
   from their sins in his blood, that they may be made to our God kings
   and priests, Rev. i. 5, 6.

   II. He takes away the dominion of sin by the power of his grace, even
   of beloved sins. This evermore accompanies the former; those that are
   washed in the fountain opened, as they are justified, so they are
   sanctified; the water came with the blood out of the pierced side of
   Christ. It is here promised that in that day, 1. Idolatry shall be
   quite abolished and the people of the Jews shall be effectually cured
   of their inclination to it (v. 2): I will cut off the names of the
   idols out of the land. The worship of the idols of their fathers shall
   be so perfectly rooted out that in one generation or two it shall be
   forgotten that ever there were such idols among them; they shall either
   not be named at all or not with any respect; they shall no more be
   remembered, as was promised, Hos. ii. 17. This was fulfilled in the
   rooted aversion which the Jews had, after the captivity, to idols and
   idolatry, and still retain to this day; it was fulfilled also in the
   ready conversion of many to the faith of Christ, by which they were
   taken off from making an idol of the ceremonial law, as the unbelieving
   Jews did; and it is still in the fulfilling when souls are brought off
   from the world and the flesh, those two great idols, that they may
   cleave to God only. 2. False prophecy shall also be brought to an end:
   I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit, the prophets that are
   under the influence of the unclean spirit, to pass out of the land. The
   devil is an unclean spirit; sin and uncleanness are from him; he has
   his prophets, that serve his interests and receive their instructions
   from him. Take away the unclean spirit, and the prophets would not
   deceive as they do; take away the false prophets that produce sham
   commissions, and the unclean spirit could not do the mischief he does.
   When God designs the silencing of the false prophets he banishes the
   unclean spirit out of the land, that wrought in them, and was a rival
   with him for the throne in the heart. The church of the Jews, when they
   were addicted to idols, did also dote much upon false prophets, who
   flattered them in their sins with promises of impunity and peace; but
   here it is promised, as a blessed effect of the promised reformation,
   that they should be very much set against false prophets, and zealous
   to clear the land of them; they were so after the captivity, till,
   through the blindness of their zeal against false prophets, they had
   put Christ to death under that character, and, after that, there arose
   many false Christs and false prophets, and deceived many, Matt. xxiv.
   11. It is here foretold, (1.) That false prophets, instead of being
   indulged and favoured, should be brought to condign punishment even by
   their nearest relations, which would be as great an instance as any of
   flagrant zeal against those deceivers (v. 3): When any shall set up for
   a prophet, and shall speak lies in the name of the Lord, shall preach
   that which tends to draw people from God and to confirm them in sin,
   his own parents shall be the first and most forward to prosecute him
   for it, according to the law. Deut. xiii. 6-11, "If thy son entice thee
   secretly from God, thou shalt surely kill him. Show thy indignation
   against him, and prevent any further temptation from him." His father
   and his mother shall thrust him through when he prophesies. Note, We
   ought to conceive, and always to retain, a very great detestation and
   dread of every thing that would draw us out of the way of our duty into
   by-paths, as those who cannot bear that which is evil, Rev. ii. 2. And
   holy zeal for God and godliness will make us hate sin, and dread
   temptation, most in those whom naturally we love best, and who are
   nearest to us; there our danger is greatest, as Adam's from Eve, Job's
   from his wife; and there it will be the most praiseworthy to show our
   zeal, as Levi, who, in the cause of God, did not acknowledge his
   brethren, nor know his own children, Deut. xxxiii. 9. Thus we must hate
   and forsake our nearest relations when they come in competition with
   our duty to God, Luke xiv. 26. Natural affections, even the strongest,
   must be over-ruled by gracious affections. (2.) That false prophets
   should be themselves convinced of their sin and folly, and let fall
   their pretensions (v. 4): "The prophets shall be ashamed every one of
   his vision; they shall not repeat it, or insist upon it, but desire
   that it may be forgotten and no more said of it, being ready themselves
   to own it was a sham, because God has by his grace awakened their
   consciences and shown them their error, or because the event disproves
   their predictions, and gives them the lie, or because their prophecies
   do not meet with such a favourable reception as they used to meet with,
   but are generally despised and distasted; they perceive the people
   ashamed of them, which makes them begin to be ashamed of themselves.
   And therefore they shall no longer wear a rough garment, or garment of
   hair, as the true prophets used to do, in imitation of Elijah, and in
   token of their being mortified to the pleasures and delights of sense."
   The pretenders had appeared in the habit of true prophets; but, their
   folly being now made manifest, they shall lay it aside, no more to
   deceive and impose upon unthinking unwary people by it. A modest dress
   is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble
   heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the
   hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive.
   Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better
   than really they are. This pretender, as a true penitent, [1.] Shall
   undeceive those whom he had imposed upon: He shall say, "I am no
   prophet, as I have pretended to be, was never designed nor set apart to
   the office, never educated nor brought up for it, never conversant
   among the sons of the prophets. I am a husbandman, and was bred to that
   business; I was never taught of God to prophesy, but taught of man to
   keep cattle" Amos was originally such a one too, and yet was afterwards
   called to be a prophet, Amos vii. 14, 15. But this deceiver never had
   any such call. Note, Those who sorrow after a godly sort for their
   having deceived others will be forward to confess their sin, and will
   be so just as to rectify the mistakes which they have been the cause
   of. Thus those who had used curious arts, when they were converted
   showed their deeds, and by what fallacies they had cheated the people,
   Acts xix. 18. [2.] He shall return to his own proper employment, which
   is the fittest for him: I will be a husbandman (so it may be read); "I
   will apply myself to my calling again, and meddle no more with things
   that belong not to me; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth,
   and cattle I will again keep, and never set up for a preacher any
   more." Note, When we are convinced that we have gone out of the way of
   our duty we must evince the truth of our repentance by returning to it
   again, though it be the severest mortification to us. [3.] He shall
   acknowledge those to be his friends who by a severe discipline were
   instrumental to bring him to a sight of his error, v. 6. When he who
   with the greatest assurance had asserted himself so lately to be a
   prophet suddenly drops his claims, and says, I am no prophet, every
   body will be surprised at it, and some will ask, "What are these
   wounds, or marks of stripes, in thy hands? how camest thou by them?
   Hast thou not been examined by scourging? And is not that it that has
   brought thee to thyself?" (Vexatio dat intellectum--Vexation sharpens
   the intellect.) "Hast thou not been beaten into this acknowledgment?
   Was it not the rod and reproof that gave thee this wisdom?" And he
   shall own, "Yes, it was; these are the wounds with which I was wounded
   in the house of my friends, who bound me, and used me hardly and
   severely, as a distracted man, and so brought me to my senses." By this
   it appears that those parents of the false prophet that thrust him
   through (v. 3) did not do it till they had first tried to reclaim him
   by correction, and he would not be reclaimed; for so was the law
   concerning a disobedient son--his parents must first have chastened him
   in vain before they were allowed to bring him forth to be stoned, Deut.
   xxi. 18, 19. But here is another who was reduced by stripes, and so
   prevented the capital punishment; and he had the sense and honesty to
   own that they were his friends, his real friends, who thus wounded him,
   that they might reclaim him; for faithful are the wounds of a friend,
   Prov. xxvii. 6. Some good interpreters, observing how soon this comes
   after the mention of Christ's being pierced, think that these are the
   words of that great prophet, not of the false prophet spoken of before.
   Christ was wounded in his hands, when they were nailed to the cross,
   and, after his resurrection, he had the marks of these wounds; and here
   he tells how he came by them; he received them as a false prophet, for
   the chief priests called him a deceiver, and upon that account would
   have him crucified; but he received them in the house of his
   friends--the Jews, who should have been his friends; for he came to his
   own, and, though they were his bitter enemies, yet he was pleased to
   call them his friends, as he did Judas (Friend, wherefore hast thou
   come?) because they forwarded his sufferings for him; as he called
   Peter Satan--an adversary, because he dissuaded him from them.

Sufferings of Christ Predicted. (b. c. 500.)

   7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my
   fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep
   shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.   8
   And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two
   parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left
   therein.   9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will
   refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried:
   they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my
   people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

   Here is a prophecy,

   I. Of the sufferings of Christ, of him who was to be pierced, and was
   to be the fountain opened. Awake, O sword! against my Shepherd, v. 7.
   These are the words of God the Father, giving order and commission to
   the sword of his justice to awake against his Son, when he had
   voluntarily made his soul an offering for sin; for it pleased the Lord
   to bruise him and put him to grief; and he was stricken, smitten of
   God, and afflicted, Isa. liii. 4, 10. Observe, 1. How he calls him. "As
   God, he is my fellow;" for he thought it no robbery to be equal with
   God. He and the Father are one. He was from eternity by him, as one
   brought up with him, and, in the work of man's redemption, he was his
   elect, in whom his soul delighted, and the counsel of peace was between
   them both. "As Mediator, he is my Shepherd, that great and good
   Shepherd that undertook to feed the flock," ch. xi. 7. He is the
   Shepherd that was to lay down his life for the sheep. 2. How he uses
   him: Awake, O sword! against him. If he will be a sacrifice, he must be
   slain, for without the shedding of blood, the life-blood, there was no
   remission. Men thrust him through as the good Shepherd (compare v. 3),
   that he might purchase the flock of God with his own blood, Acts xx.
   28. It is not a charge given to a rod to correct him, but to a sword to
   slay him; for Messiah the prince must be cut off, but not for himself,
   Dan. ix. 26. It is not the sword of war that receives this charge, that
   he may die in the bed of honour, but the sword of justice, that he may
   die as a criminal, upon an ignominious tree. This sword must awake
   against him; he having no sin of his own to answer for, the sword of
   justice had nothing to say to him of itself, till, by particular order
   from the Judge of all, it was warranted to brandish itself against him.
   He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in the decree
   and counsel of God; but the sword designed against him had long
   slumbered, till now at length it is called upon to awake, not, "Awake,
   and smite him; strike home; not with a drowsy blow, but an awakened
   one;" for God spared not his own Son.

   II. Of the dispersion of the disciples thereupon: Smite the Shepherd,
   and the sheep shall be scattered. This our Lord Jesus himself declares
   to have been fulfilled when all his disciples were offended because of
   him in the night wherein he was betrayed, Matt. xxvi. 31; Mark xiv. 27.
   They all forsook him and fled. The smiting of the Shepherd is the
   scattering of the sheep. They were scattered every one to his own, and
   left him alone, John xvi. 32. Herein they were like timorous sheep; yet
   the Shepherd thus provided for their safety, for he said, If you seek
   me, let these go their way. Some make another application of this;
   Christ was the Shepherd of the Jewish nation; he was smitten; they
   themselves smote him, and therefore they were justly scattered abroad,
   and dispersed among the nations, and remain so at this day. These
   words, I will turn my hand upon the little ones, may be understood
   either as a threatening (as Christ suffered, so shall his disciples,
   they shall drink of the cup that he drank of and be baptized with the
   baptism that he was baptized with) or as a promise that God would
   gather Christ's scattered disciples together again, and he should give
   them the meeting in Galilee. Though the little ones among Christ's
   soldiers may be dispersed, they shall rally again; the lambs of his
   flock, though frightened by the beasts of prey, shall recover
   themselves, shall be gathered in his arms and laid in his bosom.
   Sometimes, when the sheep are scattered and lost in the wilderness, yet
   the little ones, which, it was feared, would be a prey (Num. xiv. 31),
   are brought in, are brought home, and God turns his hand upon them.

   III. Of the rejection and ruin of the unbelieving Jews (v. 8); and this
   word has, and shall have, its accomplishment, in the destruction of the
   corrupt and hypocritical part of the church. It shall come to pass that
   in all the land of Israel two parts shall be cut off and die. The Roman
   army laid the country waste, and slew at least two-thirds of the Jews.
   Some understand by the cutting off, and dying, or two parts in all the
   earth, the abolishing of heathenism and Judaism, that Christianity, the
   third part, might be left to reign alone. The Jewish worship was quite
   taken away by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And, some
   time after, Pagan idolatry was in a manner extirpated, when the empire
   became Christian.

   IV. Of the reformation and preservation of the chosen remnant, those of
   them that believed, and the Christian church in general (v. 9): The
   third part shall be left. When Jerusalem and Judea were destroyed, all
   the Christians in that country, having among them the warning Christ
   gave them to flee to the mountains, shifted for their own safety, and
   were sheltered in a city called Pella, on the other side Jordan. We
   have here first the trials and then the triumphs of the Christian
   church, and of all the faithful members of it. 1. Their trials: I will
   bring that third part through the fire of affliction. and will refine
   and try them as silver and gold are refined and tried. This was
   fulfilled in the persecutions of the primitive church, the fiery trial
   which tried the people of God then, 1 Pet. iv. 12. Those whom God sets
   apart for himself must pass through a probation and purification in
   this world; they must be tried that their faith may be found to praise
   and honour (1 Pet. i. 6, 7), as Abraham's faith was when it was tried
   by the command given him to offer up Isaac, Now know I that thou
   fearest me. They must be tried, that both those that are perfect and
   those that are not may be made manifest. They must be refined from
   their dross; their corruption must be purged out; they must be
   brightened and bettered. 2. Their triumphs. (1.) Their communion with
   God is their triumph: They shall call on my name, and I will hear them.
   They write to God by prayer, and receive from him answers of peace, and
   thus keep up a comfortable communion with him. This honour have all his
   saints. (2.) Their covenant with God is their triumph: "I will say, It
   is my people, whom I have chosen and loved, and will own; and they
   shall say, the Lord is my God, and a God all-sufficient to me; and in
   me they shall boast every day and all the day long. This God is our God
   for ever and ever."
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Z E C H A R I A H.

  CHAP. XIV.

   Divers things were foretold, in the two foregoing chapters, which
   should come to pass "in that day;" this chapter speaks of a "day of the
   Lord that cometh," a day of his judgment, and ten times in the
   foregoing chapters, and seven times in this, it is repeated, "in that
   day;" but what that day is that is here meant is uncertain, and perhaps
   will be so (as the Jews speak) till Elias comes; whether it refer to
   the whole period of time from the prophet's days to the days of the
   Messiah, or to some particular events in that time, or to Christ's
   coming, and the setting up of his kingdom upon the ruins of the Jewish
   polity, we cannot determine, but divers passages here seem to look as
   far forward as gospel-times. Now the "day of the Lord" brings with it
   both judgment and mercy, mercy to his church, judgment to her enemies
   and persecutors. I. The gates of hell are here threatening the church
   (ver. 1, 2) and yet not prevailing. II. The power of Heaven appears
   here for the church and against the enemies of it, ver. 3, 5. III. The
   events concerning the church are here represented as mixed (ver. 6, 7),
   but issuing well at last. IV. The spreading of the means of knowledge
   is here foretold, and the setting up of the gospel-kingdom in the world
   (ver. 8, 9), which shall be the enlargement and establishment of
   another Jerusalem, ver. 10, 11. V. Those shall be reckoned with that
   fought against Jerusalem (ver. 12-15) and those that neglect his
   worship there, ver. 17-19. VI. It is promised that there shall be great
   resort to the church, and great purity and piety in it, ver. 16, 20,
   21.

Persecution of the Church; Judgments and Mercies; Encouraging Prospects. (b.
c. 500.)

   1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in
   the midst of thee.   2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
   to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
   women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and
   the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.   3 Then
   shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he
   fought in the day of battle.   4 And his feet shall stand in that day
   upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and
   the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east
   and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half
   of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward
   the south.   5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for
   the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee,
   like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king
   of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
     6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be
   clear, nor dark:   7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to
   the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at
   evening time it shall be light.

   God's providences concerning his church are here represented as
   strangely changing and strangely mixed.

   I. As strangely changing. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong
   against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of
   them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the
   other.

   1. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of
   God. When the day of the Lord comes (v. 1) Jerusalem must pass through
   the fire to be refined. God himself gathers all nations against
   Jerusalem to battle (v. 2); he gives them a charge, as he did
   Sennacherib, to take the spoil and to take the prey (Isa. x. 6), for
   the people of Jerusalem have now become the people of his wrath. And
   who can stand before him or before nations gathered by him? Where he
   gives commission he will give success. The city shall be taken by the
   Romans, who have nations at command; the houses shall be rifled, and
   all the riches of them taken away, by the enemy; and, to gratify an
   insatiable lust of uncleanness as well as avarice, the women shall be
   ravished, as if victory were a license to the worst of villanies,
   jusque datum sceleri--and crimes were sanctioned by law. One-half of
   the city shall then be carried into captivity, to be sold or enslaved,
   and shall not be able to help itself, such is the destruction that
   shall be made in the great and terrible day of the Lord.

   2. He presently changes his way, and appears for Jerusalem; for, though
   judgment begin at the house of God, yet, as it shall not end there, so
   it shall not make a full end there, Jer. iv. 27; xxx. 11.

   (1.) A remnant shall be spared, the same with that third part spoken
   of, ch. xiii. 8. One-half shall go into captivity, whence they may
   hereafter be fetched back, and the residue of the people shall not be
   cut off, as one would have feared, from the city. Many of the Jews
   shall receive the gospel, and so shall prevent their being cut off from
   the city of God, his church upon earth. In it shall be a tenth, Isa.
   vi. 13; See Ezek. v. 3.

   (2.) Their cause shall be pleaded against their enemies (v. 3): Then,
   when God has made use of these nations as a scourge to his people, he
   shall go forth and fight against them by his judgments, as when he
   fought against the enemies of his church formerly in the day of battle,
   with the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others. Note, The instruments of
   God's wrath will themselves be made the objects of it; for it will come
   to their turn to drink of the cup of trembling; and whom God fights
   against he will be sure to overcome and be too hard for. And every
   former day of battle, which God has made to his people a day of
   triumph, as it is an engagement to God to appear for his people,
   because he is the same, so it is an encouragement to them to trust in
   him. It is observable that the Roman empire never flourished, after the
   destruction of Jerusalem as it had done before, but in many instances
   God fought against it.

   (3.) Though Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed, yet God will have a
   church in the world, into which Gentiles shall be admitted, and with
   whom the believing Jews shall be incorporated, v. 4, 5. These verses
   are dark and hard to be understood; but divers good expositors take
   this to be the meaning of them. [1.] God will carefully inspect
   Jerusalem, even then when the enemies of it are laying it waste: His
   feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, whence he may
   take a full view of the city and temple, Mark xiii. 3. When the refiner
   puts his gold into the furnace he stands by it, and has his eye upon
   it, to see that it receive no damage; so when Jerusalem, God's gold, is
   to be refined, he will have the oversight of it. He will stand by upon
   the mount of Olives; this was literally fulfilled when our Lord Jesus
   was often upon this mountain, especially when thence he ascended up
   into heaven, Acts i. 12. It was the last place on which his feet stood
   on this earth, the place from which he took rise. [2.] The
   partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles shall be taken away. The
   mountains about Jerusalem, and particularly this, signified it to be an
   enclosure, and that it stood in the way of those who would approach to
   it. Between the Gentiles and Jerusalem this mountain of Bether, of
   division, stood, Cant. ii. 17. But by the destruction of Jerusalem this
   mountain shall be made to cleave in the midst, and so the Jewish pale
   shall be taken down, and the church laid in common with the Gentiles,
   who were made one with the Jews by the breaking down of this middle
   wall of partition, Eph. ii. 14. Who art thou, O great mountain? And a
   great mountain the ceremonial law was in the way of the Jews'
   conversion, which, one would think, could never have been got over; yet
   before Christ and his gospel it was made plain. This mountain departs,
   this hill removes, but the covenant of peace cannot be broken; for
   peace is still preached to him that is afar off and to those that are
   nigh. [3.] A new and living way shall be opened to the new Jerusalem,
   both to see it and to come into it. The mountain being divided,
   one-half towards the north and the other half towards the south, there
   shall be a very great valley, that is, a broad way of communication
   opened between Jerusalem and the Gentile world, by which the Gentiles
   shall have free admission into the gospel-Jerusalem, and the word of
   the Lord, that goes forth from Jerusalem, shall have a free course into
   the Gentile world. Thus the way of the Lord is prepared, for every
   mountain and hill shall be brought low, and plain and pleasant valleys
   shall come in the room of them, Isa. xl. 4. [4.] Those of the Jews that
   believe shall come in, and join themselves to the Gentiles, and
   incorporate with them in the gospel-church: You shall flee to the
   valley of the mountains, that valley that is opened between the divided
   halves of the mount of Olives; they shall hasten into the church with
   the Gentiles, as formerly the Gentiles with them, ch. viii. 23. The
   valley of the mountains is the gospel-church, to which there were added
   of the Jews daily such as should be saved, who fled to that valley as
   to their refuge. This valley of the mountains is said to reach unto
   Azal, or to the separate place, that is, to all those whom God has set
   apart for himself. When God makes his mountains a way (Isa. xlix. 11),
   by making them a valley, the way shall be opened to all the way-faring
   men (Isa. xxxv. 8), and, though fools, they shall not err therein. Or,
   to those that are now separated from God this valley shall reach; for
   the Gentiles, who are afar off, shall be made nigh, with the Jews, who
   are a people near unto him, and both have an access, a mutual access to
   each other and a joint access to God as a Father by one Spirit, Eph.
   ii. 18. [5.] They shall flee to the valley of the mountains, to the
   gospel-church, under dreadful apprehensions of their danger from the
   curse of the law. They shall flee from the wrath to come, from the
   avenger of blood, who is in pursuit of them, to the church as to a city
   of refuge, or as doves to their windows, as they fled from before the
   earthquake in the days of Uzziah, Amos i. 1. Therefore the gospel
   reveals the wrath of God from heaven (Rom. i. 18) that we might be
   awakened to escape for our lives, to flee as from an earthquake, for we
   feel the earth ready to sink under us, and we can find no firm footing
   in it, and therefore must flee to Christ, in whom alone we can stand
   fast and be easy.

   (4.) God shall appear in his glory for the accomplishing of all this:
   The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee, which may
   refer to his coming to destroy Jerusalem, or to destroy the enemies of
   Jerusalem, or his coming to set up his kingdom in the world, which is
   called the coming of the Son of man (Matt. xxiv. 37), or to his last
   coming, at the end of time; however, it teaches us, [1.] That the Lord
   will come; it has been the faith of all the saints, Behold, the Lord
   comes to fulfil every word that he has spoken in its season. [2.] When
   he comes all his saints come with him; they attend his motions and are
   ready to serve his interests. Christ will come at the end of time with
   ten thousands of his saints, as when he came to give the law upon Mount
   Sinai. [3.] Every particular believer, being related to God as his God,
   may triumph in the expectation of his coming and speak of it with
   pleasure, The Lord my God shall come, shall come to the comfort of all
   that are his; for, "Blessed Lord, all the saints shall be with thee,
   and it shall be their everlasting happiness to dwell in thy presence;
   and therefore come, Lord Jesus." And some think that this may be read
   as a prayer, Yet, O Lord my God! come, and bring all the saints with
   thee.

   II. God's providences appear here strangely mixed (v. 6, 7): In that
   day of the Lord the light shall not be clear nor dark, not day nor
   night; but at evening time it shall be light. Some refer this to all
   the time from hence to the coming of the Messiah; the Jewish church had
   neither perfect peace nor constant trouble, but a cloudy day, neither
   rain nor sunshine. But it may be taken more generally, as designed to
   represent the method God usually takes in the administration of the
   kingdom both of providence and grace. Here is, 1. An idea of the usual
   course and tenour of God's dispensations; the day of his grace and the
   day of his providence are neither clear nor dark, not day nor night. It
   is so with the church of God in this world; where the Sun of
   righteousness has risen it cannot be dark night, and yet short of
   heaven it will not be clear day. It is so with particular saints; they
   are not darkness, but light in the Lord, and yet, while there is so
   much error and corruption remaining in them, it is not perfect day. So
   it is as to the providences of God that relate to his church; in
   general the affairs of the church are neither good nor bad in any
   extremity, but there is a mixture of both; we are singing both of mercy
   and judgment, and are uncertain which will prevail, whether it be an
   evening or a morning twilight. We are between hope and fear, not
   knowing what to make of things. 2. An intimation of comfort with
   reference hereunto: It shall be one day which shall be known to the
   Lord. This intimates, (1.) The beauty and harmony of such mixed events;
   there is one and the same design and tendency in all; all the wheels
   make but one wheel, all the revolutions but one day. (2.) The brevity
   of them; it is, as it were, but for one day, for a little moment; the
   cloud that darkens the light will soon blow over. (3.) The eye God has
   upon all these events, and the hand he has in them all; they are known
   to the Lord; he takes notice of them, and orders and disposes of all
   for the best, according to the counsel of his will. 3. An issue very
   joyful secured at last: At evening-time it shall be light: it shall be
   clear light, and no longer dark; we are sure of it in the other world,
   and we hope for it in this world--at evening-time, when our hopes are
   quite spent with waiting all day to no purpose, nay, when we fear it
   will be quite dark, when things are at the worst and the case of the
   church is most deplorable. As to the church's enemies the sun goes down
   at noon, so to the church it rises at night; unto the upright springs
   light out of darkness (Ps. cxii. 4); deliverance comes when the tale of
   bricks is doubled, and when God's people have done looking for it, and
   so it comes with a pleasing surprise.

Blessings Promised to the Church; Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 500.)

   8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from
   Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward
   the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.   9 And the Lord
   shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord,
   and his name one.   10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from
   Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and
   inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the
   first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto
   the king's wine-presses.   11 And men shall dwell in it, and there
   shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely
   inhabited.   12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will
   smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh
   shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes
   shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away
   in their mouth.   13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a
   great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold
   every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up
   against the hand of his neighbour.   14 And Judah also shall fight at
   Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be
   gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.
   15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel,
   and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as
   this plague.

   Here are, I. Blessings promised to Jerusalem, the gospel-Jerusalem, in
   the day of the Messiah, and to all the earth, by virtue of the
   blessings poured out on Jerusalem, especially to the land of Israel.

   1. Jerusalem shall be a spring of living waters to the world; it was
   made so when there the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and
   thence the word of the Lord diffused itself to the nations about (v.
   8): Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; for there they began,
   and thence those set out who were to preach repentance and remission of
   sins unto all nations, Luke xxiv. 47. Note, Where the gospel goes, and
   the graces of God's Spirit go along with it, there living waters go;
   those streams that make glad the city of our God make glad the country
   also, and make it like paradise, like the garden of the Lord, which was
   well watered. It was the honour of Jerusalem that thence the word of
   the Lord went forth (Isa. ii. 3); and thus far, even in its worst and
   most degenerate age, for old acquaintance-sake, it was made a blessing,
   and to be so is to be blessed. Half of these waters shall go towards
   the former sea and half towards the hinder sea, as all rivers bend
   their course towards some sea or other, some eastward, others westward.
   The gospel shall spread into all parts of the world, into some that lie
   remote from Jerusalem one way and others that lie as far off another
   way; for the dominion of the Redeemer, which was thereby to be set up,
   must be from sea to sea (Ps. lxxii. 8), and the earth must be full of
   the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, and as the
   waters that in various channels run to the sea. The knowledge of God
   shall diffuse itself, (1.) Every way. These living waters shall produce
   both eastern churches and western churches, that shall each of them in
   its turn be illustrious. (2.) Every day: In summer and in winter it
   shall be. Note, Those who are employed in spreading the gospel may find
   themselves work both winter and summer, and are to serve the Lord
   therein at all seasons, Acts xx. 18. And such a divine power goes along
   with these living waters that they shall not be dried up, nor the
   course of them be obstructed, either by the droughts in summer or by
   the frosts in winter.

   2. The kingdom of God among men shall be a universal and united
   kingdom, v. 9. (1.) It shall be a universal kingdom: The Lord shall be
   King over all the earth. He is, and ever was, so of right, and in the
   sovereign disposals of his providence his kingdom does rule over all
   and none are exempt from his jurisdiction; but it is here promised that
   he shall be so by actual possession of the hearts of his subjects; he
   shall be acknowledged King by all in all places; his authority shall be
   owned and submitted to, and allegiance sworn to him. This will have its
   accomplishment with that word (Rev. xi. 15), The kingdoms of this world
   have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. (2.) It shall
   be a united kingdom: There shall be one Lord, and his name one. All
   shall worship one God only, and not idols, and shall be unanimous in
   the worship of him. All false gods shall be abandoned, and all false
   ways of worship abolished; and as God shall be the centre of their
   unity, in whom they shall all meet, so the scripture shall be the rule
   of their unity, by which they shall all walk.

   3. The land of Judea, and Jerusalem, its mother-city, shall be repaired
   and replenished, and taken under the special protection of Heaven, v.
   10, 11. Some think this denotes particular favour to the people of the
   Jews, and points at their conversion and restoration in the latter
   days; but it is rather to be understood figuratively of the
   gospel-church, typified by Judah and Jerusalem, and it signifies the
   abundant graces with which the church shall be crowned, and the
   fruitfulness of its members, and the vast numbers of them. (1.) The
   church shall be like a fruitful country, abounding in all the rich
   products of the soil. The whole land of Judea, which is naturally
   uneven and hilly, shall be turned as a plain; it shall become a smooth
   level valley, from Geba, or Gibeah, its utmost border north, to Rimmon,
   which lay south of Jerusalem and was the utmost southern limit of
   Judea. The gospel of Christ, where it comes in its power, levels the
   ground; mountains and hills are brought low by it, that the Lord alone
   may be exalted. (2.) It shall be like a populous city. As the holy land
   shall be levelled, so the holy city shall be peopled, shall be rebuilt
   and replenished. Jerusalem shall be lifted up out of its low estate,
   shall be raised out of its ruins; when the land is turned as a plain,
   and not only the mount of Olives removed (v. 4), but other mountains
   too, then Jerusalem shall be lifted up, that is, shall appear the more
   conspicuous; she shall be inhabited in her place, even in Jerusalem,
   ch. xii. 6. The whole city shall be inhabited in the utmost extent of
   it, and no part of it left to lie waste. The utmost limits of it are
   here mentioned, between which there shall be no ground lost, but all
   built upon, from Benjamin's-gate north-east to the corner-gate
   north-west, and from the tower of Hananeel in the south to the king's
   wine-presses in the north; when the churches of Christ in all places
   are replenished with great numbers of holy, humble, serious Christians,
   and many such are daily added to it, then this promise is fulfilled.
   (3.) This country and this city shall both be safe, both the meat in
   the country and the mouths in the city: Those that dwell in it shall
   dwell securely, and there shall be none to make them afraid; there
   shall be no more of that utter destruction that has laid both town and
   country waste, no more anathema (as some read it), no more cutting off,
   no more curse, or separation from God to evil, no more such desolating
   judgments as you have been groaning under, but Jerusalem shall be
   safely inhabited; there shall be no danger, nor any apprehension of it;
   neither shall its friends be fearful to disquiet themselves nor its
   enemies formidable to disquiet them. That promise of Christ explains
   this--that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church; and
   so do the holy security and serenity of mind which believers enjoy in
   relying on the divine protection.

   II. Here are judgments threatened against the enemies of the church,
   that have fought, or do fight, against Jerusalem; and the threatening
   of these judgments is in order to the preservation of the church in
   safety. Men that read and hear of these plagues will be afraid of
   fighting against Jerusalem, much more when these threatenings are
   fulfilled in some will others hear and fear. Those that fight against
   the city of God, and his people, will be found fighting against God,
   against whom none ever hardened his heart and prospered (v. 12): This
   shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that
   have fought against Jerusalem; whoever they are, God will punish them
   for the affront done to him, and avenge Jerusalem upon them. 1. They
   shall waste away under grievous and languishing diseases: Their flesh
   shall consume away, and they shall be miserably emaciated, even while
   they stand on their feet, so that they shall be walking skeletons;
   nothing shall remain but skin and bones. The flesh which they pampered
   and indulged, and made provision for, when they were fed to the full
   with the spoils of God's people, shall now consume away, that it cannot
   be seen, and the bones that were not seen shall stick out, Job xxxiii.
   21. They keep their feet, and hope to keep their ground, crawling about
   as long as they can; but they must yield at last. The organs of sight,
   the outlets of sin, their eyes, shall consume away in their holes,
   shall sink into their heads or perhaps start out of them; their envious
   malicious, adulterous eyes, the eyes they had so often fed with
   spectacles of misery, these shall consume, which shall make not only
   their countenances ghastly, but their lives wretched. The organs of
   speech, the outlets of sin, their tongue, shall consume away in their
   mouth, whereby God will reckon with them for all their blasphemies
   against himself and invectives against his people. Thus their own
   tongues shall fall upon them, and their punishment shall be legible in
   their sin, as his was whose tongue was tormented in hell-flames. Thus
   Antiochus and Herod consumed away. 2. They shall be dashed in pieces
   one against another (v. 13): A great tumult from the Lord shall be
   among them. But are tumults from the Lord, who is the God of order, and
   not of confusion? As they are the sin of those that raise them they are
   not from the Lord, but from the wicked one, and from men's own lusts;
   but, as they are the punishment of those that suffer by them, they are
   from the Lord, who serves his own purposes, and carries on his
   intentions, by the sins, and follies, and restless spirits, of men. It
   is of themselves that they bite and devour one another, but it is of
   the Lord, the righteous Judge, that thus they are consumed one of
   another (Gal. v. 15); as Ahab was deceived by a lying spirit from the
   Lord, so Abimelech and the men of Shechem were divided, and so
   destroyed, by an evil spirit from the Lord, Judg. ix. 23. Note, Those
   that are confederate and combined against the church will justly be
   separated, and set against one another; and their tumults raised
   against God will be avenged in tumults among themselves. And they shall
   lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, to hold him from
   striking, or to bind him as his prisoner; nay, his hand shall rise up
   against the hand of his neighbour, to strike and wound him. Note, Those
   that aim to destroy the church are often made to destroy one another;
   and every man's sword is sometimes set against his fellow, by him whose
   sword they all are. Some think this was fulfilled in the factions and
   dissensions that were among the Jews, when the Romans were destroying
   them all; for they had fought against the spiritual Jerusalem, the
   gospel-church; and to that well enough agrees v. 14, Thou also, O
   Judah! shalt fight against Jerusalem; the Jewish nation shall be ruined
   by itself, shall die by its own hands; the city and country shall be at
   war with each other, and so both shall be destroyed. Suis et ipsa Roma
   viribus ruit--Rome was urged into ruin by its very strength. 3. The
   plunder of their camp shall greatly enrich the people of God, or the
   spoils of their country (v. 14): Judah also shall eat at Jerusalem (so
   one learned interpreter reads it); people shall come from all parts to
   share in the prey; as when Sennacherib's army was routed before
   Jerusalem there was the prey of a great spoil divided (Isa. xxxiii.
   23), so it shall be now; the wealth of all the heathen round about,
   that had spoiled Jerusalem, shall be gathered together, gold, and
   silver, and apparel, in great abundance, that an equal dividend may be
   made among all the parties entitled to a share of the prize. Note, The
   wealth of the sinner is often laid up for the just, and the Israel of
   God enriched with the spoil of the Egyptians. 4. The very cattle shall
   share in the plague with which the enemies of God's church shall be cut
   off, as they did in divers of the plagues of Egypt (v. 15): All the
   beasts that shall be in the tents of these wicked men, when God comes
   to contend with them, shall perish with them, not only beasts used in
   war, as the horse, but those used for travel, or in the plough, as the
   mule, the camel, and the ass. Note, The inferior creatures often suffer
   for the sin of man and in his plagues. Thus God will show his
   indignation against sin, and will make the creature that is thus
   subject to vanity groan to be delivered into the glorious liberty of
   the children of God, Rom. viii. 21, 22.

Evangelical Predictions; Threatenings and Promises; Encouraging Prospects.
(b. c. 500.)

   16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the
   nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year
   to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of
   tabernacles.   17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all
   the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord
   of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.   18 And if the family of
   Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the
   plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to
   keep the feast of tabernacles.   19 This shall be the punishment of
   Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the
   feast of tabernacles.   20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of
   the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house
   shall be like the bowls before the altar.   21 Yea, every pot in
   Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and
   all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe
   therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the
   house of the Lord of hosts.

   Three things are here foretold:--

   I. That a gospel-way of worship being set up in the church there shall
   be a great resort to it and a general attendance upon it. Those that
   were left of the enemies of religion shall be so sensible of the mercy
   of God to them in their narrow escape that they shall apply themselves
   to the worship of the God of Israel, and pay their homage to him, v.
   16. Those that were not consumed shall be converted, and this makes
   their deliverance a mercy indeed, a double mercy. It is a great change
   that the grace of God makes upon them; those that had come against
   Jerusalem, finding their attempts vain and fruitless, shall become as
   much her admirers as ever they had been her adversaries, and shall come
   to Jerusalem to worship there, and go in concurrence with those whom
   they had gone contrary to. Note, As some of Christ's foes shall be made
   his footstool, so others of them shall be made his friends; and, when
   the principle of enmity is slain in them, their former acts of
   hostility are pardoned to them, and their services are admitted and
   accepted, as though they had never fought against Jerusalem. They shall
   go up to worship at Jerusalem, because that was the place which God had
   chosen, and there the temple was, which was a type of Christ and his
   mediation. Converting grace sets us right, 1. In the object of our
   worship. They shall no longer worship the Molochs and Baals, the kings
   and lords, that the Gentiles worship, the creatures of their own
   imagination, but the King, the Lord of hosts, the everlasting King, the
   King of kings, the sovereign Lord of all. 2. In the ordinances of
   worship, those which God himself has appointed. Gospel-worship is here
   represented by the keeping of the feast of tabernacles, for the sake of
   those two great graces which were in a special manner acted and
   signified in that feast-contempt of the world, and joy in God, Neh.
   viii. 17. The life of a good Christian is a constant feast of
   tabernacles, and, in all acts of devotion, we must retire from the
   world and rejoice in the Lord, must worship as in that feast. 3. In the
   Mediator of our worship; we must go to Christ our temple with all our
   offerings, for in him only our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to
   God, 1 Pet. ii. 5. If we rest in ourselves, we come short of pleasing
   God; we must go up to him, and mention his righteousness only. 4. In
   the time of it; we must be constant. They shall go up from year to
   year, at the times appointed for this solemn feast. Every day of a
   Christian's life is a day of the feast of tabernacles, and every Lord's
   day especially (that is the great day of the feast); and therefore
   every day we must worship the Lord of hosts and every Lord's day with a
   peculiar solemnity.

   II. That those who neglect the duties of gospel-worship shall be
   reckoned with for their neglect. God will compel them to come and
   worship before him, by suspending his favours from those that keep not
   his ordinances: Upon them there shall be no rain, v. 17. Some
   understand it figuratively; the rain of heavenly doctrine shall be
   withheld, and of the heavenly grace, which should accompany that
   doctrine. God will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them.
   Note, It is a righteous thing with God to withhold the blessings of
   grace from those that do not attend the means of grace, to deny the
   green pastures to those that attend not the shepherd's tents. Or we may
   take it literally: On them there shall be no rain, to make their ground
   fruitful. Note, The gifts of common providence are justly denied to
   those that neglect and despise instituted ordinances. Those that
   neglected to build the temple were punished with the want of rain (Hag.
   ii. 17), and so were those that neglected to attend there when it was
   built. If we be barren and unfruitful towards God, justly is the earth
   made so to us. Many are crossed, and go backward, in their affairs, and
   this is at the bottom of it--they do not keep close to the worship of
   God as they should; they go off from God, and then he walks contrary to
   them. If we omit or postpone the duties he expects from us, it is just
   with him to deny the favours we expect from him. But what shall be done
   to the defaulters of the land of Egypt, to whom the threatening of the
   want of rain is no threatening, for they have no rain at any time; they
   need none; they desire none; the river Nilus is to them instead of the
   clouds of heaven, waters their land, and makes it fruitful, so that
   what is a punishment to others is none to them? v. 18, 19. It is
   threatened that if the family of Egypt go not up, that have no rain,
   yet God will find out a way to meet with them, for there shall be, in
   effect, the same plague wherewith other nations are smitten for their
   neglect. God can, and often did, restrain the overflowing of the river,
   which was equivalent to the shutting up of the clouds; or if the river
   did its part, and rose as high as it used to do, God had other ways of
   bringing famine upon them, and destroying the fruits of their ground,
   as he did by several of the ten plagues of Egypt, so that this (that
   is, the same) shall be the punishment of Egypt that is the punishment
   of other nations who come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
   Note, Those who think themselves least indebted to, and depending on,
   the mercy of heaven, cannot therefore think themselves guarded against
   the justice of Heaven. It does not follow that those who can live
   without rain can therefore live without God; for not the heavens only,
   but all other creatures, are that to us that God makes them to be, and
   no more; nor can any man's way of living enable him to set light by the
   judgments of God. This shall be the punishment--margin, This shall be
   the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up to keep
   the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both sin and the
   punishment of sin, so close and inseparable is the connexion between
   them (as Gen. iv. 7), and sin is often its own punishment. Note,
   Omissions are sins, and we must come into judgment for them; those
   contract guilt that go not up to worship at the times appointed, as
   they have opportunity; and it is a sin that is its own punishment, for
   those who forsake the duty forfeit the privilege of communion with God.

   III. That those who perform the duties of gospel-worship shall have
   grace to adorn their profession by the duties of a gospel-conversation
   too. This is promised (v. 20, 21), and it is necessary to the
   completing of the beauty and happiness of the church. In general, all
   shall be holiness to the Lord.

   1. The name and character of holiness shall not be so confined as
   formerly. Holiness to the Lord had been written only upon the high
   priest's forehead, but now it shall not be so appropriated. All
   Christians shall be living temples, and spiritual priests, dedicated to
   the honour of God and employed in his service.

   2. Real holiness shall be more diffused than it had been, because there
   shall be more powerful means of sanctification, more excellent rules,
   more cogent arguments, and brighter patterns of holiness, and because
   there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of holiness and
   sanctification, after Christ's ascension than ever before.

   (1.) There shall be holiness introduced into common things; and those
   things shall be devoted to God that seemed very foreign. [1.] The
   furniture of their horses shall be consecrated to God. "Upon the bells
   of the horses shall be engraven Holiness to the Lord, or upon the
   bridles of the horses (so the margin) or the trappings. The horses used
   in war shall no longer be used against God and his people, as they have
   been, but for him and them. Even their wars shall be holy wars, their
   troopers serving under God's banner. Their great men, who ride in state
   with a pompous retinue, shall reckon it their greatest ornament to
   honour God with their honours. Holiness to the Lord shall be written on
   the harness of their chariot-horses, as great men have sometimes their
   coat of arms with their motto painted on their coaches; every gentleman
   shall take the high priest's motto for his, and glory in it, and make
   it a memento to himself not to do any thing unworthy of it. Travellers
   shall have it upon their bridles, with which they guide their horses,
   as those who desire always to be put in mind of it, by having it
   continually before them, and to guide themselves in all their motions
   by this rule. The bells of the horses, which are designed to quicken
   them in their journey and to give notice of their approach, shall have
   Holiness to the Lord upon them," to signify that this is that which we
   ought to be influenced by ourselves, and make profession of to others,
   wherever we go. [2.] The furniture of their houses too shall be
   consecrated to God, to be employed in his service. First, The furniture
   of the priests' houses, or apartments adjoining to the house of the
   Lord. The common drinking cups they used shall be like the bowls before
   the altar, that were used either to receive the blood of the sacrifices
   or to present the wine and oil in, which were for the drink-offerings.
   The vessels which they used for their own tables shall be used in such
   a religious manner, with such sobriety and temperance, such devotedness
   to the glory of God, and such a mixture of pious thoughts and
   expressions, that their meals shall look like sacrifices; they shall
   eat and drink, not to themselves, but to him that spreads their tables
   and fills their cups. And thus, in ministers' families especially,
   should common actions be done after a godly sort, however they are done
   in other families. Secondly, The furniture of other houses, those of
   the common people: "Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be
   holiness to the Lord. The pots in which they boil their meat, the cups
   out of which they drink their wine (Jer. xxxv. 5), in these God's good
   creatures shall never be abused to excess, nor that made the food and
   fuel of lust which should be oil to the wheels of obedience," as had
   formerly been, when all tables were full of vomit and filthiness, Isa.
   xxviii. 8. "What they eat and drink out of these shall nourish their
   bodies for the service of God; and out of these they shall give
   liberally for the relief of the poor;" then are they Holiness to the
   Lord, as the merchandise and the hire of the converted Tyrians are said
   to be (Isa. xxiii. 18); for both in our gettings and in our spendings
   we must have an eye to the will of God as our rule and the glory of God
   as our end. Thirdly, When there shall be such an abundance of real
   holiness people shall not be nice and curious about ceremonial
   holiness: "Those that sacrifice shall come and take of these common
   vessels, and seethe their sacrifices therein, making no distinction
   between them and the bowls before the altar." In gospel-times the true
   worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in truth, and neither in
   this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, John iv. 21. One place shall be as
   acceptable to God as another (I will that men pray every where); and
   one vessel shall be as acceptable as another. Little regard shall be
   had to the circumstance, provided there be nothing indecent or
   disorderly, while the substance is religiously preserved and adhered
   to. Some think it intimates that there should be greater numbers of
   sacrifices offered than the vessels of the sanctuary would serve for;
   but, rather than any should be turned back or deferred, they shall make
   no difficulty at all of using common vessels, as the Levites in a case
   of necessity helped the priests to kill the sacrifices, 2 Chron. xxix.
   34.

   (2.) There shall be no unholiness introduced into their sacred things,
   to corrupt them: In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in
   the house of the Lord of hosts. Some read it, There shall be no more
   the merchant, for so a Canaanite sometimes signifies; and they think it
   was fulfilled when Christ once and again drove the buyers and sellers
   out of the temple. Or though those that were Canaanites, strangers and
   foreigners, shall be brought into the house of the Lord, yet they shall
   cease to be Canaanites; they shall have nothing of the spirit or
   disposition of Canaanites in them. Or it intimates that though in
   gospel-times people should grow indifferent as to holy vessels, yet
   they should be very strict in church-discipline, and careful not to
   admit the profane to special ordinances, but to separate between the
   precious and the vile, between Israelites and Canaanites. Yet this will
   not have its full accomplishment short of the heavenly Jerusalem, that
   house of the Lord of hosts, into which no unclean thing shall enter;
   for at the end of time, and not before, Christ shall gather out of his
   kingdom every thing that offends, and the tares and wheat shall be
   perfectly and eternally separated.
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Malachi
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   AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

M A L A C H I.
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   God's prophets were his witnesses to his church, each in his day, for
   several ages, witnesses for him and his authority, witnesses against
   sin and sinners, attesting the true intents of God's providences in his
   dealings with his people then and the kind intentions of his grace
   concerning his church in the days of the Messiah, to whom all the
   prophets bore witness, for they all agreed in their testimony; and now
   we have only one witness more to call, and we have done with our
   evidence; and though he be the last, and in him prophecy ceased, yet
   the Spirit of prophecy shines as clearly, as strongly, as brightly in
   him as in any that went before, and his testimony challenges an equal
   regard. The Jews say, Prophecy continued forty years under the second
   temple, and this prophet they call the seal of prophecy, because in him
   the series or succession of prophets broke off and came to a period.
   God wisely ordered it so that divine inspiration should cease for some
   ages before the coming of the Messiah, that that great prophet might
   appear the more conspicuous and distinguishable and be the more
   welcome. Let us consider, I. The person of the prophet. We have only
   his name, Malachi, and no account of his country or parentage. Malachi
   signifies my angel, which has given occasion for a conjecture that this
   prophet was indeed an angel from heaven and not a man, as that Judges
   ii. 1. But there is no just ground for the conjecture. Prophets were
   messengers, God's messengers; this prophet was so; his name is the very
   same with that which we find in the original (ch. iii. 1) for my
   messenger; and perhaps from that word he might (though, probably, he
   had another name) be called Malachi. The Chaldee paraphrase, and some
   of the Jews, suggest that Malachi was the same with Ezra; but that also
   is groundless. Ezra was a scribe, but we never read that he was a
   prophet. Others, yet further from probability, make him to be Mordecai.
   But we have reason to conclude he was a person whose proper name was
   that by which he is here called; the tradition of some of the ancients
   is that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and that he died young. II. The
   scope of the prophecy. Haggai and Zechariah were sent to reprove the
   people for delaying to build the temple; Malachi was sent to reprove
   them for the neglect of it when it was built, and for their profanation
   of the temple-service (for from idolatry and superstition they ran into
   the other extreme of impiety and irreligion), and the sins he witnesses
   against are the same that we find complained of in Nehemiah's time,
   with whom, it is probable, he was contemporary. And now that prophecy
   was to cease he speaks more clearly of the Messiah, as nigh at hand,
   than any other of the prophets had done, and concludes with a direction
   to the people of God to keep in remembrance the law of Moses, while
   they were in expectation of the gospel of Christ.
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M A L A C H I.

  CHAP. I.

   Thus prophet is sent first to convince and then to comfort, first to
   discover sin and to reprove for that and then to promise the coming of
   him who shall take away sin. And this method the blessed Spirit takes
   in dealing with souls, John xvi. 8. He first opens the wound and then
   applies the healing balm. God had provided (and one would think
   effectually) for the engaging of Israel to himself by providences and
   ordinances; but it seems, by the complaints here made of them, that
   they received the grace of God in both these in vain. I. They were very
   ungrateful to God for his favours to them, and rendered not again
   according to the benefit they received, ver. 1-5. II. They were very
   careless and remiss in the observance of his institutions; the priests
   especially were so, who were in a particular manner charged with them,
   ver. 6-14. And what shall we say of those whom neither providences nor
   ordinances work upon, and who affront God in those very things wherein
   they should honour him?

Ingratitude of Israel; Judgments and Mercies. (b. c. 400.)

   1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.   2 I have
   loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was
   not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,   3 And I
   hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
   dragons of the wilderness.   4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished,
   but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord
   of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call
   them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord
   hath indignation for ever.   5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall
   say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.

   The prophecy of this book is entitled, The burden of the word of the
   Lord (v. 1), which intimates, 1. That it was of great weight and
   importance; what the false prophets said was light as the chaff, what
   the true prophets said was ponderous as the wheat, Jer. xxiii. 28. 2.
   That it ought to be often repeated to them and by them, as the burden
   of a song. 3. That there were those to whom it was a burden and a
   reproach; they were weary of it, and found themselves so aggrieved by
   it that they were not able to bear it. 4. That to them it would prove a
   burden indeed, to sink them to the lowest hell, unless they repented.
   5. That to those who loved it and embraced it, and bade it welcome,
   though it was a light burden, as our Saviour calls it (Matt. xi. 30),
   yet it was a burden.

   This burden of the word of the Lord was sent, 1. To Israel, for to them
   pertained the lively oracles of prophecy as well as those of the
   written word. Many prophets God had sent to Israel, and now he will try
   them with one more. 2. By Malachi, by the hand of Malachi, as if it
   were not a message by word of mouth, but a letter put into his hand,
   for the greater certainty.

   In these verses, they are charged with ingratitude, in that they were
   not duly sensible of God's distinguishing goodness to them; and such a
   charge as this may well be called a burden, for it is a heavy one.

   I. God asserts the great kindness he had, and had often expressed, for
   them (v. 2): I have loved you, saith the Lord. Thus abruptly does the
   sermon begin, as if God intended, whatever reproofs should be given
   them, to reconcile them to his love, and to take care that they should
   still have good thoughts of him. As many as I love I rebuke and
   chasten. Thus kindly does the sermon begin. God will have his people
   satisfied that he loves them and is ever mindful of his love. This is
   the same with what he said of old to the virgin of Israel, that he
   might engage her affections to himself (Jer. xxxi. 3, 4): Yea I have
   loved thee with an everlasting love. In this one word God sums up all
   his gracious dealings with them; love was the spring of all; he loved
   them because he would love them (Deut. vii. 7, 8), loved them in their
   childhood, Hos. xi. 1. His delight was in them, Isa. lxii. 4. "I have
   loved you, but you have not loved me, nor made any suitable returns for
   my love." Note, God's people need to be often reminded of his love to
   them.

   II. They question his love, and diminish the instances of it, and seem
   to quarrel with him for telling them of it: Yet you say, Wherein hast
   thou loved us? As God traces up all his favours to them to the
   fountain, which was his love, so he traces up all their sins against
   him to the fountain, which was their contempt of his love. Instead of
   acknowledging his kindness, and studying what they shall render, they
   scorn to own that they have been beholden to him, challenge him to
   produce proofs of his love that are material, and think and speak very
   slightly of the instances they have had of his kindness, as if they
   were so few, so small, as not to be worth taking notice of, and no more
   than what they had sufficiently made returns for, or at least than he
   had sufficiently balanced with instances of his wrath. "Have we not
   been wasted, impoverished, and carried captive; and wherein then hast
   thou loved us?" Note, God justly takes it very ill to have his favours
   slighted, as not worth speaking of; and it is very absurd for us to ask
   wherein he has loved us, when, which way soever we look, we meet with
   the proofs and instances of his love to us.

   III. He makes it out, beyond contradiction, that he has loved them,
   loved them in a distinguishing way, which was in a special manner
   obliging. For proof of this he shows the difference he had made, and
   would still make, between Jacob and Esau, between Israelites and
   Edomites. Some read their question, Wherefore hast thou loved us? as if
   they did indeed own that he had loved them, but withal insinuate that
   there was a reason for it--that he loved them because their father
   Abraham had loved him, so that it was not a free love, but a love of
   debt, to which he replies, "Was not Esau as near akin to Abraham as you
   are? Was he not Jacob's own brother, his elder brother? And therefore,
   if there were any right to a recompence for Abraham's love, Esau had
   it, and yet I hated Esau and loved Jacob."

   1. Let them see what a difference God had made between Jacob and Esau.
   Esau was Jacob's brother, his twin-brother: "Yet I loved Jacob and I
   hated Esau, that is, took Jacob into covenant, and entailed the
   blessing on him and his, but refused and rejected Esau." Note, Those
   that are taken into covenant with God, that have the lively oracles and
   the means of grace committed to them, have reason to look upon these as
   tokens of his love. Jacob is loved, for he has these, Esau hated, for
   he has not. The apostle quotes this (Rom. ix. 13), and compares it with
   what the oracle said to Rebecca concerning her twins (Gen. xxv. 23),
   The elder shall serve the younger, to illustrate the doctrine of God's
   sovereignty in dispensing his favours; for may he not do what he will
   with his own? Esau was justly hated, but Jacob freely loved; even so,
   Father, because it seemed good in thy eyes, and it is not for us to ask
   why or wherefore.

   2. Let them see what he was now doing and would do with them, pursuant
   to this original difference.

   (1.) The Edomites shall be made the monuments of God's justice, and he
   will be glorified in their utter destruction: For Esau have I hated; I
   laid his mountains waste, the mountains of Seir, which were his
   heritage. When all that part of the world was ravaged by the Chaldean
   army the country of Edom was, among the rest, laid in ruins, and became
   a habitation for the dragons of the wilderness, so perfectly desolate
   was it; as was foretold, Isa. xxxiv. 6, 11. The Edomites had triumphed
   in Jerusalem's overthrow (Ps. cxxxvii. 7), and therefore it was just
   with God to put the same cup of trembling into their hands. And, though
   Edom's ruins were last, yet they were lasting, and the desolation
   perpetual; and in this the difference was made between Jacob and Esau,
   and is made between the righteous and the wicked, to whom otherwise all
   things come alike, and there seems to be one event. Jacob's cities are
   laid waste, but they are rebuilt; Edom's are laid waste, and never
   rebuilt. The sufferings of the righteous will have an end and will end
   well; all their grievances will be redressed, and their sorrow turned
   into joy; but the sufferings of the wicked will be endless and
   remediless, as Edom's desolations, v. 4. Observe here, [1.] The vain
   hopes of the Edomites, that they shall have their ruins repaired as
   well as Israel, though they had no promise to build their hope upon.
   They say, "It is true, we are impoverished; it is the common chance,
   and there is no remedy; but we will return and build the desolate
   places; we are resolved we will" (not so much as asking God leave); "we
   will whether he will or no; nay, we will do it in defiance of God's
   curse, and that sentence pronounced upon Edom (Isa. xxxiv. 10), From
   generation to generation it shall lie waste." They build
   presumptuously, as Hiel built Jericho in direct contradiction to the
   word of God (1 Kings xvi. 34), and it shall speed accordingly. Note, It
   is common for those whose hearts are unhumbled under humbling
   providences to think to make their part good against God himself, and
   to build, and plant, and flourish again as much as ever, though God has
   said that they shall be impoverished. But see, [2.] The dashing of
   these hopes and the disappointment of them: They say, We will build;
   but what says the Lord of hosts? For we are sure his word shall stand,
   and not theirs; and he says, First, Their attempts shall be baffled:
   They shall build, but I will throw down. Note, Those that walk contrary
   to God will find that he will walk contrary to them; for who ever
   hardened his heart against God and prospered? When the Jews had
   rejected Christ and his gospel they became Edomites, and this word was
   fulfilled in them; for when, in the time of the emperor Adrian, they
   attempted to rebuild Jerusalem, God by earthquakes and eruptions of
   fire threw down what they built, so that they were forced to quit the
   enterprise. Secondly, They shall be looked upon by all as abandoned to
   utter ruin. All that see them shall call them the border of wickedness,
   a sinful nation, incurably so, and therefore the people against whom
   the Lord has indignation for ever. Since their wickedness is such as
   will never be reformed, their desolations shall be such as are never to
   be repaired. Against Israel God was a little displeased (Zech. i. 15),
   but against Edom he has indignation, and will have for ever, for they
   are the people of his curse, Isa. xxxiv. 5.

   (2.) The Israelites shall be made the monuments of his mercy, and he
   will be glorified in their salvation, v. 5. "The Edomites shall be
   stigmatized as a people hated of God, but your eyes shall see your
   doubts concerning his love to you for ever silenced; for you shall say,
   and have cause to say, The Lord is and will be magnified from the
   border of Israel, from every part and border of the land of Israel."
   The border of Edom is a border of wickedness, and therefore the Lord
   will have indignation against it for ever; but the border of Israel is
   a border of holiness, the border of the sanctuary (Ps. lxxviii. 54),
   and therefore God will make it to appear (though it may for a time lie
   desolate) that he has mercy in store for it, and thence he will be
   magnified; he will give his people Israel both cause, and hearts, to
   praise him. When the border of Edom still remains desolate, and the
   border of Israel is repaired and replenished, then it will appear that
   God has loved Jacob. Note, [1.] Those who doubt of God's love to his
   people shall, sooner or later, have convincing and undeniable proofs
   given them of it: "your own eyes shall see what you will not believe."
   [2.] Deliverances out of trouble are to be reckoned proofs of God's
   good-will to his people, though they may be suffered to fall into
   trouble, Ps. xxxiv. 19. [3.] Distinguishing favours are very obliging.
   If God rear up again the border of Israel, but leave the border of Edom
   in ruins, let no Israelite ask, for shame, Wherein hast thou loved us?
   [4.] The dignifying of Israel is the magnifying of the God of Israel,
   and, one way or other, God will have honour from his professing people.
   [5.] God's goodness being his glory, when he does us good we must
   proclaim him great, for that is magnifying him. It is an instance of
   his goodness that he has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants,
   and for this those that love his salvation say, The Lord be magnified,
   Ps. xxxv. 27.

God's Remonstrance with the Priests; Judgment of Wicked Priests. (b. c. 400.)

   6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a
   father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?
   saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And
   ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?   7 Ye offer polluted bread
   upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye
   say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.   8 And if ye offer the
   blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick,
   is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with
   thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.   9 And now, I
   pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been
   by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts.
   10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?
   neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure
   in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at
   your hand.   11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down
   of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every
   place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for
   my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.   12
   But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is
   polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.   13
   Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at
   it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and
   the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept
   this of your hand? saith the Lord.   14 But cursed be the deceiver,
   which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the
   Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts,
   and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

   The prophet is here, by a special commission, calling the priests to
   account, though they were themselves appointed judges, to call the
   people to an account. Let the rulers in the house of God know that
   there is one above them, who will reckon with them for their
   mal-administrations. Thus saith the Lord of hosts to you, O priests! v.
   6. God will have a saying to unfaithful ministers; and it concerns
   those who speak from God to his people to hear and heed what he says to
   them, that they may save themselves in the first place, otherwise how
   should they help to save those that hear them? It is a severe, and no
   doubt a just reproof, that is here given to the priests, for the
   profanation of the holy things of God, with which they were entrusted;
   and, if this was the crime of the priests, we have reason to fear the
   people also were guilty of it: so that what is said to the priests is
   said to all, nay, it is said to us, who, as Christians, profess
   ourselves, not only the people of God, but priests to him. Observe
   here,

   I. What it was that God expected from them, and with what good reason
   he expected it (v. 6): A son honours his father, because he is his
   father; nature has written this law in the hearts of children, before
   God wrote it at Mount Sinai; nay, a servant, though his obligation to
   his master is not natural, but by voluntary compact, yet thinks it his
   duty to honour him, to be observant of his orders, and true to his
   interests. Children and servants pay respect to their parents and
   masters; every one cries out shame on them if they do not, and their
   own hearts cannot but reproach them too; the order of families is thus
   kept up, and it is their beauty and advantage. But the priests, who are
   God's children and his servants, do not fear and honour him. They were
   fathers and masters to the people, and expected to be called so (Judges
   xviii. 19, Matt. xxii. 7, 10) and to be reverenced and obeyed as such;
   but they forgot their Father and Master in heaven, and the duty they
   owed to him. We may each of us charge upon ourselves what is here
   charged upon the priests. Note, 1. We are every one of us to look upon
   God as our Father and Master, and upon ourselves as his children and
   servants. 2. Our relation to God as our Father and Master strongly
   obliges us to fear and honour him. If we honour and fear the fathers of
   our flesh, much more the Father and Master of our spirits, Heb. xii. 9.
   3. It is a thing to be justly complained of, and lamented, that God is
   so little feared and honoured even by those that own him for their
   Father and Master. Where is his honour? Where is his fear?

   II. What the contempt was which the priests put upon God.

   1. This is that, in general, which is charged upon them:--(1.) They
   despised God's name; their familiarity with it, as priests, bred
   contempt of it, and served them only to gain a veneration by it for
   themselves and their own name, while God's name was of small account
   with them. God's name is all that whereby he has made himself
   known--his word and ordinances; these they had low thoughts of, and
   vilified that which it was their business to magnify; and no wonder
   that when they despised it themselves they did that which made it
   despicable to others, causing even the sacrifices of the Lord to be
   abhorred, as Eli's sons did. (2.) They profaned God's name, v. 12. They
   polluted it, v. 7. They not only made no account of sacred things, but
   they made an ill use of them, and perverted them to the service of the
   worst and vilest purposes--their own pride, covetousness, and luxury.
   There cannot be a greater provocation to God than the profanation of
   his name; for it is holy and reverend. His purity cannot be polluted by
   us, for he is unspotted, but his name may be profaned; and nothing
   profanes it more than the misconduct of priests, whose business it is
   to do honour to it. This is the general charge exhibited against them.
   To this they plead Not guilty, and challenge God to prove it upon them,
   and to make good the charge, which added daring impudence to their
   daring impiety: You say, Wherein have we despised thy name? (v. 6), and
   wherein have we polluted thee? v. 7. It is common with proud sinners,
   when they are reproved, to stand thus upon their own justification.
   These priests had most horridly profaned sacred things, and yet, like
   the adulterous woman, they said that they had done no wickedness; they
   were so inobservant of themselves that they remembered not or reflected
   not upon their own acts, or they were so ignorant of the divine law
   that they thought there was no harm in them, and that what they did
   could not be construed into despising God's name, or they were so
   atheistical as to imagine that though they knew their own guilt yet God
   did not, or they were so scornful in their conduct towards God and his
   prophets that they took a pride in bantering a serious and just
   reproof, and turning it off with a jest. They either laugh at the
   reproof, as those that despise it, and harden their hearts against it,
   or they laugh it off, as those that resolve they will not be touched by
   it, or will not seem to be so. Which way soever we take it, their
   defence was their offence, and, in justifying themselves, their own
   tongues condemned them, and their saying, Wherein have we despised thy
   name? proved them proud and perverse. Had they asked this question with
   a humble desire to be told more particularly where in they had
   offended, it would have been an evidence of their repentance, and would
   have given hopes of their reformation; but to ask it thus in disdain
   and defiance of the word of God argues their hearts fully set in them
   to do evil. Note, Sinners ruin themselves by studying to baffle their
   own convictions; but they will find it hard to kick against the pricks.

   2. Justly might they have been convicted and condemned upon the general
   charge, and their plea thrown out as frivolous; but God will not only
   overcome, but will be clear, will be justified when he judges, and
   therefore he shows them very particularly wherein they had despised his
   name, and what the contempt was that they cast upon him. As formerly,
   when he charged them with idolatry, so now, when he charges them with
   profaneness, he bids them see their way in the valley and know what
   they have done, Jer. ii. 23.

   (1.) They despised God's name in what they said, in the low opinion
   they had of his institutions: "You say in your hearts, and perhaps
   speak it out when you priests get together over your cups. out of the
   hearing of the people, The table of the Lord is contemptible" (v. 7),
   and again (v. 12), "You say, The table of the Lord is polluted; it is
   to be no more regarded than any other table." Either the table in the
   temple, on which the show-bread was placed, is that which they reflect
   upon (not understanding the mystery of it, they despised it as an
   insignificant thing), or rather the altar of burnt-offerings is here
   called the table, for there God, and his priests, and his people, did,
   as it were, feast together upon the sacrifices, in token of friendship.
   This they thought was contemptible. Formerly, in the days of
   superstition, it was thought contemptible in comparison with the
   idolatrous alters that the heathen had, and was set aside to make room
   for a new-fashioned one (2 Kings xvi. 14, 15); now it is thought
   contemptible in comparison with their own tables, and those of their
   great men: The fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. Those who
   served at the altar were to live upon the altar; but they complained
   that they lived poorly and meanly, and that it was not worth while to
   attend the service of the altar for the fruit and meat of it, for it
   was very ordinary and always the same again; they had no dainties, no
   varieties, no nice dishes. Nay, that part of the sacrifices which was
   given to God, the blood and the fat, they looked upon with contempt, as
   not worthy the multitude of laws God had made about it; they asked,
   "What need is there of so much ado about burning the fat and pouring
   out the blood?" Note, Those greatly profane and pollute God's name who
   despise the business of religion, though it is very honourable, as not
   worth taking pains in, and the advantages of religion, though highly
   valuable, as not worth taking pains for. Those who live in a careless
   neglect of holy ordinances, who come to them and attend on them
   irreverently, and go away from them never the better and under no
   concern, do in effect say, "The table of the Lord is contemptible;
   there is neither virtue nor value in it, neither credit nor comfort
   from it."

   (2.) They despised God's name in what they did, which was of a piece
   with what they said, and flowed from it; corrupt principles and notions
   are roots of bitterness, which bear the gall and wormwood of corrupt
   practices. They looked upon the table and altar of the Lord as
   contemptible, and then, [1.] They thought any thing would serve for a
   sacrifice, though ever so coarse and mean, and were so far from
   bringing the best, as they ought to have done, that they picked out the
   worst they had, which was fit neither for the market nor for their own
   tables, and offered that at God's altar. With every sacrifice they were
   to bring a meat-offering of fine flour mingled with oil; but they
   brought polluted bread (v. 7), coarse bread, servants' bread, perhaps
   it was dry and mouldy, or made of the refuse of the wheat, which they
   thought good enough to be burnt upon the altar; for had it been better
   they would have said, To what purpose is this waste? And as to the
   beasts they offered, though the law was express that what was offered
   in sacrifice should not have a blemish, yet they brought the blind, and
   the lame, and the sick (v. 8), and again (v. 13), the torn, and the
   lame, and the sick, that was ready to die of itself. They looked no
   further than the burning of the sacrifice, and they pleaded that it was
   a pity to burn it if it was good for any thing else. The people were so
   far convinced of their duty that they would bring sacrifices; they
   durst not wholly omit the duty, but they brought vain oblations, mocked
   God, and deceived themselves, by bringing the worst they had; and the
   priests, who should have taught them better, accepted the gifts brought
   to the altar and offered them up there, because, if they should refuse
   them, the people would bring none at all, and then they would lose
   their perquisites; and therefore, having more regard to their own
   profit than to God's honour, they accepted that which they knew he
   would not accept. Some make v. 8 to be a continuation of what the
   priests profanely said v. 7, You say to the people, If you offer the
   blind for sacrifice, it is not evil; or the lame and the sick, it is
   not evil. Note, It is a very evil thing, whether men think so or no, to
   offer the blind and the lame, the torn and the sick, in sacrifice to
   God. If we worship God ignorantly, and without understanding, we bring
   the blind for sacrifice; if we do it carelessly, and without
   consideration, if we are cold, and dull, and dead, in it, we bring the
   sick; if we rest in the bodily exercise, and do not make heart-work of
   it, we bring the lame; and, if we suffer vain thoughts and distractions
   to lodge within us, we bring the torn. And is not this evil? Is it not
   a great affront to God and a great wrong and injury to our own souls?
   Do not our books tell us, nay, do not our own hearts tell us, that this
   is evil? for God, who is the best, ought to be served with the best we
   have. [2.] They would do no more of their work than what they were paid
   for. The priests would offer the sacrifices that were brought to the
   altar, because they had their share of them; but as for any other
   service of the temple, that had not a particular fee belonging to it,
   they would not stir a step, nor lend a hand, to it; and this was the
   general temper of them, v. 10. There is not a man among the priests
   that would shut the doors, or kindle a fire, for nought. If he were
   required to do the smallest piece of service, he would ask, how shall I
   be paid for it? They would do nothing gratis, but were all for what
   they could get, every one for his gain, from his quarter, Isa. lvi. 11.
   Note, Though God has given order that his servants be well paid in this
   world, yet those are no acceptable servants to him who are mercenary,
   and would never do the work but for the wages. [3.] Their work was a
   perfect drudgery to them (v. 13): You said also, Behold, what a
   weariness is it! Both priests and people were of this mind, that they
   thought God imposed too hard a task upon them; the people grudged the
   charge of providing the sacrifice and the priests grudged the pains of
   offering it; they thought the feasts of the Lord came too thick, and
   they were forced to attend too often, and too long, in the courts of
   the Lord; the priests thought it a severe penance imposed upon them to
   purify themselves as was required when they attended the altar and ate
   of the holy things; they thought the duty of their office toilsome and
   troublesome, and snuffed at it as unreasonable, and bearing hard upon
   them; they did it, but it was grudgingly and with reluctance. God
   speaks of it, in justification of his law, that he had not made them to
   serve with an offering, nor wearied them with incense, Isa. xliii. 23.
   Wherein have I wearied thee? Mic. vi. 3. But their own wicked hearts
   made it a weariness; and they were, as Doeg, detained before the Lord;
   they would rather have been any where else. Note, Those are highly
   injurious, both to God and themselves, who are weary of his service and
   worship, and snuff at it.

   III. Observe how God expostulates and reasons the case with them, for
   their conviction and humiliation. 1. Would they, durst they, affront an
   earthly prince thus? "You offer to God the lame and the sick; offer it
   now unto thy governor (v. 8), either as tribute or as a present, when
   thou art entreating his favour, or in gratitude for some favour
   received; will he be pleased with thee? Or, rather, will he not take
   himself to be affronted by it?" Note, Those who are careless and
   irreverent in the duties of religious worship should consider what a
   shame it is to offer that to their God which they would scorn to offer
   to their governor, to be more observant of the laws of breeding and
   good manners than of the laws of religion, and more afraid of being
   rude than of being profane. 2. Could they imagine that such sacrifices
   as these would be pleasing to God, or answer the end of sacrifices?
   "Should I accept this at your hand, saith the Lord? v. 13. Have you any
   reason to think I should either not discern or not resent the affront,
   that I should connive at the violation of my own laws? No (v. 10); I
   have no pleasure in you, and therefore, I will not accept an offering,
   such an offering, at your hand." If God has no pleasure in the person,
   if the person be not in a justified state, if he be not sanctified, God
   will not accept the offering. God had respect to Abel first and then to
   his sacrifice. Note, In order to our acceptance with God it is not
   enough to do that which, for the matter of it, is good, but we must do
   it from a right principle, in a right manner, and for a right end. It
   was the ancient rule laid down (Gen. iv. 7), If thou doest well, shalt
   thou not be accepted? Now, if we be not accepted of God, in vain do we
   worship him; it is all lost labour; nay, we are all undone, for ever
   undone, if we come short of God's acceptance. Those therefore make a
   bad bargain for themselves who, to save charges in their religion, miss
   all the ends of it, and, by thinking to go the nearest way to work,
   bring nothing to pass. Those who make it the top of their ambition, as
   we all ought to do, whether present or absent, to be accepted of the
   Lord, will not dare to bring the torn, and the lame, and the sick, for
   sacrifice. 3. How could they expect to prevail with God in their
   intercessions for the people when they thus affronted God in their
   sacrifices? So some understand v. 9, as spoken ironically, "And now if
   you will do the duty of priests, and stand in the gap to turn away the
   judgments of God that you see ready to pour in upon us, I pray you,
   beseech God that he will be gracious to us, and to our land which is
   almost eaten up with locusts and caterpillars," as appears ch. iii. 11.
   "Try now what interest you have at the throne of grace; improve it for
   the removing of this plague, for it has been by your means; you have
   provoked God to send it. But as you go on thus to profane his sacred
   things will he regard your persons or your prayers? No, you cannot
   prevail with him to command it away." For, if we regard iniquity in our
   hearts, God will not hear us, either for ourselves or for others. 4.
   Had God deserved this at their hands? No, he had provided comfortably
   for them, and had given them such encouragement in their work as might
   have engaged them to do it cheerfully and well; so some understand v.
   10, "Who is there among you that shall shut a door, or kindle a fire,
   for nought? No, God does not expect you should serve him for nothing;
   you are well paid for it, and shall be so; not a cup of cold water,
   given for the honour of God, shall lose its reward." Note, The
   consideration of our constant receivings from God, and the present
   rewards of obedience in obedience, very much aggravates our
   slothfulness and niggardliness in our returns of duty to God.

   IV. He calls them to repentance for their profanations of his holy
   name. So we may understand v. 9, "Now, I pray you, beseech God that he
   will be gracious to us. Humble yourselves for your sin, cry mightily to
   God for pardon, and make up in the faith and fervency of your prayers
   what has been wanting in the worth and value of your sacrifices; for
   all the rebukes of Providence we are under are by your means." Note,
   Those who have by their sins helped to kindle a fire are highly
   concerned by their repentance, prayers, and the personal reformation,
   to help to quench it. We must see how much God's judgments are by our
   means, and be awakened thereby to be earnest with him to return in
   mercy; and, if we take not this course, how can we think he should
   regard our persons?

   V. He declares his resolution both to secure the glory of his own name
   and to reckon with those who profane it. Those who put contempt upon
   God and religion, and think to run down sacred things, let them know,

   1. That they shall not gain their point. God will magnify his law and
   make it honourable, though they vilify it and make it contemptible; for
   (v. 11) from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same my
   name shall be great among the Gentiles. It might be said, "If these are
   not the worshippers whom God will accept, then he has no worshippers."
   As if he must make the best of their service, or else he would have no
   service done him; and then what will he do for his great name? But let
   him alone for that; though Israel be not faithful, be not gathered, yet
   God will be glorious. Though these priests provoke him to take down the
   ceremonial economy, and to abolish that law of commandments, which
   could not make the comers thereunto perfect, yet he will be no loser by
   that, at the long run; for, (1.) Instead of those carnal ordinances,
   which they profaned, a spiritual way of worship shall be introduced and
   established: Incense shall be offered to God's name (which signifies
   prayer and praise, Ps. cxli. 2; Rev. viii. 3), instead of the blood and
   fat of bulls and goats. And it shall be a pure offering, refined, not
   only from the corruptions that were in the priests' practice, but from
   the mere bodily exercise that was in the institutions themselves, which
   are called carnal ordinances, imposed till the time of reformation,
   Heb. ix. 10. When the hour came in which the true worshippers
   worshipped the Father in spirit and in truth, then this incense was
   offered, even this pure offering. (2.) Instead of his being worshipped
   and served among the Jews only, a small people in a corner of the
   world, he will be served and worshipped in all places, from the rising
   of the sun to the going down of the same; in every place, in every part
   of the world, incense shall be offered to his name; nations shall be
   discipled, and shall speak of the wonderful works of God, and have them
   spoken to them in their own language. This is a plain prediction of
   that great revolution in the kingdom of grace by which the Gentiles,
   who had been strangers and foreigners, came to be fellow-citizens with
   the saints and of the household of God, and as welcome to the throne of
   grace as ever the Jews had been. It is twice said (for the thing was
   certain), My name shall be great among the Gentiles, whereas hitherto
   in Judah only he was known, and his name was great, Ps. lxxvi. 1. God's
   name shall be declared to them, the declaration of it shall be received
   and believed, and there shall be those among the Gentiles who shall
   magnify and glorify the name of God better than ever the Jews had done,
   even the priests themselves.

   2. That they shall not go unpunished, v. 14. Here is the doom of those
   who do like these priests, for the sentence on them is a sentence on
   all such. Observe, (1.) The description of profane and careless
   worshippers. They are such as vow and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt
   thing when they have in their flock a male. They have of the best,
   wherewith to serve and honour him, so bountiful has be been in his
   gifts to them, but they put him off with the worst, and think that good
   enough for him, so ungrateful are they in their returns to him. This
   was the fault of the people, but the priests connived at it, and
   indulged them in it. We find a distinction in the law which allowed
   that to be offered for a free-will offering which would not be accepted
   for a vow, Lev. xxii. 23. But the priests would accept it, though God
   would not, pretending to be more indulgent than he was, for which he
   will give them no thanks another day. (2.) The character given of such
   worshippers. They are deceivers; they deal falsely and fraudulently
   with God; they play the hypocrite with him; they pretend to honour him,
   in making the vow, but, when it comes to be performed, they put an
   affront upon him, to such a degree that it would have been better not
   to have vowed than to vow and thus to pay; but let not such be
   themselves deceived, for God is not mocked. Those who think to put a
   cheat upon God will prove, in the end, to have put a damning cheat upon
   their own souls. Hypocrites are deceivers, and they will prove
   self-deceivers, and so self-destroyers. (3.) The doom passed upon them:
   They are cursed; they expect a blessing, but will meet with a curse,
   the tokens of God's wrath, according to the judgment written. (4.) The
   reason of this doom: "For I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts,
   and therefore will reckon with those who deal with me but as a man like
   themselves; my name is dreadful among the heathen, and therefore I will
   not bear that it should be contemptible among my own people." The
   heathen paid more respect to their gods, though idols, than the Jews
   did to theirs, though the only true and living God. Note, The
   consideration of God's universal dominion, and the universal
   acknowledgment of it, should restrain us from all irreverence in his
   service.
     __________________________________________________________________

M A L A C H I.

  CHAP. II.

   There are two great ordinances which divine wisdom has instituted, the
   wretched profanation of both of which is complained of and sharply
   reproved in this chapter. I. The ordinance of the ministry, which is
   peculiar to the church, and is designed for the maintaining and keeping
   up of that; this was profaned by those who were themselves dignified
   with the honour of it and entrusted with the business of it. The
   priests profaned the holy things of God; this they are here charged
   with; their sin is aggravated, and they are severely threatened for it,
   ver. 1-9. II. The ordinance of marriage, which is common to the world
   of mankind, and was instituted for the maintaining and keeping up of
   that; this was profaned both by the priests and by the people, in
   marrying strangers (ver. 11, 12), treating their wives unkindly (ver.
   13), putting them away (ver. 16), and herein dealing treacherously,
   ver. 10, 14, 15. And that which was at the bottom of this and other
   instances of profaneness and downright atheism, thinking God altogether
   such a one as themselves, which was, in effect, to say, There is no
   God, ver. 17. And these reproofs to them are warnings to us.

The Office of the Priesthood; Charge against the Priests; The Priests
Censured and Threatened. (b. c. 400.)

   1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.   2 If ye will
   not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my
   name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I
   will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye
   do not lay it to heart.   3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and
   spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and
   one shall take you away with it.   4 And ye shall know that I have sent
   this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith
   the Lord of hosts.   5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and
   I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid
   before my name.   6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was
   not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did
   turn many away from iniquity.   7 For the priest's lips should keep
   knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the
   messenger of the Lord of hosts.   8 But ye are departed out of the way;
   ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the
   covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.   9 Therefore have I also
   made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye
   have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

   What was said in the foregoing chapter was directed to the priests (ch.
   i. 6): Thus saith the Lord of hosts to you, O priests! that despise my
   name. But the crimes there charged upon them they were guilty of as
   sacrificers, and for those they might think it some excuse that they
   offered what the people brought, and therefore that, if they were not
   so good as they should be, it was not their fault, but the people's;
   and therefore here the corruptions there complained of are traced to
   the source and spring of them--the faults the priests were guilty of as
   teachers of the people, as expositors of the law and the lively
   oracles; and this is a part of their office which still remains in the
   hands of gospel-ministers (who are appointed to be pastors and
   teachers, like the priests under the law, though not sacrificers, like
   them), and therefore by them the admonition here is to be particularly
   regarded. If the priests had given the people better instructions, the
   people would have brought better offerings; and therefore the blame
   returns upon the priests: "And now, O you priests! this commandment is
   purely for you (v. 1), who should have taught the people the good
   knowledge of the Lord, and how to worship him aright." Note, The
   governors of the churches are under God's government, and to him they
   are accountable. Even for those who command God has commandments. Nay
   (v. 4), you shall know that I have sent these commandments for you.
   They should know it either, 1. By the power of the Spirit working with
   the word for their conviction and reformation: "You shall know its
   original by its efficacy, whence it comes by what it does." When the
   word of God to us brings about, and carries on, the work of God in us,
   then we cannot but know that he sent it to us, that it is not the word
   of Malachi--God's messenger, but it is indeed the word of God, and is
   sent, not only in general to all, but in particular to us. Or, 2. By
   the accomplishment of the threatenings denounced against them: "You
   shall know, to your cost, that I have sent this commandment to you, and
   it shall not return void."

   Let us now see what this commandment is which is for the priests,
   which, they must know, was sent to them; and let us put into method the
   particulars of the charge.

   I. Here is a recital of the covenant God made with that sacred tribe,
   which was their commission for their work and the patent of their
   honour: The Lord of hosts sent a commandment to them, for the
   establishing of this covenant (v. 4), for his covenant is said to be
   the word which he commanded (Ps. cv. 8); and he sent this commandment
   by the prophet at this time for the re-establishing of it, that it
   might not be cut off for their persisting in the violation of it. Let
   the sons of Levi know then (and particularly the sons of Aaron) what
   honour God put upon their family, and what a trust he reposed in them
   (v. 5): My covenant was with him of life and peace. Besides the
   covenant of peculiarity made with all the house of Israel, there was a
   covenant of priesthood made with one family, that they should do the
   services, and, upon condition of that, should enjoy all the privileges,
   of the priest's office--that, as Israel was a peculiar nation, a
   kingdom of priests, so the house of Aaron should be a family of
   priests, set apart for the service and honour of God, to bear up his
   name in that nation, as they were to bear up his name among the
   nations; both the one and the other, in different degrees, were to give
   glory unto God's name, v. 2. God covenanted with them as his menial
   servants, obliged them to do his work and promised to own and accept
   them in it. This is called his covenant of life and peace, because it
   was intended for the support of religion, which brings life and peace
   to the souls of men--life to the dead, peace to the distressed, or
   because life and peace were by this covenant promised to those priests
   that faithfully and conscientiously discharged their duty; they shall
   have peace, which implies security from all evil, and life, which
   comprises the summary of all good. What is here said of the covenant of
   priesthood is true of the covenant of grace made with all believers, as
   spiritual priests; it is a covenant of life and peace; it assures all
   believers of life and peace, everlasting peace, everlasting life, all
   happiness both in this world and in that to come. This covenant was
   made with the whole tribe of Levi when they were distinguished from the
   rest of the tribes, were not numbered with them, but were taken from
   among them and appointed over the tabernacle of testimony (Num. i. 49,
   50), by virtue of which appointment God says (Num. iii. 12), The
   Levites shall be mine. It was made with Aaron when he and his sons were
   taken to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office, Exod. xxviii.
   1. Aaron is therefore called the saint of the Lord, Ps. cvi. 16. It was
   made with Phinehas and his family, a branch of Aaron's, upon a
   particular occasion, Num. xxv. 12, 13. And there the covenant of
   priesthood is called, as here, the covenant of peace, because by it
   peace was made and kept between God and Israel. These great blessings
   of life and peace, contained in that covenant, God gave to him, to
   Levi, to Aaron, to Phinehas; he promised life and peace to them and
   their posterity, entrusted them with these benefits for the use and
   behoof of God's Israel; they received that they might give, as Christ
   himself did, Ps. lxviii. 18. Now, for the further opening of this
   covenant, observe, 1. The considerations upon which it was grounded: It
   was for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
   The tribe of Levi gave a signal proof of their holy fear of God, and
   their reverence for his name, when they appeared so bravely against the
   worshippers of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii. 26); and for their zeal in
   that matter God bestowed this blessing upon them and invited them to
   consecrate themselves unto him. Phinehas also showed himself zealous in
   the fear of God and his judgments when, to stay the plague, he stabbed
   Zimri and Cozbi, Ps. cvi. 30, 31. Note, Those, and those only, who fear
   God's name, can expect the benefit of the covenant of life and peace;
   and those who give proofs of their zeal for God shall without fail be
   recompensed in the glorious privileges of the Christian priesthood.
   Some read this, not as the consideration of the grant, but as the
   condition of it: I gave them to him, provided that he should fear
   before me. If God grant us life and peace, he expects we should fear
   before him. 2. The trust that was lodged in the priests by this
   covenant, v. 7. They were hereby made the messengers of the Lord of
   hosts, messengers of that covenant of life and peace, not mediators of
   it, but only messengers, or ambassadors, employed to treat of the terms
   of peace between God and Israel. The priests were God's mouth to his
   people, from whom they must receive instructions according to the
   lively oracles. This was the office to which Levi was advanced;
   because, in his zeal for God, he did not acknowledge his brethren, nor
   know his own children, therefore they shall teach Jacob God's
   judgments, Deut. xxxiii. 9, 10. Note, It is an honour to God's servants
   to be employed as his messengers and to be sent on his errands. Angels
   have their name thence. Haggai was called the Lord's messenger. This
   being their office, observe, (1.) What is the duty of ministers: The
   priests' lips should keep knowledge, not keep it from the people, but
   keep it for them. Ministers must be men of knowledge; for how are those
   able to teach others the things of God who are themselves unacquainted
   with those things or unready in them? They must keep knowledge, must
   furnish themselves with it and retain what they have got, that they may
   be like the good householder, who brings out of his treasury things new
   and old. Not only their heads, but their lips, must keep knowledge;
   they must not only have it, but they must have it ready, must have it
   at hand, must have it (as we say) at their tongue's end, to be
   communicated to others as there is occasion. Thus we read of wisdom in
   the lips of him that has understanding, with which they feed many,
   Prov. x. 13, 21. (2.) What is the duty of the people: They should seek
   the law at his mouth; they should consult the priests as God's
   messengers, and not only hear the message, but ask questions upon it,
   that they may the better understand it and that mistakes concerning it
   may be prevented and rectified. We are all concerned fully to know what
   the will of the Lord is, to know it distinctly and certainly; we should
   be desirous to know it and therefore inquisitive concerning it. Lord,
   what wilt thou have me to do? We must not only consult the written word
   (to the law and to the testimony), but must have recourse to God's
   messengers, and desire instruction and advice from them in the affairs
   of our souls as we do from physicians and lawyers concerning our bodies
   and estates. Not but that ministers ought to lay down the law of God to
   those who do not enquire concerning it, or desire the knowledge of it
   (they must instruct those that oppose themselves, 2 Tim. ii. 25, as
   well as those that offer themselves), but it is people's duty to apply
   to them for instruction, not only to hear, but to ask questions.
   Watchman, what of the night? Thus if you will enquire, enquire you; see
   Isa. xxi. 8, 11, 12. People should not only seek comfort at the mouth
   of their ministers, but should seek the law there; for, if we found in
   the way of duty, we shall find it the way of comfort.

   II. Here is a memorial of the fidelity and zeal of many of their
   predecessors in the priest's office, which are mentioned as an
   aggravation of their sin in degenerating from such honourable ancestors
   and deserting such illustrious examples, and as a justification of God
   in withdrawing from them those tokens of his presence which he had
   granted to those that kept close to him. See here (v. 6) how good the
   godly priest was, whose steps they should have trod in, and what good
   he did, God's grace working with him. 1. See how good he was. He was
   ready and mighty in the scriptures: The law of truth was in his mouth,
   for the use of those that asked the law at his mouth; and in all his
   discourses there appeared more or less of the law of truth. Every thing
   he said was under the government of that law, and with it he governed
   others. He spoke as one having authority (every word was a law), and as
   one that had both wisdom and integrity--it was a law of truth, and
   truth is a law, it has a commanding power. It is by truth that Christ
   rules. The law of truth was in his mouth, for his resolutions of cases
   of conscience proposed to him were such as might be depended upon; his
   opinion was good law. Iniquity was not found in his lips; he did not
   handle the word of God deceitfully, to please men, to serve a turn, or
   to make an interest for himself, but told all that consulted him what
   the law was, whether it were pleasing or displeasing. He did not
   pronounce that unclean which was clean, nor that clean which was
   unclean, as one of the rabbin expounds it. And his conversation was of
   a piece with his doctrine. God himself gives him this honourable
   testimony: He walked with me in peace and equity. He did not think it
   enough to talk of God, but he walked with him. The temper of his mind,
   and the tenour of his life, were of a piece with his doctrine and
   profession; he lived a life of communion with God, and made it his
   constant care and business to please him; he lived like a priest that
   was chosen to walk before God, 1 Sam. ii. 30. His conversation was
   quiet; he was meek and gentle towards all men, was a pattern and
   promoter of love; he walked with God in peace, was himself peaceable
   and a great peace-maker. His conversation was also honest; he did no
   wrong to any, but made conscience of rendering to all their due: He
   walked with me in equity, or rectitude. We must not, for peace-sake,
   transgress the rules of equity, but must keep the peace as far as is
   consistent with justice. The wisdom from above is first pure, then
   peaceable. Ministers, of all men, are concerned to walk with God in
   peace and equity, that they may be examples to the flock. 2. See what
   good he did; he answered the ends of his advancement to that office: He
   did turn many away from iniquity; he made it his business to do good,
   and God crowned his endeavours with wonderful success; he helped to
   save many a soul from death, and there are multitudes now in heaven
   blessing God that ever they knew him. Ministers must lay out themselves
   to the utmost for the conversion of sinners, and even among those that
   have the name of Israelites there is need of conversion-work, there are
   many to be turned from iniquity; and they must reckon it an honour, and
   a rich reward of their labour, if they may but be instrumental herein.
   It is God only that by his grace can turn men from iniquity, and yet it
   is here said of a pious laborious minister that he turned men from
   iniquity as a worker together with God, and an instrument in his hand;
   and those that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars,
   Dan. xii. 3. Note, Those ministers, and those only, are likely to turn
   men from iniquity, that preach sound doctrine and live good lives, and
   both according to the scripture; for, as one of the rabbin observes
   here, When the priest is upright many will be upright.

   III. Here is a high charge drawn up against the priests of the present
   age, who violated the covenant of the priesthood and went directly
   contrary both to the rules and to the examples that were set before
   them. Many particulars of their sins we had in the foregoing chapter,
   and we find (Neh. xiii.) that many corruptions had crept into the
   church of the Jews at this time, mixed marriages, admitting strangers
   into the house of God, profanation of the sabbath-day, which were all
   owing to the carelessness and unfaithfulness of the priests; here it is
   charged upon them in general, 1. That they transgressed the rule: You
   have departed out of the way (v. 8), out of the good way which God has
   prescribed to you, and which your godly ancestors walked before you in.
   It is ill with a people when those whose office it is to guide them in
   the way do themselves depart out of it: "You have not kept my ways, not
   kept in them yourselves, nor done your part to keep others in them," v.
   9. 2. That they betrayed their trust: "You have corrupted the covenant
   of Levi, have violated it, have contradicted the great intentions of
   it, and have done what in you lay to frustrate and defeat them; you
   have managed your office as if it were designed only to feed you fat
   and make you great; and not for the glory of God and the good of the
   souls of men." This was a corrupting of the covenant of Levi; it was
   perverting the ends of the office, and making it subservient to those
   sensual secular things over which it ought always to have dominion. And
   thus they forfeited the benefit of that covenant, and corrupted it to
   themselves; they made it void, and lost the life and peace which were
   by it settled upon them. We have no reason to expect God should perform
   his part of the covenant if we do not make conscience of performing
   ours. Another instance of their betraying their trust was that they
   were partial in the law, v. 9. In the law given to them they would pick
   and choose their duty; this they would do and that they would not do,
   just as they pleased; this is the fashion of hypocrites, while those
   whose hearts are upright with God have a respect to all his
   commandments. Or, rather, in the law they were to lay down to the
   people; in this they knew faces (so the word is); they accepted
   persons; they wilfully misinterpreted and misapplied the law, either to
   cross those they had a spleen against or to countenance those they had
   a kindness for; they would wink at those sins in some which in others
   they would be sharp upon, according as their interest or inclination
   led them. God is no respecter of persons in making his law, nor will he
   in reckoning for the breach of it; he regards not the rich more than
   the poor, and therefore his priests, his ministers, misrepresent him,
   and do him a great deal of dishonour, if, in doctrine or discipline,
   they be respecters of persons. See 1 Tim. v. 21. 3. That they did a
   great deal of mischief to the souls of men, which they should have
   helped to save: You have caused many to stumble at the law, not only to
   fall in the law (as the margin reads it) by transgressing it, taught
   and encouraged to do so by the examples of the priests, but to stumble
   at the law, by contracting prejudices against it, as if the law were
   the minister of sin and gave countenance to it. Thus Hophni and
   Phinehas by their wickedness made the sacrifices of the Lord to be
   abhorred, 1 Sam. ii. 17. There are many to whom the law of God is a
   stumbling-block, the gospel of Christ a savour of death unto death, and
   Christ himself a rock of offence; and nothing contributes more to this
   than the vicious lives of those that make a profession of religion, by
   which men are tempted to say, "It is all a jest." This is properly a
   scandal, a stone of stumbling; there is no good reason why it should be
   so to any, but woe to those by whom this offence comes. 4. That, when
   they were under the rebukes both of the word and of the providence of
   God for it, they would not hear, that is, they would not heed, they
   would not lay it to heart; they were not at all grieved or shamed for
   their sin, nor affected with the tokens of God's displeasure which they
   were under. What we hear does us no good unless we lay it to heart and
   admit the impressions of it: You will not lay it to heart, to give
   glory unto my name, by repentance and reformation. Therefore we should
   lay to heart the things of God, that we may give glory to the name of
   God, may praise him in and for all that whereby he has made himself
   known. It is bad in any to rob God of his honour, but worst in
   ministers, whose office and business it is to bear up his name and to
   give him the glory due to it.

   IV. Here is a record of the judgments God had brought upon these
   priests for their profaneness, and their profanation of holy things. 1.
   They had lost their comfort (v. 2): I have already cursed your
   blessings. They had not the comfort of their work, which is the
   satisfaction of doing good; for the blessings with which they, as
   priests, blessed the people, God was so far from saying Amen to that he
   turned them into curses, as he did Balaam's curses into blessings. That
   profane people should not have the favour of receiving God's blessings,
   nor those profane priests the honour of conferring and conveying them,
   but both should lie under the tokens of his wrath. Nor had they the
   comfort of their wages, for the blessings with which God blessed them
   were turned into a curse to them by their abuse of them; they could not
   receive them as the gifts of his favour when they had made themselves
   so obnoxious to his displeasure by not laying to heart the reproofs
   given them. 2. They had lost their credit (v. 9): Therefore have I also
   made you contemptible and base before all the people. While they
   glorified God he dignified them and supported their reputation, and a
   great interest they had in the love and esteem of the people while they
   did their duty and walked with God in peace and equity; every one had a
   value and veneration for them; they were truly styled the reverend, the
   priests; but when they forsook the ways of God, and corrupted the
   covenant of Levi, they thereby made themselves not only mean, but vile,
   in the eyes even of the common people, who, the more they honoured the
   order, the more they hated the men that were a dishonour to it. Their
   conduct, their misconduct, had a direct tendency to this, and God owns
   his hand in it, and will have it looked upon as a just judgment of his
   upon them, and not only produced by their sin but answering to it; they
   put dishonour upon God, and made his table and the fruit thereof
   contemptible (ch. i. 12), and therefore God justly put dishonour upon
   them and made them contemptible; they exposed themselves, and therefore
   God exposed them. Note, As sin is a reproach to any people, so
   especially to priests; there is not a more despicable animal upon the
   face of the earth than a profane, wicked, scandalous minister.

   V. Here is a sentence of wrath passed upon them; and this the prophet
   begins with, v. 2, 3. But it is conditional: If you will not lay it to
   heart, implying, "If you will, God's anger shall be turned away, and
   all shall be well; but, if you persist in these wicked courses, hear
   your doom--Your sin will be your ruin." 1. They shall fall and lie
   under the curse of God: I will send a curse upon you. The wrath of God
   shall be revealed against them, according to the threatenings of the
   written word. Note, Those who violate the commands of the law lay
   themselves under the curses of the law. 2. Neither their employments
   nor their enjoyments, as priests, shall be clean to them: "I will curse
   your blessings, so that you shall neither be blessed yourselves nor
   blessings to the people, but even your plenty shall be a plague to you
   and you shall be plagues to your generation." 3. The fruits of the
   earth, which they had the tithe of, should be no comfort to them:
   "Behold, I will corrupt your seed; the corn you sow shall rot under
   ground and never come up again, the consequence of which must needs be
   famine and scarcity of provisions; so that no meat-offerings shall be
   brought to the altar, which the priests will soon have a loss of." Or
   it may be understood of the seed of the word which they preached; God
   threatens to deny his blessing to the instructions they gave the
   people, so that their labour shall be lost, as that of the husbandman
   is when the seed is corrupt; and so it agrees with that threatening
   (Jer. xxiii. 32), They shall not profit this people at all. 4. They and
   their services shall be rejected of God; he will be so far from taking
   any pleasure in them that he will loathe and detest them: I will spread
   dung in your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts. He refers to
   the sacrifices that were offered at those feasts. Instead of being
   himself pleased with the fat of their sacrifices, he will show himself
   displeased by throwing the dung of them in their faces, which he does,
   in effect, when he says, Bring no more vain oblations; your incense is
   an abomination to me. Note, Those who rest in their external
   performances of religion, which they should count but dung, that they
   may win Christ, shall not only come short of acceptance with God in
   them, but shall be filled with shame and confusion for their folly. 5.
   All will end, at last, in their utter ruin: One shall take you away
   with it. They shall be so overspread with the dung of their sacrifices
   that they shall be carried away with it to the dunghill, as a part of
   it. Any one shall serve to take you away, the common scavenger.
   Reprobate silver shall men call them, and treat them accordingly,
   because the Lord has rejected them.

Unlawful Marriages; Breach of the Marriage-covenant; Charge of Corrupt
Principles. (b. c. 400.)

   10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we
   deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the
   covenant of our fathers?   11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an
   abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath
   profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the
   daughter of a strange god.   12 The Lord will cut off the man that
   doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of
   Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.   13
   And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears,
   with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the
   offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.   14
   Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee
   and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously:
   yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.   15 And did
   not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore
   one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your
   spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
     16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
   away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of
   hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
   treacherously.   17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye
   say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth
   evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or,
   Where is the God of judgment?

   Corrupt practices are the genuine fruit and product of corrupt
   principles; and the badness of men's hearts and lives is owing to some
   loose atheistical notions which they have got and which they govern
   themselves by. Now, in these verses, we have an instance of this; we
   here find men dealing falsely with one another, and it is because they
   think falsely of their God. Observe,

   I. How corrupt their practices were. In general, they dealt
   treacherously every man against his brother, v. 10. It cannot be
   expected that he who is false to his God should be true to his friend.
   They had dealt treacherously with God in his tithes and offerings, and
   had defrauded him, and thus conscience was debauched, its bonds and
   cords were broken, a door was opened to all manner of injustice and
   dishonesty, and the bonds of relation and natural affection are broken
   through likewise and no difficulty made of it. Some think that the
   treacherous dealings here reproved are the same with those instances of
   oppression and extortion which we find complained of to Nehemiah about
   this time, Neh. v. 3-7. Therein they forgot the God of their fathers,
   and the covenant of their fathers, and rendered their offerings
   unacceptable, Isa. i. 11. But it seems rather to refer to what was
   amiss in their marriages, which was likewise complained of, Neh. xiii.
   23. Two things they are here charged with, as very provoking to God in
   this matter--taking strange wives of heathen nations, and abusing and
   putting away the wives they had of their own nation; in both these they
   dealt treacherously and violated a sacred covenant; the former was in
   contempt of the covenant of peculiarity, the latter of the
   marriage-covenant.

   1. In contempt of the covenant God made with Israel, as a peculiar
   people to himself, they married strange wives, which was expressly
   prohibited, and provided against, in that covenant, Deut. vii. 3.
   Observe here,

   (1.) What good reason they had to deal faithfully with God and one
   another in this covenant, and not to make marriages with the heathen.
   [1.] They were expressly bound out from such marriages by covenant. God
   engaged to do them good upon this condition, that they should not
   mingle with the heathen; this was the covenant of their fathers, the
   covenant made with their fathers, denoting the antiquity and the
   authority of it, and its being the great charter by which that nation
   was incorporated. They lay under all possible obligations to observe it
   strictly, yet they profaned it, as if they were not bound by it. Those
   profane the covenant of their fathers who live in disobedience to the
   command of the God of their fathers. [2.] They were a peculiar people,
   united in one body, and therefore ought to have united for the
   preserving of the honour of their peculiarity: Have we not all one
   Father? Yes, we have, for has not one God created us? Are we not all
   his offspring? And are we not made of one blood? Yes, certainly we are.
   God is a common Father to all mankind, and, upon that account, all we
   are brethren, members one of another, and therefore ought to put away
   lying (Eph. iv. 25), and not to deal treacherously, no, not any man
   against his brother. But here it seems to refer to the Jewish nation:
   Have we not all one father, Abraham, or Jacob? This they prided
   themselves in, We have Abraham to our father; but here it is turned
   upon them as an aggravation of their sin in betraying the honour of
   their nation by intermarrying with heathens: "Has not one God created
   us, that is, formed us into a people, made us a nation by ourselves,
   and put a life into us, distinct from that of other nations? And should
   not this oblige us to maintain the dignity of our character?" Note, The
   consideration of the unity of the church in Christ, its founder and
   Father, should engage us carefully to preserve the purity of the church
   and to guard against all corruptions. [3.] They were dedicated to God,
   as well as distinguished from the neighbouring nations. Israel was
   holiness to the Lord (Jer. ii. 3), taken into covenant with him, set
   apart by him for himself, to be to him for a name and a praise, and
   upon this account he loved them and delighted in them; the sanctuary
   set up among them was the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, of
   which he said, It is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have
   desired it; but by marrying strange wives they profaned this holiness,
   and laid the honour of it in the dust. Note, Those who are devoted to
   God, and beloved of him, are concerned to preserve their integrity,
   that they may not throw themselves out of his love, nor lose the
   honour, or defeat the end, of their dedication to him.

   (2.) How treacherously they dealt, notwithstanding, They profaned
   themselves in that very thing which was prescribed to them for the
   preserving of the honour of their singularity: Judah has married the
   daughter of a strange god. The harm was not so much that she was the
   daughter of a strange nation (God has made all nations of men, and is
   himself King of nations), but that she was the daughter of a strange
   god, trained up in the service and worship of false gods, at their
   disposal, as a daughter at her father's disposal, and having a
   dependence upon them; hence some of the rabbin (quoted by Dr. Pocock)
   say, He that marries a heathen woman is as if he made himself
   son-in-law to an idol. The corruption of the old world began with the
   intermarriages of the sons of God with the daughters of men, Gen. vi.
   2. It is the same thing that is here complained of, but as it is
   expressed it sounds worse: The sons of God married the daughters of a
   strange god. Herein Judah is said to have dealt treacherously, for they
   basely betrayed their own honour and profaned that holiness of the Lord
   which they should have loved (so some read it); and it is said to be an
   abomination committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; it was hateful to
   God, and very unbecoming those that were called by his name. Note, it
   is an abominable thing for those who profess the holiness of the Lord
   to profane it, particularly by yoking themselves unequally with
   unbelievers.

   (3.) How severely God would reckon with them for it (v. 12): The Lord
   will cut off the man that doeth this, that marries the daughter of a
   strange god. He has, in effect, cut himself off from the holy nation,
   and joined in with foreigners and aliens to the commonwealth of Israel,
   and so shall his doom be; God will cut him off, him and all that
   belongs to him; so the original intimates. He shall be cut off from
   Israel and from Jerusalem, and not be written among the living there.
   The Lord will cut off both the master and the scholar, that are guilty
   of this sin, both the teachers and the taught. The blind leaders and
   the blind followers shall fall together into the ditch, both him that
   wakeneth and him that answereth (so it is in the margin), for the
   master calls up his scholar to his business, and stirs him up in it.
   They shall be cut off together out of the tabernacles of Jacob. God
   will no more own them as belonging to his nation; nay, and the priest
   that offers an offering to the Lord, if he marry a strange wife (as we
   find many of the priests did, Ezra x. 18), shall not escape; the
   offering he offers shall not atone for him, but he shall be cut off
   from the temple of the Lord, as others from the tabernacles of Jacob.
   Nehemiah chased away from him, and from the priesthood, one of the sons
   of the high priest, whom he found guilty of this sin, Neh. xiii. 28.

   2. In contempt of the marriage-covenant, which God instituted for the
   common benefit of mankind, they abused and put away the wives they had
   of their own nation, probably to make room for those strange wives,
   when it was all the fashion to marry such (v. 13): This also have you
   done; this is the second article of the charge. For the way of sin is
   down-hill, and one violation of the covenant is an inlet to another.

   (1.) Let us see what it is that is here complained of. they did not
   behave as they ought to have done towards their wives. [1.] They were
   cross with them, froward and peevish, and made their lives bitter to
   them, so that when they came with their wives and families to worship
   God at the solemn feasts, which they should have done with rejoicing,
   they were all out of humour; the poor wives were ready to break their
   hearts, and, not daring to make their case known to any other, they
   complained to God, and covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with
   weeping, and with crying. This is illustrated by the instance of
   Hannah, who, upon the account of her husband's having another wife
   (though otherwise a kind husband), and the discontent thence arising,
   whenever they went up to the house of the Lord to worship fretted and
   wept, and was in bitterness of soul, and would not eat, 1 Sam. i. 6, 7,
   10. So it was with these wives here; and this was so contrary to the
   cheerfulness which God requires in his worshippers that it spoiled the
   acceptableness of their devotions: God regards not their offering any
   more. See here what a good Master we serve, who will not have his altar
   covered with tears, but compassed with songs. This condemns those who
   left his worship for that of idols, among the rites of which we find
   women weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. viii. 14), and the blood of the
   worshippers gushing out upon the altar, 1 Kings xviii. 28. See also
   what a wicked thing it is to put others out of frame for the cheerful
   worship of God; though it is their fault by their fretfulness to
   indispose themselves for their duty, yet it is much more the fault of
   those who provoked them to make them to fret. It is a reason given why
   yoke-fellows should live in holy love and joy--that their prayers may
   not be hindered, 1 Pet. iii. 7. [2.] They dealt treacherously with
   them, v. 14-16. They did not perform their promises to them, but
   defrauded them of their maintenance or dower, or took in concubines, to
   share in the affection that was due to their wives only. [3.] They put
   them away, gave them a bill of divorce, and turned them off, nay,
   perhaps they did it without the ceremony that the law of Moses
   prescribed, v. 16. [4.] In all this they covered violence with their
   garment; they abused their wives, and were vexatious to them, and yet,
   in the sight of others, they pretended to be very loving to them and
   tender of them, and to cast a skirt over them. It is common for those
   who do violence to advance some specious pretence or other wherewith to
   cover it as with a garment.

   (2.) Let us see the proof and aggravations of the charge. [1.] It is
   sufficiently proved by the testimony of God himself: "The Lord has been
   witness between thee and the wife of thy youth (v. 14), has been
   witness to the marriage-covenant between thee and her, for to him you
   appealed concerning your sincerity in it and fidelity to it; he has
   been a witness to all the violations of it, and all thy treacherous
   dealings in contempt of it, and is ready to judge between thee and
   her." Note, This should engage us to be faithful both to God and to all
   with whom we have to do, that God himself is a witness both to all our
   covenants and to all our covenant-breaches; and he is a witness against
   whom there lies no exception. [2.] It is highly aggravated by the
   consideration of the person wronged and abused. First, "She is thy
   wife; thy own, bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh, the nearest to
   thee of all the relations thou hast in the world, and to cleave to whom
   thou must quit the rest." Secondly, "She is the wife of thy youth, who
   had thy affections when they were at the strongest, was thy first
   choice, and with whom thou hast lived long. Let not the darling of thy
   youth be the scorn and loathing of thy age." Thirdly, "She is thy
   companion; she has long been an equal sharer with thee in thy cares,
   and griefs, and joys." The wife is to be looked upon, not as a servant,
   but as a companion to the husband, with whom he should freely converse
   and take sweet counsel, as with a friend, and in whose company he
   should take delight more than in any other's; for is she not appointed
   to be thy companion? Fourthly, "She is the wife of thy covenant, to
   whom thou art so firmly bound that, while she continues faithful, thou
   canst not be loosed from her, for it was a covenant for life. It is the
   wife with whom thou hast covenanted, and who has covenanted with thee;
   there is an oath of God between you, which is not to be trifled with,
   is not to be played fast and loose with." Married people should often
   call to mind their marriage-vows, and review them with all seriousness,
   as those that make conscience of performing what they promised.

   (3.) Let us see the reasons given why man and wife should continue
   together, to their lives' end, in holy love and peace, and neither
   quarrel with each other nor separate from each other. [1.] Because god
   has joined them together (v. 15): Did not he make one, one Eve for one
   Adam, that Adam might never take another to her to vex her (Lev. xviii.
   18), nor put her away to make room for another? It is great wickedness
   to complain of the law of marriage as a confinement, when Adam in
   innocency, in honour, in Eden, in the garden of pleasure, was confined
   to one. Yet God had the residue of the Spirit; he could have made
   another Eve, as amiable as that he did make, but, designing Adam a help
   meet for him, he made him one wife; had he made him more, he would not
   have had a meet help. And wherefore did he make but one woman for one
   man? It was that he might seek a godly seed--a seed of God (so the word
   is), a seed that should bear the image of God, be employed in the
   service of God, and be devoted to his glory and honour,--that every man
   having his own wife, and but one, according to the law, (1 Cor. vii.
   2), they might live in chaste and holy love, under the directions and
   restraints of the divine law, and not, as brute beasts, under the
   dominion of lust, and thus might propagate the nature of man in such a
   way as might make it most likely to participate of a divine
   nature,--that the children, being born in holy matrimony, which is an
   ordinance of God, and by which the inclinations of nature are kept
   under the regulations of God's command, might thus be made a seed to
   serve him, and be bred, as they are born, under his direction and
   dominion. Note, The raising up of a godly seed, which shall be
   accounted to the Lord for a generation, is one great end of the
   institution of marriage; but that is a good reason why the marriage-bed
   should be kept undefiled and the marriage bond inviolable. Husbands and
   wives must therefore live in the fear of God, that their seed may be a
   godly seed, else were they unclean, but now they are holy, as children
   of the covenant, the marriage-covenant, which was a type of the
   covenant of grace, and the conjugal union, when thus preserved entire,
   of the mystical union between Christ and his church, in which he seeks
   and secures to himself a godly seed; see Eph. v. 25, 32. [2.] Because
   he is much displeased with those who go about to put asunder what he
   has joined together (v. 16): The God of Israel saith that he hateth
   putting away. He hath indeed permitted it to the Jews, for the hardness
   of their hearts, or, rather, limited and clogged it (Matt. xix. 8); but
   he hated it, especially as those practised it who put away their wives
   for every cause, Matt. xix. 3. Let those wives that elope from their
   husbands and put themselves away, those husbands that are cruel to
   their wives and turn them away, or take their affections off from their
   wives and place them upon others, yea, and those husbands and wives
   that live asunder by consent, for want of love to each other, let such
   as these know that the God of Israel hates such practices, however vain
   men may make a jest of them.

   (4.) Let us see the caution inferred from all this. We have it twice
   (v. 15): Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
   treacherously against the wife of his youth; and again, v. 16. Note,
   Those that would be kept from sin must take heed to their spirits, for
   there all sin begins; they must keep their hearts with all diligence,
   must keep a jealous eye upon them and a strict hand, and must watch
   against the first risings of sin there. We shall act as we are
   spirited; and therefore, that we may regulate our actions, we must
   consider what manner of spirit we are of; we must take heed to our
   spirits with reference to our particular relations, and see that we
   stand rightly affected to them and be of a good temper, for otherwise
   we shall be in danger of dealing treacherously. If our own hearts deal
   treacherously with us, whom will they not deal treacherously with?

   II. Observe how corrupt their principles were, to which were owing all
   these corrupt practices. Let us trace up the streams to the fountain
   (v. 17): You have wearied the Lord with your words. They thought to
   evade the convictions of the word, and to justify themselves by
   cavilling with God's proceedings; but their defence was their offence,
   and their vindication of themselves was the aggravation of their crime;
   they affronted the Lord with their words, and repeated them so often,
   and persisted so long in their contradictions, that they even wearied
   him; see Isa. vii. 13. They made him weary of doing them good as he had
   done, and stopped the current of his favours; or they represented him
   as weary of governing the world, and willing to quit it and lay aside
   the care of it. Note, It is a wearisome thing, even to God himself, to
   hear people insist upon their own justification in their corrupt and
   wicked practices, and plead their atheistical principles in vindication
   of them. But, as if God by his prophet had done them wrong, see how
   impudently they ask, Wherein have we wearied him? What are those
   vexatious words whereby we have wearied him? Note, Sinful words are
   more offensive to the God of heaven than they are commonly thought to
   be. But God has his proofs ready; two things they had said, at least in
   their hearts (and thoughts are words to God), with which they had
   wearied him:--1. They had denied him to be a holy God, and had asserted
   that concerning him which is directly contrary to the doctrine of his
   holiness. As he is a holy God, he hates sin, is of purer eyes than to
   behold it, and cannot endure to look upon it, Hab. i. 13. He is not a
   God that has pleasure in wickedness, Ps. v. 4. And yet they had the
   impudence to say, in direct contradiction to this, Every one that does
   evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. This
   wicked inference they drew, without any reason, from the prosperity of
   sinners in their sinful courses (see ch. iii. 15), as if God's love or
   hatred were to be known by that which is before us, and those must be
   concluded good in the sight of the Lord who are rich in the world. Or
   this they said because they wished it might be so; they were resolved
   to do evil, and yet to think themselves good in the sight of the Lord,
   and to believe that he delighted in them, notwithstanding; and
   therefore, under pretence of making God not so severe as he was
   commonly represented, they said as they would have it, and thought he
   was altogether such a one as themselves. Note, Those who think God a
   friend to sin affront him and deceive themselves. 2. They had denied
   him to be the righteous governor of the world. If he did not delight in
   sin and sinners, yet it would serve their turn to believe that he would
   never punish it or them. They said, "Where is the God of judgment? That
   God who, we have been so often told, would call us to an account, and
   reckon with us for what we have said and done--where is he? He has
   forsaken the earth, and takes no notice of what is said and done there;
   he has said that he will come to judgment; but where is the promise of
   his coming? We may do what we please; he sees us not, nor will regard
   us." It is such a challenge to the Judge of the whole earth as bids
   defiance to his justice, and, in effect, dares him to do his worst.
   Such scoffers as these there were in the latter days of the Jewish
   church, and such there shall be in the latter days of the Christian
   church; but their unbelief shall not make the promise of God of no
   effect; for the day of the Lord will come. Behold, the Judge stands
   before the door; the God of judgment is at hand.
     __________________________________________________________________

M A L A C H I.

  CHAP. III.

   In this chapter we have, I. A promise of the coming of the Messiah, and
   of his forerunner; and the errand he comes upon is here particularly
   described, both the comfort which his coming brings to his church and
   people and the terror which it will bring to the wicked, ver. 1-6. II.
   A reproof of the Jews for their corrupting God's ordinances and
   sacrilegiously robbing him of his dues, with a charge to them to amend
   this matter, and a promise that, if they did, God would return in mercy
   to them, ver. 7-12. III. A description of the wickedness of the wicked
   that speak against God (ver. 13-15), and of the righteousness of the
   righteous that speak for him, with the precious promises made to them,
   ver. 16-18.

Evangelical Predictions; The Advent of Christ Predicted. (b. c. 400.)

   1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
   me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even
   the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall
   come, saith the Lord of hosts.   2 But who may abide the day of his
   coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a
   refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:   3 And he shall sit as a
   refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
   and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an
   offering in righteousness.   4 Then shall the offering of Judah and
   Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in
   former years.   5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will
   be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers,
   and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling
   in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
   stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.   6
   For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
   consumed.

   The first words of this chapter seem a direct answer to the profane
   atheistical demand of the scoffers of those days which closed the
   foregoing chapter: Where is the God of judgment? To which it is readily
   answered, "Here he is; he is just at the door; the long-expected
   Messiah is ready to appear; and he says, For judgment have I come into
   this world, for that judgment which you have so impudently bid defiance
   to." One of the rabbin says that the meaning of this is, That God will
   raise up a righteous King, to set things in order, even the king
   Messiah. And the beginning of the gospel of Christ is expressly said to
   be the accomplishment of this promise, with which the Old Testament
   concludes, Mark i. 1, 2. So that by this the two Testaments are, as it
   were, tacked together, and made to answer one another. Now here we
   have,

   I. A prophecy of the appearing of his forerunner John the Baptist,
   which the prophet Isaiah had foretold (ch. xl. 3), as the preparing of
   the way of the Lord, to which this seems to have a reference, for the
   words of the latter prophets confirmed those of the former: Behold, I
   will send my messenger, or I do send him, or I am sending him. "I am
   determined to send him; he will now shortly come, and will not come
   unsent, though to a careless generation he comes unsent for." Observe,
   1. He is God's messenger; that is his office; he is Malachi (so the
   word is), the same with the name of this prophet; he is my angel, my
   ambassador. John Baptist had his commission from heaven, and not of
   men. All held John Baptist for a prophet, for he was God's messenger,
   as the prophets were, and came on the same errand to the world that
   they were sent upon--to call men to repentance and reformation. 2. He
   is Christ's harbinger: He shall prepare the way before me, by calling
   men to those duties which qualify them to receive the comforts of the
   Messiah and his coming, and by taking them off from a confidence in
   their relation to Abraham as their father (which, they thought, would
   serve their turn without a saviour), and by giving notice that the
   Messiah was now at hand, and so raising men's expectations of him, and
   making them readily to go into the measures he would take for the
   setting up of his kingdom in the world. Note, God observes a method in
   his work, and, before he comes, takes care to have his way prepared.
   This is like the giving of a sign. The church was told, long before,
   that the Messiah would come; and here it is added that, a little before
   he appears, there shall be a signal given; a great prophet shall arise,
   that shall give notice of his approach, and call to the everlasting
   gates and doors to lift up their heads and give him admission. The
   accomplishment of this is a proof that Jesus is the Christ, is he that
   should come, and we are to look for no other; for there was such a
   messenger sent before him, who made ready a people prepared for the
   Lord, Luke i. 17. The Jewish writers run into gross absurdities to
   evade the conviction of this evidence; some of them say that this
   messenger is the angel of death, who shall take the wicked out of this
   life, to be sent into hell torments; others of them say that it is
   Messiah the son of Joseph, who shall appear before Messiah the son of
   David; others, this prophet himself; others, an angel from heaven: such
   mistakes do those run into that will not receive the truth.

   II. A prophecy of the appearing of the Messiah himself: "The Lord, whom
   you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the God of judgment,
   who, you think, has forsaken the earth, and you wot not what has become
   of him. The Messiah has been long called he that should come, and you
   may assure yourselves that now shortly he will come." 1. He is the
   Lord--Adonai, the basis and foundation on which the world is founded
   and fastened, the ruler and governor of all, that one Lord over all
   (Acts x. 36) that has all power committed to him (Matt. xxviii. 18) and
   is to reign over the house of Jacob for ever, Luke i. 33. 2. He is the
   Messenger of the covenant, or the angel of the covenant, that blessed
   one that was sent from heaven to negotiate a peace, and settle a
   correspondence, between God and man. He is the angel, the archangel,
   the Lord of the angels, who received commission from the Father to
   bring man home to God by a covenant of grace, who had revolted from him
   by the violation of the covenant of innocency. Christ is the angel of
   this covenant, by whose mediation it is brought about and established
   as God's covenant with Israel was made by the disposition of angels,
   Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. 19. Christ, as a prophet, is the messenger and
   mediator of the covenant; nay, he is given for a covenant, Isa. xlix.
   8. That covenant which is all our salvation began to be spoken by the
   Lord, Heb. ii. 3. Though he is the prince of the covenant (as some read
   this) yet he condescended to be the messenger of it, that we might have
   full assurance of God's good-will towards man, upon his word. 3. He it
   is whom you seek, whom you delight in, whom the pious Jews expect and
   desire, and whose coming they think of with a great deal of pleasure.
   In looking and waiting for him, they looked for redemption in Jerusalem
   and waited for the consolation of Israel, Luke ii. 25, 38. Christ was
   to be the desire of all nations, desirable to all (Hag. ii. 7); but he
   was the desire of the Jewish nation actually, because they had the
   promise of his coming made to them. Note, Those that seek Jesus shall
   find pleasure in him. If he be our heart's desire he will be our
   heart's delight; and we have reason to delight in him who is the
   messenger of the covenant, and to bid him welcome who came to us on so
   kind an errand. 4. He shall suddenly come; his coming draws nigh, and
   we see it not at so great a distance as the patriarchs saw it at. Or,
   He shall come immediately after the appearing of John Baptist, shall
   even tread on the heels of his forerunner; when that morning-star
   appears, believe that the Sun of righteousness is not far off. Or, He
   shall come suddenly, that is, he shall come when by many he is not
   looked for; as his second coming will be, so his first coming was, at
   midnight, when some had done looking for him, for shall he find faith
   on the earth? Luke xviii. 8. The Jews reckon the Messiah among the
   things that come unawares; so Dr. Pocock. And the coming of the Son of
   man in his day is said to be as the lightning, which is very
   surprising, Luke xvii. 24. 5. He shall come to his temple, this temple
   at Jerusalem, which was lately built, that latter house which he was to
   be the glory of. It is his temple, for it is his Father's house, John
   ii. 16. Christ, at forty days old, was presented in the temple, and
   thither Simeon went by the Spirit, according to the direction of this
   prophecy, to see him, Luke ii. 27. At twelve years old he was in the
   temple about his Father's business, Luke ii. 49. When he rode in
   triumph into Jerusalem, it should seem that he went directly to the
   temple (Matt. xxi. 12), and (v. 14) thither the blind and the lame came
   to him to be healed; there he often preached, and often disputed, and
   often wrought miracles. By this it appears that the Messiah was to come
   while that temple was standing; that, therefore, being long since
   destroyed, we must conclude that he has come, and we are to look for no
   other. Note, Those that would be acquainted with Christ and obtain his
   favour must meet him in his temple, for there he records his name and
   there he will bless his people. There we must receive his oracles and
   there we must pay our homage. 6. The promise of this coming is repeated
   and ratified: Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts; you may
   depend upon his word, who cannot lie, he shall come, he will come, he
   will not tarry.

   III. An account given of the great ends and intentions of his coming,
   v. 2. He is one whom they seek, and one whom they delight in; and yet
   who may abide the day of his coming? It is a thing to be thought of
   with great seriousness, and with a holy awe and reverence; for who
   shall stand when he appears, though he comes not to condemn the world,
   but that the world through him might have life? This may refer,

   1. To the terrors of his appearance. Even in the days of his flesh
   there were some emanations of his glory and power, such as none could
   stand before, witness his transfiguration, and the prodigies that
   attended his death; and we read of some that trembled before him, as
   Mark v. 33.

   2. To the troublous times that should follow soon after. The Jewish
   doctors speak of the pangs or griefs of the Messiah, meaning (they say)
   the great afflictions that should be to Israel at the time of his
   coming; he himself speaks of great tribulation then approaching, such
   as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be, Matt.
   xxiv. 21.

   3. To the trial which his coming would make of the children of men. He
   shall be like a refiner's fire, which separates between the gold and
   the dross by melting the ore, or like fuller's soap, which with much
   rubbing fetches the spots out of the cloth. Christ came to discover
   men, that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed (Luke ii. 35),
   to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile, for
   his fan in his hand (Matt. iii. 12), to send fire on the earth, not
   peace, but rather division (Luke xii. 49, 51), to shake heaven and
   earth, that the wicked might be shaken out (Job xxxviii. 13) and that
   the things which cannot be shaken might remain, Heb. xii. 27. See what
   the effect of the trial will be that shall be made by the gospel.

   (1.) The gospel shall work good upon those that are disposed to be
   good, to them it shall be a savour of life unto life (v. 3): He shall
   sit as a refiner. Christ by his gospel shall purify and reform his
   church, and by his Spirit working with it shall regenerate and cleanse
   particular souls; for to this end he gave himself for the church, that
   he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word
   (Eph. v. 26) and purify to himself a peculiar people, Tit. ii. 14.
   Christ is the great refiner. Observe, [1.] Who they are that he will
   purify--the sons of Levi, all those that are devoted to his praise and
   employed in his service, as the tribe of Levi was, and whom he designs
   to make unto our God spiritual priests (Rev. i. 6), a holy priesthood,
   1 Pet. ii. 5. Note, All true Christians are sons of Levi, set apart for
   God, to do the service of his sanctuary, and to war the good warfare.
   [2.] How he will purify them; he will purge them as gold and silver,
   that is, he will sanctify them inwardly; he will not only wash away the
   spots they have contracted from without, but will take away the dross
   that is found in them; he will separate from them their indwelling
   corruptions, which rendered their faculties worthless and useless, and
   so make them like gold refined, both valuable and serviceable. He will
   purge them with fire, as gold and silver are purged, for he baptizes
   with the Holy Ghost and with fire (Matt. iii. 11), with the Holy Ghost
   working like fire. He will purge them by afflictions and manifold
   temptations, that the trial of their faith may be found to praise and
   honour, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. He will purge them so as to make them a
   precious people to himself. [3.] What will be the effect of it: That
   they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, that is,
   that they may be in sincerity converted to God and consecrated to his
   praise (hence we read of the offering up, or sacrificing, of the
   Gentiles to God, when they were sanctified by the holy Ghost, Rom. xv.
   16), and that they may in a spiritual manner worship God according to
   his will, may offer the sacrifices of righteousness, (Ps. iv. 5), the
   offering of prayer, and praise, and holy love, that they may be the
   true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth, John
   iv. 23, 24. Note, We cannot offer unto the Lord any right performances
   in religion unless our persons be justified and sanctified. Till we
   ourselves be refined and purified by the grace of God, we cannot do any
   thing that will redound to the glory of God. God had respect to Abel
   first, and then to his offering; and therefore God purges his people,
   that they may offer their offerings to him in righteousness, Zeph. iii.
   9. He makes the tree good that the fruit may be good. And then it
   follows (v. 4), The offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant
   unto the Lord. It shall no longer be offensive, as it has been, when,
   in the former days, they worshipped other gods with the God of Israel,
   or when, in the present days, they brought the torn, and the lame, and
   the sick, for sacrifice; but it shall be acceptable; he will be pleased
   with the offerers, and their offerings, as in the days of old and as in
   former years, as in the primitive times of the church, as when God had
   respect to Abel's sacrifice and smelled a savour of rest from Noah's,
   and when he kindled Aaron's sacrifice with fire from heaven. When the
   Messiah comes, First, He will, by his grace in them, make them
   acceptable; when he has purified and refined them, then they shall
   offer such sacrifices as God requires and will accept. Secondly, He
   will, by his intercession for them, make them accepted; he will
   recommend them and their performances to God, so that their prayers,
   being perfumed with the incense of his intercession, shall be pleasant
   unto the Lord; for he has made us accepted in the Beloved, and in him
   is well pleased with those that are in him (Matt. iii. 17) and bring
   forth fruit in him.

   (2.) It shall turn for a testimony against those that are resolved to
   go on in their wickedness, v. 5. This is the direct answer to their
   challenge, "Where is the God of judgment? You shall know where he is,
   and shall know it to your terror and confusion, for I will come near to
   you to judgment; to you that set divine justice at defiance." To them
   the gospel of Christ will be a savour of death unto death; it will bind
   them over to condemnation and will judge them in the great day, John
   xii. 48. Let us see here, [1.] Who the sinners are that must appear to
   be judged by the gospel of Christ. They are the sorcerers, who died in
   spiritual wickedness, that forsake the oracles of the God of truth to
   consult the father of lies; and the adulterers, who wallow in the lusts
   of the flesh, those adulterers who were charged with dealing
   treacherously (ch. ii. 15); and the false swearers, who profane God's
   name and affront his justice, by calling him to witness to a lie; and
   the oppressors, who barbarously injure and trample upon those who lie
   at their mercy, and are not able to help themselves: they defraud the
   hireling in his wages and will not give him what he agreed for; they
   crush the widow and fatherless, and will not pay them their just debts,
   because they cannot prove them, or have not wherewithal to sue for
   them; the poor stranger too, who has no friend to stand by him and is
   ignorant of the laws of the country, they turn aside from his right, so
   that he cannot keep or cannot recover his own. That which is at the
   bottom of all this is, They fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. The
   transgression of the wicked plainly declares that there is no fear of
   God before his eyes. Where no fear of God is no good is to be expected.
   [2.] Who will appear against them: I will come near, says God, and will
   be a swift witness against them. They justify themselves, and, their
   sins having been artfully concealed, hope to escape punishment for want
   of proof; but God, who sees and knows all things, will himself be
   witness against them, and his omniscience is instead of a thousand
   witnesses, for to it the sinner's own conscience shall be made to
   subscribe, and so every mouth shall be stopped. He will be a swift
   witness; though they reflect upon him as slow and dilatory, and ask,
   Where is the God of judgment, and where the promise of his coming? they
   will find that he is not slack concerning his threatenings any more
   than he is concerning his promises. Judgment against those sinners
   shall not be put off for want of evidence, for he will be a swift
   witness. His judgment shall overtake them, and it shall be impossible
   for them to outrun it. Evil pursues sinners.

   IV. The ratification of all this (v. 6): For I am the Lord; I change
   not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Here we have, 1.
   God's immutability asserted by Himself, and glorified in: "I am the
   Lord; I change not; and therefore no word that I have spoken shall fall
   to the ground." Is God a just revenger of those that rebel against him?
   Is he the bountiful rewarder of those that diligently seek him? In both
   these he is unchangeable. Though the sentence passed against evil works
   (v. 5) be not executed speedily, yet it will be executed, for he is the
   Lord; he changes not; he is as much an enemy to sin as ever he was, and
   impenitent sinners will find him so. There needs no scire facias--a
   writ calling one to show cause, to revive God's judgment, for it is
   never antiquated, or out of date, but against those that go on still in
   their trespasses the curse of his law still remains in full force,
   power, and virtue. 2. A particular proof of it, from the comfortable
   experience which the people of Israel had had of it. They had reason to
   say that he was an unchangeable God, for he had been faithful to his
   covenant with them and their fathers; if he had not adhered to that,
   they would have been consumed long ago and cut off from being a people;
   they had been false and fickle in their conduct to him, and he might
   justly have abandoned them, and then they would soon have been consumed
   and ruined; but because he remembered his covenant, and would not
   violate that, nor alter the thing that had gone forth out of his lips,
   they were preserved from ruin and recovered from the brink of it. It
   was purely because he would be as good as his word, Deut. vii. 8; Lev.
   xxvi. 42. Now as God had kept them from ruin, while the covenant of
   peculiarity remained in force, purely because he would be faithful to
   that covenant, and would show that he is not a man that he should lie
   (Num. xxiii. 19), so, when that covenant should be superseded and set
   aside by the New Testament, and they, by rejecting the blessings of it,
   lay themselves open to the curses, he will show that in the
   determinations of his wrath, as well as in those of his mercy, he is
   not a man, that he should repent, but will then be as true to his
   threatenings as hitherto he had been to his promises; see 1 Sam. xv.
   29. We may all apply this very sensibly to ourselves; because we have
   to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we are not
   consumed, even because his compassions fail not; they are new every
   morning; great is his faithfulness, Lam. iii. 22, 23.

The Sins of the People; Encouragements to Repentance. (b. c. 400.)

   7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine
   ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
   unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we
   return?   8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
   Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.   9 Ye are cursed
   with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.   10 Bring
   ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine
   house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
   not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
   there shall not be room enough to receive it.   11 And I will rebuke
   the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
   your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in
   the field, saith the Lord of hosts.   12 And all nations shall call you
   blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

   We have here God's controversy with the men of that generation, for
   deserting his service and robbing him--wicked servants indeed, that not
   only run away from their Master, but run away with their Master's
   goods.

   I. They had run away from their Master, and quitted the work he gave
   them to do (v. 7): You have gone away from my ordinances and have not
   kept them. The ordinances of God's worship were the business which as
   servants they must mind, the talents which they must trade with, and
   the trust which was committed to them to keep; but they went away from
   them, grew weary of them, and withdrew their neck from that yoke; they
   deviated from the rule that God had prescribed to them, and betrayed
   the trust lodged with them. They had revolted from God, not only in
   worship, but in conversation; they had not kept his ordinances. This
   disobedience they were chargeable with, and had been guilty of, even
   from the days of their fathers; either as in the days of their fathers
   of old, who were sent into captivity for their disobedience, or, "Now,
   for some generations past, you have fallen off from what you were, when
   first you came back out of captivity." Ezra owns it in one particular
   instance: Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great
   trespass unto this day, Ezra ix. 7. Now observe, 1. What a gracious
   invitation God gives them to return and repent: "Return unto me, and to
   your duty, return to your service, return to your allegiance, return as
   a traveller that has missed his way, as a soldier that has run his
   colours, as a treacherous wife that has gone away from her husband;
   return, thou backsliding Israel, return to me; and then I will return
   unto you and be reconciled, will remove the judgments you are under and
   prevent those you fear." This had been of old the burden of the song
   (Zech. i. 3), and is still. 2. What a peevish answer they return to
   this gracious invitation: "But you said with disdain, said it to the
   prophets that called you, said it to one another, said it to your own
   hearts, to stifle the convictions you were under; you said, Wherein
   shall we return?" Note, God takes notice what returns our hearts make
   to the calls of his word, what we say and what we think when we have
   heard a sermon, what answer we give to the message sent us. When God
   calls us to return, we should answer as those did Jer. iii. 22, Behold,
   we come. But not as these here, Wherein shall we return? (1.) They take
   it as an affront to be told of their faults, and called upon to amend
   them; they are ready to say, "What ado do these prophets make about
   returning and repenting; why are we disgraced and disturbed thus, our
   own consciences and our neighbours stirred up against us?" It is ill
   with those who thus count reproofs reproaches, and kick against the
   pricks. (2.) They are so ignorant of themselves, and of the strictness,
   extent, and spiritual nature, of the divine law, that they see nothing
   in themselves to be repented of, or reformed; they are pure in their
   own eyes, and think they need no repentance. (3.) They are so firmly
   resolved to go on in sin that they will find a thousand foolish
   frivolous excuses to shift off their repentance, and turn away the
   calls that are given them to repent. They seem to speak only as those
   that wanted something to say; it is a mere evasion, a banter upon the
   prophet, and a challenge to him to descend to particulars. Note, Many
   ruin their own souls by baffling the calls that are given them to
   repent of their sins.

   II. They had robbed their Master, and embezzled his goods. They had
   asked, "Wherein shall we return? What have we done amiss?" And he soon
   tells them. Observe, 1. The prophet's high charge exhibited, in God's
   name, against the people. They stand indicted for robbery, for
   sacrilege, the worst of robberies: You have robbed me. He expostulates
   with them upon it: Will a man be so daringly impudent as to rob God?
   Man, who is a weak creature, and cannot contend with God's power, will
   he think to rob him vi et armis--forcibly? Man, who lies open to God's
   knowledge, and cannot conceal himself from that, will he think to rob
   him clam et secreto--privily? Man, who depends upon God, and derives
   his all from him, will he rob him that is his benefactor? This is
   ungrateful, unjust, and unkind, indeed; and it is very unwise thus to
   provoke him from whom our judgment proceeds. Will a man do violence to
   God? so some read it. Will a man do violence to God? so some read it.
   Will a man stint or straiten him? so others read it. Robbing God is a
   heinous crime. 2. The people's high challenge in answer to that charge:
   But you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? They plead Not guilty, and
   put God upon the proof of it. Note, Robbing God is such a heinous crime
   that those who are guilty of it are not willing to own themselves
   guilty. They rob God, and know not what they do. They rob him of his
   honour, rob him of that which is devoted to him, to be employed in his
   service, rob him of themselves, rob him of sabbath-time, rob him of
   that which is given for the support of religion, and give him not his
   dues out of their estates; and yet they ask, Wherein have we robbed
   thee? 3. The plain proof of the charge, in answer to this challenge; it
   is in tithes and offerings. Out of these the priests and Levites had
   maintenance for themselves and their families; but they detained them,
   defrauded the priests of them, would not pay their tithes, or not in
   full, or not of the best; they brought not the offerings which God
   required, or brought the torn, and lame, and sick, which were not fit
   for use. They were all guilty of this sin, even the whole nation, as if
   they were in confederacy against God, and all combined to rob him of
   his dues and to stand by one another in it when they had done. For this
   they were cursed with a curse, v. 9. God punished them with famine and
   scarcity, through unseasonable weather, or insects that ate up the
   fruits of the earth. God had thus punished them for neglecting to build
   the temple (Hag. i. 10, 11), and now for not maintaining the
   temple-service. Note, Those that deny God his part of their estates may
   justly expect a curse upon their own part of them: "You are cursed with
   a curse for robbing me, and yet you go on to do it." Note, It is a
   great aggravation of sin when men persist in it notwithstanding the
   rebukes of Providence which they are under for it. Nay, it should seem,
   because God had punished them with scarcity of bread, they made that a
   pretence for robbing him-that now, being impoverished, they could not
   afford to bring their tithes and offerings, but must save them, that
   they might have bread for their families. Note, It argues great
   perverseness in sin when men make those afflictions excuses for sin
   which are sent to part between them and their sins. When they had but
   little they should have done the more good with that little, and that
   would have been the way to make it more; but it is ill with the patient
   when that which should cure the disease serves only to palliate it, and
   prevent its being searched into. 4. An earnest exhortation to reform in
   this matter, with a promise that if they did the judgments they were
   under should be quickly removed. (1.) Let them take care to do their
   duty (v. 10): Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse. They had
   brought some; but, like Ananias and Sapphira, had kept back part of the
   price, pretending they could not spare so much as was required, and
   necessity has no law; but even necessity must have this law, and it
   would redress the grievance of their necessity: "Bring in the full
   tithes to the utmost that the law requires, that there may be meat in
   God's house for those that serve at the altar, whether there be meat in
   your houses or no." Note, God must be served in the first place, and
   our quota must be contributed for the support of religion in the place
   where we live, that God's name may be sanctified, and his kingdom may
   come, and his will be done, even before we provide our daily bread; for
   the interests of our souls ought to be preferred before those of our
   bodies. (2.) Let them then trust God to provide for them and their
   comfort "Let God be first served, and then prove me herewith, saith the
   Lord of hosts, whether I will not open the windows of heaven." They
   said, "Let God give us our plenty again, as formerly, and try us
   whether we will not then bring him his tithes and offerings, as we did
   formerly." "No," says God, "do you first bring in all your tithes as
   they become due, and all the arrears of what is past, and try me,
   whether I will not then restore you your plenty." Note, Those that will
   deal with God must deal upon trust; and we may all venture to do so,
   for, though many have been losers for him, never any were losers by him
   in the end. It is fit that we should venture first, for his reward is
   with him, but his work is before him; we must first do the work which
   is our part, and then try him and trust him for the reward. Elijah put
   the widow of Zarephath into this method when he said (1 Kings xvii.
   13), "Make me a little cake first, and then prove me whether there
   shall not be enough afterwards for thee and thy son." That which
   discourages people from the expenses of charity is the weakness of
   their faith concerning the gains and advantages of charity; they cannot
   think that they shall get by it. But it is a reasonable demand that God
   here makes: "Prove me now; is any thing to be got by charity? Come and
   see;" Nothing venture, nothing win. Trust upon honour, "And you shall
   find," [1.] "That, whereas the heavens have been shut up, and there has
   been no rain, now God will open to you the windows of heaven, for in
   his hand the key of the clouds is, and you shall have seasonable rain."
   Or the expression is figurative; every good gift coming from above,
   thence God will plentifully pour out upon them the bounties of his
   providence. Very sudden plenty is expressed by opening the windows of
   heaven, 2 Kings vii. 2. We find the windows of heaven opened, to pour
   down a deluge of wrath, in Noah's flood, Gen. vii. 11. But here they
   are opened to pour down blessings, to such a degree that there should
   not be room enough to receive them. So plentifully shall their ground
   bring forth that they shall be tempted to pull down their barns and
   build greater, for want of room, Luke xii. 18. Or, as Dr. Pocock
   explains it, "I will pour out on you such a blessing as shall be not
   enough only, and such as shall be sufficient, but more and more than
   enough;" that is, a great addition. The oil that is multiplied shall
   not be stayed as long as there are vessels to receive it, 2 Kings iv.
   6. Note, God will not only be reconciled to sinners that repent and
   reform, but he will be a benefactor, a bountiful benefactor, to them.
   We are never straitened in him, but often straitened in our own bosoms.
   God has blessings ready to bestow upon us, but, through the weakness of
   our faith and narrowness of our desires, we have not room to receive
   them. [2.] That, whereas the fruits of their ground had been eaten up
   by locusts and caterpillars God would now remove that judgment (v. 11):
   "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and will check the progress
   of those destroying animals, that they shall no more destroy the
   products of the earth and the fruits of the trees." God has all
   creatures at his beck, can command them and remand them at his
   pleasure. Neither shall the vine cast her fruit before the time; it
   shall not be blasted or blown off. Or, as some read it, Neither shall
   the devourer make your vine barren, as the locusts did, Joel i. 7. [3.]
   That, whereas their neighbours had upbraided them with their scarcity,
   and they had lain under the reproach of famine, which was the more
   grievous because their country used to be boasted of for its plenty,
   now all nations shall call them blessed, shall speak honourably of
   them, and own them to be a happy people. [4.] That whereas their sin
   had made their land unpleasing to God (even their temple, and altars,
   and offerings were so, ch. ii. 13), and whereas his judgments had made
   their land unpleasant to them, and very melancholy, "Now you shall be a
   delightsome land, your country shall be acceptable to God and
   comfortable to yourselves." Note, The reviving of religion in a land
   will make it indeed a delightsome land both to God and to all good
   people; he will say, It is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; and
   they will say the same, Isa. lxii. 4; Deut. xi. 12. It should seem that
   this charge to bring in the tithes had its good effect, for we find
   (Neh. xiii. 12) that all Judah did bring in their tithe into the
   treasuries, and, no doubt, they had the benefit of these promises, in
   the return of their plenty, immediately upon their return to their
   duty, that they might plainly discern for what cause the evil had been
   upon them (for when the cause was removed the evil was removed), and
   that they might see how perfectly reconciled God was to them upon their
   repentance, and how their transgression was remembered no more, for the
   curse was not only taken away, but turned into an abundant blessing.

Wicked Conversation Reproved; Evil Maxims of Sinners; Pious Converse
Commended; Promises to the Godly. (b. c. 400.)

   13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say,
   What have we spoken so much against thee?   14 Ye have said, It is vain
   to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance,
   and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?   15 And
   now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up;
   yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.   16 Then they that feared
   the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard
   it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
   feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.   17 And they shall be
   mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels;
   and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
   18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the
   wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

   Among the people of the Jews at this time, though they all enjoyed the
   same privileges and advantages, there were men of very different
   characters (as ever were, and ever will be, in the world and in the
   church), like Jeremiah's figs, some very good and others very bad, some
   that plainly appeared to be the children of God and others that as
   plainly discovered themselves to be the children of the wicked one.
   There are tares and wheat in the same field, chaff and corn in the same
   floor; and here we have an account of both.

   I. Here is the angry notice God takes of the impudent blasphemous talk
   of the sinners in Zion and his just resentments of it. Probably there
   was a club of them that were in league against religion, that set up
   for wits, and set their wits on work to run it down and ridicule it,
   and herein strengthened one another's hands. Here is,

   1. An indictment found against them, for treasonable words spoken
   against the King of kings: Your words have been stout against me, saith
   the Lord. They spoke against God, in reflection upon him, in
   contradiction to him, as their fathers in the wilderness (Ps. lxx. 19);
   yea, they spoke against God. What he said, and what he designed, they
   opposed, as if they had been retained of counsel against him and his
   cause. Their words against God were stout; they came from their pride,
   and haughtiness, and contempt of God. What they said against God they
   spoke loudly, as if they cared not who heard them; they were not
   themselves ashamed to say it, and they desired to propagate their
   atheistical notions and to infect the minds of others with them. They
   spoke it boldly, as those that were resolved to stand to it, and were
   in no fear of being called to an account. They spoke it proudly, and
   with insolence and disdain, scorning to be under the divine check and
   government. They strengthened themselves; they would be valiant against
   the Almighty, Job xv. 25.

   2. Their plea to this indictment. They said, What have we spoken so
   much against thee? They deny the words, and put the prophet to prove
   them; or, if they spoke the words, they did not design them against
   God, and therefore will not own there was any harm in them; at least
   they extenuate the matter: What have we spoken so much against thee, so
   much that there needs all this ado about it? They cannot deny that they
   have spoken against God, but they make a light matter of it, and wonder
   it should be taken notice of: "Words" (say they) "are but wind; others
   have said more and done worse; if we are not so good as we should be,
   yet we hope we are not so bad as we are represented to be." Note, It is
   common for sinners that are unconvinced and unhumbled to deny or
   extenuate the faults they are justly charged with, and to insist upon
   their own justification, against the reproofs of the word and of their
   own consciences. But it will be to no purpose.

   3. The words themselves which they are charged with. God keeps an
   account of what men say, as well as of what they do, and will let them
   know that he does so. We quickly forget what we have said, and are
   ready to deny what we have said amiss; but God can say, You have said
   so and so. They had said it as their deliberate judgment.

   (1.) That there is nothing to be got in the service of God, thought it
   is a service that subjects men to labour and sorrow. They said, It is
   vain to serve God, or, "He is vain that serves God, that is, he labours
   in vain and to no purpose; he has his labour for his pains, and
   therefore is a fool for his labour. What profit is it that we have kept
   his ordinance, or his observation, that we have observed what he has
   appointed us to observe?" What mammon, or wealth, have we gained, says
   the Chaldee, intimating (says Dr. Pocock) that it was for mammon's sake
   only that they served God, and so indeed not God at all, but mammon.
   "We have walked mournfully, or in black, with great gravity and great
   grief, before the Lord of hosts, have afflicted our souls at the times
   appointed for that purpose, and yet we are never the better." Perhaps
   this comes in as a reason why they would not trust God to prosper them
   upon their bringing in the tithes (v. 10); "For," say they, "we have
   tried him in other things, and have lost by him." This is a very unjust
   and unreasonable reflection upon the service of God, and we can call
   witnesses enough to confront the slander. [1.] They would have it
   thought that they had served God and had kept his ordinances, whereas
   it was only the external observance of them that they had kept up,
   while they were perfect strangers to the inward part of the duty, and
   therefore might say, It is in vain. God says so (Matt. xv. 9), In vain
   do those worship me whose hearts are far from me while they draw near
   with their mouth; but whose fault is that? Not God's, who is the
   rewarder of those that seek him diligently, but theirs who seek him
   carelessly. [2.] They insisted much upon it that they had walked
   mournfully before God, whereas God had required them to serve him with
   gladness, and to walk cheerfully before him. They by their own
   superstitions made the service of God a task and drudgery to
   themselves, and then complained of it as a hard service. The yoke of
   Christ is easy; it is the yoke of antichrist that is heavy. [3.] They
   complained that they had got nothing by their religion; they were still
   in poverty and affliction, and behindhand in the world. This is an old
   piece of impiety. Job xxi. 14, 15, What profit shall we have if we pray
   unto him? Elihu charges Job with saying something like this. Job xxxiv.
   9, It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
   The enemies of religion do but set up against it the old cavils that
   have been long since answered and exploded. Perhaps this refers to the
   errors of the sect of the Sadducees, which was the scandal of the
   Jewish church in its latter days; they denied a future state, and then
   said, It is vain to serve God, which has indeed some colour in it, for,
   if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we were of all men most
   miserable, 1 Cor. xv. 19. Note, Those do a great deal of wrong to God's
   honour who say that religion is either an unprofitable or an unpleasant
   thing; for the matter is not so: wisdom's ways are pleasantness, and
   wisdom's gains better than that of fine gold.

   (2.) They maintained that wickedness was the way to prosperity, for
   they had observed that the workers of wickedness were set up in the
   world, and those that tempted God were delivered, v. 15. The outward
   prosperity of sinners in their sins, as it has weakened the hands of
   the godly in their godliness (Ps. lxxiii. 13), so it has strengthened
   the hands of the wicked in their wickedness. Note, [1.] Those that work
   wickedness tempt God by presumptuous sins; they do, as it were, try
   God, whether he can and will punish them as he has said in his word,
   and, in effect, challenge him to do his worst, by provoking him in the
   highest degree. [2.] Those that tempt God by their wicked works are
   many times both delivered out of the adversity into which they were
   justly brought and advanced to the prosperity which they were utterly
   unworthy of. They are not only set up once, but when we thought their
   day had come to fall, and they were in trouble, they were delivered and
   set up again; so strangely did Providence seem to smile upon them. [3.]
   Though it be thus, yet it will not warrant us to call the proud happy.
   For they may be delivered and set up for a while, but it will appear
   that God resists them, and that their pride is a preface to their fall;
   and, if so, they are truly miserable, and it is folly to call them
   happy, and to bless those whom the Lord abhors. Wait awhile, and you
   shall see those that work wickedness set up as a mark to the arrows of
   God's vengeance, and those that tempt God delivered to the tormentors.
   Judge of things as they will appear shortly, when the doom of these
   proud sinners (which follows here, ch. iv. 1) comes to be executed to
   the utmost.

   II. Here is the gracious notice God takes of the pious talk of the
   saints in Zion, and the gracious recompence of it. Even in this corrupt
   and degenerate age, when there was so great a decay, nay, so great a
   contempt, of serious godliness, there were yet some that retained their
   integrity and zeal for God; and let us see,

   1. How they distinguished themselves, and what their character was; it
   was the reverse of theirs that spoke so much against God; for, (1.)
   They feared the Lord--that is the beginning of wisdom and the root of
   all religion; they reverenced the majesty of God, submitted to his
   authority, and had a dread of his wrath in all they thought and said;
   they humbly complied with God, and never spoke any stout words against
   him. In every age there has been a remnant that feared the Lord, though
   sometimes but a little remnant. (2.) They thought upon his name; they
   seriously considered and frequently mediated upon the discoveries God
   has made of himself in his word and by his providences, and their
   mediation of him was sweet to them and influenced them. They thought on
   his name; they consulted the honour of God and aimed at that as their
   ultimate end in all they did. Note, Those that know the name of God
   should often think of it and dwell upon it in their thoughts; it is a
   copious curious subject, and frequent thoughts of it will contribute
   very much to our communion with God and the stirring up of our devout
   affections to him. (3.) They spoke often one to another concerning the
   God they feared, and that name of his which they thought so much of;
   for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and a good
   man, out of a good treasure there, will bring forth good things. Those
   that feared the Lord kept together as those that were company for each
   other; they spoke kindly and endearingly one to another, for the
   preserving and promoting of mutual love, that that might not wax cold
   when iniquity did thus abound. They spoke intelligently and edifyingly
   to one another, for the increasing and improving of faith and holiness;
   they spoke one to another in the language of those that fear the Lord
   and think on his name--the language of Canaan. When profaneness had
   come to so great a height as to trample upon all that is sacred, then
   those that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. [1.] Then, when
   iniquity was bold and barefaced, the people of God took courage, and
   stirred up themselves, the innocent against the hypocrite, Job xvii. 8.
   The worse others are the better we should be; when vice is daring, let
   not virtue be sneaking. [2.] Then, when religion was reproached and
   misrepresented, its friends did all they could to support the credit of
   it and to keep it in countenance. It had been suggested that the ways
   of God are melancholy unpleasant ways, solitary and sorrowful; and
   therefore then those that feared God studied to evince the contrary by
   their cheerfulness in mutual love and converse, that they might put to
   silence the ignorance of foolish men. [3.] Then, when seducers were
   busy to deceive and to possess unwary souls with prejudices against
   religion, those that feared God were industrious to arm themselves and
   one another against the contagion by mutual instructions, excitements,
   and encouragements, and to strengthen one another's hands. As evil
   communication corrupts good minds and manners, so good communication
   confirms them.

   2. How God dignified them, and what further honour and favour he
   intended for them. Those who spoke stoutly against God, no doubt looked
   with disdain and displeasure upon those that feared him, hectored and
   bantered them; but they had little reason to regard that, or be
   disturbed at it, when God countenanced them.

   (1.) He took notice of their pious discourses, and was graciously
   present at their conferences: The Lord hearkened and heard it, and was
   well pleased with it. God says (Jer. viii. 6) that he hearkened and
   heard what bad men would say, and they spoke not aright; here he
   hearkened and heard what good men did say, for they spoke aright. Note,
   The gracious God observes all the gracious words that proceed out of
   the mouths of his people; they need not desire that men may hear them,
   and commend them; let them not seek praise from men by them, nor affect
   to be taken notice of by them; but let it satisfy them that, be the
   conference ever so private, God sees and hears in secret and will
   reward openly. When the two disciples, going to Emmaus, were
   discoursing concerning Christ, he hearkened and heard, and joined
   himself to them, and made a third, Luke xxiv. 15.

   (2.) He kept an account of them: A book of remembrance was written
   before him. Not that the Eternal Mind needs to be reminded of things by
   books and writings, but it is an expression after the manner of men,
   intimating that their pious affections and performances are kept in
   remembrance as punctually and particularly as if they were written in a
   book, as if journals were kept of all their conferences. Great kings
   had books of remembrance written, and read before them, in which were
   entered all the services done them, when, and by whom, as Esther ii.
   23. God, in like manner, remembers the services of his people, that, in
   the review of them, he may say, Well done; enter thou into the joy of
   thy Lord. God has a book for the sighs and tears of his mourners (Ps.
   lvi. 8), much more for the pleadings of his advocates. Never was any
   good word spoken of God, or for God, from an honest heart, but it was
   registered, that it might be recompensed in the resurrection of the
   just, and in no wise lose its reward.

   (3.) He promises them a share in his glory hereafter (v. 17): They
   shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my
   jewels. When God utterly cuts off the Jewish church and nation for
   their infidelity, the remnant among them, that believed his word, and,
   having waited for the consolation of Israel, welcome him when he comes,
   shall be admitted into the Christian church, and shall become a
   peculiar people to God; God will take care of them, that they perish
   not with those that believe not; but that they be hidden in the day of
   the Lord's anger against that nation. They shall be my segullah--my
   peculiar treasure (it is the word used, Exod. xix. 5), in the day when
   I make or do what I have said and designed to do; so some read it.
   These pious ones shall have all the glorious privileges of God's Israel
   appropriated to them and centering in them; they shall now be his
   peculiar treasure, when the rest are rejected; they shall now be the
   vessels of mercy and honour, when the rest are made vessels of wrath
   and dishonour, vessels in which is no pleasure. This may be applied to
   all the faithful people of God, and the distinction he will put between
   them and others in the great day. Note, [1.] The saints are God's
   jewels; they are highly esteemed by him and are dear to him; they are
   comely with the comeliness that he puts upon them, and he is pleased to
   glory in them; they are a royal diadem in his hand, Isa. lxii. 3. He
   looks upon them as his own proper goods, his choice goods, his
   treasure, laid up in his cabinet, and the furniture of his closet, Ps.
   cxxxv. 4. The rest of the world is but lumber, in comparison with them.
   [2.] There is a day coming when God will make up his jewels. They shall
   be gathered up out of the dirt into which they are now thrown, and
   gathered together from all places to which they are now scattered; he
   shall send forth his angels to gather his elect, who are his jewels,
   from the four winds of heaven (Matt. xxiv. 31), to gather his jewels
   into his jewel-house, as the wheat from several fields into the barn.
   All the saints will then be gathered to Christ, and none but saints,
   and saints made perfect; then God's jewels will be made up, as stones
   into a crown, as stars into a constellation. [3.] Those who now own God
   for theirs, he will then own for his, will publicly confess them before
   angels and men: "They shall be mine; their sanctification shall be
   completed, and so they shall be perfectly and entirely mine, without
   any remaining interests of the world and the flesh." Their relation to
   God shall be acknowledged, and his property in them. He will separate
   them from those that are not his, and give them their portion with
   those that are his; for to them it shall be said, Come, you blessed of
   my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. They were in doubt,
   sometimes, whether they were belonging to God or no; but the matter
   shall then be put out of doubt. God himself will say unto them, You are
   mine. Now their relation to God is what they are reproached with, but
   it will then be gloried in; God himself will glory in it.

   (4.) He promises them a share in his grace now: I will spare them as a
   man spares his own son that serves him. God had promised to own them as
   his and take them to be with him; but it might be a discouragement to
   them to think that they had offended God, and that he might justly
   disown them, and cast them off; but, as to that, he says, "I will spare
   them; I will not deal with them as they deserve. I will rejoice over
   them" (so some expound it) "as the bridegroom over his bride," Isa.
   lxii. 5; Zeph. iii. 17. But the word usually signifies to spare with
   commiseration and compassion, as a father pities his children, Ps.
   ciii. 13. Note, [1.] It is our duty to serve God with the disposition
   of children. We must be his sons, must by a new birth partake of a
   divine nature, must consent to the covenant of adoption and partake of
   the spirit of adoption. And we must be his servants; God will not have
   his children trained up in idleness; they must do him service, and they
   must do it from a principle of love, with cheerfulness and delight, and
   as those that are therein serving their own true interest, and this is
   serving as a son with the father, Phil. ii. 22. [2.] If we serve God
   with the disposition of children, he will spare us with the tenderness
   and compassion of a Father. Even God's children that serve him stand in
   need of sparing mercy, that mercy to which we owe it that we are not
   consumed, that mercy which keeps us out of hell. Nehemiah, when he had
   done much good, yet, knowing there is not a just man on earth, that
   does good and sins not, and that every sin deserves God's wrath, prays,
   Lord, spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy; see Neh. xiii.
   22. And God, as a Father, will show them this mercy. He will not be
   extreme to mark what we do amiss, but will make the best of us and our
   poor performances; he will mitigate the afflictions his children are
   exercised with, and save them from the ruin they deserve. The father
   continues to spare the son, and does it with complacency, because he is
   his own; thus God will spare humble penitents and petitioners, as a man
   spares his son that serves him, though we do him so little service,
   nay, though we do him so much disservice.

   3. How they will thus be distinguished from the children of this world
   (v. 18): "Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and
   the wicked, between sinners and saints, between those that serve God
   and make conscience of their duty to him and those that serve him not,
   but put contempt upon his service. You that now speak against God as
   making no difference between good and bad, and therefore say, It is in
   vain to serve him (v. 14), you shall be made to see your error; you
   that would speak for God, but know not what to say as to this, that
   there seems to be one event to the righteous and to the wicked, and all
   things come alike to all, will then have the matter set in a true
   light, and will see, to your everlasting satisfaction, the difference
   between the righteous and the wicked. Then you shall return, that is,
   you shall change you mind, and come to a right understanding of the
   thing." This primarily respects the manifest difference that was made
   by the divine Providence between the believing Jews and those that
   persisted in their infidelity, at the time of the destruction of
   Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, by the Romans. But it
   is to have its full accomplishment at the second coming of Jesus
   Christ, and on that great discriminating day when it shall be easy
   enough to discern between the righteous and the wicked. Note, (1.) All
   the children of men are either righteous or wicked, either such as
   serve God or such as serve him not. This is that division of the
   children of men which will last for ever, and by which their eternal
   state will be determined; all are going either to heaven or to hell.
   (2.) In this world it is often hard to discern between the righteous
   and the wicked. They are mingled together, good fish and bad in the
   same net. The righteous are so distempered, and the wicked so
   disguised, that we are often deceived in our opinions concerning both
   the one and the other. There are many who, we think, serve God, who,
   having not their hearts right with him, will be found none of his
   servants; and, on the other hand, many will be found his faithful
   servants, who, because they followed not with us, did not, as we
   thought, serve him. But that which especially raised the difficulty
   here was that the divine Providence seemed to make no difference
   between the righteous and the wicked; you could not know wicked men by
   God's frowning upon them, for they commonly prospered in the world, nor
   righteous men by his smiling upon them, for they were involved with
   others in the same common calamity. None now knows God's love or hatred
   by all that is before him, Eccl. ix. 1. (3.) At the bar of Christ, in
   the last judgment, it will be easy to discern between the righteous and
   the wicked; for then every man's character will be both perfected and
   perfectly discovered, every man will then appear in his true colours,
   and his disguises will be taken off. Some men's sins indeed go
   beforehand, and you may now tell who is wicked, but others follow
   after; however, in the great day, we shall see who was righteous and
   who wicked. Every man's condition likewise will be both perfected and
   everlastingly determined; the righteous will then be perfectly happy
   and the wicked perfectly miserable, without mixture or allay. When the
   righteous are all set on the right hand of Christ, and invited to come
   for a blessing, and all the wicked on his left hand, and are told to
   depart with a curse, then it will be easy to discern between them. As
   to ourselves, therefore, we are concerned to think among which we shall
   have our lot, and, as to others, we must judge nothing before the time.
     __________________________________________________________________

M A L A C H I.

  CHAP. IV.

   We have here proper instructions given us (very proper to close the
   canon of the Old Testament with), I. Concerning the state of recompence
   and retribution that is before us, the misery of the wicked and the
   happiness of the righteous in that state, ver. 1-3. And this is
   represented to us under a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and
   the unbelieving Jews with it, and of the comforts and triumphs of those
   among them that received the gospel. II. Concerning the state of trial
   and preparation we are now in, in which we are directed to have an eye
   to divine revelation, and to follow that; they then must keep to the
   law of Moses (ver. 4) and expect a further discovery of God's will by
   Elijah the prophet, that is, by John Baptist, the harbinger of the
   Messiah, ver. 5, 6. The last chapter of the New Testament is much to
   the same purport, setting before us heaven and hell in the other world,
   and obliging us to adhere to the word of God in this world.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 400.)

   1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the
   proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day
   that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall
   leave them neither root nor branch.   2 But unto you that fear my name
   shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye
   shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.   3 And ye shall
   tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your
   feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

   The great and terrible day of the Lord is here prophesied of. This,
   like the pillar of cloud and fire, shall have a dark side turned
   towards the Egyptians that fight against God, and a bright side towards
   the faithful Israelites that follow him: The day cometh, that is, the
   Lord cometh, the day of the Lord; and it has reference both to the
   first and to the second coming of Jesus Christ; the day of both was
   fixed, and should answer the character here given of it.

   I. In both Christ is a consuming fire to those that rebel against him.
   The day of his coming shall burn as an oven; it shall be a day of
   wrath, of fiery indignation. This was foretold concerning the Messiah,
   Ps. xxi. 9, Thy hand shall find out all thy enemies, and shall make
   them as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger. It will be a day of
   terror and destruction like the burning of a city, or rather of a wood,
   the trees whereof are withered and dried, for to that the allusion
   seems to be, as Isa. x. 17, 18, The light of Israel shall be for a
   fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall consume the glory of
   his forest and of his fruitful field. Now observe here, 1. Who shall be
   fuel to this fire--all the proud in heart, whose words have been stout
   against God, and their necks stiff and unapt to yield to the yoke of
   his commandments (all those that in the pride of their countenances
   will not seek after God, nor submit to the grace and government of
   Jesus Christ--all that proudly say they will not have Christ to reign
   over them), and all those that do wickedly in their affections and
   conversations, that wilfully persist in sin, in contempt of and
   contradiction to the law of God; they are such as do wickedly against
   the covenant, as another prophet had lately expressed it, Dan. xi. 32.
   God, that has perfect knowledge of every one's character, knows who are
   the proud, and of every one's actions, knows who they are that do
   wickedly; and they shall be as stubble to this fire; they shall be
   consumed by it, easily consumed, utterly consumed, and it is wholly
   owing to themselves that they shall be so, for they make themselves
   stubble, that is, combustible matter, to this fire. If they were not
   stubble, it would not burn them; for the fire will be to every man
   according as he and his works are found; if they be wood, hay, and
   stubble, they will be consumed; but if they be gold, silver, and
   precious stones, they will abide the fire and be purified by it, 1 Cor.
   iii. 13-15. Those that by their unbelief oppose Christ thereby set
   themselves as briers and thorns before a devouring fire, Isa. xxvii. 4,
   5. 2. What shall be the force and what the fruit of this fire: The day
   that cometh shall burn them up, shall both terrify and ruin them, and
   shall leave them neither root nor branch, neither son nor nephew (so
   the Chaldee paraphrase): neither they nor their posterity shall be
   spared; they shall be wholly extirpated and cut off. Who knows the
   power of God's anger? The proud and those that do wickedly will not
   fear it, but they shall be made to feel it. Where are those now that
   called the proud happy, when thus they are made completely miserable,
   when there remains no branch of their happiness to be enjoyed for the
   present, nor any root of it out of which it might again spring up? Now
   this was fulfilled, (1.) When Christ, in his doctrine, spoke terror and
   condemnation to the proud Pharisees and the other Jews that did
   wickedly, when he sent that fire on the earth which burnt up the chaff
   of the traditions of the elders and the corrupt glosses they had put
   upon the law of God. (2.) When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans,
   and the nation of the Jews, as a nation, quite blotted out from under
   heaven, and neither root nor branch left them. This seems to be
   principally intended here; our Saviour says that those should be the
   days of vengeance, when all the things that were written to that
   purport should be fulfilled, Luke xxi. 22. Then the unbelieving Jews
   were as stubble to the devouring fire of God's judgments, which
   gathered together to them as the eagles to the carcase. (3.) It is
   certainly applicable, and is to be applied, to the day of judgment, to
   the particular judgment at death (some of the Jewish doctors refer it
   the punishment that seizes on the souls of the wicked immediately after
   they go out of the body), but especially to the general judgment, at
   the end of time, when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, to
   execute judgment on the proud, and all that do wickedly. The whole
   world shall then burn as an oven, and all the children of this world,
   that set their hearts upon it and choose their portion in it, shall
   take their ruin with it, and the fire then kindled shall never be
   quenched.

   II. In both Christ is a rejoicing light to those who serve him
   faithfully, to those who fear his name and give him the glory due to it
   (v. 2), who stand in awe of that name of his which the wicked profane
   and trample upon. Here are mercy and comfort kept in store for all
   those who fear the Lord and think on his name. Observe,

   1. Whence this mercy and comfort shall flow to them: To you that fear
   my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his
   wings. The day that comes, as it will be a stormy day to the wicked, a
   day in which God will rain upon them fire and brimstone, and a horrible
   tempest, as he did on Sodom (Ps. xi. 6), a day of clouds and thick
   darkness (Amos v. 18, 20), so it will be a fair and bright day to those
   who fear God, and reviving as the rising sun is to the earth; and
   particular notice is taken of the rising of the sun upon Zoar when that
   was mercifully distinguished from the cities of the plain, which the
   fire consumed; see Gen. xix. 23. So to those that fear God is comfort
   spoken. When the hearts of others fail for fear let them lift up their
   heads for joy, for their redemption draws nigh, Luke xxi. 28. But by
   the Sun of righteousness here we are certainly to understand Jesus
   Christ, who would undertake to secure the believing remnant, in the day
   of the general destruction of the Jews, from falling with the rest, and
   to comfort them in that day of distress and perplexity with his
   consolations; he directed those that were in Judea to flee to the
   mountains (Matt. xxiv. 16), and they did so, and were all safe and easy
   in Pella. But it is to be applied more generally, (1.) To the coming of
   Christ in the flesh to seek and save those that were lost; then the Sun
   of righteousness arose upon this dark world. Christ is the light of the
   world, the true light, the great light that makes day and rules the day
   (John viii. 12), as the sun. He is the light of men (John i. 4), is to
   men's souls as the sun is to the visible world, which without the sun
   would be a dungeon; so would mankind be darkness itself without the
   light of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ. Christ is the
   Sun that has light in himself, and is the fountain of light (Ps. xix.
   4-6); he is the Sun of righteousness, for he is himself a righteous
   Saviour. Righteousness is both the light and the heat of this Sun; the
   word of his righteousness is so; it guides, instructs, and quickens; so
   is the everlasting righteousness he has brought in. He is made of God
   to us righteousness; he is the Lord our righteousness, and therefore is
   fitly called the Sun of righteousness. Through him we are justified and
   sanctified, and so are brought to see light. This Sun of righteousness,
   in the fulness of time, arose upon the world, and with him light came
   into the world (John iii. 19), a great light, Matt. iv. 16. In him the
   day-spring from on high visited us, to give light to those that sit in
   darkness, Luke i. 78, 79. Righteousness sometimes signifies mercy or
   benignity, and it was in Christ that the tender mercy of our God
   visited us. (2.) It is applicable to the graces and comforts of the
   Holy Spirit, brought into the souls of men. Grotius understands it of
   Christ's giving the Spirit to those that are his, to shine in their
   hearts, and to be a comforter to them, a sun and a shield. Those that
   are possessed and governed by a holy fear of God and a dread of his
   majesty shall have his love also shed abroad in their hearts by the
   Holy Ghost; and then the sun may be said to arise there, and to bring
   both a delightful day and a fruitful spring along with it. (3.)
   Christ's second coming will be a glorious and welcome sun-rising to all
   that fear his name; it will be that morning of the resurrection in
   which the upright shall have dominion, Ps. xlix. 14. That day which to
   the wicked will burn as an oven will to the righteous be bright as the
   morning; and it is what they wait for, more than those that wait for
   the morning.

   2. What this mercy and comfort shall bring to them: He shall arise with
   healing under his wings, or in his rays or beams, which are as the
   wings of the sun. Christ came, as the sun, to bring not only light to a
   dark world, but health to a diseased distempered world. The Jews (says
   Dr. Pocock) have a proverbial saying, As the sun riseth, infirmities
   decrease; the flowers which drooped and languished all night revive in
   the morning. Christ came into the world to be the great physician, yea,
   and the great medicine too, both the balm in Gilead and the physician
   there. When he was upon earth, he went about as the sun in his circuit,
   doing this good; he healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among
   the people; he healed by wholesale, as the sun does. He shall arise
   with healing in his skirts; so some read it, and they apply it to the
   story of the woman's touching the hem of his garment, and being thereby
   made whole, and his finding that virtue went out of him, Mark v. 28-30.
   But his healing bodily diseases was a specimen of his great design in
   coming into the world to heal the diseases of men's souls, and to put
   them into a good state of health, that they may serve and enjoy both
   God and themselves.

   3. What good effect it shall have upon them. (1.) It shall make them
   vigorous in themselves: "You shall go forth, as those that are healed
   go abroad and return to their business." The souls shall go forth out
   of their bodies at death, and the bodies out of their graves at the
   resurrection, as prisoners out of their dungeons, and both to see the
   light and be set at liberty. "You shall go forth as plants out of the
   earth, when in the spring the sun returns." Some make it to mean the
   going forth of the Christians from Jerusalem, and the escape they
   thereby made from its destruction. And thus the souls on whom the Sun
   of righteousness arises go forth out of the world, go forth out of
   Babylon, as those that are made free indeed. "You shall likewise grow
   up; being restored to health and liberty, you shall increase in
   knowledge, and grace, and spiritual strength." The souls on which the
   Sun of righteousness arises are growing up towards the perfect man;
   those that by the grace of God are made wise and good are by the same
   grace made wiser and better; and their path, like that of the rising
   sun, shines more and more to the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18. Their
   growth is compared to that of the calves of the stall, which is a
   quick, strong, and useful growth. "You shall grow up, not as the flower
   of the field, which is slender, and weak, and of little use, and
   withers soon after it has grown up, but as the calves of the stall,"
   that, as one of the rabbin expounds it, grow great in flesh and
   fatness, with which both God's altars and men's tables are replenished;
   so the growth of the saints, on whom the Sun of righteousness arises,
   honours both God and man. Some read it, instead of You shall grow up,
   You shall move yourselves, or leap for joy, shall be as frolicsome as
   calves of the stall, when they are let loose in the open field; it
   denotes the joy of the saints, who rejoice in Christ Jesus; they shall
   even leap for joy; they are always caused to triumph.

   (2.) It shall make them victorious over their enemies (v. 3): You shall
   tread down the wicked. Time was when the wicked trod them down, said to
   their souls, Bow down, that we may go over; but the day will come when
   they shall tread down the wicked. The wicked, being made Christ's
   footstool, are made theirs also (Ps. cx. 1), and come and worship
   before the feet of the church, Rev. iii. 9. The elder shall serve the
   younger. When believers by faith overcome the world, when they suppress
   their own corrupt appetites and passions, when the God of peace bruises
   Satan under their feet, then they tread down the wicked. When it came
   to the turn of the Christians to triumph over the Jews that had
   insulted over them, then this promise was fulfilled: They shall be
   ashes under the soles of your feet; they shall not only be trodden
   down, but trodden to dirt. When the day that comes shall have burnt
   them up, they shall trample upon them as ashes. When the righteous
   shall rise to everlasting life, the wicked shall rise to everlasting
   contempt; and, though they shall not triumph over them, they shall
   triumph in that God whose justice is glorified in their destruction.
   The saints in glory are said to have power given them over the nations,
   to rule them with a rod of iron, Rev. ii. 26, 27. This you shall do, in
   the day that I shall do this. Note, The saints' triumphs are all owing
   to God's victories; it is not they that do this, but God that does it
   for them, that says, Come set your feet on the necks of these kings.
   Some read it, "In the day that I make, or shall make, the great day
   that I shall make remarkable, of which you will say with joy, This is
   the day which the Lord has made." The day of the destruction of
   Jerusalem is called the great and notable day of the Lord (Acts ii.
   20), and our Saviour in foretelling that destruction made use of such
   expressions as, like these, might be applied likewise to the end of the
   world and the last judgment; for it was such a terrible revelation of
   the wrath of God from heaven, and caused such a scene of horror upon
   this earth, that it might fitly serve for a type of that glorious
   transaction which will be an outlet to the days of time and an inlet to
   the days of eternity. By the accomplishment of these prophecies in the
   ruin of the Jewish nation, we should have our faith confirmed in the
   assurances Christ has given us concerning the dissolution of all
   things. Surely I come quickly; so says Christ, the Lord of hosts, to
   whom all power in heaven and earth is committed.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 400.)

   4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him
   in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.   5 Behold, I
   will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and
   dreadful day of the Lord:   6 And he shall turn the heart of the
   fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
   fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

   This is doubtless intended for a solemn conclusion, not only of this
   prophecy, but of the canon of the Old Testament, and is a plain
   information that they were not to expect any more sayings nor writing
   by divine inspiration, any more of the dictates of the Spirit of
   prophecy, till the beginning of the gospel of the Messiah, which sets
   aside the Apocrypha as no part of holy writ, and which therefore the
   Jews never received.

   Now that prophecy ceases, and is about to be sealed up, there are two
   things required of the people of God, that lived then:--

   I. They must keep up an obedient veneration for the law of Moses (v.
   4): Remember the law of Moses my servant, and observe to do according
   to it, even that law which I commanded unto him in Horeb, that fiery
   law which was intended for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments,
   not only the law of the ten commandments, but all the other
   appointments, ceremonial and judicial, then and there given. Observe
   here, 1. The honourable mention that is made of Moses, the first writer
   of the Old Testament, in Malachi, the last writer. God by him calls him
   Moses my servant; for the righteous shall be had in everlasting
   remembrance. See how the penmen of scripture, though they lived in
   several ages at a great distance from each other (it was above 1200
   years from Moses to Malachi), all concurred in the same thing, and
   supported one another, being all actuated and guided by one and the
   same Spirit. 2. The honourable mention that is made of the law of
   Moses; it was what God himself commanded; he owns it for his law, and
   he commanded it for all Israel, as the municipal law of their kingdom.
   Thus will God magnify his law and make it honourable. Note, We are
   concerned to keep the law because God has commanded it and commanded it
   for us, for we are the spiritual Israel; and, if we expect the benefit
   of the covenant with Israel (Heb. viii. 10), we must observe the
   commands given to Israel, those of them that were intended to be of
   perpetual obligation. 3. The summary of our duty, with reference to the
   law. We must remember it. Forgetfulness of the law is at the bottom of
   all our transgressions of it; if we would rightly remember it, we could
   not but conform to it. We should remember it when we have occasion to
   use it, remember both the commands themselves and the sanctions
   wherewith they are enforced. The office of conscience is to bid us
   remember the law. But how does this charge to remember the law of Moses
   come in here? (1.) This prophet had reproved them for many gross
   corruptions and irregularities both in worship and conversation, and
   now, for the reforming and amending of what was amiss, he only charges
   them to remember the law of Moses: "Keep to that rule, and you will do
   all you should do." He will lay upon them no other burden than what
   they have received; hold that fast, Rev. ii. 24, 25. Note, Corrupt
   churches are to be reformed by the written word, and reduced into order
   by being reduced to the standard of the law and the testimony, see 1
   Cor. xi. 23. (2.) The church had long enjoyed the benefit of prophets,
   extraordinary messengers from God, and now they had a whole book of
   their prophecies put together, and it was a finished piece; but they
   must not think that hereby the law of Moses was superseded, and had
   become as an almanac out of date, as if now they were advanced to a
   higher form and might forget that. No; the prophets do but confirm and
   apply the law, and press the observance of that; and therefore still
   Remember the law. Note, Even when we have made considerable advances in
   knowledge we must still retain the first principles of practical
   religion and resolve to abide by them. Those that study the writings of
   the prophets, and the apocalypse, must still remember the law of Moses
   and the four gospels. (3.) Prophecy was now to cease in the church for
   some ages, and the Spirit of prophecy not to return till the beginning
   of the gospel, and now they are told to remember the law of Moses; let
   them live by the rules of that, and live upon the promises of that.
   Note, We need not complain for want of visions and revelations as long
   as we have the written word, and the canon of scripture complete, to be
   our guide; for that is the most sure word of prophecy, and the
   touchstone by which we are to try the spirits. Though we have not
   prophets, yet, as long as we have Bibles, we may keep our communion
   with God, and keep ourselves in his way. (4.) They were to expect the
   coming of the Messiah, the preaching of his gospel, and the setting up
   of his kingdom, and in that expectation they must remember the law of
   Moses, and live in obedience to that, and then they might expect the
   comforts that the Messiah would bring to the willing and obedient. Let
   them observe the law of Moses, and live up to the light which that gave
   them, and then they might expect the benefit of the gospel of Christ,
   for to him that has, and uses what he has well, more shall be given,
   and he shall have abundance.

   II. They must keep up a believing expectation of the gospel of Christ,
   and must look for the beginning of it in the appearing of Elijah the
   prophet (v. 5, 6): "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet. Though the
   Spirit of prophecy cease for a time, and you will have only the law to
   consult, yet it shall revive again in one that shall be sent in the
   spirit and power of Elias," Luke i. 17. The law and the prophets were
   until John (Luke xvi. 16); they continued to be the only lights of the
   church till that morning-star appeared. Note, As God never left himself
   without witness in the world, so neither in the church, but, as there
   was occasion, carried the light of divine revelation further and
   further to the perfect day. They had now Moses and the prophets, and
   might hear them; but God will go further: he will send them Elijah.
   Observe,

   1. Who this prophet is that shall be sent; it is Elijah. The Jewish
   doctors will have it to be the same Elijah that prophesied in Israel in
   the days of Ahab--that he shall come again to be the forerunner of the
   Messiah; yet others of them say not the same person, but another of the
   same spirit. It should seem, those different sentiments they had when
   they asked John, "Art thou Elias, or that prophet that should bear his
   name?" John i. 19-21. But we Christians know very well that John
   Baptist was the Elias that was to come, Matt. xvii. 10-13; and very
   expressly, Matt. xi. 14, This is Elias that was to come; and v. 10, the
   same of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger, ch. iii. 1.
   Elijah was a man of great austerity and mortification, zealous for God,
   bold in reproving sin, and active to reduce an apostate people to God
   and their duty; John Baptist was animated by the same spirit and power,
   and preached repentance and reformation, as Elias had done; and all
   held him for a prophet, as they did Elijah in his day, and that his
   baptism was from heaven, and not of men. Note, When God has such work
   to do as was formerly to be done he can raise up such men to do it as
   he formerly raised up, and can put into a John Baptist the spirit of an
   Elias.

   2. When he shall be sent--before the appearing of the Messiah, which,
   because it was the judgment of this world, and introduced the ruin of
   the Jewish church and nation, is here called the coming of the great
   and dreadful day of the Lord. John Baptist gave them fair warning of
   this when he told them of the wrath to come (that wrath to the
   uttermost which was hastening upon them) and put them into a way of
   escape from it, and when he told them of the fan in Christ's hand, with
   which Christ would thoroughly purge his floor; see Matt. iii. 7, 10,
   12. That day of Christ, when he came first, was as that day will be
   when he comes again--though a great and joyful day to those that
   embrace him, yet a great and dreadful day to those that oppose him.
   John Baptist was sent before the coming of this day, to give people
   notice of it, that they might get ready for it, and go forth to meet
   it.

   3. On what errand he shall be sent: He shall turn the heart of the
   fathers to their children, and the heart of the children to their
   fathers; that is, "he shall be employed in this work; he shall attempt
   it; his doctrine and baptism shall have a direct tendency to it, and
   with many shall be successful: he shall be an instrument in God's hand
   of turning many to righteousness, to the Lord their God, and so making
   ready a people prepared for him," Luke i. 16, 17. Note, The turning of
   souls to God and their duty is the best preparation of them for the
   great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is promised concerning John,
   (1.) That he shall give a turn to things, shall make a bold stand
   against the strong torrent of sin and impiety which he found in full
   force among the children of his people, and beating down all before it.
   This is called his coming to restore all things (Matt. xvii. 11), to
   set them to rights, that they may again go in the right channel. (2.)
   That he shall preach a doctrine that shall reach men's hearts, and have
   an influence upon them, and work a change in them. God's word, in his
   mouth, shall be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and
   intents of the heart. Many had their consciences awakened by his
   ministry who yet were not thoroughly wrought upon, such a spirit and
   power was there in it. (3.) That he shall turn the hearts of the
   fathers with the children, and of the children with the fathers (for so
   some read it), to God and to their duty. He shall call upon young and
   old to repent, and shall not labour in vain, for many of the fathers
   that are going off, and many of the children that are growing up, shall
   be wrought upon by his ministry. (4.) That thus he shall be an
   instrument to revive and confirm love and unity among relations, and
   shall bring them closer and bind them faster to each other, by bringing
   and binding them all to their God. He shall prepare the way for that
   kingdom of heaven which will make all its faithful subjects of one
   heart and one soul (Acts iv. 32), which will be a kingdom of love, and
   will slay all enmities.

   4. With what view he shall be sent on this errand: Lest I come and
   smite the earth, that is, the land of Israel, the body of the Jewish
   nation (that were of the earth earthy), with a curse. They by their
   impiety and impenitence in it had laid themselves open to the curse of
   God, which is a separation to all evil. God was ready to smite them
   with that curse, to bring utter ruin upon them, to strike home, to
   strike dead, with the curse; but he will yet once more try them,
   whether they will repent and return, and so prevent it; and therefore
   he sends John Baptist to preach repentance to them, that their
   conversion might prevent their confusion; so unwilling is God that any
   should perish, so willing to have his anger turned away. Had they
   universally repented and reformed, their repentance would have had this
   desired effect; but, they generally rejecting the counsel of God in
   John's baptism, it proved against themselves (Luke vii. 30) and their
   land was smitten with the curse which both it and they lie under to
   this day. Note, Those must expect to be smitten with a sword, with a
   curse, who turn not to him that smites them with a rod, with a cross,
   Isa. ix. 13. Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree, says John
   Baptist, and it is ready to be smitten, to be cut down, with a curse;
   therefore bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Some observe that the
   last word of the Old Testament is a curse, which threatens the earth
   (Zech. v. 3), our desert of which we must be made sensible of, that we
   may bid Christ welcome, who comes with a blessing; and it is with a
   blessing, with the choicest of blessings, that the New Testament ends,
   and with it let us arm ourselves, or rather let God arm us, against
   this curse. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

   Genesis

   [1]1:2   [2]1:2   [3]1:2   [4]1:2   [5]1:2   [6]1:3   [7]1:4-5
   [8]1:9-10   [9]1:16   [10]1:20   [11]1:20-21   [12]1:21   [13]1:26
   [14]1:28   [15]2:4   [16]2:9   [17]2:14   [18]3:5   [19]3:14
   [20]3:14   [21]3:15   [22]3:15   [23]3:16   [24]3:17   [25]3:17
   [26]3:18   [27]3:18   [28]3:18   [29]3:24   [30]3:24   [31]4:1
   [32]4:2   [33]4:4   [34]4:7   [35]4:7   [36]4:7   [37]4:7   [38]4:7
   [39]4:26   [40]6:2   [41]6:3   [42]6:3   [43]6:11   [44]6:13
   [45]6:13   [46]7:1   [47]7:11   [48]7:23   [49]8:21   [50]8:21
   [51]8:21-22   [52]8:22   [53]9:4   [54]9:6   [55]9:9   [56]9:10-11
   [57]9:11   [58]9:11   [59]9:16   [60]9:16   [61]9:26   [62]9:27
   [63]9:27   [64]10:1-32   [65]10:5   [66]10:5   [67]10:5   [68]10:6
   [69]10:6   [70]10:10   [71]10:10-11   [72]10:11   [73]10:14
   [74]10:14   [75]10:22   [76]11:3   [77]11:6   [78]11:6   [79]11:6
   [80]12:2   [81]12:2   [82]12:3   [83]12:5   [84]13:4   [85]13:4
   [86]13:7   [87]13:10   [88]13:13   [89]13:13   [90]13:13   [91]14:1
   [92]14:1-24   [93]15:7   [94]15:14   [95]15:17   [96]16:12
   [97]16:12   [98]17:1   [99]17:5   [100]17:8   [101]18:17   [102]18:17
   [103]18:19   [104]18:20   [105]18:20-21   [106]18:21   [107]18:25
   [108]18:25   [109]18:25   [110]18:33   [111]19:5   [112]19:11
   [113]19:11   [114]19:23   [115]19:27   [116]19:31   [117]20:7
   [118]20:7   [119]20:7   [120]20:7   [121]20:7   [122]20:16
   [123]20:16   [124]22:17   [125]22:17   [126]22:17   [127]22:17
   [128]23:4   [129]23:6   [130]23:8   [131]25:3   [132]25:13
   [133]25:13-14   [134]25:15   [135]25:23   [136]25:26   [137]26:14
   [138]26:28   [139]27:27   [140]27:28   [141]27:28   [142]27:40
   [143]27:41   [144]28:10   [145]28:12   [146]28:14   [147]28:18
   [148]30:33   [149]31:1   [150]31:40   [151]31:45   [152]32:1-2
   [153]32:26   [154]33:1-20   [155]33:5   [156]34:1-31   [157]34:23
   [158]34:30   [159]35:2   [160]35:9   [161]35:12   [162]35:19
   [163]35:20   [164]35:21   [165]37:35   [166]38:14   [167]38:26
   [168]40:21   [169]40:23   [170]41:51   [171]42:1   [172]42:16
   [173]42:23   [174]43:32   [175]43:32   [176]46:34   [177]46:34
   [178]47:3   [179]47:23   [180]48:22   [181]49:1   [182]49:1
   [183]49:9   [184]49:9   [185]49:10   [186]49:10   [187]49:10
   [188]49:10   [189]49:11   [190]49:12   [191]49:14-15   [192]49:22
   [193]49:22   [194]49:24   [195]49:27   [196]50:20

   Exodus

   [197]1:7   [198]1:11   [199]1:19   [200]1:20   [201]2:16   [202]2:23
   [203]3:2   [204]3:7   [205]3:7-8   [206]3:8   [207]4:8-9
   [208]4:11-12   [209]4:14   [210]4:19   [211]4:22   [212]4:22
   [213]4:22-23   [214]5:2   [215]5:7   [216]5:19   [217]6:3   [218]6:3
   [219]6:3   [220]6:3   [221]6:3   [222]6:9   [223]6:30   [224]7:1
   [225]9:21   [226]10:5-6   [227]10:14   [228]10:15   [229]10:17
   [230]10:19   [231]12:12   [232]12:12   [233]12:23   [234]12:26
   [235]12:27   [236]12:34   [237]12:41   [238]12:49   [239]13:21
   [240]13:21   [241]14:11   [242]14:15   [243]14:19   [244]14:20
   [245]14:21   [246]14:24   [247]15:1   [248]15:1   [249]15:1
   [250]15:1-2   [251]15:2   [252]15:2   [253]15:9   [254]15:11
   [255]15:11   [256]15:14-16   [257]15:20   [258]15:26   [259]15:26
   [260]15:27   [261]16:14   [262]16:36   [263]16:36   [264]17:10
   [265]17:12   [266]17:14   [267]17:15   [268]18:11   [269]19:4
   [270]19:5   [271]19:5   [272]19:5   [273]19:5   [274]19:6   [275]19:6
   [276]19:20   [277]20:19   [278]20:21   [279]20:24   [280]21:2
   [281]21:10   [282]21:14   [283]21:14   [284]21:32   [285]21:32
   [286]22:10   [287]22:21-22   [288]22:22   [289]22:23-24   [290]22:26
   [291]22:27   [292]23:11   [293]23:13   [294]23:20   [295]23:20-21
   [296]23:21   [297]23:21   [298]23:22   [299]23:22   [300]23:22
   [301]23:29   [302]24:7   [303]24:7-8   [304]24:16-17   [305]26:16
   [306]26:22   [307]26:25   [308]28:1   [309]28:2   [310]28:21-22
   [311]28:38   [312]29:1-46   [313]29:43   [314]30:25   [315]31:3-4
   [316]32:7   [317]32:7   [318]32:10   [319]32:10   [320]32:11
   [321]32:12   [322]32:18   [323]32:26   [324]32:31   [325]32:34
   [326]32:34   [327]33:4-5   [328]33:22   [329]34:6   [330]34:6-7
   [331]34:6-7   [332]34:34   [333]39:30   [334]40:34

   Leviticus

   [335]1:1   [336]1:2   [337]2:1   [338]2:13   [339]5:15   [340]6:27
   [341]10:3   [342]10:3   [343]10:6   [344]10:9   [345]10:9
   [346]10:10-11   [347]11:42-43   [348]11:45-46   [349]13:45
   [350]14:8-9   [351]15:19   [352]15:23   [353]16:21   [354]16:21
   [355]16:29   [356]18:18   [357]18:25   [358]18:27   [359]18:27-28
   [360]18:27-28   [361]18:28   [362]18:28   [363]18:28   [364]18:28
   [365]18:28   [366]18:28   [367]18:28   [368]18:30   [369]19:2
   [370]19:10   [371]19:17   [372]19:23-25   [373]19:31   [374]19:32
   [375]20:11   [376]20:27   [377]20:27   [378]21:1   [379]21:11
   [380]21:17   [381]21:20   [382]22:23   [383]23:32   [384]23:40
   [385]25:9   [386]25:23   [387]25:23   [388]25:40   [389]25:44
   [390]25:46   [391]26:16   [392]26:16   [393]26:16   [394]26:22
   [395]26:23-24   [396]26:23-24   [397]26:23-24   [398]26:24
   [399]26:26   [400]26:29   [401]26:29   [402]26:31   [403]26:31
   [404]26:34   [405]26:34   [406]26:34   [407]26:36   [408]26:41
   [409]26:41-42   [410]26:42   [411]26:42   [412]26:42   [413]26:42
   [414]26:42   [415]26:42   [416]26:42   [417]26:44   [418]26:44
   [419]26:44-45   [420]26:45   [421]27:1-34   [422]27:8   [423]27:30
   [424]27:32   [425]27:32

   Numbers

   [426]1:49-50   [427]3   [428]3:12   [429]5:23   [430]6:2   [431]6:12
   [432]6:18   [433]10:8   [434]10:9   [435]10:32   [436]11:1
   [437]11:2   [438]11:5   [439]11:5   [440]11:9   [441]11:11
   [442]11:12   [443]11:12   [444]11:14   [445]11:17   [446]11:23
   [447]11:24-25   [448]11:25   [449]11:25   [450]12:6   [451]12:6
   [452]12:6   [453]12:6   [454]12:8   [455]12:14   [456]13:32
   [457]13:33   [458]14:9   [459]14:13   [460]14:16   [461]14:16
   [462]14:17   [463]14:22-23   [464]14:31   [465]14:31   [466]15:6-9
   [467]15:30   [468]16:21   [469]19:22   [470]20:18   [471]21:18
   [472]21:28   [473]22:3-4   [474]22:22   [475]23:9   [476]23:9
   [477]23:19   [478]23:19   [479]23:21   [480]23:21   [481]24:4
   [482]24:9   [483]24:10   [484]25:1-2   [485]25:2-3   [486]25:3
   [487]25:3   [488]25:4   [489]25:12   [490]25:12   [491]25:12-13
   [492]25:17-18   [493]28:9   [494]31:18   [495]31:24   [496]31:28
   [497]31:50   [498]32:14   [499]32:14   [500]32:14   [501]33:4
   [502]33:4   [503]33:46   [504]34:1   [505]34:12   [506]35:33

   Deuteronomy

   [507]1:11   [508]1:17   [509]2:4   [510]2:9   [511]3:25   [512]4:2
   [513]4:6   [514]4:6   [515]4:6   [516]4:6   [517]4:6   [518]4:7
   [519]4:7-8   [520]4:8   [521]4:8   [522]4:19   [523]4:19   [524]4:19
   [525]4:19   [526]4:19   [527]4:19   [528]4:28   [529]4:34   [530]4:34
   [531]4:34   [532]5:27-28   [533]5:29   [534]6:4   [535]6:6-7
   [536]6:8   [537]6:11   [538]6:18   [539]6:20   [540]7:3   [541]7:5
   [542]7:7   [543]7:7-8   [544]7:7-8   [545]7:7-8   [546]7:7-8
   [547]7:7-8   [548]7:7-8   [549]7:7-8   [550]7:8   [551]8:2-3
   [552]8:3   [553]8:7   [554]8:7   [555]8:8   [556]8:8   [557]8:10
   [558]8:15   [559]8:15   [560]8:15   [561]8:15   [562]8:16   [563]8:17
   [564]8:17   [565]8:17-18   [566]9:4-5   [567]9:4-5   [568]9:4-6
   [569]9:5   [570]9:5   [571]9:6   [572]9:7   [573]9:24   [574]9:24
   [575]10:20   [576]11:10   [577]11:11   [578]11:12   [579]11:12
   [580]11:12   [581]12:2-3   [582]12:3   [583]12:5   [584]12:12
   [585]12:29-31   [586]13:6-11   [587]14:1   [588]15:9   [589]17:8-9
   [590]17:16   [591]18:15   [592]18:15   [593]18:15   [594]18:18
   [595]19:18-19   [596]20:2-3   [597]20:5-6   [598]20:8   [599]21:1
   [600]21:18-19   [601]21:21   [602]21:23   [603]22:10   [604]23:1
   [605]23:3   [606]23:3   [607]23:3   [608]23:5   [609]23:7   [610]23:7
   [611]23:13   [612]23:13-14   [613]23:14   [614]23:18   [615]24:1
   [616]24:4   [617]24:12-13   [618]24:16   [619]24:16   [620]25:14
   [621]26:5   [622]26:11   [623]26:14   [624]26:19   [625]26:19
   [626]27:15   [627]27:28   [628]28:1-68   [629]28:4   [630]28:15
   [631]28:15   [632]28:15   [633]28:17-18   [634]28:23-24   [635]28:30
   [636]28:30   [637]28:30   [638]28:33   [639]28:33   [640]28:33
   [641]28:36   [642]28:38   [643]28:42   [644]28:47   [645]28:47-48
   [646]28:49   [647]28:51   [648]28:52-53   [649]28:53   [650]28:53
   [651]28:53   [652]28:56   [653]28:56   [654]28:56   [655]28:56
   [656]28:57   [657]28:60   [658]28:62   [659]28:63   [660]28:64
   [661]28:66   [662]28:66-67   [663]28:68   [664]28:68   [665]28:68
   [666]29:4   [667]29:21   [668]29:23   [669]29:23   [670]29:23
   [671]29:23   [672]29:24   [673]29:24   [674]29:24   [675]29:24
   [676]29:25   [677]29:25   [678]29:28   [679]29:33   [680]30:3-4
   [681]30:4   [682]30:4   [683]30:4   [684]30:4   [685]30:4   [686]30:4
   [687]30:4   [688]30:15   [689]30:19   [690]31:16   [691]31:17
   [692]31:27   [693]31:27   [694]31:27   [695]31:29   [696]31:29
   [697]31:29   [698]31:32-33   [699]32:1   [700]32:1-47   [701]32:2
   [702]32:2   [703]32:2   [704]32:2   [705]32:3   [706]32:4   [707]32:6
   [708]32:6   [709]32:7   [710]32:7   [711]32:8-9   [712]32:8-9
   [713]32:9   [714]32:11   [715]32:11   [716]32:11-12   [717]32:11-12
   [718]32:12-13   [719]32:13   [720]32:13-14   [721]32:13-15
   [722]32:14   [723]32:15   [724]32:17   [725]32:17   [726]32:17
   [727]32:17   [728]32:17   [729]32:18   [730]32:18   [731]32:20
   [732]32:20   [733]32:20   [734]32:20   [735]32:21   [736]32:21
   [737]32:25   [738]32:26-27   [739]32:27   [740]32:27   [741]32:29
   [742]32:29   [743]32:29   [744]32:30   [745]32:31   [746]32:31
   [747]32:31   [748]32:32   [749]32:32   [750]32:32   [751]32:34
   [752]32:34   [753]32:34   [754]32:34-35   [755]32:36   [756]32:36
   [757]32:37   [758]32:37-38   [759]32:38   [760]32:38   [761]32:38
   [762]32:39   [763]32:39   [764]32:40   [765]32:40-41   [766]32:42
   [767]32:43   [768]32:43   [769]33:2   [770]33:2   [771]33:2
   [772]33:2   [773]33:4   [774]33:5   [775]33:8   [776]33:9
   [777]33:9-10   [778]33:17   [779]33:19   [780]33:19   [781]33:25
   [782]33:26   [783]33:27   [784]33:29   [785]33:29   [786]34:6
   [787]34:10

   Joshua

   [788]1:4   [789]3:15   [790]3:16   [791]5:2   [792]5:9   [793]5:10
   [794]5:13   [795]5:13-14   [796]5:15   [797]6:17   [798]7:25
   [799]9:13   [800]10:11   [801]13:3   [802]15:19   [803]15:44
   [804]15:44   [805]16:3   [806]16:5   [807]19:29   [808]19:40
   [809]22:17   [810]24:2   [811]24:2-3   [812]24:19   [813]24:21
   [814]24:26-27   [815]24:31

   Judges

   [816]1:16   [817]2:1   [818]2:1   [819]2:5   [820]2:10   [821]2:16
   [822]3:3   [823]3:6   [824]3:8   [825]3:9   [826]4:3   [827]4:17
   [828]5:4-5   [829]5:6   [830]5:7   [831]5:7   [832]5:8   [833]5:11
   [834]5:16-17   [835]5:21   [836]5:30   [837]6:13   [838]6:13
   [839]6:22   [840]6:37   [841]7:13   [842]8:16   [843]8:21   [844]9:7
   [845]9:8   [846]9:9   [847]9:9   [848]9:11   [849]9:12-13   [850]9:13
   [851]9:15   [852]9:15   [853]9:20   [854]9:23   [855]9:23   [856]9:23
   [857]10:10   [858]10:13   [859]10:13-14   [860]10:14   [861]10:14
   [862]10:14   [863]10:14   [864]10:14   [865]10:15   [866]10:16
   [867]10:16   [868]10:16   [869]10:16   [870]11:11   [871]13:18
   [872]13:18   [873]13:22   [874]14:5   [875]15:1   [876]18:7
   [877]18:19   [878]18:24   [879]19:3   [880]21:19   [881]21:21
   [882]21:21

   Ruth

   [883]1:5   [884]3:9   [885]4:1

   1 Samuel

   [886]1:6-7   [887]1:10   [888]1:18   [889]2:4   [890]2:5   [891]2:5
   [892]2:5   [893]2:13-14   [894]2:17   [895]2:20   [896]2:22
   [897]2:30   [898]2:30   [899]2:30   [900]2:36   [901]3:1   [902]3:1
   [903]3:1   [904]3:1   [905]3:11   [906]3:14   [907]3:14   [908]3:14
   [909]3:19   [910]3:19   [911]3:19   [912]3:20   [913]3:20   [914]3:20
   [915]3:20   [916]6:2   [917]6:12   [918]6:20   [919]6:20   [920]6:20
   [921]7:2   [922]7:2   [923]8:2   [924]8:11   [925]8:18   [926]9:7-8
   [927]9:9   [928]9:15   [929]10:5   [930]10:8   [931]10:12
   [932]11:15   [933]12:18-19   [934]12:19   [935]12:23   [936]13:14
   [937]13:22   [938]14:38   [939]15:6   [940]15:22   [941]15:22
   [942]15:29   [943]15:29   [944]15:32   [945]16:12   [946]18:14
   [947]18:18   [948]20:20   [949]21:7   [950]21:9   [951]22:7
   [952]24:13   [953]25:11   [954]25:29   [955]26:17   [956]26:19
   [957]26:19   [958]28:6   [959]28:7   [960]28:15   [961]28:15
   [962]28:18   [963]28:20   [964]30:4   [965]30:6   [966]30:14

   2 Samuel

   [967]1:16   [968]1:18   [969]1:19   [970]1:20   [971]1:22   [972]2:13
   [973]2:18   [974]5:20   [975]5:24   [976]7:2   [977]7:9   [978]7:14
   [979]8:2   [980]8:2   [981]8:2   [982]8:4   [983]11:25   [984]12:4
   [985]12:11   [986]12:13   [987]12:22   [988]12:31   [989]13:19
   [990]14:14   [991]14:17   [992]15:30   [993]16:12   [994]17:8
   [995]18:24   [996]19:11-12   [997]23:2   [998]23:3   [999]23:5
   [1000]23:6-7   [1001]24:14   [1002]24:14   [1003]24:16   [1004]24:17
   [1005]28:26

   1 Kings

   [1006]2:26   [1007]2:29   [1008]2:30-31   [1009]4:24-25   [1010]4:30
   [1011]4:34   [1012]5:12   [1013]6:1   [1014]6:4   [1015]6:15-16
   [1016]6:22   [1017]6:29   [1018]6:29   [1019]7:15   [1020]7:37
   [1021]7:47   [1022]8:10   [1023]8:30   [1024]8:41   [1025]8:43
   [1026]8:48-49   [1027]8:56   [1028]8:56   [1029]8:56   [1030]9:6-8
   [1031]9:8   [1032]9:8   [1033]9:13   [1034]9:26   [1035]10:5
   [1036]10:17   [1037]10:17   [1038]10:28   [1039]11:5   [1040]11:7
   [1041]11:19   [1042]12:28   [1043]12:30   [1044]13:2   [1045]14:24
   [1046]15:22   [1047]16:7   [1048]16:26   [1049]16:31   [1050]16:31
   [1051]16:31   [1052]16:34   [1053]17:1   [1054]17:13   [1055]18:3
   [1056]18:4   [1057]18:4   [1058]18:5   [1059]18:5-6   [1060]18:21
   [1061]18:26   [1062]18:26   [1063]18:28   [1064]18:28   [1065]18:36
   [1066]18:36   [1067]18:41   [1068]18:44   [1069]19:4   [1070]19:10
   [1071]19:11   [1072]19:11   [1073]19:17   [1074]20:5-6   [1075]20:6
   [1076]20:23   [1077]20:28   [1078]20:35   [1079]21:12   [1080]21:29
   [1081]22:8   [1082]22:20   [1083]22:23   [1084]22:24   [1085]22:27
   [1086]22:27   [1087]22:28

   2 Kings

   [1088]1:2   [1089]1:8   [1090]2:20-21   [1091]3:4   [1092]3:4
   [1093]3:15   [1094]3:22-23   [1095]3:25   [1096]3:26-27   [1097]4:6
   [1098]4:18-37   [1099]4:23   [1100]4:23   [1101]4:23   [1102]4:23
   [1103]4:39   [1104]5:13   [1105]6:1   [1106]6:8   [1107]6:10
   [1108]6:10   [1109]6:17   [1110]6:18   [1111]6:29   [1112]7:2
   [1113]7:15   [1114]8:1   [1115]8:12   [1116]8:12   [1117]8:12
   [1118]9:1   [1119]9:11   [1120]9:17   [1121]9:19-22   [1122]9:30
   [1123]9:33   [1124]10:15-16   [1125]10:30   [1126]10:31   [1127]10:32
   [1128]10:32   [1129]10:32-33   [1130]12:17   [1131]13:3   [1132]13:7
   [1133]13:7   [1134]13:16   [1135]13:16-17   [1136]14:7   [1137]14:25
   [1138]14:25   [1139]14:25   [1140]14:25   [1141]14:25
   [1142]14:25-26   [1143]14:27   [1144]14:28   [1145]15:8   [1146]15:10
   [1147]15:16   [1148]15:19   [1149]15:19-20   [1150]15:29
   [1151]15:30   [1152]15:37   [1153]16:7   [1154]16:7-8   [1155]16:9
   [1156]16:9   [1157]16:9   [1158]16:9   [1159]16:9   [1160]16:10
   [1161]16:10-11   [1162]16:14-15   [1163]17:6   [1164]17:25
   [1165]18:1   [1166]18:1-19:37   [1167]18:5   [1168]18:8   [1169]18:8
   [1170]18:10   [1171]18:13   [1172]18:14   [1173]18:14   [1174]18:14
   [1175]18:17   [1176]18:17   [1177]18:21   [1178]18:26   [1179]19:1-37
   [1180]19:9   [1181]20:1   [1182]20:1-21   [1183]20:3   [1184]20:5
   [1185]20:12   [1186]21:1   [1187]21:7   [1188]21:7   [1189]21:12
   [1190]21:16   [1191]21:16   [1192]21:16   [1193]22:12   [1194]22:20
   [1195]23:5   [1196]23:7   [1197]23:10   [1198]23:11   [1199]23:11
   [1200]23:11-12   [1201]23:12   [1202]23:12   [1203]23:12
   [1204]23:13   [1205]23:13   [1206]23:15-16   [1207]23:18
   [1208]23:25   [1209]23:25-26   [1210]23:27   [1211]23:29
   [1212]23:30   [1213]23:34   [1214]24:1-25:30   [1215]24:2
   [1216]24:2   [1217]24:3-4   [1218]24:4   [1219]24:4   [1220]24:4
   [1221]24:4   [1222]24:4   [1223]24:6   [1224]24:7   [1225]24:7
   [1226]24:7   [1227]24:7   [1228]24:12   [1229]24:12   [1230]24:13
   [1231]24:13-15   [1232]24:14   [1233]24:15   [1234]24:16   [1235]25:1
   [1236]25:1   [1237]25:4   [1238]25:12   [1239]25:18-19   [1240]25:27-30

   1 Chronicles

   [1241]2:55   [1242]3:15   [1243]3:15   [1244]3:17   [1245]5:26
   [1246]6:17   [1247]7:21-22   [1248]9:24   [1249]17:24   [1250]21:17
   [1251]24:9   [1252]24:14   [1253]24:18   [1254]25:1-3   [1255]26:8
   [1256]26:16   [1257]28:2   [1258]28:19   [1259]29:2   [1260]29:14
   [1261]29:16   [1262]29:17

   2 Chronicles

   [1263]2:9   [1264]2:16   [1265]2:17-18   [1266]3:6   [1267]4:18
   [1268]6:1   [1269]6:42   [1270]7:14   [1271]7:20-21   [1272]7:21
   [1273]9:16   [1274]12:5   [1275]12:6   [1276]12:6   [1277]12:6
   [1278]12:8   [1279]12:8   [1280]12:14   [1281]12:15   [1282]14:9
   [1283]15:3   [1284]15:5   [1285]15:5   [1286]16:2-3   [1287]16:9
   [1288]16:9   [1289]16:9   [1290]16:9   [1291]16:9   [1292]20:5
   [1293]20:11-12   [1294]20:20   [1295]20:26   [1296]21:12
   [1297]21:12   [1298]21:17   [1299]24:21   [1300]25:16   [1301]25:16
   [1302]26:6   [1303]26:10   [1304]26:10   [1305]26:16   [1306]28:5
   [1307]28:5   [1308]28:5   [1309]28:8-15   [1310]28:8-15   [1311]28:10
   [1312]28:15   [1313]28:16   [1314]28:17   [1315]28:18   [1316]28:18
   [1317]28:18   [1318]28:18   [1319]28:20   [1320]28:20   [1321]28:22
   [1322]28:22   [1323]28:22   [1324]28:22   [1325]28:22   [1326]28:28
   [1327]29:30   [1328]29:34   [1329]30:22   [1330]32:1-33
   [1331]32:3-4   [1332]32:4   [1333]32:8   [1334]32:20-21   [1335]32:25
   [1336]32:26   [1337]32:31   [1338]32:33   [1339]33:3   [1340]33:11
   [1341]33:14   [1342]34:3   [1343]34:32   [1344]35:17   [1345]35:25
   [1346]35:25   [1347]36:1   [1348]36:4   [1349]36:6   [1350]36:6
   [1351]36:6-7   [1352]36:10   [1353]36:12   [1354]36:12   [1355]36:13
   [1356]36:16   [1357]36:16   [1358]36:16   [1359]36:16-17
   [1360]36:17   [1361]36:22

   Ezra

   [1362]1   [1363]1:1   [1364]1:1   [1365]1:2   [1366]1:2-3   [1367]1:3
   [1368]1:4   [1369]1:4   [1370]1:4   [1371]1:5   [1372]1:5   [1373]1:5
   [1374]1:5   [1375]1:5   [1376]1:5   [1377]1:6   [1378]1:7   [1379]1:7
   [1380]1:8   [1381]2   [1382]2:1-70   [1383]2:1-70   [1384]2:62
   [1385]2:64   [1386]2:64   [1387]3:2-3   [1388]3:2-4   [1389]3:3
   [1390]3:4   [1391]3:10   [1392]3:11   [1393]3:11   [1394]3:12
   [1395]3:12   [1396]4:4-5   [1397]4:8   [1398]4:12   [1399]4:14
   [1400]4:15   [1401]5:1   [1402]5:1   [1403]5:1-2   [1404]5:2
   [1405]5:2   [1406]6:1-12   [1407]6:3   [1408]6:7   [1409]6:8
   [1410]6:9   [1411]6:13-14   [1412]6:14-15   [1413]7:8-12
   [1414]7:19-20   [1415]9:7   [1416]9:7   [1417]9:8   [1418]9:8
   [1419]9:8   [1420]9:8   [1421]9:10   [1422]9:13   [1423]9:13
   [1424]10:10   [1425]10:18   [1426]10:18

   Nehemiah

   [1427]1:3-4   [1428]1:9   [1429]1:9   [1430]2:3   [1431]2:3
   [1432]2:19   [1433]3:1   [1434]3:3   [1435]3:27   [1436]3:32
   [1437]3:32   [1438]4:2-3   [1439]4:7   [1440]4:14   [1441]4:14
   [1442]4:14   [1443]5:2   [1444]5:2-5   [1445]5:3-7   [1446]5:5
   [1447]5:5   [1448]5:7   [1449]5:15   [1450]5:15   [1451]5:18
   [1452]6:13   [1453]7:70   [1454]7:72   [1455]8:10   [1456]8:10
   [1457]8:10   [1458]8:17   [1459]9:5   [1460]9:5   [1461]9:14
   [1462]9:17   [1463]9:19   [1464]9:20   [1465]9:20   [1466]9:32
   [1467]9:33   [1468]9:36   [1469]9:38   [1470]11:1-2   [1471]11:2
   [1472]13:1-31   [1473]13:10   [1474]13:12   [1475]13:16   [1476]13:17
   [1477]13:18   [1478]13:22   [1479]13:23   [1480]13:24   [1481]13:26
   [1482]13:28   [1483]13:28

   Esther

   [1484]1:4   [1485]1:8   [1486]1:13   [1487]1:14   [1488]1:19
   [1489]2:23   [1490]3:8   [1491]3:10   [1492]3:15   [1493]3:15
   [1494]4:16   [1495]8:8   [1496]8:17   [1497]8:17   [1498]8:17
   [1499]8:17   [1500]8:17   [1501]9:1   [1502]9:1

   Job

   [1503]1:7   [1504]1:10   [1505]1:21   [1506]1:21   [1507]2:10
   [1508]2:10   [1509]2:13   [1510]3:1   [1511]3:11-12   [1512]3:17
   [1513]3:17   [1514]3:18   [1515]3:23   [1516]4:8   [1517]4:18
   [1518]4:19   [1519]5:2   [1520]5:3   [1521]5:3   [1522]5:3
   [1523]5:3   [1524]5:3   [1525]5:5   [1526]5:5   [1527]5:6
   [1528]5:21   [1529]5:22-23   [1530]6:4   [1531]6:10   [1532]6:10
   [1533]6:15   [1534]6:15   [1535]6:19   [1536]6:19   [1537]7:1
   [1538]7:6   [1539]7:18   [1540]8:8   [1541]8:8   [1542]8:11-12
   [1543]8:12   [1544]9:8   [1545]9:9   [1546]9:15   [1547]9:17
   [1548]9:27   [1549]10:3   [1550]10:11   [1551]10:11   [1552]11:6
   [1553]11:12   [1554]12:16   [1555]12:17   [1556]12:17   [1557]12:17
   [1558]12:20   [1559]12:20   [1560]12:20   [1561]12:21   [1562]12:23
   [1563]12:23   [1564]12:24   [1565]12:24   [1566]12:24   [1567]13:21
   [1568]13:26   [1569]13:26   [1570]13:27   [1571]14:7   [1572]14:7
   [1573]14:7-9   [1574]14:9   [1575]14:12   [1576]14:17   [1577]14:21
   [1578]15:16   [1579]15:25   [1580]16:10   [1581]17:6   [1582]17:8
   [1583]17:8   [1584]17:11   [1585]18:4   [1586]18:5-6   [1587]18:11
   [1588]18:11   [1589]18:11   [1590]18:14   [1591]18:15   [1592]18:16
   [1593]18:20   [1594]19:13   [1595]19:21   [1596]20:8   [1597]20:15
   [1598]20:15   [1599]20:15   [1600]20:15   [1601]20:24   [1602]20:26
   [1603]20:27   [1604]21:7   [1605]21:12   [1606]21:13   [1607]21:14-15
   [1608]21:14-15   [1609]21:18   [1610]21:19   [1611]21:19
   [1612]21:20   [1613]21:24   [1614]21:29   [1615]21:29   [1616]21:30
   [1617]22:6   [1618]22:13   [1619]22:13   [1620]22:13   [1621]22:15
   [1622]22:17   [1623]22:30   [1624]23:6   [1625]23:6   [1626]23:14
   [1627]23:23   [1628]23:23   [1629]23:26   [1630]24:1   [1631]24:15
   [1632]26:7   [1633]26:7   [1634]26:7   [1635]26:7   [1636]26:9
   [1637]26:13   [1638]26:14   [1639]26:14   [1640]27:16
   [1641]27:16-17   [1642]27:18   [1643]27:19   [1644]27:22
   [1645]27:22-23   [1646]27:27-28   [1647]28:16   [1648]28:19
   [1649]29:9   [1650]29:15   [1651]29:22   [1652]29:23   [1653]30:11
   [1654]30:11   [1655]30:11   [1656]30:25   [1657]31:3   [1658]31:7
   [1659]31:14   [1660]31:21   [1661]31:25   [1662]31:26   [1663]31:26
   [1664]31:26   [1665]31:26   [1666]31:31   [1667]31:31   [1668]31:39
   [1669]32:18   [1670]32:19   [1671]32:20   [1672]33:6   [1673]33:7
   [1674]33:14   [1675]33:14   [1676]33:14   [1677]33:15   [1678]33:17
   [1679]33:21   [1680]33:23   [1681]33:27   [1682]33:27   [1683]34:9
   [1684]34:19   [1685]34:21   [1686]34:23   [1687]34:26   [1688]34:29
   [1689]34:29   [1690]34:29   [1691]34:29   [1692]35:10
   [1693]35:10-11   [1694]35:11   [1695]35:14   [1696]36:2   [1697]36:8
   [1698]36:9   [1699]36:10   [1700]36:10   [1701]36:13   [1702]36:13
   [1703]36:32   [1704]37:1   [1705]37:6   [1706]37:12-18   [1707]37:16
   [1708]37:17   [1709]37:22   [1710]38:1   [1711]38:4   [1712]38:6
   [1713]38:7   [1714]38:7   [1715]38:8-41   [1716]38:13   [1717]38:13
   [1718]38:13   [1719]38:22-23   [1720]38:28   [1721]38:31
   [1722]38:31-33   [1723]38:33   [1724]38:33   [1725]38:36
   [1726]38:41   [1727]38:41   [1728]39:2   [1729]39:3   [1730]39:5-6
   [1731]39:14-15   [1732]39:15   [1733]39:19   [1734]39:21
   [1735]39:22   [1736]39:30   [1737]40:11   [1738]40:11
   [1739]40:11-12   [1740]40:11-12   [1741]40:11-13   [1742]40:11-14
   [1743]40:12   [1744]40:12   [1745]41:1   [1746]41:1   [1747]41:1-2
   [1748]41:10   [1749]41:19   [1750]41:21   [1751]41:24   [1752]41:25
   [1753]41:31   [1754]42:5-6

   Psalms

   [1755]1:3   [1756]1:3   [1757]1:3   [1758]1:3-4   [1759]1:4
   [1760]1:5   [1761]1:5   [1762]1:6   [1763]2:1   [1764]2:1   [1765]2:1
   [1766]2:1   [1767]2:1-2   [1768]2:1-2   [1769]2:2   [1770]2:3
   [1771]2:4   [1772]2:4   [1773]2:5   [1774]2:6   [1775]2:6   [1776]2:6
   [1777]2:6   [1778]2:6   [1779]2:6   [1780]2:7   [1781]2:8   [1782]2:8
   [1783]2:8   [1784]2:9   [1785]2:9   [1786]2:9   [1787]2:9   [1788]2:9
   [1789]2:9-10   [1790]2:12   [1791]3:6   [1792]3:7   [1793]3:8
   [1794]4:2   [1795]4:3   [1796]4:5   [1797]4:6   [1798]4:6-7
   [1799]4:6-7   [1800]4:7   [1801]4:7   [1802]5:3   [1803]5:4
   [1804]5:4-5   [1805]7:1-17   [1806]7:3-5   [1807]7:12   [1808]7:12
   [1809]7:13   [1810]7:15-16   [1811]8   [1812]9:5   [1813]9:6
   [1814]9:6   [1815]9:6   [1816]9:13-14   [1817]9:15   [1818]9:15
   [1819]9:15-16   [1820]9:16   [1821]9:20   [1822]9:20   [1823]9:20
   [1824]9:20   [1825]10:3   [1826]10:4   [1827]10:5   [1828]10:5
   [1829]10:11   [1830]10:17   [1831]10:17   [1832]10:17   [1833]10:18
   [1834]11:4   [1835]11:4   [1836]11:5-6   [1837]11:6   [1838]11:6
   [1839]11:6   [1840]11:6   [1841]11:6   [1842]11:6   [1843]11:6
   [1844]12:1   [1845]12:1   [1846]12:1   [1847]12:2   [1848]12:4
   [1849]12:5   [1850]12:5   [1851]14:2-3   [1852]14:3-4   [1853]14:6
   [1854]14:7   [1855]15:2   [1856]16:4   [1857]16:5   [1858]16:7
   [1859]16:35   [1860]16:46   [1861]17:7   [1862]17:8   [1863]17:8
   [1864]17:8   [1865]17:10   [1866]17:13   [1867]17:13   [1868]17:13
   [1869]17:13-14   [1870]17:14   [1871]17:14   [1872]17:14
   [1873]17:14   [1874]17:14   [1875]17:26   [1876]17:34   [1877]18:9
   [1878]18:9   [1879]18:9   [1880]18:10   [1881]18:11   [1882]18:12
   [1883]18:12   [1884]18:19   [1885]18:21   [1886]18:23   [1887]18:26
   [1888]18:26   [1889]18:26   [1890]19:1   [1891]19:2   [1892]19:4
   [1893]19:4-6   [1894]19:5   [1895]19:11   [1896]19:11   [1897]19:11
   [1898]20:3   [1899]20:7   [1900]20:7   [1901]20:7   [1902]21:3
   [1903]21:4   [1904]21:8   [1905]21:8   [1906]21:8   [1907]21:9
   [1908]21:9   [1909]21:9   [1910]21:9   [1911]21:13   [1912]22:6
   [1913]22:6   [1914]22:9-10   [1915]22:14   [1916]22:14   [1917]22:30
   [1918]22:30   [1919]22:30   [1920]22:30   [1921]23:2   [1922]23:2
   [1923]23:3   [1924]23:3   [1925]23:4   [1926]23:4-5   [1927]24:1
   [1928]24:1   [1929]24:1   [1930]24:1   [1931]24:1   [1932]24:2
   [1933]24:6   [1934]24:7   [1935]24:9   [1936]25:1   [1937]25:1
   [1938]25:3   [1939]25:5   [1940]25:6   [1941]25:6-7   [1942]25:14
   [1943]25:14   [1944]25:15   [1945]25:18   [1946]26:5-6   [1947]26:12
   [1948]27:2   [1949]27:2   [1950]27:3   [1951]27:4   [1952]27:4
   [1953]27:4   [1954]27:4   [1955]27:4   [1956]27:4-5   [1957]27:5
   [1958]27:5   [1959]27:8   [1960]27:10   [1961]27:11   [1962]27:13
   [1963]27:13   [1964]27:14   [1965]29:2-3   [1966]29:3   [1967]29:5
   [1968]29:6   [1969]29:7   [1970]29:10   [1971]29:10   [1972]30:5
   [1973]30:5   [1974]31:9-10   [1975]31:13   [1976]31:19   [1977]31:22
   [1978]31:22   [1979]31:22   [1980]31:22   [1981]32:3   [1982]32:3-4
   [1983]32:5   [1984]32:5   [1985]32:7   [1986]33:10   [1987]33:13
   [1988]33:14   [1989]33:14   [1990]34:5   [1991]34:7   [1992]34:10
   [1993]34:10   [1994]34:15   [1995]34:16   [1996]34:16   [1997]34:16
   [1998]34:19   [1999]35:5   [2000]35:6   [2001]35:13   [2002]35:13
   [2003]35:16   [2004]35:20   [2005]35:27   [2006]36:2   [2007]36:3
   [2008]36:6   [2009]36:9   [2010]37:3   [2011]37:6   [2012]37:6
   [2013]37:6   [2014]37:13   [2015]37:13   [2016]37:13   [2017]37:13
   [2018]37:13   [2019]37:13   [2020]37:13   [2021]37:16   [2022]37:24
   [2023]37:35   [2024]37:35   [2025]37:36   [2026]37:37   [2027]37:37
   [2028]38:5   [2029]38:9   [2030]38:13   [2031]38:13   [2032]38:13-14
   [2033]38:14-15   [2034]38:15   [2035]39:1   [2036]39:1-2   [2037]39:9
   [2038]39:9   [2039]40:5   [2040]40:6-7   [2041]40:6-12   [2042]41:3
   [2043]42:1   [2044]42:1-11   [2045]42:4   [2046]42:4   [2047]42:7
   [2048]42:10   [2049]43:3   [2050]43:4   [2051]44:2   [2052]44:3
   [2053]44:3   [2054]44:4   [2055]44:4   [2056]44:6   [2057]44:9
   [2058]44:12   [2059]44:12   [2060]44:12   [2061]44:17
   [2062]44:20-21   [2063]44:23   [2064]44:23   [2065]44:23
   [2066]44:23   [2067]45:1   [2068]45:5   [2069]45:5   [2070]45:17
   [2071]45:17   [2072]46:4   [2073]46:4   [2074]46:4   [2075]46:8
   [2076]46:10   [2077]46:10   [2078]46:10   [2079]47:4   [2080]47:7
   [2081]48:1-2   [2082]48:2   [2083]48:2   [2084]48:2   [2085]48:2
   [2086]48:2   [2087]48:3   [2088]48:3-6   [2089]48:10   [2090]48:13
   [2091]49:10   [2092]49:11   [2093]49:13   [2094]49:13   [2095]49:14
   [2096]49:14   [2097]49:14   [2098]49:17   [2099]49:18   [2100]49:18
   [2101]49:18   [2102]50:2   [2103]50:2   [2104]50:3   [2105]50:4
   [2106]50:5   [2107]50:6   [2108]50:7-8   [2109]50:8   [2110]50:8
   [2111]50:8   [2112]50:9   [2113]50:9   [2114]50:10   [2115]50:10
   [2116]50:12   [2117]50:13   [2118]50:16   [2119]50:18   [2120]50:20
   [2121]50:21   [2122]50:21   [2123]50:21   [2124]50:21   [2125]51:1
   [2126]51:3   [2127]51:4   [2128]51:7   [2129]51:10   [2130]51:11
   [2131]51:11   [2132]51:12   [2133]51:14   [2134]51:16-17
   [2135]51:17   [2136]52:6-7   [2137]52:7   [2138]52:7   [2139]52:7
   [2140]52:7   [2141]52:8   [2142]52:8   [2143]54:4   [2144]55:14
   [2145]55:17   [2146]55:19   [2147]56:4   [2148]56:5   [2149]56:5
   [2150]56:8   [2151]56:8   [2152]58:3   [2153]58:4   [2154]58:9
   [2155]58:11   [2156]59:11   [2157]60:3   [2158]60:3   [2159]60:4
   [2160]60:4   [2161]60:11   [2162]61:4   [2163]61:4   [2164]62:3
   [2165]62:3   [2166]62:10   [2167]62:11   [2168]62:11   [2169]62:12
   [2170]63:1   [2171]63:1   [2172]63:2   [2173]63:2   [2174]63:10
   [2175]64:8   [2176]65:1   [2177]65:2   [2178]65:2   [2179]65:7
   [2180]65:8   [2181]65:9   [2182]65:9   [2183]65:10   [2184]65:12
   [2185]65:13   [2186]65:13   [2187]65:13   [2188]66:2   [2189]66:3
   [2190]66:12   [2191]66:12   [2192]66:12   [2193]66:12   [2194]66:18
   [2195]66:18   [2196]66:18   [2197]66:18   [2198]67:2-3   [2199]67:3-4
   [2200]67:4   [2201]67:5-6   [2202]67:5-6   [2203]67:6   [2204]67:18
   [2205]68:1   [2206]68:2   [2207]68:2   [2208]68:4-5   [2209]68:4-5
   [2210]68:7-8   [2211]68:7-8   [2212]68:8   [2213]68:11   [2214]68:14
   [2215]68:16   [2216]68:16   [2217]68:17   [2218]68:18   [2219]68:18
   [2220]68:18   [2221]68:18   [2222]68:19-20   [2223]68:24
   [2224]68:25   [2225]68:28   [2226]68:31   [2227]68:35   [2228]69:1
   [2229]69:1   [2230]69:1   [2231]69:12   [2232]69:26   [2233]69:28
   [2234]69:30   [2235]69:32   [2236]69:35-36   [2237]70:19
   [2238]71:5-6   [2239]71:6   [2240]71:7   [2241]71:7   [2242]71:7
   [2243]71:11   [2244]71:11   [2245]71:16   [2246]71:16   [2247]71:17
   [2248]71:20   [2249]72:2   [2250]72:4   [2251]72:6   [2252]72:6
   [2253]72:6   [2254]72:7   [2255]72:8   [2256]72:8   [2257]72:9
   [2258]72:9   [2259]72:11   [2260]72:16   [2261]72:27   [2262]73:1
   [2263]73:1   [2264]73:1-28   [2265]73:2   [2266]73:2-3   [2267]73:4
   [2268]73:5   [2269]73:7   [2270]73:11   [2271]73:13   [2272]73:13
   [2273]73:14   [2274]73:17   [2275]73:20   [2276]73:23   [2277]73:23
   [2278]73:27-28   [2279]74:3   [2280]74:3-4   [2281]74:4
   [2282]74:5-6   [2283]74:8   [2284]74:8   [2285]74:9   [2286]74:9
   [2287]74:9   [2288]74:9   [2289]74:9   [2290]74:9   [2291]74:12
   [2292]74:13-14   [2293]74:13-14   [2294]74:13-14   [2295]74:14
   [2296]74:14   [2297]74:18-22   [2298]74:22   [2299]74:22   [2300]75:3
   [2301]75:3   [2302]75:5   [2303]75:5   [2304]75:6-7   [2305]75:7
   [2306]75:8   [2307]75:8   [2308]75:8   [2309]75:8   [2310]75:8
   [2311]75:8   [2312]75:8   [2313]75:10   [2314]75:10   [2315]76:1
   [2316]76:1   [2317]76:1   [2318]76:1   [2319]76:1-12   [2320]76:3
   [2321]76:5   [2322]76:5-6   [2323]76:7   [2324]76:7-8   [2325]76:10
   [2326]76:10   [2327]76:12   [2328]76:12   [2329]77:2-3   [2330]77:3
   [2331]77:5   [2332]77:5   [2333]77:6   [2334]77:7   [2335]77:7-9
   [2336]77:8   [2337]77:9   [2338]77:10   [2339]77:10   [2340]77:19
   [2341]77:20   [2342]78:9   [2343]78:34   [2344]78:38   [2345]78:39
   [2346]78:50   [2347]78:54   [2348]78:54   [2349]78:54   [2350]78:55
   [2351]78:60   [2352]78:61   [2353]78:63   [2354]78:65   [2355]78:69
   [2356]78:72   [2357]79:1   [2358]79:1   [2359]79:1   [2360]79:1-2
   [2361]79:2   [2362]79:2   [2363]79:6   [2364]79:6-7   [2365]79:12
   [2366]79:12   [2367]79:13   [2368]80:1   [2369]80:1   [2370]80:1
   [2371]80:1   [2372]80:1   [2373]80:2   [2374]80:3   [2375]80:3
   [2376]80:4   [2377]80:7   [2378]80:8   [2379]80:8-9   [2380]80:11
   [2381]80:12-13   [2382]80:13   [2383]80:15   [2384]80:16
   [2385]80:16   [2386]80:17   [2387]80:17-18   [2388]80:19
   [2389]80:19   [2390]81:6   [2391]81:7   [2392]81:10   [2393]81:12
   [2394]81:13   [2395]82:3   [2396]82:3-4   [2397]82:5   [2398]82:5
   [2399]82:5   [2400]82:5   [2401]82:6   [2402]82:6-7   [2403]82:7
   [2404]82:7   [2405]83:1   [2406]83:3   [2407]83:4   [2408]83:4-7
   [2409]83:5   [2410]83:6   [2411]83:9   [2412]83:9   [2413]83:11
   [2414]83:13   [2415]83:15   [2416]84:4   [2417]84:6   [2418]84:9
   [2419]84:10   [2420]85:1-2   [2421]85:1-6   [2422]85:6   [2423]85:7
   [2424]85:7   [2425]85:8   [2426]85:8   [2427]85:9   [2428]85:9-11
   [2429]85:10   [2430]85:10-11   [2431]86:11   [2432]87:1   [2433]87:1
   [2434]87:5   [2435]87:7   [2436]87:7   [2437]87:7   [2438]88:5
   [2439]88:15   [2440]88:18   [2441]89:2   [2442]89:3   [2443]89:7
   [2444]89:9   [2445]89:11-12   [2446]89:13-14   [2447]89:13-14
   [2448]89:20   [2449]89:27   [2450]89:28-29   [2451]89:29
   [2452]89:29   [2453]89:30   [2454]89:30   [2455]89:30-33
   [2456]89:30-33   [2457]89:34   [2458]89:35   [2459]89:35
   [2460]89:36   [2461]89:36   [2462]89:38-39   [2463]90:2
   [2464]90:7-8   [2465]90:8   [2466]91:1   [2467]91:4   [2468]91:5
   [2469]91:6   [2470]91:7-8   [2471]91:9   [2472]91:13   [2473]92:12
   [2474]92:13   [2475]92:14-15   [2476]93:3   [2477]93:3-4
   [2478]93:3-4   [2479]94:7   [2480]94:7   [2481]94:9   [2482]94:11-12
   [2483]94:12   [2484]94:12   [2485]94:15   [2486]94:16   [2487]94:20
   [2488]95:5   [2489]95:10   [2490]95:10   [2491]95:10   [2492]95:10
   [2493]95:10   [2494]95:11   [2495]95:11   [2496]95:11   [2497]96:1
   [2498]96:2-3   [2499]96:10   [2500]96:11   [2501]96:11
   [2502]96:11-12   [2503]96:11-13   [2504]96:13   [2505]97:2
   [2506]97:7   [2507]97:7   [2508]98:1   [2509]98:7-9   [2510]99:5
   [2511]99:5   [2512]101:1   [2513]101:1   [2514]102:1-28   [2515]102:3
   [2516]102:6   [2517]102:7   [2518]102:9   [2519]102:14   [2520]102:14
   [2521]102:14   [2522]102:14   [2523]102:27-28   [2524]103:5
   [2525]103:13   [2526]103:13   [2527]103:19   [2528]103:19
   [2529]103:19   [2530]103:20   [2531]103:21   [2532]104:2
   [2533]104:3   [2534]104:3   [2535]104:4   [2536]104:6-7
   [2537]104:6-26   [2538]104:13   [2539]104:14-15   [2540]104:15
   [2541]104:16   [2542]104:20   [2543]104:21   [2544]104:21
   [2545]104:24   [2546]104:26   [2547]104:32   [2548]105:8
   [2549]105:12-14   [2550]105:13   [2551]105:14-15   [2552]105:14-15
   [2553]105:15   [2554]105:15   [2555]105:29   [2556]105:29
   [2557]105:29   [2558]106:16   [2559]106:23   [2560]106:23
   [2561]106:24   [2562]106:27   [2563]106:29   [2564]106:30-31
   [2565]106:38   [2566]106:38   [2567]106:46   [2568]106:46
   [2569]106:46   [2570]106:47   [2571]106:47   [2572]106:47
   [2573]107:2   [2574]107:20   [2575]107:23   [2576]107:33
   [2577]107:33   [2578]107:34   [2579]107:34   [2580]107:38
   [2581]107:39   [2582]109:1   [2583]109:4   [2584]109:4   [2585]109:4
   [2586]109:14-15   [2587]110:1   [2588]110:1   [2589]110:1
   [2590]110:1   [2591]110:1   [2592]110:2   [2593]110:2   [2594]110:3
   [2595]110:3   [2596]110:3   [2597]110:3   [2598]110:3   [2599]110:3
   [2600]110:3   [2601]110:3   [2602]110:3   [2603]110:6   [2604]110:6
   [2605]110:6   [2606]110:6   [2607]110:6   [2608]111:2   [2609]111:10
   [2610]112:4   [2611]112:4   [2612]112:5-6   [2613]112:7   [2614]112:7
   [2615]112:9   [2616]112:10   [2617]113:4   [2618]113:7-8
   [2619]113:9   [2620]114:3   [2621]114:3-4   [2622]114:4   [2623]114:4
   [2624]115   [2625]115:2   [2626]115:2-3   [2627]115:3   [2628]115:5-6
   [2629]115:5-6   [2630]115:8   [2631]115:8   [2632]115:8
   [2633]115:16   [2634]115:16   [2635]115:16   [2636]116:16
   [2637]116:16   [2638]116:17-19   [2639]116:18-19   [2640]118:5
   [2641]118:7   [2642]118:15   [2643]118:18   [2644]118:23
   [2645]119:10   [2646]119:32   [2647]119:59   [2648]119:59
   [2649]119:67   [2650]119:67   [2651]119:68   [2652]119:71
   [2653]119:83   [2654]119:85   [2655]119:90-91   [2656]119:94
   [2657]119:94   [2658]119:94   [2659]119:99-100   [2660]119:111
   [2661]119:119   [2662]119:119   [2663]119:119   [2664]119:120
   [2665]119:120   [2666]119:120   [2667]119:120   [2668]119:122
   [2669]119:130   [2670]119:130   [2671]119:136   [2672]119:148
   [2673]119:165   [2674]119:165   [2675]119:175   [2676]119:175
   [2677]120:5   [2678]120:7   [2679]121:1-2   [2680]122:1   [2681]122:1
   [2682]122:1   [2683]122:3   [2684]122:4   [2685]122:5   [2686]122:5
   [2687]122:8   [2688]123:2   [2689]123:2   [2690]123:4   [2691]123:4
   [2692]123:4   [2693]124:8   [2694]124:8   [2695]125:1   [2696]125:1
   [2697]125:2   [2698]125:2   [2699]125:2   [2700]125:2   [2701]125:3
   [2702]126:1-2   [2703]126:1-2   [2704]126:2   [2705]126:2
   [2706]126:2   [2707]126:3   [2708]126:3-4   [2709]126:5-6
   [2710]127:1   [2711]127:1-2   [2712]127:2   [2713]127:5   [2714]128:5
   [2715]128:5-6   [2716]129:1   [2717]129:1-2   [2718]129:3
   [2719]129:4   [2720]130:1   [2721]130:2   [2722]130:4   [2723]130:4
   [2724]130:8   [2725]131:4   [2726]132:2   [2727]132:7   [2728]132:7
   [2729]132:7   [2730]132:12   [2731]132:14   [2732]132:17
   [2733]132:17-18   [2734]135:4   [2735]135:6   [2736]135:7
   [2737]135:7   [2738]136:1   [2739]136:12   [2740]136:17-18
   [2741]136:21-22   [2742]137:1   [2743]137:1   [2744]137:1
   [2745]137:1   [2746]137:1   [2747]137:1-2   [2748]137:1-9
   [2749]137:2-4   [2750]137:3   [2751]137:3   [2752]137:3   [2753]137:5
   [2754]137:5-6   [2755]137:6   [2756]137:7   [2757]137:7   [2758]137:7
   [2759]137:7   [2760]137:7   [2761]137:7   [2762]137:7   [2763]137:9
   [2764]137:9   [2765]138:1-8   [2766]138:3   [2767]138:7
   [2768]138:7-8   [2769]138:8   [2770]139:1   [2771]139:2   [2772]139:2
   [2773]139:7-8   [2774]139:7-10   [2775]139:11-12   [2776]139:13-16
   [2777]141:2   [2778]141:2   [2779]141:2   [2780]141:4   [2781]141:5-6
   [2782]141:6   [2783]141:6   [2784]141:7   [2785]141:7
   [2786]144:13-14   [2787]144:14   [2788]145:12   [2789]145:17
   [2790]146:1-148:14   [2791]146:3-4   [2792]146:3-4   [2793]146:10
   [2794]146:10   [2795]147:2   [2796]147:4   [2797]147:6   [2798]147:11
   [2799]147:13   [2800]147:13   [2801]147:14   [2802]147:15
   [2803]147:15   [2804]147:20   [2805]147:20   [2806]148:1-2
   [2807]148:9   [2808]148:14

   Proverbs

   [2809]1:9   [2810]1:9   [2811]1:13-14   [2812]1:14   [2813]1:14
   [2814]1:16   [2815]1:16   [2816]1:17   [2817]1:20-21   [2818]1:20-21
   [2819]1:21   [2820]1:23   [2821]1:24   [2822]1:24   [2823]1:26
   [2824]1:26   [2825]1:28   [2826]1:32   [2827]2:3-4   [2828]3:3
   [2829]3:8   [2830]3:15   [2831]3:29   [2832]3:29   [2833]3:32
   [2834]3:33   [2835]3:33   [2836]3:33   [2837]3:33   [2838]3:33
   [2839]4:18   [2840]4:26   [2841]5:11-12   [2842]5:16   [2843]5:19
   [2844]5:21   [2845]5:22   [2846]6:6-7   [2847]6:13   [2848]6:16-19
   [2849]6:22   [2850]6:28   [2851]6:34-35   [2852]7:2   [2853]7:3-4
   [2854]7:10   [2855]7:16-17   [2856]7:23   [2857]8:1   [2858]8:1-3
   [2859]8:9   [2860]8:15   [2861]8:15   [2862]8:17   [2863]8:30
   [2864]8:30   [2865]8:31   [2866]9:1   [2867]9:14-15   [2868]9:14-16
   [2869]10:13   [2870]10:21   [2871]10:24   [2872]11:4   [2873]11:4
   [2874]11:8   [2875]11:10   [2876]12:28   [2877]13:21   [2878]15:8
   [2879]15:8   [2880]16:1   [2881]16:4   [2882]16:4   [2883]16:7
   [2884]16:7   [2885]16:9   [2886]16:15   [2887]16:33   [2888]18:1
   [2889]18:10   [2890]18:10   [2891]18:10   [2892]18:11   [2893]19:3
   [2894]19:3   [2895]19:3   [2896]19:3   [2897]19:19   [2898]19:20
   [2899]19:21   [2900]21:1   [2901]21:13   [2902]21:30-31   [2903]22:5
   [2904]22:8   [2905]23:3   [2906]23:5   [2907]23:5   [2908]23:5
   [2909]23:5   [2910]23:17   [2911]23:29   [2912]23:29-30
   [2913]23:29-35   [2914]23:33   [2915]23:35   [2916]24:10
   [2917]24:17-18   [2918]24:24   [2919]24:31   [2920]25:4   [2921]25:12
   [2922]25:15   [2923]25:23   [2924]26:1   [2925]26:7   [2926]27:1
   [2927]27:4   [2928]27:6   [2929]27:22   [2930]28:1   [2931]28:2
   [2932]28:2   [2933]28:3   [2934]28:3   [2935]28:3   [2936]28:3
   [2937]28:9   [2938]28:9   [2939]28:14   [2940]28:15   [2941]28:15
   [2942]28:21   [2943]28:24   [2944]29:1   [2945]29:5   [2946]29:10
   [2947]29:10   [2948]29:10   [2949]29:12   [2950]29:16   [2951]29:18
   [2952]30:4   [2953]30:15   [2954]30:15-16   [2955]30:17   [2956]30:18
   [2957]30:20   [2958]30:21   [2959]30:22   [2960]30:27   [2961]30:28
   [2962]30:29   [2963]30:31   [2964]30:31   [2965]31:4   [2966]31:4-5
   [2967]31:4-5   [2968]31:5   [2969]31:5   [2970]31:5   [2971]31:5-6
   [2972]31:6

   Ecclesiastes

   [2973]1:4   [2974]1:8   [2975]1:9   [2976]1:9-10   [2977]2:8
   [2978]2:18-19   [2979]2:19   [2980]2:24   [2981]2:26   [2982]2:26
   [2983]3:6   [2984]3:7   [2985]3:11   [2986]3:11   [2987]3:13
   [2988]3:13   [2989]3:16   [2990]3:16   [2991]3:16   [2992]4:1
   [2993]4:1   [2994]4:1   [2995]4:1   [2996]4:1   [2997]4:4   [2998]5:6
   [2999]5:7   [3000]5:8   [3001]5:8   [3002]5:8   [3003]5:8   [3004]5:9
   [3005]5:9   [3006]5:10   [3007]5:10   [3008]5:10   [3009]5:10
   [3010]5:13   [3011]5:13   [3012]5:16   [3013]7:1   [3014]7:6
   [3015]7:7   [3016]7:10   [3017]7:12   [3018]7:17   [3019]7:17
   [3020]7:26   [3021]8:1   [3022]8:2   [3023]8:11   [3024]8:11
   [3025]9:1   [3026]9:2   [3027]9:2   [3028]9:5   [3029]9:7
   [3030]9:10   [3031]9:11   [3032]9:12   [3033]9:15   [3034]10:16
   [3035]10:16   [3036]10:16   [3037]10:17   [3038]10:17   [3039]10:20
   [3040]10:20   [3041]11:1   [3042]11:9   [3043]11:9   [3044]11:9
   [3045]12:1   [3046]12:1   [3047]12:4   [3048]12:5   [3049]12:9

   Song of Solomon

   [3050]1:4   [3051]1:4   [3052]1:6   [3053]1:7   [3054]1:13
   [3055]1:14   [3056]2:3   [3057]2:8   [3058]2:17   [3059]3:3
   [3060]3:3   [3061]3:11   [3062]4:4   [3063]4:8   [3064]4:9
   [3065]4:12   [3066]4:14   [3067]4:15   [3068]5:7   [3069]5:9
   [3070]5:10   [3071]5:15   [3072]7:12   [3073]8:5   [3074]8:6
   [3075]8:10   [3076]8:10

   Isaiah

   [3077]1:1   [3078]1:1   [3079]1:1   [3080]1:1   [3081]1:2   [3082]1:2
   [3083]1:2   [3084]1:2-3   [3085]1:3   [3086]1:3   [3087]1:4
   [3088]1:4   [3089]1:4   [3090]1:4   [3091]1:4   [3092]1:5   [3093]1:5
   [3094]1:5   [3095]1:5-6   [3096]1:6   [3097]1:6   [3098]1:6
   [3099]1:6   [3100]1:6   [3101]1:6   [3102]1:7   [3103]1:7   [3104]1:7
   [3105]1:7   [3106]1:7   [3107]1:7   [3108]1:7-9   [3109]1:8
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   [4932]47:12-15   [4933]47:13   [4934]47:13   [4935]47:14
   [4936]47:15   [4937]47:16-19   [4938]47:20-22   [4939]48:1
   [4940]48:3   [4941]48:4   [4942]48:4   [4943]48:5   [4944]48:6
   [4945]48:6   [4946]48:7   [4947]48:7   [4948]48:7-8   [4949]48:8
   [4950]48:8   [4951]48:8   [4952]48:8   [4953]48:8   [4954]48:9-11
   [4955]48:11   [4956]48:12   [4957]48:13   [4958]48:14   [4959]48:14
   [4960]48:14   [4961]48:15   [4962]48:15   [4963]48:16   [4964]48:17
   [4965]48:18   [4966]48:18-19   [4967]48:20   [4968]48:21
   [4969]48:22   [4970]48:22   [4971]49:1   [4972]49:1   [4973]49:1
   [4974]49:1-3   [4975]49:2   [4976]49:2   [4977]49:4   [4978]49:4-8
   [4979]49:5   [4980]49:5-6   [4981]49:6   [4982]49:6   [4983]49:7
   [4984]49:7   [4985]49:7   [4986]49:8   [4987]49:8   [4988]49:9
   [4989]49:9-11   [4990]49:9-12   [4991]49:11   [4992]49:11
   [4993]49:12   [4994]49:12   [4995]49:13   [4996]49:13-17
   [4997]49:14   [4998]49:14   [4999]49:14   [5000]49:15   [5001]49:16
   [5002]49:16   [5003]49:17   [5004]49:17   [5005]49:18   [5006]49:18
   [5007]49:18-23   [5008]49:19   [5009]49:19-20   [5010]49:20
   [5011]49:20   [5012]49:21   [5013]49:22   [5014]49:22-23
   [5015]49:23   [5016]49:24   [5017]49:24-26   [5018]49:25
   [5019]49:26   [5020]50:1   [5021]50:1   [5022]50:1   [5023]50:1-3
   [5024]50:2   [5025]50:2   [5026]50:3   [5027]50:4   [5028]50:4
   [5029]50:4   [5030]50:4   [5031]50:4-7   [5032]50:5   [5033]50:5
   [5034]50:5-6   [5035]50:5-6   [5036]50:6   [5037]50:7   [5038]50:7
   [5039]50:7   [5040]50:7   [5041]50:7-8   [5042]50:7-9   [5043]50:7-9
   [5044]50:8   [5045]50:9   [5046]50:9   [5047]50:9   [5048]50:10
   [5049]50:10-11   [5050]50:11   [5051]51:1   [5052]51:1   [5053]51:1-3
   [5054]51:2   [5055]51:3   [5056]51:4   [5057]51:4-6   [5058]51:5
   [5059]51:7   [5060]51:7   [5061]51:7-8   [5062]51:8   [5063]51:8
   [5064]51:9   [5065]51:9   [5066]51:9   [5067]51:9   [5068]51:9-10
   [5069]51:9-11   [5070]51:10   [5071]51:11   [5072]51:12   [5073]51:12
   [5074]51:12-13   [5075]51:12-13   [5076]51:12-16   [5077]51:13
   [5078]51:14   [5079]51:14-15   [5080]51:16   [5081]51:17
   [5082]51:17   [5083]51:17-20   [5084]51:18   [5085]51:18
   [5086]51:18   [5087]51:19   [5088]51:20   [5089]51:20   [5090]51:20
   [5091]51:20   [5092]51:21   [5093]51:21-23   [5094]51:22
   [5095]51:22-23   [5096]51:22-23   [5097]51:22-23   [5098]51:22-23
   [5099]51:23   [5100]51:23   [5101]52:1   [5102]52:1   [5103]52:1-2
   [5104]52:1-6   [5105]52:2   [5106]52:3   [5107]52:3-5   [5108]52:4
   [5109]52:4   [5110]52:4   [5111]52:5   [5112]52:5   [5113]52:5
   [5114]52:6   [5115]52:7   [5116]52:7   [5117]52:7   [5118]52:7
   [5119]52:7-10   [5120]52:8   [5121]52:8   [5122]52:9   [5123]52:10
   [5124]52:10   [5125]52:10   [5126]52:11   [5127]52:11-12
   [5128]52:12   [5129]52:12   [5130]52:13   [5131]52:13
   [5132]52:13-15   [5133]52:13-15   [5134]52:14   [5135]53:1
   [5136]53:1   [5137]53:1   [5138]53:1-3   [5139]53:1-12
   [5140]53:1-12   [5141]53:2   [5142]53:2   [5143]53:2   [5144]53:2
   [5145]53:2   [5146]53:2-3   [5147]53:3   [5148]53:4   [5149]53:4
   [5150]53:4   [5151]53:4   [5152]53:4   [5153]53:4   [5154]53:4-6
   [5155]53:5   [5156]53:5   [5157]53:6   [5158]53:6   [5159]53:7
   [5160]53:7   [5161]53:7   [5162]53:7   [5163]53:8   [5164]53:8
   [5165]53:8   [5166]53:8   [5167]53:8   [5168]53:9   [5169]53:9
   [5170]53:9   [5171]53:10   [5172]53:10   [5173]53:10   [5174]53:10
   [5175]53:10   [5176]53:10   [5177]53:10-12   [5178]53:10-12
   [5179]53:11   [5180]53:11   [5181]53:11   [5182]53:12   [5183]53:12
   [5184]53:12   [5185]53:12   [5186]53:12   [5187]53:19   [5188]54:1
   [5189]54:1   [5190]54:1   [5191]54:1   [5192]54:1-5   [5193]54:1-17
   [5194]54:2   [5195]54:2-3   [5196]54:4   [5197]54:5   [5198]54:5
   [5199]54:6   [5200]54:6   [5201]54:6-8   [5202]54:6-10   [5203]54:7
   [5204]54:7-8   [5205]54:7-8   [5206]54:8   [5207]54:8   [5208]54:9
   [5209]54:9   [5210]54:9   [5211]54:10   [5212]54:11   [5213]54:11-12
   [5214]54:12   [5215]54:13   [5216]54:13-14   [5217]54:14
   [5218]54:14   [5219]54:14-17   [5220]54:15   [5221]54:16
   [5222]54:16   [5223]54:17   [5224]54:17   [5225]55:1   [5226]55:1
   [5227]55:1   [5228]55:1   [5229]55:2   [5230]55:2   [5231]55:2
   [5232]55:2-4   [5233]55:3   [5234]55:3   [5235]55:3   [5236]55:4
   [5237]55:5   [5238]55:5   [5239]55:6   [5240]55:6-7   [5241]55:6-9
   [5242]55:7   [5243]55:7   [5244]55:7   [5245]55:8-9   [5246]55:9
   [5247]55:10   [5248]55:10-11   [5249]55:10-11   [5250]55:11
   [5251]55:11   [5252]55:12-13   [5253]55:12-13   [5254]55:13
   [5255]56:1   [5256]56:1   [5257]56:1-2   [5258]56:1-2   [5259]56:2
   [5260]56:3   [5261]56:3   [5262]56:3   [5263]56:3-8   [5264]56:5
   [5265]56:5-7   [5266]56:6   [5267]56:6-7   [5268]56:7   [5269]56:7
   [5270]56:7   [5271]56:8   [5272]56:8   [5273]56:9   [5274]56:9-12
   [5275]56:10   [5276]56:10   [5277]56:11   [5278]56:11   [5279]56:11
   [5280]56:12   [5281]56:12   [5282]56:12   [5283]56:12   [5284]57:1-2
   [5285]57:3   [5286]57:3-12   [5287]57:4   [5288]57:4   [5289]57:5-6
   [5290]57:6   [5291]57:6   [5292]57:7   [5293]57:8   [5294]57:9
   [5295]57:9   [5296]57:9   [5297]57:10   [5298]57:12   [5299]57:13
   [5300]57:13-21   [5301]57:14   [5302]57:15   [5303]57:15
   [5304]57:16   [5305]57:17   [5306]57:17   [5307]57:17-18
   [5308]57:17-18   [5309]57:17-18   [5310]57:19   [5311]57:19
   [5312]57:19   [5313]57:20   [5314]57:20   [5315]57:20-21
   [5316]57:21   [5317]57:21   [5318]58:1   [5319]58:1   [5320]58:1
   [5321]58:1   [5322]58:1   [5323]58:2   [5324]58:2   [5325]58:2
   [5326]58:2   [5327]58:2   [5328]58:3   [5329]58:3   [5330]58:3
   [5331]58:3   [5332]58:3   [5333]58:3   [5334]58:4   [5335]58:4-5
   [5336]58:5   [5337]58:5   [5338]58:5   [5339]58:5   [5340]58:6
   [5341]58:6   [5342]58:6   [5343]58:6   [5344]58:6   [5345]58:6-7
   [5346]58:7   [5347]58:8   [5348]58:8-12   [5349]58:9   [5350]58:9
   [5351]58:9   [5352]58:9-10   [5353]58:10   [5354]58:10   [5355]58:10
   [5356]58:11   [5357]58:11   [5358]58:11   [5359]58:12   [5360]58:12
   [5361]58:13   [5362]58:13-14   [5363]58:14   [5364]59:1-2
   [5365]59:1-2   [5366]59:1-8   [5367]59:2   [5368]59:2   [5369]59:3
   [5370]59:3   [5371]59:3   [5372]59:4   [5373]59:4   [5374]59:4
   [5375]59:4   [5376]59:4   [5377]59:5   [5378]59:6   [5379]59:7
   [5380]59:7   [5381]59:7-8   [5382]59:8   [5383]59:9   [5384]59:9-11
   [5385]59:9-11   [5386]59:9-15   [5387]59:10   [5388]59:11
   [5389]59:11   [5390]59:11   [5391]59:12-15   [5392]59:12-15
   [5393]59:13   [5394]59:14   [5395]59:14   [5396]59:14   [5397]59:14
   [5398]59:14-15   [5399]59:15   [5400]59:16   [5401]59:16-19
   [5402]59:18-19   [5403]59:19   [5404]59:19   [5405]59:19
   [5406]59:20   [5407]59:20   [5408]59:20   [5409]59:20-21
   [5410]59:21   [5411]59:21   [5412]60:1   [5413]60:1-2   [5414]60:1-2
   [5415]60:1-8   [5416]60:2   [5417]60:3   [5418]60:3-8   [5419]60:4
   [5420]60:4   [5421]60:4   [5422]60:4   [5423]60:4-5   [5424]60:5
   [5425]60:6   [5426]60:6   [5427]60:7   [5428]60:7   [5429]60:8
   [5430]60:8   [5431]60:9   [5432]60:9-13   [5433]60:10   [5434]60:10
   [5435]60:11   [5436]60:12   [5437]60:13   [5438]60:14   [5439]60:14
   [5440]60:14   [5441]60:14-16   [5442]60:15-16   [5443]60:16
   [5444]60:17   [5445]60:17   [5446]60:17-18   [5447]60:18
   [5448]60:19   [5449]60:19   [5450]60:19-22   [5451]60:20
   [5452]60:21   [5453]60:21   [5454]60:22   [5455]61:1   [5456]61:1
   [5457]61:1   [5458]61:1   [5459]61:1-3   [5460]61:3   [5461]61:3
   [5462]61:3   [5463]61:4   [5464]61:4   [5465]61:5   [5466]61:5
   [5467]61:6   [5468]61:6   [5469]61:6   [5470]61:6   [5471]61:7
   [5472]61:7   [5473]61:8   [5474]61:8   [5475]61:9   [5476]61:9
   [5477]61:10   [5478]61:10-11   [5479]61:11   [5480]62:1   [5481]62:1
   [5482]62:2   [5483]62:2   [5484]62:2-3   [5485]62:3   [5486]62:3
   [5487]62:3-5   [5488]62:3-5   [5489]62:4   [5490]62:4   [5491]62:4-5
   [5492]62:5   [5493]62:5   [5494]62:6   [5495]62:6   [5496]62:6
   [5497]62:6   [5498]62:6-7   [5499]62:6-7   [5500]62:8   [5501]62:8-9
   [5502]62:8-9   [5503]62:9   [5504]62:10   [5505]62:10
   [5506]62:10-12   [5507]62:11-12   [5508]63:1   [5509]63:1
   [5510]63:1-2   [5511]63:1-2   [5512]63:1-2   [5513]63:1-6
   [5514]63:2   [5515]63:3   [5516]63:3   [5517]63:3   [5518]63:3
   [5519]63:3-5   [5520]63:4   [5521]63:4   [5522]63:4   [5523]63:4
   [5524]63:5   [5525]63:5   [5526]63:5   [5527]63:5   [5528]63:5
   [5529]63:6   [5530]63:6   [5531]63:6   [5532]63:7   [5533]63:7
   [5534]63:7   [5535]63:7   [5536]63:8   [5537]63:8   [5538]63:8
   [5539]63:8   [5540]63:9   [5541]63:9   [5542]63:9   [5543]63:9
   [5544]63:9   [5545]63:9   [5546]63:10   [5547]63:10   [5548]63:10
   [5549]63:10   [5550]63:10   [5551]63:10   [5552]63:10   [5553]63:11
   [5554]63:11   [5555]63:11   [5556]63:11   [5557]63:11
   [5558]63:11-12   [5559]63:11-14   [5560]63:12   [5561]63:12
   [5562]63:12   [5563]63:13   [5564]63:13-14   [5565]63:14
   [5566]63:15   [5567]63:15   [5568]63:15   [5569]63:15   [5570]63:16
   [5571]63:16   [5572]63:17   [5573]63:17   [5574]63:17   [5575]63:18
   [5576]63:18   [5577]63:18-19   [5578]64:1   [5579]64:1   [5580]64:1-2
   [5581]64:3-5   [5582]64:4   [5583]64:6-7   [5584]64:7   [5585]64:8
   [5586]64:8   [5587]64:9-12   [5588]64:11   [5589]64:11   [5590]64:11
   [5591]64:11   [5592]64:11   [5593]64:12   [5594]65:1   [5595]65:1
   [5596]65:1   [5597]65:1   [5598]65:2   [5599]65:2   [5600]65:2
   [5601]65:2-7   [5602]65:4   [5603]65:5   [5604]65:5   [5605]65:5
   [5606]65:5   [5607]65:5   [5608]65:6   [5609]65:7   [5610]65:7
   [5611]65:8   [5612]65:8   [5613]65:8   [5614]65:8   [5615]65:8
   [5616]65:8-10   [5617]65:9   [5618]65:10   [5619]65:11
   [5620]65:11-16   [5621]65:12   [5622]65:12   [5623]65:12
   [5624]65:13   [5625]65:13   [5626]65:13-16   [5627]65:15-16
   [5628]65:16   [5629]65:16   [5630]65:17   [5631]65:17-25
   [5632]65:18   [5633]65:19   [5634]65:19   [5635]65:20
   [5636]65:21-22   [5637]65:23   [5638]65:24   [5639]65:24
   [5640]65:24   [5641]65:24   [5642]65:25   [5643]66:1   [5644]66:1
   [5645]66:1-2   [5646]66:1-4   [5647]66:2   [5648]66:2   [5649]66:3-4
   [5650]66:4   [5651]66:5   [5652]66:5   [5653]66:5   [5654]66:6
   [5655]66:6   [5656]66:6   [5657]66:7   [5658]66:7-9   [5659]66:8
   [5660]66:9   [5661]66:10   [5662]66:10-11   [5663]66:10-11
   [5664]66:11   [5665]66:12-14   [5666]66:12-14   [5667]66:13
   [5668]66:13   [5669]66:14   [5670]66:15-18   [5671]66:17
   [5672]66:18   [5673]66:18   [5674]66:19-24   [5675]66:20
   [5676]66:20   [5677]66:21   [5678]66:22   [5679]66:22   [5680]66:23
   [5681]66:23   [5682]66:24   [5683]66:24   [5684]66:24
   [5685]89:38-39   [5686]401

   Jeremiah

   [5687]1:1-2   [5688]1:1-3   [5689]1:1-19   [5690]1:2   [5691]1:3
   [5692]1:4-5   [5693]1:4-10   [5694]1:5   [5695]1:6   [5696]1:6-7
   [5697]1:7   [5698]1:8   [5699]1:8   [5700]1:9   [5701]1:9
   [5702]1:10   [5703]1:10   [5704]1:10   [5705]1:10   [5706]1:10
   [5707]1:10   [5708]1:10   [5709]1:11-16   [5710]1:12   [5711]1:12
   [5712]1:13   [5713]1:13   [5714]1:13   [5715]1:14   [5716]1:14
   [5717]1:14   [5718]1:14   [5719]1:15   [5720]1:15   [5721]1:15
   [5722]1:16   [5723]1:17   [5724]1:17   [5725]1:17-19   [5726]1:18
   [5727]1:18   [5728]1:18   [5729]1:18-19   [5730]1:19   [5731]2:1-8
   [5732]2:2   [5733]2:3   [5734]2:3   [5735]2:4   [5736]2:5   [5737]2:5
   [5738]2:5   [5739]2:6   [5740]2:6   [5741]2:6   [5742]2:6   [5743]2:7
   [5744]2:7   [5745]2:7   [5746]2:8   [5747]2:8   [5748]2:9
   [5749]2:9-13   [5750]2:10-11   [5751]2:10-11   [5752]2:10-11
   [5753]2:11   [5754]2:11   [5755]2:11   [5756]2:11   [5757]2:12
   [5758]2:12-13   [5759]2:14   [5760]2:14-19   [5761]2:15   [5762]2:15
   [5763]2:16   [5764]2:17   [5765]2:18   [5766]2:19   [5767]2:19
   [5768]2:19   [5769]2:20   [5770]2:20   [5771]2:20-21   [5772]2:21
   [5773]2:21   [5774]2:21   [5775]2:21   [5776]2:22   [5777]2:22-23
   [5778]2:23   [5779]2:23   [5780]2:23   [5781]2:23   [5782]2:24
   [5783]2:24   [5784]2:24-25   [5785]2:25   [5786]2:25   [5787]2:26-27
   [5788]2:26-28   [5789]2:26-29   [5790]2:27   [5791]2:27   [5792]2:28
   [5793]2:29   [5794]2:30   [5795]2:30   [5796]2:30   [5797]2:30-31
   [5798]2:31   [5799]2:31   [5800]2:32   [5801]2:32   [5802]2:33
   [5803]2:33   [5804]2:34   [5805]2:34   [5806]2:35   [5807]2:35
   [5808]2:36   [5809]2:36-37   [5810]2:37   [5811]2:37   [5812]3
   [5813]3:1   [5814]3:1   [5815]3:1   [5816]3:1-5   [5817]3:2
   [5818]3:2   [5819]3:2   [5820]3:2   [5821]3:3   [5822]3:3   [5823]3:3
   [5824]3:3   [5825]3:3   [5826]3:3   [5827]3:4   [5828]3:5   [5829]3:5
   [5830]3:5   [5831]3:5   [5832]3:6   [5833]3:6   [5834]3:6
   [5835]3:6-11   [5836]3:7   [5837]3:7-8   [5838]3:8   [5839]3:10
   [5840]3:11   [5841]3:12   [5842]3:12   [5843]3:12-19   [5844]3:13
   [5845]3:14   [5846]3:14   [5847]3:14   [5848]3:15   [5849]3:15
   [5850]3:15   [5851]3:16   [5852]3:17   [5853]3:18   [5854]3:18
   [5855]3:19   [5856]3:20   [5857]3:20   [5858]3:20-25   [5859]3:21
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   [7668]48:26-27   [7669]48:28   [7670]48:29   [7671]48:29
   [7672]48:30   [7673]48:30   [7674]48:31   [7675]48:31   [7676]48:32
   [7677]48:32   [7678]48:33   [7679]48:33-34   [7680]48:34
   [7681]48:34   [7682]48:34   [7683]48:35   [7684]48:35   [7685]48:36
   [7686]48:36   [7687]48:36   [7688]48:37   [7689]48:38   [7690]48:39
   [7691]48:40   [7692]48:40   [7693]48:40-41   [7694]48:41
   [7695]48:42   [7696]48:42   [7697]48:42   [7698]48:43   [7699]48:43
   [7700]48:44   [7701]48:44   [7702]48:45   [7703]48:45   [7704]48:46
   [7705]48:46   [7706]48:46   [7707]48:47   [7708]48:47   [7709]48:47
   [7710]48:48   [7711]49:1   [7712]49:1   [7713]49:1   [7714]49:1
   [7715]49:1-6   [7716]49:2   [7717]49:3   [7718]49:4   [7719]49:5
   [7720]49:5   [7721]49:6   [7722]49:6   [7723]49:7   [7724]49:7
   [7725]49:7   [7726]49:7   [7727]49:7-22   [7728]49:8   [7729]49:8
   [7730]49:8   [7731]49:9-10   [7732]49:9-10   [7733]49:11
   [7734]49:12   [7735]49:12   [7736]49:13   [7737]49:13   [7738]49:13
   [7739]49:14   [7740]49:14   [7741]49:15   [7742]49:15-16
   [7743]49:16   [7744]49:17   [7745]49:18   [7746]49:18   [7747]49:19
   [7748]49:19   [7749]49:19   [7750]49:19   [7751]49:19-21
   [7752]49:20   [7753]49:20   [7754]49:20   [7755]49:21   [7756]49:22
   [7757]49:23   [7758]49:23   [7759]49:23-27   [7760]49:24
   [7761]49:25   [7762]49:26   [7763]49:27   [7764]49:27   [7765]49:28
   [7766]49:28-32   [7767]49:28-33   [7768]49:29   [7769]49:29
   [7770]49:30   [7771]49:30   [7772]49:31   [7773]49:31   [7774]49:31
   [7775]49:31   [7776]49:31   [7777]49:31   [7778]49:33
   [7779]49:34-39   [7780]49:35   [7781]49:36   [7782]49:37
   [7783]49:37   [7784]49:38   [7785]49:39   [7786]50:1-3   [7787]50:2
   [7788]50:3   [7789]50:4   [7790]50:4-5   [7791]50:4-8   [7792]50:5
   [7793]50:5   [7794]50:5   [7795]50:5   [7796]50:6   [7797]50:6
   [7798]50:6   [7799]50:7   [7800]50:8   [7801]50:9   [7802]50:9
   [7803]50:9   [7804]50:9-16   [7805]50:10   [7806]50:11   [7807]50:11
   [7808]50:11   [7809]50:12   [7810]50:13   [7811]50:13   [7812]50:13
   [7813]50:14   [7814]50:14   [7815]50:14   [7816]50:14   [7817]50:15
   [7818]50:15   [7819]50:16   [7820]50:16   [7821]50:17   [7822]50:17
   [7823]50:17-20   [7824]50:18   [7825]50:19   [7826]50:20
   [7827]50:20   [7828]50:21   [7829]50:21   [7830]50:21
   [7831]50:21-32   [7832]50:23   [7833]50:23   [7834]50:23
   [7835]50:23   [7836]50:24   [7837]50:24   [7838]50:25   [7839]50:26
   [7840]50:26   [7841]50:27   [7842]50:28   [7843]50:28   [7844]50:28
   [7845]50:29   [7846]50:29   [7847]50:30   [7848]50:31   [7849]50:31
   [7850]50:31   [7851]50:31   [7852]50:32   [7853]50:33   [7854]50:33
   [7855]50:34   [7856]50:34   [7857]50:34   [7858]50:35
   [7859]50:35-46   [7860]50:36   [7861]50:37   [7862]50:38
   [7863]50:38   [7864]50:38   [7865]50:38   [7866]50:38   [7867]50:39
   [7868]50:40   [7869]50:41-43   [7870]50:44   [7871]50:45
   [7872]50:46   [7873]51:1   [7874]51:1-58   [7875]51:2   [7876]51:3
   [7877]51:4   [7878]51:5   [7879]51:6   [7880]51:6   [7881]51:7
   [7882]51:8   [7883]51:8   [7884]51:8-9   [7885]51:9   [7886]51:10
   [7887]51:11   [7888]51:11   [7889]51:11   [7890]51:11   [7891]51:12
   [7892]51:12   [7893]51:13   [7894]51:14   [7895]51:15   [7896]51:16
   [7897]51:16   [7898]51:17-18   [7899]51:19   [7900]51:20
   [7901]51:21   [7902]51:22   [7903]51:23   [7904]51:24   [7905]51:25
   [7906]51:25   [7907]51:26   [7908]51:27-28   [7909]51:29
   [7910]51:29   [7911]51:30   [7912]51:31   [7913]51:31-32
   [7914]51:32   [7915]51:33   [7916]51:33   [7917]51:34-35
   [7918]51:35   [7919]51:36   [7920]51:37   [7921]51:38-39
   [7922]51:39   [7923]51:40   [7924]51:41   [7925]51:41   [7926]51:41
   [7927]51:42   [7928]51:43   [7929]51:44   [7930]51:45-46
   [7931]51:46   [7932]51:47   [7933]51:48   [7934]51:49
   [7935]51:50-51   [7936]51:51   [7937]51:52   [7938]51:52
   [7939]51:53   [7940]51:53   [7941]51:54   [7942]51:55   [7943]51:56
   [7944]51:56-58   [7945]51:57   [7946]51:58   [7947]51:59
   [7948]51:59   [7949]51:59   [7950]51:59   [7951]51:59-64
   [7952]51:60   [7953]51:62   [7954]51:64   [7955]52:1   [7956]52:1-3
   [7957]52:3   [7958]52:4   [7959]52:4-6   [7960]52:4-7   [7961]52:6
   [7962]52:6   [7963]52:6   [7964]52:6   [7965]52:7   [7966]52:7
   [7967]52:7   [7968]52:8   [7969]52:8-11   [7970]52:9   [7971]52:10
   [7972]52:10   [7973]52:12   [7974]52:12-13   [7975]52:12-13
   [7976]52:12-14   [7977]52:13   [7978]52:15   [7979]52:15
   [7980]52:15-16   [7981]52:17-23   [7982]52:19   [7983]52:20
   [7984]52:21-23   [7985]52:24-27   [7986]52:27   [7987]52:28-30
   [7988]52:30   [7989]52:30   [7990]52:31   [7991]52:31-32
   [7992]52:31-34   [7993]52:32   [7994]52:32

   Lamentations

   [7995]1:1-11   [7996]1:7   [7997]1:7   [7998]1:8   [7999]1:9
   [8000]1:9   [8001]1:9   [8002]1:12   [8003]1:12   [8004]1:12-17
   [8005]1:14   [8006]1:18   [8007]1:18-22   [8008]1:20   [8009]2:1
   [8010]2:1   [8011]2:1   [8012]2:1-9   [8013]2:2   [8014]2:2
   [8015]2:2   [8016]2:2   [8017]2:2   [8018]2:2   [8019]2:3   [8020]2:3
   [8021]2:3   [8022]2:3   [8023]2:3   [8024]2:3   [8025]2:4   [8026]2:4
   [8027]2:4   [8028]2:4   [8029]2:4   [8030]2:5   [8031]2:5   [8032]2:5
   [8033]2:5   [8034]2:5   [8035]2:5   [8036]2:5   [8037]2:6   [8038]2:6
   [8039]2:6   [8040]2:6   [8041]2:6   [8042]2:6   [8043]2:7   [8044]2:7
   [8045]2:7   [8046]2:7   [8047]2:7   [8048]2:7   [8049]2:7
   [8050]2:7-9   [8051]2:8   [8052]2:8   [8053]2:8   [8054]2:8
   [8055]2:8   [8056]2:9   [8057]2:9   [8058]2:9   [8059]2:9   [8060]2:9
   [8061]2:9   [8062]2:9   [8063]2:10   [8064]2:10   [8065]2:10
   [8066]2:10-19   [8067]2:11   [8068]2:11   [8069]2:11   [8070]2:11
   [8071]2:11   [8072]2:11-12   [8073]2:12   [8074]2:12   [8075]2:12
   [8076]2:12   [8077]2:12   [8078]2:13   [8079]2:13   [8080]2:14
   [8081]2:14   [8082]2:14   [8083]2:14   [8084]2:15   [8085]2:15
   [8086]2:15   [8087]2:15   [8088]2:15-16   [8089]2:16   [8090]2:16
   [8091]2:16   [8092]2:17   [8093]2:17   [8094]2:17   [8095]2:17
   [8096]2:17   [8097]2:17   [8098]2:18   [8099]2:18   [8100]2:18
   [8101]2:18   [8102]2:18   [8103]2:19   [8104]2:19   [8105]2:19
   [8106]2:19   [8107]2:20   [8108]2:20   [8109]2:20   [8110]2:20
   [8111]2:20   [8112]2:20-22   [8113]2:21   [8114]2:21   [8115]2:21
   [8116]2:21-22   [8117]2:22   [8118]2:22   [8119]3:1   [8120]3:1-20
   [8121]3:2   [8122]3:3   [8123]3:4   [8124]3:5   [8125]3:6   [8126]3:6
   [8127]3:7   [8128]3:7   [8129]3:7   [8130]3:8   [8131]3:9   [8132]3:9
   [8133]3:9   [8134]3:10   [8135]3:11   [8136]3:12   [8137]3:13
   [8138]3:14   [8139]3:15   [8140]3:16   [8141]3:17   [8142]3:18
   [8143]3:19-20   [8144]3:21   [8145]3:21-36   [8146]3:21-36
   [8147]3:21-36   [8148]3:22   [8149]3:22-23   [8150]3:23   [8151]3:24
   [8152]3:25   [8153]3:26   [8154]3:26-28   [8155]3:27   [8156]3:27
   [8157]3:30   [8158]3:31-32   [8159]3:33   [8160]3:33   [8161]3:34-36
   [8162]3:35   [8163]3:37   [8164]3:37   [8165]3:37-38   [8166]3:37-41
   [8167]3:39   [8168]3:40   [8169]3:40   [8170]3:41   [8171]3:42
   [8172]3:42   [8173]3:42-54   [8174]3:43   [8175]3:44   [8176]3:44
   [8177]3:45   [8178]3:46   [8179]3:47   [8180]3:48   [8181]3:48-49
   [8182]3:50   [8183]3:51   [8184]3:51   [8185]3:52   [8186]3:53
   [8187]3:54   [8188]3:54   [8189]3:55   [8190]3:55   [8191]3:55-66
   [8192]3:57   [8193]3:57   [8194]3:58   [8195]3:59   [8196]3:59
   [8197]3:60   [8198]3:61   [8199]3:61   [8200]3:62   [8201]3:64
   [8202]3:65   [8203]3:65   [8204]3:66   [8205]4:1   [8206]4:1
   [8207]4:1   [8208]4:1-2   [8209]4:1-2   [8210]4:2   [8211]4:3-4
   [8212]4:3-10   [8213]4:4   [8214]4:4   [8215]4:5   [8216]4:5
   [8217]4:6   [8218]4:6   [8219]4:7   [8220]4:7   [8221]4:7-8
   [8222]4:7-8   [8223]4:8   [8224]4:9   [8225]4:9   [8226]4:9
   [8227]4:10   [8228]4:10   [8229]4:10   [8230]4:11   [8231]4:11-12
   [8232]4:12   [8233]4:12   [8234]4:12   [8235]4:12   [8236]4:12
   [8237]4:13-14   [8238]4:13-16   [8239]4:14   [8240]4:15-16
   [8241]4:17   [8242]4:17   [8243]4:17-20   [8244]4:18   [8245]4:18
   [8246]4:18   [8247]4:19   [8248]4:20   [8249]4:21   [8250]4:21
   [8251]4:22   [8252]4:22   [8253]5:1   [8254]5:1-16   [8255]5:2
   [8256]5:3   [8257]5:4   [8258]5:5   [8259]5:6   [8260]5:6   [8261]5:7
   [8262]5:7   [8263]5:8   [8264]5:9   [8265]5:10   [8266]5:10
   [8267]5:11   [8268]5:11   [8269]5:11   [8270]5:12   [8271]5:12
   [8272]5:12   [8273]5:13   [8274]5:14   [8275]5:14   [8276]5:15
   [8277]5:16   [8278]5:17-18   [8279]5:17-18   [8280]5:19
   [8281]5:19-22   [8282]5:20   [8283]5:21   [8284]5:22   [8285]5:22

   Ezekiel

   [8286]1:1   [8287]1:1   [8288]1:1   [8289]1:1-2   [8290]1:1-28
   [8291]1:1-3:27   [8292]1:2   [8293]1:2   [8294]1:2   [8295]1:2
   [8296]1:3   [8297]1:3   [8298]1:4   [8299]1:4   [8300]1:4-14
   [8301]1:4-14   [8302]1:5   [8303]1:6   [8304]1:7   [8305]1:8
   [8306]1:9   [8307]1:9   [8308]1:9   [8309]1:10   [8310]1:10
   [8311]1:11   [8312]1:12   [8313]1:12   [8314]1:12   [8315]1:12
   [8316]1:13   [8317]1:13   [8318]1:14   [8319]1:14   [8320]1:15
   [8321]1:15   [8322]1:15   [8323]1:15-21   [8324]1:15-25   [8325]1:16
   [8326]1:16   [8327]1:17   [8328]1:17   [8329]1:18   [8330]1:19
   [8331]1:19-21   [8332]1:21   [8333]1:22   [8334]1:23   [8335]1:24
   [8336]1:24   [8337]1:25   [8338]1:25   [8339]1:26   [8340]1:26
   [8341]1:26-28   [8342]1:27   [8343]1:27   [8344]1:28   [8345]1:28
   [8346]1:28   [8347]2:1   [8348]2:1-2   [8349]2:1-5   [8350]2:2
   [8351]2:3   [8352]2:3   [8353]2:3   [8354]2:3-4   [8355]2:4
   [8356]2:5   [8357]2:6   [8358]2:6   [8359]2:6   [8360]2:7   [8361]2:7
   [8362]2:7   [8363]2:7-10   [8364]2:8   [8365]2:8   [8366]2:9-10
   [8367]2:9-10   [8368]2:10   [8369]2:10   [8370]3:1   [8371]3:1
   [8372]3:1   [8373]3:1   [8374]3:1-3   [8375]3:1-3   [8376]3:2
   [8377]3:3   [8378]3:3   [8379]3:3   [8380]3:4   [8381]3:4
   [8382]3:4-8   [8383]3:4-11   [8384]3:7   [8385]3:8-9   [8386]3:8-9
   [8387]3:8-9   [8388]3:9   [8389]3:9-17   [8390]3:10   [8391]3:11
   [8392]3:11   [8393]3:12   [8394]3:12   [8395]3:12-15   [8396]3:14
   [8397]3:14   [8398]3:14   [8399]3:14   [8400]3:15   [8401]3:15
   [8402]3:15   [8403]3:16   [8404]3:16   [8405]3:16-21   [8406]3:17
   [8407]3:17   [8408]3:17   [8409]3:17   [8410]3:18   [8411]3:18-19
   [8412]3:20-21   [8413]3:21   [8414]3:22   [8415]3:22   [8416]3:22-27
   [8417]3:23   [8418]3:24   [8419]3:25   [8420]3:25   [8421]3:26
   [8422]3:26   [8423]3:27   [8424]4:1   [8425]4:1-24:27   [8426]4:2
   [8427]4:3   [8428]4:3   [8429]4:5   [8430]4:7   [8431]4:7   [8432]4:9
   [8433]4:10   [8434]4:11   [8435]4:12   [8436]4:13   [8437]4:14
   [8438]4:15   [8439]4:16   [8440]5:1   [8441]5:1-4   [8442]5:2
   [8443]5:3   [8444]5:3   [8445]5:4   [8446]5:5   [8447]5:5-7
   [8448]5:6   [8449]5:6   [8450]5:6   [8451]5:7   [8452]5:7   [8453]5:8
   [8454]5:8   [8455]5:8   [8456]5:8-10   [8457]5:9   [8458]5:10
   [8459]5:10   [8460]5:10   [8461]5:10   [8462]5:11   [8463]5:11
   [8464]5:11   [8465]5:11   [8466]5:11   [8467]5:12   [8468]5:12
   [8469]5:12   [8470]5:12   [8471]5:12   [8472]5:13   [8473]5:13
   [8474]5:13   [8475]5:13   [8476]5:13-15   [8477]5:14   [8478]5:15
   [8479]5:15   [8480]5:15   [8481]5:15   [8482]5:16   [8483]5:16
   [8484]5:16   [8485]5:17   [8486]5:17   [8487]5:17   [8488]5:17
   [8489]5:17   [8490]5:17   [8491]6:1-2   [8492]6:1-7   [8493]6:2
   [8494]6:3   [8495]6:3   [8496]6:4   [8497]6:4   [8498]6:5
   [8499]6:5-7   [8500]6:6   [8501]6:6   [8502]6:6   [8503]6:6
   [8504]6:6   [8505]6:7   [8506]6:8   [8507]6:8-10   [8508]6:9
   [8509]6:9   [8510]6:9   [8511]6:9   [8512]6:9   [8513]6:10
   [8514]6:11   [8515]6:11-14   [8516]6:12   [8517]6:14   [8518]7:1-6
   [8519]7:2   [8520]7:3   [8521]7:3   [8522]7:3   [8523]7:3   [8524]7:4
   [8525]7:4   [8526]7:4   [8527]7:4   [8528]7:5   [8529]7:6   [8530]7:7
   [8531]7:7   [8532]7:7-10   [8533]7:8   [8534]7:8-9   [8535]7:9
   [8536]7:9   [8537]7:10   [8538]7:10   [8539]7:10   [8540]7:10-11
   [8541]7:10-15   [8542]7:11   [8543]7:11   [8544]7:11   [8545]7:12
   [8546]7:12   [8547]7:12   [8548]7:12   [8549]7:12   [8550]7:13
   [8551]7:13   [8552]7:13   [8553]7:14   [8554]7:14   [8555]7:14
   [8556]7:15   [8557]7:16   [8558]7:16   [8559]7:16   [8560]7:16
   [8561]7:16-19   [8562]7:17   [8563]7:18   [8564]7:19   [8565]7:19
   [8566]7:19   [8567]7:19   [8568]7:20   [8569]7:20-22   [8570]7:20-22
   [8571]7:21   [8572]7:23   [8573]7:23-27   [8574]7:25   [8575]7:26
   [8576]7:26   [8577]7:27   [8578]8:1   [8579]8:1   [8580]8:1
   [8581]8:1   [8582]8:1   [8583]8:1-4   [8584]8:1-18   [8585]8:2
   [8586]8:2   [8587]8:3   [8588]8:3   [8589]8:3   [8590]8:3   [8591]8:4
   [8592]8:4   [8593]8:4   [8594]8:5   [8595]8:5   [8596]8:5
   [8597]8:5-6   [8598]8:6   [8599]8:7   [8600]8:7-12   [8601]8:8
   [8602]8:9   [8603]8:10   [8604]8:11   [8605]8:11   [8606]8:12
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   [9781]35:10-13   [9782]35:11   [9783]35:11   [9784]35:12
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   [9978]40:6-19   [9979]40:7   [9980]40:14   [9981]40:16   [9982]40:16
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   [9995]40:34   [9996]40:35   [9997]40:37   [9998]40:38   [9999]40:39
   [10000]40:39-43   [10001]40:41   [10002]40:43   [10003]40:44
   [10004]40:44-47   [10005]40:45   [10006]40:46   [10007]40:47
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   [10044]42:15-20   [10045]42:16-19   [10046]43:1-6   [10047]43:1-27
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   [10052]43:3   [10053]43:3   [10054]43:4   [10055]43:5   [10056]43:6
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   [10090]44:6   [10091]44:6   [10092]44:7   [10093]44:9   [10094]44:10
   [10095]44:10-16   [10096]44:11   [10097]44:12   [10098]44:12
   [10099]44:13   [10100]44:13   [10101]44:13   [10102]44:14
   [10103]44:15-16   [10104]44:17-18   [10105]44:17-31   [10106]44:19
   [10107]44:20   [10108]44:20   [10109]44:21   [10110]44:22
   [10111]44:23   [10112]44:24   [10113]44:25   [10114]44:26-27
   [10115]44:28   [10116]44:30   [10117]44:31   [10118]45:1
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   [10127]45:6   [10128]45:7-8   [10129]45:7-8   [10130]45:9
   [10131]45:9-12   [10132]45:10   [10133]45:11   [10134]45:11
   [10135]45:13   [10136]45:13   [10137]45:13   [10138]45:13-17
   [10139]45:14   [10140]45:15   [10141]45:16   [10142]45:16
   [10143]45:17   [10144]45:18   [10145]45:18-20   [10146]45:19
   [10147]45:20   [10148]45:21   [10149]45:21-25   [10150]45:22
   [10151]45:23   [10152]45:23-24   [10153]45:25   [10154]46:1
   [10155]46:1-15   [10156]46:1-24   [10157]46:2   [10158]46:2
   [10159]46:3   [10160]46:3   [10161]46:4   [10162]46:5-6   [10163]46:6
   [10164]46:7   [10165]46:8   [10166]46:9   [10167]46:10   [10168]46:11
   [10169]46:12   [10170]46:13   [10171]46:16   [10172]46:16-18
   [10173]46:17   [10174]46:18   [10175]46:19   [10176]46:19-24
   [10177]46:20   [10178]46:20   [10179]46:21-23   [10180]47:1
   [10181]47:1   [10182]47:1   [10183]47:1-12   [10184]47:1-48:35
   [10185]47:2   [10186]47:3   [10187]47:3   [10188]47:3   [10189]47:4
   [10190]47:5   [10191]47:7   [10192]47:8   [10193]47:8   [10194]47:8
   [10195]47:9   [10196]47:9   [10197]47:10   [10198]47:11
   [10199]47:12   [10200]47:13   [10201]47:13-23   [10202]47:14
   [10203]47:14   [10204]47:20   [10205]47:21   [10206]47:22-23
   [10207]48:1   [10208]48:1-7   [10209]48:8   [10210]48:8-11
   [10211]48:10   [10212]48:10   [10213]48:11   [10214]48:12-14
   [10215]48:14   [10216]48:15   [10217]48:15-20   [10218]48:16-17
   [10219]48:18   [10220]48:19   [10221]48:19   [10222]48:21
   [10223]48:21-22   [10224]48:23-29   [10225]48:30-35   [10226]48:31
   [10227]48:32   [10228]48:32   [10229]48:33   [10230]48:34
   [10231]48:35   [10232]48:35   [10233]48:35

   Daniel

   [10234]1:1   [10235]1:1   [10236]1:1   [10237]1:1-2   [10238]1:1-2
   [10239]1:2   [10240]1:3   [10241]1:3-7   [10242]1:4   [10243]1:5
   [10244]1:5   [10245]1:6   [10246]1:8   [10247]1:8   [10248]1:8-16
   [10249]1:9   [10250]1:10   [10251]1:11   [10252]1:13   [10253]1:15
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   [10263]1:21   [10264]2   [10265]2:1   [10266]2:1   [10267]2:1-11
   [10268]2:1-21   [10269]2:2   [10270]2:2   [10271]2:2   [10272]2:3
   [10273]2:4   [10274]2:4   [10275]2:5   [10276]2:6   [10277]2:7
   [10278]2:7   [10279]2:8   [10280]2:9   [10281]2:9   [10282]2:10
   [10283]2:10   [10284]2:11   [10285]2:12   [10286]2:12-15
   [10287]2:13   [10288]2:14   [10289]2:14   [10290]2:15   [10291]2:15
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   [10301]2:24   [10302]2:24-25   [10303]2:24-45   [10304]2:26
   [10305]2:27   [10306]2:28   [10307]2:28   [10308]2:29   [10309]2:30
   [10310]2:31   [10311]2:35   [10312]2:35   [10313]2:36
   [10314]2:37-38   [10315]2:37-38   [10316]2:37-38   [10317]2:37-38
   [10318]2:38   [10319]2:38   [10320]2:39   [10321]2:40   [10322]2:42
   [10323]2:43   [10324]2:44   [10325]2:44   [10326]2:44-45
   [10327]2:45   [10328]2:45   [10329]2:45   [10330]2:46
   [10331]2:46-49   [10332]2:47   [10333]2:47   [10334]2:47
   [10335]2:47   [10336]2:47   [10337]2:47   [10338]2:48   [10339]2:48
   [10340]2:48   [10341]2:49   [10342]2:49   [10343]3:1   [10344]3:1-7
   [10345]3:1-30   [10346]3:2-3   [10347]3:6   [10348]3:7   [10349]3:8
   [10350]3:8   [10351]3:8-12   [10352]3:10-11   [10353]3:12
   [10354]3:13   [10355]3:13-18   [10356]3:14   [10357]3:15
   [10358]3:16-18   [10359]3:17   [10360]3:18   [10361]3:19
   [10362]3:19-23   [10363]3:20-21   [10364]3:22   [10365]3:23
   [10366]3:24   [10367]3:24-27   [10368]3:25   [10369]3:26
   [10370]3:27   [10371]3:28   [10372]3:28   [10373]3:28   [10374]3:28
   [10375]3:28-30   [10376]3:29   [10377]3:29   [10378]3:29   [10379]4:1
   [10380]4:1-3   [10381]4:1-18   [10382]4:2   [10383]4:3   [10384]4:4
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   [10395]4:14   [10396]4:15   [10397]4:15   [10398]4:16   [10399]4:17
   [10400]4:18   [10401]4:19   [10402]4:19-27   [10403]4:20-21
   [10404]4:21   [10405]4:22   [10406]4:23   [10407]4:23   [10408]4:23
   [10409]4:24   [10410]4:26   [10411]4:26   [10412]4:27   [10413]4:27
   [10414]4:27   [10415]4:27   [10416]4:27   [10417]4:28-36
   [10418]4:28-37   [10419]4:29   [10420]4:30   [10421]4:30
   [10422]4:32   [10423]4:33   [10424]4:34   [10425]4:34   [10426]4:36
   [10427]4:37   [10428]4:37   [10429]4:37   [10430]5   [10431]5:1
   [10432]5:1   [10433]5:1-4   [10434]5:1-31   [10435]5:2   [10436]5:2
   [10437]5:3   [10438]5:3   [10439]5:4   [10440]5:4   [10441]5:5-9
   [10442]5:6   [10443]5:6   [10444]5:6   [10445]5:6   [10446]5:8
   [10447]5:10-28   [10448]5:19   [10449]5:23   [10450]5:27
   [10451]5:30   [10452]5:30   [10453]5:30-31   [10454]6:1   [10455]6:1
   [10456]6:1-3   [10457]6:1-28   [10458]6:1-28   [10459]6:2
   [10460]6:2   [10461]6:2   [10462]6:3   [10463]6:3   [10464]6:4
   [10465]6:4   [10466]6:4-5   [10467]6:5   [10468]6:5   [10469]6:6
   [10470]6:6   [10471]6:6-9   [10472]6:7   [10473]6:7   [10474]6:8
   [10475]6:9   [10476]6:9   [10477]6:10   [10478]6:10   [10479]6:10
   [10480]6:10   [10481]6:11   [10482]6:11-12   [10483]6:11-17
   [10484]6:12   [10485]6:13   [10486]6:13   [10487]6:14   [10488]6:14
   [10489]6:15   [10490]6:16   [10491]6:16   [10492]6:16   [10493]6:16
   [10494]6:17   [10495]6:17   [10496]6:18   [10497]6:18
   [10498]6:18-19   [10499]6:18-23   [10500]6:19-20   [10501]6:20
   [10502]6:20   [10503]6:21   [10504]6:21   [10505]6:21-22
   [10506]6:22   [10507]6:22   [10508]6:23   [10509]6:23   [10510]6:24
   [10511]6:24   [10512]6:24   [10513]6:25   [10514]6:25
   [10515]6:25-28   [10516]6:26   [10517]6:27   [10518]6:28
   [10519]6:28   [10520]6:28   [10521]6:29   [10522]6:30   [10523]6:31
   [10524]7:1   [10525]7:1   [10526]7:1-8   [10527]7:1-28
   [10528]7:1-8:27   [10529]7:2   [10530]7:2   [10531]7:3   [10532]7:4
   [10533]7:4   [10534]7:5   [10535]7:6   [10536]7:6   [10537]7:7
   [10538]7:8   [10539]7:8   [10540]7:8   [10541]7:9   [10542]7:9-14
   [10543]7:10   [10544]7:10   [10545]7:10   [10546]7:10   [10547]7:10
   [10548]7:11   [10549]7:11-12   [10550]7:12   [10551]7:12
   [10552]7:12   [10553]7:13   [10554]7:13   [10555]7:13   [10556]7:14
   [10557]7:14   [10558]7:15   [10559]7:15-28   [10560]7:16
   [10561]7:17   [10562]7:18   [10563]7:18   [10564]7:18   [10565]7:19
   [10566]7:20   [10567]7:21   [10568]7:22   [10569]7:22   [10570]7:22
   [10571]7:23-25   [10572]7:25   [10573]7:25   [10574]7:26
   [10575]7:26   [10576]7:26   [10577]7:26-27   [10578]7:27
   [10579]7:27   [10580]7:28   [10581]8:1   [10582]8:1   [10583]8:1-14
   [10584]8:1-27   [10585]8:3   [10586]8:4   [10587]8:4   [10588]8:5
   [10589]8:6   [10590]8:7   [10591]8:8   [10592]8:8   [10593]8:9
   [10594]8:9   [10595]8:11-12   [10596]8:13   [10597]8:14   [10598]8:15
   [10599]8:15-27   [10600]8:16   [10601]8:16   [10602]8:16
   [10603]8:17   [10604]8:17   [10605]8:17   [10606]8:17   [10607]8:18
   [10608]8:18   [10609]8:18   [10610]8:19   [10611]8:19   [10612]8:19
   [10613]8:20-22   [10614]8:23   [10615]8:23   [10616]8:24
   [10617]8:25   [10618]8:25   [10619]8:26   [10620]8:27   [10621]8:27
   [10622]8:27   [10623]8:35   [10624]9:1   [10625]9:1   [10626]9:1-19
   [10627]9:1-27   [10628]9:2   [10629]9:2   [10630]9:2   [10631]9:2
   [10632]9:2   [10633]9:2   [10634]9:2-3   [10635]9:2-3   [10636]9:5
   [10637]9:5-6   [10638]9:6   [10639]9:7   [10640]9:7   [10641]9:7
   [10642]9:7-8   [10643]9:7-8   [10644]9:8   [10645]9:9   [10646]9:10
   [10647]9:11   [10648]9:11   [10649]9:11   [10650]9:11-13
   [10651]9:12   [10652]9:13-14   [10653]9:14   [10654]9:14
   [10655]9:15   [10656]9:15   [10657]9:16   [10658]9:16   [10659]9:16
   [10660]9:16   [10661]9:16   [10662]9:16   [10663]9:17   [10664]9:17
   [10665]9:17   [10666]9:17   [10667]9:17   [10668]9:17   [10669]9:17
   [10670]9:18   [10671]9:18   [10672]9:18   [10673]9:18-19
   [10674]9:19   [10675]9:19   [10676]9:19   [10677]9:20
   [10678]9:20-23   [10679]9:21   [10680]9:21   [10681]9:21
   [10682]9:21   [10683]9:21   [10684]9:21   [10685]9:22   [10686]9:22
   [10687]9:23   [10688]9:23   [10689]9:23   [10690]9:23   [10691]9:23
   [10692]9:23   [10693]9:24   [10694]9:24   [10695]9:24   [10696]9:24
   [10697]9:24-25   [10698]9:24-27   [10699]9:25   [10700]9:25
   [10701]9:25   [10702]9:25-26   [10703]9:26   [10704]9:26-27
   [10705]9:27   [10706]9:27   [10707]9:27   [10708]10:1   [10709]10:1-3
   [10710]10:2   [10711]10:3   [10712]10:3   [10713]10:4   [10714]10:4
   [10715]10:4-9   [10716]10:5   [10717]10:5   [10718]10:5
   [10719]10:5-6   [10720]10:6   [10721]10:8   [10722]10:8   [10723]10:9
   [10724]10:10   [10725]10:10   [10726]10:10-21   [10727]10:11
   [10728]10:11   [10729]10:12   [10730]10:12   [10731]10:12
   [10732]10:13   [10733]10:13   [10734]10:13   [10735]10:14
   [10736]10:15   [10737]10:15   [10738]10:16   [10739]10:16
   [10740]10:16   [10741]10:17   [10742]10:17   [10743]10:17
   [10744]10:18   [10745]10:18   [10746]10:18   [10747]10:19
   [10748]10:19   [10749]10:19   [10750]10:20   [10751]10:20
   [10752]10:21   [10753]10:21   [10754]10:21   [10755]11:1
   [10756]11:1-4   [10757]11:1-45   [10758]11:2   [10759]11:3
   [10760]11:4   [10761]11:5   [10762]11:5-20   [10763]11:6
   [10764]11:7   [10765]11:7-8   [10766]11:8   [10767]11:9
   [10768]11:10   [10769]11:14   [10770]11:14   [10771]11:15
   [10772]11:16   [10773]11:17   [10774]11:18   [10775]11:18
   [10776]11:19   [10777]11:20   [10778]11:20   [10779]11:21
   [10780]11:21   [10781]11:21-29   [10782]11:21-35   [10783]11:22
   [10784]11:23   [10785]11:24   [10786]11:25   [10787]11:25
   [10788]11:27   [10789]11:28   [10790]11:28   [10791]11:28
   [10792]11:29   [10793]11:30   [10794]11:30   [10795]11:30
   [10796]11:30   [10797]11:30   [10798]11:30-39   [10799]11:31
   [10800]11:31   [10801]11:31   [10802]11:32   [10803]11:32
   [10804]11:32   [10805]11:32   [10806]11:32   [10807]11:33
   [10808]11:33   [10809]11:33   [10810]11:34   [10811]11:35
   [10812]11:35   [10813]11:35   [10814]11:35   [10815]11:36
   [10816]11:36   [10817]11:36-37   [10818]11:37   [10819]11:37
   [10820]11:38   [10821]11:40   [10822]11:40-45   [10823]11:41
   [10824]11:41   [10825]11:42   [10826]11:43   [10827]11:43
   [10828]11:44   [10829]11:44   [10830]11:45   [10831]12:1
   [10832]12:1-4   [10833]12:1-4   [10834]12:1-13   [10835]12:2
   [10836]12:2   [10837]12:3   [10838]12:3   [10839]12:4   [10840]12:4
   [10841]12:4   [10842]12:4   [10843]12:5   [10844]12:5-6
   [10845]12:5-7   [10846]12:6   [10847]12:7   [10848]12:8   [10849]12:8
   [10850]12:9-12   [10851]12:10   [10852]12:11   [10853]12:11-12
   [10854]12:11-12   [10855]12:13   [10856]12:13   [10857]33

   Hosea

   [10858]1:1   [10859]1:1   [10860]1:2   [10861]1:2   [10862]1:2-3
   [10863]1:3   [10864]1:3   [10865]1:4   [10866]1:4   [10867]1:4-6
   [10868]1:5   [10869]1:6   [10870]1:6-7   [10871]1:6-7   [10872]1:7
   [10873]1:7   [10874]1:7   [10875]1:8   [10876]1:8-9   [10877]1:8-9
   [10878]1:9   [10879]1:9   [10880]1:10   [10881]1:10   [10882]1:10-11
   [10883]1:11   [10884]2:1   [10885]2:1   [10886]2:1-2   [10887]2:2
   [10888]2:2   [10889]2:2   [10890]2:3   [10891]2:3   [10892]2:3
   [10893]2:3   [10894]2:3-4   [10895]2:4   [10896]2:4   [10897]2:5
   [10898]2:5   [10899]2:5   [10900]2:5   [10901]2:5   [10902]2:6
   [10903]2:6   [10904]2:6-7   [10905]2:7   [10906]2:7   [10907]2:7
   [10908]2:8   [10909]2:8   [10910]2:8   [10911]2:8   [10912]2:8
   [10913]2:8   [10914]2:8-9   [10915]2:9   [10916]2:9   [10917]2:9-13
   [10918]2:10   [10919]2:11   [10920]2:11   [10921]2:11
   [10922]2:11-12   [10923]2:11-12   [10924]2:11-12   [10925]2:11-12
   [10926]2:11-12   [10927]2:12   [10928]2:12   [10929]2:12
   [10930]2:12   [10931]2:12   [10932]2:12   [10933]2:13   [10934]2:13
   [10935]2:13-14   [10936]2:14   [10937]2:14   [10938]2:14
   [10939]2:14   [10940]2:14-15   [10941]2:15   [10942]2:15
   [10943]2:16-17   [10944]2:16-17   [10945]2:17   [10946]2:18
   [10947]2:18-20   [10948]2:19-20   [10949]2:19-20   [10950]2:19-20
   [10951]2:21   [10952]2:21   [10953]2:21-22   [10954]2:21-23
   [10955]2:23   [10956]2:23   [10957]2:23   [10958]2:23   [10959]2:23
   [10960]3:1   [10961]3:1   [10962]3:1   [10963]3:2   [10964]3:2-4
   [10965]3:3   [10966]3:4   [10967]3:4-5   [10968]3:5   [10969]3:5
   [10970]3:5   [10971]3:5   [10972]3:5   [10973]3:5   [10974]3:5
   [10975]4:1   [10976]4:1   [10977]4:1   [10978]4:1-2   [10979]4:2
   [10980]4:2   [10981]4:3   [10982]4:3   [10983]4:3   [10984]4:4
   [10985]4:4   [10986]4:4   [10987]4:4   [10988]4:5   [10989]4:5
   [10990]4:6   [10991]4:6-7   [10992]4:7   [10993]4:7   [10994]4:7
   [10995]4:8   [10996]4:8   [10997]4:8-9   [10998]4:9   [10999]4:9
   [11000]4:10   [11001]4:10   [11002]4:11   [11003]4:11   [11004]4:12
   [11005]4:12   [11006]4:12   [11007]4:13   [11008]4:13   [11009]4:13
   [11010]4:14   [11011]4:14   [11012]4:14   [11013]4:14   [11014]4:14
   [11015]4:15   [11016]4:15   [11017]4:15   [11018]4:15   [11019]4:16
   [11020]4:16   [11021]4:16   [11022]4:16   [11023]4:16   [11024]4:17
   [11025]4:17   [11026]4:17   [11027]4:17   [11028]4:18   [11029]4:18
   [11030]4:18   [11031]4:18   [11032]4:19   [11033]4:19   [11034]5:1
   [11035]5:1   [11036]5:1   [11037]5:1   [11038]5:1   [11039]5:1-2
   [11040]5:2   [11041]5:2   [11042]5:3   [11043]5:3   [11044]5:3
   [11045]5:3-4   [11046]5:4   [11047]5:4   [11048]5:4   [11049]5:5
   [11050]5:5   [11051]5:5   [11052]5:5   [11053]5:5   [11054]5:6
   [11055]5:6   [11056]5:7   [11057]5:7   [11058]5:7   [11059]5:8
   [11060]5:8   [11061]5:9   [11062]5:9   [11063]5:9   [11064]5:9-10
   [11065]5:10   [11066]5:10-11   [11067]5:11   [11068]5:11
   [11069]5:11   [11070]5:12   [11071]5:12   [11072]5:12   [11073]5:13
   [11074]5:13   [11075]5:13   [11076]5:13   [11077]5:14   [11078]5:14
   [11079]5:14   [11080]5:14   [11081]5:14   [11082]5:14   [11083]5:14
   [11084]5:14   [11085]5:15   [11086]5:15   [11087]5:15   [11088]6:1
   [11089]6:1   [11090]6:1-3   [11091]6:2   [11092]6:2   [11093]6:3
   [11094]6:3   [11095]6:3   [11096]6:4   [11097]6:4   [11098]6:4
   [11099]6:4-5   [11100]6:4-5   [11101]6:5   [11102]6:6   [11103]6:6
   [11104]6:6   [11105]6:6-7   [11106]6:7   [11107]6:7-11   [11108]6:8
   [11109]6:8   [11110]6:9   [11111]6:10   [11112]6:11   [11113]7:1
   [11114]7:1   [11115]7:1   [11116]7:1-2   [11117]7:1-2   [11118]7:2
   [11119]7:3   [11120]7:3-7   [11121]7:4   [11122]7:4   [11123]7:4
   [11124]7:5   [11125]7:6   [11126]7:6   [11127]7:7   [11128]7:7
   [11129]7:8   [11130]7:8   [11131]7:8   [11132]7:9   [11133]7:9
   [11134]7:9-11   [11135]7:10   [11136]7:11   [11137]7:11
   [11138]7:11-12   [11139]7:12   [11140]7:12   [11141]7:13
   [11142]7:13   [11143]7:13   [11144]7:13   [11145]7:13-15
   [11146]7:14   [11147]7:14   [11148]7:14   [11149]7:14   [11150]7:14
   [11151]7:15   [11152]7:15   [11153]7:15   [11154]7:16   [11155]7:16
   [11156]7:16   [11157]8:1   [11158]8:1   [11159]8:1   [11160]8:1
   [11161]8:2   [11162]8:2   [11163]8:3   [11164]8:3   [11165]8:3
   [11166]8:4   [11167]8:4   [11168]8:4   [11169]8:4-6   [11170]8:5
   [11171]8:6   [11172]8:6   [11173]8:6   [11174]8:6   [11175]8:6
   [11176]8:7   [11177]8:7   [11178]8:7   [11179]8:7   [11180]8:8
   [11181]8:8   [11182]8:8-10   [11183]8:9   [11184]8:9   [11185]8:9
   [11186]8:10   [11187]8:10   [11188]8:11   [11189]8:11   [11190]8:12
   [11191]8:12   [11192]8:13   [11193]8:13   [11194]8:13   [11195]8:13
   [11196]8:14   [11197]8:14   [11198]8:14   [11199]8:14   [11200]9:1
   [11201]9:1   [11202]9:1   [11203]9:1   [11204]9:1-5   [11205]9:2
   [11206]9:3   [11207]9:5   [11208]9:5   [11209]9:6   [11210]9:6-8
   [11211]9:7   [11212]9:7   [11213]9:7   [11214]9:8   [11215]9:8
   [11216]9:9   [11217]9:9   [11218]9:9-10   [11219]9:9-10   [11220]9:10
   [11221]9:10   [11222]9:10   [11223]9:11   [11224]9:11   [11225]9:11
   [11226]9:11   [11227]9:11-17   [11228]9:12   [11229]9:12
   [11230]9:12   [11231]9:13   [11232]9:13   [11233]9:13-14
   [11234]9:14   [11235]9:15   [11236]9:15   [11237]9:15   [11238]9:15
   [11239]9:16   [11240]9:16   [11241]9:17   [11242]9:17   [11243]9:17
   [11244]10:1   [11245]10:1   [11246]10:1-2   [11247]10:2   [11248]10:2
   [11249]10:3   [11250]10:3   [11251]10:3-4   [11252]10:4   [11253]10:5
   [11254]10:5   [11255]10:5   [11256]10:5   [11257]10:6   [11258]10:6
   [11259]10:6   [11260]10:6   [11261]10:7   [11262]10:7   [11263]10:7
   [11264]10:8   [11265]10:8   [11266]10:8   [11267]10:8   [11268]10:9
   [11269]10:9-11   [11270]10:10   [11271]10:11   [11272]10:12
   [11273]10:12-13   [11274]10:12-15   [11275]10:13   [11276]10:14
   [11277]10:14-15   [11278]10:15   [11279]10:15   [11280]11:1
   [11281]11:1   [11282]11:1   [11283]11:1   [11284]11:1   [11285]11:2
   [11286]11:2-4   [11287]11:3   [11288]11:3   [11289]11:4   [11290]11:4
   [11291]11:5   [11292]11:5   [11293]11:5-6   [11294]11:6   [11295]11:7
   [11296]11:7   [11297]11:7   [11298]11:8   [11299]11:8-9
   [11300]11:8-9   [11301]11:8-9   [11302]11:8-9   [11303]11:8-9
   [11304]11:9   [11305]11:9   [11306]11:9   [11307]11:9   [11308]11:9
   [11309]11:9   [11310]11:9   [11311]11:10   [11312]11:10
   [11313]11:10-11   [11314]11:10-11   [11315]11:11   [11316]11:11
   [11317]11:12   [11318]11:12   [11319]11:12   [11320]12:1
   [11321]12:1-2   [11322]12:2   [11323]12:2   [11324]12:3   [11325]12:3
   [11326]12:3-5   [11327]12:4   [11328]12:5   [11329]12:6   [11330]12:6
   [11331]12:6   [11332]12:7   [11333]12:7-8   [11334]12:8   [11335]12:8
   [11336]12:8   [11337]12:8   [11338]12:8   [11339]12:9   [11340]12:9
   [11341]12:9   [11342]12:10   [11343]12:10   [11344]12:10
   [11345]12:11   [11346]12:11   [11347]12:11   [11348]12:11
   [11349]12:11   [11350]12:12   [11351]12:12-13   [11352]12:13
   [11353]12:13   [11354]12:13   [11355]12:14   [11356]12:14
   [11357]13:1-4   [11358]13:5-8   [11359]13:9-11   [11360]13:12
   [11361]13:12-13   [11362]13:14   [11363]13:14   [11364]13:15
   [11365]13:15   [11366]13:16   [11367]14:1   [11368]14:1
   [11369]14:1-3   [11370]14:2   [11371]14:2   [11372]14:2   [11373]14:2
   [11374]14:2   [11375]14:2-3   [11376]14:3   [11377]14:3   [11378]14:3
   [11379]14:3   [11380]14:3   [11381]14:3   [11382]14:4   [11383]14:4
   [11384]14:5   [11385]14:5   [11386]14:5   [11387]14:5-7   [11388]14:6
   [11389]14:6   [11390]14:6   [11391]14:6   [11392]14:7   [11393]14:7
   [11394]14:7   [11395]14:7-8   [11396]14:8   [11397]14:8   [11398]14:8
   [11399]14:8   [11400]14:8   [11401]14:9   [11402]14:9   [11403]14:9
   [11404]14:9   [11405]14:10   [11406]14:10   [11407]14:12
   [11408]14:13   [11409]14:15-16   [11410]14:16

   Joel

   [11411]1:1-7   [11412]1:1-2:11   [11413]1:2   [11414]1:2-4
   [11415]1:3   [11416]1:4   [11417]1:4   [11418]1:4   [11419]1:4
   [11420]1:4   [11421]1:4   [11422]1:4-6   [11423]1:5   [11424]1:5
   [11425]1:5   [11426]1:5   [11427]1:6   [11428]1:6-7   [11429]1:7
   [11430]1:7   [11431]1:7   [11432]1:8   [11433]1:8-13   [11434]1:9
   [11435]1:9   [11436]1:9   [11437]1:10   [11438]1:10   [11439]1:11
   [11440]1:11   [11441]1:11   [11442]1:11-12   [11443]1:12-17
   [11444]1:13   [11445]1:13   [11446]1:14   [11447]1:14-20
   [11448]1:15   [11449]1:16   [11450]1:17   [11451]1:17   [11452]1:18
   [11453]1:19   [11454]1:20   [11455]1:20   [11456]2:1   [11457]2:1
   [11458]2:1   [11459]2:1-11   [11460]2:1-11   [11461]2:2   [11462]2:2
   [11463]2:2   [11464]2:2   [11465]2:4   [11466]2:4   [11467]2:5
   [11468]2:5   [11469]2:6   [11470]2:7   [11471]2:7   [11472]2:7-8
   [11473]2:7-8   [11474]2:8   [11475]2:9   [11476]2:9   [11477]2:10
   [11478]2:11   [11479]2:11   [11480]2:12   [11481]2:12-17
   [11482]2:12-17   [11483]2:12-27   [11484]2:13   [11485]2:13
   [11486]2:14   [11487]2:14   [11488]2:15   [11489]2:15-16
   [11490]2:16-17   [11491]2:17   [11492]2:17   [11493]2:17
   [11494]2:18   [11495]2:18   [11496]2:18-27   [11497]2:18-32
   [11498]2:19   [11499]2:19   [11500]2:20   [11501]2:21   [11502]2:21
   [11503]2:21   [11504]2:22   [11505]2:22   [11506]2:23   [11507]2:23
   [11508]2:23   [11509]2:23   [11510]2:24   [11511]2:24   [11512]2:24
   [11513]2:25   [11514]2:25   [11515]2:26   [11516]2:26   [11517]2:26
   [11518]2:26-27   [11519]2:27   [11520]2:28-29   [11521]2:28-32
   [11522]2:30-31   [11523]2:31   [11524]2:31   [11525]2:32
   [11526]2:32   [11527]3:1   [11528]3:1   [11529]3:1-8   [11530]3:1-21
   [11531]3:2   [11532]3:2   [11533]3:2   [11534]3:4   [11535]3:4
   [11536]3:4   [11537]3:4-6   [11538]3:5   [11539]3:6   [11540]3:6
   [11541]3:8   [11542]3:8   [11543]3:9   [11544]3:9-10   [11545]3:9-11
   [11546]3:9-17   [11547]3:10   [11548]3:11   [11549]3:12   [11550]3:12
   [11551]3:13   [11552]3:13   [11553]3:13   [11554]3:14   [11555]3:15
   [11556]3:16   [11557]3:16   [11558]3:16   [11559]3:16   [11560]3:17
   [11561]3:17   [11562]3:18   [11563]3:18   [11564]3:18-21
   [11565]3:19   [11566]3:20   [11567]3:21

   Amos

   [11568]1:1   [11569]1:1   [11570]1:1   [11571]1:1-2:32   [11572]1:2
   [11573]1:2   [11574]1:2   [11575]1:2   [11576]1:2   [11577]1:3
   [11578]1:3   [11579]1:3-5   [11580]1:4   [11581]1:4   [11582]1:5
   [11583]1:5   [11584]1:6-8   [11585]1:7   [11586]1:8   [11587]1:9
   [11588]1:9   [11589]1:10   [11590]1:11   [11591]1:11   [11592]1:12
   [11593]1:12   [11594]1:13   [11595]1:13   [11596]1:13-15
   [11597]1:13-15   [11598]1:14   [11599]2:1   [11600]2:1-3   [11601]2:2
   [11602]2:3   [11603]2:4   [11604]2:4-5   [11605]2:5   [11606]2:6-8
   [11607]2:8   [11608]2:9-10   [11609]2:9-12   [11610]2:11
   [11611]2:11   [11612]2:11   [11613]2:11   [11614]2:11   [11615]2:11
   [11616]2:11   [11617]2:12   [11618]2:13   [11619]2:13   [11620]2:13
   [11621]2:13   [11622]2:13   [11623]2:14-16   [11624]2:14-16
   [11625]2:15   [11626]2:16   [11627]3:1   [11628]3:1   [11629]3:1
   [11630]3:1-8   [11631]3:1-4:13   [11632]3:2   [11633]3:2   [11634]3:2
   [11635]3:2   [11636]3:2   [11637]3:2   [11638]3:2   [11639]3:3
   [11640]3:3   [11641]3:4   [11642]3:4   [11643]3:5   [11644]3:6
   [11645]3:6   [11646]3:6   [11647]3:6   [11648]3:6   [11649]3:7
   [11650]3:7   [11651]3:8   [11652]3:8   [11653]3:8   [11654]3:8
   [11655]3:9   [11656]3:9-15   [11657]3:11-12   [11658]3:12
   [11659]3:12   [11660]3:13   [11661]3:15   [11662]3:15   [11663]3:15
   [11664]4:1   [11665]4:1-3   [11666]4:2-3   [11667]4:4   [11668]4:4
   [11669]4:4-5   [11670]4:4-5   [11671]4:6   [11672]4:6-11   [11673]4:7
   [11674]4:7   [11675]4:7   [11676]4:8   [11677]4:9   [11678]4:10
   [11679]4:11   [11680]4:11   [11681]4:11   [11682]4:12-13
   [11683]4:12-13   [11684]4:13   [11685]4:13   [11686]4:13
   [11687]5:1-3   [11688]5:1-27   [11689]5:2   [11690]5:3   [11691]5:4
   [11692]5:4   [11693]5:4-8   [11694]5:5   [11695]5:5   [11696]5:5
   [11697]5:5   [11698]5:5   [11699]5:5-6   [11700]5:6   [11701]5:6
   [11702]5:7   [11703]5:7   [11704]5:7   [11705]5:7   [11706]5:7
   [11707]5:8   [11708]5:8   [11709]5:8-9   [11710]5:8-9   [11711]5:9
   [11712]5:10   [11713]5:10-12   [11714]5:11   [11715]5:11
   [11716]5:12   [11717]5:12   [11718]5:13   [11719]5:13   [11720]5:13
   [11721]5:14   [11722]5:14-15   [11723]5:14-15   [11724]5:16
   [11725]5:16-17   [11726]5:17   [11727]5:18   [11728]5:18
   [11729]5:18   [11730]5:18   [11731]5:18-20   [11732]5:19
   [11733]5:20   [11734]5:20   [11735]5:21   [11736]5:21
   [11737]5:21-22   [11738]5:21-22   [11739]5:21-24   [11740]5:23
   [11741]5:24   [11742]5:25   [11743]5:25   [11744]5:25-27
   [11745]5:26   [11746]5:26   [11747]5:27   [11748]6:1   [11749]6:1-14
   [11750]6:2   [11751]6:2-3   [11752]6:3   [11753]6:4   [11754]6:4-6
   [11755]6:4-6   [11756]6:4-6   [11757]6:5   [11758]6:6   [11759]6:6
   [11760]6:7   [11761]6:7   [11762]6:8   [11763]6:8-11   [11764]6:9
   [11765]6:10   [11766]6:11   [11767]6:12   [11768]6:12-14
   [11769]6:13   [11770]6:13   [11771]6:14   [11772]6:14   [11773]7:1
   [11774]7:1   [11775]7:1   [11776]7:1-6   [11777]7:1-17   [11778]7:2
   [11779]7:2   [11780]7:2   [11781]7:2   [11782]7:3   [11783]7:4
   [11784]7:4   [11785]7:4-5   [11786]7:5   [11787]7:5   [11788]7:6
   [11789]7:7   [11790]7:7-8   [11791]7:7-9   [11792]7:8   [11793]7:9
   [11794]7:9   [11795]7:9   [11796]7:10   [11797]7:10   [11798]7:10-11
   [11799]7:10-11   [11800]7:11   [11801]7:11   [11802]7:12
   [11803]7:12   [11804]7:12-13   [11805]7:12-13   [11806]7:13
   [11807]7:14   [11808]7:14-15   [11809]7:14-15   [11810]7:14-15
   [11811]7:14-15   [11812]7:16   [11813]7:16-17   [11814]7:16-17
   [11815]7:16-17   [11816]7:17   [11817]8:1   [11818]8:1-3
   [11819]8:1-9:15   [11820]8:2   [11821]8:3   [11822]8:3   [11823]8:3
   [11824]8:3   [11825]8:4-10   [11826]8:5   [11827]8:7   [11828]8:8
   [11829]8:8   [11830]8:9   [11831]8:10   [11832]8:11-12
   [11833]8:11-14   [11834]8:12   [11835]8:13   [11836]8:14
   [11837]8:14   [11838]9:1   [11839]9:1-4   [11840]9:1-10   [11841]9:2
   [11842]9:2   [11843]9:4   [11844]9:5   [11845]9:5-6   [11846]9:7
   [11847]9:7   [11848]9:7   [11849]9:7-8   [11850]9:8   [11851]9:8
   [11852]9:9   [11853]9:9   [11854]9:10   [11855]9:10   [11856]9:11
   [11857]9:11-15   [11858]9:12   [11859]9:13   [11860]9:14
   [11861]9:15   [11862]9:15

   Obadiah

   [11863]1:1   [11864]1:1   [11865]1:2   [11866]1:2   [11867]1:2-4
   [11868]1:3   [11869]1:3-4   [11870]1:3-4   [11871]1:4   [11872]1:5-6
   [11873]1:5-7   [11874]1:6   [11875]1:7   [11876]1:7   [11877]1:8
   [11878]1:8   [11879]1:8   [11880]1:8-9   [11881]1:9   [11882]1:10
   [11883]1:10   [11884]1:10-16   [11885]1:11   [11886]1:11
   [11887]1:12   [11888]1:12   [11889]1:12   [11890]1:12-13
   [11891]1:12-13   [11892]1:12-14   [11893]1:12-16   [11894]1:13
   [11895]1:13   [11896]1:13-14   [11897]1:14   [11898]1:14
   [11899]1:15   [11900]1:16   [11901]1:16   [11902]1:17
   [11903]1:17-20   [11904]1:18   [11905]1:19-20   [11906]1:20
   [11907]1:21   [11908]1:21   [11909]1:21

   Jonah

   [11910]1:1-2   [11911]1:2   [11912]1:2   [11913]1:3   [11914]1:3
   [11915]1:4   [11916]1:4-6   [11917]1:5   [11918]1:5   [11919]1:5
   [11920]1:5   [11921]1:6   [11922]1:7-10   [11923]1:9   [11924]1:11
   [11925]1:11   [11926]1:11-16   [11927]1:12   [11928]1:13
   [11929]1:13   [11930]1:14   [11931]1:15   [11932]1:16   [11933]1:17
   [11934]1:17   [11935]2:1   [11936]2:2   [11937]2:2-3   [11938]2:3
   [11939]2:4   [11940]2:4   [11941]2:4   [11942]2:4   [11943]2:5
   [11944]2:5   [11945]2:6   [11946]2:6   [11947]2:6   [11948]2:6
   [11949]2:6-7   [11950]2:7   [11951]2:7   [11952]2:7   [11953]2:7
   [11954]2:8   [11955]2:8   [11956]2:8   [11957]2:9   [11958]2:9
   [11959]2:9   [11960]2:10   [11961]3:1   [11962]3:1-2   [11963]3:2
   [11964]3:3   [11965]3:3   [11966]3:3-4   [11967]3:5   [11968]3:5-9
   [11969]3:6   [11970]3:6   [11971]3:7   [11972]3:7-9   [11973]3:9
   [11974]3:9   [11975]3:10   [11976]3:10   [11977]3:10   [11978]4:1
   [11979]4:1-3   [11980]4:2   [11981]4:2   [11982]4:2-3   [11983]4:3
   [11984]4:4   [11985]4:4   [11986]4:5   [11987]4:5-9   [11988]4:6
   [11989]4:7-8   [11990]4:8   [11991]4:8   [11992]4:8-9   [11993]4:9
   [11994]4:9   [11995]4:10-11   [11996]4:10-11   [11997]4:11
   [11998]4:11   [11999]4:11   [12000]4:11   [12001]8

   Micah

   [12002]1:1   [12003]1:1   [12004]1:1   [12005]1:2   [12006]1:2
   [12007]1:3   [12008]1:3   [12009]1:3-4   [12010]1:5   [12011]1:5
   [12012]1:6   [12013]1:6-7   [12014]1:7   [12015]1:8-9   [12016]1:8-9
   [12017]1:10   [12018]1:10-16   [12019]1:12   [12020]1:13
   [12021]1:14   [12022]1:14   [12023]1:15   [12024]1:15   [12025]1:15
   [12026]1:16   [12027]2:1-2   [12028]2:1-2   [12029]2:1-2   [12030]2:2
   [12031]2:3   [12032]2:3-5   [12033]2:4   [12034]2:4   [12035]2:5
   [12036]2:6-7   [12037]2:7   [12038]2:7   [12039]2:8-9   [12040]2:8-9
   [12041]2:9   [12042]2:10   [12043]2:10   [12044]2:10   [12045]2:10
   [12046]2:11   [12047]2:11   [12048]2:11   [12049]2:11   [12050]2:12
   [12051]2:12-13   [12052]2:13   [12053]3:1   [12054]3:1   [12055]3:1-4
   [12056]3:3   [12057]3:4   [12058]3:5   [12059]3:5   [12060]3:5-7
   [12061]3:6-7   [12062]3:8   [12063]3:8   [12064]3:9   [12065]3:9-12
   [12066]3:10   [12067]3:11   [12068]3:11   [12069]3:11   [12070]3:11
   [12071]3:11   [12072]3:12   [12073]3:12   [12074]3:12   [12075]3:12
   [12076]3:12   [12077]3:12   [12078]3:12   [12079]4:1   [12080]4:1-2
   [12081]4:1-2   [12082]4:1-3   [12083]4:2   [12084]4:3   [12085]4:3-4
   [12086]4:4   [12087]4:5   [12088]4:5   [12089]4:5   [12090]4:5
   [12091]4:6-7   [12092]4:6-7   [12093]4:7   [12094]4:7   [12095]4:7
   [12096]4:8   [12097]4:9   [12098]4:9-10   [12099]4:10   [12100]4:10
   [12101]4:11   [12102]4:11-12   [12103]4:11-12   [12104]4:11-12
   [12105]4:11-12   [12106]4:11-12   [12107]4:11-13   [12108]4:12
   [12109]4:12   [12110]4:12   [12111]4:12-13   [12112]4:13
   [12113]4:13   [12114]5:1   [12115]5:1   [12116]5:2   [12117]5:2
   [12118]5:2   [12119]5:2-3   [12120]5:3   [12121]5:4   [12122]5:4
   [12123]5:5-6   [12124]5:5-6   [12125]5:5-6   [12126]5:7   [12127]5:7
   [12128]5:7   [12129]5:8   [12130]5:8   [12131]5:8-15   [12132]5:9
   [12133]5:10   [12134]5:11   [12135]5:12   [12136]5:13   [12137]5:14
   [12138]5:15   [12139]6:1   [12140]6:1-2   [12141]6:1-2   [12142]6:1-5
   [12143]6:2   [12144]6:3   [12145]6:3   [12146]6:4   [12147]6:4-5
   [12148]6:5   [12149]6:6   [12150]6:6-7   [12151]6:6-8   [12152]6:6-8
   [12153]6:7   [12154]6:8   [12155]6:9   [12156]6:9   [12157]6:9
   [12158]6:9   [12159]6:9   [12160]6:10   [12161]6:10-15   [12162]6:11
   [12163]6:11   [12164]6:13   [12165]6:13   [12166]6:14   [12167]6:15
   [12168]6:16   [12169]6:16   [12170]7:1   [12171]7:1   [12172]7:1
   [12173]7:1   [12174]7:1-2   [12175]7:1-6   [12176]7:2   [12177]7:4
   [12178]7:4   [12179]7:5   [12180]7:5   [12181]7:6   [12182]7:7
   [12183]7:7   [12184]7:7   [12185]7:8   [12186]7:8   [12187]7:8-10
   [12188]7:9   [12189]7:9   [12190]7:9   [12191]7:10   [12192]7:11-13
   [12193]7:12   [12194]7:13   [12195]7:13   [12196]7:14
   [12197]7:14-15   [12198]7:15   [12199]7:15   [12200]7:16-17
   [12201]7:16-17   [12202]7:17   [12203]7:18   [12204]7:18-20
   [12205]7:18-20   [12206]7:19   [12207]7:19-20   [12208]7:20

   Nahum

   [12209]1:1   [12210]1:1   [12211]1:2   [12212]1:2-8   [12213]1:3
   [12214]1:3   [12215]1:3   [12216]1:3   [12217]1:5   [12218]1:6
   [12219]1:6   [12220]1:7   [12221]1:8   [12222]1:9   [12223]1:9
   [12224]1:9-16   [12225]1:10   [12226]1:11   [12227]1:12   [12228]1:14
   [12229]1:15   [12230]1:15   [12231]2:1   [12232]2:1-5   [12233]2:2
   [12234]2:4   [12235]2:6   [12236]2:6   [12237]2:6   [12238]2:7
   [12239]2:7-10   [12240]2:8   [12241]2:9   [12242]2:9   [12243]2:10
   [12244]2:11-12   [12245]2:11-13   [12246]2:13   [12247]3:1
   [12248]3:1   [12249]3:2   [12250]3:2-3   [12251]3:3   [12252]3:4
   [12253]3:4   [12254]3:5-7   [12255]3:5-7   [12256]3:8   [12257]3:8
   [12258]3:8   [12259]3:8   [12260]3:8-11   [12261]3:9   [12262]3:10
   [12263]3:11   [12264]3:12   [12265]3:12-19   [12266]3:13
   [12267]3:13   [12268]3:14   [12269]3:15   [12270]3:15   [12271]3:15
   [12272]3:16   [12273]3:17   [12274]3:18   [12275]3:19   [12276]3:19

   Habakkuk

   [12277]1:1   [12278]1:1   [12279]1:1-4   [12280]1:1-11
   [12281]1:1-17   [12282]1:2   [12283]1:3   [12284]1:3   [12285]1:3
   [12286]1:4   [12287]1:4   [12288]1:5   [12289]1:5-11   [12290]1:6
   [12291]1:7   [12292]1:7   [12293]1:8   [12294]1:9   [12295]1:10
   [12296]1:11   [12297]1:11   [12298]1:12   [12299]1:12
   [12300]1:12-15   [12301]1:12-17   [12302]1:13   [12303]1:13
   [12304]1:14   [12305]1:15   [12306]1:15   [12307]1:16   [12308]1:17
   [12309]2:1   [12310]2:1   [12311]2:1   [12312]2:1   [12313]2:1
   [12314]2:1-9   [12315]2:1-20   [12316]2:2   [12317]2:2   [12318]2:2
   [12319]2:2   [12320]2:2-8   [12321]2:3   [12322]2:4   [12323]2:4
   [12324]2:5   [12325]2:5   [12326]2:6   [12327]2:6-8   [12328]2:7-8
   [12329]2:8   [12330]2:8   [12331]2:9   [12332]2:9-11   [12333]2:10
   [12334]2:10-19   [12335]2:11   [12336]2:11   [12337]2:11
   [12338]2:12   [12339]2:12-14   [12340]2:13   [12341]2:13
   [12342]2:14   [12343]2:15   [12344]2:15   [12345]2:15
   [12346]2:15-16   [12347]2:15-16   [12348]2:15-17   [12349]2:16
   [12350]2:16   [12351]2:17   [12352]2:17   [12353]2:18   [12354]2:18
   [12355]2:18   [12356]2:18-20   [12357]2:20   [12358]2:20
   [12359]2:20-23   [12360]3:1   [12361]3:1   [12362]3:1-19   [12363]3:2
   [12364]3:2   [12365]3:3-4   [12366]3:3-15   [12367]3:4   [12368]3:4
   [12369]3:5   [12370]3:6   [12371]3:6   [12372]3:6   [12373]3:6
   [12374]3:6   [12375]3:6   [12376]3:7   [12377]3:8   [12378]3:9
   [12379]3:9   [12380]3:10   [12381]3:11   [12382]3:13   [12383]3:13
   [12384]3:14   [12385]3:15   [12386]3:15   [12387]3:16   [12388]3:16
   [12389]3:16-18   [12390]3:16-19   [12391]3:17   [12392]3:17-18
   [12393]3:17-18   [12394]3:17-18   [12395]3:18   [12396]3:19
   [12397]3:19

   Zephaniah

   [12398]1:1   [12399]1:1   [12400]1:1   [12401]1:2   [12402]1:2-3
   [12403]1:2-4   [12404]1:3   [12405]1:3   [12406]1:4   [12407]1:5
   [12408]1:5   [12409]1:5   [12410]1:5-6   [12411]1:6   [12412]1:7
   [12413]1:7   [12414]1:7   [12415]1:7-9   [12416]1:8   [12417]1:8
   [12418]1:8   [12419]1:9   [12420]1:10   [12421]1:10   [12422]1:10-18
   [12423]1:11   [12424]1:12   [12425]1:13   [12426]1:14   [12427]1:15
   [12428]1:16-17   [12429]1:17   [12430]1:18   [12431]2:1   [12432]2:1
   [12433]2:1-3   [12434]2:2   [12435]2:3   [12436]2:3   [12437]2:4
   [12438]2:4-7   [12439]2:5   [12440]2:5   [12441]2:5   [12442]2:6
   [12443]2:7   [12444]2:8   [12445]2:8   [12446]2:8   [12447]2:8-11
   [12448]2:9   [12449]2:11   [12450]2:11   [12451]2:12   [12452]2:12-15
   [12453]2:13   [12454]2:15   [12455]2:15   [12456]3:1   [12457]3:1-7
   [12458]3:1-7   [12459]3:2   [12460]3:5   [12461]3:5   [12462]3:6
   [12463]3:8   [12464]3:8-13   [12465]3:9   [12466]3:9   [12467]3:9
   [12468]3:10   [12469]3:11   [12470]3:11   [12471]3:11   [12472]3:11
   [12473]3:12   [12474]3:12-13   [12475]3:13   [12476]3:13
   [12477]3:14   [12478]3:14-20   [12479]3:15   [12480]3:15
   [12481]3:16   [12482]3:17   [12483]3:17   [12484]3:17   [12485]3:17
   [12486]3:18   [12487]3:18   [12488]3:19-20   [12489]3:20

   Haggai

   [12490]1:1   [12491]1:1   [12492]1:1   [12493]1:2   [12494]1:4
   [12495]1:5   [12496]1:5   [12497]1:6   [12498]1:6   [12499]1:6
   [12500]1:6   [12501]1:6   [12502]1:6   [12503]1:6   [12504]1:6
   [12505]1:7   [12506]1:8   [12507]1:8-9   [12508]1:9   [12509]1:9
   [12510]1:9   [12511]1:9   [12512]1:9-11   [12513]1:10
   [12514]1:10-11   [12515]1:11   [12516]1:12   [12517]1:12
   [12518]1:12   [12519]1:13   [12520]1:13   [12521]1:14   [12522]1:14
   [12523]1:14   [12524]1:15   [12525]1:15   [12526]2:1   [12527]2:2
   [12528]2:3   [12529]2:4   [12530]2:4   [12531]2:5   [12532]2:6
   [12533]2:6   [12534]2:6   [12535]2:6-7   [12536]2:6-7   [12537]2:7
   [12538]2:8   [12539]2:9   [12540]2:9   [12541]2:11   [12542]2:12
   [12543]2:12   [12544]2:14   [12545]2:16   [12546]2:16   [12547]2:17
   [12548]2:17   [12549]2:18-19   [12550]2:19   [12551]2:21
   [12552]2:21-22   [12553]2:23   [12554]2:23

   Zechariah

   [12555]1:1   [12556]1:1   [12557]1:1   [12558]1:1   [12559]1:1-2
   [12560]1:1-5   [12561]1:2   [12562]1:2-6   [12563]1:3   [12564]1:3
   [12565]1:3-5   [12566]1:4   [12567]1:4-6   [12568]1:5   [12569]1:5
   [12570]1:6   [12571]1:6   [12572]1:6   [12573]1:6   [12574]1:6
   [12575]1:6   [12576]1:6   [12577]1:6-7   [12578]1:7   [12579]1:7-11
   [12580]1:8-10   [12581]1:9   [12582]1:9   [12583]1:10   [12584]1:11
   [12585]1:11   [12586]1:12   [12587]1:12   [12588]1:12-17
   [12589]1:13   [12590]1:13   [12591]1:13   [12592]1:13   [12593]1:14
   [12594]1:14   [12595]1:14-15   [12596]1:15   [12597]1:15
   [12598]1:15   [12599]1:15   [12600]1:15   [12601]1:16   [12602]1:16
   [12603]1:17   [12604]1:18   [12605]1:18-21   [12606]1:19
   [12607]1:20   [12608]1:20-21   [12609]1:21   [12610]2:1
   [12611]2:1-2   [12612]2:1-2   [12613]2:2-3   [12614]2:3-5
   [12615]2:4   [12616]2:4-10   [12617]2:5   [12618]2:5   [12619]2:6
   [12620]2:6   [12621]2:6-9   [12622]2:7   [12623]2:7   [12624]2:7
   [12625]2:7   [12626]2:7   [12627]2:7   [12628]2:8-9   [12629]2:10
   [12630]2:10-12   [12631]2:11   [12632]2:11   [12633]2:11-14
   [12634]2:12   [12635]2:13   [12636]2:13   [12637]2:13   [12638]2:13
   [12639]2:13   [12640]2:13   [12641]3:2   [12642]3:3   [12643]3:4
   [12644]3:5   [12645]3:6-7   [12646]3:7   [12647]3:8   [12648]3:8
   [12649]3:8   [12650]3:8   [12651]3:9   [12652]3:9   [12653]3:10
   [12654]4:1   [12655]4:1   [12656]4:2   [12657]4:3   [12658]4:4
   [12659]4:6   [12660]4:6   [12661]4:6   [12662]4:6   [12663]4:6
   [12664]4:7   [12665]4:7   [12666]4:7   [12667]4:7   [12668]4:8
   [12669]4:9   [12670]4:10   [12671]4:10   [12672]4:10   [12673]4:11
   [12674]4:12   [12675]4:12   [12676]4:13   [12677]4:14   [12678]5:1-4
   [12679]5:3   [12680]5:3   [12681]5:3-4   [12682]5:4   [12683]5:4
   [12684]5:4   [12685]5:5   [12686]5:5-11   [12687]5:6   [12688]5:7-8
   [12689]5:7-8   [12690]5:7-8   [12691]5:10   [12692]6:1   [12693]6:1-5
   [12694]6:1-8   [12695]6:1-15   [12696]6:3   [12697]6:5   [12698]6:5
   [12699]6:6   [12700]6:7   [12701]6:8   [12702]6:9-15   [12703]6:10-11
   [12704]6:10-11   [12705]6:11   [12706]6:12   [12707]6:12
   [12708]6:12   [12709]6:13   [12710]6:13   [12711]6:14   [12712]6:15
   [12713]7:1   [12714]7:1   [12715]7:1-3   [12716]7:1-14   [12717]7:3
   [12718]7:3   [12719]7:3   [12720]7:4-7   [12721]7:5   [12722]7:5
   [12723]7:5   [12724]7:5   [12725]7:5   [12726]7:5   [12727]7:5
   [12728]7:5   [12729]7:5-6   [12730]7:6   [12731]7:7   [12732]7:7
   [12733]7:8-9   [12734]7:8-14   [12735]7:9   [12736]7:9   [12737]7:9
   [12738]7:9-10   [12739]7:9-10   [12740]7:10   [12741]7:10
   [12742]7:11-12   [12743]7:12   [12744]7:13   [12745]7:14   [12746]8:1
   [12747]8:1   [12748]8:1-23   [12749]8:2   [12750]8:2-8   [12751]8:3
   [12752]8:3-5   [12753]8:4   [12754]8:4   [12755]8:4   [12756]8:5
   [12757]8:5   [12758]8:5   [12759]8:5   [12760]8:6   [12761]8:7
   [12762]8:9   [12763]8:9   [12764]8:9-15   [12765]8:10   [12766]8:10
   [12767]8:11   [12768]8:12   [12769]8:13   [12770]8:13
   [12771]8:14-15   [12772]8:15   [12773]8:16   [12774]8:16-17
   [12775]8:16-17   [12776]8:18   [12777]8:18   [12778]8:19
   [12779]8:19   [12780]8:19   [12781]8:19   [12782]8:19   [12783]8:20
   [12784]8:20-23   [12785]8:20-23   [12786]8:21   [12787]8:21
   [12788]8:22   [12789]8:22   [12790]8:23   [12791]8:23   [12792]8:23
   [12793]8:23   [12794]8:23   [12795]8:23   [12796]8:23   [12797]8:23
   [12798]8:23   [12799]9:1   [12800]9:1-6   [12801]9:1-17   [12802]9:2
   [12803]9:2-4   [12804]9:4   [12805]9:5   [12806]9:6   [12807]9:7
   [12808]9:7   [12809]9:7   [12810]9:8   [12811]9:8   [12812]9:9
   [12813]9:9   [12814]9:9   [12815]9:9   [12816]9:9   [12817]9:10
   [12818]9:10   [12819]9:10   [12820]9:11   [12821]9:11
   [12822]9:11-12   [12823]9:12   [12824]9:13-15   [12825]9:14
   [12826]9:14   [12827]9:15   [12828]9:15   [12829]9:15   [12830]9:16
   [12831]9:16-17   [12832]9:17   [12833]10:1   [12834]10:1
   [12835]10:1   [12836]10:1-4   [12837]10:2   [12838]10:3   [12839]10:3
   [12840]10:4   [12841]10:5   [12842]10:5   [12843]10:5-12
   [12844]10:6   [12845]10:6   [12846]10:6   [12847]10:7   [12848]10:7
   [12849]10:7   [12850]10:8   [12851]10:8   [12852]10:9   [12853]10:9
   [12854]10:10   [12855]10:10   [12856]10:12   [12857]11:1
   [12858]11:1   [12859]11:1-3   [12860]11:1-17   [12861]11:2
   [12862]11:2   [12863]11:2   [12864]11:3   [12865]11:4   [12866]11:4-6
   [12867]11:5   [12868]11:6   [12869]11:7   [12870]11:7   [12871]11:7
   [12872]11:7-8   [12873]11:8   [12874]11:8   [12875]11:9   [12876]11:9
   [12877]11:10   [12878]11:10   [12879]11:10-11   [12880]11:11
   [12881]11:11   [12882]11:12   [12883]11:12-13   [12884]11:14
   [12885]11:14   [12886]11:15   [12887]11:15   [12888]11:15-17
   [12889]11:16   [12890]11:16   [12891]11:17   [12892]12:1
   [12893]12:1-14   [12894]12:2   [12895]12:2-4   [12896]12:3
   [12897]12:3   [12898]12:3   [12899]12:4   [12900]12:4   [12901]12:5
   [12902]12:5   [12903]12:5   [12904]12:5   [12905]12:6   [12906]12:6
   [12907]12:6   [12908]12:6   [12909]12:6   [12910]12:6   [12911]12:7
   [12912]12:7-8   [12913]12:8   [12914]12:8   [12915]12:9
   [12916]12:9-14   [12917]12:10   [12918]12:10   [12919]12:10
   [12920]12:10   [12921]12:10   [12922]12:11   [12923]12:12
   [12924]12:12   [12925]12:12   [12926]12:13   [12927]12:14
   [12928]13:1   [12929]13:1   [12930]13:1   [12931]13:1   [12932]13:2
   [12933]13:2   [12934]13:2   [12935]13:2-6   [12936]13:3   [12937]13:3
   [12938]13:3   [12939]13:4   [12940]13:4   [12941]13:6   [12942]13:7
   [12943]13:7   [12944]13:7   [12945]13:8   [12946]13:8   [12947]13:8
   [12948]13:9   [12949]13:9   [12950]14:1   [12951]14:1-2   [12952]14:2
   [12953]14:3   [12954]14:3   [12955]14:4   [12956]14:4   [12957]14:4-5
   [12958]14:5   [12959]14:5   [12960]14:5   [12961]14:6   [12962]14:6-7
   [12963]14:6-7   [12964]14:7   [12965]14:8   [12966]14:8
   [12967]14:8-9   [12968]14:9   [12969]14:10   [12970]14:10-11
   [12971]14:10-11   [12972]14:12   [12973]14:12-15   [12974]14:13
   [12975]14:14   [12976]14:14   [12977]14:15   [12978]14:16
   [12979]14:16   [12980]14:17   [12981]14:17-19   [12982]14:18
   [12983]14:18-19   [12984]14:18-19   [12985]14:20   [12986]14:20-21
   [12987]14:20-21   [12988]14:21

   Malachi

   [12989]1:1   [12990]1:1   [12991]1:1-5   [12992]1:2   [12993]1:4
   [12994]1:5   [12995]1:6   [12996]1:6   [12997]1:6   [12998]1:6
   [12999]1:6-14   [13000]1:7   [13001]1:7   [13002]1:7   [13003]1:7
   [13004]1:7   [13005]1:7-8   [13006]1:8   [13007]1:8   [13008]1:8
   [13009]1:8   [13010]1:9   [13011]1:9   [13012]1:10   [13013]1:10
   [13014]1:10   [13015]1:11   [13016]1:12   [13017]1:12   [13018]1:12
   [13019]1:13   [13020]1:13   [13021]1:13   [13022]1:13   [13023]1:13
   [13024]1:14   [13025]1:14   [13026]2   [13027]2:1   [13028]2:1
   [13029]2:1   [13030]2:1-9   [13031]2:2   [13032]2:2   [13033]2:2
   [13034]2:2-3   [13035]2:4   [13036]2:4   [13037]2:5   [13038]2:5
   [13039]2:6   [13040]2:6   [13041]2:7   [13042]2:7   [13043]2:7
   [13044]2:7   [13045]2:7   [13046]2:8   [13047]2:8   [13048]2:8
   [13049]2:9   [13050]2:9   [13051]2:9   [13052]2:9   [13053]2:9
   [13054]2:10   [13055]2:10   [13056]2:11-12   [13057]2:12
   [13058]2:13   [13059]2:13   [13060]2:13   [13061]2:14   [13062]2:14
   [13063]2:14   [13064]2:14-16   [13065]2:15   [13066]2:15
   [13067]2:15   [13068]2:15   [13069]2:16   [13070]2:16   [13071]2:16
   [13072]2:16   [13073]2:17   [13074]2:17   [13075]2:17   [13076]3:1
   [13077]3:1   [13078]3:1   [13079]3:1   [13080]3:1   [13081]3:1-2
   [13082]3:1-6   [13083]3:2   [13084]3:3   [13085]3:4   [13086]3:5
   [13087]3:5   [13088]3:6   [13089]3:7   [13090]3:7   [13091]3:7-12
   [13092]3:8   [13093]3:8   [13094]3:9   [13095]3:10   [13096]3:10
   [13097]3:10   [13098]3:10   [13099]3:10   [13100]3:11   [13101]3:11
   [13102]3:11   [13103]3:13-15   [13104]3:14   [13105]3:14
   [13106]3:14   [13107]3:15   [13108]3:15   [13109]3:16-18
   [13110]3:17   [13111]3:17   [13112]3:18   [13113]4:1   [13114]4:1
   [13115]4:1   [13116]4:1-3   [13117]4:2   [13118]4:3   [13119]4:3
   [13120]4:4   [13121]4:4   [13122]4:5-6   [13123]4:5-6   [13124]4:6
   [13125]4:10

   Matthew

   [13126]1:12   [13127]1:17   [13128]1:17   [13129]1:17   [13130]1:21
   [13131]1:21   [13132]1:21-25   [13133]2:3   [13134]2:5-6   [13135]2:6
   [13136]2:11   [13137]2:15   [13138]2:15   [13139]2:17-18
   [13140]2:23   [13141]2:23   [13142]3:2   [13143]3:3   [13144]3:4
   [13145]3:5   [13146]3:5   [13147]3:7   [13148]3:7   [13149]3:8-9
   [13150]3:8-9   [13151]3:9   [13152]3:10   [13153]3:10   [13154]3:10
   [13155]3:11   [13156]3:11   [13157]3:11   [13158]3:11   [13159]3:12
   [13160]3:12   [13161]3:12   [13162]3:16   [13163]3:17   [13164]3:17
   [13165]4:4   [13166]4:13-16   [13167]4:15   [13168]4:16   [13169]4:16
   [13170]4:23   [13171]5:12   [13172]5:14   [13173]5:14   [13174]5:16
   [13175]5:16   [13176]5:19   [13177]5:34   [13178]5:36   [13179]5:37
   [13180]5:39   [13181]5:45   [13182]6:6   [13183]6:16   [13184]6:18
   [13185]6:19   [13186]6:29   [13187]6:33   [13188]7:6   [13189]7:11
   [13190]7:11   [13191]7:22-23   [13192]7:22-23   [13193]7:26
   [13194]8:11   [13195]8:11   [13196]8:11   [13197]8:17   [13198]9:4
   [13199]9:13   [13200]9:13   [13201]9:17   [13202]9:27
   [13203]9:32-33   [13204]9:36   [13205]9:36   [13206]10:4
   [13207]10:6   [13208]10:19   [13209]10:19   [13210]10:27
   [13211]10:32   [13212]10:34-35   [13213]10:36   [13214]11:5
   [13215]11:5   [13216]11:8   [13217]11:9-10   [13218]11:14
   [13219]11:16-17   [13220]11:17   [13221]11:17-19   [13222]11:21
   [13223]11:21   [13224]11:23   [13225]11:23   [13226]11:23-24
   [13227]11:24   [13228]11:25   [13229]11:27   [13230]11:28
   [13231]11:29   [13232]11:30   [13233]11:30   [13234]12:6
   [13235]12:7   [13236]12:7   [13237]12:17-21   [13238]12:22
   [13239]12:40   [13240]12:40   [13241]12:41   [13242]13:3
   [13243]13:14-15   [13244]13:14-15   [13245]13:14-15   [13246]13:19
   [13247]13:19   [13248]13:31-32   [13249]13:39   [13250]13:39
   [13251]13:52   [13252]13:55-57   [13253]13:58   [13254]14:25
   [13255]15:5   [13256]15:8   [13257]15:8-9   [13258]15:9   [13259]15:9
   [13260]15:9   [13261]15:11   [13262]15:14   [13263]15:14
   [13264]15:16   [13265]15:19   [13266]15:23   [13267]15:24
   [13268]15:24   [13269]15:24   [13270]16:3   [13271]16:14
   [13272]16:14   [13273]16:18   [13274]16:26   [13275]17:5
   [13276]17:10-13   [13277]17:11   [13278]18:3   [13279]18:10
   [13280]18:12-13   [13281]18:18   [13282]18:21   [13283]19:3
   [13284]19:7   [13285]19:8   [13286]19:17   [13287]19:17
   [13288]19:28   [13289]19:30   [13290]20:3   [13291]20:12
   [13292]20:28   [13293]20:28   [13294]20:30   [13295]20:31-32
   [13296]21:5   [13297]21:5   [13298]21:12   [13299]21:13
   [13300]21:13   [13301]21:19   [13302]21:25   [13303]21:33
   [13304]21:34   [13305]21:35   [13306]21:37   [13307]21:41
   [13308]21:43   [13309]21:43   [13310]21:43   [13311]21:44
   [13312]21:44   [13313]21:44   [13314]22:1   [13315]22:1-46
   [13316]22:7   [13317]22:7   [13318]22:10   [13319]22:12
   [13320]22:15   [13321]22:15   [13322]22:16   [13323]22:42
   [13324]23:1-39   [13325]23:2   [13326]23:7   [13327]23:14
   [13328]23:14   [13329]23:23   [13330]23:23   [13331]23:31
   [13332]23:32   [13333]23:32   [13334]23:32   [13335]23:35
   [13336]23:35   [13337]23:35   [13338]23:35   [13339]23:35
   [13340]23:35-36   [13341]23:35-36   [13342]23:36   [13343]23:37
   [13344]23:37   [13345]23:37-38   [13346]23:38   [13347]23:38
   [13348]23:38   [13349]23:38   [13350]23:38   [13351]24:1
   [13352]24:3   [13353]24:3   [13354]24:5   [13355]24:6-7   [13356]24:8
   [13357]24:11   [13358]24:15   [13359]24:15   [13360]24:15
   [13361]24:16   [13362]24:16   [13363]24:16   [13364]24:16-18
   [13365]24:21   [13366]24:21   [13367]24:21   [13368]24:21
   [13369]24:22   [13370]24:27   [13371]24:28   [13372]24:29
   [13373]24:29   [13374]24:31   [13375]24:31   [13376]24:37
   [13377]24:51   [13378]24:51   [13379]25:32   [13380]25:32-33
   [13381]26:24   [13382]26:31   [13383]26:53   [13384]26:67
   [13385]27:9-10   [13386]28:18   [13387]28:19   [13388]28:20
   [13389]28:20

   Mark

   [13390]1:1-2   [13391]3:21   [13392]4:27   [13393]4:34
   [13394]5:28-30   [13395]5:33   [13396]6:20   [13397]6:20
   [13398]7:34   [13399]9:44   [13400]9:48-49   [13401]9:50
   [13402]11:12   [13403]11:14   [13404]12:33   [13405]13:1
   [13406]13:3   [13407]14:27   [13408]15:27-28   [13409]16:16
   [13410]16:16   [13411]16:17-18   [13412]16:20

   Luke

   [13413]1:5   [13414]1:15-16   [13415]1:16-17   [13416]1:17
   [13417]1:17   [13418]1:17   [13419]1:17   [13420]1:19   [13421]1:32
   [13422]1:32   [13423]1:32   [13424]1:32   [13425]1:32-33
   [13426]1:32-33   [13427]1:32-33   [13428]1:33   [13429]1:33
   [13430]1:46-47   [13431]1:52   [13432]1:53   [13433]1:69-70
   [13434]1:72   [13435]1:74   [13436]1:74-75   [13437]1:74-75
   [13438]1:74-75   [13439]1:74-75   [13440]1:74-75   [13441]1:74-75
   [13442]1:78-79   [13443]2:1   [13444]2:1   [13445]2:1   [13446]2:1
   [13447]2:11   [13448]2:25   [13449]2:25   [13450]2:25
   [13451]2:25-38   [13452]2:27   [13453]2:32   [13454]2:32
   [13455]2:34   [13456]2:35   [13457]2:37   [13458]2:38   [13459]2:38
   [13460]2:38   [13461]2:38   [13462]2:38   [13463]2:38   [13464]2:40
   [13465]2:46   [13466]2:48   [13467]2:49   [13468]2:51   [13469]2:52
   [13470]3:5   [13471]3:6   [13472]3:13   [13473]3:27   [13474]3:27-31
   [13475]3:31   [13476]4:17-18   [13477]4:18   [13478]4:18
   [13479]4:18   [13480]4:18-19   [13481]4:20   [13482]4:21
   [13483]4:21   [13484]6:24-25   [13485]7:30   [13486]8:18
   [13487]9:32   [13488]9:44   [13489]9:55   [13490]10:18   [13491]10:21
   [13492]11:5   [13493]11:8   [13494]11:13   [13495]11:13
   [13496]11:13   [13497]11:22   [13498]11:26   [13499]11:26
   [13500]11:45   [13501]11:53-54   [13502]12:4-5   [13503]12:4-5
   [13504]12:4-5   [13505]12:18   [13506]12:19   [13507]12:19
   [13508]12:19-20   [13509]12:33   [13510]12:33   [13511]12:49
   [13512]12:49   [13513]12:49   [13514]12:49   [13515]12:51
   [13516]12:51   [13517]13:6   [13518]13:7   [13519]13:24
   [13520]13:25-26   [13521]13:28   [13522]13:28   [13523]14:21-22
   [13524]14:22   [13525]14:26   [13526]14:31   [13527]15:7
   [13528]15:17   [13529]15:17-18   [13530]15:18   [13531]15:20
   [13532]16:14   [13533]16:16   [13534]16:19   [13535]16:23
   [13536]16:25   [13537]16:25   [13538]16:25   [13539]16:26
   [13540]16:28-29   [13541]17:22   [13542]17:24   [13543]17:26
   [13544]17:28-29   [13545]17:34   [13546]18:2   [13547]18:2
   [13548]18:8   [13549]18:12   [13550]18:13   [13551]19:11
   [13552]19:22   [13553]19:27   [13554]19:41   [13555]19:41-42
   [13556]19:43   [13557]19:43   [13558]19:43   [13559]20:16
   [13560]20:20   [13561]20:20   [13562]20:36   [13563]20:36
   [13564]21:5   [13565]21:12   [13566]21:15   [13567]21:16
   [13568]21:18   [13569]21:20   [13570]21:22   [13571]21:25
   [13572]21:26   [13573]21:26   [13574]21:26   [13575]21:26
   [13576]21:28   [13577]21:28   [13578]21:28   [13579]21:28
   [13580]21:35   [13581]21:38   [13582]21:38   [13583]22:25
   [13584]22:25   [13585]22:28   [13586]22:32   [13587]22:32
   [13588]22:37   [13589]22:43   [13590]22:43   [13591]22:45
   [13592]23:5   [13593]23:28   [13594]23:29   [13595]23:29
   [13596]23:30   [13597]24:15   [13598]24:26-27   [13599]24:45
   [13600]24:47   [13601]24:47   [13602]24:47   [13603]24:47
   [13604]24:47

   John

   [13605]1:1-2   [13606]1:4   [13607]1:14   [13608]1:14   [13609]1:16
   [13610]1:16   [13611]1:18   [13612]1:19-21   [13613]1:29
   [13614]1:41   [13615]1:49   [13616]1:49   [13617]1:51   [13618]2:16
   [13619]2:19   [13620]2:21   [13621]3:2   [13622]3:16   [13623]3:19
   [13624]3:19   [13625]3:19   [13626]3:36   [13627]3:36   [13628]4:13
   [13629]4:14   [13630]4:14   [13631]4:14   [13632]4:21   [13633]4:22
   [13634]4:23-24   [13635]4:24   [13636]4:34   [13637]4:35
   [13638]4:35   [13639]5:14   [13640]5:14   [13641]5:14   [13642]5:22
   [13643]5:24-25   [13644]5:27   [13645]5:27   [13646]5:27
   [13647]5:29   [13648]5:40   [13649]6:27   [13650]6:27   [13651]6:32
   [13652]6:33   [13653]6:44   [13654]6:45   [13655]6:63   [13656]6:67
   [13657]6:69   [13658]7:17   [13659]7:17   [13660]7:17   [13661]7:24
   [13662]7:35   [13663]7:35   [13664]7:37   [13665]7:37   [13666]7:38
   [13667]7:38-39   [13668]7:38-39   [13669]7:38-39   [13670]7:39
   [13671]7:39   [13672]7:42   [13673]8:12   [13674]8:35
   [13675]8:39-40   [13676]8:41   [13677]8:44   [13678]8:56
   [13679]8:57   [13680]8:58   [13681]9:6   [13682]9:39   [13683]9:39
   [13684]9:39   [13685]9:39   [13686]10:1-2   [13687]10:9
   [13688]10:11   [13689]10:11   [13690]10:16   [13691]10:16
   [13692]10:16   [13693]10:22   [13694]10:28   [13695]10:32
   [13696]10:41   [13697]11:42   [13698]11:51   [13699]11:51
   [13700]11:52   [13701]11:52   [13702]11:52   [13703]12:15
   [13704]12:21   [13705]12:21   [13706]12:22-23   [13707]12:24
   [13708]12:24   [13709]12:24   [13710]12:27-28   [13711]12:28
   [13712]12:28   [13713]12:32   [13714]12:38   [13715]12:41
   [13716]12:48   [13717]13:7   [13718]13:23-24   [13719]13:27
   [13720]13:32   [13721]14:2   [13722]14:16   [13723]14:19
   [13724]14:19   [13725]14:22   [13726]14:26   [13727]14:27
   [13728]14:29   [13729]15:1   [13730]15:6   [13731]15:6   [13732]15:15
   [13733]15:16   [13734]15:16   [13735]15:18   [13736]15:19
   [13737]15:25   [13738]16:1-2   [13739]16:2   [13740]16:2
   [13741]16:2   [13742]16:7-8   [13743]16:8   [13744]16:8
   [13745]16:19   [13746]16:21   [13747]16:22   [13748]16:32
   [13749]17:2   [13750]17:3   [13751]17:4-5   [13752]17:5   [13753]17:5
   [13754]17:5   [13755]17:6   [13756]17:6   [13757]17:17   [13758]17:19
   [13759]17:21   [13760]17:24   [13761]18:1   [13762]18:6   [13763]18:8
   [13764]18:11   [13765]18:20   [13766]18:20   [13767]18:35
   [13768]18:36   [13769]18:37   [13770]18:37   [13771]19:10
   [13772]19:11   [13773]19:11   [13774]19:37   [13775]20:17
   [13776]20:23   [13777]21:25

   Acts

   [13778]1:4   [13779]1:7   [13780]1:9   [13781]1:12   [13782]2:1
   [13783]2:1-13   [13784]2:1-47   [13785]2:5   [13786]2:5   [13787]2:5
   [13788]2:5   [13789]2:5-6   [13790]2:9   [13791]2:10   [13792]2:11
   [13793]2:16   [13794]2:20   [13795]2:21   [13796]2:23   [13797]2:23
   [13798]2:30   [13799]2:30   [13800]2:39   [13801]2:39   [13802]2:39
   [13803]2:39   [13804]2:40   [13805]2:44   [13806]2:46   [13807]2:47
   [13808]3:8   [13809]3:19   [13810]3:22   [13811]3:25   [13812]3:25
   [13813]3:25   [13814]3:26   [13815]4:1   [13816]4:13   [13817]4:16
   [13818]4:17   [13819]4:20   [13820]4:20   [13821]4:20   [13822]4:28
   [13823]4:32   [13824]4:32   [13825]5:20   [13826]5:20   [13827]5:20
   [13828]5:20   [13829]5:42   [13830]6:2-4   [13831]6:4   [13832]6:14
   [13833]6:15   [13834]7:2   [13835]7:2   [13836]7:2   [13837]7:2
   [13838]7:20   [13839]7:38   [13840]7:42   [13841]7:42   [13842]7:43
   [13843]7:43   [13844]7:45   [13845]7:49-50   [13846]7:51
   [13847]7:52   [13848]7:53   [13849]8:1   [13850]8:8   [13851]8:8
   [13852]8:14   [13853]8:26   [13854]8:26-40   [13855]8:27
   [13856]8:34-35   [13857]8:39   [13858]8:39   [13859]9:5   [13860]9:7
   [13861]9:11   [13862]9:22   [13863]9:39   [13864]10:4   [13865]10:4
   [13866]10:9   [13867]10:14   [13868]10:28   [13869]10:30
   [13870]10:35   [13871]10:36   [13872]10:43   [13873]10:44
   [13874]10:44-45   [13875]12:2-3   [13876]12:3   [13877]12:5
   [13878]12:20   [13879]13:18   [13880]13:18   [13881]13:23
   [13882]13:33   [13883]13:34   [13884]13:34   [13885]13:40
   [13886]13:41   [13887]13:47   [13888]13:48   [13889]13:48
   [13890]14:13   [13891]14:15   [13892]14:16   [13893]14:16
   [13894]14:17   [13895]14:23   [13896]15:9   [13897]15:10
   [13898]15:10   [13899]15:14   [13900]15:15-17   [13901]15:16
   [13902]15:18   [13903]15:21   [13904]16:9   [13905]16:13
   [13906]16:14   [13907]16:37   [13908]17:16   [13909]17:26
   [13910]17:27   [13911]17:27   [13912]17:30   [13913]18:10
   [13914]19:18   [13915]19:19   [13916]19:20   [13917]19:26
   [13918]19:35   [13919]20:18   [13920]20:28   [13921]20:28
   [13922]20:30   [13923]20:35   [13924]21:3-4   [13925]21:9
   [13926]21:28   [13927]22:9   [13928]22:9   [13929]23:2   [13930]24:15
   [13931]26:16   [13932]26:18   [13933]26:18   [13934]26:18
   [13935]26:22-23   [13936]26:26   [13937]27:18-19   [13938]27:20
   [13939]27:38   [13940]27:38   [13941]28:4   [13942]28:22

   Romans

   [13943]1:8   [13944]1:13   [13945]1:14   [13946]1:17   [13947]1:17
   [13948]1:18   [13949]1:20   [13950]1:21   [13951]1:22   [13952]1:23
   [13953]1:23   [13954]1:24   [13955]1:24   [13956]1:25   [13957]1:26
   [13958]1:26   [13959]1:27   [13960]1:27   [13961]1:28   [13962]1:28
   [13963]1:32   [13964]2:7-8   [13965]2:8-9   [13966]2:9   [13967]2:16
   [13968]2:16   [13969]2:17   [13970]2:23-24   [13971]2:24
   [13972]2:26-27   [13973]2:28-29   [13974]3:1-2   [13975]3:3
   [13976]3:3-4   [13977]3:5   [13978]3:11   [13979]3:15   [13980]4:3
   [13981]4:3   [13982]4:5   [13983]4:11   [13984]4:11   [13985]4:11-12
   [13986]4:13   [13987]4:17   [13988]4:21   [13989]4:25   [13990]5:1
   [13991]5:1-2   [13992]5:7   [13993]5:14   [13994]5:14   [13995]5:20
   [13996]5:21   [13997]6:21   [13998]6:21   [13999]6:21   [14000]7:4
   [14001]7:6   [14002]7:13   [14003]8:3   [14004]8:18   [14005]8:19
   [14006]8:21   [14007]8:21   [14008]8:21   [14009]8:21-22
   [14010]8:21-22   [14011]8:22   [14012]8:22   [14013]8:26
   [14014]8:31   [14015]8:32   [14016]8:33   [14017]9:3   [14018]9:4
   [14019]9:5   [14020]9:8   [14021]9:13   [14022]9:20-21   [14023]9:21
   [14024]9:21   [14025]9:22   [14026]9:24-25   [14027]9:25
   [14028]9:25-26   [14029]9:25-26   [14030]9:25-26   [14031]9:26
   [14032]9:27   [14033]9:27   [14034]9:27   [14035]9:31-32
   [14036]10:3   [14037]10:8   [14038]10:11-12   [14039]10:12
   [14040]10:13   [14041]10:15   [14042]10:15   [14043]10:15
   [14044]10:16   [14045]10:17   [14046]10:20   [14047]10:20-21
   [14048]10:21   [14049]11:1   [14050]11:1   [14051]11:1   [14052]11:1
   [14053]11:1   [14054]11:1-5   [14055]11:3   [14056]11:4-5
   [14057]11:5   [14058]11:5   [14059]11:5   [14060]11:5   [14061]11:7
   [14062]11:7   [14063]11:8   [14064]11:8   [14065]11:8   [14066]11:8
   [14067]11:8   [14068]11:9-10   [14069]11:11-12   [14070]11:12-15
   [14071]11:14   [14072]11:14   [14073]11:17   [14074]11:17
   [14075]11:17   [14076]11:20   [14077]11:22   [14078]11:25
   [14079]11:26   [14080]11:26   [14081]11:26   [14082]11:28
   [14083]11:28   [14084]11:36   [14085]12:1   [14086]12:1   [14087]12:1
   [14088]13:4   [14089]13:11   [14090]13:12   [14091]14:6
   [14092]14:10-11   [14093]15:1   [14094]15:9-11   [14095]15:10
   [14096]15:12   [14097]15:12   [14098]15:16   [14099]15:16
   [14100]15:16   [14101]15:16   [14102]15:16   [14103]15:18
   [14104]15:19   [14105]15:19   [14106]15:20   [14107]15:21
   [14108]16:18   [14109]16:19   [14110]16:20   [14111]16:22
   [14112]16:25   [14113]16:25   [14114]16:25-26   [14115]16:25-26
   [14116]16:25-26   [14117]16:26   [14118]16:26

   1 Corinthians

   [14119]1:2   [14120]1:5   [14121]1:20   [14122]1:21   [14123]1:24
   [14124]1:27   [14125]1:27-28   [14126]2:7   [14127]2:7   [14128]2:8
   [14129]2:9   [14130]2:9   [14131]2:10   [14132]2:12   [14133]2:13
   [14134]2:13   [14135]2:13   [14136]3:9   [14137]3:9   [14138]3:9
   [14139]3:12   [14140]3:13   [14141]3:13-15   [14142]3:17
   [14143]3:19   [14144]3:22   [14145]3:22-23   [14146]4:6   [14147]4:13
   [14148]5:1   [14149]5:1   [14150]5:5   [14151]6:11   [14152]6:17
   [14153]7:2   [14154]7:5   [14155]7:21   [14156]7:26   [14157]7:26
   [14158]7:29-30   [14159]7:29-30   [14160]7:29-31   [14161]8:4
   [14162]8:5-6   [14163]9:2   [14164]9:7   [14165]9:7   [14166]9:10
   [14167]9:13-14   [14168]9:16   [14169]9:16   [14170]9:16
   [14171]10:1-33   [14172]10:11   [14173]10:11   [14174]10:13
   [14175]10:14   [14176]10:20   [14177]10:22   [14178]10:31
   [14179]11:10   [14180]11:14   [14181]11:23   [14182]11:23
   [14183]12:1   [14184]12:21   [14185]12:22-25   [14186]12:23
   [14187]13:8-10   [14188]13:12   [14189]14:13   [14190]14:13
   [14191]14:19   [14192]14:21   [14193]14:24-25   [14194]15:3
   [14195]15:4   [14196]15:19   [14197]15:24   [14198]15:24
   [14199]15:24-25   [14200]15:25   [14201]15:32   [14202]15:54
   [14203]15:55   [14204]16:2   [14205]16:2

   2 Corinthians

   [14206]1:5   [14207]1:8-9   [14208]1:10   [14209]1:10   [14210]1:20
   [14211]2:16   [14212]3:7-8   [14213]3:9-10   [14214]3:10
   [14215]3:15   [14216]3:18   [14217]3:18   [14218]4:6   [14219]4:7
   [14220]4:9   [14221]4:9   [14222]4:13   [14223]5:5   [14224]5:9
   [14225]5:11   [14226]5:17   [14227]5:17   [14228]5:21   [14229]6:2
   [14230]6:7   [14231]6:9   [14232]6:10   [14233]6:10   [14234]6:14-15
   [14235]6:17   [14236]8:5   [14237]8:23   [14238]9:2   [14239]10:4
   [14240]10:4-5   [14241]11:2   [14242]12:9

   Galatians

   [14243]1:8-9   [14244]1:15   [14245]1:15   [14246]2:2   [14247]3:3-4
   [14248]3:3-4   [14249]3:11   [14250]3:12   [14251]3:15   [14252]3:16
   [14253]3:19   [14254]3:28   [14255]4:1-2   [14256]4:6   [14257]4:8
   [14258]4:9   [14259]4:9   [14260]4:14   [14261]4:15   [14262]4:19
   [14263]4:25   [14264]4:25-26   [14265]4:26   [14266]4:26
   [14267]4:26   [14268]4:26   [14269]4:27   [14270]4:27   [14271]4:27
   [14272]4:28   [14273]5:1   [14274]5:1   [14275]5:15   [14276]5:22-23
   [14277]6:4   [14278]6:7-8   [14279]6:11   [14280]6:16   [14281]6:16
   [14282]6:16

   Ephesians

   [14283]1:4   [14284]1:6   [14285]1:10   [14286]1:10   [14287]1:12
   [14288]1:14   [14289]1:17-18   [14290]2:10   [14291]2:10
   [14292]2:13   [14293]2:14   [14294]2:14   [14295]2:14
   [14296]2:14-15   [14297]2:14-16   [14298]2:15   [14299]2:15
   [14300]2:17   [14301]2:18   [14302]2:19   [14303]2:19
   [14304]2:20-22   [14305]2:21   [14306]3:5   [14307]3:5-6   [14308]3:9
   [14309]3:10   [14310]3:10   [14311]3:10   [14312]3:15   [14313]4:18
   [14314]4:21   [14315]4:25   [14316]4:25   [14317]5:3   [14318]5:8
   [14319]5:11   [14320]5:18-19   [14321]5:25   [14322]5:26
   [14323]5:26   [14324]5:32   [14325]6:9   [14326]6:14   [14327]6:14-17
   [14328]6:15

   Philippians

   [14329]1:1   [14330]1:19   [14331]1:28   [14332]2:9-10   [14333]2:15
   [14334]2:21   [14335]2:21   [14336]2:22   [14337]3:1   [14338]3:3
   [14339]3:5   [14340]3:9   [14341]3:13   [14342]3:19   [14343]3:19
   [14344]3:19   [14345]3:19   [14346]4:7

   Colossians

   [14347]1:6   [14348]1:6   [14349]1:19   [14350]1:20   [14351]1:20
   [14352]1:21   [14353]1:21   [14354]2:2   [14355]2:7   [14356]2:9
   [14357]2:11   [14358]2:15   [14359]2:15   [14360]2:15   [14361]2:15
   [14362]3:1-2   [14363]3:3   [14364]3:5   [14365]3:11   [14366]3:11
   [14367]4:6

   1 Thessalonians

   [14368]1:9   [14369]2:7   [14370]2:15   [14371]2:15   [14372]2:15-16
   [14373]2:16   [14374]2:16   [14375]2:16   [14376]2:16   [14377]4:4-5
   [14378]4:9   [14379]4:15   [14380]4:16   [14381]5:8   [14382]5:8
   [14383]5:13   [14384]5:14

   2 Thessalonians

   [14385]1:6   [14386]1:6-7   [14387]1:6-7   [14388]1:7   [14389]1:7-8
   [14390]1:8   [14391]1:8   [14392]2:4   [14393]2:4   [14394]2:7
   [14395]2:8   [14396]2:8   [14397]2:8   [14398]2:10-11
   [14399]2:10-11   [14400]2:10-12   [14401]2:11   [14402]2:13
   [14403]3:2

   1 Timothy

   [14404]1:12   [14405]1:12   [14406]2:2   [14407]2:2   [14408]2:9
   [14409]3:3   [14410]3:15   [14411]3:16   [14412]4:1-2   [14413]4:8
   [14414]4:10   [14415]4:10   [14416]4:15   [14417]4:16   [14418]5:5
   [14419]5:8   [14420]5:21   [14421]5:23   [14422]6:3   [14423]6:3
   [14424]6:14   [14425]6:16   [14426]6:16   [14427]6:17   [14428]6:17

   2 Timothy

   [14429]1:10   [14430]1:13   [14431]1:13-14   [14432]2:9   [14433]2:20
   [14434]2:25   [14435]3:9   [14436]3:16   [14437]4:18

   Titus

   [14438]1:5   [14439]1:7   [14440]1:12-13   [14441]2:4-5   [14442]2:14
   [14443]3:2-3   [14444]3:4

   Hebrews

   [14445]1:1   [14446]1:1   [14447]1:1   [14448]1:2   [14449]1:6
   [14450]1:6   [14451]1:9   [14452]2:3   [14453]2:3   [14454]2:3
   [14455]2:5   [14456]2:5   [14457]2:9   [14458]2:11   [14459]2:13
   [14460]2:14-15   [14461]2:15   [14462]2:17   [14463]2:17
   [14464]3:1-19   [14465]3:3   [14466]3:4   [14467]3:6   [14468]4:1
   [14469]4:2   [14470]4:12   [14471]4:12   [14472]5:1-2   [14473]5:4
   [14474]5:7   [14475]5:7   [14476]5:9   [14477]5:12   [14478]6:7-8
   [14479]6:7-8   [14480]6:8   [14481]6:10   [14482]6:13   [14483]6:13
   [14484]6:17   [14485]6:17-18   [14486]6:17-18   [14487]7:3
   [14488]7:17   [14489]7:21   [14490]7:25   [14491]7:28   [14492]8:1
   [14493]8:8   [14494]8:8-9   [14495]8:10   [14496]8:10-11
   [14497]8:11   [14498]8:11   [14499]8:12   [14500]8:12   [14501]8:12
   [14502]8:13   [14503]8:13   [14504]9:8   [14505]9:8-9   [14506]9:10
   [14507]9:10   [14508]9:10   [14509]9:10   [14510]9:12   [14511]9:14
   [14512]9:26   [14513]10:1   [14514]10:1   [14515]10:1   [14516]10:1
   [14517]10:3   [14518]10:12   [14519]10:19   [14520]10:20
   [14521]10:22   [14522]10:22   [14523]10:38   [14524]10:38
   [14525]11:5   [14526]11:6   [14527]11:8   [14528]11:9   [14529]11:16
   [14530]11:16   [14531]11:21   [14532]11:23   [14533]11:25
   [14534]11:27   [14535]11:31   [14536]11:33   [14537]11:34
   [14538]11:35   [14539]11:35   [14540]11:37   [14541]11:37
   [14542]12:1   [14543]12:9   [14544]12:9   [14545]12:9   [14546]12:10
   [14547]12:10   [14548]12:12   [14549]12:12   [14550]12:15
   [14551]12:15   [14552]12:22   [14553]12:22   [14554]12:22
   [14555]12:22   [14556]12:22   [14557]12:22   [14558]12:22-23
   [14559]12:22-24   [14560]12:26   [14561]12:26   [14562]12:27
   [14563]12:27   [14564]12:27-28   [14565]12:29   [14566]12:29
   [14567]13:15   [14568]13:15   [14569]13:15   [14570]13:15
   [14571]13:17   [14572]13:22

   James

   [14573]1:1   [14574]1:9-10   [14575]1:15   [14576]1:15   [14577]1:17
   [14578]1:18   [14579]1:18   [14580]1:21   [14581]2:2-3   [14582]2:3
   [14583]2:5   [14584]2:5   [14585]2:5   [14586]2:5-6   [14587]2:6
   [14588]2:12   [14589]2:13   [14590]2:16   [14591]2:23   [14592]3:2
   [14593]3:6   [14594]3:7   [14595]3:9-12   [14596]4:1   [14597]4:4
   [14598]4:8   [14599]4:9   [14600]4:12   [14601]4:13   [14602]5:4
   [14603]5:6   [14604]5:13   [14605]5:17   [14606]5:20

   1 Peter

   [14607]1:1   [14608]1:4   [14609]1:5   [14610]1:6   [14611]1:6
   [14612]1:6-7   [14613]1:6-7   [14614]1:7   [14615]1:7   [14616]1:10
   [14617]1:10   [14618]1:10-11   [14619]1:10-11   [14620]1:11
   [14621]1:11   [14622]1:12   [14623]1:12   [14624]1:18   [14625]1:18
   [14626]1:19   [14627]1:19   [14628]1:23   [14629]1:23-25
   [14630]1:24-25   [14631]2:1-2   [14632]2:4   [14633]2:5   [14634]2:5
   [14635]2:5   [14636]2:5   [14637]2:5   [14638]2:6   [14639]2:6
   [14640]2:6-8   [14641]2:7   [14642]2:8   [14643]2:8   [14644]2:9
   [14645]2:9   [14646]2:9   [14647]2:9   [14648]2:10   [14649]2:10
   [14650]2:10   [14651]2:13   [14652]2:13-14   [14653]2:13-14
   [14654]2:15   [14655]2:22   [14656]2:24   [14657]3:7   [14658]3:13
   [14659]3:14-15   [14660]3:15   [14661]3:15   [14662]3:22
   [14663]3:22   [14664]4:3   [14665]4:4   [14666]4:4   [14667]4:10
   [14668]4:12   [14669]4:17   [14670]4:17   [14671]4:17   [14672]4:17
   [14673]4:17-18

   2 Peter

   [14674]1:19   [14675]1:19   [14676]1:20-21   [14677]1:20-21
   [14678]1:21   [14679]1:21   [14680]2:6   [14681]2:6   [14682]2:7-8
   [14683]2:11   [14684]2:13   [14685]2:14   [14686]2:14   [14687]2:19
   [14688]3:3-4   [14689]3:4   [14690]3:7   [14691]3:9   [14692]3:9
   [14693]3:10   [14694]3:13   [14695]3:13   [14696]3:13   [14697]3:16

   1 John

   [14698]1:1   [14699]1:1   [14700]1:1   [14701]1:1   [14702]1:1
   [14703]1:3   [14704]1:7   [14705]1:8   [14706]2:16   [14707]2:17
   [14708]2:18   [14709]2:19   [14710]2:19   [14711]2:20   [14712]2:27
   [14713]3:1   [14714]3:5   [14715]3:9   [14716]4:10   [14717]5:3
   [14718]5:16   [14719]5:16   [14720]5:20   [14721]5:20

   2 John

   [14722]1:8

   Jude

   [14723]1:6   [14724]1:6   [14725]1:7   [14726]1:9   [14727]1:10
   [14728]1:12   [14729]1:12   [14730]1:14   [14731]1:14   [14732]1:14
   [14733]1:14   [14734]1:14-15   [14735]1:15   [14736]1:15
   [14737]1:15   [14738]1:15   [14739]1:16   [14740]1:23   [14741]1:24

   Revelation

   [14742]1:1   [14743]1:1   [14744]1:1   [14745]1:1   [14746]1:1
   [14747]1:4   [14748]1:5   [14749]1:5-6   [14750]1:5-6   [14751]1:6
   [14752]1:6   [14753]1:6   [14754]1:6   [14755]1:7   [14756]1:10
   [14757]1:10   [14758]1:11   [14759]1:12   [14760]1:12
   [14761]1:12-13   [14762]1:13-15   [14763]1:15   [14764]1:15
   [14765]1:15   [14766]1:17   [14767]1:17   [14768]1:17   [14769]1:17
   [14770]1:17   [14771]1:20   [14772]1:20   [14773]2:4-5   [14774]2:4-5
   [14775]2:5   [14776]2:5   [14777]2:5   [14778]2:10   [14779]2:10
   [14780]2:10   [14781]2:10   [14782]2:13   [14783]2:13   [14784]2:13
   [14785]2:17   [14786]2:22   [14787]2:24-25   [14788]2:26
   [14789]2:26-27   [14790]2:27   [14791]3:2   [14792]3:7   [14793]3:9
   [14794]3:9   [14795]3:9   [14796]3:9   [14797]3:9   [14798]3:12
   [14799]3:12   [14800]3:14   [14801]3:16   [14802]3:17-18
   [14803]3:18   [14804]4:1   [14805]4:1   [14806]4:2   [14807]4:3
   [14808]4:7   [14809]4:8   [14810]4:8   [14811]4:8   [14812]4:8
   [14813]5:5   [14814]5:7   [14815]5:9-10   [14816]6:2   [14817]6:2
   [14818]6:2   [14819]6:2   [14820]6:2   [14821]6:2   [14822]6:4
   [14823]6:5   [14824]6:5   [14825]6:8   [14826]6:8   [14827]6:12-13
   [14828]6:15   [14829]6:15-16   [14830]6:16   [14831]6:16   [14832]7:2
   [14833]7:3   [14834]7:3   [14835]7:4   [14836]7:4   [14837]7:5
   [14838]7:9   [14839]7:9   [14840]7:9   [14841]7:9   [14842]7:9
   [14843]7:11   [14844]7:12   [14845]7:15   [14846]7:15   [14847]7:17
   [14848]7:17   [14849]8:3   [14850]9:7   [14851]9:8   [14852]9:9
   [14853]10:3   [14854]10:5-6   [14855]10:6   [14856]10:7   [14857]10:9
   [14858]10:9-10   [14859]10:11   [14860]11:2   [14861]11:5
   [14862]11:5   [14863]11:8   [14864]11:8-9   [14865]11:9   [14866]11:9
   [14867]11:10   [14868]11:10   [14869]11:10   [14870]11:10
   [14871]11:11   [14872]11:12   [14873]11:15   [14874]12:1
   [14875]12:3   [14876]12:4   [14877]12:6   [14878]12:6   [14879]12:10
   [14880]12:11   [14881]12:16   [14882]12:16   [14883]13:8
   [14884]13:8   [14885]13:10   [14886]13:10   [14887]13:10
   [14888]13:10   [14889]13:10   [14890]13:10   [14891]13:10
   [14892]13:10   [14893]14:2   [14894]14:3   [14895]14:4   [14896]14:6
   [14897]14:7   [14898]14:7   [14899]14:10   [14900]14:10
   [14901]14:10-11   [14902]14:13   [14903]14:15   [14904]14:15
   [14905]14:15   [14906]14:15   [14907]14:18   [14908]14:18
   [14909]14:19   [14910]14:20   [14911]14:20   [14912]14:20
   [14913]15:3   [14914]16:1   [14915]16:9-10   [14916]16:12
   [14917]16:14   [14918]16:19   [14919]17:1   [14920]17:2   [14921]17:3
   [14922]17:5   [14923]17:5   [14924]17:6   [14925]17:15   [14926]17:15
   [14927]17:15   [14928]17:15   [14929]18:1-24   [14930]18:2
   [14931]18:2   [14932]18:3   [14933]18:3   [14934]18:4   [14935]18:4
   [14936]18:4   [14937]18:4   [14938]18:6   [14939]18:6   [14940]18:6
   [14941]18:7   [14942]18:7   [14943]18:9   [14944]18:9   [14945]18:10
   [14946]18:10   [14947]18:12-13   [14948]18:15   [14949]18:16
   [14950]18:17   [14951]18:17   [14952]18:17-18   [14953]18:19
   [14954]18:19   [14955]18:20   [14956]18:20   [14957]18:21
   [14958]19:1   [14959]19:1   [14960]19:3   [14961]19:7   [14962]19:8
   [14963]19:8   [14964]19:8   [14965]19:9   [14966]19:10   [14967]19:10
   [14968]19:11   [14969]19:11   [14970]19:11   [14971]19:13
   [14972]19:13   [14973]19:15   [14974]19:15   [14975]19:15
   [14976]19:17   [14977]19:17-18   [14978]20:1-15   [14979]20:2-3
   [14980]20:3   [14981]20:8   [14982]20:8   [14983]20:9   [14984]20:9
   [14985]20:9-10   [14986]20:10   [14987]20:11-12   [14988]20:15
   [14989]21:3   [14990]21:3   [14991]21:3   [14992]21:4   [14993]21:4
   [14994]21:4   [14995]21:4   [14996]21:5   [14997]21:5   [14998]21:5
   [14999]21:6   [15000]21:7   [15001]21:12-13   [15002]21:13
   [15003]21:16   [15004]21:18   [15005]21:19   [15006]21:21
   [15007]21:22   [15008]21:23   [15009]21:24   [15010]21:24
   [15011]21:24   [15012]21:27   [15013]22:1   [15014]22:1   [15015]22:1
   [15016]22:1   [15017]22:1   [15018]22:2   [15019]22:5   [15020]22:6
   [15021]22:6   [15022]22:9   [15023]22:11   [15024]22:15
   [15025]22:16   [15026]22:16   [15027]22:17   [15028]22:17
   [15029]22:18-19

   1 Maccabees

   [15030]1:11-15   [15031]1:21   [15032]1:41-42   [15033]1:45
   [15034]1:54   [15035]1:60-61   [15036]2:45   [15037]3:27
   [15038]3:41   [15039]4:52   [15040]5:3   [15041]9:28   [15042]10:1

   2 Maccabees

   [15043]2:4   [15044]3:2-3   [15045]4:9   [15046]4:23   [15047]5:15
   [15048]6:2   [15049]6:7   [15050]6:19   [15051]7   [15052]9:8
   [15053]9:10
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

   Isaiah

   [15054]1   [15055]1:1   [15056]1:2-9   [15057]1:10-15
   [15058]1:16-20   [15059]1:21-31   [15060]2   [15061]2:1-5
   [15062]2:6-9   [15063]2:10-22   [15064]3   [15065]3:1-8
   [15066]3:9-15   [15067]3:16-26   [15068]4   [15069]4:1   [15070]4:2-6
   [15071]5   [15072]5:1-7   [15073]5:8-17   [15074]5:18-30   [15075]6
   [15076]6:1-4   [15077]6:5-8   [15078]6:9-13   [15079]7   [15080]7:1-9
   [15081]7:10-16   [15082]7:17-28   [15083]8   [15084]8:1-8
   [15085]8:9-15   [15086]8:16-22   [15087]9   [15088]9:1-7
   [15089]9:8-21   [15090]10   [15091]10:1-4   [15092]10:5-19
   [15093]10:20-23   [15094]10:24-34   [15095]11   [15096]11:1-9
   [15097]11:10-16   [15098]12   [15099]12:1-3   [15100]12:4-6
   [15101]13   [15102]13:1-5   [15103]13:6-18   [15104]13:19-22
   [15105]14   [15106]14:1-3   [15107]14:4-23   [15108]14:24-32
   [15109]15   [15110]15:1-5   [15111]15:6-9   [15112]16   [15113]16:1-5
   [15114]16:6-14   [15115]17   [15116]17:1-5   [15117]17:6-8
   [15118]17:9-11   [15119]17:12-14   [15120]18   [15121]18:1-7
   [15122]19   [15123]19:1-17   [15124]19:18-25   [15125]20
   [15126]20:1-6   [15127]21   [15128]21:1-10   [15129]21:11-12
   [15130]21:13-17   [15131]22   [15132]22:1-7   [15133]22:8-14
   [15134]22:15-25   [15135]23   [15136]23:1-14   [15137]23:15-18
   [15138]24   [15139]24:1-12   [15140]24:13-15   [15141]24:16-23
   [15142]25   [15143]25:1-5   [15144]25:6-8   [15145]25:9-12
   [15146]26   [15147]26:1-4   [15148]26:5-11   [15149]26:12-19
   [15150]26:20-21   [15151]27   [15152]27:1-6   [15153]27:7-13
   [15154]28   [15155]28:1-8   [15156]28:9-13   [15157]28:14-22
   [15158]28:23-29   [15159]29   [15160]29:1-8   [15161]29:9-16
   [15162]29:17-24   [15163]30   [15164]30:1-7   [15165]30:8-17
   [15166]30:18-26   [15167]30:27-33   [15168]31   [15169]31:1-5
   [15170]31:6-9   [15171]32   [15172]32:1-8   [15173]32:9-20
   [15174]33   [15175]33:1-12   [15176]33:13-24   [15177]34
   [15178]34:1-8   [15179]34:9-17   [15180]35   [15181]35:1-4
   [15182]35:5-10   [15183]36   [15184]36:1-10   [15185]36:11-22
   [15186]37   [15187]37:1-7   [15188]37:8-20   [15189]37:21-38
   [15190]38   [15191]38:1-8   [15192]38:9-22   [15193]39
   [15194]39:1-4   [15195]39:5-8   [15196]40   [15197]40:1-2
   [15198]40:3-8   [15199]40:9-11   [15200]40:12-17   [15201]40:18-26
   [15202]40:27-31   [15203]41   [15204]41:1-9   [15205]41:10-20
   [15206]41:21-29   [15207]42   [15208]42:1-4   [15209]42:5-12
   [15210]42:13-17   [15211]42:18-25   [15212]43   [15213]43:1-7
   [15214]43:8-13   [15215]43:14-21   [15216]43:22-28   [15217]44
   [15218]44:1-8   [15219]44:9-20   [15220]44:21-28   [15221]45
   [15222]45:1-4   [15223]45:5-10   [15224]45:11-19   [15225]45:20-25
   [15226]46   [15227]46:1-4   [15228]46:5-13   [15229]47
   [15230]47:1-6   [15231]47:7-15   [15232]48   [15233]48:1-8
   [15234]48:9-15   [15235]48:16-22   [15236]49   [15237]49:1-6
   [15238]49:7-12   [15239]49:13-17   [15240]49:18-23   [15241]49:24-26
   [15242]50   [15243]50:1-3   [15244]50:4-9   [15245]50:10-11
   [15246]51   [15247]51:1-3   [15248]51:4-8   [15249]51:9-16
   [15250]51:17-23   [15251]52   [15252]52:1-6   [15253]52:7-12
   [15254]52:13-15   [15255]53   [15256]53:1-3   [15257]53:4-9
   [15258]53:10-12   [15259]54   [15260]54:1-5   [15261]54:6-10
   [15262]54:11-17   [15263]55   [15264]55:1-5   [15265]55:6-13
   [15266]56   [15267]56:1-2   [15268]56:3-8   [15269]56:9-12
   [15270]57   [15271]57:1-2   [15272]57:3-12   [15273]57:13-16
   [15274]57:17-21   [15275]58   [15276]58:1-2   [15277]58:3-7
   [15278]58:8-12   [15279]58:13-14   [15280]59   [15281]59:1-8
   [15282]59:9-15   [15283]59:16-21   [15284]60   [15285]60:1-8
   [15286]60:9-14   [15287]60:15-22   [15288]61   [15289]61:1-3
   [15290]61:4-9   [15291]61:10-11   [15292]62   [15293]62:1-5
   [15294]62:6-9   [15295]62:10-12   [15296]63   [15297]63:1-6
   [15298]63:7-14   [15299]63:15-19   [15300]64   [15301]64:1-5
   [15302]64:6-12   [15303]65   [15304]65:1-7   [15305]65:8-10
   [15306]65:11-16   [15307]65:17-25   [15308]66   [15309]66:1-4
   [15310]66:5-14   [15311]66:15-24

   Jeremiah

   [15312]1   [15313]1:1-3   [15314]1:4-10   [15315]1:11-19   [15316]2
   [15317]2:1-8   [15318]2:9-13   [15319]2:14-19   [15320]2:20-28
   [15321]2:29-37   [15322]3   [15323]3:1-5   [15324]3:6-11
   [15325]3:12-19   [15326]3:20-25   [15327]4   [15328]4:1-2
   [15329]4:3-4   [15330]4:5-18   [15331]4:19-31   [15332]5
   [15333]5:1-9   [15334]5:10-19   [15335]5:20-24   [15336]5:25-31
   [15337]6   [15338]6:1-8   [15339]6:9-17   [15340]6:18-30   [15341]7
   [15342]7:1-15   [15343]7:16-20   [15344]7:21-28   [15345]7:29-34
   [15346]8   [15347]8:1-3   [15348]8:4-12   [15349]8:13-22   [15350]9
   [15351]9:1-11   [15352]9:12-22   [15353]9:23-26   [15354]10
   [15355]10:1-16   [15356]10:17-25   [15357]11   [15358]11:1-10
   [15359]11:11-17   [15360]11:18-23   [15361]12   [15362]12:1-6
   [15363]12:7-13   [15364]12:14-17   [15365]13   [15366]13:1-11
   [15367]13:12-21   [15368]13:22-27   [15369]14   [15370]14:1-9
   [15371]14:10-16   [15372]14:17-22   [15373]15   [15374]15:1-9
   [15375]15:10-14   [15376]15:15-21   [15377]16   [15378]16:1-9
   [15379]16:10-13   [15380]16:14-21   [15381]17   [15382]17:1-4
   [15383]17:5-11   [15384]17:12-18   [15385]17:19-27   [15386]18
   [15387]18:1-10   [15388]18:11-17   [15389]18:18-23   [15390]19
   [15391]19:1-9   [15392]19:10-15   [15393]20   [15394]20:1-6
   [15395]20:7-13   [15396]20:14-18   [15397]21   [15398]21:1-7
   [15399]21:8-14   [15400]22   [15401]22:1-9   [15402]22:10-19
   [15403]22:20-30   [15404]23   [15405]23:1-8   [15406]23:9-32
   [15407]23:33-40   [15408]24   [15409]24:1-10   [15410]25
   [15411]25:1-7   [15412]25:8-14   [15413]25:15-29   [15414]25:30-38
   [15415]26   [15416]26:1-6   [15417]26:7-15   [15418]26:16-24
   [15419]27   [15420]27:1-11   [15421]27:12-22   [15422]28
   [15423]28:1-9   [15424]28:10-17   [15425]29   [15426]29:1-7
   [15427]29:8-14   [15428]29:15-23   [15429]29:24-32   [15430]30
   [15431]30:1-9   [15432]30:10-17   [15433]30:18-24   [15434]31
   [15435]31:1-9   [15436]31:10-17   [15437]31:18-26   [15438]31:27-34
   [15439]31:35-40   [15440]32   [15441]32:1-15   [15442]32:16-25
   [15443]32:26-44   [15444]33   [15445]33:1-9   [15446]33:10-16
   [15447]33:17-26   [15448]34   [15449]34:1-7   [15450]34:8-22
   [15451]35   [15452]35:1-11   [15453]35:12-19   [15454]36
   [15455]36:1-8   [15456]36:9-19   [15457]36:20-32   [15458]37
   [15459]37:1-10   [15460]37:11-21   [15461]38   [15462]38:1-13
   [15463]38:14-28   [15464]39   [15465]39:1-10   [15466]39:11-18
   [15467]40   [15468]40:1-6   [15469]40:7-16   [15470]41
   [15471]41:1-10   [15472]41:11-18   [15473]42   [15474]42:1-6
   [15475]42:7-22   [15476]43   [15477]43:1-7   [15478]43:8-13
   [15479]44   [15480]44:1-14   [15481]44:15-19   [15482]44:20-30
   [15483]45   [15484]45:1-5   [15485]46   [15486]46:1-12
   [15487]46:13-28   [15488]47   [15489]47:1-7   [15490]48
   [15491]48:1-13   [15492]48:14-47   [15493]49   [15494]49:1-6
   [15495]49:7-22   [15496]49:23-27   [15497]49:28-33   [15498]49:34-39
   [15499]50   [15500]50:1-8   [15501]50:9-20   [15502]50:21-32
   [15503]50:33-46   [15504]51   [15505]51:1-58   [15506]51:59-64
   [15507]52   [15508]52:1-11   [15509]52:12-23   [15510]52:24-30
   [15511]52:31-34

   Lamentations

   [15512]1   [15513]1:1-11   [15514]1:12-22   [15515]2   [15516]2:1-9
   [15517]2:10-22   [15518]3   [15519]3:1-20   [15520]3:21-36
   [15521]3:37-41   [15522]3:42-54   [15523]3:55-66   [15524]4
   [15525]4:1-12   [15526]4:13-20   [15527]4:21-22   [15528]5
   [15529]5:1-16   [15530]5:17-22

   Ezekiel

   [15531]1   [15532]1:1-3   [15533]1:4-14   [15534]1:15-25
   [15535]1:26-28   [15536]2   [15537]2:1-5   [15538]2:6-10   [15539]3
   [15540]3:1-15   [15541]3:16-21   [15542]3:22-27   [15543]4
   [15544]4:1-8   [15545]4:9-17   [15546]5   [15547]5:1-4
   [15548]5:5-17   [15549]6   [15550]6:1-7   [15551]6:8-10
   [15552]6:11-14   [15553]7   [15554]7:1-15   [15555]7:16-22
   [15556]7:23-27   [15557]8   [15558]8:1-6   [15559]8:7-12
   [15560]8:13-18   [15561]9   [15562]9:1-4   [15563]9:5-11   [15564]10
   [15565]10:1-7   [15566]10:8-22   [15567]11   [15568]11:1-13
   [15569]11:14-21   [15570]11:22-25   [15571]12   [15572]12:1-16
   [15573]12:17-20   [15574]12:21-28   [15575]13   [15576]13:1-9
   [15577]13:10-16   [15578]13:17-23   [15579]14   [15580]14:1-11
   [15581]14:12-23   [15582]15   [15583]15:1-8   [15584]16
   [15585]16:1-5   [15586]16:6-14   [15587]16:15-34   [15588]16:35-43
   [15589]16:44-59   [15590]16:60-63   [15591]17   [15592]17:1-21
   [15593]17:22-24   [15594]18   [15595]18:1-9   [15596]18:10-20
   [15597]18:21-29   [15598]18:30-32   [15599]19   [15600]19:1-9
   [15601]19:10-14   [15602]20   [15603]20:1-4   [15604]20:5-9
   [15605]20:10-26   [15606]20:27-32   [15607]20:33-44   [15608]20:45-49
   [15609]21   [15610]21:1-7   [15611]21:8-17   [15612]21:18-27
   [15613]21:28-32   [15614]22   [15615]22:1-16   [15616]22:17-22
   [15617]22:23-31   [15618]23   [15619]23:1-10   [15620]23:11-21
   [15621]23:22-35   [15622]23:36-49   [15623]24   [15624]24:1-14
   [15625]24:15-27   [15626]25   [15627]25:1-7   [15628]25:8-17
   [15629]26   [15630]26:1-14   [15631]26:15-21   [15632]27
   [15633]27:1-25   [15634]27:26-36   [15635]28   [15636]28:1-10
   [15637]28:11-19   [15638]28:20-26   [15639]29   [15640]29:1-7
   [15641]29:8-16   [15642]29:17-21   [15643]30   [15644]30:1-19
   [15645]30:20-26   [15646]31   [15647]31:1-9   [15648]31:10-18
   [15649]32   [15650]32:1-16   [15651]32:17-32   [15652]33
   [15653]33:1-9   [15654]33:10-20   [15655]33:21-29   [15656]33:30-33
   [15657]34   [15658]34:1-6   [15659]34:7-16   [15660]34:17-31
   [15661]35   [15662]35:1-9   [15663]35:10-15   [15664]36
   [15665]36:1-15   [15666]36:16-24   [15667]36:25-38   [15668]37
   [15669]37:1-14   [15670]37:15-28   [15671]38   [15672]38:1-13
   [15673]38:14-23   [15674]39   [15675]39:1-7   [15676]39:8-22
   [15677]39:23-29   [15678]40   [15679]40:1-4   [15680]40:5-26
   [15681]40:27-38   [15682]40:39-49   [15683]41   [15684]41:1-11
   [15685]41:12-26   [15686]42   [15687]42:1-14   [15688]42:15-20
   [15689]43   [15690]43:1-6   [15691]43:7-12   [15692]43:13-27
   [15693]44   [15694]44:1-3   [15695]44:4-9   [15696]44:10-16
   [15697]44:17-31   [15698]45   [15699]45:1-8   [15700]45:9-12
   [15701]45:13-25   [15702]46   [15703]46:1-15   [15704]46:16-18
   [15705]46:19-24   [15706]47   [15707]47:1-12   [15708]47:13-23
   [15709]48   [15710]48:1-30   [15711]48:31-35

   Daniel

   [15712]1   [15713]1:1-7   [15714]1:8-16   [15715]1:17-21   [15716]2
   [15717]2:1-13   [15718]2:14-23   [15719]2:24-30   [15720]2:31-45
   [15721]2:46-49   [15722]3   [15723]3:1-7   [15724]3:8-18
   [15725]3:19-27   [15726]3:28-30   [15727]4   [15728]4:1-3
   [15729]4:4-18   [15730]4:19-27   [15731]4:28-33   [15732]4:34-37
   [15733]5   [15734]5:1-9   [15735]5:10-29   [15736]5:30-31   [15737]6
   [15738]6:1-5   [15739]6:6-10   [15740]6:11-17   [15741]6:18-24
   [15742]6:25-28   [15743]7   [15744]7:1-8   [15745]7:9-14
   [15746]7:15-28   [15747]8   [15748]8:1-14   [15749]8:15-27   [15750]9
   [15751]9:1-3   [15752]9:4-19   [15753]9:20-27   [15754]10
   [15755]10:1-9   [15756]10:10-21   [15757]11   [15758]11:1-4
   [15759]11:5-20   [15760]11:21-45   [15761]12   [15762]12:1-4
   [15763]12:5-13

   Hosea

   [15764]1   [15765]1:1   [15766]1:2-7   [15767]1:8-11   [15768]2
   [15769]2:1-5   [15770]2:6-13   [15771]2:14-23   [15772]3
   [15773]3:1-5   [15774]4   [15775]4:1-5   [15776]4:6-11
   [15777]4:12-19   [15778]5   [15779]5:1-7   [15780]5:8-15   [15781]6
   [15782]6:1-3   [15783]6:4-11   [15784]7   [15785]7:1-7
   [15786]7:8-16   [15787]8   [15788]8:1-7   [15789]8:8-14   [15790]9
   [15791]9:1-6   [15792]9:7-10   [15793]9:11-17   [15794]10
   [15795]10:1-8   [15796]10:9-15   [15797]11   [15798]11:1-7
   [15799]11:8-12   [15800]12   [15801]12:1-6   [15802]12:7-14
   [15803]13   [15804]13:1-4   [15805]13:5-8   [15806]13:9-16
   [15807]14   [15808]14:1-3   [15809]14:4-7   [15810]14:8-9

   Joel

   [15811]1   [15812]1:1-7   [15813]1:8-13   [15814]1:14-20   [15815]2
   [15816]2:1-11   [15817]2:12-17   [15818]2:18-27   [15819]2:28-32
   [15820]3   [15821]3:1-8   [15822]3:9-17   [15823]3:18-21

   Amos

   [15824]1   [15825]1:1-2   [15826]1:3-15   [15827]2   [15828]2:1-8
   [15829]2:9-16   [15830]3   [15831]3:1-8   [15832]3:9-15   [15833]4
   [15834]4:1-5   [15835]4:6-13   [15836]5   [15837]5:1-3
   [15838]5:4-15   [15839]5:16-20   [15840]5:21-27   [15841]6
   [15842]6:1-7   [15843]6:8-14   [15844]7   [15845]7:1-9
   [15846]7:10-17   [15847]8   [15848]8:1-3   [15849]8:4-10
   [15850]8:11-14   [15851]9   [15852]9:1-10   [15853]9:11-15

   Obadiah

   [15854]1:1   [15855]1:1-9   [15856]1:10-16   [15857]1:17-21

   Jonah

   [15858]1   [15859]1:1-3   [15860]1:4-10   [15861]1:11-17   [15862]2
   [15863]2:1-9   [15864]2:10   [15865]3   [15866]3:1-4   [15867]3:5-10
   [15868]4   [15869]4:1-4   [15870]4:5-11

   Micah

   [15871]1   [15872]1:1-7   [15873]1:8-16   [15874]2   [15875]2:1-5
   [15876]2:6-11   [15877]2:12-13   [15878]3   [15879]3:1-7
   [15880]3:8-12   [15881]4   [15882]4:1-7   [15883]4:8-13   [15884]5
   [15885]5:1-6   [15886]5:7-15   [15887]6   [15888]6:1-5   [15889]6:6-8
   [15890]6:9-16   [15891]7   [15892]7:1-6   [15893]7:7-13
   [15894]7:14-20

   Nahum

   [15895]1   [15896]1:1   [15897]1:2-8   [15898]1:9-15   [15899]2
   [15900]2:1-10   [15901]2:11-13   [15902]3   [15903]3:1-7
   [15904]3:8-19

   Habakkuk

   [15905]1   [15906]1:1-4   [15907]1:5-11   [15908]1:12-17   [15909]2
   [15910]2:1-4   [15911]2:5-14   [15912]2:15-20   [15913]3
   [15914]3:1-2   [15915]3:3-15   [15916]3:16-19

   Zephaniah

   [15917]1   [15918]1:1-6   [15919]1:7-13   [15920]1:14-18   [15921]2
   [15922]2:1-3   [15923]2:4-7   [15924]2:8-11   [15925]2:12-15
   [15926]3   [15927]3:1-7   [15928]3:8-13   [15929]3:14-20

   Haggai

   [15930]1   [15931]1:1-11   [15932]1:12-15   [15933]2   [15934]2:1-9
   [15935]2:10-19   [15936]2:20-23

   Zechariah

   [15937]1   [15938]1:1-6   [15939]1:7-17   [15940]1:18-21   [15941]2
   [15942]2:1-5   [15943]2:6-9   [15944]2:10-13   [15945]3
   [15946]3:1-7   [15947]3:8-10   [15948]4   [15949]4:1-10
   [15950]4:11-14   [15951]5   [15952]5:1-4   [15953]5:5-11   [15954]6
   [15955]6:1-8   [15956]6:9-15   [15957]7   [15958]7:1-7
   [15959]7:8-14   [15960]8   [15961]8:1-8   [15962]8:9-17
   [15963]8:18-23   [15964]9   [15965]9:1-8   [15966]9:9-11
   [15967]9:12-17   [15968]10   [15969]10:1-4   [15970]10:5-12
   [15971]11   [15972]11:1-3   [15973]11:4-14   [15974]11:15-17
   [15975]12   [15976]12:1-8   [15977]12:9-14   [15978]13
   [15979]13:1-6   [15980]13:7-9   [15981]14   [15982]14:1-7
   [15983]14:8-15   [15984]14:16-21

   Malachi

   [15985]1   [15986]1:1-5   [15987]1:6-14   [15988]2   [15989]2:1-9
   [15990]2:10-17   [15991]3   [15992]3:1-6   [15993]3:7-12
   [15994]3:13-18   [15995]4   [15996]4:1-3   [15997]4:4-6
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Pages of the Print Edition

   [15998]v  [15999]1  [16000]398  [16001]711  [16002]745  [16003]1016
   [16004]1117  [16005]1202  [16006]1224  [16007]1270  [16008]1278
   [16009]1302  [16010]1339  [16011]1352  [16012]1371  [16013]1388
   [16014]1400  [16015]1475
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

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  40. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Mal.iii-p15.1
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  60. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=9&scrV=16#Ez.ii-p28.16
  61. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=9&scrV=26#iv-p10.5
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  63. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=9&scrV=27#Jer.xxi-p12.7
  64. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=10&scrV=1#Ez.xxviii-p12.1
  65. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Is.l-p3.2
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  80. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=12&scrV=2#Is.xxiii-p24.10
  81. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=12&scrV=2#Is.xlii-p8.1
  82. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=12&scrV=3#Is.lxvi-p28.6
  83. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=12&scrV=5#Obad.ii-p25.2
  84. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=4#Is.xxviii-p16.4
  85. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=4#Ez.ii-p3.1
  86. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=7#Ez.xvii-p5.4
  87. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.xvii-p12.3
  88. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=13#Is.ii-p18.3
  89. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=13#Is.iv-p15.5
  90. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=13&scrV=13#Ez.xvii-p28.2
  91. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=14&scrV=1#Jer.l-p18.8
  92. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=14&scrV=1#Is.xlii-p8.10
  93. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=15&scrV=7#Is.xlii-p8.5
  94. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=15&scrV=14#Ez.xvii-p7.11
  95. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=15&scrV=17#Jer.xxxv-p12.4
  96. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=16&scrV=12#Jer.xiii-p11.4
  97. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=16&scrV=12#Ez.xxxiv-p26.4
  98. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=17&scrV=1#Hab.iii-p7.2
  99. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=17&scrV=5#Hos.ii-p21.2
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1917. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=22&scrV=30#Is.liv-p32.1
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1934. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=24&scrV=7#Is.xli-p10.2
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1937. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=1#Lam.iv-p19.3
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1939. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=5#Hos.xiv-p7.4
1940. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=6#Lam.vi-p18.7
1941. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=6#Is.xxiii-p20.1
1942. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=14#Hos.xv-p27.3
1943. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=14#Amos.iv-p9.4
1944. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=15#Is.xviii-p5.6
1945. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=25&scrV=18#Is.lxiv-p26.3
1946. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=26&scrV=5#Is.xviii-p9.7
1947. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=26&scrV=12#Is.xxvii-p10.2
1948. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=2#Is.lv-p24.4
1949. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=2#Jer.xxi-p15.4
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1951. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Is.lvii-p14.3
1952. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Lam.iii-p8.7
1953. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Zech.viii-p6.4
1954. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Hos.xv-p20.3
1955. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Zech.x-p26.8
1956. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=4#Ez.xli-p9.5
1957. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=5#Is.v-p15.2
1958. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=5#Is.xxvii-p28.4
1959. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=8#Ez.ix-p8.1
1960. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=10#Hos.xv-p9.3
1961. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=11#Dan.vii-p6.3
1962. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=13#Ez.xxvii-p14.2
1963. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=13#Jonah.iii-p10.5
1964. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=27&scrV=14#Is.viii-p11.2
1965. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=2#Jer.xxi-p14.1
1966. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=3#Ez.xi-p4.6
1967. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=5#Is.iii-p27.6
1968. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=6#Ez.ii-p20.14
1969. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=7#Dan.iv-p22.7
1970. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=10#Is.vii-p6.3
1971. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=29&scrV=10#Dan.xiii-p14.4
1972. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=30&scrV=5#Is.xi-p35.3
1973. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=30&scrV=5#Is.xxii-p15.1
1974. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=9#Lam.iv-p27.3
1975. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=13#Jer.xxi-p11.2
1976. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=19#Is.lxv-p7.2
1977. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=22#Is.xxxvi-p6.5
1978. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=22#Is.xxxix-p7.1
1979. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=22#Jer.xxi-p19.3
1980. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=31&scrV=22#Lam.iv-p27.5
1981. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=3#Jer.xxi-p14.2
1982. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=3#Is.ii-p14.4
1983. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=5#Is.lxvi-p35.2
1984. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=5#Jer.ix-p9.2
1985. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=32&scrV=7#Is.v-p15.3
1986. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=33&scrV=10#Is.viii-p13.4
1987. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=33&scrV=13#Dan.v-p24.8
1988. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=33&scrV=14#Is.lxiv-p26.4
1989. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=33&scrV=14#Ez.ii-p26.3
1990. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=5#Is.xxxiv-p5.4
1991. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=7#Zech.x-p14.2
1992. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=10#Is.l-p18.2
1993. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=10#Nah.iii-p8.2
1994. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=15#Zech.x-p14.3
1995. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=16#Is.lv-p12.5
1996. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=16#Jer.xlv-p8.4
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1998. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=34&scrV=19#Mal.ii-p12.3
1999. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=5#Is.xviii-p9.4
2000. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=6#Jer.xiv-p13.3
2001. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=13#Jer.xix-p26.6
2002. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=13#Amos.viii-p14.1
2003. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=16#Hos.viii-p11.4
2004. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=20#Zeph.iii-p6.2
2005. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=35&scrV=27#Mal.ii-p12.4
2006. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=2#Ez.viii-p8.4
2007. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=3#Hos.ix-p4.2
2008. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=6#Jer.xiii-p4.3
2009. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=36&scrV=9#Jer.iii-p12.3
2010. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=3#Is.lviii-p21.1
2011. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=6#Is.li-p11.5
2012. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=6#Is.lv-p25.7
2013. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=6#Mic.viii-p6.6
2014. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=13#Is.iii-p27.2
2015. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=13#Is.xiv-p9.3
2016. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=13#Is.xxvii-p30.2
2017. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=13#Is.xxviii-p4.7
2018. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ps&scrCh=37&scrV=13#Ez.xxxi-p4.2
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6951. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=28&scrV=1#Jer.xxviii-p3.5
6952. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=28&scrV=1#Jer.xxix-p4.1
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7062. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=21#Jer.xxxi-p1.10
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7064. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=21#Ez.xlvii-p5.8
7065. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=21#Dan.viii-p11.5
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7068. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=22#Jer.xxxi-p17.1
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7070. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=23#Jer.xxxi-p18.3
7071. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=24#Jer.xxxii-p4.1
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7073. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=1#Jer.xxxii-p1.1
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7090. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=13#Jer.xxxii-p12.7
7091. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=14#Jer.xxxii-p12.10
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7094. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=15#Jer.xxxii-p12.11
7095. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=16#Jer.xxxii-p12.19
7096. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=16#Jer.xxxii-p12.17
7097. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=17#Jer.xxxii-p12.20
7098. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=17#Ez.xxxvii-p6.3
7099. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=18#Is.lvi-p25.2
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7101. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=18#Jer.xxxii-p1.3
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7103. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=19#Lam.vi-p4.1
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7105. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=20#Is.lxiv-p28.3
7106. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=20#Is.lvi-p27.4
7107. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=20#Is.lxvii-p13.1
7108. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=20#Jer.xxxii-p16.1
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7110. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=20#Hos.xv-p25.3
7111. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=21#Jer.xxxii-p17.1
7112. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=21#Jer.xxxii-p1.4
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7114. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=23#Jer.xxxii-p22.2
7115. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=24#Jer.xxxii-p18.3
7116. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=26#Jer.xxxii-p19.1
7117. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=27#Jer.xxxii-p22.1
7118. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=28#Jer.xxxii-p22.3
7119. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=29#Lam.vi-p4.3
7120. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=29#Ez.xix-p6.2
7121. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=29#Jer.xxxii-p23.1
7122. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=31#Jer.xxxii-p1.5
7123. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=34#Jer.xxxii-p24.6
7124. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=34#Hos.vii-p9.4
7125. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=35#Jer.xxxii-p28.1
7126. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=35#Jer.xxxiv-p20.3
7127. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=35#Jer.xxxii-p1.6
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7810. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=13#Jer.li-p11.2
7811. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=13#Jer.li-p11.3
7812. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=13#Jer.li-p12.1
7813. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=14#Jer.li-p10.2
7814. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=14#Jer.li-p10.4
7815. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=14#Jer.li-p10.6
7816. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=14#Jer.li-p12.2
7817. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=15#Jer.li-p10.7
7818. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=15#Jer.li-p12.5
7819. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=16#Jer.li-p11.6
7820. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=16#Jer.li-p11.7
7821. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=17#Jer.li-p12.7
7822. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=17#Mic.v-p12.2
7823. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=17#Jer.li-p1.4
7824. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=18#Jer.li-p12.8
7825. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=19#Jer.li-p13.1
7826. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=20#Is.xlv-p27.10
7827. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=20#Jer.li-p13.3
7828. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=21#Jer.li-p15.2
7829. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=21#Jer.li-p15.6
7830. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=21#Jer.li-p15.10
7831. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=21#Jer.li-p1.3
7832. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=23#Is.xv-p15.4
7833. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=23#Jer.li-p15.11
7834. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=23#Jer.li-p15.16
7835. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=23#Nah.iii-p3.2
7836. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=24#Jer.li-p15.14
7837. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=24#Jer.li-p15.17
7838. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=25#Jer.li-p15.5
7839. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=26#Jer.li-p15.3
7840. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=26#Jer.li-p15.8
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7844. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=28#Jer.lii-p6.6
7845. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=29#Jer.li-p15.4
7846. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=29#Jer.li-p15.22
7847. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=30#Jer.li-p15.12
7848. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=31#Jer.li-p15.13
7849. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=31#Jer.li-p15.20
7850. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=31#Jer.li-p15.21
7851. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=31#Jer.li-p15.23
7852. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=32#Jer.li-p15.15
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7855. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=34#Jer.li-p1.4
7856. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=34#Jer.li-p18.2
7857. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=34#Jer.li-p20.2
7858. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=35#Jer.li-p22.1
7859. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=35#Jer.li-p1.3
7860. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=36#Jer.li-p22.2
7861. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=37#Jer.li-p22.3
7862. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=38#Is.xxxi-p25.2
7863. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=38#Is.lviii-p14.2
7864. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=38#Jer.li-p20.4
7865. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=38#Jer.li-p23.1
7866. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=38#Hab.iii-p24.1
7867. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=39#Jer.li-p23.2
7868. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=40#Jer.li-p23.4
7869. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=41#Jer.li-p24.1
7870. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=44#Jer.li-p25.1
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7872. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=46#Jer.li-p25.3
7873. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=1#Jer.lii-p8.2
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7877. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=4#Jer.lii-p11.20
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7880. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=6#Jer.lii-p12.1
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7883. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=8#Jer.lii-p11.11
7884. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=8#Jer.lii-p11.28
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7886. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=10#Jer.lii-p6.10
7887. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=11#Jer.lii-p6.5
7888. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=11#Jer.lii-p8.1
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10310. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=31#Dan.iii-p26.1
10311. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=35#Zech.v-p11.4
10312. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=35#Zech.xiii-p8.4
10313. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=36#Dan.iii-p27.1
10314. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=37#Is.xiv-p18.1
10315. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=37#Ez.xxvii-p6.1
10316. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=37#Dan.iii-p28.1
10317. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=37#Dan.v-p24.3
10318. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Jer.lii-p4.3
10319. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Dan.iii-p28.2
10320. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=39#Dan.iii-p28.6
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10325. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=44#Dan.v-p4.4
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10330. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=46#Dan.iii-p32.1
10331. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=46#Dan.iii-p1.6
10332. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.iii-p32.2
10333. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.iii-p32.4
10334. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.iii-p32.7
10335. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.iv-p12.3
10336. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.v-p11.4
10337. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Dan.v-p11.7
10338. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=48#Jer.xxxix-p7.3
10339. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=48#Dan.iii-p32.6
10340. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=48#Dan.v-p11.2
10341. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=49#Ez.xxx-p17.3
10342. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=2&scrV=49#Dan.iii-p32.8
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10344. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Dan.iv-p1.2
10345. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Is.xliv-p6.2
10346. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=2#Dan.iv-p5.1
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10348. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Dan.iv-p7.1
10349. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Dan.iii-p18.3
10350. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Dan.iv-p10.1
10351. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Dan.iv-p1.3
10352. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Dan.iv-p10.4
10353. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=12#Dan.iv-p10.5
10354. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Dan.iv-p11.1
10355. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Dan.iv-p1.4
10356. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=14#Dan.iv-p12.1
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10360. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Dan.iv-p16.1
10361. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=19#Dan.iv-p19.1
10362. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=19#Dan.iv-p1.5
10363. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=20#Dan.iv-p19.2
10364. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=22#Dan.iv-p19.5
10365. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=23#Dan.iv-p19.3
10366. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=24#Dan.iv-p21.1
10367. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=24#Dan.iv-p1.6
10368. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=25#Dan.iv-p21.2
10369. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=26#Dan.iv-p22.1
10370. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=27#Dan.iv-p22.5
10371. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=28#Dan.iv-p21.7
10372. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=28#Dan.iv-p25.1
10373. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=28#Dan.iv-p25.3
10374. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=28#Dan.iv-p26.1
10375. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=28#Dan.iv-p1.7
10376. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=29#Dan.iv-p25.2
10377. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=29#Dan.iv-p27.1
10378. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=3&scrV=29#Dan.v-p11.4
10379. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Dan.v-p3.1
10380. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Dan.v-p1.1
10381. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Dan.v-p1.2
10382. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=2#Dan.v-p4.1
10383. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Dan.v-p4.2
10384. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=4#Dan.v-p8.1
10385. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=5#Dan.v-p9.1
10386. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=6#Dan.v-p10.2
10387. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=7#Dan.v-p10.3
10388. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Dan.v-p11.1
10389. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=9#Dan.v-p11.3
10390. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=9#Dan.v-p11.5
10391. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=10#Dan.v-p13.1
10392. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=12#Dan.v-p13.2
10393. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=13#Jer.xvi-p9.5
10394. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=13#Dan.ix-p13.2
10395. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=14#Dan.v-p15.1
10396. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=15#Is.xii-p4.9
10397. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=15#Dan.v-p16.1
10398. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=16#Dan.v-p17.1
10399. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=17#Dan.v-p18.1
10400. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=18#Dan.v-p20.1
10401. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=19#Dan.v-p22.1
10402. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=19#Dan.v-p1.3
10403. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=20#Dan.v-p24.1
10404. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=21#Ez.xviii-p15.11
10405. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=22#Dan.v-p24.2
10406. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=23#Jer.xvi-p9.5
10407. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=23#Ez.xxxii-p12.2
10408. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=23#Dan.v-p24.4
10409. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=24#Dan.v-p24.5
10410. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=26#Lam.iv-p34.7
10411. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=26#Dan.v-p24.6
10412. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=27#Is.xvii-p4.5
10413. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=27#Is.xxxiv-p4.3
10414. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=27#Jer.xxii-p16.3
10415. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=27#Jer.xxxv-p12.7
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10417. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=28#Dan.v-p1.4
10418. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=28#Ez.xxx-p17.1
10419. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=29#Dan.v-p28.1
10420. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=30#Is.xv-p12.3
10421. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=30#Hab.iii-p16.2
10422. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=32#Dan.v-p30.1
10423. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=33#Dan.v-p30.2
10424. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=34#Dan.v-p32.1
10425. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=34#Dan.v-p34.2
10426. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=36#Dan.v-p34.1
10427. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=37#Dan.v-p1.5
10428. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=37#Dan.v-p33.1
10429. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=4&scrV=37#Dan.v-p34.3
10430. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=0#Is.xlvi-p3.1
10431. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Hab.iii-p10.3
10432. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Hab.iii-p20.1
10433. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Dan.vi-p1.1
10434. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Dan.viii-p3.1
10435. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=2#Is.xv-p12.5
10436. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=2#Is.xlix-p13.5
10437. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=3#Is.xv-p11.7
10438. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=3#Dan.ii-p5.3
10439. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=4#Is.xlvii-p4.2
10440. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=4#Is.xlix-p13.5
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10445. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=6#Nah.iii-p6.10
10446. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=8#Is.xlviii-p19.7
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10449. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=23#Is.liii-p7.5
10450. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=27#Dan.viii-p18.14
10451. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=30#Is.xv-p7.2
10452. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=5&scrV=30#Jer.lii-p11.15
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10456. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=1#Dan.vii-p1.2
10457. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=1#Dan.i-p2.4
10458. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=1#Dan.viii-p3.2
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10460. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Dan.vi-p7.1
10461. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Dan.vii-p4.3
10462. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=3#Dan.vii-p4.4
10463. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=3#Dan.vii-p5.1
10464. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=4#Dan.vi-p4.6
10465. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=4#Dan.vii-p5.2
10466. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=4#Dan.vii-p1.3
10467. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=5#Dan.vi-p5.2
10468. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=5#Dan.vii-p6.4
10469. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=6#Dan.vi-p5.4
10470. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=6#Dan.vii-p14.2
10471. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=6#Dan.vii-p1.4
10472. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=7#Dan.vi-p5.5
10473. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=7#Dan.vii-p9.1
10474. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=8#Dan.vi-p5.6
10475. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=9#Dan.vi-p5.7
10476. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=9#Dan.vii-p9.2
10477. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=10#Ez.v-p1.1
10478. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=10#Dan.vii-p1.5
10479. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=10#Dan.vii-p10.1
10480. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=10#Zech.viii-p6.2
10481. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=11#Dan.vii-p14.1
10482. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=11#Dan.vi-p7.2
10483. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=11#Dan.vii-p1.6
10484. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=12#Dan.vii-p14.5
10485. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=13#Dan.vi-p8.1
10486. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=13#Dan.vii-p14.6
10487. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=14#Dan.vi-p8.2
10488. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=14#Dan.vii-p14.7
10489. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=15#Dan.vii-p14.8
10490. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Dan.vi-p8.3
10491. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Dan.vi-p8.4
10492. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Dan.vii-p14.10
10493. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Dan.vii-p14.12
10494. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=17#Dan.vi-p10.1
10495. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=17#Dan.vii-p14.11
10496. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=18#Dan.vi-p11.1
10497. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=18#Dan.vii-p16.1
10498. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=18#Dan.vi-p12.1
10499. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=18#Dan.vii-p1.7
10500. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=19#Dan.vii-p17.1
10501. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=20#Dan.vi-p14.1
10502. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=20#Dan.vi-p15.1
10503. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Dan.vi-p11.1
10504. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Dan.vi-p15.2
10505. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Dan.vii-p18.1
10506. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=22#Dan.iv-p21.8
10507. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=22#Dan.vi-p16.1
10508. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=23#Dan.vi-p16.2
10509. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=23#Dan.vii-p19.1
10510. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=24#Dan.vi-p17.1
10511. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=24#Dan.vii-p1.8
10512. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=24#Dan.vii-p20.1
10513. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=25#Dan.vi-p17.3
10514. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=25#Dan.vii-p23.2
10515. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=25#Dan.vii-p1.9
10516. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=26#Dan.vi-p17.4
10517. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=27#Dan.vii-p23.3
10518. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=28#Dan.vi-p17.5
10519. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=28#Dan.vi-p20.4
10520. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=28#Dan.vii-p24.1
10521. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=29#Dan.vi-p18.1
10522. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=30#Dan.vi-p20.1
10523. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=6&scrV=31#Dan.vi-p20.3
10524. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=1#Dan.viii-p5.1
10525. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=1#Zech.ii-p3.1
10526. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=1#Dan.viii-p1.1
10527. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=1#Dan.iii-p26.2
10528. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=1#Dan.xi-p1.1
10529. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Dan.viii-p6.1
10530. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Zech.vii-p3.3
10531. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=3#Dan.viii-p6.2
10532. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=4#Ez.xviii-p5.4
10533. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=4#Dan.viii-p6.3
10534. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=5#Dan.viii-p6.4
10535. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=6#Dan.viii-p6.5
10536. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=6#Dan.ix-p10.1
10537. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=7#Dan.viii-p6.6
10538. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=8#Dan.viii-p6.7
10539. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=8#Dan.viii-p9.8
10540. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=8#Dan.ix-p11.2
10541. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=9#Dan.viii-p9.2
10542. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=9#Dan.viii-p1.2
10543. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=10#Is.vii-p8.3
10544. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=10#Ez.ii-p17.2
10545. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=10#Dan.viii-p9.4
10546. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=10#Dan.viii-p9.11
10547. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=10#Dan.viii-p9.14
10548. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=11#Dan.viii-p17.6
10549. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=11#Dan.viii-p10.1
10550. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=12#Dan.viii-p10.4
10551. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=12#Dan.viii-p11.8
10552. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=12#Dan.viii-p17.7
10553. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=13#Ez.iii-p3.4
10554. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=13#Dan.ix-p20.5
10555. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=13#Hag.iii-p22.5
10556. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=14#Dan.viii-p11.6
10557. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=14#Mic.v-p16.3
10558. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=15#Dan.viii-p13.1
10559. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=15#Dan.viii-p1.3
10560. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=16#Dan.viii-p14.1
10561. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=17#Dan.viii-p16.1
10562. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=18#Dan.viii-p18.1
10563. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=18#Dan.viii-p18.8
10564. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=18#Dan.viii-p18.11
10565. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=19#Dan.viii-p17.1
10566. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=20#Dan.viii-p17.2
10567. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=21#Dan.viii-p17.3
10568. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=22#Dan.viii-p18.1
10569. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=7&scrV=22#Dan.viii-p18.3
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10688. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=9&scrV=23#Dan.x-p23.1
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10700. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Dan.x-p29.1
10701. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Dan.x-p32.1
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10705. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=9&scrV=27#Ez.ix-p22.2
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10711. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=3#Dan.i-p2.5
10712. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=3#Dan.xi-p5.4
10713. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=4#Dan.xi-p6.1
10714. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=4#Dan.xiii-p14.2
10715. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=4#Dan.xi-p1.4
10716. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Dan.xi-p19.7
10717. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p13.1
10718. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p14.1
10719. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Dan.xi-p13.1
10720. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=6#Dan.xi-p6.3
10721. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=8#iv-p22.1
10722. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=8#Dan.xi-p9.1
10723. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=9#Zech.v-p3.3
10724. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=10#Dan.xi-p12.1
10725. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=10#Dan.xi-p14.1
10726. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=10#Dan.xi-p1.5
10727. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=11#Dan.xi-p12.2
10728. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=11#Dan.xi-p15.1
10729. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=12#Dan.xi-p16.1
10730. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=12#Dan.xi-p17.2
10731. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=12#Dan.xi-p18.1
10732. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=13#Dan.xi-p19.3
10733. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=13#Dan.xi-p19.5
10734. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=13#Dan.xi-p19.8
10735. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=14#Dan.xi-p18.3
10736. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=15#Is.vii-p17.3
10737. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=15#Dan.xi-p12.4
10738. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=16#Dan.xi-p12.5
10739. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=16#Dan.xi-p13.5
10740. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=16#Dan.xi-p14.2
10741. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=17#Is.vii-p17.3
10742. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=17#Dan.xi-p12.7
10743. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=17#Dan.xi-p12.9
10744. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=18#Ez.iii-p6.2
10745. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=18#Dan.xi-p13.6
10746. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=18#Dan.xi-p14.3
10747. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=19#Dan.xi-p15.2
10748. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=19#Dan.xi-p16.2
10749. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=19#Dan.xi-p16.4
10750. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=20#Dan.xi-p19.2
10751. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=20#Dan.xi-p19.4
10752. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=21#Dan.xi-p18.5
10753. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=21#Dan.xi-p19.9
10754. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=10&scrV=21#Dan.xiii-p4.2
10755. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=1#Dan.xii-p3.1
10756. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=1#Dan.xii-p1.2
10757. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=1#Zech.x-p25.1
10758. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=2#Dan.xii-p3.2
10759. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=3#Dan.xii-p3.5
10760. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=4#Dan.xii-p3.6
10761. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=5#Dan.xii-p6.1
10762. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=5#Dan.xii-p1.3
10763. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=6#Dan.xii-p7.1
10764. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=7#Dan.xii-p9.1
10765. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=7#Dan.xii-p8.1
10766. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=8#Dan.xii-p6.2
10767. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=9#Dan.xii-p8.2
10768. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=10#Dan.xii-p9.2
10769. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=14#Dan.xii-p9.3
10770. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=14#Dan.xii-p9.4
10771. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=15#Dan.xii-p9.5
10772. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=16#Dan.xii-p9.6
10773. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=17#Dan.xii-p9.7
10774. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=18#Dan.xii-p9.8
10775. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=18#Dan.xii-p9.9
10776. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=19#Dan.xii-p9.11
10777. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=20#Dan.xii-p9.12
10778. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=20#Dan.xii-p14.1
10779. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=21#Is.xxxiii-p9.1
10780. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=21#Dan.xii-p14.2
10781. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=21#Dan.xii-p1.4
10782. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=21#Dan.xii-p14.6
10783. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=22#Dan.xii-p14.3
10784. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=23#Dan.xii-p14.4
10785. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=24#Dan.xii-p14.5
10786. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=25#Dan.xii-p15.1
10787. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=25#Dan.xii-p20.3
10788. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=27#Dan.xii-p15.1
10789. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=28#Dan.xii-p16.1
10790. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=28#Dan.xii-p17.1
10791. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=28#Dan.xii-p18.1
10792. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=29#Dan.xii-p16.2
10793. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.ix-p11.1
10794. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.xii-p16.3
10795. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.xii-p17.2
10796. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.xii-p18.2
10797. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.xii-p19.1
10798. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=30#Dan.xii-p1.5
10799. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=31#Dan.xii-p20.1
10800. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=31#Dan.xii-p20.5
10801. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=31#Dan.xii-p22.12
10802. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=32#Is.xxvi-p5.4
10803. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=32#Dan.xii-p19.5
10804. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=32#Dan.xii-p21.1
10805. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=32#Zech.x-p25.5
10806. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=32#Mal.v-p4.3
10807. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=33#Is.xxviii-p13.2
10808. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=33#Dan.xii-p21.5
10809. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=33#Dan.xiii-p8.1
10810. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=34#Dan.xii-p21.10
10811. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=35#Is.xi-p21.2
10812. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=35#Dan.xii-p21.8
10813. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=35#Dan.xii-p21.12
10814. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=35#Dan.xiii-p25.9
10815. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=36#Dan.xii-p22.1
10816. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=36#Dan.xii-p22.7
10817. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=36#Dan.xii-p12.2
10818. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=37#Dan.xii-p22.5
10819. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=37#Dan.xii-p22.8
10820. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=38#Dan.xii-p22.11
10821. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=40#Dan.xii-p24.1
10822. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=40#Dan.xii-p1.6
10823. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=41#Dan.xii-p24.3
10824. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=41#Zeph.iii-p4.4
10825. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=42#Dan.xii-p6.2
10826. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=43#Dan.xii-p6.2
10827. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=43#Dan.xii-p24.4
10828. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=44#Dan.xii-p25.2
10829. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=44#Dan.xii-p25.3
10830. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=11&scrV=45#Is.xv-p13.3
10831. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=1#Dan.xiii-p4.1
10832. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=1#Dan.xiii-p1.1
10833. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=1#Dan.xiii-p11.1
10834. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=1#Dan.xi-p1.2
10835. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=2#Is.xlvi-p27.2
10836. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=2#Dan.xiii-p7.1
10837. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=3#Dan.xiii-p8.2
10838. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=3#Mal.iii-p6.3
10839. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Is.ix-p22.2
10840. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Dan.xiii-p9.1
10841. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Dan.xiii-p24.1
10842. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Hos.vii-p9.3
10843. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p13.2
10844. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p12.1
10845. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p1.2
10846. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=6#Dan.xiii-p13.3
10847. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=7#Dan.xiii-p17.1
10848. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=8#Dan.xiii-p1.3
10849. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=8#Dan.xiii-p20.1
10850. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=9#Dan.xiii-p1.4
10851. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=10#Dan.xiii-p25.1
10852. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=11#Dan.ix-p22.3
10853. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=11#Dan.xiii-p18.1
10854. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=11#Dan.xiii-p22.1
10855. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=13#Ez.viii-p4.8
10856. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=12&scrV=13#Dan.xiii-p26.1
10857. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Dan&scrCh=33&scrV=0#Ez.xlix-p4.1
10858. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Hos.ii-p1.1
10859. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Hos.ii-p1.5
10860. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Hos.ii-p6.1
10861. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Hos.ii-p16.2
10862. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Hos.ii-p1.2
10863. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Hos.ii-p6.2
10864. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Hos.iv-p3.1
10865. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Is.viii-p8.1
10866. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Hos.ii-p8.1
10867. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Hos.ii-p1.3
10868. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Hos.ii-p8.6
10869. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Is.viii-p8.1
10870. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Hos.x-p21.2
10871. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Hos.xii-p20.1
10872. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Hos.ii-p1.4
10873. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Hos.ii-p10.1
10874. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Hos.ii-p11.4
10875. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Hos.ii-p1.3
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11501. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=21#Joel.iii-p19.4
11502. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=21#Joel.iii-p20.1
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11510. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=24#Joel.iii-p19.8
11511. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=24#Amos.x-p15.2
11512. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=24#Hag.ii-p7.1
11513. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Joel.ii-p5.3
11514. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Joel.iii-p19.7
11515. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Joel.iii-p19.10
11516. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Joel.iii-p20.2
11517. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Joel.iii-p22.2
11518. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Joel.iii-p23.2
11519. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=27#Joel.iii-p23.6
11520. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=28#Joel.iii-p27.1
11521. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=28#Joel.iii-p1.4
11522. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=30#Joel.iii-p28.1
11523. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=31#Jer.xxxi-p4.5
11524. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=31#Joel.iv-p18.2
11525. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=32#Joel.iii-p29.1
11526. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=32#Mic.vi-p14.2
11527. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Ez.xxxix-p9.5
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11530. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Joel.i-p2.6
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11532. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=2#Joel.iv-p7.1
11533. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=2#Amos.ii-p1.8
11534. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Joel.iv-p6.3
11535. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Joel.iv-p11.2
11536. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Joel.iv-p12.1
11537. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Amos.ii-p15.2
11538. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Joel.iv-p11.1
11539. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Joel.iv-p10.2
11540. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Joel.iv-p12.2
11541. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Joel.iii-p24.5
11542. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Joel.iv-p12.3
11543. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iv-p15.7
11544. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iv-p16.4
11545. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iv-p15.1
11546. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iv-p1.2
11547. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Is.iii-p11.2
11548. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Joel.iv-p16.1
11549. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=12#Joel.iv-p15.5
11550. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=12#Joel.iv-p15.8
11551. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Hos.vii-p18.7
11552. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Joel.iv-p16.5
11553. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Joel.iv-p17.2
11554. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=14#Joel.iv-p17.1
11555. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=15#Joel.iv-p18.1
11556. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Jer.xxvi-p25.2
11557. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Hos.xii-p18.4
11558. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Joel.iv-p19.5
11559. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Amos.ii-p7.3
11560. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=17#Joel.iv-p19.6
11561. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=17#Joel.iv-p19.7
11562. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Joel.iv-p25.1
11563. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Amos.x-p15.2
11564. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Joel.iv-p1.3
11565. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=19#Joel.iv-p22.1
11566. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=20#Joel.iv-p26.1
11567. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=21#Joel.iv-p24.1
11568. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Hos.ii-p3.3
11569. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Amos.ii-p1.1
11570. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Zech.xv-p9.11
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11572. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Jer.xxvi-p25.2
11573. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Amos.ii-p1.2
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11578. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Amos.viii-p11.3
11579. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Amos.ii-p1.3
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11581. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Amos.ii-p12.2
11582. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Amos.ii-p14.7
11583. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Amos.vi-p22.2
11584. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Amos.ii-p1.4
11585. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Amos.ii-p12.2
11586. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Amos.ii-p15.4
11587. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=9#Amos.ii-p1.5
11588. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=9#Amos.ii-p16.1
11589. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=10#Amos.ii-p12.2
11590. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=11#Amos.ii-p1.6
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11592. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Amos.ii-p12.2
11593. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Amos.ii-p17.5
11594. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Jer.l-p3.3
11595. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Hos.xiv-p17.3
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11599. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Jer.xlix-p1.2
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11601. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=2#Amos.iii-p3.2
11602. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=3#Amos.iii-p3.4
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11605. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Amos.iii-p4.2
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11610. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#iv-p13.5
11611. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Is.xxix-p8.4
11612. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Is.lxvii-p23.4
11613. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Lam.v-p8.3
11614. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Hos.xiii-p22.2
11615. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Amos.ii-p5.1
11616. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Amos.iii-p8.1
11617. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=12#Amos.iii-p9.1
11618. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=13#Is.ii-p38.1
11619. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=2&scrV=13#Is.xliv-p28.4
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11918. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Jonah.ii-p7.1
11919. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Jonah.ii-p21.2
11920. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Mic.v-p11.4
11921. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Jonah.ii-p8.1
11922. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Jonah.ii-p1.4
11923. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=9#Jonah.ii-p14.1
11924. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=11#Jonah.ii-p17.1
11925. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=11#Jonah.ii-p18.1
11926. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=11#Jonah.ii-p1.5
11927. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Jonah.ii-p19.1
11928. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Jonah.ii-p17.2
11929. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Jonah.ii-p20.1
11930. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Jonah.ii-p21.1
11931. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Jonah.ii-p22.1
11932. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=16#Jonah.ii-p24.1
11933. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=17#Jonah.ii-p1.6
11934. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=1&scrV=17#Jonah.ii-p25.1
11935. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Jonah.iii-p4.1
11936. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=2#Jonah.iii-p8.1
11937. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=2#Jonah.iii-p1.3
11938. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=3#Jonah.iii-p9.1
11939. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Lam.iv-p27.5
11940. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Jonah.iii-p1.4
11941. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Jonah.iii-p1.5
11942. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Jonah.iii-p10.1
11943. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Jonah.iii-p1.3
11944. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Jonah.iii-p9.4
11945. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Jonah.iii-p1.3
11946. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Jonah.iii-p9.7
11947. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Jonah.iii-p11.2
11948. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Jonah.v-p5.5
11949. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Jonah.iii-p1.6
11950. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Jonah.iii-p1.5
11951. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Jonah.iii-p10.1
11952. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Jonah.iii-p10.10
11953. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Jonah.iii-p11.1
11954. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Hos.ii-p9.3
11955. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Jonah.iii-p1.7
11956. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Jonah.iii-p12.1
11957. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Jonah.iii-p1.8
11958. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Jonah.iii-p10.8
11959. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Jonah.iii-p13.1
11960. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Jonah.iii-p1.9
11961. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Jonah.iv-p5.1
11962. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Jonah.iv-p1.1
11963. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=2#Jonah.iv-p8.1
11964. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Jonah.iv-p6.2
11965. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Jonah.iv-p9.1
11966. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Jonah.iv-p1.2
11967. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Jonah.iv-p15.1
11968. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Jonah.iv-p1.3
11969. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Jonah.iv-p14.1
11970. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Zech.xiii-p24.8
11971. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Joel.ii-p13.1
11972. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Jonah.iv-p16.1
11973. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iii-p14.7
11974. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Jonah.iv-p18.1
11975. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Jer.xxxvii-p8.4
11976. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Jonah.iv-p1.4
11977. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Jonah.iv-p19.1
11978. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Jonah.v-p4.1
11979. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Jonah.v-p1.1
11980. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=2#Jonah.ii-p3.7
11981. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=2#Jonah.iv-p6.1
11982. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=2#Jonah.v-p5.1
11983. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Jonah.v-p5.3
11984. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=4#Jonah.v-p1.2
11985. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=4#Jonah.v-p6.1
11986. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=5#Jonah.v-p9.1
11987. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=5#Jonah.v-p1.3
11988. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=6#Jonah.v-p10.1
11989. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=7#Jonah.v-p11.1
11990. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Jonah.v-p11.2
11991. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Jonah.v-p12.1
11992. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Jonah.v-p17.3
11993. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=9#Jonah.v-p13.1
11994. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=9#Jonah.v-p15.1
11995. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=10#Jonah.v-p1.4
11996. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=10#Jonah.v-p17.1
11997. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Joel.iii-p15.5
11998. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Joel.iii-p24.4
11999. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Jonah.ii-p3.3
12000. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Nah.iii-p6.6
12001. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jonah&scrCh=8&scrV=0#Jonah.ii-p4.2
12002. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Mic.ii-p1.1
12003. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Mic.ii-p3.1
12004. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Mic.viii-p3.1
12005. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Mic.ii-p1.2
12006. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=2#Mic.ii-p4.1
12007. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Mic.ii-p4.3
12008. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Mic.ii-p5.1
12009. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Mic.ii-p1.3
12010. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Mic.ii-p1.4
12011. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Mic.ii-p6.1
12012. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Mic.ii-p5.6
12013. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Mic.ii-p1.5
12014. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Mic.ii-p7.1
12015. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Mic.ii-p1.6
12016. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Mic.ii-p10.1
12017. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=10#Mic.ii-p11.1
12018. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=10#Mic.ii-p1.7
12019. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Mic.ii-p11.5
12020. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Mic.ii-p11.7
12021. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Mic.ii-p3.3
12022. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Mic.ii-p11.8
12023. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Mic.ii-p3.4
12024. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Mic.ii-p11.10
12025. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Mic.ii-p11.12
12026. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=1&scrV=16#Mic.ii-p11.11
12027. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Mic.iii-p1.1
12028. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Mic.iii-p3.1
12029. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Mic.iii-p11.1
12030. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=2#Mic.iii-p3.2
12031. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=3#Mic.iii-p4.1
12032. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=3#Mic.iii-p1.5
12033. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Mic.iii-p3.3
12034. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Mic.iii-p4.3
12035. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Mic.iii-p4.4
12036. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Mic.iii-p1.3
12037. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Mic.iii-p9.1
12038. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Mic.iii-p15.2
12039. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Mic.iii-p1.2
12040. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Mic.iii-p12.1
12041. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Mic.iii-p12.2
12042. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Jer.xi-p16.2
12043. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Mic.iii-p1.6
12044. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Mic.iii-p13.1
12045. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Mic.iii-p15.3
12046. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Jer.xiv-p9.8
12047. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Mic.iii-p1.4
12048. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Mic.iii-p8.4
12049. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Mic.iii-p10.2
12050. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=12#Mic.iii-p15.1
12051. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=12#Mic.iii-p1.7
12052. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=2&scrV=13#Mic.iii-p15.6
12053. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mic.iv-p4.1
12054. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mic.iv-p13.2
12055. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mic.iv-p1.3
12056. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Mic.iv-p6.3
12057. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Mic.iv-p7.1
12058. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Is.lvii-p23.10
12059. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Ez.xxiii-p27.3
12060. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Mic.iv-p1.4
12061. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Mic.iv-p10.1
12062. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Mic.iv-p1.2
12063. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Mic.iv-p12.1
12064. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Mic.iv-p13.1
12065. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Mic.iv-p1.5
12066. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Mic.iv-p14.1
12067. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Is.xlix-p5.1
12068. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Jer.ix-p11.8
12069. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mic&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Ez.viii-p14.2
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13022. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Mal.ii-p20.8
13023. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Mal.ii-p21.2
13024. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Jer.xlix-p5.5
13025. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Mal.ii-p25.1
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13036. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=4#Mal.iii-p5.1
13037. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Jer.xxxiv-p21.6
13038. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Mal.iii-p5.3
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13042. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Ez.xxxviii-p13.3
13043. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Zech.viii-p7.2
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13045. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Mal.iii-p5.13
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13050. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Hos.v-p12.2
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13056. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Mal.iii-p1.2
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13060. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=13#Mal.iv-p16.11
13061. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=14#Jer.iv-p10.2
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13064. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=14#Mal.iii-p18.5
13065. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=15#Mal.iii-p1.5
13066. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=15#Mal.iii-p20.1
13067. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=15#Mal.iii-p21.1
13068. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=15#Mal.iv-p11.3
13069. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Mal.iii-p1.4
13070. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Mal.iii-p18.6
13071. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Mal.iii-p20.5
13072. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Mal.iii-p21.2
13073. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=17#Is.viii-p19.3
13074. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=17#Mal.iii-p1.6
13075. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=2&scrV=17#Mal.iii-p22.1
13076. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Is.lx-p25.6
13077. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Is.lxi-p17.6
13078. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Is.lxiv-p19.7
13079. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mal.i-p2.3
13080. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mal.v-p15.5
13081. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Obad.ii-p24.2
13082. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Mal.iv-p1.1
13083. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=2#Mal.iv-p6.1
13084. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Mal.iv-p10.1
13085. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=4#Mal.iv-p10.12
13086. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Mal.iv-p11.1
13087. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Mal.iv-p12.2
13088. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Mal.iv-p12.1
13089. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Zech.ii-p6.2
13090. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Mal.iv-p15.1
13091. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=7#Mal.iv-p1.2
13092. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Hos.viii-p8.1
13093. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Zech.vi-p7.1
13094. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Mal.iv-p16.1
13095. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Is.vii-p29.4
13096. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Is.l-p33.3
13097. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Hag.iii-p18.7
13098. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Mal.iv-p16.3
13099. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=10#Mal.iv-p23.1
13100. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Hos.viii-p8.1
13101. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Mal.ii-p21.6
13102. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Mal.iv-p16.9
13103. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Mal.iv-p1.3
13104. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=14#Is.lix-p9.4
13105. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=14#Mal.iv-p5.15
13106. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=14#Mal.iv-p32.2
13107. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=15#Mal.iii-p22.5
13108. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=15#Mal.iv-p24.1
13109. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Mal.iv-p1.4
13110. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=17#Zech.x-p26.4
13111. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=17#Mal.iv-p30.1
13112. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Mal.iv-p32.1
13113. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Hos.viii-p12.10
13114. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Obad.ii-p24.3
13115. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Mal.iv-p24.3
13116. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Mal.v-p1.1
13117. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=2#Mal.v-p5.1
13118. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Is.xxvii-p9.5
13119. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Mal.v-p9.1
13120. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Mal&scrCh=4&scrV=4#Mal.v-p1.2
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13413. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Jer.xxi-p3.3
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13429. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=33#Mal.iv-p5.3
13430. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=46#Is.lxii-p22.2
13431. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=52#Mic.vi-p8.5
13432. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=53#Ez.xxxv-p14.2
13433. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=69#iv-p24.1
13434. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=72#Joel.iii-p29.2
13435. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Ez.xxxv-p20.3
13436. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Is.x-p7.7
13437. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Is.xx-p20.1
13438. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Is.lxii-p16.2
13439. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Jer.xii-p5.4
13440. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Jer.xxiv-p6.7
13441. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=74#Jer.xxxi-p4.10
13442. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=1&scrV=78#Mal.v-p6.11
13443. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Is.iii-p11.3
13444. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Is.xv-p24.5
13445. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Jer.xxvi-p19.7
13446. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Dan.iii-p29.1
13447. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Is.x-p9.1
13448. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Dan.x-p30.1
13449. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Zech.x-p23.5
13450. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Mal.iv-p5.7
13451. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=25#Mic.vi-p9.2
13452. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=27#Mal.iv-p5.12
13453. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=32#Is.l-p8.6
13454. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=32#Is.lvii-p19.13
13455. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=34#Is.ix-p25.8
13456. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=35#Mal.iv-p9.1
13457. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=37#Ez.xliii-p4.2
13458. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Is.liii-p11.15
13459. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Is.lx-p25.3
13460. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Dan.x-p30.1
13461. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Zeph.iv-p11.3
13462. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Zech.x-p23.5
13463. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=38#Mal.iv-p5.7
13464. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=40#Is.viii-p21.11
13465. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=46#Zech.v-p5.2
13466. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=48#Jer.li-p5.3
13467. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=49#Mal.iv-p5.13
13468. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=51#Dan.viii-p19.1
13469. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=2&scrV=52#Is.viii-p21.11
13470. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Ez.xxxv-p12.1
13471. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=6#Is.liii-p11.17
13472. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=13#Is.lxi-p24.3
13473. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=27#Jer.xxiii-p21.7
13474. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=27#Zech.xiii-p24.5
13475. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=3&scrV=31#Jer.xxiii-p21.7
13476. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=17#Is.lxii-p3.1
13477. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=18#Is.x-p7.5
13478. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=18#Is.xii-p5.3
13479. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=18#Is.liii-p11.4
13480. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=18#Mic.v-p19.5
13481. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=20#Is.xxxi-p24.7
13482. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=21#Is.xlix-p18.3
13483. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=4&scrV=21#Is.lxii-p3.1
13484. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=6&scrV=24#Is.vi-p14.2
13485. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=7&scrV=30#Mal.v-p18.1
13486. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=8&scrV=18#Hos.v-p10.2
13487. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=9&scrV=32#Zech.v-p3.2
13488. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=9&scrV=44#Ez.iv-p4.8
13489. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=9&scrV=55#Jonah.v-p5.2
13490. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=10&scrV=18#Ez.ii-p21.5
13491. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=10&scrV=21#Is.x-p6.6
13492. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=5#Is.lxiii-p10.4
13493. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=8#Is.lxiii-p10.4
13494. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=13#Is.xxxiii-p19.2
13495. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=13#Is.xlv-p6.4
13496. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=13#Is.lx-p26.2
13497. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=22#Is.lxi-p8.3
13498. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=26#Is.ii-p35.2
13499. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=26#Ez.xix-p25.3
13500. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=45#Jer.vii-p11.3
13501. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=11&scrV=53#Jer.xxi-p11.3
13502. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Is.ix-p17.5
13503. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Is.lii-p16.2
13504. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Jer.ii-p20.2
13505. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=18#Mal.iv-p16.7
13506. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=19#Is.lxvi-p28.2
13507. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=19#Hab.ii-p18.10
13508. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=19#Jer.xviii-p13.3
13509. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=33#Is.xxiv-p12.10
13510. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=33#Hag.ii-p6.12
13511. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=49#Jer.xvi-p14.1
13512. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=49#Jer.xxiv-p21.5
13513. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=49#Ez.xi-p7.1
13514. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=49#Mal.iv-p9.3
13515. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=51#Jer.xvi-p14.1
13516. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=51#Mal.iv-p9.3
13517. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=6#Jer.ix-p14.4
13518. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=7#Jer.xv-p7.1
13519. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=24#Jer.xiii-p22.2
13520. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=25#Is.lvi-p22.1
13521. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=28#Is.lxvi-p25.4
13522. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=13&scrV=28#Is.lxvii-p26.4
13523. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=14&scrV=21#Is.l-p34.5
13524. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=14&scrV=22#Zech.iii-p4.7
13525. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=14&scrV=26#Zech.xiv-p5.8
13526. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=14&scrV=31#Amos.v-p20.2
13527. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=15&scrV=7#Is.xlv-p28.3
13528. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=15&scrV=17#Ez.xix-p22.2
13529. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=15&scrV=17#Hos.iii-p13.2
13530. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=15&scrV=18#Dan.v-p24.9
13531. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=15&scrV=20#Is.lxv-p8.4
13532. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=14#Jer.vii-p11.6
13533. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=16#Mal.v-p14.3
13534. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=19#Is.vi-p14.3
13535. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=23#Is.lxvi-p25.3
13536. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=25#Is.vi-p16.7
13537. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=25#Is.xv-p16.4
13538. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=25#Jer.xviii-p13.4
13539. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=26#Is.lvi-p22.1
13540. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=16&scrV=28#Zech.ii-p10.2
13541. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=22#Lam.iii-p8.17
13542. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=24#Mal.iv-p5.10
13543. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=26#Zech.ii-p16.6
13544. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=28#Is.xiv-p18.5
13545. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=17&scrV=34#Is.xviii-p5.2
13546. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=2#Is.viii-p19.2
13547. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=2#Amos.ix-p9.1
13548. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=8#Mal.iv-p5.9
13549. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=12#Is.lix-p9.3
13550. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=18&scrV=13#Is.lix-p14.2
13551. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=11#Dan.x-p30.2
13552. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=22#Jer.iii-p8.3
13553. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=27#Is.lxi-p16.4
13554. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=41#Is.vi-p3.3
13555. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=41#Is.li-p6.5
13556. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=43#Jer.v-p15.8
13557. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=43#Lam.iv-p3.17
13558. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=43#Amos.iv-p16.1
13559. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=20&scrV=16#Zech.xii-p12.4
13560. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=20&scrV=20#Is.xxxiii-p11.2
13561. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=20&scrV=20#Jer.xxi-p11.3
13562. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=20&scrV=36#Is.vii-p8.11
13563. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=20&scrV=36#Ez.ii-p18.1
13564. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=5#Is.lxi-p17.7
13565. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=12#Ez.xiii-p7.3
13566. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=15#Mic.vi-p16.3
13567. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=16#Mic.viii-p3.13
13568. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=18#Dan.iv-p22.6
13569. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=20#Dan.x-p34.5
13570. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=22#Mal.v-p4.6
13571. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=25#Zeph.iv-p12.3
13572. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=26#Is.iii-p24.2
13573. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=26#Is.xxv-p12.3
13574. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=26#Is.lxvii-p7.8
13575. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=26#Jer.v-p17.8
13576. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=28#Is.xxv-p12.3
13577. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=28#Is.lxvii-p7.8
13578. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=28#Jer.xl-p11.1
13579. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=21&scrV=28#Mal.v-p6.4
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13712. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=12&scrV=28#Ez.xxxvii-p8.1
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13718. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=13&scrV=23#Dan.ix-p13.5
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13722. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=14&scrV=16#Is.lx-p26.5
13723. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=14&scrV=19#Dan.viii-p18.13
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13725. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=14&scrV=22#Dan.xi-p8.2
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13737. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=15&scrV=25#Lam.iv-p26.5
13738. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=1#Jer.xxi-p12.6
13739. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=2#Is.lxvii-p7.5
13740. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=2#Jer.xxx-p18.3
13741. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=2#Mic.iii-p9.4
13742. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=7#Is.lix-p3.1
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13746. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=21#Is.xxvii-p24.3
13747. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=22#Is.lxvii-p13.3
13748. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=16&scrV=32#Zech.xiv-p9.2
13749. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=2#Dan.viii-p11.7
13750. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=3#Hos.vii-p9.6
13751. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=4#Dan.x-p33.12
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13753. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=5#Is.liv-p30.2
13754. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=5#Dan.viii-p11.7
13755. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=6#Is.ix-p25.7
13756. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=6#Is.liv-p32.2
13757. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=17#Jer.xxxiv-p9.8
13758. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=19#Ez.xliv-p16.6
13759. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=21#Ez.xxxviii-p13.9
13760. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=17&scrV=24#Is.l-p13.4
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13762. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=6#Is.xii-p7.14
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13764. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=11#Is.liv-p26.5
13765. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=20#Is.iii-p6.2
13766. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=20#Is.xlvi-p30.4
13767. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=35#Is.lxvii-p7.3
13768. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=36#Mic.vi-p6.6
13769. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=37#iv-p12.4
13770. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=18&scrV=37#Jer.xxxiv-p9.6
13771. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=19&scrV=10#Is.l-p11.3
13772. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=19&scrV=11#Is.xi-p10.4
13773. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=19&scrV=11#Ez.xxxi-p14.2
13774. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=19&scrV=37#Zech.xiii-p21.1
13775. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=20&scrV=17#Dan.viii-p11.3
13776. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=20&scrV=23#Jer.ii-p12.4
13777. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=21&scrV=25#Is.viii-p3.2
13778. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Is.iii-p9.4
13779. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Dan.xiii-p15.1
13780. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=9#Dan.viii-p11.2
13781. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Zech.xv-p9.3
13782. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Joel.iii-p27.2
13783. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Is.xxxiii-p19.3
13784. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Zech.xi-p13.6
13785. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Is.lxi-p7.4
13786. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Dan.x-p30.3
13787. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Hag.iii-p10.6
13788. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Zech.xi-p13.4
13789. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=5#Is.lxvii-p22.1
13790. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Jer.l-p18.10
13791. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Is.lxvii-p22.1
13792. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=11#Jer.l-p18.10
13793. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=16#iv-p18.4
13794. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=20#Mal.v-p9.5
13795. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=21#Is.lxvi-p4.2
13796. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=23#Is.liv-p19.8
13797. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=23#Zech.vii-p4.3
13798. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=30#iv-p15.1
13799. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=30#Is.xii-p4.3
13800. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=39#Joel.iii-p29.4
13801. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=39#Amos.x-p14.5
13802. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=39#Mic.v-p12.7
13803. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=39#Zech.xi-p13.10
13804. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=40#Zech.iii-p7.7
13805. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=44#Ez.xlix-p3.5
13806. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=46#Is.xiii-p8.5
13807. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=2&scrV=47#Is.xv-p5.2
13808. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=8#Is.xxxvi-p10.4
13809. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=19#Jer.iv-p19.3
13810. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=22#Hos.xiii-p21.3
13811. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=25#Is.ix-p22.4
13812. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=25#Is.lxiv-p18.2
13813. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=25#Ez.xxxi-p5.5
13814. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=3&scrV=26#Jer.xxxi-p4.13
13815. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Jer.xxi-p3.5
13816. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=13#Amos.viii-p20.2
13817. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=16#Dan.iv-p24.1
13818. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=17#Jer.xxxvii-p12.2
13819. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=20#Is.ii-p4.4
13820. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=20#Ez.iv-p14.4
13821. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=20#Amos.iv-p9.7
13822. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=28#Zech.vii-p4.3
13823. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=32#Mic.v-p10.2
13824. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=4&scrV=32#Mal.v-p17.3
13825. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Is.iii-p9.5
13826. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Is.lvi-p14.2
13827. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Ez.xlviii-p4.4
13828. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Hag.iii-p11.7
13829. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=5&scrV=42#Hag.iii-p11.8
13830. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Is.lxvii-p23.2
13831. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=6&scrV=4#Is.lxiii-p4.2
13832. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=6&scrV=14#Dan.x-p34.1
13833. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=6&scrV=15#Is.vii-p8.7
13834. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=2#iv-p10.9
13835. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Is.vii-p3.2
13836. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Ez.ii-p8.4
13837. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Dan.xi-p13.3
13838. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=20#Is.liv-p6.5
13839. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=38#iv-p12.3
13840. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=42#Jer.viii-p17.4
13841. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=42#Amos.vi-p20.2
13842. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=43#Amos.vi-p21.3
13843. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=43#Amos.vi-p22.4
13844. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=45#Zech.vii-p7.2
13845. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=49#Is.lxvii-p1.2
13846. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=51#iv-p25.4
13847. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=52#iv-p25.1
13848. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=7&scrV=53#Mal.iv-p5.4
13849. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=1#Ez.xlviii-p6.2
13850. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=8#Is.x-p6.8
13851. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=8#Is.xxxvi-p4.2
13852. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=14#Hos.ii-p23.3
13853. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=26#Zeph.iii-p11.4
13854. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=26#Zech.xi-p13.7
13855. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=27#Is.xix-p9.2
13856. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=34#Is.liii-p14.1
13857. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=39#Is.x-p6.8
13858. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=8&scrV=39#Is.xxxvi-p13.8
13859. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=5#Jer.vii-p11.2
13860. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=7#Dan.xi-p8.1
13861. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=11#Zech.xiii-p19.1
13862. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=22#Zech.x-p4.3
13863. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=9&scrV=39#Ez.xix-p11.14
13864. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=4#Is.lix-p19.7
13865. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=4#Dan.xi-p17.1
13866. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=9#Jer.xx-p12.10
13867. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=14#Ez.v-p13.6
13868. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=28#Is.lxi-p10.2
13869. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=30#Dan.vii-p11.1
13870. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=35#Is.lvii-p19.4
13871. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=36#Mal.iv-p5.1
13872. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=43#Is.lxvi-p1.2
13873. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=44#Is.xxxvi-p11.4
13874. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=10&scrV=44#Joel.iii-p27.8
13875. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=12&scrV=2#Jer.xxvii-p15.1
13876. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=12&scrV=3#Hos.viii-p10.2
13877. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=12&scrV=5#Dan.iii-p12.4
13878. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=12&scrV=20#Ez.xxxii-p5.22
13879. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=18#Is.xlvii-p6.4
13880. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=18#Is.lxiv-p19.8
13881. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=23#Jer.xxxi-p4.13
13882. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=33#Jer.xxxi-p4.13
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13884. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=34#Is.lvi-p14.7
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13901. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=15&scrV=16#Amos.x-p1.8
13902. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=15&scrV=18#Jer.xxx-p13.4
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13904. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=9#Is.xxii-p14.1
13905. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=16&scrV=13#Ez.iv-p16.1
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13909. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=26#Is.viii-p14.2
13910. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=27#Is.lxvi-p4.5
13911. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=27#Ez.xxviii-p12.3
13912. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=17&scrV=30#Is.xliii-p18.2
13913. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=18&scrV=10#Jer.ii-p9.3
13914. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=19&scrV=18#Zech.xiv-p5.11
13915. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=19&scrV=19#Mic.vi-p17.9
13916. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=19&scrV=20#Is.lv-p7.6
13917. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=19&scrV=26#Hos.ix-p11.4
13918. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=19&scrV=35#Hos.xiv-p6.2
13919. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=18#Zech.xv-p14.5
13920. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=28#Zech.iv-p6.5
13921. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=28#Zech.xiv-p8.5
13922. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=30#Ez.xxxv-p15.8
13923. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=20&scrV=35#Is.liv-p38.3
13924. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=21&scrV=3#Is.xxiv-p12.6
13925. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=21&scrV=9#Joel.iii-p27.9
13926. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=21&scrV=28#Ez.xlv-p9.3
13927. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=22&scrV=9#Ez.ix-p7.3
13928. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=22&scrV=9#Dan.xi-p8.1
13929. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=23&scrV=2#Jer.xxi-p3.7
13930. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=24&scrV=15#Dan.xiii-p7.4
13931. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=16#Ez.iii-p1.1
13932. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=18#Is.xxx-p16.3
13933. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=18#Is.xxxvi-p10.7
13934. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=18#Is.xliii-p13.2
13935. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=22#Dan.x-p33.11
13936. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=26&scrV=26#Is.iii-p6.3
13937. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=27&scrV=18#Jonah.ii-p7.3
13938. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=27&scrV=20#Is.xiv-p11.2
13939. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=27&scrV=38#Is.iii-p28.7
13940. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=27&scrV=38#Jonah.ii-p7.3
13941. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=28&scrV=4#Jonah.ii-p10.1
13942. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=28&scrV=22#Is.ix-p25.9
13943. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Hos.xv-p19.9
13944. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=13#Is.xxxvi-p4.4
13945. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Is.xxx-p7.9
13946. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=17#Is.lvii-p4.3
13947. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=17#Hab.iii-p7.3
13948. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=18#Zech.xv-p9.12
13949. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=20#Is.xli-p31.2
13950. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=21#Jer.xi-p6.14
13951. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=22#Jer.xi-p6.15
13952. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=23#Jer.iii-p12.1
13953. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=23#Ez.xvii-p10.1
13954. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=24#Ez.xxi-p17.6
13955. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=24#Hos.v-p21.3
13956. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=25#Ez.vi-p11.4
13957. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=26#Lam.v-p9.12
13958. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=26#Ez.xxi-p17.6
13959. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=27#Is.lviii-p14.1
13960. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=27#Hos.viii-p12.7
13961. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=28#Jer.xi-p6.14
13962. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=28#Hos.v-p21.3
13963. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=1&scrV=32#Jer.vi-p11.2
13964. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=7#Ez.xix-p13.1
13965. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=8#Zeph.ii-p12.2
13966. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=9#Ez.xix-p11.2
13967. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Is.xii-p7.4
13968. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=16#Is.lxvii-p16.4
13969. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=17#Mic.iii-p9.2
13970. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=23#Is.liii-p7.6
13971. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=24#Ez.xxxvii-p9.7
13972. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Ez.vi-p11.9
13973. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=2&scrV=28#Jer.x-p23.6
13974. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=1#iv-p9.6
13975. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Is.l-p7.1
13976. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=3#Is.xliii-p27.1
13977. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Is.xxxv-p7.2
13978. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=11#Is.lvii-p5.1
13979. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=3&scrV=15#Is.lx-p1.2
13980. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Is.xlii-p8.6
13981. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=3#Dan.x-p33.2
13982. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=5#Dan.x-p33.2
13983. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Is.xlii-p8.6
13984. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Is.lii-p3.3
13985. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=11#Hos.ii-p20.4
13986. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=13#Is.liv-p31.2
13987. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=17#Is.liv-p31.2
13988. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=21#Is.lxiii-p14.5
13989. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=4&scrV=25#Is.liv-p19.6
13990. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Zech.iv-p10.11
13991. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Is.xiii-p6.2
13992. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=7#Is.lviii-p4.1
13993. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=14#Is.lxvi-p32.4
13994. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=14#Hos.vii-p17.3
13995. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Is.xliv-p3.1
13996. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=5&scrV=21#Is.lxvi-p32.4
13997. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Is.lviii-p16.4
13998. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Hos.xi-p15.3
13999. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=6&scrV=21#Hos.ix-p13.7
14000. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=4#Is.lv-p9.2
14001. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=6#Is.lxvii-p24.5
14002. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=7&scrV=13#Dan.x-p8.3
14003. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=3#Jer.ix-p17.2
14004. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=18#Jer.xxxii-p12.18
14005. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=19#Is.l-p22.3
14006. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=21#Is.l-p22.3
14007. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=21#Hos.iii-p16.2
14008. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=21#Joel.iii-p24.6
14009. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=21#Is.ii-p39.1
14010. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=21#Zech.xv-p17.10
14011. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=22#Jer.xiii-p7.10
14012. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=22#Amos.iii-p10.6
14013. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=26#Joel.ii-p20.2
14014. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=31#Jer.xxi-p15.2
14015. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=32#Is.liv-p26.4
14016. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=8&scrV=33#Is.li-p11.9
14017. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=3#Ez.iv-p11.2
14018. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=4#Zech.iii-p7.9
14019. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=5#Is.vii-p29.11
14020. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=8#Jer.xxxii-p29.2
14021. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=13#Mal.ii-p9.1
14022. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=20#Is.xlvi-p16.2
14023. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=21#Jer.ii-p5.6
14024. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=21#Jer.xix-p5.9
14025. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=22#Hos.xiv-p10.1
14026. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=24#Hos.iii-p35.2
14027. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Hos.ii-p9.1
14028. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Is.lxvi-p4.7
14029. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Hos.ii-p3.2
14030. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=25#Hos.ii-p20.1
14031. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=26#Is.lx-p25.2
14032. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=27#Is.ii-p16.3
14033. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rom&scrCh=9&scrV=27#Is.xi-p28.8
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14513. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=10&scrV=1#Ez.ii-p29.1
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14515. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=10&scrV=1#Ez.xlvi-p14.2
14516. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=10&scrV=1#Zech.iv-p10.8
14517. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=10&scrV=3#Ez.xlvi-p14.2
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14538. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Heb&scrCh=11&scrV=35#Dan.xii-p21.4
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14701. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Ez.xiv-p5.6
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14705. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Dan.x-p18.1
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14710. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=2&scrV=19#Ez.xix-p25.2
14711. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=2&scrV=20#Zech.v-p17.5
14712. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=2&scrV=27#Zech.v-p17.5
14713. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Jer.iv-p28.3
14714. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=3&scrV=5#Zech.xiv-p3.1
14715. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Is.vii-p29.6
14716. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=4&scrV=10#Is.xliv-p5.1
14717. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=3#Is.lvii-p17.2
14718. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=16#Jer.viii-p14.2
14719. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=16#Jer.xv-p12.5
14720. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Is.xxxiii-p7.3
14721. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=1John&scrCh=5&scrV=20#Is.lxvi-p28.5
14722. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=2John&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Ez.xix-p25.8
14723. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Is.xxv-p20.14
14724. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=6#Jer.xxxi-p4.5
14725. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=7#Ez.xvii-p27.2
14726. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=9#Dan.xi-p19.6
14727. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=10#Jer.xi-p6.13
14728. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Jer.xii-p14.6
14729. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Hos.vii-p13.4
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14731. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Is.i-p2.7
14732. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Dan.viii-p9.7
14733. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Dan.ix-p13.3
14734. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Is.lii-p8.3
14735. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Is.lv-p25.8
14736. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Lam.iv-p33.6
14737. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Dan.viii-p10.3
14738. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Zeph.iii-p15.4
14739. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=16#Is.xxxvii-p3.2
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14741. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jude&scrCh=1&scrV=24#Is.xxxvi-p13.9
14742. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=1#iv-p21.2
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14749. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=5#Zech.iv-p5.6
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14760. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Amos.ii-p3.2
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14764. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Ez.xli-p4.7
14765. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Ez.xliv-p4.3
14766. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=17#iv-p22.2
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14784. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=2&scrV=13#Ez.xxxv-p10.3
14785. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=2&scrV=17#Is.lxiii-p5.2
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14787. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=2&scrV=24#Mal.v-p13.3
14788. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Is.xlii-p16.5
14789. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=2&scrV=26#Mal.v-p9.4
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14801. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Is.ii-p39.2
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14810. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Is.vii-p12.1
14811. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Is.vii-p12.4
14812. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=4&scrV=8#Is.lxiv-p26.5
14813. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=5&scrV=5#Is.xii-p15.5
14814. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=5&scrV=7#Zech.ii-p14.12
14815. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=5&scrV=9#Jer.xxxiv-p21.12
14816. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Is.xliii-p18.4
14817. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Is.lxiv-p13.3
14818. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Zech.vii-p4.2
14819. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Zech.ii-p14.3
14820. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Zech.ii-p14.8
14821. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=2#Zech.x-p25.4
14822. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=4#Zech.vii-p4.2
14823. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=5#Jer.xv-p4.4
14824. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=5#Zech.vii-p4.2
14825. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=8#Jer.xvi-p8.2
14826. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=8#Zech.vii-p4.2
14827. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=12#Is.xxxv-p8.17
14828. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=15#Is.xxxv-p8.8
14829. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=15#Hos.xi-p8.14
14830. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Is.iii-p24.7
14831. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=6&scrV=16#Ez.ii-p28.12
14832. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=2#Ez.xliv-p4.2
14833. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=3#Is.lxvii-p18.3
14834. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=3#Ez.x-p8.3
14835. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=4#Is.lv-p6.1
14836. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=4#Hos.ii-p21.1
14837. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=5#Ez.xlviii-p11.7
14838. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=9#Jer.xxxiv-p21.12
14839. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=9#Ez.xli-p8.1
14840. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=9#Ez.xli-p9.13
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14844. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=12#Ez.xli-p8.1
14845. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=15#Jer.xxxiv-p21.12
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14847. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=17#Is.xxvi-p12.1
14848. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=7&scrV=17#Is.xxxvi-p13.9
14849. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=8&scrV=3#Mal.ii-p24.2
14850. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=9&scrV=7#Joel.iii-p6.5
14851. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=9&scrV=8#Joel.ii-p5.9
14852. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=9&scrV=9#Joel.iii-p6.5
14853. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=10&scrV=3#Hos.xii-p18.3
14854. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=10&scrV=5#Dan.xiii-p17.3
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14856. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=10&scrV=7#Joel.iii-p28.3
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14860. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=2#Ez.xxxvi-p7.7
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14863. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=8#Ez.xxxiii-p1.2
14864. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=8#Ez.xxxviii-p6.4
14865. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=9#Is.xv-p13.12
14866. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=9#Jer.viii-p28.5
14867. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=10#Is.xxxi-p13.2
14868. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=10#Is.lviii-p5.1
14869. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=10#Amos.viii-p18.1
14870. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=10#Mic.iii-p8.3
14871. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=11#Is.xxvii-p25.8
14872. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=12#Is.lxi-p10.4
14873. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=11&scrV=15#Zech.xv-p15.2
14874. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=1#Jer.xxxii-p17.4
14875. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=3#Is.xxviii-p4.6
14876. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=4#Ez.xvii-p5.9
14877. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=6#Is.xxxi-p24.5
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14880. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=11#Is.liv-p28.2
14881. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=16#Is.xvii-p7.5
14882. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=12&scrV=16#Is.l-p35.4
14883. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=8#Is.v-p9.4
14884. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=8#Is.x-p8.4
14885. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.xiv-p15.5
14886. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.xxxiv-p4.2
14887. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.xxxv-p8.5
14888. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.l-p39.2
14889. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Is.lx-p23.2
14890. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Jer.xxxi-p9.9
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14892. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=13&scrV=10#Joel.iv-p5.2
14893. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=2#Ez.xliv-p4.3
14894. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=3#Is.xxxvi-p13.11
14895. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=4#Is.xxxvi-p13.2
14896. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=6#Zech.vi-p4.2
14897. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=7#Dan.vii-p23.1
14898. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=7#Zeph.iii-p17.3
14899. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=10#Jer.xxvi-p17.4
14900. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=10#Obad.ii-p18.6
14901. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=10#Dan.iv-p19.4
14902. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=13#Is.lviii-p8.2
14903. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=15#Is.xviii-p3.8
14904. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=15#Jer.lii-p11.6
14905. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=15#Hos.vii-p18.7
14906. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=15#Joel.iv-p16.7
14907. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=18#Joel.iv-p14.2
14908. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=18#Joel.iv-p16.7
14909. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=19#Is.lxiv-p9.2
14910. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=20#Is.xxxv-p8.10
14911. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=20#Is.lxiv-p13.1
14912. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=14&scrV=20#Zech.vii-p4.7
14913. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=15&scrV=3#Hos.iii-p25.3
14914. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=16&scrV=1#Ez.x-p5.2
14915. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=16&scrV=9#Jer.xiv-p13.2
14916. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=16&scrV=12#Is.xii-p21.6
14917. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=16&scrV=14#Joel.iv-p15.2
14918. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=16&scrV=19#Nah.ii-p9.4
14919. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=1#Ez.xvii-p20.2
14920. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=2#Jer.lii-p4.4
14921. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=3#Zech.ii-p22.6
14922. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=5#Jer.li-p20.5
14923. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=5#Hos.x-p20.6
14924. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=6#Is.lxiv-p13.4
14925. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=15#Jer.xlviii-p3.2
14926. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=15#Jer.lii-p11.8
14927. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=15#Ez.xxx-p11.2
14928. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=17&scrV=15#Nah.iii-p6.5
14929. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=1#Ez.xxxix-p1.2
14930. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=2#Is.xv-p21.3
14931. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=2#Is.xxxvi-p11.9
14932. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=3#Jer.lii-p4.4
14933. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=3#Hab.iii-p22.4
14934. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=4#Is.xiv-p15.2
14935. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=4#Is.xxvii-p28.3
14936. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=4#Ez.xxxviii-p14.2
14937. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=18&scrV=4#Zech.iii-p7.6
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15411. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=25&scrV=1#Jer.xxvi-p1.8
15412. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=25&scrV=8#Jer.xxvi-p9.3
15413. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=25&scrV=15#Jer.xxvi-p13.5
15414. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=25&scrV=30#Jer.xxvi-p22.2
15415. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=26&scrV=0#Jer.xxvii-p1.7
15416. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=26&scrV=1#Jer.xxvii-p1.8
15417. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=26&scrV=7#Jer.xxvii-p5.4
15418. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=26&scrV=16#Jer.xxvii-p10.6
15419. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=27&scrV=0#Jer.xxviii-p1.4
15420. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=27&scrV=1#Jer.xxviii-p1.5
15421. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=27&scrV=12#Jer.xxviii-p6.1
15422. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=28&scrV=0#Jer.xxix-p1.6
15423. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=28&scrV=1#Jer.xxix-p1.7
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15426. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=29&scrV=1#Jer.xxx-p1.10
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15428. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=29&scrV=15#Jer.xxx-p13.10
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15431. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=1#Jer.xxxi-p1.14
15432. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=10#Jer.xxxi-p4.14
15433. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=30&scrV=18#Jer.xxxi-p10.4
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15438. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=31&scrV=27#Jer.xxxii-p19.3
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15464. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=39&scrV=0#Jer.xl-p1.6
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15467. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=40&scrV=0#Jer.xli-p1.6
15468. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=40&scrV=1#Jer.xli-p1.7
15469. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=40&scrV=7#Jer.xli-p4.6
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15482. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=44&scrV=20#Jer.xlv-p17.5
15483. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=45&scrV=0#Jer.xlvi-p1.3
15484. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=45&scrV=1#Jer.xlvi-p1.4
15485. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=46&scrV=0#Jer.xlvii-p1.4
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15487. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=46&scrV=13#Jer.xlvii-p8.2
15488. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=47&scrV=0#Jer.xlviii-p1.3
15489. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=47&scrV=1#Jer.xlviii-p1.4
15490. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=48&scrV=0#Jer.xlix-p1.19
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15492. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=48&scrV=14#Jer.xlix-p7.7
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15494. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=49&scrV=1#Jer.l-p1.8
15495. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=49&scrV=7#Jer.l-p3.14
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15499. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=0#Jer.li-p1.5
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15501. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=9#Jer.li-p7.3
15502. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=21#Jer.li-p13.6
15503. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=50&scrV=33#Jer.li-p15.24
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15505. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=1#Jer.lii-p1.4
15506. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=51&scrV=59#Jer.lii-p13.6
15507. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=52&scrV=0#Jer.liii-p1.11
15508. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=52&scrV=1#Jer.liii-p1.12
15509. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=52&scrV=12#Jer.liii-p3.17
15510. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=52&scrV=24#Jer.liii-p5.12
15511. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Jer&scrCh=52&scrV=31#Jer.liii-p7.12
15512. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=1&scrV=0#Lam.ii-p1.4
15513. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Lam.ii-p1.5
15514. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=1&scrV=12#Lam.ii-p10.3
15515. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=2&scrV=0#Lam.iii-p1.4
15516. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Lam.iii-p1.5
15517. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=2&scrV=10#Lam.iii-p8.21
15518. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=0#Lam.iv-p1.7
15519. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Lam.iv-p1.8
15520. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=21#Lam.iv-p3.32
15521. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=37#Lam.iv-p13.5
15522. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=42#Lam.iv-p19.4
15523. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=3&scrV=55#Lam.iv-p28.5
15524. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=4&scrV=0#Lam.v-p1.8
15525. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Lam.v-p1.9
15526. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=4&scrV=13#Lam.v-p10.3
15527. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=4&scrV=21#Lam.v-p15.9
15528. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=5&scrV=0#Lam.vi-p1.4
15529. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=5&scrV=1#Lam.vi-p1.5
15530. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Lam&scrCh=5&scrV=17#Lam.vi-p13.2
15531. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=1&scrV=0#Ez.ii-p1.7
15532. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Ez.ii-p1.8
15533. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=1&scrV=4#Ez.ii-p8.8
15534. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=1&scrV=15#Ez.ii-p22.4
15535. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=1&scrV=26#Ez.ii-p26.10
15536. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=2&scrV=0#Ez.iii-p1.5
15537. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Ez.iii-p1.6
15538. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=2&scrV=6#Ez.iii-p9.5
15539. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=3&scrV=0#Ez.iv-p1.6
15540. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Ez.iv-p1.7
15541. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=3&scrV=16#Ez.iv-p14.7
15542. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=3&scrV=22#Ez.iv-p22.10
15543. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=4&scrV=0#Ez.v-p1.5
15544. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=4&scrV=1#Ez.v-p1.6
15545. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Ezek&scrCh=4&scrV=9#Ez.v-p7.12
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15810. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Hos&scrCh=14&scrV=8#Hos.xv-p20.6
15811. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=1&scrV=0#Joel.ii-p1.4
15812. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Joel.ii-p1.5
15813. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=1&scrV=8#Joel.ii-p6.2
15814. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=1&scrV=14#Joel.ii-p10.5
15815. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=0#Joel.iii-p1.5
15816. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=1#Joel.iii-p1.6
15817. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=12#Joel.iii-p9.4
15818. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=18#Joel.iii-p15.10
15819. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=2&scrV=28#Joel.iii-p24.7
15820. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=0#Joel.iv-p1.4
15821. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=1#Joel.iv-p1.5
15822. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=9#Joel.iv-p12.7
15823. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Joel&scrCh=3&scrV=18#Joel.iv-p19.8
15824. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=0#Amos.ii-p1.9
15825. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=1#Amos.ii-p1.10
15826. file:///ccel/h/henry/mhc4/cache/mhc4.html3?scrBook=Amos&scrCh=1&scrV=3#Amos.ii-p7.8
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